PHOTOS BY HARRY LYNCH - hlynch@newsobserver.

com

Durham Public Works employee Christopher Williams, 56, works a pick-up detail along Hoover Road on July 13. Williams, a city employee for the past 24 years, used to be illiterate. He sought help in 2008 from Durhams Literacy Center, which found him a tutor to teach him how to read.

Changing homes, changing lives

New location will allow Literacy Center to reach more Durham students
By Lewis Kendall
lkendall@newsobserver.com

The Stylistics. The Osmond Brothers. B.J. Thomas. Tommy James and the Shondells. The Supremes. Christopher Williams listens to them all. When he was younger he would escape to his room, lock the door and let the soothing beats and warm harmonies wash over his curled form. He wanted to be alone, and the music helped him. Holed up in the small bedroom in his south Durham home, Williams couldnt get in anyones way. But the anger and frustration would persist. Although a self-reliant and capable child, he knew that

these days on his Smartphone loves to draw and enjoys being alone from time to time. But one thing has changed; the Palo Alto, Calif., native is no longer illiterate. Williams parents split up when he was young and he moved to Durham, enrolling at W.G. Pearson Elementary school. He made it all the way through high school, where he was enrolled in the special education program, and received his diploma. But while many high school graduates frame the celebratory slip of paper, Williams ripped his to pieces. He still hadnt learned how to read. I looked at [it], and I was so disgusted, he said. I was getting a A building at 1905 Chapel Hill Road will be the new home of the Durfoul deal in life for what I hadnt ham Literacy Center. The facility, with computer labs, a library and learned. I said, This was just gave around 15 tutor rooms, will open for classes in September. to you; you didnt earn it. Williams doesnt blame the he was different. Something was Williams, now 56, has a lot in holding him back. common with his younger self. He schools. He says there may be several SEE LITERACY, PAGE 5A He couldnt read. listens to the same groups albeit

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New location is ideal, director says

One of the main draws of the Durham Literacy centers new building is that it lies on gang-neutral territory, executive director Reginald Hodges said. Although he emphasized that only a few students are gang members, it can still present a problem. If a gang owns an area, he explained, other gang members have to show respect for that group, and that affects their ability to learn. We had students intentionally misspelling and writing things wrong because the other gang was in the room, Hodges said. We thought it was an English issue, and they said no, if I put BL in front of a word Im showing respect for the Bloods. How are you going to teach a person to read and write if they have this other influence in the room? The new building also sits on a bus line, making it easier for students to get to class. Gardy Perard, the centers Adult Literacy Program coordinator, said creating a hospitable learning environment is critical to students success. We have to make sure that they feel totally supported and welcomed, he said, and that the people that are there are there to help them. But even with the perfect environment, the embarrassment of illiteracy still prevents many people from coming forward to learn, Hodges says. We have men that come to us for literacy training whose wives dont know that they cant read, he said. Its a stigma.
STAFF WRITER LEWIS KENDALL

reasons he managed to graduate without learning to read. He often hid his illiteracy, and when he couldnt, teachers, overwhelmed with students, didnt have the time to help him. Whatever the reason, he came out the other side unable to read. Williams went to work for the city of Durham, where he has had various sanitation jobs for 24 years. If anyone asked him to read something, he would brush it off. Im busy, he would say. I dont have time. For years Williams kept to himself. The frustration overwhelmed him. He contemplated suicide. I never wanted folks to know I couldnt read because people respected me, he said. I always blamed myself; I looked at me as the problem. In 2008 Williams visited the citys human resources department, which advised him to call the Durham Literacy Center. The center set him up with a personal tutor to help him learn how to read.

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The center
For 27 years the Durham Literacy Center has operated o u t o f re n t e d l i b ra r i e s , church basements and community centers, with the goal of educating the citys estim at e d 2 5 , 0 0 0 i l l i t e rat e adults. Executive director Reginald Hodges says illiteracy problem is embedded in the citys culture. I remember the old Durham when the cigarettes were here and you didnt have to know how to read

and write to make a living, Hodges said. And I think a lot of that was passed down. The center Williams teaches on a traditional two -semester schedule, with classes offered weekdays in the morning and at night. The classes are free and are taught by a staff of 120 qualified volunteer tutors, instructing students ages 16 to 88. Sara Jane Bell, a self-described lover of words and tutor for four years, calls what illiterate students experience a blindness. Imagine if every sign, every visual were in hieroglyphics and you couldnt decipher them, she said. Thats what its like. After years of constantly changing locations and compromising its schedule, the literacy center has found and purchased a new permanent home. It announced the acquisition of the building, at 1905 Chapel Hill Road, on June 22, and has begun renovation, ripping up old carpet and gutting many of the rooms. The center bought the

between 200 and 300 students on the waiting list to get into classes. Currently the organization operates out of eight different sites, several of which, including operations at El Centro Hispano and the Emily Krzyzewski Center, will remain open. The new facility, complete with computer labs, a library and around 15 tutor rooms, will open for classes in September.

Life is passed you by

After a year with his tutor, Williams was reading at a sixth-grade level. He can now pick up a book or a newspaper and read it with relative ease. But he still remembers what it was like before. You feel like youre not important, he said. You feel left out of a lot of things you feel like life is passed you by. Not picking up a book or knowing how to read, it seems like theres so much youve lost out of life. Although he has since stopped taking classes, the father of five makes time to practice his reading. He is currently working his way through one of comedian Bill Cosbys books. In typical selfless style, he attributes much of his turnaround to the center. I cant deny that the little time Ive been with the [cen-

When we started this, $510,000 building with money it received from local individu- people told us we were craals and businesses as part of a zy, Hodges said. But we got there. larger capital campaign. With 10,000 square feet We got there and an abundance of small The organization began rais- and large rooms, the new ing money late last year after building, which previously board member and Duke his- housed the N.C. Department torian John Hope Franklin saw of Correction, is ideal for the the building on his way to centers needs, he adds. The building will allow the work and declared it the perfect site for the group to con- center to increase student tinue its mission. So far, the enrollment, which currently campaign has raised more stands at 500, by 50 percent. At any given time there are than $850,000.

ter], they have been a great group of people, he said. You can learn a lot from an awesome group of people. But Bell says the students deserve all of the credit. They are the most courageous people Ive ever met, she said. I learned from [her student] Roxie about human spirit, success and overcoming humiliation. She has taught me more than I have ever taught her, and I am deeply grateful. Although he considers his situation improved, Williams also says illiteracy is a constant struggle, and he finds himself occasionally dogged by his old feelings of frustration. Sometimes I have a tendency to look back at what should have happened, instead of looking at what I have accomplished, he said. But when the negative feelings resurface, he knows how to deal with them. He sits alone with his music, just as he would years ago, and allows himself to slip peacefully into the soulful world of Russell Thompkins Jr. and The Stylistics. Thats what makes the world go round, the ups and downs, the carousel, changing people theyll go around, go underground, young man, people make the world go round.
Kendall: 919-932-8760