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/931256
JANUARY 24-30, 2018 UCW 21 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM DEBRA FULTON, FTCC High School Connections Coordinator. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. FTCC's High School Connections allows high school students option to take college-credit courses tuition-free by DEBRA FULTON EDUCATION Sometimes, fiction is a bet- ter teacher than history books or newspaper columns. A powerful new novel set in Pinewood, North Carolina, a fictional modern foot- hills town, proves the point. "No One Is Coming to Save Us" by North Carolina native and Lehigh University associate professor Stephanie Powell Watts has been cast as a reimagining of "e Great Gatsby" in a new set- ting. But its great strength is a rich portrayal of an extended African- American family. Family members deal with the town's economic decline as its furniture manufacturing base fades away. e legacy of segregation and racism complicates and enriches their efforts to find places in life. JJ Ferguson, the book's Gatsby figure, returns to his hometown with lots of money and to build a mansion on a hill overlooking the modest place where he grew up. His real purpose, it turns out, is to reconnect with his high school girlfriend, Ava. But Ava is married to Henry and has an estab- lished white-collar professional job. More than anything, she wants to have a child. Her every effort has been a disappointment. Ava's mother, Sylvia, was like a mother to JJ when he was growing up. When he comes to visit, he teases Sylvia when she tells him she has not had time or money to put pictures on the wall of her small apartment. He says, "You're going to have to get your black woman card revoked if you don't get Barack on the wall." She responds, "You mean my old black woman card, don't you?" She continues, "Do you remember when all the barbershops used to have Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. pictures up? Is Barack up there with them now? He should be, I figure." Sylvia clearly loves JJ, more so be- cause her own son has been a disap- pointment. Also, her husband, Don, while charming, is another disappointment. Meanwhile, unknown to Ava, Henry has developed a relationship with a white woman, and they have a child named Zeke. When Ava sees Zeke for the first time, he looks just like Henry. Crushed by Henry's disloyalty and by her inability to have Henry's child, she is vulnerable to JJ's efforts to reconnect. She goes with JJ to his new house. Watts writes that as Ava undresses, "She felt slightly erotic, slightly disgusted like she stuck her finger in the muddy soil of a potted plant. She had never cheated on Henry, not once." She would have told JJ that fact, "but she didn't want to ruin the moment by mentioning Henry's name." Watts continues, "She knew for a fact that her marriage was over. She was not sad for the fact, but for the knowledge of the fact." Ava brings back the memory of making love with JJ years before and remembers thinking, as Watts writes, "She'd wanted a life, her life, but she'd had a small palpable, unreasonable hope that she would get pregnant and the hard work of planning and focusing would be taken from her, out of her hands, and bound up in a baby with this sad sweet boy." ere is no completely happy ending, but as e New York Times' reviewer Jade Chang explains, "e novel's intricately plotted relationships pay off satisfyingly in its final chapters. When Gatsby didn't get what he wanted, the story could only end with his death, but Watts's characters are people who have seen generations of dreams stymied and thwarted – for their kin, their community and themselves. Rather than giving up if the game doesn't go their way, they do what they've always done: Forget the rules, shake up the players and turn Gatsby's green dock light gold." Members of the High School Connections staff at Fayetteville Technical Community College were thrilled this past August when over 1,200 high school students arrived on campus in buses, in cars and on foot to earn free col- lege credit. Counselors at the high schools attended by these lucky students shared information with them about FTCC's High School Connections program. High School Connections offers high school juniors and seniors an opportunity to dual enroll in college classes at FTCC while still in high school. is program is an excellent money-saving idea for parents who fund their children's education. e savings from earning one year, or even one semes- ter, of college credit without paying tuition could be substantial. Plus, consider the savings resulting from not needing a meal plan or a dorm room. FTCC provides the College Transfer Pathway participants with general education courses such as math, history, psychology, sociology and for- eign languages available. College Transfer Pathway courses are guaranteed to transfer to all 16 UNC universities in North Carolina if the student earns a grade of C or better in the course. Some students may be interested in attending a university. Others might enjoy the opportunity to learn a technical trade so they can work while pay- ing for college. FTCC's Career and Technical Pathway initiative offers over 30 programs. ese program areas in- clude several computer-related pathways, including demi-chef, business, medical coding and billing, nurse's aide, emergency medical science, horticul- ture, manicuring, fire protection, construction, in- fant-toddler care, computer-integrated machining, collision repair, criminal justice and more. FTCC also offers concurrent pathways in plumbing, weld- ing, a/c, heating and refrigeration, and electricity motors and controls. A complete listing of programs is available at: www.faytechcc.edu/academics/high- school-connections. Students who are interested should check in with their high school guidance counselor or contact me at FTCC at fultond@ faytechcc.edu for more details. Feb. 27, FTCC will host its an- nual open house from 5 to 7 p.m. and hold "parent nights" Febru- ary through April at many local Cumberland County high schools and private schools. Parents and students can meet FTCC faculty and staff at open houses as well as see presentations and participate in Q&A sessions. FTCC staff can also help students complete the online application. Par- ents should remember to bring their child's social security number to begin the admissions process. High School Connections is just one of the outstanding programs available at FTCC. Visit with staff at campus locations in Fayetteville and Spring Lake or take virtual tours via the website at www.faytechcc.edu. 'The Great Gatsby' in an African-American family story by D.G. MARTIN LITERATURE D.G. MARTIN, Host of UNC's Book Watch. COMMENTS? Editor@upand- comingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. Watts replaces Gatsby with JJ Ferguson and Daisy with Ava. FTCC's Career and Technical Pathway initiative offers over 30 programs.