Alabama poet laureate is more than an honorific title. It’s not a lifetime achievement award, either. The poet laureate is poetry’s chief advocate and ambassador in the state. Any Alabamian can nominate a candidate for poet laureate, as long as the candidate meets criteria set out in the nomination guidelines. The Alabama Writers’ Cooperative (AWC) president nominates […]

Being diagnosed with breast cancer is the furthest thing from most young women’s minds. In 2019, Audra Chiles’s life was turned upside down when she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. Chiles’s first inkling that anything was amiss was when she noticed a marble-size growth. Before that, the busy young career woman looked only […]

About 75 years before the Titanic set sail from England for the first time and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, something eerily similar happened in the Atlantic Ocean much closer to home. At 11:04 p.m. on the night of June 14, 1838, the steamship Pulaski had an explosion in its boiler room. It sank […]

New York Times best-selling author Andy Andrews on Monday released “Killing Dr. Seuss,” a poetic commentary on cancel culture’s continuing proliferation across American society. Andrews, an Alabama native and resident of Orange Beach, released the poem in written format — complete with Dr. Seuss-esque illustrations — and in video format with Andrews narrating the poem. […]

Startups from around the world are encouraged to apply for the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator 2021 class. In its second year, the innovative program, located in Birmingham, seeks early-stage startups focused on emerging energy technologies. Areas of interest include smart cities, electric grid resiliency and sustainability, industrial electrification, connectivity and electric transportation. The class will run for […]

COVID-19 has forced many nonprofits to shift gears in their fundraising efforts and the American Heart Association (AHA) is no exception. The AHA’s 2021 Birmingham Heart Walk has been reimagined as a digital experience this year to maintain necessary safety protocols due to the ongoing pandemic. Through the event design, AHA is striving to get more people moving in Birmingham […]

When kids participate in the life of a garden, they see the complete cycle of growing food, cooking and preparing it to eat. School gardens are exciting places for kids to learn basic academic subjects, too. The Tuscaloosa community came together more than 10 years ago to develop a garden-based learning program called the Druid […]

She could neither see nor hear. But her vision influenced countless millions. Helen Keller’s influence reached far beyond her native Alabama. She became a celebrity at an early age and remained so throughout her life. Born in 1880 in Tuscumbia, Keller was 19 months old when an illness left her deaf and blind. With the […]

Automatic Seafood and Oysters has definitely caught on. Since opening in Birmingham in 2019, the restaurant from chef Adam Evans and his wife and designer Suzanne Humphries Evans has attracted and wowed with its inviting space and amazing food. It’s not just patrons who are impressed. The prestigious James Beard Awards had Automatic Seafood and Oysters among its […]

It was almost quitting time on a Friday, and Josie Russell Young was looking forward to her weekend when the phone at Russell Construction of Alabama’s Montgomery office rang. She saw it was a California phone number and almost didn’t answer. “It was 4:45, and I really thought it was spam,” she said, “but I picked […]

Dr. Seuss is under fire on his birthday. March 2 is the anniversary of Dr. Seuss’ birth, as well as the annual Read Across America Day. Started by the National Educational Association in 1998 as a way to promote children’s reading, the holiday is traditionally seen as being held in conjunction with Dr. Seuss’ birthday, although […]

Roy Wood Jr. had a good amount of success on radio and doing standup comedy in Birmingham. But to reach his full celebrity status, he had to travel to New York. The actor, comedian and filmmaker grew up in Birmingham without knowing the variety of career paths available to him or how to pursue them. These […]

In the recently released “From Marion to Montgomery: The Early Years of Alabama State University, 1867-1925,” author Joseph Caver brings to light new information about the founding in a detailed history of one of the country’s earliest historically black universities. Caver is a former senior archivist at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base in […]

Chris Rogers left the heights of college football at the University of Alabama knowing he wanted to make a difference. Ten years later, he’s seeing his dreams come to pass through his nonprofit Together Assisting People (TAP). Rogers founded TAP with a focus on STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – to help propel young Black athletes into strong careers […]

Time is running out to book your vacation rental or hotel for the coming warm-weather months, however it is not because things are returning to a non-COVID “normal.” The pandemic has put the national tourism and travel industry under siege for the last year, and Alabama’s 32 miles of white sands on the Gulf Coast […]

Necessity is the mother of invention. But in Birmingham, a father-and-son team has devised an innovative app to help businesses effortlessly manage ongoing construction and facilities maintenance projects. KMS, formerly Kemp Management Solutions, has spent the past decade growing the company while helping much larger businesses flourish, including Regions Bank and peer banks. When the […]

Few people can say they knew Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks when that internationally celebrated pair were average citizens. Fred Gray can. The 90-year-old legendary civil rights lawyer has known most of the most-respected figures in the modern movement toward equality for Blacks. He represented Parks and King, persuading judges to make rulings that helped shape both […]

“OK, but what if ‘Bridgerton’ was a musical?” That’s the question that Abigail Barlow, who grew up in Birmingham and lives in Los Angeles, posed to her TikTok followers in early January. The post included “Daphne’s Song,” the first song Barlow wrote based on the hit Netflix series about debutantes in Regency-era London. She also posted “I Burn for You,” […]

Not only are members of Auburn University’s Tiger Excellence Scholars Program (TESP) enjoying their college experience on the Plains, they are thriving and evolving into leaders. Nearly 300 students involved with the program – designed to support the persistence and retention of students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, low-income families and first-generation college enrollees – posted a […]

Workshops Inc., a staple in the Birmingham nonprofit world for more than 120 years, has announced a new name signaling a shift toward better representing the organization’s mission and impact: Workshops Empowerment Inc. Established in 1900 as Workshop and Rehabilitation Facilities for the Blind and Disabled, Workshops originally employed people with vision impairment to make brooms […]

A permanent home for Clotilda and Africatown artifacts is one step closer to reality, thanks to an official groundbreaking ceremony Thursday in Mobile for the new Africatown Heritage House. The museum will tell the long untold story of the Clotilda, the nation’s last known slave ship, and the town created by the African survivors who once suffered aboard that […]

The Valley Hotel opened on Tuesday in the heart of Homewood, minutes away from downtown Birmingham. The 129-room upscale boutique hotel is the latest addition to Curio Collection by Hilton, blending Southern charm and contemporary lifestyle with nods to local history across its spacious rooms and suites and public art offerings, chef-driven dining venues and […]

A teenager born in Pintlala is the first native of the Yellowhammer State to make the United States Ski Team. Dani Loeb, 19, told WSFA she began her athletic career doing gymnastics at United Gym Stars and Cheer in Montgomery. “I was really into gymnastics. I got up to pretty high levels,” Loeb told the […]

The ZeroZero Foundation on Monday announced that it will launch this week, serving the Birmingham area. Founded last year to address perceived gaps in the sports industry, the ZeroZero Foundation will provide children with sports-related enrichment and educational opportunities through several key programs and events. A release outlined that the ZeroZero Foundation was founded by […]