At our upcoming State Arts Conference on October 11-12, 2023, you can watch the carving of one of the famous bears of Rolling Fork in preparation for the triumphant return of the Great Delta Bear Affair Festival, which takes place in Rolling Fork on October 28, 2023. We have partnered with the Lower Mississippi Delta Partnership to sponsor the carving of this year’s bear in an effort to assist with the rebuilding efforts in Rolling Fork in an artful way.

For years, the Great Delta Bear Affair Festival had a new towering bear carved to mark the annual festival and brought their count to 19 bears before the tornado ripped through the Rolling Fork community. Shockingly, only one bear went missing. The rest had some bumps and bruises that could be mended. And to Meg Cooper and Melissa Thomas’s surprise, much of the community quickly had the bears picked up and adorned them with flags and other symbols of encouragement and resilience.

When I visited Rolling Fork in mid-July, Meg and Melissa met up with me and gave me a grand tour of all the remaining bears. These bears all have a theme: reading books with an owl, taking selfies, giving shots to patients (located at the hospital), or climbing poles. The bears stand tall and proud. For me, they showed a sign of determination to stand back up as a community and the ever-present civic pride that filled the air. As Mississippians, we are instilled with the innate reflex to pick up and lend a hand when our neighbors are in need. We all saw that response when the tornado ripped through the Delta through the communities of Rolling Fork, Silver City, and others.

Meg, Melissa, and I walked throughout downtown. We saw the lovely library that will soon get some repairs, along with the bear located outside of the building that is holding a book open with an owl perched on his shoulder and his wing wrapped around the bear. We also saw the moving “Rolling Fork Will Rise Up” banner draped across the courthouse.

For lunch, we joined Lynne Moses at her home. She has volunteered with the groups serving free meals to locals and recovery workers. She also serves on the board for the Great Delta Bear Affair and the local library we had seen earlier. Her home is a museum full of folk art, and was a delight to experience in person. She even has her own bear carving featuring some cubs climbing a tree. Over lunch, we discussed ways the library could connect with MAC to apply for grants to bring art and arts programming into their spaces.

Afterward, we continued the tour of bears and made a stop to see Lee Washington at his gallery space, Lee’s Cotten Picker Art. Lee has been selling his works in the heart of Rolling Fork for a long time. The tornado took out his workshop and did some damage to the roof. He has plans to bring it all back very soon, and we can’t wait to stop by again once it is back open.

Before I headed home, I connected with the Mayor of Rolling Fork and the local Bank of Anguilla branch members. The bank has been a strong and open-arms partner in assisting the town’s recovery efforts. Many of the trees in the area were blown down, leaving large unshaded regions, and it can get very hot. The bank has actively kept its doors very open to the public for anyone to come in, cool off, and rest. Shout out to Susan Perry and her team at the branch.

With that, it was time to head home. But Meg, Melissa, and I knew we would work together to do something exciting and LIVE for the upcoming State Arts Conference. So, if you are joining us at the conference on October 11-12, 2023, don’t miss watching Dayton Scoggins carve the newest member of the bear collection on site in preparation for the Great Delta Bear Affair’s return on October 28, 2023. You’ll find Dayton carving the bear on the West Street side of Thalia Mara Hall all day Wednesday AND Thursday.