Library to welcome native daughter / Tuesday's Names in the News

Library to welcome native daughter

The Kinston-Lenoir County Public Library will welcome Christal Brown to perform at 3 p.m. Feb. 18 in the Schechter Auditorium of the library, 510 N. Queen St.

The Kinston native and daughter of Lenoir County Commissioner Jackie Brown will present a mentoring workshop for teenage girls and a dance performance, followed by a question-and-answer session and artists’ reception.

Brown is a dancer and choreographer based in New York City, where she founded InSpirit, Inc., a premiere modern dance company. She began her dance career with Nora Parker at L’Academie de Danse, where she showed exceptional promise as a young dancer. Brown was invited to study dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts in seventh and ninth grades. By the 10th grade, she began to teach classes and offer workshops at L’Academie de Danse.

In the spring of 1996, she was crowned Kinston’s Junior Miss 1997. She went on to earn her Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance, with a minor in business, from UNC Greensboro. Then she toured nationally with Chuck Davis’ African-American Dance Ensemble and internationally with Andrea E. Woods/Souloworks.

She relocated to New York and became a principal performer, community specialist and apprentice program coordinator with Urban Bush Women. She has served as a resident artist and is a visiting lecturer in dance at Middlebury College. She founded InSpirit in 2000 and since has shown her work at various venues across the country.

“Project: Becoming” began as an outgrowth of InSpirit’s 2004 performance season. The company decided to further its investigation into the evolution of the modern-day woman. With the support from The Bronx Museum of Art and The Bronx Council on the Arts and Action Lab, “Project: Becoming” became a reality in 2005. It uses expressive modalities, such as dance, writing and discussion, to promote creative exploration within women.

The library’s Beyond the Walls Series aims to present lecturers, artists, dancers, singers, actors, and other talents who are Lenoir County natives and have gone Beyond the Walls to achieve honorable notoriety in their fields. Brown is the first performer in this series.

Space is limited, and attendees are encouraged to reserve seats. Call the circulation desk at 252-527-7066, ext. 120. The program is sponsored by the Friends of the Library.