Scalawag – Reckoning with the South

Out of the Shadows: The Queer Life of Artist Beauford Delaney

Revered by Georgia O'Keeffe, James Baldwin, and many more, queer Southern painter Beauford Delaney was almost lost to history. Black arts organizers are recovering his legacy for audiences from Knoxville to Paris.

by Tyra A. Seals

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Southern politics

Contrary to popular belief, healthcare in prison is far from free. Sometimes, it can cost your life.

Seven states in the nation—all in the South—prohibit those in prison from making money yet still charge medical fees. The physical and financial costs can follow incarcerated workers for years.

by Luci Harrell

This couple wants you to know that conjugal visits are only legal in 4 states

Debunking TV fantasies about intimate relationships across prison walls.

There are only four U.S. states that currently allow conjugal visits. Couple Steve Higginbotham and Jordana Rosenfeld discuss the rules strangling intimacy on the inside.

by Steve Higginbotham & Jordana Rosenfeld

Virginia was primed to teach Black history. Then the nation's first anti-critical race theory governor took office.

"I just feel like Black history will be buried even more than it has been."

Governor Glenn Youngkin banned 'divisive' curriculum in Virginia. Students and teachers say 'there's a complete lack of clarity' on what that even means.

by Sonia Rao

Abolition, popular culture, and justice: introducing 'pop justice'

It's time to examine how pop culture warps our understanding of policing and justice—and ultimately stalls overdue calls for abolition.

"We did not come out of the womb abolitionists, but many of us feel born into this work. And as we push back against the prevailing, popular narratives about cops and prisons, we also want to make abolition more accessible."

by Ko Bragg

Q&A: Southern abortion providers on what the media's getting wrong

'How come you can't document the political moment without exploiting someone's trauma?'

A conversation with abortion workers across the South to unpack the performative nature of abortion coverage, share paths toward refocusing the reporting, and explain the intersections between abortion care and abolition work.

by Ko Bragg

Arts & Soul

The abolitionist podcast that reveals how little you know about prison

Teleway 411 offers stories of queer and trans folks navigating love, identity, fear, mental illness, grief, and self-acceptance on the inside.

For something realer than any episode of Orange is the New Black, check out Teleway 411, a new podcast on queer life in prison from A.B.O. Comix.

by Alysia Nicole Harris

'I don't want people to judge me by the music that I rap.' How RICO threatens freedom of speech

"can't get on B.S. cause I'm tryna go home, but ain't nobody talking bout that"

From inside a Mississippi prison, Lil Mobb shares new songs and a desire to not be judged by the music he raps.

by Lil Mobb

'Impact of an Icon': Grieving Young Dolph in South Memphis

'There's a Dolph lyric for every situation.'

Up and coming rapper South Memphis Babyface reflects on losing Young Dolph, "somebody I looked up to, somebody that inspired the world."

by Dorian Record

Hooked on Copaganda: What CoComelon actually teaches kids about police

Showing cop toys and cop futures in their favorite pretend classroom teaches children police are safe when stories from the real world counter this almost daily.

by Bunny McFadden

'I'll never have closure.' What TV gets wrong about having a dad in prison.

"Blame. That's something Law & Order and other police dramas don't talk about."

For the 5 million people with an incarcerated parent, prison dramas depict everything but the hard realities of blame and closure families face.

by Jordan Gass-Pooré

Race & Place

What the history books won't tell you about abolition

The history we learn in schools leaves out the most important thing about abolition: It's possible.

From the Quakers to the Black Panthers to your neighborhood sex workers, as long as there's been police, communities have created their own systems to replace them.

by Gabrielle A. Perry

'An unmanned, evil environment': Ashley Diamond and other trans women on life inside prison

"I learned from what I lived through: We must change the prison complex as a whole."

From understaffing to "the meat show" to the art of pretty-making in prison, trans women share the realities of life inside prison.

by Ashley Diamond

I was on The First 48. Your true-crime obsession is based on lies.

"Executives make loads of money off of grief without the slightest help for the family suffering a loss, just a rerun."

After 12 years of seeing false narratives play out about him on The First 48, Demetrius Buckley calls out true crime for what it really is: exploitation that reruns peoples' worst moments for…

by Demetrius Buckley

'Young people need power.' Southern students on safety, accountability, and what they need from adults

Schooled, part one: The risks of being a Southern student in today's world.

"Do something. Pass legislation. 'Thoughts and prayers' without action to prevent tragedy is faith without works."

by Rainesford Stauffer

Mildred's Mississippi: 'Roll of Thunder' as a love letter home

In work that spans generations, Mildred D. Taylor neither shies away from nor embellishes the Magnolia State's fraught past. Where's her spot in the canon?

Often conspicuously absent from the typical pantheon of writers from Mississippi, Taylor's books are consequential to the story of the state.

by Adria R. Walker