Forum Online
New work & commentary
Our guest writers — scholars, poets, essayists, novelists, students, educators — engage with the programming at the Forum and contribute to timely topics and conversations.
May
20
In Memoriam: Randall Kenan
By Margaret "Lou" Brown
August 2020 saw the passing of writer, professor, and Southbound guest organizer Randall Kenan. Celebrated as a Southern writer and as a writer of the South, Kenan was also an extraordinary mentor and teacher to a generation of students, most recently at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Forum’s Lou Brown remembers.
Apr
12
Global Stories, Local Issues: Beading a Belt
By Scarlett Guy
For research, Scarlett Guy recreates her first ever loom piece, made in the Evening Star or Noonday Sun Cherokee basket pattern. Through beading, she attempts to understand the relationship between her cultural identity and craft practices as a Tsalagi, and how that relationship relates to broader Native American/Indigenous crafter experience.
Mar
05
Global Stories, Local Issues: Maybelline Ephemera
By Sophia Ramirez
In this audio story, Sophia Ramirez traces the history behind a piece of buried treasure unearthed in her grandparents’ attic: a 70-year-old tube of metallic green Maybelline eye shadow that once belonged to her great-aunt Isabelle. Listen as three generations of women remember the life of a fashionable, whisky-drinking divorcée living out loud in 1950s Miami.
Jan
22
Global Stories, Local Issues: Storytelling Through Music
By Charlie Keziah
This piece tells a story of Appalachian musical culture through the medium of the bluegrass guitar. As Charlie Keziah explores his own musical heritage, he also validates the action of making — in this case, music — as an essential knowledge-building technique. Follow along as he journeys through the history of bluegrass not with a pen or keyboard, but with his guitar and a pick.
Jan
14
Global Stories, Local Issues: The Cash Register
By Anna Fink
A cash register as old as this one usually comes with a good story. Not surprisingly, this particular object, now a family heirloom, tells a story of possibility and nostalgia. But it also pushes the boundaries of what it means to be a business owner in America, and what we understand the value of a cash register to be.
Dec
07
In Gratitude: Reclaiming Sites of Trauma
By Hannah Jacobs
How can we remember, reclaim, and transform sites of historical violence and trauma? Hannah Jacobs remembers a morning workshop with artists Tift Merritt, Nina Angela Mercer, Anna Schuleit Haber, and Deborah Luster.
Dec
03
In Gratitude: Incarceration & Black Freedom
By Jenny Levine
Jenny Levine remembers an FSP@PPG coffee-shop talk on criminal justice held in conjunction with the exhibit, Visionary Aponte: Art & Black Freedom.
The conversation featured Omisade Burney-Scott, Lynden Harris, Theresa Newman, Tarish Pipkins, and Sherrill Roland.
Nov
10
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