Bessie Smith Heritage Festival This Saturday

In an effort to revitalize the MLK Boulevard area, the Bessie Smith Hall and the Chattanooga African-American Museum are hosting the first ever Bessie Smith Heritage Festival this Saturday, August 23rd.

MLK Blvd., or "the Big Nine," was once a music mecca for the blues and jazz, rivaling Beale Street in Memphis and Bourbon Street in New Orleans. What now provides little more than a link between downtown Chattanooga and Brainerd Road, with decaying buildings and a few struggling businesses, MLK Blvd. used to be called Ninth Street before it's name was changed around thirty years ago. Grocery stores, restaurants, department and retail stores, gas stations, and plenty of music clubs lined the street all of the way down to Highland Park. Musicians from all over the country traveled to Chattanooga to play at various venues and Bessie Smith, the "Queen of the Blues," used to sing on area street corners when she was a little girl. Many of Chattanooga's prosperous African-Americans lived, worked and played there.

Unfortunately, time has not been kind to the area and though there are businesses that have survived and the MLK neighborhood has gone through an impressive revitalization with new and restored homes, the boulevard itself has been limping on for decades.

The Bessie Smith Heritage Festival includes a demonstration and lecture on Bessie Smith and the history of the blues, as well as live performances by Just a Few Cats, Calvin Richardson and, unfortunately, Ruben Studdard of American Idol fame.

For more information, check out this week's issue of The Pulse or go to their website:

http://chattanoogapulse.com/the-scene/music-features/19-music-feature/100-bringing-back-the-big-9

We're happy and proud to support this historical event. After all, preserving Chattanooga's musical history is one of the reasons we started this magazine. If that means sitting through Ruben "the Velvet Teddy Bear" Studdard's performance, then so be it. But, if Aiken shows up for a surprise duet, then we're sooo out of there.

Check out the Chattanooga African American Museum's website:

http://www.caamhistory.com/