May 2008: The People Issue

ON THE COVER

Forbidden Fruit
30” x 30”, Oil on Canvas
by Kennith Humphrey

"The subject matter of most of Vicksburg, Mississippi, artist Kennith Humphrey’s oils on canvas and pastel/acrylics on paper are African-American figures involved in the activities of daily life: working, loving, playing music, and just living. But the people depicted are not ordinary in appearance. Stylized, sometimes cubist, the way they embody the emotion of their activity elevates them to iconic or mythic proportions. “What I paint depends on my emotions that day. Most people never see the ones I do of Anger,” Kennith says. “I usually paint over them."
Among other commissions, Humphrey has been chosen to create original images for Jubilee Jam (2002) and the International Ballet Competition (2002) both in Jackson, Mississippi. He is represented by the Attic Gallery in Vicksburg. See more of his work by visiting http://atticgallery.blogspot.com. Or call (601) 638-9221.
—by Daniel Boone
46 Writers in Residence
Eminence grise Ernest Gaines and rising star Olympia Vernon are inextricably linked—to Louisiana and to each other.
by Ruth Laney
51 Young Faces, Old Souls
Louisiana’s music, the way it sounds
in a new generation’s capable hands.
by Alex V. Cook

55 Getting a New View
Through an Old Lens
Tripod in hand, Bruce Shultz follows in some famous photographic footsteps.
by Samuel Irwin

Our Regulars
6 Editorial Reflections
by James Fox-Smith
59

The Good Feast
Emeril’s Delmonico
by Brenda Maitland

Dinner, with Ducks
by James Fox-Smith
78 Visual Arts
Elliott Erwitt:
Invisible Insider
by J. Richard Gruber
74 Antiquarians
Pop Culture Artifacts
by Ruth Laney
78 Lawnchair Gardeners
Stinky Business
by Ed O’ Rourke
and Leon Standifer
80 Gardener’s Notebook
Downtown Oasis
by Melanie Counce
82 Weekends Away
LA 1: The Journey Along
Louisiana’s Main Street Continues
by Anne Butler
86 B & B Listings
A Resource Guide
90 Cultural Icons
Pointing the Way in
Port Gibson
by Dale Irvin