Madison County CASA, together with Jackson Madison County Library, will be hosting a virtual All Community Read of the New York Times best-selling memoir, Three Little Words during the month of April.

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. It is our hope that an All Community Read will bring light to the plight of abused and neglected children in the Madison County community, and start conversations about how we as the Madison County community can best support the children living here.

Three Little Words, published in 2008, is Ashley Rhodes-Courter’s memoir of the nine years that she spent living in fourteen foster homes, and her eventual exit from the foster care system. It is a story of story of struggle, heartbreak, and overcoming the odds.

During the month of April, participants can either check out Three Little Words from the Madison County Library or purchase their own copies and read along. Each week a different discussion question will be posted on Google Classroom, and participants will have a chance to discuss the questions throughout the month. In April, the link for the Google Classroom discussion will be posted on Jackson Madison County Library’s social media sites as well as Madison County CASA’s media sites.

Madison County CASA trains volunteers to be advocates for abused and neglected children during their time in juvenile court system. Madison County CASA and its volunteers have been serving children in Madison County since 1996. For more information on Madison County CASA, visit MadisonCountyCASA.org.

For more information about the All Community Read, email Hannah Snowden at hannah@madisoncountycasa, or Shayne Plunk.

The Art Museum at the University of Memphis is showcasing local artists’ work on digital billboards throughout the city of Jackson. Each billboard, unique to each artist, will be focused on light as a celebration after the dark year 2020 was. The billboards will be on display from April 1- April 30 and will feature art from Kris Stewart, Samantha Wood, Belinda Patterson, and James Cherry.

The billboards will be on display in the following locations:

The Art Museum of the University of Memphis serves the University and its region as a resource and laboratory for the study, interpretation, and presentation of the visual arts and the dissemination of artistic scholarly research.

To view the art, visit https://bit.ly/3m2jxj4.

Artwork by Kris Stewart.