Mississippi Humanities Council

Speakers Bureau: A Look at Mande (West African) Culture Through Traditional Music
2018-06-07 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Chicago) | South Mississippi Regional Library, 900 Broad Street, Columbia, MS, 39429
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.
Speakers Expertise:
Jerry Jenkins is a musician and educator trained in the music of West Africa.

Speakers Bureau: Forbidden, Hidden and Forgotten: Women Soldiers of the Civil War
2018-06-05 14:00 - 15:30 | Municipal Art Gallery, 839 N. State Street, Jackson, Mississippi, 39202
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women boldly defied Victorian society norms when they disguised themselves as men, shouldered muskets and joined the firing line in the American Civil War. As soldiers, they participated in every major engagement from the beginning to the end of the war. Their wartime experiences and sacrifices mirrored those of their male counterparts. They serves picket duty along the snowy banks of the Rappahannock, languished in Andersonville, suffered debilitating wounds during the Wilderness, succumbed to disease in New Orleans and lost their lives in Pickett’s Charge. Why did these women risk the shame that discovery would bring them and their families? Why did they risk their lives fighting a man’s war? Ms. Harriel’s presentation offers answers. In addition, she presents the interactions of generals, common soldiers and ordinary citizens with these women warriors.
Ms. Harriel has been a student of the Civil War since elementary school and has been researching women soldiers specifically since 2007. She has written several papers and articles, appeared on a radio program in Wisconsin and presented at national parks and battlefields, Civil War roundtable meetings and reenactments across the country.

Speakers Bureau: The Battle of Shiloh
2018-06-02 19:00 - 20:00 | Bass Pro Shop Restuarant, 100 Bass Pro Drive, Pearl, MS, 39208
The presenter describes the Battle of Shiloh and the events that led to the creation of this site as a historic spot of land. He also addresses the question of what it means to be “Southern”, the importance of tradition, the closeness to the soil of our ancestors that other secions of the country don’t necessarily have and the formation of the unique Southern culture.
Speakers Expertise:
Grady Howell has worked for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and has written extensively about Mississippi’s Civil War history.

Water/Ways in Moss Point
2018-05-31 - 2018-07-07 | Pascagoula River Audubon Center, 5107 Arthur St., Moss Point, MS, 39563, United States
The Pascagoula River Audubon Center will host Water/Ways, a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution, from May 31 through July 7. The exhibit, which will be free and open to the public, will include a local quilt exhibition, “A River in Stitches” featuring quilts from around the state that focus on water themes. Visit the MHC’s calendar for a complete list of Water/Ways-related programming at the Pascagoula River Audubon Center.
Water/Ways is a traveling exhibit offered by the Museum on Main Street division of the Smithsonian Institution. It consists of five free-standing display units incorporating photographs and text as well as numerous interactives ranging from basic flip charts to state of the art audio and video devices. Requiring a display area of a minimum of 650 sq. ft., the exhibit is designed for smaller venues, thereby achieving the goal of “bringing the Smithsonian to Small Town America.”
Water/Ways explores the endless motion of the water cycle, water’s effect on landscape, settlement and migration, and its impact on culture and spirituality. It looks at how political and economic planning have long been affected by access to water and control of water resources. Human creativity and resourcefulness provide new ways of protecting water resources and renewing respect for the natural environment.
Water/Ways-Related Programming @ PRAC
June 2 (1-3pm): Opening Reception, “A River in Stitches” quilt exhibition (FREE)
June 2 (10-11am): The Singing River Gets the Blues (FREE)
June 4-July 19: Kids Camp ($)
June 9: TBA (FREE)
June 16 (1-2pm): Water/Ways lecture by Dr. James Giesen (FREE)
June 23 (1-2pm): Mobile Baykeeper Talk (FREE)
June 30 (1pm): Writing on the River ($)
July 7 (1pm): Rain Barrel Workshop ($)

Speakers Bureau: They Gave Their Lives: Experiences of 53 WWII Veterans 60 Years After the War
2018-05-25 13:00 - 14:00 | St. Dominic Health Services Toulouse Building, 3800 I-55 North Frontage Rd. Ste. 100, Jackson, MS, 39211
This presenter shares the experiences told to him by 53 living veterans of WWII and recorded on 27 DVD tapes covering 34 hours of interviews. The veterans’ experiences provide a detailed look into how young men and women and families gave their lives to their country so that we might have the freedoms we sometimes take for granted.
Speakers Expertise:
Mr. Bullard is a nationally certified community developer, a historian, preservationist and son of a proud veteran who has a love and understanding for the men and women who served their country.

Speakers Bureau: The Battle of Brice's Crossroads and General Nathan Bedford Forrest
2018-05-24 18:00 - 19:00 | Longhorn Restaurant, Amory MS, 50180 Weaver Creek Rd, Amory, MS, 38821
This presentation will explore the crucial Battle of Brice’s Crossroads during the Civil War and the role of the controversial Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Speakers Expertise:
Edwina H. Carpenter serves as director of the Brice’s Crossroads National Battlefield and Interpretive Center in Baldwyn, MS. Through research and artifact conservation, exhibit design, tours and events, she has gathered valuable knowledge about the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads. She worked previously as a public relations director, news editor and managing editor at a local newspaper.

Ideas on Tap: What Does Our Government Owe Us?
2018-05-22 17:30 - 19:00 | Hal & Mal’s, 200 Commerce Street, Jackson, MS, 39201, United States
Join the Mississippi Humanities Council on May 22 at Hal and Mal’s for a conversation on potholes, bridge closures, and, ultimately, the role of government in our society.
We’ll use the recent infrastructure crisis to examine what government should be doing for society, what its responsibilities are (or are not), and how this shapes policy and perception. Kenneth Townsend (Millsaps College) and Adam Ganucheau (Mississippi Today) will serve on the panel. Tray Hairston (Butler Snow LLP) will moderate.

Beautiful Agitators
2018-04-29 14:00 - 16:00 | Delta State University, 1003 W Sunflower Rd, Cleveland, MS, 38733, United States
The creators of the civil rights play, “Beautiful Agitators,” are presenting a staged reading at Jobe Hall Auditorium, Delta State University, this coming Sunday, April 29, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. The play is about Ms. Vera Mae Pigee of Clarksdale who was an instrumental figure in the fight for racial equality in Mississippi.

Ideas on Tap Oxford: What Do We Commemorate & Why?
2018-04-26 17:30 - 19:00 | Proud Larry’s, 211 South Lamar Blvd, Oxford, MS, 38655, United States
On April 26, the Mississippi Humanities Council and the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies at the University of Mississippi will host “Ideas on Tap: What Do We Commemorate & Why?” at Proud Larry’s in Oxford.
The program will feature Dr. Charles Ross, Director of African American Studies & Professor of History at the University of Mississippi; Dr. Anne Twitty, Associate Professor of History at the University of Mississippi; Cindy Gardner, administrator of the Two Mississippi Museums; and Alysia Steele, Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of Mississippi. Dr. Graham Bodie, Visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Mississippi, will moderate.
The free and open to the public conversation will address the issue of commemoration, how we decide what to commemorate, and what the implications of commemoration are.
“Ideas on Tap: What Do We Commemorate & Why?” will take place in conjunction with the Isom Center’s annual “Radical South” programming.

Becoming a Citizen
2018-04-25 14:00 - 17:00 | J.D. Williams Library, 1 Library Loop, University, Mississippi, 38677
A representative from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, will discuss the steps to naturalization and answer questions about the process. UM Libraries’ Citizenship Resource Corner will be highlighted as a source for local information.

Ideas on Tap
2018-04-24 17:30 - 19:00 | Hal & Mal’s, 200 Commerce Street, Jackson, MS, 39201, United States
Join the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Women’s Foundation of Mississippi, and Rethink Mississippi on April 24 at Hal and Mal’s for the fourth and final installment of our spring series “Emerging Mississippi.”
On April 24, we’ll be discussing media and news coverage in Mississippi in the 21st century. We’ll discuss how news is disseminated, how people choose to receive their news, the approach that young reporters take in order to cover or report on issues, and their connection to the issues on which they’re reporting. Panelists include Larrison Campbell from Mississippi Today, Arielle Dreher from the Jackson Free Press, Beau York from Podastery, and Bracey Harris from the Clarion Ledger. Chellese Hall, Communications Manager for the Woodward Hines Education Foundation, will moderate.
This program will take place with support from the The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s “Democracy and the Informed Citizen” initiative in conjunction with the Federation of State Humanities Councils.

Speakers Bureau: The Early Pioneer Settlers 1790 to 1840
2018-04-24 13:00 - 14:30 | Heritage Academy, 623 Willowbrook Dr., Columbus, MS, 39705, United States
A living history program about the early pioneer settlers in Mississippi. Discussion centers around how they dressed, built their homes, produced and cooked their food, the use of flintlock rifles for hunting and protection of their homesteads, building fire using flint-and-steel, grinding corn in hollow stumps, children’s homemade toys and music on the mountain dulcimer. Period clothing worn, hands-on artifacts display and audience participation encouraged.
Speakers Expertise:
Mr. Arinder has studied Early American and Native American cultures for nearly 50 years, assembling a sizeable collection of artifacts which he uses to leade living history programs for local schools, civic clubs and museums. He volunteers as an interpretive historian with the Natchez Trace Parkway, leading monthly history and pioneer craft demonstrations at the Visitor Center in Tupelo.

Providence M.B. Church's "Tell-abration"
2018-04-22 08:00 - 17:00 | MS
A celebration and presentation of stories collected by Providence M.B. Church’s program, Testimonies: Stories of Race and Reconciliation in the Mississippi Delta. Details TBA.

2018 Petal Southern Miss Powwow
2018-04-21 10:00 - 2018-04-22 16:00 | Willie Hinton Park, 718 S. Main Street, Petal, MS, 39465, United States
The free, family-oriented event hosts people and tribes from all over the country and includes traditional Native American dances, dancing competitions, music and art, as well as food and vendors. The Petal Southern Miss Powwow brings people together to meet and greet and become aware of the Choctaw presence and the Indian presence in the nation, especially here in Mississippi.

Past Meets Present: Shaifer House on Holly Hill
2018-04-21 10:00 - 15:00 | Magnolia Missionary Baptist Church, 1144 Rodney Rd., Port Gibson, Mississippi

Hearing Our Past, Shaping Our Future
2018-04-20 18:00 - 20:00 | Smith Robertson Museum & Cultural Center, 528 Bloom St., Jackson, MS, 39202
Springboard for Opportunities invites you to an evening of celebration as their middle school students present the books they created based on the lives of Mississippi Civil Rights veterans. A Light reception will follow the presentation.
Please contact Sarah Stripp at sstripp@springboardto.org or (769) 251-0924 with any questions regarding the event.

Millsaps College Feminist Studies Colloquium Keynote Lecture
2018-04-20 13:00 - 16:00 | Millsaps College, 1701 N. State Street, Jackson, Mississippi, 39202
Lecture by Dr. Jaime Harker with reception to follow.
Jaime Harker holds a Ph.D. in English from Temple University. She is a professor of English and the director of the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies at the University of Mississippi, where she teachers American literature, gay and lesbian literature, and gender studies. She has published essays on Japanese translation, popular women writers of the interwar period, Oprah’s book club, and and Cold War gay literature. She is the author of America the Middlebrow: Women’s Novels, Progressivism, and Middlebrow Authorship Between the Wars and Middlebrow Queer: Christopher Isherwood in America, and the co-editor of The Oprah Affect: Critical Essays on Oprah’s Book Club and 1960s Gay Pulp Fiction: The Misplaced Heritage. She is on the editorial board of Pickering and Chatto Publishers Book Series “Literary Texts and the Popular Marketplace” (www.pickeringchatto.com/ltpm). She is currently working on a book on Southern lesbian feminism and feminist print culture.

Behind the Big House Program & Tour
2018-04-19 09:00 - 2018-04-22 16:00 | Hugh Craft House, 184 S. Memphis St., Holly Springs, MS, 38635

Dialogue on Race in Mississippi: Jackson County
2018-04-16 17:30 - 19:30 | MS
More information and registration here

Justice Everywhere: Teaching (in) and Writing (on) Prison in the American South
2018-04-16 16:00 - 18:30 | Mississippi College, 200 Capitol St., Clinton, MS, 39056

Speakers Bureau: Dispatches from Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta
2018-04-10 12:30 - 14:30 | Holmes Community College – Ridgeland Campus, 412 W. Ridgeland Avenue, Ridgeland, MS, 39157
In this presentation, the author of Dispatches from Pluto gives a behind-the-scenes account of researching and writing the popular book and explores the unique culture of the Mississippi Delta.
In his best-selling book, Dispatches From Pluto, he brings an incisive yet sympathetic eye to the culture of the Mississippi Delta. He now makes his home in Jackson, and continues to write about Mississippi for Smithsonian magazine, the New York Times, Garden and Gun and other publications.
Grant’s presentation will take place in the D.P. “Pat” McGowan Workforce Building on the Holmes CC Ridgeland Campus.

Through the Lens of Carl Brown: Processing, Developing and Exhibiting the History of Columbus, Mississippi, 1940s - 1950s
2018-04-09 17:00 - 20:00 | Columbus-Lowndes Public Library, 314 7th St N, Columbus, MS, 39701, United States
An exhibit titled “Through the Lens of Carl Brown: Lowndes County in the 1940s-1950s” will be on display at the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library from April 9-27. An opening reception will be held Monday, April 9 at 5 p.m.
The exhibit represents the culmination of a year-long project undertaken by the library’s Local History Department (LHD) to process, digitize and exhibit the early work of local professional photographer Carl Eugene Brown (1918-1998).
The opening reception will feature David Wharton from the University of Mississippi who will present “Photographing Community: Carl Brown Looks at Lowndes County, 1940s-1950s.” Wharton is the author of two books, “Small Town South” (2012) and “The Soul of a Small Texas Town: Photographs, Memories, and History from McDade” (2000). He specializes in documentary photography, local history and small town culture.

Speakers Bureau: Southern Wisdom from Delta Church Mothers
2018-04-06 08:00 - 10:00 | New Albany Middle School, 400 Apple Street, New Albany, MS
Award-winning journalist Alysia Burton Steele’s Delta Jewels: In Search of My Grandmother’s Wisdom is a visual and lyrical tribute to African American church mothers from the Mississippi Delta. This groundbreaking collection of oral histories and photographs tells nationally and internationally significant stories rooted in the Mississippi Delta, a distinctive region called “The Cradle of American Culture” by the National Park Service and “The Most Southern Place on Earth” by historian James Cobb.The Mississippi Delta produced cotton, Blues music and the Civil Rights Movement. It shaped the lives and contributions of numerous cultural and social justice icons—black and white, women and men—including Fannie Lou Hamer, Eudora Welty, Emmett Till, William Faulkner, Medgar Evers, Richard Wright, Tennessee Williams…and the celebrated Delta Jewels church mothers. Come sit a spell and hear the revered voices of these living figures of history captured by Alysia Burton Steele.
Alysia Burton Steele is a visual educator at the University of Mississippi, with a focus on oral history and visuals. For this presentation, Steele shares her experiences finding and nurturing relationships to earn trust to collect stories and share them with audiences. She shares audio and video stores as part of her presentation.

2018 Sammy O. Cranford Memorial History Lecture
2018-04-05 19:00 - 20:30 | Delta State University, 1003 W Sunflower Rd, Cleveland, MS, 38733, United States
The 2018 Sammy O. Cranford Memorial History Lecture will feature Dr. Stephen Berry, Gregory Professor of the Civil War Era in the Department of History at the University of Georgia. Dr. Berry’s lecture will explore his innovative digital history project, “CSI: Dixie.” https://csidixie.org/

The lecture will take place on Delta State’s campus in the Jobe Auditorium.

Socio-political research through government documents
2018-04-04 12:00 - 14:00 | J.D. Williams Library, 1 Library Loop, University, Mississippi, 38677
Dr. Becky Marchiel will discuss her research on urban history and capitalism and the important role government documents have played in her research process. Attendees will be able to browse related materials from our Federal Documents collection and Department of Archives and Special Collections.

Speakers Bureau: Shalom, Y'all: The History of Jews in Mississippi
2018-04-03 19:00 - 20:00 | South Mississippi Genealogy & Historical Society, 307 2nd Ave , Hattiesburg , MS
In the early 19th century, Jewish immigrants from Europe began to arrive in the Magnolia State, settling initially in towns along the Mississippi River. Concentrating in retail trade, these Jews became visible symbols of economic modernity and market capitalism in Mississippi. Throughout much of their history, Mississippi Jews have worked to lessen the cultural differences between themselves and their neighbors. In recent decades, due to region-wide economic and demographic trends, the Jewish population of Mississippi has declined and become concentrated in the state’s population centers.

Dr. Stuart Rockoff holds a Ph.D. in American History and is the Executive Director of the Mississippi Humanities Council.

Freedom of Information Act: Learn how researchers are using FOIA at the University of Mississippi
2018-03-28 12:00 - 14:00 | J.D. Williams Library, 1 Library Loop, University, Mississippi, 38677
Join this panel discussion and learn how researchers across the university use FOIA to access valuable government information for their research.

Delta State University's Winning the Race Conference 2018
2018-03-26 - 2018-03-27 | Delta State University, 1003 W Sunflower Rd, Cleveland, MS, 38733, United States
The Winning the Race Conference was developed with three overarching goals: engage in conversations with campus and community constituencies that will build an appreciation for diversity differences and a spirit of community through shared ideas; promote a broad discourse on race relations by building conversations to bring together diverse communities in the Delta through sharing of ideas and building cooperation; and to rekindle a hope that Delta communities will move toward greater equality and forward and open thinking while reducing racial disparities and tensions. Keynote speaker 2018: Kevin Powell.

Registration is FREE but required for all conference attendees. You can register here beginning February 1, 2018.

Problem Solving Charrette: Teacher Shortage in the Delta
2018-03-24 10:00 - 12:00 | I.T. Montgomery Elementary, 202 W M.L.K. Jr. Drive, Mound Bayou, MS, 38762

Ben Jonson, Our Contemporary
2018-03-21 16:00 - 20:00 | MS
