Mauritanian singer Noura Mint Seymali has two related goals. The first is to raise global awareness of her country's music, and the second is to educate youths in Mauritania about their own culture. All of which make her the quintessential artist to perform at this weekend's Square Roots Festival (she will also appear at Millennium Park on Monday).

Square Roots, which runs on Lincoln Avenue between Wilson and Montrose, packs an array of local and international performers on two blocks in Lincoln Square. Since The Old Town School Of Folk Music presents the festival, daytime classes in such traditions as West African dances and blues harmonica are held along with the evening indoor and outdoor concerts.

An educational emphasis is nothing new to Seymali, who grew up the daughter of prominent scholar/musician Seymali Ould Mouhamed Val, who researched and notated Mauritanian folk music. He also had a broad range of musical tastes, an aesthetic he passed on to his daughter. She learned how to play the ardine (harp) from her grandmother, Moumina. While the ardine is generally considered a women's instrument, the reasons why remain speculative.

"One idea is that women were traditionally the ones who played percussion," Seymali said through a translator. "If you look at the ardine, you can play percussion on the bottom, which is like a calabash. Also, the sound is very light and feminine in the way it mixes with the singing."

Seymali's voice reaches and holds a startling series of high notes, a skill that derives from her almost lifelong practice. She said some relatives encouraging her to start singing around the time she was 9 years old. Back then, and today, many of her jobs are performing at weddings in Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital. But she also wanted to widen her own music's scope.

Mauritania contains a largely Arabic northern region while its southern part is predominantly black African and shares artistic influences with such neighboring countries as Senegal. Seymali draws on idioms that can be traced to all these regions, but also from Western rock and techno. Her husband, electric guitarist Jeiche Ould Chighali, mentions admiring Jimi Hendrix and Dire Straits. These are not their only far-flung sources.

"My daughter watches Turkish soap operas," Seymali said. "I was in the house, and every so often, I'd think, 'Hold on, listen to this music.'"

While Seymali's music has such vast origins, the lyrics of her recent disc, "Azawan II" are focused on Mauritania and derive from the country's poetic customs. Songs like "El Mougelmen" have multiple meanings — on the surface, it's about mixing spices, but on another level, she describes the women who use them for cooking. Seymali usually builds these different layers through adding new lines during performances, which, her drummer Matthew Tinari said is also a Mauritanian tradition.

"Poetry comes from everywhere in Mauritania," Tinari said. "It's the land of 1,000 poets. At Moorish weddings, a guest can come up to singer and whisper in her ear and that becomes a line. It's poetry designed for someone else in the room. Some of it's been written by Noura, some by her father, some by by other people and some is done on the spot."

Since Seymali performed at Mali's high-profile Festival In The Desert about seven years ago, she has toured more frequently, including an appearance at Chicago's World Music Festival in 2013. While she is seeking more worldwide performance opportunities, another goal is to have her father's book translated and open a music school in Mauritania. Seymali feels he would have approved of it all.

"My father was always encouraging and very proud of what I've been doing," Seymali said. "To perform a musical fusion was his dream, too."

Along with Seymali, the Square Roots Fest will present these renowned performers with roots in Africa, the Caribbean and the American Midwest. Here are some sets not to miss:

The Flat Five

Kelly Hogan (now a Wisconsinite) and Chicago's Nora O'Connor should offer the weekend's sweetest vocal harmonies. These accomplished singers — along with pianist Scott Ligon, bassist Casey McDonough and drummer Alex Hall — perform together locally a few times a year at such venues as The Hideout and SPACE, but these semi-regular appearances are consistently filled with surprises. Each of these musicians possess a deep knowledge of country, rockabilly, jazz and r&b rarities — and reinterpret these genres' overlooked songbooks with an equal wealth of charm.

7 p.m. Friday, South Stage, Lincoln and Montrose Avenues