Blame IHL, Parade/UTCM, Sunni Patterson, JSU Gibbs-Green, Rita Brent, and Upcoming Events
Hey Y’all,
In 2020, after the first (of three consecutive Jackson State University Presidents) was forced to resign, I published an article, “From Peoples to Bynum: A Brief History of Jackson State’s Leadership Struggle,” on Black Agenda Report, which can be read here. Now, after the second and third Presidents have been forced to resign in five years, that article still stands as to why JSU has continued to have faulty Presidents, despite remaining one of the top HBCUs in the county. However, y’all can read a slightly updated version of that article here in which I include how one former President attempted to use eminent domain to seize black-owned property from around the university to be given to a well-known racist land baron as another way to colonize or gentrify the city of Jackson. Sadly, that five-year-old article holds true today as another JSU President has been forced to resign. The bottom line is this. Every time the Mississippi College Board aka IHL circumvents the process and chooses a president for JSU that none of the JSU stakeholders (students, faculty, staff, administration, alumni, and community) wanted, that president’s tenure either ends in disaster or is forced the leave the university because they lose the trust of the JSU stakeholders. At what point will IHL, the state legislature, and Governor Tater Tot realize that attempting to mold JSU into its plantation playground or a kangaroo court only causes problems for the entire state? Or, is this their endgame? What we do know is that, the one time JSU was allowed to choose its own President, he remains the greatest President the university has seen. For further discussion of this, I was asked to join KC 1400 Media, and y’all can watch that discussion here. Yet, I can tell you this. If you are waiting on me to blame the bulk of diligent and dedicated black folks for the ill consequences of the neo-Confederates handpicking damaged persons to run a university, that will happen the same time that you slap five with the Easter Bunny and do the Electric Slide with Santa. Thee I Love because I only Love Thee. That is all.
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Hey Y’all Again,
Sometimes life creates synchronicity without you realizing that you are part of it. A couple of weeks ago on What Did Prince Do This Week?, Prince scholar and NYU Professor De Angela Duff, Prince scholar and host of Podcast Juice: Podcast on Prince Michael Dean, Prince scholar, musician, and educator Ricky Wyatt, and I were discussing Prince’s amazing creation of Parade, which is also the soundtrack for Under the Cherry Moon, and we went down a couple of great rabbit holes. The first is us spending four minutes just quoting lines from the film showing just how silly we are and how much love each of us has for the film, which y’all can watch here. Next, after we discussed the absolutely astonishing way Prince recorded the first four songs of Parade, it led me to remember how Parade is the album that transformed me from a singles person to an album person. Since I consider Prince’s albums like novels, I rarely listen to just one song or a random Prince song because I’m only interested in hearing full Prince albums, which I explain here. (FYI—when I begin my discussion, I mistakenly say Sign “O” the Times, but I meant Lovesexy.) Next, following Professor Duff’s lead, we get into a brief discussion of the excellence that is “Do U Lie?,” and I get to share my love for the song while shouting out my cousin, John Fisher, a musician and singer, who was the first person to help me understand just how fabulous and unreal Prince’s vocal delivery is on the song (here). Then, immediately after we discuss “Do U Lie?,” I express my love for how “Kiss” flows seamlessly into “Anotherloverholenyohead” on the album as probably one of my favorite transitions from one song to another on any Prince album. To be clear, Parade isn’t my favorite Prince album, but it is a masterpiece that changed so much about how I listen to and understand music. Finally, toward the end of the stream, we get into a discussion about the definitions of black and white music, how those definitions evolved, and why so many people fall into that trap, especially when it comes to the general ignorance of what black people have created and should be still doing. To close that discussion, I provide three elements that led to that trap and/or misconception (here). Now, what makes all of this discussion about Parade synchronous is that later that week on Podcast Juice: Podcast on Prince Brother Dean was joined by Prince scholar and Attorney Marc Wiggins aka Big Sexy and Prince scholar, musician, and Attorney Violet Brown to have another deep dive on Parade, which y’all can watch here.
Other than the song “Kiss” from the album, Parade is often overlooked or minimized because it is the soundtrack to Under the Cherry Moon, which was a commercial flop. Yet, many scholars argue that Parade rather than Around the World in a Day is the album that marks Prince’s transition from Purple Rain. While I don’t agree with that position, I do see Parade as an enjoyable and monumental step in Prince showing that he was more than just a pop star and was a musical genius and amazing lyrical poet who deserves to be studied widely. Finally, I’m also grateful that, during this stream, I got to shout out my friend, Benjamin Bradley—a Jackson, Mississippi, musician, photographer, and graduate of Jackson State University—who was in the chat that morning. If y’all enjoy these excerpts, feel free to watch the entire stream (here) and to subscribe to What Did Prince Do This Week? (here) and Podcast Juice: Podcast on Prince (here) to watch a new stream every Saturday.
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Hey Y’all One Mo’ Time,
If y’all missed last week’s analysis of Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, y’all can read it here. Also, we’d like to share two more insightful discussions of Sinners that approach the film from different positions but are seeking the same end. Poet, literary theorist, librarian, arts activist, and Prince scholar Scott Woods’ essay, “Sinners Soars, But Act Like You Been Here Before (here),” asks that viewers, especially black viewers, engage the film with a more critical eye to understand what is and isn’t there to have a full appreciation of Coogler’s work and why black folks still need the blues. SIUE Professor and literary theorist Dr. Howard Rambsy’s brief essay, “Ryan Coogler, C Liegh McInnis, and Black Convergences (here),” asks viewers to understand Sinners as “cultural cataloging” in the most dense way to teach and celebrate black history and black genius within the limited timeframe a film allows. Finally, here is a link to “Sinners: A Reading and Resource List,” which provides a syllabus of materials to aid in the understanding and enjoyment of the film. Together, the two commentaries and the syllabus can aid in how we approach, discuss, share, and celebrate black art.
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This morning’s Friday Forum will feature Mr. David Lewis, Executive Director of the Mississippi Arts Commission, who will provide an update on the Mississippi Arts Commission under President Agent Orange’s attack on the arts. For more information about today’s Friday Forum and upcoming Friday Forums, see the calendar of events below or contact Nicole McNamee at nmcnamee72@gmail.com.
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The Mississippi Writers Guild (MWG) will meet tomorrow and feature a talk by Julie Whitehead, who lives and writes from Mississippi. An award-winning freelance writer, Whitehead covered disasters from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina throughout her career. She writes on mental health, mental health education, and mental health advocacy. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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Tomorrow night, to celebrate the grand opening of its Main Street Cultural Center, The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture) will feature internationally acclaimed poet and performer Sunni Patterson with her band at the Main Street Cultural Center. Patterson has appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, TEDWomen, featured on Grammy award-winning Hip-Hop albums, and currently serves as a Resident Artist for both the City of New Orleans’ Claiborne Corridor Cultural Initiative and Junebug Productions. For more information on both weekends, see the calendar of events below. Sipp Culture weaves research, development, and local agriculture with contemporary media and storytelling to promote the legacy and vision of Utica, Mississippi, and the possibility of what all of Mississippi can be. Their place-based model program promotes economic empowerment and self-sufficiency of low- and moderate-income people through education, technical assistance, training, and mentoring in agribusiness. The Main Street Cultural Center will provide a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen and an intimate venue for presenting music, film, and multidisciplinary performance and visual art. It will also serve as Sipp Culture’s primary presenting venue for year-round arts programming.
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This week’s Torch Literary Arts feature is fiction writer Jessica Araugo whose works have been published in Sad Girl Diaries Literary Magazine, Wingless Dreamer, Cathexis Northwest Press, and Midnight & Indigo. To read more about Araugo and her work, go here.
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Next week, the Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander Center will host the 55th Gibbs-Green Commemoration to memorialize the 1970 attack on JSU by the Jackson Police Department, the Mississippi Highway Patrol, and the Mississippi National Guard, which took the lives of Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, a twenty-one-year-old JSU student, and James Earl Green, a seventeen-year-old Jim Hill High School Student along with wounding eighteen others as law enforcement fired over four hundred rounds into Alexander Hall, a female Dorm. Here is a link to C Liegh McInnis’ article, “The Jackson State University Assassination: What Does It Continue to Mean in the Annals of Time?,” that was published twenty-five years ago on the Thirtieth Commemoration of the attack, and here is a link to C Liegh’s poem, “Tree of Life (Black Colleges Be Here),” that addresses the attack and the general struggles and successes of HBCUs. Additionally, everyone should purchase a copy of Dr. Nancy Bristow’s Steeped in the Blood of Racism: Black Power, Law and Order, and the 1970 Shootings at Jackson State College, and here is the link to C Liegh and Dr. Bristow’s interview about her book at the Mississippi Book Festival. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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Next week, Our Mississippi Magazine will host its 2024 – 2025 Mississippi’s Most Influential African Americans of the Year. Along with the regular honorees, OMM will give special recognition to Sen. Hilman Frazier. For more information, including the full list of honorees, see the calendar of events below.
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City of Asylum’s 2025 Jazz Poetry Festival will occur throughout the month of May in Pittsburg, PA, featuring 50+ artists, new and returning, making their way to their stage from near and far. Jazz Poetry Month is a tradition that traces to the very heart of City of Asylum. At its core, it is a celebration of experimentation, collaboration, and connection between art forms and between artist and audience. All performances can be viewed in person or online on our streaming platform. Built on and a chapter of Cities of Asylum created by novelist Salman Rushdie, who had a bounty placed on his head by the Supreme Leader of Iran because of his novel, Satanic Verses, City of Asylum Pittsburgh’s commitment is to help the writer build a new home and a new life as part of a community. For more about the festival, see the calendar of events below.
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Third World Press, one of the largest black-owned publishers on the planet, has wonderful collections of poetry, fiction, and prose by award-winning and historic writers, including its collection of books teaching and celebrating Malcolm X, which can be found here. To browse their catalog, go here.
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Rooted Magazine has a great new interview as part of its “Mississippi Expat” series with Tabitha Agany that y’all can read here. Agany was born in South Sudan and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya before resettling in Jackson, Mississippi, where she “learned English, made lasting friendships, and began building the life I have now.” Though she lives in Maryland with her husband and three children, Agany remains deeply connected to Mississippi and the family who helped raise her. Additionally, each month, Rooted Magazine Book Club features a discussion with an author about their work. May will feature Sarah LaBrie’s No One Gets to Fall Apart: A Memoir in a free online discussion. No One Gets to Fall Apart is an Essence “Most Anticipated,” an Oprah Daily “Best Book of Fall,” 2024 New York Times “Editor’s Pick” and “Notable Book of the Year,” a Lit Hub’s “Most Anticipated,” and an Esquire “Best Memoir of the Year.” It’s been compared to Mississippi native and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey’s Memorial Drive and Tara Westover’s Educated. “Chronicling her mother’s struggles with mental illness, LaBrie also examines the through line of mental illness in her family history and the ripple of effects of generational trauma. This story is not an easy one, but it’s an important one.” For more information about Rooted’s upcoming May Book Club, see the calendar of events below. Finally, in latest installment in the Chronicles from Parchman series, a monthly column by the talented and prolific writer, L. Patri, who has been fighting his wrongful incarceration on Parchman’s death row for over thirty years, L. Patri provides “Joe, Joe, and Joe,” a work of autofiction that unpacks the burden of a name and a legacy, which can be heard and read here. Additionally, y’all can read L. Patri’s interview in Rooted from November 2024. Rooted is an online magazine dedicated to telling stories of place to people who call Mississippi home. To check out more of Rooted’s great content, go here. Rooted publishes weekly questionnaires with interesting Mississippi transplants, natives, and expats. Their lagniappe issues feature original prose, poetry, art, and photography from Mississippi writers and artists. Y’all can subscribe to the online magazine at rooted.substack.com.
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Lolwe is offering masterclasses on multiple creative writing genres and techniques. For more details, see the calendar of events below.
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Jackson, Mississippi, native, comedian, emcee, musician (wonderful drummer), and singer Rita Brent will host the next episode of her variety show, Late Night with Rita Brent (here). To watch the hilarious monologue from the first episode, go here, to watch her interview comedy veteran Ricky Smiley, go here, and to watch her interview longtime Mississippi chef and restaurant owner Godfrey Morgan, go here. To promote her new show, Brent was interviewed by longtime TV personality Walt Grayson, which y’all can watch here. For more information about Late Night with Rita Brent, see the calendar of events below. Along with being a nationally noted comedian who appears weekly on the Rickey Smiley Morning Show, her hit single, “Raised in the ‘Sipp” made waves all around the country, and y’all can watch it here. I’m digging this, and I’m not even a hip-hop head. Her previous single, “Kamala,” was all over YouTube, CNN, and just about everywhere. Y’all can vibe to “Kamala” here and the 2024 remix here. As a multitalented artist, I’ve long proclaimed that Rita B is as equally talented as a triple threat like Jamie Foxx. (Of course, no one touches Sammy Davis, Jr., as a multitalented artist, but that’s a debate for another time.) Jacktown aka Jackfrica is extremely proud of our hometown girl who always keeps us laughing and dancing while thinking. Rita B will tickle your funny bone while stimulating your mind. For those not familiar with the artistry of Rita B, I’ll leave y’all with two of my favorite works by her. The first is her song, “Can You Rock Me Like a Pothole?” The second is her routine about substitute teachers. Checkout both and go to her Website, YouTube, and Facebook page and follow her to remain current with what she’ll be doing. To be clear, since I don’t have Facebook or Twitter or any social media, I’m not sure if you follow someone on Facebook or not, but I’m sure that y’all will know what to do. But, whatever y’all do, be sure to support Rita B and all the local artists.
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At the end of the month, Afrikan Art Gallery & Bookstore will host a reading and signing by Dr. Eldridge Henderson of his new book Organized, Don’t Criticize, which teaches the importance of cultural economic empowerment. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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The Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience (The MAX) has released its upcoming events for May. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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Muntu Dance Theatre hosts dance workshops on various Saturdays throughout the month. For the next workshop, see the calendar of events below.
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Here is the link to the May newsletter of the Civil Rights Movement Archive (CRMA). Also, CRMA has a new collection, What the Civil Rights Movement Taught Us, a collection of writings from various civil rights veterans, which can be viewed here. To learn more about CRMA, go here, and to read their collection of civil rights poetry, which includes six poems by C Liegh McInnis, go here.
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Here is another great article, “A Racist in the Park,” about the black child in Rochester, Minnesota, who was verbally assaulted by a white woman who later raised $600,000 to protect her from retribution for black people, by Moss Point, Mississippi, native and Princeton Professor Dr. Eddie Glaude, Jr., which is posted on his platform, A Native Son. However, rather than focus on the white woman and the neo-Confederate outcry, Doc Glaude asks that we focus on the emotional and psychological health of the black child and all black children who experience this trauma daily. Glaude’s latest book is Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own Democracy, which can be purchased here.
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Mississippi native, fiction writer, playwright, and health activist Katrina Byrd will join Kara Laurene Perncano—PhD candidate in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Andrea Cesar, interdisciplinary, movement artist, educator, and activist—in presenting a 60-minute roundtable presentation at the Conference on Community Writing. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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From sixth grade to high school, I was a mediocre multi-sport athlete who had dreams of becoming a Major League Baseball player, but my pops, who had been a pro-baseball pitching prospect, was only interested in using sports to teach and affirm various lessons that I could apply to all aspects of life. To this point, what Brother Nuri Muhammad tells former NFL player Cam Newton is what my pops told me constantly from the age of five. Notice that Brother Muhammad didn’t say that sports or athletics are innately destructive but the approach that far too many black parents have toward sports and athletics is a major problem in our community. Brother Muhammad’s point is not to convince black people to abandon sports but to develop a different perspective regarding sports so that it can meet the purpose for which it was originally designed.
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The Jackson Advocate, one of the oldest African-American newspapers, has more insightful articles, which can be read here. Also, JA has a weekly podcast that y’all can access here and here, and to receive notifications of future episodes contact janews@thejacksonadvocate.com.
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The National Council for Black Studies has published its 4th Annual Report on the State of Affairs for African Communities, The Discipline and the African World 2024 Report, which can be read here.
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Checkout the latest issue of First of the Month.org, edited by the always-on-point Benj DeMott, which can be read here. Along with this issue, First of the Month publishes some of the most insightful essays, poetry, and fiction.
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Over the past three years, filmmaker Mark Brockway has been working on a new documentary, Where We Daily Tread, which tells the story of white supremacy, the Black Power Movement, and the May 1970 attack on Jackson State by Mississippi law enforcement. He has begun uploading very brief clips of interviews for the doc, and here is the link to give y’all a “taste” of what the doc will be. Two of the clips include insights from poet, short story writer, Prince scholar, and JSU graduate C Liegh McInnis.
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If you missed the Polished Solid #PopLife40 Prince Symposium, which celebrated 40 years of Prince’s Around the World in a Day, The Family’s self-titled album, and Sheila E.’s Romance 1600, you missed another great three days of Prince scholarship and community. Symposium curator and NYU Professor De Angela Duff has started uploading the videos of all the panels and roundtables, which y’all can watch here. These include the brilliant Prince scholar Edgar Kruize’s presentation, “Love Is the Color This Place Imparts,” which deconstructs how the album cover artwork of Around the World in a Day tells a cohesive story to reflect the message(s) of the songs, the first keynote, featuring The Family, the second keynote with saxophonist Eddie M, who is C Liegh’s favorite horn player to play with Prince, Maceo Parker notwithstanding, and more.
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Poet, editor, and Emeritus Distinguished University of Southern Mississippi Professor Dr. Philip C. Kolin has a poem, “Ellis Island,” published on page 97 of Fireflies’ Light. Additionally, Dr. John J. Han, editor of Fireflies’ Light, has written a review of Kolin’s latest collection of poetry, White Terror Black Trauma: Resistance about Black History, which appears on page 165 of the journal. Finally, literary theorist and Emeritus Dean of Graduate Studies at Missouri Baptist University Dr. C. Clark Triplett has written a review of Conversation with Lenard D. Moore, edited by Dr. John Zheng, which appears on page 151. To read these and all the poetry and essays in this issue of Fireflies’ Light, go here. To purchase a copy of Kolin’s White Terror Black Trauma: Resistance about Black History, go here, and to purchase a copy of Conversations with Lenard D. Moore, edited by Dr. John Zheng, go here.
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The Spring 2025 edition of Ishmael Reed’s Konch Magazine has been published with its usual excellent poetry, fiction, and essays, including two tribute commentaries to poet and literary theorist Dr. Jerry W. Ward by poet and activist Julia Wright and poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis, which y’all can read here.
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Abrasion & Erasing: Essays, Interviews, and Poems of Jerry W. Ward, Jr., edited by poet, scholar, and Mississippi Valley State University English Chair Dr. John Zheng, is available and beautiful—physically and literarily. Abrasion & Erasing is a collection of essays, interviews, and poems by Doc Ward published over the years in Valley Voices: A Literary Review and the Journal of Ethnic American Literature. Through this collection, Dr. Zheng has captured and illuminated the beauty, power, and significance of Doc Ward as one of the most important literary voices of Mississippi, the South, and America. We are extremely proud to share that poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis’ interview with Doc Ward is included, along with interviews of Doc Ward by storyteller, visual artist, and arts activist Diane Williams, and Dr. Zheng. This collection is a testament and call to action to continue the work of Doc Ward as he served skillfully as a steward of black literature, leaving a brilliant blueprint for us to follow. As an artist, scholar, and Afro-Mississippian, I thank you for this work! To purchase a copy of Abrasion & Erasing: Essays, Interviews, and Poems of Jerry W. Ward, Jr., send $10 to Valley Voices at MVSU 7242, 14000 Highway 82 West, Itta Bena, MS 38941 or valley_voices@yahoo.com.
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President Agent Orange’s attempts to create a new American Oligarchy have impacted Mississippi again. “The Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) received notice from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that its federal funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has been terminated effective immediately. MHC, along with its colleagues at other state councils and the Federation of State Humanities Councils (FSHC), are looking into a possible legal response. Meanwhile, we urgently need you to contact your elected leaders in Congress and show your support for the Council’s work in Mississippi. Remind them how important the Council’s work is in our state and urge them to stop DOGE from gutting the NEH and state humanities councils. The Mississippi Humanities Council serves as the state affiliate of the NEH, and if the termination of funding to state councils is not stopped, we will lose all of the federal funding that supports our work. Please contact your senators and members of congress to urge them to support the continued funding of NEH and state humanities councils. Remind them that in 2024, with just $1 million in federal funding, the Council presented 750 programs across 90 communities and supported 65 grants to various institutions, including colleges, historical societies, museums, and community organizations. These initiatives include traveling Smithsonian exhibits, our Speakers Bureau, the Mississippi Freedom Trail, youth reading programs, and transformative prison education courses and book clubs.” Here is a link to public talking points to support MHC, here is a link to a script for contacting elected officials, and here is a link to donate directly to MHC. In closing, I’ll leave y’all with my poem, “What Good Are Poems? (here)” which I hope makes it plain why art is important to every community.
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Here and here are links to a fantastic new funk documentary, We Want the Funk, which was just released on PBS this week. It has a host of funk legends and scholars interviewed, including noted Prince scholar and NYU Professor De Angela Duff, music archivist, DJ, and Loyola and Tulane Professor Melissa A. Weber aka DJ Soul Sister, and noted cultural critic and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal. This is one of the best documentaries on Funk!
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Cultural critic and filmmaker Nelson George’s Finding the Funk is an excellent documentary despite George’s ongoing lame-ass attempt to minimize Prince from the history of funk. Luckily, the real musicians that he interviews don’t take the bait when asked about Prince and make it clear that Prince is as much of a funk musician as he is anything else. Yet, that being said, I’m clear that Finding the Funk is a great doc that y’all can watch here. Additionally, George has spent the last year or so uploading outtakes of interviews for his doc that can be seen here. There are so many highlights that I won’t do justice naming a few, but I gotta call y’all’s attention to some, namely writer and director Reggie Hudlin who manages to give a brief yet thorough history of Parliament/Funkadelic (here). Hudlin perfectly weaves history, sociopolitical context, and aesthetic theory to provide one of the best explanations of who Parliament/Funkadelic are and why they are essential. Additionally, writer, arranger, producer, and bass master Marcus Miller’s two-part interview (one and two) is a masterclass. And, writer, arranger, and producer Niles Rodgers’ three-part interview (one, two, and three) is more required viewing to understand the importance of bands and live music to black culture. Again, George, to his credit, interviewed a ton of masters for his doc, and y’all can watch many of those complete interviews and outtakes here.
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John Blake has a new article, “What Happened to the Funk: How America Lost Its Groove,” which can be read here.
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As part of this summer’s Juneteenth Celebration, Afrikan Art Gallery will host a book reading and signing by Walter Simpson, Mississippi’s first black firefighter, and his book, First on the Scene: My Journey through the Fires of Bigotry in Mississippi. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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The 2025 National Black Book Festival will be in Houston this fall. They will be celebrating their 18th anniversary and are looking forward to 2025 being their best year yet! If you’re an author, publisher, or entrepreneur interested in acquiring a vendor table at 2025 NBBF, early bird registration is now open. Registrations are starting at an unprecedented rate, and they are already at 45% capacity. As a result, it’s best to place your table deposit and register as soon as possible. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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The group responsible for the Jackson’s Black Business Directory (Our Version of the Green Book) is contemplating updating it and need your help by identifying Black-owned businesses in and around MedgarEversville (bka Jackson). Please send the name, address, and owner of the Black-owned Businesses that you patronize to Asinia Lukata Chikuyu at afrikan_tbt@yahoo.com. They will compile the information into an updated Black Business Directory for the #HITTHEMINTHEPOCKET HARD and LONG-TERM initiative. Working together, we can make some good things happen for Jackson’s Black Community. Black Business growth and success will mean jobs, community investment, and more ops for our youth. Afrikan/Black Community Development Economics (#ABCDE) is somethang we must do. Communities around MedgarEversville are growing because those folks support their community. As Malcolm X stated, “Our people have to be made to see that any time you take your dollar out of your community and spend it in a community where you don’t live, the community where you live will get poorer and poorer, and the community where you spend your money will get richer and richer.”
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Magnitude and Bond: A Field Study on Black Literary Arts Organizations is now LIVE! This first-of-its-kind field study focuses on Black literary arts service organizations that provide essential programming, services, and networks of support to the literary community. These organizations have modeled resilience in the face of concentric disparities often in the absence of institutional support and recognition. To produce this research, Cave Canem and Ithaka S+R collaborated closely with a working group, composed of directors from Getting Word: Black Literature for Black Liberation, as well as two literary experts in the field, to hone the research questions and instruments that would become this study. Click here to explore the Magnitude and Bond webpage, read the full study, flip through our executive summary e-zine, and learn more about upcoming programs.
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The McMullan Writers Workshops will be held on the campus of Millsaps College this summer, featuring Pulitzer-winning author Jack Davis as the keynote speaker. Additionally, poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis will give a craft talk during the week. Registration for all three workshop cohorts — middle school, high school, and adult writers will open soon. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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Dr. John Zheng’s interview of poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis has been published in the latest issue of African American Review (57.2). Here is the link to the page announcing their latest issue with the table of contents. To subscribe to ARR, go here. To order a copy of this issue (57.2), contact (800) 548-1784 or jrnlcirc@press.jhu.edu. AAR has featured renowned writers and cultural critics including Trudier Harris, Arnold Rampersad, Hortense Spillers, Amiri Baraka, Cyrus Cassells, Rita Dove, Charles Johnson, Cheryl Wall, Toni Morrison, and many more. The official publication of the Modern Language Association’s Division on Black American Literature and Culture, AAR fosters a vigorous conversation among writers and scholars in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
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Poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis appeared on long-time media veteran and Prince scholar Tonya Pendleton’s WURD radio show Reality Check to read his poem, “Black Man,” and discuss the continued significance of observing and celebrating Black History Month. To watch the recording, go here and then go to the 1:41:38 mark. Feel free to leave a like or comment so that Sister P knows that y’all were there. Also, if y’all would like to read “Black Man,” go here.
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On November 21, 2024, in New Orleans, poet, fiction writer, playwright, and editor Kalamu ya Salaam was joined by poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis to discuss Salaam’s new novel, Walkin’ Blues, and their discussion was recently uploaded here.
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Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters has released its special issue documenting and celebrating the Jackson State University Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival. In 2023, the Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander Center curated the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the original 1973 festival, which hosted most of the major black women writers of the day. In the same vein, the 2023 festival hosted many of the major black women writers of today. Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, one of the three major African-American literary journals, has published a special proceedings issue of the 2023 JSU MWA Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival that includes scholarly essays, poetry, fiction, and artwork presented during the festival along with interviews, reflections, and photography from the festival. The Callaloo special proceedings issue documents this historic gathering of scholars and artists, including noted writers Jesmyn Ward, Alice Walker, Paula Giddings, Maryemma Graham, Imani Perry, Tiffany Caesar, Barbara Lewis, and a host of JSU professors and products—Tonea Stewart, Shanna L. Smith, Iely Mohamed, Roy Lewis, RaShell R. Smith-Spears, LaWanda Dickens, Ebony Lumumba, Kaitlyn Taylor, and C Liegh McInnis. To view the full table of contents, go here. For more information about the Callaloo Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival Special Issue, go here, and to purchase a single print or electronic issue, go here. Once y’all get to the page, scroll down to the print section or the electronic section and choose The Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival 50th Anniversary: A Special Issue Vol. 42, No. 3, Summer Issue 2024. Finally, to give y’all an idea of the type of scholarship presented during the festival and included in the special issue, here is a link to C Liegh McInnis’ edited video presentation of his paper, “‘You Will Be Moved’: Exploring Black Liberation Theology in the Work of Margaret Walker Alexander and Prince.” The complete version of his paper is in the Callaloo special issue along with his poem, “My People.” Other amazing sessions at the festival include the Opening Session, which was a Tribute to the Original Participants hosted my award-winning actress and JSU graduate Tonea Stewart (here), Dr. Maryemma Graham’s keynote, Nikki Giovanni’s talk, and Sonia Sanchez’s talk. For more about Callaloo, go here.
Additionally, Jackson State University’s The Researcher: An Interdisciplinary Journal published a special issue (In Our Own Words: The Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival 50th Anniversary Commemorative Issue) that y’all can read here. Y’all can also purchase a print copy of the issue here. C Liegh McInnis has a poem, “For Sappho, Margaret, Marie, and Iley (After Catherine Pierce’s Message to POL),” and an essay, “The Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival as Performative Manifestation of Margaret Walker Alexander’s Literary Manifesto and Genius,” included in the issue, along with great works by scholars and poets, such as Dr. Tiffany Caesar, Alissa Rae Funderburk, Angela Stewart, Dr. Craig Meyer, Dr. Shanna Smith, Patricia Jones, Ming Joi, Barbara Brewster Lewis, and Dr. RaShell Smith-Spears. Special thanks to Dr. Candis Pizzetta, editor of The Researcher, for compiling this wonderful special issue. This commemorative issue was crafted before the actual festival as a way to promote and highlight the festival as it was occurring.
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Poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis appeared on The Eddrick Show, which is hosted by Eddrick Jerome, a talented writer and award-winning short film producer from Northern California. Jerome is also the former host of The Globe Newspaper Hour on KECG 88.1 FM - More Public Radio in Oakland, CA. (Shoutout to Alice Tisdale, Editor Emeritus of the Jackson Advocate, for McInnis and Jerome.) Brother Jerome asked if C Liegh would discuss songs in which Prince is directly addressing issues specific to the African-American community. Here and here are the YouTube and audio only versions of their discussion. We hope y’all enjoy the discussion, and, of course, feel free to let us know what y’all think.
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The Mississippi Book Festival has posted videos and photos of all the panels, conversations, and keynotes from this year’s festival. To see links to the full schedule, go here. And, here are links to just a few of the panels and conversations from this year. C Liegh McInnis was the moderator for the poetry panel, which included another stellar group of poets: Leona Sevick (The Bamboo Wife), Hannah V. Warren (Slaughterhouse for Old Wives' Tales), A.H. Jerriod Avant (Muscadine), and Adam Clay (Circle Back) and can be viewed here. Other great discussions feature award-winning novelist Jesmyn Ward (here), award-winning poet and former Mississippi Poet Laureate Beth Ann Fennelly with award-winning poet Major Jackson (here), Mississippi Poet Laurate Catherine Pierce and the Mississippi Youth Poetry Project (here), storyteller and visual artist Diane Williams on the Mississippi Culture Panel (here), best-selling and award-winning novelist Angie Thomas on the Middle Grade Dreams Panel (here), The Female Lead in Myth and Fantasy Panel (here), and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and US/MS Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey (here).
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Here is a very cool video celebrating Jackson, Mississippi, the City with Soul.
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Prince scholar and NYU Professor De Angelia Duff has uploaded all of the presentations, panels, and roundtables for the #Come30 Virtual Prince Symposium. To watch all of the events, including C Liegh McInnis’ presentation, “Part I: Come as the Introduction/EP to The Gold Experience or When Life Imitates Art and/or Art Imitates Life in the Artistic Production of Prince,” go here.
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Tougaloo College grad Dr. Howard Rambsy II aka Doc HR is the author of two excellent books, Bad Men: Creative Touchstones of Black Writers and The Black Arts Enterprise and the Production of African American Poetry. He has dedicated time over the years to chronicling the work of C Liegh McInnis at his wonderful website Cultural Front, which can be read here. His latest commentary on McInnis’ work, “A Local Conscious Poet Who Knows a Lot about Prince,” can be read here.
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I am both honored and excited to have been interviewed by the brilliant Scott Woods, editor of Rock Critics.com, which features interviews with some of the most noted music journalists of the past sixty years. (This Scott Woods is not to be confused with the other brilliant Scott Woods who is a noted Prince scholar.) The title of the interview is “The Aesthetics of Prince: An Interview with C Liegh McInnis” and can be read here. It’s a very lengthy interview of my work as a Prince scholar and engages a few things that I haven’t discussed regarding my work on Prince. One of the coolest parts of the interview, for me, is that I got to shout out Prince scholar Harold Pride about midway through the interview and that I got to shout out the Polished Solid Prince Symposium and What Did Prince Do This Week? at the end of the interview. RockCritics.com is also on Twitter, which y’all know that I’m not. So, if y’all feel so inclined, locate and checkout his tweet about the interview as well. I hope y’all enjoy the interview and, as always, feel free to hit me back with your thoughts or feedback.
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The Jackson State University Creative Writing website is live and can be accessed here. Also, to give to this new program, go here. Once you are at the page, complete the amount and contact information, type “Department of English, Creative Writing,” in the “or other” box at the bottom of the form, and submit payment. And, here is a link to poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis discussing the newly established JSU Creative Writing Concentration and Minor.
The JSU creative writing offers a concentration and minor for its Bachelor of Arts program. Unlike many creative writing programs across the country, JSU’s creative writing concentration and minor will allow students to specialize in multiple genres if they desire. Additionally, unlike most creative writing programs across the country, JSU’s creative writing concentration and minor will encourage and prepare students to use their writing to engage social justice and socio-political issues by offering a capstone class that will match a student with an organization or institution that is doing the type of social justice work that the young writer desires to engage with one’s writing. This new concentration and minor were developed as a collaborative effort between Dr. Ebony Lumumba—Chair, Dr. RaShell Smith-Spears—Graduate Coordinator, and C Liegh McInnis. For more information, contact Dr. Lumumba at ebony.o.lumumba@jsums.edu or Dr. Smith-Spears at rashell.smith-spears@jsums.edu.
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Props to the Jackson State University Faculty Senate, under the leadership of Dr. Dawn Bishop, for passing the “Resolution of the Jackson State University Faculty Senate Defending Academic Freedom to Teach about Race, Gender Justice and Critical Race Theory Adopted by the Faculty Senate January 27, 2022,” which reads, in part, “THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Jackson State University Faculty Senate resolutely rejects any attempts by bodies external to the faculty to restrict or dictate university curriculum on any matter, including matters related to racial and social justice, and will stand firm against encroachment on faculty authority by the legislature or the Boards of Trustees… BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate affirms the Joint Statement on Efforts to Restrict Education about Racism, authored by the AAUP, PEN America, the American Historical Association, and the Association of American Colleges & Universities, endorsed by over seventy organizations, and issued on June 16, 2021.”
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Every Monday at 6:30 p.m., Afrikan Art Gallery & Bookstore (800 North Farish Street) will hold weekly meetings to discuss and organize around the newly published Long Term Strategic Plan for Black America. For more information contact Asinia Lukata Chikuyu at afrikan_tbt@yahoo.com.
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The first Tuesday of each month, from 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., at the Capital Club, Women for Progress of Mississippi, Inc., will host its monthly Lunch and Learn, featuring various women in impactful leadership in the city and around the country. For more information, contact mail@womenforprogress.net.
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Every Wednesday from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m., Dependable Source Corp. Center for Community & Workforce Development, which is a black woman-owned business, hosts The Working Woman Report, which is a live podcast that curates conversations on a variety of topics with professional women. Y’all can join the conversation here, and for more information contact Willie Jones, owner and CEO of Dependable Source Corp at williejones@drivingyourfuturems.com.
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Every Friday from 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m., Refill Jackson—a nonprofit designed to equip young adults ages 18 – 24 with the skills needed to enter the workforce and be self-sufficient—holds its Friday Forums, which are at 136 S. Adams Street Jackson, MS 39203. For more information, contact Nicole McNamee at nmcnamee72@gmail.com or visit their website here.
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The first Friday of each month, at 8:00 p.m. at The Event Center (716 S Gallatin Street), Spoken Soul Open Mic holds its monthly open mic readings and performances. Hosted by Queen Speaks, the cost is $10. All poets and performers welcomed. For more information, contact Erica Garrett at ericamvsu03@gmail.com or (601) 500-3502.
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The first Saturday of each month, the Mississippi Museum of Art will begin its Access for All: Free First Saturdays. For more information, go here.
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The first Saturday of each month, from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., The Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience (The MAX) will host, Earth’s Bounty at the Max, which is held the first Saturday of every month and features:
8:00 – noon: Earth’s Bounty Farmers Market + Live Music
9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.: Free admission to The MAX
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.: Art activities in upstairs classroom
To register and to learn about vending opportunities, go here.
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The second and fourth Saturday of each month, Dr. RaShell Smith-Spears (rashell.spears@jsums.edu) and Dr. Shanna Smith (shanna.l.smith@jsums.edu) coordinate a creative writing workshop that meets via Zoom. That group has been meeting for almost ten years now, and many of the works developed in that workshop have been published. In fact, I’ve had at least four works that I had workshopped by the group to be published later.
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Two Saturdays a month, Afrikan Art Gallery will host a program, Freedom School Saturdays, for middle and high school students that is modeled after the 1964 Freedom Summer/School Project. The mission is to will help with the intellectual empowerment of our children with course in Civics 101, A Meeting with the Elders: What to Expect in Life, Spiritual Pilgrimage to the Mississippi Delta, Spiritual Pilgrimage to Africatown, AL, photo-journalism exercises, cultural expressions and performances for Black-centered events through their Speech - Choir and Afrikan Cultural Pride Dance Troupe, financial literacy workshops, and so much more. For more information, contact Asinia Lukata Chikuyu at afrikan_tbt@yahoo.com.
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Every Saturday, noted Prince scholar and NYU Professor De Angela Duff is beginning another Prince project, What Did Prince Do This Week?, a very, very, very slow read of Duane Tudahl’s entire Prince Studio Sessions book series through an interactive, online, weekly book club web series. Professor Duff will be live via Streamyard video every Saturday at noon ET on YouTube and Facebook to discuss the parallel week, beginning in 1983. The weekly discussion will be recorded if y’all cannot attend the livestream. The first Saturday of the series, Duff was joined by Tudahl, and y’all can watch the recording of the first session here. To get notifications or to join Duff’s listserv, go to
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Every Sunday from 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., Afrikan Art Gallery & Bookstore (800 North Farish Street) will hold stimulating conversations, robust debates, and strategic action-step planning for an improved lifestyle for Afrikans. These meetings will be facilitated by the Coalition for Economic Empowerment, and for more information contact Jean at (769) 572-7441 and Asinia Lukata Chikuyu at afrikan_tbt@yahoo.com.
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Each Sunday at 5:00 p.m. CST, award-winning novelist Ellen Morris Prewitt, author of In the Name of Mississippi, and Alisha Johnson Perry, children’s book author, social justice advocate, and certified fundraising executive, have joined forces to establish Contemplative Writing Group. Each week is led by a member of the group. They catch up on their writing week, then the leader offers a contemplative writing prompt. They write for 30 - 40 minutes and share if anyone want. It’s come-and-go/participate when you can and of indefinite duration—as long as folks are getting something from it, the workshop will be offered. To join the group, folks can email the School of Contemplative Living at livingschool12@gmail.com or go here.
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Mississippi-based funnymen Merc B. Williams and Cocky McFly...real-life brothers…have joined forces to create The Vibe Controllers, which is a podcast that shows the two of them in their natural element discussing various topics, with a little humor and lots of sibling banter! Y’all can checkout the podcast via Soundcloud or YouTube at soundcloud.com/thevibecontrollers and The Vibe Controllers Podcast - YouTube.
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The Watering Hole hosts the only Southern writing retreat for poets of color and draws 50 to 60 poets to the retreat each year. The goal is to provide a space and resources for poets of color to develop who they are. They have released their workshop for the remainder of the year, which y’all can see here and here. For more information, visit their website here.
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The Stories of Us: A Genealogy Workshop Series Connecting Generations is a new genealogy workshop series to help descendants and community members of the Tulsa Race Massacre start tracing their roots and reconnecting the threads of their family history. The Stories of Us begins during the Black Wall Street Legacy Festival, when so many will already be back home in Tulsa—remembering, reflecting, and rebuilding. These workshops will be held from May to December, and for more information, go here. These are more than workshops. It’s a step toward reclaiming what was taken and honoring those who came before us. If you have any questions, please contact Justice for Greenwood at WAG@JusticeForGreenwood.org.
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Lolwe is offering masterclasses on multiple creative writing genres and techniques through October. For more details, go here.
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Torch Literary Arts—a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization established to publish and promote creative writing by Black women—has announced its Spring Reading Season, which can be viewed here.
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The Center for the Study of Southern Culture has posted its May events in its latest newsletter, which can be read here.
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The Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience (The MAX) has released its upcoming events for May, which can be viewed here.
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Each Saturday through May, from 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m., at Kennedy King College, Muntu Dance Theatre will facilitate a Community Class with a certified dance instructor. To register, go here, and for more information, contact info-muntu.com@shared1.ccsend.com and go here.
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May 10, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. in the Community Room of the Ridgeland Library, the Mississippi Writers Guild (MWG) will meet and feature a talk by Julie Whitehead, who lives and writes from Mississippi. An award-winning freelance writer, Whitehead covered disasters from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina throughout her career. She writes on mental health, mental health education, and mental health advocacy. For more information, contact MWG Director Susan Marquez at susanmarquez39110@gmail.com.
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May 10, 2025, To celebrate the grand opening of its Main Street Cultural Center, The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture) will feature internationally acclaimed poet and performer Sunni Patterson with her band at the Main Street Cultural Center. Patterson has appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, TEDWomen, featured on Grammy award-winning Hip-Hop albums, and currently serves as a Resident Artist for both the City of New Orleans’ Claiborne Corridor Cultural Initiative and Junebug Productions. Sipp Culture weaves research, development, and local agriculture with contemporary media and storytelling to promote the legacy and vision of Utica, Mississippi, and the possibility of what all of Mississippi can be. Their place-based model program promotes economic empowerment and self-sufficiency of low- and moderate-income people through education, technical assistance, training, and mentoring in agribusiness. The Main Street Cultural Center will provide a state-of-the-art commercial kitchen and an intimate venue for presenting music, film, and multidisciplinary performance and visual art. It will also serve as Sipp Culture’s primary presenting venue for year-round arts programming. For more information about each of these events and the work of Sipp Culture, contact info@sippculture.com.
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May 10, 2025, at 5:00 p.m., inspired by the current exhibition Of Salt and Spirit: Black Quilters in the American South, the Mississippi Museum of Art invites you to a special community dialogue featuring artists, activists, and archivists impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic—What Is Remembered Lives: Mississippi and the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Speakers will include Jackson-born contemporary photographer D’Angelo Lovell Williams and Co-Executive Director of the Invisible Histories Project, Joshua Burford. Williams is a Black, HIV-positive artist expanding narratives of Black and queer intimacy through photography. Invisible Histories locates, collects, researches, and creates community-based, educational programming around LGBTQ history in the Deep South. In conjunction with this event, MMA is proud to honor the tradition of quilting as both a form of remembrance and resistance by highlighting a square of Jackson’s contribution to the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which will be on temporary display starting May 5th for a two-week period at the Museum. This event is free and open to the public and will offer opportunities for the public to commemorate loved ones they have lost to AIDS through a pop-up art-making opportunity where visitors can construct their own quilt square. For more information, see the calendar of events below. For more information, go here.
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May 13, 2025, 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. EST, Alternate ROOTS—an organization based in the Southern USA whose mission is to support the creation and presentation of original art, in all its forms, which is rooted in a particular community of place, tradition or spirit—will host an online workshop series–Best Practices for Preserving Histories of Community-based Art Organizations–led by their archival partners at Amistad Research Center in New Orleans. As a coalition of cultural workers, Alternate ROOTs strives to be allies in the elimination of all forms of oppression. ROOTS is committed to social and economic justice and the protection of the natural world and addresses the concerns through its program and services. For more information and to register, go here.
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May 14, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. on the Jackson State University Plaza, the JSU Margaret Walker Alexander Center will host the 55th Gibbs-Green Commemoration to memorialize the 1970 attack on JSU by the Jackson Police Department, the Mississippi Highway Patrol, and the Mississippi National Guard, which took the lives of Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, a twenty-one-year-old JSU student, and James Earl Green, a seventeen-year-old Jim Hill High School Student along with wounding eighteen others as law enforcement fired over four hundred rounds into Alexander Hall, a female Dorm. Here is a link to C Liegh McInnis’ article, “The Jackson State University Assassination: What Does It Continue to Mean in the Annals of Time?,” that was published twenty-five years ago on the Thirtieth Commemoration of the attack, and here is a link to C Liegh’s poem, “Tree of Life (Black Colleges Be Here),” that addresses the attack and the general struggles and successes of HBCUs. Additionally, everyone should purchase a copy of Dr. Nancy Bristow’s Steeped in the Blood of Racism: Black Power, Law and Order, and the 1970 Shootings at Jackson State College, and here is the link to C Liegh and Dr. Bristow’s interview about her book at the Mississippi Book Festival. For more information, see the calendar of events below. For more information, go here or contact Dr. Robert Luckett at robert.luckett@jsums.edu.
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Alternate ROOTS is thrilled to open its newest funding program, Advancing Well-Being in the Arts, which exists to promote economic and cultural justice. Through unrestricted funds, it robustly supports artists, culture bearers, and organizations that serve and reflect communities of the global majority. Like all Alternate Roots funding programs, it is only available to ROOTS members. The deadline to apply is 5:00 p.m., May 15, 2025. For more information on how to join and apply, go here.
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May 17, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. at the Hilton Jackson, Our Mississippi Magazine will host its 2024 – 2025 Mississippi’s Most Influential African Americans of the Year. Along with the regular honorees, OMM will give special recognition to Sen. Hilman Frazier. For more information, including the full list of honorees and to purchase tickets, go here and here.
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May 17, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. at Elsie H. Hillman Auditorium at the Kaufmann Center, there will be a screening of The Price of Resistance, a documentary about the life of Sala Udin—an iconic Civil Rights activist, community leader, and former Pittsburgh City Councilman. Featuring interviews of Dr. Robert Luckett—Director of the Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander Center, the film captures Udin’s powerful story through rare archival footage, personal reflections, and a compelling interview with a former FBI agent who was active in Mississippi during the Civil Rights ear. To watch the trailer, go here. To register for the screen, go here.
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Through May 22, 2025, in Pittsburg, PA, City of Asylum’s 2025 Jazz Poetry Festival will feature 50+ artists, new and returning, making their way to their stage from near and far. Jazz Poetry Month is a tradition that traces to the very heart of City of Asylum. At its core, it is a celebration of experimentation, collaboration, and connection between art forms and between artist and audience. All performances can be viewed in person or online on our streaming platform. Built on and a chapter of Cities of Asylum created by novelist Salman Rushdie, who had a bounty placed on his head by the Supreme Leader of Iran because of his novel, Satanic Verses, City of Asylum Pittsburgh’s commitment is to help the writer build a new home and a new life as part of a community. For the complete festival lineup and to purchase tickets, go here.
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May 23 and 24, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. at Duling Hall, Jackson, Mississippi, native, comedian, emcee, musician (wonderful drummer), and singer Rita Brent will host the next episode of her variety show, Late Night with Rita Brent (here). To watch the hilarious monologue from the first episode, go here, to watch her interview comedy veteran Ricky Smiley, go here, and to watch her interview longtime Mississippi chef and restaurant owner Godfrey Morgan, go here. To promote her new show, Brent was interviewed by longtime TV personality Walt Grayson, which y’all can watch here. For more information about Late Night with Rita Brent, see the calendar of events below. Along with being a nationally noted comedian who appears weekly on the Rickey Smiley Morning Show, her hit single, “Raised in the ‘Sipp” made waves all around the country, and y’all can watch it here. I’m digging this, and I’m not even a hip-hop head. Her previous single, “Kamala,” was all over YouTube, CNN, and just about everywhere. Y’all can vibe to “Kamala” here and the 2024 remix here. As a multitalented artist, I’ve long proclaimed that Rita B is as equally talented as a triple threat like Jamie Foxx. (Of course, no one touches Sammy Davis, Jr., as a multitalented artist, but that’s a debate for another time.) Jacktown aka Jackfrica is extremely proud of our hometown girl who always keeps us laughing and dancing while thinking. Rita B will tickle your funny bone while stimulating your mind. For those not familiar with the artistry of Rita B, I’ll leave y’all with two of my favorite works by her. The first is her song, “Can You Rock Me Like a Pothole?” The second is her routine about substitute teachers. Checkout both and go to her Website, YouTube, and Facebook page and follow her to remain current with what she’ll be doing. To be clear, since I don’t have Facebook or Twitter or any social media, I’m not sure if you follow someone on Facebook or not, but I’m sure that y’all will know what to do. But, whatever y’all do, be sure to support Rita B and all the local artists.
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May 29, 2025, at 7:00 p.m., Rooted Magazine Book Club will feature Sarah LaBrie’s No One Gets to Fall Apart: A Memoir in a free online discussion. No One Gets to Fall Apart is an Essence “Most Anticipated,” an Oprah Daily “Best Book of Fall,” 2024 New York Times “Editor’s Pick” and “Notable Book of the Year,” a Lit Hub’s “Most Anticipated,” and an Esquire “Best Memoir of the Year.” It’s been compared to Mississippi native and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey’s Memorial Drive and Tara Westover’s Educated. “Chronicling her mother’s struggles with mental illness, LaBrie also examines the through line of mental illness in her family history and the ripple of effects of generational trauma. This story is not an easy one, but it’s an important one.” LaBrie will join Rooted for an online discussion of her book and its writing process. For more information and to register, go here and here. Rooted is an online magazine dedicated to telling stories of place to people who call Mississippi home. To check out more of Rooted’s great content, go here. Rooted publishes weekly questionnaires with interesting Mississippi transplants, natives, and expats. Their lagniappe issues feature original prose, poetry, art, and photography from Mississippi writers and artists. Y’all can subscribe to the online magazine at rooted.substack.com.
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May 31, 2025, at 2:00 p.m., Afrikan Art Gallery & Bookstore will host a reading and signing by Dr. Eldridge Henderson of his new book Organized, Don’t Criticize, which teaches the importance of cultural economic empowerment. For more information, contact Asinia Lukata Chikuyu at afrikan_tbt@yahoo.com or Ms. Jean at (769) 572.7441.
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The 2025 National Black Book Festival will be in Houston this fall. They will be celebrating their 18th anniversary and are looking forward to 2025 being their best year yet! If you’re an author, publisher, or entrepreneur interested in acquiring a vendor table at 2025 NBBF, early bird registration is now open. Registrations are starting at an unprecedented rate, and they are already at 45% capacity. As a result, it’s best to place your table deposit and register as soon as possible. The deadline for registration is May 31, 2025. For more information, go here and to register, go here.
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June 2 – 14, 2025, Mississippi native, fiction writer, playwright, and health activist Katrina Byrd is offering a new, two-week class, One-on One-Writing Coaching with Katrina Byrd to help writers and those thinking about writing to build writing skills, share writing strategies, and help writers find their voice. Package includes initial interview work plan for your project, four coaching sessions, weekly feedback, two virtual work spaces, asynchronous encouragement and support, and an exit interview for a total price of $875. To register, go here and here.
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June 9 – 13, 2025, The McMullan Writers Workshops will be held on the campus of Millsaps College this summer, featuring Pulitzer-winning author Jack Davis as the keynote speaker. Additionally, poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis will give a craft talk during the week. Registration for all three workshop cohorts — middle school, high school, and adult writers will open soon. For more information, go here.
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June 14, 2025, in Columbus, Mississippi, at the University of Mississippi for Women, the Board of Governors of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters (MIAL) will hold the 46th Annual Award Gala. MIAL has announced the following awardees: John F. Marszalek is the 2025 Noel Polk Lifetime Achievement Award, Thad Lee is the 2025 Special Achievement Award Recipient, and Erin Austen Abbot is the 2025 Citation of Merit. For details about MIAL’s special award recipients, visit the Winners tab on their website. And, for a complete list of all 2025 nominees, visit the Nominations tab on their website. Thank you to all MIAL members who made nominations. For more information, go here.
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Are you a Mississippi higher education faculty member interested in using digital archiving and the digital humanities research texts and timelines to more effectively, preserve historical and cultural resources, or help students see the subjects you are teaching more clearly? Then join Mississippi Digital Humanities Hub at The University of Southern Mississippi for an expense-paid workshop June 16 – 27, 2025! This free two-week summer residency will be held on the Hattiesburg campus. Workshops will be taught by scholars at the Center for Digital Humanities at Southern Miss and invited experts. These sessions will introduce the basics of collecting and preserving materials (digitization) and the best and least expensive ways to make materials available and understandable using the tools and techniques of the digital humanities. Participants will have the opportunity to get hands-on experience with digital humanities tools that make it easy to collect, analyze, visualize, and map data. A tentative schedule is available on the Hub’s website at www.ms-digital-hub.com/workshop-schedule. Through the support of the National Archives and Records Administration, instructors at Mississippi colleges, universities, and community colleges can attend at no cost, housing and meals are provided, travel costs are reimbursed, and there will be a small stipend. Feel free to share this invitation about the workshop with your colleagues. If we can be a resource to you now or in the future, contact Andrew P. Haley—Associate Professor and Director of the Mississippi Digital Humanities Hub—at Andrew.Haley@usm.edu or (601) 266-4558.
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June 21, 2025, at 2:30 p.m., as part of this summer’s Juneteenth Celebration, Afrikan Art Gallery will host a book reading and signing by Walter Simpson, Mississippi’s first black firefighter, and his book, First on the Scene: My Journey through the Fires of Bigotry in Mississippi. For more information, contact Asinia Lukata Chikuyu at afrikan_tbt@yahoo.com, Walter Simpson at (901) 314-7356, or Brother Eddie at (601) 940-2540.
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ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature has announced a CALL FOR PAPERS for a special issue on “Ambivalent Realisms in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century African and Black Diasporic Writing.” Black literature, across a multitude of geographies and temporalities, has been called upon to represent the “real” – the real lived experience of Black peoples, often under subjugation, in its sorrow and joy– and there has been an expectation that Black writing (from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas) adhere to a realist representation of Black struggle. However, there have always been experimental writers who pushed back against realism’s limits, and this turn away from (or looking beyond) realism has endured into the twenty-first century. ARIEL seeks to engage with the questions of what lies between realism, magical realism, and surrealism – how we might rethink authors’ complex relationships to realism and what concepts we might use to describe the results. They invite literary scholars to draw from a wide-ranging theoretical lens that might bring together studies of formal realism or the history of the novel with anticolonial theory or literary and cultural studies of Africa and its diasporas. Labels like “realism” and “modernism” do not quite capture the syncretic work colonized authors perform because these authors inherited colonial forms and deployed them in the service of independence movements. Similarly, the term “magical realism” can be limiting because of its focus on magic: African and Black diasporic authors disrupt realism in myriad ways that include and do not include the magical. Whether their work is classified as surreal or Afro-surreal, or something else entirely, these authors contend with histories and traumas that exceed realist representation. The deadline to submit is June 30, 2025. For more information and to submit, go here.
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Narrative 4 is an organization of creatives that uses storytelling to build community and civic engagement. They have partnered with National Schools Network to curate a national initiative aimed at overcoming the loneliness epidemic by fostering greater social connections between schools. The N4NSN is a community of select schools from across the United States, committed to experiential learning, intentional community, and supporting students and educators through storytelling and the arts. Twice a year, a new group of schools will be admitted to the N4NSN, committing to a 3-month program where they will experience and receive training to facilitate Story Exchanges, participate in an array of community workshops, and utilize Narrative 4 tools and resources in their classrooms. The deadline to apply is July 31, 2025. To apply to participate in these series, go here.
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October 23 – 25, 2025, the 2025 National Black Book Festival will be in Houston this fall. They will be celebrating their 18th anniversary and are looking forward to 2025 being their best year yet! If you’re an author, publisher, or entrepreneur interested in acquiring a vendor table at 2025 NBBF, early bird registration is now open. Registrations are starting at an unprecedented rate, and they are already at 45% capacity. As a result, it’s best to place your table deposit and register as soon as possible. For more information, go here and to register, go here.
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October 23, - 25, 2025, in Detroit, MI, Mississippi native, fiction writer, playwright, and health activist Katrina Byrd will join Kara Laurene Perncano—PhD candidate in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Andrea Cesar, interdisciplinary, movement artist, educator, and activist—in presenting a 60-minute roundtable presentation at the Conference on Community Writing. For more information, go here.
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