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Mississippi Charles Bevel, multi-media artist and lecturer, began his professional career in 1973. From 1973 through 1983, he performed intermittently as a musician, including a self-terminated one-year stint as a recording artist on the A&M record label. During that ten-year period, the most meaningful of those years of Mississippi were spent performing as a duo with another songwriter/performer, Chic Streetman. They also worked as an opening act for such artists as Taj Mahal, Richie Havens, Hoyt Axton, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Doc Watson, B.B. King, Third World, Albert King, Gil Scott Heron, and others.
Mississippi's first appearance on stage as an actor was with the East Cleveland Community Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio in 1986. Very soon thereafter, he was concurrently working at Karamu, also located in Cleveland, and a venue well-known in the theater community as the training round for some of America's finest black actors. While at Karamu, Mississippi performed major roles in several productions including August Wilson's Piano Lesson (Doaker) and Sam-Art William's Home (Cephus Miles). His professional theater debut was with the Denver Center Theater Company (DCTC) in 1994, where he co-wrote and performed in DCTC's world premier of It Ain't Nothing' But the Blues.
Although the majority of his work over the last few years has been in theater, doing mostly dramatic roles, Mississippi is equally comfortable working as a writer, visual artist, actor, or singer-composer. His theater credits include I Am a Man (Bluesman), Meadow Brook Theater, Rochester, Michigan; Home (Musical Director), Rhynsburger Theater, Columbia, Missouri; Spunk (Guitar Man), Smokebrush Theater, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Let Me Live (Musical Director), Goodman Theater, Chicago, Illinois; It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues began at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in June 2000.
It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues was nominated for four Tony Awards during the 1999 season on Broadway. Mississippi himself was nominated for "best book" in a musical. In December 2000, Mississippi released Not of Seasons, a CD of original music.
My Evolution: An Autobiographical Sketch
By Mississippi Charles Bevel
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