Points South

In this special episode, poet Tess Taylor reflects on the rich and naturalistic poetry of Virginian Anne Spencer. We're honored to partner with the Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum, Inc. Archives on this episode, which marks the first time listeners can hear Anne Spencer's voice outside of the museum's archives. Plus: Lucy Dacus performs live from the 30A Songwriters Festival.

Texas journalist Michelle García explores the violent backlash to Black Lives Matter protests in the Rio Grande Valley. Her journey through the region uncovers the history of the U.S-Mexico border and its significance to refugees of enslavement. Plus: Adia Victoria performs live from the 30A Songwriters Festival.

In this episode of Points South, managing editor Danielle A. Jackson is joined by Brittany Howard, Grammy Award-winning songwriter, lead vocalist of Alabama Shakes, and guest editor of our 22nd anniversary music issue. Join Brittany and Danielle as they talk about songwriting, growing up in the South, and choosing the OA’s music writing greatest hits. Plus, hear tracks from Brittany’s debut solo album, Jaime, and from the upcoming Jaime (The Remixes).

Milwaukee-based folk band Dead Horses plays from BlakeSt in Bentonville, Arkansas, and chats with Bryan and Bernice Hembree (Smokey and the Mirror), co-founders of the Fayetteville Roots Festival.

Pop string band Front Country performs live from BlakeSt in Bentonville, Arkansas, and chats with host Sara A. Lewis and Bryan Hembree (Smokey and the Mirror), co-founder of the Fayetteville Roots Festival.

Join host Sara A. Lewis and OA contributor Emily Gogolak in conversation about Dilley, Texas, the small town that houses the largest immigration detention center in the country. This segment features interviews from Gogolak’s reporting, in which she investigates Dilley’s oil, smuggling, and confinement economies. Plus: Lavinia Jones Wright reads from her West Virginia reverie “Skyline Drive,” and Parker Millsap plays two songs from his latest record, Other Arrangements, live from the OA office.

National Book Award-winner Sarah M. Broom In Conversation about her memoir The Yellow House. Also: two stories of desegregation—one in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and one in Little Rock, Arkansas—help us confront how we remember our past. In this installment of The Prologue, authors Jerry Mitchell and William Sturkey, along with members of the Southern Miss community, discuss the legacy of Clyde Kennard, the first African American to attempt the desegregation of then-Mississippi Southern College. Later, a special performance from No Tears Suite, a jazz composition commissioned by the OA to commemorate the Central High Crisis.

Introducing the 21st annual Southern Music Issue, featuring South Carolina! The editors take you behind the scenes to reveal their favorite songs and stories from this year’s music issue. Plus: Deputy Editor Maxwell George discusses Shovels & Rope with David Ramsey and reveals his Top 5 moments from the annual music issue.

Ruth Coker Burks, Arkansas’s “cemetery angel,” provided end-of-life care for patients with AIDS in Hot Springs during the height of the AIDS crisis and buried their remains in her family’s cemetery. Later, MC Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger reads “Three Encounters” by John Jeremiah Sullivan. Plus: Los Texmaniacs perform live from the Fayetteville Roots Festival.

Julian Rankin paddles out to Horn Island to understand its importance to Walter Anderson’s life and art. Later, author Mary Miller discusses her novel Biloxi. Plus: John Paul White performs from The Hurting Kind live from the Oxford American stage.