University of Mississippi doctoral student Ted J. Smith wasted little time in establishing the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation as a hub of humanities and arts activities in the Vicksburg area. Since Smith became executive director in the spring of 1999, the SCHF has revived the Humanities Lecture Series, bringing in scholars, artists, and artisans.

Recent lecturers include Reverend C. K. Chiplin, whose Roads from the Bottom is an autobiographical reflection on life in Vicksburg's historically black Marcus Bottom community. Other recent offerings in the lecture series include Vicksburg artist Martha Ferris’s “You Can Come Home Again,”and the Smithsonian Institution’s Pete Daniel, who talked about working class culture was based on his recent book, Lost Revolutions: The South in the 1950s. Also, the Center for the Study of Southern Culture’s Ted Ownby elaborated on his book American Dreams in Mississippi: Consumers, Poverty, and Culture, 1830-1998, in a lecture titled "From General Stores to Super Centers: Shopping in Mississippi."

The Lecture Series rolls along this summer with offerings such as Kenneth Carleton’s discourse on the Mississippi Choctaws, Larry Morrisey’s discussion of Mississippi’s traditional crafts, and Southern Foodways Alliance executive director John T. Edge’s “Tamales from the Mississippi Delta: A Culinary Conundrum.”

In addition to the Humanities Lecture Series, the SCHF hosts numerous classes on diverse topics like drawing, chair weaving, estate planning, woodcarving, and quilting. On August 12th, they will sponsor, along with the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, the launching of A Mississippi Portrait, an educational CD-Rom produced by the Center. And on October 21st, the SCHF will host its annual Red Tops celebration.

For more information on the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation’s schedule of events and their current membership campaign, contact Ted J. Smith, Executive Director, SCHF, 1302 Adams Street, Vicksburg, MS 39183; e-mail tjs@southernculture.org; telephone 601-631-2997; fax 601-631-3734. Or visit their Web page at www.southernculture.org.

Andrew C. Harper