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Cooperation Jackson is an emerging vehicle for sustainable community development, economic democracy, and community ownership. Specifically, the group is laying the foundation to establish a network of co-ops and initiatives, including housing, daycare, construction, Freedom Farms urban farming, and a community land trust. Energizing the Jackson community to “educate, motivate and organize,” one of the group’s goals is to draw from Mississippi’s history of cooperative farming to make the long-term project a success. 

The group has worked tirelessly to secure and grow its power base within Jackson’s political, educational, and economic institutions and the creation of institutions of its own. The goal of achieving self-determination for African Americans through economic self-sufficiency. Cooperation Jackson is an emerging vehicle for sustainable community development, economic democracy, and community ownership.

Welcome to part 3 of episode 5, Memphis - The largest city in Mississippi. We continue this episode with a conversation between Mississippians, Alice Perroti & her parents (William Bickerstaff & Rebecca Johnson) as they walk us through what life’s like in Como Mississippi, their region of the Delta. Listen up while we’re broadcasting live from Field Station 5.

Part 2 of episode 5 Memphis- The largest city in Mississippi. We continue this episode with an interview conducted by Tamara Beccera Valdez and Wayne Dowdy, a Memphian, and Historian who manages the Main Library of Memphis and the Shelby County Room. Enjoy as we’re broadcasting live from Field Station 5.

Live from Field Station 5: Memphis, the biggest city in Mississippi. This will be a 3 part episode released a day after another. The first part of the Memphis episodes features a conversation with Artist Tamara Berccera Valdez, who’s working on a film in the Mississippi Delta and has recently returned from a trip to Memphis. The second will feature Tamara’s conversation with Historian Wayne Dowdy who’s nicknamed Mr. Memphis and the 3rd and last part features a warm and personal interview with Alice Pierotti, of Como Mississippi (former librarian and executive producer of Thacker Mountain Radio Hour.  She sits down with her parents (William Bickerstaff & Rebecca Johnson) as they walk us through what life’s like in their region of the Delta.

(Part 1)I’m joined by my colleague, a member of Field Station 5, a once upon a time Mississippian, Chicago-based visual artist and filmmaker, Tamara Becerra Valdez. Tamara’s just recently completed a couple of trips to the Delta to work on an upcoming film for our project here at Field Station 5.

Abbéy Odunlami talks with Dr. J.T. Roane (Dept. Africana Studies, Arizona State) and Dr. Scott Gabriel Knowles (Dept. History, Drexel) about the spatial politics of plantation economies and considers the connection between faith and environmentalism. Dr. Roane discusses the Christian theologies of dominion and stewardship and unpacks his concept of “dark agoras” or the ecological underpinnings of Black urbanism.

Jared Richardson and Dr. Justin Hosbey (Dept. Anthropology, Emory) grapple with neoliberalism’s effects on Black communities within New Orleans. As a cultural anthropologist, Dr. Hosbey discusses how he uses the charter-school system as a new and unsuspecting lens through which to examine the connection between privatized education and ecological catastrophes produced by Hurricane Katrina and petrochemical companies. In addition to critiquing different forms of labor, Dr. Hosbey also reveals his scholarly influences.

Abbéy & Jared talk with Dr. Chelsea Frazier (Dept. English, Cornell) about the importance of Black feminism’s political and artistic engagements with environmentalism. From a carefully curated archive of film, twentieth and twenty-first-century literature, and Black visual culture, Dr. Frazier explains how Black femme subjects and their artistic production literally and figuratively re-engineer popular understandings of ecology and reframe art historical narratives around race and materialism.

Abbéy Odunlami and Jared Richardson introduce their individual research projects and discuss Field Station 5’s broader themes of race, spatial politics, and toxicity. The two scholars also discuss the overall mission of HKW and Max Planck’s joint efforts within the Mississippi Delta.