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Monthly Archives: March 2021

Celebrating the 200th Episode of the Charlotte Readers Podcast with Landis Wade and John Hart

March 29, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

During my childhood, I thought that everybody followed the same system for measuring time, but I now know that people keep track of time in various ways.  I was reminded of this point a few months ago when I sent an email to Landis Wade, the driving force behind the Charlotte Readers Podcast.  At the time, I thought I would write something about the anniversary of the founding of his podcast, and I asked him about the specific date when he launched the podcast.  He responded by saying that he did not pay much attention to this anniversary date.  He wrote, “My anniversary of accomplishment will be the 200th episode on April 13th.”  Well, the 13th of April is just around the corner, so I contacted Landis again and asked him for some more information about the Charlotte Readers Podcast and his plans for the 200th episode.  Here is what he sent to me:

Charlotte Readers Podcast is a 30-minute podcast where local, regional, national and international authors give voice to their written words in an interview format with a short reading in the middle. Each episode is accompanied by a listener supported Patreon interview with a deeper dive into the craft or business of writing.

The 200th episode celebrates with special guest and six-time New York Times bestselling and award-winning author, John Hart, whose latest book, The Unwilling, is the subject of the episode.  In his very first historical novel, John Hart returns to the South. The book is set in Charlotte during the height of the Vietnam War. It’s a novel inspired by the courage and sacrifice shown by soldiers who fought in that conflict.

Booklist calls the book “another scorcher.” Mystery and Suspense Magazine describes the book as “a very enjoyable, twisty ride.” AARP uses the words “unforgettable and propulsive.” Several New York Times bestselling authors say the book “is crime fiction at its absolute best,” “richly complex,” and “somehow, raw, tender, brutal and exquisite–all at the same time. Exceptional.”

I am especially proud of both the 100th episode and the upcoming 200th episode.  The 100th episode featured bestselling Longmire author Craig Johnson who writes engaging novels and tells great stories on the side. The upcoming 200th features John Hart, and he was a good sport when he agreed to be the guest for this special episode.  We joked about how he was “finally” able to get on Charlotte Readers Podcast.

As part of the celebration of the 200th episode, Charlotte Readers Podcast is sponsoring special giveaways.  Anyone who signs up for and is on the email newsletter, a/k/a The Book Report, by April 12, 2013 is eligible to win. Sign up HERE. Prizes include a Kindle, Beats Lex Wireless Earphones, beer mugs, pint glasses, bags, wine coolers and more.

Eligibility and other terms for 200th episode giveaways: Must be on the Charlotte Readers Podcast newsletter email list as of April 12, 2021 to be eligible to win. Winners will be announced in the April 13, 2021 newsletter a/k/a The Book Report. Announced winners forfeit their prize unless they send a return email with their mailing address in response to the April 13, 2021, newsletter by 5:00 pm EST on April 20, 2021, to claim their prize.

I think it is fitting that Landis is celebrating this special episode with John Hart.  The two of them have several points in common.  They both grew up in North Carolina, they both graduated from Davidson College, and they are both former lawyers who have taken an interest in literary matters.  The fact that Hart’s The Unwilling is set in Charlotte makes it especially appropriate to feature this novel on the 200th episode of the Charlotte Readers Podcast.  Landis often features authors on his podcast whose books do not have Charlotte connections, but I am glad that this special episode showcases a novel that has such direct connections to Storied Charlotte. 

Telling the Story of Bonnie Cone and Her Role in Founding UNC Charlotte

March 21, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

On the campus of UNC Charlotte, Bonnie E. Cone is a legendary figure because of her role as the founder of the university.  Her legendary status is reflected in the fact that several professorships are named after her, including the Bonnie E. Cone Professor in Civic Engagement.  I currently hold this position, and I consider it a great honor to have my name associated with hers.

The story of how Bonnie Cone came to establish the university is the focus of a newly published book titled Jewel in the Crown:  Bonnie Cone and the Founding of UNC Charlotte.  Written by William (Bill) Thomas Jeffers, this book is a collaboration between the Atkins Library’s Special Collections and University Archives and Digital Publishing units along with the University of North Carolina Press.  For more information about this book, please click on the following link:  https://omp.uncc.edu/library/catalog/book/11

I recently contacted Bill and asked him for more information about his thoughts on Bonnie Cone and her place in the history of Charlotte.  Here is what he sent to me:

To be honest, I never met Bonnie, formally – although we were in the same room at my fraternity formal in 1996. I had a rule back then: never meet the bigwigs, it’ll be too easy for them to identify you after you screw up. Low profile was my preferred operating style as an undergraduate and, more or less, it served me well. However, I deeply regret not walking up and saying hello at the time – especially considering the role UNC Charlotte has played in my life. I cannot thank her enough for her persistence in seeing this dream of hers through to reality.

One thing I learned was that Bonnie never wanted to be an administrator; her true passion was reaching young minds through teaching. I was surprised to discover, when first offered the job as director of the Charlotte Center of the University of North Carolina, she initially tried to turn it down – citing no experience! How fortunate we are that her boss, Elmer Garinger, thought otherwise, and told her she had to take the job because no one else could. Garinger, as principal of Central High School, was the person who brought her to teach in Charlotte in 1940. In fact, he actually snagged her away from another teaching position already promised to her in Kannapolis. Cone admitted years later that she didn’t think she could say no to Garinger in his request to run the center because he was the boss and you didn’t say no to the boss. In the six weeks between her August appointment and the start of school in September, she quickly proved he made the right choice, fully staffing and setting a new record for enrollment, all while operating out of an office the size of a closet. If that isn’t what a determination to succeed looks like, I need a new pair of glasses because I really don’t know what is.

While the idea of publicly supported higher education in Charlotte was not new, the means about which to galvanize public support around the idea was hit or miss prior to 1946. The Charlotte Center became the catalyst that changed that. I wonder, however, if the center would have been that catalyst if not for Bonnie Cone. Whenever you saw the center mentioned in the
Charlotte Observer, Cone’s name always accompanied it. Whether it be an announcement about a new class offering, a student dance or fundraiser, or even the start date of the upcoming quarter – she was there; letting readers know about this valuable resource, and that it was a temporary one too. Those nonstop reminders paid off, catching the attention of Charlotte executive W.A. Kennedy. If Bonnie Cone was the public face of the movement to bring a public university to Charlotte, Kennedy was the back office. Their working relationship produced a tandem that drove the discussion about higher education in this city – and pushed the envelope when complacency threatened their momentum. Charlotte College’s creation in 1949 serves as a good example. The two-year junior college set records for enrollment, but struggled financially during its early years because it had to compete with Charlotte’s growing public school system for funding. Cone knew this arrangement had saved the school, but it was not a viable long-term funding option for growth. Consulting with Kennedy they decided to push for a four-year, state supported college, even though that didn’t appear to be anywhere on the horizon. Cone took it a step further – she saw a full-fledged university here, and looked to that day as fulfillment of her dream for the city. Then she went and did it.

Lastly, she could talk people into anything, so I am very glad she used her superpower for good.

Since March is Women’s History Month, the recent publication of Jewel in the Crown: Bonnie Cone and the Founding of UNC Charlotte is perfectly timed.  Bonnie Cone played a pivotal role in the history of UNC Charlotte, but she also played an important role in the larger history of Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Bonnie ConeWomen's History Month

Delilah: The Story of Charlotte’s OWN Television Series

March 15, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

In my Storied Charlotte blog, I celebrate stories that have Charlotte connections.  I generally write about stories that are published in books, but this week’s blog post is about Delilah, the new television series that premiered last week on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network.  Filmed in Charlotte during the fall of 2020, Delilah makes extensive use of Charlotte locations.  Delilah is not the first television series to be filmed in Charlotte.  Several seasons of both Homeland and Banshee were filmed in the Charlotte area, but in these previous series Charlotte was used as a stand-in for other locations.  In Homeland, for example, Charlotte stood in for Washington, D.C.  Delilah, however, is a scripted television series that actually takes place in present-day Charlotte.  For more information about Delilah, please click on the following link:  https://www.oprah.com/app/delilah.html

Several major law firms are based in Charlotte, and Delilah deals extensively with this aspect of Charlotte.  Delilah Connolly, played by Maahra Hill, is the central character in the series.  She is an African American lawyer who stepped away from her successful career as a corporate lawyer in order to start her own solo practice and to spend more time with her children.  She is best friends with Tamara Grayson, played by Jill Marie Jones, who is an attorney with a powerful Charlotte law firm.  The friendship between Delilah and Tamara is tested when they find themselves on opposing sides of a thorny and controversial case. 

Viewers who live in Charlotte will recognize many of the locations used in the series.  The opening shot features Charlotte’s skyline.  The Fourth Ward, one of Charlotte’s urban neighborhoods, figures prominently in the series since Delilah lives in a townhouse in this neighborhood.  A pivotal scene was shot at the Northwest School of the Arts.  Other scenes were shot in west Charlotte as well as in the Ballantyne neighborhood. 

Several people from Charlotte participated in the production of the series.   Charlotte City Council member Braxton Winston worked as a member of the production crew.  Kelly Jacobs, a Charlotte native and talented violinist, plays the role of Delilah’s teenage daughter.  Martin Damien Wilkins, also a Charlotte native and graduate of Charlotte Latin School, assisted director and executive producer Charles Randolph-Wright throughout the production. Recent UNC Charlotte theatre alumna Kyra Hubert (’20) serves as a production assistant for the show. Theatre Department Adjunct Professor Jill Bloede was a featured actor (Caseworker) and Professor Bruce Auerbach was an extra in the series premiere.

For Charles Randolph-Wright, the opportunity to produce and direct Delilah was a homecoming of sorts.  He was born in York, South Carolina, but he often visited Charlotte throughout his growing-up years.   He now lives in New York, but he still identifies with Charlotte.   In speaking about his connections to Charlotte, he recently told a reporter from The Charlotte Observer, “I am so proud of from whence I came.  There’s a beauty and joy here that I really needed right now….  I spoke to City Council and was amazed to see how many people of color were in that room.  When I grew up, I don’t know, there may have been one or two.  People talk about diversity.  But to be in this city and see it—what a great thing.”  He sees Delilah as a “celebration” of being Black in Charlotte.

As the first scripted television series that is both filmed and set in Charlotte, Delilah has already earned a place of honor in the history of Storied Charlotte.  

Celebrating Women’s History Month with Mary Kratt

March 07, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Given that March is Women’s History Month, now is a perfect time to celebrate Mary Kratt and her many publications that deal with the history of women from the Charlotte area.

Mary was born in West Virginia, but she moved to Mecklenburg County at the age of eleven when her journalist father took a position with The Charlotte Observer.  She grew up in a rural part of the county, but she took many trips to Charlotte, and the city intrigued her.  When she moved to Charlotte as a young woman, she took an interest in the history of the city.  As the years went by, she established herself a local historian.  She published numerous books about the history of Charlotte, including Charlotte, North Carolina: A Brief History.  Mary has a particular interest in the roles that women have played in local history, and this interest is reflected in New South Women:  Twentieth-Century Women of Charlotte, North Carolina and several of her other books. Mary is also an award-winning poet.  Her most recent poetry collection is Watch Where You Walk, and many of the poems in this collection are about the lives of women from girlhood to old age.

I recently contacted Mary and asked her for more information about her publications that relate to the history of women from the Charlotte area.  Here is what she sent to me:

Where are they? It’s a question I asked when I researched books about Charlotte forty years ago to write a book about Charlotte history.  But where are the women? The only woman I could find was Mrs. “Stonewall” Jackson, the Charlotte widow of a Confederate general. They didn’t even include her name, Anna Morrison, so I began a fascinating search for others. That quest led to writing at least five of my books. 

In Charlotte: Spirit of the New South (revised and reprinted as Charlotte, North Carolina: A Brief History) Jane Smedburg Wilkes, a northerner come south, gathered women to fund and start Charlotte’s first hospital (1877). Mary Myers Dwelle energized citizens and school children to save a building and start North Carolina’s first museum, The Mint Museum of Art (1936).

In New South Women, I was commissioned to write about influential Charlotte women of the twentieth century who made their mark and were elected Women of the Year, such as Shirley Fulton, born on a cotton and tobacco farm coastal South Carolina, she came to Charlotte after law school and became resident Superior Court Judge. She said “My son started kindergarten the same year I started law school.”  Or novelist Ethel Thomas who in the 1930s loaded her truck with farm vegetables, put on her hat and long dress to infiltrate a union rally in Gastonia, so she could write about it.

For my book The Only Thing I Fear Is a Cow and a Drunken Man, I read letters and diaries of largely Piedmont Carolina women 1828-1929 and either edited them or wrote poems based on their experiences. Susan Nye Hutchinson was a widow traveling south to raise her children and start a school here for young girls in 1838-40. Margaret Courtney Conner, that inveterate journal keeper and newlywed from Charleston, crossed Laurel Creek 27 times on horseback to survey her husband’s  Mecklenburg lands and follow him into the mountains on adventure in the 1830s.

In a Bird In The House: The Story of Wing Haven Garden, I told the delightful story  of Elizabeth Clarkson’s courtship with illustrated vignettes of garden animals and interviews about the couple’s eccentric lives.  And in Watch Where You Walk, my collected poems, one section details the witty and colorful southern life of Martha Hood Norton from personal experience.

Writing each of these, I discovered the marvel of women transcending immense hardship and hurdles. And in my many personal interviews with women, I took great pleasure because women will tell you unusual details and reveal the most astonishing things.

I have known Mary for many years.  I first met her when she enrolled as a graduate student in UNC Charlotte’s graduate program in English in the early 1990s.  I was serving as the Director of the American Studies Program at the time, and she contacted me about her interest in pursuing an American Studies research project on the labor novels associated with Gastonia’s textile mills in the 1920s.  She ended up doing a directed reading with me on this topic, and she wrote an excellent paper in which she discussed how these labor novels relate to women’s history.   In this paper and in so many of her publications, Mary shows how women have played integral roles in the history of Storied Charlotte and the surrounding communities.

Mysteries from the Past

March 01, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Mark de Castrique and Mark Williams share much more than a first name.  Both are long-time residents of Charlotte, both are about the same age, and both pursued similar careers before becoming men of letters.  Mark de Castrique worked for years as a video producer while Mark Williams worked as an audio producer and sound engineer.  Nowadays, however, both of them focus much of their attention on providing readers with mystery stories in which the past figures prominently in the unfolding of action-packed plots.  Both of them have just released books featuring a male and a female detective who work together to solve crimes.  

Mark de Castrique has written numerous mystery novels, many of which are set in and around Asheville.  His latest mystery novel, Fatal Scores, is part of his Sam Blackman Series.  Released this month by Poison Pen Press, Fatal Scores revolves around a murder that is rooted in Asheville’s past.  For more information about Fatal Scores and Mark’s other books, please click on the following link: http://www.markdecastrique.com/

I recently contacted Mark and asked him how Fatal Scores relates to the history of Ashville.  Here is what he sent to me:

I like the following quotation from William Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun – “The Past is never dead. It’s not even past.”  My Sam Blackman detective series revolves around that concept in that the stories are about the impact of the Past on the Present.

I grew up in Hendersonville, NC, a small town near Asheville.  The rich history of the region has provided true stories that I’ve fictionalized as having criminal consequences.

Sam Blackman and his partner/lover Nakayla Robertson are an interracial couple in present-day Asheville.  Sam is a white war veteran who lost a leg in Iraq.  Nakayla’s a smart, witty, African-American woman with investigative skills of her own.  Together, they have solved cases involving Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carl Sandburg, and the Kingdom of the Happy Land, a real kingdom set up by freed slaves in the North Carolina mountains.

Fatal Scores is the eighth in the series and is set against a contemporary fictional festival honoring four true-life luminaries with actual ties to Asheville: baseball great Babe Ruth, composer Béla Bartók, Moog synthesizer inventor Robert Moog, and pioneering environmentalist Wilma Dykeman.  Intertwining their Asheville connections into a story proved to be a fun challenge, but the plot is much darker.  For years, paper mills dumped toxic waste into NC mountain rivers.  The Pigeon River became known as the Dead River.  Downstream in Tennessee, contaminated ground water proved lethal.  One town, Hartford, suffered so many deaths, it was known as “Widowville.”  Environmental activist Wilma Dykeman and others filed legal challenges that helped rejuvenate the river, but as Faulkner observed, “The Past is never dead.”  And the sins of the Past demand retribution as someone is settling fatal scores.

Mark Williams is the founder Dark Lantern Tales, a Charlotte-based publisher of vintage detective stories.  Mark has a passion for the crime thrillers that were originally published in America during the late nineteenth century.  Sometimes labeled pulp fiction or dime novels, these detective stories were generally set in New York or other major American cities, and they were marketed to working-class readers who were seeking action-packed, sensational stories.  Mark has been collecting these publications for much of his life, and he is now bringing some of the best stories in his collection back into print.  Several of the books he has published are part of The Joe Phenix Detective Series, the most recent of which is Kate Scott, the Decoy Detective.  For more information about Kate Scott, the Decoy Detective and the other books Mark publishes, please click of the following link:  https://darklanterntales.wordpress.com/

I recently contacted Mark and asked him how he came to be interested in bringing out new editions of “Vintage Detective Fiction,” such as the Joe Phenix Detective Series.  Here is what he sent to me: 

For a nerdy teenager, growing up in the Chicago area offered a substantial buffet of fine museums, mysterious hole-in-the-wall stores, and public transportation to reach all of it. My friends were caught up in the new (original) Star Trek series, but my taste for escapism led to the past. In particular, the last half of the 19th century resonated with me. I studied the turbulent post-Civil War decades, collected original artifacts, and discovered the popular literature of the time. Down in seedy corners of Chicago I visited stores with floor after floor of dusty books. One place also specialized in collector comics and had a few dime novels. What a discovery! It wasn’t literature for the ages, it was sensational entertainment for the week it was published. Reading these newsstand novels felt like time travel – the stories were written by and for people many years in the past, and with no concern for whether some kid in 1966 would understand it or not. I was hooked.

I spent many years deeply engrossed in an unrelated career but never lost interest in that old literature. Over time I read hundreds of them, especially once the internet made microfilm copies available. A concept came to me of curating collections of these stories that a casual mystery reader could enjoy. The urban crime and detective novels written by Albert Aiken are among my own favorites, and they seem to translate well to our own times. In particular, the Joe Phenix Detective Series is significant because it is one of the earliest detective series with a recurring lead character. More importantly, these can be a lot of fun while still being a very different read from modern stories of the genre. With the chance to be a part of Mark West’s Storied Charlotte blog, I would like to offer a recently published novel from the Joe Phenix Detective Series, Kate Scott, the Decoy Detective; or, Joe Phenix’s Still Hunt.

Detective Joe Phenix encountered the woman who will be his new assistant when the first serial installment of Kate Scott, The Decoy Detective, hit the streets on February 9, 1884 in Beadle’s Weekly. While the novel opens as almost a study in Victorian manners, Kate Scott turns out to be quite a sturdy character. Self-possessed and bold, Kate outwits and escapes from a mastermind of crime, shoots an attacker, and works as a disguised “spy” (undercover agent) for Joe Phenix. As the title page promises, this is a tale that takes the reader from the highest to the lowest reaches of New York society. Now, join Kate Scott for a stroll on the recently opened “New York and Brooklyn Bridge” for a breath of fresh air in novel surroundings. Her evening is not destined to remain peaceful!

Both Mark de Castrique and Mark Williams are drawn to mysteries from the past, and both of them have provided Storied Charlotte with exciting new books in which the past is certainly not dusty. 

Tags: dime novelsmystery novelsmystery storiespulp fictionvintage detective stories
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