North Carolina Conversations Summer-Fall 2008.pdf

RoadScholarsOpening Windows onNorth Carolina’s HistoryKenny DalsheimerWhere can you go to learn about the grassroots of stockcar racing or the blues heyday of 1930s Durham, NC?You may be surprised to learn that one source canoffer you insight into both, North Carolina HumanitiesCouncil Road Scholar Kenny Dalsheimer, a filmmaker,producer, and media educator from Durham.Dalsheimer has worked on behalf of the HumanitiesCouncil statewide for ten years. He shares below someof his thoughts about being a Road Scholar.Since 1999, I have been visitinglibraries, museums, and communitycenters in counties across NorthCarolina to screen and talk about twoof my film projects: Shine On: RichardTrice and the Bull City Blues and GoFast, Turn Left: Voices from OrangeCounty Speedway. My “Road Scholars”travels provide opportunities to screenmy films with audiences I mightotherwise never meet and who mightotherwise not visit the local library ormuseum and to give diverse audiencesopportunities to reflect on the historyand themes explored in the films.Opening a window on essential traditionsand parts of North Carolina’sculture also encourages further explorationand challenges stereotypes andpreconceptions about people living inour very own communities.At many of the programs, the screeningsintroduce one or more audiencemembers to unfamiliar cultures andtraditions from around the state and tounfamiliar experiences, perspectives,and practices. A while back I heardfrom one attendee who shared, “Itmade the life of stockcar racing realto me.” After a screening of Shine On,one viewer wrote, “I like the focus onlocal history and the importance of anindividual life and community.”After each program comes myfavorite part of my travels. Folks inthe audience offer their own stories,their own take on the traditions andhistories captured in my films. Oftenthey contribute ideas or questionsabout what they heard or experiencedin the film. They might makenote of inconsistencies, geographicvariations, or something so personalas recollections of the sweetness ofchildhood: “You know when I was12 my uncle drove one of those carstoo,” and “I had a chance to seehis brother play the blues back inthe ’50s in Fayetteville.” Questionsabout what has changed or whatmight come next lead to talk aboutthe connections between history andchange, the past and the present,economics, religion, and more. Thefilms call up conversations aboutidentity and community, good timesand hard times, and what motivatespeople to do what they do.It has been great fun and quiterewarding to be included in the“Road Scholars” program. I have metpeople I would never meet, visitedbeautiful towns I might not otherwisesee, and most importantly, shared myfilms with the people who come outto the programs. I have experiencedthe themes, voices, and cultures