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Beyond reciprocity:
My experience of life in Birmingham
I love Birmingham, and except for a short
time when my parents moved to Texas to
attend graduate school, this city has been
my home.
Birmingham is friendly. Birmingham
is five hours from the beach and five
hours from the mountains. Birmingham
has small-town charm with big city
resources. Birmingham has incredible
food, beautiful green spaces, world-class
medical care, and passionate and caring
people. It’s a great place to live.
I also love Birmingham-Southern
College. After my birth, I came home
from the hospital to a house on 9th
Court, which is now fraternity row.
My mother grew up in a house on 9th
Avenue, now Bruno Drive. During the
70s, I lived on campus on Greensboro
Road during my father’s service as
the college chaplain. My four years
as a student at BSC were deeply
transformative as my assumptions about
the world—and myself—were challenged
and my horizons broadened through
travel and service. When I returned to
the Hilltop in 1999 to work in service
learning, I moved with my young family
back onto Greensboro Road. For nearly
half my life, I’ve been a resident of this
beautiful community.
I’ve heard many say that Birmingham
is experiencing a renaissance, and there
is certainly a lot of evidence to suggest
that is true. Over the past several years,
we’ve seen the construction and opening
of Railroad Park and Regions Field,
restaurants and shops proliferating on
downtown streets, Zyp bikes appear, the
renovation of the beautiful Lyric Theatre,
and most recently, the opening of the
Rotary Trail. I can’t wait to shop at the
new downtown Publix and visit the new
18,000 square-foot food hall and bar
planned for the old Pizitz building. This
is a great time to live in Birmingham.
Have you ever heard the phrase “a
rising tide lifts all boats?” What if you
don’t have a boat? In that case, a rising
tide may be a not so-welcome threat.
Not all of Birmingham’s citizens are
able to enjoy these new developments.
In many ways, the social and political
system built by years of institutionalized
racism conspire to keep some from
realizing Birmingham’s full potential.
Defacto segregation in many of the
city’s schools and neighborhoods, a lack
of a regional vision and cooperation,
and inadequate public transportation
are just a few of the issues that remain
a challenge in the city. Even with all
the progress we’ve made as a society,
Birmingham residents tend to gravitate
to communities where people look, live,
and believe alike. Ironically, as the world
grows smaller and flatter, there are fewer
opportunities to interact with people
whose life experience differs from our
own. But when we fail to encounter
diverse perspectives and life experiences,
we develop blind spots and risk
marginalizing whole groups of people.
A critical part of the BSC educational
experience involves community
engagement, which is all about
encountering diverse perspectives. As
students, staff, and faculty meet and
interact with their neighbors here in
Birmingham’s West End, they begin
to notice the social and political
structures that have shaped this city. As
our students grow and develop their
own beliefs and values, their sense of
community grows to include these
neighbors who are often on the margins
of society—children living in poverty,
teens and adults struggling with mental
illness, the homeless, and the elderly.
In community engagement and
service-learning work, we use the term
“reciprocity” to describe campus-
community partnerships. A partnership
is most successful when it is mutual and
reciprocal, when all parties contribute
to the work and gain something
from the relationship. Reciprocity
is the core of BSC’s service-learning
program; the success of its community
engagement work locally, nationally,
and internationally is dependent on the
understanding that each of us, whether
in the mainstream or on the margins of
society, has something unique to offer
and something important to learn.
That’s why I’m encouraged by the
college’s alumni, many featured in this
issue, who not only celebrate the recent
renaissance in Birmingham, but also ask
tough questions about who is being left
out and how we can extend the promise
of development and opportunity to more
of our neighbors.
Kristin Harper is the director of the
Bunting Center for Engaged Study and
Community Action at BSC.
‘SOUTHERN VOICES
BY KRISTIN HARPER ’92