South Talks
SouthTalks is a series of events (including lectures, performances, film screenings, and panel discussions) exploring the interdisciplinary nature of Southern Studies. This series takes place in the Tupelo Room of Barnard Observatory unless otherwise noted, and is free and open to the public.
To watch SouthTalks from the past, visit our YouTube channel.
“Telling Richer Stories: Enhancing Interpretation at the Two Mississippi Museums and MDAH”
Michael Morris
Michael Morris will discuss efforts to expand interpretation at the Two Mississippi Museums (the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum) and how the work is influencing the future interpretive experience of other museum sites administered by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH).
A Jackson, Mississippi, native, Michael Morris has served as the director of the Two Mississippi Museums since 2023. Prior to working at the Two Museums, he served in several roles during his eight years at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. Morris earned his BA in history and MA in political science from Jackson State University, where he worked at the Margaret Walker Center and the Fannie Lou Hamer Institute on Citizenship and Democracy. Morris completed the Southeastern Museums Conference’s Leadership Institute, has written text for Mississippi Freedom Trail markers, and was the Mississippi archivist for the Our Story, Our Terms civil rights project at Duke University.
The National Folk Festival comes to Mississippi for the First Time
Thabi Moyo, Blaine Waide, and Jimmy Duck Holmes
In this SouthTalk, Blaine Waide, the executive director of the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA), and Thabi Moyo, the local National Folk Festival manager, will share the history of NCTA’s founding in 1934, how it has evolved over the years, and their plans for the festival’s first time being hosted in Jackson, Mississippi, in November. Bentonian Blues musician Jimmy Duck Holmes will perform music and speak about the Blues tradition in Bentonia, Mississippi.