When Chuck Reese founded the popular online publication The Bitter Southerner in 2013, he did so with the sole intention to debunk stereotypes of Southerners and the region itself. With his wife Stacy Reese, a new endeavor called Salvation South continues to lift Southern voices. The new online journal addresses today’s Southern narrative, inviting conversation from all sides of timely issues, including the middle. Chuck and Stacy Reese joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes to share their new Southern writing and lifestyle content platform.
Eight years after the first publication of the Bitter Southerner, Chuck now feels a broader perspective on Southern identity might find a welcoming audience. “If you look at the South and the problems that it has, stereotypes are kind of the least of our problems,” he said. “I think it’s the division that’s been sewn all over the country, but particularly, in many ways, in our region. And what I wanted to do with Salvation South was put together a publication that at least could serve as a model for civil conversation.” He added, “One of the things that we decided to do was to take on weighty topics like that, but also let people write about their mama’s pimento cheese dressing.”
“This is basically the icing on the cake of what we’ve been doing already,” said Stacy, herself a born-and-raised Southerner as well as a designer and crafter whose home goods have been sold through The Bitter Southerner. “Seeing the incivility and the discord that we’ve got among neighbors in a region that is known for neighborliness really broke my heart. So I’m just as passionate about [working with] Chuck and bringing a new voice where people who disagree can come together over apple cobbler.”
Stacy’s other company, Down South House and Home, carries the banner in which she sells her home goods creations. But she plans to develop another line of Southern-style domestic items for Salvation South’s online retail component in a bit of a different genre than her more traditional wares.
“A lot of what you see in gift stores are snarky or tacky, or downright lewd, and with Down South, I was hoping to make products that could go in any kitchen that I could give to my mama without making her blush,” she said. “With Salvation South, I would like to bring some more funkier logos with traditional southern thoughts — a bit more of a contrast of where the South is. The South is a very modern region with very modern thoughts, but we still love a lot of traditions of the South, so I would like to bring those traditional concepts into a more modern visual representation.”
