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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶
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October 27-28, 2023
Southern Foodways Symposium ⟶

Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: Faith and Foodways in Alabama

ORAL HISTORY

Paul Bolus

St. Elias Maronite Catholic Church

Paul Bolus was born in 1967 and raised in the Crestwood community of Birmingham. His family owned a grocery store, and Bolus learned to cook Lebanese food and Southern food at an early age from his mother and grandmother.

After attending college, Bolus became an attorney in Birmingham, Alabama. He has been a member of St. Elias Maronite Catholic Church all his life. Bolus estimates between eighty and a hundred members of his extended family attend St. Elias, many of whom immigrated from the same Lebanese village of Weidi El Eish. Bolus and his brother, Norman, started the Lebanese Food Festival at St. Elias in 1999.

Date of interview:
2019-08-13

Interviewer:
Michelle Little

Photographer:
Cary Norton

Download Transcript

“

“We started this because we want people to experience who we are and what we are about. If they don't come in and see us, they won't learn about us. So, again, it's not just about serving food and making the most money, it's about, we want people to learn who we are.” - Paul Bolus

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