Blues music and poetry span the globe, but its birthplace is rooted amid sharecroppers, juke joints and shacks in the Mississippi Delta. The Lone Star College-North Harris Lyceum Series will present “Welcome to Friars Point, Mississippi: From the Cotton Shack to the Cadillac,” Wednesday, Feb. 10, 7 p.m. in the college’s Student Center on the second floor.
The event is a presentation of blues and blues-inspired African-American literature. The award winning Diunna Greenleaf and Blue Mercy band will be performing throughout the program and presenting a culminating song set.
Guests will be seated in a “juke joint” atmosphere while poetry, prose, and music presentations encompass the era spanning from African-American slavery to the Great Migration. Faculty, staff, administrators and students will present excerpts from black writers whose words on paper capture the essence and spirit of the Delta Blues, conveying tales of poverty, heartbreak, desperation, despair, struggle, disappointment, disenfranchisement, along with those of endurance, hope, promise, faith, resilience, strength, humor, and survival.
Diunna Greenleaf, the leader of Blue Mercy, is a native Texan (Houston) who has a background steeped in gospel music. Influence by the likes of Koko Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Rosetta Thorpe, Sam Cook, Charles Brown and her own parents Ben and Mary Ella Greenleaf (Gospel). She has developed “Diunna’s style of Blues” in the same tradition as so many other great Texas blues men and women. She combines intricate patches of jazz, and gospel heartfelt soul to create a kind of blues that takes one on an emotional roller coaster ride.
Free to the community. Light refreshments will be served. For more information contact Professor Lashun R. Griffin at lashun.r.griffin@lonestar.edu or 281.618.5549.
Lone Star College-North Harris is located at 2700 W.W. Thorne Drive, one-half mile south of FM 1960 E, between Aldine-Westfield and Hardy Roads. For more information about the college, call 281.618.5400 or visit: lonestar.edu/northharris.
Lone Star College System consists of five colleges including LSC-CyFair, LSC-Kingwood, LSC-Montgomery, LSC-North Harris, and LSC-Tomball, six centers, LSC-University Center, LSC-University Park, Lone Star Corporate College, and LSC-Online. With more than 62,000 students in credit classes this spring, LSCS is the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area and third largest community college system in Texas. To learn more visit LoneStar.edu.
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Jan 28, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
C.C. Sutphen
281.618.5425, desk
281.639.6381, cell