Art, History, and Community Intersect at African American Heritage Center Talk & Exhibit
The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center is bustling with activities seeking to provide a textured understanding of people, place, and history.
The next upcoming event will be a talk and reception on Friday, September 13, 2013 featuring Deborah Willis, co-author of Envisioning Emancipation, a historical overview of photographs depicting the trials and opportunities African Americans faced from emancipation through the 1930s. “[Willis] embodies, for me, all the reasons for the things that we do,” Center Director Andrea Douglas said.
This past week Douglas introduced the Jefferson School Walking Tour app which the Center has been developing. The app, available on Google Play and iTunes, will allow users to take a historical tour of the neighborhood surrounding the Jefferson School by allowing users to select buildings and see primary documents and historical figures associated with those buildings.
This work is “not just the history of the school, but of Charlottesville, of Albemarle County, and of how our history plays out in a larger national history,” Douglas said. Following Douglas’s introduction on Thursday evening, Deborah Bell Burks, Chair of the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center Advisory Committee, led a powerpoint featuring historical photographs of the Starr Hill neighborhood and morsels of the oral histories the committee has collected.
The Center also opened a new exhibit, Corapeake, by photographer Kendall Messick. Messick’s images depict her time spent in Corapeake, North Carolina, and feature photographs framed by old newspaper articles.
JABA Celebrates Freedom Day
The south wall of the Mary Williams Community Center was lined with the names of active military and veterans as a way to honor their service to the nation as part of JABA’s Freedom Day celebration on Thursday. Additionally, JABA members collaborated on a thank you note for the wall, honoring the service and sacrifices of their family members who have served or who are serving. Topping the list was a veteran and member of JABA, Earl Napier, who served in the army. Over 60 names filled the list.
Kelly Carpenter, Mary Williams Community Center Manager, and her staff provided refreshments as part of the day’s festivities and opened the center to the public so community members could stop in and add their own loved ones to the list.
Living Well Support Group Starts Next Week
In partnership with Martha Jefferson’s Starr Hill Health Center, The Women’s Initiative presents Living Well, a twelve-week group for women seeking support to make lifestyle changes in an effort to lose weight, gain energy, and improve their overall health. The group will meet on Thursdays 5:30pm-7:00pm, from September 19 through December 12 at the Jefferson School City Center.
Eboni C. Bugg, licensed clinical worker and one of the co-facilitators, said, “Living Well is a unique health opportunity that operates from the standpoint that chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, hypertension, and depression, are symptoms of a much larger issue.” The goal of the program is to help women tackle those underlying issues. She added, “using medical knowledge, emotional care and peer support, we hope to treat the whole person so that they are better able to make lasting lifestyle changes regarding nutrition and physical activity.”
Miranda Trent, certified nurse practitioner, will lead the sessions alongside Bugg to help participants create an integrated health plan to meet their fitness and nutrition goals.
This group is free of charge, however space is limited. For more information and registration, please contact: Eboni C. Bugg, LCSW at: 434-202-7692 or ebugg@thewomensinitiative.org.
Soap-making Workshop & Yoga Woman Film Benefit
Common Ground Healing Arts Center will be hosting a soap-making workshop on Saturday, September 21 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. Showcasing cold process soapmaking, the workshop will provide a history of soap craft, safety tips and practices, how to create custom soap batches, and other elements of soap-making. Selena D. Cozart O’Shaughnessy will demonstrate the process and every student will leave with two batches of soap.
This workshop is perfect for beginners and a prerequisite for the advanced class, during which students will make their own soaps and learn advanced techniques, such as swirling. The cost for the workshop is $35.00 plus a $25.00 material fee. Sign up here.
In support of Common Ground, PVCC will be showing Yoga Woman, a documentary about women’s role in yoga. The film charts women’s increasing involvement in yoga, a practice once dominated by men, in societies around the world. It’ll be screened on Sunday, September 22, 2013 at 5:00pm. Proceeds from the event will be donated to Common Ground.
Jefferson School City Center is a voice of the nine nonprofits located at Charlottesville’s intergenerational community center, the restored Jefferson School. We are a legacy preserved . . . a soul reborn . . . in the heart of Cville!
