Preserve Marshall County & Holly Springs, Inc’s (PMCHS) preservation initiative: the Behind the Big House Program, now in its eleventh year, is set for April 20–22, 2023 as it continues its educational outreach efforts towards interpreting the legacy of slavery.
With much thanks for the continued grant-assistance funding from the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Mississippi Arts Commission, and Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area Alliance, the program site will be the slave quarters, kitchen, and adjacent domestic areas for the Hugh Craft House located at 184 S. Memphis Street in Holly Springs, Mississippi.
“We will have an active site this year,” said Chelius Carter, president of PMCHS. “Culinary Historian Michael W. Twitty will be returning for his seventh year to conduct antebellum cooking demonstrations, following his recent publications The Cooking Gene in 2017 (which earned the 2018 James Beard Awards’ Book of the Year); Rice published in 2021, and most recently Koshersoul, named the 2022 Jewish Book of the Year by the Jewish Book Council.”
Twitty will be doing his demonstrations on Friday and Saturday, April 21–22, on the side lawn of the Hugh Craft House, and fortunately timed attendees will be able to sample his culinary creations. Twitty is at the forefront of reviving traditional African-American food-ways through seed-keeping, growing heirlooms and heritage crops, raising heritage breeds, and sustainably gathering and maintaining wild flora and fauna that many of our ancestors relied upon.
“Responsible exploration of Southern food heritage demands that the enslaved people charged with cooking for antebellum America be honored for their unique role in giving the Southland her mother cuisine,” added Carter. “We are honoring food’s history, all while serving up a bit of, as Michael calls it, ‘culinary justice.’”
From Thursday through Saturday, Drs. Carolyn Freiwald and Jodi Skipper from the University of Mississippi Department of Sociology & Anthropology will be on site with student volunteers conducting an active excavation in the slave quarters and kitchen areas and will have table exhibits of past excavation finds. Their goal is to help interpret the lives of the enslaved people who lived and toiled this area.
Joseph McGill, founder of The Slave Dwelling Project, Inc., will be returning for his tenth year with the Behind the Big House program and will be stationed within the slave quarters and kitchen of the Hugh Craft House from Thursday through Saturday. McGill will be on hand to discuss the lives of the enslaved people. In a 2010 interview with NPR’s Michele Norris, McGill said, “For so long folks have been visiting the plantation and going into the big house, and without these structures, the big house could not have existed.”
Local artisan Dale DeBerry and colleague Wayne Jones will talk about 19th century brick making and will have on-hand his own artworks in clay for purchase. De Berry and Jones will be on site from Thursday through Saturday. Historic interpreter and professional storyteller Tammy Gibson will be on site to demonstrate and discuss the role of an enslaved laundress during the antebellum era. You can follow her travels online at: www.sankofatravelher.com.
On Thursday, April 20 from 5–7 pm, Preserve Marshall County & Holly Springs, Inc. with co-hosts The Rosa Foundation and North Mississippi Roots and Wings, invites you their welcome reception at Coffee In Holly, located at 144 S. Memphis Street on Holly Springs’ historic courthouse square.
For more information or questions, please contact info@preservemarshallcounty.org, or visit their website, preservemarshallcounty.org/behind-the-big-house.
