Jackson Free Press

The Mississippi Museum of Art is partnering with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to host a new exhibit called "Betye Saar: Call and Response" from April 10 through July 11, 2021. The exhibit features sketches and 18 assemblages and collages made from found objects, as well as a dozen of Los-Angeles based artist Betye Saar's travel sketchbooks. The exhibition marks the first time Saar has shared her sketchbooks with the public, a release from MMA says.

Items on display represent Saar's career from the 1970s on. Saar combines items she usually finds at flea markets and secondhand stores to create her works, which often seek to confront and reclaim racist imagery, the release says. She also addresses spirituality, gender, family history and race in her art.

Saar also kept travel sketchbooks that contain watercolors and collages with motifs and symbols such as religious icons she discovered in Mexico and Brazil.

Some of her found item collages include "A Call to Arms," which is made from a washboard and symbolizes both female and slave labor, engraved with words from Langston Hughes’ 1922 poem “The Negro.” Another item is "I’ll Bend But I Will Not Break," which is an image on an ironing board borrowed from the Brookes diagram, an 18th-century print showing how Africans were packed into slave ships to cross the Atlantic. "Woke Up This Morning, the Blues was in My Bed" is a sculpture Saar made from blue bottles over a metal cot over coal, which represents a traditional bottle tree that the Kongo civilization in Africa used to ward off evil spirits.

For more information on the exhibit, call 601-960-1515 or visit msmuseumart.org.

Fill Up the Pickup for Mustard Seed

The Mustard Seed, a community for adults with developmental disabilities, is hosting a donation drive called "Fill Up the Pickup for Mustard Seed" at Bob Boyte Honda (2188 Mississippi 18, Brandon) in Brandon throughout March.

Mustard Seed is looking for donations of cases of water or gatorade, cardstock or copy paper, spray sunscreen and gift cards to local restaurants.

Participants can make donations Monday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Bob Boyte Honda. For more information, call 601-992-3556, visit mustardseedms.org or find the event on Facebook.

NAMI MS Mental Health & Wellness Day

The Mississippi branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness is hosting its first virtual Mental Health & Wellness Day at the Capitol building in downtown Jackson on Tuesday, March 9, at 10 a.m.

Guest Speakers at the event will include Mississippi State House of Representatives District 117 representative Kevin Felsher and Wendy Bailey, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health.

To register for the GoToWebinar event, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/684416714137146640.

For more information, call 601-899-9058 or visit namims.org.

IMMC International Women's Day Event

The International Museum of Muslim Cultures in Jackson is celebrating Women's History Month and International Women's Day with an artist talk on Monday, March 8, at 6 p.m.

The event will feature a virtual conversation between IMMC Deputy Executive Director Lina Ali and London-based artist Faiqa Uppal.

To watch the program online, visit Facebook.com/muslimmuseum. For more information, call 601-960-0440 or visit muslimmuseum.org.