Let’s do this
by David Menconi Co-writing someone else’s memoir involved a number of firsts, but probably the biggest was this: It was the first time I was ever interviewed for a job on a band bus. It happened in the summer…
Category: Arts & Culture
Spotlight: Hit the Road
Rural Academy Orchestra by Mimi Montgomery In our age of instant, at-your-fingertips entertainment, The Rural Academy Theater is doing things a little differently. Each year, these Pender County-based performers take some of their original shows and hit the road in a horse-drawn…
Spotlight: Weekend of words
West End Poetry Festival in Carrboro by Mimi Montgomery You don’t have to be an experienced wordsmith to attend the West End Poetry Festival in Carrboro. Hosted October 16 and 17 by the Carrboro Poets Council, the gathering marks the 10th…
Other people’s stories: Patrick Torres meets his new city
by Andrew Kenney photographs by Nick Pironio Patrick Torres watches from the front of the hall as people take the stage one by one. He hears them lay bare their own true stories: The woman who found a moment of…
Fanny’s table
by Scott Huler The first thing you should know is green: Fanny’s table is green. An old, faux-antique dusky green, the green of a deep-forest conifer or a faded piece of blotter paper, but green just the same. The second…
Sheila Ogle: Philanthropic entrepreneur
by Todd Cohen As a teenager working in her father’s store, Sheila Ogle learned that business and philanthropy go hand-in-hand. While she handled a range of jobs at Thorne Sporting Goods on South Street in Raleigh, including selling hunting and…
Katherine McVey: Blossoming forth
by Todd Cohen photographs by Jillian Clark Using flowers to help lift the spirits of people living with sickness, terminal illness, poverty, or a disability is the mission of The Flower Shuttle, an all-volunteer nonprofit in Raleigh. With hundreds of…
Spotlight: Not your father’s thrift shop
Father and Son Antiques Don’t let the rack of vintage clothes plunked down on the sidewalk – or the store’s name, for that matter – mislead you. Inside the two-story emporium of vintage-ness on West Hargett Street, Father and Son…
Spotlight: Get your Nasher on
Nasher Museum of Art 10th Anniversary by Jessie Ammons This fall marks the 10th anniversary of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. To celebrate, the museum is hosting a day-long, museum-wide celebration on October 4 including interactive activities, live…
Denise Hughes: From earthly trash to maritime treasure
by Samantha Thompson Hatem photographs by Nick Pironio Before you even read this, go ahead and pull out a recycling bag. Denise Hughes asks that you kindly fill it with plastic bottle caps. All sizes and colors are welcome. And don’t…
Shelley Belk and Van Eure: Investing in hope
by Todd Cohen For the one in four families affected by mental illness, finding treatment and a cure can be difficult, frustrating, and often heart-breaking, particularly in a society that stigmatizes the disease. The late Thad and Alice Eure encountered…
A Mother’s Place
by Sharon Kurtzman It is not a mother’s place to turn her children into firemen, make them dance like Pavlova, play sports like Kobe Bryant perform in the way of Meryl Streep or Beyonce. It is not a mother’s…
Spotlight: Gourd-geous
by Mimi Montgomery Hard to believe, but fall is approaching, and with it comes a celebration of all things autumnal. Get in the seasonal spirit with the 74th Annual North Carolina Gourd Arts & Crafts Festival, a celebration hosted…
Caring for creatures great and small
by Todd Cohen photographs by Travis Long Page Wages’ pet peeve is literally that – a pet peeve: “Long nails and dirty ears in dogs,” says Wages, a veterinarian at CareFirst Animal Hospital in Raleigh. “I’m always cleaning ears and cutting…