Inaugural Golf Tournament Beneﬁts Authoring Action’s Youth Film Program

from YES! Weekly - August 2, 2023

by YES! Weekly

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For the first time in its 21 years of service to the Winston-Salem community, the nonprofit organization Authoring Action is holding its first golf tournament on behalf of its youth film program Just Us. Co-founded by Executive Director Lynn Rhoades and Artistic Director Nathan Ross Freeman in 2002, Authoring Action provides tools to youth for their personal success in any career, calling, and life path. Students who go through this program become authors of their own lives once having learned to think analytically, present confidently, and express themselves dynamically through creative writing, speech, film, and design.

In her new role over the past year as Authoring Action’s Development Director, Audra Byers, set out to innovate how to continue bringing in resources and support. “Authoring Action’s mission has a lot to do with social justice,” said Byers. “Leveraging youth that doesn’t have privilege was really how it got started, by literally going into the projects and working one-on-one with teens.” With a signiﬁcant number of success stories, Authoring Action has had at least one student go on to study at the Juilliard School and another at the Berklee College of Music.

Byers came to Authoring Action for the ﬁrst time in 2003 to work as the program’s yoga instructor. She has left the organization and returned since, and throughout the years has taken on a variety of roles in di erent areas such as administration and marketing. Now the development director, she is determined to spread greater awareness of the program’s mission within Winston-Salem and beyond, while shedding light on the racial inequalities still very much present in the city of arts and innovation. When

Byers proposed a golf tournament to do just this, funnily, she was received with confusion and a number of questions.

“What does golf have to do with Au- thoring Action?” was the ﬁrst question Byers was presented with. A lot, actually. A sport commonly misconceived to be practiced predominantly by white players, golf has a rich history of black players participating in the sport as well. Winston Lake Golf Course, where the upcoming tournament will be held, even more so. First opened during the summer of 1956, the course started with nine holes and was initially only for black players. Six years later, renowned golf course architect Ellis Maples was brought on board to design and supervise the construction of its nine additional holes. Being such a strong facility, why does the Winston Lake Golf Course have a less favorable reputation than its other counterparts in town? For residents familiar with Winston-Salem, they are not ignorant of the not-so-quiet division of the town by Highway 52, known as the John Gold Memorial Expressway within Forsyth County. A dividing line much more real than its symbolism, the expressway travels through Winston-Salem in a north and south direction, highlighting the segregational split of the city. On the eastern side of the highway, the population is mostly black, while on the western side of the highway, the population is mostly white.

Resting on this segregated eastern side of town, Winston Lake Golf Course has di culty being a top choice for golf players throughout town. Highlighting this facility and its history of black golf players in the area goes hand in hand with what Authoring Action is all about. The golf tournament scheduled for this upcoming Saturday, August 5 will not only bring players onto the course but will specifically benefit one of Authoring Action’s most impactful programs, Just Us. A film program geared to plant a creative and self-expressive seed in its participants, Just Us serves teens referred to Authoring Action by the juvenile penal system.

While most of the youth participating in the Just Us program arrive through these court referrals, either as a preventative measure or as mandated participation, Authoring Action still keeps an eye out for teens who may not necessarily be navigating the system. At times, the program will receive referrals by word of mouth of a teen that may be struggling and Just Us will make space for these additional participants. If being enrolled in Just Us wasn’t life-changing enough, students actually have their ﬁlms displayed at the end of each program session at

Winston-Salem downtown’s very own art house cinema a/perture.

In addition to Just Us, Authoring Action o ers several other disciplines and programs such as music, and the Outreach Ensemble. Not only do youth work closely with the program’s directors and sta , but the organization is also well known for bringing in artists of the highest caliber to work directly with its youth. Naturally, these guest artists need to get paid, leading Byers to seek additional and creative ways to cover these costs on behalf of the program’s continuous prestige. “This is really what di erentiates Authoring Action,” said Byers. “The quality that it o ers through its artistic collaborations.”

In more recent years Authoring Action has evolved by expanding its mission to other underprivileged groups such as Winston-Salem’s homeless population and senior citizens. The same writing curriculum Freeman developed for the youth program has now been used to provide other non-youth groups with opportunities to develop their self-expression. As a result, this particular writing process has proven to be very beneﬁcial as well to these wider demographics. The aging population Authoring Action has worked with, for instance, has been able to develop meaning in their current life stage through this creative process. Earlier this summer, Authoring Action partnered with The Dwelling congregation to produce a live stage performance of original songs, visual art, and narratives through which members of Winston-Salem’s homeless community were able to tell their stories. Proud to be a part of the Authoring Action family, Byers feels deeply connected and fully devoted to the organization’s work. “It truly gives people the tools to ﬁnd their voice and be able to express themselves through it,” she said. “Yes, the golf tournament is for the Just Us program, but it’s also for leveraging the Winston Lake Golf Course and our city.”

An investment year for Authoring Action, Byers hopes that the golf tournament will establish itself as an annual event and that people will want to come out to and participate year after year. She’s determined to increase funds for Just Us, but also to continue shedding light on the systemic racism work towards a desegregated Winston-Salem. Additionally, she has a documentary in the works showcasing the success stories of those who have come through Authoring Action’s program and the promise the organization is already showing to change our world for the better.

Authoring Action’s inaugural golf tournament “Golf 4 Action!” is scheduled for Saturday, August 5 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sign-ups are available individually for $75 or by teams of four for $275. All proceeds will support Authoring Action’s program Just Us. To register please visit: https://authoringaction.networkforgood.com/events/56987-golf-4action. !