Photo Essay
For the last few years, northward breezes have pushed more water from the Gulf onto the land—breaching marshes, overtopping the banks of bayous, and flooding roadways and people’s yards. Some of the submerged roads are the only ways in and out of narrow bayou-side communities strung along South Louisiana. Louisiana is at the forefront of »
Film
Before cider, there were apples, and the story of how domestic apples came to the South includes unexpected characters and circuitous routes. Flowering plants, called angiosperms, originated in the fossil record at least 120 million years ago, and possibly as early as 170 million years ago. Around 100 million years ago, plants appeared that are »
Essay
Amelia Alvarez was born in Cuba when the island was a Spanish colony. Yet by Amelia’s ninth birthday, her home as she knew it no longer existed. The Cuban War for Independence, which U.S. imperial ambitions turned into the Cuban– Spanish–Puerto Rican–Filipino–American War, brought an end to Cuba’s colonial status as well as Cubans’ hopes »
Poetry
Magnolia mothers, owl eyed girls,fellow forget-me-nots, let’s gather our God-gowns down the golden gallows. We made it to the foreverfantasy where I can’t remember what war we were weaponing to win: For some secretary sex? Some back-handed brother? Some sons & uncles & Grandfatherswho forget we have a heart-dream? An ox-blood song? A maiden name? »
Classroom
These lesson plans were developed through the “Portraits of Climate Change” initative—a collaboration between Southern Cultures, Carolina Public Humanities, and NC Community Colleges. They are designed to assist high school and college instructors interested in using Snapshot: Climate to empower their students to employ the arts and humanities and reflect on climate change in their »
Photo Essay
The Snapshot: Climate issue features more than 60 photographs and accompanying short reflections from artists, activists, photojournalists, and scientists to provide a “snapshot” look at climate impacts across the South. As climatologist Angel Hsu writes in the issue’s introduction, we set out with this issue to make the “invisible visible,” “using images and words from the »
Poetry
Dear Remnant of my Amen, All of these hours are swinging open,doors you will never walk through. Dear Progeny of my Exhale, So be this exile from the State; return againon virtue of your breath if it be at all an option, if not— Dear Son of »
Essay
“We all struggle with interior storms in these challenging times. Strength lies in action and solidarity.” This extraordinary Snapshot: Climate issue marks the beginning of a year and more of contemplation—and celebration—of the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of Southern Cultures and the Center for the Study of the American South in 1993. The issue’s »
Memoir
I have lived on a small farm in southern Vermont for the last thirteen years. One year, it simply did not snow, and the low-grade environmental anxiety I’d been swallowing blossomed into something ferocious, blocking my imaginative impulse. I felt as though I couldn’t write fiction anymore. I poured my energy into becoming an environmental »
Memoir
I misspent my youth wandering the mountains of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, spending as much time as I could on long camping trips into the backwoods. It was there that I found where my internal compass pointed, namely, toward a longing to understand how the earth and its environment worked, why and how »
Essay
“Compassion and action for the planet cannot exist without compassion and action for the people on it.” While visiting Sarasota, Florida, my husband agreed to join me in doing something I absolutely LOVE and completely unrelated to work—foot massages. We found a quaint little spot in a quiet retirement community. It wasn’t overly glamourous—average size »
Interview
Katharine Hayhoe is the Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy. She is also Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law in the Public Administration program of the Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University. Hayhoe has published over 125 peer-reviewed abstracts and publications and coauthored Downscaling Techniques for High-Resolution »