Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing explored in Sena Jeter Naslund's "Four Spirits"

From: New Letters on the Air
Series: New Letters on the Air
Length: 29:02

Sena Jeter Naslund conjures the spirits of the four girls killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, AL, in her novel FOUR SPIRITS, and discusses what it was like to grow up there at that time. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing explored ...
From: New Letters on the Air

16th20street20baptist20church_small Novelist Sena Jeter Naslund, author of the acclaimed novel Ahab?s Wife, discusses her latest novel, Four Spirits, which is set in her native Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights movement, an era through which she lived and was an active participant. ?I wanted to weave together my own coming of age, my own sense of developing identity with the changing identity of the South,? Naslund says. ?I promised myself that if I wrote about this time, that first of all I would tell the truth. Although Birmingham was a city I loved, and do love, I would tell how bad it was in Birmingham; I would be truthful about the horrors of the situation.?

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Piece Description

Novelist Sena Jeter Naslund, author of the acclaimed novel Ahab?s Wife, discusses her latest novel, Four Spirits, which is set in her native Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights movement, an era through which she lived and was an active participant. ?I wanted to weave together my own coming of age, my own sense of developing identity with the changing identity of the South,? Naslund says. ?I promised myself that if I wrote about this time, that first of all I would tell the truth. Although Birmingham was a city I loved, and do love, I would tell how bad it was in Birmingham; I would be truthful about the horrors of the situation.?

Broadcast History

Uplinked to the PRSS originally on June 22, 2005. Re-run February 1, 2006.

Timing and Cues

PROMO: New Letters on the Air begins Black History Month with a tale of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. Renowned novelist Sena (SEEN-uh) Jeter Naslund weaves together the lives of blacks and whites, racists and civil rights advocates, and the events of peaceful protest and violent repression in her novel FOUR SPIRITS. Listen to Sena Jeter Naslund on the next NEW LETTERS ON THE AIR.
UPLINK DATE: 02/01/2006
PROGRAM LENGTH: 29 minutes
INCUE: (music) "For NEW LETTERS ON THE AIR, I'm Angela Elam inviting you to..."
OUTCUE: "...Thanks for listening to NEW LETTERS ON THE AIR."
NOTE: THERE IS A READING THAT BEGINS AT 18:45 INTO THE PROGRAM WHICH CONTAINS SOME VIOLENCE. AT 22:12, A CHARACTER IN THE READER SAYS "I married me a man, not a nigger."