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.
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MAY 24-30, 2017 UCW 23 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 Terry Sanford ended its final season in the Cape Fear Valley 3-A Conference in style by winning the league's Wells Fargo Cup for overall athletic excellence. The Bulldogs had to fend off a strong challenge in the spring from perennial cup rival Union Pines in order to take the award as the final margin of victory was only 110.5-109.0 Terry Sanford was the overall winner in the fall and winter sports seasons and led Union Pines 82-66 heading into spring. Union Pines took three team championships in spring: girls' and boys' track and boys' golf. Terry Sanford matched Union Pines in total spring titles with championships in baseball, girls' soccer and boys' tennis. Other team titles Terry Sanford won this year were a share of girls' tennis with Union Pines, girls' golf and girls' swimming. Other final scores were Lee County 87, Gray's Creek 82.5, Southern Lee 81.5, Westover 46 and Douglas Byrd 35.5. This fall, the battle for the Wells Fargo Cup should get interesting as Terry Sanford joins the bulk of the Cumberland County Schools in the new 4-A/3-A Patriot Conference which will include Overhills and all the county schools except Seventy- First and Jack Britt. Britt and Seventy-First are moving to the Sandhills Conference. • You'll read elsewhere in this issue of Up & Coming Weekly about the start of the season for the Hope Mills Boosters American Legion baseball team. I've always had a special place in my heart for American Legion baseball, getting my first taste of it when I went to high school at West Rowan and was exposed to the perennially strong Legion program in Rowan County. I followed the Hope Mills Legion team often in my early years as a sports writer at the Fayetteville Observer, and have fond memories of a storybook season in the 1980s when a scrappy Hope Mills team made it to the championship series with that same Rowan County bunch I grew up with. I mention Legion baseball because in recent years it's been on the wane in our area, and only through the commitment of State Legion Hall of Fame coach Doug Watts has the sport survived locally. There is much more competition for the Legion team these days with minor league baseball returning to the area and the college summer league team that plays here. I'd suggest if you have the time, drop by South View High School some night this summer and catch a Legion game. These are local kids, some of whom just might be playing college or pro baseball themselves one day. It's worth your time to give them some support. Prep Notebook by EARL VAUGHAN JR. HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS Devon Pratt Terry Sanford • Cross country/track/soccer • Senior A versatile athlete, Pratt has a grade point average of 4.0. He was named Athlete of the Year in the Cape Fear Valley 3-A Conference. In the fall he ran cross country and played soccer in the same season. He plans to attend Wingate. Allie Lambert Gray's Creek • Softball • Junior Lambert, a member of the Bears' state-playoff qualifying softball team, has a grade point average of 4.5. Terry Sanford won the Wells Fargo Cup for overall athletic excellence. Attention Students; Let Your Voice Be Heard Get published in our award winning community newspaper Up & Coming Weekly Send in your feature articles, editorials, short stories, movie and music reviews or original poetry and artwork to: highschoolhighlights@upandcomingweekly.com Subject line: High School Highlights Please include your photo and school information.