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Mississippi Humanities Council Newsletter - June 2019
Dr. Stuart Rockoff
MHC Executive Director
Executive Director's Message
How the Humanities Can Help Mississippi Thrive

Last week, we held our annual board retreat. In addition to our regular board meeting, we spent some time during the retreat thinking about and discussing the strategic goals of the MHC. This year, we met in Meridian and were hosted at the amazing Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience. If you haven't yet had a chance to visit this interactive, state-of-the-art museum that tells the story of Mississippi's inspiring artists, I urge you to go.

During our first strategic session, the MHC's board and staff wrestled with some big questions about what the communities where we live need to thrive and how the MHC can help foster it. At first, the exercise was humbling. Our Mississippi communities have so many needs: jobs, health care, infrastructure, education, and so much more. What can a small organization that supports public humanities programs really do to make a difference in our state? While the MHC can't help bring a factory to a community, fix a dangerous bridge, or help ensure a rural hospital stays open, we can help strengthen our state in other ways.


Our Mississippi communities have so many needs: jobs, health care, infrastructure, education, and so much more. What can a small organization that supports public humanities programs really do to make a difference in our state?
 

After our board delved deeply into the questions, we emerged with a clearer sense of our unique role in Mississippi. Board members spoke of the need for civic spaces in their towns, places where people can come together and discuss the challenges they face, and how they can improve their communities. They talked about the need for cultural enrichment opportunities, especially in rural and underserved areas. They mentioned the need for unifying and more accurate narratives that include the full diversity of our history. Finally, they talked about the need to connect - connecting people who are divided by racial barriers and connecting organizations and institutions that too often remain stuck in their silos.

These are exactly the roles the MHC plays in our state. Our Ideas on Tap series brings people from different ends of the ideological spectrum together for deep, thoughtful discussions about the important issues we face today. This year, with the support of the Phil Hardin Foundation, we are hosting twelve different Ideas on Tap forums about public education in six different communities. Our Speakers Bureau program puts humanities scholars on the road, providing culturally enriching programs throughout the state. If a community wants to tell its own story or create an event that explores our history and culture, our accessible grant program is there to support them. Since our founding in 1972, the MHC has helped communities confront their difficult histories and construct more inclusive and historically accurate narratives. We were honored to be awarded the Schwartz Prize from the Federation of State Humanities Councils for our Racial Equity Grant program, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which supported projects that explored the history and continuing impact of racism in Mississippi.

But above all, the MHC is a connector. With only a staff of five, we would not have anywhere near the impact we do if we did not work through partnerships. The Mississippi Encyclopedia Online, which now reaches 13,000 users a month, is the result of a collaboration with the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi and the University Press. We are currently working on an ambitious plan to provide credit bearing community college courses to incarcerated Mississippians. This would not be possible without the partnership of the Community College Board, Hinds Community College, the Prison Writes Initiative, and the Department of Corrections. We are planning to bring together the different institutions offering educational opportunities in Mississippi prisons to better coordinate and expand all of our efforts.

If you see the value of this work in helping our communities thrive, please consider making a donation to help support it. Your donation will enable us to offer more civic spaces and cultural opportunities and help us foster unified narratives and greater connections across our state.
We are excited to welcome Jeremy Middleton to the MHC team as our summer intern. Jeremy grew up in Canton and is a rising senior at Tougaloo College, where he is majoring in English. Jeremy will be working closely with the MHC staff this summer to help us evaluate the impact and reach of our programs.
MHC Hosts Ideas on Tap Summer Series on 'Identity'

This summer, the MHC is examining identity through a two-part Ideas on Tap series in Jackson.

The first program, "Who Are You? Identity in America," took place June 18 at Coffee Prose. The program explored how identity is defined, how identity can be constructed, and how issues like race, gender, and technology can alter how identity is perceived. The panel included Katie Sorey, Inclusion and Involvement Specialist at Millsaps College; Dr. Patrick Hopkins, Professor of Philosophy at Millsaps; and Natalie A. Collier, founder and director of The Lighthouse: Black Girl Projects. Demi Brown, interim dean of students at Millsaps College, moderated the program.

Program moderator Demi Brown, left, interacts with panelists Katie Sorey, Natalie Collier, and Patrick Hopkins during June 18's "Who Are You: Identity in America" Ideas on Tap panel.


A follow-up program will take place July 16 at Coffee Prose in Jackson and will focus on the role of photography and video in defining identity and the ways technology and social media are re-defining how people are identified or present themselves.  More details on the July program will be announced in the coming weeks.

The series is co-sponsored by the Millsaps College Visiting Writers Series.

For more information on Ideas on Tap, contact Caroline Gillespie.
MHC Welcomes New Board Members

The Mississippi Humanities Council welcomes three new members, who were voted onto the board earlier this year:

Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez  has served as Dean of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College at the University of Mississippi since 2003 and is Professor of History in the Arch Dalrymple III Department of History. He completed his Ph.D. in Latin American History at The University of Texas at Austin. He initiated his teaching career at UM as Assistant Professor in 1993, and then taught at Tulane University as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of History from 1999-2000.


Temika Simmons is a native of Jackson and resident of the Mississippi Delta. She received a bachelor's degree from Jackson State University and both a master's and doctoral degree in Educational Psychology from Howard University. Her research interests include the professionalization of teachers, racial and ethnic identity development, and multicultural education. Dr. Simmons joined the faculty at Delta State University in 2009 and serves as director of DSU's Local Government Leadership Institute.


 





Carla Wall is a  Jackson-based strategic communications/PR consultant, a community activist, and volunteer who has been closely involved in many arts and humanities organizations in Mississippi. She is on the board of the Eudora Welty Foundation and the International Ballet Competition. Wall previously served as board chair for the Mississippi Heritage Trust.
Mississippi Humanities Council Awards $72,000 in Grants

  The Mississippi Humanities Council is pleased to announce $72,000 in grants to 15 Mississippi organizations in support of public humanities programs. In addition to this direct support, each organization was required to present matching cash or in-kind cost share, pledging an additional $72,000 to humanities programming around our state. The humanities programs funded in this major round explore Native American culture, Mississippi's blues and R&B music history, the human experience as expressed through graphic novels and cartoons, the photography of a Civil Rights-era artist, the vision of Mississippi Gulf Coast artist Walter Anderson, and more.

Dr. Stuart Rockoff, executive director of MHC, said, "We are pleased to be able to support these important projects throughout our state. We had a large number of applications, so this grant round was particularly competitive. Taken as a group, these grants reflect the rich and diverse heritage of our state and the inspiring public humanities work going on in Mississippi today."

Humanities grants are awarded to Mississippi nonprofit organizations in support of programs that foster the public's understanding of our history and culture.

Major grants are offered twice each year. Deadlines are May 1 and September 15. Please visit http://mshumanities.org/grants/, or contact Carol Andersen for additional information.

The organizations and projects awarded grants, listed by community, include:

Statewide:  
Mississippi Historical Society-$3,600.00
Mississippi History Now, an online publication
Online Mississippi history site featuring articles and corresponding lesson plans for educators.

Mississippi Heritage Trust-$3,500.00
10 Most Endangered Historic Places in Mississippi
Biennial education/awareness campaign highlighting endangered historic structures across the state, with a goal of inspiring local preservation efforts.

Mississippi Gulf Coast:
Mississippi Film Alliance-$7,500.00
The Eyes of Katrina
Documentary film and oral history project to incorporate the stories of photographers who covered Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast into a larger project about photographers who documented the impact of the hurricane across the Gulf South. 
 
Clarksdale:
Coahoma Community College-$7,500.00
2019 Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival
Twenty-seventh annual festival examining the life and works of playwright Tennessee Williams. The 2019 festival takes place over three days at locations throughout Clarksdale and will specifically examine the portrayal of female characters in Williams' works and the local women who likely inspired them.
 


Cleveland:
Delta State University-$6,254.00
Re-Entry Mississippi: 50 Years of the Apollo Program
Local observation of the 50th anniversary of NASA's Apollo Program, through the lens of Mississippi Delta men and women who were involved in the space program. Events and activities will be part of the annual Delta Chinese reunion hosted by the Mississippi Delta Chinese Heritage Museum, which is housed within the DSU Archives, including an exhibit, lectures, panel discussions and a space camp.
 
Greenville:
Winterville Mounds-$7,500.00
Native American Days 2019
Annual, youth-centered event celebrating the cultures of southeastern Native Americans by focusing on aspects of their lifeways.
 
Gulfport:
Gulfport School District-$1,500.00
Writing in the Humanities
Multi-component project to engage high school theater students with their surrounding community on the topics of "what makes us human," human expression through music and acting, and the role of humanity in sustaining life on earth.
 
Indianola:
From the Heart Productions-$3,000.00
Young Filmmakers' Workshop/Sunflower County Film Academy
Summer filmmaking workshop for 15 students in the Mississippi Delta.
 
Itta Bena:  
Khafre, Inc. $4,000.00
8th Annual Sweat Equity Investment in the Cotton Kingdom
Annual interdisciplinary two-day conference on the Mississippi Valley State University campus to study and celebrate the contributions of cotton/cotton pickers to the culture and economy of the Mississippi Delta. The 2019 conference will focus on the history and heritage of the Gullah/Geechee people of the southeastern coastal region, drawing connections between their experiences and those who eventually inhabited the Mississippi Delta.
 
Jackson:
Mississippi Blues Foundation-$7,500.00
Documenting the post-WWII Jackson Blues and R&B Scene
Oral history project to record and film musicians who were active in the Jackson blues/R&B/jazz scene from 1945 to 1970.


Jackson State University-$4,500.00
Let Us March On: Lee Friedlander and the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
Photography exhibit and related programs on the Jackson State University campus on the work of Lee Friedlander, who documented a 1957 civil rights protest at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.


University of Mississippi Medical Center-$4,624.00
"The Mississippi State Asylum, 1855 to 1935,"A documentary and presentations
Production of a short documentary film, expanding perceptions and understanding of the 80-year history of the Mississippi State Insane Asylum, followed by regional presentations across the state featuring the completed film, along with key researchers involved in the ongoing effort to excavate, preserve and interpret the findings at the former asylum site.


Ocean Springs:
Walter Anderson Museum of Art-$4,000.00
Voice and Vision
Two-part interdisciplinary initiative to engage visitors with the Walter Anderson Museum of Art holdings through programming that encourages contemporary discussions around themes found in Anderson's art.

Oxford:
University of Mississippi-$5,000.00
Graphic Novels and Cartoons across the Humanities
Week-long interdisciplinary conference on the University of Mississippi campus examining a range of human experiences as expressed in graphic novels and cartoons.
 
University of Mississippi-$2,000.00
Making and Unmaking Mass Incarceration
Three-day interdisciplinary conference examining the history of mass incarceration and re-imagining society's response to criminal behavior. Activities include installation of an exhibit featuring artwork by incarcerated students.

Learn More
Discussion leader Elvira Johnson interacts with families during a session at the Drew family reading program
MHC Begins Summer Reading Program Partnership in Drew

On June 20, the MHC began a new Prime Time family reading program with families in Drew through a partnership with We2Gether Creating Change, a community development organization based in Drew. The program, which is geared toward 6 to 10-year-olds and their parents or guardians, will take place with Drew families through August 1.

The program takes place at the Mae Bertha Carter Learning Center, named for civil rights activist and Drew native Mae Bertha Carter. In 1965, Carter enrolled her children in Drew public schools under the freedom of choice policy, integrating the public school system. Carter's daughter, Gloria Dickerson, is the founder and director of We2Gether Creating Change and will serve as the summer reading program's host site coordinator.

Developed by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, Prime Time family reading programs are licensed and used by the MHC to engage Mississippi families with dynamic storytelling and discussion. Programs are free for sites to host and for families to attend.

For more information on the MHC's Family Reading Project or to learn how to host a program in your community, contact Caroline Gillespie.

Learn More
Coming Up: Humanities Programs Sponsored by MHC
 
Wilkinson County Mound Exhibit: Field Facts and Artifacts
June 29, 2019, 3:00 p.m.
Downtown Woodville
The Wilkinson County Mound Exhibit opens June 29 in the Wilkinson County Museum in downtown Woodville at 3 p.m. in conjunction with a "Meet the Archaeologists" discussion and Artifact Roadshow event at the African American Museum.  The Mound Exhibit will feature Native American artifacts from Wilkinson County and will highlight the county's two sites on the Mississippi Mound Trail-the Lessley and the Smith Creek sites-located along state Highway 24, west of Woodville.


Re-Entry Mississippi: 50 Years of the Apollo Program
July 7-8, 2019
Delta State University, Cleveland
With the 50th anniversary of the United States' Apollo Program, Delta State University is celebrating the region's men and women who were intrinsically involved in the exploration, discovery, and successes of the new NASA programs.


Speakers Bureau: A Look at Mande (West African) Culture Through Traditional Music
July 12, 2019
Kemetic Institute, Mound Bayou
This presentation will give the listener a glimpse of the Mandé Culture of West Africa. In the tradition of the Mandé, 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. 

Speakers Bureau: Mississippi Telling
July 17, 2019, 9 a.m.
Emily Jones Pointer Public Library, Como
Dr. Rebecca Jernigan provides an overview of the storytelling renaissance in America with emphasis on the oral tradition in Mississippi. She performs as a storyteller, 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.


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