Issuu

Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill September 9, 2026

THE CAROLINA COURAGE’S PG. 15 UNCERTAIN FUTURE

GIRLS' FLAG FOOTBALL GOES VARSITY PG. 13

The Sports Issue

BUILDING COMMUNITY THROUGH PICKLEBALL PG. 18

DURHAM CARVES OUT A SPORTS NICHE PG. 9

Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill Vol. 43 No. 17 | September 9, 2026

Contents News 4

Durham County is home to 14 data centers, mostly in RTP. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW

Checking in with residents forced to move out of Cary's Chatham Estates mobile home park. BY JASMINE GALLUP

Special Sports Section 9

Durham is becoming a hub for emerging sports. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW

As flag football gains popularity, Durham Public Schools teams will vie for the sport's first state championship title. BY TORI NEWBY

The clock is ticking for the Carolina Courage to upgrade its stadium. BY JANE PORTER

The Philippine Pickleball Club has become a home base for the Triangle's Filipino community. BY JESSICA TOBES

A roundup of local leagues for adults who want to try a recreational sport. BY SARAH EDWARDS

Culture 24

Shamekia Gales is Raleigh’s line dancing queen. BY JESSICA TOBES

Lunch Money: A visit to Country Junction, a Carrboro diner. BY LENA GELLER

Films coming to the Triangle: A slate of historical dramas. BY GLENN MCDONALD

Durham musician Anne-Claire's new release draws from her deep well of experience as a music teacher. BY BRIAN HOWE

From Dolly to Doc Watson to Nickel Creek, Durham's Sugar Hill Records played a big role in shaping American roots music. BY PETER GARTRELL

Regulars 3

34 Calendar

Backtalk

38 Puzzles / Classifieds

Cover ILLUSTRATION BY ELLIE BRUNO

The Triangle is home to more than 85 pickleball facilities (see story on page 18) PHOTO BY JESSICA TOBES

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 Report For America Corps Reporter Chloe Courtney Bohl 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 9, 2026

Creative

Advertising

Creative Director Nicole Pajor Moore

Publisher John Hurld

Production Design Specialist Ellie Bruno

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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BACKTALK Last month, Lena Geller published an update to her reporting on The Living Room, a former community space located in a duplex on Swift Avenue that Duke University purchased last fall. A community garden adjacent to the house, and also owned by Duke, has grown hundreds of pounds of fresh food and helped seed a fragile alliance between the university and its neighbors. Without warning, an excavator showed up at the start of the school year to demolish the house, leaving Duke students scrambling to protect the community garden from dust and debris, including, potentially, lead paint from the century-old structure. Our readers had thoughts about the story.

From reader MICHELLE NOWLIN, via email: Dear Indy: thanks for Lena Geller’s story about the tear down on Swift Ave and potential lead contamination of the community garden. As reported, Duke’s actions in tearing down the house are incredibly irresponsible, and not just because of the community garden next door. Lead is a potent neurotoxin that persists in the soil, as studies conducted by Duke scientists in parks across Durham attest. Its presence lowers property values and requires expensive remediation. Contaminated soil can be carried by wind and runoff onto neighboring properties and into local streams. (This has happened in quickly gentrifying parts of Durham where fast-moving developers have torn down old houses without taking proper measures to prevent drift into neighbors’ yards.) The city of Durham has run several programs over the decades to remove leaded paint from homes and closed those parts of the city parks that Duke scientists proved were contaminated with lead - all part of significant efforts to protect children from the ravages of lead contamination. And there are simple and effective safeguards that can protect the soil when demolishing or renovating a building. Duke should know this. Its contractors should know this. Why were these best practices not followed? And if the soil has been contaminated, what will the university do to either remediate the soil or ensure it doesn’t migrate offsite?

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Our last print edition was also the INDY’s 2026 Fall Arts Issue. Instagram commenters are excited about the new Boardinghouse Arts space in Durham, featured in a story by writer Brian Howe. Opening this month by art curator Laura Ritchie and her wife, the poet and musician Shirlette Ammons, Boardinghouse Arts will pick up where the Carrack left off. From Instagram user @KIDXIMIL: Yaaay! The Carrack was one of the first galleries that welcomed me and my art when I moved back to NC in 2017. I was there at the last viewing too. I am forever thankful and happy to see such wonderful news about a new space with so much to look forward to. From Instagram user @MAC_818: Fabulous news, and such a win for the Community At Large! Congrats to you both! And from Instagram user @KELLYSHEPPARDMURRAY_ART: Congratulations. A great addition to the regional art offerings.

indyweek.com

Also in our Fall Arts Issue was a piece from INDY Arts and Culture editor Sarah Edwards about artist Bill Thelen and the closure of Lump, his grassroots gallery located on Blount Street in Raleigh for the past three decades. Commenters on Instagram are sad to see Lump go, but excited for the new concept, plum, that will soon emerge in its place. From Instagram user @KYMIA_NAWABI: You did good. Real reallll good. Thank you for giving me a show back in 2006 I remember one of my first visits to Lump I got to see Barry McGee’s work and I knew we were in for a wild ride! Such great shows and vibes! Thank you! From Instagram user @MOLLYINRALEIGH: Thank you, Bill for inspiring, trailblazing, being an advocate, a supporter and a champion. Last but not least thank you for being a colleague and friend. Cheers to you! And from Instagram user @KNOX.TIF: I’ll never forgive him for teaching me to love art

backtalk@indyweek.com

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Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill November 27, 2024

It’s no secret: physical media is disappearing.

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

Scan this QR code to join the Press Club today!

September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 3

NEWS

Durham ILLUSTRATION BY ELLIE BRUNO

Data Crunch Durham County commissioners passed a temporary ban on new data center construction that exempts facilities under 100,000 square feet. The Triangle’s research sector shaped the vote. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW jlaidlaw@indyweek.com

urham County is one of the latest local governments in the Triangle to wrestle with the question of how to manage the proliferation of data centers, but unlike neighboring municipalities, Durham is home to one of the largest technology hubs in the country—Research Triangle Park (RTP)— which hosts nearly 400 companies that heavily rely on data processing. During a tense meeting on August 24, Durham’s Board of County Commissioners voted 4-1 to impose a nine-month moratorium on the development of data centers with four exemptions intended to accommodate the local research economy, of which RTP is a major driver. Those in favor of the exemptions—which include a carveout for data centers under 4 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

100,000 square feet—argued they are designed for a narrow set of companies who are already in the process of developing new campuses locally. Commissioners Michelle Burton, Wendy Jacobs, Stephen Valentine, and board chair Mike Lee, who works for agentic AI company Avalara, voted in favor; Commissioner Nida Allam voted against. About 60 members of the public, concerned about the costs and environmental impacts associated with data centers, signed up to speak against the exemptions, saying they dilute the purpose of the moratorium, which is to give county staff time to develop regulations for the facilities. The final version allows for construction or expansion of data centers up to 100,000

square feet that use a closed-loop cooling system and non-diesel backup power during the nine-month moratorium. The county’s moratorium follows one passed by the City of Durham which includes narrower carveouts for “small server rooms and data processing equipment incidental and subordinate to a permitted principal use.” City and county officials have expressed a desire to align their moratoriums; the two governments share an interlocal planning department. But most data center construction to-date in Durham has happened outside the city limits—a majority are in RTP— presenting the county board with a problem specific to its jurisdiction. “Most of the communities that have

passed moratoriums to date are communities that do not have an active data center project in the pipeline,” said Frank Muraca, an analyst and policy researcher with a background in urban planning who has been tracking the moratorium discussions across the state. Muraca has identified 46 different local governments in North Carolina that have passed a data center moratorium, many with exemptions for projects already in the construction or permitting process, or excluding smaller facilities. In late August, the Town of Cary passed its own 18-month moratorium. Apex passed a 12-month moratorium in April. Orange and Chatham counties passed their own temporary bans in April and February. Wake County

and Raleigh, Durham’s municipal partners in RTP, have yet to pass a moratorium. Other municipalities have skipped the moratorium step entirely, instead making direct changes to their development code on the use of data centers. In many cases, these are preemptive measures that give local governments more time to survey the impact of data centers on the economy and the environment. Durham County, on the other hand, already has 14 confirmed data centers, according to a list given to the county commissioners by the tax administrator’s office. A majority of them—all but one—were built before 2000, when the computing power that now fits in your pocket took up an entire room, though most were renovated in the early 2010s. Only three are above the 100,000-squarefoot threshold used by the county’s moratorium, with the largest belonging to Dell at approximately 293,000 square feet.

“The concerns that were raised by the 62 speakers who were there... I have the same concerns that the residents of Durham have.” - Scott Levitan CyrusOne, a global data center developer, has a 242,000-square-foot facility near RTP. On the smaller end, Syngenta, an agriculture technology company, and Measurement Inc., a Durham-based educational products company, operate data centers of around 3,000 and 5,500 square feet, respectively. At the August 24 meeting, Sara Young, director of the joint city-county planning department, told commissioners that data centers do not currently have their own use type in Durham’s land use regulations, making it more difficult for planning staff to assess whether a project is going to become a data center. “A lot of these sites that have been previously approved did not even come in as data centers because that’s not a use category in the ordinance,” Young said, noting they may

instead be designated as industrial light, flex office, or flex warehouse space. “Some of them, we didn’t even have records that they had been turned into data centers.” Allam, the sole vote against adding exemptions to the county’s moratorium, raised concerns that developers could mask data centers under general industrial use during the moratorium period. She requested an amendment to the moratorium that would ask companies building data centers to disclose certain functions like water usage, fuel consumption, and their source of fuel. While there is some uncertainty about how enforceable that request is, Allam hopes that it will add transparency to the process and alleviate some residents’ concerns. The amendment passed. “One of the things that we implemented after the city passed their moratorium is we changed our administrative applications to require a disclosure about whether the property will be used as a data center through this approval,” Young said. “Granted, people could still fib or leave that conveniently out, but we are asking for that information upfront. If someone were to convert something to a data center, there is the possibility of an enforcement action in the future depending on what the regulations are.” The term “data center” can include a variety of facility types, ranging from server rooms—the kind being hacked with a USB drive in every heist movie—to the resource-demanding hyperscale data centers that international tech giants like Amazon and Google are pushing onto communities to power the expansion of their generative artificial intelligence models. The data center backlash has proliferated rapidly across the country, largely targeted at the hyperscale facilities. Some state and local governments have offered massive tax incentives for companies to build in their backyard, fueling outrage from residents who feel they aren’t receiving any of the economic benefits. Political analysts anticipate the issue to galvanize voters during the midterm elections. The concerns raised by communities aren’t one-size-fits-all, but there are commonalities: energy costs and the environment. Data centers are resource-intensive, and require substantial amounts of power. The average data center—between 20,000 and 100,000 square feet—uses about 100 megawatts of electricity, about the same as 80,000 homes, while hyperscale facilities can use more power than entire cities. That increased demand and the updates to the power grid it requires can send nearby customers’ power bills skyrocketing; A Bloomberg analysis found costs had jumped by more than 267% percent “in areas locat-

ed near significant data center activity.” Pablo Friedmann, a Durham resident and former city council candidate, said at the August 24 meeting that the growth of data centers is “burdening the residential ratepayer” and their electricity costs due to the overall increased demand on the power grid. Duke Energy of the Carolinas is currently in a legal dispute with the state attorney general’s office over its request to raise rates, which is largely driven by the current and future needs of data centers, according to a report from the North Carolina Energy Policy Task Force. Cooling the technology inside the data centers also requires large amounts of water, even in “closed-loop” facilities that cycle the same water through. “Closed loop does not mean zero waste,” said Samantha Krop, Neuse Riverkeeper and Sound Rivers’ Director of Advocacy. “Even when functioning properly, closed-loop systems require high-quality water and often use chemicals to prevent corrosion and bacterial growth.” Scott Levitan, outgoing president of the Research Triangle Foundation, was one of two speakers at the August 24 meeting— Ramsay Ritchie, vice president of public pol-

DPAC

THE PINHOOK

icy and strategic initiatives for the Durham Chamber of Commerce, being the other— who spoke in favor of the moratorium’s exemptions. Similar to Lee, they made the case that companies in RTP rely on data centers to function. “The Chamber supports a moratorium on hyperscale data centers in Durham County,” Ritche said at the meeting. “We also support modest exceptions to that moratorium. We do not want to be Loudon County, but that doesn’t mean that every data center presents the same risk.” Levitan said there’s no intention to bring massive hyperscale data centers, which house upwards of 5,000 servers, to the region. “I do hope that through this process we can actually sit around a table and come to some reasonable expectations because, you know, I live on Earth, too,” Levitan told the INDY after commissioners voted on the moratorium. “The concerns that were raised by the 62 speakers who were there … I have the same concerns that the residents of Durham have. Our outcome is aligned. Our vision is aligned, but the process for getting there, it just doesn’t need to be so contentious.” W

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NEWS

Cary

Starting Over For Chatham Estates residents forced to leave, the experience of relocating has been mixed.

BY JASMINE GALLUP backtalk@indyweek.com

(From left) Francisco Ponce, Sofia Ponce, Mia Ponce and Maria Garcia pose for a portrait in Cary on August 5, 2026 PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

few months after moving into her new mobile home in Garner, most of Eva Chirinos’ boxes are still packed. Between caring for her 1-year-old, visiting her former neighbors in Cary, and preparing to return to work, the former Chatham Estates resident hasn’t had much time to settle in. When asked what’s changed for her, Chirinos’ answer is succinct, but far from simple: “Everything,” she said. “It’s hard because you’re starting over—you’re starting from scratch—and it’s even harder with kids,” she said in Spanish, in a conversation that was later translated by AI-powered digital tools. “You have to sort out pediatricians and schools, and you can’t just ... Well, here [at Chatham Estates] you had the convenience of leaving the kids with a neighbor, but there you don’t have anyone.” Chirinos and her family are one of about 144 families who were forced to move out of Chatham Estates mobile home park earlier this year as developers prepare to build hundreds of apartments and luxury townhomes on the site located near downtown Cary. The relocation happened as ICE continued to ramp up arrests and detentions nationwide, creating another level of fear and uncertainty for Chatham Estates’ majority Hispanic residents. 6 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

With help from an $800,000 fund—established by the Cary Town Council and administered by nonprofit NeighborUp—Chirinos and her family were able to buy a new home in Indian Creek Overlook Mobile Home Park, about 30 miles away. Of the 94 families NeighborUp helped relocate, some 40% were able to stay in Cary, while others moved to places like Raleigh, Durham, Sanford, or Willow Springs. NeighborUp helped one family “complete construction on their home and return to Mexico,” according to a report to the town of Cary that was obtained by the INDY as part of a public records request. Chirinos’ new mobile home is “nice,” she said, and more importantly, it’s a safe area for her kids. But when she returns to work, she’ll probably have to look for a job in Cary, since that’s where she has friends who can help look after the baby. About 80% of the families helped by NeighborUp were able to stay in Wake County. But for those who had to move farther away, commuting to their jobs in Cary can take up to one or even two hours. Between visiting her friends and bringing her children to visit theirs, Chirinos also does a lot of driving these days. And with the price of gas up to $4 per gallon, she’s “still crunching the numbers” for her budget, she said.

bout 20 families assisted by NeighborUp were able to move their mobile homes to a new location, either in Wake County or outside of it. It was a complicated process, with the nonprofit developing a 57-step checklist for itself and families. Another 20 or so were able to buy a new mobile home or a more traditional single-family home, achieving a long-held dream. For some, buying a new home wasn’t Plan A because they didn’t think it was within reach, said Ande Curry, senior director of community services with NeighborUp. “They didn’t know it was possible, and it became possible,” Curry told the INDY. “We’ve been very creative to find affordable solutions every step of the way. I have a lot of faith that people are on a really good path. We’ve just heard so many success stories, people that are really thrilled with their new homes.” NeighborUp received significant support from area churches and other local nonprofits, such as the Green Chair Project, which provided furniture to people moving into new homes. In one case, a church congregation made free repairs to a mobile home, enabling it to be moved. “We’re talking about siding, roofing, all kinds of things,” Curry said.

Chatham Estates in 2023 PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

Many more former Chatham Estates residents moved into apartments or other rental housing across the area—including Rose Park Manor, an affordable housing complex for seniors that was funded in part by Cary and Wake County. In some cases, multiple families moved into the same apartment complexes, where they may be able to preserve a little of the community support they had at Chatham Estates. On a sunny weekday last month, several former residents caught up outside the Arbors at Cary, an apartment complex, conversing in Spanish. As children played and drew in chalk on the parking lot, parents picked up dinner at an event organized by the nonprofit A Doorway to Hope.

aria Garcia, a leader with the Chatham Estates Neighborhood Association, moved to an apartment on the south side of U.S. Highway 1, only eight miles away from the former mobile home park. But like many others, she is missing

the tight-knit community she was once a part of. “It’s sad, because in the morning, you could see a lot of friends, waiting for the bus, in the evening,” Garcia said. “And if I couldn’t pick my daughters up, I knew someone who would look for them and wait for me.” One of the main reasons Garcia looked for an apartment in Cary was to stay close to her two daughters, ages 11 and 13, while she’s at work, she said. Without the support of her friends in Chatham Estates and nearby family, Garcia’s daughters will be spending more time at home alone. The new apartment is just across the street from the family restaurant where Garcia works: Meche Cocina Mexicana, owned by her husband and sister-in-law. Although the family has a new base school following the move, Garcia’s younger daughter will return to Mills Park Elementary in a few weeks, she said. The Wake County Public School System

allows parents to request a transfer back to their base school, so some Chatham Estates residents can keep sending their children to the school they’ve attended for years. Of course, transportation can be an issue. Garcia still lives in Cary, but the upcoming school year will involve a little more travel time in the mornings and afternoons, she said. It’s not too bad, though: Next year, Garcia’s younger daughter will start a new school anyway, as she moves up to middle school with her older sister. One of the biggest differences is in Garcia’s monthly cost of living. She was able to get financial help from NeighborUp with her moving expenses, plus three months of rent, she said. But the time is coming when the family will have to cover everything in full. At Chatham Estates, Garcia paid $400 per month, which allowed her to save money to help open the restaurant last year. Now, she has to pay $1,800 per

“How long can they sustain living in a place where they’re paying four to five times the amount of rent?” - Katia Roebuck

September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 7

A family living in Chatham Estates, photographed in 2023 PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

month. “Honestly, I’m working on my budget, but it is really hard,” Garcia said. “It’s gonna be like [pay]check to [pay]check, for a little bit.” Garcia dreams of buying a house in Cary, she said, but it’s much harder to save money now, which makes it a difficult prospect. The family also has less of a cushion for unexpected expenses.

fter everything, Garcia has mixed feelings about the town, where she’s lived for more than 20 years, she said. As the family was preparing to move, one of their few options was to rent an apartment at Amberwood at Lochmere, which is now up for sale. In late July, the Cary Town Council tabled a resolution that would have allowed the Raleigh Housing Authority to purchase the complex and preserve the affordable apartments there. After seeing that vote, Garcia said it doesn’t seem like the town council is trying to make Cary an affordable place to live. “It’s getting hard to live here,” she added. “I’d really like to buy a house here, but I think it’s not gonna happen.” 8 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

The ability of working families to afford housing in Cary long-term is “definitely a concern,” said Michelle Craig, who represents District B on the Cary Town Council. The district covers downtown Cary and the former location of Chatham Estates. Craig spoke with the INDY the day after the Amberwood at Lochmere vote and was one of two votes on the council in favor of moving the project forward. “The take-home message is we’re in danger, again, of losing additional naturally occurring affordable housing,” Craig said. “That’s just a pattern. “People largely continue to see Cary as a wealthy community, and I don’t want us to forget that that is not all of who lives in Cary. People deserve to have stable homes. They shouldn’t have to leave their neighborhoods in their community because they can’t afford to pay for housing.” As of August, Neighbor Up had spent all of the $800,000 allocated by the town of Cary on the relocation of Chatham Estates residents. Of the individuals and families the nonprofit helped, most received the maximum amount of money they were eligible for, Curry said. Many also received a little more, thanks

Martiza Andrade, photographed in May, stands with her daughter in the mobile home her mother owned in Chatham Estates in Cary. PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

to the roughly $118,000 donated to NeighborUp from community members. That additional money allowed the nonprofit to “meet critical needs beyond the scope of the Town funding, including emergency assistance and relocation-related expenses,” according to a letter from NeighborUp to the town obtained by public records request. All of that money has also been spent, Curry said. Overall, the money went to a variety of expenses for Chatham Estates residents, including rent, security deposits, bills for utilities like water and electric, application fees, down payments and closing costs for home purchases, mobile home relocations, and moving trucks. From January to March, reimbursement amounts ranged from $100 to nearly $10,000, according to a report submitted to the town of Cary by NeighborUp. For Chatham Estates residents, the relocation was by no means painless. And for every mobile home in the former community, there’s a family with a different story. Some are success stories. Others don’t yet have an ending. Some people have purchased and moved into new houses. Others are staying with family or friends temporarily until they can find an affordable place to live, said Katia

Roebuck, an advocate for Chatham Estates residents and coordinator for the N.C. Congress of Latino Organizations. For some, renting an apartment was also a temporary fix, she added. “They don’t know what’s going to happen in a year from now,” Roebuck said. “How long can they [former Chatham Estates residents] sustain living in a place where they’re paying four or five times the amount of rent? How long can they stay there?” Several of the affordable housing advocates interviewed for this story expressed concern that Las Americas, the mobile home park across the street from Chatham Estates, would be next on the chopping block. It’s now home to at least one former Chatham Estates resident. Still, the efforts of the town, community, and area nonprofits did make a significant difference. “We have a unique situation here where the community came together with one purpose, and I think that it should be replicated in other municipalities,” Curry said. “If we continue to tell the story, we have an opportunity to teach others how to do this and do it well.” W

SPORTS

Durham PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CAROLINA BLAZE

Swinging for the Fences Durham is carving out a niche by recruiting growing sports like women’s softball, flag football, and ultimate frisbee. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW jlaidlaw@indyweek.com

f you flipped on the TV to ESPN and heard the words, “Durham, North Carolina,” you’d likely be watching the Duke Blue Devils face off against one of their conference rivals. But this past summer, a new sports team representing the Bull City also took center stage. The Carolina Blaze, one of six franchises in the new Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL), wrapped up its first season in July, with thousands of cheering fans, many of them young girls dressed in their own youth league uniforms, packing the Smith Family Stadium on Duke University’s East Campus. Thanks to an investment from Major League Baseball (MLB), even more fans had the opportunity to watch on national television. The Carolina Blaze were a major success in their first season, selling out many of their 13 home games. The team also broke the record for the most-watched pro softball game on broadcast TV when they hosted the Utah Talons at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in June. Overall, the Blaze

generated nearly $6 million in economic impact this season from ticket sales, hotel room sales, and shopping at local businesses. Last season, none of the teams in the AUSL had permanent homes, instead touring around the country playing games in Salt Lake City, Seattle, Omaha, Tuscaloosa, Wichita, and more. But when it came time for the league to plant its flag, Durham brought its best pitch to the plate. Marcus Manning, director of the Durham Sports Commission (DSC), remembers his excitement after hearing “Welcome to Durham” for the first time during one of the Blaze’s early broadcasts. Bringing the Blaze to Durham was a “game changer” for Manning and his small but nimble three-person team. “For an organization like Athletes Unlimited Softball League to choose Durham as one of six host cities is extremely significant,” Manning told the INDY. “It helps continue to raise the profile of Durham as a sports destination, and one that champions and supports girls and

women in sports, and it shows.” Manning joined the Durham Sports Commission in October 2020. He previously worked in collegiate athletics before taking the lead at Durham’s sports tourism agency, a branch of Discover Durham. Manning and his team have spent the last six years trying to build up Durham as a premier sports tourism destination, bringing a mixture of well-known and unique athletic competitions to the city. “We talked about becoming one of the most innovative, forward-thinking sports destinations in the country,” Manning said. “We also started to understand that the landscape of sports at every level, from youth, high school, collegiate, and pro, was transforming and evolving at a rapid pace, and so we wanted to really position ourselves— Durham—as one that can take advantage of the growth, the speed of growth, and then also really partner with our key stakeholders in Durham.” During the recruiting process for the Blaze, Manning said that Durham was able to punch above its weight September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 9

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CAROLINA BLAZE

because of alignment between local governments, nonprofits, and the private sector. “Everyone from our mayor to our city manager to our county manager is on board in terms of what we’re trying to accomplish—that’s significant, and people notice that,” Manning said. “When AUSL was looking across the country... we were like, ‘hey, we’re on board, and have Duke, Durham Bulls, Durham County, City of Durham, and others who are all in this thing together.’ That was impressive to them.” Sarah Padove, AUSL’s senior director of public affairs, says the entire coalition embraced the league. “We were welcomed with open arms, and I think that is something that can get overlooked,” Padove said. “There was a mutual excitement and belief in the opportunity, and that’s what you want as an emerging league. You want to feel welcomed and wanted, and I think that really takes everything, all the pieces, and puts it over the edge a little bit.” Durham has experienced significant population growth in the last decade, but its population density is still lower than other North Carolina metros like Charlotte— which plays host to the Charlotte Hornets professional basketball team and the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League—and Raleigh, a city twice the size of Durham that is home to the Carolina Hurricanes professional hockey team. For years, residents of Raleigh have been pining for a Major League Soccer or Major League Baseball franchise. NC Senator Phil Berger even tried to squeeze funding for a MLB team out of this year’s state budget (to no avail). The athletes that arrive in Durham might be competing against each other, but Manning said his contemporaries in neighboring cities are more like teammates than opposing franchises. Cary has carved out its own niche as a growing racket sports destination for tennis and pickleball, and Morrisville has become a U.S. cricket capital. The success of one side of the Triangle and its sports teams has a ripple effect building up the region as a go-to sports tourism destination. “We really don’t look at it in terms of competing against Raleigh, or Cary, or Chapel Hill,” Manning said. “We operate in a space where the ecosystem is tremendous, so how do we leverage the ecosystem—and that’s the entire Triangle—to take advantage of opportunities for Durham?” Instead of swinging for the fences on major league sports teams, Durham has made the most of its size and enthusiasm by recruiting emerging sports like women’s softball, flag football, and ultimate frisbee. Perhaps the city’s biggest achievement so far is working with peer sports agencies to bring the World University Games, the largest competition for student-athletes and the second-largest multisport competition on the planet behind only the Olympics, to Durham and a handful of other North Carolina cities in 2029. Local officials estimate the 12-day event could rake in roughly $400 million for the local economy, and serve as an effective advertisement for the region’s sports capabilities. 10 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

“Sports is a unifier, it brings people together from all different backgrounds and from all different walks of life.” - Marcus Manning

n addition to the Blaze, other emerging sports leagues call Durham their home turf. The Ultimate Frisbee Association’s Carolina Flyers, formerly the Raleigh Flyers, moved their home games from Wake County to the Durham County Memorial Stadium in 2021. The Flyers and their sister team, the Raleigh Radiance of the Premier Ultimate League, have garnered a growing fanbase. Walker Matthews, a Durham native and Flyers player, attributes the rise in interest for ultimate frisbee to the investment in youth programs, a point of emphasis for team owner and former Flyers coach Mike DeNardis. Many of the Flyers players who came up through the local frisbee scene have gone on to coach at the high school and collegiate levels as a way to pay it forward and build a foundation for the sport’s longevity in the Triangle. “I’ve noticed there’s more kids in the stands, and this year, more people were allowed to come down onto the field after the game, so the players are autographing discs, shirts, hats, whatever kids wanted to bring out, and they get to actually interface with us, which is pretty cool,” Matthews said. Matthews joined the University of North Carolina ultimate team his freshman year; DeNardis was his coach. The Tar Heels went on to win the national championship that same year. Matthews now coaches the UNC women’s team when he’s not on the pitch for Flyers games, where he’s having an “absolute blast.” Ultimate frisbee is an active but still relatively nascent sport in Durham compared to

other cities like Minneapolis, said DeNardis, who founded the team in 2015. Flyers players aren’t paid enough to make it their fulltime gig; they have the option to donate what salary they do make to the Raleigh Radiance or Triangle Ultimate, which the Flyers organization will match. To reach that next level, they need to build a fanbase outside of their fellow ultimate players. DeNardis believes investing in the next generation of players will help the game flourish, especially as the costs for youth sports have skyrocketed in recent years. “There’s a lot of pay-for-play models out there, and we want to make sure our game is really affordable for people,” DeNardis said. “It’s more about the experience of the game than a win-at-all-costs mentality with the pay-for-play model. I don’t want to make people pay $15,000 a year just so their kids can participate in sports.” Investment in youth and amateur sports is a large part of DSC’s mission—and strategy for positioning Durham as a growing sports destination. The commission’s One Team, One Durham Fund is a privately-funded initiative that provides financial assistance for Durham nonprofit youth sports organizations. From 2023 to 2025, 42 grants have helped cover apparel, equipment, transportation, and facility costs. The sports commission also helps facilitate a growing number of high school and collegiate championships hosted in Durham, including fencing, college football, and more recently, flag football. In April, Conference Carolinas held its inaugural championship game for collegiate flag football at Durham County Memorial Stadium, the same year girls’ flag football became a state-sanctioned varsity sport for high schools in Durham and beyond. Participation in high school sports has grown over the last five years, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations, a trend driven by women’s wrestling and flag football. “We knew the NFL was investing heavily in flag football,” Manning said, “and so we started to learn more about the sport and the growth of it, and it put us in a position to take advantage of some opportunities.” Durham Sports Commission receives about 50% of its operating budget from Discover Durham, with another 30% coming from the city and county. Those funds go back out into the community in the form of grants, hosting events, and marketing. In 2019, Durham Sports Commission helped facilitate nearly $30 million in economic impact. But in-person events took a major hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, and sports were not immune; sports tourism has only

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CAROLINA FLYERS

September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 11

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CAROLINA FLYERS

brought in about half that since 2020. Rebounding from the dip in activity has been a challenge for the DSC team. To regain long-term sustainability, Manning said the sports commission works on building multi-year partnerships that they can stack onto throughout the year, driving momentum. In May, Garmin International brought its Marathon Series to downtown Durham for the first of a three-year contract to host the race, which serves as a qualifier for the Boston Marathon. Over 6,000 people participated in the race, more than the other two qualifier sites—Tuscon and Toledo— combined, bringing in over $4 million in economic impact. “We have a complete understanding of what we can and cannot do, and we can position Durham in a space where we can take advantage of those types of opportunities,” Manning said. 12 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CAROLINA BLAZE

s the Durham Sports Commission has strategically added an expanding list of emerging sports to its roster, the county stadium, in particular, has become Durham’s major sports hub. According to the sports commission, the 68-year-old stadium has hosted over 30 high school and collegiate championship events since 2021. In addition to the Flyers, the Tobacco Road Football Club and Shaw University’s football and soccer programs also call the stadium their home field. Built in 1958, the stadium has been renovated twice, in 2010 and 2019, to improve facilities and expand capacity. Local stakeholders, led by Durham Next, are working on a feasibility study to improve the stadium long-term. Manning said the upcoming World University Games will test the limits of Durham’s hosting capabilities and give the sports commission and local officials a sense of what additional infrastructure needs Durham has and how to meet them. The sports commission will also

have to work with its partners at Durham County, which owns the stadium, to keep the facilities affordable as demand increases and new sports leagues potentially emerge. In addition to growing sports infrastructure, the sports commission is also trying to build a stronger sports culture off the field. Since 2023, Durham has hosted the Emerging Women in Sports Leadership Summit, spearheaded by DSC Deputy Director Kaila’Shea Menendez, a former college athlete, and for the second year in a row, the sports commission will host the John McClendon Experience in October, a two-day conference that supports young professionals aiming to break into the sports industry, named after the legendary NCCU basketball coach. “Sports is a unifier,” Manning said. “It brings people together from all different backgrounds and from all different walks of life, and creates access and opportuni-

ties for youth in our community. It can also drive revenue and bring brand awareness for your destination. We’ve been fortunate enough that the events and the leagues that we brought in played a role in all three of those; driving revenue, being the front porch in terms of brand awareness, but also creating these opportunities for the community.” When asked about whether Manning and the commission are aiming high for a a “white whale” event or a major league team—perhaps a WNBA expansion franchise—he said it’s more about getting consistent hits, not just home runs. “We also know we have an opportunity to look at how we can increase our infrastructure and our capital investment as it relates to facilities,” Manning said. “The white whale is not a one-off, but this ever-evolving striving to be one of these best sports destination hubs in the country.” W

SPORTS

Durham

Eyes on the Prize Flag football is now a state-sanctioned sport in North Carolina high schools. Durham Public Schools has varsity teams across the district vying for the first state championship this fall. BY TORI NEWBY tnewby@indyweek.com

The Southern Spartans compete in a flag football showcase between Durham public schools in 2024 PHOTO COURTESTY OF THE CAROLINA PANTHERS

“S

print, drop, hip swivel,” Coach Brian Nunn shouts at his team, who is lined up on the field behind a set of cones on a Monday evening in late August. A football in each hand, Nunn corrects a player on her form before the drill starts: “Pigeon-toe that front foot,” he says. The whistle blows, and the girls sprint through the cones, pausing at each to squat to the ground or rotate their hips, deterring an imaginary defender from snatching their flag. The girls’ varsity flag football team at Southern School of Energy and Sustainability is preparing for their upcoming season with an eye on the prize. For the first time, flag football is a sanctioned sport in North Carolina high schools, and Durham Public Schools has teams across the district vying for the first state championship. “I have a lot of hope for us, and I just hope we come out here, work, and do what we gotta do to win these games,” said Southern junior Sa’myah Trice. Flag football has seen a 50% growth in youth participants since 2020, with 4.1 million kids playing across the country, the NFL reported. At the high school level, participation has grown from fewer than 16,000 players nationwide in 2021 to more than 100,000 today. And at universities, the NCAA governing board approved funding in August to create a national championship for flag football

as more schools create teams. As the sport surges in popularity nationwide, flag football will also make its Olympic debut at the 2028 games in Los Angeles. The Carolina Panthers popularized flag football in North Carolina in 2022 when it launched a high school league in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. The Panthers have since expanded the program to more than 200 participating high schools and more than 3,000 athletes across North and South Carolina, including in Durham Public Schools (DPS). In May, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) voted to sanction girls’ flag football as a varsity sport, becoming the 22nd state to do so and adopting a national ruleset. In Durham, girls are allowed to try out for tackle football, but it is uncommon, said DPS Director of Athletics David Hackney. Flag, which is strictly a women’s sport in DPS, is an opportunity to play the sport without the physicality, he said. DPS launched its first flag football teams in 2023 and hosted a one-day showcase, called a “jamboree,” at Durham County Memorial Stadium in the spring of 2024. All six DPS high schools participated, in addition to teams from Vance County and Louisburg. Hackney said the jamboree was a big hit, and it encour-

aged athletic directors across the district to invest in their schools’ teams. “To watch the intensity of the game, to watch the excitement and the enthusiasm, was just unmatched,” Hackney said. “The energy in the entire stadium, not only from the ladies and the coaches, but to the community and the fans, it was just electric.” It has taken a few years to figure out flag football in Durham. Prior to the sport becoming state-sanctioned this year, there were no formal rules. Southern senior Makayla Benjamin, who plays center, said referees would have her change her stance each game based on different rules that they each followed, and the refs would frequently have the teams redo plays. The season has also been moved around—from spring, to an abbreviated season before winter sports kicked off, to the busier fall season. Now that the sport is played in the regular fall season, there’s a new challenge: finding a place to play. Southern’s practices are held on the softball field, for example, which is available since softball is a spring sport. Riverside High School flag football coach Ryan Samuels said the sport feels much more organized this year. “Last year, everyone’s learning as we go, and communication with the state wasn’t great,” Samuels said. “But it September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 13

Since a 2024 flag football showcase between Durham Public Schools’ teams, the sport has been state-sanctioned PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CAROLINA PANTHERS

wasn’t state-sanctioned, so everyone was figuring things out on their own.” The game will be played this year in four 12-minute quarters, which is the same as high school tackle football, Nunn said. Each team fields seven players who wear flags around a belt on their waist, and the offensive team has four tries to score a touchdown without the player in possession of the ball getting their flag pulled by a defender. While Samuels and Nunn are both tackle football players and coaches by training, they’ve translated what they know to flag. In a sport where physicality is against the rules, Samuels said he teaches his players to be aggressive in different ways, in how they get to the ball and maneuver around defenders. Southern High School senior Natalynn Snipes-Draine plays several sports, but she said she’s always wanted to play on a football team. Southern started its program her freshman year, and she joined the unofficial team and played in the jamboree. “Girls playing on an actual football team—that’s looked at as different,” Snipes-Draine said. “But when flag football came, I was like, ‘I’ve always wanted to 14 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

do this since I was in elementary school.’” Some girls are looking beyond the high school level. Greyson Range, a senior at Riverside, is working on getting recruited to play flag football in college and has her eyes set on the Olympics. Range said she saw the boys in her middle school playing tackle football, and she wanted to be a part of it; she liked that she was allowed to be more aggressive in football than she could playing soccer. Range joined the flag team her freshman year at Riverside, and after showing off her skills in—and helping win—the jamboree, a coach approached her and suggested she try out for tackle football. Range played safety and punter on the junior varsity tackle football team her sophomore fall semester. Being the only girl on the team, she said it took some getting used to, but the discipline translated to her other sports and helped improve her skills as a flag football player the following spring. Last year, when the flag season moved to the fall, Range had to choose between the two—one of her hardest decisions, she said. But she knew flag football could help her

get into college. The sport is taking off at universities, and the Durham County Stadium hosted a collegiate flag football championship in April. Many teams are launching inaugural seasons this fall, including North Carolina Central University, which hired a former NFL coach to lead the team. Range has four offers so far from small schools across the country, including Guilford College in Greensboro, she said. Range said her mom bought tickets for the two to watch flag football in the 2028 Olympics. “She said, ‘The next time the Olympics come, you better be in it,’” Range said. “So I got big shoes to fill right now.” Durham’s high school flag teams have been organizing workouts throughout the summer, and tryouts were held August 31. The first game is scheduled for September 9, and playoffs will run from the end of October until the state championship on November 14. Snipes-Draine said Southern was a “super team” last year, making it to the second round of a playoff tournament between all of the DPS high schools. Much of that team graduated and there will be many new faces on the field this year. While

Snipes-Draine said she’s confident in her team’s defensive skills, she hopes these early summer practices will help prepare them for a strong offensive season as well. Now that it’s an official varsity sport, flag football teams will be competing in state-appointed conferences. Southern, Riverside, Northern High School, and Hillside High School will each play each other twice as part of their “Tobacco Road” conference games. Combined with out-of-conference games, Nunn expects to play about 18 games this season prior to state playoffs. Jordan High School is in a conference with Wake County schools and Durham School of the Arts will play similarly sized schools in Orange County. Riverside won last year’s DPS high school championship, and Southern won the year before. This year, there will be an official state champion. “We’re going big or going home,” Range said. “We’re going for a state championship. I want another ring.” Samuels, Range’s coach, said he’s using the draw of the first-ever state championship to recruit new girls to the sport. Flag is artistic in the way that players move around the field, he said, and brings in a lot of girls who already play other sports. “If you’re available in the fall, I’ll be able to equip you with things that you can take to your other sports that’ll allow you to excel there and be elite in all things athletically— not just football,” Samuels said. He expects the Riverside team to have about 20 players this year. Because the sport is so new to Durham, he said he didn’t plan to make any cuts during tryouts as long as there are enough jerseys, acknowledging that many girls are playing the sport for the first time. Nunn said many of his players at Southern are great athletes with backgrounds in basketball, soccer, and volleyball, but they didn’t grow up playing football—meaning they’re learning to catch passes and run routes around defenders for the first time. “Catch the ball out in front, tuck it, and hand me the ball,” Nunn commanded at the August practice shortly before the school year started. With one spiral pass after another, the girls sprint across the softball field and attempt a running catch. Some miss the ball, prompting feedback from Nunn: “Don’t stop to catch it, run all the way through,” he says. But with each player who catches it, the team erupts in a cheer. “The challenging part is, and which makes it the fun part as well,” Nunn said, “is teaching these girls a skill—something they’ve never really done before.” W

SPORTS

Cary

The NC Courage at a match at WakeMed Soccer Park PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COURAGE

‘There’s An Urgency’: NC Courage Owner Gives SixMonth Timeline to Figure Out New Stadium In a Q&A with the INDY, North Carolina Courage owner Steve Malik says the clock is ticking on securing updates to the team’s future training facilities at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary and a new Raleigh stadium. BY JANE PORTER jporter@indyweek.com

hen Steve Malik purchased the New York Flash in 2017 and relocated the soccer franchise to Cary to play as the North Carolina Courage, the stadium and training facilities at WakeMed Soccer Park were top-notch. Since then, there’s been an explosion of interest in women’s sports, particularly women’s soccer, and with the popularity uptick has come huge investments in all 16 markets in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) across the country.

This year, Denver Summit FC drew a record 63,004 fans to its debut game. The 2025 NWSL Championship drew 1.2 million TV viewers. A 2026 Nielsen report found the league’s sponsor valuation had gone up 82%, higher than the Women’s National Basketball Association and Ladies Professional Golf Association, with expansion fees growing from $2 million in 2021 to $205 million just five years later (two new teams will join the league in 2028).

The Courage, the winningest team in the NWSL and holder of the most trophies, hasn’t been left behind—at least not yet. Since 2023, average attendance at Courage games has increased by 75%, climbing from an average 4,700 fans per match at WakeMed Soccer Park’s 10,000seat stadium, that year, to 8,300 in 2026, with the team seeing its first back-to-back sellout games in May, drawing more than 10,000 fans. But with the growth of soccer and the

Courage’s popularity in particular, Malik and Courage stakeholders say the team is in need of updated training facilities and a larger stadium. The land that’s home to WakeMed Soccer Park is owned by the state of North Carolina and leased to Wake County, which subleases it to the town of Cary. While there doesn’t seem to be any reason for that arrangement not to continue, the lease expires in 2029 and at the very least would need to be renegotiated. September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 15

Malik wants to see WakeMed Soccer Park updated to provide competitive training facilities for the team. At the same time, he says, the team needs a new, larger stadium for its matches, potentially at Downtown South in Raleigh. With both projects still up in the air, it’s getting harder for the team to plan beyond its 2028 season. A spokesperson for the town of Cary said the town appreciates its partnership with the Courage but did not make a staff member available for an interview. As the Courage’s 2026 season winds down, the INDY spoke with Malik last month about the Courage’s future in the region. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. INDY: I was hoping to start by talking broadly about the situation with the Courage’s facilities, the WakeMed Soccer Park. I’m thinking of the Kansas City Current, whose new stadium was privately financed. So there are nicer, newer facilities in other cities in the country. Is that impacting recruitment currently, or do you think it will in the future? STEVE MALIK: Honestly, it already does—I wouldn’t even say the future. It’s more than just the stadium issue. It’s a little bit of an arms race around training facilities. For instance, you look at Los Angeles [team Angel City FC], they acquired a former NFL facility. So you know, unbelievable. And Bay [FC] is building a brand new center in the middle of an island in the [San Francisco] Bay, and all these new teams are [building new facilities]. And Kansas City, as you mentioned ... just [about] every market is investing a lot, and we certainly need to make some decisions to stay competitive. Frankly, we want to be more than competitive. We’ve got more trophies than anyone else in the history of the league, so not being absolutely fantastic is not all right. Have there been any updates on the status of the land that’s home to WakeMed Soccer Park? Well, there’s obviously been a little disarray, honestly, with Cary over the last ... pick your period, say six months. There were a lot of conversations going on about the future, and we’re still engaged. But obviously, I think that took their attention for a period of time there, and hopefully they’re on the other side of that, and we can continue working on improvements. As a temporary scenario, we have worked 16 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

NC Courage owner Steve Malik PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COURAGE

with the town of Cary around additional temporary facilities that we can utilize as the training center. We have some highend trailers that we use out there, and we continue to work with them on expanding, so while we don’t have a shiny new facility like some of the brand new teams, we’re doing our best with what we have. So, is the burden on the town of Cary? The fact that Fenton is now right beside the facility, and by all accounts is a fabulous success, plays into how anybody looks at what the best use for that land around it is—and I see that as a very positive thing. Just for instance, fans have figured out that there’s a back entrance [into WakeMed Soccer Park] there, we make it super easy. We know the scan points where people come into the facility. By far, that is the largest group now. It used to be the front entrance, but people have figured out Fenton, and when you look at that success, you get ideas around extending that, and dealing with some of the ingress-egress issues.

It does sound like there’s a preference to stay in that facility and update it, rather than find a new location altogether for the team? We think that location is a great training facility, all the fields. We were a finalist for the U.S. National Team’s training center, and there’s certainly a lot of land and some great fields out there, and with some enhancements, we think it’s a great longterm home for a professional team. And at the same time, from a stadium perspective, yeah, we need a minimum of 15,000 seats, and our current capacity is 10 [thousand]. We have acquired land at Downtown South, and continue to work with the city and county and others around a long-term plan for a potential facility in downtown Raleigh. We’re looking at every option out there. But we’ve made a significant investment in Downtown South, and we’d love to see that happen because of all of the ability to leverage mass transit and the significant investment that’s already been made in infrastructure at that exit, [with] what’s happening with Dix Park.

Is there a hangup there at Downtown South? Why is that not the only option for a stadium? Well, there are several options, but I mean, there’s not really a hangup when you’re working towards a project that big. There’s a lot that needs to go into transit and parks. We’ve been through a pretty significant zoning process there, and that involved a lot of community engagement, and the public officials making sure that [the] pretty significant investment that’s going in there gets leveraged in a way that gives us the best outcome for our community. I wish those wheels turned a little faster, and you’re right on point that, with the massive increase of attention and investment in women’s sports all over the country and in our league, that we need a solution to keep up—and the clock is ticking. The good news is our attendance is up massively—60-something percent since 2023—we’re regularly having sellouts, and we feel very supported in the community. Likewise, corporate partnerships are up 100% from ‘23, and we’re getting a lot of support from significant brands in our mar-

The NC Courage at a match at WakeMed Soccer Park PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COURAGE

ket. Community engagement is way up. I think everybody’s familiar with how significant our youth organization is in the community. We’ve made great efforts to reach out through the schools with partnerships there, and other community organizations, and making sure people of every socioeconomic background have access to the facility and to see the team. There’s real positives going on with that market, the growth that we’re having, and the market continues to be better and better. We just need to solve these infrastructure challenges. But even in the best case scenario, there would probably be a delay between a new stadium being built and the lease expiring in 2029. Right. There’s an urgency. Kansas City—you brought them up; they built that stadium in 14 months. So when you’re building a 15,000 seat facility, it’s not like SoFi [Stadium] in LA. That’s a $6 billion facility. This is

not a 70,000-seat stadium. It’s much more manageable. And while you’re absolutely right, the clock is ticking, and we need to solve it, there’s still a little time left. I’ve heard this floated, and I wanted to ask your opinion. Is there any danger of the Courage leaving Wake County or North Carolina before the team gets a new stadium and updated training facilities? I’m from here and my whole reason for doing this was to do something for my community, for women, and for the sport. And we have worked super hard to solve this facility issue, and I’m hopeful that we do. And to answer your question, if we don’t, that’s a very fair point. When you’re in a league where the owners of the Giants buy the New York team [NY/NJ Gotham FC] and the owners of the Cubs buy the Chicago [Red Stars] team, and we all just saw what happened with the Lakers and the

Disney CEO [Bob Iger] owns our Los Angeles team now [Editor’s note: Iger just bought the Lakers and is a controlling owner in NWSL team Angel City FC]. In addition to the Lakers, these folks are making very significant investments. What is the timeline, then, for having to figure it out? Well, you just very rightfully pointed out that the Cary situation is going to require—particularly with what happens with building, we start to get into a real challenge in the ‘29 season. So really, I’ll tell you, in the next six months, we need to have very significant progress toward a solution.

15,000-seat solution together. So it’s also what happens with Raleigh in terms of a stadium, and what happens with the current facility, potentially as a training facility. When you say “What happens with Raleigh,” what do you mean by that? Our plan A is to get to the public-private partnership that everybody feels great about that allows us to come forward with plans for a 15,000-seat stadium in Downtown South. And that’s what we’re working on.

Okay, and that mainly looks like the town of Cary figuring out what’s going to happen after 2029?

So can I fairly say that there’s no danger of losing the Courage imminently, but if we don’t get it figured out in the next six months or so, [the team leaving] could be a threat?

It does, and at the same time, we don’t have an ask of the town of Cary to put a

You can say that. Yes, I think that’s an accurate statement. W September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 17

SPORTS Mikhail Williams, co-founder of the Philippine Pickleball Club PHOTO BY JESSICA TOBES

Get a Grip Founded in 2024, the Philippine Pickleball Club has proven to be a community gel for Triangle Filipinos and activity aficionados alike. BY JESSICA TOBES backtalk@indyweek.com

“I

got beat by an 85-year-old lady with two knee braces. Oh yeah!” The game that Mikhail Williams, 38, is referencing isn’t golf or chess—it’s pickleball. A paddle sport that he describes as the “baby” of tennis and table tennis, pickleball is a growing sport that happens on a badminton-sized court with a slightly lower net. Sanderford Road Park in Raleigh is one of the over 85 pickleball facilities in the region and acts as the home base for the Philippine Pickleball Club, which Williams co-founded alongside friends in August 2024. At the time, he had yet to play a single game. Introduced to the game at his previous job at Lifetime Fitness, when the gym converted its basketball courts to pickleball courts, Williams—who now works as an assistant property manager—despised the change until his wife encouraged him to join a match. Since then, he’s been 18 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

hooked. “I started playing the moment I held my first paddle,” he said, “and it’s become some sort of an obsession.” Williams’ sentiment is one shared by millions across the United States. With pickleball becoming the fastest-growing sport in the country between 2022 and 2025, he attributes its popularity to its two defining factors: its inclusivity and community. An older woman with fractured knees beating a sound Williams is the prime example of the sport’s first aspect. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a kid, doesn’t matter if you’re middle-aged like myself, doesn’t matter if you’re a little bit advanced in age,” he said, “you can still play, and you still have a chance to be good.” The Philippine Pickleball Club embraces this philosophy. Around 50 to 70 attendees show up at meetups, according to Williams, with players spanning a diverse range of

ages, experiences, and racial backgrounds—the club is “not only for Filipinos,” Williams said. Nevertheless, there is a certain hospitable, social vibe to the club, which Williams said makes it uniquely Filipino. What does this look like in practice? Tonight, I’ve come to the club’s second-year anniversary potluck, so Williams encourages me to see the vibe for myself, where there’s an abundance of Filipino foods and karaoke tunes. Many practices, he says, are social get-togethers more so than intense training. Dishes like chicken adobo and buko pandan have as much of a presence at practices as balls and paddles—a testament to the way practices are often held in conjunction with celebrations like birthday parties or anniversaries. Other affinity-based pickleball groups like Black Girl Magic Pickleball are proliferating across the Triangle with a similar purpose—to build community on the premise of pickleball. “Everybody that starts pickleball usually starts because of the social aspect of it,” Williams said. Still, some players join for competitive purposes, training for tournaments like the Veolia Pickleball National Championships in Cary. “I started [playing pickleball] socially, and it became more and more competitive,” Williams said. “I did my first tournament in a month after I started playing. I don’t even know what I was doing, but here we are.” To Williams, clubs like this act as pathways for Filipinos to connect with their culture across the Triangle. “A lot of Filipinos, especially the ones that grew up in the Philippines that move here to the U.S., tend to stay inside the box,” he said of the over 7,400 Filipinos recorded in the Triangle in 2019. As an immigrant himself—moving from Subic Bay, Philippines, to the U.S. before college—he utilizes pickleball’s outgoing ethos to break the social stigma many Filipinos face when moving to the region. Nourishing this community hub with a collaborative sport like pickleball is how bonds can become deeper than a teammate relationship. “It started as a group, and then it became more of a friendship,” Williams said. “So whenever there’s fundraising events or birthdays the Philippine Pickleball Club is gonna show up, and we’re gonna be there. We’re gonna eat. We’re gonna have fun. We’re gonna be loud. We’re gonna cheer.” W

2026-27 Season

Explore our full season on the next page

Our Common Home

dukearts.org

September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 19

Curated by Tift Merritt

Wednesdays at 6:30 PM | September 9–30, 2026 Sep 9 | 6:30 PM

Sep 16 | 6:30 PM

Sep 23 | 6:30 PM

Sep 30 | 6:30 PM

Patty Griffin

Ken Pomeroy

Free

Kaia Kater

Madison Cunningham

Duke Arts Presents 2026–27 Season SEPTEMBER

NOVEMBER

Thu, Sep 17 | Page Auditorium

Sun, Nov 1 | Baldwin Auditorium

Awadagin Pratt

shirlette ammons: Language Barrier at 10

America 250

Featuring Lizz Wright, Phil Cook & More

Sun, Oct 4 | Baldwin Auditorium

Fri, Sep 18 | Reynolds Industries Theater

Camerata Nordica

Created by Matthew Rushing & Du’Bois A’Keen

Tue, Oct 6 | von der Heyden Studio Theater

Sun, Sep 20 | Baldwin Auditorium

Thu, Oct 15 | Duke Chapel

Sacred Spaces

An Evening with Ari’el Stachel

Salix Piano Trio

VOCES8

Lead Me Home

Tue, Sep 22 | Page Auditorium

Oct 17–18 | von der Heyden Studio Theater

Mo Amer

Falling: a disabled love story

Written & Performed by Aaron Pang Tue, Oct 27 | Reynolds Industries Theater

Christian McBride & Ursa Major

OCTOBER Oct 2–Nov 5 | Duke Chapel

Día de los Muertos Ofrenda

Free

Fri, Oct 2 | Reynolds Industries Theater

MAJOR

by Ogemdi Ude / Akunna Material 20 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

As part of We the People, Duke Arts Presents’ 2026–27 season brings together artists whose work reflects the many stories, histories, and perspectives that shape the United States.

Fri, Nov 6 | Baldwin Auditorium

Schumann Quartett

Sun, Nov 8 | Baldwin Auditorium

Ciompi Quartet and Robert Sims, Baritone

Free

Follow Me

Fri, Nov 13 | Baldwin Auditorium

An Evening from the Queer Songbook by Taylor Mac & Matt Ray

DECEMBER Sun, Dec 13 | Page Auditorium

An Evening with Renée Elise Goldsberry

= We the People Associated Event

Learn more wethepeople.duke.edu

Thu, Sep 17 | 7:30 PM Page Auditorium

shirlette ammons: Language Barrier at 10 Featuring Lizz Wright, Phil Cook & More For one night only, Durham’s own shirlette ammons performs her album Language Barrier from top to bottom, featuring some of the best in the industry, including acclaimed jazz singer Lizz Wright, Phil Cook, Cyanca, H.C. McEntire, and more.

JANUARY

Sun, Feb 28 | Baldwin Auditorium

Ciompi Quartet and Friends Appalachian Spring

Sun, Jan 10 | Baldwin Auditorium

Pacifica Quartet

Thu, Jan 14 | Page Auditorium

An Evening with Sutton Foster

MARCH FEBRUARY

Tue, Mar 2 | Duke Chapel

with special guest Megan McGinnis

Feb 5–6 | von der Heyden Studio Theater

Sat, Jan 16 | Baldwin Auditorium

Kings Return

Jan 25–Feb 19 | Various Locations

Our Common Home

Free

Tenebrae

Parched

Fri, Mar 5 | Baldwin Auditorium

Created by Official Puppet Business

Quatuor Van Kuijk

Sun, Feb 7 | Reynolds Industries Theater

Sat, Mar 20 | Reynolds Industries Theater

National Geographic Live: Incredible Animal Athletes

HopeBoykinDance: Troubled No More

Lucy Hawkes

Feb 12–13 | von der Heyden Studio Theater

Gathering

by Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre Jan 29–30 | Reynolds Industries Theater

TREES

Directed & Performed by Sam Green Sun, Jan 31 | Baldwin Auditorium

Escher Quartet with pianist, David Fung

Thu, Feb 18 | Motorco Music Hall

Gabriel Kahane

Every love song is a protest Sun, Feb 21 | Baldwin Auditorium

Sphinx Virtuosi

APRIL Sun, Apr 11 | Baldwin Auditorium

Anthony McGill, clarinet and Conrad Tao, piano

America250: Sounds Of Unity Fri, Feb 26 | Baldwin Auditorium

Jeremy Denk

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Book today at dukearts.org September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 21

Fri, Oct 2 | 7:30 PM Reynolds Industries Theater

MAJOR

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

by Ogemdi Ude / Akunna Material Five dancers take the stage in MAJOR to explore the power, memory, and physicality of majorette dance, a form that originated in the American South within Historically Black Colleges in the 1960s.

MAJOR is presented in partnership with American Dance Festival.

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SPORTS

So You’re an Adult Who Wants to Play a Sport BY SARAH EDWARDS sedwards@indyweek.com

Are you over the age of twenty-five, with your most limber days long behind you? Same here, but that’s no reason to stay on the bench forever: Recreational sports can be a gateway to better fitness, friendship, community, work-life balance, and many of the other things that adults in other countries seem to routinely score high on while Americans with back pain doomscroll at their desks. In the Triangle, there are a number of ways to get plugged in; the first step, of course, is landing upon your sport of choice. If you played a sport growing up, that may narrow things down, but there are plenty of sports that are easy to pick up—pickleball, running, and tennis among them. (Hot tip: Durham Parks & Recreation offers extremely affordable five-week group tennis lessons—$16 for city residents; $21 for non-residents. After taking one such lesson several years ago, I’m still not good, through no fault of the instructor, but I can hit the ball back!!) Based out of Raleigh, TRI SPORTS is one of the bigger umbrella organizations for adult recreational sports, with leagues for both standard sports and more niche ones like cornhole, bowling, and bar sports. Stonewall Raleigh, a nonprofit for LGBTQIA+ people and allies, is another good organization to try: It offers 16 sports, from bowling and bocce to kickball and dodgeball, and has seen more than 31,000 participants since its 2013 founding. If you’re a YMCA member, locations around the Triangle offer leagues for basketball, volleyball, and soccer, alongside pickup play and clinic opportunities for other sports. Below, find a list—non-comprehensive, but a starting point—for how to find your very own League of Your Own.

Soccer

Basketball Based in the Bull City (with Durham-emblazoned jerseys, to boot), the Durham League nevertheless draws players from around the Triangle and beyond, with both women’s and men’s divisions. Leagues are further broken down into 35+ and 50+ groups, so don’t let age be the excuse that stops you from joining. The season starts in October.

Baseball There is a wide range of intensity between the leagues on this list; among all of them, the Carolina Sandlot Collective appears to be one of the most welcoming and beginner-friendly, with several teams throughout the Triangle. (Three rules are listed on the league website: 1. Be cool, 2. Winning isn’t everything, 3. Respect one another.) Beyond being hospitable, the collective also deserves recognition for its nostalgic branding, the names of its teams— including the Carolina Crawfish, Durham Dirtbags, and the Eno River Possums— and its annual Sandlot Revival event, held each spring at the historic Durham Athletic Park, which draws in other sandlot teams from across the southeast for a weekend of baseball that’s fun to partake in, as either a player or a lover of the game.

Volleyball For the altitudinous and diving-agile among us, the coed RTP Volleyball League offers plenty of opportunities to play—a spring and fall season, as well as an indoor winter season (this fall’s season is already sold out).

With an impressive membership roster of nearly 4,000, the Triangle Adult Soccer League (TASL) is the largest adult soccer league in the state. Lots of players also means lots of opportunities to get plugged in; TASL has three Rec divisions (the easiest starts at Rec 3), plus an easier division for the non-twenty-somethings (smaller goals, no offside, and no contact or slide tackling) and more competitive division for players ages thirty and above. If you’re just looking to get your feet wet, you can also register for “pickup only” playtime. Games primarily take place at Chapel Hill and Durham parks.

Tennis Upon navigating to its website, the Eno Community Tennis Association offers several pathways for involvement to interested parties: You can join the more competitive U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) league, you can join a social league, or you can take one of the association’s clinics—Try Tennis, Try Play, and Try Match, respectively—with each offering mounting levels of instruction. The social leagues offer a broad and creative variety of entry points for tennis lovers: Tennis for Life, for instance, is for breast cancer survivors; Rivals Tennis Ladder coordinates flexible, year-round matches via an app; and Game, Set, Beer involves imbibing. All the leagues have an accessible joining price point averaging around $40.

Others There are numerous activity clubs across the Triangle—so many, in fact, that it can be overwhelming knowing where to start. One way is by becoming a regular somewhere: In Raleigh, bars and breweries like Tap Yard Raleigh, Crank Arm Brewing Company, and Raleigh Brewing Company offer weekly run club meetups. In Durham, The Daily hosts an Athletic Club that offers two weekly run meetups (one long, one slightly less long) as well as regular women’s group bike rides.

September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 23

Character Studies

AN INDY SERIES ABOUT FAMILIAR FACES AROUND THE TRIANGLE— AND THE STORIES YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM. Shameika McNeil Gales has been teaching #GetFitWithMeeks classes in Raleigh since 2019 PHOTO BY JESSICA TOBES

Shamekia Gales, Raleigh’s Line Dancing Queen Gales’ #GetFitWithMeeks class remains a staple at Spring Forest Road Park, drawing crowds for lively line dancing to soul and hip hop. BY JESSICA TOBES backtalk@indyweek.com

hamekia McNeil Gales considers her line dancing group #GetFitWithMeeks a ministry—its members, her congregation; Justin Timberlake leading her opening hymn. And in the half-mile loop of Raleigh’s Spring Forest Road Park where Gales hosts her free classes, anyone who is there at half past six on a Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday evening feels like a part of her service. Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” echoes across the park from Gales’ speaker as she leads warm-up stretches, the sounds of members bickering like siblings or laughing like old friends filling the air. This camaraderie isn’t a foreign feeling for Gales. In the seven years since hosting her first class in 2019, #GetFitWithMeeks has garnered over 900 members on Gales’ Facebook group. “Line dancing has always been a part of my heritage at cookouts and family functions,” said Gales, who was a cheerleader and ran track and field in high school. “I’ve always been a full-figured woman, and I had a child,” said Gales. “Then, as you put yourself on the back burner, I 24 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

gained some weight. So I started line dancing at home, and I lost about 35 to 40 pounds.” Some of the weight came back, but Gales, rather than sitting still, decided to take action and find a group. After all, line dancing, despite being a dance where soloists repeat a pattern of steps in a line, is a communal activity. Logging onto her neighborhood app to find workout groups to join, one day, she mentioned her love for line dancing in hopes of finding people to dance next to her and bringing the hobby she loved out of her living room. “I got an overwhelming response of, ‘Where are the line dance classes? When are you line dancing?’” she recalled, “so I told my husband, ‘What do you think if I started one?’” Gales scoped out class locations and settled on Spring Forest Road Park, which has an open patio. Her family crafted the name #GetFitWithMeeks and on June 11, 2019, she played the first song from her speaker. Since then, she’s never danced on the patio alone. “Over the years, when I first started, sometimes I’d have

four attendees, sometimes I’d have eight,” said Gales, now 47. “Then it grew to where I would have 12 and 15. Now, I can have anywhere from 35 to 50 people out here.,” Classes are free, making it accessible to those who don’t have a gym membership. “I know everybody may not be able to afford or keep up with paying for classes,” Gales said, adding that leading the classes helps her stay consistent with fitness goals. Some participants happened across #GetFitWithMeeks by chance: Gales’ voice—yelling steps like “Cha-cha!” or “Sidestep!” from her mic—is hard to ignore. Curiosity attracts people to join the line, but it’s Gales’ charisma that draws most to stay. Each member in line shares a different story. On many days, passersby jumping in could find Rodney, an older man who’s danced in line with Gales since the second week she started in 2019. Line dancing has grown to be a habitual hobby for him, wearing blue ear plugs to shield himself from the magnitude of Gales’ voice.

Other times, there’s young faces in between the moms that frequent the classes: a rising high school freshman dancing with a family friend or a girls’ softball team eager to line dance to cool down after practice. These dynamics are what keeps Gales coming back three nights a week after finishing her shifts as a purchasing officer for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. “I don’t consider it just a class—I call us the ‘Get Fit family,’” Gales said. “We supported each other through ups, downs, [and] losses. I love them, and I truly want to make sure that everybody that’s in this family is well taken care of.” “I don’t consider it just a class–I call us the ‘Get Fit family,’” Gales said. “We supported each other through ups, downs, [and] losses. I love them, and I truly want to make sure that everybody that’s in this family is well taken care of.” Mutual care remains a pillar of #GetFitWithMeeks, and is reflected in her themed classes—like Freestyle Thursdays, when Gales lets members choose the dances, or Skirt Tuesdays, when members don jingle skirts. This class theme emerged when Gales, who said she previously wasn’t comfortable wearing skirts that exposed her legs, asked if anyone would join her. “I said, ‘Y’all, I want to wear a skirt out here. Can somebody wear a skirt with me? Because I want to, but I’m too nervous to do it,” she said. “Four ladies did it with me.” In these ways, the class members keep each other in line, both physically and emotionally. “We’re family. We’re a ministry,” Gales said. And to the music of Lil Wayne and Beyonce, it’s a ministry that keeps giving and growing between each jazz box, coaster step, and shuffle. W

#GetFitWithMeeks class attendees PHOTO BY JESSICA TOBES

September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 25

FOOD & DRINK

Breakfast for Lunch at Country Junction Nobody at the Carrboro diner needs a menu, least of all the 87-year-old regular who swears by the bologna sandwich. BY LENA GELLER lgeller@indyweek.com

This story is part of a column, Lunch Money, in which staff writer Lena Geller visits restaurants in the Triangle in an attempt to dine out for less than $15.

he last time Country Junction posted anything on the internet was four years ago, when it changed its Facebook profile picture to a blurry photo of a line cook standing near a bag of sandwich bread. The restaurant does not have a website. It’s not on DoorDash. Save for a snapshot that someone uploaded to Tripadvisor a while back, there’s no real way to see the menu online. Yet all the people coming through the door of the Carrboro institution on the day I visit are picking up food they ordered ahead of time, grub that’s been boxed up and stacked under a lightbulb to keep warm. From my seat in the empty dining room, I contemplate how this is possible. People are clearly calling things in, but how do they know what to get? Is there a hotel down the street with a binder of menus in the lobby? This is my first time at Country Junction, a diner housed in a low building on West Weaver Street. I’ve driven past it many times but never fully registered its presence before today, in that way fixtures of the landscape evade perception. The diner is spare but cheery inside, with something of a mess-deck-on-a-ship quality; the booths and counters are matte crayon-box colors, the windows porthole-shaped. There seem to be two separate menus. One, printed on a board over the cashier counter, features old-school Southern fare: homemade biscuits, hotcakes with steak or sausage or fatback, burgers and sandwiches, breakfast and lunch plates with vegetable sides. The other is made up of colorful paper squares taped to the wall scrawled with dishes like huevos a la mexicana, chiles toreados, and 26 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

(Above) An order of chicken and waffles. (Below) Country Junction is located at 404 West Weaver Street in Carrboro. PHOTOS BY LENA GELLER

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Country Junction PHOTO BY LENA GELLER

chorizo breakfast sandwiches. When I got here I ordered chicken and waffles and a sweet tea for $14.34. Now I’m sitting in a booth listening to the fryer burble. I fiddle with the bottle of Texas Pete on my table and look around. If I were a detective who just worked an overnight shift, this is where I would come for breakfast, I think. If I just buried a body, this is also where I would come for breakfast. Near the counter, two older women waiting for takeout murmur to each other and a guy in a yellow OWASA vest picks his cuticles. Regardless of whether I were a detective or a murderer, my order would be the same. I would get eggs. Someone else finally sits down in the dining room: an elderly man wearing dog tags and a cross around his neck. He’s chosen to take the booth right in front of mine, and he sits on the far side of it, so we’re face to face. This has to be the restaurant equivalent of someone sitting directly ahead of you in an otherwise empty movie theater. “You come here often?” I ask him. “They make the best bologna sandwich in town,” he says, nodding. He pauses. “You don’t know what bologna sandwiches are. You aren’t old enough.” “I’ve read about them,” I say. We look down at our phones. A moment later, our food arrives on styrofoam plates. My chicken and waffle comes with an entire jug of Hungry Jack syrup.

“Are you a UNC student?” the man asks, after we’ve each taken a few bites. I tell him I’m not. “I’ve lived in this area for 87 years,” he says. “Have you seen it change?” He seems to mishear my question as simply, “Have you seen change?” because he laughs and laughs then points at his phone and says, “Well, I never thought I could be deep in the woods and talk to somebody in Africa!” “Who are you talking to in Africa?” I ask. “I just mean I never thought I’d be able to.” We get back to our food. The individual components of my meal are lovely— the chicken a plump boneless slab, the waffle shattery and dusted with powdered sugar—though I screwed up by not getting coffee; with the syrup and the sweet tea, everything is eye-wateringly sweet. I pour some hot sauce on the flat of my plastic knife and lick it off. The man asks me what I have planned for the rest of the day. I’m getting ready to move, which I’m stressed about, I tell him. He shakes his head. “Trouble don’t last always,” he says. He tells me he’s planning to spend the afternoon in his rocking chair. We fall quiet after that. I sit back and let my eyes wander. Above the man’s booth there’s a still life of a violin and a purple lamp. Through the porthole windows I see a tree, leaves shimmying in the breeze.

the Triangle’s Arts & Culture Newsletter

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INCOMING!

A MONTHLY FEATURE SPOTLIGHTING INTERESTING FILMS COMING TO LOCAL THEATERS

Incoming! Peasant Revolts, Wilderness Survival, and Victorian Psychopaths Ethan Hawke as a Depresion-era prisoner in The Weight, Andrew Garfield as an anonymous ploughman in The Uprising, and more film options coming to local theaters near you. BY GLENN MCDONALD arts@indyweek.com

hose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” That’s the precise wording of the famous old aphorism about the dangers of forgetting history. Written in 1905 by Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana, the saying is often misquoted and/or misattributed, usually to Winston Churchill. Anyway, it’s a hard little nugget of Truth, in these confusing times, and a good theme for this month’s guide to strategic Triangle moviegoing. The first of two intriguing historical dramas coming to local theaters in September, The Uprising is a dramatization of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt in England. Andrew Garfield plays the lead as an anonymous ploughman who leads a revolution of the poor and desperate against the rich and powerful. Alert readers may spot the relevance to our time and place, and The Uprising has just the right director to pull it off. British filmmaker Paul Greengrass is a former journalist known for his politically conscious storytelling and documentarian’s eye. He’s best remembered stateside for his work on the Jason Bourne spy series, which employs a fast-cut, shaky cam technique that generates a sense of urgency and hyperrealism. His style looks chaotic, but he always leads your eye to exactly what he wants you to notice. It should be fun to see what he does with 14th-century England. Also be aware that, despite some truly bizarre marketing shenanigans, The Uprising has nothing to do with the story of Robin Hood, aside from a shared interest in working-class resistance movements. History 28 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

The Weight PHOTO COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE / PHOTO BY MATTEO COCCO

heads can tell you: Robin Hood was a couple of centuries earlier. From medieval England to 1930s Oregon: The Weight stars Ethan Hawke as a Depression-era prisoner named Murphy, caught in a tricky dilemma. He’s going to lose his young daughter to the state if he doesn’t break free. The labor camp’s crooked warden (Russell Crowe) offers him a deal. Murphy can win his freedom if he transports several heavy packs of stolen gold across five days of treacherous Oregon territory. Murphy gets to choose his fellow prisoner-porters, but the mission will be policed by two thuggish deputies. Directed by newcomer Padraic McKinley, The Weight is a throwback wilderness trek adventure, conjuring ‘70s thrillers such as Deliverance or William Friedkin’s overlooked classic Sorcerer. Ethan Hawke is always a reliable movie star, and the online trailers suggest a lean-forward kind of movie, with rickety old suspension bridges and lethal double-crosses. “People get funny around gold,” says one of the reluctant porters. “They’ll kill ya for it.” Ain’t that the truth. The Weight looks like a film that doesn’t belong in 2026 multiplexes, and that’s a good sign. For a scarier, goofier time in the wayback machine, look for the admirably titled indie horror comedy Victorian Psycho, which features just what it says on the tin. Ascendant scream queen Maika Monroe (It Follows, Longlegs) stars as the mysterious new governess Winifred Notty, recently hired to mind the wee ones at a gothic English manor, circa 1858. Winifred seems a little intense, and things get weird when people start disappearing.

You can guess where it goes from there. Victorian Psycho had its world premiere at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival in May, and reviews from there seem to agree that it’s good, gory, disposable fun. Jason Isaacs and Ruth Wilson play Winifred’s unfortunate new employers, clueless landed gentry with a real problem on their hands concerning class rage and robust anti-patriarchal gestures. The film also raises the intriguing prospect of a series: Georgian Psycho! Renaissance Psycho! Byzantine Psycho! QUICK PICKS

Beyond: The Cary Film Festival is set to unspool Sept. 10-13 at the Cary Theater in, well, in Cary. Featuring a curated program of short films from around the world–with a focus on North Carolina–the fest also includes workshops and presentations from local industry professionals. The opening night film, Free Joan Little, tells an incredible North Carolina story—that of Joan Little, the first woman in U.S. history to be acquitted for using deadly force to resist sexual assault. The Thursday night screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Yoruba Richen. The South Korean action sci-fi thriller Hope is getting a lot of good buzz after its Cannes premiere. The story concerns desperate small-town locals fighting off a vicious forest monster amid the chaos of a wild-

fire crisis. Then things get really interesting. Bring your ecological anxieties and think sideways. Bonus trivia: International power couple Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender make an appearance. On Saturday, Sept. 26, the Alamo Drafthouse in Raleigh will host an evening with cult movie hero Bruce Campbell (the Evil Dead franchise) as he tours around his new comedy-drama Ernie & Emma. Campbell wrote and directed the micro-indie film, which tells the story of a widowed pear salesman on a quest to scatter his late wife’s ashes. Look for a scheduled Q&A afterward, and additional screenings late in September. For the kids: The animated adventure comedy Forgotten Island tells the story of two friends in 1990s Philippines who travel to a mystical land drawn from Filipino mythology. The voice cast includes H.E.R., Liza Soberano, Dave Franco, Jenny Slate, Lea Salonga, Manny Jacinto, and Ronny Chieng. As part of its ongoing Classics series, the Chelsea Theater in Chapel Hill is screening director Frederick Wiseman’s 2017 documentary Ex Libris: The New York Public Library. One of my personal favorite films, Wiseman’s documentary profiles the astounding work done every single day by this great institution of learning and community service. It plays like a utopian vision, in a way. Imagine the world if librarians were put in charge. It will cheer you up. W

MUSIC Anne-Claire Cleaver PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

Learning By Heart In guiding others through their singing journeys, Durham musician Anne-Claire Cleaver found her voice. BY BRIAN HOWE music@indyweek.com

o You Dream of Me Too?, the new album by AnneClaire Cleaver, isn’t about her. It’s not about you either, even when it uses the second person. “I think not being confessional is refreshing,” the Durham musician said recently. “My first record was kind of confessional, but now I want something bigger, grander, where maybe I’m just a persona. So much of songwriting can be visual.” In the home studio where she gives singing lessons, she ran her hand over the piano keyboard, where her vocal range spans six E’s. Atop the upright piano sat a votive candle, a box of tissues, two songwriting books, a Pride flag in a mug of pens, and a little bust of Beethoven. Presiding over all is a mall portrait of her grandmother, costumed for a Hello, Dolly! production in eastern North Carolina. “She participated in the local theater her entire life,” Cleaver said. “This was her legacy. It’s the perfect encapsulation of what we’re doing in this studio.” From this homey space came the highly staged songs on Cleaver’s second album, eight years after her first. The

you in “Good Trouble” is civil rights hero John Lewis, with a country-kissed string arrangement by album coproducer Jeff Crawford. “Night of the Hunter,” with neoclassical noir orchestration by Chris Stamey, is about Robert Mitchum in the Southern Gothic film classic. Instead of the personally revealing lyrical content we might have expected after her introspective debut, these vivid tableaux strike the listener with their newfound confidence. This growth was earned through eight years of personal challenges and starting a small business—eight years during which the arts of learning, teaching, and singing became inseparably entwined. This is the story pulsing beneath the cinematic vignettes, the way the songs are about her.

ut why shouldn’t the mononymic Anne-Claire embrace the theatrical? Drama was her first love, which she studied with a formative teacher named Sue Scarborough at Raleigh’s Enloe High School. But when she went to UNC-Greensboro, the cutthroat audition process soured her on acting. She

wound up as a voice major instead. Graduating in 2013, she moved to Thailand to teach English, where she felt very alone and started writing songs as a way of self-soothing. Coming home, she made GarageBand demos and worked on her piano playing. Friends from music school encouraged her to take the songs to the stage, eventually resulting in I Still Look For You, with experienced local musicians Alex Bingham and Jeff Crawford. It was a hard-won debut that she wasn’t able to fully capitalize on. “I was going through a really difficult time,” she said. “My grandmother had passed away very suddenly and was the inspiration for a lot of that record. I had been in eating disorder recovery since I came home from Thailand, and when she died, I had a huge relapse. I had to get real about some things. I was preoccupied with getting my health together when it came out.” She got a job at Russell Lacey Music in Durham, where she taught kids for several years until the pandemic moved everything online. “In my mind, that was something you had to have a gradSeptember 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 29

Clockwise from left: Anne-Claire Cleaver at the piano; studio tchotchkes; a photo of Cleaver’s grandmother from a Hello Dolly! production PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

uate degree to do,” she said. “You had to be taught to teach. I learned this could be more than teaching someone how to sing. You’re here to connect with yourself, to self-regulate, to have confidence in a thing that you know you can do.” In 2021, she started Anne-Claire Voice, where she works with adults, mostly beginners, though more seasoned musicians come to her too. It has allowed her to become a fulltime musician. “When I’m working with the artist crowd, it’s a different experience,” she said. “There might be a vocal issue. But sometimes the problem is that they don’t accept themselves and what their voice sounds like, or they feel lost and need an accountability person to bounce ideas off of.” When Hope Thomson came to Cleaver for lessons three years ago, she certainly wasn’t a beginner, but she didn’t think of herself as an artist either. She had grown up singing but injured her voice in jazz combos at UNC. It had mostly recovered, but her confidence, her sense of direction, had not. What began as warm-up exercises evolved into a deeper, more holistic dynamic. “I didn’t expect what happened at all,” Thomson said. “We hit it off because she’s a really wonderful person, approachable, easy to talk to and sing for. When she was like, ‘I think you should write original music,’ that was not in my universe of possibility.” Thomson didn’t wind up writing one song—she wrote an album’s worth. She recently recorded them at Nightsound Studios with Charles Cleaver, Anne-Claire’s husband, and plans to release them as the album Reverie. “I had a lot of kinship with Hope right away,” AnneClaire said. “We had a similar training background. Singing 30 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

is one of the most vulnerable things you can do in front of somebody, and it puts you in a position where if someone wants to hurt you, they can. I have people come in and cry through the whole first lesson.” (This explains those tissues on the piano.) Thomson thinks of Cleaver as her musical fairy godmother. Her process is “very different from good versus bad technique—it’s almost somatic,” Thomson said. “Thinking about radical acceptance of my voice has been very healing. What’s cool is that she’s been in her own recording and release process this year, so it makes me feel like she’s welcoming me in: ‘I’m doing this too, let’s talk about how you want to do it.’”

eaching doesn’t just support Cleaver’s music, it infuses it. Do You Dream of Me Too? wouldn’t be what it is without Craig Carothers, the coach who gave her prompts— say, “a song about boats”—that spurred the songs. Nor without Jess Baldwin, who guided her through creative blocks. “She helped me remember that as artists, we have a cycle,” Cleaver said. “We have clarity. We know where we’re going. We’re following through. And then there’s usually a period of, like, ‘What the fuck?’ We’re in the fog. And then we emerge again.” With a decade of teaching behind her, she’s had to learn her own lessons too. “Saying this five times a day five days a week has to have rubbed off on me,” she said. It’s rubbed off on Do You Dream of Me Too?, which features piano by Charles Cleaver, guitar and pedal steel by Nathan Golub, bass by Casey Toll, and drums by TJ Maiani. “I was dreaming really big,” Cleaver said. “I was not con-

tent with how I’d done it before. I wanted more grandeur.” She divided up the songs among arrangers, hired a string section, and booked time in Manifold Recording, the fancy Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired studio in Pittsboro. Sinclair Palmer provided a lush, languorous arrangement for “Three Things,” the EP’s touching centerpiece. “River” has a video by Florida photographer Shoog McDaniel where Cleaver swims in a sunny river while wearing a clown suit—persona in motion. In his arrangements, Crawford found inspiration in old records by Roy Orbison and Frank Sinatra, where someone would “sit in the big studio, Capitol Records, with the orchestra and sing,” Crawford said. “I was looking for this classic, beautiful support of a vocal that’s going to take center stage. Her voice is truly an instrument; the amount of colors—sometimes it feels like a theremin, sometimes it’s really powerful, operatic, very vulnerable, alternating within one song.” As a veteran of the first album—and a close friend who informally officiated the Cleavers’ wedding—Crawford saw the marked change on the second. “She’s very active in the production, very confident,” he said. “I feel like the project is generated from her wanting to do this instead of just feeling like it’s the right next step.” “I trust myself so much more than I did on my first record,” Cleaver said, starting to tidy up for her next client. “I even listen back to this new record and hear some things I’d want to change. But I always have to return to what I told Hope, which is that a record is a snapshot of a moment in time, and you’re not there to be anyone other than who you are right now.” W

MUSIC

Dolly Parton’s ‘Little Spot of Heaven’ in Durham From Dolly to Doc Watson, Sugar Hill Records forever shaped American roots music. Several efforts this fall will honor founder Barry Poss. BY PETER GARTRELL arts@indyweek.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNC ARCHIVES

t was a humid night in July, and the patrons of Atomic Clock Brewing looked at me like I’d lost my mind when I asked if they knew who Dolly Parton was. Of course they knew Dolly: her charity, her looks, her vibes. Some mentioned songs like “Jolene” or “9 to 5.” Others called her an angel. But no one knew that this converted 1920s-era municipal garage in Durham was once home to the small record label that released some of her most critically acclaimed music. Parton’s bluegrass albums in the late ‘90s and early 2000s were head-turning masterpieces that have been credited with revitalizing the career of the everything-to-everyone icon who died Tuesday at age 80. Parton told musicologist Lydia Hamessley that Little Sparrow was the “purest thing she has ever done,” while musicians have praised Parton’s bluegrass as deeply influential. What is mind-blowing today, as fans around the world mourn her death, is that Nashville’s country music establishment had written Parton off as commercially unviable at that time. “I couldn’t get a decent deal with a good big label,” Parton said in 2004, when she was 58. “I’m past the age group where they thought I could sell records for them.” Parton landed at Durham’s Sugar Hill

Records—a plucky independent label that released hundreds of albums for more than 100 artists and bands from the late 1970s to the mid-2010s. Sugar Hill launched and sustained the careers of highly respected musicians, ranging from bluegrass virtuosos and renowned singer-songwriters to Texas troubadours and offbeat folk artists, collecting shelves full of awards. “You can’t really think of bluegrass in its recorded music without thinking of Sugar Hill,” said acclaimed mandolinist Sierra Hull, 34. “It’s been a pivotal, pivotal part of the history.” Sugar Hill’s founder, Barry Poss, set out to build a label for contemporary acoustic music with traditional roots. He hired talented staff who devised wacky gimmicks and catchy album covers to win attention for artists. The resulting body of work built sonic bridges from front porches and roadhouses to stereos around the world. Twenty years after the label’s Durham offices closed, the accolades continue to roll in. Already a member of the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame in Wilkesboro, Poss will be inducted into both the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in October. “It was the top of the mountain,” said Dolphus Ramseur, who manages the Avett

Brothers and chairs the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame. “[Sugar Hill] might not be so well known, but they had a hell of a lot of respect.” But at Atomic Clock that night back in July, no one knew that award-winning musicians once darkened its doorways, or that receptionists used to swat away callers seeking to speak to Parton.

Finding Future Superstars Poss launched Sugar Hill Records in 1978 from his townhouse on Green Street in a shady neighborhood north of Durham’s downtown. In the early days, Poss used sleight of hand to hide the fact that Sugar Hill was a one-man band. When the phone rang, he posed as a receptionist who would check to see if “Mr. Poss was available.” Two things Poss did not have to fake: A nose for talent and a knack for getting it signed. Sugar Hill’s first release was from Boone Creek, a short-lived bluegrass band from Lexington, Kentucky, made up of Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, Terry Baucom, and Wes Golding. One Way Track was one of just two albums the hugely talented group recorded before breaking up. “You can compare it to the 1984 UNC

basketball team with Sam Perkins and Michael Jordan and Brad Dougherty,” said Art Menius, the Hillsborough-based founding director of the International Bluegrass Music Association, which Poss helped establish. “All on the same team, three future superstars in the NBA.” Skaggs, whose accolades include 14 Grammys and plaques in six music halls of fame, led Boone Creek with spitfire mandolin and his distinctive tenor. He left the band to play with Emmylou Harris, whom he had met at a late-night jam session, before returning to Sugar Hill in 1979 to record his first solo effort, Sweet Temptation. That album, Sugar Hill’s sixth, proved to be a turning point for both the artist and label. Recorded in two days on a $10,000 budget, Sweet Temptation was a huge success. Skaggs and Poss assembled top-flight session players, including Harris on backup vocals, with future North Carolina Heritage Award winner Marc Pruett picking banjo and Buddy Emmons on pedal steel guitar. Skaggs soon signed with Epic, a major Nashville label, and became one of country music’s biggest stars. Poss continued to assemble his roster, signing progressive bluegrass bands like the Seldom Scene, the Country Gentlemen, and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. He inked Chris September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 31

A Call from a Legend

Hillman, formerly of the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers. He landed Peter Rowan, who had played with the “father of bluegrass,” Bill Monroe, and opened for The Doors as a member of the psychedelic band Earth Opera. After he reached a deal with Epic to co-release Skaggs’s albums, Poss was able to move Sugar Hill from his apartment to a basement office on Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard and hire his first employee, publicist Penny Parsons, who spent the next decade at the label.

A Canadian Comes to Durham Poss was born in 1945 in Brantford, Ontario, a rural town about 70 miles west of Niagara Falls. He grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household in Toronto, one of three sons to Polish and Lithuanian immigrants. In 1968, Poss moved to Durham to pursue a doctorate in sociology at Duke University. Poss and his wife, Sharon, first took in bluegrass music at Cat’s Cradle, then newly opened in Chapel Hill. He began taking old-time banjo lessons, while Sharon played guitar. The couple crisscrossed the South learning from the region’s musicians and sharpening their skills at fiddler’s conventions. By the time Poss began working on his dissertation, he was playing more banjo than writing. He dropped out of Duke to take a job at County Records, in Floyd, Virginia, which specialized in old-time music. Hired as a graphic artist, he soon began producing albums, including a collection of fiddle tunes by the late West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd. Poss loved old-time music, but was restless to create a more expansive soundscape. He credited Boone Creek’s Douglas with helping marry traditional sounds with contemporary tastes. “Jerry Douglas, I think, had as much to do with the Sugar Hill sound as anyone,” Poss later reflected. He “captured that tension between the old and the new that I was looking for.” Douglas was born in a steel town outside of Cleveland, Ohio, but his family’s Appalachian roots trace back two centuries. As a child, he visited his grandparents in West Virginia, where friends gathered on the porch to play. “I’d be listening to bluegrass in the morning, and at night be hearing the rock stations, and trying to make this go together somehow.” When Douglas heard the resonator guitar, he was hooked. Better known as a Dobro, resonators have no frets, allowing fluid movement between notes like a trombone. With a metal slide in one hand and metal picks on the other, players pluck melodies 32 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

A collection of Sugar Hill Records CDs PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

over a hubcap-like cover on the body. Over a 50-year career, Doughlas has redefined the instrument’s boundaries, recording on 1,500 albums with artists ranging from Ray Charles to Mumford and Sons, and collecting 16 Grammys. Douglas released his own albums with Sugar Hill, appeared on countless others, and produced—or informally advised on— many more. The two also became close friends; Poss was godfather to Douglas’s daughter. One of Douglas’s memorable appearances was on The Grass Is Blue, Parton’s first Sugar Hill recording, in 1999. The players were so talented that Parton dubbed them “God’s bluegrass band.” It won a Grammy and the International Bluegrass Music Association’s album of the year. Douglas plays a cat-and-mouse game with Parton’s powerful singing throughout the album, his subtle licks answering Parton’s call. But the highlight was his rollicking solo in “Train, Train,” which Parton performed live during her 1999 induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Footage from the event shows Parton strutting over to Douglas as they perform, watching his fingers fly. “How do you do that?!” Parton exclaimed. “Woah!”

The Next Generation Sierra Hull, a seven-time winner of the IBMA’s mandolin player of the year award, ranks The Grass is Blue among her all-time favorites. Hull grew up in Byrdstown, Tennessee, a tiny town hugging the Kentucky border, where she spent hours listening to Sugar Hill albums in her bedroom. During an interview in July, Hull called Parton one of her biggest heroes, and pointed to the recording and musicianship displayed on The Grass is Blue: “Even if I could scratch the surface of something really epic like that, I’d love to.” But Hull credits a different Sugar Hill artist with opening her ears to the possibilities of the mandolin: Nickel Creek’s Chris Thile, a wunderkind who began playing at 5. At 13, he released his debut, Leading Off, on Sugar Hill in 1994. Before he could legally drink, Thile appeared on Parton’s Little Sparrow, the second of her Sugar Hill albums. Thile, now 45, has achieved global fame and a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant. Sugar Hill “never tried to steer the music in any particular direction,” said his father, Scott Thile, who managed his son’s early career alongside his wife. “They just were interested in what Chris was doing, and allowed him to be the creative force behind the recording projects.”

In the early ‘80s, Poss got a call he would never forget. A smooth mountain accent was on the line: “Son, I like the music you make, and I’d like to make a record for you.” It was Arthel Lane “Doc” Watson. Born to subsistence farmers in 1923 and blind from a young age, Watson started his career busking in the mountain town of Boone. A breakout performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1961 led to a long career, international fame, and a National Medal of Arts in 1997. His singular talent had made Watson a towering figure by the time Sugar Hill released Down South in 1984, recorded with his son, Merle, and a tight backing band. Signing Watson, “was the highlight of my career,” Poss said. “At that point I had it made.” Watson, who died in 2012, recorded a dozen albums for Sugar Hill. His stature further built the label’s reputation. “Doc Watson was a person that everyone looked up to and respected,” said legendary mandolinist Sam Bush, who first played with him in the ’70s. “I would play differently when I’d play with Doc because his playing was so to-the-point, and just all the notes always seemed right and perfect.” Bush is among the many Sugar Hill artists who trek to Wilkesboro each spring for MerleFest, the four-day festival named for Watson’s son, who died in a tractor accident in 1985. Founded in 1988 and powered by a legion of volunteers, MerleFest has raised millions of dollars for Wilkes Community College and local charities. Parton played MerleFest in 2001, an appearance Poss helped arrange. “He called me one night—one afternoon—and said, ‘Dolly wants to play MerleFest, but they’re worried about security, can you handle it?’” recalled the festival’s inaugural director, Frederick “B” Townes. The appearance broke attendance records. Today, MerleFest showcases a kaleidoscope of genres, from bluegrass and oldtime music to blues, country, zydeco, and Cajun. Sitting in a classroom after performing at this year’s festival, Donna The Buffalo lead singer Tara Nevins recalled how Poss supported her effort to make an old-time record. Mule To Ride, a passion project Sugar Hill released in 1999. “He put all his faith in me, and he let me make this record, and he gave me all kinds of artistic space to do it,” Nevins said.Nevins struggled to find the right words to describe Poss. “Barry did all that out of love,” she

CAT’S CRADLE (CARRBORO) Willow Avalon

9/9 WED

W/ TIFFANY STRINGER, MACY TODD

LOCAL 506 (CHAPEL HILL) 9/14 MON

Missouri Executive Order 44 W/ SNIDE, COVENANT EYE

9/16 WED

Kids Table W/ POWELL HOUSE, HORIZON

9/23 WED

Hot Flash Heat Wave W/ HIGH, THE WALLABIES

9/24 THU

Jay Buchanan

KINGS (RALEIGH) 9/14 MON

Black Marble W/ PUBLIC CIRCUIT

9/16 WED

Max Fry W/ AWANNABE

9/17 THU

Red Shahan W/ RONNIE AND THE REDWOODS

MOTORCO MUSIC HALL (DURHAM)

9/13 SUN 9/16 WED

Wind Walkers

W/ IF NOT FOR ME, TRUE NORTH

SOLD OUT!

Criminal Podcast Presents: An Evening with Phoebe Judge

SOLD OUT!

Oakwood

9/19 SAT

W/ CAMPING IN ALASKA, EMPTY PARKING LOT

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley

9/25 FRI

W/ DIALI CISSOKHO

9/26 SAT

Beach Weather

W/ EMERSON BRUNO, CHERRY MOTEL

STANCZYKS (DURHAM) One of the former Sugar Hill Records offices, which was rented from Durham Typewriter, is now being renovated PHOTO BY MATT RAMEY

9/10 THU 9/12 SAT

wrote in a text message a few hours later. “He was all about the magic and his vibe and direction of Sugar Hill Records did that … So much can be said and it’s hard because it’s also a feeling.”

Honoring Barry Poss Poss died a few weeks after last year’s MerleFest following months of declining health. He was 79. Douglas was touring with Krauss when he got the news. He couldn’t make the funeral—a tough reality for musicians who spend life on the road–but had been able to visit Poss in hospice. The old friends had a good afternoon swapping jokes and sharing secrets. “He was my wingman—confidant—and I was his,” Douglas said. Nearly a year later, Douglas was back in Durham for another show and toured the Carolina Theatre. The century-old Beaux Arts playhouse was a special place for Poss, who served on its board of directors and saw many Sugar Hill artists grace its

stage. Douglas and other friends are pulling together a benefit concert at the theater to honor his life and the label’s legacy on November 5. The event will fund an annual concert in Poss’s name with a focus on roots and acoustic music.

Saying Goodbye Sara Schwartz was among the former Sugar Hill employees who lifted glasses and reminisced at Atomic Clock after Poss died in 2025. The group gathered in Poss’s old office, now a dining room in the back of the brewery. Schwartz was working for Sugar Hill when Welk Music Group closed the Durham office in 2007. Welk laid off most of the nine-person staff and moved operations to Nashville. In 2015, Concord Music Group bought Welk and merged Sugar Hill into Rounder Records; it remains an imprint, but hasn’t released an album in years. Today, Schwartz works for PineCone, a Raleigh non-profit that promotes traditional folk music and dance in North Car-

olina. She’s glad to see the posthumous recognition for Poss. “There’s this whole thing about bluegrass music … people who are staunch and like ‘bluegrass shouldn’t change,’ and it should always have this instrumentation,” Schwartz said. “The beauty of what Sugar Hill was doing was reaching past that.” On a recent visit to Atomic Clock, Schwartz’s time at Sugar Hill came rushing back. She recalled fielding calls from Parton fans and packing promotional shot glasses to send to frat houses. And then, of course, there’s the musical memories like Nevin’s old-time songs and the fine picking of Doc and Merle Watson. For Poss, that’s always what it was about: one eulogy described his business model as releasing music that moved him emotionally. That credo helped him build a mountain of music that stood the test of time, or, as Parton once sang on Halos and Horns, “a little spot of heaven up on Sugar Hill.” A longer version of this story is available online at indyweek.com.

Dr Bacon W/ MY GAL MONDAY Horse Feathers

W/ RYAN AND HALLI OF RIVER WHYLESS

9/13 SUN

Sparta W/ PUBLIC OPINION

9/15 TUE

The Local Honeys W/ REBECCA PORTER

9/17 THU

Remo Drive/Sports W/ COMPUTER

9/18 FRI

Flamingosis W/ KHAMADI B. BROWN

9/20 SUN 9/22 TUE 9/24 THU 9/25 FRI

W.I.T.C.H.

W/ COR DE LUX (+ BONNEY THE KID DJ’ING)

Glitterer W/ BLEARY EYED, GUTTERED Jenny Owen Youngs

W/ NORTHCOTE, JULIA BARFIELD

Upon Your Dead Body

W/ WHEN THE SUN SETS, LETTERS TO PART

THE PINHOOK (DURHAM) 9/10 THU

Anna Graves W/ NICOLE TESTER

9/13 SUN

Alex Cameron W/ JOSH DA COSTA

9/14 MON

Acopia W/ LILLY FLOWER, KILLDEER

DANCE PARTIES IN DURHAM 9/11 FRI

DEBÍ TIRAR MÁS FIESTAS I The Bad Bunny Party (AT MOTORCO)

9/19 SAT

Broadway Rave (AT STANCZYKS)

more shows listed at

andmoreagainpresents.com September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 33

C U LT U R E C A L E N D A R WED 9/9

THU 9/10

LIKE TO PLAN AHEAD?

FRI 9/11

MUSIC

STAGE

MUSIC

12th House Sun 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham.

Hopscotch Music Festival Sept. 10-12, various times. Various venues, Raleigh.

The Basement Yard Live with special guest Antonio Prisco 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham.

DEBÍ TIRAR MÁS FIESTAS: The Bad Bunny Party 9:30 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Manic Third Planet, GILT, The Moon Ringers 6:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Raleigh Fringe Festival Sept. 10-12, various times. Theatre Raleigh Arts Center, Raleigh.

Fatale Frequencies 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

Marcus King: Darling Blue Tour Pt. 2 6:30 PM Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

“The Hayley Williams Show” 7 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, Raleigh. Patty Griffin 6:30 p.m. American Tobacco Campus, Durham. September Solstice 7 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. Willow Avalon – Pink Pocket Pistol Tour 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. STAGE Oedipus: King/Colonus Sept. 9-27, various times. PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill.

Anna Graves, Nicole Tester 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Cheekface 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. Davie Circle, Winterteeth, Goodcall 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. Dr. Bacon 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham. The New Flash 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham. Summer Nights, vol. 3 7:30 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham.

PAGE

PAGE Candis Watts Smith: Black Evidence 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. John Brackett: Touch of Grey, or How The Grateful Dead Became Pop Stars 6:30 p.m. Letters Community Bookshop, Durham. SCREEN BEYOND: Cary Film Festival Sept. 10-13, various times. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Friday Night SHIFT with DJ Nar 9:30 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham. Grand Y’all Opry: The All Y’all Country All-Stars, Ramona & The Holy Smokes 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. Keenan McKenzie & Mark Wells play the music of Frank Sinatra 9 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham. Larry Draughn Jazz Trio 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham.

Triangle Article Club: Like Book Club, But For News 6 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Shearling with Treasure Pains and Moon Womb 8:30 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill. Staind: Break The Cycle 25th Anniversary Tour 6 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, Raleigh. STAGE The ComedyWorx Show Fridays at 8 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh. Hairspray Sept. 11-20, various times. Raleigh Little Theatre, Raleigh.

Rising country music star Willow Avalon, a “southern belle raisin’ hell,” is heading to Cat’s Cradle on September 9. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAT’S CRADLE

34 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

The Harry Show Fridays at 10 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh. Hush Hush Fridays at 9 p.m. Mettlesome, Durham. Paperhand Puppet Project: The Wild Wisdom of the World Sept. 11-27, various times. Forest Theater, Chapel Hill. SCREEN Outdoor Movie Night: My Name is Pauli Murray 7 p.m. Durham Central Park, Durham.

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

FIND OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR AT INDYWEEK.COM/CALENDAR

SAT 9/12

SUN 9/13

MUSIC

MON 9/14

TUE 9/15

MUSIC

Adulting - Shallow Cuts 6:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

Joe Chambers 7 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Alex Cameron, Josh De Costa 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Acopia, Lilly Flower, Killdeer 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

156/SILENCE 7 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Air Supply 7 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Nana Grizol, Middnightt 5 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Ari Staggs Quartet 3 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Devon Gilfillian – Time Will Tell Tour 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Black Label Society 6:30 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.

Classical Music in the Park 6 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh. Eno River Association’s 60th Anniversary Celebration featuring Pura Fé & Cary Morin, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Tre. Charles 7:30 p.m. DPAC, Durham. Festival for the Eno 1-5 p.m. DPlex Plaza, Durham. Good Knights Rest, Thelastsceneineverymovie, Lloyd Christmas, and Eatthefuckingsnow 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill. Horizon, Kicking Bird, Sidecar 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. Horse Feathers 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham.

Notes on View: Salomé Sandoval 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh. The Onyx Club Boys 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham. Pepito and the Trash Cans 11 a.m. DPAC, Durham. Saturday Night Dance Party with Jorden The DJ 9:30 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham. Shallow Cuts 9:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham. STAGE Celestial Bodies Starring Shirley Sweet: Burlesque and Drag and MORE 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Golden Age Saturdays at 9 p.m. Mettlesome, Durham. The Screwtape Letters Sept. 12-13, various times. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

BABYMETAL WORLD TOUR 2026 7:20 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, Raleigh. Laurie Berkner Live 3 p.m. Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary. Sparta 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham. Sunday DRIFT Rooftop DJ Set with DJ Synko 4 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham.

Missouri Executive Order 44 with Snide and Covenant Eye 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Jake Blount 7:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Harvester and Heat Disaster with The Haks and Sunyata 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill. The Local Honeys 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham. Penny Loafers with Big Mistake, Teens in Trouble (solo), Shine Sprite 7:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

Ray LaMontagne With Special Guest The Weather Station 7 p.m. DPAC, Durham. Rod Wave Don’t Look Down Tour with special guest Fridayy 8 p.m. Lenovo Center, Raleigh. Stephen Dawes Presents The Skin to Skin Tour 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. PAGE Alayna Ravenwood: Eternal is the Night 6:30 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh

Two Runner, Sparrow Smith and the Resonant Rogues 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. PAGE Second Sunday Poetry Series: Grey Brown and Michael Hettich 2:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill

Babymetal, the Japanese trio of Su-metal, Moametal and Momometal, bring their fusion of Japanese idol music and heavy metal stateside to Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek on September 13. PHOTO COURTESY OF COASTAL CREDIT UNION MUSIC PARK

September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 35

C U LT U R E C A L E N D A R WED 9/16

THU 9/17

MUSIC

Death Lens, Destiny Bond, Dead Halos, De()t 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

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

Evening Elephants, Jackson Marshall 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Bodie: Sellout Tour 7:30 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Kaia Kater 6:30 p.m. American Tobacco Campus, Durham. Malcolm Todd Do That Again North America Tour 8 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh. Kids Table with Powell House and Horizon 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill. Pat Metheny: Side-Eye III+ 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham. STAGE

Circle Jerks & Municipal Waste 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Kyla Leshon, Pynk Moscato, Deja Imani, Jane Deux, Jai Jemini 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Little Feat The Last Farewell Tour 7:30 p.m. DPAC, Durham. Out Of Control Army 7 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. Remo Drive x sports. 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham.

Criminal Presents: An Evening with Phoebe Judge 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

LIKE TO PLAN AHEAD?

FRI 9/18 MUSIC shirlette ammons: Language Barrier at 10 7:30 p.m. Page Auditorium, Durham.

Club Venus: Zac Lor, Ver, Mofle 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

The Schisms with Hattricks, Bright Modern 7:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

Femme Friday Dance Party with DJ SandyJ 9:30 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham.

Tophouse w/ GoldenOak 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Flamingosis 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham.

STAGE Redbird Theater Co. Presents The Velocity of Autumn Sept. 17-20, various times. The ArtsCenter, Carrboro. Harold Night Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Mettlesome, Durham.

Leah Moore EP Release Show with The Carolina Junebugs, Jesse Fox 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. Militarie Gun, Softcult, Shady Nasty, Dazy 7 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

PAGE

Minus the Bear - Menos El Oso 20th Anniversary Tour 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.

Hush Hush Fridays at 9 p.m. Mettlesome, Durham.

NC Symphony: Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 Sept. 18-19, 8 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

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

Sarah Hanahan Quartet 7 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham. Scarlet Tantrum, Laurenicole, Snowblinder 6:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham. STAGE Gary Owen: No Hard Feelings Tour 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham. The Harry Show Fridays at 10 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh.

Grace Elkus: ProteinPacked Vegetarian 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Todd Barry 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. The ComedyWorx Show Fridays at 8 p.m. ComedyWorx, Raleigh. SCREEN Catvideofest 2026 Sept. 18-Oct. 1, various times. The Cary Theater, Cary. The Rocky Horror Picture Show 11:55 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

PAGE Kristy Woodson Harvey: Falling for Peachtree Bluff 6:30 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Dawes brings his Skin to Skin Tour to the Cat’s Cradle on September 15. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAT’S CRADLE

36 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

Sacred Spaces by Matthew Rushing and Du’Bois A’Keen 7:30 p.m. Reynolds Industries Theater, Durham.

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

FIND OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR AT INDYWEEK.COM/CALENDAR

SAT 9/19

SUN 9/20

MUSIC Broadway Rave 9 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham. Carter Minor with Scott Sawyer 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham. Cash Money + No Limit Tour 8 p.m. Lenovo Center, Raleigh. Edgehill – The Moving Out Tour 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill. Juan Álamo & Marimjazzia: Viva Coltrane, a Latin Jazz Tribute 7 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

The Milk Carton Kids, Paper Wings 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Oakwood 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. Overton, Wolves &Wolves&Wolves&Wolves 8 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham. Ripe 8:30 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh. Salt Maps + Outer World + Wigg Report 8 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham. Saturday Night Dance Party with Gay Agenda 9:30 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham.

TLC & Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue - IT’S ICONIC 7 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, Raleigh. YSL Records & Young Thug Presents: The New Generation Tour 8 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh. STAGE Golden Age Saturdays at 9 p.m. Mettlesome, Durham. Side Stories 7 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh. PAGE Paul Friedrich: Zebra and Yak: The Backwards Counting Book 10 a.m. NCMA, Raleigh.

TUE 9/22

MUSIC

STAGE

MUSIC

Annie Stirling, Emanuel Wynter, Katie Blvd 7:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

An Evening with John Waters 7 p.m. DPAC, Durham.

Glitterer 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham.

Band Capricio 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh. Salix Piano Trio 2 p.m. Baldwin Auditorium, Durham. Son Volt, Shannon McNally 8 p.m. Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw. Sunday DRIFT Rooftop DJ Set with DJ Nar 4 p.m. The Velvet Hippo, Durham.

PAGE

GoldFord - Space of the Heart Tour 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.

Sock Monkey Party with Jonathan Stutzman and Heather Fox 2 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Margaret Glaspy – The I Am Both Tour 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Shaboozey: Outlaws Never Die Tour with Noeline Hofmann 7:30 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh. STAGE Buena Vista Social Club™ Sept. 22-27, various times, DPAC, Durham.

Texas Guitar Quartet 2 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh. Whitey Morgan and the 78s, Rob Leines 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. W.I.T.C.H. 8 p.m. Stanczycks, Durham.

Join Jay Farrar and his band Son Volt as they “seek out the ghosts of America’s discordant or forgotten past” at the Haw River Ballroom on September 20. PHOTO COURTESY OF HAW RIVER BALLROOM

September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 37

PUZZLES CROSSWORD

RELEASE DATE—Sunday, September 6, 2026

Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle

To download a pdf of this puzzle or view its solution, visit indyweek.com/puzzles-page 87 “The ball must hit the cushion before dropping into the pocket,” e.g.? ACROSS 91 With 27-Across, 1 Add some patriotic Muppet oomph to 92 Home security 6 In good __ co. 11 “The Marvels” director DaCosta 93 Malaysian fleet 94 __ for tat 14 Latch (onto) 18 Speckled horses 95 Mexican lager 97 AKB48 genre 19 Dodge 100 Miami Beach 20 Zingy flavor fair for gallerists 21 “Sorry, I slipped” and curators 22 “You can lead a horse to water, 102 “Chickens will be fed in the but you can’t coop,” e.g.? make it drink,” 107 Designer initials e.g.? 108 Former Yankee 25 “Frozen” slugger, reindeer familiarly 26 “Come back __!” 109 “That wasn’t 27 See 91-Across wholly true” 28 Like rum barrels 29 Ms. Marvel, for 110 Tennis star Naomi one 30 Fruity drink suffix 114 Airport pickup option 32 “Oral contracts 118 Space City pro are binding,” 119 “Wear sensible e.g.? shoes and a 35 Cause of a lumbar support soccer ball belt,” e.g.? bending midair 40 Vigor 41 Fish eggs 42 Character who calls Homer “neighborino” 43 Romania neighbor 45 Letters said while showing a badge 47 “Ew, stop talking!” 50 “A new pope shall be chosen at a conclave,” e.g.? 55 Fall (over) 56 Et __: and others 57 Polite contraction 58 Castle protectors 59 Turn to rubble, briefly 60 Ancient land of the Fertile Crescent 63 Scout leader? 64 NHL trophy namesake 66 “The strike zone is between the chest and knees,” e.g.? 71 Significant amount of spots? 74 Piglet moms 75 Drank daintily 79 __-back 80 Unsettling look 82 Target of some laser therapy 85 City bond, for short 86 Birthplace of MLK

“READ THE INSTRUCTIONS” BY KATIE HALE

www.regulatorbookshop.com

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

Difficulty level: HARD

There is really only one rule to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box. The numbers can appear in any order and diagonals are not considered. Your initial game board will consist of several numbers that are already placed. Those numbers cannot be changed. Your goal is to fill in the empty squares following the simple rule above.

If you’re stumped, find the answer keys for these puzzles and archives of previous puzzles (and their solutions) at indyweek.com/puzzles-page or scan this QR code for a link. Best of luck, and have fun! 38 INDYweek.com September 9, 2026

9/6/26

Edited by Patti Varol

122 Coming-of-age story subject, often 123 Cheap, plastic camera type 124 Curtain beam, often 125 Agree to take part 126 Latin 101 verb 127 Copy 128 Public affairs network 129 Source of wealth

DOWN 1 Petulant cry 2 Petulant look 3 Salt and pepper, e.g. 4 Like Dracula 5 Air pump meas. 6 Super Monkey Ball developer 7 Rating for mild language, perhaps 8 Countess counterpart 9 French farewell 10 Recliner room 11 Part of a table setting 12 Shoreline feature

13 Sales rep 14 “Gee, that seems unlikely” 15 Treasure-y note? 16 __ glasses 17 Jen Psaki’s network 20 Dress-up box item 23 Liam of “The Naked Gun” 24 Draped neckline 31 Moore of “The Substance” 33 Get close 34 “__ go bragh!” 35 Shuts up tight 36 “Hijack” star Elba 37 Dabble in 38 Just hanging about 39 Dozes (off) 42 Sweet Sixteen org. 44 __ and vigor 45 Toned 46 Sarajevo’s region 48 “Light My Candle” singer in 117-Down

49 Long-term 84 Vegan thickener goals for some 87 Indonesian startups island 51 Sleeper sofa 88 Gawk 52 Dubai leader 89 Tripoli resident 53 “Downton 90 Small clock Abbey” countess inserts 54 Powdery mineral 96 “And I’m 59 Imagined finished” 61 Issa of “Barbie” 97 “Come along for 62 “What a downer” the ride” 63 Rte. finder 98 Italian “You’re 65 Anxiety-related welcome” med. condition 99 Bet calculations 67 Novelist Dinesen 101 Drinks noisily 68 Tuna roll wrap 102 Wasabi product 69 Singer Stefani 103 Some deco 70 Force measured pieces in newtons 104 __ Wafers 71 Start of a lament 105 Sludgy stuff 72 “Star Trek” 106 Big cat sounds android 111 Finger click 73 Movie 112 College soundtracks basketball 76 Family-friendly coach Barnes hotel room 113 Potter’s oven 77 How anchovies 115 Objections may be packed 116 Author Wiesel 78 Guinness 117 Musical set in serving, often Alphabet City 81 59-Across stuff 120 Involuntary 82 __ Lanka spasm 83 Michael of 121 Southwestern “Barbie” Indian state

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

CL ASSIFIED EMPLOYMENT Enterprise Data Analyst II First Citizens Bank seeks Enterprise Data Anlst II in Raleigh, NC to support initiatives w/in Bank that improve EDQ, governance, and analytics. Reqs: BS in IT, DM, Fin, or rel + 5yrs. Remote role. Base pay gen b/w $140,358 to $181,764/yr. For more info & to apply, go to https://jobs.firstcitizens.com/jobs & ref Job #2026-35219

LAST PRINT ISSUE’S CROSSWORD SOLUTION

Looking for easier advertising? TRY INDY CLASSIFIEDS! Email classy@indyweek.com or sales@indyweek.com for more information

YWEEK.COM CLASSY@INDYWEEK.COM INDY CLASSIFIEDS

September 9, 2026 INDYweek.com 39

TUE 9/22 @ CAT'S CRADLE

FRI 9/18 @ CAT'S CRADLE

MILITARIE GUN

MARGARET GLASPY CAT'S CRADLE SEPTEMBER 9/9 WE: ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS: WILLOW AVALON W/ TIFFANY STRINGER AND MACY TODD

9/12 SA: BRING OUT YER DEAD 9/17 TH: CIRCLE JERKS / MUNICIPAL WASTE W/ NEGATIVE APPROACH

SUN 9/20 @ CAT'S CRADLE

WHITEY MORGAN AND THE 78'S

9/18 FR: MILITARIE GUN SOFTCULT, SHADY NASTY, DAZY 9/19 SA: THE MILK CARTON KIDS W/ PAPER WINGS 9/20 SU: WHITEY MORGAN & THE 78s W/ ROB LEINES 9/22 TU: MARGARET GLASPY W/ ANNA TIVEL 9/25 FR: REVEREND HORTON HEAT W/ MESSUR CHUPS

11/8 SU: SLOW PULP W/ SNUGGLE

9/18 TH: LEAH MOORE W/ CAROLINA JUNEBUGS, JESSE FOX

11/9 MO: JULIA JACKLIN

9/19 SA: LOVE SPELLS W/ ORCA

11/12 TH: CHARLIE PARR 11/13 FR: DEERHOOF W/ MEAN HABIT, HEX FILES 11/14 SA: PROTOMARTYR W/J.R.C.G. 11/15 SU: FRUIT BATS W/ SARAH KLANG 11/16 MO: ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS:

AX AND THE HATCHETMEN W/ JOHN ROBERT

11/17 TU: THE WLDLFE W/ LANDON CONRATH 11/18 WE: THE BENDS W/ FUDGE 11/19 TH: DIE SPITZ W/ FAETOOTH

SOLD OUT

10/2 FR: FROG AND WOODS 10/3 SA: KEVIN ATWATER W/ JESSE MAZIN

W/SUGAREE STRING SOCIETY

10/5 MO:

W/ LILY SEABIRD

12/5 SA: TEMPLES W/GIFT

9/25 FR: BEBE STOCKWELL W/ GABRIELLE HOPE

HAW RIVER BALLROOM (SAX):

9/26 SA: CARRBORO MUSIC FESTIVAL

9/20 SU: SON VOLT W/ SHANNON MCNALLY

KICKOFF EVENT

9/27 SU: CMF HIP HOP SHOWCASE

10/9 FR: RIVER SHOOK (FULL BAND SHOW) W/ THE DEAD TONGUES 10/10 SA: BRIAN FALLON & THE

PAINKILLERS / TIM BARRY

10/11 SU: MORE SOUVINEERS FROM PARADISE: A TRIBUTE TO JOHN PRINE 10/14 WE: BRIGITTE CALLS ME BABY 10/17 SA: QUADECA W/ DERBY, OLEKA 10/18 SU: BENJAMIN TOD & LOST DOG STREET BAND W/ TOMMY PRINE 10/23 FR: WINYAH W/ FOXTIDE

THE SKIDS

12/19 SU: DILLON FENCE 2/18 TH: DINOSAUR JR W/STARCRAWLER

SOLD OUT

9/30 FR: BIG MISTAKE W/ BEDRUMOR, CHARLIE PASO

10/16 FR: THE LINDA LINDAS W/ GRACE BOWERS

OCTOBER

10/17 SA: THE BROOK & THE BLUFF

10/4 SU: SIX FOOT BLONDE

10/18 SU: EVAN HONER W/ ZACH SEABAUGH

10/7 WE: PALMYRA

PINK MOON GEORGIA MOON PERFORMS BLUE

MOTORCO (DURHAM) 9/10 TH: CHEEKFACE W/ CATBITE

AND MAX WAREHAM AND THE NATIONAL

10/7 WE: ROBERT LESTER FOLSOM W/ LIZ COOPER

BLUEGRASS TEAM

10/26 MO: DEV LEMONS

10/15 TH: GUARDIN 10/17 SA: THE WHOM, THEM PANTS,

KNOCKOUT ARTIST

SOLD OUT

11/8 SU: DEER TICK 11/5 SU: GREG FREEMAN 12/16 WE: KING BUFFALO

10/21 WE: AJ LEE & BLUE SUMMIT W/ THE CODY SISTERS

CAT'S CRADLE BACK YARD

10/22 TH: YHWH NAILGUN

MARCH 2027

10/25 SU: KARINA RYKMAN

3/10 MO: MISSIO W/ FIFTEEN0EIGHT

10/29 TH: MAGOO W/ SUNS OF STARS

10/24 SA: POPSICLE FEST THE CONNELLS, YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS, SUPERDRAG, THE MAYFLIES USA, THE POPES, & MORE

10/30 FR: DANA AND ALDEN

LINCOLN THEATRE (RALEIGH)

SEPTEMBER

NOVEMBER

11/17 TU: TINY HABITS

9/9 WE: BLUEGRASS IN THE BACK ROOM:

11/1 SU: TABITHA MEEKS

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM ETTORE BUZZINI, CAROLINA JUNEBUGS

11/4 WE: SAM SHACKLETON 11/5 TH: MICHIGANDER W/ WILDERNESS

10/31 SA: CAT'S CRADLE + ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENT: SAXSQUATCH W/ DPUGISH

9/11 FR: GRAND Y’ALL OPRY + RAMONA

NOVEMBER

9/12 SA: HORIZON, KICKING BIRD,

11/8 SU: ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS:

9/13 SU: TWO RUNNER W/ SPARROW SMITH AND THE RESONANT ROGUES

11/10 TU: TILLIE

9/14 MO: DEVON GILFILLIAN W/ SNACKTIME

11/11 WE: FRANKIE GAVIN

MUSIC, WEAKENED FRIENDS 11/5 SU: HARBOUR

11/20 FR: THE WAR AND TREATY

10/1 TH: RYAN DAVIS AND THE ROADHOUSE BAND W/ STYROFOAM WINOS

9/10 TH: DAVIE CIRCLE, WINTERTEETH,

11/3 TU: MENZINGERS, HOT WATER

11/11 WE: THE JAYHAWKS 11/15 SU: JOY OLADOKUN W/ NAT MYERS

10/14 WE: BLUEGRASS IN THE BACK ROOM:

10/27 TU: THE HAILS DUCKPOND TOUR

11/1 SU: THE ARCADIAN WILD

10/4 SU: LUNA W/ SISTER RAY DAVIES 10/15 TH: THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH

10/19 MO: AFTER

FEBRUARY 2027

10/2 FR: LUCERO W/ JOELTON MAYFIELD

9/29 TU: COLE BARNHILL

JOE TROOP AND THE TRUTH MACHINE

12/12 SA: SOUTHERN CULTURE ON

11/14 SA: GILLA BAND 11/20 FR: LIANA FLORES 11/21 SA: L'RAIN

10/13 TU: AZ CHIKE

12/10 TH: FRIENDSHIP W/CHARLOTTE CORNFIELD, MORE EASE

11/13 FR: JACOB SHARP MIDDLE KID ALBUM RELEASE SHOW W/ TAYLOR ASHTON

11/22 SU: SCATTRBRAIN

10/12 MO: OPEN MIKE EAGLE

DECEMBER 12/3 TH: HARVEY STREET W/TOBACCO ROAD

11/12 TH: EAST NASH GRASS

9/24 TH: DAMIEN JURADO, ST YUMA

10/11 SU: RAFAEL GREEN PERFORMS

SOLD OUT

EVENING ELEPHANTS

9/23 WE: SON LITTLE W/ KAM FRANKLILN

11/28 TH: CRAZY CHESTER (CARRBORO TRIBUTE TO THE BAND AND THE LAST WALTZ)

10/1 TH: THE FORMAT W/ THE GET UP KIDS

10/8 TH: WHITNEY

WHITNEY

9/17 TH: BITCHIN BAJAS

10/6 TU: THE TAKES W/MORRISEY BLVD

10/7 WE: RUSSIAN CIRCLES W/ PELICAN

THU 10/8 @ CAT'S CRADLE

11/7 SA: THE AFGHAN WHIGS

11/21 -22: HISS GOLDEN MESSENGER I’M PEOPLE TOUR W/ SAM AMIDON

10/6 TU: THEO KATZMAN

BITCHIN BAJAS

9/16 WE: EVENING ELEPHANTS W/ JACKSON MARSHALL

STEPHEN DAWES

9/27 SU: CARRBORO MUSIC

BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD

THU 9/17 @ CAT'S CRADLE BACK ROOM

11/6 FR: THE STEWS W/ TOMORROW’S PROBLEM

DAMIEN JURADO

11/20 FR: CARBON LEAF

OCTOBER

SON VOLT

TUE 9/15 @ CAT'S CRADLE BACK ROOM

9/26 SA: SAWYER HILL

FESTIVAL

SUN 9/20 @ HAW RIVER BALLROOM

THU 9/24 @ CAT'S CRADLE BACK ROOM

WED 9/16 @ CAT'S CRADLE BACK ROOM

GOODCALL

AND THE HOLY SMOKES SIDECAR

9/15 TU: STEPHEN DAWES W/ JOJOMBER

11/6 FR: AARON LEE TASJAN W/ MADELEINE KELSON 11/7 SA: YANA

SOLD OUT

THE TUBS

(OF DE DANNAN)

W/MARIE DRESSELHUIS

KINGS (RALEIGH) 10/24 SA: PORCH LIGHT

LOCAL 506 (CHAPEL HILL) 11/5 TH: AK'CHAMEL

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