‘African Americans in WNC’ conference set for Oct. 23-24 at YMI & UNCA

The African Americans in WNC conference kicks off Oct. 22 at the YMI Cultural Center with a lecture Floyd McKissick Jr. and a performance by the LEAF Delta House Jazz Band. Admission is free to the two-day event. The second day’s events take place at UNCA.

Here’s the schedule of events:

Thursday, Oct. 22 6:30pm – 8:30pm
YMI Cultural Center – 43 Market St., Asheville

  • Reception and special presentation for community service followed by The Jesse and Julia Ray Lecture given by the Honorable Floyd McKissick, Jr.
  • A Special Performance by the LEAF Delta House Jazz Band.
  • Featuring the Isaiah Rice Photography Collection

Friday, Oct. 23 9:00am to 5:00pm
Alumni Hall in Highsmith Student Union, UNC Asheville

  • Morning Panel — 9:00am – 12:00pm
    Mr. Kevin Young, Ph.D. Candidate The University of Georgia
    “One Family, Black and White: The Saga of a Yancey County Family.”
  • Ms. Ann Woodford (Author)
    “When All God’s Children Get Together: A Celebration of the Lives and Music of African American People in Far Western North Carolina”
  • Ms. Barbara McRae (Author)
    “Slave and Free: The Complex History of African Americans in a Western North Carolina County”
    Afternoon Panel — 2:00pm – 5:00pm
  • Dr. Marcus Harvey
    “Ears to the Conch Shell, Feet to the Ancestors: Reimagining Asheville’s Goombay Festival”
  • Dr. Sarah Judson
    “Fulfilling the One Imperative by Any Means Necessary: Desegregation and Race Politics at the Asheville YWCA”
  • Mr. Gene Hyde and Dr. Darin J. Waters
    “People and Place The Isaiah Rice Photography Collection”
  • Closing Reception

For more information call 828.251.6415

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About Jeff Fobes
As a long-time proponent of media for social change, my early activities included coordinating the creation of a small community FM radio station to serve a poor section of St. Louis, Mo. In the 1980s I served as the editor of the "futurist" newsletter of the U.S. Association for the Club of Rome, a professional/academic group with a global focus and a mandate to act locally. During that time, I was impressed by a journalism experiment in Mississippi, in which a newspaper reporter spent a year in a small town covering how global activities impacted local events (e.g., literacy programs in Asia drove up the price of pulpwood; soybean demand in China impacted local soybean prices). Taking a cue from the Mississippi journalism experiment, I offered to help the local Green Party in western North Carolina start its own newspaper, which published under the name Green Line. Eventually the local party turned Green Line over to me, giving Asheville-area readers an independent, locally focused news source that was driven by global concerns. Over the years the monthly grew, until it morphed into the weekly Mountain Xpress in 1994. I've been its publisher since the beginning. Mountain Xpress' mission is to promote grassroots democracy (of any political persuasion) by serving the area's most active, thoughtful readers. Consider Xpress as an experiment to see if such a media operation can promote a healthy, democratic and wise community. In addition to print, today's rapidly evolving Web technosphere offers a grand opportunity to see how an interactive global information network impacts a local community when the network includes a locally focused media outlet whose aim is promote thoughtful citizen activism. Follow me @fobes

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