Charlie Callas

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There wasn’t anything subtle about Charlie Callas’ brand of humor. The former jazz drummer (who was good enough to tour with Buddy Rich) moved into spazzy stand-up comedy that featured a broad range of rubber-faced impersonations, sound effects, and plenty of pratfalls. It’s no surprise that Jerry Lewis was the guy who decided to turn Callas into a major character actor. A big-screen debut in 1967′s The Big Mouth would be followed by Callas showing up on just about every variety show of the ’70s. Callas also found a new patron when Mel Brooks cast him in 1976′s Silent Movie as a blind man who ends up with the wrong guide dog in a merry mishap. His only major misstep was pushing Johnny Carson during one of his frequent appearances as a guest on the “Tonight Show,” which got him publicly banned from the show. Brooks would keep casting him right up to 1995′s Dracula: Dead & Loving It. (86, natural causes) —JRT

David Frye

Impersonator David Frye—best known for his impersonation of Richard Nixon—was one of the most popular comedians of the late 1960s and early ’70s. While working Greenwich Village in the early ’60s, Frye did a routine consisting of the typical cast of Hollywood actors. One night he did an impression of Robert Kennedy inspired by his girlfriend’s opinion that Kennedy sounded like Bugs Bunny. The audience response was so enthusiastic that he began adding politicians to his repertoire and his career took off. Unfortunately, it slipped considerably once Nixon left the spotlight. “I do Nixon not by copying his real actions but by feeling his attitude, which is that he cannot believe that he really is president,” Frye said in a 1971 Esquire interview. (77, heart attack) —ER

Patrice O’Neal

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“Let’s give it up for countries who eat dogs,” shouted a pissed-off Patrice O’Neal at the 4th Annual Canine Comedy Fundraiser in 2003. Maybe the stand-up comedian would’ve been more polite if the audience hadn’t been talking over all the other comics volunteering their time. Or maybe not. O’Neal was the most confrontational comic on the national scene. He wasn’t looking for a fight, though. O’Neal had a uniquely laid-back style, and preferred to ridicule audiences through casual conversation. He also didn’t give much thought to his career. One of the best moments on the old “Tough Crowd” show on Comedy Central was comedian Judy Gold’s terrified face when she realized that O’Neal was actually willing to go on an anti-abortion tirade. She’d never met anyone that fearless before. O’Neal had a stroke shortly after winning lots of new fans with an incredible turn on “The Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen.” He would pass away a week later. The guy was in bad health, but he probably still thought he would outlive Charlie Sheen. (41, complications from a stroke) —JRT

There’s no sign outside that identifies the convenience store by any name other than Chevron. It’s been that way for nearly 30 years, yet everybody knows the place is named Tom & Jerry’s. “We had a big Coca-Cola sign right there at the corner with ‘Tom & Jerry’s’ up top,” says store-owner Tommy Numnum, who opened the business in October 1981 with longtime friend Jerry Chambers. “The city made us take it down. They didn’t like it or something. We had it for two or three years and then the city said it was too high and didn’t meet with the historic district [standards] or whatever.”

For 31 years, Tom & Jerry’s Chevron on Highland Avenue (next to the fire station) has been a popular Southside landmark. “It’s a meeting place,” says Numnum with pride. “People say, ‘We’ll meet at Tom & Jerry’s.’ We see people all the time parked out there, and if they’re out there for an hour or so I’ll go ask them if they’re broke down or anything. And they’ll say, ‘Nah, we’re waiting on somebody.’”

Owner Tommy Numnum has established Tom & Jerry’s as the go-to place on Southside. (Photos by Owen Stayner.) (click for larger version)

 

 

Tommy Numnum is a gregarious fellow, saying hello and carrying on snippets of conversation with patrons while he goes about his daily chores. “My son Mark is in [the business] now; He’s taken over. He’s been a big part of the success. He’s here most of the time; I’m not,” 66-year old Numnum admits, laughing while sitting in his office on a November morning. “I’m just occasionally in and out—clean the bathrooms and pick up the parking lot—the things that nobody else does . . . I come in ’cause I don’t want to retire. I enjoy coming in. This has been a fun place. It hasn’t really been a hardcore work atmosphere. A lot of good customers I’ve become friends with. I play golf with them, drink coffee with them.”

There was a time no one was interested in the property. “At that time, this was an empty building and Chevron really tried to find people to go in here and they couldn’t find anybody,” says Tommy. “When I first got this place, nobody wanted it. They were scared of Western [Supermarket], scared of [operating] a convenience store. Nobody believed in convenience stores. Everybody still at that time was doing service station work.”

A former video game salesman and nightclub owner, including The Cabaret on First Avenue North in the 1970s, Numnum ventured into the quick-stop store business—but with a vision that differed from what Chevron had in mind. “Chevron wanted me to put a four-door cooler [at the back wall] and put groceries everywhere. They were new in the business, too. It was brand new for everybody,” he recalls. “I said, ‘Naw, let’s put the cooler down the side of the wall,’ where it’s at now. At that time we had some video games—Donkey Kong and a few other things. So I eliminated most of the groceries and they weren’t happy about that and said it’d never make it. Southside was just building up, UAB was still coming along, and at that time, I didn’t think that was the way to go. It worked out pretty good because I’ve added more cooler doors since then. I put up new canopies and new pumps and new lighting outside about three years ago. I believe in lights. I want this place lit up at night.”

Yellow Cab driver Rod Walker stops there regularly when pulling all-night shifts on weekends and appreciates the well-lit parking lot. “The cab drivers go there all the time. It seems to be one of the most popular stations in town,” says Walker. “You pull up in the parking lot no matter what time it is and it’s like day. So you don’t have to worry about getting mugged or anything like that.” He usually stops for junk food late night while driving. “Every now and then I’ll get something healthy like a banana or an apple,” he admits. “They have a little bit of fresh fruit in there, so that’s always good.” Walker adds that Tom & Jerry’s is unique because the bathrooms are spotless and there are usually two employees working the cash registers.

According to Numnum, Tom & Jerry’s was the first Chevron station in the nation to offer credit card readers where you could pay at the pump. “Chevron test marketed it here. They asked if they could put them in,” he says. “I was a little hesitant at that time because the word was that people were not going to come inside. They were just going to stick their card out there and pump their gas and leave. But it really increased the business. People would pump their gas outside and then come inside and buy something else.”

Tommy Numnum says it’s not unusual to see a vehicle drive off with the nozzle still in the gas tank. “I was at the register one day and this guy with a company truck came in. He had been coming in for a long time, I knew him,” says Tommy. “He was filling up and I saw him get in his truck (without removing the gas nozzle) . . . About that time, he took off and sure enough the whole dispenser came out of the ground. These days, you’ve got breakaways. If somebody drives off, just the hose will break off. He took off down Highland Avenue and that dispenser was behind his truck just a bumping up and down. You could see sparks coming out of that dispenser ’cause the hose still had a little gas in it. He told me when he got back that he was scared to death because all he saw was fire coming from behind his truck and he didn’t know what was going on. He said, ‘Man, I got your pump.’ And I said, ‘I know it, man, I saw it leaving.’”

A typically bustling evening at Tom & Jerry’s—where it’s never dark. (click for larger version)

 

 

Tom & Jerry’s has a booming hot dog business. “I’ve had popcorn, I’ve had nachos, several different things but we just stuck with the hot dogs. The hot dogs started back when my mother was working here,” says Tommy. “Everybody called her ‘Miss Jessie.’ She was getting a little too old to work the register and I tried to find her something to do, so we started the hot dogs. She’d go over there and just sit all day long and make the hot dogs and cook ‘em. She’d have burn spots all over her arm, trying to get those hot dogs. She was real short. And then it got to be a monster, we were selling so many. I would’ve probably never done it if it hadn’t been for her.”

His mother passed away in 2004 at age 82. Tommy’s son Mark Numnum, recalls his grandmother: “I remember her being feisty. She was always up there waiting on customers. Everybody in Southside knew who my grandmother was. She just kind of ran the place when I was a kid.” The store also sells lots of boiled peanuts, which include a Cajun spice mixture that Mark Numnum discovered at a country store on the way to the beach last summer year.

As one would expect, a 24-hour convenience store attracts its share of strange customers and surreal experiences, though no employees want to go on record about the weirdness they encounter working a graveyard shift. “I guess the craziest thing that’s happened was somebody ramming their car through the building,” Mark Numnum says, laughing hard. “I was just getting to work and there was a cop car here with somebody sitting in the back and I guess they indulged a little too much that morning and just slammed into the front of the store . . . There’s probably still an indention where the car hit, right behind the newspaper stands. The driver was wasted. (Laughs) I think it was about 6 o’clock in the morning. He was heading home and wanted to get him another beer or two and unfortunately he hit the gas instead of the brakes.”

On the walls of Tom & Jerry’s are large framed portraits of the Rat Pack, Elvis, and the Three Stooges. There’s even a painting of Jerry Garcia. “I didn’t want to be like a grocery store. I wanted to have something different and I think we do,” says Tommy. “I’ve got maybe one row of groceries. The rest of it is convenience items: Candy, beer, wine, cigarettes. The things that you would come in here for and not have to spend time in a grocery store. You know, hit and run.” &

David Greenberger, a frequent contributor to NPR through essays and music reviews, began recording conversations with elderly patients in a Boston nursing home where he worked in 1979 after finishing art school. These chats were originally published in his self-published magazine Duplex Planet, which is described as “an ongoing work designed to portray a wide variety of real characters who are old or in decline.” Greenberger eventually began giving spoken word performances using the elderly folks’ words while backed by musical combos. On October 23, Greenberger will appear at Bottletree Café with the Shaking Ray Levis at 8 p.m. For details, go to www.thebottletree.com.

Black & White: Tell us what to expect at your upcoming performance in Birmingham. The Shaking Ray Levis are associated with improv music, which I don’t particularly care for.
David Greenberger: There are no elements of improv in what we do, even with the Shaking Ray Levis. Those guys are improvisers but in the context of what we do, it’s composed music. I actually never like having improvised music with this sort of text, which has a conversational voice. I feel like the conversational voice is to be believed. A true conversation is sort of improvised, in a way. To really believe those conversations, it’s just sort of rolling out like a saxophone solo. So with that being the sort of foreground—or the narrative—in these pieces I need for the music to be anchored, to be sort of specific; to be the sort of architecture that this voice lives within.

So Dennis and Bob (of the Shaking Ray Levis ) are well-known as improvisers but everything that we’ve done has always been completely composed and scored and we know exactly where we’ll be in the piece. Within that, they’ve got some room to play around, just like even non-improvising musicians would. But for the most part, we’re doing a scripted and scored thing.

What prompted you to start sharing your conversations with the elderly in a public format?
Well, I was out of art school, I was a painter. In the 1970s, I met some old guy and I thought that I’d like to meet some more like that. I was sort of intrigued by the idea that I’d met somebody who was significantly older than me. At the time, I was about 25. I never knew them before, they weren’t related to me. And in my experience—and probably most people’s experience—the people I knew who were elderly were relatives, and so there’s a sort of a limited, familial dynamic in play where they always see you as the grandchild or the nephew or whatever it is.

	“I would meet these people who were closer to the ends of their lives. I didn’t have to get too caught up in mourning the loss of who they used to be and I could be with them in the present moment because I never knew them before.” (click for larger version)

What was kind of liberating for me was that in meeting this one particular guy, I realized it was just the same as meeting anybody else. And the fact that he was older than me didn’t really enter into it. We just found common ground to talk about.
I took a job at a nursing home for a couple of years in 1979. I just did it for a little while—it was all elderly men at this nursing home, which was a small converted house. But in stepping into that environment, I really felt that, as an artist, I found my voice, in a way. It was something that I wanted to communicate to an audience who didn’t know these people. But [the point was]not to get to know them but to get to know aspects and various possibilities and various faces of aging and decline. And to do so without them being your uncles or aunts or grandparents or parents, because your own mortality is so tied to that. And I would meet these people who were in decline and closer to the ends of their lives. I didn’t have to get too caught up in mourning the loss of who they used to be and I could be with them in the present moment because I never knew them before.

Say you met somebody who had an accident and lost an arm. And all their friends and family are horrified and feel bad about it. But he moves on and he’s a guy with one arm. Well, you meet this guy and you never knew him when he had the other arm, so you’re not as limited in the same view of him as those other people who, in a way, will always think, “What a shame. He used to love to play Frisbee or baseball” or whatever it was. You can just sort of accept him as is, and that’s also quite empowering to the person who is going through it. Because then they meet people who didn’t know them before and they can just move forward with their life.

How often does dementia or Alzheimer’s come into play with what you do?
When I first started doing this stuff, there were a few people [with some form of dementia] at that one nursing home. But I never really cared to know what the diagnosis was because it didn’t really matter to them. The diagnosis, in a way, can become a distraction. As soon as you say “Alzheimer’s” you’re just seeing that word. But if you would just talk to them, it defines Alzheimer’s in a different way. You’re defining them first as an individual who happens to have Alzheimer’s. You’re seeing them through that window of, “Oh, what a shame.” And I always prefer to not even know what the diagnosis is because that’s really going to be an incumbrance in the dynamic of a relationship to just getting to know them on their own terms.

The Alzheimer’s word is used a lot more than it was before. I don’t think there’s a greater number of people suffering from various aspects of mental decline. So it’s out there as a popular word and idea to support, which isn’t a bad thing. But it sort of tips the balance a bit. That issue’s always been around. In one way or another, there is no cure for the slowdown of your life, which includes the various parts of our bodies. Those things wear out, including our brains.

I would argue that I don’t think most people would want to be very wide-eyed and completely alert but flinchingly having to stare down their own death. In a way, I think the very act of becoming confused and uncertain about what’s real and what isn’t allows for a gentler passage, as it were. Which isn’t to say that I’m opposed to doing things about it. Certainly early onset things and people who are frustrated and know that something’s happened are to be helped.

I did a project in Milwaukee a couple of years ago that was specifically focused on people with memory loss. I had an artist residency and was in Milwaukee for about four months creating a CD that was called Cherry Picking Apple Blossom Time. (A documentary was made about the project.) Most of the people that I spoke with all had varying degrees of memory loss. For some of them, there was nothing that you would even notice. For other people it was a profound loss. I would say something and they would say something that was completely different from what I said. And then I would try to follow them there and then they would head somewhere else. It was the full range of faces of memory loss.

Tell me about Duplex Planet.
Well, I started that in 1979. It was a chat book-sized little periodical. It was a format that I was interested in doing at the time. [Readers] would get to know characters little by little over time, just like you would if it was somebody that you run into once in a while at the supermarket—an old guy that you would see there—so that after three or four months readers start to recognize certain characters . . . More people got to know my work and it was channeled into more traditional media like books and stuff. There was a comic book adaptation in the mid-’90s. And then that’s when I started doing these performances and recordings of monologues with music.

Tell me about the oddest or most unusual elderly person you’ve worked with.
Well, I think, in a way, the people I knew earliest on in that nursing home where I worked because of my age. I was 25 and everything was knew to me. I learned a lot. I think I became articulate about what I was trying to do.

Those people show up in my dreams and it tends to mean other stuff to me. There was one guy there, William Ferguson was his name, who I really liked. He clearly did have some form of dementia. But he was a perfectly happy guy. He was clearly making stuff up when he was talking to me. He was about 90. I might have said something to him about the president or something. And then he would say something about Eisenhower. He would talk about driving around with Eisenhower in a jeep after the war and picking up Fräuleins and buying them ice cream.

He was clearly inventing stuff but with such loving vigor. It was real to him in the moment, almost like speaking aloud a dream. I think what I learned from him was that anything that anybody was telling me was real and I should accept it as real. It was real to them. Whether or not it actually happened, it doesn’t really matter. There’s this guy sitting in front of me who’s completely aglow with this stuff that he’s talking about. And for me to say that didn’t happen only ends the conversation. So it’s better to talk about Ike, talk about the jeep. Go with him wherever he’s going. Because the whole thing at the end of the day is just to be present with somebody else . . . The thing that matters is that we have our kind of emotional memory of having been with somebody. &

Don’t bother asking Leon Redbone where he was born. He’ll probably say he was too young to remember. Some say Leon Redbone was born in Turkey in 1888, immigrating to the United States a couple of decades later. Others claim he hails from Canada. The usual story of his musical beginnings is that he began playing in Toronto in the early 1970s.

Regardless of his origins, Redbone’s masterful guitar playing and distinctive baritone voice crooning mostly jazz, blues, and pop from the early 20th century have established him as an odd cult figure who’s also a household name. New York Times writer Stephen Holder wrote, “Mr. Redbone doesn’t just dig up the past, he embodies it — by dressing himself in the clothes of an old-time traveling minstrel and singing in a voice that is a stylistic composite of early Southern blues and vaudeville performer.”

But it’s more than the music and clothes. It’s a genuine sentimental longing for the old days that he shared on a recent morning, including observations of Johnny Carson and surviving airplane crashes. He mumbles as he veers from topic to topic, making him at times difficult to understand.

 

Singer and guitar ace Leon Redbone plays Moonlight on the Mountain. (Photo: Nancy Depra.) (click for larger version)

 

 

 

Leon Redbone can also be difficult to follow. He’ll sort of answer a question and then go off on a tangent how the world just isn’t what it used to be. His dry wit and unique persona makes a listener wonder where the stage performer ends and the regular guy begins. As Bonnie Raitt once told Rolling Stone, “He’s just amazing. He’s probably the best combination singer/guitarist I’ve heard in years. I spent an afternoon with him in a hotel room and I was wondering when he was going to become normal. He never did.”

Black & White: What first attracted you to doing early 20th century and Tin Pan Alley-style music?
Leon Redbone: Well, I wanted to play Chopin but that didn’t sorta work. (laughs) So the next best thing was the music of the teens and ’20s.

You got your start in Toronto?
I’ve heard that. If there’s any truth to it, I don’t know. I’ve also heard that I moved to Canada. People want to know and I guess I’m supposed to somehow explain it.

How did audiences first react when you started playing such a unique style of music?
Well, I never took a survey. It would have been a good idea, I suppose. But if somebody started doing it now, it wouldn’t be unusual either because of all the reissued records which have come about. There’s so much information out there, by the time you sort it out, you’d be dead. So you just have to take whatever comes your way and deal with it. As far as (finding) the things that are in excess now, it’s certainly a lot easier than you could have 40 or 50 years ago. A lot of the 78s (rpm records) are available in antique stores, junk stores. You can buy just about anything. And now you can buy them, clean it up, and put it on a disk.

I read an article in Guitar Player magazine that referred to your music as “novelty.” Were you insulted?
Well, for every decade that you’re alive, a lot of things are lost. Sentiment is one of them . . . and the willingness to understand some kind of expression that it goes beyond the obvious words, which you’ll find in any song. Those qualities are quickly disappearing. Sentimentality is not considered really a necessary trait of a person of today. There’s the music of the 1900s and the 1930s, for instance. Aside from all the booze and everything and fun songs and everything else, there’s a lot of sentiment expressed which referred to an earlier time. Which is still valid today, except people have been bombarded with all kinds of rapid fads. You can buy this, you can buy that. Nobody can tell the difference, if it’s music from 1910 or if somebody wrote it yesterday. There’s a lot that’s missing in the general population because there’s so much desire to consume everything that’s put in front of them. It’s hard to tell who actually is generally moved by music or if they are just eating it. (laughs).

I was surprised that you played Saturday Night Live twice within four months back in 1976.
I guess they couldn’t find the person they wanted so they called me, I guess. (laughs)

I read that Mikhail Baryshnikov recommended your music for a ballet in 1996?
Yeah, he works with a choreographer I know. Assuming it was as you say—I didn’t verify it but I’m sure it was. But the fellow I know directly is Eliot Feld.

You did the “Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” quite a few times. Any particular memories from those days?
The drudgery of having to wait to do your numbers and everything. But it was a real pleasure to sit down with Johnny Carson. I found him to be a genuine individual in everything that he seemed to do. Then all that changed. Basically, after he died, everything changed. But it was a conversation, or at least a meeting, with a different time. Johnny Carson was very private in his endeavors, not only in his personal life but the recordings that he had (of his show). Everything was recorded, obviously, and he would give it to the artist stipulating that it can’t be used without permission. All that disappeared the day he died. I found [that] to be a pretty good indicator as to the sentiment of those who came after Johnny Carson. Obviously, they did not honor his request because all those things are available now. It’s just the old world going and the new world takes over.

Is it true that you survived a plane crash in 1979?
Well, yes. I had nothing to do with the plane coming down. There were a few unfortunate people who died on impact. One was, very sad to say, an elderly woman who was sitting right across from me. She had not put her seat belt on. The plane actually hit the end of the airport upside down. It was a full impact that broke the right wing and turning the thing completely over and slammed down onto the runway. It was one of those jet props. Sat about 30 plus, I’d say, something like that.

How do you travel these days?
Well, I prefer to drive. I take my time—well, sometimes I don’t take my time because I have to be there on time. Seems to suit me fine, quite frankly, I don’t have to wait for anything. Air travel now versus air travel in the ’70s. Surprisingly, few people know how the airport system worked in the ’70s—never mind 1870. Nobody seems to remember anything in the ’70s. Everybody is just completely “gaga”, I guess you’d call it, over the next and latest gizmo or whatever it is and nobody has a memory for anything else. People who should know, or should have remembered, don’t remember. One good example I give for this unique transformation is arriving at the airport, missing the flight, and then going to another counter with your ticket from Delta or whatever it was from. And having them write you a ticket through their airlines and taking care of the business for themselves afterwards. Most people don’t have any concept of that. Today if you miss your plane you’ll probably going to lose the money unless you get another in a short period of time on the same airline. You can’t do any of it any more. And it was done with a smile and courtesy.

You did jingles for Budweiser, right?
Yeah, I think that was in the ’70s. And the entire business, similar to the airline business, was restructured. The old timers in the advertising world and the agencies completely disappeared. I believe it was sometime in the late ’80s or ’90s. All the personality, just as in the music of the teens and ’20s, all the personality went out of it.”

What was your opinion of Judy Garland?
Miss Garland could be an extremely talented individual but very difficult to watch. Because of her nervous kind of appearance, and that kind if thing makes it a little difficult to listen to and watch.

What’s your cure for the blues these days?
Well, I try not to bother with it any more. (laughs) I’m indifferent to a lot of things and I think I enjoy it more in some ways, the way the music has lasted all these years. The sentiment doesn’t go away even though it seems to have. The androids may be taking over; maybe that’s what the analysis is. (laughs) People think the Martians are coming. No, the androids are here already . . . I hope you got something out of all that. (laughs) &

Leon Redbone will perform at Moonlight on the Mountain on September 30 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $50; the show is a benefit for the organization Hope Manifest. Go to www.moonlightonthemtn.com for details.

Vincent Oliver has been cutting hair in downtown Woodlawn for 44 years. Oliver attended kindergarten, elementary, and high school in Woodlawn but left after graduation to attend barber college in Jacksonville, Florida. “There was no barber college in Alabama when I got out of high school,” he explains. Degree in hand, he eventually returned to his childhood neighborhood and in 1966 opened Vincent Oliver’s Hippodrome Barber Shop. Oliver is one of the few white residents to have resisted relocating due to the urban blight that has gripped Woodlawn for nearly three decades beginning in the late 1970s.

Woodrow Hall, a renovated event facility in Woodlawn available for parties and other events. (click for larger version)

 

Running a one-barber operation, Vincent Oliver admits that Woodlawn has seen better days. “It was a real busy downtown district in the ’50s and ’60s. It had a Morgan Brothers Department Store. It had about four barber shops, had a Woodlawn bakery, had a shoe-repair shop, had restaurants, a hardware store,” he reminisces, perched in a barber chair after finishing with a customer. “It was a real, real busy hub right here.” When asked if he has encountered any criminal element in the neighborhood, Oliver replies, “I’ve had no problems, it’s been real safe. People sometimes get the mis-idea about Woodlawn. When I tell people I work in Woodlawn, they say, ‘Oh ain’t you scared to go to Woodlawn?’ But it’s nice, it’s really nice.”

Not long ago Woodlawn was not “really nice” or “real safe.” Many will argue that it still isn’t. But thanks to an influx of private and public funding, a revitalization effort that began several years ago has pulled the community together, and Woodlawn appears to be gradually on the rebound. In 2004 Main Street Birmingham (MSB), a nonprofit organization that contracts with the city of Birmingham to foster public-private partnerships designed to revitalize neighborhood commercial districts, moved to the area. Two years later, the Central YWCA established a presence in Woodlawn when it came to the financial rescue of the Interfaith Hospitality House—a shelter for homeless families. Other nonprofit organizations followed: The Church of the Highlands partnered with Christ Health Center to open a medical clinic; Desert Island Supply Company has established itself as a writing lab for children living in Woodlawn; Cornerstone School is a charter school that has contributed to Woodlawn’s rebirth. At the center of this revitalization is YWCA Central’s $11 million project to build state-of-the-art shelters for homeless families. Funded by a partnership between the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, the city of Birmingham’s Community Development Department, and private donors, the complex includes four apartment buildings with 58 units of affordable housing (both transitional and permanent), as well as a new facility for an Interfaith Hospitality House that can shelter six homeless families. The house allows intact families to remain together. “We started out with a small vision just to build a replacement shelter and opportunities and funding kept coming our way,” explains YWCA Central Alabama CEO Suzanne Durham. “We’ve run housing for over a hundred years, we are not new to housing . . . We’re the only shelter in the state that takes homeless dads with kids. We’re one of very few that takes women with teenaged boys in the state, and we’re one of very few in the state that takes two-parent families.” To take advantage of the Y’s transitional and permanent housing opportunities, occupants must be employed or on retirement or social security income. Criminal background checks are also required. The YWCA’s project also includes a Family Resource Center. Purchasing the property, which was formerly a convenience store where illegal activities were allegedly taking place, was the catalyst in helping change Woodlawn’s shoddy reputation, Durham says. “What was once a former convenience store—and I mean ‘convenience’ where a lot of unhealthy activities took place, activities that made folks often afraid to stop at the traffic light—has been transformed into a wonderful activities center for the residents of our apartment complexes, as well as community residents,” Durham said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in May christening the completion of the current phase of the YWCA complex. “We knew if we didn’t acquire the property, our work for transforming the neighborhood would be for naught.” Main Street Birmingham, meanwhile, is close to opening an arts incubator in Woodlawn. In March, the Birmingham City Council voted to give $50,000 to 55th Place Arts, a $250,000 project located next door to Main Street Birmingham, which will lease the space to tenants.

Vincent Oliver’s Hippodrome barber shop has operated—largely unchanged—in Woodlawn since 1966. (Photo: Ginger Ann Brook, deepfriedkudzu.com) (click for larger version)

 

“We’ve occupied this building since 2005, [it] has our office, as well as some space in it that we maintain and is basically to incubate small business or nonprofits at an affordable rate,” says David Fleming, executive director of Main Street Birmingham. “A year ago we acquired the properties next door to us going to the end of the block, which is a total of six different storefronts that were all about only 40 percent occupied. Construction is under way now on renovating those buildings and filling up the vacant spaces with arts business incubation, or what we call ‘creative professionals.’ So it could be somebody involved in some sort of artistic endeavor as their business; it could be a dance studio or maybe a graphic design person.” Fleming said the arts incubator is likely to open in September. Main Street Birmingham is also partnering with City Meats, located directly across the street from the Hippodrome barber shop. Samuel Crawford, director of business growth for MSB, explains: “The City Meats effort is just one of the overall initiatives. We’re working with individuals, community organizations, and neighborhoods to establish a series of public markets, the target being those communities that are considered by the United States Department of Agriculture, and our study that we had done of Birmingham, that are considered ‘food deserts.’ Those are communities that either lack access to healthy food sources, or access is limited. The overall effort is, how do you get more fresh produce offerings in these communities?” MSB was also instrumental in the opening of Woodrow Hall, a top-tier events venue, in Woodlawn. “We were involved with Woodrow Hall in that when the new owners came around looking for opportunities, we encouraged them and helped them with the transaction for them to purchase that,” says Fleming. “That’s one of the things we do; If we find people that we can encourage to buy and invest in the area, we will do that and try to help provide incentives for them to do it. They didn’t need any financial incentive; they just needed to see the opportunity and we directed them to that. They’ve done a great job with that building.” The three-story Woodrow Hall, at 5500 First Avenue North, is a former Masonic Lodge that was built in 1914. Andrew Morrow and his business partners purchased the building, which is currently used as a venue for weddings, parties, and other special events. Morrow has a landscaping and construction business, and has been involved in building lofts in downtown Birmingham. “People from Birmingham fail to see some of the potential that’s right before them,” Morrow explains, “So I learned how to renovate stuff and I saw the value in taking something that’s old and how you can change it and make it new.” Morrow says that the adage that stipulates “build it and they will come” applies to his reason for opening Woodrow Hall. “You’ve got Crestwood right there [near Woodlawn] with houses that sell for maybe $200,000. But on the other side of this building [Woodrow Hall] a stone’s throw away [from Crestwood], you can buy a lot for 2,000 bucks or a house that needs a ton of work for $15,000. That’s a huge disparity.” Morrow adds that, because of the location, hosting an event at Woodrow Hall is much cheaper than at similar event facilities in the Birmingham area. Travis Morgan, president of local record label Skybucket Records, says he was not aware that Woodrow Hall existed until he attended a yoga class there recently with his wife. He decided that the facility would be the ideal setting for local band Delicate Cutters to hold their record-release party. “It wasn’t just another show, so we wanted to kind of up the ante a little bit,” Morgan says. “It’s real elegant; they dress [Woodrow Hall] up.” Morgan admits that it was somewhat risky to have a show in Woodlawn. “I grew up in the suburbs, and Woodlawn, to me, was an area of town that I didn’t go in very often,” he says. “It really is a beautiful area of town. As it slowly becomes revitalized, I’m sure there are some other jewels in Woodlawn that I’m completely unaware of. [So] if I didn’t know about Woodrow Hall, I’m sure there are other buildings and other sights to see.”

One of the YWCA’s recently renovated family residences in the area. (click for larger version)

 

Smiles for Keeps is a dental practice next to Vincent Oliver’s barber shop opened by Mountain Brook dentist Roger Smith and business partner Mary McSpadden in 2006. Their clientele is primarily children on Medicaid, though other insurance is also accepted. “We did a demographic study of where the greatest need was, and we found that the Woodlawn area had a huge number of children that were having to travel some distance to get dental care,” explains McSpadden. McSpadden says the clinic also offers care at reduced rates for those without Medicaid. “Even if somebody doesn’t have insurance or if they have insurance and maybe their copays are higher or whatever, our rates are such that it is much more affordable because of the area that we’re in,” she says. McSpadden admits that she and Dr. Smith took a gamble on opening the operation where they did. “When we came, it was before Woodlawn was cool. Main Street Birmingham was here but really there wasn’t a lot going on,” she says. “Thirty percent of our children are non-Medicaid, 70 percent are Medicaid. And we find that they come from all different zip codes throughout this city.” The clinic also treats adults whose children are serviced at Smiles for Keeps. McSpadden points out that the clinic is a for-profit venture. “A lot of businesses that you see that have come into Woodlawn have been not-for-profits. We do believe that it’s helping the city to a large degree by us paying taxes, whereas your not-for-profits don’t.” Nancy Tran, a real estate broker for Beautiful South Real Estate, says she is excited about what’s happening in the area. “Things are progressing. There’s a lot of activity going on with new businesses and the non-profit groups,” Tran says. She says she believes that the affordable prices for houses in the adjacent Crestwood neighborhood will be a catalyst prompting others to invest in Woodlawn. “As Crestwood continues to grow, that will pull Woodlawn up, too.” &

Picnic for the Planet

Local band Earthbound holds a party benefiting a group that protects our waterways.

On Sunday, April 17, local band Earthbound presents its yearly Earthfest celebration, a free concert and picnic held annually in Bessie Estelle Park near UAB, from 2 p.m. to sundown. In addition to Earthbound, local country music singer Scott Ward will perform with his band Big Mule. Bouncing space walks will be available for kids, as well as a dunk tank. The extravaganza promotes awareness of Earth Day (observed each April 22) and supports the Black Warrior Riverkeeper in its efforts as a nonprofit watchdog uncovering pollution activities concerning the Black Warrior River, a primary source of drinking water for Birmingham. Although admission to the event is free, donations to Black Warrior Riverkeeper will be accepted.

Earthbound’s Earthfest started a decade ago in George Ward Park. (This is the third year at Bessie Estelle Park.) Sam Ray, manager and sound technician for Earthbound, remembers it was originally a bold move on the band’s part to play at George Ward because they never secured the proper permits when staging the celebration each spring.

 

Good use of resources: a pre-Earth Day concert in the park becomes a fundraiser for Black Warrior Riverkeeper. (Photo: Jenn Patterson.) (click for larger version)

 

 

 

 

“We dragged a generator out there, knowing the cops could tell us to shut down at any time,” Ray says. “We later discovered that to get the permits was not as big a deal as we had thought it was. And so once we began doing it legally, we got together as a band and decided that we could benefit somebody from this. And that’s when we decided as a group that we wanted to benefit Black Warrior Riverkeeper.”

Ray praises the organization’s watchdog role policing the Black Warrior River and its tributaries. “They’re not high-priced lawyers in penthouse office suites with $5,000 suits. These guys are out there and they’re doing what they’re doing on a shoestring budget and they’re making a difference,” Ray says of Black Warrior Riverkeeper. “We’re proud to be associated with them. They go out and they monitor the waterways and they find these sources of pollution. They document it, they get proof of it, and then they go to the people that are causing it and say, ‘Hey look, this is what’s happening.’ They give them a chance to be right and clean it up. And then if the companies . . . don’t follow by the laws that have been established already that they’re supposed to follow, then they take the next step.”

“It’s a good opportunity to let people know about tangible issues that we’re working on, too. So, holistically, yes [Earthfest is about] Earth Day but also specific water issues,” explains Charles Scribner, executive director of Black Warrior Riverkeeper.

The Shepherd Bend mine controversy, for example, is one water issue that made headlines this year. The University of Alabama systems owns crucial acreage that would make mining the greater area lucrative if the UA property is leased or sold to Shepherd Bend Mining. However, there is the likelihood that coal mine wastewater will be discharged into the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River, immediately upstream of a primary Birmingham Water Works Board drinking-water intake—the drinking source for 200,000 people. Protests have been held on the university’s Tuscaloosa campus as well as at UAB and Samford University. The Birmingham City Council passed a resolution on March 15 urging the University of Alabama not to lease or sell the coveted land to Shepherd Bend Mining.

“Basically, UA owns most of the land across the river from our drinking water supply. So even though this mine proposal has gotten the permits it needs to move forward, if they don’t get UA’s land they can’t really economically move forward with the mine,” says Scribner. “Just letting people know in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham that the Black Warrior watershed is part of their drinking water is vital. That’s known well in Tuscaloosa, but less so in Birmingham. So this event helps raise awareness for that.”

“In the case of the Shepherd Bend mine, the ratepayers, i.e. people like us that are drinking water right now, are going to carry the burden of any increased treatment costs,” explains Scribner. “The Birmingham Water Works Board obviously can’t internalize that, they’ve got to externalize it on their ratepayers. I don’t blame them. I mean, they’re doing their part by fighting the permit. But you would think that if a mine occurred in a place like that the mine would be responsible for covering any increased treatment. But nope, that would go to the public.”

Scribner says the most important focus is to put pressure on the university system. “In order to really move forward they’re going to have to have UA’s cooperation,” he says. “As much as we’re fighting the ADEM [Alabama Department of Environmental Management] permit in court and the Water Works Board is fighting the mining permit, if we can just put enough pressure on UA not to participate, that’s pretty much the end of the story.”

“I’ve always said that as long as I’m involved with this, it will be about Earthbound, it will be about Earth Day, it will be about our community, and it will always be free and all-inclusive,” Ray says of Earthfest. “We’ll never sell tickets to it and it’s always going to be a family event. It’s going to be a picnic in the park to enjoy music on a Sunday afternoon.” &

Get more information about Earthbound’s Earthfest, and the Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s efforts, at www.blackwarriorriver.org.

The Smoothest Joint in Town