the

the newsletter of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture • Spring 2012 the university of mississippi Southern Foodways Alliance Brings Home Three IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) Major Awards

Three recent awards brought attention graphs—that Amy Evans Streeter and to documentary work by the Southern others have collected are a model for Foodways Alliance. In May, John T. Edge a single-subject oral history collection. won the M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished And John T.’s writing is impressive both Writing Award from the James Beard in what he has to say and how it reaches Foundation for Excellence. The foun- so many people.” dation gave the award for Edge’s article The awards came simultaneously with “BBQ Nation: The Preservation of a other news about publications. The Culinary Art Form,” which appeared in University of Georgia Press published Saveur in May 2011. Edge adopted the the sixth edition of Cornbread Nation: article from a Charleston lecture he had The Best of Southern Food Writing, edit- delivered at the University of North ed by Brett Anderson with Sara Camp International Association of Culinary Carolina. Just a month earlier, the SFA Arnold, in May. This summer Arnold, Professionals’s New Media Awards win- won two New Media Awards from the who has been working with the food ner Amy Evans Streeter International Association of Culinary letter Gravy, joins the SFA full time as Professionals. One award was given for a content manager to work with SFA the oral history audio clips on the SFA’s publications. summer. Cooley will continue in the website. The other, for “Intriguing Use Other important news from the SFA postdoctoral position in 2012–2013. of New Technology,” was awarded for includes teaching. For the second year, Summer and fall of 2012 will be im- the iPhone app called “SFA Stories.” Streeter will lead a workshop this sum- portant seasons for the SFA, with mul- Center director Ted Ownby con- mer on oral history methods for food- tiple events, including a Potlikker Film gratulated the SFA for the prizes, tak- ways. Last fall, Southern Studies 555, Festival at the Big Apple Barbecue ing note of the long-term projects that taught by postdoctoral teaching fellow Block Party in New York and the SFA led to the awards. “People at the Center Jill Cooley, brought together 20 stu- Field Trip in eastern North Carolina. don’t work to win prizes, and they usu- dents. Two of those, Kirsten Schofield Those events will lead up to the ally don’t pause very long to celebrate and Susie Penman, defended MA the- SFA symposium on barbecue culture when they win them. But winning an ses on foodways topics this spring, October 19–21, which will present new award is a good way to acknowledge a and another, Patrick Weems, wrote films, including an hour-long feature by lot of inspired and creative work, and a paper about a community garden in Joe York, set to debut in the fall. we’re glad when people notice. The Greenwood, which he will be present- stories—with text, audio, and photo- ing at a food studies conference this the D i r e c t o r ’ s C o l u m n

Published Quarterly by From one spot in front of Barnard Observatory one can see at least 10 markers and The Center for the Study of Southern Culture memorials. First, there are ours, a marker for the Barnard Observatory building itself The University of Mississippi and another, part of the Mississippi Blues Trail, for Documenting the Blues. Across Telephone: 662-915-5993 the street, next to Farley Hall are two signs, one for the site of a building that served Fax: 662-915-5814 E-mail: [email protected] as a Civil War morgue, and the other marking the university as an important site in www.southernstudies.olemiss.edu the history of journalism. Beside Farley Hall is a bench dedicated to Paul Guihard, www.facebook.com/SouthernStudies the journalist killed during the anti-integration riot on campus in 1962. In the other direction is the arch marking the Walk of Champions, commemorating a successful IN THIS ISSUE University of Mississippi football team. On the side of Ventress Hall is a stained-glass Spring 2012 window scene of the Civil War, and beyond that building is a statue of a Confederate 1 Southern Foodways Alliance Brings Home soldier. Less immediately obvious is a tree planted in honor of Mae Bertha Carter, Three Major Awards 2 Director’s Column whose children were among the first to desegregate all-white schools in the Mississippi 3 Living Blues News Delta (many of those children later came to the University of Mississippi). Beyond the 3 Marian Wright Edelman Speaks at UM Carter tree is a sign commemorating the importance of the Lyceum in the life of the 5 Southern Studies Students Win Awards, Take Master of Arts Degrees University of Mississippi, and at nearby Bryant Hall a sign points out that the catalpa 5 Gammill Gallery Exhibition Schedule tree is likely the largest and oldest of its kind in Mississippi. 6 Graduate Student Seminar Yields Gammill From this spot, one can almost see a few more markers and monuments. Down the Gallery Exhibition 8 15th Southern Foodways Symposium hill from Barnard is a sign commemorating the work of historian James Silver, au- Focuses on Barbecue thor of Mississippi: The Closed Society. If it were possible to look beyond the Lyceum, 8 SFA Oral History News one could also see the James Meredith statue, and beyond the library, one could see 9 Craig Claiborne Exhibition Debuts trees with plaques marking the work of three great writers who taught at the univer- 10 June Course to Bridge Foodways Scholarship and Public Policy, Examining Social Inequality sity—Barry Hannah, Josephine Haxton, and Willie Morris. in Mississippi These markers and monuments come to mind when, as frequently happens, I 10 Chris Fullerton Graduate Fellowship Awarded find myself answering questions about what the Center for the Study of Southern 11 Filmmaker Tells Mississippi Stories 12 Southern Studies Alumni Working in Culture does. My impression is that many of the people asking that question assume Education that the things university groups have identified as worthy of a sign are likely the 13 A Report on Southern Studies Graduate things we at the Center emphasize most. The Civil War and the civil rights move- Students, Past and Present 14 Mose Allison Albums Donated to Blues ment certainly work as starting points for thinking about the South, and mixing in Archive literature, music, the environment, and some football makes a good start for cours- 14 Julian and Kathryn Wiener Endowment to es in Southern Studies. Markers and memorials themselves can help raise questions Support SST Student Internships about the meaning of cultural representation. When I teach about public history, I 15 The Music of the South Symposium 16 Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference always ask why it is important to put up signs and statues, and students give what Update I take to be the right answer—some group wanted a permanent reflection of some- 17 Faulkner Studies Scholarship Brings thing they thought was important. Many students address the political aspects of Columbus State Faculty and Students to UM for Conference cultural symbols, seeing markers and monuments as arguments for particular per- 17 Faulkner Newsletter & Yoknapatawpha Review spectives, and the issue of how to memorialize events that are troubling, controver- Now Online sial, and even traumatic always raises important questions. 18 2012 Mississippi Delta Literary Tour, March 18–21 But along with markers and memorials and what they may ask and represent, I al- 20 The 19th Oxford Conference for the Book ways try to emphasize that Southern Studies is not bound by what anybody decides is 22 Southern Studies on the Road most important about the South or how to study it. This issue of the Southern Register 23 CSSC Launches New Website provides a quick way to think about the range of topics Southern Studies students, 23 Mark Your Calendars! 23 In Memorium faculty, and staff are pursuing. The Civil War and civil rights movement are the sub- 24 Reading the South jects of scholarship on L.Q.C. Lamar, music and the Civil War, mental health is- 29 20th Annual Williams Festival Set for sues and civil rights workers, and Natchez activist Marge Baroni. An edited collec- October 12 and 13 30 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters tion on Faulkner, student work on Tennessee Williams, and newly digitized issues of Announces Award Winners Living Blues all have connections to markers and memorials as well. But along with 31 Contributors those topics, this issue mentions scholarship on 1980s independent rock musicians, Register Staff Mississippi fiddle traditions, GLBT communities in Memphis, foodways oral his- tories, the Scopes Trial and memories of it, self-identifying Southern chain restau- Editor: James G. Thomas Jr. rants, restaurant employees, feminist issues in South Carolina, the Creek War, and Graphic Designer: Susan Bauer Lee Mailing List Manager: Mary Hartwell Howorth a book using photography to document contemporary small towns. Newly published Lithographer: RR Donnelley Magazine Group and soon-to-be published volumes of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture make The University complies with all applicable laws regard- clear that Southern Studies tries hard to study a wide and changing variety of topics. ing affirmative action and equal opportunity in all its ac- tivities and programs and does not discriminate against anyone protected by law because of age, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex, or status as a veteran continued on page 17 or disabled veteran.

Page 2 Spring 2012 The Southern Register Living Blues News This issue marks the launch of our new Collins, and his strong, aggressive guitar digital edition of Living Blues. The print attack and tone can’t help but remind edition of LB will remain the same great you of him. Gates is as real as they get, magazine you’ve always loved, but now and if you haven’t heard his music you we will be offering an online edition owe it to yourself to give it a listen. that you can look at on your desktop, The young California guitarist Kirk laptop, reader, or even smart phone. We Fletcher is really coming into his own. are so excited about the digital launch A highly skilled guitarist, Fletcher is that we are offering this issue (April/ an in-demand sideman and session May #218) for free. Go to www.living- man, but with three releases under his blues.com and check it out. Just click belt he is ready to step out on his own. on the cover and join us in the digi- Roscoe Chenier is the cousin of leg- tal world! If you like what you see, you endary zydeco master Clifton Chenier. can subscribe with our special intro- For over 50 years now Roscoe has been ductory price of $15. Special thanks one of the leading guitarists in the and congratulations go out to Gary Lafayette/Opelousas area of south cen- Cunningham of the United Kingdom tral Louisiana. This issue also features February 25, 2012. Iverson Minter was for being the first digital subscriber our annual Living Blues Festival Guide. born in 1932 in Bessemer, Alabama, to Living Blues. It has been a mild winter across most and first recorded for Chess in 1949. He In this issue we revisit one of blues’ of the United States. As I sit here writ- recorded over 50 albums through the most popular artists, Joe Louis Walker. ing this on the last day of winter, it is years, but as he moved to Germany in Walker has been in LB several times be- supposed to hit 85 degrees today. Heck, 1981, many U.S. blues fans never got to fore, but his career continues to expand it’s been over 80 in Chicago five days see him live. A full obituary will appear and his recent signing with Alligator in a row . . . in winter. But it has been a in LB #219. The LB family also lost Records should make his new CD one cold winter in the blues world. We have one of our own a few weeks ago. Maria of the most successful of his long career. lost a remarkable number of blues musi- McGowan, who worked at the office Milwaukee-based bluesman Lee Gates cians, and for true fans of the blues it has in the mid-1990s, died on February 20, has been a favorite of mine since I heard been a sad time. Our latest loss is of one 2012. She was 43. his first recording on the Music Maker of the most creative men in the blues, label. Gates is the cousin of Albert the unique Louisiana Red, who died on Brett J. Bonner Marian Wright Edelman Speaks at UM Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Margaret Wright Children’s Defense Fund and veteran of Edelman and the civil rights movement, spoke on George Lapides, February 21 at an event bridging Black who covered History Month and Women’s History Robert Kennedy’s Month and as a part of the University’s trip to the “Opening the Closed Society” com- Mississippi Delta memoration of 50 years of integra- for the Memphis tion. The speech was funded through Press Scimitar the Endowment for the Future of the South. Edelman addressed topics in- cluding child poverty, early childhood education, teacher training, and the importance of advocacy. Earlier in the day, Edelman ap- peared on a panel moderated by Ellen Edelman spoke about experiences dur- be admitted to the Mississippi bar), and Meacham entitled “RFK: Revisiting ing Robert F. Kennedy’s 1967 tour of she served as a guide for Kennedy dur- the Delta” at the Overby Center for the Delta to assess issues of poverty and ing his tour. Southern Journalism and Politics. malnutrition. At the time of Kennedy’s To watch a film of Edelman’s speech, Along with Owen Brooks, James visit Edelman was an NAACP lawyer visit www.southernstudiesatuofm.tum- Figgs, Nick Kotz, and George Lapides, in the state (the first black woman to blr.com.

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 3 Faulkner’s World: The Photographs of Martin J. Dain—A Traveling Exhibition

The photographs of Martin Dain pro- vide a unique journey into the world of William Faulkner. Taken between 1961 and 1963, Dain’s photographs portray Faulkner at home as well as provide a comprehensive look at the people and cultural traditions that inspired him. This collection provides an extraordi- nary window through which to view community history and from which to reflect on culture and change in Oxford and the surrounding area. As the exhi- bition discusses and interprets the lega- cy of William Faulkner, it also provides an opportunity to prompt community dialogue.

for the Study of Southern Culture. The Faulkner, and African American Culture, exhibition has 36 16" x 20" black-and- produced by Lisa N. Howorth. The exhibition opened at the white photographs and 4 text panels, Faulkner’s World is currently on dis- University of Mississippi in 1997 and presented in 24" by 30" frames. play at the Columbus-Lowndes Public traveled for two years as part of the A book of the Dain photographs, Library (May-June) and will be at the Faulkner Centennial Celebration, had published by the Center and the Lafayette County and Oxford Public an encore tour in 2007 in conjunction University Press of Mississippi, is avail- Library in July and August and at with the Mississippi Reads project ad- able with the exhibition. Oxford author the Lee County Library in Tupelo in ministered through the Mississippi Larry Brown wrote the foreword for the September and October. Library Commission, and is once again book. Tom Rankin, editor of the book Persons interested in scheduling the available, this time for libraries, muse- and curator of the exhibition, wrote the traveling exhibition of Dain photo- ums, and cultural centers in Mississippi introduction, which examines Dain’s graphs should contact Mary Hartwell and surrounding states. Faulkner’s life and career as a photographer. Also Howorth by e-mail (mheh@olemiss World: The Photographs of Martin J. Dain included is the DVD “Are You Walkin’ .edu) or telephone (662-915-5993). was curated and produced by the Center with Me?” Sister Thea Bowman, William

Page 4 Spring 2012 The Southern Register Southern Studies Students Win Awards, Take Master of Arts Degrees Andy Harper 2011–12 Awards

Lucille and Motee Daniels Award for the best thesis or the- ses in Southern Studies: Susie Penman, “Cracker Barrel’s Culture: Exporting the South on America’s Interstate Exits,” and Eva Walton, “Nothing Less than an Activist: Marge Baroni, Catholicism, and the Natchez, Mississippi, Civil Rights Movement.”

Lucille and Motee Daniels Award for the best first-year pa- Two new Southern Studies MA per: Joey Thompson, “Good Old Rebels: Un-Reconstructed grads, Eva Walton, left, and Amy Southerners in Post–Civil War Popular Song.” Ulmer, on Graduation Day

Peter Aschoff Award for the best paper on Southern mu- Theses and Internships sic: Jamison Hollister’s Southern Studies thesis, “Mississippi Breakdown: A New Look at Mississippi Old-Time Fiddle Camilla Aikin Music.” “We Didn’t Get Famous: The Story of the Southern Music Underground, 1978–1990” (thesis and film) Ann Abadie Award for the best work in documentary media: Joey Thompson, for the documentary photography collection Danielle Andersen called South of 6. “Nonviolent Bodies and the Experience of Breakdown in the American Movement for Civil Rights” Gray Award: Caroline Gillespie, “Felder Rushing as a Creative, Unconventional Southern Gardener.” Kari Edwards “Six Days of Twenty-Four Hours: The Scopes Trial, Anti­ Coterie Award: Chris Colbeck, “Frolic, Freedom, and evolutionism, and the Last Crusade of William Jennings Bryan” Nearly Forgotten: African American Fiddling and the Blues Tradition.” Nell Knox Internship: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

Susan Penman “Cracker Barrel’s Culture: Exporting the South on America’s Interstates”

Kirsten Schofield “Y’all Eat: Foodways, Performative Regional Identity, and the South in the 21st Century”

Amy Ulmer Exhibition Schedule “Place, Race, and Religion in the Local Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Movement in Memphis, Tennessee”

Eva Walton June 18–September 7, 2012 “Nothing Less Than an Activist: Marge Baroni, Catholicism, Photographs from the Small Town South and the Natchez, Mississippi, Civil Rights Movement” David Wharton Brian Wilson “Only Nixon Could Go to China: L.Q.C. Lamar and the Politics of Reconciliation” The Gammill Gallery, located in Barnard Observatory, is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., except Jamison Hollister for University holidays. Telephone: 662-915-5993. “Mississippi Breakdown: A New Look at Mississippi Old-Time Fiddle Music”

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 5 Graduate Student Seminar Yields Gammill Gallery Exhibition The photographs in the March 30–June 15, 2012, Gammill Gallery exhibition Making Space, Living in Place: Physical, Cultural, and Social Landscapes of the Mid-South are by students in the Fall 2011 Southern Studies seminar on documentary photography and oral history, taught by David Wharton. The semester-long assignment for the class’s 13 students was to pho- tograph and record interviews with Southerners that addressed interactions between people and their physical environment. This work yielded a variety of images, ranging from straightfor- ward landscapes and pictures of the built environment to por- traiture and photographs of people at work and play. At the end of the semester, each student compiled a book that included about 20 of his/her photographs, along with information col- lected in oral history form. The following is a selection of pho- tographs from the exhibition.

Meghan Holmes, Eugene at Kroger, Oxford, Mississippi

Joey Thompson, Church, Abbeville, Mississippi

Chelsea Wright, Honors College Reflection University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi Roy Button, “BEAUTIFUL,” Birmingham, Alabama

Page 6 Spring 2012 The Southern Register Kathryn Bailey Father and Son Livestock Auction Pontotoc County, Mississippi

Matthieu Dessier Sunlight through Gate North Lamar Boulevard Oxford, Mississippi

Caroline Croom Flowers on Grave Oxford, Mississippi

Kathryn Radishofski Mavis Staples’s Room Riverside Hotel Clarksdale, Mississippi

Mel Lasseter Overalls Amboy, Georgia

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 7 15th Southern SFA Oral History Foodways Symposium News

Focuses on Barbecue Sophia Sorich March 15, 2012 The 15th Southern Foodways Symposium will be staged Sara Wood, an MFA can- October 19–21 in Oxford and on the campus of the University didate in creative writ- of Mississippi. This year’s programming theme is barbecue. ing (nonfiction) at UNC– To support that focus, SFA oral historians, led by Amy Evans Wilmington, is this year’s Streeter, have been collecting stories in North Carolina and oral history intern. The Arkansas, among other locales. This summer, SFA filmmaker function of this intern- Joe York will complete two new short documentaries on bar- ship is to mentor students becue. And come June, SFA members will trek to the eastern in the field of oral histo- flank of North Carolina for a sold-out Field Trip to that state’s ry, offering scholars the Sara Wood whole hog palaces. opportunity to visit SFA

Denny Culbert headquarters at the University of Mississippi to learn SFA- devised methods and practices as they relate to the field. Sara will be working with SFA oral historian Amy Evans Streeter in Oxford later this summer.

April 2, 2012 SFA received two awards from the International Association of Culinary Professionals at their annual awards gala in New York City: • New Media Award: Short Audio Program for our oral his- tory audio clips • New Media Award: Intriguing Use of New Technology: iPhone app “SFA Stories” James Howell in the cooler with pigs May 1, 2012 Fourteen students from across the country were select- The symposium, which serves as a culmination to that work ed to participate in the SFA’s 2nd Annual Oral History and those events, provides opportunities for thinkers, writ- Workshop. Two of those students were selected to receive ers, cooks, and eaters to come to a better understanding of minority scholarships to attend the workshop: American regional culinary culture. Lectures and performanc- • Lan Truong—Master’s candidate, Plant Science— es, staged on the University of Mississippi campus, as well as Lehman College, City University of New York, Bronx, in Oxford, at the Lyric Theatre and the Powerhouse, are am- New York. “I aim to document the ethnobotanical food plified by informal lunches and dinners, served in and around traditions of my culture and evaluate its changing status,” the town. says Truong. “This documentation is integral to my re- Featured speakers for 2012 include four novelists: Monique search. Vietnamese knowledge transmission is tradition- Truong, author of Bitter in the Mouth; Randall Kenan, author ally oral in nature. Documenting their oral history will of A Visitation of Spirits; George Singleton, author of Workshirts ensure knowledge is preserved for future generations to for Madmen; and John Dufresne, author of Louisiana Power and discover and enjoy.” Light. • Kimber Thomas—PhD candidate, Afro-American Chefs and pitmasters featured include Drew Robinson of Studies—UCLA. “My research interests include Jim ’N Nick’s in Birmingham, Alabama; Vinny Dotolo and Southern African American culture, foodways, and folk- Jon Shook of Animal in Los Angeles, California; Ashley lore, and the ways in which such works express the sto- Christensen of Poole’s Diner in Raleigh, North Carolina; Pat ries and the history of the African American experience,” Martin of Martin’s BBQ Joint in Nolensville, Tennessee; Matt says Thomas. “I am interested in oral history because I am Neal of Neal’s Deli in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Ed interested in learning about history from the unique per- Mitchell, who will soon open a restaurant down the road in spectives of those who lived it.” Durham. Tickets to the symposium will go on sale in early August The minority scholarships are made possible through the and are expected to sell out very fast: www.southernfoodways. generous support of SFA member Edward Lee of Louisville, org. Kentucky. Look for a report on the workshop to appear in the next issue.

Page 8 Spring 2012 The Southern Register

Craig Claiborne Exhibition Debuts

This summer the Southern Foodways Courtesy of Marion and Claiborne Barnwell Alliance debuts its second traveling ex- hibition, Craig Claiborne: Food Journalism Pioneer & Arbiter of Culinary Culture. The first stop, in June, will be University of Mississippi’s Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics. The eight-panel exhibition follows Craig Claiborne’s life from his birth in Sunflower, Mississippi, in 1920, to his death in New York City in 2000. It highlights how he spurred America’s in- terest in all things culinary and trans- formed food journalism. When the New York Times named Claiborne food editor in 1957, he be- came the first man to hold that position. His columns and cookbooks—most no- tably The New York Times Cook Book of 1961—challenged readers to undertake such foreign dishes as pho and yakitori. Craig Claiborne at the Claiborne’s adoption of the star system New York Times and insistence on honest reviews forever changed restaurant criticism. “He made food respectable,” said Julia Child. 2009 SFA hosted a celebration of Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne When the nation began to rediscover Craig Claiborne at the Astor Center in and the American Food Renaissance. the import of regional food, Claiborne New York City, during which the cur- The exhibition is underwritten extolled the Southern fare served at his rent New York Times restaurant critic, by grants from the Mississippi Arts mother’s boarding house in Indianola, Pete Wells, moderated a panel that in- Commission and Sugaree’s Bakery. Mississippi. Careers boomed when he pro- cluded Jacques Pépin. Later that year Please contact Georgeanna Chapman filed cooks and chefs. Think of Marcella SFA awarded its first Craig Claiborne at [email protected] if Hazan (Italian), Paul Prudhomme Lifetime Achievement Award. you are interested in showing the exhi- (Cajun), and Diana Kennedy (Mexican). Others are taking notice. Last year, bition or have suggestions about where In recent years the Southern the James Beard Foundation created a it should go. Foodways Alliance has worked to ac- Claiborne prize for restaurant criticism. The SFA does not charge a display knowledge and celebrate the life and And this year Thomas McNamee re- fee and welcomes participation from work of this culinary giant. In June leased a new biography, The Man Who partners across the nation.

MEMBERSHIP

name

company

address

city state zip

telephone fax

email Please make checks payable to the Southern Foodways Alliance and mail them to the J $50 student J $75 individual J $100 family Center for the Study of Southern Culture University, MS 38677. J $200 nonprofit institution J $500 corporation

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, VISIT US AT OUR WEB SITE: www.southrnfoodways.com or call John T. Edge, SFA Director, at 662.915.5993 or via E-mail at [email protected]

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 9 June Course to Bridge Foodways Scholarship and Public Policy, Examining Social Inequality in Mississippi The Southern Foodways Alliance team-taught courses provide a unique number represents a growth spurt in (SFA), an institute of the Center for opportunity for students. “From these farmers’ markets, which emphasize the Study of Southern Culture (CSSC), different perspectives of history and small and mid-scale farming operations. will collaborate with the University policy,” she says, “we will consider how This course will explore the impacts of Mississippi Department of Public the nation’s food policy developed his- and policy due to emerging local food Policy Leadership (PPL) to offer a June torically and how public policy contin- economy.” 2012 course entitled “Bringing Food ues to influence American diets.” The course listing is at the gradu- to the People: Food Policy and Social The course will include seminar and ate level, SST/PPL 598, but advanced Inequities in Mississippi.” The course practicum components. Cooley and undergraduates are encouraged to en- will be led by Jill Cooley, postdoctoral Holland have posed the question of roll. The University will offer the fellow and visiting assistant professor at how government policies have shaped course during the first summer term, the SFA, and and Jody Holland, visiting the socioeconomic and political reali- starting June 1 and ending June 27, assistant professor of PPL. ties of north Mississippi. Studies of the with final exams following on June The University of Mississippi is a intersection of race, class, and gender in 28–29. Thanks to funding from the leader in the development of foodways 20th-century Southern history will pro- Chisolm Foundation, the Center and studies as a scholarly discipline, and vide context for understanding historic the SFA will offer additional foodways the UM Public Policy Leadership pro- and contemporary federal policy efforts classes in the fall of 2012 and the spring gram is well known for producing high- to ameliorate hunger and poverty. of 2013. Students interested in enroll- ly effective communicators well versed For the practicum component of the ing in SST/PPL 598 should visit the in policy making from the local to the course, students will examine area farm- website of the Office of the Registrar for global. “With teachers from two com- ers’ markets to gauge the effectiveness more information: www.olemiss.edu/ plementary departments and a compel- of current efforts to revitalize the area depts/registrar/csinfo.html. ling syllabus, the class will, we think, by making local, fresh, healthy foods ac- In fall 2011, the SFA received fund- prove a great primer on the interdisci- cessible to economically disadvantaged ing from the Chisholm Foundation to plinary approaches that can be applied populations. “The U.S. Department of fund the postdoctoral position until to the field,” says John T. Edge, direc- Agriculture estimates between 30,000 2014, guaranteeing more new class op- tor of the Southern Foodways Alliance. and 50,000 farmers currently sell at tions for students. Cooley notes that interdisciplinary, farmers’ markets,” Holland notes. “This

Chris Fullerton Graduate Fellowship Awarded Several years ago the family and friends ferences and has worked as a gradu- of Chris Fullerton started a fund to ate assistant at the Algernon Sydney honor his memory by supporting a Sullivan Foundation. Joey Thompson Southern Studies graduate student. moved to Oxford with his family from Fullerton, who died at age 29 in a car Austin, Texas, where he was a mem- accident in 1997, graduated with his ber of the Archibalds, a band that re- Southern Studies MA in 1994. The united to play at the Music of the South Chris Fullerton Graduate Fellowship Symposium. will support an incoming graduate stu- Chris Fullerton’s interests includ- dent every two years. ed sports (especially baseball), music For the first time, and with the help (especially rockabilly), issues of race of the Fullerton family, the Center and memory, and humor. After he was able to award the Chris Fullerton completed the Southern Studies pro- Graduate Fellowship this year. The re- gram he worked at Rickwood Field in cipient is Joey Thompson, a first-year Birmingham as a way to continue his student with a degree in anthropol- passions for baseball and Southern his- ogy from the University of Alabama. tory. After his death, friends worked to Thompson has interests in memory, complete efforts Chris had begun to

music, and race, and he is planning to Andy Harper turn his MA thesis into a book, Striking write a thesis on memory, music, and Joey Thompson performing at the Music Out Jim Crow: The Birmingham Black the Civil War. He has already been ac- of the South Symposium in Oxford in Barons. tive presenting papers at academic con- March

Page 10 Spring 2012 The Southern Register Filmmaker Tells Mississippi Stories Andy Harper What do a potter, a banjo player, and a reverend have in common? They have all been featured on Mississippi Stories, the latest series produced by the Media and Documentary Projects Center (MDP) in association with the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Created by producer/director Rex Jones and MDP director Andy Harper, the vi- sual oral histories offer a glimpse into the lives of Mississippians both well known and not so well known. “Andy and I came up with the concept that Mississippi people needed to tell their own stories, and the subjects of these short films are telling them in first per- son,” Jones said. “They are short films that capture the essence of the person. We wanted to paint a cinematic por- trait, so there is a beginning, a mid- Rex Jones conducts an interview on dle, and an end, with plenty of support- Beale Street for Mississippi Stories. ing images. They are beautifully shot, compelling stories about the people all around us.” ing bug when he decided to make a we are in a position to teach and train M.B. Green, an 80-year-old ban- film about an Aberdeen grave dows- students to do just that. This series is jo maker and bluegrass musician from er. He earned an MFA in science and a good first step in Mississippians tell- Louin, Mississippi, shares his experi- natural history filmmaking at Montana ing Mississippi’s stories, and for the next ences of his self-taught banjo career State University and made conserva- year we will be going statewide to get in Cherish the Music. In the poignant tion films, but decided he was tired of these stories and cover our own state So Wonderfully Connected, Merigold, being physically bitten by those bugs. and saving them for posterity.” Mississippi’s internationally recog- “I wanted to tell more interesting sto- People are interested in Mississippians, nized and award-winning potter Lee ries, and that is our function at Media and if they take the time to watch he films McCarty shares insight into his life at and Documentary Projects,” Jones said. they will be moved by them, Jones said. McCarty Pottery and his late wife, Pup. “These short films can be cinematic, “It is important to get these stories before The third, which Jones is still working they can have a narrative arc, they can they are lost. I’m very personally invested on, features the Rev. Samuel “Billy” be high quality, making them a wonder- in the stories, and I get a lot out of docu- Kyles, a native of Shelby, Mississippi, ful way to get to know people. I would menting them. When you put a story to- who was a longtime leader in the civ- never have encountered these people gether, you’re never finished, but you just il rights movement and has been pas- otherwise, and I try to learn something say I’m done when it hits you and the hair tor of the Monumental Baptist Church from them. Each one enriches my life stands up on your arms. You never know in Memphis, Tennessee, since 1959. He and my experiences.” if it’s going to work, but the serendipitous was on the balcony with Martin Luther In the future, the plan is for Mississippi magic is how it all comes together.” King Jr. when he was shot. “When he Stories to be shown on public televi- Other Mississippi Stories will feature a told that story, I got goosebumps, it is sion. “As the flagship liberal arts uni- 100-year-old Yazoo City native and the absolutely spellbinding,” Jones said. versity of the state, we should be en- Natchez native who was the economic Rex Jones worked in the computer gaged in telling stories of the people we and revitalization powerhouse behind industry for 15 years and didn’t know serve,” Harper said. “When I hired Rex, Memphis in May. They are available for much about making movies. However, I knew he knew Mississippi very well. viewing at www.olemissmedia.com. the Hickory, Mississippi, native was With the cinema minor and the doc- bitten by the documentary filmmak- umentary track in Southern Studies, Rebecca Lauck Cleary

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 11 Southern Studies Alumni Working in Education The number of Southern Studies alum- ing in Chicago, the Orange School. Ari teaches history and government at ni working in education continues to said some of the design came from his Mississippi School for Mathematics and grow, and the range of their activities, work in Southern Studies, where he Science in Columbus. from teaching and research to fund- considered the skills Mississippi blues Among Southern Studies alumni who raising, libraries, and communications, performers used in learning to become have recently received PhDs, Brooke seems especially impressive. master musicians. Butler (MA 2004, PhD in cultural At the Music of the South Chuck Yarbrough (MA 1995) won studies at University of California Symposium in March, Ari Frede (MA the John K. Bettersworth Award from Davis) is senior research manager 1996) described plans for an impres- the Mississippi Historical Society as the at a New Orleans communications sive new arts-based school he is design- state’s best teacher of history. Yarbrough firm. Robin Morris (MA 2001, PhD in history at Yale) has accepted a new position as assistant professor of history at Agnes Scott College, and Franky Abbott (MA 2006, PhD at Emory University) will start this fall in a new position in digital humanities at the University of Alabama. Frank Ridgway (BA 1999, PhD in English at the University of Illinois) is teaching English at the University of Cincinnati. Amy Schmidt (MA 2007, PhD in English at the University of Arkansas) is the head of supplemental instruction at her undergraduate institution, Lyon College. Former student Susan Barclay received her PhD in higher education this spring and will begin a new position at the University of Central Arkansas in the fall. Numerous alumni are involved in ed- ucational institutions in positions oth- er than teaching. At least three alumni work in development—Ursula Vesala (MA 1997) at Columbia University, Shawna Dooley (MA 1999) at Mercer University, and Jennifer Lawrence (BA 2009) at the United States Air Force Academy. Others work in new positions in communications using media skills they developed at least in part in the Southern Studies program. Those in- clude Mary Amelia Taylor (MA 2011) at Judson College, Novelette Brown (MA 2011) at the Marist School in Novelette Brown (left, MA 2011) is Atlanta, and Meghan Leonard Stauts currently working at the Marist School in Atlanta, and Meghan Leonard Stauts (MA 2011) at the Walker School, also (MA 2011) is working at the Walker in Atlanta. Steve Jarvis (MA 1996) School, also in Atlanta. is a webmaster for the University of Arkansas School of Law.

Ted Ownby

Page 12 Spring 2012 The Southern Register A Report on Southern Studies Graduate Students, Past and Present

Several students are entering graduate Brian Wilson school or making their way through pro- grams. Carol Wilson (BA 2011) starts work toward a Master of Divinity de- gree at Emory in the fall. Miranda Cully Griffin (MA 2008) just received her Master of Divinity degree at Emory’s Candler School of Theology, and Teresa Parker Farris (MA 2005) is pursuing an interdisciplinary PhD at Tulane in history and art history and working as one of the editors on a history of art in Louisiana. Blount Montgomery (MA 2010) is head- ing to the history PhD program at the University of Alabama, and Jennifer Southern Studies graduate students, Bingo Gunter (MA 2011) is starting the Brian Wilson, left, and Eva Walton, above, with former governor William PhD program in history at the University Eva Walton Winter at the Natchez Literary and of South Carolina. Brian Wilson (MA Cinema Celebration 2012) moves from Southern Studies to political science here at the University of Mississippi. At least three students success- Tennessee Williams’s Delta Plays” at the fully completed their comprehensive ex- University of North Alabama’s Graduate ams this year—Ben Gilstrap (MA 2009) Conference in English in November, in the University of Mississippi’s history and Patrick Weems, with support from program, Cathryn Stout (MA 2011) in the Southern Foodways Alliance, will American studies at St. Louis University, travel to the Global Gateways and and Aaron Rollins (MA 2009) in public Left to right, Bill Ferris, Robert Ferris Local Connections conference in New policy at Mississippi State. Eva Walton Thompson, and Teresa Parker Farris York this summer to give a paper on (MA 2012) will be teaching in her first at a New Orleans Jazz and Heritage the community garden in Greenwood, year in the Teach for America program Foundation event Mississippi. Two students gave papers at in Alabama. And at the University of the Auburn Montgomery Liberal Arts Massachusetts, the American studies de- Beacon, by MA student Camilla Ann Conference in February. Kaitlyn Hodges partment awarded Andrew Mullins (BA Aikin, along with Aristide LeFeve and presented “The Causes, Course, and 2010) the American Studies Award for Abby Olivier, and Yokna, by MA stu- Consequences of the Creek War,” and Academic Excellence for his graduate dent Gretchen Wood along with Field Kari Edwards presented “Six Days of thesis “The Voudous or the Legislature: Humphrey and Southern Studies alum Twenty-Four Hours: The Scopes Trial, White Representations of New Orleans Katie Watson (BA 2011). MA alumni Antievolutionism, and the Last Crusade Voodoo in Newspapers, 1870–1890.” Joe York (2006), Tyler Keith (2011), and of William Jennings Bryan.” Eva Walton, Current Southern Studies MA students Rory Fraser (2009) also showed films at Brian Wilson, and Danielle Andersen at- have been active presenting their schol- the Oxford Film Festival, and Rory’s film tended the Natchez Literary and Cinema arly work in a range of settings from on- The Saint won an award for best short Celebration in February. Here on campus, campus symposia to national conferenc- documentary. several students presented papers at the es to film festivals. Nine current students Among current students trying out Sarah Isom Center’s Gender Studies con- were on discussion panels, showed films, their ideas at academic conferences, Joey ference, including Kathryn Radishofski, or made music at the Center’s Music of Thompson gave a paper called “Good Old presenting “These Days Got Everybody the South Symposium in March, and Rebels: Race, Memory, and Identity in Troubled: Blues Tourism, Authenticity, several presented parts of their theses at Post–Civil War Popular Song” at a sympo- and the Postmodern Racial Backlash Brown Bag talks this spring. In February sium at the University of South Carolina, in Clarksdale, Mississippi,” and M.E. the Oxford Film Festival showed nine and he was recently awarded a short-term Lasseter, discussing “Andrew Bird and the films by students who are either alumni research fellowship by the University of Mysterious Investigation of Institutional of the Southern Studies program or stu- Alabama’s Frances S. Summersell Center Oppression: A Critical Analysis of ‘Fake dents in the documentary studies class for the Study of the South. Michelle Palindromes.’” taught by David Wharton and Andy Bright presented “Selling the Dream: Harper. Included in the festival were The The Commoditization of Memory in Ted Ownby

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 13 Julian and Kathryn Mose Allison Albums Wiener Endowment Donated to Blues Archive to Support SST Jazz legend Mose Allison Kevin Bain Student Internships may not “worry about a thing,” and he doesn’t A newly active endowment will make it have to worry about a easier for Southern Studies students to home for his albums, ei- pursue internships. Kathryn Wiener, a ther. Allison’s son, John, Jackson resident and an active member of has donated 40 records to the Center Advisory Committee, has es- the blues archive at the tablished the Julian and Kathryn Wiener University of Mississippi. Endowment to support student intern- The 83-year-old com- ships in Southern Studies. In establishing poser, poet, pianist, and the fund a few years ago, Kathryn Wiener vocalist Mose Allison was noted that she became motivated to fund born in Tippo, Mississippi, such an endowment while reading an ar- in Tallahatchie County. ticle in the magazine of her alma mater, He has been a major influ- Smith College. “The college president ence on many musicians had advocated an internship program over the last 50 years and of which all undergraduates could avail is known as the William themselves. I never had the opportunity Faulkner of jazz. His style to be an intern, because internships were is a unique blending of jazz not available when I was a college stu- and blues with a profound dent. I wish that I could have had the ex- lyrical wit. perience that enables students to work in John Allison, who had the ‘real world.’ Anything that allows a not been to campus in two student to experience and work through decades, told colorful sto- a project is greater instruction than just ries about his father at a hearing about it.” John Allison recent informal presenta- One student each year will receive funds tion in the Faulkner Room to pay expenses to help support an intern- of the J.D. Williams Library. He brought with him the albums that spanned his fa- ship. The goal is to let students travel to ther’s lifetime, including Back Country Suite, Local Color, and Lessons in Living—Live work as interns for a semester or a summer at the Montreux Jazz Fest. “The collection of these albums has been on my shelf for with less concern about their own financ- years, and now they’re here for students to use,” John Allison said. “His entire ca- es. The Center will give priority to stu- reer is right here.” dents interested in doing internships at the Greg Johnson, blues curator at the J.D. Williams Library, is grateful for the gift. “It Smithsonian Institution in Washington is helping round out our Mose Allison collection,” he said. “All of the albums will be because the Smithsonian covers so many available for students of music or Southern Studies, or anyone who has an interest in subject areas. But in years when no stu- learning about one of the most influential musicians of the last 60 years.” dent is interested in working at the John Allison said that since his father spent time in the area, it was time for Smithsonian, pursuing other internship the collection to reside at Ole Miss. In 1946, after a year at the university, Mose possibilities will be eligible for the support. Allison went to the U.S. Army, playing in the Army Band in Colorado Springs, According to Center Director Ted Colorado, and performing with accomplished musicians from around the country in Ownby, “Southern Studies students small groups at NCO and Officer’s clubs. Returning to the university, he joined the have done all sorts of things as interns— dance band as arranger, pianist, and trumpet player but left soon afterward to form working for nonprofits and magazines, at his own trio. He later graduated from Louisiana State University and moved to New museums and archives, and other cul- York City. tural institutions. This endowment gives In Jackson this past February 16 the Mississippi Arts Commission present- one student a year a broader range of ed Allison with a Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award. On February 17 the choices by making travel to a place like Mississippi Blues Commission unveiled a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail in the Smithsonian more affordable.” He his honor. stressed that students will have to apply for such internships and be accepted be- Rebecca Lauck Cleary fore being eligible for funding through the new endowment. The internship support will be available beginning in spring and summer of 2013.

Page 14 Spring 2012 The Southern Register The Music of the South Symposium The Music of the South Symposium was held in March 1–3, 2012, and celebrat- ed the 25th anniversary of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture’s MA program in Southern Studies. The sym- posium recognized the varied and rich tradition of music research explored by students in the program and fea- tured academic panels, photo exhibits, and films about music. A concert per- formance by Southern Studies faculty, friends, current students, and alumni at the Lyric Theater concluded the event. The interdisciplinary nature of the MA program makes it particularly suited to the study of music and music’s role in the history and culture of the region. Trained as scholars, a number of graduates are also Jimmy Thomas, Mark Camarigg, David Nelson, Edwin Smith, Ted Ownby. A session on musicians of local, regional, and national CSSC publications and music renown in many different genres.

Matthieu Dessier documenting Barnard Observatory unplugged. Musicians discussing music. Billy Stevens, Mitch Palmer, Angela Meghan Holmes and Jasper Lee perform on the ukulele and the Watkins, Jake Fussell, Joey Thompson, Caroline Herring saw.

Tyler Keith and Jake Caroline Herring performing Fussell performing at at the Lyric Theatre the Lyric Theatre

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 15 Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference Update Planning continues for “Fifty Years after Faulkner,” the 39th to the enthusiastic response to the call, “Fifty Years after annual Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference scheduled for Faulkner” will feature the largest lineup of speakers in the his- July 7–11, 2012. After the sad news in February of the death tory of Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha. The conference organiz- of Tennessee writer William Gay, ers hope you will join us for what who was scheduled to appear on promises to be a memorable and our writers’ panel at the conference, lively gathering. we have searched hard for a For registration and other confer- replacement of similar stature and ence information, visit the Faulkner are delighted to have found one in & Yoknapatawpha website at www. the multiple Emmy–award winning outreach.olemiss.edu/events/ screenwriter and producer David faulkner/ or contact Jay Watson, Milch. Milch spent five seasons director, at [email protected]. with the NBC series Hill Street Blues Discount rates for the conference in the 1980s, serving first as writer are available for groups of five or and executive story editor and more students. Inexpensive dor- subsequently as executive producer. mitory housing is available for all In 1992 he co-created NYPD Blue, registrants. Contact Robert Fox at which ran for 12 seasons on ABC, [email protected] for details. garnering numerous accolades, and more recently, he has created and Jay Watson served as executive producer for a pair of HBO series, Deadwood Emmy–award winning screenwriter and Luck. In 2011 he negotiated a and producer David Milch landmark arrangement with HBO to produce television movies and shows based on Faulkner’s literary oeuvre. Milch will join his daughter, Olivia, with whom he is adapting Light in August into an HBO miniseries, on the writers’ panel, along with novelist, screenwriter, and University of Mississippi faculty member Chris Offutt, author of such critically acclaimed works as Kentucky Straight, The Same River Twice, Out of the Woods, and The Good Brother, as well as scripts for Weeds and True Blood. Another renowned local author, Tom Franklin (Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter), will moderate the panel, which will discuss Faulkner’s imaginative vision and narrative artistry from the vantage point of fellow practitioners of the storytelling craft. Meanwhile, the conference program continues to grow and develop. The annual call for papers competition yield- ed another nine sessions, which will bring 28 more speakers to Oxford this summer, a number of whom have been key- note speakers at Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha in the past. In addition to the invited panels listed in the Winter 2012 issue of the Register, 2012 conference goers will be treated to ses- sions on “Faulkner and the Digital Humanities in the Twenty- First Century,” “Faulkner’s Wars,” “Faulkner and Death,” “William Faulkner, the Francis Terry Leak Ledgers, and the Forms of History,” “Faulkner in Other Media,” “Faulkner and the Visual,” “The Arc of Yoknapatawpha,” and a pair of pan- els devoted to the subject of Faulkner’s “afterlives”: “Parody and Adaptation” and “Literary Heirs.” Thanks in large part

Page 16 Spring 2012 The Southern Register Faulkner Studies Scholarship continued from 2 Director’s Column Another question people occasion- Brings Columbus State Faculty and ally ask is whether studying the South year after year gets boring or repetitive. Students to UM for Conference The answer to that is no, especially if Thomas A. Cochran Jr. has founded the Susan M. Cochran Scholarship for Faulkner we keep redefining both the South and Studies at Columbus State University in honor of his late wife, Susan, who attend- what it means to study it. ed the Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference in Oxford every year. She was a Faulkner enthusiast and lover of Southern literature in general. Winners of the scholarship, faculty and students at CSU, receive support to attend the annual Faulkner Conference. This year the recipients are Ashley Foy, who is currently pur- suing a degree in theatre and an English minor; Carolyn Pollard, who is a senior It is sad to note that two good friends English secondary education major; Judi Livingston, who is an assistant professor in have passed away this spring. the CSU English department and the director of first-year composition; and Sundi Alumna Maria McGowen, who died Rose-Holt, who teaches first-year composition and comparative arts in the CSU in February in Charleston, was the rare English department. undergraduate 3student who bridged gaps between undergraduates and grad- uate students and between students and staff. After she graduated in the early 1990s, Maria continued her interests in Southern scholarship, music, American politics, and odd things that were funny. Patrick O’Connor

(l-r) Sundi Rose-Holt, Judi Livingston, Thomas A. Cochran Jr., Carolyn Pollard, Ashley Foy, and Courtney George, director of Columbus’ Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians, which will administer the program Jim McMullan

Faulkner Newsletter & Yoknapatawpha Center friend Jim McMullan passed away in Chicago in April. Jim Review Now Online and Madeleine McMullan and the Issued quarterly from 1981 until 2001, McMullan family have supported the the Faulkner Newsletter & Yoknapatawpha Center through their friendship and Review published short articles and news example and extraordinary financial items relating to the study of William support for various Center programs. Faulkner’s life and work; the sale and pur- Providing funding for two new profes- chase of Faulkner manuscripts and collect- sors in 1996 was one of the biggest mo- ibles; the activities of Faulkner’s friends, rel- ments in the history of the Center. Jim, atives, and colleagues; and other Faulkner- a University of Mississippi alumnus, al- related topics. The newsletters have now ways helped us by asking good questions been collected in two volumes online and encouraging clear and ambitious and can be accessed via the University of thinking, and we’ll miss him. Mississippi website, clio.lib.olemiss.edu/ar- chives/faulkner_nl.php. All 80 issues and two separate indexes are accessible.

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 17 2012 Mississippi Delta Literary Tour, March 18–21 For the past several years the Delta Tour has visited the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, “whose exhibits and edu- cational programs serve to build bridges between the community and the world while preserving the rich cultural and musical heritage of the Mississippi Delta.” Here the group gathers for a photograph in front of the museum. Jimmy Thomas Jim Miles

(right) Architectural historian and author Mary Carol Miller gives a tour of downtown Greenwood, beginning on the bank of the Yazoo River. For her book Lost Mansions of Mississippi Miller won the Nonfiction Book of the Year award from the Mississippi Library Association in 1997. Kathryn Radishofski Jimmy Thomas Suzy Kaplan, Ruth Koffman, and Dee Canale pause for a photo where the Southern crosses the Yellow Dog railroads in Moorhead. The site is the subject of W.C. Handy’s song “The Yellow Dog Rag.”

On Monday, the tour gathered in Turnrow Book Company to consider themes in Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel The Help within a Mississippi Delta context. Joining in the discussion were (l-r) tour organizer and moderator Jimmy Thomas, histo- rian Mary Carol Miller, literary scholar Marion Barnwell, and University of Mississippi journalism professor Deidra Jackson.

(left) Shirley Williams, Jack Barbera, John Harrison, Robert Watts, and Dee Canale gather at the gravesite of legendary blues- man Robert Johnson. Jimmy Thomas

Page 18 Spring 2012 The Southern Register Jimmy Thomas Colby Kullman delivers a talk, “Tennessee Williams: A Delta Childhood,” in St. George’s sanctuary in Clarksdale. Jimmy Thomas

Jack Barbera, Katie Radishofski, and Colby Kullman pose in front of a quilt Kathryn Radishofski made by members of the Tutwiler community. Each year local quilters and Johnny McPhail gospel singers host the tour at the Tutwiler Community Education Center. performs a scene Kathryn Radishofski

Kathryn Radishofski from The Last of My Solid Gold Watches during the porch plays in Clarksdale. Colby Kullman Actress Alice Walker performs as Blanche Novelist and Delta State University DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire. The English professor Dorothy Shawhan, production was held on the front porch of folk artist Carolyn Norris, and Jimmy Panny Mayfield in Clarksdale. Thomas during a stop at Norris’s art shop Jimmy Thomas in Cleveland. Shawhan recently pub- lished the book Spirit of the Delta: The Art of Carolyn Norris.

Kermit the Frog and Jack Barbera at the Jim Henson Museum, Birthplace of the Frog in Leland Colby Kullman

Dee Canale, John Harrison, Ruth Koffman, and Donald Best pose in front of local blues performers in Leland. The tour made an impromptu stop at the Highway 61 Blues Museum there on Wednesday morning en route to Greenville. (left) Bluesman Pat Thomas and Katie Radishofski beneath the blues marker honoring Thomas’s father, James “Son” Ann Sharp and Sally Hermansdorfer Thomas. The marker stands in front of the at the Tutwiler Community Education Center Jimmy Thomas Highway 61 Blues Museum in Leland. The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 19 The 19th Oxford Conference for the Book Doug McLain Thanks to the many who were able to attend the 2012 confer- ence in March. Mark your calendars for the 2013 conference, which will be held March 21–23. The OCB Planning Committee would love to hear your ideas for 2013 and beyond. Whether you’ve attended the OCB in the past or not, we invite you to visit the Center website, www.southernstudies.olemiss.edu, to take a quick online survey.

(left) James Dashner speaks to 500 area ninth graders about his book The Maze Runner. Susan Phillips, director of the Lafayette County Literacy Council, reads questions for James submitted by students. (right) Allen Tullos and Randal Jelks par- ticipated in “Writing Black Freedom Movements,” a panel that also included Michael Thomas and was moderated by Charles Reagan Wilson. Doug McLain Doug McLain Doug McLain Claiborne Barksdale of the Barksdale Reading Institute and chil- dren’s authors Elise Broach and James Dashner participate in a panel on literacy moderated by Elaine Scott. The OCB brought hundreds Doug McLain of local fifth and ninth grad- ers to the Ford Center for pre- sentations by authors Elise Broach (fifth grade) and James Dashner (ninth grade). (right) Becca Walton, OCB director, behind the scenes at the children’s program (left) John Aloysius Farrell and Jon Meacham, along with Ken Auletta (not pictured), participated in a panel on “Writing Biographies,” moder- ated by Curtis Wilkie. Doug McLain

Page 20 Spring 2012 The Southern Register Doug McLain Norma Watkins, author of The Last Resort: Taking the Mississippi Cure, spoke on a pan- el entitled “The Urge toward Memoir.”

Anya Groner moderated a panel on online publishing. Bloggers and writers Michael Bible, Maud Newton, and Jack Pendarvis participated. Doug McLain Doug McLain

Randy Fertel spoke about his memoir The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak on a panel with Norma Watkins, moderator William Dunlap, and Sam Haskell. Doug McLain Doug McLain Travel writer Richard Grant and novelist Frederick Reuss participated in “Geography in Literature: Real and Imagined.”

Steve Yarbrough participated in the “Geography in Literature” panel. Pictured here with moderator Ralph Eubanks. Doug McLain Ron Shapiro and Richard Howorth enjoy a session. Malcolm Barker-Kamps Grisham Writer-in-Residence Josh Weil and Richard Ford par- ticipated in a “Writers’ Conversation,” with Richard interview- ing Josh about the writing process.

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 21 Southern Studies CSSC Launches on the Road New Website The Center, with the help of the Southern Studies faculty and staff have University in Cleveland, discussing the College of Liberal Arts, has just been on the road the past few months, business of the blues, and then traveled launched a new website. Please visit giving papers, performing, exhibiting to Jackson to participate in a panel on us at www.southernstudies.olemiss.edu. photography, consulting, and organizing. legal and other copyright issues in the We hope the site will be an informative Travels continue this summer, especial- entertainment industry. This February, resource for prospective and current ly for four faculty members who received Jimmy Thomas represented the Center research support from the university. at the Mississippi Humanities Council’s Barbara Combs, Adam Gussow, Katie annual awards dinner, where Ethnic McKee, and Jodi Skipper will all be doing Heritage in Mississippi: The Twentieth research and writing with support from Century (UPM), a book to which he the Leila Wynn Endowment for Faculty contributed a chapter, was celebrated. Support and the College of Liberal Arts. He then spent a solid four days on the David Wharton discussed his re- road as the organizer of the Mississippi cent photography at an exhibi- Delta Literary Tour in March. tion at Missouri State University in Katie McKee and Zandria Robinson Springfield. The exhibition, entitled both spent some time in Nashville Photographs from the American South, as officers of professional organiza- also featured work by Todd Bertolaet tions, McKee as secretary/treasurer for students and the many who attend our of Florida A&M. Amy Evans Streeter the Society for the Study of Southern outreach events. The page will have was in New York City in April receiv- Literature and Robinson as secretary for continually updated photographs of ing two awards from the International the Association of Black Sociologists. Center events, as well as photographs Association of Culinary Professionals: Adam Gussow and Ted Ownby took by students in the documentary studies an award for Intriguing Use of New parts of Southern Studies to England in program. Thanks to LaTonya Pittman, Technology and an award prize for Best the spring. In late March, Gussow flew webmaster, whose efforts and expertise Audio Series (Short Format) for the to London to participate in a Night of made the new site possible. Southern Foodways Alliance’s project the Blues benefit for Save the Children “Gathering the Stories behind Food.” UK. He performed as a harmonica-pow- Jodi Skipper delivered her pa- ered one-man blues band—represent- per “When the Village Is Gone: City ing the state of Mississippi on a New- Planning, Racial Politics, and Historic Orleans-to-Chicago arc—and shared Preservation in the St. Paul United the stage with Dr. John, Maceo Parker, Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas,” James Cotton, and Ronnie Wood. at the Okra 2 Opera Conference at Ownby went to Manchester to attend the Converse College in April. John British Association for American Studies T. Edge gave a presentation at the Conference, both to thank the BAAS for Clinton School of Public Service in starting a new assistantship for Southern Little Rock. Jill Cooley and Michele Studies graduate students and to chair a Coffey are both presenting papers in panel called “Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Be sure, too, to check out the June at the Southern Association of Roll: The Evangelicals’ Response.” Center’s Tumblr blog, www.south- Women Historians Conference in Fort At least four former faculty members ernstudiesatuofm.tumblr.com, Worth, Texas. Cooley will deliver “Mrs. have been on the road to Oxford recent- which contains films, photographs, Brown’s Body: Sexual Representations ly. Nancy Bercaw of the Smithsonian’s and audio files from Media and of Female Servers in Southern Eateries, National Museum of American History Documentary Projects. 1900–1940,” and Coffey will discuss was on campus for the Porter Fortune Jr. And of course, like us on Facebook, “Theresa Hicks vs. ‘Politicking on History Symposium, giving a paper, “The www.facebook.com/SouthernStudies, Government Time’: Legal Opposition Anatomy of Freedom: Constructing a where you’ll see candid photos of stu- to the Commission on the Status of National Archive of American Indian dents, notices of upcoming events, Women in South Carolina.” and African American Bodies.” Tom calls for papers, news from alums, and Mark Camarigg of Living Blues and Rankin (Duke), Michael Bertrand information about the work of our Jimmy Thomas, associate director, pub- (Tennessee State), and Bob Brinkmeyer friends at different institutions. lications, are spending plenty of time (University of South Carolina) all came Becca Walton on the road in Mississippi. Camarigg to participate in the Music of the South went first to an event at Delta State Symposium.

Page 22 Spring 2012 The Southern Register Mark Your In Memoriam Calendars! James Michael (Jim) McMullan June 1–2 1934–2012 Camp Bacon at Zingerman’s Ann Arbor, Michigan The Center lost a great friend and generous patron with the death of Jim McMullan at his home in Lake Forest, Illinois, on April 16, 2012. He was born on June 27, 1934, June 8–10, 2012 in Lake, Mississippi, and grew up in nearby Newton, received a BBA in finance at Big Apple Barbecue Block Party the University of Mississippi in 1956, and worked in Newton and Jackson before New York City, New York moving to Chicago in 1969 to join William Blair & Company, where he worked June 17–23, 2012 until his retirement in 2011. During his career in the financial business he received Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminar an MBA from the University of Chicago, served on the Board of Governors of the “Race and Ethnicity in the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) and the Securities Industry Modern South” Association (SIA), and was a member of the Region Firms Advisory Committee to University of Mississippi Campus the New York Stock Exchange. June 21–23, 2012 Jim McMullan maintained lifelong ties to his home state and since the mid- SFA Field Trip 1990s was closely involved with the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. “High on the Hog” He and his wife, Madeleine, were members of the Center Executive Council and Eastern North Carolina made generous contributions of their time as well as financial resources, including July 6, 2012 endowing two McMullan Professorships in Southern Studies, assuring the success “A William Faulkner Remembrance” of the fund-raising campaign for the Endowment for the Future of the South, and Oxford, Mississippi helping establish endowment funds for faculty development and for the Oxford Conference for the Book. The McMullans also recruited new friends and donors July 7–11, 2012 for the Center, attended many its programs, and assisted in countless other ways. Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Their daughters became involved, too, with Carlette McMullan, a principal at Conference “Fifty Years after Faulkner” William Blair & Company, joining her parents on the Center Advisory Committee Oxford, Mississippi and Margaret McMullan, an author and a professor at the University of Evansville, making presentations on literature and writing at Center programs. July 29–30, 2012 Jim McMullan’s financial support of the Center and his public leadership on our Stir the Pot, at Poole’s Diner behalf have been significant, but perhaps less well known are his moral support and Featuring Pat Martin of his vision of the Center’s place within the liberal arts and liberal learning. He was Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint, a valuable advisor to three Center directors, encouraging them, as the current one, Raleigh, North Carolina Ted Ownby, recently wrote, “to ask clear questions, think ambitiously, and have September 16–17, 2012 high standards.” Center administrators said his advice was always wise, and he was Stir the Pot, Nashville consistently upbeat in his vision of what Center faculty, staff, and students could Hosted by Tandy Wilson and accomplish. Tyler Brown and featuring chefs John Shook and Vinny Dotolo, of Animal, Los Angeles, California September 30–October 1, 2012 Commemoration of James Meredith and the Desegregation of the University of Mississippi In Memoriam October 7–8, 2012 Stir the Pot at Poole’s Diner Susan Barksdale Howorth Maria Frances McGowen Featuring Jamie Bissonette Oxford, Mississippi Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina of Coppa and Toro Friend of the Center Southern Studies Alumna Raleigh, North Carolina 1967–2012 1969–2012 October 18–21, 2012 15th Southern Foodways Symposium William Gay Oxford, Mississippi Hohenwald, Tennessee UM Visiting Writer in October 2012 Residence, 2000–1 Gilder-Jordan Speaker Series 1941–2012 Grace Elizabeth Hale, Lecturer University of Mississippi

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 23 Reading the South

Alabama Getaway: The on the punitive, male prerogatives, Political Imaginary and the defensiveness against criticism, anti- Heart of Dixie. governmental rhetoric, knee-jerk pa- triotism, and free-market capitalism. By Allen Tullos. Tullos’s scholarship has an edge, en- Athens: University of Georgia couraging examination of Alabama’s dismal record in public policy. Indeed Press, 2011. 376 pages. $69.95, the book crosses genre lines from a cloth, $24.95, paper. study of cultural ways to public pol- icy, with clear judgments and recom- Allen Tullos’s new book is a major mendations on needed changes. work in Southern Studies. It looks at This bleak story is enlivened by the state of Alabama as an ideologi- Tullos’s wit and good writing. “Sez- cal construct, one appearing natu- you” is his designation for too many ral and normative, but he shows how Alabamians’ dismissive disregard for it has been maintained and perpetu- views of critics and outsiders. George ated with results that have left the Wallace remains the icon of the mod- state with deep-rooted social and eco- ern “Sez-you” attitude, and Tullos nomic problems. The book has a solid charts what he calls “the Guvner’s” grounding in social theory. Theorists toxic political legacy. Tullos de- in critical justice theory and critical tails the administrations of succes- regionalism inform his application of sive governors and the divisive po- theory to the case study of modern of judgment and feeling” from theo- litical work of other political lead- Alabama history and culture. Tullos rist Judith Butler. Tullos’s earlier book, ers, including “Brother” Guy Hunt has a fertile imagination for concepts Habits of Industry, similarly used “hab- (who exploited his public religiosi- and uses them well. He is an innovator its” to suggest how cultural ways can ty), Fob “Thumper” James, Roy “Ten in exploring the idea of the “political frame and limit possibilities for a range Commandments” Moore, Richard imaginary,” which he defines as “the of people in Southern society. “Senator No” Shelby, and Dan public shape of power, representation, Alabama Gateway charts the in- “Fratman” Siegelman. The vivid nar- and possibility.” The state government equalities and intolerance that gov- rative keeps one reading, despite the coined the term “Heart of Dixie” in ern public life in the state. He coins dreary details of the mischief-making the 1940s as a promotional device, the term “terrortory” to characterize that has characterized so many of the but Tullos shows how it has survived the legacy of violence and intimida- state’s leaders. into the 21st century as “a retrograde tion of the Deep South’s past, lays The book offers hope for change political imaginary, mapped by a con- out the injustices in the state’s crimi- through stories of the reform efforts stellation of pernicious habits, that re- nal justice system, reveals the corrup- of African Americans and a minority main tenacious, dynamic, and at odds tion and inefficiencies of a state with of white allies since the 1950s. Blacks with efforts to extend social justice, a dysfunctional constitution, and de- occupied the moral high ground dur- and subject to wincing reconfirma- plores the tax inequities that are stark ing the civil rights movement, and tion with any morning’s headline.” He in exploitation of the majority of peo- since then they shaped a distinctive charts the state’s political imaginary ple to the advantage of a few. After political imaginary far from the af- with a devastating depth of research, detailing the situation, like a proph- fective terrain of Heart of Dixie, em- including legislative acts, words of et of old, he asks, “How many ways phasizing economic justice, an end public figures, rumors, jokes, statistics, can you say ‘disparity’ so that the in- to poverty, democratic inclusiveness, journalistic accounts, blog entries, art, justice becomes clear?” He sees the affirmative action, educational eq- music, and sports. His main concern is interconnectedness of orthodoxies, uity, prison reform, improved health with representations of Alabama and whether social, religious, political, or care and child care, and decent hous- what he calls the “debilitating habits sexual. These fundamentalisms rely ing. He showcases figures like J.L.

Book Reviews and Notes by Faculty, Staff, Students, and Friends of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture

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Chestnut, the Black Belt lawyer and author who has been a force for re- Hidden Seminoles: Julian form. He reveals a vibrant Black Belt Dimock’s Historic Florida culture, providing a thorough guide Photographs. to its contemporary cultural organi- zations and activities. Blacks gained Photographs by Julian elective office after the black free- Dimock. Essay by Jerald T. dom struggles of mid-century, but Milanich and Nina J. Root. that achievement did not lead to Foreword by Raymond transformation of social structures and institutions of economic power. Arsenault and Gary R. Like the Mississippi Delta, the Black Mormino. A Note from Tina Belt suffers from disjunction between M. Osceola. black political power and economic impoverishment as an elite holds the Gainesville: University Press economic power of the region, creat- of Florida, 2011. 208 pages. ing an economic landscape of pris- 125 duotones. $39.95 cloth. ons, dog-racing farms, catfish farms, and their interactions with various and undertaxed pine farms. Retired financier A.W. Dimock Seminoles is factual, detailed, and Tullos’s book is a lament for a state (1842–1918) and his photographer somewhat dry. It reads a bit like a list with whom he has a love-hate rela- son Julian (1873–1945) made ex- and doesn’t seem to serve much pur- tionship. But more importantly, it is a tended trips to the then-wilder- pose except to provide context for call to action, a summons to the bet- ness Florida Everglades in 1905 and the 125 of Julian’s photographs re- ter angels of Alabama’s human nature. 1906. These journeys were primar- produced in Hidden Seminoles. He doubts the long-term effectiveness ily recreational, although the fa- And the photographs, of course, of the state’s economic development ther-and-son team published a num- are the reason for the book. Grouped strategy, pioneering as it did in offer- ber of articles about their “adven- chronologically and by specific sites, ing outrageously generous tax and tures” in outdoors-oriented periodi- Julian’s Florida images show him to land incentives to foreign automobile cals in the years that followed. Julian be an accomplished photographer makers while offering cheap, non- made a third trip in 1910, as part of and technician, especially given the union labor that limits economic im- an ethnographic expedition spon- primitive photographic technology provement for most of the state’s citi- sored by New York City’s American of the time and the difficulties pre- zens. Tullos is perhaps most eloquent Museum of Natural History to study sented by traveling with bulky and in a thoughtful “what if” litany that the Seminole Indians in their native delicate photographic equipment in offers alternative ideas for the state’s Florida environment. Julian was in- the Everglades. (The 6 1/2" x 8 1/2" future. “What if” Alabama made an vited to participate both as a source glass plates his camera used instead energetic commitment to public ed- of Everglades expertise and as the ex- of film would have been quite heavy ucation the way it did to “migrating pedition’s photographer. and subject to breakage unless han- manufacturers”; “what if” the state Hidden Seminoles reproduces a dled very gently.) Generally speaking, paid talented teachers well; “what number of Julian Dimock’s photo- the images fall into three categories: if” the state offered the next genera- graphs from his Florida trips and, in postcard-like vistas of flat swamp- tion the analytical skills and techni- a long introductory essay by Jerald lands dwarfing a few tiny figures and/ cal competencies that truly prepared T. Milanich and Nina J. Root, pro- or canoes beneath vast skies of tow- them for the global economy? vides background about the Dimocks ering cumulus clouds; pictures of lo- One hopes this book has an influ- and a detailed chronology of Julian’s cal living conditions, both for mem- ence on Alabama’s policy makers. three journeys. The biographical in- bers of the expeditions and for native Its story reaches beyond one state, formation locates father and son Everglades dwellers; and portraits of though, with implications for oth- firmly within New York City’s social Seminole Indians, individually and in er Deep South states and, indeed, a upper crust and suggests that they family groups, wearing both everyday nation that constructs other ideolo- agreed with fellow New York aris- and ceremonial clothing. A number gies that limit the human potential tocrat Theodore Roosevelt’s belief of these photographs are striking, but of many of its citizens. that men should live “the strenuous many of them seem much like others, life.” Milanich and Root’s account of imparting a sense of repetition that Charles Reagan Wilson the Dimocks’ trips to the Everglades dulls their overall impact.

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 25 Reading the South continued

There’s no denying the ethno- graphic and historical value of They Say in Harlan County: Julian Dimock’s Seminole photo- An Oral History. graphs. They bear firsthand witness to certain factual aspects of partic- By Alessandro Portelli. ular lives in a particular (and large- New York: Oxford University ly undocumented) culture in a par- ticular place and time. A verbal de- Press, 2010. 456 pages. $34.95 scription of the graceful knee-length cloth. shirtwaists, worn belted at the waist by most Seminole men a century The introduction to Alessandro ago, can only approximate their ac- Portelli’s extraordinary oral history is tual appearance. But Julian’s photo- called “Harlan County, 1964–2009: graphs show that appearance, that A Love Story.” Portelli, who has grace, precisely. The same is true of spent most of his academic career in his pictures of Seminole homes, gar- the theory and practice of oral history dens, canoes, and so on. This is the studying his native Italy, became at- kind of visual factuality that photo- tracted to Harlan County, Kentucky, graphs can establish beyond doubt in the 1960s because of its music and or dispute, thus making photogra- especially its reputation for labor ac- phy invaluable to any ethnographic tivism. As one who loves Harlan ing in multiple ways the emotional inquiry. County, he spent years visiting the experiences people tried to recount. Still, to the modern eye, many of place, getting to know it, and listen- Some readers are likely to wor- the photographs in Hidden Seminoles ing to the people of the area, and the ry that the book makes little uses of seem empty. People display their fac- book is successful both as a history of written sources (especially those that es, their clothing, their ceremonial one corner of eastern Kentucky and could deepen the possibility for un- robes and jewelry, but there’s little as an example of a particularly con- derstanding industrial and politi- indication of what they are think- fident approach to oral history. The cal leaders), other scholarly works, ing or feeling. Nor, for that matter, volume’s intriguing title, They Say in or cultural theory. The book is not a is there any indication of what is go- Harlan County, comes from a union study of social types, and it does not ing on in Julian’s mind. They stand song, but in this work it is even more try to explain anything. The discus- to be recorded, and he records. This important as a statement of meth- sion of historical background, myths, was his assigned role as photogra- od: virtually everything in the book negative imagery, everything, comes pher for the 1910 ethnographic ex- comes from what Harlan County oral through oral histories and, thus, en- pedition, but he seemed to gain little history subjects, all of them cited by tirely from the perspectives of peo- satisfaction from it. Shortly after re- name, said to Portelli. ple telling stories. Portelli starts with turning home to New York, he com- The author knows that many peo- the land and animals and discusses plained in a letter that he had not ple, including readers of Appalachian stories of hardship and work, slavery “even scratch[ed] the surface of the history, are likely to have limited vi- and violence, religion and family life, subject” and that he would be “glad sions of why Harlan County and the mine work and health. to throw [much of his work from the broader region matter. He sets out to When the author reaches sever- 1910 trip] in the waste paper basket.” humanize the place, including mis- al important chapters on labor vio- By 1918 he had quit photography al- leading old stereotypes and dramat- lence, he emphasizes strikes and con- together, writing that it made him ic stories of labor unrest, through the flict, not to study predictable labor “feel like a useless spectator, a hang- words of Harlan County residents. It issues—worker demands, company er-on” and that it “ground the very would have been easier to use oral responses, and the process of nego- life out of [him].” That is no doubt histories in conjunction with other tiation—but to create images of re- why so many of the photographs in evidence trying to disprove images peated and almost nonstop conflict. Hidden Seminoles, especially those of mountain isolation and ignorance In one passage he concludes, “In from the 1910 trip, seem as empty as or as background to understanding memory, all these strikes overlap and they do—the best photography re- labor violence. Instead, Portelli says run together. Miners and their fam- quires more than mere spectating. his work tries to dramatize people’s ilies remember less a series of dis- lives in ways like film, or fiction, or crete labor conflicts than a continu- David Wharton even music, with the goal of display- ous state of war, marked by the vio-

Page 26 Spring 2012 The Southern Register Reading the South continued University Press of MississiPPi lence of company guards, scabs, lockouts, evictions, the National Guard, and the blacklist.” Some critics The Garden District of oral history have worried that the field tends to em- of New Orleans phasize the romantic, as older people remember the Text by Jim Fraiser strengths of the old days. Not so in this book, where Photographs by West Freeman memories may mix time periods but always focus on A remarkable architectural and difficulty and struggle. historical tour of the Big Easy’s The latter chapters of the work seem a bit less strik- cardinal suburb $49.95 hardback; $49.95 Ebook ing, as the decline in union activism and the rise in outmigration and contemporary rural social prob- Hurricane Katrina lems (methamphetamines, veterans with financial The Mississippi Story and psychological problems, environmental decline, By James Patterson Smith poor education) all seem drearily predictable. Portelli The definitive Mississippi is buoyed by different types of activism, especially by account of the greatest natural forms that merge the old and the new. Probably more disaster in American history important than conclusions, though, is the power of $35 hardback; $35 Ebook the work as an oral history. As good history that is also inspired art, this book stays with the reader.

Ted Ownby Wilder Ways By Donald C. Jackson Illustrated by Robert T. Jackson A lifelong outdoorsman and teacher’s accounts of the In Brief powerful bond between nature and humanity Faulkner and Formalism: Returns of the $26 hardback; $26 Ebook Text (University of Mississippi Press, 2012) col- lects 11 essays presented at the 35th Annual Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference sponsored by the University of Mississippi in Oxford on July 20–24, 2008. Sombreros and Contributors query the status of Faulkner’s literary text in Motorcycles in a contemporary criticism and scholarship. How do schol- Newer South ars today approach Faulkner’s texts? For some, including The Politics of Aesthetics in South Arthur F. Kinney and James B. Carothers, “returns of the Carolina’s Tourism Industry text” is a phrase that raises questions of aesthetics, poet- By P. Nicole King ics, and authority. For others, the phrase serves as an in- How South of the Border and vitation to return to Faulkner’s language, to writing, and Atlantic Beach reflect cultural the letter itself. Serena Blount, Owen Robinson, James shifts in a more inclusive South Harding, and Taylor Hagood interpret “returns of the $55 printed casebinding; $55 Ebook text” in the sense in which Roland Barthes character- izes this shift in his seminal essay “From Work to Text.” Faulkner and For Barthes, the text “is not to be thought of as an object Formalism . . . but as a methodological field,” a notion quite differ- Returns of the Text ent from the New Critical understanding of the work as a Edited by Annette Trefzer unified construct with intrinsic aesthetic value. and Ann J. Abadie Faulkner’s language itself is under close scrutiny in Essays that explore current scholarship some of the readings that emphasize a deconstructive on the Nobel Laureate’s work or a semiological approach to his writing. Historical $60 printed casebinding; $60 Ebook and cultural contexts continue to play significant roles, however, in many of the essays. The contribu- Professors: Interested in examination copies of our titles? tions by Thadious Davis, Ted Atkinson, Martyn Bone, Visit http://www.upress.state.ms.us/about/ordering/educator. and Ethel Young-Minor by no means ignore the cul- tural contexts, but instead of approaching the literary text as a reflection, a representation of that context, www.upress.state.ms.us 800-737-7788

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 27 Southern RegisterSpring2012.indd 1 5/4/12 3:19 PM Reading the South continued

doms into coalescent native societies in a colonial world. “I was absolutely thrilled to hear that I won,” Ethridge said. “Over the years, Mooney Award- The hungrily awaited sixth vol- winning books have profoundly ume in the Cornbread Nation series, shaped my intellectual life and schol- Cornbread Nation 6: The Best of arship, so to be included among this Southern Food Writing (University list of books is quite an honor.” of Georgia Press, 2012) edited by The purpose of the James Mooney Brett Anderson, tells the story of Award is to recognize and there- the American South—circa now— by encourage distinguished anthro- through the prism of its food and the pological scholarship on the South people who grow, make, serve, and and Southerners. Presented annu- eat it. The modern South serves up a ally, the award includes a $500 cash groaning board of international cui- prize and certificate of recogni- sines virtually unknown to previous tion. “Dr. Ethridge’s scholarship on generations of Southerners, notes Southeastern Indian groups is na- Brett Anderson in his introduction. tionally and internationally recog- Southern food, like the increasing- nized,” said Kirsten Dellinger, chair ly globalized South, shows an open whether historical, economic, polit- of the department of sociology and and cosmopolitan attitude toward ical, or social, these readings stress anthropology. “The Mooney award ethnic diversity. But fully appreciat- the role of the text as a challenge to for her most recent book further con- ing Southern food still requires flu- the power of external ideological sys- firms her continuing contributions to ency with the region’s history, warts tems. By retaining a bond with new this field. We are so fortunate to have and all. The essays, memoirs, poetry, historicist analysis and cultural stud- her as a member of the faculty at the and profiles in this book are informed ies, these essays are illustrative of a University of Mississippi and we con- by that fluency, revealing topics and kind of analysis that carefully pre- gratulate her on this well-deserved people traditional as well as avant serves attention to Faulkner’s socio- and distinguished honor.” garde, down home as well as urbane. political environment. The conclud- Ethridge’s areas of expertise are Editor Brett Anderson is the restau- ing essay by Theresa Towner issues an historical anthropology and environ- rant critic and a features writer at the invitation to return to Faulkner’s less mental anthropology, with an area New Orleans Times-Picayune. The well-known short stories for critical focus on the Indians of the Southern winner of two James Beard awards for exposure and the pleasure of reading. United States. journalism, Anderson has written for such publications as Gourmet, Food & Wine, and the Washington Post. His book is organized into six chapters: “Menu Items” shares ru- The Southern Anthropological minations on iconic dishes. And Society recently honored University “Messing with Mother Nature” looks of Mississippi professor of anthropol- at the relationship between food and ogy Robbie Ethridge by awarding her the natural environment. “Southern the prestigious Mooney Award for her Characters” profiles an eclectic mix book From Chicaza to Chickasaw: of food notables, while “Southern The European Invasion and the Drinkways” distills libations, hard Transformation of the Mississippian and soft. “Identity in Motion” ex- World, 1540–1715 (UNC Press, amines change in the Southern 2010). Using a new interpretive food world, and “The Global South” framework that Ethridge calls the leaves readers with final thoughts on “Mississippian shatter zone” to ex- the cross-cultural influences wafting plicate these tumultuous times, From from the Southern kitchen. Chicaza to Chickasaw examines the Gathered here are enough promi- European invasion and the collapse nent food writers to muster the live- of the precontact Mississippian world liest of dinner parties: Molly O’Neill, and the restructuring of discrete chief- Calvin Trillin, Michael Pollan, Kim

Page 28 Spring 2012 The Southern Register Reading the South continued 20th Annual

Severson, Martha Foose, Jessica Williams Festival Harris, Bill Addison, Matt and Ted Lee, and Lolis Eric Elie, Set for October among others. Two classic piec- es—Frederick Douglass’s ac- 12 and 13 count of the sustenance of slaves and Edward Behr’s pro- The 20th annual Mississippi Delta file of Cajun cook Eula Mae Tennessee Williams Festival, spon- Doré—are included. sored by Coahoma Community A photo essay on the Collins College, is scheduled for October 12 Oyster Company family of and 13, 2012, and will focus on The Louisiana rounds out Cornbread Glass Menagerie, the playwright’s au- Nation 6. tobiographical play, which was cele- brated at Clarksdale’s first Williams “A veritable feast of good Festival in 1993. writing and original think- In 1993 the Clarksdale Community ing. . . . Like the well-made Theatre presented The Glass meal, it’s carefully sequenced Menagerie, and former local friends to document tradition as and associates of Williams’s shared well as innovation, history as memories of the playwright—who well as the surprisingly new.” spent his childhood in Clarksdale— —Tom Rankin, director of during an “I Remember Tom” panel. the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University The first festival followed near- ly two years of planning and was “Southern food has become high profile, but there is not a better book funded by a $10,000 grant from the than Cornbread Nation 6 to understand its appeal. From family tables to National Endowment for the Arts city restaurants, from Cajuns to Texans to Geechee girls, from slave food and the Mississippi Arts Commission. to contemporary ethnic offerings, this book offers engaging and informed Original consultants were Ann stories of the diversity of Southern foodways. A book that gives food voic- Abadie, then-associate director of es from Frederick Douglass to Wendell Berry (by way of Michael Pollan) the Center for the Study of Southern should be consumed with gusto. Pour a beverage, whether bourbon or Culture, and Kenneth Holditch, a re- Cheerwine, and sit down with this book on the porch. The light will shine.” search professor at the University of —Charles Reagan Wilson, Cook Chair of History and Professor of New Orleans and one of the country’s Southern Studies, University of Mississippi top William scholars. Details about the 2012 festival, “This collection captures both the spirit and the history of which is free and open to the public, Southern food culture. The breadth of this collection is inspir- will be published on the festival web- ing. To be able to read Frederick Douglass next to Edward Behr site, www.coahomacc.edu/twilliams. and Michael Pollan is exciting to me. As someone who is passion- Although the annual festival ex- ate about American culinary history and culture, I was also pleased plores the expanse of Tennessee to find that these writings really challenged some of my most ba- Williams’s work through its liter- sic assumptions about why Southern cuisine exists as it does today.” ary conference, screenings, and —David Chang, chef/owner of Momofuku live drama, it generally emphasizes one particular play each year. Past festivals have featured The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, We would love to keep in closer touch with Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Summer our friends. Two easy ways include: and Smoke, Orpheus Descending, Night of the Iguana, Baby Doll, 27 Wagons of 1. Facebook users, please “Like” the Center for the Study of Southern Cotton, Spring Storm, and The Loss of Culture. Being a Facebook Friend of the Center brings you news large a Teardrop Diamond. and small, announcements, job ads, and occasional gossip. 2. Send us your e-mail address. The easiest way for us to contact you, and one of the easiest ways for you to contribute as a Friend of the Center, is through an annual e- mail message. Please send your e-mail address to [email protected].

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 29 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Announces Award Winners The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Mississippi College, the University of Letters (MIAL) has announced its Alabama, and Illinois State University. award winners for works first published, Andrew Bucci, born in Vicksburg, shown, or performed in the year 2011. has studied with Marie Hull and at Award winners in the categories of po- the Académie Julian in Paris and the etry, fiction, nonfiction, visual arts, Parsons School of Design. He holds photography, music composition (clas- degrees from the Art Institute of sical/concert), and music composition Chicago. He is a past recipient of the (popular/contemporary) must have sig- Governor’s Award for Excellence in nificant ties to the state of Mississippi the Arts for his achievement in the vi- and have been nominated by an MIAL sual arts. Bucci’s paintings have been member. Winners are selected in a ju- viewed throughout the South for over ried competition by out-of-state judg- half a century, beginning with the es. Presentation of the awards will be Mississippi Art Association in 1947. made at the Institute’s annual Awards His works have been part of numerous Gala on June 9, 2012, at the Mississippi regional and national shows, including Museum of Art in Jackson. Master of shows at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Ceremonies will be William Ferris, Baltimore Museum of Art, Art Institute the Joel R. Williamson Professor of of Chicago, and the New Orleans History and senior associate direc- Museum of Art. tor of the Center for the Study of the The winner of the photography American South at the University of award for 2011 is Betty Press, an ad- North Carolina and founding director junct instructor of photography at the of the Center for the Study of Southern marily painting and now devotes his University of Southern Mississippi, for Culture at the University of Mississippi. time to sculpture. He is a past winner her photobook, I Am Because We Are: Two Lifetime Achievement Awards, of the Mississippi Governor’s Award for African Wisdom in Image and Proverb. presented at the discretion of the Excellence in the Arts for his career in The book captures a stunning, life-af- Board of Governors of MIAL, will art and is also a winner of the Ageless firming portrait of the African people be given this year. The recipients are Heroes Award in Creativity from and culture and was launched at the Samuel Marshall Gore and Andrew Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi. Library of Congress in Washington, Bucci. Samuel Gore, a professor of Having grown up in Webster, Hinds, D.C. Betty Press has photographed in art at Mississippi College since 1951, and Calhoun counties, Gore holds de- East and West Africa for over 20 years, spent the early part of his career pri- grees from the Atlanta College of Art, including eight years as a photojour-

MIAL MEMBERSHIP FORM Remember that only MIAL members may nominate. To join MIAL and support the arts in Mississippi visit our website at www.ms-arts-letters.org or use the form below.

Name: Telephone:

Mailing address:

E-mail address: Check: m I am RENEWING my membership m I am a NEW MEMBER Check appropriate membership category: m Student: $15 m Individual: $35 m Sustaining: $125 m Institutional: $150 m Patron: $1000 Please make payments to MIAL and return to Jan Taylor, Treasurer, Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters, P.O. Box 2346, Jackson, MS 39225-2346. Contributions to MIAL are recognized by the IRS as tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Page 30 Spring 2012 The Southern Register nalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her performances with the International professor of English and co-director works hang in many public and private Music Program Orchestra. Phillips also of the creative writing program at collections. won the MIAL award for music compo- Mississippi State University. His stories In the visual arts category, the win- sition in 2010. have appeared in both the 2009 and ner is Oxford sculptor Rod Moorhead, The winner in the category of music 2010 editions of Best American Short for Furies, a grouping of pit-fired clay composition (popular/contemporary) Stories as well as in many magazines and figures. Moorhead’s body of work rang- is singer-songwriter Kate Campbell in other anthologies. es from small clay figures to large bronz- for Two Nights in Texas. From Sledge, T.R. Hummer wins this year’s poet- es. He has twice received Mississippi Mississippi, she has recorded 13 albums ry category with his book Ephemeron: Arts Commission grants and his works and performs almost exclusively on the Poems. A respected critic, scholar, and are found in galleries across the South. acoustic guitar. Two Nights in Texas was poet from Macon, Mississippi, Hummer Among his public commissions are recorded live at the Blue Rock Ranch is the winner of two Pushcart Prizes for Concerto, a large bronze at the Gertrude and Studio in Wimberly, Texas. Two his verse. His poems have appeared in Ford Center for the Performing Arts at previous albums have received Folk many periodicals, including the New the University of Mississippi, and a life- Album of the Year nominations from Yorker, Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly, and size sculpture of James Meredith, also lo- the Nashville Music Awards. Paris Review. He is currently a professor cated at the University of Mississippi. He Jackson resident Susan Haltom is this at Arizona State University. is currently working on the Storytellers, year’s nonfiction winner forOne Writer’s Each winner in the juried categories limestone figures of Eudora Welty, Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place. will receive a cash prize of $1,000 and a William Faulkner, and Richard Wright. Haltom is a garden designer and preser- Mississippi-crafted gift. Past winners in- Violinist and composer Shandy vation and maintenance coordinator of clude Natasha Tretheway, Louis Nordan, Phillips of Starkville is the winner in the Eudora Welty garden. She has pre- Samuel Jones, William Dunlap, Eudora the category of music composition (clas- viously published in Mississippi Magazine, Welty, and Walker Percy. sical/concert) for Concerto for Violin, Old House Journal, and Magnolia. David Beckley of Holly Springs Viola, Piano, and String Orchestra. With The winner for fiction is Michael serves as president of MIAL. Jan Taylor degrees from the Juilliard School and Kardos for the short story collection of Jackson is treasurer, and Margaret the Boston Conservatory, she has per- One Last Good Time. With degrees Anne Robbins of Pontotoc is secretary. formed in a variety of orchestral and from Princeton University, The Ohio For more information about attending chamber music settings, including sev- State University, and the University of the awards gala on June 9, 2012, visit eral performances at Lincoln Center and Missouri, Kardos serves as an assistant the website at www. ms-arts-letters.org.

Mary Thompson Contributors

Brett J. Bonner is the editor of Living Blues magazine. Rebecca Lauck Cleary is a communications specialist in the Office of Media Find the Center and Public Relations at the University of Mississippi. She received a BA in through Social Media Journalism from the University in 1997. Keep up with the many events at the Ted Ownby, director of the Center, holds a joint appointment in Southern Center through social media. Find Studies and history. us on Facebook at facebook.com/ Mary Thompson is a board member of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and SouthernStudies and on Twitter at Letters. She lives in Clarksdale, Mississippi. @SouthernStudies. As we prepare to update and redesign our website, Becca Walton is the Center’s associate director, projects. She has a MA in Facebook is the best source for infor- Southern Studies in 2007 and joined the Center staff this September. You can mation on upcoming events. already see her contributions to the Center by visiting the Center’s new media Our new Tumblr Blog, southern- on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. studiesatuofm.tumblr.com features Jay Watson is a professor of English at the University of Mississippi. His pub- the work of Center institute and lications include Forensic Fictions: The Lawyer Figure in Faulkner and Faulkner. partner Media and Documentary David Wharton is assistant professor and director of documentary projects at Projects, as well as that of students the Center, where he teaches courses in Southern Studies, fieldwork, and pho- in the documentary photography and tography. He is the author of The Soul of a Small Texas Town: Photographs, filmmaking classes led by Dr. David Memories, and History from McDade. Wharton and Dr. Andy Harper. Visit this page regularly to see the diverse Charles Reagan Wilson is the Kelly Gene Cook Chair in History, professor of creative and scholarly work of stu- Southern Studies, and past Center director. dents and faculty.

The Southern Register Spring 2012 Page 31

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