08/28/2026
As we move through August, salute and celebrate Black Women!!!
đź’™Meet Patricia H. Reese
“Art is of great value to any people as a preserver of manners and customs-religious, political, and social. It is a record of growth and development from generation to generation. No one will do this for us; we must ourselves develop the men and women who faithfully portray the inmost thought and feeling with all the fire and romance which lie dormant in our history”
Pauline Hopkins, c. 1900
Patricia H. Reese, born Patricia Ann Hudson to the late James and Dora Jemison Hudson of Birmingham, AL, is the sixth of seven children born to her parents. Even as a small child, Patricia exhibited a love for the arts by drawing, writing poetry and participating in Christmas and Easter pageants and choirs in church and school. Venues such as school, church and social and civic organizations provided Patricia (Pat) opportunities to share her talents as a writer and director of plays. Patricia says that she considers herself “a dilettante of the arts”, for she dabbles in several of the genres, but loves them all-literally performance and visual. This love of the arts may have even drawn her to her husband, the late Professor Carlton Reese, former Director and Musician of the Civil Rights Movement, Fine Arts Chair for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and founder and director of the MLK Unity Breakfast Choir of Birmingham. Patricia is the proud mother of their two adult children, Valencia Reese -McCurdy and Carlton E. Reese,and grandmother to her twin grandboys.
In the venue of her employment in the Fairfield City School System from 1968 to 1998, Mrs. Reese was an instructor of English, French, and Drama while she also served as Chairperson of the Language Arts Department, the Foreign Language Department, Senior Advisor, Founder and Advisor of the Cultural Arts Development Society, and the French Club. Her students not only learned academics, but also gained appreciation for the arts by their attendance to and participating in plays, statewide competitions, and traveling to foreign countries. Upon retirement from the Fairfield School System, Mrs. Reese began working at Jefferson State Community College where she served as interim Academic Coordinator for the Upward Bound Program in 2000 and later as an English writing and literature instructor.
As a member of the Birmingham Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Mrs. Reese has served as the Chairperson of the Arts and Letters Committee for over four years. Before and during her tenure as chair, she coordinated a youth workshop which culminated in her editing and publishing the works of the Birmingham Area youth in a book entitled “Out of the Mouths of Babes”. During this time, she wrote and directed the following plays that have been presented throughout the city: Misbehavin’ at Tuxedo Junction, Ask Me No Questions, I’ll Tell You No Lies”, I’m Every Woman, Stop! In the Name of Love Before…., You Are My Sister, and directed August Wilson’s Fences.
Under the auspices of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the City of Birmingham, Mrs. Reese also directed and produced in 1998, as part of the Dr. Martin Luther King Celebration, the musical “Purlie”. From 2001-2003, the City of Birmingham afforded Mrs. Reese another opportunity to promote the arts during her appointed tenure position as Chair of the Executive Committee of the Birmingham Arts and Culture Commission. In 2013, Mrs. Reese wrote and directed a play production about the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement entitled “Freedom’s Gonna Reign Over Birmingham, A Version of History Retold which included many actors and the Carlton Reese Memorial Unity Choir for the 50thAnniversary of the Civil Rights Movement. She is currently the board president of the Choir and chair of the scholarship committee.
As a member of Sardis Baptist Church, Mrs. Reese is the Fine Arts Chairperson. She wrote and directed “All About Grace” “How I’m Making It Over”, “I’m Still Here”, “SundayChanges Everything”, “Freedom Shall Be Mine”, and many more during Black History, Christmas and Easter.
That which prepared Mrs. Reese for her journey in the arts was her education. Mrs. Reese is a product of Birmingham City Schools. She earned her B.A. degree in French and English at Clark College in Atlanta, her M.A. degree and AA Certificate at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, and has studied at the University of Tourin Tours, France.
Mrs. Reese says that she wants others to know that whatever she has accomplished, she gives to the glory of God. She further states, “Isucceed because I know that when I am doing my very best, and God is pushing me from behind, I can’t possibly fail.” She believes, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that “Without God, all of our efforts turn to ashes and our sunrise into darkest of nights.” Without him, life is meaningless drama in which the decisive scenes are missing.”
