Forty years ago in Birmingham, air pollution from the steel industry and other sources regularly caused a thick toxic yellow haze over downtown and surrounding areas. It was literally making people sick. A group of young activists, inspired by federal Clean Air legislation and the first Earth Day, formed a group they called Greater Birmingham [...]
Black & White has a great discussion of the new 1200-acre Red Mountain Park that is unfolding on land purchased from U.S. Steel West of I-65. The area, which is planned to include trails and visitor centers, is likely to put Birmingham at the top of the listings for public open space per resident, according [...]
Her great contribution to the field of adoption and its understanding has often been the main focus of attention in looking back on her work. Betty Jean Lifton, known to friends as BJ, died November 19, 2010, leaving, besides her people, some wonderful books in the field of adoption. She is known for having contributed [...]
The Birmingham Business Journal reported Wednesday that the Jefferson County occupational tax violates the Alabama Constitution. The occupational tax had been passed in a special legislative session last year in August of 2009, and it would have applied to anyone who works in Jefferson County, regardless of whether they already have to pay for professional [...]
Read popular books on the new economic model described as collaborative consumption, and explore new ways of thinking about making a living and getting a life.
Romare Bearden (1911-1988) was known for his work with collage, among other things. I was lucky enough to find a Wikipedia posting of his ‘Patchwork Quilt’ (1970) – now in the Museum of Modern Art – created of cut-and-pasted cloth and paper with synthetic polymer paint on composition board. Bearden was the leader of the [...]
An exhibition of the work of Spiral, an African-American Art Collective from New York in the 1960′s, opens December 5, 2010 in the Bohorfoush Gallery at the Birmingham Museum of Art and will be in place until March 6, 2011. The show includes work by Romare Bearden, Hale Woodruff, Norman Lewis, Richard Mayhew, Emma Amos, [...]
The arrest of activist Rosa Parks occurred on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery and led to the 381-day long Montgomery Bus Boycott organized by Martin Luther King. Prior to the event she had taken a course in Race Relations at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee where civil disobedience had been discussed and suggested. She [...]
For the first time ever, a federal court has issued a preliminary injunction ordering the destruction of hundreds of acres of genetically engineered sugar beet seedlings. The ruling came in response to a suit filed by Earth Justice and the Center for Food Safety representing the claims of a farmers, environmental organizations and consumers. United [...]
Calcedeaver Elementary School is located in Mt. Vernon, north of Mobile, Alabama on the edge of the MOWA band of Choctaws reservation, and it features a Choctaw language and culture program. Editor Mark Cherrington of the Cultural Survival Quarterly (summer, 2007) describes in detail how the program saved the school, bringing it from a 68% [...]
The Gulf Restoration Network has documented the work of 95 community leaders, including representatives of national and international environmental, social justice and fishermen’s groups, who met at Weeks Bay, Alabama October 4-6, 2010 to draft a set of principles to guide the recovery process. To quote from the document: “The oil is still here, and [...]
This weekend you can visit a group show of “fire-born art” for the holidays at Kevin Irwin’s Studio at 2330 Second Avenue South: Friday, December 3, 5-9; Saturday, December 4, 9-5; Sunday, December 5, 11-5. You can see photography, paintings, pottery, metal with encaustic wax, plants and handmade pots, wood-cuts and fabric art. Click here [...]