Making art with salt at the Mint Museum? A CAST Carolina Actors Studio Theatre show set in a wrestling ring? Charlotte culture reaches way outside the box. My Keeping It Positive report on Fox News Rising:
Why Obama always returns to North Carolina
President Obama just can’t stay away from North Carolina, though after giving him hope and a victory in 2008, the fickle state cozied back up to the GOP in 2012. Being wooed with a national convention and a stream of visits from surrogates wasn’t quite enough to stem a statewide swing from blue to red. Yet there the president was on Wednesday, the day after his State of the Union speech, selling his ideas on manufacturing and the economy at the Linamar engine factory near Asheville, N.C.
Playing hard to get is irresistible.
Feb152013
Keeping it Positive: Romantic Soundtrack in Charlotte
Isn’t it romantic? Music for your Valentine, from opera to jazz to chamber delights.
Feb132013
Will the next pope in a new world change the Catholic Church?
The world and the Catholic Church have changed, or maybe they’ve just become more honest. In the pews of Roman Catholic churches around the world — less crowded than they used to be — there is devotion, but also doubt. Now there is also confusion about what kind of leader the next pope will be.
Feb132013
Gantt Center explores music, message of Fela
If you attend the award-winning musical “Fela!” during its Feb. 25 and 26 run at the Belk Theater at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, the play’s infectious music and dancing will be more than enough to satisfy. But to add meaning to the music, you need to know something about artist and activist Fela Kuti, the subject of the high-energy show.
“Fela: From Abeokuta to Broadway — a Panel Discussion” at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture on Feb. 15, will explore the man behind the musical, a figure whose Afrobeat rhythms carried a message about the quest for social justice in his Nigerian home that resonated across the globe. “My generation lived on his music,” said Dr. Akin Ogundiran, chair of the Africana Studies Department at UNC Charlotte. “You can listen to it and dance, but when you really pay attention you don’t want to dance, you want to listen to the words. When it’s finished, you are either angry or you are sober.”
Feb122013
Will Obama’s proposals stop black gun violence?
CHARLOTTE – It’s not Newtown, Conn., where a massacre at an elementary school galvanized the nation and spurred Washington to act. Nor has it become a symbol of gun violence like Chicago. In fact, last year in Charlotte, the number of homicides actually decreased to 52, the lowest number in 24 years. But in a 2012 incident that echoes others around the country, a 17-year-old African-American boy here was shot and killed after another teen thought the victim disrespected him in front of a girl. The five young black men charged in his murder were teenagers as well.
So officials and community leaders here are closely watching the national debate over reducing gun violence. And when asked about the president’s proposals, which include a ban on assault weapons, universal background checks and limits on high-capacity magazines, they praise the ideas, but emphasize those are only a partial solution.
Feb062013
Keeping it Positive: Black History Month in Charlotte
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Black History Month is in full swing all throughout Charlotte. Contributions by African-Americans are being preserved as well as celebrated through different events. A Keeping it Positive report highlights all the places you can take part in observing.
Feb062013
Strom Thurmond’s black daughter: a symbol of America’s complicated racial history
Thurmond’s daughter was for years kept on the outside looking in, a pattern that mirrors the lives of African Americans, integral to the life blood of the country’s progress and promise, yet not always invited to sit at the family table.
Feb052013
How will the Violence Against Women Act fare in Congress?
A bill reauthorized twice since its inception in 1994 stalled last year. Will a new version gain bipartisan support?
Feb052013
More housework means less sex for hubby, says study. What’s that, again?
As women’s roles in everything from combat to the office are being debated, research says ‘looking under the hood’ not only sounds sexier than washing dishes, it is sexier.
Jan312013
