Pine Bluff officials will mark the day the city received a nearly $40,000 grant from T-Mobile to build a new centerpiece for the city.
Community members gathered at the UAPB Business Support Incubator on Friday night, ahead of the latest Catfish Friday concert, for the check presentation of $39,650. It came a day after T-Mobile announced Pine Bluff Downtown Development Inc. would receive the grant toward the Blues Junction landmark through the communications company’s Hometown Grant program.
Jimmy Cunningham Jr., tourism development director for the Pine Bluff Advertising & Promotion Commission and organizer of Catfish Friday, revealed the grant required a dollar-for-dollar match, and the commission added an additional $41,000 to the project.
Pine Bluff’s desire to showcase its blues history was a key factor in receiving one of the grants, said Carlos Rosas, T-Mobile senior manager of rural markets for south Arkansas.
“I think this project, in supporting that, is really going to give back to the local communities, and that’s really what Hometown Grants are about,” Rosas said. “It’s really T-Mobile giving back in the communities that we serve.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The 20-foot landmark, which will honor Pine Bluff native, early NFL player and music executive J. Mayo “Ink” Williams, will be sculpted and placed at the Delta Rhythm & Bayous Blues & Wellness Plaza, just east of Main Street. Cunningham, in his artistic storytelling style, remarked Williams “burst down the doors for thousands of blues musicians.”
The location is said to be the convergence of more than a dozen state, regional and national heritage trails. That includes portions of the Trail of Tears routes, Civil War heritage trails and emerging Delta music heritage corridors.
“The DRB Blues & Wellness Plaza established the foundation,” said Sheri Storie, executive director of the Pine Bluff Advertising & Promotion Commission. “Blues Junction adds an iconic landmark that will become synonymous with Pine Bluff’s cultural heritage.”
According to Michael McCray, public relations and cultural development specialist, the features of Blues Junction include a sculptural pole that will be visible throughout downtown, a vinyl record crown of two large back-to-back vinyl records labeled “Blues Junction”, sign blades pointing toward key cities in Delta blues history including Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago, Indianola, Miss., and New Orleans, sculptural elements inspired by Delta music culture, and an adjacent granite marker featuring 12 to 15 narratives about significant people, places and events. A QR code will offer visitors a digital soundscape with music, oral history and interpretive audio, McCray said.
McCray said Pine Bluff was selected as one of 25 winners from a pool of about 900 applications nationwide for the honor.
A partnership among the city, Delta Rhythm & Bayous Alliance, the Hometown Grant program, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and a selection design and fabrication firm to be selected will work to complete the landmark, according to McCray.
Design is expected to be finalized with the fabrication firm by the second quarter of this year, with monument fabrication set for the third quarter and site preparation and installation scheduled for the fourth quarter. A grand unveiling ceremony is scheduled for early 2027.
Rachel Reynolds, a Pine Bluff native who is director of the Arkansas Folk Like Festival in North Little Rock, attended the ceremony as part of a yearlong tour to ask Arkansans how they want their region of the state to be represented at the June 26-28 event at Riverfront Park.
“What we’ve learned is, across the state, blues and soul are one of the top three music categories in the whole state,” Reynolds said. “Also, catfish has shown up in every cultural region across the state. It’s something people want to talk about and celebrate.”
