February 02, 2010

Morgan Freeman to Accept Award at The Oxford American's First-Ever Best of the South Gala

Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman will accept The Oxford American's inaugural award for Outstanding Contributions to Southern Culture at the magazine’s first-ever Best of the South Gala in Little Rock on Saturday, April 3, 2010.

Freeman was nominated this morning for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Nelson Mandela in the film "Invictus".

"We are very pleased that Morgan Freeman will be the first recipient of this award, which we hope will create a long-standing pantheon of great Southern cultural figures," said Warwick Sabin, the publisher of The Oxford American.  "He was our first choice for this recognition, not only because of his remarkable career and accomplishments, but because he has remained involved with his community in Mississippi and has done so much to improve it."

In addition, The Oxford American announced that is attaching a new $10,000 prize to its award for Lifetime Achievement in Southern Literature, which also will be presented at the Best of the South Gala.  The first award was bestowed in 2006 to the novelist Donald Harington, who recently passed away.  This year's winner will be named in the coming weeks.

The entire Capital Hotel -- including all of the public and private rooms -- are reserved for this special event.  Only a limited number of tickets will be available for the evening, which will include a pre-event VIP reception, a cocktail reception, a four-course dinner, and a special awards program featuring celebrity entertainment.  The food will be curated by John T. Edge (the James Beard award-winning expert on Southern cuisine), and prepared by Lee Richardson, the Capital Hotel's executive chef.

"We envision a lively and fun event that reflects the character and personality of The Oxford American, highlighting music, literature, food, art, and other creative expressions of Southern culture," Sabin said.  "It will be a sophisticated and entertaining affair anchored by celebrity presenters."

Cindy and Chip Murphy and Riley Lipschitz are chairing the awards gala, which will raise money to support the operations of the magazine, which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  Tickets begin at $500, and tables of ten also can be purchased.

Glazer's is the gala wine and spirits sponsor.

More details about the event are available at http://gala.oxfordamerican.org.

ABOUT MORGAN FREEMAN

Morgan Freeman is an Academy Award-winning actor whose voice and presence has become ubiquitous in American culture. He spent his childhood in the Mississippi Delta, around Charleston and Greenwood, and he never forgot his roots there. Today he owns the Ground Zero Blues Club and Madidi restaurant in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where he remains active in the community. He encouraged and financed the first integrated prom in Charleston in 2008, an event documented in the film, "Prom Night in Mississippi."

Freeman was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2008, and in 2007 he won the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.

From the recent film "Invictus", to the "Batman" films, to "Million Dollar Baby," "Amistad," "The Shawshank Redemption," "Glory," and "Driving Miss Daisy," Morgan Freeman has been a leading Hollywood figure for the last three decades. But his life began in the South, and he embodies the very best of Southern culture.

ABOUT THE OXFORD AMERICAN

The Oxford American is a national magazine based in Arkansas that is dedicated to featuring the very best in Southern writing while documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South.  Billed as "The Southern Magazine of Good Writing," it has won two National Magazine Awards and other high honors since it began publication in 1992. The magazine has featured the original work of such literary powerhouses as Charles Portis, Roy Blount, Jr., ZZ Packer, Donald Harington, Donna Tartt, Ernest J. Gaines, and many other distinguished authors, while also discovering and launching the most promising writers in the region. The magazine has also published previously unseen work by such Southern masters as William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Walker Percy, James Agee, Zora Neale Hurston, James Dickey, Carson McCullers, to name just a handful. The New York Times recently stated that The Oxford American "may be the liveliest literary magazine in America."