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 109/110, Summer/Fall 2020
Our jam-packed double issue explores the theme of place, an idea as large and unwieldy as our diverse (and disputed) region. This issue is a passionate and essential exploration of the South—from the Ozarks to the coastline to the Delta, from rural communities to urban centers.
Featuring contributions by Minnijean Brown Trickey, Mik Awake, Baynard Woods, Rosalind Bentley, Ansel Elkins, John Lingan, and many others.
Special thanks to the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, the Presenting Sponsor of this issue.
Editor’s Letter: Change and Transformation, by Eliza Borné
Points South
A Lesson in Acceptance, by Bryan Washington
May 1, 2020, a poem by Pauletta Hansel
Ways to Keep Breathing, by Mik Awake
Hoods in My Hymnal, by Rachel Louise Martin
Joyride, by Karen Good Marable
Cara Cara Orange, by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Soil
The Days Are Walking, by Holly Haworth
Back to the Land, by Alice Driver
The Dimming Mystique of Mileston, by W. Ralph Eubanks
Cotton Plant, photographs by Timothy Hursley
Seeds Unbound, an essay by Frederick McKindra
Wood
Underneath the Sweet Gum Tree, by Martin Padgett
A Search, a story by Jayne Anne Phillips
Be for a Blessing, by Carly Berlin
The Silence at Buddy’s House, by John Lingan
Water
The Breaking Point, by Kerry Rose Graning
Because It’s There, by Erik Reece
Hunger for the Water, by Leslie Pariseau
A Ghazal for My Mother, a poem by Vivian Blair Hobbs
Stone
Look for Shape, Look for Shine, by Liam Baranauskas
First Casino on the Moon, a poem by Ansel Elkins
Finding Southern Comfort and The Great Call, by Valerie Boyd
Ex Parvis Magna, by Jamie Quatro
Features
THE BLESSING AND BURDEN OF FOREVER
Notes on home, family, and our ancestral land
by Rosalind Bentley
TRAFFICKING IN TEACHERS Filipino teachers, hired to fill historic shortages in the South and elsewhere, fight their exploitation by opportunistic recruiters
by Rachel Mabe
BITCH BABY a story by Halle Hill
“THIS STORY CANNOT BE TOLD UNLESS WE START FROM THE BEGINNING” A conversation on Black history, sorrow, and protest
by Minnijean Brown Trickey and Crystal Mercer Moderated by Danielle A. Jackson Photographs by Ebony Blevins
POEM FOR AN ELECTION YEAR by Marcus Wicker
Omnivore
RESURRECTION LIKE GREEN APPLE PLASTIC
Maury Gortemiller’s Do the Priest in Different Voices
by Jason Bruner
THE CONDITION OF GRAY ITSELF
Jasper Johns, Edisto Island, and (un)color
by Baynard Woods
Art by Deborah Roberts, Dionne Lee, Esther Pearl Watson, Jessica Fontenot, Jonathan Michael Castillo, Hope Gangloff, Antoine Williams, Haim Alvarez-Correa Brodmeier, Keris Salmon, Hélène Amouzou, Roe Ethridge, Carter/Reddy, John Divola, Matt White, Marion Post Wolcott, Rory Doyle, Timothy Hursley, Susan W. Raines, Johnny Defeo, Bill Aron, John Akomfrah, Jennifer West, John Lusk Hathaway, Jules Buck Jones, Lily Brooks, Caleb Charland, Royal Robertson, Lorna Simpson, Kris Graves, Milton Carter, Camilo Ramirez, Delita Martin, Ron Jude, Devan Shimoyama, Ebony Blevins, Maury Gortemiller, Ugo Mulas, Jasper Johns
Cover: “When you see me” (2019), by Deborah Roberts. Mixed media and collage on canvas. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Collection: Dallas Museum of Art, Texas