Our History:
This publication was first produced in the winter of
1991 as
The Guide to Black Charlotte and was the first distributed magazine targeting
African-Americans in
Charlotte,
NC, and first publication across-the-board to feature singles advertising. Back then the city of
Charlotte suffered from the old
holier-than-thou complex and people looked down on folks advertising themselves for dates and likened it to prostitution. In fact, it was so bad that a local church cancelled their pending subscription order because we featured a model in swim wear. My God! Oops!
I occasional read some of our old editions and wonder what happened to the folks and businesses that we covered back then in the early
1990's when
Charlotte did not even appear on the national weather map and people would confuse it with
Charleston,
SC, or
Charleston,
WV.
The
Mayor of
Charlotte back then (1991) was the honorable
Sue Myrick who did her thing as a
North Carolina State Congresswoman until retiring years ago. By the way, she was the first and only female
Mayor in
Charlotte history until
Jennifer Roberts (and today Vi Lyles),and was nice enough to provide us with a signed welcome letter dated
January 11,
1991. I wonder what it would fetch on
eBay today?
That first edition in the winter of
1991 featured an article on the
old Charlotte Coliseum which was still new -- Opened 1988 -- and had replaced the
Independence Arena -- Now
Bojangle's Arena -- as the venue for basketball, most big concerts, and shows like the now defunct
Ringling Brother's and Barnum and Bailey Circus. In addition, it was the first home of the former
Charlotte Hornet's NBA (National Basketball Association) men's professional team. That edition also featured an article -- written by myself -- on
First Fridays which I have heard is still functioning, and articles on the now defunct
Ubiquitous (art)
Gallery on
East 7th Street; the defunct
West Fest,
Clinton Chapel A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal)
Zion Church, and the late
Mr. John McDonald of the now defunct
McDonald's Cafeteria on
Beatties Ford Road.
Madam C.J. Walker (Black millionaire cosmetics manufacturer, 1869-1919) was the featured inventor.
Alas the new layout of
Trend Magazine Online™ has
become a reality! Our site has been up for quite some time; however, we
have decided to redesign our format to one that more resembles a print
publication while providing continuous updates and fresh new
content.
Technology has certainly changed immensely since our printed publication was
shelved after the
Spring 1993 edition. For instance,
producing a full color photograph on the front cover required an
expensive process called color separation. This process would involve an
additional printer/person who possessed a very expensive camera that
would produce four sheets of film -- one for each basic color. Each basic
color then required a separate metal plate to print your four color
photo. The entire composition would sometimes take several days to
complete and could cost as much as
$500.00 or more for one cover
photo. Today this process is available at the click of a mouse and can be
performed in seconds by a computer that costs less than the cost of
producing one full color photo.