Homewood Life, March/April 2021

CHILDHOOD MEMORY ESSAYS • AN EDGEWOOD LANDSCAPING TOUR • A NEW READING APPROACH

EDIBLE ARTWORK KAT JONES’ POSTBOX SWEETS

MURAL

HUNT A GUIDE TO PUBLIC ARTWORK & THE ARTISTS BEHIND IT

MEET FATHER GOOSE INSIDE HIS WHIMSICAL WORLD

MARCH/APRIL 2021 HomewoodLife.com Volume Five | Issue Two $4.95

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WA LT O N

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The days move a bit slower here, and it’s this simplicity – a day spent creating memories at the beach – that draws generations of families back to South Walton.

ROOMS WITH A VIEW From resorts to boutique hotels, South Walton is home to unique architecture, breathtaking views and accommodations to suit any style.

Relax in Edgewater Beach Condominium’s many expansive pools

Situated on the pristine sugar-white beaches of South Walton,

while taking in sweeping panoramic views of the Gulf. French

WaterColor Inn perfectly encapsulates the spirit of an intimate

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beach getaway – while providing the functionality necessary for a

private beach create the perfect backdrop for your next escape.

family vacation.

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ROOM TO GROW Our 16 beach neighborhoods create an explorable community where kids can be kids and parents can relax (well, occasionally). Find your perfect beach at VisitSouthWalton.com.

MIRAMAR BEACH • SEASCAPE • SANDESTIN • DUNE ALLEN • GULF PLACE • SANTA ROSA BEACH • BLUE MOUNTAIN BEACH GRAYTON BEACH • WATERCOLOR • SEASIDE • SEAGROVE • WATERSOUND • SEACREST • ALYS BEACH • ROSEMARY BEACH • INLET BEACH HomewoodLife.com 3

FEATURES

52

ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA Take a tour of Homewood’s murals through our photos and then go explore them for yourself.

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FROM ZONGO TO SPINTEX & OTHER CHILDHOOD MEMORIES Here’s a taste of Homewood High School sophomores’ memories from their younger years and how they have shaped them into who they are today, all told in their own words.

67

BUILDERS & BUYERS With spring comes the time for cleaning and home projects.

Here’s your guide to renovations, landscaping and other resources.

4 March/April 2021

PHOTO BY REED BROWN

Special Advertising Section

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52

PHOTO BY LINDSEY CULVER

arts & culture

13 Meet Father Goose: Inside Charles Ghigna’s Children’s Books 22 Read This Book: Great Books, New Perspectives

schools & sports

23 A Sound Link: A Multisensory Approach to Reading 30 Five Questions For: Homewood High School’s eSports League

food

& drink

31 Edible Art: A Taste of Kat Jones’ Postbox Sweets

in every issue 6 Contributors 7 From the Editor 8 The Question 9 The Guide 72 Chamber Connections 74 Out & About 78 Marketplace 80 My Homewood

39 Five Questions For: The Team Behind Buka 40 Five Questions For: Neighbors West Homewood

home

& style

41 Season by Season: An Edgewood Landscaping Tour 50 In Style: Spring is Calling

HomewoodLife.com 5

contributors EDITORIAL

Alec Etheredge Madoline Markham Keith McCoy Scott Mims Emily Sparacino

CONTRIBUTORS

Reed Brown James Culver Lindsey Culver Meredith Elder Amy Holditch Jamison & Lindsay Kate Skinner Mary Margaret Smith Lauren Ustad

DESIGN

Jamie Dawkins Connor Martin-Lively Brittani Myers Kimberly Myers Briana Sansom

Meredith Elder, Stylist

Meredith is a local content creator sharing her west coast flair on southern style as a freelance stylist and social media specialist. In her free time (what free time?), you can find her loving on her sweet pups and cats, spending time by the water, hanging out with family and friends, or cooking. Connect with her at meredithabigailelder.com to collaborate!

Amy Holditch, Writer

Amy is third generation Edgewoodian. She has danced onstage at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, climbed mountains in Costa Rica and driven an RV through New York City. If she isn’t on the road, she is most likely planning when she can get back on it. The southern writer and mama currently shares her home with her extraordinary 12-year-old son, two cats, two dogs and a fish named Waffle.

MARKETING

Darniqua Bowen Kristy Brown Evann Campbell Jessica Caudill Kari George Caroline Hairston Rachel Henderson Kinley Johnson Rhett McCreight Viridiana Romero Brittany Schofield Lisa Shapiro Savana Tarwater Kerrie Thompson

ADMINISTRATION Hailey Dolbare Mary Jo Eskridge Daniel Holmes Stacey Meadows Tim Prince

Jamison & Lindsay Kate Skinner, Photographer

Jamison and Lindsay Kate are a husband and wife photography team that specializes in weddings. They love building relationships with their clients that allow them to also capture all aspects of life’s big moments.

Jamison Skinner Photography is based from their in-home studio in Homewood.

Lauren Ustad, Photographer

Lauren lives in Homewood with her husband, Joe, their three daughters, and their 2-pound Yorkie they refer to as “Boobie.” She spends her professional time posing itty bitties and chasing little munchkins. In her free time you can probably find her slaving away at their most current renovation project or building Legos with her self-proclaimed super heroes.

Homewood Life is published bimonthly by Shelby County Newspapers Inc., P.O. Box 947, Columbiana, AL 35051.

Homewood Life is a registered trademark. All contents herein are the sole property of Shelby County Newspapers Inc. [the Publisher]. No part of this periodical may be reproduced without written permission from the Publisher. Please address all correspondence (including but not limited to letters, story ideas and requests to reprint materials) to: Editor, Homewood Life, P.O. Box 947, Columbiana, AL 35051.

Homewood Life is mailed to select households throughout Homewood, and a limited number of free copies are available at local businesses. Please visit HomewoodLife.com for a list of those locations. Subscriptions are available at a rate of $16.30 for one year by visiting HomewoodLife.com or calling (205) 669-3131, ext. 532.

Advertising inquiries may be made by emailing advertise@homewoodlife.com, or by calling (205) 669-3131, ext. 536.

6 March/April 2021

from the editor

A

ON THE COVER

Mural Hunt

Artist Shawn Fitzwater stands in front of the wall on Central Avenue where he painted a “We Are All in This Together” mural at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring. Today the design lives on in his T-shirt design.

Photo by Lindsey Culver Design by Connor Martin-Lively

Around the time this issue arrives in your hands, we’ll be hitting the one-year mark since our world was forever changed by a virus. None of us had any clue then just how long this strange season would last, and even as more and more of us get vaccinated today, we now know there won’t be one magical day where suddenly everything snaps back to a pre-pandemic normal.

What we do know is decades from now we’ll be telling stories from the pandemic of 2020 (and beyond) to kids and grandkids, so I am starting to think of just what time capsule our photos and magazines from this time will be.

At first glance, this issue might not scream “pandemic magazine,” so I thought I’d share how it is, in many ways, very much one. Our Out & About event photos take up very few pages and come with masks, the specifics of We Love Homewood Day are still TBD as of printing this issue, and any events we preview in The Guide come with fine print to check for updates online before attending. Most of the writing in the pages that follow started not with our usual in-person interviews but with emails, old-school phone calls and Zoom calls, and our photography all took place with social distance, masked photographers and often outdoor settings.

To photograph our school story on a multisensory approach to reading, we met up with a teacher and just two students so we could all keep proper social distance. For our interview with children’s author Charles Ghigna, we used existing photos he shared with us of himself and combined them with photos we took of kids reading his books at the Homewood Public Library.

For our cover photo we captured mural artist Shawn Fitzwater in front of the wall on Central Avenue where he’d painted “We are all in this together” at the start of the pandemic last spring.

In some ways this all feels like the pandemic that never ends, but a couple of days before I sat down to write this letter, we had one of those glorious Alabama winter days where the sun hangs out all day and the temperature climbs to 70 degrees. I moved my “office” to my front porch, felt like I could run 10 miles as I laced up my running shoes and, as the ice on the cake of a day, picnicked with sushi, laughter and social distance in a friend’s backyard as the temperatures hovered above 50 degrees for a few hours after sunset. There’s a lot we still don’t know about the future, but that day left me confident in saying this: Spring is coming. More vaccines are coming. And good things are in store.

Wishing you well as days grow longer and trees grow brighter,

madoline.markham@homewoodlife.com

HomewoodLife.com 7

“ ” THE QUESTION

What’s your favorite “hidden gem” in Homewood?

Rare unique artisans—Bob Tedrow’s music shop and Bob Rosser’s hand engraving shop!

Andrew Brim aka “The Wine Guy” at The Pig! He’s friendly and down to earth, and of course quite knowledgeable about wine.

Leah Garner Knight’s @boardboxbhm. She’s an undercover deliverer dropping happies on porches all over town.

The family meal deals at Little Donkey, specifically the smoked chicken tacos.

A ton of amazing food for like $24.

-Jean Reed Woodward

-Megann Bates Cain

Woodland Park was the best discovery! We visit all the time because my dog loves running around or getting in the creek, and we love the little walkway that loops around it.

-LaceyRae Sport Visintainer

The labyrinth and prayer garden at Trinity United Methodist. It is open to the public 24/7. Enter the gate off Oxmoor between the sanctuary entrances.

-Amy Mezzell

8 March/April 2021

-Katy Morgan Pulvere

-Julie Blodgett

The tacos in Yo-Yo Donuts!!

-Laine White

The bamboo forest (our family calls it The Magic Place) at Broadway and Saulter.

-Tiffany Martin

THE GUIDE

KIWANIS PANCAKE DAY: DRIVE-THRU EDITION MARCH 13 7-11 A.M. The Exceptional Foundation Rise and shine, and come out for some hot cakes, sausage and coffee. This year’s event will be setup as a drive-thru, and more event details will be posted on homewood-mtbrook-al.kiwanisone.org. Organizer the Kiwanis Club of Homewood-Mountain Brook awards Key Club college scholarships, YMCA camp scholarships, and funds projects at family-centric organizations such as Children’s of Alabama, The Exceptional Foundation and local schools.

Photo by James Culver HomewoodLife.com 9

THE GUIDE

AROUND TOWN

APRIL 18

THROUGH MARCH 2021 All Things Bright and Beautiful Exhibit Birmingham Museum of Art, Pizitz Gallery

Cornapalooza 1-5 P.M. PIZZERIA GM

THROUGH MAY 2021 An Epic of Earth and Water: Clare Leighton and the New England Industries Series Birmingham Museum of Art, Arrington Gallery

It’s only fitting that the Homewood Athletic Foundation would hold an athletic competition as a fundraiser.

Cornhole is a sport, right? And all funds raised go toward the Homewood Athletic Foundation projects.

MARCH 5 Alabama Wish Night Benefitting Make-A-Wish Alabama Ross Bridge Welcome Center MARCH 11-14 James and the Giant Peach Jr. Virginia Samford Theatre

APRIL 24

Red Shoe Run: Rockin’ 5K 2021 DOWNTOWN HOMEWOOD Are you ready to rock? Time to turn up your favorite song and lace up your running shoes for this annual run benefitting Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama. You can choose from two participation options this year: a socially-distanced start line for the in-person 5K and 1 mile runs or a virtual option to rock the streets wherever you are. And as always, they will have a Snoozer option for those who simply wish

MARCH 13 GreenWise Market Village 2 Village 10K and 7.5K Virtual MARCH 22-26 Spring Break Homewood City Schools

to fundraise and get their T-shirt! Sign up at redshoerun-bham.org.

PARKS

WE LOVE HOMEWOOD DAY: TBD Saturday, May 1 is the official date for We Love Homewood Day 2021, but as of the time of printing of this issue, Homewood Parks & Recreation had not yet determined what the event will look like this year given the COVID-19 pandemic or if it will be able to hold the annual event. Check for updates on the event after March 5 on homewoodparks.com.

10 March/April 2021

MARCH 12 16th Annual Schoolhouse Rock A Meal Pick-Up Event Benefitting Cornerstone Schools of Alabama

MARCH 27 Rumpshaker 5K In Person or Virtual Options Homewood Central Park APRIL 1 The Spring Edit Lane Parke, Mountain Brook APRIL 3 Ellis Porch Statue to Statue 15K Starts at Vulcan Park & Museum APRIL 10 Highlands College Half Marathon + 10K Virtual

THE GUIDE LIBRARY

APRIL 10 Gumbo Gala Presented by Episcopal Place Sloss Furnaces

FOUR STARS STRONG Our very own library was the only one in Alabama to receive a Four-Star Library rating this year by Library Journal’s 2020 Index of Public Library Service. Out of the 5,608 qualified libraries, only 262 libraries received Star Library rankings. Homewood Public Library was also deemed a Four-Star Library in 2009 and 2015 and a Five-Star Library in 2010. The library is currently open Monday-Saturday 10 a.m.-2 p.m., and you can check homewoodpubliclibrary.org for updates on its COVID-friendly events.

APRIL 13 Trey Kennedy: The Are You For Real? Tour Alabama Theatre APRIL 15-25 Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite Virginia Samford Theatre

APRIL 10

9th Annual Cornhole Classic

APRIL 17 11th Annual Mutt Strut: DogFriendly 5k and 1 Mile Fun Run Benefitting Hand in Paw Virtual

THE BELL CENTER

Join in on a round robin format with a playoffs tournament that will keep your cornhole skills intact during the tailgating off-season. Plus, you can enjoy food, music and more while benefitting The Bell Center for Early Prevention programs too. The event will comply with all state and local guidelines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Learn more at thebellcenter.org.

APRIL 23-25 Magic City Art Connection Linn Park Check for event updates closer to dates based on COVID-19.

VOTE TODAY! HOMEWOOD’S

BEST HO

2021

MEW

OODLIFE.C

VOTING RUNS FEB. 25-MARCH 19 Winners will be announced in the May/June 2021 issue of HOMEWOOD LIFE.

OM

HOMEWOODLIFE.COM/HOMEWOODS-BEST-2021 HomewoodLife.com 11

12 March/April 2021

&CULTURE

ARTS

MEET FATHER GOOSE Charles Ghigna’s hometown has played no small part in the more than 100 children’s books he has penned.

BY MADOLINE MARKHAM PHOTOS BY JAMISON & LINDSEY KATE SKINNER & CONTRIBUTED HomewoodLife.com 13

Charles Ghigna reads one of his books in front of wall of more titles he has authored.

S

Search the catalogue at Homewood Public Library for “Charles Ghigna,” and more than 70 book titles will come up for every age, from board books to picture books to early readers and beyond. And that’s not even all of his work. To date, Charles, better known has “Father Goose,” has published around 130 books and more than 2,500 of the 5,000 plus poems he has written.

“He has a good command of the language, and is so good at rhyming and cadence and read alouds,” children’s librarian Laura Tucker tells us. One of her daughter’s favorite titles is Carnival of Cats, and one Laura’s favorites is the book he wrote for Animal Planet, Strange Unusual Gross and Cool Animals, in part because she helped the author with the research for it at the library. In fact, his dedication at the front thanks “Laura Tucker and her fearless band of brave librarians at the

14 March/April 2021

Homewood Public Library.”

In non-pandemic times, you can often find Father Goose himself at the Homewood library, just a short walk from his home. He comes to read to and speak to kids there, but since times are a little different right now, we invited him to “speak” to all of us about his work in these pages of our magazine. Here’s what he had to tell us.

Can you describe your career in a nutshell?

After my first books were published, I discovered I could reach more kids with my books than I could as a classroom teacher. I tell children that books are little magic carpets that can carry them around the world. I tell them my books have taken me on magic carpet rides to schools from Florida to Canada, from New York to California, from South America to England and France. I now spend most

Homewood Public Library has more than 70 books written by Charles Ghigna in its collection.

HomewoodLife.com 15

Charles Ghigna’s granddaughter Charlotte reads her grandfather’s book First Times to two friends.

of my time writing here in the attic of my 1927 Tudor home. Every morning I climb the stairs, turn on my computer, look out the window, and start making up poems and stories. From where I sit looking out the window, it feels like I’m in a treehouse! Sometimes I go outside and take long walks up and down the hills of Homewood. Those hikes help me clear my head and gather new inspiration. At night, I often stay up late writing here in my treehouse when everyone else is asleep.

What motivates you to write for children?

Finding poetry in the world and sharing it with others makes us feel alive. It fills us with hope. It celebrates life. It shines light into the corners of the world and turns the overlooked and the common place into sparkling gems of wonder and joy. Writing for children is like that. The greatest 16 March/April 2021

reward comes in knowing that our poems and books might stir the minds and hearts of children with a vision and wonder of the world and themselves that may be new to them or may reveal something already familiar in new and enlightening ways.

How has your wife inspired your work?

For many years I’ve been writing little love poems for Debra and leaving them on her breakfast plate in the morning and on her pillow at night.

Unbeknownst to me, she was collecting a file of those poems. Thinking that others might enjoy them too, she typed up a few (before computers) and mailed them to the ladies’ magazines. McCall’s, Good Housekeeping and Ladies’ Home Journal bought and published a few of my love poems and invited her to submit more. Many of those early

poems were collected and published in our book, Love Poems.

Debra also gets all the credit for inspiring me to begin writing for children. Some of my earlier poems were serious free verse pieces for adults that were published in journals and magazines such as Harper’s, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and Village Voice, and collected in books published by university presses. It was my wife

who one day said I needed to “lighten up.” I asked her what she meant. She said, “Why don’t you write about something fun that everyone can relate to, something like dogs and cats?” So I took her challenge and wrote a long light verse poem about dogs and cats. Those poems became the text of my first two books, Good Cats Bad Cats and Good Dogs Bad Dogs, published by the Walt Disney Publishing Company. Debra was right.

HomewoodLife.com 17

Homewood Public Library children’s librarian Laura Tucker holds A Carnival of Cats, which was one of her daughter’s favorites, and a book about animals she helped Charles Ghigna research at the library.

WHAT’S NEXT? This spring Charles Ghigna is releasing a new book of poems for children in which a friendly bear cub asks his woodland friends “What Is Poem?” The book, A Poem Is a Firefly, is illustrated by the Homewood artist Michelle Hazelwood Hyde. She and Charles also teamed up on the book Alabama: My Home Sweet Home, which marked the state’s bicentennial in 2018. Charles and Michelle will be presenting their new book to children at the Homewood library in October.

Who knew writing for kids would be so much fun?

She did.

that says in a low, soft whisper, “Listen to this...”

How did you end up living in Homewood?

Debra and I used to enjoy weekend drives What do you like to share with children when around Birmingham to visit open houses. On one you get to talk to them?

I like to inspire children by sharing my love of Sunday drive we came upon a cute little red brick poetry with them and letting them know they each cottage in the heart of Homewood. We’ve now have poems in them just waiting to come out. I tell lived here in this cozy cottage for the past 45 years them that they are all poets, they all see the world and enjoy our enchanted life in this storybook in their own unique way, and that writing is simply world. From our little front porch we sit and watch talking on paper. I tell them to write in your journal the passing parade of people and their puppies. It’s for two weeks, and then stop—if you can. If you funny how we’ve come to know friends and can’t, you’re a writer! Write of your passions, your neighbors by the names of their dogs. I’ve traveled loves, your fears, your joys. Find your writer’s all over the U.S. and beyond, and I’m often asked voice by listening deep inside. It’s that little voice where I live. When I say, “Homewood, Alabama,” 18 March/April 2021

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they often look surprised and say, “But you’re a writer. You can live anywhere you want.” I always just smile and say, “I know.

That’s why I live in Homewood, Alabama.”

How have Homewood students and places in particular inspired your work?

The students at Shades Cahaba Elementary helped me write The Alphabet Parade. I wrote a rough draft of the text for that book while sitting in the school library during my breaks between classes. That beautiful book is dedicated to Mali Moore, the librarian who was there when I was writing it.

During one of my visits to Hall-Kent Elementary, the students and I began making up funny animal poems together, which later became the inspiration for two of my books, Animal Trunk and Animal Tracks.

I invited the students at Edgewood Elementary to help me come up with a good title for one of my books about autumn that had just been accepted by Random House. I had three different working titles and asked the students which one they liked best. Oh My Pumpkin Pie! was the winner.

I also write poems in the Piggly Wiggly parking lot while my wife shops for groceries. I started the first draft of the book One Hundred Shoes: A Math Reader there, which has become one of our most popular titles in the Random House series of books for early readers. Thanks Pig! What’s one particular inspiration you have had for your writing lately?

My wife’s love of genealogy has been rubbing off on me lately and inspired me to take a good long look at my own family’s history. With Debra’s help, I discovered that my greatgrandfather arrived in New York from Italy and worked in a book bindery in Greenwich Village. I wish he knew how much his great grandson loves books too. That little gem of an idea set me to begin work on a nonfiction picture book project

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memorable of all our poet-guests were National Book Award winner James Dickey and Russian poet Omor Sultanov.

James Dickey was the U.S. Poet Laureate and the author of the novel Deliverance. He also played the sheriff in the movie alongside Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds. Dickey spent the evening regaling us with his behind-the-scenes stories from the movie.

Omor Sultanov came to the United States with Russian President Gorbachev on their tour of the South during the Christmas of 1988. Sultanov asked if he could visit with a poet while he was in Birmingham. When we opened the door, he burst in, took a look at our Christmas tree and gleefully shouted in his thick Russian accent, “Santa Claus!” Those were the only words he knew in English. He gave us many wonderful treasures including a hand-carved figurine and a little violin, along with three of his books of poetry, and a bottle of vodka.

Since we had no gifts ready for our quests, we asked his translator if there was something Mr. Sultanov might like from us. He put his fingers up to his mouth and began making kissing sounds.

Charles Ghigna with his wife, His translator laughed when he said Sultanov Debra, who first encouraged would like a “pacifier” for his new baby. He saw him to write for children that we had a newborn baby, Chip, and it turns out that he and his wife had a new baby too! Pacifiers back then were apparently rare in his hometown, tentatively titled I Have Books In Me. and his wife had begged him to please get one Have you had any other poets visit you in your while he was here. home?

Our house is only a block from the famous Pink Is there anything else you’d want our readers House in Edgewood where Ernest Hemingway and in Homewood to know about you?

Don’t tell anyone, but I’m probably the only other celebrities once visited. We’ve had an assortment of celebrities visit us here in our home person on the planet over the age of 12 who doesn’t during the past 45 years, too. Two of the most own a cell phone. r

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ARTS & CULTURE

READ THIS BOOK

Great Books, New Perspectives Recommendations from

Rachel Estes Community Enthusiast

For the past four years Rachel Estes has met with groups of middle school students at Homewood Public Library and other locations and used novels as conversation starters to talk about prison, gun violence, racism, homelessness, voting rights and differing abilities. She says she remains amazed at the ways kids can navigate hard topics with compassion, wisdom and creative outlooks.

Here are some of her recommended reads.

Stella by Starlight

By Sharon M. Draper Stella lives in the segregated South—in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can’t. One late night, Stella and her little brother see something they’re never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella’s community is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire, and she learns that ashes don’t necessarily signify an end.

Paper Things

By Jennifer Richard Jacobson When forced to choose between staying with her guardian and being with her big brother, Ari chose her big brother. There’s just one problem: Gage didn’t actually have a place to live. How can Ari keep up with school, her best friend and middle-school applications when she’s “couch surfing” and even, when necessary, sneaking into a juvenile shelter? This nuanced story will have you thinking about homelessness in a whole new way.

Ruby on the Outside

By Nora Raleigh Baskin Ruby Danes is about to start middle school, and only her aunt knows her darkest secret: Her mother is in prison. Then Margalit Tipps moves into Ruby’s condo complex, and the two immediately hit it off. Ruby thinks she’s found her first true-blue friend, but can she tell Margalit the truth about her mom? It turns out that Margalit’s family history seems closely connected to the very event that put her mother in prison, though, and if Ruby comes clean, she could lose everything she cares about most.

The Breadwinner

By Deborah Ellis Eleven-year-old Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city. Parvana’s father, previously a history teacher, works from a blanket on the ground in the marketplace, where he reads letters for people who cannot read or write. One day, he is arrested for having a foreign education. To help her family in the hard times to come, Parvana must transform herself into a boy since she is forbidden to earn money as a girl and become the breadwinner.

Patina (The Track Series)

By Jason Reynolds Ghost, Patina, Sunny and Lu are fast but fiery group of kids from wildly different backgrounds, and they find themselves chosen to compete on an elite track team. They all have a lot to lose, but the athletes also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves. Read this novel to discover each of their stories in this collection of Jason Reynolds’s New York Times bestselling Track series.

22 March/April 2021

SCHOOL

&SPORTS

A SOUND LINK

How a multisensory approach to reading is transforming classrooms and minds.

BY MADOLINE MARKHAM PHOTOS BY LINDSEY CULVER HomewoodLife.com 23

W

“What says ‘kah’?” the teacher asks.

“There are two ways to say ‘kah,’” her first graders echo in response as they each place their pointer finger in the tray of sand in front of them.

“C says kah,” they say in unison as they write the letter C in the sand. “And K says kah,” they finish, writing that letter next to it.

Hardly a second or two passes before their teacher is on to their next prompt as the kids shake their sand trays.

“Good job!” she says “Clear your board!”

And so the pattern repeats with each prompt: “What says mmm?”* is followed by “What says sss? What says ing? What says ung? What says qua?”

This isn’t how Megan Werner learned to teach reading 15 years ago when she was in college, but she can’t imagine doing it another way now.

Since she went to training for a multisensory

24 March/April 2021

approach to reading called Orton-Gillingham three years ago, Werner says she has seen tremendous growth in reading in her students at Shades Cahaba Elementary.

“Some kids learn best by listening, while others learn best by visual clues, others learn best by touching things, and other kids learn best by physical activity,” she explains. “This hits on all of those modes. It’s good for all the kids because they are all learning in the way that is best for them.”

Later in the day, Werner’s students pull out their book of “red words” that don’t follow phonics patterns. “So we just have to memorize them by heart,” she says.

The students hold out the flip book “like a beach ball” in front of themselves with one hand, and use their other hand to tap on their elongated arm. For the word “give,” that’s one tap for “g” up near their shoulder, one for “i” further down toward the

Shades Cahaba first-grade students Davis Schaefer and Jazmine Woods write letters in sand trays after their teacher, Megan Werner, calls out the sound they make as a part of the Orton-Gillingham method of reading instruction.

elbow, one for “v” still further down and one for “e” almost at their wrist, followed by saying the whole word “give” as they slide their hand from wrist to shoulder.

“It’s like muscle memory,” Werner explains. “If they get the first letter, then it’s like the other ones just come out of their mouth with it. For the words that are five or six letters, we put them to song, so

if they can get the first letter, it’s muscle memory too.”

It’s similar to why at other points in the school day her students pound their fist on their desk as they sound out each syllable in a word. “It’s putting that motion to it,” Werner says. “When they are pounding the word, they are breaking it down into the beginning sound, the middle sound and the HomewoodLife.com 25

26 March/April 2021

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Patrick Warren, REALTOR® ARC Realty | A Relationship Company 205.835.1219 pwarren@arcrealtyco.com ending sound, so they can then go back and write it and ultimately read it.”

By contrast, the way Werner taught reading before this training was almost all memorization, she says. She would hold up the letter G, and her students would say “gah.” And that was it, over and over again. But with Orton-Gillingham, which teachers call “OG” for short, “We are using so many of those modes to cement it even more. We are digging deeper,” she says.

And the results are not insignificant. With the fast pace of the lessons, kids pay attention better and get excited about reading every day in her classroom. By the time they move on to second grade, Werner hears from their new teachers what great spellers the students are. Better yet, the instruction style gives students who struggle with reading strategies to use so they can pound and tap to work on reading even when she isn’t there.

Originally Homewood City Schools teachers sought out training in OG for students who are dyslexic or otherwise struggle with reading, but quickly they came to see the method benefits all students, according to HCS Director of Instruction Patrick Chappell. And because of it, classroom learning in the core part of the day helps eliminate the need for students to be pulled out for reading intervention later in the learning process because they have fallen behind. The OG philosophy is approved by the International Dyslexia Association too and on Alabama Literacy Act from 2019.

That change trickles down to middle school too. “What we

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Teacher Megan Werner demonstrates to her students how to tap out the letter of each word on her arm in order to spell it.

are seeing now is kids are making more progress in elementary school, and when they are getting to middle school, we are not seeing as many issues,” Chappell says. “They have learned how to accommodate around dyslexia to a much better degree than seven or eight years ago.”

After all, learning to read is no small order. “As adults we tend to think of reading as something that just happens to us, but it’s so abstract and it’s probably the hardest thing any of us learned to do,” Chappell says. “This is breaking things down in a way that makes sure there is a way to not get left behind.”

The physical acts of the learning process, he says, are “making it more concrete and helping a kid link a sound that seems very abstract, particularly to a kid who is struggling and has some sort of reading interference.”

Cristy York, HCS director of student services, also notes how understanding the brain is key to understanding why OG methods work so well for students who might otherwise struggle: “It helps hit on different parts of the brain that those of us who learned to read easily would tap into. It allows them to activate other parts of their brain to work 28 March/April 2021

around that deficiency and achieve that same thing.”

Today around 80 elementary teachers in Homewood City Schools have been through the same OG training as Werner. The weeklong session runs 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day and costs about $1,200 per person, a price tag often funded through Homewood City Schools Foundation grants.

According to Chappell, after a few teachers went through the training initially around seven years ago, a teacher next door would see the practices in action and want to go through it, and it caught on from there as more and more teachers came back saying, “This is the best thing I have ever done. I cannot wait to use this with my students!”

And if Werner’s class is any indicator of students in the rest of Homewood, the students are just as excited as the teachers about it. *Editor’s Note: According to the OrtonGillingham philosophy, the letter sound for “mmm” is written as /m/, “ing” is written as /ing/, etc., but for the purposes of the general readership of this article, they have been written out as they sounded to the writer.

Megan Werner and her student Davis Schaefer pound out syllables to spell a word with their fists.

HomewoodLife.com 29

SCHOOL & SPORTS

5

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR

Jason Kennah

Homewood High School eSports League Sponsor PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

If you would have told Jason Kennah 10 years ago that when he turned 50, he would be in charge of a high school eSports program, he says he would have thought you were out of your mind. Yet here he is, loving every minute of it. What exactly is eSports though? The answer: competitive video gaming. Today the sport even has its own page on espn.com. To learn more about it, we talked with Jason going into the spring season as the team was still playing from home due to COVID-19. Pictured are Yair Chairez, Jackson Glenn, and Jack Ford, team members along with Liam Dwyer, Hugh Williams and Pascal Williams.

How did the Homewood Rocket League Patriots come into being at HHS? About five years ago, I had a small group of my students ask if I would sponsor their League of Legends team. I agreed to sponsor them, and it was really fun. Then in 2019, I received an email from a student that I did not know named Jack Ford, who was wondering if I would be willing to do it again for a game called Rocket League. As fate sometimes does, the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) decided in January of 2019 to officially make eSports a part of their organization by teaming up with a site known as PlayVS and offering state championships in a few eSports titles.

Jack and I recruited some more players, and we started our first season in the spring of 2020. We came out strong for the fall 2020 season, finishing in second place in the state during the regular season.

How does the game work?

Simply put, Rocket League is soccer played with rocket powered cars that can 30 March/April 2021

boost into the air and fly. It is much, much more complicated than that, but that is the best way for me to describe it to someone who has never seen it. Three players on each team play in a five-minute match. It is played in an ellipse shaped virtual arena with a goal at either end.

Whichever team scores the most goals in five minutes wins the match. Matches comprise a series. Most series are composed of three matches, so the best of three wins the series. There are also best of five and best of seven formats. The technical ability it takes to control your car and communicate with your teammates are the biggest challenges. It is an extremely fast-paced game.

Why do you think the team members choose to play?

The young people that play for us absolutely love the game, and they would be playing regardless of whether or not HHS had a team. They love taking on other players from around the state, especially ones that they already know from playing online. It gives them a sense of community and camaraderie when

they play for Homewood.

What do you like most about sponsoring this group?

I loved playing video games when I was a student in the ‘80s, and those memories are reborn when I watch these players do what they do while having a great time together. I am very proud of what this team has accomplished so far.

Is there anything else you think people in the community should know about this team?

There are some people that may question eSports being a competitive league in our high schools and colleges. I would challenge those folks to name when football, basketball or any other competitive sport wasn’t viewed in the same light as it first started to become popular. Today, there are hundreds of colleges and high schools that offer eSports. Many colleges offer scholarships to the best players. This year, the Rocket League Championship Series X will have teams competing from around the world for a $4.5 million prize.

&DRINK

FOOD

EDIBLE ART

Each Postbox Sweets cookie Kat Jones creates comes with a bit of British inspiration.

BY AMY HOLDITCH PHOTOS BY MARY MARGARET SMITH HomewoodLife.com 31

M

Many of us are amateur chefs, preparing the perfect pot of soup or creating an Insta-worthy meal or inspiring salad, often on a daily basis. But, creating iced sugar cookies is a whole different game. The perfect cookie must be built from the ground up, with each and every ingredient having a specific spot in the foundation of this comforting, soul-soothing creation. Like most things, it’s all about the chemistry. You either have it or you don’t. Kat Jones has definitely got it.

Postbox Sweets—formerly named Hey Kat Bakes—is her labor of love. After watching her friend Melissa Galbraith bake and decorate cookies, Kat was hooked. “Royal icing is tricky and often frustrating. But, she was always so encouraging so I kept going,” Kat says. When introduced to royal icing in 2016, Kat’s love of food and art came together, and she began creating

32 March/April 2021

edible works of art that also helped to create meaningful events. Royal icing, for those not in the know, is icing that hardens to a candy-like texture, smooth and blemish-free. “Royal icing was invented for Queen Victoria’s wedding cake and is used to decorate all of my sugar cookies,” Kat explains.

The Auburn graduate is a service industry veteran. She started working in her father’s Mobile restaurant, Hart’s Fried Chicken, at the age of 14, and her family has all kept those restaurants going for more than 50 years. She grew up on the assembly line and fell in love with the process creating a product from start to finish. “I’ve always loved baking.” Kat says. “So, when I learned the art of decorating cookies, it all came naturally to me.”

Today Kat creates custom cookies for all occasions as well as subscription boxes. Each piece

Kat Jones uses royal icing for each of her Postbox Sweets cookie creations in nearly any shape or design imaginable.

HomewoodLife.com 33

of cookie art is delicately iced, lined and colored.

Need sloth cookies? She’s got you. Tent cookies for your next campout? Done. The possibilities are endless. Her best sellers are The Cookie Club, a three-month subscription of holiday-themed boxes, and Paint Your Own sets. “The paint kits come with an edible paint pallet, and you use it just like watercolor,” Kat explains. “Just dip the 34 March/April 2021

paintbrush in water, then color and paint the cookie.”

Just before the pandemic began a year ago, Kat had started teaching classes at local businesses and holding pop-ups around the holidays. And then came COVID. “I held my breath when the pandemic hit,” Kat says. “Since I bake from home and not in a commercial kitchen, I reached out to

HomewoodLife.com 35

The name Postbox Sweets was inspired by Kat’s love of all things British.

my contact at Cottage Food Industry, and she gave me the go ahead to keep on baking. Aside from not doing pop-ups or teaching, I really haven’t been impacted at all.” (The Alabama Food Cottage Law went into effect in 2014 and basically states that individuals can produce certain nonhazardous foods in their homes and cannot be sold to restaurants, novelty shops, grocery stores or over the internet.)

In these times in place of the pop-ups Kat has been offering The Cookie Club and allows for pre orders where people can shop online and pick them up. “For now, there are big tables full of cookies from which to choose,” Kat says. “It was one of my favorite things to do.”

36 March/April 2021

In these strange times, though, came a new name for Kat’s baking business, which she’d called Hey Kat Bakes from the start of things. The new moniker, Postbox Sweets, was inspired by her love of all things British. “Elements of Victorian era stamps, The Royal Mail and Queen Victoria’s crown became inspiration for the logo design and brand illustrations,” Kat says. “I come from a long line of restaurant owners, and hearts are incorporated into the design as a nod to our family restaurant, Hart’s. Our loyal and brave lion mascot is also named Hart.” The logo was created by Holly Hollon. “I’m extremely grateful for her creativity and expertise,” she says.

Although Kat has no current plans to open a

A CHAT WITH KAT What’s your favorite dessert?

I have never met a dessert I didn’t like, but if I had to pick a favorite, it would be fruit tarts. My husband, Hank, always gives me one or two on special occasions.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given regarding running a small business?

I have several small business owners as close friends, and they have all shared wise words with me. I think the one that I have held close is, “Rest in what you are doing well.”

What do you do in your downtime?

I love spending time with my family. We have two boys and love movie nights. We also love riding bikes, camping and making art.

Describe your perfect day.

Spending all day outside, hiking and exploring.

HomewoodLife.com 37

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38 March/April 2021

storefront, she is “always dreaming about having a spot somewhere or finding someone to collaborate with.” As for now, “It’s me, wearing all the hats,” she says, noting she accepts only two to three custom orders per month and stays booked.

On any given day, you can find Kat doing all the life things on top of her baking business. “I’m shuffling kids to and from school/activities, cleaning house or catching up on laundry.

Other days, I’m baking, making icing, decorating cookies, packaging orders or waiting on clients to pick up cookies,” she says. “I think it’s what I love most about the job. Every day is different, and there is always something to do.”

And then that’s not even getting to the treasure of the cookies themselves: “Whether it’s a big holiday month, wedding season, birthday or celebrating our amazing teachers, it all brings me so much joy!”

To learn more about Postbox Sweets or place an order, visit postboxsweets.com. You can follow Kat’s cookie creations on Instagram @postboxbykat too.

FOOD & DRINK

5

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR

The Team Behind Buka PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

Pandemic times have been ones of low lows and high highs. Case in point: The closing of Woodlawn Cycle Café east of downtown Birmingham was a low low for its fans, but the news a few months later that the team behind it was opening a neighborhood market, wine shop and takeaway cafe in West Homewood was certainly a high high. Add to that good news that the store will have a sister home goods retail selection, and that Buka owner Armand Margjeka’s wife, Meg, will be running a new location of Etc. with sustainable ready-to-wear collections along with their mix of unique jewelry and accessories next door to Buka in 186 Oxmoor building on Oxmoor Road. As of the publication of this issue, the Buka team was aiming to open the market in early spring, so to tide us over until then, we asked them some questions about what we will find there soon. Watch for updates on their opening on bukabhm.com or @ bukabhm on Facebook too.

Can you share the back story on Buka?

What was the previous experience with Woodlawn Cycle Cafe, and why did you want to start this new concept?

Buka initially grew from the current climate of the industry due to COVID-19.

When we weren’t able to host guests for indoor dining safely at Woodlawn Cycle Cafe, like everyone else, we had to think of ways to adapt. For years, customers would ask to purchase our cafe selections of wine, house-made jam and charcuterie selection to take home, so it felt like a natural progression for a new market concept. We have always loved West Homewood and how close-knit it is, so it felt like a perfect fit when looking to open a neighborhood market.

Where did the name Buka come from?

Buka means bread in Albanian. Its broader meaning refers to the essential needs for the table and sometimes food in general. With the owner being born and raised in Albania, we felt inclined to have a name rooted in his upbringing, which consisted of his mother doing her daily shopping at the neighborhood market.

same brands customers know and love from our other concept, Public Office. We have designed the space to be inviting while highlighting the selection of goods we have.

Will we see any elements of Woodlawn Cafe’s design or menu there?

Of course there will be some nods to the cafe, but we are really excited about this Can you tell us more about what we will new chapter! be find inside the space?

We are looking to be a reliable Many people who were fans of neighborhood market stocked with Woodlawn Cycle Café raved about the essentials from wine, meats, cheeses and “toastie,” a breakfast sandwich with bread to olive oil, spices and healthy egg, spicy sausage, Swiss cheese and snacks. In addition to the market, we will pepper jelly. Will they be in the menu at have a healthy take away menu focused on Buka?

We will have our sweet potato biscuits local, seasonal offerings. We will also have on the menu. our home goods selection with some of the HomewoodLife.com 39

FOOD & DRINK

5

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR

Michael Eady

Neighbors West Homewood Co-Owner PHOTO CONTRIBUTED

What’s in a name? There’s a whole lot in Neighbors West Homewood, a new ice cream, candy and sweets shop coming to the former Magic City Sweet Ice location across from Patriot Park since it’s owned by a group of 15 families in the neighborhood. They are aiming to open in April, but follow @neighborshwd on social media or check neighborshwd.com for updates. In the meantime, we chatted with one of the neighbors, Michael Eady, to learn more about the shop.

How did Neighbors come to be?

I’ve lived in the neighborhood about five years and have built meaningful relationships here. I run a creative agency downtown, but I have always had an interest in putting a business in my neighborhood. My friend Johnny Grimes, who owns Wheelhouse Salon with his wife, and I were talking about investing in something in Homewood and available real estate. My house is one block from Patriot Park, and so we inquired about this space. Magic City Sweet Ice was there before, so we knew a dessert and ice cream shop had had some success there. That’s when we started to dream about what it might look to have multiple families in the neighborhood own it together. We had a meeting about that idea one night at my house in the backyard spread out, and it was well received. It just kind of naturally happened.

candy selection for a lower transaction opportunity. We are having conversations about collaborating with restaurants in the neighborhood. I think at some point we will have some different sweets made in the shop, but are limited in that we don’t have a big kitchen.

Kent Elementary School down to the park, and part of our hope is for them to come to their shop. Inside of the shop we want it to tell the story of the neighborhood too, so you’ll see parts of the neighborhood come to life whether it be street names or pictures of families who live here.

A lot of people ask you if all the owners knew each other before this started.

What’s your answer to that, and can you tell us all their names?

Each family involved has a different story, and a lot of them didn’t know each other before this but were intertwined in similar networks. And they know each other now. In addition to my wife, Sarah Beth, and me, the owners are John and Leslie McElheny, Will and Jana Flinkow, Payton and Heather Junkin, Paul and Apryl Simmons, Jonathan and Maria Fleisher, Carlos and Mercedes Alemán, How are you designing and renovating Bernard and Stephanie Mays, Christopher and Jenna Bailey, David and Rebekah Can you tell us about your ice cream the space?

Ytterberg, Andrew and Trista Wolverton, It will have new floors, ceilings and walls and other food and drink offerings?

Primarily we will serve ice cream, and and look totally different than before. We Erik and Lauren Gibson, Johnny and we will have 20ish dairy-based traditional are putting an outdoor service window for Courtney Grimes, Brittany and Robert flavors. We will more than likely serve drip people to walk up to, so you don’t have to Sturdivant, Matt and Amanda Leach, and coffee, water and sodas, and we’ll have a walk into the shop. Kids pour out of Hall- JW and Becky Carpenter.

40 March/April 2021

Tell us more about the vision behind the name “Neighbors.”

Most of the families have bought into it because it’s an investment in the neighborhood. We want people to come to the shop that don’t live in West Homewood, but we know 90 percent of our business will come from our neighbors. Several hundred houses can walk to our shop. We want it to be like old Cheers, so when a family walks in, we want our customer service representatives to know their names.

&STYLE

HOME

SEASON BY SEASON

The bright greens of spring blooms thoughtfully contrast with the dark exterior of this Edgewood home.

BY MADOLINE MARKHAM PHOTOS BY REED BROWN HomewoodLife.com 41

W

Walk past the Thrower home in Edgewood come spring, and you’ll see the bright greens of the season popping against the home’s black siding.

Look closer, and you’ll notice varying sets of blooms amidst it at different times you walk by too.

Rewind a few years, and Adam and Katherine Thrower had wanted to move to Edgewood to be close to friends and families for their kids to grow up with, and they found a lot they loved with a 1950s home they wanted to renovate to better suit their family.

To do so Adam enlisted the architecture expertise of Design Initiative, a firm he has used for both his residential and commercial projects.

“We like simple but strong details,” he says of their shared design style. “I like exposing structural elements since I have a construction background.

On the outside we wanted to be in line with the rest of the houses around us.”

The Throwers ended up adding a second story onto the home and a separate garage building with a guest suite above it. Fran Keenan, an interior designer and close friend of the Throwers who helped with furnishing their home indoors and out, suggested they go with a Scandinavianinspired color scheme for the exterior and paint the hardy wood black to complement the Cyprus

42 March/April 2021

wood accents and pine shake roof.

When it came to landscape design, Adam had John Wilson of GoLightly Landscape Architecture design the plans and Daniel McCurry with Father Nature Landscapes implement the design and bring his expertise with outdoor living spaces to the project. “With (John’s) designs plants change from season to season,” Adam says. “You almost forget one turns purple in fall and another turns white in spring. They are constantly changing and providing color and texture without having to plant new plants in spring and fall.”

The vision for the landscape design was to create an outdoor living area on the side of the house that would welcome neighbors and another more private dining and living space for their family in the back of the house. Together the team worked to select various chartreuse colored plants for the front of the home that would pop against the black exterior walls and other plants that would surprise passersby with their blooms as different seasons arrive. Daniel also designed uplighting for the trees and pathways to highlight the organic shapes of the trees and provide a glow as opposed to a spotlight.

Today nature is an extension of the home that the Throwers see each time they look out the window and neighbors can take in time they walk by or stop by for a visit.

Side Patio The Throwers like to welcome neighbors to their pea gravel side patio to sit by the fire or enjoy a meal. The area showcases John’s designs that layer plant textures together. For example, the clipped Boxwood bushes lining the home’s exterior wall are paired with the dwarf grass, Adagio Miscanthus, next to it.

Front Porch A pairing of gaura white blooms and spring bouquet viburnum, which also has white blooms when they are in season, line the pathway to the home’s front porch encased with Cyprus beams.

HomewoodLife.com 43

In Bloom The purple blooms of this “Dark Knight” Bluebeard perennial add a pop of color to the entrance to the home in the summer.

Herb Garden An herb garden sits on a galvanized tin shelf outside the home’s kitchen. You can see sticks in several plants that mark the name of the herb.

44 March/April 2021

Dining Porch Cyprus wood frames in a private dining porch just outside large kitchen windows.

HomewoodLife.com 45

Maple Showcase Daniel hand-picked the Amur Maple tree in the center of the foreground of this photo from the grower because it’s such an important tree for the property. It has a Japanese Maple vibe and will eventually create a ceiling for the patio behind it.

Boundary Screens These European hornbeam trees provide an additional screen between the Throwers’ yard and their next-door neighbors along with the Cyprus wood.

Garage + Guest Suite The Throwers added a new garage with guest suite upstairs when they renovated their house.

46 March/April 2021

Japanese Maple A close-up view of this Japanese “Coral Bark” maple tree shows how its bright green leaves contrast with the black siding on the house.

Creeping Fig Creeping fig grows up the fireplace on the home as well as the seating wall that lines its side patio.

HomewoodLife.com 47

Serviceberry Alley The Cyprus screen on either side of the walkway hides the home’s trash cans, an air conditioning unit and a cellar door.

Behind it serviceberry trees lead you from the public part of the yard to a more private area. These trees line streets in Asheville, North Carolina, and yield blooms in the spring and an edible berry that tastes like a blueberry only less sweet in the summer.

Pine in a Planter This long needle pine will one day grow into a large pine tree and will have to be transferred from its planter.

BEHIND THE SCENES Landscaping: Daniel McCurry, Father Nature Landscapes

Architect: Marshall Anderson, Design Initiative Landscape Design: John Wilson, GoLightly Landscape Architecture

Interior Design: Fran Keenan, Fran Keenan Design 48 March/April 2021

IN STYLE

SPRING IS CALLING

BY MEREDITH ELDER PHOTOS BY LAUREN USTAD

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2. CUTOUT FRINGE EARRINGS A hint of pink and a fun earring will always complete any outfit.

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4. NAKED FEET PLATFORM SLIDES There’s nothing better than a platform shoe, right?

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Meredith Elder is a local content creator sharing her west coast flair on southern style as a freelance stylist and social media specialist.

50 March/April 2021

LOOK 2

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2. SHELL EARRINGS Don’t be afraid to mix a daring earring like this whimsical pair into your springtime attire.

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2. SILVER TEXTURED CUFF BRACELET Theadora | $169

3.OKO BRACELET SET

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HomewoodLife.com 51

Artist Shawn Fitzwater stands in front of the wall on Central Avenue where he painted a “We Are All in This Together” mural at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring. Today the design lives on in his T-shirt design.

52 March/April 2021

Always a Good Idea Take a tour of Homewood’s murals through our photos and then go explore them for yourself.

By Madoline Markham | Photos by Lindsey Culver & Contributed

Travel to urban areas nationwide, and you’ll find they are far more colorful than they once were.

Where drab grey brick walls once stood, colorful murals now draw eyes to public art.

“I went through some places (in Atlanta) where every wall was painted, and it was gorgeous,” mural artist Shawn Fitzwater says. “It was like walking into another world because of how much public art they have, some of them 50 feet tall.”

Now as he drives around Homewood and downtown Birmingham, Shawn sees blank canvases everywhere.

Back in 2018, though, that wasn’t the case. At the time he ran a bicycle advertising business when he stumbled into painting business signs, first for Ash in West Homewood and later for Neighborhood Nutrition, Grocery Brewpub, Pizzeria GM and others. By the time that business was taking off in 2019, Shawn was thinking about how murals bring communities closer and give them identity, how they liven up a city and draw customers to businesses too.

The first place to come to his mind to create one was his own neighborhood, where he’d grown up

and is now raising his own family. Before long he’d painted a “community tree” on Oxmoor Road in West Homewood and was thinking up new designs for all the canvases he saw.

Meanwhile, Ignite Properties owner and Homewood resident Adam Thrower had caught the public art bug too after seeing its prevalence in Denver. First up he commissioned artist Marcus Fetch to paint a mural of Miss Fancy, the elephant from the zoo that had been located in Avondale, on a commercial building he owned there, and from there he and Marcus collaborated on murals to bring new life to drab walls on his office building in downtown Homewood and another on a commercial building on Oxmoor Road in West Homewood.

“My goal is not to get someone to take a photograph but for people to come by and smile,” Thrower says. “I wanted to take a relatively colorless bleak alley and to make something people can enjoy.”

And for each new palette of colors that goes up on a street we drive or walk on, our city is that much richer—and hopefully makes many people smile too.

HomewoodLife.com 53

Homewood Mural Hunt Checklist Tag @homewoodlife in your posts with your #homewoodmuralhunt photos.

EDGEWOOD Color TV Ad 1017 Oxmoor Road, facing Ruby Sunshine & Greenhouse parking lot Blue Edgewood Mural 1018 Oxmoor Road, facing the Chevron station

WEST HOMEWOOD Community Tree 168 Oxmoor Road on Big Color building Community Mural: Coming Soon 710 Oak Grove Road, on the back of bathroom building facing open fields Patriot Park Childhood Joy 186 Oxmoor Road, on the left side of the 186 Oxmoor building

DOWNTOWN HOMEWOOD Homewood is Always a Good Idea 2790 B M. Montgomery Street, on the left side of the Roman Brantley Antiques building Whimsical Girl 2811 Crescent Avenue, on the Ignite Creative building

54 March/April 2021

Homewood Is Always a Good Idea Artists: Creighton & Andrew Tyne

Linda Brantley has always liked Audrey Hepburn, so when she was having a business sign painted before opening Roman Brantley Antiques, she decided to add Audrey’s portrait to liven up the side of the old white garage building. She googled famous sayings by Audrey and edited one about Paris to read, “Homewood is always a good idea.”

We All Are in This Together Artist: Shawn Fitzwater As the COVID-19 pandemic cast a dark shadow on Homewood last spring, Shawn Fitzwater thought the community needed an uplifting message and wanted to contribute to one as an artist. He’d had this wall on Central Avenue in mind for a mural for a while anyway, so one day he painted these words on it without asking anyone first. Although the mural was painted over as previously planned by the building’s owners, its legacy lives on on a T-shirt bearing its design that Shawn partnered with Vulcan Apparel to sell with proceeds going to meals for frontline workers through BHM Cares and in nationwide news coverage from an Associated Press article on the mural that ran that spring.

HomewoodLife.com 55

Whimsical Girl Artist: Marcus Fetch When Marcus Fetch started to work with Ignite Properties owner Adam Thrower on a concept for his business’s building on Crescent Avenue, he hadn’t ever painted a mural of a person, and so they decided to do one of Adam’s daughter Audrey, who was around 8 years old at the time. Marcus chatted with Audrey to get inspiration for the design and ended up designing a visual abstract representation of her imagination with a bunny inspired by one of Audrey’s stuffed animals.

“It was almost like an Alice and Wonderland sort of thing,” Adam says. “I wanted as much color as possible.”

Blue Edgewood Mural Artist: Shawn Fitzwater Shawn Fitzwater reached out to the owners of the Engaged Wedding Library building facing the Chevron station in Edgewood wanting to paint a mural on its blank wall, and the owners, who also own Vulcan Apparel Company, ended up designing these blue letters. They considered adding more to the design to it but ultimately decided to leave it simple with just the large painted lettering. “People say, ‘This mural makes me smile every time I drive by,” Shawn says.

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Color TV Ad Artist: Shawn Fitzwater Shawn Fitzwater had had his eye on this fading ad in Edgewood from the 1960s for a while when the owners of Trilogy Leather and Seguro Insurance approached him about doing just that. As he brought it back to life, Shawn wanted to keep the ad’s vintage look intact.

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Childhood Joy Artist: Marcus Fetch Since Marcus Fetch had already completed a mural inspired by Ignite Properties owner Adam Thrower’s daughter, they decided to depict Adam’s son in their next project on the 186 Oxmoor building Adam’s company was renovating in West Homewood. Adam wanted it to be large, taking up two stories of the wall, and they also wanted it to represent West Homewood’s community and speak to all kids by capturing the beauty and freedom of childhood. They took pictures of Adam’s son Guy, then age 7, hanging upside down in the tree, and drew inspiration from Homewood’s colors for the red and blue stripes on his shirt. The bubbles around him are meant to be his imagination, and that’s what is making him smile.

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Ask a child what he dreams of doing in the future. His answer brings everything into focus for us.

WE DO WHAT WE DO

Community Tree

BECAUSE CHILDREN HAVE DREAMS.

Artist: Shawn Fitzwater After painting business signs for a while, Shawn Fitzwater wanted to paint a mural in and for West Homewood, where he grew up and lives now. He approached the owners of the Big Color building about it, and they were on board to use their wall since it would help draw customers to their business. Shawn wanted the mural to be all about the community and wrote out street names in the area as the leaves in the tree design.

West Homewood Community Mural: Coming Soon Artist: Shawn Fitzwater One day Shawn Fitzwater was kicking the ball in Patriot Park with his kids when he noticed how the wall on the back of the bathroom building facing the field was a blank canvas. He reached out to the city and ended up collaborating with the West Homewood Neighborhood Association and Homewood Parks & Recreation Board to create a design contest for it. The mural is scheduled to be completed by May.

1 6 0 0 7 T H AV E N U E S O U T H BIRMINGHAM, AL 35233 (205) 638-9100 | ChildrensAL.org

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From Zongo to Spintex & Other Childhood Memories

Here’s a taste of Homewood High School sophomores’ memories from their younger years and how they have shaped them into who they are today, all told in their own words.

ESSAYS CONTRIBUTED | PHOTOS BY LINDSEY CULVER

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Princess Laila Yakubu-Tanko I was born in Accra, Ghana on Halloween 2004 to Mari, a health worker. My mother is of Nigerian and Ghanaian descent. I was passed on to my maternal grandma and aunties at the age of 3 because my mother had to travel abroad because of a better opportunity she received. I lived at Zongo, a place resided by many Muslims, and other groups of people. Zongo is a highly populated area. Many people earn low incomes, and they do not benefit from taxes as people in the suburbs do. I had many friends in Zongo. Kids roam around the streets freely. Church is attended every Sunday, and children can eat and stay at other families they are familiar with for some time, either to play with their kids or to help with any household chore.

At the age of 5, my family and I moved to Spintex, a very popular residential area in Ghana. At Spintex, everyone fends for him/herself and they are not really bothered about your whereabouts. My family and I happened to stay in a compound home composed of five other families including ours. There were many kids in the community I grew up in.

My grandma was quite rigid and did not want us to visit people’s homes or leave the house. She seldom allowed us to go out to play also. I remember watching from the windows, seeing all these different kids play games of all sorts like tag, hide and seek, and soccer. After turning on the TV for about an hour, my grandma would say turn it off because she felt as if we would develop medical conditions from watching long hours of TV. By the age of 8, I was already reading books with no pictures in them because I had nothing to do.

There is a particular week I can never forget about. When my grandma helped an old friend into an accommodation owned by her friend, we received a call saying that he had been placed in jail for stealing the landlady’s daughter’s laptop. We went to the police station to see what the issue was.

I was petrified because I had never seen a jail cell and the treatment given to the

inmates. They were treated as though they were not humans. Ironically, the lady had no proof that the man had stolen the laptop, but she was still pushing that he did it. I remember asking the superintendent on what basis he was being kept in jail. He told me that I was a kid and I had no knowledge of what I was saying.

The landlady was being overdramatic; she kept bawling her eyes out, wailing and screaming as though she had lost a kidney.

It made me realize how evil individuals are. In the long run, the man was released from jail because the laptop had been found in the daughter’s closet.

I must say that my childhood was not quite as fun as many people’s, but I got to spend more time at home with family and make many memories. Even though I had some terrible experiences, I do not let it determine who I am. It also gave me more time to focus on my school work.

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Ava Hines When I was around 5 years old, a tree fell on my house, and my mom and I had to move in with my grandparents until the house was fixed. My grandmother was in the later stages of her cancer when we moved in, so a lot of my mom and grandfather’s attention was focused on her. I barely knew my grandmother.

Seeing her bald, bedridden and barely able to speak scared me. I kept my distance from her, which meant I spent a lot of time alone. I was almost angry at her for “taking my mom away,” when she needed her more than me. My mom tells me that the night my grandmother died, she woke me up to tell me and I responded with, “I really don’t care.”

Hearing that scares me. I look back at myself then, and I still can’t tell if I was being selfish or if I was just a kid who missed her mom. But because of this, I have learned to have compassion for all, whether that be the lonely child or the dying woman.

America Valencia Torres The last day of eighth grade I remember we sat on the steps of the school since the rest of the class was playing a game with a Frisbee. My English teacher was playing “New Light” by John Mayer on his speaker, and I stared at the school. I started crying a bit because it hit me that I wasn’t a kid anymore.

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Cameron Allen My dad and I went for bike rides together down Broadway Street, and my favorite part would be when the grand oak trees would form a sort of ceiling in the middle of the road. The sun rays would flitter through the heavy green leaves and create a beautiful atmosphere for riding. You have to crane your neck to see that from a car, but not from a bike.

Nature is always around you on a bike, when there are no dividers, such as windows and doors. They can open, but they do not allow you to see the full picture that life has to offer.

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Sarahi Perez Martinez As a little kid I didn’t fully understand that my parents had to work a lot to provide for me and my brother. I would be jealous of all the other kids when their parents came to school events. The only important event that I remember them being there is fifth-grade graduation. I could describe how I felt, how it smelled outside and how bright the sun was that day. I also have memories of my brother and I taking care of ourselves at a young age.

We would make our own food and clean the house while we listened to music so our parents didn’t have to worry about it. We also did the laundry—well, mostly my brother—but I was helping too. I would go around the house and do everyone’s bed and make sure every room looked clean. These experiences made me the person I am today by teaching me about being independent and understanding. I knew my parents had to work a lot to provide for my brother and me. I understood why they had to make many sacrifices.

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Kiran McCool In Enrichment at Shades Cahaba, I learned not only math, science and English, but life skills like leading, persevering and failing. Quite often it seemed like we were challenged with very hard tasks, some of which we would fail. And being able to accept failure is a skill that’s hard to teach because no one likes it. So, as much as I hated doing those brain-teasers and other seemingly impossible tasks, I know they contributed to the person I am today.

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Cristal Sanchez Arbaca When I was maybe 9, I saw a homeless person on the streets with no money or anyone to care about them. People just walked by like if they were not an actual person. I felt so badly because I could not imagine someone not caring about me. I had $2, and I gave them up because I had seen my mom do it before. But it never hit me how important it was to the man. I will never forget the look on his face; he was happy over $2.

Now every time I see someone asking for money I try my best to help them because I believe in karma, and I feel like if I keep being kind to others when I need help people will help me too.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to Homewood High School Pre-AP English teacher Melissa Dameron-Vines for encouraging these students to submit their essays about their childhood memories to Homewood Life. Each of these is an excerpt from a longer essay they wrote for her class.

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BUILDERS AND BUYERS

Desjoyaux Pools by DSLD Land Management 1178 Dunnavant Valley Road • Birmingham, AL 35242 205-437-1012 • dsldland.com • dsldsocialmedia@gmail.com DSLD Land Management is a family owned and operated full-service design/build landscape contractor that has served the Birmingham area for over 35 years. We welcome projects of any scope and size and stand ready to serve our clients with one of Alabama’s most credentialed professional staff. Our new venture, Desjoyaux Pools, provides custom pools for our clients. You choose the shape, size and design of your pool.

Our pools are built using recycled materials and pipeless filtration systems that use less energy than traditional pools. If you don’t like chlorine, you can choose a filter that doesn’t require the harsh chemicals, or you can choose a salt water pool.

C&D Home Solutions 3403 Lorna Lane • Hoover, AL 35216 205-749-6120 • cdhomesolutions.com C&D Home Solutions utilizes the best of modern technology to keep in touch with you and streamline your experience. C&D Home Solutions is your one-stop-shop solution for professional window and door, siding, and gutter installation.

You can trust your home will be in good hands with our highlytrained team. We pride ourselves in top-quality products and services for our customers. We do business with some of the best manufacturers in the country. C&D Home Solutions is a fully-independent, licensed and insured business operating in the state of Alabama.

Equally important is that we’ve scoured the market to find the best quality products at the lowest prices so that you can always purchase with confidence.

We partner with the best window and door manufacturers on the planet, like Pella and ProVia. Contact us today for a free quote on your next project.

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BUILDERS AND BUYERS

Vulcan Pest Control 115 Commerce Drive • Pelham, AL 35124 205-598-2581 • Toll Free: 1-855-663-4208 • vulcantermite.com Protect your most valuable assets!

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If you’re looking for the best termite company in Central Alabama, you’ve found it. Vulcan’s Termite Division has over 120 years of combined experience providing commercial and home termite treatment.

Our staff works diligently to provide inspections and necessary reports in a timely manner so the stress of buying or selling your home is minimized.

Schedule your FREE termite inspection today! One of our termite exterminators can evaluate the situation and suggest the best treatment method.

Down South Joiner Flooring 202 Pitts Drive • Columbiana, AL 35051 205-223-8190 At Down South Joiner Flooring we install tile, laminate, hardwood and ceramic and offer all flooring remodeling services. Whether you require sections of your floor covering changed or you have an interest in redesigning the floorings throughout your home or company, an experienced floor installation specialist can guarantee that you obtain the outcomes that you’re seeking. Down South Joiner Flooring is your local flooring contractor serving the Columbiana area for years! We install new hardwood flooring, re-sand existing wood, install laminate flooring, install floating floor, screen and coat. We have been offering a full range of flooring services to the local community for years. We work hard to ensure that our clients are fully satisfied with the end result. In addition to being able to provide a wide selection of flooring options for every room, we also have professional staff who can assist with every phase of installation, from selecting the materials to designing the layout. Give us a call today for more information!

HomewoodLife.com 69

BUILDERS AND BUYERS

Ray & Poynor 2629 Cahaba Road • Birmingham, AL 35223 205-879-3036 • raypoynor.com Ray & Poynor is a trusted real estate firm serving the Birmingham metro area since 2010. With an average of 17 years in the industry, our residential real estate experts guide our clients through the buying, selling and relocation process. As a locally owned and operated company, we know the market and are invested in our clients and in our community.

Our goal isn’t to achieve a certain number of homes listed or sold—it’s to serve our clients as a resource beyond a single transaction. Our success is measured by the relationships we build.

If you’re looking for a new place to call home, contact our office—we would be glad to assist you.

A Better Closet 1031 14th Street • Calera, AL 35040 205-621-1638 • abettercloset.net • sales@abettercloset.net A professional design and installation service, A Better Closet delivers custom storage solutions to help organize every room of your home.

A Better Closet is a locally owned, family-operated business, and we have been building custom storage for over 30 years. Our designers and craftsmen will transform every area of your home (floor to ceiling) to the custom storage of your dreams—with beautiful, lasting results that are guaranteed over the life of your home. At A Better Closet, exceptional service is built in to the equation. When you schedule a free in-home consultation, we focus on finding the plan that is best for you because we know your home, family, preferences and needs are unique. A Better Closet wants to maximize every inch of space to increase your home’s storage potential and value. Whether you want to make the most of a walk-in closet, custom storage, kitchen pantry or home office, A Better Closet can help.

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BUILDERS AND BUYERS

Cahaba Glass Company 160 Chandalar Place Drive • Pelham, AL 35124 205-621-7355 • cahabaglassco.com Cahaba Glass is your ultimate resource for any automotive, residential and small commercial glass needs.

For the home, we specialize in the installation of custom shower enclosures, mirrors, glass shelving, furniture top glass, cabinet door glass and specialty glass. Our glazier will replace unsightly window units and patio door glass to give your home that “like new” look. If your small commercial building needs updating, we offer a full range of glass and architectural products to meet your needs.

Our experienced staff will assist you with your automobile insurance claims to make the necessary repairs or replacements due to breakage as well.

When you choose Cahaba Glass Company, you are choosing a proven leader in the glass business. Let us help you make your project shine!

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Homewood Chamber of Commerce C O N N E C T I O N S

Annual Business Awards

Upcoming Events March 16

March Membership Luncheon

March 27

Hop ‘n Shop

April 20

April Membership Luncheon Upcoming luncheons are expected to take place virtually, please check the website for more updated information.

State of the City The Homewood Chamber of Commerce hosted the annual State of the City Luncheon in January, featuring a presentation by newly elected Mayor of Homewood Patrick McClusky. The State of the City Luncheon, held each January, serves as a time to recognize outstanding city employees as well. Those honored included: Police Officer of the Year Officer Chris Brown; City Employee of the Year JuJuan Brooks, Refuse Truck Driver; and Public Works Firefighter of the Year Apparatus Operator Anthony Whittington.

The Homewood Chamber of Commerce hosted its Annual Meeting and December Membership Luncheon on Tuesday, December 15, 2020, as a virtual event. The annual meeting serves as the chamber’s annual award presentation for local businesses, as well as the time to pass the gavel to the new board leadership for the coming year. Jack’s Family Restaurants and C-Spire were awarded the Businesses of the Year Awards, reserved for Homewood Chamber members that have been in existence for over two years and have provided significant service to the Homewood community and the Chamber at large. Both Jack’s Family Restaurant and C-Spire have added tremendously to the Homewood Community. Big Spoon Creamery earned the Rising Star Award, given to a Homewood Chamber member that has been in existence for under two years and has provided significant service to the Homewood community and the Chamber at large.

Classic Wine Company received the Community Patriot Award, reserved for a Homewood Chamber Member that has demonstrated exemplary community service in the Homewood community.

7 HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD 72 March/April 2021

HOMEWOOD, ALABAMA 35209

F i n d U s O n l i ne

Sign up for our weekly newsletter | Access our member directory Purchase Buy Local Homewood eGift Cards

Recent Happenings December 10 StoreEase Ribbon Cutting at new location

Sponsor a Homewood Chamber Event We have many opportunities for sponsorship throughout the year at out monthly luncheons, Coffee & Contacts series, and our special events. Some of the benefits of event sponsorship include:

December 17 Blakelee’s Bouquets Ribbon Cutting

• Opportunity to meet the speaker, address the audience, and attach your corporate identity to an event (in-person or digital) • Publicity and brand-recognition for your company • Create awareness of your services and products to potential clients and business professionals

January 26 ARC Realty Beautification Award Presentation

205 - 871 - 5631

Email Meredith Drennen for more information on sponsorship opportunities for 2021 at direction@homewoodchamber. org.

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OUT & ABOUT

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HHS GIRLS BASKETBALL GAME

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PHOTOS BY JAMES CULVER

The Homewood High School Girls Basketball team defeated Mountain Brook High School 64-59 at a home game on Feb. 9.

1. The Collins Family 2. The Gann Family 3. Star Spangled Girls 4. Reese Newton, Ella Serotsky and Chandler York 5. The Wright Family 6. Molly Pepper and Kardyn Spears 7. Cade Dothan, Mark Johnson, Gabe Madden and Shaun Delaine 8. Lilly Hill, Tenley Hendan and Avery Hill 9. Zoey Kagwina, Makenzie Johnson, Kayla Shirley and Katie Justice 10. The Reaves family 11. JW Giardina and Mac Abernathy 12. Dicky Barlow and Justin Hefner Mountain Brook and Homewood Schools superintendents

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HomewoodLife.com 75

OUT & ABOUT

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RECOVERY 5K

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PHOTOS BY JAMES CULVER

Spring Valley School held a 5K run at Red Mountain Park on Jan. 23 to raise support for its work for “bright students with learning differences to explore and ultimately grow to employ their unique strengths.”

1. Ava and April Lawrence and Janet Turner 2. Tim Medders 3. Nancy Barr and Mary-Candler Schantz 4. The Ryans 5. Jackson Bonnett and Wayne Fairburn 6. The Freeburgs 7. Allen Marchino 8. Sara-Morgan Woods 9. The Deasons 10. The Smiths 11. The Butlers 12. The Ruffs

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HomewoodLife.com 77

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HomewoodLife.com 79

MY HOMEWOOD JALETE NELMS

Homewood City Council Representative

Something New Every Day

Civic Duties I am honored to currently be serving our city with some of the most awesome citizens. There is always something to learn about my job as a councilperson, and I’m privileged to learn something new from our residents and elected officials every day.

Go Patriots

Supporting Our Athletes Before social gatherings slowed to a crawl, there was nothing we loved more than watching my husband, Sam, coach baseball or cheering the Patriots on in any sport. I served concessions when my daughter Samantha was a Star Spangled Girl, and when my daughter Zoe played volleyball, I would either cheer from the stands or track the libero for the scorekeeper. My twins Diane and Debra are former HMS cheerleaders who kept me in the stands for football, basketball and the Homewood City Schools Showcase.

Gluten-Free Life

Eating In + Out About 10 years ago we discovered three of my four daughters had gluten, dairy and varying other food allergies, and I have since embraced cooking delicious gluten-free meals. But on the days that I can’t, I am either spoiled by my neighbor and chef Karen Rankin, or we find several great dishes for the whole family at Urban Cookhouse (pictured), Maya Mexican Restaurant and Chop Suey Inn.

In the Deep Woods

My Corner of Homewood City life and convenience is a plus for me and my family, but I also love the country. We live near the Homewood walking trails, and some days in the summer it feels as if you’re in the deep woods of Shelby County there. If the timing is just right, I can watch the most amazing sunset from my deck.

A Piece of History

Oxmoor Stairs Our beloved Edgewood next door neighbor Mrs. Monte had to detour around drop off on our block as she walked down Oxmoor. Mr. Monte petitioned the city to build the stairs there, and Homewood built the stairs. Those stairs still flank the corner of West Hawthorne and Oxmoor Road today.

80 March/April 2021

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82 March/April 2021