The Thirty-First Oxford Conference for the Book
2025-04-02 - 2025-04-04 | University of Mississippi, P.O. Box 1848, University, MS, 38677, United States
The Oxford Conference for the Book is a three-day gathering inaugurated in 1993 and held annually, except in 1997 and 2020. The event takes place in Oxford and on the campus of the University of Mississippi. Since its inauguration, the conference has celebrated books, writing, and reading, and has also dealt with practical concerns on which the literary arts and the humanities depend, including literacy, freedom of expression, and the book trade itself. Beginning in 1999, the conference has been open to the public without charge.
The Thirty-First Oxford Conference for the Book will take place on April 2, 3, and 4, 2025 with events on the UM campus (University of Mississippi Museum, Memory House, Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics, and Nutt Auditorium) and in the town of Oxford (Off Square Books, Southside Gallery, Lafayette County and Oxford Public Library, and the Powerhouse). We will have readings, panels, music performances, and book signings.

Behind the Big House 2025
2025-04-02 17:30 - 2025-04-05 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Hugh Craft House and Property, 184 South Memphis Street, Holly Springs, MS, United States
The Rosa Foundation continues its annual public event known as Behind the Big House (BTBH), a nationally recognized program, and recipient of the 2024 Excellence in History award from the Mississippi Historical Society.
Behind the Big House 2025 will take place April 2-5, 2025 at 184 S. Memphis Street, Holly Springs, MS. The property site, owned by Rosa Foundation, includes the 1847 living quarters and kitchen built for enslaved Africans and the 1851 family home of Hugh and Elizabeth Craft. The program focuses on the history and culture of enslaved Africans in northern Mississippi with public tours facilitated by experienced historical interpreters. Through narratives that have often been overlooked or suppressed, our experts will highlight the daily lives and work of enslaved adults and children within the context of the social, economic, and cultural context of northern Mississippi in the mid-19th century.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2:
5:30 pm David B. Person Welcoming Reception at The Depot
6:00 pm Dinner and Presentation
THURSDAY, APRIL 3
9:00 am – 5 pm Tour Day with Historical Interpretation
Tour Stations:
1. Historical Context and introduction with Sally Godard
2. Quarters for the enslaved persons with Joseph McGill
3. Laundress role with Tammy Gibson
4. Food and Cooking with Jordan Wimby
5. Brick-Making with Dale DeBerry and Wayne Jones
6. Household duties of enslaved children and Museum Exhibit with Sally Godard, Rolanda Lester
7. African American Geneology with Deborah Davis, Rhkty Amen Jones, Beverly Bevel
8. Onsite archaeology field work with Carolyn Freiwald and students
FRIDAY, APRIL 4
9:00 am- 5 pm Tour Day with Historical Interpretation (same tour stations as above)
SATURDAY, APRIL 5
9:00 am – 5 pm Tour Day with Historical Interpretation

Rust College French Film Festival
2025-04-04 08:00 - 2025-04-06 17:00 | Rust College, 150 Rust Ave, Holly Springs, MS, 38635, United States
The Rust College, Division of Humanities, French Film Festival for ‘The Young Who Want to go to France’ is a public program film festival combined with a real-aloud workshop of dissertations and film criticism essays on black bodies in cinema. We will also host a writing workshop to expand upon on our current journal-writing/personal narrative project – to be digitized in the future.
Film screenings: April 4, 5, 6, 11, 12.

Read-alouds of the following dissertations:
– See Me Show Me: Black Women Representation in Television Sitcoms by Dr. Lauryn Jennings (April 4)
– Scripting the Black Body in Popular Media by Dr. Ronald L. Jackson (April 5)
– Revaluing the Black Body: Changing the Visual Narrative by Dr. Thomas Allen Harris (April 6)
– Where is the Black Barbie? An Analysis of the Media Portrayals of Single Black Women by BreOnna Tindall (April 11)
Piano performance of Thelonious Monk’s ‘Bright Mississippi’ by Pianist/Assistant Professor of Piano, Maeve Brophy. (April 5)
Lecture/Discussion by Languages and Literature Chair, Dr. John Blumer, on the subject of the wrap party during Jim Crow at Rowan Oak following the filming of the adaptation of William Faulkner’s novel ‘Intruder in the Dust.’ (April 11)
Performance by the Rust College A’Cappella Choir under the direction of Dr. Karl Twyner, Dean of Humanities. (April 12)

Graded and archived personal narrative coursework expanded to include journaling the film festival experience by Rust College students – this is part of an ongoing writing project that will be digitized, published and archived.
The venue for all talks and screenings: Morehouse Auditorium, Natalie Doxey Fine Arts Building, Rust College campus.

Southern Literary Festival Lecture Series
2025-04-04 14:30 - 16:00 | Blue Mountain Christian University, 201 W Main St, Blue Mountain, MS, 38610
The Southern Literary Festival is an event held yearly to encourage undergraduate writing and is open to the community. Featuring renowned author W. Ralph Eubanks and established screenwriter Chris Dowling, these speakers would appear on April 4 and April 5, respectively. The writers will speak about their experiences and their work, enriching the community not only by sharing the creative journeys but also through sharing the stories of their lives.
W. Ralph Eubanks is a Mississippi author whose rich prose style and engaging narratives have made him a success across multiple venues. His work has appeared in such publications as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker; he was director of the Library of Congress for almost twenty years; he has received multiple prestigious fellowships.
Chris Dowling is a screenwriter and director born in Flowood, Misissippi. A veteran of the movie industry for almost twenty years, his films run the gamut from faith-based themes to apocalyptic horror, and he has won awards from the Heartland Film Festival, the Dallas Film Festival, the Dove Awards, and Movieguide. He also has had the opportunity to work with a variety of actors, including Thomas Haden Church and Dennis Quaid. The major factor in his invitation to this event was the nature of his talent: his success as a screenwriter.
The lectures will take place over the space of two days: April 4-April 5, 2025 at Blue Mountain Christian University in Blue Mountain, Mississippi. They will be held in Garrett Auditorium. More specifically, Eubanks will speak on April 4, 2025 at 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm, and Dowling will speak on April 5, 2025: 10:30 am – 12:00 pm.
Blue Mountain’s parking facilities are open to the public.

The Southern Literary Festival
2025-04-05 10:30 - 12:00 | Blue Mountain College, 201 W Main Street, Blue Mountain, MS, 38610
The Southern Literary Festival is an event held yearly to encourage undergraduate writing and is open to the community, featuring established screenwriter Chris Dowling April 5. The writer will speak about his experiences and work, enriching the community not only by sharing the creative journeys but also through sharing the stories of their lives.
Chris Dowling is a screenwriter and director born in Flowood, Misissippi. A veteran of the movie industry for almost twenty years, his films run the gamut from faith-based themes to apocalyptic horror, and he has won awards from the Heartland Film Festival, the Dallas Film Festival, the Dove Awards, and Movieguide. He also has had the opportunity to work with a variety of actors, including Thomas Haden Church and Dennis Quaid. The major factor in his invitation to this event was the nature of his talent: his success as a screenwriter.
The lectures will take place April 5, 2025 at Blue Mountain Christian University in Blue Mountain, in Garrett Auditorium 10:30 am – 12:00 pm.
Blue Mountain’s parking facilities are open to the public.

"We Make," A film about Siggers High School
2025-04-06 15:00 - 17:00 | Shannon Elementary School, 695 Romie Hill Ave, Shannon, MS, 38868, United States
Announcing the premiere of “We Make,” a film (with Ethan Payne) about Siggers High School, an all-Black school that served communities in Shannon, MS from roughly 1940-1970. It was originally known as Shannon Colored School.

What: “We Make” Film Premiere & Community Presentation
When: Sunday, April 6, 2025 – 3:00 P.M.
Where: Shannon Elementary School (Shannon, MS)

Brian Foster began working on this a few years ago—interviewing alumni of Siggers, collecting photos and historical documents, researching the history of education in Mississippi. The result is a project that “We Make.”

Writer in Residence
2025-04-09 17:30 - 18:30 | Mississippi State University Campus, Starkville, MS
Chigozie Obioma, a Nigerian writer and the Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia whose first two novels were shortlisted for the Booker Prize, will spend a week (April 8-12) at Mississippi State University as the Writer in Residence, engaging with students and faculty as well as the wider community of the Golden Triangle area. He will give a reading of his work that is free and open to the public.
The centerpiece of his visit—the public reading—will take place on Thursday, April 10 at 7:30 pm to allow working members of the community to attend. It will be free and open to the public and will be held in the Old Main academic building on Mississippi State’s campus, which is on a bus line, has parking, and is handicap accessible, ensuring that the reading will be approachable to a public audience.
For the public reading, Obioma will read some of his writing. He is a gifted public speaker, and he will engage the audience, not only because his language is so vivid, but because his focus on family dynamics and the unique struggles of Nigeria, the country in which he grew up. All of these themes have a great potential to connect with a large audience.
Through this reading, Obioma will prompt the audience to engage with their own histories and heritages so that they may more profoundly make sense of their lives and the human condition.
The public reading will end with a Q&A between Obioma and the audience, and, afterwards, attendants can buy signed copies of his novels.
Obioma’s visit will also include a free virtual workshop (April 9 at 5:30 pm) open to the public. He will speak about “the fiction condition,” focusing on how character-driven fiction can uncover truths about human nature. By doing so, Obioma will highlight the guidance in empathy and self-reflection that literature can afford its readers. He will discuss these themes during the workshop, providing the audience with the tools they need to better understand themselves and those around them.

Speakers Bureau: "Wanted--1,000,000 Frogs: Weird and Wonderful Things Found in Mississippi Newspapers"
2025-04-10 12:00 - 13:00 | Embassy Suites by Hilton Jackson North Ridgeland, 200 Township Ave, Ridgeland, MS, 39157, United States
Lecture by speaker Tracy Carr:
A monkey named Jocko who lived at the Great Southern Hotel in Gulfport, the biggest cabbage in Coahoma County, and lots and lots of crime: these are the stories found in Mississippi’s historical newspapers. Ranging from the late 1800s to midcentury, these newspaper articles from across the state are given context (and some fact-checking) in this presentation.
What can old news tell us about Mississippians of the past? We can learn what was important and interesting to them, through both the “news” articles and the advertisements. We can learn what trends came and went and how attitudes changed. We can learn how easy it was to shape the public’s perception of events, and what power someone writing and article for a newspaper had in the days before fact-checking and accountability. Learning what information people had about an event or person helps to inform why those people were the way they were.
While some remain mysteries (including why the Mitchell brothers, farmers from Jonestown, were looking for a million frogs in an advertisement), the interesting and odd news items that made it into the papers are researched and explained. Topics discussed include embezzlements, murders, bootlegging, accidental deaths in large dough mixers, hookworms, fish falling from the sky, and a Holmes County psychic, among others.

Speakers Bureau: "No One Writes Songs about Polyester: Re-making Cotton’s Image in the Late Twentieth Century"
2025-04-10 18:00 - 19:30 | Delta State University, 1003 W Sunflower Rd, Cleveland, MS, 38733, United States
James Giesen presents “No One Writes Songs about Polyester: Re-making Cotton’s Image in the Late Twentieth Century.”
Mississippi has long reigned as the capital of cotton country, but by the mid-twentieth century, the crop’s dominance faced a serious threat from synthetic upstarts like Polyester and Rayon. This talk opens in the storied lobby of Memphis’s Peabody Hotel, where a Delta planter from Clarksdale tries to rally powerful cotton interests to rescue their struggling industry—not through farming innovation, but by transforming how the world saw their product. Cotton had become the fabric of choice for hippies and civil rights activists, while the country’s rich and famous embraced Polyester for its sheen and ease of care. To save their livelihood, these cotton leaders launched Cotton, Inc. and the “Fabric of Our Lives” campaign, one of the most memorable advertising efforts in American history.

Writer in Residence Public Reading
2025-04-10 19:30 - 21:00 | Mississippi State University Campus, Starkville, MS
Thursday, April 10
7:30-8:30 Reading/Q&A in Old Main 1030
8:30 – 9pm Book Signing
Chigozie Obioma, a Nigerian writer and the Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor at the University of Georgia whose first two novels were shortlisted for the Booker Prize, will spend a week (April 8-12) at Mississippi State University as the Writer in Residence, engaging with students and faculty as well as the wider community of the Golden Triangle area. He will give a reading of his work that is free and open to the public.
The centerpiece of his visit—the public reading—will take place on Thursday, April 10 at 7:30 pm to allow working members of the community to attend. It will be free and open to the public and will be held in the Old Main academic building on Mississippi State’s campus, which is on a bus line, has parking, and is handicap accessible, ensuring that the reading will be approachable to a public audience.
For the public reading, Obioma will read some of his writing. He is a gifted public speaker, and he will engage the audience, not only because his language is so vivid, but because his focus on family dynamics and the unique struggles of Nigeria, the country in which he grew up. All of these themes have a great potential to connect with a large audience.
Through this reading, Obioma will prompt the audience to engage with their own histories and heritages so that they may more profoundly make sense of their lives and the human condition.
The public reading will end with a Q&A between Obioma and the audience, and, afterwards, attendants can buy signed copies of his novels.

Rust College French Film Festival
2025-04-11 08:00 - 2025-04-12 17:00 | Rust College, 150 Rust Ave, Holly Springs, MS, 38635, United States
The Rust College, Division of Humanities, French Film Festival for ‘The Young Who Want to go to France’ is a public program film festival combined with a real-aloud workshop of dissertations and film criticism essays on black bodies in cinema. We will also host a writing workshop to expand upon on our current journal-writing/personal narrative project – to be digitized in the future.
Film screenings: April 11, 12.

Read-alouds of the following dissertations:
filming of the adaptation of William Faulkner’s novel ‘Intruder in the Dust.’ (April 11)
Performance by the Rust College A’Cappella Choir under the direction of Dr. Karl Twyner, Dean of Humanities. (April 12)

Graded and archived personal narrative coursework expanded to include journaling the film festival experience by Rust College students – this is part of an ongoing writing project that will be digitized, published and archived.
The venue for all talks and screenings: Morehouse Auditorium, Natalie Doxey Fine Arts Building, Rust College campus.

Sunday Screening: Eudora
2025-04-13 13:30 - 15:30 | Capri Theatre, 3023 N State St,, Jackson, 39216, United States
Join us for a special edition of Sunday Screening of “Eudora” during the Stranger the Fiction Film Festival hosted by the Mississippi Film Society. Please note the showing is at 1:30 at the Capri Theatre in Jackson April 13th.
Renowned short story writer Eudora Welty is explored through intimate and charming interviews, both with Eudora herself and with family and friends. Seen through the backdrop of Jackson, Mississippi, Eudora is a revealing portrait of adventure, daring, humor and love as we meet a writer we only thought we knew. This film is directed by Anthony Thaxton and produced by Robert St. John.
This screening will be followed by a conversation with director Anthony Thaxton and other subject matter experts.

HTA Lecture: For You, Music Can Only Be an Ornament: The Life and Music of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel
2025-04-16 10:00 - 11:00 | Jones College, 900 S Court St, Ellisville, MS, 39437, United States
Known as the sister of famous composer Felix Mendelssohn, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel composed over 450 works despite being discouraged by family members and 19th-century society. Hear stories of her life and some of her most significant compositions, performed by Dr. Victoria Johnson, assisted by the women of the Jones College music faculty.
Dr. Johnson is the 2025 Humanities Teacher Award Winner for Jones Junior College. Her lecture is scheduled for 4/16/25 at 10:00 am.

Speakers Bureau: "Spanish Dons in Colonial Mississippi: The Spanish roots of Mississippi’s Cotton Kingdom"
2025-04-16 12:00 - 15:00 | Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, 314 7th St N, Columbus, MS, 39701, United States
Christian Pinnen presents: “Spanish Dons in Colonial Mississippi: The Spanish roots of Mississippi’s Cotton Kingdom”
Spain has a short, but important part in Mississippi’s history. Between 1779 and 1798, Spanish administrators sought to wrangle profits and people in small outpost, most prominently Natchez, along the Mississippi River. Enforcing Spanish laws and customs in a polyglot and largely Anglo-American population proved treacherous and created economic and social dynamics that gave rise to more than one chaotic episode as people tried to gain influence and power along the Mississippi.

Speaker Series: Dr. Christian Pinnen
2025-04-22 17:30 - 19:00 | Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St., Natchez, MS, United States
The 2024-2025 season is an annual program of the Natchez Historical Society, consisting of 8 regular monthly presentations by expert speakers on humanities topics pertinent to the history of the Natchez area. Scheduled for April 22, 2025:
Dr. Christian Pinnen, Professor of History and Co-Director of African American Studies, Mississippi College: Complexion of Empire in Natchez: Race and Slavery in the Mississippi Borderlands

Reading the Room
2025-04-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Exploradora Coffee, 463 Ryland Wy, Oxford, MS, 38655, United States
Attention book lovers Please join us April 23rd at 6:00 PM at Exploradora Coffee for our next Reading the Room event. If you’re passionate about books and all things literary, this is the place for you!Bring any book and enjoy a space to read, talk books with your community, and celebrate Mississippi’s vibrant literary culture with us!
Reading the Room is presented in partnership with Mississippi Humanities Council and the Mississippi book festival.

Gulf Coast Vietnamese Narratives: A Story of Refuge and Resilience of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Vietnamese
2025-05-03 16:00 - 18:00 | Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum, 115 1st St, Biloxi, MS, 39530-4703, United States
Gulf Coast Vietnamese Narratives: Honoring a Legacy at the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum
The Gulf Coast Vietnamese Narratives project seeks to establish the first permanent Vietnamese exhibit at the Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi, Mississippi. This exhibit will honor and preserve the rich history, contributions, and resilience of the Vietnamese American community along the Gulf Coast, particularly in the seafood industry. By sharing personal stories, artifacts, photographs, and multimedia presentations, this exhibit will provide an immersive educational experience, fostering cultural appreciation and historical understanding for visitors of all backgrounds.
The project highlights the journey of Vietnamese refugees who settled along the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, rebuilding their lives through the seafood industry. This exhibit will explore themes of migration, resilience, economic contributions, cultural preservation, and intergenerational identity. By integrating oral histories and community artifacts, we aim to create a compelling narrative that captures the essence of the Vietnamese American experience in this region.
A launch and reception will be held on May 3rd, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. This free-admission event will include:

A showcase of local photographers who captured images of Vietnamese refugee communities.
Former residents of East Biloxi, now adults, revisiting their childhood photos featured in the exhibit.
Traditional cultural food offerings.
A dragon dance performance outside the museum.
A cultural speaker discussing the Vietnamese American journey and contributions to the Gulf Coast.

"The Farming Freedom" premiere
2025-05-04 11:00 - 13:00 | MS
The Farming Freedom television premiere is officially set for May 4 at 11am!

Here’s how to watch:

Set your reminders now!
Add the WLBT app on your Roku, Amazon Fire, or Apple TV streaming devices now!
Stream the documentary live on May 4 at 11am on the WLBT streaming app!
If you live in the central/southwest Mississippi viewing area, you can watch it on WLBT Channel 3 at 11am on May 4!

Lastly, if you miss the premiere, Farming Freedom will still be available on the WLBT streaming app to watch anytime, nationwide!

https://farmingfreedom.rsvpify.com

To license this documentary for a screening in your classroom, church, or museum, and to book a Q&A or panel discussion, please email Kayla Turner Thomas at kaylaturner91@gmail.com.

Synopsis: The ups and downs of one Bolivar County farm family tell the story of Black land ownership in Mississippi, and the long history of obstructions that challenged land ownership for America’s formerly enslaved for more than a century.

Over time, more than 90% of Black land was ultimately lost or dispossessed.

The experiences of this Mississippi Delta family, combined with interviews from historians, give insight into what contributed to this massive Black land loss, with history pointing to mob violence and federal loan discrimination, but also the impact of the Great Migration. Aiming to enlighten and inspire, Farming Freedom also looks ahead to the opportunities for closing the wealth gap between non-Black and Black landowners today.

Speakers Bureau: "The Challenges of the First Fifty Years of Women's Suffrage"
2025-05-06 19:00 - 20:30 | South Mississippi Genealogical & Historical Society, 307 2nd Ave, Hattiesburg, MS, 39401-3887, United States
Dr. Rebecca Tuuri’s presentation examines the first fifty years of the women’s suffrage in Mississippi, with a focus on the work of the Mississippi League of Women Voters (LWV) from the months before the ratification of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment through the late 1960s when the state’s League was transformed into the progressive and interracial group that it is today. Nationally, the LWV was the organization that suffrage leader Carrie Chapman Catt founded in 1920 to replace the National American Woman Suffrage Association and to help educate the newly enfranchised woman voters in America. Therefore, the LWV in Mississippi was arguably the most important women’s voting organization in the state. This talk illuminates the successes and challenges of Mississippi women’s early efforts to empower voting women around the state.

Mississippi Freedom Trail marker unveiling for Emmett J. Stringer
2025-05-08 11:00 - 12:30 | Catfish Alley, 116 4th St S, Columbus, MS, 39701
The Mississippi Humanities Council and Visit Mississippi will unveil a new Mississippi Freedom Trail marker for Emmett J. Stringer, a dentist from the Mississippi Delta who fought for civil rights in Columbus and Lowndes County. The marker for Stringer was one of several the Council will unveil this year. Stringer founded the NAACP Columbus branch in 1953, serving as its president, before being elected as the NAACP’s statewide president.

This unveiling is part of the Columbus Eighth of May Celebration held in Catfish Alley at 11:00 a.m.

Speakers Bureau: “A Look at Mande (West African) Culture Through Traditional Music"
2025-05-09 13:00 - 14:30 | Instant Impact Global Prep, 319 US-61, Natchez, MS, 39120, United States
In this presentation, Jerry Jenkins 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.
“A Look at Mande (West African) Culture Through Traditional Music”

Speakers Bureau: Music of the War Between the States, 1861 to 1865
2025-05-17 14:00 - 15:30 | Mississippi Final Stands Interpretive Center, 607 Grisham St, Baldwyn, MS, 38824-8541, United States
Speaker William P Arinder explores music of the War Between the States, 1861 to 1865 played on the Appalachian Mountain. Dulcimer, banjo-mier and wooden spoons plus period clothing are worn during this talk. Audience may help play the spoons.

Speakers Bureau: “No One Writes Songs about Polyester: Re-making Cotton’s Image in the Late Twentieth Century”
2025-05-20 18:00 - 19:30 | Anguilla Methodist Church, 631 Front St, Anguilla, MS, 38721, United States
Speaker: James Giesen
Mississippi has long reigned as the capital of cotton country, but by the mid-twentieth century, the crop’s dominance faced a serious threat from synthetic upstarts like Polyester and Rayon. This talk opens in the storied lobby of Memphis’s Peabody Hotel, where a Delta planter from Clarksdale tries to rally powerful cotton interests to rescue their struggling industry—not through farming innovation, but by transforming how the world saw their product. Cotton had become the fabric of choice for hippies and civil rights activists, while the country’s rich and famous embraced Polyester for its sheen and ease of care. To save their livelihood, these cotton leaders launched Cotton, Inc. and the “Fabric of Our Lives” campaign, one of the most memorable advertising efforts in American history.
This fascinating story of cultural reinvention shows how an iconic crop adapted to a changing America and left a lasting impression on fashion, marketing, and the landscape of the Mississippi Delta. It’s a tale that connects agriculture, advertising, and American identity—perfect for anyone curious about how the threads of our past are woven into the fabric of our lives.

Speaker Series: Smokye Joe Frank
2025-05-27 17:30 - 19:00 | Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St., Natchez, MS, United States
The 2024-2025 season is an annual program of the Natchez Historical Society, consisting of 8 regular monthly presentations by expert speakers on humanities topics pertinent to the history of the Natchez area. Scheduled for May 27, 2025:
Smokye Joe Frank, Retired Archeologist and Local Historian: Tracking the Tracks: The Natchez & Hamburg Railroad and the Locomotive Mississippi

Speakers Bureau: “A Look at Mande (West African) Culture Through Traditional Music”
2025-06-14 10:00 - 11:30 | Halls Ferry Park, 1401 Walnut Street, Vicksburg, MS, 39180, United States
Jerry Jenkins 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.

Alexander v. Holmes County Freedom Trail Marker Unveiling
2025-06-17 10:00 - 17:00 | S. V. Marshall Elementary School, 12572 MS Highway 12, Lexington, MS
The U. S. Supreme Court’s 1969 decision in the Beatrice Alexander v Holmes County Board of Education case is perhaps one of the least-recognized but most significant single victories for school integration in this country. Originating in Holmes County, MS, and named for Beatrice Alexander, a student in the county school district, the decree mandated segregated schools throughout the nation to end the delay that existed since 1954 and integrate immediately. A marker on grounds where Beatrice attended school etches the Holmes County community’s influence on school integration into the annals of this nation’s history.

Date: June 17, 2025 | Time: 10:00 am | Location: S. V. Marshall Elementary School 12572 MS Highway 12 Lexington, MS (on MS Highway 12, between Lexington and Tchula).

Speakers Bureau: "Wanted--1,000,000 Frogs: Weird and Wonderful Things Found in Mississippi Newspapers"
2025-06-17 18:30 - 20:00 | Anguilla Methodist Church, 631 Front St, Anguilla, MS, 38721, United States
Speakers Bureau lecturer Tracy Carr presents: “Wanted–1,000,000 Frogs: Weird and Wonderful Things Found in Mississippi Newspapers”
A monkey named Jocko who lived at the Great Southern Hotel in Gulfport, the biggest cabbage in Coahoma County, and lots and lots of crime: these are the stories found in Mississippi’s historical newspapers. Ranging from the late 1800s to midcentury, these newspaper articles from across the state are given context (and some fact-checking) in this presentation.

Speakers Bureau: "The Soul of Southern Cooking"
2025-06-19 | Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center of Arts and Education, 1600 Government St, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, 39564-3828
Brinda Willis presents “The Soul of Southern Cooking I & II: Miz Bob’s Second Batch Cooking from a Mississippi Slave Girl’s Table.”
Miz Bob (known as Bob Hunter to friends and family) learned to cook from her mother and her grandmother. Her mental catalogue includes over 500 recipes and follows the art of cooking from the slave kitchen to her great-grandmother’s table. Miz Bob began teaching her daughter, Kathy Starr, all 500 recipes at about age 5, and in the process, Kathy Starr has preserved a lost art of cooking for future generations.

Speakers Bureau: "From the Scraps of My Life in the Mississippi Delta"
2025-06-19 10:30 - 12:00 | Gumtree Museum of Art, 211 W Main St,, Tupelo, MS, 38804, United States
J Janice Coleman presents: “From the Scraps of My Life in the Mississippi Delta”
Everyone loves to hear stories, and everyone loves the feel and the memories quilts and other homemade patchwork bring to mind. This combination of narrative and the nostalgia a patchwork coverlet evokes inspires people to talk about the quilts, dolls, and clothes their elders used to make for them. In her presentation, Dr. Coleman brings evokes these feelings in her audiences by choosing patchwork pieces that are relevant to the occasion and then telling the stories they pass on. Sometimes, Dr. Coleman presents in character. For example, if she is teaching Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path,” she may present in character as the protagonist Phoenix Jackson. In closing, Dr. Coleman always encourages audience members to consider the scraps of their own lives (old quilts and other coverlets, faded tee-shirts and jeans, worn shirts, skirts, and dresses) as materials that they can use to create their own meaningful patchworks. Dr. Coleman believes these recycled or re-purposed items can become priceless when they are recognized as part of the thread that runs through a family history. “With my scraps, I demonstrate the transformation between what they were and the art they have become,” says Dr. Coleman.
