Writers hope to capture history of black communities

By: Jim Mcnally | Mooresville Tribune
Published: November 06, 2009

The history of a community is often passed down generation to generation through stories and word of mouth.

The South Statesville Writers Club is hoping to capture stories from the past about South Statesville and other historically black neighborhoods throughout the city and put them down on paper.

"The history of South Statesville and other minority communities has mostly been told in the oral tradition," said Bridgett Nesbit, one of the club's founders. "But I think it's important to write down the struggles the black community has overcome and also to document our accomplishments."

The group will be getting together next week in the first of what organizers hope is a regular schedule of meetings.

Xavier Zsarmani is the owner of a local barbershop and is also a playwright and one of the club's founding members.

Zsarmani said the writers group is less about the African American experience in Statesville than it is about the underlying culture and interesting history of the city.

"For example, we have a lady who has a story about her great-great-grandfather who was a blacksmith in Statesville," he said.

Nesbit says the group chose "South Statesville" as part of the club's title not to restrict its membership or area of discussion but rather because of what that name represents to the city.

"'South Statesville' is not just a place," she said. "It is a place, of course, but it was a village. It was a network and it was a place where the elders wouldn't tolerate some of the things that are going on there now."

Nesbit admits to some nostalgia about the place she was raised and said she wants to bring some of that old sense of community back.

"Part of our reason for doing this is to redefine South Statesville," she said. "Because when you hear the words now, the reference is to crime and drugs and violence, and it doesn't have to be that way."

So along with chronicling the city's minority communities, Nesbit and Zsarmani and the others in the group have creativity and motivation in mind.

"The town's elders used to tell stories," she said. "And those stories would inspire us. I think a lot of that hope is gone and so I wonder where the writers are. Where is the next group of people who will inspire?"

The South Statesville Writers Club's first official meeting will be Nov. 11 at 6:30 p.m. at the Summit Village Community Center, located at 1313 Pearl St.

For more information about the group, call Nesbit at (704) 500-8777 or Zsarmani at (704) 858-0753.