When Raleigh-born American Idol star Clay Aiken, 34, takes the stage this month to star in North Carolina Theatre’s The Drowsy Chaperone, he will be coming home in more ways than one. “My first audition ever was at North Carolina…
by Mary E. Miller photographs by Geoff Wood It takes a considerable stride to go from a career implem- enting World Bank-funded health and education projects in Peru to launching an artisanal leather repair business in Raleigh. But in Robert…
Interior designer MA Allen will tell you that she lives for the experience and inspiration of travel. Yet she has come home to roost a mere 50 miles from where she grew up, proving that inspiration can also be found…
by Samantha Thompson Hatem It all started in 2001 when Raleigh entrepreneur Danny Rosin and four enterprising young friends – Phil Gruber, Shellie Gruber, Tom Lyon, and Skip Mangum – were feeling helpless in the aftermath of 9/11 and wanted…
by Charman Driver On the day I decided to try indoor rock climbing, I didn’t bother to mention to Joel Graybeal, managing partner of the Triangle Rock Club, that I have a fear (let’s call it minor) of heights. As…
by Victoria Reynolds I got so used to letting you go that now I prefer the moment the empty bar dips to the lowest point in its arc then begins its flight upward to where I stand on my platform,…
by P. Gaye Tapp As someone who has loved books since I was a child checking out biographies from the school library, I’ve come to realize there is no cure for such an addiction. I was born this way. In…
photograph by Simon Griffiths When Raleigh commercial photographer Simon Griffiths and his family ordered seven chickens from mypetchicken.com last summer, all but one died en route. His daughter Gillian, 13, named the sole survivor Nemo after the animated fish, and…
When Raleigh commercial photographer Simon Griffiths and his family ordered seven chickens from mypetchicken.com last summer, all but one died en route. His daughter Gillian, 13, named the sole survivor Nemo after the animated fish, and Griffiths started photographing her…
by Marjorie Hodges As the Raleigh arts community continues to thrive, many local artists, museum directors, curators, dealers, collectors and patrons are on the move, becoming part of the national and international arts scene. Over the last few months, I…
Once ubiquitous in pharmacies across the South, soda fountains have waned with the advent of fast food. Today, it’s not easy to find the pressed sandwiches, milkshakes and drinks that made them so popular, but Pharaoh’s at North Hills and…
When Raleigh resident Munther Qubain got rid of his Ferarri and replaced it with a new sports car in 2009, the Department of Motor Vehicles didn’t know how to process it. Nobody in North Carolina had registered…
by Liza Roberts photographs below by Juli Leonard When Steve and Sujitra Martin decided to move to Raleigh from Charlotte in 2006, they knew what they wanted in a house here: Something small but efficient, in a walkable, downtown neighborhood….
by Karen Johnson photograph by Lissa Gotwals Gigi Karmous-Edwards exudes a wide-eyed innocence you might not expect from a scientist and engineer of 27 years. But in her new career as handbag designer, a sense of wonder is a vital…