This is your life
by Maureen Sherbondy Place your hand in the fire imagine it is a river that can only burn the skin of one who fears and sees flame. Jump out of the plane. No parachute. Fall and grab what you need…
Category: Arts & Culture
Hope and a ’68 Impala
by Settle Monroe The radio never worked and the air conditioning was shot in the 1968 Chevrolet Impala my father inherited from his grandmother. But when I was a 5-year-old girl riding to kindergarten with my dad, its run-down condition…
Patterns
by Tracie Fellers “Why?” That’s what my mother says when I tell her, while we finish our Sunday dinner – post-Thanksgiving plates of turkey, oyster dressing, collard greens, and sweet potatoes. Mom and I had joked that my maternal grandmother and…
Working with art: Art, everywhere
photographs by Nick Pironio In 1959, when Capitol Broadcasting Company founder A.J. Fletcher opened a lush and expansive azalea garden to the public on five West Raleigh acres surrounding WRAL-TV studios, he said he did it to pay “a tribute…
Of course it’s art: Tom Shields and his chairs in the trees
by Amber Nimocks photographs by Juli Leonard You scan the surrounding trees and spot other chairs likewise suspended, their rungs seeming to run through the trunks, at various heights and angles throughout the small, sparse clump of forest. It takes…
Downton dining
by Jesma Reynolds photograph by Missy Mclamb It’s not every day that a man in tails and gloves shows up to deliver an elegantly scripted invitation on a silver tray. But that’s exactly what happened to Raleigh resident Nancy Brenneman this past…
The power of a father: Dexter Hebert shapes lives
by Todd Cohen photographs by Nick Pironio Dexter Hebert has devoted his adult life to giving kids who need it the kind of loving support he got from his own father. “Not having a father in the home is a huge…
Strumming up a home: Musicians choose Raleigh
by Tracy Davis photographs by Juli Leonard In days of yore, traveling minstrels made their way from one town to the next, sharing their tunes on the village green. Today, many minstrel types have set aside lutes and lyres in…
If Their Voices Were Visible Entities
by Betty Adcock Sacred Harp Singers, Georgia, 1930s If their voices were visible entities flying from the deep south’s fading churches, startled from the throats of an earlier century by hope revived, they would be birds. Ordinary starlings. Or swifts…
Into Africa: A great walk
by Luther H. Hodges Jr. After a recent period of personal upheaval, retired North Carolina Democratic politician and banker Luther H. Hodges Jr., 76, sought solace and insight in adventure: a walking safari in Africa. Unplugged and surrounded by the…
A secret park: Devereux Meadow
by Scott Huler The dozen or so healthy oak trees standing in a line in the secret park along the Pigeon House Branch north of Peace Street look to be about 40 years old, which means the oaks, which…
Sultans of swing
by Allie Higgins photograph by Missy McLamb Raleigh craftsmen Matthew Cronheim and Justin Johnson are putting an unexpected twist on a summer classic: the porch swing. Stacked, slotted, and strung, their handmade Harris Swing makes for a cool glide on a…
Seaweed, horsehair and sugar: Innovative potter Edge Barnes has a recipe all his own
by Amber Nimocks photographs by Tim Lytvinenko Edge Barnes has always been “in beta,” long before always being “in beta” was cool. “If there’s not something new going on, there’s something wrong,” he says. It might seem incongruous for a gray-bearded potter…
Sharing music: Bett Padgett’s open house keeps it alive
by Liza Roberts photographs by Mark Petko As Bett Padgett welcomes yet another stranger into her Raleigh home on this bright-green evening, she’s doing something she considers vital: Sharing music. Tonight, she’s sharing it with about 90 people who have…