By W. Ralph Eubanks
When the state of Mississippi is mentioned, it is guaranteed to generate a response. On the one hand, you have white authors such as Eudora Welty and William Faulkner. On the other hand, you have Black authors like Richard Wright and Jesmyn Ward, who paint a different picture of the state and a love/hate relationship with it. W. Ralph Eubanks presents a literary picture of the different regions of Mississippi, from the Gulf Coast to Jackson to the Delta region.
Certain connotations come to mind at the word Mississippi, depending upon who you talk to. I will be the first to admit, as an African American, that visions of Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, the overt racism, segregation, disenfranchisement, and the Civil Rights movement immediately come to mind. Through his narrative, Eubanks walks the line between “Southern Myth” and reality, history vs. fairy tale, sharing a story of the state that is more nuanced.
For Mississippi writers, whatever their sentiments are about the Magnolia State, there is almost always a sense of intimacy and place about it when they write. Some writers remained in Mississippi. Others had to leave it to express themselves. And still others left the state only to return to it. This, illustrated by Eubanks’ use of photographs (historical and present-day landscapes) makes their work more compelling.
Eubanks makes an accurate summation of Mississippi writers in the following statement: “Within the work of every Mississippi writer exists a tension between the history of the character and actual historic events, between the history of place and the region’s idea of itself. Historical events are seen as metaphor, while a character’s history is seen as the real thing.” As an African American writer, Eubanks endeavors to be a clarifying voice in understanding a state that “sometimes would rather avoid its past than confront it.” In his words, he “explores the silences.”
Come take this journey with W. Ralph Eubanks through Mississippi’s diverse Gulf Coast, the Piney Woods, Natchez, West Jackson’s Black community, the eastern hills, Oxford’s literary colony, the striking yet stark Mississippi Delta, and the notorious Parchman Farm, and each writer’s sense of place. And let’s not forget the Mississippi River itself. What will your relationship be with the Magnolia State, after you’ve read his tapestry?
W.D. Foster-Graham
W.D. Foster-Graham is a native son of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received a B.A. in psychology from Luther College, and he was an original member of the multi-Grammy-Award-winning ensemble, Sounds of Blackness. He has also been recognized by the International Society of Poets as one of its “Best New Poets of 2003,” is a guest writer for journalist/author/entertainer Wyatt O’Brian Evans.
