The leadership of the Eastern N.C. Episcopal Diocese of the A.M.E. Zion Church says it will announce tonight "the launching of a special Wake County School Initiative for Economically –Disadvantaged Students with a targeted focus on reaching the Black Male."

The announcement will come during an 8:30 p.m. news conference at Rush Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion Church, 558 East Cabarrus St. in Raleigh.

In addition, organizers say the event is meant to show they're "renewing their commitment to fight the abandonment of the socio-economic diversity policy which will lead to high poverty, racially identifiable public schools in Wake County."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

The Piedmont Episcopal District of the AME Zion Church has joined in backing the July 20 NAACP rally and opposing the Wake County school board's elimination of the diversity policy.

In a Tuesday press release, Bishop George W. Walker, Sr., leader of the Piedmont district, said he was standing "in support of the North Carolina NAACP's call in opposition to resegregation." Walker had made the announcement at this week's annual meeting of the national NAACP in Kansas City.

Bishop Richard K. Thompson issued a call to action to his church's "moral army" Thursday night while challenging the Wake County school board majority and those who support them.

Thompson, the leader of the 40,000-member Eastern NC District of the AME Zion Church, cast his support for the old diversity policy as being the morally correct position. He urged the school board majority to step back from the "dangerous road" it's taking, which he called a "recipe for disaster."

"To the Wake County school board and other municipalities in the state, we are opposed to any policies, overt or covert, that will lead to the resegregation of public schools," Thompson said. "I want you to hear us. We will not go away. July 20 is not the end. It's the beginning."

Local members of the A.M.E. Zion Church are being urged to pray as they prepare to take part in the July 20 mass demonstration against the end of the Wake County school diversity policy.

In a press release today, Bishop Richard K. Thompson, Presiding Prelate of The Eastern North Carolina Episcopal District of The A.M.E. Zion Church, has called on his members to attend a "solemn assembly and prayer vigil." The vigil will start at 7 p.m. Thursday at Saint Mark A.M.E. Zion Church, 531 South Roxboro Street, Durham.

The Rev. William Barber, president of the state NAACP, will be the special guest speaker on Thursday.

The state NAACP is lining up more non-Evangelical Christian groups to oppose the Wake County school board majority's elimination of the socioeconomic diversity policy.

As noted in today's Durham News religion column by Flo Johnston, a group calling itself the  Concerned Clergy of Durham plans to release a statement Friday in opposition to the changes being planned in Wake County. They're following up on the actions of the Wake County Clergy Coalition.

“We need to be more active, not sitting around twiddling our thumbs while the potential for re-segregation is coming into play again," said the Rev. Marilyn Hedgpeth, an associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Durham. "I hope we have learned from our past not to go there again."

CORRECTION

Changed to show that Barber's denomination is part of the Disciples of Christ International. Link also changed for denomination website.

Toward the end of her interview on WUNC's "The State of Things" last week, Triangle expatriate Alina Simone mentioned that she's writing a book about her "strange adventures in Russian indie-rock." Plenty of raw material there, given that Simone has spent the past few years reclaiming her Russian heritage. Curiously, however, she's devoting a chapter in the book to Britney Spears, an object of fascination for Simone ever since she discovered that Spears' 2003 hit "Toxic" was inescapable even in deepest Siberia.

Simone says she's also going to record an EP of Spears covers, including "Toxic," "...Baby One More Time" -- and, of course, "Oops!...I Did It Again," a jailbait anthem that might be the skeeviest song in Spears' catalog. Saturday night at the Carrboro ArtsCenter, Simone closed her show with a jagged guitar version of "Oops!," to general confusion and amusement. Simone transposed the titillation of Spears' original to something like anguished paranoia, and it took most of the first verse for everyone to recognize the song. There were audible snickers the first time Simone got to the money-shot line: I'm not. That. Innocent.

It was a great shock-value moment, even if Richard Thompson beat her to it by a couple of years. How much you want to bet Thompson covers that one, too, when he plays the ArtsCenter in March?

ADDENDUM (1/26/09): Here's what was happening right next door to the ArtsCenter Saturday night.

SECOND ADDENDUM (7/21/09): More strange Britney covers.

You know, we just haven't had enough capital-G Guitar Gods come through here lately. Fortunately, that will change the month after next. The great Richard Thompson, who is about the godliest guitarist on the planet, just popped up on the schedule for March 8-9 at the Carrboro ArtsCenter. Tickets go on sale Friday, via the Cat's Cradle.