50 for 50 with Ron Rash

Ron Rash | Photo courtesy Clemson world magazine

Ron Rash | Photo courtesy Clemson world magazine

“I tell people that North Carolinians have done three things really well: cook barbecue, make music, and make literature.”
— Ron Rash
 
 
 
 

50 for 50

50 artists celebrate North Carolina

Arts Across NC

A podcast by and about the NC Arts Council

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The North Carolina Poet Laureate Ceremony for Jaki Shelton Green, scheduled for today, Monday December 10 in Raleigh, has been postponed due to the winter storm. We were looking forward to the ceremony and like so many others are frustrated by the second major weather event to affect the installation of Ms. Green as our state’s ninth Poet Laureate. However, be assured that the ceremony will be re-scheduled in 2019. We will announce on social media when a new date is set, but please also check our web site, www.ncarts.org, for up-to-date information on the Poet Laureate ceremony. Please stay safe during the storm.
We had such an amazing time in Wilmington for our board meeting. We explored the Cameron Art Museum’s FABULOUS new interactive exhibits, congregated at Cape Fear Community College’s Wilson Center (and toured their state-of-the-art performance hall), and celebrated our Research Director Ardath Weaver, who will be retiring after decades of service in January. Many thanks for the hospitality and creativity of the Port City. We hope to return soon!!
“As an artist I think my biggest gift is to not be selfish,” says Monét Noelle Marshall, who is one of two recipients of the 2018 Mary B. Regan Artist Residency Award. The award supports innovative art projects that impact communities, and Monét is using the grant to present “Buy My Art and Call it Holy” a 10-day project that premieres in Durham on Friday December 7th. The project explores the way art can lead to positive social change by giving participants an opportunity to embrace their own creativity. Learn about the project at the link in our bio and visit www.buyitcallit.com for the project’s full schedule!
Amanda Swimmer, Beloved Woman of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, passed away on Saturday, Nov. 24. She was one of the best-known potters among the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and received the North Carolina Heritage Award in 1994. Born in 1921 and mother of seven children, she lived and worked in the Strait Fork section of the Big Cove community in the Qualla Boundary. By trial and error, she developed her expertise in making open-pit fired pottery. She worked in a pottery tradition that was almost lost in the years following the removal to the west of most of the Cherokee tribe during the nineteenth century. Her pottery-making techniques were ancient. She never used a pottery wheel, instead she molded pots and bowls, often beginning with coils of clay. She used traditional techniques for smoothing and shaping, and then pressed designs into the clay with wooden and bone paddles, sea shells, and smooth rocks. After drying the pieces in the sun, she fired them in an open pit. For decades she demonstrated pottery making at the Oconaluftee Indian Village in Cherokee. She also taught pottery to children locally and was always willing to give demonstrations or teach classes for interested groups or individuals. In an interview she gave for the 1994 North Carolina Heritage Award Ceremony, she said, “I always think about my old ancestors and I ought to just keep going and keep making pottery and teaching others to make pottery.”
We are still reeling from an incredible evening last night with the The Oxford American magazine. We celebrated their new North Carolina Music Issue at The North Carolina Executive Mansion with Governor Roy Cooper and Kristin Cooper, First Lady of North Carolina, who announced that 2019 will be the Year of Music in North Carolina and revealed the "Come Hear North Carolina" campaign, a special project of our department that will document, promote and celebrate our state's rich music story. The evening concluded with the first of three statewide song-circles coordinated by the Oxford American, which included performances from Tift Merritt, Phil Cook, Hiss Golden Messenger, Jaki Shelton Green, Alice Gerrard, Mary D. Williams, Big Ron Hunter Chatham County Line, Sister Lena Mae Perry, Shirlette Ammons, and many more musicians who made us so proud of our state's musical diversity and depth. We encourage you to attend one of the Oxford American events this week if you can. Tonight they will host a literary reading at the The Pinhook, followed by a literary reading in Charlotte at Free Range Brewing on Wednesday 11/28. Their second concert will take place at Booth Playhouse at Blumenthal Performing Arts Center on Thursday 11/29, followed by a third at Isis Music Hall on Friday 11/30 in Asheville. The final event in their series will be a literary reading on Saturday 12/1 at Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe. We can’t wait to share more about the Come Hear NC campaign soon! Sign up for our newsletter at the link in our bio. Photos: Tift Merritt, Sister Lena Mae Perry is the Branchettes, Phil Cook, Mary D. Williams, Brian Horton and Big Ron Hunter, Alice Gerrard.
“I tell people that North Carolinians have done three things really well: cook barbecue, make music, and make literature.” -Ron Rash The best-selling author and beloved mentor to many young writers shared his thoughts and feelings about the state of the arts in North Carolina in a new 50 for 50 interview. Link in bio! Photo by Clemson World Magazine
 
 

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