The reports are in: a record number of U.S. travelers are preparing to see the world. Wanderlust has set in. As the summer travel season beckons, we harken back to a special traveler of our own who wrote postcards from afar for CharlotteViewpoint. Jennifer P. Garner wrote for CV between 2006 and 2013. She interviewed many of Charlotte's leading citizens for the magazine before relocating to London. She sent musings and reflections from Marrakech, Venice, Giza, Belfast, Madrid, and Kuala Lumpur. CharlotteViewpoint had its own foreign correspondent.
In 2012, Jennifer sent a report from Magdalen College at the University of Oxford entitled "Dinner at Hogwarts." Instant readership! She had been invited to a formal Sunday evening meal in the Great Hall. The Sunday dinners began in 1458. Jennifer wrote, "The narrow tables stretched the length of the long room which was paneled in dark wood; wood that had absorbed the smoke of hundreds of years of candles, pipes, and cigarettes along with the laughter of young men...The pace and menu of the three-course meal hadn’t changed in hundreds of years and the black-frocked scholars still were young and eager to prove themselves in these hallowed halls." Jennifer noted, "We sat where J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis would meet and discuss their fantasy stories at the pub they called the Bird and Baby. Fresh young faces talked of their upcoming exams and the Boat Race against Cambridge in the spring,"
Charlotte also attracts a traveler or two. In 2012, Michael Solender scored the first one-on-one interview with Tom Murray, then the newly appointed CEO of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority (Tom served between 2011 and 2023). Tom shared why he sought the role, his vision for the CRVA, and his plans for tourism and hospitality in Charlotte.
We also include a 2016 article by Kimberly Lawson reporting on the first BOOM festival. Kimberly quotes Manoj Kesavan, founder of the Festival: "We believe in doing it, we want to do it; it’s almost like we don’t have any choice, we have to do it." We add a story by Karen Luddy on a college bell tower, and an artist gallery by Brian Knep.
You'll see links to four of our PDF magazines from previous years that include lead columns from Phil Dubois, Susan Patterson, Mike Whitehead, and Dan Levine.
Oh, the places you'll go!
Mark Peres
Charlotte Viewpoint Founder
The Charlotte Center Founder & Executive Director
