That Eric Alper

The Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience (The MAX) inducted five new members into its Hall of Fame on Thursday, January 23, at a ceremony in downtown Meridian. Folklorist William “Bill” Ferris, historian and novelist Shelby Foote, poet Natasha Trethewey, and singer-songwriters Bobbie Gentry and Mac McAnally were inducted in front of 700-plus attendees who filled the historic theater at the Mississippi State University Riley Center.

Ferris, McAnally, and Trethewey were all on hand to accept their awards, while Huger Foote accepted on behalf of his late father. The show started with Trisha Walker performing “Ode to Billie Joe” in honor of Genty. Sharde Thomas and Chris Mallory of Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band performed in recognition of Ferris’ work to document North Mississippi Hill Country Blues including Thomas’s grandfather Othar Thomas. Video tributes honoring each of the five new Hall of Fame members played throughout the night.

The MAX president and CEO Penny Kemp delivered a memorial tribute for the late Marty Gamblin, longtime music industry professional and founding director of The MAX. Beloved Mississippi restauranteur and writer Robert St. John emceed the event.

McAnally capped off the ceremony with a performance of “Back Where I Come From,” including a reprise of the chorus that had the 700+ in attendance singing along just before the ceremony closed.

Commenting after the ceremony, McAnally said, “unbelievable honor to be included in this year’s class of inductees to The MAX, and to be honored by the state that is the soul from which my work arises.”

Immediately following the ceremony, guests enjoyed a cocktail reception at The MAX, just two blocks from the MSU Riley Center. It made for a spectacular evening in the Mississippi community that’s seen a resurgence in its downtown thanks to its profound arts and culture roots.

Known as the birthplace of America’s music, Mississippi has produced world-changing luminaries in music as well as literature and visual arts. The MAX is an arts and cultural center celebrating the state’s arts and entertainment legacy while nurturing future creatives through interactive exhibits, workshops, and live performances. The five inductees join 38 artists featured in a breathtaking two-story hall of fame rotunda that serves as the centerpiece of the multifaceted center. Some 200 artists representing all art forms and all corners of the state are featured throughout 20,000 square feet of interactive exhibits. Students from the Mississippi School of the Arts performed throughout the exhibits during the reception.

“It’s often said we punch above our weight when it comes to arts and entertainment,” says The MAX president and CEO Penny Kemp. “Mississippi produces a disproportionate number of groundbreaking artists across multiple art forms. Celebrating and furthering that creative legacy is what we’re all about. It’s game-changing for young people to understand that folks from small towns just like themselves have accomplished extraordinary greatness, and they can too.”

Various arts disciplines and Mississippi regions are represented in the latest Hall of Fame class:

• Vicksburg native William “Bill” Ferris (b. 1942) is an author, photographer, and longtime college professor whose books, documentaries, and recordings explore the blues, African American folklore, and the lives of Southern writers. Ferris co-edited the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and received two Grammy Awards for his documentary recordings and accompanying book, Voices of Mississippi. He founded multiple academic centers, including the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, and was chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

• The novelist and self-taught historian Shelby Foote (1916-2005) was a native of Greenville who spent decades researching and writing the acclaimed three-book series The Civil War: A Narrative. He furnished expert commentary for Ken Burns’ documentary The Civil War, which was one of the most-watched program ever to air on PBS. Foote’s other books include Shiloh, a re-creation of the epic Civil War battle, and a series of novels set in a fictional Mississippi Delta town.

• Bobbie Gentry (b. 1942) grabbed international attention in 1967 with her haunting hit “Ode to Billie Joe,” which propelled her to stardom and established her as one of the first female recording artists to compose and produce her own material. Gentry was born Roberta Lee Streeter in the Woodland area in Chickasaw County. She regularly appeared in television specials, had her own show in Las Vegas, and released seven albums, garnering multiple Grammy and Academy of Country Music awards before retiring in 1982.

• The singer-songwriter, musician, and producer Mac McAnally (born Lyman Corbitt McAnally Jr.) is widely known as a multi-threat musical master, a guitarist in Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band, and has released more than a dozen albums of his own. He has written hit songs recorded by country music acts ranging from Kenny Chesney (“Back Where I Come From”) to Alabama (“Old Flame”). Born in Red Bay, Alabama, in 1957, McAnally grew up in Belmont, Mississippi, where he sang and played piano in church. In addition to a host of other honors, the Country Music Association has named him Musician of the Year a record 10 times.

• Natasha Trethewey, a former poet laureate for the United States and Mississippi has used her poetry to explore issues of race and Deep South culture. A longtime creative writing professor, she was born in Gulfport in 1966. Trethewey won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2007 for Native Guard, which explores the story of a Black Union Army unit composed of former slaves on Ship Island off the Mississippi coast. Years earlier, her poetry collection Domestic Work received the Cave Canem Prize, honoring the first published book by a Black poet.

The MAX is open Tuesday-Saturday, 9 am to 5 pm, for visitors to explore Mississippi’s creative legacy with special events, performances, workshops, and traveling exhibits scheduled throughout the year. Opening February 22, The MAX will host Thank You Please Come Again: How Gas Stations Feed and Fuel the American South, an exhibition of photographs by Kate Medley, who Ferris influenced.

The Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience (The MAX) is an arts and cultural center in the heart of downtown Meridian that celebrates Mississippi’s creative legacy through interactive exhibits, workshops, and live performances. The multipurpose facility contains a two-story Hall of Fame celebrating the state’s groundbreaking artists like Walter Anderson, William Faulkner, Jim Henson, B.B. King, Elvis Presley, and Leontyne Price to name a few, along with over 20,000 square feet of interactive exhibits, art studios, a recording studio, and performance spaces. Every visit to The MAX is a unique experience that leaves visitors in awe of Mississippi’s global impact on music, literature, art, and entertainment. Vi