Browsing: Arts / Culture

Explore the artisans that call Mississippi their home.

Kenzie Claire Burchfield was always going to attend Mississippi State University.

The daughter of current and retired MSU employees, Burchfield did not need much convincing to become a Bulldog. However, when she heard her friends at Starkville High School discuss a three-week summer theater camp “that sounded amazing” on the university’s campus, she knew she had to be there.

The Southern Chorale, from The University of Southern Mississippi School of Music, launches an international America 250 tour through major cultural festivals in the United States and Europe. From the pine forests of Mississippi to historic venues in Italy, France, Latvia, and Estonia, the internationally celebrated Southern Chorale will carry the sounds of American music across two continents this summer in a tour that reflects both the artistic legacy of the American South and the global language of choral music.

Tucked into downtown Summit, Mississippi, Gulf South Art Gallery is the kind of place that quietly surprises people. From the outside, it feels like part of the familiar rhythm of a small Southern town. Step inside, though, and visitors quickly discover a collection filled with craftsmanship, creativity, and pieces that feel worthy of far bigger cities.

I first visited Ocean Springs with my mother in 2010. She accompanied me on a trip to New Orleans to check out some graduate schools, and we wandered down the coast and into the Walter Anderson Museum of Art. This was a very busy time of life for me, full of change and possibility. I don’t remember very much about that trip other than the Community Center murals, but I was caught up in the beginning of an unexpected turn. 

At 9:00 on a spring morning in McComb, the Miracle League field comes alive. Players take their positions, volunteers step alongside them, and families gather along the fence line, ready to cheer. It is not just baseball being played. It is joy, connection, and a sense of belonging that stretches far beyond the game itself.