Category Archives: Take a moment

Shuttlesworth to be remembered this weekend

Shuttlesworth Memorial at BCRI. acnatta/bhamterminalThere are several tributes to the life of the Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth available as family members and residents throughout the city and the country prepare to honor the civil rights leader this weekend.

There was a wreath laying at the statue bearing his resemblance in front of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute on October 12 by members of the Birmingham chapter of the NAACP. CBS 42 and Weld for Birmingham have also collected Shuttlesworth’s own thoughts, with Weld’s publisher, Mark Kelly, offering this reflective account on October 15.

The October 21 print edition of  The Birmingham News includes a special section (contained in section A) complete with quotes from Shuttlesworth, a photo gallery and remembrances from individuals including one from BCRI president Lawrence Pijeaux.

Wade Black, executive director of the Birmingham Pledge Foundationhas shared a remembrance of Shuttlesworth and his importance to the civil rights movement in our editorial section today.

Reverend Shuttlesworth will be remembered at a private family service at Bethel Baptist Church on October 22. His body will be at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute for public respects Sunday, October 23, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Diane McWhorter and Robert Corley will be co-moderating Historians and History Makers Pay Tribute to the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, from 3 – 5 p.m. that day at the Birmingham Museum of Art.

A funeral service will begin at 10 a.m. October 24 at Faith Chapel Christian Center in Wylam prior to private burial at Oak Hill Cemetery (just north of downtown).

Photo: Shuttlesworth Memorial at BCRI, October 13, 2011. acnatta/bhamterminal.com.

Dwight Howard is coming to help those in Alabama

Dwight HowardOne of the nicknames frequently used for Dwight Howard, the Orlando Magic‘s perennial All-Star center, is Superman.

Later this week, there’s no doubt residents in the state of Alabama won’t hesitate to use that nickname for him – for a completely different reason.

Howard’s non-profit organization, D12 Foundation, announced plans yesterday to partner with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Birmingham to rebuild 10 homes damaged or destroyed as a result of the April 27 tornadoes. He’ll be in town tomorrow, June 2, to assist with that project. Folks interested in helping out can fill out this volunteer packet, fax it to (407)896-1702, and wait for the representative from D12 to call you back.

He also plans to visit Tuscaloosa where he’ll visit with various groups and present a donation from the foundation to the Tuscaloosa Disaster Relief Fund.

Photo: Dwight Howard. Keith Allison/Flickr

Hear Woodlawn’s Story TONIGHT!

This evening people will gather in Woodlawn High School‘s auditorium from across the metro area to hear and share in listening to Woodlawn Stories, a storytelling project undertaken by the Desert Island Supply Co, a nonprofit creative writing program for children in Birmingham, AL.

Technical difficulties have delayed us sharing a completed piece, but we felt that if you hadn’t quite made up your mind about where you were planning to go this evening that you needed to hear from DISCO founder Chip Brantley about what tonight’s event means to him – and potentially to the City of Birmingham.

The project was supported in part by a $10,000 award from the Kresge Arts in Birmingham program. Fifty people from Woodlawn were invited to share their stories with each other and the community at large, potentially the first step in changing the narrative that has been written for them by others.

This weekend’s performances are free and open to the public. Tonight’s will begin at 7 p.m. with Saturday’s beginning at 4 p.m.

By the way, if Chip can’t convince you to attend, maybe Woodlawn High School graduate and retired college football coach Bobby Bowden’s comments from his appearance on WJOX’s Morning Drive today can.

Happy Pi Day!

We promised some of our readers that we’d be sure to share at least one music lesson today.

UPDATE: Apparently Lars Erickson decided he’d file a copyright claim against the video we originally shared – so we’re going to share his video instead. We’ll let you know what happens next as soon as possible.

We were a little worried about finding the right one, but think we have. Special thanks to Stephen Vinson and Laughing Squid for making sure we were aware of it. We hope you enjoy this opportunity to escape musically for a few minutes.

Thanks also for your support of this site over the last four years. Hopefully some of you will be able to make it out tonight for #piecampbhm. If not, there will hopefully be more than enough opportunities to talk over the next twelve months.

Image: Pi. NicoCanali/Flickr

National Pancake Day is almost here!

National Pancake Day logoTuesday morning brings with a chance to enjoy a tasty tradition, while giving you an opportunity to support an extremely worthy cause.

IHOP will once again give away one short stack (read: three (3) buttermilk pancakes) per dine-in customer at participating restaurants as part of their National Pancake Day celebration. They hope that you’ll in return leave a donation and help them raise $2.3 million for the Children’s Miracle Network.

The network includes our own Children’s Hospital located on Birmingham’s Southside. They happened to send out a friendly reminder via Twitter on Monday afternoon. All four Birminghamarea locations will be participating this year.

This is the first time in five years that the promotion will not take place on Fat (Shrove) Tuesday but a week earlier.

Community Foundation launches Prize2TheFuture

If you’ve been online at all today, you’ve probably seen a great deal of buzz about last night’s Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham announcement – the one that introduced Prize2TheFuture to the metro region. It was also the basis of yesterday’s editorial piece on The Terminal.

We figured we’d share some highlights from remarks made during the announcement.

The idea competition is open to everybody (as in international) and is focused on the city block directly to the east of the current phase of Railroad Park and south of the Alabama Power steam plant scheduled to close in 2012.

The website has specific information about the competition and its prize, $50,000; Prize2TheFuture also has digital outposts on Twitter and Facebook.

BTW – if you’re on Twitter, the official hashtag for the competition is #p2tf.

Some Snow Day reading options

Thawing Out. acnatta/FlickrIt’s a fairly quiet day in The Magic City and the surrounding metro Birmingham area today due to yesterday’s winter storm. We’re hoping that most folks are resting comfortably at home.

If you can’t get to Rojo or Crestwood Coffee right now by foot (or you’re needing something to get your mind off how much time is left before the BCS championship game), we’d like to suggest a few blogs post for you to take a look at:

Erin Shaw Street recently interviewed her father as part of the current visit by StoryCorps to The Magic City. They’re here until January 29 & their reservations link is still active. She shares her thoughts about the experience on her personal blog; Maybe it’ll get you thinking about reserving a slot.

Shaun Chavis is one of the organizers of FoodBlogSouth, a foodie-centric blogging conference scheduled for next weekend (January 21 & 22). NOTE: I’m scheduled to facilitate a blogging 101 session that Saturday morning. Read her passionate account of why she felt the need to create this event – then go and register for it!

Finally, there aren’t many places that Jen West hasn’t been profiled recently (including this interview with Birmingham Bombshells’ Angela Karen for B-Metro. If you haven’t checked out her blog, The Jen West Quest , you’re missing out on an opportunity to be motivated to accomplish whatever you want. Back in November she was finally able to talk about her upcoming appearance on the Rachael Ray Show and what it meant to her.

These should help warm at least your heart on this fairly cold day in central Alabama. You could also step away from the computer (or add a few links of your own in the comments section below).

Photo: Thawing Out. acnatta/Flickr