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Discover A Home For Stories That Uplift and Encourage Positive Conversations.

We don’t want to leave behind “just some films” at the end of the day. We want to leave behind stories that make an impact. We want to showcase artists, musicians, actors, and writers whose stories have not yet been shared — stories of hope and inspiration. Through the Institute, we can identify and share powerful, uplifting stories that become a positive force in an increasingly negative world.

Imagine...

a collected group of students, teachers, and experts in various creative fields coming together to inspire and encourage a deep study of who we are and what we have to offer the world.

Imagine...

a partnership between Emmy award-winning filmmakers and the students who will tell the stories of tomorrow.

That Happens Here.

At the Institute for Southern Storytelling, participants collectively produce inspiring and instructive films, art, music, and writing which help others reflect on the unique place that is the South and its larger role in the world.

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.”

— William Faulkner

Make Sense of an Ever-Changing World Through a Southern Lens

If the last few years have shown us anything, we must come together and be inspired to make our world better. We want to be part of a positive conversation, not simply add noise and further complicate communications. We want to find stories that can uplift, can point viewers and participants toward encouragement and strength.

Explore Our Video Archives

The Institute will be a sea change…It will cast a wide net of artists, writers, musicians… it will be a crossroads for the kind of talent our state is known globally for… It will be a legacy that will enrich future generations of young people in ways that we can only begin to imagine.”

— William R. Ferris

Folklorist/Filmmaker/Writer

The Napiers and Thaxtons enjoy an afternoon of telling good stories.

Ben and Erin Napier lend content to Institute projects

Erin and Ben Napier of HGTV's Hometown recently sat for interviews with Amy and Anthony Thaxton for upcoming Institute for Southern Storytelling projects.

Welty Advisory Team Meeting

Catching up on the progress of EUDORA documentary and book

MC's President, Dr. Blake Thompson, welcomes James Meredith to MC and the Institute.

Talking With James Meredith About His World Changing Story

We had the honor of sitting down with a civil rights pioneer and hearing the stories of his life and work in his own words.

The Home of the Blues — One of Mississippi‘s Original Forms of Storytelling

One of Mississippi’s foremost active bluesmen headlined a star-studded cast of preeminent session musicians during a free concert honoring the state’s heritage as the “Birthplace of the Blues.”

Southerners love a good tale. They are born reciters, great memory retainers, diary keepers, letter exchangers…great talkers.”

— Eudora Welty