Mississippi Humanities Council

Telling the Story of COVID-19 and Eviction
2021-08-04 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Online Event
Mississippi Today
Clarion-Ledger
Robert Luckett, Margaret Walker Center, moderator

Speakers Bureau - White Kids: Growing Up with Privilege in a Racially Divided America
2021-08-06 12:00 - 14:00 | Online Event
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.
When Available, the Zoom link to this event will be posed on the MLC Facebook Page here!

Crossroads @ Waveland: Exploring Rural Mississippi Through Population Studies
2021-08-11 18:00 - 20:00 | Studio Waveland, 228 Coleman Ave., Waveland, MS, 39576, United States
On August 11, the Waveland Ground Zero Hurricane Museum 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 Waveland through August 14.
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 at Waveland’s Ground Zero Hurricane Museum through August 14 and is open to the public Tuesdays-Saturdays 10am-3pm. Crossroads is free to visit.

Mississippi Elegy: Southern Depictions of Life and Death
2021-09-13 | Walter Anderson Museum of Art, 510 Washington Ave, Ocean Springs, MS, 39564
An exhibition and related components exploring concepts of grief and mourning
through the lens of nature and the Southern land. Included in the exhibition are memento mori artworks by Walter Inglis Anderson (1903-1965) and contemporary artist Jason Bouldin (b. 1966), alongside objects from the University of Mississippi Museum’s collections.

Behind the Big House 2021 (Virtual)
2021-09-17 - 2021-09-19 | Hugh Craft House, 184 S. Memphis St., Holly Springs, MS, 38635
These are filming dates, this listing will be updated with presentation dates when available.

The Behind the Big House program in Holly Springs, Mississippi interprets the lives of enslaved persons through the structures in which they lived and worked. The program began in 2012 after Chelius Carter and Jenifer Eggleston, antebellum historic property owners, discovered that one of the structures on their property was a former slave dwelling. To them, it was clear that the personal lives and experiences of those enslaved in Holly Springs was missing from the larger narratives of the city’s Annual Pilgrimage Tour of Historic Homes and Churches. Since 1938, this tour has been an annual event allowing visitors to tour historic homes, cemeteries, churches, and museums in Holly Springs. To help remedy the exclusion, Carter and Eggleston, along with other community persons, started Behind the Big House. It is run through Preserve Marshall County and Holly Springs, Inc., a local historic preservation institution. The program’s major components are preservation, interpretation, and education.

Behind the Big House Virtual Program
2021-09-17 - 2021-09-19 | Online Event
Since 2012, the Behind the Big House Tour has interpreted the legacy of slavery and presented it to school groups and the general public. This year, Behind the Big House will take place virtually and will feature five professional interpreters who will discuss architecture, cuisine, laundry, and brick-making. Their demonstrations will be presented for all to enjoy as well as being broken up into sections to be used by students and teachers.

Evicted: The Intersection of Policy, Activism, and Economic Well-Being
2021-09-28 18:00 - 20:00 | Online Event
Hope Policy Institute, Mississippi NAACP,
Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative, Children’s Defense Fund,
Mississippi Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers
Margaret Walker Center Facebook and YouTube
6:00 p.m., Tuesday, September 28, 2021

SB - Rogers - Learning Mississippi Through Historical Markers
2021-10-02 10:00 - 11:00 | Town of Carrollton
From traditional green historical markers to the Mississippi Blues Trail, Freedom Trail, Country Music Trail, and Mississippi Mound Trail, the state’s history is told along its roads. The speaker takes a fun romp through history that will interest anyone who likes fascinating trivia about the state.
Learn More: https://visitcarrolltonms.com/carrollton-pilgrimage/

Voice From the Sit-In - Mississippi Delta Movie Premiere
2021-10-04 17:00 - 20:00 | Bologna Performing Arts Center Lobby, Highway 8 West, Cleveland, MS, 38732
On March 10, 1969 52 students were arrested at the Black Students sit-in and spent the night at Parchman Penitentiary. This film tells the story of the sit-in from the perspectives of four students, as told to current Delta State students. The screening will take place at the Bologna Performing Arts Center, and will consist of a screening, Q&A, and reception. The event will be free and open to the public.

SB - Woodrick - The History of Mississippi's Mascots (and a Few Others, Too)
2021-10-05 17:00 | East Mississippi Community College – Scooba Campus, 1512 Kemper Street, Scooba, MS, 39358
Marino Casem, the longtime coach at Alcorn State University and Southern University, once famously stated that “in the South, college football is a religion, and every Sunday is a holy day.” This is certainly true for teams in the Southeastern Conference and especially true for Mississippi. Each fall, hundreds of thousands of loyal fans flock to their respective campuses to root for their favorite teams and cheer for their beloved team mascots. If Casem’s quote is true, these foam-headed cheerleaders might be considered the “saints” of this seemingly odd religion. Most fans, however, know little about the origin of their favorite mascots or other symbols of their university, and many of these symbols have deep roots in history, especially the Civil War years. During this presentation, the hidden history of some of the South’s most beloved (or despised) mascots will be revealed, including Mississippi State’s “Bully,” the origin of the LSU Tigers and, of course, the story behind the Ole Miss Rebels.

Ideas On Tap: Rural Education in Mississippi
2021-10-05 17:30 - 19:00 | Online Event
Join us on Facebook Live as we present Ideas On Tap: Rural Education in Mississippi, a virtual panel discussion on October 5 at 5:30pm. This program was inspired by the recent New York Times article “The Tragedy of America’s Rural Schools”, written by Casey Parks. The article addresses various issues taking place among America’s rural school systems, with the Mississippi state takeover of the Holmes County Consolidated School District as its linchpin.
This program’s focus will follow suit, addressing various issues of rural education systems across Mississippi with a focus on the Holmes county situation. Discussions will examine how the take over happened, steps being taken to correct lingering problems, and what preventative measures should be considered.
The panel will include Sherri Reeves (a long time Holmes county educator and P-16 council member), Sanford Johnson (Mississippi executive director of Teach Plus), and Rep. Kent McCarty (vice-chair of education for the Mississippi House of Representatives.) Bracey Harris of NBC News will moderate. The October 5 program will last an hour and include a brief Q&A session (10-15 mins) at the end

Civil War: Who Do We Think We Are? - Screening and Panel Discussion
2021-10-06 17:30 - 19:30 | TWO MISSISSIPPI MUSEUMS, 222 NORTH STREET , JACKSON, MS, United States
On October 6, the MHC will partner with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to host a screening and panel discussion of the documentary film Civil War (or Who Do We Think We Are?) at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson. The film, created and produced by Rachel Boynton, addresses Civil War memory and how the Reconstruction period is portrayed in education.
In making the film, Boynton interviewed educators, community leaders, politicians, and students across the South. Among those Boynton interviewed were Missy Jones of Mississippi College, Atwayn Patrick of the Holmes County Consolidated School District, and Dr. Stephanie Rolph of Millsaps College. All three Mississippians share their approaches in educating their students and general public on the Civil War through historical facts. They also discuss the struggle as educators to correct the Lost Cause narrative in a place like Mississippi.
The film is timely and aids in the current conversation about how and what we should remember of the Civil War. Boynton asks the viewer to question what they think they know of the Civil War and challenges them to re-educate themselves, hopefully with more diverse resources.
The panel discussion to follow the screening will include Boynton, Jones, Patrick, and Rolph. Long-time educator and administrator within the state department of education, Chauncey Spears, will also be included. The goal of the panel discussion is to not only discuss themes from the film, but also to understand the current climate on Civil War and Reconstruction education within Mississippi schools.
The program will be held in the Neilson Auditorium within the Two Mississippi Museums and will begin with the film screening at 5:30 p.m. followed by the panel discussion. Food and beverage will be served. Due COVID-19, masks will be enforced at this event.

SB - Mitchell - A New History of Mississippi
2021-10-10 16:00 | Trinity Episcopal Church, 305 S. Commerce St., Natchez, MS, 39120
The talk, accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation, will present the case for a new understanding of Mississippi’s past. The speaker will argue that the Eurocentric past account ignored the role of blacks, Indians, women and minorities, providing example biographies to prove the case. Touching on neglected topics such as the history of the ecology, the speaker will demonstrate the dire condition created by the near destruction of the environment and illustrate how the New Deal programs and a few individuals began to restore the state and develop its system of state parks. Touching on the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, the speaker will argue that segregation was a complex, local system open to negotiation for much of its history and that local Mississippians did most of the work to end segregation rather than the more heralded outsiders, who have received much of the credit in the past. The speaker will trace the evolution of religion including what some historians term the civic religion of the lost cause. Concluding the lecture, the speaker will make the case for Mississippians adopting a new perspective on their past.

2021 MS Delta Tennessee Williams Festival
2021-10-14 16:00 - 2021-10-16 20:00 | Cutrer Mansion, 109 Clark St, Clarksdale, MS, 38614, United States
The 29th Annual Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival seeks to build on last year’s successful virtual festival with a hybrid in-person socially distanced festival that will stream all the programming on two web platforms.This year’s theme is on the exchange of culture, history, and music along the Mississippi River, from the Delta to New Orleans using Willliams’ A Streetcar Named Desire as the organizing hub for performances, presentations, and workshops.

SB - Giesen - Boll Weevil Blues: Cotton and Myth in Mississippi
2021-10-19 16:00 | East Mississippi Community College – Scooba Campus, 1512 Kemper Street, Scooba, MS, 39358
In the early 20th century the cotton boll weevil, a nasty little beetle that had already destroyed millions of pounds of cotton in Texas and Louisiana, stood on the western banks of the Mississippi River poised to invade the richest and most important cotton land in the world: the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta. In the months and years that followed the weevil made a major, but surprising, impact on the people of the state. Many Mississippians now think of it as a terrible natural disaster, akin to Hurricane Katrina or the BP Oil Spill. Yet history reveals a much more surprising story. The boll weevil destroyed tons of cotton across the state, but its biggest effect on Mississippi came not from barren fields, but from how people responded to the threat of its invasion. Stories about the boll weevil, in other words, were more important to its history than the stands of cotton it destroyed. Dr. Giesen’s presentation uses blues and country songs, old family stories, rumors and more traditional historical records, to explain how an array of Mississippians — from sharecroppers to planters to college professors — changed the course of the state’s history as they tried to manage the boll weevil’s invasion.

From Delta Blues to Opera News: A Mississippi Musical Exposition
2021-10-24 08:00 - 2021-10-25 17:00 | Online Event
Details TBA

Fighting Sexism, Racism and Corruption in the Community with the Guerilla Girls
2021-10-28 18:00 - 20:00 | Online Event
Mississippi University for Women will partner with the Guerrilla Girls, a group of feminist activists that uses political art to fight sexism, racism and corruption in society, for a virtual event at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, on Zoom.
The event is a collaboration between the Ina E. Gordy Honors College, the NEW Leadership Mississippi program, the National Organization of Women (NOW) chapter at The W, the Fant Memorial Library, the MUW Galleries and the Departments of History, Art and Languages, Literature & Philosophy. Drouillard, who is the project director/organizer of the event, said local businesses Friendly City Books and the Columbus Arts Council and Colin Krieger, who was voted “local hero in the Golden Triangle 2021,” also will help promote the event.

“Light in the Piazza” Conversation
2021-11-03 08:00 - 17:00 | Paris-Yates Chapel, 60 Chapel Lane, University, MS, 38677, United States
At noon Nov. 3 in the Paris-Yates Chapel on the University of Mississippi campus, Adam Guettel, Blake McIver and Mary Donnelly Haskell will have a conversation about Elizabeth Spencer’s novella “The Light in the Piazza,” which was made into a musical.
In celebration of Mississippi writer Elizabeth Spencer’s one hundredth birthday, the University of Mississippi Department of Music is staging a November 2021 production of “The Light in the Piazza,” a musical based on Spencer’s novella of the same name. In conjunction with this production, the department is presenting Piazza composer, lyricist, and orchestrator Adam Guettel in a residency of public programing that explores Spencer, her novella, Guettel’s rationale for and process of creating a musical from Spencer’s work, and the themes, characters and concepts revealed in both pieces.
Guettel is a composer steeped in the opera and musical theatre traditions of America. The grandson of Richard Rodgers (of Rodgers and Hammerstein) and son of writer/composer Mary Rodgers, Guettel is well-versed in the history of American musical theatre forms. As a Tony Award-winning composer in his own right, his work is helping move those forms forward. “The Light in the Piazza” was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and won six, including two for Guettel for original score and orchestration.

Community Meeting- Natchez US Colored Troops Monument Project
2021-11-10 18:00 - 20:00 | Natchez Convention Center, 211 Main Street, Natchez, MS, 39120
The public is invited to attend a community meeting on the Natchez US Colored Troops Monument project at 6:00pm on Wednesday, Nov. 10th at the Natchez Convention Center. The purpose of this meeting is to gather public input on the proposed monument project that will honor the more than 3,000 African American men who served with the six regiments at Fort McPherson in Natchez.

Brennan Collins Discussion Program - Historical Society of Gulfport
2021-11-11 18:00 - 19:00 | Vestry, 11213 US 49, Gulfport, MS, 39503, United States
The Historical Society of Gulfport will meet Thursday, November 11, 2021, from 6-7 pm at the Vestry (formerly St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church).
Brennan Collins, Research Center Coordinator, will discuss his role in establishing the Gulfport Museum of History Research Center and his work with the Mississippi Digital Library.
Currently a graduate student in the University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Master of Library and Information Science, he is credited with making the Ralph Bean Architectural Collection the museum’s initial entry in the Mississippi Digital Library.
The research center and Brennan’s part-time position were funded by a grant through the American Rescue Plan, along with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mississippi Humanities Council.

SB - Jernigan - Mississippi Telling
2021-11-13 09:00 - 17:00 | MoMS1
The presenter provides an overview of the storytelling Renaissance in America with emphasis upon the oral tradition in Mississippi. The literary tradition of Mississippi owes much to the rich storytelling legacy that riddles the tales of our families and our communities as reflected in the works of many of our best authors: Welty, Wright, Faulkner, Henley, Williams. As part of the presentation, Dr. Jernigan performs as a story teller calling upon on her rich repertoire of original tales and literary masterpieces gearing her choices of tales according to her audience and offers material for children and adults.

Topophilia Book Club Meeting - Providence
2021-12-08 11:45 - 13:00, 2021-12-09 18:00 - 19:30 | Museum of the Mississippi Delta, 1608 Hwy 82 West, Greenwood, MS, 38930
The Museum of the Mississippi Delta announces the creation of the Topophilia Book Club, whose purpose is to connect readers to this region through a thoughtfully curated selection of books with a connection to this land. Six books have been chosen for the upcoming year and the discussions will be led by local physician, author and historian, Dr. Mary Carol Miller.The book club will meet bi-monthly to discuss fiction and non-fiction books connected to the Mississippi Delta. In addition to book discussions, other programs related to the book selections will be hosted by the Museum. The books are selected in advance and planned for the entire year, often coordinating with the Museum’s exhibition schedule. A list of the 2021-2022 selections is attached.
December: Providence by Will D. Campbell
February: When Evil Lived in Laurel by Curtis Wilke
April: Goat Castle by Karen L. Cox
June: TBD
August: Delta Epiphany by Ellen Meacham
October: TBD

Ideas On Tap: What Does Critical Race Theory Mean in Mississippi?
2021-12-09 17:30 - 19:00 | Ecoshed, 133 Commerce Park Drive, Jackson, MS, 39213, United States
The national debate over “critical race theory” has come to Mississippi. Join us for an interactive, civil conversation at the @ecoshedjxn on December 9th at 5:30, on how we should teach about our state’s history of racism. How do we provide, as former Governor Phil Bryant recently advocated, “an education where students can openly and honestly acknowledge the continuing remnants of racism in our society and make sure all children are grounded in the basic principles of civics and democracy needed to address them fully and finally.” Our panelists for this discussion will include Vidhi Bamzai, Deidre Alexander, and Chauncey Spears. Kaleigh Skinner of Mississippi Today will moderate this important discussion. This program will be in person and masks are highly suggested.

Charles Edward Williams: FORWARD Live Performance
2022-01-01 | Muddy Springs Church, Muddy Springs Rd, Magnolia, MS, 39652, United States
Artist Charles Williams will visit McComb to present a live performance of his project FORWARD.
Details TBA
Sign up for Updates Here: http://psa-ms.org/forward/

HTA - "What Are You Looking At?"
2022-01-21 11:00 - 12:30 | Smith Hall, Room 109
Humanities Teacher Award winner Ashley Dugas (Copiah-Lincoln Community College) will present her public lecture, “What Are You Looking At?”. This presentation will be held in Smith Hall, Room 109. Refreshments to be served.

Remembering Emmett Till in the Mississippi Delta: Documenting Till Commemoration through Oral Histories
2022-01-27 13:30 - 14:30 | Online Event
Join the Emmett Till Interpretive Center to discuss the importance of documenting Civil Rights stories in the Mississippi Delta, specifically around Emmett Till and how his life and memory have been commemorated.

The event will include clips from oral history interviews gathered as part of a MS Humanities Council oral history grant-funded project, an excerpt from a documentary on local leader Jerome Little, and a panel discussion with the filmmakers and Dr. Dave Tell, author of Remembering Emmett Till.

HTA - The Journey Home: Literary Narratives and PTSD
2022-01-28 11:00 - 13:00 | Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, 2226 Switzer Road, Gulfport, MS, 39507, United States
Humanities Teacher Award winner Dr. Tammy Townsend (Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College) will present her public lecture, “The Journey Home: Literary Narratives and PTSD”. This presentation will be held on the Harrison County campus in Building U, Room 202.
The presentation will cover how cognitive therapy exists in psychoanalysis sessions and in English classes. According to new research, reading literary narratives makes us better people. Through the study of classic literary narratives, we share the hero’s journey and learn how to order our own experiences into a coherent narrative that helps us put ourselves into the context of our lives.

HTA - Health and Social Wellbeing: The Benefits of Bookreading
2022-02-01 12:15 - 13:15 | Pearl River Community College – Forrest County Campus, 5448 US 49, Hattiesburg, MS, 39401, United States
Humanities Teacher Award winner Heather Peerboom (Pearl River Community College) will present her public lecture, “Health and Social Wellbeing: The Benefits of Bookreading”. This presentation will be held in the PRCC Forrest County Center. Reception to follow.
The average time Americans spend reading has been in steady decline. At the same time, many administrators are making the argument for removing literature from the list of required core curricula. This presentation responds to that argument by exploring the personal and social benefits of reading literature.

HTA - The Sound: Analog Vs Digital Audio and How Microphones Work for Broadcast Journalists
2022-02-02 14:30 - 15:30 | JD Boyd Library, 1000 ASU Drive, Lorman, MS, 39096
Humanities Teacher Award winner Dr. Eric Dogini (Alcorn State University) will present his public lecture, “The Sound: Analog Vs Digital Audio and How Microphones Work for Broadcast Journalists.” This presentation will be held in the JD Boyd Library Auditorium. Reception to follow.
Sound is the most fundamental building block of music, radio, television, and film and begins when something vibrates. Analog signal is an electrical copy of the original vibration incited into a microphone. Analog signal fluctuates like the original vibration, and it is continuous and rarely skips any part of the signal. Digital signal is discontinuous and does not process the total original signal incited into microphone, it skips from one point of the signal to the next, selecting a great number of successive points that represents the original signal. The microphones transduce (transform) sound waves into electric energy – the audio signal/sound we hear on radio, television, movies, and music, paging in public place and a two-way communication via phone. To understand how microphones work broadcast journalist from the physical and engineering points of view, we must understand the basics of sound transmission.
