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Director sees Kinston’s struggles, opportunities as model for his hometown

Director sees Kinston’s struggles, opportunities as model for his hometown

Christopher Everett spent a weekend in the Arts & Cultural District as part of a special free screening of his critically acclaimed documentary Wilmington on Fire on April 15 at Neuse Regional Library. Everett is a native of Laurinburg and wrote about his time in Lenoir County and how Kinston could be a model for rural placemaking in places like his hometown.

By Christopher Everett

Coming to Kinston, North Carolina this past weekend was an eye-opening experience for me on so many levels. When you think of Rural America, you think of the countryside, farming, manufacturing and poverty. The one thing that never comes to mind when thinking about Rural America is cultural arts. Smart Kinston in Kinston, North Carolina is setting a great example and leading the way towards a new vision for rural towns in the form of creating cultural arts districts.

Documentary traces Wilmington coup, failures of N.C. press

Documentary traces Wilmington coup, failures of N.C. press

By Emily Sides

SmART Writer-in-Residence Emily Sides first learned about the white supremacist-led coupdetat in 1898 Wilmington at a March 29, 2016 screening of “Wilmington on Fire” at Goldsboro’s Paramount Theater and made it her goal to bring the award-winning documentary and its director, Christopher Everett, to Kinston this spring.

Everett will be in Kinston’s Arts & Cultural District this weekend for a free screening of “Wilmington on Fire” documentary at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 15 at the Neuse Regional Library at 510 N. Queen St through a residency with SmART Kinston.