A look at the two-story dogtrot architecture in Tula headlines the recently released issue of Mississippi Folklife, a biannual publication designed to examine the state's folk traditions. "This issue reflects our abiding interest in both considering and reconstructing the folk cultural expressions from an earlier time and also attempting to present and interpret our contemporary folk culture," said Tom Rankin, the publication's editor and professor of Art and Southern Studies at the University. The magazine is published by the Center and the Mississippi Folklore Society.

"The article on the two-story dogtrot phenomenon in Tula traces a wonderful and rare vernacular architecture tradition," said Rankin. "The article on Erika Haynes's oral poetry, drawings, and her relationship to her own folk community explore the importance and power of folk expression in the contemporary Mississippi Delta."

Among the articles, reviews, photographs, and illustrations in this issue are "Tula, Mississippi, and the Mississippi Dogtrot" by Jennifer Bryant. The article looks at what happened in Tula in the 1800s to cause a number of residents of this fairly isolated area to build two-story dogtrot homes. Her search leads to the boarding and day school in Tula--located in the southeast corner of Lafayette County--which caused the influx of immigrants into this community.

"This Is the E" by Ari Frede contemplates the art, rap, writing, and joking in today's Mississippi Delta through a study of Erika Haynes, a student encountered by the writer while he was an eighth-grade teacher in Ruleville. The article is illustrated with Haynes's original drawings.

"Voices of Ethnic Diversity in Mississippi" by Charles Bolton, Shana Walton, and Homer Hill presents an oral history sampler of eight people who talk about their own ethnic heritage or about diversity in Mississippi. Featured are Native American, European American, African American, and Asian American cultures, as well as religious minorities.

"These articles and the reviews and notes in this issue all suggest that folklife within Mississippi can be a powerful window on the past as well as an important view of contemporary society," Rankin said.

Each issue of Mississippi Folklife explores folk culture through common experiences in the lives of the state's people. It is supported in part by grants from the Mississippi Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. Individual issues of the magazine are available on newsstands and in bookstores for $5 each while subscriptions to Mississippi Folklife and society membership are $10 per year.

The Mississippi Folklore Society was formed in 1927 for the collection, study, and preservation of folk traditions and characteristics in the state. The organization meets annually, and membership is open.

For more information, call 601-232-5742 or write Mississippi Folklife, Center for the Study of Southern Culture, The University of Mississippi, University, MS 38677.

Jennifer Bryon Owen