Deborah Frazier

Pennsylvania State University and University of Memphis graduate Deborah Frazier is co-founder and project director of Blues City Cultural Center. This arts organization that is more than 40 years old promotes ARTS FOR A BETTER WAY OF LIFE.  

In 2012 she received the Gyneka Award from the international Women's Theater Festival. She and her husband Levi Frazier Jr. also received the Governor's Award for the arts for BCCC’s outstanding work in the performing arts. Her play, “KNIGHT SONGS,” about internationally acclaimed poet, Etheridge Knight, toured several prisons as part of a Tennessee Commission for the Humanities grant BCCC received in the 1980s.

For more than 40 years, “To perform where the people are…” has been an important component of the company’s philosophy. Along with traditional theaters, BCCC has performed on the parking lot of Wendy's, inside a McDonald's, church sanctuaries, museums, etc. Many of these guerrilla performances actually began when nationally known poet Etheridge Knight came looking for Levi Frazier after hearing about his work with the Beale Street Writers Workshop, which he directed. Once they connected, both men, under the auspices of The Free People’s Poet Workshop, began a series of weekly readings by an eclectic group of scribes in bars across the city.  The group received a humanities grant to go to prisons across the state of Tennessee to sponsor both mini poetry workshops and discussions about issues related to the poetry presented. Also, as part of the grant, the Pulitzer Prize winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks held a poetry workshop for women inmates in the women’s prison in Nashville. When asked about this experience, Deborah Frazier [LY1] said, "We recognized and realized the thrust of our work was not to do art for art's sake. Our art had a purpose and a mission to change people.”

One of BCCC’s latest projects is Sew Much Love. This arts program for homeless and vulnerable women seeks to change long established patterns of behavior, teach new survival skills and provide long-term, consistent support. Through BCCC’s services, clients gain the tools needed to become independent by first developing a sense of self-worth and then applying this understanding to setting and achieving goals. In addition, the women learn good decision-making and coping skills. According to Deborah Frazier, “We believe that ‘empowered participation’ makes our program unique and is the key to success.”  Art classes, creative writing workshops and poetry groups provide ways to help women communicate feelings that are often difficult to express.

Deborah Frazier has been instrumental in developing programs for BCCC that address social issues using the arts. These programs include: Peace in the House, a violence prevention program for youth; Seek to Serve, a servant leadership program for persons living in affordable housing; Hope Day Zone, a self-esteem program for homeless women; and the most recent addition, Sew Much Love, an entrepreneurial program for homeless and vulnerable women.