Each year the Department of English and Philosophy at Arkansas State University (Jonesboro campus) sponsors an interdisciplinary Delta Blues conference, bringing together scholars and performers to celebrate this rich musical tradition. Symposia also have provided a broader context for understanding the history and culture of the seven -state Mississippi Delta region, extending the focus beyond the blues to the literature, politics, religion, folklore, and art of the area. Past Delta Blues symposia have featured such speakers as David Evans, Trudier Harris, Elizabeth Payne, Barry Lee Pearson, Michael S. Reynolds, William Wiggins Jr, Joel Williamson, and Dr. Joycelyn Elders. Among creative writers who have read from their works have been Ellen Gilchrist, Barry Hannah, Allison Joseph, Yusef Komunyakaa, Al Young, and Ellen Douglas. Musicians who have performed at symposia events have included Johnnie billington, Sid Selvidge, Lemuel Shepard, John Weston, and Joyce Cobb.

The seventh annual conference promises to provide a forum for similar luminaries. The focus of Delta Blues Sympsium VII will be The Music and Arts of the Delta. While we solicit papers on the Delta Blues, we also encourage presentations on other musical forms as well as the visual, verbal, theatrical, kinetic, and material arts of the region. Topics may include any aspect of Delta fiction, poetry, drama, storytelling, film, dance, quilting, painting, photography, and other art forms.

Symposium developments will be made available on the World Wide Web at: www.clt.astate.edu/blues.