Southern Oral History Program · Summer 2026
Art & Oral History
Incubator
May 18–22, 2026 · Love House · Chapel Hill, NC
Artists in the Archive
Five days. Six artists.
More than 6,000 voices.
Over the course of the week, artists engaged SOHP's collections at Wilson Library through close listening, archival research, community building, and structured creative experimentation — developing original project proposals rooted in the stories they explored there.
From five days of listening, a season emerges. What follows are the projects that will define SOHP's Inaugural Art and Oral History Season — the first chapter in a sustained national conversation about documentary arts, oral history, and the living archive.
Adair Carroll
Artist · Illustrator
Doodling portraits and drawing illustrations inspired by life, people, places, and music. Carroll sketches on paper then scans to iPad to color — blending imagination with lived experience.
Howard Craft
Poet · Playwright · Screenwriter
Award-winning playwright and arts educator. Author of two books of poetry, creator of the first African American superhero radio serial. Recipient of the NC Playwriting Fellowship and Ann Atwater Award for Theatre.
Danita Mason-Hogans
Oral Historian · Memory Worker
Public historian whose practice centers listening, historical context, and care for people and place. Works with communities and institutions navigating difficult histories and moments of transition.
Langden Ramseur
Beatmaker · Genre-bending Artist
Based in the 919, originally from Gastonia, NC. Holds a B.A. from UNC-CH and Masters of Physiology from NC State. Releases music on all platforms; recognized by OVO SOUND.
Cara Smelter
Printmaker · Historian · Counselor
Tells short, non-fiction stories through linocuts. A trained scholar of African American History and licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor. Her text-driven prints address resilience, grief, trauma, and empathy.
Leah Woehr
Performer · Singer-songwriter
Ph.D. candidate in Communication at UNC Chapel Hill specializing in performance studies. Her work centers Chinese adoptees of the American South. Creator of solo works performed on international stages.
2026–2027 Projects
What the listening produced
Self-Portrait as Deep Listening
Adair Carroll · Mixed Media
Carroll will select an oral history from SOHP's collections and create an original portrait or scene in response to what they hear — working from the narrator's voice, a chosen audio segment, or a moment centered on memory, place, or identity. SOHP will document the process on video, producing multimedia content that pairs oral history audio with Carroll's drawing as it unfolds in real time.
Razor Sharp & Carolina Fresh
Howard Craft · Performance & Oral History
Students and artists will conduct and record oral histories focusing on five barber shops in Durham and Orange County. The artists will partner with photographers and use the resulting pictures to inspire original monologues and poems for a public dramatic reading and installation/exhibit.
Shifting the Gaze: Reimagining Beck
Danita Mason-Hogans · Public History & Memory Work
An interdisciplinary project examining the life and historical presence of Rebecca "Beck" Mason — a Black woman whose labor was deeply intertwined with the Spencer and Love families and the early culture of UNC Chapel Hill. Through soundscape, visual installation, oral history, and performance, the project asks audiences to reconsider how universities construct memory and how Black people have historically survived, resisted, and remembered despite exclusion from official archives.
Lost History & Untold Stories: A Revival Mixtape
Langden Ramseur · Sound & Archive
Artists and students will utilize and explore relevant archives from the Southern Historical Collection to create a collaborative mixtape. Guided by the question — how can these stories and histories be told through music? — participants of all ages will create a soundtrack pairing music, soundscapes, and genres with selected oral histories, connecting listeners to historically southern music genres including jazz, blues, and gospel.
southern grief
Cara Smelter · Multi-media Exhibition
A proposed multi-media, cross-discipline, interactive exhibition exploring the intersection of grief and southern identity — interrogating how individual lived experiences and those of ancestors and communities shape how we conceptualize grief. Drawing from SOHP oral histories, printmaking, writing, performance, and sound, the work is intended to facilitate reflection, healing, and commonality amongst community members.
Immersive Soundscape
Leah Woehr · Performance & Sound Installation
An immersive soundscape featuring an oral history of Chinese adoptees of the South interspersed with sounds, textures, and songs of Chinese adoptee belonging and identity. The performer moves through the space performing movement sequences, dance, and song — perhaps stringing red thread throughout the space and painting Chinese characters on large pieces of paper on the ground.