Maimed and Tamed, by Palmer Houchins
I was maimed by rock and roll.
Nonetheless, I have always been enthralled by the spectacle of live music. There was a mystifying sense of power and community contained therein. While my particular tastes and understanding of music have changed considerably over the years that fact has not.
Busting Out of Jail, by David McCarty
Ten years after Elvis died, Bob Dylan said that when he first heard the King's first single "That's All Right" as a kid, it "was like busting out of jail." Music is the most important thing in my life, but I don't think most of us feel that freedom Dylan did. Maybe Elvis busted us all out of jail nearly 50 years ago, and so we don't have to worry about it. Thinking about it made me struggle to find the songs that revolutionized my life, but I didn't find Elvis, or Dylan or even the Beatles. I found R&B classics and Top 40 trash and leftist punk and heavy metal, and it was less like breaking out of jail than this really great, ugly old quilt that keeps me warm at night. Nothing to look at but comforting to have around.
LADD: Let the Music Play
I've never understood folks who listen to only one type of music. That's kind of like eating McDonald's for every meal; how can one live that way? I could have gone down that road, though. I grew up hearing nothing but country music in Neshoba County. It was the '60s for heaven's sake, and not a single Motown tune. Or Dylan. Or the Beatles. Basically no music that was remotely diverse or revolutionary. I knew Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner and Merle Haggard and Charlie Pride (OK, a bit of diversity) intimately, however. I'd sing their songs (horribly) at the top of my lungs in the back seat of my stepdad's Olds 98 on our car trips.
Tough Questions for David Banner
A Jackson rap star talks frankly about young criminals and crime hysteria in Jackson.
TALK: 2nd Amendment Tort Reform
Right before Congress adjourned for Easter, Rep Chip Pickering (R-3rd District) was getting busy, doing his part to spread the "tort reform" revolution. His staff happily released a statement saying that, right between helping implement an "amber alert" system for kidnapped children and preventing postal-rate increases, the Mississippi Republican helped spread a little joy to yet another industry that just hates to be sued.
TALK: State Pops Up on Gaydar
In the wake of U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's remarks this past week that some critics feel equate homosexuality with bigamy and incest, a Mississippi state senator has come out against a potential appearance by Democratic presidential candidate Dr. Howard Dean, who, as governor of Vermont, helped that state enact the first "civil union" legislation in the country. Richard White, who represents the 29th district (Hinds), told an Associated Press reporter, "Any candidate talking about gay rights might as well not even visit Mississippi. The people down here, they are not going to put up with that kind of stuff. We're not prepared for all that in Mississippi or anywhere else in the southern states."
Radical Crime-Fighting: What is Community Policing?
Police Chief Robert Moore could be the only man in the city who knows what "community policing" really means—and just how hard it could be to implement in Jackson. Yet, he is a believer, talking about it constantly, telling media and residents that it's a different style of policing for Jackson, and one that can take some adjustment and time to implement. It's an integral part of his new five-point plan to fight crime here that he and the mayor announced to the City Council on April 22. Still, no one bites.
Watching the Watchdogs
Former TV sportscaster Rick Whitlow seems like an incredibly nice person. He did not, however, impress me as a criminology expert when we met April 24 to talk about his new job. He is executive director of the new Metro Jackson SafeCity Watch, a group formed to bring "accountability, enhanced communications, community involvement, and entrepreneurial energy to the broken Metro Jackson Criminal Justice system," as a press release put it on April 28.
David Banner, Native Son, by J. Bingo Holman
Also read the JFP "Tough Questions for David Banner" interview here
Reading from the Same Page
Back in 1961, during the dark days of Jim Crow when local African-Americans had to stage read-ins to get to the books in the public library, it would have been hard to imagine the entire city of Jackson reading the same book. Not only that, but reading the same book by an African-American man. A book about the trial of a young black man in Louisiana facing the electric chair for killing a white shopkeeper. During the botched robbery in "A Lesson Before Dying," the young man was not armed, and he had not pulled the trigger (sound eerily like a recent Mississippi death-penalty case?). This is still a difficult topic; in the 1960s it would have been near forbidden.
CRIME: Playing the Numbers
The question of whether Jackson is "safe" has become about as polarizing as "Ford vs. Chevy" or "fats vs. carbohydrates." It depends on whom you ask. Crime is up 15 percent. Crime is down this month. Crime skyrocketed in February. Crime is way down over the last decade. We're drowning in crime. We're safer than ever. Just look at the numbers. It seems this spring has been open season on crime statistics. Everyone says the numbers don't say enough, even as they try to use the statistics to their advantage, whether to push an ideology, build a political campaign, raise ratings, sell newspapers, bash the city—and sometimes even to try to prevent crime. Which brings us to the central questions. One, is crime completely under control or out of control? Two, do the statistics matter?
Blame Game: Who's At Fault for the City's Crime?
Editor's Note: Links to all of the JFP's crime stories to date are archived below this story.
Proud to be an American
We only lost three distribution spots due to our last issue, which offered dissenting views to the Iraqi War. We knew when we switched last issue's cover story at the last minute from the state of the crime debate in Jackson (which is now this issue's cover story) to the war, which was in its opening moments as we went to press, that we were courting controversy. But we also knew that we would not be true to our mission and our promise to our readers to be thought-provoking if we failed to take a more critical look at the build-up to the war as it was developing into the most important issue that most of us would be facing over these weeks—both intellectually and emotionally. We simply do not know how not to analyze the news, question dogma and exercise our right to free expression at every turn.
LADD: Talk About Freedom
Join another vigil for peace and safety of the troops Sunday, March 23, at 7 p.m. in front of the Eastland Courthouse on West Capitol Street downtown. This column is dedicated to Todd Allen, who showed up one day to help distribute the Jackson Free Press because he believes in our mission. He is a peace-lover and an Army chaplain who is now en route to the Middle East. Godspeed.
The Greatest Lie
It was press night, and all sorts of people were lining up to ask me stuff so we could put this issue to bed. But I had to leave for a couple hours, to go to Millsaps to hear one of my favorite professors initiate the Medgar Evers Lecture Series. This wasn't one of my Mississippi State profs. This was Dr. Manning Marable, the man who a thousand miles away at Columbia University taught me more about the Southern Civil Rights Movement—or what he calls the Black Freedom Movement—than I ever learned on the home soil. Most importantly, Marable affirmed my belief—the only white woman in his "Black Intellectualism" graduate-school class—that it's right, no, necessary for white people to embrace and understand African-American history. In fact, blacks and whites in this country—not to mention Native Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and others—have a shared history that cannot be understood if part of it is left out.
Love, Not Blood
To protest a war on Iraq, on Monday, March 3, Millsaps College joined others in all 50 states and 59 countries in one of 1,004 simultaneous performances of Aristophanes' Greek comedy, "Lysistrata." In the play, the women of ancient Greece protest a war their men are waging by withholding pleasure, so to speak. The men can only take it so long and sign a peace treaty. The play was originally presented in 411 BC when Greece was in the 20th year of a bloody 30-year war to raise public awareness.
Ain't Easy Being Green
Lifelong Mississippian and local folk musician Sherman Lee Dillon made history on the morning of Thursday, Feb. 27, when he filed a statement of intent and announced his candidacy for governor, becoming the first person in Mississippi to run for public office on the Green Party ticket. However, instead of spending the night previous to his big announcement schmoozing with potential donors or hunkered down in campaign headquarters, Sherman Lee and his band, the Tuff Nutts, entertained a crowd at Hal & Mal's, as they often do. Except for a brief, private interview, no public mention was made of Dillon's political aspirations. Even as his campaign manager Landon Huey sipped a non-libation near the stage and wrote out a speech by hand, Dillon went on about the business of giving his fans what they came for…good music.
Elizabeth Robinson
Elizabeth Robinson did not take art classes while enrolled at the Mississippi University for Women. Until the school featured a 20-year retrospective of her work, she did not even know where the art department was located. In fact, glass sculpture wasn't located anywhere on her personal radar until, in 1980, she needed a job and went to work for Andy Young at the Pearl River Glass Studio, to help manage the place. "You couldn't work in that environment without developing a vocabulary for glass," says the auburn-haired glass artist and entrepreneur. And so, for the next 10 years, Robinson immersed herself in the world of glass, learning from Young and from Susan Ford, a local glassblower.
Winona-Wannabes
"It was my first time, I promise," a tearful teenage girl says, as she shifts her eyes everywhere except on the guy sitting beside her. "I swear, I've never done anything like this before," she continues hopefully. He is unmoved by her display of remorse. This is the most common response; she's just been caught attempting to steal clothing from his store. He's heard the same excuses too many times, and he is fed up.
Let's Just Be Friends
Old Mississippi wouldn't have allowed them to be friends. Back in the 1960s, when Cornelius "C" Turner, a black man, was fighting for civil rights in the state, he could have been run out of town for playfully cavorting with a local white restaurateur. The White Citizens Council might have boycotted Malcolm White's business had it been around then and served the likes of Turner. Today, the two men eat, drink, laugh and try to continue healing racial wounds together.
Me and Willie Hoyt
Willie Hoyt was a character. My mom met him when I was in the fourth grade. My father had died a couple years earlier after a long illness, she was lonely, and Willie Hoyt, an enlisted man, was on leave from Vietnam. He was a smooth talker, extremely funny, and a heavy drinker and smoker who had been in the Army since before the Korean War where he had been on the front lines and been awarded a Silver Star. He'd watched his best friend die in Korea by his side. He'd had a tough childhood, never married, and never had kids of his own.
LADD: Hoofbeaters Make It Real
Remember the reception to honor the Murrah Hoofbeat staff Tuesday, March 4, from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center (downtown at 528 Bloom Street). Come have cookies and punch, and congratulate these young journalists.
WIGGS: From Contrails to Commitment
In the two days before the shuttle Columbia disintegrated and traced that awful sparkling arc across the Texas sky, I'd already been thinking about space. On Thursday, I'd read a Harper's article about the unthinkable catastrophe a relatively small asteroid hitting the Earth would cause. On Friday, I'd finished a National Geographic piece about the incomprehensible mystery of countless galaxies speeding throughout an expanding universe. The asteroid essay warned of the unavoidability of humankind's eventual extinction. The galaxy story spoke of humankind's daily discovery of additional star systems out at the edges of infinity. And then …
Cotton Is King, by Steve Cheseborough
Eddie Cotton Jr. doesn't see any reason to leave Jackson. "Man, this town has been good to me," says the 32-year-old blues singer-guitarist. "They show appreciation. If you get to a place that's bigger, there's just more of nothing to do. Unless you have a big booking agent, the club scene doesn't get any better than this."
Feeling the Indie Pulse, by Herman Snell
Those of us old enough to remember W.C. Don's, Midnight Sun, Inez's, The Mosquito and the University Pub recall these ground-breaking Jackson music establishments with a nostalgic sigh of passing. In Jackson over the years I've seen The Strokes, Smash Mouth, Unrest, Stereolab, The Flaming Lips, R.E.M., The B-52s, The Cult, Henry Rollins, Sebadoh, Social Distortion, Man Or Astroman, The Connells and thousands of amazing, virtually unknown indie talent. For the past several years, a lack of consistency and information, among other problems, has created a void in this once-thriving scene. International bands like American Analog Set, Of Montreal, The Field Mice and True Love Always played Martin's Lounge, and no one showed up. Crippled and unorganized, the masses of indie creed are beginning to feel for a pulse. The once-isolated efforts of a few frustrated individuals are now starting to band together to cross-promote and get the word out on what is happening. And that's a good thing.
MUSIC: Sultry and Soulful, by Courtney Lange
It's another sultry Wednesday night on Northside Drive. Women dressed to the nines and men wearing slick suits and hats sit casually at bistro tables drinking fancy, colorful drinks. Red lights filtered through cigarette smoke create a ruby haze under which people eat, drink, dance, mingle and tap their toes to the sounds of Henry Rhodes and the Mo' Money Band.
Jimmy King
We sit on the concrete steps that protrude out of the grass on an empty lot near the corner of Pearl and Minerva, I on a white handkerchief that Jimmy King has put down and he on the cold concrete. I've known King, whom I call Mr. Jimmy, for almost 10 years. He is the proprietor of the Subway Lounge, in the basement of the abandoned Summer's Hotel, which opened Dec. 16, 1966. He is also the elegant presence in the documentary "Last of the Mississippi Jukes," which just debuted on the Black STARZ network.
Jazz Supreme, by Andy Saje
For many, seven is a lucky number, representing good fortune. In jazz, the seventh chords are one of the essential building blocks of improvisation. In downtown Jackson, Seven* is the latest urban jazz café. And for Seven*'s proud owner Ezra Brown (also a jazz musician), the seventh letter of the alphabet represents God—whom Brown credits as the inspiration behind his latest creation.
Singing the Gospel, by Stacia V. Hunter
I've been on the gospel scene in Jackson for almost 10 years as a gospel announcer, writer and an event planner; as a result, I've seen the ebb and flow of the rich gospel scene here. I've witnessed the birth of crossover contemporary gospel as well as the passing of some of gospel's legends. I've also observed the multi-talented local gospel artists that we have here in the Jackson and surrounding areas.
The Girl Wants Her Turn
When is it my turn to plant my views all over the grounds of the state capitol? A group called Silent No More, a national anti-abortion organization, in conjunction with Gov. Ronnie Musgrove's declaring this past week a week of "prayer and remembrance of women and unborn children," was allowed to erect hundreds and hundreds of tiny white wooden crosses on the front of the capitol lawn.
Live at the Rodeo
After seeing the Columbia shuttle tragedy unfold on television, I walked out the door and felt the sun on my face, and smelled the warm winter air that only the South knows. I felt all the more grateful for everything I have. I decided to clear my head, and, remembering there was a Paint Horse show at the Fairgrounds, I hopped in my truck. I've been a horse lover ever since I paid my way through summer camp by feeding and saddling horses, cleaning the stables, and working the chuckwagon during overnight pack trips. I must say I was a bit overwhelmed when I arrived at the show.
HeArts for a Good Cause
HeArts Against Aids, a fund-raiser, in its 11th year, that will be held at Hal & Mal's on Feb. 15.
Takin' the A Train
"The Last of the Mississippi Jukes"—will debut on the Black STARZ! cable network Feb. 16 at 8 p.m.
We, the Dougla
The show was a wild mix. Act I: Afro-Hindu Caribbean Tribal Dance. Act II: Disco Grooves and Soul Train moves. Act III: Classic European ballet based on a Russian folktale. Watching the Dance Theatre of Harlem at Thalia Mara Hall on Thursday, Jan. 30, taught me, in vivid color, that to be American and to be human means that I am mixed. My family prides itself in not being "mixed." In the early '70s the members of the White Citizens Council hurriedly established a statewide private-school system. In fact, my 1976 diploma from a Council School contains the following words on the seal of the certificate: "States Rights and Racial Integrity."
Women Done Wrong
You get 10 women together, and nine of them will have a story to tell about how a man has done them wrong. Give the tenth one a little time, and she'll have a story, too, says Anita Singleton-Prather over a dinner of bacon cheeseburgers, red beans and rice and crawfish etouffee at Que Sera Sera on N. State Street. Singleton-Prather—a large boisterous black woman who will tell you she loves her food—was in town Jan. 28 in all her glory showcasing her film, "My Man Done Me Wrong," which screened at Millsaps College as part of the Southern Film Circuit. It is a story of Singleton-Prather and six other black women recounting tales of cheating men—and of how those men got their due.
Church vs. Cars
Belhaven residents are speaking out against First Presbyterian Church's proposed plan to close Pinehurst and Belhaven streets for 30 minutes twice a day to decrease traffic in its part of the 'hood. The mammoth church's idea is to close Belhaven Street from State to Jefferson, and Pinehurst Street from State to Hazel Street. This plan, if accepted by the city, would go into effect on March 17. No word on whether the church, fondly referred to as "First Pres," plans to ask its members to come to a complete stop at Stop signs along Jefferson Street as they vacate the neighborhood at noon on Sundays. Belhaven residents opposed to the closing can obtain a petition by calling 944-1390 or e-mailing [e-mail missing]
Sally Slavinski
Sally Slavinski, 36, slides into a chair in Hal & Mal's 30 minutes before we open. She apologizes for being late, explaining that she just ran 11 miles in training for the Mardi Gras half-marathon on Feb. 16. Dressed in a gray Berkeley zip-up sweatshirt over gray sweatpants with a New Zealand All Blacks rugby cap over her straw-blond hair, she opens a container of strawberry Dannon yogurt and sips from an Aquafina bottled water. It would take 20 pages to list all that she's done in her short life, starting with a childhood in Long Island, N.Y., a biology degree from Michigan State, working summers in Yellowstone, veterinary school, working with the Heifer Project in Uganda, practicing small-animal medicine in Ohio, working with the World Health Organization for three months in India, working in Martha's Vineyard and acquiring a degree in public health from Berkeley. But what does she do now?
A Dream Lost
"When America celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, students in schools named after Dr. King will be reciting the 'I have a dream' speech in auditoriums where there are no whites and almost everyone is poor enough to get a free lunch, the very kind of schools Dr. King fought to eliminate." Timed to honor the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the Harvard Civil Rights Project's new report, "A Multiracial Society with Segregated Schools: Are We Losing the Dream?," finds that "resegregation" of schools is at a level not seen in three decades.
Trolling for Alternatives
"We must find an alternative to war and bloodshed." Those words by the late, great Martin Luther King Jr. are helping drive thousands of America to organize against a preemptive war against Iraq. And after 30,000-plus protesters gathered in Washington and around the country two days before the holiday honoring Dr. King's birth, even the mainstream media are starting to pay attention. Here in Mississippi, The Clarion-Ledger ran two front-page articles, including one by James V. Walker, who accompanied 15 protesters from Jackson in two vans on their 2,000-mile round-trip journey to Washingon to protest the war.
Radical Peace
It was one of those gatherings you don't see very often in Jackson. Three young international peace protesters—"radicals," you could call them—carried copies of "World War III," a radical New York comic zine, into First Christian Church, where they talked to a couple dozen rapt, and maybe radical, Jacksonians about why the U.S. should not support the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
THEY DID: Queen Makes Big-Ass Promise
Not too long after I met Jill Conner Browne, I was bouncing around Downtown alongside a huge rolling crown. I was wearing a sequined green padded number that flattened my boobs to my stomach, or so it felt, and caught on my black fishnets when I tried to go to the bathroom. As a Sweet Potato Queen "wannabe" in last year's St. Paddy's Parade, I have never looked worse in my life—and I have videotape to prove it.
A Spoken Word Revival
The power of the spoken word needs to be felt by a variety of ages and races, says poet and activist Jolivette Anderson. Currently the artist-in-residence at Lanier High School in Jackson, Anderson is bringing her long-time poetry-hostessing skills to Soulshine Pizza, in the Hal & Mal's complex, every Wednesday night starting Jan. 8. She will host a poetry open-mic, featuring the sounds of nu-soul band Break of Dawn.
In the Name of Human Decency
Ronald Chris Foster is still alive … for now. Amid rising dissent, on Jan. 6 Gov. Ronnie Musgrove temporarily stopped the execution of Foster, who was 17 when he attempted an unarmed robbery and caused the death of the store manager in a struggle over a store gun. As we go to press, this question still looms: Will the state of Mississippi execute a juvenile offender? A similar case from Oklahoma is being presented to the U.S. Supreme Court later this month, and Musgrove decided to wait for that outcome.
Is Political Change Afoot?
"Bullet proof." "Political invulnerability." "Going to win." "Sure loser." The problem with conventional wisdom is that it is usually more self-fulfilling than wise, especially when promulgated by folks who just want to be right.
Jackson Diary
Edited by JoAnne Prichard Morris
Here's a great way to get into print in the Jackson Free Press. Just send us your true anecdotes, short tales and observations from your life in Jackson, or beyond if you think Jacksonians will enjoy your little story. Must be true. Click "Read more" to find submission instructions.
South Toward Home
Coming of age in Neshoba County, I considered Jackson the big city. I loved standing in the seat of our long turquoise Chevrolet, my left hand curled around my Daddy's neck as we sped from Philadelphia to Jackson, either down the Trace or through Canton if he felt like driving faster. It was the 1960s, and Jackson was larger than I could imagine. We'd visit my brother's family on Queen Margaret Lane in West Jackson, a residential city street where I learned to ride a bicycle on pavement and chased the ice-cream man and splashed in a little above-ground pool. I loved going to the old Woolworth, amid the neon of Capitol Street, where my Daddy bought me a toy Santa one year that still sits on my mantle every December.
Don't Nobody Know: Lalee's Kin
Everyone who cares about human dignity and justice should see "Lalee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton," which debuted on HBO Sept. 18. I first saw it during the Crossroads Film Festival in Jackson last spring in a mixed-race audience, most of whom stayed to hear a lengthy and emotional discussion about African-American poverty in the Delta.
Daddy's Little Running Back
As a child, my dream was to play running back for the greatest professional football team, at that time the Chicago Bears. I thought I would never see the day when young girls or women would be wearing jerseys, shoulder pads, helmets, cleats and rushing down the field for six points, all the while avoiding No. 46 who just sent her teammate to the sidelines with a thunderous hit. Could I ever realize my dream? Probably not, but I'm getting closer.
Edward St. Pé, by Todd Stauffer
OFFSTAGE: Crooning Again
Edward St. Pé, local weatherman-turned-CEO of WeatherVision, has another passion—singing American standards. St. Pé stopped singing nearly eight years ago, but he says he's always missed it. "If you sing, there's a certain channel in you that opens up," St. Pé said. "I'm happier when I sing."
Braggin' in Brass, by JC Patterson
Hear, and dance to, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Friday night (Dec. 20) at George Street Grocery.