Indulge in Charlotte’s Best Bites on National Cookie Day!
 Photo Credit: Suarez Bakery A WORD OF CAUTION BEFORE YOU READ THIS: The information you’re about to read is going to make you hungry. In fact, you’ll likely be ravenous. Please don’t bite or lick your screen. Don’t scratch it either. We tried that … it doesn’t work.
Happy National Cookie Day!
This year, few people agree on … anything. But it seems we can all agree that 2020 bites. But, today — National Cookie Day — gives us a chance to bite back.
Charlotte has an incredible collection of local bakeries to make that bite oh, so sweet. To prepare for National Cookie, we asked Charlotteans on Instagram: Which local bakeries make the best cookies in Charlotte? And, the answers flooded in.
A Comic Genius, a Steel Pannist and a Poet Laureate Walk Into a Zoom Room …
It’s been an infuriating year, so who better to express our collective anger than The Daily Show’s often-infuriated Lewis Black at CreativeMornings/Charlotte’s free online gathering next Friday morning, Dec. 11? This Zoom event is a joint “Carolinas CreativeMornings” as the Charlotte team (celebrating our fifth birthday!) will broadcast with chapters in Raleigh, Asheville and Charleston, SC.
Asheville-raised musical phenom Jonathan Scales will also speak, balancing out the epic agitation with the life-affirming power of music. Plus, there’ll be a live performance by North Carolina’s Poet Laureate, Jaki Shelton Green.
Register for your FREE TICKET BY CLICKING HERE at 9:00 AM sharp on Monday, December 7.
The City of Charlotte is Needs Artists for West End Mural
Call for artists! Construction on the new underpass at W. Trade/I-77 is nearing completion, and the city of Charlotte is looking for an artist to create a mural welcoming travelers to the west side of town. Submit your vision for the mural by clicking here.
Tell Mecklenburg County that Arts & Culture Are Funding Priorities in 2022!
We’re rounding out 2020 and heading into a new year, but Mecklenburg County is already looking at their 2022 budget. And, we have a limited time to tell them how important funding arts and culture are to our community. The County released a 2021 county budget survey to gather community input for fiscal year 2022. Let’s take them up on it.
Their very first page asks us to rank 8 main-level priorities. Seven of the priorities are pre-written. The eighth is a write-in. We’re asking you to fill out the survey and write in that arts and culture are important to Mecklenburg County and should be a focal point in the 2022 budget. We all have until Dec. 23 to write in why you think arts and culture are vital to our city.
Click here for the County’s resident budget survey.
And, click here for the Arts &Science Council’s message on why taking the survey is so important.
PODCAST: Making Miracles on Monroe with Chef Ron Alhert
If there’s a recipe for putting people to work, Chef Ron Alhert and the Community Culinary School of Charlotte (CCSC) have it.
This fall, despite the very real challenges of 2020, the school saw the graduation of its 1,000th student. That graduate joins hundreds of CCSC alumni at work in restaurant kitchens across the city.
In today’s episode of The Biscuit Blitz, Tim Miner speaks to Chef Ron and his development director, Anne Lambert, about the importance of their work during a pandemic and about shifting their annual December fundraiser, Miracle on Monroe, to a new format that allows Charlotteans to select one of four to-go meals for two designed by CCSC alumni.
Orders must be in by Dec. 9, so you’ll want to listen to their short podcast chat right now.
LO’VONIA PARKS
Charlotte Artist
Charlotte creative Lo’Vonia Parks rarely slows down. She’s been EVERYWHERE in Charlotte this year, from helping create the Black Lives Matter Mural on Uptown to her #CountOnMeCLT window mural on the Spectrum Center (pictured above).
You may even have caught her zipping across the city on roller skates, exploring the city and spreading her unique brand of whimsical cheer. We weren’t able to get our skates on, but we DID manage to catch up with Lo’Vonia to ask her 5 Ridiculous Questions, like the one below.
Who is your “creative crush” in Charlotte? Whose work can you not get enough of … and you’re a little giddy around them?
Well I’m always giddy. Ha ha! I love all artists’ work here in Charlotte. But, I’m especially giddy about Georgie Nakima’s work. She makes my heart skip a beat!
@HAPPY_MUTANTS
We love surprises. And, surprise is exactly what our new best friend, @Happy_Mutants, is all about.
In just over a year, this anonymous artist has left more than 100 “mutants” he’s designed and created with a 3-D printer across the city. He looks for “sneaky spots that will be noticed by people who are paying just a little attention.” There are 11 different models of mutants out and about in Charlotte.
“For me, street art is about leaving a mark, sure, but it’s about making space feel lived in,” said @Happy_Mutants. “I hope they make people laugh a little. And, if they take it, then I guess they liked it enough to give it a good home.”
Huddled together behind the former AME Zion Church on 7th Street are two little houses with a big Charlotte history … and, hopefully, a new life to come.
Both homes once stood on Bland Street in a bustling community known then as “Blandville.” But, after Charlotte’s urban renewal efforts in the 1970s, they were the only two left when the City Council designated them as “historic properties.” In January 1986, the homes were moved to 7th Street to sit behind the Afro-American Cultural Center, which itself moved to Stonewall Street as the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in 2009, leaving the houses behind.
But, another move and new life are hopefully around the corner for these two Charlotte treasures. The West Side Community Land Trust has teamed with the Gantt Center to raise funds to move the shotgun houses to the Lakeview community and refurbish them so they can be affordable housing for two future families. Read more and contribute to this effort.
Don’t go ’round hungry. If you missed the last batch of The Biscuit, don’t worry. We’ve kept it warm for you. This batch featured:
- A note from publishers Tim Miner and Matt Olin about why they’re thankful for 2020
- Camp North End’s new call for help from emerging Black architects
- 5 Ridiculous Questions with Todd Smith, new executive director of The Bechtler
- A foot-tapping look at our new best Instagram friends, dancers Rodrigo and Wendy Jimenez
- A quick history lesson on one of Charlotte’s oldest murals Uptown
Click here to dig in, y‘all.
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