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Monthly Archives: April 2021

The Charlotte Film Society and The INDEPENDENT Picture House

April 26, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

The recent 93rd Academy Awards Ceremony underscored for me the importance of movies as a medium to tell stories, but it also caused me to reflect on the precarious position of the film industry at the present time.  Like so many other residents of Charlotte, I have not seen a film in a theater for over a year because of the current pandemic.  As a result, I had not seen any of the films nominated for “Best Picture.”  Because of plummeting ticket sales, the entire film industry is having one of the worst years in its history.  For those of us in Charlotte who like foreign, classic, and independent films, the closing of the Manor Theatre in Myers Park has made a bad situation even worse.  As Charlotte’s last remaining art house cinema, the Manor Theatre had long served as the community gathering place for local film buffs, but the 73-year-old theatre closed its door for good last May.

For Brad Ritter, the President of the Charlotte Film Society, the closing of the Manor Theatre hit very close to home.  He started working at the Manor in 1993 as the projectionist, and he served as the general manager of the Manor Theatre from 1999 until it closed in 2020.  Brad, however, is not the sort of person who is easily defeated.  Right after the Manor closed, he started working with the membership of the Charlotte Film Society to establish their own movie theatre, and their vision is now well on its way to becoming a reality.  They have identified a location for their new theatre on Raleigh Street in NoDa, and they have launched a campaign to raise the funds necessary to open the theatre, which they have named The INDEPENDENT Picture House.

I recently contacted Brad and asked him for more information about his mission to open a new venue to show independent and foreign films.  Here is what he sent to me:

The idea of The INDEPENDENT Picture House started in May 2020 about 30 seconds after my manager told me that the Manor Theatre would not be reopening even after Covid-19 subsided. No, actually it was March 16, 2020 when I punched out the last ticket at the Manor’s box office. It wasn’t a ticket that a customer bought, but rather a comp ticket that I purposely rang through to give to my long-time assistant manager, Brandy. We knew we were “temporarily” closing due to the pandemic, but I had a feeling. When I handed the ticket to Brandy, I told her that she should keep it and that could very well be the last ticket ever ejected out of the ticket printer at the 73-year-old movie theatre.

No, wait, that’s not totally true either. The seeds for The INDEPENDENT Picture House were sowed many years ago when I and the Charlotte Film Society’s programmer and Manor projectionist would sit around the Manor lobby and dream about how much better the theatre could be programmed.

What if the Film Society had their own venue? A non-profit cinema that wanted to expand film programming to better engage the entire community. Provide the same great “Manor movies” while also bringing in the “artier,” more diverse films that the CFS is known for. Provide a space where filmmakers had an affordable and proper venue to show off their craft. A locally operated cinema that works with educational institutions to help expand film knowledge and its impact on lives.

That’s how the Charlotte Film Society envisions The INDEPENDENT Picture House. A cinematic hub that will bring a diverse audience together to celebrate art through the film medium. We look forward to being able to invite you to experience this fresh concept in the fall of 2021.

I applaud Brad and the members of the Charlotte Film Society for having the vision and determination to create The INDEPENDENT Picture House, and I am looking forward to seeing films there when it opens for business.  In the meantime, I urge everyone to visit their website:  https://www.charlottefilmsociety.com/  The Manor Theatre will always have an honored place in the history of Storied Charlotte, but I expect that all of us who loved to go to the Manor will soon find a new favorite gathering place at The INDEPENDENT Picture House.

Tags: Independent filmsManor TheatreThe Independent Picture House

Dina Massachi, L. Frank Baum, and The American Experience

April 16, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

I first met Dina Massachi in 2014 when she took a graduate course that I was teaching on children’s literature.  In my conversations with her, she mentioned her interest in conducting a research project related to L. Frank Baum’s Oz books, and I agreed to help her with this project.  Since then, Dina has established herself as a recognized authority on Baum and the Oz stories that he created.  

Dina’s scholarship on Baum recently came to the attention of the producers of a PBS documentary about Baum.  They contacted her, and they were so impressed with her insights into Baum’s life and work that they arranged for her to fly from Charlotte to Boston so that they could record an interview with her for the documentary.  That documentary, which is titled American Oz:  The True Wizard Behind the Curtain, debuts on April 19, 2021, on PBS’s American Experience series.  For more information about this documentary, please click on the following link:  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/american-oz/

I recently contacted Dina and asked her for more information about her interest in Baum and her experience being interviewed for this PBS documentary.  Here is what she sent to me:

While I’ve loved Oz since childhood, I didn’t begin my journey as an Oz scholar until I began working on my master’s degree at UNC Charlotte. With the help and guidance of Dr. West, and so many others within the UNC Charlotte English Department, I was able publish an article in The Journal of American Culture about how Oz connects to the first-wave feminist movement. Somewhere in the research process, Dr. West suggested joining The International Wizard of Oz Club; the connections I’ve made there have been beyond helpful. The Oz Club’s journal, The Baum Bugle, has all sorts of information that can’t be found anywhere else. Further, like Dorothy, I’ve been able to meet interesting friends as I’ve traveled further and further into the wider world of Oz. Last year, during the early Covid lockdowns, those friends helped me put together a reading of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz that can be found here: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3OVMLWgINCSSQBBUgdOeOTZcDybheAy3

I’ve learned along the way that one success often leads to another, and I’ve published quite a bit about Oz since earning my master’s degree. One of those publications, a chapter titled “L. Frank Baum: Brains, Heart, Courage” in the book Shapers of American Childhood, caught the eye of one of the producers of The Film Posse and they contacted me about a documentary they were working on for American Experience. Two producers from The Film Posse and I shared several phone conversations before they flew me to Boston to film. I had never been on television before, but I imagined a lot of glitz and glamor. Instead, it was a lot of odd rules (one can’t wear certain jewelry without messing up sound, as an example), but it was still quite exciting. The strangest part of the experience is that I can’t speak to the final product. I haven’t seen anything that isn’t public, so I’m not sure what the documentary looks like. The whole experience was sort of like turning in a group project where I only know my own piece— and even then I have no idea which soundbites of mine have been used.

While I wait to see what the “American Oz” episode of American Experience looks like, I’ve been distracting myself with various projects. I teach at UNC Charlotte— I regularly teach an Oz class with the American Studies Program, and I will be offering a brand-new Oz class for the English Department this fall. My connections with The International Wizard of Oz Club have allowed me to create opportunities for my students to play with Oz scholarship in meaningful ways. I’m excited to see where this road takes me, and I hope to follow in the footsteps of Dr. West by assisting others on their journey down their scholarship path. 

One of the great pleasures that comes with being a professor is seeing one’s former students successfully launch their careers and go on to accomplish great things on their own.  Dina is such a former student.  I am proud of her, and I am looking forward to seeing her on the American Experience documentary about L. Frank Baum.  Dina has made a name for herself in the world of Oz scholarship and in the land of Storied Charlotte.

Tags: American ExperienceFrank L. BaumOzPBS documentary

Tanure Ojaide’s Narrow Escapes

April 10, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Tanure Ojaide is a well-known Nigerian poet, but he is also the Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor of Africana Studies at UNC Charlotte.  I met Tanure shortly after he came to UNC Charlotte in 1990, but it was not until last year that our mutual interest in poetry intersected.  Shortly after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the editor of Exchange (a publication of UNC Charlotte’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) decided to run an article about the response of UNC Charlotte’s poets to COVID-19.  Tanure and I were among the poets the editor interviewed, and each of us had a poem included in the article:  https://exchange.uncc.edu/poets-reflect-on-impact-of-challenges-on-human-spirit/  In both cases, our poems were about taking walks during the quarantine, but our paths soon diverged.  Whereas I wrote just one poem related to the pandemic, Tanure went on to write an entire collection on this topic.  Titled Narrow Escapes:  A Poetic Diary of the Coronavirus Pandemic, this collection came out this month from Spears Books.  For more information about this book, please click on the following link:  https://spearsmedia.com/shop/narrow-escapes/

Tanure asked me if I would write a blurb for the book, and I happily agreed.  As I state in my blurb, Narrow Escapes is presented as a series of poetic diary entries, spanning from March 19, 2020, to October 31, 2020.  Each of the poems is a response to the coronavirus pandemic, but they vary in focus from the global impact of the pandemic to the very personal impact on one’s family members.  All of these poems pack an emotional wallop, but the personal ones are especially gut wrenching.  For example, the poem “When the Coronavirus Comes to the House” captures perfectly the anxiety and anguish that parents feel when their children are stricken by a deadly virus.  In many ways, this poetic diary has the feel of a verse novel, for there is a continuing narrative that ties these poems together. The poems in Narrow Escapes narrate the unrelenting progression of a global pandemic.  It is a narrative that we all are experiencing, and that is what gives this book its universal appeal.

I recently contacted Tanure, and I requested that he send me a statement about what prompted him to write this book.  Here is what he sent to me:

The poet is a restless human being whose reflexes are like antennae that respond to what is happening around. I have always known that no part of the world is separated from another and this connectedness has been strengthened by globalization. Thus, when there was the outbreak of the strange virus that turned out to be Coronavirus or COVID-19 in distant Wuhan, China, I had no doubt it would get to wherever there were human beings. It did not take long for it to get to Europe and watching the fatalities in Italy, Spain, France, and Britain, my anticipation became more real because of the connections between Milan, Madrid, Paris, and London and American cities. Within a week California and New York got the virus and the rest is familiar history.

Much as I used to refrain from jumping to write on issues or events as they unfolded, COVID-19 was a force that compelled my imagination to do something immediately. What else should a poet do than follow closely the spread, disruptions, fatalities, fear, near misses, and triumphs of this mysterious virus that doctors did not then know much about? It was current but its lasting currency intrigued me. As a global person, I follow happenings across the world. The heavy toll in northern Italy that I know through Milan and Bellagio told me that this was serious business. At a point, especially in late March through June, 2020, the trepidation was palpable. Doctors did not seem to know what to offer as treatment and many people who went to hospital died. Most of those who contracted it did not only die lonely but were gurneyed into cold trucks for mass burial as at a time in New York. For me, that was a threat that one should not take lightly. My family hunkered in religiously during the period of the lockdown.

What else could be more menacing as to move a poet to write than the entire world attacked by a tiny mysterious virus that behaved like a trickster? The pandemic offered me an opportunity to reflect on the vagaries of life and things. Why not write day by day as the charts of hospitalized folks rose to higher and higher peaks? The television stations and social media presented graphic images again and again that made nights riddled with nightmares. I often woke at night to jot down my reflections on the past day and my anticipation of what would come later that day. There was gloom but after some time there was a sense of defiance. What could be more poetic a subject than a dance of defiance against death in many narrow escapes? Some days, I had one entry or two or even three depending on Aridon, my muse. Each diary entry was like a dot in a circle and daily I added more dots to fill up the circle to make meaning about life. I was baring my heart as I tried to write entries that should communicate poetically. Unlike my earlier poems, there was barely a long poem in this collection. I was mobbed by images and thoughts of a global world which had taken for granted its confident development that it thought nothing could change its trajectory of progress. The poet loves this delusion of humans. COVID-19 levelled the world in a sense as developed and developing countries were equalized. The powerful and the weak faced the same threats and ironically a superpower nation led by an erratic president fumbled in handling the pandemic. For some act of fate up till now, Africa has not suffered close to what Europe and North America went through in fatalities.

The COVID-19 pandemic started from very far away. I knew it would come to the United States but did not foresee its coming to my home. It came really close to me. My lastborn son and daughter contracted it as they developed coughing and tested positive. Whether that was a fluke or not, I can’t tell because within three months my daughter caught it again and COVID-19 showed to us its ugliness as I never saw it from a distance with other people. She was in a ventilator for a day and those hours were the most traumatic I have experienced. She came out of the critical state and got moved to a step-down ward before being discharged for rehabilitation. It took her several months to get to relative normalcy even though she feels the side effects of  COVID-19 will remain with her for a long time. Imagine your family narrowly escaping a fatality and your suppressed jubilation and somber solidarity with others still mourning their loved ones!

Given that April is National Poetry Month, I thought it would be fitting to include one of the poems from Narrow Escapes in this week’s Storied Charlotte blog post.  I ran this idea by Tanure, and he kindly gave me permission to include the following poem:

We Are All Casualties

We knew people ambulanced to hospital

but did not return,

we know who returned on their own feet

but stunned to silence by their vulnerability;

we know those whose relatives or friends

either lost or won their personal battles.

All the while we have stayed at home.

It is not that distant despite social distancing—

those who grieve for the dead,

those who participate in muted celebrations,

and those who suffer enervating trepidations

from the fatalities trucked to mass graves

and the losses no words can convey.

Dead, positive, or negative

we are all casualties of COVID-19.

I think that Tanure is right when he says that we are all casualties of COVID-19.  This pandemic has had an impact on all of us, and as a result, we all can relate to the poems in Tanure’s Narrow Escapes.  Tanure’s newest poetry collectiondeals with a global pandemic, but at the same time, it relates directly to Storied Charlotte. 

Tags: CoronavirusCOVID19pandemicpoetry

Bookmark the Town

April 05, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

National Library Week runs from April 4 through April 10, 2021, and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has timed the launching of its Bookmark the Town campaign to coincide with this special week for all lovers of libraries.  Like political campaigns, the Bookmark the Town campaign involves the planting of yard signs, but these specially designed signs provide space for everyone to recommend a favorite book.  These signs can be obtained by making a $15 gift to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.  This campaign, however, is about more than raising much needed funds for the public library.  It is also about building a sense of community and starting conversations about books.

In order to find out more about the Bookmark the Town campaign, I contacted Melanie Baron, the Marketing and Communications Specialist with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation.  I asked her for a statement about the campaign, and here is what she sent to me:

This week is National Library Week, an annual celebration of the critical role of public libraries in our society. This year’s theme, “Welcome to Your Library” promotes the idea that Libraries are for everyone – and extend far beyond the walls of a building.

This was demonstrated over the past year, when your Charlotte Mecklenburg Library adapted to a quickly changing worlds by expanding digital resources, providing access to Wi-Fi and technology for those who need it, and partnering with parents, teachers and students navigating virtual schooling. Throughout, your Library never wavered from its mission to improve lives and build a stronger community.

Building a stronger community is what Bookmark the Town is all about. Books and stories inspire us, teach us, entertain us, and bring us together.  Bookmark the Town yard signs support your Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, celebrate National Library Week, and share your favorite books – all at once! Plant a (physical or virtual) sign with a gift of $15 or more and help our community grow.

Opening a book can open a conversation…together, let’s build a stronger community and #bookmarkthetown!  What’s on your sign?

Well, my wife and I agreed right away to support the Bookmark the Town campaign, but deciding what book to recommend on our yard sign took a bit more time.  We briefly considered recommending books that we have written or books that our friends have written, but we rejected this approach in favor of recommending a classic book, a book that has touched both of our lives.  After some discussion, we agreed to recommend To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  It’s a book that we have both read on multiple occasions.  It’s a book that speaks to social problems and injustices that are as relevant today as they were when the book first appeared in 1960.  It’s a book that reflects and honors the intelligence of children.  It’s a book that extolls the importance of treating all people with respect and dignity and of standing up for one’s core principles and values. In the words, of Oprah Winfrey, “To Kill a Mockingbird is our national novel.”

The conversation that my wife and I had about what book to list on our yard sign is an example of how the Bookmark the Town campaign can open conversations about books.  For those of us who are served by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, this campaign is but one of many ways that our public library encourages all of us to participate in the cultural exchanges that are such an important part of life in Storied Charlotte. 

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