In August, I was honored to be recruited to be one of six judges tasked with the impossible: choosing the very first set of winners for the Fayetteville-Cumberland Regional Entrepreneur and Business HUB’s first-ever Entrepreneurial Impact Awards Gala held on Thursday, Sept. 10.
When I tell you all, the pressure was on…going through a mountain of applications, reading through a sea of nominees who were all so, so deserving and having to make your case against a room of professionals who were also ready to plead their case for their choices - whew! In the end, we were all able to peacefully select the top three finalists in 12 categories and come together for a spectacular event! I was able to connect with a few of this year’s winners and featured parts of their thank-you speeches to the community in this issue (Page 12). I would like to thank the HUB’s program coordinators, Sarah R. Espinosa and Rebecca Sappington, for all of the work they put in to make the judging as smooth as possible, and of course the HUB’s Director, Dr. Tamara Colvin, for thinking of the Journal when organizing this event with her team!
The only thing I can think of that could possibly be harder is choosing the winners of this year’s Health Care Hero awards, which, if you haven’t seen, nominations close today, Friday, Sept. 18, so make sure you’ve nominated the Health Care Hero in your life! The responsibility of choosing those winners will be on a completely separate panel, so I won’t have to stress myself for those awards.
This special issue focuses on the arts, and we’ve covered a number of different mediums this year! We’re excited to feature a new downtown Fayetteville gallery (check the cover), a painting professional (page 10) and a glass worker who creates beautiful pieces out of broken pieces and the healing power of the arts (both on page 13).
With the International Folk Festival coming up in just a few weeks, I’m excited to see the various arts, dancing, food and cultural expression of the beautiful people here who make Fayetteville such a vibrant place to live!
Act 2 renovations began in April 2025. CFRT will be back in their 1209 Hay St. theatre for their first production of 2027. Photo by GFBJ.As the Cape Fear Regional Theatre (CFRT) opens their newest show, “Bright Star,” they are also wrapping up Act 2
Pictured from left to right: Entrepreneurial Impact Awards judging panel: Sara Ballard, Venus Durant, Greg Moore, Rebecca Sappington, Derrick McArthur, Faith Hatton and John Keen. In August, I was honored to be recruited to be one of six judges
Pictured left to right: Reddick R. Mack II, Collyn Strother, Tiffany Ragin, April Mata, Veronda Jones and Lauren Falls are all featured artists for the 26:26 Exhibit on display through the end of October. Photo by GFBJ.Black Artist Forward recently b
