We Need YOU! Arts For A Better Way Of Life
WHO WE ARE
Founded in 1979 by Deborah and Levi Frazier Jr. for nearly 40 years, BCCC has viewed the arts as an inclusionary process - providing a space in which artists, audiences and stakeholders collaborate to explore varied mediums that broaden the spectrum of creative arts. While BCCC has evolved over the years, our values have remained constant and influence everything we do.
WHAT WE DO
As an small organization rooted in the history and culture of Memphis and the Mid-South, Blues City Cultural Center utilizes its roots in performing and visual arts to draw upon the experiences, issues and concerns of the Memphis community. All of this is done with the support of donors like you in order to present relatable arts programming that promotes, empowers, and contributes to the creative individual in every Memphian.
HOW YOU HELP
Levi Frazier JR. - We once had a student actor, Gemini , an exceptionally talented teen who performed in many of our plays and whom we loved here at BCCC. Recently In need of his talent I called his mom to contact him only to hear that she "had not seen him". Unconvinced, I called back, pleading with her to persuade him to perform as perhaps he was just in that "too cool" phase, but still loved acting. She held the phone, not responding for a few seconds which seemed like a few hours...Finally to say, "Gemini is in jail."
At the time our offices were located in the Cook Convention Center. Staring at the jail, I slowly hung up the phone, thinking that the distance between incarceration and artistic expression; slavery and freedom; hopelessness and hope are not so distant after all.
Blues City Cultural Center is dedicated to providing Gemini and many others the hope and freedom required for creative expression, which we've done for forty years.
Thus, our motto: Arts for a Better Way of Life.