There are equal parts hope and despair in Clarksdale, MS but I think hope will win out. There is color, music, laughter and art in abundance. Clarksdale Blues are sadder than New Orleans and Baton Rouge blues. I suspect that isn’t an accident.
I am more interested in days yet to come. The all knowing eye on the wall of Ground Zero and a piano on a sidewalk remind us to be the change. The kids with dreads, dogs and a joke for sale may be poor but they hold on to the future with a smile. Hope is written in the corner of a mural featuring the intersection of Highway 61 (the Blues Highway) and Highway 49. I choose to believe that the open floor plan in downtown is a project in the works and will soon be something spectacular.
Meanwhile, there are people who live in Clarksdale who do not know who Tennessee Williams is and the dwindling population of over 10 thousand over the past decade hints that those who do have long ago left. And yet, it has everything – music, art, laughter and soon, I hope, an industry other than selling jokes for a quarter.
wackadoo52 