The Flourish means a lot of things to a lot of people throughout the city of Birmingham and beyond. The nonprofit was founded by Jahman Hill and Eric “EJ” Marable Jr., and includes a “Core 4” of Birminghamians with Janavian Young and Jada Dumas. Their organization hosts monthly poetry nights and monthly music events and has multiple programs with Birmingham schools to teach kids the craft that shaped the course of these two wordsmith’s lives. While every aspect of Flourish was dramatically altered during the pandemic, the organization continues to grow and has some exciting things planned for the future. The next event hosted by The Flourish will be High Tea at The Little London on March 13th, featuring Brint Story and Troy Massive.
It’s clear when talking to Jahman and Eric that they have an incredibly strong friendship, and it’s almost surprising to hear that they didn’t meet until a couple years into college at The University of Alabama in 2014. Eric had fun breaking down their intertwined stories into different sagas, with the first being the “friendship saga”, but even getting there would take a series of coincidences, hard work, and blessed timing.
The two met through Speech and Debate competitions, and would eventually be on the same team. That wasn’t the case when they first crossed paths as Jahman’s Hutchinson Community College took on Eric’s U of A and other top linguists around the nation in Tempe, Arizona “way back when the suits were wide”. Jahman, who was born in Rochester, New York before he moved with his family to Kansas around the age of 2, had been searching for colleges to play basketball at. He did Debate his senior year of high school, so he checked “Speech and Debate” as an interest of his own applications. One day, he got a call from Hutchinson offering a scholarship and jumped at the opportunity.
Eric, on the other hand, has been an Alabama resident since his earliest days. He grew up in the Birmingham city school system before moving eastward with his family and attending high school at Pinson Valley. He got into spoken word heavily after competing in “Word Up!” his Junior year, after he was encouraged to join the team and potentially receive college scholarships. “Langston Hughes was the voice,” he shares of his first inspiration, “Reading him was what made me want to write on the page when I was first starting out.” His first speech performance was centered around Donny Hathaway and his struggle with mental illness, schizophrenia, and the mind of a genius. “It just was an inevitable course,” Eric shares of how reading on the famous lyricist sparked his poetic journey, “for that I’ll always be grateful.”
Fast forward to Tempe, where Jahman is watching the finest teams in the nation compete for glory. His school hosted the annual tournament the year before, meaning Jahman had name recognition and was preparing to select his next school to speak and debate for. He didn’t want to attend the then-#1 ranked Western Kentucky as his mindset at the time was “I want to build something. I don’t want to be plug-and-play for some winners. I was on my Dame Lillard.”
The #2 and #3 schools, Bradley and George Mason, didn’t interest Jahman too much, and the #4 University of Texas at Austin wasn’t offering scholarships–but the nation’s 5th ranked Speech and Debate Team, The University of Alabama, impressed the rising student.
Jahman recalled two Alabama students, Thaddeus Fitzpatrick and Dexter Strong, going far in the tournament and thinking “Wow, the good black kids go to ‘Bama. And I thought that Alabama was just like–I’d seen the football team, I saw those two performers from Bama. I was like ‘This is the blackest school on the planet. It just has to be.’” He would soon find himself in Tuscaloosa, and reached out to fellow speech-enthusiast Eric to learn more about his new community.
“I just got to Tuscaloosa. Just figuring out what to do on a Friday night, and where the black people be at,” Jahman laughs while reading the first Facebook message to Eric, reflecting “That was always the priority.” Eric didn’t immediately have the answers, saying “I was on campus for like a week, I had not seen any black people. Then I went to Late Night Lakeside and I was like ‘Oh man, this is where I need to come for breakfast. For the grits.’”
The two quickly formed a bond, and would spend their free time between school and competitions dreaming big and freestyling all the way to The Strip and back home on walks. This is actually where Eric finally convinced Jahman, who had grown up public speaking in the church with his pastor father and writing raps since elementary school, to commit to writing poetry for the first time in his life. Jahman was already inspired by poets like Joshua Bennet, Rudy Francisco, and Prentice Powell–and was finally ready to pursue his own written wonders. He joined EJ in doing poetry for both the Speech and Debate team, as well as a monthly theater program.
Jahman would end up in New York after his time in Tuscaloosa, and was working one a one-man show centered around his poetry titled “Black Enough”–and he knew he wanted Marable to direct the play. Eric was all in. “The crux of that show was built off this theory called the flourish,” Jahman shares of the play’s goals, “It was this idea that black people are infinitely possible beings. That just by our existence we are enough.” The production team knew they wanted to do something special before their Off-Broadway preview, and Co-Director Alexis Simmons suggested they highlight some of their New York friends and use the title “The Flourish” to do so.
Next came the “move back to Birmingham saga” for both poets, who soon saw an exciting development when Eric attended the 10th anniversary of Real Life Poets. Here he met Lloyd Bricken, Birmingham creative and co-owner of the legendary and sadly gone venue The Jaybird (later The Freedom House). Marable hadn’t had urgent plans for an event, but had some ideas in the works. He decided to check out the space. “The first time I walked in there I was like ‘Yeah, I live here now.’ It was so cool,” Eric shares, and he quickly got to work on coming up with a name for the event with the help of his mom. They eventually decided “The Flourish at The Freedom House” was the perfect fit (“We’re big fans of alliteration,” Eric laughs), and asked Jahman if it would be fine to use the name. Hill said yes, and the team quickly got to work inspiring the city.
The Flourish provided a much-needed nurturing space for all things creative in the Magic City. Poets, visual artists, musicians, authors, and lovers of the arts came together once a month for truly magical moments. “The ‘event saga’ was a ton of fun,” the organization’s founders reflect, “Those monthly shows at the Freedom House, and that’s when we really started thinking ‘Oh snap, we could be a nonprofit.”
They immediately sought guidance from nonprofit leaders, filed lots of paperwork, and eventually had their own nonprofit. Their first class in a Birmingham school was in March of 2020, with Jahman and Eric being the only two employees. “I just remember we were so hyped,” they share of those first days, “The kids were so hyped. That was the best part. Then everything got canceled.” The “classroom saga” seemingly ended as early as it began, but The Flourish were pros in all things Zoom and ready for the uniquely-challenging months ahead.
“There are a lot of organizations that did not make it through,” The Flourish reflects, “A lot of buildings that didn’t make it through. A lot of events that didn’t make it through.” With this reality around them, they are honored to “not only to survive, but we also grew a lot. We were in one classroom in March 2020. Eric and I are both sitting here right now–we have teaching artists who are in classrooms today.” They are now at three schools, and working on an exciting program called “Cellphone Cinema” amongst others.
Another way The Flourish supports local youth is through their tournaments which feature cash prizes. “We’ve never done scholarships per say, but we’ve been giving students money,” the nonprofit shares, saying that many parents think it must be going to the school or a scholarship–but they believe those who earned the money should do what they want with it. “We’ve always been about paying the artists, and the students are artists and should be treated as such,” they share, “So that means they deserve their pay, and they deserve it on time.”
The duo have exciting plans for their own musical careers. Eric is dropping “No More Dead Rappers” in the spring, and Jahman is releasing “Running from the Rona” with ASFA’s Artworks@TheDJD Series on April 8 and 9. They’re working on bringing back their uniquely inspiring events in Birmingham, in a way adjusted for the pandemic and to allow rest for themselves and everyone involved in their programs. A big focus is on “doing it in a way that keeps us two as artists, teaching artists, and as administrative artists allows us to be both artists and administrators, and healthy.”
In all that The Flourish does, the mission is the same. “We want to really instill this idea of you can be anything. You can do anything. And a huge part of that is balance and recognizing that you’re enough. That’s a huge part of what The Flourish is,” they share, “What we have, and what we’re doing, and the people we interact with are enough. And what can we do to best serve the people and give them that base so that they can flourish?”
As they pursue new ways to help their community thrive, The Flourish is thankful for those who have uplifted them on the journey so far. “Thank everybody who supported us. And also Birmingham–something’s happening here,” Jahman shares, “Something’s happening, and I think it’s going to be good. We’re trying to be a part of that and help do all those things. Look out–black art is history.”
Eric emphasizes the last sentence, “Black art is history.”
History is made every time The Flourish steps into their community, and we’re honored to help tell the tale. Until the next saga–continue to flourish.
