Picture this: you’re waiting in line for a Huskers game in either suffocating heat or frigid temperatures. All you want is for the doors to open up so you can begin flooding into the stadium. Suddenly, from over your shoulder, you hear the melodic, eccentric chimes of a xylophone.
There’s a man standing over it; red shirt, khakis and a ball cap, jamming away on his instrument. He plays in harmony with a small speaker beside him, an open donation bag beneath with a laminated sign upon it, reading; “We all stick together in all kinds of weather.”
If you’ve ever attended a Husker game, it’s likely that you’ve seen Elbert Smith. He’s an indispensable presence of the game day experience.
Smith is a local street performer, whose passion for music dates back decades. He was born and raised in Lincoln in the 1960s, growing up in a historically Black community that was scattered and industrialized as residential segregation forced residents from the area…