The Wade in the Water exhibition describes the history of African-American religious music, beginning with Native African spirits and musical traditions. The Crossroads and A Love Supreme exhibitions (the latter lending its name to the iconic album of jazz pioneer John Coltrane) focus on blues and jazz, respectively. One Nation Under a Groove (the title of the Funkadelic classic) tells the history of R&B from World War II to its contemporary counterpart. Final exhibition The Message (Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five) follows the development of rap / hip hop from its origins in the South Bronx to its worldwide impact.
NMAAM also features several mini-exhibitions, including The Business Behind the Music. The screen is sponsored by Sony Music Group and features an impressive CEO of black industries such as Logan H. Westbrooks (Capitol, Mercury, CBS and Source Records), in addition to record companies and publishers who have played important roles in music history.
Lewis joined NMAAM in 2018 after serving as a research assistant for the curator of music and performing arts at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History. In collaboration with NMAAM President H. Beecher Hicks III, the museum’s advisory committee and two additional curators, Lewis has collected more than 1,400 artifacts to display over the past three years. Once a framework has been established for what the museum can include, Lewis says, “we searched for items to illustrate and interpret the history we are trying to convey.”
Museum visitors, for example, will see a trombone donated by Helen Jones Woods, a trombonist from the International Sweethearts of Rhythm – the first interracial all-band for women in the country. (Woods, the mother of Urban One founder / chairman Cathy Hughes, passed away last August.) Other artifacts include a guitar borrowed from the BB King Museum, plus a hood and wig donated by George Clinton, Speaker of Parliament, Funkadelic was donated.
Equally important is the impact that African-American artists have had on NMAAM’s hometown. “The Nashville stories are woven throughout space,” Lewis says. Among those who appear prominently in these stories is dr. Bobby Jones, host of BET’s long-running series Bobby Jones Gospel and the Fish Jubilee Singers. Lewis adds that a future temporary exhibition dedicated to the Fisk Jubilee Singers will further explore Nashville’s Black history.
NMAAM is currently open on Saturdays and Sundays; visitors must book tickets for set times. Visit nmaam.org for more information.