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Lessons from a Fig Library
essay by Katy Clune
Our Past
Browse past issues and articles from the last 30 years
Interview
Lessons from a Fig Library
Bernie Herman’s Living Archive on the Eastern Shore
by Katy CluneThe air inside my red and white cooler was still warm from the car and the sun when I opened it on the kitchen counter. I stuck my face inside and inhaled fresh-picked figs from Virginia’s Eastern Shore. They smelled grassy and sweet, of caramel with just a touch of sour. The fruit—grape-sized to large »
Essay
“Pop Stars Don’t Die, They Move to Nashville to Record”
The Alliance Between Country and Pop
by Amanda Marie MartínezIn 1986, singer Dobie Gray released From Where I Stand, an album identified as “country soul.” Because Gray, a Black man, had principally been marketed in pop and R&B, reviewers felt the need to address skepticism he might face about an entry into country music. “When they transition with Gray’s grace, then such moves should be »
Music
What’s Happening in Country Music
by Jocelyn R. NealEach fall, the Country Music Association presents an awards show that it pioneered in 1967, a once-a-year opportunity to celebrate musicians and industry personnel with titles such as Entertainer of the Year and Song of the Year. Celebrating one winner in each category, these awards suggest to audiences that they summarize the state of country »
Music
Don’t Sneak
Lessons from Lavender Country
by Brendan GreavesAlmost exactly two years ago, on October 31, 2022, one month after suffering a stroke on a flight home from Oakland, where he had been performing, Patrick Ambrose Haggerty, the visionary seventy-eight-year-old songwriter, singer, and embodiment of the band Lavender Country, died at his home in Bremerton, Washington. Beside him on both passages was Julius »
Essay
“stay strong”
by Alexis Pauline GumbsDearly Beloveds, I am writing to you across a day I cannot predict. But maybe that is always true. You will receive this on a day shaped by the countless (and possibly still being counted) decisions that came before it. And that has also been true every day before this one. I am writing to you »
Art
Kevin Brisco Jr.: Holding Our Echoes
by Aaron Levi GarveyKevin Brisco Jr. is the cover artist for the forthcoming Home issue (Fall 2024). Brisco’s exhibition It’s My House and I Lived Here is on view at albertz benda Los Angeles, October 4–November 22, 2024. The home, your home, our home, their home, the space which allows many of us to be our true selves »
Photo Essay
Get-Up to Vote
by Kate MedleyElection Day is in the bag. Or dress. Or hat. As final votes are cast and tallied for the 2024 presidential election, photojournalist Kate Medley provides a dispatch from her work across the state of North Carolina covering the long election season, and gives us a glimpse of what’s in fashion across party lines. election »
Essay
Why Is the North Carolina Coast So Haunted?
by Thomas SmithMany places are said to be haunted, houses, inns, forts, hospitals, asylums, and graveyards—definitely graveyards. Any place where tragedy strikes or any place where a terrible injustice has been perpetrated has the potential to become haunted. But how can an entire region like the North Carolina Coast come to be known as haunted? Well, that’s »
Essay
“To Darkness, Fire, and Pain”
Sacred Harp Singing, Ruralness, and the Southern Gothic
by Jonathon M. Smith, SmithOn a late autumn evening in 2005, I drove an hour out of Atlanta to Holly Springs Primitive Baptist Church near Bremen, just a few miles east of the Georgia-Alabama border. The building sits only a few hundred feet from I-20, but the route to the church—about a half-mile past a gas station and through »
Politics
“We’re Going to Wake Up This Sleeping Giant”
Empowering Rural and Low-Income Voters to Reshape North Carolina
by Benjamin BarberNorth Carolina’s rural and low-income voters are expected to have a significant impact on this year’s presidential election, directly challenging the misconception that individuals in rural and low-income areas lack interest in politics or have minimal impact on electoral results. Their increased involvement reflects the efforts of local civic engagement organizations, which actively work with »
Politics
There Has to Be Power
by Sherrilyn Ifill, Errin HainesThe following conversation took place on April 5, 2024, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as part of the thirtieth anniversary celebrations for the Center for the Study of the American South and Southern Cultures, and the launch of the journal’s special issue, The Vote, guest edited by Errin Haines. This conversation »
Photo Essay
Not By Ourselves
Showing Up in Western North Carolina
by Jesse BarberIt’s hard to believe it has been ten days since the storm. During that time, I’ve driven almost one thousand miles getting into communities that were devastated by Hurricane Helene and running supplies to folks. I traveled to Marion, Swannanoa, Hendersonville, Brevard, Rosman, Ashe County, Chimney Rock, and Bat Cave. In the first few days, »
