City Beat: The Bessie still singing the blues

photo Bessie Smith Cultural Center

What was the last event you attended inside the Bessie Smith Cultural Center? Or when was the last time you were inside the facility? For me, it was an ArtsBuild event last year. Before that, it was on the day three years ago when news broke that then-Mayor Ron Littlefield had decided that Riverbend should host the Bessie Smith Strut on the riverfront instead of in front of the Bessie Smith Cultural Center, where it had been and where it was this summer when the cash from the event was stolen from an unlocked safe at the Bessie.

The Bessie, which has hosted a lot of great stuff, began its life as the Bessie Smith Performance Hall and the Chattanooga African American Museum, and the two were merged in 2006 to streamline things and to create a clearer mission. Though the museum has had a fairly clear mission, one of the overriding issues with the facility as a whole is that it has never really known what it wants to be.

Tom Hebert's original vision for the Bessie Smith Hall was for it to be a cabaret-type place serving good food and good live music and that it would become a hub for the community. He believed that the community, meaning the black community - those who lived on or near Ninth Street, or "The Big 9" as some called it, and the larger community as a whole - wanted a blues-based place with a strong civics mission.

That idea never took hold, partly because there never was a call for it by the community. In February 1997, Hebert, a Seattle-based consultant, led a committee that released a report detailing the direction the facility should take titled "Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer." Twelve years after opening, it was still looking for an identity.

In the report, Hebert lists everything from suggested menu items to the types of regular events that could/should be held there and potential threats. Among the latter were "More procrastination," "Hidden agendas in the community," "Failure to find the right manager, a champion for the project," "Not making decisions," "Not doing it quickly enough," "More bad publicity" and "fear."

The explanation tagged to that last item was "Fear of opening up the BSH as a functioning restaurant/bar."

Among the items listed under weaknesses: "Too many decision makers; turnover on the board"; "Lack of direction and focus"; "We have not matured as an institution"; and "No clear path to its operation completion, yet."

This was in 1997.

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6354.

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