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WAKE P.28 COUNTY

Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill September 23, 2026

WINNERS!

I DY's Annual Pride Issue

Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill Vol. 43 No. 18 | September 23, 2026

Contents

News 5

While a local children's clothing boutique rapidly expanded, employees, customers, and vendors say they were being scammed. BY JAMES TULIANO

An INDY investigation finds judicial officials in Durham have referred people to ICE when state law didn't require them to do so. BY ABRAHAM KENMORE

Residents and local leaders in Southeast Raleigh have concerns about a merger between WakeMed and Atrium Health. BY JANE PORTER

INDY's Annual Pride Issue 18

Why we must "impose beauty on the future." BY DESMERA GATEWOOD

This year's Pride: Durham, NC—and its past. BY TORI NEWBY

20 Preserving queer history and literature. BY TORI NEWBY 22

Deadlifting is for every body. BY LENA GELLER

Creating joy and belonging at the LGBTQ Center of Durham. BY DESMERA GATEWOOD

Best of Wake County 2026 30 Arts

36 Food & Drinks

40 People & Misc.

38 Health

42 Places

Businesses

Culture 43 As Lou Hazel, Durham musican Chris Frisina widens his ever-expanding

creative lens. BY NICK MCGREGOR 46 Last month, CAM Raleigh announced that it is selling its iconic downtown

building. What comes next for the museum? BY JASMINE GALLUP

Regulars 4

49 Calendar

Backtalk

54 Puzzles / Classifieds

Cover Spectators cheer on lifter Margaret Craig during the Weight Not Hate event PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

Some faces from INDY's Annual Pride Issue. Clockwise from top left: Raye Dooley, co-executive director of the LGBTQ Center of Durham COURTESY PHOTO; Holli Mann and Jenni Shafer, organizers of the Weight Not Hate event PHOTO BY MAT T RAMEY; Autumn Kauntiz PHOTO BY MAT T RAMEY; Desmera Gatewood, board member at the LGBTQ Center in Durham PHOTO BY MORGAN CRUTCHFIELD; Archivist Cal Caughron at the LGBTQ Center in Durham PHOTO BY MAT T RAMEY; Jesse Huddleston, director of development and community engagement at the LGBTQ Center and the chair of Pride: Durham, NC COURTESY PHOTO Micky Jordan PHOTO BY MAT T RAMEY

We Made This Publisher John Hurld

Editorial Editor-in-Chief Sarah Willets Wake County Editor Jane Porter Culture Editor Sarah Edwards

Staff Writers Lena Geller Justin Laidlaw Tori Newby

Copy Editor Brian Howe

Report For America Corps Reporter Chloe Courtney Bohl

Creative Director Nicole Pajor Moore

Contributors Jasmine Gallup, Desmera Gatewood, Elliott Harrell, Brian Howe, Glenn McDonald, Cy Neff, Andrea Richards, Barry Yeoman, Russ Campbell, Colony Little, Shelbi Polk, Ryan Cocca, Lauren Wingenroth

2 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

Creative Production Design Specialist Ellie Bruno

Advertising Publisher John Hurld Director of Revenue Mathias Marchington Director of Operations Chelsey Koch Sales and Marketing Associate Lauren Boyle

Circulation

Berry Media Group

Membership/ Subscriptions John Hurld Mathias Marchington

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NOTICE OF DURHAM COUNTY GENERAL ELECTION Tuesday, November 3, 2026 The General Election for Durham County will be held in Durham County, NC on Tuesday November 3, 2026. All Durham County precincts will be open from 6:30 am until 7:30 pm.

The following contests will be on Durham County ballots: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

US Congress NC Supreme Court NC Court of Appeals NC General Assembly Durham County Superior Court Judge Durham County District Court Judge Durham County District Attorney Durham County Sherriff Durham County Clerk of the Superior Court Durham County Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor City of Raleigh City Council* Local Bond Referendums* Constitutional Amendments

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

DURHAM COUNTY EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS South Regional Library North Regional Library 4505 S. Alston Avenue, 221 Milton Road, Durham Durham Duke University – Karsh Alumni Center 2080 Duke University Road, Durham Southern High School 800 Clayton Road, Durham

Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship 4907 Garrett Road., Durham

NCCU Law School 640 Nelson Street, Durham

Durham County Main Library 300 N Roxboro Street, Durham

Durham County Board of Elections 3825 S. Roxboro Street, Suite 101, Durham

by Ogemdi Ude / Akunna Material Fri, Oct 2 at 7:30 PM | Reynolds Industries Theater

Five dancers take the stage in MAJOR to explore the power, memory, and physicality of majorette dance.

Little River Community Complex 8307 N. Roxboro Street, Bahama

Early voting schedule: Thursday, October 15, 2026 – Saturday, October 31, 2026 Hours are consistent at all early voting sites. • • •

East Regional Library 211 Lick Creek Lane, Durham

MAJOR

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 General Election is Friday, October 9, 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 October 9th.

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

“real and loud, Ude accomplished something unimaginable...” —The New York Times

Book Tickets

dukearts.org

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

PAID FOR BY DURHAM COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS

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September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 3

BACKTALK Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill November 27, 2024

It’s no secret: physical media is disappearing.

Freelance writer James Tuliano unspooled the many court cases and unpaid bills surrounding Littles, a children’s clothing boutique that began in downtown Cary, in a story that was published online earlier this month (under the title Big Littles Lies) and on page 5 of this paper. Readers were engrossed by the story.

A Little Respect

Online is convenient, we get it. We have archives, newsletters, even our crosswords on our website (did you do this week’s?)

A new campaign asks, “Does Duke respect Durham?” by Justin Laidlaw, Erin Gretzinger, and Ren Larson, p. 10

Digital news is the wave, but it’s important not to neglect its roots. As a print reader, you know we’ve put out a physical newspaper for decades, and we’ve never charged a dime for it. You can hold it in your hands, flip through the pages of award-winning coverage, and check out the (responsibly-sourced) ink-printed cover illustrations made by our amazing creative team. You can spare your eyes from screens for a precious few moments. And you can do it all for free—or you can keep print alive. By joining the INDY Press Club, you can be one of the readers that keeps our coverage in publicly available stands across the Triangle. Don’t let physical media be a thing of the past. Hold the news in your hands, preserve a piece of history. Keep it INDY, keep it real—join the Press Club today. Membership is about more than just support. You get perks like special updates, access to events, plus an exclusive decal that lets everyone know you’re in our club. Explore Press Club membership at indyweek.com/join.

With $5 a month, you’ll join 1,500+ members already making an investment in the INDY. We’d love for you to join us. —The INDY

From reader DAVID FRAC by email:

From reddit user STAINEDHAT:

From Bluesky user MARK SIMPSON-VOS:

Congratulations on your article! What a piece of research! The subject matter was bad, I feel badly for all the suppliers, employees and landlords that got screwed, but your work in piecing this together was really good.

Really great reporting by the author of this story! I wish more media outlets were as thorough as he was on this case.

This right here is why I read IndyWeek and why it is an indispensable local treasure. (Country Junction is, too. IYKYK)

Justin Laidlaw reported on Durham County commissioners’ vote to impose a temporary moratorium on new data center construction that creates an exemption for facilities under 100,000 square feet with conditions. The story focused on residents’ concerns about data centers and how Research Triangle Park, home to most of the county’s 14 existing data centers, shaped the vote.

From reader JACK NESTOR by email:

From Threads user JAMD: Props to the editor for that headline - it’s perfect. From reddit user NO-BASEBALL628: The part that boggled my mind was that she was convicted of felony embezzling and conversion (of 25k) in 2019 and received only suspended probation and to pay back 15k, of which she still owes $12k and doesn’t seem to be in jail. And that’s BEFORE all of the stuff with Littles! From Threads user RALEIGHCHEESY: This story that just dropped on INDYweek about Littles of Cary is quite possibly the most insane story I’ve ever read. What the f——— From reddit user GNARLYRAM: You read stories about how conmen would show up in the 1800s with a fake letter claiming to be acting on behalf of European nobility and scam a whole town. And you’re like that would never happen today. Then you read a story like this and realize nobody is actually guarding the hen house.

Scan this QR code to join the Press Club today!

indyweek.com 4 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

From Instagram user ASHLEATER: If companies want to build them, they should be tasked with figuring out how to pay for the grid updates in partnership with Duke Energy, as well as ensuring water supply/quality is protected—not making life more expensive and costly for the public and the environment. Tech innovation should not come at the expense of quality of life on the ground. From Instagram user BLACKLIBRARYLADY: This was for show and doesn’t really protect us against anything. Lena Geller’s latest quest to find lunch under $15 in the Triangle took her to Country Junction, a Carrboro diner fit for, in her words “a detective who just worked an overnight shift.” Readers shared their praise for the restaurant and responses to the column.

Just wanted to mention how much I enjoyed Lena Geller’s piece on Country Junction in Carrboro. This place is a Carrboro institution, run by some of the nicest people you could meet. From Instagram user DAVINIO919: You were supposed to get the fried fish with the all you can eat vegetables bar In our last print edition, Jane Porter grilled North Carolina Courage owner Steve Malik on the future of the successful soccer team as its stadium lease in Cary nears expiration in 2029 and on Malik’s efforts to secure a larger stadium in Raleigh’s Downtown South area. Readers shared their reactions. From Instagram user MORGANSAYSOHBALLS: We have the worst “stadium” in the league. The team and the fans deserve much better facilities. It’s been more than seven years of talk. Now it’s time to do something. From Instagram user COLUMBUSRICAN: He is the owner. He needs to put HIS money where his mouth is. This sounds like an owner wanting the city or state to pay for the things while he uses the expenses as a tax write off.

WANT TO SEE YOUR NAME IN BOLD? backtalk@indyweek.com @INDYWeekNC

@indyweek

NEWS

Cary

Big Littles Lies A popular children’s clothing boutique that began in downtown Cary appeared to be expanding quickly. But behind the flourishing facade, vendors, contractors, customers, and employees say they were being swindled. BY JAMES TULIANO backtalk@indyweek.com

Littles of Cary’s former storefront at 214 E. Chatham Street in downtown Cary. PHOTO BY ERIN WOODIEL

hen the gift shop that formerly occupied 214 E. Chatham Street in downtown Cary closed in December 2024, Christine Wells saw an opportunity. The little blue house, a historic building, fit Wells’ vision for a high-end children’s clothing store. Two months later, she opened Littles of Cary, filling the shop with children’s apparel, toys, and accessories from brands including Jamie Kay, Noralee, Rylee + Cru, and Maileg. Early reviews were glowing. Customers described the boutique as charming, and Wells as warm, sweet, and personable. In August 2025, Littles celebrated six months in business with a festival it called LOCHELLA. Cary Magazine profiled the business that September, identifying Wells by a different last name, Lucas, a name that does not appear in her business filings or court records. The article described how Littles had become a community fixture, fulfilling the mother of four’s lifelong dream of owning a children’s boutique. “Wait ’til you see what we do for our one-year party,” she told the magazine. Before that anniversary arrived, Littles began expanding. Wells opened Littles of Raleigh in the Village District in February. A Greensboro store was announced under the Littles name, though it later opened as Snuggle Bugs. Littles of Burlington followed in July. Wells also formed companies for two other planned stores, The Baby Cottage in Raleigh and Littles of Kiawah in South Carolina. At the same time, vendors said they were trying to col-

lect money, and customers said they were waiting for products that never arrived. Employees said they weren’t being paid, and lawsuits accumulated—at least four, according to records reviewed by The Line and the INDY. One of the largest came from California children’s apparel company Rylee + Cru, which alleged that Littles hadn’t paid for more than $188,000 in merchandise. By the end of August, every Littles-related store in North Carolina was shuttered. The website was gone. The company’s social-media pages disappeared. The Cary building where it all began sat empty. The collapse might look, at first, like a small retailer growing too quickly. But Wells entered the business with an unusual history. Before Littles opened, she had two felony convictions involving financial crimes, multiple civil judgments against her that court records show were never paid, and a federal tax lien exceeding $63,000. Before the Cary store opened, members of children’s clothing Facebook groups were publicly warning one another about delayed shipments, payments, and refunds involving Wells. The Line and the INDY spoke with 49 vendors, customers, former employees, and contractors and reviewed court filings, legal notices, receipts, payment records, emails, text messages, and complaints submitted to the North Carolina Department of Justice. Some said they were eventually paid, sometimes after weeks or months of follow-up. Some customers received what they ordered, while others said they are still waiting for merchandise or refunds;

some employees and contractors said they are still awaiting wages or payment for completed work. Taken together, the records raise a question larger than why a children’s boutique failed: How was Wells able to open multiple stores amid mounting complaints? Wells never answered questions from The Line and the INDY directly. Instead, a law firm representing her sent a cease-and-desist letter. Wells was given a final opportunity and four more days to answer the allegations in this story. Through counsel, she disputed characterizations of her conduct as fraudulent, dishonest, or intentionally deceptive, but did not contradict any specific facts.

Beneath the Surface Littles of Cary presented itself as a carefully curated boutique for families willing to spend more on children’s clothing and toys. Soon after its February 8, 2025, grand opening, however, at least one dispute was developing behind the scenes. In April 2025, Brittany Windsor, an Atlanta children’s apparel showroom representative, filed a complaint with the NC DOJ alleging that three brands she represented had shipped merchandise to Littles of Cary without receiving payment. One of them, Terry Tots, was owed $1,788.39 from a February 20 order. Windsor alleged that Littles initiated electronic payments before merchandise was shipped, September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 5

“The entire situation makes me hurt and angry for all who have been affected.” - Chakyra Oliver

Littles of Raleigh’s former storefront in the Village District. PHOTO BY ERIN WOODIEL

only for the payments to fail for insufficient funds. Repeated attempts to process the payments resulted in additional bank fees, the complaint states, and Wells later promised to send a cashier’s check that never arrived. “I want to warn everyone that Littles of Cary is running a scam,” Windsor wrote in the complaint. “[Wells] has had goods in her store for almost 3 months from 3 different vendors that she has never paid for.” Windsor also told the state DOJ that Wells had “ordered tens of thousands of dollars” in merchandise from approximately a dozen additional brands represented by the showroom before Windsor canceled those orders. Three months later, Rylee + Cru sued Littles of Cary, alleging that the boutique had received more than $100,000 in merchandise without paying for it. The case was dismissed in December after Rylee + Cru failed to serve Wells and Littles before the deadline, though the company remained free to sue again. Rylee + Cru later said in court filings that it had held off on serving Wells because she kept assuring the company that payment was coming. Outwardly, Littles still appeared to be thriving. LOCHELLA took place in August 2025, followed by the Cary Magazine profile. That fall, Wells hired Allyn Brennan, owner of Porch Perfect NC, to decorate the Cary store with pumpkins. Wells paid for 6 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

that job, Brennan said, and later paid her in full for decorating the porch at Wells’ home. Problems began when Wells hired Brennan again to decorate for Christmas. “She would say she sent money when she did not,” Brennan said. “She would promise to send it the next day, and I wouldn’t receive anything. I would follow up, and she would make an excuse or send a portion of the amount owed.” Brennan said she spent more than 18 hours installing the holiday decorations and then several months trying to recover the cost of the materials and her labor. She offered Wells a payment plan, which Wells declined, Brennan said. Payments began arriving only after Brennan threatened to make the dispute public on social media. Even as businesses were struggling to collect money from the Cary store, Wells was preparing to open another. She formed Littles of Raleigh LLC in December 2025. The next month, Rylee + Cru brought the case again, filing a new federal complaint alleging that Wells and Littles had received $188,346.17 in merchandise without paying for it. The company said that payments were repeatedly promised, attempted credit-card payments were reversed or failed, and Wells continued offering assurances while seeking additional inventory. Wells was personally served with Rylee + Cru’s new complaint on February 3, 2026. She did not file a response. On February 7, Littles of Raleigh opened in

the Village District. On February 19, another company filed suit against Wells and her Cary operation— the business-financing company 8fig, which said she owed them $30,968.80. A settlement signed that day said Littles and Wells had defaulted on a future-revenue purchase agreement. According to a later complaint by 8fig, Wells did not pay it. Children’s clothing company Viverano Organics also filed a complaint with the NC DOJ in July 2026 regarding the Raleigh store, saying it delivered merchandise under commercial payment terms, but Littles had not paid two February 2026 invoices totaling $2,502. Viverano representative Karan Garg said in the complaint that Wells wrote that payment had been sent by wire transfer, but that follow-up verification showed no wire transfer had been completed. After Viverano notified Wells that the payment had not been transferred, Wells emailed the company to acknowledge what she described as a “discrepancy or processing problem” and said she wanted to resolve it quickly, according to the complaint. Viverano Organics said it sent multiple secure payment links, but the balance remained unpaid. The company canceled all unshipped orders, closed Littles’ account, and suspended future business. Still, Littles kept growing. Wells formed Littles of NC LLC in March 2026. In May, Friendly Center, the popular open-air mall

in Greensboro, announced that Littles of Greensboro was coming (the store was renamed Snuggle Bugs before it opened). Littles of Burlington was also preparing for a summer opening. Then, on June 10, 2026, Carolina Design & Construction sued Wells over unpaid contracting work at the Raleigh store. Columbia Village District LLC, the owner of the building, was also named in the complaint to enforce a lien against the property. The contractor would later obtain a default judgment for $32,336.48. The landlord is fighting the part that applies to it, saying it was not involved in hiring the contractor. On the same day that lawsuit was filed, Wells formed Littles of Kiawah LLC in South Carolina. Customers were also waiting. Ashton Choros said she prepaid nearly $400 to Littles of Raleigh for a Maileg Mouse House, a popular, customizable wooden dollhouse, on June 13. When it did not arrive, she contacted Wells, who said the product had arrived in the store that day and would be shipped. Weeks later, Choros followed up, and Wells confirmed that it was mailed. Choros twice asked for a tracking number, but did not receive one. The delivery date came and went, and Wells said she would follow up with tracking information. A month after Choros had placed the order, Wells told her she had issued a refund and would expedite shipping of another Mouse House.

Text messages between Littles of Raleigh customer Ashton Choros and shop owner Christine Wells.

Choros filed a complaint with the state DOJ on August 10, seeking a refund. She said she has still not received either the merchandise or a refund. At that point, the store Choros ordered from was already gone. According to a sworn statement from the landlord’s lawyer, the landlord, Columbia Village District, took possession of the storefront following nonpayment under the lease on July 13. Two days after the landlord took possession of the Raleigh store, Wells signed an agreement with BridgeLift Capital, a New York company that lends businesses cash up front in exchange for a share of their future sales. BridgeLift paid Littles of Raleigh $13,000 in exchange for $19,487 in future revenue. Under the agreement, BridgeLift would receive 25% of the business’s income until it received the money. According to a lawsuit BridgeLift filed August 19, it attempted its first scheduled withdrawal two days after the agreement was signed, which was returned for insufficient funds. BridgeLift alleges that later attempts were also unsuccessful, and it never received any of the $19,487.

That same month, Littles of Burlington opened, followed by Snuggle Bugs in Greensboro in August. Both closed by the end of the month.

‘It’s Not Fair’ Inside the remaining stores, payroll problems were mounting. Chakyra Oliver worked at the Burlington store for less than a month. She provided records to The Line and the INDY showing that she was unable to cash a payroll check dated August 4. A bank notice accompanying the check said that it or prior checks deposited had been returned unpaid. When Oliver texted Wells to inform her that the check had bounced, Wells responded that it was a certified check and “can’t bounce,” according to screenshots of the text conversation reviewed by The Line and the INDY. The funds had been deducted from the business account when it was issued, Wells wrote, and offered to include Oliver on a call with the bank. The following day, Wells texted Oliver that the bank

had confirmed that the check had not been deposited, and said she had canceled it and promised to send the money along with Oliver’s remaining wages. On August 7, Oliver filed a complaint with the state Department of Labor over unpaid wages. She said she filed because she was not sure she would ever be paid. That same day, she received a direct deposit covering the first pay period, which had been due July 30, but she continued texting Wells about the remainder. Wells replied that the remaining amount would be paid on the company’s next scheduled payday and told Oliver she had given the same response to the Department of Labor. Oliver said she ultimately received everything she was owed, but later than expected. “The entire situation makes me hurt and angry for those who have been affected,” Oliver said. “We all work in order to supply for ourselves, and even our families. It’s not fair to take from those who have helped build your business and invested so much time.” Former employee Alli Fogg is still waiting.

She said she is owed more than $1,200 for work at the Burlington store and additional shifts in Raleigh. She filed a complaint with the state Department of Labor on August 6. After calling Wells and leaving a voicemail, Fogg was added to a group text with Wells, her store manager, and a third person, whom Fogg said she had never met or spoken with, on August 9. In the chat, Wells and Fogg go back and forth about the status of a check, cash, and direct deposit, with Fogg telling the group her direct deposit had not arrived. Fogg asked for documentation showing payment had been initiated, and Wells sent a photograph of a laptop screen purportedly showing a payment deposit. As of September 8, Fogg said she still had not been paid. Morgan Brown, who publicly documented her attempts to collect for a balloon installation at Littles of Burlington on Facebook, received her full balance and a late fee after weeks of attempts. Others were not so lucky. A contractor said it was never paid for more than $14,000 in fixSeptember 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 7

Text messages between former Littles of Burlington employee Alli Fogg and shop owner Christine Wells, a store manager, and a third person.

tures, and a children’s apparel company said it was left with more than $35,000 in unpaid merchandise. Neither wanted to be named, with one citing concerns about adverse impacts on their business.

Before Littles Wells’ legal problems did not begin with Littles. As the court does not hold physical records older than 10 years, the specifics in some of the cases listed are not available. In 2010, Wells pleaded guilty in Alamance County to felony forgery. She received a suspended sentence and probation. Court records show multiple probation violations between 2012 and 2017, with judges at times imposing periods of active jail time. There were also civil complaints. In 2014, Joseph A. Walton IV sued Wells in Wake County for money owed. A judge entered judgments totaling more than $5,000 before interest. In 2016, Tradewinds Investment Group LLC, a Raleigh-based financial institu8 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

tion, sued Wells for money owed. Another judgment was entered for $6,059.22; the records show no payments credited to Wells. In 2018, Alice B. Isley sued Wells in Wake County for unpaid rent and won a $4,050 judgment, plus court costs and interest. Isley later obtained a court order allowing the sheriff to seize Wells’ property to satisfy the judgment, but the sheriff reported finding no property to take. Court financial records show no payments credited toward the judgment. Then, in June 2020, Wells pleaded guilty in Wake County to felony larceny by employee. An arrest warrant alleged that while working for Tejvi Lash Inc., a franchisee of Amazing Lash Studio, Wells embezzled and converted $25,041.34 between August and October 2019. She received probation with a suspended sentence and was ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution. A later probation-violation report showed that $12,868 remained unpaid as of 2025. In April 2024, the Internal Revenue Service filed a federal tax lien against Wells

in Wake County for $63,625.96 covering unpaid federal income-tax assessments for 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. By then, Wells was buying and selling children’s clothing online. In 2024, an administrator of a Facebook resale group issued a “buyer beware” warning, saying multiple members had reported long shipping delays and refunds that often required administrator intervention.

Mounting Debts, Legal Troubles The last Littles location, Burlington, was cleared out at the end of August. Wells told at least one employee that the store was closing temporarily for HVAC repairs. The next day, the store was emptied of its inventory and fixtures. The closure came as Wells appeared to be looking toward South Carolina. Wells formed Littles of Kiawah LLC in June, and South Carolina records list her as the company’s organizer and registered agent, with 205 Gardners Circle on Kiawah Island as its designated office. Wells used the for-

mer address of Littles of Cary as her organizer address. That store has not opened. On August 27, a federal judge granted Rylee + Cru’s request for a default judgment against Littles of Cary, awarding $184,242.23 in damages, plus interest. The court gave Wells until September 17 to submit additional briefing on whether she should also be held individually liable. Without a response, the judgment was scheduled to take effect on September 18. Carolina Design & Construction has obtained its $32,336.48 default judgment against Wells. The judgment remains unpaid. BridgeLift’s case is still pending. The February settlement with 8fig did not end that dispute. In a second complaint filed September 2 in New York, 8fig alleges that Littles of Cary and Wells paid none of the settlement balance. The company is now seeking $46,253.40. Back on East Chatham Street, the blue building where Littles began is now vacant—waiting for someone else with a vision for what the space could mean for downtown Cary. W

NEWS

Durham

Pushing Paper An INDY investigation finds judges and magistrates in Durham have repeatedly flagged people for citizenship checks when they didn’t need to, landing some in ICE custody. BY ABRAHAM KENMORE backtalk@indyweek.com

ILLUSTRATION BY ELLIE BRUNO

atherin Guillen-Acosta’s journey to a federal immigration detention center began with a Durham County magistrate filling out a form he was never supposed to complete. Guillen-Acosta was arrested on June 24 for failing to appear in court on two traffic misdemeanors from 2022. The magistrate filled out a form authorizing her release with a $1,000 bond and a warning not to drive without a license. Then, under a process established by a new state law, he began a process to refer Guillen-Acosta to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But the new law mandated a referral to ICE if someone without legal residence faced a felony or certain serious misdemeanor charges. Guillen-Acosta’s charges of reckless driving and driving without a license did not require a referral. “Many of us are here innocently,” she told the INDY, speaking in Spanish over a poor phone connection from detention. “The criminals are outside, and the innocent are inside” “Creo que sin justo,” she added—I believe it’s unjust. Guillen-Acosta isn’t alone. This year Durham County magistrates and judges have repeatedly referred people facing low-level criminal charges to ICE when

they are not required to. In some cases the underlying criminal offense was as minor as a single trespassing charge. In at least four cases, an INDY investigation has found, the referral resulted in people being held in ICE detention. Ten years ago, Guillen-Acosta’s brother Wildin became a local cause célèbre when he was detained by ICE while on his way to Riverside High School, where he was a student. In 2016, the INDY followed Guillen-Acosta as she took a call from Wildin while he was held at the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. “He was here in the same detention [center],” she told the INDY in August, speaking from Stewart. “He knew very well how it would be here.” Guillen-Acosta has been charged with a string of minor offenses over the years. This year alone she faced traffic-related misdemeanors in two different cases in North Carolina, including expired registration, speeding, and driving without a license. None of them fell under the mandatory ICE notification requirements of the new state law. Guillen-Acosta said she was detained on June 23 on her way to work—exactly where and why she was stopped was unclear. But the end result was Guillen-Acosta

being booked for the missed court dates in Durham County. Her bond was posted, then ICE picked her up. “Here in this detention center, they don’t treat us well. They treat us like animals, we don’t have—we can’t sleep,” she said. “They yell, they look down on us, the food here is disgusting, with roaches, the food is rotten and the same food every day.” “It is a total hell, and many people here are here for misdemeanors like not having a license,” she continued. “They treat us like criminals.”

ust how often people charged in Durham County have been referred to ICE is unclear. Court records can only be searched by a person’s name or case number, and obtaining referral forms would require manually reviewing the records of every person brought to the jail since October 1, when the new law took effect. The detainers that ICE issues are not even shared by the sheriff’s office with the defense attorneys representing detainees in the criminal charges that landed them in the Durham jail, according to evidence submitted as part of a filing from a public defender. Instead, the INDY found cases by confirming tips and winnowing a 30-day snapshot of arrests, manually reviewing hun-

dreds of cases and finding at least four in which defendants were referred to ICE without a triggering charge. There has also been a nationwide ramping up of arrests, with July seeing almost 50,000—the highest monthly total of the second Donald Trump administration. Guillen-Acosta’s immigration attorney, Jose Silva, did not comment on her case. But he did say that the courts are backed up and immigration cases are moving quickly. “Detentions are happening almost casually,” he said. “We’re just doing the best that we can.” In the first six months of this year, a total of 81 people in the Durham County Detention Center received ICE detainers. Without access to comprehensive details about those detainers, it is impossible to know how many of these people were referred to immigration authorities on minor charges that didn’t require referral under the law. Adding to the difficulty, some people faced separate and unrelated charges that would trigger a referral to ICE, but were referred for the cases involving non-qualifying charges as well. Others faced charges under different names, with cases only being consolidated under one name later. One defendant was marked on court paperwork as being a citizen or legal resSeptember 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 9

ident in a felony case against her. But in a separate misdemeanor case for the same defendant, the “citizen or legal resident” box was left blank and the judge referred the defendant to ICE (although it is not clear if ICE ultimately issued a detainer). According to the immigration rights group Siembra NC, almost 10,000 people were arrested in North Carolina by ICE between January 2025 and early August. This year, almost 75% of those arrests started with someone already in state custody. “The pattern in the records is county jail after county jail: a person is booked on something ordinary, held, and handed to ICE,” Siembra NC said in a press release announcing the data. “This is the exact machinery that state law now requires.” The new procedure for ICE referrals was laid out in state law 2025-85 last year and took effect October 1, after the legislature overrode Gov. Josh Stein’s veto. Besides dramatically increasing the number of offenses that would trigger an ICE notification, it also adjusted the deadlines and processes for notifying ICE when noncitizens are charged with certain crimes, and for detaining people for immigration authorities. “Along the line maybe somebody may have lodged a complaint, but generally by the fact we’ve not heard a lot of complaints about it would indicate that it’s probably working well,” North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall said in August when asked about the law. “We’ve changed that law a number of times in the past few years, and I’m open to changing it again, but I think this last time around we have it pretty tight.” The North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts sent out four emails to magistrates with updates on the new law, according to emails released to the INDY via public records request. One in October notified magistrates of a new form to be filled out when a judicial officer has to determine whether a person “charged with certain offenses is a legal resident or citizen of the United States.” The emails did not provide any detailed legal advice about when filling out the new form would be required. Once ICE receives the referral form, it can issue a detainer. A state judicial official has to confirm the person being detained matches the information sent by ICE and then is required to order the person held. The person charged can be held for up to 48 hours after they would have otherwise been released (for example, by posting bond or resolving their charges) in order for ICE to come and collect them— although this does not mean that ICE always came for the people facing minor charges in Durham County. The form that a judge is required to fill 10 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

out, AOC-CR-663, even lists the triggering offenses under a section titled “findings”: “The undersigned judicial official finds that the defendant named above is charged with a felony, Class A1 misdemeanor under Article 6A, Article 7B, or Article of Chapter 14 of the General Statutes, violation of G.S. 50B-4.1, or an offense involving impaired driving as defined in G.S. 20-4.01.” Filling out the form for someone who is not facing one of these charges is not illegal, according to Brittany Bromell, an assistant professor of public law and government at the UNC School of Government who has tracked and written about the law. “The law as written doesn’t prohibit [judicial officials] from doing that,” she said. “It just requires them to do so in certain circumstances.” Few elected officials, attorneys, organizations, or family members of those arrested wanted to speak on the record about defendants in Durham being unnecessarily referred to ICE. Many seemed unaware of the issue. The Durham County Public Defender’s Office and several private attorneys who represented people in these cases did not respond to requests for comment. The chief magistrate for Durham referred all questions to the chief district court judge, Doretta Walker. Walker also issued a number of the ICE referrals herself. Neither Walker nor her immediate predecessor as chief judge, Clayton Jones,

responded to repeated requests for comment and, in the case of Judge Walker, a detailed list of questions. District Attorney Satana Deberry said that ICE referrals usually begin before her office is ever involved—at the very first time a defendant appears before a judicial official for bond. But she said she had heard about the issue anecdotally. “I would say hypothetically, nobody should be released to ICE custody until the state has handled its business with them,” Deberry said. “That person has been detained at the request of the state of North Carolina, and the state of North Carolina should have—that person should have—his or her day in court in North Carolina before anything else has been handled.” Deberry said her office had not filed any larger formal complaint with the magistrates’ office about the practice. She said that her office “tried to track it down” when they did hear about someone being taken by ICE while facing local charges. The only case she was aware of, she said, was one where the defendant filed a habeas petition requesting release—a motion her office did not oppose. Nestor Alejandro Umana Barquero was arrested by the Durham Police Department in May and charged with three counts of simple assault for allegedly pointing a hose nozzle that looked like a pistol at several people, along with one count of resisting

a public officer. The then-23-year-old was also facing other low-level misdemeanor charges after an incident in April. None of the charges in either case were among those that require ICE notification under the new law. Umana Barquero was nevertheless referred to ICE, which issued a detainer for the Honduran citizen on May 8. Then, for weeks, he sat in the Durham jail. In the habeas petition, Umana Barquero’s attorney argued he was being held on an improper judicial order. His attorney did not challenge the initial notification of the arrest. Instead she focused on the detainer that ICE had issued to the jail. By the time his attorney filed the habeas petition on July 9, Umana Barquero had been sitting in jail for more than 60 days. The next day, the office of the prosecutor dismissed the charges against him— and Judge Brian Wilks denied the habeas petition. It’s unclear when Umana Barquero was taken into ICE custody, but the INDY was able to confirm he was being held in immigration detention, most recently in Texas, before he disappeared from the system. The INDY was unable to contact Umana Barquero, and his public defender did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Marisa Mecke contributed reporting to this story.

The Durham county jail in 2015 PHOTO BY JEREMY M. LANGE

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NEWS

Raleigh

Wellness Check WakeMed says the deal is needed to modernize its flagship hospital in the economically vulnerable neighborhood. Some residents and local leaders are skeptical. BY JANE PORTER jporter@indyweek.com

The WakeMed hospital campus in Southeast Raleigh FILE PHOTO

n a Saturday afternoon last month, during a Caribbean-themed carnival celebration in downtown Raleigh, a 32-year-old Black man was found hanged from a tree in a parking lot located off of South McDowell Street. Raleigh’s police chief said publicly that video footage confirms the man’s death was a suicide and noted that the man’s mother told police that her son had a history of mental health challenges. “We lost a young man this past weekend, just less than a block from here,” said Rob Stephens, a pastor and activist with the Men of Southeast Raleigh. He was speaking outside of the Wake County Justice Center, where Wake County’s Board of Commissioners will make what is likely to be the most consequential decision around health care for millions of residents that the region has seen in decades. “The question is, what did it?” Stephens continued before holding a moment of silence for the man who died. “And what did it, we know, is a broken health care system.” Wake County commissioners voted Monday to amend WakeMed’s articles of incorporation in order to green-light a combination with Atrium Health, the state’s largest hospital system. The merger comes with a $2 billion investment in WakeMed to address various capital needs, including half a billion dollars’ worth of updates to WakeMed’s flagship hospital on New Bern Avenue and money to support a new Whole Health Campus in Garner with a stateof-the-art, 150-bed mental health hospital just minutes away. (On the eve of the vote, WakeMed leaders announced 12 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

new terms of the agreement that would bring more benefits to Wake County, including an additional $150 million.) WakeMed and Atrium leaders promise the combination will bring more than 3,300 new health care jobs over five years. But it will also change the way members of WakeMed’s board of directors are appointed and removed, with Wake County commissioners appointing eight members and Atrium appointing the other six. In a letter last month to WakeMed CEO Donald Gintzig, Gov. Josh Stein raised concerns about the county’s oversight of the board under the deal. Atrium will become the sole member of the WakeMed nonprofit, but, under the revised terms of the agreement, it will not have exclusive authority to amend WakeMed’s governing documents. Nor will the deal come without a financial cost. It is likely to raise prices for patients—research shows cross-market mergers between health care providers can increase outof-pocket costs to patients from between 7% and 17%— and many worry that WakeMed, an independent nonprofit hospital with a long history of providing charity care, will fundamentally change. Others still question the process behind WakeMed’s decision to join forces with Atrium, with two years of negotiations that were shrouded in secrecy and subject to no competitive process resulting in a deal whose terms remain hidden from public view. Despite widespread reservations from patients, activists, and some elected officials, WakeMed leaders insist that

they considered other options thoroughly and that combining with Atrium is the only way to preserve the hospital system’s future and provide the level of care residents of the growing county need. What’s not in dispute is that the strategic combination will have an outsize impact on the residents of Southeast Raleigh, home to the aforementioned flagship hospital known to locals as Big WakeMed. In one of the most economically vulnerable parts of the county, the hospital has been a lifeline for residents who, as Gintzig often notes in public remarks, live on average 10 years fewer than residents of the wealthy areas of Cary and West Raleigh. “WakeMed belongs to the people who built it, worked in it, paid for it, and depend on it,” said Rev. Wayne Wilhelm, a vice president of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP and a chair of the North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign at an August 17 public hearing at the Justice Center. “But this process has not treated the community like a true stakeholder. … The question is what is binding in the agreement? What services are guaranteed? What staffing levels are guaranteed? What price protections are guaranteed? What happens if Atrium fails to follow through on all these promises?”

n a sunny Wednesday morning in early July, the winding corridors of the main wings in Big WakeMed are thrumming with activity. Patients, families, and medical staff outfitted in black scrubs mill about as the soul-

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September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 13

Raleigh campus illustrated site plan RENDERING COURTESY OF WAKEMED

ful notes of Walter Moreland, one of an estimated 1,400 people who volunteer with the hospital system, drift through the mazelike hallways that separate clinics, labs, and departments on the hospital’s first floor. Moreland, once a patient at WakeMed, used to sing with Gladys Knight & the Pips and B.B. King; he performed at the Apollo Theater four times. Now, he says, he likes to sing for patients “to bring a smile to their faces and ease their trouble about their medical condition.” In a meeting earlier that morning, CEO Gintzig and Tom Cavender, vice president of facilities and construction, shared more about WakeMed’s plans for the $2 billion capital investment Atrium is proposing as part of the strategic combination. The money will accelerate and provide additional backing for ambitious plans WakeMed has to expand services at all of its existing hospitals and open two new hospitals, a healthplex, and a mental health hospital campus in the Triangle. As envisioned by a long-term facilities master plan that WakeMed executives began developing in 2020, the bulk of that sum, about $900 million, will go to 14 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

WakeMed’s flagship hospital—one of the busiest in the country and what Gintzig called “the light on the hill”—to update aging infrastructure and modernize the 65-year-old hospital campus. While the flagship campus is already home to a relatively new children’s hospital and 30-year-old heart center, a new replacement tower is planned that includes an adult emergency department/trauma center; surgery, heart, and vascular procedure rooms; and adult intensive-care units. Children and adults would be treated in the new facility, freeing up space to expand WakeMed’s existing children’s emergency department. The new tower plans include operating rooms that are larger, brighter, and more private, and a consolidated pre-procedural area (where anesthetics are applied, for example) to improve efficiency and patients’ safety. Several nursing floors in the tower will provide adult intensive-care beds and additional medical surgical beds. Cavender pointed out that one advantage of building the new tower located at the intersection of New Bern Avenue and Sunnybrook Road is that services at the original facility can carry on uninterrupted

“We believe it’s going to be the first of its kind, especially in the Southeast.” - Tom Cavender

during construction, and when the tower is finished, the work of updating the aging facilities can begin. The plans to overhaul WakeMed’s New Bern Avenue campus, Gintzig said, fully depend on the county commissioners’ approval of the merger. With the deal approved, WakeMed can begin planning this year. Without it WakeMed would not “in my opinion, for the next 10 or 15 years, have the financial wherewithal to do all of that,” Gintzig said. If plans to modernize the flagship campus do proceed this year, they’ll go hand in hand with a visionary partnership between WakeMed, Wake Tech, and Wake County that’s already underway. The three entities coordinated with the City of Raleigh on a new Health and Education District, a shared vision for development and education that involved the county transferring land to WakeMed and Wake Tech for a new simulation hospital that will train students for careers in nursing, phlebotomy, radiography, dental hygiene, and other high-demand health care professions. The new hospital, located on Wake Tech’s Perry Health Sciences Campus adjacent to

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NOTICE OF CHANGE IN TIME FOR ABSENTEE BOARD MEETINGS At a meeting duly called and held on the 11th day of December 2025, at 3825 S. Roxboro Street, Suite 101, in Durham, North Carolina, the Durham County Board of Elections changed the time for scheduled absentee ballot review meetings required under NCGS 163-230.1(f) from 5:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. These meetings will begin on the 5th Tuesday prior to Election Day and will occur each subsequent Tuesday prior to Election Day, November 3, 2026. To see the full Board of Elections meeting schedule, please visit our website at www.dcovotes.com. 3825 S. Roxboro Street, Suite 101 Durham, NC 27713 (919) 560-070

David K. Boone, Chair NOTICE OF CHANGE IN TIME FOR ABSENTEE BOARD MEETINGS At a meeting duly called and held on COUNTY the 11th day OF ofELECTIONS December 2025, at 3825 S. PAID FOR BY DURHAM BOARD Roxboro Street, Suite 101, in Durham, North Carolina, the Durham County Board of Elections changed the time for scheduled absentee ballot review meetings required under NCGS 163-230.1(f) from 5:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. ## These meetings will begin on the 5th Tuesday prior to Election Day and will occur each subsequent Tuesday prior to Election Day, November 3, 2026. To see the full Board of Elections meeting schedule, please visit Run Date (Once during the week of): 9/21 our website at www.dcovotes.com.

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September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 15

Another view of the future WakeMed Campus in Raleigh RENDERING COURTESY OF WAKEMED

WakeMed, is on track to be completed next year. “It becomes an opportunity … between our campus and Wake Tech’s campus where we have students going from our facility and Wake Tech, back and forth … for training and for classes,” Cavender explained. “As part of our agreement, [Wake Tech] has space to put one or two more classroom or education buildings on the Perry Health Sciences Campus.” Construction is underway for a simulation hospital on Wake Technical College’s In addition to modernizing the Raleigh campus, WakeMed is planning to expand services at its hospital campuses in Cary and North Raleigh, and has filed applications with the state to build new hospitals in Rolesville and Wendell. It also has plans for a new healthplex in Fuquay-Varina. Finally, over the next 15 years, WakeMed will build out a Whole Health Campus in Garner that will provide a 45-bed acutecare hospital integrated with a much-needed mental health hospital with 150 beds, private rooms, inpatient care and outpatient services, recreation and therapeutic 16 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

services, and innovative treatments and therapies. Together, the two hospitals will cover roughly 410,000 square feet. The campus will be built on 53 currently wooded acres located near the intersection of White Oak Road and Timber Drive, just east of Raleigh where Interstate 40 and U.S. Highway 70 intersect. The leafy location will provide a therapeutic environment for healing and recovery, Cavender explained, and both acute and mental health patients will access the campus via the same front entrance “without stigmatization.” “We’re taking care of the entire body, mind, and spirituality for all patients,” Cavender said. “We believe it’s going to be the first of its kind, especially in the Southeast, where we’re blending acute care with mental health care.” The combination with Atrium, leaders say, will allow for further development of services at that campus, and it will serve the whole region, including residents of nearby Southeast Raleigh. n 1955, Wake County voters approved a $5 million bond to finance construction of Memorial Hospital of Wake County. It

opened in its location on New Bern Avenue in 1961. The hospital was ahead of its time in that it would serve both Black and white patients. On April 25, 1961, Gale Dumas was the first baby born at the new hospital; she and her mother, Liza Ann Rogers Hall, were reportedly the hospital’s first patients. Prior to Memorial Hospital’s opening, St. Agnes Hospital, located on the campus of St. Augustine’s University in downtown Raleigh, was the only hospital in the region that would treat Black patients. It closed as Memorial Hospital opened its doors. In 1997, Wake’s board of commissioners approved the sale of Memorial Hospital to Wake County Hospital System Inc. Now a private, nonprofit hospital system, Memorial was renamed WakeMed the following year, and two documents—an updated articles of incorporation and a transfer agreement—were created to govern the hospital’s relationship with Wake County, including the county commissioners’ role of making appointments to the board of directors. Importantly, in the articles of incorporation, Wake County required WakeMed to

provide services to all patients, regardless of their ability to pay, and required free care to those who can’t pay in an amount that totals at least 4.8% of the hospital system’s total annual revenue. In fiscal year 2025, WakeMed reported approximately $2.62 billion in operating revenue while providing more than $370 million in charity care or community benefits—more than 12%, well over what the county requires of it. Under the revised agreement with Atrium, WakeMed will be bound to a higher charity care requirement at 8%, and the patient pool that qualifies for assistance would expand from those living at 300% of the federal poverty level to 400%, meaning care could be free for a family of four earning less than $100,000 annually. Patients will also receive expanded access to virtual visits and speciality services such as oncology, As the Wake County commissioners considered the Atrium deal, WakeMed’s long legacy of charity care is top of mind for many Southeast Raleigh residents, as well as the leaders who are tasked with looking

out for their best interests. The census tract that’s home to Big WakeMed and those surrounding it report some of the highest percentages of residents living below the poverty line in Wake County, as well as some of the highest unemployment rates countywide. Anthony Pope is a Raleigh native and activist with the Men of Southeast Raleigh, a grassroots community group of about 80 members that’s dedicated to engaging with and advocating for the historically Black community, as well as preserving its history as neighborhoods in the city continue to gentrify. Pope, who was “a kid at the time when the merger happened between St. Agnes Hospital and WakeMed,” said the majority of the Men of Southeast Raleigh oppose what they call the “takeover” of WakeMed by Atrium. They have concerns about Atrium’s track record, including a history of holding debt against patients for years and taking out liens against their property (in 2024, Atrium announced it was canceling thousands of past judgments, including wiping out liens on more than 11,500 of patients in six states, with some going back 20 years). “Our main concern was that we had a voice to at least express how we felt about it,” Pope told the INDY in an interview. “A lot of times what happens in our … community is that there are a number of things on the agenda in terms of ‘we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that,’ but we are always late being informed. And by the time it gets to us, my opinion is that they’ve already made a decision. We’re just going to have these community meetings just to check the box to say we’ve met with you.” Pope points to Ligon High School, a traditionally Black high school and historic site, that the school system decided earlier this year to tear down against the wishes of community members who wanted to preserve it. “That’s just an example of how decisions are made,” Pope said. “‘We want your input,’ but then after it’s all said and done, we’ve already made a decision. And so that’s kind of how I feel about this.” The loss of localized decision-making is a sticking point for residents like Pope. Atrium will gain control over WakeMed’s finances and operations and will broadly be able to change its governing documents without approval from the county commissioners. Any of the eight members that county commissioners appoint to Atrium’s board will come from a slate of nominees that two-thirds of the board already preapproved. Commissioners would have the authority to reject a nominee, in which

case WakeMed would have 60 days to submit a replacement. Other residents and local leaders don’t think the benefits Atrium says it will offer are enough. Despite the promises of new jobs and the city’s major investment in the New Bern Avenue corridor, Raleigh Mayor Janet Cowell said she has serious concerns about the deal, especially about costs rising for residents of Southeast Raleigh and the secrecy surrounding the proposal. Cowell compared the lack of a competitive bidding process to a situation this summer in which an out-of-state real estate firm offered the city $15 million to buy a parking deck it owns downtown near Moore Square. Residents and community groups swiftly voiced their concern about the impact on nearby businesses if the firm raised parking prices, forcing the city to acknowledge it was approaching the offer cautiously and emphasize that any sale would come with an upset bid process.

uncertainty in the community and with the staff. There was the surprise, and then there was the initial headlines, ‘Atrium acquires WakeMed, Atrium takes over WakeMed.’ There was that mindset that created a lot of concern, because a lot of people in this community love WakeMed.” While there is opposition from Southeast Raleigh residents to the combination, there’s also support, as speakers at the August public hearing made clear. Demarcus Williams, the associate vice president of global marketing and communications for St. Augustine’s University, said in a statement from the leaders of the recently troubled historically Black college’s board of directors that SAU “is encouraged by the potential for an expanded health care ecosystem to create new opportunities in health care education, workforce development, clinical pathways, community health, and investment in Southeast Raleigh.”

“They are desperate for this deal ... You can support the idea of having a larger partner and not support this deal.” - Rob Stephens

The firm ultimately withdrew its offer. “We had the situation with the parking deck, it was very different, but people complained about that process,” Cowell told the INDY in a July interview. “And I thought, ‘Wow. This is a parking deck. This is not life and death.’ … And here you’ve got your legacy, charity care hospital. And it’s got less [scrutiny] than a parking deck. “That there is not a requirement for a more robust process is sort of stunning,” Cowell added. Gintzig, WakeMed’s CEO, says he is sensitive to residents’ concerns about rising costs—which he says are inevitable whether the combination goes through or not—and secrecy, but he said many of the concerns come down to a fear of change. “You’ve got to remember how they were hit with a surprise,” Gintzig told the INDY. “A lot of these things—you don’t spend a year talking through things. It creates

Octavia Rainey, a lifelong Southeast Raleigh resident, echoed those sentiments. “When [WakeMed brings] Atrium to the table, they can do all kinds of outreach, all kinds of service, all kinds of health care,” Rainey said. Another Raleigh mayor, Cowell’s immediate predecessor Mary-Ann Baldwin, also spoke in support of the deal at the public hearing. “When I learned that WakeMed was seeking a partner in Atrium Health, my immediate thought was ‘So this is what it’s going to take to ensure that WakeMed continues to grow and thrive,” she said. “I want to see that behavioral health hospital built in Garner. I want to see the campus thrive.”

s Raleigh and Wake County residents took the summer to learn about and debate the deal, Wake County commissioners were quiet about which way they

were leaning. They first learned about the proposal in a closed session in March, and agreed to delay the vote for 90 days following public outcry when it was quietly placed on their consent agenda in early May. Out of the seven commissioners on the board, only Tara Waters, whose Southeast Raleigh district encompasses WakeMed’s flagship campus, responded to the INDY’s request for an interview. Speaking in early August, before the public hearing, Waters said she heard her constituents’ concerns about costs and process around the merger, as well as from those in favor of the combination. She said she was working to learn more. “Based on the information that I have, there was communication with our appointed [WakeMed] board, and they felt comfortable with this combination,” Waters said. “I really, really appreciate how vocal the community has been, particularly because I represent [the zip code] 27610, which is … rich in culture and history, but also in disparities around health care, around economic mobility, and I have heard a lot of people who have a lot of questions and who don’t feel comfortable with a strategic combination.” In July, Mayor Cowell said WakeMed’s combination with Atrium may well be inevitable, but that “it would be nice if somebody said, like, could we open this process up to a more national competitive process … so that we could all see what is the best thing for this community, and is the proposal that’s on the table the absolute highest and best?” It’s a suggestion that resonates with residents. At the public hearing, a resident suggested putting the question to the voters in a referendum. Another floated the creation of a straightforward government matrix to clarify who makes decisions about WakeMed’s future. On the sidewalk outside of the Justice Center in August, Stephens, the pastor, said Atrium knows how powerful the public’s voice is, because it’s investing millions of dollars in billboard signs, TV and radio ads, Sling and YouTube ads, mailers, and direct calls to residents to try to convince them the deal is needed. “They are desperate for this deal, because it is such a sweet deal,” he said. “It is far under market. … Open up the process. Give us a deal. You can support the idea of having a larger partner and not support this deal. … We think WakeMed is fine on its own right now, and is in a strong position. But, regardless, there is no rush. … Wake County, the deal is not done, we can keep fighting, and we can keep fighting after, no matter what happens.” W September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 17

I DY's Annual Pride Issue To Thrive Not Just Survive Reflections on the work of the LGBTQ Center of Durham and the need to impose beauty on our future. BY DESMERA GATEWOOD backtalk@indyweek.com

“We can impose beauty on our future.” This is the grounding quote from Lorraine Hansberry that shaped an ancestral-themed checkin the LGBTQ Center of Durham held in August. A Durham-based queer facilitator then guided staff and board members through an exercise where we explored what that meant to us in the context of the LGBTQ Center. As I reflected, the exercise triggered a somber montage of joyful moments tinted with worry and uncertainty. Furloughs, budget cuts, executive orders, transphobia, hate crimes, fascism—this had been my reality as a member of the LGBTQ Center of Durham’s leadership over the past three years. The center, like the people it serves, has been through so many moments of vulnerability and institutional trauma that the idea of a beautiful future seemed nearly delusional. This is why the word “impose” made so much sense to me. As a Black queer woman in the 20th century, Hansberry, a civil rights activist, had no choice but to impose beauty on a future that was most likely to be grim and hideous for a person like her. Black people, queer people, and marginalized people throughout history had nothing to demonstrate that a future—left at the hands of fate—could be anything beautiful. Desmera Gatewood PHOTO BY MORGAN CRUTCHFIELD

18 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

That montage of surviv-

al and sorrow clouding joyful moments of celebration and resilience looms because my recollection of my time at the center is not distant from the narrative of working-class queer people as a whole; our stories are a narrative of what it means to survive instead of what it means to thrive. The LGBTQ Center of Durham and all people of oppressed classes deserve to thrive. We deserve more than just relief from grief; we deserve joy. We deserve more than just a day free of tears; we deserve to smile. We deserve more than just the minimum; we deserve abundance. We deserve more than just freedom to exist; we deserve liberation from the constraints of racism, patriarchy, and capitalism. We deserve to host celebrations without fear of hate crimes. We deserve community support without the community fearing sanctions for being associated with us. We deserve to form solidarity with Black liberation and Palestinian self-determination, without fearing for our funding. We deserve for love, beauty, and bliss to be a reality and not a fantasy. We deserve to dance, worship, grieve, and dream without constraints. As you’ll read in the stories that follow, the LGBTQ Center of Durham provides a space where youth, families, and elders can see themselves and be themselves without apology. For that to continue, for the beautiful future to exist, we depend on our community for funds, support, love, and security. In my final year as chair of the center’s board of directors, I am so proud to be part of an institution that continues to impose beauty on its future. I have grown to love parts of myself and my community that I never knew to appreciate. A queer Black woman named Lorraine Hansberry brought us this grounding mantra. Let us honor her by supporting the center in imposing beauty: a future where we thrive, not just survive. Desmera Gatewood is a neurodivergent, Black, nonbinary writer and organization-development practitioner. They serve on the board of the LGBTQ Center of Durham.

PRIDE

Durham

Pride Chair Jesse Huddleston on What It Means to Be ‘Queer All Year’ A look at Pride: Durham, NC events and the history of Durham Pride. BY TORI NEWBY tnewby@indyweek.com

hen most of the country breaks out the rainbow clothing and colorful parades, each June, summer heat is baking down on festivities. And while you won’t be pressed to find Pride celebrations in June, Durham’s LGBTQ Center holds its annual Pride week in the fall, timed with cooler weather and students being back in town. This year, the LGBTQ Center is leaning into its fall programming in the spirit of its ethos “Queer All Year,” as the center prepares for a week of celebrations starting September 27. The fall date aligns closely with LGBTQ History Month in October and National Coming Out Day on October 11. The theme of Pride: Durham, NC, this year is “Always Forward, Never Straight: Preserving History, Coming Home.” This year’s Pride marks the 45th year since “Our Day Out,” North Carolina’s first Pride march, held in response to the antigay assault and murder of Ronald “Sonny” Antonevitch in 1981. A second march was held in Durham in 1986, and what became the NC Pride March traveled around the state for more than a decade, until Durham began hosting an annual event in 2000. The LGBTQ Center is hosting a community protest and parade on October 3, preceded by a week of events that includes a food truck rodeo, a queer-history tour of downtown, a craft night, and a multi-faith service. Ahead of the programming, Jesse Huddleston, the director of development and community engagement at the LGBTQ Center and the chair of Pride: Durham, NC, spoke to the INDY about Durham’s history of queer resistance and this year’s messaging.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. On the history of Durham’s Pride movement: In ‘81, it was our day out, and it was in response to the assault and murder of Sonny Antonovich. Folks wore bags over their heads. It wasn’t the kind of celebratory parade that we have today. I’ve seen some of the flyers, and there was a language of wearing costumes, and not in the sense of like, “Oh, be a version of yourself that’s fun and loud.” It was a costume to hide. And that’s not to shame the history. That’s to understand where we come from. For them, even having one day out was powerful, because for so many of them, the posture was one of shame, of hiding, and that was how people stayed safe. That’s how people survived. On the 45th anniversary of Durham’s first Pride march: Forty-plus years ago, folks doing this were afraid for their careers, for their families, for their lives. And we have to continue moving forward in a way that ensures that every person, every child that grows up here, is so assured, and not just who they are as a whole dignified person, but what opportunities are available to them. On what to expect from this year’s Pride parade: It’s a march. It’s a protest. We’re gonna be in the streets. People will have signs and sing songs about justice, about their rights, and yes, we will have a good time. Yes, peo-

Jesse Huddleston COURTESY PHOTO

ple will be dolled up. Yes, we will have all the colors and the rainbows, and the laughs and the smiles. Hopefully, we have beautiful weather. It’s not too hot, not too cold, not too rainy. You don’t want rain, but it will be a peaceful, nonviolent protest in the streets. On being “queer all year”: The parade is important. It is an act of political protest—marching visibly in the street for our rights, for our existence, for our needs, for our desires. And there are people even today who are like, “Oh, well, that shouldn’t be so political,” but it is, whether we want it to be or not. And I just feel strongly that that is not a one-time thing. That’s not a trend that we only do when it’s cute. It’s not just a seasonal moment. It’s really something for those of us that are part of this community, 24/7, 365. And so again, the invitation is one of great welcome. It is to say, we want you to be who you are, whole and dignified every day. On this year’s theme of “Always Forward, Never Straight: Preserving History, Coming Home”:

That really has been about inviting our community to continue leaning into a direction of justice, of equity, of organizing, of good trouble, of progressive values, even when it makes people uncomfortable, because we know it’s the right thing. And I think doing that the way we do it, it felt important to really take into account our history, where we’ve come from, what we’ve been through, because that shapes so much of where we are now, and to uplift this notion of coming home—we’re back downtown, we’re back in a space where the center started. And I think in a more abstract framing, oftentimes, and we think about coming out and what that means. I think for me, being at home in your own body and coming into the fullness of one’s dignity and wholeness as a human being, as an LGBTQ human being, matters. And then in that spirit of remembering where we come from, being at home in our bodies, in our communities, that’s how we move forward—and that’s never straight. It’s a bit sassy, but that’s the point. It’s meant to be sassy. September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 19

PRIDE

Durham

Reading Rainbow Now open for public viewing, a growing library and archive preserves queer history and literature at the LGBTQ Center of Durham. BY TORI NEWBY tnewby@indyweek.com

Archivist Cal Caughron goes through the archives at the LGBTQ Center of Durham on September 12, 2026. PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

rowds in colorful attire fill the streets, holding balloons with the word “OUT!” spelled across them and rainbow signs championing federal funding for AIDS resources. Some are sporting high-waisted shorts and muscle tanks, going hand in hand with one another as they march down the street. The colors are only slightly muted, with the faded photos protected by a layer of plasticky film. A sticker on the page titles them “Gay Pride March in Raleigh, June 25, 1988.” The photo album, curated by a Durham community member and donated by his brother after he passed away, is one of many items in the LGBTQ+ People’s Archive, a collection of mementos housed at the LGBTQ Center of Durham. The archive, together with a volunteer-run library, is a place to house pieces of Durham’s queer history and literature. “It is really meaningful when people can look and find themselves in history, and so I think it’s important to make sure that we are able to see queer history, especially at a local level,” said Cal Caughron, the volunteer who curated the People’s Archive. “I think sometimes there are narratives about the South, as kind of like this area that is devoid of queerness or really of any diversity, and that just isn’t the case.” 20 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

he archive occupies a wall of shelves in the back room of the LGBTQ Center, holding more than two dozen boxes and bins of material: a cast-signed Rent poster from its 20th-anniversary tour at DPAC in 2016, stacks of print INDY issues from the last decade, an award plaque from LGBTQ youth organization iNSIDEoUT180 in 2018. In the album housing the Raleigh Pride parade photos sits a clipping of a News & Observer story from April 25, 1993—published the day of the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. In interview snippets, Triangle residents who were planning to attend the march championed visibility and recognition of the movement. One 26-year-old law student, who said she planned to specialize in gay civil rights law, said, “I see it as sort of a celebration, a way to be sort of invigorated by and surrounded by gay culture. I know that some people will have political messages. But it’s rare that you get a million people together around one single message.” The law student, Lisa Grafstein, now serves in the North Carolina Senate. The collections are carefully labeled thanks to the dedicated work of Caughron, who comes weekly to sort through the donated piles alongside a team of four other volunteers. On the third Saturday each month, the same

day the center hosts a food pantry, the archive opens up for the public to view. After the center’s launch in 2015, Operations Manager Alix Adrian set items aside from programs and activities that he thought people might want to look at later on. Posters advertising a program the center put on, or a brochure from a performance, got placed into bins. The center changed locations several times after the pandemic, and the bins got moved to each new building. But it wasn’t until Caughron—a master’s student of library science at UNC-Chapel Hill, at the time—took up this volunteer project in early 2025 that the People’s Archive materialized. Community members and local organizations have donated the rest. “The archive doesn’t really belong to the center; it’s a people’s archive,” Adrian said. “It’s just housed here. It’s the things that people choose to keep that are important to them, or they feel are important to community.”

ext door to the archive, wall-to-wall shelves are filled with an LGBTQ library collection. Titles like “Best Lesbian Romance,” “Queers in Space,” and “Surpassing the Love of Men” sit carefully organized, with stickers identifying authors’ names but also the identity represented. Blue stickers identify books with lesbian content, red is for gay,

yellow is for bisexual, and green is for trans. Adrian said the LGBTQ Center has had a library since its founding in 2015, and it was a space designed for queer authors and literature. But when the center closed for the pandemic in 2020, the books sat collecting dust until the center moved locations in 2022 and everything got boxed up. “‘The library will be returning’—I think that’s what the website said for four and a half years,” Adrian said. Later this fall, the library will be reopened for the public to peruse and check out books. Currently, the library is open by appointment; Adrian said the center is working on solidifying library hours. Volunteer Stella-Jude Angrist, like Caughron a master’s student of library science at UNC-Chapel Hill, took on this project over the summer. They clocked 135 hours sorting through book donations, organizing the shelves, and creating the identity labels and catalog system. The collection includes children’s books, queer history, parenting, romance, and erotica. “We’re facing censorship in this community, and if our books are being pulled off the shelves in public libraries, we have to find somewhere else for them to live,” Angrist said. In June, Durham County directed its libraries to remove Pride Month displays and then reversed that decision a day later. WRAL reported that librarians had been instructed multiple times over the previous year to alter programming related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). “We’re a space that creates and curates queer joy, and that is exactly what this library does,” Adrian said. “It is a mirror to our best selves, our truest selves, and that just eases someone’s soul.” W

(Top) Archivist Cal Caughron poses for a portrait at the LGBTQ Center of Durham on September 12, 2026. (Right) Various posters line the walls at the LGBTQ Center. (Bottom) Operations Manager Alix Adrian poses for a portrait at the LGBTQ Center of Durham on September 12, 2026. PHOTOS BY MATT RAMEY

To make an appointment to visit the Center’s library, email info@lgbtqcenterofdurham.org Learn more:

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 21

PRIDE

Durham

Lifters take turns deadlifting during the September 6 Weight Not Hate event in Durham PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

Heavy Lifting Amid an anti-LGBTQ climate and bans against transgender athletes, deadlifting offers queer people a sense of self and safety. BY LENA GELLER lgeller@indyweek.com

nchor Powerlifting owner Holli Mann likes to joke that she’s “building an army for the current situation at hand”: the situation being Trump 2.0, the army being the jacked folks who train at her gyms in Durham and Greensboro. Indeed, watching some of Mann’s would-be soldiers throw down on a Sunday in September, the display is formidable: Autumn Kaunitz, a lifter in a sports bra and pink running shorts, picks up a 440-pound barbell like it’s nothing. Soon after, two people in matching purple tees tandem-lift over 900 pounds. This is the third annual “Weight Not Hate,” a Pridethemed deadlifting event in Durham Central Park benefiting the LGBTQ Youth Center of Durham. The event raised nearly $1,300. 22 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

It’s not a competition, though most of the 25-odd participants still came with a cutthroat spirit, just one aimed at themselves. Joe Muglia is going for a personal record of 345 pounds. Micky Jordan, a lifter in a leather fringe vest, has a humbler goal: getting the bar off the ground three times. A few juxtapositions are at play at the event. Deadlifting, a feat usually associated with a narrow kind of masculinity, is being performed here by people of every stripe. Also: Red-faced, full-body exertion is playing out in a remarkably chill environment; when Jordan wavers on their second lift, the crowd shouts “That’s OK! That’s OK!” This blend of grit and ease is part of what Mann wanted to cultivate when she founded Anchor in 2019: She wanted to offer an alternative to the “bro culture” of mainstream gyms.

“There’s a lot of machismo type of behaviors that just make people feel uncomfortable” at more commercialized gyms, Mann said. “I’ve had people say that they feel like people are staring at them, and there’s just this general air of ‘You don’t belong here.’” Anchor started as a pop-up with classes for women and femmes, then expanded to add classes for other demographics before opening a brick-and-mortar gym in Durham in 2021, followed by an outpost in Greensboro. Reaching young people, in particular, has been central to the project. “If I had had something like powerlifting when I was younger, I probably wouldn’t have thought so much about what my body looked like,” Mann said, “and I would have probably cared more about what it was capable of.”

(From left) Isaac Rogers and Gabriel Johnson tandem lift about 895 pounds during the Weight Not Hate event PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

Lifter Micky Jordan PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

(From left) Holli Mann and Jenni Shafer, organizers of Weight Not Hate, which raised nearly $1,300 for the LGBTQ Youth Center of Durham PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

In raising money for the LGBTQ Youth Center, Weight Not Hate is a way for Mann to extend that mission beyond her gym’s walls. Mann notes that gatherings like Weight Not Hate also feel necessary given the moment: In recent years, a number of powerlifting federations have moved to ban transgender athletes, and events like this carve out space. Also, lots of queer people are into lifting, so an event that brings the two together just makes sense. There are a number of reasons that LGBTQ folks are particularly represented in the powerlifting niche of fitness. Lifting can be gender-affirming for trans people. It’s also not a type of fitness that’s oriented around shedding weight or making yourself smaller—goals that can be tied up in more heteronormative ideals of how a body should look. And lifting has a distinct power to strengthen the bond between you and your own body—a practice of self-reli-

ance that goes hand in hand with being queer, when much of life means operating in systems that weren’t built for you and learning to build something with yourself instead. “It gives you a sense of awareness and acceptance of your body that nothing—I’ve not found anything that does it quite like lifting,” Mann said. “It almost makes the body very objective.” Even from the sidelines, you get imbued with some of that same total embodiment. We’re humans, all the straining and self-expression on display seems to spell out; we’re humans and we get a kick out of testing the outer limits of our strength and adorning ourselves with little flourishes of self. Lifter Margaret Craig is dressed in rainbow tights, a rainbow tutu, and a rainbow wig. She’s not part of the LGBTQ community herself, but her child is nonbinary—she calls them over to confirm this—so she’s here as an ally. Craig learned about Weight Not Hate

through a powerlifting class she’s in for postmenopausal women. “We’re stronger than we were when we were 25,” Craig said. Before going up for her final lift at the event, she works chalk into her palms and briefly puts her hands together in prayer. Then she rips 245 pounds off the ground, a new personal record. For everyone here, the plainest function of lifting is, of course, building physical strength. But that strength also translates to a mental fortitude: self-confidence that steadies a person through aging or transitioning or moving through hard change, or, for some, a sense of safety in a moment when jokes about building an army roll off the tongue. “There is a sense of ‘Things are bad, let’s get strong,’” said Deena Fulton, a lifter with purpley-blue hair. “There’s something about seeing myself get stronger and stronger as time goes on that makes it a little easier to walk through the world.” W

Learn more about the LGBTQ+ Youth Center

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 23

PRIDE

Durham

Joy and Belonging A conversation with Raye Dooley, co-executive director of the LGBTQ Center of Durham. BY DESMERA GATEWOOD backtalk@indyweek.com

Raye Dooley PHOTO COURTESY OF LGBTQ CENTER

DESMERA GATEWOOD: Why do you do this work—and who do you see yourself doing it for? RAYE DOOLEY: I started doing LGBTQ+ liberation work because, growing up in the South, I did not know a single out LGBTQ adult. I certainly did not know other young, openly queer and trans folks. Because of this, it took me a painfully long time to find myself. I want something different for queer and trans people now—I want our people to be able to see parts of themself reflected in others from a young age. I have two young kids, and they deserve to grow up in a world of possibility, one where they know that they will be celebrated for all parts of who they are. I have the responsibility to help build this kind of community for my own kids, and for other people’s kids too. That’s the work we do at the center. Can you share some concrete examples of the work the center is doing and the impact you’ve seen it have? If there’s one thing I want people to take away, it is that the center does incredible work with very little. From a food pantry that 24 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

distributes 3,000 pounds of food a month to Pride: Durham, NC, which draws 10,000+ people, our incredibly talented and dedicated staff and community volunteers make so much possible. When people need food, we feed them. When people are unsafe in their homes, we return their agency. When people have nowhere to turn in communities far away, we open our arms a little bit wider. Some anecdotes: The Joiful Bodies Closet is a free shop supporting identity exploration and affirmation for all. It offers clothing, personal care products, home goods, and more. Recently, an unhoused community member who was shopping the closet reflected that they are so grateful for the center because it is the only place they can be themself. The Southern Queer Families Network is an antiviolence project that brings families together to, one, share joy, two, build power, and, three, keep each other safe. At a recent meetup, a family with a young trans daughter who just came out was able to connect with another family whose trans daughter is just a year older! Voguing for Empowerment is a program of the LGBTQ+ Youth Center of Durham. It supports young people to experience

self-empowerment and learn embodiment as they practice new dance techniques and choreography, all while honoring and centering the community of voguing and ballroom. The parent of a Voguing for Empowerment attendee reached out to let us know that in addition to it being so good for her daughter to have a place to dance, it has been equally impactful for the parent to witness her daughter feel free and accepted.

caregivers often need to reimagine what the family’s future might be. This is deep spiritual and existential work that no one should have to do in isolation. I want parents of trans kids to know that they are beautiful, their kids are beautiful, and their families are beautiful. And they are not alone. There is a community here waiting to welcome them with open arms as they transform alongside their trans child.

The center provides support not only to trans people themselves but also to their families. What is your personal investment in that work?

How does the theme for this year’s Durham Pride Week—”Always Forward, Never Straight”—reflect the center’s values, history, or work ahead?

I am invested in a world in which it is possible for all people to live with liberation, fulfillment, and beauty. Trans young people have to fight so many cultural forces to access that, but our families can be an epicenter of love and affirmation from which broader transformation emanates. The data is there—young trans people having even one supportive adult in their life makes a world of positive difference in how their future unfolds. It is also true that in even the supportive families, when a young person comes out,

On the one hand, the work the center does is complicated: We fight for big change in wickedly complex systems. On the other hand, it is simple: We work so that all people in our communities can experience joy and belonging. Lorraine Hansberry, a Black lesbian civil rights activist and playwright, wrote in a letter to a beloved coconspirator that we can impose beauty upon our future. This is something we’re meditating on a lot right now at the center. In times where there is so much danger and uncertainty, manifesting joy and

centering belonging are necessary acts of power and resilience. Many of the trailblazers who ignited the formal movement for LGBTQ liberation in Durham are still here. They speak of marching with rifles trained on them, under threat from the KKK, fearful of being outed to their families, and of pushing through their own fear to meet the moment in protest and celebration. They did so not out of ego but out of a fundamental conviction that queer and trans people deserve to live full, long, connected lives. At its core, the center lives by these teachings. The joy and belonging we practice are not naive. They are acts of resistance rooted in legacy, declarations of our humanity that make a beautiful, queer future inevitable.

MOTORCO (DURHAM)

9/26 SAT

W/ EMERSON BRUNO, CHERRY MOTEL

INOHA

9/27 SUN

W/ CAPITAL SOIRÉE, PRETORIA

9/28 MON

Slothrust

W/ THE VELVETEERS

Ballyhoo!

10/2 FRI

W/ THE HARBOR BOYS, FOUNDIT

Bear Ghost

10/3 SAT

W/ SARAH AND THE SAFE WORD, SPACEMAN BOB

Weatherday

10/4 SUN

W/ GIRL BRUTAL, BLANKSTATE, THE LOST VIEW

10/9 FRI

OCT W/ LEWKY

10/10 SAT

Tokyo Tea Room W/ AGRONAUT & WASP STANCZYKS (DURHAM)

Jenny Owen Youngs/Northcote

9/24 THU

W/ JULIA BARFIELD

Upon Your Dead Body

9/25 FRI

What should people know about this current era of the LGBTQ Center of Durham? We are here for and with our community, in all of its forms. We are always a model of possibility, and we are always becoming. In that respect, the center is the embodiment of queerness! While we don’t have answers to all the harms people in our community experience, we want folks to know that everything we do, we do with heart and devotion to our queer and trans kindred. We are always working to create more opportunities for belonging. Presently, that looks like building more spaces that center parents and caregivers, in acknowledgment of the vital future-building work they are doing; more opportunities for intergenerational connection; more opportunities for mutual aid; and a political home for all in our communities who seek one. We truly have the best staff. We know a more just world is possible because we build it in our relationships with one another, our workplace, and our programming every day. We invite every queer and trans person in Durham—and those who love them—into that project with us.

Beach Weather

W/ WHEN THE SUN SETS, LETTERS TO PART

9/27 SUN

Sun Cobi W/ DURTY DUB

9/30 WED

BRAT W/ U.S. BASTARDS, .MEMORIA

10/2 FRI

House of Heavy

10/3 SAT

Squirrel Flower W/ U.S. BASTARDS, .MEMORIA Xasthur

10/4 SUN

W/ TEMPLE OF THE FUZZ WITCH, ANTIQUITY

10/6 TUE

Deceits W/ COMPUTER KILL

10/7 WED

Joey Cash

10/8 THU

Sub Urban W/ GOLDEN CATS Shawn James

10/9 FRI

W/ GRAVEDANCER, TRAPPERS PASS

10/10 SAT

The Dream Syndicate THE PINHOOK (DURHAM)

9/28 MON

Powerplant W/ BLAB SCHOOL, DE()T

10/2 FRI

Hannah Cole W/MAGGIE FM

RUBIES ON FIVE POINTS (DURHAM)

9/30 WED

youbet W/LOOSE GREEN

FUZZY NEEDLE (DURHAM) Banners and signs adorn the walls at the LGBTQ Center of Durham on September 12, 2026. PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

Hammer No More

10/3 SAT

W/ THE FINGERS, SWEET HOME

Rosali Trio/Simon Joyner & The Ghosts

10/7 WED

W/ DAVID NANCE

LOCAL 506 (CHAPEL HILL)

Learn more about the LGBTQ Center of Durham’s programs and services:

9/23 WED

Hot Flash Heat Wave W/ THE WALLABIES

9/24 THU

An evening with Jay Buchanan (of Rival Sons)

10/1 THU

Will Backerman W/ WES COATNEY

10/7 WED

Improvement W/THE POINT. KINGS (RALEIGH)

10/3 SAT

White Denim W/ARC IRIS

10/8 THU

Toth W/ANNA MOSS more shows listed at

andmoreagainpresents.com September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 25

PRIDE: DURHAM, NC 2026

26 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 27

WINNERS! F

or two decades, readers have relied

determined by our readers, have some-

on INDY’s Best of the Triangle

thing for everyone—a greatest hits of

awards to help them navigate import-

food, bookstores, concert venues, parks,

ant decisions about how to spend their

local causes and more. We hope you’ll

time, where they spend their money,

take a look and check out some of the

and—perhaps most importantly—what

places, people, and activities that make

to eat and drink.

the community unique.

INDY stalwarts will note that, once

In the meantime, thank you for nomi-

again, we’re rolling out winners from our

nating all your favorites, and congrat-

highly anticipated reader poll one coun-

ulations to all of the finalists in Wake,

ty at a time. Here, we’re sharing win-

who will receive our coveted star decal

ners for all categories in Wake County.

and a poster to display. Stay tuned for

From the best restaurants, to yoga stu-

a special print edition in December

dios and hair salons, to museums, and

rounding up the best of the best across

preschools, we’ve got you covered with

the Triangle.

readers’ top picks. Thank you to NC Wills and Trusts for This year’s Wake County winners, as

sponsoring our Best of Wake ballot!

Presented by

ARTS

BUSINESSES

FOOD & DRINKS

HEALTH

PEOPLE & MISC.

PLACES

28 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

ncient A ubia N

Excavating Treasures of the Nile From the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

www.ncartmuseum.org/nubia

October 17, 2026–January 10, 2027 Nubian artist, Sudan, Winged Isis Pectoral, 538–519 bce, gold, H. 211/16 × W. 611/16 in., Harvard University—Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, 20.276; Photo: © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ancient Nubia: Excavating Treasures of the Nile is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, curated by Denise Doxey (Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern Art).

In Raleigh additional support is made possible, in part, by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources; the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation, Inc.; Paula D. Burleson and Barry P. Harris IV; Dawn F. Lipson; and the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment for Educational Exhibitions. Research for this exhibition was made possible by Ann and Jim Goodnight/The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fund for Curatorial and Conservation Research and Travel.

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 29

WAKE

ARTS BEST ART GALLERY FOR PURCHASE

BEST LOCAL / REGIONAL PODCAST

Artspace

Basically Famous

BEST GALLERY FOR VIEWING

Runners-up: Ovies & Giglio, Her Seat At The Table

NC Museum of Art

BEST LOCAL BAND

Runner-up: The Centerpiece

Dallas Tetnus

BEST COMEDY CLUB/EVENT

Runners-up: Mipso, Bbait

Goodnights Comedy Club

BEST MUSEUM

Runner-up: Raleigh Improv

NC Museum of Art

BEST DRAG SHOW/EVENT GAG! Raleigh

Runner-up: North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

Runner-up: Glitter Hour

BEST RADIO STATION

BEST ELECTRONIC CONCERT VENUE

WKNC 88.1

The Ritz Runner-up: Lincoln Theater

BEST FILM THEATRE VENUE/ EVENT The Rialto

Runners-up: WUNC, That Station 101.5 HD2

BEST UNPLUGGED CONCERT VENUE Pine State Coffee Runners-up: Raleigh Wide Open, A.J. Fletcher Opera Theater

Runner-up: Alamo Drafthouse

BEST LIVE THEATRE COMPANY Theatre Raleigh

Best Gallery for Viewing: North Carolina Museum of Art PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

30 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

eat At

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FEB 12-28, 2027

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INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 31

G O OD VI B E S

E! N O Y R E V E FOR

, k n i r d a Grab , d n e i r f a make e! l i h w a y and sta

WAKE

BUSINESSES BEST AUTO DEALER

BEST DOG TRAINING

Fred Anderson Toyota

All Dogs Allowed

Runner-up: Leith Honda

Runner-up: The Collegiate Canine

BEST AUTO MECHANIC

BEST DOG WALKING

Tilden Car Care Center

Pack&Pride

Runners-up: AAMCO Transmissions & Total Car Care, People's Tire & Auto

Runners-up: Amanda's Best Friend, Peak City Puppy

BEST BARBER SHOP

BEST ELECTRICIAN

The Dominicans Barbershop

Dawson's Electric & Air

Runners-up: Professional Barbers of Cary, Arrow

Runners-up: Blanton's Air, Plumbing & Electric, Integrity Electric of NC

BEST CHILDCARE

BEST FLORIST

Temple Beth Or Preschool and Kindergarten

Teacup Floral

Runners-up: Schoolhouse of Wonder, Holly Springs School for Early Education

BEST CLOTHING CONSIGNMENT Father and Son Antiques Runners-up: Recovered Treasures, Revolver Consignment Boutique

BEST DANCE STUDIO ROTATING TAPS

LOCAL BREWS

WINE

THE BEERDED LADY 10 min from DT Raleigh

1350 Fifth Ave Suite #170 Garner, NC 27529

www. the beerded lady .com

32 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

CIDER & MEAD

GAMES

TRIVIA

EVENTS

OPEN DAILY MON 1PM - 7PM TUES-FRI 1PM - 10PM SAT 11AM - 10PM SUN 1PM - 8PM

@thebeerdedladync A FRIENDLY AND INCLUSIVE NEIGHBORHOOD BAR THAT WELCOMES YOU JUST AS YOU ARE!

Stage Door Dance Productions Runners-up: Tutu School Cary, The DanZe Zone

Runners-up: The English Garden Florist, Preston Flowers

BEST HAIR SALON Tone Hair Salon Runners-up: Alibi Collective, Southern Roots (Wendy Vaughan)

BEST HEMP/CBD SHOP Sherlocks Glass & Dispensary Runners-up: NC Hemp Shoppe, Elevate NC THCA

BEST DOG BOARDING

BEST HOME REMODELING OR RENOVATION COMPANY

Howling Moon Pet Care

The Bath Remodeling Center

Runner-up: Sunset Kennel

Runners-up: Living Stone Design + Build, Premier Renovations

BEST DOG GROOMING Pack&Pride Runners-up: City Pet Grooming, Howling Moon Petcare

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

BEST HVAC SERVICE Dawson's Electric & Air Runners-up: Blanton's Air, Plumbing & Electric, The Cool Guys Heating & Air

VOTED BEST MEDICAL SPA EVERY YEAR SINCE 2018

ng &

lorist,

Lasers for ALL Skin Types Natural Looking Botox, Filler & PRF Body Contouring

Award-Winning Medical Spa specializing in Transformative, Safe & Effective Services

+ Build,

ng & & Air

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VOTED BEST SPA

PLASTIC-SURGEON OWNED + OPERATED SINCE 2002

bluewaterspa.com

919.769.6044

@bluewatersparaleigh

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 33

Justin Burleson WINNE R O F

Best Realtor®

BEST INSURANCE COMPANY

BEST PLUMBER

Amanda Hagood State Farm

Cary Plumbing Company

Runners-up: Matt Davis–State Farm, Farm Bureau

Runners-up: A&J Plumbing Services, Blanton's Air, Plumbing & Electric

BEST INTERIOR DESIGNER

BEST REAL ESTATE COMPANY

Roux MacNeill Studio

Inhabit Real Estate

Runners-up: Trig Modern, Pam Chatham Interiors

Runners-up: Avenue Properties, Raleigh Realty

BEST JEWELER / JEWELRY STORE BEST REALTOR Johnson’s Jewelers of Cary

Justin Burleson

Runners-up: Mint Condition Jewelry, J.M. Edwards Jewelry

Runners-up: Will Fitzgerald–Raleigh Realty, Rachel Weatherspoon – Capital to Coast Realty

BEST LANDSCAPING / YARD CARE Yardnique Runners-up: WingNut Yard Maintenance, Leo Landscaping

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BEST LAW FIRM NC Wills and Trusts

Runners-up: Roofwerks, Artisan Quality Roofing

BEST VINTAGE STORE Cheshire Cat Antique Gallery

BEST LOCAL BOOKSTORE

BEST WOMEN’S CLOTHING STORE

Quail Ridge Books

Bless Your Heart Boutique

Runners-up: Blackbird Books and Coffee, Reader's Corner

Runners-up: Altar'd State, Clothes Mentor

BEST NEW BUSINESS Sip and Shop Boutique Runners-up: XAOS Collective, Super Rad Retro Lounge

BEST PAINTER Southern Boys Painting Runners-up: Five Star Painting, Dave Hare Interiors

BEST PLACE TO BUY LOCALLY MADE CRAFTS/ART

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Sip and Shop Boutique

34 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

Baker Roofing Company

Runners-up: Sterling Law Apex - Cara Gibbons, Triangle Smart Divorce

JUSTIN BURLESON

REALTOR®

BEST ROOFING CONTRACTOR

Runners-up: Bayleaf Market, The Cotton Company

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

Runners-up: Father and Son, Goodwill

es,

gh apital to

dwill

STORE

s Mentor

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 35

WAKE

FOOD & DRINKS BEST ALCOHOLIC COCKTAILS

BEST CHEAP EATS

Aunty Betty's Gin & Absinthe Bar

Cookout

Runners-up: Wye Hill Kitchen & Brewing, The Haymaker

Runners-up: Char-Grill, Players Retreat

BEST INDIAN RESTAURANT

BEST RETAIL WINE

Lime & Lemon Indian Grill & Bar

The Raleigh Wine Shop

Runners-up: Kabab and Curry, Everest Kitchen

Runners-up: The Beerded Lady, Taylor's Wine Shop

BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT

BEST SEAFOOD

Bella Monica

Cape Fear Seafood Company

Runners-up: Vic's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria, Daniel's Restaurant & Catering

Runners-up: Earp's Seafood Market, The Blind Pelican Seafood House

BEST LATE NIGHT MEAL (PAST 10 PM)

BEST SMALL PLATES / TAPAS Barcelona Wine Bar

Cookout

Runners-up: Madre, Vidrio

BEST SUSHI RESTAURANT

BEST ASIAN RESTAURANT

BEST CHEESE SHOP

Five Star Restaurant

Weaver Street Market

Runners-up: My Way Tavern, Lynwood Grill and Brewing

Runners-up: O-Ku, Taipei 101

Runners-up: Wegmans, The Raleigh Wine Shop

BEST MEXICAN RESTAURANT

BEST BAKERY Paul and Jack Bakery & Cafe

BEST CHINESE CUISINE

Gonza Tacos y Tequila

Runners-up: Waraji Japanese Restaurant, Sushi O Bistro & Sushi Bar

BEST VEGAN RESTAURANT

Runners-up: Stick Boy Bread Co., Boulted Bread

Taipei 101 Runners-up: Red Dragon, G.58 Cuisine

Runners-up: La Cocina Mexican Restaurant, El Jimador Mexican Restaurant

BEST BARBECUE

BEST COFFEE SHOP

BEST NEIGHBORHOOD BAR

Prime Barbecue

Sola Coffee Cafe

The Beerded Lady Bottle Shop

Runners-up: Longleaf Swine, Lawrence Barbecue

Runners-up: Cup-A-Joe, Black & White Coffee

Runners-up: Person Street Bar, My Way Tavern

BEST BEER RETAIL STORE

BEST DESSERTS

BEST NEW RESTAURANT

The Beerded Lady Bottle Shop

Hayes Barton Café & Dessertery

Big Cat on Brookside

Runners-up: State of Beer, Peace Street Market

Runners-up: Bittersweet, Paul and Jack Bakery & Cafe

Runners-up: Crooked Hammock Brewery, Mala Pata Molino + Cocina

BEST BISCUITS

BEST DRAFT SELECTION

Flying Biscuit Café

The Beerded Lady Bottle Shop

BEST NON-ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES

Runners-up: Rise Southern Biscuits & Righteous Chicken, Biscuit Belly

Runners-up: Raleigh Beer Garden, Tasty Beverage Co.

BEST BREWERY

BEST ETHNIC GROCERY STORES

Lynwood Brewing Concern

Grand Asia Market

Runners-up: Trophy Brewing Co., Crooked Hammock Brewery

Runners-up: Desi Dukaan, Patel Brothers

BEST BURGER MoJoe' Burger Joint Runners-up: Bad Daddy's Burger Bar, Neuse River Brewing

36 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

BEST FOOD TRUCK Utensilz Optional

O-Ku

Dram + Draught Runners-up: Tree Time THC Seltzers Wye Hill Kitchen & Brewing, Tap Yard Raleigh

BEST PIZZA Oakwood Pizza Box Runners-up: Trophy Brewery & Pizza, Vic's Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria

Runners-up: Cousins Maine Lobster, Arepa Culture NC

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

Fiction Kitchen Runners-up: Irregardless, Element Gastropub

BEST VEGETARIAN EATERIES The Fiction Kitchen Runners-up: Irregardless, Element Gastropub

BEST WINE LIST The Raleigh Wine Shop Runners-up: Angus Barn, Sixty Vines

BEST WINGS Wings Over Raleigh Runners-up: Trophy Brewery & Pizza, Ba-Da Wings

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 37

WAKE

HEALTH BEST ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

BEST PEDIATRICS

Blue Water Spa

Western Wake Pediatrics

Runners-up: Cary Holistic Health, Carolina Integrative Clinic

Runners-up: Oberlin Road Pediatrics, Duke Primary Care Heritage Pediatrics

BEST CAT VETERINARY

BEST PERSONAL TRAINER

Bayleaf Veterinary Hospital

Dino Nowak - Renu Health and Fitness

Runners-up: VetMobile, Hidden Valley Animal Hospital

BEST CHIROPRACTOR Fonke Chiropractic and Decompression Center

BEST PHYSICAL THERAPY PRACTICE

Runners-up: Peak Health Center, Garner Chiropractic & Wellness Center

Spark Physical Therapy and Performance

BEST DENTIST

Runners-up: Raleigh Orthopaedic Physical Therapy, Pro Motion Physical Therapy

Wells Family Dental Group

Blue Water Spa

BEST DERMATOLOGIST

Runners-up: The MedSpa at Wake Plastic Surgery, Salon Serenity Spa

Runners-up: Oak City Dermatology, Midtown Dermatology

BEST DOG VETERINARY

The Fountain Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Runners-up: Birch Therapy, Peri & Pause

BEST YOGA STUDIO

Runners-up: Shiloh Animal Hospital, Northwoods Animal Hospital

CorePower Yoga

YMCA Runners-up: Renu Health and Fitness, Oak and Iron Fitness

BEST MASSAGE THERAPIST Umstead Runners-up: Cary Massage, Massage Daze LLC - Allie Beck

themeadowsraleigh.com 38 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

BEST WOMEN’S HEALTH PRACTICE

Care First Animal Hospital at Oberlin

BEST GYM

Best Wedding Venue in Wake County!

BEST SPA

Runners-up: Britt Dental Center, Dr. Paula Stapleton–Stapleton Dentistry

Blue Ridge Dermatology

Thank You for voting us

Runners-up: Justin Berger - O2 Fitness, Aaron Cziraky-Cziraky Training LLC

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

Runners-up: Zin Yoga & Wine, YogaSix Glenwood South

cs, atrics

tness, C

Physical rapy

e Plastic

ACTICE

d Pause

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 39

WAKE

PEOPLE & MISC. BEST ADULT NONPROFIT

BEST LOCAL ACTIVIST GROUP

Triangle Native American Society

Livable Raleigh

Runners-up: Healing Transitions, Raleigh United Mutual Aid Hub (RUMAH)

Runners-up: Progressive Democrats of Wake County, CITYBUILDER

BEST BARTENDER - DRAFT SLINGER

BEST LOCAL CAUSE / NONPROFIT IMPACT AWARD

Cailin Peterson–Clouds Brewing

Livable Raleigh

Runners-up: Eddie Arriola–The Beerded Lady Bottle Shop, Alison– The Hop Yard

Runners-up: The Great Raleigh Cleanup, Raleigh United Mutual Aid Hub (RUMAH)

BEST CHEF

BEST MIXOLOGIST

Scott Crawford

Bailey Gray

Runners-up: Anita Khalek, Bobby McFarland

Runners-up: Jason Lanier, Greg Dreyer

BEST DJ Luxe Posh Runners-up: Miss Ashley, Bunn DJ Company

BEST KEPT SECRET Dix Park Hammocks Runners-up: Cheshire Cat Antique Gallery, Copperline Plant Company

BEST KIDS NONPROFIT Schoolhouse of Wonder Runners-up: SAFEchild, Community of Hope Ministries

40 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

BEST USE OF PUBLIC MONEY Affordable Housing Runners-up: Public Schools, Public Parks

WORST WASTE OF MONEY Corporate tax cuts Runners-up: MLB Stadium, Lenovo Center renovations

Livable Raleigh thanks Indy readers for voting us the best in Wake County!

ts of

ROFIT

eanup, RUMAH)

eyer

c Parks

Best Local Activist Group Best Local Cause/Nonprofit Impact Award Livable Raleigh endorses these City Council candidates in this fall’s election.

At-Large: Sana Siddiqui 4 At-Large: Josh Bradley 4 District A: Whitney Hill 4 District B: Megan Patton 4 District C: Jared Ollison 4 District D: Jane Harrison 4 District E: Christina Jones 4

Livable Raleigh is an all-volunteer non-profit organization with the mission to educate, inform, and engage Raleigh residents about issues that impact the quality of life in Raleigh.

www.LivableRaleigh.com

facebook.com/LivableRaleigh

Instagram.com/LivableRaleigh

Scan QR code for our 2026 election information.

@livableraleigh.bsky.social

YouTube.com/LivableRaleigh

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 41

intervie ws comme ntary sigh & soun ts ds

DURHAM PRIDE PARADE LIVESTREAM only at

indyweek.com 12-2pm Saturday, Oct. 3

WAKE

PLACES BEST ALCOHOL-FREE VENUE

BEST GOLF COURSE

Raleigh United Mutual Aid Hub (RUMAH)

Raleigh Golf Association

BEST ARBORETUM OR GARDEN

BEST HOTEL

North Carolina Museum of Art

The Umstead Hotel and Spa

Runners-up: Juniper Level Botanic Garden, Raleigh Rose Garden

Runners-up: Heights House Hotel, Tempo by Hilton Raleigh Downtown

BEST CAMPS

BEST HOTEL LOUNGE

Schoolhouse of Wonder

The Longleaf Hotel and Lounge

Runners-up: Falls River Music, Camp JCC

Runner-up: The Willard Raleigh

BEST DANCE VENUE

BEST PLACE TO PEOPLE WATCH

Legends Nightclub

NC State Fair

Runners-up: Club Era, Neptunes

Runners-up: Moore Square, Downtown Cary Park

BEST DOG PARK Enjoy 100+ community groups marching alongside thousands of community members gathered in-person and online to advocate for our rights and to celebrate our existence, love, history, and community!

Oakwood Dog Park Runner-up: Dix Park

Runner-up: Heritage Golf Course

BEST WEDDING / EVENT VENUE The Meadows at Firefly Farm Preserve Runner-up: Main Street Kitchen + Bar at Sip and Shop Cafe

Thank you to our sponsor

Best Place to People Watch: NC State Fair PHOTO BY DON ROCHA

42 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

INDY BEST OF THE TRIANGLE 2026 WAKE COUNTY Presented by NC Wills & Trusts

MUSIC Chris Frisina (who performs under the name Lou Hazel) poses for a portrait in his home in Durham PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

ATCH

NUE

Let the Mystery Be

Bar at

As Durham songwriter Chris Frisina preps his next Lou Hazel record, he also widens his ever-expanding creative lens.

e Fair

BYNICK MCGREGOR music@indyweek.com

ome songwriters excel at form and structure. Some capture expert snapshots of people, places, and things. Some craft entire mythological worlds of obscure characters and references. Rare is the artist who can dabble in it all; rarer still is someone like Chris Frisina, whose music as Lou Hazel melds observation, humor, reflection, and nostalgia. Firmly rooted in the type of rambling, fingerpicked folk made famous by John Prine (yes, it’s a legit comparison), Frisina is still his own man. A millennial polymath, he weaves myriad strands—photography, graphic design, environmental art, painting, video editing, and more—into his creative output. “It’s like you enter a different realm,” Frisina said of the process of making art, chatting over coffee at Joe Van Gogh on a recent hot summer morning. “Or let yourself walk into a doorway that makes you feel closer to the true essence of life.” Frisina, 36, has been making music for half his life. Raised along the Allegheny River, where New York meets Pennsylvania, he first started writing songs as a teenager.

In his 20s, he moved south, in search of creative inspiration and better weather, and landed in Durham, where he ended up releasing a handful of pre-pandemic albums under his given name before adopting the Lou Hazel moniker around age 30. Still, the Lou Hazel project remains rooted in family lore. One of his first releases was “Claude the Armadillo,” a rollicking ditty based on lyrics written by Frisina’s Uncle Ralph in 1978. And Riot of the Red, Lou Hazel’s 2025 debut fulllength, includes “County Clown” and “Phone Calls with Mom,” incisive takes on the dead-end jobs, dashed dreams, damaged misfits, and lovable old drunks that loom over rural American life. When he started plotting a new album last winter, Frisina didn’t wait for a standard record-label advance to kick things off. Instead, he dreamed up a new creative project: Lou’s Mystery Oracle, wherein he painted 100 original watercolors, sold them to supporters via Bandcamp on a sliding $50–$150 scale, and raised enough money to pay the crew who helped him with the as-yet-unnamed record.

Built from scratch in the basement studio of Hiss Golden Messenger’s Mike Taylor, the first few new tracks shine with sonic magic. Frisina and Taylor spent several months working out lush arrangements before inviting a core group of Chris Boerner, Matt McCaughan, and Cameron Ralston to start laying down instrumental tracks. “It was my first time making an album not in a pressure cooker situation,” Frisina says. “We’d get together three to four times a week at Mike’s house, for three hours at a time, with the windows open and the sun out, giving ourselves time and space.” (Other local indie luminaries, including Amelia Meath, Oliver Child-Lanning, Natalie King, and Joe MacPhail, eventually added backing vocals and other oneoff contributions). After each recording session, Frisina would channel the day’s flow and sit down for an hour to paint. The resulting 100 watercolors include a swirl of primary colors, intricate geometry, phantasmagoric figures, and psychedelic nature scenes—as good a peek into Frisina’s hyperactive mind as anything. September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 43

Watercolors Chris Frisina made as part of his “Lou’s Mystery Oracle” project PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

“Making the paintings was a good kick in the ass,” he says, “but I got too in the weeds sending them to people. If I recognized somebody’s name, I’d start feeling guilty and second-guessing myself: ‘Which painting will they like? If they paid $150, should they get a better one?’ Where I knew I should stay true to the Mystery Oracle vibe and just close my eyes and pick a painting at random.” “Random” is exactly how Frisina describes the origins of his Lou Hazel moniker: “I was living behind my friend’s house, and this dog named Emmylou would come to the door, and I would give her a treat,” he said. “She had hazel eyes, and one morning when I was having coffee, the sun hit her perfectly, and I called her Lou Hazel. It just came out.”

ince that fortuitous beginning as Lou Hazel, Frisina has only sharpened his ability to conjure up complicated characters with emotional precision and tender joy. First inspired by the sturdy American folk, among whom he was raised—“Northeastern wiseacres and intelligent hillbillies who remain hell-bent on living full, rich lives despite brutal winters in a persistent economic downturn,” as one of his early bios puts it—Frisina trains his eye on the natural world in his new material. Unreleased single “Cardinal Song” blends wistful slide guitar and gentle keyboard with creaky vocals and vivid sensations: “Two deer peer with eyes on me / Mine on them / If I lie down in the clover / Just to feel it on my skin.” “I want to give people space to fill in the gaps,” he says. “I don’t like to push anyone or try to get a reaction. I’d rather somebody pause and take a breath while listening. I want to bring them back to a feeling of contemplation or reflection that’s powerful and healing.” Later, on “Cardinal Song,” Frisina sprinkles in a reference to his latest passion, motorcycles: “Wrestle on the uphill / 44 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

To see the view.” After riding a 250-cc dirt bike for a few months, Frisina recently upgraded to a 1991 Harley-Davidson Sportster with an 883-cc engine—thanks to a $4,000 check he got in the mail after “County Clown” was played on John Mayer’s SiriusXM radio station. “It’s just this dopamine rush,” Frisina said of his newfound two-wheeled passion. “Riding back-country roads with your friends is the funnest thing in the world.” Frisina specializes in this kind of contagious excitement, perpetually seeming like he’s captured lightning in a bottle and wants to share that heightened sense of aliveness with just you. It extends to the way he cares for others— his partner, family, collaborators, and many of his friends, who trust Frisina enough to watch their babies, their dogs, and their houses. “I’m too aware of everyone’s energy,” he laughs. “I just want the vibe to be good. I want everyone to feel good. I can’t relax until I feel like everything’s taken care of—then I can do my thing.” Alex Bingham, who produced Riot of the Red (and sometimes leaves his 2-year-old twins in Frisina’s care), equates his energy to surfing. “When you’re waiting for the right kind of wave, the more you curate a relaxed vibe and a caring attitude, the better chance you’re going to catch some really good waves,” Bingham said. “Chris might bend toward what other people need to make them comfortable, but he still stays true to himself. He’s a wonderful chameleon in that way.” Bingham also marvels at Frisina’s lyrical rhythm and emphasis, pointing to the endearing vocal elasticity on “I Think I Made a Mistake,” another unreleased new song. “It’s not just what words he’s saying, but how they sound coming out of his mouth,” Bingham said. “Chris is very sensitive to that. When he closes his eyes and starts sing-

ing, he’s painting a visual picture of whatever he’s singing about—a memory, a scene, an image. He’s like a drummer playing around with where the beat lies.” The big question, in today’s frazzled economy, is whether all that can pay the bills. Frisina is clearly at peace with his chosen path. He loves traveling and chasing inspiration, so touring alone is affordable and inspiring. He continues to rack up opening slots for bigger and bigger bands, and as a solo headliner, he’s capable of selling out 150- to 250-capacity rooms. He’s OK grinding through early-afternoon slots at festivals, especially if it helps him cultivate his devoted fan base—and build friendships with folks across a broad spectrum of the modern music industry, most of whom seem to adore his energy. “Everyone wants to be on Chris’ team,” Bingham said. “He’s so easy to love, with so much heart and energy.” Like any millennial, however, Frisina is plenty worried about the tough times in which we live. Climate change, political upheaval, financial insecurity—he acknowledges the crushing weight of such societal ills but takes a long view that mixes optimism with pragmatism. “I grew up blue-collar, and I saw so many people working so hard for such little amounts of money that it’s easy for me to be grateful for what I have,” Frisina says. “I can pay my rent with the income from my music. That feels good.” Beyond the financial considerations, Frisina subscribes to a higher artistic calling—performing, traveling, savoring life’s quiet moments and sweet absurdities, then doing his best to translate it into art. “Songwriting is one of the highest forms of creativity, but I don’t want to have huge expectations about it,” Frisina says. “I’m practicing letting go. I’m loving the slow road, getting lost in the process of making art without expecting any outcome. That’s really freeing.” W

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 45

ART

ILLUSTRATION BY ELLIE BRUNO

A View Without a Room In early August, CAM Raleigh announced that it is selling the iconic downtown building that has anchored the contemporary art museum since 2011. Could it have done more to keep it? BY JASMINE GALLUP arts@indyweek.com

arlier this month, more than a year after halting exhibitions and laying off staff, the Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh (CAM) announced plans to sell its iconic building downtown. “Our mission is bigger than our walls. So, we’re selling ours,” read an Aug. 3 statement posted on Facebook from the CAM board of directors. “409 West Martin Street is going on the market.” CAM’s property is currently listed for sale online by real estate broker CBRE. The land and building were worth around $11 million as of January 2024, according to Wake County real estate records, although it’s unknown how much the property may sell for. With the property zoned for up to 40 stories, redevelopment is likely. Public reactions to this announcement post were mixed, to say the least. Many commenters were disappointed, 46 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

recalling their favorite exhibits at the space or writing about how important CAM—as an institution, and as a building—was to the Warehouse District. Pete Sack, co-executive director of the Visual Arts Exchange (VAE) in downtown Raleigh, told the INDY he was disappointed to see CAM sell, especially given the building’s unique architecture. “You’re losing something visually beautiful that is different from any other building downtown,” Sack said. “Just aesthetically, it’s something that’s unique to downtown. It feels like the writing’s on the wall, that building may not last.” Other Raleigh residents took a more accusatory tone, questioning whether the board could have done more to preserve the brick-and-mortar museum and asking for specifics about CAM’s future plans. (Other commenters, mean-

while, criticized the tone of the post, speculating about whether it was written by AI.) “The announcement was a lot of the same, you know, ‘We’re looking forward, we’re gonna do something bold and new,’” Joel Tesch, a contemporary painter based in Raleigh, told the INDY. After CAM’s 14-month hiatus, Tesch hoped the board would have more concrete details to share about their plans: “I am worried that they’re just going to vanish,” he said. In the post, CAM’s posture was optimistic, writing that the museum “isn’t saying goodbye. We’re setting the stage for our boldest chapter yet.” But when the INDY asked board chair Charman Driver what the chapter would look like, details were scarce. “We can’t confirm a specific model yet, but we want to

“This museum is too important to downtown Raleigh to let it go on autopilot.” - Joel Tesch

Exterior of the Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh (CAM) in 2011 PHOTO BY JEREMY M. LANGE

be clear that a lot of hard work has already gone into figuring out what’s next,” Driver wrote in a statement to the INDY. “At the end of the day, reinventing ourselves in a sustainable way matters more to us than anything else. We want to be here for years to come.” But with more than a year having passed since CAM initially announced a hiatus, and no concrete plans, the question remains whether an institution with an identity so deeply tied to its building may be able to have staying power without it.

“Always conversation starting” CAM has a bumpy history. The museum originally grew out of the ashes of the City Gallery of Contemporary Art, which shut down in the 1990s when the Raleigh City Council pulled its funding. Frank Thompson, a local businessman, led the organization’s former board to buy the building on West Martin Street in 1997 for $460,000, with plans to renovate. CAM began holding exhibitions around 2002, but it took more than a decade of fundraising and advocacy for Thompson’s

vision to come to life, with the reimagined building opening in 2011. Since then, the museum has operated with a rotating cast of executive directors: five in 15 years. In 2018, the museum ran into a major controversy after displaying a white painter’s racially charged work, depicting Black subjects with white paint on their bodies. CAM was originally conceptualized as a place to exhibit contemporary artists from around the world, bringing highly acclaimed work to Raleigh and filling in a gap in the arts scene. Cutting-edge artists like Marilyn Minter and Leonardo Drew exhibited there. Tesch, also a longtime visitor, remembers a noteworthy 2011 Rebecca Ward exhibit fondly. “It was an awesome example of what contemporary art can be,” he said. Later, CAM shifted to exhibiting more North Carolina artists, including through an annual show in partnership with the Raleigh Fine Arts Association. Even if an exhibit at CAM was something you didn’t like, “it was always something to talk about,” Tesch added. “It was always conversation starting.”

Radio silence After CAM stopped exhibitions and programming in June 2025, there was a lot of “internal back and forth looking at our financial models,” Vice Chair Kate Ferguson Boes said in a phone interview with the INDY. “You know, ‘Can we afford to keep the building? Where do we need to go?’” In January, about six months after the closure, CAM hired an outside consultant, who took the board through a monthslong research process. That led the board to the decision to sell the building, as well as a few “potential scenarios for CAM’s future,” according to Driver. Selling the building “was a financial decision, but at the same time, it’s not a fire sale,” Boes said. A sale, and the revenue that comes with it, “opens up a world of possibility for the organization,” she added. “We could absolutely keep trudging along, but it narrowed us too much,” Boes said. “We wanted to be really mission first, and truly centered around impact versus massive overhead.” Over the next month, the board will talk about the feasibility of implementing each of the potential plans they’ve developed,

according to Boes. Still, several local artists are frustrated by what they see as a lack of communication from CAM—including Tesch, who said he hasn’t seen much in the way of community engagement. “When you are taking that responsibility, you have to communicate and engage the audience,” he said. “This museum is too important to downtown Raleigh to let it go on autopilot.” Jean Gray Mohs, another working artist, acts as co-executive director of VAE . She said she didn’t think the silence from CAM was “to their benefit.” “I just imagine that if the community had been invited in, this may have gone differently,” Mohs said. “I was shocked and not shocked when I heard the news. I’m not sure what a museum does without a building. Hopefully they’ve got some things coming that we just aren’t privy to yet.” When asked about the radio silence, Boes said CAM’s lack of staff made widespread engagement challenging. The museum employed seven staff members before halting operations in 2025. But since then, everything has been left up to the board, made up entirely of volunteers. Most also September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 47

work full-time, Boes added. Boes said she aims to be more transparent going forward, and that details about CAM’s future plans may be on the way toward the end of September. “I can say unequivocally, without a doubt, that CAM is not going to vanish,” she said. “There’s 17 board members who are actively engaged, and not a single one of us wants it to vanish.”

Boes admitted the rezoning was one factor in the board’s decision to sell. “It increased the property’s potential value and gave CAM more options,” she wrote in an email. “The decision to sell was ultimately about sustainability and the opportunity to put more of CAM’s resources into artists, programming, partnerships, and its future.”

A struggle to raise revenue

What’s next for CAM?

As a nonprofit, the museum survived with the help of donations and government grants, including from the City of Raleigh. Still, CAM began posting net losses in 2017, during executive director Gab Smith’s tenure, according to IRS records. Although the museum’s revenue increased from 2016 to 2017, its expenses more than quadrupled that same year, as the organization spent much more on exhibitions, operations, and staffing. In addition to paying artists and covering the costs of shipping and storing artwork, the museum spent money on operating expenses like legal and accounting services, building upkeep, and interest payments. CAM’s annual losses continued through at least 2023—persistent through the COVID pandemic and despite a change in leadership. The museum “faced a recurring gap between the cost of operating the museum and the revenue available to support it,” according to Boes. “The pandemic and an increasingly competitive funding environment added to that pressure.” Although CAM owns its 20,000-squarefoot building, “the maintenance, repairs, utilities, insurance and general upkeep had increasingly outpaced the support coming in to sustain it,” Driver wrote. Tax records show that the cost of building repairs, maintenance, utilities, and insurance remained a consistent expense for CAM year over year, averaging about $100,000 annually. Tax records show that CAM’s “contributions and grants” revenue has also decreased over the years. It peaked at nearly $700,000 in 2016, then consistently fell, year over year, to less than $350,000 in 2023. (The IRS records from 2023 are the most recent available.) Local artists and community leaders interviewed for this story agreed that securing funding for the arts has become much more challenging, saying many grants and other traditional funding sources have dried up. Pre-pandemic, CAM started renting out its space as an event venue in an attempt to make up for lost revenue, said Boes.

CAM’s future could include reopening in a smaller space, or something else entirely. Regardless, “it’s important for us to reclaim our edge,” said Boes. “You know, our ethos with CAM never changed. But somewhere in the last four or five years, our energy did, to be honest. We got a little safer. We were a little bit more careful than CAM was initially built to be.” Other local arts organizations could provide some inspiration for CAM as to what’s next. Like CAM, VAE was also in a precarious financial position as of early 2025, forced to move out of its space on Fayetteville Street. Over the past year, Sack and Mohs moved VAE’s offices into The Jobe House—a coworking and creative space that is also home to Artspace and Arts Access North Carolina— and continued to put on exhibits there and at the Birdland Gallery downtown. Collaboration, including sharing space and administrative costs, has been a successful way forward for several arts organizations downtown, said Bill King, president and CEO of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance. But continued support for those organizations is critical, he added. Over the past few years, the arts scene downtown has thinned. Lump Gallery, an artist’s collective downtown, closed this month after 30 years. “If we don’t have arts institutions, organizations, artists creating in downtown, I think we’ve really lost something,” King said. “People are looking for things to do, and that surprise and delight when you wander into something [like a gallery]. It’s [also] an important part of how we communicate our identity as a community.” Losing CAM’s building means losing one more interesting place downtown, one more creative experience, one more place to be that isn’t a restaurant or bar. But many hope it doesn’t mean losing contemporary art in Raleigh. “We want to be provocative, like contemporary art is supposed to be,” Boes said. “We want to be surprising. At the same time, we don’t want to lose our approachable, unpretentious spirit.”

48 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

The exterior of CAM Raleigh PHOTO BY KEENAN HAIRSTON

“The decision to sell was ultimately about sustainability and the opportunity to put more of CAM’s resources into artists, programming, partnerships, and its future.” - Kate Ferguson Boes According to tax records, rentals started around 2017, and were a small but important part of CAM’s operating model, earning around $10,000 that year. CAM appears to have increased rentals over the years. As of 2023, “facilities rental revenue” clocked in at more than $150,000, or about 30% of all revenue earned that year. Still, with the way arts organizations have struggled post-pandemic, the announcement that CAM was halting operations, then selling its building, “felt inevitable,” Sack said. “It was like this slow Band-Aid being pulled off.”

A redevelopment district Over the past six years, there’s been a flurry of construction activity in the Warehouse District, which makes it look increasingly likely that a developer will buy CAM’s building just to tear it down. Back in 2019, when CAM’s land was in the process of being rezoned for up to 20

stories of construction, then-director Gab Smith assured residents that the museum wasn’t going anywhere. Now, it appears residents’ fears are coming to pass. Currently zoned for up to 40 stories, the property is likely to be snapped up by developers who have been buying bits and pieces of land around the museum for years. In 2022, Tidal Real Estate Partners bought the 1.3 acres of land immediately around CAM, seemingly with plans to build hundreds of luxury apartments, according to a letter to the City of Raleigh. The company has since sold a building on the site, with no word on when development will move forward. Meanwhile, other developers have successfully rezoned property for up to 20 stories in the one-block radius around CAM. Plans are in the works for an apartment tower across the street, as well as a mixeduse district in the historic railroad depot, with a hotel, retail, and office space. While discussions around the cost of CAM’s building have been ongoing for years,

C U LT U R E C A L E N D A R

FIND OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR AT INDYWEEK.COM/CALENDAR

WED 9/23

THU 9/24

MUSIC

Ally J on the Roof 7:30 p.m. The Durham Hotel, Durham.

Joe Nunnink 8 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Hot Flash Heat Wave, High., The Wallabies 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Oakwood Cemetery Series 2026: From the Ground Up Sept. 18-27, various times. Historic Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh.

James & Joel: Great American Songwriters 7:30 p.m. Theatre Raleigh Arts Center, Raleigh. Jupiter 2, Neckstall, Branch Anthony 7:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham. Lil Wayne: 20 Years Of Carter Classics 8 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park, Raleigh. Katie Pruitt – Fools For The Fleeting Tour w/ Next of Kin 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh. Ken Pomeroy 6:30 p.m. American Tobacco Campus, Durham. The Montevales 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Son Little 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Taste Of Chaos 4 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh. STAGE

FRI 9/25

Oedipus: King/Colonus Sept. 9-27, various times. PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill. Paperhand Puppet Project presents: The Wild Wisdom of the World Aug. 7-Sept. 27, various times. The Forest Theatre, Chapel Hill. PAGE Richard Osman: We Chase Shadows 6:30 p.m. Meredith College, Raleigh. Encounters for the Living and the Dead 6:30 p.m. Letters Community Bookshop, Durham.

Al Strong Presents: Jazz on the Roof 7 p.m. The Durham Hotel, Durham. Blank Tapes Anniversary Show: Alla Prima, Island Moons, The Wigg Report 7:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham. BLENDR 7:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Candlelight Concert: NeoSoul Favorites Ft. Songs By Prince, Childish Gambino, & More 5:30 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh. Candlelight Concert: Queen Vs. ABBA 7 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh. Damien Jurado 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Hermeto Pascoal Tribute 7 pm Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

SCREEN

Jay Buchanan 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary 7 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.

Jenny Owens Young, Northcote, Julia Barfield 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham.

MUSIC ZZ Top & Dwight Yoakam: Dos Amigos Tour with Wesko 7 p.m. Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary.

Algorhythm – Jazz 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham.

STAGE

Bruce Bruce Sept. 25-27, various times. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Brent Blakeney 7:30 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. A Conversation with David Rubenstein & Ken Burns 6 p.m. Page Auditorium, Durham. Gaurav Kapoor 7 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. PAGE Jasmine Smith: Death Card 5:30 pm. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. SCREEN Skin & Bones Theater presents a Jon Moritsugu double feature + Q&A! 7 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham.

Bebe Stockwell 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Reverend Horton Heat 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Le Cirque du Moulin Rouge Drag Show 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Spice! Dance Party: Gemynii, DJ Himbo 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham. Upon Your Dead Body, When the Sun Sets, Letters to Part 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham.

Friday Favorites: Mendelssohn & Mozart 12 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

W.A.S.P. -1984 TO HEADLESS 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.

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

Comedy Show: Meghan Hanley And Greg Capra 8 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Friday Night Special: Electric Music All Nighter with DJ Fish, DJ Amiros, DJ Eliko 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

The ComedyWorx Show Fridays at 8 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.

Hush Hush: Comedy Based on Secrets 9 p.m. Mettlesome, Durham. Jeffrey Keller Sept. 25-27, various times. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

STAGE

PAGE Author Raven Kennedy in conversation with Jaimee @thtgrlreads 7 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Music Trivia Bingo with Stormie Daie & Jorden The DJ 8 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham.

Buena Vista Social Club Sept. 23-27, various times, DPAC, Durham.

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 49

CULTURE CALENDAR SAT 9/26

SUN 9/27

MUSIC

STAGE

MUSIC

Actors Improv Theater: Word Jazz 7 pm Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Becky Robinson: The Beasts in Me Tour 8 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Carrboro Music Festival 3 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Adulting: DJ Gay Agenda, VSPRTN, Jermainia 6:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham. Ally J – Soul, Funk, and Jazz Singer 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham. Beach Weather, Emerson Bruno, Cherry Motel 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

LIKE TO PLAN AHEAD?

Cobi, Durty Dub 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham.

Nateland Live: A Good Clean Comedy Tour 7 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Compassion Soundscapes/ Soundscapes para la compasión: Listening Session 3 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham.

SCREEN

Fifth Floor, Bedroom Division, Grace Lucia 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Manhattan Shorts 2026 8 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Candy Land Pride Party 10 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.

Hollye B, Sarah Madde, Kathleen Williams 7:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham. Inoha 7:30 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Carrboro Music Festival Kickoff Show 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

MON 9/28

Rise Against: Ricochet 2026 With Alkaline Trio 6:30 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh. Shana Tucker Quartet: Homecoming Birthday Celebration 3 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham. Suki Waterhouse: The Loveland Tour 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh. Sunday Set with DJ Gemynii 5 p.m. The Durham Hotel, Durham.

MUSIC

The Couch Tour 6:45 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

BYOV with Jaffar Tuesdays at 6 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

Powerplant, Blab School, De()t 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Cole Barnhill 7:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Slothrust, The Velveteers 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Noahh 7:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

SCREEN

NCJRO 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

“The Passion of Joan of Arc” with live score by The Silent Light 7 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham.

PAGE Christina Diaz: Offside 5 p.m. Chapel Hill Public Library, Chapel Hill.

Recovery Tea Dance: Pride Edition! With Gay Agenda & Father Disco 4 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham.

Gov’t Mule & Ziggy Marley: Dreaming the Same Dream Tour 7 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

TUE 9/29

Turnstile: The Never Enough Tour Pt. 2 With Yves Tumor, Angel Du$t, & Agnostic Front 8 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh. STAGE The Monti StorySLAM: FEAR! 7:30 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. PAGE

Grrrlbands Showcase 7 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham.

Rich Harris: Life Plan 6 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Jordan Jensen 8 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham.

W. Jason Miller: Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood 6:30 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Saturday Night Dance Party with Jorden The DJ 9:30 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham. Sawyer Hill 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Madison Cunningham performs at the American Tobacco Campus on September 30. PHOTO COURTESY OF DUKEARTS

50 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

Squirrel Flower performs at Stanczyks on October 3. PHOTO COURTESY OF STANCZYKS

C U LT U R E C A L E N D A R

FIND OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR AT INDYWEEK.COM/CALENDAR

WED 9/30

THU 10/1

FRI 10/2

MUSIC

STAGE

MUSIC

Big Mistake 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Contrasts Songwriter Showcase 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Anthony Rodia 7:30 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

12th Annual Triangle Oktoberfest Oct. 2-3, various times, Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary.

David Travis and the Generation Three, Leah Woehr, Brian K & The Parkway, Juliana Finch 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Matt Braunger Oct. 1-3, various times. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

BRAT, US Bastards, .memoria 7:30 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham. Jose Madero - USA Tour 2026 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh. Madison Cunningham 6:30 p.m. American Tobacco Campus, Durham.

Dylan Gossett & Charles Wesley Godwin with Max Alan 7 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

Make, Insomniac, Evil Eye 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

The Format 7:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Night of 1000 Justin Timberlakes ft. Pirata, Dixon Durham, Jay Pride 7:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

honestav – The Sweet American Boy Tour 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Youbet 7:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham. STAGE Vidura Bandara Rajapaksa: The Paradise Gothic Tour 7:30 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Jonas Brothers 7:30 p.m. Lenovo Center, Raleigh. Mary Chicken Soup & Rice, Gray Young, Kid Alumni 7:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

PAGE

Ryan Davis, The Roadhouse Band 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Michelle Cassandra Johnson: You Are Protected 6:30 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Will Backerman, Wes Coatney 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Serial Killers with Dr. Scott Bonn 7:30 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh. PAGE Terrence Holt: Soldiers & Sailors 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Anupam Kher and Swaroop Sampat Live 8:15 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh. Ballyhoo!, The Harbor Boys, FoundiT 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. Bear Ghost, Sarah & The Safe Word, Spaceman Bob 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. Brett Dennen 8 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh. Carter Faith w/ Jackson West 7:30 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh. Frog 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Girls Room + The Conjure, Gemynii, Dommi, Femmi the Femme, Kapri.Sun 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

STAGE Hannah Cole 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. HOUSE OF HEAVY - Nu Metal + Metalcore Night 9 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham. Jon Shain Trio – CD Release Show 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Lucero, Joelton Mayfield 8 p.m. Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw. MAJOR 7:30 p.m. Reynolds Industries Theater, Durham. The Midnight: Time Machines 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh. Pop Up Chorus Broadway: Hamilton 7:30 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary. Rahsaan Barber Quintet feat. special guest Jeff “Tain” Watts 7 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

The ComedyWorx Show Fridays at 8 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh. The Courtroom: A Reenactment of One Woman’s Deportation Proceedings Oct. 2-18, various times. The Justice Theater Project, Raleigh. Craig Conant Oct. 2-3, various times. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. Davide De Pierro 7:30 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. Heroes Off Duty Comedy Tour 7:30 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh. The Rocky Horror Picture Show 11:55 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh. Six! The Musical Live Oct. 2-14, various times. The Cary Theater, Cary. Wait, What’s Sri Lanka? A Stand-Up Comedy Special by Shenuque Tissera 7:30 p.m. Mettlesome, Durham.

Save A Seat For Me: Notes on American Fatherhood with Mark Anthony Neal 5:30 p.m. Durham County Main Library, Durham.

September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 51

C U LT U R E C A L E N D A R SAT 10/3

SUN 10/4

MUSIC Alicia Villarreal - Bendita Locura Tour 2026 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh. Angela Bingham Quintet 7 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham. The Cajammers – Cajun, Zydeco, Swamp Pop 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham. DJ Mandy 9 p.m. The Fruit, Durham. Grace Enger – The Satisfied Girl Tour 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Heartland Marimba 11 a.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. High June w/ Cadalay 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh. Indigo Girls w/ special guest Linda Perry 7 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

LIKE TO PLAN AHEAD?

Squirrel Flower, Dari Bay 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham. Pat Van Buren, Peytopia, Boygirl Rising 6:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Pride Dance Party: Gemynii, Ebony Red, Ursomajor, Femithefemme, Soultry Sweetzzz 10:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. STAGE D’lai 4 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. Fortune Feimster 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham. Sergei Putinski 4:30 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. Still. Moving: Spiral Woman as interpreted by Arts Together/Rainbow Dance Company 11 a.m. NCMA, Raleigh.

Kevin Atwater – Blush Red Tour 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs 8 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham.

MUSIC

STAGE

MUSIC

STAGE

Andy Frasco & The U.N w/ Hustle Souls 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Bubba Dub 7 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Amyl and the Sniffers 7:30 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

Chad Zumock 8 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Calimar White 7:30 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Black Country, New Road 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

An Evening with Ari’el Stachel 7:30 p.m. von der Heyden Studio Theater, Durham.

Camerata Nordica 7 p.m. Baldwin Auditorium, Durham. Dermot Kennedy: The Weight of the Woods Tour With Jonah Kagen 8 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

Go Figure Durham 7 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.

TUE 10/6

FRIEND LESS 8 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham.

MUSIC

Grupo Duelo 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.

Bleachers Forever with This Is Lorelei 7 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

Luna, Sister Ray Davies 8 p.m. Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw. Six Foot Blonde 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. T.E.N.T, Ex Iguana, Mean Habit 6:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham. Weatherday, Girl Brutal, Blankslate, The Lost View 7 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. Weezer 7 p.m. Lenovo Center, Raleigh. Xasthur, Temple of the Fuzz Witch, Antiquity 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham.

52 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

MON 10/5

Deceits, Computer Kill 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham. Ernest Turner Trio 7 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham. Public Image Ltd: This is Not The Last Tour 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh. The Takes 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Theo Katzman 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Tom Jones: Come Gather Round Tour 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham.

Fred Armisen: Comedy for Musicians But Everyone is Welcome 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. Nick Mullen Oct. 6-7, various times. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. PAGE Adam O’Fallon Price: Objects of Desire 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. Benjamin Bradley: The Devil You Know 6:30 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. SCREEN NCModernist Movie Series—The House: Six Points of Departure 7 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh.

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September 23, 2026 INDYweek.com 53

PUZZLES CROSSWORD

RELEASE DATE—Sunday, September 20, 2026

Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle

To download a pdf of this puzzle or view its solution, visit indyweek.com/puzzles-page

Edited by Patti Varol

115 Anesthetic for 83 Competed in a noted Italian the Figawi, say chemist? 84 Prefix with net or com, but not 118 New employee ACROSS 119 Wright of “Black org 1 Course most Panther” 86 “OK, got it” look forward to 120 Italian football 88 Tempts 8 Imposing powerhouse 91 Fuel additive construction 121 Strong point brand 15 Supports 122 Rival one loves 93 Young fellow 20 Unmasks to hate 21 Brunch cocktails 94 [Clears throat] 123 Sneaks 96 One who is 22 Not cool always pointing 23 “In the name of DOWN at shooting that rice wine 1 Yields (to) stars? we drank ages 2 Book that tells 100 Take advantage ago”? the story of of a bear 25 “Goosebumps” Moses market, perhaps series writer 3 Soft drink with 103 Stomach 26 Remove a seasonal 104 “What You adverbs and Winter Spiced Need” band add punctuation, Cranberry flavor 105 Kanga’s kid maybe 4 Quaint truth 106 Badger 27 PlayStation 5 Subj. for a non107 Figure in Norse maker native speaker mythology? 28 __ Reader 6 Manicotti 29 Actress Swinton 108 Lies for, maybe topping 30 Inventor Handler 110 Forget about 7 Abbr. on a played by Rhea 112 Supermodel weather map Banks Perlman in 8 Posthumous 113 Incantation “Barbie” award for syllables 31 “__ we good?” Chadwick 114 Fish with a big 32 Vexation Boseman net 33 Church perches 36 Moose kin 37 NNW opposite 38 Bird that makes its home in trash receptacles? 41 Coastal inlets 42 Insta post 43 Male turkey 44 One of Paul’s letters to the Ephesians? 46 Herbal infusion from Peru 50 Rationalist’s belief 53 Places to perch 56 Estate units 57 Sgt., e.g. 59 Shoe designer Jimmy 61 Pamper 62 Many August babies 63 Business run by a bunch of hens? 66 IM pioneer 67 Top card in a Broadway straight 68 Chinese brew 69 Frying need 70 Pts. that often result in dances 71 U.K. network 72 Mattel game 73 Swiped refills for a mechanical pencil? 76 Julia of “The Addams Family” 78 Simplified language 80 Wows 81 Not just most 82 Worth a second bite

“SOUND CHECK” BY EMMA OXFORD

www.regulatorbookshop.com

720 Ninth Street, Durham, NC 27705 10-6 Daily SUDOKU

Difficulty level: MEDIUM

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! 54 INDYweek.com September 23, 2026

9/20/26

9 Run out of power 10 “Positive” 11 Jodie with two Best Actress Oscars 12 “Love __ Open Door”: “Frozen” song 13 Treat on a stick 14 Jargon suffix 15 Hits 22, perhaps 16 Not in favor of 17 Musical instrument made off the coast of South America? 18 With gentleness 19 Holds forth 24 Not up to the task 32 Online “I can relate” 34 Chargeable cars, briefly 35 Goofballs 38 Morse clicks 39 “We have that in common” 40 “KPop __ Hunters” 41 Italy’s shape

85 Canadian fuel 42 Bel __ cheese giant 45 Circuit 87 Class 46 Ore. neighbor 89 “On the Basis 47 Micronesia’s of __”: Ginsburg region biopic 48 Rips caused by 90 “We’re done” large reptiles? 92 Miyazaki film 49 Dried poblano about a goldfish 51 Most disgusting who longs to be 52 Seashore human souvenir 94 Kathryn’s 54 Absolutely “WandaVision” adorable role 55 1975 TV debut, 95 Fatal flaw in familiarly classic myths 58 “Queen of Funk” 97 Beginning Khan 98 Turn 60 In base eight 99 Polish capital 64 “Hallelujah” 100 __ bath songwriter 101 Hard to believe Leonard 65 “It’s strange ... ” 102 Aches (for) 104 Archipelago unit 68 Denounce 71 Challah feature 107 “Groundhog Day” director 72 FedEx Harold competitor 73 Part of a pricing 109 Overly precious 111 Bit of dust plan 112 Printer part 74 Strong string 115 Fuzzy 1980s 75 Soil sitcom character 77 Soap ingredient 79 In the doldrums 116 Low-lit 117 Actress Thurman 82 Bygone ruler

ANSWER TO TODAY’S PUZZLE INDY CLASSIFIEDS CLASSY@INDYWEEK.COM

h e

EMPLOYMENT Director of International Accounts & Training Director of International Accounts & Training sought by International Thought Leaders Network LLC, Cary, NC. Will work directly w/ both global thought leaders & high-end multifaceted business leaders & public-school administrators to effectively evaluate, implmt & sustain ITLN’s branded thought leader-based offerings. Support clients & designated trainers in their implmtn through a proprietary competency dvlpmt process, etc. Telecommuting permitted. Employee may work remotely w/in the US, w/ regular reporting to & direction from the employer’s HQ in Cary, NC. Reqs min. Bach’s deg in Health Services Mgmt, Business, Mgmt, Communication, or a rltd field, or the equiv based upon a valid credentials evaluation & 4 yrs of exp as a Managing Director or Executive Director, or a combo of both. Email resume to gregr@ithoughtleader.com attn: Gregory Ray, CEO.

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