Mississippi: Folklife Journal Relaunches as On-line Magazine

The Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) has launched Mississippi Folklife, a digital magazine reviving a nearly 90-year old tradition of publishing documentary work investigating the state’s folklife and cultural heritage. The on-line publication is the latest iteration of what began in 1927 as the Mississippi Folklore Register, a peer-reviewed academic journal of the Mississippi Folklore Society at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. The journal was published on and off over the years before becoming in the 1990s a hybrid journal/cultural magazine associated with the school’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture. It went out of print in 1999. The new digital version will maintain the project’s history of rigorous intellectual and editorial standards while reaching beyond academic circles to engage all Mississippians in honoring their rich culture. The on-line format enables the publication to share for the first time the multimedia documentation of folklorists—including essays, photography, sound recordings and video documentation—studying music, the visual arts and social customs. In addition, MAC is leveraging the web platform to digitize and post archival print issues of the journal. For more information, contact MAC Folk and Traditional Arts Director Jennifer Joy Jameson.