B-Metro April Issue

JEFF GOLDBLUM JUNE 2 THE 2019 VIVA HEALTH STARLIGHT GALA STARRING

& the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra

5p Reception 6p Performance

Call 205 975 4012 for details about the

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AlysStephens.org

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LIVE ONE M O L LY G R E E N + F R E E P E O P L E + G U S M AY E R + K E N D R A S C O T T TORY BURCH + ANTHROPOLOGIE + MADEWELL + SOUTH MOON UNDER

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N OW O P E N : U N T U C K I T + A N T H O N Y V I N C E N A I L S PA C O M I N G S O O N : U LT A + T H E W O O D H O U S E D AY S P A + M O B L E Y & S O N S

Stock & Trade Design Co.

Creating spaces that indulge the mind, body and soul.

Stock & Trade Design Co. offers a wide selection of custom upholstery, furniture, lighting, rugs, accessories, and unique objects, as well as, custom pieces from local artisans. We’re committed to providing beautiful and affordable home furnishings…pieces infused with clean lines, modern sensibility, and classic style, making them a desirable part of your décor for years to come. With our vast inventory of in-stock pieces, as well as, thousands of special order options, the design choices are almost limitless. We love the design process from start to finish, and are always excited about being a part of each client’s developing project, no matter how large or small. We believe your home should be your own personal refuge..a reflection of those who live there and their life style. It’s always a pleasure to watch each project evolve, and to help each client achieve their own personal ideal of home. Our design teams are always happy to assist with your design needs, as you work to make your space special and uniquely your own.

(In-Home design consultation available by appointment).

3048 Independence Drive | Birmingham, AL 35209 | 205-783-1350 11111 Emerald Coast Pkwy | Destin, FL 32550 | 850-460-8990 1357 Collier Road NW | Atlanta, GA 30318 | 404-799- 4250

www.stockandtrade.com

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IN THE SKY

Aircraft remodeling/refurbishment is one of the most exciting aspects of the aviation industry.

A

ircraft remodeling, more commonly referred to in my industry as refurbishment, can be quite an undertaking if your budget and timing expectations are not realistic.

As in most professions, I've had my share of difficult and lengthy refurbishment projects, but I typically look at refurbishment as one of the more fun elements of my job.

After years of my wife, Heather, the kids and I traveling together, that experience has migrated into Heather leading our company’s refurbishment projects from beginning to completion.

Having a natural eye for beauty, combined with the knowledge of functionality and practicality from years of having four children traveling with us, Heather brings a unique perspective to the design, paint and interior elements of an airplane.

Our most impressive refurbishment work to date has been completed without client oversight, allowing Heather to deliver her expression of design, class and style. The results have always exceeded all client expectations, including mine.

Heather and I both received the same hands-own real world experience growing up. Heather remodeled homes and worked in home design with her father Jon. I had the same mentoring experience in aviation with my father Steve.

Heather and I homeschool our children so we never miss a moment of family time regardless of which direction our navigation equipment points. The hands-own, realtime experience our four children receive while traveling with us is invaluable on every level. It would take 100 pages to illustrate its value.

In 2018 we spent six months on the road for projects in what seemed like every corner of the U.S., 2019 looks to be the same or even busier. I am often asked how we manage to effectively and efficiently relocate and accommodate six people (four of them under 9) from location to location? The answer again would take 100 pages but, here's the key elements: 1. A good partner and communication 2. Never quitting 3. Humility (four kids--oldest to youngest Tripp 9, Ava Kathryn 6, Jett almost 2, Pierce almost 1-- on the road in a hotel will make you humble) 4. A lot of planning/organization 5. Willingness to change all plans at a moment’s notice 6. A well seasoned team that respects, understands, and follows rules 1 to 5.

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Photography by Chuck St. John

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7. King Air 350 (this airplane meets every need we have, 10 seats, 300 kts, range, payload, and safety) These seven elements allow my team and family to effectively deliver aircraft globally on time on a routine basis.

Aircraft refurbishment all depends on the size of the aircraft, whether a total or partial refurbishment, paint or no paint, quality of materials used, and additional upgrades or upgrades required for legal conformity purposes.

Due to our company’s global outreach, we aren’t always able to use the same completion facilities. But over the years we have certainly narrowed our preferred completions facilities to a very short list. Steven's Aerospace and Defense is on the top of our list,. Denise DeYoung and her team at Steven's Aerospace routinely deliver a beautiful high quality product on time.

The paint completion process typically takes 30 to 40 days

whether large or small and ranges from $10,000 on the smaller side to $175,000 on the larger side. Interior solutions depend on the size of the aircraft and material used. The decision to install wifi alone is a $100,000 decision. Seat refurbishment can range from $1,000 per seat for a strip and re-dye to $75,000 for the most well optioned large cabin seat.

Major decisions and costs come with large refurbishment projects.

That’s why it is so important to associate with professionals that are well known for high-quality work.

Premier Group, Inc 205.841.6720 www.premiergroupinc.com

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team

EDITORIAL

Joe O’Donnell Editor/Publisher joe@b-metro.com

Robin Colter Creative Director robin@b-metro.com

Rosalind Fournier Associate Editor

ros@b-metro.com

ADVERTISING/MARKETING Joni Ayers Marketing Specialist joni@b-metro.com

Amy Tucker Marketing Specialist amy@b-metro.com

Spring Designer Showcase

Special 20% Savings* April 12 - 14

2800 Cahaba Village Plz, Birmingham, AL 35243 www.diamondsdirect.com *Discount excludes certified diamonds and price protected lines. Cannot be combined with other offers.

Elizabeth O’Donnell Accounting elizabeth@b-metro.com

Contributing Writers Javacia Bowser, Lee Ann Brown, Micah Cargo, Tom Gordon, Angela Karen, Joey Kennedy, Brett Levine, Lindsey Osborne, Cody Owens, Phillip Ratliff, Luke Robinson, Max Rykov

Contributing Photographers Billy Brown, Edward Badham, Marc Bondarenko, Cameron Carnes, Liesa Cole, Eric Dejuan, Larry O. Gay, Beau Gustafson, Angela Karen, Nik Layman, Jaysen Michael, Alison Miksch, Karim Shamsi-Basha, Jerry Siegel, Chuck St. John

B–Metro is published monthly by Fergus Media LLC 1314 Cobb Lane South Birmingham, AL 35205 (205) 202-4182 Printed by American Printing Co., Birmingham, AL

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A CUT ABOVE THE REST. SIZZLING PERFECTION FROM START TO FINISH.

PRIVATE DINING ACCOMMODATIONS FOR UP TO 300 GUESTS.

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METRO

contents APRIL 19

Volume 10 Number 6

Where I Live Grant Tatum, with wife Ferah and son Alex (pictured here) now calls West Homewood home, after spending 20 years in South Side.

What makes your neighborhood home?

34. An Edgewood Classic with Modern Flair

Matt and Laura Feld bought a Homewood fixer-upper and transformed it into a neighborhood gem.

Written by Jane Reynolds Photography by Tommy Daspit

40. Cleve’s Place

Legendary jazz musician Cleve Eaton takes his place in history.

Metro Birmingham Living

Written by Lee Shook Photography by Michael Sheehan and Karden Dickerson

46. A League of Their Own

The Negro Southern League Museum celebrates Birmingham’s rich history of African-American baseball.

AT

Written by Rosalind Fournier Photography by Chuck St. John

HOME

WHY WE LIVE WHERE WE LIVE

54. Where I Live

cover Studio GoodLight Photographed by Liesa Cole.

Design by Robin Colter.

2800 Cahaba Village Plz, Birmingham, AL 35243

www.diamondsdirect.com

Proud Partner of the Alabama Crimson Tide

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Proud Partner of the Auburn Tigers

(205) 201-7400

Cleve’s Place APR 2019 $4.99 04

67. Parade of Homes Highlights of the upcoming Parade of Homes.

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april

7447 0 8 0 7 0 2

Photography by Liesa Cole and Beau Gustafson

APR $4.99 US

Learn what the locals know about the diverse neighborhoods and surrounding ’burbs that collectively we call Birmingham.

A League of Their Own

Celebrating the legacy of Negro League baseball

www.b-metro.com

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Jazzman Cleve Eaton has earned his legendary status

DISPLAY UNTIL MAY 10, 2019

Photographer Liesa Cole with husband Stan Bedingfield, son Cole and family pet, Max.

OurLoveStory ASHLEY COLBURN AND TATE WEST

The love story of Ashley Colburn and Tate West began way back in middle school.

“We met at R.F. Bumpus Middle School in our 6th grade homeroom. I liked his blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Once I got to know him, I realized that we could easily become close friends. I enjoyed his sense of humor,” Ashley says.

Tate remembers it the same way. “We met in homeroom in 6th grade. She was really easy to talk to and be yourself around her. You could tell she was always happy and smiling. Her blue eyes showed compassion.” Their paths crossed again in high school and that is when each decided they had really found the one.

Ashley works as a diamond expert at Diamonds Direct. Tate is completing a bachelor of science degree in environmental science at The University of Alabama. Their wedding date is set for Saturday, July 27th, 2019.

Shopping for the Ring Ashley’s job as a diamond expert made the ring-buying process a breeze. “I picked it out based on what I knew she liked from listening to her ideas and looking at pictures she had shown me before. I was

able to pick the right setting and the diamond. The ring has a round, classic solitaire diamond with excellent fire and brilliance. I love this ring because it’s special and one-of-a-kind,” Tate says. “Emily made the process easy and stress-free. I knew as soon as I saw it- that it was exactly the right one for us.

“The ring is everything I wanted and more! He really did a great job, and I know Emily and my other coworkers made the process so easy for him!” says Ashley.

The Proposal Tate: “I thought Christmas would be the right time to propose as it would be the perfect gift and most of our families would be around, too.”

Ashley remembers all the details. “It was Christmas morning and my family had just opened presents. My parents were in the kitchen preparing Christmas lunch. Tate was standing by the piano in the living room while I sat on the love seat. I asked him if he wanted to watch a Christmas movie and he said, ‘You’ve got one more Christmas present!’ He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

I was so excited and kept asking him, “Is this real life!?”

2800 Cahaba Village Plaza Birmingham, AL 35243 www.diamondsdirect.com 

Love Story is Presented by Diamonds Direct. For more info on how you can be featured in Love Story, check out Diamonds Direct-Birmingham on Facebook.

METRO

departments april

16. Chronicle by Joe O’Donnell 18. Currents: Food, art, fun, parties you missed, things you should know 26. Personal Space: ASFA creative writing student Daniel Blokh 28. Bleacher Seat by Luke Robinson 30. The Glamorous Life by Lee Ann Brown 32. B’ham to the Max by Max Rykov 80. B—Curious by Joey Kennedy

Featured home on page 34.

Photos by Tommy Daspit

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Chronicle I

t is just four walls and a roof, after all. Yet the importance of home dwarfs its physical nature, no matter how large or how small, how traditional or how modern. The true nature of home lives in the heart.

That was the premise behind a series of home stories we put together this month called Where I Live.

We asked Liesa Cole to share the allure of her home in the city center. Here is how she describes it: “We fell immediately in love with the location, right off the Rotary Trail, a block away from Publix and Railroad Park.

Originally a livery for stabling horses, then an auto repair shop, it had been fallow for many years. It was in pretty bad shape. It even had a tree growing inside. But it was situated beautifully in the midst of the revitalized area we wanted to be. And it had the perfect bones to be a studio, so we built our home on top.”

We left downtown for West Home-

: EDITOR’S NOTES

wood and found a similar love story. After more than 20 years on Southside, Grant Tatum found community, camaraderie and idiosyncrasy in his new home in West Homewood.

We also ventured over to Cahaba Road and found a fascinating tale of a pioneering Alabama business woman and the home she left behind.

Elsewhere this month, writer Lee Shook shared insights into the life and career of legendary Birmingham jazz musician Cleve Eaton. And you can take a trip inside the Negro Southern League Museum and get to know another side of the history of America’s pastime.

I hope you enjoy this month’s issue.

TOMMY DAVIS

Board Certified Family Law Trial Advocate

Because sometimes a diamond isn’t forever.

(205) 822.9334 No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.

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thomaslogandavis.com

Currents WHAT’S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW IN THE CITY

04//19

DRINK AT THE LUMBAR

TEDx Birmingham 2019 The Heisenberg

The Heisenberg was created as a tribute to both history and the roots of The Lumbar, a new science-themed bar and restaurant that recently opened in Pepper Place. Named after the theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg, “The Heisenberg” has a backbone of rum, aperol, and lime. Werner’s groundbreaking work led him to his most notable achievement of receiving the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 for the creation of the science of quantum mechanics. This notoriety led to his name being used as a pseudonym in a popular TV show from Albuquerque, NM, the hometown of owners Rylie and Tim Hightower, which is why “The Heisenberg” is amplified with a touch of blue curacao, vigorously shaken, and served over ice in a 250 mL graduated beaker.

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May 3-4

This will be our fourth year serving as ambassadors for TEDx Birmingham!

We look forward to this event every year, as we make lasting friendships and hear accomplished speakers take to the stage and share rare, educational and unexpected insights. This year’s conference takes place over two days at the Alys Stephens Center on May 3 and 4.

There’s also an opening reception for VIP ticket holders and a huge after-party for all attendees. But consider yourself warned: TEDx Birmingham always sells out, so get your tickets fast. Who knew learning could be this much fun?

Take a Seat at Red Mountain Park

Almost everyone we know is familiar with Red Mountain Park, but there’s a hidden gem that a lot of people miss. At the end of the trailhead sit a couple of sets of giant adirondack chairs, so inviting that if you listen closely, you might hear them call your name and ask you to stay and sit for a spell.

These giant chairs make for great photos and offer a stunning view from Red Mountain. After taking a good hike or trail run, it’s nice to sit waaay back and relax before the return trip. We definitely will be spending some beautiful spring afternoons here.

Russell & Amber the Ham in

‘

A Fond Farewell to Naked Art Gallery

As of May 1st, Naked Art Gallery will be closing its doors. We have spent many a weekend shopping here for local art, especially pieces with Birmingham themes. Naked Art has always participated in the Third Fridays in Forest Park, a monthly event highlighting the Forest Park neighborhood. While we will miss this uniquely funky art gallery there are still a few weeks left to stop by and shop. Be sure to thank owner Véro Vanblaere for sharing her passion with our city. We’ll see you at the next Third Friday on April 19th!

Birmingham Candy Company is at Pizitz For the past few years, Wane and Cassie Bolden have been making some incredible candy, from homemade chocolate to candied apples and even their own marshmallows. The Boldens’ Birmingham Candy Company started as a pop-up at Woodlawn Street Market and Pepper Place before moving to a SmallBox shipping container in Railroad Park—but they will soon be selling their tasty treats in the Pizitz Food Hall, and we couldn’t be more excited. Their creative confections are sure to satisfy your sweet tooth and make for a great Food Hall dessert. Be sure to stop by and treat yourself as the Boldens add even more local flavors to the Birmingham food scene!

Sloss Metal Arts Bowl-O-Rama April 19

A while back we were invited by Sloss Metal Arts, located at Sloss Furnaces, to experience Bowl-O-Rama. At this event we were able to carve out a unique mold that was then filled with molten iron. The result was a cool cast-iron bowl that we love enough to display prominently in our living room.

This is a great BYOB event for a group of friends or a date night. For $45 you get materials to make a bowl, and if there are 20 or more people in attendance they will do the iron pouring that night. The next session is on April 19th at 6 p.m., but they host one each month. Don’t miss out on the fun of watching sparks fly as you create memories and a momento that will last a lifetime!

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Whole Hog Heaven James Beard winner Rodney Scott opens an award-winning barbecue outpost in the city.

Written by Joe O’Donnell • Photography by Beau Gustafson

F

rom the time Rodney Scott was a baby in the little town of Hemingway, South Carolina, Thursday at the little grocery/convenience store Scott’s parents operated meant one thing: a smoked whole hog that brought customers in from miles, drawn by the intoxicating aroma and flavor. Young Rodney was only 11 when he cooked his first whole hog. Soon the barbecue was so popular, the days it was available to customers just kept multiplying.

Some things don’t change. Today, Rodney Scott is a James Beard winning chef (best chef in the Southeast) with barbecue restaurants in Hemingway, Charleston and now Birmingham.

In partnership with Nick Pihakis, Scott opened his Birmingham restaurant on Third Avenue South between Lakeview and Avondale.

Rodney Scott’s barbecue is smoked over glowing coals of oak with a touch of hickory and pecan hardwood, and the fresh whole hogs are first cooked belly down for 12 hours before they’re flipped over on their back, seasoned and doused liberal-

ly with Rodney’s vinegar-based sauce and allowed to cook a little longer to let the flavors soak in. These hogs are then pulled and served on sandwiches, as a plate with two sides, over grits with a side and cornbread and, of course, by the pound.

The barbecue is joined on the menu with ribs that are covered in a special rub, slow-smoked and slathered in sauce, baked mac n’ cheese with a crispy breadcrumb topping, fried catfish, pit-cooked bbq chicken and smoked turkey, sides such as collard greens, hush puppies, coleslaw, baked beans, potato salad, and, for dessert, a banana pudding from his mother’s recipe.

“The menu basically came from my childhood,” Scott says.

“My mom would cook banana pudding on Sunday. Baked beans, that was usually on a Wednesday night.”

It’s that simple philosophy of good times and good food that makes Rodney Scott’s such a fun place to eat. The restaurant is in the old location of the Saigon Noodle House and features a wide open main dining area and to the right of the entrance a large patio for outdoor dining. But whether indoor or outdoor, the barbecue aroma is unmistakable.

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DIVE IN WITH BEAU GUSTAFSON

BIRMINGHAM BREADWORKS

“Bread is made with simple and natural ingredients,” says Brook Taylor, co-owner along with Corey Hinkle of Birmingham Breadworks in Southside. “Most just use combinations of flour, water, and salt.” Simple though the ingredients might be, the bakery produces a beautiful array of artisan breads–including French, multigrain, “farm” breads, and my favorite, sourdough.

Everything I’ve tried is fresh and yummy. They also serve pastries, and you can get your coffee and a chocolate croissant if you are feeling a little Parisian, or stop in for lunch for one of my favorite sandwiches in town: the Ruben. Birmingham Breadworks is on 7th Ave. S. across from the VA Medical Center. The menu changes, so visit birminghambreadworks.com for details.

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mindy santo

magnetic intuitive motivator

Hair + makeup

team Forecast pHotograpHy

Liesa Cole

pHoto styList

mindi shapiro

ForeCastsaLon.Com 205.506.0500 1707 28tH ave soutH BirmingHam, aL 35209

currents

the PARTY you missed A Night Under the Big Top, hosted by the Junior Board of Glenwood Inc., returned for its 15th annual celebration on February 22. All proceeds benefit Glenwood programs and services for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Guests enjoyed dancing, along with casino games, photo booth, a silent auction and silent disco dancing to music through headphones. Photos by Alisha Crossley

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TALK

personal

space

A ONE-ON-ONE CONVERSATION WITH GRADUATING ASFA SENIOR AND POET DANIEL BLOKH

I

t’s hard to introduce Daniel Blokh without first offering up the highlights of his resume. At 15, Blokh won first prize in the Books-A-Million Publishing Contest for his creative memoir In Migration. He later won first place in the Princeton High School Poetry Contest and has seen his writing appear in the prestigious Kenyon Review and other literary publications. Last year,

he became one of only five National Student Poets for 2018, an honor bestowed by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.

Currently a senior at the Alabama School of Fine Arts, Blokh took time out of his lunch break to tell us a bit about life as a child-prodigy writer.

B-Metro: Your parents immigrated from Russia before you were born, and their experience factors heavily into your writing—so much so that you once wrote of your childhood, “I am American, but I grew up Russian.” How do you think you developed such a strong identity with their heritage?

Blokh: My parents have been instrumental in my life. I think because their experience and perception of life was so shaped by growing up in Russia and immigrating to America, I saw the world largely through this Russian perspective—or a Russian-American immigrant perspective.

I also experienced things like going to the grocery store with my mother when she struggled to communicate in English, seeing that discomfort and also the longing she sometimes feels for their homeland. So I grew up exposed to Russian culture but also the Russian immigrant experience, which is a whole different beast.

with some poets I really respect who were published by the same press, which was crazy. But at the same time I felt so inexperienced compared to them.

B-Metro: One of your poems is titled “How to Be a 15-YearOld Poet.” It seems to suggest people see your writing as a kind of magic trick, once they learn your age. Does that bother you, when the acclaim you get is so often mentioned in the same breath as your youth?

Blokh: It’s a difficult question, because I think some of the recognition I’ve gotten might have to do with my age. I think with some of the chatbooks I’ve published, people have been excited about publishing them in some part due to my being a young writer and wanting something like that on the scene. So I do owe something to it. I’m very thankful for it. But it also puts me in a weird position sometimes, because I still feel so emerging, developing, and even out of my depth sometimes interacting with much older writers.

B-Metro: What is that like?

Blokh: After my second poetry chatbook, Grimmening, was published by Diode Editions, they invited me to AWP, which is kind of the big writing conference now. It was mind blowing because I was there among writers I had revered for years. I had a reading 26

B-METRO.COM

B-Metro: What writer have you been most excited to meet?

Blokh: There are a lot of candidates for that, but maybe Tracy K. Smith. I actually met her first through winning the Princeton High School Poetry Contest. They flew the three winners to Princeton and had us give a reading and meet the poetry faculty, and Tracy K. Smith was on their poetry faculty. She’s also the Poet Laureate of the United States currently.

What made me particularly excited to speak to her is first of all because I love her writing, but she also does a lot of work spreading poetry to people who often feel excluded by it. I think it’s a common feeling—people read poems, and if they’re older poems, the language sometimes is outdated, while a lot of modern poetry can be very abstract and confusing.

B-Metro: As a National Student Poet, you’re expected to serve as a literary ambassador for your region. What does that entail?

Blokh: We’ve given readings, and there are teaching workshops— we all went into public schools in New Jersey and taught poetry workshops there. But maybe the biggest thing is that each National Student Poet has to put together a community service project. (For mine), I’m seeking to work with the Southeast Jewish community, especially responding to the concerning rise of anti-Semitism and things like the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

I think poetry can be a powerful tool to address something so concerning.

B-Metro: You’re giving your senior reading tomorrow night.

How do you plan to prepare?

Blokh: It’s a tradition at ASFA to take the day off before your reading, and I might get my very first pedicure. One of the other students who’s reading is a girl, and a lot of other girls in my friend group are taking the day off as well. So it was their idea.

•

PRIZED POSSESSION A pair of white Converse sneakers signed by several of Blokh’s favorite writers.

Graduating ASFA senior and poet, Daniel Blokh Photo by Beau Gustafson B-METRO.COM

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TALK: BLEACHER SEAT WITH LUKE ROBINSON

Aye, Aye!

Water-U-Waiting for?

By Luke Robinson

O

kay, I am going to need y’all to bear with me for a moment while I hash out an idea. A multi-million dollar idea if we play our cards right.

You guys have probably used pseudo-taxi services like Uber or Lyft. Sure you have. If you haven’t, you should. They are awesome. These ride services provide quick, efficient and clean transportation without the “Hey…why is everything in here sticky?” question marks of some other public transportation.

But ride sharing on the roads is a pretty saturated market. If you didn’t get in on the ground floor, it may be really expensive to do so now. (That may or not be true, I dunno… For the purposes of this article, let’s just pretend it is.)

However, what about a BOAT-SHARING service? Like Uber—BUT ON WATER!?!

Good idea, right?!

Think about it: Traditionally, when you take your friends or family out on one of the nearby lakes, they get to spend their time conversing or tubing or sunbathing or doing some mild-to-medium frolicking.

Meanwhile, there you are driving the boat like a sucker. Being all alert, cautious and sober.

BOOOOOOOORiiiiinnnnng!

But what if someone else was driving the boat? What if YOU got to converse?

What if YOU got to be slung 16 feet in the air when the boat pulling the tube you are riding in hits the right wave? What if YOU got to enjoy a sip (or 10) of that special-anniversary boxed wine without having to make sure the water patrol wasn’t lurking?

That’s where “Water-U-Waiting-For” Boat Services come into play!

Just like Uber or Lyft, you will be able to tap an app, call your ride and glide across the shimmering waters without worry while someone else navigates the vessel. Let that guy worry about crowded boat slips which, in the summertime, have less parking than Midnight Star’s dance

floor. It’s also now his problem if someone forgets to put that bumper out (and that l’il perk cannot be understated).

All you have to do is command the driver to stop by the nearest marina to grab a microwaved pizza or head to the overpriced restaurant for a Styrofoam plate of fried squealers. Just be sure to pack that pitcher of sangria and a couple of extra hard lemonades, because you are about to float your cares away well into the shank of the evening!

Is this service going to be expensive?

Probably. I have done no research other than writing this column about it. But I can guarantee it’ll be cheaper than fighting a BUI. Heck, with this new service, you really don’t even need to buy a boat! That’s a

monstrous savings right there alone!

T h e name of my idea needs work though, doesn’t it? “Water-U-Waiting-4”?

What if I went with “Buoyant This Nice” or “Drift, Wood-ya” or “Wake Bored” or even “Luke’s Floaters” instead?

Look, the name’s not important right now. It’s the concept that will make us more money than Nick Saban’s swear jar.

Sooooooo…. Who’s in? All I ask is for a fair share of company profits with absolutely no risk.

I will see you all at the stockholders’ meeting!

•

Water-U-Waiting-For

Luke is a host for the University of Alabama’s Coaches Cabana webcast, an AHSAA Radio Network team member, and a Sportzblitz TV/radio personality and blogger for Crimson Country Club.

TALK: HUMOR MAKES THE DAY GLAMOROUS

A Dis-Organized Crime Time to tidy up?

By Lee Ann “Sunny” Brown // Photo by Billy Brown

T

he day had started out much the same as any other day except that I had an early morning meeting and then coffee with a friend of mine so I had to get out the door a little earlier than usual. It was only upon walking back into our house that an uneasiness began to creep up on me. A feeling of dread took hold of me as I inserted the key, unlocked the door and turned the knob.

As the door swung open, that’s when it hit me. That’s when the panic set in. I began to feel uneasy about what I might see in the next room, around the next corner.

There before me was a most unsightly mess. Papers were strewn everywhere all over the desk, even scattered across the chair and floor. Stacks of mail, letters, opened and unopened, catalogues, magazines, flyers, junk mail in disarray all over the secretary cabinet. Little bits of papers, along with stained, used napkins, torn-out scraps of notebook paper all scribbled with some bit of illegible writing—a joke perhaps, or a half formed essay—were lying on the counter.

In the bathroom, drawers were left partially opened,

the contents spilling out onto the countertops; makeup, hairbrushes, tissues stained with lipstick, a can of hairspray, some curlers and clips were carelessly left rolling around on the floor. You could tell that someone had left in a hurry.

The same mess was found in the closet, with clothes hanging forlornly off their hangers. Other clothes lay rumpled on the floor, some looking as if they had been worn the day before, or maybe the day before that. And shoes, mismatched, were all over the floor.

It continued this way throughout the whole house. There were dirty dishes in the kitchen sink leftover from breakfast.

There was dirty laundry piled in the laundry room waiting to be washed. Dog toys and newspapers were strewn across the living room, and on and on it went. In every room, things were out of place—in fact, it felt as if they never had a place. It all seemed to spark a feeling of joylessness.

At least joy was not the first sensation to greet me when I walked through the door.

Everything looked so rumpled and out of place and in disarray that it resembled the scene of a crime.

And who’s to say that a crime wasn’t, in fact, committed on the premises? It looked like something bad had happened, as if a yellow crime-scene tape should have been wrapped around the entire perimeter of the area.

Looking around at the disorganized scene gave me the feeling that I wanted to scream. I wanted to do something. I wanted to fold something. And, yet, everything was just exactly as I had left it when I frantically left my house earlier that morning. Not one thing had been changed...except for me. You see, over coffee my friend had introduced me to Marie Kondo.

Now, as I surveyed the scene before me, I did not feel joy. Instead, anxiety began to set in. I felt like a witness to a

natural disaster or horrible act of mass destruction.

I didn’t know where, or how, to begin to tidy up.

So I made a cup of tea and sat down to take it all in and think this through. And that’s when I realized that it really wasn’t as bad as it looked. In fact, I could put my finger on anything I was looking for—a receipt, a joke or essay that I was in the process of working on. The B-Metro article I was looking forward to reading, the word puzzle I was working on playing against my mom. Everything I was involved with was right there, at my fingertips. Well, maybe I had to dig through a pile down to my wrists, but I knew where to look. And, as I started to look through the miscellaneous papers I actually found myself sorting them into categories: receipts, writing, cards and letters, mail, etc. One by one I went from desk, to table, to chair, and it all began sorting itself.

I continued into the bathroom and my closet where I had left things in disarray trying to get out the door on time and not be late for my meeting that morning. And while I would not say that everything I kept brought me joy, I did feel an attachment to it in some way, even if it was that I had to keep it for such a mundane reason as tax purposes.

In almost no time at all I had everything tidied up—all my papers nicely sorted and filed away, the clothes in my closet off the floor and straightened back nicely on their hangers, all my makeup and toiletries back in their drawers, and the breakfast dishes loaded into the dishwasher. I felt peace.

Until I realized that someone still needed to do the laundry. That did not bring me joy.

•

Lee Ann is a humor writer, actress, and singer, chronicling her glamorous life on stage and in print. She can be contacted at leeanndbrown@gmail.com.

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TALK: BHAM TO THE MAX

Offender Alumni Association Support for the recently incarcerated.

By Max Rykov

I

t is the height of absurdity and cruelty that a person as kind and loving as Dena Dickerson could possibly be sentenced to 114 years in prison. For a non-violent offense.

Every time I see Dena, her face lights up with an enormous smile. She gives me a big hug and tells me she loves me.

I’m not that special—she’s like that with everyone. It’s the sort of disposition you’d expect from a saint or a yogi, not someone who’s spent significant time incarcerated.

A decade before her 114-year sentence, she had served five months for another non-violent drug offense. Fortunately for the rest of humankind, Dena didn’t end

up serving 114 years, but rather 10.

After she was released, Dena was introduced to Deborah Daniels of Prison Fellowship, who invited her to be a part of a group of former offenders who were meeting to help encourage one other in an informal support network.

Deborah was inspired to start this group after working with Drayton Nabers, Jr. (the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court) on a program at Bibb Correctional Facility. It became clear to the pair that the same sort of bond the men made on the inside during the Prison Fellowship program would be immensely useful once they got out as well.

Dena started coming to the meetings diligently, and the members began to

mimic how an Alcoholics Anonymous group would operate—electing executive officers and establishing an initial structure. Eventually, they decided to file the paperwork to become their own 501c3 non-profit organization, and Dena, the most loyal member of the group, was selected to serve as a bona fide executive director. They came up with the name “Offender Alumni Association” (OAA), not shying away from their past, while signaling the establishment of a network of people with a common heritage and purpose.

The organization is certainly inspired by the AA and NA models—groups of people with a similar troubled pasts who inspire one other to be the best versions of themselves they can be. It’s a model that’s proven to be successful worldwide, but what’s so radical about OAA is that former offenders are generally not encouraged to spend time with one another. In fact, it’s quite the opposite; they’re discouraged from being around others who were formerly incarcerated.

The underlying assumption behind that mindset is that people who were in prison are somehow tainted, destined to be habitual criminals with no desire to better themselves.

With AA and NA, the supposition is the opposite. It’s understood that the people who join those groups have acknowledged their mistakes, and are on a positive trajectory in their lives moving forward.

The organization fills a much-needed gap in the nationwide quest to alleviate recidivism by providing those released from prison the emotional support and understanding that can only be given by someone who has been in the same situation.

Case in point, Stephanie Hicks.

In March 2016, Stephanie was on administrative leave from her job at the

VA because she had been convicted of embezzlement.

Between the time she was charged and before she served six months in a federal prison, she sent an email to the Firehouse Shelter, inquiring about volunteer opportunities.

There she met Dena Dickerson, who still works for the Firehouse.

Dena introduced Stephanie to OAA, and she started going to meetings before she was incarcerated. During her time in prison, Stephanie was able to have video calls with the group, which helped her through the process.

Three days after she was released, Stephanie was going through a crisis while staying at her sister’s house. She didn’t even know what she felt; it was a maelstrom of emotions—the sort of unrest that has led others to recidivate. Fortunately, Dena was there to get Stephanie out of the house and provide emotional and mental support. From her own experience, she knew what Stephanie was feeling and was able to serve as a calming force.

Stephanie now serves alongside Dena as the administrative director of the Offender Alumni Association. Together, along with other OAA members, they help facilitate several weekly support groups for former offenders, in addition to leading community clean-up efforts and even going into prisons to inspire inmates and offer hope.

The organization is growing—a chapter has been established in Atlanta and received the support of a Georgia state grant. It’s a beautifully replicable model, and one that has the potential to have as big of an impact on recidivism as AA has on alcoholism.

•

To learn more about the Offender Alumni Association, and to offer your support, visit their website: www.offenderalumniassociation.org

Writer, emcee, producer, nonprofit event organizer, and freelance quarterback Max Rykov is a tireless advocate for the creative community in Birmingham.

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AN EDGEWOOD CLASSIC WITH

MODERN FLAIR MATT AND LAURA FELD TURN A HOMEWOOD FIXER-UPPER INTO A NEIGHBORHOOD GEM. WRITTEN BY JANE REYNOLDS PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOMMY DASPIT

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Matt and Laura Feld were hardly real-estate newbies when they began their search for a home in Edgewood in late 2017. They had previously built another home from scratch in Edgewood a few years earlier, only to learn four months after that they were moving to Franklin, Tenn.—giving them a fresh opportunity to build another house there.

So when they ultimately decided to move back to Birmingham, they had plenty of experience and experimentation under their belts in order to hone in on what they were really looking for. In a nutshell, they wanted an Edgewood remodel with a modern feel and well-crafted spaces that felt open and airy but not too expansive.

They’d had a 3,000-plus-square-foot house 36

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in Franklin; here they wanted a more intimate setting for family and friends to enjoy comfortably. It would be the kind of cottage-style house that used to define Edgewood but with an open layout and contemporary flair.

What they found, on Carr Avenue, just a stone’s throw from Gianmarco’s Restaurant, was a house with the potential to be all that and more, but it took a leap of faith to see it at first. “This house had been on the market for a while, and our realtor, Brent Griffis, suggested we take a look,” Matt remembers. “We walked in and fell in love.”

It helped that they had a builder they had worked with before, Willow Homes, and a designer, Katherine Bailey—an

owner of Willow Design Studios—whom they trusted implicitly. Bailey in particular helped them see past the warts, of which there were plenty. The kitchen was cramped. The flooring was mismatched.

There was even a window inexplicably divided by a wall. The overall layout, Matt says, was “just odd.”

None of that fazed Bailey when the Felds brought her and the team from Willow over to consider the possibilities.

“I like to start with the shell,” she says.

“You have to look past all the things that you don’t like and get an overall vision.

“I had been wanting to do a more modern Homewood house,” Bailey adds, “So when they said that’s what they wanted, I said, ‘Absolutely—we’re going to

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run with this.’”

They bought the house in February of 2018, essentially gutted it and started over.

The first step from a structural standpoint was to address the eight-foot ceilings, on the low side by today’s standards, by vaulting them in the kitchen, living area, and master bedroom, giving the home a sense of height without losing the original character. They made the kitchen, dining, and living room into one big space, with the kitchen on one side opening out to the backyard and the main seating area on the other, facing the windows. In between is a round dining table, the shape Matt preferred because it’s easier to walk around and creates a more casual feel for get-togethers.

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Another significant layout change involved the master bedroom. The house originally had three bedrooms and two bathrooms, which is how the Felds planned to keep it. But when Bailey pointed out that the original master was too small to fit a king-sized bed, they looked to the original garage that had been finished out and converted to a den with a one-step dropdown. The Felds raised the floor to make the bedroom even with the rest of the home, then added a large master bath with striking features, including a bathshower combination—essentially a glassed in room-within-the-room containing a three-head shower and a tub placed directly inside the enclosure, making a luxury soaking tub that’s also kid-friendly.

“We put the boys in the tub, and they can make the biggest splashes they want—the extra water all goes down the drain in the floor,” Laura says. Three-dimensional tiles against one wall create another level of dimension and interest.

Back in the kitchen and living area, there was still the flooring problem to be addressed. “There were probably five different floorings types in here,” Matt remembers. “Three-inch-plank floors here and one-inch over there…it looked terrible.” The team at Willow Homes suggested blending some of the wood types to create a more cohesive look and refinishing all of them with a lighter stain, enabling them to keep the original floors but completely refresh the look.

All of the other design elements are new and carefully selected by Bailey and the Felds. The kitchen has a clean, blackand-white design with simple quartz countertops and white cabinets with gold fixtures. They also chose a stunning backsplash made of black and white marble tiles and gold-leaf trim. Double doors lead out to the back porch and expansive backyard beyond it. The living area, framed in part by a sectional sofa Laura loves especially for having friends over to watch a favorite show together, is well appointed but casual, finished off with lively patterned drapes.

No matter how remarkable the interior makeover turned out, however, the home’s front entrance represents the

most dramatic change. Once a drab, beige house that was easy to overlook, the newly remodeled 806 Carr Ave. is both stunning and inviting, with its white stucco exterior, black metal roof and a front porch that spills into a small courtyard. “We are usually backyard people, but having that courtyard, we’ve become front-porch people,” Laura says. “We can sit out there, see people walk by, and sometimes we’ll call out and invite them in for dinner.”

While Matt says they enjoy adventures in home design too much to rule out ever moving again, he thinks this one’s a keeper for the foreseeable future. “We’ve done this a couple of times, and we’re proud of everything we did on our other houses,” he says. “But this one we wanted to do a

BEHIND THE SCENES

BUILDER: Willow Homes DESIGNER: Katherine Bailey Co-owner Willow Design Studios STONE AND TILE WORK: Triton Stone LIGHTING: Mayer Lighting little differently, and we get a lot of interest and compliments. We’re really proud of it.

And we get to live here.”

•

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s e v e lplace ’

C

Legendary Birmingham jazz musician Cleve Eaton takes his place in history.

I

t’s rare to come across a musician whose mastery of their instrument is so fluid, effortless and profoundly intuitive that it seems like the instrument itself is just a natural extension of their body, subliminally communicating through sound a language so instinctual that it appears to emanate directly from their soul. It’s even rarer still to find a musician in your hometown who has been operating professionally at that level for over six decades. And yet that’s exactly what happens every time local jazz legend Cleve Eaton picks up his well-worn upright bass in front of an audience and begins to play. A pillar of the local music scene for 44 years now, Eaton has rightly earned his place among the most 40

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Written by Lee Shook prestigious names from Alabama’s rich musical history, bringing a level of gravitas to any group he plays with, whether it be at a local venue or concert halls around the world. Reverently known as “Basie’s bassist” through his Grammy Award-winning work with the Count Basie Orchestra, whose handiwork can be found on over 100 recordings, Eaton’s esteemed career has seen him perform, record and collaborate with a veritable who’s who in modern jazz and popular music, having worked alongside everyone from Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan, to Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Minnie Riperton, The Temptations, and bluesman Bobby Rush, among countless others. Having served as a producer, composer, arranger, pub-

lisher, record label owner and nightclub impresario, there are few facets of the modern music industry that he hasn’t been a part of, lending his immaculate playing and ear to a wide variety of styles and genres across the 20th and 21st centuries. A true Birmingham treasure, Eaton’s presence and impact on the Magic City music scene is both immense and immeasurable, having provided an international spotlight on the deep roots of jazz here in town, placing his contributions to its evolving story alongside the likes of other hometown heroes like Erskine Hawkins and Sun Ra. Born in Fairfield in 1939 and raised in a highly musical household helmed by his mother and two sisters, Eaton was a prodigious talent from a very early age,

s Eaton photographed by Michael Sheehan B-METRO.COM

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taking up piano, saxophone, trumpet and eventually tuba, before being introduced to his instrument of choice with string bass starting in high school. Having discovered the unwieldy musical vehicle under the tutelage of band teacher John Springer at Fairfield Industrial High School, Eaton would soon find himself playing with local singer Leon “Lucky” Davis at the age of 15—a job scored through his cousin and fellow Birmingham jazz luminary Frank “Doc” Adams—before winning a full music scholarship to Tennessee A&I State University for tuba, where he would hone his skills as both a bass player and multi-instrumentalist before launching into the realm of professional touring musician after graduation in 1960. Returning to Birmingham for a little over 24 hours to visit his family following his graduation ceremony, he quickly left home for Chicago, where he would get his first big break playing with Ike Cole—brother of the legendary Nat “King” Cole—who saw Eaton play at the Sutherland Lounge jazz club during a Monday night jam session. It was just Eaton’s second day in the Windy City, but Cole was so impressed with his skills, he asked if Eaton was available.

“I graduated on a Friday, Saturday I stayed home with my family, Sunday I was in my car headed for the Sutherland Hotel where the jam session was at,” Eaton remembers. “And Monday I was at the jam session playing and Nat King Cole’s brother was there. And he asked me, ‘Man, you ain’t doing nothing?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Do you want to go on the road with me?’

I said, ‘Yeah.’ So we left Wednesday. So I left that quick for the tour. Between Friday and Wednesday I was on the road.”

Touring with Cole for the next year and a half, he would soon find himself in the company of some of jazz’s most influential figures of the era, playing with trumpeter Donald Byrd and saxophonist Pepper Adams in a quintet featuring a young Herbie Hancock. Subsidizing his income composing advertising jingles, working as a session musician, and as a music teacher, in 1966 Eaton got what would become the biggest break of his early career after being called to join renowned keyboardist Ramsey Lewis in the wildly popular Ramsey Lewis Trio, whom he would record and 42

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Returning to Birmingham for a little over 24 hours to visit his family following his graduation ceremony, he quickly left home for Chicago, where he would get his first big break playing with Ike Cole—brother of the legendary Nat “King” Cole—who had seen him play at the Sutherland Lounge jazz club during a Monday night jam session. It was just Eaton’s second day in the Windy City, but Cole was so impressed with his skills, he asked if Eaton was available. perform with for the next 10 years. Working alongside drummers Maurice White— who would subsequently leave the group in 1970 to launch Earth, Wind & Fire— and Morris Jennings, the group would tour the country and world together, racking up multiple gold albums and Grammy Awards for their inventive instrumentals.

Starting in the early 1970s, Eaton would also churn out a string of highly collectible records of his own throughout the rest of the decade prized by crate diggers and DJs around the world for their monster dance grooves and imaginative arrangements, mining everything from jazz-funk and disco to smooth R&B. It was also during this same time period that Cleve would meet the love of his life, Myra, after a chance encounter here in Birmingham on one of the last tours he would ever do with Lewis. Another Magic City native, Myra had actually seen Cleve perform while living in Los Angeles and Houston in the 1960s and early 1970s, but would fatefully find herself in his presence again in 1974 at Broadway Joe’s—a nightclub owned by football star Joe Namath—after being tasked with chaperoning Eaton’s two sons from his first marriage while he was home visiting his birthplace. Introduced that night, the pair would soon find themselves in a whirlwind courtship, with Cleve flying her around the country to come see him play and visit him in Chicago. Quickly falling in love, Eaton would eventually make the decision to quit Ramsey’s group and move back to Birmingham the following year to be with his soon-to-be wife, and her three children Tania, Kwani and Kole. The beginning of a 43-year partnership in life, music and business, the couple would work in tandem together as artist and booking

agent/manager over the coming decades, creating a mutually beneficial career that continues to this day.

Immediately immersing himself in the Birmingham music scene upon his return, Cleve began connecting with fellow musicians hoping to start a new chapter in both his life and career. Hooking up with local talents like trumpeter Bo Berry, he would soon form the jazz-funk group Garden of Eaton and slowly began establishing himself again in the city he had left so many years before to chase his dreams. Releasing the album Instant Hip in 1976, the group began regularly touring, playing select gigs around the country to appreciative audiences from California to New York. Mentoring many of the local players he worked with to help sharpen their skills, Eaton provided invaluable learning experiences for almost everyone he came into contact with, and in the process helped redefine the local scene.

“Anybody that plays with him, if they have open minds, they’re gonna learn something,” says Berry. “He’s been there, he’s done stuff that most people are trying to do. He already did it. He’s years ahead of the game. I was aware of that when I first met him. You know, just talking to him and some of the music that he had that we had to play. I knew then this was a whole ’nother thing.”

Solidifying his status in Birmingham music lore in 1979 through his induction into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame alongside fellow local legend Sun Ra, whom he’d first gotten to know and play with in Chicago, that same year he would also be presented with what would prove to be one of his most influential musical partnerships, getting called to join jazz icon Count Basie on the road—whom he considered to be a

Eaton photographed by Michael Sheehan B-METRO.COM

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INSTANT HIP is Cleveland Eaton’s trip into a mist of thunderstorms; horns; a musical synthesis that produces truth. You move. When you think the fire is out, he comes up with something new and the blaze starts all over again. He bites and he burns and keeps you moving...all night long. It’s not music from the Kingdom, it’s music from the Garden of Eaton.

From the back of Eaton’s album Instant Hip from 1976

“second father”— touring with his big band through Basie’s death in 1984 and continuing with the orchestra into the 1990s.

Forming a deep personal and musical bond with Basie born out of mutual admiration, their relationship would act as both a mentorship for Cleve as well as a vehicle for musical conversation that would wow audiences around the world.

Helping the master pianist and composer win two Grammys for 1982’s Warm Breeze album and 1984’s 88 Basie Street, his years with the orchestra would set him apart yet again from many of his peers here in town, creating a high watermark for others to be inspired by.

“I had played 25 years with trios, and all of a sudden here I am playing with the greatest big band in the world and making a difference,” says Eaton. “Because I played it the way I wanted to play it. I didn’t play like nobody else. I played the bass the way I wanted to play it.”

Having finally settled into life in the Magic City, in 1981 Cleve and Myra would open the jazz club Cleve’s Place in Ensley—right down the road from Tuxedo Junction—creating what their daughter Kwani would refer to as the “Cotton Club of Birmingham,” providing the local com44

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munity with a concert venue and performance space that would see the likes of big name stars like Buddy Rich, Hank Crawford and Eddie Harris play on its stage, as well as Count Basie, who would celebrate his 78th birthday at the venue to an overflowing crowd in 1982.

“We had the birthday party there because they were on tour on the way from somewhere going to Chattanooga, and Basie came in here for $5000,” says Myra. “He didn’t want to charge Cleve the regular fee and nobody believed that he was coming to Ensley. It was even on the news. People got to talk to him, sign autographs. And to this day people come up and say, ‘We never would have seen him if you hadn’t brought him in.’”

Only open for three years, despite its short run, the club would play an important part in Birmingham jazz history, with musical acts or jam sessions every night of the week playing to a cross section of audiences that helped bring people together from all walks of life from across the city, state and region.

Undeterred by the club’s closing, throughout the rest of the 80s, 90s, and into the 2000s, Cleve would continue to play an important part in the local music scene, playing with a host of local jazz groups and musicians as well as teaching music at UAB starting in 1996. Having established himself as a venerable elder who enjoyed sharing his musical life and knowledge with those wanting to learn from him, Eaton could be found performing all over the city in various outfits, equally at home playing at places like the Birmingham Museum of Art or the Open Door Cafe.

“These were my buddies,” he says. “I didn’t look down on them because I was back home. I got a chance to play with everybody here and everybody came out to play with me.”

Inducted into the Alabama Music Hall

of Fame in 2008, over the past decade Eaton has continued to add to his already hefty resume despite having suffered from multiple serious health ailments. Having been diagnosed with oral cancer that same year, followed by a bout with prostate cancer in 2010, Cleve recently found himself back in the hospital after a minor follow-up surgery where doctors discovered heart blockage and he developed pneumonia that left him recovering at St. Vincent’s for over a month and a half while fighting to regain his strength. A huge blow for a working musician and man who prides himself on never missing gigs, it’s been a trying time for both him and his family—emotionally and financially—yet his indomitable spirit has remained intact, hoping to get back to doing what he loves to do best: playing music and performing live.

And although it will be an uphill battle, if there was ever a man up to the challenge, it would be him.

For Myra, it’s just one more chance to help take care of a man who has taken care of both her and their family through his life in music. “I’d be in awe of him even if I didn’t know him,” she says today. “I saw the respect of the other musicians he played with. He made them look good, he made them sound good, and when he made the show it turned into something different. And when he took a solo, the audience went CRAZY.” “He just seemed like a heaven-sent person to me. And being who he is—not was, but who he is—is like a king that the good Lord blessed me with. A gift to take care of like a diamond or platinum. And I try to keep it polished, and keep it going, and keep it out there. You know, because I know the good Lord put us together.

Because I didn’t have to be here, and he didn’t have to come here at the same time.

I cry when I think about it.”

Hopefully for all of us we will see him back where he rightfully belongs, right behind his bass with a smile on his face and music in the air. Not sure Birmingham could imagine it any other way.

Eaton with Joe Carnaggio (from the Alabama Allstars), Dave Crenshaw (recently honored for an album he played on that won a Grammy), and Eaton's grandson, Kameron Dickerson.

Photo by Karden Dickerson

Count Basie/Cleve’s Place Birthday Celebration Shirt

Some of Eaton's gold records with Ramsey Lewis, and other memorabilia.

The building that housed Cleve’s Place.

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A

LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN

The Negro Southern League Museum celebrates Birmingham’s rich history of African-American baseball. licia Johnson-Williams, director of the Negro Southern League Museum, loves the days when former players like Jake Sanders, Willie Walker, Samuel Bruner, and Ernest Fann come by. Surrounded by the best collection of memorabilia from the days of Negro League and Industrial League baseball on display anywhere—including uniforms worn by greats like Satchel Paige and Willie Wells; the “Big Bertha” bat used by Louis Santop, who was the first great power hitter in Negro League baseball; and a breathtaking display of hundreds of signed baseballs—the players, many still living in Birmingham, come to bask in the history. “I love all of them,” Johnson-Williams says. “Along with telling the story of this rich period in our baseball history for the public, we also want to create a home space for these players. They tell stories, they hang out with one another, they argue…they are just wonderful. You just can’t help but be moved by the experience of watching and engaging with them.”

These men are living testament to a golden era of Birmingham baseball, complex in its obvious association with segregation but celebrated then and now for the extraordinary players who came out of the African-American leagues and how they rallied the community on game days, spawning fierce rivalries and offering up the chance to watch some of the best baseball being played in the country.

At home, the Negro Southern League was represented by the Birmingham Black Barons—one of the league’s greatest teams, winning three Negro National League Pennants in the 40s and counting among its rosters over the years five eventual Hall of Fame members: Willie Mays, Satchel Paige, Norman Stearnes, George “Mule” Suttles, and Hilton Smith.

Along with the Black Barons, Birmingham also enjoyed another African-American baseball phenomenon in the form of the Industrial League—so named because the teams were fielded by companies like ACIPCO and Connor Steel, known to hire many an employee for his

A

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WRITTEN BY

ROSALIND FOURNIER PHOTOGRAPHY BY

CHUCK ST. JOHN

Former Negro League ballplayers Willie Walker and Robert Vickers. “Baseball was the most important thing in my life,� says Walker, a player for the Birmingham Black Barons.

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Left to right: Ernest Fann, Samuel Bruner, Willie Walker, Jake Sanders and Robert Vickers

prowess on the field as much as anything else. Clayton Sherrod recalls some of the best days of his childhood as the Sunday afternoons he spent out at Slossfield Center, where Birmingham Industrial League teams played with ferocious intensity, and the community came out in droves. This was the 1950s, and “of all the things to do, that was the tops,” says Sherrod, now a renowned chef and owner of Chef Clayton Food Systems, “It was almost like a huge family reunion, because Slossfield would be just packed out with families barbecuing and watching the game—four or five hours of baseball—and we thoroughly enjoyed it.”

For those who remember it, and a handful of highly motivated historians who have made a mission of keeping the stories alive, this is sacred history, and the Negro Southern League Museum is its temple.

Clarence Watkins, executive director of the Friends of Rickwood—a group which serves to support Rickwood Field, the oldest professional baseball park in the United States, and home at one time to both the Birmingham Barons and the Black Barons—has been a champion 48

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of the Southern Negro League Museum from the beginning. “The history of Southern Negro baseball has been lost to the present,” Watkins says. “The museum brings to light a forgotten history that needs to be remembered. It is my hope that the museum will spark an interest for more scholarship and research. …The Negro Southern League and the Industrial League make Birmingham the capital of Southern Negro Baseball. No other Southern city can claim the quantity and quality of players that Birmingham offers.

“As Rube Foster said in 1909, ‘Birmingham is a hot bed of baseball.’ We need to learn what Rube was talking about.”

No one agrees more than Dr. Layton Revel, a man to whom the city owes a great debt for helping to make the museum possible. Revel, who lives in Dallas, first became intrigued by the Negro League in the 1990s when he met Bill Beverly, a onetime Negro League pitcher; the two became friends, and Beverly invited him to a players’ reunion at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. “I went through their museum and thought, it’s a nice exhibit, but where

are the uniforms, the bats, the gloves, the posters?” Revel remembers. “Where are all the original artifacts that you expect to find in a museum? And the answer I got was, ‘Well, none of that stuff survived.’”

Revel was unsatisfied with that answer, as well as the lack of documented history about the league, the teams, and the surviving players he seemed now to meet everywhere he went.

“I made some phone calls to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, officials with Major League Baseball, and the museum in Kansas City, and my primary question was, ‘What is being done to find the old ballplayers who played in the Negro League and collect these artifacts?’ And to be quite honest with you, nobody was doing anything.”

Revel decided to take the job on himself, forming the nonprofit Center for Negro League Baseball Research (CNLBR) with a focus on locating former Negro League baseball players, interviewing hundreds of them, and collecting all the artifacts they could find related to black baseball in America. “I was originally told there were only 258 players still alive,” Revel remembers. “Over 20 years, my

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team and I have found over 500 more.”

That team now consists of some 75 volunteers who have helped interview hundreds of players, document statistics, collect artifacts, publish books, and maintain a website dedicated to black baseball history.

Revel says the City of Birmingham originally contacted him when Larry Langford was mayor and eager to partner with Revel’s organization to create a museum for black baseball here in town. Though it took time—and ultimately three different mayors—to bring the dream to fruition, Revel says he can’t think of a more appropriate place. “If you asked me, ‘Layton, if you could build a museum anywhere in the country to represent the history of Negro League baseball, where would you put it?—well, quite honestly, Birmingham has always been my first choice,” Revel explains. “Even back in the 1800s, Birmingham had a black professional team—the Birmingham Unions. In the early 1900s they had 50

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the Birmingham Giants, another professional baseball team, and they were the colored champions of the South for a couple of years. Then in 1920 when the Negro National League was formed, the Birmingham Black Barons were among the initial members. They played more seasons of Negro League baseball than any other team that ever played.

“You also have more ballplayers who were from Birmingham than any other city in the United States, and more living Negro League ballplayers in Birmingham today than anywhere else. In addition to that, there was the Birmingham Industrial League, which sent more players to Negro League baseball than any other developmental league or industrial league in the country. So there’s a fabulous, rich history. The city has been wonderful to work with, and we’re just very blessed to be able to have the museum there.”

Sherrod—who not only enjoyed many a Sunday as a kid watching the Industrial League teams play, but played Little

League for ACIPCO himself and was a batboy for the Black Barons at Rickwood—says that for him, one of the greatest accomplishments of the museum is to bring more attention to Birmingham’s history of black baseball to people here at home. “Back in the day we had more ballplayers in Birmingham than anywhere in the country,” he says, “and it seemed like everybody knew it but the people here in Birmingham. Sherrod has since become close friends with Revel and is listed among the six primary researchers for the museum.

Johnson-Williams is proud to do her part to make sure the museum lives up to its purpose as a place to celebrate the history of black baseball and continue to recruit new fans. The museum just received its first grant for a youth initiative to educate younger generations about the Negro Leagues.

Johnson-Williams says most people have no idea what to expect when they first come in, but almost all leave with a

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new appreciation for the game and its history. Her hope is the museum ultimately will serve as a cultural hub for the city.

In the coming months, Michael’s Steak House is planning to build out the upstairs and turn it into a restaurant and bar, complete with a balcony overlooking Re-

Alicia Johnson-Williams, director of the Negro Southern League Museum 52

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gions Field.

This year, the museum will also host its inaugural Jackie Robinson Street Festival on April 13—the Saturday before national Jackie Robinson Day, which commemorates the day Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play in the Major Leagues.

“We have a lot in store on that day, Johnson-Williams says. “We’re going to have food trucks, performances, activities and a kid’s village. The ballplayers too will be present, so we’re very excited,” She adds the event will be a great example of the ways the museum is helping to rally the community around celebrating a part of Birmingham history that was once almost lost to posterity.

“I love to see the diverse patronage that walks through this door,” she adds. “People from all walks of life, ages, and racial backgrounds come to see the exhibit and learn about the story. So this is a world-class museum, and it is my hope for it to be on the national stage.”

AN OVERDUE PENSION PLAN FOR NEGRO-LEAGUE PLAYERS

Because of his work founding and directing the Center for Negro League Baseball Research, Major League Baseball contacted Revel 15 years ago to ask if he could help them put in place a backdated pension plan for players from the Negro League. To date, the center has identified more than 40 players for whom they could provide official documentation of their careers, and those players have now, after all these years, received a new and much-deserved measure of financial security. “When we find the players and the documentation, they get a check retroactive to when the plan began,” he says. “We just certified four more ballplayers within the last six months; they got one big check to start with that was in excess of $125,000 for backpay. And they’ll continue to get checks for the rest of their lives.”

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Where I Live

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T

he diverse collective of neighborhoods, suburbs and even exurbs all known collectively as “Birmingham” all help to create a metropolis that is greater than the sum of its parts. There are areas considered best for families, others more attractive to the young-and-childless-set, and plenty more where all types of folks overlap. But for every individual or family, there’s a reason to be where they are—the community spirit, the neighborhood schools, a location convenient to everything or even a particular house so perfect they can’t imagine living anywhere else.

We found great stories of families who share what they love about where they live, coupled with the story of a pioneering woman architect who helped shape English Village decades ago. Along with that, we found eight local establishments—from the Hoover Public Library to Triangle Park and Crestwood Pharmacy and Soda Shop—that help bring out the special character of their respective neck of the woods. Here's our mini-tour of the place we call home.

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Home

My

When Liesa Cole and Stan Bedingfield wanted to consolidate home and photo studio, they found just the right location, infused with the energy and vitality of downtown.

We were working with local real estate broker Robert Crook. We looked at several buildings, but nothing seemed quite right. Either it was far too big, too small or completely overwhelming. Then Robert called to let us know about a property that wasn’t officially on the market yet.

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We fell immediately in love with the location, right off the Rotary Trail, a block away from Publix and Railroad Park. Originally a livery for stabling horses, then an auto repair shop, it had been fallow for many years. It was in pretty bad shape. It even had a tree growing inside. But it was

situated beautifully in the midst of the revitalized area we wanted to be. And it had the perfect bones to be a studio, so we built our home on top.

We were fortunate enough to have Richard Carnaggio as our architect.

With his guidance we strived to create a

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re-imagined space in harmony with the history of the building and the industrial district it inhabits. The residence is clad in Alabama cedar in the Shou Sugi Ban style. This is an ancient Japanese technique that involves charring the wood to preserve it. This hearkens to the fact that the building was destroyed by fire mid-century. Plus it has the added benefit of never having to be painted. The studio below is clad in rusted corten as a nod to the industrial nature of the district’s history. There is also a turret on the roof, clad with naturally rusted metal. It houses the spiral staircase to the rooftop.

But aesthetically it resonates like a smoke stack—again, congruous with Birmingham’s industrial past. The interiors are modern, bridged by whatever we could salvage from the original space, like the brick walls and steel bridge girders.

We have proximity to great food, bars, parks, theatres and venues. It encourages a walkable, bike-rideable lifestyle. We love the diversity of the neighborhood and the stimulation of all the happenings all around.

It is very exciting to be downtown.

The bursting revitalization, all the great restaurants, the sense of community, creative stimulation, the diversity of the inhabitants. I take a few laps around Railroad Park every day to either crank up or wind down the day. The backdrop of our city, the wonderful landscaping of the park, the families and children playing, the skate boards and bicycles and scooters zipping past, the passersby of all walks of life smiling and nodding, the Frisbees and footballs and kites in the air and the ducks waddling about...all of this makes me exceedingly happy.

Liesa Cole is a commercial and fine-arts photographer and a self-described “connoisseur of eccentricity.”

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Cole, Liesa’s son enjoys some rooftop music with Max, the family pet.

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A Suburb That Doesn’t Feel Like One After more than 20 years on Southside, Grant Tatum finds community, camaraderie and idiosyncrasy in his new home in West Homewood.

For two decades, I lived as a Southsider before family life prompted a change.

In 2015, we moved to Walker County to be near my wife Ferah’s parents for a couple of years. The commute was taxing, not just on the cars, but the time the drive took from the time we had to spend with our family. It also impacted the time we had to visit friends and be engaged in our social activities in the Birmingham area.

And as our son, Alex, approached school age we had another reason to move back towards town.

We began looking for the best school options for Alex, and quickly turned our sites on West Homewood. We knew the reputation of Hall Kent Elementary—if

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not the neighborhood itself—and last summer, Ferah, Alex and I moved here.

We were quickly pleased to find a neighborhood that was friendly, diverse, easy to walk and easy to commute from.

Within a couple of blocks is Patriot Park, which features a walking track, a couple of picnic pavilions, a recently renovated playground and a greenspace. There on any given day you can find groups of people playing soccer, ultimate frisbee, kids playing tag or folks just stretched out with a book and a patch of sun. As often as he can, Alex enjoys walking or riding any number of wheeled toys to the park to climb, slide and swing at the playground.

Adjacent to the park, Homewood is

nearing completion on a community pool complex which looks to have a splash pad and water slides.

Across the street, Magic City Ice serves a number of frosty treats to the delight of children after school—or in Alex’s case, any chance he can get to pull us across the street from the park. Next door, Ash Bar and Grill recently opened its doors with a selection of wood-fired Southern American dishes. And not more than 50 yards from there Pizzeria GM (an extension of another Homewood favorite, Gianmarco’s) has been serving pies at the edge of Patriot Park since January 2018.

Not much further out is the Briary cigar and pipe shop, the location of the

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West Homewood Farmer’s Market, Seeds Coffee House and so much more.

We love that we’re less than a mile from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham, which we call home. Its inclusive interfaith congregation and legacy involvement promoting civil rights and social justice is very important to us.

Last fall I introduced Alex to Cub Scouts and joined a pack just a couple of blocks from our house. We’ve launched model rockets, built and raced pinewood derby cars and participated in the Homewood holiday parade in December. We’ve

Grant with wife Ferah and son Alex.

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also noticed numerous other activities for children of all ages.

Sure, I feel nostalgia for Southside sometimes. I love the idiosyncrasy and uniqueness, and I never thought I would move into the suburbs. But we’ve definitely found all of that in the West Homewood neighborhood where we live now. We especially love the parks and walkability.

We also love the diversity in West Homewood. There’s a large group of Hispanic and Latino men and boys playing soccer in the park and having fun. There

are women in hijabs out with their kids playing on the play equipment, and then you’ve got young, bearded hipster dads—a whole range of people. There’s a lot of walking traffic…people with their dogs, riding bicycles, or taking a jog. They aren’t just driving home after work and shuttering up in their houses or back porches, so you get an idea of who your neighbors are. You get to see them and make friends with people.

Grant Tatum is the creative director for Style Advertising.

Cahaba Road

ODYSSEY A classic house on Cahaba Road captures the spirit of a pioneering businesswoman.

The odyssey of Carolyn Cortner Smith’s career is a fascinating story, one that she frequently composed in her own language and in the confident voice of a woman who had achieved a great deal.

In a document she sent in response to an advertisement for architecture work in the Birmingham News she lays out her own history. “After beginning the study of architecture in 1913, I began practicing architecture in 1919 and started contracting in 1922, and added a retail lumber business in Decatur Alabama in 1924.”

In this chronicle of her career, you can see the extraordinary breadth of her experience and, when coupled with the fact that she was a woman in very much a man’s world, it becomes even more extraordinary. From Milky Way Farm, which was owned and developed by Frank Mars of candy bar fame, to her work for WPA and the Civilian Conservation Corps, she was a woman of her times and then some.

Although Smith’s career took her down many unexpected paths, much of her work centered on homes.

One house in particular came to represent both Smith’s design sensibilities and her sense of the permanent value of home.

2207 Cahaba Road was Carolyn Smith’s home for many decades. It was the place she shared with her husband until his death in 1951; the place she came home to from her many travels around the globe.

She speaks about this home in a personal note from the year of her husband’s death: “In 1925, I designed and built in Birmingham, residences at 2106, 2207, 2218, 2224 Cahaba Road and a residence on 22nd Avenue in the 2200 block. The house at 2207 Cahaba Road holds the record of having brought the highest recorded rental for a Birmingham residence.

It rented for $400 per month for a prolonged period. I am proud of the fact that the homes I was building during these early years have stood the test of time because they were designed with two or more baths, proper insulation and ventilation and attached garages at a much earlier date than these luxuries came into general use.”

Reportedly Smith had found these lots one day in 1919 when her vehicle had a flat tire and she spent time taking in the view. In her early thirties, Carolyn Smith designed and oversaw construction of a seven room manor house, a large garage with apartment above, a two-story servant’s quarters and a storage building.

The latter two fronting the alley at the rear of the property. All were built of stone in picturesque English style.

The manor house, inspired by KnollKent Castle in England, includes 10-foot windows inset with Mrs. Smith’s family coat of arms. She lived in her house until shortly before she died in the 1980s.

Interior designer and painter Bob Moody and his wife, Rebecca, live in the house Smith built on Cahaba Road. The couple was living in an apartment above Bottega Restaurant on Highland Avenue. They had been there about 10 years and Rebecca really wanted to move into a house. “We came over here one afternoon. It had been on the market a couple of years,” Rebecca says. “We bought it by fax that afternoon without ever having been inside it.”

“I had passed the house hundreds of times,” Bob Moody says. “It was in bad shape. You could look through the dining room window and see daylight with the roof damage, but the structure of the house was good. We never met Carolyn Smith

which is a real regret. She lived here for many years all by herself, and had converted some of these other buildings into student housing. She was quite an entrepreneur.”

Norman Johnson, who purchased one of the small structures back on the alley and turned it into a cottage, did meet Smith. He describes the interaction: “I actually met Mrs. Smith a couple of times. She was in her 90s. She was completely Southern. She did not feel the energy to require being charming to very many people, of which I was one of them.

She tolerated me. I met with her on a Sunday afternoon. She had fallen at that point and she had moved her bed down to the first floor dining room. She told me she built my house as a simple stone cottage.

To have had no academic architecture training, her sense of style was remarkably sophisticated. Part of the fun in living in her houses is there is a lot of myth. One of the sweetest stories about my house that I cherish is that there were so many women whose husbands were away at war. Two married women and their children lived in my house during the war when their husbands were overseas.”

Just up the street in the center of English Village, there is a statue entitled Civitas. Philip Morris, an editor at Southern Living magazine, Rebecca Moody and Bob Moody were part of the commissioning and installation of the Civitas statue in English Village in 1998.

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Philip Morris, a Mountain Brook resident who served as the project manager for the statue, conceived the idea of a sculpture of a woman inspired by Smith and who would serve as a symbol of “making a place.” Civitas, the Latin word for citizens or a community, became the statue’s name.

Morris wanted Civitas to be present-

ed as an architect. In one hand she holds a compass, an architect’s tool, and in the other a miniature of the building that stands behind her. At the base is a miniature of her home and the building where Billy’s is now located. Her flapper-style dress denotes the era in which Smith was designing homes. The objects she holds and sits by not only represent history but

also “the civic act of making a place,” A group, including Morris and the Moodys, helped raise around $20,000 to cover the additional costs over the $50,000 the city had budgeted. Civitas was installed and dedicated in 1988, with family members of Smith coming to take part in the celebration.

ALL IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD Eight local establishments that reflect the spirit of some of Birmingham’s most beloved communities.

Complain all you want about superstores and megachains; from where we sit, there will always be a place for neighborhood markets and cafes, locally owned boutiques, favorite libraries and parks—the kinds of places you have to live here to know about.

Cahaba Heights/Manhattan South “We’re a women’s boutique inspired by the West Coast vibe—but in addition to keeping our clients ‘in the know’ and on the cutting edge of fashion, we also strive to be a cool place just to hang out. I have clients who come in when they’re not even shopping. It’s relaxed and no-pressure. That was my original idea—I wanted the store to be open and inclusive to anyone.

“One thing I love about our community is how all the merchants are so good about working together.

We recently started the Cahaba Heights Merchants Association and have a lot of fundraisers, including a big one in May called Heights Hangout—we’ll close the street, put up tents and serve food and drinks.

It’s a fundraiser for the beautification of Cahaba Heights.” —Lesley Vedel, owner Crestwood/Crestwood Pharmacy and Soda Fountain “We are a primarily a pharmacy, including compounding services and a full over-the-counter selection. But the soda fountain helps set the vibe and make us a community gathering space. I always hoped for a business where people felt comfortable coming in to hang out, and that’s true here.

“Crestwood is a great neighborhood. It’s a tight-knit community and a little quirky, so that’s appealing to me as a resident and as a business owner. It’s an upand-coming area and a great mix of people. Someone recently made a shirt that says, ‘Crestwood: Mayberry with a twist.’ That’s about right.” —Taylor Trammell, co-owner Forest Park/Triangle Park “What a gem is our little Triangle Park—maybe the tiniest park in the Birmingham Park system! The park serves as a recreational space for Forest Park kids and parents alike. There is a ball field for informal pick-up games of baseball, football, kick ball and soccer. There is a playground with swing sets, monkey bars and seesaws. At any given time, you will find children at play. And at Christmas, everyone celebrates when Santa arrives by firetruck, and parents and 64

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children gather for caroling and celebratory libations.

What makes our park special though is that the neighbors—the Friends of Triangle Park—provide the money and muscle for much of the maintenance.

Annually, friends and neighbors gather to spread mulch, cut overgrown shrubbery, make minor repairs to equipment, and otherwise perform acts of loving kindness for the park. A plaque stands near the playground commemorating the neighborhood and the neighbors who for more than 100 years have loved and cared for the park.” —Maury Shevin & Joyce Spielberger, local residents Homewood/The Trak Shak “We know that if it wasn’t for our running community, we weren’t be here, so a lot of our focus is on listening to our customers, stocking relevant inventory, and helping our community grow. We’ve done so by hosting a weekly run since we opened in 1995, donating supplies to local road and trail races, creating premier events like Mercedes-Benz Marathon Weekend, and developing a wonderful relationship with the Birmingham Track Club and other local clubs.

“Homewood has been wonderful to us! They’ve allowed us to run through their streets and take over the curb with events for going on 24 years now. I think that indicates a pretty fun community to be a part of!”

—Jeff Martinez, managing partner Hoover/Hoover Public Library “A lot of people say the library is one of the truly special places about Hoover, and that’s because of what we do in the community. Our children’s program is huge, with children involved from the time they’re born up to college. We even have a staff member who remembers coming here for story time when she was one; not too long ago, she taught her first story time here. We strive to be an integral part of the community and be of service to them in any way we can.

The community is great. It really is about the people, and they brighten our day as much as we do theirs.” —Todd Richardson, marketing coordinator

Mt. Laurel /Mt. Laurel Grocery “Mt. Laurel Grocery is a full-service grocery store—you name it, we sell it, from fine wines to glass-bottle Coca-Colas. We even sell the vintage signs that hang on the wall. Our deli serves lunch weekdays, which is another big draw, and after school the school bus pulls up to drop off the kids outside, so they all come in. It’s like going back in time.

“Everybody is family in Mt. Laurel. Everyone looks out for one another. We also have offices here where people come from outside the neighborhood to work at Mt. Laurel, so we get to know them, too.”

—Julie Numnum, longtime team member The Preserve/Moss Rock Tacos & Tequila “We love tacos and we love tequila! That’s the simplicity and the beauty of Moss Rock Tacos & Tequila.

After a long day of playing at the Moss Rock Preserve, it’s perfect to relax with a delicious margarita and a plate full of tacos. Of course, when you want something that’s ‘not tacos,’ we’ve got something for those days on our menu, too. We’ve worked hard to create an atmosphere that celebrates life in Alabama. From the mural painted by a local artist to the hand-crafted bar and reclaimed tiles on our wall— every detail of our restaurant celebrates the local history and culture of the Birmingham area.” —Brianna & Benard Tamburello, owners/managers/chef Trussville/DeDe’s Book Rack “When I bought the bookstore, there was already a core group of book lovers who were dedicated customers. I’ve added to that by reaching out to schools all over the area to find out what books they’ll be reading so that I can supply good-quality secondhand books for all the kids. It also gets parents into the store; a lot of them become regulars, too.

Trussville is just a great community. It’s also a growing community, and it has a lot to offer for people of all age ranges. We love being here.” —Debra McCarley, owner

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The 2019 Spring Parade of Homes is April 26-28 and May 3-5. With 18 communities, over 70 homes and 26 builders participating, you won’t want to miss this great event! Information regarding the parade can be found on the parade website at birminghamparadeofhomes.com. You can also download the parade app by visiting the App Store or get it on Google Play.

The Parade of Homes will feature houses ranging from 1,300 to over 5,700 square feet, ensuring that there is a home for everyone.

Whether you are a first-time buyer, looking for luxury in a move-up, scaling down your household, or even looking for a remodeling contractor, this is the kind of home event that has something for everyone. The homes exhibit the professionalism, authenticity and unsurpassed standards of the GBAHB Builders. You can find more pictures and information at birminghamparadeofhomes.com. Sponsors for the event are Spire and Trustmark.

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PARADE OF HOMES COMMUNITIES: Abingdon at Lake Wilborn Blackridge Brock Point Creekview Estates Flagstone Green Trails at Lake Wilborn Grey Oaks Griffin Park Highland Lakes Lake Wilborn

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The 5 bedroom/4 bath Ideal home has more than 3,500 square feet and a two-car main level garage. The home, zoned for Vestavia Hills schools, is in an established, gated neighborhood with a common area featuring a gazebo, charcoal grills, TV and audio, fish pond, gas fire pit, and wood burning fireplace. The location is close to downtown as well as shopping and restaurants at the Summit and Colonnade. The house is located in a very walkable neighborhood close to shops and Overton Park.

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Over 25 Home Builders. 18 Neighborhoods.

Don’t miss our Fireworks Finale!

We’re finishing this year’s parade with a bang in the Blackridge community in Hoover! Come enjoy a fireworks show hosted by Signature Homes.

Sunday, May 5th at 6PM

2 0 1 9 PA R A D E H O U R S :

Friday & Saturday 10AM - 6PM Sunday 12PM - 6PM

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For a complete guide to the 2019 Parade of Homes, visit us online at birminghamparadeofhomes.com, or download our handy app available from the AppStore or Google Play!

HOME STAGING INTERIOR DESIGN BIRMINGHAM DESIGN STUDIO 2780 BM Montgomery Drive Suite 100 Homewood, AL 35209

S WA G I S P R O U D T O A N N O U N C E T H E O P E N I N G O F T H E I R N E W D E S I G N S T U D I O C O N V E N I E N T LY LO C AT E D I N H O M E WOO D. By appointment only, visit www.swaghomestaging.com for details

@swagstagedesign

@SWAGHomeStagingAndDesign

SPECIAL PROMOTION

Design Directory Bath Planet Bath Planet was created with the intention of helping homeowners obtain top-quality customer service, while avoiding sky-high remodeling prices.

Call (205) 208-9039 or visit www.bathplanet.com/Birmingham Creative Cabinets and Design Creative Cabinets and Design was started in 2013 by Greg and Jennifer Thompson. Jennifer is an NKBA Certified Kitchen Designer (CKD), and has over 19 years of experience in the kitchen and bath design field.

285 Lyon Lane, Birmingham AL 35211 (205) 423-5510 creativecabinetsdesign.com Kitchen and Bath Dimensions Kitchen and Bath Dimensions is a full-service cabinet and counter-top company offering products for remodeling, new construction and re-facing.

2726 Chandalar Place Dr. Pelham, AL 35124 (205) 208-8429 www.counterdimensions.com Mantooth Interiors Since 1973, the Mantooth family has brought you a rare and ever evolving collection of the very best in home furnishings.

2813 18th St S, Homewood, AL 35209 (205) 879-5474 mantoothinteriors.com

Imagine Your Dream Embrace Every Possibility Create Your Happiness Haven’t you waited long enough for the kitchen or bath of your dreams? At VW Gallerie Kitchen & Bath Showrooms, we specialize in turning dreams into reality. Our experienced consultants will personally guide you through all the “clutter” in today’s world to achieve just the look you desire--be it modern or classic. Call and schedule your appointment today, or if you’re in the neighborhood, you are always welcome to come in and browse our extensive array of fixtures.

BIRMINGHAM

3320 2nd Avenue South Birmingham, AL 35222 205.324.9521 Mon-Fri 8-5 Sat 9-2

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PELHAM

221 Industrial Park Drive Pelham, AL 35124 205.663.1336 Mon-Fri 8-5

TUSCALOOSA

711 21st Avenue Tuscaloosa, AL 35403 205.758.8621 Mon-Fri 8-5

Meridian Brick Meridian Brick is North America’s largest manufacturer and supplier of brick and masonry products. 8250 Hopewell Rd, Bessemer, AL 35022 (205) 481-0434 www.meridianbrick.com SWAG Design Studio SWAG Design Studio’s creativity has established Erin Dunavant as one of the most sought after home stagers and designers in Alabama.

2780 B M Montgomery St Suite 100, Homewood, AL 35209 (205) 222-0839 www.swaghomestaging.com V&W Supply V&W Supply showroom locations include a 7,000 sf showroom in Birmingham, a 3,000 sf showroom in Pelham and a 3,000 sf showroom in Tuscaloosa. Gallerie staff has over 70 combined years of experience in interior design and the construction industry.

(205) 324-9521 www.vwsupply.com Wedgworth Companies For three decades, Mike Wedgworth has created some of the finest custom homes and residential communities in Birmingham.

4154 Crosshaven Dr, Vestavia Hills, AL 35243 (205) 967-1831 wedgworth.net

SPECIAL PROMOTION

Jana Sobel of 205 Photography

EYE DESIGN ON

with Jennifer Thompson of Creative Cabinets and Design

Clean & Simple

Over the last 4-5 years, two of the most common words I hear from clients are “clean” and “simple”. I can almost finish a client’s sentence when talking about their wishes for their new space. When the trend shifted from old world details such as dark colors, heavy trim and molding, and Italian influenced details, clients were eager to lighten and simplify finishes. Lighter finishes have certainly taken over the market, as well as simple cabinetry, less clutter, and clean lines. We are designing many kitchens right now with storage down to countertops to hide coffee bars, countertop appliances, and other items that might clutter a countertop. The trend continues in baths where clients like to hide toiletries, towels, and other bathroom items to maintain a clear and clean counter space.

This particular kitchen featured may be too sleek for some, but it certainly exemplifies the words “clean and simple”. As much as I love white shaker cabinets, which have been the trend for several years now, this slab door styling makes me sigh “ahhhh”. This is Wellborn Cabinet’s Aspire line of cabinetry. It is a frameless, full access, European style cabinet line. There is a feeling of relaxation and calmness when you enter a kitchen or bath that does not have too much going on and too many items to fight for your attention. When designing clean and simple kitchens, you can create single focal points for each area and leave it at that. Some may think of white slab kitchens as sterile and cold, but I believe this one is warm, inviting, and soothing.

The use of natural woods such as the gorgeous walnut drop-down dining space and the walnut floating shelves gives it the warmth and natural feeling it needs.

Don’t get caught up in what is trendy, popular, or on every magazine cover. Give your home your own personality and you will love it forever!

Creative Cabinet & Design 285 Lyon Lane Birmingham, AL 35211 205-423-5510 www.creativecabinetsdesign.com

Creative Cabinets and Design is a kitchen and bath design center known for award winning designs and excellent customer service. Wellborn is family owned and their high quality cabinets are made right here in Alabama! Our award-winning designs have been featured in the Parade of Homes, The Ideal Home, several magazines and online publications. Call to schedule a showroom appointment with one of our designers for an uninterrupted consultation experience.

See our work on Houzz and Facebook. or visit our website.

285 Lyon Lane•Birmingham, AL 35211•205-423-5510

www.creativecabinetsdesign.com

I N S T O C K T O D AY F O R I M M E D I AT E D E L I V E R Y FURNISHING FABULOUS HOMES FROM ASPEN TO THE CAROLINA HIGHLANDS AND ENTIRE GULF COAST.

Fine Furniture | Drapery & Window Treatments | Lighting | Accessories | Full Design Services 2813 18th St. South, Homewood, Al 35209 | 205-879-5474 | mantoothinteriors.com

MI2019-BedAd BMetro-fnl.indd 1

3/18/19 5:52 PM

April 26-28

Linn Park, downtown Birmingham, Alabama

www.magiccityart.com

Image: John Lytle Wilson SPONSORS: PLATINUM: City of Birmingham • This is Alabama GOLD: Birmingham Magazine • Birmingham Mountain Radio • 107.3fm • Homewood Life • Joe Piper • Starnes Media SILVER: Alabama Power • Bell Media • Kinetic Communications BRONZE: Publix Super Markets Charities • Encompass Health • BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama • Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau • Over the Mountain Journal STEEL: Alabama State Council on the Arts & the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency • Babypalooza Magazine • Bancography Bham Now • Birmingham Business Journal • B-Metro • Event Rentals Unlimited • Excursions by CityVision • Jemison Investment Company, Inc. • LeafFilter North of Alabama • Miller Communications, Inc. • WBHM Public Radio • 90.3fm • Yarbrough Festival Foodservice

there!

METRO

Places that you need to be and things that you need to do.

For Taylor Hicks, winning “American Idol’s” blockbuster fifth season was just the beginning. Hailed as “part Stax, part Motown and part honkytonk” by the New York Times, Hicks’ intoxicating blend of soul, blues, country, and rock & roll quickly rendered him a household name as he progressed to the show’s record-breaking finale in 2006, a historic television event which drew an audience of more than 200 million viewers.

Hicks immediately followed his Idol victory with a No. 1 Billboard single and an RIAA certified Platinum debut, and soon went on to make history as both the first male Idol champion featured on a GRAMMY-winning record (Jimmy Fallon’s Blow Your Pants Off), and the first to land a prestigious Las Vegas residency.

A versatile artist, actor and advocate, Hicks has since ventured into theater and television, touring as Teen Angel in the popular Broadway musical Grease in addition to appearing on “Law & Order: SVU” and hosting “State Plate,” his own food and travel show now entering its third season on the INSP television network. Hicks’ passion for southern cuisine also led him back to his native Alabama, where he opened up Saw’s BBQ & Juke Joint, a restaurant recently crowned one of the “25 Best Barbecue Spots in America” by Men’s Journal.

Most recently, he starred in the Serenbe Playhouse production of the 1974 Broadway musical Shenandoah. The outdoor stage featured

a Civil War reenactment of more than 100 soldiers, horses and cannons in Serenbe, Ga., about 30 miles outside of Atlanta.

After a lengthy hiatus from recording, Hicks returned in 2017 with “Six Strings and Diamond Rings,” the first single since his beloved 2009 sophomore album, The Distance. The stirring, stripped-down track offers up a tantalizing preview of Hicks’ highly anticipated third album, a deeply personal, roots-inspired collection recorded at Zac Brown’s Southern Ground studio in Nashville with contributions from four-time GRAMMY®-winning musician Keb’ Mo’ as well as Robert Randolph. Produced by Hicks along with GRAMMY®-winning guitarist Bryan Sutton (Garth Brooks, Brad Paisley), the album is due out later this year and will bring Hicks back on the road for extensive touring.

At the end of this month, he will perform a special concert at the Lyric Theatre for his hometown fans, performing songs from his new album and the American Idol Songbook. The concert is April 26 at 8 p.m. Tickets can be bought at www.lyricbham.com

STOP THE RECESSION FREE THE FOLLICLES.COM

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The Impossible Burger...

Made from Plants,Tastes Like Meat

Mac and Cheese Egg Rolls with Sweet Chili Glaze

g n i r p S Into

Local Classic...Modern Twist 4105 4TH Ave S, Birmingham, AL, 35222 (205) 917-5000 ï‚­ www.MeltBHAM.com

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CURIOUS

METRO

WITH JOEY KENNEDY

It’s Not a Fail if You Survive The scars of childhood.

By Joey Kennedy

T

here is a video series I regularly watch on YouTube called “Fail Army.” Mostly, it consists of clip after clip of people—women, men, girls, boys—falling while skiing, or biking, or running, or while trying to do those impossible standing back flips, or just showing off while drunk. My curiosity can be mindless.

There are lots of skateboarding mishaps on “Fail Army.”

I had a skateboard as a kid. My board had a green shark on top. I never once fell off that skateboard because I never once stood up on it. I traveled my neighborhood on that shark skateboard resting on my knees, pushing with my hands. That worked just fine, and I saw no reason to stand up. So I never fell.

On “Fail Army,” most of the skateboarders and bikers are wearing helmets and pads. These must have been invented after my biking and skateboarding days, because I didn’t wear any protection at all.

Neither did my friends.

Still, I know firsthand how resilient kids are, because as a pre-teen, I had two traits that when combined are awfully dangerous: I was fearless, and I was clumsy.

My earliest injury that I remember came while my family was visiting friends in Dayton, the small Southeast Texas town where I was born. I couldn’t have been more than six or seven years old.

Our family’s friends lived near the Dayton High School football stadium. A group of us kids decided we wanted to explore the stadium, but it was surrounded by a chainlink fence topped with barbed wire. As I remember, I volunteered to scale the fence and try to find a way into the stadium from the inside.

I was a climber, and this fence was certainly no challenge. I made it up to the barbed wire, reached out to pull it down so I could go over, and my sneaker slipped. A barb imbedded itself in my left palm, ripping the skin as I fell. I jerked to a stop,

hanging there by barbed wire, starting to bleed down my now-extended left arm. A couple of my friends climbed the chain link fence far enough to lift me up and off the wire. We ran home, the tear on my palm bleeding freely.

My parents didn’t see an emergency.

There was no trip to the hospital to get stitched up. My mom squeezed the gash together and, after stopping the bleeding, held the skin tight with a couple of BandAids. I recovered nicely but still wear that scar on my palm.

One of my UAB friends, “Belle,” is an honors student. Smart woman. Today.

In third grade, she says she had a beloved pogo-stick that she always left in the rain to rust.

“Despite the unvaried, poor care I took of it, I was pretty good,” Belle says. “I could pogo-stick while twirling a baton in one hand and a hula-hoop on the other arm. I suppose I could still join the circus if I don’t get into medical school next year.”

Belle continues: “One day, I was jumping in my backyard and, due to the rust, the pogo-stick spring became locked, essentially turning it into a spring-loaded rocket. I decided to conduct a very scientific experi-

ment in which I would jump on the pogo-stick to see if I could unlock the spring. However, I didn’t think ahead.

To what should not have been a surprise, the pogo-stick did unstick, but straight into my face. Blood, blood everywhere and a sideways nose.

“I ran into my house to tell my parents what happened,” says Belle. “A trip to the hospital, stitches, and a scar that I still have on my face (thanks, dimples, for hiding it).

I learned to take care of my things.”

For me, climbing accidents were common. We would climb as high into trees as we could. Once, a friend and I were climbing a tree split into a “V.” A thick chain joined each trunk, I guess to keep the trunks from spreading farther apart than they were. I worked myself pretty high up when I misjudged a limb. I fell directly onto that chain, one leg on one side, the other leg on the other. After I untangled myself from the chain and was limping around trying to recover, a lady came out of her house and suggested I have my parents rush me to the doctor.

“I saw where that chain hit you,” she said ominously. She was, however, incorrect.

The chain didn’t hit there, but zipped up my leg, leaving a nice chain rash on the inside of my left thigh. I resumed climbing once a nice scab was in place.

Any of these “freak” accidents would have made “Fail Army”—and I would have watched them. But we didn’t have cell phones with cameras then.

We wore no helmets, no knee pads, no safety gear at all. We just took our licks, and kept coming back. I’m happy we have helmet laws today, and that skaters and bikers protect themselves much better than we did. I’m fine with the nanny state.

Neither do I regret that freedom of climbing, and biking, and swishing through the streets, knees firmly planted, on a green shark skateboard.

Joey is a Pulitzer Prize winner. He writes this curious column each month for B-Metro. He can be reached at joeykennedy@me.com.

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