The Twenty-Third Oxford Conference for the Book, March 2–4, 2016

• WINTER 2016 The Twenty-Third Oxford Conference for the Book, March 2–4, 2016

On March 2–4, the Center will welcome poets, novelists, journalists, scholars, and readers from far and wide to Oxford and the University of Mississippi campus during The Twenty-Third the Oxford Conference for the Book. The three-day event, Oxford Conference for the Book which is free and open to the public, includes readings, panel discussions, and lectures by Pulitzer Prize–winning writers, first-time novelists, and distinguished academics. Again this year, Friday’s panels and readings will take place in the main courtroom of the historic Lafayette County courthouse on the Oxford Square. Wednesday’s and Thursday’s events will take place in the auditorium of the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics on the UM campus, and the conference will begin with a lecture and free luncheon, sponsored by the Friends of the Library, in the Faulkner Room in Archives and Special Collections in the J. D. Williams Library, also on the UM campus. Conference panels will explore a wide range of topics, including Mississippi history; childhood in the South; mem- oir writing; youth, activism, and life in the Mountain South; The University of Mississippi • Oxford, Mississippi poetic responses to Langston Hughes; a cultural and culi- March 2–4, 2016 nary history of the pig; Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird www.oxfordconferenceforthebook.com and Go Set a Watchman; the Hurricane Katrina crisis; and America’s continuing debate over science and religion. Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Square Books, Southern Documentary Project, Southern Foodways Alliance, Living Blues, University Museum, Lafayette County Literacy Council, Department of English, J. D. Williams Library, Friends of the J. D. Williams Library, Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics, Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors So far, this year’s writers include novelists Rick Bass, College, John and Renée Grisham Visiting Writers Fund, Junior Auxiliary of Oxford, Lafayette County & Oxford Public Library, Bobby Ann Mason, Margaret McMullan, Robert Gipe, Southern Literary Trail, and the Pulitzer Centennial Campfires Initiative. The conference is partially funded by the University of Mississippi, a contribution from the R&B Feder Foundation for the Kiese Laymon, and Taylor Brown; Mississippi historians Beaux Arts, a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council, and promotional support from Visit Oxford. Minion K. C. Morrison and Dennis Mitchell; historian and gender studies scholar LaKisha Michelle Simmons; poets Richard Katrovas, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Caki Wilkinson, Jericho Brown, Katie Peterson, Beth Ann Thursday, March 3, and the day’s authors will be there to Fennelly, Chiyuma Elliott, and Derrick Harriell; histori- meet conference attendees and sign books. Each afternoon an Mark Essig; literary scholar Vereen Bell; and Pulitzer following the sessions Square Books will host book signings Prizewinners journalist Sheri Fink and historian Edward J. for that day’s authors. The Wednesday and Friday signings Larson. The lineup of authors and events will be complet- will be at Off Square Books. ed this February. There are four special social events on campus and in Thacker Mountain Radio will host a special Oxford town this year. On Wednesday, March 2, the Friends of Conference for the Book show at Off Square Books on the J. D. Williams Library will host an opening lunch in the Oxford Square that will include conference authors and visiting musicians. The show begins at 6:00 p.m. on Oxford Conference for the Book, continued on page 8 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 Memory and race, memory and the South, memory and slav- E-mail: [email protected] ery, memory and monuments—questions of memory are all around us, and southernstudies.olemiss.edu www.facebook.com/SouthernStudies some of the most pressing issues are on university campuses. In November I Twitter and Instagram: @SouthernStudies was in the audience at a session of the annual meeting of the Southern Historical IN THIS ISSUE Association that discussed how people remember people and events from the Winter 2016 Reconstruction period. I suggested that maybe we should write and produce a historical documentary series along the lines of Treme or maybe Downton Abbey. 1 The Twenty-Third Oxford Such a series might encourage a greater sense of the issues, possibilities, and Conference for the Book fears through the lives of individual people. That’s not a bad idea. I don’t think 2 Director’s Column Americans have a sense of what Reconstruction looked like, or how the big 3 Living Blues News 4 Brown Bag Lunch and Lecture Series questions debated in national and state legislatures were part of everyday life for 6 Southern Studies Grad Student Wins people as they worked, moved around, formed or re-formed families, and dealt Three Minute Thesis Competition with churches and schools, and maybe a long series would help. 7 Celebrate Charles Reagan Wilson’s The more I think about what might challenge people to recognize the poten- Teaching Legacy and Support Students tial Reconstruction might have held, the more I think it would be useful to imag- 7 Spring Music of the South Symposium ine, in very specific ways, what might have happened if Reconstruction had tak- to Explore Traditional Music en a different direction. For example, in the early 1870s, Mississippi leaders con- 10 Mississippi Arts Commission Launches New Digital Publication sidered the possibility of reopening the University of Mississippi with no rules Mississippi Folklife about race. So, for a few hundred words, let’s imagine that had happened. 10 New Display at Rowan Oak features Imagine if the Mississippi Plan had been a term for how to make the state’s Nobel Prize Speech public university serve, listen to, and teach all people in the state, including 11 Center to Host Symposium on its African American majority. Imagine if Lieutenant Governor Alexander Clothing and Fashion in Southern History Davis, instead of being chased out of the state (destination unknown), took the 12 Study the South Publishes New Essays train from Jackson to Oxford because the university had invited him to teach a on the Elvis’s Vanishing Legacy and course in American politics. Imagine if the first two African American senators the Long Southern Past in the United States, Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce, became lifelong visi- 14 Presenting Southern Culture tors to and supporters of the university, and imagine that the university hon- 17 In the Classroom: Reading List for ored them with centers in their names. SST 555: Foodways and Southern Culture Imagine if the university successfully recruited a superior student from 18 Rediscovering the Past Holly Springs in the 1870s, and a young Ida B. Wells developed her talent for 19 Southern Foodways Alliance challenging people in authority and publicizing abuses not in Memphis and Explores the Corn-Fed South in 2016 Chicago but at the university in her home state. 20 “Faulkner and the Native South” Imagine if in the early 1900s the university decided to become the nation’s Conference to Add Native Content leading center for studying the American South. And imagine if it found a to Guided Tours 20 Eudora Welty Awards way to hire W. E. B. Du Bois, the region’s best sociologist, away from Atlanta 21 Mississippi Arts Commission University, where he had helped to pioneer methods teaching students to Honors Scott Barretta with address problems through coursework and public events. Imagine if at the Excellence in the Arts Award University of Mississippi he became the first director of the Center for the 22 SFA Hosts Second Food Media Study of Southern Culture in, say, 1906, shortly after the publication of The South in Birmingham Souls of Black Folk. 22 In Memoriam Imagine if the university recruited young African American writers like 23 Reading the South Richard Wright and Margaret Walker as graduate students, or faculty, or writ- 27 Books of Note ers in residence. Imagine if the university had a conference on race in the REGISTER STAFF works of William Faulkner in the 1930s, when Faulkner was down the street writing about race. If you’re a football fan, imagine Marian Motley, a Georgia- Editor: James G. Thomas, Jr. born halfback bigger than the linemen, coming to the university and running Graphic Designer: Susan Bauer Lee over defenders in the 1940s. If you’re a music fan, imagine university students, Lithographer: faculty, librarians, and magazine publishers collecting information on the RR Donnelley Magazine Group blues as the genre was developing in the early 1900s. The University complies with all applicable laws regarding affirmative action and equal opportunity Imagine that every new school was open to African American students in all its activities and programs and does not dis- criminate against anyone protected by law because of age, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex, or status as a veteran or disabled veteran. continued on page 27

Page 2 Winter 2016 The Southern Register Living Blues News I have always been fascinated with microcosms of the blues—local cultures where the musicians inter- THE UNDERGROUND BLUES SCENE OF SOUTH LOS ANGELES act over and over, swapping licks and songs until the influence is evi- dent in everything they do. These can be found in rural locations like Bentonia, Mississippi, with its dis- Jam Session at Bell’s Blues Workshop. tinctive sound and songs passed from Henry Stuckey to Skip James to Jack Owens and now to Duck Holmes, or by Allen Larman Photographs by Julia LaRiva (unless noted otherwise)

the Como/Senatobia, 45rpms courtesy of Allen Glass RIVA JULIA LA

Living Blues co-founder Jim O’Neal has always acknowledged Los Angeles’ rich blues history. What he fi nds most impressive from Club in Watts, California, the groundbreaking blues lover like myself. Percy Mayfi eld, Jimmy the postwar blues era into recent years is rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, drummer, Witherspoon, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, learn more about not only these great artists, Lost Blues Files: Bobby “Guitar” Bennett the staggering number of independent blues bandleader and disc jockey had an ear for talent Pee Wee Crayton, Jesse Belvin, Lowell Fulson, George “Harmonica” Smith, Big Joe Turner, but also the culture to which they belonged. singles (and some LP’s) recorded by local among some of these newcomers were musi- and gave a number of artists their start in the Jimmy Witherspoon, Smokey Hogg and Lowell Fulson, and Pee Wee Crayton were Sterling Harrison, Buddy Pierson, Tutty artists, relatively unknown musicians, but cians. The burgeoning South Central night- business. Otis discovered and helped nurture Pepermint Harris, to hundreds of one-offs that among the blues legends who where still alive Gadson, Joe Campbell, The Duke of Earl, Blues ® © often excellent. O’Neal noted, “It would take club scene fulfi lled the entertainment needs of several local acts like Little Esther Phillips, Etta were never heard from again. They would try and gigging regularly. Smokey Wilson ran and Boy Jamie Powell, Chu Chu Stringfellow, Fereckia some calculation, but I imagine the number of these recent arrivals. James, Delmar “Mighty Mouth” Evans and almost any style from anyone chasing a hit. performed at the Pioneer Club during this pe- White, Larry Johnson (different from the East such releases rivals or exceeds that of Chicago The fi rst major West Coast blues star Barbara Morrison. In addition his radio shows Major labels such as Specialty, Imperial, riod, and he was a major infl uence on many Coast musician) are some of the numerous per- at certain points along the way.” was T-Bone Walker, who migrated from Texas and live performances spread their sounds far Aladdin, Capitol and the various labels con- of the artists written about in these articles. formers on the south Los Angeles blues scene The blues was not indigenous to the in the mid-1930s and started recording for and wide. trolled by the Bahari Brothers (RPM/Modern/ It was at a Bobby “Blue” Bland concert who have died in recent years. Sadly, many of area, but, for the most part, migrated here Capitol in Los Angeles in 1942. His exquisite In Los Angeles men like Bob Geddins, Flair/Kent/Crown) recorded the top acts like at the now defunct Dooto Music Center in the audience members have passed on too. during World War II. California’s Wartime guitar playing and mellow vocals set the pace Dootsie Williams, Jack Lauderdale and John T-Bone Walker, Floyd Dixon, Charles Brown, Compton, California, in the early ’80s that There also used to be a lot more clubs—the cur- Industries provided many employment oppor- for the sound of California blues. Perhaps no Dolphin launched small local labels like Big Wynonie Harris, Amos Milburn, Roy Milton, I fi rst became aware of underground blues rent Southside scene is small by comparison, but tunities for African Americans, and there was other single fi gure played a more important role Town, Dootone, Recorded in Hollywood, B.B. King and scores of others. The blues scene in south Los Angeles. I was fascinated on a good night it is still exciting and vibrant a large infl ux of people from south central in the immediate postwar Los Angeles blues Down Beat, Swing Time, Doré, Blue, Irma, scene was vibrant, active and large. by some of the incredible opening acts at the and, best of all, great fun. states, such as Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and scene than Johnny Otis. Starting in 1947, when Cash and many, many more. They recorded Growing up in Los Angeles in the concert, and it became my mission from that Please keep in mind the schedules of the Issue #240 Oklahoma looking to fi ll these jobs. Included he and Bardu Ali opened up the Barrelhouse a wide variety of artists from hit makers like 1970s was an amazing time for a young day forward to peel back the pavement and clubs are constantly changing. Vol. 46, #6 The

Features.indd 14 11/23/15 8:58 AM Features.indd 15 11/23/15 8:58 AM Under own, without support or interest corn, muleskinnin’ blues.’ So they from the rest of the blues world. told me, ‘You better play ’em then!’” groUnd Local resident Allen Larman And so he did. Smokey Wilson soon BlUes scene and photographer Julie LaRiva bought the old Pioneer Club at the have spent years exploring the corner of West 88th Street and South of soUTh current scene and present it to Vermont Avenue in Inglewood, and The los Angeles us in this special issue. for the next twenty-one years Smokey PeTerson Unfortunately, while work- held court and played his cornshuck- BroThers QUinTon ing on this issue, we lost one in’ blues. Artists by the dozens, both clAUnch of the godfathers of the south big and small, would drop by and sit life of a record Man, Pt. 2 Los Angeles blues scene. in, but it was always Smokey’s show. Smokey Wilson was the real Nearly all of the older musicians in deal. He was as Mississippi this issue have fond memories of play- $6.95 US $6.95 CAN www.livingblues.com country as it gets, and he took ing with him. Smokey Wilson and the eviews inside! that lifestyle with him when Pioneer Club kept the blues alive in over 55 r he moved to Los Angeles South Central Los Angeles in the lean in 1971. Born in 1936 in years, and the scene there today owes Mississippi, area Glen Allan (Washington County), him a deep debt of gratitude. where the Hemphill, Burnside, Smokey came of age in the heart of I interviewed Smokey Wilson in Kimbrough, and Turner fami- the Mississippi Delta, a hotbed of 1996 for the cover story in LB #130. lies have developed their music blues in the late 1950s and early 1960s My favorite memory of him is that over generations, as well as urban with artists like Big Jack Johnson, Little Smokey was a hand holder. He zones like Chicago’s West Side or Milton, Ike Turner, Booba Barnes, would reach across the little table we Houston’s Fifth Ward, or the South Johnny Dyer, Asie Payton, Frank sat at and grab my hands with his big Central Los Angeles scene, which is Frost, Willie Foster, and others. After knotted, twisted fingers as he started featured in this issue. These micro- the death of his mother, Wilson pulled to tell me a story. He would pat them cosms of blues activity—when the up roots and moved to California. and push on them and when the sto- mix is just right—are cauldrons of re- “When I first came to California, ry got good he would flail his arms markable creativity. wasn’t nobody playing no blues. . . . out wide and talk with those weath- The South Central Los Angeles That funk and disco, I didn’t want to ered hands. He was a great storytell- blues scene’s hottest period may go out there and hear that. They said, er and a great bluesman. have occurred long ago, but the ‘What you lookin’ for?’ I said, ‘I’m scene still exists today—mostly on its lookin’ for some cottonfield, pullin’ Brett J. Bonner

The Southern Register Winter 2016 Page 3 FEBRUARY 10 Ralph Eubanks, “Photography Brown Bag Lunch and Writing: How Visual Art Influences Narrative” and Lecture Series Spring 2016 The Mississippi- The Brown Bag Luncheon Series takes place on select born author Wednesdays at noon in the Barnard Observatory lauded for Lecture Hall during the regular academic year. works about race, civil justice, and south- of an Emmett Till commemorative significantly influenced how penol- ern culture, infrastructure. Dave Tell provides a ogy functioned in the South. She ex- is currently material and intellectual history of amines the often-overlooked histo- serving as the this infrastructure, and explains how ry of women at Parchman, and she Eudora Welty the digital humanities may revolu- works to give voices to a margin- Professor of Southern Studies at tionize how we remember Emmett alized group of women seemingly Millsaps College. Eubanks is teach- Till. Tell’s work focuses on the inter- deemed unworthy of historical analy- ing Photography and Literacy, a sections of rhetorical theory and cul- sis or consideration. course that examines Walker Evans tural politics. His Confessional Crises: Telisha Dionne Bailey earned and James Agee’s Depression-era Confession and Cultural Politics in her PhD in history from the Arch Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Susan Twentieth-Century America (2012) ex- Dalrymple III Department of History Sontag’s On Photography, and works plains how the genre of confession at the University of Mississippi in by Eudora Welty, Claudia Rankine, has shaped some of the twentieth August 2015. Her work focuses on so- Frederick Reuss, and Teju Cole. century’s most intractable issues: sex- cial justice, carceral studies, and the Eubanks will discuss how re-read- uality, class, race, violence, religion, mass incarceration of women of color ing and teaching the work of Agee— and democracy. in the American South. along with Evans’s photographs—is Dave Tell teaches undergradu- having an impact on his own writ- ate courses on the history and the- MARCH 2, at 11:30 ing. This has made him think a great ory of rhetoric and on American Margaret McMullan, Special deal about how writers turn to pho- public discourse in the Department Oxford Conference for the Book tographs to explore the connections of Communication Studies at the Brown Bag between fictional narratives, personal University of Kansas. memory, and the historical past. Held at Archives and Special A native of Mount Olive, Ralph FEBRUARY 24 Collections, J. D. Williams Library Eubanks is a publisher, professor, Telisha Dionne Bailey, “Seeking author, and editor. He earned a BA Social Justice in Unjust Carceral Margaret in psychology from the University Systems: Women of Color, Mass McMullan is of Mississippi and an MA in English Incarceration, and the Complex the author of language and literature from the History of Class, Race, and seven award- University of Michigan. He has Gender in the Prison Politics of winning novels, served as director of publishing at the American South” including her the Library of Congress and editor of latest, Aftermath the Virginia Quarterly Review. Telisha Dionne Lounge. In 2015, Bailey explores she and Phillip FEBRUARY 17 how African Lopate curated Dave Tell, “The Emmett Till American wom- Every Father’s Daughter, an anthol- Memory Project” en were ma- ogy of essays about fathers by great jor actors in the women writers such as Alice Munro, Until the dedication of the Emmett implementation, Ann Hood, and Jane Smiley. During Till Memorial Highway on March development, this special Brown Bag Lecture 21, 2005, there was not a single mate- and growth and opening session of the Oxford rial trace of Till’s 1955 murder in the of the notori- Conference for the Book, McMullan Mississippi Delta. Since 2005, how- ous Mississippi will read from her recent work and ever, a “memory boom” has come to State Penitentiary, also known as talk about books and authors and the Delta: granting agencies have in- Parchman Farm. Bailey shows how how they draw us together—as fam- vested $5.5 million in the production race, along with class and gender, ily, friends, and as a community.

Page 4 Winter 2016 The Southern Register MARCH 30 Margaret McMullan has taught Ann Tucker, “Imagining early 1970s. The literal center of on the summer faculty at the Independence: International the New York folk music scene, the Stony Brook Southampton Writers Influences on Southern Folklore Center not only sold re- Conference in Southampton, New Nationhood” cords, books, and guitar strings but York, at the Eastern Kentucky served as a concert hall, meeting University Low-Residency MFA Ann Tucker will discuss her research spot, and information kiosk for all Program, and at the University of on how white southerners made folk scene events. Among Young’s Southern Indiana’s Summer and the decision to create an indepen- first customers was Harry Belafonte; Winter Ropewalk Writers Retreat. dent southern nation, and how they among his regular visitors were Alan imagined the Confederacy as one of Lomax and Pete Seeger. Shortly after MARCH 9 many aspiring nations seeking mem- his arrival in New York City in 1961, Ann Fisher-Wirth and Maude bership in the international family of an unknown Bob Dylan banged Schuyler Clay, “Mississippi: A nations. Antebellum southern analy- away at songs on Young’s typewrit- Collaborative Project” sis of and discourse on European na- er. Young would also stage Dylan’s

TERRI LOWENTHAL IVO KAMPS TERRI tionalist movements played a central first concert, as well as shows by Joni Mississippi: A role in helping southerners refine Mitchell, the Fugs, Emmylou Harris, Collaborative their beliefs about nationalism, and, Tim Buckley, Doc Watson, Son Project is the later, envision the South as a poten- House, and Mississippi John Hurt. work of photog- tial nation. Connections, both real Scott Barretta is an instructor rapher Maude and imagined, to famous European of sociology at the University of Schuyler Clay nationalists played a critical role in Mississippi, a writer-researcher for and poet Ann this process by providing southern- the Mississippi Blues Trail and the Fisher-Wirth. ers with tangible symbols of nation- host of the Highway 61 radio show Fisher-Wirth, alism that they used and manipu- on Mississippi Public Broadcasting. who teaches po- lated at will, revealing how south- etry workshops IVO KAMPS erners’ international perspective on APRIL 13 and seminars, nationhood enabled them to imagine Amanda Malloy, “A Guide twentieth-century southern independence. through William Eggleston’s American litera- Ann Tucker, a visiting assis- Souths: A Photographer’s View ture, and a wide tant professor at the University of a Changing Region” range of courses of Mississippi, studies the nine- in environmen- teenth-century US South, specifi- Based on her MA thesis work for tal literature, will cally southern nationalism in the the Southern Studies program, read some of antebellum and Civil War eras. Amanda Malloy’s lecture looks at the poems writ- Her research analyzes interna- the images of Memphis photog- ten to accom- tional influences on the develop- rapher William Eggleston, who is pany Clay’s photographs, and they ment of Confederate nationalism. widely credited with increasing the will talk about the process of collabo- She earned her MA and PhD at the legitimacy of color photography ration. The state of Mississippi pos- University of South Carolina. as an artistic medium. In anticipa- sesses great natural beauty and a rich tion of an upcoming exhibit at the and complex culture, one interwo- APRIL 6 University Museum, she will ex- ven from the many voices that have Scott Barretta “The Conscience plore Eggleston’s interpretations of made up its identity. Mississippi: A of the Folk Revival: Izzy Young” the South, from the private and per- Collaborative Project explores both this sonal, to the increasingly commer- degradation and this beauty. Scott Barretta will discuss his book, cially developed. Maude Schuyler Clay was born The Conscience of Amanda Malloy graduated from in Greenwood and went to school the Folk Revival: the University of Mississippi with at the University of Mississippi and The Writings of a BA in liberal studies, focusing on Memphis State University; after Israel “Izzy” Young, art history and classical studies. Her working in New York, she returned about Israel “Izzy” interest in southern art and histor- in 1987 to live in the Delta. Her lat- Young, the pro- ic preservation brought her to the est book of photographs is Mississippi prietor of the Southern Studies program with a History. Ann Fisher-Wirth is a pro- Folklore Center growing interest in documentary fessor of English and Director of the in Greenwich filmmaking, and she interned with Environmental Studies Minor at the Village from the the Mississippi Arts Commission’s University of Mississippi. late 1950s to the Folk and Traditional Arts program.

The Southern Register Winter 2016 Page 5 Southern Studies Grad Student Wins Three Minute Thesis Competition

By being able to succinctly develop Amanda Malloy really fun to see what her communication and presentation other people work on skills, Amanda Malloy, a second- and to talk to graduate year Southern Studies MA student, students in totally dif- won the University of Mississippi’s ferent fields.” Three Minute Thesis (3MT) compe- Second-year student tition. She will go on to the region- Katie Gill also partici- al competition in Charlotte, North pated in the competi- Carolina, in February as part of the tion and made it to the Conference for Southern Graduate final round, presenting Schools. on her thesis topic of The 3MT is a research commu- Southern characters in nication competition developed by comic books. For Gill, the University of Queensland, where it was helpful to be graduate students have three min- able to talk about her utes to present a compelling oration thesis in a condensed on their thesis and its significance. format. The event, sponsored by the UM “The thing about Graduate School, challenges students master’s theses is that to consolidate their ideas and re- it’s really easy to get search discoveries so bogged down in technical minutia they can be present- Katie Gill while explaining it because you’ve ed concisely to a non- been dealing with this thing for specialist audience. months so you know it backwards In preparation, and forwards,” Gill said. “3MT helps Malloy composed you kick the technical bits and bobs a general over- to the side to just find the bare bones view of her thesis of your thesis so that you can explain on Memphis pho- it in a way that makes sense.” tographer William Gill encourages other students to Eggleston and his participate next year. “Don’t worry if photographic rep- you think you’re going to do terribly, resentations of the because inevitably someone’s going southern landscape, to choke or one of the science stu- all while keeping in dents will put way too much technical mind her audience. jargon in their presentation,” she said. “I didn’t want to in- Graduate School Dean John Kiss clude too much art said the 3MT program provides great history or Southern opportunities for graduate students to Studies jargon, so I develop communication skills impor- tried using a little bit tant for their future careers. of background history and a little graduate students to participate in. “Students learn how to distill com- bit of my thesis argument,” she said. “It may just seem like more work, plex ideas to effectively commu- “Then I tried to tie it all together by but writing and memorizing a three- nicate to the general public,” Kiss finding something within my subject minute speech is certainly worth said. “Amanda did an outstanding that I felt anyone could connect to, what you get out of the experience. job on 3MT and we are proud to rather than going into depth about It’s a great way to learn how to ex- have her represent UM at a national more complicated arguments.” plain your subject concisely and competition.” Malloy also said the competition clearly, and it helps build confidence is a good one for Southern Studies in what you study. Plus, it’s just Rebecca Lauck Cleary

Page 6 Winter 2016 The Southern Register Spring Music of the South Symposium to Explore Traditional Music This spring’s Music of the South Symposium will investigate the creation and performance of the South’s various traditional music forms. The one- day symposium, “Defining and Presenting Traditional Music,” sponsored by the Center, Living Blues magazine, and the Blues Archive, takes place on Wednesday, April 6, and features lectures, discussions, films, and musical performance. Celebrate Charles Most events will take place in the Faulkner Room of the J. D. Williams Library. Speakers will include University of Virginia Music Department pro- Reagan Wilson’s fessor Karl Hagstrom Miller, author of Segregating Sound: Inventing Folk and Pop Teaching Legacy Music in the Age of Jim Crow, and Mississippi Arts Commission folk and traditional arts director Jennifer Joy Jameson. A panel discussion will include UM and Support Music Department professor Ian Hominick and Mississippi Folklife music editor Jamey Hatley. At the noon brown bag presentation in Barnard Observatory, Students Scott Barretta will discuss his scholarly work on folk revival leader Izzy Young, During his thirty-three years as a pro- and in the afternoon, back in the Faulkner Room, Joe York of the Southern fessor, Charles Reagan Wilson has Documentary Project and Scott Barretta will present their new film,Shake ’Em been a mentor for many University on Down: The Blues According to Fred McDowell. of Mississippi students who stud- The Music of the South Conference alternates yearly with the Blues Today ied southern history and culture. His Symposium, also sponsored by Living Blues and the Center. scholarship on history and memory The band Jericho Road Show will give a performance, and they will also par- continues to shape the field, and his ticipate on a panel at the conference. Jericho Road Show is self-described as “an ability to teach and engage students all-acoustic international super-group of seasoned musicians” that plays American is unmatched. His work with the roots and blues music “on tubas, washboards, upright bass, harps, National guitars, Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and ukuleles, banjos, mandolins, trombones, and yes, even the saw.” New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture You can look for a schedule and keep up with news about the conference at demonstrated a broad and inclusive http://southernstudies.olemiss.edu/events/music/. The conference is free and approach to scholarship that he has open to the public.

shared with his students. PAT CASEY DELAY In honor of Dr. Wilson’s retire- ment and long career supporting and guiding students, we have created the Charles Reagan Wilson Graduate Student Support Fund, which will provide financial support for graduate students engaged in research in southern history. Students from both the Department of History and the Southern Studies program at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture will benefit from these funds. Please consider a gift honoring Dr. Wilson. Every amount helps. To give, visit southernstudies.olemiss. edu/giving. Later this winter, the Center will launch an online Ignite Ole Miss campaign to raise funds in honor of Dr. Wilson. Follow the Center on social media to learn more.

The Southern Register Winter 2016 Page 7 TOM EBLEN continued from 1, Oxford Conference for the Book Bobbie Ann Mason

the Faulkner Room in Archives and Special Collections. The lunch is free, but reservations are appreciated. On Wednesday evening is the gala opening-night cocktail reception/dinner held at the historic Barksdale-Isom House. This much-loved opening reception is a lively fundraiser with wonderful food, drinks, and conversation between fellow conference attendees and guest writers. A portion of the $50 ticket proceeds is tax deductible. The conference is pleased to partner with the University Museum this year to include a poetry session paired with an art exhibition by photographer Youngsuk Suh. On Thursday, following the “Poetic Responses to Langston Hughes” session, the museum will host a reception for the poets and the artist, Youngsuk Suh. This re- with the Oxford Conference for the Book, will be held ception is free, and the session presents a great opportuni- again at the Ford Center for Performing Arts on Friday, ty to explore the museum before taking a stroll up to the March 4, with more than 1,200 first graders and fifth Square for Thacker Mountain Radio. graders from the schools of Lafayette County and Oxford At noon on Friday, the Lafayette County and Oxford in attendance. Laurie Keller, author of The Scrambled Public Library will host a poetry talk and lunch with poet States of America, will present at 9:00 a.m. for the first Richard Katrovas. Both the lunch and talk are free, but graders, and Holly Goldberg Sloan, author of Counting reservations are required. by 7s, will present at 10:30 a.m. for the fifth graders. The Those interested in any of these events can sign up or Lafayette County Literacy Council sponsors the first- purchase tickets using the conference registration form grade program and the Junior Auxiliary of Oxford spon- or online at oxfordconferenceforthebook.com/attend. sors the fifth-grade program. To purchase a ticket with a check, please e-mail Rebecca Cleary, [email protected], for information. Ticket sales end February 26. Mark Essig “This conference is a great way for Oxford visitors and townsfolk to explore the town and the university campus,” said James G. Thomas, Jr., conference director. “We try to open doors with this conference, both literally and metaphorically. By that I mean the sessions open up doors for thought and inquiry, and the venues we’re having them in are places that some Oxford residents, students, and visitors may not have had the opportunity to explore. Places like the Lafayette County courthouse, the Barksdale-Isom House, the UM library’s Faulkner Room, and even the University Museum.” The 2016 Children’s Book Festival, held in conjunction

Rick Bass LARRY D. MOORE

Jericho Brown

Page 8 Winter 2016 The Southern Register HARRY TAYLORHARRY Taylor Brown Sheri Fink JEN DESSINGER JEN

Campus visitors may purchase and print parking passes Fund, Junior Auxiliary of Oxford, Lafayette County & online through the conference website or in person at the Oxford Public Library, Southern Literary Trail, and the welcome center on University Avenue, adjacent to the Pulitzer Centennial Campfires Initiative. Grove, upon arrival at the conference each day. The conference is partially funded by the University of The Oxford Conference for the Book is sponsored by Mississippi, a contribution from the R&B Feder Foundation the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Square for the Beaux Arts, grants from the Mississippi Humanities Books, Southern Documentary Project, Southern Council, and promotional support from Visit Oxford. Foodways Alliance, Living Blues, University Museum, To see a full schedule of events and to learn more about Lafayette County Literacy Council, Department of English, the guest authors, please visit the conference’s website, J. D. Williams Library, Overby Center for Southern www.oxfordconferenceforthebook.com or contact confer- Journalism and Politics, Sally McDonnell Barksdale ence director James G. Thomas, Jr. at 662-915-3374 or by Honors College, John and Renée Grisham Visiting Writers e-mail at [email protected]. THE OXFORD CONFERENCE FOR THE BOOK, MARCH 2–4, 2016 The Oxford Conference for the Book is free and open to the public, although three special events require reservations. PLEASE MAIL REGISTRATION FORMS TO THIS ADDRESS: CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF SOUTHERN CULTURE THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI • P.O. BOX 1848 • UNIVERSITY, MS 38677-1848 OR FAX TO 662-915-5814 NAME ______ADDRESS ______CITY ______STATE ______ZIP ______HOME TELEPHONE ______CELL ______E-MAIL ______

Special OCB Events I would like to reserve a spot for: ___ 3/2 UM Library Lunch (free) ___ 3/2 Cocktail Reception ($50) ___ 3/4 Oxford Library Lunch (free)

I am making a payment of $______. ___Check, made payable to THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI, is enclosed. ___Charge to ___Visa ___MasterCard Expiration Date ______Account Number ______Signature ______Date ______You may also sign up for the OCB online – oxfordconferenceforthebook.com Payments are refundable if written request for cancellation is postmarked no later than February 24. No refunds will be made after February 24, 2016. Individuals and organizations interested in providing support for the Conference for the Book can mail a check with Conference for the Book noted in the memo line to the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi, P.O. Box 1848, University, MS 38677-1848. Your support is greatly appreciated.

The Southern Register Winter 2016 Page 9 Mississippi Arts Commission New Display Launches New Digital at Rowan Oak Publication Mississippi Folklife features Nobel

A new project of the Mississippi Arts Prize Speech Commission’s (MAC) Folk and Traditional A new display at Rowan Oak fea- Arts program, Mississippi Folklife reimag- tures William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize ines its earlier print publication, estab- speech. Southern Studies graduate lished in 1927 by the Mississippi Folklore students Amanda Malloy and Katie Society, as a digital journal featuring origi- Gill designed and installed the dis- nal writing and documentary work focused play. English graduate student Sarah on contemporary folklife and cultural heri- Altenoff provided technical assis- tage throughout the state. The digital pub- tance on the project. lication features new articles, interviews, The new display allows visitors to photo essays, films, and more, anchored listen to the speech on a tablet while by three core areas: music, custom, and vi- viewing a short video of historic sual arts. Visit Mississippi Folklife online at photographs of Faulkner receiving www.mississippifolklife.org. the award. The entire speech is also Mississippi Folklife began as the peer-re- in printed form next to the display. viewed Mississippi Folklore Register. MAC “This display is a noticeable im- Folk and Traditional Arts director, Jennifer provement over how we interpreted Joy Jameson, explains, “The publication the speech in the past,” said William carries an impressive history, with writing Griffith, curator of Rowan Oak. It from William Ferris to Margaret Walker provides historical context of the Alexander. After many different iterations speech while implementing a mod- and editors, the publication returned to the ern display method, similar to how University of Mississippi, where it first be- Faulkner approached his novels. gan. Rebranded as Mississippi Folklife, it was The 1950 Nobel Prize speech was edited by Tom Rankin and Ted Ownby William Faulkner’s first public ad- at the Center for the Study of Southern dress. Although Faulkner gave the Culture.” Publication ceased in 1999. speech in 1950, he won the award The Arts Commission supported the for 1949. production of the publication for many Southern Studies graduate stu- years, making MAC a fitting home for dent Amanda Malloy has worked at the digital revival of Mississippi Folklife. both Rowan Oak and the University The publication’s new editorial commit- Museum as part of her graduate assis- tee includes custom editor Amy C. Evans, tantship. Next semester she will work who is a former lead oral historian with on the southern photography collec- the Southern Foodways Alliance; music editor Jamey Hatley, an award-win- tion at the University Museum. She is ning creative writer and journalist; and visual arts editor Amanda Malloy, originally from Michigan and is sched- documentarian and UM Southern Studies MA student. Jameson, who serves uled to graduate in May of 2016. as managing editor, says, “This new era of Mississippi Folklife is in good hands Southern Studies graduate student with an editorial staff that will make it a priority to facilitate a rigorous, yet Katie Gill has also worked as an in- truly accessible public discourse on a range of folklife topics. Our editors hope tern at the University Museum in the to reach writers and readers from across ethnic, economic, regional, and gen- Greek and Roman collection. Next erational perspectives in our state. After all, folklore and folklife are the living semester she will continue her assis- traditions and expressive practices of our cultures and communities. Folklife tantship at Rowan Oak. Gill is a native touches every Mississippian.” Mississippian from the Jackson area MAC executive director, Tom Pearson, says, “It is exciting to breathe new and will graduate in May of 2016. life into a rich publication like Mississippi Folklife. The digital format has incredible potential to engage and educate new audiences in Mississippi’s wealth of traditional arts. From Hill Country blues, to Gulf Coast pottery, and foodways of the Delta, folk arts play an important role in the quality of life in each community in our state.”

Page 10 Winter 2016 The Southern Register f Center to Host Symposium on Clothing and Fashion in Southern History

The Center will host Clothing and WALLACE BY EMILY ILLUSTRATION Fashion in Southern History on February 22–23. The symposium will convene scholars from the fields of history and cultural studies who will contribute essays to a forthcoming book on the subject. The participants will include Laura Edwards (Duke University), Grace Elizabeth Hale (University of Virginia), Jessamyn Hatcher (New York University), Katie Knowles (Smithsonian), Pableaux Johnson (New Orleans), Thuy Linh Tu (New York University), Lawrence McDonnell (Iowa State University), Jonathan Prude (Emory University), Blain Roberts (California State University, Fresno), William Sturkey (University of North Carolina), Susannah Walker (Buckingham Browne & Nichols School), and Emory University will give the clos- labor, social justice, and class in Sarah Weicksel (Smithsonian). The ing remarks. southern history. Walton and Ownby Center’s Ted Ownby and Becca “Part of why this is so exciting is set out the goals of the conference in Walton are organizers of the sympo- that it brings together people who a broadside for Shindig Six, a gath- sium, which is part of the Future of have written a great deal about cloth- ering in Florence, Alabama, in 2014: the South series. ing and fashion with others who are “Situated at the intersection of neces- Topics will include, among others, just getting into the subject,” said sity and creativity, southern fashion slavery and dress, issues of clothing Ownby. “In southern history, there’s lets us ask questions about place and in secession and Civil War, cloth- not a standard scholarly work to historical context, power, and iden- ing and textile mill labor, cloth and praise or critique, and as far as I know tity. Every garment has a designer, clothing and who sold them, sewing there’s no conventional wisdom to re- maker, wearer, and viewer, and we programs run by state and federal spond to. We look forward to hearing can study all of them. agencies, Mardi Gras Indians, and what questions people will ask and to “We can tell local stories about second-hand clothing as part of phi- seeing where the discussions lead.” designers and seamstresses, farm- lanthropy and counterculture. Some The symposium will provide an ers and factory workers. At the same scholars will present papers; oth- opportunity for scholars to discuss time, we can see the South’s centu- ers will present on topics to encour- clothing and fashion studies as a ries-long engagement with a glob- age discussion. Jonathan Prude of means to explore issues of identity, al economy through one garment, with cotton harvested by enslaved laborers in Mississippi, milled in Massachusetts or Manchester, designed with influence from Parisian Save the Date! tastemakers, and sold in the South by Jewish immigrant merchants.” Designed for discussion work- Clothing and Fashion in Southern History shops, parts of the symposium are free and open to the public. Find University of Mississippi Campus more information at http://south- February 22–23, 2016 ernstudies.olemiss.edu/events/ future-of-the-south/.

The Southern Register Winter 2016 Page 11 Study the South Publishes New Essays on the Elvis’s Vanishing Legacy and the Long Southern Past DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT KELLEWAY/CONFIT WEB BY JAMES DESIGN In the past couple of months we have published two new essays in Study the South, the first a photo essay by the Center’s director of documentary studies, David Wharton, and the next a “reconsideration of southern history” by Queen’s University historian James Carson. In the essay “Elvis and Those Who (Still) Love Him,” Wharton explores the annual Death Day pilgrimage to Memphis, Tennessee, by a devoted following of the King who grows older by the year. “In a cultural climate based on the superficial,” Wharton writes, “one has to wonder how

The journal, founded in 2014, exists to encourage interdisciplinary academic thought and discourse on the culture of the American South, particularly in the fields of history, anthropology, sociology, music, literature, documentary studies, gender studies, religion, geography, media studies, race studies, ethnicity, folklife, and art.

DESIGN JAMES BY KELLEWAY/CONFIT DEVELOPMENT & DESIGN WEB Study the South publishes a variety of works by institutionally affili- much deeper the annual Elvis Death any such place called “the South” in ated and independent scholars. Like Day observances go than mere tradi- the New World. In the essay Carson the Center for the Study of Southern tion and habit. Can such events be claims, “The South’s antiquity is here Culture, Study the South embraces a mined for anything worth knowing whether we want it or not. Our pre- diversity of media, including writ- about the world we live in today? dicament is to decide whether or not ten essays with accompanying au- Was there more to be learned from we want to allow it to be here. To dio, video, and photography com- Death Day ten years ago? Twenty leave this past unseen and unstated is ponents; documentary photography; years ago? Thirty? Those might be to accept the kind of amputated hu- and video projects. the most interesting questions of manity we have been dealt by what Wharton’s, Carson’s, and other es- all to ask about what happens in we imagine to be a noble, if fraught, says can be found on the Center’s Memphis on August 15.” past. In reality, that past is just a sto- Study the South website homep- In “Telling about the South: An ry of theft. Legitimacy can’t be found age, www.StudytheSouth.com. Autobiography of Antiquity,” pub- nor can it be contrived. It can only Forthcoming essays in Study the South lished on January 11, Carson ex- be earned. We need to understand include work by Gershun Avilez, plores the southern past through the that what happened at Jamestown, Aram Goudsouzian, and Sarah E. lenses of corn (or maize, to be more and Stono, and Cowpens, and Gardner. precise), Hurricane Katrina, and Appomattox, and Selma are in some President Barack Obama, starting at ways just so many quick breaths tak- James G. Thomas, Jr. a point in time well before there was en in a very long life.”

Page 12 Winter 2016 The Southern Register Mark Your Calendars! February 20, 2016 Food Media South Birmingham, Alabama Exhibition Schedule February 22–23, 2016 Clothing and Fashion in Southern History Opening March 1 University of Mississippi Mississippi: A Collaborative Project Ann Fisher-Wirth and March 2–4, 2016 Maude Schuyler Clay Twenty-Third Oxford Poetry and Photography Conference for the Book University of Mississippi and Exhibition lecture Oxford, Mississippi March 9, noon Barnard Observatory, March 30, 2016 Tupelo Room Southern Documentary Seminar University of Mississippi

The Gammill Gallery, located in Barnard Observatory, is open Monday April 6, 2016 through Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Music of the South Symposium except for University holidays. Telephone: 662-915-5993. University of Mississippi and Oxford, Mississippi

The Southern Register Winter 2016 Page 13 Presenting Southern Culture These Southern Studies alumni are in very different professions, with one common thread: presenting southern culture to the public, whether it is through historic preservation, working in the visual arts, showcasing the correspondence of our third president, or helping artists and arts institutions with funding.

Kate Kenwright

Kate Kenwright works at the L’Enfant Historic Trust, a 3thirty-seven-year-old nonprofit that preserves and revitaliz- es historic communities in Washington, D.C. She received her BA in Southern Studies and also graduated from the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. She completed her Master of Preservation Studies Program at the Tulane School of Kate Kenwright Architecture. While attending Tulane, Kate interned with Longue Vue House and Gardens, Clio Associates, and the and work with their team, which this is my way of contributing to its National WW II Museum. As part of may include architects, engineers, protection. The built environment re- her graduate studies there, she worked at contractors, and designers. minds us of where we came from and the Preservation Resource Center of New We also have our Historic gives us a sense of our place in time. Orleans where she participated in admin- Properties Redevelopment Program, Buildings, particularly in the South, istering and monitoring easemented prop- which was launched in 2012. We ac- often act as symbols of identity. As erties throughout the New Orleans area. quired two blighted vacant historic our cities and landscapes evolve and homes, completed turnkey rehabili- change, the integration of the past What does your role as historic tations, placed a conservation ease- into the future is of growing concern— preservation specialist entail? ment on them, and sold them. So we something we studied extensively in not only save historic buildings that the Southern Studies program. How I work primarily with our would otherwise be demolished be- to adapt and change in the face of Conservation Easement Program. cause of neglect, we put them back technology and globalization without A Conservation Easement is a vol- into use and hopefully help revitalize giving up the past or unduly glorify- untary legal agreement between a the neighborhood in the process. ing it—this is a challenge shared by all property owner and a qualified ease- These two programs keep us busy, who study and work in fields related ment-holding organization where the and in the true nature of a nonprofit, to history and cultural heritage. In a property owner or owners promises I can be doing any number of things more tangible way, the buildings that not to alter the exterior of the prop- in a day depending on what comes I work to protect are in D.C., which erty or surrounding open space with- across my desk. is technically in the South, even if it out written permission from the ease- doesn’t always feel that way. ment holder. This gift to the Trust What drew you to the profession can qualify the donor for an income of historical preservation? How does your Southern Studies tax deduction. When an owner of degree help you in your job? one of our 1,134 easemented prop- I studied architectural preservation erties wishes to modify their historic because I believe in the importance The Center teaches students to think building, I review their application of our shared cultural heritage, and differently. The interdisciplinary

Page 14 Winter 2016 The Southern Register nature of the Southern Studies pro- We also learned at the Center to who has been documenting people and gram, as well as the encouragement question who owns the past, and who places of the South since 1989. She to approach everything with a criti- gets to interpret it. In architectural earned her MA in Southern Studies in cal eye, has really been of academic preservation this lesson can be applied 2005 and her thesis explored photography and professional benefit. I was en- similarly—sometimes more ordinary and community. She has won numerous couraged by my professors to ap- buildings, including private homes, awards, including a 2004 Lila Wallace- proach a problem in many differ- can be far more telling than the grand Readers’ Digest/Arts International Travel ent ways and to go to great lengths buildings that draw the most attention. Fellowship, which allowed her to trav- to get the necessary information, no Both deserve appreciation. el to Australia to document the aborigi- matter how many archives you have nal people of that region, and a Kellogg to go to or people you have to track Foundation/Fulton County Arts Council down. I deal with issues related to ar- residency in 1999 in South Africa to pro- chitecture, urban planning, preser- Lynn duce prints and document the dialogue be- vation and conservation, art, histo- tween women from around the world on ry, and even archaeology on a daily Marshall-Linnemeier issues confronting the new millennium. basis. The ability to think outside the Linnemeier’s work is in the Hartsfield- boundaries of traditional fields is so Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier3 is an Atlanta- Jackson International Airport, the High useful in this context. based photographer, painter, and writer Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, among others. She also had a solo exhibition at the Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia in 2006 entitled Stereo Propaganda: Deconstructing Stereotypes, Reconstructing Identity. She currently teaches at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. Her work Do what I say was chosen to be part of Atlanta Celebrates Photography’s 11th Annual Public Art Project.

Tell me about your new project, The Other Side of Zora Neal Hurston’s Eatonville, and how you came up with the idea.

The project gathers photographs from residents of Eatonville, Florida, to be included in an agan, a masquerade costume worn during an Egungun masquerade. I build fac- similes of these structures. I engage the community on many levels. Children do cyanotypes on fabric that are sewn into the artwork, and elders generally lend photographs. Elders and some children also help with sewing the pieces together. I was invited to do this project by cu- rators Jerushia Graham and Lonnie Graham. I met Lonnie Graham at Manchester Craftsman’s Guild, a community-based facility back in the 1990s and knew Jerushia through her work in the community here. Lonnie is a photographer and Jerushia is a printmaker. The end result will be an installation at the Zora Neale Hurston Museum in Eatonville.

The Southern Register Winter 2016 Page 15 disciplinary silo, and you are exposed and I manage the grant applications William Bland to cool little corners of southern cul- from start to completion. I also man- ture. Anything and everything can age fellowship applications for visual Whitley be important and interesting. That’s artists, the applications for the visual William Bland Whitley earned his an approach I try to take in my cur- artists’ roster, and the mini grants for Southern Studies 3MA in 1996 with a the- rent work, and it comes in handy, too. individuals and organizations. I also sis titled “Shades of White: Party Politics Jefferson was conversant with so many work with the Mississippi Presenters in Mississippi, 1870–1896.” He works at subjects and attracted a wide array of Network, a statewide network of Princeton University as associate editor of correspondents, both accomplished small, medium, and large presenting the Thomas Jefferson Papers, which began and humble. The experience of jug- organizations. as an outgrowth of a congressional man- gling a number of different subjects date to the Thomas Jefferson Bicentennial and approaches has certainly helped. How do you utilize your Southern Commission to consider the feasibility of a Studies degree at MAC? comprehensive edition of Jefferson’s works. That enterprise was launched in December I am one of the hosts of the Mississippi 1943 and continues today with a digital Turry M. Flucker Arts Hour on MPB. It’s a weekly ra- edition, started in 2009. dio show that focuses on what’s hap- Turry M. Flucker is a native of Houston, pening in the arts and cultural com- What kind of work do you do? Texas. Before becoming the arts industry di- minutes throughout the state. Each rector at the Mississippi3 Arts Commission week we interview artists, musicians, I’m helping publish a comprehensive (MAC), he served for nine years as branch other arts administrators and cura- edition of the correspondence and director at the Louisiana State Museum, tors. I approach each interview as other unpublished writings of Thomas directing the Louisiana Civil Rights if I am doing an oral history, with Jefferson. We are publishing, or at Museum Project. He also served as the cura- Mississippi as the backdrop. It’s about least accounting for, all of the letters tor at Smith Robertson Museum in Jackson, place and how place shapes the work Jefferson wrote and received, as well a position he maintained for ten years. He that they do. I learned to listen and as other documents like memos, notes earned his MA in 2014. observe more in Southern Studies. on meetings, and invoices. Thus far, That experience has helped me tre- the project has brought out forty-one Tell me about your job as arts in- mendously, not only in doing the Arts chronologically organized volumes dustry director at the Mississippi Hour interviews, but also as I work (thirty-eight of which are also on the Arts Commission. with grantees and other constituents web), with three more actively in pro- that we serve. Pursuing a degree in duction. We publish about one volume I work with large performing arts and Southern Studies was one of the best a year and expect to finish in about single-discipline organizations, such life decisions that I ever made. To the ten years. My work involves a variety as museums, operas, symphonies, study the American South is to study of tasks, the most important of which theaters, and film festivals, across the America and the rest of the world. involve verifying that our transcrip- state. These organizations apply for tions of individual documents are as operating and programmatic support, Rebecca Lauck Cleary accurate as they can be and annotating the documents to bring to light infor- Turry M. Flucker mation that might be useful to readers. I spend much of my time doing nitty-gritty research for annotations that identify correspondents, explain obscure references, or connect aspects of the documents to larger historical issues—all with the objective of making the documents more comprehensible.

How does having a background in Southern Studies help you?

Southern Studies helped prepare me for my current job because it encouraged me to get excited about a wide range of topics. At the Center you’re never confined to one approach or

Page 16 Winter 2016 The Southern Register In the Classroom: Reading List for SST 555: Foodways and Southern Culture For Fall 2015, the students in food played in the creation of the re- Chris Rock’s comedy to demonstrate Catarina Passidomo’s foodways sem- gion and the power it still has today. the complex relationship of African inar class enjoyed a well-rounded in- Americans and chicken. Students troduction to the study of southern The Larder: Food felt the “stories are about more than food. Passidomo’s primary objec- Studies Methods chicken, but of the conscious choices tive of the course was to use “south- from the American of resistance, dignity, and feminism.” ern foodways as a lens to explore South, edit- deeper questions about ownership ed by John T. To Live and Dine in Dixie, by Angela and access; inclusion and exclusion; Edge, Elizabeth Jill Cooley, hones in on a specific and what it means to grow, cook, Engelhardt, and moment in time: southern public eat- and eat in the twenty-first-century Ted Ownby, ing spaces from 1876 through 1975. South.” Each week, students shared showcases essays Cooley also blends gender and class their thoughts about the texts as part with an interdis- into her narrative on race, and gives of the “online book club” for the ciplinary approach to the topic of depth to the cultural and legal study of Southern Foodways Alliance. foodways, using different methods segregated spaces. and strategies. Students felt The Larder Here is a selection of highlights of gives voice to many stories of south- Dispossession, by Pete Daniel, draws that forum: ern food, all of which need to be told. upon records from the USDA, county extension offices, legal cases, and Southern Food: Southern Provisions, personal accounts from farmers to At Home, on the by David trace the denial of loans, jobs, acre- Road, in History, Shields, exam- age allotments, and voter intimida- by John Egerton. ines the chang- tion that, between the years 1920 and This “instant clas- ing role of south- 1999, stripped over 880,000 African sic,” published in ern cuisine from American farmers of thirteen million 1987, is funda- Reconstruction to acres of land. Although extremely da- mental to the de- the present. This ta-heavy, students saw the book as not velopment of southern foodways as agricultural advo- only for scholars; but also for activists. a legitimate field of study. Beginning cacy book focuses the fall semester with Egerton only on conservation and preservation. A Mess of Greens, made sense, as he explored south- “Shields is advocating for a lost way by Elizabeth ern food in more than two hundred of life, bringing back tasty food over Engelhardt, restaurants in eleven southern states, food that has been genetically bred brings gender recounting his conversations with for easier distribution.” into the equation owners, cooks, waiters, and custom- of southern food, ers. Students also discussed “how High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey as she explores Egerton’s project would be different from Africa to America, by cookbook au- five moments in if undertaken today.” thor and culinary historian Jessica Harris, history: moon- details the narrative history of the ori- shine, biscuits The Edible South: The Power of Food gin and diaspora of African foodways versus cornbread, girls’ tomato clubs, and the Making of an American Region, in North America. Students found pellagra, and cookbooks as a form by Marcie Cohen Ferris, is a com- Harris’s narrative quality “highly ap- of communication. Her perspec- prehensive exploration of southern proachable and informative,” with tive “challenges the reader to think history through the chapter on modern diversity in about southern foodways as dynamic the lens of food. African American foodways tying to- and representative of the conflicting Almost an up- gether “the best coverage on the glob- views of southern female identity.” date to Egerton’s al South we’ve seen yet.” book, The Edible For full descriptions of the South is an ex- Building Houses Out of Chicken Legs: books and for class discussion, tensive and in- Black Women, Food, and Power, by go to #SFABookClub, or http:// clusive look into Psyche Williams-Forson, uses materi- www.southernfoodways.org/tag/ the powerful role al ranging from personal interviews to what-were-reading/.

The Southern Register Winter 2016 Page 17 Rediscovering the Past New Book of Essential 1960s Blues Interviews Coedited by Living Blues Staffer In 1963, the magazine Blues Unlimited couple of interviews with some influ- was instrumental to the British blues ential record executives. revival by giving voice to famous, for- One of the exciting things about the gotten, undiscovered, or underappre- book is the scope of the material. It ciated blues musicians from the US. covers the St. Louis blues scene in the The magazine set the standard for late twenties and thirties, Detroit and documenting blues history through Chicago in the thirties and forties—a the use of long-form interviews, and lot of information that will be new to in many ways it paved the way for folks who never read the magazine magazines such as Living Blues. forty-plus years ago. Having access Mark Camarigg was the publica- to the original BU photo archives, we Mark Camarigg tions manager and former assistant also have a number of heretofore-un- editor for Living Blues magazine unpublished photos in the book. til this past December, when he left Orleans on his own dime and inter- the magazine to take a new posi- How did you get involved in the viewed musicians and documented tion at the University of Arkansas project? his travels. There was no template or law school in Fayetteville. While at travel budget for what they did. They Living Blues, Camarigg made time I became aware of the magazine were simply driven by a passion for to chair the Center-sponsored Blues when I was researching at the Blues the music and an interest in the lives Symposium at the University of Archive on campus. I was researching of these artists. Mississippi, and recently he coed- the origin of the phrase “soul-blues,” ited, with Bill Greensmith and Mike and Jim O’Neal suggested I’d find it The magazine has an interesting Rowe, a collection of interviews in Blues Unlimited. I started reading history, doesn’t it? from Blues Unlimited. The book is every issue and was amazed at the in- Blues Unlimited: Essential Interviews formation I found: the first descrip- It does. British blues fans and re- from the Original Blues Magazine. tions—ever—of Son House, Robert searchers Mike Leadbitter and Before leaving UM, and in be- Johnson’s death certificate, and ear- Simon Napier founded the Blues tween LB deadlines, Camarigg took ly concert reviews of Little Walter, Appreciation Society in 1962 and a few moments to sit down with us to Buddy Guy. It was fascinating. launched Blues Unlimited magazine discuss his newest project. I knew the magazine had limited in April 1963. Blues Unlimited estab- reach here in the US and that blues lished itself as the world’s first blues Tell us a bit about the new book. fans would enjoy reading these inter- magazine and was a primary source views. I also knew getting the rights for much of the blues information Blues Unlimited is an anthology of in- to reprint them would be important, in the 1960s and ’70s. Contributing terviews with blues musicians from so I tracked down a few of the origi- authors to the magazine includ- the British magazine Blues Unlimited. nal writers and editors, including my ed Paul Oliver, David Evans, Chris There are more than twenty in- coeditor Bill Greensmith, who had Strachwitz, Jim O’Neal, and John terviews with artists such as James possession of the magazine’s archive Broven. Historically, Blues Unlimited Cotton, Fontella Bass, Johnny Otis, and photos. gave impetus to the blues revival of Snooky Pryor, and Roy Brown, and The collaboration just took off from the 1960s and influenced all blues a few essays as well. there. Bill and I both recognized publications that followed, includ- Blues Unlimited published from the importance and influence of the ing Living Blues. The magazine prid- 1963 until 1987. The magazine work by the original founders, Mike ed itself on being the first to pub- wasn’t widely available in the US, so Leadbitter and Simon Napier. Of lish interviews and news items about most of these interviews will be new course, blues researchers are aware American blues musicians. To this to an American audience. The inter- of the magazine and have cited it in day, these interviews and firsthand views are grouped regionally—West footnotes, but it was important to us field reports remain a blues research- Coast, Texas, Chicago, Mississippi, that they get their due. Leadbitter er’s only guide for information on and so on—and we also include a flew from London to Houston or New many significant blues artists.

Page 18 Winter 2016 The Southern Register Southern Foodways Alliance Explores the Corn-Fed South in 2016 JEFF MOORE JEFF Each year, the Southern Foodways Alliance organizes its programming around a single theme or question. In recent years, we have explored such topics as women and work in southern food, pop culture, and inclusion and exclusion at the southern table. In 2016, the SFA examines the Corn-Fed South. The year’s programming cul- There was a wonderful spirit about minates in the 19th Southern the magazine as well. They would Foodways Symposium, sched- publish the home addresses or phone uled for October 13–16 in numbers of musicians at the end of in- Oxford and on the University terviews and encourage readers to visit of Mississippi campus. The SFA or write to them. The record and book will stage talks, curate conversa- reviews in the magazine also conveyed tions, and commission artwork a wonderful sense of humor, but never and performances that examine at the expense of accuracy. corn as symbol, corn as suste- nance, and corn as syrupy problem. What was your selection process Corn has been a staple of the southern diet since long before European for the book? contact. This year, we take a deep dive into the place corn has in our fields and at our tables, past, present, and future. Among many corn-related top- Original editors Bill Greensmith and ics, we especially look forward to learning more about the corn-based food- Mike Rowe were obviously familiar ways of first peoples in what is now the US South and how their practices with the contents of the entire run of continue to influence our own. the magazine, so they had interviews From hoecakes in mind. Naturally, we wanted to in- to tortillas, bour- clude well-known artists like Freddie bon to Coca-Cola, King and Albert Collins, but more of- chicken feed to ten, the best interviews were with less- grits, corn plays er-known artists. myriad roles— Blues aficionados can be tough to some of them please, but I feel we collected a rep- hidden or over- resentative overview of the magazine looked—in south- and highlighted some neglected blues ern food and A plate of tamales scenes, including St. Louis and Detroit. at Joe’s (also known drink. Its benefits I think the book also reflects the spirit as the White Front as well as its det- of the magazine. The BU writers and Cafe) in Rosedale rimental effects editors revered these musicians and AMY C. EVANS manifest them- gave them an opportunity to tell their selves in the diet, story, and I hope it inspires readers to economy, and environment of our region. Throughout 2016 the SFA looks track down recordings by Big Maceo, forward to learning more about this civilization-shaping crop. Follow along Juke Boy Bonner, or Louis Myers after with us all year at southernfoodways.org. reading their stories.

Interview by James G. Thomas, Jr.

The Southern Register Winter 2016 Page 19 “Faulkner and the Native South” Eudora Welty Conference to Add Native Awards Content to Guided Tours Do you have a son who This summer’s “Faulkner and the Native might be the South” conference at the University of FAULKNER next Richard Mississippi (July 17–21) represents an ex- AND ThE NATIvE SOUTh Wright? A citing opportunity for scholars, students, daughter who and other fans of William Faulkner’s work can chan- to learn more about the Native American nel her in- wellsprings of his novels, stories, and ar- ner O’Connor tistic vision, from place-names and lan- with a flick of a guage habits to character types, local pen? If so, en-

North Mississippi lore, and regional and courage these KAY BELL national histories of encounter, conquest, young people to enter stories and po- and cultural survival. The conference will ems for consideration in the Center also explore the complex and often am- for the Study of Southern Culture’s bivalent inheritance that Faulkner’s writ- The University of Mississippi annual Eudora Welty Awards. Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference ings represent for Native American artists Oxford, Mississippi, July 17–21, 2016 Students must be Mississippi resi- The University of Mississippi announces the Forty-Third Annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference. The conference is sponsored by the Department of English and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and and intellectuals working in his wake, and coordinated by the Office of Outreach and Continuing Education. dents. The competition is open to For more information: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, Office of Outreach and Continuing Education, Post Office Box 879, The University of Mississippi. University, MS 38677-0879. Telephone: 662-915-7283. Fax: 662- for Choctaw and Chickasaw communities 915-5138. Internet: www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner ninth through twelfth graders, and still reckoning with myths of Indian life writing should be submitted through and identity that his fiction had a hand in creating and perpetuating. students’ high schools. Short stories For the 2016 conference poster, the organizers have chosen a striking image should not exceed three thousand to convey this ambitious dual agenda. Designed by Robert Jordan and Susan words, and poetry should not exceed Lee from photographs taken by Jordan, the poster features a pair of busts by one hundred lines. Winning students award-winning sculptor William N. Beckwith of Taylor, Mississippi. On the left will be notified at least a month prior is a hatted William Faulkner, and on the right is the pre-removal Chickasaw to award presentation. The first-place chief Piominko (c. 1750–1799). The image crystallizes the guiding questions be- prize for each category is $500, and hind “Faulkner and the Native South”: What did William Faulkner see when he the second-place prize is $250. The contemplated the history, culture, and society of North Mississippi’s indigenous winners will also be recognized at peoples? and How have Native writers responded to that gaze with their own the opening of the 2016 Faulkner & answering views of Faulkner and his imaginative world? Yoknapatawpha Conference on the The conference also seeks to deepen registrants’ understanding of Mississippi University campus in July. Native histories and communities in a less scholarly, more experiential way. Each entry should be accompa- Two of this year’s optional guided tours have been reorganized to incorporate nied by the entry form and post- significant Native elements. The Mississippi Delta tour, which typically focuses marked by April 11, 2016. Faculty on blues, civil rights, and Faulkner legacies in the area, will add stops at Native and staff from the Center for the burial mounds and archaeological excavation sites. Jay Johnson, professor emer- Study of Southern Culture will judge itus of anthropology at the University of Mississippi and former director of the the entries and select the winners. university’s Center for Archeological Research, will serve as guide for these Application and submission require- segments of the tour. Meanwhile, the 2016 tour of northeast Mississippi will be ments will be sent to all Mississippi relocated from Ripley and New Albany to the Tupelo area, to focus on local public and private schools. If you Chickasaw history and culture. Led by representatives of the Chickasaw Inkana know a Mississippi student cur- Foundation, tour registrants will visit the Piominko statue, the North Mississippi rently enrolled in high school out- Medical Center reburial site, Lee Acres and Chukalissa (sites, respectively, side of the state or who is home- of the French-Chickasaw battles of Ackia and Ogoula Tchetoka in 1736), the schooled, please e-mail rebeccac@ Chickasaw Village site on the Natchez Trace, the George and Saliichi Colbert olemiss.edu or call 662-915-3369 for House, and the Chisha’ Talla’a’ Chickasaw Preserve. a copy. To see a list of past winners These optional tours are $95 for conference registrants. For more information, or to apply online, visit http://south- visit the conference website at www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner or ernstudies.olemiss.edu/academics/ contact Jay Watson, conference director, at [email protected]. high-school-eudora-welty-awards/.

Jay Watson

Page 20 Winter 2016 The Southern Register Mississippi Arts Commission Honors Scott Barretta with Excellence in the Arts Award

Scott Barretta, writer and researcher Scott Barretta Living Blues editor Jim O’Neal and for the Mississippi Blues Trail and an graphic designer Wanda Clark, on adjunct instructor in sociology and the team that created the Mississippi anthropology at the University of Blues Trail, which features more than Mississippi, has lived in the state for one hundred and eighty historical sixteen years, but his blues journey markers across the state and as far began long before his arrival here. away as Norway and France. A multidecade musical odys- “That we have so many mark- sey has led Barretta to receiving ers that feature multiple images the Mississippi Arts Commission and over five hundred words, and (MAC) 2016 Governor’s Award that we’re doing so in Mississippi, for Excellence in the Arts for is groundbreaking in terms of cul- Mississippi Heritage. The award will tural and historical interpretation of be presented at the 28th Governor’s African American vernacular cul- Awards ceremony, set for 6:00 p.m., ture,” Barretta said. “Other states

February 11, in Jackson. JR. G. THOMAS, JAMES Barretta grew up in northern Virginia. As a student at George Mason University and the University of Virginia, he focused his under- YORK JOE graduate and graduate work on political sociology and did some research study blues in Mississippi,” on blues history at UVA. In 1992, his Barretta said. “I was an aca- doctoral studies took him to Lund demic who was editing a University in Sweden, where his ad- blues magazine on the side. visor encouraged him to pursue the Becoming a full-time editor topic further. at the Center for the Study While in Sweden, Barretta be- of Southern Culture seemed gan writing for the Swedish blues liked a good move.” magazine Jefferson, named for Blind Sixteen years later, Lemon Jefferson and entirely in Barretta says he has de- Swedish, and in 1995 he became its veloped a deep love for A Mississippi Blues Trail marker, outside of Barnard Observatory editor. This led him to write for oth- Mississippi while learning er publications in the United States, the intricacies of its musical including Living Blues. culture and how its connections per- and regions often contact us to in- Barretta first came to Mississippi in meate the state. He has experienced quire about how they can do this, 1988 to attend blues festivals and visit the blues firsthand, getting to know but no one has really followed suit.” juke joints in Clarkdale, Greenville, legends such as Bobby Rush and go- He is working with filmmak- Chulahoma, and other places. He ing to Junior Kimbrough’s juke joint, er Joe York and UM’s Southern met Living Blues editor David Nelson, Otha Turner’s fife and drum picnic, Documentary Project to produce who recruited Barretta to succeed the Flowing Fountain in Greenville, the forthcoming documentary Shake him as editor in 1999. and Betty’s place in Noxubee ’Em on Down: The Blues According to “I really had no plans for leav- County, where Willie King played Fred McDowell. Barretta and York will ing Sweden when David initial- every Sunday night. screen the film on April 6 as part of ly approached me, but I eventual- Besides his work with Living Blues the Music of the South Symposium. ly decided that it was a once-in-a- and the radio show Highway 61, lifetime opportunity to get paid to Barretta is, along with founding Kelley Norris

The Southern Register Winter 2016 Page 21 SFA Hosts Second Food Media South in Birmingham On Saturday, February 20, the NORTON CARY Southern Foodways Alliance University of Mississippi journalism professor will host Food Media South in Cynthia Joyce (left) interviews SFA Gravy podcast producer Tina Antolini about audio storytelling at Birmingham, Alabama. The event Food Media South 2015. grew out of Food Blog South, founded in Birmingham in 2010. Last year, the SFA began directing the conference and expanded its purview be- yond blogging to cover multiple fac- ets and platforms of food media. The 2016 event will explore storytelling in the digital era and ask timely questions about how race and gender impact which food stories are told and who tells them. SFA board president Brett Anderson, the restaurant critic for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and a 2013 Nieman Fellow at Harvard, and Valerie Boyd, the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence at the University of of recipes, discusses how content can classics like hot dogs to new favorites Georgia, will lead the discussion on drive events, deconstructs the develop- like breakfast tacos. race and racism at the table and in the ment of personal brands, and more. If you work as a content creator or news. Kathleen Purvis, the food edi- Additional speakers include Corby editor and wish to gain new perspec- tor for the Charlotte Observer, will speak Kummer of The Atlantic, Ann Taylor tives on your work, this event is for about women as practitioners and sub- Pittman of Cooking Light, and Nicole you. As of this writing, tickets, priced jects of food media. Taylor, author of The Up South at $150, are still available. Click on In addition to big-picture queries, Cookbook. “Events” at southernfoodways.org to Food Media South also showcases The day will also include meals purchase a ticket. Questions about the practicalities of visual storytell- that showcase the diversity of FMS may be directed to info@south- ing, investigates the digital promise Birmingham’s food scene, from ernfoodways.org. In Memoriam

Rebecca Yancey Adams Feder July 23, 1954 – October 28, 2015

Florence King January 5, 1936 – January 6, 2016

Page 22 Winter 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

Crescent City Girls: The with abstaining from sexual activity. Simmons shows that certain parts of Lives of Young Black the city were the sites of “niceness” for young African American wom- Women in Segregated en, while other areas seemed a com- New Orleans bination of tempting and threaten- ing. A chapter analyzes the House of By LaKisha Michelle the Good Shepherd, a Catholic re- Simmons. Chapel Hill: form institution for women accused University of North Carolina of improper sexual activity. Inside the House, nuns urged rehabilitation Press, 2015. 282 pages. through religious confession, new $29.95 paper and $28.99 names, and separation from past ebook. associations. Simmons writes of the importance of not simply treating African LaKisha Michelle Simmons writes in American women as problems. her introduction, “Crescent City Girls Wanting to get inside their experi- builds from Du Bois’s question— ences, including their pleasures, she how does it feel to be a problem?— analyzes how programs in reading but reframes the question from the and creative writing, a “make-believe standpoint of a young black wom- rape to consistent demands to com- world” of YMCA programs, and an.” Studying New Orleans from port themselves with a respectabil- creative participation in Mardi Gras the 1930s through the mid-1950s, ity that belied images of being overly events revealed excitement, joy, and Simmons faces the question of how sexual. Third, since sources are dif- originality that was possible in cer- to write about young people. Should ficult, Simmons takes an interdisci- tain times and places. she write about institutions designed plinary approach that studies a dif- As she summarizes in the epilogue, for young people? Should she write ferent issue with a different method “For black women of the generation about the ways adults inside and out- in each chapter. who grew up during Jim Crow and side the city defined the problems One section studies “the geogra- lived through Hurricane Katrina, of young people (or defined young phy of insults” by analyzing how their lives have been defined, in part, people as problems)? How can the African American young women by traumatic experiences. For many scholar get inside the minds and ex- learned what to expect from and of them, being an American citizen periences of young people them- how to deal with expectations and has been full of contradiction. They selves? Crescent City Girls does all of harassment in different sections of have had to contend with multiple those things, with an emphasis on the city. A second section uses the assaults on their dignity: daily insults understanding the perspectives of story of Hattie McCray, a four- from whites on the streets, pressure young women. teen-year-old girl killed by a po- from family to remain “nice,” ex- Three themes help define the au- tential rapist, to study how differ- pectations about who they should be thor’s approach. She is interested in ent groups, including the press and as black Americans, and the varying geography, so studying movement the legal system, dealt with issues costs of being forgotten by the state. emerges as a way to study the pos- of race, sex, age, and violence. The Their inner worlds have also been sibilities and fears of young wom- African American press emphasized full of pleasures—of pleasant memo- en as they go from one part of New McCray’s story as a way to disprove ries of neighborhoods and of good Orleans to another. The intersections accusations of African American friends and supportive families.” of race, sexuality, and respectability promiscuity. Another section uses The book addresses many of the constitute a second, closely relat- social scientific works to show how themes scholars and others consid- ed theme. Young African American young women faced consistent de- er when they think of New Orleans. women faced all sorts of pressures, mands to prove their “niceness,” Entertainment districts, Mardi from harassment, insults, and fears of meaning a demeanor that went along Gras balls and parades, the power

The Southern Register Winter 2016 Page 23 of Catholicism, the importance of but it sounds embarrassingly close. schools, the complexity of definitions Gavin Stevens and the Atticus Finch of race and the power of racial segre- of Go Set a Watchman reflect national gation are all crucial to Crescent City race tensions with a regional defen- Girls. By focusing on young African siveness that was much more sub- American women, and by study- dued in To Kill a Mockingbird, and ing both problems and pleasures, Harper Lee’s 1950s novel refers to Simmons allows readers to under- other postwar anxieties as well. stand those issues in new ways. At a coffee with several Maycomb women, Scout ridicules her peers’ Ted Ownby uninformed remarks on communists, Catholics, immigrants, and the threat of “mongrelization” and another Nat Turner rebellion. Nevertheless, Go Set a Watchman she agrees with Atticus that many By Harper Lee. New York: African Americans are “backward,” Harper, 2015. 278 pages. adding, “They are simple people, most of them, but that doesn’t make $27.99 cloth. them subhuman.” Nostalgic yet re- ductive, Scout identifies the “musky “What would Atticus do?” is the sweet smell of clean Negro, snuff, principle that guides Jean Louise When Atticus tells her “the coun- and Hearts of Love hairdressing” (Scout) Finch, even as a twenty-six- cil’s our only defense” against both when she visits the Finches’ former year-old New Yorker visiting her the NAACP and the federal govern- housekeeper Calpurnia in her coun- Alabama hometown in Harper Lee’s ment, Jean Louise accuses him of try home. White women are simi- Go Set a Watchman. For more than withholding hope from black citi- larly wistful and out of place when half a century, readers of Lee’s To zens. Her Uncle Jack shares Atticus’s the white Cornelia visits her maid Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and view- low opinion of northern politicians. Tweet in Ellen Douglas’s Can’t Quit ers of the 1962 movie version have Comparing the 1950s to the Civil You, Baby and Anne-Marie Duvall been inspired by the same question. War era, Dr. Finch argues: “Now, at drives to the house of the family’s In Go Set a Watchman, Atticus Finch this very minute, a political philoso- ancient cook, Aunt Fe, in Ernest is described as “the most potent phy foreign to it is being pressed on Gaines’s Bloodline. Jean Louise’s moral force” in Jean Louise’s life: the South.” Shockingly, Scout calls Aunt Alexandra had told her that “whatever was decent and of good her father a “double-dealing, ring- “nobody in Maycomb goes to see report in her character was put there tailed old son of a bitch.” But, de- Negroes any more. . . . Besides being by her father.” But Scout’s nausea is spite her plea for justice for African shiftless now they look at you some- contagious when Atticus attends a Americans, Scout admits she is “fu- times with open insolence, and as Maycomb County Citizens Council rious” with the Supreme Court for far as depending on them goes, why meeting in the same courthouse “tellin’ us what to do again” and un- that’s out.” But Scout is not prepared where he defended a black man two dermining the Tenth Amendment, for Calpurnia’s remote air. “Did you decades earlier. presumably in the 1954 Brown v. hate us?” she asks, waiting in agony As a child, she watched Atticus Board of Education decision on the in- until “Finally, Calpurnia shook her in his finest hour from the crowd- tegration of public schools. head.” ed African American gallery; as an The resentment of northern inter- The distance between the Finches adult, she is sickened and alone in ference in Go Set a Watchman recalls and Calpurnia is startling in light the same gallery. Most readers of lawyer Gavin Stevens’s long conver- of their closeness in To Kill a Lee’s rediscovered book manuscript sation with his young nephew Chick Mockingbird, but much has changed will share Scout’s sense of betrayal Mallison at the end of Faulkner’s since Scout and her brother Jem be- when Atticus calmly sits at a table Intruder in the Dust (1948). In defend- friended Boo Radley and faced Bob with William Willoughby, a racist ing Lucas Beauchamp, Stevens says Ewell’s attack in 1930s Maycomb. who “spewed filth from his mouth.” he is “defending Sambo from the Jem dies suddenly two years before Because the room is filled with “men North and East and West—the out- the opening of Go Set a Watchman, of substance and character, respon- landers who will fling him decades and Scout wonders if she would feel sible men, good men,” Scout feels back . . . by forcing on us laws based alienated even from Jem if he were that “All of Maycomb and Maycomb on the idea that man’s injustice to still alive. The Finches’ close friend County were leaving her as the man can be abolished overnight by Dill, who promised to marry Jean hours passed.” police.” “Sambo” isn’t the N-word, Louise when they grew up, now

Page 24 Winter 2016 The Southern Register lives in Italy after serving in the military. Henry Clinton, UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI a character new to Go Set a Watchman, is Jean Louise’s ro- mantic interest and a longtime protégée of Atticus Finch. As a teenager, Hank stopped the seventh-grader Scout Conversations with Barry Hannah from jumping off the town water tower when she naively Edited by James G. Thomas, Jr. feared a classmate’s kiss would make her pregnant. Scout Collected interviews from 1980 is not a social snob like her Aunt Alexandra, who disap- – 2010 with one of the most proves of the young lawyer because “we Finches do not important writers of modern marry the children of rednecked trash.” But Hank’s pres- American literature ence with Atticus at the Citizens’ Council meeting seems $25 paperback to destroy any chance that Scout will accept his latest marriage proposal. Although the conservative politics of Atticus, Hank, The Amazing and Uncle Jack Finch have occasioned much negative Crawfish Boat commentary on Go Set a Watchman, the Citizens’ Council By John Laudun is not mentioned until chapter 8, one hundred pag- The remarkable story of es into the novel. Scout’s disillusionment in the court- the Cajuns and Germans of room gallery is a turning point from the relative lightness Louisiana who conquered of the earlier chapters, which describe recent changes the rice fields and spawned in Maycomb, Scout’s spontaneous swim with Hank at an aquaculture bonanza Finch’s Landing, and a Sunday service at the Maycomb $30 Methodist Church. But humorous episodes with Scout at ages eleven, twelve, and fourteen interrupt the serious dis- Lines Were Drawn cussions that follow Scout’s crisis in the courthouse. Like Remembering Court-Ordered To Kill a Mockingbird, this second Maycomb chronicle re- Integration at a Mississippi lates the end of innocence, for children and adults. A rac- High School ist’s brutal attack breaks Jem Finch’s arm in the first book; Edited by Teena F. Horn, Alan in Go Set a Watchman, Atticus’s carefully reasoned racism Huffman and John Griffin Jones breaks Scout Finch’s heart. Oral histories gathered by three graduates of a major high school Joan Wylie Hall in Jackson $35

Rough South, Rural South Studying Appalachian Studies: Making Region and Class in Recent Southern Literature the Path by Walking Edited by Jean W. Cash and Keith Perry Edited by Chad Berry, Phillip J. Obermiller, A critical companion to the and Shauna L. Scott. Champaign: University of striking variety of contemporary southern literature Illinois Press, 2015. 240 pages. $95.00 cloth $65 and $25.00 paper. Fifty Years after Faulkner About forty years after the rise of Appalachian studies, Edited by Jay Watson and Studying Appalachian Studies offers a history and assess- Ann J. Abadie ment of the field. The seed for the edited volume was Essays that reassess Faulkner’s planted in 2008 during a meeting of scholars who hoped life and career a half century to offer a critical evaluation as well as suggestions for fu- after his death ture directions. The three editors of the volume, all past $65 presidents of the Appalachian Studies Association, have facilitated a book project that underscores the promises and challenges of place-based, interdisciplinary study. ALSO AVAILABLE AS EBOOKS Appalachian Studies has its roots in the reform movements of the early twentieth century, when social work- www.upress.state.ms.us ers, missionaries, and educators began meeting annually 800-737-7788 as the Council of the Southern Mountain Workers (CSM)

SouthernRegisterWinter2016.indd 1 1/19/16 11:31 AM The Southern Register Winter 2016 Page 25 to study, document, and discuss center/food court/regional rebrand- the life of people who lived in the ing project” along I-77 in West Mountain South. In the 1960s the Virginia. And he ponders the mean- CSM oversaw the implementation of ing of Cumberland Gap, where the federal antipoverty programs during National Park Service and Federal President Johnson’s War on Poverty. Highway Administration recently re- During the upheaval of the 1960s so- moved highways and “restored” the cial movements, the council’s mem- landscape to appear as it might have bership shifted, with more activists to eighteenth-century frontiersmen. and local people taking the reins. In In this entertaining chapter, Reichert 1969, youth activists spearheaded an Powell offers a model for how schol- Appalachian Free University, and the ars might examine landscapes and year following scholars and activists community past and present and organized a conference to develop “put forward in a public way a ver- an Appalachian studies curriculum sion of the region that includes a vi- with a focus on teaching Appalachian sion of the region: both what it is history, confronting stereotypes and and what it could be.” economic exploitation, and foster- The editors close the volume by ing pride in Appalachian culture. In “reconsidering Appalachian studies.” contrast to Jack Weller’s 1965 history They note the strength of the field, of the region, Yesterday’s People, they measured by the ten cohorts of stu- titled the conference “Tomorrow’s article examines representations of dents who, with broad and interdisci- People,” identifying themselves as Appalachia in scholarly studies, and plinary training, have gone on to en- current-day political actors, not a peo- she concludes by calling for “a little rich all sectors of society. They also ple stuck in time. Building on this and theoretical ferment” in the field. She suggest areas for future study, includ- other scholar-activist collaborations, argues that the two major paradigms ing research on urban and suburban historian Richard Drake helped to or- in Appalachian studies—one that focus- spaces as well as middle-class people ganize the first Appalachian Studies es on political economy (internal colo- in the region; the impact of migra- Conference in 1978 (what would ny versus world systems models) and tion in Appalachia; and the success become the Appalachian Studies the other cultural explorations (who or limitations of regional economic Association). Throughout the 1970s counts as Appalachian?)—obscure as development schemes. Lastly, they and 1980s scholars in the region de- much as they illuminate. Moreover, call for scholars to continue the tra- veloped Appalachian studies pro- such paradigms prevent examinations dition of collaboration across fields grams and centers at numerous pub- of “noncapitalist economic relations” and community-based research. lic and private institutions of higher as well as the “relational construction As a scholar straddling learning, and many also published of inequality.” Smith calls for new lines Appalachian and Southern Studies, journals and magazines. As the edi- of inquiry, new frameworks that allow I could not help but compare the tors of the volume show in a com- for complex identities, and “an ethos . two fields. Southern Studies is less parative chapter, the development . . that valorizes reflexivity and critical firmly rooted in social and political of Appalachian studies paralleled or exchange.” movements. Here, I think Southern overlapped with other interdisciplin- In a chapter on “imagining Studies could take lessons from ary fields, including women’s studies, Appalachia,” Douglass Reichert Appalachian studies, especially the African American studies, and New Powell takes the reader on a tour of ethos of participatory action and West studies. three Appalachian locales and seeks community-based research. At the The volume examines the em- to define what makes a region and same time, Southern Studies schol- phases in Appalachian studies pro- what role scholars play in imagin- ars have been less hesitant to trouble grams and research: issues surrounding and reimagining Appalachia. the boundaries of “the South” (and ing identity, culture, community He examines development efforts in who is southern), leading them to ex- and economic development. It also Scottsboro, Alabama, where locals amine the role of mythmaking in the wrestles with some of the problems have distanced themselves from the region and to develop frameworks that arise in interdisciplinary study trial of the Scottsboro Nine and infor the study of the Global South. and in a field committed to partici- stead draw tourists to a warehouse This scholar hopes to see more col- patory democracy. Lastly, several of of unclaimed baggage, the “place- laboration between Appalachian and the authors offer directions for future less, wandering stuff, a global lost- Southern Studies, a relationship that study and challenges to scholars of and-found, the anti-place.” He rev- could lead to fruitful exchange. Appalachia. els in the rustic, folksy charm of Sociologist Barbara Ellen Smith’s Tamarak, a “craft store/conference Jessica Wilkerson

Page 26 Winter 2016 The Southern Register continued from 2, Director’s Column CONTRIBUTORS BOOKS OF NOTE and faculty and administrators from the periods of their found- Brett J. Bonner is the editor of ing. And imagine that when uni- Living Blues magazine. Conversations with versity chaplain Will Campbell, a Rebecca Lauck Cleary is the young Baptist preacher, considered Barry Hannah Center’s senior staff assistant and guests for Religious Emphasis Week website administrator. She received a in the 1950s, he could have invited Edited by James G. Thomas, Jr. BA in journalism from the University of Mississippi and is currently at work his friend Martin Luther King Jr., a Jackson: University Press on her MA in Southern Studies. slightly younger Baptist preacher, to of Mississippi, 2015. 243 come over from Montgomery. When William Griffith is curator of Rowan Medgar Evers applied to law school, Oak. pages. $80.00 printed and when James Meredith applied casebinding, $25.00 paper. Joan Wylie Hall teaches in the for undergraduate admission, they English Department at the University would have joined the university Between Conversations with of Mississippi. She is the author of without challenge, because qualified Barry Hannah Shirley Jackson: A Study of the Short 1972 and African Americans had been coming e dited by james G. t homas, j r. Fiction and articles on Tennessee 2001, Barry Williams, William Faulkner, Grace to the University of Mississippi for Hannah King, Frances Newman, and other almost one hundred years. (1942–2010) authors. All this imagining can be diffi- published cult, because it isn’t and shouldn’t be Ted Ownby, director of the eight nov- easy to imagine all other things stay- Center, holds a joint appointment els and four in Southern Studies and history. He ing the same while the University of collections is the author of American Dreams in Mississippi was an essentially differ- of short Mississippi: Consumers, Poverty, and ent place. One can quickly start to stories. A Culture, 1830–1998, and Subduing imagine lots of other what-if questions master of Satan: Religion, Recreation and Manhood to complicate such an exercise. But short fiction, in the Rural South, 1865–1920, and if African Americans had started at- Hannah is considered by many to editor of Black and White: Cultural tending the University of Mississippi be one of the most important writ- Interaction in the Antebellum South. in the 1870s, we can imagine that dis- ers of modern American literature. cussions of race, power, inclusiveness, His writing is often praised more Kelley Norris is a communica- and trust and mistrust would have tions specialist at the University of for its unflinching use of language, been drastically different. Imagining Mississippi. rich metaphors, and tragically dam- the University of Mississippi in this aged characters than for plot. “I am James G. Thomas, Jr. is the Center’s way probably means imagining it doomed to be a more lengthy frag- associate director for publications. He with some different symbols because is editor of the Center’s online jour- mentist,” he once claimed. “In my the context of and participants in nal, , and was man- thoughts, I don’t ever come on to Study the South those discussions would have been aging editor of twenty-four volume plot in a straightforward way.” substantially different. New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Conversations with Barry Hannah This short exercise in imagining Conversations with Barry Hannah is his collects interviews published be- most recent publication. offers no solutions to contemporary tween 1980 and 2010. Within them issues of race on college campuses, Hannah engages interviewers in dis- Jay Watson is a professor of English but it leads to one suggestion. Trying cussions on war and violence, mas- at the University of Mississippi to make universities more diverse and director of the Faulkner and culinity, religious faith, abandoned and inclusive is not just about who’s Yoknapatawpha Conference. His and unfinished writing projects, the publications include Forensic Fictions: on campus. A more diverse and modern South and his time spent The Lawyer Figure in Faulkner, Faulkner inclusive university means a wid- away from it, the South’s obses- and Whiteness, and Reading for the er range of voices getting to decide sion with defeat, the value of teach- Body: The Recalcitrant Materiality of what the most important questions ing writing, and post-Faulknerian Southern Fiction, 1893–1985. are and how best to answer them, literature. Jessica Wilkerson is an assistant pro- how to teach about them, and how “When you think about it, often it fessor of history and Southern Studies to consider what to do in response. is not the profundity of an idea, but at the University of Mississippi. its sheer velocity.”—Barry Hannah Ted Ownby

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