Forty days is a long time. And it goes by quickly. On Easter morning I set out to walk through the sunrise every morning for forty days in an effort to get reconnected to this place. To get used to life off the road. And to get a good start on our next book and exhibit. Mission accomplished on all fronts. I finished those forty … Continue reading Forty Days
Jan Selby is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has been screened internationally in settings ranging from film festivals and art museums to university classrooms and on Public Television. BEYOND THE DIVIDE premiered at Montana’s Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and won Best Feature Documentary at the Peace on Earth Film Festival. After a year of traveling to festivals world-wide, BEYOND THE DIVIDE was broadcast on Twin Cities … Continue reading Jan Selby
Duncan Gray is a retired Episcopal Priest and was the 9th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. I met him at St. Peter’s Episcopal church in Oxford, Mississippi, where he was rector, like his father before him. His father served from 1957 to 1965 during the turbulent era when James Meredith was the first Black man who was allowed admission into the University of … Continue reading Duncan Gray
Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar is chief of the Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. She has spent decades helping her community fight for federal recognition of their tribe and finding resilient solutions to the political and environmental challenges that have seen their traditional lands literally wash away into the Gulf of Mexico. We did this interview on the front porch, on a windy … Continue reading Chief Shirell Parfait-Dardar
April Grayson was born and raised in Mississippi. She left the state after college and returned again 10 years later to tell stories about her home state and, in particular, about the Civil Rights Movement and the history of race in Mississippi through oral history and documentary films. April is the director of Community & Capacity Building at the Alluvial Collective, formerly the William Winter … Continue reading April Grayson
As we settle in from life on the road, the editing process has begun. It’s a big job. I interviewed more than 125 people over the past two years. Found them, got to them and sat with them. It was a whirlwind of thoughtful conversations, eye-opening revelations and deep human connections. And as the body of work grew, I knew there would be a day … Continue reading Editing
December 21 is the winter solstice. The shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The longest night. In Minneapolis, where I live, that means that there is only about 8 hours and 47 minutes of daylight. We celebrated with friends over the weekend. Reconnected with some of our community after two years on the road. We walked up a snowy path and gathered … Continue reading A light in the darkness
“So I carry all these things for my family. And now I’m the top of my family. I have my mother on her side, but on my father’s side, that’s it. My grandpa’s gone, my father’s gone. There’s nobody else. So I gotta carry it all for my sons. Gotta be strong, you know.” Continue reading Harvey Goodsky, Jr.
Afton Thomas is the Associate Director for Programs at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. Afton talks about Oxford as the progressive south, and the importance of continuing to share stories of the past so we can live better today and in the future. At the time of this interview, Afton’s involvement and voice in the community … Continue reading Afton Thomas
Saturday was a beautiful fall day, much like that other one, a little more than 21 years ago. We had an open schedule and had wrapped up our programming at WVU, so we drove from our campground in West Virginia, through a corner of Maryland and into the hills near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to the site of the Flight 93 Memorial. 7 crew members, 33 passengers … Continue reading Flight 93
