Southern Futures

In Part Two, the conversation continues as host Melody Hunter Pillion and bestselling author Tracy Deonn talk Deonn’s novel Legendborn, UNC’s cemetery and its connection to slave history, grief, the mythology of the South, and the cereal boxes whose smells transport us back to the past.

In Part One, host Melody Hunter Pillion and bestselling author Tracy Deonn talk Deonn’s novel Legendborn and the complex and tragic truths in genealogical study, the parallel stories and experiences that can arise on a college campus, and the joy in eating a pineapple popsicle.

In this episode, Sharon P. Holland, Townsend Ludington Distinguished Professor and Chair of American Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, spends time storytelling: when she first knew she would be an academic, writing her first book, being a Black equestrian. She also explains the subject of Critical Ethnic Studies, and it's relevance to our society today.

Diamond Holloman, a PhD Candidate in Environment, Ecology and Energy Program at UNC Chapel Hill, and Jeff Currie, the RiverKeeper of the Lumber River, both work to keep communities at the center of their work in Environmental Justice. In this episode, they discuss their community-led work, and why listening is key to real solutions.

In this episode, María R. Estorino, Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Director of the Wilson Special Collections Library, explains exactly what kind of knowledge the archives provide for the public, and why this work is important today.

Faculty from the American Studies Department at UNC Chapel Hill, Annette Rodríguez and Seth Kotch, both research lynching and public violence. In this episode, we learn more about the history of public violence, and what resonance this history has today.

Assistant professor of Dramatic Arts at UNC, Jacqueline E. Lawton is a playwright, dramaturg, producer, and advocate for access, equity, diversity, and inclusion in the American Theatre. In this episode, she discusses how playwriting and dramaturgy are methods of inclusion, understanding, and visibility.

Southern Futures season 2 launches November 23rd. Reimagine the American South.

Memories from yesterday blend with events of today in this special episode of the Southern Futures Podcast series. Dr. Gloria Thomas (Director of UNC Women's Center) and Danita Mason-Hogans (Oral Historian at Duke Center for Documentary Studies) respond to narratives captured by the Southern Oral History Program--stories of African Americans voting for the first time in the South, during the 1960s, reveal a determination to vote that resonates today.

Mark Little shares plans for combatting economic disparity in North Carolina’s poorest counties, while on the personal level creating strong historical and ancestral foundations for his children. Co-founder of the Black Communities Conference, his work facilitates and fosters community-engaged research partnerships, between universities and communities, in support of Black community life. Little is Executive Director of CREATE, Co-Founder of SmartUp and former Executive Director of the Kenan Institute. He launched NCGrowth, a program that helps North Carolina’s rural and under-served communities grow and retain business, facilitates strategic regional economic development, and researches solutions to pressing energy, environment, and climate related problems. This music composer is also a native North Carolinian with a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics.

It’s hurricane season and that concerns our episode guest, Danielle Purifoy, who looks at the ways extreme weather and other issues impact rural communities in the South. A native of Durham, who worked in Louisiana during Katrina recovery, Purifoy examines how people in varied communities cope with these challenges. Armed with a Ph.D. in environmental politics and a license to practice law, Purifoy’s research traces the roots of contemporary environmental conditions in the U.S. South, specifically in Black towns dating back to the post-Bellum era. An Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, Purifoy writes about the legal dimensions of environmental justice. She is also an editor at Scalawag, a magazine devoted to Southern politics and culture.

From TV newscasts to social media, so much of what we know about current social movements, COVID-19 or other issues is shaped by narratives. Courtney Rivard, a professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the Digital Literacy Communications Lab, demonstrates how compelling stories similarly shaped our perception of the South during the Great Depression. The conversation explores the power of storytelling during times of crisis.

Blues, jazz, country, blue grass, and rockabilly create uniquely American music and they all have roots in the South. Steve Weiss, curator of the Southern Folklife Collection at the Wilson Special Collections Library, looks at how we use music to stand in for traditional mourning rituals during COVID-19 or to protest now and in the past. Steve also reflects on his Cuban roots and the soundtrack of his childhood in Appalachia.

Blair LM Kelley and Malinda Maynor Lowery continue their conversation in this bonus episode, tackling the struggle of discussing racism with children.

Episode 1.2 of Southern Futures: The Podcast features historians from two of North Carolina’s flagship universities — Malinda Maynor Lowery of UNC-Chapel Hill and Blair L. M. Kelley of NC State University — who talk together about the conversations we must have about our past in order to achieve a shared future. Along with podcast host Melody Hunter-Pillion, this episode reckons with the reality of our American South: just as the South is home to some of the nation’s core injustices, it also holds the courage to make change.

Episode 1.1 of Southern Futures: The Podcast features Tyree Day, teaching assistant professor and poet in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill. In this inaugural episode, host Melody Hunter-Pillion and special guest Tyree Day discuss memory, Black family heritage, and the poetry of ordinary life.