“Folks started talking about the New South after the Civil War," says Tom Hanchett, staff historian at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, North Carolina. "Where we are now is the newest of the New Souths, the Newcomer South.” Tom speaks about the ever-evolving South, especially as it relates to food, from a booth in El Pulgarcito, a Honduran-Salvadoran-Mexican restaurant in the eastern part of the city.
Special music in this episode courtesy of Charlotte-based band UltimaNota.
Eudora Welty, Jackson, Miss., 1978 by William Ferris
Eudora Welty was one of the South’s most beloved writers, and her fiction is still a study in detail and dialogue and wit. Her settings were often Southern, but her themes were universal. Eudora won multiple awards in her lifetime, including a Pulitzer in 1973 for her novel The Optimist’s Daughter. She passed away in 2001.
The audio you hear of Eudora in this episode is part of folklorist Bill Ferris' recent book The Storied South, which is a collection of interviews with iconic writers, musicians, historians, photographers and artists.
I first featured Bill in Episode 10, and we talked extensively about his 40-year career and how the South has perfected the art of storytelling.
In this episode, Bill returns to tell us about his close friendship with the famous Southern writer.
Eudora Welty, New Haven, Conn., 1974
Bill Ferris, 1970s
Bill Ferris, Decatur, Georgia, 2013
From THE STORIED SOUTH: VOICES OF WRITERS AND ARTISTS by William Ferris. Copyright © 2013 by William Ferris.
Preeminent Southern folklorist Bill Ferris has spent the last 40 years documenting the South in print, photography and film. His latest book, The Storied South, is a collection of interviews with some of the South's (and country's) most iconic writers and artists, including Alice Walker, Alex Haley, Robert Penn Warren and Eudora Welty. We discuss the book, the importance of story and how Bill defines the South.
Featuring the song "Remember You Used to Love Me" by War Jacket .
Alice Walker, New Haven, Conn., 1977