Soul Sessions Jackson

The 83rd National Folk Festival returns to Downtown Jackson November 13–15 for year two of its three-year residency, with more than 300 artists across six stages, and it’s all free. In this Soul Sessions Extra, Paul Wolf walks you through everything you need to know before you go. That includes what you’ll see and hear, from Mavis Staples and Jerry Douglas to the Mississippi Folklife Area’s “Missi...

On today’s show, we’re talking with David Lewis, Executive Director of the Mississippi Arts Commission, about the festival’s return to Downtown Jackson November 13 through 15. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-david-lewis-nff

Dr. Mark Henderson came to Jackson State University to teach for one year and stayed for thirty-one. He now leads JSU’s Department of Speech Communication and Theater and founded the touring troupe MADDRAMA. In this episode of Soul Sessions, he talks about playing “old Bobby Rush” in the world premiere of Slippin’ Through the Cracks at New Stage Theatre, a musical he has helped develop since its e...

On today's show, we're talking with Mary Rooks, the woman behind JXN Yee Haw, a line dance party where 90s country, two-stepping, and a few songs you'd never expect to hear in cowboy boots all share the same floor. Mary Rooks of JXN Yeehaw talks Jackson, MS's line dancing craze, where to dance weekly, JXN Motherhood, and her favorite family-friendly spots in the city. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visit...

In celebration of National Coffee Day (Sep 26), host Paul Wolf steps away from the usual interview format to talk about what specialty coffee means to him personally, from his first cup at Sneaky Beans in 2010 to his current hobby-level obsession with process and ratios. Woven through his reflection are two voices from Jackson's coffee scene: Trey Malone of Northshore Specialty Roasters, recorded...

On today's show, Ellen Daniels is the executive director of the Mississippi Book Festival and the host of MPB Think Radio's It's Lit, Y'all. Ellen joins us ahead of the Book Festival's twelfth year on the State Capitol grounds, where authors like George Saunders, Deesha Philyaw, and Rick Ross will pack Jackson's biggest literary weekend. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-...

Turner Martin has spent four years managing the Arts Center of Mississippi, the City of Jackson-owned building in downtown Jackson that houses multiple cultural tenants and hosts art exhibitions. He walks through the Spotlight Series, a monthly exhibition program he built from scratch in 2023 that's added dozens of new works to the City of Jackson's century-old permanent art collection. TRANSCRIPT...

In this Soul Sessions Extra, guest host Yolanda Clay-Moore reconnects with Alex Davis, founder of the HBCU Labor Day Classic Battle of the Bands, ahead of the event's second year in Jackson, Mississippi. Davis reflects on what drew him back to Jackson after last year's historic gathering of ten HBCU marching bands, and previews Bethune-Cookman's first-ever appearance in the city. He also walks thr...

On today's show, we're talking with Timothy Orey about how JXN Run Club grew from four friends at the Mississippi Museum of Art into the engine behind the 601 Day race — a race that sold out twice and pulled runners in from six states. It's a conversation built around the phrase he coined years ago and still lives by: that every pace is legal. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-ses...

Mary Sanders Ferriss Cavicchi, founder of Ferriss and Company, returns to Soul Sessions to talk about stewarding Jackson landmarks like Campbell's Bakery and Hal & Mal's, restoring the Kennington Mansion in Belhaven, and mentoring the next generation of designers through Downtown Jackson Partners' Urban Design Studio. She traces her love of historic preservation back to Babalu at Duling School and...

On today's Soul Sessions EXTRA, we're handing things over to the Big Apple Inn's Geno Lee for the first episode of JXN's Table, a limited series podcast he's hosting for us. His first guest is Guillermo Salinas — pastry chef, chocolatier, and the force behind Just Vanilla at Duling Hall in Fondren. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-jxns-table

On today's show, we're talking with Joe Kosin, VP and Head of Programming at Innovation Arts & Entertainment, the company behind Broadway in Jackson, about the five productions coming to Thalia Mara Hall this season, what the hall's reopening means for touring Broadway, and why getting Jackson back to a week-long run of a blockbuster show is the goal — and why he thinks that's actually within reac...

On today's show, we're sitting down with Jerry Douglas — Alison Krauss and Union Station anchor and board member of the National Council for the Traditional Arts — ahead of his performance at the National Folk Festival, November 13th through 15th in Jackson. His latest album, The Set, his first solo release in seven years, captures exactly what makes him irreplaceable: a player who's always adapti...

Jackson, Mississippi marks Juneteenth with seven free events across eight days — from a folk opera premiere at Jackson State University to a Ranger Talk at the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument to an inaugural gospel celebration at LeFleur's Bluff State Park. We've got the full guide, plus a conversation with Brad Franklin, the organizer behind the 10th Annual Juneteenth on Farish, on...

On today's show, David and Jason talk about what it actually takes to bet on a neighborhood like Fondren — and why, for two people who aren't planning to go anywhere, that bet only keeps getting bigger. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-david-pharr-jason-watkins

On today's Soul Sessions Extra, we're talking about Jubilee: A Folk Opera — a collaboration between Jackson State University and Yale University debuting this summer, free and open to the public, right here in Jackson. I'm joined by Patricia Syner, Communications Director at the Margaret Walker Center. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-patricia-syner

On today's show, we're talking with urban strategist Josh McManus — partner at M|B|P, co-creator of JXN Rising, and the driving force behind Better Together, the effort to bring architect Sambo Mockbee's personal archive back into public view for the first time in 25 years. Josh has spent three decades working in post-industrial cities from Chattanooga to Detroit, and now he's turned his attention...

On today's show, we recorded live on location at the Mississippi Museum of Art during Third Space JXN's Soulfood Sunday event this April with our guest, Third Space founder Aisha Carson. We find out what it actually takes to build intentional community in a city that deserves to see itself celebrated. Her belief is rooted simply in this: that narrative change is where all other change begins, and...

On today's show, we're talking with Andrea Patterson, Executive Director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum about 30 years of preserving Mississippi's greatest sports legacy, a $4 million renovation that's redefining what the museum can be and why the stories told inside those walls still stop people cold. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-andrea-patterson-...

On this EXTRA, we're talking about Jackson Coffee Festival. One day, one location. More than a dozen of the region's best specialty coffee producers all under one roof in Jackson, MS on May 2 at the Mississippi Trade Mart. https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-coffee-fest

On today's show, Dr. Robby Luckett, President of the Farish Street Main Street Association Board of Directors, shares insights on reigniting a legacy of resilience and cultural pride in Jackson, Mississippi. Discover how this historic district's past shapes its future through strategic support and community transformation. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-robby-luckett-f...

This is a Soul Sessions Extra, a shorter form episode focused on one thing we think you need to know about right now. And today, that's the second annual Stranger Than Fiction film series. Four documentary screenings at the Capri across the month of April, brought to you by the Mississippi Film Society and made possible in part by a grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission.

Our guest today is a chef, farmer, and writer who covers food and Southern culture for Local Palate magazine out of Charleston. On today's show, Jasmine Michel brings an outsider's eyes to Jackson — fresh off the JXN Food & Wine Festival — and what she found here quietly challenged everything her nervous system had been trained to expect from the Deep South. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.co...

On this podcast extra, it's just a quick rundown of one of my favorite weekends of the year. The 43rd annual Hal's St. Paddy's Parade and Festival is this Saturday, March 28th and here's how to make the most of it. TRANSCRIPT: https://www.visitjackson.com/blog/soul-sessions-paddys-parade-guide

On today's show, we're putting Mississippi on the Map with Nick Wallace and Hunter Evans, two chefs cooking at the highest level, both part of this weekend's sold out third annual JXN Food & Wine Festival.