Enlarge Former N.C. Gov. Jim Martin spoke about "Faith and the Community" at "i.e." on Nov. 10.

Posted: November 11th, 2009 Greg Lacour

The Foundation For The Carolinas Center for Civic Leadership on Nov. 10 hosted a principal who spoke about the challenges of rejuvenating a low-performing school; a biology professor talking about the possibility of programmable bacteria and an arts firm manager who discussed, among other things, the artistic potential of water purification plants.

This was, you may have surmised, not an ordinary event. It was the center’s inaugural Information Exchange (“i.e.”), a two-hour session featuring a series of community “thought leaders” talking about whatever they happened to be thinking about.

The session, held before about 120 people in the new Wells Fargo Auditorium on the Wells Fargo Cultural Campus uptown, is designed to be an annual event and an opportunity to get people in a position to make public decisions thinking broadly about an array of subjects, said David Julian, the foundation’s vice president for development.

“We see this as an opportunity to bring together a broad spectrum of speakers … talking about wide variety of issues,” Julian said. “We want to spark thoughts in people’s minds, be provocative and have some fun.”

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Posted: November 8th, 2009 Meaghan Clark

Photo by James Willamor. Click here for more of Willamor's photos

Historian Tom Hanchett is a well-traveled man. On Friday, Nov. 6, Hanchett took a group of people around the world and around Charlotte on the fourth annual New South BBQ Tour.

Comprised of foodies, conventioneers and couples on a date night, the group of 50 or so people boarded a bus outside of the Levine Museum and headed to the east side of town to discover great BBQ from everywhere but North Carolina.

Traveling along Central Avenue, Hanchett talked about the ethnic families and entrepreneurs who have made their home in Plaza Midwood and East Charlotte. Within minutes, the bus pulled into the parking lot of a little strip mall with restaurants and stores representing Vietnam, the Middle East and El Salvador. The group split in two, heading into Ben Thanh Vietnamese Restaurant and El Pulgarcito de American.

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Posted: November 7th, 2009 Ayofemi Kirby

Throughout November, the Crossroads Charlotte Correspondents will spotlight individuals who deserve thanks for what they do to improve the city's social capital.

How Sarah Stevenson connects community:

Activist and Co-Founder, Tuesday Morning Breakfast Forum

About Sarah:

When history was made in Charlotte, it’s likely that Sarah Stevenson, 84, was there. A local resident since 1941, Stevenson became passionate about civil rights for all as a parent of students attending public school.

An advocate for achieving equality through education, Stevenson pioneered integrating the local Parent-Teacher Association, eventually becoming the local chapter President. Years later, she became the first African-American woman on the Charlotte school board.

As Stevenson continued to build her legacy in Charlotte, she became Director of the Community Relations Dispute Settlement program in the 1960s, training area police officers and professionals to mediate issues between local citizens. She also continued her work as a leader in organizations such as the National Conference for Christians and Jews (now the Charlotte Coalition for Social Justice) and the Black Political Caucus.

In 1980, Stevenson and other area leaders started the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Forum to provide African-Americans an opportunity to discuss issues with elected and appointed officials. Nearly 30 years later, Stevenson still moderates the Forum every week to a diverse audience at the West Charlotte Recreation Center.

What she thinks our community needs?

“We need better communication, we need to have more respect for each other, and we need to treat each other as God’s people. We need to love each other, and out of that will come issues of education, respect, equality and better treatment for all.”

Posted: November 4th, 2009 Greg Lacour

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Damaru Baral emigrated from Bhutan to the United States on Nov. 2, 2008, leaving three sons and their children in a Nepalese refugee camp. He spoke no English. He had no real job skills.

A year later to the day, the 52-year-old farmer danced on a stage in the fellowship hall at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Charlotte, singing songs in English with other immigrants like him.

The occasion was the Fall Festival for Central Piedmont Community College’s Family Literacy Program, which teaches basic English-language, GED and job skills to recent immigrants, many of them refugees from countries ravaged by oppression, war or both.

Baral was referred to the class not long after settling in Charlotte, where the International Organization for Migration placed him. He lives here with his wife and two of his children. He said he hopes his three sons in the United Nations refugee camp – ages 20, 22 and 24 – can join him next year. Until then, the CPCC classes are helping him and the family he has in Charlotte adjust.

“It’s good,” he said on Nov. 2. “We don’t know how to speak English, and now we are learning.”

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