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Durham Entrepreneurs Are Working to Make the City Less Wasteful
The headquarters for the ReCollective, a waste management company based in Durham, is crammed inside a small loading dock. Piles of variable plastic, cardboard, and glass line the walls. Orange pill bottles and chunks of styrofoam are sorted into large bags, while other materials wait to be categorized. Textiles are churning in the washing machine.
Backtalk: “When you abstain from voting, or misuse your duty as a citizen to cast a protest vote, you are wounding your fellow citizens”
In our paper two weeks ago, Chase Pellegrini de Paur wrote about Chapel Hill town leaders’ quandary over what to do with the town’s many citizen-led volunteer boards and commissions. We received the following message from reader Steve Peck:. Insulting the citizens who give their time to town...
Voices: An Experiment in Anti-Capitalism
If you have tattoos, you’ve heard your share of unsolicited commentary on your body. Terin, the Durham-based 34-year-old tattoo artist behind @100dollartattoos on Instagram, hears that as “I guess I don’t even know who I am.”. Compared to modern flash sheets of American traditional tattooing styles, Terin’s...
Duke Made a Climate Commitment Two Years Ago. Is the University Following Through?
In September 2022, Duke brought together some prerecorded videos of high-profile figures to announce the launch of the university’s revolutionary “climate commitment.”. John Kerry, President Biden’s then special envoy for climate, congratulated Duke on its attempt to “continue to lead” the world. Alumnus Tim Cook, wearing a Duke polo, popped up on-screen to “commend … the entire Duke community for its focus on climate action.”
Bury Me at the Casa Bacardí: Dispatches From the 2024 Dreamville Festival
In the middle of Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Park sits one of the most majestic and architecturally distinct buildings in the state of North Carolina. Inspired by the Moorish and colonial influences of Old San Juan, it features stucco-like walls, grand arches, and impeccable accent lighting. It has four well-stocked bars, a dance floor, a DJ booth, and a stunning balcony overlooking the rolling hills of a wide-open public park.
Durham Public Schools Seeks a New Superintendent, Faces a Ticking Clock
This story originally published online at the 9th Street Journal. As the Durham school board launches its search for a new permanent superintendent, a consultant advising the search urged the board to move swiftly and make a final pick by this summer. Time for finding a dream superintendent is ticking...
“It is a new ERA”: Naomi Dix To Open a Queer Nightclub and Bar in Durham
“Diverse” “inclusive” and “locally-owned” are a few descriptors that every new business in the Triangle aspires to. Club ERA, dreamt up by Triangle drag queen Naomi Dix and set to open in time for Pride Month in June, may be all that and more. “As...
Super Empty’s Song of the Week: “Other Side,” Kooley High
Super Empty’s Song of the Week is co-published every Friday by the INDY and Super Empty. Over the past decade-plus of hustling up and down the I-95 corridor, Raleigh’s five-piece Kooley High crew have been no strangers to the unglamorous reality that 99.9% of rap acts—good or bad—are one day forced to reckon with: that is, being less-than-famous, and relying on forms of work beyond hip-hop to sustain their livelihoods.
UNC Trustees Could Begin to Defund DEI Efforts
This story originally published online at NC Newsline. The dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts at UNC-Chapel Hill could begin in earnest as soon as this month, say two members of the university’s board of trustees. Trustees will likely meet this month in a yet-to-be-scheduled special meeting, finalizing the campus budget before forwarding it to the UNC System Board of Governors for final approval.
‘Civil War’ Review: A Dystopian War Picture as Shrieking Alarm
Grim and exhilarating, the brilliant new film from the always-ambitious director Alex Garland (Annihilation) is a near-future nightmare of that ultimate doomscrolling scenario: A second civil war in America. This is hard, serious speculative fiction—the dystopian war picture as shrieking klaxon alarm. The story concerns a team of four...
Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams Gives Optimistic, Forward-Looking State of the City Address
Hundreds of residents packed into Fletcher Hall at Carolina Theatre on Tuesday night to witness the re-imagination of an annual event in Durham: the State of the City address. Joel Brown, a news anchor at ABC11, emceed the night’s programming. He stood at the podium on stage as folks filed into their seats, serenaded by members of the Durham Symphony Orchestra.
Letter: Rep. Foushee, Where is Your Conscience?
Now the people of North Carolina’s fourth district know the truth. Last week, on the same day that the Israeli Defense Forces leveled Al Shifa Hospital—destroying the largest hospital in Gaza and killing hundreds of doctors, nurses, aid workers, and children as they looked for refuge from bombardment—the INDY reported that Congresswoman Valerie Foushee, the voice of our district in Washington, traveled to Israel with a congressional delegation organized by AIPAC.
Super Empty’s Song Of The Week: “7 Minute Drill,” J. Cole
Given the loosely-defined, ever-evolving nature of what Super Empty currently is, I’ve gotten questions in recent weeks about whether this “Song of the Week” column was going to be defined more by cultural relevance, or by quality and subjective endorsement. Would it solely be a place to promote great new music, or would there be the occasional North Carolina-based release so big that, despite deserving little in the way of praise, simply needed to be covered?
Durham’s City Council is Enforcing Its Rules of Decorum in Ways It Wasn’t Before
March 18 was poised to be a busy night at Durham City Hall. The city council was hosting its first public hearing for the 2024-25 fiscal year budget. The issue of public worker wages dominated the conversation during elections last fall, and this was an opportunity for residents to make their concerns known. But another issue resurfaced that evening. With the chamber and lobby seating full, residents who tried to enter the building after 7 p.m. were allegedly locked out for hours.
“Free Radio Werewolf,” the latest Release From Land Is, Brims With Giddy Irreverence
Irrepressible Triangle musician and writer Corbie Hill’s work with electronic music stretches too far back to call new release Free Radio Werewolf a foray. His methods for pushing through 2020 included pulling together a previous full-length collection of spirited experiments. This latest album fully merges his personality with electronica....
Sophia Chitlik Would Bring Interest in Caregiving, Maternal Health, Affordable Childcare to NC Senate
This story originally published online at NC Newsline. Though Democrats can’t count on many victories in the North Carolina legislature these days, Sophia Chitlik of Durham said it’s important to start building for a future when Democrats break the Republican supermajority. Chitlik defeated six-term incumbent Democratic state Sen....
Dreamville Preview: Three NC Artists to See in 2024, and Three to Hope for in 2025
This story is published in partnership with Super Empty. When an international superstar like J. Cole makes the decision to bring a multi-day festival to a humble, mid-sized city like Raleigh, North Carolina (America’s 41st-largest city, for those wondering), the excitement and sense of promise for locals mostly stems from two different ends of the spectrum.
“Cold Cream II” Is a Fun and Furious Record
From the Dead Kennedys’ “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” to Minor Threat’s “Straight Edge,” there is something expressly punk about the form of the very short song—its polemical efficiency, its complete disregard for radio and commerce, its restive energy to get on to the next thing.
On “Needlefall,” Magic Tuber Stringband Blends Communal Joy With Minimalist Abstraction
“Back to the future” makes most people think of Michael J. Fox’s gum-smacking sass and Christopher Lloyd’s mad-scientist hair. But as a conceptual framework, the phrase is loaded with deeper meaning: a reverence for the past tempered with an embrace of innovation, perhaps. Or, in the case...
As Artificial Intelligence Upends the Media Landscape, UNC Professors and Journalist Grapple With How to Teach and Apply It
UNC-Chapel Hill’s Carroll Hall sits just off the main quad and is home to the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Twelve granite steps lead up to its shallow east-facing portico shaded by a pediment held aloft by six Ionic columns, a nod to the Greeks. On this sunny...
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