Wed 10/13 – 7-9:00 PM – In the Company of Writers presents a series of personal and conversational dialogues featuring guest writers/poets followed by an open mic forum. The Chicago blues music of “Mr. Jimmy,” welcomes you, continues during intermission and closes the evening. The next in the series features Helen Joy George and Greg Johnson. If interested in reading your work, you may sign up at the door or on line at https://thebrandybar.com/writers-open-mic/
Helen Joy George lives her life dealing with the ups and downs of bipolar disorder and is passionate about bringing awareness to the struggles of others with mental illness. Her book, Yellow Tulips: one woman’s quest for hope and healing in the darkness of bipolar disorder, is her heart. One reviewer describes the book as: “what it is like to be besieged, to be somehow false-buoyed, to be beaten down by a terrifying undoing of one’s own mind.” Helen Joy is also a prolific photographer and tells stories through photographs as well as through the written word.
Greg Johnson’s book From the Dugout & the 19th Hole: My Extraordinary Life in Sports Medicine takes the reader behind the scenes to see what life really is like in the locker rooms, at home, and on the road. Johnson became an athletic trainer and worked with the Atlanta Braves, the USFL, and both the PGA tour and the LPGA. In this capacity Johnson met Mickey Mantle and worked with Tom Glavine, Sam Snead and Martina Navratilova. During his sessions he heard Hank Aaron and Ted Turner talk baseball, and golf greats Payne Stewart and Jack Nicklaus dispense sage advice. Johnson reminds us that sports are more than fame and spectacle. Sports has lessons to teach, and Johnson was an adept pupil who looks back over his career and shares what he’s learned from the baseball dugout with the Atlanta Braves to the 19th hole as director of sports medicine for the PGA.
Thurs 10/14 – 4-9:00 PM – Art Inspired Cocktails:
Oriental Poppies by Georgia O’Keefe: Aperol Spritz – Aperol, Champagne, club soda; Orange and Yellow by Mark Rothko: Brandy Sunrise – CB Frost, fresh squeezed orange juice, grenadine; Portrait of Van Gough by Toulouse Lautrec: Death in the Afternoon – Absinthe and Champagne; Self Portrait with Monkey by Frida Kahlo: Pisco Sour – Pisco, Cointreau, sour mix, bitters; Nighthawks by Edward Hopper – Old Fashioned – C & K brandy, muddled orange & cherries, sugar, bitters; Cognac flight ½ price
Did you know that North Carolina is home to the first public arts conservatory in the United States? The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) is an arts school in Winston-Salem, NC that grants high school, undergraduate, and graduate degrees and consists of five professional schools: School of Dance, School of Design & Production, School of Drama, School of Filmmaking, and School of Music. Founded in 1963 as the North Carolina School of the Arts by then-Governor Terry Sanford, the school owns and operates the Stevens Center in Downtown Winston-Salem and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools
The idea was initiated in 1962 by Vittorio Giannini, a leading American Composer and teacher of Composition a Julliard, Curtis and Manhattan, who would later become the School’s founder and first President. He approached then-governor Terry Sanford and enlisted the help of author John Ehle and William Sprott Greene, Jr. and Martha Dulin to support his dream of an arts conservatory. State funds were appropriated, and a Conservatory Committee was established. The School of the Arts became a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina in 1972.Giannini where he served as President until his death in November 1966 at which time the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Robert Ward became UNCSA’s second President.
The gala opening of the Stevens Center featured the school’s symphony orchestra conducted by Leonard Bernstein, with Isaac Stern as soloist and Gregory Peck as the Master of Ceremonies. Attendees included Agnes de Mille, Cliff Robertson, Governor James Hunt, President and Mrs. Gerald Ford and Lady Bird Johnson. The school’s campus consists of 77 acres in Winston-Salem, near Old Salem. There are 8 residence halls – 6 for college students, 2 for high school students, an on-campus student apartment complex and an off-campus student apartment complex within walking distance. The school has 11 performance and screening spaces; the ACE Exhibition Complex with three movie theaters.
The school mascot was named simply “The Pickles.” There was also a slogan, “Sling ‘Em By The Warts!” but the mascot eventually became “The Fighting Pickles.” For more history visit the School’s web-site: https://www.uncsa.edu/about/index.aspx
Some of the Schools distinguished alumni: Christopher Waild staff writer for CBS Series NCIS; Gary Beach Tony award winning actor in The Producers; Tom Hulce Tony Award winning actor Spring Awakening; Joe Mantello Tony Award winning theater director; David Thomas Brown Broadway actor in American Psycho, Book of Mormon; Patrick Bissell principal dancer American Ballet Theater; Leslie Williams principal dancer with Martha Graham Company; Paul Tazewell costume designer with a Tony Award for Hamilton and an Emmy for The Wiz; and Eddie Barbash saxophonist for the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.