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.

  • RL Burnside – Jumper on the Line 

  • Lucius Smith & Sid Hemphill – Walk in the Parlor

  • Mississippi Fred McDowell – Lord Have Mercy

  • Napoleon Strickland – Poor Black Mattie

  • Rising Star Fife and Drum Band – at Othar Turner’s Farm

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 https://www.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 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, and with financial assistance from the National Park Service and the Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance.

The images and video of our altar 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 with 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: A, Ada McMahon, Aesha Rasheed, Arielle Hirschfeld, Christina Illarmo, Claire (Bangser?), Cultural Crops, Jebney Lewis, Jed Oppenheim, Jonel Dauphnis, Kimberley, Lisa Guido, Maxwell Ciardullo, Michelle RW, R’yana Michele, Sarah Liebman, Susan Sakash, Tufara Mohamed.

Finally, we offer our infinite gratitude to our Hill Country ancestors whose care, kindness, humor, artistry, sacrifice, and even raggedy-ness inspires 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.