Spoon Theory
Morgan DePue on how good memories, childhood trauma, and chronic pain can all rest in the hollow of that wooden spoon you hold in your hand.
Stories
Two Poems by Jesse Breite
An Arkansas native poet brings us pieces that remember an important figure in Southern Black history and that evoke the scorching heat of summer days.
By Jesse Breite with illustrations by Stacy Reece /
“Do You Know About Ernestine Crowell?”
Ernestine Crowell is the self-described “militant Black woman” who rides herd over the 105 members of Alabama’s House of Representatives. She is feared. She is beloved. She is one of a kind.
By Lanier Isom /
Listen to This: Music from the Tennessee Mountains
Norman Blake is a veteran keeper of the Tennessee mountains’ musical traditions. And a young act, the Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, is championing the same heritage.
By Rob Rushin-Knopf /
Music and Principles
Salvation South has lots of music for you this week — and a touching story about an important value: standing by the folks who fought alongside you.
By Chuck Reece /
Repeatedly Almost Famous
In the late 1960s, a soul band called the Chevelles came together in Milledgeville, Georgia. By the time they graduated high school, they already had a hit record and had performed at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theater. But they never got their due. Here’s their story.
By Don Schanche Jr. with research by Evan Leavitt /
Zainullah Zaki Comes to Texas
Salvation South contributor Russell Worth Parker helped write “Always Faithful,” the story of how a U.S. Marine major worked to get his Afghan translator out of the country when it fell last year. Today, the translator is building a new life in Texas with his wife and four children. (With a review of the book by J.A. Dailey)
By Russell Worth Parker /
Making Women Cry
In 2015, novelist Jonathan Odell, a Mississippi native, shared the stage with a legend of Southern literature, Pat Conroy, at Georgia’s Decatur Book Festival. In this lovely remembrance, he recalls how Conroy treated his fans like family.
By Jonathan Odell /
Shouting, Shaking and Loving Like Family
In Salvation South’s story lineup this week, we do a deep dive into the Ring Shout — an essential piece of Southern culture. We throw in some Elvis Presley and Pat Conroy for a bonus.
By Chuck Reece /
Blood Memory
The Ring Shout — an ecstatic and transcendent spiritual dance rooted in West Africa — rose historically through the South as a tool of Black resistance. Today, its cultural significance and power serve the purpose of collective healing and the expression of Black joy.
By Michael J. Solender /
Digging on Willi
Musicians as exciting as Willi Carlisle come along once in a blue moon.
By Chuck Reece /
Willi Carlisle’s Song of Himself
“Salvation.” It’s right there in our name. It’s an elusive state attained via unexpected detours and poorly drawn maps. Willi Carlisle’s second album, “Peculiar, Missouri,” lays bare the peculiar path that this Arkansas man traveled to a place where he can see salvation waiting for him.