This Month’s Book Details the Experience of Being Gay in Mississippi
Learning and education are integral parts of the Alluvial Collective’s mission. What better way to educate ourselves than via a good read? With that in mind, we launched a monthly book giveaway recommending books that inspire us to discuss and reflect.
In June, we will give away a copy of Diary of a Misfit written by Casey Parks.
Diary of a Misfit is the story of Casey Parks’ life-changing journey to unravel the mystery of Roy Hudgins, the small-town country singer from her grandmother’s youth, all the while confronting ghosts of her own.
This Month’s Book Centers Faith & Race
Learning and education are integral parts of the Alluvial Collective’s mission. What better way to educate ourselves than via a good read? With that in mind, we launched a monthly book giveaway recommending books that inspire us to discuss and reflect.
In May, we will give away a copy of Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America written by Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith.
Combining history, narrative, and data from nation-wide surveys, involving 2,000 people, and 200 face-to-face interviews, Divided by Faith shines a harsh light on the realities of racism in America and how evangelicalism may be doing more harm than good in ending the nation’s oldest dilemma.
Reflecting on SYI’19
Written by Amara Johnson, SYI’19 Mentor
In 2019, I returned to Millsaps College, not as a student, but as a mentor for the Summer Youth Institute. I was a fresh graduate–not even a month had passed since I walked across the stage–and my return to campus felt like coming home.
I arrived at the mentorship training, held two days before the students came to campus, to check in and meet the other mentors (there were nine of us in total). We sat in a circle, and instead of the lecture I was expecting, we had a conversation.
One at a time, we discussed our expectations for the week, and reviewed guideposts for supporting the students once they arrived. By the end of our training, I felt like I was part of a team, and was excited about the days ahead.
Amara (far right, back row) poses with the other SYI mentors at the Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Garden.
Once the students arrived, I quickly realized just how much community and conversation centered everything we did. Each day, after breakfast, we’d meet in a circle to check in, review the day, and give space for both students and mentors to share their thoughts. We repeated the same practice at the end of the day, just before the students turned in for the night. The discussion circle, and the time and space it signified, became more and more important as the program went on.
Over the course of the program, we guided students through team-building exercises, visited museums, and toured across the state visiting historical sites in Neshoba County and the Mississippi Delta. At every point we practiced our ability to hold space for open dialogue, vulnerability, and trust.
SYI showed me that discussions really are where lessons are learned—especially when talking about Mississippi’s history. Visiting some historical sites, such as the place in Philadelphia, MS, where the Freedom Summer murders occurred, definitely inspired feelings of outrage and sadness that needed to be discussed.
The discussion circles, and the guideposts, helped that happen. Helped students (and mentors) really acknowledge their feelings in a way that didn’t prevent them from seeing how the lessons from the past can be used to build a better future. SYI taught me that while Mississippi’s history is difficult, and painful at times, we should not avoid engaging with it. I also learned that leaders, and mentors come in all forms.
As a self-declared introvert, I understood all too well the fear that comes with raising questions or starting conversations. Being a mentor not only helped me push past those hesitations, but also helped me show students how to feel comfortable sharing their opinions and see the importance and value of using their voice.
At the end of the program, after each student presented their community plan and left campus, we met in a circle, just like on the first day. This time, we were in the Academic Complex (the “A.C.” for my fellow Millsapians), in the lecture hall, where I had spent many days as a student. We had a conversation — about the past ten days, about what we learned, and where we’d go from here.
I felt sad knowing that another chapter in my life was closing, but hopeful at the same time. I had already learned so much. And anyway, it was only the second week in June. It was only my first month post-graduation. The summer, and my life as an adult, were just beginning.
Click here to learn more about Summer Youth Institute.
This Month’s Book Unpacks America’s Gender Pain Gap
Learning and education are integral parts of the Alluvial Collective’s mission. What better way to educate ourselves than via a good read? With that in mind, we launched a monthly book giveaway recommending books that inspire us to discuss and reflect.
This month’s book is The Pain Gap by Anushay Hossain.
The Pain Gap is an in-depth examination of the women’s health crisis in America. Interweaving research, first-hand accounts, and Hossain’s own experience as a woman navigating the healthcare system, The Pain Gap serves as a call to action for everyone to use their experience to bring about the healthcare revolution women need.
This Month’s Book Reveals the True Legal System of Jim Crow
Learning and education are integral parts of the Alluvial Collective’s mission. What better way to educate ourselves than via a good read? With that in mind, we launched a monthly book giveaway recommending books that inspire us to discuss and reflect.
This month’s book is “By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners” by Margaret A. Burnham.
In By Hands Now Known, Margaret A. Burnham, director of Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, challenges our understanding of the Jim Crow era by exploring the relationship between formal law and background legal norms in a series of harrowing cases from 1920 to 1960.
From rendition, the legal process by which states make claims to other states for the return of their citizens, to battles over state and federal jurisdiction and the outsize role of local sheriffs in enforcing racial hierarchy, Burnham maps the criminal legal system in the mid-twentieth century South and traces the unremitting line from slavery to the legal structures of this period and through to today.
Drawing on an extensive database, collected over more than a decade and exceeding 1,000 cases of racial violence, she reveals the true legal system of Jim Crow, and captures the memories of those whose stories have not yet been heard.
This Month’s Book Challenges the National Narrative With 400 Years of Untold History
Learning and education are integral parts of the Alluvial Collective’s mission. What better way to educate ourselves than via a good read? With that in mind, we launched a monthly book giveaway recommending books that inspire us to discuss and reflect.
This month’s book is “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States” by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
In “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States”, Dunbar-Ortiz challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was designed to take their properties and land. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military.
Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes U.S. history and breaks the silences that have haunted our national narrative.
Improving Capacity and Community Engagement Internationally
Although the Alluvial Collective’s social equity work is based in Mississippi, we view the movement to end discrimination as an international one. As such, we take care to broaden our horizons and connect with organizations from across the globe to gain perspective, inform our practice, and strengthen our work.
For the past year, April Grayson, our Director of Community and Capacity Building, has been a fellow with the Transatlantic Exchange of Civic Educators (TECE) to learn new ways of democratic engagement by using an international comparative approach to civic education. TECE is a project led by the Arbeitskreis deutscher Bildungsstätten (AdB), based in Berlin, and the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University in Boston.
TECE Group Photo
TECE brought together twelve participants from Germany and twelve participants from the United States to discuss ways of increasing civic engagement, evaluating social and cultural trends, engaging with history, and supporting youth and community efforts at democracy. Fellows collaborated in a variety of ways–from in-person activities to online peer-learning seminars–and were encouraged to use their expertise to find innovative solutions and to build supportive networks for furthering community engagement initiatives.
Zoom session
April shared, “I’ve always believed in the power of cultural exchange and stepping outside of my own comfort zone to see things in a new way. This fellowship taught me more about how other Americans view and facilitate civic education, and I gained entirely new learning about German ideas and structures for it. Being able to compare has helped me discern ways to deepen our work here in Mississippi.”
April at an in-person seminar
April spent two weeks in Germany and ten days between Boston and Washington, D.C. during the in-person portions of the fellowship. During that time, she attended seminars and site visits, conducted research, co-facilitated sessions, and formulated new ways of growing community.
As part of the fellowship, April wrote a scholarly article, with support from our Executive Director Vondaris Gordon, about the Alluvial Collective’s efforts at civic engagement and how its work in engaging with local history fits into an international perspective. The article, published here in German, is available here in English.
Berlin group in transit
April’s working group, made up of three Americans and three Germans, focused their capstone project on youth insights about nonformal history education—that is, programming through groups like the Alluvial Collective and other organizations outside of a school setting. She explained, “We did video interviews with several young people in both countries who had participated in history-focused programs and then went on to lead similar programs or even run for public office. Their feedback was incredible and helped the entire group hear what things had been deeply impactful and what might be improved.” The series of videos is available here, and their article about the project is here (in English).
Although the fellowship formally wrapped this past summer, the TECE fellows and organizers are continuing the network through periodic meetings and collaborative programming. The Alluvial Collective is designing programs in partnership with German organizations that April met through the TECE fellowship, with the goal of hosting virtual and in-person exchanges within the next two years.
This Month’s Book Explores the Life of an Artist and the Power of Storytelling
Learning and education are integral parts of the Alluvial Collective’s mission. What better way to educate ourselves than via a good read? With that in mind, we launched a monthly book giveaway recommending books that inspire us to discuss and reflect.
This month’s book is “My Broken Language” by Quiara Alegría Hudes.
Quiara Alegría Hudes was the sharp-eyed girl on the stairs while her family danced their defiance in a tight North Philly kitchen. She was awed by her mother and aunts and cousins, but haunted by the unspoken, untold stories of the barrio—even as she tried to find her own voice in the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish, bodies and books, Western art and sacred altars. Her family became her private pantheon, a gathering circle of powerful orisha-like women with tragic real-world wounds, and she vowed to tell their stories—but first she’d have to get off the stairs and join the dance. She’d have to find her language.
Growing into the Alluvial Collective
Friends,
We have an important announcement to share with you. The organization you’ve known first as the University of Mississippi Institute for Racial Reconciliation, and for the past two decades as the William Winter Institute, will now be called The Alluvial Collective. Our roots have gotten deeper, our work remains generative, and we continue to grow.
Governor William F. Winter served as more than a namesake to this organization. He was our leader, mentor, friend, and advocate. From the Institute’s earliest days, he was profoundly and personally inspirational to those who served as staff and those who engaged with our work. Sadly, both he and his wife, Elise, have passed away. Our team and the Winter family agree that Governor Winter’s legacy will always be a part of this organization. We can confidently look ahead to grow and to impact the future from the seeds of that legacy.
The word “alluvium” comes from natural science; it refers to the rich deposits of earth created by flowing water. Here in Mississippi, the Mississippi Alluvial Plain created by our Great River stretches from top to bottom of the state and beyond. As individuals, we are formed from the deposits of history and actions of those who came before us. From the beginning, our multi-generational community-building work has drawn from this history—sometimes joyous, sometimes painful, but always deep and enriching— to ground our learning and approaches.
In adopting the word “Collective” to describe our organization, we expand belonging and expand our horizons. Put simply, we invite each of you to join in this organization’s work.
While the name and the logo are changing, many of the people and relationships that have given us life remain the same. Our collective continues to grow and meet the new challenges of our contemporary world. In recent years, many of you have reminded us of how essential our community building work is. This work has grown beyond an initial focus on racial reconciliation. Race continues to underscore so many of the challenges faced in Mississippi and this country, and we are also resolved to work towards ending discrimination based on differences of any kind.
Since our founding, thousands of students, community members, and leaders of all kinds have undergone personal transformation through the Welcome Table, Summer Youth Institute, and other experiences with us. They have gone on to become influential changemakers, collectively moving our communities closer towards equity. As The Alluvial Collective, we’ll continue to be rooted in helping a community’s possibilities grow. Each of us has something to share and contribute. Drawing from the rich deposits made by those before us and looking towards the legacy we’ll leave for future generations, together we will help guide the future to a brighter place.
Support our collective movement to end inequity for all people.
