“Art of Farming” through a photographer’s eye

“Corn Field During Sunset” by photographer Christy Hunter is one of the featured photos during the exhibition “The Art of Farming” March 7 - April 30, at the Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville, Tenn.

 “The Art of Farming,” a look at the rural landscape of West Tennessee as seen through the eyes of photographer Christy Hunter, will open at the Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville, Tenn., March 7. An artist reception will take place at 6 p.m., followed by a short tour and presentation by Hunter.

Photographer Christy Hunter

Hunter has been a photographer for over ten years with much of her work centered on gardens, flowers and outdoor nature scenes.  In 2011, she moved from the St. Louis area to Munford, Tenn., where she discovered new subjects along the back roads and countryside of West Tennessee.

According to Hunter, her world was opened to the beauty of things from the past; old stores, houses, barns, and beautiful farmland. As she explored the countryside capturing these scenes, a collection of images began to form around farm life.

“The past is left for us to discover and learn from,” says Hunter. “As I capture images, I try to think about those stories; the shapes, colors and the beauty that farming brings to our lives.”

The exhibition will look at everything from the shape of the plants, the new and old farm equipment, and the types of buildings that are all part of the farming tradition in West Tennessee.

“The Art of Farming” exhibition will be on display through April 30 and is free and open to the public. For more information about the exhibit, visit www.westtnheritage.com or call 731-779-9000.

Welcome 2012

Jeremy and Jessica, of McComb, Miss., were our first visitors of 2012. Their reward - a Brownsville birdhouse.

We've started 2012 with a bang and ended 2011 with a record year for attendance. Over 20,500 visitors walked through our doors last year and we loved meeting and sharing our West Tennessee culture with each and every one.

Now it's time to welcome new guests as we continue to greet old friends. It's was a little of both when we greeted our first visitors for 2012. Jeremy had stopped in before. On this trip, he made a special stop to show his friend Jessica our museums. It's the ultimate compliment when our visitors come back, and especially when they bring others to share the experience.

Happy New Year! May it be filled with all you could possibly hope for!!

It pays to Shop Brownsville!

Winners of the Shop Brownsville First - Big Prize Giveaway with their prizes.
Pictured  (from left) are Julie Taylor, Lori Hatcher and Santia Taylor. 

We had a fun time last Friday preparing to give away three great prizes from the Brownsville Business Association (BBA). This was the second year the BBA has sponsored a give-a-way and this year it got a lot bigger and included his and her Citizen watches, a 7-inch E-reader and a 40" flat screen TV.

Look at all the tickets that were entered in the giveaway!

Kenny Ellington  was on hand to give the box a good shaking before the drawing.

And you always need a child around to do the drawing .... 

Thanks to the BBA for choosing us as the drawing location and congratulations to the winners. I think it was a very successful event with 20 merchants participating. We're looking forward to next year already!

Remember it pays to Shop Brownsville First!

New Exhibit Premiers at Center

Below is an article written by our local reporter, Calvin Carter, of the Brownsville States Graphic. Thanks Calvin, for letting us share it with our friends.

Photo by Calvin Carter, Brownsville States Graphic

By CALVIN CARTER ccarter@statesgraphic.com

Approximately 50 years ago, Nashville college students from Fish University, A&I, and American Baptist Theological Seminary began a sit-in campaign with religious leader Kelly Miller Smith and James Lawson during the Civil Rights fight against segregation.

The non-violent protest emerged in the form of massive sit-ins at downtown lunch counter.

The incident would serve as the spark and guide for many others throughout Tennessee, including those in the Knoxville, Chattanooga and Memphis areas.

Until January 22, 2012, residents will have the opportunity to learn much about the sit-ins at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center thanks to the traveling exhibit We Shall Not Be Moved: The 50th Anniversary of Tennessee’s Civil Rights Sit-Ins.

The free exhibit made its premiere at the center last Friday, December 9, pulling a pretty strong crowd.

Through its immense collection of pictures, signage, stories and even letters from protestors, the exhibit explains the thoughts and motivations of a generation forced to fight violent reactions to their protests with non-violence and steady resolve.

Brownsville States-Graphic Reporter Calvin Carter (second from right) speaks with Tennessee State Museum Curator of Social History Graham Perry (far right) and West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center Director Sonia Outlaw-Clark (far left) during the opening reception of "We Shall Not Be Moved" Friday, December 9, 2011.

What’s perhaps incredible about the exhibit is that while it offers a lot, it’s a significantly scaled down version of the original, noted Tennessee State Curator Graham Perry.

“We had a lot of visuals, for example like hundreds of photos. And there was also a replica lunch counter we couldn’t include for the mobile version,” Perry said. “We had to choose the most visual, or the ones that told the best parts of the story.”

While the exhibit has been “from one end of Tennessee to literally the other,” Perry said, it will conclude its journey in February 2013, before settling at the University Of Tennessee at Martin in 2014.

Perry stated that he learned so much while helping to put the exhibit together, including how the national sit-ins reflected locally.

“I learned a lot about the sit-ins. Despite the fact that the Civil Rights Movements was happening nationwide, it was really a thinly veiled version of what was happening locally. It was the spark,” Perry said.

The exhibit also received a new surprise in the form of a noteworthy addition.

Jim Ruth drove the first group of Freedom Riders from Nashville to Jackson, Miss., in 1961. He was 21 years old and drove for Trailways. Mr. Ruth greeted visitors as they arrived to see the new exhibit.

In 1961, a Chester County resident by the name of Jim Ruth, served as a bus driver for Trailways.

At 21-years-old, and with the promise of $19 and half pay per day for the trip, Ruth would drive a group that many of his other co-workers had refused from either fear or hate of the group.

“One professor in that group told me that, ‘Mr. Ruth you don’t know what you’re doing. You could get hurt or worse from this,” Ruth recalled. “’I said, I’m doing something that I’m suppose to do. If I’m going to die, then my bags are packed.’”

But Ruth took the Nashville group to their destination in Jackson, Miss., and unknowingly would immerse himself as a part of history.

Ruth would drive a group that would become known as the Freedom Riders, and while there was potential opposition, he noted the group arrived safely to their destination.

“They were the best group of people I’ve ever hauled,” Ruth said. “This makes me feel good that I’ve done something for someone.”

Ruth, who was recently honored by the NAACP in Nashville, heard about the exhibit at the West Heritage Delta Center on the news, and decided to see if he could offer any items from the incident for display.

His items will be one display until the exhibit makes it exit. But along with Ruth’s addition, the hopes of what the exhibit will do for the latest generation remains the same.

“I hope that young people will come in and see that young people are capable of causing change,” Perry said.

Trick or Treat at the Museum

Each year the Brownsville Business Association sponsors Trick or Treat with Me... a fun event that gives kids a traditional trick or treating experience with the added safety of visiting merchants instead of going to stranger's doors. This is the second year that the Delta Heritage Center has participated and it just keeps getting more and more fun. This year our entire staff decided to dress up and have fun with the kids. Here are just a few of the more than 80 kids who stopped by between 4-7 Halloween evening. I think you'll agree that some of them had some very unique costumes.

This is Katie pictured with the Center staff. Katie was our first Trick or Treater for the evening. She's standing with Peggy Bat, Polly Panda (aka Janet), Zoo Keeper Kathy and Gangster Mary.

Polly even went outside and meet with some kids who were having a picnic.

Hoofbeats in the Heartland opens August 24

 A cavalry and military commander in the war, Nathan Bedford Forrest is one of the war's most unusual figures. He was one of the few officers in either army to enlist as a private and be promoted to general officer and division commander by the end of the war.

 The traveling exhibition “Hoofbeats in the Heartland: Civil War Cavalry in Tennessee” will open at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center, in Brownsville, Tenn., Wednesday, August 24. The exhibit is organized by the Tennessee State Museum and funded in part by a grant from the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area.

Hoofbeats in the Heartland will look at how Tennessee’s strategic location would make it a major battleground of the Western Theater. As both sides maneuvered, raided, fought, and occupied the state, nearly every community experienced the heavy hand of war. While few communities witnessed large battles, nearly every community experienced soldiers on horseback as part of a raiding force, occupying army, or as members of the numerous guerilla or partisan bands. 

The exhibition Hoofbeats in the Heartland will introduce the soldiers and the evolution of cavalry tactics in the Civil War. Visitors to the exhibit will meet the leaders such as Nathan Bedford Forrest and John Wilder and learn how their personalities affected the mounted warfare. Learn about the typical cavalry trooper, the nearly one million horses and mules that died during the Civil War and the mounted spies and scouts used to gain intelligence about the opposition.

Throughout the state both sides dealt with small bands of guerilla or partisan fighters mounted on horseback. These groups, some holding legitimate commissions from their respective governments, manifested in nearly every Tennessee county.

Visitors will also learn how the homefront sometimes became the frontlines and the role of the African-American troops. Significant battles will also be discussed including Fort Pillow in West Tennessee.

Hoofbeats in the Heartland will remain on display at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center until October 31. The Center is a tourist information center and three regional museums located off of Interstate 40 at Exit 56 in Brownsville. The Center is open seven days a week and is free to the public. For more information, call 731-779-9000 or visit www.westtnheritage.com.

Elvis Fan is West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center's 10,000th Visitor

Pictured are (from left) WTDHC Center Director Sonia Outlaw-Clark, Greg, Taylor and Janice Hatch, and Center Advisory Board Members Carolyn Freeman and Jerry Wilson.

Taylor Hatch helped her grandparents, Greg & Janice Hatch, choose Tennessee as their vacation destination. “I had written a paper about Elvis and I wanted to see Graceland,” said the 11-year-old from Urbandale, Iowa.

After visiting Memphis, the Hatch family was traveling to Nashville before heading home July 20, when they decided to stop at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center (WTDHC) in Brownsville, Tenn. The decision made Taylor this year’s 10,000^th person to visit the Center. She was greeted with cheering and applause and presented with a special gift bag full of West Tennessee items, including a Brownsville birdhouse and Tennessee Gold Sauce.

June “Concert on the Porch” to feature Hannah Company, Jupiter Stone

The West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville, Tenn., will present the second in its summer concert series "Concert on the Porch" Saturday, June 25, at 7 p.m.. The free concert will feature two bands with Brownsville ties, Hannah Company and Jupiter Stone.

Hannah Company

Hannah Company made its musical debut at this year’s Cinco de Mayo Heritage Celebration. Members of the group include Hannah Baynes, Andrew Cooper and Amy and Joe Mallette. Since May, the rock group has enjoyed playing at private parties and other local events.

Jupiter Stone

The members of Jupiter Stone consider themselves “students of music.” Each member brings a different musical style to the group and they mesh to form a modern appeal, bridging generations with their rock and rhythm and blues mix. The band spends its weekends playing in and around Jackson and Memphis and has released a CD, simply titled “Jupiter Stone.” Band members are Josh and Steven Stewart of Brownsville, David Aplin and Kenny Napper.

Concert on the Porch is a family-friendly event and both groups promise something for all ages. You are invited to bring your lawn chairs and enjoy this free evening concert. Grilled hot dogs, drinks and popcorn will be available. You may also pack a picnic or visit one of the nearby restaurants.

Concert on the Porch is a free summer concert series featuring guest artists performing from the porch of Blues legend Sleepy John Estes, located on the grounds of the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center. The Center is located behind McDonald’s off of Hwy. 76 South and Interstate 40 at Exit 56. For a complete list of summer concerts and more information, visit www.westtnheritage.com, or call 731-779-9000.

“Journey Stories” comes to Mercer

Kathryn and Ray Dixon were among several Brownsville residents who toured the Smithsonian exhibit “Journey Stories” Sunday, February 27, in Mercer, Tenn.

"Journey Stories,” a Smithsonian traveling exhibit, is the tales of how we came to America. From Native Americans to new American citizens, our history is filled with stories of people leaving behind everything – families and possessions – to reach a new life in another state, across the continent, or even across an ocean.

The Big Black Creek Historical Association (BBCHA) in Mercer, Tenn., is one of only six Tennessee museums, and the smallest venue according to the Smithsonian's staff, to be awarded the privilege of displaying this exhibit.

Journey Stories opened Sunday, February 27, at the Pennington Building, and will be on display Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., and Sundays 2 - 5 p.m., through April 3. The exhibit can also be viewed by appointment weekdays and evenings by calling 731-427-7897 or 731-234-3497.

Several weekend events are planned as compliments to the exhibit beginning with the showing of the movie “Gone with the Wind” Saturday, March 5, at the Ebenezer Church building. For more information about this, the exhibit and other activities, visit: www.bigblackcreekhistorical.com.