New Birmingham Public Library board will decide the future of library closures 
The Birmingham Public Library Board will swear in new board members Tuesday afternoon, making a majority of the appointees first-timers.
“There are nine board members, six of those nine members are new appointed members, and so it’s going to be in fresh blood. It’s new energy, and we all bring a different skill set to the table,” Jordan Davis said, who at 23 years old is one of the youngest members in recent history.
Another notable appointee is comedian Jermaine “Funnymaine” Johnson, who gained a following for his online videos on SEC football.
Over the last few years, the Birmingham Public Library has had its share of controversy. The library board hired an executive director, Floyd Council, in 2017 only to have him resign three years later after staff complaints.
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, libraries temporarily closed, the budget was cut in half and more than 150 employees were furloughed. Most of these workers returned by the end of that year.
Since then, the previous board president, Eunice Johnson Rogers, campaigned to close some of the library locations. Birmingham has more library branches than typical for a city of its size – that’s a legacy of having segregated libraries during the Jim Crow era. Today, some areas have three libraries within three miles of each other. Davis believes the libraries should remain open.
“Our public libraries are the only free and public spaces that we have for community members, and so they’re vital of the life of our community,” said Davis.
Davis said it’s a balancing act for libraries to serve their neighborhoods as well as be good stewards of taxpayer money.
There are four branches that could be closed: East Ensley, Ensley, North Avondale and Titusville.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story falsely reported that Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin had advocated for library branch closures.
YouTube agrees to pay Trump $24 million to settle lawsuit over Jan. 6 suspension
YouTube is the latest social media company to pay Trump tens of millions of dollars to resolve lawsuits brought before he returned to power. The money will fund a new ballroom at the White House.
From painting to producing: Birmingham DJ Andrea Really releases first album
Birmingham DJ Andrea Really wasn't always a music producer. She used to be a prolific painter. But when her art studio burned down in 2017, she pivoted careers. Really spoke with WBHM about that journey upon the release of her first album this summer, called Zeitgeist.
A year after Helene, a group of raft guides embarks on a river clean-up mission
A popular rafting river in the Appalachian mountains is still closed a year after Hurricane Helene, because there's just too much debris. Now, rafting guides have come together to help clean it up.
Lesotho’s Famo music: from shepherd songs to gang wars
In Lesotho, a style of traditional accordion music called Famo has become entangled with deadly gang rivalries. Once the soundtrack of shepherds and migrant workers, today it's linked to killings, government bans — and a fight over cultural identity.
Comic Cristela Alonzo grew up in fear of border patrol. ICE has ‘brought it all back’
For the first seven years of her life, Alonzo lived in an abandoned diner in a south Texas border town. Her new Netflix stand-up special is called Upper Classy.
Compass-Anywhere real estate merger could squeeze small brokerages
The deal, announced earlier this week, would combine the two largest U.S. residential brokerages by sales volume.
