Mississippi Arts Hour

Larry Morrisey visits with photojournalist and native Mississippian Kate Medley. She has just published Thank You Please Come Again, a book of photography that documents life and culture at the southern service station. The book includes photos and stories of many Mississippi businesses, including Betty’s Place in Indianola. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing to...

Kristen Brandt talks with Jennifer Beasley, the artistic director for the Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet. She trained with the Twin City Ballet in Monroe, Louisiana and at the University of Kentucky. She has contributed to the dance community in Mississippi both as a professional dancer with Ballet Mississippi and as a dance instructor by founding the Mississippi Metropolitan Dance Academy. Tune...

David Lewis speaks with Ebony Lumumba, Chair of the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival. They discuss her career in literature, early influences in the arts, and her role in the historic Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival.. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing to MPB. https://donate.mpbfoundation.org/mspb/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...

Lauren Rhodes talks with musician Andrew Bryant about his new album PRODIGAL. They discuss how Andrew’s lived experiences and Mississippi roots turned into songs. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing to MPB. https://donate.mpbfoundation.org/mspb/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Poetry is alive and thriving in the Magnolia State! On the Mississippi Poetry Podcast you’ll hear poets sharing their work, telling their stories, and offering tips to help listeners flex their poetic muscles. In this episode, poet Nadia Alexis joins host and Mississippi Poet Laureate Catherine Pierce to talk about revising our lives through poetry, why the best writing comes from questions, and w...

Lauren Rhoades talks with C.T. Salazar, a Latinx poet and librarian from Mississippi. Their debut collection, Headless John the Baptist Hitchhiking, was published in 2022 with Acre Books. They also edited Mid/South Sonnets, a poetry anthology released this summer with Belle Point Press. C.T. is also the 2020 recipient of the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters award in poetry. He lives in Cl...

Leslie Barker talks with painter, multimedia artist, musician, and storyteller Anthony Thaxton, restauranteur, author, philanthropist, and international travel guide Robert St. John and Mississippi College President Dr. Blake Thompson about the Institute of Southern Storytelling at Mississippi College. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing to MPB. https://donate.mp...

Maria Zeringue talks with Meg Cooper, coordinator of the Great Delta Bear Affair festival in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. During this hour, Meg and Maria discuss the types of programming visitors can expect at the festival and how the town of Rolling Fork is recovering from a devastating tornado that hit the area this past March. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing...

Larry Morrisey talks with saxophonist Adam Estes. Estes is a professor of music at the University of Mississippi in Oxford and a founding member of the Assembly Saxophone Quartet. As part of the celebration of their 20th anniversary this year, the group is releasing their third recording, which includes their arrangements of music by the contemporary composers Avner Dorman, Alfred Schnittke, and B...

Sarah Story interviews Mississippi singer and songwriter Charlie Mars about his new album "Times Have Changed.” Sarah and Charlie discuss life on the road as a musician, his life in Mississippi, and the process of writing songs and creating an album. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing to MPB. https://donate.mpbfoundation.org/mspb/podcast Hosted on Acast. See aca...

This week on the Mississippi Arts Hour, Maria Zeringue chats with quilter Marcella Harville of Corinth, MS. Harville is very active in her quilting communities, both online and locally. She is a member of two quilting guilds in northern Mississippi. She also teaches classes and is a pattern tester. This year, she is a recipient of MAC’s Folk Arts Fellowship grant. During this episode, Harville dis...

Lauren Rhoades talks with writer, journalist, and MAC artist fellowship recipient Ellen Ann Fentress. A lifelong Mississippian, Ellen Ann is a literary nonfiction writer, journalist, filmmaker, and podcaster. She worked as a newspaper and radio reporter in Mississippi and also freelanced for national dailies. She currently teaches nonfiction in the Mississippi University for Women’s Creative Writi...

David Lewis sits down with two young Mississippians representing our state on the National and International stages! Edward Wilson is the 2023 Poetry Out Loud (Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest) 2nd Place National Finalist from Jackson Preparatory School. In June, Alexei Orohovsky took home the gold medal in the Junior Males category at the USA International Ballet Competition held in J...

Larry Morrisey visits with stained glass artist Rob Cooper and his family members (and fellow artists), spouse Wendy Eddleman and daughter Lucie Cooper. They each talk about their work as artists as well as how the arts fit into their family life. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing to MPB. https://donate.mpbfoundation.org/mspb/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast....

Lauren Rhoades talks with writer and MAC artist fellowship recipient Exodus Brownlow. Exodus graduated from Mississippi Valley State University with a BA in English and earned her MFA in creative writing from Mississippi University for Women. Her debut fiction chapbook “Look at All The Little Hurts of These Newly-Broken Lives” and “The Bittersweet, Sweet and Bitter Loves” were published with Ethel...

David Lewis speaks with Kayla Fuentes. Kayla is a mezzo-soprano, vocal pedagogue, and quirky theatre teacher from Starkville, Mississippi, where her passion for music and singing found its roots. She is currently the Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Meridian Symphony Association. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing to MPB. https://donate.mpbf...

David Lewis speaks with visual artist Alexis McGrigg, a contemporary artist who examines themes of Blackness, space, spirituality, identity, and collective consciousness. Her artwork utilizes the mediums of painting, drawing, and interdisciplinary media to explore the multiplicity of Blackness through figurative abstraction and conceptual narratives. She integrates poetry, sound, and performance i...

This is a special back-to-school edition of the Arts Hour, celebrating the start of a new school year by taking a close look at our Mississippi Whole Schools program. Recorded at this year’s Whole Schools Summer Institute in Hattiesburg, Leslie Barker talks with some educators, teaching artists, and administrators who bring the magic of arts integration to classrooms all over our state. Interviewe...

Larry Morrisey speaks with Jacob Crook, an artist, and printmaker in Starkville, this week on the Mississippi Arts Hour. Crook teaches in the art department at Mississippi State University. His artwork is focused on the mezzotint process, a labor-intensive printmaking technique with roots in the 17 th  century. Crook is one of MAC’s recently announced Artist Fellowship grant recipients. Hoste...

Maria Zeringue talks with Esther Young, the Director of Finance and Administration and the Gala Director for the SOARPRENEUR/JXN Film Festival. A 1997 graduate of Tougaloo College, Esther joins former classmates Maximus Wright and Candice Love Jackson in living out their mutual love of film and collective passion for community and cultural development via the JXN FILM FESTIVAL. If you enjoyed...

Leslie Barker talks with author and Community Engagement Coordinator for the Mississippi Book Festival, Tonja Murphy. They will discuss community, Tonja’s writing process, and lots of exciting details about the upcoming festival, Mississippi’s literary lawn party.   If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing to MPB. https://donate.mpbfoundation.org/mspb/p...

Leslie Barker talks with Tupelo native and arts administrator Melanie Deas. Melanie has extensive theatre experience, having worked at several New York and New England theatres. Now, she works with all art forms and a wide range of community organizations through her job as the Executive Director of Tupelo’s Link Centre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lauren Rhoades talks with novelist Katy Simpson Smith, who was born and raised in Jackson and now lives in New Orleans. Katy's fourth novel, THE WEEDS, was published this spring. She is also the author of the novels THE STORY OF LAND AND SEA, FREE MEN, and THE EVERLASTING, as well as a book of nonfiction. On the Arts Hour, Katy talks about her unconventional path to writing fiction and the process...

David Lewis speaks to the Executive Director of the USA International Ballet Competition (USA IBC), Mona Nicholas. David and Mona discuss what it takes to pull together what is considered the Olympics of ballet and the village it takes to put together this remarkable international competition. The International Ballet Competition happens every four years in Jackson, Mississippi, the only location...

This week on the Mississippi Arts Hour, Maria Zeringue talks with writer, filmmaker, and mentor Maximus Wright. As a proud native of Yazoo City, Wright is passionate about telling Mississippi stories and fostering talent in his home state. In 2020, Wright started the Jackson Film Festival through his non-profit, Soarpreneur, to help give Mississippi filmmakers a platform to showcase their work. He...