Jackson Free Press

Southern Hip-Hop

When Jabari Graham, 28, was laid off from his job as creative marketing manager at UniverSoul Circus in 2001, he took what money he had saved and organized an art …

FOOD: Love, Luis Style

We would drizzle honey all over each other's bodies, then dangle strawberries between each other's lips. I would describe the whipped-cream and ice-cube part... but I can't stop snickering. Unfortunately, …

[Rev] Blowing Sunshine Up Your Nose

Like many of you, I stayed up all night watching the election returns. The brilliant Dan Rather turns-of-phrase—"His lead is thinner than turnip soup" and "Are your fingernails sweating, yet?" …

Intellectual Delinquency

"The Beats: A Graphic History" (Hill and Wang, 2009, $22) is a graphic biography of the close-knit group of avant garde macho writers of the 1950s and '60s like Jack …

Chili to Share

Chili con carne is Spanish for chili with meat; it got started in Texas, and Texans think it's a crime to add beans to it. So says "The New Food …

Romantic Devastation

A few weeks ago, I was in snowy Park City, Utah, at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. While there, I attended the premiere of "Ballast," a made-in-Mississippi movie that rallied …

Derek Blanks: Incorporating Richness

Derek Blanks is a Jackson-born photographer and illustrator based in Atlanta.

High On The Hog

I've eaten bar-b-que all over the world, and with the exception of some I had in Utah, none of it tasted bad. Bar-b-que starts at good no matter what and …

A Day in the Life of a Private School Kid

Youth Media Project

7:23 AM: Arriving at school, I remember it is Senior Skip Day, and park in the farthest area of the Junior parking lot, rather than at the gym where the …

A Tale of Redemption

Like most people, I'm sick and tired of Iranian abortionists having gay sex with flag-burning illegal aliens. Why hasn't Hollywood, America's No. 1 exporter of culture, done something about this …

Biography of a Bomb

On July 24, 1945, President Harry Truman approached Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and told him the United States had developed a "new and powerful weapon." After years of deceiving their …

A Memory You'll Never Forget

Queenie the dog, Buddy the 7-year-old and his cousin Sook, an aging woman with white hair, stand in the kitchen ready to celebrate finishing their Christmas tradition of making fruitcakes …

Marshmallow Mayhem

I grew up cooking, and I am happy to say that over the course of my 30 some odd years of life, I have had few food-related injuries. I have …

Love and Leftovers

My friends-the-caterers tell me that cooking for someone is the second most intimate human act. And, they tell me, you can tell a lot about someone by examining the contents …

Tower of Power

Hop-scotching across hemispheres, "Babel" considers cause and effect on a global scale. Two young brothers (Boubker Ait El Caid and Said Tarchani) play target practice with their new rifle in …

The Mirror Within

Recently, I saw a marquee at a local retail establishment that read: If you want to correct your child's behavior, correct her example—you.

[Drive] Cat-Like Reflections

Does your car say something about you? It's a question I can't seem to get out of my head, even though, intellectually, I'd prefer not to worry about it. Unwittingly, …

Blind Man's Bluff

Set to the teetering-toward-the-edge-of-lunacy strains of the Ukranian punk-Gypsy band Gogol Bordello, "Everything Is Illuminated" comes on like a Molotov cocktail. By its conclusion, though, it transforms into something far …

Bananas and Peanuts

Buff, good-looking Rus Blackwell lay on the floor like an overturned bug, feet flailing in the air. Wild-eyed, Turner Crumbley was on his knees staring intently at Blackwell's crotch. "Push, …

One Woman's Journey Into the Light

The Muslim call to prayer is heard five times every day throughout the Middle East and in parts of Africa, but Dec. 9, nine Islamic voices echoed in the halls …