Deep Inside the Blues
Deep Inside The Blues: Holly Harris Interviews Author/Photographer Margo Cooper
Thursday, March 14, 2024, 7-8:30pm in the Shaira Ali Gallery
Join us at Arlington Center for the Arts as we celebrate local author Margo Cooper's acclaimed new book, Deep Inside the Blues: Photographs and Interviews. In a lively conversation with WUMB's Spinning the Blues host, Holly Harris, Ms. Cooper will share slides and recount details of her unique project featuring 30-years of interviews and original photographs that document the lives of blues musicians, their families and homes, neighborhoods, festivals, and gigs. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at this event. This event is free and open to the public.
About Margo Cooper
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Beginning in 1997, Margo began wandering the back roads of Mississippi, photographing and recording oral histories along the way. Margo is a contributing writer and photographer for Living Blues. Photographs from Margo’s project, Deep Inside the Blues, have been exhibited at the University of Connecticut and the National Heritage Museum.
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Since 1993, Margo has also been following the lives of two families in rural Maine. This documentary project received a Juror’s Award from Debra Kao and was shown at the Photographic Resource Center Members Exhibition. Jonathan Blaustein recently featured the series on his blog, “A Photo Editor Posts”.
Margo was a Finalist for Artadia Awards and a two-time Finalist for the Ruttenberg Arts Foundation Award. Margo received a local arts council grant, and her Project, “Photographic Exhibition including Music and Literature”, was selected as an exemplary project by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Margo’s photographs have received numerous awards and been selected for shows juried by Maxwell Anderson, Catherine Edelman, Emmet Gowin, Karen Haas, Anne Havinga, Barbara Head Millstein, Phillip Prodger and Kathy Ryan, among others, since 1997.
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Margo studied at The Maine Photography Workshops. She took a workshop with Jerry Berndt in 1994 and was lucky enough to have his support and encouragement through the years. She also took a workshop with the beloved Sylvia Plachy in 2013. Sylvia helped Margo edit and sequence the series, “Deep Inside the Blues”.
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In addition to her photography, Margo has served as a New Hampshire Public Defender. She has been practicing as a lawyer and guardian ad litem in juvenile court since the early nineties.
