A Tale of Friendship and Tomato Sandwiches

By Marie Sutton
Illustrations by Lucy Madden-Lunsford

Never underestimate the power of a tomato sandwich. For the late, famed Southern storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham and renowned Alabama folk artist Charlie Lucas, that was the meal that set in motion a years-long treasured friendship, one that is a shining example of love, acceptance, and kindness. The tale of the duo’s famed tomato tryst—as well as anecdotes of them hunting for stories, metal scraps, and Christmas trees; fishing along sandy riverbanks; and performing hair-comb kazoo concerts—will be told to children of all ages for decades to come thanks to Kerry Madden, M.F.A, UAB assistant professor of creative writing.

Madden, a lauded storyteller herself, took on the charge of writing about Windham and Lucas’s friendship, collaborating with her artist daughter Lucy Madden-Lunsford to create the children’s tale.

“They knew how to see the world together with love and curiosity and with eyes wide open,” Madden says of the two. “They explored back roads and city streets together like kids in a world full of possibility of discovery without the anvil of adult expectation and duty.”



(From Nothing Fancy)

Windham, who died last year at 93, was a world-famous writer and master storyteller who penned nearly 30 books about everything from grits to ghosts. She captivated audiences with her colorful stories of life as a Southerner; many aired weekly on National Public Radio.

“When you listened to her stories, you felt like a kid again,” Madden says. “She made you remember what it was like to be a wide-eyed child listening to a story. She made you feel loved.”

Off the Beaten Path

Lucas, a former maintenance man, prayed to God to give him a talent like no one else’s. Those prayers were answered. He spends his days searching the earth for old, discarded junk like busted car mufflers, railroad spikes, and metal scraps and then fashions them into magnificent statues and works of art that are sought by art lovers around the world.

Although Windham and Lucas could have lived in big, fancy houses and gone about town touting their accomplishments, they chose to live humbly in a quiet Selma neighborhood in homes that sit side by side. At first glance, the two appeared mismatched: a petite white woman more than 30 years the senior of a tall, lanky black man. But their endearing simplicity and love for art and all things Southern made them twin souls.

“For so many reasons, it’s an honor to be publishing Nothing Fancy,” says Ashley Gordon, the founder of Mockingbird Publishing in Fairhope, Alabama. “Kerry and Lucy have captured beautifully the magic Kathryn engendered and the remarkable friendship she and Charlie enjoyed.”  This spring, through a creative grant from the UAB College of Arts and Sciences, Madden and her daughter will set out on a book tour of rural and urban libraries across the South. “Kathryn and Charlie always veered off the beaten path to find interesting stories,” Madden says. “I wanted the tour to reflect that sense of adventure, to discover places where kids might not get to meet an artist or author every day.”

Plus, Windham loved libraries, Madden says. The tour is a tribute to her. “She knew the library was the greatest place in Selma for children to go and learn to read and write and tell stories,” Madden says. In fact, all the proceeds from the book sales will go to the Selma-Dallas County Public Library, Windham’s favorite place.

“Kerry and Lucy will use the book as a foundation for writing and art workshops for children to be held in libraries around the state,” Gordon says. “I hope readers will recognize the importance of libraries, books, authors, and artists in our communities and the transformative power they represent.”

Madden had not planned to write a book about Windham and Lucas. It kind of just happened, she says. After assigning her children’s writing workshop students the task of writing a ‘friendship’ story, she decided to write a friendship story, too.

“I remembered how Charlie had made Kathryn a tomato sandwich, and I thought of the day I’d spent with them the previous spring, and I just started writing,” she says. As the story goes, Windham and Lucas, although both Alabama residents and seemingly cut from the same Southern cloth, had spent years on the cultural scene but had never met. It was in France, of all places, that the two crossed paths. They sat among artists and admirers at a fancy dinner when Windham mused that she would love to have a tomato sandwich. Lucas’s ears perked up. He’s a tomato sandwich kind of guy, too. He quickly got his hands on some tomatoes and bread, and together the two savored the sandwiches while also satisfying their appetites for down-home companionship.

Charlie told Kathryn about collecting junk. Kathryn told Charlie about catching stories. Then they were quiet, gazing at the plum sky of sparkling stars over France. 

The Storyteller’s Story

Writing their story wasn’t easy. “I’ve written more than 100 versions of the story,” Madden says. She even gave a copy of an early draft to Windham for review. Slowly, the tale came together. Lucas offered Madden moral support and assured her that she would do their story justice. “You’re going to do it, girl,” he told her. “You will.”

Madden’s own interest in writing surfaced in fourth grade when the teacher told her she was good at it. “Before that, I was simply the ‘nice, tall girl who listens well’ or the daughter who could ‘scrub a floor like nobody’s business.’

“I was relieved when a teacher told me I was good at something that I cared about,” Madden says. “I loved books more than a clean kitchen.”

Today, she is the author of several children’s books, including the Maggie Valley Trilogy. She also penned Up Close with Harper Lee, which made Booklist’s “Ten Biographies of 2009 for Youth.”

Madden teaches aspiring writers at UAB and often shares the lessons she learned from Windham and Lucas with them. But even with her own literary accomplishments, she was initially nervous about meeting a literary legend, she says.

But Madden’s fears were unfounded. When she went to Windham’s home, she was welcomed like an old friend. “I’ve been expecting you,” Windham told her, and she had the cornbread and sweet tea ready. “I felt like I had known her all my life,” Madden says. Later she introduced Madden to Lucas. “Their backyards were connected, and Lucas’s Trojan horse sculpture kissed Windham’s garden of tomatoes and sunflowers.

“Charlie is pure love,” Madden continues. “He has a giant heart, and he loved Kathryn.” When Windham passed away last June, Madden said her heart broke a little. “I’m never going to stop missing her or her voice and laughter,” she says. “She swept us all up in her tales and love. I wrote Nothing Fancy to thank her for her stories.”

A Hands-On Technology Lab

By Tyler Greer

Today's digital revolution is like the 1990s Information Highway on steroids. More than 1.5 billion people are now connected to the Internet via computers, not to mention more than 5 billion feature phones, 500 million smartphones, and 60 million tablets and e-readers globally—and those numbers climb daily.

These staggering data give new meaning to the term “digital literacy.” Fortunately, the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) is at the forefront of helping students and other members of the UAB community get ahead of the information curve through creation of the Digital Media Commons—a hands-on, open resource advance the university’s plugged-in faculty, staff, and students.

“Digital and media skills are as important as writing ability in today’s wired world, which is ultimately why the lab and classroom were created,” says Rosie O’Beirne, director of digital media and learning, a new CAS entity that includes the Digital Media Commons and a variety of digital initiatives that benefit faculty and students.

Student Collaboration

Thanks to support from CAS benefactors, full digital editing options are available at the DMC. Faculty, staff, and students can edit videos using Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere 6, and Avid Media Composer—all industry standards in documentary filmmaking and Hollywood studio productions.

“We have a full menu of multimedia applications unlike any other lab on campus,” O’Beirne says. “The lab’s combination of sophisticated applications makes it unique.”

Homewood native Colin Albea, a senior majoring in film and history who completed an internship at Duncan Scott Productions in Santa Monica, California, this past summer, vouches for the DMC’s advanced tools. “The lab has the necessary equipment to make students competitive in the job market,” Albea says. “A large part of my internship involved editing, and thankfully I was able to jump right in due to the experience I had gained at UAB with both Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro. I can say with certainty that the software and programs available in this lab prepare students for realworld jobs in the film and media world.”

The new media classroom, which is available for use by any media-based class on campus, bears little resemblance to the rigid teacher-student classrooms of old. Kevin Franks, a junior civil engineering major from Hayden, says the setup of the open-resource lab and classroom encourages students to work together. “All of the classes we take in this area are interdisciplinary and so hands-on,” Franks says. “You really do need people around to help you. This environment makes it so much easier on the students for that experiential learning. It makes sharing with one another so much easier.”

DIGITAL MEDIA COMMONS

• Heritage Hall rooms 342 and 334, open-access resource lab for faculty, staff, students

• 20 fully loaded multimedia Mac stations

• Latest editing software, including Avid, Final Cut X, Adobe Suite 6

• Collaborative breakout room with five-person Mediascape, Skype, virtual conferencing, voiceover and storytelling recording booth

• Staffed equipment room

• HD cameras and other digital tools

• Media classroom

• Laptops loaded with media applications

• Rechargeable laptop cart

• Four Mediascape stations for collaborative learning

• Flexible and collaborative design that redefines student-teacher interaction

A Compelling Story Sells It

By Caperton Gillett

Selling a product is one thing—but how do you market a region in need of revival? If you're a graphic designer, like UAB assistant professor Doug Barrett, M.F.A., you approach it like any other commodity: Talk to the client, develop a true understanding of the product, and perhaps most important, find the story that will sell it.

That's what Barrett did as a graduate student at the University of Florida, when he worked with Mayan villagers in Mexico to help them develop a sustainable economy around local honey and orange juice. And that's what he's now teaching his students to do for Bibb County, Alabama—tour the area, meet the people, and discover the unique qualities that can help revive an economically struggling county—with the help of well-designed brochures, signage, and marketing collateral.

AIGA, the professional organization for graphic designers in the U.S., calls it "Design for Good." Barrett calls it an independent study class, which is by invitation only. Through this class, students come together to work in a student-run design studio called Bloom Studio, where they take the design process beyond the standard in-class curriculum, using what Barrett calls the "graphic design toolset" to solve social problems and benefit their community. The final result will be a tangible product for the client to put to use and the students to add to their portfolios.

The goal of their current project is to promote tourism in Bibb County—an effort that has involved weeks of research, numerous visits and interviews, and lots of questions. "Who is their audience? Who is their competition? And what does Bibb County have that we can leverage into something interesting people might want to come see?" Barrett says, characterizing Bibb County's assets and attractions as "the story behind the brand. What is the story, and how do we get the story out there?"

The class's project last fall was to create marketing material for the Cahaba River Society (CRS). Barrett's students designed a collection of three brochures—graduated in size and designed to nest artistically—promoting the river, including basic river excursions, canoeing safety, the Children Linking with the Environment Across the Nation (CLEAN) Program for children, and of course membership in the nonprofit CRS. They also designed a license plate benefiting the society that will be available for purchase next year. This work resulted in the award of a Sappi Ideas That Matter grant of $47,000 to create a book to tell the story of the CRS.

Networking

The students' work with the CRS led them to the Friends of the Cahaba, for whom they developed a Web site. One of those friends was Matthew Hartzell, Bibb County extension coordinator, who had an idea for the students' next client.

Barrett and his students worked in conjunction with the Alabama Innovation Engine (AL Engine), which is a collaboration between Auburn University and The University of Alabama that supports the AIGA's Design for Good initiative. "Our contact at Alabama Engine is Matt Leavell, who has done a ton of work finding those in need and those with the skills to help," Barrett says.

In touring Bibb County, talking with locals, and exploring local attractions, the UAB group discovered that the county's main draw dovetailed nicely with another project supported by the AL Engine: the development of a Cahaba Blueway, a watery trail with points of interest for canoers and kayakers that flows right through the center of Bibb County.

But the tourist attractions in Bibb County extend beyond riparian pursuits. Barrett and his students visited the Brierfield Ironworks, the West Blocton coke ovens, the Cahaba National Wildlife Refuge, and other dry-land destinations that could make up a full day's visit—if visitors know where to go. "Sometimes people think, 'Just highlight everything in Bibb County,' but that's kind of tough," Barrett says. "If you're just driving in, it's difficult to enjoy everything they have, and there isn't a lot of infrastructure." The solution? A collection of day trips to promote to tourists, based on attractions already available in the county, with signage and maps to direct visitors around the area.

Some of the most curious new tourists, Barrett says, were the students themselves, many of whom have lived in Jefferson County all their lives without visiting the Cahaba River or Bibb County. "It's an eye-opening experience and very worthwhile," he says. "The important thing is not just coming from the outside and trying to effect change, but also getting local people interested in effecting the change."

The students who choose to participate in this course come preloaded with an interest in the world around them. "They're interested in preserving natural beauty and preserving culture, whether that's outside the United States or in a small town in Bibb County," Barrett says. "They recognize the significance of culture, history, and community, and how important it is to preserve those things."

For those students, the end product is a better understanding of and appreciation for their community, a chance to use their developing skills in a real-world application, and a portfolio of completed work to take out into the world after graduation. "The students get really thrilled by it," Barrett says. "The power of this is that they're not just doing work in a class, in a vacuum. They actually get to meet the client, work with the client, and do real projects that end up getting produced. It's a real professional experience."

Branding A River

The Cahaba River has been recognized nationally and internationally for its biodiversity and has been named one of the 19 and 52 most important places to preserve in the next decade by the World Wildlife Fund and the Sierra Club, respectively. Barrett's students are working with the coordinators of the Cahaba Blueway Project and others to develop interest around the river and highlight resources that can help sustain the local economy. "It's interesting to think that we're trying to brand a river, with a logo and type palette and color palette—and that goes into things like signage along the take-outs and put-ins of the river, and T-shirts, and books and maps and wayfinding applications," Barrett says.