Elaine Smith
Elaine Smith is a Philadelphia-based trauma-informed teaching artist, cultural educator, percussionist, and the founder and artistic director of PHonk!Philly, an arts and culture organization that uses music, dance, performance, and cultural preservation to foster collective joy, healing, and creative community activation. She launched PHonk!Philly in response to the 2020 uprisings in West Philadelphia, envisioning intentional spaces for community building and artistic expression rooted in African diaspora parade traditions. Since its founding, PHonk!Philly has grown from a grassroots day-long festival at FDR Park into a recognized cultural presence in the mid-Atlantic region.
Smith serves as the percussion teacher at the Jubilee School in West Philadelphia, working with Pre-K through 6th grade students. In 2023, she expanded PHonk!Philly’s community impact through a partnership with Philadelphia Parks & Recreation’s Hawthorne Cultural Center, offering free weekly Brazilian percussion and dance classes. Through this initiative, PHonk!Philly’s performance ensemble, SambaSoul, has appeared at the Barnes Foundation opening of Calder Gardens, the African American Museum of Philadelphia, the Sojourner Truth Walk, Fiesta DC, and Mardi Gras. Smith also participated in a cultural music exchange with The Roots of Music in New Orleans, learning from their youth and music educators to deepen her understanding of their musical traditions and community impact.
Her collaborative work extends to partnerships with Festival Afro-Bahia Washington DC and the VaVa United School of Samba DC, strengthening connections between Philadelphia and key hubs of African and Brazilian culture in the United States.
Smith’s community-based arts practice began in 2009 in Austin, Texas, where she first immersed herself in Brazilian arts and community performance and served on the board of Forklift Danceworks, a nationally recognized leader in community-centered, site-specific performance.Since relocating to Philadelphia in 2018, Smith has continued her study and performance of Brazilian percussion and dance traditions, informed by mentorship from renowned African Brazilian master teachers including Rosangela Silvestre; Marcio Peeters; Marcus Santos of Grooversity; Dendê Macêdo of the Mamadele Foundation; Mestres Guilherme and Gustavo Oliveira of Salgueiro’s Bateria Furiosa; and Professor Tamara Williams and Luciano Xavier DaSilva, founders of Lavagem and Bloco Afro Ayédùn.
Smith is a graduate of the Headlong Performance Institute Fellowship and the Bartol Foundation Trauma-Informed Teaching Artist Training. Her work has been supported by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, City of Philadelphia, Justice Outside, and the Jews of Color Initiative. She remains committed to intergenerational learning, cultural preservation, and strengthening community pride through meaningful shared creative experiences.
Awarded Grants
2025
Residencies
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Overview
Elaine Smith will focus her residency on designing and fabricating a human-powered musical parade contraption to support SambaSoul, the community parade and performance program she directs through PHonk!Philly. Inspired by the vibrant parade cultures of New Orleans, Brazil, and the Caribbean, Elaine’s project builds on years of community work in Philadelphia. Using NextFab’s woodworking and metal fabrication facilities, Elaine will prototype and construct a custom parade structure, designed to carry and amplify the deep bass of SambaSoul’s Brazilian surdo drums. Historically, SambaSoul performers of all ages have been limited in their ability to participate due to the physical strain of carrying drums with belts and straps. This new design, inspired by Mardi Gras contraptions and community-built parade vehicles, will integrate bike-powered mobility, ergonomic drum mounts, and accessible features that allow more youth and adult drummers to join in communal performance. The parade structure will function both as an innovative musical object and as a tool for social connection, expanding who can participate in Black American and African diasporic parade traditions across Philadelphia.
2021
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
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Overview
Elaine and Chris' project, PHonk!Philly, will be a series of free community-led music pop-ups centering traditionally under-supported or otherwise under-resourced artists and creatives in Philadelphia. Through brass band and drumline-style performances, they seek to activate intercultural dialogue and joy as a way of building community resilience and creating a shared vision for collective liberation. Kicking off in mid-October at FDR Park, the series will host performances from Afro-Latinx, Brazilian, West African, Balkan, Southeast Asian, Puerto Rican, and LGBT+ groups - as well as feature local artists, food vendors, small businesses, and community groups to offer additional inroads for cross-cultural exchange.