“For seven decades, the gospel singer Mavis Staples has troubled the opposition between chorus and soloist, background and lead.”
Faith
Posted inEditor's Pick
Could the Girls of Camp Mystic Have Been Saved?
“Dozens died in a Texas flood, dividing families over whether it was an act of God or adult failure.”
Posted inThe Atavist Magazine
The Good Catholics of Buffalo
With thousands of US soldiers dying in Vietnam, a righteous group of young New Yorkers embarked on a secret mission to bring the war machine to its knees.
Posted inEditor's Pick
For the Living of These Days
“Every summer, locals reenact the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, where Prosecutor William Jennings Bryan remains something of a hero. I wanted to see for myself why this story still resonates.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Nuns Trying to Save the Women on Texas’s Death Row
“Sisters from a convent outside Waco have repeatedly visited the prisoners—and even made them affiliates of their order. The story of a powerful spiritual alliance.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Acts of the Apostles
“In a community hard-hit by opioids, one pastor is knocking on motel room doors to invite people to worship. The message: We’re all broken people.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
What It Means to Speak With the Dead
“A session with a Florida medium in a time of genocide.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Inside the Kenyan Cult That Starved Itself to Death
“During covid-19 a preacher lured thousands of people into a remote forest. Then he told them to stop eating.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Right-Wing Media and the Death of an Alabama Pastor: An American Tragedy
“Bubba Copeland was the heart and soul of his community—mayor, businessman. When a website exposed his deepest secrets, his life wasn’t the only thing that was destroyed.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
We’re More Ghosts Than People
“I believe in redemption in the same way that I believe in heaven: I feel required to.”