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Arts Council awards 6 mini-grants SPECIAL TO TWCHRQNKXL The Arts Council of \ Winston-Salem and Forsyth County has , announced its first round of J 2016-2017 grants made ? through its Wells Fargo , Community Enrichment Mini-Grant program. These awards provide community groups and individuals with grants up to $500 to infuse the arts into all segments of the community, promote cre ativity, provide greater ' access to the arts and bring people together. "These fall mini-grants | will bring art experiences to diverse populations and enable unique collabora tions in our community." said Dara Silver, grant pro gram manager for The Arts Council. "We continue to be inspired by the ideas coming from individuals, community organizations, and businesses that have the desire to make a differ ence in our community through the arts." Projects selected: ?Hispanic League will partner with Reynolda House Museum of American Ait on Thursday, Oct. 20, to host Columbian classical guitarist Roberto Martinez in the Colorful Sounds in Concert: Latin America. This partnership will celebrate the Hispanic League's 25th Anniversary and will bring the two organizations together to begin to explore promoting art and culture to new audi ences. . ?N.C. Black Repertory Company will present a new outreach program titled, Living Room Theatre, for community members who are not physically able to attend shows at the theatre. They will bring actress Perri Gaffney's one-woman show. The Resurrection of Alice, to hospital- bound and terminally ill patients at local hospitals, rehab facilities, and nursing homes in October 2016. ?Lewisville Area Arts Council will celebrate its 25th anniversary of Music in the Park on Oct. 8 at the Shallowford Square in Lewisville. This free com munity event features the Brothers Pearl band along with musical guests and exhibiting artists. Community partners include Lewisville Recycle Committee, Lewisville Historical Society, Lewisville Civic Club. ?Cross the Line Project is a project of the UNCSA Student Board and will fea ture five concerts in October in nontraditional places. UNCSA students will perform classical music and engage their audience about the music as a way to keep classical music relevant. Partners include Homestead Hills Retirement Community, Old Salem Harvest Day Festival, Brookridge Retirement Community, and Reynolds Gardens. ?Piedmont Opera will partner with the local Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont Council to create a signature opera badge, provide educational pro gramming and an opportu nity to attend Puccini's Tosca at the UNCSA Stevens Center in October. ?WS Shuffle will part ner with CoffeePark Arts located in the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts to present a monthly show case competition for artists including music, poetry, dance, and performing arts. The competition is open to artists of all ages and has fostered many local talent ed individuals. Currently, the Arts Council has awarded 109 mini-grants totaling $28,000. The next due date for mini-grant applications is Friday, Oct. 27 by 5 pjn. for projects taking place Dec. 1, 2016 - Feb. 28, 2017. For more information about Community Enrichment Mini-Grants contact Dara Silver, senior administrative assistant, special projects, and grant program manager at 336 747-1426 or dsflver@intot hearts.org. Students cheer on Clinton but give advice Editor's note: The Chronicle apologizes for an error made in The Chronicle on Sept. 29 on page A1. Because of a production error, the entire story was not printed. The story is being reprinted below. The Chronicle regrets any misunderstanding that may have resulted from these errors. The Editor BY TEVIN STINSON THE CHRONICLE . On Monday night, millions of eyes were glued to TV sets across the country to watch the fust presidential debate between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump. Students from Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) and others in the community watched arguably the most anticipated debate in history on the giant projector screen inside the Enterprise Center on South Martin Luther King Drive. Before the debate, they also heard community leaders tell them how important the election is. During the debate, Clinton and Thimp tackled a num ber of issues, including race relations, crime and policing, ISIS, the economy and education. Cheers echoed through the large room when Clinton discussed her plans to improve the education system and bring jobs to the coun try. Although the majority of students attending the watch party were Clinton supporters, not everyone was pleased with her performance. Senior nursing major Kelsey Jones said although she believes Clinton will be the next president, during the debate she spent too much time going back and forth with Trump. "She touched on a number of issues, but I felt like she could have talked more about her platform," said Jones. "She still has my vote, and 1 think she will win the elec tion, but I just felt she wasn't her best during the debate." Other young voters said Clinton did exactly what she needed to do to win the debate. Senior communications major Simone Joyner said she believes Clinton won the debate because she answered all the questions that were asked, unlike Trump. Buck Green, a WSSU senior and co-founder of BlackDollars.com, a directory of black- owned business es, believes that African-American voters will be the dif ference-maker in the presidential race. He said he thought Clinton won the debate, but she could've done more to appeal to black voters. "She touched on the major topics, but to get more young black voters, she should have brought up Trump'spast, which is filled with bigotry and racism," he said. The next debate is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 9 in St. Louis. Before Clinton and Trump squared off, Forsyth County Board of Elections member Flemming El-Amin led an open conversation on the importance of voting. El Amin told the students that although they came together to watch the debate, the decisions they make at the polls on Nov. 8 will impact the country for the next 50 years. "We're just watching the debate, but this is about so much more," he said. El-Amin said that whoever is sworn in as the President of the United States early next year will have the power to nominate at least two candidates for the U.S. Supreme Court. He said when it comes to social economics, the judges that serve on the country's highest court make decisions that last much longer than the tenure of the president. As an example, El-Amin briefly discussed the landmark case Plessy vs. Ferguson, which upheld in 18% the policy of "separate but equal" in state laws for all public facilities. Public facilities for blacks and whites remained sepa rate until Brown vs. Board of Education repealed the law in 1954. "From 18% until 1954," he said. "The Supreme Court justices made that decision." El-Amin, who pushed for an early voting site to be put on the campus of WSSU, also urged students to exercise their right to vote. "This is nothing to play with. You must take this seri ously," he said. 'Too many died and to many prayed for us to have this right. We can't take it lightly." Longtime community and civil rights activist the Rev. Dr. John Mendez also urged the students to vote. As he stood in front of the giant screen just before debate moderate Lester Holt appeared, Mendez told the students, "You are leading the struggle." He said, "Brilliant young people are changing poli tics, and I want you to know that I am proud of you. People like me have run my race already, so where you lead me that's where I'm going." ;<?? Wells Fargo from page A] decided to close all of her Wells Fargo accounts, including the erroneous credit card account, paying i off what was owed, but also filing a complaint say ing that someone else opened the credit account in her name without her knowledge or approval. One of the High Point bank officers did help Jones file the complaint with Wells Fargo and promised an investigation, but also cautioned her, "You'll never know who did this because they don't release that information." While there, Jones says she was put on the phone with another Wells Fargo representative about the matter. She told the rep that she also wanted a letter from the company con firming that she closed the account, and to issue her a refund from a line of credit. At the end of June 2013, Jones received a form letter from Wells Fargo Consumer Credit Solutions stating that June 27, 2013 - the date of the letter - "we have closed your above-referenced credit card account as you requested." But while Jones did get the letter, her refund check never came, despite what the Wells Fargo rep prom ised on the phone. Jones says she was told both doc uments would be in the same envelope, but in fact, she was later told, the letter and the check would be coming from two different places, and the check never came. After waiting two to three weeks, Jones went back to the High Point branch to complain, and within three days, she finally got a check for just over $7, "Jones" was upset that if she had been short 7 dollars in a payment, the bank would have demand ed full payment immedi ately or charge a late fee, but when the tables were turned, Wells Fargo took close to a month, without reason, to resolve the mat ter. That was three years ago. Fast forward to today, and Jones sees news of the current Wells Fargo scan dal where 5300 employees were fired for fraudulently opening over 13 million erroneous bank and credit card accounts in cus tomers' names over the past five years, forcing them to pay fees on accounts they knew any thing about. Published reports say Wells Fargo collected over $2 million in false fees as a result from over 550,000 customers. A spokesperson for the company told The Chronicle that virtually all of the affected customers were refunded an average of $25.00 per., But Jones knew she was owed much more than just fraudulent fees charged. She had been forced to pay off over $1300 on a credit account she never opened. Three weeks ago, she went back to the High Point branch, with her doc umentation from three years earlier, to file another complaint, wanting all of the money she paid, plus interest. The branch man ager stated that she would also indicate that if Jones' credit was affected, it should be corrected. She says she was told by a bank officer, who remembered Jones from three years ear lier, that she would be con tacted. Someone from the company named "Shawna" did eventually call her. I?p ?JjH Jones says Shawna told her the original complaint was investigated in 2014, but no fraud was found in someone else using her name to open a Wells Fargo credit card account. Shawna added that a new probe was underway given her most recent complaint, and that Jones would be getting a. letter from the company within two weeks. In the interim, a friend at church showed Jones The Chronicle's Sept. 22 article on the Wells Faigo scandal, where two Winston-Salem branch managers insisted that none of the false accounts were opened in this market. "That's not true because I am a victim," Jones says. "It does affect people in North Carolina, but maybe they don't know who to contact, ashamed because they did not pay close attention fo financial ? statements as they should have, no longer having documentation to validate their claim or because Wells Fargo is so large." . In an effort to seek fur ther assistance, Jones says she's also sent letters of complaint to State Sen. Paul Lowe of Forsyth County, and US. Senators Sherrod Brown [D-Ohio] and Elizabeth Warren [D Massachusetts], who sit on the Senate Banking Committee currently inves tigating Wells Fargo. An aide from Brown's office, as well as an aide to Lowe, contacted Jones to follow up at press time. If you are, or were a customer of Wells Fargo bank, and you feel that you were a victim of an alleged account scam by the com pany, please contact us at The Chronicle at news@wschronicle.com and tell us your story. ! | Real Estate from pageXl years, will be mailed to property owners in ear The state requires counties to conduct reap praisals of real estate every eight years, but like many other counties, Forsyth does it every four years. This was controversial in 2013, when the downturn in the housing market resulted in 90 percent of county residents seeing a drop in property value. During a briefing last week, county Tax Assessor John Burgiss told commis sioners not every real estate transaction is counted in appraisals to avoid sales that may not accurately reflect a property's market value, such as foreclosure auctions and transactions between family members or businesses. There are about 5,000 qualified sales every year, be said, 'and each property is visited by county staff. "It's a multifaceted way we make sure we have accuracy," said Burgiss. With many more unqualified sales than qual ified ones and visits to properties that may not tell the appraiser what's inside the house, Burgiss said that public input is welcome in the process. He said that property owners have several avenues of appeal once they get their reappraisal, which will go out in January or February of next year. They'll be able to file an informal appeal with the Tax Administration office as well as a formal appeal to the Board of Equalization and Review. Residents can also appeal to the state level. With a stronger housing market, Burgiss anticipates the reappraisal to generally show an increase in proper ty value. The Forsyth County property tax base, which also includes personal property like cars, decreased by eight percent in 2009 after the last reap praisal. Burgiss said despite the property value losses, there were less informal appeals and about the same amount of formal appeals in 2013. "This exhibition is a clear, intentional meditation on ways to take control, re-inscribe, and resist dominant narratives of what it means to be SEEN. To be a black man, woman, transgender -to be what the creator created us to be!" Jonbn CistMl 10.14.2016 Opening reception Friday 4:00-7fl0pm 10.20.2016 Aftist Talk Tbursdiy 6r00pm Annual tsjlofis Qjygi Books Loduro with Artist Zun Lee Zun Lee is an award-winning Canadian photographer, physician and educator Lee has been globally recognized as one of the top emerging visual storytellers to watch I on the importance of quotidian Black life has led to publications in the New York Times, Slate, Wall Street Journal, TIME, The New Yorker, Huffington Post, MSNBC, Washington Post, Forbes, and Hyperallergic. For more information about Lee, visit: www.zunlee.com. 10.14.2016 - 3.1.2017 Fxhtbition dutcs ? wssu y The Chronicle (USPS 067-910) was established by Ernest H. Pitt and Ndubisi Egemonye in 1974 and is published every Thursday by Winston-Salem Chronicle Publishing Co. Inc., 617 N. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, N.C. 27101. Periodicals postage paid at Winston-Salem, N.C. Annual subscription price is $30.72. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Chronicle, P.O. Box 1636 Winston-Salem, NC 27102-1636 > , ? p Ad aft: Aaron Fowler. He Was. 2015, Mixed Media, 134x165x108-, Courtesy Ric Whitney and Tina Percy-Whitney
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