May 25, 2006

 LIVINGSTON, Ala.—Travelers looking for new territory to explore need to look no further than Alabama’s own Black Belt region. The Center for the Study of the Black Belt is offering a six-day, five-night stay on the historic campus of the University of West Alabama in Livingston for $450. This includes meals and room and board. From June 19-24, participants will travel the region studying the evolution of its architecture and learn how its natural history contributed to that evolution.

Historic Alabama towns such as Gainesville, Eutaw and Demopolis will be among the daily trips planned. Local culture will be experienced through sessions with regional authors and musicians. The week-long events will conclude with the live-taping of the nationally syndicated radio program, the Sucarnochee Revue, in Bibb Graves Auditorium with host “Jacky” Jack White.

“Good food, good music and good company is what this week is all about,” said Dr. Tina Naremore Jones, Director of the Center for the Study of the Black Belt. “I’m confident that participants will discover that the Black Belt is a region full of surprises.”   

Other featured speakers will include Robert Gamble, senior architectural historian for the Alabama Historical Commission. He will provide an overview of Black Belt architecture in the opening session that will help set the tone for the week-long study.

Dr. John Hall, research associate at the University of Alabama Museum of Natural History and Director of the Regional Museum of the Black Belt, connects a number of natural history phenomenon that affect Alabama history. Hall also touches on the Native Americans as landscape-shaping forces and uses the Federal Road as an example of how a wetter early Alabama influenced early settlement and travel.

Nan Graham has been a regular biweekly commentator for WHQR Public Radio in Wilmington, N.C., since 1995. Her on-air tag line, “a lifelong Southerner,” reveals the focus of her humorous commentaries on growing up and growing old in the South. Her first collection of radio essays, Turn South at the Next Magnolia, was on the SEBA bestseller list and was praised as “relentlessly Southern” by author Pat Conroy. Many of the stories come from experiences of spending summers in the Black Belt and in particular Sumter County.

The Center for the Study of the Black Belt is a freestanding center on the UWA campus. The Center’s primary mission is to foster greater appreciation and understanding of Alabama’s Black Belt and regional culture. The Center coordinates a variety of on-going initiatives that promote public involvement in the study of the Black Belt. Presently, these projects include the Sucarnochee Folklife Festival, the Black Belt Symposium, the Symposium on Literature of the Black Belt, the Black Belt Regional Museum, the Sucarnochee Revue, the Sucarnochee Hall of Fame, the Community Gathering for Arts and Creative Education and publications through the Livingston Press.

For information about the 2006 Black Belt Summer Institute or to make reservations, call (205) 652-3752 or email Dr. Tina Naremore Jones, Director of the Center for the Study of the Black Belt at tnj@uwa.edu. Reservations will be taken until June 5.