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An Alabama Convening

Two years ago, the Alabama Humanities Alliance began an experiment. We came to call it our Healing History initiative.

A collaborative effort, Healing History brings Alabamians together to investigate our shared past — as a way to better understand our present and each other. The goal is to strengthen our communities, our workforces, and our relationships.

Learning from history isn’t a new idea, of course; we are far from the only people in the state doing this kind of work. And that’s why we want to hear from — and learn from — others who are engaged in “Healing History” work in their own communities across Alabama.

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Are you engaged in historical work that aims to bring Alabamians together today? Join AHA on October 27, 2025, for Healing History: An Alabama Convening.

This will be a gathering focused on inspiration and imagination, of considering different ways we can mine the past to strengthen our present. Plenary sessions, talks, and film screenings will highlight creative, history-based model projects. There will also be ample time to sit, share, and connect.

Bring your own ideas and examples, your openness and curiosity. Partners Hall will be open throughout the day, showcasing collaborators from around the state. Registration is free but required in advance. Lunch will be provided.

 

Healing History: An Alabama Convening
October 27, 2025  |  10am-4pm
The Rotunda at American Village
3727 Highway 19  |  Montevallo, AL 35115
Register for free: surveymonkey.com/r/FZYR8GH

Why Montevallo? We’re meeting in the middle of the state for two reasons. One, because we have some great friends at the David Mathews Center for Civic Life and the American Village Citizenship Trust who graciously agreed to host us. And, two, we wanted to meet in the middle of the state to allow for as many people, from all corners of Alabama, to join us.

 

Who should attend? 

 

Learn more: 

 

Supporting organizations
AHA’s Healing History initiative would not have gotten off the ground two years ago without seed funding from the State of Alabama, and it would not have grown without the generous, ongoing support of the Community Foundation for Greater Birmingham. Additional thanks to our founding partners at Bread for the World and Regions Bank, and to model partners such as History Before Us and The Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation.

What we have in common

On August 25, at Birmingham’s Red Mountain Theatre, author and social psychologist Kurt Gray offered a new take on this current American era of outrage and polarization. At the heart of his message: We’re motivated far more by what we have in common than we might think.

“Most of our differences come from the same place,” Gray shared, “about protecting ourselves or others from harm. The disagreements come over our different perceptions of what might be harmful and of who’s being harmed.”

That finding from Gray’s research won’t magically heal our nation’s self-inflicted wounds, but it might help folks better understand each other and open up opportunities for productive conversations. Indeed, that hope inspired the entire evening.

 

Sharing our stories

Gray’s talk was offered as part of an ongoing Woven Together series, co-presented by the Alabama Humanities Alliance, Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, and Leadership Birmingham, and sponsored by Alabama Power.

Chuck Holmes, AHA executive director

As AHA’s executive director Chuck Holmes shared at the start of the evening: “We’re going to learn more about Kurt tonight, but more importantly, we’re going to learn more about ourselves, and how we cope and how we process things in our lives and in the life of our nation.”

One of the most important takeaways came when Gray described how to try entering into conversation with someone who might have fundamentally different opinions than yours.

“Facts matter, but they’re not the best way to start a conversation,” Gray said. “You’re not starting an argument to win. You’re starting a conversation to understand someone. And when you approach it that way, storytelling — not facts — is a much more powerful way of bridging divides. Start with your personal experiences.”

So, how do we start difficult conversations, especially ones that might involve thorny topics?

Author Kurt Gray

“Talk with someone like they’re a full person,” Gray emphasized. “Nobody is just one thing. We all contain multitudes. So, start with something real that doesn’t have anything to do with politics. None of us like being talked at. People like being asked real questions.”

After Gray’s talk, he signed copies of his book, Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics – and How to Find Common Ground. The book-signing was courtesy of Thank You Books, and signed copies of the book are now available at the Birmingham bookseller.

 

Healing History

For those interested in other opportunities for coming together in conversation and exploration, check out AHA’s Healing History initiative. This collaborative effort helps Alabamians examine our shared histories in order to better know, and understand, one another.

On August 25, nearly 60 people arrived early to Red Mountain Theatre, to participate in Past Forward, a participatory introduction to AHA’s Healing History initiative. This experience offers a chance to explore, and reflect upon, our shared history — and consider how decisions made in the past affect our lives, livelihoods, relationships, and communities today.

Register for upcoming Healing History opportunities below, and learn more at alabamahumanities.org/healing-history.

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning, impactful storytelling, and civic engagement. We believe the humanities can bring Alabamians together and help us better understand the communities we call home.

 

Lead image, at top, by Bob Farley. 

Echoes of the Forks of Cypress

“This is where your people were held, by mine.”
-Curtis Flowers, great-great-great-grandaughter of Sarah and James Jackson, owners of the Forks of Cypress plantation, speaking with Black descendants of those enslaved at the site

So begins one of the opening lines of Echoes of the Forks of Cypress, a powerful documentary that follows the journey of Black and White descendants of the iconic North Alabama plantation, as they reckon with their shared past to bring about healing and community in the present.

The film, which was funded in part by the Alabama Humanities Alliance’s Healing History initiative, had its Alabama premiere on August 12, 2025, at the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library. Around 125 people attended the debut, far exceeding the library’s viewing area for the screening. Chairs were hauled from all corners of the library, and some people sat with obstructed views, or no views at all — demonstrating the local appetite for history, genealogy, and community-building.

As noted by Laura Anderson, AHA’s director of partnerships and outcomes, the project embodies the ideals of AHA’s Healing History initiative: “When we started this effort two years ago, we didn’t really want to define all that is “Healing History” because we wanted people around Alabama to come together and define that for themselves and their communities, and then come to us for support.”

And that’s exactly how AHA’s funding for Echoes of the Forks of Cypress came about.

Filmmaker Frederick Murphy, founder, History Before Us

Brian Murphy, director of Florence Arts & Museums — a frequent AHA partner and grant recipient — told Anderson about a Southern filmmaker who had recently discovered that some of his ancestors were once enslaved at the Forks of Cypress. The filmmaker was working with one of the White descendants of the Jackson plantation at the Forks to research his line there, as much as possible. He also had an idea to bring White and Black descendants together with a goal: To reimagine the plantation and its cemetery as spaces for remembrance and reflection — to have challenging conversations and acknowledge the site’s painful legacy, but also to cultivate new paths forward for healing and understanding with one another.

That filmmaker was Frederick Murphy, founder of History Before Us, a production company focused on capturing, preserving, and advocating for influential history. AHA supported Murphy’s vision with a Healing History grant, making the production of Echoes possible.

One of Muprhy’s primary objectives for the project was to help other Black descendants trace their own family lines that ran through the Forks of Cypress.

“Genealogy for people of African descent can be challenging due to gaps and erasures in historical records,” Murphy says. “Collaboration between descendant communities on all sides, paired with shared knowledge and persistence, helps restore lost connections and reclaim ancestral legacies.”

Over the past year and a half, Murphy’s work has brought together folks from across Florence and the Shoals — and far beyond — connecting descendants.

Descendants of the Forks of Cypress pose for a photo together

The work also pulled in many other Shoals residents interested in learning more about the iconic site’s full history and how learning about that past can strengthen the region’s present. Allies joined in: The Alabama Historical Commission, Florence Arts and Museums, Florence-Lauderdale Public Library, and community historians, archivists, and genealogists from local churches, historical societies, and more.

“This project,” Murphy says, “was about showing that people can work together and do something that is emotionally charged — that can make us angry but can also bring us joy and happiness — and, more importantly, it hones in on what I center my life around, and that is our shared humanity.”

 

Going beyond the film

Following the film’s screening, Murphy and Anderson led a wide-ranging community conversation in the Florence library. Descendants answered questions from the audience, and from each other. And audience members shared ideas that the film had inspired in them, including ways to connect the Forks work with other citizen-led, community projects: genealogy workshops, cemetery preservation, oral history projects, books, new mapping efforts, and more.

Community members also shared their personal responses to the film.

One woman, Andrea Blackstone, had come all the way from Virginia after learning she had enslaved ancestors at the Forks. She told Murphy that he “did something for me, with this film, that I’ve waited for most of my life.” She was there with her son, who was celebrating his 12th birthday, documenting the evening with photos aplenty on his new camera. “You have also reinforced that we need to keep doing this work because we all need to know where we come from. This is the day that I get to say I understand me a little better.”

Another woman, a lifelong resident of the Shoals, shared how the film and conversation made her aware of this local history for the first time in her life: “I’ve lived around the Forks of Cypress forever and I didn’t know all this. To see your faces, to hear your stories, to meet you — it’s so powerful. It’s moving and at the same time, I wish I had known this so much sooner. Thank you. That’s what I want to say. Thank you. This has changed me.”

Murphy is planning more screenings of Echoes in Alabama and across the South, before the film heads to a streaming platform for wider release. You can watch a trailer of the film here. 

You can also read a deeper dive about Echoes of the Forks of Cypress in AHA’s 2024 issue of Mosaic magazine.

 

About AHA’s Healing History initiative

This collaborative initiative is designed to strengthen our communities, workforces, and state by helping Alabamians examine their shared history and get to know each other better. Across race, religion, politics, and all the supposed dividing lines that shouldn’t keep us apart. The aim is to build trust, foster empathy, and grow community through mutually respectful discussions about our shared past, present, and future. AHA is grateful to the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham for its significant support for this initiative.

See below for more on ways to engage with Healing History. You can also learn more at alabamahumanities.org/healing-history. 

Past Forward: AHA offers Past Forward as a participatory introduction to Healing History. This experience offers a chance to explore, and reflect upon, our shared history — and consider how decisions made in the past affect our lives, livelihoods, relationships, and communities today.

Upcoming Past Forward opportunities:

Woven Together: Woven Together is a series presented by the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, Leadership Birmingham, and the Alabama Humanities Alliance. Our next event will take place on August 25, at Birmingham’s Red Mountain Theatre: Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics — and How to Find Common Ground. 

The event features author and social psychologist Kurt Gray, who will unpack the science behind our outrage and reveal how empathy, not division, can drive real dialogue. You’ll discover why we’re more alike than we think, and how understanding our emotions can bridge even the deepest divides — no matter where we reside on the political, religious, or geographical spectrums.

Tickets are $10 and you can purchase them here. 

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning, impactful storytelling, and civic engagement. We believe the humanities can bring Alabamians together and help us better understand the communities we call home.

 

*Our thanks to the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library for the photos used in this story. 

AHA’s 2025 grantmaking

Through the first half of 2025, the Alabama Humanities Alliance has awarded 14 grants across Alabama, totaling nearly $32,000 in support of locally created, humanities-rich public programming.

Projects funded include childhood literacy programs, oral history projects, civics education, literary festivals, documentary films, and explorations of Alabama art, music, and folklife. Grant recipients hail from Huntsville to Monroeville, Dothan to Anniston, and many points in between.

See below for examples of AHA-funded projects thus far in 2025.

 

Less funding for the humanities in Alabama

As happy as AHA is to have funded these projects, the organization’s overall grantmaking capacity is down significantly this year. For comparison, at midyear 2024 and 2023, AHA had already awarded $157,351 and $206,996, respectively, to Alabama nonprofits, colleges, and state and local agencies.

The reason?

On April 2, 2025, the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency terminated AHA’s 50-year partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities — and, with it, two-thirds of AHA’s annual budget. For more than half a century, AHA had used federal dollars appropriated by a bipartisan Congress to support annual grantmaking — $13 million to local communities statewide since 1974.

This year, however, AHA had to fully suspend its grantmaking for two months, as it sought to stay viable and find alternative sources of funding for its grants, programs, and operations.

On May 19, AHA announced it was bringing back its monthly Mini Grants, which offer up to $2,500 each. AHA’s Major Grants (up to $10,000 each) and Media Grants (up to $15,000 each) remain on hold.

This restoration of Mini Grants was made possible thanks to the generous support of individuals, corporations, and foundations, including major gifts from Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. and from the Federation of State Humanities Councils with support from the Mellon Foundation.

“We were pleased to resume this support that helps thousands of Alabamians come together as they engage with the humanities in their own communities,” says Chuck Holmes, AHA’s executive director. “We missed offering these grants as much as our local partners missed the support.”

Indeed, in 2024, 90% of AHA’s grant recipients reported that their public programs and events would not have been possible without funding provided by the Alabama Humanities Alliance. Over the past five years, AHA has received 607 grant applications — $5.9 million in total requests.

“We’re acutely aware that there’s a host of local nonprofits, universities, and state and local agencies out there who rely on us,” Holmes says. “So, while we’re thankful to once again offer our Mini Grants, we know the need goes beyond that. And the reality is that we don’t know what our ability will be to serve Alabamians in 2026, and beyond.”

Discover how to help ensure AHA’s future at alabamahumanities.org/our-future.

 

2025 AHA-funded project examples, so far:

Alabama Coal Miners Digital Archive
The University of Alabama | Tuscaloosa

This project gives Alabama coal miners the chance to share their memories — and artifacts — as part of a project to preserve our state’s coal mining history. Organized by the University of Alabama’s Department of History, this project will also give miners the chance to scan, and preserve, artifacts like photos, letters, mining lamps, helmets, lunch buckets, and more.

Alabama Folk Podcast, Season Four
Alabama Folklife Association | Statewide
Alabama Folk explores Alabama’s many cultures and traditions and engages statewide audiences in Alabama folklife. The podcast features deep interviews with Alabama artists who carry on traditions passed down through the generations or shared in community. Season Four showcases artists diverse in experience, artform, and geography.

Civic Tapestry: Weaving History into Public Life
Troy University | Troy
Presented by Troy University’s Office of Civic Engagement, this public series seeks to provide an opportunity for local youth to better understand the critical role of history in public life — by exploring local and civil rights history through an intergenerational oral history initiative and visit to The Legacy Museum.

Deep Roots, Strong Souls: Anniston’s Black Heritage Documentary
Public Library of Anniston-Calhoun County | Anniston
The history of Anniston runs deep, but often overlooked is the contribution of Black residents to the growth of Anniston. The goal of this project is to use the library’s resources (phots, oral histories, research materials) to create a documentary that richly tells this local story, to be shown at the library during Black History Month, and beyond.

Monroeville Literary Festival
Monroe County Heritage Museum | Monroeville
The Monroeville Literary Festival is a two-day event that hosts visitors from across the state, and beyond, attend not only to meet authors and hear their stories, but also for the real Monroeville experience of walking in the footsteps of Monroeville’s celebrated authors. Visitors attend lectures, book reviews, workshops, and book signings.

Presenting Katherine Applegate
STAIR of Birmingham | Birmingham

Newberry Award-winning author Katherine Applegate visits Birmingham to speak with students at i3 Academy, Avondale Elementary, and Shades Cahaba Elementary. AHA funding provides hundreds of local students with signed copies of Applegate’s new picture book, ODDER, to foster a love for reading and learning, enhancing literacy in the process.

The Invisible Hand of Diplomacy: Shaping Our World
Global Ties Alabama | Huntsville
Celebrating 60 years of service, Global Ties Alabama partners with the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) to bring an engaging U.S. diplomatic exhibit to Alabama. The exhibit highlights key diplomatic moments, along with a complementary “Century of Service” presentation that delves into the personal (and often unheard) stories of diplomats — revealing the power of human connection in shaping our world.

Learn more about AHA’s current grantmaking opportunities at alabamahumanities.org/grants. 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning, impactful storytelling, and civic engagement. We believe the humanities can bring Alabamians together and help us better understand the communities we call home.

Stony the Road We Trod

Last Wednesday, educator Cynthia Jackson sat in a pew at Birmingham’s historic Bethel Baptist Church, speaking quietly with Rev. Carolyn McKinstry, D.Div., a beloved author and minister who, as a teenager, had survived the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing.

McKinstry had just spoken before a group of Alabama teachers, sharing about her childhood in Birmingham during the civil rights movement. Now, Jackson was talking directly with this inspiring foot soldier, a conversation swirling around Alabama’s past, present, and future.

“When my kids, my students, get to asking questions, how wonderful will it be when I can tell them, ‘well, I actually got to talk with Dr. Carolyn McKinstry, who survived the 16th Street Church bombing, and here’s what she told me,’” says Jackson, who teaches at W.F. Burns Middle School in Chambers County. “This is a living experience that I’ll be able to draw on when I’m back in the classroom. This is incredible.”

Stony the Road

Jackson was one of the educators participating in the Alabama Humanities Alliance’s summer field study, Stony the Road We Trod: Exploring Alabama’s Civil Rights Legacy. The immersive, residential experience enables Alabama K-12 teachers to visit sites of conscience, meet foot soldiers of the movement, and discover new resources and ideas for the classroom. Teachers selected for the workshop came from cities big and small — from Huntsville to Northport, Parrish to Opelika, and points in between.

View a photo album from Stony 2025.

 

Highlights of Stony 2025 included visits to:

 

Along the way, teachers visited archives to identify primary resources they could use in the classroom. On the final day of the residency, teachers even crafted potential new lesson plans and then presented them to each other for peer feedback.

“Stony the Road is a professional learning treasure for our state educators,” says W. Blake Busbin, Ph.D., Course of Study Administrator and Social Studies Education Specialist for the Alabama State Department of Education.

“The life-changing experiences it offers to its participants reveal the stories of people, places, and events that not only shaped local communities and Alabama but furthered America’s commitment to its 1776 promises contained in the Declaration of Independence,” Busbin notes. “The combination of content knowledge and pedagogy provided in the learning experience equips Alabama teachers to be leaders in teaching this integral history.”

Stony’s project director is Martha Bouyer, D.Min., an educator and civil rights scholar who was named an AHA Alabama Humanities Fellow in 2018. Dr. Bouyer has led various versions of Stony for AHA through the years, drawing on her experience as executive director of the Historic Bethel Baptist Church Community Restoration Fund.

“This kind of story-sharing is sort of the art of showing people why they should care about a thing,” Bouyer says. “That is where the humanities live, helping us to be in touch with the things that impact our lives.”

 

Bringing Stony back to the classroom

Teachers selected to participate in Stony received a stipend, professional development credits, and new resources for the classroom — including a half-dozen new books.

Participant Cynthia Jackson noted that each teacher received those books far in advance of the workshop, preparing her for what she’d see up close during Stony — and providing a rare chance to then speak with a few of those authors in person during the week.

Jackson even made a personal connection with scholar Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., a history professor and author who gave a presentation on expanding the stories of the civil rights movement. Dr. Jeffries wrote Bloody Lowndes, about the 1960s freedom movement in Alabama’s Black Belt.

“When I was reading his book, one of the names I saw jumped off the page,” Jackson says. “Dr. Jeffries had actually interviewed one of my relatives, who lives in Lowndes County. So, I had the chance to talk with Dr. Jeffries about that and to share stories with each other about our Lowndes County connections. Getting to interact with authors like that is wild. It’s such an invaluable part of this experience.”

Stony indeed dives deeply into Alabama’s civil rights legacy. The residency isn’t just a primer for newer teachers of this history. It’s also a boost for the most experienced of educators.

Kristina Godsey, of Parrish, Alabama, teaches at Fairfield High Preparatory School. She’s taught for 20 years and serves as her school’s social studies chair.

“I signed up for this because there’s always something new you can learn,” she says. “The more I immerse myself in something, the more I’m going to understand it. What we’re doing here makes civil rights history personal, human. And when you look at it that way, and can teach it that way, it really resonates.”

 

Making Stony 2025 possible

The Alabama Humanities Alliance has now presented Stony at least a half-dozen times. This year, the nonprofit and nonpartisan organization is more appreciative than ever for all who made the experience possible.

Back in April, the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency terminated AHA’s 50-year partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities — and, with it, two-thirds of our annual budget. For more than half a century, AHA had used federal dollars appropriated by a bipartisan Congress to support statewide grantmaking and programming such as Stony and AHA’s beloved Road Scholars Speakers Bureau.

“This spring, we feared we would have to cancel this unique opportunity for Alabama’s teachers,” says Chuck Holmes, AHA’s executive director. “Thankfully, we didn’t have to do that because of generous contributions from individuals and institutional donors statewide, who value Alabama’s history and Alabama’s educators. We are so grateful to them all for ensuring Stony could proceed.”

The Alabama Humanities Alliance still has a long way to go to find sustainable funding that will ensure its grantmaking and public programming continue beyond 2025. To support the future of Alabama Humanities, donate at alabamahumanities.org/support.

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning, impactful storytelling, and civic engagement. We believe the humanities can bring Alabamians together and help us better understand the communities we call home. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

Less outrage, more common ground

It’s easy to drum up outrage these days. Pick a topic. Pick a party. Pick an “other.”

What’s not as easy to do? Choosing empathy. Taking a beat and thinking about what drives our anger and fuels our divides.

Thankfully, author and social psychologist Kurt Gray has — and he’ll share his insights during an evening of dialogue and reflection on Monday, August 25, at Birmingham’s Red Mountain Theatre.

Gray will unpack the science behind our outrage and reveal how empathy, not division, can drive real dialogue. You’ll discover why we’re more alike than we think, and how understanding our emotions can bridge even the deepest divides — no matter where we reside on the political, religious, or geographical spectrums.

The Alabama Humanities Alliance is grateful to present this event, part of an ongoing Woven Together series presented in partnership with the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham and Leadership Birmingham.

Our friends from Thank You Books will also be on hand with copies of Gray’s book, Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics and How to Find Common Ground, available for purchase and signing. Our thanks to Alabama Power for their sponsorship.

Outraged: Why We Fight About Morality and Politics — and How to Find Common Ground
August 25, 2025 | 6 p.m.
Red Mountain Theatre | Birmingham
Tickets: $10 | woventogether.swell.gives

Note: See below for more info on a pre-event experience called Past Forward, which will take place before the Kurt Gray event, also at Red Mountain Theatre. 

 

About the speaker: Kurt Gray

Kurt Gray is an award-winning researcher and expert in how to study people’s deepest beliefs and why they matter. He’s the Weary Foundation Endowed Chair in the Social Psychology of Polarization and Misinformation, at Ohio State University. Gray also directs the Deepest Beliefs Lab and the Center for the Science of Moral Understanding at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

The key discovery from Gray’s research? He contends that beneath every heated argument lies a fundamental and shared concern about protecting someone or something from harm. The divide comes, he says, because we have different perceptions of what can be harmful and who might be harmed.

“A lot of past work argues that the morals of liberals and conservatives are so different. They have different minds and will never agree. That’s a really terrible place to be: ‘You’re from Mars and I’m from Venus – I guess we’ll always be aliens to each other,’ ” Gray says.

As a recent press release from Ohio State University shares: “Gray’s work challenges this idea and demonstrates that polarization is not rooted in fundamental difference; instead, it stems from moral disagreement and safety concerns common among all humans. People’s desire to protect themselves and their families drives political and other divisions, Gray explained.

“For example, on either side of the thorny national debate about gun control are people who feel threatened: some by the inability to defend themselves against violence without a gun, and some by gun violence itself. Recognizing this thread, he said, offers new possibilities for healing social rifts, as well as a hopeful perspective that is sorely needed.”

 

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PAST FORWARD: A pre-event experience

Before Kurt Gray’s talk, AHA will offer a free Past Forward experience, also at Red Mountain Theatre (3-5:30 p.m.). Past Forward is a participatory introduction to AHA’s Healing History initiative. 

Past Forward gives participants the chance to:

  • Learn how the past is still present in our lives today.
  • Discover the ways we’re connected, and affected, by our shared history.
  • Reflect on what you’ve learned, in conversation with each other.

NOTE: Past Forward requires separate registration from the Kurt Gray event.

 

About the Woven Together series

Woven Together features national and local experts who explore longstanding, systemic issues in our community and identify solutions to address these challenges. The goal of the learning series is to elevate big ideas, spark inspiring conversations, and drive transformational change in our region. Explore past Woven Together events atcfbham.org/events.

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning, impactful storytelling, and civic engagement. We believe the humanities can bring Alabamians together and help us better understand the communities we call home. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

About the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham
The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham is committed to improving quality of life in the Birmingham region by addressing community needs and supporting charitable organizations. We work every day to take on the fundamental issues that challenge the growth and success of the people in our communities, supporting those in need in our five-county region and supporting those who support others. Learn more at cfbham.org.

About Leadership Birmingham
Since 1982, Leadership Birmingham has united diverse cohorts of the region’s most engaged leaders to explore critical community issues and forge lasting relationships that shape Birmingham’s future. And we’re proud to continue our mission, educating and empowering community leaders to shape our city’s future for the better. Learn more at leadershipbirmingham.org.

The Smithsonian arrives in Alabama

On a warm summer evening in Sylacauga, Alabama, more than 200 residents gathered to celebrate a momentous occasion — the opening of SPARK! Places of Innovation, a Smithsonian traveling exhibit, right there in Sylacauga’s Isabel Anderson Comer Museum and Arts Center.

The evening of June 26 represented nearly a year of preparation for the Comer Museum. It also offered a unique opportunity for Sylacauga to come together as a community and consider their shared past and future.

“The Comer Museum had such a clear vision for hosting this exhibit,” says Laura Anderson, director of partnerships and outcomes for the Alabama Humanities Alliance. “They have gathered Sylacauga-area residents around the notion that innovation is at the heart of their community’s shared future — not imagining whether they will encourage innovation, but in how many ways.”

From now through spring 2026, SPARK! Places of Innovation will tour six towns across the state — Sylacauga, Dothan, Brewton, Uniontown, Athens, and Fort Payne. Each host venue will make the exhibit its own — complementing SPARK!’s national perspective with local programming and conversations that reflect their towns.

The idea is to explore the people, places, and ideas that have always ignited innovation in our rural communities — and inspire us all to consider how we can shape our communities moving forward.

SPARK! comes to Alabama courtesy of a longtime partnership between the Alabama Humanities Alliance (AHA) and the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street. The exhibit’s statewide tour is made possible thanks to the generous support of a pair of sponsors, Innovate Alabama and The Daniel Foundation of Alabama.

“At Innovate Alabama, we believe innovation isn’t limited to city centers or tech corridors — it’s rooted in every corner of our state, including rural communities,” says Cynthia Crutchfield, CEO of Innovate Alabama. “That’s why we’re proud to support SPARK! as it travels across Alabama, highlighting the creativity and problem-solving that have long shaped our state’s story. This exhibit reflects our mission to foster innovation and entrepreneurship statewide and shows what’s possible when we invest in local ideas and talent.”

Learn more about SPARK!: alabamahumanities.org/spark.

 

SPARK! 2025-2026 Tour Dates

 

SYLACAUGA: THROUGH JULY 19, 2025
Isabel Anderson Comer Museum & Arts Center

DOTHAN: Aug. 1-31, 2025
Landmark Park

BREWTON: Sept.23-Oct. 23, 2025
Brewton City Hall

UNIONTOWN: Nov. 11-Dec. 13, 2025
Renaissance Center (C.H.O.I.C.E. Uniontown)

ATHENS: Jan. 3-Feb. 10, 2026
Athens-Limestone County Public Library

FORT PAYNE: Feb. 20-March 25, 2026
Fort Payne Coal & Iron Building (Landmarks of DeKalb County)

As SPARK! tours the state, the Alabama Humanities Alliance will offer a public info session at each stop, promoting local humanities programming and grantmaking opportunities. In Sylacauga, AHA presents “Get the Scoop” on July 16 at the B.B. Comer Memorial Library.

 

SPARK!-inspired teacher workshop and community reception

AHA also offered a SPARK!-inspired teacher workshop in Sylacauga, June 24-25, presented in partnership with Design Alabama. More than 30 educators came from across Alabama to consider new ways to ignite their own students’ imaginations.

“One of the reasons this workshop was so fantastic is that it was community-centered, locally connected to the place where it was offered,” says LaVerne McDonald, an educator in Talladega County. “Sylacauga and its mill village are where I grew up. Six generations of my family over time sharecropped, worked at the mill, experienced the loss of the mill and the loss of community that comes with it, and continued to call this area home. Innovations highlighted in this workshop make me optimistic for the future of the community and its youth.”

Indeed, highlighting local community-building was core to the Comer Museum and Arts Center’s plan for hosting SPARK!. During the exhibit’s opening reception, attendees didn’t just view the Smithsonian traveling exhibit — they also got a tour of the town’s former Avondale Mill’s site to consider its past, present, and future.

For more than a century, the mill was central to The Marble City’s identity and economy. In 2006, Avondale closed its doors; five years later, a lightning strike burned down the deserted plants. Residents wondered if the town could survive the loss.

Today, the former Avondale Mills site is transforming into the home of the East Alabama Rural Innovation and Training Hub (EARTH). This transformative and innovative workforce development program, physically rooted in the town’s rich history, will help East Alabamians prepare for careers and industries that might not even exist yet.

“SPARK! is such a wonderful exhibit for us to host right now,” says Judy Green, director of the Comer Museum and Arts Center. “Everyone who came to SPARK!’s opening reception got to tour the new site and see 3-D renderings of what could rise from the ashes there. This is an exciting time and SPARK! helps us all continue to consider new ideas and solutions for our shared future here in Sylacauga.”

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About the AHA-Smithsonian partnership
Since 1997, the Alabama Humanities Alliance has brought more than a dozen Smithsonian traveling exhibits to smaller towns statewide — nearly 70 communities, and counting. Alabamians who might never have the chance to visit Smithsonian museums in our nation’s capital are treated to museum-quality exhibits right here in their home communities. AHA works in partnership with the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street and Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. alabamahumanities.org/spark

About Innovate Alabama
Innovate Alabama is Alabama’s first statewide public-private partnership focused on entrepreneurship, technology, and innovation, with a mission to help innovators grow roots here in Alabama. Innovate Alabama was established to implement the initiatives and recommendations set forth in the Alabama Innovation Commission’s report, including smart policy solutions that will create a more resilient, inclusive, and robust economy to remain competitive in a 21st-century world. With founding CEO Cynthia Crutchfield leading the charge, Innovate Alabama includes a board of 11 innovation leaders appointed by Gov. Kay Ivey, collaborating across sectors to advance industries, drive technology, and facilitate an environment where innovation and entrepreneurship thrive. innovatealabama.org

About The Daniel Foundation of Alabama
The Daniel Foundation of Alabama’s mission is to strengthen communities within Alabama and improve the quality of life for citizens from all regions of Alabama. We believe this can be achieved through support of effective organizations that are focused on building a healthy and well-educated population, living in a vibrant community. danielfoundationofalabama.com

 

Alabama students compete at National History Day

The Alabama Humanities Alliance’s 2024-2025 Alabama History Day program came to a thrilling conclusion this week. More than 40 Alabama students competed against their peers from across the country at National History Day, held at the University of Maryland. These students created some of the most fascinating, history-rich projects this year, advancing from Alabama’s state contest in April.

“There may not be a more inspiring showcase of students’ brilliance and curiosity in this state,” says Idrissa N. Snider, Ph.D., program coordinator for the Alabama Humanities Alliance. “Alabama History Day brings hundreds of students together to share their passion for learning about our past. These students are more than historians, too. They are authors, artists, filmmakers, web designers, and dramatic performers who have the freedom to choose their topics and share their research in creative ways.”

Alabama History Day 2025 state contest photos

National History Day 2025 national contest photos

The Alabama Humanities Alliance puts on Alabama History Day each year, helping students statewide (grades 6-12) cultivate their curiosity, learn to do primary research, and become confident, lifelong learners. The program also gives Alabama teachers a dynamic — and year-long — project-learning tool that they can incorporate into their classrooms. Each year brings a new History Day theme; in 2025, that was “Rights and Responsibilities in History.”

School-level and regional competitions take place during the school year, then the program culminates in our statewide contest, held at Troy University’s Montgomery campus. There, students showcase their research as exhibits, papers, websites, documentaries, and performances — with first- and second-place winners eligible to advance to National History Day. Students compete in Junior (grades 6-8) and Senior (grades 9-12) divisions, in both individual and group categories.

Alabama History Day 2025: Meet This Year’s State Contest Winners 

National History Day 2025: Affiliate Winners (below)

A Capitol Visit

For Alabama students who advance to National History Day, the experience comes with the opportunity to visit Washington, D.C.. These memory-making visits to Capitol Hill give our students a chance to see the halls of our democracy up close — and to talk about their History Day projects with their members of Congress.

This year, dozens of students, teachers, and parents were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the U.S. Capitol building, led by staffers from Senator Katie Britt’s office. Senator Britt also spent quality time meeting with Alabama’s students, taking photos, and leading a round of applause for Alabama’s National History Day competitors.

Alabama members of the House of Representatives also took time out from their busy schedules — sometimes even stepping out of floor votes and committee meetings — to meet with students from their districts. This year, students had the chance to visit with U.S. Representative Barry Moore (AL-01), Rep. Shomari Figures (AL-02), Representative Dale Strong (AL-05), and Congressman Gary Palmer (AL-06).

“We are grateful to Alabama’s elected officials for making this experience memorable for our students, and talking with them about their History Day projects,” says Chuck Holmes, executive director of the Alabama Humanities Alliance. “In many ways, those meetings encapsulate what History Day is all about — learning about our nation’s history and being inspired to keep strengthening our nation’s democracy.”

This year’s D.C. day also involved some work for a pair of Alabama students. Lexington Bush and Jayde Robinson, of Mobile’s Murphy High School, were selected to present their exhibit at a “Smithsonian Showcase” at the National Museum of American History. Museum visitors had the chance to see these students’ work and ask questions about their research on “The Literary Legacy of African Americans During the Harlem Renaissance.”

“This was such a special opportunity for these two young ladies,” says Sarah Woltring, the girls’ teacher. “Having the chance to showcase their work in the museum representing American history is an inspiration for them as young learners.”

 

 

Alabama History Day 2026

The theme for Alabama/National History Day 2026 is set, and it is an apt one for the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence: “Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History.” 

All schools statewide are invited to participate and the Alabama Humanities Alliance offers school visits and trainings to help teachers learn how they can incorporate Alabama History Day into the classroom. AHA’s next public History Day workshop for teachers will be held September 12 in Huntsville, at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Learn more about Alabama History Day 2026.

The Alabama Humanities Alliance doesn’t do this alone, of course. AHA appreciates all the many, many event partners who make this possible, including our Special Award sponsors and volunteer judges who donate their time each year. And none of this is possible, of course, without the generous support of the state of Alabama, the Alabama Power Foundation, and individual donors year-round. To add your support with a donation today, visit alabamahumanities.org/support.

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance 
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning, impactful storytelling, and civic engagement. We believe the humanities can bring Alabamians together and help us better understand the communities we call home. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

AHA grants are back

May 19, 2025 — Six weeks after suspending its statewide grantmaking as a result of abrupt federal cuts, the Alabama Humanities Alliance is bringing back limited grant offerings.

Effective immediately, nonprofits across Alabama can once again apply for AHA’s Mini Grants, which offer up to $2,500 for humanities-rich public programming. Learn about these grants — and how to apply for them — at alabamahumanities.org/grants.

All AHA grantmaking was paused April 2, when the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) terminated AHA’s longstanding partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities — eliminating two-thirds of AHA’s annual funding.

Since then, an outpouring of support from individuals, corporations, and foundations has helped preserve the Alabama Humanities Alliance, including major gifts from Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. and from the Federation of State Humanities Councils with support from the Mellon Foundation. This support has now enabled AHA to bring back its Mini Grants.

“We are pleased to resume this support that helps thousands of Alabamians come together as they engage with the humanities in their own communities,” says Chuck Holmes, AHA’s executive director. “We have missed offering these grants as much as our local partners have missed the support. These grants illustrate what AHA is all about. We help Alabamians bring the past to life, explore our shared stories, and better understand this vibrant and complex state we all call home.”

It is AHA’s hope to offer Mini Grants for the rest of 2025, if donor support for the organization continues to sustain AHA’s capacity, Holmes says. AHA’s Major Grants (up to $10,000) and Media Grants (up to $15,000) remain paused. Those painful decisions reflect AHA’s still-tenuous financial situation. For decades, AHA has used federal dollars appropriated by a bipartisan Congress to support grantmaking across the state.

“As happy as we are to offer Mini Grants once again, the reality is that we don’t know what our ability will be to serve Alabamians in 2026, and beyond,” Holmes says. “Like many other organizations dedicated to history, civics, culture, and the arts, we need a hand right now to keep offering dynamic grantmaking and programming to Alabamians statewide.”

To support AHA today, donate at alabamahumanities.org/support.

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How to apply for a Mini Grant

Mini Grants are available on a rolling basis, with deadlines on the first of each month. Designed for flexibility, AHA’s Mini Grants feature a simplified and quicker application process to support a broad range of projects. And Mini Grant applications do not require cost share matches.

All applications submitted by June 1, 2025, will be considered in this first round of resumed grantmaking. Interested applicants are encouraged to read through AHA’s revised grant guidelines, which have been updated following the termination of our NEH partnership.

 

What can AHA’s Mini Grants help fund?

AHA’s Mini Grants can help fund anything from public history projects, literary festivals, and conferences to art talks, book clubs, traveling exhibits, podcasts, and much, much more.

For reference, a small sampling of AHA’s 2024 Mini Grant recipients includes:

AHA’s grantmaking represents an investment in the cultural fabric of our state — and in the economies of our local communities. In 2024, AHA awarded nearly $380,000 to nonprofits statewide, making local projects available to nearly a quarter-million Alabamians. And 90% of those grant recipients said their community programming would have been impossible without AHA’s support. Since AHA’s founding in 1974, the organization has supplied thousands of grants, totaling more than $13 million.

For full information on AHA’s Mini Grants, visit alabamahumanities.org/grants.

For the latest information on how you can support Alabama Humanities, visit alabamahumanities.org/our-future.

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning and impactful storytelling that lifts up our state. We believe the humanities can bring our communities together and help us all see each other as fully human. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

AHA receives emergency Mellon funding

April 29, 2025 — Today, the Mellon Foundation announced a $15 million emergency funding commitment to the Federation of State Humanities Councils in response to federal funding cuts that have devastated state humanities councils, including the Alabama Humanities Alliance here. This emergency funding will help provide up to support to all 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils across the United States.

AHA will receive an immediate $200,000 gift courtesy of the Federation of State Humanities Councils, with support from the Mellon Foundation. Plus, AHA has an opportunity to access an additional $50,000 in a “Humanities100” challenge grant. Any donations that AHA receives, starting today, will count as matching funds to unlock that additional support. Individuals, corporations, and foundations can donate to AHA now by visiting alabamahumanities.org/support.

“For more than 50 years, humanities councils have served as the backbone of American cultural life, connecting people through programs that illuminate, honor, and celebrate our shared history at the local level,” said Phillip Brian Harper, Mellon’s program director for higher learning. “The work of these councils touches every aspect of communities across our country. This grant ensures that these irreplaceable institutions can continue their mission.”

Mellon’s investment comes at a critical moment when $65 million in federal support for state humanities councils has been eliminated as a result of cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) — cuts enacted by the Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency.

On April 2, each humanities council nationwide, including AHA, received notice that all grant funding through the NEH had been cancelled, effective immediately — a local loss of $1.2 million here in Alabama. The loss represents two-thirds of AHA’s annual budget and has a trickle-down impact on AHA’s grantees and partners — local libraries, museums, historic sites, historical societies, colleges and universities, arts and culture organizations, literary and literacy groups, towns and chambers of commerce, and more statewide.

What does this emergency support mean for the Alabama Humanities Alliance?

“This generous donation from our friends at the Federation and the Mellon Foundation keeps the lights on here at AHA,” says Chuck Holmes, executive director of the Alabama Humanities Alliance. “Combined with donations from AHA’s supporters in all corners of the state, we can look at programming we might be able to reactivate this year, too.

“This investment isn’t a silver bullet for our long-term viability. But it does buy us precious time to continue advocating for the restoration of our federal funding, and to seek out new sources for sustainable, year-over-year operational support.”

This is not the first time the Mellon Foundation’s philanthropy has supported AHA’s efforts here in Alabama. Mellon’s other contributions include a recent grant to fund Democracy and the Informed Citizen, a podcast series produced by AHA.

That series explored community journalism in rural Alabama, and highlighted how citizen-produced newspapers can help build community, preserve local history, and strengthen our democracy. Project partners included Alabama A&M’s WJAB-FM, PACERS Rural Community News Network, Auburn University’s School of Communication and Journalism, the University of Alabama’s College of Communication and Information Sciences, Auburn University’s Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities, and the David Mathews Center for Civic Life.

 

Help AHA unlock the Humanities100 matching gift:

All new donations made to the Alabama Humanities Alliance will be generously matched 1:1 by the Federation of State Humanities Councils with support from the Mellon Foundation, up to $50,000. Donate today at alabamahumanities.org/support. 

 

About the Alabama Humanities Alliance
Founded in 1974, the nonprofit and nonpartisan Alabama Humanities Alliance serves as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Through our grantmaking and public programming, we promote lifelong learning and impactful storytelling that lifts up our state. We believe the humanities can bring our communities together and help us all see each other as fully human. Learn more at alabamahumanities.org.

About the Federation of State Humanities Councils
Founded in 1977, the Federation of State Humanities Councils (Federation) is the membership organization of the 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils. The Federation supports, connects, and amplifies the work and voices of our members, demonstrating councils’ value for communities and their collective impact on civic health and cultural vibrancy. The Federation envisions a fully resourced, inclusive, and thriving humanities council network.

About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. We believe that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty and empowerment that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and guided by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive.