Type of site | Literary |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Founded | August 13, 2013 |
Headquarters | , |
Founder(s) | Chuck Reece, Dave Whitling, Kyle Tibbs Jones, and Butler Raines [1] |
Editors | Dave Whitling, Valerie Boyd, Josina Guess, Rachel Priest |
Key people | Eric NeSmith, Publisher |
URL | bittersoutherner.com |
The Bitter Southerner is a digital publication that was created on August 6, 2013, by Chuck Reece, Dave Whitling, Kyle Tibbs Jones, and Butler Raines. The publication is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. [1] [2] The website publishes feature length stories and photographic essays about an often-overlooked aspect of Southern culture: the progressive South. In addition to its magazine-style content, the organization also produces a podcast, compiles videos, and curates a folklore project. It has been described in the New York Times as a kind of "kitchen-sink New Yorker." [3] The Bitter Southerner also maintains a social media presence. Their invitation-only Facebook Group (The Bitter Southerner Family) for contributors, who refer to each other as Cousins, provides a space to gather and discuss everything from their affinity for Duke's Mayonnaise to regional music, literature, and art.
After one year of operations in 2014, The Bitter Southerner web page had an average of 50,000 unique visitors and 12,000 subscribers to its newsletter. [2] In 2020, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution stated that The Bitter Southerner averages 138,000 pageviews a month from 90,000 unique visitors. [4] In the same article, it was announced that Reece would be leaving the publication after 7 years. [4] The publication describes its two major reader bases as Southerners who have since moved elsewhere and non-Southerners who have moved to the South. [4] The publication has been supported by prominent Southerners like Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers, singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, and chef Hugh Acheson.
For his work with The Bitter Southerner, TIME Magazine named Chuck Reece as one of their 31 people changing the South in 2018.In this article, Reece describes a "Bitter Southerner," their reader base as "… somebody who loves this region but also is willing to acknowledge and not gloss over the many difficult pieces of its history." [5]
During their 2021 Membership Drive, the publication announced the creation of The B.S. Magazine: a print magazine with stories, poetry, and art from across the South. [6]
"Really, what drove it more than anything else is seeing the media stereotypes. With most media, you get one of two versions of the South: You sort of get the polite tea party — and I don't mean that in the political sense — genteel, hospitable South, or you get the "redneck" stereotypes. You never get anything in between. That's what bothered us. We've got all the great stories in the middle. It feels like we tapped into something that was latent out there, which was that people in the South were hoping to find some kind of medium that would portray the good stuff in a smart way."
- Chuck Reece [1]
Reece and his co-founders launched The Bitter Southerner because they got "pissed off...Bitter as it were." [7] It was partially the lack of inclusion of a single Southern drinking establishment on Drinks International's list of the Top 50 bars in the world that pushed them to launch the publication. The name -- "The Bitter Southerner"—reveals the original concept of a cocktail blog. Reece states that the title "[is] like a quadruple entendre." [5]
This exclusion was not the only reason behind the site's creation; more broadly, the perpetuation of Southern stereotypes was at the heart of the team's bitterness. With that in mind, the publication set out to do two key things: own the truths inscribed in those stereotypes while demonstrating that they conceal the region's diversity.
To more clearly articulate the publication's purpose, the organization crafted a set of "7 Tenets of a Better South" in 2018. Those tenets are:
2019 James Beard Award for Foodways Writing: Shane Mitchell, "A Hunger for Tomatoes" [9]
2019 James Beard Award for Profile Writing: Michael Adno, "The Short and Brilliant Life of Ernest Matthew Mickler" [10]
2018 James Beard Award / M.F.K. Fisher Distinguished Writing Award: Shane Mitchell, "Who Owns Uncle Ben?"
2016 James Beard Award for Profile Writing: Wendell Brock, "Christiane Lauterbach: The Woman Who Ate Atlanta" [11]
Gone with the Wind is a novel by American writer Margaret Mitchell, first published in 1936. The story is set in Clayton County and Atlanta, both in Georgia, during the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era. It depicts the struggles of young Scarlett O'Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner, who must use every means at her disposal to claw her way out of poverty following Sherman's destructive "March to the Sea". This historical novel features a coming-of-age story, with the title taken from the poem "Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae", written by Ernest Dowson.
White trash is a derogatory racial and class-related slur used in American English to refer to poor white people, especially in the rural areas of the southern United States. The label signifies a social class inside the white population and especially a degraded standard of living. It is used as a way to separate the "noble and hardworking" "good poor" from the lazy, "undisciplined, ungrateful and disgusting" "bad poor". The use of the term provides middle- and upper-class whites a means of distancing themselves from the poverty and powerlessness of poor whites, who cannot enjoy those privileges, as well as a way to disown their perceived behavior.
Song of the South is a 1946 American live-action/animated musical drama film directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson; produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is based on the Uncle Remus stories as adapted by Joel Chandler Harris, and stars James Baskett as Uncle Remus in his final film role. The film takes place in Georgia during the Reconstruction era, a period of American history after the end of the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery. The story follows seven-year-old Johnny who is visiting his grandmother's plantation for an extended stay. Johnny befriends Uncle Remus, an elderly worker on the plantation, and takes joy in hearing his tales about the adventures of Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox, and Br'er Bear. Johnny learns from the stories how to cope with the challenges he is experiencing while living on the plantation.
Walter Francis White was an American civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for a quarter of a century, 1929–1955, after joining the organization as an investigator in 1918. He directed a broad program of legal challenges to racial segregation and disfranchisement. He was also a journalist, novelist, and essayist. He graduated in 1916 from Atlanta University.
The Lost Cause of the Confederacy is an American pseudohistorical negationist mythology that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery. First enunciated in 1866, it has continued to influence racism, gender roles, and religious attitudes in the South to the present day.
Gourmet magazine was a monthly publication of Condé Nast and the first U.S. magazine devoted to food and wine. The New York Times noted that "Gourmet was to food what Vogue is to fashion." Founded by Earle R. MacAusland (1890–1980), Gourmet, first published in January 1941, also covered "good living" on a wider scale, and grew to incorporate culture, travel, and politics into its food coverage. James Oseland, an author and editor in chief of rival food magazine Saveur, called Gourmet “an American cultural icon.”
Chris Hastings is the owner and executive chef of Hot & Hot Fish Club, an award-winning restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama, and was twice a finalist for the James Beard Award "Best Chef in the South" award. In 2012, Chef Hastings was the winner of this award.
Music to Eat is the only album ever produced by avant garde rock band Hampton Grease Band. It was released in 1971.
Georgia was one of the original seven slave states that formed the Confederate States of America in February 1861, triggering the U.S. Civil War. The state governor, Democrat Joseph E. Brown, wanted locally raised troops to be used only for the defence of Georgia, in defiance of Confederate president Jefferson Davis, who wanted to deploy them on other battlefronts. When the Union blockade prevented Georgia from exporting its plentiful cotton in exchange for key imports, Brown ordered farmers to grow food instead, but the breakdown of transport systems led to desperate shortages.
William Price Fox was an American novelist, who wrote Southern Fried and Doctor Golf. Fox has contributed to publications such as Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Atlantic Monthly.
Historiography examines how the past has been viewed or interpreted. Historiographic issues about the American Civil War include the name of the war, the origins or causes of the war, and President Abraham Lincoln's views and goals regarding slavery.
Byron Herbert Reece was an American poet and novelist. During his life, he published four volumes of poetry and two volumes of fiction.
The Southern Regional Council (SRC) is a reform-oriented organization created in 1944 to avoid racial violence and promote racial equality in the Southern United States. Voter registration and political-awareness campaigns are used toward this end. The SRC evolved in 1944 from the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. It is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
James Oseland is an American writer, editor and television personality. He is the author and editor-in-chief of World Food, an acclaimed book series from Ten Speed Press. He served as editor-in-chief of the U.S. food magazine Saveur from 2006 to 2014. His memoir and cookbook Cradle of Flavor was named one of the best books of 2006 by the New York Times, Time Asia, and Good Morning America, among others. He has edited an array of bestselling and award-winning anthologies and cookbooks, notably Saveur: The New Comfort Food, A Fork In the Road, and Saveur: The New Classics. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Gourmet, Vogue, and dozens of other media outlets. He was a judge from 2009 to 2013 on the Bravo television series Top Chef Masters.
Paula Wolfert is an American author of nine books on cooking and the winner of numerous cookbook awards including what is arguably the top honor given in the food world: The James Beard Foundation Medal For Lifetime Achievement. A specialist in Mediterranean food, she has written extensively on Moroccan cuisine including two books, one of them a 2012 James Beard Award winner. She also wrote The Cooking of South-West France, and books about the cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean, slow Mediterranean cooking and Mediterranean clay pot cooking.
Food Chains is a 2014 American documentary film about agricultural labor in the United States directed by Sanjay Rawal. It was the Recipient of the 2015 James Beard Foundation Award for Special/Documentary.
Prince's Hot Chicken Shack is a restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee, known for its hot chicken, and is credited with popularizing the dish and inspiring restaurants with similar offerings. The business was started in 1945 by James Thornton Prince, and in 1980 ownership was passed to his great-niece André Prince Jeffries.
White Southerners, from the Southern United States, are considered an ethnic group by some historians, sociologists and journalists, although this categorization has proven controversial, and other academics have argued that Southern identity does not meet the criteria for definition as an ethnicity.
The Chicago Defender is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim Crow-era violence and urged black people in the American South to settle in the north in what became the Great Migration. Abbott worked out an informal distribution system with Pullman porters who surreptitiously took his paper by rail far beyond Chicago, especially to African American readers in the southern United States. Under his nephew and chosen successor, John H. Sengstacke, the paper dealt with racial segregation in the United States, especially in the U.S. military, during World War II. Copies of the paper were passed along in communities, and it is estimated that at its most successful, each copy was read by four to five people.