Civil Rights Movement – Crosstown Arts

Doors open at 7PM | Performance begins at 7:30PM

Tickets: $15 advance | $20 at the door ($5 student tickets available)

This is a concert inspired by Adam W. Sadberry’s late grandfather and unsung hero of the Civil Rights Movement, L. Alex Wilson. Wilson’s work as an editor and journalist changed the world through covering pivotal Civil Rights events including the lynching of Emmett Till, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the desegregation of Central High School by the Little Rock 9, the last of which played a part in Wilson’s transformation into a martyr. In this concert, Adam intertwines articles that he collected from the archives of the Tri-State Defender, Wilson’s newspaper in Memphis, Tennessee, with music that contextualizes the humanity and inhumanity of the stories.

Adam will be joined on stage by pianist Dr. Artina McCain and clarinetist Dr. Andre Dyachenko.

This programming is made possible in part thanks to an Organizational Development Fund grant from New Music USA.

Event Schedule
6 pm: Fellowship Hour at story booth (438 N. Cleveland)
6 pm: Exhibition in the Gallery (422 N. Cleveland)
7- 9 pm: Program & Book-signing in the Gallery

Crosstown Arts and The Booksellers at Laurelwood welcome photojournalist Alysia Burton Steele to Memphis to celebrate the publication of Delta Jewels, her collection of portraits and oral histories of church mothers of the Mississippi Delta.

The event is free and open to the public and will include a program and book-signing with the artist, an art exhibition of photo prints from the book, live choir music, food & drinks. Several of the church mothers featured in the book will also be present.

Inspired by memories of her beloved grandmother, photographer and author Alysia Burton Steele–picture editor on a Pulitzer Prize-winning team–combines heart-wrenching narrative with poignant photographs of more than 50 female church elders in the Mississippi Delta.

These ordinary women lived extraordinary lives under the harshest conditions of the Jim Crow era and during the courageous changes of the Civil Rights Movement. With the help of local pastors, Steele recorded these living witnesses to history and folk ways, and shares the significance of being a Black woman–child, daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother in Mississippi–a Jewel of the Delta. From the stand Mrs. Tennie Self took for her marriage to be acknowledged in the phone book, to the life-threatening sacrifice required to vote for the first time, these 50 inspiring portraits are the faces of love and triumph that will teach readers faith and courage in difficult times.

Alysia Burton Steele has been a photographer for over 25 years and currently teaches photojournalism, layout and design, multimedia, and journalism writing at the University of Mississippi.