Highlights: 2020 Crossroad Festival Celebrates Women, Family Heritage
/
Jimmy Cunningham (from left) of the Delta Rhythm & Bayous Alliance, The Williams Singers, The Spiritualettes, and Sweet Melody gather on the stage to close out the 2020 Crossroad Festival with the program “Gospel Women in Harmony: A Legacy of Female Quartets in Pine Bluff.”
Visitors were invited to explore their own family history through dress-up and making a “family movie maker” during the 2020 Crossroad Festival’s youth program.
The Arts & Science Center highlighted the contributions of women and family heritage during ASC’s third annual Crossroad Festival, on Saturday, March 7, 2020.
ASC’s annual free, public event explores Jefferson County and Southeast Arkansas’s cultural heritage through the interpretive lens of oral history, music and performing arts. Each year, the festival highlights different cultural groups that have made a lasting impact on Southeast Arkansas.
The 2020 festival was made possible in part by grants and sponsorships from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Pine Bluff Advertising & Promotion Commission and Entergy Arkansas.
This year’s festival focused on the historical and cultural contributions made by women of the Southeast Arkansas Delta with an overarching theme of “family ties.”
The programs were:
“Family Stories and Family Movie Maker.” Visitors of all ages were encouraged to bring their family stories to life with hands-on activities during the festival’s first program. Inspired by ASC’s project and exhibition “Heritage Detectives: Discovering Arkansas's Hidden Heritage,” this program encouraged community members to consider and record their family and area’s history.
ASC Public Programs Coordinator Shakeelah Rahmaan lead visitors to create their own “family movie maker” through illustrating scenes from their lives to create one-of-a-kind keepsakes.
Children all of ages, assisted by ASC Theater Education Coordinator Lindsey Collins, were also encouraged to dress up in costumes and accessories and act out family stories or those of their own creation.
Artist Eric Freeman (center), a Pine Bluff native, shared his childhood experiences with Geneva Byrd (in photo on right) during the "Women of the Arkansas Delta" program. Byrd was one of the women profiled in a 1976 oral history project of the same name. ASC Curator Chaney Jewell (left) addressed the project’s history, interpretation of the collection for ASC’s 2019 exhibit, and forthcoming touring exhibition based on the project.
“Women of the Arkansas Delta.” This program focused on the 1976 oral history project by the Pine Bluff Women’s Center. ASC Curator Chaney Jewell addressed the project’s history, interpretation of the collection for ASC’s 2019 exhibit, and forthcoming touring exhibition based on the project.
The program will also explored the lives of some of the women featured in the 1976 project. Artist and Pine Bluff native Eric Freeman shared stories of one of the women, beloved family friend Geneva Byrd.
“Gospel Women in Harmony: A Legacy of Female Quartets in Pine Bluff.” With the help of contemporary female gospel quartets from the Pine Bluff area, the 2020 Crossroad Festival closed out by celebrating local singing traditions that go back decades.
Jimmy Cunningham of the Delta Rhythm & Bayous Alliance lead the evening program, which explored the area’s tradition of female gospel singers.
The program featured performances by The Spiritualettes, Sweet Melody and The Williams Singers.
