Scalawag – Reckoning with the South

Getting 'Candid' with rapper Ivy Sole

The artist discusses the impetus behind their latest record—and why the struggle to get free requires more than music and dope visuals.

Ivy Sole's latest record 'Candid' acknowledges hard truths: making peace with the double-edged sword of trying to live ethically while extending empathy to people who've hurt you.

by Taylor Hosking May 10, 2022May 10, 2022

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Southern politics

In Texas' most populated counties, people-power and political power go hand-in-hand

'Our counties are as big as battleground states. If we win something, 4 million people instantly get to take advantage.'

Texas Organizing Project rallies its 285,000 members to keep momentum with some 6 million voters in the state's most populated counties between election cycles.

by Anoa Changa

Florida's problems—and their solutions—are a bellwether for the South at large

'When you're seeing direct racial or racist intent on the part of someone who's in political power, it's your job to step up and take power back.'

Florida Rising is empowering organizers and redirecting resources to address government failings and shift the balance of power across the state.

by Anoa Changa

How millennial and Gen Z organizers are moving Mississippi beyond Jim Crow

'If we're asking folks to be in the field for five hours a day, we're making sure they're still taken care of after the election. We don't just drop out after Mike Espy doesn't win.'

Mississippi Votes invests in year-round community-building to build momentum for long-term political change.

by Anoa Changa

'This plan is a lie.' How biogas could do more harm than good for the hog industry

Eastern North Carolina residents, researchers, and farmers say the rapidly-growing energy sector distracts from the state's massive hog waste problem.

Energy utilities have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into a waste management system they say could turn hog industry problems into profits.

by Cameron Oglesby

'Justifiable police homicide' and the ruse of American justice

"That's the way it's designed for Black and brown people. If they could, they would put us back in chattel slavery."

Samaria Rice, Da'Shaun Harrison, and Joy James critique legal studies and discuss the violence of the state in the wake of the U.S. Department of Justice's refusal to reopen investigation into the murder of Tamir Rice.

by Da'Shaun Harrison, Joy James and Samaria Rice

Arts & Soul

Treva Lindsay and Melissa Harris-Perry on misogynoir, poverty, and violence

'America Goddam: Violence, Black Women, and the Struggle for Justice' equips Black women with knowledge to protect themselves and each other from America's violence.

Durham's Rofhiwa Book Cafe hosted Melissa Harris-Perry in conversation with the author about the violence perpetrated against Black women in the South and across the nation.

by Courtney Napier

Poetry & Playlists, Mix 04: Alive & Full

Poems by Faylita Hicks, Victoria Newton Ford, and Kiki Nicole take center stage in our last installment of Poetry & Playlists, curated by Lambda Literary Award Finalist Aurielle Marie.

by Aurielle Lucier

Poetry & Playlists, Mix 03: The Spaces Between

Poetry from Ebony Stewart, Ariana Brown, Óscar Moisés Díaz. From page, to stage, to stars, these Southern poets, performers, and astrologers force us to reckon with the spaces between us for this installment of Poetry & Playlists.

by mónica teresa ortiz

Poetry & Playlists, Mix 02: Rituals

This week's poems confront a generation's exhaustion with belief systems that don't know what to make of our bodies: Black bodies, Queer bodies, Stolen bodies, Hungry bodies. Poetry from Aldo Amparán, Ra Malika Imhotep, and W.J. Lofton.

by Alysia Nicole Harris

Poetry & Playlists, Mix 01: The Intro

Poems by Scalawag resident poets Aurielle Marie, mónica teresa ortiz, and Alysia Nicole Harris.

Scalawag kicks off National Poetry Month with the first installment of Poetry & Playlists, featuring new poems by ATL's Aurielle Marie, Texas-based necropoet mónica teresa ortiz, and Scalawag arts & soul editor Alysia Nicole Harris.

by Scalawag Editors

Race & Place

in Grief

'To live in the world as Dead is to breathe life into a world that seeks to dispose of you.'

For black folks in an antiblack world, it's impossible to ever truly heal from intergenerational trauma, Da'Shaun Harrison writes.

by Da'Shaun Harrison

Incarcerated Muslims in Florida celebrated Eid with limited accommodations

Prison restrictions over food, fasting and, prayer create challenges for Muslims observing Ramadan.

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims worldwide participate in ritual fasting and communal celebrations. The 10,000 Muslims incarcerated in Florida's prisons struggle to do so under discriminatory accommodations.

by Anthony Cobb and Khawla Nakua

'Left to hold my grief alone.' Grieving platonic love in a culture of romantic domination.

How do we mourn friendship and community when romance inevitably wins out?

When society places undue importance on romantic relationships, unpartnered people—and other kinds of love—are shunned to the margins.

by Sherronda J. Brown

Bilingual in sarcasm y solidaridad

Meet Eva Arreguin, the 28-year-old Tejana host of Dallas-based De Colores Radio.

The independent Latinx podcast covering everything from art to anti-Blackness, music to voting, and queer identities to white supremacy, with dry wit and sarcastic humor.

by Alex Temblador

How Louisville photographers are keeping Breonna Taylor in focus

Six decades of protest portraits show why we need abolition to end police violence.

It's been two years since Breonna Taylor was killed by police. In her honor, Louisville photographers continue to capture state violence, calling for accountability and the end of militarized policing—at home and around…

by Anna Blake

Long reads

Songs for a South underwater

Deep Blues: The music that carried folks through the Great Flood of 1927 to today.

by Sergio Lopez

Without paid leave, the South's COVID school policies cause a terrible trickle down for families

Schools are at the epicenter of local and state COVID-19 protocols, using families—and children—as political bargaining chips.

by Rainesford Stauffer

The Black opera that stunned America's most segregated stage

Over 180 years after New Orleans' first Black performances, composer Terence Blanchard's 'Fire Shut Up In My Bones' is a breakthrough that's long overdue.

by Frances Madeson

Florida's legacy of slow-rolling parole keeps thousands of people behind bars—some, for decades past their eligibility date

As most states eased prison release rules during the pandemic, Florida granted parole for just one percent of nearly 4,000 eligible people. The state's for-profit prisons reaped the benefit.

by Justin Garcia