Arts & Lifestyle
Of Interest ...
Greensboro school to perform
"I Never Sang for My Father"
Weaver Academy, an arts high school in
Greensboro, will open its theatrical season this
evening at 7 pjn. with Robert Anderson's "I Never
Sang for My Father."
Directed by Keith Taylor, the drama explores the
relationship between a son and his aging parents. It
features Jonathan Cobrda, Josh Kautman, Jamie
Caputo, Rebekah Carmichael and many of their tal
ented peers. The production will be staged today
through Saturday at 7 p.m. and on Sunday, Oct: 19 at
2 p.m.
Tickets are $6 for students and $8 for adults and
can be purchased at the door. Weaver Academy is
located in downtown Greensboro at 300 Spring
Street.
Call 336-370 - 8282 for additional information.
Local novelist to talk
about his debut book
Denzil Strickland will present a book discussion
and book*signing for his first novel, "Swimmers in the
Sea," at 3 p.m. Oct. 23 at
YVOA.C rUlCM UI11VCIWI)' III
the Z. Smith Reynolds
Library, Room 204. The
event is free and open to
the public.
Published by Press 53,
"Swimmers in the Sea" is
a story about Cliff, a
young man who travels to
pre-Katrina New Orleans
to receive an inheritance
from his estranged and
dying father, who was
convicted of manslaughter
for the accident that killed
his two older siblings and a newly married couple
leaving their wedding.
Strickland grew up in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He earned
a bachelor's degree in English from Vanderbilt
University. Several of his short stories have been pub
lished in literary journals, and one received a national
Hackney Award.
He currently lives in Winston-Salem, where he
owns and operates Garage Branding, a graphic design
firm.
Triad native's work to
be featured at gallery
Wake Forest University's Charlotte & Philip
Hanes Art Gallery will feature the photographs of
internationally renowned photographer Gordon
Schenck beginning Oct. 23.
Admission to the gallery is free.
The exhibition, "By Assignment and By the Way:
Gordon Schenck Photographs Architecture 1963
2008" will run through Dec. 12. An opening recep
tion, co-sponsored by the Winston Salem chapter of
the American Institute of Architects, will be held from
5-7 p.m. Oct. 23. Schenck is scheduled to anend.
Schenck has photographed architecture across the
United States and throughout the world. He is known
for his sensitivity to lighting and incorporating dra
matic perspectives and vantage points in his composi
tions. The exhibit will feature more than 60 photo
graphs and related documentary material, including
photographs of modern buildings as well as rural
buildings he discovered while en route to assign
ments.
Schenck was bom in Greensboro. He studied
architecture and engineering at North Carolina State
University (NCSU) and earned a degree in engineer
ing. After graduation, he worked for Southern
Railway in the engineering department for 13 years.
He started his architectural photography business in
1963. In 1984, he earned a Photographic Craftsman
degree from the Professional Photographers oi
America, in whose Chicago-based school he taught
summer courses in architectural photography.
Writers recognized by
Salem College land book deals
Two writers who have been recognized by the
Salem College Center for Women Writers National
Literary Award have recently secured book publishers
for their works.
ine excerpieu siones
from the novel "Light
skinned-ed Girl" made
writer Heidi Durrow of Los
Angeles, a finalist for the
Reynolds Price Shon
Fiction Award for both
2004 and 2006. Durrow
recently won the Barbara
Kingsolver's 2008
Bellwether Prize for
Literature of Social Change
Dun-ow for the completed novel,
and Algonquin Books will
publish the book in the fall of 2009.
Writer Zoe Carter, from Albany, Calif., won an
Honorable Mention for the 2008 Penelope Niven
Creative Nonfiction Award, for her piece, "Mr.
Death." This was excerpted from her book, "Imperfect
Endings." which will be published by Simon &
Schuster.
The Center for Women Writers has just announced
details on its competition for 2009, now expanded to
include entries from around the world. For informa
tion about the competition as well as submission
guidelines, visit www.salem.edu/go/cww.
Music and dance tribute
to celebrate Gentry 's art
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
Diggs Gallery is planning to
celebrate the life and legacy of the
late Herbert Gentry, an artist
whose work was greatly influ
enced by jazz, theatre and dance.
Tomorrow's celebration will
be from 6-7 p.m. at the gallery,
which is on the campus of
Winston-Salem State University.
It will feature dancers and jazz
artists from
Gyrus Art
Productions.
D u a n e
Cyrus, a pro
fessor of
dance at
U N C
Greensboro,
leads Cyrus
Art
riuuuvuuua.
Mary Anne
Rose Gentry, the artist's widow, is
also expected to be on hand to
give remarks. The event is free
and open to the public; refresh
ments will be served following the
program.
Diggs is currently showing the
exhibit, "Herbert Gentry: The
Man, The Magic, The Master."
The exhibition explores more than
50 years of Gentry's expressive
and improvisational figurative
abstractions and documents more
than 40 years of the artist's career
in Paris, Copenhagen, Stockholm,
Malmo and New York City. It fea
tures generous loans from the
Image courtesy of Digf s Gallery
Amid the Crowd , 1991 Acrylic on Unprimed Linen by Herbert
Gentry.
1
estate of Herbert Gentry, who died
in 2003.
Diggs Gallery is one of the
South 's leading showcases dedi
cated to African and African
American art and offers one of the
largest exhibition spaces dedicat
ed to the arts of Africa and the
African Diaspora in North
Carolina.
For more information, call the
gallery at 336-750-2458 or go to
www.wssu.edu.
Roving photo exhibit slated
to open in Winston today
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
A traveling photo exhibit that is making its way
across the state will stop in Winston-Salem begin
ning today.
'Telling Our Stories" will open in the auditorium
of the Central Library at 1 p.m. and will remain on
display there
through Thursday,
Nov. 6. The exhibit
features works by
contemporary and
amateur photogra
phers as well as
archival photo
graphs from the
North Carolina
State Archives, a
wing of the state's
Department of
Cultural
Resources.
The images
2 1 1 I ? M.X
mciuueu in uie
exhibit were selected by a committee headed by
N.C. Cultural Resources Secretary Lisbeth C.
"Libba" Evans, a Winston-Salem resident, from a
wide variety of submissions from some of the state's
best professional photographers. The images depict
eveything from nature and spirituality to conflict and
the human condition .The archival images from the
state archives include images dating back as far as
the 1860s.
Today's 1 p jn. opening at the library will include
a recognition ceremony for the top winners of Our
State magazine's amateur photography contest.
Attendees are also being encouraged to bring their
favorite photographs taken in Forsyth County. The
library is part of
Digital Forsyth, an
online photograph
collection featuring
more than 7,000
historical photo
graphs of Forsyth
County. The effort
will hold its "Share
a-Thon" from 1- 3
p.m. today in con
cert with the open
ing of the exhibit.
Representatives
from the library,
Old Salem, Wake
*-? . * T _ ?
roresi university
and Winston-Salem State University will be avail
able to share their expertise as well as answer ques
tions about historic photos of Forsyth County, its
people and landmarks.
The Central Library is located at 660 W. Fifth
Street.
Black contributors give piece of art
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
"Tippy Toes," a meticulous sculpture by artist
Alison Saar, has been donated to the Raleigh
based North Carolina Museum of Art.
The piece was given to the museum by one of
its affiliate groups -Friends of African and
African American Art
^i nrvnn j . u is nit
first piece FAAAA has
purchased and present
ed to the museum.
"This gift enables
us to expand the col
lection's global orien
tation and showcase
artists from diverse
backgrounds," said
Museum Director Dr.
Lawrence Wheeler.
"We are grateful for
Alison Soar the FAAAA group's
generous work on
behalf of the Museum."
"Tippy Toes" went on display earlier this
week at the museum. The piece - first exhibited
in New York last' December - is a five-foot tall
bronze sculptiye with a petite figure suspended
by a delicate, ladder-like crinoline. The artist
says the piece represents the fragility of the natu
ral and social environments and the strength of
the femininity of women.
Raised in a suburb of Los Angeles, Saar says
that her work is inspired by African-American
culture, history and narratives. She is known for
relying heavily on the past to tell her own story as
an African- American woman. The themes of
women, female sexuality, nature, racism and
domesticity reoccur throughout the body of
Saar's work.
Her works are
in the collections
of many major
museums, includ
ing the Hirshorn
Museum and
Sculpture Garden,
Smithsonian,
Metropolitan
Museum of Art,
High Museum of
Art, and Virginia
Museum of Art.
Saar frequently
exhibits with her
mother, Betye, and
sister, Lezley, both
well-known
artists.
On Saturday,
Oct. 25, at 7 p.m.,
FAAAA will host
a reception and
fundraiser toQele
brate the acquisi
tion of "Tippy
Toes.*' The
evening will fea- ... "T" "TZZT* ""Z ?
ture a lecture by AUson Saars TtPPy Toes"
artist Alison Saar,
as well as a per
formance by jazz vocalist Lois Deloatch.
Tickets are $60 and available by calling $19
664-6808. The N.C. Museum of Art is located at
2110 Blue Ridge Road in Raleigh.
Photo courtesy of D. Rodriguez
Daisy Rodriguez will speak
on Oct. 31.
Series
welcomes
lecturers,
performers
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
Associated Artists of
Winston-Salem, a non-profit
made up of artists and art
supporters, is hosting a series
of discussions and perform
ances over the next several
weeks.
The events are being held
in conjunction with the
"Cultural Crossroads" exhib
it, which explores how dif
ferent cultures intersect,
overlap and intermingle.
This evening from 5-7
p.m.. Pianist Ariel Perez and
Percussionist Daniel Diaz of
the Hispanic Arts Initiative
will perform "A
Representation of Solo Piano
Music by Latin American
Composers." The event is
free.
On Oct. 25 at 7 p.m., The
World .
featuring
Bill Smith
on percus
s i o n ,0
Sangeet
Richard
Downs on
violin and
Jefferson
Dalby on Carpenter
k e y -
board/piano, will perforin.
Admission is $10 for the
general public. Kids under
12 will be admitted free.
Pastor Kelly Carpenter of
Green Street UMC and the
Institute for Dismantling
Racism will give a free dis
cussion at noon on Oct. 24.
"Racial Crossroads" will
give insights into Forsyth
County and where we are on
issues involving race.
Daisy Rodriguez, director
of Hispanic Mentoring
Services at the Winston Lake
Family YMCA will give the
free "Latino Crossroads" lec
ture at noon on Oct. 31. It
will focus on the changes
being seen as Hispanics are
slowly incorporated into the
mainstream community in
Forsyth County.
Un Nov. / at noon, a dis
cussion called "Wellness
Crossroads" will be led by
Lynn Felder, the editor of the
Winston-Salem Journal's
Relish. The discussion will
focus on wellness, cancer
and Yoga. Also on Nov. 7,
Southeastern Indie Rocker
Rodie Ray and her band will
perform. at 7 p.m. Admission
for this event $10 for the
general public. Kids under
12 will be admitted free.
R e n c e
Callahan .VP/treasurer of
Walter Robbs Callahan &
Pierce Architects, will give
the free presentation
"Downtown Winston-Salem
at the Crossroads" on Nov.
14 at noon. He will discuss
developments in downtown
Winston-Salem, and its past,
present and future.
Associated Artists
Gallery is located at 301 W.
4th St. For more information,
call 336-722-0340 or go to
www.associatedartists .org .