Writing for the Web

Freelance stories for QCityMetro.com, an African American news site based in Charlotte, N.C.

John Legend was so much more than a piano man

Anthony Hamilton: Still humble after a Grammy and more

A daughter of Alpha

Music blog

I am now a freelance blogger for a QCityMetro.com, a Web site designed to provide news to Charlotte, N.C.’s African American audience. I focus on national and local music news.

http://www.qcitymetro.com/music/

Strouds

Gerson and Daisy Spears Stroud were educators and civil rights leaders in Charlotte in the 1950s and ’60s. In 2006, Daisy Spears Stroud started a foundation for her husband, who at the time was living with dementia, to honor his contributions to the school system and to the county. The Strouds’ story is one of love and determination.

Stroud

 

Stroud jump

Breakfast haunts

After two popular diners closed in Charlotte, I asked readers where they (and local power brokers) were breaking bread (and ordering eggs). Here were their choices:

Breakfast

 

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Elders

Decades after Rob and Pam Elders dated in high school, they reunited and committed their lives to each other. Rob even stayed by Pam’s side through multiple bouts of cancer and the two planned hosted their wedding at a local cancer rehab center.

Elders

Raye

Each year, around graduation season, the Observer profiles extraordinary students. I wrote about Margaret Raye, a non-traditional college student who’s teenage son was killed during her senior year. Still, she pressed on and dedicated her degree to Tony, her deceased son.

Raye

 

 

Raye jump

Yancy

I had assisted with higher-education coverage at the Observer, especially with Johnson C. Smith University. When the full-time higher ed reporter was put on another assignment, I attended a press conference in her place – where JCSU president  Dorothy Cowser Yancy announced her retirement. Yancy, a JCSU alum, was the school’s first female president.

Yancy

 

Yancy jump

Vance vs. Mallard Creek

I had been covering the opening of the new Mallard Creek High and the transitions the school faced. It had taken hundreds of students from two neighboring high schools (including Vance). When the schools were scheduled to face each other on the football field for the first time, many said that was the first game on the calendar they circled.

Vance/Mallard Creek

 

Vance/Mallard Creek jump

AVID

West Mecklenburg High – one of Charlotte’s lower-performing schools – made AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) mandatory for freshman. The AVID program is designed to help B, C and D students get on track to attend college.

AVID

 

AVID jump

Holocaust documentary

I found Halli Sigal in a list of Girl Scout Gold Award winners. It is a list the Observer prints annually, and in a group of health fair and day-camp projects, Sigal’s work stood out: she was a passionate documentary filmmaker, who examined the Holocaust with first-person accounts from survivors.

Holocaust

 

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