In search of local black culture

When Al McFerren wants to hear good rhythm and blues on the radio, he says he has to travel to St. Louis.

When McFerren wants to attend a concert with music he likes, he knows he'll have to travel to St. Louis or some other urban site to catch a show.

McFerren said Cape Girardeau offers little culturally for black residents. The Show Me Center's steady diet of country music acts may have popular appeal with white audiences, but they don't interest area black audiences, he said.

McFerren understands the need of the Show Me Center to book acts that draw well. But he thinks black entertainers could draw from a wide region.

David Ross, director of the Show Me Center, said concert promoters and tour managers decide where acts will be booked.

The lack of a black radio station locally makes it more difficult for concert promoters to bring in black entertainers, Ross said. That's becausse radio stations help publicize concerts, which in turn helps sell tickets.

Ross said the Show Me Center hosts mostly country music acts because they're easier to schedule. "Country music performers are out on the road more. They will play pretty much any place, any time," he said.

But Ross said he'd love to book a rhythm and blues group if feasible.

Entertainment isn't the only concern of black residents.

They say few stores cater to their clothing styles or interests. One such store is Stunna's in the West Park Mall, which sells hip-hop clothing such as baggy polo shirts and T-shirts. The store's been open only about four months.

"It's good that this store is out here," said Evelyn McBride of Cape Girardeau, who is black and works as a cook at an adjacent restaurant in the mall.

Prior to the opening of Stunna's, McBride said she had to travel to St. Louis or Memphis, Tenn., to purchase such attire."It is tiring to drive an hour and a half to buy an outfit," she said.

Store manager Barbara Hobbs said the hip-hop clothing Stunna's sells isn't available at some of the traditional retail stores in Cape Girardeau.

Only one Cape Girardeau nightclub, The Phat Cat on Broadway, currently caters to a largely minority clientele. But even that nightclub doesn't appeal to McFerren, who is 53. McFerren said The Phat Cat features music for a younger audience.

McFerren said he has to travel to St. Louis to see some movies that are geared primarily for a black audience. The Cape Girardeau movie theaters typically don't show those movies, he said.

Kevin Dillon, manager of Wehrenberg Theatres in Cape Girardeau, said his company shows movies that are released nationwide. "There are certain movies that are limited release," he said. Film distributors like Parmount and Fox determine how many copies of a movie they will distribute.

Some movies that target black audiences are distributed to fewer theaters than some of the more conventional movies.

Limited-release movies are shown mainly in larger cities, Dillon said.

Only 400 copies of some movies are shown in theaters nationwide. In those cases, they will be shown in the more populated cities. And some movies play in only the very largest cities. "Every week there are at least one or two movies that are limited releases that play mainly in New York, Los Angeles or Chicago areas," he said.

As a result, some movies that appeal to a black audience may never be shown in the Cape Girardeau area.

That only adds to the lack of black culture locally, McFerren said.

The lack of black culture makes it hard to attract black professionals to Cape Girardeau, McFerren and other black residents say."I think it's a significant part of the reason why we haven't been able to attract a lot of African-American teachers to the Cape Girardeau public school system," said McFerren, an assistant principal at Cape Girardeau Central High School.

Loosing out

McFerren has lived in Cape Girardeau for 25 years. He grew up in Lilbourn in the Bootheel. Without such family ties, McFerren doubts he would have made a career in education in this region.

His daughter, Angela, graduated from Central High School in 2000. She couldn't wait to leave town, he said.

She went to college at Louisiana State University and now lives and works in the Kansas City, Mo., area. She is a regional sales manager for the McDonald's restaurant corporation. "She has no desire to come back because there is just absolutely nothing to enhance her cultural background," McFerren said.

Tyrone Gordon, 22, agrees that the area offers little in the way of black entertainment. A Southeast Missouri State University student from St. Louis, Gordon is president of Alpha Phi Alpha, a black fraternity.

Bringing acts

He works at the campus radio station, Rage 103.7 FM. But even that station doesn't play music that appeals to many black people. "There is no rap music. There is no rhythm and blues," he said.

Gordon and other students are working to broaden the music played on campus. For the fraternity's Black and Gold Pageant in December, the group brought in two R&B artists, Bobby Valentino and Mya. Gordon said the goal was to bring in performers that the black community otherwise wouldn't be able to see locally.

The event was held in Academic Auditorium. "It was pretty packed," Gordon recalled.

He said black students at Southeast can't depend on the community for entertainment. "You have to make your own fun," he said.

Black students often socialize at off-campus parties.

Tamara Buck, an instructor of mass communication at Southeast Missouri State University, said black professionals often find little culturally to attract them to Cape Girardeau."We have a lot of black professionals who come and go," Buck said. "The goal has to be not only getting them here in the first place but to make it comfortable enough for them to stay."

She grew up in Charleston, Mo. "My whole goal was to get out of the Bootheel until I realized that Cape was a good place to live," she said. It's also close to her parents' home.

Caters to youth

Buck owns The Phat Cat, which opened seven years ago. Initially the bar catered to black people in their 30s and 40s. But Buck said she had trouble attracting that customer base.

"The problem is those people have to go to work in the morning. They have professional jobs. They don't have time to go out," she said.

"I had to change my demographics or close my doors," Buck said.

Today, the nightclub draws the twentysomethings, she said.

Other minority bars and nightclubs have opened and closed during the time The Phat Cat has been in business.

Black residents also bemoan the lack of black businesses. "There are fewer choices for hair care," said the Rev. Debbie Thornton, who pastors St. James AME Church in Cape Girardeau. In urban areas, there are more beauty shops that cater to black customers. Thornton previously was the minister at a church in Charleston, Mo. She moved to Southeast Missouri from St. Louis a dozen years ago. "I went into a cultural shock when I moved from the urban to the rural area," she said.

Thornton said she has grown more accustomed to the rural area. But she said the area still has little to offer many black residents who move here. "They still don't feel Cape has as much to offer as what they already have at home," she said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123