Blues Museum Exhibit Explores Chicago’s Black Music Roots

Lindyhopping in the 1940s at the Club DeLisa on Chicago’s South Side

In celebration of June being Black Music Appreciation Month, the Chicago Blues Museum-Record Row Foundation  is featuring a new photo music exhibit put that provides a glimpse into the beginnings of  popular music as it relates to Chicago.

“Unsung Bronzeville – a Music History Exhibit”, on display at Harold Washington College through June 30, explores the Chicago R&B and soul music scene from the 1940s through the 1970s with its early beginnings in Bronzeville.

The exhibit features archival photographic images focused on homegrown Chicago musicians, entertainers, and performers, as well as places and companies where this popular music originated and evolved.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Exhibit hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. School groups and exhibit tours can be scheduled by emailing hwcinfo@ccc.edu or calling 312/553-3150. Harold Washington College is located at 30 East Lake Street in downtown Chicago.

For free tickets to the exhibit, click here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unsung-bronzevillea-music-history-exhibit-by-the-chicago-blues-museum-tickets-62424624733

Early promotional shots of the Jackson 5 and Aretha Franklin.

Chicago Blues Museum-Record Row founder and CEO Gregg Parker, who is also a noted guitarist, says, “Chicago’s blues, R&B and soul
music scene of the 1940s through 1970s had its early
beginnings in Bronzeville, the same neighborhood former
mayor Harold Washington, the  college’s namesake, was born and
raised in.

“The exhibit showcases a selection of Chicago
Blues Museum archival photographic images of homegrown
Chicago musicians, entertainers, and performers, as well as
places and companies where this popular music originated and
evolved.”

Gregg Parker, founder and CEO of the Chicago Blues Museum-Record Row Foundation.

Exhibit  tours can also be scheduled by calling
Gregg Parker at 773/723-5031 or emailing chicagobluesmuseum@att.net.

Back in the day, you could see this entire concert lineup for only a buck-fitty.

The Chicago Blues Museum  promotes the preservation and evolution of the blues and related music genres through education and performance programs to foster worldwide appreciation of this music as an indigenous American art form, to focus attention on the rich living tradition of the blues.

It is the only music museum in Chicago and Illinois dedicated to the history of the blues and African-American popular music as it relates to the city. Since its founding in 1991, the museum has been dedicated to the preservation of the legacy and the rich living tradition of the blues, its pioneers, places it emerged from and evolved in, and to the education of the public about the music.

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