Stay At It: Faye Dant on Telling A Deeper Story in America's Hometown

Faye Dant joins Matthew Fluharty to discuss Black history in Hannibal, MO, and the inspirations behind Jim's Journey and her book Hannibal's Invisibles.In this first episode of the new Art of the Rural podcast, meet Faye Dant. Faye is the founder and director of Jim’s Journey: The Huck Finn Freedom Center, an organization with a mission to build cross-cultural understanding by documenting, preserving and presenting the history of the 19th and 20th-century African American community in Hannibal and northeast Missouri.Faye grew up in Douglasville in Hannibal, one of the oldest African American communities west of the Mississippi River, and she is a fifth-generation descendant of enslaved Missourians and Civil War veterans.As a community historian and the curator of the Jim’s Journey Museum, Faye is compelled to tell these stories of the ordinary and extraordinary Black community—and to honor their experiences on the walls of this groundbreaking museum. This vision powers her celebrated book Hannibal’s Invisibles, released in 2024 by Belt Publishing, the culmination of an Art of the Rural fellowship supported by the Good Chaos Foundation.If you know about Hannibal through the writings of Mark Twain – or from James, Percival Everrett’s recent awarding-winning book – then you are in for a treat, as Faye offers the deep and often unseen story of the beauties and complexities of Black life in this community known as “America’s Hometown.”Additional Resources:Hannibal's Invisibles (Belt Publishing)Jim's Journey websiteJim's Journey on FacebookWe are grateful to folks across the country who have made tax-deductible contributions to Art of the Rural to make this conversation possible, and to the Ford Foundation and Good Chaos Foundation for their support of Art of the Rural’s media programs.