You’re invited to the second installment of our Front Porch series: Sharing Stories at the Folk School. Join us for an informal evening of learning from the lives, memories, and insights of our folk school family members & friends with the most years of lived experience.

One of the unfortunate results of the stratification of contemporary society is the lack of meaningful intergenerational conversation. By spending the evening both hearing from and posing fun & thoughtful questions to our more senior members and friends, it's one modest beginning in our attempt to be a place and people for restoring friendships between generations -- for the betterment of us all.

Join us for a workshop learning some of the basics of fermenting vegetables and take home some of your very own sauerkraut to let ferment!

How Societies Stay Together - Christie Caruana

How do societies hold together? What creates unity among individuals? Christie will be discussing social relationships and how institutions (think: schools, the government, families) both create and destroy social cohesion. 

Is Society Making You Sick? - Lily Plowden

What does it mean to be sick? Is society making you sick? Lily will be discussing her research on how illness is not only a physical condition, but also shaped by our culture. She will lay out the history of mental illness diagnoses to demonstrate how illness is socially constructed. Trigger warning: this talk will include discussion of sexual violence.

Christie Caruana and Lily Plowden are both students in UAB’s Medical Sociology PhD program.

You’re invited to the Birmingham Folk School's much-anticipated first event: Pie Night! Bring a pie or a pint (beer & soda & sparkling water all welcome). Looking forward to eating pie & being happy with y'all!