Seeking submissions of… (images)

Not everybody wants to sit down and write something. But that shouldn’t stop you from contributing to level:deepsouth, if you want to. The images section is for sharing digitized versions of old photos, flyers from shows, ‘zine covers, artwork . . . One important part of this project is publishing stories about the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s in the Deep South, but there’s also room for photographers and artists to include images of what was going on back then. (And don’t worry about bad hair and embarrassing outfits— we all looked like that.)

To know more about how to submit, check the guidelines.

tidbits, fragments, and ephemera 26: the mall edition

tidbits, fragments, and ephemera is a usually weekly but not always, sometimes substantial but not making any promises glimpse at some information and news related to Generation X in the Deep South.


Jackson’s Metrocenter Mall opens, 1978

Birmingham’s Riverchase Galleria opens, 1986

Underground Atlanta reopens, 1989

excerpt: “The original Underground Atlanta opened in the city’s viaducts in 1969 but closed in 1982 because of the perception that it was riddled with crime. The new version, resulting from a three-year overhaul by the Rouse Company, is at the original site but is three times larger. It offers 22 restaurants and clubs and nearly 100 retailers.”

The documentary Jasper Mall, 2020

The now-abandoned Montgomery Mall, 2021

Montgomery Mall opened in 1970 and was a thriving shopping center until the late 1990s. The mall closed in the 2000s, and parts of it were bought up by the City and the local school system. This video shows its center, the parts that weren’t bought up, in 2021.


level:deepsouth is an online anthology about growing up Generation X in the Deep South during the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. The anthology is open to submissions of creative nonfiction (essays, memoirs, and reviews) and images (photos and flyers), as well as to contributions for the lists.

tidbits, fragments, and ephemera 25

tidbits, fragments, and ephemera is a usually weekly but not always, sometimes substantial but not making any promises glimpse at some information and news related to Generation X in the Deep South.


Former South Carolina governor and Trump UN ambassador Nikki Haley born, 1972

Fifty years ago this month, “Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley, better known as Nikki Haley, was born on January 20, 1972, in Bamberg, South Carolina, to Sikh immigrants from Punjab, India. She attended local schools and graduated from Clemson University with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting.” Haley was elected governor of South Carolina in 2011. She was the state’s first female governor and the nation’s second Indian-American governor, after Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal.

“Cold Sunday” in the South, 1982

Forty years ago this week, on January 17, an unusually bitter cold front came down from Canada and made it all the way to the Gulf. That day, Jackson, Mississippi went down to -5° F, and Birmingham, Alabama went to -2° F.

The Alabama Forum newspaper, 1977 – 2002

description: “The Alabama Forum, published in Birmingham from 1977 to 2002 under editor June Holloway, was one of the longest-running news sources for the LBGTQ community in the state of Alabama. This digital collection consists of 245 issues, published from 1981 to 2002 and totaling more than 4,500 pages. [ . . . ] It was a repository of local and national news related to contemporary LGBTQ issues and an important venue for publicizing events of interest to the community. It also gave space to advertisers and, especially early on, provided a much-needed directory of friendly organizations and businesses. The publication enabled readers to share their thoughts and experiences in guest editorials, letters to the editor, and creative pieces, and to make connections via classified and personal ads.”


level:deepsouth is an online anthology about growing up Generation X in the Deep South during the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. The anthology is open to submissions of creative nonfiction (essays, memoirs, and reviews) and images (photos and flyers), as well as to contributions for the lists.