Say yes to the dress
by Mary E. Miller Maybe it wasn’t the starring role, but she did have 27 lines. She’d won the comic relief. And in middle school – as for the rest of life that comes after, that’s something worth owning, I…
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Oakwood Cemetery: Segway-style
by CC Parker photograph by Robert Willett I admit it: I chuckle at Segway tours. Lined up like ducks. Helmeted. All leaning forward, slightly bow-legged, intent on their mission… and what is that mission? And yet, there I was, on…
Reading Proust
by Larry Wheeler Director, North Carolina Museum of Art illustration by Tim Lee I’ve long been fixated on the history of Europe and America between 1870 and the First World War, an extraordinary time for exploring the clash and coexistence of the…
The dogs of summer
words and photographs by Juli Leonard They came in sizes small and large. Drooly ones and shy ones. Some could barely stand still; others were clearly ready for their close-up. One leapt into my lap between every shot. Another tackled the…
Spotlight: American Aquarium
1,600 people + 31 states + 3 countries + 1 city +1 record = 1 Raleigh weekend by Tracy Davis photograph by Joshua Black Wilkins Roots-rock band American Aquarium loves its Raleigh hometown, but the band is forever leaving it behind,…
The fifty names: A historical perspective on black history month
by Ernest Dollar, director, City of Raleigh Museum photographs by Tierney Farrell On display in the City of Raleigh Museum is a piece of paper that holds the key to a 160-year-old mystery. Scrawled in black ink in elegant Victorian handwriting…
The van of my dreams
by Ann Brooke Raynal illustration by Emily Brooks In the fog of my second pregnancy I decided that a minivan would make my life complete. I was devoting my life to these children, and a van would tell the world: Mother on…
For Alex: A family’s climb to honor a lost son
by J. Andrew Curliss photographs by Patrick Davison Chuck Stuber is standing halfway up Mount Fuji at a place where climbers begin their slogging treks to the summit of Japan’s tallest mountain. There is a pay toilet here and a…
Sunday supper in the park
by Liza Roberts photographs by Juli Leonard When Raleigh resident Katherine Poole, 45, co-launched a table linen company in 2009, she knew it would be a good outlet for her creative talents and abundant energy. But she didn’t know Hen…
Labels need not apply
by Samantha Thompson Hatem photographs by Nick Pironio It’s fitting that even Karen Strittmatter Galvin can’t quite characterize New Music Raleigh’s most recent performance, All Souls. A one-woman opera? A cinematic drama? It was, after all, partly her brainchild. But…
Under a Sunday sky: WALTER’s book club with Frances Mayes
photographs by Jillian Clark The ballroom at the Umstead Hotel & Spa was filled with the colors, flavors, and stories of Tuscany on a Sunday in April, when Under the Tuscan Sun author Frances Mayes joined 125 Walter readers for a…
A Collector’s Haven: Sterling Boyd’s home reflects a lifetime in the arts
by P. Gaye Tapp photographs by Catherine Nguyen An afternoon spent in Sterling Boyd’s company is a return to days of great elegance. The erudite octogenarian is ever gracious, schooled in the day when a gentleman took a lady’s wrap and…
The dance in the middle air: Poet David Rigsbee explores the space between memory and possibility
by Karen Lewis Taylor There’s no such thing as a casual conversation with David Rigsbee. His affinity for the complexities of human experience pushes against the limits of the everyday exchange. He speaks with an intensity that’s deepened by adept…
Deck of Oaks
by Emma Powell “I wanted to do something that was locally organized and gave back to the community,” says Raleigh graphic designer Ladye Jane Vickers. The result is the Deck of Oaks, a set of playing cards created to raise…