Posted: January 17th, 2012 Tonya Jameson

Artist Edwin Gil is at it again – uniting cultures through art. This time he using the tradition of quilting along with social media and good ol’ fashioned paint to create “Quilting Differences.”

The A.C.T. (Achieving Community Today)-funded project features 18 people, nine from the U.S. and nine from abroad. The participants’ childhood stories and favorite colors will create a multimedia quilt. On Saturday, local participants stopped by Gil Gallery to record their stories and paint their swatches.

Gil said he was particularly excited about using social media as a part of this project because it will help show people the range of uses for social media. For example, he’s using Skype to create works for “Quilting Differences.” In this project, people from throughout the world share stories from their past.

Marina Berdan participated in Saturday’s workshop because she wanted to share a story from her childhood in Russia. Berdan embodies the project’s soul. She is a Russian native who grew up in Charlotte and is marrying a Colombian-native who lives here as well.

“It brings the whole world together,” Berdan said. “The project, it pretty much shows that no matter where you’re from, no matter what you do you’re the same. “

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Posted: January 16th, 2012 Lee Howard

It’s admittedly a rough and disparate part of town. But residents of Eagle Woods Apartments off Farm Pond Lane in East Charlotte strove to bring people together on Saturday, Jan. 14. Old and young, white, black, Hispanic, Russian and Burmese. 

The tie that binds? "Thank You" cards to the inspirational people in their lives.

“We’re here to help strengthen the community overall,” said Sheree Harper, a UNC-Charlotte grad student majoring in school counseling.

Harper was one of the coordinators of the event, held at the Eagle Woods Apartments clubhouse. She’s also a member of CHARP, the Charlotte Action Research Project, a recent recipient of a Crossroads CharlotteAchieving Community Today Projects grant. A.C.T. Projects grants were designed to fund small initiatives that connect people across lines of difference. Members of the community submitted ideas, and the public decided which groups received funding by voting on Facebook. The winners received up to $500 to implement their projects. Other recipients have included the Enderly Park Neighborhood Association and the Love Project, whose members are survivors of domestic violence.

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Posted: January 15th, 2012 Ken Garfield

Xchange Sermons began Friday night (Jan. 13) as it should: Christians and Jews, blacks and whites, side by side at Temple Beth El, sharing prayers of brotherhood and songs of peace. Sharing, as Rev. Dennis Hall said to several hundred worshipers, a yearning for Shalom.

Peace.

A partnership of Crossroad Charlotte, Mecklenburg Ministries and Temple Beth El, Xchange Sermons offers clergy of all kinds the chance to preach to a congregation of a different faith, color, class or culture. Nearly 60 pastors, rabbis and imams seized the moment last year. This year, the program’s third, the hope is that many more of the region’s 700 houses of worship will participate. Visit Crossroadscharlotte.Org to get involved, and to read accounts of previous pulpit swaps.  The program runs from January to May – appropriately, given the hope that drives it, from winter to spring.

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Posted: January 13th, 2012 Tonya Jameson

Their mothers gave to the church, but they also helped raise money to help a struggling family. They came from small towns where giving wasn’t called philanthropy, it was called helping out.

They are attorneys, bankers and college students. They are also philanthropists. They joined Valaida Fullwood to discuss her book “Giving Back: A Tribute to Generations of African American Philanthropists” at the YWCA on Wednesday, Jan. 11. Fullwood’s book features nearly 400 pages of profiles and photos of Charlotte-area African Americans. Local photographer Charles Thomas contributed the black & white photos to the project.

YWCA Central Carolinas CEO Kirsten Sikkelee said she was excited to host the event as part of the organization’s ongoing mission to combat racism and to highlight an aspect of African American culture that isn’t always spotlighted. “This is a conversation that the community hasn’t had,” Sikkelee said. 

Along with discussing Fullwood's book, the workshop featured a multi-generational panel discussion about inclusive philanthropy. It was there that this new generation of philanthropists talked about how they never called what their families did inclusive philanthropy.

Panelists discussed what philanthropy looked like to them. It was helping a family pay rent or maybe helping them do their taxes. It was accepting a dozen eggs for payment.

“This whole culture and system of philanthropy developed outside of what we know as organized philanthropy,” Fullwood said.

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