Jackson Free Press

Ever since Chane's announcement last year that the future of Fondren's First Thursday was up in the air, many people have speculated what will happen to it. Fondren Renaissance Foundation put out a press release on FFT this morning. Here is the release verbatim.

Jackson, MS—Fondren's First Thursday, the monthly neighborhood street party held in Historic Downtown Fondren, will return on March 2, 2017 - with a twist.

Event organizer Ron Chane says "FFT Remixed" will be a new system of alternating presenters each month to expand the depth of creativity of the two-year-old event.

Included in this year's FFT slate are three State Street Concert Series events presented by Sneaky Beans and Rooster's, showcasing a headlining main stage act; the return of Fondren Renaissance's Arts, Eats & Beats, a 15-year-old Fondren tradition; a special art-focused night helmed by the Mississippi Museum of Art; and FRF's Fondren Unwrapped, on a new date, Dec. 7. Three FFT "Throwbacks," presented by Studio Chane, round out the year and will follow a structure similar to past year's first Thursday events. Two of these, June and September, will offer vendors opportunities.

"This event has taken two years to reach its creative maturity," says Chane, who will continue to guide and support the full roster of events for 2017. "This is still a positive night of people enjoying people, seeing our neighborhood from different perspectives. There will be an ebb and flow with much more variety. In short, something for everyone."

The events for 2017 are:

• March 2 - State Street Concert Series presented by Rooster's and Sneaky Beans
• April 6 - Fondren's First Thursday Throwback presented by Studio Chane
• May 4 - Arts, Eats & Beats presented by Fondren Renaissance
• June 1 - Fondren's First Thursday Throwback presented by Studio Chane
• July 6 - State Street Concert Series presented by Rooster's and Sneaky Beans
• August 3 - End of Summer
• September 7 - Fondren's First Thursday Throwback presented by Studio Chane
• October 5 - State Street Concert Series presented by Rooster's and Sneaky Beans
• November 2 - Art Night presented by Mississippi Museum of Art
• December 7 - Fondren Renaissance's Fondren Unwrapped presented by Bank Plus

For more information: Ron Chane - FFT - [email protected] Jim Wilkirson - Fondren Renaissance - [email protected] Byron Knight - State Street Concert Series - [email protected] Nathan Glenn - State Street Concert Series - [email protected] Julian Rankin - MS Museum of Art - [email protected]

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Here are more details on Hal's St. Paddy's Parade & Festival on March 18.

Tonight, visitors can experience the Mississippi Museum of Art's "When Modern Was Contemporary" exhibit with the Party of the (Mid) Century benefit at 7 p.m., which leads way to Midnight Modern at 11:30 p.m.

The mid-century party, which is black and white formal attire (masks are encouraged), features a curated dinner, a live theater performance from New Stage Theatre, music and cocktails. Midnight Modern will have special exhibition tours, midnight snacks and more. But it will also feature something else … body painting from Art in Flesh.

Art in Flesh is the brainchild of artist Robeka Steam. The Boynton Beach, Fla., native says she started doing special-effects makeup after graduating from the Tom Savini's special-effects makeup program at the Douglas Education Center in Pennsylvania in 2004. Ever since a photographer commissioned her for body painting in 2007, she says she's done everything from children's parties to club events to college-campus meet and greets. She moved to Little Rock, Ark. in 2014, and then to Jackson in 2015.

She started doing her work under the name Art in Flesh around 2011. For it, she collaborates with other artists on body-paint designs. They have done many designs such as cyborgs, zombies, a fallen angel, a marble statue, Mother Earth and a frozen Ice Queen, among many other designs.

She says her favorite part of body painting is the fact that the canvas is living and breathing.

"Your canvas interacts with you; they laugh with you; they giggle," she says. "It's more personable. It's fun seeing the transformation. Each time you go into a body paint, it's a challenge, but in a wonderful way. You're constantly pushing yourself to do something different. I'm constantly thinking about different ideas, sketching, looking at reference. I never believe you're too good for reference. I always believe you've got to look at something."

In Jackson, she often works with DJ Rozz on events such as glow parties. She also did body painting for the Zombie Bash JXN Con after party at Hal & Mal's last December, among other events.

At the October 2015 Museum After Hours at the Mississippi Museum of Art, Steam and artists Jensen Jones and Carra Faith Spencer painted pop-art zombies. When she heard about the Midnight Modern, she approached Julian Rankin, the director of marketing and communications at MMA, about painting models like the works in the "When Modern Was Contemporary" exhibit. For the event tonight, she has about 12 to 15 models and is working with people such as Boston, Mass. artist Annie Medrano, Hattiesburg artist Chris Holzinger, Jackson area artist Anna Yoakum and Hattiesburg makeup artist Tori Faith to bring the pieces to life.

Steam says she's most excited about doing a body painting based on the art of Lee Krasner, who was Jackson Pollock's wife. "I really liked her work, and how she went about her process was contemporary and modern art. (It had) a lot of shapes and colors," Steam says. "I thought it would be really fun …

Calling all "Gilmore Girls" fans! In honor of the original air date of the show's first episode, Deep South Pops is one of 200 businesses around the country that will be named as a mini Luke's Diner on Wednesday, Oct. 5. The business will give away 250 cups of coffee from 7 a.m. to noon that day. Get your Luke's fix before "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life" airs on Netflix on Nov. 25.

Today, Sept. 3 is gearing up to be quite a day for the Jackson arts community. Fondren's First Thursday begins at 11 a.m., and other artist and businesses will have cool events tonight. Here's some of what to look for.

Power & Light Press Pop-up Shop at Thimblepress While this isn't in Fondren, it's still a pretty cool event. Kyle Durrie, who owns Power and Light Press in Silver City, N.M., combines her craft with pop culture and humor. From 5 to 8 p.m., she will be at Thimblepress (113 N. State St.). Deep South Pops will sell popsicles outside on the business' vintage truck, and other refreshments and drinks will be available. For more information, visit powerandlightpress.com or thimblepress.com, find the event on Facebook.

The Fourth Annual Cedars Juried Art Show Along with Jan and Lawrence Snow and Butler Snow, the Fondren Renaissance Foundation hosts the fourth annual The Cedars Juried Art Show. This year's guest juror is Myrna Colley-Lee. The 80 selected works represent 64 artists from 20 cities in Mississippi. Some of the Jackson artists include Jonathan Berry, Theresa Haygood, Elizabeth Robinson, Jasmine Cole and William Patterson. The event is from 5 to 8 p.m., at The Cedars in Fondren (4145 Old Canton Road). The exhibit will hang through Sept. 30. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday. For more information, find the event on Facebook or visit fondren.org.

The Wonder Lab open house Fondren creative incubator The Wonder Lab has its open house tonight at Fondren's First Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. For more information, find The Wonder Lab (2906 N. State St., Suite B-8) on Facebook. To see a gallery of The Wonder Lab during its renovations, see the Jackson Free Press' gallery.

Fondren's First Thursday after party at Soul Wired Cafe After the fun on Fondren's First Thursday, Soul Wired Cafe in midtown (111 Millsaps Ave.) will have an after party beginning at 10 p.m. The event is $1. For more information, find the event on Facebook.

For more information on Fondren's First Thursday, find the event on Facebook or visit fft.city.

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As many Jacksonians have heard by now, the City of Jackson has scheduled a water outage beginning Friday, March 10, at 3 p.m. until Sunday, March 12, around the same time. Much of the city will have either no water or low water pressure. In preparation for the outage, restaurants have taken to social media to announce whether or not they'll be open this weekend. We will keep updating this list as we get more information.

Open

Campbell's Bakery (3013 N. State St., 601-362-4628, campbellsbakery.ms): regular hours

BRAVO! Italian Restaurant & Bar (4500 Interstate 55 N., Suite 244, 601-982-8111, bravobuzz.com): regular hours

The Manship Wood Fired Kitchen (1200 N. State St., Suite 100, 601-398-4562, themanshipjackson.com)

Parlor Market (115 W. Capitol St., 601-360-0090, parlormarket.com): regular hours

The Iron Horse Grill (320 W. Pearl St., 601-398-0151, ironhorsegrill.com): regular hours

Griffin's Fishhouse (3224 Capitol St., 601-968-5171): regular hours

Jaco’s Tacos (318 S. State St., 601-961-7001, jacostacos.net): regular hours

Surin of Thailand (3000 Old Canton Road, Suite 105, 601-981-3205): regular hours

Hops & Habanas (2771 Old Canton Road, 769-572-4631, hopsandhabanas.com): regular hours

The Country Fisherman (3110 Highway 80 W., 601-944-9933): regular hours

Saltine Oyster Bar (622 Duling Ave., Suite 201, 601-982-2899, saltinerestaurant.com): regular hours with a limited menu

The Pig & Pint (3139 N. State St., 601-326-6070, pigandpint.com): regular hours

Eddie & Ruby's Snack Bar (1268 Valley St., 601-969-2723): regular hours

Cups Espresso Cafe Fondren (2757 Old Canton Road, 601-362-7422, cupsespressocafe.com): regular hours

Deep South Pops (1800 N. State St., 601-398-2174; 4500 Interstate 55 N., Suite 173, 601-398-0623; deepsouthpops.com): Belhaven location will close on Saturday, Highland Village location will remain open

Barrelhouse (3009 N. State St., 769-216-3167, barrelhousems.com): regular hours

Fitzgerald's at the Hilton Jackson (1001 E. County Line Road, 601-957-2800): regular hours

Drago's Jackson (1005 E. County Line Road, 601-957-1515, dragosjackson.com): regular hours

Brent's Drugs (655 Duling Ave., 601-366-3427): regular hours (also a possibility of abbreviated hours) with a limited menu

Char Restaurant (4500 Interstate 55 N., Suite 142, 601-956-9562, charrestaurant.com): regular hours

Two Sister's Kitchen (707 N. Congress St., 601-353-1180): regular hours

Beatty Street Grocery (101 Beatty St., 601-355-0514): regular hours

Fondren Public (2765 Old Canton Road, 769-216-2589, fondrenpublic.com): regular hours, though the bar will close if it has no water pressure

Closed

Broad Street Baking Company (4465 Interstate 55 N., Suite 101, 601-362-2900, broadstbakery.com): will close after lunch on Friday, closed on Saturday and Sunday

Sal & Mookie's New York Pizza & Ice Cream Joint (565 Taylor St., 601-368-1919, salandmookies.com): will close Friday at 3 p.m. and reopen Tuesday at 11 a.m.

Green Ghost Tacos (2801 N. State St., 601-203-2144; greenghosttacos.com): will close Friday at 2 p.m. and reopen Monday for regular hours

La Brioche Patisserie (2906 N. State St., 601-988-2299, labriochems.com): closed on Saturday

E&L Barbeque (1111 Bailey Ave., 601-355-5035): will close at 3 p.m. on Friday, will reopen for normal hours on Tuesday

Sneaky Beans (2914 N. State St., 601-487-6349): closed on Saturday, will possibly reopen on Monday

The Palette Cafe at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. …

Mississippi Museum of Art Executive Chef and Culinary Curator Nick Wallace is in the kitchen behind The Palette Café at the museum, talking to his staff members as they pass through. In a small pot behind him, pig ears boil in a combination of vinegars, spices and sriracha. Eventually, they'll transform into a fried-green-tomato and pig-ear Panini for the October 'sipp Sourced menu, which he began serving at 11 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 15, and will serve through Saturday, Oct. 17.

Besides the fried green tomato and pig-ear Panini, the menu for "Scary Good Creepy Cuts" will feature a range of dishes with "scary" types of meat—chicken liver and gizzards, pig tails, oxtails and turkey necks.

It fits, considering the Halloween theme for this month's Museum After Hours. But besides that, Wallace wanted to take less desirable cuts of meat and turn them into something more elevated.

"To me, I think (Halloween) is pretty super, like in the Louisiana area," he says. "I think it's getting there for Mississippi, but I don't think it's there yet. This gives us a way to really embrace October, the Halloween season, all that stuff, which is great. As far as the menu is concerned, with the creepy goodness, all the cheap cuts of meat, that's how I was raised."

He grew up on a farm in Edwards, and says that his family used every cut of meat on the animals they cooked.

"We didn't throw anything away because we just couldn't afford to," he says.

For this month's 'sipp Sourced, he wants to bring that back.

"People that are poor really are the best cooks ever, because they'll take a chicken gizzard and boil it and marinate overnight, then fry it, and you think it's the best thing in the world," he says.

For those who are hesitant to try some thing like pig tails, Wallace will also serve dishes that include meat cuts such as the scaredy-cat seafood po'boy, which has shrimp boudin sausage, lettuce, tomatoes, blood sorrel, sun-dried tomato aioli and crispy catfish, served with fries. And for those who are vegetarian or vegan, don't worry. The menu also includes dishes such as the zombie-fried green tomato panini, which is basil, mustard, onion marmalade, breakfast radishes and Swiss cheese on sourdough bread, served with fries and ketchup. The adventurous eaters can try dishes such as the "no-guts-no-glory" fried chicken livers, which are served with white gravy, whipped potatoes, bread-and-butter pickles, braised greens and hot sauce.

Mississippi Museum of Art's Museum After Hours (380 S. Lamar St.) is Thursday, Oct. 15, from 5 to 10 p.m. The event will include works from artists who learned from, knew or were influenced by Marie Hull, whose art is currently on display at the museum and a showing of the film, "Night of the Living Dead." For more information, visit msmuseumart.org or find 'sipp Sourced on Facebook.

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On Aug. 2, The Palette Cafe at the Mississippi Museum of Art closed for a revamping of sorts. But it wasn't the decor.

For the last couple of weeks, the museum's culinary curator and executive chef, Nick Wallace, has been working with restaurant staff members to create a menu "inspired by Mississippi foodways traditions, local ingredients, and the art on the Museum walls," a blog post on the website says. "His artistic appreciation and culinary prowess will now be fused in forthcoming menus that draw explicit connections between the narratives depicted by Mississippi visual artists and the storytelling that informs his own culinary creations."

Today, Aug. 25, the museum has announced the unveiling of the new menu. Here are some highlights:

Tomato pie: It's a classic Southern dish, but Wallace and his culinary team have added their own elements to it. The Palette Cafe's has baby sage, kale, sage, basil-whipped cheese and peppery olive oil.

Juke joint burger: For many people, nothing is better than a really good burger. Like the blues, this burger has soul. It's got Swiss cheese, a Hereford beef patty, lettuce, tomato, pickled onions and a homemade steak sauce, and it's all piled on an egg bun. And like any good burger, fries come on the side.

Vegan skillet: Vegans need love, too, right? Wallace had that in mind when he created the vegan skillet. It has caviar couscous, baby kale, confit tomatoes, pickled onions, sunflower seeds, chia seeds, wheat germ, oats, cauliflower, red quinoa, flaxseeds and tomatoes.

See more here.

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Fondren's First Thursday is undergoing another change.

It's April 7, the first Thursday in April, which means Fondren's First Thursday is tonight.

Among the local vendors who will come out tonight and celebrate (including Jackson Free Press), other events are planned as well. The event begins at 3 p.m. today. At 7 p.m., teams can race down Duling Avenue in the Duling Dash. The teams, which are composed of two to three people wearing their wackiest clothes, have to compete in racing segments that include a shopping-cart push, toilet ride (you read that right) and a crab crawl. The winning team will receive, T-shirts, gift cards and other swag. Entry for the race is free. For teams who didn't get a chance to sign up before FFT, they will have a chance between 5 and 6:30 p.m.

The sixth annual Walk Against Traffick Jackson is also tonight. Those who want to participate can sign up at walkagainsttraffick.org or at FFT itself. The event's proceeds will support The Hard Place Community's work against child sex trafficking. The event is from 5 to 9 p.m. The starting point is in front of Fondren Corner (2906 N. State St.). Participants will walk around Fondren, and the event will consist of about 10 miles. Groups are encourage to have six to 10 walkers with an individual fundraising goal of $100. People can make the donations themselves, or they can ask sponsors to support them for $1 per mile for 10 miles.

The Hustlers will play at Duling Hall from 5 to 8 p.m., and the Patterson Blaylock Photography Gallery will have live music from 5 to 8 p.m., as well as art from Laurin Stennis. The JXN Escape Room will bring a mini escape room to the Pix/Capri Theater from 6 p.m. until.

FFT will also have free DIY T-shirt printing, an outdoor pop-up art gallery, crowd-participation art, a Sneaky Beans dance party, a grand opening of technology start-up incubator Mantle, a Fondren Plaza music festival, a Mississippi Museum of Art pop-up event, a Kidzone, Duling Market, free outdoor yoga, craft beer, cornhole, dogs, food trucks, restaurant specials and other things.

For more information, visit the Fondren's First Thursday Facebook page.

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Jackson Free Press reported Feb. 11 that Atlanta-based franchise Surin of Thailand was close to opening a location in the old location of Nick's Restaurant (3000 Old Canton Road, Suite 105). The Jackson location of Surin is now open. For more information, visit surinofthailand.com, go to the location's Facebook page or call 601-981-3205. The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 9 or 9:30 p.m., Sunday-Thursday, and 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday.

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The 11th annual Veterans of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement Conference is March 30-April 3.

It begins tonight at Tougaloo College's Woodworth Chapel with the Jimmie Travis Civil Rights Legacy Symposium Series' "Movement Women: Their Stories." Constance Slaughter Harvey will moderate tonight's event, and women such as Joan Trumpauer Mulholland and Brenda Travis will speak. The event begins at 6 p.m., and is free and open to the public.

The conference continues with "Post Obama Activism" on Thursday, March 31, starting at noon. Sinclair Skinner, an engineer, activist and civil-rights champion, will speak. At 7 p.m., attendees can watch Stanley Nelson's "The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution," a film about the rise of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and its impact on civil rights and American culture.

On Friday, April 1, Congressman Bennie Thompson will speak at 10 a.m. at Woodworth Chapel.

The Veterans Legacy Awards Banquet is Saturday, April 2, beginning at 7 p.m. at The Masonic Temple (1072 J.R. Lynch St.). Tickets are $35 for adults, $15 for students and $375 for a table of 10 people. The deadline for purchase is March 30.

On Sunday, April 3, attendees can attend in a screening and panel discussion of "Standing on My Sisters' Shoulders," a documentary about Mississippi women who fought for equality during the Civil Rights Movement. The event is from 3 to 5 p.m. at Tougaloo College's Bennie G. Thompson Center, and is free and open to the public.

For more information and to see a complete schedule, visit mscivilrightsveterans.com.

This year's Stray at Home is at Smith Park on May 13. This morning, organizers announced the 2017 makers. Here they are:

Alena G Vinet Designs

Blackjack Wax Co.

Bean & Bailey Ceramics

Lo Lady Fashion

Dot Products

Samara Thomas

Sam Clark Art

Thimblepress

Ellen Langford

Mermaid's Purse

d+p Design Build

Bridgman Pottery

Wild and Free Designs

Platypusfile

Wascome Woodworks

The Lovely Bee

PreSUDence

Moxie Floral

SwingLab

Homegrown Studio

Melody & Shaun Thortis

Elizabeth Fowler

DCZ Designs

Moonflower Photography

LCJ Jewelry

Cristina Leis Calligraphy

Blending by Betty

Bailey Armstrong

Phelan Harris

CJC

For more information, visit strayathome.com.

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On Feb. 23, the James Beard Foundation announced its 2016 America's Classics awards. Among the five restaurants that will receive this award, Bully’s Restaurant (3118 Livingston Road, 601-362-0484) is one. The JBF gives the award to restaurants that have "timeless appeal and are cherished for quality food that reflects the character of their community," the foundation said in a press release.

Tyrone Bully and his father, who are both trained masons, built the restaurant from the ground up. It serves dishes such as oxtail, macaroni and cheese, and sweet potatoes, and Bully's serves regulars that include police officers, city council members and state legislators.

Also on a James Beard Foundation note, chef Jesse Houston, who owns Saltine Oyster Bar, has been nominated for Best Chef: South, which is one of the highest awards in the American food world. The foundation will announce the finalists on March 15.

Congratulations go to Jesse for his nomination and Bully's for its award.

Last week, the Mississippi film community lost a legend.

On Thursday, March 16, Jim Dollarhide's home near Lake Cavalier in Madison went up in flames, and on Wednesday, March 23, Madison County Coroner Alex Breeland confirmed that they found the filmmaker’s body in the wreckage.

Dollarhide was born in 1952 in Greenwood, Miss., where his father, Roger Freeman Dollarhide, ran a record store called Dollarhide Music Shop.

Jim attended Murrah High School and originally planned to become a photographer. When he learned that the United States Army was going to reinstate the draft, he joined to be part of the photo corps. Ultimately, he only spent six weeks in the army and later earned his GED. After that, he received a full scholarship for photography at Hinds Community College.

After Dollarhide dropped out of college, his friend, Sergio Fernandez, asked him about working on a TV commercial. It was then that he discovered his love for cinema.

In 1977, he founded Imageworks. After Jackson flooded in 1979, filmmakers Vilmos Zsigmod and Mark Rydell asked Dollarhide’s company to shoot footage for a 1984 film called "The River," which starred Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek.

After years of working under the Imageworks moniker, Dollardhide closed the company in 1998, though he started Dollarhide Film only a short time after.

Besides national commercial spots for brands such as Scope and NyQuil and award-winning campaigns, including his anti-tobacco spots, Dollarhide was best known for his documentaries. He scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary with the film "LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton," which made the connection between poverty and the lack of education opportunities for African Americans in the Mississippi Delta. The film won an award for Excellence in Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival in 2001. He also won the award for Best Director in the 1995 International Monitor Awards for "Harmonies: A Mississippi Overture."

In more recent years, Dollarhide created a B.B. King documentary for the B.B. King Museum in Indianola. The museum won a Muse Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in museum media, for the film in 2009. Dollarhide, along with filmmaker Gregg Wallace, had been working on updates to the documentary since King's death in 2015.

A wake for Jim Dollarhide will be at Hal & Mal's (200 Commerce St., 601-948-0888) Thursday, March 24, from 5 to 9 p.m.

St. Andrew's Cathedral has just announced that it will have an evening of communal support on April 24 in response to Gov. Phil Bryant signing HB 1523, the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act. The church says all are welcome regardless of religion or other factors. The event, which will be located in the cathedral's nave, begins at 5:30 p.m. For more information, email Ann Phelps at [email protected].

Before now, I had hardly watched any ballets. I saw "The Nutcracker" live once when I was in elementary school and again at after a pep rally in high school. I own that soundtrack plus a couple more ballet scores, but other than that, the world of dance is a mystery to me.

But one of the perks of my job at the Jackson Free Press is receiving opportunities to cover events such as the USA International Ballet Competition. After the coverage we did in preparation for the event, I wanted a chance to see how it all came together and exactly what the big deal was about surrounding this event.

The USA International Ballet Competition began in 1979, with ballet dancer, author and educator Thalia Mara and a host of others spearheading it. People always wonder why the competition is here out of all of the incredible cities in the nation. The answer? Mara saw a need for more arts and a bigger dance community in the south. The USA IBC is one of only four ballet competitions that International Theater Institute of UNESCO has sanctioned in the world. The others are in Moscow, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; and Varna, Bulgaria. Like the Olympics, USA IBC occurs every four years, and this is its 10th cycle and 35th year.

The committee's organizers seem to have pulled out all the stops for this year's competition. On opening night June 14, a succession of speakers, including Mayor Tony Yarber and USA IBC Director Sue Lobrano, took the stage, delivering speeches on how proud Jackson is to see so many faces from so many places. Audience members watched an inspiring film about the USA IBC's history and then dancers from all around the world walked down Thalia Mara Hall's long aisles, a member of each group carrying the flag of their native country. 2002 USA IBC junior gold medalist Joseph Phillips, who is from the U.S., lit the competition's torch and stood in the middle of the 91 dancers who hail from 20 different countries.

Complexions Contemporary Ballet performed "Innervisions," a modern dance work set to Stevie Wonder songs. In leaps and bounds and turns, the troupe sent the audience to a place of love, heartbreak, self-fulfillment, beauty and the fullness of a life well-lived.

June 16, I headed to Thalia Mara Hall to cover session four of round one. Competitors included American dancers Megan Wilcox, Savannah Louis, and Olivia Gusti; Japanese dancer Mizuho Nagata; senior Korean dancers Ga-yeon Jung and Ji-Seok Ha; Mexican dancer Daniel A McCormick; Chinese dancer Mengjun Chen; Brazilian dancer Mozart Mizuyama; Phillipine dancer Jayson Sarino Pescascio; and Russian dancer Olga Marchenkova.

The dancers performed variations from ballets such as "Flames of Paris," "Sleeping Beauty" and "Swan Lake." The most impressive performances,—at least to a inexpert ballet spectator like me—were the pas de deux. Such grace and strength seem to be required, and the crowd cheered loudest at the end of those performances.

Mizuho Nagata performed the …

Jackson has made it to the top three of a pretty cool list: We're no. 3 on Matador Network's Top 10 Most Artistic Towns in America. We've made it among the likes of cities such as New Orleans, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Marfa, Texas, Sante Fe, N.M., and Detroit. Matador Network used three criteria for the cities: Their art scene is relatively small, emerging artists have access to a low cost of living, and it has a strong community of visual artists, musicians and filmmakers. Congrats to Jackson's artists!

We may not have as many food trucks as states such as New York or Pennsylvania, but our food truck culture is growing.

The Daily Meal recently compiled a list of the best food truck in each state, and LurnyD's Grille in Jackson has taken the title for Mississippi.

The truck has been serving hungry Jacksonians since 2013 with burgers such as the sunrise burger, which has bacon, cheese and a fried egg, and the goober burger, which has peanut butter and bacon.

To see the complete list, visit http://ow.ly/xKVO300GifA

After Chane announced earlier this month that he would no longer do Fondren's First Thursday, the event's future was up in the air. However, Fondren Renaissance Foundation recently announced that it will come back as Fondren After 5. Here is some information about the new FA5 directly from Fondren.org:

Rotating presenters • Ever Changing Activities • Always Family Friendly

Fondren After 5 – Always First Thursdays – is a neighborhood open house, presented by the merchants and restaurants of Fondren – with opportunities to enjoy good food from one of our nearly two dozen restaurants, bakeries, bars and coffee shops and shop with our unique mix of merchants, mixed in with street-side fun.

In April, Duling Avenue, presented by Hals & Mal’s, Babalu Tacos & Tapasa, Saltine Oyster Bar, Abita Brewing and New Belgium Brewing, is the focus of activity with “Duling Avenue Live.”

Future months include:

May – Fondren Reniassance’s Arts Eats & Beats June – Duling Avenue Live July – State Street Concert Series August – Duling Avenue Live September – Duling Avenue Live October – State Street Concert Series November – Jackson Indie Music Week December – Fondren Renaissance’s Fondren Unwrapped

Welcomed by Fondren Renaissance, whose mission is to empower others to build a better Fondren!

CORRECTION: The original version of this story said Fondren Renaissance Foundation has taken the reins of Fondren After 5. However, for each event, different organizations and businesses such as FRF, Hal & Mal's and Saltine Oyster Bar will be in charge of FA5. The Jackson Free Press apologizes for this error.

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