"Grapefruit Boys" by Greta Koshenina
 

Grapefruit Boys

Streaming Media

Document Type

Video

Publication Date

4-28-2022

Abstract

Grapefruit Boys is a short film focusing on small business owners Macon and Graham. Last May, the two started grapefruit (grpfrt for short), selling hand dyed overalls. Based in Water Valley, Mississippi, Graham and Macon now sell brightly colored hand dyed overalls, pants, bucket hats, and other apparel. The boys are jokesters, but are serious at times, and this is reflected through their business plan and merchandise. Their signature overalls can be spotted throughout Oxford, and their business is growing, reaching others through Instagram and word of mouth. Grapefruit’s signature overalls come in shades of earth tones as well as bright pastels and are made for hard work but also fashion. This film focuses not only on how grapefruit came to be, but also the boys’ dynamic personalities and friendship.

Macon and Graham’s story fits into a larger puzzle—many artists are moving from Oxford to Water Valley in search of affordable housing and peace from the larger city. Growing up in Water Valley, I was surrounded by murals and other artwork adorning the near-abandoned historic mainstreet, which is now itself a vibrant place of commerce and small businesses. Grapefruit Boys tells a story of two people finding joy through their work while bringing others joy through what they sell and create.

Greta Koshenina was raised in Water Valley, Mississippi. In May of 2020, she graduated from the University of Mississippi’s Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College with a B.A. in classics and minors in mathematics and Italian. Greta began working at the University of Mississippi Museum the summer of 2018 as a Collections Undergraduate Assistant. There, she worked mainly with Mediterranean antiquities, but she found that her passion was folk art, specifically women folk artists. This led her to the Southern Studies Masters program. Through interviews, she will collect oral histories of folk artists and their family members; these stories will be documented through video and audio recordings, creating biographies of artists featured in the museum’s collections. Additionally, Greta plans to document her hometown of Water Valley.

Relational Format

video recording

Comments

Photo (Click image to see a full-size version):

Greta Koshenina

This document is currently not available for download.

Share

COinS