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Dr. Barbara Carpenter, executive director of the Mississippi Humanities Council, is among 20 women spotlighted in A Portrait of Jackson Women, a documentary project that includes audio interviews and environmental portraits of 20 remarkable Jackson women including the late Mildred Wolfe, Ellen Douglas, Dr. Helen Barnes, Patti Car Black, Dorothy Moore and others |
| Photographers Leah Overstreet and Karla W. Pound, both native Jacksonians, have been working for the past two and half years on A Portrait of Jackson Women. Overstreet is a photographer and photo director in New York City, while Pound is a fine art and wedding photographer based in Jackson. Both women have encountered many longstanding misconceptions still surrounding Mississippi. Confronted with these frustrating stereotypes, they were driven to illuminate the reserves of talent, ingenuity and hard work that Mississippians possess. |
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| To read the complete tribute, click here. |
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(JACKSON, MS) – The Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to bring Mississippians together to explore issues related to all aspects of food. Following the theme “Food — For Thought, For Life: The Ethics, Aesthetics, and Politics of Food,” the MHC will host and encourage programming throughout the state to inspire Mississippians to talk about and conceive solutions to the many food issues facing our state, nation, and world. It will also celebrate the unique cultural aspects of our food history, foodways, and food traditions. |
| Dr. Barbara Carpenter, executive director of the MHC, said, “We hope to address some of the infinite number of issues related to what we eat, where it comes from, why we choose what we eat, and how all these elements bear on our health, our economy, our environment, and our connections with the entire global food system. These issues are universal; but they are particularly relevant to Mississippi — the most obese state in the nation, but one where the most children go to bed hungry; where health issues related to food are a major concern for ...” |
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| To read the complete press release, click here. |
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(JACKSON, MS) – Dr. Rod Risley, chair of the Mississippi Humanities Council, announces the election of four new board members. |
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Harold Comby, Philadelphia, is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and captain of support for the Choctaw Reservation police force. He has a degree in social work from Jackson State University and has completed courses in vocational counseling at the University of Mississippi. He worked as a youth counselor for the Choctaw Tribe until 1982 when he became a police officer. He has served 27 years as a police officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Choctaw Tribe. Comby is a gourd dancer and a powwow emcee. He makes Native American crafts as a hobby, including beadwork, leather craft, feather |
| work and dancing regalia. He is an advocate for using Native American traditions as a healing tool, and he speaks regularly on cultural diversity at prisons, schools and civic clubs. He has four daughters, two in college and one in high school. |
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Panny Flautt Mayfield, Clarksdale, is an award-winning writer and photographer for newspapers, magazines, films and special-interest publications featuring the blues, gospel music and Southern culture. She is public relations director at Coahoma Community College where she has coordinated the annual Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival since it was founded in 1992. She is a charter member of the Sunflower River Blues Association, recipient of the Early Wright Blues Heritage Award and Clarksdale’s 2006 Citizen of the Year. She has three grown children and two grandsons. |
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Dr. Gary Myers, Starkville, is professor of English and creative writing and dean of the Institute of the Humanities at Mississippi State University, as well as a poet whose work has appeared in publications throughout the U.S. and Canada, including The New Yorker, Poetry, Kansas Quarterly, Louisville Review, Poetry Toronto and others. Born in Great Falls, MT, and educated in the Midwest, Myers came to Mississippi in 1989. He is a recipient of the John Grisham Faculty Excellence Award at MSU. In addition to teaching, Myers is also an accomplished musician on contrabass, electric bass and guitar. He and his wife, Connie, |
| have two children. |
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Peyton Prospere, Jackson, is an attorney with Watkins & Eager PLLC where he specializes in municipal law and finance for local government entities, hospitals and major corporations. He has served as general counsel for the Mississippi Department of Economic and Community Development, legal counsel for former Mississippi Governor Ronald Musgrove and as Mississippi State Treasurer. Prospere was born in Nashville, TN, but grew up in Greenville, MS. He earned a B.A. in German from Davidson College, Davidson, NC, and a law degree from the University of Mississippi. He has served as an adjunct professor of international law at the Mississippi College School of Law and as a member of the Board of |
| Bar Commissioners for the Mississippi State Bar. |
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The Mississippi Humanities Council is funded by Congress through the National Endowment for the Humanities to provide public programs in traditional liberal arts disciplines to serve nonprofit groups in Mississippi.
Twenty-two Mississippians serve four-year terms on the Council as volunteers. Five Council members are appointed by the governor and the others elected by the Council. Half of the members are public and half academic, and every effort is made to maintain balance by race, gender and geographic distribution to assure representation for all Mississippians.
Any Mississippi resident may nominate persons to serve on the Council. Calls for nominations are regularly announced in the Council’s publications and at Council-supported events.
The Mississippi Humanities Council does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability or age.
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(JACKSON, MS) – The Mississippi Humanities Council is delighted to announce recipients for its 2010 Public Humanities Awards, which recognize outstanding contributions by Mississippians to the study and understanding of the humanities. These recipients will be honored at a public ceremony and banquet Friday, Feb. 26, 2010, at the Hilton Hotel in Jackson. This year’s award recipients are: |
| Humanities Scholar Award | Dr. Barbara Dease
Jackson, MS |
| Humanities Educator Award | Tonya Hays
Gulfport, MS |
| Humanities Partner Award | McComb Railroad Museum
McComb, MS |
| Preserver of Mississippi Culture | Dr. Stuart Rockoff
Jackson, MS |
| Special Recognition Awards | Tim Cupit
Brandon, MS |
| | Dr. Charles Eagles
Oxford, MS |
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The Mississippi Humanities Council announces several important changes to its grants program. Minigrant applications are now accepted four times per year rather than six. The deadlines are Jan. 15, April 15, July 15 and Oct. 15.
Due to budget constrictions, the maximum amount that may be requested for minigrants is $1,500. Regular grants have a maximum of $7,500. The two annual deadlines are April 15 and Sept. 15.
Minor changes have been made in guidelines related to the MHC Speakers Bureau program, as well. Mississippi nonprofit organizations may request a maximum of three speakers per year, and speakers may accept a maximum of six MHC-funded engagements per year.
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| MHC is a private nonprofit corporation funded by Congress through the National Endowment for the Humanities to provide public programs in traditional liberal arts disciplines to serve nonprofit groups in Mississippi.
MHC sponsors, supports, and conducts a wide range of programs designed to promote understanding of our cultural heritage, interpret our own experience, foster critical thinking, encourage reasonable public discourse, strengthen our sense of community, and thus empower Mississippi's people with a vision for the future. |
 MHC Staff |
| Letter from the Chairman |
| Letter from the Director |
| History of the Council |
| MHC Council Members |
| MHC Statement of Objectives |
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