Thoughts about art and community.
I made a short video about the creation of Ingrained Care, a painting inspired a conversation I had in 2019 with Drick Rodgers and Julia Rodgers Clark in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Watch the painting unfold and read the community story that inspired it.
Read MoreI made a short video about the early stages of Cultivation, a painting that’s based on a conversation I had in 2019 with Benjamin Saulsberry, Public Engagement and Museum Education Director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi.
Read More“On May 13, 2021, history was made once again in Marks, Mississippi. After three years of planning and hard work… the Civil Rights Marks Mule Train Interpretive Trail was unveiled to commemorate the 53rd Anniversary of the 1968 Mule Train & Martin Luther King, Jr’s Poor People’s Campaign.
This historic trail showcased eleven markers, displaying the history and activities, which took place fifty-three years ago of Dr. King’s visit to Marks/Quitman County, and earned Marks the duly distinction of being known as the ‘Home of the Mule Train.’ ” Text by Velma Benson-Wilson and Cynthia Goodloe Palmer
Read MoreAs January is for plan-making, and I’m feeling a touch homesick for the Sipp, I thought I’d make a list for, well, pretty much everybody: including all you fellow Mississippians, you Mississippi-appreciators, you adventurous folk always gunnin’ for a road trip, and especially for you folks who’ve never been to Mississippi, but have a lot of preconceived notions about it. :)
Read MorePlease make the acquaintance of Mr. Benjamin Saulsberry, the Public Engagement and Museum Education Director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center (ETIC) in Sumner, Mississippi (pop. 310). I met Benjamin in 2019 during an impromptu trip to Sumner to visit the ETIC, and he was gracious enough to agree to be interviewed a couple months later. Please enjoy a few snippets of our 2019 conversation - lightly edited for clarity.
Read MoreLocated right on the eastern edge of the Mississippi Delta, Tallahatchie (meaning “rock river” in Choctaw) County was originally inhabited by the Choctaw Nation before they were forcibly removed by the US federal government to Oklahoma. In late 2019, I interviewed Benjamin Saulsberry, Public Engagement and Museum Education Director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center (ETIC) in Sumner (pop. 310). I wholeheartedly encourage you to visit their website if you can’t make it to Sumner anytime soon, and support this work anyway you can. And when you do make it to Tallahatchie County, here are a few recommendations for your trip.
Read MoreI asked William Coppage, my old friend and forner director of the Washington County Economic Alliance, to help flesh out a fun weekend in and around Greenville. Here are some of his suggestions, along with my comments.
Read MoreBeing a Mississippian, I was raised among and around the best of the best storytellers, and didn’t appreciate it until I left. Looking back, my brother and I probably should have followed both our parents around with tape recorders to capture their offhanded bits and pieces.
So I made an informal poll and asked fellow ‘Sippians about the weird stuff we say. Their replies are below. I’ll try my best to translate for the rest of y’all. Here goes.
Read MoreA small town of 1800 residents in Quitman County in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, Marks played a big role in the histories of Civil Rights and American music. In June 2019 (which seems like a lifetime ago), I spent time with Mrs. Velma Benson-Wilson, the former Quitman County Administrator and current Director of Tourism and Economic Development for Quitman County, to hear her stories and the history of the area. She also gave me a wonderful list of what to see and do while in Quitman County for a weekend.
Read More“On May 13, 2021, history was made once again in Marks, Mississippi. After three years of planning and hard work… the Civil Rights Marks Mule Train Interpretive Trail was unveiled to commemorate the 53rd Anniversary of the 1968 Mule Train & Martin Luther King, Jr’s Poor People’s Campaign.
This historic trail showcased eleven markers, displaying the history and activities, which took place fifty-three years ago of Dr. King’s visit to Marks/Quitman County, and earned Marks the duly distinction of being known as the ‘Home of the Mule Train.’ ” Text by Velma Benson-Wilson and Cynthia Goodloe Palmer
Read MoreMy awesome intern Paige created this short video about the evolution of Deep Roots, the final painting inspired a conversation I had in 2019 with Drick Rodgers and Julia Rodgers Clark in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.
Read MoreI made a short video about the creation of Ingrained Care, a new painting inspired a conversation I had in 2019 with Drick Rodgers and Julia Rodgers Clark in Rolling Fork, Mississippi.
Read MoreIn early November 2019, I spent a lovely afternoon with Julia Rodgers Clark and Drick Rodgers on their family farm outside of Rolling Fork in Sharkey County, Mississippi. I loved on horses, rode in a cotton picker, peeked into Mont Helena, and listened to remarkable family stories and histories. At 15 people per square mile, Sharkey County is the second most rural county in Mississippi, and is the birthplace of both Muddy Waters and the teddy bear. Read on for a list of what to do, where to stay, what to eat, and where to visit.
Read MoreCreatively, I've been mulling over patterns. Literal and physical patterns in our environment, such as architecture, wallpaper, row crops, as well as cultural patterns. How single motifs or behaviors add up in meaningful ways over the course of a lifetime of a person or a landscape or a community. How we repeat the same societal patterns over and over and over until they become calcified habits in our communities, no matter the cost or damage.
And how change happens in spite of all that.
(You know. Breezy stuff.)
Here's how that's starting to show up on the easel.
Read MoreI can think of no one who’s a better and more generous community-builder than Derek Covington Smith, my friend and fellow artist from Brookhaven, Mississippi.
Case in point…
Read More“Without the foundation of the wheel, it would be difficult to produce movement. It was the wheels of those wagons that propelled the Poor People’s Campaign forward, and those wagon wheels will now be parted permanently along the Mule Train Interpretative Trail”, Katrina Rankin, Emmy Nominee, “The Mule Train: Poor People’s Campaign Continued” Documentary.”
Read MoreI made a short video about the early stages of Cultivation, a new painting still in progress that’s based on a conversation I had in 2019 with Benjamin Saulsberry, Public Engagement and Museum Education Director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi.
Read MoreLocated 20 miles from Oxford, Mississippi, in nearby Yalobusha County, Water Valley (pop. 3325) got its start in the 1800’s as a railroad stop for the Illinois Central Railroad. In the last decade, Water Valley has been home to one the first craft breweries in the state, Fat Possum Records, Violet Valley Bookstore (to date Mississippi’s only queer feminist bookstore), and Base Camp Coding, a free, non-profit software development academy for Mississippi high-school seniors.
Read MoreGuest post by Mrs. Velma Benson-Wilson of Jackson, Tennessee and Marks, Mississippi. Mrs. Benson-Wilson wrote this autobiographical essay in response to a 2013 visit back to her hometown of Marks, Mississippi. Author of What’s in the Water: Fannie, a Legacy of Love, Mrs. Benson-Wilson is currently the Director of the Quitman County Tourism and Economic Development, and was instrumental in the 50th Anniversary of Marks’ Mule Train and Poor People’s Campaign in 2018.
Read MoreBack in September, I left Oxford, Mississippi, to drive to the Delta to rendezvous with some Chinese American friends for their small family homecoming. Kelly and Norman Seid had been classmates of mine, and more so than with any other friends, we had kept up with one another, some years better than others. Norman had been a year ahead of Kelly and me, the class of 1971, and Norman had been student body president.
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