Durham

The Carolina Theatre of Durham is a theater in downtown Durham, North Carolina. The city owns the facility and it operates under the stewardship of a... nonprofit organization named The Carolina Theatre of Durham, Incorporated. In 1923, the city of Durham chose to construct an auditorium on a lot adjacent to Morris Street School. Bids for construction were accepted on May 1, 1925 and the budget was set at $250,000. The building was completed in 1926 and opened on February 2 of that year with the Kiwanis Jollies. The Carolina Theatre was the first theater in Durham to admit African-Americans, although there were still segregated ticket lines and lounge areas until the summer of 1963. The theater's popularity rose during the World War II years and soldiers from Camp Butner were bused to the theater to watch movies. In 1977, the North Carolina Department of Archives and History completed a historic survey of Downtown Durham and recognized The Carolina Theatre as a "significant building in the city" and the center portion of downtown was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Carolina Theatre remains the last of thirteen original theaters in the city.
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Durham Bulls Athletic Park, frequently called the DBAP , is a ballpark in Durham, North Carolina that is home to the Durham Bulls, the AAA affiliate... of the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball. It is also home to the Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina Central Eagles college baseball teams. The 10,000-seat park was opened in 1995 and is a $18.5-million brick ballpark. The Bulls began playing at the DBAP in 1995 when the team played in the Class A Advanced Carolina League. The Bulls then moved up to the Triple-A level in 1998, causing the DBAP to be expanded. The stadium was designed by Populous , who also designed Camden Yards in Baltimore, Jacobs Field in Cleveland, and Coors Field in Colorado as part of the "new" old-stadium-like movement of the 1990s. By design, the left field fence is a 32-foot -high wall, 305 feet from home plate, known as the Blue Monster. It resembles Fenway Park’s Green Monster, including a manual scoreboard. The club introduced a furry "Blue Monster" mascot in during the 2007 season who now shares mascot duties with "Wool E. Bull" and "Lucky the Wonder Dog".
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STADIUM OVERVIEW: In 1959 the Durham County Memorial Stadium was built at the present site and became the home of major county sporting and community... events. A newly renovated Durham County Memorial Stadium reopened in the fall of 2010 with new and upgraded facilities, features and services for the citizens of Durham. The Stadium has become the home football playing field for Division II Shaw University, the host for the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association football championship game, numerous high school and the semi pro women’s tackle football team, the Carolina Phoenix. The renovation has included a certified eight lane track that has attracts numerous track and field high school and collegiate events. In addition to hosting spring carnivals, motorcycle rallies, outdoor concerts the stadium is listed as a premier North Carolina site for movie and commercial productions. HIGHLIGHTS Artificial turf football field lined for soccer and lacrosse.  An eight lane certified track.  8,500 capacity seating  On site elevator  New press/media boxes, coach’s boxes and suites and observation deck with internet/telephone connections.  One on-site manager’s office.
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The Durham Performing Arts Center opened November 30, 2008 as the largest performing arts center in the Carolinas at a cost of $48 million. It will... be the main venue for the performing arts in Durham, North Carolina. The theater holds 2,712. The first event on opening night was a concert given by B.B. King. The theater is owned by the city of Durham. After talks with ClearChannel fell through, the City negotiated a theater operating agreement with Nederlander Organization and Professional Facilities Management. The operator guarantees a minimum of 100 event performances per year on a rolling three-year average and absorbs any losses for the first five years of operation, at which time the operator could return the management back to the City or negotiate the terms of continued third party management of the theater with the City. The City borrowed $33.7 million for the center's construction through Certificates of Participation , instruments commonly used to finance municipal facilities. Debt service payments on COPs are subject annual appropriation the City, and as such are considered an annual operating expense rather than a long-term capital obligation.
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Ernest “Ernie” Eugene Barnes, Jr. was an African-American painter, well-known for his unique style of elongation and movement. He was... also a professional football player, actor and author. Ernest Barnes, Jr. was born during the Jim Crow era in “the bottom” community of Hayti, Durham, North Carolina. His father, Ernest E. Barnes, Sr. worked as a shipping clerk for Liggett Myers Tobacco Company. His mother, Fannie Mae Geer oversaw the household staff for prominent attorney Frank Fuller, Jr. On days when Fannie allowed “June” to accompany her to work, Barnes had the opportunity to peruse the art books and listen to the classical music in Fuller’s study. The young Ernest was intrigued and captivated by the works of master artists. By the time Barnes entered the first grade, he was familiar with the works of such masters as Toulouse-Lautrec, Delacroix, Rubens, and Michelangelo.
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Janis Carter was a film and television actress working in the 1940s and 1950s. After attending Mather College in Cleveland, Ohio, Carter headed to... New York in an attempt to start an opera career. Although unsuccessful in opera, she was working on Broadway where she was spotted on stage by Darryl F. Zanuck who signed her to a movie deal. Carter, after moving to Hollywood, appeared in over 30 films beginning in 1941 for 20th Century Fox, MGM, Columbia, and RKO. She appeared in the films Night Editor and Framed with Glenn Ford and the Flying Leathernecks with John Wayne. After leaving Los Angeles, Carter returned to New York and found work in television in comedies, dramas, and as hostess for the quiz show Feather Your Nest, opposite Bud Collyer. She was married to Carl Prager from 1942 to 1951, but the couple divorced. In 1956, she quit show business after marrying Julius Stulman, a New York lumber and shipping tycoon, that year. They remained together until her death. She died from a heart attack, on July 30, 1994, aged 80, in Durham, North Carolina.
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Seth Benjamin Wescott is an American snowboarder. He is a two-time Olympic champion in the snowboard cross. Wescott was born in Durham, North... Carolina, and lives in Carrabassett Valley, Maine. His father Jim Wescott was the Track and Cross Country coach at Colby College. His mother Margaret-Gould Wescott teaches at University of Maine at Farmington. Wescott has trained in the mountains near Cordova, Alaska, at times, along with Sugarloaf, in Maine. He began snowboarding at age 10, but had also grown up skiing. In 1989, after competing in both sports for a few years, he stopped skiing to focus mainly on snowboarding. Wescott attended Carrabassett Valley Academy where he studied and trained with fellow Olympians Bode Miller, Jeff Greenwood, Kirsten Clark and Emily Cook. He started out in Sugarloaf USA in Carrabassett Valley, Maine In his Olympic debut, at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, Wescott won gold in the snowboard cross as the first Olympic champion in the event. Having won gold, Wescott was invited to meet then president George W. Bush but turned down the offer, citing his opposition to Bush's foreign and domestic policies.
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Christopher "Play" Martin is an American rapper and actor, formerly the latter half of the late 1980s/early 1990s hip-hop/comedy duo Kid 'n Play.... The name, "Play", comes from his original MC name, "Playboy", which originated with a group called "Quicksilver and the Super Lovers", which featured producer Hurby Luv Bug. It was with this group that he met Christopher "Kid" Reid, who was using the name "Kid Coolout" with a group called The Turnout Brothers. In time, all of the members of their respective groups moved on, and decided that they could work together as a duo. By shortening their nicknames, it would lead to the start of the group Kid 'n Play. With Kid, Play recorded three successful albums and starred in four hip-hop based comedy films: House Party, House Party 2, Class Act, and House Party 3. After the duo split in 1995, Play became a born-again Christian and focused on Christian hip hop. Today, Play is the founder and CEO of HP4 Digital, a pre- and post-production multimedia company for film, digital media, and theater.
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Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham was an African-American entertainer. Though best known as a comedian, Markham was also a singer, dancer, and actor. His... nickname came from a stage routine, in which he declared himself to be "Sweet Poppa Pigmeat." He was sometimes credited in films as David "Pigmeat" Markham. He was born in the community of Hayti, Durham, North Carolina. His family was the most prominent on their street, which came to be called Markham Street in the Hayti District. Markham began his career in traveling music and burlesque shows. For a time he was a member of Bessie Smith's Traveling Revue in the 1920s. Later, he claimed he originated the Truckin' dance which became nationally popular at the start of the 1930s. In the 1940s he started making film appearances. In 1964 he recorded "Open the Door, Richard". Markham was a familiar act at New York's famed Apollo Theater where he wore blackface makeup and huge painted white lips, despite complaints the vaudeville tradition was degrading. He probably played at the Apollo more frequently than any other performer.
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John P. Kee is an American gospel singer and pastor. John P. Kee was born the 15th out of 16 children in Durham, North Carolina. At an early age he... began to develop his musical talent both instrumentally and vocally. He attended the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem and at 14, he and his brothers Wayne and Al moved to California where he began attending the Yuba College Conservatory School of Music in Marysville, California. During this time, he began playing with various groups such as Cameo and Donald Byrd and the Blackbyrds. After having a hard time adjusting in California, he left and moved to Charlotte, North Carolina only to find himself living in a part of the city known for its violence and drug activities. After watching one of his friends being murdered in a drug deal gone bad, he rededicated his life back to God during a visitation to a revival meeting. Kee says that it was during a trip to Michigan with his choir that he received a calling from God to be a preacher. Kee was in his mid-twenties when he became an ordained minister.
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Grady Tate is a hard bop and soul-jazz drummer and singer. He has a baritone voice. In addition to his prolific work as sideman, Tate has released... many albums as leader and vocalist. Tate was born in Hayti, Durham, North Carolina. He moved to New York City in 1963. In New York City, Tate became the drummer in Quincy Jones's band. Grady Tate's drumming helped to define a particular hard bop, soul jazz and organ trio sound during the mid-1960s and beyond. His slick, layered and intense sound is instantly recognizable for its understated style in which he integrates his trademark subtle nuances with sharp, crisp "on top of the beat" timing . The Grady Tate sound can be heard prominently on the many classic Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery albums recorded on the Verve label in the 1960s. Grady Tate was the drummer on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson for six years. During the 1970s he was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet. In 1981 he played drums and percussion Simon and Garfunkel's Concert in Central Park.
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Commentator, editor, teacher, public servant, best-selling author and adviser to presidents – for 30 years, David Gergen has been an active... participant in American national life. He served as director of communications for President Reagan and held positions in the administrations of Presidents Nixon and Ford. In 1993, he put his country before politics when he agreed to first serve as counselor to President Clinton on both foreign policy and domestic affairs, then as special international adviser to the president and to Secretary of State Warren Christopher.  David Gergen is a professor of public service and the director of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is also editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report and is a Senior Political Analyst for CNN. Mr. Gergen also regularly serves as an analyst on radio shows, and he is a frequent lecturer at venues around the world. In the fall of 2000 he published a best-selling book titled, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.  In the past, Mr. Gergen has served in the White House as an adviser to four Presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. Most recently, he served for 18 months in the Clinton administration, first as Counselor to the President and then as Special Adviser to the President and the Secretary of State. He returned to private life in January 1995.  From 1984 to 1993, Mr. Gergen worked mostly as a journalist. For some two-and-a-half years, he was editor of U.S. News. Working with the owner and editor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman and a revived staff, he helped to guide the magazine to record gains in circulation and advertising. During that period, he also teamed up with Mark Shields for political commentary every Friday night for five years on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. The two were a popular political team and won numerous accolades for their political coverage.  A native of Durham, North Carolina, Mr. Gergen is an honors graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Law School . He is a member of the D.C. bar. In addition, Mr. Gergen served for three-and-a-half years in the U.S. Navy, where he was posted for about two years to a ship home-ported in Japan.  Mr. Gergen is active on many boards, including Duke University and Teach for America. He frequently lectures here in the United States and overseas and holds 18 honorary degrees.  Mr. Gergen has been married since 1967 to Anne Gergen of England. She is a family therapist and they live in Cambridge, Mass. They have two children, Christopher and Katherine, and four grandchildren.Additional InformationFor more information about David Gergen's role at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and at the Center for Public Leadership, please visit http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/leadership For more information about David Gergen's work at U.S. News and World Report, please visit www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/dgergen.
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John D. Loudermilk is an American singer and songwriter. Born in Durham, North Carolina, Loudermilk grew up in a family who were members of the... Salvation Army faith and was influenced by the church singing. His cousins Ira and Charlie Loudermilk were known professionally as the Louvin Brothers. Loudermilk is a graduate of Campbell College , a private North Carolina Baptist Convention-owned college in Buies Creek, North Carolina. As a young boy he learned to play the guitar, and while still in his teens wrote a poem that he set to music, A Rose and a Baby Ruth. The owners of the local television station, where he worked as a handyman, allowed him to play the song on-air, resulting in country musician George Hamilton IV putting it on record in 1956. After Eddie Cochran had his first hit record with Loudermilk's song, "Sittin' in the Balcony", Loudermilk's career path was firmly set. Loudermilk recorded some of his songs, including "Sittin' in the Balcony", under the stage name Johnny Dee .
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Ernest “Ernie” Eugene Barnes, Jr. was an African-American painter, well-known for his unique style of elongation and movement. He was... also a professional football player, actor and author. Ernest Barnes, Jr. was born during the Jim Crow era in “the bottom” community of Hayti, Durham, North Carolina. His father, Ernest E. Barnes, Sr. worked as a shipping clerk for Liggett Myers Tobacco Company. His mother, Fannie Mae Geer oversaw the household staff for prominent attorney Frank Fuller, Jr. On days when Fannie allowed “June” to accompany her to work, Barnes had the opportunity to peruse the art books and listen to the classical music in Fuller’s study. The young Ernest was intrigued and captivated by the works of master artists. By the time Barnes entered the first grade, he was familiar with the works of such masters as Toulouse-Lautrec, Delacroix, Rubens, and Michelangelo.
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Seth Benjamin Wescott is an American snowboarder. He is a two-time Olympic champion in the snowboard cross. Wescott was born in Durham, North... Carolina, and lives in Carrabassett Valley, Maine. His father Jim Wescott was the Track and Cross Country coach at Colby College. His mother Margaret-Gould Wescott teaches at University of Maine at Farmington. Wescott has trained in the mountains near Cordova, Alaska, at times, along with Sugarloaf, in Maine. He began snowboarding at age 7, but had also grown up skiing. In 1989, after competing in both sports for a few years, he stopped skiing to focus mainly on snowboarding. Wescott attended Carrabassett Valley Academy where he studied and trained with fellow Olympians Bode Miller, Jeff Greenwood, Kirsten Clark and Emily Cook. He started out in Sugarloaf USA in Carrabassett Valley, Maine In his Olympic debut, at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, Wescott won gold in the snowboard cross as the first Olympic champion in the event. Having won gold, Wescott was invited to meet then president George W. Bush but turned down the offer, citing his opposition to Bush's foreign and domestic policies.
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Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham was an African-American entertainer. Though best known as a comedian, Markham was also a singer, dancer, and actor. His... nickname came from a stage routine, in which he declared himself to be "Sweet Poppa Pigmeat." He was sometimes credited in films as David "Pigmeat" Markham. He was born in the community of Hayti, Durham, North Carolina. His family was the most prominent on their street, which came to be called Markham Street in the Hayti District. Markham began his career in traveling music and burlesque shows. For a time he was a member of Bessie Smith's Traveling Revue in the 1920s. Later, he claimed he originated the Truckin' dance which became nationally popular at the start of the 1930s. In the 1940s he started making film appearances. In 1964 he recorded "Open the Door, Richard". Markham was a familiar act at New York's famed Apollo Theater where he wore blackface makeup and huge painted white lips, despite complaints the vaudeville tradition was degrading. He probably played at the Apollo more frequently than any other performer.
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