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BATON ROUGE Baton Rouge's Southern University Museum of Art, located on the main campus of the nation's largest histor- ically Black university, offers Mississippi River views and event space along with its art collection. Other interesting offsite venues in Louisiana's capital city include an out- door pavilion overlooking a pond at Louisiana State University's Hilltop Arboretum, the museum aboard the USS Kidd and the ballroom at the Old Governor's Mansion. The city's largest meeting venue is the 200,000-sq. ft. Baton Rouge River Center, which encompasses The Arena and the Theatre for the Performing Arts. More than 9,000 area guestrooms provide lodging accommoda- tions. SHREVEPORT/BOSSIER Visitors interested in exploring the Black heritage of Shreveport and Bossier City, its neighbor across the Red River, can tour the Stephens African American Museum. Shreveport also is home to a second branch of the Southern University Museum of Art and the Multicultural Center of the South. Two top attractions in Bossier City are the 8th Air Force Museum at Barksdale AFB and the Louisiana Boardwalk. Five area riverboat casinos and horseracing at Harrah's Louisiana Downs provide lots of options for visitors who want to try their luck. The area's largest meeting facility, the Shreveport-Bossier City Convention Center, contains more than 350,000 sq. ft. of space. The Mississippi Culinary Trail highlights places to sample MISSISSIPPI hot tamales, barbecue, catfish and other regional favorites. For a taste of the rich musical history of the Magnolia State, you can visit some of the stops along theMississippi BluesTrail. Outdoor adventurers might head for the hiking trail along the Black Creek in the DeSoto National Forest, go canoeing on Bear Creek in Tishomingo State Park, or spend some time hiking and dolphin watching on Ship JACKSON Fans of "The Help" can check out Jackson's new driving tour,with stops in the Belhaven neighborhood,downtown and other parts of Jacksonwhere scenes fromtheAcademyAward- winningmovie were set. Entertainment is the theme of many of the top visitor attractions in Mississippi's capital and largest city. Jackson/Evers International Airport houses the Mississippi MusiciansHall of Fame.The Farish StreetHistoricalDistrict, once the city's Black cultural and commercial center, is home Shreveport-Bossier City Convention Center Island, just south of Gulfport. If gaming is your favorite adventure,Gulfport's IslandView CasinoResort offers 1,900 slots and 20 table games, alongwith an assortment of nightclubs, shops and restaurants.The resort also includes a largemeeting space and 562 hotel rooms. Other local attractions include the CEC & Seabee Memorial Museum, the Lynn Meadows Discovery Center, the Gulfport Symphony Orchestra and the Arts Under the Dome concert series at FirstUnitedMethodist Church. toAce Records,Trumpet Records studio, theAlamoTheater, and Birdland — the live music venue where Ellington, Hampton, Armstrong and other jazz legends performed when it was known as the Crystal Palace Night Club. Tours are available at Malaco Records, a historic blues, R&B and gospel music company. The Summer Hotel earned its Mississippi Blues Trail marker for having housed the leg- endary Subway Lounge in its basement. Music history accounts for just a portion of Jackson's long list of Black heritage sites. Others include the Farish Street Black Meetings & Tourism May/June 2012: www.blackmeetingsandtourism.com 51 Baton Rouge River Center