"The Sacred and the Secular" provides the focus for Delta Blues Symposium VIII, to be held on the Arkansas State University campus Thursday through Saturday, April 11-13.

The annual event, sponsored by the Department of English and Philosophy, brings together musicians, artists, scholars, and the general public to examine the culture of the seven-state Mississippi River Delta region.

Unless otherwise noted, all programs will take place in the lower level of the ASU Museum. They are free and open to the public.

The program begins at 10 a.m. on Thursday, April 11, with a session of presentations by Arkansas State University undergraduates Julie Hambrick, Virginia Sturgeon, Carmen Edington, and Jeri Thacker. Afternoon sessions on Thursday will involve scholars from throughout the region presenting their research on the blues and history and on vernacular art.

Featured lecturer John Michael Vlach, professor of American Studies and anthropology at George Washington University, will speak on "The Sacred and the Secular in African American Folk Art" in Museum 182 at 4 p.m.. The author of a number of studies of American folk culture, vernacular architecture, and the peoples of the African diaspora, Vlach has most recently published "The Planter’s Prospect: Privilege and Slavery in Plantation Paintings." He has curated exhibits at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Institute of Texan Cultures, and the Library of Congress. His participation in Delta Blues Symposium VIII is co-sponsored by the ASU Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program.

Vlach’s lecture will be followed by a screening and discussion of the film Diamond Teeth Mary by Peter Gallagher.

At 7:30, blues musician Bobby Rush will present a concert in the ballroom of the Carl R. Reng Center. The concert is co-sponsored by the Lecture-Concert Committee.

Friday’s program begins at 8 p.m. with sessions on "Blues People" and "Blues Literature and Delta Literature."

At 10:30 a panel addressing the question "What Is Delta Religion?" will convene in Museum 182. Moderated by Linda Pritchard, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at ASU, the panel will consist of Hans Baer, professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; William H. Wiggins, chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Indiana University; and Charles Reagan Wilson, director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.

Concurrent sessions at 1:30 will allow creative writers to read from their poetry and fiction and scholars to speak about Delta visual art. Another pair of concurrent sessions at 4 p.m. will deal with sacred/secular tensions and the sacred.

At 7:15 a reception for the exhibit " Big Fields, Delta Landscapes" by Thomas Chaffee and Gayle Pendergrass will be held at the Fowler Center’s Bradbury Gallery.

The Fowler Center will be the scene of a fiction reading at 8 p.m. by Steve Yarbrough. A member of the faculty at California State University, Fresno, Yarbrough, has draw upon his experiences in the Delta for his short stories and for novels such as "The Oxygen Man."

Yarbrough will direct a fiction workshop for pre-enrolled writers on Saturday morning. Concurrently, Gordon Osing, who founded the creative writing program at the University of Memphis, will direct a similar workshop for pre-enrolled poets.

Concurrent sessions on Saturday morning beginning at 8:30 will focus on "Music and Religion in the Delta and Beyond" and "Blues in Historical and Literary Contexts." The latter will consist of presentations by students in the Afro-American studies M.A. program at Indiana University.

At 11 a.m. in Museum 182, Lillie M. Fears, assistant professor of journalism at ASU, will moderate a panel on gospel music and the Delta. Participants are David Evans, professor of music at the University of Memphis; Michael Luster, director of the Louisiana Folklife Festival; and Deborah Smith Pollard, host of a gospel program broadcast in Detroit and humanities faculty member at the University of Michigan, Dearborn.

Pollard and William H. Wiggins Jr. will host a gospel concert in the Fowler Center, Riceland Hall, beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. Performers will include United Voices, ASU’s gospel choir; Judge and the Jury, a traditional gospel quartet from West Helena, Arkansas; Elaine Golden and the Dedications and Shiquita and the Anointed Voices, also from West Helena; Surrender, a contemporary gospel quartet from Helena; and Whirlwind, a contemporary gospel group from Batesville.

"Delta Composers and Their Works," a concert featuring original compositions, will conclude Delta Blues Symposium VIII. Presented by the ASU Department of Music, the event will take place at Riceland Hall, Fowler Center, at 8 p.m.

All Delta Symposium events are free and open to the public.

For further information, call 870-972-3043; e-mail delta@astate.edu; or check the Symposium website at www.clt.astate.edu/blues.

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