“The South is like my air,” says the Pulitzer-winning poet who now lives in Atlanta. “It’s who I am. It has everything to do with what I’m willing to put down and what I’m afraid to say.”

Brown talks some exquisite smack in the first episode of “Southern Storytellers,” a three-part docuseries by PBS, Arkansas PBS and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Craig Renaud that showcases the top talkers below the Mason-Dixon line. It debuts Tuesday, July 18, on GPB, Channel 8.

Brown joins a cavalcade of artists from the worlds of literature, music, film and television, including actors Billy Bob Thornton and Mary Steenburgen; writers Natasha Trethewey, Jesmyn Ward, David Joy, Angie Thomas, Qui Nguyen, Michael Twitty, Michael Waldron; and recording artists Jason Isbell, Lyle Lovett, Adia Victoria, Amanda Shires, Justin Moore, Thao Nguyen and Tarriona “Tank” Ball.

Like a bird dog on point, the filmmakers track these creators — who hail from the mountains of Appalachia to the Gulf of Mexico — back to the communities that formed them. The interview subjects read or perform their work and muse on their identity as Southerners with a mix of unsentimental toughness and jasmine-scented lyricism. The results feel so humid and evocative, expect your television to bead with sweat. Interspersed with these contemporary artists is archival footage of legends from the past: William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Ralph Ellison, Maya Angelou and a witty Tennessee Williams.

“‘Southern Storytellers’ comes from our desire, as native Southerners, to show the South in an authentic light,” says Courtney Pledger, executive director and CEO of Arkansas PBS. “And we can think of no better way to do that than through the experiences of the region’s writers and creators who are able to engage us, move us and take us to a deeper understanding of such a dynamic place and its people.”

So don’t expect cornpone or hoop skirts and seersucker suits.

“I wanted to get past the tired stereotypes — there are so many stereotypes — and the romanticizing and present the complexity of this place,” says Renaud, 49, who grew up in Little Rock and went to Central High School, the 1957 desegregation of which cast the school into the national spotlight during the civil rights movement.

“The South is always front and center of where the country is, it’s at the very center of our psyche as a country, and I think that has always been the case. The South has something to teach us because of where (the country) is at now, with so much polarization.”

You will see graveyards, dogs (Billy Bob Thornton pushes his arthritic pup in a pram) and a ringneck snake. And befitting the region that gave the world country, jazz and the blues, “Southern Storytellers” features a moody musical score. If an old trope does show up, it gets updated and repurposed. For example, roots singer Adia Victoria is seen planting a magnolia tree.

“I’m reclaiming the magnolia for my people, as a symbol of Black liberation,” she says, and moans her song “Magnolia Blues,” which opens her acclaimed album “A Southern Gothic.”

About his Vietnamese features, Emmy-winning screenwriter Qui Nguyen, who grew up in Arkansas, observes, “When most people think of what a Southerner looks like, they likely wouldn’t guess this face, yet I am completely part of the Southern fabric.”

Portraying the region’s diversity was a foregone conclusion, says Renaud, a default setting in talking authentically about the region. “Diversity was the easy part,” he says. “Look at all the people winning the prizes. Jericho Brown’s name kept coming up over and over.”

When Renaud approached Brown, the poet saw the opportunity as a full-circle moment.

“When I was growing up, around age 14 or so, I watched PBS to see the work of Marlon T. Riggs, a Black, gay filmmaker who made ‘Ethnic Notions,’ ‘Tongues Untied,’ ‘Color Adjustment’ and ‘Black Is ... Black Ain’t,’” says Brown. Riggs’ films examine past and present representations of race and sexuality. “He gave me a road map. I already knew I was Black, but I was just figuring out how to be queer, so I feel I owe PBS a huge debt. And I am always anxious to tell the truth about the South.”

Of his upbringing, he says, “Even as a kid, it was clear to me that I had something to reclaim from the South. In school, people were so often divided into teams and sides in childhood games, and I can remember feeling like I just wasn’t on the right team. I had a teacher who said, ‘We lost the Civil War.’ I said, ‘Whoa, I didn’t lose that war.”

In church, though, he learned “poise” and discovered Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni. When Brown reads his poetry in “Southern Storytellers,” you can hear the exhortatory breathwork and cadences of the pulpit.

“The pride I hold for the South comes from the generations of Black people who came before me,” he says. “Their resilience, their stories, their intonations. Language was always foremost. I come from sharecroppers and enslaved people who went from porch to porch telling stories. These people imagined me, they made me possible.”

Making the series had an unexpected reward, he says. “What I enjoyed most was that it created a real sense of community,” says Brown, editor of the anthology “How We Do It: Black Writers on Craft, Practice and Skill,” which debuts July 4.

“It was nice to be reminded that I’m not the only person, the only storyteller out there, bearing witness. I feel a little less alone. When people watch this series, I hope they, too, feel a little less alone; I hope it reaffirms everyone’s humanity and complexity.”

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

Brown, with his long braids and gym-sculpted arms, struck up an especially fast friendship with author David Joy, a white, bushy-bearded mountain man and outdoorsman.

Joy recalls: “I stumbled into a hotel in San Diego, and as soon as the door opens, Jericho hollers, ‘There he is!” He comes up and hugs my neck. I’d never met him in my life. He leads me over to the hotel check-in, where he tells the clerk that he’s there to help me as I’ve never stayed in a hotel before. All that to say, we were kidding and joking and ragging each other from the moment we met.”

Renaud says, “I quietly eavesdropped on conversation between David and Jericho and realized I was hearing the best minds of their generation.”

Joy, whose novel “Those We Thought We Knew” debuts Aug. 1, was initially leery of the project. “I was a bit hesitant and skeptical in that I’m coming from a place that has historically been exploited by outsiders, misrepresented and reduced to poverty porn,” he says. But Renaud quickly changed his mind.

“What struck me immediately was that Craig was vibrantly genuine. His intent was righteous and his heart was in the right place. He asked the right questions.”

The author lives in the mountains of northwest North Carolina, which are in the throes of development. In the series, he observes, “I can write about a place, and it will disappear before the book comes out.”

So, the series hits some elegiac notes. “The South as we know it is vanishing,” Renaud says. “Culturally and digitally we’re getting more and more homogenized.”

However, “Southern Storytellers” aims to be a document of preservation. “What I take comfort from is that I think 200 years from now, people will still be talking about the work of the artists we have featured here. And I want to keep going. I want to profile more storytellers. There are so many.”

TV Preview

“Southern Storytellers.” Debuts 9 p.m. Tuesday, July 18, on GPB, Channel 8. Runs through Aug. 1.