Enlarge The Jorden Klemons Trio loosens up before a set at Common Market

Posted: June 19th, 2011 Lee Howard

Customers who brought their early-morning faces into Common Market at SouthEnd last Friday were greeted by the surging jazz-fusion sounds of the Jordan Klemons Trio.

Klemons’ band and poet “Mania,” (aka Travis Rosen) were the entertainment for the latest installment of Crossroads Charlotte’s Art in the A.M. series.

The roving free arts performances have found a roost for the rest of the summer at eclectic Common Market, 1515 S. Tryon Street. Additional Art in the A.M. events are scheduled for every third Friday of the month until further notice.

Quentin “Q” Talley of On Q Productions hosted the performances, noting that live music and a stirring poetry recital are a great, if unorthodox, means of helping people greet the day.

“It’s a way to shake things up,” Q says. “It’s a way to introduce people to art in a new way and at a new time.”

Common Market offers a whimsical setting for the event. In addition to coffee and exotic teas, the café offers rows of novel items from microwaveable corn on the cob and wax lips to an impressive array of beer and wine, including sake and a black ale called “Old Engine Oil.”

Café owner Chuck Barger says he loves the concept of exposing his patrons to art first thing in the morning.

“It helps people interact and introduce themselves,” says Barger, who has hosted Art in the A.M. events in the past. “People can meet each other and get a little culture at the same time.”

Keep Reading

Posted: June 17th, 2011 Greg Lacour

With a long history of resistance to racial and cultural change, the South is once again trying to adapt.  

Over the past two decades, the region has seen the fastest rate of Latino population growth, which has transformed cities like Charlotte and touched off a rebirth of intolerance reminiscent of the days of the Civil Rights movement, when African-Americans were thought of as subhuman, criminal, vectors for disease.

This week, officials from seven history museums in the Southeast gathered at Levine Museum of the New South to launch a new project they hope will lead to constructive, civil, fact-based dialogue about the heated topic of immigration.

It’s called the Civil Rights Sites of Conscience Network, and it will operate under the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (ICSC), a New York City-based organization that works with museums around the world on education and community engagement programs.

Levine Museum, chosen to host the four-day conference to launch the initiative, is one of the seven member museums. The others:

• The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham, Ala.


• The International Civil Rights Center and Museum, Greensboro.


• The Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans.


• The National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis.


• The National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta.


• The Duke Human Rights Center’s Pauli Murray Project, Durham.

Keep Reading

Posted: June 17th, 2011 Greg Lacour

With a long history of resistance to racial and cultural change, the South is once again trying to adapt.  

Over the past two decades, the region has seen the fastest rate of Latino population growth, which has transformed cities like Charlotte and touched off a rebirth of intolerance reminiscent of the days of the Civil Rights movement, when African-Americans were thought of as subhuman, criminal, vectors for disease.

This week, officials from seven history museums in the Southeast gathered at Levine Museum of the New South to launch a new project they hope will lead to constructive, civil, fact-based dialogue about the heated topic of immigration.

It’s called the Civil Rights Sites of Conscience Network, and it will operate under the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (ICSC), a New York City-based organization that works with museums around the world on education and community engagement programs.

Levine Museum, chosen to host the four-day conference to launch the initiative, is one of the seven member museums. The others:

• The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham, Ala.


• The International Civil Rights Center and Museum, Greensboro.


• The Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans.


• The National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis.


• The National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta.


• The Duke Human Rights Center’s Pauli Murray Project, Durham.

Keep Reading

Posted: June 15th, 2011 Greg Lacour

Some stories worth sharing this week:

• Superintendent of public schools is a tough job anywhere, but even by those standards, Dr. Peter Gorman has had a difficult five years as head of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Gorman has angered teachers by emphasizing testing and data in student performance and alienated many of their parents by pitching plans to consolidate and close certain schools. So it was no real surprise to learn he’s leaving. Even now, the legacy he leaves is decidedly two-sided.


• The Charlotte Chamber hosted a 2012 Democratic National Convention kickoff event Tuesday at Central Piedmont Community College, and the overriding theme was: “Charlotte has a story to tell.” A lot of talented people are coming together to figure out how to tell that story. What do you think the story should be?


• Mayor Anthony Foxx and Charlotte City Council members have concerns about oversight of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, the city’s tourism wing. The CRVA in April hired a consultant to review its operations after questionable payments to a staff member. But the consultant produced only a three-page summary with few details, and council members withheld $10 million in funding to the agency in the $1.6 billion city budget they passed Monday.


• A Cuban soccer player used last week’s Gold Cup matches at Bank of America Stadium as a platform to defect to the United States. Yosniel Mesa says he wants to make a living playing soccer here. Good luck to him!


• Carolinas Aviation Museum, squeezed next to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, has never ranked high on the list of must-see local tourist attractions. That might change now that the museum has scored its biggest coup – the fuselage of famed US Airways Flight 1549, the Charlotte-bound “Miracle On the Hudson” plane that pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger successfully ditched in the Hudson River with no loss of life. Do you plan to visit the museum anytime soon?