The Margaret Walker Center is pleased to announce the schedule of events for the 16th Annual Creative Arts & Scholarly Engagement (CASE) Festival, featuring musical greats Cassandra Wilson, Nellie Mack, Rhonda Richmond, and Yvonne “Niecie” Evers, scheduled to be held in a hybrid format, virtually and in-person, on Friday and Saturday, April 8 & 9, 2022.
These events are made possible by the general support of the Mississippi Arts Commission and the Greater Jackson Arts Council.
All events are free and open to the public, and all plenary sessions will be livestreamed on the Margaret Walker Center Facebook and YouTube pages.
The conference theme, “Past, Present, Future: A Legacy in Music,” recognizes music as a universal language that has had and continues to have a strong influence and role in many events and situations across time and place. We can mark events, recognize people, and express emotions and ideals through the diversity of music we create or that we engage as we traverse our individual and collective journeys. As such, the 2022 CASE Festival will examine the impact and importance of music (and the entertainment industry) on society in regards to such dynamics as gender, race, culture, politics, health, and education.
At 2 p.m., Friday, April 8, the opening CASE Festival plenary will engage four Mississippi music legends and JSU alumna–Cassandra Wilson, Nellie Mack, Rhonda Richmond, and Yvonne “Niecie” Evers–in a conversation facilitated by professor C. Liegh McInnis. Together at Jackson State, they comprised the band Past, Present, and Future. This event will be livestreamed on the Margaret Walker Center Facebook and YouTube pages.
We are sorry to announce that the second plenary will have to be cancelled. It was scheduled to be livestreamed at 5 p.m. on Friday, with hip hop scholar Charlie Braxton and Dr. Regina N. Bradley, an alumna Nasir Jones HipHop Fellow (Hutchins Center, Harvard University, Spring 2016), Associate Professor of English and African Diaspora Studies at Kennesaw State University, a faculty editor for Southern Cultures journal, and co-host of the critically acclaimed southern hip hop podcast Bottom of the Map with music journalist Christina Lee. Her 2021 book, Chronicling Stankonia: the Rise of the Hip-Hop South, was named the best music book of the year by Rolling Stone.
On Saturday, April 9, the CASE Festival will shift to an hybrid in-person and virtual convening with a welcome breakfast and reception at the Margaret Walker Center in Ayer Hall on the Jackson State campus at 8:30 a.m.
Student presentations during concurrent sessions will begin in multiple locations at 9:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Two plenary sessions will highlight the day on Saturday, including a special visual arts presentation, Centering Creation, at 10:30 a.m. in the College of Liberal Arts, featuring daniel johnson, the Mellon Graduate Assistant at the Margaret Walker Center; Kat Wright, Public Art Director, City of Chattanooga; and Vicki Meek, Art League of Houston, 2021 Texas Artist of the Year.
Kat Wright
Vicki Meek
The closing plenary will feature the annual $1,000 Margaret Walker Award for the best essay by a JSU student as well as the $500 Dr. Doris Derby Social Justice and Visual Arts Award, to be presented for the first time since the passing of Dr. Derby in March 2022. Please make plans to join us for a free boxed lunch served in Ayer Hall.
Friday, April 8, 2022
Past, Present, Future: A Legacy in Music
Plenary Session
Rhonda Richmond, Nellie Mack, Cassandra Wilson, Yvonne “Niecie” Evers
Moderated by C. Liegh McInnis
Margaret Walker Center Facebook and YouTube
2:00 p.m. to 3:50 p.m.
Keynote Conversation CANCELLED
Plenary Session
Charlie Braxton and Regina Bradley
Margaret Walker Center Facebook and YouTube
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 9, 2022
Registration and Q&A: Continental Breakfast
Ayer Hall, Jackson State University
8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Concurrent Session I
9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.
Panel 1: Poetry, Spoken Word, Written
Virtual Only: Zoom (Meeting ID: 812 9151 3484)
Black in a White Wasteland
Darius Grant, Jackson State University
Voices through Time
Jordyn Hill, Jackson State University
The History of Music: The Southern Influence
Jada Bronson, Jackson State University
Moderator: Johnnie Robinson, Jackson State University
———————————————–
Panel 2: Written
Johnson Hall Art Gallery
Thelma Collins: HERstory
Aisha Saffold, Jackson State University
When Skin-Color and Gender Determine Worth
Chris Winter, Jackson State University
Singing Ʋba Isht Taloa Holisso
Choctaw Christian sacred songs, 1820-present
Sarah Waters, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary
Moderator: Tiffany Caesar, Jackson State University
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Panel 3: Written
Ayer Hall Reading Room, 2nd Floor
Southern Hospitality
Iyanna Sobers, Jackson State University
Unpeacefully Resting: Critical Race Theory
& the African American Fight against Racism
Shirley Collins, Jackson State University
Mia Thompson, Jackson State University
Reclaiming My Womb
Victoria Washington, Jackson State University
Moderator: Thomas Kersen, Jackson State University
———————————————–
Panel 4: Written, Phi Alpha Theta
Hybrid: Ayer Hall Conference Room, 4th Floor and Zoom (Meeting ID: 875 4492 2866)
Civil Liberties and Marginalization
“Sole and Separate”: The Progression of Married
Women’s Property Rights in the State of Mississippi
Maggie Ellis, Mississippi University for Women
The Guarani and the Jesuit Expulsion
Caleb Bates, Jackson State University
Freedom of Speech and the Abolitionist Movement
Todd McInnis, Mississippi College
The Silent Killer
Chastity Quick, Jackson State University
Moderator: Janice Brockley, Jackson State University
Plenary Session
Centering Creation
daniel johnson, Mellon Graduate Assistant, Margaret Walker Center
Kat Wright, Public Art Director, City of Chattanooga
Vicki Meek, Art League of Houston, 2021 Texas Artist of the Year
JSU College of Liberal Arts, room 166/266
Margaret Walker Center Facebook and YouTube
10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.
LUNCHEON
Ayer Hall Gallery, 2nd Floor
12:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Concurrent Session 2
1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Panel 5: Poetry, Spoken Word, Creative Writing
Ayer Hall Reading Room, 2nd Floor
My People, Our Past!
Jessica Johnson, Jackson State University
Teacake Memories
Aisha Saffold, Jackson State University
Bury My Body Down by the Highway Side
Maya McFadden, Murrah High School
Jesus and Joe
McKenna Light, Jackson State University
Moderator: Shanna Smith, Jackson State University
———————————————–
Panel 6: Visual Arts
Ayer Hall Gallery, 2nd Floor
Finding Your Photographic Vision
Jasmine Johnson, Jackson State University
Music across the African Diaspora
Juliana Rincon, Jackson State University
The Seeds Planted
Tyler Duncan, Jackson State University
Moderator: Brittany Myburgh, Jackson State University
———————————————–
Panel 7: Written, Phi Alpha Theta
Hybrid: Ayer Hall Conference Room, 4th Floor, and Zoom (Meeting ID: 817 6195 2938)
African American Perspectives
Digital Storytelling: A History of
Enslaved Christian Women in Antebellum Mississippi
Ellen Quinn, Mississippi College
African Americans in Sandusky, Ohio
Michelle Rankins, Jackson State University
Oscar Micheaux and the Myth of the American West
Chris DiGiovanni, Jackson State University
Moderator: Daphne Chamberlain, Tougaloo College
———————————————–
Panel 8: Written, Phi Alpha Theta
Johnson Hall Art Gallery
The Social Impact of Slavery
Skin Color, Scars, and Slavery’s Silences:
Describing Runaways and Constructing Race
in the Bahama Islands, 1783-1807
Matthew Drew, Mississippi College
Foundations of Mississippi
Slavery, Christianity, and Crisis
Drew Gardner, Jackson State University
Slavery and Social Order in Rome
Jordan Cobb, Mississippi College
Moderator: Melissa Jones, Mississippi College
Closing Reception and Awards
JSU String Ensemble: Adoration by Florence Price
Azaiah Ambrose (Violin), Kiden-Aloyse Smith (Violin), Darren Smith (Violin),
Monet Spencer (Violin), Stephanie Hughes (Viola), Dorien Bruce (Bassoon)
Tyler Dennis, Violin: Courante from Partita No. 1 in B Minor by Bach
$1,000 Margaret Walker Award
$500 Doris Derby Social Justice and Visual Arts Award
JSU College of Liberal Arts, room 166/266
Margaret Walker Center Facebook and YouTube
3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
