A multimedia altar to Black Land Legacies in the Mississippi Hill Country
After eight years of development, Foxfire Ranch is pleased to announce that We Are the Promised Land launches to the general public on April 24, 2026 at wearethepromisedland.net.
We Are the Promised Land is a multimedia altar to Black land legacies in the Mississippi Hill Country curated by Annette Hollowell and free feral. With all the Black land loss stories in Mississippi, this project explores how the Hollowell family has kept their land for over a century, and what it has cost them.
The trailer is available here; you can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube and more. Join the community at https://substack.com/@wearethepromisedland to gain access to journals, essays, poems, sneak peek,s and behind-the-scenes footage. Follow the podcast on Instagram to keep abreast of our offerings as they are released.
The 80 acres that comprise Foxfire Ranch has been in Hollowell family hands for more than a hundred years. It has served the community as a music and event venue for nearly two decades. After years of supporting her parents’ vision for the place, Annette Hollowell has stepped into her inheritance as a steward. Beyond the usual blues shows and family reunions, Annette wants Foxfire to be a hub for artists and organizers from all over the south, if not the world. She knows her vision requires a great deal of collaboration not only with her living community, but with her ancestors and descendants as well. Producer free feral rides shotgun with Annette as they sift through a hundred years of her family’s labor on the land to inform the foundations she lays for the next century. Together, they explore how music, food, and other Sunday customs have kept Black communities in North Mississippi going strong for generations, and ask: What echoes of our ancestors suggest that we are their afterlife? How do we create the afterlife they deserve?
Foxfire invites the public to an online sharing session on zoom April 29 at 7:30 PM EST/ 6:30 PM CST/ 5:30 PM MT/ 4:30 PM PST. Here, audiences can meet some of the creative team, learn about the development process, get a sneak peak, and see behind the scenes content. RSVP at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/WEiQmXTgSx-V39A7a7hnpw.
We Are the Promised Land is produced by free feral, in collaboration with Annette Hollowell. Sound design was created by Muthi Reed and Cedric Wilson; Cedric also mixed each piece. The virtual altar was brought to life by Alleyha Dannett of Ancient Future Fourest, with photographs by Jasmine B Johnson and Jai Williams. Special thanks to the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, The Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, and the Mississippi Presenters’ Network.
We Are the Promised Land is made possible by generous support from the National Performance Network, the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production, Carpetbag Theater, The National Black Food and Justice Alliance, The New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane, The Panta Rhea Foundation, The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, Alternate Roots, The Big We Foundation, The Mississippi Humanities Council under a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and with financial assistance from the National Park Service and the Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance.
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