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MAIN LIBRARY
CATAWBA COUNTY LIBRARY SYSTEM
115 West C Street
Newton, NC 28658 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Tammy Wilson, Public Information Officer March 12, 2008 828-465-8661
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MAIDEN--The Charlotte Symphony Ensemble will appear April 26 at Maiden High School Auditorium as the culminating event for the BIG Read 2008. The 13-member group will accompany David Crowe’s “Mill Village: A Piedmont Rhapsody,” a multimedia program described as a “tone poem” honoring the people who lived and worked in Carolinas textile mill villages. A panel discussion will precede the musical presentation at 7 p.m. that Saturday. The presentation is free and open to the public. The BIG Read, a county-wide literacy project, focuses on The Bridge, a novel by the late Doug Marlette. The book was chosen for the county reading project because of its relevance to the area. Based on Marlette’s life, the novel unfolds as an extraordinary story within a story, as the lead character learns startling truths about himself and about the role his grandmother played in the General Textile Strike Of 1934. The evening will offer local residents a rare opportunity to hear and see the symphony ensemble in a fitting tribute not only to Doug Marlette’s work in a unique blend of the musical, literary and visual arts. Appearing on the panel besides composer David Crowe will be poet Barbara Presnell, Dr. Thomas Hanchett, staff historian at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte; Phil Moody, photographer and professor of art at Winthrop University. Crowe, a teaching composer from Charlotte, is percussionist of the music ensemble Without Borders. He has guest-conducted the Fort Wayne Symphony, the Charlotte Symphony and the Charlotte Civic Orchestra, as well as served as conductor and arranger for the touring orchestra of David Holt, storyteller and musician. Presnell writes a weekly newspaper column distributed nationwide by the New York Times News Service. Her award-winning poetry has been widely published and appears in four individual collections. She teaches English at UNC-Charlotte and is scheduled to read from her poetry in a separate local event at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, at Main Library in Newton. Hanchett, senior historian at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte was curator of the museum’s award-winning permanent exhibit on textile history. He has written and taught extensively about the South during the Jim Crow era. He provided research for “Mill Village. Moody, professor of art at Winthrop University at Rock Hill, has taught photography for more than 23 years. He was named the first Thompson Scholar for his excellence in teaching. He was the 1997 CASE Professor of the Year for South Carolina. He received a grant to create “Textile Towns,” an exhibit focused on the relationship of textiles to the South. A series of guest speakers, films, displays and book discussions in March and April are being offered to support the reading project. In addition to the county library system, the BIG Read is endorsed by Lenoir-Rhyne College, Catawba Valley Community College and Hickory Public Library System. Other sponsors include the N.C. Arts Council, Unifour Foundation Inc. and United Arts Council of Catawba County.
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