Speakers Bureau: “A Look at Mande (West African) Culture Through Traditional Music"
2025-12-11 17:30 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | Mississippi Children’s Museum, 2145 Museum Blvd, , MS, Jackson, MS, 39202, United States
Jerry Jenkins presents: “A Look at Mande (West African) Culture Through Traditional Music”
This presentation 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.

Reading the Room
2025-12-11 18:00 - 20:00 | Urban Foxes, Jackson, MS, 39202, United States
The Mississippi Humanities Council is pleased to partner with the Mississippi Book Festival and Urban Foxes to present our next Reading the Room event.
If you love reading, socializing, and any excuse to talk about books, then join us!

Thursday, December 11th at 6:00 pm
Urban Foxes
826 North St, Jackson, MS 39202

Bring any book you are currently reading, enjoy some time set aside to read on your own, and talk books with your neighbors over drinks and snacks. Come celebrate Mississippi’s vibrant literary culture with us!

Speakers Bureau: "The American Revolution in the Gulf South"
2026-01-12 11:30 - 13:30 | Historic Natchez Foundation, 108 S. Commerce St., Natchez, MS, United States
Max Grivno presents: “The American Revolution in the Gulf South”
The history of the American Revolution along the Gulf South is seldom told. Although most of the Europeans who called the region were sympathetic to the British — or at least hoped to remain neutral — the conflict soon engulfed the territory of what would, in time, become Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida. This presentation examines how the American Revolution transformed the Gulf South. It tells the story of how the Americans, British and Spanish vied for control of the Mississippi River and Gulf seaports, and how the Choctaws and Chickasaws struggled to preserve their homelands by courting the rival powers. It describes James Willing’s disastrous raid on Natchez, the Choctaw occupation of Natchez and the campaign launched by Spanish Bernardo de Galvez, who conquered Natchez and Pensacola and drove the British from the region. The lecture also discusses the consequences of the Revolution for the people of the Gulf Coast In the aftermath of the war, the Spanish and the Americans vied to control Natchez and the territory around present-day Vicksburg, while native confederacies like the Choctaw and Chickasaw grappled with the rising power of the United States.

Speakers Bureau: "Ida B. Wells: The Mother of the American Human Rights Movement"
2026-01-27 12:00 - 15:00 | Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, 314 7th St N, Columbus, MS, 39701, United States
Dr. Cassie Sade Turnipseed presents “Ida B. Wells: The Mother of the American Human Rights Movement”
Ida B. Wells’s life has intriguing ties to Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, President William McKinley, Booker T. Washington, Duke of Argyll and Sir John Gorst. She was a journalist who wrote about human rights and had a clear understanding about her rights as a woman. This presentation highlights her fearless campaign to realize the most significant contribution to the investigation and avocation against human lynchings. Yet, she is unknown to most people of this generation.

Speakers Bureau: "Spanish Dons in Colonial Mississippi: The Spanish roots of Mississippi’s Cotton Kingdom"
2026-04-16 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.

Speakers Bureau: "The American Revolution in the Gulf South"
2026-04-21 12:00 - 15:00 | Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, 314 7th St N, Columbus, MS, 39701, United States
