Mississippi Humanities Council

Crossroads @ Mt. Olive: Traditional Fiddle Music of the Rural South
2020-10-31 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Chicago) | Mt. Olive Presbyterian Church, 501 Cotton Street, Mt. Olive, MS, 39119, United States
On October 31, the Jane Blain Brewer Memorial Library in Mt. Olive will host Bill Rogers to present a program on traditional fuddle music of the rural South. The free program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Mt. Olive through December 12.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit is open to the public Mondays-Saturdays from 10am to 4pm and is free to visit.
Future Crossroads Events in Mt. Olive:
November 7, 10am: “The Impact of Rural Electrification on South Mississippi” presentation, Steve Bryan
November 14, 10am: “Railroads in the Development of South Mississippi” presentation, Rev. David Price
November 21, 10am: “Centennial Farms in the Mt. Olive Area” presentation, June Ellis and Nell Cobb
November 28, 10am: “Hometown Makeover” screening
December 7, 10am: “From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies” presentation, Dr. John Green
December 12, 10am: “Mt. Olive: History and Development” presentation, Sandra Boyd

Crossroads @ Mt. Olive: Impact of Rural Electrification
2020-11-07 10:00 - 11:00 | Mt. Olive Presbyterian Church, 501 Cotton Street, Mt. Olive, MS, 39119, United States
On November 7, the Jane Blain Brewer Memorial Library in Mt. Olive will host Steve Bryant from Southern Pine Electric Power Association to discuss the impact of rural electrification on South Mississippi. The free program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Mt. Olive through December 12.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit is open to the public Mondays-Saturdays from 10am to 4pm and is free to visit.
Future Crossroads Events in Mt. Olive:
November 14, 10am: “Railroads in the Development of South Mississippi” presentation, Rev. David Price
November 21, 10am: “Centennial Farms in the Mt. Olive Area” presentation, June Ellis and Nell Cobb
November 28, 10am: “Hometown Makeover” screening
December 7, 10am: “From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies” presentation, Dr. John Green
December 12, 10am: “Mt. Olive: History and Development” presentation, Sandra Boyd

Crossroads @ Mt. Olive: Railroads in the Development of South Mississippi
2020-11-14 10:00 - 11:00 | Mt. Olive Presbyterian Church, 501 Cotton Street, Mt. Olive, MS, 39119, United States
On November 14, the Jane Blain Brewer Memorial Library in Mt. Olive will host railroad historian Rev. David Price to present a program on the impact of railroads on development in south Mississippi. The free program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Mt. Olive through December 12.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit is open to the public Mondays-Saturdays from 10am to 4pm and is free to visit.
Future Crossroads Events in Mt. Olive:
November 21, 10am: “Centennial Farms in the Mt. Olive Area” presentation, June Ellis and Nell Cobb
November 28, 10am: “Hometown Makeover” screening
December 7, 10am: “From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies” presentation, Dr. John Green
December 12, 10am: “Mt. Olive: History and Development” presentation, Sandra Boyd

Crossroads @ Mt. Olive: Centennial Farms in the Mt. Olive Area
2020-11-21 10:00 - 11:00 | Mt. Olive Presbyterian Church, 501 Cotton Street, Mt. Olive, MS, 39119, United States
On November 21, the Jane Blain Brewer Memorial Library in Mt. Olive will host the Covington County Genealogical and Historical Society to present a program on Centennial Farms in the Mt. Olive area. The free program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Mt. Olive through December 12.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit is open to the public Mondays-Saturdays from 10am to 4pm and is free to visit.
Future Crossroads Events in Mt. Olive:
November 28, 10am: “Hometown Makeover” screening
December 7, 10am: “From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies” presentation, Dr. John Green
December 12, 10am: “Mt. Olive: History and Development” presentation, Sandra Boyd

Crossroads @ Mt. Olive: Hometown Makeover Screening
2020-11-28 10:00 - 11:00 | Mt. Olive Presbyterian Church, 501 Cotton Street, Mt. Olive, MS, 39119, United States
On November 28, the Jane Blain Brewer Memorial Library in Mt. Olive will present a free screening of the “Mt. Olive Hometown Makeover” video submitted to the HGTV “Hometown Makeover” contest conducted by Laurel, Mississippi HGTV hosts Erin and Ben Napier. The free program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Mt. Olive through December 12.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit is open to the public Mondays-Saturdays from 10am to 4pm and is free to visit.
Future Crossroads Events in Mt. Olive:
December 7, 10am: “From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies” presentation, Dr. John Green
December 12, 10am: “Mt. Olive: History and Development” presentation, Sandra Boyd

Community Library Mississippi Goes Virtual: Holiday Book Festival
2020-11-28 10:00 - 13:00
Community Library Mississippi hosts a virtual book festival including performances, marketplace, and a youth poetry competition. More information on the event and how to attend can be found on the event webpage.

Community Conversations: War and Homecoming Across the Humanities
2020-12-01 | Oxford Lafayette Library, 401 Bramlett Blvd , Oxford, MS, 38655, United States
University of Mississippi students, under the guidance of faculty and staff, will lead community discussions on the the war and homecoming, based on humanities texts (Homer’s “Odyssey,” Maximilian Uriarte’s graphic novel “The White Donkey,” and short-form poetry by veterans of the Post 9/11 conflicts) in two North Mississippi public libraries. The program is particularly designed for veteran participants, but open to anyone interested, and is meant to help veterans contextualize and process their experiences of the relation between military life and “the home front” in a trans-historical context accessed through reading in the humanities

MS + MA: Crossing Borders/Connecting Stories
2020-12-03 18:00 - 19:30
The Mississippi Humanities Council and Mass Humanities announce a series of six interactive, online programs to facilitate conversation between our two states. We will be examining intersecting points in our histories, exploring our rich literary traditions, and engaging in cross-state dialogue. By reflecting on our states’ identities in relationship to each other, this series aims to build understanding and offer new perspectives. At a time when the pandemic has created a greater sense of isolation, we hope to forge connections.
This first conversation in the MS + MA series explores images and impressions of our two states, bringing curiosity to questions about how we view each other. Our two speakers, Mississippi author Ralph Eubanks and Massachusetts author Michael Gorra, will draw on the literary heritage of Mississippi and Massachusetts to offer reflections on how our greatest writers have informed and complicated our views of each other. Participants will also engage in conversations with residents from both states in small breakout groups, sharing and examining their own impressions of our two states and discussing what they learned from our two speakers.
Participation is free, but space is limited and registration is required.
Once you have registered, you will be sent a short survey in mid-November asking for your impressions of how you view Massachusetts and how you think residents in Massachusetts view Mississippi. In late November, you will also be sent two very short excerpts from works by a writer in each state that you can read ahead of time. The link to access the event online will be sent a few days before the event.

Crossroads @ Mt. Olive: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies
2020-12-05 10:00 - 11:00 | Mt. Olive Presbyterian Church, 501 Cotton Street, Mt. Olive, MS, 39119, United States
On December 5, the Jane Blain Brewer Memorial Library in Mt. Olive will host Dr. John Green, state scholar for the Crossroads exhibit, to present his free program, “From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi through Population Studies.” The program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Mt. Olive through December 12.
Many popular images of rural people and places present them as homogeneous in terms of demographic, social, and economic characteristics and trends. This may lead to oversimplification of rural areas and limited efforts to meet the needs and priorities of people living in these places. Achieving a better understanding of rural communities requires defining our concepts and identifying indicators of rural life in terms of continuity and change. Following an exploration of the terms “rural” and “non-metropolitan,” Dr. Green will share a series of graphical images and narratives about Mississippi’s rural people and places using population-level information, emphasizing what these “snapshots” of rural life tell us about Mississippi and how we might use them to form a “collage” that captures both the similarity and diversity.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit is open to the public Mondays-Saturdays from 10am to 4pm and is free to visit.
Future Crossroads Events in Mt. Olive:
December 12, 10am: “Mt. Olive: History and Development” presentation, Sandra Boyd

SB: Fault Lines: Living in Two Cultures
2020-12-07 12:00 - 13:00
Seetha Srinivasan, director emeritus of the University Press of Mississippi, discusses becoming a part of the American mainstream while retaining one’s ethnic (in this case Indian) identity and asks the following questions: Can it be done? To what extent? What are the challenges, frustrations, rewards? E-mail Peter Dean at the Ridgeland Public Library for information on how to attend.

Crossroads @ Mt. Olive: The History and Development of Mt. Olive
2020-12-12 10:00 - 11:00 | Mt. Olive Presbyterian Church, 501 Cotton Street, Mt. Olive, MS, 39119, United States
On December 12, the Jane Blain Brewer Memorial Library in Mt. Olive will host Sandra Boyd, local archivist and librarian, to present her program “Mt. Olive: History & Development.” The program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Mt. Olive through December 12.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit is open to the public Mondays-Saturdays from 10am to 4pm and is free to visit.

Ideas on Tap: Polarized: Politics and News in a Divided America
2020-12-15 17:30 - 19:00
On December 15, join the Mississippi Humanities Council for a conversation on the polarization of American news and politics.

The program will address the U.S.’s increasing division over political beliefs, how news silos have affected how we determine truth and reality, and what to do to combat the current polarization. Panelists include Dr. Talia Stroud (Director, Center for Media Engagement and Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin), Dr. Marvin King (Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Mississippi), and Kayleigh Skinner (Managing Editor at Mississippi Today). MHC Executive Director Dr. Stuart Rockoff will moderate the program.

The program will be livestreamed directly to the MHC Facebook page, so come prepared to watch, listen, and ask questions in the chat.

This program is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s “Democracy and the Informed Citizen” initiative, in partnership with the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

MS+MA: Inside/Out--The Lessons of Freedom Summer
2021-01-14 19:00 - 20:30
The second “MS + MA: Crossing Borders/Connecting Stories” dialogue will take place Jan. 14, 2021, and will be entitled, “Inside/Out—The Lessons of Freedom Summer,” where we will explore the connections between our two states during the Civil Rights Movement.
The January dialogue will feature veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, both from Mississippi and from Massachusetts, who will examine social justice activism as a grassroots movement and the impact outside activists have on local efforts. The agenda will include a facilitated conversation among the speakers, with small-group breakout sessions for audience participants from both Mississippi and Massachusetts to engage further. The MS+MA dialogues are interactive, take place on Zoom, and are free and open to the public.

Register Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/133022691451

Oxford Film Festival: "I'm Not a Racist, Am I?" Screening and Community Talk
2021-02-01 18:00 - 20:00
Free screening of “I’m Not a Racist, Am I?” followed by a 60-90 minute workshop to further examine the context of the film and our own role in deconstructing race and confronting racism. For more information, visit https://www.oxfordfilmfest.com/

"Crossroads" Exhibit in Scooba
2021-02-08 08:00 - 2021-03-12 17:00 | Tubb-May Memorial Library, 1512 Kemper Street, Scooba, MS, 39358, United States
East Mississippi Community College will host Crossroads: Change in Rural America, a Smithsonian traveling exhibition, from February 8 through March 12. The exhibit will be on display in the Tubb-May Library on EMCC’s Scooba campus and is open to the public Mondays to Thursdays 10am-7pm, Fridays 10am-2pm, and Sundays 3pm-6pm.
Crossroads is a traveling exhibit offered by the Museum on Main Street division of the Smithsonian Institution. It consists of six free-standing display units incorporating photographs, text, and numerous interactive elements. Requiring a minimum of 750 sq. ft., the exhibit is designed for smaller venues to achieve Museum on Main Street’s goal of bringing the Smithsonian to small town America. The exhibit is free and open to the public to visit. The Mississippi tour of Crossroads is sponsored by a generous grant from Entergy Mississippi.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
In addition to hosting the exhibition, East Mississippi Community College will also host a series of programs that are free and open to the public.
Crossroads events in Scooba:
February 15, 6pm: “From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies” presentation, Dr. John Green
February 20, 6pm: “Rural Economic Development” presentation, Dr. Rachael Carter
March 15, 4pm: “From the Fields to the Factory: The Great Migration of African Americans From the Fields of Mississippi to the Cities and Factories in the North” presentation, Dr. Brinda Willis

Music: A Universal Language
2021-02-11 08:00 - 17:00
New Hope Baptist Church’s annual Black history celebration. The 2021 event celebrates music as an instrument to connect people through all social, economic, and cultural barriers. More details TBA.

Crossroads @ Scooba: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies
2021-02-15 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual Event
On February 15, East Mississippi Community College in Scooba will host Dr. John Green, state scholar for the Crossroads exhibit, to present his free program, “From Snapshots to a Collage: Exploring Rural Mississippi through Population Studies.” The program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Scooba through March 12.
Many popular images of rural people and places present them as homogeneous in terms of demographic, social, and economic characteristics and trends. This may lead to oversimplification of rural areas and limited efforts to meet the needs and priorities of people living in these places. Achieving a better understanding of rural communities requires defining our concepts and identifying indicators of rural life in terms of continuity and change. Following an exploration of the terms “rural” and “non-metropolitan,” Dr. Green will share a series of graphical images and narratives about Mississippi’s rural people and places using population-level information, emphasizing what these “snapshots” of rural life tell us about Mississippi and how we might use them to form a “collage” that captures both the similarity and diversity.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit will be on display in the Tubb-May Memorial Library on EMCC’s Scooba campus and is open to the public Mondays to Thursdays 10am-7pm, Fridays 10am-2pm, and Sundays 3pm-6pm. Crossroads is free to visit.
Upcoming Crossroads events in Scooba:
February 20, 6pm: “Rural Economic Development” presentation, Dr. Rachael Carter
March 15, 4pm: “From the Fields to the Factory: The Great Migration of African Americans From the Fields of Mississippi to the Cities and Factories in the North” presentation, Dr. Brinda Willis

MS+MA 3: Coast to Coast
2021-02-18 18:00 - 19:30 | Virtual Event
On February 18, the third “MS + MA: Crossing Borders/Connecting Stories” dialogue will take place in partnership with Mass Humanities.
MS+MA: Coast to Coast will explore our two state’s coastal connections from the perspectives of cultural institutions and local individuals from the fishing industry in both states. Panelists will reflect on how coastal areas are both literal and metaphorical connecting points for culture, language, economies, art, and more. The program will also share firsthand stories of members from local fishing communities in both states. MS + MA attendees will have the opportunity to take part in small group discussions about their own connections to the ocean and how our states’ coastal areas help us understand the environment around us.

Speakers will include Julian Rankin, executive director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, MS, and individuals from fishing communities in both states. The program will be moderated by Laura Orleans, executive director of the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center in New Bedford, MA.

Following the February 18 program, three additional programs will take place throughout Spring 2021.

Registration is required for the program and can be found here.

Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration: Southern Environments
2021-02-22 08:00 - 2021-02-27 17:00
Virtual conference exploring ecocriticism in southern studies and the influence our environments have on us through a humanities perspective. The week-long program will feature presentations and interactive workshops focused on nature writing, environmental justice, and nature as a character in fiction, film, and art.

Crossroads @ Scooba: Rural Economic Development in Mississippi
2021-02-22 18:00 - 19:00 | Virtual Event
On February 22, East Mississippi Community College in Scooba will host Dr. Rachael Carter of the Mississippi State University Extension Services to present a free program on economic development in rural Mississippi. The program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Scooba through March 12.
The program will take place on Zoom. Details for how to log onto the free Zoom program can be found on the EMCC website.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit will be on display in the Tubb-May Memorial Library on EMCC’s Scooba campus and is open to the public Mondays to Thursdays 10am-7pm, Fridays 10am-2pm, and Sundays 3pm-6pm. Crossroads is free to visit.
Upcoming Crossroads events in Scooba:
March 15, 4pm: “From the Fields to the Factory: The Great Migration of African Americans From the Fields of Mississippi to the Cities and Factories in the North” presentation, Dr. Brinda Willis

From Delta Blues to Opera News: A Mississippi Musical Exposition
2021-02-28 08:00 - 2021-03-01 17:00
Two-day symposium demonstrating the historical contributions of select Mississippi artists and arts organizations to American music and opera from the past and present.

SB: White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America
2021-03-03 12:00 - 13:00
Children growing up in the United States are living in a world with ongoing public debates about race, daily displays of racial violence, and for some, an increased awareness surrounding inequality. Based on two years of ethnographic research with affluent, white kids and their families, this talk examines how white kids learn about race, racism, inequality, and privilege in the contexts of their families and everyday lives. This talk explores how white racial socialization is a process that stretches beyond white parents’ explicit conversations with their white children and includes not only the choices parents make about neighborhoods, schools, peer groups, extracurricular activities, and media, but also the choices made by the kids themselves. Featuring the actual voices of young, affluent white kids and what they think about race, racism, inequality, and privilege, this talk explores how white racial socialization is much more dynamic, complex, and varied than previously recognized.
Speakers Expertise:
Margaret A. Hagerman is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Mississippi State University and is a Faculty Affiliate in both the African American Studies and Gender Studies programs. She is an award-winning author of White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America (NYU Press 2019), and she is a nationally recognized expert on white racial socialization. She teaches classes on racism, education, families, and qualitative methods. Dr. Hagerman received her B.A. in English and her M.A. in Sociology at Lehigh University, and she earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Emory University in 2014.

Virtual Event: To register, or for more information, contact amthoma4@olemiss.edu

MTV Museum Day
2021-03-05 08:00
GRAMMY Museum Mississippi (GMM) is planning a Museum Day on March 5thto celebrate the Museum’s 5thAnniversary and the opening of its new exhibition, MTV: Celebrating 40 Years of MTV. MTV was created by Mississippi native Bob Pittman and the exhibition is being curated by GMM. The Museum is proposing a Museum Day that will include free admission for all ages, an education workshop to include panelist, and a gallery talk by music historians during the day.

SB: The Mississippi Melting Pot
2021-03-05 12:00 - 13:00
A brief history (from tamales to red beans and rice) of the various ethnic and racial culinary traditions that have shaped Mississippians’ diets.
Speakers Expertise:
Dr. Andrew P. Haley is a professor of American cultural history at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has recently completed a book on restaurant dining in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and is currently working on a history of children and eating.

The Twenty-Seventh Oxford Conference for the Book
2021-03-08 - 2021-03-12
Founded by the Center and Square Books, the conference 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.
Due to Covid-19, all events this year are virtual.
These prerecorded sessions will be available for viewing on the conference website beginning March 8, 2021:
“University Press of Mississippi: The Next Fifty Years”
“Southern Environments: A Conversation with Catherine Coleman Flowers”
“A Tribute to Randall Kenan: A Reading”
“Friends Old And New: A Poetry Session”
“The Willie Morris Awards for Southern Writing Awards Ceremony”
Live virtual sessions include:
Monday, March 8, at 6:00 p.m. CST: A Live Square Books event on Zoom and Facebook Live: Angie Thomas (Concrete Rose) in conversation with Kiese Laymon. RSVP required.
Tuesday, March 9, at 5:00 p.m. CST: A Live Square Books event on Zoom and Facebook Live: Angus Fletcher will discuss his new book, Wonderworks, with poet Maggie Smith. RSVP required.
Thursday, March 11, at 5:00 p.m. CST: A Live Square Books event on Zoom and Facebook Live: Lee Durkee (The Last Taxi Driver) in conversation with Tinhouse Press publisher Craig Popelars. RSVP required.
Thursday, March 11, at 6:00 p.m.: Thacker Mountain Radio with poet Sandra Beasley.

HTA: The Liberal Arts as Molders of Consensus" in the Public Arena
2021-03-15 10:00 - 11:00
In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King wrote an article that encouraged social scientists through critical thinking and a humanistic stance, to shape public opinion and policy. Following his charge, Dr. Kersen will make the case that it is liberal arts and humanities scholars and laypeople that are best equipped to answer social problems .

Crossroads @ Scooba: From the Fields to the Factory
2021-03-15 16:00 - 17:00 | Virtual Event
On March 15, East Mississippi Community College in Scooba will host Dr. Brinda Willis of the MHC’s Speakers Bureau to present her free and open to the public program “From the Fields to the Factory: The Great Migration of African Americans From the Fields of Mississippi to the Cities and Factories in the North.” The program will take place in conjunction with the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, on display in Scooba through March 12.
Dr. Willis’s presentation will explore the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North in the 20th century.
The program will take place on Zoom. Details for how to log onto the free Zoom program can be found on the EMCC website.
Crossroads: Change in Rural America offers small towns a chance to look at their own paths to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit will be on display in the Tubb-May Memorial Library on EMCC’s Scooba campus and is open to the public Mondays to Thursdays 10am-7pm, Fridays 10am-2pm, and Sundays 3pm-6pm. Crossroads is free to visit.

HTA: The Role of Women in John Singleton's "Higher Learning"
2021-03-16 11:00 - 12:00
Ms. Deborah Purnell will present the 2021 Humanities Teacher Award lecture for Mississippi Valley State University, “The Role of Women in John Singleton’s Higher Learning.” The lecture is virtual and open to the public:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://mvsu.zoom.us/j/87515561608?pwd=[REDACTED]

Meeting ID: 875 1556 1608
Passcode: [REDACTED]

HTA: Black Mississippi Women’s Pivotal Role in Securing the Vote for All Americans
2021-03-16 17:30 - 18:30
Rebecca Tuuri’s Mississippi Humanities Council talk will explore how black women leaders of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) helped ensure democracy for all Americans in the 1960s. By running for Congress and leading a series of high-profile challenges to voting restrictions in the state, MFDP women built support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and later, pushed for its enforcement. Tuuri will highlight these women leaders themselves by including audio clips, written quotations, and images from the rich archival collections at Southern Miss. This talk will also emphasize the importance of reconceptualizing ideas about leadership given that black women’s fundamental political work often remained behind the scenes.
This event will be virtual and open to the public: https://usm-edu.zoom.us/j/93274768312

MS+MA: Verses and Voices: Poet Laureates
2021-03-18 18:00 - 19:30
MS + MA is a joint project of the Mississippi Humanities Council and Mass Humanities. We’re bringing together people from our respective states for six interactive, online programs to facilitate conversation and connection. By reflecting on our states’ histories in relationship to each other, this series aims to build understanding and offer new perspectives. At a time when the pandemic has created a greater sense of isolation, we hope to forge connections.
Session 4: Verses and Voices: Poet Laureates
March18, 2021: 6pm-7:30pm Central Time
Our next event brings together poet laureates from both states for a conversation about the role of poetry in public life. With the words still of presidential inauguration poet Amanda Gorman still resounding across the nation, we’ll hear poems and thoughts from Mississippi poet laureate Beth Ann Fennelly (poet laureate of Mississippi) and her student, Michael Martella, plus Worcester poet laureate Juan Matos and Amina Mohammed, Worcester’s youth poet laureate.
Register here to participate in the free program.
