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Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill January 14, 2026

"How Did I Not See That?" By Chloe Courtney Bohl, p. 12

Cary's mayor reflects on the town manager's resignation.

Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill Vol. 43 No. 1 | January 14, 2026

Contents News 5

Wake County, preparing to add 2 million more residents by 2070, is nearly done creating a 50-year plan for its water supply. BY KENNEDY THOMASON

Durham's city manager reversed his decision to ban a resident from city hall after she disrupted a council member's swearing in. BY LENA GELLER

With the involvement of a local church, the number of shelter beds available in Durham on freezing nights is going up. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW

Cary's Indivisible chapter has grown from a few dozen residents in a retirement community to some 700 members who want to fight for democracy and find some joy in the process. BY JASMINE GALLUP

After the resignation of Cary's town manager, Mayor Harold Weinbrecht reflects on how to move forward and regain public trust. BY CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL

Culture 14

Arcana Bar and Lounge, a Durham nightlife mainstay, celebrates one year on The Lesbian Bar Project list and ten years of business. BY ELLIOTT HARRELL

Incoming! Amanda Seyfried in The Testament of Ann Lee, a new Park Chan-wook thriller, and more movies playing in local theaters. BY GLENN MCDONALD

A writer remembers his late father through a shared love of basketball, from Durham YMCAs to the Dean Dome. BY SAMUEL FELDBLUM

An interview with Kelly Policelli, the newly appointed State Archivist of North Carolina. BY SARAH EDWARDS

Regulars 4

20 Calendar

Backtalk

Cover Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht (see story on page 12). PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

Top: Amanda Wallace following a hearing appealing her ban from Durham City Hall. Bottom: Wallace’s supporters wait in a City Hall hallway during the appeal hearing. (see story on page 6). PHOTOS BY LENA GELLER

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Contributors Mariana Fabian, Jasmine Gallup, Desmera Gatewood, Tasso Hartzog, Elliott Harrell, Brian Howe, Jordan Lawrence, Elim Lee, Glenn McDonald, Nick McGregor, Gabi Mendick, Cy Neff, Andrea Richards, Barry Yeoman

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DURHAM COUNTY Board of Elections NOTICE OF DURHAM COUNTY PRIMARY AND ELECTION Tuesday, March 3, 2026

The Primary and Election for Durham County will be held in Durham County, NC on Tuesday March 3, 2026. All Durham County precincts will be open from 6:30 am until 7:30 pm. 17-year-old Durham County voters who are registered and will be 18 years old on or before Nov. 3, 2026, may vote in the Primary Election. 17-year-olds are not permitted to vote in School Board elections as they are final. Party primaries will be open to voters registered with their respective party. Unaffiliated voters may vote a non-partisan ballot that will only include non-partisan races OR choose to participate in any participating party’s primary election. Voters registered with political parties that are not participating in the primary election will be eligible to receive a non-partisan ballot. The following contests will be on Durham County ballots*: • • • • •

US Congress NC Supreme Court NC Court of Appeals NC General Assembly NC Superior Court

• • •

NC District Court Durham County Sherriff Durham County Clerk of the Superior Court

• •

Durham County Board of Education (Final Election) City of Raleigh City Council*

*Offices will only appear on your ballot if you are eligible to vote in the respective contests.

DURHAM COUNTY EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS South Regional Library 4505 S. Alston Ave., Durham

North Regional Library 221 Milton Road, Durham

East Regional Library 211 Lick Creek Lane, Durham

Duke University – Karsh Alumni Center 2080 Duke University Road, Durham

Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship 4907 Garrett Road, Durham

Durham County Main Library 300 N Roxboro St., Durham

NCCU Law School 640 Nelson St., Durham Durham County Board of Elections 3825 S. Roxboro St., Suite 101, Durham

Early voting schedule: Thursday, February 12, 2026 – Saturday, February 28, 2026 Hours are consistent at all eight early voting sites. • • •

Weekdays: 8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturdays: 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Sundays: 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Voter Registration Deadline: The voter registration deadline for the Primary and Election is Friday, February 6, 2026 (25 days prior). Voters that miss the registration deadline may register and vote during the Early Voting period. Voters who are currently registered need not re-register. Registered voters who have moved or changed other information since the last election should notify the Board of Elections of that change by February 6th. Party changes are not permitted after the voter registration deadline. SAME DAY REGISTRATION: Voters are allowed to register and vote during early voting. It is quicker and easier to register in advance, but if you have not registered you can do so during Early Voting with proper identification. This same day registration is not allowed at polling places on Election Day. For more details on the requirements associated with Same-Day Registration during Early Voting, visit our website at https://www.dcovotes.com/voters/voting/early-voting. Information regarding registration, polling locations, absentee voting, or other election matters may be obtained by contacting the Board of Elections. Website: www.dcovotes.com Phone: 919-560-0700

Email: elections@dconc.gov Fax: 919-560-0688

PAID FOR BY DURHAM COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS

January 14, 2026 INDYweek.com 3

BACKTALK Last month, Chase Pellegrini de Paur broke the news that Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam would challenge incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee for the 4th Congressional District seat, making for a near replay of the 2022 Democratic primary. Supporters of each campaign submitted dueling op-eds, and readers shared their reactions to both the news and the op-eds.

From reader CLARA MUCCI by email: I wanted to give a comment on Kate Torrey’s op-ed, “Rep. Foushee is Experienced and Effective. Don’t Trade Her for a Newbie.” Ms. Torrey’s devotion to the status quo aside, I take issue with her core argument. Torrey says Rep. Foushee is experienced and efficacious as a representative, and thus we can’t afford to lose her. But as Torrey points out, the Democrats are in the minority, so I don’t see how Foushee sponsoring bills that have no chance of passing is real evidence of her success in office. Torrey wrote in response to Finn McElwee’s op-ed that criticizes Foushee for taking lobbyist money. Yet, Torrey’s op-ed seems to entirely avoid the issue of Foushee’s donors. As a voter, I’m not sure I feel comfortable with an “experienced legislator” who takes funds from groups that lobby against my interests as a constituent. I was also disappointed by the final line of Torrey’s piece, which juxtaposes Valerie Foushee and Nida Allam as a “workhorse versus a showhorse.” Torrey likely didn’t have ill-intent here, but it troubles me to hear women of color be objectified this way. They are both accomplished professionals with careers in public service. Regardless of your take on political strategy, there’s no reason to compare voting for the candidates to choosing livestock. From reader DEBBY TEPLIN by email: I want to first acknowledge that I volunteered on Nida Allam’s failed campaign—but I had to write and tell Finn McElwee that I completely agree with him. I was disgusted by the amount of AIPAC money that Valerie Foushee took [in 2022], and then after she was elected, infuriated by that picture of her standing next

to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu. She usually votes the way I would like, but I don’t trust her and her allegiances. And I will add that I am disappointed that both Josh Stein and Roy Cooper have already endorsed her. From Facebook user Mia Day Burroughs: I’ve known Valerie Foushee since she was on school board and she is by far the most principled public servant amongst the dozens I’ve known. There was a recent [News & Observer] article covering the investment wealth of the NC Congressional delegation and it was clear by omission that Rep. Foushee has never profited from her policy decisions. In an era in which ethics have been brutally undermined by the administration and its weak allies, I want to see the opposite rewarded. This is not a commentary on her opponent, only shared thoughts about a public servant who I have watched closely for a number of years. Chase also wrote last month about what happened when Republican legislators summoned the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools superintendent and board chair for a hearing on the district’s compliance with the law known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights. In the hearing’s most theatrical moments, Chase wrote, a legislator held up books previously linked on the district’s website, like one about human anatomy, and accused the district of indoctrinating kids. Readers shared their responses.

From Facebook user LAUREN FORMY-DUVAL: How dare kids grow up to know about a vulva— something 50% of the world has?! This is actually very important because I imagine a large percentage of the men outraged about this don’t know where the vulva is located (and I bet their wives could confirm this). Shelbi Polk wrote about a wide-ranging interview with The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle on the occasion of his new book, This Year: 365 Songs Annotated: A Book of Days, which pairs lyrics with commentary from the author. Readers, including Darnielle, enjoyed the interview. From Bluesky user JESS: Come for the talk about storytelling, stay for the blistering commentary on housing in Durham. From Bluesky user SKYLER: thank god somebody pointed out there are actually 366 songs in this book !! it’s been bugging me for months. From DARNIELLE himself via Bluesky: One of the better interviews with me you’re likely to read. They gotta send me more grad student interviewers.

From Facebook user IMANI MCCREARY: Republicans discovering Chapel Hill schools exist and immediately yelling “indoctrination” is like walking into Weaver Street and accusing everyone of being forced to eat granola

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Wake County

Tapping In A long-term plan for water sustainability for all of Wake County could go before county commissioners next month. BY KENNEDY THOMASON backtalk@indyweek.com

50-year plan to safeguard access to clean and abundant water for Wake County residents is nearing completion after three years in development. The Wake County One Water Plan is designed “to protect the water supply, reduce nutrient pollution, mitigate flooding, and promote equal access to these benefits,” according to the draft dated to September 10. It is a collaboration between Wake County’s 12 municipalities to ensure there will be enough clean water as the county grows. The county anticipates its population will grow by 250,000 people in the next decade and is preparing to add more than 2 million residents by 2070. The county also projects water demand will more than double within its municipal water supply systems by 2070, based on 2021 levels. Leaders anticipate taking the One Water Plan to the Wake County Board of Commissioners next month. Nancy Daly, the water resources program manager for Wake County, said the plan is designed to proactively meet predicted needs for residents, as well as businesses, agriculture, natural resources, and recreation. “[The plan] recognizes that it’s all connected, right? Surface water is connected to groundwater and wastewater, and it doesn’t care about jurisdictional boundaries,” Daly said. “So when we think about water, we really need to think in collaboration and partnership at a regional level, because we live upstream and downstream from our neighbors.” The draft plan outlines water supply, wastewater treatment, stormwater and flood management, and groundwater protection as its areas of focus. Daly said every water utility in the county will have to expand to meet future needs incurred by growth and development, as well as predicted higher temperatures, more droughts, and worse flooding.

A pond at Beech Bluff County Park PHOTO COURTESY OF WAKE COUNTY

The draft also calls for reorganizing and aligning the county water guidance group, Wake County Water Partnership; increasing education and outreach; developing the workforce; and updating policies, ordinances, and regulations. The plan identifies areas like creating a flood gauge database, creating a countywide stormwater reuse master plan, and expanding the existing monitoring well network as items that could receive funding. The plan also addresses data centers. A data storage facility is proposed for a parcel of land near Apex, which the town’s Environmental Advisory Board approved conditions for in October. Data centers require large amounts of energy and sometimes water to run and cool their systems. Although it is possible the eventual user for Apex’s proposed data center will operate with air or fluid cooling systems, it could also use between 0.5 million and 1.5 million gallons per day of nonpotable treated wastewater from a nearby wastewater treatment facility. “We want to just make sure that we are well informed and prepared should that demand come in,” Daly said. Public comment on the plan concluded October 10, after a little more than three years of conversations with public officials and local residents. The Wake County One Water Team, which includes county staff, engineering consultant Tetra Tech, water quality and supply consultant Hazen and Sawyer, and RTI International, drafted the plan. One Wake County town, Fuquay-Varina, has already taken steps to address an anticipated water shortage. The town is seeking state approval of a plan that would allow it to pull water from the Cape Fear River Basin in Lee County and discharge the treated wastewater into the Neuse River

Basin in Wake County. The plan, which has faced opposition from stakeholders in Eastern North Carolina, attempts to address an anticipated shortfall in water supplies by 2030 because of rapid population growth and increased development. Daly said Fuquay-Varina is an “active member” of the Triangle Water Supply Partnership, which has been part of One Water’s plan development. “I would say that is a perfect example of how we need to be thinking regionally and how we use our water,” Daly said. “While we’re going to need to continue to have expanded water resources to meet these needs, we do have a limited amount, and so we’ve got to think about upstream, downstream users with any decisions that we make.” A spokesperson for the town of Fuquay-Varina did not respond to the INDY’s request for an interview before our deadline. In Wake County, 85% of the population depends on water from surface reservoirs like Falls or Jordan lakes. The other 15% depends on groundwater from private or community wells, Daly said. With Durham and Orange counties also drawing from these sources, Daly said a 50-year plan is needed to address the anticipated growth of these counties. “We need the community. We need the public. We need everybody to be all hands on deck and have a place at the table, thinking about water conservation, about best practices we can do in our yards to help conserve water and plant native species,” Daly said. “There’s so many different strategies and roles that we can all play that it’s going to take all of us working together to really make sure that we can achieve our goals.” 2 January 14, 2026 INDYweek.com 5

NEWS

Durham ILLUSTRATION BY NICOLE PAJOR MOORE

er is to safeguard core governmental functions like swearing-in ceremonies. The ban’s two-year duration, Ferguson explained, was specifically calibrated to keep Wallace away through the 2027 ceremonial proceeding. Ferguson offered Wallace what he called “a path forward” during the hearing. If Wallace would acknowledge that the city has rules that govern participation in public meetings— including during ceremonial functions like swearing-ins— and that the city has authority to enforce those rules, he would be comfortable lifting the ban, he told her. Wallace ultimately acknowledged the city rules during the hearing. “After considering the information presented at the hearing and our discussion, I have decided to modify the existing trespass notice,” Ferguson wrote in a letter the next day. The ban was set to expire on January 12.

Ban’s Off Durham’s city manager lifted a two-year ban from City Hall that he had imposed last month on a local activist who disrupted a city council swearing-in ceremony. BY LENA GELLER lgeller@indyweek.com

Durham resident who faced a two-year ban from Durham City Hall regained access to the building this week—roughly two years earlier than expected—after an appeal hearing last Monday resulted in the restriction being lifted. Amanda Wallace was banned from City Hall in December after disrupting the swearing-in ceremony of newly elected Councilmember Matt Kopac. From her seat, Wallace spent several minutes loudly criticizing both Kopac and the judge administering the oath before a police officer escorted her out of the chambers. Kopac was subsequently sworn in. City Manager Bo Ferguson, who independently made the calls both to impose and to lift the ban, told the INDY last month that the measure had nothing to do with the words Wallace uttered—he didn’t even remember what Wallace had said, he said—but rather with the fact that her conduct had interfered with the transfer of power. To Ferguson’s knowledge, he said, the ban he issued was unprecedented in Durham—but so was the disruption itself. 6 INDYweek.com January 14, 2026

In his 13 years with the city of Durham and 25 total years in local government, he said he had never seen someone interrupt a swearing-in ceremony. The two-year ban represented the maximum allowed sentence under city code. The severity of the penalty prompted criticism from the public and some council members—even Kopac said it was “not what I would have asked for”—and made Ferguson’s quick reversal striking. Last week’s closed hearing discussion—a recording of which the INDY reviewed—and the decision letter sent to Wallace following the hearing suggest Ferguson’s primary aim was narrower than it initially appeared. While the ban seemed like it had initially been enacted as a sweeping punitive measure, Ferguson’s focus centered on preventing a repeat disruption at the next swearing-in ceremony in December 2027. Ferguson clarified in the hearing and decision letter that while enforcing decorum during disruptions in meetings typically falls to the mayor, Ferguson’s role as city manag-

he issue of access not only underpinned the ban but swirled around the appeal hearing itself, which was closed to the public. Just before the hearing was set to start, a throng of Wallace’s supporters—many of them perennial speakers at public meetings with newly heightened fears that the city might muzzle them—intercepted Ferguson when he was on his way into the hearing and demanded an explanation for the closed-door format. One supporter had printed out the section of municipal code that pertains to trespass appeals and highlighted parts of it in yellow, waving it around and insisting that nothing in the code states appeal hearings must be closed to the public. Ferguson told the group that such hearings are considered administrative meetings between city staff and an individual, which are not open to the public. The group eventually relented when Ferguson pointed out that they were delaying the hearing. Wallace was permitted to bring a legal representative and an emotional support companion into the hearing. She was also allowed to take an audio recording, which she shared with the INDY. From the hearing’s outset, Ferguson seemed eager to find a way to drop the ban. If Wallace agreed—verbally or in a written statement—to abide by the city’s time, place, and manner restrictions on speech during council proceedings going forward, Ferguson said, he would be “very comfortable” with her returning to City Hall. But if Wallace’s position was that “anyone who enters the council chambers, because of free speech, has a right to speak at any time that they want,” Ferguson said he would not feel comfortable lifting the ban. Amanda Wallace story continues on page 9

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NEWS

Durham

Shelter from the Cold Beds available on “white flag” nights in Durham are quadrupling this winter as local organizations launch a new initiative to raise money for homelessness services and help people find shelter when temps are freezing. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW jlaidlaw@indyweek.com

ILLUSTRATION BY AIDEN SIOBHAN

n the coldest nights of the year, while many of us snuggle up in the comfort of our homes with a hot cocoa, hoping to glance outside and see snowfall, some of our neighbors are searching desperately for ways to keep themselves and their loved ones warm as they brace for frigid temperatures. This winter, Durham is nearly quadrupling the number of beds available for people on “white flag” nights, which occur when temperatures are forecast to be at or below 32 degrees, or 35 degrees with rain or snow. At the same time, local organizations are collaborating on a new initiative this winter called 100 Days of Warmth, a campaign to raise awareness about white flag shelters and raise funds to expand shelter capacity and other homelessness services. Ryan Smith, director of Durham’s Community Safety Department, said the department hopes to encourage churches and advocacy groups, many of whom are members of the city’s Continuum of Care network, to join in the mission. “I think a lot of people in Durham really care about this,” Smith said. “A lot of people want Durham to be a place where everyone has a safe, warm place to sleep on the coldest nights.” According to Housing for New Hope, a nonprofit focused on outreach and rehousing, about 381 people were homeless in Durham in 2025, slightly down from 2024. But 51% of Durham’s homeless population is unsheltered, a 12% 8 INDYweek.com January 14, 2026

uptick from the previous year, heightening the demand for temporary and long-term housing options. Starting in December, over 70 new beds became available for folks in need, the bulk of which are at the school building owned by Union Baptist Church. Previously, Urban Ministries and Families Moving Forward had been able to offer only a handful of beds. Durham Rescue Mission also has limited availability, but those numbers are harder to track because Durham Rescue Mission is not part of the city’s Continuum of Care, a network of nonprofits and local organizations that collaborate with the city and county on homelessness services. Ketty Thelemaque, lead organizer at Durham Congregations, Associations, and Neighborhoods (Durham CAN), connected Smith with the Rev. Prince Rivers, pastor at Union Baptist Church, after a conversation between Thelemaque and Rivers about how to support Durham’s unhoused population. Rivers mentioned the school building, so Thelemaque connected the dots, knowing that the city was in desperate need of more shelter space. “I was just really excited about the opportunity, because we do have this space, and I know that both my time here in Durham and my time pastoring in other cities, this is always an issue,” Rivers said. “What do you do for temporary housing in the winter for unhoused people? Often faith communities have space that isn’t used 24 hours a day, and so the opportunity to be a part of that seemed like a great initiative.”

Union Baptist Church is providing 52 beds at its school building at 311 Dowd Street. The city is contracting with Families Moving Forward to staff the shelter. The congregation at Union Baptist Church is roughly 4,000 strong, Rivers said, and they are fervent about doing their part to support neighbors in need. “When I announced that we were doing this on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, there was roaring applause from the congregation,” Rivers said. “They know there’s a need, and even though the hands-on volunteer opportunities may be limited, we continue to get calls almost every other day from people who are trying to see if they can volunteer.” Adding 50-plus beds in one location is a unique challenge and a win worth celebrating for Smith and his team. Many other churches that have answered the call to open temporary shelters don’t have working sprinkler systems, capping the number of people they can house at 20 due to fire code and building safety. Creating space for 52 beds through Union Baptist has “enabled us to do something we have not been able to do in years past,” Smith said. Bringing more folks under one roof is more efficient because it allows the same number of overnight staff to support a greater number of folks seeking shelter. In addition to the 52 beds provided by Union Baptist, Asbury United Methodist Church is making 20 new beds available in partnership with Open Table Ministry, and Durham Crisis Response Center is adding three beds. To get the word out about available beds on white flag

nights, organizers disseminate information in places like churches and libraries that are already frequented by the homeless population. Folks in need of shelter can also call Entry Point Durham to locate a shelter with an open bed. Still, Leah Gladlin, Durham community safety coordinator, said only about 70% of white flag beds get filled, despite the need. In response, the city launched a separate “triage” hotline that first responders, hospital workers, and street outreach organizers can call to get real-time shelter availability for individuals they encounter. Before the hotline, if someone didn’t show up to take a bed they had reserved, shelters and community outreach groups didn’t have a cohesive way to backfill it. Smith noted that some unhoused folks do not want to be or do not feel safe in a congregate setting, which is what most shelters have to offer. In lieu of shelter,

who are dealing with those types of dynamics, I was like, what systems can really help parents who are struggling?” In the future, organizers and public officials hope to increase capacity by leveraging unused public land like former school buildings. Smith and Thelemaque said they’ve had conversations with Durham Public Schools leadership about potential opportunities. Another priority is building a day shelter in Durham, which Thelemaque said is “desperately needed.” Day shelters don’t just provide space for folks; they are a waystation for essential services. At Oak City Cares, folks can take a shower, do laundry, get health screenings, use a computer, and even grab a meal on the weekends. Such services are more disjointed in Durham, but an increase in available facilities, especially those that can house a higher volume of people, would allow the city’s resources to stretch even further.

“A lot of people want Durham to be a place where everyone has a safe, warm place to sleep on the coldest nights.” the city’s HEART team and other outreach groups pass out blankets and sleeping bags, jackets, and survival kits that Smith said are “designed to help keep people warm who may, either by choice or by absence of options, choose to sleep outdoors,” but these solutions are only a temporary fix. The face of homelessness is as diverse a mosaic as the broader community: families with young children, the formerly incarcerated, the elderly, and people with pets. Many unhoused folks are working as they bounce from shelter to shelter, whether outdoors in a tent, in their car, or in temporary housing. As the cost of living rises, folks are finding it harder to keep pace. Thelemaque spent 16 years with Durham Public Schools as a classroom teacher and learning coach. She stepped into the lead organizer role at CAN in 2022 after witnessing too many students dealing with housing instability. “I was on the front line with students, and sometimes, when they come to the classroom, everything that they deal with outside they bring in, and it prevents them from being successful,” Thelemaque said. “Seeing students who are unsheltered or

“We looked over at Raleigh and Wake County, and they were spending about the same amount as we were, but they were getting like five times as many white flag beds out of it,” Smith said. “Part of that was they had a more robust partnership with their faith community, and they had been able to find buildings that allowed them to hold larger emergency shelters. So part of our strategy was, let’s start working locally. We’re not going to get everywhere we want to be this winter season, but let’s see if we can make real progress toward finding larger spaces in partnership with faith communities and other organizations.” United Way of the Triangle has stepped in to manage the fundraising campaign as part of the 100 Days of Warmth. The extra funding would support warm meals and expanded capacity for white flag shelters, now and in the future. “If we can show that we can generate meaningful private dollars, I think that we have greater capacity to further expand white flag shelters, either as we go this season or as we head into next year, because we’re generating this proof of concept,” Smith said. 2

Amanda Wallace story continued from page 6

Wallace pushed back on the request. She said Ferguson asking her to acknowledge city rules governing public behavior felt uncomfortable. “It’s like a ‘yes, master’ thing,” Wallace told Ferguson. “That’s what it feels like right now, that I got to come to you and tell you—you, who are you?—I have to say this to you. That’s not cool.” Ferguson immediately offered an apology. He went on to present a more direct request: Could Wallace acknowledge that, if Ferguson lifted the trespass and Wallace returned to meetings but was called out of order by the mayor for violating decorum rules, it could be grounds to reinstate a trespass? “I acknowledge that the decorum rules are what they are, and the mayor has the right to make that decision. And as the city manager, you have the right to enforce whatever it is per the ordinance that you would like to do. I acknowledge that,” Wallace responded. In his decision letter, Ferguson wrote that during the hearing, Wallace acknowledged the existence of the city’s participa-

“If the only avenue to give your speech to the city is virtual, then the city has full control to mute you, to kick you out,” he told the INDY. During the hearing, Ferguson clarified that such constitutional issues are beyond the scope of an administrative hearing. He noted that he had consulted with the city attorney, who was present during the administrative hearing, on potential legal issues and believes the ordinance is constitutional and Ferguson’s use of it is defensible. The purpose of an administrative hearing, Ferguson explained, is for Wallace to present facts that might compel him to change his position. Ferguson told Wallace her written appeal hadn’t offered evidence that would undermine his original decision. Still, he offered her the out. To supplement the written appeal, Wallace presented a petition with around 200 signatures and a letter of support from Councilmember Nate Baker calling the ban a “disproportionate punishment” that “does not serve the best interests of Council proceedings or the people of Durham,” among other materials.

“It feels like a ‘yes, master’ thing. ... that I got to come to you ... I have to say this to you. That’s not cool.” tion rules and its authority to enforce them. While Wallace “did not expressly commit to following those rules in the future,” Ferguson wrote, she “also did not state an intent to disregard them.”

he crux of Wallace’s appeal, laid out in writing and by her lawyer Italo Medelius during the hearing, was that the ban violated Wallace’s First Amendment protections primarily due to the ban’s length of two years. This, Medelius argued, amounted to an unconstitutional prior restraint on Wallace’s ability to participate in civic discourse. Under the ban, Wallace was still allowed to participate in public meetings remotely via Zoom. Banning someone from City Hall before the era of virtual meetings would have posed a more direct free speech question by cutting off access to government proceedings entirely—which may be part of the reason why such a ban had not been used before. In Medelius’ view, being limited to virtual participation still violated Wallace’s free speech rights.

Baker’s letter echoed concerns that had been raised by other council members in tense remarks at a December 15 council meeting, where members split sharply on Ferguson’s decision. Councilmembers Chelsea Cook and Shanetta Burris expressed distaste for the trespass. “There were no threats of harm or violence,” Cook said. “The person was asked to leave and did so.” Mayor Leonardo Williams and Mayor Pro Tem Javiera Caballero, meanwhile, defended the ban, with Williams saying “We don’t get to demonize things like January 6 and then accept it at the local level” in reference to Wallace’s disruption of the swearing-in ceremony. Wallace is the founder of Operation Stop CPS, an organization fighting for child protective services reform. She has previously been served no-contact orders from Durham County and Person County. Ferguson told the INDY last month that Wallace’s other conflicts with local government were not a major consideration in issuing the ban from Durham City Hall. 2 January 14, 2026 INDYweek.com 9

NEWS

Cary A No Kings protest hosted by Cary Indivisible in October 2025 drew some 5,000 participants. PHOTO BY STEVE GALLUP

United They Stand In under a year, a local activist group that began in a Cary retirement community has grown to include some 700 members of all ages. BY JASMINE GALLUP backtalk@indyweek.com

giant blue axolotl dancing to cheers, laughter, and honking horns: That was the vibe at Cary Indivisible’s No Kings protest in October, a gathering of some 5,000 people united against President Donald Trump’s authoritarian agenda. The local activist group was founded back in February by longtime Democrats Steve and Martha Glass. The group’s first meeting was limited to about 30 people living in the Glasses’ retirement community, Glenaire. But word soon spread. Now, Cary Indivisible has expanded beyond Glenaire to include some 700 official members, mostly “younger seniors” and middle-aged Cary residents, with even more people, of all ages, coming to protests. The group held six protests throughout the spring and summer, including No Kings 1 in June, which drew more than 2,500 to the corner of Maynard and Kildaire Farm roads. The No Kings 2 protest, on October 18, was Cary Indivisible’s largest to date. “A fellow here came to me about two weeks before No Kings 2,” recalled Steve. “He said, ‘I’m registered for your 10 INDYweek.com January 14, 2026

protest, but I don’t know what to do.’ And I said, ‘Well, you just have fun. Shout, bring a sign, and have fun.’” By that measure, Cary Indivisible has been overwhelmingly successful. In a world where fear, anger, and hatred feel like they’re lurking around every corner—ready to leap up and overtake any conversation given the right excuse— these protesters are putting out joy. As Steve says, they’re having a lot of fun making fools of themselves. Of course, there’s a serious agenda behind the inflatable costumes and rainbow peace signs. Cary Indivisible is a microcosm of a larger, nationwide movement dedicated to preserving democracy and resisting right-wing politics. In practice, that means raising money for immigration lawyers, calling members of Congress, and canvassing neighborhoods ahead of elections. Many Cary Indivisible members are vehemently against ICE and the elimination of DEI programs, and enthusiastically for Medicaid and universal health care. The uniting sentiment, however, is of power to the people. Protesters at Cary Indivisible events hold signs that read

“Stop truth decay” and “Due process is hot.” In October, one hastily written poster-board sign avowed, “When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty.” Another questioned passersby, asking “If you’re not anti-fascist, what are you?” Cary Indivisible’s rapid growth is reflected in cities across the United States, where “No Kings” has become a rallying cry, a touchstone, and a slogan seen on bumper stickers, pins, and T-shirts. It also coincides with big Democratic wins in Cary, where Democrats defeated Republicans in all three city council races on ballots this fall; every seat on the council is now filled by a Democrat. Steve and Martha Glass aren’t new to political engagement. Steve was the man in charge of Jim Hunt’s first successful campaign for governor in 1977. After that, he stayed on as the executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Meanwhile, Martha was working as Hunt’s executive secretary and, later, as a legislative liaison in the Department of Administration. In the early 2000s, she led the development of the state’s agritourism industry in the Department of Agriculture. Both have years of experience in grassroots political organizing, skills that have enabled them to create a safe, well-organized, and sustainable activist group. The couple regularly send out email newsletters, connect members with training opportunities, and survey people about what they’d like to do next. Crucially, there’s also something incredibly compelling about the way they talk politics: blunt, with no prevarication. Steve, who retired from the U.S. Navy as a two-star admiral, openly called Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth an “idiot,” speculating about his impeachment. As he discussed the toxic political environment, he half-joked about

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Above: A protester wears an inflatable axolotl costume at Cary Indivisible’s No Kings rally in October 2025. PHOTO BY STEVE GALLUP Left: Martha and Steve Glass PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SUBJECTS

being deported or “snatched off the street” for speaking against Republicans. Until recently, the Democratic Party has “acted as if everything was business as usual,” Steve said. Frustration with the political establishment was one factor that led him and Martha to start Cary Indivisible. While the Republican Party has been incredibly active, marshalling support for Project 2025 and driving the rise of MAGA and white nationalism, the Democratic Party has been sluggish and unorganized, Steve argued. “The day after Trump won on November 5 of last year, people started coming to us saying, ‘What do we do? What can we do? This is awful,’” he said. That first meeting, Martha added, “every

single person in that room began to vent one at a time. It took us an extra hour just to let everyone say what was on their mind, what they wanted to do, what they were afraid of, what they were hoping for.” That pain, worry, and fear people were feeling became the emotional catalyst for the movement. People came to Cary Indivisible in search of community, empowerment. And while Steve and Martha have also felt worried, afraid, and even burned out by the cascade of terrible news coming from the Trump administration, there’s a new feeling growing with every event they organize: hope. “We know we’re doing the right thing,” Martha said. “We’re trying to save our country.” 2

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January 14, 2026 INDYweek.com 11

NEWS

Cary Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

In Hindsight Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht reflects on the former town manager’s resignation. BY CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL chloe@indyweek.com

wo months ago, Sean Stegall was the successful, seemingly uncontroversial town manager of Cary—a low-profile but influential position that gave him control of a 1,300-person staff and a $500 million annual budget to work with. Stegall was nearing his 10-year work anniversary and had just published a book chronicling his accomplishments and leadership philosophy. By all accounts, he deserved as much credit as anyone for making Cary a prosperous, well-run town. Then, on November 20, the Cary Town Council placed Stegall on administrative leave after learning he had engaged in excessive spending without council approval. In the following weeks, public records requests and reporting revealed that Stegall had unilaterally signed off on land purchases totaling over $1 million, approved the town’s payment of a council member’s tuition, and violated the town’s fund balance policy, all without informing the full town council. A few weeks later, Stegall resigned. In an emergency town council meeting, Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said Stegall had misled council members and created an “unhealthy work environment.” The town hired Womble Bond Dickinson, a law firm specializing in employ12 INDYweek.com January 14, 2026

ment investigations, to conduct a full probe of Stegall’s activities. The state auditor’s office, which is conducting its own investigation, said this week that initial analysis “indicates potential criminal activity;” the auditor is working with the Wake County District Attorney’s office and the State Bureau of Investigation. To Weinbrecht, the revelations were both painful and galvanizing. The INDY sat down with the mayor at Cary’s Town Hall earlier this month to talk about the events leading up to Stegall’s resignation and how the town is responding in the aftermath. Here are some takeaways from that conversation. The mayor says Stegall’s overreach felt like the “ultimate betrayal.” Weinbrecht, who has served as mayor since 2007 and helped hire Stegall in 2016, said he felt blindsided when his former town manager’s misconduct came to light. “When I first started hearing things, I remember going home and staring at the TV with it being off for hours, going, ‘What is going on? How did I get here? What hap-

pened? Why did he do that? He’s my friend. I thought he was my friend. How did I not see that?’” Weinbrecht said. “I don’t have answers to those questions. I just don’t know what happened.” Weinbrecht said he first noticed changes in Stegall’s behavior a few months ago when the former manager began canceling their weekly one-on-one meetings. In hindsight those cancellations are glaring red flags, the mayor said, but “I didn’t question anything at the time, because I believed in him and trusted him.” Weinbrecht said he doesn’t know what made the former town manager act the way he did, and said he wishes him well; at his best, Weinbrecht said, Stegall was “brilliant” at his job. But “he was manipulating a lot of people and a lot of things at the same time, which would take a lot of brilliance to do that as well ... including coming across as your best friend, or one of your best friends. It makes you feel like a fool.” The town doesn’t know the full extent of Stegall’s overreach yet. During his decade as town manager, Stegall changed a lot about Cary’s government structure: He dissolved and created departments, shuffled staff around them, and implemented new programs. He oversaw the rollout of the 311 service and the opening of Downtown Cary Park. When the INDY asked Weinbrecht how he weighs Stegall’s accomplishments against his spending and conduct issues, the mayor said it’s complicated. But overall, the mayor said he still believes Cary “went in a great direction” for those years. The dual Womble Bond Dickinson and state auditor’s investigations will reveal more details about Stegall’s spending and conduct in time, the mayor said. Right now, he said he wishes he hadn’t let Stegall brush off multiple requests

“I do question the finances in the past. I’m glad we’re having an internal investigation to [see] if anything was done inappropriately.”

Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

by the town council to conduct a staff survey to assess employee satisfaction. “Looking back, that’s one of the things we should have said, ‘No no no. We insist on it. We need it now.’ And it never happened,” Weinbrecht said. “That would have given us a clue of the energy—is it really going in a positive direction?” The mayor also has questions about why taxes rose so much for Cary residents in 2024. Even though he knows inflation, flattening revenues, and county-level revaluations played a role, he wonders if there was “a better way to get to that point” that would have been less jarring for residents. “I do question the finances in the past,” he said. “I’m glad we’re having an internal investigation to [see] if anything was done inappropriately.” Stegall’s workplace conduct was “unpredictable” and “inappropriate.” When the town council announced Stegall’s resignation in December, Weinbrecht said the former town manager had created an “unhealthy work environment.” Last week, the mayor explained that he learned about the workplace issues from staff members who sent him anonymous tips. From there, the council interviewed some staff members about Stegall’s behavior. From those interviews, Weinbrecht said he learned that Stegall “was unpredictable. He was doing things, saying things to certain staff members that were inappropriate,

and they felt like he was not being the leader he once was.” Weinbrecht said he cannot go into any more detail about Stegall’s inappropriate behavior except to say that “people weren’t treated professionally.” Weinbrecht said the staff who reported on Stegall “were heroes, in my opinion, to risk their jobs, their careers, because they believed in the town and the organization enough to come to the council and tell us what they knew. And it was upsetting for us, upsetting for them. It was one of the lowest points I’ve seen in my 22-plus years as an elected official to sit through that.” Weinbrecht said the town council isn’t in complete agreement about how to move forward. Out of the seven Cary Town Council members, two—Bella Huang and Brittany Richards—were just sworn in last month. Two more, Sarika Bansal and Michelle Craig, have only served about two years. Most of the council, other than Weinbrecht and mayor pro tem Lori Bush, has only ever worked with Stegall as town manager. Weinbrecht said having “a new council with very little experience” creates “trust issues” between the council and town staff, between the council and the public, and among the council members themselves. “New council members are very influenced by what is around them, and they don’t have a lot of big-picture information,” Weinbrecht

said. “They might rely on other council members, which in itself poses a danger. “We have to, as a council and a staff, make sure that [the newer members are] educated so they can make the decisions based on the big picture,” Weinbrecht said. He added that the council isn’t aligned about how to move forward. “I talked with one [council member] at length [this weekend] ... and it didn’t end well. That person thinks, ‘What’s wrong with meeting in private and coming up with solutions and then presenting it to the council?’ I’m like, ‘Well, information is power, and power can break trust.’ ... They didn’t agree with that: ‘That’s not the way we’ve done it.’ Well, the way [we’ve] done the last two years isn’t correct. So we went back and forth on that. I didn’t get anywhere.” Weinbrecht said the council members disagree about how quickly they should announce all the reforms Cary will implement. He’s in the camp that doesn’t want to “rush to solutions” that might be overcorrections in the heat of the moment. But he noted that the town recently moved to televise all council meetings and recently created a public portal to track all records requests—two measures that should increase transparency. Cary will make some changes in the months to come. Weinbrecht wants to make the annu-

al budget process more transparent this year in order to reassure taxpayers that the town is spending their money wisely. That means slowing the process down and getting the public involved. “Budgets are all about values,” he said. “And so if the public’s value is that we should be cutting things, then that’s probably a good direction.” Weinbrecht said he doesn’t want to make cuts to police, fire, or public works, which he says are “80% of what we do” and “the best of the best. ... But that’s a discussion we want to have with the public.” In addition to recording all public meetings of the town council, Cary has eliminated one-on-one meetings between the town manager (now Russ Overton, serving in an interim capacity) and individual council members. Instead, the town is holding “three by four” meetings between three council members and four staff members, including the manager and the mayor. This way, Weinbrecht said, everyone is getting the same information and meetings are being documented properly. “Because of the strength of this organization, one bad player did not impact the organization as greatly as [they] could have, and that’s because of the incredible staff,” Weinbrecht said. “I think that we will come out stronger because of this, because we have stronger policies, stronger procedures, and we’ll know what we need to do as an organization to move forward.” 2 January 14, 2026 INDYweek.com 13

FOOD & DRINK

ARCANA BAR AND LOUNGE

331 W Main St, Durham | arcanadurham.com

Raise a Glass Last year, Arcana was designated by The Lesbian Bar Project as one of 36 “official” lesbian bars across the country. In December, it celebrated a decade in business. BY ELLIOTT HARRELL food@indyweek.com

“T

he terror has calmed down now, at year 10,” laughs Erin Karcher, owner of popular lesbian bar Arcana Bar and Lounge in downtown Durham. “But it felt super risky [to open a bar] at the time, and it was terrifying until we had already been open for a year.” Karcher opened Arcana with former business partner Lindsey Andrews in December 2015, after Andrews approached Karcher, one summer night, with the idea of opening their own bar. It would be a tarot card cocktail bar, a space unlike any other in Durham. “Lindsey and I definitely wanted to have a bar that was queer inclusive and LGBTQT friendly, and particularly a place that felt safe and welcoming to women,” Karcher said of their initial vision. The pair had plenty of hospitality experience between them, but neither had run a business before. Still, they had confidence that the bar would succeed, leaning heavily on Google and other friends in the industry to figure things out. A decade later, it’s safe to say they’ve figured things out. If you’ve been to Arcana, you know it’s a bit tricky to find. The bar is located in the Snow Building downtown, but you’ll need to walk through an alley and down a flight of stairs to get there. The somewhat hidden entrance gives Arcana speakeasy-esque vibes and just adds to the bar’s allure. Those charming vibes have come a long way, though. “It was pretty much the only thing that we could afford,” said Karcher, explaining that the space’s “ugly gray carpet” and “blinking fluorescent lights” had made it unappealing to other prospective tenants. The two got to work revamping the basement bar to make it look like what you’ll find today—an inviting, welcoming, and cozy watering hole and gathering place that’s become a staple in the LGBTQT community in Durham. 14 INDYweek.com January 14, 2026

other bars in Durham. “I don’t think that we could have survived without our programming,” she added. In 2023, Karcher became the sole owner of Arcana when Andrews left to start Night School Bar, a similarly unorthodox bar space. While Arcana had always been known around town as an inclusive and queer-friendly bar, Karcher’s employees pushed her to lean into the identity more. Attendees at Arcana’s tenth birthday party in “My youngest employee, Meg, early December 2025 PHOTO BY HILLARY HONECK asked, ‘Can we be gayer now?’” Karcher said. “And I was like—yeah, From the beginning, Arcana has been known for its wide let’s do that.” The bar launched one of its most popular range of events. Karcher said some might recall their early events called Dyke Night soon after, a mix-and-mingle ‘super secret dance parties’ that turned the space into “an type themed event each month to embrace its identity. underground oasis for all the Durham nightlife hounds who But Karcher wanted more. She applied to be an official prefer sweaty cellars and warehouses to spacious rooms lesbian bar through The Lesbian Bar Project. In early with bottle service,” before the pandemic brought the tra- 2024, Arcana became the 32nd recognized lesbian bar in the country and has remained the only bar of its kind dition to a halt, as Brian Howe wrote in 2021. Dance parties aside, you’ll still find something on the in North Carolina. calendar every night these days—tarot readings, burlesque “It really matters that we’re on the [lesbian bar] list,” and comedy shows, Queer Dungeons & Dragons playing said Karcher. “It really kind of makes the whole state seem nights, DJ sets and a Queer Craft Night. a little bit safer and queerer and is part of a contributing “I actually don’t want to run a business whose primary force that helps indicate Durham is definitely a little bit goal is to serve people alcohol and get them intoxicated,” of a safe pocket.” Karcher said. Arcana officially celebrated its 10th birthday earlier in While she acknowledges that getting people to drink, December and shows no signs of slowing down as it enters whether it be something alcoholic or something from its next decade. their extensive non-alcoholic menu, is how the bar makes “I want to deepen our involvement in the community,” money, she says it’s the programming that really draws Karcher said of her plans for the future, “and maintain a people in and makes Arcana stand out from all of the safe space where people feel safe and free.” 2

INCOMING!

A MONTHLY FEATURE SPOTLIGHTING INTERESTING FILMS COMING TO LOCAL THEATERS

Spiritual Ecstasy, Murder Comedy, and Anglophilia Amanda Seyfried as Mother Ann Lee, a new Park Chan-wook thriller, and more films playing around the Triangle this month. BY GLENN MCDONALD arts@indyweek.com

The Testament of Ann Lee SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

hen Netflix made its bid to buy storied Hollywood studio Warner Bros. late last year, it sparked another round of conjecture about the imminent death of the traditional moviegoing experience. But I wouldn’t worry, and in fact, that’s my suggested New Year’s resolution for those who still like to leave the house to see a film: Don’t worry. The traditional moviegoing experience may diminish in mainstream American culture, but it will surely survive as a kind of boutique industry—like guitar-based rock music, say, or liberal democracy. The movie most likely to get me out of the house this month is The Testament of Ann Lee, an ambitious historical drama about the 18th-century founder of the religious sect known as the Shakers. Amanda Seyfried plays the title role as the visionary leader considered by her followers to be nothing less than the female aspect of God. Developed by the filmmaking team of Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet, who brought us 2024’s epic The Brutalist, the new film is earning ecstatic reviews across the board, with ecstatic being the operative term. Click around online, and you can find multiple instances of typically jaded critics describing a movie experience that generates both terror and bliss. The film attempts to evoke the spiritual fervor that gave the Shakers their name—worshippers would dance and shake in whole-body communion with the cosmos—and apparently pulls it off pretty well. Not coincidentally, the film is also a musical of sorts, with composer Daniel Blumberg providing an experimental soundtrack pivoting off Shaker hymns, and Seyfried losing her mind in the performance of them. If it all sounds a little weird, that’s because it most definitely is. We just don’t see this kind of thing in theaters, which makes me really want to see it in a theater. Another good option for January: No Other Choice is the

QUICK PICKS

No Other Choice NEON VIA AP

latest from celebrated South Korean director Park Chanwook (The Handmaiden). Park is generally acknowledged as one of the great filmmakers in world cinema, and he’s the undisputed king of hard, dark humor. His new film follows the fortunes of a laid-off paper company executive (Lee Byung-hun) who decides to improve his chances of employment by brutally eliminating his competition. It’s a murder comedy, is what it is, and, like 2019’s Parasite, another savage critique of late capitalism from our filmmaking friends in Korea. Park has been trying to get this film made for 20 years, and reports suggest that it’s on the shortlist for several Oscar nominations. For a more traditional art house movie experience, seek out the British historical drama The Choral, starring Ralph Fiennes as a choirmaster in a small English village during World War I. The film makes some swerves and ultimately digs into themes of war, art, sex, and mortality. But for unrepentant Anglophiles, the selling point here is the combination of screenwriter Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner, frequent collaborators (The Madness of King George) and true giants of old-school British film and theater. Look, if you want good odds on movie night, sometimes it’s best to just go to the pros.

Daisy Ridley headlines We Bury the Dead, a variant on the zombie apocalypse movie featuring a military biological weapon, a corpse retrieval team, and unfortunate subsequent developments. This looks fun: Released in France late last year, A Private Life (French: Vie privée) is a dark comedy/thriller with Jodie Foster as a psychiatrist caught up in a murder mystery. Foster, who is fluent in the language, has wanted to headline a French film for years, and she’s getting reluctantly positive reviews from European critics, who are loving this one. Every year, the NY Dog Film Festival and the NY Cat Film Festival tour around the country, working with local exhibitors. Pet lovers get 90 minutes of curated short films and mini-docs, and local animal shelters get 10% of proceeds. It’s good karma! If, for whatever reason, you don’t get into regular heaven, buying a ticket for one of these gets you into dog heaven or cat heaven, depending. So choose wisely. A couple of special local screenings to note: On January 12 at 7 p.m., the Chelsea Theater in Chapel Hill will present Rising Above Helene, a documentary by filmmaker Chris Baucom on post-hurricane recovery efforts in the mountain communities of Western North Carolina. It’s the pre-fest kickoff event for the Carrboro Film Festival, unspooling January 23-25. Also, on January 19 at 5 p.m., the Carolina Theatre in Durham will premiere its documentary Breaking the Booth, about civil rights-era youth protesters who fought to desegregate the Carolina Theatre and other facilities in the city. The free Martin Luther King Jr. Day event will also feature a post-screening community panel discussion. 2 January 14, 2026 INDYweek.com 15

ETC. L to R: A teammate and Paul Feldblum on the court PHOTO COURTESY OF SAMUEL FELDBLUM

Requiem for a Hoop Dream A writer remembers his late father through a shared love of basketball, from the scuffed courts of Durham YMCAs to the hallowed stands of the Dean Dome. BY SAMUEL FELDBLUM arts@indyweek.com

ould you pick this man for your basketball team? He stands 5 foot 8 and weighs 135 soaking wet. His vision is hampered by repaired retinas in both eyes, from injuries suffered despite the protective rec specs he’s worn like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for decades. The range on his jump shot doesn’t extend past 14 feet. Inside that distance, though, he is automatic. He is a dog on defense, never stops moving his feet, barking out screens to his teammates. He can’t shoot a 3, but he can recall for you the invention of the 3-point line. Kids these days may hardly know, but people used to speak about having a “basketball jones,” a fever for the game that distorted all of a person’s life to orbit around the rock. My dad, Paul Feldblum, who passed away on October 6, 2025, from ALS, had it. He fell in love with basketball at a tender young age, in schoolyards with other Jewish boys on Long Island, and carried that love with him through his life, playing whenever he could and watching whenever he couldn’t play. To find something you love with a can’t-quit16 INDYweek.com January 14, 2026

you desperation is lucky enough; to be able to orient life around it is a dream. But my dad was hardly alone in his reverie. His move from New York to the Triangle for graduate school in 1977 took him from one basketball-crazy corner of the country to another, where he fell into a harmony with his time and place. He danced to the rhythms of Tobacco Road. Paul was a Heels fan. In our younger years, he took my brother and me to the Dean Dome for a handful of games each season, and we watched the program and the ACC evolve. We saw Chris Paul and Wake down UNC in triple overtime in 2003, saw David Noel knock out mighty Gardner-Webb with an early-season buzzer-beater in 2005, and watched Wayne Ellington pour in seven 3s in a half against Miami in 2009. More than he loved the Heels, though, my dad hated Duke. Coach K—his stiff authoritarian approach, his joyless discipline—represented everything wrong with basketball. A few years ago, my brother gifted my dad a set of glass-

es embossed with the score of UNC’s 2022 Final Four victory over Duke in Coach K’s ignominious last game, petty chalices from which he drank with glee. We watched that game together during a trip my parents took to visit me in Los Angeles; afterward, we found the West Side’s UNC bar, where he slung his arm around polo-shirted yuppies and regaled them with tales of the program decades earlier. (“Dean Smith—not just a coach, but a mensch. We used to think he’d run for governor!”) We knew, even then, it was the finest victory in program history; I hope he can rest easier knowing Duke will never be able to even that score. But Paul was never just a spectator. He used to grumble, watching college or professional players moonwalk to the hoop, that “I couldn’t get away with that on Sunday,” as if what he was doing with his graybeard friends at the Jewish Community Center was equivalent to these masterful feats of athleticism and grace from the highest echelons of the sport. But in his way, he was right. The games he played and the games he watched were sometimes made up of the very same players. Paul is among a vanishingly small number who can claim to have shared the court with ex-Wolfpack great Hawkeye Whitney, now 68, and Durham native and current Philadelphia 76er Ricky Council IV, 24. A long life of playing around here will do that. My dad played ball with at least two former Durham mayors; he’d tell stories about one of them, Wib Gulley, and Wib’s twin, Dub, demanding to guard each other before beating the hell out of each other all session, their intrafamily brutality saving all the other players from trouble. He played at UNC’s Woollen and Carmichael gymnasiums; he played at New Hope Elementary in Orange County and at the Duke Faculty Club; he played at Oval Park when it still had a full court, and the downtown YMCA Cage before it was desacralized. He has surely shared the court with hundreds of INDY readers, possibly thousands. He played wherever there was run to be had and could map for you the region’s hardwood geography in a 20-mile radius. He squeezed every bit of juice from his body. By my count, beyond the detached retinas, he tore and repaired the rotator cuffs in both shoulders, dislocated at least two fingers, and had meniscus surgery. I was awoken in fright one teenage morning to drive him to the hospital with his dislocated ring finger bleeding through hastily applied gauze from one of the injuries. (Luckily, there were always plenty of

doctors on hand in his Jewish Community Center games.) In recent years, he had begun cortisone injections for a mysterious knee pain. It terrified my mom, lately, when he would leave to play. Yet still he was working toward what he was calling his “final” comeback when he fell ill last spring, at age 71. It’s hard to imagine he wouldn’t have come out of retirement again: The treatment goals he listed included getting back to basketball. His failing motor neurons would finally do what no defender could. As long as he could jog, he could play. And as long as he could play, there was room for dynamism, a need for growth. I remember, in his late 40s, his focus on adding both a left-handed layup and an improved spin move, ostensibly part of his plan to teach me both. (Careful readers may ask, fairly, how he had gone so long without being able to score with the left.) His return from a pickup game would occasion reflection on how his team had moved the ball, how he’d fit into the offense’s flow, such that each week became a chance to figure out the game one degree more. Basketball nirvana was always just around the corner. The basketball commentariat has taken lately to speaking about “ethical” hoops, an aesthetic brand of ball that eschews manipulating rule minutiae and honors the beautiful game. His vision of basketball was strongly ethical in a different sense: There was a right

way to play (say, the Steph Curry Warriors) and a wrong way (the Carmelo Anthony Knicks). You can always make yourself useful: If you’re unsure of where to position, keep moving off the ball. He liked to flash across the baseline, springing open in his preferred midrange sweet spot when the defense lost track of him. If your shot isn’t falling, set screens to get your teammates free. Keep the ball moving, don’t let it stick too long in any one place. When a teammate sets you up for a bucket, give an appreciative point on your way back down the floor. Failing everything else, you can always play defense. He abhorred moving picks as an affront to the game itself. Sometimes, this sense of propriety would get him into trouble—a Woollen Gym standoff with a body builder, a stout big man, at whom he screamed, “You cannot stand in the key as long as you f**king want to!” became the stuff of legend around our house. Though in all fairness: You cannot. My dad was no expert, really—he coached a few seasons of YMCA basketball, but what he knew of the sport he picked up from six decades spent on the court, figuring the game out by playing it. What he left to us youngsters he likewise passed on not through any institutional forum but through the freewheeling democratic engagement of pickup ball; showing up, week after week, to improvise with a shifting set of friends and strangers in orchestrating a percussive poetry in motion. Paul would roll his eyes to hear me interpret it this way. He never had much truck with theorizing basketball. He just loved playing, coaching, and watching the game, and then followed what he loved, even when it brought him more agony than joy. He spent this millennium in misery obsessing over his hometown New York Knicks, their many and glaring failings—Eddy Curry! Andrea Bargnani!—and would extol the glories of the team’s high times in the 1970s and ’90s. I hoped that he would live to see them do like his beloved Heels and break through for another championship. Last year, the Knicks added top-level talent but found their promising run through the playoffs truncated by spotty defense from their star point guard and star center. What to say: He couldn’t Paul Feldblum takes a turn as the big man while even get away with that playing squaring off against his grandson, Isaac. pickup at the JCC. 2 PHOTO COURTESY OF SAMUEL FELDBLUM

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January 14, 2026 INDYweek.com 17

ETC. State Archives of North Carolina NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL RESOURCES

ter known as America250. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. INDY: What is a day like in the life of the North

Carolina state archivist?

On the Record Talking with North Carolina’s new State Archivist, Kelly Policelli, about advocating for public history, answering questions, and preparing for America250. BY SARAH EDWARDS sedwards@indyweek.com

KELLY POLICELLI: I’m a division director in a government agency—it is a lot of meetings, reporting, and troubleshooting, which, that alone might surprise people. I get the impression that folks don’t really understand what archivists and librarians do all day, but we are confronted with problems that we must solve. It’s a lot of advocating for us, for what we do in our staff, because there is not a great level of archival literacy in terms of what it is that archives need [in order] to continuously operate, and then just making sure everyone has all the information and direction that they need to move forward with some of the more complex projects that we’re working on. I met with legal counsel already today, and was talking with someone about some staff shake-ups that we have and how they’re going to affect the different units here, because we all work together. We’re always collaborating. We have folks here who do digitization of original records. We have folks who do digital preservation of materials that were born digital—meaning, stuff that was never printed on paper and for which we really only have a digital copy. We have people working on processing, which means going through collections, sorting them, figuring out if there’s an original order, putting it into archival-quality boxes and folders, so that some of the chemical processes that break down paper can be arrested to a certain extent. Some people are working specifically on outreach and thinking about programming that the public might like.

How does material enter the State Archives?

very year, staff at North Carolina’s State Archives field around “9,000 questions,” according to Kelly Policelli, the state’s new head archivist. Those questions might regard any number of things: family history, an old architectural survey, a News & Observer clip, a colonial court report—or any court report from the past 200 years of North Carolina’s Supreme Court. Maybe someone just wants help tracking down an old college transcript. Policelli, who began the role in December following the retirement of longtime State Archivist Sarah Koonts, is eager to brush the dust off documents and help answer questions. “Archives are participatory,” said Policelli. “There’s a lot of power in being an archivist and selecting material, but— without the public participating, without agencies partici18 INDYweek.com January 14, 2026

pating—this archive is not going to reflect the full history of North Carolina.” Policelli previously served as an assistant librarian and coordinator of University Archives and Special Collections at Elon University and has worked with an impressive roster of other Tar Heel institutions, including Digital Durham at Duke University, the North Carolina State University Special Collections Research Center, and the University of North Carolina Photographic Archive. “I want everyone to feel like this is their archive and to see themselves in our archives,” Policelli continued. A month into the job, Policelli hopped on a call to chat about the ongoing need to advocate for public history, what people might find in the State Archives, and how her office is preparing for the United States semiquincentennial, bet-

We have processes for that to happen. We have point people who work with each of the individual agencies, and then private donors who donate their materials to the archives, and that goes into our Special Collections. We have private papers there from organizations from around North Carolina, and we have photographic archives. This is one of the places where it gets technically complicated, because all the things that make digital material great—the fact that you can send it out, that you can change it easily, that it’s easy to alter, easy to share, and that kind of thing to store makes it harder to capture and fix. We have a lot of things in place that make it possible for us to capture things on the digital side very easily, with a lot of information surrounding it that helps us to prove it is the thing it purports to be. On the paper side, it is a

lot easier. People box stuff up. They give us a call. We get them to the right person. If it’s in North Carolina, we schedule a pickup. If it’s not, it gets a little bit more difficult. But we have a van. We take our van out—

There’s an archives van? There’s an archives van. And then [the next] part is documentation—that’s the bread and butter of what we do. It’s kind of like an art collection. You need provenance information so that we can say, “These came from this place on this date; this person signed off on it,” and show that this was within the normal course of business. There have been lots of stories in North Carolina of materials that were supposed to be kept in the courthouse disappearing, going where they shouldn’t go. We have very strict public records laws here in North Carolina. We want to show a chain of custody to make people understand where the stuff came from.

What resources do you think people would be surprised that the archives offer? At this point, I am so dialed into what we have that it’s hard for me to say what would be surprising. We have a lot of county records, and I’m not sure that everybody knows that. We collect county records regularly. We have a lot of court records. We keep everything related to most Superior Court actions. We also have minutes from county boards. There’s a lot of local history here that I’m not sure people realize they can access here at the archives. We have the N&O collection of photographs, we have different kinds of films from North Carolina, all around the state. One of the other things that we need to be more clear about is that we have multiple locations—we have special collections out in the western region, in Asheville, that are accessible. One of the biggest collections is the Black Mountain College collection, which is really interesting. And then we have a facility, the Outer Banks History Center, that collects private collections and organizational collections from the Outer Banks region. That’s a really rich collection that I’m not sure everybody knows about.

I did want to ask about America250. How is your office preparing? We’re really excited about America250 because it’s given us an opportunity, through some of the funding initiatives, to produce new exhibits that we can take around the state. Most will be “One Day Wonders,”

which means that we roll in in the morning, we set it up, it’s open to the public throughout the day, and then we take material back to make sure it’s preserved the way it should be. We’ve produced a One Day Wonder on the constitutional history within North Carolina. We’ve got a One Day Wonder on the experience of Revolutionary War soldiers in North Carolina. We’ve also had the opportunity to put the 13th Amendment on display in the [North Carolina] Capitol recently. The funny thing about most of our federal constitutional amendments, the official North Carolina copy of those, is that they just look like a letter. There’s nothing ceremonial about them. They were really just a legal document that we needed to ratify. So it’s fun to see people interacting with that and asking questions—“Well, what Kelly Policelli COURTESY PHOTO OF THE does that mean? How did this hapDEPARTMENT OF NATURAL AND CULTURAL RESOURCES. pen, and what was the process?” We really also want to get at more recent history and other ways that people have expressed their Americanness. That has given us ter what the political climate, because it opportunities to work with the African really gets to our core function, which is to American Commission and the folks who provide access to these public records and work with Indigenous groups here in North to these other collections in a way that is Carolina to talk about what being Ameri- equitable and to answer each question as can means to a wider range of people. It’s if it’s the most important question, because also given us an opportunity to dive deep- we serve the people of North Carolina. er into our own records. We don’t have To a certain extent, maybe that’s gotthat much time or that many resourc- ten a little bit more difficult. Maybe we es to devote to doing research internally, can’t use the same vocabulary because because a lot of the time we’re helping that’s become controversial, but our core others to do research—and that’s the pri- mission stays the same. We are seeking mary job—but this has given us an oppor- to serve the folks of North Carolina who tunity to get to know some of our records want to look at these records, who have a little bit better. That’s going to be great questions that they want to answer using for the future. these records. We just keep on rolling and making our description better and making it easier for people to answer questions, I’m curious if you’re having to do a whether they are controversial questions lot more advocating for public hisor whether they are run-of-the-mill questory, given the political climate. tions that people of all political stripes can It has been challenging. It is what it is. agree are important. It’s also an opportunity for us to think Mostly, it’s a little bit discouraging when you feel like—especially in the last five or about what we’re here to do.We can do hard so years—we had this opening up of under- things, and it’s just one more challenge. Two standing of what American history could or three years ago, it was super easy to run be. What happened in the archives profes- a cultural resources institution [and now] sion after the George Floyd murder was we’re struggling with some funding because that we started thinking holistically about of some of the federal cuts. We’re looking the stories we have been historically tell- for other ways to collaborate so that we ing—how we’ve been framing things, the can make the most of the resources that we kind of access we’re providing, and whether have. But by and large, we’re just focusing or not there is bias in that access. Those are on our mission, and that mission is written really important questions to ask, no mat- in the General Statutes. 2 January 14, 2026 INDYweek.com 19

CULTURE CALENDAR WED 1/14

SAT 1/17

MUSIC Al Strong and Friends Jazz Night Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Boatman Spirits Co., Raleigh.

My Cousin Tierra 7:30 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Nothing More, Catch Your Breath, Archers and Doobie 5:30 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.

STAGE

Rewind: The Best of MettleSketch Jan. 15-17, 7:30 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.

Owe You Nothing, 80 Bagg 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Carter Anderson 7:30 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. PAGE Chanel Miller: The Moon Without Stars 6:30 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

PAGE NC Chapter of the Horror Writers Association Reading 6 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. SCREEN

THUR 1/15 MUSIC Chamber Treasures: Music by Black Composers 7:30 p.m. Hayes Barton United Methodist Church, Raleigh. Del Water Gap 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh. John Rodney & the Three Dollar Bills 7:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Rascal Flatts: Life Is A Highway Tour 7 p.m. PNC Arena, Raleigh. STAGE The Ballad of Johnny Whitmore Jan. 15-25, various times. The ArtsCenter, Carrboro. The Monti StorySLAM: Cabin Fever 7:30 p.m. Motorco, Durham.

LIKE TO PLAN AHEAD?

Donnie Darko 7 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

FRI 1/16 MUSIC The Band Solstice 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. Baron Tymas 7:30 p.m., Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham. Broken Records & Hush Hush 9 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham. Femme Friday DJ Dance Party with DJ Bre 9:30 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham. Lavern and Alex Lemirage 8:30 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh. Lord Fess EP Release 8:30 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.

20 INDYweek.com January 14, 2026

Revolution: The Music Of The Beatles Jan. 16-17, various times, Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh. STAGE Big Jay Oakerson Jan. 16-18, various times. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. The ComedyWorx Show Fridays at 8 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh. The Harry Show Fridays at 10 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh. The Rocky Horror Picture Show 11:55 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh.

SUN 1/18

MON 1/19

MUSIC

SCREEN

Apes of the State, The Official Bard of Baldwin 7:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Ariel Pocock & Keith Ganz 3 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Breaking the Booth: Premiere Screening and Community Panel 5 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham.

The Girls, Dead Rat Disco, Hemlock Theory 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill. Loudon Wainwright III 7:30 p.m. Fletcher Opera Theater, Raleigh. Magic City Hippies 9 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Nicole Mitchell Ensemble 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham. The Revival: It Is Our Duty 7:30 p.m. Duke Chapel, Durham.

Billy Martin, Matt Glassmeyer, Jonathan Goldberger 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Bee Million 7:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. SWAR 7 p.m. Motorco, Durham. SCREEN My Friend Abe 3 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham. Ordinary People 3 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

TUES 1/20 MUSIC 54 Ultra: Live in North America! 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. STAGE Masood Boomgaard 7:30 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Saturday Night Dance Party with Jorden The DJ 9:30 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham.

Shaun Jones Jan. 16-18, various times. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Secret Monkey Weekend, jPhono1, Mad Starlings 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

SCREEN

STAGE

John Lewis: Good Trouble 7 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Family Friendly House Party 6 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.

Tripping: The Light Fantastic 7 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham.

Ignition: Durham 7 p.m. The Fruit, Durham. Secret Society Improv Show 5 p.m. Mettlesome Theater. Sherri Shepherd: Make It Make Sense Tour 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. Show And Tell & Harold Night 9 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.

The Girls perform at Local 506 in Chapel Hill on January 17. COURTESY OF VENUE

CULTURE CALENDAR

FIND OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR AT INDYWEEK.COM/CALENDAR

SAT 1/24 PAGE

STAGE

Ashley Elston: Anatomy of an Alibi 6:30 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

All Under Heaven, Ravine, Dreamscent 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Friday Night Shift with DJ Nar 9:30 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham.

Melissa Faliveno: Hemlock 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Anthony Fuentes Jan. 22-24, various times. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Jon Spencer 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Legacy of Jazz: Let’s Be Frank 7 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Liam Trawick Quartet 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Liz Brydge Quartet 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Suffering Jukebox: A Celebration Of David Berman 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Michael Nau, Magic Tuber Stringband 7:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

WED 1/21 MUSIC Al Strong and Friends Jazz Night Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Boatman Spirits Co., Raleigh. STAGE Sarper Guven Jan. 21-22, 7:15 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Bulldog Ensemble Theater Presents: Fatherland Jan. 22-Feb. 1, various times. Mettlesome Theater, Durham. Rhinoceros 7 p.m. Durham Arts Council, Durham. SCREEN Chasers 8 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham. The Princess Bride 6:30 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh.

PAGE Virginia Kantra: Anne of a Different Island 6:30 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

THUR 1/22 MUSIC John Wood Band 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. Torso Man, Matty Frank, Marble Berry Seeds, Mossbody 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

FRI 1/23 MUSIC Akropolis Reed Quintet 7:30 p.m. Baldwin Auditorium, Durham. All Mozart January 23-24, 8 p.m. Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh. Blue Dogs 8 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh. Congress The Band 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

STAGE Chad Daniels Jan. 23-24, various times. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. The ComedyWorx Show Fridays at 8 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh. Erin Jackson With Josh Rosenstein 8 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary. The Harry Show Fridays at 10 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh. Pete Holmes 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham.

SUN 1/25

MON 1/26

MUSIC

D.O.D 9:00 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.

Empty Parking Lot, Lqm 7 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Daffo 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Path Of Resistance, Moral Law, Fading Signal, One By One & End Of Your Rope 7 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill. Saturday Night Dance Party with Gay Agenda 9:30 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham. STAGE CINCH World’s Toughest Rodeo 7:30 p.m. PNC Arena, Raleigh.

Hermeto Pascoal Tribute 3 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

TUES 1/27

Transformation And Onset: A Night of Words and Music 6 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham.

MUSIC

Zones 7 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

Ellise: The Pretty Evil Tour 8 p.m. Motorco, Durham.

SCREEN

The Floozies + Too Many Zooz: Too Many Flooz Tour 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

The Princess Bride 3 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh. Three Days of Condor 3 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

NCJRO 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham. PAGE Donna Everhart: Women of a Promiscuous Nature 6:30 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

FREE SHOW: SINGamajig 6 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham. International Championship of Collegiate A Capella 2026 Quarterfinals 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. Show And Tell & Golden Age 9 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham. Vault Theatre presents #TALLTales By Lauren Sale 11 a.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Deep Space Disco 9 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.

January 14, 2026 INDYweek.com 21

PUZZLES CROSSWORD

RELEASE DATE—Sunday, January 11, 2026

Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle

To download a pdf of this puzzle or view its solution, visit indyweek.com/puzzles-page 96 Show off in the mirror 97 Give a hoot ACROSS 98 Davenport 1 Bottom of a citizen platter? 99 G-Shock 6 Singer Guthrie watchmaker 10 Actress Mireille 102 Some British 14 Beta preceder sports cars 19 Solo 104 Superficially 20 Shakespearean attractive king 108 Working the 21 Catholic leader barbecue at the 22 Prepare for a corn festival? long drive 114 Unit in 23 Santa Ana __ Chagall’s “Four 24 Miami-__ Seasons” County 115 “Another thing 25 Risks a “TMI” ... ” response 116 Pay stub data 27 Irresistibly cute 118 K.T. of country river animal? music 30 Video game 119 Airline figs. thief Sandiego 120 Narrow inlets 31 Learning ctr. 121 Basketball great 32 Pastoral people Shaquille of Kenya 122 Ignominy 33 Actor Sean 123 Hall of Fame 36 Equivalent safety Ronnie 38 Update a 124 Chooses, as a cartographer’s replacement work 125 Square 42 “Get that pool float out of my way!”? 47 Fury 49 Obey, with “by” 50 Early show since 1975, briefly 51 Aspiring atty.’s hurdle 53 Freelancer’s job 54 __ a one 55 Question about a new romantic partner? 61 Ostrich kin 62 Sausages served with sauerkraut, for short 63 Sonoma product 64 Swimmer’s unit 65 “Have a bite” 67 Juniper-flavored liquor 68 Huge favors 72 Zoo doc 73 Prayer ender 75 Astonish 77 “__ Maria” 78 Photo taken as milk spreads over a table? 83 Figure skating gold medalist Nathan 84 Email signature info 85 Catches 86 Apple variety 87 Bars under cars 88 Gulf of Mexico structures 91 Goo or ga, for a baby? 1/11/26

“REPAIR WORK” BY JILL SINGER

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Difficulty level: HARD

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 this QR code for a link. Best of luck, and have fun! 22 INDYweek.com January 14, 2026

Edited by Patti Varol

DOWN 1 Glimpsed 2 __ crest: pelvis part 3 Disco legend Summer 4 “Return of the Jedi” forest moon 5 Brit’s close pal 6 Like some pasta 7 __ admiral 8 British title 9 Cookies similar to Trader Joe’s Joe-Joe’s 10 Momentous 11 Bossa __ 12 Enticing words on a gift box 13 Sealy rival 14 Fundamentally 15 Less raked 16 Home of the Spectacled Bear Conservation Society 17 Shades 18 Church recess 26 Soon-to-be grads

28 Musician and radio host John 29 The Tritons of the NCAA 34 Gold block 35 Spanish “Stop!” 37 Honeydew, e.g. 39 Crèche figures 40 Opposin’ 41 Simon of “The Boys” 42 Impressionist Édouard 43 “The Light We Carry” writer Michelle 44 Self-replicating malware 45 Ice cream maker Joseph 46 Paddle kin 47 Shipbuilding wood 48 Employ 52 Take to court 55 Cuneiform, e.g. 56 Panama, for one 57 “Dallas” surname 58 __ and yang

59 Wise one 60 Massage locale 62 Page 66 Den sets 67 X, Y, or Z intro 68 Purse 69 Hindi title 70 Rejoice with pride 71 Get a feeling about 73 Clerical robe 74 “Supernatural” actor Collins 75 Rare Italian violin 76 “__ Man”: Village People hit 78 Mustang roof option 79 Successor 80 French pronoun 81 __ Vegas Raiders 82 Global finance org. 83 Hired ride 87 Was almost out of 89 Win back

90 Waiting, perhaps 92 Coveted territory in the air? 93 Brickmaker 94 “That’s disgusting!” 95 Angler’s supply 97 “__, ergo sum” 100 “I know this is wrong,” from an editor 101 Spy collection 103 Like some watches 105 Silas of the Continental Congress 106 Enthusiastic 107 Anticipate with fear 108 Engineered foods, for short 109 __ Hashana 110 Cuba, por ejemplo 111 Like an open can of soda, eventually 112 Director Kazan 113 “Right now!” 117 Underhanded

ANSWER TO TODAY’S PUZZLE

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Thanks for picking this paper up!

LAST PRINT ISSUE’S CROSSWORD SOLUTION ANSWER TO TODAY’S PUZZLE

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January 14, 2026 INDYweek.com 23

2026 INDY Summer Camp Guide Calling all camps: the 2026 Summer Camp Guide is around the corner! The INDY’s Summer Camp Guide is an annual, comprehensive guide to camps around the Triangle and North Carolina for the upcoming summer. Listings are FREE OF CHARGE and must be submitted by January 21st. Please use the QR code below or email sales@indyweek.com to provide your camp’s name, location(s), age range, and url.

Two issues Jan th ! 28 & Mar 11 th