Southern Documentary Project Has Busy Spring

SPRING/summer 2016 Southern Documentary Project Has Busy Spring Premieres New Films, Earns Award The Southern Documentary Project wrapped up an exciting academic year with several premieres and accolades. To begin, producer Rex Jones merged his love of nature and storytelling with a film about the longleaf pine ecosystem in Longleaf: The Heart of Pine, which debuted on Mississippi Public Broadcasting on May 2 and showed again on May 8. Towering stands of old-growth longleaf pine once covered over ninety million acres, stretching from southern Virginia to eastern Texas. Today the total acreage is about two million, with only about two thousand of that considered old growth. As the South was settled and northern tim- ber supplies were exhausted, this natural resource very nearly vanished from the South’s landscape and collective consciousness. Longleaf: The Heart of Pine is a cultural and natural history of the South’s ancient primeval forest and explores how it might still be saved. The film is now freely available at www.longleafmovie.com. Andy Harper, director of SouthDocs, said he is pleased that Longleaf premiered on MPB. “This past year has been one where we have been focusing on finishing up stories that have been in production for a while,” he said. “I am happy that Longleaf premiered on Mississippi Public Broadcasting in May, and we are currently seeking Rolling Stones in the mid-1960s, mentored Bonnie Raitt, distribution for La Frontera, another film by Jones.” and served as the cornerstone of the unique and endur- Shake ’em on Down, a documentary film about Fred ing North Mississippi Hill Country–style of blues music. McDowell, premiered at the Shelter in Oxford during the Filmmakers Joe York and Scott Barretta traced McDowell’s Center’s Music of the South Symposium in April and at roots from obscurity to international influence. the Knoxville Stomp in May. McDowell was first recorded by Alan Lomax in 1959, traveled to Europe with the continued on page 9 THE SOUTHERN REGISTER A Publication of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture • The University of Mississippi Director’s Column NEWSLETTER • PUBLISHEDPublished QUARTERLY QuarterlyOXFORD, MISSISSIPPI, by U.S.A • WINTER 2014 The Center for the Study of Southern Culture The University of Mississippi Telephone: 662-915-5993 Fax: 662-915-5814 In the spring the Mississippi legislature and the legislatures of other E-mail: [email protected] southern states passed or considered a number of immediately controversial laws southernstudies.olemiss.edu www.facebook.com/SouthernStudies dealing with sexuality, marriage, public space, and religion. In Mississippi, legis- Twitter and Instagram: @SouthernStudies lators passed House Bill 1523, a law its authors say protects the rights of business IN THIS ISSUE owners and public officials from violating their religious beliefs. It protects them Spring/Summer 2016 from being forced to provide services to people getting married, or renting or sell- ing them property, or offering child care or medical treatment if doing so would 1. Southern Documentary Project Has violate religious convictions about same-sex marriage or gender identity. It also Busy Spring attempts to protect people from laws that might keep them from establishing “sex- 2. Director’s Column specific standards or policies concerning employee or student dress or grooming, 3. Living Blues News or concerning access to restrooms, spas, baths, showers, dressing rooms, locker 4. Gammill Gallery Exhibition rooms, or other intimate facilities or settings.” 5. Students Graduate with Bachelor As soon as the Mississippi law passed, coming on the heels of other legisla- and Master of Arts Degrees, and Awards tion in North Carolina, about everyone I know had an opinion. Was this part 6. Study the South Publishes Essay on of a new Jim Crow that legally allowed ostracism and insult? Did these laws Race and Sport in Memphis represent a new stage or expression or institutionalization of fundamentalist re- 8. Documentary Workshop Offers ligion? Were they another form of patriarchy, using the law to assert that gen- Students a Jump Start der is an essentially unchangeable category? For opponents of the law, what 8. University Honors Pegues were the most useful responses—court action, lobbying, letter writing, voting, 9. Gravy Wins Second James Beard or direct action? Others immediately wondered how anyone could imagine Foundation Award enforcing laws about bathroom and dressing-room choice. And lots of people 10. Discovering the Intersections of wondered how to relate these laws to other laws the same legislatures were Business and Religion passing about budget cuts and state flags and guns in churches (and other top- 12. Jessie Wilkerson Earns Fellowship ics that attracted less attention). Supporters of HB 1523 immediately said the 13. Living Blues Magazine Hires New law did not discriminate against anyone but instead that it was protecting peo- Publication Manager ple against possible laws and court decisions that forced them to violate their 13. Mark Your Calendars! religious beliefs. Supporters asked why their opponents were so quick to talk 14. Southern Studies Student Receives about insult and ostracism and wondered why the laws were so controversial. Prestigious Honors Southern historians quickly started drawing comparisons between laws like 14. Faulkner’s World HB 1523 and laws about racial segregation. Maybe there were parallels in 15. The SFA Take: The Preservation Pickle the ways lawmakers claimed to protect freedom by allowing people to dis- 16. Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha 2016 criminate. Perhaps both sets of laws created uncertainty about who would 17. Two New Volumes in Faulkner and enforce such laws and how that process would work. Clearly, some support- Yoknapatawpha Series Published ers of the new laws, like supporters of old racial segregation laws, said they 18. Southern Studies Alums Finding were protecting certain definitions of family life. Both involved anger at dis- New Ways to Teach tant forces, whether they were federal authorities or cultural movements. Were 21. Reading the South the Mississippi and North Carolina laws a kind of massive resistance against 25. Calls for Papers Supreme Court decisions about same-sex marriage and adoption? There 26. Mississippi Institute of Arts and were immediately parallels when opponents of the laws called not just for le- Letters gal equality but for expressions of pride and defiance and for greater respect, 27. Charles Reagan Wilson Graduate kindness, and inclusiveness. Some opponents, much as they had done under Student Support Fund Surpasses segregation, announced boycotts of states that had laws they considered hate- Goal ful. At universities in Mississippi and North Carolina, faculty wondered how to Register Staff address the laws and their immediate and long-term effects. How should an interdisciplinary regional studies program like Southern Editor: James G. Thomas, Jr. Studies address contemporary issues? Along with finding responsible ways to Graphic Designer: Susan Bauer Lee address issues as they arise in our existing classes, publications, and programs, Lithographer: can we imagine ways that interdisciplinary work might be especially produc- RR Donnelley Magazine Group tive in studying those issues? If we taught a class on these issues, what sort of The University complies with all applicable laws regarding affirmative action and equal opportunity class would make the most sense? in all its activities and programs and does not discriminate against anyone protected by law because What would we need to study laws like Mississippi House Bill 1523? We of age, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex, or status as a veteran or disabled veteran. continued on page 24

Page 2 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register 2016 Living Blues Festival Guide

® ©

Issue #242 Living Blues News Vol. 47, #2 There is something to be said for be- Melanie Young. Regular readers will The King ing “the king” in your own home- recognize Melanie’s name from the of Beale Street town. Memphis bluesman Preston magazine’s pages. She started out Shannon may be best remembered six years ago as my editorial assis- PreSTOn for a string of well-received records tant while working on her MA in back in the 1990s, but his true mark Southern Studies. She also worked ShannOn comes from his decades-long gig on as our circulation manager for two harmonica hinds Beale Street, one of the most vis- years, and after graduation she has ible blues scenes in the world. Two gone on to become a solid voice Sheba Potts-Wright or three nights a week, nearly ev- in our review section, as well as a Clarence Turner ery week unless he is out touring, regular feature story contributor. The Photos of Cary Baker Shannon can be found playing his Welcome aboard, Melanie!

$6.95 US $6.95 CAN music just eight miles from his home. As many of you may have www.livingblues.com Unlike most bluesmen, he sleeps in heard, the Jazz Record Mart, Breaking Out with Jontavious Willis his own bed, wakes up with his family, knows where his next paycheck is coming from, and doesn’t have to struggle to book a road tour. Yeah, it’s good to be king. One of my favorite things about Preston shannon putting together Living Blues is finding new talent and turning the blues world on to them. That is why many The years ago I created the “Breaking by Out” column in the magazine. I want- King of David W ed to give emerging artists some at- Beale Street hiteis tention and help them make that step Listening to Preston Shannon’s most recent CD, Dust My Broom (released in 2014 on the Dutch Continental Blue Heaven label), it might be easy at first to assume that the Memphis-based guitarist is a diehard neo-traditionalist. Over the course of roughly two-thirds of the disc, he takes on standards such as Elmore James’ up and out onto the national and in- Done Somebody Wrong, The Sky Is Crying, It Hurts Me Too and the title tune, among others, adding modernist flavorings like fatback soul horns and post-funk / rock rhythmic dynamics, but remaining mostly rooted in the material’s original style. The obvious point of comparison, evidenced further by Shannon’s gruff baritone vocals and soaring, string-bending leads, ternational stage. This issue’s subject would be the sound Albert King created at Stax during the ’60s and ’70s—deep blues and deep soul, joined at the heart. Shannon’s solos even reference some of King’s best-known phrases, and he has those reverse action note bends down flat. As the disc progresses, though, the thematic scope begins to expand. Shannon delivers a throat-ripping ver- is nineteen-year-old Georgia native sion of Bobby Bland’s The Feeling Is Gone, spiced further with fleet leads that evoke T-Bone, B.B. and their musical descendants; he strips Bland’s Honky Tonk of its original feel of bittersweet celebration (as well as most of its jazzy swing), in favor of juke-rocking exuberance. On The Streets Will Love You to Death, by songwriter Leon Haywood (which Shannon first recorded on his 1996 CDMidnight In Memphis), he shifts into a contemporary groove, equal parts blues feel-

Jontavious Willis—a name that most udio ing, rock energy and pop-influenced melodic and rhythmic structures. The sprightly, burbling The Way I Love You, a Shannon original, is more of a throwback, recalling early to mid-’70s–era pop-soul. Then, for his finale, Shannon changes direction entirely with an emotionally fraught cover of Prince’s Purple Rain, complete with falsetto shrieks, gospel-like spoken asides and an extended, folks probably have not yet heard, molten-metal guitar solo. It’s the same kind of thing he specializes in as a live performer (these latter tracks, according to the credits, were recorded “live” at a club in the Netherlands, although there’s no audience reaction to be heard), and it’s what’s helped him earn the title “King of Beale Street” among the patrons of tourist friendly Memphis venues like B.B. King’s Blues Club, where he has enjoyed extensive and repeated bookings for years. but will. Willis has embraced the WiLson • LiPsTiK sT Lindy deep blues with a passion and skill that is delightful to see. As important as it is to document the older musi- Bob Koester’s extremely impor- to stroll through the front door and cians and their decades-long careers, tant Chicago record store, closed its check out what was going on. Jazz it is just as important to give a voice doors on February 15 after more than Record Mart was one of the plac- to the rising stars and help them be- fifty-four years in business. The Jazz es where the seeds of Living Blues come the blues masters of tomorrow. Record Mart was not just an eclectic took root. Founders Jim O’Neal and Make sure to check out the 2016 record store, it was an institution, and Amy van Singel both worked there. Living Blues Festival Guide (found its influence (and that of Koester) can- Same for Alligator Records, Blind in issue #242), the first blues festi- not be overstated. Not only was it the Pig Records, and Earwig Records, val guide every year, and make your place to buy music (Koester was re- whose owners, Bruce Iglauer, Jerry 2016 blues travel plans. nowned for his huge vinyl collection), Del Guidice, and Michael Frank were Thanks to all our wonderful it was also the place for blues fans far all store employees. Even Charlie Facebook fans who helped us hit and wide to gather and talk and dream Musselwhite and Mike Bloomfield did ninety thousand likes a couple weeks of ways to be a part of the world of stints behind the counter. So thanks, ago! Be sure to follow that page for blues. During its heyday in the 1960s Bob (and everyone else from JRM), more blues news, events, and special and ’70s it was commonplace for for all that you have done and contin- digital-only offers from Living Blues. artists like Sunnyland Slim, Jimmy ue to do to for the blues. I want to welcome our new pub- Dawkins, and Big Joe Williams, who lication manager to the magazine, actually lived in the store’s basement, Brett J. Bonner

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 3 Gammill Gallery Exhibition Displays Center of Southern Communities After hearing a story on National in the Center’s Gammill Gallery. also include the census statistics. His Public Radio about the population Traditionally, the county seat, being April 27 talk in the Center’s Brown loss figures for rural counties (as re- the center for the county court, was Bag Lunch and Lecture Series includ- flected by the 2010 census), Todd also the center of commerce for the ed other examples of this work that Bertolaet decided to photograph the county. In most cases the courthouse were not on display at the Center, courthouse square districts of the became the central point for the com- and Bertolaet discussed the variances county seats of some of the rural ar- munity, and the area surrounding the in the statistics of the communities he eas in the southern United States that physical courthouse building became photographed, along with the visual he had photographed previously. He some of the most important real es- challenges of this project. also wanted to investigate some of tate in these communities. In many Todd Bertolaet is a profes- the census statistics as they related to counties the square or circle sur- sor of photography in the School specific counties, a project he began rounding the courthouse, along with of Journalism and Graphic in 2011. the courthouse, was a place to show- Communication at Florida A&M Of the eighty county seats he pho- case and display a sense of commu- University in Tallahassee, Florida. tographed, twenty-four of the pho- nity pride. Bertolaet set out to docu- The University Press of Florida pub- tographs in the exhibition Squares, ment these areas and create one im- lished a monograph of his work en- Circles, and Lines: County Seats of the age for each that would depict the titled Crescent Rivers, Waterways of Deep South were recently on display courthouse, the area around it, and Florida’s Big Bend.

Page 4 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register Students Graduate with Bachelor and Master of Arts Degrees, and Awards J Each year the Center gives several awards am e s

for papers and documentary projects. The G. T announcement of recipients is made at the h Southern Studies graduation celebration. o mas Here are the winners for 2016. , J

Joel Hayes-Davis won the Gray Prize r . for one of the two best papers by Southern Studies undergraduates: “Local Southern Identity as Defined through Foodways,” a paper for Katie McKee’s SST 402. Anna McCollum won the Coterie Award for one of the two best papers by Southern Studies undergraduates: “What is Today’s South?” a paper for David Wharton’s SST 401 class. Mary High won the Peter Aschoff Award for the best paper in southern music: “Sterling Plumpp’s ‘Mississippi Griot’ and Blues Counter Memory,” a paper for Adam Gussow’s blues and literature class. Lauren Veline won the Ann Abadie Prize for the best documentary project in Southern Members of the graduating Master of Arts class of 2016 Studies: “The Rebirth of Water Valley,” in (l–r): back row, Sarah Holder, Amanda Malloy, Sam David Wharton’s documentary studies class. McAlilly (undergraduate), Chris Colbeck; middle row, The Sue Hart Award for the best project in gender Amanda Berrios, Katie Gill, Brandy Williams, Yaeko studies in the South had two winners in its first year: Takada; front row, Sophie Hay, Brian Hawks, Irene Van Alicia Pilar Bacon won for her undergraduate hon- Riper, Mary Blessey ors thesis, “This Clinic Stays Open: A Comprehensive History of Reproductive Rights in Mississippi, 1966– 2015,” directed by Jessica Wilkerson, and Jessie Sovereignty Commission Files,” a paper in Ted Ownby’s Hotakainen won for “Trans Mississippi,” a film for SST 598 class. Andy Harper’s documentary film class. Sarah Holder’s “Sookie’s Place(s): New Roadways into Josh Green won the Lucille and Motee Daniels award the South of the Southern Vampire Mysteries,” directed by for the best paper by a first-year Southern Studies gradu- Katie McKee, won the Lucille and Motee Daniels Award ate student: “Peace and the Unsealing of the Mississippi for the best master’s thesis in Southern Studies.

Alicia Pilar Bacon Jessie Hotakainen Josh Green Mary High

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 5 Study the South Publishes Essay on Race and Sport in Memphis

On March 31, Study the South pub- assassination in 1968. This myth The Center’s online journal, Study lished a new essay by University has elements of truth, as basketball the South, founded in 2014, exists to of Memphis professor Aram provided common ground across encourage interdisciplinary academ- Goudsouzian. The essay, “‘Back lines of race and class. Yet it hides ic thought and discourse on the cul- to One City’: The 1973 Memphis as much as it reveals. Success in bas- ture of the American South, particu- State Tigers and Myths of Race and ketball smoothed over Memphians’ larly in the fields of history, anthro- Sport,” illuminates how sports can anxieties about the university, the pology, sociology, music, literature, not only foster racial progress, but city, and the future of race relations. documentary studies, gender stud- also obscure racial divisions. Aram Goudsouzian is chair of ies, religion, geography, media stud- In 1973 the Memphis State Tigers the Department of History at the ies, race studies, ethnicity, folklife, reached the finals of the NCAA bas- University of Memphis. He grew and art. The journal publishes a ketball tournament. Though they up in Winchester, Massachusetts. variety of works by institutionally lost to UCLA, they inspired a civic He earned his BA from Colby affiliated and independent schol- myth. With each victory, the city’s College and his PhD from Purdue ars. Like the Center for the Study enthusiasm ballooned, with pae- University. He is the author of Down of Southern Culture, Study the South ans to stars Larry Finch, Ronnie to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black embraces a diversity of media, in- Robinson, and Larry Kenon, as well Power, and the Meredith March Against cluding written essays with accom- as coach Gene Bartow. Politicians Fear, King of the Court: Bill Russell panying audio, video, and photogra- upheld the team as a vehicle of in- and the Basketball Revolution, The phy components; documentary pho- terracial unity, supposedly healing Hurricane of 1938, and Sidney Poitier: tography; and video projects. the scars from Martin Luther King’s Man, Actor, Icon.

Page 6 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register From Study the South: “‘Back to One City’: The 1973 Memphis State Tigers and Myths of Race and Sport”

Introduction Conference and reach the NCAA tournament final. In the history of col-

February 18, 1973, was Senior Night, , lege basketball, Memphis State’s sea- the last home basketball game of the t son is just a footnote, as the Tigers lost en

season for the Memphis State Tigers tm the title game to UCLA, which cap-

and an emotional celebration of Larry par tured its seventh consecutive NCAA e

Finch and Ronnie Robinson, the D championship. But in Memphis, this s team’s two beloved black stars. Before team became a civic mythic legend. on X2

the game, Gov. Winfield Dunn had cti With each victory, the city’s enthusi- his e ll called to wish them well, and Mayor mp asm ballooned, inspiring more pae- e o C

Wyeth Chandler offered a tribute. M ans to Finch, Robinson, coach Gene f

The Tigers jumped ahead of West o Bartow, and budding superstar Larry cial e ity

Texas State, and by the second half p Kenon. Politicians and journalists up- S rs d the lead was insurmountable. Finch e held the team as a vehicle of interra- n iv a was hitting leaning jumpers, and n cial unity, healing the scars of the 1968 U , on

Robinson was soaring high for re- s Sanitation Strike and Martin Luther e bounds. The pep band fostered a ati King’s assassination. rv e s sentimental mood, playing a gentle, brari As with many i e r half-tempo version of the fight song, L myths, this one has P ity “Go, Tigers, Go.” With four min- sy elements of truth. e rs e utes left, coach Gene Bartow subbed rt Basketball did pro- iv out his stars. The band now played n vide common ground Cou U loud and fast, and the Mid-South across lines of race Coliseum shook with sustained, deaf- they celebrated with cake and class, and Finch ening roars. As the game finished, the and ice cream. Around and Robinson did in- band played “Auld Lang Syne.” “It one o’clock that night, spire sincere admi- did some people in,” described one Finch’s mother found him ration. Memphians, sportswriter. “Women cried and there in the kitchen, playing an black and white, were grown men in the stands who imaginary game of hoops paint the moment stood and watched their feet shuf- with a gaggle of preteen with great cultural fle, almost afraid to look up because boys. importance. Yet, as you’re not supposed to get choked up Larry Finch and with many myths, over a game. Or are you?” Ronnie Robinson were it hides as much as Robinson hoisted Finch to snip the not only athletic stars, it reveals. The suc- nets at one basket, and then Finch but also ambassadors of cess of the basketball did the same for Robinson at the oth- racial goodwill. Mayor team smoothed over er end. They signed autographs for Chandler had already Memphians’ anxieties hundreds of children. Overcome with proclaimed that the team about the status of the emotion, Robinson slipped into the “unified the city like it’s never been university, the prestige of their city, locker room. “I don’t know what’s unified before. Black and white, and the future of race relations. The going to happen to me now,” he said. rich and poor, old and young are all language of racial healing inspired by “There might be another war, like caught up in their success. Memphis Finch and Robinson occurred amidst Vietnam, and I might have to go to it, is a better city now, thanks to the political disillusion and a controver- but whatever becomes of me I want Memphis State basketball team.” sial court-ordered busing plan to inte- you to know that I’m never going to After the sentimental Senior Night, grate schools. The story of the Tigers’ forget what has happened to me at one columnist waxed: “If our racial season thus illuminates how sports can Memphis State. Never again could barriers are lower, then credit Finch not only foster racial progress, but also anything be so great.” A tear dripped and Robinson for having a lot to do obscure racial divisions. down his cheek. with it.” ______Later that evening, the team gath- That season, the Tigers’ great- ered at the home of a wealthy white est triumphs were still to come. The Goudsouzian’s complete essay and others booster. It was Finch’s birthday, so team would win the Missouri Valley can be found at vwww.StudytheSouth.org.

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 7 Ke vi

Documentary Sarah Dixon Pegues and n B

Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter at staff ai Workshop recognition awards ceremony n Offers Students a Jump Start Southern Studies students will have a new opportunity to prepare for their upcoming semester during the Center’s Documentary Workshop, scheduled for Monday, August 15, through Wednesday, August 17, 2016. The workshop, led by doc- umentarians from the Southern Documentary Project and the Southern Foodways Alliance, will provide an introduction to technical filmmaking skills and documentary methods. This three-day intensive workshop University Honors offers students a real-time approach to documentary forms and ethics, and an opportunity to gain comfort Pegues for Thirty- with equipment, to strengthen ed- iting and production skills, and to work on interviewing skills and ap- Five Years of Service proaches in the field. The workshop presents the challenge of dealing the Sarah Dixon Pegues, the Center’s administrative assistant, has logged complexities of collecting a strang- thirty-five years of service to the Center and to the University of er’s story and sharing it with an audi- Mississippi. Pegues works tirelessly behind the scenes, maintaining ence. It also presents an opportunity seamlessness to the Center’s day-to-day operations. On May 20 the to document stories in the Center’s university recognized staff members in an awards ceremony recognizing backyard, Lafayette County. their years of service to the school. This workshop highlights the im- “Much of what we do depends on Sarah’s years of experience here,” portant role of documentary field- said Center associate director for publications, James G. Thomas, Jr. work in the changing American “We’ve all come to rely on her for so many things. Her contribution to the South. Along with the Southern Center cannot be overstated.” Documentary Project, the Center An Oxford native, Pegues received a BS from Mississippi State and the Southern Foodways Alliance University. She has been employed at the Center since 1980. She handles have contributed to a rich catalog of all financial matters, and her many responsibilities include monitoring southern documentary films, includ- departmental budgets and processing payroll, e-forms, purchase ing collaborations with Southern requisitions, travel requests, procurement card purchases, cash deposits, Studies students. The larger goal of and other payment requests. She also helps process grant applications, this workshop is for students to leave monitors grant budgets, and assists with interim and final reports for a with a short documentary project variety of externally funded projects. along with the skills needed to cre- “In addition to keeping the Center’s financial affairs in order,” Thomas ate more documentary work during said, “she’s come to be our institutional memory.” their studies within the department Pegues has announced that she will retire from the university at the be- and in the future. ginning of 2017. “While it would be a well-deserved retirement, I’m still The workshop will include a com- hoping she’ll change her mind,” said Thomas. munity documentary project in Oxford and will conclude with a screening on Wednesday, August 17.

Page 8 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register gE continued from 1

Gravy Wins Second “Just this week we were notified that Shake ’em on Down has been selected for the prestigious Southern Circuit James Beard Tour of Independent Filmmakers, which means it will be seen by audiences in seven southern cities later Foundation Award this year,” Harper said. In March, the Mississippi Historical In April, the James Beard Foundation awarded the SFA’s biweekly podcast, Society awarded the SouthDocs Gravy, the award for best podcast in the field of foodways. film50 Years and Forward: The Voting In 2015 the Foundation named Gravy, the SFA’s quarterly print journal and Rights Act in Mississippi an award of podcast, Publication of the Year. Gravy shares stories of the changing American merit. The short film is a joint proj- South through the foods everyone eats. SFA members receive the printed ect of the Mississippi Department of journal four times a year, while the free twenty-five-minute podcast is available Archives and History (MDAH) and on the SFA website or through iTunes. A new episode is released every other Thursday. Both serve up fresh, unexpected, and thought-provoking stories of an American South that is constantly evolving, accommodating new immi- grants, adopting new traditions, and lovingly maintaining old ones. Sara Camp Milam, Gravy’s managing editor, said it is an honor to win a James Beard Award for the second year in a row. “Though our work is grounded in the US South, we explore issues of universal relevance—including class, race, ethnicity, gender, and labor—through the lens of food,” said Milam. “It is extremely gratifying to receive national recognition for Gravy.” The SFA’s quest to dig into lesser-known corners of the region and to give voice to those who grow, cook, and serve daily meals couldn’t be bound by print. So, in 2014, SFA launched Gravy the podcast, produced and hosted by Tina Antolini, Salt Institute graduate and NPR veteran. One recent episode ponders the restaurant chain Cracker Barrel and southern nostalgia. Another focuses on the food world behind the scenes at Indian-owned motels. In her acceptance speech, Antolini said, “It is so gratifying to have these stories, and their subjects and the radio producers I’ve collaborated with, recognized.”

Rebecca Lauck Cleary SouthDocs, utilizing archival material from a number of MDAH collections to tell Mississippi stories through film. SouthDocs also has been hard at work on the Mississippi Stories website, which has been planned for several months. “One of the things I have focused on for years is having Mississippi stories told by Mississippi storytellers,” Harper said. “Rex Jones has been producing short films that showcase stories of those in and around Mississippi and those can be found on the SouthDocs website, southdocs.org. Our plan is to continue seeking out great stories PODCAST and adding them to the website as they are produced along the way.” MississippiStories.org will launch this summer.

Rebecca Lauck Cleary

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 9 Discovering the Intersections of Business and Religion An Interview with Southern Studies/History Professor Darren Grem

Darren Grem joined the faculty of the University of Mississippi in 2012 as assistant professor of Southern Studies and history. His book, The Blessings of Business: How Corporations Shaped Conservative Christianity, recently published by Oxford University Press, details how business leaders, organizations, money, and strategies advanced the religious and political ambitions of conservative evangelicals in the twentieth century. Grem earned his BA from Furman University and MA and PhD from the University of Georgia, and then held postdoctoral fellowships at Yale University and Emory University. Currently, with John Corrigan and Amanda Porterfield, Grem is editingThe Business Turn in American Religious History, a scholarly essay collection that reconsid- ers the role of business in American religious politics and culture. He is also working with Ted Ownby and James G. Thomas, Jr. on an edited collection of essays on southern religious history. The majority of the papers were presented at the 2015 Porter Fortune History Symposium in Darren Grem honor of Charles Reagan Wilson. The Center’s associate director for projects, Becca Walton, interviewed Grem about the inspiration for The revisited this famous article from 1976 in Newsweek about Blessings of Business, his research experience, and future the rise of evangelicals in American public life. The ar- projects. ticle mentioned a number of big businessmen who had shaped evangelicalism all the way back in the nine- Can you talk about the origins of this book? What teenth century and into the twentieth century. It also had led you to write about Christianity and the business a picture of this publication called The Christian Yellow world? Pages, a business directory that listed companies simi- I grew up in a conservative, evangelical household in lar to the ones my dad and I had worked for. I was un- South Carolina, and I’ve long been curious about where aware of most of the businessmen named by the article, all the religious and political lessons I received as a kid as well as the notion of doing “Christian” business as a came from. During and after college, I did marketing kind of countercultural act in the 1970s. Thus, I was cu- work for a company that touted “Christian” principles at rious if there was a story there that hadn’t been told be- work and employed a number of students from Bob Jones fore, a kind of business history of modern American University, a fundamentalist school in South Carolina, so evangelicalism. my background in business and interest in the intersection The book, therefore, tells the story of how corporations of religion and business came in part from that experience. became places for evangelical activity and expression My dad also worked for a company out of Texas that sent and how businessmen, sometimes working individually, Bible verses out with company e-mails, and it was intrigu- sometimes collaboratively, shaped what we think of today ing to me to consider nonchurchly places and spaces as as conservative “Christian” culture and politics. “religious” environments and places where the religious ideas and aspirations of evangelicals found expression. Can you talk a bit about the sources you used? How In grad school, I was hurting for a dissertation topic did you get to know the personalities of people like since my original idea wasn’t panning out. While do- Herbert Taylor and R. G. LeTourneau? ing some research for that dead-end dissertation topic, I Most of the main figures in the book—Herbert Taylor,

Page 10 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register J. Howard Pew, R. G. LeTourneau— Did the attitudes of fundamen- had archive collections available for talist business owners and lead- consultation. Others, such as S. Truett ers cause them to strive to cre- Cathy, Zig Ziglar, and most of the oth- ate religious workplaces? For ex- er second- and third-tier businessmen ample, were assembly-line work- in the book, had few archival materi- ers required to participate in als or had nothing more than snip- various religious practices, such pets available in various archives, so as compulsory times of prayer? I had to use public materials or had That was certainly the case at to consult collections that had stored R. G. LeTourneau’s various plants correspondences or other sources. and other companies, at least before The uneven nature of the materials various state codes and Title VII of available kept this book from being the Civil Rights Act of 1964—and what I initially conceptualized it as, its attendant legal interpretations— namely as a straightforward, event- made compulsion illegal. After that, by-event, chronological business his- compulsion actually gave way to a tory of how conservative evangeli- kind of take-it-or-leave-it “open” of- cals used the corporation to retain fer approach among evangelicals. and expand their social and political In effect, they could not and did not influence in American life. Instead, make any religious activity, such as it became, to draw from an analogy in-office prayer meetings, a condi- from fundamentalist history, a more tion of employment, pay, and so “dispensation”-driven story, one that on. Evangelicals, however, were tells about the various relationships at certain points in very strategic, once more, in navigating this new legal time in modern American history between conservative and pluralistic landscape, attaching their religious pursuits evangelicals, corporations, corporate interests, and busi- to a kind of “religious freedom” approach in the work- nessmen. In that sense, it also became a kind of long-form place. There’s an irony here that I think many evangeli- version of the short-form studies that scholars in business cals today miss. Laws with secularizing intentions set the schools write, which are often case study driven. stage for an ostensibly secular approach to religion (situat- ing religious practice at the seat of individual preference) Were corporate archives open and accessible? that evangelicals, who promote “free” choice regarding Most of the private businesses I detail did not and do one’s religion, use to promote the continuance of their not have public archives. I remember asking Chick-fil-A religion in a given workplace. Arguably, it’s a social for- years ago if I could consult any in-house records or ma- mula that helped early evangelicalism flourish, a deinsti- terials, but they only offered to take me on a tour of their tutionalizing of church from state—or in this case, church corporate campus. Same deal with a few other businesses. from business—that allows evangelicalism to continue un- Publicly traded companies had basic financials and cor- der new, choice-centric terms in the private sphere of the porate information available, but I did not find them ter- small or large business. And it has, so much so that evan- ribly helpful for telling the religious histories or measur- gelicals now claim “religious freedom” (a secular pursuit ing the way such companies made “religion” in their deal- and ideal, in a way) as the means to preserve a kind of ings and activities. Once more, publicly available materi- state sanctioning of their faith, or, more accurately, their als, in some case studies conducted by business scholars, interpretations regarding sexuality, in the private sector. others interviews in various periodicals and newspapers, were helpful in that regard. Where do you go from here? What’s your next book The simple fact of the matter is that companies project? keep materials closed for business and press reasons. My next monograph will detail how the Great Conducting research on companies is easier said than Depression was remembered and used by postwar done, and there were many roadblocks and dead ends Americans in popular culture and political culture. Right and questions left unanswered by the sources at hand. As now, I’m researching Warm Springs, Georgia, where every historian knows, we face limits all the time in re- Franklin Roosevelt often vacationed and died, as a site of constructing the past. In telling the various stories behind memory and religious veneration. the corporate-conservative Christian alliance, the corporate part was often the harder story to tell. My book is therefore a history of how corporations shaped conserva- The interview with Grem can be found in its entirety on the tive Christianity but not the history or even the fullest his- Center’s website, www.southernstudies.olemiss.edu. tory that could be written.

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 11 Jessie Wilkerson Earns Fellowship from American Academy of Arts and Sciences Jessica Wilkerson, assistant professor and oral history. She earned her of history and Southern Studies, trades Jessica Wilkerson MA from Sarah Lawrence College Oxford, Mississippi, for Cambridge, and her PhD from the University of Massachusetts, during the 2016–17 North Carolina at Chapel Hill. academic year as part of the Visiting This past semester Wilkerson com- Scholars Program at the American pleted a successful graduate class on Academy of Arts and Sciences. oral history techniques. The class The Academy’s Visiting Scholars ended with students performing Program provides residential fellow- short pieces from their oral histories. ships for junior faculty members and The Visiting Scholars fellowship will postdoctoral scholars in the humani- allow her to devote all of her energy ties and social sciences. The fellow- on to writing her book-length manuscript, rs ship program offers scholars a year e “Where Movements Meet: From lk for research and writing free from i the War on Poverty to Grassroots teaching and administrative duties, W Feminism in the Appalachian South.” ica

a collaborative work environment, ss The work traces the alliances forged e and the opportunity to interact with J and the grassroots movements led by sy Academy members. e women in the Appalachian South in “The Academy also organizes rt the 1960s and 1970s. weekly seminars when we will meet Cou She received the news just before with the other fellows, as well as edi- the University of Mississippi since spring break and was pleasantly sur- tors, publishers, and senior scholars, fall 2014. Her research interests in- prised. “My motto is to apply for to discuss our work,” said Wilkerson, clude southern and Appalachian his- anything and everything that could who has taught classes on southern tory, US women’s and gender his- support my research and writing, history, women’s history, contempo- tory, labor and working-class history, and that means I am used to getting rary US history, and oral history at twentieth-century social movements, rejection letters,” Wilkerson said. “But every now and then, the stars align. I feel very fortunate to have Contributors the time to pursue my writing goals, and I am grateful for the support of Brett J. Bonner is the editor of Living Williams, William Faulkner, Grace Blues magazine. King, Frances Newman, and other the Academy and the University of Mississippi.” Sarah Cascone is a journalism major. authors. Housed at the headquarters She interned for the Center during the Jenna Mason is the Southern of the Academy in Cambridge, spring semester. Foodways Alliance’s office manager. Massachusetts, visiting scholars par- Rebecca Lauck Cleary is the Center’s She earned her BA and MA in Spanish ticipate in Academy-sponsored con- senior staff assistant and website ad- at the University of Georgia, where she ministrator. She received a BA in also taught as a Spanish instructor. ferences, seminars, and informal journalism from the University of Ted Ownby, director of the Center, gatherings while advancing their Mississippi and is at work on her MA holds a joint appointment in Southern scholarly research. The Academy in Southern Studies. Studies and history. provides office space and computer Ann Fisher-Wirth is profes- Mary Thompson is a board mem- services as well as library privileges sor of English and Director of the ber of the Mississippi Institute of Arts in cooperation with the Mahindra Environmental Studies Minor at the and Letters. She lives in Clarksdale, Humanities Center at Harvard University of Mississippi. Mississippi. University. Nearly sixty academic Aram Goudsouzian is chair of Becca Walton is the Center’s associate institutions from across the country the Department of History at the director for projects. have become University Affiliates University of Memphis. Jay Watson is a professor of English at of the Academy, supporting the Joan Wylie Hall teaches in the the University of Mississippi and direc- Visiting Scholars Program and par- English Department at the University tor of the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha ticipating in Academy studies on of Mississippi. She is the author of Conference. higher education. Shirley Jackson: A Study of the Short Fiction and articles on Tennessee Rebecca Lauck Cleary

Page 12 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register Living Blues Magazine Hires Mark Your New Publication Manager With her new position as pub- Calendars! lications manager of Living June 10 Blues magazine, Melanie Darren Grem Young feels like she has come Signing The Blessings of Business: home. She first began working How Corporations Shaped with the magazine in 2009 as Conservative Christianity the circulation manager. At the Square Books same time she also had an edi- Oxford, Mississippi torial internship with the publication. Since then, she’s been a contributing writer for Living June 12 Blues and even wrote her Music of the South Concert Southern Studies master’s the- Alphonso Sanders sis on the magazine in 2012. The Grove “Growing up in Mississippi, University of Mississippi I was drawn to elements of the blues in popular music without really understanding what the blues was, June 23–25 or where it came from,” Young said. “As a student, the Center and Living Blues SFA Summer Symposium gave me the opportunity to deepen my knowledge of the art form within Nashville, Tennessee its cultural context—something that’s forever changed me and how I see the world.” As publication manager, Young’s duties include managing the day-to-day July 15 tasks necessary to the upkeep of the magazine, which consists of subscrip- SFA Oral History Workshop tion services, publishing, distribution, marketing, and accounting. In addition, Atlanta, Georgia Young also trains and supervises graduate assistants and student workers. In her new position, Young hopes to increase the magazine’s circulation and July 17–21 prominence by attending more events, broadening the magazine’s presence Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha on social media platforms, and making readers more aware of the magazine’s Conference digital edition. University of Mississippi and “Hundreds of blues artists have shared their stories through the pages of Oxford, Mississippi Living Blues over the years, and I’m honored to further my association with a publication that continues to do such important work,” Young said. August 15–17 Before accepting her new position at Living Blues magazine, Young worked Documentary Workshop as a freelance writer for the magazine, as well as a professional assistant for University of Mississippi Diann Blakely, a Georgia-based poet. Young was born in Mobile, Alabama, and her family moved to Lucedale, Mississippi, in 1989 and has lived there ever since. In 2008, Young earned September 7 her bachelor’s degree in English literature at the University of Southern Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Mississippi. Southern History Adam Gussow, associate professor of English and Southern Studies, said University of Mississippi he is thrilled to have Young join the staff of Living Blues magazine. He was a member of Young’s master’s thesis committee and said she completed her thesis on Living Blues in an extremely detailed and precise manner. He is sure she will carry on the standard of excellence that her predecessor Mark Camarigg had established at the magazine, as well as bringing in new and fresh ideas. “She’s proven herself over the past several years to be a skilled and compas- sionate writer, interviewer, and reviewer for the magazine,” Gussow said. “I think that her ability to wear that other hat, as it were, will help solidify Living Blues’ longstanding and deserved reputation as the blues magazine of record, with extended interviews and a reputation-making CD review section.”

Sarah Cascone

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 13 Southern Studies Student Faulkner’s World: The Photographs of Receives Prestigious Honors Martin J. Dain Kathryn James, a junior majoring A Traveling Exhibition in economics, public policy leader- ship, and Southern Studies, was hon- The photographs of Martin Dain pro- ored with the Taylor Medal at the vide a unique journey into the world University of Mississippi’s Spring of William Faulkner. Taken between Honors Convocation on April 7. 1961 and 1963, Dain’s photographs M

Additionally, she was inducted into portray arti the nation’s oldest academic honors Faulkner society, Phi Beta Kappa. at home as n D ai

“I am humbled and honored to well as pro- n receive the Taylor Medal, which is vide a com-

such a significant statement from the n prehensive university on the faith they place in ai look at the my academic future,” said James, n B people and vi from Mandeville, Louisiana. Ke cultural tra- The Taylor Medal is only awarded Kathryn James receiving the Taylor ditions that to a maximum of one percent of the Medal in Paris-Yates Chapel inspired University of Mississippi’s under- him. This graduate student body. It was creat- collection provides an extraordinary ed in 1904, and the recipients exhibit how to ask better questions and be- window through which to view com- exceptional scholarship in a particu- come more refined in defending her munity history and from which to re- lar field, along with excellent work in responses. flect on culture and change in Oxford other subjects as well. “The combination of disciplines and and the surrounding area. As the ex- James plans to pursue a career in the quality of faculty I’ve interacted hibition discusses and interprets the educational policy. She hopes to pro- with in Southern Studies courses has legacy of William Faulkner, it also mote policies that help to create edu- challenged me to think laterally and provides an opportunity to prompt cational justice and opportunity for critically, questioning the assumptions community dialogue. all American citizens. After gradua- and mythologies present in the mod- The exhibition opened at the tion next year, James hopes to teach ern South and studying the creation of University of Mississippi in 1997 and in an underachieving high school those misperceptions,” James said. traveled for two years as part of the in Mississippi through Mississippi Kathryn McKee, McMullan Faulkner Centennial Celebration, Teacher Corps so that she can learn Associate Professor of Southern had an encore tour in 2007 in con- more about educational inequality. Studies and English, has greatly influ- junction with the Mississippi Reads After encountering the educational enced James in her academic career. project administered through the injustices when moving to Mississippi, McKee has a special talent for asking Mississippi Library Commission, James selected her majors carefully. unique questions, connecting texts and is once again available, this time “[I wanted] to learn about the policies that are seemingly unrelated, and for libraries, museums, and cultur- that created this gross inequity, how challenging the innate assumptions of al centers in Mississippi and sur- to analyze and evaluate these policies her students, James said. rounding states. Faulkner’s World: The and the current climate for change to McKee says she can’t think of Photographs of Martin J. Dain was cu- reform these policies,” she said. any other student who better epito- rated and produced by the Center Southern Studies has helped her in mizes what the award represents. for the Study of Southern Culture. not only learning the history of the “Kathryn demonstrates exactly what The exhibition has thirty-six 16" x region, but also the evolution of the we hope to see in interdisciplinary 20" black-and-white photographs public southern mind that creates, majors: She synthesizes information, and four text panels, presented in continues, and protects the current she makes connections, and she un- 24" x 30" frames. imbalanced educational policies. derstands the complexity that arises Persons interested in scheduling Southern Studies’ interdisciplin- from insisting that there are multiple the traveling exhibition of Dain ary approach to education is James’s ways of asking and answering ques- photographs should contact favorite aspect of the program. She tions,” McKee said. Margaret Gaffney by e-mail says that getting to know a vari- ([email protected]) or telephone ety of students has helped her learn Sarah Cascone (662-915-5993).

Page 14 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register The SFA Take: The Preservation Pickle The careful upkeep of a majes- tic Victorian home. The tedious res- toration of a priceless painting. The promise of summer vegetables from a Mason jar in the pantry. In many cases, the practice of preservation reflects prudence in the present and veneration for the past. It is important work. In a cultural sense, though, the politics of preservation often play out as a resistance to change or a prioritization of one culture over others. Cultural preservation easily slips into a per- petuation of the status quo or an era- sure of historical nuance. While many folks inside and outside the Southern Foodways Alliance believe our organization preserves the culinary heritage of the South, this inaccurately B

characterizes our work. ra point out, for example, how Hoppin’

SFA documents Each fall, SFA gathers hundreds of writers, n John ties back to the labor of African dall the South as it chang- thinkers, and eaters at our annual symposium to slaves brought to South Carolina for consider the South’s history and future in a spirit es, as it struggles, as A their expertise in rice production—can of respect and reconciliation. tki it triumphs, and as it come off as an insult at best, an accusa- n s fails. We preserve sto- on tion at worst. We understand the dis- ries—as many and as comfort these conversations can gener- varied as we can—to ate. But we embrace that discomfort, show that the South not out of disdain for the South but out is not and never has of love for it, with all its complexity, been a monolith. contradictions, and charms. Our oral histories, SFA prizes progress over preserva- films, podcasts, pub- tion. That progress may take many lications, scholarship, forms: a more just labor system, food and events serve as snapshots of our the lay of the land, we can more ef- sovereignty at all income levels, a re- region’s varied landscape, and we fectively determine the best ways to versal of the “brain drain” in many hope they prove effective catalysts to- cultivate it. When we recognize that southern states, social equality that ward a more progressive and inclu- tortillas are as much a southern sta- doesn’t depend on race, class, gen- sive South. ple as cornbread and collard greens, der, sexuality, religion, or any other As we use food to understand the we come one step closer to setting factor of difference. South’s past and present, our aim is a table where all southerners have a To accomplish any of this, though, not to preserve a nostalgic or ideal- place and a voice. the South must continually come to istic version of the South. Nor is it That we sometimes take a critical terms with who we are, who we never to defend “traditional” or “authen- view of the South has rubbed more were, and who we want to be. The sto- tic” foodways over more recent or than one person the wrong way. The ries behind our food help us get there. more complicated ones. Changes in way we eat says a lot about who we foodways, conflicts between old and are: where we grew up, how much Jenna Mason new, dynamics of authenticity and money we have, what religious beliefs appropriation—these food-centered we hold, and much more. With each “The SFA Take” is a weekly distillation tensions reflect and illuminate the meal, we telegraph this deeply person- of SFA perspectives on issues related to broader challenges facing our region. al information to those around us. foodways in the South. Read more at As we increasingly understand So to complicate someone’s plate—to southernfoodways.org.

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 15 Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha 2016 “Faulkner and the Native South” July 17–21, 2016 Scholars, teachers, students, and cultural preservation among the other Faulkner enthusiasts will FAULKNER Chickasaw people. Prewitt is execu- gather in Oxford for the “Faulkner AND ThE NATIvE SOUTh tive officer of the Chickasaw Nation and the Native South” conference, and director of the Chickasaw July 17–21, 2016, at the University Inkana Foundation, which is current- of Mississippi. The roster of key- ly planning the Chickasaw Heritage note speakers has expanded to in- Center in Tupelo. “The Mississippi clude Jodi A. Byrd, associate profes- Choctaw Today: Language, Culture, sor of English and gender studies at and Contemporary Life” will fea- the University of Illinois–Urbana- ture Amanda Bell, tribal archivist Champaign, where she is also a fac- at MBCI’s Chahta Immi Cultural ulty affiliate at the National Center Center; John Hendrix, director of for Supercomputing Applications. economic development for MBCI, A citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, and Fred Willis, project manag- The University of Mississippi Byrd is the author of Transit Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference er for the MBCI Office of Public Oxford, Mississippi, July 17–21, 2016 The University of Mississippi announces the Forty-Third Annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference. The Information and news anchor for of Empire: Indigenous Critiques 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. For more information: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, Office of Outreach and Continuing Education, of Colonialism (2011) and arti- Post Office Box 879, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677-0879. Telephone: 662-915-7283. Choctaw 5 television. Fax: 662-915-5138. Internet: www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner

Bronze busts of William Faulkner and Chickasaw chief Piomingo by William Beckwith; Photos by Robert Jordan / University Communications

cles appearing in American Indian F&Y16Poster.indd 1 1/25/16 11:47 AM Finally, the Center’s Gammill Quarterly, Cultural Studies Review, Gallery will host an exhibit of Interventions, J19, College Literatures, Faulknerian Space,” and “Tricksters Native artifacts from Mississippi dur- Settler Colonial Studies, and American and ‘Fathers’: Native Figures in ing the conference week. Maureen Quarterly. She will speak to the con- Faulkner and US Literature.” S. Meyers of the Department of ference audience on “Souths as Moreover, on Wednesday, July 20, Sociology and Anthropology will Prologues: Indigeneity, Race, and the Special Collections Department give a Brown Bag Lecture presen- the Temporalities of Land.” of the J. D. Williams Library will tation at Barnard Observatory on January’s call for papers has yield- present a lunchtime talk by Robert Monday, July 18, that will contex- ed an additional nine panel speak- W. Hamblin, professor emeritus of tualize and interpret these materials ers, seven of whom are presenting English and founding director of for conferencegoers. Meyers, whose at Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha the Center for Faulkner Studies at research focuses on Native American for the first time. This year’s panel- Southeast Missouri State University. chiefdoms of the late prehistoric ists include Melanie R. Anderson Professor Hamblin will explore Southeastern United States, is a co- (Glenville State College, West Faulkner’s influence on fellow editor of Archaeological Perspectives Virginia), Leslie Walker Bickford Mississippi writer Evans Harrington, of the Southern Appalachians: A (Winthrop University), Lin Bin a longtime member of the University Multiscalar Perspective (2015). (Xiamen University, China), Gina of Mississippi English Department For registration and other confer- Caison (Georgia State University), as well as the founding director of ence information, visit the Faulkner Phillip Gordon (University of Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha. and Yoknapatawpha website at http:// Wisconsin, Platteville), Angela M. Since any worthwhile conversation www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/ Jones (University of Wisconsin, about the Native South must include faulkner/ or contact Jay Watson, di- Platteville), John Wharton Lowe the perspective of Native people rector, at [email protected]. (University of Georgia), Anne who have lived here all along, this Discount rates for the conference are MacMaster (Millsaps College), summer’s conference also includes available for groups of five or more and Kirsten L. Squint (High Point representatives of the Chickasaw students. Inexpensive dormitory hous- University). They will appear on pan- Nation and the Mississippi Band ing is available for interested regis- els exploring “Yakni Patafa: Faulkner, of Choctaw Indians (MBCI). “A trants. Contact Justin Murphree at jc- Land, and Indigenous Critical Chickasaw Homecoming” will bring [email protected] for details. Perspectives,” “Native Soil North: Brad Prewitt to the conference to Louise Erdrich’s Reconfigurations of discuss economic development and Jay Watson

Page 16 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register Two New Volumes in Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Series Published The University Press of with writings by Paul Laurence Mississippi has recently Dunbar, W. E. B. Du Bois, James published two new Weldon Johnson, Jean Toomer, volumes in the Faulkner Nella Larsen, Claude McKay, Ralph and Yoknapatawpha Series. Ellison, James Baldwin, Ernest J. The books document the Gaines, Marie Vieux-Chauvet, proceedings of the annual Toni Morrison, Edwidge Danticat, Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Randall Kenan, Edward P. Jones, Conference. The first,Fifty and Natasha Trethewey, along with Years after Faulkner (F&YC the musical artistry of Mississippi 2012), edited by Jay Watson bluesman Charley Patton. and Ann J. Abadie, reassess In addition, five contemporary Faulkner’s life and career a half African American poets offer their century after his death, and the own creative responses to Faulkner’s subsequent volume, Faulkner and writings, characters, verbal art, and the Black Literatures of the Americas historical example. In these ways, (F&YC 2013), edited by Jay the volume develops a compara- Watson and James G. Thomas, Jr., tive approach to the examines the dynamic interplay Faulkner between the work of the Nobel oeuvre laureate and black writers. that goes The essays in Fifty Years after beyond the Faulkner examine issues across the compelling wide arc of Faulkner’s extraordi- but limit- nary career, from his aesthetic ap- be made complete ing ques- prenticeship in the visual arts, to late- when it is revisited tion of influ- career engagements with the Cold and made vital by ence—who War, the civil rights movement, and African Americans,” read whom, beyond, to the place of death in his a goal that “will be whose works artistic vision and the long, varied achieved by a radi- draw from afterlives he and his writings have cally ‘other’ read- whose—to ex- enjoyed in literature and popular ing.” In the spirit of plore the con- culture. Glissant’s predic- fluences be- While Faulkner studies has culti- tion, Faulkner and tween Faulkner vated an image of the novelist as a the Black Literatures and black neglected genius who toiled in ob- of the Americas writing in the scurity, a look back fifty years to the places William hemisphere. final months of the author’s life re- Faulkner’s liter- Jay Watson is veals a widely traveled and cele- ary oeuvre in Howry Professor brated artist whose significance was dialogue with a of Faulkner framed in national and international hemispheric canon of black writ- Studies and as well as regional terms. Fifty Years ing from the United States and the Professor of English at the University after Faulkner bears out that expan- Caribbean. The volume’s seven- of Mississippi. Ann J. Abadie is the sive view, reintroducing us to a writ- teen essays and poetry selections Center’s associate director emerita. er whose work retains its ability to chart lines of engagement, dialogue, James G. Thomas, Jr. is the Center’s provoke, intrigue, and surprise a va- and reciprocal resonance between associate director for publications. riety of readerships. Faulkner and his black precursors, Watson and Thomas are currently At the turn of the millennium, contemporaries, and successors in at work on the next two volumes in the Martinican novelist Édouard the Americas. the series, Faulkner and History and Glissant offered the bold predic- Contributors place Faulkner’s Faulkner and Print Culture. tion that “Faulkner’s oeuvre will work in illuminating conversation

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 17 Southern Studies Alums Finding New Ways to Teach

Our Southern Studies students often graduate from the MA and BA programs to go on to teach in a variety of fields, disciplines, and capacities. Some continue their education in pursuit of a PhD so that they may teach at the university level. Some go on to teach in programs like the Teacher Corps or Teach for America. And some find new ways to do the good work of educating. Here is a look at a few alums providing education for their students in innovative ways that go beyond the classroom:

Cale Nicholson was raised on a farm in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in north-central Arkansas Cale Nicholson and grew up eating home-cooked meals from the 3gardens and beef his family raised. After receiving his Southern Studies MA in 2009, anywhere from ten to twenty ser- I’ve seen the local food, school gar- Nicholson returned to the garden. He vice members all over the state of dening, and the Farm to School moved to a farm in the Hudson Valley Arkansas who manage school- and movement explode across the coun- in Upstate New York where he raised community-garden programs similar try. So long as parents, teachers, and livestock for the nonprofit Glynwood to the program I ran at Marshall,” children continue to understand the Center. But after two years, he was he said. “Helping kids to understand importance of—and to seek out—local, ready to head back south. that fruits and vegetables are grown sustainably raised, real foods, then I “I asked myself where I wanted and livestock is raised as opposed to don’t see this amazingly positive revo- to be and where I wanted to live, just magically appearing in stores is lution slowing down any time soon.” and my answer was that I want- an extremely important life lesson to Nicholson said he is thankful the ed to be gardening with kids in the teach. Processed, prepackaged foods Southern Studies program allowed Ozark Mountains where I grew up,” are often sugar-based, have lower him the freedom to link academia Nicholson said. A few weeks after nutritional value than fresh fruits and and gardening. “I always tell peo- that internal dialogue he found out vegetables, and lead to childhood ple the Southern Studies program is about school gardening positions obesity and other health risks.” special because it allows students the with the Delta Garden Study (DGS), While in Oxford, Nicholson helped freedom to explore a wide range of a USDA-funded childhood obesity with the Boys and Girls Club of interests, and that by perusing this prevention research program operat- North Mississippi, which was his first degree your future will only be limit- ed through the Arkansas Children’s experience gardening in an educa- ed by the bounds of your creativity,” Hospital Research Institute. So in tional setting. “Those two seasons I Nicholson said. June 2011 he moved to Marshall, spent interacting in the garden with Arkansas, to become their school the local Oxford children opened garden educator. The AmeriCorps my eyes to the positive change this program Arkansas GardenCorps type of direct impact can have on The Montessori concept attracted (ARGC) was created to sustain the individuals and a community,” Nelson Griffin while he was a DGS gardens after the study ended. he said. “During my two years in Southern Studies graduate student. “In my role as assistant program Oxford, plus the two in New York, He attended church at St. Peter’s director for ARGC, I help facilitate and now the five back in Arkansas, Episcopal, and 3a family with a

Page 18 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register on

t School. His classroom research tools I learned in Southern al consists of three- to six- Studies in a very different way.” W year-olds in a mixed- In addition to his work as a pri- cca aged grouping. mary guide, he is the president of Be “I love teaching, or the Montessori Alliance of Tennessee ‘guiding’ as we call it, (MAT), which hosts annual confer- this age because there ences to bring Montessorians across is so much that is oc- Tennessee and the South together for curring for the child workshops and speakers. at these ages,” Griffin said. Griffin uses his Southern Studies de- Tucker Hood experienced the gree the most when Global South when he moved to Nelson Griffin at telling cultural stories, Chile in July 2014 to teach in the Maria Montessori when he plays and tells English Opens Doors program. School, Memphis stories about Muddy Funded and supported3 by the Waters or Mose Chilean Ministry of Education and three-year-old daughter befriended Allison, for example. “We discuss ge- the United Nations Development him. The daughter attended Twelve ography a lot, and I might talk about Program, it aids Chile’s continued de- Oaks Montessori School (now growing cotton or show pictures velopment in the globalizing world. Magnolia Montessori, with different of the Mississippi River and all the “Given that Chilean students rarely owners and teachers), and in 2007, a states it flows through,” he said. “The have the opportunity to work with position opened up for an assistant. ability to look at a certain region native English speakers, it was a Since the school day was from 8 a.m. from so many angles, as I did at Ole rewarding experience to be able to to 2 p.m., it meant Griffin could teach Miss, also permits me to do so with develop their English-speaking skills and attend graduate classes in the other regions in the world. I use the and encourage them to continue afternoon. learning after I was gone,” Hood said. “I did not want to apply, but the “In addition, I helped the English family insisted and actually scheduled public-speaking and spelling-bee me an interview without my know- teams compete in competitions, so ing,” Griffin said. “I went to the inter- I got the chance to work with some view and got the job, not sure that I highly motivated English students, really wanted it. We started the school which is great after a difficult day. year around the beginning of August Since January he has been the but by October, I remember driving Spanish teacher at Pelahatchie to the school one morning and being (Mississippi) High School. After fin- so excited for my job. This was an ex- ishing his undergraduate degree in perience I had never had.” Southern Studies, he taught eighth Griffin worked there until May grade for two years in his hometown 2009, when he and Miranda Cully of Brandon, Mississippi. Griffin (alumna in Southern Studies His BA in Southern Studies influ- 2008) moved to Atlanta. “I worked ences his teaching by helping him at a school in Atlanta for three years frame lesson plans so that students helping a traditional school transi- can challenge their ways of thinking tion towards the Montessori meth- about southern culture. Hood teach- od while Miranda was in seminary,” es students to think critically, so as to Griffin said. In May 2013 he graduat- eventually engage in meaningful deed from the International Montessori bate with others who have different Training Institute of Atlanta and then opinions.

went on to earn a masters of educa- d “Through this process we could tion degree from Loyola University surmise that southern culture is in- Hoo r

Maryland with an emphasis on e deed a complicated subject open to

Montessori education. ck debate but is worth having if it means

Griffin and Miranda later moved Tu we can better understand each other sy to Memphis, where he is now a pri- e and ourselves,” Hood said. “Also, as mary guide at the Maria Montessori rt Tucker Hood (left) a result of the interdisciplinary nature Cou

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 19 of Southern Studies, the sociology is the way of the Center, Amy Evans courses I took under Kirk Johnson it’s important to me to helped me to see southern culture connect history—and art from a societal perspective, which ac- and literature and mu- tually helped me better understand sic—to our lives today. I individual students and where they cannot begin to convey were coming from when they stepped what a joy it is to have into the classroom.” the opportunity to do Hood’s favorite part of his job is this with young people learning about—and seeing for him- through art.” self—what activities and hobbies stu- Evans is a teaching dents do outside of the classroom. artist with Literacy “Whether it’s seeing a kid play his through Photography or her sport or simply listening to (LTP) a nonprofit a song they recorded, it’s satisfying that places artists in to know I teach incredibly interest- classrooms around the ing, curious, and complex individu- Houston Independent als who will go on to do amazing School District. In the things in life,” he said. “Even before fall, she was assigned to I finished my undergraduate degree teach a class of fourth in Southern Studies I knew I would graders at Kashmere teach for a few years. It is a great Gardens Elementary. way to immediately give back to the “I always try to meet community, as well as give myself students where they time to see where I wanted to go ca- are, so for this group of reer-wise. It’s been such an enrich- predominantly African ing experience that has instilled in American students, I me empathy, compassion, and an in- showed them images by credible amount of patience. I must black photographers and of famous they want to be when they grow up,” say my only regret is not writing African Americans—a portrait of Evans said. “Sometimes I’m not even down all of the ridiculous stories my Michael Jackson by Annie Leibovitz, sure that they realize they’re learning. students tell me that could only hap- for example,” Evans said. “I hap- There are no hard and fast rules, just pen in the South.” pen to be a fan of Carl van Vechten’s exposure to new people, ideas, and portraits of artists taken during the techniques, and they get to have fun height of the Harlem Renaissance with whatever information that I com- and saw his work as a way to not municate to them.” Amy Evans came to the Southern only expose the students to an art- In addition to short writing ex- Studies program in the early 2000s ist and his work, but to an important ercises, the students learned to use as an artist with some teaching expe- time in America’s cultural history.” point-and-shoot cameras, taking pic- rience. For her graduate work, she The students listened to songs by tures of themselves and each other, created her own3 internship, conduct- Ella Fitzgerald and read poems by and creating collages using photo- ing community-based art projects in Langston Hughes. The final proj- graphs and decorative papers. the Mississippi Delta and volunteer ect was an exhibition of student “I think it’s wonderful that history teaching at Hunter Middle School in work for all of the LTP classes from has come alive for these students— Drew, Mississippi. She later became around the district. Houston’s Art that they are exposed to the artists of the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Access Initiative recognized the stu- the Harlem Renaissance and imag- oral historian, a job that allowed dents, and they were invited to pres- ine themselves as artists and writers her to document people’s stories ent Houston’s Harlem Renaissance and performers,” Evans said. “That throughout the region. But the class- at the annual State of the Schools then leads to my being proud and room always beckoned, so when she conference Houston. The response hopeful that I’ve helped to ignite returned to Houston in 2014, she im- from educators, politicians, and in- the creative spirit within these kids. mediately fell back into the art com- fluential people from around the city They see me as a teaching artist and munity there and found her way was overwhelmingly positive. have an example of someone lead- back to teaching. “It was an easy jump for me to want ing a creative life—and getting paid “Coming full circle, I realize how to recreate Carl van Vechten’s Harlem for it!” much my time at the Center influ- studio in Houston and make portraits ences how I teach,” Evans said. “As of the students as they envision who Rebecca Lauck Cleary

Page 20 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register Reading the South Book Reviews and Notes by Faculty, Staff, Students, and Friends of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture

Remembering: Joan Williams’ final short fictions, which appeared in magazines between Uncollected Pieces 1989 and 1995. With their frankness about challenges facing grandparents and retirees (from exhaustion and hip- Edited by Lisa C. Hickman. New York: Open replacement surgery to haunting memories and a loss of Road Integrated Media LLC, 2015. 100 pages. libido), these late stories should attract new readers to Joan Williams. $9.99 paper. The storytelling technique is similar in The title piece in Remembering is Joan all three fictions: “Scoot,” “The Contest,” Williams’s tribute to the twenty-nine- and “Happy Anniversary.” Each narrative year-old poet Frank Stanford, who com- is dominated by the consciousness of mitted suicide in Fayetteville, Arkansas, a different protagonist—a middle-aged in 1978. But Williams’s reference in the African American woman, a seventy-five- essay to “lives gone atilt” applies equal- year-old white woman, and an elderly ly well to many other lives described in white male. Reminiscent of Flannery this new gathering of three short works O’Connor, Williams frequently merges of nonfiction and three long stories. the thoughts of her central character Typical of her other fiction, these sto- with a third-person narrative voice. For ries are set in North Mississippi, with example, in the book’s opening story, references to Memphis and the Delta. Scoot worries about her incarcerated son Although Williams (1928–2004) pub- A. Z., who is close to thirty: “She had no lished five novels and a short story col- idea what Hootchie-boy would do when he lection between 1961 and 1988, the eventually came out. She was tired of other Memphis native was best known for folks’ mess, tired of chillens, and tired now a relationship with William Faulkner of their chillens too, she could think.” that set her own life atilt when she was Like Mary Virginia Abbott in “The a college student. In William Faulkner Contest” and Tate McCall in “Happy and Joan Williams: The Romance of Two Anniversary,” Scoot has one of those Writers (2006), Lisa Hickman drew on hundreds of “lives gone atilt” that Williams describes in the essay their letters to explore a five-year affair and a long-last- “Remembering.” In fact, the very act of remembering friendship. In the Remembering piece “Celebration”— ing contributes to a serious change in direction for each written for a Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society meeting— protagonist. Their review of marriage and parenthood Williams recalls both Faulkner’s “despair” and his ac- prompts all three characters to make an escape. Married knowledgment of his “amazing gift.” “Seymour Lawrence at twelve and a mother of seven, Scoot decides to leave Publisher,” a one-page essay, admires Lawrence’s edi- her duplex, which is crowded with boomerang adult chil- torial insight at a meeting with Faulkner and Williams; dren. Not only will she fill a U-Haul and move to a new and the “Remembering” elegy alludes once to Faulkner. government apartment complex, she will quit her wea- Otherwise, as Hickman emphasizes at the start of the vol- rying job as a motel housekeeper: “Quick Chicken was ume, “Remembering is not about William Faulkner and always hiring, and she’d like a change. . . . All she knew Joan Williams.” was if your chillens didn’t leave you, you had to quit Instead, the editor presents one hundred pages of them. And it was time.” Williams’s skillful prose as “a celebration and recogni- Mary Virginia Abbott and Tate McCall are a few decades tion of a remarkable writer who dedicated more than older than Scoot, and their escapes are much more unset- fifty years of her life to a craft she considered ‘a life’s pro- tling. While Scoot is estranged from her husband, Lish, the cess that entailed a lonesomeness of spirit.’” The origi- Abbotts and the McCalls have remained together for at least nal publication information for all six pieces was noted fifty years. A long accretion of resentments culminates in a in Hickman’s Internet entry on Joan Williams for the crisis for both couples. Ironically, festive community gath- Mississippi Writers Page several years ago. Remembering pro- erings spur the protagonists’ emotional breakdowns. At the vides the texts themselves, along with Hickman’s intro- county fair in “Contest,” Mary Virginia is first humiliated duction on the “mid-to-late-life concerns” in Williams’s by the boyfriend of her youth, who fails to recognize her.

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 21 Even worse, her husband unexpectedly takes to the dance Mississippi. Lynched floor with another woman and wins the competition. Thus by Roy Bryant and shamed in front of lifelong friends, Mary Virginia recalls a J. W. Milam for alleg- traumatic childhood shaming that also occurred at the fair. edly wolf whistling at Rushing home, she huddles in a closet and is finally re- Roy’s wife, Carolyn, moved by medical professionals. in the Bryants’ Mary Virginia’s counterpart in “Happy Anniversary” store in Money, is a reluctant honoree at his own golden wedding recep- Mississippi, he was tion, which he anticipates with “dread and worry.” On the tortured and shot, day of the celebration, he broods about his infirmities, his and his body, weight- lack of children, his father’s early death, and the more reed down by a cotton cent deaths of his six siblings. Tate McCall smiles only when gin fan, was dumped his best friend, Preacher Allan, arrives at the party; but the in the Tallahatchie black man doesn’t stay long: “It was only recently the col- River. Found after ors started inviting each other to events.” Flinching from the three days, identifi- cake-cutting ceremony, Tate later causes chaos by popping able only by a ring he balloons and then commandeering the county fire truck. wore, his body was Scattering mints marked “50,” he drives into the lake and shipped back north, belatedly faces his folly: “Now people would watch him from whence photographic images of his mutilated face in like a hawk. They would expect behavior that was wilder, its open casket spread worldwide. As Kolin imagines the stranger, crazier; he was certainly nutty as a fruitcake.” dead boy saying in “The Jet Photo,” The longevity of the marriages in “Contest” and “Happy Anniversary” underscores the shift from an era of Black men with sinewy arms and legs, little stores and country churches to the age of Wal-Mart accustomed to toting history’s burdens, and Tunica casinos. The McCalls and the Tates married went to jelly seeing me in Jet under the pressure of the men’s military service in World War II, and all four spouses are haunted by lost opportu- . . . nities for romance and satisfying careers. Mary Virginia, a crossword puzzle fanatic, wishes she had been a writ- My photo bestowed the citizenship of grief er; Tate’s mother refused to let him accept an offer from on anyone worldwide who could cry. a baseball scout. In the title essay for Remembering, Joan Williams recalls that, at thirty-five, she was “still feeling Emmett Till would be seventy-five by now. Instead, his my way as a writer: inwardly attuned and outwardly cop- death—and the callousness of his killers, the travesty of ing with being a wife, housekeeper, and mother of two their acquittal with an all-white jury, and their subsequent sons.” Williams’s stories sympathize with the frustrations bragging confession, safe from double jeopardy, to Look of outwardly coping; the constraints of domesticity weigh magazine—became a catalyst for the next phase of the civ- heavily on Scoot, Mary Virginia, and Tate. Fortunately, il rights movement. Joan Williams was inwardly attuned, as William Kolin approaches the tragedy of Emmett Till from a Leaptrott’s cover photo testifies. Alone in her study, the variety of angles—different iterations or “states.” “Come author faces her typewriter with the intense concentration Visit Mississippi, 1955–1964,” a bitter satire on the dis- that resulted in the works of Remembering. crepancy between Mississippi’s tourist advertisements and Mississippi’s racial realities, juxtaposes “pines, blos- Joan Wylie Hall soming magnolias, live oaks” with “black corpses sway- ing like semaphores”; “long drives over historic trails” with “torn limbs, flesh bequeathed by fugitive slaves”; and “dreams of gallant knights and their ladies fair” with “cries Emmett Till in Different States and chains on a slaver sailing from the Congo.” “Tiresias By Philip Kolin. Chicago: Third World Press, of Tallahatchie County,” in what Kolin imagines as Emmett’s voice, praises eighteen-year-old sharecropper 2015. 100 pages. $18.95 paper. Willie Reed for testifying at the murder trial that he heard and saw Emmett being tortured—that, as Emmett says, Philip Kolin’s heartfelt collection of poems Emmett Till in Different States calls our attention once again to a story at You told the gunshot truth the heart of Mississippi’s history, one that is as pertinent about what you saw through that wooden now as ever. As most readers of the Southern Register will execution chamber know, Emmett Till was a fourteen-year-old boy who came where I hung from barn hooks, baited with my down from Chicago in August 1955 to visit relatives in flesh, screaming

Page 22 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI . . .

Your voice broke the black silence of Myself and the World A Biography of William intimidation. Faulkner Your ears opened the world to hear my agony. By Robert W. Hamblin A concise, readable biography of “Mamie’s Heirlooms,” a touching poem for Emmett’s the Nobel laureate who defined mother, describes how she “strokes the dark hoping / to southern literature find pearls and pears / but touches only the bounty of sor- $20 row,” and “Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin,” in Emmett’s voice, laments how history repeats itself, how Things like the Truth our photos walled the world Out of My Later Years By Ellen Gilchrist with violence in peace-loving A vibrant, passionate America, land of the free and home of engagement with the transcendent joys of family shooting brave black boys. . . . and aging $29.95 Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. As all the deaths of the past few years have shown, our country is still infect- ed with racist violence. My favorite poem in Emmett Till Faulkner and the Black in Different States, “Uncle Moses’s Dream,” imagines how Literatures of the one boy’s dreadful story might have been different. Moses Americas Wright, Emmett’s great-uncle, from whose house Emmett Edited By Jay Watson and was seized, speaks. Here, in snatches, is his prayer: James G. Thomas, Jr The dynamic interplay between What if that brave Emmett the work of the Nobel laureate had somehow managed to escape and black writers $65 . . . Faulkner and Film Say he heard their pickup truck. Edited By Peter Lurie Say he jumped out the window and Ann J. Abadie A collection exploring the . . . extensive connections between the Nobel laureate’s work and Say he made it to that line cinema $30 paperback of loblolly pines and hid in the colored cemetery

. . . So the Heffners Left McComb Say he made for the river By Hodding Carter II seeking safety in the bulrushes, Introduction to New Edition the final resting place of so many slaves by Trent Brown who ran for freedom The shocking tale of a white McComb family ostracized and . . . devastated after breaking bread with civil rights workers $30 paperback Then say, just say, how he almost found the train tracks which might have ALSO AVAILABLE AS EBOOKS led him out of the Delta, out of Egypt, I called my son. www.upress.state.ms.us 800-737-7788 Ann Fisher-Wirth

SouthernRegisterSpring2016.indd 1 5/23/16 9:28 AM The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 23 continued from 2 who ask questions about regional dif- on the history of the Religious Right, ferences between laws and practices followed by a week studying theories would need people with lots of skills, inside the South and outside the re- about sexuality and gender construc- interests, and multiple disciplinary gion. We would need scholars and tion, followed by some training in perspectives. We would need schol- students to use their interests (and legal research, followed by discus- ars who study politics, policy, and very likely their anger and frustra- sions about how to interview leg- the making, interpreting, and enforc- tion) to learn new things. islators? Would we be building on ing of laws; scholars who study gen- Thus, if anyone is keeping up, we what we learn week after week, with der and its meanings, religious life, would need people with specialties in different scholarly perspectives and organization, ritual, and belief; schol- law, politics, public policy, business, different aspects of a topic expand- ars who study businesses inside and history, sociology and anthropology, ing our thinking throughout the se- outside the state; and scholars who gender studies and queer studies, lit- mester? Third, such a class would study public spaces. We would need erature and theory, the arts, docu- need to make early decisions about scholars who study the stories people mentary studies, and regional studies. its proposed results. Would students, tell about progress or decline, un- And some other fields as well. as in so many classes, take exams certainty and fear, and insiders and Such a possible class raises some and write papers as individuals? Or outsiders. We would need scholars interesting issues about teaching. would they work together to pro- who study sexuality. We would need Asking students to think serious- duce, for example, a scholarly pub- scholars alert to language and how ly about the perspectives of people lication or website or documentary people use it and scholars who study they find baffling and disgusting can project? What sort of final product the intersections of gender, sexuality, be an exciting part of learning, and it would be most thoughtful and most and creativity. We would need schol- should be an intriguing but far from productive? ars with documentary skills to record unique challenge. Second, the faculty If this seems interesting to some the stories of people involved and and students would need to confront faculty members and students, we’ll interested, and historians who can a question crucial to interdisciplinary do it—spring semester 2017. analyze the context of all of these work. Would we always be starting things. And we would need scholars over, for example, reading a book Ted Ownby

Page 24 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register CallS for Papers Study the South A Center for the Study of Southern Culture Publication

Study the South, a peer-reviewed, multimedia, open- studies, race studies, ethnicity, folklife, and art to sub- access journal published by the Center for the Study mit article abstracts or complete manuscripts. Final of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, manuscripts and projects must attempt to build upon announces a general call for papers. and expand the understanding of the American South Study the South exists to encourage interdisciplinary in order to be considered for publication. academic thought and discourse on the culture of the For questions or additional information, or to submit American South. Editors welcome submissions by fac- an original paper for consideration, please e-mail James ulty members, advanced graduate students, and pro- G. Thomas, Jr. at [email protected]. Submissions fessional scholars doing work in the fields of history, must be previously unpublished. anthropology, sociology, music, literature, documen- Study the South is available via the Center’s website at tary studies, gender studies, religion, geography, media www.studythesouth.org.

Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference 2017 “Faulkner and Money” • July 23–27, 2017 To gain a fuller understanding of William Faulkner’s liter- • material economics, or the economy of things; ary career and fictional oeuvre, a reader could do worse • money and the modern state; than to follow the proverbial money. Faulkner delight- • the politics of economic development; ed in the intricate maneuverings of financial transactions, • general, restricted, gift, or symbolic economies in from poker wagers, horse trades, and auctions to the seis- Faulkner; mic convolutions of the New York Cotton Exchange. • poverty in Yoknapatawpha and other Faulkner Moreover, whether boiling the pot with magazine stories, locales; scraping by on advances from his publishers, flush with • Faulkner in the economic context of slavery, agrarian cash from Hollywood screenwriting labors, or basking in capitalism, consumerism, Wall Street, Prohibition, the financial security in the wake of the Nobel Prize, Faulkner Great Depression, the New Deal, Breton Woods, glo- was at every moment of his personal and professional life balization, neoliberalism, etc. thoroughly inscribed within the economic forces and cir- The program committee especially encourages full pan- cumstances of his era. The forty-fourth annual Faulkner el proposals for seventy-five-minute conference sessions. and Yoknapatawpha Conference will explore the relation- Such proposals should include a one-page overview of the ship between Faulkner and “money,” construed broadly session topic or theme, followed by two-page abstracts for to encompass the economic dimensions of the author’s life each of the panel papers to be included. We also welcome and work. Topics could include but are by no means lim- individually submitted two-page abstracts for fifteen- to ited to: twenty-minute panel papers. Panel papers consist of ap- proximately 2,500 words and will be considered by the • the economics of authorship and the literary conference program committee for possible expansion marketplace; and inclusion in the conference volume published by the • the role of value, specie, currency, credit, debt, bar- University Press of Mississippi. ter, wages, contracts, property, the commodity, capi- Session proposals and panel paper abstracts must be tal, finance, investment, gambling, production, con- submitted by January 31, 2017, preferably through e-mail sumption, circulation, distribution, and other forms of attachment. All manuscripts, proposals, abstracts, and economic activity or exchange in Faulkner’s writings; inquiries should be addressed to Jay Watson, Department • the philosophy, psychology, or anthropology of mon- of English, University of Mississippi, PO Box 1848, ey in Faulkner’s world; University, MS 38677-1848. E-mail: [email protected]. • applications of economic theory to Faulkner’s texts Decisions for all submissions will be made by March 15, (from classical political economy to the recent work of 2017. Additional conference information can be found at Thomas Piketty, David Graeber, Niall Ferguson, and www.outreach .olemiss.edu/events/Faulkner. others);

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 25 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Announces 37th Annual Awards Winners

The Mississippi Institute of Chosen for the Visual Arts Arts and Letters (MIAL) has Award is Martha Ferris, a announced its award win- Mississippian who grew up ners for works first published, Mississippi on her family farm out from performed, or shown in the Institute of Vicksburg and who studied year 2015. The award recipi- Arts & Letters at Lake Forest College near ents, chosen by out-of-state Chicago. She wins the award judges prominent in their re- for her exhibit Foreign and spective fields, will be hon- Familiar Places: Paintings by Fiction ored at the MIAL annual Taylor Kitchings Martha Ferris, a 2015 exhibit awards banquet to be held this Yard War at Fischer Galleries. She is a year in the Grand Hall of the William Baggett Ron Dale mixed-media artist committed Noel Polk Lifetime Achievement Award Mississippi Museum of Art in to continuous experimentation. Jackson, Mississippi, on June Maude Schuyler Clay is the

11, 2016. Readings and sign- JOHN JENNINGS Photography Award winner for ings by award winners will take REIFF SARAH K. Mississippi History, a collection of Nonfiction place at Lemuria Bookstore Joseph Reiff color portraits of Mississippians. Born of Conviction 37th Annual Awards in Jackson on the afternoon of Celebrating Our 2016 Winners A native of Sumner, Mississippi, June 11. Photography Clay studied at the University Saturday, June 11 Maude Schuyler Clay Mississippi History The Noel Polk Lifetime Mississippi Museum of Art of Mississippi and the Memphis Achievement Award this year Jackson, Mississippi Academy of Arts. She has is shared by William Baggett previously won the MIAL and Ron Dale. William Photography Award. Visual Arts Baggett, professor emeritus of Martha Ferris The winner of the Music art and design at the University Foreign and Familiar Places Composition (Classical) Award of Southern Mississippi, has Music Composition is Samuel Jones for his Concerto (Classical) had an illustrious career as a Music Composition Samuel Jones for Violin and Orchestra. A native (Contemporary) Concerto for Violin painter, muralist, and color li- Mac McAnally and Orchestra of Inverness, Mississippi, and AKA Nobody thographer. He maintains stu- Poetry a graduate of Millsaps, Jones R. Flowers Rivera Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters P.O. Box 2346 • Jackson, MS 39225 Heathen dios in Mississippi and Maine. 662-523-0899 • www.ms-arts-letters.org has an MA and a PhD from Ron Dale is a leading figure in the Eastman School of Music. contemporary American ce- He is a past president of the ramics art. One of Dale’s most im- Closed Society. He is department Conductors’ Guild and the found- portant works, Is This My Graceland?, chair and Floyd Bunyan Shelton ing dean of the Shepherd School of pays homage to the Mississippi Professor of Religion at Emory and Music at Rice University. potter George Ohr. He owns and Henry College in Emory, Virginia. Mac McAnally is the winner of the runs Irondale Studio in Oxford, His book tells the history and the af- Music Composition (Popular) Award Mississippi. termath of the “Born of Conviction” for AKA Nobody. This Mississippi mu- Taylor Kitchings is this year’s win- statement signed by twenty-eight sician has won the CMA Musician of ner of the MIAL Fiction Award white Methodist pastors and pub- the Year award for an unprecedent- for his novel Yard War. A musi- lished in the Mississippi Methodist ed eight years in a row and is in the cian and songwriter as well as an Advocate on January 2, 1963. Nashville Songwriters’ Hall of Fame author, Kitchings teaches English R. Flowers Rivera, a Mississippi and the Mississippi Musicians Hall and creative writing at St. Andrew’s native, is the winner of the Poetry of Fame. Episcopal School in Jackson. Yard Award for her collection Heathen. For more information about at- War, a young adult novel, is his first Rivera holds a BS from the tending the awards banquet on June book and is set in Jackson in 1964. University of Georgia, an MS from 11, 2016, visit the MIAL website at Winner of the Nonfiction Award is Georgia State University, an MA www.ms-arts-letters.org. Joseph T. Reiff for Born of Conviction: from Hollins University, and a PhD White Methodists and Mississippi’s from Binghamton-SUNY. Mary Thompson

Page 26 Spring/Summer 2016 The Southern Register Charles Reagan Wilson Graduate Student Support Fund Surpasses Goal The Center says thank you so much to all of the gener- 186 donors. We were especially pleased by all of the ous donors who supported the Charles Reagan Wilson generous contributions from Southern Studies alumni, Graduate Student Support Fund through Ignite Ole Miss. most of whom studied with Wilson before his retire- Ignite Ole Miss is an online crowd-funding platform, and ment in May 2014. the Wilson Fund campaign ran for thirty days, from early If you would still like to give and honor Dr. Wilson, April to early May. The fund will provide research support visit umfoundation.com/CRWfund. The more we raise, for students studying the South in the Southern Studies the more students we can support! MA program and in the MA and PhD programs of the Arch Dalrymple III Department of History. The fund hon- Charles Reagan Wilson Fund Donors ors Charles Reagan Wilson, who retired after teaching thir- In addition to those listed below, we received fourteen ty-three years at the University of Mississippi. anonymous gifts. Several of the contributors also gave We reached 100 percent of our $25,000 goal two multiple times, which we’ve indicated after his or her days before the deadline. The campaign ended on May name. This list also includes donors who gave to the Fund 11, and we far exceeded our goal, raising $28,346 from when we established it in May 2014. Ann Abadie (2) James Foley Rosie and Steve McDavid Shelley Ritter Helen Abraham Amelia Gamble Margaret McGehee Jan Robertson John Agricola Cynthia Gerlach Elizabeth McGehee Justin Rogers Lance Alexis Jean and Kees Gispen Layne McGuire Marc Rosen Paul Anderson Susan Glisson (2) Thomas McHaney Aimee Schmidt Marie Antoon Miranda and Nelson Griffin Patrick McIntyre (2) Elaine Scott Buddy and Terry Arrington Adam Gussow Kennard and Jennifer McKay Ronzo Shapiro Linda Arrington Joe Hairston Neal McMillin Arlene Sindelar Nancy Ashley Amelia Hare-Thomas Michael McRee Carolyn Smith Peter Askew (3) Andy Harper Ellen Meacham Cathy (Lowery) Smith Teresa Atkins Cristen Hemmins Thomas Melton Susan Smith Walter Attaway Katherine Henninger Randall Miller Mitchell Snay Scott Barretta Caroline Herring Joyce Miller Rose and Hubert Spears Jack Bass Elbert Hillard Judith Mitchener Lisa Speer (2) Sue Beckham Tucker Hood Stephen Monroe Meghan Stauts Eunice Milton Benton Matt Hopper Blount Montgomery Patricia Stevens Watt Bishop Tom and Dorothy Howorth Robin Morris Lisa Stone Gage Black Anthony James Hollidae Morrison William Sturkey Katherine Blount Rob Jolly Katie and Cody Morrison Eric Sundquist Jen Lawrence Bordelon Norman Jones Amanda Myers Tonya Thames Taylor Lauren Brandon Jamie Joyner Evan Nooe Hubert Temple Amelia Brock Gloria and Jerry Kellum Christopher Noone (2) James G. Thomas, Jr. Virginia Brooks Chuck and Helen Kenwright Debra Northart Joseph Thompson Amanda Brown Kate Kenwright Joe Osgoode and Sarah Torian Mark and Rebecca Camarigg Tamara King Ron Nurnberg Minoa Uffelman (2) Ellie Campbell John Kiss Samuel Olden Rachael Walker Daphne Chamberlain Frank Kossen Abby Olivier Becca Walton Courtney Chartier Colby H. Kullman Ted Ownby (3) Gerald Walton William Childs Mary Beth Lasseter Teresa Parker Joseph Ward (2) Charles Clark Mel Lasseter Elizabeth Payne Albert Way Rebecca Lauck Cleary Sylvia Lenhoff Jon Peede Brenda West (2) Chris Colbeck Hill Lenderman Anne Percy Deborah West Angela Cooley Andrew Leventhal Greg Perkins David Wharton Megan Davis (2) Tom Levis Dannal Perry (2) Mary Margaret White Nikki Neely Davis Ernie Limbo Otis and Julie Pickett Bland Whitley Meredith Devendorf Allen Lind Bridget Smith Pieschel Sarah Whitley Leigh Anne Duck Molly Loden Nancy Prince Brian Wilson April Dye Sally and Dalton Lyon Lee Randall Peter Wood John T Edge (2) Xaris Martinez Thomas Rankin (2) Mariamne Young W Ralph Eubanks Ferriday McClatchy Renna Redd Amy C. Evans Jillian McClure Dale and John Reed

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2016 Page 27

Visit www.southernstudies.olemiss.edu/Giving www.southernstudies.olemiss.edu/Giving Visit line. n o ft gi a ke a M

The University of Mississippi Foundation/CSSC • 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655 MS Oxford, Ave., University 406 • Foundation/CSSC Mississippi of University The

Please mail this form to: form this mail Please

______E-mail ______Phone

______Zip ______State ______City

______ddress A

______print) (please Name

ate______Signature______ate______D ______umber N ccount A Exp. Exp.

it Card: Card: it d e Cr mericanExpress A MasterCard Visa o o o

Please charge my credit card. credit my charge Please check. my is Enclosed o o

I/We would like to contribute $______to the Friends of the Center. Center. the of Friends the to $______contribute to like would I/We

a number of Center endeavors. Visit southernstudies.olemiss.edu to learn more. learn to southernstudies.olemiss.edu Visit endeavors. Center of number a

he Center’s Friends program provides essential general operating support for for support operating general essential provides program Friends Center’s he T

South. South. hank you for remembering us as you plan your charitable giving! charitable your plan you as us remembering for you hank T

to investigating, documenting, interpreting, and teaching about the American American the about teaching and interpreting, documenting, investigating, to

h at the first interdisciplinary research center dedicated dedicated center research interdisciplinary first the at h outreac and publications,

ifts to the Center for the Study of Southern Culture benefit teaching, teaching, benefit Culture Southern of Study the for Center the to ifts G

Friends of the Center the of Friends

e-mail: [email protected] • www.southernstudies.olemiss.edu • [email protected] e-mail:

Fax: 662-915-5814 Fax:

______E-mail

elete me from your list your from me elete D list your to e-mail my dd A o o

______Zip ______State

eceived more than one than more eceived R wrong ddress A o o

______City

Name misspelled Name changed person Contact o o

______ddress A

your mailing label, or fax it to 662-915-5814. to it fax or label, mailing your

______Name costs. Complete this form and return it with with it return and form this Complete costs.

Please help us reduce waste and postage postage and waste reduce us help Please Please give us your correct information: correct your us give Please

INCLUDE MAILING LABEL WHEN MAKING ADDRESS CHANGES. ADDRESS MAKING WHEN LABEL MAILING INCLUDE

P ri o 76 No. ermit

Senatobia, MS Senatobia,

PAID

.S Postage S. U.

University, MS 38677 MS University,

Non-Profit Org Non-Profit

PRSRT STD PRSRT Center for the Study of Southern Culture Southern of Study the for Center The University of Mississippi of University The

Please help us reduce waste and postage costs. Please give us your correct information: Complete this form and return it with your mailing label, Name or fax it to 662-915-5814. Address J Contact person changed J Name misspelled City J Address wrong J Received more than one State Zip J Add my e-mail to your list J Delete me from your list E-mail Fax: 662-915-5814 e-mail: [email protected] • www.olemiss.edu/depts/south Friends of the Center Your annual donation through our Friends program helps the Center develop and expand our excellent programming. Thank you for your yearly gift to the Friends of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture!

I/We would like to contribute $______to the Friends of the Center right now. Enclosed is my tax-deductible contribution. Annual Memberships: Credit Card: J Patron: $1,000 J Sustaining: $500 J Sponsor: $250 K Visa K MasterCard K American Express J Associate: $100 J Regular: $50 J Student: $25 Account Number Please fill out the information below when returning this card: Exp. Date Signature

Name (please print)

Address

City State Zip

Day phone E-mail

MAKE GIFTS TO THE CENTER ONLINE. Go to www.umf.olemiss.edu, click on “Make a Gift,” and direct funds to the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. P.O. Box 1848 • University, MS 38677 • 662-915-5993 • Fax: 662-915-5814 www.olemiss.edu/depts/south Appeal Code: 01709