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Delta State University’s 7th Annual International Conference on the Blues goes virtual with a Brazilian beat.

Delta State, through The Delta Center for Culture and Learning and the College of Arts and Sciences, was invited to participate in the Mississippi Delta Blues Festival (MDBF) Brazil Online Edition scheduled for Friday, November 20 – Sunday, November 22, 2020. The MDBF Brazil online festival was free and accessible to the public. The online festival was broadcasted on MDBF Brazil’s official website: www.mdbf.com.br

Delta State’s participation in the virtual festival served as the 7th installment of the International Conference on the Blues. The festival included performances from seven international locales including Holland, Australia, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Brazil.

The virtual presentation featured a Blues and gospel performance from Delta State alum (Delta Music Institute, College of Business) Keith “Prince of the Delta Blues” Johnson, great-nephew of Blues legend Muddy Waters. The presentation also includes highlights from past International Conference on the Blues events and from B.B. King Day at Mississippi Valley State University, a “Spirit of the Blues” project partner.

Operated in southeastern Brazil in the city of Caxias do Sul for over a decade, MDBF Brazil is considered the largest and longest-running Blues festival in South America. According to festival organizer Toyo Bagoso, MDBF Online Edition will offer an innovative way for global Blues fans to pay tribute to the Mississippi Delta, the birthplace of the Blues.

The International Conference on the Blues is scheduled to return to an in-person event at Delta State University in the fall of 2021.

Learn about the 2021 Conference

2018 International Conference on the Blues Highlights
(click image to play video)

What is The Blues

An Academic Experience

The Future

Morganfield Family Reunion

The Masterclass

Gospel Roots / Family Day

Special thanks to our 2018 conference partners

Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area

National Park Service Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative

GRAMMY award winner Dom Flemmons performs at the International Conference on the Blues. The conference began at Delta State in 2014 and occurs in October during Bridging the Blues .

The Delta State University sits only a few miles from Dockery Farms, recognized by many to be the birthplace of the Blues.

There are three memorial markers for Blues legend Robert Johnson scattered within twenty miles of Greenwood, Mississippi. This marker sits in the cemetery next to Little Zion Missionary Baptist church to the north of town.