Alabama remains my home

Bessemer native and actor André Holland in a scene from his 2024 film, Exhibiting Forgiveness. 

I grew up in a small house with no storm cellar. Before I was old enough to know the name of the land I lived on I played with lightning bugs in the yard. On warm summer evenings, I helped my mother hang the laundry to dry as the setting sun turned the clouds pink and indigo. I walked on the same flat dirt roads that my mother used to walk after school as she made the thirteen-mile trek up to Birmingham to march with Dr. King. I learned to read the sky for signs of an approaching tornado. I would gather up my sisters and push our mattress up against the front door — after that there wasn’t much else to do but pray. I belonged, and we all belonged to each other.

Alabama taught me how to be a good neighbor, how to approach other people with compassion, and how to show up for them. I had a community that looked out for me and to whom I was accountable. As I’ve grown older, I have found that not everyone grew up in such a supportive environment. There is a tendency toward selfishness and shortsightedness in our national culture, a disconnect amongst people that is the polar opposite of my upbringing. I have found myself falling prey to this hyper-individualism on more than one occasion. Living in New York where instant gratification is the norm, you pass so many people every day you begin to resent drawn out conversations about each other’s lives. There is always another meeting in five minutes, and it’s always important. I am reminded, writing this, how special growing up in my community was and how much I value the life lessons I was taught.

My family fought so hard to make our home a better place to live. My parents, aunts, uncles, and family friends were very active in the civil rights movement, so I grew up steeped in it. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to all of the people who were and are active in our community. I hope as we greet the future we will take better care of our poor people, that we will increase arts funding, and that we will do our part to take care of the natural world. That we will continue to love each other better, and model that for the rest of the country. To me, being an Alabamian means insisting that our country strive to live up to the best of ourselves.

My community was full of people who relished any opportunity to tell a story and who knew how to do it well. This led to a love of storytelling that eventually turned into my career. It is my hope that I can help give a platform to the wonderful people of Alabama. I am grateful to have the opportunity to bring Black stories to life on the screen. I will continue searching out our stories and telling them.

Since 2017, my mother and I have been working to restore the Lincoln Theatre in my hometown of Bessemer. My hope is that one day, it will be a space for the community to gather together. A place that inspires young people and encourages the older generations to share their stories. There is a quote often attributed to James Baldwin, although there is no documented proof he said these words in this way, which is: “Life is more important than art; that’s what makes art important.” This concept that life and art are intrinsically connected, and our desire to provide a space for that in Bessemer, has been our inspiration from the beginning. It is one of the great privileges of my life that I am able to create art that begins to explore the complexities of our culture and what it means to exist.

I think oftentimes people have a negative perception of Alabama, which it has earned in a lot of ways and has deserved in others, and yet there are a lot of wonderful people there who are doing great work everyday. And I want to celebrate those people. Wherever I am in the world or in my life, Alabama remains my home.

André Holland is a native of Bessemer, Alabama, and an award-winning actor of stage, television, and film. He is perhaps best known for his role in Moonlight, which won the 2017 Academy Award for Best Picture. Holland’s most recent film, Exhibiting Forgiveness, has earned universal acclaim and served as the Sidewalk Film Festival’s 2024 opening night film.

Holland returns to Alabama often, including when he appeared alongside Imani Perry as headliners of “Anabranch,” AHA’s 2019 Alabama Book Festival.