Header picture of Randall Norris, his book Women of Coal, and a picture of Highway 61 sign

Projects

Pickers

From 1980-1990 Tennessee's Hispanic population increased from 25,000 to 125,000. It quickly became apparent that the states institutions, as well as society at large, had no knowledge of Latino culture. It was at this point that Jean-Philippe and I teamed up with Dr. Bazan Romero, a friend and fellow student from Bowling Green State University. Bazan, part Chicano and part Chiraqawa Apache, agreed to help interview approximately forty members of a migrant community that came to Tennessee each year to pick apples, green peppers, squash, and tomatoes. When the group was in Tennessee, the members lived and worked on Walden's mountain, a farming community located between Dayton and Pikeville. The summer stop in Tennessee was part of a circuit the group had made for many years, staying in Florida in the winter, Alabama in the spring, Tennessee in the summer, Georgia in the fall, then back to Florida for the winter. During the summer of 1999 we kept close company with the group, taking pictures and recording interviews. In the near future we hope to spend more time with them, eventually completing the same cycle that they take each year, and our interviews and pictures will published in a book called Pickers. Several university presses have already expressed an interest in publishing the book.

Highway 61
In 1990, Jean-Philippe and I began our first humanities project: Highway 61: Faces of the Delta-Voices of the South. Two years later, with funding from the Mississippi Humanities Council and the Phi Hardin Foundation, we completed our work. The eight panel display contained sixty of Jean- Philippe's magnificent pictures, along with a caption that was either a direct quote from the informant, or a statement that captured the essence of the photograph. The panels were used as a backdrop for three public venues, hosted by Tom Rankin, Director of the Cultural Center at Duke University. Eventually, after several weeks beneath the state Capitol dome in Jackson, Mississippi, Mississippi Public Television aired a program about Highway 61. A year later, with additional funding from the Phil Hardin Foundation, the exhibit toured thirteen junior colleges, as well as several high schools and elementary schools. After being selected as a finalist for the Smithsonian's summer exhibit series, the display was permanently housed in the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Since then, Jean-Philippe and I have made several trips back into the Mississippi Delta, where we have accumulated enough interviews and pictures for a book.
For images of Highway 61 click here.

Silver City
Kris Murray and I have already begun working on a project focused on the local area: Silver City: From Boxcars to Splitlevels-An Immigrant Experience in northwest Illinois. This story deals with how Northwest Steel and Wire housed newly arrived workers in Sterling, Illinois, both during and after WW II, in boxcars. The company brought in railroad boxcars to house workers freshly arrived from Mexico, Tennessee and Kentucky. In order to make the "houses" look more attractive, they boxcars were painted silver, hence the name Silver City. Although our work has just begun, both the Illinois Arts Council and the Illinois Humanities Council have expressed an interest in the project. I feel confident that we can find funding for a major humanities display to give this particular group a place for its voice to be heard. Afterwards, I am also certain we can find a publisher for the book that will eventually evolve from the project.