JoBeth Briton 101

"JoBeth Briton is a cultural journalist, activist, and teacher with a passionate devotion to the vitality of America's blues and jazz music and culture, as well as to the African-rooted values that have always informed and driven the culture.

Currently: JoBeth is putting together a multi-part workshop series, The Meaning of the Blues, which will combine informal lectures with old-school "listening parties" to survey aspects of blues music and culture that often go unremarked or unexplored in the national media. The workshop series will debut in Little Rock sometime early this fall. (Edited recordings of the workshop series will be available at a later date.) Be sure to visit the website again for upcoming news about The Meaning of the Blues, including a synopsis of individual workshops and more information about time, place, and date, etc. Also, check in again to find out about JoBeth's other activities and projects."

"The Meaning of the Blues" series includes the following eight individual workshops or "parties":


1. "Signifying Blues: How and Why the Blues Got to Be"
2. "In the Beginning Was the Women's Blues -- Classic and Country"
3. "Well, Well, Well -- The Anti-Bourgeois, Low-Down, Gut-bucket Blues"
4. "White Negroes, Black Minstrels, and Other Ancestral Mutants: Or, Can White People Really Play the Blues?"
5. "Who's Who in Arkansas Blues: Innovators, Syndicators, & History-Makers"
6. "All Blues: The Heart of Jazz Belongs to You Know Who"
7. "On the Page, On the Stage: The Blues in Literature, Poetry, and Drama"
8. "Blues Had a Baby...and a Baby...and a Baby: The Eternal and Ever-Changing Nature of the Blues"  ¶ 7/22/2005 06:31:00 PM