Summary of the thirteenth Meeting, April 8, 2004

Blues Highway Association

308 Blues Club, Indianola, Mississippi

Email announcements of the meeting were mailed to over 200 people. Twenty people signed the attendance list, and a few others came in late and missed the sign in sheet.

The meeting began at 10am, and lasted about an hour and a half. Several folks stayed at the Club for excellent lunch. What a great place! And live Blues every Friday and Saturday nights!

Roger Stolle of Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Art could not attend in person, but sent a report which I read. The complete report is linked here. In short, the Juke Joint Festival and Planter’s Celebration is Saturday, April 17^th. It promises to be a great event, and will hopefully be the first of many more.

Leslie Linn, representing the BB King Museum, gave a great poster show and discussion of the current status of the Museum effort. It is coming along very nicely, and sure looks good on paper. Contact Leslie Lynn or Bill McPherson for further updates.

Joe Johnson gave an overview of the Eagle Academy in Mound Bayou. They have just received a large grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission, to be used to help renovate one of the historic hospital buildings in Mound Bayou. It will be used to house the Academy, which trains young people un both music and aspects of the recording business. We also discussed the recent award to the Holly Grove CDC in Drew, also by the Mississippi Arts Commission, in support of their continuing renovations of the Rosenwald School on Highway 49. Finally, the BB King Museum received funds form MAC as well. All in all, a very strong show of support for the Delta. Congratulations to everyone who made this possible, and thanks to the MAC.

Alex Thomas reported that there are now three National Heritage Area initiatives underway in Mississippi:

The Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area
The Mississippi Gulf Coast National Heritage Area
The Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area

Each of these proposals is in a different stage of development, and each is designed to address different regional approaches to management. The Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area will be the focus of a conference/workshop this June 10-11, 2004. More complete information is attached, but this workshop has some similarities to the Share Your Heritage Workshop that we held last summer to begin our own planning process. Kent Bain is leading this effort, and we need to invite him to come and explain it to us more completely. I notice that of the three proposals, only ours actually pops up in a Google search…..

Alex also talked about two upcoming promotional events:
The Chicago Blues Festival, which will feature a Mississippi Juke Joint recreation (June 10-13)
Taste of Chicago/Taste of Mississippi event on June 25-27

Alex will provide additional information that will be attached here. Anyone who has materials (posters, brochures) or other things they want to promote (even food) should contact Alex Thomas directly.

Betsie Brown could not make the meeting in person either, but asked that I read three reports concerning upcoming events:

Helena, Arkansas, is celebrating Mainstreet of the Blues on May 1, 2004
The Handy Awards take place in Memphis on April 29, 2004
The Beale Street Music Festival is April 30 through May 2.

Further information on each of these events is attached via hyperlinks (above).

Sylvester Hoover reported on his new tour operation based in Baptist Town in Greenwood. Hoover’s Grocery is the base, and Blues and Civil Rights issues are the center themes. A copy of his report is attached.

I described a proposal that has been submitted to the Mississippi Arts Commission to fund a series of 20 Blues Heritage presentations in Delta area schools. Eddie and Frank Thomas will give the presentations if we receive funding.

I briefly described a visit that six of us made to Middle Tennessee State University last month. We were investigating the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area as a model for our own proposal. We were hosted by Dr. Van West and his staff, and came away with a much clearer understanding of the issues facing a National Heritage Area.

We talked about the status of The Mississippi Blues Commission, the enabling legislation for which can be read in full here. Alex Thomas told us that he had appeared before the House Tourism Committee, and presented a document that I had previously drawn up at his request, outlining the roles of the Commission and the Blues Highway Association. This document is attached.

I mentioned that Robert Birdsong, John Fewkes, and Steve LaVere had all sent in new material for the Registry of blues sites. Thanks to all of you who are building the inventory of historical places.

I also announced two live performances that are open to all:

April 27^th 7pm at the Warehouse in Cleveland, as part of a gallery opening showcasing the photography of Pat Hilpert, Duff Dorrough and The Alluvian All-Stars featuring Norbert Putnam, with an appearance by Chris Parker. Free.

May 7^th at Airport Grocery in Cleveland, John Horton and the Special Occasion Band, featuring Mississippi Slim. $5 cover to benefit DSU Blues programs.

Additional information is always available at www.blueshighway.org/bluesnews.htm