Culture
Utica Locals Tackle Food Desert Woes With ‘Homegrown’ Festival
Sipp Culture is planning the Homegrown Utica Festival as part of local efforts to tackle food insecurity in Utica, a Mississippi food desert.
Aliyah Veal
November 15, 2023
Sipp Culture is planning the Homegrown Utica Festival as part of local efforts to tackle food insecurity in Utica, a Mississippi food desert.
South Arts selected Sipp Culture and the B.B. King Museum to receive $300,000 over three years, in partnership with the Ford Foundation.
The Turners created ‘Sipp Culture as a way to foster community development in Utica, which was once a thriving community, but in recent years has seen the loss of its schools, industry and, finally, its grocery store. Join co-founders Donna Ladd and Kimberly Griffin this week as they discuss food insecurity with Carlton Turner on MFP Live this Thursday, April 14, at 6 p.m.
The Rural Performance and Production Lab’s goal is to support the development of new works focused on rural living, history, places and bodies. Artists will receive direct funding or a configuration of an on-site residency, coaching and support from a team of advisers over an 18-month period. The program supports artists living in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
“Meet, Greet & Eat” is a no-contact community meal for Utica residents to learn about “Equitable Food Futures,” a project to address healthy food access in rural Mississippi. Sipp Culture Director Carlton Turner wants to “complicate the narrative” beyond the need for a grocery store to growing fresh food.
To help support local art, the organization is launching the Sipp Culture Artist Relief Fund to assist artists and art organizations facing economic crisis during the pandemic. The $500,000 relief fund is part of a $5-million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the Intercultural Leadership Institute.
Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people.
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