Spirit of the Blues: Celebrating Roots of Delta Music through Spirituals and Gospel

 

Coahoma Community College Concert Choir at Delta State's 2018 International Conference on the Blues

A regional performance series, the “Spirit of the Blues” was championed by The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University. Delta State is located in Cleveland, MS, the heart of the Mississippi Delta region, which is recognized as “The Birthplace of the Blues”.

 

Artist-in-residence Bruce "Sunpie" Barnes, musician and former National Park Service ranger, conducts a master class with Delta State students

Through the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area and the International Delta Blues Project, The Delta Center has developed collaborations with the International Conference on the Blues at Delta State University, a historically white university, and BB King Symposium at Mississippi Valley State University, a historically black university also located in the Mississippi Delta region. “Spirit of the Blues” built on these collaborations by sponsoring performances during these conferences that bridge interrelated African American musical traditions rooted in Southern slave and sharecropping plantation cultures: Negro Spirituals, Gospel, and the Blues.

Delta residents and visitors generally are not aware of the shared heritage connections among Spirituals, Gospel, and the Blues, as these genres often are interpreted as sacred vs. secular foils. The “Spirit of the Blues” project aimed to demonstrate the ways in which both musical expressions communicate African American’s will to survive in the face of oppression and the enduring fight to be liberated from oppression.

 

GRAMMY Award-winning Blues legend Bobby Rush is a regular special guest at BB King Day Symposium

“Spirit of the Blues” created venues where residents and visitors could gather to learn and hear how Spirituals, Gospel, and the Blues are connected. “Spirit of the Blues” events were integrated with both the International Conference on the Blues and the BB King Day Symposium.

Toward promoting the MS Delta’s diverse creative economy, “Spirit of the Blues” featured a variety of interpretive expressions including music, poetry, spoken word, dance, visual art, and videography.

 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the BB King Day Symposium at MS Valley State and the International Conference on the Blues at Delta State were presented virtually. MS Valley State’s virtual presentation is available via the MVSU YouTube channel. Delta State’s virtual presentation was broadcast globally in partnership with MS Delta Blues Festival Brazil Online Edition. Delta State’s full presentation is available at http://www.internationaldeltabluesproject.com.

Dr. Rolando Herts, director of The Delta Center, was inspired to write the “Spirit of the Blues” proposal in summer 2018 while visiting Mississippi Delta heritage landmarks with the National Endowment for the Humanities Most Southern Place on Earth workshop for K-12 educators. In his opening remarks for the 2018 International Conference on the Blues, Dr. Herts stated, “The ‘Spirit of the Blues’ project invites everyone to remember and share this important message with others: the Blues, Spirituals, and Gospel music tell the collective story of Black people and of human survival, tenacity, endurance, and brilliant creativity in the face of suffering and oppression.”