Arts & Lecture Series

Tuesday, September 14, 2010
H.C. Porter and David Rae Morris
A Katrina Perspective

Award-winning artist H.C. Porter and photojournalist/documentarian David Rae Morris will present their unique portrayals of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

Porter's mixed media incorporating photography, printmaking, and painting formed the focus of her traveling exhibition, "Backyards & Beyond: Mississippians and Their Stories - The First Year After Katrina," and the basis for her book of the same title.

Morris' exhibit "Wake of the Flood: Katrina at Five" documents the city of New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Katrina's landfall and five years later.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Will Kimbrough, David Womack and Eric Stracener

Alabama native Will Kimbrough, songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, is currently touring the US and Europe in support of his newest CD, Wings.

Jackson native David Womack is an ASCAP award-winning songwriter/publisher who received a Parents' Choice Award for his children's CD, Hold Your Nose When You Swallow a Goat.

Eric Stracener, a Jackson lawyer, was voted Best Singer/Songwriter in Jackson in 2007 and 2008. He has produced two CDs, Sockeye and The Trickbag.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Jere Nash and Andy Taggart
Reflection on the Election

Mississippi's resident liberal/conservative writers and commentators will discuss the November 2010 elections. Jere Nash and Andy Taggart will analyze the elections and speak about what the results mean for the 2011 elections in Mississippi.

Nash, a self employed consultant, served as chief of staff for former Mississippi Governor Ray Mabus. Taggart, a lawyer, was chief of staff for Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice.

Monday, December 6, 2010
Alex Heard and Stokes McMillan
Southern Writers

Mississippi natives Alex Heard, author of The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South, and Stokes McMillan, author of One Night of Madness, will discuss their books that are set in the South during the civil rights struggles.

A special guest will be James Harris, survivor of the one night of madness McMillan described. Dr. Charles Sallis, emeritus professor of history at Millsaps College, will moderate.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Amy Evans Streeter
The Stories Behind Southern Food

Amy Streeter is the oral historian for Southern Foodways Alliance, a member-supported organization of more than 800 chefs, academics, writers, and foodies that studies and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the changing American South. SFA stages events, produces documentary films, publishes stories, and documents and maps our region's culinary standard bearers through oral history interviews.

Streeter will show two of SFA's short documentaries: "Smokes and Ears" about Jackson's Big Apple Inn on Farish Street, and "Rolling Tamales on M.L.K.," and talk about her trips to pig lots in Cajun Country and oyster skiffs in Apalachicola Bay.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Alice Rybak and Susan Grace
Quattro Mani, Duo Pianists

Pianists Alice Rybak and Susan Grace formed Quattro Mani in 1989 and have performed throughout the USA, Europe, and Asia. The duo's special interest is in 20th and 21st century repertoire.

Rybak is chair of the Keyboard Department and director of the Accompanying Program at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music. Grace is artist-in-residence and lecturer in music at Colorado College, musical director of the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and artistic director of the New Music Symposium.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Alan Lange, Tom Dawson and Curtis Wilkie
Traditional Media vs. New Media

Authors Alan Lange, Tom Dawson, and Curtis Wilkie will discuss the status of traditional media and new media and how new media such as blogs and radio talk shows affect public issues.

Lange is an entrepreneur in Jackson and runs YallPolitics.com, a political interest website in Mississippi. Dawson, who retired in 2009 after 36 years as a lawyer with the Department of Justice, was the lead prosecutor in the Dickie Scruggs bribery case. Lange and Dawson co-authored Kings of Tort about the Scruggs case. Wilkie is an award-winning journalist and associate professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi. He wrote The Fall of the House of Zeus, also about the Scruggs scandal.

Sid Salter, Perspective Editor at The Clarion-Ledger, will moderate.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Martha Foose
A Southerly Course: Traveling Foodways Close to Home

Gifted chef and storyteller Martha Hall Foose, born and reared in Mississippi, cooks southern food with a contemporary flair. Her book, Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, is a must read for anyone who craves a return to what cooking is all about: comfort, company, and good eating. Her second cookbook, A Southerly Course: Stories and Recipes from Close to Home, is scheduled to be released in April 2011.

Foose, a former head chef for Viking Cooking School, will prepare a dish on stage and provide the audience with the recipe and class notes.