New Delta Rising Book Tour

Colloquially referred to as “the most southern place on earth,” the Mississippi Delta annually attracts thousands of tourists, photographers, and writers to visit this haunting region of open fields, ramshackle houses, and blues music. Their experiences—and those of local documentary artists as well—have led to many articles and books about the Delta. None before, however, has focused so intently upon the people themselves.

Award-winning photographer Magdalena Solé spent a year interviewing and photographing hundreds of Delta people, finding light in hidden spaces and giving voice to unspoken words. In their narratives, Tom Lassiter and Barry H. Smith bring into sharp focus both the moral strength of the individuals and the spirit they give to the place.

The result is New Delta Rising, a book containing nearly one hundred stunning color photographs and compelling stories about the Delta people and their families, faith, and sense of community. Combined readers are presented with a fresh perspective, an “outsiders’” views of the Delta.

Solé, a New Yorker whose projects in photography, film, and design span the globe, describes her Delta experience thusly: “Sometimes as a photographer you are lucky and make a friend here or there, but most often you arrive as an outsider, and that is how you leave. But . . . I was gradually so absorbed into the fabric of life there that I felt not like an outsider but rather like the family member who happened to have the camera.”

Click through to see more images from the book and a schedule of events for Solé's return to the Delta.

Magdalena Solé will talk about and sign copies of New Delta Rising at the following times and locations.

Tuesday, March 27, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.

Cotton Row Bookstore

333 Cotton Row

Cleveland, MS 38732