WHAT'S NOW . . .
Chef's Life
“A Chef’s Life,” the 13-part PBS series with Vivian Howard and Ben Knight, premiers at 9:30 p.m. today on UNC-TV. In the first episode, “Sweet Corn & Expensive Tea,” Howard, as a New York City chef, and Knight head back home to her North Carolina roots to open a restaurant. The premiere also finds her revisiting the Southern tradition of “putting up” corn, making smoked corn relish and dealing with a setback.
The series is part documentary, part cooking show, part reality and part travel directed by Cynthia Hill, who grew up with Howard in Pink Hill. She has helped direct and/or produce feature-length documentaries, including “Tobacco Money Feeds My Family” and “The Guestworker.”
Jeanne Robertson, humorist
Jeanne Robertson will share her humorous views of life at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Waller Auditorium of Lenoir Community College. The award-winning speaker is an expert in humor, whether regaling audiences with her experiences as a 6’2” Miss Congeniality winner in the 1963 Miss America Pageant or outlining the steps to developing a sense of humor. The Graham native has been awarded every top honor in the speaking profession.
The event celebrates the Lenoir Memorial Hospital volunteers’ 60th anniversary. The volunteers have partnered with the Lenoir Memorial Hospital Foundation to raise money for the cardiology lab’s new equipment. Proceeds from the performance will go to this cause.
For tickets, $25 each, call 252-522-7248 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. today and Friday.
Brian Free & Assurance
Brian Free & Assurance will bring a gospel concert to Westside Free Will Baptist Church at 7 p.m. Friday.
The concert will be in the church’s Family Life Center, 1205 Lynn Drive (behind Bill Fay Park). No tickets are required for admission. However, a love offering will be accepted. Doors will open at 6 p.m.
The southern gospel quartet has appeared on Prime Time Country, Hee Haw, The Today Show and many episodes of the Gaither Video series. Free has been at the forefront of southern gospel music since first joining Gold City Quartet, then moving on to form his own group. Free, Bill Shivers and Derrick Selph live in Georgia, and Jeremy Lile lives in Tennessee.
For more information, call 252-522-4505.
WHAT'S COMING . . .
Mystery Theater Series
The Grainger-Hill Performing Arts Center will launch its Mystery Theater Series, “A Dinner to Die For,” at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 20 at Olivia's at Frenchman's Creek. The $40 ticket cost per person includes the meal. Wine and beer are extra.
Area actors will present a historical murder mystery staged during the Civil War period and based on facts about Kinston's Sugar Hill, complete with period costumes. Emcee is Alison Merritt and the narrator is Wilbur King. Characters include Anne Johnson, Nora Parker, Thomas Bailey, Bill Taylor, Teresa Sumner, Dedra Houston, Lysa Mackey, Stephen Alford, Katie Griffith and Ann Brinson.
Rotating monthly at area restaurants, the Oct. 11 show will be at King's Restaurant; Nov. 8 at the Kinston Country Club; TBA at Chef and the Farmer. Reserve spaces by calling 252-521-4513 or at ghpac.com.
Hymnprov
A CD release concert and party for “Clay Whittington’s Hymnprov” will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 21 at the Community Council for the Arts, 400 N. Queen St. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 each, which includes a CD.
“Hymnprov” is a series of hymns selected from the United Methodist Hymnal done in Whittington’s unique style of improvisational piano performance – from classical, to jazz and blues, to rock. No part of the performance is rehearsed and “sheet music” is only used as a guide to the melody. Hymns are previously selected, but only to aid in a smooth performance, which is divided into four parts: Wesleyan Hymns, Spirituals, Contemporary Hymns and Traditional Hymns.
The Kinston native is choir director at Camp Ground United Methodist Church in Fayetteville and organist for Temple B’nai Sholem in New Bern. He also teaches music, records and enjoys disc golf, running and spending time with his fiancé Elizabeth and their cat Neko.
Tickets can be ordered online at claywhittington.me. Enter the promotional code “IWANTCD” to get a 50 percent discount off the admission price online. For more information, call Whittington at 252-525-5043.