How Shall We Celebrate?

April 13, 1909

Does anyone wish to declare a favorite Welty short story or book?

Leave a comment! ~Maggie

New Mississippi Poet!

Help me get the word out, 4Ws! I am currently participating in Celebrate the South Blog Tour honoring poet Patricia Neely-Dorsey of Tupelo, Mississippi. I have her new book of poetry titled, Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia: A Life in Poems, if anyone wants to read it and share with their classroom. I would like the book back afterwards to place in the library collection. Here is my contribution to the tour. ~Maggie

Visit Pat at her blog or purchase her book through Amazon.

The Tennessee Williams Rewrite

I did it! I did a Tennessee Williams rewrite!

My plan was to write about poetry this week, but then I looked at the calendar and freaked. My column's deadline is Wednesday at 12 p.m. and Welty's birthday is Monday. The newspapers tend to stagger my appearance with The Southern Reporter running the next day, Thursday, and The DeSoto Times-Tribune running two weeks later. The other three papers run Book Talk in the following week's edition.

It was either write it today or skip it all together. I decided to follow in Williams' footsteps and rewrite the post from Monday. I thought of Williams while in my panic. I remember Colby telling us he would rewrite over and over until he got the response he wanted from the audience. I want to provide the 4W readers with information. I want newspaper readers to pick up a book, any book, even if it is to throw at me!

Here is this week's Book Talk...Duck! ~Maggie

David Walker

Teaching Jubilee in the classroom can also incorporate history as well. After discussing Walker's poetry and realizing that she often refers to real people in her writings, I decided to look up David Walker. Aunt Sally goes to a secret meeting at Rising Glory Baptist Church and describes her interaction with the papers being discussed and her knowledge of David Walker. After doing much research, I learned some interesting things about David Walker. Born in North Carolina, David Walker used his pamphlet, "Appeal," to cause slaves to revolt against their master. A true abolitionist, David use his pamphlet to deliver his message throughout the south.

Teaching David Walker in the secondary classroom maybe somewhat difficult. Using this teacher resource can help you in teaching the history behind David Walker.

*Each link leads to different information on David Walker.

Here are a list of other resources:

• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2931t.html
• http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/abolitn/walkerhp.html
• http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3237

Harsh Reality of Slavery

Reading Jubilee has reignited my pure disgust towards the existence of slavery. It's amazing how Margaret Walker recaptures the persistent cruelty, the menacing hatred, and the harsh reality of Southern Gothic. Walker's ability to recreate such a tragic piece of history demonstrates how truly talented she was.

Chapter one ends with the death of an woman. What was the woman's name? How does her death impact you? What character stands out the most in chapter one?

America's First Serial Killers!

In Eudora Welty: Some Notes on River Country edited by Hunter Cole, a quote from Welty as told to Dr. Peggy Prenshaw in Conversations with Eudora Welty included in Cole’s afterword, inspired my thoughts. Welty said, “Why, just to write about what might happen along some little road like the Natchez Trace—which reaches so far into the past and has been the trail for so many kinds of people—is enough to keep you busy for life.”

Just as William Faulkner set his novels in fictional Yoknapatawpha County and Tennessee Williams used the Clarksdale area as setting in most of his plays, Welty kept busy with stories set in the River Country between Vicksburg and Natchez. These stories include her book The Robber Bridegroom and short stories: A Worn Path, Asphodel, First Love, A Still Moment, Livvie, and At the Landing.

Cole continues, “It is known that she had read Audubon’s diaries, J.F.H Claiborne’s Mississippi narratives, and Robert M. Coates’s The Outlaw Years: The Land Pirates of the Natchez Trace and wished to verify the history these told."

I, too, wish to verify a sentence mentioned in Welty’s Some Notes on River Country. Welty wrote, “Deep under them both is solid blue clay, embalming the fossil horse and fossil ox and the great mastodon, the same preserving blue clay that was dug up to wrap the head of the Big Harp in bandit days, no less a monstrous thing when carried in for reward.”

What! How disgusting! Is this really true and why haven’t I heard of said Harp, Big or Little?

The Robber Bridegroom and Eudora Welty: Some Notes on River Country are perfect companions to a class on Mississippi history. Yes, I know RB is fictional, but sometimes it takes a story to get students interested. I surely want to know more about the Harps, Mike Fink, Lorenzo Dow, John Murrell, Aaron Burr, Harmon Blennerhassett, and John James Audubon’s search for the ivory-billed woodpecker in Mississippi. ~Maggie

4Ws Facebook Page

Here is the link to the 4Ws Writing Institute Facebook Page. Please make sure you become a fan, so that we can keep in contact after the writing institute. I have started a discussion topic on Jubilee. Remember that we are reading Jubilee for next month. Make sure you bring a poem you wrote about your life!

Shout Out to Panny Mayfield! Thanks for the article!

We had an awesome time during our discussion of Tennesse Williams in Clarksdale, MS! Panny Mayfield was an exceptional host. Check out an article in the Clarksdale Press Register about our visit! Hope you enjoy!

Margaret Walker Discussion #1

Walker extends the oral tradition, emphasizing the folklore in her poetry. In Walker's poetry, she takes actual people, events, and traditions and transform them into her own. She uses traditional ballad forms in her poetry. Her volume of poetry, October Journey, includes several examples of ballads in her poetry. Many of her poems include emphasis on the South as an "ancestral homeland" and juxtaposing the past with the present. However, she does not romanticized previous Southern culture.

Her poetry includes reclamation - an unpleasant experience for some readers. Often not apologetic, Walker's poetry tends to be bold. Humanity and dignity is constantly used through her poetry. She emphasizes the humanity of it all. Typical southern gothicism exists in her poetry. Images of the violent south exists throughout her poetry. She proves to be a "southern gothic writer." Walker's poem, "Delta," provides a unique combination of various elements related to the south.

Elevated rhetoric, literary tools, parallelism, and language beyond normal use is important in Walker's poetry. Biblical cadence, which can be heard in sermons, can be heard in Walker's poetry (e.g. "Delta" and "Hosea"). Walker has a unique connection to visual artists.

Applying Walker in the Classroom:

• Teaching literary elements: Take one of Walker's poems and have students identify literary elements.


• Writing about your life: Have students read one of Walker's poems and create a poem about their life, referring to the chosen poem.


• Comparison: Compare poems "For My People" and "I've Known Rivers" by Langston Hughes. Have students write their comparison, while playing the sound of a river running. Have students applying the literary tool, parallelism.


• Teaching Poetry and Establishing Confessional: Use Walker's poetry to identify your own bias and have students identify their own vulnerability and bias.

Poems discusssed in today's discussion:

1. Ex-Slave


2. For My People


3. Delta


4. Lineage


5. Today


6. Yalluh Hammuh


7. Teacher


8. Long John Nelson and Sweetie Pie


9. Whores


10. Street Demonstration


11. Girl Held Without Bail


12. For Andy Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Chaney


13. Jeremiah


14. Isaiah


15. Amos


16. Amos (Postscript, 1968)


17. Joel


18. Hosea


19. Micah


20. Ballade of the Hoppy-Toad


21. October Journey


22. I Want to Write


23. For Gwen 1969


24. Ballad for Phillis Wheatley


25. Medger Evers


26. Jackson State

Postage Stamps

Thanks to our generous Clarksdale hostess, Panny Mayfield, attendees received a somber Tennessee Williams, postage-stamp poster. That got me wondering about other stamps recognizing our 4Ws' authors.

Found this brightly colored Street Car Named Desire stamp while googling Tennessee Williams stamps.

Richard Wright has a stamp in the same style as Mr. Williams indicating a series.

Other stamps of our 4Ws include foreign nations like Ghana and Turkmenistan, and a nice collection of "The History of Theatre" from Gambia.

What does a girl have to write to get a postage stamp?!? I went all through the internet and could NOT find a postage stamp for Margaret Walker Alexander and Eudora Welty. Humpf! ~Maggie

Thomas Lanier Williams (1911 ~ 1983)

When I stop working the rest of the day is posthumous. I'm only really alive when I'm writing.

~ Tennessee Williams

Plays

27 Wagons Full of Cotton and Other One Act Plays (1945)
The Glass Menagerie (1945)
Battle of Ages (1945)
A Streetcar Named Desire (won Pulitzer Prize 1947)
You Touched Me! (1947)
American Blues (1948)
Summer and Smoke (1948)
The Rose Tattoo (1951)
I Rise a Flame, Cried the Phoenix (1951)
This Property is Condemned (1952)
Camino Real (1953)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (won Pulitzer Prize 1955)
Baby Doll (screenplay 1956)
Suddenly Last Summer (1958)
Orpheus Descending (revision of Battle of Ages 1958
A Perfect Analysis is Given by a Parrot (1958)
Garden District (1959)
Sweet Bird of Youth (1959)
The Fugitive Kind (1960)
Period of Adjustment (1960)
The Night of the Iguana (1961)
Five Plays (1962)
The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (1964)
Grand (1964)
The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore (1964)
The Mutilated (1967)
Kingdom of the Earth (1968)
In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel (1969)
Dragon Counting, A Book of Plays (1970)
The Two-Character Play (1971)
Small Craft Warnings (1973)
Outcry (1973)
The Red Devil Battery Sign (1975)
Vieux Carre (1979)
A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (1980)
Steps Must Be Gentle (1980)
A House Not Meant to Stand (1982)
Clothes for a Summer Hotel: A Ghost Play (1983)
Stopped Rocking and Other Screenplays (1984)
The Remarkable Rooming-House of Mme. LeMonde (1984)
Something Cloudy, Something Clear (1995)
Not About Nightingales (1998)

Collections of Short Stories

The Vengeance of Nitocris (1928)
The Field of Blue Children (1939)
The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin (1951)
Hard Candy: a Book of Stories (1954)
Three Players of a Summer Game and Other Stories (1960)
The Knightly Quest: a Novella and Four Short Stories (1966)
One Arm and Other Stories (1967)
Eight Mortal Ladies Possessed: a Book of Stories (1974)
Tent Worms (1980)
It Happened the day the Sun Rose, and Other Stories (1981)

~ Happy Reading from Maggie

Trip to Clarksdale

A coworker, from Clarksdale, mentioned a front cover spread about our trip in the Clarksdale Press Register, their local newspaper. Click on the link to read the article from March 21, 2009.

MPB Education Express

While visiting Mississippi Public Broadcasting website, I discovered online resources for teachers. There are several resources available for educators. I also discovered Education Express, a great resource teachers can use to assist in planning their daily lessons. Since we are nearing the last few months of school, I thought you would greatly benefit from a little assist to help you! Check it out! Let me know what you think!

Haiku Friday!

#3

Keep straight down this block,
Then turn right where you will find
A peach tree blooming.

Haiku: This Other World by Richard Wright (Arcade, 1998)

Mixed media collage titled Coming Together by Mississippian Charles Crossley.

Mr. Crossley's recent works are on exhibit
at
The Lauren Rogers Museum
from
March 15 - May 17, 2009 in the Stairwell Gallery! ~ Maggie

Images

I have posted new images to our Flickr group. I really hope you will share the images you have taken as well. We had a great time! I really enjoyed seeing everyone. Please remember that we have a Facebook page and a blog on Blogger. Don't forget to participate! See you in a month!

Note: Picture taken by Maggie (l to r) Darein Spann and Sheri Blankenship

The Story is in the Stars

One of the things I find fascinating about our discussions is the underlying myths associated with the stories. I am caught off guard every time and must face my weak education in the area of mythology. I have no excuse with our next assignment. The play's name, Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams, smacks of myth.

For your convenience, this post includes a few websites featuring the retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice: two from Virginia Commonwealth University and one from Women in Myth.

The Wikipedia article on Orpheus includes this statement, “The lyre was carried to heaven by the Muses, and was placed among the stars.” I thought it might be nice to include a couple of website on the constellation Lyra: one by Ian Ridpath (my hero) and another by Constellations of Words that contains an etymology. ~ Maggie

Benefits of the Writing Institute

I found a Literature book which I had "borrowed" from my mother's extensive home library. I looked through it and found one of Tennessee Williams’ plays, "The Glass Menagerie." Since it was almost to bedtime for my children, I decided to read it to them. After reading the background information on the characters and the production notes, I began to read scene one. Tom's narration was very interesting. Tom provided important information on the characters. The first part of the scene was very funny. Tom became upset with his mother because she often chastised him about his eating habits. He leaves the dining to smoke as cigarette. Then I read, "No, sister, no, sister - you be the lady this time and I'll be the darky" (Knickerbocker 707). I had to stop. The word, "darky," hit me like a whirlwind. Does Tennessee's Williams avoid using the "N" word to deviate from controversy? If "darky" was deleted, would scene one in the play still have the same meaning? Reading on, I understood the message he was trying to deliver. He wanted the viewer to see the mother's desire to teach Laura how to be waited on instead being the server.

Being a part of the writing institute has transformed my ability to read derogatory words and to see the author’s underlining meaning. It has been a wonderful experience to discuss rather touchy subjects, like racism, in an intellectually stimulating situation. Our monthly discussions have been fundamental in my own ability to interpret what I read and the message the author is trying to portray.

Works Cited

Knickerbocker, K. L. and Reniner, H. Williard. "The Glass Menagerie." Interpreting Literature. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1955.

Facebook and 4Ws

I have created a page for the 4Ws Writing Institute on Facebook. Please support the Writing Institute Facebook page by becoming a fan! I created the page to provide universal exposure for the program. I have enjoyed being a participant in this program, and I want to share my experience with others. Look forward to seeing you online at Facebook!

Haiku Friday!

#730

From the cherry tree
To the roof of the red barn,
A cloud of sparrows flew.

Haiku: This Other World by Richard Wright (Arcade, 1998)

Acrylic by Mississippian Rick Anderson titled Red House. ~Maggie

4Ws Flickr

I have created a slideshow using the photos from this past week's discussion. Remember to post your photos from previous trips and discussions to our Flickr group. Here is a link to our group.

Exposure to Tennessee Williams

Our past discussion on Tennessee Williams was informative, entertaining, and intriguing. Dr. Kullman enticed us with humor and managed to keep a very interactive discussion going, even though it was "The Love Holiday." I really enjoyed the handouts. He provided so much information to use in the classroom. From images of important landmarks used in Tennessee Williams to frequent themes in his plays, we left with an abundance of information to create essay assignments and to encourage classroom discussions. I am looking forward to our next meeting in Clarksdale, MS.

I'd Love to Hear...

During discussion Saturday, I mentioned plays being used as entry points for reluctant readers. My Book Talk column for the previous week talked about that very thing. I am not an educator and wrote the piece from my own experience, but would love feed back from teachers. I would like to know if this is a practical idea or do I need to go back and rethink the article. The article is passed rescission though. Please leave a comment here or click the words Book Talk and leave one there. ~ Maggie

Haiku Friday!

#97

In the setting sun,
Each tree bud is clinging fast
To drying raindrops.

Haiku: This Other World by Richard Wright (Arcade, 1998)

Mixed media collage by Texan Cheryl McClure titled The Rain Came. ~ Maggie

Let's discuss...

The following questions were developed by Dr. Jerry Ward for the short story Down by the Riverside by Richard Wright. ~ Maggie


1. What is the moral conundrum in this story?

2. Does the story seem to have unusual significance if we compare reactions to the Mississippi River flood of 1927 with those evidenced in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the breaking of the levees in New Orleans in 2005?

3. Why are the military officials so insensitive to Mann's grief over the death of his wife? Why is Mann addressed as “boy”?

4. Why does Mann rescue Mrs. Heartfield and her two children when he knows they will identify him as the person who murdered Mr. Heartfield?

5. Why does Mann decide to die before the agents of justice can kill him? What is the significant difference between his decision and the one Silas makes in Long Black Song?

20th ANNUAL
NATCHEZ LITERARY & CINEMA CELEBRATION

Natchez, Mississippi
FEBRUARY 19-22, 2009

"Southern Women Writers:
Saluting the Eudora Welty Centennial"

Conference co-sponsors:
Copiah-Lincoln Community College,

Natchez National Historical Park,

Mississippi Department of Archives and History,

and Mississippi Public Broadcasting

Co-chairmen:
Carolyn Vance Smith, Kathleen Jenkins,

Jim Barnett, and Marie Antoon
Director of Proceedings: William F. Winter

ABOUT THE CELEBRATION…

The Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration, winner of an Olympic Award, the Governor’s Award, and the Mississippi Tourism Award, has been called by official evaluators “Mississippi’s most significant annual conference devoted to literature, history, and culture.”

Sponsored by Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Natchez National Historical Park, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and Mississippi Public Broadcasting, the Celebration annually presents a theme-based lecture series enhanced by films, field trips, workshops, exhibits, book signings, and discussions.

Each year since the NLCC began in 1990, the conference has been made possible in part by the Mississippi Humanities Council under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The conference is also made possible in part by a $100,000 National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant that was successfully matched dollar-for-dollar during a three-year campaign that ended in 2006.

For information about Natchez and where to stay, visit:
Natchez Convention and Visitor Bureau
Other Natchez sites to visit:
http://www.visitnatchez.com/
http://www.rosaliemansion.com/
http://www.natchezchamber.com/

For questions and or ticket orders call

toll-free 1-866-296-NLCC (1-866-296-6522) or e-mail info.

~ Maggie

Let's Discuss...

The following questions were developed by Dr. Jerry Ward for the short story Big Boy Leaves Home by Richard Wright. ~ Maggie


1.) The story opens with four black boys engaged in the banter known as “the dozens.” Why does Wright begin the story with a ritual involving verbal insults?

2.) How does Wright use a classic taboo regarding contact between blacks and whites to activate tragic events in the plot?

3.) What are the justifications for the soldier’s killing of Lester and Buck? For Big Boy’s killing the soldier? What point does Wright wish to make about justice and inequality? About justice and power?

4.) How does Wright use the themes of innocence and guilt in the story?

5.) Note the pastoral setting in which violence initially occurs. What do other acts of violence in the story lead us to conclude about the nature of violence? About the nature of the community wherein it occurs?

6.) Is Big Boy’s witnessing of the lynching of Bobo a part of his education?

7.) How important are issues of migration and displacement in the story? Why does Big Boy flee to Chicago rather than to another part of the United States?

Pic Disposable Cameras!

Now through Feb. 16, 2009 people can view the photographic art of Eudora Welty at the Museum of the City of New York! The exhibit is titled Eudora Welty in New York: Photographs of the Early 1930s and includes her pics taken while living in the city. Afterwards the exhibit will be packed up and shipped back to Mississippi for a showing at the Welty House.

Dr. Prenshaw shared an article she found in The New York Times promoting the exhibit titled "Portraits Taken by a Writer as a Young Woman (in Hard Times)" by Karen Rosenberg.

As a fun classroom assignment, purchase disposable cameras in bulk and let students document a week in their lives for an end-of-the-year exhibit. Teachers may want to lead them by showing Eudora Welty's work and introducing a theme before they start clicking such as My Mississippi or A Day in the Life. How about giving them black and white Kodaks for a back-in-the-day feel? ~Maggie

Copyright information - [Untitled. Front Stoops], 1935-1936 Modern gelatin silver print from the original negative (c) Eudora Welty, LLC; Eudora Welty Collection - Mississippi Department of Archives and History. ~ Maggie

Haiku Friday!

#334
A lakeshore circus:
An elephant trumpeting
Waves on blue water.

Haiku: This Other World by Richard Wright (Arcade, 1998)

Note: The artwork titled A Fresh Wave is by Mississippi artist Antoinette Badenhorst.

The photograph is taken by Koos Badenhorst. ~ Maggie

The Fifth W!

Rick Bragg, author, journalist and longtime admirer of Willie Morris, will speak TODAY on "Willie’s Humor" from 5-6:30 at the Willie Morris Library, 4912 Old Canton Road in Jackson. The program is part of a series "Willie Morris: The Man and His Words," sponsored by Jackson Friends of the Library.

For several years Bragg was national correspondent for The New York Times. In 1996, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, which the judges called "elegantly written stories on contemporary America." He has received the American Society of Newspaper Editor’s Distinguished writing award, and over 40 other journalism awards.

Among other books, he has published three family memoirs: All Over But the Shouting (1999), Ava’s Man (2002) and Prince of Frogtown (2008).

He has conducted writing workshops all over the country and currently teaches writing at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. For more information, call 601-352-1312. ~ Sheila Bonner

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Here are a list of resources to discuss Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the classroom.

1. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway
2. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Original Trailer
3. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Study Guide
4. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Lesson Plan