The 2019 Conference USA Tournament brough $2.1 million to the Gulf Coast.
Mississippi has hosted the last six Conference USA Baseball Tournaments and 11 of the league’s tournaments since 1996. But the Magnolia State will not host another unless the state flag, which displays the Confederate battle flag, is changed.
Conference USA Monday followed suit with the Southeastern Conference and the NCAA, announcing that no C-USA championship event will be held in Mississippi until there is a change. That would include the C-USA football championship game should the Southern Miss Golden Eagles qualify to host it.
Nine of the last 10 Conference USA baseball tournaments have been held in Mississippi, four at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, three at MGM Park in Biloxi and two at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The 2020 tournament, canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, was to have been held at MGM Park.
The 2022 C-USA baseball tournament had been scheduled for Pete Taylor Park, but the league will find another site if Mississippi does not change its state flag.
An economic impact study of the 2019 C-USA Tournament found that the event generated $2.1 million for the Gulf Coast, with more than 10,000 visitors staying an average of 3.5 days.
Jeremy McClain
Southern Miss athletic director Jeremy McClain said he was not surprised by the league’s decision. Nonetheless, McClain said he was disappointed “any time when there is a situation where your student-athletes are penalized for something that is beyond their control.”
McClain took it a step further. “I am totally supportive of the NCAA and our conference,” he said. “This flag issue is much bigger than our hosting any kind of post-season sports event and even bigger than the economic impact of losing these events. There’s a bigger picture here. We need to change this flag in Mississippi.”
The 2021 Conference USA Tournament is slated for Ruston, La., and Louisiana Tech’s new baseball stadium currently under construction. Lane Burroughs, the highly successful Louisiana Tech coach, is a Collinsville native with strong Mississippi ties. Burroughs is a Mississippi College graduate who coached at both Southern Miss and Mississippi State before taking the Tech job.
Burroughs said he was not surprised by Monday’s C-USA news, but he was disappointed for his home state.
“It’s so very unfortunate,” Burroughs said. “My blood runs deep in Mississippi. College baseball is so strong in Mississippi. You just hate to see schools like Southern Miss, State, Ole Miss, Delta State and my alma mater, Mississippi College, lose chances to host post-season tournaments in a state that is so crazy about college baseball.
“That said, I’m on board with the decision. It’s time for Mississippi to change not only the flag, but what’s in our hearts.”
Temperatures Tuesday morning will be in the low to mid 70s. Expect another hot day with a high near 86 before showers and scattered thunderstorms return this afternoon/evening. Some of these storms may be strong. Gusty winds will be the main risk. West wind 5 to 10 mph.
Oxford-University Stadium has often hosted NCAA Regionals. That may be in the past.
Mike Bianco, the winningest active coach in the three major sports in the SEC, is a transplanted Mississippian. Born in New Hampshire and schooled in Florida and Louisiana, Bianco moved to Oxford and Ole Miss 20 years and 671 Ole Miss baseball victories ago.
He and his wife Camie have raised their five children in Mississippi. It is home. Bianco, recently named National College Baseball Coach of the Year for the abbreviated 2020 season, just signed a new contract that would keep him at Ole Miss through 2024.
Bianco would much prefer to be here under a new state flag.
Mike Bianco
“This is bigger than baseball, bigger than hosting NCAA regionals,” Bianco said in a phone conversation Saturday. “The old flag needs to go. We need a change.”
Bianco, as many Mississippi coaches and athletic directors, issued a statement: “Now is the time for the state of Mississippi to come together and make a change. Our university hasn’t flown the state flag for several years on our campus, and it would be unfortunate for our players to earn the right to play at home in the postseason and to have that taken away because of an issue that is out of their control.”
Rick Cleveland
Bianco is right. The flag issue is far bigger than baseball, affecting the way outsiders view Mississippians and how we feel about ourselves. The old flag, with the Confederate battle flag prominently displayed, negatively affects Mississippi economically and otherwise. Indeed, the old flag is so shameful that the state’s universities and many of its largest cities won’t even fly it.
For one of the first times in the state’s history, lawmakers are debating whether to change the flag as protests about racial equity continue. The leaders are considering several options before they leave Jackson for the year on Friday.
While it is hard to measure how much – and all the ways – the archaic banner negatively affects the state, it is no longer difficult to measure how will hurt college baseball in Mississippi.
The NCAA ruled on Friday it would ban all postseason college athletic events from being hosted in Mississippi until the current state flag is removed. And NCAA postseason regionals have become a way of life in the Magnolia State, where Mississippi State has hosted 14 NCAA regionals, Ole Miss has hosted nine. Southern Miss, Delta State and Millsaps also have hosted NCAA baseball regionals in the past.
College baseball is huge in Mississippi. Ole Miss, State and Southern Miss all rank among the nation’s baseball attendance leaders. Delta State traditionally is one of the nation’s NCAA Division II powerhouse programs.
Chris Lemonis
Mississippi State baseball coach Chris Lemonis also issued a statement: “Our focus as educators, community leaders, husbands and fathers is always to provide perspective. As coaches, we must see all sides of an issue or outcome to help our student-athletes make informed decisions. The rulings by the SEC and the NCAA affect our kids and community greatly but we understand their intent. My job as a head coach is to unite our players in a common goal, and a chant to our state flat is needed to unite Mississippi.”
Baseball is by no means the only sport affected. Hosting NCAA women’s basketball regionals to sold-out crowds has become an annual happening at Mississippi State. But unless there is change to the flag, State’s Bulldogs will have to go on the road to advance in the NCAA Tournament.
Old Dominion athletics
Nikki McCray-Penson’s Bulldogs will not be hosting any NCAA Regionals unless the Mississippi flag changes.
Nikki McCray-Pinson, the new State women’s basketball coach, issued her own statement, which said in part: “There is no place in our society for symbols of hatred discrimination, and oppression. As a black woman coaching at one of the most diverse universities in the SEC, I look forward to seeing change that unites us and accurately represents our great community. I understand our student-athletes and fans may be affected by the NCAA’s decision, but ultimately, this marks an important step toward inclusivity and an end to racial injustice.”
Southern Miss football could also be affected. In Conference USA, the league football championship game is played on campus sites. C-USA commissioner Judy MacLeod said last week the league is reviewing its championship hosting policies that would preclude a championship to be held in Mississippi as long as the state has its current flag. That would also mean the C-USA baseball tournament, which has been held in Mississippi eight of the nine past years and is scheduled to return to Hattiesburg in 2022, would be played elsewhere.
The NCAA ban could also affect Mississippi teams in another manner: recruiting. Ole Miss and Mississippi State often battle the likes of baseball powers LSU, Vanderbilt, Louisville and others for some of the nation’s top high school baseball recruits. Those schools use any and all selling points to win recruiting battles. If the Mississippi schools are put at a competitive disadvantage of not being able to host NCAA events, they’ll use that, as well.
“It’s hard to say what kind of effect it would have on recruiting,” said Bianco, who said no recruit has mentioned the NCAA ban as yet.
Eric J. SheltonEric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America
A fairgoer holds a Mississippi State flag during the Neshoba County Fair Wednesday, July 31, 2019.
As lawmakers consider whether to change the state flag, which features the Confederate battle emblem, dozens of cities and counties, universities and colleges, businesses and powerful associations have either stopped flying the flag or asked leaders to change it.
Lawmakers in both the Senate and House have engaged in conversations about changing the state flag the past two weeks as protests about racial equality have continued across the state and nation. Tens of thousands of protesters in Mississippi have focused their demands around the state flag.
Below is a running list of those entities that have either removed the flag or asked lawmakers to change the flag. We need your help updating the list. If you see an entity we’re missing, please send an email to adam@mississippitoday.org or kayleigh@mississippitoday.org.
Cities
Bay St. Louis
Biloxi
Clarksdale
Cleveland
Clinton
Columbus
Gautier
Greenwood
Greenville
Grenada
Gulfport
Hattiesburg
Jackson
Macon
Magnolia
Marks
McComb
Moss Point
Oxford
Pascagoula
Pass Christian
Starkville
Vicksburg
Waveland
West Point
Yazoo City
Colleges/Universities
Alcorn State University
Delta State University
Jackson State University
Millsaps College
Mississippi College
Mississippi State University
Mississippi University for Women
Mississippi Valley State University
Rust College
Tougaloo College
University of Mississippi
University of Mississippi Medical Center
University of Southern Mississippi
William Carey University
Counties
Adams
Hinds
Leflore
Oktibbeha
Washington
Businesses
4th Avenue Lounge
ACE Cheer Company of Jackson
Arco Avenue / Row 10
Barnard Equipment Company
Beard + Riser Architects PLLC
BeautyCounter with Ashley Dukes
Beckham Custom Jewelry Co.
Bragg Specialty Contractors
Carbon Office
Carson Law Group, PLLC
Clapton Realty Company
Clarke Veneers and Plywood
Claude Julian’s Clothing Company
Coastal Tile, LLC
Conscious Healing Therapies, LLC
Cotton District Cookies
Creative Distillery
Crooked Letter Picture Company
CSpire
Custom Travel Professionals, LLC
d + p Design Build, LLC
Davis Purdy Architects, PLLC / Threefoot Brewing Company, LLC
Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America
Voters cast their votes at Jackson Fire Station #22 during the midterm elections Tuesday, November 6, 2018.
In the coming days, the Legislature most likely will take up bills to restore the right to vote to felons – one felon at a time.
It is a strange process – a holdover from the 1890s’ racially charged Mississippi Constitution – that gives the Legislature the authority to restore voting rights. But it is done on a case-by-case basis. It takes a bill for each person whose rights are restored.
Often the felons getting their rights restored are those who have some type of political connection or the wherewithal to navigate the maze that is the legislative process.
Bobby Harrison
For instance, in 2019 the Legislature restored voting rights to Patrick Joseph Fick of Harrison County, who was convicted of crimes almost 30 years ago. Fortunately, Fick’s friend was a relative of state Rep. Richard Bennett, R-Long Beach, who agreed to file the bill restoring his rights. If Fick did not have connections to Bennett, he said in a 2019 interview he would not have known about the legislative process to restore voting rights.
Late last week House Judiciary B passed eight bills out of committee to restore the right to vote to felons who have paid their societal debt.
“Hopefully we can get them (bills restoring voting rights) all the way through the process,” said Judiciary B Chair Nick Bain, R-Corinth.
In the coming days, it is likely that Senate Judiciary B Chair Brice Wiggins, R-Pascagoula, also will be working on suffrage bills.
The Legislature has averaged passing 7.4 suffrage bills per year since 2000 with a high of 34 in 2004. In three years since 2000, legislators did not pass any. They passed 16 last year – the second most since 2000.
There are currently two efforts – one by the Mississippi Center for Justice and another by the Southern Poverty Law Center – to get federal courts to declare unconstitutional the portion of the state Constitution that permanently disenfranchises some felons.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had scheduled oral arguments later this month in the case brought by the Center for Justice. But now the court is contemplating whether to just consider written briefs.
Rob McDuff of the Mississippi Center for Justice said it is clear that when the framers of the state Constitution developed the felony disenfranchisement program that they had “racial intent.” The lawsuit said the program was designed to deny the vote to African Americans just like the poll tax, literacy test and other elements of the state Constitution that already have been struck down by federal courts.
In the 1890s, the Mississippi Supreme Court said the disfranchisement of felons was placed in the Constitution “to obstruct the exercise of the franchise by the negro race” by targeting “the offenses to which its weaker members were prone.”
Those crimes placed in the Constitution where conviction would cost a person the right to vote were bribery, theft, arson, obtaining money or goods under false pretense, perjury, forgery, embezzlement, bigamy and burglary. Those were crimes, rightfully or wrongfully, that the framers believed African Americans were more likely to commit.
It should be noted that under the original language of the Constitution a person could be convicted of cattle rustling and lose the right to vote, but convicted of a murder or rape and still be able to vote – even while incarcerated.
In 1968, the crimes of murder and rape were added as disenfranchising crimes. But even today, a person could be convicted of writing a bad check and lose the right to vote, but be a major drug kingpin locked up in prison and still vote.
Early in one of its court filings, the Attorney General’s office in defending the process said “like most states, Mississippi law has always disenfranchised felons one way or another.”
But in truth Mississippi is not like other states. Mississippi is among a handful of states – about 10 according to the Sentencing Project – that do not restore the right to vote at some point after a person completes his or her sentence, which could include finishing terms of probation and parole.
A 2016 study by the Sentencing Project, a national research and advocacy group that works on criminal justice issues, found that nearly 10 percent of Mississippi’s population is disenfranchised – trailing at the time only Florida. In 2018, Floridians voted to change their law to automatically restore the right to vote.
In the meantime, the Mississippi Legislature might take up one bill at a time to restore the right to vote to a handful of people in the coming days. But there has been no serious consideration by the Legislature of Mississippi joining other states on the issue since the early 2000s when the Democratic House made efforts to put in place a way to automatically restore voting rights.
Rain chances will be increasing during the first half of the work-week leading to unsettled days. Summer heat will also be sticking around. Today, showers and thunderstorms are likely. Otherwise, it will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 88. South southwest wind 5 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
TONIGHT: Showers and thunderstorms likely, with mostly cloudy skies, and a low around 70.
Supporters of the state flag rally at the Mississippi State Capitol in 2016. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
Let voters decide.
This has long been a refrain from many elected state leaders when they’re asked about stripping the Confederate battle emblem from the Mississippi state flag.
It’s been echoing through the halls of the state Capitol in recent days as Mississippi, the state with the highest percentage population of African Americans, is again in the national spotlight for having a symbol tied to white supremacy in the canon of its official banner.
While a popular vote on the flag might sound like a nod to egalitarian ideals, for many state lawmakers — and the last three Mississippi governors — calling for a referendum on the flag or noting that one was already held in 2001 has been something of a dodge. It appears to be a way to sidestep taking a clear stance on an issue that has roiled the state for decades.
“I believe very strongly that if we’re going to change the flag, the people of Mississippi should be the ones who make that decision,” Gov. Tate Reeves said in a press conference on Thursday. Asked repeatedly, he otherwise refused to say whether he favors changing the flag, or even how he might vote in such a referendum despite it being a predominant issue during Reeves’ entire political career to date.
Many state officials and political observers have noted that holding another public referendum on the flag would garner Mississippi much terrible worldwide publicity, no matter the outcome. As Mississippi Today this week polled legislators on the flag, quite a few of the dozens who publicly said voters should decide candidly lamented the prospect of such a national spectacle.
Others say that in a representative democracy, it’s the job of elected representatives to decide such issues – that our founding fathers were just as afraid of “tyranny by majority” as they were of despots. If everything were decided by direct referendum, there would likely be no civil rights. Government would not be able to levy taxes. The most populous areas of the nation and our state would dictate everything.
“As senators and representatives, we have been sent to the Capitol to lead, to make decisions,” said state Sen. Angela Turner Ford, D-West Point, chairwoman of the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus, which supports changing the flag and opposes having a referendum. “… Why not go on and address this issue while we are here in Jackson? We decide on spending billions of dollars, on state laws. It’s our job.”
Ford noted that the Legislature several years ago changed the state seal, without any hue and cry that it should go to a referendum. Similarly, the current state flag was adopted by lawmakers, not voters, in an 1894 special legislative session.
Andy Taggart, longtime Mississippi politician, author and patriarch of the state Republican Party, has been an outspoken supporter of changing the flag. He believes the Legislature should change it.
“There’s no question in my mind, if Jim Crow laws were put to a public referendum of Mississippi voters in the 1950s and 60s, those laws would have been left in place,” Taggart said. “We elect legislators to make hard decisions — about raising or lowering our taxes, to borrow or not borrow millions of dollars in public debt.”
Taggart continued: “What ought to happen is the Legislature ought to retire our state flag, with dignity. We have a new state history museum, let’s have a lovely, dignified retirement ceremony for the flag … The fact that this happens to be an emotional and hard issue is not a reason for the Legislature not to gut-up and do it.”
Taggart said he believes lawmakers pitch a referendum as “a dodge,” but “I don’t fear it the way some people do.” Taggart said he believes Mississippians would vote to change the flag.
“While I wouldn’t like to air our dirty laundry in such a public campaign, I’m confident people want to change our flag,” Taggart said. “… If it is sent to a public referendum, I will embrace it as much as I can and work to prevail on the vote.”
This week, Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said: “I have been, and I am today, in favor of placing a decision on Mississippi’s flag on a statewide ballot … It is time for this controversy to be resolved. I believe the flag which represents me and my grandchildren should reflect all of our citizens’ collective future, as determined by those who will live under that banner.”
House Speaker Philip Gunn, the most prominent Mississippi GOP lawmaker to definitively call for changing the flag, said on Friday his opinion hasn’t changed.
“The options we’ve got are for the Legislature to take the leadership role, or put it to a referendum,” Gunn said. “… I’ve always maintained that I feel the Legislature should take the leadership role.”
But Gunn said the realpolitik is that it does not appear there are enough votes in the Legislature to do so, at least in this session, which is set to end next week. He said there is some discussion about pushing the issue to a referendum.
“We are continuing to have those conversations and monitor votes,” Gunn said. “… If all we can get is a referendum, then so be it.”
The Black Joy as Resistance! Juneteenth Celebration was held on Farish Street in Jackson Friday, June 19, 2020. The Fertile Ground Project sponsored the free event which was hosted by Black Lives Matter Mississippi and ‘Sipp Talk. The event included a mural reveal by artist Adrienne Domnick, food trucks, live performances and music. Juneteenth is a national holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S. Here are images from the Jackson event.
Susan Haltom, the garden curator who’s been with the Welty Garden for decades and the co-author of “One Writer’s Garden,” retires at the end of June.
Droplets bead on yellow daylilies in the Welty Garden, and morning dew clings to Susan Haltom’s sneakers, but that does nothing to dampen the cheeriness of either.
Haltom whips out pruners and dead-heads yesterday’s blooms, introducing the perennials as originals planted by Eudora Welty’s mother, Chestina, and later, Eudora. Every flower here has a story. Many have multiple tales, trickling through the generations who’ve tended, studied and found solace and inspiration here — Chestina the garden designer, Eudora the writer and plantswoman, Haltom the garden curator and preservationist.
Haltom stops at the stand of tiger lilies for a similar bit of maintenance and a sprinkle of literary references, and she slows past the Nicotiana to consider not only the flowering tobacco plant’s blossoms, but also its place in a Welty story.
Haltom retires at the end of June after more than 25 years here. She’ll continue to advise those entrusted with the garden’s care, including the Cereus Weeders, her core group of volunteers named for the night-blooming cereus plants on the side porch of Eudora Welty House.
From that porch, every view conjures a historical tidbit or botanical observation. The now-towering cedar trees were just six feet tall when they were planted nearly a century ago. The gardenia blooms, just out of fragrance range, would be the first to sniff out a memory.
Haltom had an art degree, gardening mentorship from her mother-in-law (Glenn Haltom of Natchez), and a part-time job at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History when she was tapped to help in the Welty Garden in 1994.
Welty was then in her 80s. “Here’s her big quote to me: ‘I can’t bear to look out the window and see what has become of my mother’s garden,’” Haltom recalls. She’d lost her treasured yard man of 40 years to retirement, his replacement was a “mow-and-blow-and-go guy,” and Welty didn’t know what to do. Haltom didn’t either, at first. But research — including conversations with Welty, and later, her correspondence and photographs, and her mother’s garden notebook — and a strong network of knowledge and support fueled the 10-year garden restoration.
“So, it is authentic, just like Eudora was.”
In one of the earliest hands-on moves, Luther Ott, then Stewpot Community Services director, got a couple of the charity’s clients to help, and, along with Haltom, they pulled poison ivy for four months to uncover some of the garden’s “bones” below. A later part of the restoration, to get to the clubhouse where Welty and friends acted out dramas, required digging out a gully “so solid with bamboo you couldn’t even get through there,” Haltom recalls. “It’s been so much fun!” she laughs. “But I didn’t know in 1994 how I would get there.”
Garden preservation was a new discipline at the time — distinguished by its efforts to retain historic appearance and character, its reliance on historic documentation, its contribution to a historic property’s interpretation and more.
Photo by Sherry Lucas
Yellow daylilies at Welty Garden greet the summer sunshine.
Invaluable in the restoration effort, Haltom says, was advice and support from the Garden Conservancy, Southern Garden History Society (Haltom is a past president), the Welty family, The Eudora Welty Foundation, and particularly Evelyn and Michael Jefcoat of Laurel (“My champions,” she says). The Jefcoats’ support included the arbors and trellises made of tubular steel (rather than rot-prone wood) designed by preservation architect Robert Parker Adams to exactly match photographs of the original garden, restoration of the little clubhouse and Haltom’s book on the garden.
People often ask Haltom if, in those late years before her death in 2001, Welty could look out the window and see the work in progress? “Not exactly,” Haltom says. “But she knew that someone — me — had its best interests at heart.” Most of that time, Haltom would come and work by herself, keeping the garden under observation, then go inside and visit with Welty. She never took notes – until she got in her car to leave, and then she’d scribble madly from memory.
“‘Don’t make the garden something it wasn’t’ — that was Eudora’s dictum to me,” Haltom says. “To me, that meant that she didn’t want it all gussied up, or made into something fine and grand, like Longwood Gardens or the Biltmore House, or any of those bigger gardens that were not what she used as inspiration.
“It was very personal to her. Very personal.” Welty’s mother was the garden designer, focused on spatial relationships and continuity of bloom throughout the year. “Eudora loved looking closely at the flowers, and noting their habit and detail, the fragrance — everything that went toward … the personality of that flower.”
Flowers became character names and keys to a sense of place in Welty’s stories. “She would recognize that flowers, at this time, were ubiquitous, because women had attained the garden. … They didn’t have to be out there every Monday, boiling clothes.
“This time, in the ’20s, women had gotten the vote. And, they were driving automobiles. There were telephones in the home, and they could call each other,” Haltom says, tying the garden’s design and official period of significance, between World War I and World War II, to the era’s innovations, societal changes and women’s growing sphere of influence and community of creativity.
By then, women were sharing plants with each other. Garden clubs grew out of the already decades-old women’s clubs that galvanized personal and community improvement, through education and the charitable works of organized volunteers.
When the Great Depression came, gardens became their places of solace, as well as creativity, Haltom says. “In unusual times, like we’ve got now, many people have gone back to their gardens again. … And, that’s a good thing.”
Susan Haltom checks on the tiger lilies that grow at Welty Garden.
Welty Garden, restored to its 1925-1945 period of significance, opened to the public in 2004. It wasn’t finished, Haltom notes, adding that a restored historic garden never is. It’s always changing, as trees grow and the canopy changes. Preservation and maintenance of a historic garden, different from landscape maintenance, is an ongoing process requiring attention to detail. The garden survived the Great Depression and carried the Welty women through many hard times; she can’t help but worry about its future in the face of budget cuts.
Jessica Russell, in the relatively new MDAH position of garden projects specialist at Eudora Welty House & Garden, takes up the garden focus role. Russell helped launch an Instagram account highlighting the garden’s “parade of bloom” (in Welty’s words), boosted the garden’s presence in the redesigned website that now includes a colorful Bloom Calendar, and worked with Haltom and staff to develop a dozen signature plant labels to showcase their special connection to the author. Russell aims to increase and diversify the garden’s volunteer base. “She understands the big pictures,” Haltom says.
“One of the things that’s important to me, is just making sure that the culture of advocacy for the garden extends even beyond our staff, at higher and higher levels,” Russell says, noting that Eudora Welty House & Garden director Lauren Rhoades is also a big advocate for the garden.
Last fiscal year (July 2018-June 2019) Eudora Welty House & Garden had 5,192 on-site visitors, more than half of them on guided tours. The site’s largest programs — the Bettye Jolly Lecture, Jane Austen film screenings, Jazz Night, plant sale and Scholastic Awards Program — are always outdoors. Public hours for Welty Garden are now 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays because of the pandemic. The entire site, including Eudora Welty House and Visitors Center, reopens for tours July 7, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays.
“This garden reaches people because it’s approachable,” Haltom says, “because it looks like their grandmother’s garden, or their aunt’s garden, or someplace they can recognize the sense of place. This is Mississippi.” She’s seen visitors walk through and cry. She’s heard others say, “This is just like I stepped into ‘The Optimist’s Daughter,’” Welty’s Pulitzer Prize-winning short novel.
“It has been one of the great blessings of my life to be associated with this.” Haltom has shared the garden’s story in 250 lectures — its restoration story, the nuts and bolts methods, the women’s club movement and more — from Texas to Pennsylvania, and in the book “One Writer’s Garden: Eudora Welty’s Home Place,” co-written with Jane Roy Brown and richly photographed by Langton Clay.
“What resonates with everybody is the story, whether it’s what Eudora wrote, the story of her life, the story of this garden through the years,” Haltom says. And while she worries about the details, the story is the key. “And, we want the story to go forward.
“The garden is a container of memory,” she says at one point, a comment that reminds her of a Welty quote on the topic. Perhaps it’s this one: “The strands are all there; to the memory nothing is ever lost.”
Here’s the latest episode of Guess It Matters with Shay and Michi Guess. Looking for the audio only veresion? Scroll past the text and it will be at the bottom of the page.
We have been repainting the interior of our home, as we mentioned last week. We feel it is an ongoing project which means the people on HGTV and DIY are bald faced liars. They gave us the impression that this entire project would only take me 30 minutes minus commercials. We used to watch those shows and try to get ideas, but thinking we’re done doing that because some of the things they leave out is the taping, the removing and replacing the light switch and plug covers and washing the brushes. We have to brag on our boys though they did what we thought was an impossible task – they stayed out of the way.
Michi decided that after the paint started going on to the walls that it was a good idea to upgrade her pictures and paintings. She loves the frames or the decorative art that has bible verses, or references to home on them. You know, those items are not really necessary, but they are accents that make a room more inviting – I would think is a great way to put it. There are even designers that will stage a room right down to the right placement of a pencil and a notepad on a particular table to accent something around that piece of furniture. It’s one of those things that most people walk into a room and don’t notice it but they do. Restaurants and Hotels do this all the time – they will pay a lot of money to hire someone that understands how organizing accents effect how the patrons will react when they enter the room.
For a singer or musician, we have to look at this type of accent and organization in a different way. Today, we are going to discuss the importance of your set list and how that effects your audience and some things that you may be doing that might be hurting you rather than helping.
One of the most important songs you will sing, or play is the first one. The way our society has evolved and attention spans have diminished over the years. It was said that in the 50’s when Lucy and Dezi did their live television with multiple cameras the average time between camera changes was about 30 seconds. Today, less than 3 seconds. Research shows that it is harder to hold anyone’s attention longer than that. It’s true – the analytics for youtube suggests that most people will only view a video less than one minute unless it’s music or news related. We do our best to hold the time of our podcast to 20 minutes when most podcasts will last longer than an hour. We don’t have the advantage of multiple camera angles so we are hoping that our tips to make you better will be enough.
The first song in your set is very important. That song determines whether your audience is with you for the next 45 minutes to an hour and a half. It cannot be your best tune and it cannot be the tune you want to end your set. SO HOW DO WE CHOOSE?
If you look at country music they have the coveted Entertainer of the Year award. That is the award that sets the bar because radio singles can be finely tuned but live shows have to stand up to whatever hype is out there. It means that country music decided they would award the person that did their job based on their live performance and ticket sales. It would be difficult to award a gospel artist and entertainer award. However, look at the artists that fill seats with people that enjoy who they are hearing. There was a gentleman in Gospel Music named Jim Hammil. He was probably a genius at effectively utilizing the Kingsmen’s time spot on the stage. I read a story once that only he and the piano player in the band knew what the first song would be at each concert – and the piano player only knew when they were introduced. Everything depended on what happened right before they were introduced.
If you are on a program and you are the only person and not sharing the stage with anyone – then your first song is probably simple. It’s identifiable to your audience – is easy listening – is catchy. Usually our first songs are not too difficult or technical, but they set the pace for the program. If you start your set list with the absolute best you have, or your latest release then what do you have to build upon after that? It’s almost like a job interview. You don’t walk into the office and shout I AM THE BEST YOU’RE GOING TO MEET TODAY! You walk in and shake hands and you introduce yourself. That is your first song in your list – this is who I am and I am honored to be here today.
Your first song should not be the only first song you have especially if you are following an opening act. If someone on stage before you has taken the audience on an emotional rollercoaster they have done their job. Wherever they leave their audience is where you have to pick up and go from there. I have seen it time and time again someone follow another artist and try to keep the audience in the same place – that doesn’t work. An example: If you had to follow Elvis Presley after he ended his concert with I Can’t Help Falling In Love with a song that is similar to that one – then you didn’t introduce yourself to the audience you continued Elvis’ set into your own. It is the same concept no matter what genre of music you are performing. The audience and their participation depends on the ride they are willing to go on with you. They are trusting you with their time and everyone knows that time is precious. Nobody wants to feel like they have wasted time. If you are approaching your set list as a way to impress your audience then we need to probably stop right there and start over from the beginning. If you have been invited to sing or play at a venue then you have already impressed someone. Your set list is not the time for that. Your set list is designed to accommodate your audience and take them on a ride with music that helps them forget about the outside world and anticipate what is next. Let’s think about that rollercoaster again. The rollercoaster doesn’t throw you into warp speed and turn flips with you as soon as you sit down. Usually, the rollercoaster takes you up a peaceful climb to the top of it’s tallest point and then it drops you into the thrill you stood in line for. Then, the rollercoaster is designed each turn, up and down, twirl and spin.
Music can heal and bring peace to a person or rial them up into a frenzy no matter the genre. Allow your set lists to form with that in mind. At the end of the day you are doing a service for your audience. If you are a secular musician you want to entertain your audience – make them feel part of it. Get them to the edge and send them on that ride they stood in line for. For our gospel music singers – music is used as a way to minister to the hurting, the broken and the uninspired. The set list you bring to them should keep that in mind – and not so much whether or not they will be impressed by your high singing, your vocal inflections or how long you can hold an ending. Allow the audience to give you the cues as to how to move through your set list in a way that leaves them with a sense that you have not wasted their time and you have met them where the Spirit can touch them.
