Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / July 29, 1999, edition 1 / Page 1
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Stage is finally set for black theater festival By T.KEVIN WALKER THE CHRONICLE The stage is set for this year's National Black Theatre Festi val....literally. The dozens of productions that will be staged here during the six days of the festival all have venues to call home. The hundreds of volunteers who have thrown their time and energy behind the festival have been assigned myriad tasks from ushering at shows to sorting mail. \ And tickets to festival events are briskly being snatched up by theater lovers from around the country. All that's left to do before the Monday evening kickofT, organiz ers say, is to dot the i's and cross the t's Larry Leon Hamlin, the artis tic director for the festival, and his staff are busy doing that, double checking hotel and airline reserva tions for the many entertainers who will take part in the festival. Planning the festival is some thing Hamlin said he is used to. He is the architect of the event and has spearheaded nearly every aspect of the festival since the biennial event was first held in 1989. But practice doesn't always make perfect, Hamlin said. "People think because this is the 10th anniversary of the festi val that things get easier, but sometimes you encounter some stumbling blocks, but you just have to deal with them," he sail. Burgeoning hotel construction in the city has cleared away at least one of the festival's stumbling blocks. Spurred by the lack of hotel space during previous festi vals and C1AA basketball tourna ments, clusters of new hotels have sprung up along Hanes Mall Boulevard, University Parkway and other areas. It's a relief to Hamlin who had to book rooms in Greensboro the last time the festival was held in 1997. Securing venues for the plays was a major and early coup for organizers. Hamlin said it is usual ly done months - or sometimes a year- in advance, though finding transportation to and from the venues to the hotels for the stars is something that organizers must work on up until the last days, Hamlin, says he has learned over the years not to bite off more than he can chew. He is thankful that he has a loyal band of assis tants who have been with him . from the beginning. See Nsir om A9 75 cants WlNSTON-SALEM GREENSBORO HlGH POINT Jfcl. XXV No. 48 The Chronicle 010600* ????? 'car-rt-sort* *c012 _ , , . ., <<v?? 17 nc room 1974 - Celebrating 25 Years - 1999 forsyth cnty pub lib ^^.. ' - - i 6 60 W 5th st * q WTNSTON SAI.F.M MP ->1 ? 0\, --)-! H R A soldier's story WWII vet receives medals By JER1 YOUNG THE CHRONICLE " E. Jerry Jones' medals came in a package two months ago. Wrapped in bubble wrap and paper, the four medals arrived in the mail with little fanfare. But for Jones, a World War II veteran, the small package was worth its weight in gold. , Since he left the military in 1945, he had wondered often what, if anything, he was enti tled to. , For five years, like countless other African Americans who served in the military, Jones poured his energy into the war effort. For black veterans, recog nition was slow to come. Now, more than 50 years and count less letters later, Jones has four new medals for which he never knew he qualified. He proudly displays his new American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal and USN Good Conduct Ribbon on a black velvet holder. Several boast stars to mark bat tles he fought in. He's the first to admit, the honors were a long time com . \ <ng. "It feels good," he said. "I'm just happy to have them." Jones' odyssey began in rural Texas 60 years ago.. In 1939, he was a recent high school gradu ate looking for money to attend ; college. For a young black in those days, he said, the military made sense. He had three sisters ; already in college. The $21 a month he would make as a Navy steward's mate would go a long way to helping him pay for college. "When I finished high school, we were under the Depression," he said. "Going to See SoldiT on AS , ' \ \ Jerry Jones, standing center, poses with a group of shipmates. ? * ? .. if More than 2,000 gather for missionary convention By DAMON FORD THE CHRONICLE The 115th Annual Session of The Woman's Baptist Home and For eign Missionary Convention of North Carolina will come to a close today in Winston-Salem. Over the past five days, more than 2,500 women and men made their way through a number of worship services and workshops at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church and the M.C. Benton Convention Center. The Woman's Convention comes under the umbrella of the General Baptist State Convention, and convenes every year. The objective of the convention is to strengthen the missionary departments in the churches as well as senior, young adult and youth departments. Organizers hope the week-long program will increase interest in mis sionary work on the local and national levels while putting the conven * tion in a position to better support the GBSC. "It will give us a renewed time to come together and fellowship to talk about the work of the Lord and how that we can stretch ourselves and Sri Confvrtnct on A10 Photo by Damon Ford Jamah John ton (hft) and Christophmr McDonald anfay thair moot Monday during tho proconvontion dinnar of The Woman's Baptist Hama and foroign Missionary Convention of North Carolina. LIFT Academy faces challenge Citing financial problems, powerful board recommends revoking charter of East Winstdn school By PAUL COLLINS THE CHRONICLE __ The state Charter School Advisory Committee has recommended that the State Board of Education revoke the charter of LIFT Acade my, a public charter school in Winston-Salem. The state board is sched uled to discuss the recommendation during its meeting Aug. 4-5, said urova Bridgers, director ot the state Office of Charter Schools. Bridgers said that the state Charter School Advisory Committee cited two reasons in its rec ommendation: ? LIFT Academy did not pay $33,861.40 in payroll taxes, to the Internal Revenue Service for a period prior to LIFT Academy becoming a public charter school in 1997. (LIFT Academy was a pri- J vate school before the 1997-98 school'year.) Philip JPrice, the director of school business for the State Department of Public instruction, said that the IRS seized the $33,861 from LIFT Acad emy s bank account in early 1999. - ? LIFT Academy had a deficit of $90,368 in the, 1997-98 school year. - Price said, though an audit has not yet been done for the 1998-99 ' school year, staffers in Price's office believe LIFT Academy's deficit for the 1998-99 school year will amount to more than $120,000. Earline Parmon, administrator of LIFT Academy, said, "The infor mation the committee (the state Charter School Advisory Committee) was given about our deficit was erroneous." she said, "DPI (the Depart ment of Public Instruction) is reporting two different (deficit) figures - which says one is wrong." She said one figure DPI cited was $90,368 and the other was See LIFT on AIO ???a- *T MEMI II III? Photo by The Amtociatcd Preu A young John f. Kennedy Jr. salutes the casket bearing his father. T T 11 1 Kennedys nonorea during special service ByoIERI YOUNG ? THE CHRONICLE ? ? ' ' C - * * # They came from across the city. Armed with Bibles, clips from old newspapers and hundreds of memories, they gathered Monday at Goler AME Zion to pay tribute to yet another fallen Kennedy. John F. Kennedy Jr., 38; his 33-year-old wife. Carolyn; and her sister, Lauren Bessette. 34, died July 16 when Kennedy's single-engine plane crashed into the Atlantic off Martha's Vineyard. Their cremated remains were cast into the ocean near the site last Thursday. Last weekend, both the Kennedy and Bessette families gathered in New York City and Greenwich. Conn., to pay tribute to their fallen loved ones. But unlike those invitation-only memorial masses, the ser vice at Goler was open to the public. For almost an hour, speakers from around the city stepped up to the podium to reminisce about the legacy of the Kennedy family. They talked about symbolism, irony and death. The speakers represented a broad spectrum of races and religious backgrounds. Some remembered the haunting image of a young "John John." saluting his father's casket. Others remembered an adult JFK Jr., who often stumbled in his quest to figure put his place in Camelot but never strayed far from civil rights initiatives that made his father a beloved figure in the African American community. "1 loved John F. Kennedy Sr.." said Lafayette Jones, to a chorus of 'amens'. "And I love the son because of the father." Sr. Ktnmdy on M (TfT) ???? # TOR SUBSCRIPTIONS CALL (936) 722-9626 ? MASTERCARD, VISA AND AMERICAN EXPRESS ACCEPTED ?
Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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July 29, 1999, edition 1
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