COVID-19 Can’t Silence Creativity. We’re Still SHOUTing! A performer at Charlotte SHOUT! 2019 Over the weekend, Charlotte Center City Partners and the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center announced that the 2020 Charlotte SHOUT! celebration has been postponed until September 2021. It’s sad news BUT that doesn’t mean creativity in our city is postponed. Not. At. All. SHOUT is an expression of Charlotte creativity and we’re gonna keep shouting until next September (and beyond)! COVID-19 isn’t strong enough to stop Charlotte’s creative community. Quite the opposite. Earlier this year, we teamed up with SHOUT to encourage creatives across the Queen City to share their passions and lift our community. We’ve shared them here in The Biscuit all spring and summer. The latest response to that call came from FIVE creative powerhouses who teamed up to make a music video. “Up Above My Head” is a new piece featuring lyrics from legendary spoken word artist, Bluz, with track and vocals from DJ Fannie Mae. Videographer, Michael Church, shot the video in front of a mural by Abstract Dissent as Caroline Calouche & Co. perform aerial acrobatics in the background! Click the image below to enjoy the video and learn about how it came together, Watch “Up Above My Head”
This SHOUTing Match video was produced in partnership with Charlotte Center City Partners and Charlotte SHOUT.
 PHOTO CREDIT: Tracy Watts Laundry Day Tip:
Correct the Voice in Your Head That Says Your Story Is Not Important to Share“Most Laundry Days I wasn’t certain if one person or 50 might appear in my family room or whatever community space that someone was sharing with me. I had to learn to trust that whether there was one person or fifty people in the room, whoever was there was supposed to be there.” – Andrea Downs
Andrea Downs is a visual artist, activist, community arts organizer, and educator. She is the founder of “Airing Out the ‘Dirty’ Laundry,” an ongoing community arts movement that responds to the silencing of women, by creating space to share experiences through visual storytelling. Laundry Day workshops began in 2018 as a grassroots arts movement in Charlotte at Andrea’s home. On August 3, a workshop was held at the Mint Museum Uptown. In the wake of that event, we asked founder Andrea to share her thoughts on how her work has evolved.
Two Murals Underway on One StreetOn a Sunday Morning Photo Safari around Charlotte this past weekend, we spotted two new murals being painted along Hawthorne Avenue. Artists Brian Hester and John Hairston Jr. were braving the blazing heat to paint a mural by the Lofts at Hawthorne Mill, across the street from Barnhardt Cotton. A shorty drive away, Matt Hooker is finishing a mural on the side of The Culture Shop at the intersection of Hawthorne and Kennon St. We’ll be featuring more information on both murals and the artists involved soon. See larger versions of these photos on our Instagram feed.
Keith Cradle Can Do Anything … But Draw a Stick FigureCharlotte, the doctor will see you now. Dr. Keith Cradle, that is. With nearly three decades of Charlotte now in his blood, this JCSU/UNCC/Pfeiffer/Walden alum is impacting our city in incredible ways — from his work as the Director of Youth and Juvenile Services for the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office to board service and his “crafted conversations over cocktails” podcast. When Matt Olin blitzed The Good Doctor, they talked about Keith’s devoted staff (who are not afraid to run into burning buildings), his efforts to help galvanize a community to re-engage with the arts and his apparent inability to draw a stick figure. 
Creative Fellows Needed for Community Projects in LakewoodThe League of Creative Interventionists (LoCI) is looking for Charlotteans who have a hunger to make social and civic change and can commit 5 hours a week as a member of their Fellowship program. Applications to be a Fellow are open until August 28. Those selected will support the Project Place Initiative, located in the Lakewood Community, with community-based and individual neighborhood projects.
CreativeMornings/Charlotte is Hosting a Stress-Free Morning on “Stress”
Friday, August 14 from 8:15-9:45am
Online in the Zoom Where it HappensIt’s been a stressful year. We can’t deny it. As much as we would like to ignore the stressful things in our lives, it would just cause that stress to build and build until it’s 100x worse. So, let’s embrace the stress, get creative and do something about it! Next Friday, August 14 at 8:15am, CreativeMornings/Charlotte is doing just that. This month’s global theme is “Stress” and CM/CLT is going to help you wash away any that you might be feeling with their usual blend of thoughtful conversation, connection, humor, music, and, of course, creativity. CM/CLT’s August guest speaker is astronaut Joan Higginbotham, an inspirational woman who knows a thing or two about overcoming stress to accomplish something out of this world! Tickets for the stress-free morning on “Stress” will be available Monday, August 10 at 9:00am. Use this link to register at that time.
Tips to Find the Knack for Taking Care of Your BackBefore COVID-19, way too many of us were spending hours sitting at a desk in front of our computers, whether we were doing it for work or not. Now, in the world of online meetings, events and work sessions, it’s gone into overdrive. With students headed into online instruction in a matter of weeks, it’s time for the whole household to bone up on back and spine care. Molly Dudick, PT, COMT, Clinical Specialist and Coordinator of Clinical Education for OrthoCarolina, has ten tips to keep your back in good shape when you’re tied to your desk and screen. Read them here. OrthoCarolina is a sponsor of Charlotte Is Creative and The Biscuit.
On Monday, we played a game of “Where Are We In CLT?” with our pals at WBTV’s QC Life. Throughout the day we left clues on social media about our top (not so) secret location before the big reveal on QC@3. So, (if you ignored the photo above) where were we? Here are the hints that were given to our mini Queen City scavenger hunt: - Nobody asked me to do it. But if you need help in traffic… I’ll point the way.
- My name is Hugh, but I didn’t work for a bank.
- From graduations and weddings to COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter, if something important is happening in Charlotte, I’ll tell you all about it.
If you put those three clues together, what do you get? The Hugh McManaway aka Old Man Traffic aka Gold Man statue at the intersection of Queens Road and Providence Road! Local Myers Park eccentric, Hugh Pharr McManaway, was the self-appointed traffic director of the intersection. He took his post on the corner every day, waving at traffic, for nearly 20 years until 1976 when he “retired” from the job he gave himself. Hugh passed away in 1989 and was later immortalized in 2000 with the creation of the intersection’s statue. To learn more about Hugh, watch the QC Life segment as Matt Olin and Tim Miner pay a visit to the dedicated traffic conductor’s golden monument. Directions: 1501 Queens Rd, Charlotte, NC 28207 This Queen City exploration was powered by QC Life and OrthoCarolina.
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 features stories about: - A tour of 5 new street murals from the City’s Placemaking program
- An exploration of how JJ’s Red Hots logo was developed
- Our 8 favorite local bookstores
- Weekly picks from @CLTBlackOwned
- A chat with Andres Echavarria, the man who watched a movie a day in 2019
- A visit to the Thanos mural at Seventh Sin Tattoo Company
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