All results / Stories / Amber Helsel

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New Stage Season 54 Preview

For New Stage Theatre's 54th season, the company is putting a focus on plays with a literary bent. New Stage started off with "Into the Breeches," a production that follows a group of women in 1942 as they produce "Henry V" with an all-female cast.

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Abstract Art with CDs

Wall art can be a great way to make your house feel more at home, but it can get expensive. Luckily, it's really easy to make your own with a few household item—in this case, CDs.

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Donna Beard

"I was suffering in silence and then trying to find out who do I talk to, or who could I trust with what I've gone through. ... I was so broken, so hurt, so ashamed, and nobody was able to hear my cry. Nobody was able to be there."

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Sal the Cat

The Eudora Welty House and Garden has a scavenger hunt for kids (and the young at heart) who visit the museum. While some of the items on the list are easy to find, one in particular may give visitors some trouble, depending on how this item is feeling: the resident cat, Sal.

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New Year’s Catering & Event Guide

Greater Jackson offers a variety of places to celebrate the New Year.

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Richard Sun, Mississippi Coding Academies

While Richard Sun spent most of his working life maximizing shareholder value, he says Mississippi Coding Academies, of which he is a co-founder, is about maximizing human capital.

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Cultivating Growth in Women Business Owners

Something sets Cultivation Food Hall apart: women-owned businesses. Of the nine businesses there, women have full ownership of four—Ariella's, Poke Stop, Fauna and Whisk—and co-own il Lupo and Bocca Pizzeria.

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The Sweet Potato Queens Come Home

Earlier this year, parade cofounder Malcolm White asked her if she could give he and the other organizers a date for when the Sweet Potato Queens would be part of the parade. She said this year. Then, as soon as the play was ready to be licensed, she immediately called New Stage Theatre Creative Director Francine Thomas Reynolds and asked if the company would consider the production for this season.

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John Spann

When Mississippi Civil Rights Museum Curator of Education John Spann was in high school, history came easy to him. "It wasn't like geometry or anything, and I got it," he says.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Women, Don’t Apologize

As women, we need less criticism and more support. We need people who will step up and remind us of all that we've accomplished.

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Caring for Natural Hair with Fran Alexander

Though Signature Hair Lounge specializes in weaves, Fran Alexander is knowledgeable about all types of hair. The Jackson Free Press recently talked to her over the phone about caring for natural hair.

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Fifty-Four Hours to Startup Launch

While some people got off work and headed into a typical Friday night on March 1, about 45 people gathered at Coalesce for an event that would give them an insight into entrepreneurship: Startup Weekend Jackson.

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Of Pirates and Zombies and Sherlock Holmes

When the zombie apocalypse came to small Mississippi town Ovett, people acted immediately, killing zombies and eventually throwing one of them off a bridge. As all this happened, Curtis Everitt kept his camera rolling. Everitt is the director of photography for Blair Kelly's upcoming film, "Splat," for which the bridge is one of the settings.

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Amelia Key

Amelia Key calls her art-making a "process of discovery." She does not really know what the piece is going to look like at the beginning, she says.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Set an Example for the Next Generation

As women, we need to band together to make sure we set good examples for the younger generation. We need to show them that it's OK to be whatever kind of woman they want to be, that they don't have to fit that mold.

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New Stage Explores a De-Industrializing World With 'Sweat'

New Stage Theatre will perform Lynn Nottage's play "Sweat," a production about a group of people in a factory town who are dealing with the repercussions of a de-industrializing world, April 23-May 5.

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Jacksonians Contemplate Dreams and Aspirations With 'Before I Die' Wall

The Greater Jackson Arts Council and Visit Jackson unveiled Jackson's "Before I Die" wall, a project that artist and activist Candy Chang began in 2015.

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Best of Jackson: Burgers of Note

Earlier this year, you told us your choices for some of the best local burgers in the Jackson metro area. While the winner and finalists have many choices, we decided to highlight one from each.

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Exploring Religion, Plurality, Coexistence at IMMC

It's quiet inside the International Museum of Muslim Cultures on a day in May, but a couple of blocks away, its noisier as IMMC renovates a space that will house a new exhibit.

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UMMC Empowering Through Base Pair

The Base Pair initiative, which has been around for 27 years, started with a simple question: "How can the sole academic medical center for this state help advance science education in the public schools, specifically Jackson Public Schools?"