by Hampton Williams Hofer photographs by Nick Pironio Any tennis player will tell you that the most coveted trophy outside of the professional circuit is the gold ball. No bigger than the nail on your pointer finger, the gold ball is…
by Jessie Ammons photograph by Travis Long For many, 6 p.m. on Friday cues happy hour, dinner reservations, or some other version of unwinding and disengaging. For a dedicated group at Triangle Table Tennis, though, it’s intense. It’s game time. “Practice,…
by Jessie Ammons photograph by Travis Long Fred Crisp knows life lessons can be learned through sports. That’s one reason he became a coach for his church’s co-ed recreational basketball league almost a decade ago. “Our whole emphasis is on…
by Mimi Montgomery photograph by Travis Long Dr. Philip Griffin has always had a good ear: The longtime musician plays the guitar, bass guitar, and drums – and as a true child of the ’90s, his musical tastes lean toward rock…
by Samantha Thompson Hatem photographs by Tim Lytvinenko Paul Friedrich has found his audience. After nearly three decades creating cartoon characters beloved by Raleighites, the city’s best-known pop artist and cartoonist is on the cusp of taking his off-beat sense…
by Tracy Davis Great oaks from little acorns grow. And the City of Oaks has little acorns of all sorts, including a crop of girl rockers and bluegrass pickers that’s coming along quite nicely. Appearing soon on a stage near…
by Tina Haver Currin photographs by Lissa Gotwals The Uber driver isn’t sure what to think about Dupont Circle, an industrial road west of the Amtrak station and not far from The Pit in downtown Raleigh, where a 6,500-square-foot studio…
by Kevin Flinn photographs by Nick Pironio Your teacher wheeled in the projector, unfurled the screen, and dimmed the lights. Within moments, the film crackled, the speaker hummed, the bulbs brightened, and it was show time. Perhaps you saw A…
“To share the joy of music with others is a privilege.” –Sylvia Wiggins, director, Helping Hand Mission marching band (far left, front row) by Jessie Ammons photograph by Travis Long Sylvia Wiggins has always had a penchant for band music. But as a…
“At the end of the day, a good job is key to people’s quality of life.”–Tim Giuliani, Raleigh’s new Chamber of Commerce president by Mimi Montgomery photograph by Travis Long Not many kids want to be a chamber of commerce president when…
by Jessie Ammons photograph by Travis Long Pota Vallas, 107, took a 16-day Atlantic voyage to reach America in 1924. “I came from a little Greek town caled Chrysafa. It was like Garner or Cary, outside of Sparta,” she says. “I was…
by Ilina Ewen photographs by Missy McLamb Begun with the Scots in the sixteenth century, it is hailed as one of the world’s oldest – and coldest – sports. But that hasn’t stopped the recent and unlikely renaissance of the sport of…
by Tracy Davis photographs by Nick Pironio Raleigh artist Clark Hipolito is a man in constant motion, a quality he shares with much of the art he makes. His reputation was built with murals and commercial interior design – art that stays…
by Leslie Maxwell Kristen Rivera, from Johns Creek, Ga., wasn’t considering applying to a women’s college. But after visiting the largest women’s college in the Southeast, she changed her mind. At Meredith College, she says, “I just felt really comfortable.” Now a…