The Bootheel Project: An Introduction
by C. Ray Brassieur

Missouri's Bootheel is quite distinct from other parts of the state. As Dr. Brady points out in the following essay, the Bootheel is a region of incredibly complex and dynamic geographical, historical and social relationships. During the twentieth century alone, colossal public and private projects have transformed magnificent forested swamps into intricate drainage networks and choice farmland. Migrant farm workers moved into the Bootheel from Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee transforming the region into the northernmost land of cotton with a relatively large African-American population and a decidedly southern ambience.

But as geography, history and demography conspire to produce a very distinctive regional culture in the Bootheel, marginalization contributes to that distinctiveness. Geo-politically, it may be called the southern "heel" of the Missouri "boot," but it also represents the northern apex of the Mississippi Delta. Cartographers often pull the Bootheel up into the Midwest, along with the rest of Missouri, while cultural landscape suggests that it rather slides into the South with Arkansas. Bootheel residents tend to look to larger cities in Tennessee or Arkansas for goods, services, and entertainment. Television viewers learn more about the local news and politics in Memphis than about happenings in their own town and state. The Bootheel is far from the state capitol in Jefferson City and from major museums, educational institutions, and service agencies located in larger Missouri cities.

Marginalization affects arts communities in the Bootheel as well. In order for arts agencies to effectively serve their constituents, they must be familiar with the artists and arts resources in their areas. Likewise, artists must be informed about services available to them. Unfortunately, with public support for the arts stretched to the limit, this southernmost tip of Missouri has been generally underserved. And, of course, some arts communities in the Bootheel -- those associated with minorities and/or unrecognized ethnic or folk communities, for example -- are served even less than others.

The situation is compounded by the fact that many Bootheel artists, especially folk and ethnic artists, often do not think of themselves as artists. For this reason, and because they are most likely to be ignored by major arts and educational institutions, folk and ethnic artists are among the most needy in the Bootheel. Ironically, folk and ethnic artists -- those whose creativity is most closely linked with cultural and regional heritage -- can have great impact upon local society. Their art is embodied in a range of expressive forms encountered daily by community members. Influenced by local traditions, their contributions affect the development of group and individual identity in a region. And, as has been demonstrated in scores of heritage tourism projects throughout the country, the work of folk and ethnic artists is not only relevant to the quality of local life, it is often very attractive to outside visitors.

For these and related reasons, a documentary effort focused upon artists, arts communities, and art forms -- especially those intimately associated with region and heritage -- was initiated in southeastern Missouri toward the end of 1993 and conducted during the spring and summer of 1994. This effort, called the Bootheel Underserved Arts Communities Project (often referred to as the Bootheel Project in this publication), was organized by the Missouri Folk Arts Program, a unit of the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU), in cosponsorship with the State Historical Society of Missouri, and it received grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Missouri Arts Council.

The research team assembled to conduct the Bootheel Project reflects a strong interest in regional heritage, folk and ethnic art. Ray Brassieur, oral historian/folklorist for the State Historical Society of Missouri, served as project coordinator. Columbia residents Debbie Bailey (abd., folklore, University of Pennsylvania) and David Whitman (MU graduate student in geography) both served as researchers along with community scholar and African American storyteller Gladys Coggswell of Hannibal, Missouri. Columbia photographer Carole Patterson also joined in the documentary effort.

The project profited from the experience of four expert consultants: author and folklorist, Thomas Rankin from the Center for the Study of Southern Culture in Oxford, Mississippi; folklorist and editor of Southern Folklore, Western Kentucky University folklorist and professor Erika Brady; ethnomusicologist and African-American music producer, Sylvester Oliver of Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi; and MU folklore professor and scholar of African-American oral tradition, Prahlad Folly. Fortunately, each of these scholars havekindly summarized some of their important ideas in the essays which follow.

Missouri Folk Arts Program staff members, Mort Sajadian (former director), Dana Everts-Boehm (current director), and Julie Youmans (program manager) also served as advisors for the Bootheel Project team and MU Museum of Art and Archaeology staff members provided administrative support. Considerable technical assistance from this staff was also furnished by Heather Stanley (graphic artist), who designed the layout of this book, and Greig Thompson (chief preparator and exhibition designer), who designed the 1995 travelling photo-documentary exhibition entitled "Art and Heritage of the Bootheel."

Four graduate student interns admirably participated as field researchers: Erica Mair, Robin Fanslow, and Jean Crandell, all 1994 students in the Department of Folk Studies, Western Kentucky University; and Jim Nelson, who was enrolled in a library science curriculum at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. All of these students were trained in folklore field techniques and methodology at WKU by Dr. Erika Brady. In addition, Jerome Stueart, artist and MU graduate student in creative writing assisted as a volunteer researcher, as did ten of Dr. Prahlad Folly's MU folklore students.

Field coordination and operation of this project was greatly facilitated by University of Missouri Extension which provided a field headquarters at their Delta Research Center, located in Portageville, Missouri (Pemiscot County). Thanks to the support of Southeast Regional Director of Extension, J.D. McNutt and Delta Center superintendent Jake Fisher and his staff, and their administrative superiors at MU, the Bootheel Project field team had access to office space and equipment, conference rooms, telephones, and more. Delta Center staff members and other active and retired Bootheel Extension personnel, many of whom are long-time residents of the region, proved to be excellent "in-house" consultants.

On the weekend of March 5-6, 1994, an orientation session was conducted at the Portageville Delta Center. The research team gathered for a weekend of discussion and preparation. Interactive sessions focused upon project goals, field strategies and methodologies, and administrative procedures. Dunklin County Museum director Sandy Brown, of Kennett; Jake Fisher, superintendent of the Delta Center; and Bishop Armour and his Monument of Deliverance congregation in Hayti, helped introduce the research team to the rich culture and art of the Bootheel. Our orientation was delightfully extended by a wonderful meal catered at the Delta Center by Big Bob's Barbeque of Hayti Heights, and a splendid supper of fried catfish and white beans at the Levee Landing Fish House north of Hayti.

The largest period of field research coincided with the 1994 university calendar period called "spring break" -- March 12 - March 20. This plan allowed graduate interns and other students to put in a substantial period of continuous field research while not jeopardizing class work. During this session the field research team, including Dr. Folly and his students, numbered as high as eighteen individuals. Subsequent visits to the field by Brassieur, Bailey, Whitman, Coggswell and Patterson took place in April, July and August of 1994. The research team conducted informal taped interviews with Bootheel artists and key community members who were encouraged to summarize their personal histories and self-evaluate their work and experiences in their own words [please see Appendic C., "Catalog of Bootheel Project Audio Cassette Recordings"]. Researchers also documented public and private Bootheel performances, events, and displays by audio cassette recording, photography and fieldnotes. Ephemeral material (posters, flyers, restaurant menus, calling cards, etc.) were also collected during the survey.

The applied goals of the Bootheel Project aspire to encourage local creativity, elevate public awareness and promote appreciation for local and regional art. To such ends, a gathering of interested artists, local historians, scholars and citizens was organized in Portageville on August 27, 1994. This event, called the "Bootheel Art and Heritage Day," brought the research team together with locals to explore and celebrate home-grown creativity. During this meeting, Brassieur presented a slide and sound show which shared some of the project's initial findings; representatives from the National Endowment for the Arts, Missouri Arts Council and the Missouri Folk Arts Program shared information about programs available to artists; and a series of interactive roundtable discussions were chaired by project consultants. Highlights of the event included a terrific performance by the Echoes of Joy, a female acappella gospel quartet from Howardville, and some consummate barbeque (a Bootheel art of irrefutable distinction) from Chubby's in Hayti.

The considerable documentary materials obtained from the project have been and will continue to be used to generate products, like this resource guide for example, intended to help artists, public programmers and presenters of art to better serve Bootheel artists. A photo-documentary exhibition, entitled "Art and Heritage of the Bootheel," employs materials collected by the research team. This exhibition is designed to travel from place to place in the Bootheel beginning during the summer of 1995.

Work in the Bootheel has also produced a research collection of scholarly interest. In 1994, the research team collected 135 audio cassette recordings, approximately 2,000 individual black/white photographic images, over 1200 color slides, and a quantity of ephemeral materials. These research materials, including associated catalogues, databases, field workers' notes and textual commentary are now being processed and will soon be publically available as part of the Western Historical Manuscript Collection, located in Ellis Library on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia. Although this collection treats a wide range of subjects, it is particularly strong in areas pertaining to gospel music, religious oratory and belief, sewing and quilting traditions, hunting and fishing adaptations, drainage and agriculture, sharecroppers' conditions and housing, local foodways and folklife, personal and family narratives, and a variety of verbal art. African-Americans, Jews, and Asians are well-represented in the collection along with members of the numerically-dominant Anglo-American population which consists mostly of upland southerners representing a variety of ancestral origins.

Along with applied and scholarly goals, the Bootheel Project was successful in addressing the educational needs of students interested in gaining experience in qualitative field research. Graduate and undergraduate students involved in this project, whether working as professionals or volunteers, had the opportunity to develop or sharpen skills of the sort needed to conduct oral history, ethnography, and/or folklore fieldwork -- skills which cannot be developed in the classroom. Two recent articles published in the Missouri Folklore Society Journal [Vols. 15-16, 1993-1994, released in May 1995], one by Jerome Stueart, and another by Dr. Prahlad Folly, who directed the work of undergraduates in the field, testify to the depth and quality of experience acquired by students participating in the Bootheel Project.

Publically-funded research related to regional, ethnic, and folk art, such as the Bootheel Project, renders many benefits. This project has provided the opportunity for students to develop skills, for scholars to delve into the unexplored, and most importantly, for local folk to have their voices heard. Speaking for all of us who participated in the Bootheel Project, I feel confidant in saying that our personal experiences have been incredibly enriching. We certainly hope that our efforts successfully encourage locals and outsiders to cultivate increasing respect and appreciation for the special aesthetic traditions of Missouri's Bootheel -- and that this project serves as a catalyst for the development of many future projects and presentations.