anthony: some time ago something crawled, or slithered, or grew like a fungus. something that started small, got bigger, lurched like a swamp thing out of the mud and moist earth and humid nights of the delta. then, it took over the world. so next time some smart ass foreigner, horrified by our latest ham-fisted foreign policy blunder wonders out loud, what good is america? well, you can always pipe up that the blues, rock n roll, r&b, and soul all came out of this place one state mississippi. i took a walk through this beautiful world felt the cool rain on my shoulder found something good in this beautiful world i felt the rain getting colder sha la la la la sha la la la la la sha la la la la sha la la la la la la geno: right now we re in the middle of downtown jackson. farish street. anthony: it is a street with a lot of history. what did it used to be like back in the day? geno: the street was packed with folks. folks all over, they
This place one state mississippi. I took a walk through this beautiful world felt the cool rain on my shoulder found something good in this beautiful world i felt the rain getting colder sha la la la la sha la la la la la sha la la la la sha la la la la la la geno right now were in the middle of downtown jackson. Farish street. Anthony it is a street with a lot of history. What did it used to be like back in the day . Geno the street was packed with folks. Folks all over, they had their own restaurants, grocery stores, juke joints. I mean everything happened on farish street that happened in jackson for the africanamerican community. Anthony the state capital of jackson, mississippi, located along interstate highway 55, just outside whats known as the mississippi delta. Its the kind of place that makes you wonder why did they make it the capital. Until you grab hold of what used to be around here. Farish street used to be the hub of africanamerican life in the city. Its black commercia
originally from milwaukee. crime novelist billy boyle from brooklyn. downstairs, currence s restaurant city grocery cranks out many delicious things. the man known as big bad chef, aka johnny snack, is sending some of those goodies upstairs as there s nothing professional writers like more than free food. usually you put five writers in a room it s a ugly hell broth of envy, hatred. writer: we all hate tommy. writer 2: no, that goes without saying. tom: even me, i hate me the worst of all. jack pendarvis: around here anyway, the writers are really supportive of each other. for writers to argue would be like arguing over a piece of dirt. i mean, what are we fighting about? the stakes are so low, why would you be a jerk about it. anthony: if mississippi were a country and there were a national hero, uh, dead or
very much like this place, in mississippi. bill griffith: this is where faulkner started his writing career in this room, here. anthony: for the past ten years, bill griffith has been curator at william faulkner s estate. bill griffith: he added this room on after he won the nobel prize. and on the wall here is an outline of one of his novels. jack pendarvis: yeah, that was his greatest book. bill griffith: yeah, faulkner thought this was his masterpiece. anthony: jack pendarvis is the author of your body is changing, the mysterious secret of the valuable treasure, and awesome, as well as staff writer for a game-changing animated series adventure time all works of which i am a huge fan. so he wrote right right on the wall. bill griffith: he just wrote on it. anthony: it s it s his man cave. bill griffith: yeah, it s his it s his version. he said that houses in mississippi who have a family business have one room dedicated to the family business and thi
wrote extensively about the post-civil war south. he was the first author to do so at a time when most writers were writing about anything but. bill griffith: he always said that he wrote about a south torn between itself. torn between the old ways, the old traditional ways, and modern development. he said he was gonna break the antebellum code. anthony: right. bill griffith: and he did. anthony: but bill griffith: he did, and yet he had those hobbies and interests that were definitely of a gentry class and a gentry nature. jack pendarvis: his portrait and his horse bill griffith: there s a great example. anthony: yeah. bill griffith: in his in his riding habit. that s a great example. you do get to a certain level of success, and all of a sudden, this seems like a good idea. and it s never a good idea at that age. anthony: at any age, really. bill griffith: exactly. anthony: was he politically active at all? i mean, there was a lot going on. bill grif