Couple travels the Mississippi to learn ‘what is home’

Published 4:16 pm Tuesday, October 8, 2019

A couple made their way into Vicksburg Tuesday after running across the Old Mississippi River Bridge.

Victoria Styrbicki and her husband, Tom, have been making their way down the Mississippi River as part of the Relay of Voices Expedition — a project spearheaded by Victoria, with the mission to collect individual stories across the Mississippi River region.

Growing up in South Louisiana and now having lived in Chicago for the past 10 years, Styrbicki said she began to question, “What is home.”

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for The Vicksburg Post's free newsletters

Check which newsletters you would like to receive
  • Vicksburg News: Sent daily at 5 am
  • Vicksburg Sports: Sent daily at 10 am
  • Vicksburg Living: Sent on 15th of each month

“I wanted to learn about the homes of people that are connected to that place (the Mississippi River) and how the water shaped those lands, those people’s home and how did they shape that water that ends up connecting to my home place,” she said.

And in doing so, Styrbiki said, listening to people tell their individual stories is the main focus of the project, and she hopes that by gathering this human data rather than just numerical data of the region, it will build empathy.

“This is kind of lacking in current controversies, divisiveness that we have in our culture,” Styrbiki said, adding, “so from all of these places that often seem disconnected, whether it’s the Delta or the North Woods of Minnesota or due to different races or different income levels, we need to listen to each other.”

Victoria, who is a social practice artist and researcher, runs a non-profit organization she has had for around eight years.

“This is part of what I do,” Styrbicki said of Relay of Voices. “I look at people’s lives to make meaning and to use storytelling to make change. The power of art is not just about making pretty pictures.”

For this project, however, Styrbiki said, she needed her husband’s assistance since she could not do it alone.

“I couldn’t travel the length of the Mississippi River alone on foot, I needed help,” she said, and because her husband is an avid cyclist and runner he agreed to come along.

While in Vicksburg, the couple is scheduled to collect stories from Mayor George Flaggs Jr., Herman Smith, Emily Tillman, Linda Fondren, Lesley Silver, Layne Logue and Patrick Smith.

Styrbicki said these names were suggested through friends and the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“We’ve spent the last two years building partnerships in each town and city that we are traveling to to start accessing out who we wanted to talk to,” she said. “We wanted a diverse cross-section of the community — young, old, racial and cultural backgrounds and different relationships with the river or community.”

Styrbicki said as of right now, there is no ultimate goal for the project.

“The stories and the information have to tell me what to do with them, and we have not had time to process that yet,” she said. “This is a process-based work and it is about listening.”

From start to finish, Relay will have partnered with 29 convention and visitors Bureaus, 19 chambers of commerce, 30 arts, culture and educational organizations, 45 city and county governments, as well as hundreds of individual volunteers.

Other partners include the Great River Road, Mississippi River Network, Water Institute of the Gulf and Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board.

About Terri Cowart Frazier

Terri Frazier was born in Cleveland. Shortly afterward, the family moved to Vicksburg. She is a part-time reporter at The Vicksburg Post and is the editor of the Vicksburg Living Magazine, which has been awarded First Place by the Mississippi Press Association. She has also been the recipient of a First Place award in the MPA’s Better Newspaper Contest’s editorial division for the “Best Feature Story.”

Terri graduated from Warren Central High School and Mississippi State University where she received a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis in public relations.

Prior to coming to work at The Post a little more than 10 years ago, she did some freelancing at the Jackson Free Press. But for most of her life, she enjoyed being a full-time stay at home mom.

Terri is a member of the Crawford Street United Methodist Church. She is a lifetime member of the Vicksburg Junior Auxiliary and is a past member of the Sampler Antique Club and Town and Country Garden Club. She is married to Dr. Walter Frazier.

“From staying informed with local governmental issues to hearing the stories of its people, a hometown newspaper is vital to a community. I have felt privileged to be part of a dedicated team at The Post throughout my tenure and hope that with theirs and with local support, I will be able to continue to grow and hone in on my skills as I help share the stories in Vicksburg. When asked what I like most about my job, my answer is always ‘the people.’

email author More by Terri Cowart