Library Road Trip

Overlooking the Mississippi, Natchez, MS

7/12/11 – Natchez is charming and one of the jewels of the South. The Judge George W. Armstrong library was damaged by a hurricane a few years back and had a faded grandeur on the outside. The librarians were very excited about our project. They took our photograph and later post a story about us on Facebook and on the library web site. Nick and Walker did an excellent interview of one of the librarians that is only slightly marred by the sound of the fans running in the background. She explained that the AC goes off a few times a week during this heat wave because of the power outages. The library then has to close. The heat wave has been going on since early June. As usual, the library is packed today. We drove north to the tiny town of Fayette. The Jefferson County library is located in one of the blackest counties in the US and one of the poorest places in the country. It has the highest illiteracy rates in Mississippi. It would rank below Nigeria and slightly above the Congo for its illiteracy. The library is one of the only places in town that gives people access to another world. We decided to use the rest of today to slow the trip down and work on editing. We check in to our motel in Jackson and Walker and Nick quickly go to work on their vlogs. I decided to check out four branch libraries named after civil rights pioneers. As I drive up to the Fannie Lou Haner library the sky opens. Thunder, lighting and Biblical floods are everywhere. It was even too wet to open the car window for a quick shot, let alone to run inside the library. I drove to the Medgar Evers branch library but it was still pounding rain and I couldn’t find the library. At that point I gave up and headed back to the motel. The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent editing and blogging. We took a break at night to run downtown to another great meal at a classic Southern Cafe. It was a chilly and humid 79 degrees outside and far cooler inside. For the first time on the trip we feel cold.

Group portrait, Natchez, MS

Here is an interesting article that we found regarding poverty in Lake Providence, Louisiana where we just photographed their local library.

The Poorest Place In America

St. Joseph, LA

7/11/11 – We sleep in a little this morning because we are so exhausted. I have a brief panic after we leave when I realize that I left all of my color film in our motel refrigerator. We return to pick it up and to my relief it is all there. Little Rock has a library system connected to the Arkansas History Center. Like the shared library between the City of San Jose, CA and San Jose State University this allows for a bigger and better library. The old Carnegie library that used to be here is gone. However, the old columns were preserved and are now located in front of the new library. Pine Bluff is one of the poorest and most violent cities in the U.S. Its library is a large 1960s faded beauty with a great map of the U.S. painted in front. Nick filmed Walker walking the route of our trip. We continued southeast to our last library in Arkansas at Lake Village. It is right on the water and the librarian Judi Fava is happy to bring the local community to life. The librarians that have the free time to talk are invaluable for us to understand what we are seeing. Lake Providence, LA is one of the many small, poor black communities that we will visit in the next few days. We arrive 15 minutes before they are closing. A little black girl looks up at me as I enter and announces that the library is closing. I told her that I would be quick. After a few shots of the interior I stepped back into the heat to photograph the exterior. The two friendly librarians, one white and one black, pose with one of their grandsons in front. We really feel the Mississippi Delta region beginning here. We listen to great gospel music as we drove through a vast farming region interrupted with bayous. The sun got lower in the sky and the temperature came down to around 100 degrees. This region reminds me a little of the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta in California. St. Joseph is our last library of the day and one of the best of the trip. It is a small but somewhat prosperous Delta town that is unusual because it was originally laid out like a New England village in the early 19^thCentury. The library is a fascinating blend of architecture that I photographed with my medium and large format cameras. We spent the night in Natchez, MS., a quiet antebellum gem. Dinners on this trip have mostly been excellent and the Pig Out Inn amazes us again. On my computer in our motel I read a national news story that the mid-West and South have been experiencing a record heat wave. It has followed us the whole way and we have experienced 18 continuous days over 100 degrees. Yikes!

7/9/11 – We started the morning in a Vietnamese mall drinking sweet coffee and being amazed at seeing this culture in this state. Old men were outside smoking, drinking coffee and enjoying the company of their fellow Vietnamese. Oklahoma City surprised us by being so cosmopolitan. I then photograph the interior of the Main Library. It is both architecturally beautiful and filled with people on this Saturday morning. The Oklahoma Room and the separate tribal rooms are especially nice. We begin to appreciate the rich diversity of the region. The Oklahoma National Memorial is another well done shire to the national tragedy of the Oklahoma City bombing. This attack was the most extreme anti-government hate crime in our history and still has a resonance here. Much of the area around the bombing was affected and the attacked help spur redevelopment of the downtown. The reflecting pool and the hand made memorials are very moving. The temperature is rising and we photograph and film the libraries in Chandler and Tulsa. The Brookside branch in Tulsa has an odd curvy roof that reflects some of the interesting architecture in the area. Frank Lloyd Wright built several buildings in the area. We stopped at an another excellent Vietnamese restaurant in Tulsa for a small lunch and iced coffee to go. The fat, pompous, drug-addict Rush Limbaugh entertains and outrages us on the radio as we cruise the Turnpike. His selective grasp of history was interesting as he attacked President Carter but never mentioned President Nixon. As we pulled into Muskogee I thought of Merle Haggard. We zoomed by the Main Library which we had dismissed in our earlier research. I spotted something and quickly pulled into the parking lot. A beautiful sculpture of a white guitar was above the Muskogee Public Library sign. Painted on one side of the guitar is a collection of faces of many races. The other side was the face of a traditional Native American. We’ve come a long way from “Okie from Muskogee”. Today, Muskogee is one of the most diverse places in the United States. The old Carnegie library in Muskogee is  now the Ark of Faith. This was an interesting conversion from the public commons to a Christian charity. We drove through beautiful winding hills and farms before coming to our last library in Hulbert, a Cherokee majority town. It was the first town we saw the Cherokee script. We spend the night in Tahlequah, the capitol of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokees have the largest population of any Native tribe in the US. The area here was the end of the Trail of Tears which was the forced migration of many of the Native tribes from the eastern part of the US to the “Indian Territory” of Oklahoma. This is now considered a national tragedy.

7/10/11 – Tahlequah has one of the few Carnegie libraries built in Oklahoma. A large library was connected to it bridging the old and the new. We drove into Arkansas and immediately leave Native America and enter the South.  We had decided to change our route and spend more time in the Ozarks. We headed north to the home of Walmart in Bentonville. Its eclectic library has been replaced with one that has a wide veranda with comfortable chairs that felt very Southern. Walker calls this area “corporations, God and guns”. We were dangerously close to the Missouri border and decided to include it in the project. Seligman, MO has a Museum and Library as part of a government center. Although closed on Sunday, it had a wonderful mural of books on the outside. After driving through the Mark Twain State Forest we came to the town of Eagle Rock, MO. Its library also doubled as a government center and community meeting place. Back into Arkansas we drove to the amazing town of Eureka Springs. The old Carnegie library there was carved into a rock cliff as is much of this hilly town. It is one of only four Carnegie libraries built in the state and is stunningly beautiful. Eureka Springs is touristy but deserves the attention. It ranks as one of the most interesting and beautiful towns we have seen so far. The Ozark Mountains are green and breath-taking. Being up higher in elevation we actually cool down below 100 degrees for the first time since the mountains of New Mexico. We decide to be nice to our old Toyota’s engine by not using the AC today. I have a peak driving experience through the Ozarks blasted by the wind from the open windows and Credence on the CD. Like our first evening coming into Needles, we dropped down out of the Ozarks and the temperature once again climbs over 100 degrees. The Carnegie library in Morrolton is a beautiful building with a spectacular sky at sunset. After driving for 12 hours through the curvy roads with no AC we collapse into our motel room in Little Rock. Exhausted, we still do our usual routine of dinner, changing film and working on Nick’s vlog (video blog for those of us over 25). We have been up for 18 hours. Whew! This pace is both exhilarating and exhausting.