Greenville Life in the East - Fall 2021

Greenville LIFE in the EAST

FALL 2021

BOOKS, MUSIC AND MORE INSIDE: DAVID’S USED BOOKS • CHRISTY HALLBERG • LOCAL AUTHORS • THE MAIN EVENT • SRAPAS • CHESS MOVES

Kim Cobb

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Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2021

contents

Editor Bobby Burns Contributing writers Donna Davis, Karen Eckert, Bob Garner, Kim Grizzard, Pat Gruner, Ginger Livingston, Beyonca Mewborn, Christina Ruotolo Photographers Willow Abbey Mercando Regional Advertising Director Craig Springer

Advertising representatives Christina Ruotolo, Lewis Smith & Rubie Smith Creative services director Jessica Harris Creative services Lora Jernigan, Dusty Hubel Layout design Emily Leach Greenville: Life in the East is a publication of The Daily Reflector and Adams Publishing Group ENC. Contents may not be reproduced without the consent of the publisher.

Greenville LIFE in the EAST

FALL 2021

BOOKS, MUSIC AND MORE INSIDE: DAVID’S USED BOOKS • CHRISTY HALLBERG • LOCAL AUTHORS • THE MAIN EVENT • SRAPAS • CHESS MOVES

The stacks at David’s Used Books and Records have something for everyone, from romance to reference books.

Fall 2021

4 6 10-15 18 22 26 Holiday Happenings 27 One Man’s Book Store

Publisher Robin L. Quillon

Finding Christy Hallberg

Local Books Local Authors

Always the Main Event

Restarting the Arts

Making Moves

FROM THE EDITOR

We keep hearing about supply chain woes. Well, there is at least one place in Greenville where supply is most definitely not a problem. It would take several lifetimes to read all the volumes and listen to all the albums stacked deep inside David’s Used Books and Records, even if you listened to the records while you read. In this special holiday edition of Greenville Magazine, read how David Brown has something for everyone for just a couple bucks. Want something new for Christmas instead? Then there’s the debut novel by Greenville’s Christy Alexander Hallberg. “Searching for Jimmy Page” is a coming of age fiction that weaves a bit of Christy’s hometown into its pages. Our Kim Grizzard interviewed Christy and found out the backstory, and plenty of copies are available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and other outlets. In fact, plenty of local authors can be found at your favorite outlets, and the Local Books-Local Authors section in this edition highlights many of them, from mysteries like L.C. Larsen’s “Some Men Deserve to Die” to memoirs like Walter Jones’ “Voting for War.” Music and the performing arts also are plentiful this holiday season. Donna Davis caught up with the Main Event Band and several other acts to let you know what’s coming. The S. Rudolph Alexander Performing Arts Series also is right around the corner and our coverage revealed that it will bring plenty of excitement to Wright Auditorium. Excitement also is building in Greenville over chess, a game that captured the pop-culture imagination with the Netflix series “Queen’s Gambit.” And don’t ever worry about running low on a supply of chess sets because Jerry Skinner has hundreds of of them.

We hope this edition supplies you with our best wishes for the holiday season and that you have plenty of all that is good, as well a Christmas that is full of at least one thing — joy.

Greenville: Life In The East

— Bobby Burns 3

Top: David Brown says a resurgence of interest in vinyl record albums has helped his business thrive.

Bottom: Brown, outside his used book and records store on Arlington Boulevard, took over the business shortly after graduating from ECU with an accounting degree.

O N E M A N ’ S

book store

David Brown’s treasure trove of used tomes and tunes helps customers reconnect

By Pat Gruner

S

tories have been handed down through families and friends for millennia, linking people together with words both spoken and written. A used book and record seller in Greenville has, for almost a decade, given people a chance to find or pass along some of their favorite stories and songs.

David’s Used Books and Records at 107 E. Arlington Blvd. has provided used books, vinyl records and DVDs to the community and passers through since 2012. The business was bought by David Brown, a Pitt County native, not long after his graduation with a degree in accounting from East Carolina University from his former employer for whom he built the store’s shelves.

“I was right out of college,” Brown recalls.

“The records have helped this place a whole lot. That is really how I make the place work is by having the records, the books and the online store. It is like I have three different stores that I am running. Sometimes people come and buy records, sometimes they are shopping online. It is always one of those that is doing something. Nine years later now each one is kind of its own monster.”

The resurgence of vinyl records in the early 2010s was a bright spot for the business. In 2020, when many businesses had to adapt to COVID-19 shutdowns, Brown said his online sales saw an uptick. It was instrumental in keeping the store grooving.

“Even with the shutdown I still had my Fall 2021

Willow Abbey Mercando

online sales,” Brown said. “If I did not have those online sales I am not sure what would have happened.”

Brown now has four employees serving what he said is a diverse clientele. College students, older customers and everyone

“Something I really like about the store in general is being able to be a link in that chain for some people. If they want to go home and watch a movie, say they are in a bad mood and want to watch something funny, they can come here and I kind of help with that.” in between have their eyes on books for just $1 or $2 as well as records. During the holidays, Brown said that people will seek out favorites to give as gifts.

“It might be the emotion that comes with it,” Brown said of the written word as a gift.

“Something I really like about the store in general is being able to be a link in that chain for some people. If they want to go home and watch a movie, say they are in a bad mood and want to watch something funny, they can come here and I kind of help with that.

“It is something you can reuse. It is not like you are just going to listen to a record one time. The way people talk about them, Greenville: Life In The East

‘this record got me through a tough time so maybe you would like it too.’ Something like that attaches emotion to most of this stuff,” Brown said.

The sheer volume of books the store makes inventory a non-issue. Brown believes that the store’s location, on a hill overlooking Arlington near Evans, contributes to that.

“I think it is an amazing location,” Brown said. “We still have people come in who I ask how they found the place and they tell me they were just driving by and saw it. I am still getting that a lot. Word of mouth and the prices, with everything one or two dollars aside from records and antique books, people want to tell their friends about it.”

He said that the business’ longevity has also made word of mouth advertising stronger. The influx of product means that he needs to find creative solutions as far as storage.

“My father is a retired tobacco farmer,” Brown explained. “He has a bunch of tobacco barns he is not using anymore, the ones that are 40 or 60 feet long. There are six of those on our property and I have four of them filled up with books and records.”

It is nearly impossible to put an estimate on the number of books in the store and in storage.

“Easily tens of thousands,” Brown said. “I could easily get all of these gone and be able to fill it right back up.”

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An English professor at ECU, Hallberg lives in Asheville and teaches classes online. She also is the senior associate editor of the North Carolina Literary Review.

Christy Alexander Hallberg, the daughter of ECU’s Rudy Alexander and now an English professor at the university, put a lot of herself and growing up in Greenville in her debut work of fiction.

A young Christy Alexander struggled to find her place growing up in a small town, trying on guitar lessons and drama club at J.H. Rose High School and finding neither to be a particularly good fit.

Posters from Hallberg’s youth offered a glimpse into her taste in music.

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Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2021

F I N D I N G

Christy Hallberg ECU professor pens novel of discovery with fictional search for rock god Jimmy Page

O

n July 7, 2005, after explosions tore through three trains on the London Underground, friends began calling to urge Christy Alexander to postpone her travel plans. In light of the suicide bomber attacks of 7/7, the timing just didn’t seem right for her venture of self-discovery.

But the then-35-year-old East Carolina University graduate-turned-English professor would not be dissuaded. The previous two years had brought a series of explosions in her personal life, from her mother’s death from cancer to the dissolution of her first marriage.

Bombs or no bombs, she was going to London in search of Jimmy Page, the rock star she had idolized since she was a teenager.

The former Led Zeppelin guitarist was judging a guitar contest for charity, and she was going to be in the same room with him.

“It sounds really silly and superficial, but it held great meaning for me,” she said. “I thought if I can do that, if I can make that journey, to this person who has been such a constant in my life, and someone that I feel a connection with ... then maybe I could come home and get my life together and move forward.”

More than 15 years later, that journey has made its way into the pages of Christy Alexander Hallberg’s debut novel, “Searching for Jimmy Page.” The book, released in October by Livingston Press, is not a memoir but a work of fiction by the senior associate editor of the North Carolina Literary Review.

Set in 1988, it is the coming-of-age story of 18-year-old Luna Kane, whose need to understand the truth about her mother’s Fall 2021

By Kim Grizzard suicide takes her on a journey from North Carolina to England to seek out the object of her mother’s obsession.

“This is just a story that I feel like I was always meant to tell,” Hallberg, 52, said, “and I had to get it out.”

A self-described introvert, Hallberg is speaking by phone from her home in Asheville, where she teaches online classes for ECU. But both Hallberg and her novel are rooted in Greenville. It is where she was born and where she spent nearly her whole life before moving west in 2008.

“Searching for Jimmy Page” is set in the mythical town of Full River, although eastern North Carolina residents will recognize Hallberg’s hometown throughout as the book makes references to the Tar River, Greene Street Bridge and even Sunday in the Park.

“I didn’t want the responsibility of calling it Greenville because I wanted to take creative license here and there,” Hallberg explained.

“But at the same time, I have an affection for my hometown, and there were bits and pieces from the locale that did show up in the book. … There’s a wistfulness whenever I do go back to town.

“Full River is definitely modeled on Greenville, and it’s the Greenville from my youth of the 70s and 80s,” she said.

“Greenville’s changed a lot since then.”

Back then, Hallberg’s father, Rudy Alexander, was assistant dean of student affairs at ECU, making him responsible for booking bands and other entertainment for the university. Young Christy enjoyed the perks of her dad’s job, whether it meant that she could listen to a promo album before its release or that she could go backstage to Greenville: Life In The East

meet John Fogerty or Joan Jett.

“I do remember lobbying hard to get Bob Dylan,” she said, describing a list of performers she hoped he would pursue. “It would never work out … but I tried.”

Although Christy and her father shared a close relationship and a love for music, their musical tastes were worlds apart. He did not show much interest in Led Zeppelin.

It was different with her mother, Frances, who had seen her daughter’s reaction the first time she saw a video of a Led Zeppelin performance. Christy’s brother, Steve, was watching the concert film “The Song Remains the Same” on MTV when his younger sister walked in and started staring at the screen. “(Jimmy Page) just crystallized this enigmatic kind of, I don’t know, dark angel with a six-string thing,” Hallberg said. “It was very compelling to a 15-year-old girl in Greenville, North Carolina, in 1985.

“I had an immediate, visceral reaction to seeing it,” she recalled. “I sat there and watched it and she (her mother) watched with me, realizing very quickly … we’re in for a long winter’s crush here.”

When the network aired an encore presentation later that evening, Frances finished her ironing in front of the TV while Christy watched again. Later, she helped hang to cover the walls of her teen daughter’s bedroom with Led Zeppelin posters.

“She was just very old-school but she loved her children and she wanted to support whatever we were into,” Hallberg said. “She was so willing to support my obsession, and I use that not in the pejorative. It was just something that became part of my life, and still is to this day.”

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“Searching for Jimmy Page,” which Hallberg dedicated to her late mother, is as much a love song to her as it is to the guitarist.

“The mother-daughter bond is strong in the novel, as it was in my own life, albeit ours was far less complicated,” the author wrote in her blog.

Luna’s poignant tribute to her mother, Claudia, mirrors Hallberg’s heartache 18 years after her own mother’s death.

“I wanted to tell her. I wanted her to know what I’d always believed, what I believed until believing anything seemed a moot point,” she writes. “She was a goddess, an angel, mythical and infinite. To me she was.”

In the book, Hallberg uses her greatgrandfather’s given name, Jessie Baker, and recounts a true story of his attempts at using faith healing to combat his wife’s breast cancer.

Still, she said the book is not autobiographical.

“It’s fiction but it has parts of my life in it,” she said. “I think there’s a little bit of me in every character in that book.”

Although Hallberg’s teen years occurred in the 1980s, she, like the mother in the story, was enamored by the hippie scene of the 1960s. Like the daughter, she felt a bit boxed in and struggled to find her place growing up in a small town, trying on guitar lessons and drama club at J.H. Rose High School and finding neither to be a particularly good fit.

Hallberg moved to California after completing her undergraduate degree at ECU, although she returned to Greenville after only a year because she missed her family.

When she first went to London, she had never been out of the country before, but she knew it was a trip that she needed to make. She had been floundering since her mother’s death and now her marriage was falling apart. While she maintained her teaching job, she was struggling to come to terms with all that had happened.

“It was like let’s just get every crappy thing that could happen to you, let’s just go ahead and do it all in the space of a few months,” Hallberg said. “I knew in my gut this was something that I had to do.”

There was no novel in the works at the time. At most, Hallberg thought she might chronicle the journey as part of her creative thesis at Goddard College, where she was pursuing her second master’s degree. She did find Jimmy Page, drawing close enough to the guitarist to have a short interaction that she wove into the novel almost exactly as it happened. A year later, Hallberg made a return trip to London. Although she was still

8

not planning to write a book, experiences that were part of the pilgrimage, such as visiting the gravesite of former Led Zeppelin drummer John Bohnam, were fiction worthy.

It wasn’t until 2015 that Hallberg made her first trip abroad with “Searching for Jimmy Page” in mind. This time, her quest included a visit to Headley Grange, where Led Zeppelin recorded its fourth album and what many consider to be the most iconic rock song of all time, “Stairway to Heaven.”

“I tracked down the owner online and wrote him a letter,” Hallberg said. “I told him I was coming and explained what I was doing and that I would very much like to see the ‘stairway to heaven,’ which is in that manor house, and he invited me to come. He showed me all around the house.”

As enjoyable as the research was, it was almost entirely superfluous. There was hardly anything more for Hallberg to learn about the band or the guitarist she had loved for more than two-thirds of her life. She’d read Pamela Des Barres’ “I’m With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie” at least a dozen times.

(Des Barres had kind words for Hallberg’s novel, calling it an “engrossing rockin’ tale” and writing, “Hallberg captures the mysterious compelling enigma that is Jimmy Page.”)

But while Des Barres can claim a more intimate knowledge of Page and the band, Hallberg’s book is believed to be the first literary novel that features the artist.

“In many ways, he’s a figment of my imagination because I’ve never met the man,” Hallberg said. “Celebrities are largely created in the minds of the people who celebrate them.

“The literal search that takes place in the book is the vehicle for me to write about the metaphorical search that’s going on in Luna’s life,” she said. “Physically searching for somebody isn’t going to fix your life in a situation like hers or mine, but it helps you navigate that sort of psychological thing going on underneath it all.”

Hallberg made one more trip to London in 2018, two years before her novel was accepted for publication. Each time, the journey has been a solo one.

“It started out being about tenacity and courage and a will to sort of move forward in self-discovery,” she said. “Every time I go I kind of carry that with me, so it feels like a journey that I have to make on my own.”

Although she is already working on a sequel, Hallberg has no current plans for a return trip, not even to deliver a copy of her novel to Jimmy Page himself, even though Greenville: Life In The East

she would love for him to have one.

“I physically know how to get to his house,” she said. “But there’s a part of me that wants him to stumble upon it organically.

“I’m trying not to be impulsive about it, which sounds silly because it’s been so long in the making. But I would want to have patience about it and make sure the timing was right,” Hallberg said. “Maybe it’s not meant to be.”

PIRATE WRITERS Christy Hallberg is among many East Carolina authors

Liza Wieland, former distinguished professor of English at East Carolina University, attracted national attention when her fiction work “Paris, 7 A.M.,” caught the eye of influential book lover Oprah Winfrey. Wieland’s fifth novel, which imagines the life of poet Elizabeth Bishop during three weeks she spent in Paris amid the threat of World War II, was named among “The Best Books by Women of Summer 2019” by O The Oprah Magazine. Here are a few other books of note by ECU faculty: • “You are the River,” edited by Helena Feder, an associate professor of literature, is literary celebration of the North Carolina Museum of Art. More than 50 writers from across the state share their experiences with works from the People’s Collection in poems, stories and essays.

• “Millennials Killed the Video Star: MTV from Music Videos to Reality Programming” by Amanda A. Klein, associate professor of film • “The Value of Games: Putting Play Back into Practice for Children” by Lana Kaye Dotson, associate professor of interdisciplinary professions • “Aliens Among Us: Extraordinary Portraits of Ordinary Bugs” by Daniel Kariko, assistant professor of fine art photography • “The Dark Side of Stand-Up Comedy” edited by Eric Shouse, communication professor, (with Patrice Oppliger) • “The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination and Folklore” by Andrea Kitta, associate professor of English

For young readers: • “Adventures of the STEM Brothers” by Rhea L. Miles, professor of math, science and instructional technology education • “There Ought to Be a Law: A Bright Day at the Capitol” by Calvin R. Mercer, professor of religious studies • “Watch Hollow: The Alchemist’s Shadow”

by Gregory R. Funaro, professor of theater

Fall 2021

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Greenville: Life In The East

9

Local Books | Local Authors

Some Men Deserve to Die

Greenville physician, professor turns mystery writer -By Bob Garner Retired Greenville physician and medical school professor L.C. Larsen has written and published a snazzy murder mystery that appears to have scored very highly with readers so far, after going on the market in June 2021.

What’s more, he’s done it with a directness and aplomb that might seem uncharacteristic for a firsttime novelist, although he clearly doesn’t view his self-confidence as unusual for a doctor.

“With a background as a physician, I figured I could probably come up with something pretty good, at least in terms of a story,” Larsen said matter-of-factly.

“It’s the world I know, and there’s no shortage of mysteries for doctors to try to unravel, that’s for sure.”

Larsen’s book is “Some Men Deserve to Die: A Jack Damen, M.D., Mystery.” It is available online at Amazon.com: Books at $4.99 for Kindle or $8.99 for paperback. Larsen does not sell the books himself, and they are not available in local bookstores. He had already made the decision to self-publish and market the novel online when he began — for the simple reason that, as he put it, “At my age, I just don’t have time to go hat in hand searching for a publisher.” As for the low price, Larsen said, “This was never about the money anyhow — it was about being able to tell a good story that hangs together and entertains.”

“Lars” Larsen spent 23 years practicing family medicine in Greenville, along with teaching at ECU’s Brody School of Medicine, before retiring in 2015. He said he loved reading mysteries as a boy and teen in upstate New York, an undergraduate college student in Ohio and a medical school student back in New York.

“I was a big fan of John D. McDonald’s Travis McGee series, as well as the Matt Helm whodunit mysteries of Donald Hamilton,” Larsen said. He added that he remained fond of mystery books that he could read in a long weekend once he entered the “work all the time” worlds of private medical practice and academic medicine. “Not only was it a way of getting some vital rest and recuperation,” he said, “but I’ve always thought of docs as detectives anyhow, especially in complicated diagnostic cases.”

Like Larsen, his protagonist Jack Damen is a respected professor in an elite Southern medical school. However, as the book jacket puts it, “… He is haunted by a violent past and guilt-ridden.” The jacket notes continue, “A request to investigate the death of a man with a massive life insurance policy leads Damen into a maze of depravity, deception and choices that nearly take his life and sanity.

“Rules are broken, old debts are repaid, and loyalties are affirmed as ‘what’s right’ gets pushed aside by ‘what works’ in the search for truth. But is truth the final answer?”

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His book was a dual-mission retirement project Larsen had thought about for several years before ending his medical career.

“Besides seeing if I could write a compelling story, given my lack of creative writing experience, I also thought it would be a wonderful chance to interact with my wife and three adult children in seeking their review and feedback as I worked to develop the style, plot and characters,” he told me. “My wife Pat and I have always talked books, since she’s a voracious reader, but this would also give me a chance to enjoy my two daughters and a son as peers in trying to achieve a successful end.”

Larsen began the novel in 2015, shortly after retirement, and went at it with a doctor’s work ethic: “Do it, whether you feel like it or not.” He wrote at least 1-2 hours each morning, five days a week, nine months a year, with the summer months devoted to the couple’s visiting family or touring the U.S. and Canada, their pop-up trailer in tow.

Larsen had a completed first draft after three years on this efficient schedule. But he said, “Since the learning curve on my creative — as opposed to scientific — writing style was so steep, I spent another two years in revisions and deletions and in totally re-writing the front end of the novel at the insistence of one daughter.”

“Surprisingly, it was my son who told me emphatically that I had to tone down the language some, and I did, although the book is still pretty raw in both idiom and subject matter, although not gratuitously.”

He continued, “The best thing was that everyone in the family except for our nine grandkids read it and made important contributions, which was the whole idea to begin with.”

Reader reviews of “Some Men Deserve to Die” on Amazon.com: Books have thus far averaged 4.8 out of 5 stars. Comments include: • “I enjoyed this engaging book full of twists and turns. It was impossible to figure out how the seemingly disparate pieces would come together …”

• “… a good, tightly-told tale it is. Hard to believe this is the author’s first novel.”

• “… satisfyingly engaging book for the investigative crime buff …”

• “Amazing story and so compelling! Hoping for more from first time author L.C. Larson.”

• “Brimming with psychological twists and turns, this book is a great combination of action and intelligence. Engrossing read and would love to see another book about Dr. Damen.”

Larsen is already at work on a second novel in the series, so we all now know more Jack Damen M.D. mysteries are on the way.

Greenville: Life In The East

L.C. Larsen Reporter’s note: My wife Ruthie and I both like mystery series with a common protagonist, and we both deeply appreciated the potential of this author. We expect that future Jack Damen mysteries from L.C. Larsen will be even more smoothly written and that the author’s medical experience will become an even bigger contribution to his unique niche in the mystery genre. – Bob Garner

Some Men Deserve to Die: A Jack Damen, M.D., Mystery – By L.C. Larsen –

Available only from

For more information, visit: lclarsen.com or email: lclarsen@lclarsen.com Fall 2021

Local Books | Local Authors

The Investigation Officer’s File, Lawyer’s thriller recounts murder mystery in Vietnam -By Bobby Burns

Dalls Clark

Fall 2021

A retired Greenville attorney and Marine Corps officer has published a legal mystery thriller set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. “The Investigation Officer’s File,” is set in the turbulent times of 1969 and inspired by actual events and the experience of Greenville’s Dallas Clark, a Wake Forest University Law School graduate who was posted in Vietnam after graduating officer candidate school and assigned to assist in a murder investigation.

“When Ricardo Jackson reported for duty with the Third Marine Division in Vietnam, his biggest fear was being shipped home in a coffin, the book’s summary reads. “It never occurred to him that he would be transferred, in handcuffs and leg irons, from Vietnam to the federal prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas ...

Woody White was the only thing standing between Ricardo Jackson and twenty years ... and time was running out.”

Like Woody White’s character in the book, Clark was asked to assist in the re-investigation of the murder of a Marine lieutenant who was killed when

Greenville: Life In The East

a live grenade was rolled under him as he slept.

Two Marines were charged, but after the trial, conviction and sentencing of the first, the prosecuting military attorneys began to believe he was innocent, Clark said.

“I took those events and wrote the novel, which follows some of my experiences as a legal officer with the Corps in Vietnam and Okinawa,” Clark said on Facebook.

“I am pleased that some ladies have read it and told me they enjoyed the twists and turns in this mystery even though it is told in a military setting,” he said.

Clark retired from an active family law practice in Greenville in 2014. He continues to live here and has three daughters, two sons and five grandchildren.

“The Investigation Officer’s File” is available through Amazon and Clark himself. He also is working with Barnes & Noble to keep a small supply at the Greenville location in University Common on Evans Street. Find Clark at facebook.com/dallas. clark.75098.

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Local Books | Local Authors

Miracle Momma

Greenville woman shares 10-year journey with infertility -By Beyonca Mewborn

Quashawnda Everett

Miracle Mama:

A Testament to God’s Perfect Timing – By Quashawnda Everett –

Available at:

or www.journeytomotherhoodsupport.com for a signed copy from the author.

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QuaShwanda Everett is a 37-year-old early childhood professional and a woman of faith who released her first book in April 2021 called “Miracle Mama: A Testament to God’s Perfect Timing.”

Everett and her husband were young when they got married. She was 18, fresh out of high school, college bound, and her husband had been in college for two years when they got married.

“My husband and I married young, so in the beginning we really weren’t pressed on having children right away,” Everett said. “We thought that when we were ready we would be able to turn on a switch and it’ll happen, but that wasn’t the story.”

In her book she touches on how in the beginning of their marriage they were just goal focused and career driven. “My husband was playing basketball in college, we were heavily involved in church, and extremely busy,” she said. “We were all over the place.”

In her 10-chapter book, one of lowest points is in the chapter called “Emotional Rollercoaster.” As they began to visit different doctors and specialists trying different fertility treatments nothing was working.

“We actually went through IVF, one of the most expensive and extensive fertility treatments that has a really good success history,” said Everett. “It worked for most people it didn’t work for us, and I think the very first try was when I was at my lowest out of the entire journey.” , She said it was because the doctors made everything look promising. They said try IVF this will work, everything else had failed, and when that failed all hope was lost. “I just thought that the day would never come for me to be a mom,” said Everett.

Everett said it was a tough journey and she just wanted to write the book because so many women, especially African Americans, really don’t share their experiences when it comes infertility, pregnancy loss, pregnancy struggles, and it’s one of those things where a lot of women are struggling in silence, it’s a secret, or they are ashamed of it.

“Once I was blessed with my child, my miracle baby, I just wanted to write a book about my journey, tell my story, and hopefully encourage the next person that’s still waiting for that miracle.

There were times that Everett said she was jealous of other mothers and pregnant women, and sometimes she struggled with her own faith in God. “Infertility can cause you to become bitter and jealous,” she said. “I wouldn’t involve myself in going to baby showers because when you go somewhere like that and leave it’ll cause

Greenville: Life In The East

depression.”

She said it was very hard, but as a very religious person any time she felt any feelings of jealousy toward anything or anyone she would just pray and ask God to remove that.

Everett said she didn’t want to be jealous of other people and it was even harder because along the way she connected with other women who were dealing with infertility and most of them became pregnant before she did.

“So I had to put my feelings to the side to be a good friend and support them,” she said. “Although I was happy for them and sad for me, I had to pull myself together because they waited for that and they deserved to be celebrated as well.”

She said there came a point in her life where she was angry with God and just didn’t care about pleasing him, but she never never left him completely. She said she always found herself back in prayer because it was instilled in her, and when she would go back to church it would rebuild her faith.

Her anger came from feeling like she did everything the right way because she was raised to get married first, then have kids, but she said she didn’t expect to get married and be thrown a curveball like that.

Everett did three cycles of in vetro fertilization, the first was in 2015. In her chapter “In Vitro Fertilization,” Everett said she pulled apart the entire experience and had to go dig up receipts out of her attic for accurate financial information for the book.

She said the actual fertility treatment was $6,500 for the first cycle and that’s not including the medication, so it was roughly around $10,000.

She wrote a chapter called “Infertility in Marriage” and said that she discussed everything about her husband, how he felt through the process, and how he supported her. She said he didn’t have any children outside of their marriage so he wanted a child just as much as she did.

“He never really folded in front of me,” she said.

“Most of the time he had to be strong enough to hold me up, but he would never buckle in front of me. I never would see him upset about it, and that bothered me because I know that it bothered him,” she said.

Her husband had a friend to confide in who experienced a similar journey with his wife, and having him to talk to helped tremendously, she said.

“In a certain aspect it strengthened our marriage because we had to either be strong or fall apart,” Fall 2021

Local Books | Local Authors said Everett. “It was one or the other.”

In July of 2018 Everett said her husband went out and purchased a onesie for a baby and brought it home. She said her husband said he felt like God told him to buy it for their future son. “He meant well and it just tore me all to pieces,” she said. “I had never seen him vulnerable about it and to see him step out and make a faith purchase was significant.”

She made one of her closets a prayer room, put the onesie up in there, and ended up finding out she was pregnant with her son in the middle of January 2019.

Once Everett got pregnant she knew she wanted to tell her story, but she didn’t know how she wanted to tell it. In January of 2020 she started a youtube channel, and that was the first time she talked about her infertility story. Then she started a podcast called the Journey to Motherhood Podcast.

She said that she wanted to create a space and a platform to interview other women who have been through similar issues and allow them to share, encourage, and help heal others.

“I met with a lot of women and I had over 20 people that came on my podcast the first season,” she said. “I interviewed them, they shared stories of their journeys and their success, and there were some that were still waiting to conceive, but just felt comfortable sharing with me.”

Everett said that she wanted to raise awareness about infertility and the importance of being sensitive to couples who don’t have children.

She said you don’t know what they may be going through, they may have recently suffered a miscarraige or be experiencing infertility.

“People mean well, they just really want to know where your kids are, and I talk about that in the book,” she said. “How people can just hound you, they make comments, and it’s just not helpful.”

She said it is not an insensitive gift to purchase her book for someone who is going through a similar experience because it is for them.

“My book is an overall faith-builder,” she said.

“It talks about how to have faith and hope in trying times, and how to wait on God when you’re dealing with things.”

Pastor co-edits books about children’s difficult questions -By Karen Eckert “When Kids Ask Hard Questions: More Faithfilled Responses for Tough Topics, Volume 2” (Chalice Press, 2021) offers suggestions for parents or other caregivers about how to discuss difficult topics with their children from a faith perspective.

The book is a follow-up to a first volume released two years ago, which received a starred review from the Library Journal and landed on the Journal’s list of “Best Religion & Spirituality Books 2019.”

Both books are collections of essays about topics that affect the daily lives of children, according to Karen Ware Jackson, co-editor of the books and senior co-pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Greenville.

Topics include suicide, divorce, racism, grief, fear, hospitalization and many others.

Jackson edited the books with Bromleigh McCleneghan, a minister in the United Church of Christ.

Contributors, who are from across the U.S., the U.K. and Canada, include parents, teachers, pastors and others who spend a lot of time caring for kids, according to Jackson.

“Our goal … is not to tell people what to say or exactly how to answer the questions, but to give them a resource that will help them craft their answers,” Jackson said.

Fall 2021

When Kids Ask Hard Questions Volume 1 & 2

Available at: As e-book

Karen Ware Jackson Rhonda Grant Jordan, associate pastor at Jarvis Memorial United Methodist Church, is a contributor to Volume 2.

“She talks about her experiences as a black child in North Carolina during the time of integration,” Jackson said.

“The complexity of many of these issues is beyond young children, but they need an answer that will leave room for further conversation as they grow and change,” Jackson said.

Greenville: Life In The East

Also available at Christian bookstores and for sale or for check-out from the library at First Presbyterian Church. Vol. 1 is available at ThriftBooks and IndieBound.

13

Local Books | Local Authors

Voting for War

Walter Jones’ book offers insight into ‘true statesman’ -By Ginger Livingston

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones Jr.

Voting for War

A U.S. Congressman’s Awakening to the Lies Behind the Iraq Invasion – By Walter B. Jones Jr –

Available at:

Walter Jones’ wife, Joe Anne, and daughter, Ashley, hold a copy of his book outside the Walter B. Jones Jr. post office in Farmville.

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Walter B. Jones Jr. never hid his sorrow over voting to authorize the Iraq War after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In 2005 he publicly declared his opposition to the war and pressed President Bush’s administration to develop an exit strategy.

He shocked his conservative eastern North Carolina district when he appeared on the cover of the liberal magazine “Mother Jones” to discuss his opposition.

He spoke about attending the funeral of a U.S. Marine killed early in the Iraq War and realizing the man’s children, a new-born and toddler, would never know their father.

But there was much more involved in his decision than what he could share during constituent meetings.

Jones wanted people to know how his grandfather’s suicide, and the physical and psychic toll endured after being gassed during World War I, shaped his views on war. Jones wanted people to know the whole story.

More than two years after his death, Jones’ is telling his story in “Voting For War: A U.S. Congressman’s Awakening to the Lies Behind the Iraq Invasion.”

Co-written with Taylor Sisk, Jones’ memoir recounts his upbringing and his path to becoming a war opponent. The story is interspersed with interviews with his wife, Joe Anne, congressional colleagues and longtime friends.

The book is dedicated to the late Sgt. Michael Bitz, the United States Marine whose death influenced Jones, who ultimately wrote more than 12,000 letters to the families of service members killed during the war.

“With all he went through after he changed his mind about the Iraq War and became his own person, so to speak … he got so disillusioned and that’s why he wrote all those letters to all the fallen’s families, he always said I need to write a book,” said Joe Anne, who was married to the congressman for 54 years.

She said her husband always believed if people knew his background they would understand his decision.

“There were so many reasons that tugged at him,” Joe Anne said.

His family never talked about his grandfather, she said. It wasn’t until Jones’ was an adult that he learned his grandfather committed suicide and his grandmother had to fight the government in court to collect her husband’s disability and death benefits.

“I’m not certain why, but I believe that it’s a primary reason I feel as strongly as I do about war and about veterans,” Jones wrote. It’s why he fought so hard to open a Veterans’ Administration clinic in

Greenville: Life In The East

Greenville, Joe Anne said.

“It was always a personal thing with him.

Everything about Walter was generally about the heart,” she said. “He was much more sensitive. He would say that Jo Anne was the hard one and that is the truth.”

Sisk, a health care journalist who co-writes memoirs, first learned about Jones in the mid-2000s when the congressman worked to have French fries renamed “freedom fries” in the congressional dining hall. Then Jones announced his opposition to the war.

A professional acquaintance reached out to Sisk about working with Jones on his memoir.

“I was intrigued. I wanted to talk to him. I thought it would be an interesting project to work on,” Sisk said.

Sisk traveled to Greenville in January 2017 to discuss the book.

“When I went down to Greenville I didn’t know if I was going to do it. But I was immediately impressed with his sincerity,” Sisk said. “I could tell he would be committed to the project. It wasn’t something he was going to treat lightly. By the time we finished lunch that day I knew I was going to do it.”

Sisk, who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, traveled to Greenville to record conversations with the congressman. He reviewed Jones’ handwritten notes and documents the congressman thought were relative to his story.

Sisk’s last meeting with Jones was November 2018. The congressman fell ill and died Feb. 10, 2019, his 76th birthday.

Sisk said he didn’t know about Jones’ illness. They often communicated through email and in January 2019 the congressman had signed off on the final manuscript and gave Sisk approval to use excerpts from the correspondence Jones had with Gold Star families. They had not discussed publishers.

After the congressman’s death, his wife and daughter, Ashley, wanted the project to continue.

Sisk discovered McFarland, an independent publisher of academic and reference works and general interest adult nonfiction based in Ashe County.

McFarland President Rhonda Herman said she was proud when she learned the Jones family wanted her company to publish the book. She had met the congressman in 2015 as part of a delegation advocating for workforce development legislation.

Jones was an “immediately likable presence,” she said, who was open, a good listener and honest.

“I don’t remember in detail his words,” Herman said. “I remember precisely how I felt: I was in the presence of a great man, a humble man so proud of his Christian faith, a true statesman. No other lawmaker has ever had that effect on me.”

Fall 2021

Local Books | Local Authors Herman read the book before it went to press.

“This was the first moment I realized how remarkable his story really was and why my eyes welled with tears in his office,” she said. His wife had a similar reaction.

“I remember the first time I read it I was really surprised at how good it was. But then again I have a special interest,” Joe Anne said. “It was much more informative and entertaining. If you are interested in the history of government and what religion or spirituality means to people anymore, this book will appeal to people.”

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., with the many pictures of dead service members from Camp Lejeune that he hung in a hallway leading to his congressional office in October 2017. Jones reversed his support for the war in Iraq and wrote thousands of apologetic letters to the families of dead service members.

-Andrew Harnik / AP

From Basketball to Big Rock Greenville’s Bethany Bradsher specializes in the under-told but fascinating tales -By Christina Ruotolo Life is measured sometimes in slow motion moments: A touchdown, a game-winning threepointer at the buzzer, reeling in the next blue marlin at the Big Rock Tournament.

Greenville author Bethany Bradsher has been writing about these moments for 25 years, from the life of George Whitfield, Bones McKinney, the 50-year history of the Super Bowl and most recently, The Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament.

Bradsher has the uncanny ability to dig deep into the inner workings of the sport and the sportsman, specializing in the under-told but fascinating tales and biographies of interesting people.

Bradsher started writing at age 13 when she won a middle school writing contest and attended a fancy awards banquet in downtown Houston. It was then that she set her sights on writing.

“That was all of the encouragement I needed, and soon I was the editor of the school newspaper, then in high school, a yearbook editor. I selected UNC Chapel Hill for its journalism program, and I am one of those rare people who decided on a career course as a teenager and have never deviated from it.”

Bradsher started her career with hopes of being a sportswriter. Her early years, both in college and through her first five years as a professional, were devoted to newspaper writing. She covered sports for the college paper, but her first fulltime gigs had her covering education, health care and the arts before she grabbed an opportunity to become the first female sportswriter for the Herald-Journal in Spartanburg, S.C. “That was an amazing two years; I had the opportunity to cover the Carolina Panthers through their first two seasons and also the preparations for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. At the end of 1996, I left full-time newspaper work to have our first child and begin freelancing, and since then, I have freelanced Fall 2021

in every media imaginable, from newspapers to magazines to corporate websites and a range of other virtual work.”

She published her first book, “Coaching Third,” in 2010 and most of her time has been spent on book writing ever since, she said. “It’s my favorite medium by far, because I relish the opportunity to do extensive research and interviews and dig deep into a story. I hope I never have to skim the surface again.”

Bradsher has built momentum since 2010, publishing 12 additional books and helping others bring their own stories to life through sportswriting, ghostwriting, college essay coaching, book development and editing and content creation. A pair of projects rate as her most rewarding so far, Bradsher said.

“It’s a tie between ‘The Classic,’ my exploration of the Dixie Classic basketball tournament that came out in 2011, and ‘The Big Rock,’ released in 2020. Both allowed me to bring to light an extraordinary competition that had not been examined in depth before, and in both I got to know dozens of amazing people who pulled back the curtain to let me into their worlds.”

Even during the pandemic Bradsher’s plate has been full. “It seems that the pandemic prompted lots of people to pursue book projects, so I’m currently connected with five different books as a ghostwriter. I enjoy the process of helping other people tell their stories almost as much as I enjoy initiating a book on my own.”

Her most recent release, “Friends for Life,” tells the story of a personal heroes, Mal McSwain, “who has had an incalculable impact on people through more than a half decade of walking alongside people in ministry.”

For more information on Bethany Bradsher, visit her website, bethanybradsher.com.

Greenville: Life In The East

Covering all the bases George Whitfield’s Extraordinary Life in Baseball – By Bethany Bradsher –

Bethany Bradsher

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Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2021

A L W A Y S the Main Event Greenville troubadours play through pandemic, earn beach music recognition

A

By Donna Davis

Greenville band that’s been

try to market ourselves in other areas that

Carolina. “My dad was a musician,” he said,

entertaining crowds for more

would allow us to continue having a strong

“and I enjoy all styles of music.”

than 30 years is getting noticed

schedule,” Woodruff said.

Woodruff’s wife, Sharon Hyler Woodruff, is

for beach music performances it

“Through the years the band had

a lead vocalist and percussionist. She was the

leaned into to keep playing in the pandemic.

traditionally done more than 100 dates

youngest of five in a family gospel band led

The Main Event Band got its start back in

annually, which is on the verge of being a

by her father, who was a minister. She started

full-time band under a part-time umbrella.”

singing with the band when she was 4 or 5

1988. While Greenville is still home base, the band’s reach has expanded to include a tristate area: Virginia, North and South Carolina.

As it happens, they are leaving a footprint on the beach music scene.

years old.

Jeremiah Miller, who plays tenor saxophone,

“We are primarily a wedding-festival and

The band was nominated by the Carolina

is a principal at Farmville Middle School. “He

corporate type band,” founder Al Woodruff

Beach Music Association for three awards

has a rich history with ECU working with

said. “The band has moved into being a

this year. One is “Smoothie of the Year” for

Carroll Dashiell and the jazz band there while

regional band with the expectations of putting

their recording, “Hello Stranger.” The band’s

he was in college,” Woodruff said.

on a good show and playing a wide variety of

female lead vocalist, Sharon Hyler Woodruff,

Scott Pagona, trumpet player and vocalist,

music, be it beach music, jazz, country, R&B,

was nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year

is an ECU graduate and a band director at

disco.”

and Rising Star.

multiple schools in and around Pitt County.

Their set list could include a range from

The celebration of the CBMA, originally

Willie Lockett is bassist. Woodruff describes

Chicago to Earth, Wind and Fire, Bruno Mars

called the “Cammys,” began in 1995. In 1998

him as “a mastermind of music arrangement

and Al Green. Their audience could range from

the awards moved to North Myrtle Beach and

and scoring horn parts.” He was a music

25 to 75, so the band makes sure they are

this year were held Nov. 14. Bands specifically

director in the U.S. Army in the late 60s. He

ready to deliver what their listeners want.

affiliated with beach music as well as variety

lives in Hope Mills.

“I’ve got players in the band having strong

bands performed.

male and female lead vocals and a horn

“This is our first time being nominated

section. That allows us to do things that a lot

for these awards,” Al Woodruff said. “A lot

of regional bands can’t do,” Woodruff said.

of the songs had success with airplay in the

Britt Hardy, known locally also for being the late Steve Hardy’s son, is drummer and vocalist.

Ken Hardee is keyboardist and vocalist.

The Main Event Band has enjoyed some

three-state area, from dozens and dozens

“We’re all very grateful and excited about

memorable performances, including opening

of stations and DJs who have enjoyed what

the band,” Sharon Woodruff said, “and what

for Sandi Patty and Kenny Rogers in the early

we’ve released.”

the future holds for our band.”

90s at Carter-Finley Stadium. And while the

The band includes the founding and

Follow The Main Event Band on Facebook,

band is known for its versatility, lately the

only original member, Al Woodruff, who is

Twitter, and on their website, www.

ensemble caught the attention of the beach

lead vocalist and guitarist. Woodruff also is

themaineventband.com.

music market.

connected to the local music industry through

A recording of the song “Hello Stranger”

his co-ownership of the McFadyen Music store.

that received the CBMA nomination can be

soul, party band kind of market and other

He grew up in Vance County near the city of

found on Youtube, along with other Main

areas deliberately because of COVID, to

Henderson before relocating to eastern North

“We started fishing in the beach, R&B,

Fall 2021

Greenville: Life In The East

Event videos.

19

Local Music | Local Performances Original beach music by Willie Nelms The director emeritus of Sheppard Memorial Library Willie Nelms released a compilation of nine original songs, as well as a cover of the blues standard, “Trouble in Mind.”

The CD entitled “Carolina Shag: A Tribute to Beach Music” was conceived and created in the early stages of the COVID pandemic when public performances were not possible.

According to Nelms, “I was motivated by a desire to create a recording project to lift people’s spirits in the face of the pandemic. I decided to produce something that all of us in eastern North Carolina love — beach music and especially the dance that is an integral part of that music — the shag.”

Nelms explains that the title song, “Carolina

Shag,” was created as a 120 beats per minute dance tune. The lyrics highlight the history of the song and mention many of the dance moves. The other original songs were inspired by traditional Carolina Beach music and the “good-time, feel good songs loved by all.”

Released in late 2020, all the songs are available on online download and streaming sites such as YouTube, Spotify and Pandora.

The album title song has been a candidate for inclusion in John Hook’s Beach Top 40. All the songs have been streamed and downloaded thousands of times by people around the world.

According to Nelms, “It’s great to see the places all around the world where the songs have been played, downloaded and streamed. It’s just what

I had hoped to accomplish with this project.”

Autographed copies of the CD , “Carolina Shag: A Tribute to Beach Music,” can be purchased by sending $10, plus $2 shipping and handling to: N&N Enterprises, 103 Squire Drive Winterville, NC 28590. It is also available as well in a download form from all online music sites.

David Dixon plays “The Game” Greenville native and multi-instrumentalist David Dixon released his newest album in August. Dixon wrote all of the songs and performed most of the instrumentation.

“I worked remotely with collaborators from all over ...

Argentina, Australia, Pennsylvania, Virginia,” Dixon said. “It was a fun, new way to record and make music.”

“The Game,” is available on his online store at www. daviddixonmusic.com/store. T-shirts, women’s tank tops, and stickers also are available.

Twisted Knot, Steve Creech at R.A. Fountain The vintage charm of small town America that is R.A. Fountain General Store will host a band that brings new meaning to the “hanging of the greens.” Twisted Knot will

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perform “A Celtic Christmas” show on Dec. 11, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $13 for reserved seating.

Steve Creech will perform a Christmas

Greenville: Life In The East

show with a full lineup of talented musician friends at R.A. Fountain at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 18. Tickets are $12.50 general admission and $15 for reserved seating.

Fall 2021

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Greenville: Life In The East

21

Restarting the Arts ECU’s S. Rudolph Alexander Series to return in 2022 after two-year hiatus

W

By Kim Grizzard

hen master illusionist Vitaly disappeared from the lineup of ECU’s S. Rudolph Alexander Performing Arts Series in 2020, it was no magic trick. The coronavirus pandemic had canceled what remained of the 58th season.

Now, nearly two years later, Vitaly is scheduled to reappear in March 2022. Michael Crane, producing artistic director of the series, hopes the audience will return as well to join the university in restarting the arts.

It has been six decades since former assistant dean of student affairs Rudy Alexander created a subscription series from selected classical offerings. Since then, the series has presented hundreds of artists — among them Tony Bennett, Harry Belafonte, Van Cliburn, Itzhak Perlman and Natalie Cole — to nearly a million arts patrons.

But Wright Auditorium, like performance venues across the country, went dark for more than a year due to COVID-19.

“We initially thought this thing was going to last a couple of weeks,” Crane said of the early cancellations associated with the pandemic. “Our last performance was Yamato: The Drummers of Japan in February 2020, so it has been awhile.”

The series, which had to skip its 59th year, will wait until 2022 for the official launch of its new season. Added attractions to the five-part series

were to have begun as early as October, but the United States Marine Band “The President’s Own” canceled its fall tour due to the rise of the COVID-19 delta variant. Added attraction “Vitaly: An Evening of Wonders” is the only returning engagement from the 2019-20 season.

“We made a very deliberate decision to honor all the contracts of the season that wasn’t,” Crane said. “(But) we lost a few things.”

The previously scheduled “Georgia on My Mind: Celebrating the Music of Ray Charles” (a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner who performed at ECU as part of the 1991-92 Alexander series) was a limitedengagement tour that concluded in 2020.

The upcoming season is a whirlwind of entertainment, with a half dozen shows in 13 weeks.

“We’re putting everything in one semester,” Crane said. “It’s worth it to us in this season to do our part to keep those artists working.”

Two of the four months will have two performances each, with two shows in less than a week’s time in April. The fast-paced lineup includes music, dance, theatrical comedy and even a circus, all upbeat fare to celebrate the return to the stage.

“This is just a fun package,” Crane said. “This is supposed to be an uplifting restart-the-arts kind of season.”

The schedule includes: P I LOBO LU S FEBRUARY 18 The original company, Pilobolus Dance Theater, has been touring its 115 pieces of repertory to more than 64 countries over more than four decades. Founded by a group of Dartmouth College students in 1971, this dance company works to form diverse collaborations that break down barriers between disciplines and challenge the way people think about dance.

Philobolus II was part of the Alexander Series in 2005, but this is the first time the full company has performed on the ECU stage.

“If you saw this company you would remember them,” Crane said of the group that is widely known for creative acrobatics and shadow work.

“This particular program is a greatest hits. It’s going to be fantastic. You get a bit of everything from all of their seasons.”

Pilobolus has been featured across the world, with appearances at 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007), and on “Sesame Street,” “Oprah” and “60 Minutes.” The company has been recognized with prestigious honors, including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cultural Programming and the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in Choreography.

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Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2021

VOC TAV E MARCH 6 A cappella sensation Voctave has had more than 150 million online views of its videos, and the group’s latest album, “The Corner of Broadway & Main Street Vol. 2,” debuted at number three on the iTunes charts. Formed in 2015 by producer and arranger Jamey Ray, the group that brings arrangements to life represents a variety of backgrounds and musical experiences.

Members have performed around the world with Grammy, Dove and American Music Award recipients including Sandi Patty,

Pentatonix’s Kirstin Maldonado, Mark Lowry, David Phelps, and Jody McBrayer.

“These are 11 voices,” Crane said. “I think people will be really energized by the harmonies and the quantity of voices making the sounds.”

The group’s performance at ECU, which begins at 4 p.m., will feature arrangements of Broadway and Disney tunes as well as other popular music.

VITALY: A N E V E NING O F WON DER S , MARCH 17 Master illusionist Vitaly has mystified fans across the globe, including superstars Penn & Teller. Vitaly’s signature illusions include bringing pictures and drawings to life and erasing people from their own driver’s licenses.

“He does art-based illusions,” Crane said. “That’s kind of why we picked him over any of the others out there. He did fool Penn and Teller on their show. I don’t know how he does the things he does.”

For this added attraction not included in the Alexander Series regular season, tickets are $20 each for season subscribers. Individual tickets are available for $35 each beginning in December.

Fall 2021

Greenville: Life In The East

23

THE OPERA LOCOS, APRIL 1 The Opera Locos is a comic opera show where five exceptional lyrical singers perform some of the most well-known opera hits, sometimes combined with rock and pop classics.

“This is shtick,” Crane said. “It looks like it’s going to be an opera performance, but it’s really the story about these five performers who are vying for dominance on stage.

“It’s all comedy, but it’s really well done performance from an operatic standpoint,” he said. “I think people will come for both those reasons.”

Over the last 28 years, The Opera Locos has performed on major stages of New York, Montreal, London, Rome and Paris performing in 44 countries for more than 3 million people.

THE TANNAHILL WE AVE R S , APRIL 7 Inducted into the Scottish Traditional Hall of Fame in 2011, the band has won fans from beyond the folk and Celtic music scenes.

“In my opinion, they’re the most prolific and the best recording traditional bands from Scotland,” Crane said. “They’ve had some rivalry with other bands, and they’re the last one standing that is at an international level.”

As the band enters its 53rd year in 2021, its diverse repertoire spans the centuries with fire-driven instrumentals, topical songs, and original ballads and lullabies.

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Greenville: Life In The East

Fall 2021

THE GREAT DUBOIS, MAY 14

GET YOUR TICKETS!

The award-winning combination of Michael DuBois and Viktoria Grimmy have five generations of circus performing between them. The two-person circus show features feats of juggling, hula hoops, unicycle, circus stunts, contortion, magic and audience interaction all wrapped up in a comedic performance.

“They were in Hugh Jackman’s ‘The Greatest Showman’; they’ve been on tour with Britney Spears,” Crane said. “They’re circus people. They were born into the circus. They met doing circus. They eat drink breathe circus. It’s a great family show. It’s like cotton candy for the evening.”

The upcoming season of the Alexander Series is designed to be familyfriendly, especially in view of the fact that the university’s Family Fare series for young audiences will not restart until the 2022-23 season.

“We actually sent a mailing out to our Family Fare subscribers, just saying, ‘Your kids are two years older. Maybe they want to order off the adult menu this year,’” Crane said. “We made that offer, and hopefully people will continue to take us up on it.”

Having to halt performances from the Alexander Series, Family Fare and its companion offering Arts Smart, which opens Wright Auditorium performances to students from 13 counties, has taken a financial toll on the university. However, funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, along with a Small Business Administration Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, as well as South Arts Grants and support from the North Carolina Arts Council have helped to position programs for a comeback.

“We went into it (planning for the season) thinking we’re going to lose our shirts, but we have to restart the arts or what are we doing here?” Crane said. “The series is in great shape fiscally. It’s a question of: Can we rebuild the audience by the time the year is over?

“That’s what we’re working on,” he said. “We just need people who support the arts to vote yes by buying a ticket.”

With the exception of Voctave, which begins at 4 p.m. March 6, all performances begin at 7:30 p.m. in Wright Auditorium.

A series subscription to the S. Rudolph Alexander Performing Arts season is $100 and includes reserved seating for five performances, along with free parking. Sales of season tickets continue through Dec. 15. Individual tickets go on sale Dec. 1 and are $35 each. Masks are currently required for indoor settings on campus. Due to some ongoing uncertainties about COVID-19, series ticket purchases are fully refundable for ticket holders who cancel reservations before a performance.

Call 252-737-5444 or email artscomm@ecu.edu.

your care. your choice.

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James D. Bernstein Community Health Center 261 Belvoir Highway | Greenville, NC 252-695-6352

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This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number H80CS10607 Health Center Program, in the amount of $8,654,913 or 48% of total program costs with $8,956,453 or 50% financed with nongovernmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit HRSA.gov. GCHC is licensed by the state of North Carolina, led by an independent Board of Directors and is an FQHC Program grantee under 42 U.S.C. 254. GCHC receives HHS funding and has Public Health Service (PHS) deemed status with respect to certain health or health-related claims, including medical malpractice claims, for itself and its covered individuals.

Fall 2021

Greenville: Life In The East

25

Holiday HAPPENINGS LIGHT AT THE REFUGE from 6-9 p.m. Nov. 26-27, Dec. 2-4, Dec. 9-11, Dec. 16-18 and Dec. 20-23 at 1380 Lower Field Road, Ayden.

The event features displays depicting the biblical account of Christ’s birth. Admission is free, but donations are accepted. Visit ncrefuge.org or facebook.com/NCRefuge.

HOGGARD CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND OF LIGHTS 101 Dalton Drive, Windsor, will be open for the season Nov. 26-Jan. 1. Times are 5-9 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays and 5-10 p.m. Fridays-Sundays. Free, but donations are accepted. Visit facebook.com/ hoggardchristmaswonderlandoflights.

FESTIVAL OF TREES hosted by The Family Support Network of Eastern N.C. will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays from Nov. 29-Dec. 23 at the Greenville Convention Center, 303 S.W. Greenville Blvd. There is no admission charge. The event features many holiday-themed trees, sponsored by various local groups. Visit fsnenc.org.

JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM from 6-9 p.m. Dec. 1-3. Covenant Church will host a 45-minute interactive tour through Bethlehem designed to show participants what it was like the night Jesus was born. The event will be held at 4005 Corey Road, Winterville, Building A. Free, but space is limited. Visit covenant.cc/journey for reservations.

AYDEN’S ANNUAL CHRISTMAS PARADE will be held at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 2 in downtown Ayden. For information about participating, visit aydenchamber.com.

GODSPELL will be presented by the Whirligig Stage at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3 at the State Theatre, 110 W. Fifth St. General admission is $25 in advance and $30 at the door or $15 in advance or $20 at the door for students. “Godspell” is a story of friendship, loyalty and love based on the Gospel of Matthew. Visit whirligigstage.com.

SOUNDS OF THE SEASON presented by the East Carolina University School of Music will at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 3 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 401 E. Fourth St. The performance will feature the ECU Chamber Singers, University Chorale and Concert Choir Free.

Face coverings are required. For more information call 252-328-6851.

26

GREENVILLE GIVES hosted by The City of Greenville and Uptown Greenville from 5:307:30 p.m. Dec. 3 at Five Points Plaza, Evans and Fifth streets. The donation collection event will include a visits with Santa, a tree lighting, a holiday market, trolley rides and more. Bring a new toy to donate to Operation Santa Claus. Call 329-4567.

FAMILY AFFAIR from 4-10 p.m. Dec. 3.

Hosted by Homeplace of Ayden, 3815 Emma Cannon Road, Ayden. The event will feature gospel music with Mike and Jimille Mills, Ernest Silver, Bailey Buck and Pam Carson, along with food trucks and vendors. Visit homeplaceofayden.com.

THE WINTERVILLE CHRISTMAS PARADE will be held at 2 p.m. Dec. 4. A holiday market will be held from 2-7 p.m. at 252 Main St., and the annual tree lighting ceremony will begin at 6 p.m.

THE GRIFTON CHRISTMAS PARADE will be held at 4 p.m. Dec. 4. Donations of canned food will be collected. Call 814-3747 for more information.

THE 2021 GREENVILLE JAYCEES CHRISTMAS PARADE will be held at 5 p.m. Dec. 4 along First Street and Reade Circle downtown. Visit www.greenvillejaycees.com.

CHRISTMAS AT HOPE from 1-5 p.m. Dec. 5. Hosted by Historic Hope Foundation, 132 Hope House Road, Windsor. The Hope Plantation mansion and King Bazemore house will be decorated with period decorations. The event will include music, refreshments and wagon or carriage rides. hopeplantation.org or facebook.com/ hopeplantation.

ST. PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH’S 20TH ANNUAL CHRISTMAS HOMES TOUR, a virtual event, will be held from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Dec. 4-5. Tour will include a one-hour virtual tour of four homes decorated with themes of Christmas past, present and future. Tickets are $25 and proceeds benefit Community Crossroads Center. Visit stpaulsepiscopal. com. Call 752-3482 for more info.

JINGLE ALL THE WAY hosted by Greenville Museum of Art, 802 Evans St., with GmoA from noon-3 p.m. Dec. 4. The event will include holiday-themed activities, crafts, Greenville: Life In The East

performances, and a photo opportunity with Santa. There is no admission charge. Photos with Santa are $15 for members and $20 for others. Visit gmoa.org.

FARMVILLE PARADE at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 11.

The Town of Farmville will host its annual Christmas Parade. Visit farmvillenc.gov.

AT HOME WITH SANTA from 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Dec. 11. Hosted by Emerge Gallery & Art Center, 404 Evans St. The Zoom event will feature a 10-minute videoconferencing call with Santa. Tickets are $30 for one child and $10 for additional children participating on the same call. Visit emergegallery.com or email paula@emergegallery.com.

NUTCRACKER BALLET presented by Dance Arts Theatre at 2 and 7 p.m. Dec. 11 and 2 p.m. Dec. 12 at ECU’s Wright Auditorium.

This is a ticketed event. Net proceeds will be donated to the Children’s Miracle Network Call 328-4788.

TRYON CANDLELIGHT hosted by Tryon Palace, 529 S. Front St., New Bern, from 4:30-9:30 p.m. Dec. 11 and Dec. 18. In addition to palace tours, the event will other activities and entertainment. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for teens and $15 for children. Visit tryonpalace.org, email info@ tryonpalace.org or call 639-3500.

GRIMESLAND’S HOMETOWN CHRISTMAS PARADE will be held at 2 p.m. Dec. 18. The parade can be viewed on along Pitt Street.

Entry forms are available from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays at the Town Hall.

NAY NAY’S CHRISTMAS WONDERLAND HAYRIDE hosted by Nay Nay’s Piece of Heaven Horse Rescue Farm, 1379 N.C. 171 North, Washington, N.C. from 6-8:30 p.m.

Dec. 12, Dec. 15-23 Dec. 26-28 and The event will feature hay rides, pictures with Santa and Christmas music. Admission is $15 for adults, $10 for ages 2-12 and free to children under 2. Call 809-2505.

NEW YEAR’S EVE hosted by The City of Greenville and the Greenville Jaycees from 9 p.m. to midnight Dec. 31 at the Town Common, 105 E. First St. The event will include fireworks and the Emerald Drop countdown. Food trucks will be available.

Visit nye.greenvillenc.gov for details.

Fall 2021

M A K NG MOV ES Greenville’s chess community outmaneuvered pandemic stalemate

By Pat Gruner 2020 saw America’s interest in chess once again move into the spotlight. Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” won three Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes in telling the story of the fictional orphan turned chess champ Beth Harmon’s highs and lows in her career.

It would seem that no one could have predicted the series rise to popularity, unless you ask Greenville chess players. They will tell you that the game’s local influence beat Netflix to the punch.

Jerry Skinner, a self-proclaimed chess enthusiast and a founding member of the Greenville Family Chess Club, has been playing the game since 1975. He started playing to kill time when he was stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro as an air traffic controller. Chess was something to do and, for Skinner, it quickly became an obsession.

“A lot of people in the military play chess,” Skinner said. “You have a diverse population of the country in one location like Seymour Johnson … a lot of chess players plus a lot of people who have a lot of time on their hands.”

At his Greenville home, Skinner’s fascination with chess is on full display. His living room features boards and other chess-themed decorations. His chess room is a museum of sorts. Shelves hold chess boards from floor to near the ceiling. Hot Wheels chess boards, ones based on video games and movies, even an Election 2020 board. It is a shrine to chess and to his other interests, be that Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comics or his hero, Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame.

“Over the last probably 10 years, I have amassed a folder of benefits of chess,” Skinner said. “I have come up with 48. It touches every realm of society. It is amazing what chess does.

There is always something that you will come across no matter where you are from, chess benefits you. Any age, young or old, and most of them do not have anything to do with board games.”

Fall 2021

When he moved to Greenville in 2014, Skinner said he was looking for somewhere to play chess. He found it at weekly chess nights at Barnes & Noble, as did other local enthusiasts like City Councilman Rick Smiley. The two have very different relationships to the game. Smiley got an early start playing chess, playing as a student and in tournament environments. He laughed recalling his younger years of board games.

“I like to tell people that in grade school, high school and college I started three chess clubs and two thieves guilds,” Smiley said, referencing both chess and popular tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. “A few years ago there was a speaker at an Uptown Greenville event who said something about love letters to your city. That is where we got the idea for the giant chess board at (Sheppard Memorial Library.) We needed a growing chess community if we wanted to follow that.”

Smiley was instrumental in getting bimonthly tournaments started at Sheppard Memorial Library that were observed under the U.S. Chess Federation (USCF). People would drive in from Washington and Raleigh to compete, he said.

Skinner on the other hand said he does not have a competitive bone in his body, at least as far as chess is concerned. Like his hero Mr. Spock, Skinner loves logic and analysis. He finds it in chess.

“Most of the (benefits) can be mirrored with psychological principles,” said Skinner, who himself studied psychology at institutions including East Carolina University. “A reason that I like chess is because it is analytical. I focus on that part of it a lot, and with a lot of people playing chess they bring their background. It is like a storyboard of backgrounds, thoughts.

It is endless and, I hate to use the word complicated, but complicated it is.”

Chess clubs like Greenville’s are a foundation built upon those stories, as well as a refuge for those looking to learn more about the game, Skinner said. The Family Chess Club’s Greenville: Life In The East

design and name came to his wife, Nancy, in a dream, he said. The group now meets at Apt To Learn in Firetower Crossing Shopping Center.

Recruiting is not that difficult. Skinner just asks people in line at the grocery, or in other situations, if they play.

“It would blow your mind the responses I get,” Skinner said. “I had a fender bender in a parking lot and the police officer came up to me to investigate. No one got a ticket or anything. When he got ready to leave he asked if there was anything else he could do for me. I said, ‘Well yes there is, sir. I have a question to ask you. Do you play chess?’”

“He relaxes, he is just a regular guy then. It creates a comedy relief in my life. I enjoy the question but it is amazing what I have gotten.

The main thing in Greenville I have gotten is 100 or so people out there who are potential members of a chess club who just do not feel they have the opportunity.”

Smiley credits Skinner’s VA group in getting the attention of Carol Meyer, executive director of the USCF, who visited Greenville in 2019 and on Nov. 3.

“She (Meyer) sees what he is doing as far as bringing people together and how they seem happier and healthier,” Smiley said. “The development of executive function in kids. That is far more interesting to her.”

Growth in the club was steady according to Skinner. Its first official week saw over 15 people in attendance, and the next saw 24.

The boom was overwhelming for just a few people to teach chess hands on. The third week fell in March 2020, a period that marked the beginning of coronavirus lockdowns.

It felt like checkmate.

Clubs could not meet and tournaments were canceled. Smiley and others had plans to hold the N.C. Girls Chess Championship at J.H. Rose in May 2020, but it was a nonstarter.

People called Skinner wanting to play chess together, face to face. He recommended online chess at first, but the social aspect of the game felt like it was missing. Thus, the savvy veteran

27

The collection at Jerry Skinner’s home in Greenville demonstrates his love for chess and Star Trek’s Mr. Spock among other interests.

Jerry Skinner studies a chess board at his home in Greenville, where he has more than 150 game sets. He hopes one day to have a chess museum.

Twelve adult and four youth players participated in the Family Chess Club’s first U.S. Chess Federation sanctioned tournament on Oct. 9, held in conjunction with National Chess Day.

U.S. Chess Federation President Carol Meyer got to cut the cake during a meeting of the Family Chess Club on Nov. 3. At left, she shares with club president Jerry Skinner, left, and Steven Smith.

Meyer visits with members of the Family Chess Club in Greenville on Nov. 3.

player analyzed, he measured and he made a move.

“I put two tailgate tents out in my yard and set up tables,” Skinner said. “I had 15 people the first time. They stayed until 10 o’clock. I had to kick them out, no one wanted to leave. These guys just love chess so much. We played that for a couple of months.”

The aforementioned “Queen’s Gambit” was beginning to take pop culture by storm around the same time. Like during Bobby Fischer’s reign as world champion, Americans wanted to learn chess. More than that, Skinner said, they did not feel ostracized for enjoying the game.

“It brought out closet chess players,” Skinner said. “It gave people the opportunity to discuss it without feeling they are geeks. Chess has that image of either intellectuals or geek-type people. Now it is a very sociable game. Not only did it impact the knowledge of chess, but the availability of chess sets.”

Even for non players, a chess set is a good conversation piece to put off an intellectual vibe, Skinner said.

“It has nothing really to do with the pandemic supply shortage,” Skinner said. “It has everything to do about the Queen’s Gambit.

It was not the only video out, but there is a lot of mainstream media with chess themes.”

As the community builds back its front line of access to chess, Skinner has plans for a chess museum, using some of his over 150 chess sets and other accouterments as a base line alongside other enthusiasts.

“I have approached (Greenville Mayor) P.J. Connelly’s office about it,” Skinner said. “We could have all of this for the public to enjoy.

Greenville has not gotten back to me yet but, somewhere around here. Winterville, Ayden or somewhere I could drive back and forth. I would be curator. It would give me something to do for the community.”

On Dec. 11, there will be a Pitt Area Chess Open held at Carver Library on 14th Avenue from 9 a.m. to 6.

“It is not so easy anymore to sit and concentrate for six to seven hours on multiple games,” Smiley, who directs the tournaments, said. “My job now is to make it possible for people to play.”

Family Chess Club president Jerry Skinner shows off his club pride during a recent meeting.

Family Chess Club vice president Steven Smith, standing,, directed the National Chess Day Tournament on Oct. 9.

He played in it, too, and tied for first place. Elijah Smith, bottom right, won first place in the scholastic division.

Fall 2021

Greenville: Life In The East

Chess club wants you to join the Family If you like to play chess, or want to learn, the Family Chess Club wants you.

The club formed during the pandemic to help keep local chess alive and began meeting regularly at Apt To Learn after the shutdown. It hosted its first U.S. Chess Federation sanctioned tournament on Oct. 9 and hosted a meet and greet with U.S. Chess Federation executive director Carol Meyer on Nov. 3.

The tournament coincided with the club’s celebration of National Chess Day, first celebrated in 1976 during President Gerald R. Ford’s administration.

He was an avid chess player, said club president Jerry Skinner, therefore he took the necessary steps to officially recognize the second Saturday in October as National Chess Day each year.

Chess clubs across the country hold events to encourage local communities to enjoy chess activities such as tournaments during the celebration.

“Chess has been around for hundreds of years, and has grown more popular by recent events such as the Netflix series ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ and even the COVID virus, which has caused an increased interest in board games that provide families an activity they can entertain all ages,” Skinner said.

“The Family Chess Club is committed to promoting the love of chess at all levels, from the very beginning player of ‘what’s a chess board’ to the advanced strong player of ‘I taught Bobby Fischer everything he knew.’”

October’s tournament was a three-round event in three quads, with a time control of 30 minutes and five-second delay. There were 12 participants playing in the adult tournament, with four youths playing a scholastic quad, three-round tournament with two games per round.

All participants were members of the United States Chess Federation with four out-of-town guests from Wilson/Bailey.

Steven Smith and Josiah Carpenter tied for first place in the adult tournament; Elijah Smith won first place in the Scholastic Tournament.

Players and spectators alike enjoyed pizza and healthy fruit provided by the club. The tournament was directed by Smith, the club vice president who tied for first place.

The club offers family-friendly events twice a week that are open to the public at Apt To Learn, 650 E. Fire Tower Road, Suite B., in Firetower Crossing shopping center.

Tuesday evenings it hosts chess lectures from 6-8 p.m. Children 3 and older are the primary players at this event. Wednesday evenings are open play nights from 6-9 p.m. All ages and skill levels are welcome.

Chess sets are provided. For more info., contact club Skinner at 209-4148 or howlandbakerjarvis@ yahoo.com.

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