Enjoy diving into these exhibitions, articles, books, and more from throughout the field of rural arts & culture. Find our previous Resources editions here.
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Exhibitions
Make the River Present
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, MO
Make the River Present encourages creative engagement with the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, inviting visitors to strengthen our connections to these enduring waterways through works of art, resources, and activities. The exhibition highlights present-day and ancestral stewardship of the rivers and surrounding environments, especially focusing on Indigenous and African American perspectives. On view through August 10, 2025
Iron Rope
Racing Magpie, Rapid City, SD
This collaborative work emerged from a shared vision between Dwayne Wilcox (Oglala Lakota) and Ray Janis (Oglala Lakota). Dwayne’s original painting draws inspiration from a portrait photograph of Iron Rope, capturing the strength and poise of a man at a pivotal moment in history. Through the use of vibrant color, Dwayne sought to highlight the subject’s composed nature during a time of immense societal change. The project took a dynamic turn when Ray, at a market show, created digital work at his booth that caught Dwayne’s eye. Recognizing an opportunity to merge their individual talents, the two artists embraced the chance to collaborate. For Dwayne, stepping outside of his usual comfort zone was both exciting and an honor, as Ray shared his vision for this unique project. Together, they have crafted works that reflect their mutual respect and creative harmony.
José Villalobos: Rough Rider
Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
Throughout their dynamic and multidisciplinary practice, José Villalobos (b. 1988, El Paso, TX) interrogates and deconstructs aspects of gender and masculinity found within the U.S. / Mexico borderlands. Their practice underscores the rigid and conservative patriarchal roots of their Evangelical Mexican upbringing merged with the cultural mores of West Texas, bringing to bear how these are often at odds with their own identity as a queer, Brown person. How do you see masculinity represented in your culture? On view through July 20, 2025
An Hour of Earth from Above
The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Los Angeles, CA
Bask in satellite views from around the globe, selected and produced by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center. Located near the middle of the country, outside of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, EROS is the image processing center and archive for Landsat, the federal government’s primary non-military earth imaging satellite program, which has been scanning the whole planet twice a month, continuously, for more than 50 years.
Articles
Jaime Adame, “‘Neither Work Nor Home’: Dairy Queens as Community Hubs in Rural Texas”
The Daily Yonder
What happens when corporate shuts down your town’s meet-up spot? Small-town Dairy Queen franchises, many dating back 40 years or more in Texas, have long served as accessible gathering spots.
Layli Long Soldier, “An Essay of (K)nots and Footnotes”
Emergence Magazine
For poet Layli Long Soldier, the sovereignty of her people, the Očeti Šakowin, is deeply entangled with the language of U.S. law. Tracing how Lakota homelands have been diminished through treaties, she interrupts this legal narrative by invoking the ancestral story of Iron Hail—a Mniconjou Lakota elder and warrior.
Joe Engleman, “How the U.S. Enlisted Farmers to ‘Feed the World’ in the 20th Century”
Barn Raiser
As Trump eliminates U.S. international aid programs, a new history details the instrumental role Midwestern farmers played in establishing them.
Alana Horton & I/O Research, “What American Community Survey Data Says About Midwest Artists”
Arts Midwest
Dive into the data to better understand who is working in the arts, what they do, where they live, and how they’re making it work in the Midwest.
Books & Publications
Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance
Denali Sai Nalamapu (Timber Press)
Drawing from original interviews with the author, Holler is an illustrated look at six inspiring changemakers. Denali Nalamalapu, a climate organizer in their own right, introduces readers to the ordinary people who became resisters of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project that spans approximately 300 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia — a teacher, a single mother, a nurse, an organizer, a photographer, and a seed keeper. Holler is a moving and deeply accessible — and beautifully visual — story about change, hope, and humanity.
Keystone Poetry: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania
Edited by Marjorie Maddox & Jerry Wemple (Penn State University Press)
From Philadelphia to Erie, and from the shale fields to the coal mines, Keystone Poetry celebrates the varied landscapes and voices of Pennsylvania. This collection brings together the work of 182 poets who, with keen eyes and powerful language, commemorate the hometowns, history, traditions, and culture of the Commonwealth. Organized geographically, the poems traverse county lines, ancestral lineages, and thematic concerns — as well as gender, racial, and socioeconomic barriers.
ruralcore magazine
Edited by Dr. Layne Elise Ilderton, PhD
Whereas early iterations of student-supported rural literary magazines might denote “plain living,” ruralcore reveals the complexities and challenges of mainstream narratives of rural people and places.
Film & Video
Nickel Boys
Dir. RaMell Ross (2024)
Elwood Curtis's college dream shatters alongside a two-lane Florida highway. Bearing the brunt of an innocent misstep, he's sentenced to the netherworld of Nickel Academy, a brutal reformatory sunk deep in the Jim Crow South. He encounters another ward, the seen-it-all Turner. The two Black teens strike up an alliance: Turner dispensing fundamental tips for survival, Elwood, clinging to his optimistic worldview. Backdropped by the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, Elwood and Turner’s existence appear worlds away from Rev. Martin Luther King's burnished oratory. Despite Nickel's brutality, Elwood strives to hold onto his humanity, awakening a new vision for Turner. Read more about director RaMell Ross’ approach to photo & film here
Sweetgrass
Prod. Ilisa Barbash, rec. Lucien Castaing-Taylor (2009)
An unsentimental elegy to the American West, this documentary follows the last modern-day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into Montanas breathtaking and often dangerous Absaroka-Beartooth mountains for summer pasture. This astonishingly beautiful yet unsparing film reveals a world in which nature and culture, animals and humans, vulnerability and violence are all intimately meshed.
Fasnacht in Helvetia, West Virginia
100 Days in Appalachia (2025)
On March 1, 2025, Helvetia, West Virginia, held its 58th annual Fasnacht celebration. 100 Days in Appalachia attended this unique combination of Appalachian and Swiss tradition to find out what draws hundreds of visitors to this small town every year. Learn more about the documentary here
Music & Sound
Hazel Dickens sings “Black Lung” and discusses songwriting
Appalshop
A tribute to the bluegrass musician featuring a video recording salvaged by Appalshop after a devastating flood. Learn more in this piece by Will Oldham for Oxford American
Brian Harnetty, This Was Once a Forest, This Was Once a Sea
The sound & video installation explores three different landscape and time periods of Ohio. Learn more about the piece in this Substack by the artist, and experience it as part of the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati exhibition “Ohio Now: States of Nature” (through September 7, 2025).
Ken Pomeroy, Cruel Joke
Ken Pomeroy exists in the intersection of past, present and future; effortlessly channeling the ancestral wisdom of her elders and her lived experience through her lyrical and instrumental composition. Writing as a cathartic release has culminated in Pomeroy’s highly anticipated album, Cruel Joke. The 12-track contemporary folk collection creates a wild but safe space of Pomeroy’s own—a space that, like 22-year-old Pomeroy, is brutally honest, proudly Native American, and undeniably brilliant. Read a reflection on the song “Stranger” in this Substack from Will Hermes.
Magic Tuber Stringband, Needlefall
Magic Tuber Stringband, from North Carolina, are Courtney Werner and Evan Morgan. The duo are at the forefront of artists inhabiting the rich, living musical traditions of the Appalachian region, not as preservationists, but as fluent speakers shaping the forms with their inventive new ideas. Much like the North Carolina wilds it reflects, Needlefall waxes and wanes from mysterious and unsettling to ecstatic and awe-inspiring, capturing the sacred dimensions of the natural world.
Belle Townsend, “From no stoplights to her name in lights: The Rise of S.G. Goodman”
Queer Kentucky
Born in western Tennessee and raised across state lines in Hickman, Kentucky, S.G. Goodman’s journey as an artist is deeply rooted in the landscape and culture of her upbringing. Her music also reflects the complexity of her rural and Queer identities. S.G.’s third album, Planting by the Signs, releases June 20, 2025.
Estoy Aquí: Music of the Chicano Movement
Smithsonian Folkways
This pathway celebrates songs and genres that emerged as symbols of cultural pride during the Chicano movement (late 1960s-1970s) and highlights the Chicano community’s important contributions to the American story. During this time, music provided a way for people to express their struggles and call for social change.
Podcast & Radio
“Preserving Cherokee Language Ten Books at a Time”
Living Traditions (via Rural Remix)
A collaboration between the New Kituwah Academy and Western Carolina University produces screen-printed books for learning Cherokee in a way that captures and reflects cultural sensibilities of the Tribe.
“The Art of Land Back: James McAnally and Anita Fields on a historic rematriation to Osage Nation”
Art Restart
In this interview, James McAnally (Counterpublic) and Anita Fields (Artist; Osage) share how art played a pivotal role in the historic rematriation of Sugarloaf Mound, from fostering trust and dialogue to reimagining the site’s future. They reflect on the power of creative practice in Land Back efforts and offer insights for those looking to merge artistic vision with meaningful action.
“The CETA Arts Revolution: What Can Today’s Activist Artists & Organizers Learn from It?”
Art is Change
Did you know the U.S. once launched a massive jobs program that empowered over 20,000 artists, and creative support staff — and then let it vanish from collective memory? For artists, educators, and community leaders seeking sustainable support for creative work, the forgotten story of the CETA Arts Program offers a powerful historical lesson. In a time of economic uncertainty, this 1970s initiative not only employed artists — it embedded them into the heart of local communities to spark cultural and social change.
The Old Ozarks with Brook Blevin
The Ozark Podcast
The Old Ozarks is your gateway to the forgotten history of the Ozarks. Hosted by renowned historian Dr. Brooks Blevins, the leading authority on the region’s history, this podcast explores the lives, legends, and landscapes that have shaped this unique region.
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