press coverage

Mississippi Public Broadcasting News
Ronald Brown covers the exhibition, "MISSISSIPPIANS & THEIR STORIES: THE FIRST YEAR AFTER KATRINA" by H.C. Porter, currently showing at the Mississippi Arts Center in Jackson, MS

Southern Breeze Magazine
Colors of Hope: H.C. Porter's powerful exhibition proves there is healing in the telling - and in the being heard >> read more

Portico Jackson Magazine
A colorful remembrance of Katrina >> read more

Disaster News Network Radio
Backyards & Beyond: Mississippians and Their Stories - A radio interview with Karole Sessums, Executive Director of Backyards & Beyond.

Mississippi Magazine
"Up to that point, I had been focusing my work on the rural black community in Mississippi," Porter says. "But at that art show in Lancaster, people picked up on how my work narrates Mississippi, and they asked me why I wasn't on the coast documenting what was going on down there...." "And so I went." >> read more

Metro Business Chronicle
Arriving only days after the storm, Porter was awestruck by what she found. Words simply could not convey the massiveness of the destruction and the depth of human emotion >> read more

Deep
"They kept telling me: 'You need to go home right away and tell their story with your work.' This surprised me. I had been thinking about what I could do as and individual: open up my home or help sift through the wreckage. It hadn't occurred to me what I could do as an artist." >> read more

The Clarion Ledger
"Part of what we're doing is representing average Mississippians on the Coast," Sessums said. "And what we're hearing is they're thankful for what we're doing. They want to be part of the story." >> read more>>

Belhaven Courier
The opportunity to show the rest of this country and the world who we are as Mississippians is monumental. The unity, diversity, resiliency and love for this state recorded throughout her documentary, both visually and audibly, is certain to transform the often-held, outdated stereotype of this great state forever.
>> read more >>

Desoto
"When they see my work and the name H.C. Porter from Jackson, Mississippi, they just expect me to be someone else," remarks Porter. Looking at her work it's easy to see the reason. For nearly 20 years, Porter has observed Mississippians - black and white, old and young... successfully capturing the essence of their lives.
>> read more >>

Delta Business Journal
"There has always been a thread of resiliency, spirituality and strength in my work. At no other place and at no other time have I felt this more than when I was going back and forth to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to record and photograph, and then to paint, the people and places so harmed by Hurricane Katrina."
>> read more

Current News
"The time spent with my neighbors has shown me that a very significant outlet for their healing is the telling of their story," she said. "Part of their restoration and hope comes from knowing that they are being heard. As an artist and fellow Mississippian, I have a huge responsibility to relay their stories to the nation."
>> read more

The University of Alabama Alumni Magazine
"My images will be reflections of people dealing with their lives on a daily basis, showing the devastation either directly or indirectly, and how we have adapted to our new lives." >> read more >>

The Jackson Free Press
"This is so all-consuming. It’s difficult even to take time to take the garbage out right now....(But) for me, it’s difficult to not want to be down on the Coast every second, because I feel like there’s so many aspects of the story that I want to tell and that I’m missing things." >> read more >>

Vicksburg Post
Backyards and Beyond is a Mississippi nonprofit arts organization dedicated to creating & managing art exhibitions, which celebrate, enhance, and encourage the strength >> read more >>