March 2, 2001

‘Music and Arts in the Delta’
is theme for Blues Symposium VII


"Music and Arts in the Delta" provides the focus for Delta Blues Symposium VII, sponsored by the Department of English and Philosophy at Arkansas State University.

The annual three-day event is scheduled for Thursday through Saturday, March 29-31. The program is free and open to the public.

The Symposium begins on Thursday afternoon with a reader’s theater performance of the one-act play "Am I Blue?" by Delta dramatist Beth Henley. Directed by Molly Simpson, the performance begins at 4 p.m. in the Blackbox Theater at Fowler Center.

A reception for the opening of the exhibit "Delta Watercolorists" – which will appear in the Bradbury Gallery of the Fowler Center from March 27 through April 15 – is scheduled for 7 that evening.

Bluesman CeDell Davis of Pine Bluff will perform in Fowler Center at 8 p.m. as part of the Lecture-Concert Series.

Friday morning, March 30, begins with a paper session on "The Blues and Beyond the Blues." Scholars will present their research on rap music, reggae, Brinkley-born musician Louis Jordan, and women’s blues performances, beginning at 8:30 in Room 157 of the ASU Museum.

At 11 a.m., also in Museum 157, Bruce West, professor of art and design at Southwest Missouri State University, will present a lecture and slide show on Delta photography. West’s photographs of Delta subjects appear in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Mississippi Art Museum, and the St. Louis Art Museum, among others.

A paper session on "The Delta and the Blues in Literature" will begin at 1:30 in Museum 157. Presentations will deal with the ways in which William Faulkner, Lewis Nordan, and other Delta-inspired authors have incorporated the region and its artistic traditions into their literary work.

Philip Martin, columnist on culture topics for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, will speak at 4 p.m. in Museum 157. Martin’s featured lecture will examine the image of the Delta in popular culture.

At 8 p.m. Friday evening, Lewis Nordan will present a reading in Fowler Center. Author of several novels and nonfiction works about the Delta, including "Wolf Whistle" and "The Sharpshooter’s Blues" Nordan is professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh.

Activities for Saturday, March 31, begin at 8:30 with four concurrent workshops. Pre-enrolled participants will learn about web sites for high school teachers, Delta film and literature for college and community college teachers, Delta photography, and fiction writing.

Concurrently, in Museum 157, a paper session on "‘Strictly’ the Blues" will allow scholars to present their research on Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, and other blues luminaries.

A reading by Delta fiction writers will begin at 11 p.m. in Museum 157.

Concurrent paper sessions will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday. "Delta Visual Arts" in Museum 157 will focus on material culture from the region, and nonfiction creative writers will read from their work in Museum 170.

A panel discussion at 3:15 will examine "Delta Popular Fiction." D. J. Donaldson, creator of the Kit Franklin-Andy Broussard mystery series, and Grif Stockley, whose fictional lawyer Gideon Page has appeared in a series of novels, will discuss how the Delta has influenced their work.

Delta Symposium VII concludes with a Saturday evening program on Delta composers at 7:30 in Riceland Hall of the Fowler Center. John Baur of the University of Memphis will join Tom O’Connor and Tim Crist of the ASU Department of Music to discuss and sample the work of composers from the Delta.

In addition to the Department of English and Philosophy, Delta Symposium VII is sponsored by the Convocation of Scholars Program, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Communications, College of Education, Center for Learning Technologies, Department of Art, Delta Studies Center, and Lecture-Concert Series.

For further information, call the Department of English and Philosophy, 870-972-3043, or check the web site at www.clt.astate.edu/blues.

# # #

NewsPage: asunews.astate.edu/newspage.htm  |  Back to TOP  |