May 28, 2025
STAGE RIGHT
By Sarah Edwards, p. 18
Drama. Jazz hands. Contemporary clowning. A ten-minute rendition of Taylor Swiftʼs “All Too Well.” Who says adults canʼt have fun?
| Durham | Chapel Hill
Raleigh W Durham W Chapel Hill
VOL. 42 NO. 11
6 Talking with recent Duke grad and newly elected chair of the Durham Democrats, Emerson Kirby. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW
8 Advocates and homeowners say homes in Orange County's historically Black neighborhoods are being overvalued—again. BY CHASE PELLEGRINI DE PAUR
9 Scrap Skate: Old skate park equipment from Wheels will get a new life at Lakewood Shopping Center. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW
11 Gipson Play Plaza opens in June—waterfall, sand pit, sensory maze, multi-story climbing tower, mega-swing and all. BY CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL
CULTURE
14 I salvaged $6,000 of luxury goods that Duke University students threw away in my apartment building. Why did it make me feel so terrible? BY LENA GELLER
16 Scenes from the 55th Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival in Durham. WORDS BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW, PHOTOS BY ANGELICA EDWARDS
18 RECITAL makes performing fun again. BY SARAH EDWARDS
20 Lunch Money: A stop at Yagg Sii Tenn in Apex. BY LENA GELLER
22 Carrboro writer Georgann Eubanks' new book guides readers through the Southeast's most strange and brilliant phenomena. BY SARAH EDWARDS
24 Tom Cruise stars in Mission: Impossible, acclaimed British indie Sister Midnight, and more films coming to the Triangle. BY GLENN MCDONALD
THE REGULARS
3 Backtalk 4 Op-ed 26 Culture calendar
COVER RECITAL 2023; co-producers Alyssa Noble and Chris Strauss are pictured center.
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RECITAL performers in 2023 (See story, p. 18).
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B A C K TA L K
Last week, we published an op-ed online written by a Duke housekeeper and Durham native. Nahshon Blount argued that the university, “as one of the richest institutions in the country,” should—and can—pay staff higher wages and contribute more financially to the Durham community instead of cutting jobs. Readers have had a lot to say in response.
In my humble opinion …
Mr. Nahshon Blount’s op-ed was quite informative. Many years ago when I lived and worked in Durham, I recall Duke workers expressing similar if not the same issues that Mr. Blount raised in this op-ed. Amazing! So here we are in the 21st century and Duke workers are still calling for livable wages. Wow! I’d love not to hear this.
Yes, Duke University and the Duke Health system are second to none. These are outstanding institutions! I really hope that those top decision-makers will listen to the voices of those workers who are often less heard although they provide quality and necessary services.
I think some minds would change if these services were lost for a day or a week. In my humble view, every part of a healthy quality functioning body or institution must be valued, respected, and actually given its proper due or that body or institution suffers in some way. For example, try walking with a missing big toe or writing with a missing index finger. You may still function, but likely with significant challenges.
All body or institutional parts may not demand as much attention as other parts, but they are essential and deserve proper care. That’s the human way.
From reader KIRK BROWN by email:
Having worked on Duke University’s campus in the food industry, although not employed by the university, I witnessed the dedication of these extremely hard working people, day in, day out. They are the backbone, the roots, the fundamental element that has, and will, hold their work to the highest standard. Most are in it for the long haul, proving their commitment to the university.
With this in mind, it’s disappointing and disgraceful that threats of being fired is Duke’s response to POSSIBLE funding shortages from Capitol Hill. I’m almost embarrassed to say I’ve associated with the Blue Devils. One more thing, this is directly in line with what the fascist administration running our country is doing to immigrants since January.
From reader GREG CORDONES by email:
He’s correct! Duke can grab the proverbial Bull by the horns and show some leadership instead of backsliding into the old ways. The wage stated in the article is ridiculous, if not criminal. Shame on the university for not stepping up!
From reader LABARION FULLARD by email:
Duke has always been notorious for low wages. Most of my peers been working there over 30 years and can’t afford a decent home to live in. I remember when I was making $4.50 an hour in 88.
From reader LORETTA LILES by email:
I totally agree! Duke is such a big name all over everywhere … why not start here … set the stage for other health systems and universities to follow.
Justin Laidlaw interviewed Emerson Kirby, the newly elected chair of the Durham County Democratic Party and recent Duke grad. In the story (published online and on page 6 of this issue), Justin notes that a primary takeaway from Democrats’ electoral losses last year “is that party leadership is, quite frankly, too damn old” and that a new, younger “class of political leaders are gathering their forces
and preparing to upend the gerontocracy.” One reader had a different take.
From reader HART EDMONDS by email:
As a lifelong Democrat, I well remember the days when younger leaders were invited to be seen, but not heard. That has not served Democrats or the country very well. At the same time, I also detect a degree of “ageism” in this coverage about a new generation of young leaders. “Let’s kick older leaders to the curb so that we can get on with progressive policies and ideas” seems to be the unspoken vibe. I find that approach self-defeating.
As an involved member of the Orange County Democratic Party, I can say that if retired and still energetic adults were not actively engaged in the party, there would be no party to speak of. Retired adults have more time and often less responsibilities that allow more opportunity to participate in community affairs. While I welcome Emerson Kirby as an energetic new chair of Durham County Democrats, I would also encourage her to affirm how generations can work together effectively and creatively. Also, after reading this interview with Kirby I’m hard-pressed to know what particular issues and policies she’s an advocate for. Lots of generalities were mentioned. Where’s the appeal in vagueness? Often, far too often, vagueness is on the side of the status quo.
SO, until young leaders are able to passionately commit to fighting for specific policies and issues, I remain in wait and see mode. And voting patterns do matter. Older adults vote more regularly than younger voters. How will that change with younger leaders? Interestingly, Bernie Sanders demonstrates in his national anti-oligarchy tour with AOC, how intergenerational politics can energize all generations.
From reader NAOMI FEASTE by email:
Budgets Rooted in Durham’s Shared Values
A commissioner and a council member break down the county and city budget proposals, why property taxes are rising, and the challenges facing local officials this budget season.
BY NIDA ALLAM AND CARL RIST backtalk@indyweek.com
Every budget is a reflection of our values.
As Durham grows, so do our collective needs: more students in our classrooms, more neighbors in need of housing, more calls for mental health support, more roads and pipes to maintain. These aren’t abstract line items. They’re the basics of a safe, dignified life. And this year’s proposed budgets, for both Durham County and the City of Durham, are about doing our part to meet those needs with care and responsibility.
But we’re working within a system that is anything but fair. And the truth is our needs are vast, but our tools are limited.
Who does what: County vs. city
Many folks understandably don’t know where city services end and county services begin.
Here’s the breakdown:
• The county is responsible for public education, public health, social services like Medicaid and SNAP, the courts and jail, emergency medical services, libraries, and elections.
• The city handles police and fire, water and sewer infrastructure, trash pickup, streets and sidewalks, city parks, and affordable housing programs. We collaborate often but manage separate budgets shaped by different legal and financial constraints.
What’s in this year’s budgets
The county manager’s proposed $1.04 billion budget that includes a $10.35 million increase in school funding, bringing Durham Public Schools’ total county funding to $223.7 million. The budget expands youth violence prevention programs and funds additional EMS staff to meet rising emergency calls.
The city manager’s proposed $772 million budget invests in infrastructure, expands the HEART mental health crisis response team, maintains fare-free buses, and allocates $7 million to clean up lead-contaminated soil in five public parks. It also raises the city’s minimum employee wage to $21.90 per hour, because we all know public workers deserve a livable income.
Together, these budgets represent a vision of Durham that is safer, more equitable, and more responsive to the needs of everyday people.
Why property taxes are rising—even as rates fall
This year’s property revaluation increased home values across the county, some dramatically. By law, we calculate a “revenue-neutral” tax rate, which would bring in the same amount of money as before, just from newly assessed values.
But we’re not operating in 2020 anymore. Costs have gone up, responsibilities have grown, federal COVID relief has ended, sales tax revenues have slowed, and state support has shrunk. A revenue-neutral budget would mean school cuts, layoffs in public health, and delays in urgent infrastructure work.
So both the county and the city are proposing rates above revenue-neutral but below current rates:
• County’s proposed rate: 55.42¢ per $100 of assessed value
• City’s proposed rate: 43.71¢ per $100 of assessed value
If your property value increased significantly, your tax bill may go up despite the lower rate.
The deeper problem: A broken revenue system
Let’s be honest: North Carolina’s system of local taxation is broken, and deeply regressive.
The only major revenue source we can control is property tax. State law doesn’t let us create income brackets or tax luxury homes at a higher rate. That means everyone pays the same rate, regardless of whether your home is worth $150,000 or $1.5 million.
This setup hits low- and middle-income families the hardest. It widens inequity, yet the NC General Assembly continues to deny local governments the revenue-raising tools to fix it. Recognizing this, the county and city now collaborate on a model property tax assistance program, Low-Income Homeowner Relief, that provides property relief for long-time, low-income homeowners.
ILLUSTRATION BY NICOLE PAJOR MOORE
Meanwhile, state and federal support is withering
We’re also being asked to carry more with less.
Over the past decade, state and federal governments have withdrawn from key responsibilities:
• State mental health funding has been gutted.
• Public school support hasn’t kept pace with enrollment or inflation.
• Federal housing dollars are drying up, just as rents explode.
These aren’t gaps. They’re failures. And local governments are doing what we can to prevent those failures from becoming catastrophes.
A budget that reflects Durham’s values
We’ve always believed in a Durham that fights for its people. One that puts care and justice at the center of public life. That means investing in the people who teach our kids, answer 911 calls, deliver clean water, and show up to help in moments of crisis.
It also means being transparent with you: we’re raising revenue because we have to Doing nothing would hurt the people who rely on us most, and the alternative (gutting services, delaying infrastructure repairs, underfunding schools) is unacceptable. And it means demanding better from Raleigh and Washington, even as we build with what we have.
You deserve a voice in this
Budgets should never be written behind closed doors. That’s why we invite you to show up, speak out, and help shape this process.
County budget: Fill out the Resident Budget Survey by May 30 at dconc.gov. City budget: Attend the budget hearing on June 2 at seven p.m.
Visit dconc.gov and durhamnc.gov for more details and to submit comments.
We are building a Durham that works for all of us, not just some. And with your voice, we’ll get there. W
Nida Allam is chair of the Durham County Board of Commissioners. Carl Rist is a member of the Durham City Council.
“Democrats Need to Show Who We Are”
Emerson Kirby, newly elected Durham County Democratic Party chair, on engaging young voters and being more than just the party of “anti-Trump.”
BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW jlaidlaw@indyweek.com
After the arduous 2024 election, Democrats were forced to do some soul searching. One of the primary takeaways is that party leadership is, quite frankly, too damn old.
A new class of political leaders are gathering their forces and preparing to upend the gerontocracy. In North Carolina, 27-year-old Anderson Clayton, chair of the statewide Democratic Party, has been hard at work cultivating enough resources to prop up a Democratic candidate in every open seat in the state. Nationally, David Hogg, the 25-year-old vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, recently made waves within the party by stating his intention to support primary candidates in a number of upcoming elections.
Durham may soon have its own youth movement. Emerson Kirby, a Durham native, got involved in local politics at a young age, volunteering on campaigns and with different nonprofits. Last year, she graduated from Duke University with a bachelor’s degree in public policy. During her junior year at Duke, Kirby was elected third vice chair of the Durham Democrats, where she served for two years until this past April, a year after her graduation, when she rose to the top chair position.
Even though Kirby is still a young operative, she comes to the position with experience and a sense of personal responsibility to represent other young residents whose voices aren’t being heard. Her responses are polished and her delivery fits a job that requires practiced communica-
tion and the ability to persuade voters that your agenda will give them the best outcomes.
We spoke with Kirby on the heels of her election as chair of the Durham County Democratic Party to find out what her plans are to capture disaffected voters, how to bring new energy to the party at the local and state level, and why Democrats need to sharpen their message and move away from being just the party of “anti-Trump.”
INDY: How did you get involved with the local Democratic Party?
KIRBY: I was born and raised in Durham and really care about the community here. I started getting involved in local politics when I was in high school. I was a youth leader for Kids Voting Durham and a participant in the Durham participatory budgeting initiative. And I have some family members who have run for office in other parts of North Carolina. So I became very interested in how I could participate more deeply in my own Durham community. I found out that there was the upcoming county convention in early 2023 and saw an opening for the third vice chair position. I’ve been doing social media communications and website stuff for a small business here in Durham for quite a while, and some other social media stuff on the side. The third vice chair role is social media and communication, so I thought that would be a perfect way for me to deepen my involvement in the Durham community and Durham politics.
What other things are the Durham Democrats doing locally for the party besides voter registration?
So we do what we call precinct organizing. Precincts are kind of the basis of the party. We have 59 here in Durham. And when you organize a precinct, which is basically a neighborhood, you’re able to have a precinct chair, vice chair, and secretary that’s represented in the Durham Democrats. Those precinct chairs go out in their neighborhood, build community, and get people involved. That is one of the
Newly elected Durham County Democratic Party Chair Emerson Kirby. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SUBJECT
main ways that we build community here in Durham. We hold community events, host candidate forums when municipal elections come up, and provide resources to our precincts to help them build up community in their neighborhoods.
How much of your organizing is focused on local government compared to state and federal?
We’re very focused on our county in particular, and how we can best serve the needs of our county and the wants of the people in Durham. But because of some of the more tumultuous things that are going on at the state level, we’ve been getting more involved canvassing and advocating—especially for Justice Allison Riggs and her seat on the [North Carolina] Supreme Court, because that’s a statewide issue, and every county needs to be involved in making sure that she [won] that election, so that there’s not a precedent set for other elections to fall through the cracks and be overturned.
Durham is such a homogeneous voting bloc for state and federal elections, and most of our local elected officials are Democrats, so how much are the Durham Democrats involved in local races, given the amount of homogeneity?
Yeah, that’s a great question. So we mostly do get-out-the-vote initiatives. When it comes to municipal elections, we don’t usually make endorsements because we’re such a blue stronghold and they’re all typically Democratic candidates, but because people are less engaged in some of the municipal elections, we push really hard to do voter registration and get people excited to go vote for the people that are actually going to be making decisions about their community.
Democrats are upset about how the party handled the transition from Biden to Harris and the outcome of the election. And Republicans are mad about a lot of the choices that folks in power have made around cutting certain programs, and tariffs, etc. So I’m wondering how you all are thinking about trying to tap into that frustration and grab those folks who are becoming more apathetic and re-engage voters who may be turned off as we move into the midterms in 2026?
Yeah, I agree with you, there’s kind of two sides of the spectrum. There’s people who
are energized and excited to do things, and then there’s people who feel the opposite, and they are tired of politics and tired of the Democrats and the Republicans and hearing about them. On a national level and on a local level, Democrats need to show who we are. We need to show our value to people, what we believe in, and how we can support our communities and make sure that people know that we aren’t just asking for money and votes. We’re not just knocking on doors every four years, and we’re not just the party of anti-Trump. We are a party that cares about people, that has deep, deep values and wants to listen to people year-round. Because how can we ask people to serve us if we don’t serve them? And so I think, on a local level, that shows up as having community events all across the county, partnering with different local organizations so that we can meet people where they are, and having community service events like book drives and food drives, and providing that value and service to people, which in turn, lets people know our beliefs and what we care about.
You just recently graduated from Duke and are bringing young energy to the Durham Dems. You’ve got Wesley Knott in Wake County, who’s in his late twenties and just took over the chair position for the Democratic Party there. Anderson Clayton, the head of the state Democratic Party is 27, so there’s a lot of young leadership grabbing hold of the reins within the Democratic apparatus here in the state. What do you think it says about where the Democratic Party is and where it needs to go, or where it’s trying to go, given that so many young people are saying, “Hey, maybe it’s our turn now to try to steer the ship”?
Yeah, that’s a great question. I think nationally, we’re seeing some frustration with the leadership of Democrats and how a lot of those leaders are a little bit older than the median age in the United States. And young people don’t necessarily feel like they’re being represented by these leaders, especially some of the leaders who aren’t taking a harsh stance against some of the unconstitutional actions that we’re seeing on a national level and on a state level. I’m really excited to prove that young people do have the ability to lead and to serve. I feel very honored to serve in this role. Here in Durham specifically, we’re seeing a huge influx of younger people moving into the city and into the county. And so I feel like I, to an extent, represent a large chunk of
who Durham is continuing to grow into. And so it’s my goal to partner with the people that have been in politics for a long time, not cancel them out of the conversation, but just be a voice in the larger room, to be part of this rich history of Democratic leadership in Durham.
I know you spent some time volunteering with different political groups. You studied public policy at Duke, but, frankly, you don’t have a ton of experience in the space compared to some of your older peers. So what new ideas are you trying to bring to the position that you think will be really valuable to the Dems, both here in Durham and regionally?
There’s kind of a lack of a coherent message that’s not just anti-Trump, and it’s important to show people in the county, in the state, and across the country who we are and what we believe in and how we can support our communities. So I feel that my experience in communications and messaging helps me understand how to connect with people, especially online, which is becoming one of the biggest ways that people get their information and connect with others. And although I’m young, I have been on the leadership team of the Durham Democrats for the past couple of years, so I feel that I have a pretty solid understanding of where we can go, what we can do better, what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are, and how we can improve to make sure that we’re getting out the vote for the municipal elections.
You mentioned that part of the challenge is creating messaging that’s not just anti-Trump. What is the Democratic Party doing well, and how do you illuminate those successes for folks who maybe aren’t as plugged in, particularly for folks who maybe aren’t online and aren’t following the news as much, so that they’re aware when they go to the ballot box the next time around?
We’ve been having a lot of local protests all across the state and nationally as well, like the Hands Off protests and No Kings protest. That’s a great way
to get out into the streets and inform people about what’s going on, even if they may not be online. So I think that even though we need to do more talking about what we believe in as Democrats, we are doing a much better job than we were before of informing people about how exactly Trump is harming the economy and doing corrupt things and going directly against the Supreme Court and deporting people without due process. People are starting to realize and be informed of these things and get even more involved. We’re seeing a growth in not necessarily just the Democratic Party but of people who don’t want to see this in the leadership of our country.
What are your own political ambitions? I know this chair position is very fresh, but do you see yourself running for office in the future?
I’m not sure yet. I am really focused on the now, but I really don’t have super high political goals that I’m thinking about at the moment. I’m thinking less about my political career and more about how I can serve the people of Durham. At some point I may go to law school, but I’m not at all thinking about running for office right now. I’m thinking about what I can best do in this role to make the biggest difference in Durham.
That’s what a savvy politician would say. Good answer. W
New Durham Democratic Party chair Emerson Kirby. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SUBJECT
Orange County
Home (In)equity
A coalition of homeowners and advocates says homes in Orange County’s Black neighborhoods are puzzlingly overvalued, leading to higher tax bills.
BY CHASE PELLEGRINI DE PAUR chase@indyweek.com
In 2021, a coalition of homeowners and advocates noticed that Orange County’s tax revaluation had overvalued properties in historically Black neighborhoods, leading to a disproportionate tax increase for those residents. The coalition pushed the county to re-revaluate properties, which found the initial assessment had overvalued properties by more than $10 million.
Now, as the county carries out its 2025 revaluation, that same coalition is once again ringing the alarm.
“Across the county, the historically Black communities are way overvalued compared to other wealthier, historically white neighborhoods, and without market justification,” said Hudson Vaughan, director of the Community Justice Collaborative, in a press conference on Monday.
And this time, said Vaughan, the disparity is even more widespread.
“ This is really beyond a few neighborhoods. Orange County’s [revaluation] is way worse than I expected. I thought, especially after the work that folks did with the tax office four years ago, that things would look much better this time around.”
Vaughan shuffled through slides in a depressing “the price is right” game, showing dozens of examples of older and smaller houses that are receiving higher adjustments than their newer and larger counterparts.
The century-old (1,718-square-foot, three-bed, two-bath) family home of the late Marian Cheek Jackson, for instance,
was assessed to have a tax value higher than that of a swanky (3,750-square-foot, six-bed, six-and-a-half-bath) 2024 construction in the same neighborhood. A 0.29-acre property with an affordable “tiny home” was assigned a higher land value than a 0.84 parcel with a house that is currently listed for $6.6 million.
It doesn’t quite add up.
“There’s inconsistent and inequitable land valuation in Orange County’s new valuation. There’s an overvaluation of lowprice housing and an undervaluation of high-priced housing. And there’s a double standard—similar market increases in white versus Black neighborhoods lead to much higher increased average values in historically Black neighborhoods,” said Vaughan.
He added that part of the problem is that neighborhoods with older houses are more difficult to assess.
“They take more decision-making by the assessment offices because they’re very heterogeneous. Properties are different sizes, different ages, so they have to do a lot more to adjust. It’s not simply like a condominium or town house development.”
The Orange County Property Tax Justice Coalition has a plan. Earlier in the spring, they recruited volunteers to help with the process of fighting for neighborhood-wide revaluations through the proper channels of informal and formal appeals with the tax office.
George Barrett, executive director of the Marian Cheek Jackson Center, added that the county should increase funding for antidisplacement initiatives, specifically the longtime homeowners assistance (LHA) program.
In an email to INDY, Orange County community relations director Wil Glenn said that the county “follows a rigorous, data-driven valuation process rooted in state law and appraisal best practices.”
The county is already reviewing more than 3,500 appeals, and continues “to welcome more, he said.
“Orange County recognizes and respects the concerns raised by community members about property tax valuations, especially in historically underserved neighborhoods. The county’s priority is ensuring that every property owner feels heard and is treated fairly,” Glenn said.
He also noted that county leadership and representatives of the tax office met with coalition members last month and urged them to submit appeals.
“During that meeting, the county’s tax administrator encouraged appeals for individual properties and stated that if there were entire neighborhoods that have issues, to provide information on those neighborhoods and a way to identify them, and the county would take it to the Board of Equalization and Review to ask if neighborhood-wide adjustments should be
made similarly to 2021.”
But the appeals process, Barrett said at the press conference, “puts a lot of continued burden on all the folks in these communities to submit these appeals when we know … that there are tools that the office and the county can use to make these neighborhood adjustments and take this on from a systematic level.”
And, as they begin yet another grueling fight, Orange’s most deeply rooted residents are showing signs of fatigue.
Beverly Walton has lived in Hillsborough for 66 years. Her home was built by her father-in-law in the 1950s.
“I just feel like I live in a time where there should be more equality or there should be more accountability,” said Walton. “We should not be still so far apart in land values and in taxes just because we’re Black and we own land that we have owned for generations.”
“While I’m not calling anybody a racist, if we’re looking at the facts, this is pure and simple racism and it needs to be addressed,” said Horace Johnson Jr., who ran in the Democratic primary for a county commission seat last year. His father, who died last week, was Hillsborough’s first and only Black mayor.
“My dad would not want me to sit back and just weep and mourn over him,” Johnson said during the press conference. “Continue to fight, and that’s what we’re doing.”W
ILLUSTRATION BY NICOLE PAJOR MOORE
Ramping Up
The Scrap Exchange will make use of old ramps and other equipment from Wheels Durham, including the city’s only half-pipe, to build a new skate park.
BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW jlaidlaw@indyweek.com
Scrap Exchange, the longtime community reuse hub, is building a skate park in the Lakewood shopping center.
Heather Anne, interim executive director at the Scrap Exchange, says the plan for the new skate park involved “some divine timing.”
Scrap Exchange moved to Lakewood in 2014 with big plans for creating a “Reuse Arts District” that would revitalize the shopping center. In 2018, Scrap Exchange started working with folks in the community to sketch out a new skate park for the neighborhood, even raising funds to help implement the plan. But internal issues at the reuse hub stalled progress, and the skate park project was sidelined. A few years later, Anne stepped in as interim director and decided to revisit some of Scrap’s vision, including the skate park plans. She connected with Mike
Johnston, owner of Manifest Skate Shop, who had an idea for how to jump-start the process: Take unused skate park equipment from the Wheels roller-skating rink site and move it to Lakewood.
Johnston has been a mainstay of the Durham skate scene for years. He worked at Wheels as a staff member and summer camp counselor in high school, and remembers when the outdoor skate park was installed over a decade ago. Skaters used the park until the city bought the Wheels property in 2020 and temporarily closed both the indoor rink and the park outside.
In late February of this year, the city of Durham reopened Durham’s treasured indoor skating rink, but the outdoor skating area didn’t make the cut for rehabilitation. Durham Parks and Recreation planned to “scrap”
the materials (pun intended) until Johnston, who serves on the Recreation Advisory Commission, stepped in with a plan to rehome the collection of pipes and ramps in Lakewood. The list of equipment includes two spine ramps, one mini ramp, one double pump hump, one long quarter pipe with channel gap, one small quarter pipe, one small bank, one multilevel long quarter pipe, one pyramid, and one bank to quarter pipe pyramid.
“It’s trash to the city,” Johnston says. “I don’t think they’re going to be guarding it in any way. They were going to auction it or trash it.”
State statute allows a city government to donate property to nonprofits if the city deems the property to be “surplus, obsolete, or unused.” During a recent work session, the city’s Parks and Recreation department agreed to pass along old skate park materials leftover from Wheels to the Scrap Exchange, free of charge.
“This is a great partnership,” said council member Carl Rist during the meeting. “So great that, when I read the memo talking about spine ramps and double pump hump, I didn’t know what you were talking about but I knew it was exciting.” Last week the city council officially conveyed the materials to Scrap Exchange.
Skate culture was an inescapable part of the counterculture punk movement that dominated the 1990s and early aughts. X Games competitions were can’t-miss television spectacles, and Tony Hawk rose to worldwide superstardom, launching one of the most successful video game franchises of all time, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, which was played by heelflippers, nosegrinders and non-skaters alike.
Old skate park equipment from Wheels Durham is being transferred to the Scrap Exchange to build a skate park in Lakewood Shopping Center. PHOTOS COURTESY OF MIKE JOHNSTON
Lately, skating has seen another uptick in popularity, especially during the COVID19 lockdown, when outdoor activities were some of the safest options for recreation. Johnston says that his shop saw its highest sales to date in 2020. The renewed interest in skating has also led to a proliferation of “DIY” parks, skate parks built by skaters themselves often on abandoned or private property due to the lack of public skate facilities available. Recreation departments have started to take notice. Now, cities like Charlotte and Raleigh are partnering with skaters to move away from temporary pop-up parks toward permanent facilities.
The relocated skate park equipment from Wheels will be nestled in a section of parking lot between the main Scrap Exchange building and the end of the strip that includes the Scrap’s thrift shop. The lot is sloped, so the surface will need to be leveled out to fully accommodate most of the new skate park.
“Disassembling and transporting the materials is going to be a pretty gnarly project,” Johnston says. “But we have the skate community and the people around Scrap Exchange, so we have a lot of people who would volunteer time and effort
to make that happen.”
Johnston says folks are eager to get the equipment in hand so the moving process can begin. There are still a few logistics to work out, like liability insurance, but Johnston and Anne are optimistic they will be able to get things rolling quickly. Phase one is getting the 20-foot halfpipe, the only one of its kind in Durham, operational.
“The main focus is going to be getting that mini ramp reassembled,” Johnston says. “We don’t have a half-pipe at [the Durham Central Park] skate park, so it’s going to be popping off right away.”
The project harkens back to the history of Lakewood Shopping Center. At the turn of the last century, Richard Wright, a longtime business partner of the Duke family, bought a streetcar system from the city and developed the Lakewood Amusement Park at the end of the route to gin up ridership. The park included a merry-go-round, roller coaster—and a skating rink.
“You could rent skates, which cost 25 cents an hour,” the Open Durham page reads. “At times professional skaters would come in and do all types of tricks on roller skates.”
Lakewood has a long history at the cen-
ter of arts and commerce. In 1960, the district became the “Shoppes at Lakewood” and featured a popular movie theater. But by the 2000s, the district hit a decline as consumer behavior shifted to newer business districts like Northgate and Southpoint Mall.
Relocating Scrap Exchange to Lakewood as its anchor tenant brought a resurgence to the district, even if the vision for that resurgence isn’t quite what Scrap leadership planned for when it first landed in 2014. A growing roster of tenants have shifted the district from reuse to “taking care of people,” as Anne puts it. Radical Healing, El Futuro, the Solidarity Hub, and a satellite clinic for Lincoln Community Health Center are all open on the east side of Lakewood that Scrap Exchange owns. The demographics of the neighborhood have also shifted; the shopping center caters to a growing population of Latino residents.
“What is our [board’s and team’s] role in acknowledging and embracing that, and how do we wrap some of the things that are in our mission into that and envision something new?” Anne says.
The new Scrap skate park is a perfect encapsulation of how the old vision and
new reality can work in harmony, Anne says.
“This feels like such an obvious choice. There are unclaimed materials that the community would love to put into use, and it’s a part of the community that’s looking for something to do. It’s a source of joy, mental health, and outdoor activity for so many people. It just feels like a duh.”
The skate park isn’t the only new feature coming to Lakewood in the coming months. Suite 33, the last commercial unit on the strip, is a 4,000-square-foot warehouse space that Scrap Exchange has recently opened up as another DIY space for things like open mics and other creative programming. The once-lively shopping center that played host to amusement park rides and a movie theater is starting to see a return to its roots while still keeping an eye on the future.
“The lack of things to do in that part of the mall has been a constant conversation since I’ve stepped in,” Anne says. “By six p.m., it’s pretty much crickets down on that path. It’s a great place to go whip shitties in a truck, but there’s not actually people coming in there and doing anything. Having the skate park, having a space with events going on will make it more inviting and bring in more people.” W
Left: the Scrap Exchange. Above: the part of the parking lot designated for the future skate park. PHOTOS BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW
Play Time
The downtown Raleigh–adjacent park draws inspiration from local history and ecology and aims to engage visitors of all ages and abilities.
BY CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL chloe@indyweek.com
Gipson Play Plaza in Dix Park is opening June 6—waterfall, sandpit, sensory maze, multistory climbing tower, megaswing, and all.
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA), a Brooklyn-based landscape architecture firm, designed the 20-acre play space based on inspirations from North Carolina’s history and natural landscape and a philosophy of adventurous, free play. The designers added elements that encourage kids to scramble, take risks, and even get a little messy. But they weren’t designing only for children: the plaza has areas for picnicking, grilling, and exploring that suit all ages.
Ahead of the grand opening, INDY spoke to partner Matthew Urbanski and senior associate Hillary Archer of MVVA about the park’s design.
INDY: Take me back to when you first began envisioning and designing the play plaza.
ARCHER: l’ll never forget the day I was tasked to be the project manager. Just knowing how important it is for Raleigh, it’s such a significant site. There was an enormous collaborative effort with our team, 20 different consultants from around the country—a lot were local—and the city client team and the [Dix Park] Conservancy.
URBANSKI: This project comes out of a master plan that we started around 2016. It was intriguing because it was very well positioned in Raleigh, a 15-minute walk from downtown but also a 300-acre rolling site. You can’t get that anymore, normally. There was all kinds of interesting history, from the plantation era through 150 years of hos-
pital era through what we hope is at least another 150 years of park era.
We’re always trying to make what we’re doing tailored and responsive to the local ecology, the culture, landscape, and needs of the community. We have a phrase we call “missing experiences,” where we look at a community and say, “What could we bring here that will fill in a blank that maybe people don’t know they have, but when it happens, they’re going to feel like it’s magical?”
In looking at the master plan, there were challenges around how to take an inwardly focused 300 acres that’s got an institutional feel and ultimately invite people in, take down the barriers real and imagined, and make this a vital nexus point, a gathering place for everyone in all stages of their lives.
We thought about putting a play area at the entrance to the park immediately. The feedback we got was “Well, that’s great, but we also want a civic space, a place for performance, and an announcement of the park.” I think there was a bit of a misunderstanding at first, like, “What do you mean a playground?” Like, some molded plastic in the middle of a mulch ring? People didn’t know yet what we meant. So we came up with this hybrid play plaza idea.
Tell me about some of your favorite elements.
URBANSKI: Once we had the civic idea, we thought, “Nothing better than a fountain.” Especially in Raleigh, with it being so hot. And if it could become a play fountain, that would be good.
Then we went into the public process. We always love to ask people, “What are your inspirational areas in the region?” We were directed to go west and look at the rocks and the waterfalls. We were directed towards the east and all of the beautiful plants there. And we were directed to go look at the Yates Mill, a neat historic element right down the road, and all of these things started to become a mash-up in our minds about what we could do. Instead of having your typical fountain in the middle, we would do a waterfall inspired by nature and also by Yates Mill.
It would be engaging—something beautiful you could just look at or splash around and play in. So we created this theatrical display with water, animated with extra splashing. You could walk behind it, because who wouldn’t want to walk behind a waterfall? And that feature gives you a clue, as you come in from Lake Wheeler Road or the parking lot, that there’s something beyond.
ARCHER: The site was super flat [in the beginning]. These were old ball fields where historically there were softball games between the patients of the hospital and the public.
URBANSKI: But it was a play area!
ARCHER: Exactly. It was a recreation area, and we kept that spirit alive. But ultimately we added 18 to 20 feet of new topography.
Our entire design phase happened during COVID, and I’ll never forget Matt trying to come up with an idea of how we could use stone to create this fountain. He was using pieces of wood in his basement, making this little physical model with a piece of cellophane for the water. It was a great moment in our process.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CITY OF RALEIGH
Let’s talk about the play space. Looking at the images, I’m seeing lots of natural materials and this big structure for kids to climb and explore.
URBANSKI: In Raleigh, Robin Moore and Nilda Cosco run this workshop called the Natural Learning Initiative, and we’ve collaborated with them for, like, 30 years. They embrace this idea of more adventuresome play, so that choice was rooted in the community. Plus interest in gardens, horticulture, nature. And then there’s the local woodworking tradition.
We wanted to use the slope of this ridge that we made [for the waterfall] and make a play environment that incorporated water into play—because of the heat and the fun and inventiveness and the passive learning that could come out of manipulation of water. We came up with this idea of combining two types of play: imaginative play, little houses and pretending you’re a shopkeeper, and then water play, which can be quasi-scientific, with Archimedes’ screws and shunts and water chutes.
Our collaborators in Germany, Richter, made this beautiful [play structure] inspired by a historic mill, with paddles and waterwheels. We placed that into a garden that would have trees and shrubs layered over it to provide shade and make it feel almost like one of these rural mills you find in the hills of North Carolina.
And then there’s the sandpit. We learned that sand and water are super great for kids, they’re manipulatable surfaces, some-
thing that you can get messy with. This is a little bit subversive, and slightly against helicopter parenting and overly controlled play environments. The kids are going to get covered with sand. But we have nice bathrooms built into the hill, with a changing area to get the kids out of their wet clothes.
Tell me about the sensory maze and the picnic grove.
ARCHER: We really wanted to make sure we were designing for all ages and abilities. This was about exploring all the senses. So a lot of the shrub species and trees have fragrances when they’re flowering, or colors during the fall. The play equipment, which doesn’t really look like play equipment, are all pieces that have sound or tactile engagement, a lot of different materials for that: stone, metal. We have a mirror maze within the sensory maze. We have an infinity allée, where we play with how trees that are planted in rows stack against mirrors. The gravel is crunchy underfoot, but it’s an ADA-accessible material, so anyone in a wheelchair or with a cane can make their way through. There’s also benches, and lighting at night.
URBANSKI: Another thing that came up endlessly [during the planning process] was eating. So we added the barbecue area [aka the picnic grove], and we worked with a local fabricator called Raleigh Reclaimed, who was able to reclaim post oaks that were harvested from the site and make the benches. That will be fun. It makes it more of an in-town vacation experience, where
you could go there, and the kids could go play, and the adults could sit around and hang out.
The other thing that’s important there is the planting. In a few years it will really be ensconced in planting in a way that will make it feel more inevitable.
Any other elements of the play plaza that really stand out to you or excite you?
URBANSKI: We wanted to do something very locally authentic for materials. And we came across this blue argillite stone in Denton. We really wanted to use that because of how beautiful and unique it is [to North Carolina]. As you move through the play area, you’ll see that stone all around the site.
The way we shaped the land, we were able to create ramps and bridges and make a wheelchair-accessible route up and
PHOTO COURTESY OF MICHAEL VAN VALKENBURGH ASSOCIATES
PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY OF RALEIGH
Gipson Play Plaza sensory maze. PHOTO COURTESY OF CITY OF RALEIGH
“Matt talks a lot about risk, and embracing risk. It’s an important part of play, because it allows kids to grow and to get outside their comfort zone.”
through the towers in the playscape. And then there’s an area that’s an overlook that’s going to have tables.
Is that the outpost for helicopter parents?
URBANSKI: That’s exactly what it is! The secret, unspoken objective is to draw the parents away from the kids. It’ll give them visual access so they feel like they can let them go.
ARCHER: Matt talks a lot about risk, and embracing risk. It’s an important part of play, because it allows kids to grow and to get outside their comfort zone. You need risk to have a meaningful, memorable play area.
What was it like working with the Dix Park Conservancy, the city, and all the residents who gave their input throughout the design process? Was there anything you wanted to do that you had to really convince them of? Or did the public suggest elements that weren’t part of your original plan?
URBANSKI: The enthusiasm of the Gipson donors and the quality control of the Conservancy and their members gave us a broad view of what’s possible. They’re not parochial. At one point, I mentioned this park in Paris, and then they all went and visited it, like, the next week. It was crazy. So these are people that have a lot of ambition, and they have helped from the financial side but also the vision side. And then the city’s enthusiasm and willingness to step out of the normal has been great.
ARCHER: Overall, the community engagement process was very democratic, and I don’t think there was a lot of heartburn from either side. Compared to some of our other projects, it was not contentious. One thing that comes to mind is that,
after some cost estimates, we considered postponing the [91-foot-long] swing to a later phase. And actually it was the mayor and the community who were like, “No no no, don’t touch the swing! The swing has to stay.”
And so it did. We had to do some rejiggering of the budget, but the swing is one of a kind, custom, and it has an accessible swing as well. It looks out at the grove, and I envision that a lot of the teen and young adult visitors will hang out in that area. It’s a lot quieter. It feels like you’re in someone’s backyard, in a way.
I’ll admit, when I read “91-foot megaswing” on the page, I was picturing 91 vertical feet, and I was excited. But this is cool, too.
ARCHER: Yeah, that would be a trapeze.
URBANSKI: I’m always trying to make really high swings. It’s hard from a playground safety and rules perspective.
I’m thinking about all of these design choices you’ve described, particularly the rolling hills and the trees and plantings, that really seem to create a sanctuary away from the city. I imagine those elements will also make the space feel a little bit endless because you can’t see everything at once.
URBANSKI: That’s the appeal. The ridge and the waterfall lend a sense of discovery, because you move through and around things. A 20-acre site could be something where you just walk into the corner and you see the whole thing—that’s all she wrote. Or it could be a sense of discovery and movement and mystery, and that’s what we wanted to have. W
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Balenciaga Blues
I salvaged $6,000 of luxury goods that Duke University students threw away in my apartment building. Why did it make me feel terrible?
BY LENA GELLER lgeller@indyweek.com
Ilive in an apartment building in downtown Durham that houses more Duke University undergrads than any other category of person—a friend once characterized it as an “adult dorm”—so it wasn’t all that surprising when, last week, I found a cute little table in the trash room on my floor. At the end of the school year, a lot gets thrown away. The table was in great condition, amid stacks of linens and unopened boxes of date-nut energy bites. Made from clear acrylic, its edges were tinged a neon lemon-lime color that changed with the light—sometimes appearing to be part of the acrylic itself, other times a reflection dancing along its curves.
I took it home. When I looked it up online, I discovered it costs $900. (Shipping cost: $199.)
That was retrieved from the trash room at the end of my hall, where you put things down the chute. The real gold mine is the ground-floor room that the chute empties into,
accessible by one of the elevators.
This is where, around graduation each year, you can find dozens of vacuums, Keurigs, stainless steel trash cans in every size and shape imaginable, mattresses, mirrors, and enough luxury goods to make a reseller weep with joy. The first time I went down there, last week, I noticed something neon in a tote bag and pulled out $395 Balenciaga slides. Nearby were $980 Valentino sneakers—worn, but definitely wearable. More than $1,000 of Lululemon workout clothing tumbled from a bag onto a couch.
You don’t really have to do any digging—most of the stuff I’ve gotten was sitting on top of discarded furniture. But you do have to rush. After I took the Lululemon haul upstairs, I returned to find city waste workers loading things into a garbage truck, off to a landfill. The volume of discarded clothing seems consistent with generational trends: textile waste in the United States went up by more
BY NICOLE PAJOR MOORE
than 50 percent between 2000 and 2018.
Not every treasure is a flashy brand-name item. I also recovered pink satin pajamas that I remember seeing on someone attending a pajama party on my floor and a ruffled olive-green Top Gun romper from a Halloween event. (Sadly, there was nothing from the risqué Dr. Seuss party. A few months ago, a fire alarm went off, and it became apparent just how much of the building is occupied by Duke students, as nearly everyone except me, my roommate, and a family with two young kids was drunk and dressed in Cat in the Hat costumes.)
It feels wrong for this much stuff to have been thrown out in the first place, but it also feels mildly wrong to take it. So it was nice to get intermittent reassurance from my building’s maintenance man, Eric.
The first time, as I was scurrying back to my room, carrying an upholstered kitchen chair that my cats now spend all their time in, I passed Eric in the hallway. He asked me how I was.
“Just doing some scavenging,” I said. I must have looked guilty, because he said, “That’s OK.”
A few days later, I was again downstairs in the big trash room when Eric walked in. I moved to leave, feeling awkward about being caught again. “You’re welcome here anytime,” he assured.
The sheer volume of valuable, usable things being discarded boggles the brain, particularly when it comes to items like clothing with the tags still on and unopened, unexpired food items.
In trying to make sense of things, I made spreadsheets.
The first tracks the prices and brands of the items that I kept, donated, or sold. The total value came to around $6,000, not including several items I couldn’t find prices for.
The second spreadsheet compares Duke’s donation collection data with that at other universities, in an effort to understand whether this college-town phenomenon is universal. I gathered publicly available data from university websites and press releases, supplemented by direct inquiries.
Duke told me their “Devils Care Donations” initiative collected 32,000 pounds this year through partnerships with TROSA and Goodwill. Ali Harrison, senior associate dean for residence life, says that the university places donation bins in every residence hall on campus, plus off-campus Duke housing like Blue Light and Swift Apartments. Harrison also notes that “Duke students who live off campus in non-Duke housing can schedule a TROSA pickup for large or bulky items and large donations.”
I emailed six universities, asking about their donation programs and collection data. Most didn’t respond or declined. One directed me to a public web page. Rice University, whose “Give a Hoot! Donate Your Loot!” campaign recently won a statewide award in Texas, sent a detailed
ILLUSTRATION
response. They reported that they collected around 11,000 pounds of “durable goods” from students this year. (Rice has around 9,000 total students, with roughly half undergrads and half graduate students.)
Rice’s approach is to implement collections every semester, not just during spring move-out. “By maintaining a consistent presence throughout the academic year,” a spokesperson wrote, “the campaign has become a familiar part of the student experience,” helping students plan ahead to donate rather than discard.
Looking at the data, Duke’s per-undergraduate donation rate (about 4.9 pounds) is comparable to that at other wealthy private universities like Princeton (7.6 pounds) and Georgetown (6.1 pounds). Duke actually outperforms some schools with similar student demographics like the University of Chicago (0.8 pounds) and Northwestern (0.9 pounds). Most large public universities hover around one pound per student.
The emotional reality of my salvaging week was harder to organize into neat columns. For one, I started feeling like everything I own is shitty. When you’re pulling something out of the trash, it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be a luxury item, so at first, I didn’t think much of a comforter I salvaged and offered it to my boyfriend, who’s always looking for blankets for his dog to lie on. After looking up the cost ($222) and thread count (600), I went back on that offer and replaced my existing comforter with the salvaged one. (The next day, my boyfriend found his own down comforter in the trash.)
Most items I salvaged were like new, but some needed attention. It felt good to wash, clean, and mend things— removing stains from a blouse, fixing belt loops on black slacks. But then futility would set in. I tried to get the stains out of a pair of muddy Nike high-tops with floral embroidery, using a Solo cup I salvaged as a mixing receptacle to stir together baking soda and hydrogen peroxide into a thick paste, but even after slathering it onto the shoes, the stains persist.
I also spent some time scrubbing a toaster oven, only to go back to the trash room a few days later and find one that’s cleaner and fancier. Retail value: $400.
In what would become my final scavenging trip of the year, I tried carrying too many things at once—a handheld vacuum, an air filter, some velvet hangers—and dropped the toaster oven, which splashed water all over me from its steam reservoir.
Sometimes it’s a spill that does it. I stood there, damp, surrounded by other people’s discards, feeling ridiculous. My apartment was already filled with rescued items. I went home, found that the air filter didn’t fit my unit, and cried. The next night, my cat jumped down from the salvaged chair he loves, used his litter box, and then kicked litter everywhere—as per usual. Managing litter has been an ongoing struggle. Various vacuums have proved too weak or too bulky to reach the corners behind the box, so I usually just sweep with a handheld broom and dustpan.
But as I bent over with my dustpan that night, I remembered the handheld vacuum I’d salvaged just before dropping the toaster oven. I’d found it with its charging cord sitting right next to it, still coiled neatly with a twist tie. I grabbed it from my pile of findings and turned it on. It was the most powerful little vacuum I’ve ever seen, its pointed nose perfect for crevices. W
Treasures found in the trash room (except the cats)
BOTTOM RIGHT PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS, ALL OTHER PHOTOS BY LENA GELLER.
The trash room on a recent day after graduation PHOTO BY LENA GELLER
P H O T O S
Scenes from Bimbé
WORDS BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW
PHOTOS BY ANGELICA EDWARDS arts@indyweek.com
Earlier this month, over 6,000 people descended on Rock Quarry Park to celebrate African and African American heritage at the 55th Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival. The beating sun was relentless, but so were the good vibes. Folks had their faces painted, devoured delicious food, and kept the dance floor lively from start to finish. INDY photographer Angelica Edwards was there to document the festival’s lively energy. You can read the full recap of this year’s Bimbé online at indyweek.com – Justin Laidlaw
Clockwise from top: Barbara Williams of Winston-Salem; Femi David-Yerumo Jr., a line dance instructor; various cowrie shells and jewelry on display; festival goers dance during the 55th Annual Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival on Saturday, May 17, 2025, in Durham.
Clockwise from top left: Akira Asante, 8, of Chapel Hill; Raheem DeVaughn performs; Just Fine, a Mary J. Blige Tribute Band, performs; (From left) Orlando Lee and Labarbara Brown and Milton and Saturday Dieuvil; Jeremy Finch, 42, of Durham.
S TA G E
Stage Right
Drama. Jazz hands. Contemporary clowning. A ten-minute rendition of Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well.” Who says adults can’t have fun?
BY SARAH EDWARDS sedwards@indyweek.com
The VHS tape would usually land in the mailbox in June or July, its arrival an organizing principle in Alyssa Noble’s childhood summers.
From there, she could pop the tape in and watch her endof-year dance recital, scrutinizing her performance as well as those of idolized older dancers, trying out the routines across her Illinois basement carpet. Incidentally, the basement in question had wall-to-wall mirrors installed by the house’s previous occupants, allowing for choreographies to be ambitiously projected at all angles.
“This is pre-YouTube and TikTok and all these things,” explains Chris Strauss. Like Noble, Strauss is a dancer with vivid memories of both performing in recitals and reliving said recitals. “The way to watch your peers dance is to watch videos of your own recitals.”
Ask any dancer: Recitals are a big deal. Even if you grow up and, technically, age out of them.
“People always ask me when my recital is,” Strauss
laughs, “and I’m like—‘I’m an adult.’”
Strauss and Noble first worked together several years ago when Strauss participated in Noble’s show “Don’t Get Any Ideas Little Lady.” Later, riffing in Instagram DM’s, they bonded over memories of that era in their lives.
“I said, as a joke, ‘What if we made a show and called it ‘recital’?’” Strauss remembers asking. “‘But it was actually just, like, working professional artists making the things that may not be considered, like, capital A art, but that brought them a lot of joy?’”
Thus was born RECITAL, a multidisciplinary variety show that had its nostalgia-filled debut in 2022. This year, the show returns for its fourth edition, featuring performances from more than thirty artists at Durham’s Barriskill Dance Theatre School.
The idea started small that first year: Strauss and Noble shared a call for proposals on Instagram; the show, performed at Mettlesome, featured less than ten acts. Noble
recreated Britney Spears’ iconic “Oops!... I Did It Again” video; Strauss performed a ten-minute rendition of Taylor Swift’s melancholy “All Too Well,” a scarf tossed over their shoulder as they played piano, autumnal leaves scattering from above.
The show has grown in popularity every year since, and for this year’s June 5-7 show dates, Noble says that she expects a crowd of around 300 across RECITAL’s three evenings. Tickets are $25 with options for both sliding scale and sustainer-level payments.
Noble, who has lived in the Triangle since 2011, brings a production background, having served as a co-organizer of DIDA (Durham Independent Dance Artists), a support organization that helped artists produce evening-length shows, for four years. For this year’s performance, she estimates that she’s put in more than 50 hours thus far—with many more to follow—that include vetting and curating performances (there are annually more submissions than they can include), selling ads, coordinating technical aspects, and working out kinks.
In time, she says, she hopes the production can be even more self-sustaining and that everyone working on the production, including herself, can be paid a living wage.
Showbiz, after all, is a never-ending hustle, and here it’s worth noting that circumstances for working artists aren’t exactly bright right now. Five years ago brought a global pandemic that shuttered venues and productions, causing massive revenue loss on both an individual and institutional RECITAL
scale that continues today. Now the Trump administration is slashing arts funding from the top down. Has there ever been a better time to remember why performing is fun?
“People are really clinging onto and excited about [this] which, to me, expresses some kind of need in the community for folks to come together for joyful art,” says Strauss. “It has been really exciting and something I’m really looking forward to, with this bigger than ever recital.”
On a recent rainy Sunday morning, Noble and collaborator Allie Pfeffer are rehearsing in a Barriskill Dance Theatre studio, where Noble is currently an artist-in-residence. They’re working on a piece that has them tumbling across the room while dialoging about multilevel marketing schemes (MLMs) and boss babe energy, the intro to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” doomily pulsing in the background.
“I wanted to make a dance where it’s all anticipation and nothing ever happens,” Noble explains. “We’re both fascinated by MLMs. I was working from a theme of intensity and cults of personality and blindly following things.”
Full appreciation for acts like this—the pair are framing it as a senior thesis, and referencing material from past collaborations—does require having some reference points in the performance world. But even if you don’t, it’s very fun to watch people let loose and try things out.
Dancer Gabriella Soto-Lemus participated in RECITAL’s first year and is returning this year with a piece exploring
intimacy and shared space with a partner. She’s joined by her spouse, Natalie, who isn’t a trained dancer.
“I was recently daydreaming about dance and the only place I could imagine bringing those ideas was RECITAL,” Soto-Lemus wrote in an email.
“RECITAL is definitely a bit niche, and I sometimes tell people if they didn’t grow up in performing arts some of the jokes might go over their heads,” Soto-Lemus continued. “But what ties it together for me is that there’s a sense of reclaiming and embracing our creative childhoods and bringing that to the present.”
Besides their individual pieces, Strauss and Noble also emcee, playing Miss Vikki and Mss. Victoria, the event’s annual fictional co-hosts. Also: a pair of dance studio owners with elaborate off-Broadway backgrounds and a complicated working relationship. Think Lloyd Miller and Corky St. Clair in Waiting for Guffman, or basically any character played by Parker Posey.
“Do they love each other? Do they hate each other? We don’t know,” Strauss says. “Some of the feedback we got after that first show—I think we had an audience of maybe, between two shows, like 70 people—was like, ‘Miss Vikki and Mss. Victoria: We need their lore.’”
That lore has proved to be so convincing that not everyone has been in on the bit. After one show, Noble says, an audience member came up and said: “Just to let you guys know, we were like, three acts in, and I leaned over to my friend and said, ‘I don’t think Miss Vikki and Mss. Victoria
are their real names.’”
“There’s equal parts pure reverence and love for characters, for the people in our own lives—studio owners and our dance teacher and people who cultivated our love for art,” Strauss continues, “and tongue in cheek satire about the seriousness of the thing that we do.”
This balance of professionalism and campiness is a draw. Dancer Laura Grant is helping with administrative work for RECITAL, this year, as well as performing for the first time. Getting to perform, she says, is a much-needed reprieve.
“I think there’s the shame that I carried as an adult artist, as a dancer in the experimental dance world, of like, ‘Oh, but I actually also really enjoy jazz hands,’” Grant says. “I actually really enjoy dancing to the counts and making people laugh or whoop in the audience.’”
“It’s brought me back to why performing is so fun,” Grant, a mother of two young children, continues. “I think that they’ve done a really good job at capturing, at least for the performers, what it is about being in a recital is so pleasurable. Like, if you’re a kid, that’s enough—you do it because you like it and it’s fun and brings you joy and pleasure, right?”
This year’s show features drag performances, a salsa and disco “duel”, and a contemporary clowning/dance duet.
“We get to show up on stage in ways that we maybe weren’t allowed to,” Soto-Lemus says. “It’s therapeutic, in a way. It’s a really special thing and I think that can be felt by anyone, even if you never had a recital growing up.” W
Facing page: Co-producers and performers Alyssa Noble and Chris Strauss at the 2022 RECITAL. This page, clockwise from top right: Performers Gaby Soto-Lemus, Mauri Connors, and Silvia Sheffield at the 2022 RECITAL; Chris Strauss and Alyssa Noble at the 2023 RECITAL. PHOTOS BY
BULL CITY PHOTOGRAPHY
FOOD & DRINK
A Map of Choices at Yagg Sii Tenn
A lunch special in Apex features sweet mint tea and doro wat served with injera, Ethiopian collard greens, and green beans.
BY LENA GELLER lgeller@indyweek.com
This story is part of a new biweekly column, Lunch Money, where staff writer Lena Geller visits restaurants in the Triangle in an attempt to dine out for less than $15.
When I walk into Yagg Sii Tenn, an African restaurant in Apex that shares a building with an urgent care center, the dining room is empty, so I take a few minutes to look around.
There’s a lot to take in. Tables and chairs are painted with flags from African countries—a visual representation of the restaurant’s Pan-African approach to cuisine. One corner of the restaurant has pillows on the ground and a sign inviting diners to remove their shoes and eat “with your natural silverware”: hands.
Painted on the wall behind the pillows is a thatchedroof hut with wooden doors. Instruments hang from the ceiling: a gourd wrapped in a woven beaded net and a thumb piano. Two TVs are on, one playing a silent slideshow of dishes on the menu, the other airing the World Table Tennis Championships.
Suddenly, someone tall and smiling emerges from the kitchen wearing a name tag that says “Owner / Papa Fall.” He hands me a menu and instructs me to sit down and look it over. Before heading back to the kitchen, he points to a wooden xylophone-like instrument on the counter.
“If I’m in the back and I don’t hear you, just do this,” he says, using mallets to drum the instrument three times. I sit down at the Tanzania table and study the menu.
RECEIPT
Yagg Sii Tenn 1440 Chapel Ridge Rd, #170 Apex Lunch special $10.99
$10.99
$15.23
It’s extensive. Beyond the entrées—platters and sandwiches—there are beverages (ginger-turmeric lemonade, baobab cocktails), soups (cow feet with potatoes, spicy fish and carrots), appetizers (turkey, tuna, or vegan patties, “extremely spicy” piri-piri wings), sides (jollof rice, pounded yam), and desserts (apple beignets, curdled milk with millet couscous), with countries of origin listed next to each dish. I count at least two dozen African nations.
Most of the platters—of which there are more than 30, with chicken, seafood, goat, lamb, oxtail, vegetarian, and vegan options—run between $13 and $20, but there are a few within my price range. I’m eying the Senegalese yassa ganar platter (jerk chicken in citrus onion sauce for $11) or, to coordinate with my table, the Serengeti sandwich (a spinach wrap with grilled lamb for $9) when I notice a whiteboard in the front of the restaurant: LUNCH SPECIAL WITH MOROCCAN MINT TEA, $10.99.
Three options are listed: doro wat, fish curry over rice, and nambé
I walk up to read the board more closely, and Papa Fall returns. When I mention I’m torn between the specials, he asks about dietary restrictions—the nambé (black-eyed peas and yucca in a chapati wrap) is vegan. No restrictions, I tell him.
“Do you do OK with spicy?” he asks. I nod. He recommends the doro wat and says it’s one of Ethiopia’s most famous dishes—chicken served with injera (a crepe-like flatbread), gomen (Ethiopian collard greens), and kilkil (green beans).
My bill for the special comes to $12.23 with tax. The tip options only allow whole-dollar amounts, and without cash for exact change, I add $3, bringing my total to $15.23—slightly over budget, but only because of tip interface limitations.
Papa Fall asks whether I want my Moroccan mint tea sweet or unsweetened. Sweet, I tell him. He pours it from a large container behind the counter and hands it over. It’s both refreshing and comforting, marrying the soothing quality of peppermint tea when you’re sick with the cheerful sweetness of iced tea at a summer gathering.
About five minutes later, Papa Fall emerges with my food on a wooden platter shaped like the African continent, accompanied by a water pitcher. There’s a side table with utensils, but I opt to eat with my hands.
The doro wat consists of a bone-in chicken thigh and drumstick, bright red from berbere spice and swimming in a rich, complex sauce. Four rolls of injera are tucked around the edges of the platter. The chicken pulls apart
The lunch special at Yagg Sii Tenn PHOTO BY LENA GELLER
easily, and the meat is infused with layers of heat that build without overwhelming. The collard greens are earthy and aromatic, flecked with chili and seeds. My favorite is the kilkil—cooling and gingery, a perfect counterpoint to the spiced chicken. I use pieces of the spongy injera to scoop everything up.
As I eat, Papa Fall stops by to check on me, and we chat for a bit. He’s from Senegal and, after moving to the United States, spent 25 years working at TGI Fridays. When he would get off work, he says, he found himself frustrated by the options around him—Jersey Mike’s, Mexican places, and nowhere serving the kind of African food he was craving. Eventually, he decided to solve the problem himself.
He started Yagg Sii Tenn in 2012 as a food truck and expanded into catering and wholesale, with products like baobab pow-
der and muscadine moonshine jelly, before opening this brick-and-mortar location two years ago. Through years of research, he developed a menu representing cuisines from across the African continent. When African diners walk in, sometimes driving hours or more to get here, “they look at the flags and see their country. They feel right at home,” Papa Fall says.
Before I leave, he explains the restaurant’s name, pointing to a circular artwork on the wall depicting women drawing water from a well. When he was young, living in a village in Senegal, he would see women drawing water like this, and they would be singing the words “yagg sii tenn,” he says.
“It basically means if you’re patient and you persevere, you shall get more water out of the well of the world,” Papa Fall says. “That stuck with me.” W
Above: The interior of Yagg Sii Tenn. Right: Some outdoor seating.
PHOTOS BY LENA GELLER
GEORGANN EUBANKS: THE FABULOUS ORDINARY
Signs and Wonders
In a lyrical new release, Carrboro writer Georgann Eubanks introduces readers to some of the Southeast’s most precious phenomena.
BY SARAH EDWARDS sedwards@indyweek.com
Georgann Eubanks is all lit up and talking about fireflies.
“There are 75 species in the eastern part of the country, and we’re still discovering more,” the writer says. “But we’re discovering them even as we’re destroying them.”
Of those 75 species, she’s describing a specific one native to pockets of Southern Appalachia: the blue ghost firefly. Unlike the bright blink we associate with most backyard lightning bugs—the species many of us are guilty of having trapped in tinfoil-topped Mason jars as children and probably killed—this firefly is distinct for hovering en masse about a foot off the ground while emitting a blue-white light, prolonged and almost sapphire at its deepest: “like fairies,” Eubanks says.
She’d seen the blue ghost fireflies on a private nighttime tour, as she details in her new book, only to later spot them outside her mountain cabin, at which point she excitedly reported the sighting to her guide from the tour.
“‘I’ve been doing this for 10 years,’” she recalls him saying with a laugh. “‘You don’t know how many people who’ve lived here 30 years, their whole life, whatever, and never saw [the fireflies] until they went on my tour, and discovered they had them, too.’”
Such grounding moments drive The Fabulous Ordinary: Discovering the Natural Wonders of the Wild South, Eubanks’s new book, out last month from UNC Press. Donna Campbell, Eubanks’s longtime collaborator, contributes photographs.
When I reached out to Eubanks for an interview, I asked in my email if there was a spot we could meet that was perhaps reflective of her book’s subject. I don’t know what I expected—maybe the Haw River, maybe the North Car-
olina Botanical Garden—but she responded and asked to meet at a gazebo “where the frogs sing after a rain.” The gazebo in question turned out to be steps from her Carrboro condo. As we spoke, she held up her hands, every so often, to listen for a frog, their intermittent sonic appearances underscoring the “ordinary” referenced in her title.
Across 15 chapters, The Fabulous Ordinary explores “annual miracles” that take place in seven states. For North
“There are things you should see before they’re gone. And that you should take your kids and grandkids to see.”
Carolinians, some are more immediately accessible, like the fireflies or bugling elk in Cherokee and moths in Little Switzerland. (An astonishing fact I learned from Eubanks: in contrast to the state’s 175 species of butterflies, North Carolina has upward of 3,000 moth species.)
Other miracles require a longer drive, but one you’ll likely feel compelled to make, as Eubanks sketches out how a variety of factors—a relatively stable climate, slower
development—have made the Southeast a dramatic hot spot of biodiversity.
The climate emergency is endemic to any conversation about the natural world. The week Eubanks and I met, President Trump had just cleared 100 days in office, a stretch marked by, among other transgressions, the mass firing of thousands of Environmental Protection Agency and National Park Service workers and 145 actions rolling back clean air and water protections. Meanwhile, the Republican budget package, which includes the largest single sale of public land in modern history, is up for a vote.
In The Fabulous Ordinary, climate urgency is transmitted through wonder and a sturdy sense of place.
“There are things you should see before they’re gone,” Eubanks says. “And that you should take your kids and grandkids to see.”
Eubanks grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. Her paternal grandparents were both savvy about plants—at her grandmother’s funeral, when people cast flowers on the grave, Eubanks recalls her aunt saying, “She could tell you the Latin name of every one of those flowers!” Eubanks spent the first two decades of her career working as a consultant in higher education, with fiction as her main creative outlet. Eventually, the “gene kicked in,” and she began taking on creative nonfiction projects that intersected with the natural world.
“There are already too many great stories out there,” Eubanks says of her love for nonfiction. “Why would I want to make one up?”
In 2007, UNC Press published a book from her on the
Georgann Eubanks PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS
“literary trails of North Carolina,” a project she persuaded her editors to turn into three books. That series then spawned 2018’s The Month of Their Ripening: North Carolina Heritage Foods through the Year, an exploration of Tar Heel foods “at peak readiness” by the calendar, and 2021’s Saving the Wild South, which had Eubanks tromping around six states to visit botanical species “wavering on the edge of extinction.”
The Fabulous Ordinary serves as a bit of a sequel to the latter, broadening the lens from endangered plants to phenomena.
Books from academic presses, often specialized, don’t always reach the average consumer. And while The Fabulous Ordinary could seem fusty on description (“fabulous” strikes me as a word perhaps more often associated with a women’s clothing boutique), Eubanks’s lyrical gifts shine through clearly. As Eubanks’s editor at UNC Press, Lucas Church, writes, this new book is “not a guidebook in the traditional sense.”
“Her gift as a writer is that she immediately entrances the reader,” Church writes in an email to the INDY, “offering a beautiful mix of evocative descriptions of, say, the sounds made by the sandhill crane or why the eastern spadefoot toad has elliptical pupils, while firmly grounding her storytelling in the relationship between us and nature, and how we must be better stewards of our environment.”
A chapter on dimpled trout lilies is almost thriller-like in its description of how a plot of the lilies, 30 acres large, came to be discovered near Whigham,
Georgia—just south of the Florida panhandle and far away from the plant’s native habitat—when a highway expanded several decades ago. Later, in the early 2000s, a small group of citizens banded together to conserve the property’s rare tens of millions of flowers, distinct for their daily ritual of opening from dawn to dusk. If you pay a morning visit at just the right time, you may bear witness to a mass yellow unfurling.
Interestingly, several of the places chronicled, like the plot of lilies and a remote Alabama canyon full of glowing larvae, are not federally owned, reflecting a lack of state and federal investment in the Southeast’s ecology. But if private ownership is not an ideal model for conservation, Eubanks nevertheless finds hope in citizen efforts, arguing that drawing people’s attention to the singular aspects of where we live can help create sturdier regional identities. If the political is personal, so are the plants.
There is the sight of half a million purple martins in flight in Lexington, South Carolina, which Eubanks compares to the “spectacle of eighteenth-century migrations” of the passenger pigeon, quoting an 1813 passage in which John James Audubon described witnessing, over three days, what he estimated to be billions of birds like an “eclipse.” Passenger pigeons are now extinct, thanks to the hunting crazes of centuries past, but historical asides like that offer helpful comparison points—not just for what we have but for what we’ve already missed out on.
Upon witnessing the purple martins, Eubanks writes, there “are as many of their dark bodies as there are openings of light,” a “loose shawl” across the sky.
Eubanks’s previous book, Saving the Wild South, may have had a direct rallying cry as its title, but its follow-up offers generous portraits of wonder—the kind of things that can truly animate and move people to act. As Eubanks writes, the task for readers now is to locate a “contagious kind of appreciation that can be kindled” and “do something to repair the world.” That change begins with an invitation to form a relationship with the plants and places we are most at danger of losing. Also: the frogs.
“We’re in a lot of trouble,” Eubanks says. “We’ve got a lot of smart people working on the problem. But we need more people who care.” W
INCOMING! INCOMING!
A MONTHLY FEATURE SPOTLIGHTING INTERESTING FILMS COMING TO LOCAL THEATERS
Incoming! Impossible Missions, Mumbai Adventures, and Wes Anderson
Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible, acclaimed British indie Sister Midnight, and more films coming to the Triangle.
BY GLENN MCDONALD arts@indyweek.com
It’s easy to make fun of Tom Cruise. But the truth is he’s one of the great movie stars of our time, and you need him in the center of a gigantic action movie like Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning
This latest installment of the popular spy series features all of the franchise elements: exotic locales, insane stunts, and intricately choreographed set pieces. Even at age 62, Cruise still has the physicality and raw charisma to hold the center amid spectacle, and his ruggedly handsome movie-star face projects the requisite decency and resolve.
He’s a good hero, in other words, and that’s what you want in your big summer action movie. The Final Reckoning is actually part two of the story that began in 2023’s Dead Reckoning, and you may recall that the big baddie this time around is a malevolent artificial intelligence bent on world destruction.
The rogue AI is the preferred cinematic boogeyman these days, and with good reason, since we’re all wondering whether AI will be the actual boogeyman that triggers the apocalypse. It adds a nice frisson. But if you want something to chew on while the technobabble is recited, pay attention to the architecture of the story underneath: director and co-screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie has some things to say about fearmongering, polarization, media manipulation, and personality cults. McQuarrie and Cruise don’t have to put
this stuff in their big popcorn movie, but they do. Also consider the action movies of past eras: the mindless jingoism of John Wayne or the meathead aggression of Sylvester Stallone. The subtextual messaging of big dumb action movies is getting better. It can’t hurt, I suppose.
Anyway, if you’re going to see Dead Reckoning at all, you’ll want to see it in the theater, where it’s more of a visceral, cathartic, full-body experience. At the early screening I attended, the packed house clearly enjoyed the thrill ride. This stuff always plays better in a crowd.
On the other hand, if you prefer your stories in smaller human-sized proportions, consider the acclaimed British indie Sister Midnight, which debuted last year at the Cannes Film Festival. Set in Mumbai, it’s among the very few Hindi-language indies to get theatrical distribution in the United States.
The film follows young bride Uma (Radhika Apte), who has just arrived in the city to start her life as a housewife after an arranged marriage. Uma is not into it. Her subsequent adventures in the city get really and truly weird.
The most interesting part of Sister Midnight, according to reviews, is that it’s genre-agnostic and genuinely unpredictable. Is it a drama? A comedy? A horror film? A domestic satire? A character portrait? A surreal art film? The answer is, evidently, yes. Check out the excellent trailer
online for a sense of it all.
Stylistically, Sister Midnight has been compared to the films of Wes Anderson, which is fortuitous, since the new Wes Anderson film is also hitting theaters just now. The Phoenician Scheme is being billed as a dark comedy with elements of espionage and social satire, but of course, the most useful descriptor is Wes Anderson, who’s become a kind of subgenre unto himself.
The storyline concerns a billionaire mogul (Benicio del Toro), his latest scheme, and some family inheritance issues. Also in the mix: Tom Hanks, Michael Cera, Scarlett Johansson, Riz Ahmed, Jeffrey Wright, and
Benedict Cumberbatch.
Early reviews on this one are uncommonly consistent in their approval and suggest a film that’s more humanistic and poignant than usual. But in any case, Anderson is always worth seeing on the big screen, where his immaculate production design and symmetrical compositions can shine.
QUICK PICKS
For another rare find in theaters, look for the Chinese drama Caught by the Tides, director Jia Zhangke’s experimental mix of fiction and nonfiction that also premiered at Cannes last year.
Veterans of the 1990s may want to seek out Pavements, a documentary on indie rock legends Pavement that mixes scripted scenes with archival footage and jukebox musical bits. Irony, you see.
Several local theaters are running screenings and retrospectives for Pride Month. Among the highlights: A 20th-anniversary screening of Brokeback Mountain at the Alamo in Raleigh and the excellent 2014 British film Pride at the Cary Theater in Cary.
This one looks like fun: The action-drama Tornado, just in from the U.K., follows the fortunes of a young female samurai, kind of, in 18th-century England. Bonus points: Tim Roth plays the heavy. W
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning COURTESY OF PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND SKYDANCE
Sister Midnight COURTESY OF PROTAGONIST PICTURES
C U LT U R E C A L E N D A R
WED 5/28
MUSIC
Ally J on the Roof 7:30 p.m. The Durham Hotel, Durham.
Full of Hell, Harm’s Way, Kruelty, Jarhead Fertlizer, Clique 5 p.m. Motorco, Durham.
Lex Nell 8 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham.
The Rattletraps, Ol’ Joey Scrums, Johnny Sunrise 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
The String Quartet: A Four-Way Arranged Marriage 6 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
THUR 5/29
MUSIC
Al Strong Presents: Jazz on the Roof 7 p.m. The Durham Hotel, Durham.
Halsey 7 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park, Raleigh.
The Last Revel, Noah Daniel and The Naked Cowboys 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.
SIR: The Step into the Light Tour 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.
Supermutt, Sugar Snap Peas, Bee Million 7:30 p.m. Rubies, Durham.
A Very Cy&I Album Release Show, The Muse Collective, Adam Xavier 7:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
PAGE
Karen Booth: Not So Fast 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
STAGE
Paranormal Punchlines: Stand-up Comedy Showcase 6 p.m. DSSOLVR, Durham.
TheatreFEST presents: Dial M For Murder May 29-June 15, various times. NC State University, Raleigh.
Whitelisted May 22-June 1, various times. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.
FRI 5/30
MUSIC
Charles Latham & the Borrowed Band, Ramona & the Holy Smokes 9 p.m. Slim’s, Raleigh.
Cirque du Sol-Rave 8:30 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.
Cosmic Jerryfest May 30-31, 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.
EXTC: Terry Chambers and Friends 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
Freight Train Blues Concert Series Fridays at 6:30 p.m. Carrboro Town Commons, Carrboro.
GAGA NIGHTS - A Gaga Dance Party 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.
High + Tight: A Lifetime of Soul, Funk, and Disco Fridays at 8 p.m. Wolfe & Porter, Raleigh.
The King Teen CD release 9 p.m. The Cave, Chapel Hill.
Living in Y2k 10 p.m. Rubies, Durham.
Nono Gigsta, One Duran 10 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Sally Anne Morgan (full band), Josh Kimbrough, Cameron Knowler, Adeline Hotel 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Summerfest: The Music of John Williams 8 p.m. Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary.
STAGE
Chris Distefano 7 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.
SCREEN
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Fridays at 11:55 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh.
Thee Sacred Souls 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.
Dedicated Men of Zion perform Freight Train Blues in Carrboro on Friday, May 30. PHOTO COURTESY OF MUSIC MAKER FOUNDATION
Faith & Harmony perform Freight Train Blues in Carrboro on Friday, May 30. PHOTO COURTESY OF MUSIC MAKER FOUNDATION
SAT 5/31
MUSIC
9th Wonder and Give Em Soul 8 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.
Braxton Keith, Hannah Juanita 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
Keith Urban: High and Alive World Tour 7 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park, Raleigh.
Lights, King Mala 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.
Mei Semones, John Roseboro 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Noche de Rumba by DJ Ek Balam 10 p.m. Rubies, Durham.
Panchiko 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.
SCREEN
Found Footage Fest: 20th Anniversary Show 8 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh.
Braxton Keith performs at Lincoln Theatre on Saturday, May 31. PHOTO COURTESY OF LINCOLN THEATRE
LIGHTS performs at Motorco Music Hall on Saturday, May 31. PHOTO COURTESY OF MOTORCO
C U LT U R E C A L E N D A R
SUN 6/1 MON 6/2
MUSIC
Secret Monkey Weekend: Lemon Drop Hammer Record Release Party
6:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
The Soul Rebels 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.
SCREEN
Stop Making Sense 7 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh.
TUES 6/3 WED 6/4
MUSIC
Ninja Sex Party & TWRP: Pure Elegance Tour 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.
Provoker – mausoleum tour, RIP Swirl, Faerybabyy 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
PAGE
Renée Ahdieh: Park Avenue 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
MUSIC
I WANT MY 80’s TOUR 7 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.
Mayday Parade 6 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.
STAGE
Kevin James 7:30 p.m. DPAC, Durham.
THUR 6/5
MUSIC
Jayson Arendt w/ Kaylin Roberson / Clayton Blackman 7:30 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
Six Foot Blonde, Genevieve Heyward 7 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Tennis 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.
FRI 6/6
MUSIC
Ariel Pocock and Chad Eby: The Ellington-Strayhorn Connection 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.
Danny Go! 5 p.m. DPAC, Durham.
High + Tight: A Lifetime of Soul, Funk, and Disco Fridays at 8 p.m. Wolfe & Porter, Raleigh.
The Kooks: All Over The World Tour 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.
Perfume Genius, urika’s bedroom 8 p.m. Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw.
Scarlet House, Lilly Flower, Foxie Kills 7 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.
The Soul Rebels perform at Cat’s Cradle on Sunday, June 1. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAT’S CRADLE
Perfume Genius performs at the Haw River Ballroom on Friday, June 6. PHOTO COURTESY OF HAW RIVER BALLROOM
FIND OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR AT INDYWEEK.COM/CALENDAR
Soda Water Sea, Server 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
SCREEN
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Fridays at 11:55 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh. SUN 6/8 MON 6/9 TUES 6/10 SAT 6/7
MUSIC
Barefoot Manner w/ Dr. Bacon & Funkuponya 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
Baron Tymas Quartet 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.
Daft Disko: A French House & Disco Party 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.
Daughter of Swords 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Dispatch Summer Tour 2025 6 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.
Heather Maloney 7:30 p.m. The Cary Theater.
Ledisi 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham.
Luke Bryan: Country Song Came On Tour 7 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park, Raleigh.
Reverend Horton Heat, Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas 8:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.
STAGE
The Monti: Busted 8 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.
Flyleaf Second Sunday Poetry Series: Dasan Ahanu and Joseph Mills 2:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
STAGE
Empower in Motion: A Decade of Dance 4:15 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.
Shakespeare in the Parks: Othello 1 p.m. Apex Nature Park Amphitheatre, Apex.
MUSIC
Courting + Slow Fiction 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. MUSIC
Die Spitz 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
The Disco Biscuits: 30th Anniversary Tour 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh. PAGE
Stephanie Elizondo Griest: Art Above Everything 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
Tennis performs at the Ritz on Thursday, June 5. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE RITZ
The Kooks perform at The Ritz on Friday, June 6. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE RITZ
CROSSWORD
Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Patti Varol
ZHOUQIN BURNIKEL
by Pappocom
There is really only one rule to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box. The numbers can appear in any order and diagonals are not considered. Your initial game board will consist of several numbers that are already placed. Those numbers cannot be changed. Your goal is to fill in the empty squares following the simple rule above.
If you’re stumped, find the answer keys for these puzzles and archives of previous puzzles (and their solutions) at indyweek.com/puzzles-page or scan
QR code for a link. Best of luck, and have fun!
C L A S S I F I E D S
EMPLOYMENT
Associate Director, Product Owner
Associate Director, Product Owner, IQVIA RDS Inc., Durham, NC. Dsgn, anlyz, prog, debug, & main sys/web enhanc &/or new Patient Rcruitmnt prod. Supv resp. M-F, 8a - 5p EST w/ occ OT & WE. Mst wrk WEs 1x/qtr. Salary Rnge: $144,586 - $219,600/yr. Reqs bach in CS/CE/Sys Engg/ SW Engg/Data Sci/Data Anlytcs/any HC rel/equiv. Reqs 5 yrs prog resp bus anlys exp. In lieu of bach & 5 yrs exp, will accept 7 yrs prog resp bus anlys exp. Exp mst incl [w/ bach 5 yrs / w/ no deg 7 yrs]: wrk w/ clin data tech like bus intel tools, data WH, clin trial mgmt sys/elctrnc data capture sys. 5 yrs (if bach / no deg): use prod mgmt princ; wrk w/ clin trial data; use clin data mgmt knwl & undrstnd & clin ops pract; 2 yrs: del SaaS SW prod; dev SW prod rel to clin trials/clin trial data pltfrms/ HC data; perf proc anlys & diagrm in Lucidchart/ Visio/oth proc diagrm tools; wrk w/ Agile SW dev methd; 1 yr: use Jira SW dev; use Aha! prod roadmap. Reqs <5% US trvl. Apply: res to: usrecruitment@iqvia.com & ref #116703
Restaurant Office Coordinator
Restaurant Office Coordinator - Carrboro (Orange County) Maintain efficient office environment. Keep financial and H4 records. Track employee hours and prepare payroll. Monitor schedules and attendance. Track inventory and reorder supplies. Assist in reconciling sales and financial records. Coordinate customer bookings. Handle customer service. Assist in marketing efforts. Requires at least two years of experience working in an administrative position managing bills, payroll, invoices and receipts. Send resume to prasertdham@aol.com. Phochana, LLC
Senior DevOps Engineer
Novacura North America, Inc. in Raleigh, NC seeks Senior DevOps Engineer to ensure standardized software development and delivery build process pipeline is in place and engage in development and maintenance of build process pipeline. Requires Bachelor’s in Information Systems, Systems Analysis, or related field. Will accept foreign educational equivalent. Requires 2 years software development and delivery experience for cloud-based low code solutions gained in any job title including 2 years of experience with: Utilizing Cloud/SaaS technologies; Low code platform development and installation; Enterprise Resource Planning architecture; Creating standard operating procedures for cloud and infrastructure processes; Creating user documentation and training material for Cloud and Infrastructure processes; and Handling product source code. Reports to company office in Raleigh, NC. Must work in Raleigh, NC office approx. 2 days per week. Telecommuting from anywhere in U.S. permitted approx. 3 days per week. Email resume to workwithus@novacura.com.
EMPLOYMENT
Sr. Data Engineer
Sr. Data Engineer, F/T at Truist Bank (Raleigh, NC) Responsible for building, optimizing & maintaining the data pipelines & aiding in building the data ecosystem for delivering enterprise data for wide consumption incl dvlpg data models, corresponding data architecture docs & API’s. Build, manage, & implmt the data &/or Big Data pipeline capabilities. Must have a Bach’s deg in Comp Sci, Comp Engg, or related tech’l field. Must have 8 yrs of progressive exp in dvlpmt or IT consulting positions performing/ utilizing the following: SQL, relational d/bases, ETL/ ELT architecture, data integration concepts & big data concepts; planning & Managing Enterprise Data Lake projects; prgmg & scripting languages, incl Spark, Scala, Python, Hive, Hadoop, Bash, & UNIX; data quality tools for data profiling, cleansing & standardization; data acquisition, transformation, & storage dsgn using dsgn principles, patterns, & best practices; working w/in a team environment & interacting w/ data professionals & business data SME’s throughout the organization; CI/CD pipelines, incl GitHub & Jenkins; Agile methodologies & short release cycles; & utilizing Netezza & MS Excel. Position may be eligible to work hybrid/remotely but is based out of & reports to Truist offices in Raleigh, NC. Must be available to travel to Raleigh, NC regularly for meetings & reviews w/ manager & project teams w/in 24-hrs’ notice. Apply online (https://careers.truist.com/) or email resume to: Paige.Whitesell@Truist.com (Ref Job# R0102519)
Software Developer
SAS Institute Inc. seeks Software Developer in Cary, NC to design, develop & debug software of diverse scope for new & existing products in accordance w/designated development practices, timelines & quality expectations Reqs: MS in Comp Sci, Comp Networking, or rel + 2 yrs exp. Experience & skills may be gained during attainment of graduate degree. May work remotely pursuant to SAS’ Flexible Work Prgm. For full reqs & to apply visit www.sas.com/careers & reference Job # 2025-39344.
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