Newsletter: Poetry Talk, CASE Festival Schedule, Student Fellowship, and more
Your weekly roundup of events and other exciting news from the Margaret Walker Center!
Afrodiasporic Translation: Returning Anew to Nicolás Guillén’s The Great Zoo
Don’t miss this upcoming poetry talk with poet, translator, and scholar Dr. Aaron Coleman on Thursday, April 3, at 10:00 a.m. in LIB 166 on the Jackson State University campus! His talk is entitled “Afrodiasporic Translation: Returning Anew to Nicolás Guillén’s The Great Zoo” and is free and open to the public.
2025 CASE Festival
In partnership with Jackson State University, the Mississippi Arts Commission, and the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Margaret Walker Center is proud to host the 19th Annual Creative Arts & Scholarly Engagement (CASE) Festival, scheduled for this Friday and Saturday, April 4 & 5, 2025. The CASE Festival will feature a keynote address by Natasha Trethewey, a Mississippian, former U.S. Poet Laureate, and Pulitzer Prize-winner.
The festival will also highlight the life and legacy of Emmett Till and will open with a plenary conversation featuring the staff of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center.
We’ll send out another reminder this week, but here is an overview of the schedule:
Friday, April 4 – COFO Civil Rights Education Center
3:00 p.m. – 4:20 p.m. Remembering Emmet Till 70 Years Later: Rev. Wheeler Parker and the Emmett Till Interpretive Center Staff, Benjamin Saulsberry and Jay Rushing
4:30 p.m. Sunset with Students: Music, Food, and Spoken Word — Reception and Open Mic
Saturday, April 5 – Jackson State University
8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Registration, Q&A, and Continental Breakfast | JSU Student Center 1st Floor Front Desk
9:00 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. Concurrent Session I | JSU Student Center rooms 3210, 3241, Johnson Hall Art Gallery
10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Concurrent Session II | JSU Student Center rooms 3210, 3241, Johnson Hall Art Gallery
12:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. Luncheon and Thee Black Panther: JStyleU Modeling and Fashion Collective | JSU Student Center Ballroom
1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. Concurrent Session III | JSU Student Center rooms 3210, 3241, 3250, Johnson Hall Art Gallery
3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Natasha Trethewey and Shanna Smith: Closing Conversation and Awards Ceremony | JSU Student Center Theater
View more information and a detailed schedule of events on our website.
Student Fellowship: Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies
Attention undergrads! Rhodes College invites applications from full-time HBCU students who are rising juniors or seniors to join the iRaST Mellon Student Cohort. The iRaST is an intellectual hub for scholarly activity and curricular development around racial equity, discrimination, and justice in and around Memphis. This particular program is with the Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies—an 8-week, intensive summer research institute that runs June 2 – July 31, 2025.
Fellows will be supervised by Rhodes faculty and participate in the South Memphis Stories Project. Using churches and other anchoring institutions in South Memphis, selected students will collect oral histories from South Memphis residents to gather, preserve, and promote living histories of this vibrant African American community.
Each fellow will receive a $3,250 stipend, free housing on the Rhodes campus, faculty mentoring, and unparalleled opportunities to explore Memphis and the region through field trips, focused academic research, student-faculty interaction, and more. Qualified candidates must have a minimum GPA of 3.0.
The deadline for applications is Friday, April 4, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. Additional details about the fellowship and application can be found in this call for proposals.
Last Week’s HBCU RPP Edition: Donald Baker
HBCU Radio Preservation Project
Happy Wednesday! Enjoy this edition of the HBCU Radio Preservation Project. As a collaborator in the project, the Margaret Walker Center is serving as a repository for the histories of HBCU stations and the community members who have been a part of them.
COFO Pocket Park Upgrades
Have you visited our Pocket Park lately? You should! Take a look at the picture below for a sneak peak of our new lights. We’ll be keeping the park open from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, so take advantage of this great study/work/community space!
Contact Us
Want to get in touch? Send us an email at mwa@jsums.edu, reply to this newsletter, or find us on social media! We’re on Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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