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Posted: December 3rd, 2011 Brant Aycock

What is New Courage?  That was the subject discussed on Wednesday night at the latest installment of The Cankerworm - Crossroads Charlotte's homage to the Moth, a NYC story-telling forum.  During the event - participants had five minutes to discuss the night's topic. 

New Courage was very much on the minds of everyone at UNC Charlotte that day, as the University had declared it to be "New Courage Day".  The day included panel discussions, dramatic performances, art exhibits, and musical performances designed to examine the significant concepts and ideas that would help bring New Courage to the community.  The New Courage Project was born out of the Levine Museum of the New South's award winning exhibits COURAGE: the Carolina Story that Changed America and Para Todos Los Ninos: For all the Children. Both UNC Charlotte and the Levine Museum are Crossroads Charlotte organizations.

Quentin "Q" Talley served as Master of Ceremonies, and 8 courageous speakers (Clockwise from top left:  Shardae, Blaq Baree, Todd VanDenburg, Melissa Harris, Amber Williams, Judith Funderburke, Hannah Hassan and Khalidah Akbar) took their turn on the stage at the UNCC Student Union to give their perspectives.

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Posted: November 30th, 2011 Lee Howard

Stories worth sharing this week:

Charlotte activist Roberta Dunn, who is transgender and sits on the board of the LGBT Community Center of Charlotte, was “pleasantly surprised” to be invited to attend The White House’s annual holiday party Dec. 14. The visit will include a briefing with members of President Obama’s senior staff. Phil Hargett, a Mecklenburg LGBT Political Action Committee steering committee member and former chair of the group, will join Dunn in Washington, D.C.

Charlotte Housing Authority commissioner Lucille Puckett was recently evicted from the public housing complex where she lived after meeting repeatedly with a man who had been banned from CHA property. The eviction also means the loss of her position on the housing authority's governing board. Do you think this was the proper course of action? Why or why not?

The middle class is beginning to shrink, as the ranks of the extremely wealthy and the extremely poor expand. Recent data shows that between 1970 and 2007, the volume of people living in poor and affluent Charlotte metro neighborhoods has doubled. And, understandably, the shift is a result of changes in income. Cities nationwide are seeing the same trend, according to a study released this month by Stanford University researchers.

Several students from the United Arab Emirates were removed from a flight from Charlotte to Washington, D.C. on Thanksgiving Day after the pilot told police at Charlotte-Douglas International there was a security concern. Nothing was found, and now the UAE wants more information about the incident and is asking how such situations may be avoided in the future.

Posted: November 29th, 2011 Liz Barrett

This month the Front Porch Grants program kicked off the new season with a breakfast at The Light Factory to honor the 23 organizations that have received funding for the 2011-2012 cycle. The Front Porch Grants program, named to represent the simple gathering place of our neighborhood front porches, funds programs that increase trust, build bridges across differences and expand social connections and informal networks by building relationships. Grants of up to $2,500 are used to support the creation of small-scale gatherings that build social capital by exchanging ideas, experiences or actions.  Crossroads Charlotte provides the framework for Front Porch Grants.

Over the next seven months, these 23 organizations will use limited funding to create impactful events that result in meaningful relationships and strengthen our diverse Charlotte community. 

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Posted: November 23rd, 2011 Lee Howard

Stories worth sharing this week:

• Marie Johns, deputy director of the U.S. Small Business Administration, made a whistle stop in the Queen City this past week. She spoke at Johnson C. Smith University hoping to inspire tomorrow’s entrepreneurs. Johns has been touring the country encouraging young people to start their own businesses. 
• Jennifer Roberts, chair of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, announced last week that she won’t seek re-election next year. But Roberts, a Democrat who first joined the board in 2004, may still have a future in politics. She said she has been in talks with state and national leaders about “other positions.”
• More repercussions from the ongoing CIAA hubbub: The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority’s Ereka Crawford-Brim, who was paid $115,000 in bonus money earmarked to her by the CIAA basketball tourney, resigned this past week. 
• Bad news on the labor front. The North Carolina Justice Center recently crunched numbers compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and found that almost 18% of North Carolinians are looking for full-time work. 
• Harding University High School is under siege. The school’s population doubled this past year with the closing of Waddell High. The student body now stands at 1,800. The number of violent acts, what the school district calls “incidents,” has jumped more than tenfold to 42 from four last year.