pavomag.com

There are the bricks and mortar small businesses like Sojourns and Trattoria Centrale, operating with a storefront where customers walk through the door; then there are the businesses with only walls of air that operate everywhere and nowhere at the same time.  Technology is putting a new spin on entrepreneurship the way that printing presses put a new spin on publishing, which any book nerd out there will tell you was a complete revelation. 

Any entrepreneur with even only a baby toe invested in the online world will tell you that the possibilities are bountiful and the expanse staggering.  Technology allows a start up company, freedom to have an idea and run with it without shopping for office space, buying furniture, and signing a lease.  For several companies, the storefront has become obsolete, decreasing overhead and increasing the amount of time business owners spend in their pajamas. 
Read more...

As part of the Sanctuaries issue, we thought we'd feature some local poets.  Poetry has long been a source of solace for so many.  Reading poetry is an introspective process -- we read poetry to get a glimpse of the world or live into a situation that goes beyond personal experience, shedding new light on our own lives.  Below is a PDF link to a piece by our third poet, Lauren Banks. 

Need to catch up?  Click Here to read about our first poet, Jim Murphy.  Click Here to read about our second poet, Matt Layne.

Born in Gadsden, Alabama, Lauren Banks was in the Blount Undergraduate Initiative Program at the University of Alabama and was a psychology major and creative writing minor. Lauren now works for Greater Birmingham Ministries as the Economic Justice Community Organizer and lives in Crestwood with her two dogs, Ruby and Tallee.

Files: 

Lauren Banks' Poem Split

As part of the Sanctuaries issue, we thought we'd feature some local poets.  Poetry has long been a source of solace for so many.  Reading poetry is an introspective process -- we read poetry to get a glimpse of the world or live into a situation that goes beyond personal experience, shedding new light on our own lives.  Below is a PDF link to a piece by our second poet.  Need to catch up?  Click Here to read about our first poet, Jim Murphy.
Read more...

Files: 

Poems by Matt Layne

Maybe it's as far from the mainstream traditional idea of spiritual sanctuary as we can travel without actually leaving the concept in abstraction, but I want to diverge from the path for a moment and take a rest, a breath.  As I visit spiritual centers in the Birmingham area and consider my own spiritual design, I continually go back to one place for peace:  my neighborhood.  Read more...