Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber has announced a year-long literacy campaign called “Jackson Reads” with readers in the entire city focused on the book Jubilee by the late author and Jackson State University professor Margaret Walker.
Making the announcement Tuesday night at JSU’s Margaret Walker Center for the Study of the African-American Experience, Yarber said: “There is still power around a book.”
“The question ‘how do we create community?’,” he said, can be answered by an entire community reading a provocative book that speaks to the “spirit” of a place and holding conversations around the ideas within it.
“There is no better way than around a book,” he said, adding: “No better way than around Jubilee.”
Listing various events around the city, the mayor said Jackson Reads is a way of bringing the entire city together to read great literature, in an attempt to broaden the literary horizons of the city and open up a forum for discussion.
One of those already lining up to participate is JSU President Dr. Carolyn W. Meyers. Speaking at the kickoff reception Tuesday night, Meyers told the
group, “I’m excited about reading Jubilee again!”
Among her earliest memories is sitting before a chalkboard learning to read, she said. Her family didn’t have much money, so traveling to distant lands and learning about foreign cultures was out of the question. But, she could read about people and places and “be transported anywhere.”
“All that goes into reading and discussion,” from promoting literacy, engaging in intellectual discussion, providing new vistas of ideas, “these are the types of things that Jackson State is all about,” she said.
The city, in partnership with the Walker Center, the Jackson Hinds Public Library System, Lemuria Books, and Smith Robertson Museum will be holding a series of events to promote reading Jubilee and discussion of it, Yarber said.
Events already planned include
— The mayor announcing the initiative Thursday, March 19, at Poindexter Elementary
— A book discussion of Jubilee led by Dr. Alferdteen Harrison at the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, March 26. It will include a live Twitter Q and A @wearejacksonms
— A Jackson Reads Community Book Discussion on Jubilee led by Angela Steward, Lemuria Books, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 31
— A Jackson Reads Instagram Contest. To enter, post on Instagram a photo of reading the book Jubilee or participating in a Jackson Reads even and using one of the hashtags #jacksonreads or #Jubilee.
Jackson Reads is only one initiative in conjunction with the Margaret Walker Centennial that has year-long events scheduled at the Walker Center, Jackson public libraries, and various literary venues throughout the state, said Dr. Robert Luckett, Center director.
Other free events open to the public scheduled for March:
Thursday, March 5, The Eudora Welty Education and Visitors Center at 1109 Pinehurst Street in Jackson will host Dr. Carolyn Brown who will deliver her talk “Sister Act: Margaret Walker and Eudora Welty” at 5:30 p.m. Brown is the author of Song of My Life (University Press of Mississippi), the first biography of Margaret Walker, and is also the author of A Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty (University Press of Mississippi).
Thursday, March 19, 4 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Such a Bold Leader: The Unusual Young Adult Life of Margaret Walker
Carolyn Brown
Charles W. Tisdale Library
March 25-27
Oxford Conference for the Book
Margaret Walker Centennial
Oxford, Mississippi
Thursday, March 26, 4 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
FOR MY PEOPLE: What the Internationally Famous Poem Has to Say to Young People Today
C. Liegh McInnis
Medgar Evers Library
For more information, see https://www.jsums.edu/margaretwalkercenter/ or contact the Center: mwa@jsums.edu or 601-979-2055