If You Would Know Us

The Prologue

In this special episode, poet Tess Taylor reflects on the rich and naturalistic poetry of Virginian Anne Spencer. We're honored to partner with the Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum, Inc. Archives on this segment, which marks the first time listeners can hear Anne Spencer's voice outside of the museum's archives. Spencer’s work offers glimpses into the warm refuge she cultivated for black writers and innovators in the South.

In Session

A performance by Richmond native and singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus from the 30A Songwriters Festival. Dacus’s latest album, Home Video, is available now.

The Prologue

Texas journalist Michelle García investigates the history of the U.S.–Mexico border and the violent response to Black Lives Matter protests in the Rio Grande Valley.

Photo by Joe Yates via Unsplash

In Session

A performance by Adia Victoria from the 30A Songwriter’s Festival.
Photo by Huy Nguyen

In Conversation

Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Brittany Howard (Alabama Shakes) joins managing editor Danielle A. Jackson in conversation for the OA’s 22nd anniversary music issue, guest edited by Howard.

This Greatest Hits music issue is available at OxfordAmericanGoods.org and hits newsstands nationwide December 1. Brittany Howard’s latest album Jaime and single Jaime (The Remixes) are available now.

In Session

`Milwaukee-based folk band Dead Horses performs at BlakeSt in Bentonville, Arkansas and chats with Bryan and Bernice Hembree (Smokey and the Mirror), co-founders of the Fayetteville Roots Festival.

Dead Horses is Sarah Vos (vocals, guitar), Daniel Wolff (upright bass, vocals), and James Gallagher (percussion). Their latest EP, Birds, is available now.

In Conversation

Emily Gogolak investigates Dilley, Texas, home to the largest immigration detention center in the country. Featuring interviews recorded for Gogolak’s essay “An Intersection at the End of America” from our Spring 2020 issue, available now. Emily Gogolak’s reporting was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

In Adaptation

Lavinia Jones Wright reads from “Skyline Drive,” a memoir of driving the scenic byway her grandfather helped build in the 1930s.

Composed and Co-Produced by Trey Pollard of Spacebomb

In Session

A performance by Gospel Rocker Parker Millsap.

Magazine Feature

Julian Rankin, director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, visits the artist’s sacred place, an island off the coast of Mississippi, and meditates on the conditions that influenced Anderson’s art.

Read Julian Rankin’s essay “Sacred Place” from the Fall 2019 issue.

In Conversation

Mary Miller, author of Biloxi.

In Session

A performance by John Paul White.

The Prologue

Known as Arkansas’s “cemetery angel,” Ruth Coker Burks provided end-of-life care for patients with AIDS in Hot Springs during the height of the crisis and buried their remains in her family’s cemetery.

In Adaptation

“Three Encounters” by John Jeremiah Sullivan.
Performed by MC Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger.

Produced by Spacebomb and Maxwell George

In Session

A Fayetteville Roots Festival performance by Los Texmaniacs.

The Prologue

Ken Burns and Rhiannon Giddens discuss the legibility of African and African-American contributions to country music—from the Carter Family to Lil Nas X—and how that influence has been erased in the American consciousness.

Featuring Ken Burns, Rhiannon Giddens, and Julie Dunfey

In Conversation

Documentarians Julie Dunfey and Ken Burns on the soundscape of Country Music.

In Session

Dom Flemons performs from Black Cowboys live from the Oxford American stage

Editors' Roundtable

OA Editors discuss the upcoming South Carolina Music Issue and share their favorite stories and behind-the-scenes moments. Plus: A preview of the issue’s tracklist.

Featuring Eliza Borné, Maxwell George, Jay Jennings, and Hannah Saulters.

In Conversation

Deputy Editor Maxwell George with OA contributor David Ramsey.

Read David Ramsey’s essay “Like a Shovel and a Rope”.

Top 5

Maxwell George shares his favorite Southern Music Issue moments.

Points South Live

In our first episode of Points South Live, pop string band Front Country plays live from BlakeSt in Bentonville, Arkansas, and chats with Bryan Hembree (Smokey & The Mirror), co-founder of the Fayetteville Roots Festival.

Front Country is Melody Walker (vocals, guitar, percussion), Jacob Groopman (guitar, resophonic guitar, mandolin, vocals), Adam Roszkiewicz (mandolin, banjo, vocals), and P.J. George (bass). Their latest single, “The Reckoning,” is available now.

The Prologue

The story of Clyde Kennard, the first person to attempt desegregation at the University of Southern Mississippi.

In Conversation

Sarah M. Broom, National Book Award-winning author of The Yellow House

In Session

A performance from the No Tears Suite, an original jazz composition commissioned by the OA to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the desegregation crisis at Little Rock’s Central High School.

Featuring Kelley Hurt, Chris Parker, Brian Blade, Bill Huntington, Bobby LaVell, Marc Franklin, and Chad Fowler.