Acknowledgements

We’d like to acknowledge:

The historic Hill Country artists whose music helped bring our podcast to life. Each of these artists was instrumental in developing and preserving Black culture in the Hill Country. Many thanks to the Association for Cultural Equity for their support in licensing these pieces of music to us from the Lomax Archive.

We’d also like to thank Lightning Malcolm for allowing us to use his brilliant song, Foxfire. Please check out the rest of his catalog at: lightninmalcolm.com

We would have nothing to share with you all were it not for the Hollowells and their family’s generous contributions of their stories and memories.Many humble thanks to Bill and Annie, Al & Mattie, Dolores, Vivian, Bessie, Mattie, Autreniece, Edna Boyd, and the community at Adolphus Chapel CME Church in Holly Springs, MS.

We Are the Promised Land is produced by free feral, in collaboration with Annette Hollowell. Sound design for our audio altar was created by muthi reed and Cedric Wilson; Cedric also mixed each piece. Our virtual altar was brought to life by Alleyha Dannett of Ancient Future Fourest, with photographs by Jasmine B. Johnson. Special thanks to the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, and the Mississippi Presenters’ Network.

We Are the Promised Land is made possible by generous support from the National Performance Network, the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production, Carpetbag Theater, The National Black Food and Justice Alliance, The New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane, The Panta Rhea Foundation, The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, Alternate Roots, The Big We Foundation, The Mississippi Humanities Council under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and with financial assistance from the National Park Service and the Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance.

Our altar images and videos were captured by Jasmine B. Johnson. Thank you, Jasmine, for the care and attention you brought to the work. Thanks as well to Jai Williams for helping shape the process ahead of our final shoot.

Many thanks to Carlton and Brandi Turner, Jodi Skipper, Melanie Ho, Melissa Ginsburg, and Wendy Gaudin for your support throughout the development process. Thanks as well to Naima Lowe and the inaugural Artists Publishing Cohort at Louis Place.

Thank you to Cory Diane for introducing free and Annette way back in 2018! Thanks as well for the tape syncs.

Deep gratitude to Jinks Holladay for her support with transcribing interviews and for her loving support of free.

Gracias to Studio Poema in Xoxocotlan, Mexico, for recording free’s narration in Episodes 0-3.

We must thank our Ko-fi supporters as well for believing in us and the work:

AC Hughes, Ada McMahon, Aesha Rasheed, Arielle Hirschfeld, Christina Illarmo, Claire Bangser, Jebney Lewis, Jed Oppenheim, Jodi Skipper, Jonel Dauphnis, Kimberley Richards, Lisa Guido, Mariama Eversley, Maxwell Ciardullo, Michelle Regan Wedberg, R’yana Michele, Sarah Liebman, Susan Sakash, and Tufara Waller Muhammad. We also want to honor Ki’fu Faruq, who supported us on Ko-fi for several months before crossing over to the other side to offer their care from the spirit world.

We believe our stories can change the world! This process has been a litmus test of these values as we pushed through personal doubts about the significance of our own stories. We offer a deep bow of gratitude to early spaces that have gifted us powerful listening for early cuts and working drafts. Much love to the Soulshifters, Castanea Fellows (shout out to Cohort 3!), Alternate Roots, and the Southern Black Farmers Community-Led Fund.

Finally, we offer our infinite gratitude to our Hill Country ancestors whose care, kindness, humor, artistry, sacrifice, and even raggedy-ness inspire every element of this work.

This altar is dedicated to all the many lineages that intersect at Foxfire Ranch and which fuel our imagination for the future. May we do right by all of you as we build on the foundation you laid with love.