Celebrating The Legacy of Otha Turner at Coldwater
Back in 1950, Othar Turner, of Gravel Springs, a few miles east of Senatobia in Mississippi’s Hill Country region, decided to hold a picnic for …
Black History
Brunch on Full Blast and Murals in the Bywater
Sunday morning, Darren Towns and I headed over to yet another new breakfast spot in New Orleans, this one in a familiar location, 139 South …
Celebrating the 4th of July and the Legacy of Fife and Drum Music at the Hurt Family Picnic
The Frontline has discussed the legacy of Black fife and drum music at length in the past, but I continue to devote a considerable amount …
The Tennessee Delta IV: Tipton County
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon in June, I decided to head out around some of the backroads in Tipton County in search of things to …
The Tennessee Delta IV: Ruins of George Ellis High School in Munford
Abandoned schools in the South always depress me. There is hardly a region of the country that needs education more than ours, and I can …
Celebrating West Tennessee’s Lost Fife and Drum Tradition
Last summer, the Tennessee Arts Commission began a Folklife Apprenticeship program to preserve endangered folkways in the state, and one of the areas of interest …
The Taste of History at Williams’ Bar-B-Que in West Memphis
Tourists flock to Memphis for Beale Street, Graceland, the Stax Museum, the Rock-N-Soul Museum, and many other musical and artistic attractions, but oddly, they rarely …
Fayette County Easter Sunday
In my ongoing research on West Tennessee fife and drum music, I have focused a great deal on Fayette County, largely because of its demographics …
“They Got To Sew, Sew, Sew”: Mardi Gras Indians Uptown and Downtown
The traditional Mardi Gras parades can be fun, but my favorite part of carnival is in the ‘hoods and backstreets, where the gangs of Mardi …
To New Orleans Across The Mississippi Delta
Originally, I was to have headed out to New Orleans on Saturday, which would have enabled me to go to Houma for a parade with …