Billy Skelton - (Jackson, MS) Clarion Ledger - June
6, 1971.
 |
| James Thomas |
The rich and
vivid language of Mississippians, familiar to many in the fiction of William
Faulkner and other great writers of the state, is now being collected and
preserved in the films, tapes and books of folklorist Dr. William R.
"Bill" Ferris Jr. of Jackson, a professor of English and folklore at
Jackson State College.
In this
contribution to folk literature, the people tell their own stories in their own
ways, with and without musical accompaniment.
"I just let
them discuss what-ever they remember or think is important about their experiences,"
Dr. Ferris said.
He recalled that
William Faulkner once said that "I listen to people in my head, and they
start talking, and I just write what they say."
While Faulkner
wrote it from memory, Ferris reproduces it from tape.
The folklore
specialist has finished or has in production three books, about a half dozen
films and three records.
Dr. Ferris thinks
there is "a very basic relationship" between Mississippi's astounding
literary output, in particular the work of Faulkner and Eudora Welty, and the
fascinating folk-lore in the state.
He called
attention to the conversation of the people in Miss Welty's stories and her
fine ear for the language of Mississippi folk.
FRUITFUL PATTERN
"I think
folklore traditions, both the folk tale and the mu-sic, the superstitions, the
whole pattern of life in our state, lend themselves to writing," he
stated.
One Objective of
the young professor from Warren County is to develop a folklore
"awareness" that might encourage more young writers. If these writers
could continue "to explore and develop these traditions, we could have a
new tradition of literary creation," he believes.
Dr. Ferris thinks
it can be consciously undertaken as he said it was in Ireland through the
efforts of such writers as William Butler Yeates.
Unfortunately, he
said, as people, become more sophisticated and educated they tend to scorn or
reject the rural, non-literary traditions, being embarrassed by their own roots
in the soil. He thinks Mississippi's culture is the richest around, and he
wants to encourage more respect for it.
Dr. Ferris
doesn't discredit the "high" culture of the university literary
tradition—saying he was drawn to in English literature first and through it he
became interested in folk literature—but he pointed out that the
"low" culture of oral literature is seldom touched upon.
FOLLOWS LOMAX
One person who
did touch upon it was one of his boyhood idols, Alan Lomax, the folklorist who
came into Mississippi as a youngster with his father, John Lomax, and later
alone and recorded Negro blues, field hollers, prison songs and gospel music a
generation ago.
The younger
Lomax, who also wrote "Mr. Jelly Roll," a book about Jelly Roll
Morton (who played the piano in Mississippi from time to time in his hey-day),
is now at Columbia University where he is cataloging folklore from around the
world.
Dr. Ferris,
reared on a farm in the Jeff Davis community near Vicksburg, became interested
in folklore as a youth and made his first recordings on his home place.
He had gone to
Negro services at the Rose Hill Baptist Church near his home and be-come
interested in spirituals, and while a student at Davidson College, he started
recording folk singers.
After getting a
bachelor's degree at Davidson, he obtained his master's degree at North-western
University and then proceeded to the University of Pennsylvania where he got
his doctor's degree. His thesis topic? "Mississippi Folklore," what
else?
STUDIED IN EIRE
Along the way he
studied for a year at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, on a Rotary Foundation
Scholarship.
He met his
French-born wife, Josette, while at Pennsylvania where she was studying on a
Fulbright Scholarship. She now accompanies him on his journeys across
Mississippi and collaborates in some of the writing and recording. Mrs. Ferris
is front Etivey, France. near Dijon.
A photographer,
musician (guitar), film-maker and writer as well as professor and folklorist,
Dr. Ferris, now 29, is the author of "Blues From the Delta" published
this spring by Studio Vista, a London publisher. He also is the author of
"Mississippi Black Folklore" being published this month by the
University and College Press of Mississippi at Hattiesburg.
His summer plans
include work on a study of the folk tale tradition in Mississippi which he
expects the University of Pennsylvania Press to publish, probably in 1972.
He has been
collecting folk-lore of both blacks and whites in Mississippi, with the
accounts on tape covering traditions over the last 50 years.
Out of about 200
interviews he expects to select the 20 best ones, with one chapter devoted to
each.
He will give a
brief introduction and turn 'em loose. Using what he calls the "vacuum
cleaner" approach, Dr. Ferris asks his subjects if they have any tales to
tell and in-quires about what things were like when they were growing up.
He lets them talk
freely, going in whatever direction they desire. He has had no trouble at all
getting Mississippians to talk about themselves.
ORAL HISTORIANS
Asked how he
selected his story tellers, Dr. Ferris said he has been traveling Mississippi
highways since 1964 .and has been able to talk "to people who knew
people," one contact leading to another.
He had met many
of them in his work on blues singers, on which he has produced three records.
Dr. Ferris wants
to do an entire series on records or per-haps albums of singers and tale tellers,
partly to compare styles.
His most
ambitious film so far is a 16 millimeter blues film which has been shown at the
National Institute of Mental Health meeting in Washington, D.C. in 1969, the
American Folklore Society in Los Angeles in 1970 and at the Mississippi
Folklore Society meeting at Ole Miss in 1971.
Entitled
"Delta Blues Singer: James 'Sonny Ford' Thomas," the film portrait is
devoted to the music and life style of Thomas.
FULL
EXPRESSION
Dr. Ferris said
he chose the blues singer because he rep-resents "the full expression of the
richness of Black Delta culture."
Thomas' music, he
said, is "gut-bucket blues" which is characterized by an
"unsophisticated directness with which it deals with sex and
suffering."
Proceeds of the
rentals and sales of the movie, he said, go to the family of Thomas, which also
includes the singer's wife and 10 children.
Thomas will be
seen in the premiere later this year of the Folkroots series on WMAA (Channel
29).
His other films
include a number of Super 8 films, one on blues history, one on religious
services of black people (mostly of Primitive, Sanctified sects in which
tambourines, guitars and dancing in the aisles is com-mon), one on baptizing’s,
one on prison work chants, and one on a white basket weaver near Du-rant who
makes baskets of white oak strips.
CANE FIFES
He and his wife
are working on a 16 millimeter documentary on a small fife and drum band near
Como. The fifes are made from canes.
The sound produced
by the group is in Ferris' opinion the "most African" in this country
and that he thinks it is of special interest to anthropologists.
The study or
library of the Ferris home at 2241 Guynes is stuffed with the harvest from his
expeditions into the interior of Mississippi, a collection that includes, among
many other things, a Mississippi Arts Festival award whining photograph of a
white couple. Most Mississippians take their backgrounds for granted, but Bill
Ferris does not.
He sees a
fascinating world at his back door, and he wants to get it down on film, tape
and print before it dissolves into something indistinguishable from the rest of
a homogenized populace.
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