The Road From Selma

This powerful poem, written by June Brindel in 1965, was posted on Women Writing Birmingham on March 7, 2015,  the 50th anniversary Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama.

THE ROAD FROM SELMA                                                                        June Brindel

The road from Selma stretches in the rain

white as a shroud, rimmed with stiff troopers.

The marchers stand bowed, hands joined, swaying gently

their soft strong song stilled.

Then up from a Birmingham bed

rises a gentle Boston man, Jim Reeb,

steps softly back to Selma

and moves among the stilled marchers.

The troopers stir, link arms,

close ranks across the road

stretching from Selma in the rain

white as a shroud.

The Boston man, Jim Reeb, walks toward the troopers

and they straighten and stand guard tight as death.

But someone moves behind them, waves his hand.

“That you, Jackson?” Jim Reeb peers ahead.

“That’s right, Reverend. Come on through.”

The troopers tighten guard, straight as death

But Jim Reeb doesn’t stop.

He goes on through,

right through the stiff ranked troopers

white as a shroud

rimming the road from Selma.

And Jimmie Lee Jackson takes him by the arm

and they march down the road to the courthouse.

Over in Mississippi Medgar Evers stands,

three young men rise up from a dam in Neshoba County

and they all go down the road

and walk right through the tight stiff trooper line

and down the road from Selma.

And from all over there’s a stirring sound.

Emmett Till jumps up and runs laughing like any boy

through the stiff white rim.

Four small girls skip out of a church in Birmingham

and the tall old man in Springfield gets up

and goes to Selma.

And down from every lynching tree

and up from every hidden grave

come men, women, children, heads carried high,

passing a moment among the bowed, stilled troopers

and down the white road from Selma.

Until the age long road is packed

black with marchers streaming to the courthouse.

And the bowed stilled group in Selma

raise their heads, hands joined,

swaying gently, in soft strong song

that goes right through the stiff ranked troopers

white as a shroud

barring the road from Selma.

Copyright © 1965 June Brindel.

City Sanctus

Here's my poem, City Sanctus. I wrote it a few years ago for a "poetry slam" in Birmingham, and read it last night at Birmingham Museum of Art's celebration of civil rights on the occasion of Gandhi's birthday. The picture is the statue of Brother Bryan.

City Sanctus   

Sweet swinging, celestial, high-reverberating slam-dunk sounds,

new fashioned beginnings 

over old fashioned endings!

Certain things are happening.

My voice carries over the city.

At last, our voices carry!

Wheels have turned. Oh, wheel!

Face to face with turning wheels, our voices carry;

anthems changing words as we speak.

No longer bound, we speak changing anthems.

At last, our voices carry, day to night, and night to day.

Children all in white

still mornings

hearts wonder

Will another night come?

Children all in black

still nights

hearts wonder

Will another morning come?

Children all in white, I am here.

Children all in black, I am here.

Lo, I am with you always.

My voice carries over this day and this night.

My voice carries over this city and this sound.

Slam! We know that sound.

Steel ringing

Vulcan wields swinging steel

foundations singing

our voices ring!

Slam!

Birmingham!

© Ramey Channell

The Painted Possum Welcomes Dianne Hamilton

Dianne Hamilton is one member of the conference faculty for the Writing and Illustrating for Kids 2013 conference, taking place October 12 in Birmingham, AL. WIK is a great place to meet writers, editors and agents in the children's publishing world. This annual conference is hosted by the Southern Breeze region (Alabama, Georgia, Florida) of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI.org). To find out more or to register, visit https://southern-breeze.net/.

It's my pleasure to introduce Dianne, Senior Editor/Publisher at OnStage Publishing, a small traditional publishing company located in Madison, Alabama. OnStage publishes children's literature for ages 8-18.

1- How long have you been a member of SCBWI? Can you tell us about an experience you've had at any previous SCBWI conferences that helped guide your own writing, editing, and publishing career?

I joined SCBWI in the late 1990’s and my first conference I attended was a regional conference held in Columbus GA. [That was years before just Birmingham and Atlanta hosted the conferences.] I had written a picture book and was going to get it critiqued! I just knew I had a Newbery in hand! I learned how kind Faye Gibbons is. She managed to find something nice in my story so she could praise me while deftly telling me that I needed to learn my craft. I attended workshops that opened my eyes to just how badly written my story was. Everything one should NOT do, I had done!  I am still, to this day, grateful to Fay Gibbons for her kindness because when I re-read that story, I’m not sure I could have found anything to praise. I keep it around to remind myself how far I have come. I did final in a Southern Breeze fiction contest a couple of years ago but now I write YA, not picture books.

2- What originally got you interested in the children's book market?

I was in an active Romance Writers of America critique group and I discovered I couldn’t write anyone’s clothes off! [There went that career!] RWA had a great support group so I looked to see what other organizations had the same kind of learning/support. SCBWI had a local critique group in northern AL that took pity on me and let me join. I’m a voracious reader and love YA books. In my writing, I’ve found that I really am still a fifteen-year old.

          I became a children’s book editor when a member of the critique group asked me what I thought of his self-published book. “Not bad,” I told him, “but you really need an editor to focus your story.” I took control of the company when he wanted to concentrate on his own writing and not worry about the business end of things.

3- Can you tell us the titles of your recent, or your favorite, books published by OnStage?

Choosing a favorite from one’s “children” is not a proper thing to do so I won’t list my favorites.

      I will say that I have enjoyed recently working with author Jamie Dodson on his Nick Grant Adventure series which begins with Flying Boats & Spies, an award winning title. The series deals with the beginnings of the Pan American Airlines’ flying clipper ships. The series nicely balances history and adventure. And Wanda Vaughn is a great author to work with on her historical series, Alabama Girls.

     And I’m having fun with our e-book line of mysteries, geared for grades 6-12. Carol Norton has developed a series, The Locksmith series, for our e-books. And I’ve just contracted with a Colorado author for a series of mysteries with a boy and service dog as the main characters. Those e-books will be called the Tooten and Ter Adventures. And puns intended.

4- What can you tell our readers about your Alabama Girls Series? This sounds so exciting.

Wanda Vaughn has so many stories in her head that I challenged her to make it a series about girls in Alabama in different time periods. She started with Huntsville,1892: Clara. That book won third place in historical fiction in the Jenkins Book Group Moonbeam Awards. This was a pleasant surprise as the book is history with a story and this history deals only with the town of Huntsville. Birmingham, 1933: Alice was written but we discovered a fatal flaw in our history that killed that story. Wanda Vaughn has had to re-write it, but in doing so, she is making the character stronger, and I think, the story more interesting. It should be out next February in print as well as an e-book.

5- Give us your opinion of the fast-growing ebook market. Do you think this is serving readers and authors in a way that traditional book publishing hasn't?

I am giving a talk at WIK 13 in October on this subject.

     I’ve been an e-book editor since 1996 when the only e-readers on the market were the Thompson and the Franklin book reader. I edited general fiction and when I moved from managing editor to Senior Editor, we became much more demanding of the fiction we chose to e-publish. Our submissions got better and we produced some fun reads that the large print markets, based in New York, would have never looked at.

   The publishing of those books pushed the print market to counter the “sub-culture” of e-books. Now we have Kindle Fires, Kindle Fires HD from Amazon. Barnes & Nobles gave us the Nook which they will take away soon. Kobo, an e-book reader producer, will be taking the Nook and expanding their e-readers to be more competitive in the market. Sony let everyone send their e-readers back to them for a free update of software as they moved to a different based format. What drives these kinds of moves? E-Books...lots and lots of e-books.

    Does this better serve readers and authors than the traditional book publishing? Better? No. Differently...YES. For more information, please come to my talk in October.

6- Can you give us a tiny sneak preview of your upcoming program at WIK13?

I think the answer to question 5 is part of a sneak preview.

     I will also be talking about how to critique one’s own work. In that talk, I’ll be concentrating on what makes a good story and how to tell if one has actually written a good story. Because it is so hard to evaluate one’s own writing, the best advice I can ever give, is “Join a critique group.” Join online or in person and you may have to try several groups to find the right fit of people and personalities. But find one. The right critique group is invaluable.  

Dianne, as I said, I hope you'll add anything you'd like to talk about that I didn't cover.

I am always available to conference attendees who want to talk to me any free time I have on conference Saturday. I can tell everyone that if you work at the conference, or come to the dessert Friday night, you can mingle with the conference speakers. I always enjoy meeting editors and agents from other places because I learn something new every conference. And the best way to learn is not just to ask questions, but to listen to what they say.

You can meet other members of the conference faculty by following the WIK blog tour:

Aug. 28            Author Matt de la Peña at Stephanie Moody’s Moodyviews

                        Editor Lou Anders at F.T. Bradley’s YA Sleuth

Aug. 29            Author Doraine Bennett at Jodi Wheeler-Toppen’s Once Upon a Science Book

                        Author Robyn Hood Black at Donny Seagraves’ blog

Aug. 30            MFA program director Amanda Cockrell at Elizabeth Dulemba’s blog

                        Illustrator Prescott Hill at Gregory Christie’s G.A.S.

Aug. 31            Author Heather Montgomery at Claire Datnow’s Media Mint Publishing blog

                        Editor Michelle Poploff at Laura Golden’s Just Write

Sept. 3             Author Nancy Raines Day at Laurel Snyder’s blog

                        Author Jennifer Echols at Paula Puckett’s Random Thoughts from the Creative Path

Sept. 4             Editor Dianne Hamilton at Ramey Channell’s The Painted Possum

                        Author Janice Hardy at Tracey M. Cox’s A Writer’s Blog

Sept. 5             Author / illustrator Sarah Frances Hardy at Stephanie Moody’s Moodyviews

                        Agent Sally Apokedak at Cheryl Sloan Wray’s Writing with Cheryl

Sept. 6             Author / illustrator Chris Rumble at Cyrus Webb Presents

Ramey and Winston

I'm sad to report that my sweet friend, 

Winston the Possum

 has passed away and now resides in

Possum Heaven.

    

Outside the Magic Circle

For anyone interested in history, the history of the civil rights movement, especially in Alabama, and a look at the life of a Southern belle, this is a must read.

Virginia Foster Durr, born August 6, 1903, was a delightful, intelligent individual, a civil rights activist and lobbyist, and a talented writer. She was married to lawyer Clifford Durr, who shared her ideals, and she was sister-in-law of Supreme Court Chief Justice Hugo Black. Virginia Durr was a champion of civil rights, and close friends with Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt, with whom Mrs Durr worked closely in lobbying for legislation to abolish the poll tax, a device that kept black and white southerners from voting.

Outside the Magic Circle truly opens up a world we might otherwise never be privileged to witness, and does it so well that the reader will feel a part of Virginia Foster Durr's life and the historic events recounted in this book.

She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 2006, seven years after her death.

Blues in Birmingham

Oh, wow! I just found out Jonny Lang will be at City Stages in Birmingham on June 20th!

Here's Jonny doing Good Morning Little School Girl from his 1997 album "Lie to Me." Lang was 16 years old at the time of this video. (Sept. 9, 1997)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uETsOtparg

Lie to Me is an absolutely fabulous CD. I believe all songs on the CD are Jonny Lang originals except Good Morning Little School Girl, written by Sonny Boy Williamson around 1937, and Matchbox, written by Ike Turner.

There is also another Matchbox, written by Carl Perkins: "I'm sitting here wondering, will a matchbox hold my clothes." I think the Beatles recorded this, along with other earlier artists. I always thought the words were, "I'm sitting here worrying, with a matchbox hole in my clothes." I always wondered if a matchbox hole was a hole as big as a matchbox!

Of his recent album, Turn Around, Lang says "With this album I want to focus, more than ever before, on my purpose in life. I've been so incredibly blessed. My wife and I just had our fifth anniversary. I get to do what I love for a living. But it wasn't so long ago that I was spiraling downward in a lot of ways, until God touched my life and set me on the right track. I feel a huge debt to give glory back to Him for everything He has done for me. It's the least I can do."

"I understand that not everybody believes as I do," Lang says, "which is fine. I just want to sing about what's going on in my life and let people make up their own minds about that."

I haven't heard Turn Around yet, and can't wait to do so! One of my favorite musicians, Buddy Miller, accompanies Jonny on the song On That Great Day. Buddy and Julie Miller are indescribably talented artists. The first time I heard them perform was at City Stages a few years ago.

Guster will also be there, and if we're lucky, they'll perform All the Way Up to Heaven, the sweetest song you'd ever want to hear. This song brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it, and so far everyone I ask has had the same experience.

So, let's all go to City Stages this year!