Welcome to Down Yonder – our weekly roundup where we’re sharing some good reads we recently came across.

Our goal is to showcase more perspectives on national and global issues through a rural lens. Expect Down Yonder on Saturdays. Enjoy!

High Country News: Report: Indigenous Voters Face Racism and Suppression

“It’s really creative how the Native vote is being disenfranchised by different states,” says Lillian Alvernaz (Dakota, Nakoda), the Indigenous justice legal fellow at the ACLU of Montana. 

Grist: How the Internet Transformed Climate Activism.

It all started with the Albany Pine Bush. The sand dunes in upstate New York, dotted with scraggly oaks, don’t appear to be much of a haven for wildlife. But the scrubby hills are bustling with creatures like the prairie warbler, spadefoot toad, and Karner blue butterfly. In the early 1970s, Don Rittner was determined to save them.

The Bitter Southerner: The Sound and the Fury of Jericho Brown

Jericho Brown doesn’t read his poems, he delivers them — a master of both page and stage.

The Conversation: Rain Plays a Surprising Role in Making Some Restored Prairies Healthier Than Others

Prairies once covered an enormous area of North America, but today have been reduced to a small fraction of this historical range.

Scalawag: Ballad of a Land Man: Kentucky Theatre Takes on Fracking

On a temporary stage deep in the Appalachian woods of Rockcastle County, Kentucky, Ezell was a different kind of production.