Julian Rankin is the author of Catfish Dream – Ed Scott’s Fight For His Family Farm And Racial Justice in the Mississippi Delta (Univ. Georgia Press). The book centers around the experiences, family, and struggles of Ed Scott Jr. (born in 1922), a prolific farmer in the Mississippi Delta and the first ever nonwhite owner and operator of a catfish plant in the nation.

Catfish Dream is the winner of the 2018 Non-Fiction Book of the Year awarded by the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.

Last October Rankin was named the Executive Director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs where he now lives.

Erin Rae is a folk-pop songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee. She and her band, the Meanwhiles, “make smooth-edged music for Sunday afternoons” and “her arrangements — anchored by pedal-steel guitar and the steady strum of an acoustic guitar — may be rooted in modern-day indie folk, but the songs themselves rustle up comparisons to Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne.” (Rolling Stone).

Her previous album, Soon Enough, made several “Best of Year” lists including NPR and Rolling Stone. Her latest album, released June 8, is Putting On Airs (Single Lock Records).

Water Seed is a funk band from New Orleans that draws from classic funk, 60s and 70s soul mixed with hip hop influences. Their latest album, released June 22, is Say Yeah! Live at the Blue Nile. The band’s founder, drummer Lou Hill says, “We were taught to be versatile,” noting the band’s origins at Xavier University. Gambit Magazine said of the band’s first album, We Are Stars, “Within 15 minutes, the band spans the funk encyclopedia, leafing through pages of gospel, R&B and soul.”