Musicians from the Arkansas Delta Featured in BLACK 'N DA BLUES

Black 'n da Blues: Stories and Songs from the Arkansas Delta is an invitation to gather, to reflect and to reveal. It is a communal ritual. It happens in a cafeteria, a church, a club, a school, a stage, or under some shade; a space where the line between the audience and the performers is blurred because we are all here to be seen and remembered.

Written by Carlos Sirah, an internationally produced writer and performer with Remember2019, and co-produced with the Elaine Legacy Center in Elaine, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena-West Helena, and the Boys, Girls, Adults, Community and Development Center in Marvell, this collaborative effort features musicians from the Arkansas Delta as they explore the cultural and race history of Phillips County over the last 100 years, as told through the Spirituals, the Blues and R&B. This is a timely show that weaves together live music and oral history in order to tell a story about the last century in Phillips County including the Elaine Massacre of 1919. The concert is hosted by Angela Davis Johnson and features music and performances by James "Gone for Good" Morgan, Vera White, Angela Davis Johnson, Marcus "Mookie" Cartwright, and the 2nd to None Band! The performance is like spending an afternoon on the porch with an inter-generational gathering of neighbors as they sing songs and tell stories about the blues, freedom, suffering and endurance.

In addition to a showing of the 90-minute concert play, (and because the work deals with the 1919 Elaine Massacre and features testimonies documented by renowned journalist Ida B. Wells), there will be a post-show conversation with the project's author, Carlos Sirah, and Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch, Professor of History and Dean of the Graduate School at Arkansas State University to explore how historians have considered these subjects and the Black women living in rural Arkansas during the early part of the 20th century.

Watch a preview of the show below!

Remember2019 (comprised of Arielle Julia Brown, Ashley Teague (of Notch Theatre Company), Carlos Sirah, Mauricio Salgado, and Yazmany Arboleda) is an effort to make space for the congregation of the Black communities and Black cultural workers of Phillips County, AR. Our work is to support and facilitate local practices of self determination, reflection and healng as related to the mass lynching of 1919, the lasting effects of racial terror and the current and future health of these communities.

DETAILS:

April 2, 2021, 8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PT

RSVP to Info@NotchTheatre.org to receive a YouTube link to the event.