You may have noticed a recent trend on Lemuria’s blog, that trend being us shouting our love for the city of Jackson from the rooftops. If you don’t already know, Lemuria is publishing a book about our great capital city! Jackson: Photographs by Ken Murphy is a collection of all of the things that we think make this place so incredible and worth sticking around for. All of us here at the store have been working on blogs about what makes Jackson special for each of us personally, but we want to hear from you, too!

I’m sending out a call to arms, a call for you to help us yell and holler until we’re hoarse about how this city is more than statistics, more than its past, and full of the possibility for a bright present and future. I need you to write a few paragraphs about what makes Jackson special to you personally and send it in to me so that I can put it up on our blog. You guys are the reason that Lemuria exists, and your voices are so, so important to us. So crack those knuckles, sit down with that cup of coffee, and tell me why you love this place. Let’s share it with the world.

Please email all entries to hannah@lemuriabooks.com

Written by Hannah

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com. Please join us in celebrating Jackson on August 5th at 5:00 in Banner Hall!

“Girls, What would y’all think about publishing a book about Jackson?” John Evans asked one morning, and I was thrilled. The capitol of the great state of Mississippi is my hometown. I am a 5th generation Jacksonian, and I am invested in this community personally and economically: I work in a bookstore that has roots 39 years deep.

I made a list of all my favorite places I thought should be in the book: St. Paddy’s Day Parade, the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Welty House, various bars and restaurants, the Edwards Hotel and the Tower Building. I continued researching online, reading older books and asking around, and even as a lifetime Jacksonian, I discovered some local treasures I had never known about. I was astounded at what this city has to offer that I had not taken advantage of.

The photographer Ken Murphy did a fantastic job of capturing the beauty and spirit of Jackson, MS, and I appreciate the city and his talent all the more for it. I know that purveyors of the book, whether you live in the city limits, in the Metro Area, or have moved on to other places, will once again appreciate Jackson as your hometown. As a proud Jacksonian (and bookseller) I am excited to be part of something that showcases the city I am proud to call home. And while we couldn’t include everything that Jackson has to offer in the book, I have a list of places to check out. I’m going to have to take some time to be a “tourist” in my hometown.

Written by Maggie

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com. Please join us in celebrating Jackson on August 5th at 5:00 in Banner Hall!

“In order to see a photograph well, it is best to look away or close your eyes” –Roland Barthes

There is something to be said for an image haunting you; the photograph that reemerges again and again in your mind’s eye. Nine months ago, I met Ken Murphy at the Apothecary behind Brent’s Drugs to photograph the bar. I dimmed the lights, set the fruit in color-coordinated pyramids, lit some candles. Thirty minutes later the image of that back room was in the camera, the lenses back in their cases, the tripod folded. Even though I was standing next to Ken when the shutter stopped down, seeing the photograph in its final form—plate 100 of the Jackson book—was startling. It wasn’t at all how I remembered the bar that night.

Nine months of stirring and shaking  drinks have enlivened the space since the photo was snapped. The walls have more stories to tell, the marble bar has been rubbed by leaning elbows, the wood is a bit more worn. Roland Barthes’ reflection on photography, Camera Lucida, explores the somewhat magical qualities of still images—the vibrancy with which a photograph captures a moment the duration of a fraction of a second. Time holds its breath for the shutter. He writes, “the Photograph does not call up the past…The effect it produces upon me is not to restore what has been abolished (by time, by distance) but to attest that what I see has indeed existed.” (82)

This book is a marker. On these pages, the evolving and living city of Jackson holds its breath. Behind each closed door, someone is waiting to walk through.

Written by Adie

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com. Please join us in celebrating Jackson on August 5th at 5:00 in Banner Hall!

Where’s Waldo? In Jackson, of course. For the third summer in a row, the famous fellow in the striped shirt and black-rimmed specs is visiting twenty different local businesses all through the month of July. Those who spot him can win prizes, including buttons, books, and more. From Brent’s Soda Fountain in Fondren to Cups in the Quarter, from Nandy’s Candy in Maywood Mart to the Mississippi Craft Center in Ridgeland, Waldo figures are showing up in public areas of local establishments.

Grab a search list at any participating business, and collect an “I Found Waldo at ___________” card for each Waldo you spot. Collecting cards from all twenty businesses and turning them in at Lemuria Books will win a Waldo gift bag and an entry for other, larger prizes. The grand prize drawing will be at a giant Waldo hooplah that we’ll be hosting at our store on Saturday, July 26 at 11:00, so make sure you don’t miss it! You have to be present to collect the prize if your name is drawn.

Waldo is the creation of Martin Handford, whose entertaining drawings of crowd scenes swept the world in 1987. Since then, the Where’s Waldo books have held a cherished spot on bookstore shelves the world over. There are now over 55 million Waldo books in print worldwide, and they’ve been translated into eighteen languages. An entire generation has grown up searching for Waldo and his cast of wandering companions.

There is no charge to participate, and the game lasts for the entire month of July. For more information about hunting for Waldo in Jackson, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619.

We’ll be kicking off on Tuesday, July 1st with a special storytime at 4:00, and you can come by the store to pick up a passport (don’t forget to look for Waldo and his dog wolf here in Lemuria) or you can start your hunt at any of the twenty businesses! We are so excited to be hosting such a cool event that encourages us to really get to know the city that we live in. So get ready to get hunting, make amazing memories, and get to know the amazing Jackson, Mississippi.

Participating Businesses:

Lemuria, Mississippi Children’s Museum, Polka Dot Pony, Pop Fizz, Fresh Ink, Eudora Welty House, Brent’s Drugs, Broad Street Bakery, Cups in Fondren, Nandy’s Candy, Jackson Zoo, Sal and Mookies, Museum of Art, Millie D’s, Cups in the Quarter, Earth Walk, Rainbow Co-op, Whole Foods, Mississippi Craft Center, and Campbell’s Bakery!

Download the Find Waldo Local Passport for a list of participating businesses and instructions!

Written by Emily

When my husband and I packed all of our belongings and our reluctant dog Lucy into a U-Haul in the middle of the summer in 2012, I was sure I could not be happy in Jackson. For a long time, I was right. I cried myself to sleep on many nights, wishing I was back in Nashville, and cursing the University Medical Center for being in the middle of this godforsaken (and inexcusably hot) state. At the time, we were living on Jefferson Street, just across the way from Fenian’s Pub and it was there, amid the terrible karaoke covers of “Crazy Train” and the permeating and never-wash-outable smell of french fries and grease, that I crawled out of my house found home. I could, for the first time in my life, actually sit at the bar (but NOT at the corner underneath the freezing air vent), and have Jimmy pour me an ice cold Budweiser, and really relax. I made friends with the regulars, attended pub quiz weekly, and decided, in short, to shut the hell up about Jackson and let some real Jacksonians show me what the city was all about. And Jackson, as it turned out, was not so bad a place after all.

About a year later, with a much fuller and happier social life, we packed up the dog, the U-Haul, and a new cat named Judy the Booty, and moved just a few streets down to a quieter section of the Belhaven neighborhood. Just a street away from Belhaven University, our little home is surrounded by ancient oak trees and quiet neighbors, but sadly no Fenians within walking distance (not comfortable tipsy walking distance that is). But then God smiled upon the already amazing Fairview Inn, just around the corner from our house, and decided to bestow upon it a book-themed lounge stocked with leather armchairs and shelves of books everywhere. Oh thank you Jesus for this place. Just the way Fenian’s wrapped me up in the gritty, unrefined side of Jackson that I was itching for, The Library has enveloped me in an incredible sense of community. For the first time since I was a little girl, I not only know my neighbors’ names, I am friends with them. We meet each other at The Library to catch up, to watch movies on the back patio, and to commiserate with Tony- who in my opinion is the greatest bartender who every walked this earth. (Seriously, I waited out the last tornado in The Library with my dog -The Library is dog friendly- and Tony called me after I walked home to make sure I hadn’t been blown away.)

I suppose it might be strange that the two places that helped me to put my finger onto the living, beating pulse of Jackson are bars, but really, isn’t a bar one of the best places to fall in love with a city? And I have fallen in love. An unlikely, unexpected, unorthodox love with an unlikely, often forgotten city. One day I will leave this place, I know. But for now, this is home. Let’s pour one out for Jackson.

Written by Hannah

Jackson: photographs by Ken Murphy is available now for purchase. To order a copy, call Lemuria Books at 601.366.7619 or visit us online at lemuriabooks.com. Please join us in celebrating Jackson on August 5th at 5:00 in Banner Hall!