the THESouthern NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF SOUTHERN CULTURE •SPRINGRegister/SUMMER 2005 g THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI Faulkner’s Inheritance Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference July 24-28, 2005 n a sense Faulkner’s “inheritance” was the standard turn-of-the-century Southern condition, what Allen Tate years later referred to as the “double focus, a looking two ways.” One of those ways was backward to the antebellum culture and the War between the States Ithat was fought to defend it; the other was toward the present, modern world, with all its implicit and explicit challenges to much of what the Old South had stood for, good and bad. Mrs. L. H. Harris, writing in 1906, put it more poetically. Every Southerner, especially the white males, had to assume two roles simultaneously: to be “himself and his favorite forefather at the same time,” to inhabit “two characters . one which condemns us, more or less downtrodden by facts, to the days of our own years, and one in which we tread a perpetual minuet of past glories.” The Square, by John McCrady (1911-1968), illustrates the 2005 The 32nd annual Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference poster and program will explore for five days some of the complexities of that courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. William Lewis and the Downtown Grill. Flat copies of the poster and two others with McCrady paintings, “double focus,” the way in which Faulkner’s general Southern, Political Rally and Oxford on a Hill, are available for $10.00 each as well as his distinctive “Falkner,” past and present come plus $3.50 postage and handling. Mississippi residents should add 7 together in his fiction. His own “looking two ways” meant a percent sales tax. Send all orders to the Center for the Study of continuous staging of fictional meetings between what Southern Culture with a check, made payable to The University of constituted his background and the new conditions upon Mississippi, or with a Visa or MasterCard account number and which he brought that background to bear. Among the expiration dates. Credit card orders also may be made by calling questions that conference speakers will be raising are What is 800-390-3527. the nature of the relationships Faulkner had with his mother, Maud Butler Falkner, the “white maternal,” and with Caroline Barr, the “black maternal”? How does the “culture of These and other issues will be taken up by Judith L. segregation,” within which Faulkner spent virtually all his life, Sensibar, Susan Donaldson, Adam Gussow, Noel Polk, figure in his fiction? What is the place of one of the major Martin Kreiswirth, Jon Smith, Priscilla Wald, and Lael Gold. Southern cultural contributions–the blues–in Faulkner’s work? Jay Parini, author of the recent widely acclaimed biography of How does Faulkner’s passion for innovation square with the very idea of “inheritance”? (continued on page 3) Southern Register D IRECTOR’ S C OLUMN Robbie Robertson, the Canadian-born member of the seminal rock group the Published Quarterly by Band, once supposedly said the American South was the only place he had been The Center for the Study of Southern Culture where, when driving through the countryside, he heard music as though welling up The University of Mississippi from the ground. Telephone: 662-915-5993 The story may be apocryphal, but I can believe it. Southerners sang in their Fax: 662-915-5814 E-mail: [email protected] churches and parlors, made music in their kitchens and on their front porches. Internet: http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/south Later, juke joints and honky-tonks generated louder sounds. Now, urban neighborhoods showcase rap and hip-hop music, rooted in what has become IN THIS ISSUE known as the Dirty South. We’ve come a long way, but we are still making music. Spring/Summer 2005 The Center has launched a new Music of the South initiative, working with 1 2005 F&Y: Faulkner’s Inheritance University Outreach, the Gertrude Castello Ford Center for the Performing Arts, 2 Director’s Column and other on-campus committees that plan activities to extend from our study and presentation of Southern music. The inaugural Music of the South Symposium 2 In Memoriam: Bobby Gene Chatman will be held September 2-3, 2005, to highlight our work in this area. 3 B. B. King Museum and Delta Center The Center has long documented Southern music, of course. The Blues 3 Music of the South Symposium Archive, Living Blues magazine, the Highway 61 radio show, and, more recently, 3 Woest Fellowship the Blues Today Symposium reflect our enduring interest in African American 4 Fall 2005 Brown Bag Schedule roots music. We have also published gospel music and old-time country magazines, 4 2005-2006 Events Calendar produced a few Southern Culture Series record albums, and worked with local 5 Ceremony at Faulkner’s Rowan Oak music festivals. We promote Sacred Harp singing around Oxford and are a sponsor 6 16th Faux Faulkner Contest Winner of the Thacker Mountain Radio Show produced by Square Books. 8 SSSL Call for Papers This new initiative extends our musical interests in new ways. The Ford Center 9 Boyd Saunders Exhibition is producing Music of the South concerts, with such performers as B. B. King, 9 Birney Imes Exhibition Ricky Skaggs, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and jazzman Marcus Roberts. We hope 9 Gammill Gallery Exhibition Schedule to interview these performers for a new Archive of Southern Music and allow 10 Old Federal Road Project them an informal venue to talk with students, faculty, and the community about 11 SST Exhibition in Georgia their music. Mississippi-born musician Marty Stuart has become a friend of the 12 SST Students Complete MA Degrees Center, and we have found him an enthusiastic and knowledgeable student of 12 SST Awards 2004-2005 Southern music. He is interested in becoming more involved in our work. 12 Oxford Film Festival Collaborating with the Mississippi Arts Commission, the Center, through project director Wiley Prewitt, created an archive of interviews and photographs 13 SST Honor Student Becky Coyle of traditional performers in northeast Mississippi, an understudied Southern place. 14 Tennessee Williams in Clarksdale The September symposium will bring together scholars, students, musicians, and 14 Tennessee Williams in Columbus anyone interested in Southern music for a wide-ranging discussion of Southern 15 Regional Roundup music, past and present. The campus will resonate with the sounds of gospel, 15 Columbus Arts & Preservation Forum country, bluegrass, blues, and other musical genres. 16 Michael Knight Is Grisham Writer The Music of the South initiative aims to look at the regional context that 17 Reading the South: Reviews & Notes produced so much of American music, beyond one single sound. The capstone of 24 2005 Oxford Conference for the Book the initiative is our campaign to raise endowment funds for a Music of the South 26 Hickory Hill Forum professorship. We will build on enthusiastic student interest in Southern music, 26 Notes on Contributors our archival resources, and deep public interest in the music through a permanent 27 Southern Foodways Alliance News faculty member to research, teach about, and organize activities to help us all 31 Southern Culture Catalog Items understand music’s profound role in Southern culture. 32 Address Section/Mailing List Form/Friends Information and Forms CHARLES REAGAN WILSON REGISTER STAFF Editor: Ann J. Abadie Graphic Designer: Susan Bauer Lee Mailing List Manager: Mary Hartwell Howorth InBobby Memoriam Gene Chatman Editorial Assistant: Sally Cassady Lyon June 20, 1950 - March 18, 2005 Lithographer: RR Donnelley Magazine Group The University complies with all applicable laws Bobby Gene “Bob” Chatman was a longtime member of the Mighty Stars of regarding affirmative action and equal opportunity in all Harmony, one of Lafayette County’s oldest African American gospel groups. He its activities and programs and does not discriminate joined the Mighty Stars of Harmony in the early 1980s and was a faithful, against anyone protected by law because of age, color,disability, national origin, race, religion, sex, or dedicated member. status as a veteran or disabled veteran. Page 2 Spring/Summer 2005 The Southern Register (continued from page 1) Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Music of the South Symposium Faulkner, One Matchless Time, will deliver the keynote The Center will host the first Music of the South Symposium address of the conference. There will also be two panel on Friday and Saturday, September 2-3, 2005. The program programs, addressing such topics as the Quixotic hero, the will feature presentations, a reception, a catfish dinner in influence of the theories of Einstein, and the problem of Taylor, Mississippi, and live music at the symposium and at “legacy” in several Faulkner texts. clubs on the Oxford Square. Further illuminating the “background” of fiction, Elizabeth Keynote speaker for the symposium is Bill Malone, the Shiver, a native of Oxford, will conduct a “Faulkner in renowned student of music and himself a musician and singer. Oxford” panel. Boyd Saunders, painter, sculptor, illustrator, Malone, author of Don’t Get above Your Raisin’: Country Music and printmaker, will give a presentation about the University and the Southern Working Class, will examine the relationships Museum’s exhibition of lithograph prints from his among the various genres of music in the South. illustrations for Faulkner’s Spotted Horses. There will also be One session, “Race, Region, and Identity: Southern Music sessions on Teaching Faulkner; tours of North Mississippi; in the Classroom,” looks at how Southern music can be announcement of the winner of the 16th Faux Faulkner incorporated into teaching at various levels. A session on Contest; dramatic readings from Faulkner’s work; “Faulkner Mississippi music will bring together leaders of cultural on the Fringe”—an “open-mike” evening at the Southside centers who present music through museum exhibitions, Gallery; and an assortment of social gatherings, including a publications, and other institutional formats.