Special to The Times
A list of past winners who participated in Bards & Brews All Star Show convened at the Central Library downtown in Birmingham earlier this month to talk about the positive impact the poetry event has had on their lives.
Longtime host/poet Brian “Voice Porter” Hawkins urged the crowd of 156 people to support local artists and donate to keep Bards & Brews alive. A grant that has funded Bards & Brews has run out, and Birmingham Public Library is in need of the public’s help to keep the monthly program going, Hawkins said.
A Bards & Brews fundraising event will be held this year.
Poets who performed at the Feb. 3 event were: Blaque Diamond, BStucc, Jahman Hill, Jerri Hardesty, Lee Green, Michael Harriot, Mojo Mama, Shaun Judah, Shaunteka, and Voice Porter.
Tomika Glenn, a multiple poetry slam winner known on stage as Blaque Diamond, said the Birmingham Public Library’s popular spoken word poetry/beer tasting event helped build her confidence. Green said Bards & Brews, founded six years ago, provided the first opportunity in Birmingham for local poets to share their craft before a large audience.
Donations to support Bards & Brews can be made at www.bplonline.org/about/contributions/ or to Birmingham Public Library, Development Department, 2100 Park Place, Birmingham, AL 35203. For more information about Bards & Brews, call Brandon C. Smith of the Eastwood Branch Library at 205-591-4944 or email him at bcsmith@bham.lib.al.us.
Follow Bards & Brews on Facebook and look for more news on fundraising efforts on the BPL website at www.bplonline.org
