Dr. Kim Sessums, the Brookhaven gynecologist who immortalizedthe heroism of the black Civil War combatant in his monument thatnow stands at the Vicksburg National Military Park, is beinghonored by the Brookhaven Arts Council at the Lincoln County PublicLibrary with an exhibit of his related artwork.

The BAC is hosting a reception for Sessums Thursday night at 6o’clock at the library, during which Sessums will address thegathering about the work showcased in the exhibit.

“He will give a critique of his work and tell about how it cameabout,” said Marilyn Driskell, of the Brookhaven Arts Council.

The exhibit is a collection of pastel drawings and bronzestatues of soldiers and blacks of the Civil War era. There is alsoone of a man with his mule that stands in the center of theroom.

“It’s basically the work he did and the things he studied beforehe built the actual monument in Vicksburg,” said Celeste Carty ofFine Arts Committee.

Sessums made sketches and clay figures, among other artisticrenderings, in his preparations for the final product, as well asthe smaller bronze statues in the collection at the library.

“He did studies on different men in the Civil War, and these aresome of the smaller bronzes he did. It’s all the preliminary work,”said Carty.

Sessums’ earlier works were what won him the commission for thestatue in Vicksburg. The statue depicts a black soldier beingsupported and carried by two other black men, one another soldierand one symbolic of other African-Americans during the Civil Warera.

“We hope it will be well attended because he is a notable artistnot only in Brookhaven but in the national arts community,”Driskell said. “He’s multi-talented and his poetry of each paintingis noteworthy as well. He’s a poet at heart and an artist intotal.”