A Carson Feast

On May 3, the last day of this semester's classes at CSU, I and the members of my McCullers course celebrated the end of the semester with a covered dish supper featuring foods referenced in the works of McCullers. The menu included baked ham, sweet potato souffle, black-eyed peas, Country Captain (not named by McCullers, but thoroughly described -- twice in her works), two different cakes (one of which, most appropriately, was baked on Monday and failed*), macaroni and cheese, homemade cookies, fried chicken, baked cornbread, lots of other wonderful dishes, and, the contribution that turned out to be the piece-de-resistance of the entire supper, Jonathan Lapp's ASPARAGUS -- a dish which converted even those who had previously thought themselves averse to the aforenamed spears. (One consumer noted, "It didn't hurt that they were pan-fried in about two pounds of butter.") Here's a photo of Jonathan, in the kitchen at 1519 Stark, Carson's mama's kitchen, workin' his magic:
I tried to take more photos, but my photo-takin' abilities failed even more miserably than the cake did.

Students also turned in their academic McCullers projects, which included:
* interviews with local folks who knew Carson;
* transcription and analysis of the very important (and very long) Carson McCullers/Tennessee Williams session at the 92nd Street Y in New York, in 1954;
* in-depth analysis of vintage film footage of McCullers;
* primary research of a 1950 television show which featured McCullers;
* an academic paper on the subject of "Carson McCullers and Black Mammy Stereotypes";
* a paper on "References to Visual Art in the Work of Carson McCullers";
* a podcast introduction to Carson McCullers; and
* a podcast driving tour of "Carson McCullers' Columbus" (derived from the brochure produced in 2002 by Historic Columbus Foundation).

These projects, along with some from previous years, are available for perusal at the Smith-McCullers House.

Thank y'all, students o' mine, for a wonderful semester of McCullers immersion.

-- Ms. Fussell

* from The Member of the Wedding: "The afternoon was like the center of the cake that Berenice had baked last Monday, a cake which failed. The old Frankie had been glad the cake had failed, not out of spite, but because she loved these fallen cakes best. She enjoyed the damp, gooey richness near the center, and did not understand why grown people thought such cakes a failure. It was a loaf cake, that last Monday, with the edges risen light and high and the middle moist and altogether fallen -- after the bright, high morning the afternoon was dense and solid as the center of that cake."