Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/812754
APRIL 19-25, 2017 UCW 27 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 16 UCW MARCH 22-28, 2017 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM DR. SHANESSA FENNER, Principal WT Brown Elementary School. Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. PWC will host its third Annual Power and Water Conservation Expo Friday, March 24, from 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. and Saturday, March 25, from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. at SkyView on Hay Street in downtown Fayetteville. "This event does focus on conservation, and we have employees and conservation specialists that will be there," said Carolyn Justice-Hinson, communications and community relations officer at PWC. "We have information about our incentive programs, conservation tools and basic information to help people understand their utility services." Justice-Hinson added that they will be handing out items and helping people understand how to use them. The educational mascots, Willy Water Drop and Wally Watt Watcher, will be on site for the expo. "Willy Water Drop is a water drop, and Wally Watt Watcher is a plug, and sometimes people confuse him with an old-timey cell phone," said Justice-Hinson. "The kids and adults like them and everybody likes to take a selfie with them." Participants will learn ways to save on their energy and water bill, meet PWC linemen and receive a complimentary reusable tote bag with items like LED bulbs and tree seedlings. "Our linemen will have a miniature utility pole, and they will show you how they restore power," said Justice-Hinson. "You can touch it, and they will let you help them so you can see what their job is all about," Justice-Hinson added that there will also be information about PWC's major projects such as the change out of street lights to the LED streetlight and their advanced meters which they started putting in three years ago. It gives people an opportunity to see this stuff up close and to ask questions from the employees that do this every day. Another educational tool that will be distributed and discussed is the fat trapper. "The fat trappers are one of our most popular items," said Justice-Hinson. "We run regular campaigns trying to make people aware that they should not pour grease and oil down the sewer system because once it gets there, it clogs up and causes backups which are bad for everybody." PWC is the largest electric municipal utility in the state of North Carolina. "While people sometimes do not always believe this, our rates are among the lowest in the area," said Justice-Hinson. "We can show you some information on rates and how we compare to other local and regional providers." The expo is free and open to the public. Participants are encouraged to pay it forward and consider bringing nonperishable food items to donate to Second Harvest Food Bank. For more information visit www. faypwc.com or call 223-4009. EVENTS PWC Hosts Power and Water Conservation Expo by DR. SHANESSA FENNER The Annual Power and Water Conservation Expo is free and open to the public. On March 24, Givens Performing Arts Center will be joining the national conversation about social justice. At 7:30 p.m. GPAC presents How We Got Here: Songwriters on Social Justice featuring Scott Ainslie and Reggie Harris. For Scott Ainslie music is an integral part of social change. "Every social change is accompanied by music. Songs are perfect vehicles for inhabiting someone else's shoes for three or four minutes and feeling what that might be like. As such, it's a short cut through the thicket of defenses we all have that tend to keep people who are different from us at bay," he says. Music and social justice have both also played an integral part in Ainslie's personal development. In fact, his interest in the Civil Rights movement is what led him to music. "I grew up outside DC in Alexandria VA during the Civil Rights struggle and readily fell in with those who were fighting against the injustice of that. I went into my first black church with a high school teacher I played music with, Winfield Pate – a marvelous soul who played anything he heard without reading a note. Win opened a door for me, and I just went on through it" he says, "Gospel and blues have always been tied up with my own personal as well as my personal sense of fairness. To cross into another culture, one has to find ways to open the doors separating us. The key to that is respect and love, for the people, the music, the culture, and each other." Ainslie has been playing music for 50 years or as he describes it, "half a century living at the edge of American pop culture, but in the heart of her traditional culture." He was first inspired to learn guitar when he was introduced to roots music by a local gravedigger in Alexandria. Since then he has marrying his passion of music and activism. He also worked for four years at the NC Visiting Artist Program, which is a collaboration between the NC Arts Council and NC Department of Community Colleges. He used this platform to reach people of all social, economic, educational, religious and racial/cultural backgrounds. For Ainslie his role as an artist is to question society, which in his opinion is vital for growth. This role is particularly important in times like today that he describes as, "… polluted with verifiable, persistent, knee-jerk, self-serving lies emanating from the highest offices in the land," that poses a distinct threat to democracy. The performance on March 24th is intended to directly counter the issues of today. "The importance of sharing any experience rests in its power to reinforce our sense of community. We take a room full of strangers and, leading them through a course of stories and songs, turn them into a group. And, for that, we all feel better. This is more important for our nation now than it has possibly ever been. The remedy to polarization, to state the obvious, is for us to come together and get to know each other," he says. Their shared passion for activism, music and teaching are what brought Ainslie and Harris together. "Reggie and I have been circling each other for years, admiring each other's work both as musicians and as activists. Reggie has done with the surviving Civil Rights movement veterans what I did with surviving Blues and gospel musicians," Ainslie says. A love of music started very early for Harris as well. "Well, music has been an integral part of my life since I was about 3 years old I grew up hearing it and then singing, for as long as I can remember. There was music in my home early on. My mom and sister and I would gather around the piano, maybe on a Friday night, and sing for hours. And the music in my church and at school were very formative influences in helping me to see and connect to issues in the world and to my self-image," Harris says. Like Ainslie, Harris also combines his passion for music and social movements with education. "I am also the Music Educator for an organization, the Living Legacy Project, that leads journeys to sites of the Modern Civil Rights Movement throughout the south and two years ago, I was made a fellow in the Woodrow Wilson Scholars program, where I visit college campuses to lecture and perform on a variety of topics, related to the role of music and art in society," he says. Harris also believes that music and social movements are inherently linked. It dates back to the use of music by African American slaves "My primary focus over the years, however, has been about sharing how my ancestors, African Americans in slavery, used music and its remarkable power to create and sustain community and inspire action, to shape and change the condition of their lives," Harris explains, "It is again becoming the vehicle for self and group expression of emotion, for the expression of a dissatisfaction with social and political conditions and as a means, once again, of gathering people around a common sense of purpose. Within the current political and social climate, there is, obviously, much a deep sense of unrest and of people feeling disconnected and unrepresented." These two friends sharing a stage together is a magical thing. Their different specialties complement each other in a unique and beautiful way. "I am not as connected to the blues, as Scott is. My background and focus has been more connected to folk music, gospel, classical and pop music and my performing style reflects that synergy," Harris explains, "That is one of the cool things about the collaboration between us, in that we cross at very interesting musical points that, in some ways, defy the 'norm' or the 'expected'." How We Got Here: Songs on Social Justice by ERINN CRIDER Scholar Athletes of the Week APRIL 20 Softball •Cape Fear at Holly Springs APRIL 21 Baseball •Scotland at Jack Britt APRIL 22 Baseball •Jack Britt at Seventy-First Softball •Jack Britt at Seventy-First •Wilmington Hoggard Invitational in Wilmington (Cape Fear, South View) •Bears' Invitational at Gray's Creek (Gray's Creek) APRIL 24 Baseball •Terry Sanford at Purnell Swett •Lee County at Gray's Creek •Southern Lee at Westover •South View at Overhills Softball •Purnell Swett at Terry Sanford •Lee County at Gray's Creek •South View at Overhills Girls' soccer •Gray's Creek at Douglas Byrd •Lee County at Westover •South View at Overhills Boys' golf •Mid-South Conference at Anderson Creek •Cape Fear Valley Conference at Cypress Lakes Boys' tennis •Cape Fear Valley Conference tournament, first day, site TBA APRIL 25 Baseball •E.E. Smith at Overhills •Jack Britt at Cape Fear •Pine Forest at Seventy-First •Douglas Byrd at Gray's Creek •Westover at Lee County Softball •E.E. Smith at Overhills •Jack Britt at Cape Fear •Pine Forest at Seventy-First •Douglas Byrd at Gray's Creek •Westover at Lee County Girls' soccer •Jack Britt at Cape Fear •Pine Forest at Seventy- First Boys' tennis •Jack Britt at Cape Fear •Pine Forest at Seventy-First Boys' tennis •Cape Fear at South View •Overhills at Jack Britt •Cape Fear Valley Conference tournament, first day, site TBA Lacrosse •Terry Sanford at St. David's (girls) •Durham Riverside at Jack Britt (girls) Weekly Schedules HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS Here is the upcoming high school schedule for Cumberland County. Please note: events are subject to change, so consult with each school to confirm game times and dates. Brittany Broome Jack Britt • Tennis • Senior Broome recorded a 5.03 grade point average while playing tennis for the Buccaneers last fall. Jacob Winkleman Terry Sanford • Track/wrestling Winkleman runs in the distance races for Terry Sanford and carries a 3.7 grade point average. He plans to enlist in the Marines after graduation.