The Mississippi Humanities Council recently gave Phyllis Lewis-Hale, assistant professor of music at Jackson State University, a $6,500 grant to host an event called “From Delta Blues to Opera News: A Mississippi Musical Exposition.” The two-day event will begin on Feb. 28, 2021, in the F.D. Hall Music Center at JSU.

Lewis-Hale's exposition aims to demonstrate the historical contributions of Mississippi artists and arts organizations to American music and opera, a release from JSU says. The event will also honor the legacy of performing arts organizations in Mississippi, including JSU’s Opera/South Company, which relocated to JSU from the Mississippi Museum of Art in 1984.

The first day of the exposition will feature a panel discussion on Mississippi’s involvement in American music development and African-American musicians and arts organizations. Guest panelists will include the Rev. Jerry Mannery, executive director of the Mississippi Mass Choir, and John Spann, curator of education for the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.

After the panel discussion, JSU will host a concert honoring African-American performers and arts organizations from Mississippi such as B.B. King, Leontyne Price, Dorothy Moore and the Mississippi Mass Choir.

The second day of the event will feature a second panel discussion for high school and college students, which will be open to the public. JSU will also host masterclasses and two panel discussions on musical genres featured during the previous day. High school and JSU students will work with guest artists such as Rhonda Richmond, DeAnna Tisdale-Johnson and Lannie Spann McBride.

For more information, visit jsums.edu.

JSU Receives Technology Grant from Southern Company Foundation

Jackson State University, the recipient of a $100,000 technology grant from the Southern Company Foundation, recently gave Jackson State University a $100,000 technology grant as part of a total of $50 million the company has donated as part of an HBCU initiative it announced in January 2019.

JSU said in a release that it will use the funding to install HyFlex technology in classrooms. The term "HyFlex" is a combination of "hybrid" and "flexible" and refers to a model for hybrid learning in a flexible course structure. HyFlex technology includes items such as live streaming cameras, Bluetooth computers and microphones, presentation podiums, media pads and presentation systems.

The aim of the grants is to address challenges from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by funding technology tools, infrastructure support, professional development and IT services for historically black colleges and universities in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and Virginia, the release says.

For more information on SCF, visit southerncompany.com.

MDCC Joins Mississippi Library Partnership

Mississippi Delta Community College’s library system recently joined the Mississippi Library Partnership, an organization that Mississippi State University Libraries administers which provides a library automation system that allows patrons to request books from any member library and pick them up at their own local library.

MDCC is adding 27,000 titles to the partnership, which has 55 member organizations in Mississippi. MDCC’s library system includes the Stanny Sanders Library at the college's Moorhead Campus, the Greenville Higher Education Center Library and the Greenwood Center Library.

The automation system allows users to search a database that includes their home library and resources shared throughout the consortium, as well as being able to check out materials with their local library card. A courier service delivers books to the member library locations, which have varying loan periods.

For more information about the Mississippi Delta Community College library system, visit https://www.msdelta.edu/library. For information on the Mississippi Library Partnership, visit http://lib.msstate.edu/mlp.