Page 64 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2015

The Rich Heritage of Blues

Motivates the Next Generation

By Anita Havens Davion and the Mississippi Cotton Blossoms recite from That’s Why We Sang the
Blues at the Oxford High School Fine Arts Fair. From left to right: Taniyah Milan,
As a fourth-grade language arts teacher and blues author, I Layvoinna Mayweather, Znya Kihei, Davion Hall, Shanitra Bowen and Kiana Burt
have seen first-hand what a wonderful tool blues music and history Photo by Anita Havens
can be to motivate young readers, especially reluctant ones. artists and locations. It does so by focusing on broader themes
When I published That’s Why We Sang the Blues back in
2011, I shared a couple of the blues poems and authentic that connect many of the markers, including cotton, transportation
and civil rights.”
1930s photographs with the students in my Mississippi history Barretta teaches a blues course at the University of
class. They were so fascinated with the old pictures and poetry Mississippi and hosts an award-winning radio show, Highway
they begged to stay beyond class time to recite them. I borrowed 61, also produced in Oxford. According to Barretta, “Dr. Mark
a karaoke machine, and we began to record. I gave up my Malone, a professor of music at William Carey University,
planning period and they gave up their recess for the remainder contributed the content concerning technical issues about
of the year, about 10 weeks, and we recited, sang and recorded. music, identified how the lessons fit into teachers’ standardized
I saw confidence build in these kids and their grades started to testing requirements, and created exercises at the end of each
soar. You can visit their website at http://poetrykids.webs.com lesson.” The Mississippi Blues Trail Curriculum is free online at:
and hear them recite the poems. www.msbluestrail.org/curriculum.
I took an especially talented group to recite at the local fine The Cincy Blues Society was one of the first to offer a Blues
arts fair. We also performed at the Double Decker Festival on the in the Schools (BITS) program in 1990. Chuck Brisbin is the
Oxford Square, and one child was invited to recite “Memories” coordinator for the program, whose main mission is to keep
for a group of visiting professors at the University of Mississippi. the blues alive. According to Brisbin, the BITS presentations
Their scores on the end-of-year state assessment (MCT) went up by professional musicians last from 45-60 minutes. “In our
dramatically – some an entire level. presentations, we cover the history of blues; came over from
The school librarian was aware of my new approach, and Africa, settled in the Delta, moved to Chicago, then Texas, etc.
found a workshop at the B. B. King Museum in Indianola, offered Our presentations have grown in number over the last two years.
by the Mississippi Arts Commission, called “Mississippi Blues 2014 totaled about 30 presentations…We also have a ‘BITS
Trail Curriculum.” According to its co-author Scott Barretta, “the band,’ which is made up of students ranging from middle school
curriculum is an 18-lesson plan that builds upon the content on to high school ages. These kids perform in Cincinnati, OH, at
the Mississippi Blues Trail markers, of which there are now more August Cincy Blues Fest and February’s Winter Blues Fest.”
than 180. Each of the markers has more than 500 words of text, According to Brisbin, the band also performs in other places,
and the curriculum complements the specific information about totaling about eight events for 2014.
(Continued on Page 77)

62 Blues Festival Guide 2015