![]() ![]() Life is so short that I take the good as the overlap of the bad.”īorn Emmet Ellis Jr in Homer, Louisiana, to sharecropping parents, segregation overshadowed a dirt poor upbringing. All those hills and valleys I’ve climbed, well, someone always came through and lifted me out. “My thing has always been to not give up, to keep on pushing – as Curtis Mayfield sang. Musicians helped him on the hard road to success but James Brown, both when Rush was a junior and later a veteran, left him out of pocket when he offered largesse. “I didn’t want anyone to read the book and feel sorry for me,” says Rush of a life that has seen him get shot, jailed, badly injured when his tour bus crashed and, most punishingly, lose three of his children to sickle cell anaemia. Add to this a new manager with a vision of how to take Rush forward and he entered his 80s doing better business than ever. Rush describes his show (or “revue”) as “Black vaudeville” – song, dance, storytelling, often bawdy humour – and these elements provided the key to his breakthrough: The Road to Memphis, the 2003 documentary that was easily the strongest effort in Martin Scorsese’s The Blues series, and followed Rush as he worked, his personality and performances winning over new listeners. “I encourage people to wear a smile, not a frown.” “People love my show cos I emphasise good times,” he says. Instead, his growing audience is due purely to his skill as an entertainer. Unlike John Lee Hooker and Johnny Cash, who were both successfully repositioned in their twilight years, Rush never enjoyed early fame. Considering he started performing aged 13 and released his first record in 1964, what’s most remarkable is a work ethic that has seen him win wider acclaim and audiences in recent years – picking up Grammys in 20, appearing in the Eddie Murphy movie Dolemite Is My Name and joining Queens of the Stone Age on stage – than ever before. Rush’s 2021 autobiography I Aint Studdin’ Ya details this and many other scrapes in an epic American life. But it sure beat up on me like nothing else before.” I survived through God’s grace and the fact that I’ve always kept fit, never touched drugs or alcohol. “It was before they had the vaccines and I got real ill, hospitalised for five weeks. “I was the first person in Mississippi to get Covid,” says Rush. ![]() ![]() Secretary Bunch will discuss his foundational perspective relating to his current role and vision for shaping the Smithsonian, connecting to the 175th Anniversary, the SI strategic plan, Our Shared Futures and the trajectory of how the museum field at-large should prepare for the 250th anniversary of America.This was after he recovered from coronavirus. The plenary participants will also reflect on the importance of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the NMAAHC’s Office of Strategic Partnerships, which has served the museum field with an intentional connection to supporting the broader Black Museum field and historically Black colleges and universities. Each plenary participant is well versed in the intricate details involved in advocating for and creating the legislation for the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Museum Grants for African American History and Culture. President of Dickerson Global Advisors Amina Dickerson and President of Opening Minds, Inc. Bunch III George Mason University Robinson Professor Spencer Crew, Ph.D. Themed “Museums, Music and Movements,” the event will include an opening plenary entitled “Delivering on a Promise: Reflections on a Peoples Journey, A Nations Story.” Panelists include Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. The Association of African American Museums (AAAM), a non-profit organization that supports African- and African American-focused museums, will celebrate 50 years of hip-hop during its annual conference July 26-28 in Nashville, Tennessee. □ The Association of African American Museums Announces an Opening Plenary to Include Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G.
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