Everything And Nothing

Evening of Literature, Theatre at Old Capitol

A one-night-only theatrical performance at the Old Capitol Museum will feature the work of some of the state’s literary icons. Scenes from William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, and Richard Wright will be performed alongside works from contemporary Mississippi writers such as Natasha Trethewey and John Grisham in “Mississippi Talking: An Evening with New Stage Theatre.” The gala event will be held January 14 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. 

In addition to the performance the evening includes wine and hors d’oeuvres. Tickets are $40 each. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the performance will begin at 6 p.m. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 601- 576-6920.

Donations for North Mississippi Tornado Victims

Mississippians come together in times of need.  Donations, checks, and contributions may be made to the following organizations and communities, according to the Mississippi Secretary of State's Office:   

MEMA

• Donate online at www.msdisasterresponse.org

Tippah County

Send contributions for disbursement to the needy citizens to:

• Walnut Fire Department, 27880 MS Hwy 15,Walnut, MS 38683 or
• Three Forks Community Disaster Relief Fund, The People’s Bank, Attn: David Horton, P.O. Box 38, Walnut, MS 38683

Send contributions for rebuilding the Three Forks Fire Department building to: 

• Three Forks VFD Building Fund, The People’s Bank, Attn: David Horton, P.O. Box 38, Walnut, MS 38683

Marshall County

• Drop off supplies at Eddie Smith Multipurpose Center, 235 N. Memphis St., Holly Springs, MS 38635 or First Baptist Church, Volunteer Reception Center, 109 East College St., Holly Springs, MS 38635 (open from 9 a.m to 6 p.m.)

Coahoma County

• Drop off supplies at the Civic Auditorium, 506 East 2^nd St., Clarksdale, MS 38614

Tate County

• Drop off supplies at Senatobia Fire Station #1, 137 N. Front St., Senatobia, MS 38668 
• Suggested items: water, non-perishable foods, blankets, diapers, dog food, personal hygiene items, batteries and flashlights

Benton County

• Drop off supplies at Ashland Church of Christ, 47 Hwy 4 West, Ashland, MS 38603

American Red Cross

• Donate by calling 1-800-REDCROSS
• Donate online at http://www.redcross.org/local/mississippi
• Drop off donations at 9 River Bend Pl., Flowood, MS 30232

Salvation Army

• Donate by calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY
• Donate online at https://give.salvationarmyusa.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=national_donation_form

 

Researchers to Visit Residences along Mississippi Gulf Coast March 21, 28

Students representing the School of Social Work at The University of Southern Mississippi will conduct a research study on March 21 and 28 visiting residences in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson Counties.

The data collected will be used for a research study on the adaptation and resilience of Mississippi Gulf Coast residents with regard to psychological implications of different hazards, such as Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.

For questions, contact Dr. Bret Blackmon at 228.214.3275.

[ via USM.edu ]

Hattiesburg American photojournalists hosting photo walks

Starting Saturday, the Hattiesburg American photographers will be hosting a photo walk once a month at various locations around Hattiesburg and the Pine Belt. You'll be able to learn from the experts and shoot some great shots along the way. (No fancy camera needed. Just bring your smartphone even!)

They will also be posting participants' photos in the paper and on social media accounts.

The first photo walk, focusing on fall colors, will take place on the Southern Miss campus at 3:35 p.m. with Eli Baylis. Eli is a Hattiesburg native and graduate of Oak Grove High and Southern Miss.

The next photo walk will be Dec. 13 and will be held downtown with photographer Eric Shelton. Eric is a Columbia native, who also graduated from Southern Miss. Details to come.

And after you've been taken pictures for two months, be sure and enter you best work in the Hattiesburg Arts Council photo contest for amateur photographers.

Waveland rebuilding City Hall mosaic that Katrina destroyed

Courtesy of a Mississippi Arts Commission grant, the City of Waveland is creating a new mosaic on the wall in front of the City Hall complex on Coleman Avenue. The original mosaic (above), created in 1997 with the help of many of the area residents, was destroyed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Elizabeth Veglia, the project director of the original mosaic, hosted workshops in September and October leading the community in the creation of the new one. The design takes its inspiration from the Waveland logo and the undulating waves within it. Included in the design will be the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, buildings from the past and new ones that have replaced them, and the local sea and land images that are iconic to our region.  

Mississippi Poet Laureate at USM

Mississippi Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey will appear in Hattiesburg on Thursday, Nov. 6,  for a performance with the University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra.

Trethewey, the former U.S. poet laureate, will participate in a concert entitled "Made in America" at 7:30 p.m. in Bennett Auditorium on the USM campus.

Trethewey will narrate the orchestral version of her Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Native Guard. The music was composed by USM alumnus Joseph Britain.

The book contains elegies to her mother, who died while Trethewey was in college, and a sonnet sequence in the voice of a black soldier fighting in the Civil War.

  

Poke Salad (Sometimes) Daily Update: Two Hot Tamales

I will use this (sometimes) daily update to collect all of the interesting things I found throughout the day (for work and play). It's my own recipe, but, as always, I hope you find it tasty too! (Eat your greens. They're good for you!)




Betty Lynn Cameron, Main Street Greenville Executive Director and Delta Hot Tamale Festival Coordinator, swears you can't say the words "hot tamale" without smiling. She convinced me of it this weekend.

In 2012, Greenville held its inaugural hot tamale festival. In 2013, it was officially declared the Hot Tamale Capital of the World. But my husband and I took a birthday trip in December of 2010 to try Scott's Hot Tamales - not knowing the infamy to come for our food trek. I had read an article in Southern Living about Scott's Hot Tamales and wanted a road trip for our birthday weekend, so we took off.




In addition to hot tamales, we were in search of every thrift store, flea market and secondhand store we could find on the way. Once we got to Greenville and started hitting the thrift stores, folks would as where we were from and why we were visiting. I'd tell them the Scott's Hot Tamales story. And every time, someone would point me to some other tamale place that REALLY had the best hot tamales but that would never make Southern Living. Some regular stop-in stores and some along the lines of "Go to the house at the end of the street. Turn left and go down a dirt road. Knock on the door three times and ask for Ralph." Before this trip, I had no idea tamales were such a big deal in the Delta. I had had my share of tamales with knock-you-naked margaritas on the patio at Fat Mama's (and did right before this trip too).




I came back from the trip and immediately started googling hot tamales and the Delta. At the time, I found a Delta Hot Tamale Trail was in the works and learned a little about the history of the tamale in the Delta.



The Southern Foodways Alliance says Greenville has more hot tamale restaurants and/or food stations than any other city in Mississippi! So, of course, I had to add visiting the Delta Hot Tamale Festival to my must-do list.



Because I heart hot tamales, the Mississippi Delta and Greenville!

(OK, OK. AND a knock-you-naked margarita with a hot tamale on Fat Mama's patio!)

Regardless of where you get your tamales, remember they freeze very well. Buy extra and stash them away!

I have added making my own hot tamales from scratch to my culinary to-do list this year. I'll have to report back on my experiments! Subscribe to my Poke Salad (Sometimes) Daily Updates and read past updates here.

Jesmyn Ward to read at Millsaps

Jesmyn Ward, whose novel Salvage the Bones won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction, is scheduled to read from her works at 4 p.m. Thursday in room 215 of the Gertrude C. Ford Academic Complex at Millsaps College.

The reading is free and open to the public.

Ward, now a faculty member at Tulane University, has won five Hopwood Awards, been a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and served as the Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. All three of her books — two novels (“Salvage the Bones” and “Where the Line Bleeds”) and a memoir (“Men We Reaped”) — are set on the Gulf Coast where she grew up. Shortly after Ward received her master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Michigan in 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, and Ward and her family were forced to evacuate. Later, as a professor at the University of New Orleans, Ward drove to and from work through neighborhoods leveled by the storm.

Ward’s memoir confronts five years of her life in which she lost five young men to death. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography, it has been named one of the Best Books of 2013 by Publishers Weekly, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, NPR, Kirkus Review, New York Magazine and Time Magazine. 

The Livingston Gardener set to film in Jackson, Canton this August

The Livingston Gardener, the first feature film for Jackson native and producer Missy Tanner, will begin shooting this month in Jackson and Canton. It was written and will be directed by Mississippian Rob Ryan. The psychological thriller has a budget of $100,000, which was all raised from Mississippi investors. In the movie, an investigative reporter finds himself at the mercy of a convicted killer during a live, televised prison interview.

Missy Tanner began her career as an actor, starring in local theatre productions and commercials in Mississippi. In 1996 she packed up her car, and drove out West to Los Angeles where she landed speaking roles in several films and TV shows – Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Good Burger, to name a few. While in L.A., she began to pursue a career in advertising and worked for two of the top five film and television advertising firms while working on films like Mission Impossible: III, Lady In The Water and The Reaping. When her daughter was born, Missy decided to move back to Mississippi.

Ryan, a Millsaps graduate, now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, and has also written a book, Jonestown, along with several other short films, including Murderabilia and Grasshopper.

Tanner has already sold the film to Synergetic Distribution for May 2015 digital download and DVD and is pursuing a theatrical distribution deal.

If you want to keep up with the movie, like their Facebook page. If you want to keep up with all of the movie news in the state, join the mailing list of Film Mississippi here.

[ H/T Sherry Lucas in The Clarion-Ledger ]

B.B. King to Chair Cotton Pickers of America and Sharecroppers Interpretative Center

B.B. King has replaced Maya Angelou as the Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Cotton Pickers of America and Sharecroppers Interpretative Center - an effort to build a monument in the Mississippi Delta to honor cotton pickers.

Khafre, Inc, based in Indianola, Mississippi, began the effort in 2009 to build the complex to say thanks to those who helped build the cotton empire that fueled the American economy for nearly two centuries., says C. Sade Turnipseed, founder and executive director.

The monument will be 25-feet tall and will be located on 20 acres of cotton fields along Highway 61.

"The Cotton Pickers Monument Complex would not only help heal wounds that have festered for decades, but would also help to empower the generations of family members who have been negatively impacted by this unfortunate era in American history," Khafre said in a statement. "By embracing the shared history of many races and individuals from different social classes, it is Khafre, Inc's sincerest hope and deeply held conviction that this monument/educational center will help bridge deep racial divisions and distrust through education, outreach and recognition of the strength of the human soul. This is truly a historic endeavor that has the rare opportunity of actually transforming lives, communities, and the conversations about race in America and throughout the world."

Khafre, Inc. held weekly sessions throughout this summer to gather memories and oral histories from people with roots in the Delta, especially older African-Americans with first-hand knowledge of work in the cotton fields. If you missed a session, you can add your oral history online here.

If you're interested in helping, you can donate here. To support the cause, you can also buy a miniature of the statue and legacy bricks in the plaza. The group is also accepting art, artifacts, or literary works for inclusion in the soon-to-be-released anthology, The Cotton Pickers of America.