In this episode we speak with Siân Round, a PhD candidate in American literature at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses, as she puts it, on “little literary magazines in the US South in the 1920s and mid-40s and their relationship to the . . . Southern Renaissance.” As such, she has delved into Lillian Smith and Paula Snelling’s work on South Today, specifically looking at how the magazine traces Smith’s artistic trajectory in the lead up to the 1944 publication of Strange Fruit. W...
Mar 16, 2022•36 min
In this episode, we speak with Joan Browning. She was one of the white southern women who participated in the Freedom Rides in 1961. She took part in the final ride from Atlanta to Albany in December 1961. We spoke with her about her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, her introduction to Lillian Smith's work, and much more.
Mar 09, 2022•40 min
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Tanya Long Bennett. She is a professor of English at the University of North Georgia and the author of “I Have Been So Many People”: A Study of Lee Smith’s Novels. Recently, she returned from a Fulbright in Romania where she taught American Studies at the the University of Bucharest. She is the editor of Critical Essays on the Writing of Lillian Smith, and she teaches Smith regularly in her courses. Adrian Mîță, one of Dr. Bennett's students at the University o...
Feb 25, 2022•1 hr 1 min
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Keri Leigh Merritt. She is a historian who focuses on issues of equality and poverty in America. Her book, "Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery is the Antebellum South" won the 2018 Bennett H. Wall Award from the Southern Historical Association. Along with Dr. Matthew Hild, she edited "Reconsidering Southern Labor History: Race, Class, and Power" the 2019 Best Book Awards winner from the United Association for Labor Education. She hosts the podcast Merritto...
Feb 07, 2022•34 min
In this episode we speak with Julie Cohen, co-director, with Betsy West, of 2021’s "My Name is Pauli Murray" and Dr. Patricia Bell-Scott, professor emerita of women’s studies and human development and family science at the University of Georgia. She appears in "My Name is Pauli Murray" as well as Hal and Henry Jacobs’ "Lillian Smith: Breaking the Science." We discuss the importance of Pauli Murray, her friendship with Lillian Smith, and more.
Jan 28, 2022•39 min
In this episode of "Dope with Lime," we talk about an anecdote from Lillian Smith's "Memory of a Large Christmas" (1962) where Smith's father invited 48 incarcerated men to eat Christmas dinner with his family. You can read the article in the latest issue of the LES Center's newsletter, "A View from the Mountain": https://issuu.com/piedmontjournal/docs/les_newsletter_f21_issuu To donate to the LES Center, you can do so here: https://www2.piedmont.edu/giving-les-center
Dec 08, 2021•9 min
In this episode, we speak with one of the first Lillian E. Smith Scholars, Emily Pierce. We discuss how she became an LES scholar, the impact that Smith has had on her thinking, and what she took away from the program.
Oct 11, 2021•19 min
In this episode, we speak with Anna Weinstein, Assistant Professor of Screenwriting at Kennesaw State University. She is editor for Rutledge's Perform Book series. She is currently working on an adaptation of Richard Chase's "The Jack Tales." She is also developing a limited series based on the life of Lillian Smith. We spoke about her residency experiences at the LES Center and her current project which focuses on Smith.
Sep 29, 2021•35 min
In this episode of "Dope with Lime," we discuss Lillian Smith's time as director of Laurel Falls Camp for Girls, the first first private camp for girls in Georgia. Her father started the camp in 1920, and Smith ran it from 1925 to 1948. If you or someone you know went to the camp, we'd love to hear from you. Please email us at lescenter@piedmont.edu
Aug 16, 2021•9 min
In this episode, we speak with two recent Lillian E. Smith Scholars, Madison Hatfield and Mike Adams. We discuss how they became LES scholars, the impact that Smith has had on their thinking, and what they took away from the program.
Aug 05, 2021•22 min
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Will Brantley, Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University. His book, "Feminine Sense in Southern Memoir" won the Eudora Welty award for interpretive work of scholarship in modern letters. In "Feminine Sense," Dr. Brantley looks at the autobiographic works of Lillian Smith, Zora Neal Hurston, Eudora Welty, Ellen Glasgow, Lillian Hellman, and Katherine Ann Porter. As well, he has written on the FBI’s 134-page file that they kept on Lillian Smith an...
Jul 27, 2021•27 min
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Melanie Morrison. She is the founder and Executive Director of Allies for Change, “a network of anti-oppression educators who share a passion for social justice and a commitment to creating and sustaining life-giving all relationships and communities.” Currently, she is working on a manuscript entitled Letters from Old Screamer Mountain. Her mother, Eleanor, along with some friends stayed a weekend with Lillian Smith on Old Screamer Mountain in 1939, and that w...
Jun 17, 2021•35 min
In this preview, Melanie Morrison talks about what her father said about Lillian Smith and her impact on her parents' lives.
Jun 14, 2021•1 min
In this episode, we speak with Sho Baraka. He is a rapper, activist, writer, husband, father, and more. We talk about art, creativity, and his book "He Saw That It Was Good." Sho Baraka has spent years traveling the world as a recording artist, performer and culture curator. He is well as an original member of internationally known hip-hop consortium 116 Clique and record label, Reach Records. His overseas work has ranged from leading seminars about race relations in South Africa to establishing...
Jun 08, 2021•39 min
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Monica Miller. She is an assistant professor of English at Middle Georgia State University. We talk about teaching Lillian Smith to adult learners, Smith's place within the Southern literary canon, Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," and much more. Dr. Miller is the president of the Flannery O’Connor Society and serves on the editorial advisory board for the Flannery O’Connor Review. Her book, Being Ugly: Southern Women Writers and Social Rebellion, explores ...
May 26, 2021•30 min
In this episode of "Dope with Lime," we speak with Paul Kendrick. Paul and his father Stephen’s recent book, Nine Days: The Race to Save Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life and Win the 1960 Election, details King’s imprisonment in October 1960 during the Atlanta sit-ins and the effects that his arrest had on the 1960 presidential election. Rev. Otis Moss Jr., who took part in the sit-ins, calls Nine Days an “urgent, relevant, and historically accurate” book. Kendrick teaches at National Louis Universi...
May 19, 2021•52 min
In this episode of "Dope with Lime," we speak with Dr. Rose Gladney, Professor Emerita of American Studies at the University of Alabama. She has published extensively on the life and work of Lillian Smith including How am I to Be Heard? Letters of Lillian Smith and A Lillian Smith Reader which she co-edited with Lisa Hodgens. She has interviewed Paula Snelling, and Lillian’s relatives Esther Smith, Frank Smith, Annie Laurie Peeler, and Nancy Smith Fichter along with numerous former Laurel Falls ...
Feb 15, 2021•46 min
In this preview, Rose Gladney talks about why she keeps coming back to Lillian Smith's "The Journey" (1954).
Feb 11, 2021•1 min
In this episode of "Dope with Lime," I speak with the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell. He is the pastor at Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC, and he is a former infantry officer in the U.S. Army. He also facilitates anti-racism training for whites entitled “What Does it mean to Be White?” Today, we will talk about Lillian Smith’s influence on his work, his anti-racism workshops, the connections between social justice work and religion, and Smith’s essay “The White Christian and His Conscience...
Feb 01, 2021•29 min
In the next episode of "Dope with Lime" we speak with Rev. Dr. Benjamin Boswell about about Lillian Smith’s influence on his work, his anti-racism workshops, the connections between social justice work and religion, and Smith’s essay “The White Christian and His Conscience.”
Jan 27, 2021•1 min
On January 15, 2021, what would have been Martin Luther King, Jr’s 92nd birthday, we spoke with Marie Cochran at the LES Center. Marie is a visual artist, writer, and activist. She is the founding curator of the Affrilachian Artist Project which celebrates the intersections of cultures in Appalachia and highlights the unique perspective of people of African descent in the region. She is also the 2020-2021 Lehman Brady Visiting Professorship, at Duke University, Center for Documentary Studies and...
Jan 18, 2021•51 min
Stay tuned January 19th for our discussion with Marie Cochran, curator of the Affrilachian Project, about Martin Luther King, Jr., Lillian Smith, social justice, and memory in Northeast Georgia.
Jan 15, 2021•1 min
In this episode we speak with Chuck Brown, co-creator and co-writer of the Eisner award and Ringo award winning Image Comics series Bitter Root and creator of Image Comics On the Stump. He has been self-publishing comics for over 18 years, and as well as writing for Image Comics he has written comics for Dark Horse Comics, Zenescope Entertainment, and more. Today, we will talk about his work along with Lillian Smith’s speech “Role of the Poet in a World of Demagogues.”
Nov 03, 2020•29 min
In this episode we speak with Karen Branan, a journalist whose work has appeared in publications such as Life, Mother Jones, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and more. Her book, The Family Tree, details her investigation into the horrific lynching of three Black men and one Black woman in 1912 in Harris County, GA. Today, we will talk about her book, her personal journey, and the role that Lillian Smith’s work has played in her life and activism.
Oct 27, 2020•38 min
In the next episode of "Dope with Lime," we speak with Karen Branan about her book The Family Tree and about the ways that the culture of the South "terrorized" the psyches of whites and Blacks alike.
Oct 26, 2020•45 sec
In this episode we speak with Carlton Chamblin, owner of Farm 2 Cocktail, and Julie Adams, co-owner of Blue Ridge Roasters, about creating drinks commemorating the life and work of Lillian E. Smith. Carlton created the Lillian which uses his Peach Lavender shrub. Julie created the Laurel Leaf, a coffee roast named after the newsletter that Lillian sent to campers and parents at Laurel Falls Camp. Check out their websites: Farm 2 Cocktail: https://farm2cocktail.com/ Blue Ridge Roasters: https://b...
Oct 13, 2020•17 min
In this episode we speak with Donna-lyn Washington, who teaches English at Kingsborough Community College. She is the editor of John Jennings: Conversations from the University Press of Mississippi, and she is the senior editor and writer at ReviewFix. As well, she has done work on Frank Yerby, and her essay “Frank Yerby and His Readers” appears in Rediscovering Frank Yerby: Critical Essays. We spoke about her teaching, comics, Frank Yerby, and Lillian Smith’s “Buying a New World With Confederat...
Sep 09, 2020•30 min
In the next episode of "Dope with Lime," we speak with Donna-lyn Washington about Lillian Smith, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Frank Yerby. In this preview, Washington talks about a passage that stood out to her from Smith's 1943 essay "There are things to do." Check out the full episode on Wednesday September 9.
Sep 04, 2020•1 min
In this episode we speak with Jaleesa Harris, an instructor of English at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and a PhD student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, about her teaching, social justice work, and Lillian Smith’s “There Are Things to Do” from the Winter 1942-43 issue of South Today.
Aug 26, 2020•32 min
We're gearing up for season two of "Dope with Lime," In the first episode of the second season we speak with Jaleesa Harris about Lillian Smith, teaching African American literature, and activism on campus. In this preview, Harris talks about the continued relevance of Smith's 1943 essay "There are things to do." Check out the full episode on Wednesday August 26.
Aug 18, 2020•2 min
