March 2024 Events List

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Sacred Harmony: Navigating Faith and Identity.”

12:15 PM

Union 124

Karmen Michael Smith is a Black queer theologian, cultural critic, author, and Lizzie Mae’s grandson. He is the founder and pastor at Poor Culture, an inclusive and affirming Black church experience.

This event is sponsored by the Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement, Sarah Isom Center for Women & Gender Studies, and Queer People of Color (QPOC).

This event is free and open to the public.

For information and for assistance related to a disability, contact Aileen at aileen@olemiss.edu or 662-915-1689.

 

Student Leadership Workshop

Present and Accounted For Embodying Inclusive Leadership

2:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Union 124

Looking for ways to build your leadership skills and help create a vibrant and inclusive community? You can register here for a workshop with visiting speaker Karmen Michael Smith.

This workshop is open to all students. If you are a staff or faculty member interested in attending, please email Aileen Lambert, Coordinator for LGBTQIA+ Programs and Initiatives, at aileen@olemiss.edu to register.

This event is sponsored by the Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement, Sarah Isom Center for Women & Gender Studies, and Queer People of Color (QPOC).

For information and for assistance related to a disability, contact Aileen at aileen@olemiss.edu or 662-915-1689.

 

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Unearthing Black Midwifery Stories and Traditions 

12:00 PM

Barnard Observatory

Linda Janet Holmes will present key findings from her interviews with Black midwives in Africa and in the American South. The African roots of Black birthing traditions will be highlighted. This talk also will provide reasons for continuing Black midwifery traditions today. 

 Linda Janet Holmes, former director of the New Jersey Health Department Office of Minority and Multicultural Health, began recording interviews with traditional African American midwives decades ago.   Her most recent book, Safe in a Midwife’s Hands:  Birthing Traditions from Africa to the American South, focuses on the practices of Black midwives whose holistic approaches are essential counterbalances to a medical system that routinely fails Black mothers and babies. Her award-winning book, Listen To Me Good: The Life Story of an Alabama Midwife, was co-authored with Margaret Charles Smith, a legendary Greene County Alabama midwife, and documents the contributions of a singular Black midwife. A past faculty member of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Nurse Midwife Program, Holmes now lives in Hampton, Va. Her previously published books also include A Joyous Revolt: Toni Cade Bambara, Writer, and Activist and Savoring the Salt: The Legacy of Toni Cade Bambara, co-authored with Cheryl Wall. 

Sponsored by The Center for the Study of Southern Culture

For information and assistance related to a disability, please contact Afton Thomas at amthoma4@olemiss.edu.

 

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Lawrence Brownlee, in concert 

7:30 PM

Ford Center for the Performing Arts

Lawrence Brownlee is a leading figure in opera, both as a singer on the world’s top stages and as a voice for activism and diversity in the industry. Captivating audiences and critics around the globe, he has been hailed as “an international star in the bel canto operatic repertory” (The New York Times), “one of the world’s leading bel canto stars” (The Guardian), and “one of the most in-demand opera singers in the world today” (NPR).

Student Tickets $10

Sponsored by the Ford Center for the Performing Arts

For information and for assistance related to a disability, please contact Jennifer Pardoe at jgpardoe@olemiss.edu. 

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

 “Amplifying ‘Anotherness’: Disrupting Dominant Narratives about Appalachia”

Neema Avashia

12:00 PM

Virtual Event

Both Appalachia and the South are frequently represented as monoliths in mainstream media representations of place and people. But for the folks who live in these regions, we know that they are far from monolithic. That they are home to immigrants, to queer people, to Hindus and Buddhists and Muslims and Jews, to people who are politically radical, to every identity not included in a dominant narrative that casts our homes as white, Christian, straight, and conservative. This dominant narrative has been used to vilify Appalachian people, to dehumanize them, and ultimately, to extract the resources from the regions without any accountability for that extraction. In this SouthTalk, Neema Avashia explores what happens when we challenge that dominant narrative when we write and, publish and amplify narratives that complicate understanding of place and people.

Neema Avashia is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Boston Public Schools since 2003 and was named a City of Boston Educator of the Year in 2013. Her first book was Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place.

Registration details for this virtual event can be found here.

Sponsored by The Center for the Study of Southern Culture

For information and assistance related to a disability, please contact Afton Thomas at amthoma4@olemiss.edu.

Wednesday, March 20, 2024

“Continuing the Legacy of Freedom Summer”

Panel Discussion with W. Ralph Eubanks, moderator

5:00 PM

Barnard Observatory

The overarching goal of the Mississippi Summer Project—known as Freedom Summer—was to empower Black Mississippians to participate in local, state, and national elections. Education and activism stood as pillars of Freedom Summer, and the work that was done in the summer of 1964 was designed to draw the nation’s attention to the violent oppression experienced by Black Mississippi residents who attempted to exercise their constitutional rights. The most important goal of this group of activists—over 700 college students took part in Freedom Summer—was to develop a grassroots freedom movement that could be sustained after student activists left Mississippi.