‘Giving voice’ to Birmingham writers

In the popular mind, poets are often stereotyped as idealistic, otherworldly types who live — and write — solely in a world of their own fantasies.

But not Birmingham poet Ashley M. Jones.

“My poetry is about real life,” Jones said. “I write about myself, my family, my God, my state, the country in which I live.”

One should not turn to her work for cheap comforts, either.

“I write the truth — there is no room, in my mind, for sugar coating or avoiding what some folks think is difficult,” she said. “If I have something to say about lynching, I’m writing about lynching. If I have something to say about love, I’m writing about love.” 

Jones is a young writer  — she’s only 30 — but is also very confident, not just in her work but in her very being.

“At the root of it all is a deep commitment to spirit and to authenticity — I listen for what it is I need to say, and I say that thing as Ashley M. Jones,” she said. “I am enough, in life and on page.”

Amen amen amen.

Jones is, indeed, very much enough. 

This is true in her work as a writer and editor, which is attracting increasing attention nationally, including a gig this spring as guest editor at Poetry magazine.

It is true in her role as a leader and organizer in the vibrant Birmingham literary community.

In celebration of National Poetry Month in April, Iron City Ink takes a closer look at Jones, her writing and some of her current projects.

We share her love for the Magic City.

We also celebrate her role in the writing community.

This includes serving as executive director of the annual Magic City Poetry Festival, an event she helped create.

The MCPF returns to Birmingham this month for the fourth year, albeit in a virtual form due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The event is a celebration of both local and national poets and writers and a chance to draw attention to the often undervalued writing scene in Birmingham.

“We have so much art and history and vibrant culture here in Birmingham, and it only makes sense that we celebrate National Poetry Month in a big way,” Jones told Iron City Ink in 2020.

“Birmingham’s writing community is a hidden gem” and it “deserves more attention,” prize-winning local poet Tina Mozelle Braziel told us in 2020.

'A BIRMINGHAM GIRL'

A native of Birmingham, Jones received an MFA in poetry from Florida International University in 2015 and has published two poetry collections with another on the way.

She won the 2018 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize and the 2019 Lucille Clifton Legacy Award.

Jones also teaches in the Creative Writing Department at the Alabama School of Fine Arts downtown.

She currently lives in Mountain Brook but is planning to move back to Birmingham.

“I’m a Birmingham girl forever…” she said. “That’s my city through and through.”

“Ashley is Birmingham -— she’s the poetry and the history and the beauty and the joy of it,” Birmingham writer and festival co-organizer Alina Stefanescu said. “She’s the Magic City in a long red dress with gold shoes and locally crafted earrings. I cannot think of another poet who speaks so intensely, gorgeously and generously for a community she loves and a place she has helped create.”

“It’s a gift to know her, learn from her, and exist in this space that sparkles when she touches a mic,”  Stefanescu said. 

DREAMING A FESTIVAL

A few years ago, Jones had a dream of beginning a festival like the MCPF in Birmingham.

The dream came to fruition beginning in about 2017.

Stefanescu was contacted by Kyle Dacuyan, former outreach coordinator for PEN, the famed international literary organization that fights for free speech.

PEN, in the process of seeking to broaden its national presence, was searching out possible projects here.

“We began our partnership via creating the Magic City Poetry Festival,” Jones said.

At press times, Jones and other festival organizers has begun to put together a schedule for the virtual programming for the 2021 MCPF.

Faylita Hicks is set to deliver the keynote remarks at the opening event of the festival on Saturday, April 3, the MLK Day of Remembrance.

There will be a LastThursday open mic with bhamstands via Zoom on April 29 at 6 p.m.

The MCPF is also partnering with Hoover Library to present a Healing Workshop with 2020-21 Magic City Poetry Festival Eco-Poetry Fellow, Salaam Green, on April 27.

PEN serves as a co-sponsor of the festival.

‘GIVING VOICE’

Birmingham writer Laura Secord, who is also a MCPF organizer, praises Jones for her leadership in the local literary scene.

“Her vision to create (the MCPF)  is giving voice to local artists and showcasing the great talent our community possesses,” Secord said

Jones’s own writing contributes to that showcase, as well, she said.

“Her writing tells her story and our own, as she brings national attention to our city and state, creating poetry with the honesty, magic and form to open hearts and minds,” Secord said.

“Ashley has created a brave space for poets and writers in the Magic City,” Green said.

Jones is also the co-director — along with Stefanescu — of PEN Birmingham. 

Jones and Stefanescu formed PEN Birmingham in 2019 when PEN picked the Magic City as one of only six locations in America where it would create regional chapters.

Jones has made a major contribution to the local writing community by helping to start the MCPF and the local PEN chapter.

“Having both community efforts has brought programming into the Magic City surrounding art and writing that we haven’t seen before,” Green said. 

Braziel said that Jones provides the community with “zest… and organization.”

“Ashley loves poetry,” Braziel said. “Her love for it and her fellow poets radiates through the labor she puts into our writing community and the enthusiasm she brings to every event.”

MAKING THE BIG TIME

At press time, Jones is in the midst of one of most prestigious gigs so far — guest editor of Poetry magazine.

Poetry — one of the world’s leading literary journals — has been published in Chicago since 1912. It is now published by the Poetry Foundation.

Jones almost didn’t apply for the job.

“I thought, ‘They’re not going to hire me, it’s not even worth my time,’ but right at the deadline, something told me to just try,” she said. “Many interviews later, I was hired as the very first guest editor.

“I’m excited and nervous and nauseous and thrilled,” Jones said. “It’s a big deal to be published by that magazine, and daunting to be able to edit three issues.”

The gig at Poetry is also a chance for Jones to show her worth to those who perhaps undervalued her.

“There were people along my journey as a writer who doubted my abilities — maybe because I’m Black, because I’m Southern, because I write political poetry, but here I am, and I’m not taking the opportunity lightly.”

She can also use that opportunity to stand up for other people she cares about.

“I have to show up for Black people, for Alabama, for all of us who have felt outside of the so-called canon or the so-called literary elite,” Jones said. “There’s room for all of us, and that room can be made by those of us who choose to use any ‘foot in the door’ to actually tear the doorway down.” 

“I’m really excited to be able to bring a different perspective to the magazine, which is historic and long-standing, but which is also doing a self-audit for inclusion,” Jones said. “I’m hoping that my three issues and related content represent my desire to destroy any oppressive or hierarchical structures that remain in the literary landscape.”

“Ashley being selected as guest editor for Poetry magazine is a major accomplishment that I am excited about because of the new voices we’ll get to read because of her unique and honest approach to writing,” said Shaunteka LaTrese Curry, a Birmingham artist, activist and MCPF board member.

“Poetry is the most prestigious poetry magazine in the nation,” Braziel said. “It is a feather in the cap of not just the Birmingham writing community but the entire southern region to have Ashley representing us.”

PROJECTS FOR 2021

Jones said she loves her job teaching at Alabama School of Fine Arts, where she’s worked for almost six years and which she attended from the seventh through the 12th grades.

“Being a teacher is one of the greatest joys of my life, truly, and working with these talented and vibrant students at ASFA makes it even more joyous,” she said.

“And their work -— I am impressed, daily, with the way these students’ minds work,” Jones said.

Jones and the other MCPF organizers also hope to continue producing programming virtually throughout 2021, Jones said.

Programming partners will include PEN Birmingham and the Alabama Writers’ Cooperative, she said.

“We won’t do anything in person until 2022,” Jones said, citing the lingering dangers of COVID-19.

Jones is continuing her own writing, as well.

Her new book “Reparations Now!” will be published this year by Hub City Press.

“It’s about all kinds of reparations,” Jones said. “Those owed to us by the U.S. government, by white supremacy, and even those owed to us by the people in our lives who take things from us.”

And Jones will continue to work in an intimate, deeply affecting way.

“Her writing is so personal,” Green said. “Ashley invites readers into her world and writes from her whole self. It is enamored with her experiences, life lessons, visions, and helps others see themselves in the light of her words.”

Jones will also write however and whatever she wants, rejecting any labels or structures that get in her way.

“I write in all forms — traditional and nontraditional, and I try not to limit myself in any way, creatively,” she said.

And she loves making art.

“It is the best way I can communicate with the world,” she said. “In fact, you’d probably learn more about me by reading my books than sitting across from me. I’m really putting my whole self on that page.”

For updates on events in the Magic City Poetry Festival, go to magiccitypoetryfestival.org.