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The Amazing Spirit of Mississippians
Our society is one that quickly forgets, but the rebuilding of lives and communities following Hurricane Katrina will take years. To help sustain the importance of long-term awareness and how Mississippians have endured life after Katrina from a very personal perspective, an extraordinary and profound traveling exhibition has emerged. Honoring and celebrating the amazing strength, adaptability and spirit of Mississippians is the focus of the upcoming nationally touring exhibition, Backyards & Beyond: Mississippians and their Stories - the first year after Katrina. In a moving tribute to both those who are enduring life after Katrina as well as the volunteers who sustained the hope for so many day after day, Backyards & Beyond is unlike anything seen since the storm. The Exhibition makes its national premiere at the Mississippi Arts Center in Jackson, MS,on March 8th, 2008 and will run through June 8th Directly following Katrina, renowned Mississippi artist, H.C. Porter, felt a distinct calling and an enormous responsibility to record through her work the historic images and stories of the people of her state. Having dedicated her work to documenting the people of her home state for the past 16 years, she soon found herself in the midst of the most challenging and rewarding project of her career. Encouraged by her collectors nationwide, Porter began collecting documentary portraits and live field recordings of Mississippians two weeks after Hurricane Katrina left people in life situations which others will hopefully never face in a lifetime. She discovered Mississippians who wanted to tell their stories … and have their stories heard. Two and a half years in the making, the result is a collection of 80 powerful and moving environmental portrait paintings, each telling his or her own story directly to the viewer through audio guides. These images and interviews were selected from over 8000 photographs and more than 50 hours of field recordings. “I immediately realized the responsibility I felt looking through my camera lens that very first day in Pearlington,” said Porter. “As a social realist, my work has always captured time and place, but suddenly I knew I was recording images that would forever represent a major American event … and it was right in my own backyard.” “I have always said, ‘Picasso saw cubes, Mondrian saw line and color, and I saw Millsaps Avenue in Jackson, Mississippi’.” she explains. “Now I can add Howard Avenue in Biloxi, Main Street in Bay St. Louis, 2nd Avenue in Pass Christian … and so on.” Porter’s individual collectors, representing 20 states across the nation, have sponsored the 80 paintings created for this exhibition. This diversity of support reflects the same spirit of volunteerism that has been so vital to people on the Gulf Coast. Mississippi’s First Lady, Marsha Barbour, who sponsored the exhibition’s painting titled Full of Grace, describes Backyards & Beyond as “an extraordinary exhibition that speaks volumes about the character and grace of the magnificent people of our state.” In the years ahead, Backyards & Beyond will travel nationally offering people throughout the country who participated in our state’s recovery the opportunity to experience this exhibition. In 2010, five years after Hurricane Katrina, The Clinton Presidential Library and Museum located in Little Rock, Arkansas, will host the exhibition. While Backyards & Beyond tells the stories of Mississippians, it also pays tribute to thousands across the nation and the world who rallied to help those in need. Some special interactive opportunities will be included for those who have so graciously given to the people affected by Katrina.
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