Local storytellers head to Coast for PBS screening of new series
Published 12:05 pm Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Three local storytellers will travel to the Mississippi coast on Thursday to take part in a social gathering and screening of a new PBS series on Southern storytellers.
Meridian residents Anne B. McKee and Da Terrence Roberts, along with William Dan Isaac, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, will attend the event slated for 6-9 p.m. Thursday in the Sunset Ballroom of the Great Southern Club, located atop the Hancock Whitney Bank Building in Gulfport.
The event, titled “Southern Storytellers of Mississippi,” is being hosted by Mississippi Public Broadcasting and the MPB Foundation and is a way to highlight the art of storytelling in Mississippi, according to the MPB website.
McKee, Roberts and Isaac will be joining storytellers from across the state for the event. They will entertain guests with tales, yarns and anecdotes about life in Mississippi before watching a premiere of the new PBS “Southern Storytellers” series, which is scheduled to be released in July.
“I am thrilled to be included in this social and screening,” said McKee, a longtime storyteller, freelance writer and published author. “I understand we will help kick off a screening of a program on PBS on Southern storytellers.”
A founding member of the Mississippi Writers Guild, she serves on the roster of the Mississippi Humanities Speakers Bureau and is the executive director of the Meridian Rails Historical Society. She also is the creator and director of the annual Rose Hill Historic Cemetery Costume Tour and is an organizer of the Meridian Downtown History Walk. She is a former Mississippi Arts Commission Performing Artist and Teaching Artist.
Roberts, who is on the roster of the Mississippi Arts Commission, is a jali/griot, or a storyteller in the West African tradition of Jaliyah. A master storyteller, Roberts is known as “Da Story Weaver. In the language of the Bamanakan people of West Africa, the ancient title “Da” was one who connected his people to their past and escorted them into their future, according to his biography on Mississippi Arts Commission website.
Isaac is the director of the Mystic Winds Choctaw Social Dancers and a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He says his storytelling gives others a glimpse into the culture of the Choctaw community, according to his bio on the MPB website. Isaac never ceases the pursuit of knowledge about the tribe as he organizes the Native American festival in the state.
The “Southern Storytellers” series includes three 60-minute episodes from award-winning filmmaker Craig Renaud and is scheduled to premiere on July 18 at 9 p.m. on PBS. The series will feature storytellers from the worlds of literature, music, television and film, including novelist Jesmyn Ward, country music artist Lyle Lovett, poet and memoirist Natasha Trethewey, “Raya and the Last Dragon” screenwriter Qui Nguyen, “The Hate You Give” author Angie Thomas, singer and guitarist Brittany Howard, playwright Katori Hall, and Stranger Things” series creators, Matt and Ross Duffer.