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Ch^ONICLE
Vol. XXXIII No. 46 THURSDAY, August 2, 200'
Atkins
ready to
prove
themselves
See Pa^e B1
Girls
explore
history
on trip
- See Page A3
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Photo# by lac son Pin
A tearful Annie Hamlin Johnson and Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin react to an honorary plaque commissioned by the
Twin City Quarter to honor Larry Leon Hamlin. Also pictured is the Quarter's Grant Minnix.
The Show Goes On
Hamlin gone but not
forgotten
BY T. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
It was Winston-Salem or bust for
Dionne Audain and several of her girl
friends.
The young women packed a rental
car to the max earlier this week, made
their way onto Washington D.C.'s
busy interstates and several hours later
arrived here.
It wasn't long before they found
out why this town has been called
"Black Theater Holy Ground."
"It is like a business conference for
us," Audain said Tuesday night in the
packed lobby of the Downtown
Marriott. "As black actresses, it is our
business to be here."
Somewhere, looking down from
the heavens, NBTF Founder Larry
Leon Hamlin must feel a great sense
Nobel winner fends off
anti-Semitism charges
BY LAYLA FARMER
THE CHRONICLE
Like many trailblazers the world over,
Nobel Prize-winning Poet Wole Soyinka
does not shy away from controversy,
although it has a habit of finding him.
Known for his activism and unyield
ing resolve to bring equality to his
Nigerian countrymen, Soyinka was once
imprisoned for his efforts to bring about
peace to his war-torn nation.
Yet, recently, the poet and playwright
has unwittingly received criticism for
remarks he allegedly made when he
addressed the Theatre Communications
Group at a June 8 gathering in Minnesota.
Soyinka talked about the brouhaha
Tuesday as he keynoted the National
Black Theatre festival's International
Colloquium, a series of discussions and
lectures that mesh the world of art with
academia.
His June speech questioned the wis
dom of the political process that put
George W. Bush in power, and SOyinka
Sec Soyinka on A4
Local dancers lead a parade of celebrities during Monday's gala.
of accomplishment. He created the
festival in 1989 so that African
Americans with dreams of stardom
could have a placeto network, rejuve
nate and be inspired. For nine festi
vals, Hamlin oversaw that mission and
watched as his creation grew grander
in size and scope.
See NBTF on A13
Balancing Act
Actress' favorite role is that of wife and mom
BY T. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
If Vanessa Bell Calloway had a dime for every time someone asked her to
"bark like a dog." she'd be
for
"Someone just said that
to me a minute ago when I
was up there on the podi
um," the actress said,
Monday, after officially
opening the 2007 National
Black Theatre Festival,
where she is serving as the
celebrity chairwoman.
The classic line is from
Calloway's scene-stealing
role in, "Coming to
America," in which she
played Eddie Murphy's
"queen to be." There have
been many other memorable
roles and unforgettable
scenes.
In "What's Love Got* To
Do With It," Calloway
taught Angela Bassett (Tina
Turner) a soul-affirming
Buddhist chant; and in
"Biker Boy?" she delivered
the mother of all rhetorical
questions to actor Derek
Pn?o by Kevin Walker
Vanessa Bell Calloway is back at the NBTF.
Luke when she asked "Do
you know what they call bikers in the ER? Organ donors!"
Fans won't let Calloway forget any of those cinematic moments.
"People comc up to me on a regular basis, I mean like everyday, and recite
my lines to me." said Calloway, whose credits also include big-screen favorites
like "The Inkwell" and "Crimson Tide" and television shows such as "The
District," "All My Children" and "Boston Public."
See Calloway on A5
Much-loved
Paisley leader
won't return
Pittman-Couch retires after almost
40 years in education
BY LAYLA FARMER
THE CHRONIC! I
This month's start of the
2(X)7-2008 school year will
mark the dawning of a new era
for Marion Pittman-Couch.
An educator for 37 years, she
retired last week from her
position as principal of Paisley
IB world Magnet
School .
Pittman-Couch
is now working as a
consultant for the
International
Baccalaureate
Association out of
New York. Though
she will have to
adjust to life with
out school bells and
the laughter of chil
dren in the hallways, the veter
an educator says she feels con
fident about the legacy she has
left behind.
"I wanted to leave a legacy
of a quality educational pro
gram that was going to pre
pare them for anything that
they wanted to do in life," she
commented. "I would tell the
students in the opening assem
bly that . . . they all had great
ness; it was just a matter of
developing it."
Pitftrian-Couch took the
helm at Paisley just before
neighborhood schools became
Pittman-Couch
the norm, and watched the
enrollment at Paisley plummet
as a result of the policy, which
ended crosstown busing.
"The first year I was at
Paisley, we had 825 students
and that was during the time
of busing and students were
assigned to their schools," she
explained. "The
next year, when . . .
students and par
ents elected their
school, our enroll
ment dropped to
301-1 lost half the
staff, half the stu
dent body."
Pittman-Couch
says she and her
staff were disheart
ened by the sudden
changes that
seemed to cause the school to
fall by the wayside. She was
determined to do something
about it.
Already, she had been
researching International
Baccalaureate (IB) schools, in
hopes of implementing such a
program at Paisley, and in the
wake of the enrollment shift,
she knew the time to act was
at hand.
"That was when I intro
duced the IB concept to them,
saying, this would be a great
? See Principal on A 15
Wake Forest's
Boko plays tour
guide in Africa
Professor organizes learning trip
for colleagues from ACC schools
BY TODD LUCK
llll ( HRON1CI E
' Professors from up and
down the East Coast got to
experience the struggles of
South Africa, Rwanda and
Uganda firsthand, during a
three week trip led and organ
ized by Wake Forest
o Economics Professor Sylvain
Boko.
(v Professors trom
* 1 1 of the 12 Atlanic
Coast Conference
(ACC) colleges
toured countries
that have been torn
apart by violence.
A Wake Forest stu
dent also went on
! the trip.
The trip was
sponsored by the
ACC's Inter-institutional
Academic Collaborative, an
initiative that supports
research in areas where one
university couldn't sustain a
full program alone.
Among those who went
on the trip was Robin Kirk,
the director of the Human
Rights Initiative at Duke
University. Though she has
taught about Rwanda and
Boko
South Africa in her human
rights classes. Kirk had never
been to Africa before and was
strnik by how hard it is for a
country torn apart by violence
to heal itself.
"How difficult, and that
seems like an understatement,
but how difficult it is to get a
society out of a moment of
violence." said Kirk. "1 think
all of us human
beings are sort of
predisposed to
think that things
can be fixed, but it
was really ... sober
ing to see how long
things stay broken
and how much
effort and how
muefr'goodwill and
how much political
expertise it takes to
bring a country out of a time
like that."
Boko, a native of Benin,
Africa, said that it's very
important to educate
Americans about the troubles
Africa faces. He asserted his
belief that the international
community has the ability to
positively impact African
nations. The more people
See Trip on A15
In Grateful Memory of Our
Founders,
Florrie S. Russell and ?
Carl H. Russell, Sr.
"Growing and Still Dedicated to Serve You Better "
jftuggell fflmtmtl fffame
Wishes to Thank Everyone For Their Support
822 Carl Russell Ave.
(at lVfartln I .uther King Or.)
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