Encountering COVID
Michelle Fishburne and her dog Buddy outside of their RV. White Sands National Park, New Mexico. February 2021. Photograph courtesy of author. Southern Spaces: Oh, here's Michelle now. Are you...
Reckoning with Enslavement
Excerpt Georgetown, April 2017 It was early morning when I crossed the Francis Scott Key Bridge from Virginia into Georgetown. College spires loomed in the distance, gray in the dawn...
Memphis by Hand: Creative Small-Business Advertising
Photo Essay Map of Memphis Neighborhoods (Base Map Data: US Census Bureau) Photographer's Statement While I didn't seek out hand-painted signs, I noticed their emergence as a pattern in my...
Burning bright, Tysons Corner, Virginia, 2009
Black Lives at Arlington National Cemetery: From Slavery to Segregation
Essay The tours that I lead at Arlington National Cemetery begin here. We are standing in Section 27, a location in the northeastern corner of the cemetery bordered by the...
Naming Each Place
Readings Jericho Brown reads the poem "Like Father." Poem text Jericho Brown reads "Prayer of the Backhanded." Poem text Jericho Brown reads the poem "Scarecrow." Poem text Jericho Brown reads...
Petrochemical America, Petrochemical Addiction
Introduction by Emma Lirette Saltwater Intrusion, Chauvin, Louisiana, 2013. Photograph by Kurt Lirette. Courtesy of photographer. Growing up in Louisiana meant growing up with the men in my family intermittently...
Hurricane Helene Visits Marshall, North Carolina
Thursday, September 26, 2024 In Marshall talking with Joel and Josh. Very real concerns about the river, which is at ten feet, fierce, and rapidly rising. The island is already...
The Poetics of Rescue and Resilience: A Conversation with Jericho Brown on The Selected Shepherd
Introduction: The Selected Shepherd: A “Fair, Just Place” Let us live beyond the here and now by nurturing each other and supporting one another’s works.—Assotto Saint, “Why I Write”1Assotto Saint,...
Stormy Banks and Sweet Rivers: A Sacred Harp Geography
Introduction On a warm Saturday in early summer, a crowd gathers at a white-washed church in rural Alabama. As they begin to sing, a sound rises that is overwhelming in...