The Copiah-Lincoln Community College Willie Mae Dunn Library is both honored and excited to host the Natchez Tricentennial program Legends and Lore the month of September!

Legends and Lore is a year-long project featuring speakers on various topics related to Natchez. These popular programs are free, open to the public and have been hosted at various venues throughout Natchez. The speaker series sponsored by the college, “Natchez as Place: Three Centuries of Influence, Inspiration and Impact on Six Outstanding Writers,” will be on three consecutive Mondays in September and will feature presentations on six literary giants, two from each of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. These six influential authors are connected in some way to Natchez either by birth, residency or inspiration. All presentations, provided by a wonderful slate of speakers, will be at 5:30 p.m. in the Willie Mae Dunn Library at Copiah-Lincoln Community College and will last approximately one hour.

In conjunction with the Legends and Lore series, Copiah-Lincoln Community College will also be celebrating the opening of the Carolyn Vance Smith Natchez Literary Research Center. The center, housed in the Willie Mae Dunn Library, is named in honor of Carolyn Vance Smith, the founder of the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration. The CVS NLRC is comprised of two main collections. The Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration Collection includes correspondence, publications and other artifacts generated by the NLCC since 1990. The Natchez Literary Collection is comprised of materials in all forms related to Natchez’s rich literary history. The mission of the center is to collect, preserve and make available to all this comprehensive variety of resources.

On Sept. 12, Jim Barnett, retired director of historic properties for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History will present on Le Page du Pratz (1695-1775) whose “L’histoire de la Louisiane” provides insight on the settlement of Natchez and the culture and history of the Natchez tribe. Also in the program will be Dunbar Healy, a New Orleans attorney, who will present on his ancestor William Dunbar (1750-1810). One of the leading Natchez planters of his day, William Dunbar avidly pursued research in an array of scientific and historical topics. Dunbar’s extensive journal of the Red River Expedition commissioned by Thomas Jefferson in 1804 to explore the Southern Mississippi Valley provides the first scientific study of the region’s varied landscape and its people.

The program on Sept. 19 will include David Sansing, retired professor of history at the University of Mississippi, who will present on Joseph Holt Ingraham (1809-1860). Ingraham, a prolific Natchez writer, published a variety of works including the travel diary “The Southwest by a Yankee,” over 80 novellas and several historical novels. Joining Dr. Sansing in the program will be Kathleen Bond, superintendent of the Natchez National Historical Park, who will discuss William Johnson (1809-1851). A freed slave, Johnson’s 2000-page handwritten diary, “The Barber of Natchez,” which spans 16 years and was published in 1951, provides great insight into the daily life of antebellum Natchez. Johnson’s home in downtown Natchez was acquired by the National Park Service in 1991 and is now open to the public as a house museum.

The last evening hosted by Co-Lin on Sept. 26 will feature Dennis Harried, long time English instructor at Alcorn State University and Copiah-Lincoln Community College, presenting on Natchez’s native son, Richard Wright (1908-1960), as an autobiographer, novelist, short-story writer, essayist and poet. Much of Wright’s work reflects memories of Natchez, particularly “Black Boy,” “Native Son” and “The Long Dream.” Susanne Kirk, former vice president and executive editor in the Scribner Division of New York publisher Simon & Schuster, will also discuss Greg Iles’ (1960) novels set in Natchez, including “Natchez Burning” and “The Quiet Game.” Ms. Kirk served as editor on several of Iles’ novels and is able to provide interesting insight on his use of Natchez as place.

Please make plans to join us for Legends and Lore and help us celebrate the opening of the Carolyn Vance Smith Natchez Literary Research Center, the first of its kind in Natchez! For more information, please email beth.richard@colin.edu or call 601.446.1101. You can also visit our website at www.colin.edu/librariesmain or find us on Facebook at Co-Lin Natchez Library.

 

Beth Richard is the director of the Willie Mae Dunn Library on the Natchez campus of Copiah-Lincoln Community College.