FEATURES

by Dasan Ahanu

52 With Love

Romantic letters from the North Carolina State Archives by Susanna Klingenberg photography by Bryan Regan

62The Orchid Whisperer

Before they were an easy find, this woman brought orchids to Raleigh by Katherine Snow Smith photography by Taylor McDonald

70

A young family builds a modern and fun place to gather by Ayn-Monique Klahre photography by Catherine Nguyen

80 The Runaway

Artist Gabe Eng-Goetz takes his craft to new heights by Colony Little photography by Terrence Jones

EDITOR’S LETTER

It’s a running joke at the office that I don’t know how to drive. “Do you even have a car?” my colleagues ask. It’s true that I would rather take a Lyft than find and pay for parking. I will walk to work in the winter when it’s 20 degrees outside (rarely, thank goodness) and walk home in the summer when it’s 90-plus. I can handle some precipitation, as long as it won’t ruin my hairdo.

That said, I’ve only been a car owner for about five years. While I grew up driving around the suburbs like a normal person, I started my adult life in New York City, where owning a car is more a liability than a convenience. Part of the reason we moved to Raleigh was because it has a liveable downtown, and when I interviewed for this job, I was pleased to learn that the WALTER offices were just a mile from our house. Having spent over a decade without regularly driving, I was a nervous driver when we moved here. It’s hard to get very lost on foot, but easy to get irredeemably turned around in a car. I remember a friend trying to explain to me how Person Street turned into Wake Forest Road then Atlantic Avenue going north… what? I white-knuckled those curves on Wade Avenue and sweated through that Five Points intersection. I drove the wrong way down one-way streets. I noticed that people don’t honk much around here, but they sure get awful close to your bumper when you’re driving the speed limit. And anything more than 2 miles from the house seemed very, very far.

Those distances get smaller over time. Last year my oldest daughter started taking violin lessons up in North Raleigh. Might as well have been Mars, for the amount of food and water I packed for the voyage. The first few months, I complained about the drive. But at some point, I started to actually look forward to it. I get almost an hour of uninterrupted time to chat with my tween. We keep an eye out for this one yard with an amazing treehouse. We dutifully listen to our Suzuki CD on the way there, then sing along to the Hamilton soundtrack on the way home. We discovered a “good” Walgreens en route that has an undertapped supply of Squishmallows for birthday gifts.

These days, I would say, I’m a confident driver. Maybe overly so — I believe the phrase “bat out of hell” came out of my coworker Julie’s mouth the last time I offered to chauffeur us to our company headquarters in Southern Pines.

Needless to say, she drove.

Ayn-Monique Klahre Editor

MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL, RALEIGH

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto

No. 3

FRI/SAT, MAR 10-11, 2023 | 8PM

Rune Bergmann, conductor

Zee Zee, piano

Zee Zee performs Rachmaninoff’s masterpiece.

In the Air Tonight: The Music

Of Phil Collins & Genesis

FRI/SAT, MAR 17-18, 2023 | 8PM

Stuart Chafetz, conductor

Aaron C. Finley, vocals

Brook Wood, vocals

Guest vocalists and the Symphony pay tribute to mega-band Genesis and Phil Collins!

Brahms

Symphony No. 3

FRI/SAT, MAR 24-25, 2023 | 8PM

Alpesh Chauhan, conductor

Francesca Dego, violin

An evening of gorgeous melodies with Brahms and Prokofiev.

Back by Popular Demand!

Carnival of the Animals

SAT, APR 1, 2023 | 4PM

Michelle Di Russo, conductor Paperhand Puppet Intervention

Larger-than-life puppets from Paperhand Puppets make the animal kingdom come to life!

Young People’s Concert Series

Sponsor: WakeMed Children’s

FEBRUARY 2023

EDITORIAL

Editor

AYN-MONIQUE KLAHRE ayn-monique@waltermagazine.com

Creative Director

LAURA PETRIDES WALL laura@waltermagazine.com

Associate Editor

ADDIE LADNER addie@waltermagazine.com

Contributing Writers

Dasan Ahanu, A.J. Carr, Jim Dodson, Mike Dunn, Hampton Williams Hofer, Susanna Klingenberg, Colony Little, David Menconi, Courtney Napier, Liza Roberts, Katherine Snow Smith, Billy Warden

Contributing Poetry Editor

Jaki Shelton Green

Contributing Copy Editor

Finn Cohen

Contributing Photographers

Phillip Loken, Forrest Mason, Taylor McDonald, Catherine Nguyen, Bryan Regan, Joshua Steadman, Terrence Jones

Contributing Illustrators

Gerry O’Neill

Interns

Emma Deal

Jamaul Moore

PUBLISHING

Publisher

DAVID WORONOFF

Advertising Sales Manager

JULIE NICKENS julie@waltermagazine.com

Senior Account Executive & Operations CRISTINA HURLEY cristina@waltermagazine.com

Events Manager

KAIT GORMAN kait@waltermagazine.com

Finance STEVE ANDERSON 910-693-2497

Distribution JACK BURTON

Inquiries? WALTER OFFICE 984-286-0928

Address all correspondence to: WALTER magazine, 421 Fayetteville Street, Suite 104 Raleigh, N.C. 27601

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WALTER does not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Please contact Ayn-Monique Klahre at ayn-monique@waltermagazine.com for freelance guidelines.

Owners

JACK ANDREWS, FRANK DANIELS III, LEE DIRKS, DAVID WORONOFF In memoriam FRANK DANIELS JR.

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