Roy Blount Jr. to Headline Fifth Annual Conference on The Front Porch

This year’s fifth annual Conference on the Front Porch in Taylor will take place on Sept. 24 and 25 at The Mill at Plein Air, announced Main Street Taylor Thursday.

Roy Blount Jr. will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Conference on the Front Porch.
Photo provided

The conference is sponsored by national media partner Garden & Gun Magazine and will feature noted southern storyteller Roy Blount Jr. as the keynote speaker.

The Conference, which is the only one of its kind in America, focuses on the architectural as well as sociological importance of the front porch in the American South. Over the past five years, topics such as the porch and food, music, literature and storytelling have been explored in context with the front porch and all that it represents.

In addition to Roy Blount Jr., confirmed speakers for the 2020 Conference are: Mississippi delta photographer Maude Clay; cartoonist and writer Marshall Ramsey; philosopher Douglas Holladay; the director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art Julian Rankin; and celebrated town planner and architect Eric Moser.

“The timing of the 2020 conference is so poignant with the onset of COVID-19,” said conference director Campbell McCool. “We’ve been mowed over with e-mails from people sharing stories of how they’ve reconnected with the neighbors and friends all on the front porch.”

In addition to the panels, the conference includes field dinners, porch plays, concerts and tours of the Oxford area.

Additional sponsors with Garden & Gun Magazine are Nicholas Air, Krutz Family Cellars and Old Dominick Distillery. The conference is open to the public. The cost to attend is $395 which includes attendance of all panels and lectures, six meals and the play and concert.

Attendance is limited to 200 people.

Plein Air is one of Mississippi’s true front porch neighborhoods. Information on Plein Air can be found at www.pleinairtaylor.com.

To register, call 662-234-3151 or visit www.theconferenceonthefrontporch.com.

Staff report