.“Eleanor
Traylor asserts that the ‘blues vision’ is the vision of
modernity, just as the tragic vision was the vision of
antiquity. In the tragic tradition, the protagonist
ends up mad, blind, castrated, or dead. In the blues
tradition, the protagonist descends into his pain,
claims it and whatever lessons it holds, and then
ascends to live again.
Stated another way, if Oedipus and his mother/wife had
been contemporary blacks, she would not have hanged
herself and he certainly would not have blinded himself.
(Lord knows there are already enough blind blues
singers.) Instead, he would have composed a
foot-thumping (no pun intended), head-shaking refrain.
The son/husband and mother/wife would have cried and
laughed about life’s ironies, bought each other drinks,
and gone on about their business—the business of
living.”
(Charles
Frye, Editor’s Introduction. Contributions in
Black studies: a journal of African and Afro-American
Studies, no. 6 1983-1984. Hampshire, Mass.: Five
College Black Studies Executive Committee)
Featured in a blues shack currently on
exhibit are blues musician Charlie Musselwhite,
‘Blues Heroes Cards’ illustrated by cartoonist, R.
Crumb, and items related to other popular blues musicians.
The Voices & Choices Center provides
a selected annotated list of resources available in the library to augment the current
blues exhibit.
This exhibit supports the
Kutztown University Performing
Artists Series' concert by
blues harmonica legend Charlie Musselwhite on
Thursday, April 14, 2005.
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