Juke Joint Festival: Andre Otha Evans Fife & Drum Band
Black fife and drum bands were once ubiquitous in the rural South, but time has not been kind to this style of music, a sort …
Black History
Jazz in Memphis: Last Embers Of A Forgotten Legacy
The years have not been kind to jazz. In fact, the wonderful creative music that has been called “America’s classical music” was dubbed “the least …
Grambling Homecoming 2015: And The Rains Came
When I got up early for breakfast on Grambling’s Homecoming Day, the weather was grey, but it wasn’t raining, so I was hopeful as I …
The Tennessee Delta III
For my third photographic journey documenting the blues country of West Tennessee, I stayed mostly in Tipton and Haywood Counties, photographing the historic store in …
The Lost Class Of ’71: Remembering Shadowlawn
The other day while riding out Old Brownsville Road, where so much has changed due to development, I decided to take a ride through the …
Celebrating Unity And An Effort To Save A Dying Town
On a weekday afternoon, I had driven up to Mason, Tennessee after work to eat at Bozo’s Bar-B-Que, and had noticed signs around the little …
The Last Hurrah For Foote Homes and Booker T. Washington High
When the United States Department of Education complained about the location of Memphis’ all-Black Kortrecht High School in the middle of a noisy, smokey rail …
The Manassas High School Drumline at Melrose Stadium
Although Memphis’ Black community has an old and deep history of drumlines, the phenomenon has been fading in recent years. A reduced interest on the …
Preserving the Black Fife and Drum Tradition at Gravel Springs
For fans of the blues in Mississippi, the summer is somewhat framed by two major events, the North Mississippi Hill Country Picnic in June, which …