Decades-old poetry about Normaltown helped one woman connect with her late grandmother

WUGA | By Havivah Saltz

Published October 3, 2026 at 10:00 AM EDT

a photo from the 40s of a woman in a white top and black skirt standing facing a mural, looking over her shoulder at the camera, alongside of a photo of a discolored piece of notebook paper with a poem written in script, in pencil. — Bernice Newberry (left) and a written draft of her poem, My Job in Normaltown (right).

Amber Newberry has never lived in Athens, but she has a pretty good idea of what Normaltown was like in the mid to late 1900s. That’s thanks to a suitcase full of poetry she inherited from her grandmother, Bernice Newberry, who lived in Athens. Amber sat down with WUGA’s Havivah Saltz to discuss the poems and her grandmother’s legacy.

You can read Bernice Newberry‘s poetry at inkandredwine.substack.com.

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Local News Normaltown

Havivah Saltz

Havivah Saltz has been with WUGA since 2023 as an on-air host and the producer for African Perspectives. She got her start in radio on WOBC FM at Oberlin College (class of ‘23), and she’s also worked as an on-air host on Athens' Power 100.1 and Magic 102.1. She is currently the interim producer of Athens News Matters. Outside of work, you can find Havivah making art, writing fiction, practicing Japanese, petting her very round cat, and watching concerning amounts of TV.

See stories by Havivah Saltz