Spring SouthTalks Series Continues Focus on Southern Environments

SouthTalks is a series of events exploring the interdisciplinary nature of Southern studies. All events are free to the public and take place in the Barnard Observatory Tupelo Room, unless otherwise noted.

"I am excited about the upcoming spring SouthTalks events because we are featuring community members, filmmakers, photographers, writers, artists, UM alumni, and current and former faculty," said Afton Thomas, the center's associate director for programs.

"I have enjoyed working with Southern studies graduate students Greta Koshenina and Sela Ricketts, who each chose a speaker who aligned with our theme of Southern environments. Our events include film screenings, book talks and stunning photography in the Gammill Gallery, and topics range from Gullah/Geechee Muslims to food as inspiration to a discussion on how the South's environmental history has shaped individual and collective behaviors."

The spring series begins at noon Jan. 29 when quilter and textile artist Coulter Fussell presents a slide show surveying the development of artworks she sews at her Water Valley studio.

"My usage of crowd-sourced textiles has very recently expanded to include crowd-sourced photography and video from Snapchat," said Fussell, a 2000 Ole Miss graduate with a bachelor's in fine art. "My Yalobusha County teenage sons are the sourcing conduit.

"This has opened up a new society as subjects into my work: rural youth. I think some of the university students might relate."

Fussell was born and raised in Columbus, Georgia, an old textile town. She is the youngest of her family's quilters, hailing from generations of seamstresses and quilters. She has exhibited at galleries across the country, and her works are in the permanent collections of the Columbus Museum of Art and the Mississippi Museum of Art.

Former Mississippi Rep. Steve Holland and Katie McKee, director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, will join Rex Jones, a former SouthDocs producer and assistant professor of broadcast and digital journalism at Mississippi State University, for a screening of his documentary "Jesus Was a Democrat" at 4 p.m. Jan. 30.

The film follows Holland, a Lee County funeral home operator and Southern studies alumnus, as he approaches the end of his colorful 36-year tenure in the Legislature. After the film, McKee will discuss with Holland how he navigated intersecting environments: politics, his work at the funeral home and his decision later in life to pursue a Southern studies degree.

At 6 p.m. Feb. 6, award-winning documentarian Elaine McMillion Sheldon will screen "King Coal." The film explores the complex history and future of the coal industry, the communities it has shaped and the myths it has created.

Sheldon is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker based in Appalachia. Her presentation is part of the Visiting Documentarian Series, made possible in part by the Berkley Hudson Visiting Documentarian Fund.

Marc Aidinoff, incoming assistant professor of the history of technology at Harvard University, presents "Computers, Welfare and Southern Politics: The Technological Environments of Government in Mississippi" at 4 p.m. Feb. 11. Aidinoff explores what government looks like when it becomes computerized and how the expectations of citizenship change as a result.

Moving from 1970 to the present, he will trace the changing politics, practices and technological environments of Mississippi government by examining the computers that help the state function. His presentation shows how questions of race, gender and poverty became coded as technical choices of program administration.

At noon Feb. 12, Oxford attorney, environmentalist, speaker and writer Heather McTeer Toney will discuss how the South's environmental history – ranging from agriculture to extractive industries – has shaped individual and collective behaviors.

In 2004 at age 27, Toney became the first Black, first female and youngest mayor elected in Greenville. She serves as executive director for the Beyond Petrochemicals Campaign.

Ole Miss professor Kariann Fuqua will moderate a conversation with Vanessa Charlot and Brooke White, two artists featured in Southern Cultures magazine's "Snapshot: Climate" at 4 p.m. Feb. 20. The magazine published "Snapshot: Climate" in fall 2023, featuring photographs and reflections from artists, activists, photojournalists and scientists to provide a "snapshot" of climate impacts across the South.

The feature became a traveling exhibit of 25 photographs from the issue. It will be open in the Gammill Gallery in Barnard Observatory through Feb. 28.

Charlot is an award-winning photographic artist, filmmaker and assistant professor of media and communication in the UM School of Journalism and New Media. White is director of the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois.

Robin Whitfield presents "Art in Barnard" at noon March 5. Whitfield is a Mississippi artist dedicated to connecting with nature and helping others do the same.

She will discuss her art practice and the mission of her nonprofit, Friends of Chakchiuma Swamp. Weather permitting, Whitfield invites all attendees to join a 30-minute workshop using wild pigments at 1 p.m., immediately following her talk.

Sam Pollard continues the Visiting Documentarian Series when he screens his film "Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power" at 6 p.m. March 19 in Meek Hall Auditorium.

The documentary uses first-person accounts and searing archival footage to tell the story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organizers who fought not only for voting rights but also for Black power in Lowndes County, Alabama.

Tyler Yarbrough and Justin Hardiman present "Rootswell & SOIL: Reimagining Community through Food, Art and Stories of the Mississippi Delta" at noon March 26. Rootswell is a growing movement in the Mississippi Delta, uniting farmers, chefs, corner stores, farmers markets and creatives to transform the region's food landscape.

In this SouthTalk, the organizers discuss revitalizing a Clarksdale neighborhood through initiatives such as a reimagined corner store, community murals and programs that connect families to fresh produce.

Ole Miss professor Matt O'Neal presents "Making the Appalachian South in Black and White" at noon April 9. O'Neal, an assistant professor of history and Southern studies, will outline the creation of the Appalachian region in the late 19th century and explain how it came prepackaged with assumptions about its racial and ethnic makeup.

Muhammad Fraser-Rahim will discuss his findings about a previously understudied community for his book "Gullah Geechee Muslims in America: Exploring Islamic Identity in the African Diaspora" at noon April 16. The book presents a unique and significant contribution to religious studies, Africana studies and anthropology by shedding light on the Gullah/Geechee community and culture.

Fraser-Rahim is an associate professor at The Citadel military college in South Carolina.

Poet Crystal Wilkinson will discuss her memoir, "Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Food, Place and the Ancestors," at noon April 23. This talk, co-sponsored by the Southern Foodways Alliance, will explore how food functions as inspiration, as a tie to one's past and as an important marker of cultural identity.

Wilkinson also has written a collection of poems and three works of fiction. She was Kentucky's poet laureate from 2021 to 2023 and teaches creative writing at the University of Kentucky.

At noon April 30, Jade A. Craig presents "'Pigs in the Parlor': The Legacy of Racial Zoning and Its Impact on Land Use Policies in the South." In this SouthTalk, Craig, UM assistant professor of law, argues that racial zoning should be understood not merely as a historical moment in land-use policy but as an enduring logic and metaphor.

Heidi Siegrist explores literature that imagines building queer Southern community through food at 4 p.m. May 1. Siegrist's book, "All Y'all: Queering Southernness in U.S. Fiction, 1980-2020," explores the boundaries of place and sexuality.

This event is co-sponsored by the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies and is part of Oxford Pride Week.

The series concludes at 6 p.m. May 2 with the annual spring documentary showcase, a celebration of the work of Southern studies documentary students.

For assistance relating to a disability, contact Afton Thomas at amthoma4@olemiss.edu or call 662-915-5993. Click here for information about all events.

Top: Vanessa Charlot's photograph 'Picking Cotton Dreams' is part of a traveling exhibit of climate change images in the Barnard Observatory Tupelo Room through Feb. 28. Charlot, an award-winning photographic artist, filmmaker and assistant professor of media and communication at the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media, will discuss the 'Snapshot: Climate' exhibit with Brooke White in a SouthTalk moderated by Kariann Fuqua at 4 p.m. Feb. 20. Photo by Vanessa Charlot