The opening poem of this year’s Magic City Poetry Festival paid reverence to Birmingham’s history. The month-long celebration of the literary art commenced Saturday morning with Alabama poet laureate Ashley Jones’ remarks at the 60-year commemoration of the 1963 Palm Sunday march, the day ministers A. D. King, Nelson Smith, and John Porter led more than 500 demonstrators on a march from St. Paul United Methodist Church to Birmingham City Hall.

(NOTE: More details about the upcoming Magic City Poetry Festival events are included)

Jones’ poem was a selection from her debut book, “Magic City Gospel.” Published in 2017, the collection of poetry is Jones’ love song to the history and culture of Birmingham. That morning, in the sanctuary of St. Paul United Methodist Church, Jones read “Birmingham Fire and Rescue Haiku, 1963,” her reflection on the roles of the city’s foot soldiers who marched at the height of the city’s battle for civil and human rights.

The verses were especially fitting — police used batons and police dogs to attack the demonstrators who marched on that Palm Sunday in 1963:

“What about us said

we were on fire? What said extinguish quickly,

fill up the hose and set the dogs loose? Could they smell

our confusion? Or

was it our singing?

Were our voices like sirens,

a chorus of blood?

We were wet black seeds

in that raw Birmingham flesh — we germinated.”

At the end of the church service, program attendees filed out of the church to recreate part of the march down 6th Avenue to Birmingham City Hall. They stopped at the corner of Kelly Ingram Park in front of the Three Kneeling Minsters monument, a stone sculpture designed to pay homage to the clergy who helped organize the demonstrations of the 1960s.

After another tribute to the foot soldiers, Kaitlin Harris stepped forward to host the third part of the commemoration: Poetry in the Park, the Magic City Poetry Festival’s walking tour around Birmingham’s national civil rights monument, accompanied by a reading from a poet at each stop.

In front of the Three Kneeling Minsters monument, Jacqueline Trimble recited two pieces from her 2022 collection of poetry “How to Survive the Apocalypse.” For the second reading, Harris led the crowd a block down the street to the historic 4th Avenue Black Business District, where Jahman Hill performed two poems in the stone amphitheater across from the Masonic Temple Building. And for the tour’s final stop, the crowd followed Harris less than a quarter mile away to the historic A.G. Gaston Motel, where Dikerius Blevins read two of his works under the motel’s neon sign.

Later that evening, an intimate crowd gathered in a room at O’Neal Public Library in Mountain Brook to enjoy coffee, cookies from Church Street Books, and a conversation with Trimble as she discussed the experiences that guided her writing process. At the end of the night, Trimble signed copies of her books.

This year marks the sixth year of the Magic City Poetry Festival. After two years of limited virtual events due to COVID-19 precautions, the festival returned with a combination of virtual and in-person events in 2022. Last year’s programs kicked off with Poetry in the Gardens, a combination of tours, gardening, and poetry readings in Birmingham Botanical Gardens. The month-long celebration of the form continued with a series of writing workshops, panels about spoken word’s role in American poetry, rooftop poetry readings, a keynote lecture from poet and essayist Taylor Bias, and a live performance of “GRAFFICA,” the immersive art, dance, and film experience from the mind of artist Yogi Dada. The poetry festival also launched the inaugural Poetry in the Park readings in partnership with the National Park Service and St. Paul UMC.

This year, the Magic City Poetry Festival is offering another robust month of free virtual and in-person literary events, bolstered with community partnerships and funding from a number of organizations including the Alabama State Council on the Arts; the City of Birmingham’s community arts grant program, administered by Create Birmingham; and the Alabama Humanities Alliance.

The financial support allowed favorite programs to return for another year. In addition to the return of Poetry in the Park, the festival will host another edition of Poetry in the Gardens. A performance of GRAFFICA LIVE! will also return to St. John A.M.E. Church, the site of the former church where civil rights organizers held mass meetings during the civil rights movement of the 1960s and leaders of the “Project C” movement in Birmingham came to strategize.

The lineup of Magic City Poetry Festival events is often a communion with nature and history. While that design is intentional, Jones says she and her fellow organizers don’t define a yearly theme for the festival.

“But we are always very concerned with the environment, and that’s a pretty expansively defying term,” said Jones. “The environment we live in historically, socially, and in nature.”

This year, the festival will host a series of renowned poets from both Alabama and around the country whose discourse will examine history and culture. And teacher, performance artist, and 2023 Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets Patricia Smith will deliver the festival’s keynote address via Zoom.

“If you’re a poet of any kind, you know Patricia Smith’s work and you admire it,” said Jones. “And we were over the moon that we were able to get her virtually.”

A new year of the Magic City Poetry Festival also means the debut of the festival’s new Eco Poetry Fellow– a year-long leadership and service position that pairs poetry with environmental and social justice initiatives. MCPF’s first eco poet, Tina Mozelle Braziel, devoted her role to the preservation of Alabama’s waterways with the Cahaba River Society. Salaam Green, whose tenure was 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, worked with people in north Birmingham to tell their stories of struggles for justice in the midst of land and air pollution. Last year, Nabila Lovelace partnered with the National Park Service for a poetry reading during a lecture about the history of the civil rights movement in S.T.E.M at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and an Afrofuturism writing workshop at the Birmingham Museum of Art.

This year’s eco poet is Tania Russell. Jones says Russell, who goes by the pen name Tania DeShawn, was an “obvious choice.”

“We were looking around last year and we noticed Tania DeShawn, who has been doing such amazing work in the city. And with everything she does. Whenever I’m around her, I feel enlightened and uplifted,” said Jones. “And so that’s how we came up with the ‘light’ poet and we knew she’d be the perfect person.”

For her tenure, which runs from this month to April 2024, Russell will partner with the Birmingham Public Library to design community events.

Here’s a look at what’s on the Magic City Poetry Festival’s calendar for the rest of the month:

Tuesday, April 4

An Evening with Patricia Smith

Virtual, 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The Magic City Poetry Festival will host a virtual lecture with award-winning writer Patricia Smith, the Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, sponsored by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and PEN Birmingham.

“We’re all great admirers of her work and each of us [at the festival] has been touched by her in different ways,” said Jones.

In addition to choosing Jones’ work for second place in a contest years ago, Smith also blurbed Jones’ 2021 book of poetry, “Reparations Now.”

Magic City Poetry Festival board member Laura Secord studied under Smith while pursuing her MFA in creative writing from Sierra Nevada University.

“We wanted to commemorate [this year] by bringing one of the biggest names in poetry to Birmingham virtually and inviting people from all over the country who love her work to join her with us,” said Jones. “She has a new book out this year called ‘Unshuttered’ which I’m very happy to hear her read from.”

Attendees who order copies of “Unshuttered” from Thank You Books in Crestwood will receive books autographed by Smith.

DETAILS: Virtual/ Register here

Saturday, April 15

Poetry in the Gardens

Birmingham Botanical Gardens, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Magic City Poetry Festival and Friends of Birmingham Botanical Gardens will host a leisurely guided tour through the Birmingham Botanical Gardens with the works of three Alabama poets— Salaam Green, Rose McLarney, and Justin Gardiner.

DETAILS: Birmingham Botanical Gardens|2612 Lane Park Road| Birmingham, AL, 35223

Tuesday, April 18

Poetry Matters, A Celebration of Rhyme and Verse

Hoover Public Library, 6 to 8 p.m.

The Magic City Poetry Festival and The Hoover Public Library will feature a night of poetry on the main stage of the Library Plaza. Attendees will read original poetry and have the option to perform. Guests who plan to perform must register.

DETAILS: Hoover Public Library, 200 Municipal Drive Hoover, AL, 35216| Register here.

Wednesday, April 19

Black Formalisms: Where Aesthetics and Southern Sensibilities Collide – a virtual conversation with Marilyn Nelson and Harryette Mullen

Virtual, 5 to 7 p.m.

Black Formalisms is the brainchild of Magic City Poetry Festival board member Dr. Lamar Wilson, who had the idea to bring celebrated poets Marilyn Nelson and Harryette Mullen together in a virtual conversation to talk about how the South informed their lives and work, as well as how Black literature has evolved over time.

Both writers have ties to Alabama. Harryette Mullen was born in Alabama. Marilyn Nelson is not an Alabama native, but her father was a Tuskegee airman.

“Although she wasn’t raised in the South and she doesn’t identify as a Southerner, those roots are in her and she has written work about the South and Southern people and figures, including her dad,” said Jones.

While Nelson’s writing is very formal, Mullen is well known for her experimental style.

Wilson wanted to partner with Tuskegee University for a conversation in which two Black female poets examine their identities. In addition to hosting the webinar, the festival will also stream the conversation on Tuskegee’s campus and the watch party will be open for poetry readings and performances before the lecture begins.

“We’ll listen as Dr. Wilson moderates this conversation about the South and what it means,” said Jones. “Even if you didn’t grow up here, you [may] have roots here, which most Black people in America do. What does that mean for your work and for your life?”

DETAILS: Virtual| Conversation will also be streamed at Tuskegee University. Register here.

Thursday, April 20

Poetry and History: A Conversation with Kwoya Maples and Laura Secord

Desert Island Supply Company, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Poets Laura Secord and Kwoya Maples will read from their historical poetry collections, have a conversation about the research and writing of their historical books, and give attendees tips for writing their own history projects.

“Laura and Kwoya have written books that are deeply rooted in history and require extensive research,” said Jones.

Secord’s novel in verse, “An Art, a Craft, a Mystery,” chronicles the lives of her ancestors who were tried for being witches during the Salem witch trials.

“They are also in persona poems and some of them are formal in nature. Like I said, she’s a student of Patrica Smith’s and Smith is a formalist as well. This book requires extensive research,” said Jones. “Secord has read some of the case files and all of these different sorts of pieces of evidence or history to piece these women’s lives back together.”

Maples’ book “Mend” details and examines the story of the birth of gynecology in Alabama. The book unpacks the legacy of Dr. J. Marion Simms. Simms, who is widely considered the father of modern gynecology, experimented on enslaved women to develop those medical techniques– Lucy, Anarcha, Betsey, and at least 11 women whose identities are unknown.

“One woman specifically was experimented on over 30 times with no anesthesia. Often in rooms full of other men who claim to be doctors who wanted to study her. Her book chronicles that process and gives voice to those women who were in many ways sort of lost to history,” said Jones. “In many ways, there are authors and artists who are bringing their stories to greater light, including Kwoya. And so, her part of the talk will be about her process in writing this book. Because it required a lot of research. And also, these poems are in persona. And as a writer, starting with in persona can be tricky, especially if the person you’re using is a real historical figure. You have to strike a certain balance to ‘get it right.’”

DETAILS: Desert Island Supply Company|5500 1st Avenue North Birmingham, AL, 35212

Saturday, April 22

“GRAFFICA LIVE!”

St. John AME Church, 4 to 6 p.m.

“GRAFFICA LIVE!” the art experience from multidisciplinary artist Yogi Dada will return to the Magic City Poetry Festival and the sanctuary of St. John AME Church for a second year.

“We’re bringing it back and we’re very fortunate to receive funding from the city of Birmingham through Create Birmingham,” said Jones.

Centered around Dada’s award-winning documentary, “GRAFFICA,” “GRAFFICA LIVE!” is an immersive experience of film African drumming, visual art, music, dance, and poetry. The film illustrates Dada’s journey to find a spiritual connection to Africa by blending her love of New York culture and graffiti.

“GRAFFICA is what’s born out of all that,” said Jones.

The live performance, choreographed by renowned choreographer Germaul Barnes and accompanied by Alabama’s premier African drumming group Sahi On Ko Djony, will also feature a moment of mediation with yogi Adi Devta Kaur. Poet Jenoa “Tmbuktu” Smith will host this year’s performance.

“Graffica Live” is produced and funded in part by the Dorothy Jemison Day Theatre. Free tickets to “Graffica Live” are sold out, but guests without tickets will be admitted into the church at 3:45 p.m. after registered guests.

DETAILS: St. John AME Church|708 15th Street North Birmingham, AL, 35203

Thursday, April 27:

be gentle with black girls: A Conversation and Workshop with Tania De’Shawn and Ashley M. Jones

The Greenhouse

7:00 to 8:30 p.m.

At the Greenhouse, The Flourish’s recently opened space for creative talent and art education in Ensley, Jones will chat with Tania Russell. Released in 2022, Russell’s debut book of poetry “be gentle with black girls” invites readers to explore the humanity of Black girls and explore the challenges Black girls face when they are forced into womanhood.

After the conversation, Jones and Russell will hold a poetry workshop to teach guests how to write a gentle poem of their own.

DETAILS: The Greenhouse| 602 19th Street Ensley, Birmingham, AL, 35218 United States

TBA: All over Alabama reading series

A discussion and reading with poets across the state.

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