Community Corner

Nobody Gets Out of Here Without Talking 'Bout the Blues. And Race. And Gender.

Symposium at Dominican University will tackle issues of race and equality in blues music.

"The blues are the roots. Everything else is the fruits."

It's been a long time since blues legend Willie Dixon said that, and the country has made many strides in equality, music and social justice.

But what about within the world of blues music?

Find out what's happening in Oak Park-River Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

That's one of the main questions to be discussed at this weekend's symposium held at . The forum, a biannual event at the university, will bring together scholars, musicians, writers and more to "explore the shared roots of blues and gospel music and their enduring impact on contemporary music and society."

The focus will be on race and gender issues in modern blues. 

Find out what's happening in Oak Park-River Forestwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"It doesn't help," writes Chicago Tribune arts critic Howard Reich, "that blues artists toil in a music industry that generates less than 1 percent of its record sales from this music. But great art is not measured via cash receipts, at least not by those who perform it and treasure it."

And how.

The "Blues & The Spirit" event will be held Friday and Saturday. Here's a look at the agenda, via Dominican University:

• The symposium will open Friday evening with a panel discussion on the current state of the blues genre featuring respected musicians and performers Sugar Blue, Billy Branch, Matthew Skoller, Deitra Farr and Sharon Lewis as well as recently retired deputy director of the Chicago Mayor’s Office of Special Events Barry Dolins.

Following the panel discussion and reception in honor of Mrs. Dixon, participants will be transported by bus to the Harlem Avenue Lounge in Berwyn where they will have the special opportunity to see performing together for the first time four of Chicago’s most renowned blues divas, Deitra Farr, Peaches Staten, Nellie Travis and Sharon Lewis, backed by some of Chicago’s finest rhythm sections including Bruce James, Tony Dale, Roosevelt “Hatter” Purifoy and CC Copeland.

• Zandria F. Robinson, the James and Madeleine McMullan Assistant Professor of Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi, will deliver on Saturday morning the symposium’s opening keynote address, titled “Gotta Sing on the Beats They Bring Us: Gender, Class and 21st Century Blues Women’s Epistemology.” Her address will be followed by a panel discussion titled “Ladies Sing the Blues: The Lived Experience of Chicago’s Blues Divas” including Farr, Staten, Travis, Lewis and others.

• A lunch panel will focus on cultural tourism and the blues and will include Dolins, former director of the Chicago Blues Festival; Dorothy Coyle, executive director of the Chicago Office of Tourism and Culture; Michael Orlove, former senior programs director of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs; and Scott Barretta, host of the Highway 61 Radio Show (Mississippi Public Radio), principal researcher for the Mississippi Blues Trail, and former editor of Living Blues magazine.

• The afternoon will include a panel discussion on the intersection of blues and hip-hop featuring Ernest Gibson, the Thurgood Marshall Fellow in African and African-American Studies at Dartmouth College; Stephanie Rose, assistant professor of Women’s and Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs; and Gil Cook, assistant professor of English at Dominican University. The panel discussion will be followed by a multimedia presentation titled “Tracing the Legacy” by Stephanie Shonekan, assistant professor of ethnomusicology and Black studies at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

• The closing keynote address will be delivered by Mark Anthony Neal, professor of Black popular culture in the Department of African and African-American Studies at Duke University.

After things wrap up, participants will be whisked to Rosa's Lounge for a performance by Sugar Blue.

University officials say registration for the weekend symposium is limited. There's a $75 fee, which covers all events on the Dominican University campus, meals, receptions, round-trip bus transportation on Friday and Saturday evenings and cover charges at the blues clubs.

More information is available at www.dom.edu/blues or by contacting bluesandthespirit@dom.edu or calling (708) 524-6771.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here