Points South Oxford American

Join host Sara A. Lewis and OA contributor Emily Gogolak in conversation about Dilley, Texas, the small town that houses the largest immigration detention center in the country. This segment features interviews from Gogolak’s reporting, in which she investigates Dilley’s oil, smuggling, and confinement economies. Plus: Lavinia Jones Wright reads from her West Virginia reverie “Skyline Drive,” and Parker Millsap plays two songs from his latest record, Other Arrangements, live from the OA office.

National Book Award-winner Sarah M. Broom In Conversation about her memoir The Yellow House. Also: two stories of desegregation—one in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and one in Little Rock, Arkansas—help us confront how we remember our past. In this installment of The Prologue, authors Jerry Mitchell and William Sturkey, along with members of the Southern Miss community, discuss the legacy of Clyde Kennard, the first African American to attempt the desegregation of then-Mississippi Southern College. Later, a special performance from No Tears Suite, a jazz composition commissioned by the OA to commemorate the Central High Crisis.

Introducing the 21st annual Southern Music Issue, featuring South Carolina! The editors take you behind the scenes to reveal their favorite songs and stories from this year’s music issue. Plus: Deputy Editor Maxwell George discusses Shovels & Rope with David Ramsey and reveals his Top 5 moments from the annual music issue.

Ruth Coker Burks, Arkansas’s “cemetery angel,” provided end-of-life care for patients with AIDS in Hot Springs during the height of the AIDS crisis and buried their remains in her family’s cemetery. Later, MC Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger reads “Three Encounters” by John Jeremiah Sullivan. Plus: Los Texmaniacs perform live from the Fayetteville Roots Festival.

Julian Rankin paddles out to Horn Island to understand its importance to Walter Anderson’s life and art. Later, author Mary Miller discusses her novel Biloxi. Plus: John Paul White performs from The Hurting Kind live from the Oxford American stage.

In the premiere episode of Points South, Ken Burns and Rhiannon Giddens discuss the legibility of African and African-American contributions to country music—from the Carter Family to Lil Nas X—and how that influence has been erased in the American consciousness. Later, filmmakers Julie Dunfey and Ken Burns on the soundscape of their PBS documentary Country Music. Plus: Dom Flemons performs from Black Cowboys live from the Oxford American stage.