The latest podcast from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources features an artist who is helping tell North Carolina’s story and takes a look at the state’s role in the civil rights movement.
The podcast starts with a chat between Fay Mitchell of Cultural Resources and North Carolina photographer Chris Sims, whose work is featured in the “Telling Our Stories Photography Exhibit,” which is on tour at public libraries around the state through late 2009. Since 2001, Sims has been at work on a photographic examination of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq from the American home front. He won the PDN Photography Annual Best Photography Award in 2003, 2007 and 2008, and has won fellowships from the Maryland Institute College of Art, UNC-Chapel Hill and other awards.
Dr. Jeffrey Crow, deputy secretary of the Department of Cultural Resources for Archives and History is also one of the co-authors of the book “A History of African Americans in North Carolina.” The book, which is available through N.C. Historical Publications, traces the history of black North Carolinians from colonial times to present day, and includes 94 illustrations. In the podcast, Crow speaks about North Carolina’s pivotal role in the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century.
The podcast closes with an instrumental version of the spiritual “Wade in the Water,” performed by the Asheville-based Keowee Chamber Music. The group is listed on the North Carolina Arts Council Touring Artist Directory. For more information about the directory, go to www.ncarts.org. For more about Keowee Chamber Music, go to www.chambermusic.org.
The N.C. Department of Cultural Resources is a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. For more information about Cultural Resources and its 2009 theme, “Treasure N.C. Culture,” visit www.ncculture.com.