Celebrating the Humanities and the MHC | |
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The past few weeks have been very exciting for us at the Mississippi Humanities Council. One of the highlights was watching the PBS documentary Fannie Lou Hamer’s America, which tells the story of this seminal Mississippi civil rights leader in her own distinctive voice. When I saw our new logo fill the screen as part of a prestigious list of funders for this powerful documentary, I let out a loud “whoop!” We gave the film its first grant four years ago, and it’s been exciting to see the project develop and reach a national audience. We’ve already heard from viewers in other states who have thanked us for supporting the film.
Another highlight was our creation of a Humanities Certificate to honor those incarcerated students who have successfully completed 12 academic hours while taking MHC-funded courses at Mississippi prisons. Our partners at Mississippi Delta Community College, who teach students at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, will bestow these certificates during an end-of-semester ceremony at the prison in May. The Mississippi Department of Corrections has indicated that these students will receive a 45-day reduction in their sentences for earning these academic credits, which they will be able to transfer to any Mississippi community college or four-year university.
These are just two examples of how the work of the Mississippi Humanities Councils touches people’s lives. Recognizing and celebrating this impact is the impetus behind our annual Public Humanities Awards event. After a two-year hiatus, we are excited to gather in person on March 25 at the Two Mississippi Museums to honor outstanding achievements in the public humanities.
We will be honoring Fannie Lou Hamer’s America with our Preserver of Mississippi Culture Award, while the prison education team at Mississippi Delta Community College will receive our Humanities Educator Award. Additional awardees include the writer and literary scholar Ralph Eubanks, civil rights historian Daphne Chamberlain, and New Hope Baptist Church. We are especially excited to honor Bill Ferris with our Cora Norman Award, which will be presented by Jon Parrish Peede. Both Ferris and Peede are native Mississippians who have served as chairmen of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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There is still time to purchase a ticket to join us on March 25 at the Public Humanities Awards at the Two Mississippi Museums: www.mshumanities.org
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Another momentous event this past few weeks was the establishment of the Council’s first-ever endowment fund. We are launching this “Humanities Innovation Fund” in conjunction with our 50th anniversary. We have set a modest fundraising goal of $50,000 to supplement the reserve funds we are using to establish it. I am very excited the Community Foundation for Mississippi has offered us a challenge grant that will match this $50,000. We will announce more details soon, but if you would like to help us reach this goal, please donate here.
Thanks to all of you for your support of the Mississippi Humanities Council. We hope to see you on March 25!
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Next Major MHC Grant Deadline May 1
Proposals Up to $10,000 Invited for ‘Reflecting Mississippi’ Projects
Throughout 2022 the Mississippi Humanities Council is marking its 50th anniversary serving the people and the cultural organizations of our state with programs and events that reflect our diverse stories. As part of its anniversary observation, the Council continues to invite “Reflecting Mississippi” grant proposals. The MHC hopes to inspire Mississippians to think about how our state’s narratives have, or have not, reflected who we are and where we’ve been. For projects related to the “Reflecting Mississippi” theme, applicants may request up to $10,000 in our May 1 regular grant round.
These projects may include but aren’t limited to: local history; Mississippi literature; stories of underrepresented communities; parts of our history and culture that have often not been reflected in mainstream narratives; and how major national and global events have shaped Mississippi. Projects may explore where we have been and who we are today.
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.
Deadlines for larger grants (greater than $2,000) are May 1 and September 15. Funded events may not occur fewer than six 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. Proposals for small grants (up to $2,000) are accepted on a rolling basis, with applications due at least four weeks from the start of the proposed project or event.
Applicants are encouraged to contact Carol Andersen before submitting project drafts.
*Please note: On April 4, 2022, the federal government will transition from the use of the DUNS Number to a new Unique Entity ID (UEI) as the primary means of identification required to receive federal funding.
Organizations seeking MHC funds will be REQUIRED to provide the Unique Entity ID (UEI) for future grant applications starting on April 4, 2022. 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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Voices and Votes Exhibit to Open March 28
The Smithsonian has arrived in Mississippi! Earlier this week, the Library of Hattiesburg, Petal, and Forrest County received one of the Smithsonian's newest traveling exhibits, Voices and Votes: Democracy in America, to host for six weeks before it travels on to five other communities around the state.
In addition to hosting the exhibit, the library will also host a series of free public programs related to Voices and Votes. Events include an opening reception on March 28 featuring a presentation about local government by Hattiesburg mayor Toby Barker, a presentation from Secretary of State Michael Watson on Mississippi's Initiative Process on April 11, and a lecture from Voices and Votes state scholar Dr. Rebecca Tuuri on May 2. More information about the public programs can be found on the library's website.
Voices and Votes is a project of Museum on Main Street, a division of the Smithsonian's traveling exhibition service. Through artifacts, images, text, and interactive elements, the 650-square-foot exhibit takes a broad look at American democracy—from the American Revolution and suffrage, to civil rights and casting ballots. It explores who can vote, whose voices are heard, the responsibilities of American citizens, how we can encourage more people to participate in our democracy, and more.
After departing Hattiesburg, the exhibit will visit Utica, Booneville, Pascagoula, Natchez, and Vicksburg. Voices and Votes is a free exhibit and open to the public at all locations, and will be on display in Mississippi until January 2023. More information about the exhibit and its Mississippi tour can be found on the MHC website.
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MHC Leads Parchman Book Club
On March 4, twenty men gathered in a Parchman classroom to discuss Jesmyn Ward's novel Sing, Unburied, Sing in the inaugural session of the Mississippi State Penitentiary Virtual Book Club.
Sponsored by the Mississippi Humanities Council and led by Dr. Ebony Lumumba, the book club is an initiative of the Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP) Adult Education Department. Lumumba serves on the MHC board and is the department chair and associate professor of English at Jackson State University.
Joining the group via live streaming, Lumumba praised the participants: “The men were prepared and eager to discuss the complex themes of the novel from the very start of our session.” Ward’s book, winner of the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction, explores the troubled past of Mississippi and Parchman as 13-year-old Jojo struggles with the meaning of manhood and family.
The students, Lumumba explained, related to Ward’s story. “They shared personal stories that connected with character experiences, conducted deep readings of quotations throughout the book, and analyzed Ward's prose with precision. I learned so much from their approaches to understanding and situating Ward's novel.”
"We are excited to explore the writings of our most accomplished contemporary Mississippi writer, Jesmyn Ward, with these readers,” said MHC Executive Director Dr. Stuart Rockoff.
The book club will have four weekly sessions to discuss Sing, Unburied, Sing and has already expanded to include more readers. After the first session, Lumumba commented, “I look forward to continuing our discussion on this text and adopting a new one very soon. This experience has truly been a gift."
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More Perfect Union: Mississippi Founders
The MHC’s More Perfect Union project is in full swing. Entitled “Mississippi Founders,” this project will honor twelve Mississippians who challenged our state and nation to be a “more perfect union.” A traveling exhibit featuring these “Mississippi founders” will begin to tour the state by June. The pop-up exhibit, featuring 13 panels. will stand 20 feet wide and 8 feet tall. The exhibit can be requested by any Mississippi school, library, museum, or community center. The booking and shipping of the exhibit will be free of charge. Sites can host the exhibit for up to three weeks. If you are interested in bringing the exhibit to your community, contact MHC program and outreach officer John Spann.
In addition, we have recorded a series of video interstitials with Mississippi Public Broadcasting highlighting these twelve Mississippians. The impressive list of narrators include Senator Roger Wicker, Congressman Bennie G. Thompson, Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann, Reena Evers, and Oxford Mayor Robin Tannehill. John Spann and John Gibson, Director of Television for Mississippi Public Broadcasting, have guided the interstitial production which will begin broadcasting later this month on all MPB platforms.
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Collection of 20th Century Letters Documents Lives of Mississippi Women
The Mississippi University for Women's Fant Memorial Library is taking what might seem an ordinary stack of old family letters and mining them to unearth a deeper understanding of the lives of women in a rural Mississippi community in the 20th century.
Referred to as the “Smith Family Papers,” the Ellard-Murphree-Pilgreen-Smith Collection includes diaries and letters among family members and friends in the region of Pittsboro (Calhoun County), Mississippi, where the family maintained a home dating to 1914. The documents were donated to the Beulah Culbertson Archives in 2018 and became the basis of a larger initiative to digitize and share historical documents across the American South. The initiative is called Deep South Digital Humanities (DH), and its mission is to provide community support and practice for people in Mississippi and neighboring areas in digital preservation and interpretation of historical documents.
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The letters offer an intimate lens into the lives of a modestly privileged white Mississippi family in the 20th century. The majority of the contents of the Smith Family Papers includes letters among members of the Smith family. Several letters originate in Jackson from Sam H. Smith, who was a state senator between 1932 and 1936, and offer insight into the political landscape of the state at the time. The collection also includes letters from Bernice, Christine and Martha Smith, who each attended the Mississippi State College for Women between approximately 1931 and 1938, offering glimpses of academic life for women of that era.
One of the Deep South DH’s first public events, supported by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, was a recent panel discussion featuring three Mississippi scholars and archivists with expertise in interpreting and preserving the letters of notable Mississippi women, including Dr. Suzanne Marrs, a Eudora Welty biographer, Dr. Bridget Pieschel, who donated the Smith Papers to the MUW Archives, and Angela Stewart, an archivist at the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University. A recording of the panel discussion is available online.
More about the Smith Papers and the Deep South DH is available here.
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MHC Elects New Officers and Board Members
At the MHC’s February 17 board meeting, held at Hinds Community College-–Utica campus, the board elected a new slate of officers along with four new board members. The Council has also welcomed a new governor’s appointee to the board.
The following officers were elected to a two-year term:
Chair – Dr. Preselfannie McDaniels, Dean of Graduate Studies, Jackson State University
Vice Chair – Dr. Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, Professor of History, University of Mississippi
Treasurer – Dr. Ronnie Nettles, Executive Director, Mississippi Community College Foundation
Secretary – Dr. Ebony Lumumba, English Department Chair, Jackson State University
“Each of our new officers has been an important leader on our board and represent institutions that have worked closely with the Council throughout our 50-year history,” said MHC executive director Stuart Rockoff.
In addition, the following Mississippians were elected as news members of the council board:
Judge LaKeysha Greer Isaac – Federal Magistrate, Southern District of Mississippi, Madison
Tim Lampkin – CEO, Higher Purpose Co., Clarksdale
Amanda Clay Powers – Dean of Library Services, Mississippi University for Women, Columbus
Mark Tullos – President, Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience, Meridian
Governor Tate Reeves has appointed Kathy Henry of Madison to the Council board as well.
“Our new board members bring a wide range of talents and experience to the Council,” said Rockoff. “We are very excited to work with them to expand the council’s reach and impact throughout our state.”
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Upcoming MHC-Sponsored Events | |
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Central Mississippi:
The Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival 50th Anniversary Prologue
March 22 – March 26
Various locations
The Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University will present a series of community dialogues in remembrance of the 1973 Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival from Wednesday, March 23, to Saturday, March 26, 2022.
Learn More
2022 Public Humanities Awards
March 25, 5:30 p.m.
Two Mississippi Museums, Jackson
The Mississippi Humanities Council's 2022 Public Humanities Awards will recognize outstanding work by Mississippians in bringing the insights of the humanities to public audiences. These recipients will be honored at a public ceremony and reception Friday evening, March 25, at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson.
Learn More
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East Mississippi:
O.N. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in The American South
February 3 – April 23
Columbus Arts Council, Columbus
This event is a traveling multimedia exhibition that reveals life in northeast Mississippi as reflected in the photography of O.N. Pruitt. From 1915 to 1960, Pruitt, a white man in a racially segregated society, recorded community celebrations as well as troubling violence.
Learn More
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North Mississippi:
The Twenty-Eighth Oxford Conference for the Book
March 30 – April 1
Various locations, Oxford
The Oxford Conference for the Book is returning to Oxford and the University of Mississippi campus on March 30, 31, and April 1, 2022, as an in-person event, with special partnerships with the Willie Morris Awards in Southern Writing and the National Book Foundation, the administrators of the National Book Awards.
Learn More
Marker Unveiling for Local Lynching Victims
April 2, 2:00 p.m.
Lafayette County Courthouse, Oxford
The memorial will remember the victims, create greater awareness and understanding of the history of racial terror lynching and its impacts, and promote racial reconciliation in the community. The service will include a keynote address, live performances, and healing prayers. Local leaders and descendants of lynching victims will be invited to speak, and a free community meal will be served.
Learn More
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Online:
Speakers Bureau: Shalom Y’all: The History of Jews in Mississippi
March 24, 12:00 p.m.
University of Mississippi Medical Center
In this presentation, Dr. Stuart Rockoff explores how throughout much of their history, Mississippi Jews have worked to lessen the cultural differences between themselves and their neighbors.
Learn More
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