WALTER Magazine - June 2022

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The Art & Soul of Raleigh

The New Veggie Garden BRIE ARTHUR LEADS THE FOODSCAPE REVOLUTION

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MEET RON PRINGLE TENNIS MEMORIES WITH MARSHALL HAPPER NC’S GREEN BOOK PROJECT

M Y L A G O S M Y W AY

C AV I A R C O L L E C T I O N S

R AL EI GH, N C | ROCKY MOU N T, N C | G REEN V I L L E, N C | L OS A N G EL E S , C A W W W.BA I L EY BOX.C OM

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for being named to

Forbes’ 2022 Best-In-State Wealth Advisors List.

The Founders Group Vanessa Haythorn, CFP®

Michael Berard

Richard Dworsky

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Senior Vice President/Investments

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DEPARTMENTS

Volume X, Issue 10

26 OUR TOWN

41

23

ART: Super Natural Exploring the beauty of the wild

26

MUSIC: Beyond Bluegrass Joe Troop’s global influences

29

NATURE: Clay Masters Mud daubers are good neighbors

32

SPORTS: Serving the Game Marshall Happer’s passion for tennis, on and off the court

35

FOOD: A Cut Above An Italian-style deli in Raleigh

38

VAULT: All Hands on Deck A pirate ship sets sail for play

On the cover: Brie Arthur; photography by Samantha Everette

8 | WALTER

41

HISTORY: Oasis Spaces Preserving Green Book venues

44

SIMPLE LIFE: The Incomplete Gardener Dreams, schemes and lessons

IN EVERY ISSUE 12

Editor’s Letter

16

Contributors

17

Your Feedback

19

Datebook

87

The Whirl

95

Extras

96

End Note

Bryan Regan (JOE TROOP); courtesy New York Public Library (GREEN BOOK)

JUNE 2022

CREATING CUSTOM HEIRLOOMS

raleigh’s custom jeweler jmedwardsjewelry.com

70

64 10 | WALTER

47

Diving for Anchor

by Stephen E. Smith illustrated by Stu Fjellanger

48

Chrome & Rubber Raleigh’s classic-car scene

by Josh Barrer photography by Eamon Queeney

58

Feeding Tradition Ron Pringle’s responsibility to address food insecurity

by Lori D. R. Wiggins photography by Joshua Steadman

64

Nature in Print Celebrating the South through the artistry of Katie Hayes

by Wiley Cash photography by Mallory Cash

70

Tropical Modern Color, texture and nods to the coast in a Five Points home

by Ayn-Monique Klahre photography by Catherine Nguyen

80

Bumper Crop Brie Arthur’s garden isn’t just pretty — it’s ready for harvest

by Miranda Evon photography by Samantha Everette

Catherine Nguyen (PORCH); Mallory Cash (PRINT)

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funny thing about working for WALTER is that it turns you into a little bit of a stalker. For many of our stories, our freelance writers and photographers are the ones with their “boots on the ground,” meeting our subjects in person. But as their text comes in and we’re designing the magazine, I ask a million follow-up questions and see our subjects’ faces thisclose on my screen. By the time we publish an issue, I feel like I really know these people. But… they don’t know me.

So fairly often, I’ll be out at dinner with my husband, and I’ll give him a nudge: “Oh, there’s so-and-so…” followed by some fun facts about their talents. And inevitably, he’ll say, “Do you want to say hi?” Well, that depends on the situation (and a little bit on how my hair looks that day). If that person looks like they’re, say, on a date or trying to have some quality time with their family, I usually don’t; this person doesn’t know me and they are just going about their business.

But if they seem to be out in a professional capacity or just hanging with friends, I’ll work up the courage. Because every time I do, people are so gracious.

And in this town, everyone seems to know everybody else, and very quickly we learn that a WALTER article isn’t our only connection. Like, that cool bluegrass duo who now has their own TV show?

Former neighbors of my daughter’s BFF.

The artist whose drawings we featured a few years ago? Turns out she was once the roommate of another mutual friend.

It’s similar to how any time we walk into Garland with friends, co-owner Paul Siler looks at us all and says, “Wait, but how do you know each other?” Because if anybody knows everybody, it’s probably him.

(By the way, this isn’t just limited to people we’ve featured: if you’ve ever landed in a photo in The Whirl and we get introduced, chances are I’ll give you a squint and try to figure out where the heck I know you from, though it might take me a day to figure out.)

The point of all this is to say, one of the best things about working at this magazine is that we truly feel like we’re part of the community. This town is still small enough that the people who are making cool things happen in Raleigh are our neighbors, or fellow fans at a performance, or folks we’ve chit-chatted with in line for a coffee.

Even as this city grows, I hope we can keep that small-Raleigh sentimentality — and I promise we’ll keep celebrating it here in the pages of WALTER.

Ayn-Monique Klahre Editor

Eamon Queeney

Our edit team at a recent Creative Mornings event.

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UNC HEALTH PRESENTS

JUNE 2022, Volume X, Issue 10 Join us for musical evenings under the stars!

EDITORIAL

PUBLISHING

Lawn Flex Pass 10-pack just $210! *

Editor AYN-MONIQUE KLAHRE ayn-monique@waltermagazine.com

Publisher DAVID WORONOFF

Plus, kids 12 and under are always admitted free on the lawn!

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Beethoven Symphony No. 9 SAT, JUNE 4 | 8PM

Movie Music Classics SAT, JUNE 11 | 8PM

All Mozart SUN, JUNE 12 | 8PM

Associate Editor ADDIE LADNER addie@waltermagazine.com Contributing Writers Kara Adams, Josh Barrer, A.J. Carr, Wiley Cash, Jim Dodson, Mike Dunn, Miranda Evon, Hampton Williams Hofer, David Menconi, Liza Roberts, Rachel Simon, Stephen E. Smith, Lori D. R. Wiggins Contributing Copy Editor Finn Cohen

Havana Nights FRI, JUNE 17 | 8PM CONCERT SPONSOR: GALLOWAY RIDGE AT FEARRINGTON

Juneteenth Celebration SAT, JUNE 18 | 8PM SUPPORTED BY: NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS CONCERT SPONSOR: TRIANGLE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

The Music of Queen SUN, JUNE 26 | 8PM

Contributing Photographers Mallory Cash, Liz Condo, Tyler Cunningham, Samantha Everette, Smith Hardy, Eamon Queeney, Catherine Nguyen, Bryan Regan, S.P. Murray, Joshua Steadman Contributing Illustrators Gerry O’Neill, Stu Fjellanger Interns Emily Gajda, Hayli Ira

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P HOTO G R A P HE R Catherine Nguyen is a Raleighbased photographer specializing in residential and commercial interior and exterior design. After starting her career in branding and marketing in her hometown of New York City, Nguyen decided to pursue photography at The Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Her work has been published in Flower, Home Design & Decor and California Home and Design. “I love the spirit Miretta Interiors brings to their spaces. They mix color and pattern in a chic, unique way. Their work is inspiring and always a joy to photograph.”

MIKE DUNN / WR I T ER Mike Dunn is a lifelong naturalisteducator living in the woods in Chatham County. He retired from working for the state after 36 years with the North Carolina State Parks System, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and the North Carolina Botanical Garden. He has conducted hundreds of programs and workshops on the natural world on topics ranging from wildlife in Yellowstone to insects in your backyard. “I want to help people see the miracles of nature that surround us like the fascinating lives of something as common — and often misunderstood — as wasps.” Dunn continues to learn and share his observations of nature through his blog as the Roads End Naturalist (roadsendnaturalist.com).

A.J. CARR / W R I TE R A.J. Carr embarked on his 50year sportswriting career while playing football, basketball and baseball at Wallace-Rose Hill High School. He began writing as a teenager for The Wallace Enterprise, worked with the Greensboro Daily News in college and spent four decades at The News & Observer. Carr has received several media awards, including three national awards for college baseball coverage, and twice was voted North Carolina Sportswriter of The Year.

“It was a great pleasure to write about Marshall Happer, who has made an incredible contribution to the sport of tennis.”

16 | WALTER

SAMANTHA EVERETTE / P HOTOGR A PH ER Samantha Everette is a portrait photographer and a Durham native. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from North Carolina State University with a bachelor’s degree in industrial design. Everette spent a decade in New York as a footwear designer and has since returned home to explore her passion for photography. “I’ve been obsessed with Brie’s garden for years. It was a thrill to actually see it in person and to meet such a passionate gardener.”

Courtesy contributors

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The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 17

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OUR TOWN Summer is here! Enjoy the warm weather at outdoor concerts, stargazing events, open-air markets, Juneteenth celebrations and more!

Juli Leonard (MARKET); courtesy Koka Booth Amphitheater (AMPHITHEATER)

by ADDIE LADNER and KARA ADAMS

ACROSS THE THRESHOLD OF INDIA All month | See website “Kolam and rangoli diagrams are magical and mysterious,” says Martha Strawn, who photographed the Indian ritual for an exhibit at the Gregg Museum of Art and Design. Often made using rice flour and displayed in public places or on the facades of buildings, these complex, colorful drawings mark important life moments like the passion of a loved one, a union or a birth. Free; 1903 Hillsborough Street; gregg.arts.ncsu.edu

THE MAGICAL REALISM OF HENRYK FANTAZOS

NOTED

HIT THE LOCAL MARKETS

All month | See website See the whimsical copperplate engravings of Polish-born artist Henryk Fantazos at Horse & Buggy Press Gallery. Fantazos, who is now based in Hillsborough, found inspiration in the natural beauty of the West Virginia farmlands, where he spent many years of his adolescence. His unique combination of Eastern European and Southern gothic style shines through in both his metal engravings and three paintings on display, most notably his newest painting, Nenufarium, which took him over a decade to complete. Free; 118 W. Parrish Street, Durham; horseandbuggypress.com

All month | See websites Relish in North Carolina’s summer bounty — heirloom tomatoes, crispy sweet corn, juicy peaches, fragrant basil — with a trip to one of our farmers markets across the Triangle. The North Carolina State Farmers Market (1201 Agriculture Street; ncagr.gov) is an easy go-to, but consider venturing elsewhere to turn your produce stop into a time to explore. On Saturday mornings, North Hills Commons offers the Midtown Farmers’ Market (4160 Main Street at North Hills; midtownfarmers.com), or spend your Sunday afternoons listening to live music while you shop at the Moore Square Market (226 E. Martin Street; downtownraleigh.org). On Wednesdays and Saturdays, the Durham Farmers Market (501 Foster Street, Durham; durhamfarmersmarket.com) is open for business at the pavilion at Durham Central Park, and on Saturday mornings the South Durham Farmers Market (5410 NC-55, Durham; southdurhamfarmersmarket.com) can fulfill your fruit and veggie needs.

SYMPHONY SUMMERFEST 2022 All month | See website Koka Booth Amphitheater is hosting a series of 10 concerts under the stars as a part of their annual UNC Health Sum-

All information is accurate as of press time, but please check waltermagazine.com and the event websites for the latest updates.

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 19

merfest celebration of music, including Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Movie Music Classics, Havana Nights, Juneteenth Celebration and The Music of Queen. Choose your performance or opt in for a full or partial Lawn Flex Pass, which guarantees lawn seats at all the shows so you can decide last-minute if it’s a Summerfest kind of night. Don’t forget to pack a picnic basket and a blanket for a chance to win the weekly prize for best picnic spread! From $33; Koka Booth Amphitheater, 8003 Regency Parkway, Cary; ncsymphony.org

WOMEN’S U.S. OPEN June 2 - 5 | See website The 77th Women’s U.S. Open presented by ProMedica will be held at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club for the fourth time.

It’s a rare opportunity to see some of the best golf pros in the world in action, only an hour from Raleigh. Multiple ticket options allow you to plan for a day or weekend visit, and children 18 and

under receive complimentary admission with a ticketed adult to enjoy scavenger hunts, autograph-signing opportunities and an up-close view of the tournament itself. From $20; Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club, 1005 Midland Road, Southern Pines; usga.org

bouzouki music and more. Try one of the Taverna Classics such as moussaka, a roasted eggplant and ground beef dish, or pastitcio, a traditional baked pasta, and make sure to leave room for a heaping helping of baklava. 326 Hillsborough Street; tavernaagora.com

DAYDREAMS: BAXTER MILLER

THE SWEET DELILAH SWIM CLUB

June 3 - 30 | See website Charlotte Russell Contemporary is showing a solo exhibition of photographs that play with the themes of color, memory and dreaming by local artist and creative director Baxter Miller. The exhibit features vignettes of coastal North Carolina through the lens of a life affected by attentiondeficit disorder. The opening reception will be held on June 3 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Free; 2012 A Fairview Road; charlotterussellcontemporary.com

GREEK NIGHT June 3 | 8 - 11 p.m.

Can’t book that dream trip to Mykonos?

Experience succulent lamb shanks, crispy salads and Greek wine served in copper wine glasses on the terrace rooftop of Taverna Agora. The experiential dinner will include belly dancing, traditional

June 3 - 19 | 3 & 7:30 p.m.

Head to Pullen Park for a performance of The Sweet Delilah Swim Club, a humorous play directed by Theatre in the Park’s Nancy Rich that follows five former college swimmers on their annual August trip to the “Sweet Delilah” beach cottage on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Grab your choice of wine, beer or a few snacks at the concession stand in the lobby to enjoy as you watch the characters come to life and reconnect in a touching tribute to female friendship. $29; 107 Pullen Road; theatreinthepark.com

JUNE BLOOM DAYS June 4 & 11 | See website Sunshine Lavender Farm in Northern Orange County is hosting open farm days when their signature crop is at its peak. Enjoy a lavender-themed picnic, relax at yoga classes on the farm, shop seasonal produce from Cooper-Lasley Farm’s pop-up stand, make a glass-blown hummingbird feeder or try a flight of lavender mead d from Honeygirl Meadery. Be sure NOTED to check out the new Lavender Love Shop & Farm Market for a gift inspired by the fragrant herb. From $10; 4104 Millstone Road, Hurdle Mills; sunshinelavenderfarm.co

20 | WALTER

FENTON GRAND OPENING June 4 - 5 | See website Cary’s newest mixed-use shopping space is opening, and they’re celebrating with a two-day extravaganza. Day one will include morning fitness classes with Athleta and Club Pilates in Fenton Square, face painting, a Town of Cary fire truck and an evening movie screening with popcorn followed by hot air balloon rides and a laser light show. Day two will feature penalty kicks and selfies with players from the North Carolina FC and North Carolina Courage with proceeds benefiting Read & Feed of

Getty Images (GOLF); S.P. Murray (LAVENDER FARMS); courtesy Fenton/ Hines and Columbia Development

DATEBOOK

Wake County, putt-putt activities, a DJ and vintage car viewings. Make sure to grab a bite from some of Fenton’s newly opened restaurants like M Sushi, Dram & Draught or Honeysuckle Gelato to round out the festivities. Free; 855 Cary Towne Boulevard, Cary; fentonnc.com

courtesy North Carolina Museum of Art (JUNETEENTH); courtesy Saturdays in Saxapahaw (POSTER)

INTERNATIONAL FOOD FESTIVAL June 4 | 12 - 10 p.m.

Downtown Raleigh will get a global makeover when the International Food Festival heads to Fayetteville Street.

Expect food trucks with locally made cuisine from more than 30 countries, including Sweden, Jamaica and Lebanon, along with beer and wine vendors. Free; 443 Fayetteville Street; Search “Raleigh International Food Festival”on Facebook

SATURDAYS IN SAXAPAHAW Saturdays | 5 - 8 p.m.

Drive out to the farm village of Saxapahaw and experience the town’s weekly Saturday event in the amphitheater.

Walk through their farmers market brimming with local produce, fresh bread, artisan ice cream and crafts, or listen to the sounds of live music from acts like North Carolina-based indie band Dissimilar South and country group John Howie Jr. and the Rosewood Bluff. Don’t forget to take a walk along the Haw River before or after your visit. Free; 1735 Saxapahaw-Bethlehem Church Road, Saxapahaw; saxapahawnc.com

CITY OF RALEIGH SUMMER CONCERT SERIES Sundays | 6 p.m.

End your weekend on a lovely note (literally) with the City of Raleigh’s summer concert series. The weekly

NOTED

JUNETEENTH JOY June 17 - 18 | See website Head to the North Carolina Museum of Art for a celebration of freedom and gospel music with award-winning performers Kelontae Gavin, Le’Andria Johnson, Kierra Sheard, Hezekiah Walker and Fred Hammond. A food

concerts take place at either Pullen Park or Fred Fletcher Park, and guests are invited to pack a picnic and a blanket to enjoy the music during summer’s longer days. June’s lineup brings Triangle Taiko, a local nonprofit that celebrates traditional Japanese drumming, and the Raleigh Jazz Orchestra.

Free; see website; raleighnc.gov

DANCE GUMBO June 12 | 5 - 6 p.m.

If you aren’t sure what kind of dance fitness is best for you, sign up for the North Carolina Museum of Art’s “Dance Gumbo” group exercise class held in the Museum Park. These invigorating classes incorporate a mixture of Zumba, pop, Latin and hip-hop dance moves into a single aerobic workout. The monthly group class, hosted by Byron Jennings, is a fun introduction to multiple styles of dance at once and is open to dancers of all skill levels. Free; 2110 Blue Ridge Road; ncartmuseum.org

truck will be on site to provide meals and beverages for the family-oriented concert. The celebrations continue the next day with a DJ set and dance party before a film screening of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Oscarwinning documentary Summer of Soul.

Events from $10; 2110 Blue Ridge Road; ncartmuseum.org

VIEWS FROM THE DURHAM June 13 | 8 - 11 p.m.

Reach for the stars on The Roof at The Durham, a rooftop patio and bar hosting an all-ages stargazing event in partnership with the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center. The Roof opens at 5 p.m., and adults can sip on specialty cocktails such as The Durham, a cognac and dark rum concoction, while all ages can grab a snack before a set by DJ Mic Check from 8 to 10 p.m., immediately followed by telescopic stargazing of the night sky. Free admission; 315 E. Chapel Hill Street, Durham; thedurham.com

ROBERT PLANT & ALISON KRAUSS June 14 | 7:30 p.m.

Head to Raleigh’s Koka Booth Amphitheater to see Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant and bluegrass queen Alison Krauss, who haven’t played together in Raleigh since 2008. They’ll be performing songs off their most recent collaborative album, Raising the Roof, which was released last fall, nearly 15 years after The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 21

DATEBOOK THAT MUSIC FEST Join 20 artists and bands on the field at Durham Bulls Athletic Park for a two-day festival celebrating North Carolina’s unique music scene.

Hear from bands with local roots including The Mountain Goats and American Aquarium, hometown heroes Chatham County Line, folkrock outfit Delta Rae and country artist Rissi Palmer on three separate stages. Make sure to pack a folding beach chair for field seating, or opt in for reserved seating behind the foul ball net. “Even if you only know a handful of bands, you’ll probably discover a few that you didn’t realize you’d like,” says Chris Edge of That Station, a co-producer of the event.

“I myself have never seen Mipso or Kate Rhudy live, and I can’t wait to see American Aquarium on a massive stage. We’ve got a great lineup.” From $45; 409 Blackwell Street, Durham; thatstation.net

their first joint album, Raising Sand.

From $59.50; 8003 Regency Parkway, Cary; boothamphitheatre.com

NOTED

everyone in the family entertained. End the night with a pint at the Night Market’s German-inspired beer garden. Free; 200 S. Blount Street; downtownraleigh.org

JOE TROOP & LARRY BELLORÍN

RALEIGH NIGHT MARKET June 16 | 5 - 9 p.m.

Enjoy a cooler summer evening at downtown’s Raleigh Night Market, where more than 100 local bakers, craftsmen and collectors gather to sell their unique goods and wares. Grab a bite from one of the many food trucks on premise, and check out live performances and games designed to keep 22 | WALTER

June 21 | 7:30 p.m.

Every Tuesday, the Raleigh Times hosts local acoustic acts as a part of their Beer & Banjos music series highlighting genres like bluegrass, folk, Americana and more. Grab a craft beer and a tasty bar snack before kicking back and hearing the musical duo Joe Troop & Larry Bellorín live (learn more about the two on page 26). Bellorín, a master of the Llanera music of his home country Venezuela, combines his musical and instrumental talents with the Appalachian pickings of Grammy-nominated bluegrass musician Troop. Free; 14 E. Hargett Street; raleightimesbar.com

JAMES TAYLOR June 25 | 8 p.m.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Grammy-award winner James Taylor is headed to PNC Arena for a stop on his U.S. summer tour. With a career spanning over 50 years, from 1970’s Sweet Baby James to a 2020 collection of covers, singer/songwriter Taylor has proved himself evergreen. Don’t miss your chance to hear his many classic hits, especially “Carolina in My Mind,” which was inspired by his childhood home of Chapel Hill.

From $55; 1400 Edwards Mill Road; pncarena.com

courtesy That Music Station (ARTISTS); courtesy Raleigh Night Market (MARKET); courtesy PNC (JAMES TAYLOR)

June 24 - 25 | See website

courtesy Elizabeth Bradford (ART)

ART

Pamlico Sound Bank

SUPER NATURAL Davidson artist Elizabeth Bradford celebrates the beauty of the wild

by LIZA ROBERTS

I

n a former cotton shed in Mecklenburg County, Elizabeth Bradford paints the natural world around her. With extraordinary, saturated colors and meticulous, zoomedin details, her landscapes can be exotic, surprising, even strange. They are also poetic: meditative celebrations of the beauty, interconnectedness and geometry of the natural world.

On canvases nearly as tall as she is, Bradford takes countless hours over many weeks to paint the magic she finds in nature. Sometimes it’s an eddy of water. Sometimes it’s the messy bank of a receded river, where roots protrude and collide. Trees, fields, ponds, creeks: Bradford finds wonderlands in them all.

Representational, but with deep, twisting tentacles into abstraction, her canvases

beg the viewer to look hard.

In January 2023, Hidell Brooks Gallery in Charlotte, which first exhibited her work in 1998, will host a new exhibition of her art. Wilmington’s Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington exhibited a powerful one-woman show of Bradford’s work, entitled A House of One Room, in 2021. Her paintings are also in the permanent collections of the Mint Museum The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 23

From top left: Elizabeth Bradford’s paintings Float Dream, Cumberland Island Swamp and Water’s Edge.

in Charlotte, the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Blowing Rock Art and History Museum, as well as in many top corporate collections.

This University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate considers herself largely self-taught as an artist, but she also studied painting and lithography at Davidson College and worked as an art 24 | WALTER

teacher before devoting herself full time to her craft.

Bradford says her work began to “develop a power” when she started backpacking in the mountains of North Carolina about nine years ago. With two friends, she started “going into a lot of obscure places, wild places, where the world is crazy,” she says. Now armed with a pole-mounted camera, she takes photos as she goes, hundreds of them in the space of a few days’ hike. These images become her inspiration when she returns to the studio. “Truth is stranger than fiction,” she says. “The wild is stranger than anything I can dream up.”

The truth is also more meaningful.

The wilder the land, the more Bradford says she finds to care about. “I’m on a mission to sensitize people to the beauty of the earth,” she says. To take things “that aren’t obviously beautiful and to render them beautiful.” She does that in large part with unexpected, vibrant oil and sometimes embedded shards of

courtesy Elizabeth Bradford (ART); Lissa Gotwals (BRADFORD)

ART

“I’m always trying to keep moving outward, not just repeating the same things.”

— Elizabeth Bradford

glass, something she once eschewed as a “cheap trick.” But after a number of years of hewing as close to the actual color of the natural world as possible, she decided she was selling herself short. “Why are you being this ascetic?” she says she asked herself. “Why are you denying yourself access to something you love so much? And so I started pumping up the color. And as a result I’ve gotten more imaginative, more intuitive. More soulful.”

She brings all of that to every one of her subjects, most recently weeds. “Weed studies have introduced me to some really cool forms,” she says. “Arabesques and extravagant curves. I’ve been playing with a lot of that… I’m always trying to keep moving outward, not just repeating the same things. I keep looking for newness.”

Actively challenging herself has become an ingrained habit, one that began the year Bradford turned 40 and made a promise to herself: “Instead of getting bummed out about getting old, every year

for my birthday I would pick something I didn’t think I could do, and I would spend a year trying to do it.” That first year, she decided she would paint a painting every day. A few years ago, she made the commitment to learn French. Lately, she’s begun renovating an 1890s farmhouse, one she discovered deep in the woods on the bank of a creek, far from roads and traffic and noise. A two-hour drive from her (also 1890s-era) Davidson home, it will serve as Bradford’s summer residence and studio. “It’s my dream,” she says.

And so as she ages, Bradford’s world gets more and more interesting — not that boring is an option. “The world is just so complicated and fascinating,” she says. “There are just not enough years of life to do everything you want to do.”

This is an excerpt from the forthcoming book Art of the State: Celebrating the Art of North Carolina, to be published by UNC Press this fall.

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MUSIC

beyond BLUEGRASS Joe Troop infuses his music with global influences and activist messages

by DAVID MENCONI photography by BRYAN REGAN

J

oe Troop is the essence of a worldly musician — he has literally lived around the world. With a style forged from time spent in Spain, Japan and Argentina, he plays music that sounds like an exotic mixture of these places, all filtered through the bluegrass of his North Carolina roots.

“Right now, I’m all about community building,” he says. “I want to be a presence in Durham and build something I can take elsewhere. I’m already bringing everything I learned from being out of 26 | WALTER

the country for 14 years back home.”

Troop, 39, grew up in Winston-Salem and fell in love with bluegrass music as a teenager at summer camp. Around the same time, he realized he was gay, and he is still one of the few openly gay musicians in bluegrass. Enrolling at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill took him overseas for the first time in 2002, to Spain on a foreign-exchange program, and he went on to live in Japan for a few years and Argentina for a decade. All the while, he continued honing his skills on banjo and fiddle.

Troop eventually landed in Buenos Aires as a music teacher and formed the “Latin grass” band Che Apalache with some of his best students. The group was a musical and cultural polyglot, making worlds collide in multiple languages and songs that did not shy away from hot-button political issues. “The Wall,” one of the most striking songs on Che Apalache’s Grammy-nominated 2019 album Rearrange My Heart, is a broadside against then-President Trump’s proposed wall on the southern U.S. border — in the style of a cappella bluegrass gos-

pel. “Lord and if such nonsense should come true/Then we’ll have to knock it doooooown” is a line that never fails to draw cheers during live performances.

Most of Troop’s work has activist strains, including his 2020 video series Pickin’ for Progress, an outreach program to register more progressive voters across the American South. He recently performed in Freedom Riders, a traveling theatrical show about the integration of bus lines in the South during the Civil Rights era. And Troop’s 2021 solo album, Borrowed Time, included a song called “The Rise of Dreama Caldwell,” named after an activist working to reform the cash-bail system in North Carolina’s Alamance County.

“Joe is an impressive person and an impressive talent,” says banjo legend Béla Fleck, a regular collaborator. “He’s passionate, cares deeply about injustice in the world and he’s not afraid to take a stand. Combine that with his amazing abilities as a multi-instrumentalist,

“He’s passionate, cares deeply about injustice in the world and he’s not afraid to take a stand. Combine that with his amazing abilities as a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and composer, and you’ve got a powerhouse.”

— Béla Fleck vocalist and composer, and you’ve got a powerhouse.”

You could say that Troop plays bluegrass with various accents rather than straight-up. Many of the songs he’s written both solo and with Che Apalache include lyrics in Spanish,

and the arrangements often sound like they’re filtered through a Mariachi band.

Rearrange My Heart includes a song with lyrics in Japanese called “The Coming of Spring.” “The guys were messing around on their instruments, and I walked in and said it sounded like Japanese music,” says Troop. He wrote a melody, and with some translation help from one of his UNC professors, lyrics to go with it. “It’s a portrait of spring in a little mountain village in the middle of Japan,” he says.

“We’re all really proud of that song.”

Troop’s current local bands include Joe Troop & Friends and a duo with Larry Bellorín, a Venezuelan folk musician who is also an asylum-seeker in Raleigh.

“He’s a living legend and an incredible singer,” Troop says of Bellorín. “And right now, he’s working a construction job, which I think is a crime against humanity. But his dream is to make a living playing music in the States, which I hope to help him do.”

After playing a series of weekly The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 27

MUSIC

Dustin Peck Photography

residency performances at The Fruit in Durham this April, Troop plans to spend the rest of 2022 touring, teaching at music camps and recording. Hot Rize mandolinist Tim O’Brien, another bluegrass heavy hitter who played on Troop’s

Borrowed Time album, says Troop has “buckets of talent and enough energy to power a small city.”

“The world is fortunate that he trains his force on social justice,” O’Brien says.

“He cut through the fog in a convincing

way with Che Apalache and his solo recordings. His musicianship is worldclass and his influences very diverse, but he really sneaks up on listeners to deliver important messages, too.”

The pandemic hit at a particularly unfortunate time for Troop, just as Che Apalache was building momentum with a Grammy nomination for Rearrange My Heart. The shutdown canceled a year’s worth of scheduled touring, and Troop hunkered down in North Carolina while Che Apalache’s other three members returned to Argentina and Mexico. They’ve been unable to reconvene, although Troop remains hopeful.

“The future of Che Apalache is a mystery,” Troop says. “I’m trying to figure out a way to revive it. The pandemic was like the house burning down, and 2020 was ashes. Then, 2021 was foundation work, trying to rebuild it. I’ll keep building in 2022. I hope to have a chimney up

by December.”

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28 | WALTER

NATURE

CLAY MASTERS No need to fear these wasps — mud daubers make good neighbors words and photographs by MIKE DUNN

W

asp! The word usually elicits a fearful response — especially for folks who’ve had an experience with the business end of one. But stinging wasps like yellowjackets, paper wasps and hornets are actually the minority; these are the more social of the species, ones that congregate at a nest site and guard it from any interlopers.

The vast majority of wasps are soli-

tary, with females building and provisioning their own nests, and they tend to be much less aggressive. We don’t know how many species of wasps we have here in North Carolina; one estimate predicts that around 2,000 different wasps may call our state home. Most people know only a handful of these.

One group of wasps many homeowners are familiar with are those known for their mud structures. These are often found around buildings, usually

under the eaves or in some other place protected from the rain; in nature, you can find them under loose tree bark or rock ledges. We know them as “mud daubers,” “dirt daubers” or simply “dobbers.” While many people may know their name and realize they are wasps, few are aware of their fascinating life history — and are often unnecessarily wary of their presence.

We have three of these wasps in our area: the Yellow-legged Mud Dauber, The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 29

NATURE

Clockwise from top left: Comparison of remnant nests from Organfrom Pipetop (left) Yellow-legged Mud clockwise left:and bloodroot flowers; Daubers; Organ Pipe Mud Dauber working a mud ball into a new nest; underside view of cells in lily an Round-lobed Hepatica; windflower; trout old Organ Pipe nest; a plug of spiders from inside one mud dauber cell.

Blue Mud Dauber, and Organ Pipe (also called Pipe Organ) Mud Dauber. Each is distinguished by its nest made of mud.

The first builds a globular nest made up of small horizontal tubes, often with a coating of extra mud smeared on the outside. Blue Mud Daubers refurbish the nests of the Yellow-legged Mud Daubers, emptying the contents of old nests and patching exit holes with mud, often leaving a bumpy appearance. These look a bit like a mud ball a kid might have thrown at a wall.

The best-known architects of the group are Organ Pipe Mud Daubers, whose distinctive nests are vertical tubes up to 6 or 7 inches long, usually 30 | WALTER

with several joined together to resemble a pipe organ. The female wasp chooses a protected site, usually near a reliable source of mud, and begins building her nests shortly after mating. She gathers mud in her mandibles and forms it into a ball, which she carries back to the nest in her front legs. Back at the nest, you may hear a buzzing sound as she rapidly flexes her flight muscles to vibrate her head and mandibles as she spreads the mud into place on the tube. These highfrequency vibrations help liquify the mud, making it easier to spread evenly.

Look closely at one of the tubes and you can see it is constructed of numerous mud arches, with each half of an arch

usually representing one trip to the mud hole. A tube usually takes a few hours to a day to complete.

After she is finished, the mud dauber female begins to hunt for food to stock her larder for future larvae. All three types of mud daubers in our area provision their nests with spiders (mostly web-building species), which they hunt and paralyze with a precise sting.

Keeping the spider alive ensures a supply of “fresh meat” for her young. An Organ Pipe female will bring several paralyzed spiders back to the nest, lay an egg on one of them, and then seal them into a single cell with a mud partition. She repeats this process until the tube is filled with five or six sealed cells, each with one egg surrounded by a load of spiders. An interesting side note: Blue Mud Daubers specialize in capturing cobweb-building spiders, including Black Widows!

A male wasp may guard the nest while the female hunts, warding off competing mud daubers or parasites.

Certain beetles, flies and other smaller wasps will try to sneak in and lay their eggs on the spider cache while the female is out. The parasite egg often hatches first, and that larva usually consumes the mud dauber egg in addition to the spiders. Studies show that if a male is present, there are fewer parasites in the cells, resulting in higher hatching success for the mud daubers.

But if all goes well for the mud dauber offspring, the wasp grub hatches in a few days and consumes the paralyzed spiders. It then spins a silken cocoon and forms a pupal case, within which it transforms into an adult. The emerging wasp chews an exit hole through the tube about the diameter of a pencil.

If you see smaller holes in the tubes, those were probably made by departing parasites.

There’s a lot to like about mud daubers, including the fact that they are non-aggressive. As with other wasps and bees, only the females have stingers, and you would probably have to catch one and squeeze it in order to get

Evenings E venin ings iin n the the Park Park

A DIY mud dauber preserve

stung. Plus, they’ve long lived companionably alongside humans. Years ago, while waiting in line under a shed roof to pay for some pottery at a local arts tour, I looked up and spotted numerous mud dauber tubes. I started telling my friend about the wasps and another potter overheard me. He went inside and gave me a set of tubes he had fired in his kiln, explaining that the mud the wasps use is excellent for firing.

Over the years, I have shared the amazing story of mud daubers in many teacher workshops — and it turns out most school buildings have at least a few nests on their exterior walls. One elementary school became so enamored with these tiny clay makers that they created what is probably the only known mud dauber preserve at a mud hole near the parking lot, erecting a sign, “Dirt Daubers Mud Factory,” to commemorate and protect the site.

So enjoy having our dobber friends as your outdoor neighbors. They are nonaggressive, fascinating to observe and may have even helped inspire some of your favorite mugs and vases.

There’s a lot to like about mud daubers, including the fact that they are non-aggressive.

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Marshall Happer at the 1987 French Open

serving the GAME Marshall Happer’s passion for tennis and influence on the sport

by A.J. CARR

T

hroughout the wide world of tennis, Marshall Happer’s footprint is indelibly etched in multiple places. A standout player on high school and college teams, this longtime Raleigh resident found a way to turn his talent into both a hobby and career — and, at 83 and despite a torn rotator cuff, is still enjoying playing tennis, now in the North Venice, Florida, sunshine.

“We played everything and I lived across the street from a public park that included tennis,” says Happer, who picked up a racquet at an early age.

32 | WALTER

With extraordinary versatility and verve, Happer left his mark as a player, promoter and tournament director. He was also a founder of Raleigh Racquet Club, an executive with the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and administrator of the Men’s Tennis Council.

In 2021, Happer wrote perhaps the biggest book in the sport’s history: Pioneers of the Game: the Evolution of Men’s Professional Tennis. It was 1,800 pages thick until he edited it down to 871.

“I was the only person who had this history,” Happer says, explaining why he embraced the project. The intensity of his

research could be likened to that of a scientist. He read the New York Times every day for years to find tennis information. He read the London Times. He collected minutes from meetings and files from the Men’s Tennis Council.

But before all this, Happer was a big achiever in his hometown of Kinston: an Eagle Scout at age 12, honor student and two-sport star in tennis and basketball.

Without any professional instruction, Happer developed a solid all-court game fueled with competitive fervor. He played on the men’s town team as a 12-year-old, won two state high school titles and

photo by Russ Adams / courtesy Rich Adams

SPORTS

Courtesy MarshallHapper

Left to right: Happer practices in 1956; playing basketball at Grainger High School in 1955; Happer with his 1956 State High School Championship trophy.

ranked No. 1 in North Carolina Junior singles and doubles two years. Equally effective as a point guard and co-captain, he also helped lead Kinston High to two state AA basketball championships.

His athletic journey continued at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he played on ACC championship tennis teams and earned undergraduate and law degrees. In 1964, he joined the Raleigh law firm of Manning, Fulton and Skinner and became an attorney — but remained a relentless tennis pioneer.

Over the next 17 years, Happer ran adult and junior tournaments as a volunteer and spearheaded development of the Raleigh Racquet Club.

“When I moved to Raleigh, the Raleigh Tennis Association kept up the six courts at N.C. State,’’ Happer says. “We had the ECTA tournament there, but when State said the public could no longer use those courts, we were stuck. It forced us to do the Raleigh Racquet Club.”

Happer needed to round up 125

members to qualify for a bank loan and buy land for the club. Unabashedly, he hit the recruiting trail like a basketball coach pursuing five-star prospects.

“We got all the tennis players in Raleigh,’’ Happer says, noting that Jerry Robinson, Dr. Sidney Martin, Jim Donnan, J.W. Isenhour, Norman Chambers, Sanji Arisawa, Cy King Sr. and Bill Tucker were among the first members.

The Raleigh Racquet Club, located on Falls of the Neuse Road, opened in 1968 with six courts. Tennis interest was on the rise and RRC eventually expanded to 25 courts with a swimming pool, clubhouse, 2,500-seat stadium and 400 family memberships. Today, 54 years after its inception, RRC is alive and well.

“Marshall got things done,’’ says Cy King Jr., the Raleigh City Tennis Director from 1974 to 2004. “He was a driving force. He was a great recruiter and when he asked you to do something, you did it — and you wanted to do a good job.”

The RRC became one of the elite

tennis venues in the South. With a first-class facility, Happer ran the Eastern Carolina Tennis Association Closed Tournament and North Carolina State Championship, and, for several years in the 1970s, brought in professional prize money events, the Southern Open and WRAL-American Express Championships. He served as tournament director and referee and oversaw a dedicated team of volunteers.

Players from South America, Europe and the United States came, including Jeannie Evert, Charlie Owens and a coterie of college All-Americans like Al Parker (University of Georgia) and John Sadri (North Carolina State University).

In conjunction with the Southern Championships from 1972 to 1977, Happer organized the 10-city Southern Prize Money Circuit to attract players. He also succeeded in getting a rule changed so these players could earn computer ranking points and advance to big-money tournaments.

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 33

Left to right: Marshall Happer, Don Budge, Arthur Ashe, Jack Kramer and Lew Hoad.

The USA vs. Croatia Federation Cup ful law practice. After accepting the and the popular Jimmy Connors Tour, administrator’s job, Happer left for New promoted by Happer’s wife, Karen, also York City with “a briefcase, no place to made stops at the RRC. The Raleigh Edge, live, no office, no bank account” — facing a team on the World TeamTennis circuit a colossal challenge to develop the first owned by local businessman Duane Long administration for men’s professional and former touring pro Tim Wilkison, tennis, which up until then had few played there several seasons. regulations and little enforcement power.

“Marshall made Raleigh a place on the Excessive player misconduct, officiating map,’’ says Billy problems and conflicts Trott, a local of interests among the attorney and former sport’s different UNC tennis factions needed fixing. standout. “He Happer charged in captured the tennis — and took charge. craze and brought Where there was in great players. He conflict, he created was a strong leader, calm. Where there was forceable promoter, chaos, he brought — Marshall Happer smart as a whip.” order. Developing a Happer’s strict code of conduct accomplishments with a penalty system propelled him toward international that cost players match points for misbeprominence. In 1981, after a worldwide havior was a big move. He enforced the search for a tennis commissioner, the rules, levied fines and collected the money.

42-year-old attorney was unanimously “There was $600,000 in unpaid fines,’’ elected administrator of the Men’s Tennis Happer says. “Players would appeal, but Council by a nine-member council that there was nobody to listen to the appeals. I included representatives from the changed that in 10 minutes. That made International Tennis Federation, pro justice swift. All nine members on the players and tournament officials.

Tennis Council were volunteers. They Leaving Raleigh wasn’t easy. It meant were not prepared for pro sports.” taking a leave of absence from a successAs a lawyer, Happer believed you had

“We made Raleigh a major tennis center. If you want to feel good, go to the Racquet Club and watch people play.”

34 | WALTER

to abide by the laws or pay, regardless of rank or reputation. He upgraded officiating with the first international certification program for tennis officials and by hiring the first full-time chair umpires.

In 1983, New York Times columnist Dave Anderson wrote that Happer was “the most important man in tennis” — this, in an era that featured legendary players like John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg and Ivan Lendl.

As a result of Happer’s leadership, sportsmanship and officiating improved significantly. His rules created strong backlash, but overall he drew praise for managing with character, integrity, fairness — and toughness when required.

“I was opposed to many of the rules Marshall held us to and we fought all the time, but looking back, he had an impossible job, which he tried to manage in the fairest way possible,” Lendl wrote in Pioneers of the Game.

“I wasn’t in the buddy business with players… I was like the highway patrolman,’’ says Happer. Yet he earned the respect of players, officials and high-ranking tennis leaders. McEnroe, Connors and Lendl — all of whom Happer fined and suspended at some point or another — each wrote letters praising and supporting him for induction to the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.

“Marshall was without question one of the most, if not the most, visionary and influential leader during one of the most momentous and critical periods in tennis history after the beginning of the Open Era,” wrote Charlie Pasarell, former U.S. Davis Cup Player and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) president.

“Men’s tennis today owes a huge thank you to Marshall Happer,” wrote former ATP executive director Butch Buchholz.

“Professional tennis needed someone with Marshall’s passion for tennis and legal background to build the foundation for the sport we enjoy today.”

Happer fondly reflects on those achievements. “We made Raleigh a major tennis center,” he says. “If you want to feel good, go to the Racquet Club and watch people play.”

photo by Russ Adams / courtesy Rich Adams

SPORTS

FOOD Andrew Hannon

A CUT ABOVE Building on Italian influences and a nose-to-tail butchery, Alimentari offers sandwiches, meats and more

by ADDIE LADNER photography by LIZ CONDO

F

or Josh DeCarolis, a bologna sandwich isn’t that processedmeat-on-white-bread concoction most Americans envision.

Rather, it’s a melt-in-yourmouth Mortadella Tagelle, made with pale-pink cured ham speckled with fat and pistachios, on bread that resembles a smaller, softer English muffin.

A tagelle is essentially the Italian version of a slider, which originated in the Bologna region of Italy before making

its way west. It was DeCarolis’ go-to lunch while studying in Italy for five months at Le Vecchia Scuola Bolognese cooking school. While there, he’d frequent a medieval piazza for lunch, sampling various versions of the sandwich.

“Tagelles are great because you order a few of them and get to try different things,” says DeCarolis, whose family has roots in Southern Italy.

Such was the inspiration for Alimentari at Left Bank, a counter tucked in

a corner of Transfer Co. Food Hall. In Italy, an “alimentari” is essentially a convenience store, a place that offers fresh cheese, cured meats, a quick bite to eat and a few things to take home for dinner. “That was sort of the abstract inspiration for it,” says DeCarolis, who is also head chef and owner of Mother & Sons in Durham. He cooked up Alimentari along with Ross Flynn of Left Bank Butchery in Saxapahaw and Andrew Hannon, their head butcher. “We’d

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 35

FOOD

Clockwise from left: The deli counter at Alimentari; chef Issac Shuman; assorted tagelles and pasta salad.

share ideas and stories about finding more ways to use Ross’ access to local meats, Josh’s knowledge of Italian food and my love of a deli. The three of us created this crazy model,” says Hannon.

An Ohio native, Hannon fell in love with sandwich shops when running a deli and butcher in undergrad at Miami University. After graduating, he started a career in software, but the idea of running his own deli and meat market was always in the back of his mind. In early 2019, as Transfer Co. Food Hall was opening in downtown Raleigh, the three conjured up the concept for Alimentari.

To create the menu, they enlisted Issac Shuman, who had previously worked at Mateo in Durham and studied culinary arts at Johnson and Wales University in 36 | WALTER

Charlotte. “He helped me understand and fulfill the dream of becoming more of a full-service deli,” says Hannon. The

“We’re a true noseto-tail butcher.

We use all the parts of the animal, even the pork liver.”

— Andrew Hannon menu offers a gamut of items, often using lesser-known cuts in inventive ways.

“I am a big proponent of not overdoing things and making a dish with just

two or three ingredients,” says Shuman.

“Having high-quality meats and local produce means I can manipulate it just enough.” In addition to the tagelles, there are large-format sandwiches inspired by classics from around the United States. One that they are especially proud of is the beef belly pastrami, made by curing the belly of the cow. “Something like a beef belly wouldn’t typically get used for anything but ground beef.

That’s my challenge, but it makes it fun, finding ways to use these parts of the animal,” says Shuman.

Inside the deli case, you’ll find sundried tomato and mozzarella salad, pesto, sauces, giardiniera (a classic Italian antipasto mix of pickled cauliflower, carrots and celery) and sausages to take

home to grill. There’s a large selection of cheeses and cured meats — salami and pepperoni but also more obscure ones like guanciale, a dry-aged, cured pork jowl. “We’re one of the only people that make this on the East Coast,” says Hannon. There’s fresh, house-made pasta by the pound, pizza dough for a night in and steak for a weekend cookout.

Except for the cheese, which they source from local purveyors like Chapel Hill Creamery or Boxcar, and a few select Italian cured meats (“The Italians know what they’re doing, why mess with a good thing?” says Shuman), it's all made in-house. The selection is largely Italian, but Shuman isn’t afraid to “adapt from the familiar,” he says, noting that a popular sausage they make has Thai influences, infused with coconut milk, cilantro and lemongrass. “I like to play a lot on the seasons; our summer lasts so long here and we’ve got access to great farms,” Shuman says.

From the butcher, it’s about variety: there are three kinds of pork chops, for example, and a rare cut called the Secreto, the pork version of brisket, made from the pectoral muscle. “We’re a true nose-to-tail butcher. We use all the parts of the animal, even the pork liver,” says Hannon. Alimentari works primarily with two farms to source the meat for butchering: Cane Creek Farm for pork and Braeburn Farm for beef, both in the Snow Camp area.

The hope is that when someone comes for a sandwich, they’ll learn more about the food, and leave with the inspiration (and ingredients) to try something new at home. “We’re meeting a clientele that might not make a special trip to a butcher,” Shuman says. It’s part of building a culture of enjoying food together.

Says Hannon: “To me, delis are like coffee shops — they are the cornerstones of communities.”

Alimentari’s house-made spaghetti with pesto, blistered tomatoes, guanciale and pecorino.

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The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 37

VAULT

all HANDS on DECK Fifteen years in, this pirate ship still sets sail for play

by HAMPTON WILLIAMS HOFER photography by JOSHUA STEADMAN

A

t 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 29, 2007, Marbles CEO Sally Edwards stood at the bow of a three-story wooden pirate ship and painted the finial knob bright blue, a finishing touch on the feature exhibit of the then brandnew Marbles Kids Museum. Just hours later, Marbles would open its doors for the first time to the Raleigh community.

Leadership of the new museum — the successor to Exploris and Playspace — sought a signature, one-of-a-kind piece to set the tone for what they knew Marbles could become: one of the most visited children’s museums in the coun38 | WALTER

try. That initial piece was a pirate ship known as The Blue Marble.

Today, the ship is approaching its 15th birthday and remains a somewhat hidden gem in the vast landscape of children’s dream-makers at Marbles (you’ll have to get the kids past the school bus, fire truck, farm and submarine to get to it).

As summer approaches, with both boats and cooler indoor play alternatives on the mind, the pirate ship is the spot. And it has a surprising origin story.

With a shoestring budget and a nearly impossible timeline of only 24 days, local volunteer architects, welders, and carpenters collaborated to create this wooden

ship that lives on the first floor. Chris Alexander, director of exhibits at Marbles, recalls the ship’s formation: “In an area of the museum where we were retaining some water-themed components, we thought, with North Carolina’s rich history with pirates, why not a pirate ship?” he says, a nod to one of the most notorious pirates, Blackbeard, along with his many contemporaries who mauraded the shores from Currituck to Cape Fear.

“We knew the design and construction would be formidable, but our community was stepping up in amazing ways to help create Marbles. It truly was an ‘all hands on deck’ undertaking.”

The deck of the ship, left, and Sally Edwards and Chris Alexander atop the pirate ship.

Across the building that had once been Exploris Museum and School, numerous designers and builders who normally competed were working together to bring Marbles Kids Museum to life.

For the pirate ship, the star was David Maurer, president of Maurer Architecture, who led the effort to create a site-specific, realistic pirate ship that met both programmatic needs and building codes. “We — David jumped at the chance to make a mark at the emerging new children’s museum. It took our entire firm to bring the pirate ship to life, with late nights and weekends and calling in favors,” recalls Maurer, who became its Noah, working relentlessly with his team to complete the ship before the visitors flooded Marbles. “Looking back, it was a cool opportunity to exercise our

creativity in a playful way and to get to design and build something one-of-akind. The ship’s lasting popularity and durability are testament to the many caring hands involved in its creation.”

Wake County contributed pecan boards milled from trees downed at the Historic Oak View County Park during Hurricane Fran. That wood forms the interior of the ship, where children unknowingly run their Maurer fingers along the history of this city. Maurer’s team sourced reclaimed materials for the hull, and North Carolina Maritime Museums built and donated the masts. Sedaris Hardwood Floors stepped in to lay the decking, and carpenters from renovators Barnhill Contracting Company helped finish the ship on time.

Edwards has since spent many more

“It took our entire firm to bring the pirate ship to life, with late nights and weekends and calling in favors.”

late nights perfecting new exhibits, but the pirate ship stands out. “Coming on board in 2007 to lead a merger and create a new children’s museum was an exciting career adventure, albeit a risky one. Back then, the pirate ship project mirrored that risk and adventure,” she says. “Today, it symbolizes all that Marbles means to me — dreaming big, playing bold, and teaming up to rally past perceived limits of creativity and resources.” The pirate ship set a standard for Marbles’ signature kid-scale environments like its popular fire truck and grocery store. For Alexander, it was his first chance to utilize his skills on an original exhibit: “The pirate ship really helped set Marbles apart in the beginning and laid the groundwork for how we would continue to think big and bold.”

The pirate ship doesn’t just look really cool: it is a hotbed for learning. Children duck into its underbelly and climb the ladders, learning safe-risk and motor skills. “Witnessing the joyful pride of a The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 39

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child who overcomes fear to reach the crow’s nest is a deeply special, almost spiritual moment, every single time,” says Edwards. “Waiting for a chance to swing in the captain’s hammock fosters critical social and emotional skills like recognizing and managing emotions, negotiating, taking others’ perspective, delaying gratification, reading social cues, taking turns and sharing.”

Marbles leadership taps into research from an educator advisory board and content experts to create richly layered and ever-evolving experiences. “Every exhibit is intentionally designed to foster early childhood learning and development through play,” says Edwards, who’s set to retire at the end of this month. Over her tenure, Marbles has earned numerous awards and recognitions, garnering a spot as the sixth most visited attraction in all of North Carolina. The museum has grown and added new, upgraded exhibits, but there in the back corner of the first floor, the pirate ship remains, with children shouting arg! and ahoy! as they lean over the blue finial that still sits boldly on the bow.

So many minds and hands from all over the community, recognizing the power of play, came together to create a pinnacle of Marbles that has stood the test of time. “Ultimately, the pirate ship contributed to building the culture of creativity, teamwork, and community engagement that still drives us today,” says Alexander.

HISTORY

courtesy New York Public Library (GREEN BOOK)

OASIS SPACES Five historic Green Book sites that welcomed Black visitors in a segregated Raleigh

by EMILY GAJDA

1956 Green Book

T

hrough the early 1900s, the rise of Jim Crow laws and racial segregation meant that many spaces were not welcoming to Black Americans. During this time, travel was especially unsafe — while locals might know which businesses were friendly, out-of-towners would not.

That’s why Victor Hugo Green, a postal carrier from Harlem, created The Negro Motorist Green Book.

The first edition of the Green Book was published in 1936. It was 15 pages long and listed businesses in metropolitan New York that Green knew welcomed Black patrons. The book was so popular that he updated and expanded it for a reprint in 1937. Green continued to use his network of postal carriers to identify friendly businesses across the United States and it soon grew into an annual, international guide. By 1940, the book was more than 80 pages long and

came to be known as the “Bible of Black travel,” and by the 1960s, the title was changed to The Travelers’ Green Book, International Edition.

In addition to business listings, the Green Book included travel essays, safedriving tips and advertisements.

Through a relationship with marketing executive James A. Jackson, oil company Esso became a sponsor of the Green Book and sold it at gas stations across the United States.

The book went out of print in 1967, but interest in cataloging and preserving its listed sites has continued. The North

Carolina African American Heritage Commission (AAHC) started The Green Book Project in 2017 to gather information about the 327 listings in our state into a centralized online database. “We want to advocate for these sites and hopefully save these buildings before it’s too late,” says AAHC’s associate director, Adrienne Nirdé. “It’s history that is still standing all around us, and it’s really not that long ago.”

Thanks to a recent grant from the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, the AAHC is also developing a

“We want to advocate for these sites and hopefully save these buildings before it’s too late. It’s history that is still standing all around us, and it’s really not that long ago.”

— Adrienne Nirdé

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 41

Clockwise from top left: The sites of the former New York Restaurant, Peter & Mike Grill, Hall’s Beauty Parlor, and G. & M. Tailoring. Below: An ad for New York Restaurant (which was also listed as New York Cafe) from the Green Book.

plan for historical markers to note Green Book sites in North and South Carolina.

“We’re developing the infrastructure to map these Green Book sites, with the goal of creating a case study for other places across the country to preserve and mark this history,” says Nirdé.

Of more than 30 listings from Wake County, fewer than 10 of the buildings that were listed in the Green Book are still standing, and all look drastically different. In Raleigh, many of the businesses are along East Hargett Street, an area once known as Black Main Street.

Here are five local Green Book locations you can still see today.

much of the 20th century. At one time, the building contained medical and law offices, a pharmacy, a restaurant, the office of The Carolinian newspaper and a hotel. Thought to be the first hotel for Black travelers in North Carolina, the Arcade was founded by mortician and architect Calvin Esau Lightner in 1921. The building changed ownership throughout the years, but was listed in the Green Book as Arcade Hotel on and off from 1938 until 1955, then as Home Eckers Hotel from 1961 through 1967.

The building was destroyed by a fire in 1970, and the space it occupied now holds Raleigh’s central bus station.

LIGHTNER ARCADE HOTEL AND DINING ROOM 122 East Hargett Street The Lightner Arcade and Hotel was at the center of the business and cultural hub of Raleigh’s Black community for

NEW YORK RESTAURANT 108 East Hargett Street Owned by Greek immigrant William Michael Moras, New York Restaurant (also known as the New York Cafe) was a family-owned and -operated cafe on

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East Hargett Street listed in the Green Book on and off from 1950 until 1967.

Moras’ children worked alongside African American waitstaff at the restaurant. The bright red, three-story building that housed the restaurant now holds Architect Bar and London Bridge Pub.

Bryan Regan (BUILDINGS); courtesy North Carolina African American Heritage Commission (GREEN BOOK AD)

HISTORY

courtesy New York Public Library (GREEN BOOK)

G. & M. TAILORING 106 East Hargett Street Owned and operated by Joseph Miller, this tailor shop was listed in the Green Book from 1954 to 1955. Miller owned a store called Fine Men’s Shops Inc. on Fayetteville Street prior to opening G. & M. Tailoring in 1952. The low, gray building on the south side of East Hargett now holds Nicholson’s Barber & Style Shop and is right next to the red building that once held New York Restaurant.

HALL’S BEAUTY PARLOR 323 North Tarboro Street Hall’s Beauty Parlor was co-owned

by Beatrice Hall, Halsie Chavis and Alice Lewis, and after three locations, found its permanent home at 323 North Tarboro Street, at the corner of North Tarboro Street and just across from the former Saint Agnes Hospital on Saint Augustine’s University campus. Hall

was an influential member of the community as a beautician and taught many young women how to style and take care of their hair. The beauty parlor was advertised in the Green Book from 1954 until 1955, and its low brick building now contains a barber shop, market and other businesses.

PETER & MIKE GRILL 430 S. Dawson Street Peter & Mike Grill was created and co-owned by Michael Thevis, a Greek immigrant to the United States, and his brother-in-law Peter Pavlakos. The restaurant, which employed African Americans and was listed in the Green Book from 1950 to 1952, was at the corner of South Dawson and Cabarrus Streets. Next time you’re driving south on Dawson Street, keep an eye out for a single-story, bright green building — it now houses Fiction Kitchen.

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The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 43

SIMPLE LIFE

The Incomplete Gardener We dream and scheme — and forever learn

by JIM DODSON illustration GERRY O’NEILL

O

ver the past five years, I’ve been building a garden of shade and light beneath towering oaks in the old neighborhood where I grew up, my third effort at a major landscape project.

The first was a woodland retreat I built on 15 acres atop a sunny coastal hill in Maine, carved out of a beautiful forest of beech and birch. I was a new father when the gardening bug bit with emphasis, inspired by the British sporting estates and spectacular public botanical gardens I routinely visited in my work as a golf editor and outdoors correspondent for a pair of national magazines.

My children spent the first decade of their lives on that hilltop, living in a rugged post-and-beam house I built with my own hands and never expected to leave. It was, or so I told myself, my dream home and private garden sanctuary, the last place on earth I would abandon. My obsession with gardening even inspired me to spend two years researching and writing a book about the horticulture world, the beautiful madness that over-

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takes those who fall in love with shaping landscapes.

It was difficult to say goodbye to that little piece of heaven, but life changes when you least expect. That’s an important lesson of living. When I had an opportunity to come home to the South and teach writing at a top Virginia university and start a trio of arts magazines across my home state of North Carolina, I didn’t hesitate.

Next came a cottage on 2 acres in Pinehurst that we inhabited for a year with the full intention of buying. The property came with a charming but wildly overgrown garden and an aging swimming pool. Over a full year, I liberated a handsome serpentine brick fence, rebuilt the garden and enclosed the property with a new wooden fence and gate. We also updated the pool and enjoyed it for the span of one lovely summer. Our golden retriever, Ajax, particularly enjoyed the pool, taking himself for a dip every morning and floating for hours on his own air mattress.

The problem was the cottage. It was built over a forest swamp and turned out,

upon the required inspection for sale, to have massive mold below decks. The entire structure had to be immediately evacuated and gutted. We took a bath on the deal, a gamble, and lost a small fortune. But such is life. One lives, learns and moves on.

The Midcentury house we bought six years ago in the Piedmont city where I grew up was built by the Corry family — a beautiful California-style bungalow that was Big Al Corry’s dream house. Mama Corry was the last to live in it, and the family was thrilled when they learned we were buying it because I had grown up two doors away from the Corry boys.

As we approach six years on the grounds, restoration of the house is nearly complete. Sometime later this summer, after I finish the stone pathways and install a new wooden fence and gate, my latest woodland garden will be complete as well.

Or will it?

One of the lessons I’ve learned from building three ambitious gardens is that a garden is never complete — and neither is its creator.

We don’t just grow a garden. It continually grows us.

I think of this phenomenon as the garden within.

We scheme and dream, we build and revise, we learn from the past, forever growing.

As my friend Tony Avent, the gifted Raleigh plantsman, once told me: no garden — or gardener — is ever complete.

“You’re not really a serious gardener until you’ve killed a lot of innocent plants,” he pointed out, “and learned from the experience. You just have to get down in the dirt and do it.”

I blame verdure in the bloodstream and dirt beneath my fingernails for this earthly addiction, probably a legacy of the old Piedmont family of rural farmers, gardeners and preachers from Alamance and Orange counties that I hail from.

When I was a kid, both my parents were devoted amateur landscape gardeners.

My father’s thing was lawns and shrubs, and my mother was widely admired for her spectacular peonies and roses come

May and June.

A few years back, about the time Ajax the dog was enjoying his daily floats in a swimming pool, a woman who purchased my family’s home got in touch.

She was planning to sell the house in order to move into a senior adult community — and wouldn’t I like to come and dig up some of my mom’s spectacular peonies?

I thanked her and promised I would soon drop by, shovel in hand.

But, sadly, I got so busy with work and travel that I failed to get there before the house was sold and the peony row was plowed under by the new owners.

Another life lesson from the garden: everything in life has an expiration date.

Delay may cost regret.

But sometimes, when you least expect

it, another opportunity comes along, a chance for more growth. This latest garden saved my sanity during the lost days of the Covid pandemic. It’s designed for the hot summer days now upon us, cooled by more than 20 flowering trees I’ve planted around the property, creating my version of an urban woodland retreat — a Scottish vale, as I imagine it -— where birds gather to feed each evening and the aging gardener sits with a fine bourbon in hand, still scheming and dreaming.

In the meantime, this month, the new peony row I planted last summer in memory of my mom — using the same small wooden-handled pot she used to plant things in her garden — should really be something to see.

Another life lesson from the garden: everything in life has an expiration date.

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Diving for Anchor

by STEPHEN E. SMITH When you were my living father, I thought of you as you, alone. Now that you’re long dead, I think of you and me as us, together, not that we were closer than most fathers and sons who can’t say what should be said, the unspoken words between them a great gauzy silence ever after, as on the moonless night we fished the Miles River, a tributary of the Chesapeake, skidding our johnboat into an early autumn’s slacking, our fishing rods angled on the gunnels. Nettles billowed the pilings, cottonwood and locust sapped the brackish air as the lulling water swirled us into an outgoing tide, tugging us midstream where you tossed the anchor overboard and heard it splash, no chain securing it to the boat, the lead shank long gone in deep water.

“We’ve lost the damn anchor!” you swore to high heaven, and as the outwash eddied us bayward you stripped off your shirt, shoes, and shorts and dove in, roiling the dark water to gulp you under into perfect oblivion, leaving the child I was alone with night sounds — a screaky covert of moorhens, cicada crescendos, the coo and stutter of a cormorant — and I knew, at that moment, you were the bravest man who ever lived. I could feel your fingers probing the busted soda bottles, tangled tackle, and rusting beer cans, groping amid the grass eels, hogfish, and bristle worms. I held the longest breath I’d ever held and prayed, prayed, for your deliverance, and mine. And sure enough the surface riffled, the waters parted, and you burst foaming into still air, anchor in hand, and clacked it onto the sloshing deck, pulling yourself free of the current, your body slick with river slime, and grasping the oarlock, rolled into the rocking boat.

I sighed my only true sigh, longing for the wisdom you’d dredged from the foulest netherworld, testimony that life is more than the taking in and letting out of breath by a father and son adrift beneath a thin haze of stars. Having plumbed dead bottom, you’d been resurrected to impart a consoling truth, a glistening coin I could tuck in the pocket of memory. You obliged: “Wish I had a nickel,” you said, “for every kid who’s pissed in this river.”

illustration by STU FJELLANGER The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 47

More than 70 classic cars were on display at the 59th Antique & Classic Car Show.

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A look at Raleigh’s classic-car scene

CHROME RUBBER

&

by JOSH BARRER photography by EAMON QUEENEY

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 49

A 1929 Ford Model A hot rod, owned by Bobby Haynes, was a show highlight. He says its single-stage green paint gives it a “more industrial, original look, with more depth. People like the color, but they don’t know why.”

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T

here’s just something special about a classic car.

Perhaps it’s the elegant curves of a chassis or the way a metallic paint job reflects the light of the sun. Or maybe it’s in the satisfying roar of a 6-volt engine and the way it gives way to a gentle, vibrating purr. Could be that getting behind the wheel evokes instant nostalgia, the feeling of looking out at the suddenly-expanding horizon that only a new set of wheels could deliver.

“These cars are a little like time capsules,” says classic-car collector and restorer Bobby Haynes. “Cars today basically drive themselves. But these, you’ve really got to drive them.

It makes you appreciate the craftsmanship. For the people in those time periods, it was state-of-the art stuff.”

Haynes’ 1929 Ford Model A hot rod was one of the more than 70 classic cars on display at the 59th Antique & Classic Car Show in April, sponsored by the Triangle Chapter of the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA). The cars ranged in age from nearly 100 years old to just a few decades. A car must be a minimum of 25 years old to be considered for its shows and competitions — which means that the ’96 Ford Focus you drove to deliver pizzas in high school is now, technically speaking, a classic car. Expert judges examined the cars, looking for authenticity, style, cleanliness and range of other criteria.

This show was also the Triangle AACA’s first major event in more than two years. Owners were happy to be out and sharing their prized autos. Some set up lawn chairs beside their vehicles, proudly basking in the appreciation of their restorations. Others, like AACA Triangle Chapter vice president Dan Fuccella, took a more gregarious approach: he spent much of the show chatting with passers-by and inviting interested spectators to hop in and admire his prized 1950 Willys Overland Jeep Station Wagon.

The camaraderie and shared passion for the automotive craftsmanship that went into creating these vehicles — and continues to go into restoring them and getting them show-ready — is what keeps Fuccella coming back to events like these. “I’m a bit of an oddball,” Fuccella says.

“For me, the motivation behind a show like this is interfacing with people, meeting the other members.”

Fuccella is eager to see those membership numbers grow. “If you have the interest in mechanics or automotive, this is an excellent group of like-minded, nice folks,” he says.

Haynes also wants to see his passion for classic cars to be shared by a new generation of car enthusiasts. “We’re caretakers of this stuff. Classic cars are a part of history,” he says. “If you get them out there and people see them, it inspires them to get involved and keep that history alive.”

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 51

“People tend to gravitate to the cars they had in their teens. My dad bought me my first car when I was 14.

I’ve been working on them for more than 60 years.

It takes me back to my youth.”

— Dan Fuccella

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Victoria Gerken sits proudly in her 1957 Ford Thunderbird. She recently came to Raleigh from Texas and joined the Triangle Chapter of the AACA shortly after moving.

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 53

Dan Fuccella shows off his 1950 Willys Overland Jeep Station Wagon.

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The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 55

“I think loving classic cars is in your blood,” says John Eshleman, pictured in his 1932 Ford Roadster. “You just can’t shake it.”

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The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 57

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At the helm of the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, Ron Pringle works to address food insecurity in a meaningful way

feeding

TRADITION T by LORI D. R. WIGGINS photography by JOSHUA STEADMAN

he Inter-Faith Food Shuttle works to feed citizens in need, relieving hunger and restoring hope. At the helm of the nonprofit food bank since May 2020 is president and CEO L. Ron Pringle, whose leadership delivers a “stew” of expertise, compassion and a personal sense of responsibility.

It’s a rich blend nurtured in Pringle as a child growing up in Ridgeville, South Carolina, a town of a little more than 2,000 people in the coastal low country. It’s a place where rich Gullah traditions survive and thrive — with intention. It’s a place that preserves its roots of West African language and culture, from cuisine, storytelling and art, to music, fishing and farming. It’s a welcoming place, Pringle says, where neighbors help neighbors.

We recently sat down with Pringle to learn what energizes his mission to fill bellies and deliver more than meals. The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 59

Volunteers gather produce at the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle Farm.

WHO IS L. RON PRINGLE? I am — as I’ve always told everyone who’s asked — a simple, country boy from the low country of South Carolina.

HOW DID THAT LEAD YOU TO BECOME PRESIDENT AND CEO OF THE INTERFAITH FOOD SHUTTLE? Culture, food, growing up on a farm; having that background and work ethic really defined who I am today. Working with my hands, growing our own food, being a part of a community, and being part of a culture surrounded by food means it was always harvest season; family-gathering time, celebration time. So I understand how important it is. That’s my childhood connection. I can relate to so many families now who feel they don’t have that or that they are struggling to maintain that. It makes my responsibility that much more important.

WHAT WAS YOUR INTRODUCTION TO FOOD BANKING? Growing up, I never knew I was one

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After I got out of the Air Force and moved back home, I heard the food bank in Charleston was looking for a warehouse worker. I applied. After the interview, the director of the food bank told me, I’m going to give you an opportunity. Later on, one day, I listened to him speak to a civic group about hunger awareness; how hunger is an issue and how the face of hunger is not just the homeless population but it’s also working families. He gave an example of a single parent who lost a spouse and relied on a food bank. Had it been 13 years earlier, he would have been telling my story.

of those children in a food-insecure position. My mother died at 36, and my dad had four young children. I grew up right next door to my grandparents. My grandmother was in charge of a summer feeding program. We would often go down to the food bank and pick up food for everyone in the neighborhood.

We received that food as well.

DID THAT SET YOUR SIGHTS ON A CAREER IN THE FOOD BANK INDUSTRY? Since I was 7 years old, I wanted to be an Air Force pilot. I put everything into that. I signed up at 16 and was waived in at 17. Then I found out I’m colorblind and that I would never be a pilot. So I served in the chaplaincy as an assistant chaplain. That melted into the pot and continued to make this stew of who I am. There, I learned even more about service, about commitment, about caring for my neighbors.

WHEN DID YOU REALIZE FOOD INSECURITY WAS YOUR STORY, TOO?

HOW DID THE REVELATION AFFECT YOU? In my mind, that’s when it switched from being an opportunity to being a responsibility. It was my responsibility to continue this work because I was the success story of what happens when food is present. I’ve seen what happens, what children go through, when food is not present. I realized they didn’t have the same pillars in life that I had. I was able to be a child, able to hope, to dream, to seek after something, to become something. When food is not present, children don’t have those things. Their pillars become worry, insecurity, anger, frustration — and then they’re labeled.

What child at 8 understands the psychology of hunger and how it affects them? They don’t know about fresh food, fresh produce. When those things are not accessible, it’s Ramen, crackers and sugar-filled things, because struggling parents and young parents are trying to stretch a dollar. They grow up with health-care outcomes that could have been prevented, that become challenges in their lives forever. This is a cycle. It’s about breaking a cycle. Hunger, it’s not the problem, but the result of a problem.

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO NORTH CAROLINA? The Food Bank of Eastern NC. Accessing food is something I know how to do well and the organization needed that

skill set, so, once again, it became a responsibility for me. I worked with them for eight years and became the food director there, began to lead the organization forward, and had the unfortunate experience of going through Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Matthew. Robeson County was one of the hardest hit areas in the state. It was life-changing. I saw the need for food assistance differently, how people were affected and how disproportionate it was — and I saw that it wasn’t an overnight fix. You can provide a meal, but that doesn’t solve the issue. You have to ask: Why are people in the line in the first place? It’s so much more than just having access, or just having independence.

THAT’S A HEAVY LOAD. HOW’D YOU REBOUND? I took a break from food banking and consulted on infrastructure projects.

Then Covid hit, and I felt responsible, like, I was on the sidelines saying, Coach, put me in! I know how to do this! During that time, I saw the opportunity, or responsibility, at the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, and I was excited to be a part of the work one of the founders, Jill Bullard, had been doing for so many years in addressing root causes, moving people on a path to self-sufficiency; work I’ve wanted to engage in.

WHAT DID COVID REVEAL ABOUT FOOD INSECURITY? Covid amplified a message that people like myself in food justice have been screaming for a very long time. When you see people in food lines and people dying that look like you, and people who are not of color, too, it makes the numbers really resonate. It’s impossible to ignore the inequities and systemic barriers, a systemic design, that keep the gap present. Covid exposed that the practices in place were not benefitting as much as we thought they were. Our intentions were good in making sure food was on the table, but what we saw and what we heard is, Thank you for the sweet potatoes, but I don’t know what to do with them. It felt good to give them food,

“I’ve seen what happens, what children go through, when food is not present.

I realized they didn’t have the same pillars in life that I had. I was able to be a child, able to hope, to dream, to seek after something, to become something.”

— Ron Pringle The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 61

but it felt horrible that they couldn’t use it. This is where our work became more intentional. I began to look at what worked for me: what worked was my grandmother. She had a program in our community that served our community and made sure children in that community had food on the table.

HOW ARE YOU LEADING THE FOOD SHUTTLE’S “POST”-COVID RESPONSE? We had to reimagine our food system framework. We began to look at my grandmother, at the representative of the community, as part of the solution: this person could be a local farmer, or a teacher, or someone working at a government agency, or a senior who lives there. We removed them from the

7 WAYS TO FIGHT HUNGER North Carolina ranks 10th-hungriest in the country, with more than 1 million people who struggle to get enough to eat. “Over the last few months with supply chain issues, pandemic fatigue and rising gas prices, the need has been even greater,” says Kara Guido Siek, food sourcing specialist at the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle. Here’s how to help.

VOLUNTEER YOUR TIME The Food Shuttle welcomes volunteers at its farm and community gardens to help plant new crops, harvest, weed or water. But where they really need the help, says Siek, is with its Grocery Bag for Seniors program. “This is a good opportunity because you both fill the bags and deliver them, so you get to see the result of your work,” she says.

CLEAN OUT THE PANTRY Have a few spare cans of tuna or boxes of cereal on your shelves?

Drop them off at the Food Shuttle or your nearest food pantry. To 62 | WALTER

center and made them part of the circle so they’re included in the conversations about what their community needs.

We found out some people don’t need food boxes — they needed refrigeration capacity. And that’s different from the community across town that says, We can use food, thank you, but we have a culture we want to live on, recipes we want to pass down. They want food that reflects their heritage, ingredients they grew up using. It’s not always food recipes, but it’s conversations they have around the table — they find strength in that.

The end result of what I’m trying to do is a healthier lifestyle; new habits, new foods and tips on how to prepare that food in a healthier way, how to read nutrition labels, how food is medicine

and how to get the vitamins we need through food. If I’m not being intentional, I’m not improving the quality of life for our neighbors.

scale up your clean-out, organize a Porch Pickup: send a memo to your neighborhood to do the same, then collect all the donations for delivery.

“We had one group collect between nearly 500 pounds of produce. It’s a good project for students needing service hours,” says Siek.

SHARE YOUR GARDEN VICTORIES One household can only eat so much zucchini, basil and tomatoes — and the Food Shuttle is happy for produce donations. If you need incentive to dig into your garden, try Siek’s idea: or every cucumber you harvest for yourself, donate one.

MAKE A MONETARY DONATION Just $1.05 can provide a meal to someone in need, says Siek. Consider donating between $5 to $10 a month this summer, when the need is highest as kids are out of school, a major network for food distribution. Make a one-time or recurring donation to Food Shuttle at foodshuttle.org/donatetoday or contribute to another food pantry.

ASK AROUND Do you know what your go-to bakery, restaurant or farmers market does with their leftovers at the end of the day? Ask them — and if they aren’t already donating already, encourage them to do so. “We are always happy to facilitate those connections. If someone has food they don’t have a use for, we will try to find a way to get it,” says Siek.

START A LITTLE FREE PANTRY A sister project to the Little Free Library movement, a Little Free Pantry is an open box where folks can drop canned and nonperishable goods for neighbors to pick up. Visit littlefreepantry.org for tips on how to set one up in your neighborhood and register yours on the map, then let your friends know it’s open for contributions.

USE YOUR PLATFORM Something you can do without leaving your house is to raise awareness by resharing content from the Food Shuttle, local food pantries, churches and other organizations fighting hunger. It’s also a good way to share volunteer opportunities or urgent needs as they come up. “Every little thing helps, and sometimes a reminder goes a long way,” says Siek.

HOW CAN ANY OF US PITCH IN? Be a neighbor. As a neighbor, you understand because you talk to each other as neighbors. As a neighbor, your view of this situation looks different. That takes a collective effort on our part. This is not an issue for Inter-Faith alone. We’re a neighbor in this framework, too. A neighbor would say, What do you need?

Become advocates to help us tell this story. Get involved. Be a part of the solution. That’s a neighbor bringing what they have to the feast.

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Celebrating the South through the artistry of printmaker Katie Hayes

NATURE IN PRINT

by WILEY CASH photography by MALLORY CASH

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 65

Top: Hayes in her studio in Hillsborough.

Left: The tools of the trade. Right: One of her prints.

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A

bout half a mile down a gravel road off a twolane highway in rural Hillsborough, printmaker Katie Hayes is working in a lightfilled studio above her garage. It’s midday on a warm afternoon in late April. Sunlight slants through a canopy of tulip poplars and oaks, trickling down to the dogwoods that make up an understory that shades countless azaleas wild with blooms. I can’t see it from where I stand, gazing at the forest from the sliding glass door at the back of Katie’s studio, but I can hear a nearby cardinal chirping against a backdrop of birdcalls that echo through the trees.

It’s not a stretch to say that the living things outside Katie’s studio parallel the flora and fauna portrayed in her prints: All around me, jet-black herons with indigo wings stalk through shallow pools; brilliant monarchs and viceroys alight on purple coneflowers; Scarlet Tanagers perch on branches surrounded by yellow blossoms. Here, the wild things outside the walls have been tamed and contained, framed and matted, but no less alive than they would be in the natural world.

Unlike the wildness of the woods, Katie’s studio space is meticulously managed. Drying prints lean against the wall on one side of the studio. Rollers — known as brayers — and ink and instruments made for cutting or measuring hang in various places within easy reach.

Pre-ordered prints featuring a yellow lady’s slipper rest in a basket, each print partnered with a personalized handwritten note from Katie. The airy space is orderly and organized, a far cry from the world outside its walls.

“Setting this place up exactly as I need it feels really good,” Katie says. She is rolling midnight black ink onto a piece of plexiglass. “I never thought I’d have a place like this.”

I know that Katie is talking about her studio, but she could be referring to the 10 acres she shares with Sean and their daughter, Millie, and son, Ben. Or she could just as easily be talking about Hillsborough, or even North Carolina, for

that matter. Although she was raised in Cullowhee, at one point in her life she’d lived in 13 houses in four states, and that was before she and Sean settled in Ohio, where he worked for Oberlin College and Katie worked for a nonprofit, assisting high school students with everything from completing college applications to locating their Social Security numbers.

With each move, whether it was from the mountains of North Carolina to the Piedmont to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, or from Carrboro to Oberlin, Katie began to see her regional identity more clearly.

“It wasn’t until I really left the South that I realized that being a Southerner was part of my identity, like I didn’t realize that being a rural mountain kid was part of my identity until I went to Carolina,” she says.

At the moment, Katie is using a heavy glass baren to smooth paper atop the block cut in order for it to absorb the ink that covers the block. The process of making a single print is long and tedious. After cutting a design into a block of linoleum, which can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days depending on the complexity of the image, Katie uses a brayer to evenly smear ink across a piece of plexiglass before using the same brayer to cover the block in ink. She then lays the paper over the block and runs the baren across the back of it. Most prints make use of more than one color ink, so each print goes through this process at least twice.

Katie made her first print in an art class at Smoky Mountain High School in Jackson County. She carved a linocut of a rabbit, and after her teacher put it on display, someone offered to buy it. She sold it for $15, and while she didn’t return to printmaking for many years, the early

satisfaction of knowing that her work had spoken to someone stayed with her.

What also stayed with her was the effect her grandmother’s art and practice had on her. Shirley O’Neill was an accomplished amateur watercolorist, and she always made sure that Katie had good materials — high-quality paints, brushes and paper — in order to do her best work.

I watch Katie make print after print, nervous that our conversation will distract her and cause her to make a mistake, and also impressed at how she seems both careful and carefree. The block she is working from now is for a 12x16 inch matboard print from her limited edition Mid-Century Botanical series.

Each print features a colorful design — a gold sun, a soft pink segmented circle, a gray oval — overlaid by the black shapes of various flora: Virginia bluebells, native ferns and peonies. She peels back the matboard, revealing a cardinal flower set against a segmented gold sun. I watch her repeat the process of imprinting cardinal flowers on several more matboards with various colorful shapes already set onto them, and each time she reveals the flower her face lights up in a smile.

“It feels so good,” she says. “When it works, it’s so good.”

While the process is repetitive, it doesn’t allow Katie to shut off her brain and rely on rote memory. She is constantly assessing the amount of ink on the brayer, the placement of the paper against the block, and the countless other adjustments she makes during a single print run, which she limits to 100. There are no reproductions. Every print is handmade, distinct and limited.

Katie’s designs don’t only end up as hand-pulled prints made in her studio; her designs are also printed on everything from fabric to wallpaper by

“That’s how I think of my Southern identity...

What parts do I want to highlight? We have this incredibly rich biodiversity.”

— Katie Hayes

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 67

68 | WALTER

Opposite page: Hayes works through the process of making a print. This page: Prints hung up to dry.

Spoonflower, a global marketplace based in Durham that manufactures textiles, connecting artists directly to consumers with no overhead costs for the artists.

Katie creates images of the flora and fauna of the Southern landscape she knows so well not only because she’s a native, but also because she gave birth to a daughter in Ohio who was upset by the family’s move south five years ago, when Sean took a job running operations for a firm that services solar farms.

“The move was a chance to get back closer to family,” Katie says, “but my daughter was four at the time, and when we moved it was really hard for her. She had a newborn baby brother. We had lived in a great neighborhood in Ohio, and she’d had tons of friends at a great school, and she was uprooted. The way I got started creating these images was

at night. When she would go to bed, I would make her these coloring pages, where I would illustrate different native Southeastern flora and fauna. During the day I would have my hands full with the baby, but I would whisper to her, Pssst, I made you some new coloring pages. These are passion flowers. They grow wild here and look like jungle plants.”

“For a long time, I resisted doing art professionally. I always saw the art world as something exclusive,” she adds. “It wasn’t for redneck girls from Cullowhee.”

But moving to Ohio made her reconsider the role art could play in her life, and the lives of people both inside and outside the region.

“When I moved to Oberlin, people always had all these misconceptions about North Carolina and the South; it’s either Gone with the Wind or Duck Dy-

nasty. Neither of those are authentic to my experience,” she says. This, combined with connecting her daughter to their new home via images of the Southern landscape, inspired Katie to develop a library of images, eventually culminating in a printmaking shop she calls the New South Pattern House.

“As parents we’re always trying to curate the best parts of our childhood,” she says. “That’s how I think of my Southern identity with my kids and, frankly, my business. What parts do I want to highlight? We have this incredibly rich biodiversity. We have beautiful, vibrant cities. What are the parts we want to move away from? When people think of Southerners, do I want them to think of the Confederate flag? No, not for me. I want them to think of coneflowers.”

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 69

MODERN

TROPICAL

Color, texture, and nods to the coast combine in these peppy interiors

by AYN-MONIQUE KLAHRE photography by CATHERINE NGUYEN

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COMFORT ZONE “The word I think of for our family room is sanctuary,” says homeowner Katie Catlin.

“This is our hub, our safe place. We’re always in here together, just laying around and cuddling.” While this part of their open-plan kitchen and living area is the most neutral space in the house, it still boasts layers of texture and pattern, from the grasscloth wallpaper to the curtains to the fringed stools and abundant pillows.

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I

“I want people to walk into the house and think, this is a place to have fun and these people don’t take themselves too seriously,” says Katie Catlin. She and her husband, Rob, moved here from Scottsdale, Arizona, six years ago while they were expecting their second child. They didn’t know much about Raleigh, but loved this neighborhood, The Oaks at Fallon Park. Already facing a red-hot real estate market, they told their agent to hop on anything that came up for sale. “This house was perfect on paper, but somehow we weren’t crazy about it,” says Catlin. “It felt drab; very beige, dated and dark — but we went for it because we loved the neighborhood so much.”

Then they set about making it their own.

“I grew up in southern California, and my husband was raised in St. Simons Island, Georgia, so we both love a coastal look,” says Catlin, “but the question was: how do we do it without looking tacky?” The couple worked with Zandy Gammons and Liles Dunnigan of Miretta Interiors (formerly known as The Warehouse) to update their space. “We started with small projects, but at this point have probably touched every room,” says Gammons.

At first, Catlin was hesitant about being too bold with the interiors, even though she had a personal interest in interior design. “I used to be so worried about resale, everything was

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so matchy-matchy, but when I started working with Zandy and Liles, I fell in love with wallpaper and color,” says Catlin.

“I thought, let me just create the house of my dreams, and I’ll worry about resale later.”

An early project was updating the kitchen: the Miretta team sourced new lighting, traded out dark countertops for brighter ones and painted the island blue. They raised the floors of an outdoor patio, put in sliding doors and a fireplace and enclosed the space with phantom screens to make it an extension of the living space. “It makes the family room feel huge; it’s just this big indoor-outdoor space,” says Catlin.

In the living room, the first big change was adding a Thibaut grasscloth wallpaper to the wall surrounding the fireplace. “It needed some texture, before that it just felt kind of bland — this wallpaper instantly added warmth to the room,” says Gammons. Each choice emboldened the next: soon, dramatic prints found their way into the breakfast nook, study and even the mudroom. “The more color, the better!” says Catlin.

Throughout, the Miretta team added nods to the coast, like tropical-print wallpaper, a chandelier in the living room that’s made of shells (“My husband likes to tell people he found all the shells and strung them together — lies!” laughs

FRIENDLY WELCOME Opposite page: Visitors are greeted by a colorful Turkish rug when they walk through the door. “That is one of my favorite pieces: it sets the tone for the house, plus it hides spills and stains,” says Catlin. They painted the interior of the front door green for a fun pop of color, and the hallway is lined with a subtly patterned white-on-white geometric wallpaper.

This page: “We spend a lot of time out here, saying hi to the neighbors, letting the kids run from house to house,” says Catlin. The front porch is just off the office, so the swinging daybed and pillows link the two spaces.

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 73

BRIGHT & AIRYning room is just When the Catlin family moved in, they replaced dark countertops with lighter ones for a refresh. They replaced the split-level island with a single-level one and painted the base blue, then swapped the modern pendants above it.

Just beyond the kitchen, the mudroom boasts a zippy pink print. A leaf-print wallpaper sets off the breakfast nook. “I love this banquette!” says Catlin. “The kids aren’t allowed to sit on it — and we feel like we can have a date night here; it feels intimate and private.”

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The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 75

Catlin) and curtains with a circular pattern reminiscent of sand dollars. “We notice those details, but they don’t come across as kitschy,” Catlin says.

The home was also put together with their family in mind. “It’s colorful and sophisticated, but makes sense with two kids and a dog,” says Catlin. Most of the upholstery is done in performance fabric, and no piece of furniture is too precious to be moved to make space for a Christmas tree, Halloween celebration or movie night. “My husband calls it the sorority house, because he’s got me, our two girls, Savvy and Addie, and a female dog,” says Kait. “We try to have some places be just for adults, but there are always little drawings or toys or shoes in every room.”

As the house continues to evolve (makeovers of the primary bedroom and bathroom are currently underway), Catlin’s proud to have a home that reflects her family’s happy, playful energy. “I learned so much working with Miretta.

They’re the masters of pattern,” she says. “It can be really hard to mix different prints and have it look cohesive. It’s exciting for me that we have a lot of visual interest, but it all works together.”

76 | WALTER

PERSONAL TOUCHES A challenge in this open-plan space was making each area feel cozy and purposeful. “Before we added the wallpaper, it just felt like this big, ambiguous room,” she says. “We wanted to give each area its own personality.” As to the bold wallpaper, “since we stayed more neutral in the living room, we wanted something really dynamic for the breakfast area,” says Gammons.

The turntable in the living room, opposite, is an homage to Catlin’s brother, who passed away 10 years ago. “He was a DJ and had over 4,000 records. We kept a bunch of them; when we play them it’s like he’s here with us,” she says.

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 77

PRINTS CHARMING A painting and curtains by Charlotte artist Windy O’Connor set a playful tone in the dining room. Opposite page: Catlin has long worked from home, so having a good study was a priority. “Once we found the wallpaper, it all came together,” says Gammons. “I love the pattern, it just makes me feel happy and energized,” Catlin says. The tropical vibe is grounded by a burled wood desk, and behind it, a green built-in hides files below a pinboard full of reminders and inspiration. “I need to see things — that giant bulletin board corrals our lives!”

78 | WALTER

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 79

Horticulturist and home gardener Brie Arthur heads to the shade house on her property. Here, she starts seedlings when it’s too hot to grow in the yard.

BUMPER 80 | WALTER

H Brie Arthur’s garden isn’t just for looks — it’s ready for harvest

CROP

by MIRANDA EVON photography by SAMANTHA EVERETTE

idden in a quaint neighborhood just off Main Street in Fuquay-Varina is horticulturist Brie Arthur’s home. It’s painted a deep blue, dressed in black shutters and wooden shingles, with crisp white trim. But the first thing you notice is what surrounds the house: it’s edged on all sides with poppies and larkspur. Mature oak trees shade her wide lawn, and nut and fruit trees welcome visitors at the entrance of the driveway. “It’s definitely a cottage style; every crevice has something bursting into bloom,” she laughs.

“You can feel her energy in the garden,” says friend and fellow horticulturalist Preston Montague. “It’s exuberant, it’s bubbly and colorful, and no square inch is untouched.” And if you look a little closer, you might notice surprises in there: red pops of ripe tomatoes, white globes atop green garlic stalks, and curly leaves of mustard greens and kale. There are spiky heads of barley and fluffy blueberry bushes, the fruit still in flower.

“For me, it’s not either gardening for pleasure or gardening for food — you can do both,” says Arthur. “I want to convince suburban homeowners that they can use their existing landscape to grow vegetables, fruits and herbs.” Arthur is a pioneer in the practice of “foodscaping,” which means incorporating fruits, vegetables and herbs into a garden alongside ornamental plants. “I want people to understand that you don’t have to be a farmer to grow food in a meaningful way,” she says.

Arthur grew up in southeastern Michigan and discovered home gardening through 4-H. She went on to study landscape design and horticulture at Purdue University. After college she worked in ornamental plant production at Plant Delights and Camellia Forest in Raleigh.

In 2005, she bought a home in Fuquay-Varina “because it was cheaper to buy than to rent with two cats and a dog!”

Still, her costs were high, and fresh produce was a splurge. “I realized I could save money by growing my own,” says Arthur, “and I thought, I have a degree in horticulTheArt Art&&Soul SoulofofRaleigh Raleigh| |00 81 The

ture, I should know how to raise plants.” She started the way many folks do, with rows of veggies in raised beds — but her HOA fined her for the “hideous” crops in her front yard. “They were crazy strict, but I also didn’t want my neighbors to hate me,” she says. “I had to find a better way to grow produce in plain sight.”

So Arthur planted fruits and vegetables within her ornamental beds: peppers, kale, strawberries, lettuce and corn right next to her colorful seasonal flowers, all around the front of her house. No one complained (her subdivision even awarded her the “yard of the year” once). And it made her question why home gardeners tend to approach growing crops the way farmers do. “I’m a human, not a tractor — I don’t need to plant things in straight lines,” she laughs, “plus, there’s no artistry to it.”

By the time Arthur moved into her current home with her husband David in 2011, it was a given that foodscaping would be part of the landscape. Each area 82 | WALTER

Arthur embraces a “cottage style” look to her garden, with a variety of plants mixed together. This time of year, the poppies are the stars.

Once they’re past bloom, she’ll collect the seeds for next season. “Seed saving is a driving force for me as a gardener,” she says.

Ornamental flowers like coneflowers, blackeyed Susans and larkspur live right alongside garlic, onion, kale and lettuces in Arthur’s home garden. At a glance, one doesn’t notice the edible plants — but they provide enough food for Arthur and her husband David to use homegrown fruits and vegetables in most of their meals.

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 83

Arthur grows her crops both in beds and in various pots around the garden. She mixes all sorts of plants together to increase the biodiversity in her landscapes, which helps with pest and disease control, keeping the soil nourished and protecting more delicate plants.

84 | WALTER

“The point is not to never step foot into a grocery store again, just to start with a few things to realize how cool it is to grow your own food.” — Brie Arthur

on this acre of land is accounted for. In late May and early June the garden is her “poppy haven,” but grains like wheat, oats and barley are at their peak, too.

The spring lettuces are mostly done, but strawberries are still in bloom, and onion and garlic grow year-round on the edges of the garden. Sweet potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower come in autumn. “I don’t think that people realize the intricacy with which she’s woven food plants into the garden; that’s one of her core innovations,” says Montague.

And all of these things find their way into the kitchen. “We’re huge ratatouille people — in June we get the early tomatoes, squash and zucchinis, and the basil is just becoming something we can harvest regularly,” Arthur says. She estimates that

she and her husband make about 70% of their meals with picks from their backyard. “Whenever I visit Brie, she does the cooking, and we’re always eating seasonally. It’s often simple but it’s fresh so it tastes amazing,” says Montague.

In 2014, Arthur started her own brand, becoming an educator on the benefits of home gardening. She now speaks nationwide on the subject, and has written two bestselling books: Gardening with Grains and The Foodscape Revolution. “Foodscaping allows you to be creative with how you grow your own produce,” says Arthur.

“I want to show people of all income levels the opportunity you have while living in the suburbs.” Part of that involves getting people to think about what produce they frequently buy. “If week-to-week you’re

buying garlic, onions, potatoes and herbs, plant those!” she says. “And use your existing beds, don’t waste the effort and money tearing out sod to create a new area.”

Another big benefit Arthur found in mixing her crops with ornamental plants is that the two help each other grow.

“Instead of creating a monoculture, there’s biodiversity. The ornamentals attract pollinators, but spicy foliage like mustard and arugula deters critters like rabbits and groundhogs,” she says. When you foodscape, you naturally rotate your crops, and diseases and pests don’t spread as easily.

Arthur uses buckwheat, carrots and crimson clover as cover crops, which cuts down on the weeding. “When you put veggies in beds, you recognize just how delicate and insect-prone fruiting plants are — if you eat them, insects will, too!” says Montague. “But if they’re planted in with other plants, they’re more protected from pests, deer and their own mechanical failures.”

Arthur regularly invites friends, family and guests to her garden. She hosts twice-annual open garden days for hundreds of people and private sip-and-strolls through local garden clubs. Neighborhood kids are welcome to pick strawberries (“Anything they miss gets turned into daiquiris!” she says) and next season, there will be tomato tastings of the more than 100 varieties on her property. (Though, she says, she wishes tomatoes weren’t the “gateway” crop for many home gardeners: “They are so vulnerable to disease around here, they’ll make you question why you’re alive. Grow garlic instead!”)

And Arthur and her husband are currently developing the property next door as an immersive rental experience with a gardening and culinary component. “We’ll do a cooking demo with dinner, make cocktails from the plants on the patio — it’ll be hands-on, to really understand the foodscaping mentality,” she says.

As one season comes to an end, with another on the horizon, the couple continues to celebrate the fresh arrival of produce — and to share the journey with others. “The point is not to never step foot into a grocery store again, just to start with a few things to realize how cool it is to grow your own food,” she says.

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 85

MEETING AMONG THE PINES SINCE 1895 Leave distractions behind at our quaint village and historic resort. Nestled in the Sandhills of North Carolina, Pinehurst is the perfect place to retreat and refocus. We’ve been hosting successful meetings and events for companies large and small since 1895, and we’d love to host yours.

Consider Pinehurst for your next corporate gathering.

Tiffani Sheppard, Director of National Accounts Derek Noll, Director of National Accounts 855.360.4426 • pinehurst.com

Smith Hardy

THE WHIRL

Kristy Woodson Harvey speaks at the WALTER Book Club.

WALTER’s roundup of gatherings, celebrations, fundraisers, and more around Raleigh.

88 WALTER Book Club with Kristy Woodson Harvey 90 FRESH at Artspace 91 Friends of Note 92 Cocktails, Curation & Conversation 94 Bearthday

To have your event considered for The Whirl, submit images and information at waltermagazine.com/submit-photos

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 87

WALTER EVENTS

O

n April 28, WALTER magazine hosted North Carolina author Kristy Woodson Harvey for a convivial evening of literature and libations at City Club Raleigh. Harvey, the bestselling author of nine novels including Under the Southern Sky and the Peachtree Bluff series, was celebrating her newest publication, The Wedding Veil, a work of historical-contemporary fiction set at the Biltmore in Asheville.

With a view of the Raleigh skyline at sunset, guests mingled over bubbly, then enjoyed a talk, Q&A and

88 | WALTER

book signing with Harvey. Green Front Furniture set up a lounge inspired by George Vanderbilt’s library at the Biltmore, and Fink’s Jewelers offered a giveaway to much excitement.

A special thank you to presenting sponsor Fink’s Jewelers, supporting sponsors Main & Taylor Shoe Salon and Green Front Furniture, as well as our event partners City Club Raleigh, The Country Bookshop and Alphagraphics for making it a truly special evening — as well as to Harvey, who kept us all entertained with her stories!

Smith Hardy (TOP PHOTOS), WALTER Staff (BOTTOM PHOTOS)

BOOK CLUB with KRISTY WOODSON HARVEY

Smith Hardy; Emily Gajda (BILTMORE)

Clockwise from left: Kristy Woodson Harvey and Ayn-Monique Klahre; Patrick Casey, Harvey and Liz Miller; the winner of the giveaway; the Biltmore-inspired lounge. Opposite page, clockwise from left: Harvey and fans; guests; Caroline Loop, Laura Wall, Catherine Smith (top), Ginger Ackiss, Pam Anglin, Justine Keogh (bottom); Catherine Currin, Cristina Hurley, Martha Heath, Cameron Hicks.

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 89

THE WHIRL Welcomes

James Patterson June 10th, 2022 • 12 noon The Pinehurst Resort

FRESH AT ARTSPACE On Thursday May 5, Artspace celebrated the opening of its FRESH exhibit, a collection of paintings, sculpture and other visual art from makers across North Carolina. New president and CEO Carly Jones spoke to the crowd to open the event and guests enjoyed appetizers, a signature cocktail and a huge selection of work across two floors of the space.

Presented By

Join us for a conversation about his newly released memoir, James Patterson by James Patterson.

Top row: David Moore, Danny Peña, Oliver Hayes, Amy Etheridge; Bottom row: Melissa Solis Small, Sanjé James, Carly Jones, Hannah Costner, Annah Lee, Oami Powers

We will welcome 1,000 people to pack the Grand Ballroom at the Carolina Hotel, meet James Patterson and receive an autographed copy of this book. Conversation will be lead by the bookshop’s Kimberly Daniels Taws.

• • • •

Tickets BSF $31 each and include:

An autographed copy of the book The opportunity for a socially distant photograph with James Patterson A seat for the conversation between Kimberly Daniels Taws of The Country Bookshop and James Patterson Attendees will also have the opportunity to submit questions for consideration ahead of the event

Becky Joye, Annah Lee, Jane Cheek, Ivana Milojecvic Beck

Burton Buffalo, Carly Jones, Dustin Smith

Sponsored by

CHECK THE STORE WEBSITE AND TICKETMESANDHILLS.COM FOR MORE EVENT INFORMATION 140 NW Broad Street • Southern Pines, NC 910.692.3211 • www.thecountrybookshop.biz Jalen Jackson, Deborah Wilson

90 | WALTER

Eric Barstow (TOP PHOTO); Carly Jones (ALL OTHERS)

BOSTON CHICAGO JACKSONVILLE NEW YORK FAIRFIELD COUNTY SOUTHERN PINES/PINEHURST

FRIENDS OF NOTE On April 20, the North Carolina Symphony celebrated supporters of music education with its Friends of Note luncheon. Title sponsor MetLife, event underwriters GFL Environmental and PNC, and many other generous sponsors and guests enjoyed music, drinks and bites at the Angus Barn Pavilion, along with a performance from a quartet from the Symphony.

NC Symphony/John Hansen

Lisa Schiller, Amy Daniels, Matt Smith, Jay Irby

Patty Briguglio, Elaine Marshall

Claren W Englebreth, AAMS® Financial Advisor 4301 Lake Boone Trl Suite 206 Raleigh, NC 27607 919-615-0054

Josh Otto, Charlie Coyne, Lisa Inman, Michael Romanus, Dawn MacLaren, Christiaan Heijmen, Debbie Aiken Keith Donahue

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 91

THE WHIRL

Lori Moscato, Astra Ball

Back row: Steve Marraffino, Matt Carswell, Antoine Ponton, Don Ricardo Massenburg Front row: Sally Williams, Shana Middleton, Tonya Hill, Lisa Stewart, Laura Koshel

Carole Hollowell, Paul Fogg

Katie Wood, Jackie Craig, Debbie Robbins

ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS DURING THE 2022 PARADE OF HOMES! Two ways to market your company in the 2022 Parade of Homes Parade Preview Magazine Delivered with WALTER magazine’s October Home & Garden issue, this magazine includes trends and builders to watch.

PARADE PREVIEW

Parade of Homes Guide Book A f C

The Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake County’s Parade of Homes is recognized as one of the best home tours in the country. The Parade of Homes VɈLYZ unparalleled exposure to the Triangle residents who are looking to buy a new home or gather ideas for their existing home. Get in front of this unique audience as they visit the homes on the 2022 home tour.

Distributed to all visitors that go on the Parade of Homes Tour HUK H[ [OL /)( VɉJL [OPZ IVVR has every home on the tour along with the special features.

For information email cristina@waltermagazine.com or 919-279-3132 92 | WALTER

VISIT NORTH CAROLINA’S LARGEST OPEN HOUSE

OCTOBER 2-3, 8-10, 15-17

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COCKTAILS, CURATION & CONVERSATION On April 26, The Green Chair Project hosted area designers for Cocktails, Curation & Conversation, a welcome event for the interiors specialists who will be creating signature looks for their annual Chairity gala. Thanks to their talents and sponsor Fiber-Seal of the Triangle and Triad, The Green Chair Project will continue its mission to assist families in need in Wake County.

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Shannon Cassell, Rae Marie Czuhai

Lauren McKay, Meredith Williams

No need to get on a plane when you can relax beachside or tucked away in the gardens on one of our new loungers, feel the ocean breeze as you swing in a hammock, or spend the day poolside in a private cabana.

Book our 2-night Beach & Breakfast Package and receive daily beach chair and umbrella rental as well as breakfast in bed.

blockade-runner.com 855-421-2884

Elizabeth O’Neal, Kristin Tharpe, Crista Davis

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 93

THE WHIRL

Raleigh City Farm

Wes Murtagh, Anne Murtagh, Meryl Murtagh

Nicole Kligerman, Theresa Rizzuto

Ben Crawley, Mary-Ann Baldwin, Dana Deaton

k a e r b a Take ith us w

12

ISSUES PER YEAR 1 YEAR $25 2 YEARS $45 3 YEARS $60

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or call 818.286.3118

Lisa Grele Barrie

BEARTHDAY On April 23, Raleigh City Farm honored Earth Day and its own 11th birthday at its annual Bearthday event. Guests enjoyed food from State of Beer, brews from Trophy Brewing Company, live music, artists, crafts and fresh produce and blooms from its farm stand. Special thanks to Spoonflower, Murphy’s Naturals and the other sponsors who made the event possible.

EXTRAS Take WALTER to go! There’s always something to discover on our website and social media.

Here’s what’s been happening.

FOLLOW US @WALTERMAGAZINE

WALTER Archives

WEB EXCLUSIVE STORIES

7 THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW YOU COULD RECYCLE Think outside of the big blue bin to keep these items out of the landfill.

OUTDOOR CONCERTS COMING THIS SUMMER Welcome the warm weather and soak up some extra rays of sunshine with your favorite bands and concert series across the Triangle.

GETTING READY TO WORK IN THE GARDEN? TEST YOUR SOIL FIRST This free service through the Department of Agriculture can save you time and money on your yard.

TRENDING ON INSTAGRAM

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Sunday Open House: Check out this pre-WWII Tudor Revival in Bellevue Terrace neighborhood builder Mark Kirby remodeled. Note floors made from reclaimed wood from tobacco barns, the casement windows, fireplaces indoors & out + all the other subtle details. @catnguyenphoto from our archives @pgayetapp @Rebecca_allen75 Wow, it's beautiful! @Heatherholcombedesigns Gorgeous

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Congratulations to Seth and his team for the grand reopening of Raleigh Wine Shop on Bloodworth! @raleighreal HECK YEAH! @Yvessimone

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GIVEAWAY! Did you love our May cover by artist Inslee Fariss? Share which beach you’ll visit this summer and you could win a print of the artwork! @Laurenrggs We’ll be in Duck in #obx @Tatyana.fey Topsail Island! @robinmkenn Wrightsville Beach! @heatherbelladams Oh this is gorgeous! Bald Head is my favorite beach destination. @annahedgpeth Beaufort, NC!

The Art & Soul of Raleigh | 95

END NOTE A challenge for your next road trip, packed with locals-only clues.

ACROSS 1. Fame actress Irene 5. Wound mementos 10. Cary’s ___ Booth Amphitheatre 14. North Hills joint with fancy ice 15. Heads into Falls Lake, say 16. Explore at Umstead, for example 17. ___ Kong 18. Flip _ ___ (leave it up to chance) 19. Justice League actor Miller 20. Walter Royal’s famous steakhouse 22. A sense activated by the NC State Fair 23. Put back to zero 24. Outfit you might buy at Lamb’s Ear 26. INFO you’d hear on 88.1 27. Entered gradually 29. Act that might elicit a “TMI!” 32. Muffin found at Morning Times 34. Dorothea ___ Park 35. Acorn ___, our New Year’s bash 36. Last name in Triangle music, architecture and art 39. Pay too little attention to 41. Put a fancy coat on 42. Plural suffix for book or cook 44. Graham and Curry, for short 45. “Good” cholesterol letters 46. Most idiotic 48. Notable time period 51. Houston ballplayers 52. Olympic speedskater Henning and singer-songwriter Niver (both Raleigh natives!)

54. French bistro on N. Person Street 57. Eclectic music festival led by Nathan Price 59. Fuzzy Star Wars creature 60. A copy of work you’d find at the NCMA, informally 61. Took a tumble 62. Mosaic piece 63. “Have a bite!”

64. Famous canal 65. Mandolin chef and owner Fowler 66. Bird creations in Shelley Lake trees 96 | WALTER

67. Honor for Michael Phelps or Serena Williams DOWN 1. D-flat’s equivalent 2. Does penance 3. Seems familiar 4. Go before a judge at the Wake County Courthouse 5. Clean, as decks 6. Tropical trees that produce Videri ingredients 7. Decorated, ornamented 8. Kept at bay 9. Oft-stolen info 10. Krispy ___ Challenge 11. Exude, like charm 12. Capitalism critic Marx 13. ___ Clooney, George’s lawyer wife 21. Take what’s not yours 22. Sloth or greed 25. Philly hoopsters 28. Make holy with oil 29. People giving out awards 30. Staffer at WakeMed, for short 31. Type of bldg. being constructed in Midtown 33 ___ Hat Amphitheater

35. 555, in ancient Rome 36. Letters after E 37. Clear or purge 38. Close by 40. Receive an average grade at UNC 43. North Carolina hot dog chain 46. Suffix for treat or expert 47. Sparkle and wit 49. Put a hair accessory in again 50. Christensen of Poole’s 51. American Idol’s Clay 53. Like some credit cards 54. Team that plays the Panthers 55. Injury, to a toddler 56. It’s her Beach Bar, in Five Points 58. Boozers 60. Statement to the I.R.S.

ANSWERS: available on waltermagazine.com. Getty Images (DONUT)

by RACHEL SIMON

4401 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh, NC 27612

(919) 571-2881

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www.diamondsdirect.com

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