Posted by student OLIVIA WILMOT – In September, Nicholas Hall, Regina Wilkerson and I, the DeltaMade practicum group, went to Helena-West Helena for orientation. The Helena we saw then was much different than the Helena we just left. This weekend there were people from all over the country and globe in Helena, an estimated 80,000 in a town with a population of 15,000. Back in September, I never could have imagined the transformation the town underwent. What looked like a ghost town to us became a bustling, vibrant small city crawling with tourists, blues aficionados, and musicians.
Until this week our work with the DeltaMade program (a branding initiative run by the Rural Heritage Development Initiative (RHDI) to promote small business and creativity in the Mississippi River Delta region of Arkansas) had been primarily with Beth Wiedower, an RHDI field representative. In a way, I feel like this is the first week of our practicum because this was our first chance to meet the artists and small business owners who make up the DeltaMade program. While we were fully aware that RHDI’s work was important to the economic development of the Delta region, we now have faces, stories, and friends that bring a new, personal depth to our field work.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday are a blur of BBQ samples, net sales, Burger Shack, sales tax, sunshine, and of course the Blues. Those who passed through our doors include but are not limited to Arkansans, Californians, Chicagoans, and Welch. Our job was to not only sell, sell, sell, but to be sure everybody who visited the store knew the story of the DeltaMade producers and what each purchase means to the Delta region. Immediate sales are good for the Delta, but awareness that leads to more business or support is great for the Delta.
We had been warned. We were told that many Clinton School students become very attached to their practicum group projects. From August until last week, we knew we had a great group and project. We left Helena today with a strong connection and appreciation to the work Beth Wiedower does in the Delta and are scheming to prolong our classwork with her.
Somehow, in the 23 years I lived in Memphis, I never made it to the Helena Blues and Heritage Festival. Considering my proximity to the festival and deep love of Southern music and culture, I am not sure how or why this happened, but I’ll be making up for lost time with yearly visits for quite some time. If you’ve never been, I strongly recommend heading to Helena next year to soak it all up. I left Helena with a bag of Arkansas-grown brown basmati rice, two bottles of BBQ sauce, a tomato leaf-scented soy candle, a head full of Blues, and a thorough understanding of the urgency of my practicum work. What more can a graduate student ask for?
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