The Sissy Resurfaces
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.
March 9th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
yay, ur back! i’m so happy to see you doing well and that i can look forward to more blog posts in the near future, you were sorely missed. i’ve been subscribing to travel+leisure for the past two years so i cant wait to read your interview with de niro.
March 10th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I just finished reading Mississippi Sissy on my way home from work today. I LOVE this book, and I love you!
March 10th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I would love to hear that Chicago is on your book tour, but I have a sinking feeling it isn’t. Great Post - I’m off to call my sister and share the love.
March 10th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
My sister called me b4 I finished reading this post! Glad you’re back, you can resume your role as the blog I don’t read for irony and cynicism (gawker). Muah*
March 10th, 2008 at 10:36 pm
Kevin, Yes, there was another one. It was such a pleasure to read your book. Old memories - good and bad- from Forest and Harperville (where my family is also buried). I’m shy about public postings and will try to keep up with you more diligently in the future.
March 15th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Kevin:
I came to read about your book from my many pastoral visits to Aunt Gladys before she died. Sorry she didn’t like it but I found it a great read!
Sorry I missed the art show mainly because my good friends son was in one of the ones from Katrina on the MS gulf coast.
I’m a retired Episcopal priest who hangs out at the Church of the Creator
in Clinton and hope that the next time you get to Mississippi, I’ll get to meet you.
Mike
March 19th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
It was great meeting you Kevin. Next time you ll have to bring something to this sexy framer to get framed. lol. I got a text from Kim immediately telling me to “go check the blog.” Best of luck with the tour.
March 20th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Kevin, I just now completed reading “Mississippi Sissy, a copy of which has been circulating throughout out Manhattan office.’ I marvel that you and I have so much in common! , too, hail from a close, church-glued (Independent Baptist) family in Greenville, SC, full of preachers and missionaries, and I got saved early and “held on” past a hetero marriage and two children before being forced to come out myself as gay. I survived the wholescale family grief, but my faith in Christ never wavered…..Getting back to your book, I was unable to put it down: the passage about your salvation experience was so moving, but I read horrified anticipating the seduction by Dr. Gallman, and I feared that it would undermine your faith; I cried, in fact, you were so sweet!….I detail in a novel I recently published, Chicago Love Tapestry, what we Bible Belt gays experience coming out: “….he came out of the closet in a Baptist household….,” I write. Thus, I hope you will give faith another chance if you haven’t already: please have lunch with Neal and me sometime (Neal Boulton, my love and my Editor-In-Chief, Genre Magazine). I start media interviews next month to publicize my novel; maybe we’ll meet. Sincerely, Erik Powell, Sr., Author of Chicago Love Tapestry and Contributing Editor of Genre Magazine, 248 West 35th St., 8th floor, NYC 10001.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Kevin,
I’m almost finished with your book. Your story reminds me of my own life in Mississippi. In fact, we knew some of the same people and had similar life experiences. My most vivid memory of life in Monticello, which is only 21 miles from Brookhaven, is the night I was chased and shot at by a bunch of redneck boys in a high speed car chase along old country roads. I told my Daddy what happened. I’ll never forget my father that night, who in a rage, picked up a baseball bat and jumped into his car to go hunt them down and kill them. Because of his reaction that night I silently endured many other experiences in that small town. It was hard and painful emotionally to be me so I stayed to myself and hide myself from the world with my dog Cally on the beautiful creeks and woods around my home spending counting hours in my Thinking Tree that stretched over one of the creeks near my home..There were several summers I never spoke to anyone outside of my family and I was totally happy. I guess I did a good job of hiding because I didn’t know there was a word for people like me until I was almost twenty.
Joe Rex was a very good friend of mine. I wish I knew what happened to him or even if he is still alive. I always worried about him. Your book brought back fond memories of Mae’s Cabaret and I even remembered some of the old drag queens you mentioned in your book and all the good times I had there. I don’t know if I should cry or smile.
I noticed on your blog that you were in Atlanta yesterday. Had I known, I would have come to meet you. Right now, I live in Atlanta with Steve, my partner of almost 24 years.
If you are ever in Atlanta, it would “do my heart good” to meet and talk with you because your book reminds me so much of my own life and the pain I endured along the way. In fact a few months ago I thought I should write a book about my life as a “queer” and actually started but soon stopped because I don’t have your gift of expression or writing. It will be a shocker if I ever write it.
Good luck to you and hopefully, one day, we’ll have a chance to meet. Please let me know if there will be another book signing in Atlanta.
PS The photo cover of your book is priceless. Every time I look at it I smile and laugh because it reminds me so much of me. What a life, huh?
April 9th, 2008 at 12:33 am
Kevin– I’m a 73 year-old heterosexual widow from Arlington, VA, and I’m writing to thank you for your book. To the best of my knowledge I have no family members who are gay but have always felt profound compassion for boys and girls who, through no fault of their own, are humiliated and ostracized and shamed by their classmates and neighbors and often their families as well.
I came across “Mississippi Sissy” at Barnes and Noble last week and wasn’t able to put it down until the last page. Your skills as a writer are obvious but it would please me to think that I might one day see you on the stage. –Carolyn
P.S. I truly envy you your acquaintance with Eudora Welty. I have admired her for years!
April 9th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
3 siblings…the best there is & was
April 20th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
The paperback called to me in a way I havent felt in a long time. I’m too cheap to be called to by hardback covers. I”m a Mississippi faghag just a few years younger than you, from the northern part of the state. My senses were awakened to a simpler more complex time that haunts and soothes. Thank you I enjoyed it and I treasure it. Looking forward to the sequel. Hope to see you on tour!!! I hate I missed the Hattiesburg. I missed Joe Namath’s book tour in Tuscaloosa too!