‘Relay of Voices’ telling the story of regional culture

‘Relay of Voices’ telling the story of regional culture

Great River Run Project traveling the Mississippi River’s trails in search of unique tales of history and heritage

news@theeveningtimes.com

Tourism isn’t just taking it casual seeing sights and taste testing road side stops, not anymore. Driving tourism is all in the telling a story well and spreading it around effectively to attract visitors making plans to travel. Anymore, it’s all in the tell. West Memphis and Marion have already grabbed hold of the idea.

In Marion, museum director Louis Intres cast an eight-figure vision to tell the Sultana disaster story.

In West Memphis, new artwork planned on the old Cotton Compress water tower creates an homage to the Wonder City’s history with cotton plantations and music. The Big River Crossing, Delta River Regional Park, and the Big River Trail, display the Natural State’s landscape and agriculture within sight of the Memphis Skyline.

The river flows with interesting stories in history and daily life from one end to the other. The booming market of geo-tourism revolves around stories to set a hook, grabbing attention to drive visits from curious tourists. Tourism officials want to tap those stories to retell.

West Memphis Director of Tourism Jim Jackson hosted a preliminary meeting May 17 aimed and collecting and sharing the local folks’ stories in a unique way. The meeting including tourism officials, those in the art community, businessmen, and both the West Memphis and Marion Chamber of Commerce agenda was not just a howto show and tell the city. Instead the group heard a unique story gathering approach from Victoria Bradford with The Relay of Voice Great River Run Project.

Jackson brought greetings to the organizers at the preliminary meeting.

“Its a very interesting project,” said Jackson. “We’ve tried to gather a good mix of business people, arts people and government people to hear the plans.

On behalf of the City of West Memphis, welcome.”

Bradford’s group of six relay runners will run the distance of the entire river, covering the distance of a marathon each day, and stopping at places of historical importance and places of interest. The runners will gather stories from six people in West Memphis/Marion, Anthonyville/Horseshoe Lake and Hughes while in the area. Those stories will be retold in drama, dance, video, through social media and eventually a book. The group planned a 100 day journey through 100 cities and towns from the headwaters of the Mississippi to its mouth.

“The idea is to build regional tourism along the relay’s river route,” said Bradford. “The runners hope to generate interest in the fitness economy among cyclists, hikers and runners, retelling the stories of local people and the life along the river.”

Bradford is a dancer and artist with the vision to tell the story of those living and working along the mighty Mississippi. West Memphis seemed like the perfect crossing with the BRX spanning from Memphis to West Memphis via the Harahan Bridge. In fact, Bradford enjoyed trying out the route, jogging the BRX and the seven miles into West Memphis for the meeting.

“It’s a great trail,” said Bradford, “It’s some of the best maintained and safest paths that I’ve run down the river. I applaud your community for that.”

The group planned on being in town during October

2019.

“The group will spend mornings running and the afternoons gathering stories in the communities where we stop,” said Bradford.

“We will be staying close to the actual river route so after two days in West Memphis the next day is planned for Anthonyville.”

Local stops to gather voices to tell the story runs south for tales as long as the river include Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park in Memphis; West Memphis; Anthonyville; Hughes; Marianna; Helena-West Helena; Clarksdale, Mississippi; and back into Arkansas at Eudora. Those selected will be recorded to video and interviewed to collect day-in the-life of vignettes.

“We see this relay as an opportunity for some communities to leverage our presence into new experiences for both residents and tourists alike,” said Bradford. “The river region is so vast and so diverse in population and culture – we know we have to listen and adapt to each community’s level of interest.”

Tourism officials on hand for the overview expressed a high level of interest, inquired about sponsoring the Relay of Voices, and committed to hosting the group with overnight stays and meals while in the area.

A Facebook page and designated hashtags are already up and running for the event — #theriveriscallling and #relayofvoices.

By John Rech