Protesters speaking out as part of the national outrage around George Floyd’s murder returned to downtown Wilmington, North Carolina on Thursday. Marking a 5th night of the action against police brutality in the city. The protest grew dramatically after the first rally was met with tear gas and projectiles. Organized primarily by artists, youth and…
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Angela Lewis, of Washington NC, speaks to how people would be surprised to know that locals in Washington are not just still recovering from Hurricane Florence in 2018 – many are still recovering from Hurricane Matthew in 2016. And some families will never financially recover. She notices that her church’s predominantly African American section of…
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Beverly Johnson’s family bought land by the river in Trenton, NC early in the 20th century. Land ownership options then were limited for African Americans families. Inheriting land in a flood zone was not Johnson’s choice, but she does see many white families in Trenton these days choosing to buy waterfront property. Flood Zone is…
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“I can only imagine what my parents had to go through for that land.” Gwendolyn Brown grew up in Back Street, a long-time African American community in Trenton, NC. When you enter the neighborhood, you pull off of ‘Backstreet Road’, go down a gravel hill, and enter what Brown calls ‘a bowl.’ She is familiar…
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Willie Johnson has been driving 30 minutes from his hometown in New Bern, NC to the more rural area of Trenton, NC for nine years. His congregation is there – in a church located within ‘the bowl’ of Back Street. Many of his parishioners have weathered all of North Carolina’s storms. And geographically, African American…
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“I’m not against integration, but I think people are being cheated out of their homes.” Her mother’s home was condemned. Then her uncle’s. Ophelia Chambers’ family homestead has been in the same location off of Bridges Street in Morehead City, NC for at least 4 generations. In the wake of Hurricane Florence, her traditionally African…
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In our latest episode, Amari, Arabia, Kam, and Shecoria talk about what they’re doing stay sane and have fun during the shelter-in-place orders due to COVID-19. Kam tells us the news on the coronavirus pandemic, Shecoria gives us updates on politics and fashion, and Arabia talks about a curious new trend in her neighborhood. Produced…
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Eric Brown is from Back Street, a once thriving African American community named for being the opposite to downtown. Back Street has nearly been wiped out from repeated hurricane flooding. Brown built a second home to run from the water, but what will become of his family’s homestead? Flood Zone is a special investigation reporting…
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Amari Poindexter is 17 and lives in Leland, North Carolina. I was about eleven when news of the Ebola outbreak started. I was going to a middle school in New Hanover County, and there weren’t a lot of black people there. I mean, there were a few — but I could count them on my fingers. There…
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This film explores how families, and communities, stuck together during Hurricane Florence. The project was produced by a community journalist as part of the Narrative Arts‘ Resiliency Media Fellowship in Wilmington, North Carolina. To host a screening of this and other films in the series contact us at info@narrativearts.org.
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