by Cultural Arts Group

On Feb. 8 at 1:30 p.m., with the joyous sound of Eastern European traditional Jewish klezmer folk music from the Magnolia Klezmer Band in the background, Mildred Council (otherwise known as Mama Dip), will give an army of volunteers the order to begin serving the seventh annual Community Dinner.

This event, celebrating our community’s remarkable cultural diversity through food and the arts, will take place at the McDougle School “cafetorium” on Old Fayetteville Road in Carrboro. The main meal will feature food cooked by Mama Dip’s Kitchen, as well as entrées prepared by Margaret’s Cantina, Bon’s Barbecue, the Carolina Inn, Jade Palace, the Flying Burrito, Chapel Hill Kehillah and others.

Bread will be donated by the Great Harvest Bread Company, and diverse desserts will be provided by community groups, churches and local organizations. There will be food for vegetarians and diabetics. We expect more than 600 people will eat together, many of them seated next to people who had been strangers until then.

As the eating and chatting draws to a close, John and Lynette Blackfeather of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation will bless the gathering and food. Now the entertainment will begin. The first performers on stage will be the Cane Creek Cloggers, a local performing dance troupe specializing in Appalachian clog dancing. This group performs at festivals, conventions, street fairs and schools throughout North Carolina and the East.

This group will be followed by classical pianist Val Zamora, who performs both solo and chamber recitals throughout the United States. Zamora studied at both the Juilliard School in New York and the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Zamora is deaf. She has become keenly aware of the discrimination exhibited toward artists with disabilities. Through her performances, she sensitizes audiences to the fact that art produced by a “disabled” pianist is not heard as disabled.

The North Carolina Youth Tap Ensemble will perform a short program showcasing the dancing skills that have won the group acclaim both nationally and internationally. The ensemble, founded in 1983 by Gene Medler, represents all that is good about participation in the arts by young people. Choreography for the group is commissioned from across the nation and abroad, and the dancers perform locally, nationally and internationally in venues ranging from retirement homes, schools and fairs to international festivals.

Next on stage will be young dancers from the Jhilmil and Jugnu Indian dance troupes. Jhilmil will perform an Indian movie dance called Rang De using a mixture of modern and classical footwork while Jugnu will perform a Bhangra dance usually danced at weddings and festivals in Punjab, India. The groups’ 14 year-old choreographer, Gauri Khanna, has been dancing since the age of 5 and choreographed her first dance when she was 10. Both groups have performed at major dance festivals, South Asian cultural events and for schools.

Last on stage will be the St. Paul AME Contemporary Choir. Started 22 years ago, this all-female choir, lovingly trained by Debra Woodward, will perform numbers drawn from their extensive repertoire which includes gospel, spirituals and hymns.

Dinner tickets $7.50 for adults and $3.50 for children under 10 are on sale at the The Inkspot (Carrboro), Carrboro Branch Library, Mama Dip’s Kitchen, Chapel Hill Museum Shop , Chapel Hill News, Preservation Society of Chapel Hill (Horace Williams House), Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce (121 Margaret Lane), Market Street Books and Maps (Southern Village)

Seating is limited and the dinner is usually sold out well beforehand. For information, call the Carrboro Branch Library at 969-3006 or log on to the Community Dinner website at http://communitydinner.org. To volunteer, help, donate food, or underwrite tickets for needy families, call Nerys Levy at 932-1533 or e-mail her at rilevy@mindspring.com.