Greensboro Daily Photo

Alina Herrera & Dulce Melodrama

The above photo features the Greensboro band Dulce Melodrama during band practice on Sunday evening. The musicians have been playing together for about three years and, if you like energetic, Latin alternative music, you will love this band. They have quite a versatile range and can take classic ballads in Spanish and add a modern twist. With Dulce Melodrama, the old is new! They are getting close to heading into the studio to record, but for now, you can hear them on Instagram (dmdmusic) and on Facebook (Dulce Melodrama). Even better, tomorrow night, they are playing at Ramkat in Winston Salem, as the opening act for Monsieur Periné. Mark your calendar for Tuesday, August 9th. Doors open at 7pm, Dulce Melodrama plays at 8 pm, and Monsieur Periné is on at 9pm. This Ramkat concert will be fabulous.

The above photo features from left to right, José Ponce, who plays lead guitar, Leo Vega, on drums, Daniel Solís, bassist, and Alina Herrera, sings lead vocals and plays rhythm guitar. Ethnically, with heritage from Mexico, Guatemala, and Puerto Rico, these talented musicians come together to bring a sound that can range from folk and traditional to pop, rock, and alternative. We plan to head to the Ramkat to enjoy their concert tomorrow night.  However, even better will be getting to hear them in Greensboro. Maybe we can get Monsieur Periné to Greensboro, too. The Latinx community in Greensboro is growing, providing more opportunities to hear Latin music. We'll let you know about upcoming tour dates for Dulce Melodrama. 

Happy Monday and until tomorrow! ¡Feliz lunes y hasta mañana! 

Happy Birthday, Nathanael Greene

Greensboro became a city in 1808 and it was named after Nathanael Greene, who was a general in the Continental Army in the Revolutional War. He was born in 1742 in Potowomut Rhode Island and died in 1786 in Mulberry Grove Georgia, at the age of 43. While he was neither born nor died in Greensboro, he did fight in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse on the very spot where the visitor center is located, just off of New Garden Road. The above portrait of General Greene is located in the visitor center. Yesterday was such a busy day in celebration of General Greene's birthday. The events started at 10:00 am with the dedication and firing of a cannon that is so big that they will have to adjust the size of the door of the visitors center to fit it in here!  The birthday celebration ended with a ranger-lead tour at 3:00 pm. 

Since on Sundays, we like to post something spiritual, we asked the ranger if there was anything religious to fit with General Greene and the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. The ranger thought about it for a while and said, well, the Quakers, who were pacifists and didn't want anything to do with war, helped the wounded from the battle. It didn't matter who the wounded soldiers fought for, many were left behind and the Quakers cared for them. We are left wondering how many of the surviving soldiers decided to make Greensboro their home. We also learned that New Garden Road, that connects the Battlefield to the Friends Meeting, has been called New Garden Road since at least the 1700s. The rangers at the park are so helpful and interested in discussing the history of the area. If you know of anyone who ever has to do a report on the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, send them to the visitors center. The rangers will answer questions or, if they don't know, point you in the direction of the answer. Happy birthday, General Greene. You are gone but not forgotten.

Happy Sunday, everyone! 

First Friday: August 2022

While parts of Greensboro threatened rain last night, downtown in the city parks, First Friday was going strong. The above photo features the crowd in front of LeBauer Park. Casa Azul was there teaching salsa dancing. For several hours, partners were dancing the night away while children were playing in the grass. The lighting really adds to the atmosphere. Great fun was had by all!

At night, the new sculpture by Janet Echelman "Where We Met" looks so beautiful. It hovers over the park really capturing attention. To the left is the new restaurant, Parkside Pull-Up. Parkside that opened in April. People are thrilled to have hot dogs, hamburgers, and great French fries- it is perfect food for eating at the park, especially on a Friday night. The Cultural Arts Center also had a lot of activities last night. Your next option for a First Friday will be September 2nd. Mark your calendar and polish your dancing shoes! Happy Saturday!

2416 Walker Avenue: Little Round House

Twelve years on Greensboro Daily Photo, we featured the 2 bedroom 1 bathroom, round house at 2416 Walker Avenue. We decided to return after over a decade and see if anything had changed. Well, the actual house still looks the same (see here). In a way, how are you going to change a round house? If you add on, it will no longer be round. Adding a second floor would be hard. Indeed, the house looks the same, but the big difference is the yard. It has going from being a fairly empty 1/4 acre lot to now being filled with plants, flowers for pollinators, and a giant plant that is either squash, gourds, or pumpkins. There were butterflies, bees, and goldfinches working the yard and the owners have definitely created a yard that they don't need to mow.

Leading up to the door (not visible in this photo) are round stepping stones and two heads that look like the Moai heads on Easter Island. 2416 Walker Ave., built in 1976,  is definitely a unique property and the owners seem to have a great spirit about them. It will be fun to watch what they will do with all of the squash, gourds, pumpkins they harvest over the next month. Wonder what it will look like if we stop back by in another decade. We're still waiting for that tour of the inside.

Happy First Friday! Be sure to head downtown this evening. There will be so much happening downtown, especially in the city parks, in the Cultural Arts Center, and on Elm Street.

Penguin Exhibit at the Greensboro Science Center

Those penguins at the Greensboro Science Center are so absolutely adorable and they capture the hearts of all who see them. The penguins at the science center are about 2 feet tall. They are African penguins, native to the beaches of southwestern Africa. Their favorite food is herring, and they love playing with cat toys. As you can see from the above photo, they are also very adept at entertaining themselves. According to the website of the Greensboro Science Center, the penguins are crate trained, trained to come up for food, get on the scales for their monthly weigh ins, and some of them are trained to stand for photos. A baby chick was born in January of this year. It's name is Niffler from the Harry Potter series.

Seeing the penguins is included in the price of a general admission. For an additional fee, there is an opportunity to have an encounter with a penguin. If you haven't been yet, try to fit a trip to 4301 Lawndale Drive and spend time viewing penguins. They really are quite entertaining.

National Night Out 2022

National Night Out (NNO) is always the first Tuesday in August. The seeds of the initiative began in 1970, in the western suburbs of Philadelphia.*  It is an initiative to help build safe communities, for neighbors to get to know each other and their surroundings. It is a way for law enforcement and community members to get to know each other. NNO brings law enforcement and neighbors together for a positive reason.  There are 38 million "neighbors" and 16 thousand communities registered. However, who knows how many people participate who do not formally register. 

On "sure bet" neighborhood we knew we could find people out celebrating National Night Out in Greensboro was Lindley Park. They were having an ice cream social in front of the pool and recreation center. The above photo shows neighbors bicycling through the community at a little before 7:00 pm. The photo was taken at the corner of Walker Avenue and Wesdale Place. It looked like they were headed in the direction of the community center. In addition to the planned events, in Lindley Park, there were several people out walking their dogs and pushing babies in strollers; some doing both. Nothing beats a positive sense of community, which is precisely what makes a neighborhood a neighborhood. It doesn't take a big time commitment or anything super formal. NNO just takes a person, or two, or a few, banding together to celebrate the neighborhood. Hats off to Lindley Park for doing just that. If your neighborhood celebrates, please share with us what you do. Please share as many places and ways as you can. We'll try to get around to your neighborhood next year!

Happy Wednesday. Happy day after NNO!

 

 

* see the timeline, here.

The Cole Family Monarch Conservation Center & Butterfly House

The Cole Family Monarch Conservation Center and Butterfly House is now open at the Greensboro Science Center. It is a new (permanent) exhibit, located in the front of the building. As you can see from the above photo, while the butterfly area is enclosed, it is open to the outside, with netting to keep butterflies in, yet making the area open to the outside. It is a fabulous way to see butterflies up close and to watch their behavior as they travel through the wildflowers.

Inside, there is a temporary, traveling exhibit about butterflies. Children traverse a maze learning about butterflies as they go. Impatient children can simply crawl under the panels to get through the maze. It is so nice having the indoor and outdoor exhibit for the summer, both teach about butterflies and especially monarchs. While the Greensboro Science Center has been a Greensboro institution since 1957, if you haven't been in a while, be warned, you will not recognize it. The giant amethyst geode, the Foucoult pendulum, and the S.S. Curiosity (old ship to climb) are still there, but so many new exhibits have been added, you owe it to yourself to stop by and have a look. To be sure, we'll share more photos.

Happy Tuesday!

August is Happy Back To School Month: Newcomers School

Happy August 1st. As of today, some Guilford County Schools are back in session with workdays starting for teachers. Traditional schools start later in August. As the 2022-2023 school year is rolling out, it seems fitting to feature a school. The above photo is of the entrance to the Doris Henderson Newcomers School in northwest Greensboro. The school was initially built as Guilford Primary, a traditional elementary school. However, in 2007, it opened as a school to bridge the language gap  for students in 3rd- 12th grade who are new to the United States and with novice level proficiency in English. At the beginning of the 2009 school year, the Newcomers School was named for Dr. Doris Henderson who had been the principal at Guilford Primary for nearly fifteen years. It is the first school to be named for someone still living and, of course, Dr. Henderson attended the naming ceremony.

Recently, the Newcomers School received good news. A Fulbright grant through UNCG will bring 22 international fellows- from 21 countries and five regions of the world- to Greensboro to work in classrooms. The Newcomers School is one of three sites receiving the fellows.* The Newcomers School, l with a diverse faculty and student population, is about to get even more diverse!  UNCG is one of seven universities in the United States to host the Fulbright teachers for the six-week program. These fellows will hone their teaching skills and gain an American perspective on education, while bringing a tremendous skill-set to share with the GCS partner schools. POSITIVE THOUGHTS = POSITIVE LIFE, written on the entrance to the school, is a motto Dr. Henderson continues to live by today and that attitude permeates everything about the school. Those Fulbright fellows are about to have a fabulous experience!

* other sites include Western Guilford High School and the Middle College at UNCG (reference and additional information, HERE).