Natasha Trethewey Featured at Native Guards Symposium

Join me at Native Guards Symposium

Ser Sesh Ab Heter-CM Boxley
Sunday, January 4, 2009

I, in my capacity as coordinator of Fort McPherson Sons and Daughters of U.S. Colored Troops and Sailor Chapter, will serve as the uniformed representative honor guard at the Native Guards Symposium in Biloxi on Jan. 10.

This is an Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art opening reception and symposium event highlighting the Second Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards who served at Ship Island during the Civil War.

An exhibit titled “Native Guard: A Photographic History of Ship Island’s African American Regiment” will be at the museum. The museum is hosting an opening and book signing reception honoring Pulitzer Prize winning poet and Gulfport native Natasha Trethewey from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 9, at its 1596 Glenn Swetman St.

At 9 a.m. Jan. 10, a Native Guards Symposium and book signing with Trethewey will be held at Bancorp South. The symposium features a panel of experts on the black military experience during the Civil War, specifically the Second Regiment of Louisiana native guards at Ship Island.

Key presenters are James G. Hollandsworth Jr., Nana Bennie McRae Jr., and C.P. (Kitty) Waver.

An evening reception honoring Trethewey will be in the home of Julie and John Gustafson in Ocean Springs from 5 to 7 p.m. on Jan. 9.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/news/2009/jan/04/join-me-native-guards-symposium/

Natasha Trethewey's "Native Guard" Inspires Symposium at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art

Coast native’s book inspires symposium
By Pam Firmin - pfirmin@sunherald.com

An exhibit and symposium inspired by the title poem in Natasha Trethewey’s 2007 Pulitzer Prize–winning book “The Native Guard” will debut Jan. 9 as “The Native Guard: A Photographic History of Ship Island’s African American Regiment,” the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art announced Thursday.

Trethewey will be guest of honor at the exhibit’s opening reception and book signing from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 9 at the museum, 1596 Glenn Swetman St., Biloxi. At the symposium, which is the next day from 9 a.m. until noon at Bancorp South, she will read from “The Native Guard.” Both events are free but symposium seating is limited to 75 so reservations are suggested.

The exhibit will be up through Feb. 20.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.sunherald.com/arts/story/1026062.html