; 75 cents WENSTON-S A LEM GREENSBORO HlGH POINT Vol. XXVII No. 18
For Reference
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The Choice for African American News
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Principle into Practice
I - #?*? Photo^ by Kevin Walker I
A woman lights candles on a kinara at a Kwanzaa ceremony last week.
Project organizers find practical ways
to foster cooperative economics
BY T. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
Dana Suggs, Ben Piggott
and about a dozen youngsters
in the Happy Hill community
know a little something about
putting the principles of Kwan
?zaa into practice.
Suggs, owner of the Kwan
zaa Ornaments Co., and Pig
gott, director of the Sims
Recreation Center in Happy
Hill Gardens, are the master
minds behind a business ven
ture that they hope will be
enlightening and financially
beneficial to young people who
are enrolled in an after-school
tutoring and mentoring pro
gram at the rec.
The youngsters will sell
spools of kente ribbon designed
by Suggs. The popular multi
colored African cloth can be
See Project on a8
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'Kwanzaa Queen' receives sign
that unity is incumbent upon us
BYT. KEVIN WALKER
[HE CHRONICl I
Many consider Shirley Mose
I ley the queen of local Kwanzaa
events.
It's a title that she wears
proudly as proud as she wears
the bright. African clothes that
have become her trademark.
Moseley has been a fixture
during the Kwanzaa holiday for
the past several years, as much a
part of the celebration, some say,
as the dancing, food and drums.
Moseley feels an even greater
link to the African-American
holiday after a fire destroyed the
home she shared with her daugh
ter and son-in-law a few months
ago. The family was in the
process of moving but most of
their belongings were in the
house when it went up in smoke,
Moseley said.
Everything was lost except a
few drinking glasses and a Kwan
zaa pin given to Moseley during
the '99 Kwanzaa celebration. The
pin was designed by Dana Suggs.
Pins were handed out to guests at
Kwanzaa a year ago.
Moseley had tucked away the
pin. which features the word
"Unity." one of the seven princi
ples of Kwanzaa. underneath a
kinara. A black plastic card that
was used to support the pen was
charred slightly in the tire. But
the blaze seemingly stopped
before it reached the pin. Mose
Six Mpseley on
AS I
1 ? ? Fl
Moseley
Habitat to build 12
houses in Princeville
BY PAUL COLLINS
THE CHRONIC! I
Habitat for Humanity volun
teers from around the country
have joined members of the
Princeville community to "blitz
build" 12 homes in Princeville.
N.C., Jan. 3-15. The build, coor
dinated by Tarboro/Edgecombe
Habitat for Humanity, is part of
the Hurricane Floyd Recover
Build Program, a joint effort of
Habitat for Humanity Interna
tional's disaster response office
and Habitat for Humanity affili
ates in Eastern North Carolina.
These recovery houses will
replace homes destroyed by Hood
ing caused by Hurricane Floyd in
September 1999.
"The whole town of
Princeville was completely sub
merged." Charlotte Webb. Hurri
cane Floyd rebuild manager for
Habitat for Humanity Interna
tional. said in a telephone inter
view Friday. She said that work
on the footings and foundations
of the 12 homes that will be built
began in early December.
Last Thursday, a team of 26 ;
people from the Mennonite Dis- '
aster Service arrived in Prineeville
to frame up the seven houses
before the official "build" began
Jan. 3. The framing work includ- <
ed siding, roofing, dry wall instal
lation. painting.
Webb was expecting about 15 ;
Habitat affiliates and several ;
church groups to send at least 10 t
to 20 volunteers each to partici- 1
pate in the blitz build.
Lowe's Home Improvement
Warehouse, the world's second
largest home improvement retail
er, is the largest sponsor of the
build. Lowe's has donated
$350,000 in gifts and grants to the
build, and its employees aire trav
eling to Prineeville to participate
in the build.
The town of Prineeville is alsb
participating, with local and civic
leaders joining the build.
The Federal Emergency Man
agement Authority has provided
infrastructure support for the
build.
Edgecombe Martin Electric
Sfi Habitat m A2 '
Speaker schools
local teachers
T. KEVIN WALKER
llll CHRONICLE
Early on in his address to
about 1,000 local teachers and
administrators. Mychal Wsnn told
the captive audience at the Adam's
Mark Hotel that if they were easi
ly offended, teaching is the wrong
profession for them
His words were a warning of
sorts. He spent much of the
remainder of the speech telling
teachers that they were not perfect
or always right, to accept their
faults and to spend more time
pointing inward than outward.
"No matter how much you
think you know there is always
something you can add to your
arsenal of knowledge." Wvnn said.
He was the keynote speaker at
a day-long conference Wednesday,
for teachers and administrators at
the school system's' equity-plus
schools (or schools with a high
percentage of students in the free
or reduced lunch program). There
are 18 equity-plus schools in the
system.
Wynn is a nationally acclaimed
motivation speaker'and author of
several books on the topic of at
risk children.
He diced his
address with
bits from his
own experi
ences as a
father of
young boys
and tales
from his ow n
childhood.
W y n n
challenged the teachers to stop
making excuses for not teach .i?
children. He told them that a
child's home situation and iack of
parental involvement were out of
their hands.
"Why worry about things you
can't control?" he asked.
He told the teachers instead to
focus on what they can do. the
things they do have control of. tie
asked each of them to develop a
vision, a forecast for what they
hoped to accomplish and to think
about what they do best on their
campuses.
? Each teacher has a skill or tal
ent that he or she is extremely
good at. Wynn said. It may be an
.See Wynn on A3
Wynn
Local man sees life in his art
BY T. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE '
Charles MeClennahan is a believer in
fate, of the divine nature.
?He credits a series of strange meet
ings. chance encounters and instances of
being at the right place at theiright time
for changing and sometimes'guiding his
life.
Today, the 41-year-old teaches film
design and animation at N.C. School of
the Arts and Winston-Salem State Uni
versity. He'has a reputation that often
precedes him. having designed sets for
?Toadway shows, films and videos.
But MeClennahan says things could
have been a lot different for him. He grew
up in Laurinburg, a town, he said, where
young African Americans are likely to
work 9 to 5 than head off to college.
"Your future was to work at a textile
mill." MeClennahan said last week in the
living room of his house.
McClennahan was willing to accept
that future after he finished high school.
God. he said, had other plans for him.
His interest in the theater was piqued
while he was in high school. A teacher
came by the class he was in and asked if
any student^wanted to volunteer to
paint the backdrop for a play that the
school was preparing to put on.
"I saw, it as a way to get out class,"
McClennithan recalled.
He said he didn't expect to fall in love
with sculpting sets. He had drawn and
painted for much of his life. But working
with a larger than life canvas gave him a
sense that he'd never felt.
After high school. McClennahan
came to Winston-Salem to study set
design at the NCSA, where lie received
his bachelor of fine arts degree in the
early '80s.
McClennahan.then went to Yale Uni
versity to study set design under the
famed Ming Cho Lee. His road to Yale.'
?
he said, was also guided by fate. He was
designing the set for the Miss Black Uni
9 verse Pageant in New York. After the
show, an old stagehand walked up to him
to chat. His final words to McClennahan
were that he should go Yale.
"I had no idea what Yale was."
McClennahan said. He found out about
the school through research and was
amazed when he was accepted into the
graduate school there.
The master's degree he earned there
would not have been possible if it wasn't
for the old stage hand, McClennahan
marveled. He doesn't even remember the
man's name. ?
"It shows us how people can walk
into your life., and you don't know why
they walk into your lives." he said.
"That's what we need, people who can
walk into other people's lives and give
them direction."
McClennahan said he strives to be
Sir McClennahan on A8
Photo by Kevin Walker I
Charles and Janeen McClennahan look over a script for.the puppet show they created.
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