Rebecca Moore Jernigan is an internationally recognized scholar and professional storyteller who resides in Oxford.

Anne McKee is recognized statewide as a passionate teacher of Mississippi history. Through the art of storytelling, Anne McKee uplifts the accomplishments of famous Mississippians and shares explores the history of a land and a people like no other. Native to the state, McKee’s love and support for Mississippi began in childhood as she sat […]

When the Civil War brought an end to slavery, cotton plantation owners sought inexpensive labor replacements and some of the earliest Chinese to the Delta were recruited for this purpose. The Chinese did not embrace this role and instead carved a business niche in the Delta by opening grocery stores in black neighborhoods to serve […]

The Mississippi Book Festival, a nonprofit founded by literacy advocates, launched in August 2015 on the State Capitol grounds and continues to draw thousands to its annual “literary lawn party” and book lovers’ celebration. By its third year, the festival’s attendance reached 6,400 with 45 official panel discussions and activities at 10 different venues. Hundreds […]

This presentation begins with a performance of Delta blues songs from legendary Delta bluesmen and is followed by an overview of Delta blues and how it spread from the 1920s to the 1960s, influencing the blues in Chicago and, eventually, rock-n-roll. The presentation also includes a demonstration and discussion of various styles of blues and […]

A deep dive panel discussion on prison education that will examine links between literacy and incarceration, literacy and the inmate experience behind bars and literacy and the re-entry into society. Q&A session will follow. MODERATOR: Judge James E. Graves, U.S. Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit SPECIAL GUEST: Piper Kerman, Author of Orange Is The New Black PANELISTS: Carol […]

This talk traces the roots of the modern civil rights movement to World War II, a movement that began long before the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 and lasted long after Dr. King’s assassination in Memphis in 1968, a movement that in many ways never ended. Specifically, Dr. Luckett discusses the major […]

The Oxford Film Festival will host a screening of All The Difference at the Burns Belfry on August27 at 630 p.m. The largely invisible and often crushing struggles of young African-American men come vividly — and heroically — to life in All the Difference, which traces the paths of two teens from the South Side […]