ICYMI: 50 Things Every Charlottean Should Do

Since debuting three weeks ago, the August issue of Charlotte magazine has been a popular topic around the city, led by its cover story on "50 Things Every Charlottean Should Do." The large feature package--encompassing 20 pages in the print issue--is a must-read whether you're a native or a newcomer or you fall somewhere in between. If you're someone who used to live in Charlotte or periodically visits the area, you'll enjoy reading this story as well.

A lot of people have shared the link to the story on social media, often commenting on how many of the 50 things they've done. Personally, I've done 46 of the things on the list during the nine years I've lived in Charlotte (today actually marks nine years ago that I moved to Charlotte from Augusta, Georgia).

Most of the activities, like "Wait in line for Price's Chicken," "Spend a day at the U.S. National Whitewater Center," and "Gain perspective at 1,625 feet," which is about hiking Crowders Mountain, illustrate just how robust and varied the list of activities are that this area has to offer. Others are more anecdotal, like "Be friendly" and "Don't assume everyone works for a bank," providing a little insight into Charlotte's culture and history, the latter of which people tend to not know much about, as this is a city filled with transplants.

I was one of eight writers to contribute to 50 Things Every Charlottean Should Do (and I'm profiled on the contributors page, pg. 14). The feature is also filled with beautiful photography.

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'Bear Witness' to Great Charlotte Photography Sunday

The Mint Museum Randolph is hosting a special event this Sunday, June 29 to showcase the works of several local photographers. Billed as "Bearing Witness: Seeing Through the Lens of Charlotte Photographers," the event will shine the spotlight on impactful black-and-white and color images taking throughout the city.

The featured photographers are: Jasiatic Anderson, De’Angelo Bethune, Daniel Coston, Stephen Graddick IV, Sandra Guynes, Jon Strayhorn, and Eboni Wallace Lewis. I personally know, and am familiar with the works of, Jasiatic, Daniel, Stephen, and Jon. Jon is a good friend who I have the opportunity to work with often, and I frequently use his photos in my blogs.

Event photography, such as this shot from a JCSU commencement ceremony, is one of
Jon Strayhorn's specialties. Credit: mediaartscollective.com

Each photographer will talk a little about the photos they're showing, and attendees will have a chance to mix and mingle with them during the reception. The event starts at 3 p.m., and is free and open to the public. I think it's a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

This showcase is inspired by the renowned exhibit, Bearing Witness: Sonia Handelman Meyer and the New York Photo League, which is comprised of nearly 100 documentary photographs taken by New York City photographers in the 1940s and '50s, who explored their neighborhood streets with their cameras, capturing the lives of ordinary people as they had never before been depicted. It's been on display at the Mint since November and actually concludes this Sunday, so you'll get a chance to see it at this event if you haven't yet.

Mint Museum Randolph, 2730 Randolph Rd., 704-337-2000, mintmuseum.org.

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'Museums on Us' this Weekend - October 5 and 6

In case you didn't know, through Bank of America's Museums on Us program, bank cardholders can visit more than 150 museums nationwide for free during the first full weekend of each month, including five Charlotte museums. The next opportunity is this Saturday and Sunday, October 5 and 6.

The Mint Museum Uptown. Credit: Facebook

Below is the list of participating Charlotte museums:

Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, 420 S. Tryon St., 704-353-9200, bechtler.org.

Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, 551 S. Tryon St., 704-547-3700, ganttcenter.org.

Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. Seventh St., 704-333-1887, museumofthenewsouth.org.

The Mint Museum Randolph, 2730 Randolph Rd., 704-337-2000, mintmuseum.org.

The Mint Museum Uptown, 500 S. Tryon St., 704-337-2000, mintmuseum.org.

All you have to do is show your Bank of America or Merrill Lynch card and photo ID at the admissions counter at any of the participating museums to be admitted for free. It would also be convenient for you to visit more than one of the museums during an outing because four of the five venues are located within walking distance of each other in Uptown (all except for the Mint Randolph location).

Harvey B. Gantt Center. Credit: Facebook

For more details on Museums on Us, visit museums.bankofamerica.com.

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You Should Know: 'Destination Freedom' at Levine Museum of the New South

Levine Museum of the New South recently opened a new series titled, Destination Freedom: Civil Rights Struggles Then and Now, that will feature several different exhibits and programs over the next two years. The first three exhibits are on display now, and I had the opportunity to check them out a few weeks ago during a members' preview. The museum is holding an official kickoff event this Sunday, September 15 that you should check out. And even if you can't make it out that day, you'll want to make plans to visit the museum in coming months.

Destination Freedom is Levine Museum's commemoration of several important milestones in the Civil Rights Movement that are each approaching 50th anniversaries between 2013 and 2015: The March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech (August 28, 1963); the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and murder of four young girls in Birmingham (September 15, 1963); the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places (July 2, 1964); and the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (August 6, 1965). Those historical moments alone signify the importance of the exhibits, but as Levine Museum so greatly does with many of its exhibits over the years, it's presenting them in though-provoking ways along with scheduled events, corresponding programs, and dialogue sessions.

This Sunday is the Destination Freedom Kickoff, an event that's free and open to the public, beginning at 3 p.m. There'll be a panel discussion featuring David Forbes, SNCC member, Raleigh Hall of Fame inductee; Juan Carlos-Ramos, United for the Dream; Dorothy Counts-Scoggins, 1957 desegregation of Harding High School; Tiffany Flowers, director at KIPP Charlotte; and Joshua Burford, LGBT historian researcher, UNCC Multicultural Affairs; and will be moderated by Irving Joyner, NCCU legal scholar and Legal Eagle Review co-host. After the panel discussion, you'll get to enjoy a reception with entertainment by Latanya Johnson and the Sycamore Project, and tour the new exhibits.

Then at 6 p.m., at First United Presbyterian Church, which is directly across the street, the museum is presenting a keynote address by Diane Nash. Nash is a Civil Rights activist and co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (I learned a lot about SNCC during my Afro-American Studies classes in college), and she'll reflect on 1963 and the lessons for today.

Sunday's activities are free, but reservations are requested at 704-333-1887 ext. 501 or rsvp@museumofthenewsouth.org.

If you can't attend on Sunday, you should make a point to visit the Destination Freedom exhibits soon. Whenever I experience these kinds of things, they always remind me how important history is to what we encounter today. These exhibits, in particular, will show you how much progress in racial equality this country has made over the last 50 years. And while it would be natural to focus on the work that still needs to be done or to complain about things that still aren't fair, I'm inspired by the incredible hurdles and hardships that people before me overcame--it took people of all walks of life to work together--which makes many of the problems we face as a society today seem petty and disrespectful to the path that's been laid before us.

I was also inspired from talking to a teenager at the preview event a few weeks ago. She's a high school senior who participated in "A Ride for Understanding," the four-day, four-city Civil Rights bus tour across the Southeast that Levine Museum took 15 students on over the summer. Part of their experience is documented in the View from the Other Side exhibit that's featured in Destination Freedom. I was inspired by my conversation with the young lady because she, who's white, took an interest in a part of history that's far too often described as "Black History" when it is more American history than just about anything else. Plus, she reminds us that kids today don't harbor the same feelings about race that their parents and grandparents might. They're growing up having friends of all colors, listening to the same music, and sharing similar experiences. So they shouldn't be saddled with views that have been skewed by things they'll never have to experience. These exhibits help them realize how fortunate they are, but also why justice and equality are things that have to be tended to in order to be ensured and preserved.

The exhibits currently on display in Destination Freedom: Civil Rights Struggles Then and Now:

Network of Mutuality: 50 Years Post-Birmingham
(on display until December 1, 2013)
Synopsis: Featuring provocative works by leading contemporary artists and designers, who carefully examine the various social conditions and components that energized the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, as well as continue the dialogue of race and equality in today's society.

Focus On Justice
(on display until January 26, 2014)
Synopsis: Curated by photographer Byron Baldwin, the exhibit includes photographs documenting the regional Civil Rights Movement as seen through the eyes of Carolina photographers Don Sturkey, Bruce Roberts, James Peeler, Cecil Williams, and others.

View from the Other Side
(on display until February 2, 2014)
Synopsis: Artists and students present works informed and inspired by issues of civil and human rights. Featuring pieces from local artists TJ Reddy, Rosalia Torres-Weiner, Mikale Kwiatkowski, and Antoine Williams, along with pieces from Performance Learning Center and History Active students.

Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. Seventh St., 704-333-1887, museumofthenewsouth.org, facebook.com/LevineMuseum, Twitter @LevineMuseum.

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NBC Charlotte Meetup at Discovery Place - July 25

NBC Charlotte (WCNC) is partnering with Discovery Place to host a meetup on Thursday, July 25, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the science museum in Uptown (301 N. Tryon St.). Here's how the event is being described by the organizers: "You can rub shoulders with NBC Charlotte’s own, grab some face time with your Twitter friends, snag a cocktail at the cash bar, play some games, win some prizes, engage in some science fun or jump in the photo booth for some silliness at Discovery Place..."

Admission to the meetup is free, but registration is required by visiting nbccharlotte.eventbrite.com. Capacity for the event is 500, and so far nearly 350 people have registered. The hashtag being used for the event is #WCNCmeetup (Twitter | Facebook | Instagram).

NBC Charlotte's Dianne Gallagher chats with a guest at last year's WCNC Tweetup.
Credit: wcnc.com

WCNC hosted a similar event last year at Icehouse South End, which I had the pleasure of attending, and I made several new connections. I think these types of events are a great idea. Most of us use social media these days, and we often "follow" or "friend" people on these sites whom we don't know personally or have never met in person. But because of your interaction with their tweets, status updates, and photo sharing, you feel as if you know them. So an event like what NBC Charlotte and Discovery Place are doing gives you the opportunity to continue your social networking--literally--but step beyond the virtual world.

I always encourage people to get out and network, no matter your profession or interests (remember, you can frequently find Charlotte networking events listed on my Dusk Till Dawn blog). As much as I rely on the Internet and social media, it'll never be a substitute for building actual one-on-one, face-to-face relationships. That was a part of the reasoning behind the "Charlotte’s Web: A Celebration of CLT Bloggers & Digital Tastemakers" event I put on in May.

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'From Sit-ins to Eat-ins,' Multiple Events Commemorate 50th Anniversary of Desegregation in Charlotte

May is a significant month in Charlotte's history, and over the next two weeks there's a coordinated effort to recognize a brave step the city and its residents took 50 years ago. "From Sit-ins to Eat-ins" celebrates the desegregation of Charlotte that occurred in May 1963. It's great to see that several organizations are coming together to present these events. I hope it serves as a reminder to us that 50 years isn't all that long ago, and if people from different walks of life could work together decades ago on something as serious and monumental as desegregation, most of our issues today aren't as difficult as we make them out to be.

Below are details from the press release, including the list of community events (admission is free, except where noted).

Charlotte made national headlines in May 1963 when Chamber of Commerce members led by Mayor Stan Brookshire voluntarily joined with African American leaders to go two-by-two and desegregate Charlotte’s leading restaurants. This “eat-in” came three years after the sit-in movement had opened lunch counters.

Charlotte Civil Rights activist Dr. Reginald Hawkins triggered the action, leading a march on May 20, 1963 from Johnson C. Smith University to the Mecklenburg County Courthouse and declaring “We shall not be pacified with gradualism; we shall not be satisfied with tokenism.  We want freedom and we want it now.” His call echoed a spirit of revolution dating to the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence demanding freedom from England, which tradition holds was signed on May 20, 1775, a year before the 1776 US Declaration of Independence.

The successful desegregation on May 29-31, 1963 – a year before the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights act required desegregation of “public accommodations” – pushed Charlotte into the national spotlight. The city’s progressive action contrasted sharply with the massive resistance then going on in places such as Birmingham, where police chief Bull Connor turned fire hoses and police dogs on young Civil Rights protesters that same month. It was a key turning point in Charlotte’s emergence as a major Southern city.

Organizers of this two-week celebration include: Levine Museum of the New South, Mecklenburg Ministries, The May 20th Society, Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Relations, and Mert's Heart & Soul, with assistance from Charlotte Center City Partners, Charlotte Chamber, Queens University, Johnson C. Smith University, and the Carolina Room of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

Sunday, May 19

From Sit-ins to Eat-ins: History Makers Panel Discussion
Several participants from the 1963 desegregation march in Charlotte will be a part of this panel discussion, including the son of Charlotte activist Dr. Reginald Hawkins, who marched beside his father in 1963; Jack Claiborne, who is a long-time reporter for The Charlotte Observer and covered the Civil Rights movement locally; Evan Faulkenbury, who has studied Dr. Hawkins’ life; and Patricia A. Albritton, board chair of Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Relations Office. 2:30 p.m. First United Presbyterian Church, 406 N. College St.

Monday, May 20

March from Johnson C. Smith University to the Mecklenburg County Courthouse
Scheduled speakers include Malcolm Graham, attorney Charles Jones, James Ferguson, Dr. Reginald Hawkins, Abdullah Salim Jr., and Mayor Anthony Foxx. 10:30 a.m. Johnson C. Smith University, 100 Beatties Ford Rd.

Annual Noon Commemoration of Mecklenburg Declaration
Event will include cannons, a reading of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, and a celebration of Mecklenburg County’s 250th anniversary. 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. The Square, corner of Trade and Tryon streets in Uptown.

The May 20th Society 8th Annual Speaker Series featuring Isabel Wilkerson
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Warmth of Other Suns will connect her research on 20th century African American history with the Charlotte 1963 history. 7:30 p.m. $12. McGlohon Theater at Spirit Square, 345 N. College St., blumenthalarts.org.

Wednesday and Thursday, May 29 and 30

“From Sit-ins to Eat-ins” Event
To mark the city's historic desegregation, some of today’s civic leaders will kick off two days in which Charlotteans are urged to invite someone of a different race to lunch. Throughout Charlotte.

Thursday, May 30

“From Sit-ins to Eat-ins” Community Festival
Music and munchies set the mood in 1963. Participants in the 2013 eat-in reflect on history, share what they’ve learned, and suggest hopes for future. Hosted by Mecklenburg Ministries’ “Friday Friends.” 5:30-7 p.m. Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. Seventh St., museumofthenewsouth.org.

You can also find details at www.may20thsociety.org and www.meckdec.org.

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Charlotte Man — Survivor of 'Miracle on the Hudson' — to Climb Mount Kilimanjaro to Benefit Education

I read a press release this morning that I thought would be interesting to share. Below is an excerpt.

In January 2009, Barry Leonard was a passenger on USAirways Flight 1549, involved in an incident that became known as the Miracle on the Hudson. The incident made Leonard take stock in his life and reevaluate his bucket list, which now includes an August 2013 climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro with his son Matthew and two good friends, Richard and Matthew Gershen, another father-son team.

Barry Leonard and his son Matthew.

"After the plane crash, I better understood the importance of time, but also the importance of doing things today and not waiting until tomorrow," said Leonard, a Charlotte resident who is president/CEO of home textiles company Welspun USA. "I always thought these things would be what I will do 'someday' but that has all changed."

Leonard's climb will help raise funds for the Kilimanjaro Education Foundation, a nonprofit volunteer organization with a mission to provide African children the same educational opportunities as children in developed countries. Funds raised from his climb will help build school facilities and also furnish library books to a new library an hour outside of Arusha.

With an August climb scheduled, Leonard has begun training in earnest, riding a stationary bike and running on a treadmill. He has also started hiking in the local hills of North Carolina to be followed by hiking Mount Mitchell, which is the tallest mountain in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River. 

"There are things you want to do together in life with a son and this is one of them," he said. "Since the plane crash, I've gone through a lot of stages. I know a lot of people say 'it was four years ago, that should be behind you,' but I'm in a search for spirituality stage. For me that is a huge part of what this climb is all about."

As you probably know, the plane from US Airways Flight 1549 is now the signature exhibit at Carolinas Aviation Museum. I chronicled its arrival to the Charlotte museum back in June 2011, when I met several of the survivors who attended the homecoming reception. A year later, the once-little-known museum completed a renovation to showcase the Miracle on the Hudson exhibit, in a manner befitting of its notoriety. Then in February, Carolinas Aviation Museum received the coveted Smithsonian Institution affiliation, a designation that fewer than 180 of the country's 18,000 museums have.

Miracle on the Hudson Exhibit. Credit: facebook.com/ft1549

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Look Mom, I'm On a Billboard!

I was honored, and a little nervous, when the good folks at Levine Museum of the New South asked me back in June if I would pose for a new branding campaign they would be unveiling, highlighted by new signage, graphics, and window boxes on the exterior of their building. If you drive or walk past the museum on Seventh or College streets this evening or tomorrow, you'll see many of the new pieces being put into place. One of the first things to go up is this new billboard on the side of the building facing Seventh Street Station parking deck.

The branding makes use of Levine Museum's slogan, "Come To Understand," which it has used for several years, but now presents in a more contemporary way. The museum celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, and this is the first extensive change to the building's exterior since a major fundraising campaign concluded in 2000 with the expansion of the beautiful building you've gotten to know--and come to understand--in Uptown. I think you'll be pleased with these new changes (not just saying this because my likeness is used), which should be completed by this weekend.

New window boxes are under construction. 

Those iconic images in the 12 window boxes facing Seventh and College streets, such as the photos of Joseph Benjamin Ivey, who opened J.B. Ivey and Sons department store in the early 1900s, and Betty Freezor, who hosted a local cooking show on WBTV from the 1950s to 1970s, have been removed and are being replaced with photographs of new people, including myself, and artifacts to showcase the diversity of the New South. Above them, corresponding green-colored boxes are being added showcasing the museum's logo. The building will look especially cool at night, as shown in this architectural rendering below.

UPDATE: Below, me visiting me a few nights later (I promise you I'm not too vain).

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'Hard Truths' Is Exhibit You Must See, Especially If You Were Raised in the South

Two exhibits, each representing African-American culture and history, have recently opened at Uptown Charlotte museums. I had the privilege of checking out both of them—Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial at Mint Museum Uptown and America I AM: The African American Imprint at The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture. I'm sharing my thoughts on each exhibit in separate blog posts. Below is about Dial's.

Before I walked through Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial, I wasn't familiar with the artist or his work, so I really didn't know what to expect. I didn't know I would see glimpses of my early childhood in rural South Carolina.

Dial is a self-taught artist who was born, raised, and has lived his entire life in rural Alabama. He's 84 years old now, and he was practically an elder gentleman when his art was discovered about 25 years ago, subsequently becoming a part of exhibits in the 1990s through today. He spent several decades doing what most blacks in the South of his generation did—worked on farms, in fields, and later in factories. Born a year before The Great Depression and living through Jim Crow and poverty, as you could imagine, he had very little opportunity for a formal education.

His story is what makes his artwork so amazing, to see how he's able to express social, political, cultural, and religious messages in such thought-provoking ways. He made masterpieces out of what's commonly referred to as "yard art," with many of his sculptures and large paintings comprised of materials that are usually relegated to landfills. Those scraps of wood, metal, and plastic reminded me of what I would often see throughout the acreage of my grandparents' yard in Rembert, South Carolina, when I was about five or six years old in the mid-1980s and my siblings and I would roam around the yard finding anything to play with, throwing stuff at chickens to make them scatter.

You find those scraps in Dial's pieces such as "The Beginning of Life in the Yellow Jungle" (2003), a 75-foot-by-112-foot painting made from plastic soda bottles, clothing, bedding, wire, metal, a doll, rubber glove, turtle shell, artificial flowers, and other materials on canvas. And in one of his most recognizable pieces, "Don't Matter How Raggly the Flag, It Still Got to Tie Us Together" (2003), a 71-foot-by-114-foot painting made from mattress coils, chicken wire, clothing, can lids, metal, plastic twine, wire, and more. The description accompanying it reads, in part: "In this piece, the image of a torn and ravaged United States flag symbolizes the struggle underlying American history and the quest for freedom, liberty, and equality. Created just after the start of the Iraq War, the painting is also a commentary on human conflict that turns the flag's patriotic red and white into festoons of bloody bandages on a gory battlefield."

"Don't Matter How Raggly the Flag..." is one of more than 30 Dial pieces on display.

Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton Dial is on display until September 30 at Mint Museum Uptown, 500 S. Tryon St., www.mintmuseum.org.

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N.C. Science Festival; Free Events at Discovery Place

The North Carolina Science Festival has been underway for a week and a half now, showcasing science and  technology at museums, parks, public libraries, college campuses, and other cultural arts venues all across the state. The festival, now in its third year, wraps up this Sunday, April 29, so you have all week to check out some of the many events taking place this week in the Charlotte area, including a visit to Duke Energy, an exploration of electronic devices at Hackerspace Charlotte, a stream science hike at Latta Plantation Nature Center, and more (there's also a series of events called "Make it Rain," but it's not about throwing dollar bills on dancers).

A recent N.C. Science Festival event at Discovery Place. Source: twitter.com/discoveryplace.

There's a cost to attend several of the North Carolina Science Festival events, but some of them are free as well, including these two events listed below, taking place after-hours at Discovery Place, 301 N. Tryon St. Parking will be free also in the parking garage behind the museum (the gates will be open).

Tuesday, April 24
Nature on the Move: How Important Are We?
Join Patrick McMillan, the host, co‐creator, and writer of the popular and award‐winning ETV nature program Expeditions with Patrick McMillan and hear about how change is constant and humans have always played an integral part in that change. 6-7:30 p.m. Free. Click here for more details.

Thursday, April 26
Avian Adventure
See live birds and meet experts from Carolina Raptor Center, Mecklenburg Audubon Society, Companion Parrots Re-homed, Wing Haven, Master Falconer, Steve Hughes, and more. Learn how to attract, identify, and enjoy birds in your own backyard, find out about conservation efforts of both native and non-native birds, and hear about research in avian medicine. 5:30-7:30 p.m. Free. Click here for more details.

www.ncsciencefestival.org

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Youth Expressions Summit (Y.E.S.) this Saturday

If you have teenage children, relatives, or encounter them in youth groups or activities, you should encourage them to attend the Youth Expressions Summit (Y.E.S.) taking place this Saturday, November 19. It's a free event for students ages 12 to 19 that will allow them to discuss and engage in many of the issues they face as young people growing up in this crazy, fast-paced world today.

Here's an excerpt of the official description of the event:

Levine Museum of the New South, as part of its New COURAGE project, invites students ages 12 to 19 to come show your courage at the Youth Expressions Summit (Y.E.S.). Join hundreds of fellow students as you explore the issues today and the guts to face them—the things that matter to you as individuals, in your schools, in your communities, and in your world. Designed by teens, the summit focuses on a host of hot topics, from cliques to bullying, dating-violence to sexting, immigration to re-segregation, peer pressure to personal advocacy, and much more.

Levine Museum is partnering with ASPIRE Youth Leadership and Development Program, Girl Talk Foundation, Inc., Planned Parenthood of Charlotte/Teens Taking Action, and UNC Charlotte's Department of Public Health Sciences to present the Y.E.S. Summit.

Youth Expressions Summit (Y.E.S.)
Saturday, November 19, 2011
9 a.m.-2 p.m.
UNC Charlotte, College of Health and Human Services Building, 9601 University City Blvd.
Free; registration required at www.yessummit.eventbrite.com or the morning of the event.
www.facebook.com/NewCourage

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GoodWorks Youth Awards November 17

A great, annual event takes place this week and you should come out to show your support. The GoodWorks Youth Awards honors exemplary young people who are doing good works in the areas of diversity, education, and the environment. The ceremony is this Thursday, November 17, 6-9 p.m. at the Mint Museum Uptown (500 S. Tryon St.).

Scene at the 2010 GoodWorks Youth Awards. Photo by Jon Strayhorn/Media Arts Collective.

The GoodWorks Youth Awards is hosted by my friend and colleague, Rahman Khan, president of GoodWorks Media Group, who also hosts the local PBS show of the same name. Rahman is passionate about showcasing the positive aspects in our community to help balance out the negative news coverage we're so often inundated with. The keynote speaker Thursday is Molly Barker, founder of Girls on the Run. Molly is an inspiring speaker, who wowed audiences at TEDxCharlotte last year. The GoodWorks Youth Awards also features special guests NBA Hall of Famer James Worthy and Revolution Racing NASCAR driver Ryan Gifford.

Click here to purchase tickets to the GoodWorks Youth Awards, which are $30 for adults and $20 for youth.

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'Mummies of the World' Opens at Discovery Place

I went on a media tour of Mummies of the World this morning and it's far more intricate than the King Tut exhibit I remember going to see when I was a kid. Mummies of the World officially opens to the public at Discovery Place tomorrow, November 11 (11-11-11, how fitting for this tomb-esque exhibit) and runs through April 8, 2012. It's the Southern U.S. premiere for MOTW, which is the largest exhibition of real human and animal mummies ever assembled, with more than 150 specimens.

Discovery Place is a science museum, of course, and that's what's really at the heart of this traveling exhibit (Charlotte is one of only seven cities that will show it). It's fascinating to see how these mummies have been preserved for centuries and how scientists study them to learn about cultures, the environment, historical eras, and even diseases.

"The Tattooed Woman" is from Chile, believed to have lived before 1400. She's noted for her unusual tattoos--an oval with a dot inside on both breasts and her mouth.

Walking through the exhibit, you'll experience a range of emotions. One of the first pieces you'll encounter is the "Monkey Mummy." This howler monkey is from Argentina and is believed to have been naturally preserved in the warm, dry environment of the area. But what makes it stand out is that it's displayed with a feather skirt and feather wreath around its head and neck--a fancy monkey it is, that'll have you going "awwww." But as you proceed through MOTW, you'll encounter other pieces such as a South American mummy of a woman and her two children that'll leave you a little sad. These are, after all, the remains of people who once lived.

MOTW is a 12,000-square-foot exhibition so you'll journey through many sections, several of which are defined by the region where the mummies were discovered. I captured a short video, which you can see below, of a display in the European Mummies section. In the video is the Orlovits family, also known as the Vac Mummies, a husband, wife, and son group of mummies from the 18th century who were found in a long-forgotten church crypt in Vac, Hungary.

Admission to Mummies of the World is $24 for adults; $18 for children ages 2-13 (you might want to think carefully about letting small children see it); and, $20 for students with ID and seniors ages 60 and older. All tickets include full-day admission to Discovery Place. For more details, visit www.discoveryplace.org or www.mummiesoftheworld.com.

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Wells Fargo Community Celebration Saturday—Huge

Wells Fargo, which recently completed its conversion of Wachovia signs and banking locations to Wells Fargo nationwide with Charlotte and North Carolina being the final changeovers this month, is throwing the largest cultural arts festival I think this city has ever seen. The Wells Fargo Community Celebration takes place this Saturday in Uptown Charlotte, featuring more than 60 performances and events, and it's all free to the public.

Wells Fargo, which now employs about 20,000 people in Charlotte and nearly 30,000 in the state thanks to its acquisition of Wachovia, has partnered with the Arts & Science Council (ASC) and Charlotte Center City Partners for this all-day celebration. There will be live art demonstrations, a street festival featuring LEGO sculptures, a chalk art competition, stage plays, dance shows, and concerts such as those by Nicci Canada and headlining act, jazz great Branford Marsalis.

Branford Marsalis headlines the celebration Saturday. Credit: facebook.com/branfordmarsalis.

Wells Fargo is also underwriting free admission into several Uptown cultural facilities on Saturday, including: Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Discovery Place, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture, Levine Museum of the New South, McColl Center for Visual Art, The Light Factory, and more. Plus, the celebration will commemorate the opening of the Wells Fargo History Museum in Three Wells Fargo Center, which honors Charlotte and North Carolina's rich banking heritage in addition to telling the history of the San Francisco-based bank.

The main hub for the activities will be the Levine Center for the Arts, so you'll want to make your way there Saturday as a starting point. CATS Gold Rush, the free center city trolley on wheels, is operating a special route to help attendees maneuver easily to the various facilities and events. You can find a detailed list of all of Saturday's events here on the ASC's website, including this printable event guide and information on parking.

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C-SPAN's Spending the Week In Charlotte

Details below are edited from press release.

C-SPAN is visiting Charlotte for a week starting today, as it chronicles the history and literary life of the city for the cable network’s non-fiction book channel (BookTV on C-SPAN2) and history channel (American History TV on C-SPAN3). Charlotte is one of eight cities being featured in a special series called the LCV Cities Tour. The tour is given this name because C-SPAN producers are travelling in specially designed Ford Transit Connect vehicles, which they're calling Local Content Vehicles (LCVs), that are equipped with digital cameras, editing and other recording technologies, and each member of the LCV team is able to shoot and edit video on location as well as make presentations to the community about the work they do for the network.

C-SPAN Team: Mark Farkas, Tiffany Rocque, Adrienne Hoar, and Deborah Lamb. [Source]

During the week, C-SPAN producers will visit various literary and historic sites, interviewing local historians, authors and civic leaders, including Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx and Charlotte Chamber President Bob Morgan. The C-SPAN team will also visit area schools, including Central Piedmont Community College, Providence Day School, and McClintock Middle School. C-SPAN is partnering with Time Warner Cable, the network’s local affiliate, which is helping to organize the week’s many logistics.

A Tuesday, August 30 public kick-off event will be held at Charlotte Museum of History, 3500 Shamrock Drive, with opening remarks at 6:30 p.m. from Time Warner Cable, C-SPAN, and representatives of Charlotte Museum of History. The event keynote speaker is local author and Levine Museum of the New South historian, Dr. Tom Hanchett. He'll discuss Charlotte’s unique history and other topics included in his book Sorting Out the New South City and his most recent work, Salad Bowl Suburbs: A History of Charlotte's East Side and South Boulevard Immigrant Corridors.

The kick-off event will air along with C-SPAN’s other productions during a special Charlotte feature the weekend of September 24-25 on BookTV and American History TV. For more details, visit www.c-span.org/LocalContent.

In the video below, Mark Farkas, C-SPAN executive producer and LCV project manager, explains why they're visiting cities like Charlotte.

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'Museums on Us' this Weekend

I think a lot of people are unaware of Bank of America's great Museums on Us program. Here's how it works: By presenting your Bank of America or Merrill Lynch debit or credit card, you're admitted for free into more than 150 participating museums nationwide during the first full weekend of every month. So the next one is this Saturday and Sunday, August 6 and 7.

There are six museums in Charlotte where you'll be admitted for free (each one below links to that museum's website):

• Bechtler Museum of Modern Art
• Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture
• Levine Museum of the New South
• Mint Museum Randolph
• Mint Museum Uptown
• NASCAR Hall of Fame

All of these museums, except for the Mint Museum Randolph, are in Uptown so you can easily visit more than one of them in an afternoon. Make a day of it! Charlotte has such a rich offering of museums and cultural arts venues, and more people should visit them. If you're a BofA customer, take advantage of this free weekend and go see Niki de Saint Phalle: Creation of a New Mythology at Bechtler; Live and In Stereo(type) at Gantt; COURAGE at Levine Museum; Attitude and Alchemy: The Metalwork of Gary Lee Noffke at Mint Uptown; and The Great Hall at NASCAR HOF.

The remaining Museums on Us weekends for 2011 are: September 3 and 4, October 1 and 2, November 5 and 6, and December 3 and 4. For more details, visit museums.bankofamerica.com.

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Read About It: Flight 1549 Finally Arrives In Charlotte

I had the pleasure of attending the "homecoming reception" Saturday evening for Flight 1549 at Carolinas Aviation Museum. The plane from the "Miracle on the Hudson" will become the signature exhibit at the little-known Charlotte museum. After seeing all the national news coverage the plane was receiving as it embarked on a seven-day journey by flatbed truck--something this big has to move relatively slow--from a New Jersey warehouse to Charlotte, and seeing how tens of thousands of people were lining the interstates and highways along the way just to get a sight of it, I knew I wanted to tell a part of this story. You can read about it in the article I wrote for Charlotte magazine's website, "Miracle at the Museum," posted online today.

Laurie Crane, one of the Flight 1549 passengers I interviewed.

Click here to read the article, where you'll also find a gallery of photos by Jon Strayhorn.

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Free Community Workshops, Plus Sister Souljah

There are some great, free events for the community this weekend you should know about, if you weren't already aware. Tomorrow morning (Saturday, June 11) the Urban League of Central Carolinas Young Professionals Auxiliary is presenting Health Focus: Know Your Numbers. Also, tomorrow afternoon, the Charlotte Area Association of Black Journalists (CAABJ) is presenting its Sixth Annual Secrets to Accessing the Media Workshop. And tonight, recently added, you can meet Sister Souljah.

The Health Focus event will be held 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Saturday at the Urban League, 740 W. Fifth St. It will be an informative session on what you need to know to achieve living a healthy lifestyle, presented in partnership with Carolinas Medical Center-Mercy. Registered nurse and personal trainer Dave Eaker will discuss body mass index (BMI), body fat, and information on African-American health disparities. There will also be free blood pressure checks, weight and BMI screenings, and a healthy brunch will be provided. Organizers suggest that attendees wear workout attire. Click here for more details.

Then from 1-3 p.m. Saturday at Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. Seventh St., CAABJ is holding its Secrets to Accessing the Media Workshop. I'm a member of CAABJ and have been involved with this event for each of the last six years, and can tell you it's a very informative session. A panel of journalists from newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, and Internet will give tips and advice on how to get your stories told, explain how news at individual media outlets is produced, and answer questions from the audience. The panelists are: April Bethea, reporter, The Charlotte Observer; Glenn Burkins, editor, Qcitymetro.com; Chris Dyches, web producer, WBTV; Eric Frazier, reporter, The Charlotte Observer; Carlton Hargro, editor-in-chief, Creative Loafing; Trey Harmon, associate producer, WCNC-TV; Davida Jackson, associate producer, News14 Carolina; and BJ Murphy, on-air personality, WGIV Radio.

Carlton Hargro, editor-in-chief of Creative Loafing, returns as a panelist for the workshop.

Members of nonprofit organizations, HOA’s, community organizations, church and civic groups, etc. are encouraged to attend. This is a great opportunity to learn how to get media coverage for your events, fundraisers, organizations, and even small businesses. Light refreshments will be served. Guests are asked to RSVP at rsvp@caabj.com. Click here for more details.

And finally, Saturday evening, Red@28th, a new literary lounge in NoDa is bringing in Sister Souljah for a book signing, reading, and Q&A. But as word spread about this event, RSVPs have reached capacity. So to accommodate the popularity of the best-selling author, recording artist, and film producer, Red@28th's owners are bringing her to the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, 551 South Tryon St., tonight (Friday, June 10) for a similar event at 7 p.m. Copies of Sister Souljah's new book, Midnight and the Meaning of Love, will be available for purchase and to be signed, as well as her other titles, including The Coldest Winter Ever, No Disrespect, and Midnight: A Gangsta Love Story. If you wish to attend, you should RSVP to contact@realeyesbookstore.com. Click here for more details.

All of these events are culturally enriching, being held free of charge, and are well worth your time.

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'Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers' Keeps Telling Charlotte's Story

I always say that eight out of 10 people I meet in Charlotte aren't from here. I can't say that my 80 percent theory is scientific, but I'm sure you would agree that Charlotte has a lot of newcomers and transplants. I've lived here for almost six years now and because of the work I do I've gotten to know the city really well. But it's easy to get caught up in the present and future and not know much about a place's history. There's no better way to learn Charlotte's story than by visiting the Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers exhibit at Levine Museum of the New South. The award-winning exhibit that debuted in 2001 has just been renovated and updated to reflect the past decade.

Levine Museum tells the history of the New South, which is defined as the period from the end of the Civil War (1865) to today. Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers is its permanent exhibit, located on the first floor, so if you've ever visited the museum you've likely journeyed through it. It's a large exhibit that literally guides you through Charlotte's history from when cotton fields dominated the landscape in the late 1800s and early 1900s to how the economy changed that eventually led to the businesses that built the skyscrapers we see in Uptown today. Or as the museum folks say, it goes from "farm to factory to finance." And along the way, you experience cool artifacts and features such as equipment from a cotton mill, a replica of an old Belk department store, a lunch counter that tells the story of Civil Rights Movement-era sit-ins, the history of integrating schools, the plight of factory workers, how Duke Energy became the largest utility company in the country, and more.

Levine Museum has been celebrating its 20th anniversary since the beginning of the year, and things ramped up this week with an elaborate and festive gala, "Taste of Time," on Thursday that drew hundreds of people, including some of the city's most prominent figures. This week also saw the reopening of Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers, which underwent a three-month renovation. It now contains an additional 750 feet of gallery space, primarily comprised of the new end section, titled "Whirlwind of Growth, 1970s-2010s." In this section, which largely reflects the changes Charlotte has experienced since 2001, you see how the big banks got bigger--Bank of America and Wachovia--and how the latter was acquired by Wells Fargo. You also see how Charlotte has become one of the South's most diverse cities.

A replica of the Bank of America Corporate Center stands tall in Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers.

The exhibit also now features many new interactive components with touchscreen technology. There's the "Remix History" feature, where you can play with digital graphics on flatscreens to manipulate historic photos (it reminds of how the folks at CNN slide things around on their big screens when telling the news). There's also "Picture Yourself in History," where you sit in front of a green screen and have your picture taken to place yourself into an historic moment. The computer allows you to email the photo to yourself so you can have a keepsake (look for these to pop up on people's Facebook pages).

But before you get to all of the cool new stuff at the end of the exhibit, you get to experience a new 10-minute intro film. Sitting in the theater at the entrance to the exhibit, you can watch a video that I guarantee will tell you some stuff about Charlotte you never knew. But you'll likely recognize the names of the voices narrating the film--former Bank of America chief Hugh McColl, NASCAR pioneer Humpy Wheeler, and radio personality Ramona Holloway.

On Tuesday I attended a media tour for the reopening of Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers. Below is a few minutes of video I captured that showcases the new section at the end. Levine Museum historian Tom Hanchett points out some of the new features; then I wander off a little on my own.

You should make sure to check it out for yourself, which you can do tomorrow (Sunday, May 1) during the museum's 20th Anniversary Community Celebration. The free event takes place 12-5 p.m. and you'll be treated to exhibit tours, music and dance performances, multimedia art, photography, family activities, and birthday cake. Levine Museum of the New South, 200 E. Seventh St., 704-333-1887, www.museumofthenewsouth.org.

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Town Hall Meeting this Saturday to Address Childhood Obesity in the African-American Community

The Links, Incorporated, a national organization of professional women of color, is hosting a town hall meeting on "Addressing Childhood Obesity in the African-American Community." The event takes place this Saturday, April 2, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at The Mint Museum Uptown (500 S. Tryon St.).

The Charlotte Chapter and the Crown Jewels Chapter of The Links are holding this town hall meeting as part of the national initiative their organization created to address obesity in children and families. The town hall meeting is meant to not only educate those in attendance, but to also offer opportunities for the community to get involved in tackling this serious health issue. A panel of local leading health professionals in the areas of education, health, food and nutrition, physical fitness, mental health, and social services will each discuss obesity issues prevalent in African-American youth.

A continental breakfast/lunch will be served and door prizes will be given away. There will also be a "Biggest Loser Contest." Confirmed speakers include: Mayor Anthony Foxx; Barbara Pellin, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools; Cheryl Emmanuel, Mecklenburg County Health Department; Gardner Hawkins, Melange Health Solution; Rodney Adams, Department of Social Services; Eric Watson, Food Lion; Reggie McAfee, Cross-Country for Youth; and Dr. A.Q. Queen, UNC Charlotte.

The Links, Incorporated has formed a National Commission on Childhood Obesity Prevention and unveiled a policy brief, "Childhood Obesity in the African-American Community: Issues and Policy Recommendations from an African American Perspective," by Dr. Jada Moore Ruffin; a children's activity book; and The Kid's Editon, a curriculum designed to help chapters plan the program content of childhood obesity programs. The organization has received corporate support for these efforts, including a $35,000 grant from Wells Fargo to support community outreach related to childhood obesity, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation contributed a grant of $300,000 to assist with documenting the prevalence of obesity amongst African-American children. Find out more about this initiative at www.linksinc.org.

If you have any questions about Saturday's event, contact Tiffany L. Jones, publicity chair, at 201-304-2933 or digitaldivasinc@gmail.com.

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