Daily Itinerary
Click the Schedule to download the PDF version.
Daily Workshop Assignments
Each day of our workshop will have a central theme, and for each theme, we have chosen a short text, a single song, and a food item.
We think of these three things as being “icons” for the day. Icons in this sense are devices that summarize complex patterns and relationships and stick in our minds. We can use them to help us remember complicated issues more easily, and we hope that they remind us of our experiences in the Delta whenever we run across them elsewhere.
Hopefully, the meanings of the icons we’ve chosen will become clear during the workshop, but our desire is that once they do become clear, you will think of certain issues and events every time you hear a particular song or taste a certain food.
Monday - THE RIVER, CREATOR AND DESTROYER OF THE DELTA
Richard Wright’s Down by the Riverside
Song: “When the Levee Breaks” by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy
Food: Fried Catfish
Additional Resources
Tuesday - Immigrant Stories
A ruling by the US Supreme Court in the case of Gong Lum vs. Rice, 1927: http://supreme.justia.com/us/275/78/case.html
Song: “Sail Away” by Randy Newman, sung by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee
Food: Delta Chinese
Additional Resources
Wednesday - The Blues: American Root Music and the Culture that Produced It
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
Song: “Crossroads Blues” by Robert Johnson
Food: Hot Tamales
Additional Resources
Thursday: The Story of Emmett Till
And County Apologizes to Emmett Till Family
Song: “The Death of Emmett Till” by Bob Dylan
Food: Koolickles
Additional Resources
Friday: The Civil Rights Movement
The Voter Registration form Fannie Lou Hamer had to fill out
Song: “Green Onions” by Booker T. and the MG’s
Food: Soul Food
Additional Resources
Saturday: The Delta in Diaspora
Letters back and forth from the South to the North: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5332
Song: “Sweet Home Chicago” by Robert Johnson
Food: Fried Chicken and Pound Cake
Additional Resources
