Howdy, y’all.
I’m down in New Orleans right now after a quick trip to Mississippi to attend the opening night of an art exhibit called “Backyards and Beyond” at the Mississippi Museum of Art. It is an exhibit that my sister, Karole, and her partner, artist H.C. Porter (check out hcporter.com for details) have been working on since Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It consists of over 80 paintings of some of Katrina’s survivors in their destroyed homesteads right after the hurricane hit. H.C. painted the images and Karole recorded their stories that go along with the paintings as well as wrote their stories posted on the walls next to each painting. It was a gargantuan undertaking and they have pulled it off brilliantly. I was so proud of my little sister. She has spent the last few years spearheading this project and, for all the doubts I had about it from time to time, seeing it last night all pulled together under one roof was a very moving experience. There are plans to tour the show to Washington D.C. and other cities so watch for it. Governor Haley Barbour’s wife, Mississippi’s First Lady, opened the exhibit with a moving speech and Congressman Chip Pickering and his wife were there as well since Mrs. Pickering has been a big supporter of the project. It was interesting to witness their well wishes as well as their genuine high regard for Karole and H.C. who have been in a lesbian relationship for almost twenty years now. Though their sexual orientation has nothing to do with the caliber of the exhibit, it did dawn on me while being in that crowd full of very conservative folk in Jackson that, as much as they were moved by the work that Karole and H.C. had done on behalf of their beloved state, that it still doesn’t translate to honoring them in a real political sense. Ahhh .. the south in all its glorious contradictions.
I spent the two nights in Mississippi with my brother, Dr. J. Kim Sessums, at his lovely home in Brookhaven and had a great time with him and his sexy sprite of a wife, Kristy. Kim is an ob/gyn but - those of you who have read Mississippi Sissy already know this - is also a reknowned sculptor. He is currently working on a commissioned sculpture - 1 1/3 life-size - of legendary Ole Miss football coach, Johnny Vaught, to be unveiled at the Ole Miss football stadium at the beginning of the school’s next football season. So I had a great time hanging out in Kim’s garage where he was working on the piece and watching him work as he shaved and molded the clay on the giant figure. I am in awe of his talent.
I took the train back down to New Orleans today to spend the night here in the French Quarter and I’m about to head over to Meaux Bar, my favorite restaurant here owned by a couple of old friends from New York who migrated south a few years ago and themselves survived Katrina. I’ll be catching a flight back to New York City tomorrow morning and be heading back out on book tour next week to coincide with the trade paperback publication of Mississippi Sissy from Picador. My first stop will be Ft. Lauderdale on Thursday afternoon after first interviewing Robert De Niro Thursday morning for an article I’m doing on his new hotel, The Greenwich, for Travel+Leisure magazine that slated to be in its June issue. On my next post, I’ll let you know about all my stops in the next few weeks so maybe you can catch me if you’re close by one of the cities I’m in - Ft. Lauderdale, Hattiesburg, Atlanta, Charleston, and then back in New Orleans for the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival.
Anyway, just wanted to begin limbering up my blogging muscles for the next few weeks. Kim took me into his frame shop, We Frame It, in Brookhaven while I was there and the owner of the place - a sexy young guy named Matt, to bring the discussion back full circle to art and sculpture - told me he missed reading my blog entries. So here’s to Matt and the matted paintings of Katrina survivors and matte gray clay that Kim uses to mold his sculptures as well as the even deeper matte clay of the Mississippi soil I just left behind in my native state that molded me as well into the man I am today, a place from which I made an early escape but also one that, whenever I return there, reminds me how much I love my brother and sister and what amazing grown-up people they have become. I am so proud of both of them - they are two of the state’s premiere citizens - and I am lucky to be their big brother. Mississippi Sissy is about the importance of family and this trip reminded me yet again of that importance.
Now all y’all go call your own brothers and sisters and let them know how much you love them too. Tell’em a Mississippi sissy told you to.
