Members of the Tuscaloosa community are surrounded by history. But in our day-to-day activities, we tend to take that history for granted or, more often, ignore it. That’s about to change.
On Saturday, Nov. 12, the Slash Pine interns will host “Slash Stitch Burn,” a guided tour of historic landmarks in Tuscaloosa with a literary focus. As participants visit these places, they will listen to readings, informing their minds and their imaginations about the space around them.
“Slash Pine has a group of 11 interns with an idea to engage the community with the history of Tuscaloosa,” said Luke Southworth, a Slash Pine mentor and MFA at the University. “They’re playing with the idea of how malleable history can be.”
Applied to history, malleability may seem like a weird concept. After all, it’s history. But Slash Pine interns believe a location’s history changes as people perceive it differently. And that process is facilitated by spoken words.
“Listening to a piece of writing can change the way we look at a place,” said Emma Fick, a Slash Pine intern and junior majoring in English. “It forces new associations and disassociations upon us.”
Beginning at 11 a.m. on Saturday, participants will have a chance to hear Tuscaloosa’s rewritten history. Slash Stitch Burn will kick off at the Drish Mansion with a reception and reading expected to last until noon.
From there, attendees will choose one of two tours. The campus tour will start at the Kilgore House, and the downtown tour will start at the Old Tavern Museum. Both tours begin at 2 p.m., and those attending are responsible for their transportation to the starting locations.
The two tours offer different routes through Tuscaloosa’s history. Those on the campus route will romp to Gorgas Library, the mound, the Walk of Champions and the Alabama apartments on Reed Street. Downtowners will visit the old jail, Tuscaloosa Library Bindery, old DCH and the Bama Theatre. Both routes culminate at the new courthouse.
As walkers’ eyes feast on old sights, readers will nourish their minds with new words. Consisting of MFAs, professors, creative writers and visiting poets from Knox College, the readers are charged with telling stories at the stops of each tour. This may be a small task for those involved with the University. But it’s a tall order for people unfamiliar with the town.
“You get a radically different view from people who just know Tuscaloosa through Wikipedia or hearsay,” said Ryan McHale, a Slash Pine intern and senior majoring in English. “But that imagined history is a new version no one’s ever seen before.”
Emily Oliver, a post-baccalaureate fellow majoring in creative writing at Knox College, will be imagining her own Tuscaloosa history. Originally from New England, Oliver has a limited experience with the city. Nonetheless, she contends that after a 12-hour car ride she’ll be up to the task of inventing a history.
“You have to imagine a personal history rather than a purely factual account,” Oliver said. “I think it takes a weird type of instant empathy.”
Following the walking tour, there will be a hiatus before attendees meet at Sokol Park at 7:30pm. There, another reading will accompany a bonfire and s’mores.
“We wanted to play with the idea of light and dark,” Southworth said. “We hope the darkness changes peoples’ perception.”
With stories old and new, Slash Stitch Burn’s organizers hope attendees will experience Tuscaloosa’s history in a fresh way.
“Fact and fiction will be woven together into a ‘patchwork history’ of sorts,” Fick said. “Writers will play with ideas of history and the stories we tell to make sense of our past.”
If You Go
What: Slash Stitch Burn, a guided tour of Tuscaloosa landmarks
Where: Drish Mansion
When: Saturday at 11 a.m.
