Introducing the new chapbook by Poet Laureate Salaam Green

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Birmingham Poet Laureate to host a public reading from her new chapbook  

The City of Birmingham’s Poet Laureate Salaam Green will host a public reading of her new chapbook, “Once Upon a Magic City,” in honor of April’s Poetry Month. The free event will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 18, 2024, at the Birmingham Public Library, located at 2100 Park Place.

“Poetry preserves a people and a place,” Green said. “’Once Upon a Magic City’ was born from the many stories the city holds. I hope as readers engage with the book and that they begin to experience the healing power of words and begin to dream again about the promise of Birmingham.”  

Green began her two-year term as Birmingham inaugural poet laureate in January 2024. As the founder and director of The Literary Healing Arts and a Road Scholar for the Alabama Humanities Foundation, she has spent over 16 years working as an arts educator, healer, and community leader in Birmingham. Green is a published author whose work has been featured in the book “Southern Women’s Review”, and the “Alabama Arts Journal.”  

Green’s upcoming chapbook will include poems “Freedom Call,” “Birmingham Where the World Belongs,” “Healing is at Hand,” “Little Girls of Birmingham,” and many others. Attendees will receive a complimentary special edition copy, which will include journal prompts. 

Local visual artist Micah Briggs was commissioned to design the book’s cover. An unveiling of the cover will take place on that evening. Free posters will be available.

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Birmingham’s Inaugural Poet Laureate Salaam Green

The City of Birmingham is one of two Alabama cities selected by the Alabama State Council on the Arts to enact an inaugural City Poet Laureate program. (The other city is Mobile.) The poet laureate initiative is in partnership with the City of Birmingham and is funded by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and The Birmingham City Council’s Cultural Arts Committee.

The City recognizes the profound impact of the literary arts on our community’s cultural richness and identity and seeks to honor and celebrate outstanding individuals who have made significant contributions to the world of poetry. After a rigorous nomination and evaluation process, the City of Birmingham proudly announces the appointment of Salaam Green as the inaugural 2024-2025 City of Birmingham Poet Laureate.

Salaam Green is an award-winning author, certified listener poet, storyteller, Create Birmingham’s Poet Laureate for Innovation and Creativity, and an artist-in-residence with UAB’s Arts in Medicine. She is the founder of The Literary Healing Arts and is the current poet-in-residence for the Wallace House for Arts in Reconciliation.

Salaam is an Eco Poetry Fellow with the Magic City Poetry Festival and Creative Writing Teacher for the Alabama Writers Forum where she has edited two anthologies for students with the Department of Youth Services. Salaam sits on the board of the Alabama Arts Alliance as the Director of Diversity & Inclusion and is a Racial Healer with the Kellogg Foundation as well as a Road Scholar with the Alabama Humanities Alliance. 

Salaam’s social justice essays can be found in print & online and her poetry can be found in anthologies and acclaimed literary journals. She is an Allied Media Black Southern Women’s Writing Recipient and writes at the intersections of human rights, culture and race, and rurality. Salaam’s debut Poetry collection Healing in Harpersville to be published in 2024 by (Pulley Press), this collection will be on the descendants of the Wallace House in Harpersville, Alabama using the Pulley Press method of interviewing both descendants of those enslaved and descendants of the enslaver.