Points South

Join producer Christian Leus for part two of our story about Mitchellville, Arkansas, as she explores the history and legacy of the Mitchellville Self-Help Project, led by Daisy Bates. This episode was produced by Sara A. Lewis, Christian Leus, and Zandria F. Robinson. Thank you to Dr. Melissa Stuckey, Dr. Danielle Purifoy, and Dr. Misti Harper. Thanks to Essie and Terrence Williams and to the Des...

Join producer Christian Leus as she travels to Mitchellville, Arkansas, a small Black town close to the Mississippi state line. Mitchellville's story is little known even to Arkansans, but in the 1960s, it was the site of a high-profile civic improvement project started by civil rights leader Daisy Bates. In the first part of this two-part series, we'll explore Mitchellville's foundations and what...

Our 25th annual Southern Music Issue is on newsstands now! For this special episode of Points South Live, we partnered with Grant’s Lounge and Visit Macon to host an evening of conversation and music exploring the legacy of one of the South’s greatest balladeers: Otis Redding. The Macon Music Revue perform ballads highlighting Georgia’s rich musical history, and the OA ’s Ashley Clayborn chats wit...

In this two-part series, producer Sara A. Lewis visits the South Carolina Sea Islands, where the triumphs and tragedies of Reconstruction have left a unique legacy. In Part II, join Sara on Hilton Head and St. Helena, two more islands where the promises of Reconstruction blossomed into independent, self-sufficient communities of formerly enslaved people. On Hilton Head, Sara visits Historic Mitche...

In this two-part series, producer Sara A. Lewis visits the South Carolina Sea Islands, where the triumphs and tragedies of Reconstruction have left a unique legacy. In Part I, join Sara on Edisto Island, where formerly enslaved people owned land, built schools, and created prosperous communities all before the Emancipation Proclamation. Hear from scholars and local experts as they tell the story o...

In this episode, producer Sara A. Lewis investigates stories—why and how they’re told at some of the South’s most vital and complicated civil rights sites. Join Sara on a trip from Louisiana’s Whitney Plantation, where the forgotten stories of enslaved people take center stage; to Mitchelville, South Carolina, where the joyful history of emancipation is remembered and recreated; to Birmingham, Ala...

In this episode, journalist Brittany Brown tells the story of Fannie Lou Hamer’s Freedom Farm, a radical cooperative initiative that sought to bring food sovereignty to northern Mississippi. Join Brown as she speaks to experts to learn more about Hamer’s life and work, and visits a farm in Montgomery County, Mississippi, to discover how Hamer’s vision of environmental justice resonates with Black...

We head back to New Orleans to visit Storyville, the red-light district that made the city infamous in the early 20th century. Producer Christian Leus explores the history of the neighborhood and disentangles its complicated legacies of jazz, sex work, and social upheaval. Join Christian as she digs through archival audio and conducts new interviews with Storyville scholars to discover what the my...

In this episode, producer Christian Adam Brown travels to Sante Fe to meet Terry Allen and his wife, Jo Harvey Allen. Terry is a prolific artist, musician, and writer. His songs have been covered by Lucinda Williams, Sturgill Simpson, David Byrne, and many others. His visual artworks have been exhibited in The Met and MoMA. Terry’s radio work, which features the incredible theatrical performance w...

In this episode, cookbook author, chef, and teacher Andrea Nguyen travels to New Orleans East with producer Christian Adam Brown in search of an even deeper understanding of Vietnamese cuisine in New Orleans. Andrea and Christian meet the farmers that grow produce for this vibrant community and taste Dong Phuong Bakery's ever popular King Cake. Visit oxfordamerican.org/pointssouth to see Từ Nước (...

In this episode, cookbook author, chef, and teacher Andrea Nguyen travels to New Orleans with producer Christian Brown to find the origins of Viet-Cajun food, a popular fusion that has been appearing at restaurants all over the US. Join Andrea and Christian as they visit several Vietnamese American restaurateurs to learn about how they envision their own identities within the vibrant food culture...

In this episode, OA contributing editor Diane Roberts travels to Rabun County, Georgia, to visit the campgrounds owned by Lillian Smith, the author of Strange Fruit and Killers of the Dream . Roberts investigates how the environment of the campgrounds shaped Smith, a white activist and writer who worked alongside Martin Luther King, Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, and others to disrupt white supremacy. Th...

In this episode, Marfa Public Radio’s Annie Rosenthal and Points South producer Christian Adam Brown revisit the unusual history found at the sites of OA contributor Sasha von Oldershausen’s essay, “The Camel Experiment.” Travel to Texas and meet Doug Baum and his Texas Camel Corps, survey the remnants of a mid-19th century military experiment that helped pave the way for the U.S.’s westward expan...

In this episode, OA contributor Logan Scherer returns to a topic that has been his persistent curiosity for nearly a decade: romantic male friendships. Grappling with how to define his own relationship with his best friend, Logan explores the archives and accounts of 19th century men who clasped hands, hugged, shared tears, wrote deeply intimate letters to one another, and shared beds. Logan condu...

Welcome back to Points South ! In this first episode of our third season, OA contributor David Ramsey revisits the Old Regular Baptists of Blackey, Kentucky, to hear the congregation’s distinctive style of singing and preaching. In Old Regular Baptist churches, the human voice is the sole instrument, singing lined-out hymnody, a tradition that began in parish churches in England in the early 1600’...

In this episode of Points South Live , pioneering, transcendental indie folk band The Deer performs songs from their new release The Beautiful Undead live at Long Play Lounge East in Austin, TX. Bandmates Grace Rowland, Michael McLeod, Jesse Dalton, Alan Eckert, and Noah Jeffries join KUTX host Elizabeth McQueen to chat about making music during the pandemic, reconnecting with live audiences, and...

In this episode of Points South Live , musician and songwriter Jenn Wasner performs songs from her newest release Head of Roses: Phantom Limb live at 21c Durham Museum and Hotel. Painter and collagist Clarence Heyward joins Wasner and OA Editor Danielle A. Jackson to chat about the influence Durham has had on their work, finding inspiration in lived experiences, and different approaches to creativ...

In this episode of Points South Live , country songwriter, singer, and memoirist Margo Price plays live from 21c Nashville Museum and Hotel. Innovative multimedia painter Jodi Hays joins Price in conversation with OA Guest Editor Alice Randall , author of Black Bottom Saints , to chat about Nashville, creating while female, and turning the hard into art.  Points South Live is a series of live even...

In this episode of Points South Live , blues guitarist, songwriter, and singer Buffalo Nichols plays live from 21c Bentonville Museum and Hotel. Multimedia visual artist Oluwatobi Adewumi joins Nichols and University of Arkansas Black Student Caucus spokesperson Tyrah Jackson to chat about the blues, negotiating arts industries, and the Black diaspora.  Watch a bonus interview with Oluwatobi on ou...

THE PROLOGUE The 1898 Wilmington Massacre was a violent attack on the city's thriving African American community, one of a series of coups that took place after the Civil War. Through interviews with local historians, OA contributor KaToya Ellis Fleming investigates the backlash to Wilmington's Black leadership and the legacy of the Wilmington Massacre. IN SESSION A performance by American folk du...

THE PROLOGUE OA contributor Tess Taylor examines the world of Virginian poet Anne Spencer, contextualizing her activism and artistic output within her rich domestic life. Plus: A special broadcast from the Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum, Inc. Archives.   IN SESSION A performance by Richmond native and singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus from the 30A Songwriters Festival. Dacus’s latest album, Home...

THE PROLOGUE OA contributor Michelle García investigates the history of the U.S.–Mexico border and the violent response to Black Lives Matter protests in the Rio Grande Valley. IN SESSION A performance by Nashville-based singer-songwriter Adia Victoria from the 30A Songwriters Festival. Victoria’s latest album, A Southern Gothic , is available now.

The 22nd anniversary Oxford American music issue, guest edited by Brittany Howard, is shipping to OA subscribers now and is available at OxfordAmericanGoods.org . It hits newsstands nationwide December 1.  Brittany Howard ’s latest album Jaime and single Jaime (The Remixes) are available now.

In this episode of Points South Live , 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 . Points South Live is a collaboration between Oxford American and Fayetteville Roots that features live music recorded pre-COVID. We’ll be releasing several of thes...

In our first episode of Points South Live , pop string band Front Country plays live from BlakeSt in Bentonville, Arkansas, and chats with Bryan Hembree (Smokey and the Mirror), co-founder of the Fayetteville Roots Festival .  Points South Live is a collaboration between Oxford American and Fayetteville Roots that features live music recorded pre-COVID. We’ll be releasing several of these performa...