Fundraiser for Mississippi John Hurt film, Hurt: A Mississippi Inspiration

1205 North Central Street,Knoxville TN 37917

29 March, 2023

Description

No blues singer ever presented a more gentle, genial image than Mississippi John Hurt – a guitarist with an extraordinarily lyrical and refined fingerpicking style, he also sang with a warmth unique in the field of blues. His gospel influence gave it a depth and reflective quality unusual in the field. (AllMusic). Born John Smith Hurt (July 3, 1893 - November 2, 1966), he might have lived and died in obscurity, if it hadn’t been for the folk music revival of the late ’50s and early ’60s. A new generation of listeners and scholars suddenly expressed a deep interest in the music of America’s hinterlands, not only in listening to it but finding and preserving it. A scholar named Tom Hoskins discovered that Mississippi John Hurt, who hadn’t been heard from musically in over 35 years, was alive and living in Avalon, MS, and sought him out, following the trail laid down in Hurt’s song “Avalon Blues.” Their meeting was a fateful one; Hurt was in his 70s, and weary from a lifetime of backbreaking labor for pitifully small amounts of money, but his musical ability was intact, and he bore no ill-will against anyone who wanted to hear his music. Mary Frances Hurt Wright will begin the evening’s activities with some personal commentary on her family, the Mississippi John Hurt Foundation (MJHF), and the upcoming film, Hurt: A Mississippi Inspiration. Mary is the Founder and President of the MJHF. She is an educator and career teacher, and she has dedicated her energy and resources to preserving the musical legacy of her grandfather. Mary relocated John Hurt's home to Foundation property in Avalon, Mississippi, and converted it to a museum. She also relocated the St. James Church, a mecca for African American families in Carroll County since the 1800s, to Foundation property and has plans to use it as a schoolhouse where early blues music and history can be taught. As an educator, teaching people about her grandfather's musical legacy is a primary goal. The Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound (TAMIS) will provide vintage film clips of early, rural life in the Southeastern United States. TAMIS is the historic audio-visual department of Knox County Public Library. Founded in 2005, TAMIS preserves East Tennessee’s cultural history as recorded on film, video, and a variety of audio formats. Housed at the East Tennessee History Center, the closed storage collection often offers unique, one-of-one glimpses into the past. TAMIS also houses photographs, documents, and ephemera related to its multimedia holdings (Knox County Public Library). A 16mm print of the 1985 Terry Zwigoff film, Louie Bluie, will be shown (some adult themes and language). Louie Bluie is “a documentary about the obscure country-blues musician and idiosyncratic visual artist Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong, member of the last known black string band in America” (The Criterion Collection). Howard Armstrong (March 4, 1909 – July 30, 2003) grew up in Campbell County, Tennessee, influenced by the many genres of music common to the area, and became one of the nation's finest black stringband musicians, a recipient of NEA’s National Heritage Fellowship, and the Tennessee Governor's Folk Heritage Award. “Louie Bluie” was an accomplished musician, painter, and storyteller, who created ethnic jewelry, mastered seven foreign languages and 22 musical instruments, and traveled the world. The evening will conclude with the world premiere of the Official Trailer to the upcoming film, Hurt: A Mississippi Inspiration, the only film to date with direct guidance from the Hurt Family and the MJHF. This film is being produced in Knoxville, Tennessee by the Draft Agency. Draft Agency CEO Alex Oliver states, “[Draft] is truly a remarkable place to think, create, experiment, and try new things with incredible people at every turn. Each person brings a unique set of skills and ideas to the table that simultaneously balance and push our limits, while expanding our imaginations on a daily basis. With this unique culture, we are able to create content and strategies that are both memorable and effective for our clients. We believe in having creative outlets to express ourselves and get a little weird and chancy from time to time.”