Mississippi Humanities Council

A Legacy Retrospective of Jay D. Johnson: Rays of Hope in Mississippi Exhibit
2017-11-16 17:30 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Smith Robertson Museum & Cultural Center, 528 Bloom St., Jackson, MS, 39202
Opening of a photo exhibit showcasing the state’s history and diversity, culled from the collection of local photographers Jay D. Johnson and his father, James R. Johnson.
Images will include local and national African American political leaders and civil rights icons, churches, entertainers and sports personalities.
Exhibit will be displayed at Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center in Jackson.

Lower Delta Talk Series
2017-11-14 18:30 - 19:30, 2017-10-17 18:30 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Sharkey Issaquena County Library, 116 Robert Morganfield Way, Rolling Fork, MS, 39159
The Lower Delta Speakers Series includes a variety of folks who will speak on a topic of interest each month, topics that tell great Mississippi stories focused on our region of the Mississippi Delta and that help explain the important role the Delta plays in regards to the entire state of Mississippi. Some of the topics included in the 2017 will include People and their Stories, History, and Culture, Food and the Outdoors.
August 15th- James Matthews
September 19th- Richard Grant
October 17th- Cathy Shropshire
November 14th- Willy Bearden

Bicentennial and Veterans Celebration Dinner
2017-11-11 | Washington County Convention Center, 1040 S. Raceway Road , Greenville , MS , 38703
Bicentennial Celebration Dinner to reach out to the community in support of our veterans and celebrate our states 200th birthday. In effort to bring out community together, have a catfish dinner (which supports one of the delta’s main industries) and invite the community to honor the veterans and come “break bread with a Veteran”.

Mississippi Masterpieces Art & Songwriting Contest
2017-11-10 18:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | Gautier Convention Center, 2012 Library Lane, Gautier, MS, 39553, United States
Mississippi Masterpieces Art and Songwriting Contest is hosted by the City of Gautier in celebration of the state’s bicentennial. The contest and its final event are meant to explore and celebrate the history and culture of Mississippi.
The final Mississippi Masterpieces bicentennial event is Nov. 10, 2017, at the Gautier Convention Center from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. This event is a celebration of the arts in Mississippi. There will be a juried art show, performances by the winning songwriters, and readings of famous Mississippi authors’ works. There will also be a special appearance and reading by former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Randy Pierce, a Greene County native and novelist.

Mt. Olive Cemetery Project: Celebrating the Legacy of West Jackson's Pioneers
2017-11-09 11:30 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | MS

MISSISSIPPI ENCYCLOPEDIA EVENT: Margaret Walker Center
2017-11-08 15:00 - 16:30 (America/Chicago) | Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, 1400 John R. Lynch Street, Jackson, MS, 39217, United States
A panel discussion of The Mississippi Encyclopedia. Scholars speaking will include Jackson State University scholars Preselfannie Whitfield-McDaniel, C. Liegh McInnis, and Robby Luckett, along with Senior Editors Ted Ownby and Charles Reagan Wilson.

Speakers Bureau:Mississippi in the Great War
2017-11-07 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | South Mississippi Genealogy & Historical Society, 307 2nd Ave , Hattiesburg , MS
School textbooks rarely mention much about the Great War — World War I. Although the United States only participated in the final two yeas of the conflict, it changed the world. Drawing on letters published in Mississippi newspapers from across the state, this presentation tells the story of Mississippians who participated in the Great War. The letters were written by soldiers, aviators, sailors and YMCA and Red Cross workers. They reflect the experiences of young men as they endured training camp, voyaged across the Atlantic to France and participated in horrific battles. The letters also reveal the experiences of nurses and humanitarian workers, describing drills, uniforms, parades and parties–a”lighter” view of the war.
Anne Webster is a retired archivist at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

HealthWorks! Family Fun Bicentennial Festival
2017-11-04 10:00 - 12:00, 2017-10-07 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | HealthWorks!, 219 S. Industrial Road, Tupelo, MS, 38801, United States

200 Years of Family Fun
2017-11-04 10:00 - 12:00, 2017-10-07 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | HealthWorks!, 219 S. Industrial Road, Tupelo, MS, 38801, United States
A celebration of the history of play in Mississippi. Children and their families will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities that they can enjoy at the center and beyond.

IN THE WRITER’S WORDS w/ DEBORAH JOHNSON
2017-11-02 19:00 (America/Chicago) | Rosenzweig Arts Center, 501 Main Street , Columbus , MS, United States
Join the awarding-winning author in a discussion of her works, Q & A, and readings from her highly popular novels. Lisa Howorth, co-owner of Oxford’s Square Books, will be presenting alongside Johnson.

MISSISSIPPI ENCYCLOPEDIA EVENT: Copiah-Lincoln Community College
2017-11-02 15:00 - 16:00 (America/Chicago) | Carolyn Vance Smith Natchez Literary Research Center at Copiah-Lincoln Community College
A discussion and reading of The Mississippi Encyclopedia, followed by a signing and reception.

This is how you are a citizen: Claudia Rankine Public Reading
2017-10-27 13:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago) | MS
As a part of their Friday Forum Series, Millsaps College invites you to an event located on campus, featuring poet Claudia Rankine. The public reading will take place in The Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex Recital Hall.

Grocery Stor(i)es: Life in Chinese Grocery Stores in the MS Delta
2017-10-27 08:00 - 2017-10-28 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Delta Chinese Heritage Museum
Grocery Stores have played an integral role in the establishment and development of the Chinese presence in the Mississippi Delta. While issues of segregation and equality swirled in the communities right outside grocery store doors, the Chinese families were blending their heritage with their new environment. Building from the photographs and oral histories collected within the Delta State University Archives’ Chinese holdings, this project proposes to develop a traveling exhibit focusing on the lives lived within grocery stores, primarily focusing on the subjects of food ways and education. While the majority of our areas grocery stores no longer stand, this resource will demonstrate how the Delta’s Chinese influenced political and social change all from behind the doors and counters of their grocery stores.

A Bicentennial Celebration Recounting Unheard Voices
2017-10-26 | Meridian High School, 2320 32nd St, Meridian, MS, 39305, United States
Come see a theatrical performance that highlights Meridian’s 157 years. The performance will feature student actors and dancers, and incorporate music and enlarged vintage photos.
There will be a community celebration of the State’s Bicentennial year as well as a living gallery walk after the performance.
Enjoy live music provided by the Meridian High School Jazz Band.
(This performance and celebration are the culmination of the humanities project, A Bicentennial Celebration Recounting Unheard Voices: Students Breathe Life into Meridian’s Rare Historical Photos.)

Native American Days 2017
2017-10-25 09:00 - 2017-10-27 14:00 (America/Chicago) | Winterville Mounds Park and Museum, 2415 Highway 1 North, Greenville, MS, 38703, United States
Three-day celebration of Southeastern Native American and colonial-era Euro American cultures in Mississippi, including traditional dance, song and storytelling presentations by Native Americans, colonial-era food, arts and crafts, Native American games and ancient weapons demonstrations. October 25-27.

The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library workshop: “Preserving Family Photographs”
2017-10-19 09:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, 314 7th St N, Columbus, MS, 39701, United States
The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library is hosting a workshop titled “Preserving Family Photographs” on Thursday, October 19th from 9am-12pm.
The workshop will teach participants how to identify various historic photographic formats and processes. It will also instruct on how to properly handle, store, and preserve one’s family photographic treasures.
Participants are encouraged to bring up to three family photographs, negatives, or films that they would like to have evaluated by a conservator.
Kim R. Du Boise, the Senior Conservator and President of PhotoArts Imaging Professionals, will be conducting the workshop. She is a peer-reviewed Professional Associate in the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. Du Boise has worked in art and photography for over forty years while developing coursework and workshops for teaching photography and photographic processes. For more information about PhotoArts Imaging Labs visit www.photoartsimaging.com.
The workshop has been made possible through a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council and support from the Friends of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library.
Seating is limited. Register for free at 662-329-5304 or by email at mvance@lowndes.lib.ms.us by October 17th.

Through the Lens of Carl Brown
2017-10-19 09:00 - 12:00 UTC | Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, 314 7th St N, Columbus, MS, 39701, United States
More than 15,000 photographic negatives and prints taken by Columbus photographer Carl Brown were recently donated to the Local History Department at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library. The images, dating roughly from the 1950s to the 1980s, cover a wide variety of subjects including weddings, family portraits, events, businesses and people. The processing of the photographs will be a lengthy undertaking due to the abundant size of the collection.
The Columbus-Lowndes Public Library will hold a public preserving workshop on October 19th,2017 from 9am-12pm. The exhibit will be open to the public starting April 2-14, 2018.
Columbus-Lowndes Public Library
No Cost
Sponsored by Columbus-Lowndes Public Library & MS Humanities Council
For more information:
Mona Vance-Ali 662-329-5304

Fulton Cemetery Historical Stroll
2017-10-15 | Fulton Cemetery, Fulton, MS, United States
Come find out more about Fulton’s past through experiencing one of its historic treasures: the Fulton Cemetery.
Local historians will give an introduction to the history of the cemetery. Guests can then take a “historical stroll” through the cemetery and visit with those buried there! (Volunteer reenactors will be dressed in period costumes, detailing interesting facts and stories at their respective tombstones.)

Mississippi's Craft Heritage Event
2017-10-14 10:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Mississippi Craft Center, 950 Rice Road , Ridgeland , MS , 39157

Coahoma Community College's MS Delta Tennessee Williams 25th Anniversary Celebration
2017-10-13 - 2017-10-14 | Clarksdale Historic Downtown District
Coahoma Community College is combining a celebration of Mississippi’s Bicentennial with the Tennessee William’s 25th anniversary in an innovative showcase of Mississippi and Clarksdale’s diverse histories that influenced its native son and great America playwright.
Friday, October 13th–Tour of Clarksdale’s Downtown Historic District
This tour will feature lectures by local scholars as well as site visits and plays.

A Celebration of Southern Photography
2017-10-12 18:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg , MS - Mississippi, 39406
This fall, in a special series of events titled, “A Celebration of Southern Photography,” The University of Southern Mississippi will host a lecture by renowned Southern studies expert Dr. William R. Ferris, as well as two exhibitions on campus and a special issue of The Southern Quarterly. The Vicksburg native will give a talk on Oct. 12 at 6 p.m. in Gonzales Auditorium, Liberal Arts Building 108 on the Hattiesburg campus of Southern Miss, which will be followed by a reception and book signing at 7 p.m. in the Gallery of Art and Design in the George Hurst Building. The Gallery exhibition, Portraits of Southerners: Photographs from The Do Good Fund, will be open through Nov. 3. Prior to the Ferris lecture, Cook Library Art Gallery will host an opening reception and book signing for Mississippi Landscapes: Places in the Land from 4-5:30 p.m. All events in this celebration are free and open to the public.
The work of several Mississippi artists will be featured in the Mississippi Landscapes: Places in the Land exhibition in Cook Library Art Gallery. Visitors will enjoy photographs of landscapes from Ashleigh Coleman of Jackson, Thomas Pearson of Hattiesburg, Euphus Ruth of Greenville, David Wharton of Oxford, Brooke White of Oxford and Malcolm White of Jackson. Each artist demonstrates his or her personal vision of–and reverence for–special places across Mississippi’s remarkably broad and varied landscape. The Cook Library Art Gallery exhibition will run through Dec. 12 and will be open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Images in the Portraits of Southerners exhibition have been chosen from the Do Good Fund’s collection of southern photography. Since its founding in 2012, the Georgia-based charity has focused on building a museum-quality collection of photographs taken in the American South since World War II. According to their website, Do Good’s mission is “to make its collection of over 400 images broadly accessible through regional museums, nonprofit galleries and nontraditional venues, and to encourage complementary, community-based programming to accompany each exhibition.” The exhibition, sponsored by the Department of Art and Design and College of Art and Letters is open during normal gallery hours, Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. through Nov. 3.
William Ferris’s lecture, “The South in Color: A Visual Journey,” will open the Portraits of Southerners exhibit and will surely interest Southern culture enthusiasts near and far. Ferris, a widely recognized leader in Southern studies, African American music and folklore, is the Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the senior associate director of its Center for the Study of the American South.
The Ferris lecture is co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Letters, the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage, the Center for the Study of the Gulf South, The Southern Quarterly, the Department of Art and Design, University Forum, the Arts Institute of Mississippi and the Mississippi Humanities Council.

MS 200 Songwriting Contest Performance
2017-10-10 17:30 - 19:30 (America/Chicago) | Trotter Convention Center, 123 5th Street North, Columbus, MS, 39701
Come watch area musicians perform their songs to vye for “Best Mississippi Song” at this public concert with food and beverages.
The concert is the conclusion of a songwriting contest done in conjunction with Main Street Columbus.

MPB Broadcast of "The Parchman Ordeal: The Untold Story"
2017-10-08 14:00 - 17:00 (America/Chicago) | MS
The 56-minute documentary will air at 2 p.m. Oct. 8, on MPB Television. See more information here

Voicing Joplin
2017-10-07 19:30 - 22:00 (America/Chicago) | Thalia Mara Hall, 255 E Pascagoula St, Jackson, MS, 39201, United States
Performance of Scott Joplin’s opera “Treemonisha,” about the importance of education, centered on the life of a young former slave woman in the late 19th century who rallies her people to appreciate the value of education, featuring full orchestra on stage, a star-studded cast of national/local singers, and the choirs of Jackson State University, Tougaloo College, and Mississippi College.

Cora Norman Lecture: Ibram X. Kendi
2017-10-07 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Chicago) | Jackson Planetarium, 201 E. Pascagoula St., Jackson, Mississippi
We are very excited to announce that we are bringing National Book Award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi to deliver our Cora Norman Lecture on October 7th at the Jackson Planetarium!

Neshoba County Red Clay Hills Bicentennial Celebration Picnic
2017-10-07 11:00 - 14:00 (America/Chicago) | Northside Park, Hwy 15 N, Philadelphia, MS, 39350, United States
The Neshoba County Red Clay Hills Bicentennial Picnic in Philadelphia, MS featuring 200 years of historic artifacts, fashion, and music from the Fair City Chorale, country music from the Neshoba Musicians Guild and Jeff Stewart with Southbound, and Mississippi Humanities Speaker, Joan McLemore (presenting “They Lived in Mississippi”). Food by the Junction!

*This is a part of a once-in-a-lifetime Mississippi Bicentennial Celebration Series in Neshoba County, Mississippi, USA!

“Caching” in on Laurel’s History
2017-10-07 08:00 - 2017-10-09 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Laurel Welcome Center, 401 Central Ave, Laurel, MS, 39440, United States
Geocaching event to engage local fourth and eighth graders with 20 historic sites important to Laurel and Jones County history.
