Arts & Lifestyle
Of Interest ...
Keyshia Cole and others
share their adoption stories
LOS ANGELES - Jamie Foxx, Faith Hill and
Keyshia Cole hope to help children find homes for the
holidays.
Speaking backstage last month after filming their
appearances for the CBS special "A Home for the
Holidays," which aired on Dec. 23, Foxx, Hill and
Cole shared how they
coped with being adopted
and why they performed for
the show, which offers a
mix of musical entertain
ment and information about
child adoption.
"I was lucky," said the
Oscar-winning Foxx
("Ray"). "I was adopted at 7
months, but the lady who
adopted me also adopted
1 ? ? =? ? ? my mother, so 1 had a rela
Soul diva Keyshia tlQJnship with my biologicai
0 * parents, also."
Country superstar Hill
was also adopted as an infant, but after hitting adoles
cence had to fight off the adoption stigma. "When kids
would call one another names, they'd say, 'You act like
you're adopted.' And I'd always get 'era good, because
I'd say, 'Well, I am adopted. So what do you think
about that?' " she said.
The special was the brainchild of Dave Thomas,
the Wendy's restaurant founder. Thomas, who was
adopted, created the Dave Thomas Foundation for
Adoption in 1992.
Soul diva Keyshia Cole said, "My personal story
was my mother was on drugs all my life and she did
n't get a little bit better until I became 'Keyshia Cole
the Celebrity.' Maybe it was a good way for her to see
herself - that your daughter has become so much and
she's become so big."
The show will featured musical performances by
Hill's husband Tim McGraw, as well as Kristin
Chenoweth, Gavin Rossdale and Melissa Etheridge.
N.C. Arts Council grant
application deadline approaching
The deadline for arts organizations across North
Carolina to request grant funds from the state Arts
Council is Monday, March 2, 2009.
The North Carolina Arts Council provides a wide
array of rich arts experiences for residents and visitors
of the state through grants to non-profit organizations.
The Arts Council invested close to $7.4 million in
grants for arts programming in all 100 counties in the
state during the 2008-2009 fiscal year. Normally,
every $1 spent by the state is matched by $18 from
private and non-state funds giving residents an excel
lent return on their money.
These grants support exhibitions, concerts, theater
and dance productions, festivals, literary reading
series, artist residencies in schools, operating support
for established arts organizations, community public
art projects, and documentation of folk and traditional
arts.
Organizations interested in applying for a grant
should review the guidelines available on the Arts
Council's Web site at www.ncarts.org and contact the
staff member listed for their area of interest. Staff
members are available to help organizations make
their applications as competitive as possible.
For more information on the North Carolina Arts
Council or application instructions for the
Organizational Grants, visit www.ncarts.org or call
(919) 807-6500.
A&T's Williams will release
book on Civil Rights Movement
A North Carolina A&T State University senior
administrator has recently authored and published a
book on the lives of eight popular African American
leaders who risked their lives for the cause of the
1960s Civil Rights Movement.
Dr. Lea E. Williams, associate vice chancellor for
academic attairs, institutional
planning, assessment and
research, will release the sec
ond edition of "Servants of the
People: The 1960s Legacy of
African American
Leadership," later this month.
Williams book examines
the repressive climate of racial
hatred in America that
spawned the 1960s civil rights
movement but also galvanized
a generation of bold, persua
Williams
sive, driven leaders who embodied the qualities of ser
vant leadership. These passionate and committed
African Americans emerged to lead a generation from
the cruelties of segregation to the revolution of civil
rights reform.
Beginning with the 1954 Brown v. Board of
Education Supreme Court case, the book follows the
lives of figures such as A. Philip Randolph, Adam
Clayton Powell Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, and Ella
Baker. This revised edition also reflects on the dramat
ic changes in the African American political landscape
since its initial publication.
Williams is the former executive director of the
National African-American Women's Leadership
Institute, Inc. (NAAWLI), a leadership program for
women committed to community service. After com
pleting her doctorate in higher education administra
tion, Williams began her career in higher education at
the United Negro College Fund headquarters in New
York City.
For more information visit
www.leaewilliams.com.
Murrell to perform at New Year's Eve show
File Photo
Singer Chris Murrell is a local favorite.
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
Hometown favorite Chris Murrell will
headline the Winston-Salem Symphony at
its annual New Year's Eve Celebration.
Murrell was the lead singer of
the acclaimed Count Basie
Orchestra for more than a decade.
He also toured the nation with his
own seven-piece gospel group. The
Christian Disciples. A former
University of North Carolina
School of the Arts professor,
Murrell is not only a singer but a
pianist, composer, arranger and
producer, as well.
In 2002, he released a solo
album, "Reprise." In the liner
notes of the CD, Tony Bennett called
Murrell "one of my favorite singers." A
graduate of Wake Forest University, Murrell
has shared the stage with the likes of
Bennett and legends like with Joe Williams,
Rosemary Clooney, Billy Eckstine, George
Benson, Clark Terry and Dizzy Gillespie.
At next week's concert. Symphony
Music Director Robert Moody will lead his
musicians in the Big Band music of Count
Moody
Basie, as well as songs that were popular
during World War II, movie themes, light
classics and Viennese waltzes. As a special
treat, several lucky couples will be selected
from a drawing to dance the last waltz of the
year on stage with the orcnesira
Audience members will also be
provided with party hats, tiaras,
noise makers, horns aod balloons.
The Neos Dance Theatre will
also perform. The company is
composed of diverse individuals
who share the common goal of
creating "atmospheric, theatrical
energy on the stage and in the stu
dio that communicate their lives,
social responsibilities, and call to
work." Artistic Director Robert
Wesner choreographs most of the repertoire,
in collaboration with the company's
dancers.
The show will be on Wednesday,
December 31 at 7:30 pm. at Reynolds
Auditorium. Tickets are $15 - $55 and are
available by calling the Symphony Box
Office at 336-464-0145, or online at
www.wssyrhphony.org .
File Photos
A youngster gets a workout early this year at one of the exhibits at the Children's Museum of
Winston-Salem, one of the new Arts Council members.
A whopping 10 members
join Arts Council in 2008
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
The arms of the Arts Council of
Winston-Salem and Forsyth County
are stretching even further this week.
The agency accepted 10 new member
organizations this year. Rarely has the
agency accepted so many new mem
bers in a single year.
The new members are: the
American Singers Opera Project, the
Arts Based Elementary School, the
Carolina Ballet, the Children's
Museum of Winston-Salem, the
Mozart Club, Stained Glass
Playhouse, Terpsicorps, Winston
Salem Festival Ballet and Winston-Salem
Writers. Triad Cultural Arts was also added. The
non-profit is responsible for putting on many
African-American-themed events, including the
annual Juneteenth Celebration.
With the newbies, there are now 67 members
of the Arts Council. To qualify for membership,
Rhodes
arts and cultural organizations must have 501 -(c)
(3) nonprofit tax status and demon
strate consistent efforts to achieve
excellence in programs and services
to the community.
"These new members strengthen
us as an organization, and the diver
sity they represent speaks well for
the vitality of the arts community in
Winston-Salem and Forsyth County,"
said Milton Rhodes, president and
CEO of the Arts Council. "We are
The City of the Arts, where there is
truly is something for everyone."
Member organizations are eligi
ble to apply for Arts Council grants
and an advertising program that allows member
organizations to promote their events through
local media organizations at discounted prices.
"Then there is the intangible element of being
an integral part of The Arts Council family and
network and its ongoing activities," said Rhodes.
Earvin "Magic" Johnson
Trumpet
Awards will
go to high
achievers
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
A wide-range of notables
will be honored early next
year with Trumpet Awards,
which celebrate African
American achievers in fields
like law, medicine, business,
politics and entertainment.
The 2009 honorees were
announced last week. They
include Dr. Alvin Crawford,
actress/singer Raven
Symonfc, sports legend
Earvin "Magic" Johnson,
Atlanta Police Chief Richard
Pennington, Businessman
Michael Roberts, actor Chris
Tucker and the Tuskegee
Airmen, who will receive the
Heroes Award.
The 17th Annual Trumpet
Awards will be held at the
Cobb Energy Performing
Arts Centre in Atlanta on
Monday, Jan. 25. The show
will be hosted by "The View"
co-host Sherri Shepherd and
"Law and Order" star
Anthony Anderson.
President and CEO of the
Trumpet Awards Foundation
Xernona Clayton is the exec
utive producer of the show,
which will be broadcast on
Turner Broadcasting System
(TBS). Clayton also founded
the Trumpet Awards in 1993.
Still a Blackout in Hollywood for Blacks
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
Hollywood has a diversity prob
lem. That was the main finding of
the NAACP's latest
probe into how the tel
evision and movie
industries treat people
of color.
The NAACP
Hollywood Bureau
released the report,
"Out of Focus, Out of
Sync? Take 4," last
week. It shows that the
entertainment industry,
particularly television,
continues to fall seri
ously short in achieving diversity.
According to the 44-page report,
there is an ongoing trend where
African-Americans and other
minorities continue to be under-rep
Jealous
resented in nearly every aspect of
the television and film business,
while largely being denied access to
significant positions of power in
Hollywood.
"At a time when the
country is excited about
the election of the first
African American presi
dent in U.S. history, it is
unthinkable that minorities
would be so grossly under
represented on broadcast
television," said NAACP
President and CEO
Benjamin Todd Jealous.
Specifically, the report
reveals that hiring, promotion and
acting opportunities for minorities
are directly tied to highly subjective
practices, a closed roster system and
See Report on A12
? ? 1 ? 1 *? I
ABC Photo
" Grey's Anatomy" is one of the few shows with blacks in
front of and behind the camera .