Category: Arts & Culture

Collecting photography

by Allen Thomas Jr. Allen Thomas Jr.’s photography collection is widely known. A Wilson native and part-time Raleigh resident, Thomas has had solo exhibitions of his collection at several museums, including Raleigh’s North Carolina Museum of Art and CAM, and…

Tony Tata: Writing thrillers by moonlight

by Liza Roberts photograph by Robert Willett After his workday, in a study filled with memor- arablia from a 28-year career in the U.S. Army, N.C. Secretary of Transportation Tony Tata writes thriller novels. He writes about special forces officers, combat missions,…

Big band, big following

by Ann Brooke Raynal photographs by Doug Van de Zande There was a tense moment at the Five Points Center for Active Adults one recent Thursday night as Kesano “Kay” Bisset and Steve Catafygiotu reminisced about the war years. The…

Spotlight: Bark in the park

If your Shih Tzu is a superfan, get ready to celebrate. The Durham Bulls open their gates to canines of all stripes at Bark in the Park at the Aug. 12 game against the Norfolk Tides. This special event for the…

Labor of Light

by Andrew Kenney photographs by Missy McLamb Patrick Shanahan lives in the wrong city. He’s a movie maker. He shoots on film because he needs its grain and grit. He bought a ’57 Chevy Bel Air, matte black because it was the…

Live music

photograph by Travis Long “I love live music, and May is full of it. I’m excited about Needtobreathe, Dave Matthews, and Kenny Chesney.” – Andrew Valkanoff, owner, Triangle Dairy Queen Entrepreneur Andrew Valkanoff has a pretty sweet gig: he owns and…

Imani Abdullah-Lutes

by Todd Cohen photograph by Carla Williams Some would say the odds have been stacked against Imani Abdullah-Lutes from day she was born 18 years ago. Those people don’t know this young woman. When Imani’s biological mother went into labor,…

A teacher first: Lope Max Diaz

by Amber Nimocks photographs by Juli Leonard Bold, staring orbs, fractured picture frames, and bright geometric elements give the sculptural paintings of Raleigh’s own Lope Max Diaz a visceral presence. Through his signature use of shape and color, Diaz can…

Editor’s Letter: June/July

WALTER was delighted to welcome the author Frances Mayes to a special luncheon with 125 WALTER readers at the Umstead Hotel & Spa on a Sunday in late April. This latest in our series of WALTER EVENTS combined literary conversation with gourmet food…

Making music: Raleigh’s instrument restorers keep the town in tune

by Corbie Hill photographs by Lissa Gotwals Violins are made to be repaired. Their tops aren’t flush to their sides, like a guitar’s. Instead, those tops are designed to be removed, so violins can be tended to over multi-hundred-year lifespans….

A better ‘bot

photographs by Tim Lytvinenko At Dorton Arena one recent afternoon, groups of teenagers wearing kooky matching outfits huddled together, eyes fixed on an obstacle course of sorts – but machines were navigating it, not people. As the teenagers looked on, robots…

Spotlight: Author with a purpose

by Jessie Ammons Paul Leonard has always been an intentional observer. “When I have experiences and they move me, I write about it,” he says. “I don’t necessarily journal every day, but when I see something that means something to me,…

Dave Rose: Raleigh’s man behind the curtain

by Liza Roberts photographs by Nick Pironio In a modest bungalow along the grassy, unmowed edge of Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Hospital campus, Dave Rose presides over the Triangle’s most comprehensive music and entertainment empire. Unless you’re a music geek or one of…

Art and empathy

by Sarah Schroth Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Director Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University Art museums are, for me, almost sacred spaces of contemplation. If I slow down and take enough time to look at a work…

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