Mississippi Juke Joint Party in NYC - Guthrie has got it going on!

Mississippi Juke Joint Party in NYC – Guthrie has got it going on!

Laura Guthrie and the MDA host a MS Juke Joint Party at the National Arts Club in NYC

(Clarksdale, Mississippi) A random email photo request from a Laura Guthrie with The National Arts Club in NYC jumped out at me. Laura wanted to know if she could use my image of Big George Brock for an invitation to a special Mississippi Juke Joint party in Manhattan. (It’s not every day I get folks from New York City wanting to use my photographs, plus this party sounds like my kinda party. Will she invite me???)

Turns out Laura is a native of Jackson, Mississippi. She now lives in New York City and dreams up events, apparently, for her neighborhood hang out, the National Arts Club, a private club founded in 1898. Their stated mission is to “stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts.” I’m in.

Laura, along with the Mississippi Development Authority, is hosting the event at 15 Gramercy Park South on June 6, 2013.

The MISSISSIPPI JUKE JOINT event is open to the public.
Go read about it HERE.

Unfortunately, my classic Big-George-Brock-lying-on-his-back-playing-the-harp photograph was not the pic she was searching for. Mine was taken at Red’s Blues Lounge in May 2010.

BIG GEORGE BROCK playing his harp on the floor of Red’s Blues Lounge in Clarksdale. Photo by DELTA BOHEMIAN

The photo Laura was searching out was actually Joan Vidal‘s; Joan took the shot of Big George at Hopson Plantation in 2008. It felt rather special for a few seconds there to be in the company of one so gifted with the camera and it’s lens. Nice moment you captured, Joan. I love seeing my friend Bill Abel in the shot with Big George.

Big George Brock at Hopson Commissary. Photo by Joan Vidal. 2008

Back to the event that Laura Guthrie cooked up on her own. How could I resist going back to my stomping grounds of the 1980’s? It has been way too long since I visited the craziness and this event, MISSISSIPPI JUKE JOINT on June 6th, along with the NEW YORK MISSISSIPPI PICNIC IN CENTRAL PARK two days later, seemed like as good a time as any to head up North.