Eudora Welty International Conference

April 9: Introduction to the Welty Special Collection at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, William Winter Building

On April 9, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History will offer an introduction to archival research in the Eudora Welty Collection at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building. If you have not previously used the collection, or if you have a new project you would like help with, this event is for you. To register for a free researcher’s card before or after the event, please bring a government issued ID. More than one workshop may be offered, depending on interest (these individualized orientations will cap at 10 participants) —so please indicate your interest in the event when registering for the conference online and we will contact you about available session times.

April 10: Bettye Jolly Lecture and Reception: Jesmyn Ward, "Narratives of Witness, Narratives of Self" (4:30 pm)

Jesmyn Ward, two-time National Book Award-winner, will reflect on her experiences growing up in DeLisle, the Gulf Coast Mississippi town, and how they shape both her latest novel Let Us Descend and her profound body of work. This marquee event of our conference will be held at the Eudora Welty House in partnership with the Eudora Welty Foundation and the Millsaps College Visiting Writers Series. Book-signing and reception to follow.

April 11: EUDORA, the Film, plus a Talkback (4:00 pm)

A film by Anthony and Amy Thaxton, EUDORA is a revealing portrait of adventure, daring, humor, and love. Welty is explored through intimate film clips and interviews with family and friends, set against the backdrop of Jackson, Mississippi. Our film showing will be followed by a Q & A with filmmaker Amy Thaxton, and three of the film’s interviewees, Mary Alice Welty White, Suzanne Marrs, and Ralph Eubanks. Reception to follow.

April 12: Tour of the Medgar Evers House, a Stop on the Civil Rights Trail (9-11 am)

The assassination of Medgar Evers, 37-year old NAACP field secretary and civil rights activist, compelled Eudora Welty to write—beginning on the day he was murdered—one of her most haunting and political stories. Evers's murder in the carport of his family's home on June 12, 1963 was the first killing of a nationally significant leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. Visitors attending our tour of the home—the location where Evers was shot as he returned from a meeting organizing voter registration—may better understand the sacrifices made by Medgar and Myrlie Evers, the challenges and impacts of their work, the realities of living under constant threat of violence during the Jim Crow era, as well as the everyday life of the Evers family. Vans will run from the hotel to the House Museum and House Museum to the conference site.

April 12: Scholars’ Tribute to Eudora Welty’s “The Wanderers” (5:45 pm)

Written by Brenda Currin and Kari Margolis. Inspired and based on Eudora Welty’s short story “The Wanderers,” using Eudora Welty's words selectively. By the permission of Russell & Volkening as agents for the author’s estate.

Actress, adaptor, and Weltian Brenda Currin has teamed up with the extraordinary theater artist, Kari Margolis, to compose a tribute to Welty’s short story “The Wanderers” to be enacted by a cast of eighteen well-known Welty Scholars on the Millsaps College stage. Together, we'll reenter Morgana to reencounter Katie and Virgie Rainey; the Stark women; Cassie Morrison and Mr. Bitts; King, Ran, and Snowdie MacLain; and Juba all. Reception to precede and follow.

April 13: Welty House Birthday Tour for Welty Scholars led by Mary Alice Welty White, Suzanne Marrs, and Susan Haltom (9:00 am)

On the morning of Sunday April 13th, we will celebrate Eudora Welty's 116th birthday with cake and VIP tours of the Eudora Welty House and Garden. Built by Eudora's parents in 1925, 1119 Pinehurst Street was the writer's home for nearly 80 years, and the house is now celebrating its centennial year, a festivity that continues with our morning visit. If you haven't been there before, you'll learn that Eudora and her mother Chestina planned and tended to the impressive garden located at the side and back of their home over decades. And that Eudora often wrote in her bedroom or on the porch, which frequently hosted visiting writers and local friends and now us too. If you have visited before, we think you will see it freshly in these dedicated tours for Welty scholars. We'll arrive at the Visitor's Center at 8:45 am to divide into groups rotating through different parts of the property (with not more than thirteen in the House at one time) and ask that you please preregister for this event so that we can estimate and plan attendance.

April 13: Dance Adaptation of "Why I Live at the P.O." (1:00 p.m.)

This charming adaptation of Welty's comic story will arrive from New York City to help us celebrate the writer's 116th birthday. The beloved short story will come to life in a whimsical, multidisciplinary dance/physical theater adaptation, directed and choreographed by Haila Strauss, with original music by Donna Cribari, and performed by dancers/physical actors Albena Kervanbashieva and Beck Farris. This thirty-minute delight, followed by a talkback with the cast, will take you to China Grove, Mississippi, 1941, straight into the entangled lives of the Rondo family—Sister, Stella Rondo, Mama, Pappa Daddy, Uncle Rondo and even the little Shirley T!