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The Delta Folklife Project: An Overview By Susan Roach, H. F. Gregory, and Maida Owens
The Delta Folklife Project, a project of the Louisiana Division of the Arts Folklife Program, focuses mainly
on regional folklife traditions which have continued in the delta area of the state, but also includes folk traditions,
of ethnic, occupational, and other groups as well. The Delta, which is more of a cultural region than a coherent
topographic region, is bounded by the Ouachita and Black Rivers, Catahoula Lake, and the "hills" on the
west; loessial bluffs and the Mississippi on the east; the Red-Old River on the south; and the Arkansas line and
hills to the north. For this project, the Delta parishes included Morehouse, Ouachita, West Carroll, East Carroll,
Caldwell, Tensas, Catahoula, Richland, Madison, Franklin, LaSalle, and Concordia. The Louisiana Folklife Project was designed for implementation in three phases: 1) an ethnographic overview,
2) field school, documentation, and festival presentations, and 3) a publication. Research for phase 3 is ongoing.
In 1988, the Louisiana Folklife Program began phase one of the Delta Folklife Project by initiating research for
an ethnographic overview of the Delta region by Dr. Susan Roach, Louisiana Tech folklorist, and Dr. H. F. "Pete"
Gregory, Northwestern State University anthropologist. This research included an historical and cultural-geographic
overview that consisted of contextual descriptions of existing folk groups and their folk traditions, a bibliography,
listing primary contact persons in each group and community, and a list of community resources. Phase one also identified ethnic groups and folk traditions and included selective documentation of some folk traditions.
The North Louisiana Delta region is predominantly British American and African-American with smaller Choctaw, Mexican,
Italian, French, and Chinese communities within its borders. Retaining the traditional occupations of farming, logging,
and fishing with little industrial development, the area is predominantly rural with Monroe being the only community with a population
of more than 25,000. Towns in the Delta have Italian and smaller Chinese populations that migrated in with the railroad.
Many of these immigrants opened bars, groceries, and restaurants. Italians have St. Joseph altars in Monroe and a
procession in honor of the Blessed Mother in Ferriday. Gardening, weddings, and foodways especially cheeses, also mark
the Italian settlements. More recently, the area has received infusions of Mexicans in agricultural settings. Three cultural complexes are found. Plantation culture dominates along the Mississippi, Black and Ouachita Rivers,
and is the main location of rural blacks. Hunting camps are located in nearby swamps. Upland South hill culture is found between the rivers and is dominated by both black and white yeoman farmers. Fishing communities dot the bands of the Mississippi and Ouachita Rivers, and on Catahoula Lake to the south, communities show evidence of French and Choctaw
Indian influence. Phase two of the project included documentation and presentation. Held in summer 1993 and partially funded by a
grant from the Fund for Folk Culture, the Delta Folklife Field School provided training and field experience for fifty
community scholars in basic folklife documentation techniques. Following this training, field school participants and
other folklife researchers continued researching folk traditions, some of which were first presented at the 1994 Louisiana
Folklife Festival and subsequent years. In 1996 as part of an exhibition Folklife in the Creole State, the Masur
Museum of Art in Monroe presented a series of photographs from the field work; these photographs are currently
available for touring (see below). Also the folklife exhibit in the Louisiana State Capitol, The Creole State:
An Exhibition of Louisiana Folklife, presented selected photographs from this research. The 1997 Smithsonian
Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D. C., which featured the Louisiana-Mississippi-Arkansas-Tennessee Delta
region, included numerous tradition bearers documented during this project. For example, among those featured for the
first time in festival presentations was the Winnsboro Easter Rock, an Easter eve vigil ceremony going back to ante-bellum
days in Louisiana. The ritual commemorates Christ's time in the tomb and his resurrection with gospel music, a devotional,
message, and the rock ceremony. A table laden with lamps,
cakes, and punch is set in the middle of the church building, and participants dressed in white led by a banner carrier
enter the church and march around the table with a cappella call-and-response singing and syncopated steps.
The rock was also presented in the 1997 Louisiana Folklife Festival, which focused on the Louisiana Delta traditions and reprinted the Delta essays from the Smithsonian Program. Delta traditions identified, documented, and presented include the following: Occupational lore: auctioneering, cotton farming (and other crops including catfish), cotton press calling,
cropdusting, logging, boatbuilding, trapping, netmaking, riverlore (river pilots’ stories, rope skills, river
customs) Music: old-time country music (family and community bands, benefits and country music shows), bluegrass,
rockabilly, blues (delta blues, rhythm & blues with guitar, bass, horns, harmonica), gospel music (African American
gospel quartets, shaped-note singing, gospel radio shows, Mennonite a cappella family singing, and Pentecostal Church
music) Crafts: tupelo gum dough bowls, split oak basketry, carving, whittling, quilting, soap making, and hunting
horns. Foodways: buttermaking, cane syrupmaking, barbecue, fish cookery Religious ritual traditions: River and lake baptisms, Easter Rock, grave decorations, memorial days,
all-day-singing, and Catholic processions and altars Regional narratives: flood stories, local legends, and characters. Louisiana Delta Folklife Traditions, a traveling photographic exhibition, in the collection of
the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, presents selected documentary photographs from the Delta Folklife Project.
Curated by folklorist Susan Roach, the exhibition features twenty-five black and white photographs of folklife traditions
in the Delta Parishes of Louisiana, with explanatory text labels. Photographers include Ellen Blue, Marcy Frantom,
Sylvia Frantom, Peter Jones, Stefan Keydel, Mike Luster, Maida Owens, Stephanie Pierrotti; and Susan Roach.
The matted photographs are presented in 16 x 20" metal frames and include the following subjects: Exhibition rental fees: Rental fee includes: loan of objects and object labels, transportation and installation by MMA staff, publicity text, object insurance. Exhibition rental period: The objects may remain on exhibition for up to four weeks at the designated facility, allowing teachers opportunities to tour the exhibition with a large number of student groups.
To schedule an exhibition, please contact: Sue Prudhomme, MMA director.Masur Museum of Art 1400 South Grand Street Monroe, LA 71202 (318) 329-2237; fax (318) 329-2847 email: taf01@ci.monroe.la.us |
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