At night we went to Beale Street, the home of
the Blues, and it just so happened that there was a major Blues festival. As
one of the later stops on the trip the Blues felt so much more powerful to me. Sitting
at the Jerry Lee Lewis Restaurant and eating gumbo I heard the blues in a completely
different light. It was funny, painful, and somewhat weird; but the
struggle and narratives we had seen and heard about the entire week seemed to
fit into the tones, modulations, and rhymes the singers were expressing. We
danced (horribly) in front of huge crowds but the music swallowed us up. The
experience summed up the trip for me and made me think that if the Blues are
still alive today, then so are civil rights.
Joseph Gaylin
12th grade, City
College
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