Racial & Economic Justice

Receuved via e-mail:

"Why Stories Matter: An evening of performance and discussion about development and gentrification in Chapel Hill-Carrboro."
>
> Tuesday, Nov 11
> 8:00 PM
> Bingham 103

Join us as we watch sections of a promotional DVD put together by Greenbridge developers during their plans to build ten story building adjacent to Northside.  We will watch the film in sections, with group discussion and performances by Spoken Word artists and others in between.

-Come out and learn how Chapel Hill and the University are caught up in the globalizing force of development, and the discourse that produces certain understandings of progress and progressive.

-Come out and see the amazing power of performance as an intervention in oppressive discourses and practices.

-Come out and help us think about how the stories we tell about ourselves and others have material and real impacts on humans and communities, how contested definitions of sustainability and community come out of different histories.

Greenbridge is a $50 million mixed-use project going up on the Graham, Rosemary and Merritt Mill Road block of Chapel Hill, bordering the Northside neighborhood, one of the few historically African-American communities in Chapel Hill.  The building will be 10 stories high, more than three times as tall as any surrounding building.  As the group started working on their application for a Special Use Permit from the Town Council for their project, they produced a "documentary" of the history of the community, weaving stories of elderly residents in the area and their vision of "sustainability" in the LEED certified building.

Northside, one of Chapel Hill's most historic neighborhoods, has been a community of  African American families for more than a hundred years. It was an active site of Civil Rights activism, a pioneer in public education for African-Americans in the South, and a place known for vital church communities.  In the 90s there was a community push to clean up the neighborhood, which also made it more lucrative for development.  Now student renters and bigger developments like Greenbridge threaten to price out people on fixed income, long-term residents and keep out families from moving to the area.
 

Via e-mail:

CHCCS to hold Art History Timeline

Students in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools have been drawing and painting remembrances of the school district’s 100-year history in anticipation of the Centennial Art History Timeline.  The art show will open to the public on Wednesday, November 5, from 6-8 pm at Lincoln Center .

Guests will enter Lincoln Center and discover a “time warp” that will transport them back in time.  They will then view works of art in chronological order that were created by students in the district’s schools and after-school programs.  Events to be depicted include the opening of the district's 17 schools, various developments in school desegregation and a fire that destroyed Chapel Hill High School in 1942.

In addition to the visual art, students from the district’s drama and music programs also will be on hand.  Drama students will transform themselves into characters from the district history in a “wax museum” format to greet guests.  Students from music combos at the district’s three high schools will perform in the Boardroom, where refreshments will be served.  The district’s Centennial Video will play in the Superintendent’s Conference Room, and displays of books for the upcoming Centennial Book Chat will be available for review.

 

The event is being produced by Arts Coordinator Theresa Grywalski and the Centennial Planning Committee.  The show is free and open to the public.