Remembering W.C. Handy
Musician, composer and music publisher W.C. Handy, a leading influence in the popularization of blues music in the early 20th century, was born in Florence, Ala. on November 16, 1873.
Born into a family of Methodist ministers and former slaves, William Christopher Handy was drawn to popular music at an early age. He faced resistance from his minister father who, leery of secular music, called Handy’s first guitar the “devil’s instrument” and steered him toward the organ. Undaunted, Handy learned to play the cornet, took a cappella singing lessons at school, and by the age of 16 was arranging vocals of popular songs. “Setting my mind on a musical instrument was like falling in love,” he said. “All the world seemed bright and changed.”
Playing with bands that traveled the South and Midwest, Handy learned about African-American folk music that later would be called the blues. His strong connection to Mississippi came between 1903 and 1909, when he directed the Knights of Pythias band based in Clarksdale. Steeped in the Delta Blues, he later composed a string of blues hits, meanwhile documenting and promoting the genre. The “Father of the Blues” ultimately wrote an estimated 150 songs and several books. The MAX inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2022.
Remembering William Faulkner
Mississippian William Faulkner, a prolific “modernist” novelist who altered American literature in the 20th century, was born on September 25, 1897 in New Albany. Largely self-taught through reading and travels, Faulkner published 22 novels and various other works. Overcoming frustrations as a little-known young writer, he eventually claimed a worldwide audience, winning the 1949 Nobel Prize, as well as Pulitzer Prizes in 1955 and 1963.
Faulkner’s acclaimed fiction included Absalom, Absalom!, Intruder in the Dust, Soldier’s Pay and The Sound and the Fury. Ten million copies of his books were sold during his lifetime alone. His writings also included short stories, poetry and Hollywood screenplays.
The writer was inspired by a colorful great-grandfather who fought in the Civil War, built a railway line and published a romantic novel. Long associated with Oxford, where his former Rowan Oak home remains an attraction, Faulkner was a master of language and historical drama, saying, “To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi.” One character in his novel Requiem for a Nun uttered the classic phrase, often quoted today: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
Stream-of-consciousness writing and bold treatments of race, class and violence marked Faulkner’s works. The author was among The MAX’s early Hall of Fame inductees in 2017. Ralph Eubanks, a writer and former MAX board member, said, “William Faulkner helps us understand a lot about our Americanness as well as the tortured racial history of this country.” Faulkner, an influential New South figure, once said, “Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
Remembering Jim Henson
Remembering Jim Henson
Puppeteer, TV producer and filmmaker Jim Henson was born in Greenville, in the Mississippi Delta, on September 24, 1936. The “master of imagination” who celebrated the wonders of childhood spent his early years in Leland, near Greenville, playing in the murky waters of Deer Creek.
“The most sophisticated people I’ve ever known had just one thing in common: they were all in touch with their inner children,” Henson said.
Winning Emmys, Grammys and a Peabody Award, Henson connected with hundreds of millions of viewers around the globe. He was among The MAX’s early Hall of Fame inductees in 2017; in 2019, the institution hosted a traveling Henson exhibition, including original puppets. In Leland, a permanent exhibit focusing on Henson’s boyhood opened in 1991.
Henson’s family moved to Maryland when he was 12 because of a new job assignment for his father, a federal agronomist. Henson—fascinated with television and puppetry from his Cub Scout days—joined a puppet club in high school and began performing on a local Saturday morning TV show. His career took off after a five-minute television program, Sam and Friends, created by Henson and fellow University of Maryland student Jane Nebel (his future wife), won a local Emmy. The bit featured an early version of Kermit the Frog, named after one of Henson’s Delta childhood playmates.
Touting optimism and the joys of learning, Henson replaced wood puppets with soft, expressive ones, calling them “muppets.” The artist brought to life Big Bird, Miss Piggy, Kermit and other characters that resonated with adults and children. “I suppose that he’s an alter ego,” Henson once said of Kermit. “But he’s a little snarkier than I am—slightly wise. Kermit says things I hold myself back from saying.”
Henson’s achievements include launching hit TV shows such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, and directing The Muppet Movie and other films. His career was cut shor
We had a great time celebrating our Walter Anderson exhibit! In honor of Anderson’s bike travels, John G. Anderson biked to The MAX for the presentation of The Bicycle Logs of Walter Anderson. Thanks to everyone for making this opening weekend memorable.
Remembering Richard Wright
Novelist, poet and social crusader Richard Wright was born on a plantation near Natchez on September 4, 1908, the son of a sharecropper and schoolteacher. Wright became a renowned African-American literary figure in the 1930s and ‘40s as he called attention to racist practices in America.
“I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if any echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight,” the writer said.
Wright grew up in poverty, often hungry, and became a voracious reader of books as a means of counteracting harsh conditions facing Black citizens in the Jim Crow South. Raised mostly by his mother, Wright lived in Jackson, Memphis, and Arkansas. As a teenager, he published a short story in the Southern Register, an African-American newspaper in Jackson.
Wright pursued dreams of becoming a professional writer as he dropped out of high school and worked odd jobs. Moving to Chicago in 1927, he gained experience with the Federal Writers’ Project. After relocating to New York City in 1937, Wright earned fame during the next decade with publication of a short story collection, "Uncle Tom’s Children", the novel "Native Son", and his autobiography, "Black Boy". His ongoing struggle against racism in the United States eventually resulted in moves to Mexico and, later, Paris, where he continued to write novels, poems and nonfiction. Wright was part of the first class of MAX Hall of Fame inductees in 2017.
Remembering John Lee Hooker
Today, The MAX celebrates the birth of its Hall of Fame member John Lee Hooker. The renowned blues singer, guitarist and songwriter is remembered for a distinctive “boogie” style and droning chords that inspired generations of musicians.
Born into a sharecropping family in the Mississippi Delta, Hooker often cited August 22, 1917 as his birth date, although there is debate about the details of his birth, not uncommon for blues artists of his era.
Hooker found an early mentor in his stepfather, blues guitarist Will Moore. Similar to many African Americans from rural Mississippi, Hooker migrated north in search of opportunity. He worked as a janitor in a Detroit auto plant in the 1940s while honing his music style–an electric-guitar adaptation of the Delta Blues–at nighttime house parties.
Hooker earned fame with recording hits that included “Boom Boom,” “I’m in the Mood,” and “Boogie Chillen,” in a lengthy career that included stints in Chicago and California. He gained international exposure with an American Folk Blues Festival tour of Europe and broadened his fan base through rock band collaborations. Hooker played the part of a street musician (performing “Boom Boom” outside Aretha Franklin’s restaurant) in the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers and collected a string of GRAMMY awards. At the age of 72, he joined contemporary artists in releasing the acclaimed album The Healer, which sold more than a million copies. The MAX inducted Hooker into its Hall of Fame in 2020.
Happy Birthday, Bobbie Gentry.
Tricia Walker - Big Front Porch performed “Ode to Billie Joe” in her honor at the Mississippi Songwriters Alliance Pines Region Grand Finale. It’s not too late to stop by, the fun stops at 9 pm.
Remembering Ida B. Wells
The journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells was born in Holly Springs, in north Mississippi, on July 16, 1862. Wells was born into slavery during the Civil War and received her early education at Shaw University (now Rust College), which her father James Wells helped establish.
Teaching school as a young adult, Wells became a newspaper publisher and used her articles, in Memphis and elsewhere, to crusade against lynching. Her extensive research and writing on lynchings in America resulted in death threats, and she became a model for investigative journalism. “The people must know before they can act and there is no educator to compare with the press,” Wells said. Also an advocate for women’s suffrage, she helped establish the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and the NAACP. Wells, who died in 1931, was awarded a Pulitzer Special Citation in 2020 in recognition of “outstanding and courageous reporting” on violence against African Americans during the lynching era. The MAX inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2022.
Remembering George Ohr
The flamboyant potter George Ohr, an “apostle of individuality” who turned clay into fine-art pieces, was born in Biloxi on July 12, 1857. The son of German immigrants, Ohr studied under Joseph Fortune Meyer of the Newcomb College Art Pottery program, toured pottery studios across the country and was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement.
Ohr discovered the potter’s wheel as a young adult and devoted his life to crafting dynamic pottery with twisted features, thin sides and bright glazes. The artist dug clay for his ceramics from banks of the Tchoutacabouffa River near Biloxi. Working alone or with a single apprentice, Ohr made more than 10,000 pieces, each proudly unique. “I must be myself, and I want every vase of mine to be itself,” he said, often referring to pots as his “mud babies.” Known for his two-foot mustache and playful marketing – one banner proclaiming, “America holds the greatest variety potter in the world … You prove a contradiction” – Ohr wasn’t widely recognized until decades after his death in 1918. He was part of The MAX’s first class of Hall of Fame inductees in 2017. The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi celebrates his career and influence.
Celebrating Sela Ward
Television and film actor Sela Ward was born in Meridian on July 11, the oldest of four children in her family. She took ballet classes as a child and relished simple times playing outdoors until dark. After college at the University of Alabama, where she was a homecoming queen and cheerleader, Ward moved to New York and worked with an advertising agency and as a model.
Ward gained experience with appearances in television commercials in New York, and her interest in film and television acting led to a move to Los Angeles. Her career took off when she landed a lead role in the TV series Sisters in 1991. She appeared in the TV drama series House and CSI: NY, and her film credits included The Man Who Loved Women (co-starring with Burt Reynolds), The Fugitive, and Gone Girl. Ward’s major awards include two Emmys and a Golden Globe Award.
Continuing affection for her hometown was reflected her 2002 book, Homesick: A Memoir, the purchase of a retreat near Meridian by she and husband Howard Sherman, and Ward’s role in supporting major community projects, including the founding of Hope Village for Children, which cares for abused and neglected children. Ward was part of the first class of Hall of Fame inductees at The MAX in 2017.
Remembering Margaret Walker 7.7.15
Poet, novelist and scholar Margaret Walker, a pioneering female, African-American figure in American literature, was born in Birmingham, Alabama on July 7, 1915. Her close association with the arts in Mississippi stemmed from a decades-long teaching and writing career at Jackson State University, where she founded a Black studies institute in 1968. Honored with fellowships and awards, Walker gained prominence during the civil rights movement because of her writings and activism.
Walker’s father and mother, a minister and music teacher, respectively, influenced her appreciation for writing and advanced learning. “When I was about eight, I decided that the most wonderful thing, next to a human being, was a book,” she said. Walker met and received encouragement from poet Langston Hughes in 1932, and her first poem was published two years later. Walker’s higher education journey included Dillard University in New Orleans, Northwestern University, and the University of Iowa. Her renowned works included the poetry collection "For My People" (1942) and the historical novel "Jubilee" (1966), which explored the story of a biracial slave during the Civil War era, based on family accounts of Walker’s great-grandmother. Walker died in Chicago in 1998. Her induction into The MAX’s Hall of Fame came in 2019.
