Diane Williams, storyteller and fiber artist, begins her presentation with a discussion of Kente cloth weaved fibers of West Africa and moves on to utilitarian quilts made by African slaves in America who sewed for their owners. She provides a reflective look at how the designs of Underground Railroad quilts relate to storytelling, and explores […]

Humanities Teacher Award winner Ginny Leonard (East Mississippi Community College) will present her public lecture, "Literature in Relief: Healing in the Human Spirit." Reception to follow. The strength of the written word does not rely on simple fact-giving or storytelling. Instead, the true power of literature rests in its ability to soothe and heal the […]

Humanities Teacher Award winner Dr. Mikki Galliher (Blue Mountain College) will present her public lecture titled, "Fallen Ministers and Reformed Seductresses in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and Alice Cary's Hagar, A Story of Today." Reception to follow. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic text has much in common with another novel, Hagar, A Story for Today by […]

Music of this period played on the Appalachian Mountain dulcimer, banjo-mier and wooden spoons. Period clothing worn. Audience may help play the spoons. Speakers Expertise: Mr. Arinder has studied Early American and Native American cultures for nearly 50 years, assembling a sizeable collection of artifacts which he uses to leade living history programs for local […]

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 Sunflower County Freedom Project youth drama will present Baltimore, a play by Kirsten Greenridge. Baltimore focuses on a group of college students whose lvies are shaken when someone draws an offensive picture of the wall of their residence hall. The play shines light on issues of equality, racism, community, and the question of who gets to belong […]

The Winning the Race Conference was developed with three overarching goals: engage in conversations with campus and community constituencies that will build an appreciation for diversity differences and a spirit of community through shared ideas; promote a broad discourse on race relations by building conversations to bring together diverse communities in the Delta through sharing of […]

The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park Campus premieres its spring 2019 Cultural Arts Series, "Representing the Experiences of Women, From the English Renaissance to Right Now." On March 25, a bi-partisan panel of female politicians from south Mississippi will reflect on their careers in local and state politics. “The theme, ‘Representing the Experiences of Women, […]

"Shange's Sojourn: 'Somebody almost walked off with alla my stuff!' Women, Art, & Activism" is a celebration of Women's History Month recognizing Ntozake Shange's legacy as established bby the release and reception of her choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf. The March 26 program will include a full day of […]

Founded by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and Square Books, the conference brings together fiction and nonfiction writers, journalists, artists, poets, publishers, teachers, students, and literacy advocates for three days of conversation in the literary town of Oxford, Mississippi. The 26th Oxford Conference for the Book will take place Wednesday, March 27 […]

This presentation consists of a brief introduction of the current state of incarceration in America and Mississippi. Dr. Pickett will then share with the audience the long history of incarceration in Mississippi beginning with the institution of slavery, the first jails in Natchez and Jackson, the black codes and the convict lease system in the […]