Mississippi Humanities Council

The Twenty-Ninth Oxford Conference for the Book
2023-03-29 09:00 - 2023-03-31 18:00 (America/Chicago) | 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
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
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
– 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, 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
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
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
