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Southbound Food Festival brought ten days of culture and culinary delight to Birmingham, Alabama from September 19-28. Because I’ve been such a busy bee lately, I was out of town for most of this year’s activities, unfortunately. But I couldn’t miss Rooted: Women in Food, which was held on Saturday, September 20 at the Market at Pepper Place. Not only was the market packed with female artisans, but there were cooking demos from female chefs, book signings, panel discussions and more.
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Dear Kennedy Ryan,
You are coming to Birmingham — my hometown — for the first time ever this weekend, and I won’t be there. You’ll be in town on Saturday, September 13, for the Behind the Ink book festival hosted by Me Time Book Club. But I’ll be in Orange Beach, Alabama, for the Alabama Writers Cooperative Conference. The irony is not lost on me that I’m missing a chance to meet one of my favorite writers because I’m attending a writing conference.
I wrote an article about the event that’s bringing you to the Magic City and the woman who worked hard to make all this happen — K. Reshay Williams. But I also wanted to write this blog post, which is really an open letter, to say all I would try to say if I had a chance to meet you this weekend.
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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court, spoke on Friday, September 15 at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham for the 60th anniversary memorial service in honor of the four girls killed in the 1963 bombing at the church.
Though she stressed that she was raised by parents who made sure she knew Alabama’s rich history, Jackson shared that this week marked her first visit to the state.
“I felt in my spirit that I had to come,” she said to us, explaining why she’d decided to make the trip. “I’ve come to Alabama to commemorate and mourn, celebrate and warn,” she said.
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Birmingham, you’ll soon be able to take family game night to another level with a special Magic City edition of the classic game MONOPOLY.
Top Trumps USA, the American division of Winning Moves International, creators of classic games and puzzles, recently announced that MONOPOLY: Birmingham Edition will debut in March 2024, under license from toy and game company Hasbro.
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Editor’s Note: See Jane Write now publishes personal essays by writers who identify as women, non-binary folks, and our allies. Learn more here.
“You’re either from Scotland or America,” she guessed as I passed around the after-school snacks. I was the newest employee of the daycare program, hired primarily because I had a valid driver’s license and a clear background check. Even though my entire driving career had taken place on the opposite side of the road up to that point, I found myself piloting a bus of a dozen young kids through roundabouts and past kangaroo crossing signs to the daycare center each day.
When I moved to Perth, Australia, two things became immediately clear: few Aussies knew where my home state was, and fewer understood me when I used my most beloved pronoun, Y’all. I switched cold turkey to “You guys” and learned to identify Alabama as being “just above Florida.” I figured most people pictured Georgia by this description but decided that was close enough.
My short time in Australia helped me better contextualize my identity as a Southerner. They weren’t very familiar with the state, much less the stigmas associated with it. It was freeing for me not to have to follow up where I’m from with an immediate qualifier. “I’m from Alabama and yes we have shoes and running water.” I roll my eyes at the stereotypes, but still, I have never been particularly proud to be from the South.
When I began my writing career, it was a skeleton in my closet.
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