by John Balaban illustration by Ippy Patterson When Li Po tried to climb T’ai-hang, he found its passes choked with snow. Thwarted, he turned back to lowlands, to streams sliding through bare willows where he sat and fished and…
by Mary E. Miller photographs by Lissa Gotwals The storming of the French Bastille was a hot affair of high ideals, fueled by the restless hungering of many souls. Not, in other words, unlike the Porch Light French Garden Party…
by Stacy Chandler photographs by Lissa Gotwals Dance has taken Michelle Pearson all over the world – as a professional performer, a state department cultural envoy, and a William C. Friday fellow – but she has always had a home at…
by Samantha Thompson Hatem photographs by Missy McLamb Most people know him as the lanky bass player in the popular Raleigh-based band The Connells. But if you ask David Connell, 51, how he wants to be remembered, it isn’t for…
by Betty Adcock Begin with a box. Imagine it made of ordinary and exotic woods: yellow pine and rosewood, mahogany and oak, hickory and ebony, mixed every which way: mosaics, shape-shifting inlays. It can expand to hold a sunset,…
By Charles Upchurch photographs by Shawn Rocco I have a neighbor who sport-fishes all over the world. Hawaii, Costa Rica, the Atlantic Gulf Stream. Marlin, tuna, sailfish. I told him I was writing a piece on a guy here in…
by Liza Roberts photographs by Jimmy Williams You might not know it, but you’ve probably seen Thomas Sayre’s art. It’s big, it’s bold, and it’s public. In Raleigh, his three gigantic earthen ellipses spool across a field at the…
by Martha Quillin photographs by Liz Condo Rory Parnell did not herself prepare the petite crab cakes with Cajun remoulade that guests gobbled in two bites at her late fall party to benefit local arts education. Her husband, Jerry, grilled the…
by Chelsea Jones Every summer, I spend the month of July with my family in the Northern Michigan town where I grew up. It’s an amazing place, never too hot, always cool enough for a campfire at night, with clear,…
text and photograph by John Rosenthal Jackson Pollock When I was 16 I took my girlfriend, Amy, to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. I didn’t know much about modern art, though I knew I liked Picasso’s…
by Larry Wheeler director, North Carolina Museum of Art At the North Carolina Museum of Art’s annual art auction, Marion Church of Raleigh won a weekend in New York with me. So the long-anticipated adventure – a three-day weekend of…
by Charles Upchurch photographs by Shawn Rocco You’re a tundra swan. Tonight, you will leave your summer nesting grounds in subarctic Canada and begin the southern migration to your winter home. By ancient imprint, guided by moon and stars…
by Noel Crook He lies still, breath clouding the slate tiles between his paws. Only the occasional twitch of an ear mars his perfect vigil. He has grown old following the girl, his only lamb; has watched her …
by Doug Glanville illustration by Laura Frankstone When my wife and I moved from Philadelphia to Chicago in the winter of 2005, we also had Charlotte, Asheville, and Raleigh on the tips of our tongues. Without children at the time,…