DELTA STATE’S 2020 BLUES CONFERENCE GOING VIRTUAL WITH MISSISSIPPI DELTA BLUES FESTIVAL BRAZIL ONLINE EDITION

Delta State University’s 7th Annual International Conference on the Blues is going virtual this month with a Brazilian beat.

Delta State, through The Delta Center for Culture and Learning and the College of Arts and Sciences, has been invited to participate in the Mississippi Delta Blues Festival (MDBF) Brazil Online Edition scheduled for Friday, November 20 – Sunday, November 22, 2020.

The MDBF Brazil online festival will be free and accessible to the public. The online festival will be broadcast on MDBF Brazil’s official website: www.mdbf.com.br

Delta State’s participation in the virtual festival this year will serve as the 7th installment of the International Conference on the Blues. The festival will include performances from seven international locales including Holland, Australia, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Brazil.

“We are thrilled about this international partnership, especially since it unites the extraordinary Afro-Brazilian music tradition with the African American Blues tradition,” said Dr. Shelley Collins, professor of music and conference co-chair.

Delta State’s virtual presentation is being supported in part by a grant from the National Park Service’s Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative to lift the theme “Spirit of the Blues: Celebrating Roots of Delta Music Through Spirituals and Gospel.” Due to COVID-19, the grant has been expanded to support the online presentation this year, as well as the 8th annual conference in October 2021, which is scheduled to be in-person.

“We anticipate that the Spirit of the Blues theme and the online festival will engage diverse audiences and expand the conference’s international footprint,” said Dr. Rolando Herts, director of The Delta Center and executive director of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area. “The 2020 and 2021 conferences will continue the Spirit of the Blues theme established in 2018. Also, this year’s online presentation is an outcome of DSU’s Delta Delegation to Brazil partnership project started in November 2019. We thank the National Park Service for their continued support as we expand global understanding and appreciation of Mississippi Delta culture through music.”

Delta State’s virtual presentation will feature a Blues and gospel performance from Delta State alum (Delta Music Institute, College of Business) Keith “Prince of the Delta Blues” Johnson, great-nephew of Blues legend Muddy Waters. The presentation also will include highlights from past International Conference on the Blues events and from B.B. King Day at Mississippi Valley State University, a “Spirit of the Blues” project partner.

Operated in southeastern Brazil in the city of Caxias do Sul for over a decade, MDBF Brazil is considered the largest and longest-running Blues festival in South America. According to festival organizer Toyo Bagoso, MDBF Online Edition will offer an innovative way for global Blues fans to pay tribute to the Mississippi Delta, the birthplace of the Blues.

“COVID-19 hit us very hard in Brazil, which led to the closing of our Mississippi Delta Blues Bar in Caxias do Sul,” said Bagoso. “Through our Mississippi Delta partners like Delta State and other global connections, we are able to keep the festival going online. We will have performances coming from the UK, France, the U.S., and Brazil. We also look forward to reopening the Mississippi Delta Blues Bar soon.”

“Like the Mississippi Delta and the rest of America, Brazil has been hit hard by COVID-19. In particular, live music and the performing arts have been facing unprecedented challenges to make sure that ‘the show must go on,’” said Don Allan Mitchell, associate professor of English and conference co-chair. “This unique take on traditional live performances of the Blues & Gospel keeps our audiences safe, and also gives us continuity while we build towards our next conference in 2021.”

The National Park Service is one of several partners supporting the virtual presentation. Others include the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, Delta State Visual Media Arts, Mississippi Valley State University, Visit Mississippi, BB King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, and the Mississippi Delta Tourism Association.

For more information, please contact Dr. Collins and Mr. Mitchell at blues@deltastate.edu.

NEH Funds 11th Year for The Delta Center’s Most Southern Workshop

Summer 2019 NEH Most Southern workshop participants and staff gather at the Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Garden in Ruleville, MS.

The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University is among 11 institutions that have been awarded Landmarks of American History and Culture grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The Delta Center’s “The Most Southern Place On Earth: Music, History, and Culture of the Mississippi Delta” teacher workshops is the only NEH Landmarks project funded in Mississippi this year.

This is the 11th year that NEH has awarded a grant to The Delta Center at Delta State for hosting the Most Southern workshop. Over the 11 years, NEH has invested nearly $2 million in Delta State and surrounding Mississippi Delta communities through the Most Southern workshop.

The National Humanities Alliance in Washington, D.C., has recognized the Most Southern workshop as a high impact NEH program in several key measurement areas, including enriching k-12 education; providing lifelong learning opportunities for diverse audiences; facilitating community dialogue; fostering local tourism economies; and promoting civic education.

NEH Most Southern workshop participants read the “Black Power” Mississippi Freedom Trail Marker in Greenwood, MS.

This year, NEH also recognized The Delta Center by using the narrative section of its Most Southern workshop proposal as a model for organizations to use when writing NEH landmarks of American history and culture grant applications.

The Delta Center’s award is part of the NEH’s recently announced $30 million in grants for 238 humanities projects across the country. NEH Landmarks grants support two one-week workshops for a national audience of e-12 educators that enhance and strengthen humanities teaching.

“These challenging times underscore how important the humanities are to making American culture and world history relatable across generations,” said NEH Chairman Jon Parrish Peede. “NEH is proud to award hundreds of grants to keep our nation’s scholars, students, teachers, and citizens moving forward in pursuit of new knowledge and understanding.”

This round of funding, NEH’s last for fiscal year 2020, will support vital research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. These peer-reviewed grants were awarded in addition to $50 million in annual operating support provided to the national network of state and jurisdictional humanities councils.

NEH Most Southern workshop participants experience the flood of 1927 story at the Mississippi River.

“We are honored that NEH has funded our Most Southern Place on Earth teacher workshop for an 11th time,” said Dr. Rolando Herts, director of The Delta Center and co-director of the workshop. “Our region continues to make considerable strides in cultural heritage development through Delta State and the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area (MDNHA). We look forward to immersing our participants in this culturally significant place by engaging them with scholars, performers, and residents who are telling Delta stories through the Blues, the civil rights movement, the food, the land, and the Mississippi River.”The Delta Center will offer two workshops in summer 2021, with 36 k-12 teachers from throughout the U.S. in each cohort. Over the past decade, the NEH Most Southern workshops have developed a dedicated network of more than 700 alumni scholars who serve as educational and cultural ambassadors for Delta State University and the MDNHA. The workshops use an experiential learning approach, engaging participants directly with historically and culturally significant people and places in the MDNHA.

Workshop participants take what they have learned back to their schools and communities, sharing stories and lessons from the MDNHA with students, colleagues, family and friends, nationally and globally. Many past participants have made return visits to the region, bringing students, colleagues, family and friends with them.

“In previous years, we have had participants from Hawaii, California, Illinois, and New York, as well as several scholars from right here in Mississippi,” said Lee Aylward, program associate for education and community outreach at The Delta Center and workshop co-director. “Our alumni are actively engaged with and have enduring respect for The Delta Center, Delta State and the Delta region because of this workshop. Several of them have presented at our International Conference on the Blues and have completed the International Blues Scholars Program, our online Blues Studies certificate.”

The mission of The Delta Center is to promote greater understanding of Mississippi Delta culture and history and its significance to the world through education, partnerships and community engagement. The Delta Center serves as the management entity of the MDNHA and is the home of the International Delta Blues Project and the NEH Most Southern Place on Earth workshop. For more information, visit http://www.deltacenterdsu.com.

The MDNHA is a partnership between the people of the Mississippi Delta and the National Park Service. The MDNHA was designated by U.S. Congress in 2009 and is governed by a board of directors representing agencies and organizations defined in the Congressional legislation. More information about the MDNHA, including the complete approved management plan, is available at http://www.msdeltaheritage.com.

Spring 2020 Newsletter

Most Southern Place on Earth workshop Celebrates Ten Years

Many thanks to Obsidian Creative Studios for documenting our 10th anniversary workshops. We also appreciate the funding providing by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the nearly 1000 workshop alumni from across the country that have participated in this experiential educational program about the Mississippi Delta.

Delta Center featured in Legacy Magazine cover story

Dr. Rolando Herts, Director of The Delta Center for Culture and Learning as well as Executive Director of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area was recently asked to pen an article about the importance of interpreting American music, specifically blues music from the Mississippi Delta.

Here is an excerpt:

Music heritage in Mississippi carries a legendary mystique that is well suited to interpretive storytelling. In-the-know locals are proud to share how Mississippi has earned its claim to fame as “The Birthplace of America’s Music.” Invoking their Southern storytelling authority, they will tell you that no other state has produced such a high percentage of internationally known, world- class musicians. They will tell you that Mississippi has produced more Grammy Award-winning artists than any state in the country. They will go on to say that this is why the first Grammy Museum outside of Los Angeles was built at Delta State University in Cleveland, the heart of the Mississippi Delta region, which is known worldwide as the “Birthplace of the Blues.”

While this music heritage interpretation may be crafted with a hint of healthy creative license, the stories point to the importance of pride of place and economic opportunity. This is especially so in the Mississippi Delta, proudly known as the “Birthplace of the Blues” and problematically labelled as the poorest region in the poorest state in the United States.

To read the full article, you may download the magazine here.

Interview with Willie “Po’ Monkey” Seaberry: A lost and found file from The Delta Center for Culture and Learning

A couple of months ago, while searching for materials for our summer 2017 National Endowment for the Humanities “Most Southern Place on Earth” workshops, Lee Aylward, The Delta Center’s resident maven of marvelous storytelling, happened upon a mysterious white box tucked away in the corner of our storage room in Ewing Hall. 

“Though I did not recall seeing it there before, it looked oddly familiar to me,” said Lee, in her signature honeyed Southern drawl. “Something told me to pick it up and bring it downstairs to the office.” 

 The inside of Po’ Monkeys Lounge as seen at night clearly illustrates the transformation that occurs inside a jook joint. The Lounge is plastered with bright lights, tinsel, picture, letters, foil, and any other bright, colorful, or shiny decoration. - Kathleen Robbins, 2003

Lee and I soon discovered why the box looked so familiar to her: inside was a treasure trove of compact discs (you know, those shiny silver round plastic things that were once considered cutting-edge audio and data storage devices) from the early 2000’s, around the time that Lee started volunteering with The Delta Center as an oral history transcriber. The discs contain a plethora of Mississippi Delta voices waiting to be uploaded and shared with a brave new online world. Among those voices is a particularly iconic one: the late Willie Seaberry, better known as Po’ Monkey, proud proprietor of the legendary jook joint Po’ Monkey’s Lounge in Merigold, Mississippi. 

Willie Seaberry passed away in July 2016 on a Thursday night, known as “Family Night,” a special time when locals and tourists from around the country and the world would gather at the storied establishment. As is tradition, that particular Thursday, we were taking a group of NEH “Most Southern” workshop participants and Robertson Scholars from Duke University and UNC Chapel Hill to experience the heart and soul of America’s last known rural jook house. The Delta Blues scene has not been quite the same since his unexpected passing.

Below is a transcript of a January 2003 interview with Willie Seaberry conducted by Dr. Luther Brown, the retired Founding Director of The Delta Center for Culture and Learning, and his colleague, the late Dr. Henry Outlaw who passed away in February 2015. Lee, who has been with The Delta Center nearly as long as it has been in existence, often tells visiting groups that The Delta Center was started in the year 2000 to “give the people of the Delta back their heritage.” 

Mr. Seaberry standing in front of some of his collection of pictures, post cars, and other decorative items. - Kathleen Robbins, 2003

In keeping with that fundamental value, it made perfect sense to assign the task of transcribing the interview to Keith Johnson, a Mississippi Delta native who is the grand-nephew of Muddy Waters and also is a rising young Blues musician in his own right, being a recent winner of the Vicksburg Blues Challenge. Keith is a graduate assistant with the International Delta Blues Project which is housed in The Delta Center. Will Jacks, a visionary Mississippi Delta native photographer and Delta State University faculty member, also advised on the transcription process, as Keith wanted to create a video synopsis of the interview that could appeal to fellow Millennials. Will’s book on Po’ Monkey’s is being published by University of Mississippi Press soon – be sure to check out his photo essay published in Mississippi Arts Commission’s Mississippi Folklife about it. 

As the old saying goes, no one works alone. That was the case with The Delta Center then as it is now. Dr. Brown worked with Willie Seaberry and Dr. Outlaw on this interview. He also engaged photographer Kathleen Robbins, a faculty member in Delta State’s art department at the time, and Suli Yi, a journalist at Voice for America, to capture images and video before the interview was conducted. Kathleen and Suli’s artful contributions are featured in Dr. Brown’s essay “Inside Poor Monkey’s” published by the journal Southern Spaces in 2006.   

I shared the interview transcript with Dr. Brown before it was posted here. This was his response: 

I had forgotten that Monkey was so talkative this time.  We tried interviewing him a couple of other times and he just wouldn’t talk to the tape recorder.  Several things did come out of this interview, but we never completed the multi-author article. I believe Kathleen left DSU [Delta State University] and took another job shortly after the interview, and we just never got back to the project. I wrote an article for Southern Spaces – better check the date though because I don’t remember if it was before or after the interview.  We did produce the posters featuring Kathleen’s photos. Those photos are talked about in the interview, and it sounds like they were taken just prior.  

We also succeeded in getting a Blues Trail historic marker for [Po’] Monkey’s, and the planning for that would have begun around the interview time, although installation might have been later.  In any case, that marker was one of the first set of markers, so it was installed not too long after this interview.  We also got 2003 declared the Year of the Blues in Mississippi, by Governor Musgrove, who is also mentioned in the interview.  I think we took him to Monkey’s after he came over to our house for dinner, when we discussed him proclaiming the Year of the Blues. 

Another consequence of this interview is that the Bolivar County Supervisors did change the name of the road to “Po’ Monkey’s Road.”  They also then paved a bit of the road on the west side of Monkey’s so that tour buses could come (many bus companies refused to drive on unpaved roads).  There were once road signs, but so many of them were stolen that the County stopped putting them up.  The [Delta] Center produced metal road signs and sold them to visitors at one time. 

Dr. Brown also shared with me that this recording was not meant to be treated as an oral history. He said it is “more like a fact finding interview that we were using in preparation for writing and talking about Monkey and his Lounge.” 

It is in this spirit that The Delta Center makes this rare recording available to the general public, particularly for researchers, writers, Blues enthusiasts, students, music and cultural critics, fans of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, and anyone else who may be searching for something that might have seemed lost but was there all along, waiting to be discovered and shared. 

Yes, this is for you – for all of you: the found voice of Willie “Po’ Monkey” Seaberry. 

• Dr. Rolando Herts, Director, The Delta Center for Culture and Learning
  Monday, May 22, 2017

A SPECIAL VISIT TO THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE “AND, I CRIED . . .”

Dr. Emily Moore stands in awe of the Smithsonian NMAAHC’s South Carolina Rice Fields exhibit with her husband, Dr. Herman Blake, before visiting the Emmett Till Memorial exhibit. The two are framed by two iconic South Carolina Lowcountry landmarks: historic Angel Oak on John’s Island and a salt marsh at Mosquito Beach, a popular social destination for African Americans during the Jim Crow Era. Photo credit: Dr. Rolando Herts, Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area.

Editor’s Note: How the Smithsonian, National Park Service, and National Heritage Areas tell stories together

During the Alliance of National Heritage Areas (ANHA) Annual Meeting in February 2017, I had the honor of working with Brandi Roberts, Executive Director of Great Basin National Heritage Area (Nevada) Sara Capen, Executive Director of Niagara Falls National Heritage Area (New York) to organize a special ANHA tour of the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. The tour was arranged in collaboration with Smithsonian Ambassador Mossi Tull and the museum's education division. 

National Heritage Areas are cultural heritage partnerships with the National Park Service. The Smithsonian NMAAHC features exhibits that relate to many National Heritage Area stories, including the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, which spans Lowcountry coastal communities shared by four states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

The following is a powerful reflective essay written by Dr. Emily Moore who experienced the tour with her husband, Dr. Herman Blake, Executive Director of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. Dr. Moore’s personal account poignantly illustrates the enduring historical and cultural significance of a 1955 Mississippi Delta story that still resonates with 21st century America: the lynching of African American teenager Emmett Till, an international tragedy widely cited as the “spark that lit the fuse” of the modern Civil Rights Movement.  

- Rolando Herts, Ph.D., The Delta Center for Culture and Learning and the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area

To read the full article and see more photos, please visit the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area blog.

Delta Center collaborates with NPR for series of regional stories

We were thrilled when NPR's Melissa Block contacted us recently to help with stories she was creating for her Our Land series. She wanted to find stories in the Delta that weren't the typical fare. It was an honor to assist her in finding those topics.

Melissa visited the region at during early March, and the series aired not long after. If you haven't had a chance to listen yet, please visit the links below. We think you'll enjoy what she created.

The Legacy Of The Mississippi Delta Chinese
http://www.npr.org/2017/03/18/519017287/the-legacy-of-the-mississippi-delta-chinese
 

A Night At Red's Juke Joint in The Mississippi Delta Is A True Blues Experience
http://www.npr.org/2017/02/26/515756975/a-night-at-reds-juke-joint-in-the-mississippi-delta-is-a-true-blues-experience  

Here's What's Become Of A Historic All-Black Town In the Mississippi Delta
http://www.npr.org/2017/03/08/515814287/heres-whats-become-of-a-historic-all-black-town-in-the-mississippi-delta  

River Guide Wants People To Paddle The Mighty Mississippi, Not Fear It
http://www.npr.org/2017/02/25/515814130/river-guide-wants-people-to-paddle-the-mighty-mississippi-not-fear-it

International Blues Scholars Registration Opens

Delta State University is proud to announce the creation of the International Blues Scholars Program, a global online certificate program that is part of the International Delta Blues Project housed in the Delta Center for Culture and Learning. This multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the Blues includes not only in-depth examination of the musical form, but also a scholarly lens on its influence in art, literature, history, and economic development.

Registration for the program is currently open and will last until April 15. Tuition assistance is available for qualifying students.

The International Blues Scholars Program is an online academic certificate program available to students all over the world. Students may register for up to 12 hours of graduate or undergraduate level courses. Those completing all 12 hours will receive a Certificate of Completion from Delta State University.

Courses offered this summer include Sociology of the Blues, taught by acclaimed Blues scholar Scott Barretta who was recently awarded the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts for Mississippi Heritage, and Psychology of Hip Hop and the Blues, lead by Delta State professor Temika Simmons, a recent recipient of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning's Award for Excellence in Diversity. Additional courses are History of Rock n Roll, Blues Literature, and Modern American History: History of the 20th Century South.

The Delta Center represents Delta State at National Endowment for the Arts convening

Dr. Rolando Herts with Susie Surkamer, Executive Director of South Arts, and Malcolm White, Executive Director of the Mississippi Arts Commission, at "The Future of Arts and Creativity" convening in Washington, DC.

By special invitation, Dr. Rolando Herts, director of The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State, recently attended “In Pursuit of the Creative Life: The Future of Arts and Creativity in America.” The event was hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

Over 200 artists, industry leaders, educators, scientists, and civic leaders from across the country attended the day-long convening at The Kennedy Center. Participants developed ideas and strategies to enhance America’s creative infrastructure for the future toward making the arts and creative opportunities more accessible to all Americans.

“This event provided opportunities for interdisciplinary idea exchanges in strategic issue areas like economics, technology, and cultivating creative talent,” said Herts. “Our discussions will enhance The Delta Center’s community-engaged programs like the International Delta Blues Project and the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area that connect arts, culture, the creative economy, and people in our region.”

The convening featured keynote speaker Questlove, GRAMMY Award-winning founding member of The Roots and musical director for “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” in a moderated discussion with National Public Radio media critic, Eric Deggans. Facilitated working group discussions were framed by expert panel sessions on how to help creative people and communities thrive now and in the future.

Support for the event was provided by the Ford Foundation, Heinz Endowments, The Henry Luce Foundation, McKnight Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and Walton Family Foundation.

Travel supplements for invited entities like The Delta Center were provided by South Arts. South Arts is a nine-state regional arts organization based in Atlanta that provides grants, programs and services to artists and arts organizations in the southern United States.