Award-winning journalist Alysia Burton Steele’s Delta Jewels: In Search of My Grandmother’s Wisdom is a visual and lyrical tribute to African American church mothers from the Mississippi Delta. This groundbreaking collection of oral histories and photographs tells nationally and internationally significant stories rooted in the Mississippi Delta, a distinctive region called “The Cradle of American Culture” by the National Park Service and “The Most Southern Place on Earth” by historian James Cobb.The Mississippi Delta produced cotton, Blues music and the Civil Rights Movement. It shaped the lives and contributions of numerous cultural and social justice icons—black and white, women and men—including Fannie Lou Hamer, Eudora Welty, Emmett Till, William Faulkner, Medgar Evers, Richard Wright, Tennessee Williams…and the celebrated Delta Jewels church mothers. Come sit a spell and hear the revered voices of these living figures of history captured by Alysia Burton Steele.
Alysia Burton Steele is a visual educator at the University of Mississippi, with a focus on oral history and visuals. For this presentation, Steele shares her experiences finding and nurturing relationships to earn trust to collect stories and share them with audiences. She shares audio and video stores as part of her presentation.