"Everywhere beneath the palpably new Mississippi are the lingering reminders." - Willie Morris
CLARKSDALE
MISSISSIPPI DELTA
Buildings & Barber
Some of my classmates and I walked into a barber shop in Clarksdale hoping to understand what it is like to live in the Delta. We enter a barber shop with six people inside already. On our left, there are two women and a third one on the seat getting her hair done by the barber. “Hello, we are students from the University of Houston and we are doing a project on the Mississippi Delta. Could you tell us anything about Clarksdale? What do you like about living here?” We say. Without hesitation, the one of the women starts telling us about the Mississippi Blues Fest which happens almost every year, “Its one of my favorite things to do, I love the blues... In fact, almost everybody in Mississippi does” she says.
Someone asks them one question that I have been focusing on this whole trip; “Do you think that anything ever changes in Mississippi?” She starts to talk, and I grab my camera, this is an answer I have been waiting for. Before she has the chance to talk I interrupt and say “Is it okay if we film you? I need this for my project, it’s okay if you don't want to be filmed.” Suddenly her expression changes, she hides her face and hesitates to talk. After all of us put our recording devices away, they finally start talking again. “The Delta? It never changes, it’s always been the same” One woman says.
“This street used to be different though.” The barber adds in. He leads us to a photo he has hung up on a pillar in the center of the shop. “We werent't able to cross the street to this side, but now we can. It’s easy for us to forget how we got to where we are now, that’s why I have this hung up to remind us.”
I understood exactly what he meant. Although there are changes in the Clarksdale community, the overall atomosphere of the community has not changed much
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