Southern Cultures

A multicultural, interdisciplinary panorama of past and contemporary southern society are captured in "Bridging Southern Culture" by some of the South's leading historians, anthropologists, literary critics, musicologists, and folklorists. Using the best of recent scholarship, this collection demonstrates a revitalized energy in southern studies. A showcase of preeminent southern intellectuals, this book is is a heady mix of observations that draw new connections between eras, groups, races, and subregions. Lowe and his peers present a timely assessment of the state of southern studies in the twenty-first century.

The Winter 2014 Issue brings us duels and Dashboard Poets, eels and faux villages, a beloved television icon, interviews with liberal hero Walter Mondale and conservative activist Jack Kershaw, Civil War battlefi eld monuments, and more. From familiar faces and famous legends to humble commemorations and invented histories, we explore the tensions between preservation and progress that have forged the region as we know it.

In the Fall 2014 issue of Southern Cultures… From mullet fishing on Brown's Island to shrimping on the Gulf Coast, from recreation on the Great Lakes of the South to coastal tourism in the Sunbelt and tramping in the swampy lowlands of eastern NC, we take a look at tourism's vital role in regional economies and the challenges of conservation and sustainability. Also in this issue, Andrew W. Kahrl examines the Sunbelt's foundation, "plac[ing] the coast at the center of the story and seek[ing] to understand how beaches came to reflect and influence broader changes in the region's cultures and political economy." Christopher J. Manganiello details the rise of dams on the Savannah River, which now block the migration of shad and sturgeon. "What did the shoals look like when the lilies bloomed?" he asks. "And…what would it be like to witness the great shad migrations and fishing parties of the past?" Ian Draves addresses that question by exploring the Tennessee Valley Authority's impact on tourism, and John James Kaiser chronicles the battle over rate hikes and regulated energy from North Carolina's Southern Power Company (now Duke Energy). David Cecelski's annotated photo essay, "An Eye for Mullet," provides witness to Brown's Island Mullet Camp. The photos, taken by Charles Farrell in 1938, reflect a time when fish dealers in Morehead City, N.C., "loaded so many barrels of salt mullet on outbound freight cars that local people referred to the railroad as 'the Old Mullet Line.'" Bernard L. Herman and William Arnett offer another visual take on water through the work of artists including Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, and Thornton Dial Jr. ALSO! Poetry by Patricia Smith; and a short recollection by Bland Simpson on the swamps of his youth.

Personal. Public. Historical. The next issue of Southern Cultures is devoted entirely to Memory. . . . . . Why We Argue So Much About Robert E. Lee . . . Alice Walker, Allan Gurganus, Elizabeth Spencer, Randall Kenan, and More Great Writers on our Favorite Films and What They Make Us Remember . . . Catfish Hunter: Baseball Legend, Small-town God . . . Life and Times: World War II–Era Appalachia . . . Growing Up in Hot Springs, Arkansas . . . New Poetry from Robert Morgan . . . What To Do About the Thomas Ruffin Statue . . . The Interview: "The Grandmother of Appalachian Studies" on the Long Women's Movement

The Special Roots Music Issue features: B.B. King on Bukka White's legacy; The Top Ten Folk Singers of All Time; Bob Dylan backstage in '63 and other rare photographic gems; Swamp bluesman Jimmy Anderson's first published interview in the U.S.; Lynyrd Skynyrd vs. the Allman Brothers; Pete, Peggy, & Mike--and all the rest that Charles Seeger gave to the world of music; Willie Lowery--musician, songwriting sensation, and humanitarian; Saxie Dowell, the great saxophonist and war hero; a sneak peek at NASHVILLE CHROME, the sizzling new novel from Rick Bass; and much more. The Roots Music Issue comes with a classic FREE CD full of great roots musicians, including BUKKA WHITE, ETTA BAKER, THE BYRDS' ROGER MCGUINN, WILLIE LOWERY, IDYLL SWORDS, ALABAMA SLIM & LITTLE FREDDIE KING, JIMMY ANDERSON & THE MOJO BLUES BAND, MICHAEL HURLEY, FILTHYBIRD, MEGAFAUN, PRESTON FULP, JOE BROWN, AND MORE OF THE SOUTH'S BEST ROOTS MUSICIANS—old and new. We'll mail the CD separately to our Roots Music e-book customers at no extra charge. Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South.

Southern Cultures: The Help Special Issue Volume 20: Number 1 – Spring 2014 Table of Contents Front Porch, by Harry L. Watson "Lauded for her endless gifts and selfless generosity, Mammy is summoned from the kitchen to refute the critics of southern race relations; cruelly circumscribed and taken for granted, she silently confirms them all." The Divided Reception of The Help by Suzanne W. Jones The more one examines the reception of The Help, the less one is able to categorize the reception as divided between blacks and whites or academics and general readers or those who have worked as domestics and those who haven't. Black Women's Memories and The Help by Valerie Smith "Cultural products—literary texts, television series, films, music, theatre, etc.—that look back on the Movement tell us at least as much about how contemporary culture views its own racial politics as they do about the past they purport to represent, often conveying the fantasy that the United States has triumphed over and transcended its racial past." "A Stake in the Story": Kathryn Stockett's The Help, Ellen Douglas's Can't Quit You, Baby, and the Politics of Southern Storytelling by Susan V. Donaldson "Like The Help, Can't Quit You, Baby focuses on the layers of habit, antipathy, resentment, suspicion, attachment, and silence linking white employer and black employee, but in ways that are far more unsettling." "We Ain't Doin' Civil Rights": The Life and Times of a Genre, as Told in The Help by Allison Graham "Perhaps because the modern Civil Rights Movement and television news came of age together, the younger medium was destined to become an iconographic feature of the civil rights genre." Every Child Left Behind: Minny's Many Invisible Children in The Help by Kimberly Wallace-Sanders "The question arises: wouldn't the mammy characters be rendered more believable in their altruism if it extended beyond white children to all children?" Kathryn Stockett's Postmodern First Novel by Pearl McHaney "Pleasure and anger are dependent on one another for heightened authenticity. Discussing The Help with delight and outrage seems just the right action." Not Forgotten: Twenty-Five Years Out from Telling Memories Conversations Between Mary Yelling and Susan Tucker compiled and introduced by Susan Tucker "I am glad she used what the women told us and made something different from it. She made people listen. I know it is fiction, and I know not everyone liked it, but she made people not forget. What more can you want?" Mason-Dixon Lines Prayer for My Children poetry by Kate Daniels About the Contributors Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South.

In this special Southern Lives issue: * Billy Carter dresses for all occasions. * Virginia Foster Durr opens her home to recently released inmates. * Michael McFee tours the Billy Graham Library. * Septima Poinsette Clark celebrates fellow Civil Rights pioneers. * Albert Murray goes on the record about Ralph Ellison's style. * Margaret Walker Alexander reveals her takes on Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker. ... and much more. Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South.

The Music Issue enhanced eBook include all the tracks on our special CD and: The tell-all letter from a teenage girl who kissed—and kissed—Elvis Presley How corruption and greed made the Jacksonville music scene Gretchen Wilson, country music's "Redneck Woman" The invaluable social spaces of African American record stores Bobby Rush, "bluesman-plus" Where Opryland resides in hearts, minds, and souls Backstage with the Avett Brothers, Doc Watson, Tift Merritt, Southern Culture on the Skids, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Johnny Cash, and more great artists. This enhanced eBook also contains Loving, Leaving, Liquor, and the Lord, which is packed with tracks from the Avett Brothers, Doc and Merle Watson, Archers of Loaf, and many more amazing Southern musicians--old and new. Southern Cultures is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center for the Study of the American South.