Yazoo City is about to be reawakened with arts and culture, with the revival of the Yazoo Arts Council, after nearly 20 years of inactivity.
Originally founded in 1975, the council was involved with promoting artistic and cultural awareness in the community, until it became inactive in the mid-1990s.
After so many years of inactivity, a few members of the community decided to bring the Arts Council back to life, realizing that Yazoo City was lacking in the area of arts and culture as a social activity.
The idea to revive the council came to some of the members after a musical series was presented by Rae Shannon last year at Trinity Episcopal Church. The overwhelming attendance to the event suggested to some that the citizens of Yazoo City had great interest in the arts.
"I thought, why can’t we do this all the time?" said Council member, Holly Coleman. "There are so many talented people here, and people go to Jackson all the time for things like that."
So, Holly and her fellow board members, D'Ann Adams, Mariah Bridgforth, Phil Williams, Gloria Owens, set to work in July 2017, gathering all the paperwork needed to reinstate the Yazoo Arts Council and to activate its status as a Non-Profit 501c3 organization.
As of now, the council and its board are up and running, and soon they will start building up their membership to help the organization grow.
The new mission statement for the Yazoo Arts Council is: To Honor, Connect, and Enrich Local Artists.
The council hopes to promote all arts in the community, ranging from language arts: poetry and writing; visual arts: painting and sculpting; performing arts: drama and dance; and music: vocal and instrumental.
"We thought if we could do just three really good events a year that are well attended, then maybe next year when membership grows we could add even more," said Coleman.
The first event of the year planned by the Yazoo Arts Council, is a dramatic performance called "Oh, Mr. Faulkner, Do You Write?"
The one man show will be performed by John Maxwell, whom will act out Williams Faulkner's recollections of his days in Hollywood and the acceptance of his Nobel Prize.
This event will take place Friday, May 4, before the Jerry Clower Festival. The show will begin at 7 p.m. inside the sanctuary of Trinity Episcopal Church. A reception will take place before the show in the church courtyard at 6 p.m.
Tickets for the limited-seating event are available for purchase at Good Hope General Merchandise at the rate of $15.00 per adult, and $10 for high school and college students.
The Yazoo Arts Council has also partnered with the Junior Auxiliary of Yazoo City to host a children's play called "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark Twain.
This event will take place at 10 a.m. at the Yazoo Community Complex on Canal Street during the Jerry Clower Festival on May 5. The play will be performed by the New Stage Theater Educational Touring Show, and will be open for free admission to the children of Yazoo City and Yazoo County.
Coleman said that they are very excited about the future of the Yazoo Arts Council.
"Once we get the membership going we can really start putting things together." she said. "Everybody seems really excited about it so I hope the momentum keeps going."
For more information about the Yazoo Arts Council, or to purchase tickets to the event in May, please call 662-746-7776.
