VGCC Invites Community To Share Diversity Of Cultures At Annual Fair

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Dulcimer, classical piano, gospel and barbershop harmony. Puerto Rican, Middle Eastern and American Indian displays. Pottery, books, paintings on sale.

All these and more will be on display from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27, in the Civic Center at Vance-Granville Community College.

Admission is free, and the public is invited to attend.

Entertainment begins at 9:05 a.m. with spirituals from Evelyn Couch of Oxford. Then Billy Jarrell of Ridgeway and friends will take the stage at 9:15 a.m. to play the truly American dulcimer.

The Dabney Elementary School choir “Royalty” will perform at 9:35 a.m., followed by acoustic guitar music and vocals by Juan Gomez, a Mexican native who is director of the Spanish choir at St. James Catholic Church. Bob Raven and Mary Morningstar, Native American educators, will then entertain and inform at 10:35 a.m.

Theatre Arts students at VGCC will perform a variety of bits from11:15 a.m. to noon, including scenes from Macbeth and from Monty Python, as well as improvisations utilizing audience participation.

The afternoon begins with the Northern Vance High School Show Choir performing, followed at 12:25 p.m. by the return of Theatre Arts students performing on the guitar and reading poetry. At 1 p.m. Lama Hazimah and Marah Alkhaldi of Oxford will perform Middle Eastern dances.

A barbershop quartet composed of Tom McBride, Richard Noel, Walter Rublein and Phil Young of Henderson will share their harmonic sounds from 1:10 to 1:35 p.m., when Persaline Satterwhite of Oxford will present a dramatic reading, “In the Life and Time of Harriet Tubman.”

Classical concert pianist Tasker Polk of Warrenton, who has studied and performed throughout the world, will play at 1:55 p.m. Peter West of Zebulon, a disabled VGCC student who recently won a national poetry contest, will read some of his verse. VGCC student James Gill will conclude the program with a reading from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Throughout the day, a variety of displays will offer Cultural Fair attendees glimpses of many cultures. Raven and Morningstar will show Native American items, there will be a Shinnecock Indian display, Middle Eastern items will be shown, an exhibit will explain the Kwanza observance, and items and information from Puerto Rico will be on display.

Art and clay working students at VGCC will have their works on sale, along with Z Williams’s books, Renata’s Ceramics pottery, and various other items from around the world.

VGCC’s Student Support Services and Cultural Enhancement Committee are co-sponsoring the Cultural Fair. Helen Lindsey, Student Support Services coordinator, said that the fair will expose many students on campus to cultural diversity they would not otherwise experience.

“And in addition to our students and staff, we want the communities served by the college to come out and join in our Cultural Fair experience,” she said.

NATIVE AMERICAN

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Featured in the first photo above are Bob Raven and Mary Morningstar, who will share lore about the American Indian during Vance-Granville Community College’s annual Cultural Fair Feb. 27 in the Civic Center. The public is invited to a day of diverse free entertainment and cultural exhibits. 

DULCIMER DITTIES

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In the next photo Billy Jarrell of Ridgeway, left, and some of his friends play true American musical instruments – dulcimers – during the 2000 Cultural Fair at Vance-Granville Community College. Jarrell will be back on Feb. 27 to play and to demonstrate how the dulcimer is made at this year’s Cultural Fair, to which the public is invited.

REGAL TUNES

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Pictured last but not least, “Royalty,” the Dabney Elementary School chorus, will perform at 9:35 a.m. on Feb. 27 during the annual Cultural Fair at Vance-Granville Community College’s Civic Center. The public is invited to a full day of free diverse entertainment and displays at the event.