Executive Director's Message | |
The Value of the Humanities | |
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When I was in high school, I saw the comedian Jay Leno in concert. During the show, he asked a man in the front row what he did for a living, who responded that he was a college student majoring in philosophy. “What are you going to do with that degree,” Leno retorted, “open a philosophy store?” It was pretty funny – I still remember it over 35 years later. I later learned that guy was the brother of a friend of mine. In the ensuing years, he has become a very successful attorney. That’s not very surprising - according to data from the Law School Admissions Council, philosophy majors are among the highest scoring students on the LSAT.
Of course, reading and thinking about Aristotle, Kant, and Nietzsche does not have much to do with the day-to-day work of being a lawyer, but perhaps the skill of being able to read and analyze difficult texts and communicate about them to others is quite helpful in a legal career. Indeed, the skills of critical thinking and effective writing are applicable to a wide range of careers.
This fact seems to have been lost in the growing debate about humanities majors and career opportunities. The acclaimed Harvard economist Raj Chetty recently said, the best way for college students to prepare to weather the inevitable impact of technological change on the workforce is to “acquire a set of skills that will be versatile and have value no matter what happens with A.I. and robots…where you are able think and use creativity to complement machines." These skills, which can be honed through the study of the humanities, will never become obsolete.
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"Ultimately, humanities education is not just about job skills, but also about creating informed citizens and
thoughtful community members."
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At the MHC, we are focused on the public humanities, not the state of liberal arts departments on college campuses. As far as our work is concerned, there is no “crisis in the humanities.” Instead, we have seen tremendous public interest in the arts and humanities. In August, thousands of people attended the Mississippi Book Festival. While we don’t know what they majored in or if they even attended college, we know they are lovers of history and literature and they value the cultural richness of our state.
In our prison book clubs, we have seen the transformative potential of simple humanities programs, of having a group of people read a common text that speaks to their lives and then discuss it. We have heard many times from the incarcerated men and women we serve how these programs have helped them better understand their lives while giving them a sense of freedom and hope for their future. We can see the same life-changing impact of the humanities in many of the programs we support. Ultimately, humanities education is not just about job skills, but also about creating informed citizens and thoughtful community members.
The humanities, and the cultural richness it supports, improve the quality of life in our communities. The solution to the problem of “brain drain” is multifaceted, but surely the creation of culturally vibrant places is part of it. Quite simply, history and literature lovers make our state a better place to live.
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A First-Person Account of The Freedom Within Book Club
by Katie Molpus, MHC office administrator
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A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Freedom Within Book Club’s ceremony to celebrate their reading of Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give at Mississippi State Penitentiary.
From the second we walked in, you could feel the excitement and care that this group shares for the book club. After some introductions, the men showed us a slide presentation they had prepared that traced the club’s growth from their first meetings with 37 members to the present. Now, seven books later, there are 65 members of the Freedom Within Book Club.
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Because of the men’s work and dedication, with the support of the MHC staff, there are now book clubs at MSP 29J (Death Row) and MSP 31 (Nursing Home Unit), and we are in the process of starting a second book club in Unit 30. Freedom Within’s success has also been instrumental in starting other clubs across Mississippi.
Listening to the conversations the men had about The Hate U Give was an incredible reminder of the power and importance of story. The topics ranged from etymology to the role that knowledge plays in combating fear. It is such a rare thing to find a group so engaged with what they’re reading, and as a book lover, it was truly an honor to share in that.
I cannot state enough the impact and reach of the work that Freedom Within, the MHC staff, and the supporters of these book clubs have on Mississippians who are incarcerated. These men have built a supportive community centered on the transformative, freeing power of books, and because of them, others across Mississippi will have access to the same opportunity. I am so looking forward to seeing how these clubs grow, and I’m incredibly grateful to be a part of this program.
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Senator Hyde-Smith Helps open Crossroads in Brookhaven
| On October 20, the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibition Crossroads: Change in Rural America officially opened at the Lincoln County Library in Brookhaven. The exhibition will remain on display through November 18 and is free and open to the public to visit. | |
Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, in attendance at the ribbon cutting, provided powerful remarks about the importance of rural America on our nation’s past and future. Originally from Lincoln County herself, Hyde-Smith discussed the exceptional nature of rural areas, and how excited she was to see “Brookhaven” on her list of upcoming events in late October.
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In conjunction with the exhibition, the library has organized a series of public programs that focus on rural life and identity in the Lincoln-Lawrence-Franklin County region. These programs include a book club conversation on John Grisham’s A Painted House, a program on local plant life from Felder Rushing, and a presentation from Joe Brown on the history of forestry in Brookhaven. More information on Crossroads in Brookhaven can be found here.
Through artifacts, images, text, and interactive elements, Crossroads explores rural identity, the importance of land, how rural communities manage change, and much more. Crossroads will also travel to Marks, West Point, Rolling Fork and Pontotoc before leaving Mississippi in June 2024. Crossroads’ Mississippi tour is supported by a generous grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority.
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Luciérnagas Family Reading Program Launches in
Starkville
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In September, the Starkville Public Library began Luciérnagas, the MHC’s bilingual family reading program for Spanish-English speaking families. Through the use of a discussion leader and storyteller, families enrolled in the “Luci” program interact with classic children's books and humanities themes to encourage a love of reading together. The library has already hosted reading sessions and discussions based on themes like fairness, courage, and identity and heritage. Each week, the families gather to discuss the stories, as well as share a meal together. The families then take home the book for the week to continue discussions about the plots and characters.
Daisey Martinez, the young adult services librarian at the Starkville Public Library, says, “My hope and wish is that we will continue building relationships that will go beyond Luciérnagas and that the families participating will know that they’ll always have friends and supporters at the public library!”
The program will run through November 2, when the library will host a special Dia de Muertos celebration for the families. The Starkville Luci program is generously sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi.
All of the MHC's reading programs are free for sites to host and for families to attend. If you would like to learn more about Luciérnagas or learn how to host a program in your community, contact Molly McMillan at [email protected]
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Nov. 1-4 Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival Commemorates 50th Anniversary of Original Event | |
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In 1973, the Mississippi Committee for the Humanities (now the Mississippi Humanities Council) awarded a $5,000 grant to Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander, director of the Black Studies Institute she founded five years earlier at Jackson State University, in support of a groundbreaking conference for Black women writers. The conference commemorated the bicentennial of Phillis Wheatley’s work, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Leading women participated in a series of lectures, roundtable discussions, poetry readings and other events on the JSU campus.
Fifty years later, the Council has awarded another grant to help JSU celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first conference. The 2023 Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival will take place Nov. 1-4 with a full schedule of events and activities. Seven of the 10 living attendees from the original Festival, including Alice Walker, Paula Giddings, Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Sonia Sanchez, have agreed to return to Jackson State for a reconvening of the original Festival. They have agreed to serve as honorary co-chairs and participate in intergenerational conversations with writers like Nikole Hannah-Jones, Jesmyn Ward, Imani Perry and Angie Thomas. In addition to plenary sessions with featured writers, a call was issued for proposals for concurrent sessions featuring original creative writing and literary analysis.
In all, fifteen Black women writers will attend the 50th anniversary reconvening and participate in keynote events throughout the Festival.
In her grant report to the Mississippi Committee for the Humanities, Dr. Alexander noted while attending a centennial birthday celebration in 1972 of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, one of the first influential Black poets in American literature, she wondered what could be significant to commemorate in 1973. “And then I remembered the publication of Phillis Wheatley’s poetry. If one black woman in America was published in 1773, how many Black women poets in 1973?” When Wheatley’s book of poetry appeared, she became the first enslaved American, the first person of African descent and only the third colonial American woman to have her work published.
Dr. Alexander identified 20 prominent Black women writing and publishing poetry in 1973 and decided to invite them all to Jackson State University to celebrate Wheatley and Black women poets. “Needless to say, the Festival was a great success in every facet,” Alexander reported. “There were crowds in attendance, beautiful Black women poets and a celebration which we shall long remember.”
This year, MHC grant funds will specifically support commentary by Dr. Maryemma Graham, distinguished professor of English at the University of Kansas and author of the new The House Where My Soul Lives: The Life of Margaret Walker, featuring unpublished journal entries and photographs that contextualize Walker’s later life. A Festival ticket is not required to attend Graham’s session, which will take place Friday, Nov. 3, in the JSU Student Center Theatre from 6-7 p.m. The session is entitled “A Tribute to Margaret Walker” and will be presented as a conversation between Graham, Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson, the first African American and Mexican American woman to serve as chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Shelly Lowe, the first indigenous chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Visit the JSU website for more information about the 2023 Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival.
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The Mississippi Freedom Trail continues its mission to commemorate the pivotal moments, places, and courageous figures of the state's civil rights movement.
The scholars committee met and selected five new markers set to be unveiled by the end of 2024. They include:
• Aylene Quin - McComb
• Canton Freedom House
• The Howze Sisters - Shubuta
• Charles Evers – Fayette
• Fulton Chapel Protest – Oxford, University of Mississippi
The new deadline for submitting marker proposals is November 1, 2023. The cost to install each marker is $10K, but for the first time, that fee is 100% funded by additional money from Visit MS.
The Mississippi Freedom Trail is administered by Visit Mississippi in partnership with the Mississippi Humanities Council. Support for this collaboration is made possible by a State Tourism Grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration.
To learn more about the Mississippi Freedom Trail and to apply for a marker, visit Mississippi Freedom Trail or contact Program & Outreach Officer John Spann: [email protected].
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Nominations Invited for Humanities Awards | |
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The Mississippi Humanities Council invites nominations for its 2024 Public Humanities Achievement Awards, which honor outstanding contributions in the arena of public humanities.
Nominations will be accepted for the Humanities Scholar Award, Humanities Partner Award, Educator Award, Reflecting Mississippi Award, and Cora Norman Award.
"The Public Humanities Achievement Awards bring statewide attention to individuals or institutions in Mississippi that have made significant contributions to the humanities or who have led exceptional public humanities programming in Mississippi," said Dr. Stuart Rockoff, executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council.
All awards will be presented at the Mississippi Humanities Council's 2023 Public Humanities Awards Gala and Ceremony Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson. Recipients of the Humanities Teacher Awards, which pay tribute to outstanding faculty in traditional humanities fields, will also be honored at the banquet.
Nomination forms for Public Humanities Awards may be found here. For information call 601-432-6752.
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The Weight We Carry panel discussion
October 24; 7 p.m.
The Randolph Center, Pass Christian
One Book One Pass Project is hosting "The Weight We Carry" Panel Discussion on Tuesday, October 24th, 7pm, at the Randolph Center. Jamion Burney, discussion moderator, has a great panel lined up to discuss topics raised in "Heavy: An American Memoir" by Kiese Laymon.This event is free and open to the public!
Email for more information
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Changing the World with Stories
October 26; 5:30 - 7 p.m.
Millsaps College, Jackson
Join us for "Changing the World with Stories; A Narrative 4 Artists Network Conversation."
This event is at Millsaps College, October 26th, from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. featuring conversations with Authors Colum McCann, Ishmael Beah, Talamieka Brice, and Ellen Ann Fentress.
This event is free and open to the public!
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James 'Super Chikan' Johnson
October 30; 9 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Jackson State University
James 'Super Chikan' Johnson will participate in a number of events at JSU including a 10 a.m. discussion his music and the use of imagery, melody, and rhythm to conjure memories of Mississippi, followed by a roundtable discussion at 12 p.m. with Dr. Lisa Beckley-Roberts, ethnomusicologist to discuss his music as a site for memory that explores themes of nostalgia and sociopolitical reflections over the last 50 years.
During this roundtable several of his compositions will be discussed and the audience will have an opportunity to ask questions.
At 7 p.m., Johnson will perform, with the support of the Central Mississippi Blues Society, at Blue Monday at Hal and Mal's for their open mic event there.
This event is free and open to the public!
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Phyllis Wheatley Poetry Festival
November 1-4
Jackson State University, Jackson
The Margaret Walker Center proudly hosts the 50th anniversary reconvening of the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival as we lift up this ongoing work of Black excellence through intergenerational conversations, scholarly analysis, and creative writing.
Keynote Participants Include:
Jesmyn Ward, Alice Walker, Angie Thomas, Sonia Sanchez, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Tonea Stewart, Eve Ewing, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Imani Perry, Paula Giddings, Vinie Burrows, Maryemma Graham, Carole Gregory, Nic Stone, Joanne Gabbin, Shelly Lowe and Maria Rosario Jackson
See Full Schedule of Events
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Jesmyn Ward Author Event; Let Us Descend
November 4; 2 p.m.
Millsaps College| Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex, Jackson
Lemuria and Millsaps College will host Jesmyn Ward on Saturday, November 4th Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex | Recital Hall — event begins at 2pm with a book signing to follow.
Let Us Descend is a reimagining of American slavery, as beautifully rendered as it is heart-wrenching. Searching, harrowing, replete with transcendent love, the novel is a journey from the rice fields of the Carolinas to the slave markets of New Orleans and into the fearsome heart of a Louisiana sugar plantation.
This event is co-sponsored by The Mississippi Book Festival and the Mississippi Humanities Council.
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Allumer Natchez: History Comes Alive
November 10; 6 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Arts Danu, Natchez
The third year of Allumer Natchez is moving to Downtown Natchez. During the open- air event, visitors walk from installation to installation, with digital and printed maps provided. The projects will be located all over Downtown and onto The Bluff. Allumer Natchez is free and open to the public.
This year, university level new media students will create 17 2D paper-cut animations based on historical figures of the Natchez community. These animated figures will orate their short biography via voice over including relevant narratives that outline their impact on the development of Natchez from its inception as a Native American- led community until today. The projections will run from dusk until 10 p.m., on Friday and Saturday nights. Students will be onsite talking with viewers about their historical figure of choice.
More Information
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Medicine Wheel Garden
November 11; 1-3 p.m.
University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg
This is the final installment of the Medicine Wheel Garden series, located at USM behind the Liberal Arts Building. The November 11th event features plant medicine with Jenna Mae. The event begins at 1 p.m.; native plant-based snacks will be provided. Members of the university and local communities are invited to these free events.
Dr. Tammy Greer, an associate professor of psychology who serves as director for Center for American Indian Research and Studies (CAIRS), developed the Medicine Wheel Garden in 2005 along with others to highlight the plants that were used by the indigenous peoples of this area, and to promote awareness of the rich histories and cultures of Southeastern Native Americans.
More Information
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