King Holiday Poem, Essay, Convocation, and Upcoming Events
Hey Y’all,
Today, The Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander Center will facilitate its 58th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Birthday Convocation, which will feature a keynote by historian and Tougaloo College Provost Dr. Daphne Chamberlain and include words from JSU administrators and special guests, as well as performances from the JSU Chorale. Immediately following the Convocation will be the annual For My People Awards Luncheon, in which Dr. Chamberlain, Mississippi Representative Zakiya Summers, former MS Representative Alyce Clarke, and the Mississippi Humanities Council will be honored. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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“With all the struggle and all the achievements, we must face the fact, however, that the Negro still lives in the basement of the Great Society. He is still at the bottom, despite the few who have penetrated to slightly higher levels…We still need some Paul Revere of conscience to alert every hamlet and every village of America that revolution is still at hand. Yes, we need a chart; we need a compass; indeed, we need some North Star to guide us into a future shrouded with impenetrable uncertainties…Let us be dissatisfied until from every city hall, justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream… Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., from “Where Do We Go from Here?” delivered in 1967
After King
(Click here to read PDF version.)
by C. Liegh McInnis
Deontae walks home from school filled with dreams
but no gardener awaits him to till the soil of his brain.
If love is an action verb, why do so many churches
padlock their doors to chocolate chicks walking the plank
to empty nests surrounded by vultures?
The answer lies in the muddy swamp of selfishness
where freedom is just a gateway drug to dysfunction
because having a dream is now a slogan that parades for one month
and then, like Christmas lights, hibernates eleven months in the closet.
A mocha-faced boy studies physics from a new textbook—his
college plans sprouting to a welcoming sky from ground fertilized
by crimson rain, cultivating parents, and the cosmos’ soothsayer.1
An Atlanta preacher in a New York City suit stomps for
justice in dress shoes swallowed by Delta dirt and Memphis trash.
Leadership is feet washing or feeding the multitudes with
two pieces of intelligence and five loaves of courage.
Or, it is to be on a permanent poor people’s campaign
as feeders of the hungry and clothers of the naked will reap
eternal rewards that will not waver when the fickle winds of Rome shift
because investing in the least of us turns the pyramid scam on its head.
Black hands stitch red hearts in white bodies even though white
hands dam green rivers to keep black bodies in the red; yet, black brains
continue to work surgery to unclog the arteries of medical funding.2
A cosmopolitan must be more than a drink because
world citizens can play pin the tail on the imperialist
whether he’s dropping bombs in Birmingham or Vietnam.
Yet, where are the baptizing Johns that are
comfortable in a pool or fellowship hall?
We are left with drum majors for foolishness
who have sharp catch-phrases but dull thinking
that can’t cut the final ties that bind us to Jim Crow.
The woolly-headed carpenter constructs well-crafted liberation so
that former slaves can inhabit the promised land of homeownership.3
Like Yeshua educating the Pharisees on the chastity of the Sabbath
or Thoreau’s jail-cell lecture emancipating Emerson’s spirit from his law—
a flaming Birmingham letter melts the ice-cold
Christianity of cowardly clergy frozen in tradition
confusing the masses in a political Ponzi scheme,
castrating Christianity with the chisel of Christendom.
The white boy with the ponytail defends the stone-faced
boy from chalky judges still wearing Confederate robes.4
Where are the shade-tree preachers and street-corner philosophers
who shout Solomon’s siren warning to the foolish who are
chasing, tackling, and force-feeding their pennies
into the fat pockets of pale merchants
instead of kneading the dough of their talents
until they rise as a good harvest of liberty?
The pied piper of peace is slaughtered daily
when Africa’s children pray to golden calves
instead of escaping Pharaoh’s filthy boudoir.
A midnight magnolia paints political portraits of
rainbow landscapes that cultivate citizenship.5
Poverty pimps pantomime popular positions to get paid while
poor parenting gets a pass ‘cause ain’t no grant to repair that.
The raging waters of white supremacy are being surpassed by
a tidal wave of ineptitude as the children are left to drown.
Nobody is surprised that Governor Tater Tot’s garage band
is covering the Sovereignty Commission’s greatest hits because
secession is an oldie but goodie that remains in high rotation.
Southern Rebels raising hell ain’t no new groove,
but black folk dancing to self-destructive down beats
is not a dream worth taking a bullet for…
1. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson—one of the most noted physicists on the planet.
2. Dr. Herman Taylor—noted cardiologist and former director of the UMMC Jackson Heart Study
3. Carl Jones—general contractor and good Samaritan
4. Tom Fortner—former Jackson, Mississippi, public defender who advocated to improve the conditions of city and county prisons.
5. Monica Taylor-McInnis—researcher, videographer, photographer, graphic
designer, and a political cartographer, currently working for One Voice of Mississippi
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Which King Is on the Postage Stamp?: Evaluating Martin Luther King’s Legacy
(Presented at the 2003 Middle-Tennessee State University King Day Celebration and
Published in Prose: Essays and Letters 1999. Click here to read PDF version.)
by C Liegh McInnis
Which Martin Luther King is on the postal stamp? This is a very important question because it speaks to how we remember him, how we teach his legacy, and how we develop strategies to gain our sovereignty and first-class citizenship. So, I ask again, “Which King is on the postal stamp?” What we must understand is that what makes an oppressor great is his ability to co-opt the talents and skills of the oppressed. And what continues to happen to King’s legacy is that those who wish to continue to oppress his people have been able to manipulate King’s philosophy by removing the teeth of it, which he used to bite into the most complex of American problems. Or to put it another way, they want to celebrate King’s vision (dream) without doing the real and difficult work of making it a reality. For instance, everybody wants to celebrate the dream of black folks and white folks living together in harmony, but very few want to deal with the check marked “insufficient funds” that has been continually written to Africans dislocated in America. And when we allow this to happen, we allow King’s legacy to be defiled. So, again I ask, “Which King is on the postal stamp?” It depends on which King we choose to celebrate. We cannot allow King to be turned into a flat, one-dimensional caricature that makes the oppressor feel all warm and gooey inside. In fact, this is the antithesis of King’s work. King was the griot of his time, constantly reaching his hands into the bowels of America’s injustice, holding it up for us to be moved by the filthy smell of it all. So, as we stand on the verge of another war in the Middle East, we must ask which King is on the postal stamp because it is this King who will guide our actions. As we seek to address King’s legacy in relation to how we make decisions on our present and future, we must understand that King’s Legacy is one of unity, selflessness, critical thinking, courage, and righteousness.
Unity
The Civil Rights Movement was a joint movement of various people with eclectic ideas. There is this misconception that downtrodden Black people were saved by the few Black leaders and the benevolent white liberals from the North. National media, including films such as Mississippi Burning, has perpetuated this false notion. However, if you read books, such as Local People by John Dittmer and Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody, or talk to the people who were there, you will find that the Civil Rights Movement was constructed on the backs of everyday common people, such as Fannie Lou Hamer. The reason why Hamer’s statement of being sick and tired of being sick and tired is so powerful is because it was the articulation of the collective mentality of an entire people. Hamer was a sharecropper who, like so many others, had grown weary of being chattel for plantation owners. It is folks like Hamer who were joined by folks like Medgar Evers, Aaron Henry, Annie Devine, and Hollis Watkins who then joined others to construct what became the Civil Rights Movement. So in truth, neither King nor Malcolm X led the movement. They were merely manifestations of the work of others before them, as well as manifestations of the will of the people to become the voices of the Movement, along with others. This is an important issue because the “holy leadership” fallacy continues to hold Black people stagnant, waiting for a Messiah to be born of a virgin and deliver them, even though Africans dislocated in America have the same tools and resources. In fact, they have even more tools and even more resources; yet, we still languish in the ocean of second-class citizenship. That is because instead of studying the work of King, we have decided to make a deity of him. What makes King a great man is that he was able to accomplish goals while dealing with varying concerns and issues. And one of those concerns was finding a way to form a coalition of the fragmented Black masses. This may be King’s greatest feat; for one of the highest compliments paid to King is that he was just as comfortable in a cafe’ as he was in the White House. So when you talk about King, you must talk about a man who was respected by almost every aspect of black society—the accommodationists, the integrationists, and the Black nationalists. Examples of this are his relationships with Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, Asa Phillip Randolph, and Bayard Rustin. King spent his life reaching out to diverse individuals with diverse backgrounds and ideas because he understood that black strength is black unity, but black unity only has value when each group is allowed to participate. Thus, King’s ability to create coalitions was driven by his acute perception of the power of collective forces and his selflessness to lead by service.
Selflessness
It is a shame that we now live in a time when Negro leadership is getting rich doing nothing, when Dr. King died broke for something. There was a nice check that came with winning the Nobel Prize for Peace. But King invested the majority of his earnings back into the Movement and not into a house or a car. Yes, economically, King came from middle-class means, but, ideologically, King never had nor perpetuated the bourgeois, elitist attitude as many do today. Former U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice asserted that the sit-ins, protests, and marching in the streets were unnecessary overkill, and that, if left alone, segregation would have died out or ended on its own. Evidently, Ms. Rice was not watching the same movie that the rest of black America was watching. And while I disagree with Ms. Rice, I also understand that her perception was handed to her by her middle-class background. Class diversity or class fragmentation has been a major part of the African American struggle since the development of the first house slaves. Yet, for the most part, house slaves understood that even though they enjoyed better circumstances than the field slaves, they were still slaves. Thus, they understood that it would be in their best interest to work with the other slaves to end their oppression. Today, middle-class blacks must continue to understand that to whom much is given, much is expected. King could have very easily used his background and education for self-reward. This is one of the primary issues addressed in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” when King chastises the other ministers for not using their positions of power to effect social and political change. Unlike most of them, King’s life was about substance over symbolism. King was not required to go to Alabama and participate in the bus boycott to make his way in life. His father had already pulled strings to jump-start his career. King did not have to go to Memphis in support of the sanitation workers’ strike. He had already made his mark on Civil Rights. By this time in his life, he could have resigned his life to that of lecturing, book deals, and consultant work. However, King lived his life by the credo, “If I can help somebody along the way, then my living will not be in vain.” King understood that a man’s legacy should not be based on what he does for himself, but on what he does for others. As he asserted, “Everyone can be great because everyone can serve.” To this, he often added Jesus’ remarks to his disciples, “He who is great among you shall be your servant.” So, if you wonder why black people do not vote as they should, it is because their self-appointed leadership does not serve them. We must stop sending Negroes to office who vote their self-interest and not the interest of African people. If we are serious about living up to the legacy of King, we are forced today to ask, “What have we done to make this world a better place?” Only when we ask this question are we continuing the legacy of King. Asking this question gets us to the true purpose for being and helps us better to understand what it means to be educated. See, an educated man is not one who can regurgitate information or can be trained to perform a task. An educated person is one who can use resources and information to construct a better life for himself, his community, and the world. Innate and organic to the definition of education is improvement—self and community. Thus, it is the selfless man who will achieve the greatest heights of leadership because the selfless man understands that leaders ultimately serve the people.
Critical Thinking
The one point that is often missed about the Civil Rights Movement is the issue of strategizing and critical thinking. Most people think that Rosa Parks was just some tired woman who sat down on the bus. Although that is romantic (and Americans love their epic romanticism), that is not true. Ms. Parks and her actions were strategically birthed as a part of the planned movement. Not only had Parks been a member of the NAACP since the forties, engaging in many of the NAACP’s training and workshop sessions, she had also taken part in training and workshop sessions at the Highlander Center, which was founded in 1932 to serve as an adult education center for community workers involved in social and economic justice movements. When you deny this fact, you are denying the critical thinking abilities of Africans. And when you deny the critical thinking abilities of Africans, you are saying that they are sub-human. Thus, King’s role of critical thinking and being a poignant orator is more evidence of African intellectualism. However, we never seem to celebrate this because to celebrate King as an intellectual is to refute the lie of white supremacy and to acknowledge the true barbarism of America in its enslavement of human beings. Look at it this way. If King is an intellectual, and he is a representation of African people, then what does it say about the people who would enslave intellectuals?
King’s critical thinking was most evident in his last days when he, like Du Bois, who had been a champion for integration, began rethinking his position and agenda, asserting, “I may have integrated my people into a burning house.” Like Du Bois, who eventually denounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to live his last days in Ghana, King may have become disillusioned with the ability of integration to provide sovereignty and first-class citizenship to Africans. And whether or not King became disillusioned about the complete or entire path of integration, it is true that, as a critical thinker, King never stopped evaluating himself, his ideals, and his philosophy. The two best examples of King always challenging himself and his ideals are his notions on “temporary segregation” and on “Black Power” as a slogan.
We should all find it interesting that the two biggest proponents for integration, Du Bois and King, both found themselves questioning the validity of integration, especially in relation to education. In an article, “Does the Negro Need Integrated Schools?,” Du Bois asserts that it would be better for a black child to remain at a segregated school where the teachers care about him than for that child to be forced to attend a white or integrated school where the teachers hate him. In affirmation of this very same sentiment, King would assert that often “the Negro is integrated without power. We don’t want to be integrated out of power; we want to be integrated into power...[so] there are some situations where separation may serve as a temporary way-station to the ultimate goal” of freedom. Now, I am not here to tell you that King completely denounced integration. But King in no way believed that blacks should be in the presence of whites merely for the sake of being in the presence of whites. In fact, his statement clearly asserts that integration that breeds no sovereignty or power for blacks is just as bad as segregation, Jim Crow, and slavery. I bring this to your attention merely so that you can understand that King was a complex and complicated man who did not shy from dealing with complex and complicated issues, nor did he ever seek to oversimplify the problem, as many try to oversimplify him and his legacy so that he can be fitted neatly on a stamp. Yes, the critical King did have a dream for all of us to be united as one, but he also understood the complicated work it would take for us to achieve this dream. Moreover, he didn’t avoid or ignore the complex issues because the job of the critical thinker is to engage the difficult questions of the people. For what good is intellect and scholarship if it is not in service to the evolution of the people? King was clear that his dream was not merely about putting white people and black people in a situation together unless we were also going to create a plan where they both share the power, the wealth, and the decision-making. This is the type of integration for which King dreamed. It is now sad that we allow people to misrepresent King’s words to attack diversity by limiting educational and economic opportunities to Africans dislocated in America, which is turning King’s dream into a nightmare. This is being allowed to happen because we are raising black leaders who are dreamers, but they are not critical thinkers. Or to put it another way, we are raising black leaders who have memorized much of King’s speeches, but they have not internalized his ideologies. With the question of integration, with the question of affirmative action, with the question of school vouchers, with the question of standardized test, with the question of “high stakes” testing, with the question of mis-used zero tolerance, King’s critical legacy demands that we ask the question, “Why is America willing to invest in incarcerating African Americans, but she is not willing to invest in educating African Americans?” If you understand King’s legacy of critical thinking, then you must return to 1662, when the first law was passed to perpetuate the second-class status of African people. The law that legally created a free class and a slave class was the prohibition of reading and writing by blacks. And, it is this law to which Du Bois and King were reacting as critical thinkers, and it is this law to which we are all still reacting, even in the affirmative action case at the University of Michigan. The primary battleground for black first-class citizenship is education, and Du Bois and King understood, as critical thinkers, that placing black children under white control should not be viewed as the saving grace of black people.
A second example of King’s critical thinking legacy is his disagreement with the use of the phrase, “Black Power,” as a slogan for the Civil Rights Movement. King did not disagree with the term “Black Power,” as he understood the meaning that Carmichael applied to it. However, King felt that those two words, combined, would have a negative connotation for far too many people. Although I may disagree with King’s notion of whether or not “Black Power” should have been the slogan for the movement, there is no denying that King approached this issue, like all others, as a critical thinker. He said of the phrase “Black Power,”
“…Black Power was a cry of disappointment…a call to black people to amass the political and economic strength to achieve their legitimate goals…and a psychological call to manhood…One must not overlook the positive value in calling the Negro to a new sense of manhood, to a deep feeling of racial pride, and to an audacious appreciation of his heritage. The Negro had to be grasped by a new appreciation of his heritage...He could no longer be ashamed of being Black” (King 323, 324, 326).
So, it is King, the critical thinker, who understands that the greatest hurdle for the African dislocated in America is not physical enslavement, but psychological enslavement, and psychological enslavement is not just a condition of the African but of whites who have been enslaved to the cancerous notion of their own supremacy. Unfortunately, we live in a time when too few want to address this issue of psychological enslavement, as well as having the courage to live the life of King’s legacy. Additionally, King could have taken the easy way out and merely sided with Carmichael because it was the popular thing to do. But, King understands that critical thinking is not about being right for the sake of being right, and critical thinking is not about being popular. Critical thinking is about problem-solving, and he was willing to lose some cool points because his research and insight led him to a different conclusion. More importantly, he had the courage to stand by his convictions.
Courage
In all cases, King’s critical thinking skills were driven by his desire for righteousness and by his courage. In the Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois asserts, “Negroes must insist continually, in season and out of season...that color discrimination is barbarism, and that black boys need education as well as white boys.” When hearing Du Bois’ quote, most of you probably concentrated on and agreed with the statements, “color discrimination is barbarism, and that black boys need education as well as white boys.” However, that is not the most important phrase in Du Bois’ statement. The most important statement is “Negroes must insist continually, in season and out of season.” Theodore Draper asserts in his book, The Rediscovery of Black Nationalism, that Black Nationalism becomes en vogue about every seven years. This is Du Bois’ point. There cannot be a time or a season for righteousness and courage. Righteousness and courage must be unceasing, unchanging, and unwavering through all of man’s endeavors. More specifically, Africans dislocated in America cannot allow anyone else to dictate to them when they should address their issues. King understood this, and this is why he had the courage to speak against the Vietnam War. King stopped being the “Darling of the Movement” when he spoke against Vietnam. King stopped being the “Darling of the Movement” when he went to support the sanitation workers in Memphis. King understood that the moment that he filled his ideological dreams with tangible polices he had signed his own death warrant. That is why he declared, “Tonight I’m not fearing any man.” He understood that a man’s life is meaningless if he has not the courage to stand by the principles that he claims. And this is echoed loudly when King proclaims, “I submit to you that if a man hasn’t discovered something he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
When King takes his stand on Vietnam, he simultaneously demonstrates his critical thinking, his courage, and his righteousness. When King first began to address the Vietnam War publicly, many blacks and whites stated that King was “getting out of his depths.” Why was King said to be “getting out of his depths?” Was it because Vietnam was an international issue and not a black issue? If so, is not the black issue a national and international issue? Did not the Europeans transport Africans all over the globe as chattel? Or, maybe, King was getting out of his depths because, as a black man, he had not the intellectual prowess to engage such issues? Sadly, both reasons were why King was said to be “getting out of his depths.” Africans have never been and still are not considered intellectual equals to their white counterparts. If you do not think that it is true, check the reading lists of your world literature, history, and philosophy courses. I am still amazed that ninety percent of an anthology’s pages can be filled with dead white males, and the course is still called world literature. So, you cannot tell me that the African is considered an intellectual equal to the white man when we continue to marginalize the African’s history and art, which are the most salient representations of man’s intellect. Thus, it holds that King, great thinker that he was, found himself being hushed by the white power structure because he did not have the perceived intellectual depth. Yet, it is at that moment, more than any other, that he exemplifies the characteristics of courage, critical thinking, and righteousness. King declared, “I realized that Martin, you have to stand up on this no matter what it means...I didn’t rush into it. I asked questions...I came to the conclusion that there is an existential moment in your life when you must decide to speak for yourself; nobody can speak for you” (King 335). Exemplifying and exercising his right to self-determination, King strategically used his religious convictions as a catalyst for his courage and his critical thinking when he used the words of Paul to move him forward in the face of white resistance to black intellect. “Be ye not conformed to the world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of minds” (King 337). With the desire for righteousness as his guide, King then unleashes the whole of his courage and critical thinking on the issue of Vietnam.
“There is a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America...[I have come to the realization] that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in the rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continue to draw man and skills and money like some demonic, destructive tube...Perhaps a more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population…So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screen as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools” (King 337-338)
This is a very important critical point by King. It seems that the black body is only of use to America when it is serving and dying as labor in service to the perpetuation of white wealth, but, in all other endeavors, America seems to have no use for the black body. Furthermore, that “extraordinarily high” disproportion of black deaths is not just related to Vietnam or any other war. Black people commit only sixteen percent of the crime in America, but they represent sixty percent of the incarcerated population. Additionally, about thirty percent of black children are not exposed to college preparatory courses while in middle and high school. Yet, while we have refused to properly fund the education of black children, we continue to make a larger investment in the prison industry, where, in many states, prison guards make more than teachers. So, while addressing the Vietnam issue, King was critically deconstructing the war in a manner that showed Vietnam, and any war, as merely a metaphor or a symbol for a country’s capitalistic gluttony. King drives this home by stating,
“The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit...A true revolution of values [as opposed to the fake revolution of values waged by Newt Gingrich and the religious right] will lay hands on the world order and say of war: ‘This way of settling differences is not just.’ This business of burning human beings with Napalm, of filling our nation’s homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues to spend more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death” (King 339, 340, 341).
As such, to address the war in the Middle East, we must be guided by the same critical thinking and courage that led King. We must ask of America, “Why are all our enemies people whom we funded and trained?” We funded and trained Castro. We funded and trained Saddam Hussein. We funded and trained Osama bin Laden. And in the words of Malcolm X, each time we suffer from our own chickens coming home to roost. In the legacy of King, we must understand that our own injustice and evil ways are what cause injustice and evil to continue to visit our doorsteps. If we want evil and injustice to stop visiting us, then we must stop perpetuating evil and injustice throughout the world.
Righteousness
Most times, when we think of righteousness, we think of Job or Jesus or Mother Teresa. We think of people who lived a life of no sin. However, when we think of Jesus, we must remember that even Jesus suffered from doubt. (Praying in the Garden and on the Cross). To suffer from doubt is to doubt the power of God. Even Jesus suffered this human failing. When we think of a righteous person, it should not be of one without sin. When we think of a righteous person, it should be of one who refuses to allow their own inequities to keep them from doing the will of God. When FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover attempted to blackmail King to keep him from fighting against America’s oppression, King asserted, “Mr. Hoover, you must do what you must do, and I must do the will of God.” In the face of loss of life, loss of reputation, and loss of family, King understood that doing the will of God was more important than being loved by man. Like Jesus, King understood that the price for the riches and favor of Satan is too high to be considered. What, then, is righteousness? Righteousness is man’s ability to do right, even when it means that right will bring him bodily or financial harm. It is now a sad day that all of these educated Negroes are too scared to stand against the terrorism of the Governor, the college board, or even the President because they are afraid that they won’t be able to make their car note payment. It is a sad day that our children die from the poison of the “Bling Bling” mentality because their elders—their teachers, administrators, preachers, and politicians—are more concerned about moving to a better neighborhood than moving their people to sovereignty and first-class citizenship. King’s life affirms that righteous men only fear God and that righteous knees only bow before God and can stand in the face of mayors, governors, college boards, and U. S. Presidents who wish to create policy that perpetuates the second-class citizenship of his people. So, on this celebration of King’s legacy, I will leave you with this question: “Which King is on the postal stamp?” The answer lies not so much in King’s life as it does in how we choose to celebrate and perpetuate his legacy with our lives.
Works Cited
King, Martin L. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Clayborne Carson, ed. Warner
Books, 1998.
McInnis is a poet, short story writer, Prince scholar, 2025 Finalist for the Mississippi Poet Laureate, co-founder of the Jackson State University Creative Writing Program, the former editor/publisher of Black Magnolias Literary Journal, and the author of eight books, including four collections of poetry, one collection of short fiction (Scripts: Sketches and Tales of Urban Mississippi), one work of literary criticism (The Lyrics of Prince: A Literary Look at a Creative, Musical Poet, Philosopher, and Storyteller), one co-authored work, Brother Hollis: The Sankofa of a Movement Man, which discusses the life of a Mississippi Civil Rights icon, and the former First Runner-Up of the Amiri Baraka/Sonia Sanchez Poetry Award sponsored by North Carolina State A&T. Additionally, his work has been published in numerous journals and anthologies, including Obsidian, Callaloo, African American Review, Black Fire—This Time Vols. 1 and 2, Tribes, Konch, Down to the Dark River, an anthology of poems about the Mississippi River, and Black Hollywood Unchained, which is an anthology of essays about Hollywood’s portrayal of African Americans.
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This morning’s Friday Forum will feature Jere Nash, consultant and author, who will discuss “The History and Ongoing Legacy of Reconstruction in Mississippi 1862-1877.” For more information, see the calendar of events below or contact Nicole McNamee at nmcnamee72@gmail.com.
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This month’s Torch Literary Arts feature is novelist Fabienne Josaphat—the acclaimed author of Kingdom of No Tomorrow and winner of the 2023 PEN Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. To read more about Josaphat and her work, go here. And, this week’s Torch Literary Arts feature is poet Nina Oteria, whose work has appeared in Southern Cultures, Apogee, Scalawag Magazine, and elsewhere. To read more about Oteria and her work, go here.
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This weekend is the deadline to submit to Flip The Script Publishing’s Darling Nikki, a forthcoming anthology of creative works celebrating the life, legacy, and revolutionary spirit of literary icon Nikki Giovanni. FTSP invites writers, artists, and creators to submit work inspired by or dedicated to Giovanni’s influence, impact, and brilliance. This anthology will be released in April 2026 in recognition of National Poetry Month, with both digital and print editions. They welcome original creative works as well as previously published pieces, provided the contributor retains the rights to grant non-exclusive publication. All submissions should engage with Nikki Giovanni’s legacy in meaningful, imaginative, or unexpected ways. Submissions may explore themes such as: black joy, activism and social justice, love, intimacy, and tenderness, cultural memory and community, resistance and liberation, creativity, art-making, and literary influence, personal or artistic reflections connected to Giovanni’s work or life. Acceptable submission categories include: poetry, essays/creative nonfiction, short stories, photographs, and original artwork/illustrations. Submission Limits: Contributors may submit one written or visual piece. Written submissions may include accompanying artwork or photography. For written works: submit (poetry, essays, stories) as a .doc, .docx, or PDF file. Use a readable font (e.g., Times New Roman, Garamond, or Calibri) in 12 pt. Prose should be double-spaced; poetry may follow the poet’s formatting. Poetry: One poem only, up to 2 pages or no more than 60 lines (excluding the title). Prose (essays, stories): Up to 1,500 words. Include your name and the title of the piece. If the work was previously published, please note the original publication details on the cover page. For visual works (photography, artwork), submit images as high-resolution JPG or PNG files (300 dpi preferred). Please include a brief description or artist statement (up to 150 words). If previously published, include original publication information. For cover Page / Artist Bio, include a separate document with the following: full name (and pen name if applicable), a short bio (up to 100 words), contact email, social media handles(s) and/or website address, titles of submitted works, and indicate whether each piece is original or previously published. For rights & compensation, contributors retain full copyright to their work. By submitting, contributors grant Flip The Script Publishing the non-exclusive right to publish the piece in the Darling Nikki digital and print editions, as well as promotional materials related to the anthology. This includes previously published works for which the contributor holds the necessary rights. Contributors will be notified of acceptance decisions by February 2026. Nikki Giovanni’s work is a blueprint of liberation, imagination, and radical love. FTSP welcomes your voice, your vision, and your homage as we uplift her legacy together. For additional assistance, see the calendar of events below and contact info@flipthescriptpublishing.com.
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This weekend is the deadline for the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing fellowship applications for its Summer Writers’ Conference, which will be held May 24 – 30 and June 14 – 20 and offers a deep dive into fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction with award-winning poets and authors. The conference includes generative seminars, evening readings, panel discussions, and individualized manuscript sessions. MVICW is committed to supporting writers from all backgrounds, abilities, and genres. Their Fellowships are aimed to support BIPOC writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, parent-writers, teachers & educators, caregivers, and emerging poets and authors. Full fellowships include registration, lodging, and a manuscript session at the MVICW 2026 Summer Writers’ Conference. MVICW was founded with a belief that a supportive, creative, and nourishing community is essential for a successful writing life. Their mission is to give writers at all stages of their careers the opportunity to reconnect on a deep level with their writing practice, to believe in the work they do, and to build a vibrant network of writers. MVIC believes in teaching compassion not competition, creative help not hierarchy, and offering the tools to heal your Inner Critic so that you can go on to produce the most powerful, creative, and life-changing work of which you’re capable. For more information to apply, see the calendar of events below.
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Cave Canem, one of the most important organizations in the development and nurturing of black poets, has announced its spring/summer events schedule. To see the full schedule, check the calendar of events below. And, for more information about Cave Canem, visit their website here. Finally, award-winning poet and Cave Canem co-founder Cornelius Eady read a new poem during the inauguration of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani that y’all can watch here.
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The Louisiana/Mississippi Branch of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators will host a few events this month. For full details, see the calendar of events below.
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Rooted Magazine editor, Lauren Rhoades, has published an inspiring article, “How to Bless the Fire after Your Synagogue Burns (here), which addresses the resilience of Jackson, Mississippi’s, Jewish community forced to rebuild the city’s only synagogue, Beth Israel. Next, as part of the Rooted Magazine Bottom Reader Book Club, they have published, “Casino Lights: On the Promise—and failure—of Casino Gambling to Lift Tunica, Mississippi, from Poverty (here),” an excerpt from Dr. W. Ralph Eubanks’ When It’s Darkness on the Delta: How America’s Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land, which can be purchased here. To read Rooted’s earlier interview with Olive Branch, Mississippi, native Eubanks, go here. And, next month, Rooted editor Lauren Rhoades will talk with Eubanks about his latest work, When It’s Darkness on the Delta, during an online discussion. For more information about the Rooted Magazine Bottom Reader Book Club, go here. Third, Mississippi River specialist, co-founder of the Blues Education Fund, youth advocate, and Mississippi Native American expert John Ruskeyt talks with Rooted Magazine about what it means to be a “Mississippi Transplant,” which can be read here. Additionally, as part of its Year-End Series, Rooted re-posted its 2023 interview with Clarksdale, Mississippi, native, poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis as part of its “Questionnaires” series that y’all can read here. Finally, Rooted editor Lauren Rhoades is currently on a book tour, promoting Split the Baby: A Memoir in Pieces, and y’all can read more about that here. Rooted is a free, online magazine dedicated to telling stories of place to people who call Mississippi home. It 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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Check out this great interview with historian and scholar Dr. W. Ralph Eubanks about his latest book, When It’s Darkness on the Delta: How America’s Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land, on The Eddrick Show! After watching this great interview, checkout Eddrick Jerome’s interview of poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis (here).
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The History of Black Writing (HBW) nurtures research opportunities for students, writers, and scholars to build lasting change in the American literature canon and support the legacy of African-American writers. As such, HBW is a research center focused on elevating innovative scholarship in American literature, book history, and digital humanities. To read their latest newsletter, go here.
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Award-winning poet Joseph Ross has a new collection of poetry, Raising King, which presents the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., through poetic verse. Moreover, in the tradition of Margaret Walker Alexander’s Prophets for a New Day, Ross’ Raising King presents King’s work and character as a blueprint for resistance during current times, affirming that history is an essential tool to shape the future we desire to see exist while creativity provides the vision for the new path forward. For more information and to purchase a copy of Raising King, go here.
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In honor of the upcoming Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, Third World Press is offering a very rare, first edition issue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929 – 1968: An Ebony Picture Biography, an extensive collection of photographs documenting King’s part in the civil rights movement. Action, progress, and power are revealed with images of the meetings, marches, protests, and speeches, while touching snapshots with his family and trusted aides capture the public and private personas of this important historical figure. For more information and to purchase a copy, go here. Additionally, TWP is offering Jonathan Tilove’s Along Martin Luther King: Black America’s Main Street (here), which explores of the history and culture in around the various streets in America named for King.
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Next week, Joesph Patri Brown will read from and discuss his book, The Image They Had Painted, which details the experiences of Mississippi’s most disenfranchised and marginalized people, those living on death row. After more than thirty years of flailing in the murky whirlpools of the criminal justice system, Joesph Patri Brown uses any lifeline available to seek a better quality and quantity of life upon these troubled waters. Across 18 memoir vignettes and five poems, Brown offers a sharp critique of a system that insists he should be caged—and ultimately killed. His intimate reflections refuse the logics that render certain lives expendable, exposing the death penalty not as justice, but as a sustained practice of state violence. Language becomes here an act of resistance, testimony, and care. This online launch will feature readings by Brown, followed by a conversation with him, collaborators, advocates, and publishers whose work is deeply entangled with abolitionist struggle and collective care:
* Alison Turner, The GOAT PoL
* Sonia Preisler, Publication Studio Guelph
* Curtis Walker, Publication Studio Guelph
* Liz McCann, Humans Remain
* Lauren Rhoades, Rooted
The Image They Had Painted insists that stories from death row belong not at the margins, but at the center of our moral and political reckoning. They invite you to join them for an evening of celebration, listening, witnessing, and solidarity. For more information, see the calendar of events below or contact Dr. Alison Turner at alison.nmn.turner@gmail.com. Additionally, to read Joesph Patri Brown’s monthly column, “Chronicles from Parchman,” go here.
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Next week, to celebrate and mark the close of its exhibit, Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight, join Mississippi Museum of Art, (MMA) for a two-day program that explores community building in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s–70s and its legacies today. Visiting artists and scholars will contribute to insightful discussions about the history of Kenkeleba House—a New York arts center co-founded by Joe Overstreet in 1974 to support African American artists—and Southern cultural producers will connect this history to Black-led arts organizations currently active in Jackson. Day one will include a conversation with artists Odili Donald Odita and Mary Lovelace O’Neal on their personal experiences working with Overstreet and Kenkeleba House, moderated by MMA Associate Curator of Exhibitions, Kaegan Sparks. There will also be a panel discussion on Kenkeleba House’s history with art historians Josie Roland Hodson, PhD candidate at Yale University; Abbe Schriber, Asst. Professor at the University of South Carolina; and Alexandra M. Thomas, Asst. Professor at Fordham University; moderated by Maya Harakawa, Asst. Professor at the University of Toronto. Day two will include an intergenerational panel discussion with Jackson’s arts community organizers, past and present. This discussion is co-organized with Gus Daniels-Washington of JXNOLOGY; 2025 Mississippi Invitational artist and cultural producer Christina McField of The WoodGrain Studio; Alexis Noble of Vibe Studio JXN; and Wendy Shenefelt of Alternate ROOTS. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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Next week, The Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience (The MAX) will curate multiple events this month, including a captivating night of jazz with Rodrick D. Fox and Krista Overby and a conversation and book signing with Mississippi historian and award-winning author Jere Nash about his new book, Reconstruction in Mississippi. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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Next week, Women for Progress of Mississippi will curate “Celebrating Our Foundations. Defining Our Future: A Weekend of Leadership, Legacy, and Progress Presented by Women for Progress of MS, Inc.” to celebrate leadership, legacy, and the power of women. Through high-impact workshops, meaningful conversations, and the prestigious Woman of the Year 2025 Luncheon, Women for Progress continues its purpose-driven mission: to increase the economic, educational, civic, and social advancement of women and families throughout Mississippi. This year’s celebration holds special significance as WFPM honor the birthday of its beloved founder, Mrs. Dorothy Stewart Samuel, whose vision continues to anchor our work. Mrs. Samuel’s leadership laid the foundation for an organization that has served as a statewide catalyst for empowering women, strengthening families, and shaping policy for nearly five decades. As WFPM celebrate her life on January 25, they also celebrate the countless lives her legacy has touched across our communities. The Leadership Weekend will feature a series of powerful workshops and events designed to empower and inspire women at every stage of their leadership journey. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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Next week is the deadline for the Mississippi Philological Association proposals for its 2026 annual meeting hosted by William Carey University. MPA 2026 welcomes proposals in creative writing, critical discussions of literature, film, and music, and pedagogical approaches to linguistics and the humanities. While the 2026 meeting continues the tradition of an open call for papers from a wide range of topics, this year’s meeting will continue the new tradition of adopting a theme and two featured panels that will be comprised of relevant submissions from the open call for papers. MPA 2026 is especially interested in presentations that address the meeting theme: looking forward, looking back in works of regional and southern literature, especially in the works of Mississippi writers. Mississippi writers of interest might include (but is not limited to): William Faulkner, Jerry W. Ward, Jesmyn Ward, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, Hubert Creekmore, John Grisham, Catherine Lacey, Donna Tartt, Barry Hannah, Margaret Walker, Willie Morris, Katy Simpson Smith, Thomas Harris, Kiese Laymon, Larry Brown, Ellen Douglas, Richard Ford, Jim Whitehead, Chris Offutt, Beth Henley, Tennessee Williams, Tom Franklin, Beth Ann Fennelly, C. T. Salazar, Thomas Richardson, W. Ralph Eubanks, Steve Yarborough, Exodus Brownlow, and so many more. How does the literature from Mississippi’s past still shape writing in the present? What does the future of literature from Mississippi look like? Where does it (and where should it) go next? In honor of this theme, the keynote speaker will be Ted Atkinson, editor of the Mississippi Quarterly. To obtain a proposal form, go here, and for any other questions, contact Lorie Massey at lmassey@wmcarey.edu or see the calendar of events below.
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Next month, the Jackson State University English Department will curate its annual African-American Read-In Program, which will have panels, featuring scholars, artists, and students discussing some of the most notable current and historical works. For more information, contact Ms. Monica L. Granderson at monica.l.granderson@jsums.edu.
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The Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) is launching Witness: The Freedom Memory Project, a statewide initiative inviting applications to create new sites of memory that preserve and share the local history of the Civil Rights Movement and the broader struggle for freedom in Mississippi. MHC is inviting applications from communities across the state to participate in this exciting new initiative. Witness: The Freedom Memory Project builds on the Council’s longstanding work to preserve the history of the state’s freedom struggle. Working closely with community partners, artists, and historians, MHC will collaborate with communities to design and implement projects that could include:
· Public art installations or monuments
· Mississippi Freedom Trail markers
· Exhibits or local archives
· Digital storytelling and oral history projects
Over the next three years, MHC will partner with four communities per year to design and establish commemorative sites, both physical and virtual, that reflect the stories of local people and places too often left out of the national narrative. Selected communities will host public engagement meetings by a skilled facilitator, to elicit and develop local ideas and community support. Each selected community will receive direct project support to carry out their vision. Communities will also be encouraged to apply to the MHC for grant support for public programs related to their project. For more information contact MHC Director of Strategic Initiatives John Spann (jspann@mhc.state.ms.us) and see the calendar of events below for deadline.
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Narrative 4, an organization of creatives that uses storytelling to build community and civic engagement, has sent its latest newsletter that can be read here.
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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—has released its latest newsletter, which can be read here.
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The Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander Center has posted its latest newsletter, which includes information about MLK Convocation and For My People Awards, CASE Fest CFP, Jubilee Book Club, History Is Lunch, and the HBCU Radio Preservation Project that can be read here and here. Additionally, the JSU MWA Center unveiled Margaret Walker & the Power of Words—the first permanent exhibit on campus that examines the life and career of Margaret Walker Alexander. As the first African American to win the Yale Younger Poets Award for her book, For My People, Nikki Giovanni called Dr. Alexander “the most famous person nobody knows” because she, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Richard Wright are the Holy Trinity that formed the literary bridge between the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement. Additionally, her novel, Jubilee, is the first neo-slave novel, creating the blueprint for Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Alex Haley’s Roots. Margaret Walker & the Power of Words documents the extraordinary life and work of a woman whose legacy continues to impact the current generation of writers. The grand opening included a wonderful discussion and reception with the foremost Margaret Walker Alexander scholar, Dr. Maryemma Graham, author of The House Where My Soul Lives: The Life of Margaret Walker, in the JSU Student Center Theater. (Here and here are pics from the lecture.) Dr. Graham’s lecture was followed by exhibit tours in Gallery 1. The exhibit is open to the public and available for tours of all sizes. To schedule a tour, contact Dr. Robert Luckett, Director of the JSU MWA Center, at robert.luckett@jsums.edu. Finally, the JSU MWA Center has started the Jubilee Book Club, which will feature close readings of Margaret Walker Alexander’s essential novel, Jubilee, along with resources, notes from Dr. Alexander’s journals, guest contributions, and more. Rather than read one book over the course of a few weeks, or several over a few months, the JSU MWA Center will spend its time taking a deep dive into Jubilee. Think of it as a low-stakes, slow-paced literature class—Jubilee 101! Each month, The Center will send a newsletter that contains a close reading of a topic or theme in the novel. Y’all will also see further reading suggestions, links to interviews, readings, trivia and polls, materials from our digital archive, and more! Plus, The Center will add page numbers for excerpts from the novels that will be helpful to (re)read depending on the month’s topic. Here is the link to this month’s edition of the Jubilee Book Club. For more information, contact mwa@jsums.edu.
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In two weeks, Mississippi Museum of Art will hold its signature fundraiser, ART PARTY, co-chaired by Walton Fenelon Lane and Christina McRae. This year’s theme, A Floral Fête, will transform the Museum into a living canvas with breathtaking floral installations inspired by works in MMA’s collection. Guests will enjoy an unforgettable evening filled with live music by Even Odds, an exciting silent auction of extraordinary works of art, floral-inspired cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres from favorite local restaurants. As a sponsor, your support provides vital funding for the Museum’s exhibitions, innovative educational programs, and community outreach initiatives—ensuring that MMA continues to be a cultural cornerstone for Mississippi and beyond. Explore sponsorship levels and benefits and sign up today. For more information and to donate, go here.
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Poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar, C Liegh McInnis had the honor and pleasure of co-hosting the Women for Progress of Mississippi, Inc., Kwanzaa Celebration with Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander Center Archivist Angela Stewart at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. There were so many wonderful presenters and moments, and here are a few pics from the night. For even more pics, y’all can go to the WFPM Facebook Page (here) and scroll down to the third row of pictures. Next, to keep the spirit of self-determination moving into this New Year, here is a clip of me reading my poem, “Kujichagulia,” a few years ago, and here is a clip of me reading my poem, “Brother Hollis (Slight Return),” in memory of Mississippi Civil Rights icon and SNCC Field Secretary Hollis Watkins as we carry the spirits and work of the ancestors into 2026. Finally, thanks to journalist and editor Benj DeMott for including the video and written text of my C Liegh’s, “Faith over Fear (here),” in the latest issue of First of the Month. Remember that, in the spirit of kuumba (creativity), each of us must do all that we can in our own way to make the world a better place.
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REAL Learning Institute and Afrikan Art Gallery have shared a cool video celebrating African and African-American history that y’all can watch here. For more information of the work they are doing, contact Baba Asinia Lukata Chikuyu at realsoulutions@yahoo.com.
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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. To browse their catalog, go here.
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Afrikan Art Gallery has a new home at 1036 Charles Evers Blvd, Jackson, MS. For more information, go here and contact Asinia Lukata Chikuyu at afrikan_tbt@yahoo.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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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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The Emmett Till Interpretive Center has sent its latest newsletter. To read more about the ETIC, go here, and to receive the ETIC newsletter, go here.
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Monument Labs—a collaborative platform for critically understanding and reimagining monuments—works to highlight artists who are deeply committed to changing the way we study, build, and interpret monuments. To view their latest newsletter, go here, and for more information about Monument Labs, go here and here. Additionally, Monument Lab – Re:Generation, edited by Paul M. Farber and Sue Mobley, addresses the question, “Which stories belong in public?,” through impactful, local reclamation projects that provide a deeper understanding of how monuments live and function in communities. The book presents case studies that travel across the country, highlighting local commemorative campaigns dedicated to advancing public memory. Featuring essays and artwork from the country’s leading monument makers plus a foreword from New York Times bestselling author Clint Smith. For more information and to purchase a copy, go here. Finally, Monument Lab’s recent issue of Bulletin celebrates the life and legacy of Mamie and Emmett Till. To purchase a copy of that issue, which features some of the major names in African-American literature, go here.
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Dr. Sarah L. Webb launched the global initiative Colorism Healing in 2013 to raise awareness and foster individual and collective healing through creative and critical work. Her myriad efforts to address colorism include designing college courses, hosting an international writing contest, publishing books, teaching workshops, and mentoring students across the world from Sacramento, California, to Sydney, Australia. Here is the link to Dr. Webb’s latest newsletter. Additionally, here is a link to Dr. Sarah L. Webb’s YouTube page, Colorism Healing, and here are the links to her website and Instagram page.
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Here is an insightful article, “After the Dead Things,” about seeing beyond current pain and depression to survive to the other side, and here is another article, “This Shit Is Crazy,” about acknowledging the current sociopolitical insanity while maintaining the resolved not to be overcome or swallowed by it, both by Tasha Hunter, who writes about blackness, grief, growth, relationships, queerness, and more.
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Capital B News’ national education reporter, Alecia Taylor, has a new article, “How HBCUs Reacted to Bomb Threats,” which can be read here and here.
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Poet, playwright, editor, and cultural critic Charlie R. Braxton has published two new insightful articles, “Trump, Venezuela, and the New American Imperialism (here)” and “Why the U.S. Conducted an air Attack on Nigerian Soil (here).”
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Here is another great article, “America at the Crossroads of Democracy and Capitalism,” by Dr. R. Owen Williams, which reminds us that capitalism without government oversight and regulation will only lead to the nation’s collapse, which is posted on Moss Point, Mississippi, native and Princeton Professor Dr. Eddie Glaude, Jr.,’s platform, A Native Son. Additionally, Glaude has posted an insightful article, “George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language (here),” which shows “that the present political chaos is connected with the decay of language, and that one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end” of empirical grounding. 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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The Jackson Advocate, one of the oldest African-American newspapers, has more insightful articles, including Dr. Ivory Phillips’ “Update on JSU President Search (here).” For more great articles from JA, go here. To watch archived episodes of JA’s podcast, go here and here, and to subscribe to JA, contact janews@thejacksonadvocate.com.
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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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Let’s highlight the great work that the Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander Center is doing in all of its endeavors. As such, if y’all would like to donate to one or all of them, here is the link to donate to the JSU MWA Center’s Catherine Coleman Literary Arts, Food, and Justice Initiative, which provides avenues for emerging writers across the state of Mississippi and in the City of Jackson to engage the rich legacy of creative writing in Mississippi, the tradition of southern foodways, and the history of social justice movements in their communities, here is the link to donate to the JSU MWA Center’s Endowment, and here is the link to purchase tickets for the JSU MWA Center’s For My People Award Luncheon. And, if you have any extra funds and really want to get in good with the spirit of my Pops, you can also donate to JSU Athletics through the KC 1400 Collective (here) and the JSU by 40 Campaign (here). Always remember that a mind and a great football program are terrible things to waste. That is all. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: Thee I Love because I only Love Thee!!!
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Dance / Music / Sex / Romance aka Princesong.org is a song-by-song blog examining the music of Prince in chronological order by noted Prince scholar Zachary Hoskins. The latest entry can be read here and here, and all of the entries can be found here. His essay, “Rude Boy: Prince as Black New Waver,” was published in a special issue of Spectrum, A Journal on Black Men (2020), and his presentation from the Prince #1plus1plus1is3 virtual symposium (2021), “I Wish We All Were Nude: Controversy ‘Shower Poster’ as Aesthetic Linchpin and Artifact,” was published in the Journal of Popular Music Studies. He has also presented and appeared on roundtables at other @polishedsolid symposia, #TripleThreat40 (2023), #SexyMF30 (2022), and #DM40GB30 (2020), as well as the University of Minnesota’s Prince from Minneapolis symposium (2018). He holds an M.A. in Media Arts from the University of Arizona and B.A.’s in Film & Video Studies and Creative Writing & Literature from the University of Michigan. Go enjoy Zach’s wonderful insights on Prince’s songs.
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Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB) is introducing a new radio schedule beginning January 5, 2026, that expands its music programming, adds new locally produced shows, and creates a clearer, more consistent listening experience for audiences across the state. For more information and to see the new lineup, go here. As part of the new lineup, Mississippi Poet Laureate Ann Fisher-Wirth has created a new segment, Favorite Poem Podcast, which is a monthly segment on MPB’s The Mississippi Arts Hour/Arts Hour Extra. Poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis had the honor and pleasure to be on the second installment of Favorite Poem Podcast, which is ten to fifteen minutes and features poets reading and analyzing their favorite poem. Y’all can listen to C Liegh here as he reads and analyzes Margaret Walker Alexander’s “Jackson State, May 15, 1970.” Because they were limited in time, he wasn’t able to analyze the poem in its entirety. As such, y’all can read the entire analysis of the poem here. Additionally, Fisher-Wirth has completed three other episodes: Fisher-Wirth discusses Emily Dickinson’s “A Bird Came Down the Walk— (here),” Former MS Poet Laureate Beth Ann Fennelly reads and discusses Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29, “When, in Disgrace with Fortune and Men’s Eyes (here),” and poet, editor, and Professor Melissa Ginsburg reads and discusses H. D.’s “Oread (here).” As soon as more episodes are released, we’ll provide the links. We hope y’all enjoy C Liegh’s discussion of Dr. Alexander’s seminal poem on the night that African-American youth and intelligence were attacked by Jim Crow (here).
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Award-winning novelist and cultural activist Ellen Prewitt’s essay, “Granddaughter of the Instigator,” has been named one of the “Best of 2025” prose pieces by Salvation South, receiving an Honorable Mention and can be read here. Y’all can see Salvation South’s entire “Best of 2025” list here. Finally, Prewitt’s next novel, When We Were Murderous Time-Traveling Women, which is a Mississippi novel set in New Orleans that asks in the most comic way possible, how we recover after being forced to kill, will be published in April of 2026.
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The Game is a new essay site edited by award-winning poet, editor, filmmaker, and activist Kevin Powell. The Game is a space where the game of life and the games we play meet, inviting everyone’s energy, perspective, and participation to contribute works that explore how we play it and how we learn from our wins, from our losses, and from each other. Featuring pieces that are no longer than 400 words, the site changes content weekly. The latest issue, number 9, features a story, “Fly Away: On Jazz,” by fiction writer, journalist, and cultural critic Michael Gonzales, about three musical mentors who taught him about Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Albert Ayler. Other writers contributing to the series include Charlie Braxton, Toni Blackman, Darnell McNeil, and Billy Johnson Jr. To read the latest issue, go here, and to read all issues, go here.
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The Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander Center invites proposals for papers, presentations, and panels for the 20th Annual Creative Arts & Scholarly Engagement (CASE) Festival, which will feature a keynote address by award-winning poet Dr. Evie Shockley, Director of Creative Writing and Writers and the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. The theme of the 2026 CASE Festival will be “The Black Experience in the American South,” but the organizers welcome proposals from high school, undergraduate, and graduate students on any topic.
Proposal submissions should be 250 words, include a title and name of the participant’s school, and should fit in one of four categories:
Poetry/Spoken Word (10-15-minute presentations in original storytelling or poetry, including brief comments about inspiration &/or form of the work) Visual Arts (up to 3 pieces of artwork in any media with 10-minute presentations)
Written (8- to 10-page essays with 20-minute presentations)
Performing Arts (10-minute dance, musical, and theatrical presentations)
In the case of panel proposals, please submit the names of the participants, provide a brief synopsis of the panel’s topic, and provide individual paper or presentation proposals.
Note that the best essay by a JSU student on the “Black experience in the American South” will receive the $1,000 Margaret Walker Alexander Annual Award. Submissions for the MWA Annual Award can be in various forms, including literary analysis, creative writing, research paper, biographical study, autobiography, and historical study. The JSU MWA Center CASE Festival will also present the annual $500 Doris Derby Visual Arts and Social Justice Award to a student at any level from any institution whose contribution best reflects this year’s CASE Festival theme in the category of visual arts, including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, and crafts. Winners for all awards will be announced during the Closing Ceremony for the 2026 CASE Festival. For more information, see the calendar of events below.
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I struggled with sharing the video of my lecture, “Faith over Fear,” in the newsletter because I wondered if I was the proper messenger to provide this message, especially with it being rooted in a religious or spiritual context. However, after sharing it with a very few folks on the listserv, many of them provided positive feedback. Although I’ve never been afraid to pursue my dreams, I know that so many amazingly intelligent and creative folks are kept from pursuing their dreams simply because of fear. As such, I hope that this lecture can give them the push they need to become the person they truly are. Last Saturday morning, before the Jackson State University Football Game, I was asked to give a presentation on “Faith over Fear” for the Central United Methodist Church Community Prayer Breakfast, which y’all can watch here. It’s currently unlisted on my YouTube channel, and I haven’t decided if I’ll make it public. My wife, Monica, does a great deal of community work with Central because of their history within the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and their current work as community servants and advocates. Additionally, one of my former JSU professors is an active member in Central’s work, and it’s difficult to say no to your former teachers who poured so much into you. However, although I admire Central’s work, I initially declined their invitation to speak for artistic and personal reasons. One, I retired from teaching to dedicate more time and energy to writing. That’s my life. That’s my love. That’s what I am. For better or worse, I’m a writer. Yet, I got to a point where too many other things were making it difficult to write. As such, since 2020, I’ve narrowly defined myself as a poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar, taking steps to ensure that nothing else interferes with writing, which includes declining several lucrative opportunities to remain a broke but focused writer. Yet, I agreed to give the talk, primarily because of my admiration for Central’s work and because of what it means to be with the same women since 1991, which has taught me that I’m not really the boss of anything. That being said, I didn’t know that my wife would record the lecture. It went well, and Monica promised to share the video with the Central congregation. Thus, even though it’s “unlisted” on the channel, some will have access to it. Since I haven’t decided if I’ll make it public, I’m sharing it with a very few of y’all on the listserv, mostly because y’all specifically manage to overcome the daily hurdles of life to do the work. But, since I no longer see myself as a religious person, I’m hesitant to make a lecture public that is rooted in religious (Christian) ideology, even though I think it can be of comfort or inspiration to some. That being said, check it out in your leisure as I know that y’all, who are receiving this email, overcome fear, doubt, oppression, and other hurdles daily to get the work done. (Y’all can also read the text here.) Now, let’s checkout the upcoming events.
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Here’s a great video, “Twenty Black Writers Who Changed America Forever.” Although it’s a very good list, I would replace Percival Everett with Margaret Walker Alexander—the first African-American to win the Yale Younger Poet Award for her poetry collection, For My People, and her novel, Jubilee, is the first credited neo-slave novel that inspired Toni Morrison’s Beloved and from which Alex Haley’s Roots borrows greatly. Additionally, in 1973, she curated the Phillis Wheatley Conference at Jackson State University, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, which gathered every major black female writer at the time, including Morrison, Nikki Giovanni, Sonia Sanchez, and others. If the definition of greatness is that life after you is different and better than life before you, then Dr. Alexander is one of the seminal writers of American history. Finally, here is a link to an excellent presentation, “The Life of Margaret Walker,” by noted literary scholar Dr. Maryemma Graham, author of The House Where My Soul Lives: The Life of Margaret Walker (here), during the Mississippi Department of Archives and History’s “History is Lunch” monthly session.
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If y’all missed poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis’ commentary, “Keep Wokeness from Purple Rain!!!, Pt. 2,” about Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins using somebody else’s art as a Trojan horse for his own politics, thereby soiling the original vision of the film, y’all can read it here.
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Poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis had the honor and pleasure to participate in “Trouble the Water: Remembering the Life and Work of Dr. Jerry W. Ward,” which can be seen here. The tribute included poet, scholar, and arts activist Kelly Harris-DeBerry, poet, fiction writer, and scholar Dr. Candice Love Jackson, literary theorist and editor Dr. Howard Rambsy, II, legendary poet, playwright, fiction writer, scholar, and activist Kalamu ya Salaam, and C Liegh. The tribute to Doc Ward was also the opening event of the Words and Music Literary Festival, curated by One Book One New Orleans. The Festival had its usual great lineup of musical and literary masters, and to view some of the presentations, go here.
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Poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis also had the honor and pleasure to be on the second installment of Favorite Poem Podcast, which is a monthly segment on MPB’s The Mississippi Arts Hour/Arts Hour Extra, hosted by Mississippi Poet Laureate Ann Fisher-Wirth. Each episode is ten to fifteen minutes and features poets reading and analyzing their favorite poem. Y’all can listen to C Liegh here as he reads and analyzes Margaret Walker Alexander’s “Jackson State, May 15, 1970.” Because they were limited in time, he wasn’t able to analyze the poem in its entirety. As such, y’all can read the entire analysis of the poem here. Additionally, Fisher-Wirth has completed three other episodes: Fisher-Wirth discusses Emily Dickinson’s “A Bird Came Down the Walk— (here),” Former MS Poet Laureate Beth Ann Fennelly reads and discusses Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29, “When, in Disgrace with Fortune and Men’s Eyes (here),” and poet, editor, and Professor Melissa Ginsburg reads and discusses H. D.’s “Oread (here).” As soon as more episodes are released, we’ll provide the links. We hope y’all enjoy C Liegh’s discussion of Dr. Alexander’s seminal poem on the night that African-American youth and intelligence were attacked by Jim Crow (here).
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Clarksdale and Bentonia, Mississippi, Blues establishments were featured on Good Morning America’s “50 States in 50 Weeks,” which y’all can see here and here.
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Everyday Tech is MPB Think Radio’s weekly program about consumer technology. Co-hosted by MPB’s own Abram Nanney and local community tech advocate Sabir Abdul-Haqq, you can listen to the show in real time, every Monday at 10:00 a.m. CST or previous episodes here. They invite you to enjoy the conversation: dial 877-MPB-RING to add to the subject at hand, ask a tech question that’s bugging you, or you can email the show at: everydaytech@mpbonline.org. Each episode explores the latest news talk, issues, and products in consumer technology, and they troubleshoot problems posed by the show’s callers and introduce listeners to preventive measures in a manner that’s easy-to-understand, cordial and not “tech-heavy.” Check it out everywhere you get your podcasts and on demand on the MPB PublicMedia App! For more information, contact Sabir Abdul-Haqq at sabir@yourebs.biz.
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Monica McInnis—through her efforts as a Census specialist, grassroots organizer, voter education specialist, and political mapmaker—was instrumental in the work across Mississippi that helped to create three new districts that were won by African-American Democrats, flipping them from Republican control. Senate District 2 was won by Theresa Isom (here), Senate District 44 was won by Johnny Dupree (here), and House District 22 was won by Justin Crosby (here). With more than two years of research and community engagement, Monica partnered with various organizations and community folks to enable Afro-Mississippians to increase their voice while ensuring better checks and balances in the Mississippi legislative process. “After six years, Mississippi Democrats have broken the Republican Party’s supermajority in the Mississippi Senate. Voters elected Democrats to two seats previously held by Republicans, reducing the number of Republican senators in the upper chamber from 36 to 34—one fewer than necessary to constitute a supermajority” (Pittman). Although Mississippi Republicans still hold a majority, not having a supermajority makes it difficult for them to “override a governor’s veto, propose constitutional amendments and execute certain procedural actions, like reviving dead legislation,” forcing them to develop some sort of a working relationship with Democrats in constructing legislative agenda (Pittman). Working directly with redistricting icon Attorney Carroll Rhodes and others, Monica has traveled tirelessly from the Delta, through Jackson and the Pine Belt to the Gulf Coast, helping communities organize and realize that they can craft their own maps to give voice to their political power. This past Tuesday night was a reminder and affirmation that we have the power to protect ourselves from President Agent Orange if we simply use what we have to get what we need. In this regard, Monica embodies Prince’s song “The Work, Pt. 1,” as she went from community to community and door to door teaching liberation gospel.
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Here is an interesting YouTube post, “Prince’s Legacy Is Over…AI Ruined It,” which discusses how many content creators are making a mockery of Prince’s artistry and legacy through the use of AI.
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I’m still flying from the two-day bi-annual Prince Symposium, #Shhh30, which celebrated 30 years of Prince’s The Gold Experience and Exodus and was curated by noted Prince scholar and NYU Professor De Angela Duff. These symposiums are some of the most impressive gatherings of scholars and creatives on the planet, within and outside academia. It’s not just that Professor Duff gets folks from three and four continents to participate each year. The variety of scholars and scholarship makes it evident that Prince understood the complexity of his humanity and the complexity of all humans more than most artists and strove to force listeners to be more aware of the multitude of slices that compile their human pie chart. As such, these gatherings feature presenters representing more than twenty different academic disciplines and creative genres, all providing research and insight into the seemingly boundless depths of Prince. To be quite honest, this may be the only conference in which my goal is to attend every panel, presentation, and roundtable while also arriving early each morning and staying late each evening just to hear folks continue to expound upon their ideas. If you didn’t attend the symposium, the only two events that are available to be watched, for now, are the excellent keynotes, featuring Prince’s longest tenure band member and HBCU alum Morris Hayes aka Mr. Hayes (here) and the man who designed much of Prince’s 90s artwork, Michael Van Huffel (here). I was honored to join Prof Duff for Mr. Hayes’ keynote. Both Hayes and Huffel provide great insights to Prince’s vast creativity and work ethic, with Hayes providing hilarious stories to punctuate his discussion and Huffel sharing how meticulous Prince was with every aspect of his career. As soon as Prof Duff uploads all the panels and presentations, I’ll include links to them. But, for now, below is the printed copy of my presentation. Then, after that, are the upcoming events.
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In September, poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis joined Patrick Weems (Director of the Emmett Till Interpretative Center), Gloria Dickerson (Director of the Mae Bertha Carter Learning Center), W. Ralph Eubanks (noted historian/scholar and author of Ever Is a Long Time), and Yolanda Wisher (poet/musician and author of Monk Eats an Afro) on the Monument Lab’s Bulletin Panel at the Mississippi Book Festival. Once again, the MBF was fantastic, and each of the writers on our panel has work in Bulletin’s special issue that commemorates the 70th anniversary of Emmett Till’s murder by celebrating the reverence for him and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. The collection includes several great poets, visual artists, and scholars, such as The Alluvial Collective, Tony Bolden, Adrienne Brown-David, Daphne R. Chamberlain, Gloria Dickerson, W. Ralph Eubanks, Paul M. Farber, Justin Hardiman, Jerome G. Little, Dick Lourie, Yannick Lowery, Airea D. Matthews, January Gill O’Neil, Mark Palacio, Theo Palacio, Aubree Penney, Olivia C. Riley, Sonia Sanchez, Sabrina Santiago, Omar Tate, Wright Thompson, Natasha Trethewey, The Tyler Twins, Ashley Tyner, Elliot Waters-Fleming, Patrick Weems, Steve Weinik, Reverend Willie Williams, Yolanda Wisher, and C Liegh McInnis. When the MBF posts the videos of all the panels, I’ll provide the links in the newsletter. Until then, y’all can purchase a copy of this latest issue of Bulletin, go here.
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If anyone missed the video of poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis reading the 12-inch version of his poem, “Remembering Emmett Till (in Five Haiku Movements),” during the Opening Plenary of the 70th Emmett Till Commemoration at Mississippi Valley State University, facilitated by the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, y’all can watch here. This is an extended version of the poem published in the special issue of Monument Lab’s Bulletin, which celebrates the life and legacy of Mamie and Emmett Till. (To purchase a copy of that issue, which features some of the major names in African-American literature, go here.) The 70th Emmett Till Commemoration was a wonderful four-day event that featured panels with many of the national and local Civil Rights workers in Mississippi between 1955 and 1968. Thursday night featured a performance of Jackson State University MADDRAMA’s Take Me Back: Unsettling Memories, which y’all can watch here. And, to watch the full Opening Plenary and all three panels that occurred on Friday, go here. Props to MVSU, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, Monument Lab, and everyone involved in facilitating this great event.
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Here is a link to an excellent presentation, “The Life of Margaret Walker,” by noted literary scholar Dr. Maryemma Graham, author of The House Where My Soul Lives: The Life of Margaret Walker (here), during the Mississippi Department of Archives and History’s “History is Lunch” monthly session. Additionally, here are two more great presentations at “History is Lunch.” Longtime activist and former Dean of the Jackson State University College of Education Dr. Ivory Phillips, author of The Ayers vs. Waller Case: The Promise and the Disappointment (here), presented “The Ayers Case: A Fight for Equity in Higher Education (here),” and JSU Political Science Professor Dr. Byron D’Andra Orey and Dr. Jeanne Middleton Hairston, co-author of the original Mississippi: Conflict and Change, discussed the updated textbook Mississippi: Conflict and Change: A New Edition (here). To watch more of these great “History is Lunch” sessions, go here.
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Here is a two-minute excerpt from an awesome Prince discussion with poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis, author of The Lyrics of Prince: A Literary Look at a Creative, Music Poet, Philosopher, and Storyteller, and the wonderful Dr. Megan Holt, Director of the New Orleans Words and Music Festival. If you enjoy those two minutes, here is the link to the entire conversation that was part of a week-long masterclass on Prince that was taught by C Liegh at 100 Men Hall in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, which is a perfect place to conduct a masterclass on Prince, especially one in which Prince is rooted firmly in the tradition of black music. From 1922 to the late 60s, 100 Men Hall was one of the major stops on the Chitlin’ Circuit between New Orleans and Natchez, Mississippi, and up to Jackson, Clarksdale, and then, of course, Memphis. In short, if you were a famous black performer between 1922 and the late 60s, you played the 100 Men Hall, including Ray Charles, James Brown, Etta James, Big Joe Turner, Guitar Slim, Irma Thomas, Professor Longhair, Ernie K-Doe, James Booker, Deacon John, Earl King, and numerous others. Doc Holt and C Liegh talk all things Prince from race to gender to lyrics to music to the importance of b-sides and more. We hope y’all enjoy the talk as much as those in attendance did and feel free to share it with anyone y’all think will enjoy it. Also, here is the link to the 3-minute video of testimonials from some of the students who attended the week-long Prince Masterclass. Next, thanks to Racheal Dangermond, Director of 100 Men Hall, for moving mountains to make the class possible. (Here is a link to Dangermond appearing on a local Bay St. Louis station to promote the class.)
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Poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis has two poems, “Free-the-Land Man [for Chokwe Lumumba] (here)” and “Yes He Did [for Obama] (here),” and an essay, “My Pop’s Retirement [for Work Well Done] (here),” in Merge Literary Magazine’s special issue “Celebrating Black Men: 2025 Special Edition,” Summer 2025. Kudos to the editors, Mari Rice and Malkia M’Buzi Moore, for compiling so many well-crafted writers for this issue, including Opal Moore, Alice Lovelace, RaShell Smith-Spears, Jacquese Armstrong, Tamara J. Madison, Tony Medina, Charlie R. Braxton, and many more. To see the cover, go here, to read the poetry, go here, to read the short stories and essays, go here, and to read the writer bios, go here.
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Poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis joined noted sociologist and African-American history professor Dr. Charity Clay aka Professor Fresh on African World Order, which is hosted by emcee and Jackson, Mississippi, community organizer, Skipp Coon aka Joecephus Martin, to discuss NBA players’ slander of Memphis and Sinners. Their discussion of the slander of Memphis involved a discussion of the anti-political black athlete and is at the beginning of their discussion, which can be seen here. Their discussion of Sinners included Brother Skipp citing various points in C Liegh’s analysis of film and them discussing Sinners, point by point and scene by scene to provide an artistic and sociopolitical analysis of the film, which y’all can watch here.
To learn more about emcee and community organizer Skipp, here is a link to a great interview with him on Black Liberation Media. Here is a link Skipp’s song, “Color Complex,” and here is the link to “Women, Revolution, and Tennis Shoes,” both from his first album Women, Revolution, and Tennis Shoes. His work with various community organizing agencies, such as Fahrenheit Creative Group and being an Ashe Leaders Fellow (here), shows that his artistry is a reflection of the real life he’s living. To learn more about Skipp and his work, go here and here, and to watch more great discussions on African World Order, go here.
Dr. Clay is an emcee and Former D1 basketball player who, after an injury, pivoted to teach financial literacy and the lingering effects of racial trauma and healing. She’s currently a Professor at Rhodes College, and y’all can learn more about her research and teaching here and here. And, here’s a great brief documentary about Doc Clay titled Who Is Professor Fresh?
Finally, to remind folks why we should see, discuss, and celebrate Sinners as much as possible, here is the link to C Liegh’ analysis of the film. And, to celebrate Coogler’s love letter to the blues as a primary carrier and protector of African-American culture, here is a link to Playing for Change’s cover of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads,” featuring many of the Mississippi blues masters keeping the blues alive today with musicians and singers across the globe whose art has been greatly impacted by the blues.
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Poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis has a poem and two essays (“Eshu’s Post-Dated Poem,” “The Mythological People of Color Coalition,” and “‘This or That?’: Voting for Vice President Kamala Harris Despite Democratic Debacle and Cowardice”) published in a newly released anthology, Donald Trump’s Second Coming—Is Democracy Dead, Dying or Alive: An Anthology of North American Writers and African Writers, Vol 4., edited by Tendai Mwanaka. The collection features stories, poetry, essays, plays, fiction, mixed genres, songs, and visual art of writers from Africa and North America, discussing President Agent Orange’s impact on American democracy, global democracy, and the reaction and resistance to it. Other noted American writers included in the collection are Mississippi native, poet, playwright, editor, and cultural critic Charlie R. Braxton, who has two essays in the collection, and New York native, poet, editor, and arts activist Bob McNeal, who has four poems included. In total, the collection has seven essays, two short stories, ten artworks, and twenty-eight poems from writers and artists from Africa and North America. For more information or to purchase a copy, go here.
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Dr. John Zheng’s interview of poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis has been published in African American Review (57.2), which is cited and archived online here by Project Muse. And, here is the link to purchase the issue. To subscribe to ARR, go here. To order a copy of this issue (57.2) by phone, 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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Here, here, and here are pictures and video from the 55th Gibbs-Green Commemoration to memorialize the 1970 attack on Jackson State University 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. The photos include many of the speakers, including Mrs. Dale Gibbs—the wife of Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, Ms. Gloria Green McCray—the sister of James Earl Green, JSU Interim President Dr. Denise Jones Gregory, State Representative Zakiya Summers, James “Lap” Baker—JSU Class of 1970, Nadia Wright—Award-winning youth poet, C Liegh McInnis—poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar, and Dr. Robert Luckett—Director of the JSU Margaret Walker Alexander Center. Finally, props to Doc Luckett for accepting the baton from Dr. Jean “Jughead” Young and never wavering from his promise to keep this essential moment in Mississippi and American history ever-present so that all will know what happened, why it happened, and how Jackson State University and its community survived and thrived through the worst that Jim Crow and the neo-Confederates could muster. Additionally, BVC Films has an agreement with the Gibbs family to produce a six-part limited TV series, Blood on the Books, based on Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, which will also feature James Earl Green and others associated with the event. It’s great to know that BVC Films has been in talks with Doc Luckett through JSU Communications about getting story right, the possibility of filming on campus, and speaking with others who lived this event for even more research. For more about this, go here.
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Valley Voices, vol. 25, No. 1 (Spring 2025), “River and Land: The Mississippi Delta,” issue, edited by Dr. John Zheng—Chair of the Mississippi Valley State University English Department, is available, and it is a fantastic issue. The poetry contains contributions from Claude Wilkinson, Sterling D. Plumpp, Larry D. Thomas, George Drew, Philip C. Kolin, C. T. Salazar, Michelle McMillan-Holifield, and two new works celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Jerry W. Ward by Charlie R. Braxton and C Liegh McInnis. There are also vivid essays on the land of Mississippi by Hermine Pinson and John Zheng, insightful criticism by John J. Han and Allison Wiltshire, beautiful photography by Claude Wilkinson and J. Guaner, and intriguing fiction by Jack Crocker and Dick Daniels. 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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If y’all missed poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis’ 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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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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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. Tian Zhang—Professor of English at Central China Normal University. 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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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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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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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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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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Poet, short story writer, and Prince scholar C Liegh McInnis was 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 C Liegh’s work as a Prince scholar and engages a few things that he hasn’t discussed regarding his work on Prince. One of the coolest parts of the interview is that C Liegh got to shout out Prince scholar Harold Pride about midway through the interview and that he 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. So, if y’all feel so inclined, locate and checkout his tweet about the interview as well. We hope y’all enjoy the interview and, as always, feel free to respond 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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Every Monday at 6:30 p.m., Afrikan Art Gallery & Bookstore (1036 Charles Evers Blvd, Jackson, MS) 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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Each Saturday, 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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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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The last Saturday of every month, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m., Mississippi Writer’s Guild and Mississippi Songwriter’s Alliance partner for writer’s meeting and workshop at The Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience (The MAX). Whether songwriter, poet, author, all writers are welcome. This is a time for writers to network and write together and have breakout sessions. Every writer is welcome to participate because we inspire each other. For more information, go here.
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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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Cave Canem, one of the most important organizations in the development and nurturing of black poets, has announced its spring/summer events schedule. To see the full schedule, go here. And, for more information about Cave Canem, visit their website here.
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The Louisiana/Mississippi Branch of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators will host a few events in January. For full details, go here.
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January 16, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. in the Jackson State University Rose McCoy Auditorium, the Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander Center will facilitate its 58th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Birthday Convocation, which will feature a keynote by historian and Tougaloo College Provost Dr. Daphne Chamberlain and include words from JSU administrators and special guest, as well as performances from the JSU Chorale. Immediately following the Convocation in the JSU Student Center Ballroom A will be the annual For My People Awards Luncheon in which Dr. Chamberlain, Mississippi Representative Zakiya Summers, former MS Representative Alyce Clarke, and the Mississippi Humanities Council will be honored. The MLK Convocation is free and open to the public, and to purchase tickets for the For My People Awards Luncheon, contact mwa@jsums.edu, (601) 979-3935, or go here.
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Flip The Script Publishing is honored to announce Darling Nikki, a forthcoming anthology of creative works celebrating the life, legacy, and revolutionary spirit of literary icon Nikki Giovanni. FTSP invites writers, artists, and creators to submit work inspired by or dedicated to Giovanni’s influence, impact, and brilliance. This anthology will be released in April 2026 in recognition of National Poetry Month, with both digital and print editions. They welcome original creative works as well as previously published pieces, provided the contributor retains the rights to grant non-exclusive publication. All submissions should engage with Nikki Giovanni’s legacy in meaningful, imaginative, or unexpected ways. Submissions may explore themes such as: black joy, activism and social justice, love, intimacy, and tenderness, cultural memory and community, resistance and liberation, creativity, art-making, and literary influence, personal or artistic reflections connected to Giovanni’s work or life. Acceptable submission categories include: poetry, essays/creative nonfiction, short stories, photographs, and original artwork/illustrations. Submission Limits: Contributors may submit one written or visual piece. Written submissions may include accompanying artwork or photography. For written works: submit (poetry, essays, stories) as a .doc, .docx, or PDF file. Use a readable font (e.g., Times New Roman, Garamond, or Calibri) in 12 pt. Prose should be double-spaced; poetry may follow the poet’s formatting. Poetry: One poem only, up to 2 pages or no more than 60 lines (excluding the title). Prose (essays, stories): Up to 1,500 words. Include your name and the title of the piece. If the work was previously published, please note the original publication details on the cover page. For visual works (photography, artwork), submit images as high-resolution JPG or PNG files (300 dpi preferred). Please include a brief description or artist statement (up to 150 words). If previously published, include original publication information. For cover Page / Artist Bio, include a separate document with the following: full name (and pen name if applicable), a short bio (up to 100 words), contact email, social media handles(s) and/or website address, titles of submitted works, and indicate whether each piece is original or previously published. For rights & compensation, contributors retain full copyright to their work. By submitting, contributors grant Flip The Script Publishing the non-exclusive right to publish the piece in the Darling Nikki digital and print editions, as well as promotional materials related to the anthology. This includes previously published works for which the contributor holds the necessary rights. Contributors will be notified of acceptance decisions by February 2026. Nikki Giovanni’s work is a blueprint of liberation, imagination, and radical love. FTSP welcomes your voice, your vision, and your homage as we uplift her legacy together. The deadline to submit is January 18, 2026. For additional assistance, go here and contact info@flipthescriptpublishing.com.
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The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing is now accepting fellowship applications for its Summer Writers’ Conference, which offers a deep dive into fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction with award-winning poets and authors. The conference includes generative seminars, evening readings, panel discussions, and individualized manuscript sessions. MVICW is committed to supporting writers from all backgrounds, abilities, and genres. Their Fellowships are aimed to support BIPOC writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, parent-writers, teachers & educators, caregivers, and emerging poets and authors. Full fellowships include registration, lodging, and a manuscript session at the MVICW 2026 Summer Writers’ Conference. MVICW was founded with a belief that a supportive, creative, and nourishing community is essential for a successful writing life. Their mission is to give writers at all stages of their careers the opportunity to reconnect on a deep level with their writing practice, to believe in the work they do, and to build a vibrant network of writers. MVIC believes in teaching compassion not competition, creative help not hierarchy, and offering the tools to heal your Inner Critic so that you can go on to produce the most powerful, creative, and life-changing work of which you’re capable. The deadline to apply is January 19, 2026, and the conference will be May 24 – 30 and June 14 – 20. For more information, contact Alexander Weinstein director@mvicw.com or go here.
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The Mississippi Philological Association is accepting proposals for its 2026 annual meeting hosted by William Carey University. MPA 2026 welcomes proposals in creative writing, critical discussions of literature, film, and music, and pedagogical approaches to linguistics and the humanities. While the 2026 meeting continues the tradition of an open call for papers from a wide range of topics, this year’s meeting will continue the new tradition of adopting a theme and two featured panels that will be comprised of relevant submissions from the open call for papers. MPA 2026 is especially interested in presentations that address the meeting theme: looking forward, looking back in works of regional and southern literature, especially in the works of Mississippi writers. Mississippi writers of interest might include (but is not limited to): William Faulkner, Jerry W. Ward, Jesmyn Ward, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, Hubert Creekmore, John Grisham, Catherine Lacey, Donna Tartt, Barry Hannah, Margaret Walker, Willie Morris, Katy Simpson Smith, Thomas Harris, Kiese Laymon, Larry Brown, Ellen Douglas, Richard Ford, Jim Whitehead, Chris Offutt, Beth Henley, Tennessee Williams, Tom Franklin, Beth Ann Fennelly, C. T. Salazar, Thomas Richardson, W. Ralph Eubanks, Steve Yarborough, Exodus Brownlow, and so many more. How does the literature from Mississippi’s past still shape writing in the present? What does the future of literature from Mississippi look like? Where does it (and where should it) go next? In honor of this theme, the keynote speaker will be Ted Atkinson, editor of the Mississippi Quarterly. The deadline to submit is January 20, 2026. To obtain a proposal form, go here, and for any other questions, contact Lorie Massey at lmassey@wmcarey.edu.
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January 22, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. EST, Joesph Patri Brown will read from and discuss his book, The Image They Had Painted, which details the experiences of Mississippi’s most disenfranchised and marginalized people, those living on death row. After more than thirty years of flailing in the murky whirlpools of the criminal justice system, Joesph Patri Brown uses any lifeline available to seek a better quality and quantity of life upon these troubled waters. Across 18 memoir vignettes and five poems, Brown offers a sharp critique of a system that insists he should be caged—and ultimately killed. His intimate reflections refuse the logics that render certain lives expendable, exposing the death penalty not as justice, but as a sustained practice of state violence. Language becomes here an act of resistance, testimony, and care. This online launch will feature readings by Brown, followed by a conversation with him, collaborators, advocates, and publishers whose work is deeply entangled with abolitionist struggle and collective care:
* Alison Turner, The GOAT PoL
* Sonia Preisler, Publication Studio Guelph
* Curtis Walker, Publication Studio Guelph
* Liz McCann, Humans Remain
* Lauren Rhoades, Rooted
The Image They Had Painted insists that stories from death row belong not at the margins, but at the center of our moral and political reckoning. They invite you to join them for an evening of celebration, listening, witnessing, and solidarity. For more information and to register for the event, go here or contact Dr. Alison Turner at alison.nmn.turner@gmail.com. Additionally, to read Joesph Patri Brown’s monthly column, “Chronicles from Parchman,” go here.
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January 22 – 25, 2026, Women for Progress of Mississippi will curate “Celebrating Our Foundations. Defining Our Future: A Weekend of Leadership, Legacy, and Progress Presented by Women for Progress of MS, Inc.” to celebrate leadership, legacy, and the power of women. Through high-impact workshops, meaningful conversations, and the prestigious Woman of the Year 2025 Luncheon, Women for Progress continues its purpose-driven mission: to increase the economic, educational, civic, and social advancement of women and families throughout Mississippi. This year’s celebration holds special significance as WFPM honor the birthday of its beloved founder, Mrs. Dorothy Stewart Samuel, whose vision continues to anchor our work. Mrs. Samuel’s leadership laid the foundation for an organization that has served as a statewide catalyst for empowering women, strengthening families, and shaping policy for nearly five decades. As WFPM celebrate her life on January 25, they also celebrate the countless lives her legacy has touched across our communities. The Leadership Weekend will feature a series of powerful workshops and events designed to empower and inspire women at every stage of their leadership journey. For more information, go here and here.
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January 23, 2026, The Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience (The MAX) will host a captivating night of jazz with Rodrick D. Fox and Krista Overby. For more information, go here.
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January 23 – 24, 2026, to celebrate and mark the close of its exhibit, Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight, join Mississippi Museum of Art, (MMA) for a two-day program that explores community building in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s–70s and its legacies today. Visiting artists and scholars will contribute to insightful discussions about the history of Kenkeleba House—a New York arts center co-founded by Joe Overstreet in 1974 to support African American artists—and Southern cultural producers will connect this history to Black-led arts organizations currently active in Jackson. Day one will include a conversation with artists Odili Donald Odita and Mary Lovelace O’Neal on their personal experiences working with Overstreet and Kenkeleba House, moderated by MMA Associate Curator of Exhibitions, Kaegan Sparks. There will also be a panel discussion on Kenkeleba House’s history with art historians Josie Roland Hodson, PhD candidate at Yale University; Abbe Schriber, Asst. Professor at the University of South Carolina; and Alexandra M. Thomas, Asst. Professor at Fordham University; moderated by Maya Harakawa, Asst. Professor at the University of Toronto. Day two will include an intergenerational panel discussion with Jackson’s arts community organizers, past and present. This discussion is co-organized with Gus Daniels-Washington of JXNOLOGY; 2025 Mississippi Invitational artist and cultural producer Christina McField of The WoodGrain Studio; Alexis Noble of Vibe Studio JXN; and Wendy Shenefelt of Alternate ROOTS. For more information, go here and here.
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January 29, 2026, The Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience (The MAX) will host a conversation and book signing with Mississippi historian and award-winning author Jere Nash about his new book, Reconstruction in Mississippi. Nash will be in conversation with John Spann, historian and inaugural member of the curatorial team for the Two Mississippi Museums, about how this period shaped American culture as we know it and lessons from Reconstruction for today. For more information, go here.
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International Micro-Story Contest is now accepting submissions. With the fundamental premise that the word should serve as a tool for coexistence among cultures, religions, and different ideologies, the International Micro-Story Contest promotes respect and mutual understanding through short literary expression. The first prize — €20,000 for the winning story — makes it the highest-paid literary contest per word in the world. Additionally, three runner-up prizes of €2,000 each will be awarded to the best stories written in each of the contest’s accepted languages, provided they have not won the overall prize. Participants may submit up to three stories, each with a maximum length of 100 words, counted in Spanish. Please note that, due to differences in syntax and character usage, stories in other languages may slightly exceed this limit. For more information and to submit, see the calendar of events below. Submission deadline is January 31, 2026. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at: info@fundacioncesaregidoserrano.com. Participation is exclusively through the official entry form, available at: https://www.fundacioncesaregidoserrano.com/en/.
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January 31, 2026, Mississippi Museum of Art will hold its signature fundraiser, ART PARTY, co-chaired by Walton Fenelon Lane and Christina McRae. This year’s theme, A Floral Fête, will transform the Museum into a living canvas with breathtaking floral installations inspired by works in MMA’s collection. Guests will enjoy an unforgettable evening filled with live music by Even Odds, an exciting silent auction of extraordinary works of art, floral-inspired cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres from favorite local restaurants. As a sponsor, your support provides vital funding for the Museum’s exhibitions, innovative educational programs, and community outreach initiatives—ensuring that MMA continues to be a cultural cornerstone for Mississippi and beyond. Explore sponsorship levels and benefits and sign up today. For more information and to donate, go here.
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February 5, 2026, Rooted Magazine editor Lauren Rhoades will talk with Dr. W. Ralph Eubanks’ about his latest work, When It’s Darkness on the Delta: How America’s Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land, during an online discussion as part of the Rooted Magazine Bottom Reader Book Club. In anticipation of this discussion, Rooted Magazine has published “Casino Lights: On the Promise—and failure—of Casino Gambling to Lift Tunica, Mississippi, from Poverty (here),” an excerpt from Eubanks’ When It’s Darkness on the Delta, which can be purchased here. To read Rooted’s earlier interview with Olive Branch, Mississippi, native Eubanks, go here, For more information about the Rooted Magazine Bottom Reader Book Club, go here.
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The Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC) is launching Witness: The Freedom Memory Project, a statewide initiative inviting applications to create new sites of memory that preserve and share the local history of the Civil Rights Movement and the broader struggle for freedom in Mississippi. MHC is inviting applications from communities across the state to participate in this exciting new initiative. Witness: The Freedom Memory Project builds on the Council’s longstanding work to preserve the history of the state’s freedom struggle. Working closely with community partners, artists, and historians, MHC will collaborate with communities to design and implement projects that could include:
· Public art installations or monuments
· Mississippi Freedom Trail markers
· Exhibits or local archives
· Digital storytelling and oral history projects
Over the next three years, MHC will partner with four communities per year to design and establish commemorative sites, both physical and virtual, that reflect the stories of local people and places too often left out of the national narrative. Selected communities will host public engagement meetings by a skilled facilitator, to elicit and develop local ideas and community support. Each selected community will receive direct project support to carry out their vision. Communities will also be encouraged to apply to the MHC for grant support for public programs related to their project. The deadline is March 1, 2026. For more information contact MHC Director of Strategic Initiatives John Spann (jspann@mhc.state.ms.us) and see the calendar of events below for deadline.
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The Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander Center invites proposals for papers, presentations, and panels for the 20th Annual Creative Arts & Scholarly Engagement (CASE) Festival, which will feature a keynote address by award-winning poet Dr. Evie Shockley, Director of Creative Writing and Writers and the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. The theme of the 2026 CASE Festival will be “The Black Experience in the American South,” but the organizers welcome proposals from high school, undergraduate, and graduate students on any topic.
Proposal submissions should be 250 words, include a title and name of the participant’s school, and should fit in one of four categories:
Poetry/Spoken Word (10-15-minute presentations in original storytelling or poetry, including brief comments about inspiration &/or form of the work), Visual Arts (up to 3 pieces of artwork in any media with 10-minute presentations)
Written (8- to 10-page essays with 20-minute presentations)
Performing Arts (10-minute dance, musical, and theatrical presentations)
In the case of panel proposals, please submit the names of the participants, a brief synopsis of the panel’s topic, and summaries of individual paper or presentation proposals. To submit a proposal, please complete our online form or send a document in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF to mwa@jsums.edu. For more information, contact the Margaret Walker Center (mwa@jsums.edu or 601-979-3935) or the Conference Coordinator, Dr. Robert Luckett (robert.luckett@jsums.edu). Proposals must be submitted by Friday, March 6, 2026.
Note that the best essay by a JSU student on the “Black experience in the American South” will receive the $1,000 Margaret Walker Alexander Annual Award. Submissions for the MWA Annual Award can be in various forms, including literary analysis, creative writing, research paper, biographical study, autobiography, and historical study. JSU students who would like to be considered for this award must submit their 8- to 10-page essays by March 31, 2026. The JSU MWA Center CASE Festival will also present the annual $500 Doris Derby Visual Arts and Social Justice Award to a student at any level from any institution whose contribution best reflects this year’s CASE Festival theme in the category of visual arts, including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, and crafts. Students must drop off their artwork to the JSU Art Department in Johnson Hall by March 31, 2026. To win either award, students must present their written or visual pieces at the CASE Festival and attend the closing awards ceremony, where all winners will be announced. Winners for all awards will be announced during the Closing Ceremony for the 2026 CASE Festival.
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March 11 – 14, 2026, the National Council for Black Studies (NCBS) will celebrate the 50th convening of its annual national conference. This year’s theme, “uMkhonto weSizwe (Tip of the Spear): Black Studies as Uncompromising Liberation,” concerns Black Studies’ fight against the current attack on the history and culture of African descended peoples. Black Studies as an academic discipline was founded by activist-intellectuals who sought to use the resources of academic and professional institutions to diagnose and solve problems of communities in the African diaspora. The history of Black Studies demands that Black Studies respond to the current assault by continuing to advocate and organize with Black and other oppressed communities to preserve and expound upon our humanity and agency. The conference seeks conversations that both explore and inspire the continued advocacy of Black Studies and the continued fight for our freedom in America. For more information, go here.
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Through March 19, 2026, Cecelia Moseley’s Remnants of Language exhibit has been extended to display at The Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience (The MAX) through spring. Lyrical steel curves, splashes of bright color, and provocative questions about barriers to understanding combine in as Remnants of Language transforms the gallery into an immersive, deeply personal experience on display through. Oversized metal sculptures, prints, and a vivid acrylic installation invite you to consider what remains—and what is lost—when digital communication replaces handwriting. Meridian native Cecelia Moseley poses powerful questions: As we move forward, what traces remain? How are we adapting? What parts of us are changing? For more information, go here.
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March 20 – 21, 2026, the Mississippi Philological Association will hold its 2026 annual meeting hosted by William Carey University. The conference will feature creative writing, critical discussions of literature, film, and music, pedagogical approaches to linguistics and the humanities, including presentations that address the meeting theme: looking forward, looking back in works of regional and southern literature, especially in the works of Mississippi writers, such as William Faulkner, Jerry W. Ward, Jesmyn Ward, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, Hubert Creekmore, John Grisham, Catherine Lacey, Donna Tartt, Barry Hannah, Margaret Walker, Willie Morris, Katy Simpson Smith, Thomas Harris, Kiese Laymon, Larry Brown, Ellen Douglas, Richard Ford, Jim Whitehead, Chris Offutt, Beth Henley, Tennessee Williams, Tom Franklin, Beth Ann Fennelly, C. T. Salazar, Thomas Richardson, W. Ralph Eubanks, Steve Yarborough, Exodus Brownlow, and so many more. In honor of this theme, the keynote speaker will be Ted Atkinson, editor of the Mississippi Quarterly. For more information, contact Lorie Massey at lmassey@wmcarey.edu.
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The Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander Center invites proposals for papers, presentations, and panels for the 20th Annual Creative Arts & Scholarly Engagement (CASE) Festival, which will feature a keynote address by award-winning poet Dr. Evie Shockley, Director of Creative Writing and Writers and the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. The theme of the 2026 CASE Festival will be “The Black Experience in the American South,” but the organizers welcome proposals from high school, undergraduate, and graduate students on any topic.
Note that the best essay by a JSU student on the “Black experience in the American South” will receive the $1,000 Margaret Walker Alexander Annual Award. Submissions for the MWA Annual Award can be in various forms, including literary analysis, creative writing, research paper, biographical study, autobiography, and historical study. JSU students who would like to be considered for this award must submit their 8- to 10-page essays by March 31, 2026. The JSU MWA Center CASE Festival will also present the annual $500 Doris Derby Visual Arts and Social Justice Award to a student at any level from any institution whose contribution best reflects this year’s CASE Festival theme in the category of visual arts, including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, and crafts. Students must drop off their artwork to the JSU Art Department in Johnson Hall by March 31, 2026. To win either award, students must present their written or visual pieces at the CASE Festival and attend the closing awards ceremony, where all winners will be announced. Winners for all awards will be announced during the Closing Ceremony for the 2026 CASE Festival.
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Due to great acclaim, Aquarius Press/Willow Books are pleased to announce a new volume, Black Fire This Time, Volume 3 to be published in 2026. This has become an ongoing series in the spirit of the Black Arts Movement, and they are seeking poems, stories, and essays that speak to, personify, and celebrate the spirit of the Black Arts Movement. The deadline to submit is March 31, 2026. For more information and to submit, go here. (To purchase Volume 1 and 2, go here.) Along with this call, Aquarius Press/Willow Books have three new projects as well. Black Fire This Time Radio—a channel dedicated to Black Fire This Time with interviews and readings—will debut on September 1, 2025, on YouTube. Black Fire This Time Authors Series is a new project by Aquarius Press/Willow Books to expand to publishing books by their BFTT writers and will include standard publication contract and national readings. Writers can send their work for consideration to aquariuspress@gmail.com. And, finally, The Jerry Ward Collection will be an anthology of the life and legacy of Dr. Jerry Ward, Jr., who was an inspiration to many. Please send recollections and essays here. Please share!
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April 10 – 11, 2026, The Jackson State University Margaret Walker Alexander Center will host the 19th Annual Creative Arts & Scholarly Engagement (CASE) Festival, which will feature a keynote address by award-winning poet Dr. Evie Shockley, Director of Creative Writing and Writers and the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. The JSU MWA CASE Festival will also include poetry/spoken word panels, essay panels, and performing arts panels.
Additionally, the best essay by a JSU student on the “Black experience in the American South” will receive the $1,000 Margaret Walker Alexander Annual Award. And, the JSU MWA Center CASE Festival will present the annual $500 Doris Derby Visual Arts and Social Justice Award to a student at any level from any institution whose contribution best reflects this year’s CASE Festival theme in the category of visual arts, including painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, and crafts. Winners for all awards will be announced during the closing ceremony for the 2025 CASE Festival. For more information, contact the JSU MWA Center (mwa@jsums.edu or 601-979-3935) or the Conference Coordinator, Dr. Robert Luckett—Director of the JSU MWA Center (robert.luckett@jsums.edu) or go here.
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May 24 – 30, 2026, and June 14 – 20, 2026, the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing hold its Summer Writers’ Conference, which offers a deep dive into fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction with award-winning poets and authors. The conference includes generative seminars, evening readings, panel discussions, and individualized manuscript sessions. MVICW is committed to supporting writers from all backgrounds, abilities, and genres. Their Fellowships are aimed to support BIPOC writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, parent-writers, teachers & educators, caregivers, and emerging poets and authors. MVICW was founded with a belief that a supportive, creative, and nourishing community is essential for a successful writing life. Their mission is to give writers at all stages of their careers the opportunity to reconnect on a deep level with their writing practice, to believe in the work they do, and to build a vibrant network of writers. MVIC believes in teaching compassion not competition, creative help not hierarchy, and offering the tools to heal your Inner Critic so that you can go on to produce the most powerful, creative, and life-changing work of which you’re capable. For more information, contact Alexander Weinstein director@mvicw.com or go here.
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September 25 – 27, 2026, Torch Literary Arts, which supports and amplifies Black women writers across the diaspora, will hold its 20-year celebration. To learn more about the upcoming celebration, go here and here, and to learn more about the work of Torch Literary Arts and its magazine, go here.
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