Madi V Writes

Rain since 2 a.m. until 6 p.m. there are little rivers forming in the drainage ditches, lakes in the potholes in the alley, and ponds in the patches of grass that are too saturated to hold another drop. Everything is grey and damp, except for Gilbert’s rain coat which is bright red and soaking wet.

I found another staircase hidden in the litter filled twig forest that borders the vacant lot on 4th Avenue today. The small trees and twigs are so densely populated that it took me a year of living here to catch a glimpse of the stair case they cover. I like to call this reclaiming of the land nature-punk.

There is something enchanting, haunting even, to see nature overtake man’s creation so intensely in a city that is still bustling with life. I’ve found four of these unusably overgrown stairways on 4th Avenue. Ivy lined entrances to nowhere at all, directly into tree trunks, or vacant lots I’ve claimed as a dog park.

Every time I see one I lose myself in a daydream wondering where and what they led to before. Back when there was still a cave in Avondale Park, when an elephant roamed these streets. Each step invites me to wonder what the city was then, what we will become.

This inclination to ponder Alabama’s past is undeniably tied to the novel I finished today, Moonrise Over New Jessup by Jamila Minnicks. The novel is set in Alabama the year is 1957 and we meet Alice Young. Alice flees her home town and racist landlord to find an all Black town called New Jessup.

In New Jessup the majority of the residents reject integration and embrace the community they have built in New Jessup. Alice falls in love with town and a man named Raymond, who is working with civil rights activists to help New Jessup gain municipality.

I had the ultimate joy of meeting Jamila Minnicks at Thank You Books in Birmingham, AL for a reading and Q&A. The audience was spellbound as she read the first chapter, almost entirely by memory. The novel is equally spellbinding. Comfortingly southern in prose and pacing.

You can read my full review of Moonrise Over New Jessup on Goodreads. Add me as a friend and let me know what you’re reading!