A Curated Ode to the South

The South and all of its deep complexities and contradictions have always fascinated and inspired me. When I was younger, this manifested in a fascination with the region’s romanticized antebellum history (unfortunately only the prettier parts, but I was really young, so give me a break). As I matured and learned the full ugly history as well, my interests began to manifest into an obsession of attempting to understand all the different subcultures of the South and how history has impacted where we all are today. 

The South is constantly blanket stereotyped and bucketed together by the rest of the country and world. When, in reality, it is almost impossible to find broad commonalities across the region. Like the rest of the world, there are many dividers in southern culture. There is, of course, rural vs. urban, but it does not stop there. New Orleans, a fascinating beautiful city, is starkly different than Atlanta, Nashville, or Charleston. Each of these cities has its own unique cultures and strong identities. Similarly, the rural cultures of Appalachian East Tennessee and Western North Carolina look utterly different from those in the Louisiana Bayou or Carolina Low Country. The religions, work, and ways they are dealing with issues of race, urbanism, and the opioid crisis are all different. However, though I have outlined all of these differences and stated that the region is much more complicated than one assumes, there is still something that ties everything together, something that makes it all southern. I am not sure if it is the mindset, grit, mannerisms, or frame-of-mind that create this southern identity, probably a combination of them all, but it is there, it exists, and it is something you just feel. This southernism comes through in people, music, photographs, paintings, craftsmanship, novels, short stories, poetry, and place. It is these things that create the images of the South and what it means to be southern.