This blog was written as part of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library's Black Lives Matter program initiative. Learn  more about the program and corresponding events here.

Family reunions are a time for families to gather and create lasting memories and experiences, share wisdom, pass along tradition, have fun and EAT good food! The summertime is also when Black families commonly plan their weekends around the summer tradition of their annual or bi-annual family reunion.

Covid has put this summer tradition in a chokehold for two summers now. In 2020 due to Covid-19, large gatherings were suspended, including family reunions. Families spend a lot of time planning a family reunion - scouting locations, booking entertainment, setting up activities and catering food. As a matter of fact, my extended family spent much of 2019 preparing for the bi-annual family reunion, only for it to be canceled in 2020.

Here we are, capping off the summer of 2021, and I have heard very minimal talk about family reunions. As a matter of fact, I've only heard inklings of anticipation for when we can have traditional family gatherings again. Usually, Black families prioritize family by blocking off a weekend to celebrate with each other and reconnect the family generations. Have you ever seen four generations in one place?

Family reunions are usually a festival-type of celebration, and as a kid, preparing to attend a family reunion was full of excitement to reconnect with my cousins. I'd live for the days when my great-aunts would make their specialty dishes like homemade ice cream and pound cake.

Historically, family reunions date back to the Emancipation, when formerly enslaved people sought out the family they were separated from while enslaved. This tradition would become something that would be a continuous celebration of kinship and resilience that Black families endured. Although the reunion of the family was once steeped in struggle and pain, Black people use their resilience to celebrate family.

Although family reunions have been quiet for two summers, they'll be back. We can't let this traditional celebration of family die. The Black family won't die, and neither will the Black family reunion. Even on a smaller scale, we will celebrate.

--

This blog was written by De'Trice Fox, a librarian for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

Anna Jean Mayhew has been a Charlotte Mecklenburg Library cardholder for most of her life, and while the details of where and when she first received her card may be a bit foggy, the fond memories and joy her library card have brought her over the years are crystal clear. Growing up in Charlotte in the 1950s, Anna Jean remembers taking weekend visits with her mother to the Main and Myers Park (then called South Branch) Libraries, and the rush of excitement she felt whenever she checked out a new book. “Books took me to places I could never go to, from the Arabian desert of Ali Baba to an island in the Pacific where boys went from innocent to feral — Lord of the Flies. I used my treasured library card for journeys to the unknown,” she recalls. “The books I borrowed had glued-on pockets inside the back cover with date-stamped cards that bore the names of previous borrowers. I was thrilled to see my name added to such lists.”

It was through her Library card that Anna Jean first discovered her love of storytelling. Among her favorite childhood books was Horton Hatches the Egg, which she read so many times she was eventually able to recount the story to friends and family word for word. “Kids were delighted by my rendering of that fantabulous story; I had a querulous voice for Mazy the Lazy Bird and a faithful voice for Horton,” she recalls. “I was the family teller of tall tales, and it didn't matter that most of my stories were not original, but adapted from Dr. Seuss, Carolyn Keene (fictitious author of the Nancy Drew books), and Edgar Allen Poe — I loved the gasps at my horror stories, especially after dark in a dim room where my listeners shivered in anticipation of my next gruesome fable.” Anna Jean also drew inspiration for her storytelling style from the countless hours she spent during Saturday matinees at the historic Manor Theater on Providence Road, watching films of heroic tales and cowboys. There, she would sit with her friends in the dark with Charms suckers and bags of popcorn, imagining all the ways the handsome cowboy on screen might escape his almost certain fate.

                There is one memory she’d rather forget, however. “Fines! To this day I dread fines, which have always seemed like a judgment on me, tokens marking my failure to conform,” she says. She dislikes fines so much that she has taken up the practice of rounding up her fine amount to the next dollar as a personal form of penitence for “breaking the rules.” Lucky for Anna Jean, she no longer has to pay penitence or anything ever again as the Library is officially fine free as of July 1, 2021.

Learn more about Fine Free

The Library continues to serve Anna Jean in adulthood and in her career as a writer as well. The author of two novels, The Dry Grass of August and Tomorrow’s Bread, she uses her library card to access valuable historical resources that aid in her story development and research. Her latest novel, Tomorrow's Bread, is a fictional story centered in the very real Charlotte neighborhood of Brooklyn, a thriving Black community that was wiped out during Charlotte’s urban renewal. It is a story which required extensive research and attention to historical details. Anna Jean knew just who to turn to for help – the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room. “I was determined to know the facts about the neighborhood of Brooklyn before I began to write that story, and without the help of the great librarians in the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room, I would never have uncovered details that were by then sixty years old,” she says. “So, a library card assists in time travel, from the known present into an ancient world unnumbered millennia ago.”

Are you ready to take your own journey with the Library? Signing up for a Library card is easy. 

Click here to sign up for one and download the CMLibrary mobile app on your smartphone or tablet for immediate access to place holds, access resources and much more. Join Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and get your Library card today!

--

This blog was written by Darrell Anderson, marketing and communications specialist for Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

Charlotte has seen remarkable growth in craft breweries – places that make and sell their own beer onsite (Hartis 2020). The 2020 city directory lists nineteen brewers in Charlotte and five more in Mecklenburg County beyond the city limits, all established in the last decade. Beer brewing in Mecklenburg County didn’t begin yesterday, though. The history of brewing in Charlotte is a story of experimentation, immigrant expertise, entrepreneurship and prohibition.

In his 1828 dictionary, Noah Webster of Connecticut defined beer as a beverage made "from any farinaceous grain, but generally from barley," but added, "beer is a name given in America to fermenting liquors made of various other materials." Barley was hard to come by, especially in the South, so North Carolinians tried fermenting apples, persimmons, and molasses into something fizzy with a kick. “My wife makes excellent beer,” began one story in the Catawba Journal (12/26/1826), showing what Americans called beer was usually made at home - and by women.

In the 1860s, Martin Munzler became the first successful brewer in Mecklenburg County. He evidently brought the craft of making lager beer with him from his native Bavaria. During the Civil War years, he ran advertisements offering top dollar for barley. After the war, he, and then later his son, Frederick, sold their fermented product in a typically German setting: the beer garden, an outdoor place where families could gather and men could drink beer. It was located at the edge of town near the present-day intersection of McDowell and E Trade St. (Houser, n.d)

By the end of the nineteenth century, Charlotte consumers could choose locally made and bottled beer, as well as products from Atlanta and Philadelphia. (Hartis, 2013, Chapter 2) In 1904, however, 18 years before the 18^th Amendment banned alcoholic beverages nationwide, city voters approved an “anti-saloon” ordinance. Beer makers and distributors disappeared from City Directories for the next thirty years. Until after the national experiment with Prohibition ended. Covert home-brewing must have taken place during Prohibition, but without the opportunity to meet and share tips or to read how-to books on the subject, the quality must have varied. “Beer today is better than home brew was yesterday,” said one commenter after repeal. (Charlotte Observer, 10/17/1935, p.1)

Atlantic Ale and Beer was made in Charlotte in the 1930s, but from World War II until the craft beer era, the beer drinkers of Mecklenburg chose from the same national and regional brands as everybody else.

Makers of beer in the United States finally lived up to Noah Webster’s definition of beer by the late nineteenth century, then went back to brewing “various other materials” under the pressure of Prohibition. In the era of mass-produced beer after Prohibition, consumers drank products made from barley again. The growth of craft beer in this century has begun a new cycle of diversification, which will continue as long as consumers seek novelty more than familiarity.

Sources:

Daniel Anthony Hartis

• Charlotte Beer: A History of Brewing in the Queen City (2013)
• “A Look Back at Charlotte’s craft beer scene” Charlotte Observer (Web Edition) January 8, 2020

Jeffrey Houser, “The Munzler Lager Beer Brewery in Charlotte, North Carolina,” Charlotte Museum of History 

--

This blog was written by Dr. Tom Cole, librarian at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library's Robinson-Spanger Carolina Room.

This blog was written as part of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library's Black Lives Matter program initiative. Learn  more about the program and corresponding events here.

Pregnancy should be a time of excitement and hopefully a pleasant experience for expectant mothers. Sure, there can be complications, uncertainty and unexpected health concerns. However, there should be measures to assist mothers with their overall well-being with those kinds of risks. During this time, mothers-to-be need much support and care as they go through this journey, and help from family, friends, and the health care systems set in place is necessary to provide the needed kind of care. So, many factors play a role in supporting maternal health during and after pregnancy, but what happens when there are inequalities in the health care system against women?

Sadly, there are numerous disparities in the health care industry for pregnant women, especially for Black women. The mortality rate for Black women during and after pregnancy is alarming compared to white women and other races. Despite some Black women being high-income earners, they too can succumb to the inequalities in healthcare. Bias, negligence, discrimination and dismissive attitudes towards Black women’s legitimate concerns about their health are problematic. 

As reported by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), around 700 people die during pregnancy or within the first year after delivery. It is reported that 50,000 women experience severe pregnancy complications that impact their overall health.

Preventative care is necessary. Black women should have access to adequate healthcare and be informed about the best options for their health through the duration of their pregnancy and healthcare providers should be attentive and listen to the needs of expectant mothers to better advise them. 

According to National Partnership for women & families (2018), “Black women are three to four times more likely to experience a pregnancy-related death than white women.” Also, the care that Black women receive during pregnancy is significantly lower than that of white women. Furthermore, Black women are most likely to suffer from preventable diseases and lifelong health issues, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension. Systemic racism and biases in the health care industry, low work wages, little to none or limited health insurance and poverty can all be detrimental to the health of Black women. Hospitals that typically serve a predominately Black population offer substandard maternity care.

How do we address these and other disparities, and what services are available in our community?

One way is through awareness, empirical research monitoring the health care industry, organizations advocating for adequate health care for Black women and overall health care reform.

MINE-R-T Doula Company, founded by Kira Kimble, is headquartered in Charlotte, NC and provides numerous services that address pregnant women’s essential needs. Kira advocates for the needs of Black women and is also a founding member of the National Black Doulas Association. 

Support systems need to be in place to address Black maternal health concerns. Combating these disparities that Black women face with their maternal health will need more awareness with radical and substantial changes implemented in health care, including diversity training.

So, how can Black maternal health be supported?

Here are some actionable measures that expectant mothers and healthcare providers can apply.

• Consult with medical providers and express your needs and health concerns
• Seek out the best obtainable medical services in your area
• Understand your employment benefits and insurance coverage during and after pregnancy
• Reach out to reliable family and friends
• Medical providers should inform pregnant mothers about health risks and how to manage chronic illnesses
• Search for local agencies that provide services for expectant mothers

The Library will also host a program hosted by University City Regional Library staff called “Self-Care for Black Mothers During and After Pregnancy” on Tuesday, September 7, 2021. Register for that program below:

Register
 

For more information and resources on this topic, please visit:

https://www.cdc.gov/healthequity/features/maternal-mortality/index.html

https://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-work/health/reports/black-womens-maternal-health.html

--

This blog was written by Alicia Finley, library associate at University City Regional.

This blog was written as part of Charlotte Mecklenburg Library's Black Lives Matter program initiative. Learn  more about the program and corresponding events here.

When was the last time you practiced self-care by taking the time to care for your mental and physical health, not just buying things that make you feel good? While there is nothing wrong with quality retail therapy there are just some things that money cannot buy. 2020 was a whirlwind of a year, 2021 has held no punches this far and it seems like the world doesn't stop. It’s at this time that you take active steps to make sure the one thing you can control – even to a small degree – is safe: your mental health.

I’m sure you’ve heard that you should apply your oxygen mask before helping others in the event of an emergency on a plane. In the same way, you cannot help someone else if you can’t help yourself, and in the Black family dynamic, this is heavily underlined. The collective trauma of COVID and the loss of life – however it may be – can be a lot to process for adults and growing minds of children and teens. There are questions you don’t know the answers to that you might not have the capacity to answer.

In any case, it’s essential to find things you enjoy doing. Allow yourself to feel the emotions you’re feeling and pay attention to them. Create boundaries for yourself and how you interact with others, and in doing so, try to focus on your coping mechanisms and your social media intake.

A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself questions like:

• "Do I need a break?"
• "Do I need to have this conversation?"
• "Do I want to do this right now?"

Treat yourself with care, not as an emergency response, but as a daily way of living. In this time of constant change, you are your best constant. Suppose you need guidance in finding methods of self-care amid the state of the world. In that case, the Library offers programming that focuses on the self-preservation of people of color.

Join the Library for a special self-care Facebook Live event called “The Nuances and Need of Self-Care for People of Color” on Thursday, September 9, at 6 p.m. to engage in an intimate discussion about self-care, the importance of developing a routine that is beneficial for your health & wellness and how to psychologically manage in these unprecedented times.

Register

 --

This blog was written by Ellie Howie, a library associate at ImaginOn: the Joe and Joan Martin Center.

Changes to OverDrive/Libby Collections
Over the next week or so, you may see some discrepancies between our library catalog in Bibliocommons and our OverDrive/Libby content. We recently lost access to a collection of digital audiobook content from the publisher Recorded Books on our OverDrive/Libby resource. The good news is some of this content is available in our hoopla resource and you still have access to it there. Unfortunately, some of the content we may not be able to continue to make available.

The Library is working diligently to get your library catalog as accurate and up-to-date as possible.  In the meantime, please check the OverDrive/Libby site or Libby app for the most accurate collections search.

Hoopla is a popular platform for many Library customers, which allows a no-wait checkout of up to six (6) items monthly. Hoopla checkouts reset the first day of each month. If you find yourself out of checkouts in hoopla, favorite the title you want to check out (click the heart icon) and, when checkouts reset, you can easily find it again. At this time, we are unable to increase the number of checkouts for our customers, but we will continue to work hard to bring our community the materials to meet your informational and recreational needs.

We are so sorry for the inconvenience this has caused and appreciate your patience.

Flowers play an important role in life. Many, if not all, of us have sweet memories of the bright red roses on your grandmother’s dinner table, the dried peony pressed in an ancestor’s diary, or the radiant orchids your spouse gives you every Valentine’s Day.

Our community has a rich floral history, particularly in Cornelius, which was once the home of gardener Hugh Roy Smith. Smith firmly believed that flowers positively impacted the morale of the people, so he dedicated his life and career to doing just that.

Hugh Roy Smith (1908-1979) grew up with a love of flowers and gardening. As a student in high school, Smith won a contest for growing the “nicest chrysanthemum,” which led to growing his interest in horticulture. After graduating from Cornelius High School in 1926, he attended Davidson College for one year, followed by pursuing his bachelors at North Carolina State College in the School of Agriculture. Upon graduation in 1932, he earned a position at the Lindley Nurseries in the propagation and landscape departments.

Original building for Smith’s Flowers and Nurseries

 

Aerial view of Smith’s Flowers and Nurseries

He opened his first business, Cornelius Floral Gardens, in 1933. The business later became known as Smith’s Flowers and Nurseries, Inc., and it remained open until his retirement in 1975. In 1936, he built an addition to one greenhouse and built two others, bringing the total greenhouse space approximately 7,000 square feet. Each greenhouse was steam heated and temperature controlled. His greenhouses were viewed as some of the most modern in the state of North Carolina.

Pottery Department at Smith’s Flowers in Moorseville, NC

Rosie Smith at the new show room opening event, c1960

Throughout his career, he grew and sold flowers through his shops in Cornelius and Mooresville and provided floral arrangements for weddings and pageants. He firmly believed that “flowers do something for the morale of the people,” especially since in 1933 at the time of his business’ opening, the country was coming out of the Great Depression. His son, Roy, Jr., owned and operated Smith’s Wholesale Nurseries. Smith worked with him in his retirement while also pursuing private consulting contracts.

Southern Living Show, Smith Garden, First Place

Smith’s work became nationally known through his participation in Southern Living Show exhibits where he created award-winning displays. For three years, the Smith Garden was voted First Place by popular vote. In 1966, he won the Sylvia Award from the American Society of Florists, as well as the Community Leader of America Award in 1969. He was famously known as the “Rhododendron King."

Hugh Roy Smith (left) receiving the Sylvia Award, 1966

In addition to his work, Smith was active in his community as a chairman of the Cornelius Beautification Committee and as a trustee for the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church. As a charter member of the Lions Club, he helped to beautify the town and placed “Welcome Cornelius” signs around the community in the late 1960s. He participated in various floral associations and societies—he was elected President of the North Carolina State Florists’ Association in 1954 and elected to the American Academy of Florists in 1966.

Mrs. Rachel Hucks, Bookkeeper, at the new show room opening event, c1960

After his death, the Hugh Roy Smith memorial garden was erected in his honor. It was located on the east side of Highway 115 in the heart of Cornelius.

Want to learn more about gardening? Take a look at some of our other gardening collections on ArchivesSpace, or make an appointment to come view the Hugh Roy Smith Collection in the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room.

--

This blog was written by Sydney Carroll, archivist in the Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

This year, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is proud to celebrate the American Library Association’s Banned Book Week with our Freedom to Read Week. This year's annual celebration will be held September 26-October 2, 2021 and will include programming for all ages that spotlight current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools.

Register an event (or two) and join us in celebrating our freedom to read!

Banned Book Week Trivia (Online)
Monday, September 27, 2021, at 6 p.m.

Calling all fans of controversial reads! Come join us for an hour of online trivia as we celebrate Freedom to Read Week! Test your knowledge of banned and challenged books.

You can have as many participants on your team as you like, but only one person will share responses per team. Only 10 "teams" may register.

This program will be provided by Mint Hill library staff and is recommended for teens and adults. Register here.
 

Banned Books Week: Make-and-Take a Tote (Outdoor)
SouthPark Regional Library
Monday, September 27, 2021, at 6 p.m.

Make-and-take your own "Banned Books" tote bag using screen printing materials. Celebrate your intellectual freedom by engaging in fun literacy activities.  Suitable for all ages, (recommended that children participating are age 7 and up.)  Registration opens at 9 a.m. on September 13.

This event will be held outside.

Banned Book Week Digital Escape Room (Online)
Tuesday, September 28, 2021, at 4 p.m.

Compete against others in a digital escape room. Who will escape first?

This program will be provided by [branch name] library staff and is recommended for teens ages 12 to 18. Register here.

Banned Book Week Teen Trivia (Online)
Tuesday, September 28, 2021, at 4 p.m.

Test your knowledge of banned and challenged books. Winners of our virtual trivia will win a prize kit, which will be available at North County Regional Library!

This program will be provided by North County Regional library staff, and is recommended for teens ages 13 to 18. Register here.

Banned Book Week: Teen Bingo (Online)
Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at 6 p.m.

Join us for an hour of virtual bingo! Test your knowledge of banned and challenged books. Winners of our virtual bingo will take home a prize kit, which will be available at Sugar Creek Library*!

This program will be provided by Sugar Creek library staff and is recommended for teens ages 13 to 18. Register here.

*Bingo kits are available for pick up at the Sugar Creek Library.

Banned Books Bingo (Online)
Wednesday, September 29, at 2 p.m.

What do the Harry Potter series, Captain Underpants, A Wrinkle in Time, and the Goosebumps series all have in common? They are on the top list of the most frequently banned books in America. We'll discuss book banning and the dangers of censorship for upper elementary schoolers.

Automatically generated Bingo cards will be emailed to the address on file 24 hours in advance of the event, so please be prepared to print or copy. Bingo winners will receive a free chapter book from a collection of select popular titles, courtesy of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. This program will be provided by ImaginOn Library staff.

Register here.

Banned Books Week Kahoot! Trivia
Wednesday September 29, 2021, at 6 p.m.

Join us for Trivia Night using Kahoot! Learn some new fun facts or show off how much you know on your own.
Learn more (and brush up on some useful info!) at Banned Books Week.

Register here.

--

This blog was written by Taylor Gantt, marketing & communications intern at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is excited to announce our newest resource, Black Life in America. Black Life in America is a unique digital archive covering the African American experience from the early 18th century to the present day. This primary source collection offers a window into centuries of African American history, culture, and daily life from more than 19,000 American and global newspapers including over 400 current and historical Black publications. Updated daily, Black Life in America provides critical perspectives on the experiences of being Black in America. 

Black Life in America provides full text searching as well as access to content organized by era for easy browsing or choose from nearly 800 suggested searches such as "Emancipation Proclamation," "Brown v. Board of Education," and "Black Lives Matter."  This video gives a detailed overview of how to use Black Life in America.

Black Life in America supports discussions and research around social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. It also illustrates the significant impacts African Americans have had on culture, the arts, sciences, politics, religion, and more.

Black Life in America can be found on Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s Resources page.  Access all the Library’s resources for free with your library card. Don’t have one? Sign up here! If you need help, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library staff are available by email, chat, and phone.   

--

This blog was written by Amy Richard, digital collections coordinator at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

As both a Charlotte Mecklenburg Library employee and customer, I’ve always known how valuable the Library is to me. Over the years, I have borrowed countless books, attended plenty of Saturday morning storytimes with my children and furthered my own learning through the amazing online resources available.

Thanks to the value calculator that the Library has made available, I was recently able to place a monetary amount on the many resources and services I have received from the Library and it is staggering. I have saved an estimated $46,915 (and counting) by using Charlotte Mecklenburg Library!

I have checked out close to 3,000 books from the Library- a number I know because it is stored in my borrower record. But that is just physical books and does not include the items I’ve checked out using Hoopla, Overdrive, and NC Digital Kids, which I use regularly. I also use Kanopy for watching animated videos of their favorite books with my children, LinkedIn Learning for my own professional development and the list goes on.

As far as the incredible programs that the Library offers, any parent of a young child knows there’s no monetary value you can place on attending Family Storytime on a rainy morning! The Library has always been a destination for my family, whether it is for storytime or a special event like EpicFest, a family literary festival held in the fall.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Library has helped me feel connected at times when the prevailing tone in our world was one of isolation and disconnection. The Library’s quick shift to online programming made it possible for me to tune in to guest lecturers, activists and artists through the Library’s Engage 2020 initiative last year.

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is constantly adapting to meet our needs as users, whether it is through virtual programming, increased access to technology for community members who need it most, job help resources, parent education and more.

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month. If you don’t already have a library card, I encourage you to get one and see how much value it will add to your life — you will be astounded!

CLICK HERE to sign up for a Library card and download the CMLibrary mobile app on your tablet or smartphone. Use the app to place holds, access resources and much more.

--

This blog was written by Walker Doermann, librarian at SouthPark Regional Library