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Beyond Ourselves: Audio documentary maker discusses racial separation he saw in Siler City
Journal Photo by David Rolfe
John Biewen, a documentary filmmaker, spoke at the Winston-Salem Foundation's annual community luncheon.
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Published: May 7, 2009
Updated: 05/07/2009 01:19 pm
Even though America is increasingly viewed as a culturally diverse nation, many people spend most of their time with people like themselves, told an audience of business and community leaders yesterday.
"We need to hear one another," said John Biewen, the audio program director at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. He spoke at the Winston-Salem Foundation's annual community luncheon.
Biewen told of how he and a crew went to Siler City to produce Nuevo South, an audio documentary that captured the tensions between blacks, whites and newly arrived Hispanic immigrants.
The crew interviewed a white soccer mom, who described how white and Hispanic parents self-segregated at soccer games. They talked to a city worker whose job was to tell Hispanic immigrants that they can't put upholstered furniture in their yards. And they talked to a Hispanic activist who discussed recent immigrants' desires to make it in their new country.
By the time the project was over, Biewen said that Hispanic and white parents were sitting together at soccer games and cheering each other's children on and that many people started to see each other as three-dimensional people, not stereotypes.
"It's not all ‘Kumbaya' all the time," he said. But the power of individual voices telling their stories can be a force for understanding in Siler City and other communities across the country, Biewen said.
"We know something more deeply if we know it as a story, not a fact," he said.
He touted the potential of StoryLine, a local initiative of the ECHO Council, which attempts to build diverse relationships. Two people who know each other have a conversation on any topic they choose. It is recorded and then edited to air on public-radio stations, a special Web site or at community gatherings.
The foundation also presented six awards that recognize efforts to build social capital in the community.
Ed Welch, the president of I.L. Long Construction Co. Inc., received the Winston-Salem Foundation Award for his work with a variety of community organizations, including the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of Forsyth County and Forsyth Technical Community College.
Five Everyone Can Help Out, or ECHO awards, were also presented:
□ Lee Beall, a retired music professor at Winston-Salem State University, for a 20-year musical exchange between developmentally disabled children at Carter Vocational High School and children at Summit School.
□ Mitchell Britt for slow-food dinners that bring an eclectic group of strangers together every month for fellowship.
□ Deloris Huntley for the Alpha and Omega Family Institute on Gray Avenue, which provides tutoring, cooking classes, and a variety of health and wellness programs to northeastern Winston-Salem.
□ Robert Leak III, the president of Easton Youth Neighborhood Association, for his efforts in organizing a neighborhood food drive, clean-up and tutoring at Easton Elementary School.
□ Reynolda Rotary Club of Winston-Salem for its six-year partnership with Cook Elementary School. The club has given money for playground and outdoor equipment, and participated in tutoring and mentoring programs.
■ Mary Giunca can be reached at 727-4089 or at mgiunca@wsjournal.com.
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