Flintside Launches #FlintFoundations

This is #FlintFoundations, a new special feature of Flintside shedding light on those who make a difference.

They are the foundation of our community, upon which our entrepreneurship, arts and culture, health and wellness, technology, and education grow.

Look for #FlintFoundations on all our social media platforms. Join us in honoring Flint’s greats. Use #FlintFoundations to suggest who we should feature next.

Our first #FlintFoundations features Charles Winfrey, who grew up in the St. John Street neighborhood in Flint. (See it on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.)

During the 1960s, Winfrey was a leader of the Black Student Union at Mott Community College, later graduating from UM-Flint with a degree in political science and Africana studies.

Winfrey went on to become founder and director of the Coalition for Positive Youth Development, an organization dedicated to offering positive after-school activities for Flint’s youth.

He served as executive assistant to Flint Mayor Woodrow Stanley from 1991 to 2001 and the president of Northridge Academy school board from 2008 to 2011.

In 2004, a ‘new’ era was born: Winfrey helped form the “New” McCree Theatre, home to the African-American story in the African-American voice. It is a theater like none other in the state of Michigan. First founded in 1970, the theatre took a 15-year “intermission” after 1989.

Today, Winfrey is executive director of The New McCree Theatre located on Flint’s northside.

Winfrey told Flintside, “Watching raw talent come up on stage and watching it blossom and be heard—there is just great joy in that. Each production becomes a family.”

(Flintside previously published an article on the New McCree Theatre, which you can read here.)

Look for more #FlintFoundations by following us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook @Flintsidenews.