Executive Director's Message | |
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March was an intense month of activity here at the Mississippi Humanities Council, and I’ve been on the road for much of April. So, I decided the easiest thing to do for this month’s message is to ask ChatGPT to write it for me. Here is AI’s response to my prompt to write a message about the importance of the MHC:
The Mississippi Humanities Council plays a crucial role in promoting the humanities and enriching the cultural life of Mississippians. Through their programs and initiatives, the Council fosters an appreciation for the arts, literature, history, and philosophy, while also encouraging critical thinking, civic engagement, and cultural diversity.
The Council's work is especially important in Mississippi, a state with a rich and complex history that has often been marked by struggle and conflict. By promoting an understanding of Mississippi's past and its cultural heritage, the Council helps to build bridges of communication and understanding across communities and generations.
In addition to their educational programs and outreach efforts, the Council also supports the work of local humanities organizations, including museums, libraries, and cultural centers. Through these partnerships, the Council helps to ensure that the humanities are accessible to people in all parts of the state, including rural and underserved areas.
The work of the Mississippi Humanities Council is vital to the cultural and intellectual life of the state. By promoting the humanities, they help to foster a more informed and engaged citizenry, while also celebrating the rich cultural heritage of Mississippi. Their work is a testament to the power of the humanities to inspire and enrich the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds.
At first read, the message seems pretty good. But as you delve deeper, you realize it is largely abstract boilerplate language with none of the compelling examples or goosebump moments I try to share in these messages. It makes no mention of our staff’s efforts to help bring federal cultural relief funds to help Rolling Fork and other towns devastated by last month’s tornadoes. It fails to describe how the dedication of a Freedom Trail marker in Natchez helped bring that community together, or how we were able to support a dedication ceremony for a new historical marker honoring two lynching victims in Duck Hill. And this is all in just the past week!
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As my colleagues in the humanities world express concern about the impact of AI on our work and our society, I am comforted by the fact that ChatGPT is unable to convey the soul of our work. | |
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It describes what we do from a general perspective, but it doesn’t explain how we do it. It can’t convey the stories of connection that sustain and inspire our work. As my colleagues in the humanities world express concern about the impact of AI on our work and our society, I am comforted by the fact that ChatGPT is unable to convey the soul of our work.
The founding legislation that established the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities in 1965 included the prescient statement that arts and humanities education is “designed to make people of all backgrounds and wherever located masters of their technology and not its unthinking servants.”
Time will tell whether we will remain masters and not servants of AI technology, but the MHC will be doing its part by building human connections through stories and nurturing the divine spark of humanity in our people.
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Ideas on Tap: Addressing the Gender Divide in Mississippi Politics
According to a 2016 Clarion Ledger article, The Women who Run our State, “Of 172 legislative seats at the [Mississippi] state Capitol, only 25 are filled by women.” Now in 2023, that number has decreased to 23.
As the number of female college and law school graduates increases nationally, why hasn’t women’s political representation in Mississippi also grown? Join us Wednesday, April 26 at Cultivation Food Hall in Jackson as we address this question and others in our next Ideas on Tap conversation: Addressing the Gender Divide in Mississippi Politics.
Among our panelists will be Rep. Zakiya Summers (D-Dist. 68) and Sen. Nicole Akins Boyd (R-Dist. 9.) Frances Patterson Croft of the Women's Foundation for Mississippi will moderate the discussion. The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. For more information about this panel and other Ideas on Tap programs, contact MHC Program & Outreach Officer John Spann.
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Proposals Invited for May 1 Grant Deadline
The Mississippi Humanities Council grants program supports projects that stimulate meaningful community dialogue, attract diverse audiences, are participatory and engaging, and apply the humanities to our everyday lives. Grants may be used to support public humanities programs, exhibits, the planning of larger projects, and the development of original productions in film, television, radio or online resources.
The Council also offers special grants to support oral history projects around the state.
Larger grants ($2,501-$10,000) deadlines are May 1 and September 15. Funded events may not occur fewer than eight weeks from the deadline date, and pre-consultation with MHC staff is required before submitting an application. Grant application forms and other related documents may be found on the grants page of the MHC website.
Applicants are encouraged to contact Carol Andersen before submitting project drafts.
Organizations seeking MHC funds will be REQUIRED to provide the Unique Entity ID (UEI). Due to federal regulations, MHC will be unable to award any funding to organizations that fail to submit this information. Organizations can receive their free UEI on the SAM.gov website. View this guide for assistance in obtaining your UEI.
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The Mississippi Freedom Trail was established in 2011 to commemorate the state’s role in the Civil Rights Movement, and the latest marker was unveiled in Natchez. The Dr. John Banks House served as the headquarters for the local NAACP and was the home of its president, George Metcalfe. The house now joins the list of more than 30 markers throughout the state that highlight the people, places and events that were instrumental in the movement. Read more about the historical marker and the unveiling here. | |
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Prison Book Clubs Expand with New Readers, New Titles
Approximately 200 incarcerated readers are participating in Mississippi Humanities Council book clubs.
The clubs are meeting in five prisons with two more slated to begin in May. With a humanities scholar facilitating discussions, each group explores a book for four sessions before selecting what to read next.
Book choices include fiction, history, and memoirs. The men at Walnut Grove Correctional Facility recently voted to do a double session using Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The original book club at Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman completed all of Jesmyn Ward’s major works and is now reading Kiese Laymon’s Heavy: An American Memoir.
The women at Delta Correctional Facility have two clubs running simultaneously. The first group was so impressed with Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing, they decided to read all of her books. The second club operates through a partnership with the Mississippi Library Commission. After finishing The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows, they voted to read The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet.
At times, guests enrich the discussions. The South Mississippi Correctional Institution club is reading Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by Johann Hari. Christina Dent, founder of End It For Good, plans to join them to discuss the nation’s drug crisis. Brittany K. Barnett, author of Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom will livestream next month with the Marshall County Correctional Facility club.
The new groups will be at two regional prisons, Wilkinson County and George County. A group at George County is studying American literature in a non-credit course taught by Dr. Lisa Rhodes. They decided to form a book club for the opportunity to read longer works, beginning with Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Club member receive a copy of each book.
The prison book clubs are funded by the James and Madeleine McMullan Family Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation. For more information about prison book clubs contact Carla Falkner, Project Coordinator for MHC Prison Education Program.
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Grant Project Spotlight: Katrina and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
When Hurricane Katrina rammed the Gulf Coast August 26, 2005, the world’s attention was riveted on the shocking devastation in New Orleans. Meanwhile to the east in Mississippi, beyond the media focus, then-Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour compared the destruction in his state to a nuclear bomb detonation.
Two University of Southern Mississippi professors, with support from a Mississippi Humanities Council grant, are working to document and create public awareness about just how significant the local damage was, and to increase public understanding of the lasting impact on the citizens, businesses and institutions of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
“By documenting and digitizing material present in the (USM) McCain Archives, this project aims to visualize, for the general public, the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” says Project Director Brendan Fay, associate professor of library science at USM. Fay is working with colleague Jeff Hirshy, assistant professor in the USM School of Library and Information Science, to assemble materials ranging from original photographs, oral histories and unpublished memoirs to government documents, engineering schematics and area maps for a web-based platform that will allow for greater accessibility and relevance.
“The approach of the 20th anniversary makes this a particularly opportune moment for this digital humanities project,” Fay says. “While much focus on the devastation was understandably on New Orleans, we feel this emphasis has risked an oversight for coastal Mississippi and impacted its recovery, even today. A major goal of this project is to overcome that oversight by presenting and documenting the stories of the people who lived through it, providing a chance for them to tell their stories of surviving, rebuilding, and recovering.”
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Archeology, Women in WWII, Freedom Riders, and More: Speakers Bureau Updates
The MHC Speakers Bureau features our state’s finest historians, writers and storytellers talking about a wide variety of subjects related to Mississippi and beyond. For no cost, you can bring these scholars to speak at an event. The MHC selects speakers based on their credentials and the quality of their program and pays them an honorarium for presenting to nonprofit groups around the state.
The MHC is always accepting applications for scholars to join the roster of humanities topics. Just in the last year, several presentations have been made available for communities to host, including:
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LaShunda Calvert, America’s WWII Era’s Industrial Economy: Impact of Mississippi Women in the Workforce
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Will Bowlin, Controlling the Message: How Historical Narratives Shape Our Perceptions
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Hezekiah Watkins, Pushing Forward: The Youth Movement of Mississippi
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Thomas Kersen, Theosophical Endeavors in the Magnolia State
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Jarita King, Inspiring a Culture: How African American Women Became the Food Engineers Behind Southern Soul Food
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Janis Triplett Burns, The Incredible Career of Mississippi Native Jimmie Lunceford
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Jean Greene, HBCUs: Their Legacy and Continued Relevance in Southern Black Higher Education
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Jennifer Mack, Archaeology as an Act of Remembrance: A Tour of American Excavations
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LaShonda Levy, Beauty and Poise: African American Women Authors of the Harlem Renaissance
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For more information on bringing one of these presentations to your area, becoming a member of the speakers bureau, or any other questions, contact MHC program officer Molly McMillan. | |
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Upcoming MHC-Sponsored Events
Behind the Big House Program & Tour
April 20 - 22
Hugh Craft House, Holly Springs
Behind the Big House is one of few historic site tours developed with the specific goal of interpreting slavery. The program began with several private homeowners in Holly Springs, Mississippi, who opened slave houses on their properties to the public. Since 2012, the program has educated thousands in North Mississippi and Arkansas. This year, Preserve Marshall County & Holly Springs, Inc. will continue to provide a more complete narrative of its town's history, as a template for others to follow.
Learn More
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ICC Humanities Showcase
April 24, 2:00pm
ICC Fulton Library, Fulton
On Monday, April 24th, ICC Fulton campus library will have a Humanities Showcase from 2 to 4. It is the final event in our year-long series “Reflecting Mississippi: Finding Yourself in Mississippi’s Reflection.”
Learn More
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Ideas on Tap – Addressing the Gender Divide in Mississippi Politics
April 26, 5:30pm
Cultivation Food Hall, Jackson, MS
Join our panelists, Rep. Zakiya Summers and Sen. Nicole Boyd, for a discussion about the gender divide in Mississippi Politics.
Learn More
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Speakers Bureau: People, Not Property: Tracing Your African American Roots
May 11, 10:00am
Hinds Community College, Utica
Retired archivist Anne Webster will present on resources available at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History pertaining to genealogical research, particularly for those with African heritage. The presentation will take place in the J. Louis Stokes Student Union on the Utica campus of Hinds Community College.
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