Sweet Tea: Take a look in a book

What’s your favorite book by a Southern author? When I was younger, I was riveted by a collection of short stories by Flannery O’Connor, stark and gothic and crackling with buried fire. I know we wouldn’t personally agree on many things, but I often wondered what she thought of the world, from what strange earth she grew in 1920s Savannah.

Good Southern authors are like that. They handle the myriad facets of Southern identity with care and nuance; the good, the bad, the undeniably ugly and the ineffably human. Through their words, our own prism is turned and we see our home with different eyes.

NEW HARPER LEE JUST DROPPED

Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” forever put Monroeville, Alabama, on the literary map and has become an enduring parable of Southern history. Lee died in 2016, but she left behind a lifetime of unseen writing.

Some of her previously unpublished short writings were just released in a collection called “The Land of Sweet Forever.”

• The collection features writing from early in Lee’s career.
• In “The Land of Sweet Forever,” set in a familiar small-town Alabama, she examines cultural assumptions about the South through the experiences of a visiting New Yorker.

A MAJOR DRUM MAJOR

Oluwamodupe “Dupe” Oloyede, is a Lithonia native who attended Southwest DeKalb High School.

Drum majors are the leaders of marching bands, the people you see high-stepping out front every college game day. It’s an honor and an art. (It also looks like a really great cardio workout.)

At Florida A&M University, head drum major Oluwamodupe Oloyede is giving crowds another reason to cheer. She’s the storied HBCU’s first female head drum major, and she hails from right here in Atlanta.

• Renaissance woman: Drum majors have a certain aura that sets them apart, especially at places like FAMU where the role is cloaked in myth and meaning. Oloyede, who’s often called “Dupe,” is Nigerian, can sing, dance, play the alto saxophone and has dreams of a career in theater.
• An elite sisterhood: Female drum majors, especially head drum majors, are still rare. At FAMU, like many schools, women weren’t allowed to perform with the school’s Marching 100 until the passing of Title IX in 1972. However, in 1951, a woman named Norma Solomon White joined the band in a non-marching, all-but-hidden role. She’s still going strong, and the two FAMU trailblazers got to meet at homecoming events this year.

WHO DOES HALLOWEEN THE BEST DOWN HERE?

The Krewe of Boo, a Mardi-Gras-inspired Halloween parade, puts a NOLA spin on spookiness.

• New Orleans: If there’s an opportunity for a parade, the good folks of New Orleans are going to deliver. The Krewe of Boo Halloween parade brings Mardi Gras energy via the city’s famed melting pot of beliefs and mythologies (and you know everything’s haunted down there). It hits the streets tonight.
• Savannah: If it’s ghosts you want, you can’t get better than Savannah’s famed ghost tours. Places like The Olde Pink House and Marshall House consistently rank among the country’s most haunted sites.
• Macon: You’ll have to mark your calendars next year for the annual Witches Float. Local witches (or just people in witch costumes) take to the Ocmulgee River in kayaks, canoes and paddle boards. I will say, “Float, my pretties!” has a little less of a wicked ring.

SIPS FROM AROUND THE SOUTH

TELL US SOMETHING GOOD