“I’m not creative.” Whew, when people say that, I turn into Alec Baldwin in “Glengarry Glen Ross” but without the swears and slurs. “A. B. C,” I want to scream. “Always Be Creating!” It doesn’t need to be good — that’s not the point! Humans were made to create things! Go make a little doodle or handwrite a paragraph of nothing. Look, you’ve created something. You’re creative. You have been since the day you were born.
That’s why I love to see artists really dig into their craft, and I recently had the privilege of discovering the work of Joseph Hanna, a young artist and author from Yazoo City, Mississippi. He draws the coolest maps, and I guarantee after you read his story, your own creativity will be humming.
SOUTHERN CRYPTIDS ILLUSTRATED
Credit: Joseph Hanna
Credit: Joseph Hanna
Quick refresher: A cryptid is a folkloric creature that has never been proven to exist but lives large in people’s imaginations. Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, Chupacabra — you get the idea. Cryptids are usually deeply tied to a certain place.
Joseph Hanna hand draws detailed maps of cryptids native to Southern states. Each work is the product of copious research, dovetailing neatly with Hanna’s areas of interest. The 21-year-old junior studies anthropology at Mississippi State.
“I find it fascinating from a social perspective,” Hanna told me on the phone. “It reveals as a people what we fear, what we love, what we find interesting.”
Hanna says growing up in the Mississippi Delta region primed him for such fantastical interests. “I was ingrained by my grandparents with old folkloric stories, like lights up in the rolling hills, or headless men walking around trying to find old buried Confederate gold, that kind of thing.”
Credit: Joseph Hanna
Credit: Joseph Hanna
He shared some intriguing discoveries he’s made through his research.
- The Pascagoula Elephant Men: Far from the true-life 19th-century historical figure, in Mississippi, the elephant men were alien creatures that allegedly abducted two people in the 1970s. The alleged victims described beings with wrinkled skin, slits for eyes and several nose-like protrusions.
- Hanna says the growth of this myth coincided with a national fascination with alien abductions. “Whenever (cryptids) come about, they become indications of the people at that specific time,” he said.
- The Man-Eater of Alabama: Hanna is still trying to decode the puzzle of Atipa-Tcoba, a figure of Indigenous American myth described as a giant, possibly cannibalistic elephant-like monster.
- “A lot of people say that it’s supposed to be a cultural memory of native people remembering mastodons, that may have been passed down through oral history. But the thing is, I don’t know if that’s true,” Hanna said. “I’ve read so much on it, but can’t trace back any specific elephant-like details.” He’s hoping to get in touch with a local Indigenous group that can help him trace back the mystery.
After all, that would bring a tantalizing new facet to the University of Alabama’s fondness for elephants.
🧌 You can see more of Hanna’s work here
STUFF THE BUS
Credit: Zaire Breedlove/AJC
Credit: Zaire Breedlove/AJC
This is what community care looks like. People from all over Atlanta got together for the 22nd annual Stuff the Bus project, filling up eight buses to outfit thousands of kids in need for back-to-school.
- A grown-up group project: Eight Atlanta businesses collected school supplies from contributors, including Channel 2 WSB-TV, Wellstar Cherokee Health Park and Delta Community Credit Union. Then, volunteers with United Way, Channel 2 WSB-TV and the Children’s Restoration Network packed all the supplies up to be delivered last week.
- More than supplies: While school supplies are nothing less than necessary, organizers said that’s not the only way they’re hoping to give back.
“It’s true what they say: It’s better to give than to receive. And although the kids will never know your name, they will know someone cared,” Cliff Kinsey, CEO of the Children’s Restoration Network, said. “That’s important for them to understand — that people do care and we’re going to help them as much as we can.”
🚌 More from the AJC on what the effort means to Atlanta
A FIRST FOR TENNESSEE
Credit: Earl Neikirk/AP
Credit: Earl Neikirk/AP
This weekend, the Atlanta Braves will meet the Cincinnati Reds for a one-of-a-kind MLB Speedway Classic at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee.
It’s quite a feat to fit a baseball diamond on the infield of a NASCAR track, but more importantly, it’s Tennessee’s first-ever Major League Baseball game. Exciting!
(Georgia has an unfair advantage here, being the home of the Atlanta Braves, but specialty MLB games have been played in Birmingham, Alabama, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina.)
SIPS FROM AROUND THE SOUTH
🫶🏽 Pound, VA: A group of Southwest Virginia leaders went to the Capitol this week to advocate for community resilience projects to respond to natural disasters in their state. Community Strong initiatives were key during recent floods in Dante, Virginia, where a resilience hub was set up for donations and other care. More from Appalachian Voices.
🧵 Atlanta, GA: The monthlong Atlanta Quilt Festival showcases the strong history of resistance and justice woven into these works of art. This year’s event also features a banned book exhibit. More from the AJC.
🖼️ Louisville, KY: Artists have been leading city-sponsored nighttime “art walks” focused on making the area safer for women. The idea is to normalize women walking at night in certain areas and show the need for them to feel safe. Plus, of course, art facts. More from Spectrum News 1.
🔨 Lawton, OK: A future Eagle Scout and community members are building a new gazebo for a local senior center to earn their coveted rank. The center needed a new outdoor space, and it will be specially designed to accommodate mobility aids. More from KSWO.
📖 Greenwood, SC: A special program at the Leith Correctional Institution, a women’s prison, gives inmates the opportunity to record bedtime stories to stay connected to their kids and grandkids. Riley’s Readers was started in 2016 and is available at 21 institutions throughout the state. More from WRAL.
TELL US SOMETHING GOOD
Is there a cool event we need to know about? Something great happening in your town? Let us know. This is your space, too. amatl@ajc.com.
SOUTHERN WISDOM
To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.
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