Southern Oral History Program

Art & Oral
History

More than 6,000 voices live in SOHP's archive — documenting southern history, labor, memory, and resistance. Preserved in partnership with Wilson Library's Southern Historical Collection at UNC Chapel Hill, these recordings and transcripts are the foundation for everything that follows. This initiative invites artists to listen deeply to those voices, and to create new work in conversation with them. What emerges is a season of performances, installations, mixtapes, and exhibitions, building toward a national gathering in Summer 2027.

Stay Connected Upcoming Events
From five days of listening, a season emerges.
Art & Oral History Incubator · May 2026
6,000+
voices in the archive
6
inaugural artists
2026
–27
inaugural season
2027
national institute

The Initiative

A project three years
in the making

The SOHP Art & Oral History Project is a sustained, multi-year initiative designed to build a national conversation about art, oral history, and what it means to treat an archive as a living thing.

A Collaboration

SOHP's oral histories are preserved and made discoverable in partnership with Wilson Library's Southern Historical Collection at UNC Chapel Hill. The Library integrates SOHP interviews into its preservation, discovery, and delivery systems — ensuring these voices remain accessible for research, teaching, and community use. The Art & Oral History initiative draws directly from this shared stewardship.

Summer 2026

The Incubator

Six artists spent five days at Love House listening to SOHP's collections at Wilson Library — then developed original project proposals rooted in what they found there.

2026–2027

The Inaugural Season

Performances, listening sessions, a course, quarterly mixtapes, and exhibitions across the Triangle — each rooted in SOHP's collections and building toward Spring 2027 opening exhibitions and the Summer Institute.

Summer 2027

The National Institute

A nationally convened gathering of artists, oral historians, scholars, and community collaborators, accompanied by a Southern Cultures special issue and presentations at the Oral History Association.

Want to go deeper into the Incubator? Meet all six artists, read their project proposals, and learn how five days in the archive became the foundation for a full year of creative work.

Visit the Incubator Page

The 2026 Artist Cohort

Six artists.
One archive.

The inaugural cohort brings together artists working across illustration, poetry, playwriting, memory work, printmaking, beatmaking, and performance — all spending time in SOHP's collections to create original work. Their projects unfold across the full 2026–2027 season.

Adair Carroll

Adair Carroll

Artist / Illustrator

Howard Craft

Howard L. Craft

Poet / Playwright

Danita Mason-Hogans

Danita Mason-Hogans

Memory Work

Langden Ramseur

Langden Ramseur

Beatmaker / Artist

Cara Smelter

Cara Smelter

Printmaker / Historian

Leah Woehr

Leah Woehr

Performer / Scholar

Meet the Artists & Read Their Proposals

Fall 2026 · Upcoming Events

Come listen with us

September 2026

24

Noon – 1:30 PM

Love House

Adair Carroll
Adair Carroll · Artist & Illustrator

Art & Oral History
Meet and Greet

Come meet Adair Carroll — a Durham-based artist and illustrator and a member of SOHP's inaugural Art & Oral History cohort. Carroll's work draws on their identity, employing vibrant color and detailed linework to create portraits and scenes rooted in lived experience, music, and memory. This is a chance to hear about the project, talk with the artist, and learn how SOHP is bringing the archive into new creative life.

Light refreshments provided. Free and open to all.

November 2026

5

5:30 – 7:00 PM

Love House

Langden Ramseur
Langden Ramseur · Beatmaker & Genre-Bending Artist

Southern Oral History
Mixtape: A Listening Session

Beatmaker and genre-bending artist Langden Ramseur presents a listening session drawn from his work with SOHP's collections. Guided by a single question — how can these stories and histories be told through music? — Ramseur will share a mixtape that pairs selected oral histories with music, soundscapes, and genre, tracing the roots of southern sound. He'll walk the audience through his process, playing selections and reflecting on how archival voices become part of a composition.

Ramseur is a member of the inaugural SOHP Art and Oral History cohort. His quarterly mixtape series continues through 2027.

Fall 2026 · Part of the Inaugural Season

Telling Southern Stories

CourseCOMM 490
Day & TimeMon · 3:30–6:30 PM
LocationGreenlaw 107

A performance project of the Southern Oral History Program. This course explores narrative storytelling, acting, and performance through SOHP's archive. Students learn to adapt oral history interviews into monologues and scenes, and to draw on archival material to build original performance pieces.

The semester builds toward a live, original performance — staged and shaped by the students themselves, in dialogue with the voices entrusted to SOHP's care.

Howard L. Craft

Instructor

Howard L. Craft

Award-winning playwright, working with students throughout the semester to shape their pieces into an end-of-semester performance.

COMM 490 Telling Southern Stories course flyer

Stay Connected

This work is just beginning

Whether you are an artist, an oral historian, a student, or someone who believes in the power of stories — there is a place for you in this conversation. Sign up to receive updates on season events and to learn about ways to engage with or contribute to the 2027 national Institute.

Join the Mailing List
Artists Learn about future cohort opportunities
Oral Historians Connect with the growing network
Educators & Students Bring the archive into your classroom
Community Partners Co-program and co-create with SOHP
Southern Oral History Program

Center for the Study of the American South
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

sohp.org →

Renée Alexander Craft

Director, SOHP

Renee.Alexander.Craft@unc.edu

Phillip MacDonald

Associate Director, SOHP

ptmacdon@unc.edu

Melody Hunter-Pillion

Acting Director, SOHP

melody@unc.edu