1 hour ago
1
By Javacia Harris Bowser | The Birmingham Times
In December of 2023, Salaam Green made local and literary history as she became the first poet laureate for the City of Birmingham. Green’s tenure began in January of 2024 and wraps up at the end of 2026. As Create Birmingham, in partnership with the City of Birmingham, begins accepting applications for the next writer to fill the role, the Birmingham Times spoke with Green to reflect on her time as the city’s inaugural poet laureate.
Trust and Believe
Green almost didn’t apply for the Birmingham poet laureate position.
“I put my application in probably an hour before it was time to be submitted,” she shared. With the Magic City filled with so many poets and spoken word artists, she doubted her chances. But friends familiar with her work — not just on the page but also in the community — encouraged her to go for it.
“So towards the end, I filled the application out hurriedly,” Green said. “I thought about how important it was that I, as a Black woman who is aging with wisdom, as a Black woman who has touched the city and the city has touched, why not just try and trust and believe.”
That belief paid off.
“What really stood out about Salaam’s application were the types of programs that she wanted to initiate as laureate,” said Viola Ratcliffe, Senior Director of Creative Enterprises at Create Birmingham. “Salaam builds community and connection not just through her poems, but also through her work, and that really came through in her application.”
In December of 2023, Salaam Green, second from right, made local and literary history when she was selected to become the inaugural poet laureate for the City of Birmingham. Viola Ratcliffe, of Create Birmingham, far right, says the program signals that Birmingham values the arts. (Provided)Community and Connection
In Birmingham and beyond, Green is as well known for her community work as she is for her poetry. For over 20 years she’s sought to use the arts to help communities and their people heal. Green is the founder and director of Literary Healing Arts, a Road Scholar for the Alabama Humanities Alliance and a certified trainer for the Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation.
She’s led “Write to Heal” workshops for individuals and organizations. She’s worked with the Magic City Poetry Festival, and she’s held residencies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Auburn University and The Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation.
For Green, the poet laureate position wasn’t an opportunity to launch her community work; it was a chance to expand it.
“Being poet laureate gave the community work I had been aligned with a larger platform and connected me to people and opportunities I may not have encountered otherwise,” Green told the Birmingham Times. “It strengthened my voice as a writer, educator, facilitator, and community artist.”
Green said the poet laureate position showed her she doesn’t need to separate her creative work and her community work.
“Birmingham gave me the opportunity to more authentically develop and merge the wholeness of my creative work and to understand that my poetry has a place in the public life of a city,” she said.
Poetry and Partnerships
Green’s three years as Birmingham’s first poet laureate (her two-year term was extended by a year) have been busy. She’s written original poetry for Birmingham. She’s led workshops and performed poetry at various events across the city.
“The most rewarding part of my tenure was getting to witness what happens when poetry is placed in the hands of a community,” Green said. “I’ve had the privilege of sitting, performing, supporting, and serving in one of the most influential cities in America. I’ve watched people who didn’t necessarily think of themselves as ‘poetry people’ use their own powerful voice to bring hope and change.”
This is why Green believes in the power of poetry and why she believes poetry is for the people.
“I believe poetry is a form of witnessing,” she said. “Sometimes the most powerful thing we can do is say, ‘I see you. I heard you. Your story matters.’ I know now I was that witness.”
Green said that her time as poet laureate has given her a deeper understanding of the city.
“The testimonies of Birmingham ring loud and proud,” she said. “Being poet laureate allowed me to listen to Birmingham in a deeper way to hear its histories and witness the future generations speak truth to power.”
In October, Green will launch “Lyrics for Life,” an anthology of poetry by Birmingham youth and adults. This project was made possible in part through the prestigious Poet Laureate Fellowship by the Academy of American Poets, which Green was awarded in 2025.
During her tenure, she also created the Summer Poet Fellow Program, which allowed selected poets to be paid to facilitate summer poetry programming at local libraries.
“One of the great accomplishments achieved during Salaam’s tenure is the amount of partnerships that were established,” Ratcliffe said. “We have a fantastic partnership with Birmingham Public Libraries, which blossomed as a result of the Poet Fellows program, an initiative of Salaam. Salaam has also partnered with different departments within the City of Birmingham, nonprofit organizations like Magic City Poetry Festival and Radical Reversal, along with regional and national arts organizations. These partnerships have given visibility to Birmingham’s poet laureate initiative, and it has created pathways for more economic opportunities for poets in our city.”
In 2025, Green also released her debut poetry collection “The Other Revival: Poems & Reckonings.” For this collection, Green interviewed descendants of enslaved people and the descendants of enslavers from the Wallace Plantation in Alabama. “The Other Revival” explores racial reconciliation in a new and inspiring way.
“The Other Revival is about restoring what history has overlooked,” Green has said in a previous interview about the book. “In a time when public memory is under threat, this book reminds us that the most vital archives live in people — in their voices, in their willingness to pass stories on.”
Salaam Green, the inaugural Poet Laureate of Birmingham, is photographed outside Nelson Brother’s Cafe in the historic 4th Ave District. (Reginald Allen, For The Birmingham Times)Answering Poetry’s Call
Green has been writing all her life, though she didn’t consider herself a poet until her adult years. A proud daughter of Alabama’s Black Belt, Green’s love for words was born in her native town of Greensboro.
“As a young child, I carried around a pink diary with a golden key most of my early years,” Green recalled. “I sat under the big oak tree in my front yard and would write.”
Many years later, after going through a divorce and being diagnosed with depression, Green joined a women’s writing class in Birmingham, and writing became her safe space once again.
“There I shared my writing really for the first time in a group, and many commented that it sounded like poetry,” Green said.
Before she realized it, Green was writing poetry, and she was writing to heal.
Once she got serious about poetry, she struggled with feeling behind, in part because she didn’t have a degree in creative writing, such as a Master of Fine Arts (MFA), that many lauded poets hold.
“I started my writing and community ventures in midlife,” Green shared. “I felt very late to the poetry game, and the poetry streets were and are very competitive and challenging to navigate.”
Green said she tried to fit in.
“For many years I hustled and pushed myself too hard attempting to fit into the poetry world that others had grown up in and had an early introduction to,” she said. “I didn’t give myself compassion and grace and thought an MFA would help me belong.”
But eventually, she decided she’d let her work speak for itself.
“Now I don’t seek outside validation, and I believe poets are born, made, and called to themselves and this world,” she said. “An MFA is great, and I respect all poets; it just wasn’t my call.”
In October, poet Salaam Green will launch “Lyrics for Life,” an anthology of poetry by Birmingham youth and adults. Green chats with The Altamont School student Sanvitha Chava. (Provided)Finding Courage
As her time as the voice of Birmingham comes to a close, Green, now 50, said she is looking forward to a time of “rest, reflection, and reclaiming my time” and perhaps even reinvention.
And as she reflects, the word that comes up most is courage.
“I am not usually courageous,” she said. “This position gave me many opportunities and important awards.”
Along with the Academy of American Poets fellowship, This Is Alabama recognized Green in its Women Who Shape the State awards program. Green also had the opportunity to speak at the Library of Congress.
“But more than anything, it made me courageous,” she said.
She found the courage to represent for herself and for her home.
“There probably is not anywhere in this city or state that I haven’t represented during this tenure,” she said. “I hope no Black, fat, aging, southern, rural, depression and domestic violence survivor, highly educated, gifted woman ever allows anyone to humble them. I am just who I think I am and so are you!”
Being a poet laureate one day wasn’t on Green’s bucket list.
“When I began [my work] I did not have inaugural Poet Laureate of the most influential city in the South on my checklist or goal sheet,” she said. ”I only wanted to support the voice of the people through writing and healing when I started, but God said, more…you are wonderfully and uniquely made.”
Salaam Green is photographed at Nelson Brother’s Cafe in the historic 4th Ave District. (Reginald Allen, For The Birmingham Times)Leaving a Legacy
Green proudly describes herself as a “Black woman poet from Greensboro, Alabama, who believes deeply in the power of the South, language, memory and community.”
And bringing the power of poetry to the community was what she wanted most from her time as poet laureate.
“I wanted poetry to be accessible to people who already loved poetry, but also to people who had never thought poetry was for them,” she said. “I wanted to bring poetry into community spaces and create opportunities for people to hear themselves, tell their stories, and understand that their words have value.”
Green said she’s proud of the relationships she built across Birmingham.
“The role allowed me to listen to elders, young people, artists, educators, faith communities, businesses, organizations, and people who are often left out of the cultural conversation,” she said. “Those relationships reminded me that a city’s story is not held in one place or by one group of people.”
Green said that most of all she hoped her time as poet laureate helped convey that poetry is not only something to be read and is not meant only for a chosen few.
“Poetry is something we live, and poets are integral parts of leading the civic engagement process,” she said. “It can help us remember, grieve, celebrate, tell the truth, and chart the path forward. That is the legacy I hope to leave behind in Birmingham.”
To learn more about Salaam Green’s work, visit salaamgreen.com.
