“I’ve been thrown into a life I haven’t chosen.” —Zack Ford speaks with Lee Stinton, who had been legally living in Key West for almost seven years, about his harrowing experiences in Krome Detention Center and his deportation. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/wyoeH

“The music Wednesday makes feels dynamic and untethered to a trend.” —Pulled from the archive in honor of Wednesday’s latest album “Bleeds” out now, Patrick D. McDermott speaks with Karly Hartzman at their 2022 performance in Athens, Georgia. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/4vqXp

#EyesontheSouth | Vanishing Point | Zuri A. Stanback, Sr. Stanback utilizes atmospheric photography to capture local Georgia landmarks in neighborhoods at risk of gentrification. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/lVmlD

Today, we celebrate the birthday of artist Wayne White. Pulled from the archive, Paul Reyes goes “junking” with the renowned landscape painter, whose unique artistic style relies on elements that are “mixed together with a crazy, disciplined joy.” 🔗: https://shorturl.at/d352K

“It’s for everyone, this book. You can go wherever you want. It’s just a place to start.” Christian Leus talks with author Kristina Gaddy and musician @rhiannongiddens.bsky.social about "Go Back and Fetch It," their new book exploring early Black music. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/FZlSn

“Women drown in their own blood, sweat, or tears, wake up as holograms, and no one reads the audit or autopsy.” —Harmony Holiday considers the public scope of a musician's career through Abbey Lincoln’s performance at Yoshi’s jazz venue in California. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/fSyGE

“Many of the booksellers around these shops are calling what they do an act of resistance.” —Vanessa Garcia spotlights the booksellers from independent bookstores across Florida as they work to preserve the freedom to read. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/oNDc7

#EyesontheSouth | Mark Smith Plays On | Kathleen Flynn After meeting Mark “Tuba” Smith as he was evacuating with his sousaphone four days after Hurricane Katrina, Flynn captures his continued musical influence in New Orleans over a span of 20 years. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/NM3JZ

“In a way, all comedy is rebellion.” —William Giraldi analyzes literary comedy and the ethos of the Southern novel in Douglas Glover’s “The South Will Rise at Noon.” This piece appears in our Fall 2025 Arts & Culture Issue, available now. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/XeyvW

“We were barefoot and muddy and tired, but, we confirmed, alive, alive, alive, alive.” —In a 2008 essay, published online for the first time, @jesmimi.bsky.social recalls her family’s survival during Hurricane Katrina. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/wkOT6

#EyesontheSouth | The Coast of Baton Rouge | William Greiner Pulled from the archive, Greiner's photo series “Land’s End” serves as a projection of what Louisiana’s future coastline might look like after another catastrophic storm. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/zQCiK

“The paper’s staff . . . showed the world about the city’s struggle to receive the help they desperately needed.” — @jengolbeck.bsky.social profiles two journalists at the center of the “Times-Picayune” Hurricane Katrina coverage. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/meR6r 📷: @gwenfilosamedia.bsky.social

“Velazquez describes the circuitous information systems of ICE detention as evidence of both incompetence and illegality.” —Zack Ford chronicles the surging detainments by ICE in Key West and gathers local and legal viewpoints on Alligator Alcatraz. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/mcTpw

Issue 130 arrives on newsstands September 2, and we’re previewing it with a feature from Lora Eli Smith. “Gobsmacked!” delves into the mysterious wave of goblin-like creature sightings that emerged following the 2022 Eastern Kentucky floods. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/UDWbu

“To be Southern is a spectrum.” —In an interview surrounding her latest album, “Miss Black America,” which was released today, KIRBY spoke with Francesca T. Royster on her Mississippi hometown, musical lexicon, and Southern identity. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/yX6wO

“I’ve never seen a writer reveal their social biases quite so blatantly.” —Critic @laurenleblanc.bsky.social revisits John Updike’s 2006 review of Robert Polidori’s Hurricane Katrina exhibit at the Met, and points to his detachment that sparked the conversation. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/TPDaN

“I think what is missing from a lot of music these days is that people don’t read books.” OA Editor-in-Chief Sara A. Lewis speaks with @missmargoprice.bsky.social on the occasion of her fifth studio album “Hard Headed Woman,” which drops August 29. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/9fegh

“In a city that knows flood, we grow anyway.” —Carl Harrison Jr., co-leader of the St. Roch Community Garden in New Orleans, explores culture and cultivation as key aspects of resilience after Hurricane Katrina. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/ZlNE7

We’re hiring an Advertising Sales Rep to help us close ad deals for our iconic Austin Music Issue. This is a contract role with a $1,500/month base + 25% commission. Must be Austin-based and ready to hit the ground running. Learn more and apply: https://oxfordamerican.org/jobs

#EyesontheSouth | The Katrina Decade | David G. Spielman From the archive: 10 years of New Orleans landscape documentation, resurfaced for the OA's Hurricane Katrina: 20 Years After the Storm retrospective. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/lvQqs

#EyesontheSouth | Katrina Remembered | Clarence Williams Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Clarence Williams documents the impact of Hurricane Katrina as a survivor, intimately detailing the harsh realities faced by communities in New Orleans. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/ny0Yq

“Until now, a high-quality digital rendering of this image has never been published.” —Is this an image of William Faulkner at Mardi Gras in 1925? Gabriela Tully Claymore discusses his time in New Orleans and arguments on both sides of the debate. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/YIbXr

“So here we are, twenty years on, still living in the divide.” —Monica Sanders introduces the OA’s Hurricane Katrina: 20 Years After the Storm retrospective by reflecting on resilience. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/igX1p 📷: Clarence Williams

“. . .the Rosenbaum House is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s lesser-known masterpieces, but a masterpiece nonetheless.” —In a feature article from @burnaway, @whitwash.bsky.social details the Rosenbaum House, the first design in Wright’s Usonian style. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/KKQig

“I’m inclined to say the man looked Biblical, but that’s probably because his name was Nimrod Workman.” —Nathan Salsburg recalls his first encounter with the singer, coal miner, and activist and the @appalshop.bsky.social-produced film that captured his life. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/12AXO

#EyesontheSouth | Water Damage like Celluloid | Gabrielle Garcia Steib Steib resurfaces archival family photographs warped by the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina to create “. . .a portrait of loss and survival.” 🔗: https://shorturl.at/QcXXr

“People were disappearing everywhere.” —Zack Ford details the aftermath of the July 8 decision by the Key West City Commission to allow the local police force to assist with ICE arrests, revoking the city’s sanctuary status. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/4dmh0

“I got a flashlight, went back later that evening when I could, and started digging through the rubble.” —Ronnie Fredericks, who saved Banksy’s “Boy on a Life Preserver Swing,” featured in a piece by Ivy Knight on the work’s rescue and restoration. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/evHFr

#EyesontheSouth | Selected Suburbia | Katie Clark By capturing fleeting suburban life on the outskirts of New Orleans, Clark demonstrates the importance of living in the moment. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/FuwKH

“Of Arkansas’s forty-seven rural hospitals, thirty are at risk of closing because of insufficient funding.” —Caroline McCoy speaks with the community health advocates stepping up for new and expectant mothers in a time when obstetric care is dwindling. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/OPv21

“I remember the silence. How the people waited for help that never came.” —Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi weaves Louisiana and the Niger Delta together to examine humanity’s resilience in the aftermath of extreme weather disasters. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/XC2qh

#EyesontheSouth | Restore the Night Sky | Marni Shindelman Shindelman captures long-exposure images that uncover the impact of ICE detention centers on the rural communities in which they inhabit. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/Njyib

#EyesontheSouth | Three Photographic Surveys | Kentucky Documentary Photographic Project Compare Kentucky in the Depression era to the state anew in this “visual tone poem” spanning ninety years. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/MZ86o

Introducing the Arts & Culture Issue! The Fall 2025 Issue will think expansively about the arts and culture that define and disturb our ideas of the South and Southerness. Pre-order now for August delivery and find it on newsstands on September 2nd. www.oxfordamericangoods.org/products/iss...

“Her sweet clear twang, in harmony with the others, hit like sunshine.” —After discovering recordings made by her little-known gospel-singing grandmother, Ella Hanshaw, Kelly Kerney worked to preserve and share them for the very first time. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/3HFZv

“The fact that the murals are open, accessible, unguarded is part of what gives them their power.” —In a feature article from @burnaway.org, Daniel Fuller examines the importance of setting for John T. Biggers’s murals. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/MPt8o

#EyesontheSouth | On Contentious Ground | Vann Thomas Powell Visiting the sites of the American Civil War over 160 years later, Powell captures its, “. . . lasting impact on individuals, families, and landscapes.” 🔗: https://shorturl.at/omclv

“The Appalshop-produced 1987 documentary Long Journey Home became one of the bookends to the . . . reflections about Appalachia.” —William H. Turner reflects on the film’s articulation of diverse Appalachian stories as part of a collab with @appalshop.bsky.social. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/SL5OB

Our hearts are heavy for our friends and neighbors in Texas impacted by the devastating flooding. From now until Saturday, July 12, we will donate $5 from every Music Issue sold to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund.

“How you tell a story, and what parts you tell, matters.”–In “Chosen History” from Issue 105, @mychaldenzelsmith.bsky.social‬ takes notes on the state of Virginia. Read the full essay: https://shorturl.at/2iA3n Art: “Jefferson,” by Maxine Helfman

Eyes On The South | Thirteen Colonies | Keith Yahrling https://oxfordamerican.org/eyes/thirteen-colonies A study of battle sites from the Revolutionary War across the original thirteen colonies & how the concepts of freedom and liberty are subtly embedded in the American landscape.

“It would have took . . . a five minute phone call, and they would have probably backed out of that site real quick.” —Jack Wells with River South Rural Water District on the lack of planning for the proposed 3,000-bed Franklin County prison. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/0yiGA

#EyesontheSouth | Pure Oil | @kccornell.bsky.social Lafayette-based photographer Kristie Cornell documents the impact of neglect and illegal dumping on Louisiana’s Coastal Prairie. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/pdafM

We are seeking submissions for our just-announced 27th Annual Southern Music Issue, focused on Austin, TX! Learn more and submit your work before July 21st: OxfordAmerican.org/Submissions

“Wonderland’s performance at the Windgate Center was proof alone of the experiential impact of live performances.” —‪@carolynwonderland.bsky.social and her bandmates performed in Conway, Arkansas, this past Sunday to announce the OA’s 2025 Austin Music Issue. 🔗: https://shorturl.at/Y4YcZ

Check it out! MFA candidate Christopher C. Fisher’s project “The Body Politic” is featured in Oxford American’s #EyesontheSouth series! (@oxfordamerican.bsky.social) Find the full narrative here: oxfordamerican.org/eyes/the-bod.... #Documentary #Photography #Photo #Storytelling #OxfordAmerican

🎶 Just announced: The 27th Oxford American Southern Music Issue will spotlight Austin, TX! From juke joints to the iconic Austin City Limits studio, we’re celebrating the city’s rich musical legacy—with a limited-edition vinyl LP to match! oxfordamericangoods.org/products/iss...

"And where there is a Dollar General, there often is little else, which, for certain communities, makes shopping and working there feel less like a choice and more like the only option available." @kjfernelius.bsky.social @oxfordamerican.bsky.social oxfordamerican.org/magazine/iss...

The magnificent Carolyn Wonderland put on a master class in Conway Arkansas tonight @oxfordamerican.bsky.social @carolynwonderland.bsky.social #blues #musicsky

“Late June and there’s a shortage/of air traffic controllers//in the Mid-Atlantic” —‪‪an excerpt from @edgarkunz.bsky.social’s “Real Money,” a poem from the Spring 2023 issue. https://shorturl.at/ICbqE Art: Apocalypse III, 2020, by Miguel Rothschild