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Leaking Roofs, Broken HVACs: Parents Decry Conditions at Durham Elementary Schools
This story originally published online at the 9th Street Journal. When Theresa Dowell Blackinton enrolled her kindergartener at Club Boulevard Elementary, she worried about the maintenance of the school’s nearly 75-year-old campus. School administration assured her that renovations would be completed within the year, she says. “I wasn’t looking...
“Our campuses have been turned into war zones:” The Aftermath of Police Action at UNC’s Pro-Palestinian Encampment
Following a physical encounter between pro-Palestinian protesters, UNC campus police, and counter-protesters Tuesday afternoon, students learned that the university’s administration closed the Campus Y, the on-campus hub for social activism—only for the university to suddenly announce on Friday the Y is reopening next week on restricted hours. Not...
Murals and Mosaics Multiply Through Durham’s Public Art Initiatives
This story originally published online at the 9th Street Journal. The lights went out for Wheels Fun Park in 2020 after nearly four decades of skaters and birthday parties. Now tables are stacked inside the darkened interior and an overturned shopping cart sits outside the weathered building. But by the end of 2024, visitors can expect a refurbished skating rink with a new colorful flourish to its exterior—the latest in a growing number of public artworks across the city.
Local Workers Rally at May Day March in Downtown Durham
The loud rumble of drums and wooden ratchets echoed through downtown Durham as a crowd amassed. Folks wrapped in keffiyehs and wearing T-shirts representing different local labor organizations filled CCB Plaza, holding signs with messages like “They got money for war but can’t feed the poor,” a lyric lifted from the deceased rapper Tupac. Community members, including former council member Jillian Johnson, passed out donated food.
Durham Closes Playgrounds in Five Parks Temporarily to Test for Lead
This story originally published online at NC Newsline. Durham Parks and Recreation is temporarily closing playgrounds in Northgate, Walltown, East End, East Durham, and Lyon Park to conduct further tests for lead contamination, the city announced on Friday. Playgrounds with liners and 12 inches of mulch were not originally tested,...
‘The Commons: Southern Futures’ Festival Draws Community Members Into Conversation
A commons is a bustling, populous place: a space where a community convenes to celebrate, share resources, and deliberate and act on common concerns. At first glance, the census only stands at six for The Commons: Southern Futures, a three-day festival of performances and workshops this weekend that culminates a two-week residency at UNC-Chapel Hill’s CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio. A cohort of local Black artists, including poets Cortland Gilliam and CJ Suitt, spoken word artist and musician Johnny Lee Chapman III, choreographers Jasmine Powell and Anthony “Otto” Nelson Jr., and playwright and composer Sylvester Allen Jr., have collaborated to curate and present new works.
At UNC, Police Confront Protesters at Gaza Solidarity Encampment
On Tuesday, April 30 at dawn, student protesters sleeping in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus were awoken by campus police who detained dozens of them and dismantled their tents in a jolting but not unexpected confrontation that crescendoed later in the day. On Tuesday afternoon, protesters...
“Two Stops:” A Q&A With Orange County Lawmaker Graig Meyer, Whose Campaign Video on Traffic Stops for Marijuana Went Viral
As the U.S. DEA moves to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, and state lawmakers grapple with a medical marijuana bill yet again this legislative session, Democratic state senator Graig Meyer is clear in his belief that cannabis prohibition must end. Meyer, who is running for reelection to represent...
Op-Ed: The DPS School Board Should Adopt a Policy Recognizing Durham Educators’ Rights to Have a Union Voice
April 16 marked the 56th anniversary of Memphis sanitation workers winning their legendary 1968 strike for union recognition. These brave workers had to survive violent repression and the devastating loss of their most powerful ally, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated after coming to Memphis in support of their strike. Just 12 days after that unspeakable crime, and 66 days after they illegally walked off the job, this public-sector union of Black workers in the South finally won their central demand: union recognition. It was a triumphant moment in civil rights and labor movement history that is still inspiring organizing across the country, including right here in Durham.
Matt Southern’s “Tender is the Knife” Is Driven By Pleasant Utility
Sometimes you just need sturdy strums, bleary pedal steel, and a declaration of hopeless romanticism, such as on Matt Southern’s “Cannonball,” which finds the Raleigh musician declaring that he has “Always been a dreamer / Eyes open or closed / Can’t fix the fever that keeps me wanting more / Got a heart like a cannon, heart like a cannonball.”
Durham Bar Owners Say That Ongoing Downtown Construction Is Hurting Business
On a frigid winter night two years ago in downtown Durham, a band of loyal customers huddled over drinks at Fullsteam Brewery. Outside the brewery’s tall bay doors, which were ajar, a large generator spewed diesel fumes. Sean Lilly Wilson, Fullsteam’s founder and self-titled “chief executive optimist,” was having...
Backtalk: “This is questionable behavior by an American elected official”
Last month, we reported on Triangle-area congresswoman Valerie Foushee’s trip to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We then published a letter to the editor from Durham County commissioner Nida Allam citing our reporting that was critical of Foushee’s trip. We received messages both critical and supportive of Allam’s letter, and we’re publishing a collection of them below.
Emma Geiger’s Second Release Has a Winning, Ethereal Naturalness
Emma Geiger, who moved to Durham from Los Angeles several years ago, is a singer-songwriter with a plainspoken but artfully decorated style and a clear, serene voice. She has described the title song on her second release, Reverse Bloom, as a sort of platonic breakup ballad. It exemplifies how to express heavy feelings with the lightest of touches.
Incoming! Imaginary Worlds, Japanese Ecology, and Nasty Mail
If you’d like to get punched in the brain stem by some juxtaposed imagery, track down the official trailer for I Saw the TV Glow, the arthouse horror-thriller that made a splash at Sundance earlier this year. The images in that two-minute spot toggle between suburban ennui and Jungian fever-dream tableaus that seem to pulse right through the back of your eyeballs.
UNC Campus Police Remove Pro-Palestinian Encampment in Dawn Sweep
Around 1:30 p.m. on Monday, an Instagram post from UNC-Chapel Hill’s Students for Justice in Palestine warned of imminent police sweeps and called for “ALL HANDS ON DECK” at their Triangle Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Haya, a Palestinian-American UNC junior and student organizer, said more than 200 people...
Raleigh Voters Could Opt to Add Three More District Seats to the City Council; Some Say the Proposal Needs More Study
At its meeting on March 19, the Raleigh City Council adopted two resolutions that could go before voters in a referendum this fall for implementation in the 2026 election cycle. The first resolution proposes switching council terms from two-year terms for all members to four-year staggered terms with nonpartisan primaries....
New Development Planned for Seniors in Chapel Hill Moves the Town Closer to Its Affordable Housing Goals
Last month, Chapel Hill’s town council continued the slow march toward fulfilling its lofty—and necessary—affordable housing goals. The council unanimously voted to approve Longleaf Trace, a three-story, 48-unit development on three acres near the former American Legion property at 1708 and 1712 Legion Road. The development will...
Reckless Roxboro May Get a Revamp If Locals Can Persuade NC DOT
This story originally published online at the 9th Street Journal. Chris Perelstein was working in the living room of his Roxboro Street apartment in early November when a cacophony of noises—squealing tires, a honking horn, and a loud boom—forced him outside. A van barrelling the wrong way had...
UNC Committee Votes to Repeal Diversity Goals and Jobs at 17 Campuses Across NC
This story originally published online at EdNC. The UNC Board of Governor’s Committee on University Governance voted unanimously—and without discussion—on Wednesday to repeal and replace the UNC System’s current diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policy. The board’s proposed policy, among other things, would eliminate system-wide DEI...
The Sandlot Revival Brings Baseball Bliss to the Bull City
If you believe in the Church of Baseball, you may soon meet some fellow worshipers at the Historic Durham Athletic Park. This weekend, April 27-29, the Bull City will play host to the Third Annual Sandlot Revival, an event that draws teams from as far as New York and New Orleans.
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