Events

Normal
0

false
false
false

EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE

MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}

Friday

2/19/10   7pm-8:30pm

William Ferris gives a multimedia
presentation on Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices
of the Mississippi Blues

Throughout
the 1960s and 1970s, folklorist William Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi,
documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed
the diverse musical traditions that form the authentic roots of the blues. Now,
Give My Poor Heart Ease puts front
and center a searing selection of the artistically and emotionally rich voices
from this invaluable documentary record. Illustrated with Ferris's photographs
of the musicians and their communities and including a CD of original music and
a DVD of original film, the book features more than twenty interviews relating frank,
dramatic, and engaging narratives about black life and blues music in the heart
of the American South.

Here are
the stories of artists who have long memories and speak eloquently about their
lives, blues musicians who represent a wide range of musical traditions—from
one-strand instruments, bottle-blowing, and banjo to spirituals, hymns, and
prison work chants. Celebrities such as B. B. King and Willie Dixon, along with
performers known best in their neighborhoods, express the full range of human
and artistic experience—joyful and gritty, raw and painful.

In an
autobiographical introduction, Ferris reflects on how he fell in love with the vibrant
musical culture that was all around him but considered off limits to a white Mississippian
during a troubled era. This magnificent volume illuminates blues music, the
broader African American experience, and indeed the history and culture of
America itself.

William
Ferris is Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and senior associate
director of the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC- Chapel Hill.
A former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ferris co
edited the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and is the author of Blues from the Delta.  Rolling Stone magazine has named him among the
top ten professors in the United States.