Learning Lunch: Joey Brackner - Slinging Mud

The History Museum of Mobile’s upcoming Learning Lunch Program will feature Joey Brackner, former Alabama state folklorist. The title of his presentation is Slinging Mud.

Joey Brackner was hired as Alabama's state folklorist in 1985. He retired in 2022 as the director of the Alabama Center for Traditional Culture, the folklife division of the Alabama State Council on the Arts. He is the author of Alabama Folk Pottery (2006) and Of Mules and Mud: The Story of Alabama Folk Potter Jerry Brown (2022), both published by the University of Alabama Press. From 2013-2024, he was host of the Alabama Public Television series Journey Proud. 
His research interests include Alabama folk pottery, traditional graveyard decoration and southern horticultural traditions. Joey Brackner is a native of Fairfield, Alabama. He received a B. A. in Anthropology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1977 and a M. A. in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1981. He was a Humanities Scholar in Residence at the Birmingham Museum of Art prior to being hired as state folklorist in 1985.

Slinging Mud is a presentation about the 19th-century pottery makers of Alabama in the context of the political challenges of their time, including enslavement, secession, emancipation, Reconstruction, prohibition, and the rise of the Populist movement. The talk is informed by the increasing availability of primary documents through digitization. Such searchable records as the Freedmen's Bureau records, newspapers and pension applications open a window into how these craftsmen and their families shaped and were shaped by their times.

The History Museum of Mobile invites the public to attend the free Learning Lunch lecture series. Guests are encouraged to bring their lunch and enjoy a presentation on an historical or cultural topic. 

For more information on Learning Lunch, contact Brantley James, Curator of Education, at 251-301-0270 or [email protected]