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Monthly Archives: August 2021

The Founding of a New Charlotte-Based Literary Journal

August 30, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

The Southern Literary Messenger, one of the first literary journals associated with the American South, made its debut in August 1834 in the city of Richmond, Virginia. A year later, a young Edgar Allan Poe signed on as an assistant editor and regular contributor. Many of Poe’s most famous works originally appeared in The Southern Literary Messenger, including his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, which first came out in installments in the Messenger. Poe is but one of many Southern writers who have established their reputations and credentials by contributing to literary journals. Such literary journals and magazines have played significant roles in the history of Southern literature. 

Over the years, Charlotte has served as the home for several notable literary journals, such as that Southern Poetry Review, which was based in Charlotte for many years. The list of literary journals that are currently published in Charlotte include The Sanskrit Literary-Arts Magazine (a UNC Charlotte student-run magazine that made its debut in 1970), The Main Street Rag (a print magazine that has been publishing poetry, short fiction, essays, interviews and other features since 1996), and Qu: A Literary Magazine (a publication of the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte that has been releasing issues since 2015). Soon, however, a new Charlotte-based literary journal will join this list.

This new journal is a project of the Charlotte Center for Literary Arts, more commonly known as Charlotte Lit. In just five years, Charlotte Lit has carved a unique spot in the Charlotte arts scene, hosting more than fifty classes annually and bringing big-time writers like poet Terrance Hayes to town for special events and classes. They’re entering new territory now with a major writing contest and journal. I asked co-founders Kathie Collins and Paul Reali for the details.

“We’re thrilled to announce the launch of an annual writing contest and journal, both called Writers/South,” wrote Collins. “With prizes totaling $10,000, plus publication, the contest and journal will be game-changers not only for Charlotte Lit but also for North Carolina and the surrounding region. Our mission is to be the premier creative writing center in this pocket of the southeast. To achieve that, we really needed to expand our reach.”

“We’re fortunate,” added Reali. “It’s very difficult for regional journals to attract big-name judges and offer significant cash prizes. Thanks to a generous Charlotte Lit patron, a good friend who wishes to remain anonymous, we’re able to enter the contest market with a splash. This patron has been actively supporting our mission for several years and understands how essential it is to our growth for us to ‘spread the words’ beyond Charlotte.”

Writers/South will award a first-place prize of $1,500 in each of four categories—fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and flash. Attractive cash prizes also go to second place, third place, and honorable mention winners. The judging panel is filled with familiar names and rising stars: Ron Rash for fiction, Nickole Brown and Jessica Jacobs for poetry, Tara Campbell for Flash, and Stephanie Elizondo Griest for nonfiction. Poet and University of South Carolina professor Michael Dowdy rounds out this dream team as journal editor. All winners will have their entries published alongside writing by this year’s judges in the inaugural issue of Writers/South: Journal of Charlotte Lit, to be published May 1, 2022.

In keeping with Charlotte Lit’s regional ambitions, the contest is open to writers in North Carolina and its four border states: Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia. Submissions are open from September 1 to December 1. Winners will be announced March 1. Contest winners will be honored and have an opportunity to read at a May event that also honors the first inductees into the new Charlotte-Mecklenburg Literary Hall of Fame (which is a story for another day).

Writers should stop by https://www.charlottelit.org/ to learn more about the Writers/South Awards and how to enter. Collins said, “We can’t wait to read what you’re writing!”

In my role as the writer of the Storied Charlotte blog, I thank Kathie Collins and Paul Reali for their inside scoop on the founding of Writers/South. Just as The Southern Literary Messenger played a major role in the writing career of Edgar Allan Poe and other nineteenth-century writers from the South, I am sure Writers/South will soon play a major role in the careers of many contemporary writers who call Storied Charlotte home.

My Friend Bill Hill Has Roller Derby Stories

August 20, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Bill Hill and I go way back.  We arrived at UNC Charlotte within two years of each other.  Bill came in 1982 as a communications studies professor and debate coach, and I came in 1984 as an English professor with a specialty in children’s literature.  Shortly after we met, we discovered that we both liked to play ping pong.  Nearly every week we played fast-and-furious ping pong games during our lunch breaks, and we’ve been friends ever since.  Over the years, our careers followed along similar paths.  We both served as program directors, department chairs, and associate deans.  Bill retired a few years ago, but we still stay in touch on a regular basis.

Another point Bill and I have in common is that we both pursued unusual careers before we entered academia.  During the 1970s and early ‘80s, I worked as a professional puppeteer, and around the same time period, Bill pursued a career in the professional roller derby world.  I’ve long enjoyed hearing Bill’s inside stories from his roller derby years, and I’ve often thought that these stories would be of interest to a wide audience.  Well, I am pleased to report that Bill’s roller derby stories are included in Jim Fitzpatrick’s new book titled Ad-Lib to the Blow Off!:  The True Story of Professional Roller Derby. 

One of the chapters in Fitzpatrick’s book is titled “Bill Hill: The Debater and the Skater.”  This chapter traces Bill’s involvement in roller derby, from watching roller derby on television with his father, to skating with the Chicago Pioneers and other teams, to working as a commentator for ESPN’s coverage of roller derby.  This chapter is chockfull of stories from Bill’s roller derby days.  I especially enjoyed the stories about how Bill entered the world of professional roller derby, including a story about hitchhiking to San Francisco so that he could participate in a roller derby training program.  The chapter concludes with a reflection from Bill about his skating career:

Bill Hill, 1972

Needless to say, Roller Derby changed my life.  I have often said that I learned as much or more being on the road skating as I did in school.  I grew quickly when I joined Roller Derby; it was an experience and a prerequisite for getting along. … I constantly think about the places, the people, the feel of the track, the sounds of the audience.  Yes, I miss all the night drives, … I miss the bumps and the bruises, I miss the people, … I miss doing the TV.  It may sound strange, but nothing can replace those things because there is simply nothing else like life in Derby.

Of course, Ad-Lib to the Blow Off! is not just about Bill’s connections to roller derby.  Jim Fitzpatrick covers the entire history of roller derby in his book. In writing this book, Jim turned to Bill for research and editorial help.  Bill also provided the foreword to the book.  I contacted Jim and asked him for more information about the book and Bill’s role in making this book a reality.  Here is what Jim sent to me:

I fell in love with Roller Derby and the San Francisco Bay Bombers as a small boy in 1968 and had a childhood dream to become a professional skater. Fast forward a number of years and I was able to live out my dream which ended up lasting 36 years (in a variety of roles which included skater, referee, track crew member, trainer, assisting in promotion, coach/general manager)! Things didn’t quite pan out as I had envisioned but it was a wild roller coaster ride that I would definitely take again if I had it to do over.

Over the years I became a collector and historian of the sport and a little over a decade ago began writing my book in order to preserve its history before it was too late. I reached out to Bill Hill for his insights into his time as a professional skater, from rookie to one of the top player coaches. Bill also gave me valuable assistance with editing and organizing the book.

As for my book, I feel one doesn’t need to be a fan of Roller Derby to enjoy it. It offers something(s) for a wide variety of audiences. The original Roller Derby’s rich history began during the Great Depression and survived through three wars (WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War), as well as decades of radical changes in society. Just when Roller Derby reached its peak in popularity and its future looked bright, in the blink of an eye it shut down. For years the fans, participants, and media were led to believe the sport succumbed to the oil crisis and gas rationing of the early 70s. In reality, the actions of a member of the Chicago Outfit (Al Capone’s Mob) were what actually led to the league’s demise. Since then, countless attempts to revive the sport have come and gone. Many were poorly executed or run. A few were totally bizarre reinterpretations of the game involving huge money and major TV deals but stood absolutely no chance of succeeding since those in charge lacked the understanding of what made the original sport so successful. Many of the attempts “muddied the water” as to what the original Roller Derby was and tarnished its reputation.

The book also gives an unprecedented look inside the sport, from not only the business end but the skaters’ point of view. In order to do that, I had to shatter kayfabe (a term that was used in professional wrestling in which events were portrayed as “real” even though they were staged) and be the first to expose what really went on and how much of the sport was legitimate and how much was “set.” Numerous personal and touching insights are included which expose the hazards, hardships, and sacrifices skaters and personnel endured for the honor of being a part of Roller Derby. The allure of performing in an amazingly entertaining but extremely dangerous spectacle, in front of huge crowds and on television, was so powerful that most look back upon it as the best time in their life.

Barnes & Noble Press published Ad-Lib to the Blow Off!, and they have more information about the book on their website:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ad-lib-to-the-blow-off-jim-fitzpatrick/1139822756 Fitzpatrick includes the stories of many skaters in his book, and I enjoyed reading about these other skaters.  Nevertheless, the skater’s story that interests me the most is Bill’s story.  In a sense, this book captures a side of Bill that most of his professional colleagues at UNC Charlotte never saw during his long career as an administrator.  I think of Bill’s skater self as his alter-ego.  In his role as a Senior Associate Dean, Bill represented the interests of the university and behaved as one would expect an upper-level university administrator to behave.  However, having played ping pong with him many times, I saw another side of Bill—a more rebellious, go-for-broke side.  In a way, the multiple sides of Bill are like the multiple sides of Charlotte.  The Chamber-of-Commerce side of Charlotte is all business, but the Storied Charlotte side of the city is far more interesting.

Depicting the Lives of Civil Rights Leaders

August 16, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Dovey Johnson Roundtree and Shirley Chisholm both played leading roles in the Civil Rights Movement, and both are celebrated in new picture books that have important Charlotte connections.  We Wait for the Sun, a picture book co-authored by Roundtree and Katie McCabe and illustrated by Raissa Figueroa, focuses on a story from Roundtree’s childhood in Charlotte.  Shirley Chisholm Dared:  The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress, a picture book written by Charlotte author Alicia D. Williams and illustrated by April Harrison, tells the story of Shirley Chisholm’s life.  These picture books provide contemporary readers with insights into the lives of two remarkable African American women.  

Dovey Johnson Roundtree was born in Charlotte in 1914.  After her father’s death in the 1919 influenza epidemic, Roundtree, her mother, and her three sisters all moved into her maternal grandmother’s home in Charlotte’s Brooklyn neighborhood.  Her grandmother fostered Roundtree’s curiosity and determination to succeed.  We Wait for the Sun depicts the special relationship that Roundtree had with her grandmother.  In the book, the two of them venture into the woods in the middle of the night to pick blackberries together, and in the process, they share a special moment of beauty.  The memory of this nighttime adventure stuck with Roundtree throughout her long career as a pioneering civil rights lawyer and ordained minister.  After Roundtree retired and returned to Charlotte, she shared this story with Katie McCabe when the two of them were writing Roundtree’s autobiography, which came out in 2009 under the title of Justice Older than the Law:  The Life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree.  The blackberry story is included in the final chapter of this autobiography, but Roundtree and McCabe decided to rewrite the story for a child audience.  They set to work on We Wait for the Sun, but Roundtree’s death in 2018 meant that McCabe had to finish the project on her own. In addition to telling Roundtree’s blackberry story, McCabe provides the details of Roundtree’s groundbreaking career in the “Author’s Note” at the end of the book.  Although Roundtree did not live to see the publication of this picture book, her spirit lives on in the book’s colorful pages. 

Shirley Chisholm Dares:  The Story of the First Black Woman in Congress is Alicia D. Williams’s third children’s book in as many years.  In 2019, her debut novel, Genesis Begins Again, came out to great acclaim.  She received both a Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Author Award for New Talent for this children’s novel.  In 2020, her picture book biography of folklorist and writer Zora Neale Hurston came out under the title of Jump at the Sun:  The True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neale Hurston.  This year, Williams has a new picture book biography, and this time her focus is on Shirley Chisholm.  Williams covers Chisholm’s growing-up years in Brooklyn, New York, and Barbados, her education at Brooklyn College and Columbia University Teachers College, and her entrance into the world New York politics. Williams shows how Chisholm’s formative years helped her become such an effective political leader. Williams does not go into the details of Chisholm’s political career, but she does cover the values and beliefs that motivated Chisholm over the course of her career in Congress. In writing this book, Williams draws on her experience as a teacher and storyteller in Charlotte.  She clearly knows how to hold the attention of a child audience.

For readers who want to know more about Katie McCabe and her collaborations with Dovey Johnson Roundtree, please click on the following link:  https://www.katiemccabeauthor.com/  For readers who want to know more about Alicia D. Williams and her children’s books, please click on this link:  https://www.aliciadwilliams.com/my-books

We Wait for the Sun and Shirley Chisholm Dared make a perfect pair.  They both tell the stories of pioneering African American women who helped change America.  Although these books are written for children, they should appeal to anyone who wants to know more about how the childhood experiences of these women helped shape their careers.  I think these books should be shelved together in the ever-expanding library that is Storied Charlotte.   

Tags: Civil Rights Movementpicture books

Salvation: A Charlotte Story from 1971

August 09, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Leslie Rindoks, who writes under the pen name of Avery Caswell, has a history of bringing other people’s stories to light.  As the driving force behind Lorimer Press, she has published the work of numerous local writers, including Anthony Abbott, Mary Kratt, and Ed Williams. Lorimer Press has recently evolved into Better Books, an author services company that Leslie runs, and in this role, she works as a writing coach with many area writers.  Writing as Avery Caswell, in her novel titled Salvation, she brings to light a story of two African American girls who were abducted by a traveling evangelist from their home in the Druid Hills neighborhood in Charlotte in 1971. 

Although written in the form of a novel, Salvation is based on a true story from Earthell Latta’s childhood. For Earthell, the experience of being abducted and spending several months traveling through Georgia and Florida with a preacher known as Mother Franklin was harrowing. Rather than repress the memory of this experience, she felt that it would be better to bring her story out into the open.  She knew Caswell because both of their daughters went to the Davidson-Cornelius Day Care Center, and she knew about Caswell’s background as a writer, so she decided to approach her with an idea.  In a recent interview, Caswell recounted what happened next:

Seventeen years ago, when we were both picking up our daughters at daycare, Earthell, whom I’d met before, approached me with a question. Her aunt had mentioned to her that I’d left my advertising job to write full time so Earthell asked if I would write about what happened to her and her sister in 1971. When she shared what had happened, I was floored. When they were seven and nine, she and her sister were kidnapped by a traveling evangelist. For decades, no one in her family had ever talked about it. Earthell wanted her story told.

So much has changed since Earthell first asked me to write her story. Seventeen years ago it was less remarkable that we might team up to tackle this project. She had a story and needed a writer; I was the writer she knew. Both of us, regardless of the task in front of us, are the type of person who strives to do what is right; we give everything our best effort. Neither of us, in Earthell’s words, “never knew all this was coming with it.” We naively started down the path and just kept taking the next step and then the next one.

By trusting me with her story, Earthell gave me an incredible gift. It forced me to become a serious writer, a better writer, a better person.

Though this is a work of fiction, at its heart is her story, told so that others will know what happened in 1971—what can still happen today, when religion seeks to justify a multitude of sins; when others choose to look away, to remain silent, to claim that being poor, or black, or small, means you matter less.

The official publication launch date for Salvation is September 15th, but the book is already available for pre-orders.  For readers who want to know more about the novel, please click on the following link:  http://averycaswell.com/2021/07/a-story-about-a-story/

Salvation is this writer’s first novel, and it is an impressive debut. However, Salvation is not the work of a beginning writer.  She has many years of experience as a publisher, editor, writing coach, and author of short stories and works of nonfiction.  She has long been a player in Storied Charlotte, and this background has provided her with the perfect preparation to write Salvation.

Tags: kidnappingnoveltrue story

Telling Charlotte’s Stories of COVID-19

August 02, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

I am sure that most of us have read news accounts about the impact of the COVID-19 on the residents of Charlotte.  For the most part, these accounts focus on statistical information, such as the latest trends related to the number and severity of COVID-19 cases reported in the Charlotte area. Statistics, however, only tell part of the story.  Behind the statistics are real people with personal and often gut-wrenching stories about their experiences with COVID-19.  These personal stories are the focus of a new book titled PANDEM!C:  Stories of COVID-19. 

A joint project of the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative and BOOM Charlotte, PANDEM!C:  Stories of COVID 19 has the look of a graphic novel.  Each of the stories is told by a Charlotte journalist and illustrated by a Charlotte artist, and each of the stories is told in both English and Spanish.  Most of the stories are about individual Charlotte residents and their particular experiences with the pandemic.  Chapter 1, for example, is about Cedric Meekins, a Charlotte music teacher who contracted COVID-19 while attending a music conference in Cincinnati in March 2020.  The story tells about his harrowing experience in the hospital and his long struggle to regain his strength and relearn how to do basic activities, such as walking and holding a pen.

Many people contributed to PANDEM!C:  Stories of COVID-19, but the project was coordinated by Chris Rudisill, the Director of the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative.  Chris’s Charlotte connections extend beyond his work as a journalist.  He grew up in the Charlotte area, graduated from UNC Charlotte, and founded a Charlotte company called Artstreet Creative.  I contacted Chris and asked him for more information about how this project came to be.  Here is what he sent to me:

In October 2020, the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative (CJC) launched PANDEM!C: Stories of COVID-19, an innovative project that brought together Charlotte’s art and local news communities to share stories of COVID-19. The CJC was formed in 2019 as a partnership of six major media companies and other local institutions focusing on issues of major importance to the Charlotte region. It has been focused primarily on the topic of affordable housing and modeled on the Solutions Journalism Network method of investigating and reporting news with a primary focus on solutions to community problems.

When the pandemic surge occurred in Charlotte, the collaborative (whose members include The Charlotte Observer, WCNC-TV, WFAE 90.7, QCityMetro.com, Qnotes, La Noticia, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Queens University and Free Press) saw the importance of producing stories that would keep citizens informed and safe. Chris Rudisill, the director of CJC, told The Charlotte Observer’s Liz Rothaus that they “wanted a creative way to get relevant, reliable information to people who might not be reading or tuning into traditional news sources … something that combined the visual punch of a 1950s-style monster movie poster with the integrity of solid news reporting.”

The answer was a graphic novel and in the spirit of collaboration CJC found a partner in local arts organization BOOM Charlotte.  PANDEM!C brought together eight local artists and reporters from each news outlet to translate news stories into a comic book form. With new installments every two weeks the project tackled the challenges of contact tracing, wearing masks, homelessness and the pandemic’s impact on minority communities. These stories were published online in both English and Spanish on https://digitalbranch.cmlibrary.org/cjc/graphic-novel/, on the organization’s Instagram @CLTJournalism and through an app called WebToon. Participating artist Wolly McNair described the collaboration as a “game changer and hopefully will be something others use to model ways they can tell stories.” Each artist worked directly with a journalist to produce a graphic version of the published news stories.

Those installments are now part of a print edition that will be distributed through the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library this month. With support from a Cultural Vision Grant from Charlotte’s Arts & Science Council (ASC), the CJC will distribute over 2,000 free copies to local residents and has produced a series of programming that highlighted the experience, including an online forum with reporters Nate Morabito and David Boraks and artists Marcus Kiser, Makayla Binter and McNair. As the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative continues to grow, it remains focused on bridging the gap between the local news ecosystem and the community to tackle important issues. The group just released its 2021-2022 Strategic Plan which outlines its future development and the creation of a $1.5 million sustainability fund to support the local news ecosystem.

For readers who want to know more about the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative, please click on the following link:  www.charlottejournalism.org  For readers who want to know more about Charlotte BOOM Charlotte, please click on the following link:  www.boomcharlotte.org  For readers who want to know more about Artstreet Creative, please click on the following link:  www.artstcreative.com

While reading PANDEM!C:  Stories of COVID-19, I was reminded of the following quotation by Daniel Kahneman:  “No one ever made a decision because of a number.  They need a story.” The individual stories included in this book transcend all of the numbers associated with the pandemic.  In the face of the current pandemic, all of us have to make decisions about getting vaccinated, wearing masks, and maintaining social distancing.  The stories in this book help readers make better-informed decisions about their own responses to the pandemic.  In so doing, this book makes an important contribution to Storied Charlotte.

Tags: COVID-19graphic novel
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