"We ain't the blues" (University of Mississippi, 2017)

Between 2014 and 2019, I lived and worked and talked to (i.e., interviewed) more than 200 residents of Clarksdale, Mississippi. It started as my dissertation research and ended as a story that had somehow got in my bones. I started out interested in what black residents had to say about race—black folks and white folks, black southerners, racial inequality—and what they did in their daily lives. I ended up hearing, seeing, and eventually knowing a lot about the blues...which, I eventually learned, was what I was interested in the whole time.

This is an early talk on the project. This one was early, when I thought I knew what I was doing and saying, and what the project was. I am so glad to now know better. This one is still worth a listen.