alice randall

What is a monument but a standing memory? An artifact to make tangible the truth of the past. My body and blood are a tangible truth of the South and its past. The black people I come from were owned by the white people I come from. The white people I come from fought and died for their Lost Cause. And I ask you now, who dares to tell me to celebrate them? Who dares to ask me to accept their mounted pedestals?

You cannot dismiss me as someone who doesn’t understand. You cannot say it wasn’t my family members who fought and died. My blackness does not put me on the other side of anything. It puts me squarely at the heart of the debate. I don’t just come from the South. I come from Confederates. I’ve got rebel-gray blue blood coursing my veins. My great-grandfather Will was raised with the knowledge that Edmund Pettus was his father. Pettus, the storied Confederate general, the grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, the man for whom Selma’s Bloody Sunday Bridge is named. So I am not an outsider who makes these demands. I am a great-great-granddaughter.

Caroline Randall Williams "You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body Is a Confederate Monument"  NY Times Op-Ed (2020)

Such is the powerful, articulate, unabashed voice of guest, Caroline Randall Williams, whose family roots display an impressive cultural richness. She is the daughter of best-selling author Alice Randall, with whom she co-wrote the award-winning Soul Food Love cookbook and Avon Williams III, a well-known former diplomat who served as acting Principal Deputy Counsel of the Department of the Army, and first cousin to former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Caroline's grandfather was a prominent civil rights lawyer and former Tennessee state senator, Avon N. WIlliams Jr.. She is also the great-granddaughter of scholar Arna W. Bontemps, the African-American poet, novelist and noted member of the Harlem Renaissance. Yet this cultural royalty is juxtaposed against her DNA verified results. She is the great-great granddaughter of Edmund Pettus, US senator of Alabama, senior officer of the Confederate States Army and grand dragon of the Klu Klux Klan. 

A gifted writer, Caroline is able to bridge history with current conditions, articulating it in a way that causes you to sit there shaking your head and say, those are the right words. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Caroline is a multi-genre writer, educator, performance artist, and Writer-in-Residence at Vanderbilt University. As the host of the new Discovery+ show Hungry For Answers (produced by Viola Davis), Caroline travels the United States uncovering the fascinating, essential and often untold Black stories behind American food.

Join me, your host Brad Johnson , at the corner table for an explorative conversation with Caroline discussing her heritage, accomplishments and pursuits, along with acknowledgement of privilege, self-expectation and thoughts on contemporary issues, connecting the past with the present. 

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This week on Inside Julia’s Kitchen, we’re celebrating what would have been Julia’s 109th birthday with an entire episode devoted to the #JuliaMoment, when we ask our guests to share their favorite Julia memory, moment or how she has inspired them in their career. Host Todd Schulkin shares Julia moments both personal and professional from guests Grace Young, Stephen Phelps, Erin Jeanne McDowell, Jackie Summers, Julia Bainbridge, Matthew Raiford, Alice Randall, Daniela Galarza and Nancy Oakes. Tune in to hear what these culinary stars have to say about Julia and her continuing legacy.

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This week on Inside Julia’s Kitchen, host Todd Schulkin welcomes award-winning author Alice Randall. They discuss the Oxford American’s new food issue, guest edited by Alice, and re-examining Southern food writing. Plus, Alice shares her Julia Moment. 

Image courtesy Alice Randall.

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Alice Randall, a Harvard-educated novelist, professor, and songwriter, is the only African-American woman to have written a #1 country hit. She joins us to talk about her career as a songwriter and so much more EPISODE DETAILS: PART ONE  The guys chat about why Paul has been M.I.A. and announce a new contest for a personalized signed copy of Lamont Dozier's new autobiography. PART TWO - 7:13 mark Scott gets together with Alice Randall in Nashville to find out why her dad was so driven to highlight women's contributions to music; how she concluded that country lyrics are the modern day equivalent of metaphysical poetry and 17th Century Puritan sermons; the encouragement she received from Hal David; why she spent hours studying lyrics in the basement of the Country Music Hall of Fame; the reason that Steve Earle cussed her out; why it's harder to be a woman in country music than to be black; and her theory that country music should be defined as three chords and four specific truths. ABOUT ALICE RANDALL Alice Randall is a Harvard-educated African-American novelist who lives in Nashville and writes country songs. Along with Matraca Berg, Alice co-wrote Trisha Yearwood’s chart-topping single “XXX’s and OOO’s (An American Girl),” making her the first—and, so far, only—African-American woman to write a #1 country hit. Additionally, she co-wrote Mo Bandy’s Top 40 hit “Many Mansions,” as well as Judy Rodman’s “Girls Ride Horses, Too,” which was the first Top 10 written by either Alice or her co-writer, future Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer Mark D. Sanders. After forming an early songwriting partnership with Steve Earle, Alice went on to have her songs recorded by a long list of artists, including Holly Dunn, Marie Osmond, Glen Campbell, Jo-El Sonnier, Walter Hyatt, Pat Alger, Matraca Berg, Radney Foster, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Crystal Gayle, and Hank Thompson. Along with Mark O’Connor and Harry Stinson she wrote the groundbreaking “Ballad of Sally Anne.” Alice is a New York Times Bestselling novelist who has authored The Wind Done Gone, Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, Rebel Yell, Ada's Rules, and the forthcoming Black Bottom Saints, which is partially inspired by her formative years in Detroit. In addition to her fiction writing, Alice teamed with her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, to write Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by One Hundred Years of Cooking in a Black Family. She is currently a Writer-in-Residence at Vanderbilt University where she teaches a number of courses, including Country Lyric in American Culture. She was featured in Ken Burns’ acclaimed Country Music documentary spotlighting the often-overlooked contributions of African Americans to the genre’s development. Not only does she write songs, but Randall thinks deeply about, and is deeply moved by, the literary value of song lyrics.   

American Songwriter Podcast Network