Cradle of American Culture

Last Tuesday we had our staff retreat at The Center.  The previous week we were sent an email indicating our placement on one of three teams.  I lucked onto the orange team with Helen (uh hmm, I forgot I wasn't in Minneapolis anymore -- retraction: Miss Helen), Ryan, Cherylynn, Chiquikta, and Miss Moore.  We weren't given any instructions other than to meet at The Center at 8 a.m. sharp.  At 8 all three teams gathered for instructions.  We were told we would be spending the day competing in the "Great Delta Race".  Each team was assigned a driver, a journal keeper (me), and a photographer and then told to grab a collectable Delta Heritage Calendar and their first three clues.  I grabbed the calendar and my team headed to Chiquikta's car.  From there we picked up our official team van.  However, my team had a handicap: Miss Moore, the Director of The Center, was in a meeting and we had to wait twenty minutes for her.  At 8:30 we finally got on the road -- 30 minutes behind the blue team and 10 minutes ahead of the red team that had to wait on teammate also.  Our first clue lead us to the grave site of Fannie Lou Hamer in Ruleville, MS.  About 15 minutes into the drive I realized I had forgotten the calendar in the first car.  As the new person this was the last thing I needed.  Ryan, however, remembered he had seen a calendar at a nearby restaurant.  We made a small detour and grabbed the calendar.  Our second clue took us to Glendora, MS, the death place of Emmitt Till and home to a bed and breakfast that housed famous bluesmen.  The game changed for all of us in Glendora.  There we met the owner of the B&B and the town's mayor.  We visited the shack where Till's killers lived and the gin where they stole the 70 lb fan used to weigh his body down.  From there we traveled to the nearby town were the trial was held and visited the courthouse.  

Our next clues had to picked-up somewhere on some county road.  I started to get a little nervous as we approached Parchman Prison.  Luckily, we didn't stop there.  Somewhere in between a cotton field and a soybean field we picked-up our last three clues.  Part of the "Great Race" took us to a lecture at Mississippi Valley State with a professor and blues authority.  My orange team picked up some extra credit here.  Apparently, during the Vietnam War, Valley students protested.  The state police arrested every protester and sent them all to the notorious Parchman Prison.  The then university president had to use university funds to bail all of the students out of Parchman and then bought them all one-way tickets out of town.   Clue #4 took us to Greenwood.  I fell in love with the architecture of the town.  Outside of Greenwood was one of the three alleged gravesites of blues legend Robert Johnson.  Under the tree of this tiny Baptist church was the headstone with plane ticket stubs etc. from visitors.  At 1 p.m. all three teams met at the Viking test kitchen which is headquartered in Greenwood.  We cooked and ate pork, biscuits (of course), and pecan pie.  Next we stopped at the Alluvian Hotel.  Who knew Mississippi, let alone Greenwood, had a world-ranked hotel (top-100, that is).  After the Alluvian we hit our final stop: Brownsville.  Apparently this town, Brownsville, was named after several former slaves and sharecroppers moved in (ain't that a mess).  The town's claim to fame is its well which was dug for the purpose of providing the black school children clean drinking water in the new community-built school. 

After fulfilling clue #6 all three teams had to return their van and have all of their clues, facts, and photos in by 4:30.  The orange team, which has slid into last place by lunch., slipped into the door and exactly 4:30 with the other teams waiting (and laughing) at us.  Unbeknownst to them, we had collected all of the clues and both extra credit points.  The next day when the winners were announced guess who came out on top!?!  Slow and steady wins the race.  

This ended up being one of the best staff/team building retreats I have ever participated in.  I got an opportunity to know my office mates.  I also got a chance to see Mississippi unlike I'd seen it in any of the previous 40+ trips I've made in my life.  Mississippi certainly holds its own as its claim as the birthplace of American culture.  

Down In the Delta

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when this journey began -- when I got accepted into the AmeriCorp program, when the truck came to take all my stuff, when I started training/orientation, my first day on the job, or when my stuff finally arrived.  Unfortunately, because my move unfolded in that convoluted order, I don't know exactly when I arrived.  Needless to say, my move started off a little shakey.  I left Minneapolis knowing only that at 8:00 a.m., August 11, I was supposed to start working.  Some might say I stepped out on faith -- others might call it something else;)  Anyway, I started work on Monday morning, signed a lease with Johnny (my 19-yr-old landlord)Monday afternoon (Johnny Walker that is; yeah -- I thought that too), slept on the floor in the empty apartment with the 'rents Monday night, got my furniture on Tuesday, and got a car on Wednesday.  Whew.  Since then life in the Delta has been, well, slow.  Even though I am technically on-call 24/7, I work Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, like the average Joe.  

Cleveland is a wonderful town.  The university here, Delta State University, has about 5000 students.  It is not the largesse of the U of M -- which is in and of itself special.  I work for the Institute for Community-Based research with is housed out of, and partnered with, the Center for Community and Economic Development (CCED).  The CCED, in turn, is an extension of Delta State.  What that means to you (the reader): not much.  What it means to me: I have three too many bosses.  But that matters little because I enjoy the work (at least so far -- in these first 2 weeks).  My focus over the next year will concern researching, evaluating, and presenting causes and solutions to food insecurity in the Delta.  Cleveland sits in the second poorest Congressional District in the country, so this issue is pressing not just for researchers and local activist, but especially for those most severely affected.  

Reading and researching literature and methodology over the past 2 weeks has kept me rather busy.  However, I have had some time for socializing.  There is definitely something to be said about southern hospitality.  Folks have been very open, warm, and genuinely friendly toward me -- beyond just simple manners.  I have been to multiple homes for either lunch or dinner and still have multiple invitations to homes, events, and churches to fulfil.  So far, if there is anything I want to take back up the river at the conclusion of this year is that sense of hospitality.  

Well stay posted.  There is more to come.  And check back regularly -- at least monthly -- and share with your friends and family.  I'll need all the advice and encouragement a can get. Take care & stay posted.