DELTA ROOTS FESTIVAL | ThirdWardZen

Ramping up

Our

Outreach

Toward promoting

Self-care in the MS Delta

— Our Vision —

Create and host a festival that transforms health and wellness in the Delta through movement, mindfulness, music, food, culture, and fun. By focusing on positive assets within the community and maximizing the richness of the Mississippi Delta to encourage individuals to live healthy and well, events are scheduled with experienced health and wellness practitioners. The festival includes movement activities ranging from low to moderate impact on the body, mindfulness and meditation sessions, music, and endless fellowship and fun!

— Delta Roots Festival 2025 —

Planning for the annual Delta Roots Festival starts now! Information on past festivals can be found below. This year we're creating a Juried Video Invitational for Youth, "Youth Voices Speak on Community Food and Wellness," and it's open to all Washington County students, ages 13 - 18 years old. We're inviting students to submit an original short video that highlights your view of food and wellness in your community. Videos should be 3 - 5 minutes long and feature either (1) your community wellness practices (playing sports, cheerleading, dance, exercise, Thai Chi, Zumba, yoga, martial arts, etc.) or (2) your community food environment (community or family gardening, farmers markets, other food sources, cooking and eating food). Whatever the topic the video must show how the activity nurtures mind, body, and/or spirit for a healthy community.

To participate each student must complete the registration form and submit to thirdwardzen@gmail.com by April 24. The name of a parent and optional teacher sponsor with contact information who supports the student's video submission must also be included. Upon receipt of the form, information on how to submit the video will be forwarded to you. The deadline for submitting the video will be May 16.

The videos will be judged by our guest judge, ShakaJamal Redmond, who is a culturally innovative yogi, artist and filmmaker based in Oakland, CA. He holds a BA in History from Tuskegee University and MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University. ShakaJamal is the founder of Olu8 Film & Culture and Olu8 Records.

Students will have a chance to win Best in Show ($250), 2nd Place ($150), 3rd Place ($100), Merit ($50). A reception will be held to announce the winners on June 14. All videos will be showcased virtually on the Third Ward Zen YouTube channel with the ability to share to other platforms starting June 16.

Important Dates: April 24 - deadline to submit registration form; April 26 - Video submission instructions emailed out; May 16 - deadline to submit video; June 14 - Reception where winners will be announced and videos shown; June 16 - All videos shared virtually.

Click here for the registration form.

— Delta Roots Festival 2024 —

Wellness Festival Conversation Series 2024 (2).png

In lieu of holding our usual annual Delta Roots Festival, Third Ward Zen presented "Food, Movement, Yoga: A Liberation Praxis for Community Wellness," a 3-part virtual conversation. Through this event, our goal – to create and host the Delta Roots Festival with a vision to transform health and wellness in the Delta through movement, mindfulness, music, food, culture, and fun – continued. The series focused on:

Part I - growing food in the community. Our panelists (Demalda Newsome, Chris Johnson, Sheila Howard) work in the non-profit sector and work with youth to grow food.
Part II - moving your body as a personal and community wellness model. Our speaker, Dr. E. Gaynell Sherrod, is a full tenured professor in the Department of Dance & Choreography at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.
Part III - supporting youth, yoga, and resiliency in the community. Our speaker, Shaka Jamal Redmond, is a culturally innovative artist, educator, and filmmaker; and the founder of Olu8 Film & Culture and Olu8 Records, based in Oakland, CA.

These virtual conversations can be found as part of our Table & Plate Project Delta Podcast, https://www.thirdwardzen.net/table-and-plate-project-delta.

— Delta Roots Festival 2023 —

The community's response to our first

Delta Roots Festival over the Juneteenth weekend in 2022 was a success! The positive feedback about the health and wellness activities from the event's participants let us know that this inspired them to come out and enjoy themselves— moving, stretching, dancing, and being in fellowship with friends and neighbors— and for some, discovering new and enjoyable ways of improving their individual health, stamina, balance and overall happiness. This welcomed praise inspired us to make the Festival an annual event.

Since we are all about Ramping up Our Outreach Toward promoting Self-care in the MS Delta all year round, we listened to feedback about scheduling the festival and added 3 quarterly events in September, December, and May. Video of the cooking demonstration during the May event can be found on our podcast page, www.thirdwardzen.net/table-and-plate-project-delta. For a summary of the Delta Roots Festival 2023, check out Delta Roots Festival 2023 (thirdwardzen.net).