By Shauna Stuart
AL.com
The month-long Magic City Poetry Festival celebration of poetry, history, and nature kicked off last week with Alabama poet laureate Ashley Jones’ remarks at the 60-year commemoration of the 1963 Palm Sunday march, the day ministers A. D. King, Nelson Smith, and John Porter led more than 500 demonstrators on a march from St. Paul United Methodist Church to Birmingham City Hall.
Jones’ verses were especially fitting — police used batons and police dogs to attack the demonstrators who marched on that Palm Sunday in 1963:
“What about us said/we were on fire? What said extinguish quickly,/fill up the hose and set the dogs loose? Could they smell/our confusion? Or/was it our singing?/Were our voices like sirens,/a chorus of blood?/We were wet black seeds/in that raw Birmingham flesh — we germinated.”/
At the end of the program, attendees filed out of the church to recreate part of the march down 6th Avenue to Birmingham City Hall. They stopped at the corner of Kelly Ingram Park in front of the Three Kneeling Ministers monument, a stone sculpture designed to pay homage to the clergy who helped organize the demonstrations of the 1960s.
Upcoming events include:
Saturday, April 15
Poetry in the Gardens
Birmingham Botanical Gardens, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The Magic City Poetry Festival and Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens will host a leisurely guided tour through the Birmingham Botanical Gardens with the works of three Alabama poets— Salaam Green, Rose McLarney, and Justin Gardiner.
DETAILS: Birmingham Botanical Gardens|2612 Lane Park Road| Birmingham, AL, 35223
Tuesday, April 18
Poetry Matters, A Celebration of Rhyme and Verse
Hoover Public Library, 6 to 8 p.m.
The Magic City Poetry Festival and The Hoover Public Library will feature a night of poetry on the main stage of the Library Plaza. Attendees will read original poetry and have the option to perform. Guests who plan to perform must register.
DETAILS: Hoover Public Library, 200 Municipal Drive Hoover, AL, 35216| Register here.
Wednesday, April 19
Black Formalisms: Where Aesthetics and Southern Sensibilities Collide – a virtual conversation with Marilyn Nelson and Harryette Mullen
Virtual, 5 to 7 p.m.
Black Formalisms is the brainchild of Magic City Poetry Festival board member Dr. Lamar Wilson, who had the idea to bring celebrated poets Nelson and Mullen together in a virtual conversation to talk about how the South informed their lives and work, as well as how Black literature has evolved over time.
Both writers have ties to Alabama. Mullen was born in Alabama. Nelson is not an Alabama native, but her father was a Tuskegee airman.
DETAILS: Virtual| Conversation will also be streamed at Tuskegee University.
City Council meetings temporarily relocated
citycouncil@birminghamal.gov
The Birmingham City Council will be holding the regularly scheduled meetings at the Boutwell Auditorium from May 2 through August 1 while the Council Chamber undergoes renovations.
The Council unanimously passed an ordinance to change the regularly scheduled meeting location to the second floor of the Boutwell Auditorium, 1930 Reverend Abraham Woods, Jr. Boulevard. The meeting time will remain 9:30 a.m every Tuesday.
Included in the renovation is upgraded seating with more handicap accessible accommodations, rewiring the electrical to improve lighting, sound and video quality for the audience members, new flooring and updated broadcasting equipment for residents following along remotely.
The meetings will still be livestreamed to the Birmingham City Council’s Facebook page during the temporary move.
The projected budget for the renovations include $234,149 for lighting/electrical; $28,296 for seating; $18,215, flooring for $15,732, design.
Negro Southern League Museum now certified sensory inclusive
birminghamal.gov
KultureCity has partnered with Birmingham’s Negro Southern League Museum (NSLM) to make the exhibits and all the programs and events that the venue hosts sensory inclusive. This new initiative will promote an accommodating and positive experience for all with a sensory issue that visits this extraordinary venue. The NSLM will begin offering the anticipated sensory bags at KultureCity Day on April 8 at 10 a.m.
Leading medical professionals trained NSLM staff on how to recognize those guests and fans with sensory needs and how to handle a sensory overload situation. Sensory bags, equipped with noise canceling headphones (provided by Puro Sound Labs), fidget tools, verbal cue cards, and weighted lap pads will also be available to all visitors at the NSLM.
KultureCity is a leading non-profit recognized nationwide for using its resources to revolutionize and effect change in the community for those with sensory needs, not just those with autism.
“Our communities are what shapes our lives and to know that the Negro Southern League Museum is willing to go the extra mile to ensure that everyone, no matter their ability, is included in their community is amazing,” said Uma Srivastava, Executive Director of KultureCity. “We’re honored to partner with the wonderful staff at the Negro Southern League Museum to provide a truly inclusive experience for all fans and guests.”
Sensory sensitivities or challenges with sensory regulation are often experienced by individuals with autism, dementia, PTSD and other similar conditions (1 in 6 individuals). With its new certification, the museum is now better prepared to assist visitors with sensory sensitivities.
