Mississippi Humanities Council Newsletter - February 2020
Executive Director's Message
A Busy Day in the Life of the MHC

Stuart Rockoff
Executive Director
Certain times of the year are especially busy here at the Humanities Council. February and March are filled with MHC-sponsored and organized programs. While this newsletter will detail several of these, I want to talk about just one day this week, February 18. On this one day, the MHC sponsored nine different programs around the state. Taken as a group, they embody the range of work we do and how we serve Mississippi.

Two programs grew out of our minigrants, which are designed to support smaller projects. The Oxford Chapter of the League of Women Voters held a public event at the Lyric Theater marking the centennial of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Our grant was used to fund the educational components of this celebration, highlighting how white women in Mississippi won the right to vote. Of course, black women would have to wait until the Civil Rights Movement to gain their full citizenship rights.

The Mississippi Humanities Council has never shied away from difficult subjects. We want to show how we can discuss these topics with honesty and civility.

Meanwhile, Delta State hosted an MHC-funded public discussion of the "Academy Stories" project. An initiative of the journalist Ellen Ann Fentress, "Academy Stories" is a website (also funded by an MHC grant) that features firsthand accounts from people who attended segregation academies in Mississippi. In addition to funding the website, we hoped the project would inspire public conversations about this history and the continuing challenge of school integration today, and it did. Delta State saw the project and put together a public discussion about segregation academies featuring Fentress and others, including journalist Bracey Harris. The Mississippi Humanities Council has never shied away from difficult subjects. We want to show how we can discuss these topics with honesty and civility.

While we don't get involved in politics, we do see ourselves as a convener for conversations about important issues that feature diverse opinions. This was certainly the case for our Ideas on Tap panel that evening, entitled "Prison Re-Vision." This panel was a response to the violence and inhumane conditions within our state prisons and featured a progressive community activist along with the conservative policy advocate from Empower Mississippi. Both are working on prison reform issues. A historian was also part of the conversation, offering a historical perspective on how we ended up where we are today. When we tackle such a hot, contemporary issue with our Ideas on Tap program, we use the humanities to deepen the discussion.

Our Prime Time Family Reading program is a great example of how we live our motto, "the humanities are for everyone." On Tuesday, a group of families in south Mississippi gathered in the library at Gulf Coast Community College for the fourth session of our Prime Time program. A storyteller and discussion leader guided the families through Where the Wild Things Are and two other books while talking about the importance of courage. Meanwhile, another group of families gathered at the Hernando public library to read Horton Hears a Who and How I Learned Geography, using these texts to discuss how to resolve conflicts.

In addition to these council-conducted programs, this is Humanities Teacher Award season in which the winners at each of our 30 colleges and universities present public lectures on the topic of their choice. This past Tuesday, HTA winners at Mississippi Valley State, Mississippi College, Holmes Community College, and the University of Southern Mississippi spoke about the history of enslavement, the hymn "Amazing Grace," civil rights, and the relevance of medieval history to contemporary times. The HTA program is vital to maintaining our relationship with all of our state's higher education institutions while also celebrating the teaching of humanities in Mississippi.

February 18 was quite a day for us here at the MHC. While every day may not be as filled with humanities events, we are dedicated to bringing public humanities programs to communities across Mississippi while highlighting the value of the humanities in our state. I invite you join us, either by participating in an MHC program, attending our March 27 awards gala, or simply making a donation to support our work.

Natasha Trethewey
Join us March 27 for MHC Awards Celebration

The Mississippi Humanities Council will honor outstanding achievements in the public humanities the evening of March 27 at the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson. Former Mississippi and U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey will receive the Cora Norman Award in recognition of her distinguished career as a poet and writer.

In addition, the MHC will also recognize Dr. James Giesen, associate professor of history at Mississippi State University, with the Humanities Scholar Award for his work with the Mississippi tour of the Smithsonian exhibit, Waterways. The Mississippi Book Festival will receive the Humanities Partner Award for its close with work with the MHC and its enrichment of the cultural life of our state. Marta Smally will be honored with the Humanities Educator Award for her work leading a bilingual family reading program at the public library in Horn Lake. The Hawkins v. Town of Shaw project will receive the Preserver of Mississippi Culture award for telling the story of a local freedom movement in the Mississippi Delta that culminated in a groundbreaking federal civil rights case.

The MHC will also recognize 30 recipients of the 2020 Humanities Teacher Awards which pay tribute to outstanding faculty in traditional humanities fields at each of our state's institutions of higher learning.

The reception starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson, followed by the awards ceremony in the historic House Chamber at 7 p.m. We are grateful to our corporate sponsors Trustmark, Sanderson Farms, and BancorpSouth for their support.

Tickets for the Mississippi Humanities Council Public Humanities Awards ceremony and reception are $50 each and may be purchased here or by sending a check to the Mississippi Humanities Council, 3825 Ridgewood Road, Room 317, Jackson, MS 39211. Sponsorship opportunities are also available on the MHC website. All proceeds from the Humanities Awards go to support the work of the MHC.

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Art Installations and Programs Explore Life and History in the Gulf South

The Walter Anderson Museum of Art (WAMA) in Ocean Springs will launch a major new community engagement project, Voice & Vision, staging dialogues between the works of Walter Anderson and artifacts from other collections, along with voices across time and place. The Mississippi Humanities Council is pleased to be a sponsor of this ambitious new outreach effort.

Voice & Vision includes four in-gallery installations composed of artworks, objects, scholarship, and documentary fieldwork, representing a diversity of stories and experiences rooted in the Southern land. Each installation is accompanied by a public program featuring combinations of lecture, performance, discussion, and food.

"Walter Anderson was influenced by wide-ranging landscapes and cultural traditions, and his art encompasses stories of science, foodways, material culture, and indigenous society," says Julian Rankin, director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art. "Through Voice & Vision, the Museum is exploring these multifaceted connections and bringing together artifacts, communities, and partners to make meaning about life on the Southern land and sea."

Displayed within the galleries of the Museum's permanent collection, Voice & Vision includes four installations, including: "Cosmic Time and the Unseen World," exploring indigenous craft and story, in partnership with the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana; "Deep Roots: Nature, Science, and Stewardship," connecting Anderson's life and art to current Gulf Coast conservation efforts, in partnership with the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve; "Storytelling and Community Life," focusing on the importance of material culture to domestic life and storytelling, in partnership with the River City Quilters in Moss Point and and the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson; and "Life on the Land and Sea," highlighting the diverse culture of the Mississippi Gulf Coast through its famed seafood industry, strengthened by more than a century of global migration, in partnership with the Southern Foodways Alliance and the family of Ty Van Nguyen and Tommy Nguyen.

The first of these four programs. " Voice & Vision: Tunica-Biloxi Living History," is Friday, March 13, beginning with a cash bar at 5:45 p.m. followed by the program at 6 p.m. The programs are free and open to the public. For a complete schedule of events, visit the WAMA website .

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Humanities Teacher Award Lectures in Full Swing

Humanities Teacher Award lectures are happening throughout the state in February and March. These lectures, free and open to the public, offer Mississippians a unique experience to hear scholarly presentations on a wide range of humanities subjects.

Upcoming lectures include:

Feb. 21: Terrell Nicholson-Taylor, Meridian Community College,  Give Me STEAM: Art Education as an Extraordinary Experience
Feb. 24: Dr. Kristi DiClemente, Mississippi University for Women,  How History and the Humanities can Fight White Supremacy
Feb. 25: Jessi Stevenson, Itawamba Community College,  Changing the World One Communicator at a Time: A Discussion of Oxytocin, the Power of Storytelling, and the Importance of Dialogue in the Communication Process
Feb. 25: Dr. Amanda Mattox, Northeast Mississippi Community College,  Coming to America: How Immigrant Composers Have Enriched Our Musical Culture.
Feb. 26: Dr. Mark Clark, Mississippi State University,  The Quest for Religious Tolerance, Pluralism and Moderation in the Later Roman Empire
Feb 26: Terry Cherry, East Mississippi Community College, Connections
Feb. 26: Carla Townsend, Northwest Mississippi Community College,  One Woman's Fight Against the Butcher of Lyon
Feb. 27: Dr. Leticia Alonso, Jackson State University,  Modernism, Poetry, and Cinema Celebrity Culture: At the Crossroads of High and Low Art

A full listing of HTA winners can be found on our website. For more information on these and other upcoming lectures, please visit our  website calendar .

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MHC assistant director Carol Andersen, People's Advocacy Institute's executive director Rukia Lumumba, Empower Mississippi's James Robertson, and Millsaps associate professor of history Dr. Stephanie Rolph discuss prison reform during February 18's "Ideas on Tap: Prison Re-Vision."
The Afterlives of the Plantation: Aesthetics, Labor, and Diaspora in the Global Black South

Dr. Jarvis McInnis, the Cordelia and William Laverack Assistant Professor of English at Duke University, will return to his native Mississippi for a pair of lectures, one of which is sponsored by a MHC minigrant through Millsaps College.

A graduate of Tougaloo College, Dr. McInnis's upcoming book,  The Afterlives of the Plantation: Aesthetics, Labor, and Diaspora in the Global Black South , examines black transnational identity through African American and Caribbean culture and literature during the early twentieth century. McInnis's recognition that black identities overlapped as much as they diverged, offers a unique insight into this period of history where the consolidation of white power--through imperialist growth and systematic black disempowerment--tend to dominate the historical narrative.

Jarvis is an interdisciplinary scholar of African American and African diaspora literature and culture, with teaching and research interests in the global south, sound studies, performance studies, and visual culture.

The March 4 lecture, free and open to the public, will focus on the book project with an eye toward the meaning of the "global south" and racial identity. There will be a reception immediately following the presentation.

McInnis will also serve as the opening keynote speaker for the 2020 Mississippi Historical Society's annual meeting in Cleveland on March 5 (ticketed event), where he will share his archival journey and the process of developing his recently published article, "A Corporate Plantation Reading Public: Labor, Literacy, and Diaspora in the Global South," which focuses on Cotton Farmer, an African American newspaper published by black tenant farmers in the Mississippi Delta.

Augmented Reality: The Corinth Contraband Camp

With grant support from the Mississippi Humanities Council, Northeast Mississippi Community College has partnered with the National Park Service to develop an augmented reality experience for interpreting the lives of African Americans who sought refuge in Union Army military camps during the Civil War. The project includes reenactment video representations portraying the experiences of Mississippians depicted in statues and reliefs at the Corinth Contraband Camp, which will be used in the development of a smartphone app to provide a mobile experience for camp visitors touring the statues and reliefs. The public will have an opportunity to preview the videos Feb. 29 at Corinth Coliseum beginning at 1 p.m. The app will be released and available for download next month.

For enslaved African Americans, the Civil War represented an opportunity to gain freedom. Rather than passively hoping for emancipation, many fled to Union lines even before the legal status of such runaways was defined. Providing for these war refugees became both a moral responsibility and a military necessity. Union General Grenville M. Dodge established the Corinth Contraband Camp, which featured small homes, a church, school, and a hospital. The freedmen participated in self-government, learned to read, and became financially productive. They supported themselves and contributed to the military effort through raising cotton and vegetables and marketing their various skills.
 
For the year that the Corinth camp functioned, approximately 6,000 former slaves found refuge there. Nearly 2,000 of the male residents enlisted in the Union army.

Today the National Park Service (NPS) works to tell the story of the camp through the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center, which is managed by Shiloh National Military Park. The NPS owns a portion of the original camp and maintains a quarter-mile walk which includes six life-size bronze sculptures depicting life at the camp along with two reliefs. The augmented reality will provide meaningful context and interpretation for those statues and reliefs about life in the camp and its history.
 
Using augmented reality, e ach statue will have a film depicting the experiences of the inhabitants using both historic images and scenes re-enacted by area residents. Visitors may download an app onto their smartphone or tablet either prior to their arrival or on location featuring the videos, which will play when they direct their smart device toward the statue or plaque. The application will also be available for use off-site, so users may view the videos from locations around the world. The project includes the creation of teacher resources so classroom educators can use the Corinth story as an example of how African Americans contributed to their own emancipation and the Union effort in the Civil War.

Former Mississippi Humanities Council board member and recently retired Northeast Mississippi Community College history instructor Carla Falkner has contributed to the Corinth Contraband Camp project, and another MHC board member, Dr. Alisea McLeod, chair of humanities at Rust College, will present a keynote lecture at the Feb. 29 event. In her presentation, McLeod will trace the lives of some of the refugees at the Corinth camp. Admission is free.

Coming Up: Humanities Programs Sponsored by MHC
 
Speakers Bureau: Parallels of Southern Storytelling
February 21, 2020, 7 p.m.
Blue Mountain College, Blue Mountain
Diane Williams uses the art of storytelling to uncover folktales from the south, often paralleling these story motifs with folktales from around the world.

Natchez Literary & Cinema Celebration 2020: Visits, Vittles & Vines: The Culture of Southern Hospitality
February 27-29, 2020
Natchez
Annual celebration with theme-based lecture series enhanced by films, field trips, workshops, exhibits, book signings, concerts, and discussions. The 2020 festival focuses on the heritage of Southern hospitality. It will highlight the many cultures and rich traditions that make up the food, gardens, and entertainment for which the South is so known, and how they transcend race and class lines.


50th Recollection of Gibbs-Green: Survivors Exhibition
February 27, 2020, 5:30 p.m.
Jackson State University, Jackson
Reception to open an exhibit that features displays about the lives of the survivors of a 1970 shooting on the Jackson State University campus, with pictures, personal papers, and other items that help tell the story about how the experience shaped them in the years following. The exhibit will remain on display through June.



"Back in the Day" Black History Celebration
February 27, 2020, 6 p.m.
New Hope Baptist Church, Jackson
To wrap up a month-long celebration of Black History Month, New Hope Baptist Church hosts the  retired Hon. Constance Slaughter-Harvey as keynote speaker.



Speakers Bureau: Parallels of Southern Storytelling
February 28, 2020, 9 a.m.
William Carey University, Hattiesburg
Diane Williams uses the art of storytelling to uncover folktales from the south, often paralleling these story motifs with folktales from around the world.

Speakers Bureau: The ABCs of Making a Documentary Film: From Concept to Creation
February 29, 2020, 10 a.m.
Holiday Inn Express, Starkville
Mark LaFrancis de-mystifies the creation of a documentary film. LaFrancis draws from personal experience to help beginning and intermediate documentarians not only conceptualize, but create their projects. This is a lively, fast-paced, in-depth program with loads of Q&A time.

Margaret's Grocery
Margaret's Grocery: The Oral History of a Southern Vernacular Place
March 7, 2020, 6 p.m.
Strand Theatre, Vicksburg
Film screening and panel discussion of The Oral History of a Southern Vernacular Place, documenting Margaret's Grocery as a unique vernacular art environment created by Reverend H.D. Dennis.

Religion and the Freedom Movement: The Historical and Current Role of Women
March 12, 2020, 6 p.m.
International Museum of Muslim Cultures, Jackson
A conversation exploring religion's connection with the Freedom Movement through the role of women, in conjunction with IMMC's "Bridging Cultures" program.

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