Arts & Lifestyle
Of Interest ...
Methodist Youth Choir to
perform at Greensboro College
The North Carolina United Methodist All-State
Youth Choir, under the direction of Professor of Music
Jonathan Brotherton, will perform at Greensboro
College in the Gail Brower Huggins Performance
Center at 4 p.m. on June 22.
The performance is free and open to the public.
More than 50 United Methodist high school stu
dents throughout North Carolina were chosen through
auditions and personal recommendations to form the
choir. This is the 14th consecutive year the choir has
performed.
The students come to the Greensboro College
campus for three days of intensive rehearsals and then
embark on a four-day tour of North Carolina United
Methodist churches. The Youth Choir Camp draws on
a support system of professional musicians from
Greensboro College and United Methodist churches
throughout the state.
The North Carolina United Methodist All-State
Youth Choir program ? funded by the Greensboro
College Department of Religious Life and by partici
pant tuition ? provides opportunities for high school
students to be involved in a high-quality music camp
in a caring, supportive environment.
Duke's Ball named
nation's funniest student
P
Duke University alumnus Tim Ball and Dan
Perrault, of Emerson College, are the winners of
RooftopComedy's 1st Annual National College
Comnetition. earninp them the
titles the "Nation's Funniest
College Students."
Ball and Perrault emerged
the winners after the Final
Rounds of both the Stand-Up
and Short Film competitions
that took place in a live broad
cast on Saturday, May 31 from
the famed Wheeler Opera
House in Aspen, Colo., during
the ' Inaueural Aspen
RooftopComedy Festival.
The RooftopComedy
College Comedy Competition hosted 32 on-campus
competitions, 16 regional semi-final contests and two
online voting rounds of competition that narrowed
down the 600+ opmediaqs and short-film makers to
just four in each category, all of whom who went
head-to-head on May 31 . Votes were cast by both the
online and Wheeler Opera House audiences.
Ball, the winner of the Stand-Up Competition, is a
22-year old 2008 graduate of Duke University from
Dallas. Perrault, who won the Short Film Category, is
a 21 -year-old from Hingham, Mass.
Ball's performance and Perrault's short film, can
be seen at wwwJlooftopComedy.com/college.
State is 15th for overseas visitors
North Carolina ranked 15th among all states, its
highest ranking ever, in drawing overseas visitors for
2007. The state drew some 358,000 overseas visitors
in 2007, according to a report released today by the
U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade
Administration and Office of Travel and Tourism
Industries.
North Carolina ranked 18th in 2005, the last time
it generated a large enough sample to appear in the
study, which uses an in-flight survey given to passen
gers flying into the United States from international
destinations other than Canada and Mexico to deter
mine visitation. The North Carolina Division of
Tourism, Film and Sports Development has tourism
marketing offices in Germany and the United
Kingdom, as well as one in Canada. The offices do
joint marketing, agent training, promotions and public
relations to the key tour operators selling the south to
visitors in German Speaking Europe (Germany,
Austria and Switzerland) and the United Kingdom.
"In the overseas markets we are gaining steadily
and finally eclipsing our pre-2001 numbers," said
Lynn Minges, Executive Director of the North
Carolina Division of Tourism, Film and Sports
Development. "North Carolina proactively works to
attract international visitors to our state from Germany
and the United Kingdom."
Overseas visitors are important to a state's eco
nomic wellness because those visitors typically stay
longer and spend significantly more than domestic
visitors per trip. According to the Office of Travel and
Tourism Industries, overseas visitors to North
Carolina spend an average of $3,476 per trip ($2,568
in North Carolina alone) and stay in the state an aver
age of 12 days, while domestic visitors typically
spend $549 per trip and stay in the state an average of
3.3 days, according to TNS TravelsAmerica.
Locals strike lottery gold
Elizabeth Vidal of Winston-Salem recently had a
birthday to remember. She bought a 'Triple Money
Mania" instant scratch-off ticket for herself and won
$150,000!
Vidal says she has played instant scratch-off
games before, but that this was the first time she had
bought "Triple Money Mania." She says she scratched
off the ticket while sitting in her truck. When she real
ized she had won the top prize, she says she ran back
into the store, screaming with excitement. Vidal plans
to use her winnings to buy a new home for her fami
ly. She purchased her winning ticket at Kelly's on
Peters Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem.
Another Winston-Salem resident also got lucky. In
the Saturday, May 31, Powertoall drawing, one ticket
matched all five white balls and is worth $200,000.
The ticket was sold at Robinhood Tobacco on
Robinhood Road.
A volunteer gets an attendee to sign a petition pushing for a National Juneteenth Holiday
during a 2006 Winston-Salem Juneteenth event.
Slate of Juneteenth
events will start soon
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
This year's Triad Juneteenth Celebration
will stretch from Winston-Salem, to
more information about this event, call 336
793-7462 or e-mail char
ry@triadculturalarts.org.
Greensboro will close out the series with
Ureensboro, to Hign foint.
Triad Cultural Arts, Inc., a
Wijiston-Salem-based non
profit, is joining forces with
the Carl Chavis YMCA in
High Point and Ujamaa
Merchants United, Inc. of
Greensboro to stage a series
of events to celebrate
Juneteenth, a historic holiday
that marks the end of slavery
in the United States.
Each city will have arcel
ebration to mark the occa
sion. High Point will start the
series of celebrations with a
festival on June 20 from 5-8
p.m. at the Mendenhall
Station Transportation
II I
, Joe Robinson
its celebration on Saturday, June
28 at Festival Park, 200 N. Davie
St., from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Call
336-697-9668 or send an e-mail
to patfortune@bellsoiith.net for
more information.
Each festival will include
entertainment by gospel choirs,
rhythm and blues bands, African
drummers, dancers and vocal
ists. There will also be activities
for children, health screenings,
displays set up by community
organizations and merchandise
and food vendors. All of the fes
tivals will be family-oriented
and free and open to the public.
There will be two pre-festi
val events in Winston-Salem. On
Terminal, 220 East Commerce Ave.
Attendees can call 336-434-5440 or send an
e-mail to cfoster@hpymca.org for more
information about that event.
Winston-Salem's celebration will once
again be held in Rupert Bell Park. The event
will be Saturday, June 21 from 10 a.m. - 4
p.m. The park is at 1501 Mt. Zion Place. For
Thursday, June 19 at 6 p.m., there will be an
opening reception of the Juneteenth Art
Exhibition at The Artists Market, 89 West
Fifth St. The Juneteenth artwork will be on
display at the marker from June 16 - July 20.
Also on Thursday, June 19 at the
See Jiuieteenth on A12
Center to show
regular folks
how to become
art collectors
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
Thought about collecting art?
? A popular local art gallery will host a sessions
tp show you how. The Friends of the Delta Arts
Center is calling its three-part series "I Liked It
So I Bought It" a crucial crash course on the ins
and outs of art collecting.
The first workshop will be held June 20 from
6-8 p.m. "I Liked It So I Bought It. What Is It?"
will feature Laurel
Tucker Duplessis, a
visual artist, lecturer and
former curator of the Art
and Artifacts Division at
the Schomburg Center
for Research in Black
Culture and Hampton
University Museum.
Duplessis is also the
author of "Basic Ideas
for Collecting African
American Art." He will
talk about "what is and
what is not" fine art and
tell would-be collectors,
"where to begin."
Laurel Tucker
Duplessis
Kerry Davis, a U.S. Postal Service employee
who is also a collector, lecturer, consultant and
owner of Atlanta's Davis Fine Art, will keynote
Aug. 2's "I like it. 1 want it. How can I afford it?
The workshop will focus on how to start a collec
tion on a shoestring budget. Davis will highlight
the techniques she has used to acquire works
from prominent artists. Her lecture will also be
from 6-8 p.m.
The last program, "I liked it. I bought it. How
did I do?" will be a Show-and-Tell event, where
attendees are invited to share a piece of art that
they have acquired and tell where they found and
what drew them to it.
A discussion will be led by Dr. Regenia Perry,
a lifelong collector of African American Art. She
will talk about her passion for art and her unique
approach to collecting. Perry is the first African
American to hold a Ph.D. in art history and is a
retired Virginia Commonwealth University pro
fessor.
All the workshops will be held at Delta Arts
Center, 2611 New Walkertown Rd. The cost for
the individual programs is $20 per person.
Admission to all three programs is $50. Officials
say Space is limited and that those interested in
attending should call Albert Reeves, 336-774
3163, for reservations.
Hollywood meets Southern Goodness
Filmmakers responsible for 'Tried Green Tomatoes" get the real thing at Sweet Potatoes
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
There is Hollywood make-believe and
then there is,, the real thing.
The director and producer of the hugely
successful 1991 film "Fried Green Tomatoes"
found that out recently.
As they dined at Sweet Potatoes restau
rant in the heart of the city's arts district, the
restaurant's owners, Vivian Joiner and
Stephanie Tyson, made a point to bring out
their own mouth-watering fried green toma
toes, a specialty on their menu.
Jon Avnet directed and Jordan Kerner pro
duced the film, which starred, among others.
North Carolina School of the Arts alumna
Mary-Louise Parker and was nominated for
two Oscars. Avnet and Kerner are former
partners in The Avnet/Kerner Company,
which is also behind films like "George of the
Jungle," "Up Close and Personal" and "The
Mighty Ducks" films.
Kerner is now dean of the School of
Filmmaking at the North Carolina School of
the Arts and is a huge of advocate for North
Carolina's film industry.
Avnet, whose other films include "Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow," "88
Minutes" and "Inspector Gadget," was
Kerner's guest recently in the School of
Photo by Allen Aycock/NCS A
Sam Weisman with restaurant owners Vivian Joiner and Stephanie Tyson - who are holding
their famous fried green tomatoes - Jon Avnet and Jordan Kerner.
Filmmaking. Avnet conducted workshops for Glass and First Assistant Director Benita
film students along with Director/Producer Allen.
Sam Weisman. Storyboard Artist Christopher
Photo by Jikc Haite/CNN
CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien in front of Central High
School in Little Rock, Ark., for a report for the network's
landmark "Black in America" initiative.
Morehouse senior wins CNN contest
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
c
Morehouse College senior Travers
which included stops at North Carolina
Central University and North Carolina
A&T. As part of the Campus iReporter
Johnson has won CNN's
Campus iReporter Contest.
His winning entry is
called "To Be Young,
Gifted and Black in
America," and ponders
whether it is a good time to
be young and black in
America.
The contest ran in asso
ciation with a tour of eight
historically black colleges
and universities (HBCUs)
tr> nrnmnte CNN's "Black in A
Contest, students from each
school shared their firsthand
accounts of the black experi
ence through video, photo,
audio or text submissions. The
National Association of Black
Journalists (NABJ) chose one
"Campus iReporter" from
each school to win a digital
video camera. Those winners
were then eligible to submit
additional footage to compete
for the grand prize, also cho
hv NARt r\iM'o
a multi-platform programming initia
tive.
More than 11,500 students from
eight HBCUs participated in the tour,
www.iRcport.com site allows everyday
people to be reporters by uploading
See CNN on All
l >