Even the worst U.S. pandemic in a century can’t stop a worthwhile charity in a good-hearted town.
Empty Bowls will again be filled for the 12th year as the major dual-fundraiser to feed the needy and cultivate culture in New Bern.
Amid the fellowship, homemade soups from local restaurants and a free bowl from the labors of regional potters, it has also raised a lot of money – about $300,000 since 2011.
Religious Community Services and Craven Arts Council, the beneficiaries, have shared $110,000 in just the past two years.
Empty Bowls each February have been one of the area’s most popular social fundraisers, averaging more than 700 attendees a year, with a spike to 923 in 2019 and 880 in 2020 at Tabernacle Church.
Sun Journal
“Live from Mali, West Africa” with Souleymane (Solo) Sana was presented via Zoom to students, in school and at home, in grades 3 through five at Bangert Elementary School on Thursday, Feb 25.
The event was by Atlantic Dance Theatre, a New Bern nonprofit service organization for dance that has provided dance education programming for public schools across North Carolina over a span of 25 years.
The class learned an African dance and viewed a dance performed by Solo. Students also learned about African musical instruments and were able to ask questions about life in Mali such as what kind of shoes do they wear and what type of clothing do they wear to keep cool in Mali.
The Craven Early College high school students might tell you you’re not alone if you don’t like poetry, but their experience with poetry during the 2020 school year may tell a different story. Amanda Smith, their teacher, would tell you not to write it off just yet.
In September students entered the Bank of the Arts’ annual Ekphrastic Poetry Competition. For several years this juried art exhibition and accompanying poetry competition has been a classroom staple when teaching poetry. “Ekphrastic” poetry is poetry inspired by art, so students explored the exhibition’s photographs, paintings, and sculptures (online of course) then wrote poems in response to the piece of artwork they chose. encouraging students to discuss their artwork choices and workshop their poems with their teacher one-on-one and then with each other. For a week the class discussed how the interpretation of an artist’s title can alter how we see the art, or how the details and medium mattered more w