Mississippi Home Places

In this collection, essayists examine their lives, their memories of Mississippi, the reasons they left the state, and what drew them back. They talk about how life differs and wears on you in the far-flung parts of our nation, and the qualities that make Mississippi unique. The writers from all corners of the state are as diverse as the regions from which they come. They are of different races, different life experiences, different talents, and different temperaments. Yet in acceding to the magical lure of Mississippi they are in many ways alike. Their roots are deep in the rich soil of this state, and they come from strong families that valued education and promoted an indomitable optimism. Successes stem from a passion, usually emerging early in life, that burns within them. But that passion is tempered, disciplined, encouraged, and influenced by the people around them, as well as the landscape and the history of their times. These essays give us a glimpse of the people and places that nurtured the young lives of the essayists and offered the values that directed them as they sought their dreams elsewhere. Often they found that opportunity was within their grasp in their home state and came back to realize their full potential. They came back, in some cases, to retire to a familiar place of pleasant memories, to family and to friends. They all have a love and respect for Mississippi and continue, back home, to use their talents to help make the state an even better place to live.

In the early 1970s photographer and documentary filmmaker Michael Ford left graduate school and a college teaching position in Boston, Massachusetts, packed his young family into a van, and headed to rural Mississippi, where he spent the next four years recording everyday life through interviews, still photographs, and film. The project took him to Oxford (in Lafayette County), as well as to Marshall, Panola, and Tate Counties, a remote area north of Sardis Lake. His efforts resulted in the award-winning documentary film Homeplace (1975), but none of the still photographs from this time were ever published. With this illustrated volume, those photographs are now available and offer a valuable window onto the rural, local culture of northern Mississippi at that time. These moving photographs illustrate Ford's experiences as an apprentice to blacksmith Marion Randolph Hall, his visits to Hal Waldrip's General Store in Chulahoma, a day spent with AG Newsom and his crew making molasses, and Othar Turner's barbecues accompanied by traditional African American fife-and-drum music. They also capture the evocative landscape of the Mississippi hill country and the everyday lives of its residents. In 2013 Ford returned to his adopted homeplace, camera in hand, only to find that most everything had changed--or was gone. This photo essay project juxtaposes the rural Mississippi of the 1970s and the mid-2010s with Ford's personal reflections drawn from his journals, interviews, and archival notes.

Places that Matter asks the reader to identify a place that matters in their life—their home, a place of worship, a park, or some other site that acts as an emotional and physical anchor and connects them to a neighborhood. Then readers are asked: In what ways do I currently support—or fail to support—that neighborhood? Should support be increased? If so, in what ways? Joan Ferrante guides students through a learning experience that engages qualitative and quantitative research and culminates in writing a meaningful plan of action or research brief. Students are introduced to basic concepts of research and are exposed to the experiences of gathering and drawing on data related to something immediate and personal. The class-tested exercises are perfect for courses that emphasize action-based research and social responsibility. The book’s overarching goal is to help students assess their neighborhood’s needs and strengths and then create a concrete plan that supports that neighborhood and promotes its prosperity. Accompanying the book is a facilitator’s companion website to guide action-based research experiences, which includes rubrics that are aligned to common learning objectives and are also designed to make tracking and reporting easier.

The acclaimed interior designer combines rich tradition with modern sensibilities in this beautifully photographed book of homes across the deep South. James Farmer’s design firm works with clients across the South who want to turn their houses into homes. Now Farmer takes readers on a guided tour of eleven home projects—from makeovers to remodels and new construction—as he brings together a cultivated mix of high and low, storied and new, collected and found; presenting them all as a thoughtfully exhibited array of taste, style, good architecture, and interior comfort. Woven alongside beautiful photography of interiors and exteriors are personal stories James shares about living in the South, the people in his life, and how he fell in love with home design. A Place to Call Home is a beautiful book to inspire Southern style at home―infusing the new with antique, vintage, and heirloom pieces.

Juke joint--two words often used, often abused. They convey an inherent promise of something real, edgy, from another time. All juke joints are blues clubs, but not all blues clubs are jukes. Here, artist recollections and insights delve below the murky surface to tell the tales, canonize the characters and explain the special brand of blues bottled in these quasi-legal establishments. Author Roger Stolle works from the inside to educate and entertain with a mix of history, anecdote and discovery. It's a wild ride.

A comprehensive guide to Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings open to the public—with travel itineraries and information on seventy-four sites. Frank Lloyd Wright’s groundbreaking designs, innovative construction techniques, and inviting interiors continue to astound and inspire generations of architects and design aficionados. Covering all the publicly accessible sites across the United States—plus four in Japan—Wright Sites describes the design ideas and history behind each building. The volume also includes suggested destination itineraries for Wright road trips, a list of archives, and a selected bibliography. This revised edition features twenty sites newly opened to the public, up to date descriptions and access information, and new color photographs of each site. The introduction is written by Jack Quinan, a founding member of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy and author of Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House.