By Carl Kenney
October 25, 2016
Originally from New Zealand, Rachel Campbell brought her art career in 2003 to Durham where she showcases her paintings at art exhibits around the Triangle and beyond. Her painting of NECD resident Malinda Davis and her beloved plants has made it all the way to Hollywood, where it appears in the background of NBC’s […]
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I was born and raised in an ancient southwestern town in China where spicy food is practically a requirement. Then I moved to attend college in Hong Kong where the local cuisine lacks “serious chili” and features lighter and sugar-based dishes. Then, this fall semester, when I ended up in Durham, I was introduced […]
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October 24, 2016
Holly Jordan is the staff sponsor of Hillside High School’s Gay-Straight Alliance, which she helped found in 2010, before she was even “out” to herself. Jordan says she has learned a lot since she began teaching at the predominately black high school when she was 22 years old. “I came from a background that did not […]
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Hillside High School’s Drama Department will kick off its 2016-2017 season with “The Wiz,” Nov. 3-6. The opening weekend will also include a celebration for Wendell Tabb, Hillside’s theatre director, who is in his 30th year of service. Tabb said he directs “The Wiz” every five to seven years. He said he comes back to […]
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Ken Moshesh is full of stories — stories he’ll tell you over drums. He organized communities with the Black Panthers, taught at the University of California at Berkeley, toured with experimental jazz composer and bandleader Sun Ra, and the fell into a series of circumstances, including skyrocketing real estate prices in the Bay Area, that made him […]
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When Cheryl Bellamy started her own dance company in 2005, she moved all of the furniture out of her living room so her students could have a place to dance. A year later, she built a small studio in her backyard at 2210 Southern Drive, a trailer-like building with bright purple walls and smooth laminate wood […]
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Speaking Thursday, Oct. 24 beneath the cathedral-like ceiling of Hayti Cultural Center, the Rev. William Barber II, president of the North Carolina Chapter of the NAACP, said, “Fear doesn’t care what tool it uses, as long as it keeps the division wide.” The theme of the night: division. The Hayti Cultural Center hosted an advanced […]
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More than 300 minority entrepreneurs gathered Oct. 12-14 for networking, promoting and music at the Black Wall Street (BWS) Homecoming event in Durham. The event, which was co-founded by local entrepreneurs Dee McDougal, Jesica Averhart, Talib Graves-Manns and Tobias Rose, was a chance for African-American and other minority entrepreneurs to hear from and engage with other successful […]
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Dressed head to toe in bright Liberian fashion, the models in the Liberian Dinner and Fashion Show got a warm welcome from the attendees of the event at St. Philips Episcopal Church in Durham on Saturday, Oct. 15. The dinner is in its sixth year and was created as the church’s Millennium Development Goals (MDG) project, according to […]
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To get a sense of what folks are thinking about the election year of 2016, VOICE audio journalist Jimmy Wylie takes his mic to Northeast Central Durham with the questions: who are you voting for? What are the issues you care about? And how important is this election? Here’s what he heard from, in order, […]
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October 23, 2016
From a how-to on creating stained glass sugar to slime erosions, WTVD ABC 11 and BASF, a Research Triangle Park chemical company, is bringing home science experiments as a community service initiative to enlighten kids. Launched last September as collaboration between WTVD and BASF, the program called “Science Club” produces 90-second segments that help […]
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Playing tennis for Hillside High School since my freshman year has taught me much. Now a senior, I can see how the sport has developed me as a person. Tennis this year started off with only a few returning players from last year’s team. I got involved my 9th grade year because my parents […]
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Early in September, former President Bill Clinton visited Lyon Park Community Family Life & Recreation Center to campaign for his wife and talk about education and immigration policies. Lyon Park is in my neighborhood, and I got to see what was happening. I always heard good things about Bill Clinton, especially from my mom. […]
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October 18, 2016
Staff photographer and Jordan High School student Amil Magnum captured a student-organized “peaceful protest” at Jordan High School on Sept. 28, 2016, to call attention to events going on between police and people of color. The protest lasted from 8:30 to 8:50 before classes started. Teachers and administrators were supportive of the event.
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October 7, 2016
From early mornings to late evenings, Malinda Davis cares for the plants that cover her yard across the street from Eastway Elementary School. Many students, such as Brandon Callender, a current UNC student who attended Eastway Elementary, remember “the house with the plants.” Davis, with a broad smile and short dark hair with a […]
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On a cloudy Sept. 30 afternoon, Gladys and Robert Harris, owners of Grace Outreach Enrichment Ministries got in their minivan for their daily ritual, providing food to people around Durham who need a hand. Grace Outreach Enrichment Ministry is a nonprofit organization and ministry based in Durham. The founders, Gladys and Robert Harris received […]
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Children of all sizes and colors were clapping and jumping with excitement as it was time to begin Social Justice story time last week at the Durham County Main Library branch. The theme for the first in a series was racial justice. During this event, the host read two books related to racial justice […]
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People chatted, laughed, and sat on the edge of their seats Tuesday night, Oct. 4, at The Monti’s fifth annual fear-themed “StorySLAM” held at the Motorco Music Hall on Rigsbee Avenue in Durham. The “fear” theme allowed eight people who had registered get five minutes to tell their story to the local audience. The […]
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With a community gathering of about 40 citizens, the city of Durham held their biweekly City Council on Oct. 3 where they declared October Domestic Violence Awareness Month. “Whereas anyone can be a victim of (domestic) violence, we believe that everyone deserves a life free of violence,” said Mayor Bell. Mayor Bell continued by […]
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You don’t normally associate the word diaper with bank, but that’s not the case here in Durham where Michelle Old made her diaper bank dream a reality. Michelle Old, the Founder of “Diaper Bank of North Carolina”, says that the diaper bank was started back in 2013 on a kitchen table, after she and […]
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October 5, 2016
In 1985, a group of seven men and women formed what was then known as the National Senior Olympics Organization. After joining up with other groups who were already conducting games for seniors, the first National Senior Olympic Games were held in 1987. The inaugural games were well received with 2,500 competitors. The number […]
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There is a magnet program at Hillside High School that nearly guarantees its students will go to college, according to the program’s coordinator. The International Baccalaureate Programme, or I.B., at Hillside High School uses a college prep curriculum taught at schools all over the world. And Diploma Programme Coordinator Euba McKoy says 100 percent […]
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Editor’s Note: The writer is an international exchange student from the University of Hong Kong. The United States was born as an open country. From the Pacific to the Atlantic, and from Chapel Hill to Durham, up until recently walls between communities have been a rarity. Take a drive into Northeast Central Durham on […]
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Newly appointed Police Chief Cerelyn Davis announced Officer Charles Strickland as the liaison between the department and the LGBTQ communtiy of Durham at the annual NC PRIDE festival on Saturday, Sept. 24. The Durham Police Department (DPD) also released new standard operating procedures (SOP) regarding interactions with LGBTQ individuals on Sunday, Oct. 2. The LGBTQ […]
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Hillside High senior Desmond Jackson, 17, just returned from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he was Team USA’s youngest male competitor in track and field at the Paralympic Games. Jackson competed in the 100m and 200m sprints, as well as the long jump in the T42 category, which is for athletes with single above-the knee-amputation. […]
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A hearty belly laugh resounds through the room as Craig Umstead, friend of many and public servant of North Carolina for over 35 years, recounts a vivid story of one of his many volunteering adventures. The 1976 Hillside High School graduate was presented The Order of the Long Leaf Pine award in August for his […]
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In the past week, Black Lives Matter activists on the streets of Charlotte, Hillary Clinton on the presidential debate stage, and student protestors at Durham’s Jordan High School all brought attention to the opportunity gap that they say leaves young black and brown people in thin air, without support. In Durham, Carlton Koonce and […]
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An old, remodeled forklift shed, just barely 2,000 square feet, is where the residents of TROSA — Triangle Residential Option for Substance Abusers, receive their health care. TROSA is a two-year rehabilitation program. The program provides substance abuse treatment, counseling, vocational training, room and board at no cost to the residents. The resident population […]
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El Centro Hispano celebrated its move into a new office space on Saturday, Oct. 1, holding an open house and town hall meeting for board members and citizens of the community. The organization moved into the new space at 2000 Chapel Hill Road in late May, said Pilar Rocha-Goldberg, El Centro’s president and CEO. Rocha-Goldberg […]
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Zenzele Barnes still remembers the excitement she felt when the first paper issue of the Durham VOICE was printed in February 2010. She remembers chatting with the school secretary while waiting for new copies of each issue to be delivered to the front office of Jordan High School. She remembers putting the new copies […]
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Christopher’s last name sounds like the word “contour” but is spelled “Couture.” The brown-haired 22-year-old, clad in slacks and a deep blue button-down, smiled and looked away shyly as he explained the difficulty people have over spelling his last name. Couture is a student at the Durham Literacy Center (DLC) and has been a […]
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The rosters of the Youth Hip Hop Dance classes at the Holton Career and Resource Center have been full since they were first offered 2 years ago. Cheryl Bellamy, who has been a dance instructor at Holton for four years, has made it her goal to encourage her students out of their comfort zones and […]
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