• WINTER 2015 The 22nd Oxford Conference for the Book, March 25–27, 2015

The 22nd Oxford Square Books will pres-

Conference for the Book PresenTed by ent several sessions of read- (OCB), presented by the The Center for the ings by both well-known Center and Square Books, and up-and-coming writ- will take place March 25–27, Study of Southern Culture ers currently on book tour. 2015, in Oxford and on the & Square Books This year’s writers include University of Mississippi National Book Award–win- campus. The program, which ner Phil Klay, LaShonda

The 22nd Photography by William Ferris, William R. Ferris Collection, Southern Folklife Wilson Library, of North Carolina University at Chapel Hill. is free and open to the pub- Katrice Barnett, Kent lic, includes readings, panel Russell, Curtis Wilkie, discussions, and talks by doz- David Maraniss, Andrew ens of talented writers from OxfOrd Maraniss, Jody Hill, Kyle across the nation. This year, Conference Veazey, Jack Pendarvis, Kent Friday’s panels and readings for the Book Osborne, Seo Kim, Natasha will take place in the histor- dedicated to Mississippi Writer Allegri, Chiyuma Elliot, ic Lafayette County court- Margaret Walker Geffrey Davis, Douglas house on the Oxford Square. www.oxfordconferenceforthebook.com Brown, Caroline Randall Wednesday’s and Thursday’s Williams, John Renehan, events will happen at the Beth Ann Fennelly, Chelsea Overby Center for Southern March 25–27, 2015 Wagenaar, Mark Wagenaar, Journalism and Politics and The UniversiTy of MississiPPi Barbara Ras, David Shields, in the J. D. Williams Library oxford, MississiPPi Sean Brock, David Simon, on the UM campus. Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Square Books, Southern Documentary Project, Southern Foodways Alliance, Living Blues, Tim Johnston, David Vann, Lafayette County Literacy Council, Department of English, Department of History, J. D. Williams Library, Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics, African American Studies Program, Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, John and Renée Grisham Visiting Writers Fund, Junior Auxiliary of Oxford, This year’s conference Lafayette County & Oxford Public Library, Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance, and Southern Literary Trail. Skip Horack, Susan Ferber, The conference is partially funded by the University of Mississippi, a contribution from the R&B Feder Foundation for the Beaux Arts, is dedicated to Mississippi grants from the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Mississippi Humanities Council, and promotional support from Visit Oxford. Peter Guralnick, Preston writer Margaret Walker, Lauterbach, and Ted Ownby. who penned the critical- Thacker Mountain Radio will ly acclaimed novel Jubilee have a special OCB show and the award-winning poetry collection For My People. at the Lyric Theater on the Oxford Square at 6:00 p.m. Distinguished professor and author of Fields Watered on Thursday, March 26. Kent Russell, David Vann, and with Blood: Critical Essays on Margaret Walker, Maryemma Preston Lauterbach will all appear on the show. Graham, will give the keynote address, and a panel of Square Books will host book signings each evening Walker scholars, including Graham, Robby Luckett, for the authors presenting that day. The Wednesday and Carolyn J. Brown, and Jerry W. Ward, will follow. Friday signings will be at Off Square Books, and the Conference panels will explore a range of topics, includ- Thursday signing will be at the Lyric Theater, before and ing sports and race, writing with pictures, writing for tele- after Thacker Mountain Radio. vision, heritage foods and foodways of the South, 21st- century American wars, and the life of Elvis Presley. continued on page 30 THE SOUTHERN REGISTER A Publication of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture • The University of Mississippi Director’s Column

NEWSLETTER • PUBLISHED QUARTERLY OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI, U.S.A • WINTER 2014 Published Quarterly by The Center for the Study of Southern Culture The University of Mississippi Martin Luther King Jr. ended his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” Telephone: 662-915-5993 with the phrase “Yours for the cause of peace and brotherhood.” Fax: 662-915-5814 E-mail: [email protected] Every day we learn about more acts of violence, with all sorts of causes, southernstudies.olemiss.edu technologies, and consequences. The horrific story of a woman burned in www.facebook.com/SouthernStudies Mississippi leaves the news only because of the next horrific story in another place. And the next, and the next. IN THIS ISSUE No matter how obvious or how potentially naïve it may seem, I find myself Winter 2015 thinking a great deal about peace. And this, in my roles as a Southern Studies 1. The 22nd Oxford Conference for professor and administrator, leads to a question that may not be obvious at all. the Book Might there be a Southern form of peace studies? Peace and conflict resolution 2. Director’s Column studies is an active field of scholarship, teaching, and engagement. A quick 3. Living Blues News 4. Brown Bag Lunch and Lecture Series Internet search found more than 200 such programs in the US and Canada. 4. Gammill Gallery Schedule But regional studies scholars, as far as I know, have not done a great deal to 5. Through the Lens of an Antique Camera study the concept. Could we study peace in the South? 6. Blues Today Symposium The question of a Southern form of peace studies might seem ridiculous be- 7. Blues in the Academy cause there has been so much support for physical force in a region with ex- 10. Delta Jewels: In Search of My Grandmother’s Wisdom ceptionally high rates of personal violence, with histories of lynching and oth- 10. Music of the South Concert Series er racist violence, with support for gun ownership, capital punishment, stand- Continues with Rory Block your-ground laws, and high military spending. But that history might make 11. SouthDocs Films to Be Screened at 2015 Oxford Film Festival studying the South so interesting, because efforts to make peace very often 12. The Southern Foodways Alliance respond to specific forms of violence. To make the same point more directly, Documents the Struggle to maybe the South needs more peace studies. Desegregate Southern Restaurants So, what can we do? We can teach a Southern Studies course in Fall 2015 on in the Counter Histories Film Series 12. Celebrate Charles Reagan Wilson’s Peace and the American South. We’ll invite specialists in reconciliation, secu- Teaching Legacy and Support rity studies, political science, religious studies, and other fields to join us. We’ll Students see where the topic leads. 13. Porter Fortune Jr. Symposium Simply studying the people who have used the word peace poses its own poten- 14. Southern Studies Documentary Photograph Collection Now tial complications, because some people who talk about peace are imagining an Available Online orderly world without dissent. For example, in The People and Their Peace histori- 15. Beyond Barnard: Conversations an Laura Edwards describes how people in the early 1800s Carolinas understood with Southern Studies Alumni “the peace,” an old English concept of localized law enforcement that opposed 18. Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference Update violence and other disorder and expected people to stay within accepted roles. In 19. Faulkner’s World another use of the term, Civil War–era supporters of the Peace Party in Southern 19. Eudora Welty Awards states, primarily North Carolina, wanted a negotiated peace to preserve their 20. Southern Foodways Alliance Dishes honor and the institution of slavery. And Martin Luther King’s call for peace and Up Virginia Yock 21. Coming Soon from SouthDocs: La brotherhood had a degree of irony, calling for peace in a letter he addressed to Frontera white clergymen who had asked him to slow activist efforts down, in effect calling 22. Pop Culture and Southern Food on him to be more orderly (or peaceful) in order to be less controversial. 24. Reading the South There are lots of arguments about peace. Many say peace only comes with 27. New Biography Examines Elvis Presley against Backdrop of the South justice, and with more thorough and honest communication about conflicts past 27. Mark Your Calendars and present. Some say it comes with economic development. Some say peace 28. Jan Robertson, Longtime Center comes with clear rules and powerful forms of enforcement. Some say it comes Advisory Committee Member, from within the individual, and/or as part of religious experience and expres- Remembered 29. Contributors sion. We’ll study various arguments, and we will ask when and how peace en- ters the discussion. We’ll read King’s “Letter” and Edwards’s book and works Register Staff on Southerners and diplomacy and Southern pacifists and antilynching efforts. Editor: James G. Thomas, Jr. We’ll study the Black Lives Matter movement. We’ll ask how individual, fam- Graphic Designer: Susan Bauer Lee ily, and local efforts for peace might be part of national and global efforts. We’ll Lithographer: study art and music that says, for instance, “Ain’t gonna study war no more,” or RR Donnelley Magazine Group “Eat a peach for peace,” or “Let’s all get together / Bring peace to the world.” The University complies with all applicable laws regarding affirmative action and equal opportunity And when we find people raising objections that certain claims about peace are in all its activities and programs and does not dis- naïve or one-sided or unworkable, we’ll study the objections. criminate against anyone protected by law because of age, color, disability, national origin, race, reli- So, come join us. As B. B. King says, let’s all get together. gion, sex, or status as a veteran or disabled veteran. Ted Ownby

Page 2 Winter 2015 The Southern Register Living Blues News It has been a rough winter in the birthday. But on Christmas Day, he Issue #235 Vol. 47, #1 blues world. Unfortunately, my obit- ® © wrote me again to say Ms. Alberta uary list has more than 30 entries on had died during the night. A little it. We’ll get to them all, but it will piece of my blues world died too. take some time. Thanks to all my writers from across the country who VASTI JACKSON have stepped up to write them. It is Blues Renaissance Man often a difficult task when you had a This issue’s cover story is on personal relationship with the artist. W.C. McComb, Mississippi, native For me, it is Ms. Alberta—Alberta CLARK Vasti Jackson. He is a real blues Adams. Ms. Alberta was the old- Godfather of Austin Blues Renaissance man—skilled at near- est living blues performer when she MICKEY ly every facet of3 the music industry. died on December 24. And she was ROGERS Jackson is a guitarist (electric and still a performer. She was singing just SMOKEY acoustic), vocalist, songwriter, ac- a few months ago at age 97. She was HOLMAN tor, educator, frontman, sideman, nearly deaf, so she couldn’t hear the $6.95 US $6.95 CAN bandleader, arranger, session musi- www.livingblues.com band, but she was still belting it out. cian, label owner, and producer. He They just needed to follow along. Over 45 Reviews Inside! can focus like a laser and knows how My wife and I drove to Detroit in to get the job done no matter what May 2001 to interview Ms. Alberta drive down that street. I got my stuff is placed in front of him. Jackson sat for the cover of LB #160. As is al- together, and we followed the young down with LB this summer for his ways the case, I prefer to interview man up a back stairway through first full feature with us. artists in their own home. I feel like locked gate, after locked door, after you get a deeper, more personal in- locked door, until we finally entered terview that way, and you also get a Adams’s little home on the second chance to see the mementoes of their floor. The young man left, and she W. C. Clark is affectionately known career that really mean something to said, “Don’t worry, someone will as the “Godfather of Austin Blues,” them. Often these items spark talk be watching your car while you are a name he earned through decades that would have otherwise not hap- here. Come on in, and sit down!” We of playing and mentoring in the pened. Adams lived in an old neigh- sat and proceeded to have a near- Austin music scene.3 Clark is perhaps borhood in the heart of Detroit—a ly two-hour discussion covering her best known for the group of young neighborhood that had crumbled lengthy career and the world she teenagers and twenty-somethings and wasted away around her. She had lived in. Adams was 85 at the he worked with back in Austin in had purchased the house in 1959, time but had the spunk of a young- the late 1970s. Musicians Lou Ann but 43 years later it was one of the ster. She was delightful, charming, Barton, Angela Shrehli, and broth- few left standing that wasn’t a crack and endearing. Her stories of early ers Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan house or a burned-out shell. theater shows, shake dancers, snake all worked with Clark and learned I am a country boy. We live in a dancers, Chess Records, Hastings from him. Perhaps his greatest influ- town in Mississippi that has more Street, Louis Jordan, and others ence was on the young Stevie Ray cows than people, so my big-city ex- were mesmerizing. When we finally Vaughan, who asked Clark to join periences are limited. But there is wrapped up, Alberta Adams had yet his band in the late 1970s. Our fea- no doubt in my mind that this was another lifelong fan. ture includes some never-before- one of the roughest neighborhoods One of her sons took us back published photos from this time pe- I had ever been in. This was before downstairs, and sure enough, when riod with the young guitar phenom cell phones and GPS navigation, so we stepped outside there was the still cutting his teeth. we had to find the place. When we same young man sitting on the front Don’t forget the 2015 Living Blues finally pulled up in front of the old steps watching our car. Blues Today Symposium will be held house, a young man came to the car R. J. Spangler, Adams’s longtime on April 9, 2015, at the University of and asked if we were there to see friend and drummer, had contacted Mississippi. More information can be Ms. Alberta. It wasn’t too hard to de- me a few weeks before she died, and found at www.livingblues.com. termine that was who we were. Not we were planning on doing some- a lot of minivans with white couples thing special to celebrate her 98th Brett J. Bonner

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 3 FEBRUARY Brown Bag Lunch 4 “Did Johnny Come Marching Home? The Role of African and Lecture Series Americans in the Civil War” Wilma E. Mosley-Clopton, Oral Spring Semester 2015 Historian The Brown Bag Luncheon Series takes place each Mississippi Humanities Council Wednesday at noon in the Barnard Observatory Lecture Hall during the regular academic year. 11 “‘I’m a Southern, Farm Girl, Union, Democrat Feminist’: Finding Feminism in the 11 SPRING BREAK 8 “Studying and Documenting American South” the Blues at the University of Jessica Wilkerson, Assistant 18 “Mississippi Byways Research Mississippi” Professor of History and Project: Discovering and Scott Baretta, Mark Camarigg, Southern Studies Documenting the State’s Greg Johnson Artists” University of Mississippi 18 “Southern Biographies since the Beth Batton 1980s” National Endowment for the 15 SouthDocs: Spring Screening Charles Reagan Wilson, Arts Fellow, Mississippi Byways Andy Harper, Director, Professor Emeritus of History Research Project Southern Documentary Project and Southern Studies Mississippi Museum of Art Ted Ownby, Director, Center for 22 “‘My Art Is Evidence of My the Study of Southern Culture, 25 “Doublespeak and Southern Freedom:’ The Body, Memory, and Professor of History Ladies: Class and Femininity in and History in African Contemporary Southern Pop American and Black British Art” 25 “Slavery by Another Name” Culture” Celeste-Marie Bernier, April Grayson, Project Manager Kaitlin Vogt, Southern Studies Professor of African American William Winter Institute for Graduate Student Studies Racial Reconciliation University of Memphis APRIL MARCH 29 “At the Habana Hilton, 1958: 1 “Dwelling in the Annals: A Photos from the Keating 4 “‘Southern Lesbian-Feminist Discussion on Black South Collection” Herstory, 1968–1994: Sinister Carolinian Poets’ Meditation A Gammill Gallery Exhibition Wisdom; A Multicultural Lesbian on Place, Identity, and South Lecture Literary and Art Journal’” Carolina History” Lauren Holt, Southern Studies Jaime Harker, Interim Director, Purvis Cornish, Southern Graduate Student Isom Center, and Associate Studies Graduate Student Professor of English

February 2–April 2, 2015 Through the Lens of an Antique Camera Euphus Ruth Jr. Mississippi Delta

April 3–April 30, 2015 Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi, 1961–1968 Exhibition Schedule Jim Lucas

The Gammill Gallery, located in Barnard Observatory, is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., except for University holidays. Telephone: 662-915-5993.

Page 4 Winter 2015 The Southern Register Through the Lens of an Antique Camera Wet Plate Collodion Photography to Be Exhibited in Gammill Gallery Photographs by Euphus Ruth Jr. Euphus Ruth Jr. was born in Texas pyroxylin in alcohol and ether). This but from the age of two he was raised mixture is poured on a cleaned glass in Bruce, Mississippi. He has lived in plate, which is allowed to sit until the the Mississippi Delta for more than 30 coating gels but is still moist. The plate years. He photographs using the wet is then placed in a silver nitrate solu- collodion and film processes, and says tion, which converts the iodide, bro- he enjoys the complete photograph- mide, or chloride to silver iodide, sil- ic process, from visualizing the image ver bromide, or silver chloride. Once through the ground glass to the final the action is complete, Ruth removes print or plate in the darkroom or mo- the plate from the silver nitrate solu- bile darkbox. tion and exposes it in a camera while The Facts Themselves Loom “My love of black and white pho- still wet. The plate loses sensitivity as it tography began,” he said, “by looking dries, requiring him to coat and sensi- It must also be developed while still at old photos from my mom’s Kodak tize the plate immediately before use. moist, using a solution of iron sulfate, acetic acid, and alcohol in water. The Ghost of E. E. Bass The sensitivity of silver halides to light is the underlying principle be- hind most types of 19th-century pho- tographic processes—daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, calotypes that use paper negatives, and wet and dry plate processes. The exhibition of Ruth’s work, Through the Lens of an Antique Camera, will be on display in Gammill Gallery from February 2 to April 2. An artist’s reception is scheduled for February 26. Brownie, which was kept in a box Assumption’s Way under the couch of our family home. I’m inspired by olden, forgotten, or remembered things and am intrigued by the earth’s reclamation, be it hu- man or material. Most of my images since 2006 are made with wooden view cameras with antique and mod- ern lenses, practicing the 19th-century wet collodion process. In my earlier work I used large-format film contact printed on Azo paper. I’m currently making wet collodion glass negatives for contact printing.” Ruth claims that Frederick Scott Archer introduced the wet plate pro- cess—sometimes referred to as the col- lodion process, after the carrier ma- terial it uses—in 1851. His process in- volves dissolving a bromide, iodide, or chloride in collodion (a solution of

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 5 Blues in the Academy The University of Mississippi and the Center Continue to Be the Place to Study the Blues Ad urtesy Co

A Southern Studies program class Bill “Howl-N-Madd” Perry visits Adam description from Fall 1984 encour- Gussow’s English 324 class on the blues aged students to “Study the Land tradition in American literature. That Gave Birth to the Blues.” Since am G

then, the Center for the Study of uss

Southern Culture and the University o of Mississippi have continued to be the w foremost institution for blues scholar- ship. With the Blues Archive, Living Blues magazine, Highway 61 Radio, undergraduate and graduate courses taught on the subject, new blues-topics films being created, and annual con- ferences and symposia on blues and blues culture, the Center is a prime lo- cation to study and explore this iconic Southern music and culture. Southern Studies students study- ing one aspect of blues culture or

another—whether for J T h immy assigned readings or Mississippi Blues Trail marker on lawn at perusing the collection, as internation- independent research Barnard Observatory al visitors come to the archive to comb for a thesis or paper— o through B. B. King’s personal record mas often find their way collection, the Jim O’Neal and Amy to the Blues Archive van Singel/Living Blues Collection, in the J. D. Williams the Trumpet Records Collection, the Library early on. Sheldon Harris Collection, the John “We’ve even had Richbourg Collection, and the Percy Southern Studies Mayfield collection. students over sim- “During the summer months, at ply to listen to some the peak of blues festival season, we recordings on vinyl get a lot of blues fans from Germany, that they can’t eas- Denmark, France, Japan, South ily find elsewhere,” Korea, the Netherlands, Finland, said Greg Johnson, Sweden, Norway, and other coun- blues curator and as- tries,” Johnson said. “Some are stop- sociate professor in ping in to do research, while others Archives and Special just want to see cool materials un- Collections. “Several available elsewhere.” faculty and staff have Footage from the collections has conducted research here for vari- Oxford, representing a sampling of been used in the Martin Scorsese ous projects. The Blues Archive also the large number of performers and Presents: The Blues series for PBS. partnered with Southern Studies and musical styles from this area. Former Rolling Stones’ bassist Bill the Library of Congress for the Field Johnson said students from across Wyman conducted research here for School for Cultural Documentation: many disciplines use the collection his Blues Odyssey book and DVD, and North Mississippi Music Project.” as well, from music, history, and Ted Gioia spent time there work- That project includes oral histories even accounting and business. ing on his book Delta Blues. Southern from musicians in and just outside Local faces aren’t the only ones Studies alum Preston Lauterbach

Page 6 Winter 2015 The Southern Register used the archive in writing The Chitlin’ Circuit and the Road to Rock ’n’ Roll. Most recently, earlier this semester, the director of Teen Wolf conducted re- search in the Archive, while working on a documentary of Nashville disc jockey John Richbourg, whose collec- tion is housed there. In order for students to learn about the blues, their professors must be well versed in its tradi- tions. In the English Department, Derrick Harriell, assistant profes- sor of English and African American studies, focuses his teaching inter- ests on blues poetry and Harlem Renaissance literature. “Blues is the music and culture of the people, which is why it functions ississippi as the underpinnings in my writing f M as well as my approach to the class- room,” Harriell said. “I’ve always preferred to identify myself as more

ni v ersity o moderator than teacher; therefore, I’m interested in my classrooms hav- ing the sort of call-and-response in- teraction that is so prevalent in blues performance. I’m fortunate to work at a university and live in a town where the blues is privileged, and I lues A rchi the U v e at often incorporate the resources of the blues archive and or the knowl- the blues literary and cultural tradi-

f the B edge of its genius curator Greg tion that he has been teaching since Johnson.” 1998—first at the New School and at As associate professor of Vassar College, then multiple times

o urtesy o English and Southern Studies, at UM. “The last time I taught the

o c Adam Gussow incorpo- undergrad version here, in Fall 2012, t o rates blues scholarship in I brought Bill ‘Howl-N-Madd’ Perry h P his classes, specifically and Mark ‘Muleman’ Massy to my SST 598, ENGL 692, class on separate occasions,” he said. and ENGL 324, which “The last time I taught the grad ver- he taught last fall. The sion, in Fall 2013, I brought in Leo first course has the ru- ‘Bud’ Welch. I like to think I’m fol- bric “Robert Johnson, lowing in the tradition established by the Devil’s Music, and Bill Ferris, who used to invite blues the Blues,” a direct out- musicians into his classroom.” growth of his book proj- An unexpected outgrowth of ect. His project offers a se- Gussow’s academic teaching about ries of explorations into the the blues is a 12-video series of lec- role played by the devil figure tures that he improvised over a two- within an evolving blues tradi- week period in December 2012, tion, and Gussow said the book is titled Blues Talk, available online, complete and in the revision stage where Gussow said, “The blues tra- A 78 r.p.m. recording of bluesman now. dition isn’t just about the music. It’s Robert Johnson’s “Me and the Devil He also teaches graduate and un- about powerful and often conflict- Blues,” housed in the UM Blues dergraduate versions of a course on ed feelings that circulate within the Archive

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 7 I c mage music, sourcing it decisively (many on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, have argued) in the historical strug- delivers the best in blues music and o o urtesy gles of African Americans to achieve culture from the past, present, and full personhood on American soil.” future. Center founding director Bill Whether it’s for his classes or for Ferris, long known as “the Blues research, Gussow also uses the Blues Doctor,” previously hosted the show, B f Living Archive in a range of ways. “I greatly beginning in the mid-1980s. benefit from knowing that they’ve got With in-depth features on blues maga l ues pretty much every book ever pub- icons as well as more obscure artists lished about the blues, so I can always and rising stars, Living Blues maga- pop over there if there’s something I zine, edited by Brett Bonner, has z don’t have,” he said. “They have got provided the best in blues journalism ine a matchless set of blues periodicals, and photography for more than 40 too. When I needed to see the origi- years. The magazine was acquired nal version of Blues Unlimited with by the Center in 1983. Bonner works Pete Welding’s interview article about with Southern Studies graduate stu- Son House, with the famous ‘He must dents as interns, and many of those have sold his soul to the devil to play students, like Melanie Young and The cover of the first issue of Living like that’ quote about Robert Johnson, Camilla Aikin, have gone on to write Blues magazine I was able to set eyes on it there. And for the magazine. Greg Johnson is always extremely The Blues Today Symposium of- helpful when I’ve got a specific re- fers a way to introduce new trends search question.” in blues scholarship, reconsider in the symposium, including Little Listening to the blues is anoth- past works, and engage in dialogue Milton, Bobby Rush, Mavis Staples, er important aspect, and Scott with contemporary blues artists. Honeyboy Edwards, and B. B. King. Barretta’s Highway 61 Radio, which Sponsored by Living Blues since 2003, Past keynote presentations have fea- airs Saturday nights at 11:00 p.m. the symposium has featured a nota- tured scholars Paul Oliver, Sam and again on Sunday at 6:00 p.m. ble lineup of musicians participating Charters, Stanley Crouch, Bill Ferris, and others. I c mage “This year we’re excited to pres- ent David Evans, author of the in-

o o urtesy fluential Big Road Blues,” said Mark Camarigg, publications manager for Living Blues. “Evans is an expert on

f G North Mississippi blues, and his talk

Jo reg should illuminate and contextual- ize blues culture in this very distinct

hns region.”

o Living Blues also partnered with n Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, a few years ago, and now the magazine co-organizes their Blues and the Spirit Conference every other year. This provides an opportu- nity to tap the rich history of Chicago blues culture. “We’re exploring the possibility of taking our format to other universities or forums where we can focus on the blues traditions of a particular region or city, like New Orleans, St. Louis, or Memphis,” Camarigg said. “There’s simply a nat- ural curiosity in people wanting to un- derstand and appreciate local history and culture.” Blues archivist Greg Johnson at his desk in the Blues Archive Rebecca Lauck Cleary

Page 8 Winter 2015 The Southern Register Blues Today Symposium to Be Held on April 9, 2015 P h o t

The 2015 Blues Today Symposium o c

will be Thursday, April 9, 2015, at o o urtesy the University of Mississippi. The program’s theme, North Mississippi

Hill Country Blues, will focus on the B f the region’s distinctive blues sound and culture. David Evans, director of the v e at U the A rchi lues ethnomusicology and regional stud- ies doctoral program of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis, will deliver the keynote address. Evans is a spe- cialist in American folk and popular

music, particularly blues, spirituals, o v ersity ni gospel, and African American folk music. Additionally, George W. K. Dor, the McDonnell-Barksdale Chair of Ethnomusicology and associate f M professor of music at the University of ississippi Mississippi, will discuss Africanisms North Mississippi Hill Country bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell, the in Otha Tuner’s fife and band music. subject of a forthcoming documentary by Joe York and Scott Barretta Other presen- tations include filmmakers Joe York and Scott Schedule of Events Barretta preview- All presentations except for Thacker Mountain Radio will occur in ing portions of the Faulkner Room of the Department of Archives and Special their upcoming Collections on the third floor of the J. D. Williams Library. documentary fea- 9:00 a.m. “Archiving the North Mississippi Blues” ture film on Como, Mississippi’s leg- Greg Johnson endary blues artist Fred McDowell. Greg Johnson, curator for the Blues 10:00 a.m. “Exploring Africanisms in Otha Tuner’s Fife and Band Archive in the Department of Music as Recorded by Alan Lomax” Archives and Special Collections at George W. K. Dor the University of Mississippi, will 11:00 a.m. Study the South paper presentation: “The Lynching highlight holdings in the archive, fea- Blues: Robert Johnson’s ‘Hellhound on My Trail’ as turing numerous North Mississippi Antilynching Performance” blues musicians. Karlos K. Hill The Blues Today Symposium is pre- sented by Living Blues magazine and noon Lunch on your own the Center for the Study of Southern 1:00 p.m. Keynote Lecture Culture. The symposium coincides David Evans with Clarksdale, Mississippi’s annu- 2:30 p.m. “Documenting the Life of Mississippi Fred McDowell” al Juke Joint Festival (April 10–12) Discussion and Preview with Filmmakers providing attendees an opportunity Joe York and Scott Barretta to see and hear dozens of musicians from the region. 4:00 p.m. “Contemporary Hill Country Blues Culture” Program updates will be posted at Alice Pierotti http://southernstudies.olemiss.edu/events/ 6:00 p.m. Thacker Mountain Radio program music-of-the-south/. Oxford Square

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 9 A lysia B Music of the urt South Concert o n S

teele Series Continues with Rory Block Heralded as “a living landmark” (Berkeley Express), “a national trea- sure” (Guitar Extra), and “one of the greatest living acoustic blues artists” (Blues Revue), Rory Block has com- mitted her life and her Rory Block career to pre- serving the Delta blues tradition and bringing it to Mrs. Velma Moore of Benoit, Mississippi life for 21st- century audi- ences around the world. A tradition- Delta Jewels: In Search of alist and an innovator at the same time, she wields a fiery and My Grandmother’s Wisdom haunting guitar and vocal style that redefines the boundaries of acoustic A Gammill Gallery Exhibition blues and folk. The New York Times declared, “Her playing is perfect, her by Alysia Burton Steele singing otherworldly as she wrestles with ghosts, shadows, and legends.” Photography by Alysia Steele, assistant professor in the University of On Monday, February 23, Rory Mississippi Meek School of Journalism and New Media, was exhibited in Block will appear on the University the Gammill Gallery from November 3 to January 31. of Mississippi campus at the In her artist’s statement, Steele says, “The project was inspired by mem- Gertrude C. Ford Performing Arts ories of my beloved grandmother Althenia A. Burton, originally from Center. Showtime is 7:30, and tickets Spartanburg, South Carolina. I affectionately called her ‘Gram.’ Gram are $25. and my grandfather raised me from ages four to eighteen. I never formal- Begun in the fall of 2012, the ly photographed her or recorded her voice. It is a regret that has stayed Music of the South Concert Series with me throughout my career. I was young and didn’t think that I need- is a partnership of the Gertrude C. ed to listen to her stories. Now, I’d do almost anything to hear her voice Ford Performing Arts Center and again. But when you’re young, you think you’re going to live forever, the Center for the Study of Southern and you just assume your loved ones will too. I cry at just the sight of her Culture. The series highlights in- handwriting. timate evenings with Southern “I thought it was too late for me to get her stories, but it wasn’t too late performers. Folksinger Caroline to get other people’s grandmother’s stories, so I ventured throughout the Herring gave the inaugural perfor- Mississippi Delta to interview over fifty female church elders to combine mance in October 2012, and oth- personal narrative with poignant photographs of them and the region. I er performers on the series include reached out to notable pastors for help.” Randall Bramblett, Valerie June, Her book, Delta Jewels, which contains images from the exhibition, Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, Southern among others, is a product of that project. Hachette Book Group is set to Studies MA alumnus and member release Delta Jewels on April 7, 2015. Her national book tour will kick off of the band Widespread Panic John with a book signing at the Powerhouse in Oxford. “JoJo” Hermann, Tyler Keith, Amy Andrews, Lee Bains III, and the bands Water Liars and Feufollet.

Page 10 Winter 2015 The Southern Register SouthDocs Films to Be Screened at 2015 Oxford Film Festival

The Oxford Film Festival has an- Longleaf: The Heart of Pine nounced selections for its 12th an- Directed by Rex Jones nual festival, to be held February Towering stands of old-growth long- 26–March 1, 2015, at the Oxford leaf pine (Pinus palustris) once cov- Commons Malco. The opening-night ered over ninety million acres while event includes the Mississippi pre- stretching from southern Virginia to miere of James Franco’s adaptation eastern Texas. Today, the total acre- of The Sound and The Fury. age is about two million, with only SouthDocs films will screen as a about two thousand of that consid- block on Friday at 3:30 p.m. and ered old growth. As the South was on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. One film, settled and Northern timber supplies The Way I See It, was directed and were exhausted, this incredible natu- produced by UM Honors College ral resource was very nearly extirpat- students Christine Dickason and of pure joy and sheer terror, all lead- ed from the South’s landscape and Kaitlyn Barton. The film was cre- ing up to the opportunity to perform collective consciousness. Longleaf: ated between the fall of 2012 and fall at the state tournament in Austin. It’s The Heart of Pine is a cultural and of 2014 with the assistance of Andy a place where dreams are made and natural history of the South’s ancient Harper, director of the Southern crushed within a single spotlight. Bury primeval forest and how it might still Documentary Project. the Show follows the cast and crew of be saved. the Seminole, Texas, high school the- The Way I See It ater team and their quest to be the SouthDocs filmmaker Matthew Directed by Christine Dickason and first team in school history to win the Graves also has a narrative short, Kaitlyn Barton state championship. Barry, screening with the other Filmed at three randomly chosen Mississippi shorts at Saturday at 4:30 Mississippi public schools, Magee p.m. and Sunday at 3:00 p.m. High School, Northwest Rankin High School, and Leland High Barry School, this documentary short ex- Directed by Matthew Graves plores whether the Mississippi school Deep beneath a cold, dark forest lies system is preparing high school stu- Barry. His world is a dusty coffin dents for college adequately. and a cherished locket from his dear wife, Mary. He has come to terms The two other SouthDocs films 12TH ANNUAL with his present situation, but strange include: new noises are coming from outside Oxford Film his solitary home. Bury the Show Directed by Matthew Graves Trailers for these films and other Every year, thousands of high school SouthDocs projects can be found on theater programs across Texas com- FESTIVAL the SouthDocs website, www.south- pete in the One-Act Play contest. It’s FEB. 26 - MAR. 1, 2015 docs.org. a five-month journey of late-night re- Oxford, Mississippi hearsals, long bus rides, and moments

SouthDocs is pleased to announce the inaugural Southern Documentary Festival Coming Spring 2016. Go to southdocs.org for details.

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 11 Porter Fortune Jr. Symposium to Explore Southern Religion, Honor Charles Reagan Wilson The 2015 Porter Fortune Jr. History Symposium will take place 2015 PORTER FORTUNE JR. HISTORY SYMPOSIUM February 26–28 on the University “Southern Religion and Southern Culture” of Mississippi campus. This year’s symposium will explore “Southern Cosponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and the Religion and Southern Culture” and University of Mississippi History Department will include several programs cele- THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26 Noon Lunch on your own brating the career of Charles Reagan All Thursday sessions at the Overby Center Wilson, who retired in May 2014. for Southern Journalism and Politics 1:30 p.m. Panel Discussion: The Porter Fortune Jr. History 2:00 p.m. Panel Discussion: Race Southern Culture and Symposium began in the mid-1970s and Civil Religion in the Popular Religion with a conference on the history of South Alison Colis Greene, slavery. Center director Ted Ownby Carolyn Renee Dupont, Mississippi State notes that this year’s symposium will Eastern Kentucky University return to the topic explored in 1984, University Gary Laderman, Emory which led to a collection, Religion in John Giggie, University University the South, edited by Charles Reagan of Alabama Chad Seales, University Wilson. Ownby describes the format Calvin White Jr., of Texas of the symposium: “The papers and University of Arkansas panel discussions on Thursday and 3:00 p.m. “The Religious Friday, including a keynote lecture 3:30 p.m. Keynote Lecture by Significance of by Paul Harvey, will raise questions Paul Harvey, University Emancipation and about Southern religious history and of Colorado, Colorado Reconstruction for how best to define and study the sub- Springs African Americans in the ject. Then, events Friday evening and South, 1860–1880” Saturday will turn to celebrating the FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27 Sandy Martin, influence Charles has had as a scholar All Friday sessions at the Depot. Concert University of Georgia and teacher, especially in the fields of at Barnard Observatory. Southern religious and cultural histo- 9:00 a.m. “Print and Sacred Song “‘Shame of the ry. The moderators for the panels will in the Early South” Southland’: The Selling be alumni Wilson taught in the his- Beth Barton Schweiger, of the Visceral South” tory and Southern Studies programs, University of Arkansas Sarah Gardner, Mercer and all alums and other friends will University have a shot at talking about Charles “Spirit in the Air: at a special open discussion in Pentecostal Media 7:30 p.m. Concert with Caroline Barnard on Saturday morning. One Innovation in the 20th- Herring distinctive feature will be a concert Century South” Barnard Observatory in Barnard on Friday night, free to Randall Stephens, anybody, by Caroline Herring. All Northumbria University SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28 of the events are open to the public.” At Barnard Observatory Ownby and history and Southern 10:30 a.m. “‘The Pure of Body Are 9:00 a.m. Discussion on the Future Studies assistant professor Darren Pure of Soul’: Religion of the Field of Southern Grem are directing the symposium. and the Making of the Religious History and Please contact Becca Walton, South’s Sports Culture, on the Research and [email protected], with any 1865–1926” Teaching Legacy of questions about the symposium. All Arthur Remillard, Charles Reagan Wilson sessions are free and open to the St. Francis University public.

Page 12 Winter 2015 The Southern Register The Southern Foodways Alliance Documents the Struggle to Desegregate Southern Restaurants in the Counter Histories Film Series The Southern Foodways Alliance restaurant desegregation struggles (SFA) is proud to announce the re- of the 1950s and 1960s in histori- lease of Counter Histories, a new cal context, make clear what lessons short film series and multimedia were learned in the process, and ask website. The project is the result of a what work remains to be done to- year’s worth of work in conjunction ward the welcome table ideal,” said with longtime SFA collaborator and SFA director John T. Edge. Southern Studies alum Kate Medley. “In making these films, I was The December 2014 publication of struck again and again by the brav- Counter Histories marked the 50th ery and dedication of these young anniversary of the passage of the men and women,” said Medley. Celebrate Civil Rights Act of 1964, which de- “They risked arrest and bodily harm Charles Reagan segregated places of public accom- to carry out peaceful demonstrations modation, including restaurants. that led to real change. The filmmak- Wilson’s Each of the five films in Counter ers and I feel fortunate to have met Histories tells the story of a lunch- some of these individuals, and it is Teaching Legacy counter sit-in in one Southern our privilege to share their stories.” city or town: Jackson, Mississippi; In addition to the five films, each and Support Nashville, Tennessee; Rock produced by a different team of film- Hill, South Carolina; Durham, makers in conjunction with Medley Students North Carolina; and Cambridge, and the SFA, the Counter Histories Maryland. The events featured in website includes an interactive time- In honor of Charles Reagan these films took place between 1957 line, archival photographs, and ad- Wilson’s retirement and long and 1963. Collectively, along with ditional resources for students and career supporting and guid- dozens of other sit-ins across the re- researchers. ing students, we have creat- gion and beyond, they helped bring For additional information on ed the Charles Reagan Wilson about the end of de jure segregation. Counter Histories and to view the Graduate Student Support “The SFA’s goal in commission- films, visit www.counterhistories.com. Fund, which will provide finan- ing Counter Histories was to put the

cial support for graduate stu- F re d B lac dents engaged in research in Southern history. Students from k

both the Department of History well and Center for the Study Southern Culture’s Southern Studies program will benefit from these funds. Please consider a gift hon- oring Professor Wilson. Every amount helps. Gifts may be mailed to the UM Foundation, 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655, or donate online by visiting southernstudies.olemiss. edu/giving, follow the link, and choose “Charles Reagan Wilson Graduate Support Fund.” Students from Tougaloo College stage a sit-in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in downtown Jackson, Mississippi, in May 1963.

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 13 Southern Studies Documentary Photograph Collection Now Available Online

Student photography works documenting the South are now available online through the University of Mississippi Libraries Digital Collections: http://clio.lib .olemiss.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/ssdocphoto. The images are from David Wharton’s documentary photography seminar and span classes from 2000 to 2013. Each class started with a theme that inspired the subject matter, ranging from “Change and Tradition” to “Labor and Leisure.” “I think this is important for several of reasons,” said Wharton. “First of all, we now have a visual record of the Oxford community and the surrounding area that stretches back 15 years, and, hopefully, that will contin- ue to be compiled for at least a few more. Secondly, this archive helps demonstrate that visual knowledge is first- hand evidence that can—and should—be reckoned with as Color Guard, Oxford, Mississippi, 2009, by Bingo Gunter an equal partner with verbal descriptions of the region. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it gets students out into the Southern world they’re studying, allowing them to have their own experiences in that world and draw their own conclusions about it. Don’t get me wrong, they should, by all means, read about the South, but they should also experience it. Making photographs is a great way of doing that.” “We are very happy to have contemporary photography as an element of our collections,” said Jessica Leming, visu- al collections librarian. “It’s great to have works represent- ing new views of Mississippi and the region, captured by future leaders in the South.” The collection is expected to grow as photographs from additional years are contributed.

Bowlers, Oxford, Mississippi, 2009, by Tyler Keith

Original prints are now held in cold storage for pres- ervation in the Department of Archives and Special Collections. A finding aid for the collection is available here: http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00740/. Questions about the collection can be directed to Batesville, Mississippi, 2010, by Camilla Aikin Jessica Leming at [email protected].

Page 14 Winter 2015 The Southern Register Beyond Barnard: Conversations with Southern Studies Alumni Interviews by Rebecca Lauck Cleary

Angela James released her album a separate grant of $4,000 from the like to this point. Chicago is a city of Way Down Deep last year, and it was City of Chicago’s Department of artistic collaboration. There’s a sense named one of the top-10 Chicago al- Cultural Affairs and Special Events of improvisation, spaciousness, and bums of 2014 by RedEye magazine. for the recording and mixing back cross-pollination here that inspires me James has lived in Chicago since in 2013. I found out about both pro- deeply. I was very fortunate to receive 2008, with her husband, visual artist grams from friends and other artists funding for about 75 percent of the and musician Jordan Martins. who had received them, and I had production costs, which allowed me to excellent grant-writing training from take some artistic risks. My husband, How does your Southern Ann Abadie at the Center because Jordan, who helped produce the Studies degree help with your of my graduate assistantship with record and is often my songwriting songwriting? Thacker Mountain Radio. partner, was the driving force behind There’s a really literal answer that vision. It wasn’t always very here: I only started writing songs Explain the process of making comfortable to be that vulnerable, but about three and a half years ago, the album. the results are that it’s a really good and when I did, what came out was This was my first full-length record. The difficulties mostly have basically classic country music. It record, so everything was new, to do with things going wrong, or sounded like the material that I stud- and the learning curve was steep. I simply not as planned. I grew as an ied and played during the course of involved and collaborated with so artist, of course, but I also feel like this the MA program. I hadn’t really lis- many different people at every level record has fundamentally changed tened to that mu- of production. I my personality and the way I look at sic since graduat- wanted this album to things. It’s a big can of worms. ing, but being from not just be a record east Tennessee, I’d of some musical heard that kind of performances, but to Lauchlin Fields has been focus- music growing up, be a literal record of ing on the people, places, and cul- and it was in my what my experience tural happenings in Mississippi for cultural DNA. My of being an artist in more than a decade as a writer and thesis was more or Chicago has been oral historian. With3 the launch of her less about music as Jo magazine the ’Sip last year, she fo- r historic preserva- d cuses on Mississippi’s traditions and an M artins tion and the phe- culture. nomenon of using the music of your What is the process of deciding past to connect to some sense of time to publish a magazine and how and place in your present, as well you made the dream a reality. as to your ancestry. So I was pret- I really have had the dream of ty much living out my graduate re- starting my own magazine since I search, but that didn’t really dawn was at Ole Miss, maybe even be- on me until much later. fore. Since then, I have read and re- searched what it takes to publish a Can you tell me about the grants magazine. After working for a news- you received to help with sup- paper for almost five years, I was port for the album? able to make a lot of great contacts I received a $3,000 grant from with talented writers and photogra- the Illinois Arts Council in 2014 to phers. It’s like I’ve been building this put my first full-length record out network without realizing it all these on vinyl as part of their Individual years. I immediately reached out to Artist Support program. I’d received Angela James the ones I knew I wanted to work

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 15 WINTER 2015 about the work

a sip of life from the most soulful state in the South we are doing Why was it important to focus on with the maga- creative people in your book? zine. It’s grow- Before writing Studio Jackson, I’d

art Walter Anderson’s Legacy

Chef Ty Thames Fresh & Local in Starkville >FOOD name all over the is always something new each month Southeast. or quarter to publish, so there’s an ephemeral quality to the writ- What are the ing; magazines are on the racks for a Also: Delta Bohemian • River Gator • Art Advocate Sonny Boatman • Ardenland topics of your month, and then they are archived. next issue? As I met more and more creatives Our cover story is about Delta in Jackson, I felt like there was a sto- Grind Grits in Water Valley and how ry waiting to be told. I realized that rtis Water Valley has an increasing num- there was a common thread running o ber of woman-owned businesses. through the narratives of each art- We’ll have a story about Corinth art ist or craftsman I interviewed. All of supporter Sonny Boatman, Jackson them were very aware of a creative elanie T h Lauchlin Fields M music promoter Arden Barnett of community here in Jackson and had with on the ’Sip. By reaching out to Ardenland, Chef Ty Thames of chosen to stay here and be a part of those people I really wanted to work Starkville, and a story about Walter that community. I decided that it was with, I somehow built a dream team Anderson’s daughter and grand- important to look at how each narra- of writers, photographers, and de- son continuing his legacy through tive wove a bigger story about com- signers. When I see each issue come their own art. We’ll also highlight munity, about the creative economy, together, it really blows me away Mississippi cookbooks recommend- and about this city that I call home. how talented everyone is. ed by Turnrow Books in Greenwood and Dunn’s Falls near Meridian. How did you choose the people What has been the best thing so included in the book? far about being the editor of the ’Sip, and what has been your big- gest challenge? Nell Linton Knox published I have really enjoyed every aspect Studio Jackson: Creative Culture in the of creating, editing, and publishing Mississippi Capital in 2014. The book the magazine. Being able to oversee is a fascinating story behind the cre- the publication of stories about peo- ative community3 of visual artists and ple, places, and culture in Mississippi craftsmen, with compelling photog- has been an amazing journey and raphy by Ellen Rodgers Johnson. experience. Every issue offers a unique display of in-depth storytell- Nell Linton Knox (left) with ing, high-quality photographs, and Ellen Rodgers Johnson creative design. I love deciding on the stories in each issue, which takes a good bit of time to develop be- cause of all the factors: making sure all the regions are covered, repre- senting all of the feature and section categories, having a diverse selection of stories, and making sure we have the best writer and photographer for the story. It all matters. The biggest challenge, I guess, is time. We are all putting together the ’Sip in our “free” time. We all have full-time jobs or are running our own businesses. Many of us are moms to ec k small children. But, we are passionate B m To

Page 16 Winter 2015 The Southern Register © A

Some of the people we includ- pril The Dynasty in the book’s title re-

ed were those who I had previous- B ennet fers not only to Church, who died in ly interviewed for magazine arti- 1912, but his son, who became boss cles, such as Fletcher Cox and Andy of Beale Street and built the most Young. Some are personal friends, powerful black political machine such as Kristen Ley and Tom Beck. of the early 20th century. Young I’m married to the painter William Church helped Memphis’s notorious Goodman who has been a part of dictator “Boss” Crump gain power the arts and culture scene in Jackson over the city, and the story culmi- since 2003, so he was also a big part nates with the struggle between these of helping gather individuals who two factions, Crump and Church, a were willing to tell their stories. He battle that made noise all the way up definitely helped connect with me in the FDR White House. with people who I might not have been able to track down otherwise. What surprised you the most during Why was it important to focus your research for on the concept of the creative this book? economy, and why do you think Preston Lauterbach Singer Rufus Jackson is thriving in that area? Thomas said some- The state decided that 2014 was He will also appear in a thing to the effect that the Year of the Creative Economy, panel discussion at the if you could be black and I really wanted to know what Oxford Conference for the for one Saturday creative people had to say about Book on March 27. night on Beale Street, that. When interviewing some of you’d never want to the craftsmen and artists in Jackson How did the idea for be white anymore. who’ve been here the longest, I was Beale Street Dynasty come That’s an incredibly told that “creativity economy” is a about? powerful statement new idea—if you’re in a creative line I didn’t necessarily know considering the brutal of work, then every year is the year when I began researching Beale realities of life for black Americans of the creative economy. Street that it could be a book or that during the time. Though Memphis In 2013 the Atlantic magazine came Mr. Church was the key figure, but certainly wasn’t immune to the vio- to Jackson and interviewed some those developments fed each other. lent crises of the South, some surreal younger members of the creative set Everywhere I looked—Beale Street stuff happened on Beale. Black politi- about why working in Jackson is a music, civil rights, business, and cians held elected offices far beyond good idea. The resounding theme in events like the Memphis riot of 1866— the end of Reconstruction, while that article was that Jackson is an af- I found Church. He was the guid- black voters faced lethal resistance in fordable place to live and rent a stu- ing force behind the street becom- other parts of the South. In the late dio, and this is especially true if you ing famous and powerful. Though 1880s, while lynchings of black men compare Jackson to places like New figures like Ida B. Wells and W. C. occurred rampantly throughout the York or Paris. I was mostly interest- Handy are better-recognized products South, often for minor or imagined ed in those native sons who valued of Beale Street culture, Beale would transgressions committed against creativity and decided that commit- have been just another strip of gravel white women, a posse of black men ting to Jackson was the way to make without him. organized on Beale Street for the Jackson thrive. I think that Jackson is purpose of ending the age-old prac- on the cusp of greatness, and I think What fascinates you most about tice of miscegenation between white the creatives are the ones fanning Church? men and black women. They totally that flame. The most fascinating aspect of turned the tables on history. And I Church is how he made his fortune. found an instance of a blue-blooded It’s shocking that a man born a slave white man who “passed” as black to could have become “the South’s first live in the Beale Street underworld Preston Lauterbach’s book Beale black millionaire” and develop this for ten years until the late 1890s. I’m Street Dynasty is coming out in iconic American institution through sure he could have vouched for what March, and he will launch the book the proceeds of white prostitutes. He Rufus Thomas later said. in a series of events at Rhodes built Memphis’s red-light district one College, March3 19–21, and at a sign- block parallel to Beale before Beale ing at Square Books on March 25. became home of the blues.

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 17 Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference Update “Popular Faulkner” Class Offered with “Faulkner and Print Culture” Conference As planning continues for the and the Gender Studies Program at “Faulkner and Print Culture” con- the University of Mississippi, where ference, July 19–23, 2015, the FAULKNER she has taught since 2003. She is Department of English will offer a AND PRINT CULTURE the author of America the Middlebrow: 3-credit-hour course, ENGL 566, in Women’s Novels, Progressivism, and conjunction with the conference. The Middlebrow Authorship between the class, which will be taught by profes- Communications Jordan/University & Special Collections, J.D. Williams The University of Mississippi / Photos by Robert Library, of Archives Department Wars (2007) and Middlebrow Queer: sor Jaime Harker of the University Christopher Isherwood in America of Mississippi, may be taken for un- (2013), and coeditor of The Oprah dergraduate or graduate credit and Affect: Critical Essays on Oprah’s Book hopes to attract high school teachers, Club (2008) and 1960s Gay Pulp students at the UM or other univer- Fiction: The Misplaced Heritage (2013). sities, and other attendees seeking a Her work on Faulkner includes es- more intensive conference experi- says in Faulkner’s Sexualities: Faulkner The University of Mississippi ence. Course tuition will include the Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference and Yoknapatawpha, 2007 and the Oxford, Mississippi, July 19–23, 2015 conference registration fee, and the The University of Mississippi announces the Forty-Second Annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference. forthcoming Cambridge Companion The conference is sponsored by the Department of English and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and coordinated by the Office of Outreach and Continuing Education. credit hours will be transferable and For more information: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, Office of Outreach and Continuing Education, to William Faulkner, and with Jay Post Office Box 1848, The University of Mississippi. University, MS 38677-1848. Telephone: 662-915-7283. can be applied to advanced degree Fax: 662-915-5138. Internet: www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner Watson she guest-edited a forth- programs or teacher certification re- coming special issue of Mississippi quirements. Affordable dormitory Reivers—and will also draw on schol- Quarterly on Oprah Winfrey’s housing on the UM campus is avail- arly studies by Janice Radway, Joan Summer of Faulkner. able for enrollees. Shelley Rubin, David M. Earle, Interested participants should con- The intent of ENGL 566 is to Gordon Hutner, Erin Smith, Greg tact Professor Harker at jlharker@ complement the conference pro- Barnhisel, and Harker herself to olemiss.edu at their earliest con- gram by providing students with a provide context and framing for venience. Those who are not UM deeper interpretive and pedagogi- Faulkner’s interventions into the students will need to apply and be cal encounter with Faulkner’s work print cultures of his era. admitted to the university in or- in relation to the conference theme. ENGL 566 will be offered as a der to enroll in ENGL 566. Those With that goal in mind, the class “hybrid” class during the second who wish to take the course for will be organized around the topic summer session of the University graduate credit may apply to the of “Popular Faulkner.” As Harker of Mississippi’s academic calendar. Graduate School for nondegree ad- explains, “Faulkner has long been For the first two weeks of the ses- mission; please bear in mind that the understood as a great American sion, participants will read off-site Graduate School application dead- writer who transcends the vaga- and post detailed reading responses line for summer enrollment is March ries of the marketplace.” While that to the course’s online environment. 30, 2015. view helped enshrine Faulkner in Then from July 13 to July 24, the For more information about the American literary canon, it has class will convene on the UM cam- “Faulkner and Print Culture,” visit also, she adds, “obscured Faulkner’s pus and will include all lectures, pan- the conference website at www.out- varied and creative intersection with els, and related sessions at “Faulkner reach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner/ the varieties of print culture and his and Print Culture” in its schedule of index.html#class or contact Jay profound engagement with popular contact hours. The course will culmi- Watson, conference director, at jwat- forms.” “Popular Faulkner” will fo- nate in a syllabus assignment and a [email protected]. cus on six middlebrow and popu- 10-12-page analytic paper. lar novels by Faulkner—Sanctuary, Jaime Harker is associate profes- Jay Watson The Wild Palms, Intruder in the Dust, sor of English and interim director of The Hamlet, The Mansion, and The the Sarah Isom Center for Women

Page 18 Winter 2015 The Southern Register Faulkner’s World: Eudora Welty The Photographs of Martin J. Dain Awards Do you have a son who might be the next Richard Wright? A daughter who can channel her inner A Traveling Exhibition O’Connor with a flick of a pen? If so, encourage these young people to enter stories and poems The photographs of Martin Dain provide a unique jour- for consideration in the Center for the Study of ney into the world of William Faulkner. Taken between Southern Culture’s annual Eudora Welty Awards. 1961 and 1963, Dain’s photographs portray Faulkner at Students must be Mississippi residents. The com- home as well as provide petition is open to ninth through twelfth graders, a comprehensive look at and writing should be submitted through students’ the people and cultural high schools. Short stories should not exceed 3,000 traditions that inspired words, and poetry should not exceed 100 lines. him. This collection pro- Winning stu- vides an extraordinary dents will be window through which notified at least to view community his- a month prior tory and from which to to award pre- reflect on culture and sentation. The change in Oxford and first-place prize the surrounding area. As for each cat- the exhibition discusses egory is $500, and interprets the legacy and the second- of William Faulkner, it place prize is also provides an oppor- $250. The win- tunity to prompt com- ners will also munity dialogue. be recognized The exhibition opened at the University of Mississippi at the open- in 1997 and traveled for two years as part of the Faulkner ing of the 2015 Centennial Celebration, had an encore tour in 2007 in Faulkner &

M artin Dain conjunction with the Mississippi Reads project admin- Yoknapatawpha

istered through the Mississippi Library Commission, Conference on Kay B and is once again available, this time for libraries, muse- the University campus in July. ums, and cultural centers in Mississippi and surrounding Each entry should be accompanied by the entry ell states. Faulkner’s World: The Photographs of Martin J. Dain form and postmarked by April 13, 2015. Faculty was curated and produced by the Center for the Study of and staff from the Center for the Study of Southern Southern Culture. The exhibition has thirty-six 16" x 20" Culture will judge the entries and select the win- black-and-white photographs and four text panels, pre- ners. Application and submission requirements will sented in 24" x 30" frames. be sent to all Mississippi public and private schools. A book of the Dain photographs, published by the If you know a Mississippi student currently en- Center and the University Press of Mississippi, is avail- rolled in high school outside of the state or who is able with the exhibition. Oxford author Larry Brown homeschooled, please e-mail rebeccac@olemiss wrote the foreword for the book. Tom Rankin, editor .edu or call 662-915-3369 for a copy. To see a list of the book and curator of the exhibition, wrote the in- of past winners or to download the application, vis- troduction, which examines Dain’s life and career as a it http://southernstudies.olemiss.edu/academics/ photographer. high-school-eudora-welty-awards/. Persons interested in scheduling the traveling exhibi- tion of Dain photographs should contact Mary Hartwell Howorth by e-mail at [email protected] or by telephone at 662-915-5993.

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 19 Southern Foodways Alliance Dishes Up Virginia Yock S The Southern Foodways Alliance’s ara Patsy Wong, Sing Wong newest oral history project explores a Wood savory noodle soup that’s practically Restaurant, Portsmouth, Virginia, 2014 unheard of outside its natural habitat. In Tidewater Virginia, the south- eastern region of the state that includes Norfolk, Suffolk, and Portsmouth, yock-a-mein is known as a box of yock. The name refers to the Chinese take-out box in which it’s served. It’s also simply called “yock,” but there are endless ways to spell the name of the dish. It’s likely that yock arrived in Tidewater when Chinese immigrants moved to Virginia in the early 20th century. Some theories suggest that because of segregation many Chinese immigrants could open restaurants only in African American neighbor- hoods, introducing folks to yock-a- in Tidewater, versus the spaghetti A hard-boiled egg is optional, as is mein, which translates to “one order of noodles used in the New Orleans ver- a pour of vinegar. Most folks finish noodles.” African American custom- sion of the dish. A choice of meat— it off by sprinkling cayenne pepper ers took the dish home, altered ingre- chicken, pork, shrimp, beef, or, some- over the top. dients to taste, and developed their times, sausage—tops the noodles fol- When you want yock in own special recipe from the traditional lowed by a dice of raw white onions. Tidewater, you’ll find it in Chinese Chinese dish. Depending on who’s making the take-out restaurants, like Sing Wong Tidewater yock bears only small yock, the ratio of soy sauce to ketch- in Portsmouth, owned by Patsy and similarities to other ya-ka-mein tradi- up varies. A mixture of ketchup Haymond Wong. Haymond’s grand- tions. For example, Virginia uses lo and soy sauce forms its own broth, father, the restaurant’s namesake, mein noodles, still made in factories though some prefer chicken broth. opened it in 1965. Or you can wait for a yock fund- raiser—popular in black churches in Tidewater—like the one at Tabernacle Christian Church in Suffolk. There Bernice “Florida” Cofield cooks yock she’s made for more than thirty years, using a recipe she got from Perry Jane Davis Lambert, former owner of the Horseshoe Cafe in Suffolk. Once a dish limited to certain communities in Tidewater, these sto- ries paint a history of how a box of yock moved beyond the boundaries of neighborhood, race, and culture. Explore these oral histories, and hundreds of others, online at south- ernfoodways.org/oral-history. Wood Sara Wood ara S

Page 20 Winter 2015 The Southern Register Coming Soon from SouthDocs: La Frontera I recently spent two months in evening, and never walk past a bar for protection (I did not). Very soon Texas producing La Frontera, my lat- without stopping in for a libation. after my arrival, I found the border est Southern Documentary Project Your correspondent is pleased to to be a place that almost nobody un- film, which chronicles a trekker’s confirm his strict adherence to these derstands unless they live there. The walk along the Texas-Mexico border. maxims. reports of anarchy on the American Mark J. Hainds is a naturalist, adven- I embarked upon this trip with side were grossly exaggerated, and I turer, and author from Andalusia, more than a little trepidation, hav- never felt concerned for my safety. I Alabama. I met Mark, at the time ing heard stories of horrific violence believe that the general public con- a staff member at the Longleaf and unbridled chaos on both sides flates the extensive narcoviolence in Alliance, last year during production of the border. I was also advised on Mexico with a similar situation on the on Longleaf: The Heart of Pine. When more than one occasion, before and north side of the Rio Grande, but that he told me about his planned expe- during the trip, to carry a weapon is not the case. For example, Ciudad dition to Texas, I knew it had the po- Juarez is one of the most dangerous C tential to provide great cinema. Andy H ain urtis cities on the planet (at one time it was Harper, director of the Southern deadlier than Baghdad), but it is right Documentary Project, agreed and across the river (and fence/wall) from provided support for the trip. d El Paso, which is one of the safest cit- s Mark began his walk on October ies in the United States. 26 at International Boundary Marker Mark’s amazing feat of endur- 1 in El Paso, which marks the con- ance is compelling enough, but I also vergence of Texas, New Mexico, and wanted to focus on the culture, com- Mexico. He finished on December munities, and people we met along 22 at Boca Chica Beach in the way. Two of the major themes Brownsville, where the Rio Grande of the film are border security/pol- empties into the Gulf of Mexico. In icy and immigration justice/rights. his Herculean effort to cover the ap- This particular international border proximate distance of 1,100 miles has become highly militarized and across Texas, Mark walked an aver- surveilled, and it is a strange phe- age of twenty miles a day for almost nomenon to feel as though you’re eight weeks. He also established being watched all the time. Indeed, three rules to operate by: stay alive; I became inured to US Customs and start walking every morning at the Mark Hainds and Rex Jones on Boca Border Protection agents rushing Chica Beach at the end of Mark’s same place he stopped the previous up in a cloud of dust to question my walk presence near the fence/wall or river. Ro

Mark Hainds and Rex Jones on Chispa Road Veh nnie From right-wing ranchers to cow- near Candelaria, Texas boy poets to human-rights activists to fence/wall opponents, I met many

o interesting people who were eager to rn discuss life on the Texas-Mexico bor- der. This chorus of voices provides many insights, but no clear answer, to the question of how to balance border security and immigration rights. The only conclusion I can draw is that La Frontera divides two countries, but not two cultures. Look for the film in the second half of 2015 and find more in- formation about it at www.lafronter- amovie.com.

Rex Jones

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 21 Pop Culture and Southern Food Connecting Modernity and Tradition As told to Sara Camp Arnold by Charles Reagan Wilson

First published in Issue #54 of manufactured in other parts of the the Southern Foodways Alliance’s country. Despite the New South– journal, Gravy. movement call for economic di- versification, the South DEFINITIONS & HOGS remained a largely ag- ricultural area. In the Popular culture is mass American industrial culture. It’s mass- economy, the North produced. It doesn’t was often the produc- strive for authenticity, er, and the South was for craftsmanship, so the consumer. Mass- much as to promote produced popular cul- consumption. It is ture items were sym- made for wide audi- bols that the region’s ences, not for narrow au- people could respond diences. You can make an to. Southern advisers of- easy contrast with folklife ten served Northern com- and folk culture, which panies that sold goods in the tends to be rooted in commu- South. nities and built around social Aunt Jemima is a good exam- groups. ple of this. Aunt Jemima was in- In the South, pop culture is troduced at the 1893 World’s Fair negotiated between tradition and in Chicago. Nancy Green, a freed modernity. It often draws from folk- slave, was the original image for the lore, from folk symbols and rituals. first ready-mix pancake mix. What But it is not so much concerned with Aunt Jemima sold was the South authenticity as it is with reproducing as a place of gentility and servants. these symbols for broad audiences. Popular culture is about mass-pro- One of my favorite examples of ducing images, as well as mass-pro- this negotiation is the pig. Hogs were AUNT JEMIMA & JEB STUART ducing pancakes. a major source of Southern foodways What Aunt Jemima gave the com- going all the way back to settlement. The New South movement in the pany was this image, deep in the When the South produced what we 1880s was about diversifying the American psyche, of the South as might call a fast-food place, the bar- economy and making the South a land where people served you. becue joint, the pig was at the cen- wealthier. In that period of the late Even though it’s fast and conve- ter of it. Barbecue restaurants seem 19th century, the South produced nient—you’re giving kind of a mor- traditional. But they also commod- popular culture representations and al authority of the culture from the ify a traditional Southern food. The artifacts related to the Lost Cause South—it’s like she is symbolically pig itself becomes the negotiator, the and to the Confederacy. Robert E. serving you. She always is portrayed popular culture symbol that draws Lee on a bag of flour, for example. with the bandana, the apron. When together tradition and modernity. His image had moral authority in the she appears in person, like at the That’s one point: Popular culture South. You had Stonewall Jackson World’s Fair, she speaks in dialect. is mass-produced. It connects tradi- and Jefferson Davis. You had Jeb She tells tales about the Old South. tion and modernity, and produced a Stuart, the romantic cavalryman. This is part of this romanticization group of common, well-known sym- He was very saleable. So you had of the Old South that occurs in the bols and icons that become associat- those images on plates, on all sorts of late 19th century. The company that ed with the South itself. mass-produced goods. produces Aunt Jemima is not from Often those goods were the South. It is a Northern company

Page 22 Winter 2015 The Southern Register exploiting this fascination with the CHITLIN STRUT LUCKY DOGS South in the American market. One of the things we haven’t talked Places have their particularities. In COOKING WITH ELVIS about in terms of popular culture is the postmodern 21st century, tour- festivals. Most of the festivals in the ism is everywhere. We’re trying to SCA: You have this set of Elvis South today are popular culture, but get people to come to our places, to recipe cards. And Elvis is not they grew out of folk traditions. The spend their money, and eat the local someone I associate with food, fair, the county fair, is the folk pro- food. New Orleans is the classic case: except a peanut butter-and-ba- genitor. At the county fair, in the old eating oysters at Acme oyster bar, nana sandwich. days, you would have had a beau- buying beignets at Café du Monde, You can’t say Elvis was a gour- ty contest. You would have had the and getting the muffuletta at Central met. But Elvis loved food. And he queen of the county fair. Out of that Grocery. would have had to be a member of came the beauty pageant that is pop- My wife’s family made home- the Southern Foodways Alliance made Italian sausage. They lived if he were still alive. But these in Jackson, Mississippi. And recipes—they’re not very when my wife was a lit- imaginative, you know. A tle girl, they would drive hamburger, boneless chick- to New Orleans to go to en, meatloaf, home-fried po- Central Grocery to buy tatoes, and a ham sandwich. the fennel seeds that you couldn’t buy in Mississippi. SCA: Why would a mar- They were an “Italian keter want to connect food” ingredient. Central Elvis and food? Grocery was owned by an Because you con- Italian family. Her fam- nect Elvis to everything. ily would drive down from There’s a market for Elvis. Jackson to New Orleans, Because people who are they’d eat a muffuletta, crazy about Elvis are cra- they’d drive back, and make zy about all things Elvis. their Italian sausage. They I think Elvis’s audience made a special trip—tour- today is Southern whites. ism—to get this fennel seed It’s working-class people, for their Italian sausage. That and it’s women. All of was a long time ago. But that’s those people are touched an example of a way that food by Elvis. Despite his extraor- can figure into people com- dinary celebrity and success, he re- ing to a place and spending their mained very much an identifiable ular culture. They’re not the old folk money, which is what the tourist in- white Southerner of a certain time festival that goes back to agricultural dustry wants them to do. period and place. And his food was fairs. They’re modern. They’re com- It goes back a long way, but part of that. A lot of working-class modifying the women in terms of the Lafcadio Hearn, in the late 19th cen- white Southerners identify with his beauty pageant. tury, wrote some of the earliest ar- food. So many of the festivals today are ticles about food in New Orleans. He We say in the South, “Don’t get popular culture in that they aim at a talks about the street vendors. And above your raising.” And Elvis never mass audience. And they are often they’re still there. Lucky Dogs are got above his raising. And food was a all about consumption. But they still a good example. In New Orleans, classic case of how he never got above draw from that traditional Southern food is central to your experience. his raising. He was not aspiring to go iconography. In Mississippi, the wa- Whether it’s eating at a world-re- to a high-style restaurant or eat fine termelon festival in Water Valley is nowned restaurant, or a beignet, or a food. He was eating what he grew up an example. So is the catfish festival muffuletta. Or, as the bars are wind- eating, and he still loved it all his life, in Belzoni. There’s a chitlin strut in ing down, eating a Lucky Dog. even though though he could go any- Salley, South Carolina, which I love. where and he could afford to eat any- I’ve never been to it; that’s one of Photos by Danny Klimetz. Pieces from the thing. And I think people who would the places I’d love to go. Even some- “Southern Tacky” collection of Charles buy these cards appreciate that about thing lowly like chitlins, they have Reagan Wilson at the Center for the Elvis. And they probably are going raised it up, and it becomes a tourist Study of Southern Culture. home and cooking these recipes. attraction.

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 23 Reading the South Book Reviews and Notes by Faculty, Staff, Students, and Friends of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture

Delta Dogs has a title with the Photographs by Maude word Dog in it, along Schuyler Clay. Introduction with its physical lo- by Brad Watson. Essay by cation: Sidewalk Beth Ann Fennelly. Afterword Dog, Tutwiler; Cotton Stalk Dog, near Drew; by Maude Schuyler Clay. 96 Church Parking Lot pages. 80 duotone plates. Dog, Mississippi Delta. Jackson: University Press of The focus is certain- Mississippi. $35.00. ly on dogs here, and they are, ostensibly, I know the world of rural roads. At the reason for the various times in my life, I’ve become book. familiar with several places whose But I can’t help networks of local roads don’t make but wonder: what’s it into road atlases: the dairy country so special about the of upstate New York, the Willamette dogs we encounter Valley of western Oregon, the ranch one-time interest in the lives of dogs in Delta Dogs? Nothing, really. They and farm roads of central Texas, and, has cooled somewhat. are no different than the dogs along- most recently, the Mississippi Delta. That’s not the case with Maude side any number of American roads. These places have little in com- Schuyler Clay, though, as she am- What is special is their environment, mon in terms of topography, vegeta- ply demonstrates in her new book the world they live in. Anyone who tion, or climate. One thing they do of photographs, Delta Dogs. A na- claims to know the South under- share, though, is dogs. In all of these tive of the Mississippi Delta, she has stands that the Mississippi Delta is places a good number of dogs can been photographing local dogs—ru- a unique place. It is home to a few be seen along the rural roadsides— ral dogs, roadside dogs, small-town people of great wealth and many single dogs, pairs of dogs, packs of dogs—for quite some time now, start- people who live in extreme pover- dogs. They are variously large, small, ing with her own childhood pets. ty. Its social order is one of widely proud, scruffy, well fed, emaciated, She does so partly out of concern for divergent racial realities that very and all largely oblivious to your hu- the dogs’ welfare (many seem home- much mirror the region’s economic man presence unless you get out less), partly because she likes them conditions. More happily, the Delta of the car and invade their space. (she has adopted at least one of her is also the birthplace of a good bit of Their noses snuffle along the ground, canine subjects), and partly because America’s rich musical culture, much their tails wag or vibrate, and in hot of what their presence says about the of which has spread worldwide. As weather their tongues loll out. I’ve human culture of her native Delta I leaf through Delta Dogs, my eyes often wondered what they do all (though relatively small in many of and mind go to where the dogs are, day and have sometimes thought it the pictures, they seem appropriate to the landscape they roam, rather might be fun to be a dog with acres to the expansive rural landscape). than to the dogs themselves. And of countryside to explore and plenty There is no shortage of dogs in even though the publisher has done of time to do it in. Once, in an idle Delta Dogs—at least one can be seen no one any favors with the book’s moment, I thought about attach- in each of the book’s eighty photo- generally dark and muddy repro- ing a camera to a friend’s roaming graphs. In many they are the main ductions, if one can get past that and dog and setting it to make an expo- subject(s) and obviously so. In oth- understand Delta Dogs as an exten- sure every so often, just to see where ers, they are small, but function as sion of Ms. Clay’s earlier Delta Land Rufus and his buddies might go and essential bits of living movement (1999), a very fine book of landscape what they might do, but that idea in an otherwise still landscape. In photographs, Delta Dogs immediate- never got very far. Nowadays, in a few, they are hard to find, setting ly takes on greater depth and mean- the era of “bodycams” and GoPros, the viewer off on a Where’s Waldo? ing. Seen that way, it looks beyond it would be an easy task, but my kind of search. Each photograph the dogs to the Mississippi Delta and

Page 24 Winter 2015 The Southern Register its unique landscape—not only to what that landscape looks like, but what it means as well. Delta Dogs, in its NEW FROM UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI own special way, adds to that meaning and increases our understanding of the Delta’s land and culture—a worthy achievement, to be sure. To Write in the Light of Freedom David Wharton The Newspapers of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools Edited by William Sturkey and Jon N. Hale A collection and examination Stories of the South: Race and the of the creative literary work of Reconstruction of Southern Identity, freedom students discovering pathways to racial justice 1865–1915 $40 By K. Stephen Prince. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014. 321 pages. $39.95 cloth. The State of Health and Health Care in Mississippi For whatever rea- Edited by Mario J. Azevedo sons, the history of A comprehensive survey of Reconstruction seems the health care crisis in one to have resisted schol- of the nation’s poorest states arly efforts to connect $75 political history with cultural history. K. Stephen Prince makes The Architecture a significant contribu- tion to the merging of of William Nichols issues of power and Building the Antebellum politics with issues of South in North Carolina, cultural representa- Alabama, and Mississippi tion in Stories of the By Paul Hardin Kapp with Todd Sanders South. The new vol- A restoration of the legacy of ume details fifty years one of the South’s most prolific of competing narra- and influential architects tives about the South before the Civil War and its place in American life. Prince offers the book as a $60 corrective to past scholarship that emphasized sectional reunion; instead, he tells the story of competition among various visions of the South. It would be obvious to say the concept of the South was contested, so the strength Faulkner and Film of Prince’s book is the analysis of the multiple forms of Edited by Peter Lurie contesting, with the rise and fall of the popularity of sto- and Ann J. Abadie ries about the defeated South, the modernizing South, the A collection exploring the extensive connections be- exotic South, the violent South, the authentic South, and tween the Nobel Laureate’s several others. work and cinema Stories of the South has three sections. It opens in 1865 $65 and 1866 with Northern writers and other travelers think- ing about the possibilities of making the South more like the North and continues with intriguing analyz- es of who told the stories about carpetbaggers and the ALSO AVAILABLE AS EBOOKS Ku Klux Klan. A second section discusses narratives of economic progress, analyzes the work of four writ- www.upress.state.ms.us ers—Thomas Nelson Page, Joel Chandler Harris, George 800-737-7788 Washington Cable, and Charles Chesnutt—who helped

Southern RegisterWinter2015.indd 1 1/23/15 12:33 PM The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 25 define the South, and concludes with the introduction, “I argue that post- Klan appeared in Northern newspa- an extended analysis of Northern- war southern identity was, in large pers, in African Americans’ testimo- produced minstrel companies. A fi- measure, constructed in the North. nies at congressional hearings, and, nal section analyzes the rise of dis- Thus, many of the era’s most signifi- eventually, in popular fiction. And franchisement and racial segrega- cant treatments of the South were scholars in multiple fields have stud- tion as developments that most white crafted with a northern audience ied minstrelsy; Stories of the South Americans accepted and support- in mind.” Second, as the title of the goes into detail about the differences ed. Like many of the good books in book indicates, Prince emphasizes among various minstrel shows in the the field, from C. Vann Woodward’s stories of how things were changing 1870s and 1880s and shows called Origins of the New South to David over time. That meant that all sorts The South before the War and Black Blight’s Race and Reunion, Prince’s of people used history to discuss America in the 1890s. book ends in the 1910s with power- slavery and race, the Civil War and If I have any criticism of this vol- ful forces North and South agreeing Reconstruction, and politics, the pur- ume, it is that some of the arguments to tell stories that celebrated slavery poses of government, and American strike me as more original and sur- and agreeing not to press for civil potential. Third, the author details prising than others. Perhaps the not- rights for black Americans. wonderful specifics on topics that so-surprising parts are necessary as This is an ambitious work, and many historians may tend to teach context for the unique and original three features stand out. First, Prince as part of general categories. For ex- parts, and perhaps they are com- insists that understanding Southern ample, all American historians know mon to works that think broadly on history involves understanding the about the concept of the carpetbag- much-discussed topics. In any case, American North and understanding ger, but Prince illustrates the intense this is a lively, thoughtful, and well- what various groups said and did in interest in the term by the thorough- written volume that has plenty to criticism and defense and how they ness of its definition in theDirectory teach. expressed their interest in scholarly of Americanisms in 1877. Scholars have analysis and entertainment as well detailed and analyzed the rise of Ted Ownby as in more straightforward politi- the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1860s; cal discussions. He states clearly in Prince discusses which aspects of the

The Southern Quarterly Upcoming A Journal of Arts & Letters in the South Special Issues The Mississippi River and Southern Icons (Spring 2015) Southern Identities and Photography (Summer 2015) Death and the South (Fall 2015)

The Southern Quarterly is an internationally-known scholarly journal devoted to the interdisciplin- ary study of Southern arts and culture. For SoQ, “the arts” is defined broadly, and includes painting, sculpture, music, dance, poetry, photography, and popular culture. We also publish studies of Southern culture from such disciplines as literature, folklore, anthropology, and history. “The South” is defined as the region south of the Mason Dixon Line, including the Caribbean and Latin America.

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Page 26 Winter 2015 The Southern Register New Biography Examines Mark Your Elvis Presley against Backdrop of the South Calendars! February 18 Elvis Presley is the undisputed king “David Mills: An Evening With of rock ’n’ roll, and he is back in the Langston Hughes” spotlight with a new biography that Meek Auditorium captures the drama of his career. University of Mississippi In Elvis Presley: A Southern Life, Southern historian Joel Williamson, February 23 professor emeritus of the humanities Music of the South Concert at the University of North Carolina Rory Block at Chapel Hill, takes on one of the Gertrude C. Ford Center for the greatest cultural icons of all time. Performing Arts Center director Ted Ownby wrote University of Mississippi the foreword for the book, which February 23 is published by Oxford University Barry Estabrook Lecture Press. Ownby, who first became in- Nutt Auditorium volved as a reviewer for the press, University of Mississippi said he is happy to have even a little involvement with such an important February 26–28 book by one of his favorite historians. 2015 Porter Fortune Jr. “My foreword tries to summarize History Symposium what is unique about Elvis Presley, University of Mississippi when there are already a good num- roots and surprises,” Ownby said. February 27–28 ber of Elvis biographies,” Ownby “And it’s also just a great biography Food Media South said. “I think the two most distinctive that goes beyond seeing Elvis as a Birmingham, Alabama things about Williamson’s book are, case study or example and instead February 26–March 1 first, that it emphasizes his female fans tells a complicated, fascinating story.” SouthDocs Film Block about as much as it discusses Presley In the foreword, Ownby writes, Oxford Film Festival himself and, second, that it says “The book left me in a bit of a daze, Oxford, Mississippi Presley got stuck as an object of fe- and in truth, although it is a long male desire in his late teens and early book, I wanted it, like a really good March 2 twenties and never really moved out concert, to keep going.” “Monsters of Whiteness: White of that role for the rest of his life.” Williamson is the author of a Zombie and Plantation Horror” Williamson is a renowned historian, number of landmark works on Amy Clukey known for his inimitable and compel- Southern culture, including William Bishop Hall ling narrative style. Rather than focus- Faulkner and Southern History (Oxford University of Mississippi ing on Elvis’s music and the music University Press, 1993) and The March 25–27 industry, Elvis Presley: A Southern Life il- Crucible of Race: Black-White Relations Oxford Conference for the Book luminates the zenith of his career, his in the American South since Emancipation University of Mississippi and period of deepest creativity, which cap- (Oxford University Press, 1984). Oxford, Mississippi tured a legion of fans and kept them Oxford University Press executive April 8 fervently loyal for decades. Williamson editor Susan Ferber will moderate a “Back of the Big House” shows how Elvis himself changed—and conversation on Memphis, music, race, Michael Twitty didn’t. In the latter part of his career, and Elvis on Friday, March 27, dur- University of Mississippi when he performed regular gigs in Las ing the 2015 Oxford Conference for Vegas and toured second-tier cities, he the Book. Panelists will be Ted Ownby April 9 moved beyond the South to a national and music scholars Peter Guralnick and Blues Today Symposium audience that bought his albums and Preston Lauterbach. Williamson’s Elvis University of Mississippi watched his movies. Presley: A Southern Life will be a central June 26–27 “The book helps us understand topic of discussion. SFA Summer Symposium a lot about music and youth and New Orleans, Louisiana sex and celebrity, all with Southern Rebecca Lauck Cleary

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 27 Jan Robertson, Longtime Center Advisory Committee Member, Remembered P h

The Center is saddened by the loss o t of advisory committee member Jan o c

Robertson. She passed away on o o urtesy November 16, 2014. “We enjoyed having Jan on the

Center’s advisory committee,” said f Ro Center director Ted Ownby. “She b Ro loved the planning and talking and getting together of our meetings and berts Center events—she liked to quote o Sam Olden that she liked the ‘jollifi- n cation’ of advisory committee gath- erings. She also brought up questions of how Center events could reach wider audiences and address issues we might not have considered.” A native of Clarksdale, she called Mississippi her home for nearly all of her life. She enrolled at the University of Mississippi in 1961 Jan Robertson where she was managing editor of the Daily Mississippian and covered the James Meredith riots, earning a “From the beginning I discovered the program and the development of Pulitzer Prize nomination. that she was always exuberant, had a major archive on the media and civil “Jan was a great and unique talk- boundless energy, and constantly rights. This is an appropriate legacy er,” Ownby said. “Once I turned worked at full speed.” for a woman who received a Pulitzer on the radio and immediately knew “Our most significant project was nomination as a student journalist and it was Jan, talking with Michael Covering the South: A National spent her life working for justice and Feldman on the Whad’Ya Know show. Symposium on the Media and Civil equal rights in her society.” And over the years she helped lots Rights Movement on April 3–5, A lifelong Democrat, Robertson of students by telling stories about 1989,” Abadie said. “Chaired by served as a local campaign coor- her work as Daily Mississippian editor Jack Nelson, Washington bureau dinator and delegate to the 1976 during the crises over the integration chief of the Los Angeles Times, the Democratic convention for Jimmy of the university in 1962.” symposium brought together more Carter. Over the next forty years, After her graduation in 1963, she than sixty journalists who covered she supported or served on the cam- distinguished herself as state editor the movement, civil rights activ- paigns of dozens of candidates at the of the Delta Democrat Times and as ists, and officials of the US Justice local, state, and national levels and hostess of Romper Room. Department for the first large-scale on the executive committee of the In 1979 the family moved to review of the role newspapers and state Democratic Party. Oxford, where Robertson went to television played in that struggle.” She spent her life giving to oth- work in the Office of Public Relations “C-SPAN broadcast the three-day ers through community service. She at her alma mater. She worked in program live to millions of television served as president of Habitat for UM public relations for more than a viewers nationally, and we conducted Humanity, the Exchange Club, and decade, serving as director of univer- interviews during and between ses- the American Red Cross. She also sity news and editor of the Ole Miss sions, providing more than one hun- led the Boys & Girls Club of the Alumni Review. She later worked as dred oral histories. In addition to serv- L-O-U Community through a period an adjunct professor in the School of ing on the planning committee and of growth, and then served two years Journalism until her retirement. working on publicity, Jan conducted as state president of the Mississippi Ann Abadie, associate director interviews. She worked on the sympo- Area Council of Boys & Girls Clubs emerita of the Center, met Jan when sium night and day for several weeks,” of America. She was an active mem- she worked for public relations and Abadie remembers, “and made a sig- ber of St. Andrew’s United Methodist helped publicize Center events. nificant contribution to the success of Church where she sang in the choir.

Page 28 Winter 2015 The Southern Register Contributors

Sara Camp Arnold is the publications editor for the Jay Watson is a professor of English at the University Southern Foodways Alliance, which includes the edi- of Mississippi and director of the Faulkner & torship of Gravy, the SFA’s quarterly journal. Yoknapatawpha Conference. His publications in- clude Forensic Fictions: The Lawyer Figure in Faulkner, Brett J. Bonner is the editor of Living Blues magazine. Faulkner and Whiteness, and Reading for the Body: The Recalcitrant Materiality of Southern Fiction, 1893–1985. Mark Camarigg is the publications manager for Living Blues magazine. David Wharton is the Center’s director of documen- tary studies and assistant professor of Southern Studies. Rebecca Lauck Cleary is the Center’s senior staff as- sistant and website administrator. She received a BA in Sara Wood is an oral historian with the Southern journalism from the University in 1997 and has written Foodways Alliance. She has a BA in journalism from for the Southern Register since 2005. Columbia College Chicago, an MFA in Creative Writing from UNC-Wilmington, and she studied radio at the Salt Rex Jones is a producer-director for the Southern Institute for Documentary Studies. Documentary Project. Charles Reagan Wilson taught history and Southern Ted Ownby, director of the Center, holds a joint ap- Studies at the University of Mississippi for thirty-three pointment in Southern Studies and history. years. He retired in 2014. Becca Walton is the Center’s associate director for projects.

Now Complete—the landmark 24 volume THE NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SOUTHERN CULTURE charles reagan wilson, general editor Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi

Special offer on the full 24-volume paperback set. Visit www.uncpress.unc.edu for details. UNC Press books are now available through Books @ JSTOR and Project Muse – and North Carolina Also available as BOOKS Scholarship Online (NCSO) on Oxford Scholarship Online.

Sign up for monthly new book the university of north carolina press announcements and special offers at bookstores or 800-848-6224 • www.uncpress.unc.edu • uncpressblog.com at www.uncpress.unc.edu.

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 29 continued from 1 Dunphy H annah

SPECIAL SOCIAL EVENTS Welcome Lunch—Wednesday, March 25, at noon Hosted by the University of Mississippi Library, this lunch in Archives and Special Collections is a wonderful kick-off event. Free, but reservations appreciated. Please return the form on page 31 or sign up at oxfordconferenceforthebook.com/ attend.

Opening Reception Benefiting the OCB—Wednesday, March 25, at 6:30 p.m. Phil Klay Held at the historic Barksdale- A

Isom Place, this much-loved opening n The OCB Children’s Book Festival Sean Brock d reception is a lively fundraiser with rea The 2014 Children’s Book Festival wonderful food, drinks, and conver- B ehren (CBF) will be held at the Ford sation between fellow conference Center for Performing Arts, with attendees and guest writers. A por- more than 1,200 first graders and d tion of the $50 ticket proceeds is tax s fifth graders from the public schools deductible. of Lafayette County and Oxford in Reservations required by March 18. attendance. Sheila Turnage, author Please either return the form on page 31, of Three Times Lucky, will present at purchase tickets through the OCB web- 9:00 a.m. on Monday, March 23, site, or contact OCB director Jimmy and, Adam Rubin, author of Those Thomas at 662-915-3374. Darn Squirrels, will present at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 25. Poetry Workshop—Thursday, Special thanks to the Lafayette March 26, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. County Literacy Council for spon- Poets Geffrey Davis and F. soring the first-grade program and Douglas Brown will lead a poet- to the Junior Auxiliary of Oxford for ry workshop, titled “The Daddy sponsoring the fifth-grade program. Workshop,” in Lamar Hall. As Sincere thanks to Square Books Jr., the engine of the CBF. Maryemma Graham Campus visitors can purchase a fathers, as sons, as poets, Davis and pass for $2/day at the welcome cen- Brown will use Sylvia Plath’s poem ter on University Avenue, adjacent “Daddy” as a springboard to explore to the Grove, upon arrival at the how to negotiate parenting onto the conference each day. Because of new page. campus policies, conference organiz- Free event, advance registration re- ers will not distribute passes during quired, 30 seats available. Register online the conference. We apologize for the at http://www.wejoinin.com/sheets/htsdi. inconvenience. The conference is sponsored by Poetry Talk and Lunch—Friday, the Center for the Study of Southern March 27, at noon Culture, Square Books, Southern Hosted by the Lafayette County Documentary Project, Southern and Oxford Public Library, this Foodways Alliance, Living Blues, lunch includes a talk on craft by poet Lafayette County Literacy Council, Barbara Ras. Department of English, Department Free but reservations needed. Return of History, J. D. Williams Library, the form, sign up at the OCB website, or Overby Center for Southern call 662-234-5751 to reserve your spot. Journalism and Politics, African

Page 30 Winter 2015 The Southern Register P aul S chiral d i

David Simon Caroline Randall Williams

American Studies Program, Sally The conference is partially fund- To see a full schedule and learn McDonnell Barksdale Honors ed by the University of Mississippi, more about the guest authors, College, John and Renée Grisham a contribution from the R&B Feder please visit the conference’s website, Visiting Writers Fund, Junior Foundation for the Beaux Arts, www.oxfordconferenceforthebook. Auxiliary of Oxford, Lafayette grants from the Mississippi Arts com or contact OCB director Jimmy County & Oxford Public Library, Commission and the Mississippi Thomas at 662-915-3374 or by e-mail Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Humanities Council, and promotion- at [email protected]. Alliance, and Southern Literary Trail. al support from Visit Oxford.

THE OXFORD CONFERENCE FOR THE BOOK, MARCH 25–27, 2015 The Conference for the Book is free and open to the public, although four special events require reservations. PLEASE MAIL REGISTRATION FORMS TO THIS ADDRESS: CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF SOUTHERN CULTURE THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI • P.O. BOX 1848 • UNIVERSITY, MS 38677-1848 OR FAX TO 662-915-5814 NAME ______ADDRESS ______CITY ______STATE ______ZIP ______HOME TELEPHONE ______CELL ______E-MAIL ______

Special OCB Events I would like to reserve a spot for: ___ 3/25 UM Library Lunch (free) ___ 3/25 Cocktail Reception ($50) ___ 3/26 Poetry Workshop (free, 30 seats available) ___ 3/27 Oxford Library Lunch (free)

I am making a payment of $______. ___Check, made payable to THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI, is enclosed. ___Charge to ___Visa ___MasterCard Expiration Date ______Account Number ______Signature ______Date ______You may also sign up for the OCB online – oxfordconferenceforthebook.com Payments are refundable if written request for cancellation is postmarked no later than March 9. No refunds will be made after March 9, 2015.

The Southern Register Winter 2015 Page 31

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