All in Americulture

Cool Hand Luke: The "Natural American Hero" versus the state

As we have experienced over the course of the last 20 months or so during this declared pandemic, heavy-handed challenges to the natural human right to speech and association are not reserved for the criminally inclined. Justified under the guise of a protective health regime in response to a novel Coronavirus unleashed from beyond the shores of America, we have all been placed into a proverbial work camp barracks. Instead of the “night in the box” or an extra set of leg irons for escape attempts, our technocratic “road bosses” determine when, where, and how we can work to support our families, worship our gods, and commune with our families and friends.

The Americanologist September Artist of the Month: Rhiannon Giddens

Beyond her role as a musician, Rhiannon Giddens is a curator of lost music and voices, and one of her moving recordings is her cover of Joan Baez’s “Birmingham Sunday.” The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church by members of the KKK on Sunday, September 15, 1963 took the lives of Addie Mae Collins, 14; Carole McNair, 11; Carolyn Robertson, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14, and seriously injured 14 others.