🎙️ REPLAY: The Blues Narrative — The Next Chapter of the Slave Narratives

Originally aired: Late March Broadcast | 9 PM CST
Presented by: Jack Dappa Blues Heritage Preservation Foundation
In partnership with The African American Folklorist and We The Blues People

We are proud to share the full replay of our special broadcast that launched a new chapter in our cultural memory work — The Blues Narrative.

This powerful episode explores the lived experiences of the Children of The Great Migration — the Blues People whose lives carry the rhythms of survival, resistance, and Black cultural power in the face of systemic oppression.

In this broadcast, you’ll experience:

• 🎤 First-hand accounts and oral histories from tradition-bearers

• 🎶 Blues soundscapes that score our shared historical memory

• 📚 Critical theory grounded in Black ecological, cultural, and musical traditions

• 🗣️ Reflections on how the Blues functions as both archive and resistance

This series is the continuation of the Slave Narratives — a living archive voiced by those who inherited the legacy and forged new paths through song, story, and sound.

📡 Available now to members.

Your support helps us preserve, publish, and share the Black oral tradition — rooted in the real lives of our elders, our communities, and our future.

👉🏾 Join us, support the work, and be part of the Blues Narrative.

In this episode, we dive back into the film Sinners, not just as a movie, but as a cultural reckoning. We’re breaking down how the film tells a deeper story about Black American folklife, Blues culture, and the enduring legacy of Blues People. This time, we’re not just exploring themes; we’re getting into the characters, the plot, and the ways they reveal the real-life struggle between tradition and transformation.Rather than just reviewing the film, we’re asking why Sinners matters. It’s not just entertainment, it’s a bold statement about what it means to be a Blues person in a world where survival, spirituality, and cultural memory are constantly tested. We’ll explore how the film reflects critical ideas like Blues Ecology, Clyde Woods’ Development Arrested, and the legacy of the Plantation Complex. We’ll also look at how the film’s portrayal of Black womanhood, feminism, and colorism challenges or reinforces cultural narratives.Big Bill Broonzy’s legacy will be front and center as we examine how his words and music resonate with the film’s themes. As Broonzy once said, “They don’t like the idea of hearing the old original way it went because it’s said to carry them back to the horse and buggy days, and slavery time, and they don’t want to think about that.” Just like his music, Sinners forces us to confront the past and ask hard questions about what’s been lost and what survives, and how Ryan Cooger brings to life this visual story of Blues People, Blues Folk Belief, and Blues Culture of the time!We’ll also dig into the cultural intersections of the Mississippi Delta, how Irish, Chinese, Black, and Afro-Indigenous communities shaped the Blues tradition. And we’ll make connections to other cultural works like August Wilson’s plays, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and Crossroads, exploring how each handles the intersection of performance, truth, and storytelling.To break it all down, I’m joined by Dr. Langston Collin Wilkins and Dr. Elisha Oliver, whose insights into Black folklore and cultural memory will help us unpack the film’s deeper layers.This episode isn’t just a conversation; it’s a call to think critically about how Black life and Blues culture are represented and remembered. Tune in for a cultural reckoning where the Blues itself gets to testify.

In this episode of The African American Folklorist, we honor Dr. Ebony Bailey as Folklorist of the month of May. Dr. Bailey is a dynamic scholar, writer, and cultural worker whose groundbreaking research intersects Black Literature and Folklore. Dr. Bailey explores how African Americans have historically been both represented as “the folk” and how they have powerfully redefined that term through literature, activism, and cultural intervention.

We dive into her acclaimed article, (Re)Making the Folk: Black Representation and the Folk in Early American Folklore Studies (Journal of American Folklore, 2021), and discuss her public talk, Re(Making) the Folk: The Folk in Early African American Folklore Studies and Postbellum, Pre-Harlem Literature. Through this dialogue, Dr. Bailey highlights how early Black writers and intellectuals used folklore as a site of resistance, cultural affirmation, and narrative control.

She also shares insights from her work as a museum researcher with Kera Collective and her leadership in equity-centered initiatives within the American Folklore Society. As a contributor to The African American Folklorist platform, Dr. Bailey helps shape the future of folklore by amplifying Black voices, reclaiming tradition, and challenging dominant narratives.Join us for a rich and necessary conversation on race, representation, and the reclaiming of folk knowledge.

Jack Dappa Blues Radio Live – Sunday Night EditionEpisode: Spirit Work, Hoodoo & Black Southern Cosmologies: Conjure, Pentecost, and the BluesIn this deeply spiritual and culturally rich episode, Jack Dappa Blues Radio Live explores the sacred intersections of Blues music, Hoodoo, Black Southern Pentecostalism, and Afro-Indigenous folk beliefs. Host and folklorist Lamont Jack Pearley guides listeners through a journey of ancestral memory, ritual practice, and the spiritual systems encoded in the Blues.We honor the life and work of the late Freeman Vines and his haunting “hanging tree guitars,” examine texts like Black Magic by Yvonne P. Chireau, Mojo Workin’ by Katrina Hazzard-Donald, and Stories of Rootworkers & Hoodoo in the Mid-South by Tony Kail, and spotlight the special Hoodoo Heritage digital issue of The African American Folklorist, curated by Hess Love.This episode isn’t just a conversation—it’s a revival of memory, a ritual of sound, and a space for cultural reclamation.🔗 Sign up for upcoming We The Blues People events and master classes:https://www.eventbrite.com/o/jack-dappa-blues-heritage-preservation-foundation-68723761273

In this month’s episode of The African American Folklorist, we shine a spotlight on Dr. Constance Bailey—Assistant Professor of African American Literature and Folklore at Georgia State University, and an innovative scholar whose research explores Black women’s comedy, speculative fiction, and African American oral traditions.A native of Natchez, Mississippi, Dr. Bailey’s work is grounded in the richness of Southern Black culture, Black humor, and the possibilities of Afrofuturism. In this engaging conversation, we discuss her academic journey, her role as a digital media editor for the American Folklore Society, and her forthcoming book The Black Folktastic: Black Speculation and the Sankofa Aesthetic. We also explore how folklore, humor, and speculative storytelling are powerful tools of resistance, cultural memory, and imagination in Black communities.Join us as we celebrate Dr. Bailey’s contributions to the field and highlight the significance of preserving and teaching Black folklore in contemporary spaces.https://constancebailey.com/

In this special episode, we sit down with Kelle Jolly, the self-described "Affrilachian-Georgia-lina-Peach", whose music and storytelling embody the rich cultural tapestry of the Appalachian South. A celebrated folk artist, community builder, and ukulele virtuoso, Kelle shares the inspiration behind her latest book, Lady Fay Ukulele, and the deep significance of its story.We’ll explore how her roots, influences, and passion for tradition shape her work, weaving together themes of friendship, forgiveness, and the magic of music. Join us for an intimate and lively conversation filled with melody, heritage, and the enduring power of storytelling. 🎶📖✨

Here are some links to the book sales online:
Amazon.com: Lady Fay Ukulele: Jolly, Kelle

Lady Fay Ukulele by Kelle Jolly, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

Lady Fay Ukulele, (Hardcover) - Walmart.com

The blues is more than just music—it’s history, it’s storytelling, and it’s the soul of Black American life. In this compelling live broadcast, we explore Writing the Blues—the ways Black authors, poets, and filmmakers have infused their works with the rhythm, pain, resilience, and triumph of the blues.From Langston Hughes’ poetic blues verses to Alice Walker’s deeply emotional narratives, from August Wilson’s stage masterpieces to period-piece films that use the blues as a backdrop, this discussion uncovers how Black storytelling in literature and cinema keeps the essence of the blues alive.Join us as we break down the themes of struggle, survival, love, and liberation found in both historical and contemporary works. We’ll examine films like The Color Purple, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Ray, and Down in the Delta, alongside the written works of W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, and more.How does the blues shape Black narratives? How do these stories continue to evolve while honoring the legacy of the blues? Let’s dive into these questions together in an insightful, thought-provoking, and culturally rich discussion.🎙 Tune in live and join the conversation. Let’s keep writing the blues.

Join us for a real, Blues People conversation about the blues on Jack Dappa Blues Radio! In this live broadcast, I—Lamont Jack Pearley, a traditional blues artist and folklorist—will take you deep into the blues as an oral tradition in the American South.The blues ain’t just music; it’s a living, breathing record of our history. It carries the voices, struggles, and triumphs of Black American life, passed down through song, rhythm, and storytelling. The blues tells us where we’ve been, who we are, and how we make sense of the world around us.Throughout the show, we’ll dig into the roots of blues as oral history. We’ll break down songs like Son House’s Am I Right or Wrong and American Defense, Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightnin’, Muddy Waters’ Louisiana Blues, and more, getting into the messages woven into their lyrics and performances. We’ll also talk about floating verses—how blues artists built on each other’s words and passed them along like folklore—and the dialect and storytelling style that make the blues one-of-a-kind.This live broadcast is more than just a lecture—it’s a conversation. We’ll be playing classic blues recordings, talking through their meaning, and opening up the lines for you to join in. Share your thoughts, ask questions, and become part of the ongoing tradition of keeping the blues alive.So tune in, turn it up, and let’s get into it—one story, one song, one truth at a time.