Oxford American # 111, Winter 2020

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
A 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
A poem by Nomi Stone

The Missing Black Notes
Harmony Holiday on Florence Price

Quare
A Poem by L. Lamar Wilson

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
A 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