The Delta Cultural Center will host an informative Panel Discussion on Thursday, August 29, 2024, at the Beth El Heritage Hall, located at 406 Perry Street in Helena. This will be followed by a special night viewing of Mr. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South in the central gallery at the DCC Visitor Center located at 141 Cherry Street in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas. This event will begin at 5:30 p.m. with an expected ending at 7 p.m.
Panelists include:
Rachel Boillot – Arkansas State University. Art department professor. Large format photographer. Author of “Moon Shine: Photographs of the Cumberland Plateau”
W. Ralph Eubanks – Author & Faculty Fellow. University of Mississippi Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Former publishing director, Library of Congress. Work-in-progress, “When It’s Darkness in the Delta: An American Reckoning.”
Tom Rankin – Duke University Professor of the Practice of Art, Art History & Visual Studies. His books include “Sacred Space: Photographs from the Mississippi Delta (1993) which received the Mississippi Institute of Arts Letters Award for Photography.
Berkley Hudson – University of Missouri emeritus. Author of “O.N. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South” Curator. National Endowment of Humanities exhibition, Mr. Pruitt’s Possum Town.
Background of Exhibit Mr. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South
This exhibit, consisting of one hundred photographic prints, archival film footage, and contemporary video reveals life between 1915 to1960 in Columbus, Mississippi. Built around the collection of photographer Otis Noel Pruitt, the exhibition explores race relations and issues of class, gender, and religion.
The project aims to place in context Pruitt’s life-long work of documenting Southern culture. His photographs are representative of small towns in the American South at critical and tumultuous times in our nation’s history. Images include family picnics, river baptisms, carnivals, parades, fires, tornadoes, and even two of Mississippi’s last public executions by hanging – as well as the 1935 lynching of two African American farmers.
This exhibition was created through funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
August 29 Panel Discussion
Beth El Heritage Hall is a former Jewish Temple, built in 1916, that was donated to the Delta Cultural Center in 2006 by the remaining members of Temple Beth El. This beautiful historic building features an intricate stained-glass dome. In addition to the panel discussion, food and refreshments will be provided. This event is also free and open to the public.
For more information, please contact the DCC at [email protected] or call 870-338-4350. Please follow our social media for updates.