Posted: December 28th, 2009 Tonya Jameson

The video opens with a dark screen and a man singing, “What do you see?”

The black fades into a tight shot of artist John W. Love Jr. talking into a microphone telling us we’re not blind. His hypnotic voice narrates over a collage of images of people.

There’s a young man with green hair. A white guy with dreadlocks. A black woman. A pregnant women. Their stories are woven into this narrative we call Charlotte. Love's poem and the accompanying music asks: What do we see when we see Charlotte?

It is the most familiar and vexing question facing this New South city.

Who are we?

It is a question Crossroads Charlotte asks in workshops. It is a question the Levine Museum of the New South, by its mere existence, tries to answer. The question poses even more urgency as we watch the recession chip away at our identity. We no longer feel like a banking center.

The Charlotte Chamber of Commerce is the latest to take a stab at helping us find our identity. The video featuring Love and a host of familiar and unfamiliar faces was created for the chamber’s annual meeting. Since being posted on YouTube in November, the video has received more than 2,000 hits, and lots of positive feedback.

“Hat's off ~ brilliant vision artfully expressed,” wrote one YouTube commenter. “It is invigorating to be reminded of who we are and where we're headed. Who says Charlotte doesn't have soul? It dances proudly in the spotlight throughout this video.”

The six-minute video was inspired by Will-I-Am’s Emmy winning “Yes We Can” video. The chamber piece like Will-I-Am’s was created mostly by people volunteering their time hoping they can make a difference. It was a departure from the typical tongue-in-cheek annual meeting video.

“We said this isn’t the year to really be silly. This has been a tough year for Charlotte,” said Mary Tribble, an annual meeting committee member and the visionary behind the video. “The vision was to challenge people to think at a deeper level in terms of the complexion and potential of Charlotte.”

Crossroads family: Watch the video and tell us what do you see when you see Charlotte? What do you want to see?

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