Downtown Durham Dec. 5 Annual Meeting to Feature Game Show with Crowd Participation and a Performance

The 2012 Downtown Durham Inc. (DDI) Annual Meeting, presented by American Tobacco, will be held on December 5th, at Bay 7 at the American Tobacco Campus in Downtown Durham.  The program will begin at 11:30am and run until 1:30pm, featuring the usual high-energy entertainment the DDI meeting is known for.

The program will begin with lunch and proceed with a presentation of the Annual Downtown Awards, including awards for Outstanding Downtown Business, Development Project, Renovation Project, Board Member and Downtown Visionary. There will also be a special holiday performance from Downtown Durham resident and Grammy nominee Nnenna Freelon.

The main event will feature a game show titled “The Amazing Downtown Showdown!”  To kick off the show, six tables will be randomly selected and each of these tables will choose a contestant to compete on their behalf. Three contestants will compete in Round 1, and another three in Round 2, with the highest scoring contestant from each round going on to the Final Downtown Showdown.  Highlights of major projects and openings over the past year, as well as a broad overview and future challenges will be interspersed between the questions during the show.

The table that wins the Grand Prize will walk away with a special “Night out in Downtown” package, which includes tickets to the Nutcracker at DPAC, tickets to Nnenna Freelon and John Brown at the Carolina Theatre, and a gift certificate to a Downtown restaurant.  DDI will also provide a giveaway item to all attendees. For more information and for tickets, contact Matthew Coppedge at DDI.

Durham is 299 square miles of great things.  Learn about more of them here.

Shirley Caesar Honored with BET's Living Legend Award

Shirley Caesar, who started her singing career in Durham, is being honored by BET - The Black Entertainment Network with their Living Legend Award.  In her career as a gospel singer, Caesar has won 11 Grammy Awards and released over 30 gospel albums since embarking on a solo career in 1966 and is considered the "First Lady of Gospel."

Currently Caesar splits her time pastoring a church and traveling to speak professionally.  Her BET honor is another accolade in a long line of career and life achievements. Caesar embodies what it means to be a living legend with her grace, poise, class and what has been described as "the voice of an angel." Her career spans over five decades and she has sold of over 2 million records. Some fifty years after she began her recording career, the legendary singer and songwriter continues to stir the souls of millions of faithful fans with classics like “Sweeping Through the City” and “You’re Next In Line For A Miracle.”

Caesar is in good company in Durham's musical history.  Grammy award winning Nneena Freelon is among the world's most famous jazz vocalists, and hip hop artist 9th Wonder also hails from the Bull City.