Enlarge Group discussion at the Interfaith Summit. Photo: The Charlotte Observer

Posted: March 14th, 2012 Lee Howard

• Mayor Anthony Foxx and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Coalition for Housing hosted an Interfaith Summit on affordable housing and homelessness. The event drew more than 300 people Friday to the Park Expo and Conference Center. Those gathered represented almost 100 area churches. The featured speaker was The Rev. Floyd Flake, a former New York congressman and the pastor of Greater Allen A.M.E. Cathedral of New York who spearheaded a renewal of the Jamaica neighborhood in Queens. According to The Charlotte Observer, the Rev. Flake cautioned the hundreds of elected officials, agency executives and spiritual representatives that they had to put differences aside, act fast and produce clear results. "Nobody wants to climb on a train that's stopped in the middle of the tracks," he said. Click here for Observer photos from the event.

• Affordable Housing and Homlessness were the topic on WFAE's Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins on Tuesday. Among those interviewed about the state of the homeless and efforts to help: Mike Rizer - Chairman, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Coalition for Housing; Dr. Maria Hanlin - Executive Director, Mecklenburg Ministries; Kelly Lynn - Director of Development at Charlotte Family Housing; and David Levine - Director of Media, Serve Charlotte's Homeless. Click here to listen to the program.

• Sibusiso Monguni led the combined choirs of Mallard Creek High School and his Hlanganani! 2012 Unity Tour Honors Chorus of South Africa for an impromptu performance of a traditional African song and dance at Mallard Creek High Friday. Friendship Missionary Baptist Church is hosting the African students for a month-long visit. The choir performed for the public at Missionary Baptist Church on Beatties Ford Road Monday. 

• Most North Carolinians oppose a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages, new poll results show. The amendment will be on the May 8 ballot. The survey found 54% of N.C. residents opposed the constitutional amendment and 38% supported it. 

• CLT Blog is hosting "282," a weekly TV news show about hot topics in Charlotte and beyond. Recently, the show featured discussions on the importance of minority voter turnout for the 2012 election with Rod Garvin, who is on the leadership team for the Hip Hop Caucus in Charlotte, and social entrepreneurship with Charles Thomas of Queen City Forward, a nonprofit that helps social entrepreneurs use business strategies to solve social problems.

Posted: March 12th, 2012 Lee Howard

We’ve all heard the story about how Jesus, in a moment of fury, rampaged through the Temple at Jerusalem, so incensed was he that his Father’s house had been turned into a marketplace.

Men were selling livestock and moneychangers had set up tables, even as Passover was approaching. Jesus, making a whip from cords, drove out the animals and overturned the tables, scattering the moneychangers’ coins.

Jesus was cleaning house. The Rev. Tom Latimer used the story from John 2:13 as a metaphor Sunday about the need all people have to clean their spiritual house. Latimer, pastor at the predominantly white St. Stephen United Methodist Church, was speaking as a guest minister at the traditionally African-American Antioch Missionary Baptist Church at 232 Skyland Ave in Grier Heights.

Meanwhile, Antioch’s pastor, The Rev. Donnie Garris, was giving his own sermon across town at Latimer’s church. His discussion focused on Philippians 2:5-8.

They were participating in Charlotte’s third annual Xchange Sermons, a program sponsored and organized by Mecklenburg Ministries and Crossroads Charlotte. 

As has been observed by many, the most segregated place in any city in a given week is a church on Sunday morning.

Latimer, shortly before his sermon, said he was “delighted” to participate in the exchange both as a personal cultural experience and as a means of building a bridge between races.

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Posted: March 11th, 2012 Crystal Dempsey

Winterfield Elementary’s Youth Orchestra presented a program Tuesday, March 6, that highlighted what the 65 students have been learning this year. The Connecting Families Through Music event was the second in a series that brings together students, parents and faculty at the East Charlotte school.

Among the student ensembles that performed with violinist Rosemary Furniss and Charlotte Symphony musicians were the student chorus and winds, string ensemble and the “bucket band.” Pianist Noel Freidline and soprano Dawn Anthony also performed with the youth orchestra.

The group’s final performance for 2011-’12 is set for May 1. 

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Posted: March 7th, 2012 Lee Howard

The CIAA swarmed into Charlotte last week with a kickoff luncheon at the Charlotte Chamber on Wednesday. The CIAA is a basketball tourney for traditionally African-American colleges. It marked its 100^th anniversary last week. As many as 200,000 are believed to have attended. Last year’s economic impact was more than $44 million.

Temple Beth El’s Rabbi Judy Schindler has been a fixture on the Charlotte scene for years, working on causes from eliminating homelessness to championing the right of same-sex couples to marry. Because of her “tireless and often courageous work” in the glare of conflict, Schindler has been named Charlotte's 2011 Woman of the Year by a committee of past winners of the 56-year-old award.

A state constitutional amendments panel met last week to "prepare an official explanation of the proposed Marriage Amendment” to the N.C. Constitution that will be put before voters in the May 8 election.

Some of Charlotte’s largest community and family foundations are about to provide nine public schools in West Charlotte with $55 million extra dollars. Project L.I.F.T. is intended to help some of the city’s most troubled schools.

First Lady Michelle Obama was in town last week as part of the CIAA tournament festivities to promote her “Let’s Move!” Initiative. It’s a health and fitness program she’s spearheading to help stem the tide of childhood obesity.

The lounge in Myers Hall at Johnson C. Smith University, along with the stairwells to each of the dormitory’s four floors, have been transformed into an artistic showcase for African-American women with powerful messages. Courtesy of a $1,000 grant from Duke Energy, local artist Lena Hopkins-Jackson created a mural she calls “Tapestry” for the women’s dorm.