[MUSIC] >> I talked about teachers and how as a folklorist I learned from the people with whom I worked. Among my earliest teachers was Mary Gordon, who raised me and who took me to the little church, Rose Hill Church as a child, and introduced me to spirituals and the sermon within that church. And at her death, just before she died, I visited her and I always remember, she looked in my eyes as I was leaving and said, you are my white child. She taught me and passed on a responsibility to study and to share her worlds. In many ways she inspired my life's work as a folklorist. There was also Ray Lumb, the mule trader, storyteller, auctioneer whom I also knew from childhood. And I would visit the auction barn and hear his stories, and they were always greater than life, very dramatic, very beautiful. And eventually, I came back with camera and tape recorder and I recorded those stories as a part of my own life. There was James Thomas, the Blues singer, who taught me about Highway 61, which literally ran by his door. And whom I discovered was not only a Blues singer, but an amazing storyteller and a sculptor who made art. And there was James Thomas' friend, Shelby Poppa Jazz Brown in Leland, Mississippi, who lived in Kent's Alley. And in the backroom of his little home, every Saturday night he had James Thomas come and play the Blues. And he would serve corn liquor and sandwiches. And that was an amazing education for me. There was Eudora Welty, the wonderful writer and storyteller, whom I visited whenever I came home. And we would sit and talk about writers and stories. She would tell me about her friends and the history of worlds in Jackson, Mississippi, that inspired her to write short stories and novels about them. And there was of course, B.B. King, the greatest Blues singer in history, who visited my classes and who worked with me to create the Blues Archive, where all of his record collection is housed. And B.B., with his guitar Lucille, talked about how he found his own family through the Blues. And when he sang, he would look out at the audience and sing to them as he would to his own family. So these are all the teachers. They're some of the many teachers that I learned from, that helped me understand the South and the meaning of race, class and gender as we enter the worlds of musicians, of storytellers, of writers all of whom are Southern, all of whom are teachers.
