Medicine Wheel Garden
2023-02-18 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | USM Liberal Arts Building, 114 N. 31st Ave., Hattiesburg, MS, 39401
The University of Southern Mississippi’s Center for American Indian Research and Studies will host a four-part series of public lectures and demonstrations exploring how Native Ancestors across the southeast used native plants, shells and soils in their daily lives. The program series, entitled “Yakni Achukma, Okla Achukma (Healthy Land, Healthy People),” is supported with a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council and will take place at the Southern Miss Medicine Wheel Garden located on the USM campus.
The lecture and demonstrations series begins Feb. 18 at 10:00 a.m. the Southern Miss Medicine Wheel Garden located on the USM campus near the Liberal Arts Building. Jeanette Stone, a retired educator with 20 years of expertise experimenting with natural fibers, will discuss “Plant-Based Cordage and Fibers.” Her presentation will explore techniques of the Southeastern Muskogean communities for using plant materials such as yucca and palmetto plant leaves, cattails, tree bark and Spanish moss to create ropes for fishing nets, as well as for crafting clothing, belts, moccasins and more.
The lecture and demonstration series is free and open to the public. Future program topics will include shell carving, medicine making and creating pigments from plants.

The Impact of the Harlem Renaissance on Today's Culture
2023-02-23 13:00 - 14:00 | MS
Community Library Mississippi presents The Impact of the Harlem Renaissance on Today’s Culture history speaking series. Presenter Mary Hardy live on zoom and facebook live.

What We Can Learn From... Lecture Series
2023-02-23 19:00 - 20:30 | Aven Hall, 200 Capitol Street, Clinton, MS, 39056
Mississippi College presents a series of talks entitled, “What We Can Learn From _____.” This talk features Daphne Chamberlain presenting on youth involvement in the Civil Rights movement. “Oh Freedom! Civil Rights, Civil Wrongs and the Young People Who Made the Jackson Movement.
Following the talk, there will be a reception with live music by the MC Brass Ensemble.

Natchez Literary & Cinema Celebration
2023-02-24 - 2023-02-25 | Natchez Convention Center, 211 Main Street, Natchez, MS, 39120
This annual celebration, which began in 1990, is a theme-based lecture series enhanced by films, workshops, exhibitions, book signings, concerts, discussions and more. The conference is made possible in part by the Mississippi Humanities Council. Here’s a list of presenters:
Dr. Rebecca Hall, Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts
(Simon and Schuster, 2021)
Dr. Jonathan White, A House Built by Slaves, African American Visitors to
the Lincoln White House (Rowman and Littlefi eld, 2022)
Dr. Joan DeJean, Mutinous Women, How French Convicts Became
Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast (Basic Books, 2022)
Dr. Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, Skirts, Fashioning Modern Femininity
in the Twentieth Century (St. Martin’s Press, 2022)
Julie Hines Mabus, Confessions of a Southern Beauty Queen (University
Press of MS, 2022)
Dr. Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd, Southern Beauty, Race, Ritual, and Memory
in the Modern South (University of Georgia Press, 2022)
Dr. Jodi Skipper, Behind the Big House: Reconciling Slavery, Race, and
Heritage in the U.S. South (University of Iowa Press, 2022)
Amy Argetsinger, There She Was: The Secret History of Miss America (Atria/
One Signal Publishers, 2021)
Kristen Green, The Devil’s Half Acre, the Untold Story of How One Woman
Liberated the South’s Most Notorious Slave Jail (Seal Press, 2022)
Danielle Dreilinger, The Secret History of Home Economics, How
Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way
We Live (WW Norton and Co, 2021)
Dr. Thavolia Glymph, The Women’s Fight: The Civil War’s Battles for Home,
Freedom, and Nation (University of North Carolina Press, 2021)
Shelby Harriel, Behind the Rifl e, Women Soldiers in Civil War Mississippi
(University Press of Mississippi, 2019)
Dr. Rebecca Sharpless, Grain and Fire, a History of Baking in the American
South (University of North Carolina Press, 2022)
Diane C. McPhail, The Seamstress of New Orleans (A John Scognamiglio
Book, 2022) and The Abolitionist’s Daughter (A John Scognamiglio Book,
2019)
Dr. Sarah Adlakha, She Wouldn’t Change a Thing (Forge Books, 2021) and
Midnight on the Marne (Forge Books, 2022)
Valerie Martin, Property (Vintage, 2004), Mary Reilly (Vintage, 2001), The
Great Divorce (Bantam, 1995)
Christine Wiltz, The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld
(Da Capo Press, 2001)
Nicole A. Taylor, Watermelon & Red Birds, A Cookbook for Juneteenth and
Black Celebrations (Simon and Schuster, 2022)
Dr. Gail Myers, Rhythms of the Land, a multimedia fi lm documentary, 2022
Timothy Givens, The Saloon, a fi lm documentary, 2022

The Impact of Rap Music on Today's Youth
2023-02-24 13:00 - 14:00 | zoom
Community Library Mississippi presents The Impact of Rap Music on Today’s Youth Community Speaking Series presented Malesha Smith live on Zoom and Facebook Live. Get your tickets at eventbrite.com or email communitylibrary.ms@gmail.com for more information.

Meridian History Walk
2023-02-25 12:00 - 16:00 | Meridian, MS
From the Civil War burning of Meridian to a tornado wiping out the city’s business district 1906, the history of the Queen City will come alive for area residents Saturday during the second annual Meridian Downtown History Walk. Free to the public, the self-guided history walk will begin at noon and run until 4 p.m. Attendees can pick up tour maps at Dumont Plaza. Also new will be a story presented by the Meridian Freedom Project on the old E.F. Young Hotel and its historical importance. The skit will center around the hotel’s inclusion in the Green Book, a travel guide published during segregation in the South that identified hotels and businesses that would accept African American customers. The downtown history walk is funded in part by The Mississippi Humanities Council, Lauderdale Tourism and the East Mississippi Community Foundation…an estimated 1,000 people attended last year’s event.

Oral History Workshop
2023-03-22 09:00 - 16:00 | MS
Tell Your Story
Stories guide our work and are the threads that bring communities together and connect people to the things they’re passionate about.
We’re proud to partner with the Mississippi Humanities Council to present this full-day introductory workshop designed for anyone interested in documenting advocacy, family history, or community stories by recording oral history interviews.
This workshop is FREE and open to the public. Just bring a notebook and a pen or pencil and get ready to share your story. Seats are limited and registration is required.

Grants Workshop
2023-03-22 16:00 - 17:00 | MS
Register today! Join representatives from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for Humanities virtually to learn more about funding opportunities through grants other resources. Questions or registration: christopher_miller@hydesimth.senate.gov

Public Humanities Awards
2023-03-24 17:30 - 19:30 | TWO MISSISSIPPI MUSEUMS, 222 NORTH STREET , JACKSON, MS, United States
The Mississippi Humanities Council announced the winners of its 2023 Public Humanities Awards recognizing outstanding work in preserving and sharing Mississippi’s unique history and culture. The awards ceremony will be held March 24, 2023 at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson. Tickets can be purchased at mshumanities.org.
Also, the MHC will recognize 30 recipients of the 2023 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 2023 Public Humanities Awards ceremony and reception March 24, 2022, at 5:30 p.m. at the Two Mississippi Museums.
Tickets for the Mississippi Humanities Council Public Humanities Awards ceremony and reception are $50 each and may be purchased through the MHC website or by sending a check to the Mississippi Humanities Council, 3825 Ridgewood Road, Room 317, Jackson, MS 39211.

Banned Book Festival
2023-03-25 09:00 - 17:00 | Millsaps College, 1701 N. State Street, Jackson, Mississippi, 39202
Millsaps College will host its very first Banned Books Festival on March 25, 2023. Increasingly, multitudes of books have been banned from public school libraries for their subject matter—for example, exploring racial justice and injustice, documenting investigative reporting and navigating difficult experiences through memoir. In reaction to these rising bans, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute, the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Millsaps College Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus Center (TRHT), and the ACLU are collaborating to sponsor a festival with authors of banned books sharing their stories. Join authors Angie Thomas, Julie K. Brown and Rick Bragg, and other to hear them discuss authorship, publication and banning. This event will begin at 9:00 a.m. and take place in various locations on the Millsaps campus.

The Twenty-Ninth Oxford Conference for the Book
2023-03-29 09:00 - 2023-03-31 18:00 | The Overby Center, 555 Grove Loop, University, MS, 386777, United States
Founded by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and Square Books, the Oxford Conference for the Book 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. This is the longest-running event put on by the Center and is always free and open to the public, and takes place in the spring.
The twenty-ninth Oxford Conference for the Book is set for March 29-31, 2023. Go here for more details.

Ideas on Tap - The Women who Run our State
2023-03-29 17:30 - 19:00 | Cultivation Food Hall, 1200 Eastover Drive #125, Jackson, MS, 39211, United States
According to the 2016 Clarion Ledger article, “The Women who Run our State”, “Of 172 legislative seats at the state Capitol, only 25 are filled by women.” Now in 2023, that number has decreased to 23. The article also states that in 2016, “Only five of our 19 higher court judges and justices are women”. In 2023, the number of women in Mississippi’s high courts have decreased to 4. As the number of female college and law school graduates increase nationally, why hasn’t women’s political representation of in our state grown? Join us Wednesday March 29th at Cultivation Food Hall as we address that question and others in our next Ideas on Tap conversation: Addressing the gender divide in Mississippi Politics. Among our panel guests will be Rep. Zakiya Summers (District 68) and Sen. Nicole Akins Boyd (District 9). The program is brought to you in partnership with the Mississippi Women’s Foundation and will last from 5:30 to 7pm. The address to cultivation Food Hall is 1200 Eastover Dr #125, Jackson, MS 39211. For more information, please contact program and outreach officer John Spann Jspann@mhc.state.ms.us

Creating Space for Lucy: Philosophy, Race and the Artisan Nashville Ballet's Lucy Negro Redux
2023-03-31 08:00 - 2023-04-02 17:00 | MS
Mississippi State University will host this conference intended to bring together the artist who created Nashville Ballet’s “Lucy Negro Redux” with both senior and junior scholars in academic fields important for thinking through different aspects of it.
Featured Events include:
A Roundtable Discussion with poet, Caroline Randall Williams, choreographer Paul Vasterling, and originator of the role of Lucy, Kayla Rowser
A Public Screening of Nashville Ballet’s Lucy Negro Redux
Invited paper sessions featuring an international and interdisciplinary roster of scholars from African American and African Studies, Dance and Performance Studies, Literary Studies, and Philosophy.
All events are free & open to the public. For additional
questions, contact Kristin Boyce at
lucyconference@gmail.com

Shell-Carving with Alex Alvarez
2023-04-01 13:00 - 15:00 | USM Liberal Arts Building, 114 N. 31st Ave., Hattiesburg, MS, 39401
Medicine Wheel Garden Event at USM Hattiesburg Campus

The Center of American Indian Research and Studies (CAIRS) at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) is partnering with the Mississippi Humanities Council, WECAN (Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network) and the Telenutrition Center to present several events throughout the year at the Medicine Wheel Garden, located on the USM Hattiesburg campus behind the Liberal Arts Building.
Dr. Tammy Greer, an associate professor of psychology who serves as director for CAIRS, developed the Medicine Wheel Garden in 2005 along with others to highlight the plants that were used by the indigenous peoples of this area, and to promote awareness of the rich histories and cultures of Southeastern Native Americans.
All events begin at 1 p.m. at the Medicine Wheel Garden; native plant-based snacks will be provided at each event. Members of the university and local communities are invited to these free events.
* April 1: Shell-Carving with Alex Alvarez
* Sept. 23: Plant-Based Pigments with Robin Whitfield
* Nov. 11: Plant Medicine with Jenna Mae

Bootjack and Red Historical Marker
2023-04-13 11:00 - 13:00 | Duck Hill, MS, 312 Main Street, Duck Hill, MS, 38925, United States
A historical marker commemorating the tragic lynching and torture deaths of Robert “Bootjack” McDaniels and Roosevelt “Red” Townes will be unveiled in Duck Hill, Mississippi on April 13, 2023. The story of the murders of Bootjack and Red is among the unsung history of Blacks living in Mississippi.

What We Can Learn From... Lecture Series
2023-04-13 19:00 - 20:30 | MS
Mississippi College presents a series of talks entitled, “What We Can Learn From _____.” This talk features Dr. Christopher Snyder presenting “Never Laugh at Dragons,” What We Can Learn from J.R.R. Tolkien and Mythology. Check it out, 4/13 at the Chapel (Building A)- FBC Clinton. Each presentation is followed by a reception with live music. The event is free and open to the public.

Behind the Big House Program & Tour ( 2023)
2023-04-20 - 2023-04-22 | Preserve Marshall County & Holly Springs, Inc., 184 S Memphis St, Holly Springs, MS, 38635-2919, United States
Behind the Big House is one of few historic site tours developed with the specific goal of interpreting slavery. The program began with several private homeowners in Holly Springs, Mississippi, who opened slave houses on their properties to the public. Since 2012, the program has educated thousands in North Mississippi and Arkansas. This year, Preserve Marshall County & Holly Springs, Inc. will continue to provide a more complete narrative of our town and its history, as a template for others to follow. The programs has now moves beyond alignment with the Pilgrimage dates to accommodate the growing interest among school groups.
In 2014, Preserve Marshall County and Holly Springs, Inc. received the Mississippi Heritage Trust’s Heritage Award for Preservation Education for the Behind the Big House program. In 2015, it received the Mississippi Humanities Council Preserver of Mississippi Culture Award, as well as a Mississippi Historical Society Award of Merit. In 2018, the National Humanities Alliance launched its Humanities for All website, which is a catalog of nearly 1500 publicly-engaged projects. Behind the Big House is one of 51 featured programs to have an extended profile on this website.

ICC 2023 Humanities Showcase
2023-04-24 14:00 - 16:00 | Itawamba Community College, 602 W Hill Street, Fulton, MS, 38843
On Monday, April 24th, ICC Fulton campus library will have a Humanities Showcase from 2 to 4. It is the final event in our year-long series “Reflecting Mississippi: Finding Yourself in Mississippi’s Reflection.”
The showcase will be broken into four segments of twenty minutes each:
(2:00-2:10 — Welcome and Overview)
2:10-2:30 — Philosophy and Ethics
2:40-3:00 — Literature and History
3:10-3:30 — Linguistics
3:40-4:00 — Comparative Religion
Each segment will open with a scholarly overview, followed by four students reading their work.
During the ten-minute breaks, people can come and go, enjoy refreshments, and browse the numerous posters of student work that will be displayed in the library. The event is open to the public.

IOT - Addressing the Gender Divide in Mississippi Politics
2023-04-26 17:30 - 19:00 | Cultivation Food Hall, 1200 Eastover Drive #125, Jackson, MS, 39211, United States

Cottrell Street Festival Symposium
2023-05-12 12:00 - 16:00 | northside christian church, 155 Cottrell Street, West Point, MS, 39773, Andorra
Cottrell Street is one of the most historic streets in the City of WestPoint and leaders wanted to spread some of the history to those who don’t know much about it.
Cottrell Street used to be the life of West Point in the 50’s and 60’s but things died down after that. Now town leaders and residents want to restore the celebration and tell the story of the street at a symposium held during the weekend festival help May 12, 2023. The symposium will educate the community of the importance of and education THEN during segregation and integration compared to NOW.

M.W. Stringer Grand Lodge Freedom Trail Marker
2023-06-04 10:00 - 12:00 | MS
– On June 4, the historic M.W. Stringer Grand Lodge will be added to the Mississippi Freedom Trail. Visit Jackson, Visit Mississippi, and the Mississippi Humanities Council are organizing the unveiling ceremony that will be a part of the M.W. Stringer Grand Lodge Homecoming activities that day. The historic site served as a sanctuary for Masons of Jackson and the Jackson Civil Rights Movement. At one time, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and other civil rights organizations of Mississippi had their central offices within the Stringer Lodge.
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party organized and chose delegates during a conference at the Lodge to represent the party at the 1964 Democratic Convention. Those delegates later became catalysts for the expansion of voting rights to all Americans. The Lodge also served as Medgar W. Evers’ second Jackson office working as the field secretary for the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP. The current Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP, led by Charles Taylor, is still housed in the M.W. Stringer Grand Lodge.
Join us on June 4 at 10:00 A.M. for the unveiling of the marker outside in the Lodge’s parking lot. The ceremony is open to the public.

E-STEAM Summer Camp
2023-06-05 08:00 - 2023-06-30 14:00 | iVilliage Community House, 1225 Robinson Street, Jackson, MS, 39203, United States
The Center for Social Entrepreneurship will provide a free E-STEAM Summer Camp to promote entrepreneurship, STEAM, and the arts 4th and 5th graders residing in West Jackson, MS. The four week camp is scheduled for June 2023 with daily sessions Monday-Friday 8:—2:00. Cap will be help at iVilliage Community House to provide easy access for neighborhood children.

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer (theatre project)
2023-06-08 19:00 - 2023-06-11 15:00 | Montogomery County Performing Arts Center, 208 Summit St, Winona, 38967, United States
The performance is a theatrical adaptation of the award winning children’s book Voices of Freedom Fannie Lou Hamer Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement authored by Carol Boston Weatherford. The actors are faith, school and civic community members in Winona and the counties of Mongomery and Carroll.
Voices of Freedom chronicles Mrs. Hamer’s life from childhood through the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. At the conclusion of each performance, there will be an opportunity for audience members to ask questions and share commentary of their experiences.

In the Bones Movie Premiere
2023-06-15 18:30 - 21:00 | Capri Theatre, 3023 N State St,, Jackson, 39216, United States
The Mississippi Humanities Council and The Southern Poverty Law Center are co-sponsoring the Jackson premiere screening of the Mississippi-based documentary, IN THE BONES, directed by Kelly Duane de la Vega and produced by Jessica Anthony. The Screening is at the Capri Theatre June 15th at 6:30pm.
Having previously screened at the New Orleans, Atlanta, Nashville, San Francisco DOCFEST (where it won the audience award), and Oxford Film Festivals, as well as internationally in Berlin, Sydney, Tokyo and Dubai, IN THE BONES will have its Jackson premiere on Thursday, June 15th, at 6:30 p.m. at the historic Capri Theatre in Fondren, followed by a panel discussion with director Kelly Duane de la Vega, producer Jessica Anthony and local community leaders.
In the Bones is a lyrical documentary that explores the personal and political by interweaving the lives of 12 characters living in Mississippi during a legislative session in which equal pay for equal work and abortion rights are being decided. Although set in three distinct regions of Mississippi, In the Bones is a much broader exploration of our culture, an unsettling portrayal of America that lingers, shining a light on the weight women live under in this country and also the resilience expressed in everyday acts of survival. View the trailer for In the Bones here: threeframes.org/in-the-bones.

The Legacy of Juneteenth: Are We Free?
2023-06-16 11:00 - 14:00 | The Orchid Bed and Breakfast, 628 North State Street, Jackson, MS, 39202
What is the legacy of freedom in Mississippi and what challenges are Black Mississippians facing today? Join us for this enlightening community conversation on the legacy of Juneteenth with some of our brightest scholars. This conversation will be focused on Black Mississippian’s liberation story and try to answer the question, “Are We Really Free?”

The program will last from 11am-2pm. We will start the conversation at 11:15am and have it last till 12:30pm. A 15minute Q&A session will follow. Free Food will be served.

Juneteenth Celebration/Project Kickoff
2023-06-17 08:00 - 17:00 | Valena C. Jones School, Bay St. Louis, 39520, United States
A Juneteenth Celebration will be held at Valena C. Jones School on June 17, 2023, to announce the kickoff of an Oral History Project. The project is to begin collecting contact information for former teachers and students who are interested in participating in interviews. Juneteenth celebrates the independence of Black Americans, and the celebration is planned to entertain, educate and empower the Bay St. Louis community and surrounding area.
Hearing their stories is a powerful recognition of the struggle for civil rights, the barriers to education faces and the successful lives and careers of so many graduates of this school. The friends of the Valena C Jones School hopes to use this project as a springboard to create an exhibit about the school and the community leaders it formed.

Juneteenth Festival
2023-06-17 12:00 - 17:00 | Holly Springs Historic Courthouse, 128 Van Dorn Ave, Holly Springs, MS, 38635, United States
Prepare for a full day of teach and learning African American History! The Juneteenth celebration consist of a Freedom Parade, Reenactment of Notification to African Americans being freed from slavery, Tour of Actual Slave quarters at Craft House and a full teaching and learning about slavery and Black History. Freedom parade starts at noon. The first tour of Slave Quarters will be at 1:00pm. There will be tents and tables set up around the Courthouse grounds with resources, information, arts & crafts, games, prizes and more. The program will begin immediately after the Slave Quarters tour at 1pm. There will be speakers on the History of Juneteenth, Genealogy, Slavery and Black History. There will also be singing and live music related to Juneteenth.

Promised Land: The Story of Mound Bayou Screening
2023-07-02 14:00 - 16:30 | TWO MISSISSIPPI MUSEUMS, 222 NORTH STREET , JACKSON, MS, United States
The Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) is partnering with the Mississippi Film Office and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to bring free, high-quality documentary film screenings to public audiences each month for the next year.
Up first will be Promised Land: The Story of Mound Bayou, a documentary film about a small town deep in the Mississippi Delta that holds a story unlike any other. Mound Bayou was founded in 1887 by formerly enslaved people who were on a mission unheard of at that time. The fertile, flat ground was the promised land that would show black Mississippians what the future could be. Here, they found independence, empowerment, and possibility. Promised Land: The Story of Mound Bayou will be screened Sunday, July 2, at 2 P.M. in the Neilsen Auditorium at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, accompanied by a presentation on Isaiah T. Montgomery, founder of Mound Bayou, by political scientist and Mound Bayou native Dr. Matthew Holden.

The Future of Design Camp
2023-07-10 08:00 - 2023-07-17 17:00 | The Belmont 1857, 3498 MS-1, Wayside, MS, 38780
Landmarks in Humanities: Teaching Architecture, History and Culture Using Historic Places will occur over three weeks hosted by The Alex Foundation. A financial gift from the Steve Azar St. Cecilia Foundation to Alex Foundation will give rising 7th grade students in the Delta the opportunity to tour The Belmont 1857 (formerly Belmont Plantation) beginning July 10 and concluding July 25.
A Mississippi Humanities Council grant allowed Alex Foundation to purchase architecture supplies and materials; retain historian Catherine Gardner to introduce students to historic Nelson Street in Greenville; and retain an architect, Brandon Bibby to teach architecture and introduce students to The Belmont 1857 in Wayside, and Grammy Museum Mississippi in Cleveland.

Landmarks in Humanities: Teaching Architecture, History and Culture with Historic Places
2023-07-10 09:00 - 2023-07-14 16:00 | The Belmont 1857, 3498 MS-1, Wayside, MS, 38780
Free summer youth workshop engaging middle school students with local architecture, history and culture. Programming will take place at The Belmont 1857, a former plantation home in Greenville and the Grammy Museum Mississippi.
