An unusual and informal reunion takes place on Birmingham's Southside on September 7 as writers, artists, photographers, musicians, and dancers gather to recall a period of artistic ferment in the city's recent history.

The event is free and open to the public. The program will include brief remarks and readings, with special tributes to Birminghamians Joe Simpson, Gene Crutcher, Spider Martin, John Beecher and Fred Bonnie, all now deceased but who were vital presences of the time. Music will be provided by Marian McKay and her Magic City Sounds.

The main event of the evening, however, will be conversation between and reminiscing by people who were a part of Birmingham's alternative music, art, and literary scene in the late 1960s and '70s. Birmingham at that time was just emerging from its racial conflicts of the 1960s and was in transition from its coal and steel industry past to an uncertain future.

The city, like the nation, had been and was still experiencing a cultural revolution which was reflected in art, music, literature, and politics.

San Francisco had its Haight-Asbury district, New York had its Greenwich Village, and Birmingham had Southside, where a large number of creative and cantankerous booksellers, musicians, poets, photographers, writers, and troublemakers chose to gather.

People gravitated to a few focal points such as Crutcher's Bookstore, Cobb Lane artist studios, local cafes and bars, writing workshops at UAB, and the office of the alternative newspaper The Paperman, to name just a few.

Few of us back then would have thought of it as cohesive, as people drifted in and out depending on which way the wind blew, the direction of their lives, or even just more interesting things over the mountain or down Highway 65. But it was an active community, with a remarkable number of talented artists, dancers, musicians, photographers and writers who in later years would achieve success both locally and nationally, even internationally. Some would stay close to home while others dispersed, but the influences of Birmingham were and are usually evident in their work.

Please join us in celebrating this event at the 22nd Street Jazz and Blues Café. The event will open with remarks about Southside by Marvin Whiting, retired archivist of the City of Birmingham, followed by remarks about John Beecher, Fred Bonnie, Gene Crutcher, Spider Martin and Joe Simpson. Music will be provided by Marian McKay and her Magic City Sounds. Additional comments and readings will follow. The evening will close with an informal unplugged jam session of musicians (or to go electric bring a PA).

When: 6 p.m. Wednesday, September 7, 2005

Where: 22nd Street Jazz and Blues Cafe
710 22nd Street South, Birmingham

More information can be found at www.stevenfordbrown.com/Southside.htm.

For more information, contact Steven Ford Brown at sfbrown (at) wellington (dot) com, or Randall Williams at hrw (at) newsouthbooks (dot) com.