Enlarge Stacey Richards and Holly Welch Stubbing speak to a class at Philip O. Berry Academy.

Posted: February 19th, 2010 Greg Lacour

A new audience got to view the Crossroads Charlotte movie on Feb. 18, thanks to Teach For America.

The Charlotte branch of the national organization, which recruits college graduates to teach in schools with high numbers of at-risk students, held Teach For America Week in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. That meant 25 leaders from politics, business and education got to teach a class; Mayor Anthony Foxx, former Mayor Pat McCrory, U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan and the presidents or chancellors of area universities all took places in front of classrooms.   

On Feb. 18, Holly Welch Stubbing, a senior vice president at Foundation For The Carolinas, showed up at Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology to teach 25 ninth-graders in Coury Shadyac’s English I class. Her springboard was “The Beat Goes On” and “Eye To Eye,” two of the four segments from the Crossroads Charlotte movie illustrating how Charlotte might look in 2015. 

"I thought it was a great illustration of the kind of community-building work the Foundation does,” Stubbing said. “These students are in the Class of 2013, and they’ll be right on the cusp of what we’re talking about.” 

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Posted: February 18th, 2010 Tonya Jameson

A near capacity crowd filled ImaginOn’s McColl Family Theatre to see Mike Wiley’s adaptation of “Blood Done Sign My Name.”

The play examines how the murder of Henry “Dickie” Marrow in Oxford, a town northeast of Durham, in 1970 nearly ripped the town apart. (It is based on Tim Tyson’s memoir of the same name.) Marrow's death and the subsequent acquittal of the two white primary suspects led to angry marches by African Americans as well as the firebombing of white-owned tobacco warehouses. Tyson’s father Vernon was a Methodist preacher who tried to unite the community.

For nearly two hours, Wiley portrayed people such as Henry Marrow’s mother, Vernon Tyson, a young Tim Tyson, Eddie McCoy and Golden Frinks. With the exception of Ben Chavis, many of the people who fought for justice in Oxford are relatively unknown. (Read Tonya Jameson's Q&A with Wiley featured on QCityMetro.com.)

This incident isn’t cataloged in the annals of black history, likely because it happened more often than people realize, Tyson says.

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Posted: February 16th, 2010 Crystal Dempsey

By Ayofemi Kirby and Tonya Jameson

On Valentine’s Day, while couples around the country expressed their love for each other, two faith leaders encouraged congregations to explore the ways they could express their love for God.

As a part of the XChange Sermons program, on Feb. 14, Pastor Nancy Kraft of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church spoke to Unity of Charlotte while the Rev. Nancy Ennis delivered a message at Holy Trinity.

“Rarely do we get to celebrate God on Valentine’s Day,” Pastor Kraft said to the crowd. “So today, I want to explore what we mean about love and our relationship with God.”

Pastor Kraft then shared her surprise when she first told someone she was dating that she loved him and he replied with “Thank You.” “How often, when God tells me I love you, in my life, the best I can do in response is say 'thank you,' ” she said. “But what God would prefer to hear from me, is I love you, too.”

Through the sermon, Pastor Kraft quoted verses from the Bible that highlighted instructions on how to return God’s affection.

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Posted: February 15th, 2010 Greg Lacour

As Dr. Al Cadenhead Jr. and Imam Khalil Akbar got to know each other a few weeks ago, Cadenhead made a deal with him: I promise not to assume you have a bomb strapped to your belt if you promise not to assume I’m a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

It was a joke, of course. But it underscored a serious point. Christian denominations can be suspicious of each other; Christians and, say, Jews can be suspicious of each other. But nothing in this post-9/11 era compares to the suspicion — and sometimes hostility — between Christians and Muslims.

The Xchange Sermons series, in which leaders from different faiths swap pulpits, is designed to help congregations learn about each other. In this case, it helped the ministers learn about each other, too.

Cadenhead and Akbar met a few weeks ago, before Akbar’s Feb. 2 visit to Providence Baptist Church, where Cadenhead is the senior pastor. Akbar, the resident imam at Masjid Ash-Shaheed Islamic Center, and Cadenhead met for a soul-food lunch and learned they had more in common than either had expected. Both are 62. Both have been married to their wives for 40-plus years. Both are from Georgia.

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