Your account does not include highlighter on images.
Searches Highlighted on Image
National Sponsors
| March 29, 2012 The Sylva Herald and Rualite |  |
|
©
The Sylva Herald and Rualite. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 17 (17 of 26 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
March 29, 2012 |
|
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader 
|
THeE SYLVA
March 29, 2012
Casey-McDonald pens book on county's African-Americans
By Maggie Tobias Registry at the Jackson "We were justtacked on. something for their com-
Victoria Casey-McDonald of Sylva will read from
"Just Over the Hill" at City Lights Friday, March 30,
at 6:30 p.m.
T he history of local
African-Ameri-
cans is one of the
most neglected aspects
of Ja0kson County's past,
which is why Sylva writer
Victoria Casey-McDonald
tackled it in her new book.
"I want people to know
that we as African-Ameri-
cans are really Appala-
chians as much as the
whites are Appalachians,"
she said..
Casey-McDonald will
read from her book "Just
Over the Hill" on Friday,
March 30, at 6:30 p.m. at
City Lights Bookstore.
Casey-McDonald, 69,
grew up in Jackson County
and said this book is largely
the history of herself and
her relatives. None of their
history was recorded, she
said, and her relatives never
told her much of it. In order
to write the book, she had
to dig through archives and
old newspaper articles to
trace the history of African-
Americans in Appalachia.
While looking through
archives of the Civil War
County Historical Society,
Casey-McDonald said she
was shocked to find the
black soldiers lumped at the
end of the list instead of in
alphabetical order with the
other names.
That's what it's all about.
I'm tired of being tacked
on and put at the end," she
said. "The people that I
wrote about, I tried to show
that they were a part of their
community and they did
Victoria Casey-McDonald of Sylva is the author of
a new local history book, "Just Over the Hill," that
focuses on the fives of African-Americans in Jackson
County. She will read from the book Friday, March 30,
at 6:30 p.m. at City Lights Bookstore.
munity."
For years, African-
Americans have had a hand
in every aspect of Jackson
County life and represented
every profession, Casey-
McDonald said.
"That's what I want peo-
ple to understand - that
these people were people
who had skills," she said.
The book begins with
a poetic, semi-fictional
account of her great-great-
grandmother coming to
North Carolina from the
West coast of Africa.
"I was told she was about
8 years old," Casey-Mc-
Donald said.
Casey-McDonald starts
with the story of where
her relatives came from to
clear up confusion around
the origins of blacks in
Jackson County and to set
the record straight that they
weren't all descended from
convicts.
Casey-McDonald ex-
plains the confusion her
grandmother must have
felt, being separated from
Please see Book, 6C
00Appalachian amht,rs Garza, Woodall to read at City Lights
By Maggie Tobias Excerpts from the books I being isolated as children
hree Appalachian
women will sign
books and cel-
ebrate their .shared love
of literature at an
event set for 2 p.m.
Saturday, March
31, at City Lights
Bookstore
Amy Garza of
Sylva will have
her newest book
,, g" ,, ".
which features art- Garza
work from her sis-
ter, Doreyl Cain of Tuckas-
egee, and Barbara Woodall
of Dillard, Ga., will discuss
her memoir "It,s Not My
Mountain Anymore." The
three women will talk about
how they conceived their
work, and how they are
connected through common
themes of Appalachian life
and landscape.
will be read, and there will
be time for discussion.
"Said the Leaf," featured
last fall in The Herald, is
Garza's seventh book and
is published
by Catch the
Spirit of Ap-
palachia,
the publish-
ing company
founded by
Garza and her
sister. .......
The idea for
the book came
to Garza 60 years ago in
1951. Images of mountain
landscapes and colorful fall
leaves had such a profound
effect on her as a child that
she turned the experience
into a poem years later, and
finally into a book.
"I suppose my love for
the mountains came from
my sister and brother and
Woodail
in a little mountain cove in
Tuckasegee," Garza said.
"The whole world was
surrounded by beautiful
seasons. The leaves of the
trees would bud in
spring, grow lush
in summer, turn
dramatic in a color-
filled autumn, and
die in winter leav-
ing a brown carpet
on which to slide
d6wia ifie "hioun-
tain with wind in
your hair."
Garza writes her ideas of
what a leaf going through
seasonal transformations
would say.
"With my sister illus-
trating the book, it is a
perfect example of the his-
tory of our partnership in
storytelling for the past 25
Please see Authors, 6C
Amy Garza of Sylva will read from her book "Said the Leaf" at City Lights Book-
store on Saturday, March 31, at 2 p.m. The poetry in the book was inspired by
her Tuckasegee childhood and the mountains' fall foliage. The colorful watercolor
illustrations are by her sister, Doreyl Cain of Tuckasegee.
SMHS Show
moky Mountain High School's
Show Choir left Sylva at 6 a.m.
Wednesday on their way to per-
form with hundreds of other high school
students in Festival Disney at Disney
World in Orlando, Fla.
Their performance is scheduled for
Smoky Mountain High School's 56-member Show Choir
- including, from left, Heath Morgan, Mandi Dean, Alyssa
Mitchell, Caleb Parham, Brett Wilde, Devan Youmans and
Erik Myers - left Wednesday to compete at Festival Disney
hoir to compete today at Festival Disney
Heller, keyboard, along with students Brett
Wilde, electric guitar, Chris Benavides,
electric bass, and Logan Gentry, drum
set.
Charae Melton is the group's choreog-
rapher.
SMHS students will perform before a
at Disney World in Orlando, Fla. The ensemble, directed by
SMHS Choral Director Linda Haggard, will perform a 20-
minute song-and-dance routine for a panel of judges today
(Thursday). - Herald photo by Nick Breedlove
today (Thursday) at 2:30 p.m. The 56-
member ensemble, which is Choral Direc-
tor Linda Haggard's largest to date, will
perform the 20-minute song-and-dance
routine they have been rehearsing for three
months.
Accompanying the group will be Bryan
three-judge panel ofnatiohally recognized
music educators, each of whom will have
original copies of the music with all the
choir's markings. Judges will follow the
music closely to make sure the students are
singing what's written, Haggard said.
The Show Choir set is made up of chart-
topping hits that span almost six decades.
They start off with the 1971 No. 1 hit by
Three Dog Night, "Joy to the World," fol-
lowed by a small section of Queen's No. 1
"Bohemian Rhapsody," which flows into
Coldplay's chart-topper "Viva la Vida"
(sung a cappella - no accompaniment
- with nine different vocal parts). "Viva"
is followed by Alicia Keys and Glee's ar-
rangement of the No. 1 hit "Empire State
of Mind." Next comes Michael Buble's
smash '"Sway," which features salsa dane-
ing and some singing in Spanish. "Sway"
is followed by Michael Jackson's No. 1,
"Man in the Mirror," which is followed
by Adele's hit, "Someone Like You."
The Beatles classic "Here Comes the
Sun" (also a cappella) is next, and the set
ends with Fleetwood Mac's No. 1, "Don't
Stop."
Students assist Haggard in deciding
what music goes into the show, and a lot
of time is spent singing through potential
set pieces, she said. Once the songs are
selected, the "real work" begins, she
said. This year's show choir performing
group is split between two class periods,
with first period made up of freshmen and
sophomores, and second period including
juniors and seniors as well as the student
Please see Choir, 6C