For the May co-publishing feature with Oxford American, Ravi Howard dives into the history and lasting legacy of the Banana Docks in Mobile, Alabama.
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considers the spoken and heard vernacular in the American South and ways in which we communicate across the Region. Yes, it is accents and pronunciations, but it is also an auditory marker and a trace of place. Twang is hyperlocal lingo and addresses region-specific, city-specific, even house-specific vocabulary. It is a Southern export, a diasporic carrier. It is also reverb, echo, and slowness, which can be observed through the timbre of a musical instrument like a banjo, or André 3000’s New Blue Sun. The theme troubles cultural assumptions and provides intrigue for writing and art that addresses projected or mistaken identities. Twang signals “you are/aren’t from around here,” but also, “we are not in a hurry to get there.”
traverses desire in all its overwhelming iterations, from interpersonal romance to enthusiasm for a certain artist/artwork, and as well as other cringe-worthy scenarios in this contemporary age. It also encapsulates the physical act of “crushing” and aesthetics that reflect a reactive quality, or materials and forms that show the artist’s hand. Crush examines the visual intensity found in “maximalist art” i.e. large-scale installations, layered and interdisciplinary compositions, enthusiastic gestures, and piling on of all kinds. It is the accumulative nature of some Southern homes as well as artists that collect and employ found objects, like Thornton Dial. Think also about reverence, retrospectives, what it means to pay homage, pen odes, and perform acts of service. Be too much. Get too close.
is about introductions, jokes, and local activism. It is going door to door and meeting face to face. Whether addressing political canvassing in this election year or trick-or-treating, the theme questions: what does it mean to be neighborly in the South? What do we owe one another? Employing matter-of-fact revelations or grappling with complex truths, Knock Knock speaks to proximity and presence. It is relational, even familial, in application. It also includes actual entrances, artistic thresholds, as well as metaphorical doors opening—and sometimes—slamming shut. Knock Knock is art that addresses architecture, “hitting the pavement,” and cul-de-sacs. It is an opportunity offered and (maybe) revoked. Who's there?
I think we all manufacture intimacy all the time. It’s like going on a date—we’re going to a restaurant, we are wearing special outfits, we’re rising to the occasion to make it work.
”E.C. Flamming interviews Atlanta-based artist Andrew Lyman as part of Burnaway's theme series CRUSH, where they discuss intimacy, his entry point into photography, and crushing on your friend group.
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Kicking off National Poetry Month, Z. Yasmin Waheed merges prose poetry and perfumery in Florida Water, a Mood Ring exploring Miami through olfactory memory.
For the May co-publishing feature with Oxford American, Alexandra Martinez thinks about nostalgia as a collective experience of Caribbean diasporas in Bad Bunny's Debí Tirar Más Fotos and Félix Rodríguez Báez’s El Ranchón's .
Burnaway announces its yearly magazine themes: Ghost, Siren, and Trickster.
Carolinas Editor Robert Alan Grand looks at the life, career, and deeply spiritual work of David LaChapelle on the occasion of his survey exhibition Dear Sonja at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Winston-Salem.
