Jackson Free Press

Community Library Mississippi recently announced the second annual Holiday Book Festival, which will take place live via Zoom and Facebook on Saturday, Nov. 27, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The event will feature an online marketplace for book publishers, book vendors, quilters, artists and jewelry makers from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., as well as a spelling bee for first through sixth graders and a poetry contest. There will also be spoken word performances and a discussion on crime prevention and solutions.

CLM's poetry contest features elementary, middle, high school and adult divisions. Elementary contestants will write and recite at least a four-line stanza. Middle school contestants will write and recite at least two four-line stanzas. High school and adult contestants will write and recite at least four mixed-lined stanzas. Stanzas contain between two and seven lines. Published pieces that have not previously been recited in a CLM competition are allowed.

The Holiday Book Festival is free and open to the public. Spelling bee contestants can download the master spelling study list after purchasing tickets.

For more information and to register, https://meredithetc.com/jackson-book-festival/ or https://www.facebook.com/jacksonbookfestival/. Tickets for the event are available on eventbrite.com.

Mississippi Arts Commission Governor's Art Awards

The Mississippi Arts Commission recently announced the recipients of the upcoming Governor's Art Awards, which honor people and organizations in Mississippi whose work promotes arts-based community development. MAC will present the awards in a ceremony in downtown Jackson on Feb. 10, 2022.

Alcorn State University's Jazz Festival in Vicksburg, a free event that aims to educate attendees through workshops with the performing artists, will receive the “Arts in Community” award.

Myrna Colley-Lee, a Charleston-native costume designer for the Black Theatre Movement, will receive the “Excellence in Costume Design & Arts Patron” award.

Larry Gordon, a Belzoni native and producer of the films “Field of Dreams" and “Die Hard," will receive the “Lifetime Achievement in Motion Pictures & Television” award.

Holly Lange, founder of the Mississippi Book Festival, will receive the “Governor’s Choice Award.”

Mary Lovelace O’Neal, a Jackson-native contemporary abstract artist and arts educator who explores personal stories and social-justice themes through mixed media, painting and printmaking, will receive the “Excellence in Visual Art” award.

Grammy-nominated gospel group The Williams Brothers will receive the “Lifetime Achievement in Music” award.

For more information, visit arts.ms.gov.

Mississippi Humanities Council Grants

The Mississippi Humanities Council recently donated more than $113,000 in grants to 16 Mississippi organizations in support of public humanities programs. Among the programs that received grants are an oral history project about Ida B. Wells’ life in Marshall County, a documentary film about a landmark civil-rights case in Shaw and an exhibit celebrating the life of James Hill, a Reconstruction Era African American legislator and Mississippi Secretary of State, among other projects.

Other grant recipients include the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi; Mississippi University for Women and the Lowndes Community Foundation in Columbus; Activists With a Purpose Plus in Grenada; the Ida B. Wells Museum in Holly Springs; Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Natchez; Mississippi Rising Coalition in Ocean Springs; University of Mississippi in Oxford; From the Heart Productions in Ruleville; Community Foundation for Mississippi in Shaw; and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson State University, New Hope Baptist Church, Community Health Center Association of Mississippi and The Lighthouse | Black Girl Projects in Jackson.

MHC awards humanities grants to Mississippi nonprofit organizations that foster the public’s understanding of the state's history and culture, a release from the organization says. MHC gives out major grants twice per year. Deadlines for grant submissions are May 1 and Sept. 15. For more information, visit mshumanities.org/grants or email [email protected].