Celebrate 30 years of the OA.
With original work from Imani Perry, Kristen Arnett, Diane Roberts, and so many others, our Spring Issue honors our past and looks into our expansive future.
Magazine
Issue 104, Spring 2019
In the Spring 2019 issue, several contributors confront symbols weighted by history—antebellum architecture, Confederate monuments, the American flag—and their processing is instructive. As Jennifer Ho writes: “I cannot claim to be an American and only claim the parts I like.”
Plus: a striking art portfolio by Trenton Doyle Hancock, introduced by novelist Maurice Carlos Ruffin. Our 2018-19 Jeff Baskin Fellow, Micah Fields, explores industrial Houston. Mesha Maren on LGBTQ identity in her native West Virginia. And the final installment of Chris Offutt’s column “Cooking with Chris.”
Editor’s Letter: Clash of Symbols, by Eliza Borné
Points South
Willie’s Other Voice, by Jonathan Bernstein
Sasha von Oldershausen blows into a camel’s nostril
Rachel Louise Martin on the protectors of Tennessee glades
Flag Code, by Karen Good Marable
Local Fare: Oaxaca Wreck, by John T. Edge
Features
PERFORMING ARTS
a story by Susan Choi
GUSHER
A personal portrait of oil-stained Houston
by Micah Fields
A SLENDER WAGE
a story by Kevin Wilson
Omnivore
THE HOUSE OF MYTH
On the architecture of white supremacy
by C. Morgan Babst
VESSEL OF ANTIQUITY
Influence, invention, and the legacy of Leon Redbone
by Megan Pugh
Cooking with Chris:
SALT AND PREPPER
by Chris Offutt
Art by Jhuma Das, Peyton Fulford, Jonathan Traviesa, Tommy Kha, Deana Lawson, Michael Harrington, Nine François, Dominic Lippillo, Thornton Dial Sr., John Langmore, Ilana Panich-Linsman, Meg Elizabeth Ward, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Micah Fields, Milton Carter, Charles Gaines, Carrie Mae Weems, Magdalena Solé, Arthur Usherson, Allison Stewart
Cover: “Awakening” by Jhuma Das | @JDasArt, photographed by Milli Apelgren