Mississippi Humanities Council

SB: Behind Every Good Man is a Civil Rights Heroine
2021-05-07 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | MS
Who were the people who became most involved in the Civil Rights Movement? Who were its leaders and footsoldiers? How do we even define such roles? Who are the people who have become immortalized as heroes in our memory of the movement? Why? This presentation by Dr. Rebecca Tuuri will explore the multitude of ways that women became involved in the pursuit of racial equality in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. It will also explore the great odds that they faced, not only as African Americans but also as women. I will focus espcially on women’s role in providing the informal leadership, infrastructure, and commitment necessary to maintain the stamina of the postwar civil rights struggle. Finally, we will consider the ways in which the memory of the Civil Rights Movement has erased or misrepresented women’s historic contributions in the struggle and the implications of this for future scholarship on the movement.

Dr. Rebecca Tuuri is an assistant professor of African American and American history at the University of Southern Mississippi. She received a Ph.D. in United States History from Rutgers University in 2012, with a concentration in Women’s and Gender and African American history. Her current manuscript, Careful Crusader: The History of the National Council of Negro Women in Black Freedom Struggle investigates the history of the civil war rights work of the largest black women’s organization in the 1960s and 1970s.

Crossroads @ Columbia: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies
2021-04-30 08:00 - 09:30 | Marion County Museum, 200 Second Street, Columbia, MS, 39429, United States
On April 30, the Marion County Historical Society in Columbia will host Dr. John Green, state scholar for the Crossroads exhibit, to present his free program, “From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi through Population Studies.” The program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Columbia through May 8.
Many popular images of rural people and places present them as homogeneous in terms of demographic, social, and economic characteristics and trends. This may lead to oversimplification of rural areas and limited efforts to meet the needs and priorities of people living in these places. Achieving a better understanding of rural communities requires defining our concepts and identifying indicators of rural life in terms of continuity and change. Following an exploration of the terms “rural” and “non-metropolitan,” Dr. Green will share a series of graphical images and narratives about Mississippi’s rural people and places using population-level information, emphasizing what these “snapshots” of rural life tell us about Mississippi and how we might use them to form a “collage” that captures both the similarity and diversity.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit will be on display in the Marion County Museum and is open to the public Tuesdays to Saturdays 9am-5pm. Crossroads is free to visit.

MS+MA: Stories of School Integration
2021-04-29 18:00 - 19:30 | MS
About this Event

MS + MA
MS + MA is a joint project of the Mississippi Humanities Council and Mass Humanities. We’re bringing together people from our respective states for six interactive, online programs to facilitate conversation and connection. By reflecting on our states’ histories in relationship to each other, this series aims to build understanding and offer new perspectives. At a time when the pandemic has created a greater sense of isolation, we hope to forge connections.
MS+MA: Stories of School Integration
April 29, 6pm-7:30pm Central/7pm-8:30pm Eastern
Like much of the country, both Mississippi and Massachusetts have struggled with issues of school integration and educational equity. In this MS+MA program, we will explore stories of school integration from both states. How did government-led efforts to racially integrate public schools play out in Boston and the Mississippi Delta in the 1970s? What was the impact on the diverse communities of both places? And what is the legacy of these struggles for education and racial equity today?
Guests will include:

Byron Rushing served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1983 to 2018. From 1972 to 1985, he led the Museum of Afro-American History in Boston. During the 1960’s he was active in the civil rights movement–working for the Congress of Racial Equality and for the Northern Student Movement.
Douglas Blackmon, a journalist, writer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. Blackmon is the director of the upcoming documentary film “The Harvest,” about school integration in his hometown of Leland, Mississippi.
Jeanne Middleton Hairston is an educator and activist. She was a professor of education at Millsaps College, her alma mater, for many years and later served as the National Director of the Freedom Schools Program for the Children’s Defense Fund. She currently serves as a member of the Jackson Public School Board.
Donna Bivens is a Boston-based community organizer, leadership trainer, and expert on building racial equity. From 2010-2014 she worked for the Union of Minority Neighborhoods, leading the Boston Busing/Desegregation Project to increase awareness of Boston’s busing and desegregation crisis and tell a more inclusive history of the city.
Questions? Please contact Molly McMillian at mmcmillan@mhc.state.ms.us.

REGISTER NOW: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/msma-stories-of-school-integration-tickets-150273318541

Ideas on Tap: Too Much or Not Enough? Government's Changing Role in Healthcare Access
2021-04-27 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual
On April 27, join the MHC for the first in a two part series about the changing role of government in American society.

The April 27 program will use healthcare access as a lens explore what services the government should or should not provide and how people’s attitudes about government support have changed over time. Panelists include Dr. Charlene Collier (UMMC & MSDH); Richard Robertson (Mississippi Hospital Association); and Dr. Amy Forbes (Millsaps College).

The program will be livestreamed directly to the MHC Facebook page, so come prepared to watch, listen, and ask questions in the chat.

Panel Discussion: The Parchman Ordeal
2021-04-27 14:00 - 15:30 | Alcorn State University, 1000 ASU Drive, Lorman, MS, 39096
A panel discussion on documentary “The Parchman Ordeal” with film producer, Mark LaFrancis, and two survivors of the horrific event. The documentary is especially significant to Alcorn’s history and Charles Evers and his brother Medgar Evers both served as Field Secretary of the NAACP and were graduates of Alcorn State.

Topic: Alcorn Meeting
Time: Apr 27, 2021 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Meeting ID: 874 8428 1750
Passcode: [REDACTED]

SB: Forbidden, Hidden and Forgotten: Women Soldiers of the Civil War
2021-04-24 12:00 - 13:30 | MS
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women boldly defied Victorian society norms when they disguised themselves as men, shouldered muskets and joined the firing line in the American Civil War. As soldiers, they participated in every major engagement from the beginning to the end of the war. Their wartime experiences and sacrifices mirrored those of their male counterparts. They serves picket duty along the snowy banks of the Rappahannock, languished in Andersonville, suffered debilitating wounds during the Wilderness, succumbed to disease in New Orleans and lost their lives in Pickett’s Charge. Why did these women risk the shame that discovery would bring them and their families? Why did they risk their lives fighting a man’s war? Shelby Harriel’s presentation offers answers. In addition, she presents the interactions of generals, common soldiers and ordinary citizens with these women warriors.
Speakers Expertise:
Ms. Harriel has been a student of the Civil War since elementary school and has been researching women soldiers specifically since 2007. She has written several papers and articles, appeared on a radio program in Wisconsin and presented at national parks and battlefields, Civil War roundtable meetings and reenactments across the country.

Becoming Fully Human in a Sustainable Gulf Coast: Tin Shed Porch Discussion
2021-04-23 19:00 - 20:30 | MS
Dr. James Inabinet is the artist in residence at the 100 Men Hall’s Tin Shed in March and April 2021. Dr. Inabinet has spent over three decades asking the question: “Why are our natural and human communities not thriving?” Dr. Inabinet will present his findings in a Tin Shed porch discussion on Friday, April 23, 2021. This project was made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Dr. Inabinet’s residency at Tin Shed will be to study three diverse organizations – 100 Men Hall, St. Rose de Lima Catholic Church, and Christ Episcopal Church, and their locations on the Gulf Coast, each place the product of varying amounts of development. The focus of the residency is the pathway to a deeper form of relationship between human capacity and the demands of place for ecological living. This residency is the culmination of Dr. Inabinet’s entire 35-year project, which seeks viable pathways to thriving – thriving people on a thriving planet – through ascertaining the how, why and where of ecological living.
The discussion will include a presentation of the collection of work – poetry, vignettes, drawings, illustrated map, abstract paintings – which decodes the experience. Part of the discussion will be interactive; Dr. Inabinet will engage the audience-become-participants in actual techniques used to engage the place in dialogue and create the art. This prepares the participants to view the art and experience it in the way it was created. The participants thus become co-researchers in a way so that they might so subsequently engage their own places in dialogue.
Finally, the discussion will be an interactive conversation, augmented by attendees’ observations and questions that might provide a vision of future strategies for establishing a viable, sustainable, and peaceful mode specific to the Gulf Coast and, in general, to that of our world. The discussion will be moderated by Rachel Dangermond, Executive Director of the 100 Men Hall.
This project was made possible by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication) (program) (exhibition) (website) do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Mississippi Humanities Council.
Where: Tin Shed porch, 100 Men Hall, 303 Union Street, Bay Saint Louis, MS
When: Friday, April 23 from 7Pm – 8:30PM
What: Open to the General Public – https://the100menhall.com/products/becoming-fully-human

Crossroads @ Columbia: Lampton Rural Center Tour
2021-04-17 15:00 - 16:30 | Lampton Rural Center, 10 Rural Center Lane, Columbia, MS, 39429, United States
On April 17, the Marion County Historical Society in Columbia will host a free program about the historic Lampton Rural Center near Columbia, Mississippi. The program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Columbia through May 8.
Located just four miles south of Columbia, this community center was dedicated in 1949 to serve the largest black community in Mississippi. The first of its kind in Mississippi brought the whole of the Marion County community together in support of a much needed space for community and spiritual activity in the area. The building itself includes a gymnasium, offices, a library, activity rooms and a kitchen. The Center was built with support from The Woman’s Division of Christin Service of the Methodist Church through its Board of Missions. A Vocational and Technical Center was built nearby under the management of both county and city school systems. The present director and administrative personnel will share much of their story, changes over time and needs for the future.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit will be on display in the Marion County Museum and is open to the public Tuesdays to Saturdays 9am-5pm. Crossroads is free to visit.
Weather date for the Lampton Rural Center tour and program will be Saturday, April 24.
Upcoming Crossroads events in Columbia:
April 30, 8am:“From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies” presentation, Dr. John Green

The Slave Dwelling Project: Natchez
2021-04-17 11:00 - 21:00 | MS
The widely acclaimed Slave Dwelling Project comes to Natchez April 17 as part of an effort designed to bring attention to the world of the enslaved in the Natchez District.
Educator and interpreter Joseph McGill (pictured left) founded the Slave Dwelling Project as a living history lesson. His goal is to spend an evening in every one of the nation’s last remaining slave dwellings, helping raise awareness and preserve these structures for future study and understanding. To accommodate COVID-19 social distancing, Natchez events will be restricted to online presentations by McGill.
McGill will broadcast from the Slave Dwelling Project Facebook Page on Facebook Live at 11 am from the Forks of the Road, site of the second largest slave market in the Deep South. He will also broadcast on Facebook Live at 6 pm from Melrose, a National Historic Landmark and a component of the Natchez National Historical Park. Constructed in the 1840s, Melrose is one of the most significant historic sites in the South. In addition to the Greek Revival mansion and collection of outbuildings, the estate contains two original slave cabins. At 7 pm, McGill will hold a Zoom discussion in which the public may participate. Information about how to register for the Zoom conversation is listed at www.slavedwellingproject.org under the Upcoming Events tab.
McGill’s Natchez visit is supported by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council and is sponsored by the Historic Natchez Foundation and Natchez National Historical Park.
For more information, call the Melrose Visitor Center at 601-446-5790.

The Glitterary Festival
2021-04-16 10:00 - 2021-04-18 18:00 | MS
“The inaugural Glitterary Festival is a queer literary festival with a broad definition of what is literature and what is queer. We’re interested in texts where gender, sexuality, masculinity and femininity can be challenged and explored. We’re invested in conversations about race and class and issues of intersectionality. We’re intrigued by transgressions of boundaries, queering what we think we know about identity. We are curious about the intersections of the written word with the natural world and with other art forms, such as music, dance, film, visual arts, etc. And we’re creating an inclusive space that welcomes not only academics and writers but anyone open to learning and celebrating queer literature, with a special outreach focus encouraging the participation of Mississippi teenagers.”

FULL CONFERENCE SCHEDULE AVAILABLE HERE: https://glitteraryfestival.com/schedule
REGISTER HERE: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddAfmJWp1CvGo9RKXf9kLm4O_h_iK5ov9CxL-dxj8UqUjkcw/viewform

23rd Annual Sammy O. Cranford Memorial History Lecture
2021-04-08 19:00 - 20:30 | MS
The 2021 Sammy O. Cranford Memorial History Lecture will be given by Dr. Julia Gaffield, assistant professor of history at Georgia State University. Dr. Gaffield’s lecture is entitled “Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the Haitian Revolution.” Limited seating will be available in Jobe Hall auditorium to comply with Covid-19 regulations. The lecture will be simulcasted on the History Program’s Facebook page, @DeltaStateHistory (https://www.facebook.com/DeltaStateHistory/).

Crossroads @ Columbia: City Cemetery Walking Tour
2021-04-03 17:00 - 18:00 | Marion County Museum, 200 Second Street, Columbia, MS, 39429, United States
On April 3, the Marion County Historical Society in Columbia will host a free walking tour of Columbia’s city cemetery. The program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Columbia through May 8.
In 1825, Gen. Benjamin Lee purchased a parcel of land in Columbia just off Main Street, for burial of himself and his descendants. Later, several sections were added to this original parcel and the City Cemetery of Columbia grew. Among those buried there are persons from a number of founding business families from retail merchants to pharmacists, doctors, bankers, newspaper publishers and more. This tour provides an opportunity to discuss the growth and changes in time of the City of Columbia through these early families.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit will be on display in the Marion County Museum and is open to the public Tuesdays to Saturdays 9am-5pm. Crossroads is free to visit.
Weather date for the Main Street historic tour will be Saturday, April 10.
Upcoming Crossroads events in Columbia:
April 17, 3pm: Lampton Rural Center Tour
April 30, 8am:“From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies” presentation, Dr. John Green

Crossroads @ Columbia: Main Street Historic Tour
2021-04-03 15:00 - 17:00 | Marion County Museum, 200 Second Street, Columbia, MS, 39429, United States
On April 3, the Marion County Historical Society in Columbia will host a free walking tour of Main Street in Columbia. The program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Columbia through May 8.
The Main Street walking tour will cover six blocks of the oldest part of downtown Columbia, Mississippi. Included in the tour are 905 Court House and the early activities surrounding Courthouse Square, early retail dry goods buildings, the Marion Theater and the original brick paved street in front of the building, the original Columbia post office, and more. The program will address historic preservation and community development in Columbia and Marion County and how the downtown area shaped the region’s economic development.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit will be on display in the Marion County Museum and is open to the public Tuesdays to Saturdays 9am-5pm. Crossroads is free to visit.
Weather date for the Main Street historic tour will be Saturday, April 10.
Upcoming Crossroads events in Columbia:
April 3, 5pm: City Cemetery Historic Tour
April 17, 3pm: Lampton Rural Center Tour
April 30, 8am:“From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies” presentation, Dr. John Green

"Crossroads" Exhibit in Columbia
2021-03-27 08:00 - 2021-05-08 17:00 | Marion County Museum, 200 Second Street, Columbia, MS, 39429, United States
The Marion County Museum will host Crossroads: Change in Rural America, a Smithsonian traveling exhibition, from March 27 through May 8.
Crossroads 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 750 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. The Mississippi tour of Crossroads is sponsored by a generous grant from Entergy Mississippi.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
In addition to hosting the exhibition, the Marion County Museum will also host a series of programs that are free and open to the public.
Crossroads events in Columbia:
April 3, 3pm: Columbia Main Street Historic Tour
April 3, 5pm: City Cemetery Historic Tour
April 17, 3pm: Lampton Rural Center Tour
April 30, 8am:“From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies” presentation, Dr. John Green

2021 Public Humanities Awards
2021-03-26 19:00 - 20:00 | MS
On March 26, the Mississippi Humanities Council will host its 2021 Public Humanities Awards Ceremony to recognize outstanding work by Mississippians in bringing the insights of the humanities to public audiences.

Award winners include Natasha Trethewey, former Mississippi and U.S. Poet Laureate; Dr. James Giesen, associate professor of history at Mississippi State University and state scholar for the Mississippi tour of the Smithsonian traveling exhibit “Water/Ways;” the Mississippi Book Festival, the state’s preeminent literary event; Marta Smally, discussion leader for the M. R. Dye Public Library (Horn Lake Public Library)’s family reading program; and the “Hawkins vs. Town of Shaw” project, a theatrical production and corresponding historical markers about a local freedom movement in the Mississippi Delta. In addition to these awardees, the MHC will also celebrate recipients of the 2020 and 2021 Humanities Teacher Awards from each of our state’s institutions of higher learning.

The Council invites everyone to tune into the 2021 Public Humanities Awards ceremony, which will be streaming on Facebook and Youtube, starting March 26, 2021, at 7:00 p.m. Thanks to the support from major sponsors BancorpSouth, Sanderson Farms, Trustmark, and the Eudora Welty Foundation, the event is free to stream, though views are encouraged to make a donation to support the work of the Mississippi Humanities Council.

HTA: "On Being an Instrument" Performance & Lecture
2021-03-23 19:30 - 20:30 | Mississippi College, 200 Capitol St., Clinton, MS, 39056
Dr. Viola Dacus will present the 2021 Humanities Teacher Award lecture for 2021 at Mississippi College: Throughout over thirty years of teaching young singers, Dr. Viola Dacus has observed parallels in learning to sing well and living well. The lecture will consider the challenges of teaching young singers, each one of whom is literally a unique instrument. Further, discovering that unique instrument can have broader ramifications for life. The premise: it is not the instrument you are given that matters, it’s what you do with it.
The performance and lecture will take place on the Mississippi College campus in the Jean Pittman Williams Recital Hall, and will be livestreamed on the Mississippi College YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_crgq8NbSmeyqvPIKCO8eQ

HTA: Memoirs of Mississippi Women Authors
2021-03-18 19:00 - 20:00 | MS
Dr. Elizabeth Crews will present the 2021 Humanities Teacher Award lecture for Blue Mountain College: In the fall, Dr. Elizabeth Crews taught a memoir class for the Union County Heritage Museum, and this semester she is teaching a course on Mississippi writers. Dr. Crews’s talk will focus on four female Mississippi authors: two black authors and two white. The presentation will include Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi, Elizabeth Spencer’s Landscapes of the Heart, Jesmyn Ward’s Men We Reaped, and Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings. These memoirs span over a hundred years of the lives of Mississippi women, white and black, and give insight into the ways in which growing up and living in Mississippi has shaped both their lives and their writing.
The presentation will take place on the Blue Mountain College campus, at Garrett Auditorium.

MS+MA: Verses and Voices: Poet Laureates
2021-03-18 18:00 - 19:30 | MS
MS + MA is a joint project of the Mississippi Humanities Council and Mass Humanities. We’re bringing together people from our respective states for six interactive, online programs to facilitate conversation and connection. By reflecting on our states’ histories in relationship to each other, this series aims to build understanding and offer new perspectives. At a time when the pandemic has created a greater sense of isolation, we hope to forge connections.
Session 4: Verses and Voices: Poet Laureates
March18, 2021: 6pm-7:30pm Central Time
Our next event brings together poet laureates from both states for a conversation about the role of poetry in public life. With the words still of presidential inauguration poet Amanda Gorman still resounding across the nation, we’ll hear poems and thoughts from Mississippi poet laureate Beth Ann Fennelly (poet laureate of Mississippi) and her student, Michael Martella, plus Worcester poet laureate Juan Matos and Amina Mohammed, Worcester’s youth poet laureate.
Register here to participate in the free program.

HTA: Black Mississippi Women’s Pivotal Role in Securing the Vote for All Americans
2021-03-16 17:30 - 18:30 | MS
Rebecca Tuuri’s Mississippi Humanities Council talk will explore how black women leaders of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) helped ensure democracy for all Americans in the 1960s. By running for Congress and leading a series of high-profile challenges to voting restrictions in the state, MFDP women built support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and later, pushed for its enforcement. Tuuri will highlight these women leaders themselves by including audio clips, written quotations, and images from the rich archival collections at Southern Miss. This talk will also emphasize the importance of reconceptualizing ideas about leadership given that black women’s fundamental political work often remained behind the scenes.
This event will be virtual and open to the public: https://usm-edu.zoom.us/j/93274768312

HTA: The Role of Women in John Singleton's "Higher Learning"
2021-03-16 11:00 - 12:00 | MS
Ms. Deborah Purnell will present the 2021 Humanities Teacher Award lecture for Mississippi Valley State University, “The Role of Women in John Singleton’s Higher Learning.” The lecture is virtual and open to the public:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://mvsu.zoom.us/j/87515561608?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting ID: 875 1556 1608
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Crossroads @ Scooba: From the Fields to the Factory
2021-03-15 16:00 - 17:00 | Virtual Event
On March 15, East Mississippi Community College in Scooba will host Dr. Brinda Willis of the MHC’s Speakers Bureau to present her free and open to the public program “From the Fields to the Factory: The Great Migration of African Americans From the Fields of Mississippi to the Cities and Factories in the North.” The program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Scooba through March 12.
Dr. Willis’s presentation will explore the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North in the 20th century.
The program will take place on Zoom. Details for how to log onto the free Zoom program can be found on the EMCC website.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit will be on display in the Tubb-May Memorial Library on EMCC’s Scooba campus and is open to the public Mondays to Thursdays 10am-7pm, Fridays 10am-2pm, and Sundays 3pm-6pm. Crossroads is free to visit.

HTA: The Liberal Arts as Molders of Consensus" in the Public Arena
2021-03-15 10:00 - 11:00 | MS
In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King wrote an article that encouraged social scientists through critical thinking and a humanistic stance, to shape public opinion and policy. Following his charge, Dr. Kersen will make the case that it is liberal arts and humanities scholars and laypeople that are best equipped to answer social problems .

The Twenty-Seventh Oxford Conference for the Book
2021-03-08 - 2021-03-12 | MS
Founded by the Center and Square Books, the conference brings together fiction and nonfiction writers, journalists, artists, poets, publishers, teachers, students, and literacy advocates for three days of conversation in the literary town of Oxford, Mississippi.
Due to Covid-19, all events this year are virtual.
These prerecorded sessions will be available for viewing on the conference website beginning March 8, 2021:
“University Press of Mississippi: The Next Fifty Years”
“Southern Environments: A Conversation with Catherine Coleman Flowers”
“A Tribute to Randall Kenan: A Reading”
“Friends Old And New: A Poetry Session”
“The Willie Morris Awards for Southern Writing Awards Ceremony”
Live virtual sessions include:
Monday, March 8, at 6:00 p.m. CST: A Live Square Books event on Zoom and Facebook Live: Angie Thomas (Concrete Rose) in conversation with Kiese Laymon. RSVP required.
Tuesday, March 9, at 5:00 p.m. CST: A Live Square Books event on Zoom and Facebook Live: Angus Fletcher will discuss his new book, Wonderworks, with poet Maggie Smith. RSVP required.
Thursday, March 11, at 5:00 p.m. CST: A Live Square Books event on Zoom and Facebook Live: Lee Durkee (The Last Taxi Driver) in conversation with Tinhouse Press publisher Craig Popelars. RSVP required.
Thursday, March 11, at 6:00 p.m.: Thacker Mountain Radio with poet Sandra Beasley.

SB: The Mississippi Melting Pot
2021-03-05 12:00 - 13:00 | MS
A brief history (from tamales to red beans and rice) of the various ethnic and racial culinary traditions that have shaped Mississippians’ diets.
Speakers Expertise:
Dr. Andrew P. Haley is a professor of American cultural history at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has recently completed a book on restaurant dining in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and is currently working on a history of children and eating.

MTV Museum Day
2021-03-05 08:00 | MS
GRAMMY Museum Mississippi (GMM) is planning a Museum Day on March 5thto celebrate the Museum’s 5thAnniversary and the opening of its new exhibition, MTV: Celebrating 40 Years of MTV. MTV was created by Mississippi native Bob Pittman and the exhibition is being curated by GMM. The Museum is proposing a Museum Day that will include free admission for all ages, an education workshop to include panelist, and a gallery talk by music historians during the day.

SB: White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America
2021-03-03 12:00 - 13:00 | MS
Children growing up in the United States are living in a world with ongoing public debates about race, daily displays of racial violence, and for some, an increased awareness surrounding inequality. Based on two years of ethnographic research with affluent, white kids and their families, this talk examines how white kids learn about race, racism, inequality, and privilege in the contexts of their families and everyday lives. This talk explores how white racial socialization is a process that stretches beyond white parents’ explicit conversations with their white children and includes not only the choices parents make about neighborhoods, schools, peer groups, extracurricular activities, and media, but also the choices made by the kids themselves. Featuring the actual voices of young, affluent white kids and what they think about race, racism, inequality, and privilege, this talk explores how white racial socialization is much more dynamic, complex, and varied than previously recognized.
Speakers Expertise:
Margaret A. Hagerman is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Mississippi State University and is a Faculty Affiliate in both the African American Studies and Gender Studies programs. She is an award-winning author of White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America (NYU Press 2019), and she is a nationally recognized expert on white racial socialization. She teaches classes on racism, education, families, and qualitative methods. Dr. Hagerman received her B.A. in English and her M.A. in Sociology at Lehigh University, and she earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Emory University in 2014.

Virtual Event: To register, or for more information, contact amthoma4@olemiss.edu

From Delta Blues to Opera News: A Mississippi Musical Exposition
2021-02-28 08:00 - 2021-03-01 17:00 | MS
Two-day symposium demonstrating the historical contributions of select Mississippi artists and arts organizations to American music and opera from the past and present.

Crossroads @ Scooba: Rural Economic Development in Mississippi
2021-02-22 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual Event
On February 22, East Mississippi Community College in Scooba will host Dr. Rachael Carter of the Mississippi State University Extension Services to present a free program on economic development in rural Mississippi. The program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Scooba through March 12.
The program will take place on Zoom. Details for how to log onto the free Zoom program can be found on the EMCC website.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit will be on display in the Tubb-May Memorial Library on EMCC’s Scooba campus and is open to the public Mondays to Thursdays 10am-7pm, Fridays 10am-2pm, and Sundays 3pm-6pm. Crossroads is free to visit.
Upcoming Crossroads events in Scooba:
March 15, 4pm: “From the Fields to the Factory: The Great Migration of African Americans From the Fields of Mississippi to the Cities and Factories in the North” presentation, Dr. Brinda Willis

Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration: Southern Environments
2021-02-22 08:00 - 2021-02-27 17:00 | MS
Virtual conference exploring ecocriticism in southern studies and the influence our environments have on us through a humanities perspective. The week-long program will feature presentations and interactive workshops focused on nature writing, environmental justice, and nature as a character in fiction, film, and art.

MS+MA 3: Coast to Coast
2021-02-18 18:00 - 19:30 | Virtual Event
On February 18, the third “MS + MA: Crossing Borders/Connecting Stories” dialogue will take place in partnership with Mass Humanities.
MS+MA: Coast to Coast will explore our two state’s coastal connections from the perspectives of cultural institutions and local individuals from the fishing industry in both states. Panelists will reflect on how coastal areas are both literal and metaphorical connecting points for culture, language, economies, art, and more. The program will also share firsthand stories of members from local fishing communities in both states. MS + MA attendees will have the opportunity to take part in small group discussions about their own connections to the ocean and how our states’ coastal areas help us understand the environment around us.

Speakers will include Julian Rankin, executive director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, MS, and individuals from fishing communities in both states. The program will be moderated by Laura Orleans, executive director of the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center in New Bedford, MA.

Following the February 18 program, three additional programs will take place throughout Spring 2021.

Registration is required for the program and can be found here.
