Cost: Free

Join the Alabama Rivers Alliance for a truly unique experience! Join ARA, Poet and Film Fellow Jermaine Thompson, Alabama Poetry Delegate Tina Mozelle Braziel and Ruffner Mountain for a special poetry writing workshop.

Jermaine spent the summer with ARA’s Southern Exposure film fellows and created a poem and short film during the experience. Inspired by his hike at Ruffner Mountain this summer, Jermaine will lead a writing workshop for anyone, regardless of experience. Feel free to enjoy the nature, right here in Birmingham’s backyard, before or after the writing exercise.

ABOUT JERMAINE

Born in Louisville, Mississippi, Jermaine Thompson learned language from big-armed women who greased their skillets with gossip and from full-bellied men who cursed and prayed with the same fervor. He’s been writing poetry since he was 13 — inspired by having to memorize Langston Hughes’ “Harlem” for a Black History Program at his Presbyterian church home. Jermaine loves language for what it creates, what it destroys, what binds in heaven, & for what it loses on earth. Jermaine teaches 9th –12th grade Humanities at Build Up Community School in Birmingham, AL. He has publications in The Pinch, Memorious, Whale Road Review, Southern Indiana Review, and New Letters. In his spare time, he enjoys word games, live music, theater, and buying statement hoodies.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The Alabama Poetry Delegation is a partnership between Alabama Poetry Laureate, Ashley M. Jones and the Alabama Writers Forum that is supported by the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation, the delegation is a leadership and service initiative of Jones’ nonprofit organization, the Magic City Poetry Festival.