LAURINBURG — The Storytelling and Arts Center of the Southeast will present an artistic interpretation of Scotland County integration stories next week.

“Stone Soup – A Community Project: Three Faces of Integration,” will feature storytellers Kim Weitkamp, Lloyd Arneach and Tyris D. Jones.

Scotland County was home to several African-American schools, an African-American boarding school, a Native American school and segregated white schools that came together in 1969 to form one integrated school system.

Guided by a local, tri-racial, advisory team, Weitkamp, Arneach and Jones have studied, researched and interviewed county residents who have provided firsthand accounts about education under school segregation and during the early years of integration. These stories of the children, teachers, administrators and community members have been compiled and made into performance art – providing a stage for broad and diverse interest in a medium that no other art form or historical document could.

Each performance will tell the story of Scotland County’s integration through the eyes of a child, teen and an adult living during the integration experience.

Three performances are scheduled: Aug. 27 at 5 p.m. at the Scotland County Memorial Library; and Aug. 28 at 2 p.m. at Scotia Village and at 7 p.m. at the Storytelling and Arts Center of the Southeast. Each performance is free and open to the public.

The project was funded in part by an award from the National Endowment of the Arts. To find out more about how NEA grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

From information, visit storyartscenter.org or call the Storytelling and Arts Center at 910-277-3599.

Staff report