{"id":207378,"date":"2026-03-26T20:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/207378\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T20:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:29:11","slug":"state-of-the-south-discussion-sparks-northside-history-artists-and-community-action-free-press-of-jacksonville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/207378\/","title":{"rendered":"State of the South Discussion Sparks Northside History, Artists and Community Action \u2013 Free Press of Jacksonville"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ennis1-678x381.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"ennis1\"\/><br \/>\nShown is historian Ennis Davis, speaking to the attendees while on the river tour.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">One hundred fifty people from Jacksonville and from outside of Florida gathered for Meaning Dignity and Community\u2019s (MDC) \u201cState of the South Jacksonville,\u201d to discuss how communities are building resiliency throughout thier neighborhoods.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The goal of the confab is to amplify Southern stories and connect people across state lines to create a more thriving and equitable South. Through art, data, storytelling, and conversation, attendees grappled with topics like cultural erasure, displacement, and the ways that systems can cause harm at the same time they\u2019re trying to help.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-93198 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ennis2-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"  \/>Shown are event panelist.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">They shared ideas about how neighbors can protect and build their assets, their stories, and their communities. Mt. Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, with 160 years serving their Moncrief Springs community, provided space for these important discussions to happen. Participants enjoyed learning more about the history and ecology of Jacksonville on a boat tour with Ennis Davis, local historian, and Jimmy Orth with the St. Johns Riverkeeper.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Attendees also indulged in Duval Displaced, Duval Dis Place art exhibit displays at Yellow House, featuring 16 local JAX artists that will run through mid-April.\u00a0 Attendees also participated in sessions about Southern data, heirs\u2019 property, inclusive disaster recovery, family support, local agriculture, and community organizing.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The one day conference closed with a panel featuring the Black Jacksonville Collective, a team of artists, organizers, and journalists working to document and share the stories of Black Jaxsons. The panel reinforced that Duval is a community of storytellers and keepers of history, as they inspired attendees to collect and tell their own stories.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The composium is a program of MDC, a North Carolina-based nonprofit working to create livable communities throughout the south with programming held in various cities such as Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For more info visit link below:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mdcinc.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Homepage<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shown is historian Ennis Davis, speaking to the attendees while on the river tour. One hundred fifty people&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-207378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}