Donna Ladd

Journalist and Editor

Mod in Mississippi, and Other Thoughts About Southern Creativity

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I’m not the biggest fan of being on screen; I honestly never remember whether to look at the camera or not, and get twitchy about it. But I was honored to do this episode of “Mapping a Modern Mississippi” for the uber-creative Mississippi Museum of Art. I love talking about Mississippi, and especially Jackson’s potential. I believe strongly that all of us need to believe strongly in the possibility of change here, and then just make it happen. Yes, we have to cut through the cynicism and the tendency of too many people here to “attack their own,” so to speak. (It comes with our historic territory, I believe: inferiority complexes and all that.)

And the crew liked my “toy office.” She who dies with the most toys, and tchotchkes, wins, you know.

 

Been Podcastin’ My Face Off

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It seems that every time I turn around of late, I’m doing one or another podcast. Here are three I did in recent months, each focusing in a slightly different direction. I enjoyed them all. It’s great to get a chance to talk about bigger issues. The best podcasts are about ideas, as any storytelling is, not gossip. OK, maybe the Roguish Gent and I did gossip just a little—about the late Mayor Frank Melton, whom he knew as a young man, and I covered intensely in a way no other journalist dared to. What a time that was.

In this Let’s Talk Jackson episode, I’m well talking about Jackson, and Mississippi and, of course, the Youth Media Project. I talk about some of my heroes, too, with the delightful Chellese Hall.

This Faith & Reason podcast on “Women’s Voices in Religion, Journalism and the Workplace” was big fun—and an honest conversation with three fabulous and outspoken women—Debo Dykes, Kate McNeel and Ann Phelps—about the crap women still face in 2017 and shouldn’t. That includes women perceived to be “powerful” enough to have strong voices, which really pisses off too many people still. I talked about some stuff here that I’ve just recently become willing to say out loud in public. And that in itself is kind of sad.

OK, this is the one where we dish about Frank Melton. He also gets me to talk a lot about being a club DJ in five states, my hometown’s racist and violent history, and of course the Youth Media Project.

I, the Southern Muckraker

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When Southern Living magazine called to ask me for a photo, I was immediately suspicious. Let’s just say that I’ve never thought of myself as the Southern Living type. But, I’m honored that the magazine chose me on the “Innovators Changing the South” with the following write-up. It was quite the surprise, to say the least, and I’m honored to be among the other innovators on the list:

Donna Ladd is an old-fashioned muckraking journalist with a sharp modern voice. She helped create Mississippi’s The Jackson Free Press, and her columns and reporting make national news as she takes bold stances that contrast typical Southern stereotypes. In addition to being a writer, she’s a speaker and a teacher with particular focus on children in vulnerable situations, race relations, and police reform.