The local who knows: Jim Dodson’s Pinehurst picks

by Liza Roberts When the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open come to Pinehurst June 12-15 and June 19-22, as many as 400,000 fans are expected to converge on the quaint village known as “the cradle of American golf.” They’ll…

More a cathedral than a cowshed

text and illustrations by Frank Harmon The Dorton Arena at the N.C. State Fairgrounds was a technological wonder when it was built in 1952. Its cable-supported roof spanned the length of a football field and comfortably housed 7,600 spectators under…

Memories of Vietnam: 45 years and counting

by Larry Stogner While shooting a story at RDU recently, I recalled the day I returned home from Vietnam in late 1968. There were no jetways then. There were stairs. A 50-yard walk led to the only doorway into Raleigh-Durham…

Glad for my purple prince

by Tony Avent illustration by Ippy Patterson Growing up in North Carolina, it’s not uncommon to see gladiolus growing along country roads through older rural communities. For that reason, I could never reconcile why all the gladiolus I ordered from mail-order…

Tree of hearts

by Tony Avent illustration by Ippy Patterson I was first introduced to Aleurites fordii (also known as Vernicia fordii) through the wood sealer called Tung oil, which is made from the plant. That was long before I met Aleurites fordii in person….

from the Prologue: Fiddledeedee

by Shelby Stephenson 2015 North Carolina poet laureate SAYING I NEED AN IMAGE TO MAKE THE WORLD I went back home and held my eyes on the hill and it said You need a word deeper than I so I took…

North State

by David Rigsbee   My father came to me in a dream to walk with me around a stadium. Not wearing the jaunty motley of his last months: the patchwork newsboy cap and paneled shirt he wore when tearing around…

All art is self-portrait

by Ann Brooke Raynal photographs by Jillian Clark “Pointed sharp things frighten us,” says Raleigh artist Kiki Farish. “Rounded things feel safer. When we see curve in design or drawing, we are not scared of it.” Farish is speaking to a group…

Coffee community

by Tina Haver Currin photographs by Travis Long A city growing as fast as ours is fueled by ideas, enthusiasm, and investment. A little caffeine doesn’t hurt, either. And now we’ve got it with a lot of local flavor, thanks to a…

Mountain time

by  Ann Brooke Raynal Walk into the barn at Montreat on a Friday evening in summertime and prepare to step out of (or perhaps back in) time. The Stoney Creek Boys play traditional square dance music as they have every…

Buck Creek bowls

by Emma Powell Wood bowl artist Darrell Rhudy, 83, first discovered his love of woodcraft in the third grade. “I told my teacher I wanted to build birdhouses,” he says, standing in the workshop he built behind his house off…

Following the old road

text and photographs by Scott Huler Just southeast of Charlotte, at the big rock that marks the corner of North and South Carolina – OK, one of many corners, and those corners have actually been somewhat mobile, but that’s another story…

David Burris: Telling stories

by Samantha Thompson Hatem photography by Nick Pironio Everyone should have Raleigh native David Burris’ knack for remaking his career every decade or so and landing a new dream job. This time, Burris, a former executive producer of TV reality show…

Through a pinhole

by Samantha Thompson Hatem photographs by Tim Lytvinenko Diana Bloomfield doesn’t like working in a darkroom. For most photographers who started taking photos in the early 1980s, this might have been a career-ending problem. But for Bloomfield, a Reidsville native, that…

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