June 25, 2012
Levee break site at Mounds Landing 


Gentle Reader,


Part of our adventure today involved visiting the levee at Mounds Landing.  Being on the bus is viewed as a movable classroom, an education on wheels.  As we drove out to the levee, we viewed a documentary about the Great Flood of 1927.  Learned about the Percy family and their investment in being humane in a world that was very color divided.  

 The Mississippi...

 Dr. Luther going over the itinerary for the seminar...

 We traveled to a state park that has been shut down since April of 2011, due to the flooding.  We were told that had we been here at this time, the water would have risen to our waists.  We were able to climb this tower and view the river from a new perspective, far high in the sky...  Beautiful.

June 25, 2012
In and around Cleveland, Mississippi


Gentle Reader,


For lunch today, we journeyed to The Senator's Place, which offers "Delicious Food for the Soul."  They were having a 9th anniversary celebration, and for just $7 you could eat all the soul food your soul desired.  Beans, rice, cornbread, lima beans, fried chicken, BBQ pulled pork, and banana pudding.  The specialty was wet fried chicken, which is fried chicken drenched in gravy.  Tender all off the bone meat.  Sweet tea, too.  Many places offer unsweet tea, but today's lunch spot served only sweet tea.  Don't think they anticipated having so many of us show up for lunch all at once.  There are 40 participants in this Mississippi Delta seminar, and over half of us went to this soul food feast.  Scott and I shared a fork for a while, as they were trying to wash silverware to keep up with the crowd.  My soul was satisfied...

 BBQ places abound in the Mississippi...

 Have to check out this clothing boutique... very little down time in this workshop experience

 One of the few places open in Cleveland on a Sunday night...

they mix up a wonderful frozen mango margarita...

Here's Dr. Luther Brown, giving us an overview of the program...he's a delightful storyteller!

We learned about perceptions of the Mississippi Delta today, with Luther talking about various ways people have viewed the Delta.  He emphasized that much of what people know is accurate, but they don't connect that knowledge with the Delta, nor do they realize the connection of that knowledge to the Delta.  One of the analogies I found most compelling was Luther's comparison of the Delta to a pile of coins.  He asked us to imagine finding a pile of coins and examining those coins, knowing there are always two distinct sides to any coin.  One one coin, there might be a side that symbolizes the wealth of the Delta... flip it over and you discover extreme poverty.  One one side of a coin you might find many prolific authors... flip it over and you discover illiteracy.  On one side of a coin you might find extreme political power... flip it over and you discover powerlessness and a people who are disenfranchised.  This kind of analogy made sense to me, and made me think about the Delta... and living... in a new way.  There is always another side to any story, another way of looking at something that appears to be one way.  There is always a shadow behind the light.  There is always light in darkness.  There is always hope somewhere within despair.  There is always a way out of any darkness.  Today was affirming and alive...


I remember something Mrs. Heabler, my 3rd and 4th grade teacher, wrote in my yearbook..."May your dark clouds always have a silver lining..."  I have been accused of being "Pollyanish," especially early in my teaching career. My nickname in Taft, California was "Mary Poppins."   I would venture out into the migrant fields, trying to rescue mothers of my Mexican students from abusive husbands.  I would walk into the tin shacks, certain that I could help.  In reality, I ended up being a listening ear, hearing stories from mothers and grandmothers through the translations of my students.  We cried together in the fields, and I held the mothers and grandmothers in my arms.  I didn't rescue anyone, nor did I change the conditions my students dealt with everyday when they came home.  But we cried together and my leaving was always followed by a very long embrace and a "gracias."

Today, we viewed a documentary entitled "LaLee's Kin:  The Legacy of Cotton."  This was about LaLee's family, and how she tried to raise her grandchildren and great grandchildren under very difficult circumstances.  Her granddaugher, nicknamed Granny, was a bright young woman who simply wanted to learn.  She had a passion for learning, but she was always so tired because of her responsibilities related to caring for younger siblings at home everyday.  I wanted to wave a magic wand over her life and give her a space where she could concentrate on simply doing her homework.  She had a passion for wanting to know things, for learning.  Instead, much of her energy was spent on helping her family find water needed for the day. They would go down to the jail and fill up jugs with water, using the hose outside the jail.  The children would take baths in five gallon containers, sharing the water.  I wanted to offer her a warm shower, letting her feel the joy of warm water on her skin.  

Dr. Reggie Brown

Reggie Brown, the former Superintendent of West Tallahatchie County Schools, spoke to us after the documentary.  He told us of the realities of what students had to deal with outside of school.  In response to a seminar participant who asked, "What can we do?"  he told us to not ignore or judge the student who falls asleep in class.  That student, especially if she is a female, has probably spent the night fighting off rats, keeping them away from her little brothers or sisters.  He told us that that female might have been fighting off other rats, too, often in the form of their mother's boyfriends who want them when they finish being with the mothers.  This is another type of "rat" that they must fend off in the night. 

I cried.  I have a place inside me that takes in this kind of sorrowful life, and it is bruised and battered after hearing the stories of LaLee and her family today. I wanted to embrace this sixth grader nicknamed Granny, holding her close, protecting her from the realities of her own life...

Namaste,

Marianne

Defeated by the map...  sweet slumber...

June 25, 2012

My navigator


Gentle Reader,


Scott has been so helpful navigating around Cleveland.  He's been dubbed as "my driver, " and gets me everywhere I need to be, on time.  The motto of the workshops is...  "If you are early, you are on time.  If you are one time, you are late.  If you are late, you are left...."  They did take our cell phone numbers, which they will use to contact us if we don't show up at the bus on time.  They will use the cell phone contact simply to tell us good-bye...


Thanks, Scott, my patient navigator , who has managed to get me everywhere I need to be on time...


namaste,
Marianne

June 24
Sights as we enter Memphis...

These carriages were especially lovely at night. all lit up with color lights... very magical!

June 24
More Images from Beale Street


Gentle Reader...


Here are some additional images from our adventures on Beale Street in Memphis...

 Images of Elvis abound...

 The drummer at Wet Willie's

 Figurines in one of the tourist shop windows...

 A window-dressing sampling of some of the cuisine at B. B. Kings

And here's some additional wisdom from my buddy James Thomas...

"...It hurts you when your woman leaves.  After that, anytime you get lonesome, you gonner want to hear some blues.  That's how blues started.  It ain't very many blues that ain't made up about a woman... Mighty near every record where they sing the blues is made up about a woman.  Your mind is on your woman.  She's giving you the blues.  You get worried over something, what you call a "deep study."  That's the blues.  You'll be thinking way back about how some woman left you.  You want her, and she don't want you.  That's what the blues is about..."

Standing with a statue of Jack Daniels on Beale Street

June 24, 2012
Memphis, Tennessee


Gentle Readers,


Pulling into Memphis, there is a skyline of beautiful old churches, some of which are captured here for you to see.  And then, of course, there is Beale Street, famous for music, block parties, and general tomfoolery.  We walked a stretch, having one of those pre-swirled adult slushies at Wet Willies, which was very refreshing in this southern heat.  We were entertained by the artwork at the joint, plus tunes from the band Sofa Kings, which largely played rock n'roll covers.  


A group of young women, all gussied up, were having a bit of a bachelorette party, with the bride-to-be all sashed and in white.  Our guess is that the wedding party was trotting from one venue to another, celebrating. 


After traipsing around a bit more, we landed at B. B. King's Blues Club, where we heard the B. B. King All Stars.  Again, not a lot of blues, more along the lines of decade music covers.  Awesome music!  The place was rockin' and the singer was especially versatile and expressive... and dance-y!

 Some of the cool art at Wet Willies

Harmonica Man

 The bride-to-be and her bridesmaids at Wet Willies

 Very artistic t-shirt designs on Beale Street

Looking forward to visiting some of the authentic Juke Joints in The Delta.

We're scheduled to go to the famous Po' Monkey Juke Joint this week...

One of the musicians on Beale Street

All of the artwork on Beale Street reminds me of one of the people I am reading about for the NEH seminar. As I continue to read Ferris' book "Give My Poor Heart Ease," I'm meeting folks who have musical as well as other artistic gifts.  One man, James "Son Ford" Thomas, who earned his living as a grave digger for decades,  plays guitar and sculpts from clay.  This is what Thomas has to say about his process for sculpting...

"...When it rains, I let the clay soak up the water.  Sometimes I mix a little wax with it to help hold it together.  Then I put hair grease on there to smooth it down and get the wrinkles out of it...  When I do my sculpturing work, things just roll across my mind.  If I see a picture in a magazine or on television, that's what I'll go by.  I look at the picture to get the future of it better.  The futures come in dreams.  I lay down and dream about the sculpture, about how to fix one of the heads.  I'm liable to dream anything.  That gives you in your head what to do.  Then you wake up and try it.  If you can't hold it in your head, you can't do it in your hand..."

I've always been fascinated and in awe of the many ways people pursue and create their art.  I used to keep a notebook next to my bed, writing down ideas in the middle of the night, things that came to me in a sort of semi-conscious, not necessarily in dreams. I often think of writing project ideas for my students in this hazy state of mind.  They tell me that I should lose that notebook that houses projects for them...

Here's one more quote by my new friend James Thomas, whose sculpting specialty is clay skulls:

"...A skull has got to be ugly because it's nothing but bones and teeth.  People are more likely to be interested in something like that than they would be in a bird.  They'd rather see a skull.  A lot of people have never seen a real skull, and they're probably wondering how it will be when they die.  they say, 'Will I be in the same shape that skull there is in?'  ...If I could get to a mountain where they have this clay like i use, I believe I could do me a whole man.  i believe I could put a whole statue of a man standing up in that mountain.  If the clay worked right, I could start at the head and come right down to the feets. I believe I could work a statue as big as a man.  i believe I could make him just as tall as me or you, if I could get the right height dirt.  That's six foot high.  I haven't ever did it, but I believe I could..."  

May this day bring you your own personal mountain of clay, to shape any way your day or nitedreams fashion...