|
Mississippi
Delta Literary Tour
Experience
the place, the people, the food, and the music that
inspired Mississippi writers
April 4-7, 2005
The place novelist Richard Ford describes as the
South's South--the Mississippi Delta--is
the site of a spring tour organized by the
Center for the
Study of Southern Culture and Viking Range Corporation.
Focusing on the area's legendary blues, writers,
and food-along with its tumultuous history--the
program is based in Greenwood, home of playwright
Endesha
Ida Mae Holland and memoirist Mildred Todd, and
will include day trips to three other towns.
Scheduled
for Monday, April 4, is a bus trip to Yazoo
City,
whose most famous and beloved son is author Willie
Morris. On Tuesday, April 5, the group will
travel
to Greenville, home of William Alexander Percy,
Ellen Douglas, Shelby Foote, Bern Keating, Walker
Percy, Julia Reed, Ben Wasson, and many other writers--so
many that Greenville is known for having "more
writers per square foot than any other city
of its
size." On Wednesday, April 6, the group will
go to Clarksdale for a visit to the Delta Blues
Museum and tours of places connected to the life
and work of playwright Tennessee Williams.
Also
scheduled are meals at Lusco's, the new Giardina's,
Madidi, and other notable Delta restaurants as
well as live blues and gospel performances.
On April
7, after breakfast at the Alluvian--Viking's new
boutique hotel-participants will be free to
travel
on their own to Oxford, arriving in time to visit
Faulkner's home, Rowan Oak, tour the town, have
lunch on the courthouse square, and attend the
Oxford Conference for the Book, which will begin
that afternoon.
The
Delta tour is $450 per person for all program activities,
eight meals, and local transportation. The fee does
not include lodging. To register, visit the Center's
Web site (www.olemiss.edu/depts/south). Remember
to sign up early. Only 35 spots are available, and
they will go fast.
Group
accommodations have been arranged at the Alluvian,
in downtown Greenwood [www.thealluvian.com]. Rooms
at the Alluvian require a separate registration
and are priced at a discounted rate of $135. Rooms
may be reserved by calling 866-600-5201 and asking
for the special "Literary Tour" rate.
In the event that the Alluvian sells out before
you get a chance to book a room, we have also reserved
a block at the Greenwood Best Western, 662-455-5777.
|
2005
Mississippi Historical Society Meeting
The Mississippi Historical
Society will hold its annual meeting March
4-5, 2005, in Jackson. The theme of the meeting
is "Medicine in Mississippi in the 20th
Century." Donna Dye, formerly director
of the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson, will
be honored as president of the organization.
Program topics include
the history of the University of Mississippi
Medical Center, the pioneering transplant
surgery of the 1950s and 1960s at the Medical
Center, nursing and midwifery, and public
health. Among the speakers will be Dr. Daniel
W. Jones, Dr. William Turner, and Kaye Bender,
all from the Medical Center. Historian Alan
Kraut will be banquet speaker, addressing
the topic of Mississippi's role in ending
the plague of pellagra in the South.
Saturday morning at
the meeting will be a session on the Mississippi
Encyclopedia.
|
photo by Mary Beth Lasseter
New
Southern Studies graduate students pictured at
Barnard Observatory are left to right, front row:
Robin Yekaitis (undergraduate degree, Mississippi
University for Women), Allison Traffanstedt (Carleton
College), Renna Tuten (University of Georgia);
second row: Richard Glisson (University of Mississippi),
Ellie Campbell (Vanderbilt), Laura Rosenquist (Tulane),
and Ford O'Connell, (Swarthmore and Duke); back
row: Judith Barlow (Springfield College), Mary
Battle (from the University of South Carolina),
and Frances Abbott (Yale).
|
|
