Delta Center hosts Sam Houston State

Sam Houston State University students recently visited the Delta Center for Culture and Learning to learn about the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area.

The Delta State University Delta Center for Culture and Learning recently introduced a geography class from Sam Houston State University to the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area.

The class, led by Dr. John Strait, spent a week in the Delta exploring the blues, civil rights issues and the Great Migration. Lee Aylward of the Delta Center gave the class an overview of the Delta’s cultural heritage.

Strait has been coming to the Delta several times each year for over a decade. He is a regular lecturer in the Delta Center’s annual National Endowment for the Humanities workshops. Additionally, he brings his own classes once or twice each year.

The Delta Center is the manager of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, a partnership with the National Park Service. Learn more about the Delta Center’s rich history at http://www.blueshighway.org. Visit http://www.neh.gov/ to read about the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Delta Center donates bedding

Heather Miller (left) and Lee Aylward of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning, visit Sister Donald Mary Lynch of St. Gabriel's Mercy Center in Mound Bayou with a donation of bedding.

The Delta Center for Culture and Learning invites participants from its residential workshops to donate the bedding they used in dorm rooms to the St. Gabriel Mercy Center in Mound Bayou.

Over the years, participants in the National Endowment for the Humanities workshops have donated many sets of sheets, pillows and blankets. Another delivery to St. Gabriel’s was made following the end of the July workshop.

“When introducing the Delta to participants in our National Endowment for the Humanities workshops, we always introduce them to the unique history of Mound Bayou, and in so doing, to the Saint Gabriel Mercy Center,” said Alyward. “At the end of the workshop participants want to give back to the Delta, and this is a way for them to not only help others, but to leave a little of themselves here.”

The Delta Center, housed at Delta State, welcomed 40 K-12 teachers in July to its week-long workshop “The Most Southern Place on Earth: Music, History and Culture of the Mississippi Delta.”

The teachers came from 25 states and explored the blues, civil rights heritage, religious and culinary heritage, the flood of 1927 and the Great Migration. Participants made stops in Ruleville, Cleveland, Greenville, Clarksdale and Memphis — visiting museums, churches, historic sites, and listened to presentations.

Learn more about the Delta Center’s rich history at http://www.blueshighway.org. Visit http://www.neh.gov/ to read about the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Summer workshops spark Ruleville leader

The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State is once again offering its  summer program “The Most Southern Place on Earth: Music, History and Culture of the Mississippi Delta.”

The program is part of the annual Landmarks in American History and Culture series that is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Pending funding from the NEH, the center is hoping to offer the program again in 2015.

This highly competitive workshop draws participants from all 50 states. Diana Brown, a special education teacher at Ruleville Middle School, recently reflected on her participation in 2012.

“One learning experience which I am really grateful for having the opportunity to participate in was ‘The Most Southern Place on Earth,’ under the direction of Dr. Luther Brown and Lee Alyward,” said Diana. “The opportunity changed my life in more ways than one. I am from the Delta, but the experience was far beyond what I ever imagined.

“The institute gave me an overload of rich knowledge about the Delta I had no idea even existed. It not only gave me a dream, but provided knowledge on how to make these dreams become a reality.”

Dr. Brown has fond memories of Diana as a workshop participant.

“She was a wonderfully engaged scholar throughout the entire week, and surprised everyone the last day by bringing in delicious home made sweet potato pies for everyone to enjoy,” said Brown. “She really welcomed everyone to the Delta.”

Diana has always loved learning but had to put her career on hold early in life when she started her family. Today she has two grown daughters and five grandchildren. She credits Delta State with helping her succeed.

“I returned to Delta State University in 2002, and in 2005 received my bachelor’s in child development,” said Diana. “I returned to Delta State in 2005, and in 2007 received my master’s in special education. I returned to Delta State again in 2009, and in 2012 received my specialists in educational leadership.

“I guess you are wondering why Delta State University, and the answer is because it’s a small university with a big heart. You are not just a number — the staff and personnel at Delta State genuinely care about the whole person.”

Her workshop experience in 2012 stimulated her interest in subsequent seminar opportunities. In 2013 she had the opportunity to participate in a learning experience in Lawrence, Kans. working on the pilot program for the alternate assessment for special needs children.

“I love to learn and I am going to learn until I am not in existence,” added Diana. “This year I applied for another teacher institute which is titled ‘The Rochester Reform Trial’ located in Rochester, New York.”

The workshop, from July 20-26, will examine the reform as expressed in landmarks such as Broad Street Aqueduct, Ernie Canal, Mount Hope Cemetery and several other landmarks.

Another participant from the same workshop that started Diana on her path, Markette Pierce, lives in Rochester and is organizing their summer experience together. She wrote about Diana on Facebook.

“She aced it as a local participant. She’s my role model as I prep for this workshop,” said Pierce. “I’m already thinking, where can I take her to get a taste of Rochester’s music and foodie culture? The closest thing we’ve got to Po’ Monkey’s is Lux Bar, which is certainly a juke joint in the ‘wicked, disorderly, unsavory’ etymological sense — though more filled with tatted up hipsters than sharecroppers.”

Brown continues her passion for learning as she becomes an ambassador for the Mississippi Delta.

For more information on The Most Southern Place workshop, contact the Delta Center For Culture and Learning at 662-846-4311.

Delta Center offers summer workshops for teachers in American History and culture

Dr. Luther Brown, director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning, with Dr. Julia Nguyen, a program officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington D.C. Nguyen is originally from Natchez.

For the fifth year, Delta State University has received major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks in American History and Culture program. Funding will allow the Delta Center for Culture and Learning to offer two week-long workshops focusing on the Delta’s rich cultural heritage in June and July of 2014. Each workshop will serve 40 K-12 teachers who will come from Mississippi and all over the U.S.

Dr. Luther Brown, director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning said, “The last time we did this we had over 400 applications, with participants coming from 47 states. This is a very exciting workshop and we hope to draw applicants from all of Mississippi and the rest of the country.”

Classroom teachers and librarians in public, private, parochial and charter schools, as well as home-schooling parents are eligible to participate. They will receive a stipend to assist with expenses and gather with leading humanities scholars and Delta State staff to develop powerful lesson plans relating to the Delta’s heritage and the heritage of their own home regions.

The workshops are titled “The Most Southern Place on Earth: Music, History and Culture in the Mississippi Delta.” Participants will travel throughout the Delta as they visit sites where significant events occurred. They will discuss and learn about issues involving civil rights and political leadership, immigrants’ experiences in the Delta, the Blues, the great migration, agriculture, and the Mississippi River, among other things. They will sample Delta foods, visit local museums and listen to the Blues. Field trips will roam as far as Greenville, Greenwood, Clarksdale and Memphis, with stops in between.

Participants can earn five graduate semester hours upon completion of the workshop.

Workshops will be held the week of June 22 and the week of July 13. Each begins on Sunday evening and runs through the following Saturday afternoon.

The Delta Center for Culture and Learning promotes the understanding of the heritage of the Mississippi Delta. It is the manager of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, a partnership between the people of the Delta and the National Park Service. The Center will be assisted during the workshops by faculty from the University of Mississippi, Sam Houston State University, the University of Memphis and other institutions of higher learning. Local Delta citizens will also tell their own stories and experiences.

There are only 17 Landmarks in American History and Culture topics offered during 2014. Their topics range from The American Skyscraper, to The Cold War Home Front in Southern California, to Crossroads of Conflict: Contested Visions of Freedom and the Missouri-Kansas Border Wars, with several workshops focusing on the Civil Rights Movement. A complete list can be found at http://www.neh.gov/projects/landmarks-school.html.

For more information about the Landmarks in American History and Culture workshops, visit the center’s website at http://deltacenterforcultureandlearning.com/neh-workshop/ or contact the DSU Delta Center for Culture and Learning at 662-846-4311.

Caption:  Dr. Luther Brown, director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning, with Dr. Julia Nguyen, a program officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington D.C. Nguyen is originally from Natchez.

Delta Center Discusses Civil Rights Movement

Delta State’s Delta Center for Culture and Learning recently organized a panel discussion on the murder of Emmett Till as part of a July workshop sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

The discussion was held in Tallahatchie County at the new Sumner Grill Restaurant, right across the street from the Sumner Courthouse where Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam were tried for Till’s murder in 1955.

Caption L to R: Henry Outlaw and Lee Aylward of the Delta Center, Wheeler Parker, Emmett Till’s cousin and witness to his kidnapping, Dale Killinger, FBI agent in charge of the Till investigation, Lent Rice, retired FBI, Bruce Smith, son of Robert Bruce Smith, special prosecutor in the Till murder trial, Luther Brown of the Delta Center, and Jim Powers, Chair of the Mississippi ACLU and former President of the DSU student body.

The focus of the NEH workshops is on the history and culture of the Mississippi Delta. Each day, participants are guided through documentaries, information, experiences and tours of historical landmarks and cultural institutions.

Delta State alumni (’61), Chair Emeritus of the Department of Physical Sciences and Professor Emeritus of Chemistry Henry Outlaw leads the topic of the civil rights movement in Mississippi. The Emmett Till story is used as a case study for discussing oppression, revolution and reconciliation.

The Delta Center for Culture and Learning works throughout the region to serve as a “Center of Excellence” at Delta State. It is an interdisciplinary program that is focused on the humanities and environmental sciences related to the Delta.

The NEH is among the nation’s largest funders of humanities programs. It promotes excellence in humanities and delivers historical lessons to Americans in an effort to serve and strengthen the nation.

Delta Center for Culture and Learning Participates in NEH Workshop

Photo: Bill Abel

The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State recently hosted a workshop called “The Most Southern Place on Earth:  Music, History and Culture of the Mississippi Delta” workshop.  The workshop is held twice a year by the Center, with major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) program known as Landmarks in American History and Culture.  Each workshop admits forty teachers from anywhere in the U.S.  The session lasts for six days, and examines the Delta’s heritage in the Blues, religion, Civil Rights, foodways, and other important manners.  

Tim Shaw, a top-notch instrument maker and elementary art teacher, was able to reunite with bluesman Bill Abel while attending.

Shaw first met Abel when they did a workshop together last summer. Shaw had been making cigar box guitars for a year when he learned of Abel’s cigar box show at the Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center in Ocean Springs. Shaw’s wife got her husband and his friends permission to be in Abel’s show through the cultural center.

“I spent two days with him down there at the cultural center. We immediately hit it off,” Shaw said. “I called my wife after the first day and I said, ‘I have met my Jesus.’”

The two have been in touch since, but Shaw’s being at Abel’s performance during the NEH workshop was a complete surprise.

“I didn’t tell him I was coming,” Shaw said. “Yesterday when he was unloading his stuff I came here early to help, and I said, ‘Remember me?’ And he just couldn’t believe I was here.”

Photo: Tim Shaw

After Abel’s show on Wednesday night, Shaw demonstrated his skills on Abel’s cigar box guitar. Shaw said that while he has always been interested in music, he only became a musician in his early 30’s.

“I worked with two guys who were surprised that I didn’t play anything because I knew so much about music,” Shaw said. “They set out on a mission to teach me to play. One of them played the drums, the other one played guitar. They decided they were going to teach me the bass so we could have a band.”

From playing instruments, Shaw became interested in making them. During his quest to make a solid-body electric guitar, he encountered a news clip about a man who made cigar box guitars on the coast. Shaw visited the artist’s gallery in Bay St. Louis with some friends the following Sunday and ended up buying one of the artist’s cigar box guitars.

“I took it home and took it apart and looked at it and thought, ‘Huh, this is interesting. I think I can do this,’” Shaw said. “And so my endeavor to make solid body electric guitars took a left turn to cigar box guitars.”

Shaw, whose projects are usually commissioned, says that the six-day workshop has left him inspired.

“I’m really excited about this workshop. I’ve already designed three new guitars,” Shaw said. “I can’t wait to go home and make them. They’re going to be blues themed.”

For more information, contact the Delta Center at 662-846-4311 or Luther Brown at lbrown@deltastate.edu

Delta Center Recruits Delta State University Supporter

Photo: Restaurateur Willie Bates and the Delta Center’s Lee Aylward and Luther Brown in front of the Four Way Grill, 998 Mississippi Blvd, Memphis, TN 38126. Photo by Rachel Anderson.

The Delta Center for Culture and Learning recently ended a week-long workshop with a trip to Memphis. The 40 scholars who participated in the “The Most Southern Place on Earth:  Music, History and Culture of the Mississippi Delta” workshop visited the Cotton Museum, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, and the National Civil Rights Museum before watching the famous ducks walk in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel.  Lunch was provided by the Four Way Grill, a favorite soul food haunt of Martin Luther King, boxing promoter Don King, B. B. King, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, and Little Milton Campbell, all of whom have their pictures hanging in the restaurant.  

Founded in 1946, the Four Way is now operated by Willie Bates, a native of Shaw, Mississippi, who moved to Memphis as a boy. Bates said he was proud to receive a Delta State University pennant and would display it alongside his photos of famous patrons.

Delta Center Welcomes Teachers for National Endowment for the Humanities Workshop

Photo: The opening reception of The Most Southern Place workshop, in the Martin and Sue King Railroad Museum. Photo by Rachel Anderson.

The Delta State University Delta Center for Culture and Learning recently welcomed 40 teachers from across the country to its June workshop entitled The Most Southern Place on Earth:  History, Music and Culture of the Mississippi Delta.  These scholars will be in the Delta for six days, studying aspects of its heritage from the Blues and the Flood of 1927 through the Civil Rights Movement, the Great Migration, and the Delta’s literary and religious heritage.  They will sample Delta foods from hot tamales to Kool-Aid pickles, and listened to visiting lecturers. Most of these teachers include Delta stories in their curriculum and some teach classes focused on the Blues, Civil Rights History, or other Delta themes. 
 
This workshop is made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities, through their Landmarks in American History and Culture Program.  K-12 teachers from any American school are eligible to participate, and each year, applications come from the entire country.  Twenty states are represented in this group including teachers from Mississippi and the Mississippi Delta. The opening reception for this workshop was held at the Martin and Sue King Railroad Museum in Cleveland, and was supported by the Cleveland Nehi Bottling Company, Cecil’s Liquors, Cleveland/Bolivar County Chamber of Commerce, the Parlor Purlers of Calvary Episcopal Church, Rachel Tate and Gregory Cole, Lee Aylward, and Bonnie Brown. The Delta Center for Culture and Learning is the manager of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area.  For information about the Center, the National Heritage Area, or NEH workshops, contact the Delta Center at 662-846-4311.

Delta Center provides heritage tour for Mississippi State and Ole Miss students

PHOTO: The combined classes from Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi at Dockery Farms. Photo by Cade Smith, Student Leadership and Community Engagement Director at Mississippi State University.

The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University provided an introduction to the Delta’s cultural heritage for a combined group of students from Mississippi State and the University of Mississippi during their Alternative Spring Break.  The students spend a week in the Delta, combining service projects with visits to attractions like Delta State University, the Quapaw Canoe Company, the Delta Blues Museum, McCarty’s Pottery, the Levee Run Farm, Dulaney Seed Company, and Po’ Monkey’s Lounge.  The students stay at the North Greenwood Baptist Church and dine in restaurants throughout the Delta.  The academic aspect of the course focuses on the Blues and Civil Rights heritage of the Delta.  The Mississippi State group was organized by Alternative Spring Break Co-Directors Courtney Allen and Chris Turner.  The University of Mississippi class was organized by AmeriCorps VISTA workers Ryan Parsons and Erin Mauffrey, and accompanied by Dr. Albert Nylander, formerly Dean of Graduate and Continuing Studies at Delta State and now Director of the McLean Institute for Partnerships and Community Engagement at Ole Miss.

Delta Center hosts workshop in Memphis

Participants in The Delta Center for Culture and Learning workshop gather for a photo while touring Memphis.

The Delta State University Delta Center for Culture and Learning recently took its workshop “The Most Southern Place on Earth:  History, music and culture of the Mississippi Delta” to Memphis.

The workshop is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Participants in the workshop were teachers (K-12) and librarians, and they came from 21 states.  They were in the Delta for seven days, and several stayed for an extra day or two before going home. 

While in Memphis, the workshop participants visited the Cotton Museum, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, and the National Civil Rights Museum, before going to the Peabody Hotel to watch the famous ducks walk from the fountain to the elevators.