Twenty-plus years of documenting the South's vernacular art, visionary environments and traditions….plus modern art exhibits, Faulkner and Eudora, and This Week's Various. Welcome.
Margaret’s niece, Ella Shines Goldsmith, has a website where she’s written about the history and — so terrific — she has pics of it in 1985 (Margaret married Rev Dennis in 1984) and another pic from 1988 which shows just how her husband was truly fulfilling his promise to her of transforming it into a showplace.
Here’s the thing: this is not the first time Margaret’s Grocery has gotten state-wide attention. In 2011, Governor Barbour signed a resolution that made March 20-26 “Reverend Herman D. Dennis and Margaret’s Grocery Awareness and Preservation Week” — the text of it here:
Senate Concurrent Resolution 625 A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING MARCH 20-26, 2011, AS THE “REVEREND HERMAN D. ‘PREACHER’ DENNIS AND MARGARET’S GROCERY AWARENESS AND PRESERVATION WEEK” IN VICKSBURG, MISSISSIPPI. WHEREAS, Reverend Herman D. “Preacher” Dennis and his late wife, Margaret Rogers Dennis, owned and resided in the establishment on Old Highway 61 North in Vicksburg, Mississippi, known locally and worldwide as “Margaret’s Grocery”; and WHEREAS, “Miss Margaret” operated Margaret’s Grocery for over 60 years and was a faithful member of Cool Springs Missionary Baptist Church where she taught Sunday School for many years; and WHEREAS, Preacher was an ordained minister who shared his faith in God, and his belief in equality and respect for all people; and WHEREAS, Miss Margaret was, and Preacher continues to be, devoted to their community, their country and their faith; and WHEREAS, Miss Margaret’s Grocery was a neighborhood gathering place where locals shopped and partook in the kinship, friendship and wisdom of Miss Margaret and Preacher Dennis; and WHEREAS, Preacher promised Miss Margaret that if she would marry him he would build her a castle; and WHEREAS, true to his promise, Preacher lovingly honored Miss Margaret by transforming the small country grocery into a “Bible Castle to Gd,” hammering, laying brick, painting and adorning it with bright colors, objects and religious verses; and WHEREAS, Margaret’s Grocery became a draw for tourists from around the world and became and continues to be the subject of folk art and cultural tourism research, discussion and appreciation; and WHEREAS, Miss Margaret passed away in 2009 and Preacher retired from the Grocery to reside in a Vicksburg nursing home; and WHEREAS, citizens of Vicksburg, friends of Miss Margaret and Preacher, and folk art enthusiasts from around the world have expressed interest in maintaining, restoring and preserving Preacher’s folk art as a symbol of Mississippi’s creative spirit and cultural heritage; and WHEREAS, Preacher will celebrate his 96th birthday on March 25, 2011; and WHEREAS, March 22, 2011, is the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Arts Advocacy Day at the Mississippi Legislature. The Governor of the State of Mississippi has declared the week of March 20-26, 2011, as the “Reverend Herman D. Dennis and Margaret’s Grocery Awareness and Preservation Week”; and WHEREAS, it is with great pride that we commend those individuals who have made significant contributions to their community and to the State of Mississippi: NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING THEREIN, That we do hereby commend The Reverend Herman D. Dennis for his contributions to the community and the world in creating a unique “Bible Castle” and for sharing his preaching and the gospel with visitors from around the world. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we honor the memory of the late Margaret Rogers Dennis for being a pioneer African-American businesswoman, teacher and faithful member of the Kings Community and Cool Springs Missionary Baptist Church. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That we recognize that March 20-26, 2011, has been proclaimed as the “Reverend Herman D. ‘Preacher’ Dennis and Margaret’s Grocery Awareness and Preservation Week” in Mississippi, and join the citizens of Vicksburg in honoring this location. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be presented to Reverend Dennis; his daughter, Cora Lee Dennis; Ida Mae Spooner on behalf of Miss Margaret’s family; the Cool Springs Missionary Baptist Church in Vicksburg, Mississippi; forwarded to the Mississippi Arts Commission; and made available to members of the Capitol Press Corps.
The environment continues to decline. One pic from our visit this summer:
This year, I’m not able to go with everyone because I’m sitting here with a cold (having a cold the week of your birthday = no fun), but last year one of the groups I belong to visited Deborah Stone’s farm, Stone Hollow Farmstead in Harpersville, Alabama and it was *wonderful*.
We met goats and learned that…without going into too much detail…of the ways of keeping goat cheese (which they make here) from becoming too pungent has to do with separating the girls and the boys: //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js
Mississippi Madness: Expat Life in America’s Weirdest State: Richard Grant moving from NYC to Martha Foose’s Pluto Plantation in the Delta makes me laugh and cry (not funny-crying either. Just crying.). Oh, the way we are different is so good and so wonderful and so unlike anything anywhere but sometimes it is just sooooo…
The first Delta Supper Club is already sold out. From Forbes (this article was before it was s/o):
The Delta Supper Club will host dinners at historic locations throughout The Delta. The inaugural dinner on October 30 will be conducted by chef Edward Lee, owner of 610 Magnolia in Louisville and known for his appearance on Season 9 of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” and Trey Zoeller, the master distiller of Jefferson’s Bourbon.
Some of the supper club proceeds will support local charities, cooks and a scholarship fund for Mississippi Culinary Arts Students. The supper club is flexible with who it will aid, Crews says, suggesting it could be a cook who moved from The Delta to New Orleans and needs help with rent or a culinary student who cannot afford school books.
— From CNN: Georgia’s Stone Mountain…will soon be adding a very different symbol: a tower in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
According to CNN affiliate WSB, the tower will feature a replica of the Liberty Bell and give literal representation to a line from King’s “I Have a Dream” speech: “Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.”
“You have to educate your own people to hold onto the heritage and the culture and the history, because without the land, you ain’t got it,” Bailey told me. “You can’t carry this culture in the middle of Chicago. It doesn’t work.”
The decades separating the two books—published 55 years and three days apart—fed the controversy. But Flynt asked the crowd, if you start out with “To Kill A Mockingbird,” where do you go?
“Perhaps that’s why she waits till she’s 89 to give permission” for “Watchman’s” publication, he said.
Before accepting audience questions, Flynt urged those gathered to read the book:
“You’ll like Atticus better because he’s not perfect.”
Adrian Miller is interviewed on perceptions of soul food in the Phoenix New Times and says, rightly: What most people think of as soul food is really the celebration food of the rural South. And in this country, what we define as immigrant cuisine is usually the celebration foods of the old country, which over time, ceases to be the celebration food and becomes more of the core diet. And that’s what soul food is. So you know, fried chicken, the glorious cakes and pies, all of those things. At one point in the history, that was once-in-a-while food. But as people moved out of the South, it transplanted in places and gets more prosperous. They remember the good-times food of the old country and they just start to eat it more often as a sign of their new, kind of, status.
— If you live in a town with a Dinner Lab, it looks as though they just dropped their membership fee.
— Sister Manette Durand has joined the ancestors. From Southern Spaces in 2009: Bodies and Souls illuminates the quiet efforts of Sister Manette Durand, a white Catholic nun running the only health clinic in rural Jonestown, Mississippi. The residents of Jonestown, a largely African American town in the heart of the Delta, share a condition faced by low income, rural Americans struggling to obtain basic medical care. Nearly every family in this town is touched by diabetes and heart disease. Yet many lack the resources to visit a doctor more than once or twice in their entire lives. The video follows Sister Manette through her daily challenge of providing the only health care services this community has seen in the last fifteen years. Bodies and Souls here from southernspaces on Vimeo.
Aaron Franklin says: His ideal barbecue serving would be “a piece of white bread in my hand with a chunk of meat on it,” and nothing else. “We don’t need no stinkin’ sides,” he added.
above: the ‘Dual Destiny’ monument at the Winston County Courthouse in Double Springs, Alabama. The plaque reads: This Civil War soldier, one-half Union and one-half Confederate, symbolizes the war within a war and honors the Winstonians in both armies. Their shiny new swords in 1861 were by 1865 as broken as the spirits of the men who bore them, and their uniforms of blue and gray, once fresh and clean, were now as worn and patched as the bodies and souls they contained. Johnny Reb and Billy Yank, disillusioned by the realities of war, shared dual destinies as pragmatic Americans in a reunited nation. Donald B. Dodd
In Margaret Eby’s South Toward Home: Travels in Southern Literature (loved it!), she mentions a line from John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces in which Ignatius says, “When my brain begins to reel from by literary labors, I make the occasional cheese dip” which — she’s right — sounds like a Twitter bio.
— Needing a Lane cake for the holidays? They’re a regular on the Liger’s Bakery menu in Montgomery. They’re obviously up to groom, game, and gag cakes too.
— For whatever reason, I can’t believe that Lenox’ largest flatware set for 12 includes a spork for each setting. Does anybody not put together spork and KFC in the same thought bubble?
Some of the best fried chicken in Atlanta right now is actually from Memphis. but…the sides are forgettable. Amen to that. We’re here for the fried chicken. Yes again to what Aaron Franklin says re: sides.
Gus’ is now up to 11 stores, and they’re looking to grow that (if anybody here knows anybody at Gus’ corporate — which it sounds funny to say that anyway — beg them to keep it real. Nobody wants/needs/can bear another Dickey’s world domination tour. Wince). Future locations include: St. Louis, Missouri Los Angeles, California Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Chicago, Illinois Knoxville, Tennessee Fort Worth, Texas Kansas City Detroit, Michigan …no Birmingham? They’re in Little Rock and Oxford right now but no Magic City? Granted, nobody really likes franchises, and even in Memphis, the Gus’ over by Gibson’s isn’t as good as the one downtown, but Alabama needs Gus’. Especially since nobody is getting a good date on when, if ever, we will be sitting back down to yardbird at Hotel Talisi. Gus’: bring it.
Prudhomme took plenty of creative license in the kitchen – blackening was his invention, and he loved Mexican food – and his Magic Seasoning grocery store products, distributed worldwide from its Harahan-based headquarters, continue to enable unpoetic treatments of “Cajun” food. But accusations that Prudhomme’s cooking lacked “authenticity” are rendered laughable by his personal history. He grew up making gumbo in a wood-fired oven – his childhood kitchen had no electricity – after searching his parents’ yard for the oldest chicken.
“You could cook it for six hours,” Prudhomme told me in 2004, “and still you couldn’t eat the skin of the rooster.”
Prudhomme’s prairie-Cajun gumbo, thick with andouille and poultry, is the defacto soup du jour in much of New Orleans, but it was something new when the chef first introduced it at Commander’s. Brigtsen, a New Orleans native, said he “thought all gumbo had seafood in it” before meeting Prudhomme.
In the many years Stacy Krantiz has been documenting life in Appalachia—as seen in her ongoing project, As it was Give(n) to Me—she has deftly navigated the minefield that comes with photographing in this often misrepresented part of the county. At least since Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, the 1941 book by writer James Agee and photographer Walter Evans that chronicled the lives of poverty-stricken sharecroppers in the South, residents have rightfully complained about how outsiders have portrayed them in photographs—nothing short of a kind of visual openmouthed gawking and pointing. By living with her subjects, Krantiz challenges and plays with common stereotypes…
“Art shouldn’t just be for people in big cities,” she slowly and seriously enunciated with her sturdy, Southern drawl. “What I care about is access to the arts for all people of all economic and ethnic backgrounds.”
Amen, amen, amen, amen.
— So many people wondering why they’re not living in New Orleans right now: going in to make groceries at Circle Foods, my friend RL Reeves writes about being offered Fireball shots at the entrance. I think two times ago on a visit to Rouse’s, Av was offered vodka samples. Never go grocery shopping hungry…or thirsty.
— In November 2017, the $45MM Mississioppi Arts and Entertainment Experience, ‘devoted to Mississippi artists in film, literature, music, arts, dance, theater and visual arts’ will open in Meridian.
Yes: Isaac Toups (Toups’ Meatery) is in season 13 of Top Chef (it comes out December 2). The other southern chef is Wesley True, who started True Restaurant — it’s now called A and P Social — in Montgomery (True in Mobile is closed), was at The Spence for a short time in Atlanta and is now at The Optimist.
Amir Safi’s “Ode to Whataburger” at the Texas Grand Slam: We have come to receive your honey butter chicken blessings Av knew I was the one to marry when I took him to his first Whataburger, between Houston and Galveston. Whatever it takes.
— From Hanna Raskin and the P and C: the interesting history of koliva and its preparation at a church in Charleston that will have it at a genocide commemoration.
I’ve been getting the DWR catalog since the company began, I think ~1999/2000 — but this was the first time I have been in one of their studios, in Atlanta. They are *super*-friendly. The minute I came in, they asked to give me a bottle of water and offered me to stay as long as I like and sit anywhere, that they would get anything I need, and were the perfect ratio of helpfulness and unobtrusiveness.
Have to say, though, the best furniture store experience from the past year was in Dallas when I went to — I think it was The Arrangement — and they offered me to sit and have a cocktail (probably them, esp since they have cocktail recipes on their site. Watermelon sangria? Yes.). And that would have made spending $9-10k on one of the couches they had in front so much easier.
Okay, Magazine Street shops should be pouring drinks the minute you walk in, especially during the summer. So since we’re talking acrylic chairs, Villa Vici has:
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