NEWS

Learn Chapel Hill, UNC history on cemetery walking tour Oct. 25

The Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, on the UNC campus at Country Club and South roads, will come alive with tales of the many notables who rest there during a walking tour Oct. 25. Author and UNC Assistant Professor of English Bland Simpson will lead "either the fifth or sixth annual" pre-Halloween cemetery tour, beginning at 11 a.m. at the gazebo on the cemetery's west side.

The event, free and open to all, will take place rain or shine and last 35-45 minutes. Wear good walking shoes. "The ground has low stones here and there and all about," said Simpson, also the pianist for the old-time band The Red Clay Ramblers and director of UNC's creative writing program.

Among those whose graves will be visited are Wilson Caldwell, Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Edward Kidder Graham, Horace Williams and Frank Porter Graham. The university, which had owned the tract on which the cemetery is located since the 1770s, gave it in 1989 to the Town of Chapel Hill, which already had been maintaining it.

Simpson has written several books related to North Carolina history, including his new nonfiction novel, "Ghost Ship of Diamond Shoals: The Mystery of the Carroll A. Deering."

He began his annual cemetery tours for an American studies class, taught by Dr. Rachel Willis, on the history and role of the university in the state and the nation. "The old cemetery is the last resting place of people, black and white, who made the university and the town over the course of two centuries," Simpson said. "To go there is to reflect on all this, to honor them and to thank them, too."

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High-technology connects Chapel Hill to art exhibit and civil conflict in Nepal

Art and high technology will combine to convey both the natural beauty of Nepal and the tragedy of political violence there via an online exhibit and teleconference at UNC on Oct. 30.

Students, faculty and the public are invited to view artist Jyoti Duwadi's new Kathmandu installation on a World Wide Web site and chat with the artist online. The event will be from 1-2 p.m. in the Kresge Commons Room of the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, located in the Graham Memorial Building off East Franklin Street.

Duwadi is a multi-media artist from Chapel Hill who has been inspired by the landscape of Nepal, said Dr. Randi Davenport, center associate director. His Kathmandu installation, "Remembering Peace," includes 500 small jute bags, each filled with earth and a flowering sapling, placed in rows of equal distance around the pond Rani Pokhari.

The flowering saplings memorialize more than 5,000 lives lost in civil unrest in Nepal and symbolize hopes for peace, said Duwadi. Three large oil lamps will be kept lit "in memory of the deceased, in solidarity with living victims of violence, and to symbolize a future that is free of violence and injustice," he said. The saplings eventually will be planted to create a Peace Grove on an important watershed and pilgrimage site 10 miles from Kathmandu.

"The purpose of the installation is to stimulate dialogue that offers creative solutions for a just peace," said Davenport. "We're using our technology to connect faculty, students and the public to the artist in Nepal and to important global issues."

For more information, call 966-5110 or visit the Johnston Center website at www.unc.edu/depts/jcue.

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Fraternities, sororities, to hold step show Nov. 1

Among many activities scheduled for homecoming weekend Nov. 1-2 is a step show, sponsored by the UNC chapter of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, the governing body for historically African-American fraternities and sororities.

Everyone's invited to the ticketed event at 7 p.m. Nov. 1 in the Dean E. Smith Center, with doors opening at 6 p.m., said Jay Anhorn, Greek Affairs director. Free parking will be available in lots near the center. Last year's event drew more than 1,600.

The council oversees nine Greek organizations, eight of which have chapters at UNC. All eight will have teams competing for cash prizes in the homecoming event.

Stepping is an offshoot of African boot dance, the manner in which Africans have communicated with their ancestors. Today, black Greek letter organizations have revived this custom in the form of stepping. Organizations seek to communicate their chapter ideals in their performances, judged for artistic expression and messages conveyed.

Each team starts and ends with a synchronized routine to music -- anything from hip-hop to big-band -- stopping the music in between for a series of chants. Chants show the pride of the organization and have a certain message about their brotherhood or sisterhood. In the past, step show costumes on campus have ranged from fraternity paraphernalia to mummy outfits and 1930s regalia.

Tickets, costing $14 in advance, $17 at the door, are on sale at the Smith Center ticket office (962-2296, open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays-Fridays). For more information about the event, call Anhorn at 962-8298.

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Contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu