South Talks

All Roads Lead to Holmes: Voices of Holmes County Oral History Project 

Film and Panel with Al Povall, Ora Reed, Phil Cohen, and Friends of Lexington Preservation

Tuesday, April 23 at 4 p.m. in Barnard Observatory

All Roads Lead to Holmes: Voices of Holmes County is a documentary project directed by Ed Ellington and produced by the Friends of Lexington Preservation in Holmes County, Mississippi, with support from the Mississippi Humanities Council. The documentary highlights the contributions of Holmes County natives to the Civil Rights Movement and captures stories of life in Holmes County. Students at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture assisted in the creation of this work.

“Cold War Country: Music Row, the Pentagon, and the Sound of American Patriotism”

Joseph M. Thompson

Country music maintains a unique, decades-long relationship to the US military, but these ties didn’t just happen. Joseph M. Thompson explores how country music’s Nashville-based business leaders on Music Row created partnerships with the Pentagon to sell their audiences on military service while selling country music to US servicemembers and international audiences. Beginning in the 1950s, the military flooded armed forces airwaves with the music, hosted tour dates at bases around the world, and drew on country music artists to support recruitment programs. Over the last half of the twentieth century, the close connections between the Defense Department and Music Row gave an economic boost to the white-dominated sounds of country while fueling divisions over the meaning of patriotism.

Joseph M. Thompson is assistant professor of history at Mississippi State University. His first book, Cold War Country: How Nashville’s Music Row and the Pentagon Created the Sound of American Patriotism, analyzes the economic and symbolic connections between the country music business and the military-industrial complex since World War II.

SouthTalks is a series of events (including lectures, performances, film screenings, and panel discussions) that explores the interdisciplinary nature of Southern Studies. This series is free and open to the public, and typically takes place in the Tupelo Room of Barnard Observatory unless otherwise noted. Visit southernstudies.olemiss.edu for more information about all Center events.

Phillip “Pip” Gordon, UM visiting assistant professor of gender studies in the Sarah Isom Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, discusses “Faulkner’s Enduring Queerness” at noon May 1. Gordon discusses Faulkner’s relevance to broadening fields of trans and ace studies and the value such approaches have to our understanding of Faulkner and the South.

SouthTalks is a series of events (including lectures, performances, film screenings, and panel discussions) that explores the interdisciplinary nature of Southern Studies. This series is free and open to the public, and typically takes place in the Tupelo Room of Barnard Observatory unless otherwise noted. Visit southernstudies.olemiss.edu for more information about all Center events.

Gammill Gallery and Tupelo Room

Barnard Observatory

 Spring Documentary Showcase

The Spring Documentary Showcase is a celebration of the work by our documentary students. Each artist will present their work. Attendees will have an opportunity to engage with the artists and their work during a reception.