Stormy Banks and Sweet Rivers: A Sacred Harp Geography
Introduction On a warm Saturday in early summer, a crowd gathers at a white-washed church in rural Alabama. As they begin to sing, a sound rises that is overwhelming in volume and intensity. The lyrics speak of the transience of life on earth and express a longing for a more joyous existence in the next […]
A Plague of Bulldozers: Celestine Sibley and Suburban Sprawl
Introduction Roswell development, 2008 In her 1995 murder mystery, A Plague of Kinfolks, journalist and fiction writer Celestine Sibley (1914–1999) made her feelings clear about Atlanta’s sprawl into the area near Roswell, Georgia, about twenty-five miles north of the city. When the book’s protagonist, Kate Mulcay, attends a dinner party in the new neighboring subdivision […]
Counterblast: How the Atlanta Temple Bombing Strengthened the Civil Rights Cause
Atlanta Temple Bombing On the morning of Sunday, October 12, 1958, shortly after 3:30 a.m., an explosion ripped through the Reform Temple on Peachtree Street in Atlanta. Although no one was hurt, the blast, which woke people from their sleep several blocks away, caused almost $200,000 of damage.1Atlanta Constitution, October 13, 1958; New York Times, […]
Watching the Surface for a Sign
Readings Patrick Phillips reads “Brass Knuckles.” Poem text Patrick Phillips reads “The Chimney.” Poem text. Patrick Phillips reads “The Flood.” Poem text Patrick Phillips reads “Heaven.” Poem text Patrick Phillips reads an excerpt from his novel Chattahoochee. Excerpt About Patrick Phillips Patrick Phillips won the 2005 Kate Tufts Discovery Prize for his first book, Chattahoochee, and his second, […]
Glimpsing Andalusia in the O’Connor-Hester Letters
Introduction: A Visit to Andalusia, August 2007 The road leading to the farmhouse is long, rutted, and unpaved —the land surrounding it, quiet and unkempt. I pass a dilapidated milking shed as the house appears in relative contrast — pleasant, somewhat imposing, and upright. It is larger than I had expected and inviting despite its […]
Andalusia: Photographs of Flannery O’Connor’s Farm
Photographing Andalusia After receiving permission from the Flannery O’Connor-Andalusia Foundation to visit and photograph, in April, 2007 I went to Milledgeville from my home in South Carolina. Andalusia is located on Highway 441, four miles outside of town. Visitors must traverse a four-lane highway of sprawl to reach the entrance to the farm across the […]
Re-imagining the Red States: New Directions for Southern Studies
Video Part 1b: Re-imagining the Red States: New Directions for Southern Studies Part 2: Re-imagining the Red States: New Directions for Southern Studies Part 3: Re-imagining the Red States: New Directions for Southern Studies About the Speaker Tara McPherson is Associate Professor of critical studies and gender studies at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television. […]
No Place
Video About the Author Minnie Bruce Pratt‘s books include The Sound of One Fork (1981), Yours in Stuggle (1984), We Say We Love Each Other (1985), Crime Against Nature (1990), Rebellion: Essays 1980-1991 (1991), S/HE (1995), Walking Back Up Depot Street (1999), and The Dirt She Ate: Selected and New Poems (2003). Pratt’s lecture “When […]
In the Queen City: A Reading at the Gadsden Public Library
A Reading at the Gadsden Public Library Part 2: York reads from “At Liberty (1961),” “At Liberty (1964),” and “Substantiation” Part 3: York reads from “At Sun Ra’s Grave” and “Walt Whitman in Alabama” Text of Poems Referenced “In the Magic City,” “From A Field Guide to Etowah County,” “The Crowd He Becomes,” “At Liberty […]
White Flight: The Strategies, Ideology, and Legacy of Segregationists in Atlanta
Video