Salvation South

We welcome the renowned music writer Don McLeese to Salvation South with a story about the biggest legend in the history of Southern music.

O.N. Pruitt was the “picture man” where journalist Berkley Hudson grew up. Pruitt’s photographs helped Hudson understand the state he ran away from — and the state that drew him back.

She keeps the murex shell she found on the beach 63 years ago after Hurricane Donna ravaged her island home, and at her house, hurricane season never ends.

Growing up Black in a small Georgia town was hard enough. But Miriam Delaney Heard also had to break the chains of the religion she was raised in. Her salvation came from writing her own story.

Jim Crow dumped its worst on Lonnie Holley. But his globally recognized music and art prove how beautifully he survived the belly of that beast. Just don’t call him an “outsider.”

Sometimes, we need a talisman to remind us of the difference between who we used to be and who we are now. In Rachel Martin’s house, it’s a log. A very particular log.

Imagine you plopped a crazy 1950s New York School poet down into a 21st century Saturday night in Durham. It’d be dirty, you know, in that good way.

After a youth full of pain, the Alabama musician and artist creates joyous works that help us understand our region.

A South Carolina mother wrestles with the legacy she’ll leave her four children. Because the real truth about faith, politics and shifting values is complicated.

Atlanta journalist Jim Auchmutey interviewed President Carter many times during his career. The most memorable happened 17 years ago in Jimmy and Rosalynn’s kitchen.

As cooked in the Plains, Georgia, kitchen of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter in 2006.

A Georgia poet moves furiously up and down our hills, into our winter winds and through the baskets of various apples laid out at picking time.