Collect • Preserve • Connect

Helena, Arkansas Project

Helena is located in Phillips County, Arkansas. In 2011 the Pryor Center began conducting video interviews with former and current residents of Helena. They told stories of Helena in its heyday as a thriving, diverse community and international port on the Mississippi River. Cotton cultivation, bustling sidewalks, busy shops for every need, slot machines in the drugstores, traveling minstrel shows, and religious groups as diverse as the population made Helena one of the largest, most exciting cities in Arkansas. Phillips County was home to seven Confederate generals, and Helena was the site of the Battle of Helena on July 4, 1863. Large-scale cotton industries that were reliant on black sharecropping and slave labor sustained the economic engine of the Arkansas and Mississippi Deltas. Over the past century, racial tensions, the great Mississippi flood of 1927, mechanized, industrialized cultivation of agriculture, and the recruitment of labor by northern cities in the United States contributed to a declining population.

Helena's music venues incubated the blues genre and the longest-running, and still running, blues radio program in the world, King Biscuit Time, which helped plant the seeds for rock and roll. The annual King Biscuit Blues Festival remains the premier blues festival in the world.

The Pryor Center began interviewing musicians and recording symposia at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in 2015. Eric Gorder, whose photography is featured in the slide show on this page, had been recommending attention to the festival for nearly a decade before the Pryor Center was able to attend.

When Pryor Center staff arrived at Bubba’s Blues Corner on Cherry Street in the fall of 2015 to determine interview space and set equipment, blues historian Donald Wilcock was there. He graciously accepted the offer to sit in the interviewer's chair that year, and he returned to the chair in 2016. Collaborations with Eric and Don continue.

King Biscuit Blues Festival

Helena is located in Phillips County, Arkansas. In 2011 the Pryor Center began conducting video interviews with former and current residents of Helena. They told stories of Helena in its heyday as a thriving, diverse community and international port on the Mississippi River. Cotton cultivation, bustling sidewalks, busy shops for every need, slot machines in the drugstores, traveling minstrel shows, and religious groups as diverse as the population made Helena one of the largest, most exciting cities in Arkansas. Phillips County was home to seven Confederate generals, and Helena was the site of the Battle of Helena on July 4, 1863. Large-scale cotton industries that were reliant on black sharecropping and slave labor sustained the economic engine of the Arkansas and Mississippi Deltas. Over the past century, racial tensions, the great Mississippi flood of 1927, mechanized, industrialized cultivation of agriculture, and the recruitment of labor by northern cities in the United States contributed to a declining population.

Helena's music venues incubated the blues genre and the longest-running, and still running, blues radio program in the world, King Biscuit Time, which helped plant the seeds for rock and roll. The annual King Biscuit Blues Festival remains the premier blues festival in the world.

The Pryor Center began interviewing musicians and recording symposia at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in 2015. Eric Gorder, whose photography is featured in the slide show on this page, had been recommending attention to the festival for nearly a decade before the Pryor Center was able to attend.

When Pryor Center staff arrived at Bubba’s Blues Corner on Cherry Street in the fall of 2015 to determine interview space and set equipment, blues historian Donald Wilcock was there. He graciously accepted the offer to sit in the interviewer's chair that year, and he returned to the chair in 2016. Collaborations with Eric and Don continue.

Jim Aldridge

Anna Lee Amsden

Sterling Billingsley

Rockin' Johnny Burgin

Cedric Burnside

Mike Cherry

Eddie Christmas

Bob Corritore

Bobby Crafford

Leon "Butch" Dener

Robert Finley

Samantha Fish

Michael Groth

Zac Harmon

Veronika Jackson

James "Super Chikan" Johnson

Grace Kuch

Hamilton Loomis

Kenny Neal

Tracy Nelson

Barbara Newman

Chris O'Leary

Jack Pearson

Chris Pitts

Dave Pruitt

Dick Pruitt

Bobby Rush

Reba Russell

Johnny Sansone

Kennan Shaw

Lonnie Shields

Lucious Spiller

Keith Stone

Berbon "Bubba" Sullivan

Paul Thorn

Christina Vierra

Joe Louis Walker

Don Wilcock

Tom Worrell

 

Call and Response Blues Symposia

The Blues Symposium - 2016 - Part 1

The Blues Symposium - 2016 - Part 2

The Blues Symposium - 2017 - Part 1

The Blues Symposium - 2017 - Part 2

The Blues Symposium - 2018 - Part 1

The Blues Symposium - 2018 - Part 2

 

Arkansas Memories Project

Edwin Leo Burks Jr.

Terry Cagle

Morse U. Gist

Blanche L. Lincoln

Sonny Payne

Charles "Charlie" Buford Roscopf

Beatrice Clark Shelby

David Solomon Jr.

B. Alan Sugg

Jean Sugg

Berbon "Bubba" Sullivan

 

Call and Response Blues Symposia

The Blues Symposium - 2016 - Part 1

The Blues Symposium - 2016 - Part 2

The Blues Symposium - 2017 - Part 1

The Blues Symposium - 2017 - Part 2

The Blues Symposium - 2018 - Part 1

The Blues Symposium - 2018 - Part 2

 

Arkansas Memories Project

Edwin Leo Burks Jr.

Terry Cagle

Morse U. Gist

Blanche L. Lincoln

Sonny Payne

Charles "Charlie" Buford Roscopf

Beatrice Clark Shelby

David Solomon Jr.

B. Alan Sugg

Jean Sugg

Berbon "Bubba" Sullivan