Arts & Lifestyle
Of Interest **?
Hall joins SECCA
Patricia Hall started as the Southeastern Center
for Contemporary Art's development and member
ship officer on May 15.
Hall has been a part of the cultural community in
North Carolina for more than 20 years. Most recent
ly, Hall served as the director
of the Annual Fund for the
North Carolina Symphony for
nine years.
"I want to build an excit
ing membership program for
the community so they can
enjoy activities at SECCA to
the fullest extent," she says. "1
am also anticipating partner
ing with the corporate part
ners so we can provide pro
grams for their employees and
Hall
clients.
One of Hall's first projects is creating a New Era
Fund at SECCA.
"SECCA is entering a new era of exciting pro
grams and collaboration with emerging artists. To
improve the overall experience our visitors receive,
I hope many people will support the New Era Fund
to provide a stable financial foundation for new pro
grams to begin."
Hall is relishing her move to Winston-Salem
from Raleigh. She said, "I am enjoying the many
cultural offerings here in the City of the Arts, and I
look forward to meeting the citizens of this great
community."
Laura to return to
'General Hospital'
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Genie Francis is check
ing back into "General Hospital."
The 46-year-old actress again will reprise her
role as Laura on the ABC daytime soap opera begin
ning Aug. 26.
The character's 1981 fairy-tale wedding to Luke
(played by Anthony Geary) was watched by 30 mil
lion viewers and landed the couple on the cover of
Newsweek magazine. Francis began playing Laura
in 1976.
"This is a short visit," Francis told The
Associated Press last Friday. "It's a mother-daughter
story. Years ago when I started playing the character
as a 14-year-old girl, it was a mother-daughter story,
only I was the daughter. So it's kinda cool this is full
circle. It's nice to come back for visits. "General
Hospital' is my home."
Laura was last seen slipping in and out of a cata
tonic state in 2007. The upcoming appearance will
feature Laura in a story line with daughter Lulu.
Francis, who now runs a home-furnishing shop in
Belfast, Maine, said she was told that Laura would
n't be killed off during her latest guest stint.
Francis won a supporting actress Daytime
Emmy in 2007 for previously reprising the role.
Wal-Mart pulls 'racist' comic
HOUSTON (AP) - Wal-Mart is pulling from its
shelves a popular Mexican comic book that features
a protagonist with exaggerated black features after a
Houston customer complained that "Memin
Pinguin" was racist.
The latest issue of the
comic, "Memin para presi
dente" (Memin for
President), was being sold in
select Wal-Mart stores that
have a large Latino customer
base, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
spokesman Lorenzo Lopez
in Bentonville, Ark., said.
But the discount giant
decided to remove the comic
from stores nationwide last
week.
"We understand that Memin is a popular figure
in Mexico," the company said in a statement.
"However, given the sensitivity to the negative
image Memin can portray to some, we felt that it
was best to no longer carry the item in our stores.
We apologize to those customers who may have
been offended by the book's images."1
The Memin Pinguin comic was part of a series of
Spanish-language titles carried in Wal-Mart stores.
The comic, first published in the 1940s, revolves
around Memin Pinguin, a small Mexican-Cuban boy
whose street smarts and adventures reflect the life of
a poor boy in Mexico City. The boy, portrayed as a
likeable rascal, earns money shining shoes and sell
ing newspapers to help his mother.
The characters of Memin and his mother have
been criticized as throwbacks to stereotypical depic
tion of blacks. It is not the first time Memin has
sparked debate in this country.
Hollywood now urging
kids to spurn tobacco
A
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Hollywood to kids: Our
movies glamorize smoking, but don't start yourself.
Six major studios will include anti-smoking
announcements on millions of DVDs of motion pic
tures that include scenes with tobacco use.
The public service announcements will appear
on films rated O, PG and PG-13.
The participating studios: Paramount Pictures,
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century
Fox, Universal Pictures-, Walt Disney Co. and
' Warner Bros.
The deal involving the studios and the state of
California was brokered by the Entertainment
Industry Foundation - a philanthropy group. The
state developed the anti-smoking announcements
7 _ i ?
Cheris Hodges
Author
explores
the world
of pro sports
Cheris Hodges will be featured
in Romantic Times Magazine
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
' a
Charlotte-based author Cheris Hodges, a
former Chronicle and News & Record
reporter, will be featured in the September
issue of Romantic Tunes, a national magazine
that features authors and their books.
The article featuring Hodges focuses on
football players as heroes in romance novels.
The Johnson C. Smith graduate will release
"Let's Get It On" in August - a book that fea
tures a fictional Carolina Panthers player as.
the hero.
In the book, the
wide receiver
Maurice Goings is
left at the altar
when his fianc?,
Lauryn, leaves him
for another woman.
While he is left to
figure out what has
happened to his
life, his high school
sweetheart, Kenya
Taylor, is in Atlanta
enjoying the fruits
of her success as a
lawyer. Maurice and Kenya parted on bad
terms when the football star betrayed her to be
with Lauryn.
Kenya thought that Maurice was in her
past, but when she is forced to relocate to
Charlotte, she knows that there is a good
chance that he will once again be in her pres
ent.
A huge football fan, the Charlotte resident
was eager to pen a novel revolving around her
favorite sport and favorite team - well one of
her favorite teams. Hodges is actually a die
hard Dallas Cowboys fan, but she will cheer
for the Carolina Panthers when they are play
ing anyone other than Dallas.
Hodges, now a writer at Charlotte's
Creative Loafing, is the author of seven nov
els, including "Just Can't Get Enough," "The
Business of Love" and "A Love of Her Own."
"Let's Get It On," he eighth novel, is her
second book with Dafina, Kensington Books'
African- American romance line.
Family of musicians to
receive prestigious medal
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
The Healing Force, a well
known local group known for
weaving music with tradition
al African storytelling, will
receive a lofty honor later this
month during one of its con
certs.
The group will be present
ed with the International
(Ralph) Bunche Medal on
Thursday, July 31 at The
Blessings Project, 823
Reynolda Rd. The group will
be the first Bunche Laureates
to also be named Goodwill
Ambassadors of the Arts.
The honor recognizes the
group for its 33 years of
bridging and celebrating
African and African
American culture through its
music. Members of the
Anderson family make up The
Healing Force. Husband and
wife Joseph and Gail
Anderson founded the group
and later added their son,
Karim, and daughter, Sonji.
The International Bunche
Medal was crafted in 2003 to
honor the 100th anniversary
of the birth of Dr. Ralph J.
Bunche, who in 1950 became
the first United States citizen
and first person of color to
receive the Nobel Peace
Prize. The Bunche Medal was
designed by artist Alex
Shagin, designer of the
Moscow Olympic medals and
whose coins and works of art
are in museums, galleries, and
private collections around the
world. Other reciepients of
the medal include Nelson
Mandela and Paul
Rusesabagina, whose story
was told in the film, "Hotel
Photo courtesy of The Healing Force
The Andersons have been entertaining audiences for year.
Rwanda."
The Healing Force will
receive its honor at 7 p.m.,
before its benefit concert to
raise funds for the children of
Zambougou, Mali, who are
literally hand building their
own school and adjacent sus
tainable vegetable garden.
A donation of $10 is being
requested for admission to the
concert. Tickets are available
a t
www.TheHealingForceOnline
.com, Kindred Spirits, Body
& Soul and Golden Flower
Tai Chi, all on of which are
Trade Street.
A Look Back
< Books chronicle the city 's past
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
Winston-Salem's glorious
and storied past is the subject
of two new books.
Nashville, Tenn.-based
Turner Publishing Co.'s
"Historic Photos of Winston
Salem" features about 200
rarely seen photos taken in the
city over the last century,
while "Winston-Salem: A
Twin City History," by author
Michael Bricker, tells the story
of the city's emergence from a
Moravian settlement, to an
industrial powerhouse, to
modern times.
Bricker 's book is published
by Charleston, S.C. -based The
History Press Inc. While
wealthy and powerful families
with last names like Reynolds
and Hanes are often associated
with Winston-Salem's success,
Bricker uses the book to also
shed light on the workers and
other average folks whose con
tributions have often been
ignored.
The images in "Historic
Photos of Winston-Salem"
come from the Forsyth County
Public Library, the Library of
Congress and the North
Carolina State Archives. The
descriptive captions for each
photo were written by Wade G.
Dudley, an East Carolina
University professor who has
penned several books on histo
ry
"I firmly believe that to
understand the present and
have any hope for a better
future, we must understand the
past. Old photographs are a
way of understanding change
and the agents of change," said
Dudley, who penned a similar
book on Wilmington.
Among the photographs in
the book are vintage shots of
landmarks like Old Salem and
Wake Forest University and of
historic visits by dignitaries
See Books on All
Come On Down!
PKNew?F<*VOSN
Alfonso Ribeiro, of "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" and "Silver Spoons"
fame, is back on television. He has signed on to host "Catch 21" on
the Game Show Network. The show combines the card game 21 with
pop-culture trivia questions and debuts July 21 at 7:30 p.m.
%
Singer Webb will perform
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
The singer/ songwriter who has been compared to the likes of
Carole King, Janis Ian and Joni Mitchell will perform at The
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Winston-Salem on Saturday
(July 19) at 7 p.m.
Amy Carol Webb, who has
been described as a 'one-woman
songweaver,' will perform her
unique brand of acoustic music at
the church, which is located at
4055 Robinhood Rd.
The Oklahoma native's music
reflects the same pioneering spir
it, tenacity, integrity and never
quit grit that her Native American
ancestors exhibited when they
settled the territory that would
become Oklahoma.
At the age of five, her folks
put her on the stage for the first
time. Eventually, she got her first
guitar - a used Harmony gut
string - and taught herself songs
such as "Red River Valley."
By 14, she was writing and
? ? ? ? ?
Photo couneiy Of Amy WtM.
Amy Carol Webb has devel
oped a loyal following.
piaying music ai nometown events and studying works from a
diverse palette of artists, everyone from Guthrie to Gershwin,
Leonard Cohen to Leonard Bernstein, Bonnie Raitt to Beverly Sills.
She graduated college with a degree in performing arts and hit the
road, touring most of the country, Japan, Canada and Mexico.
After taking a break from music to raise her two sons, Webb
reemerged in 1995 and has since released five popular and critical
ly acclaimed independent CDs.
Tickets to the concert are $15. For more information contact the
Rev. Charlie Davis, of The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of
Winston-Salem, at 336-473-0318. Hear samples of Webb's music at
wwwamycarolwebb .com/music .html