The New Narrative Festival is a new event designed to focus on how Mississippi and Mississippi State University fits into communication globally. The event will take place this Friday and Saturday at the Mill.
Dain Dunston, an event moderator and Austin, Texas-based author and speaker specializing in executive coaching and communications, said members in the Department of Communications created this event to reinforce the idea that anyone can have an impact on the communication in society, no matter their location.
“This isn’t a story-telling festival, although we’ll hear fantastic stories. It isn’t a PR conference, although we’ll hear a lot about how public discourse is changing, for better and for worse, in the age of social media,” Dunston said. “And it isn’t an academic conference, although it’s being hosted at one of the most respected universities in the state. The New Narrative Festival is just what it says: it’s a new narrative about what human beings can create together.”
Dunston said the goal of the New Narrative Festival is to introduce the state and the university as a place where new ideas come to light, since there is more to Mississippi than meets the eye.
“For all the challenges the state faces, it has produced more earth-shattering art and artists than all the adjoining states combined,” Dunston said. “With all respect to the literary lights of Faulkner, Eudora Welty and Ellen Douglas, the emergence of the blues and rock music from Mississippi has had perhaps the most profound effect on global culture of any art ever.”
Steve Soltis, former senior director of corporate executive and employee communication for Coca-Cola and MSU communication department advisory board member, said he wanted to help create this event so they can show how Mississippi and MSU can influence the world. Soltis said while the focus is more oriented toward MSU, it is also generalized to be the entire state since many times people refuse to credit Mississippi for things it has accomplished.
“We were all seeing and sensing a tremendous transformation, not only in communication, but in the people right here in our backyard who were leading the charge in such innovative and memorable ways,” Soltis said.
Soltis said many influencers have come from Mississippi, and he would like people to understand how strong future influencers from the state can help rebrand the state in a positive way.
“We are going to explore their influence, not only the past, but in shaping the new narrative,” Soltis said. “Their legacy lives on, and we have new creatives today who are building a whole new set of legacies on top of the historical trailblazers.”
Peggy Gardner, an event moderator, said the festival will be a lively event hosting many people who have successfully shaped the world in a number of ways as well as multiple forms of live entertainment.
“It’s a mix of live musical performances as well as a series of discussions about narratives. We have cartoonists, business people, folks in the movie production arena, and of course folks from the state itself talking about Mississippi,” said Gardner, senior director of public relations and social media for UPS in Atlanta, Georgia.
John E. Forde, professor and head of MSU’s Department of Communication, said anyone is welcome to come to the festival, as it has such a broad outreach with many interests included.
“For students in particular, this is a great opportunity to network and learn from some of the leaders in the world and see what they’ve done,” Forde said.
The weekend festival will cost $185 for a general ticket fee, and $40 for students. Tickets will include three meals, a reception, two concerts and admittance to a variety of speeches.
Forde has worked to create this festival as a way to increase awareness for MSU’s and Mississippi’s impact on the world through communication, and said this festival is the way.
“We need to do a new narrative festival because a lot of people don’t really know all the things MSU’s contributed to society when you consider music, art, athletes, writers and all these different areas,” Forde said.