Mississippi Humanities Council

HTA – “You Press the Button, We Do the Rest”: Vernacular Photography and Memory in the Age of Algorithms
2022-03-22 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Chicago) | Jackson State University, 1400 J.R. Lynch Street, Jackson, MS, 39217
Jackson State University – Liberal Arts Room 166/266, Jackson, MS
Borrowing its title from one of Kodak’s early advertising slogans, this lecture explores how vernacular photography has responded to the immense technological changes in the ways images are made, distributed, and consumed. It also looks at how these changes impact the teaching of both photography and visual literacy.

HTA – Octavia E. Butler, African American Science Fiction, and Rites of Passage
2022-03-22 11:00 - 12:30 | Mississippi Valley State University, 14000 US-82, Itta Bena, MS, 38941
Mississippi Valley State University – Business Education Auditorium, Itta Bena, MS
This presentation will discuss aspects of Butler’s life, African American patterns of: the slave narrative, “double consciousness” and Afrofuturism in her work. The texts of the Patternist, Xenogenesis, and Parable series are included as well as Fledgling. The texts will also be analyzed in light of Victor Turner’s theories of Rites of Passage and “liminality”.

White Privilege: Nonconscious Racism, Freud, and Neuroscience of Implicit Bias
2022-03-22 16:00 - 17:30 | Millsaps College, 1701 N. State Street, Jackson, Mississippi, 39202
Millsaps College – Christian Center, Jackson, MS
To what extent is white cultural domination nonconscious, and in what sense? How do neuroscience ideas of nonconscious racism, and ideas of Freud fit in? It seems that many white people who want to avoid racist behavior are nevertheless likely to harbor suppressed anti-black sentiment. The talk explores whether understanding the formation of unintentional racism might help reverse it.

The Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival 50th Anniversary Prologue
2022-03-22 16:30 - 2022-03-26 15:00 | MS

HTA – Stage Combat
2022-03-23 12:30 - 14:00 | Hinds Community College – Raymond Campus, 501 East Main Street, Raymond, 39154, United States
Hinds Community College – Reeves 165, Raymond, MS

HTA – Jazz: The Fabric of Modern Music
2022-03-23 15:00 - 16:30 | Tougaloo College, 500 W County Line Rd, Tougaloo, MS, 39174, United States
Tougaloo College – Bennie G. Thompson Academic Center, Jackson, MS
It is often easy to overlook or disregard the impact that jazz has on our society. For as long as music has existed, it has served various roles including but not limited to provide entertainment, celebrate, mourn, meditation, etc. This presentation will focus on establishing the connection between the stylistic and performance practice impact of jazz on modern music.

HTA – The Future is Dreamed: Organizing the Clutter of Back Then to Make a Restful, Collective Now
2022-03-23 18:00 - 19:30 | Scott
Rust College – Doxey Auditorium, Holly Springs, MS
The past is always present in the now, driving communal decisions, policymaking, and stories. Perhaps that fact is nowhere near as pressing as it is in locales recovering from war. The City of Holly Springs boasts over 50 Antebellum sites, inclusive of two HBCUs. We could say that the town itself is a museum. But a museum is curated, organized around storytelling that invites the patron into an almost physical experience of the object. It is performed, lived. This missing context is accidentally turning our beloved objects and buildings into a pile of things and making it difficult to create an inclusive future. Working with my artist collective, Earthseed, we can began to ask ourselves the following questions: When does a hoard become a collection? When does a hoarder become a curator? When does a real estate investment become a time capsule? When does a museum become a closet full of forgotten items? What role can performance inquiry play in stitching together routes of exchange and understanding between objects, between silences?

SB – Rockoff – Shalom Y’all: The History of Jews in Mississippi
2022-03-24 12:00 - 13:00 | MS
In the early 19th century, Jewish immigrants from Europe began to arrive in the Magnolia State, settling initially in towns along the Mississippi River. Concentrating in retail trade, these Jews became visible symbols of economic modernity and market capitalism in Mississippi. Throughout much of their history, Mississippi Jews have worked to lessen the cultural differences between themselves and their neighbors. In recent decades, due to region-wide economic and demographic trends, the Jewish population of Mississippi has declined and become concentrated in the state’s population centers.

HTA – What Should MC Teach? Curricular Efficacy and the Core
2022-03-24 19:00 - 20:30 | Mississippi College, 200 Capitol St., Clinton, MS, 39056
Mississippi College – Leland Speed Library Discovery Room, Clinton, MS
Borrowing its title from one of Kodak’s early advertising slogans, this lecture explores how vernacular photography has responded to the immense technological changes in the ways images are made, distributed, and consumed. It also looks at how these changes impact the teaching of both photography and visual literacy.

2022 Public Humanities Awards
2022-03-25 17:30 - 21:00 | TWO MISSISSIPPI MUSEUMS, 222 NORTH STREET , JACKSON, MS, United States
The Mississippi Humanities Council is delighted to announce recipients for its 2022 Public Humanities Awards, which recognize outstanding work by Mississippians in bringing the insights of the humanities to public audiences. These recipients will be honored at a public ceremony and reception Friday evening, March 25, at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson.
Dr. William Reynolds Ferris, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, will receive the Cora Norman Award in recognition of his distinguished career as a scholar and national leader in the humanities. A native of Vicksburg, Ferris is a writer, folklorist, and documentarian who has written or edited ten books about Mississippi culture and history. He was a founding director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. In 2018 he produced the Grammy Award-winning box set Voices of Mississippi containing his field recordings and documentary films. Ferris is currently the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served as chairman of the NEH from 1997 to 2001. Jon Parrish Peede, one of Ferris’ former students who served as NEH chairman from 2017 to 2020, will present the Cora Norman award to Ferris.
“In 2022 we will mark the 50th anniversary of the MHC with our year-long theme “Reflecting Mississippi,” and we can think of no public scholar who has done more than Bill Ferris to reflect the richness and complexity of our state’s culture, from its music, folklife, and history to its art and literature,” said Stuart Rockoff executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council. “It will be especially appropriate to honor his lifetime of leadership in the public humanities during our 50th anniversary year. We are very excited to have both Mississippians who have served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities participating in the ceremony.”
In addition to honoring Ferris, the MHC will also recognize:
Humanities Scholar Award: Dr. Daphne Chamberlain, associate professor of history at Tougaloo College for her commitment to bridging academic humanities and the public through her expertise as a civil rights historian.
Humanities Partner Award: New Hope Baptist Church in Jackson for its outstanding Black History Month programs that have received MHC grant support for several years.
Humanities Educator: Mississippi Delta Community College Prison Education Program for its work providing for-credit courses to incarcerated students at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Preserver of Mississippi Culture: Fannie Lou Hamer’s America Project, which produced a documentary film that will be broadcast nationwide over public television, bringing the voice and story of an extraordinary Mississippian to a national audience.
Reflecting Mississippi Award: W. Ralph Eubanks for his work as a memoirist and literary scholar that has helped revise our state’s narratives to reflect Mississippi more honestly and accurately.
The MHC will also recognize 30 recipients of the 2022 Humanities Teacher Awards, which pay tribute to outstanding faculty in traditional humanities fields at each of our state’s institutions of higher learning.
The Council invites everyone to join them at their 2022 Public Humanities Awards ceremony and reception March 25, 2022, at 5:30 p.m. at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson.
Tickets for the Mississippi Humanities Council Public Humanities Awards ceremony and reception are $50 each and may be purchased online here or by sending a check to the Mississippi Humanities Council, 3825 Ridgewood Road, Room 317, Jackson, MS 39211.

"Voices and Votes" Exhibit in Hattiesburg
2022-03-28 - 2022-05-14 | Library of Hattiesburg, Petal, and Forrest County, 329 Hardy Street, Hattiesburg, MS, 39401
The Library of Hattiesburg, Petal, and Forrest County will host Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, a Smithsonian traveling exhibition, from March 28 through May 14. The exhibit is open to the public Monday-Thursday 9:00 am-5:30 pm, and Friday-Saturday 9:00 am-3:00 pm.
Voices and Votes is a traveling exhibit offered by the Museum on Main Street division of the Smithsonian Institution. It consists of six free-standing display units incorporating photographs, text, and numerous interactive elements. Requiring a minimum of 650 sq. ft., the exhibit is designed for smaller venues to achieve Museum on Main Street’s goal of bringing the Smithsonian to small town America. The exhibit is free and open to the public to visit.
Voices and Votes: Democracy in America traces the bold American experiment of a government run by and for the people. The exhibit examines the influences that shaped the early days of American democracy and the changes that have occurred in the nearly 250 years since.
Democracy is a form of government that requires civic engagement and participation. It is formed by citizens’ responses to ongoing questions: What are the rights and responsibilities of citizens? What is the role of the government in American life? How do citizens participate in democracy? Beginning with the American Revolution, this exhibition explores these questions and more.
In addition to hosting the exhibit, the library will also host a series of programs that are free and open to the public.
Voices and Votes events in Hattiesburg:
March 28, 5:30 pm: Opening reception and presentation from Hattiesburg mayor Toby Barker, “All Politics is Local – Campaigning South Mississippi Style”
March 31, 2pm: Thursday Theater, Lincoln
April 11, 6pm: Presentation from Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, “Mississippi’s Initiative Process: What it was, what it is, what it can be”
April 14, 2pm: Thursday Theater, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
April 22, 6pm: Presentation from Hattiesburg attorney Michael Adelman, “An Equal Opportunity to Participate: The Change in Hattiesburg Municipal Government, 1984”
April 28, 2pm: Thursday Theater, All the King’s Men
May 2, 6pm: Presentation from Voices and Votes state scholar Dr. Rebecca Tuuri, “Democracy in Mississippi: Race, Violence and Power in the Struggle for the Vote”

MS Got Soul: Thee Mississippi Humanities
2022-03-28 09:00 - 2022-04-01 13:00 | Jackson State University, 1400 J.R. Lynch Street, Jackson, MS, 39217

HTA – Little Boxes
2022-03-28 18:00 - 19:30 | Itawamba Community College, 602 W Hill Street, Fulton, MS, 38843
Itawamba Community College – Fine Arts Center, Fulton, MS
Mr. Morris will focus on the importance of finding purpose in creating.

The Twenty-Eighth Oxford Conference for the Book
2022-03-30 17:00 - 2022-04-01 17:30 | Various Locations in Oxford; Visit Website for More Information, 38655
The Oxford Conference for the Book is returning to Oxford and the University of Mississippi campus on March 30, 31, and April 1, 2022, as an in-person event, with special partnerships with the Willie Morris Awards in Southern Writing and the National Book Foundation, the administrators of the National Book Awards.

The Twenty-Eighth Oxford Conference for the Book
2022-03-30 17:00 - 2022-04-01 17:30 | Various Locations in Oxford; Visit Website for More Information, 38655

HTA – From Handprints on Cave Walls to Posting on Social Media; Seeking Validation Through our Personal Narratives
2022-04-01 10:00 - 11:30 | Meridian Community College, 910 Hwy 19 N, Meridian, MS, 39307
Meridian Community College – McCain Theater, Hattiesburg, MS
Our personal narratives inspire art, music, and prose. The theme of my presentation is; “From Handprints on cave walls, to posting on Social Media; seeking validation through our personal narrative.” I’ll take you on a journey through life, how our personal stores inspire, distract, influence, lead and guide our life. Come see what your handprint tells others about you!

Marker Unveiling for Local Lynching Victims
2022-04-02 14:00 - 15:00 | Lafayette County Courthouse, 142 Courthouse Square, Oxford, MS, 38655, United States
The marker names the seven men known to have been lynched in our county between 1877 and 1950, along with information about that era of racial terror. The memorial will remember the victims, create greater awareness and understanding of the history of racial terror lynching and its impacts, and promote racial reconciliation in our community. The service will include a keynote address, live performances, and healing prayers. Local leaders and descendants of lynching victims will be invited to speak, and a free community meal will be served.

A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration
2022-04-09 10:00 - 2022-09-11 18:00 | MS
A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration explores the profound impact of the Great Migration on the social and cultural life of the United States from historical and personal perspectives. Co-organized with the Baltimore Museum of Art, the exhibition features newly commissioned works by 12 acclaimed Black artists across a variety of media. The Great Migration (1915-1970) saw more than six million Black Americans leave the South for cities across the United States. Informed by research, explorations, and conversations, the artists’ works explore themes of perseverance, self-determination, and self-reliance, along with the impacts this historical phenomenon continues to have today.

The Blues of Achilles
2022-04-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Millsaps College, 1701 N. State Street, Jackson, Mississippi, 39202
Joe Goodkin is a Chicago-based singer/songwriter. He tours the country performing his one-man folk-opera interpretation of Homer’s Odyssey (over 300 performances in 43 US states, Canada, Greece, Italy, and The Netherlands) and for years released music under the name Paper Arrows (five records total). In 2020, he premiered a new classically-inspired work, The Blues of Achilles, a 17-song reimagining of Homer’s Iliad, and performed both classically-inspired works extensively during the pandemic in the Zoom environment. From 2015 through 2017 he released a trio of EPs entitled Record of Life/Loss/Love and in 2019 a collection of live recordings entitled Paper Arrows. Throughout 2020 (yes, even during the pandemic) he released a new song a month. In 2022 he released a recording of The Blues of Achilles tracked by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio Studios.

Ralph Bean Architectural Collection Exhibit
2022-04-14 17:00 - 19:00 | Historic Train Depot, 1419 27th Avenue, Gulfport, MS, 39501, United States

SB - Morris - From the Delta to the Coast: The Poets, Poetry, and Poetics of Mississippi
2022-04-25 12:00 - 13:00 | Pass Christian Historical Society, 201 E. Scenic Drive, Pass Christian, MS, 39571, United States
With household names like Faulkner, Welty and Wright, Mississippi literature is not just nationally but internationally known and respected. Combined with a rich musical heritage, the state’s literature is one of the many facets that afford it a high cultural rating. A survey of genres, however, reveals that many of the writers for whom the state is recognized have tended to work in the more immediately visible genres of fiction (both novels and short stories) and nonfiction, often leaving their sister (and some would say first) art form — poetry — less acknowledged. This presentation aims to right the imbalance, introducing audiences to a solid representative sampling of the state’s better and lesser-known poets. Covering primarily the 20th and 21st centuries, the audience is led on a geographic tour of the state. Featuring poets such as Etheridge Knight, who wrote powerful poems while incarcerated, or adoptee/transplant poets such as Frank Stanford, author of one of the greatest Southern long poems in history, Dr. Morris explores how their Mississippi roots and experiences informed their work. He brings contemporary (including living) poets into the discussion, such as Beth Henley, Beth Ann Fennelly and Natasha Tretheway. The presentation concludes with a brief discussion of where the art may yet go, and points to universities and writing programs that today nurture the majority of the state’s poets.P

Visioning Session: Paramount Building
2022-04-29 15:00 - 19:00 | Griot Arts, 278 Sunflower Avenue, Clarksdale, MS, 38614
This community discussion and visioning session will center around the revitalization of the Paramount Theater and the adjoining (original) JC Penny building in downtown Clarksdale. Last October, Griot Arts received a grant to engage an architectural and design team and begin the planning process. After being gifted this property, Griot Arts began to see a vision for a space that could truly be a gathering space for the whole community to display and celebrate the cultural richness of the Mississippi Delta.
The session on April 29th will include a visit to the building site, large group and small group conversations, a survey for each person to express opinions, and more interactive ways to voice your thoughts and ideas. Food and drinks will be available throughout the afternoon. We will follow up with a second visioning session in May.
This hybrid event will be held in person and virtually. Visit the link below to RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1R14gCWBTu4-VCjdFd8H7XdLAYFF_c7g_vLBrTayIUmI/viewform?ts=624f16b1&edit_requested=true

Oral History of Union County Training School/B.F. Ford School
2022-05-01 | Union County Heritage Museum, 114 Cleveland St, New Albany, MS, 38652, United States
County Training School and later B.F. Ford School was the only school in New Albany/Union County that African Americans could get a high school diploma. The school, which is located in New Albany, transitioned to an elementary school after desegregation. The oral history project is to interview older attendees and graduates of the school and preserve their memories using formulated questions to be used in cultural historical research and race relations.

Reflecting Mississippi with Jesmyn Ward
2022-05-05 19:00 - 21:00 | Galloway United Methodist Church, 305 North Congress Street, Jackson, MS
In honor of the MHC’s 50th anniversary, acclaimed writer Jesmyn Ward will deliver a keynote address on the theme of “Reflecting Mississippi.” After her presentation, MHC board member Dr. Ebony Lumumba, chair of the English Department at Jackson State University will engage Ward in a conversation about how she represents Mississippi in her work.

Topophilia Book Club - Queen of the Turtle Derby
2022-05-10 11:30 - 19:00 | Museum of the Mississippi Delta, 1608 Hwy 82 West, Greenwood, MS, 38930
June’s Topophilia Book Club selection is Queen of the Turtle Derby by Julia Reed.
Dr. Mary Carol Miller lead discussions on June 14 at 11:45-1:00 and again at 5:30-7:00.

Ideas on Tap: Women's Equitable Access to Healthcare in Mississippi
2022-05-17 17:30 - 19:00 | Rickhouse by Manship, 717 Poplar Blvd, Jackson, MS, 39202, United States
Mississippi ranks last in almost every leading health category in the US. Hospitals across rural parts of the state are in jeopardy of being shut down. This is especially challenging in a state with the highest infant mortality rate in the US, where the leading cause of infant mortality is preterm birth (delivery before 37 weeks of pregnancy). Also, heart disease plagues this state and women of color are disproportionately affected. Heart disease is more prevalent among African American women than white women and is the leading cause of death among Latinas. So how do women gain equitable access to health care in a state that suffers these disparities? These issues and many more will be discussed by our illustrious panel of medical professionals which include Dr. Sandra Melvin (CEO of Institute for the Advancement of Minority Health), Dr. Nekitra Burse (CEO of Six Dimensions, LLC), and Wengora Thompson (CVS Health, Health Equity Lead). The panel will be moderated by Latisha Latiker, director of grant programming for the Mississippi Women’s Foundation. Join us May 17th at the Rick House by Manship located at 717 Poplar Blvd, Jackson, MS. This Ideas On Tap program is brought to you in proud partnership with the Women’s Foundation of Mississippi. Free snacks and a Cash bar will be provided

SB - Rushing - Over and Under the Fence: Plant Swapping Helped Form Our Culture
2022-05-31 18:00 - 19:30 | Itawamba County Pratt Memorial Library, 210 W Cedar St, Fulton, MS, 38843, United States
Fences don’t deter gardeners who have for generations found ways over, around and under barriers (both real and figurative) to share plants, tips and recipes — really, bits of ourselves and our cultures, without regard to another gardener’s stripes or background. Since a gardener can’t give or get plants without touching another person, our garden legacies have proven to be real common ground. Now, how about a piece of my grandma’s old rose for your fence…

SB - Luckett - The Mississippi Plan and the Rise of Jim Crow
2022-06-08 11:30 - 13:00 | Canopy Children’s Solutions, 1465 Lakeland Dr, Jackson, 39216, United States
After the Civil War, African Americans in the South, newly freed, expressed a tangible optimism that led to the reuniting of families, the development of social institutions like the black church, the rise of cultural expressions like the Blues and jazz, the establishment of black-owned businesses and other economic endeavors, and the wielding of significant political power. On the other hand, as Dr. Luckett explains in this talk, most white southerners, especially in Mississippi, saw this rise of black social, economic and political power as a direct threat to their hegemony, which had been so well established during the era of slavery, and whites sought to “redeem” their place in the southern hierarchy through violent extra-legal measures like lynching and through the realm of law. The invention of Jim Crow and what became known as the “Mississippi Plan” became the models for the rest of the South. The Mississippi Plan and Jim Crow stood on the shoulders of black disfranchisement, segregation and sharecropping to guarantee white power as well as second-class citizenship for African Americans throughout the South, a status black southerners have fought ever since.

Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters
2022-06-17 11:00 - 12:00 | Museum of the Mississippi Delta, 1608 Hwy 82 West, Greenwood, MS, 38930
Celebrity Reader: Muddy’s grand-nephew, Keith Johnson
A picture book celebration of the indomitable Muddy Waters, a blues musician whose fierce and electric sound laid the groundwork for what would become rock and roll. Michael Mahin (Author), Evan Turk (Illustrator)

SB - Jenkins - A Look at Mande (West African) Culture Through Traditional Music
2022-06-18 18:00 - 19:30 | A-1 Event Center, 1415 Country Club Dr, Jackson, MS, 39209, United States
This presentation will give the listener a glimpse of the Mande Culture of West Africa. In the tradition of the Mande, the history and culture is orally preserved in the minds and through the music of the Djeli (oral librarian/mandenka hereditary professional musicians). The establishment of the Mali Empire can be recalled and retold in the musical piece of the legendary Densoba (great warrior) Sunjata. This discussion explores the function of the Mande music and musical instruments, Mande class system, songs, ceremonies and stories. The discussion also examines the influence of West Africa on American culture and why the djembe was outlawed during slavery. Participants will learn about the djembe, its introduction by drummers like Babatunde Olatunji in 1950 and Ladji Camara from Guinea, and how it spread throughout America.
