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John Sewell

John Sewell plays many roles in Jackson, from his day job as the director of corporate communications at Blue Cross Blue Shield to his position on at least five boards, including the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Parents for Public Schools and the Fondren Renaissance Foundation. He is also a husband and father of three.

Vickie and Bill Giles

The old saying goes: Marriages are made in heaven. Actually, some are made at football games and barbecues as well. In November 1979, Meridian native Bill Giles was a graduate football assistant at Mississippi College. He smiles as he tells how he finally got up the courage to ask out the blonde-haired, blue-eyed majorette from Jackson that he had been admiring from afar, even though he didn't figure she'd give him the time of day. Funny, but Vickie says that when she sat behind him in PE class, he "never gave me the time of day," either. Bill quickly points out that he was "kinda shy," and Vickie agrees, smiling at him, her fingers intertwined in his.

Toni Cooley

Toni Cooley was born in Chicopee, Mass., but was raised as an Air Force brat in Massachusetts, North Dakota, New Jersey, Mississippi and New Jersey again.

Ouida Couch

A menacing polar bear stalks two 5-year-old girls, doggedly chasing them through the backyard. The polar bear's name is King, Ouida Couch's 85-pound white German Shepherd, and this is their favorite game. Ouida is indomitable, delighting in the frolicsome chase. I'm the cowardly candy-ass shrieking atop the picnic table. Ouida and I are cracking ourselves up as we reminisce. We sit in her Belhaven home of 10 years with her wooly-headed American Eskimo, Mogi (with whom she plays a grown-up version of "polar bear") and Mogi's black cat, Mustang.

Leona Bishop

Leona Bishop, 37, will be the first to tell you: Where she started is nowhere near where she is today. However, where she is today is exactly where she needs to be.

Dan Joyner

I met with Dan Joyner recently at Cups, in the heart of the Fondren district where, as Joyner puts it, people interested in the arts can hang out together. Joyner, 28, himself is an example of creativity nurtured. Now he is the area manager for Cups, but when I first met him in the spring of 1993, his senior year at Forest Hill High School in South Jackson, I also met his parents Evelyn and Robert. Like many supportive parents, they were again involved with one of Dan's creative undertakings—Colonel's Classics, a Forest Hill tradition that gave high school students, aided by dedicated teachers, a place to hang out: to write scripts, build sets, rehearse and present skits to an audience of their peers and loved ones in packed auditoriums.

Warren Hogue

Artist Warren Hogue, 25, is just beginning to find his voice as a painter. His works are already powerful, though, with bold, saturated colors and heavy brush strokes reminiscent of Van Gogh.

Jobie Martin

In the library at Morrison Academic Advancement Center, where he substitute-teaches, Jobie Martin's delivery is as graceful, his timing as sharp, his voice as mellifluous as when he was hosting James Brown, Joe Louis and Mahalia Jackson in the 1970s, back when he was the first African American in Mississippi to host a commercial TV program.

Monique Guillory

Dr. Monique Guillory has been busy for the last few years. As deputy chief of staff for Jackson State University President Ronald Mason since 2000, the 34-year-old New Orleanian met myriad goals: the restoration of Gibbs-Green Week at Jackson State, commemorating two young men killed on campus by police in 1970; starting the President's Newsletter that keeps 35,000 alumni up-to-date; strategic planning for the university's Millennium Agenda; and writing a grant to fund a collaborative education project. And two years ago her son Julien was born. "The French spelling," she explained. "It's those Louisiana roots."

Saidamirkhon Rakhimov

"In my country," Saidamirkhon Rakhimov begins, then stops himself, smiling. "My friends are always making fun of me for saying 'in my country,' he says, leaning back into his chair, momentarily distracted by the muted soccer game playing above my head. Said's country is Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic just north of Afghanistan. Said grew up in Tashkent, the capital city, and earned a master's degree in international law from Tashkent State University of Law.

Mark Scurlock

Immediately after I entered Scurlock's Donuts, my vow to refuse any pastries placed before me became obsolete. Once the glazed donut hit my taste buds, it was love at first bite.

M.U.G.A.B.E.E.

Carlton Turner leads me upstairs to the V.I.P. room of The Forum where he is the public relations director. His older (by 13 months) brother Maurice waits for the interview with his weathered and dented Bach Stradivarius in his lap. "I take it everywhere I go," Maurice says. Seated in three matching blood-red naugahide wing chairs, these beautiful men lead me on the long and winding road of their lives.

Vanessa Barry And Kembral Barrera

"You feel it, and you live it!" Vanessa Barry says as she rises from the table at Borders to demonstrate. Barry and her best friend, Kembral Barrera, are coincidentally both wearing pink shirts, black pants and heels. They turn slowly to face each other, arms outstretched, hands working and feet stomping in time to imaginary castanets. Jackson's only two flamenco dancers come from very different backgrounds, yet their passion for Spanish culture—and particularly this ancient dance—has brought them together.

James C. Thompson

James C. Thompson is the co-founder of the Jackson political consulting firm Blue Dot Group, which he says was named because the group's political affiliations make them "a little blue dot in a big red state."

Camp Best

Seated in his corner office at 3318 North State Street, Camp Best beams his excitement about that eclectic part of the city known as Fondren. He calls the area's artistic renaissance the "Fondren glow," explaining, "It causes this light to shine on a community; it causes a feeling amongst people of community, and it starts to heal things."

Richard Weiss

Before Richard Weiss, 36, got busy providing art house and other indie films to Jacksonians, he worked in the tech industry. After cutting his teeth renting foreign films at Video Library, Weiss started making databases of the movies he had seen and ones he hadn't seen but wanted to. Even though Video Library offered a wide selection, Weiss wanted more: "I noticed that there were a lot of things on DVD that they probably could never carry."

Merrill "Mo" McKewen

While working as a project coordinator, events planner and/or fundraiser for more than a dozen non-profit clients, McKewen, who prefers you call her "Mo," has raised two daughters, taught at Murrah and Peeples, and volunteered for several community events.

Carlton Reeves

"I believe in the rule of law and in using it to achieve justice across the board," Carlton Reeves says.

Tripp Segars

Even from an early age, Tripp Segars knew the direction his life would take. When he was 4, he went on a preschool field trip to the "Mr. Knozit Show," a local children's television program in Columbia, S.C. When Mr. Knozit asked him what he'd like to be when he grew up, Segars replied: "I want to goes [sic] to the office and bes [sic] a lawyer like my daddy."

Alan French

"For me, I wouldn't live anywhere else," Alan French says from his house-turned-office on North State Street in Fondren.

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