PHOTO: Workshop participants visit the New Chinese Cemetery in Greenville. Photo by Minhazul Islam.
CLEVELAND, Miss. — The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University recently wrapped up its second summer workshop. The workshop was titled "The Most Southern Place on Earth: History, Music and Culture of the Mississippi Delta." Like the workshop in June, it lasted six days and hosted forty participants, who came from twenty states. The workshops were made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Participants visited Greenville, Greenwood, Cleveland, Clarksdale, Glendora, Sumner, Leland, and Memphis. They explored the Mississippi River, agriculture, religious heritage, immigrant stories, plantation life, the Blues, Civil Rights actions, the murder of Emmett Till, and the Great Migration. Participants sampled fried catfish, barbecue, hot tamales, and even Kool-Aid pickles. They visited numerous museums and listened to presentations by distinguished scholars and local people alike. All of the participants are teachers who will be using their new knowledge of the Delta in their own classrooms this fall.
