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 111, Winter 2020
This year we’re compiling our “greatest hits,” including selections of the most beloved music writing from our archive—guest edited by Brittany Howard, the Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and frontwoman of the Alabama Shakes. This jam-packed issue also includes new essays on iconic Southern artists who have changed the trajectory of American music.
The issue also contains playlists presented by guest contributors that limn the bounty of Southern music across genres. These playlists will be accessible on Spotify.
Editor’s Letter: The South Just Has a Thang, by Brittany Howard
Archive
On the Edge of Diminished Light
Yusef Komunyakaa on Howlin’ Wolf
R.E.M. for the People
Elizabeth Wurtzel on R.E.M.
Nina Is Everywhere I Go
Tiana Clark on Nina Simone
Soul Sensation
Andria Lisle on Ann Peebles
Da Art of Storytellin’ (A Prequel)
Kiese Laymon on OutKast
Is This Home?
Sam Stephenson on Thelonious Monk
Whose Skip James Is This?
Peter Guralnick on Skip James
The Gospel of Jodeci
Lauren Du Graf on Jodeci
If God Had a Name
Jason Kyle Howard on Joan Osborne
Everybody Knows You When You’re Down and Out
Amanda Petrusich on Bessie Smith
Icons
Up Above My Head
Introduction by Danielle A. Jackson
The Godmother of Soul
Rosanne Cash on Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Another Selena Poem
Poem by Iliana Rocha
Ellis at the Crossroads
Gwen Thompkins on Ellis Marsalis
Long-Haired Country Boy
Elizabeth Nelson on Charlie Daniels
Listening to the (Dixie) Chicks After America Invades Iraq, the Year I Came Out
Poem by Nomi Stone
The Missing Black Notes
Harmony Holiday on Florence Price
I Know a Place
Patterson Hood on David Hood
Lingering Could Be Your Doom
David Ramsey on Brother Claude Ely
The Way They Strut
Alice Randall on LaVern Baker
Jessye Norman Cistern Time to Dress for Fall
Poem by Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Oracle of Castalia
Jamey Hatley on Talibah Safiya
Songs
Curated playlists with introductions by Brittany Howard, Kiese Laymon, Taylor Crumpton, Kelsey Waldon, Silas House & Jason Kyle Howard, Rosanne Cash, Cynthia Shearer, Clarissa Brooks, Smithsonian Folkways, and Adia Victoria
Art by Derek Fordjour, Anthony Harrison, Brian Smith, Mike Reddy, Edward Colver, Diana Ejaita, David Scruggs, Janette Beckman, Andres Chaparro, Lawrence N. Shustak, Bernard Gotfryd, Richard A. Chance, Isip Xin, Charles White, Tony Abeyta, Mike Rowe, Travis Boyer, Danny Romeril, Lacy Van Court, Michelle Marchesseault, Aaron Turner, Jason Jägel, Patterson Hood, Mark Cáceres, Garrett Bradley, Kevin Beasley, Martina Attille, Milton Carter, Three Ring Studio
Cover: Sister Rosetta Tharpe in 1957. Photo courtesy Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock Photo