by Nicola Karesh

When negative things happen in life, if you look close enough, you will usually find something of value. It could be buried deep in there but keep looking. Maybe there’s another perspective or way to view the situation. Maybe there is a valuable life lesson to be learned. Perhaps there is a harmful pattern that can show you something. Nobody can say that the pandemic has not brought loss, tragedies and suffering for people. I have it within my own family. Talk to enough people and you will find common ground with good and bad.

One of the opportunities that presented itself withCOVID-19 was to interact with community in a whole different way. The black history tours for example that Morning Glory Inspirations does are available for smaller groups. Just call (contact information is below) and we will work on the perfect day and time for your family or community group. To answer a question from this week, yes, we are stroller friendly!

Speaking of opportunities that present a new way of operating, this year will be the 8th annual “Faces Of Freedom” showcase. Having a large gathering to do this in person still doesn’t feel like a good idea, so it was either go ahead with something online or pass for this year. We chose the former. I would like to take the time to thank Transylvania Community Arts Council for hosting our event for the past seven years. That was such a treat for the artists who participated, for me and for the community. Thank you to Tammy Hopkins who was at the helm for our first five years, followed by Cindy Rehm for the last two years. You gave us a home, and we are thankful.

This year, we are enjoying a new adventure. Our focus is film, art, of course, and fashion. Gloria Williamson and Sherry Edington have been working hard behind the scenes to gift you with a fabulous fashion show. Afrocentric attire to be stylishly presented by 11 members of our community. Thank you to Wanda Foster, Pamela Holder, Gwen Jones, Laura Kilgore, William Mills, Maison Minton, Sheila Mooney, Janice Norman, JJ Stanton, Nichelle Stanton and Tommy Williamson for doing the honors. For art, we have Lauryn Mills-Bohannon. If you remember, I did a feature last year in The Transylvania Times on that amazing 17-year-old. We are blessed to have her talent on display for our even. Her artwork will speak for itself.

For film, Victor Foster and I have also been working independently and together sometimes within the Rosenwald community to produce a few “film” productions for you to preview during Faces Of Freedom. Vic is definitely the professional in the group. With community work, though, I have found myself in the position of needing to capture pictures, audio recordings and videos, editing even, to add to writing. Definitely with lots of projects lately, I would agree with Victor and many of our participants that we have stretched, learned, shared and grown together. Two of the film clips feature our alumni from Brevard Rosenwald School. The other video is a project called “32 Seconds” that we started a few years back, having youth and adults contemplate time and their choices. Nature as a backdrop made it special. Timely, with his recent retirement, I am thankful that my son and I were able to interview former Police Chief Phil Harris. He shares his valuable perspective on mass shootings and gun violence, what it means to be in community, in service and to be kind. The event will be streamed, thanks to one of our co-sponsors, the Unitarian Universalists of Transylvania County. The event may be viewed online on Saturday, Feb. 12, at 3 p.m. You can access the link from several places: UUTC’s Facebook page or YouTube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5eUSiIp6uw ) and lastly look for the Faces Of Freedom 2022 event on Facebook. Our other co-sponsors for this event are: Morning Glory Inspirations (including The African American Storyline and The Peace Tree Garden Projects,) Rise & Shine Freedom School and Vic’s Photography.

Starting this week and running for the entire month of February, Mary C. Jenkins Community Center is once again proud to announce its 2nd annual Poetry Contest. This is open to all ages, young and old, with the requirement being that you are local. Whether or not you yourself are black, your unique poem must relate to the experience of African Americans. The poster should be in schools by now. It is definitely up on the MCJCC Facebook page with all of the details. For more information, you can reach out to me directly. Last year, we had wonderful participation. It was heartwarming to read all 75 poetry entries and to later stand on the community center property to hear the winning poems read by the authors. For those of you who are considering writing a poem, and for others who haven’t quite made that decision yet, don’t overthink it. Check in with your heart, your experience with life, feelings about what you may have endured firsthand, what you may have witnessed or even learned about. Imagine that you are going to have a conversation with someone and simply share what is real for you. Your experience and your words are powerful. You never know whose life is out there just waiting to be touched by you.{/span}

Newsworthy items for submission for Rosenwald Community News are welcomed from community members, churches, clubs and groups. If you have an idea for a story or interview for me to capture, please let me know.

Contact Nicola Karesh at nicolakaresh@gmail.com or call (828) 421-8615.

by Nicola Karesh

I received a few requests for the following interview and was delighted to follow up and share my conversation with the Rev. Dr. Pamela C. Holder. When you have the opportunity, I hope that you will join me in welcoming Bethel “A” Baptist Church’s new pastor to our community.

Q: Dr, Holder, what if anything, is your connection to North Carolina?

A: I moved here from New York when I was 4. My mom and dad met in New York. She was from Greensboro, North Carolina. Actually, she was from Oak Ridge, a town just outside of Greensboro. My father had a band. He also got saved.

Q:You had your pastoral installation service at Bethel “A” back in December 2021. How long have you been living here? What do you like, feel inspired by, maybe have any challenges with, not necessarily related to church?

A: I’ve been here since Oct. 30, 2021. I am inspired by the community. It’s small, seems connected, having a lot of locally owned businesses. I don’t see the connection with diversity. There’s not a lot of diversity, which is an adjustment for me.

Q: I understand that you grew up in a musical environment. You sang, played the violin and also traveled with your family here and abroad to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. First, can you share more about the musical talent that surrounded you and possibly inspired you?

A: My dad was a musician. He was a good singer and a pianist. In New York, he was playing R&B, recording and traveling. In North Carolina, they were playing his music here on the radio. My brother and me, from the age of 3, were involved. Black gospel. I was traveling from the age of 4 with my family. In 4th grade, I started playing the violin. I noticed my peers, around the time of integration, leaving school around two to three times a week. I saw one of them carrying a funny looking thing, and I asked, “What’s that?” It was a violin. I wanted to learn and told my parents. They didn’t know if I would stick with it or not, so we rented a violin. I was pretty good and won several awards, playing statewide. My parents saw that I was serious and got me a private teacher and a good violin.

Q: Can you describe what it was like to travel, sharing the Gospel? How old were you? Is that something that you were really inspired to do, or was it more about going along with what the family had in mind to do? Where did your family go? Where did you travel here and abroad?

A: I thought it was just a way of life for us. I enjoyed it then and as an adult. I didn’t complain. I still enjoy travel and ministry. We would have rehearsals. All three of my brothers excelled playing the organ and piano. For me it was violin and vocals, but 10 years ago, I started piano. We traveled up and down the East Coast… New York, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia. We had a private audition, at the Apollo or Carnegie Hall… My brothers would remember more of the details, which led to us going to the Bahamas, Nassau and Freeport. I remember they gave us a parade. We had several concerts and were treated like celebrities. We went up to Canada as well. We sang with the Mighty Clouds of Joy (an American traditional gospel music quartet noted for their rich vocal harmony,) and the Five Blind Boys (another award-winning American gospel group.)

Q:You are a teacher, preac her and singer, all of which in my mind are expressive and have the capacity to transmit and share a message. Any thoughts about how music, song and inspired word can touch other people’s lives?

A: Music, for me it’s soothing. I go back to music in my head to get away. Inspired word…it’s articulated. It calls for me to get a little more in depth. It’s mind stimulating, whereas with music, you can go with the flow. When preparing a message, I want to use my words with a message they can understand. No matter their walk in the Lord, whether they are a new Christian or a seasoned Christian, I want to speak in a way to reach everyone. For it to be understandable and for them not to be bored. I want to be prepared, factual, correct and scriptural.

Q: Your leadership capacities are referenced along with your being a woman of excellence. I was struck by a particular belief that you hold. 1 Corinthians 14:40 was referenced and your believing that all things should be done “decently and in order.” Can you elaborate on what that means to you and how that would look?

A: My preparation is in order. I will share an example. We were doing a mailing, from a previous church and the labels were crooked. I said that the first thing the person is going to see is a messy letter. What they notice on the outside will give an impression about the inside. The presentation needs to be in order and decent. When I was a chaplain in Greensboro and was visiting in the hospital, being decent was respecting the patient and the family. Noting what they needed and meeting them where they are. Decent and in order…it’s visual and also from the heart. One very important message I would like the community to know is that Bethel “A” is a very strong community of faith. The people are loving and caring and have been a great source of support for me since I’ve been here. I’m so glad they chose me to be their pastor.

Other News

In other news, this past weekend, Mary C. Jenkins Community Center board was diligently working on programming. Karen Darity shared, “We are making sure that what we offer will be multi-generational and will capture something fun and interesting for all ages.”

If you pass by the site, winter may be here, but with the roof on, construction is progressing nicely. How amazing is that to witness history being built before our eyes. Before you know it, the doors will once again be wide open for you to enter. Speaking about history, there is quite a bit happening behind the scenes to capture our local black history. Thank you to Mr. Wayne Brown for excellent work to create and soon install a few more historic signs around town. An accompaniment has been for us to capture information about each sign by audio and video. We hope that you will enjoy this added dimension to the markers that you see. We plan to unveil a preview of that, hopefully, next month during a virtual Faces Of Freedom show. More to come on that plus another upcoming preview of a Rosenwald film project, thanks to a recent Dogwood Health Trust grant to The African American Storyline Project. Edith Darity shared some thoughts on these endeavors: “We didn’t want to leave here without documenting in some way and capturing stories that are important. History may not seem like a big thing, but it is to me and to others. We want children to be able to read and learn about their community and their loved ones. We don’t want them to feel like nothing ever happened.” I couldn’t have said it any better.

Newsworthy items for submission for Rosenwald Community News are welcomed from community members, churches, clubs and groups. If you have an idea for a story or interview for me to capture, please let me know. Contact Nicola Karesh at nicolakaresh@gmail.com or call (828) 421-8615.