The Legacy of Juneteenth: Are We Free?
2023-06-16 11:00 - 14:00 (America/Chicago) | 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, 2023-07-17 09:00 - 2023-07-24 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.

Rosedale Freedom Project
2023-07-13 18:00 - 2023-07-14 20:00 | Rosedale Freedom Project, 705 Front Street, Rosedale, MS, 38769, United States
The Rosedale Freedom Project will begin with two 5-day intensive workshop for 7-12th grader students during the Freedom Summer Program. Eligible students are 7-12th graders in West Bolivar and Sunflower Counties. The workshops will be facilitated by Mississippi based Lanitx Poet C.T. Salazar.

The culmination of the project will be a public showcase in which families and community members will be invited to see performances of the poems. Visiting powers will be invited to attend in person and give a brief talk with the audience about their work with the Fellows.

Coleman High Oral History Workshop
2023-07-14 08:00 - 2023-07-16 17:00 | Coleman Middle School, 400 MS-1, Greenville, MS, 38701
The Coleman High School Oral History project will conduct a comprehensive history of Greenville, MS Coleman High, that closed and converted to a middle school in 1970 as voiced by former students. The project will take place over 4-5 years. A recruitment training workshop is scheduled during the 3rd biannual Coleman Reunion July 14-16 to be administered by a JSU oral history professor Alissa Rae Funderburk.

Landmarks in Humanities: Teaching Architecture, History and Culture with Historic Places
2023-07-24 09:00 - 2023-07-28 16:00 | GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, 800 West Sunflower Rd, Cleveland , MS, 38732, United States

Ideas on Tap
2023-07-27 17:30 - 19:00 | Soule Coffee and Bubble Tea, 2943 Old Canton Road, jackson, MS, 39216
Our next Ideas on Tap event will be July 27th from 5:30 – 7pm at Soule Coffee and Bubble Tea on Old Canton Road. The topic will be “Whats going on with boys today?” and will feature a discussion panel and question/answer session. To learn more about Ideas on Tap, contact our program and outreach officer, John Spann at jspann@mhc.state.ms.us

Highway 61: Traveling America’s Music Highway
2023-08-11 10:00 - 17:00 | GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, 800 West Sunflower Rd, Cleveland , MS, 38732, United States
Highway 61: Traveling America’s Music Highway exhibit will tell the important history of Highway 61 and its impact on American music. The exhibit will be on display at GRAMMY Museum Mississippi in Cleveland, MS, through 2024.
August 11th – Exhibit opens to the public at 10:00 AM

"It's In the Voices" Documentary Screening
2023-08-13 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 next is ” It’s in the Voices,” by filmmaker Field Humphrey. August 13th at 2:0m
Clint Bagley sits at a table in the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and locates a cassette tape from 1975. On it is the interview, he conducted with Daisy Greene, an elderly woman from his hometown of Greenville, Mississippi. Clint plays the tape and listens to the voice of his long deceased friend. For Clint, Daisy’s tranquil, Delta accent carries the same weight it did so many years ago. He ruminates over Daisy’s words as she recalls her experiences as a Black educator in the Mississippi Delta and her story of survival during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. As Daisy’s story unfolds, we learn how her words sparked a nationally-recognized oral history program that chronicled disparate voices of the Mississippi Delta’s once progressive bastion.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring the filmmaker, Field Humphrey, and Clinton Bagley from the film.

It’s in the Voices Documentary Screening
2023-08-13 14:00 - 16:30 | TWO MISSISSIPPI MUSEUMS, 222 NORTH STREET , JACKSON, MS, United States
The Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) will partner with the Mississippi Film Office and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to screen It’s in the Voices, a documentary film that tells the story of a 1970 oral history project in Washington County, Mississippi, that examined topics regarding black educators in the Mississippi Delta and the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. A Q&A session with Field Humphrey, director of the documentary, will follow the screening. It’s in the Voices will be screened Sunday, Aug. 13, at 2 p.m. in the Neilson Auditorium at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson.
The Sunday Screenings partnership goal is to bring documentary films to public audiences each month for the next year. The MHC gives a special thanks to the Mississippi Film Office, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers for making these screenings possible.
Future screenings will be announced as films are confirmed.

Possum Town Documentary
2023-08-22 13:00 - 15:00 | MS
This project began in the early 1970s in Columbus, Mississippi.
There, Dr. Berkley Hudson and his childhood friends discovered the life’s work of local “pictureman” Otis Noel (O.N.) Pruitt. They purchased the collection of 142,000 negatives in 1987 and spent the next 30 years archiving, researching, and preserving the work. Over those years, Hudson has discovered the stories behind Pruitt’s photographs, revealing complex and difficult truths. The collection was transferred in 2005 to the University of North Carolina.
Today, in partnership with Curatorial and with support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the University of Missouri, and many private donors Pruitt’s work is now being featured in a nationally-traveling exhibition and a book published by UNC Press with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.
The exhibition and its companion website, www.thepruittproject.com, feature images, film, period Mississippi music, spoken word, and a teaching and learning toolkit for teachers and their students. Exhibitions, symposia, book signings, and other events can be found on the website calendar.
Each aspect of the Pruitt Project encourages conversations within our own communities as we continue to search for a deeper understanding of culture and history in 21st-century America.

The Harvest World Premiere Film Screening
2023-08-30 17:15 - 20:00 | MS
The Harvest World Premiere Film Screening
Join us for the highly anticipated world premiere of The Harvest, a captivating film that tells the story of how school integration transformed the town of Leland, Mississippi.
Date: August 30, 2023
Time: 5:15 Reception w/hors d’oeuvres served
6:00pm Film Screening Begins
Author Douglas Blackmon will participate in a panel discussion after the film.
Location: Delta Research & Ext Center, Stoneville Road, Stoneville, Mississippi, USA
In The Harvest, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Douglas A. Blackmon looks back at how school integration transformed his hometown of Leland, Mississippi. After the 1954 Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, little more than token efforts were made to desegregate Southern schools. That changed dramatically on October 29, 1969, when the high court ordered that Mississippi schools to fully — and immediately — desegregate. As a result, a group of children, including six-year-old Blackmon, became part of the first class of Black and white children who would attend all 12 grades together in Leland.
Set against vast historic and demographic changes unfolding across America, The Harvest follows a coalition of Black and white citizens working to create racially integrated public schools in a cotton town in the middle of the Mississippi Delta, the most rigidly segregated area in America. It tells the extraordinary story of how that first class became possible, then traces the lives of Blackmon and his classmates, teachers and parents from the first day through high school graduation in 1982. It is a riveting portrait of how those children’s lives were transformed and how the town — and America — were changed. But as the film follows the lives of those children into the present, it is also a portrait of what our society has lost in its failure to finish the work begun a generation ago.
The Harvest World Premier

The Harvest Film Screening
2023-08-31 17:15 - 20:00 | TWO MISSISSIPPI MUSEUMS, 222 NORTH STREET , JACKSON, MS, United States
The Harvest Film Screening
Join us for the highly anticipated screening of The Harvest, a captivating film that tells the story of how school integration transformed the town of Leland, Mississippi.
Date: August 31, 2023
Time: 5:15 Reception w/hors d’oeuvres served
6:00pm Film Screening Begins
Author Douglas Blackmon will participate in a panel discussion after the film.
Location: Two Mississippi Museums, 222 North St #1206, Jackson, MS 39201
In The Harvest, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Douglas A. Blackmon looks back at how school integration transformed his hometown of Leland, Mississippi. After the 1954 Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, little more than token efforts were made to desegregate Southern schools. That changed dramatically on October 29, 1969, when the high court ordered that Mississippi schools to fully — and immediately — desegregate. As a result, a group of children, including six-year-old Blackmon, became part of the first class of Black and white children who would attend all 12 grades together in Leland.
Set against vast historic and demographic changes unfolding across America, The Harvest follows a coalition of Black and white citizens working to create racially integrated public schools in a cotton town in the middle of the Mississippi Delta, the most rigidly segregated area in America. It tells the extraordinary story of how that first class became possible, then traces the lives of Blackmon and his classmates, teachers and parents from the first day through high school graduation in 1982. It is a riveting portrait of how those children’s lives were transformed and how the town — and America — were changed. But as the film follows the lives of those children into the present, it is also a portrait of what our society has lost in its failure to finish the work begun a generation ago.
The Harvest

Mercy Train: Next Stop Bay St. louis, MS
2023-09-09 14:00 - 2023-09-10 14:00 | bay st louis little theatre, 398 Blaize Ave, Bay St Louis, 39520, United States
The one-act play outlines the history of Orphan Trains and tells the life stories of the five children who were adopted by Bay St. Louis families in 1909. The large cast of characters include at least 7 children and 10 adults.
Saturday, September 9 at 2pm and 7pm. Another performance Sunday Sept. 10 at 2pm. Admission is free.

Ideas on Tap
2023-09-14 17:00 - 19:00 | MS
The Mississippi Humanities Council presents Ideas on Tap, a thought-provoking series that brings together experts and the community to have good conversation and civil discussion about important issues facing our state. The topic of the evening will be “Land, Food & Power.”
This program will feature Dr. Bobby J. Smith II, Assistant Professor in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Robbie Pollard, Founder of Start 2 Finish Inc. and Happy Foods Project and a representative from Delta Fresh Food.

Date: September 14th
LOCATION: Club Ebony
404 Hanna Ave
Indianola, MS, 38751
TIME: 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Having Our Say: Women WriteHER Literary Arts Series
2023-09-15 10:00 - 19:00 | Washington County Convention Center, 1040 S. Raceway Road , Greenville , MS , 38703
One-day public literary program, during the three-day Mississippi Delta Blues and Heritage Festival in Greenville, featuring 13 authors, humanities scholars, literary artists, and creatives reflecting on southern women of the Civil Rights Movement.

Cacao and Chocolate: A Powerful Legacy
2023-09-18 08:00 - 2023-09-22 19:00 | Mississippi University for Women – Fant Memorial Library, 1200 5th Ave S, Columbus, MS, 39701, United States
COOKING AND CULTURE MEET DURING HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH AT THE W by Robert Scott
Mississippi University for Women will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with “Cacao and Chocolate: A Powerful Legacy,” a two-day event centering on Hispanic culture and cuisine.

“Events like ‘Cacao and Chocolate: A Powerful Legacy’ offer exceptional educational opportunities that go beyond traditional classrooms. For example, a team of interdisciplinary students has passionately delved into the theme, showcasing their research skills, creativity and sense of discovery,” said Dr. Reyna Vergara, assistant professor of Spanish and co-director of the event.
The interdisciplinary students will showcase what they discovered in their research Thursday, Sept. 21 from noon-1:30 p.m. in the demonstration kitchen of the Culinary Arts Institute. There also will be a chocolate tasting at the event.
Booklets featuring stories, messages and recipes from those involved with the event will be handed out to attendees.
Later in the day, from 6-7 p.m., the presentation “Transforming Traditional Feminine Spaces in El Eterno femenino, (in italics) ‘La muñeca menor,’ and Como agua para chocolate (in italics)” will take place. It will be held in Nissan Auditorium in Parkinson Hall in conjunction with the Fall Forum Series hosted by the Gordy Honors College.
“Cacao and Chocolate” will conclude with a cultural discussion and question and answer forum Friday, Sept. 22 from 9:30-10:30 a.m. in the northwest lobby of Fant Memorial Library led by Dr. Cecy Brooks, assistant professor of psychology and family studies.
“I believe interdisciplinary events like this foster collaboration between departments and subjects, like Spanish and biology, which helps with communication and building a stronger campus community. I also believe that it supports the goals of the liberal arts while helping students see that subjects that seem unrelated can actually be combined to create excellent learning experiences. It is also important to bring minority cultures to the forefront of our campus thoughts. We may even be able to reach a point where Hispanic students will seek out The W,” said Michael Dodson, science instructor and co-director of the event.
The entirety of “Cacao and Chocolate” is free and open to the public.

The event also allowed for an opportunity to reach outside of campus and partner with a nonprofit, El Centro. It is a Tupelo-based organization that, according to its website, “helps Hispanics and Northeast Mississippi residents integrate into the local community.”
Visit https://www.elcentrotupelo.org/ for more information.
It is the hope of the organizers that partnerships like this one will help expand Hispanic heritage events in the future and perhaps even change them to better fit the goal of inclusion.
“For the future, I’d like to explore further whether we should continue to align ourselves with the national Hispanic Heritage Month or adopt what might feel like a more inclusive name that has the potential of better reflecting our community’s identity,” Vergara said.
In addition to the three events, there will be an accompanying display set up in Fant Memorial Library the entirety of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15). It also will feature information about El Centro for anyone who is interested but was unable to attend one of the events.
“My hope is that we can recruit and serve more of the Hispanic/Latinx community creating an even more diverse campus. I believe diversity brings strength. Since we are working with El Centro, I hope that we can expand our ability to partner with this organization and possibly use their example in Columbus to help K-12 Hispanic students in the Golden Triangle,” Dodson said.
###
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.

About The W
Located in historic Columbus, Mississippi, The W was founded in 1884 as the first state-supported college for women in the United States. Today, the university is home to 2,339 students in more than 70 majors and concentrations and has educated men for 40 years. The university is nationally recognized for low student debt, diversity and social mobility which empowers students to BE BOLD.
Be Bold. Tower with Blue.

SLIS Prison Program Lunch and Learn
2023-09-21 12:00 - 12:45 | MS
This Week via Zoom: Join MHC Project Coordinator Carla Falkner and others to learn about educational initiatives for incarcerated youth and adults.

Plant-Based Pigments with Robin Whitfield
2023-09-23 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.
* Sept. 23: Plant-Based Pigments with Robin Whitfield
* Nov. 11: Plant Medicine with Jenna Mae

Speaker's Bureau: "Murder on Pretty Creek: New Revelations on an Old Case"
2023-09-26 17:30 - 19:30 | Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St., Natchez, MS, United States
The killing of Ben Chester White, one of the brutal murders that occurred in Natchez during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, will be discussed by Stanley Nelson at the Tuesday, Sept. 26, meeting of the Natchez Historical Society. The meeting begins with a social at 5:30 p.m. and Nelson’s presentation at 6 p.m., at the Historic Natchez Foundation at 108 S. Commerce St. The event is free to the public.
Nelson’s presentation is titled, “Murder on Pretty Creek: New Revelations on an Old Case.” It will focus on White, the 67-year-old Black man who was murdered in 1966 by the Ku Klux Klan. Nelson will talk about his alleged killers, two of whom, Ernest Avants and James Lloyd Jones, were charged but not convicted in 1967; and a third one, Claude Fuller, who was never brought to trial.

MS Delta Civil Rights Heritage Tourism Summit
2023-09-27 08:00 - 17:00 | BB King Museum, 400 Second Street, Indianola, MS, 38751, United States
About the Summit
As a follow up to these events, MS Delta NHA/Delta Center, BB King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, Mississippi Humanities Council, Mound Bayou Museum, the National Park Service, and other regional partners are collaborating to host a Civil Rights Heritage Tourism Summit. The Summit is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, September 27, 2023, at BB King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center and the historic, recently restored Club Ebony in Indianola, MS.
In April 2022, the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area (MS Delta NHA) at Delta State University’s Delta Center for Culture and Learning hosted the Alliance of National Heritage Areas Spring Meeting. The meeting included an inclusive storytelling and community-based tourism development session with a special focus on African American Civil Rights heritage in the Mississippi Delta. The session was facilitated by Dr. Déanda Johnson, National Park Service Civil Rights Historian for the Southeast Region. MS Delta NHA is the first NHA to be designated to the National Park Service’s African American Civil Rights Network

Invisible Histories Project
2023-09-29 08:00 - 2023-10-21 17:00 | Municipal Art Gallery, 839 N. State Street, Jackson, Mississippi, 39202
Magnolia Memories: Mississippi’s LGBTQ History
Exhibit and related public programs documenting and exploring Mississippi’s LGBTQ history from the 1960s through the 2000s including text and artifacts, textiles, audio/visual content and art.

Banned Book Week 2023
2023-10-04 08:00 - 2023-10-06 17:00 | Mississippi University for Women, 1100 College Street, Columbus, MS, 39701
Banned Book Week- October 1-7, 2023- is a celebration of our right to create, share and have access to the diverse experiences, thoughts and feelings of all people of the world. Librarians and educators in Columbus will participate in Banned Book Week by hosting a series of events at Mississippi University for Women and the Columbus-Lowdes Public Library. October 4th kicks off the series of events, where a panel featuring educators, lawyers and librarians who have experience in combatting book challenges will speak about their experiences. On October 5th, there will be an art exhibit and read aloud at Columbus Art council, where artist will share their work and excerpts from banned books. Friday, a planned discussion about Ban This Book by Alan Gratz is planned with student involvement at MUW and MSMS. Other activities include a library scavenger hunt for banned books and a themed craft.

2023 Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival
2023-10-12 08:00 - 2023-10-14 17:30 | Coahoma Community College, 3240 Friars Point Road, Clarksdale, MS, 38614, United States
Annual festival examining the life and works of playwright Tennessee Williams. The 2023 festival will explore two Williams’ plays, The Unsatisfactory Supper and Twenty-seven Wagons Full of Cotton, upon which the controversial 1956 film Baby Doll was based.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12
Overview: Tour the Delta en route to Benoit. Lunch and Program in Benoit; Dinner and watch film in Clarksdale
10:00 AM | 109 Clark Street | Clarksdale
Depart Cutrer Mansion
Ride the Coahoma Community College Bus en route to Benoit to the Baby Doll House, 77 Burrus Road, Benoit, Mississippi
•Enjoy a ride through the MS Delta on Highway 1 going to Benoit. See old homes, cotton fields, working farms, and the levee that keeps the Mighty Mississippi River in place. The ride to Benoit and back is FREE, but we prefer you sign up. There is limited seating on the bus. You are also welcome to take your own vehicle. RESERVATIONS NEEDED: Email Taylor Armstrong at cchecassistant@gmail.com to reserve your space on the bus.
11:30 AM | Burrus House | 77 Burrus Road | Benoit
Arrive Benoit | Tour the Burrus House where the 1956 movie Baby Doll was filmed
12:30 PM | Burrus House back patio | 77 Burrus Road | Benoit
Lunch-N-Learn
Picnic Boxes available on-site from a Cleveland, Mississippi, “takery” called Our Delta Table which specializes in fresh, wholesome handmade foods such as chicken salad, pimento cheese, pasta salad, fresh fruit. We will have a variety of boxes available (Salad Trio, Croissant Sandwich or the Turkey BLT Wrap). RESERVATIONS NEEDED by October 9: The cost is $15 per box. Email Taylor Armstrong at cchecassistant@gmail.com to reserve a picnic box. We will share specific box choices as it gets closer. We take cash, check or Venmo. You may also bring your own sack lunch to enjoy. Water will be provided.
1:00 PM to 2:45 PM | Burrus House back patio | 77 Burrus Road | Benoit
Scholar Talks
All presentations relate back to the Baby Doll film or to Tennessee Williams plays, but presentations will expand to the Delta Land and Culture
• Dr. Clay Motley — Presentation l Rooted in the Delta: Baby Doll and the Blues
• Dr. Ann Fisher-Wirth — Presentation l Comedy and Eros
• Dr. Jim DelPrince — Presentation l Life in Full Bloom: Courtship Flowers from the plays of Tennessee Williams3:00 PM
Depart Burrus House
4:15 PM
Arrive in Clarksdale | Cutrer Mansion, 109 Clark Street
5:15 PM to 7:15 PM | Cutrer Mansion lawn | 109 Clark Street
Delta Dinner Party with Local Cuisine | A Toast to Dr. W. Kenneth Holditch | Featuring performances by the Coahoma Community College Choir under the direction of Dr. Kelvin K. Towers as well as local blues harmonica player, Deak Harp
• The 2023 MDTWF is dedicated to the late Dr. W. Kenneth Holditch, Professor Emeritus at the University of New Orleans and World Renowned Williams Scholar.
• Dr. Holditch was one of the original consultants for the Clarksdale festival and served as the keynote speaker for many years as well. We are grateful for his commitment and service as a devoted advisor and friend.
• Food bites representing the very best cuisine in the MS Delta including barbecue, hot tamales, slaw, baked beans, kibbie balls, cabbage rolls, catfish bites, fried rice, egg rolls, rigatoni and meatballs, and homemade pie. RESERVATIONS NEEDED: The cost for a dinner ticket is $35 per person/$60 for two in advance and $40 per person at the door. Dinner tickets can be pre-ordered and purchased by October 9th by contacting Taylor Armstrong at 662-621-9344 at cchecassistant@gmail.com. We take cash, check or Venmo.
7:30 PM | Clark House front lawn | 211 Clark Street
Night Under the Stars | Screening of 1956 film Baby Doll | 114 min
With a Special Surprise Introduction by Carroll Baker, taped in New York especially for our Festival
(Next door to the Cutrer Mansion – bring your own lawn chair or picnic blanket)
• Scandalous in its time and still steamy today, this 1956 film is considered a dark comedy that tells the Tennessee Williams tale of a child-like bride named “Baby Doll” Meighan (Carroll Baker), and the men who want to own her.
• When cotton gin owner Archie Lee Meighan (Karl Malden) destroys rival Silva Vacarro’s (Eli Wallach) cotton gin, a battle ensues, and Baby Doll is stuck in the middle.
• Screenplay written by Tennessee Williams and based on two of his one-act plays (The Unsatisfactory Supper and 27 Wagons Full of Cotton), Elia Kazan’s shot-on-location film creation reveals gender, class, and racial prejudices experienced in the Mississippi heat.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13
Overview: Scholar Presentation and Performances
Coahoma Community College (9:15 am to 12:15pm)
Various locations in downtown Clarksdale (Afternoon)
All events and performances are in Clarksdale
9:15 AM | CCC Georgia Lewis Theater | 3240 Friars Point Rd
Presentation | W. Ralph Eubanks | Race and the Looming Civil Rights Movement in Baby Doll
10:15 AM | CCC Georgia Lewis Theater| 3240 Friars Point Rd
Presentation | Dr. Michele Meek | Courting Controversy: Forbidden Desire in the Film Baby Doll
•The 1956 film Baby Doll, written by Tennessee Williams and directed by Elia Kazan, elicited scandal, protests, and a ban from the Legion of Decency due to its story of a young married woman, Baby Doll, who has never consummated her relationship with her husband and instead embarks on an intimate relationship with his nemesis. In this talk, Professor Michele Meek discusses exactly what was so controversial—and compelling—about Baby Doll in its era and how the film continues to resonate in many respects, even today.
11:15 AM | CCC Georgia Lewis Theater | 3240 Friars Point Rd
Performance | W.C., TENNESSEE, THE BLUES & ME | Written and Directed by Levi Frazier Jr. of Blues City Cultural Center
•This 1-act play incorporates blues music while highlighting three creative geniuses of the Mississippi Delta: W.C. Handy and Tennessee Williams while Robert Johnson narrates. Discussion follows.
12:15-1:30 PM
Lunch on your own at one of Clarksdale’s fine restaurants
12:30-2:30 PM | 106 Sharkey Avenue
Tennessee Williams Rectory Museum open
• Between 1917 and 1932, a young Tom “Tennessee” Williams lived with, and then regularly visited his grandparents in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where his grandfather Walter E. Dakin was rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church. Williams was deeply influenced by the Mississippi Delta, and featured Clarksdale people, places, and stories in some of his most famous plays, including The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Summer and Smoke, and Orpheus Descending. The museum is housed in the four upstairs bedrooms in the former rectory of St. George’s Episcopal Church, once occupied by Williams and his family.

1:30 PM | Carnegie Public Library | 114 Delta Avenue
I Remember Kenneth: Panel, Tributes and More Honoring the Life of Dr. W. Kenneth Holditch
2:30 PM | Clarksdale Woman’s Club | 101 Sharkey Avenue
Presentation | Karen Kohlhaas | A Hollywood Review: On Location in the Mississippi Delta. Karen will tell the story of the Hollywood movie whose production took over the lives of many residents in Benoit and Greenville, Mississippi when the cast and crew of Baby Doll came to town.
4:00 PM | Chapman, Lewis & Swan Law Office Porch | 501 1st Street
Performance | The Long Stay Cut Short OR The Unsatisfactory Supper directed by Augustin J. Correro of the Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans | Panel discussion to follow
5:30 PM | Home of Eva Connell
Outdoor Wine & Cheese Reception & Performance | Performance starts at 6:30 pm | Performance: TRUMAN TALKS TENNESSEE” commissioned by the Southern Literary Trail for the Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans in March of 2015.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14
Overview: Student Drama Competition, Tennessee Williams Rectory Museum, Talk at St. George’s, Woman’s Club reception, and Porch Plays

All events and performances are in Clarksdale

9:00 AM | Norman Brown Commons Bldg, Cutrer Mansion| 109 Clark Street
Student Drama Competition | Sponsored by Coahoma Community College
• A festival favorite, the Student Drama Competition highlights students from around the region who will perform monologues, scenes and Stella calls competing for the opportunity to win trophies and $2,500 in award money for their school programs. Open to the Public.

10:30AM | Cutrer Mansion | 109 Clark Street
Book Talk with Augustin Correro, author of Tennessee Williams 101. Doors open at 10:30 AM, talk begins at 11 AM . Book signing to follow.

12noon-1:30 PM
Lunch on your own at one of Clarksdale’s fine restaurants
•Student Pizza Party in the courtyard of the Cutrer Mansion

12:30-2:30 PM | 106 Sharkey Avenue
Tennessee Williams Rectory Museum open
• Between 1917 and 1932, a young Tom “Tennessee” Williams lived with, and then regularly visited his grandparents in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where his grandfather Walter E. Dakin was rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church. Williams was deeply influenced by the Mississippi Delta, and featured Clarksdale people, places, and stories in some of his most famous plays, including The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Summer and Smoke, and Orpheus Descending. The museum is housed in the four upstairs bedrooms in the former rectory of St. George’s Episcopal Church, once occupied by Williams and his family.

12:30-2:30 PM | 101 Sharkey Avenue
Clarksdale Woman’s Club Reception & Performance
• The Clarksdale Woman’s Club, which has been an active service club for women since 1907, will serve refreshments in their club house built in 1923. It is located across the street from St. George’s Episcopal Church and the Tennessee Williams Rectory Museum. Stop by the Woman’s Club for some hometown hospitality and refreshments before the Porch Plays, and a performance by the winners of the student drama competition at 1:30 PM
2:30 pm | St. George’s Episcopal Church, Sharkey Ave near 1st Street
Tennessee Williams at St. George’s Church with the Rev. Charlie Deaton
• The Reverend Charlie Deaton of St. George’s Episcopal Church talks inside the sanctuary where Tennessee Williams’ grandfather, the Rev. Walter E. Dakin, was rector from 1917 – 1932.

3:00-5:00 PM
Porch Plays in the Historic District
• 3 pm | 415 Court Street | Panny’s Porch |The Last of My Solid Gold Watches Performed by Johnny McPhail • Introduction by Susan McPhail
• 3:30 pm | 203 Court Street | Sherman Law Offices | A Tennessee Williams Performance by StoryWorks, a documentary theater company that transforms investigative journalism into theater and audio dramas • Introduction by Jenna Welch
• 4:00 pm | 235 Clark Street | Ross Porch | A Tradition: Long-time community theater actor, Sherrye Williams, discusses and performs her favorite Williams character Amanda Wingfield • Introduction by Dr. Clay Motley

• 4:30 pm | 41 John Street | The Governor’s Mansion | 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. Light refreshments served. Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans • Introduced and Directed by Augustin J. Correro
5:30 PM | 207 Yazoo Avenue
After-Party at the “Hot Spot Café” | Yazoo Pass

Mississippi River Basin Model 80th Anniversary
2023-10-14 14:00 - 16:00 | Buddy Butts Park, 6180 McRaven Road , Jackson , MS, 39209
Friends of the Mississippi River Basin Model is a non-profit organization helping to restore the Mississippi River Basin Model, renew Buddy Butts Park, and enhance educational opportunities for children in Mississippi.
The Mississippi River Basin Model (MRBM) located in Jackson, MS is a scale replica of the Mississippi River Basin. The site, which sprawls over 200 acres, was built by local Mississippians and World War II German prisoners-of-war who were housed in Camp Clinton nearby. The model was an imperative scientific experiment that, in the time before computers could efficiently perform complicated numerical analysis, would determine how the mighty Mississippi River could be contained. It is the largest physical model in the world and serves as a tourist destination to this day for visitors across the country and globe. The intention of this project is to educate Mississippians on the history of the MRBM, Camp Clinton (home to WWII German POWs) and restoration work to date at the model by providing a running video presentation on both topics, STEM activities, and a guided tour of the MRBM.
STEM Activity: 2- 4
Movie: ‘Dream Big’ 2:30 – 3:30
MRBM Tours: 3:45 5:00
Music: 4:00-6:00

Mississippi River Basin Celebrates 80 years
2023-10-14 14:00 - 18:00 | Buddy Butts Park, 6180 McRaven Road , Jackson , MS, 39209
