What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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GET GREAT BRANSON DEALS sent directly to your phone! Text BRANSON to 82928 Message and data rates may apply. Text STOP to cancel. Go to taponitdeals.com/terms for privacy and terms. MARCH 15-21, 2020 WHAT'S UP! 7 'Heal The Community' Tour 'Mama C' uses words, music to spread message of equality BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette A t first, Charlotte Hill O'Neal sounds like your favorite Midwestern grandma. She still has her Kansas City accent, and she sprinkles her conversation with words like "blessed." But don't let her gentle and joyous demeanor fool you. O'Neal is a civil rights warrior who joined the Kansas City Chapter of the Black Panther Party when she was just 18. She married the chapter's founder, Pete O'Neal, and has been living with him in what some might call exile for half a century. "Facing gun charges in Kansas City in 1970, O'Neal and his wife Charlotte, also a Black Panther, fled to Algeria, where they joined other Panther exiles," a story about the film "A Panther in Africa" recounts. "Unlike the others, however, the O'Neals never found their way back to America. Pete and Charlotte moved on to Tanzania, where for over 30 years they have struggled to continue a life of social activism." In 1991, the O'Neals founded the United African Alliance Community Center in Tanzania, sponsoring an international exchange program for underprivileged American and Tanzanian teenagers. They also coordinate study-abroad programs that bring American college students to work with young Tanzanians. Ask "Mama C," as she is affectionately called by many, about life in Tanzania, and she'll correct that presumption of exile and struggle. "In one word, blessed," she says, that joy echoing through her voice. "In two words, blessed and peaceful. You want three words? Blessed, peaceful and beautiful. "It's really a blessing to say we've been able to not only survive but thrive there, not only myself and my husband of 50 years, but our whole community and people who come there. I think this was meant to be." O'Neal is in the United States right now, and she will visit Fayetteville beginning March 15 to share her message — that there is much work remaining to be done to make people of color equal — through her music, her poetry and that magnetism she exudes even over the phone. Pattie Williams of Fayetteville is one of the instigators of Mama C's visit. "Her theme is Heal the Community, which is the name of her annual world tour," says Williams, who met O'Neal in Tanzania through a mutual friend, Jimmye Whitfield. "We are excited that so many organizations and members of our community are joining with us to sponsor her financially and to showcase her talents, wisdom and love." O'Neal speaks fondly about the "black and brown" community where she grew up, saying it was only when she went outside of it that she learned about discrimination. "But we could get everything in our community. And the spirit of volunteerism, I would see that every day, not only in church but at the YWCA, where I would learn arts and crafts. And that informs who I am today." It wasn't one moment that made her realize she had to fight that discrimination but "a buildup of many moments." And she says returning to the United States makes it clear that "for the majority of black and brown people, life in a lot of ways is worse now." O'Neal points to continued claims of police brutality, the gentrification in cities that is forcing people of color out and the budget cuts that take the arts out of multiracial schools "because the 'powers that be' understand the empowerment that comes from being an artist." "The thing that gives me hope is so many people are waking up, so many communities are realizing that we have to band together to do it ourselves, to supplement the children's education, to create community gardens, to do things that bring people together and give people a source of community. A whole lot has gone backwards. But we can go forward." FAQ 'Mama C' in NWA March 15 — Performance in the TheatreSquared commons, 5-6:30 p.m. March 17 — Lecture/performance, 5:30 p.m., University of Arkansas Union Theater with a reception following. March 18 — Film Fest, 1-5 p.m., Pryor Center in downtown Fayetteville. March 19 — Town Hall Panel, 6-8 p.m., Jones Center in Springdale, part of Crystal Bridges Museum's For Freedoms Community Conversations series. INFO — Email Pattie Williams at zipattie@me.com Pattie Williams of Fayetteville (far back) met Charlotte Hill O'Neal (center) in Tanzania and has helped put Northwest Arkansas on "Mama C's" list as a stop on her Heal The Community world tour. (Courtesy Photo/ Pattie Williams) FAYETTEVILLE