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By Javacia Harris Bowser | The Birmingham Times
Birmingham residents gathered at the historic Carver Theater Saturday evening for an event centered on conversation, community and the power of storytelling.
The Community Playback, presented by StoryCorps’ Brightness in Black initiative, gave attendees the chance to listen to impactful and insightful interviews that sought to cultivate connection and challenge stereotypes. The evening was the culminating event of StoryCorps’ two-week visit to Birmingham.
StoryCorps is a national nonprofit that aims to record, preserve and share the stories of Americans from all backgrounds and beliefs. The recorded stories are permanently stored in the Library of Congress.
As part of the organization’s Mobile Tour across the Southeast, the StoryCorps Sprinter van — donated by Mercedes-Benz — anchored in Birmingham from June 28 to July 12. The StoryCorps team collected stories throughout the city and at various community events, including a Birmingham Barons game and LHUT Day at Sloss Furnace. The team also hosted a special luncheon for veterans.
“Birmingham was the very first city that I selected,” said Latojia Dawkins, the director of interview collection for StoryCorps. Dawkins shared that in previous years, the StoryCorps team has worked with National Public Radio (NPR) stations to collect stories.
“Certain communities didn’t always feel heard,” Dawkins said. “Whenever things go wrong, I always think about it as a way to shake up the energy and move in another direction.”
For this tour, she wanted to partner with individuals rooted in the community to ensure a variety of voices were amplified. She found the partner she needed in Shay Oden, founder of Rooted Impact Consulting LLC.
“Birmingham has so much to say, but it’s also been stifled throughout history, or our story has been changed to fit other people’s narratives, or to not hurt feelings,” Oden told The Birmingham Times in a previous interview. “This was so important, especially with me being a Birmingham transplant through two parents who were born and raised here, to showcase that we’re an amalgamation. We’re just as rich in culture as Ellis Island was when those immigrants crossed.”
Latojia Dawkens, Interview Collection Director of Brightness in Black, gives her opening remarks at the event. (Reginald Allen, For The Birmingham Times)Birmingham did not disappoint. The team collected 40 stories while in town and turned two of the conversations into video vignettes that were screened at Saturday’s event.
“Birmingham really, really showed up,” said Kelvin Phillips, program director for the Brightness in Black initiative. “And this is sort of our way of giving thanks to the community of Birmingham for showing the love, for showing the interest, for being passionate about your truth, your story, your history, and allowing us in to actually be part of that.”
Brightness in Black
Participants could choose between a traditional StoryCorps conversation or take part in one of three main initiatives: Brightness in Black, One Small Step and Military Voices. Brightness in Black aims to highlight the stories of Black Americans; One Small Step brings together two strangers with opposing political views and tries to bridge the gap; and the Military Voices Initiative honors all service members.
At Saturday’s event, the Brightness in Black initiative took center stage, showcasing stories of Black love, Black families, and Black excellence.
“The Brightness in Black model is all about telling stories that shift the narrative,” Phillips said. “A lot of times, the media shapes in ways that don’t exactly fully represent us. It represents us in a way that’s more negative — things like ‘Black families are broken.’ We try to find stories that counter that.”
Phillips described the Community Playback event as a “mini film festival.” The evening featured a screening of several conversations collected through the years and throughout the country. Challenging stereotypes about broken Black families, several stories showed Black fathers fiercely loving their children, and one vignette featured a Black couple who had been married for 83 years. The stories were both heartwarming and hilarious. Audience members audibly expressed how moved they were by the poignant and powerful stories but also laughed out loud throughout the night.
Two Birmingham-produced videos premiered Saturday night. For one of the curated conversations, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin interviewed Edward Bowser, deputy communications director for the Mayor’s Office, about both the power of storytelling and the importance and impact of mentorship. Bowser, who coauthored Woodfin’s memoir, Son of Birmingham, and previously worked in journalism, has also spent decades mentoring youth through church ministry and other programs.
In another Birmingham-focused feature, Anthony Williams, director of the Negro Southern League Museum, interviewed Michael Mays, son of baseball icon and Birmingham native Willie Mays.
“Willie Mays is such an icon to a generation before us, but I don’t think we here in Birmingham or the younger people who are baseball fans realized his impact, and I just wanted to bring that out,” Williams said of the interview. “And I just wanted to figure out what he meant not only as a cultural icon and an athlete, but what he was like as a person. How did his roots reflect in the way he lived his life on a day-to-day basis?”
Kelvin Phillips, Program Director of Brightness in Black, gives his opening remarks at Storycorps’ Brightness in Black tour Saturday, July 11, 2026, at the Carver Theatre. (Reginald Allen, For The Bitmingham Times)A Family Reunion
When Oden was asked what she hoped attendees would take from Saturday’s event, her answer was simple: “I was hoping that it would feel like a family reunion,” she said. “And that’s what it felt like. It felt like home. It felt like a homecoming.”
Before the video screenings, attendees mingled in the lobby, enjoying food, drinks and conversation. The night’s atmosphere made it clear that Oden’s mission was accomplished. Yes, people were embracing and chatting with friends they hadn’t seen in a while, but the evening also sparked meaningful conversations between those meeting for the first time.
Birmingham native, actor, and Grammy award-nominated R&B artist Ruben Studdard also attended the event, taking photos with fans at the opening reception and later joining Phillips on stage for a fireside chat during which he shared how his Birmingham roots — including his family, church, and teachers — have shaped him as an artist and a person.
The goal of Brightness in Black may be to counter negative stereotypes about the Black community, but the stories shared Saturday night did much more.
The stories were from different parts of the country and featured conversations between people of different age groups and yet proved how much we all have in common. Audience members could clearly relate to stories about food bringing family together and about Miss Devine, who made sure the neighborhood kids never missed Sunday school. Bowser, in his conversation with Mayor Woodfin, commented that though he’s from Portsmouth, Virginia, elements of his childhood — such as trips to “the candy lady” — mirror those of people born and raised in Birmingham.
It was connecting with others that made John Vereen, a nonprofit founder based in Birmingham but originally from Maryland, want to attend Saturday’s event.
“It’s witnessing the power of story and how through human connection and storytelling we’re able to heal and restore through commonality,” he said.
Phillips said true connection can happen when we “get off of digital and actually look at each other in the eyes.”
And he summed up the mission and vision of StoryCorps simply: “When we tell stories to each other, it makes us more human.”
To learn more about StoryCorps, visit storycorps.org.
