MLK celebration in Birmingham

Being in Birmingham for Martin Luther King, Jr Day is particulary powerful. As you may know, this is the place King once called the "most segregated city in America," where King was jailed, and where police chief "Bull" Connor turned hoses on protesters.

Mom and I attended part of a rally organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and held at the historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, site of the horrific 1963 bombing that took the lives of four little girls. We arrived late and were lucky to find two seats in the packed church; as we sat down a young boy was passionately delivering King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The audience showed their support and agreement with shouts and "amens," and I had a new understanding of the tradition of church oration from which King had drawn. The audience rose to its feet to applaud this powerful delivery! A young man followed with King's "Mountaintop" speech, and several adult community leaders and City Councilmembers spoke about Birmingham's challenges in reducing youth violence and offering better guidance and education for young people. There were some elders on the stage, and while I am not sure who they were, I had the sense that the memories of the Civil Rights Era struggles live on here, as the community looks to confront current challenges.

Railroad Park, Birmingham Alabama

Mom, Dad, and I visited the recently completed Railroad Park in downtown Birmingham on a sunny weekend day. People were walking, playing frisbee, doing tricks on skateboards and bikes, rolling down slopes, and climbing on playground equipment. I was impressed by the imaginative and playful design elements (like the skate bowls and gabion walls topped with bright yellow seating surfaces), the landscape-based water filtration system, and the captivating views of trains in motion as well as part of Birmingham's industrial skyline. This is an exciting new place for Birmingham: it celebrates the city's heritage while offering a creatively-designed,contemporary public space for daily activities as well as community events. The city and planners are hoping to build on the park's success and to create a stronger surrounding district (including a new baseball park set to break ground in February) and also to reclaim more vacant land along the rail.

winter walk pt. 2

Parts of the old tuliptree that had flanked the entrance at Monticello, now looked like sculptural bones in the landscape


The warm-colored broomsedge


The dried seedheads of goldenrod caught the low winter sun


The beech leaves rustled

winter walk

Eleanor and I had a beautiful walk yesterday afternoon on the Monticello trail. The winter sun was low and the landscape was full of plant textures, warm colors and grays, and the strong vertical forms of the bare trees.


Yellow tinges on the willow branches

tuliptrees





twiggy winter shrubs