What's the Big News in JXN?

CAPITAL CITY

IS DIVERSE, WITH DIFFERENT CULTURES, EXPERIENCES, ETHNICITIES, & BACKGROUNDS,

all of whom collectively represent Jackson’s strength and creative energy.

Jackson is a part of the conversation when you talk about the civil rights movement, American literature & music, modern art & architecture and award winning chefs and restaurants. The people, places, and events have not only shaped our city, but are threaded into the fabric of America.

Visitors from all over the world experience both the hospitality that is uniquely southern, coupled with the embrace of diversity and community culture unique to Jackson.

Our vast culinary offering, museums, and historical sites are only a few reflections of the SOUL of Jacksonians.

Jackson, MS is the only city in the Western Hemisphere to host the International Ballet Competition (IBC), held every four years, one of the oldest and most respected dance competitions in the world.

JXN IS HOME

Jackson is home to six colleges and universities: Belhaven University, Millsaps College, Mississippi College School of Law, Tougaloo College, University of Mississippi School of Medicine, and Jackson State University.

• The city features more than 20 interactive museums within a 10-mile radius, including museums featuring sports, agriculture, science, history, aviation, art, music, and civil rights.

• Jackson boasts numerous historical markers on the Freedom Trail, Blues Trail, and Writers Trail.

• Jackson is home to the International Museum of Muslim Cultures, America’s first Islamic history and culture museum.

• The City With Soul is home to more than two dozen cultural organizations and institutions.

You’ll find an impressive creative scene for music, dance, theater and the visual arts.

THE MISSISSIPPI BLUES MARATHON, HAL’S ST. PADDY’S PARADE & FESTIVAL, THE MISSISSIPPI BOOK FESTIVAL, SANDERSON FARMS PGA CHAMPIONSHIP, JACKSON INDIE MUSIC WEEK, MISSISSIPPI MAKERS FEST, GREEKFEST,

MISTLETOE MARKETPLACE, MISSISSIPPI PICKLE FEST, CAPITAL CITY LIGHTS, JUNETEENTH CELEBRATIONS, & THE DIXIE NATIONAL LIVESTOCK SHOW & RODEO, are among the many events held throughout the year.

AMERICA’S CIVIL RIGHTS STORY?

TAKE A JOURNEY TO JXN.

Jackson played a pivotal role in the movement that transformed America. While there are numerous cities that have a civil rights museum, Mississippi wanted to tell its own story, in its own words, and from its own unique experiences. The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, the only state sponsored civil rights museum in the country, does just that!

Discover and explore the inspiring stories of Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Vernon Dahmer and many more who bravely led the fight for equality. Eight interactive galleries lead you on a journey of the Civil Rights movement. If luck is on your side, you may find yourself on a guided tour of the museum led by a civil rights activist.

CIVIL RIGHTS

Jackson is also home to the Smith Robertson Museum & Cultural center, the first schoolhouse in Jackson for African American children, where famed author Richard Wright was valedictorian of his class. The museum now houses a permanent exhibit of Medgar Evers, an African slave ship and the Woolworth Counter Sit-In conducted by students from Tougaloo College, along with other temporary exhibits, art, artifacts, and photography.

Jackson State University’s campus was the site of pivotal protests and numerous civil rights organizations during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. Most recognized is the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), established in the early 1960’s and responsible for organizing the 1963 Freedom Vote, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and the 1964 Mississippi Summer Project.

AND the City With Soul is where you’ll find the Farish Street Historic District, once known as the “Black Mecca,” a hub for black-owned businesses up until the 1970s.

The City With Soul is more than James Beard award-winning Soul Food. From fresh produce to Gulf Seafood, our food is better than yours!

Jackson restaurants – from small mom and pop eateries to chef-driven concepts – offer some of the best authentic southern cuisines. Enjoy Cajun, Greek, Italian, and barbecue, all with a unique southern twist.

The District at Eastover is home to the state’s first food hall.

Cultivation Food Hall offers patrons a variety of culinary options all in one location. From curated cocktails to coffee and French pastries to nourishing poke bowls, the food hall serves as an incubator for new restaurants. The vendors may change throughout the year, but the variety of choices remains.

The success of Jackson as a culinary destination can be attributed to many of its most successful chefs: celebrity chefs, chefs with a vision, a goal, and award-winning recipes. Whether serving competition barbeque, creative cocktails, authentic French crepes, regional seafood, or Wagyu beef, Jakson restaurants are thriving in a supportive environment, and visitors are all reaping the benefits.

Come see what is being served in the City With Soul.

WE’VE GOT SOUL

There is no argument that you can find authentic blues shows here in the City With Soul, but you’ll also find fantastic funk, hip-hop, jazz, R&B, gospel, indie, country, folk, and rap artists mixing it up on a nightly basis.

Headline acts often make a stop in Jackson, as it centrally located between Memphis and New Orleans for a variety of genres. Significant annual events like Jackson Indie Music Week, Cathead Jam, Farish Street Heritage Festival, Lynch Street Festival – and great venues in Midtown, Fondren, Downtown, or Belhaven – keep the music alive!

Jackson is also home to the world-renowned Mississippi Mass Choir and Malaco Records, the last soul company in America.

A lot of places claim to be the birthplace of blues, but Jackson has 15 Mississippi Blues Trail Markers to prove its blues music history. These markers honor the people and places that made their mark in Mississippi Blues music and beyond, translating across different genres around the globe. You can still catch some great sounds at Johnny T’s Bistro & Blues and F. Jones Corner in the Farish Street Historic District. Don’t miss Blue Monday at Hal & Mal’s hosted by the Central Mississippi Blues Society for an authentic blues experience.

The City With Soul claims writers – past and present – and wordy events for the lit-minded to experience. Explore the works of poet and professor Margaret Walker Alexander at the writing center she founded at Jackson State University. Stroll through Eudora Welty’s House and Garden, not just as a museum, but as the place she lived and wrote every day. See where acclaimed author Richard Wright went to school, now the Smith Robertson Museum & Cultural Center showcasing

a rich collection of African American art, literature, and culture. Attend readings by notable authors at Lemuria or other local bookstores and coffee shops. Eat at places like Brent’s Drugs, the Fondren diner featured in both the book and film version of Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help.” Meet established and up-and-coming authors at the Mississippi Book Festival held annually in August. There’s more, so you just have to come see for yourself.

ART

For a city its size, Jackson is blessed with a fantastic array of arts from a world-class symphony, to exceptional theater productions, and a thriving scene for ballet and dance –from the Belhaven University dance program to Ballet Magnificat, Montage Theatre of dance to Kinetic Etchings and more. It’s no wonder Jackson holds the distinction of being one of only four cities worldwide to host the International

express themselves supported through area galleries before propelling to national acclaim. Gallery 1, Mississippi’s premier art gallery for the African Diasporic experience from preslavery to present date, celebrating southern heritage with a contemporary flare and Wolfe Studio, a second generation fine art studio are just a few places you’ll find art from local artists.

Visit Jackson has created the JXN Art Map, visitjackson. com/publicartmap , featuring downtown, Midtown, and Fondren murals, ghost signs and other forms of street art vibrantly

JUNE 5-11, 2023

June 12, 2023 will mark 60 years since the tragic assassination of Medgar Wiley Evers in the driveway of his home in Jackson. There will be special commemorative events throughout this year, with an emphasis on June 5 – 11, official events that will be hosted by the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute. These events include panels, lecture series, music, book festivals, films, walking tours, and partnerships with local businesses, nonprofits and colleges. To keep up-to-date with commemoration events, logon to visit.jackson.com

JUNE

10 – 24, 2023

The USA International Ballet Competition

(IBC) is an international ballet competition held in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, the only city in the western hemisphere. It is a biennial event, where dancers from around the world come to compete for awards, scholarships, and opportunities to dance with professional ballet companies. The competition typically features various categories, including classical ballet, contemporary dance, and pas de deux (dance for two). The USA IBC is considered one of the most prestigious ballet competitions in the world, attracting top talent from across the globe that will convene in the City With Soul June 10 – 24, 2023.

NOVEMBER 1-4, 2023

In 1973, trailblazing poet and writer Margaret Walker invited 30 leading black female authors to Jackson State University for a pioneering conference and bicentennial celebration of Phillis Wheatley’s “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,” the first-ever published volume of poetry by an African American author. Lucille Clifton, Nikki Giovanni, June Jordan, Audrey Lourde, Sonia Sanchez, and Alice Walker, among others, gathered to create and converse at Walker’s recently established Institute for the Study of the History, Life, and Culture of Black People (c. 1968), now the nationally renowned Margaret Walker Center.

A half-century later, JSU is proud to host the 50th Anniversary of the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival, November 1-4, 2023. Alongside ten original participants, a new generation of female writers like Jesmyn Ward and Angie Thomas will guide intergenerational discussions by, about, and for Black women authors, scholars, creatives, and the public, commemorating the legacy of 1973.