Review: One Night in Miami
Media for good trouble.
Liberation lives here.
Southern politics
We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes
We're halfway point through the People's First 100 Days, and neither major political party has shown the will and determination to put people first. This isn't the resistance of champagne liberals. Driving people-powered action while nurturing and growing our ranks will force our issues to be at the forefront.
How a Black and Latinx coalition turned utilities back on in LaGrange
After more than a decade of community organizing and legal wrangling, residents of LaGrange are celebrating a hard-fought lawsuit settlement.
A new administration still leaves Southern abortion funders with political and cultural barriers
President Biden promised to 'undo the damage that Trump has done,' but that work falls on organizers' shoulders.
Student journalists at an HBCU campus newspaper took on racist local media—and won
Our goal was to take control of our own stories and speak life into the narratives we did identify with by holding journalists accountable for misrepresenting the Black experience.
Arts & Soul
This is damn sure not our grandparents' rhythm and blues
How did soulful rhythm and blues get so 'Heartless?' Marcus Dowling shows the evolution from spiritually-saturated and politically-oriented soul music to The Weeknd's Super Bowl success.
Let Black Art Tell It
Through music, art, and literature, these Black Southerners—past and present—are interrogating, re-imagining, and reviving our understanding of Southern survival.
The Color of Freedom: Reimagining portraits of the formerly enslaved
Honoring the people photographed in the 1930s "ex-slave narratives," researcher and documentarian Lee Hedgepeth renders their portraits in color. Part science, part art, colorization allows us to bear deeper witness to their lives—if only in our imaginations.
Behind the scenes in Black Appalachia
Movies like "Hillbilly Elegy" erase the legacy of Black folk in Appalachia. Affrilachian writer Crystal Good shares her experience of the Black folks creating, struggling, and thriving behind the scenes.
Race & Place
'Pure America': Eugenics past and present
Elizabeth Catte wrote the official takedown of J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy, placing it in a tradition of whitewashed poverty porn. In her follow-up, she traces the history and influence of eugenics from her backyard across the country.
Recovery while Black in Appalachia
Racism leads to intergenerational trauma, and some Black folks turn to alcohol and substances to cope. Crystal Good shares her story of addiction and recovery while being Black in Appalachia, and how community, creativity, and trauma therapy redefined the narrative.
Reporter's Notebook: The Power of Proximity
"So many so-called reporters feed stories like this. They get the mugshot from the police department, use officers' account of what happened, scare the public into locking their doors at dusk, rinse, and repeat without blinking, even if the person arrested is a child."
Pauli Murray: Black revolutionary
Black feminist. Legal pioneer. Gender non-conforming. Preacher. Lover of women. What Pauli Murray really did was fight to create the kind of world in which every part of her could live.
Long reads
The media's extractive telling of Appalachia
'Visionary and Pragmatic'—A Black Feminist Guide to Electoral Politics
Knock on Wood: How Europe's wood pellet appetite fuels environmental racism in the South
Court fees and fines make voting near-impossible for ex-felons in Tennessee
Field notes
Essential Reading: Black History and Black Futures
Five Peachy Takeaways: Georgia's grassroots organizing lessons will be valuable in the South for a long time coming
It's time we abolish the Fourth Estate
'A democracy we didn't achieve 50 years ago'
Essays & Letters
Your frontlines lead our headlines.
