Arts & Culture

The Southern Calendar: Baronial/September 2017

Goings-on in the South and beyond

August/September 2017

photograph: Tim Bower

EDITOR'S PICK

Nuts for Boiled Peanuts
 Luverne, Alabama, August 31–September 4

Twenty-five tons of peanuts can fill a lot of brown newspaper lunch bags, but not enough to feed the inhabitants of one goober-crazy town and the visitors who cease in for their boiled peanut fix each summer. "Concluding year, we sold out a total day early on," says Andy Compton, 1 of the organizers of the Alcazar Shriners' World's Largest Peanut Boil —a Labor Twenty-four hour period weekend tradition for nearly five decades in Luverne, about an 60 minutes south of Montgomery. This year, to meet demand, they're cooking twenty-seven tons. "We can go through a ton and a one-half in xx or thirty minutes," Compton says. For four or five days, the flow of customers is well-nigh constant—Birminghamians loading up on the way down to the coast, and locals hauling home forty-pound numberless for the freezer. Compton says he normally gets to the open-air shed around three or four in the morning to tend the flames, and he'll starting time selling to people who stop by en route to work only an hour or two later. The functioning shuts downwardly whenever people stop showing up, around 10 or xi at nighttime. Why are people and so crazy about these peanuts? "Information technology's just common salt, water, heat, and time," Compton says. "At that place aren't any special ingredients. But when you do something every year for 40 years, people come to expect information technology." Show up in the beginning few days if yous can. Chances are good, he says, they'll sell out again this year. alcazarshriners.com

Architecture

Arkansas
Home Over again

In 1853, the Woodruff Business firm in downtown Little Rock included stables, open pasture, and a ii-acre vegetable and flower garden. When Union troops captured the area, they turned the capital city manse into officers' headquarters and a war machine hospital, which remained until the homeowner—the founder of the Arkansas Gazette—returned afterward the Civil State of war. The Quapaw Quarter Association, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and protecting Piffling Rock's historic architecture, launched its annual Summer Supper series on the Woodruff House grounds in belatedly June. Ticket sales for the alfresco dinners—including two in July and August—contribute to the restoration and maintenance of the downtown belongings and a handful of other noteworthy addresses, including the Justin Matthews House, the site of the group's finale event on August 24. Located well-nigh directly across the Arkansas River from the Woodruff residence, the Matthews House was constructed in 1927 by Justin Matthews, Sr., one of the city's wealthiest businessmen and near prolific builders. In those days, an invitation to dine in the sprawling Spanish colonial abode would take been quite the coup. At present, with the mere click of a push button on the Quapaw website, y'all can reserve yours. quapaw.com

OUTDOORS

Florida
Shell Game

TIM BOWER

There are a lot of things to love about Florida'due south Forgotten Coast and Big Bend regions—corking line-fishing, celebrated architecture, modest towns, and friendly locals. And come summer, in that location'due south still some other: scallop flavour. Though commercial harvesting of the bay shellfish—which are smaller and sweeter than ocean scallops—was banned in the mid-1990s, from now until the end of September amateur divers can still scoop upwards enough for a tasty dinner. And if 2016 is whatever indication, it'll be easy, fun piece of work. "Final year was one of the best years I've seen, a bumper crop with the water so clear," says Rick Davidson, a guide out of Sea Hag Marina in Steinhatchee, the country'south scalloping epicenter. Dozens of outfitters in the area are willing to have yous out and show you the ropes. Mask, snorkel, and flippers donned, you'll driblet anchor near shallow sea-grass beds—typically during a slack tide for best results—and there in the warm h2o, no more 4 to eight feet deep, you'll be able to collect the scallops by hand or with a small dip net earlier dropping them into a mesh pocketbook. Back on dry land, plenty of waterfront restaurants will prep the solar day'due south grab. Davidson'south preferred recipe: "Grilled only with some garlic and lemon butter." ncbs.ifas.ufl.edu

ART

Georgia
Popular Civilisation Pop-Upwardly

Imagine if Andy Warhol—the man who introduced the "fifteen minutes of fame" concept—could experience social media and its steady diet of up-to-the-second news. "Warhol'south work straddled the worlds of art, manner, media, music, and glory," says modern and contemporary art curator Michael Rooks of the Loftier Museum of Fine art in Atlanta, which is exhibiting Andy Warhol: Prints from the Collections of Hashemite kingdom of jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation through September 3. "His influence is magnified today by our electric current obsession with all those things." Many of the artist's most iconic works were created by pressing ink through frames—the indelible Campbell'due south Soup can and Marilyn Monroe's portrait, for case, both of which are amidst the 250 pieces on brandish. "This retrospective shows the whole arc of his career while demonstrating how important printmaking was to everything he did," Rooks says. Though the prints steal about of the spotlight, the show will likewise include mixed-media pieces and album art. The record covers will hang alongside listening stations playing cuts from Warhol's famous friends the likes of Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones. loftier.org

Nutrient

Kentucky
Party Ban

No matter where the chef J. Steven Brockman lives, you can bet there'll be a garden. (On the Brockman punch list, a vegetable plot is correct up in that location with running h2o.) You can imagine his excitement over the ii-acre spread and heirloom apple orchard that came with his new gig as the executive chef at Shaker Village of Pleasant Loma, the nation's largest restored Shaker community, just southwest of Lexington. The produce that sprouts from the ground there ends upwardly in the kitchen of the village'due south on-site restaurant, Trustees' Table, and supplies special events such as the annual Hard Cider Fustigate, this yr on September nine. "I piece of work with our farmers so that whatever is coming from the garden goes direct onto the card," Brockman says. At the September party, he'll dish out cider-glazed pork abdomen with grits, pumpkin bread topped with duck confit and cranberry apple enjoy, and butternut squash gnocchi with wild mushrooms, leeks, and fennel in a hazelnut brown butter. Spread across snacking stations, his creative culinary bites volition complement a selection of local and business firm-fermented apple ciders made from historic varieties such as Black Twig, Grimes Gilded, and Virginia Winesap. Drinkable up. An apple tree a day keeps the doctor abroad, right? shakervillageky.org

OUTDOORS

Louisiana
Duck, Duck, Goose

Gueydan is a small boondocks, but it's a big-time duck-hunting destination. Located in the center of Acadiana, southwest of Lafayette, the tiny customs (population 1,400) was founded in 1884 by brothers Jean-Pierre and François Gueydan, who bought forty chiliad acres of marsh "unfit for tillage." And that was exactly the point—the swampy marshland is a sportsman's paradise, where mallard, pintail, canvasbacks, redheads, and wood ducks remain plentiful (geese, too). In fact, as of 1977, it's officially trademarked the Duck Capital of America, thanks to the efforts of Les Dames de Gueydan, a local women's gild. "We get people here from all over the world, the hunting is so skilful," says Jerrod Broussard, president of the Gueydan Duck Festival (August 24–27). The 4-twenty-four hours off-white is a good reason to scout the location while enjoying skeet-shooting tournaments, zydeco concerts, the state's official duck- and goose-calling competitions, and an open-air cooking contest. Sample all the duck you want, then come up back in flavor in November and purse your own. duckfestival.org

SPORTING

Maryland
Friend in the Field

In the mid-nineteenth century, long before gold retrievers became the Us' favorite family pet, the dogs were bred equally hardworking upland game and waterfowl hunters in England and Scotland. Even today, properly trained goldens (and Labradors, Chesapeakes, and flat coats) brand standout hunting companions. "All retrievers are quintessentially loving dogs—e'er happy and loyal—who develop a special bond with hunters," says Jackson Medel, curator at the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury. The museum celebrates the atypical pups with a new exhibit, Retrievers: The Hunter'southward Best Friend , which opens August 4 and will display approximately 30 paintings and sculptures. The timing couldn't be better. From September 22 to 30, Salisbury also hosts the Golden Retriever Guild of America's National Specialty, where the brood'southward meridian canines evidence off their skills during tracking, retrieving, and other field trials. wardmuseum.org

LITERATURE

Mississippi
The Write Stuff

The state that sparked the high-wattage imaginations of Faulkner, Welty, Foote, and Hannah continues to produce top literary talent. On Sat, Baronial xix, at the Mississippi Book Festival in Jackson, hear from such modern-day Magnolia Land writers as Beth Ann Fennelly, Richard Ford, Greg Iles, Michael Farris Smith, and Julia Reed. They'll join more than 150 additional authors for one jam-packed twenty-four hours of volume talks, panels, Q&As, and readings. The annual volume political party, held on the lawn of the land capitol, celebrates the past, present, and future of Mississippi'southward lofty literary tradition. Topics covered range from Southern gothic to new fiction to everyday entertaining. Thursday night's early-bird outset event at Cathead Distillery will celebrate the new Mississippi Encyclopedia, a projection that began back in 2003. It's the starting time encyclopedic treatment—all one,451 pages of it—given to the country since 1907. Finish up at the post-festival fustigate: a special live Thacker Mountain Radio broadcast on Saturday nighttime. "We invite local dejection legends to play," says Holly Lange, the festival'south managing director, "and the party goes all night long." msbookfestival.com

OPENING

N Carolina
OF LAKE MIND

Chef Joe Kindred is taking over the lakeside joint where he grew upwardly eating charcoal-broil and fried bologna sandwiches, and he'south letting his flag fly for nostalgic nutrient. Fried chicken sandwiches, popcorn shrimp, and skillet cheeseburgers are the electric current preoccupations of a locavore chef who has built his career on coming home—kickoff with the much-ballyhooed Kindred eating house, in his hometown of Davidson, and at present with Hello, Sailor, a sunny spot with a three-tiered patio that is set to open in early fall on nearby Lake Norman. "Jack's was the restaurant in this edifice when I was a child, and I thought information technology was so cool to cease there for charcoal-broil and hush puppies," Kindred says. "I want my kids to have the aforementioned fun nutrient memories I practice." N Carolina'south bounty of fresh produce won't exist ignored, though. "The bill of fare will still be chef-driven and seasonal," he says. To start, for example, he plans to offer ii flavors of soft-serve: vanilla and local peach. Yes, you can society a swirl. kindreddavidson.com

Art

South Carolina
A BRIT Down Southward

Armed with paintbrushes and pigments, Marking Catesby fix out from England to Charleston about three hundred years ago. An artist with an explorer's middle, Catesby spent four years paddling the Lowcountry's cypress-lined creeks and picking his way through maritime forests to paint the
young colony'due south exotic birds, reptiles, fish, and mammals. Despite the perils of transoceanic travel and centuries tucked inside the Regal Library, the paintings—40-four of which are now included in the exhibition Artist, Scientist, Explorer: Mark Catesby in the Carolinas at the Gibbes Museum of Fine art in Charleston through September 24— remain in remarkable condition. The brilliant azure of a blue jay'southward feathers and the deep greenish of a jumping frog are as vibrant today as they were when Catesby put watercolor to page. "Every bit often as he could, he sketched and painted from life," Gibbes executive manager Angela Mack says. "He tried to capture his subjects in the wild, and unusually for his time, he presented them in their natural settings." Except for the rattler, found snoozing at the foot of his bed one forenoon. That sketch shows the coiled ophidian plainly silhouetted on paper. gibbesmuseum.org

DRINK

Tennessee
A Whiskey Mixer

How does a low-primal meeting of half a dozen friends and their favorite bottles of bourbon become a blowout whiskey tasting for hundreds of eager imbibers? "Somebody was talking virtually making our become-togethers more formal," says Chris Thomas, founder of the inaugural Southern Whiskey Club gathering in Franklin. "I thought, 'Why don't nosotros call upwards some of our favorite distilleries and see if they'll join us?'" Turns out, it didn't take much convincing. On August 5, more than than thirty of those outfits—ranging from such bourbon bedrocks as Buffalo Trace of Frankfort, Kentucky, to experimental distillers similar High Wire of Charleston, S Carolina—will head to the charming picayune town s of Nashville. Come up for the all-day liquor samples, merely stay for the food. Among the credentialed chefs showing up to man the stoves are Jeremiah Bacon of the Macintosh in Charleston, David Bancroft of Acre in Auburn, Alabama, and Jean-Paul Conservative of Blueish Fume in New York City. Of grade, Thomas is already thinking even bigger. "If this goes well, we'll grow it," he says. "I'm envisioning a traveling whiskey road show." madesouth.com

FESTIVAL

Texas
Desert Flower

Marfa is a year-round haven for artistic gratis spirits, but each autumn, the creative grade descends en masse on the way-out-of-the-manner desert town for a long weekend of camping, yoga, hikes, workshops, concerts, and barbecue when the hotelier Liz Lambert's hip hangout El Cosmico hosts the annual Trans-Pecos Festival of Music + Dear (September 28–Oct 1). Guests can bunk somewhere in the compound's nomadic assemblage of vintage trailers, tepees, yurts, and safari tents. But they won't spend much time sleeping. A perfect twenty-four hours at the festival might begin at dawn with yoga, and continue with a class in medicinal plants, a communal barbecue, and a concert under the stars. (By headliners have included Nathaniel Rateliff & the Nighttime Sweats, Kacey Musgraves, and Calexico.) There'south a lot going on, but regulars also accept advantage of the isolation. "We have a lot of hammocks around," says Isadora McKeon, 1 of the organizers. "Nosotros fully back up but chilling out." elcosmico.com

OPENING

Virginia
Best in Grade

You know that feeling you get when you return to your alma mater for homecoming? Graduate Hotels, a pocket-size chain of boutique higher-boondocks lodgings, aims to bring back that aforementioned happy flood of memories, but without the drag of shared bathrooms. Each property—there are hotels in Athens, Georgia; Oxford, Mississippi; and Charlottesville, Virginia, among other cities—layers in details that reference local tradition. The Graduate Hotel Richmond, the group's latest bespoke retreat, is slated to open this summer. But you don't have to be a Virginia Democracy University Ram to appreciate the Richmond hotel's preppy-chic artful, axiomatic in custom plaid pillows, navy-bluish guest-room walls, and other homegrown touches. "Arthur Ashe grew up in Richmond, so we have a wall of framed vintage chunky glasses similar the ones he wore," says Andrew Alford, the group's chief creative officeholder. Why is there a portrait of an American foxhound hanging in every guest room? Other than the fact that it is the state canis familiaris of Virginia, Alford says, "Everybody loves a beautiful domestic dog." graduaterichmond.com

CONSERVATION

Washington, D.C.
This Land is Your State

D.C. needs a deep clean. This is non political commentary: We are referring, of form, to the detritus and weeds that accumulate at the city's more than than twenty national parks, monuments, and historic sites—from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and the National Mall to Theodore Roosevelt Isle and Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, a rare undeveloped patch of metro D.C. Over 20 million people visited the city last year, which means those much-loved destinations saw a whole lot of foot traffic. To help keep these Commune gems looking their best, clear your calendar on Saturday, September 30, for National Public Lands Mean solar day. Americans from coast to coast volition be celebrating the patriotic vacation by building trails, yanking weeds, planting trees, and picking up litter. In 2016, more than two hundred D.C. volunteers spent the morn working in Stone Creek Park, the country'southward third oldest national park, founded by Congress on September 27, 1890. This twelvemonth, NPLD crews will return to Rock Creek to focus on invasive species removal. Wherever
you terminate up—many other sites will be hosting cleanups, too—it'due south an opportunity to go your hands dingy making "America'southward
cathedrals" shine. neefusa.org

MUSIC

West Virginia
Playing That Mountain Music

You don't need a tape deal to take the stage at the Appalachian String Band Festival (August 2–vi) in Clifftop, which includes contests and concerts with both amateurs and pros. You need not be a musician to attend, either. Banjo pickers, fiddlers, guitar players, singers, and folk dancers from more than 20 countries and twoscore-viii states flock to the summer festival to gloat the musical traditions of Appalachia, sure—but so do the fans. Onstage performances keep the venue, Camp Washington-Carver, which opened as the state's first iv-H camp for African Americans in 1942, humming all mean solar day long. And pick-alongs and jam sessions keep it rolling well into the dark. "There's always somebody playing here," says Caryn Gresham of the Due west Virginia Division of Culture and History. End by for an afternoon or pitch a tent (or book a hotel) and stay the duration. wvculture.org