GWEN DERU
TODAY…
**ENSLEY’S FOOD TRUCK THURSDAYS, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. at 601 19th Street in Ensley.
**EVERY THURSDAY HAPPY HOUR, 5:30 – 9 p.m. at the Kappa Komplex, 45 6th Avenue South.
**READ THE BIRMINGHAM TIMES. Catch up on the news!
**R&B & KARAOKE THURSDAYS at 4 Seasons Sports Bar & Grill, Happy Hour 4-8 p.m. with DJ SLIP mixing Live and hosted by KURVY KERRI and Le’DARIUS HILLIARD.
**THIRSTY THURSDAY at Hookah 114 17th Street No.
**WATCH LOTS OF MOVIES – Check out the Sidewalk Film Fest for lots more.
**COMEDIAN JASON BANKS at the StarDome Comedy Club.
**THIRD THURSDAY BLUES JAM, 7 p.m. at TrueStory Brewing.
FRIDAY…
**QUE’s BAR & GRILL GROOVIN’ on 19th Street in Ensley.
**LIT FRIDAYS WITH RIPCORD, 8 p.m. – 2 a.m. at 4501 Gary Avenue in Fairfield.
**ON THE BORDER and THE EAGLES TRIBUTE at Iron City.
**COMEDIAN RYAN NIEMILLER at the StarDome Comedy Club.
**ALL WHITE BLUES BIRTHDAY PARTY with MR. SIPP at Perfect Note
SATURDAY…
**WOODLAWN STREET MARKET, 12 p.m.
**CARIBBEAN BLOCK PARTY AND FAMILY FUN DAY, 2-4 p.m. at Fairfield Civic Center with kids activities, limbo line contest and $100 for the winner. FREE. Call (205) 427-0710 for more.
**SATURDAYS IN THE GARDENS at Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
**WINE DOWN HAPPY HOUR, 4-9 p.m. at Saferoom Lounge Bar.
**LIT ON 8TH at 6 p.m. with ANTHONY DAVID, LOGAN THE ENTERTAINER, PARTY ROCKERS, ALGEBRA BLESSETT and YUNG VOKALZ plus SHERRY B, YARBROUGH & CO., ERIC DUBOSE, 7EVEN RICH, MRS. ARETTA, ALISHA MICHELLE, JEREMY FLYY, WII, SWEET CHARLOTTE, GLENNWOOD, DJ MAVERICK and more.
**TRIBUTE TO LUTHER VANDROSS featuring JEREMY HILL at Perfect Note.
**COMEDIAN RYAN NIEMILLER at the StarDome Comedy Club.
**LADY BOSS: THE JACKIE COLLINS STORY at Dorothy Jemison Day Theatre at ASFA.
SUNDAY…
**WORSHIP AT THE SIXTH, 9:30 a.m. at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church.
**THE KIDS at the Sidewalk Film.
**THE MAGIC CITY NUTCRACKER at the Birmingham Museum of Art.
**FAMILY TIME, GOOD FOOD AND MOVIES.
**COMEDIAN RYAN NIEMILLER at the StarDome Comedy Club.
MONDAY…
**REGGAE MUSIC EVERY MONDAY NIGHT with DJ DUSTY, 8 p.m. at Black Magic 2904 Lomb Avenue.
**EVERY MONDAY is MONSLAYYY – THE CARIBBEAN WAY, 8 p.m. at the Vault with TRINI and BRENT TRINI-FRESH PIERRE. FREE.
TUESDAY…
**EVERY TUESDAY – TRUE STORY BREWINGS PRESENTS TUESDAY JAZZ SESSIONS, 7- 10 p.m., 5510 Crestwood Blvd.
**TASTY TUESDAYS at Platinum of Birmingham.
**EVERY TUESDAY LIT AND JAZZ with DAVID TALLEY AND FRIENDS, 7 p.m. at Lit on 8th, 518 Rev. Abraham Woods Blvd.
WEDNESDAY…
**INTERFAITH NOONDAY PRAYER SERVICES every Wednesday, Noon at Linn Park in Downtown Birmingham.
**REGGAE WEDNESDAY NIGHTS, 8 p.m. at Blue Onyx.
NEXT THURSDAY…
**READ THE BIRMINGHAM TIMES. Catch up on the news!
**STARDOME SHOWCASE at the StarDome Comedy Club.
NEXT FRIDAY…
**QUE’s BAR & GRILL GROOVIN’ on 19th Street in Ensley
**LIT FRIDAYS WITH RIPCORD, 8 p.m. – 2 a.m. at 4501 Gary Avenue in Fairfield.
**THE SIDEKICK SHOW at the StarDome Comedy Club.
**FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE KARAOKE WITH DOMINIQUE at Perfect Note.
NEWS TO USE…
**SEPTEMBER 1 – HOW TO UNCOVER NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES by Renasant Bank, at noon. Learn from business development experts the necessary strategies to create new business opportunities by taking part in an online discussion with the Nest’s Getting Your House in Order – How to Uncover New Business Opportunities. Join Renasant Bank’s DR. TRACEY MORANT ADAMS, guest speaker LARRY THORNTON with panelists BARBARA BURTON, Chalker Group and CORNELL WESLEY, City of Birmingham. Register at https://bit.ly/nestwebinar.
**SEPTEMBER 7 – ENSLEY GATHERING at TASTY TUESDAYS, 5 p.m. until with FREE Dinner Buffet and Drink Specials at Platinum of Birmingham. For more, call (205) 413-9846.
FOR FOOTBALL LOVERS…MAGIC CITY CLASSIC…
**MCC PARADE – The Magic City Classic Parade Registration is available. Registration ends on MONDAY. The MCC 2021 is in the Air…look for more info right here.
FOR PLANT LOVERS…
BIRMINGHAM BOTANICAL GARDENS …
**FALL PLANT SALE – Birmingham Botanical Gardens will host its annual Fall Plant Sale on Saturday, September 11, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. outdoors in the Gardens’ Formal Garden and Hill Garden in person at Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Hundreds of plants—many of which have been nurtured at the Gardens by the Friends’ dedicated volunteer growing groups—will be available for purchase. Proceeds from the sale will support the Friends’ mission: to protect, nurture, and share the wonders of Birmingham Botanical Gardens. Members of the Friends will enjoy first dibs on plant offerings through the Friends’ Members-Only Online Shopping (Friday, August 27) and Member In-Person Priority Shopping (4–5:30 p.m. on Friday, September 10). Members will also receive their annual member plant gift: a hydrangea ‘Blue Billow’ (Hydrangea serrata ‘Blue Billow’) courtesy of Leaf & Petal. Shoppers are encouraged to bring portable shopping carts such as a folding utility cart, collapsible wagon, or little red wagon to the sale. For more information about the Friends’ Fall Plant Sale, visit bbgardens.org/fallplantsale.
**GROW GREENER: DISCOVER ECO-FRIENDLY GARDENING starts September 12 with PUTTING GARDEN TECH TO WORK where BROOK McMINN will talk about garden robots, automated irrigation, smartphone apps, and more and share how cutting-edge technology can help you save time, money, and even the planet. Other topics will include OCTOBER 10- EXTENDING THE SEASON, NOVEMBER 14- GROWING GARLIC IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE and DECEMBER 12- SELECTING SEEDS FOR SPRING.
**ALABAMA’S AMAZING BIODIVERSITY is a part of the Saturday in the Gardens Series scheduled SEPTEMBER 18, 10 a.m. – noon. Discover the vast and varied ecosystems that contribute to Alabama’s incredible biodiversity. Also, enjoy a guided walk through the Bog and Kaul Wildflower Gardens with LARRY STEPHENS. Register.
TWG NEWS…
**AUDITIONS – Can you sing, play an instrument or write songs? Are you a student at UAB or Miles College? UAB and Miles College are forming a new Commercial Music Ensemble. Sign up to audition for Fall semester, 2021. Auditions will be held TODAY in UAB Hulsey Recital Hall, 6-8:30 p.m. The audition style is that of the Music of Motown that is open to any UAB or Miles College student. Sign up at www2.music.uab.edu/cme3. This ensemble will provide a unique opportunity for UAB and Miles students to receive credit performing the music of Motown. Auditioning is for two keyboardists, background singers, lead vocalists, percussionist, bassist, two guitarists, drummers, horn section (alto sax, tenor sax, trumpet, trombone and bari sax),
**WORLD GAMES TICKETS – Tickets for the World Games 2022 are now on sale. Birmingham takes center stage July 7-17 hosting The World Games 2022. Get your tickets. The Games will represent the highest level of competition for more than 3600 international athletes and 30 plus sports.
**CBS WILL TELEVISE TWG – CBS and Paramount Premium will televise Birmingham’s World Games. The World Games 2022 coverage will be provided by CBS Sports and Paramount Premium. CBS Sports Network will air one-hour highlight shows after each of the 10 days of competition, and the CBS Television Network will provide two one-hour specials. Coverage will also stream on the Paramount Premium service.
**CATHERINE WHITEHILL NAMED CO CHAIR – Olympic Gold Medalist and former Briarwood Christian School soccer standout CATHERINE REDDICK WHITEHILL has been named the Honorary Co-Chair of the World Games 2022. She joins former NBA MVP CHARLES BARKLEY and country music star RANDY OWEN on the current list of co-chairs. Go to www.twg2022.com for more.
FOR MOVIE LOVERS…
AT SIDEWALK…23rd ANNUAL SIDEWALK FILM FESTIVAL –
**TODAY: BLACK LENS SPOTLIGHT: SNCC – Now in its fourth year, the Black Lens track aims to shine a light on some of the most outstanding feature narrative and documentary films produced by and starring people of color. The films that are shown as a part of this program reflect the diversity of the Black experience in America, both past and present.
*SNCC – Directed by Danny Lyon, Documentary. Through his own photographs taken in the 1960s in the deep south, Danny Lyon tells the story of SNCC, one of the most effective grassroots organizations in American history. Using audio recordings of the songs and music that drove the movement, and audio interviews Lyon made in the 1980s of SNCC leaders, we witness the successes and crushing sacrifices of the movement that “broke the back of Jim Crow and changed America and changed the world, forever.”
Go to sidewalk@sidewalkfest.com for more.
FOR ART NEWS AND LOVERS…Around the World… (Some taken from ARTnews)
**BEYONCE AND JAY-Z POSE WITH LONG-UNSEEN BASQUIAT IN TIFFANY CAMPAIGN – The campaign is set to officially launch on September 2, followed by an accompanying print edition and film produced for the project. Visuals and additional media made for the campaign will be released throughout the year. In the Tiffany ad, Beyoncé wears an all-black diamond-studded Balmain look that is inspired by Audrey Hepburn’s dress in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Jay-Z, meanwhile, dons clothes intended to mimic Basquiat’s outfit when he appeared on the cover of New York Magazine in 1985. The Carters’ affection for Basquiat has been well-documented. The Brooklyn-born rapper purchased the Jean-Michel Basquiat painting Mecca (1982) in 2013 at Sotheby’s for $4.2 million. That work depicts a New York landscape with the word “Empire” scrawled across the top underneath the artist’s signature crown. The advertisement is part of a larger Tiffany’s campaign exploring modern love. For the project, Beyoncé and Jay-Z collaborated with Emmanuel Adjei, a director who worked on Beyoncé’s visual album Black Is King, to produce a short film. As part of the collaboration with the Carters, Tiffany & Co. has pledged to give $2 million dollars to fund scholarship and internship programs for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Before appearing in the new Tiffany campaign, the painting—which features the artist’s recognizable skulls and scrawled text with phrases such as such as “AMORITE”, “TEN YEN” and “DUNCE”—had been owned by two other jewelry moguls: Italian designers Alberto and Stefania Sabbadini. It had been spotted inside their Milan apartment, alongside other works by Andy Warhol, George Condo, Anselm Kiefer, Damien Hirst, Cindy Sherman, and René Magritte. The family purchased it in 1996 during a Sotheby’s London auction for nearly $253,000. According to a report by WWD, the Sabbadinis recently sold it privately to the luxury jewelry brand for an unknown sum.
**ARTIST CALIDA RAWLES’ ETHEREAL PAINTINGS OF WATER PUSH THE BOUNDARIES OF PORTRAITURE – In Calida Rawles’ world, Black bodies rise through sunlight and waves. The Los Angeles–based artist has earned widespread recognition for her exacting, ethereal depictions of water. Fittingly, Rawles’s work appeared on the cover of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s debut novel The Water Dancer in 2019. In her painting, a Black man is submerged in water. His arms are outstretched and curved like wings. The quiet of the image belies a formative point of the conflict: the protagonist, an enslaved man named Hiram Walker, is indelibly changed by the memory of his near-drowning in a carriage accident. Partly because of her work’s prominent placement on The Water Dancer‘s jacket and partly because her fan base includes figures like luminaries like Coates and painter Amy Sherald, and counts among her collectors Beth Rudin de Woody, Rawles has obtained widespread visibility. Her first solo exhibition, at Various Small Fires in Los Angeles, sold out before its opening night. Now, the artist has new representation at the global gallery Lehmann Maupinwith locations in New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London, and whose roster also counts Nari Ward, Cecilia Vicuña, and Catherine Opie. (Rawles will continue to be represented by Various Small Fires, which has spaces in Los Angeles and Seoul.) Her first solo exhibition with the gallery will take place in New York in September 2021, to coincide with the debut of a permanent installation at the new Hollywood Park/SoFi Stadium campus in Inglewood, California. Rawles, 44, is still settling into fame. In 2015, she turned her full attention to painting scenes of water. The relationship between water, memory, and Black trauma is central to Rawles’ practice. The idea, called water-memory, purports that water preserves the memory of what runs through it. Rawles thought to apply it to the Middle Passage, the triangular trade route through which enslaved Africans were brutally transported across the Atlantic. She also researched Jim Crow–era segregationist laws, which she found bore a relationship to aqueous spaces: they either relegated Black Americans to smaller, less appealing sections of pools or beaches, or outright barred them altogether from entering certain waters.
**THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTIONS…
SATURDAY – The Shop at the Collection’s series of artist pop-ups concludes this weekend Saturday 1- 4 p.m. with Beatrix Bell, a New Orleans–based jewelry designer, and Passion Lilie, a locally designed line of sustainable fashion. The two companies recently launched a collaborative collection of jewelry. Visitors will be able to meet the artists and learn more about their new endeavor this Saturday, August 28, from 1 to 4 p.m. Go to shohnoc.com to view their designs, some of which are exclusive to The Shop at the Collection!
FOR COMEDY LOVERS…
AT THE STARDOME COMEDY CLUB…
**TODAY…COMEDIAN JASON BANKS…Jason Banks is a stand-up comedian based out of Columbus, Ohio. His unique and refreshing style of comedy has helped him emerge as one of the top rising talents on the comedy scene. Jason’s natural ability to connect with any crowd with humorous yet over exaggerated stories has placed him as one of Columbus’s top comedians. After winning numerous contests throughout Ohio including the funniest person in Columbus contest at the Columbus Funny Bone, Jason has performed in some of the hottest clubs across the nation including The Apollo. In addition, Jason has been featured on Tru TV’s Laff Mobb’s Laff Tracks, Sirius Satellite Radio, and Kevin Hart’s LOL Network.
**FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY… COMEDIAN RYAN NIEMILLER… Despite being born with a disability in both arms, Ryan Niemiller, the self-proclaimed “Cripple Threat of Comedy” shares his views of the world from the perspective of the handicapped. Ryan began his comedy career in Los Angeles, California, and hasn’t looked back since, performing in clubs and colleges across the country. Covering topics such as dating, trying to find employment, and attempting to find acceptance in a world not designed for him, Ryan tackles the issues in a way that makes you think while laughing the entire time. With his quick wit, great timing, and a gimmick that only he can exploit, Ryan hopes to prove to the comedy world that he may be unarmed, but he is dangerous.
**NEXT THURSDAY…THE STARDOME SHOWCASE …Check out ‘the best’ of the best in Birmingham and what the surrounding area have to offer. You could witness a future star right here on the StarDome stage.
**NEXT FRIDAY THROUGH SUNDAY… THE SIDEKICK SHOW with JR. AND SPECIAL K… Steve Harvey has now made Kier Spates a regular member of the Steve Harvey Morning Show. He delivers daily funny tips as Junior at 7:48 a.m. EST, Monday through Thursday on the Steve Harvey Morning Show. Junior is also the spokesperson for the popular dating site Locateyourlove.com. Finally, you can catch Junior as the opening act on Steve Harvey’s Grand Finale Comedy Tour. Critics everywhere have responded by calling Junior “THE NEXT BIG THING IN STAND-UP COMEDY”. Comedian/Writer/Radio Personality/Actor Karl “Special” K. Douglas holds it down daily on The Rickey Smiley Morning Show; the funniest and fastest growing syndicated radio morning show in the country. His voice is heard by millions in over 65 affiliate markets.
COMING SOON…
**SEPTEMBER 10 – HIS SHADOW by LOY A WEBB at Encore Theatre and Gallery
**SEPTEMBER 12 – BATTLE OF THE BANDS (MEET ME AT THE 50th)
**SEPTEMBER 25 – SISTAH STRUT at Legion Field.
**OCTOBER 1-3 – EARTH LIBRARIES BOOK FAIR at 6 55th Place S.
**OCTOBER 10 – ERYKAH BADU at the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater.
**OCTOBER 31 – CLAY FALL FESTIVAL at Clay-Chalkville High School Football Field.
**JULY 7-17, 2022 – THE WORLD GAMES are coming. Look for more!
Well, that’s it. Tell you more ‘next’ time. People, Places and Things by Gwen DeRu is a weekly column. Send comments to my emails: gwenderu@yahoo.com and thelewisgroup@birm
