INDY Week 1.12.2022 by Indy Week

RESISTANCE IS

FERTILE

Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill January 12, 2022

The Nasher’s new group show marks the changing mores of the North Carolina arts landscape.

by Brian Howe, p. 14

Raleigh W Durham W Chapel Hill

"I feel like I will always continue to develop and remix my sound so that it stands out and doesn’t sound like anything else," says the rapper Charles Singletary, who performs as Charlés, p. 16

VOL. 39 NO. 2

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

CONTENTS NEWS 5

Former American Idol contestant Clay Aiken throws a wrench in an already competitive congressional race. BY LEIGH TAUSS Women incarcerated in Raleigh's minimum-custody prison unit say they're not receiving the COVID-19 booster shot. BY THOMASI MCDONALD In the COVID era, a state program tries to tackle one of the biggest barriers to care for migrant farmworkers—internet access.

6 8

BY CLARISSA DONNELLY-DEROVEN

Young people in the the Triangle and across the country want to redistribute inherited family wealth, with a purpose. BY JASMINE GALLUP

ARTS & CULTURE

13 The Carolina Theatre's new Retro Film Series begins on January 14. BY ZACK SMITH

New group show Reckoning and Resilience is the most thorough and timely show that local artists have ever had at the Nasher. BY BRIAN HOWE 16 Her Take: Talking with the rapper and songwriter Charlés. BY KYESHA JENNINGS

WE M A DE THIS P U B L I S H E RS

Contributors Will Atkinson, Madeline Crone, Grant Golden, Spencer Griffith, Lucas Hubbard, Layla Khoury-Hanold, Brian Howe, Lewis Kendall, Kyesha Jennings, Glenn McDonald, Anna Mudd, Dan Ruccia, Rachel SImon

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Wake County

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THE REGULARS 3 Quickbait

4 Letter to the Editor

17 Culture Calendar

Staff Writers Jasmine Gallup Thomasi McDonald

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Editorial Assistant Lena Geller Copy Editor Iza Wojciechowska Theater+Dance Critic Byron Woods

COVER "Eloise Closing Her Eyes" by Beverly McIver, photo courtesy of the Nasher Museum of Art

January 12, 2022

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BACK TA L K

Last week, Lena Geller wrote about crowdsourced review platforms like Google and Yelp and the impacts they’re having on small businesses— especially on restaurants— especially during the pandemic, when clients are asked to comply with mask mandates and other mild inconveniences. Our readers had many thoughts.

“Kudos to Lena Geller for her astute reporting about the online review racket,” wrote reader HOWARD PARTNER. “The restaurant misinformation promulgated by review sites like Google, YouTube and Yelp is very similar, in impact, to the political garbage hawked on Facebook and similar sites. “The lack of responsibility and legal safeguards for behemoth websites is systematically tearing apart the remnants of the social fabric of the civilized world. These websites should be subject to the same legal and ethical restraints that newspapers and magazines are subject to, and probably even stricter restraints and potential penalties.” “I may have missed this but as a retailer being reviewed you can pay Yelp to suppress comments and shine up your star status, which is complete crap,” wrote reader SARAH WARD. “The whole system is (potentially) rigged and consumers are being misdirected and business are suffering the consequences. Thanks for the story. It was really well written and relevant.” On Facebook, commenter DAVID HEWITT had this to say: “I definitely fall into the ‘I hate yelp’ crowd, even though I have never owned a restaurant. Repeat yelp reviewers crave attention and the easiest way to get noticed is by writing hateful reviews, like the one the author admitted to writing where she wished that The Cupcake Factory had burned down. I think yelp is untrustworthy and frequented by attention seekers who will write bad reviews just to be ‘funny.’” And Facebook commenter AARON AVERILL added the following: “Great story! One thread the author missed is that this phenomenon of rewarding toxic behavior exists in ALL social internet communities, because attention increases with outrage. Individual people are responsible at some level but the system is ‘programming’ our reptilian reward systems. “I was hoping the author would have an ‘a-ha’ moment to recognize her own part of this and journey to redemption but alas it never came.”

Q U ICKBA I T Viral Load What’s the deal with Omicron and how does it differ from previous strains? BY LEIGH TAUSS ltauss@indyweek.com

ust as we were starting to get a handle on COVID-19, two new strains of the virus emerged, each with different traits and severity. But what’s the difference between the original COVID-19, Delta, and Omicron? Scientists are still sussing that out, but what we do know is that Omicron appears to be a more contagious but less severe virus. More people are getting sicker—North Carolina broke its case record four days in a row last week—but fewer are ending up in the emergency room than had with Delta. All three strains work in essentially the same way: a spike protein on the virus binds to the cell, hijacking it like a pirate ship. Vaccines work by disabling the spike. However, with each new strain come more and more mutations to the

spike protein, allowing it to board healthy cells anyway, resulting in breakthrough cases. Case in point: despite the fact that 70 percent of adult North Carolinians are vaccinated, positive COVID-19 tests since December have surged from 7 percent to 31 percent. But it’s not all gloom and doom: some scientists believe Omicron may hasten the end to the pandemic if it continues to burn through the population at lightning speed but leaves behind a sea of folks with natural immunity. That will come in handy especially if the next variation of the virus is more severe. Here’s what we know about the differences between the strains. The number of molecules in the table below represents the strains’ relative intensity as compared to each other.

COVID-19 (initial strain)

Delta

Contagiousness Lethality/severity Duration of symptoms Loss of smell and taste Vaccine resistance

COVID-19 Strains’ Relative Intensity as Compared to Each Other

Stats (as of Tuesday, 1/11)

17,705

30.5%

new cases

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Omicron

tests positive

3,991

currently hospitalized

19,706 total deaths

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January 12, 2022

L E T TE R

A Different Experience An open letter to the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church and the Durham community BY JULIA WEBB BOWDEN backtalk@indyweek.com

n response to comments made by the pastor of Pioneers Church, the leaders of Elizabeth Street United Methodist Church (ESUMC), on behalf of our congregation, feel compelled to share our story. Although we are only half a mile from this new church start-up on Geer Street, it appears we are worlds apart when it comes to our values and faith practices. For those who are not aware, ESUMC became the very first “reconciling” church in the Carolinas 20 years ago! Congregations that affiliate with the Reconciling Ministries Network (rmnetwork. org) embrace a commitment to achieving LGBTQIA+ justice and full inclusion in the life and ministry of the United Methodist Church, both in policy and in practice. This means that we are an inclusive congregation, where all are welcome to come and encounter the transformative love of God just as they are. We are a diverse body of people, every one of which we consider to have the same glorious worth and value. And, we advocate to advance justice and inclusion for all LGBTQIA+ people in the United Methodist Church and beyond. To be clear, our goal is not “tolerance.” On the contrary, ESUMC is led morally, spiritually, and operationally by LGBTQIA+ people, persons of color, and women. We can’t think of a single instance when excluding people because of their sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, or gender was a good idea. We are confident this is not a winning formula in a society, and especially not in a place of worship! At ESUMC, our Christian faith is grounded in hope and deep respect for every person, whether they look like us, act like us, or are members of

January 12, 2022

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“We want to experience something different in our church than what we often encounter in the larger world. ” a church or not. We believe that freeing ourselves from the yoke of judging others enables us to more fully experience the grace of Jesus and, as a result, love others more deeply. This not only impacts how we treat each other in the church; it urges us to reach out to persons in our neighborhood and community. Although we are a relatively small congregation, we are mighty in our commitment to serve and be with those around us. ESUMC has long-standing relationships with Urban Ministries of Durham, Families Moving Forward, and

the Freedom House Recovery Center. We are one of the top supporters of the Durham CROP Walk. We facilitate a food distribution program that serves 100 families each month. We’ve had drag shows and vaccination events at our church. Our church building is home base for community organizations like Recovery Community of Durham, A Certain Work, and the Religious Coalition for a Non-Violent Durham. Diversity is our lifeblood at ESUMC! We are encouraged by it … invest our hope in it … humble ourselves to enable it to shape our lives. We want to experience something different in our church than what we often encounter in the larger world. Equally honoring and valuing the worth of each person is the fullest way that we know how to live into our Christian faith! Thus, we are sad to learn of remarks that have been made that hurt members of our church and remind them of a long history of being treated as somehow less than others. All we can say is, “That’s not right!” It just isn’t. ESUMC will continue to stand for something different. Durham has changed a lot in 20 years. We, too, have grown at ESUMC during the two decades since we made a commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community. We hope the Durham community can appreciate how we are different from some other places of worship that are less welcoming, and know that we will continue to support and love all people in our congregation … and especially our LGBTQIA+ members this day. W The author is a pastor at Elizabeth Street United Methodist Church in Durham.

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North Carolina

Congressional Idol Candidates had raised more than $1 million ahead of the primary for the 6th Congressional District. Then American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken entered the race and scrambled the field. BY LEIGH TAUSS ltauss@indyweek.com

he race to the left for the 6th Congressional District had started taking shape, with nearly $1 million raised by the end of 2021 between the three early front-runners: Chapel Hill legislator Valerie Foushee, Wake County representative Wiley Nickel, and Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam. Local establishment Democrats seemed to coalesce early around Foushee, with Allam carving out a strong lane as a younger, progressive firebrand. Meanwhile, Wiley Nickel, a former Obama White House staffer, was amassing a war chest of more than $500,000 to dump into the race. Enter 2003 American Idol runner-up musician Clay Aiken, whose campaign announcement Monday lit up social media and made national news. The launch ad, which has already been watched more than a million times on Twitter, depicts a lightly aged and stockier Aiken, who sits on a stool and rattles off his progressive agenda: combating climate change and defending a woman’s right to choose. But the real zinger comes at the end when Aiken takes aim at right-wing bigots Congressman Madison Cawthorn and Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, whose faces appeared on a set of rainbow flags unfurled at the end of the three-minute video. “Just think how excited these guys are going to be when we elect the South’s first gay congressman,” Aiken says with a chuckle. “Make them proud.” This is not Aiken’s first political rodeo. In 2014, he won the Democratic primary nomination for the state’s 2nd Congressional District before losing in the gener-

al election to Republican Renee Ellmers. If elected this time around, Aiken would be the first openly LGTBQ+ person ever elected to Congress in North Carolina. While he previously ran in a Republican-leaning district, the recently redrawn 6th Congressional District is solidly blue and will be decided in the primary. It’s also one of only two districts where a non-white candidate stands a chance to win. Aiken’s arrival considerably changes the game for the remaining candidates, whose campaign dollars will be stretched ever thinner as they battle to gain the same level of name recognition Aiken has enjoyed since his Idol days. “With [Aiken] it could be a real scramble because all three of the candidates that were in the front-runner status beforehand weren’t that well known and now you have that outside force from [beyond] politics,” says Mac McCorkle, a former Democratic political consultant and Duke Sanford School of Public Policy professor. “It really scrambles the strategy because it has this fluid, almost destabilizing force.” A celebrity jumping into the race rubbed some progressives the wrong way, including Durham City Council member and former mayoral candidate Javiera Cabarello, who says she’s “not interested in that kind of representation.” “It’s time we had representation that really symbolizes the future of the state, and the demographics of the state that are growing the fastest are the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and the Latina community,” Caballero told the INDY on Monday. “I just think it would be a huge missed opportunity, and quite frankly I’m ready for someone who is young, and progressive, and a woman of color, and an immigrant.”

NC-6 Congressional candidate Clay Aiken But some party loyalists disagree. While politics is a game to win, beyond Aiken’s reality TV fame, former political consultant Gary Pearce says he believes Aiken has the qualifications to be an effective politician. Pearce helped Aiken with his 2014 primary campaign and says he’s still a supporter. He sees Aiken as the “antidote” to the MAGA-fueled Cawthorn-Robinson crowd rising in popularity in North Carolina politics. “I think he has a lot of the qualities that David Price had and that will surprise people because of Clay’s background,” Pearce says. “But he’s a smart, serious, thoughtful person about politics and public policy.” Aiken will also likely be a formidable fundraiser. He raised more than $285,000 in the 2104 primary and over $1 million in his bid against Ellmers. The other candidates will need to spend their funds on TV spots in the hopes of catching up to Aiken’s status as a household name. “What Aiken does is ups the ante on money, simply so people can stay even or can reach the Aiken level,” McCorkle says. “Research would suggest that it’s not that you have to equal your opponent’s spending but you need to get an adequate floor.” “If there was a primary today, I think Aiken would probably win on name recognition,” McCorkle added.

PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK

Still, it will be a long road to Election Day, with a decision from the courts expected Tuesday (after the INDY goes to print) on the gerrymandering lawsuits, which could further delay the primary. That will test Aiken’s staying power in the race. He’ll face more questions about his qualifications than other candidates, and in some ways, he’ll have more to prove. “You could say there will be more time now for these candidates to prove that Aiken is not the right one; you could also say that it’s going to stretch their money even further out. So it can go either way, it seems to me, in terms of being positive or negative for the other candidate,” McCorkle says. Monday’s announcement didn’t deter Allam, who says she’ll continue to campaign hard in the district to get her message across. “We’re continuing to focus on meeting people where they’re at and making the case for a progressive with a track record of delivering wins for NC-6 families,” Allam told the INDY Monday. “We’re still the only campaign that has pledged not to take corporate PAC money, fossil fuel lobbyist money, or self-fund, and accountability to working people will always be my top priority.” W INDYweek.com

January 12, 2022

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Raleigh

Unboostered Why aren’t women incarcerated at Raleigh’s minimum-custody prison facility, who are often sent out into the community for work release, receiving COVID-19 booster shots? BY THOMASI MCDONALD tmcdonald@indyweek.com

usan Rouse has been in prison since 2013, when she was sentenced to more than 14 years after being convicted of embezzlement in Wake County. Rouse, who celebrated her 74th birthday on January 8, is serving her sentence in the honor-grade “Canary Unit,” a minimum-custody facility at the NC Correctional Institution for Women (NCCIW) in Raleigh. Rouse says she received the Moderna vaccines early last year but that corrections officials have not made available booster shots for her and other inmates housed in the Canary. “We’re not getting what we need,” Rouse told the INDY this week. “We’re not getting what the CDC is recommending. I don’t have a big fear of dying. I just don’t want to die here.” Rouse described a near-surreal atmosphere at the state’s largest women’s prison, where fear is predominant among inmates and staffers alike. “The other day one woman walked in here with a plastic bag over her head, like she was going to Mars,” Rouse said. “I’m making a joke, but it’s very, very serious.” What’s the latest with the more than 1,000 women behind bars in Raleigh who are housed in one of two facilities—“up the hill” at the main prison on Bragg Street and the “down the hill” Canary Unit—and who are under the supervision and care of the state while paying their debt to society? Are they being provided with booster shots during this latest COVID-19 outbreak? “Boosters are being given at [the] North Carolina Correctional Institute for Women, and will continue to be given,” John Bull, a spokesman with the NC Department of Public Safety (DPS), answered in an email to the INDY last week. In a follow-up email Monday, Bull said that “so far boosters have been given to 6

January 12, 2022

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5,700 eligible offenders, meaning they are at least six months from their last shot. Around 33 percent of eligible offenders have received the booster shot.” But Bull said he was unable to disclose how many women behind bars in North Carolina have received a booster shot. “I don’t have a breakdown of boosters administered by gender, facility, or housing unit,” Bull wrote. The most recent data from DPS’s online COVID-19 dashboard indicate that there are 317 active COVID-19 cases in carceral facilities across the state. In NCCIW, there are currently 27 active cases, according to state data. But without boosters administered in time, there could be more. Multiple sources have told the INDY that in the roughly three months booster shots have been available, the women housed at the main facility and in the Canary Unit still have not received COVID-19 booster shots. Family members and activists are particularly worried about the risks posed by inmates who have jobs in the larger community as part of the DPS work release program. The spouse of one woman serving time at NCCIW spoke to the INDY but requested his name not be used out of fear that she would face retaliation. He corroborates Bull’s statement to some degree but also corroborates Rouse. “I think they have started giving boosters in the main prison, but they haven’t done anything at all at the Canary, which seems kind of crazy to me because that’s where the work-release inmates are,” the spouse told the INDY on Friday. “People on work release have a greater opportunity to bring it back to prison, where it spreads like wildfire, or out in the community.” The spouse added that as of one week ago “15 or so” women in the Canary had

NC Correctional Institution for Women tested positive for the virus, including a work-release inmate who he says had been working at the governor’s mansion without a booster shot. DPS’s online dashboard showing 27 positive cases at NCCIW was updated Monday. Bull said in an email Monday that “advance treatment is available to any offender who needs it.” But Rouse says, so far, it hasn’t been available to her and other inmates. “The bottom line is we can’t even get a booster,” she says. Rouse says on December 12, prison officials distributed a two-page form to inmates to complete in order to receive the booster shot. There was a place for them to sign on the back page, and just above it, a place for the nurse to sign after the inmate received the shot. Rouse completed and returned it to prison officials. “Then all of a sudden, nothing happened,” Rouse says. “It was like signing a blank check.” After weeks passed and she did not receive a booster, Rouse says she wrote a grievance on January 4 after being told by a nurse that prison officials would not honor her request unless she filed one. Then another outbreak happened and the women are now confined to their rooms 21 hours a day. “It’s like the prison is hamstrung because there’s not enough staff,” Rouse says.

PHOTO COURTESY OF NCDPS.GOV

“There’s only two officers, and they are scared to death to walk down the halls.” Meanwhile, the spouse of the woman behind bars told the INDY on Monday the “outbreak has exploded at NCCIW.” “So many people in the Canary Unit are sick that DPS is no longer testing inmates,” he said in a text message to the INDY. “And sick women are being housed with elderly, infirm women living in the assisted living ward, which is to court disaster. The outbreak wouldn’t be nearly so bad if the prison had offered booster shots in the fall as soon as inmates became eligible.” In an email Tuesday, Bull said “the allegation that testing is not being done is not true” and added that, at times, prison staff has had to place asymptomatic positive cases in assisted living, in medically isolated single rooms. “I can assure you every offender in the Canary Unit at NCCIW has been tested,” Bull wrote. “Anyone who tested positive has been moved into medical isolation.” Inmates who may have been exposed to someone who tested positive are quarantined for 14 days and subjected to twice-daily temperature checks, close observation, and additional testing, Bull said in an earlier email. “[Prison] nursing staff is laser focused at this point on meeting the ongoing, routine medical needs of the offenders in their pris-

ke up w a W i

ons, while conducting a substantial number of COVID tests every day.” Kerwin Pittman, a social justice activist and director of policy and programs with the prisoners’ rights nonprofit Emancipate NC, spoke with the INDY on Friday. Pittman said an Emancipate NC team member working at NCCIW confirmed that the inmates in the Canary are not receiving the extra layer of protection against the worst effects of the coronavirus. “They are scared they are going to die from COVID, due to not being able to keep up with Centers for Disease Control guidelines,” Pittman added. The women serving time have reason to be fearful. As the INDY previously reported, at the height of the pandemic in 2020, the women’s prison experienced more positive COVID cases than almost every correctional institution in North Carolina—only Scotland, Albemarle, Warren, Craven, and Tabor reported more cases. Tabor prison in Columbus County had the most in total, reporting 563 in 2020 (and two deaths, the same as NCCIW). The reports that boosters haven’t been available for one of the state’s most vulnerable populations seem counterintuitive to public health officials’ efforts to promote a means of strengthening community members’ chances to fight off the virus, even if they contract it. Moreover, individuals who are serving time in the state’s prison system during the pandemic are particularly vulnerable. Owing to limited space and even less privacy, the state prison population may be even more at risk of contracting the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Last week, NC Department of Health and Human Services secretary Kody Kinsley and other state officials noted that nearly 80 percent of the more than 30,000 people housed in the state’s prisons have been fully vaccinated. Bull said a “more aggressive booster campaign for both offenders and staff” began within one week of FDA and CDC approval in late October of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson boosters. “As with the population at large, individuals continue to take time to consider whether or not to take the booster,” Bull explained. “This is exactly the case within [prisons].” Meanwhile, Rouse says she’s speaking out for all of the women at the prison, particularly the older ones who have been behind bars “for years and years.” “I shouldn’t be condemned to die here,” she said, “and that’s certainly what it feels like.” W

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North Carolina Farmworkers harvest peppers PHOTO COURTESY OF NC DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES FACEBOOK PAGE

Expanding Access COVID-19 was especially devastating to migrant farmworkers, crowding out some of the other health disparities the community faces. Now, a state program tries to tackle one big barrier to care that predates the pandemic: internet. BY CLARISSA DONNELLY-DEROVEN backtalk@indyweek.com

rom tight living quarters to high rates of chronic illnesses and no sick leave protections, immigrant farmworkers have found themselves in particularly vulnerable positions as the COVID-19 pandemic has spread throughout North Carolina. During the summer of 2020, hundreds of farmworkers fell ill at more than 30 farms as COVID ripped through the greater community. Farmworker advocates issued numerous calls to Governor Roy Cooper, demanding he and other state officials implement policies to better protect workers. Cooper seemed likely to meet the demands, though eventually he changed course. The state’s Department of Health and Human Services does not track COVID-19 infections by profession. At the start, the department tracked outbreaks in farmworker 8

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housing, as it does with other congregate living settings such as nursing homes and adult care facilities. But by summer 2020, the department changed its record keeping. It moved migrant farmworker housing to the more general “other” category, which also includes homeless shelters. Instead of the name of the farm, only the cross streets are listed. NC DHHS said the change was made to be more precise. “In the former display, a business/farm was named even though the outbreak might have occurred at a housing site several miles away,” said NC DHHS spokesperson Catie Armstrong, adding that the precise address of the outbreak was removed “as an acknowledgement that marginalized populations reside in both settings and those settings/residents are at risk for acts of discrimination and harassment.”

General infection data do show that since March 2020, 17 percent of COVID cases in North Carolina have been among Hispanic residents, despite the group accounting for 10 percent of the population (about 94 percent of farmworkers speak Spanish as their native language). To put it mildly, the pandemic has been rough for immigrant farm laborers. As vaccines have rolled out, though, many have finally found some relief and protection. As of mid-December 2021, health care workers had administered 28,702 vaccine doses to farmworkers at centralized vaccination sites targeting the population, according to NC DHHS. The total population of migrant and seasonal farm laborers in North Carolina is estimated to be around 150,000, including undocumented workers, those in the United States on H-2A temporary agricultural worker visas, and U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The number of vaccine doses given to the group is almost definitely an undercount, because these workers—like everyone else—can get their vaccine at any location that administers them. If a farmworker went to a nearby pharmacy for a vaccine, rather than waiting for the vaccine pop-up at the labor camp, they wouldn’t be counted in the number of vaccines administered to farmworkers specifically. AMEXCAN, a Latino advocacy group based in Greenville, recently conducted a survey of nearly 100 immigrant farmworkers to gauge their knowledge about COVID-19 and the vaccine. Among the findings: More than 80 percent of the immigrant farmworkers surveyed said they knew where they could go to get a COVID-19 vaccine, a significant feat considering the language and transportation barriers the community often faces. Survey respondents primarily lived in Nash, Wilson, and Harnett Counties, rural areas in the eastern and central parts of the state. Gaps in more general support remain for immigrant farmworkers. In the survey, workers said they needed help accessing other types of medical care, including mental health care. They also expressed needing clothes, masks, other personal protective equipment, and food. Perhaps most significantly, workers said they needed access to the internet. “At this day in time, this is the way that we can communicate with our own communities,” said AMEXCAN’s executive director Juvencio Rocha-Peralta. “These communities or these individuals, they really live in a very remote area, so there’s some room in there for us to advocate more for connectivity, for access to services.”

Unreliable internet State agencies have also taken note of this critical need. Natalie Rivera coordinates the Farmworker Health Internet Connectivity Project within the NC Farmworker Health

¿Save dónde se encuentra el centro de vacunación más cercano?

17.2% 82.8%

Sí No

AMEXCAN surveyed migrant farmworkers about their access to the vaccine for COVID-19. The researchers asked migrants if they knew where they could find the closest vaccine center to them. More than 80 percent said yes. Program, an organization that acts as a liaison between clinics and farmworkers. “We look for areas in North Carolina where there’s a large density of farmworkers but maybe not a lot of health services,” Rivera said. “Outreach workers go out into the community, go into farms, visit farmworkers where they’re living, and do health outreach to better connect them with the clinic services that are available to them.” When COVID arrived, the organization considered switching to a virtual model to better protect farmworkers and community health workers and to limit physical appointments with doctors. But it immediately ran into a problem: internet and cell service at most migrant housing ranges from poor to nonexistent. “I knew that this issue existed,” Rivera said. She used to be an outreach worker, and she remembers having to go out

to farms to deliver health information—a blood test came back, an appointment had to be rescheduled, etc.—which could have been relayed over a phone call or an email, had those services reliably existed.

“Hidden” housing Part of the challenge in getting internet to migrant farm labor camps stems from how isolated their housing often is. Nearly 40 percent of migrant camps are “hidden,” according to a 2015 study by researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine, meaning they’re far off the road or tucked behind other structures. The distance between the road and migrant housing makes it more likely trees or other physical barriers will need to be removed, which can lead to rising costs when laying the fibers and cables.

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January 12, 2022

r e m Sum ide u g p m a C Calling all camps— the 2022 Camp Guide is here! INDY Week's comprehensive guide to camps around the Triangle and North Carolina this year. Listings are FREE OF CHARGE and must be submitted by January 17th. To be included, please use the QR code or email the address below and provide the camp name, locations, age range, and URL for more information.

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2042 Aug.–Dec. 2020 Apr. 2021 Aug. 2021

712

590 83

Total # of FW w/ access to Hotspots

117

258

Total # of Hotspots

Since the start of the program, the Farmworker Internet Connectivity Project has distributed more than 200 hotspots to labor camps throughout the state. CREDIT: NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES “The other part about migrant housing is, in many cases, it’s congregate housing,” Rivera said. “So that also creates a challenge with bandwidth and data.” Much migrant housing is also built from metal or concrete, which can impede getting internet access inside. Rivera said she’s heard from many growers who’ve gotten quotes from internet service providers saying that it will cost tens of thousands of dollars to wire up such buildings. Housing being “hidden” can also contribute to health problems beyond a lack of internet access. “Crowding, lack of access to sufficient bathing facilities, pest infestation, and structural damage are common to dwellings in farmworker labor camps,” the authors of the 2015 study wrote. “Employer-provided farmworker housing seldom meets the requirements of state and federal regulations.” While improved internet access wouldn’t address those problems, those in the field have seen how expanded access has helped immigrant laborers in other capacities. “We’ve learned that the internet is not only beneficial for health access but also just for emotional well-being,” Rivera said. Despite the benefits of internet access, and the increasing dependence on webbased services during the pandemic, neither North Carolina nor federal migrant housing regulations require internet access to be available to workers living in migrant housing.

Wi-Fi vs. broadband As the virus spread, members of the farmworker health program began speaking with people at the North Carolina Broadband Infrastructure Office to strategize the easiest and quickest way to get internet access to farmworkers. They decided on Wi-Fi hotspots. Hotspots use cellular networks, such as Verizon and AT&T, to deliver internet access. They’re small, essentially the size of a cell phone, and portable. But their size poses some problems. “They can easily get lost,” Rivera said. They also don’t work especially well if multiple people are trying to do simultaneous things that require a lot of bandwidth, like watching YouTube or video chatting with family, not to mention a child trying to participate in video classes. The organization distributes hotspots to farms through the health partners with whom they already worked. Some nonprofits and other community-based organizations that have existing relationships with farmworkers also participate. Blue Ridge Health, a federally qualified health center that works with migrant farmers in western North Carolina, participated in distribution. Kenett Melgar, the vulnerable populations manager at BRH, said the hotspots were critical. They enabled many migrant workers, who didn’t previously have internet access, to participate in telehealth appointments and to speak with their families using WhatsApp.

“The need for the migrant population parallels the needs of the community as a whole,” Melgar said. “Internet access—especially in remote mountainous areas, such as the ones that we have around here— can sometimes be spotty, and a lot of people just don’t have good internet. Which, in today’s world, is kind of a need.” As of August 2021, the most recent data available, the group had distributed 258 hotspots, enabling over 2,000 farmworkers to gain access to the internet. It did not have documents available showing the geographic distribution of the hotspots.

An emergency stopgap The Wi-Fi hotspots were always designed to be a short-term response, generated by the pandemic. There’s only funding for the service through the end of 2022, according to Rivera. Alongside the hotspot program, the agency also partnered with the NC Institute of Agromedicine to come up with a more permanent solution. Broadband infrastructure takes time to build out and it can be very expensive. It’s an issue rural communities across the state and the country have reckoned with, especially during the pandemic, when so much of life has moved online. “Wired internet … like fiber or cable, really needs to be sort of buried underground. It costs a lot more money,” Rivera said, “but it ends up being more permanent and more cost efficient once it’s available to you.” The agencies designed a program whereby farm owners and growers who want to install more permanent internet at their locations can do so and get reimbursed by the agromedicine institute for up to $1,000 per migrant housing unit. The reimbursement, though, is also temporary. To achieve digital equity, Rivera said, it’s critical that migrant farmworkers have access to the internet. The question is, Who is financially responsible for making that happen? “The challenging part has been what would happen afterward,” she said. “Do we pay for it? Or do they pay for it? And I think we were trying to go through this to learn and see.” W North Carolina Health News is an independent, non-partisan, not-for-profit, statewide news organization dedicated to covering all things health care in North Carolina. Visit NCHN at northcarolinahealthnews.org.

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January 12, 2022

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The Triangle

New Generation Young people across the country, and here in the Triangle, seek to redistribute inherited family wealth with a sense of purpose. BY JASMINE GALLUP jgallup@indyweek.com

or most people, giving to charity means donating their hand-me-downs to Goodwill or giving a few hundred dollars to a nonprofit. For Ansel Dow, a Raleigh activist, it means pledging thousands. Dow comes from a family that’s, well, rich. In his case, the money came from his grandfather’s work with the Chevron Oil Company, Dow says. Looking back, it’s clear his grandpa worked hard his entire life, Dow says. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have a helping hand on the way to joining Raleigh’s elite. Like many other white, working-class families, Dow’s grandparents had an advantage when it came to living the American Dream. They had access to resources historically denied to minorities, Dow says. The GI Bill, for example, helped white World War II veterans buy a house, continue their education, or enroll in job training through low-interest loans. African Americans and women, however, were overlooked. For many Americans, class privilege is a fact of life—one they try to avoid looking at too closely. But Dow thinks the richest 10 percent have a responsibility to try and right the injustices they’ve benefitted from. It’s not enough to be woke; people with wealth and class privilege have to work to help dismantle the systems they’re a part of.

Changing the way wealth works As a recruiter for Resource Generation, a national nonprofit aimed at redistributing wealth, Dow often approaches people who are among the richest in North Carolina and asks them to give away money they may have inherited from parents or grandparents. The kind of giving he’s asking them to do isn’t charity or philanthropy—it’s not taking part in a pledge drive or donating $500 to Black Lives Matter. Instead, Dow might ask people to donate an extra $5,000 they have in savings or dig into their family’s multimillion-dollar trust fund and start siphoning it away piece by piece. “It’s a difference in approach,” says Isabel Walsh, who became a member of Resource Generation last year. “[The words] ‘philanthropy’ and ‘giving’ suggest the people who are doing those things are just really generous people. In truth, it’s that they have some kind of privilege that gains them access to wealth.” 12

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Triangle branch members of Resource Generation.

COURTESY PHOTO BY ANSEL DOW

In Walsh’s experience, many wealthy families donate to a cause only as long as it won’t significantly cut into their riches. “I think there’s this very ingrained belief for a lot of people that you should not ever lose any money … and you should probably grow that amount of money, even if you don’t need it, and even if that amount is already really big,” she says. “[With Resource Generation], it’s about making real, lasting financial shifts to the way money is distributed.”

Where does the money go? Last year, 15 members of Resource Generation’s Triangle chapter gave away $980,000, almost a million dollars. That’s an average of about $65,000 per person. The money went to a variety of nonprofits aimed at dismantling white supremacy and other societal oppression. One of those was Durham Beyond Policing, a grassroots group lobbying for the abolition of policing and imprisonment. The group is creating “community-led alternatives to policing” through education and activism, says Interim Director Manju Rajendran. “Resource Generation’s generosity and solidarity has made a meaningful difference in our work,” Rajendran says. “It always feels encouraging to hear from people who share a vision for a Durham where everyone has what they need.” Rajendran says she respects the group’s dedication to supporting community organizations. Part of Resource Generation’s mission is to support local activists who have a firsthand understanding of what their community is facing. Often, that means supporting working-class leaders and people of color.

“Durham Beyond Policing is a working-class-led formation,” Rajendran says. “We appreciate Triangle Resource Generation’s commitment to work in cross-class alliances with racial and economic justice partners.”

Let’s talk about money As of today, the richest 10 percent in Raleigh earn about $200,000 per year. In Durham, it’s about $175,000 per year. The top 10 percent can also include people whose parents earn those incomes, or whose net wealth falls between $50,000 and $200,000, according to the Resource Generation website. Regardless, they all have something in common. “Most of the folks I talk to have been in this sort of purgatory of knowing [wealth] is a huge part of their story or their family’s story, but also knowing it doesn’t get talked about in ways that feel satisfying and real to them,” Dow says. “Conversations about [money] were so sparse and so infrequent and so uncomfortable.” That was definitely the case for Walsh, who says she knew her family had money, but talking about it “was seen as impolite.” “It was taught to be a private thing, a family matter only,” Walsh says. “It was a relief to talk about it openly.” Dow wants to encourage those conversations, he says. The mission of Resource Generation isn’t just to redistribute money but also to help people recognize privilege. “A huge part of the work we do is supporting people to initiate those conversations with family members, which can be so, so challenging,” he says. “Even as hard as that is to do, it’s worth it. It’s something we have a responsibility to do.” W

SC R E E N

RETRO FILM SERIES Friday, Jan. 14–Friday, June 17 | Tickets $10/screening, $100 for Retro Season Pass that includes “MovieDiva” series but not “MysteryRealm” or “FantasticRealm” series

Be Kind, Rewind The risks and rewards of looking forward to the Carolina Theatre’s new Retro Film Series. BY ZACK SMITH arts@indyweek.com

early two years of a pandemic have given me a new appreciation for the lovely, communal experience of going out to the movies. I had barely caught up on potential Oscar contenders in theaters the week after Christmas before reports of Omicron filled the news. Suddenly, even a mask wasn’t enough to let me feel safe in a theater and I canceled my tickets for the next night. So it’s with some trepidation that I face the announcement of the Carolina Theatre’s new Retro Film Series lineup, which runs January through June of this year, and which organizers have proclaimed, with arguable but endearing hyperbole, “The Greatest Film Series in the World.” Along with the “Retro”-branded Friday double features, there are also curated series based around specific themes such as mystery and fantasy for viewers that want to pack a powerful amount of cinema into a single weekend, the only qualifier that the films must be more than 20 years old. For nearly half my life, this series, which launched in the fall of 1998, has been a friend, with many of my best memories of the movies being the shouts and cheers in Fletcher Hall or the two smaller cinemas upstairs. From a gimmick-filled William Castle screening and the awed gasps at the celluloid film print of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo that was acquired from Herzog himself to the sheer bafflement at the screening of the last known 35-mm print of Michael Mann’s The Keep, Retro is one of the reasons I love the movies. I double-check with the Carolina Theatre’s senior film director Jim Carl about possible COVID shutdowns. In an email, he reminds me that the theater is owned by the city and that it plans to follow any guidelines regarding gatherings of 100 people or less and any guidelines offered by Governor Cooper. Carl also notes that if they have to cancel any screenings, they’ll simply rebook the films from the studios for a later date, as they’ve already done; some of the films this year, such as War of the Worlds and the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, were scheduled as far back as March 2020, when the original lockdown took place.

A still from Raising Arizona, which screens at this year’s Retro Film Series As with so many scheduled events, even looking forward to the Retro series feels risky, since there’s no way to know if it’ll be delayed once again. But anticipating it might be worth tempting fate. Where else could you find Rudolph Valentino and James Mason in the same series as the notorious pirate flop Cutthroat Island like you can with the weekly “MovieDiva” screenings? Or where else but the Retro Series could you find mainstream hits like Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings trilogy playing next to the 1984 Tawney Kitaen vehicle The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak? Each subseries of films combines well-known classics with a few that should be well known, or are at least fascinating misfires. “MysteryRealm” in June has five Alfred Hitchcocks, including Vertigo and Psycho, but it also boasts the cult classic The Last of Sheila, a devilish mystery cowritten by musical theater god Stephen Sondheim and his friend Anthony Perkins (from the aforementioned Psycho), which Knives Out director Rian Johnson cited as a primary influence; there’s also the British noir Cast a Dark Shadow with Dirk Bogarde as a murderous gigolo and the darkly comic French Agatha Christie riff Spotlight on a Murderer from Eyes without a Face director Georges Franju. And of course, there are the usual Friday night double features, kicking off this week with the very 1980s Stephen King adaptation Silver Bullet (pitting Corey Haim and Gary Busey against a werewolf) and the restoredfrom-the-negative Viking slasher flick Berserker. Highlights in upcoming weeks include the deranged (in dif-

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FILMMAKERS

ferent ways) Death Bed: The Bed That Eats and House (Hasu) on February 4; the Coen brothers’ Nic Cage classic Raising Arizona paired with Bill Murray’s underrated clown criminal comedy Quick Change (March 25); and multiple Joan Crawford films programmed alongside Bette Davis films, ranging from their peak years (The Letter/Mildred Pierce on April 29) to their “hagsploitation” post–Baby Jane years (Dead Ringer/Strait-Jacket on January 28). There are, of course, literally thousands upon thousands of old movies available on streaming services, if you know where to look, from the curated classics of the Criterion Channel to the TCM section of HBO Max and the many buried gems on Tubi if you don’t mind ad breaks. But there’s a particular joy to seeing an older movie in a theater at the size it was intended to be shown at—and where, freed from the disruptions of text messages and household chores, the world on-screen becomes, for just a few hours, the full world you inhabit. Laughing or gasping at the screen is so much better when you’re not the only one doing it. At Retro, there’s always the chance to relive a great memory, to make new ones, to discover something astonishing that you never knew existed, all in the company of fellow moviegoers. Certainly, it’s enough to make the Carolina Theatre’s “Greatest Film Series in the World” claim seem like at worst an earned boast. Perhaps it’s worth investing in a hazmat suit to go to the movies again, whether it’s for an Oscar-winning classic or just The Land of the Yik-Yak. W INDYweek.com

January 12, 2022

A RT

RECKONING AND RESILIENCE: NORTH CAROLINA ART NOW

Thursday, Jan. 13–Sunday, Jul. 10 | Nasher Museum of Art, Durham | nasher.duke.edu

Resistance Is Fertile The Nasher’s new group show marks the changing mores of the North Carolina arts landscape. BY BRIAN HOWE arts@indyweek.com

nce every few years, Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art turns its attention away from its world-class contemporary art collection and throws open its pavilions to the abundance of noteworthy talent right here in North Carolina. The last time this happened, in the 2018 exhibit Across County Lines, the focus was squarely on photography. But Reckoning and Resilience: North Carolina Art Now, which opens Thursday, January 13, brims with the diverse mediums that, in 2015, also enlivened the museum’s first survey of local art, Area 919. Augmented by greatly increased diversity among the contributors, who are working in extraordinary times, it’s the most thorough and timely showing that local artists have ever had at The Nasher. Assembled by a hefty curatorial team led by Marshall N. Price, Reckoning and Resilience features about 100 pieces on loan from 30 artists who work in drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, textiles, video, and mixed media. Some of them will be instantly familiar to area museumgoers, perhaps none more so than Beverly McIver, a Duke professor and internationally noted portraitist whose inimitably sculptural brushwork, seen but once, is forever recognizable at a distant glance. Another welcome regular is Saba Taj, whose distinctive vision has carved a uniquely queer, Muslim, Southern intersection against the grain of the professional art world; here, Taj power-clashes different kinds of paint, gold leaf, thread, rhinestones, and other bits of grace and glam in a pair of dazzlingly colored pieces that flow on the threshold of portraiture and fantasy. There are also plentiful surprises from unsuspected quarters. Bishop Ortega, 14

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though born in Arizona and based in New Mexico, created “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” for his master’s thesis at Duke, where he researched the cultural genocide effected by the university’s Industrial Indian Boarding School, and other boarding schools like it, in the late 19th century, back when Duke was Trinity College. Given ample floor and wall space, the piece’s several components include a headless mannequin dressed in the school’s bland martial uniform, which stands before a frieze of pressed tobacco leaves—a haunted absence backlit by the golden glow of stolen wealth. Meanwhile, Asheville’s Jessica Clark balances absence with presence, documenting life today among the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina in lovingly realistic paintings. It says something about the spirit of exigency and clarity that has arisen since COVID-19 tore the bandages from our society’s long-bleeding wounds that, while most of the works here use abstraction or conceptual overlays as ways of seeing, little of it is purely abstract. Befitting a time when “representation” is the art world’s hottest flash point, these artists insistently represent the human face and figure with freehanded eloquence and the vitality of resistance. Chapel Hill’s Lien Truong refashions the exotic stereotypes of historical Orientalist painting as an intricately beautiful palimpsest of personal and family memory in “My mother, she fell from the sky,” a softly glowing mixed-media painting that whispers with silk and oil. Durham’s Steven M. Cozart draws charcoal portraits of his family members holding brown paper bags on brown paper bags. More than a clever mise en abyme

“PTSD” by Clarence Heyward

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NASHER

effect, this device refers to the “brown-bag test” for skin tone that informally ruled the Jim Crow era, as is explained in the hand-lettered captions below the excellent photorealist illustrations. Greensboro’s Antoine Williams, one of the founders of North Carolina Black Artists for Liberation, located his Depression-era figures in the archives of the Farm Security Administration and cast them in two long rows of spiky collages. And Durham’s William Paul Thomas continues his always memorable, intensely psychological series Cyanosis with nine close-up paintings of Black men’s faces isolated in stark fields of color and streaked with a melancholy blue that spills through the grid and out into the gallery as if magnetized by Ayla Gizlice’s huge cyanotype

map of ecological trauma in the Jordan Lake watershed. If Reckoning and Resilience includes a wide range of artistic practices, it also includes a wide view of life, resisting the modern temptation to continually dramatize nothing but struggle. Observe the contrasting photographic offerings of Jade Wilson (formerly the INDY’s staff photographer), who translated their deeply invested vantage on the 2020 protest movement into an unforgettable series of prints, and Kennedi Carter (the young breakout Raleigh star that photographed Beyoncé for British Vogue and Simone Biles for Glamour), who traveled across the country to celebrate young Black equestrians horsing around in their streetwear.

“If Reckoning and Resilience includes a wide range of artistic practices, it also includes a wide view of life” The exhibit wasn’t completely installed when we saw it, but we’d venture to say that the showstopper is “PTSD,” a large acrylic painting by Raleigh’s Clarence Heyward. A figure rendered in broad, smooth expanses of color stands with his back to the viewer, regarding the Pledge of Allegiance where it’s picked out in block capitals on a wall of gold leaf. He wears a baseball cap emblazoned with the stars and stripes. He’s shirtless, and his dark back is offset by his white hands, which, clasped loosely behind his back, blend into the camouflage pattern of his shorts. One end of a pair of handcuffs is fastened around his wrist, but the other, unlocked, hangs loose. Just opened, or about to close? The ambiguity of the image and the power of the rendering capture something unsayable about the last two years, with their uncertain balance of hard-won gains and stupendous losses. It also exemplifies an exhibit that marks how far the glib and aloof codes of the old art world have fallen in that time. Long may they plummet. Reckoning and Resilience runs through Sunday, July 10, with a meet-the-artist event with Julia Gartrell, who runs her Radical Repair Workshop from a vintage camper trailer, on Saturday, February 12. The Nasher is also preparing a podcast series in which eight contributing artists converse with community members ranging from Ngozi Design’s Andrea Carter to a local high school teacher; keep an eye on nasher.duke.edu for details. W

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January 12, 2022

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Her Take: On Carolina Hip-Hop ILLUSTRATION BY JON FULLER

Stray Thoughts Charlés speaks about his newest EP, Thoughts That Roam 2, and his broad musical palette. BY KYESHA JENNINGS

music@indyweek.com | @kyeshajennings

t the end of last year, the musician Charles Singletary, who performs as Charlés, released Thoughts That Roam 2, a 10-track concept project that offers listeners updated access into his subconscious. It wasn’t the first time that the 25-year-old rapper and songwriter, formerly known as Charles DaBeast, has shared scattered thoughts about insecurity, grief, and resilience. Thoughts That Roam 2 is a follow-up to 2018’s Thoughts That Roam. The New York–born, Durham-raised artist began making music soon after joining a rock band at the age of nine. His time in the band strengthened his skills as a writer and influenced his decision to join the school band. By age 14 he had already mastered playing both the guitar and the trumpet and found a new affinity for hip-hop. “When I really started rapping, that was during the blog/mixtape era,” Charlés says. “I’m talking J. Cole, Wale, Big Sean, and a whole bunch of underground guys.” 16

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It was an era that molded his initial sound, but because his musical palette remained diverse, transitioning to writing R&B songs with a hip-hop influence came easy. Thoughts That Roam 2 captures a wide range of emotions Charlés experienced over the past two years, and this time around, he took a more “go with the flow” creative approach. In doing so, he created a project where each track offers something new, sonically. “I view this project as me just expressing myself in different ways. Whether [the song structure] is melodic or lyrical, or whether I created a pop song, R&B song, or a boom-bap song, I allowed my music to be free-flowing,” Charlés says. He has a name for this kind of music: head music. For Charlés, head music creates a song that prioritizes communicating honest feelings versus following the trends of today’s musical landscape and chasing a radio-approved hit. Charlés acknowledges that he’s in a real rap mode. Track 1, “Becoming,” and track 8, “Too Deep for the Outro,” are his favorites, he says. “I’m not listening to as much melodic music. Some of the more melodic songs don’t really capture my energy at the moment,” he says. It’s a good thing he has the foresight to craft a project that can capture more than just one type of mood. Frequent collaborator TrizzyBeat$—a childhood friend and Durham producer— also helped Charlés craft a vibe specific for each track. “We have a similar taste in music where [our interests] are really broad,” Charlés says. “He did eight out of 10 out of the songs on Thoughts That Roam 2. The first time he produced for me was on Thoughts That Roam. Before COVID we sat down and worked together on tracks and intentionally created a sound, but as time went on, and we got deeper into the pandemic, I kind of had to go on my own to record and write by myself.”

Engineers Chris West and Adam Zavala also contributed to the project, and Charlés credits the duo for changing the way he makes music by facilitating a structured and creative atmosphere. He compares his sound to soul music disguised as “pop-rap,” which blends elements of rap, pop, and R&B. He is dedicated to searching through his past and finding unique ways to tell his stories. Even when rapping about the most universal experiences, he finds ways to make them personable and humorous. “At this moment, I’m really just trying to figure out the other end of music that doesn’t include the creative process,” he says. “I’m always creating. My attention now is on the marketing side, so people can expect more visuals and interviews. Basically, anything that allows me to push my music further and expand my audience.” Now that two high-quality EPs have landed Charlés opportunities like opening up for Rico Nasty, he’s ready to enhance his marketing tactics. “I’ve had a couple of records do pretty well at different times in my career,” he says. “One record gave me the ability to open up for Rico Nasty. But for some of the other records, I feel like I could have done better or been bigger if I had access to quality marketing, especially visuals. Visuals is something I’m really committed to getting ahold of.” Following in the footsteps of those he admires, like J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, he’s also been thinking ahead about what his debut studio album would sound like. “Thoughts That Roam was definitely a project, and this one especially [Thoughts That Roam 2] is like an album, based on how I was intentional, but there’s [still] the debut album that I’m preparing for,” he says. “Kendrick had Section.80 as an album, but Good Kid, M.A.A.D City was the in-studio album. For me, that’s also what I’m working on. Making connections to obtain these dream collabs with other artists and producers. I feel like I will always continue to develop and remix my sound so that it stands out and doesn’t sound like anything else.” W

CULTURE CALENDAR

stage

Tom Segura $53+. Jan. 12–13, 7 p.m. DPAC, Durham. Jo Koy: Funny is Funny World Tour $48+. Fri, Jan. 14, 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham. $55+. Sun, Jan. 16, 8 p.m. Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Please check with local venues for their health and safety protocols.

Comedy Queen Mo’Nique and Friends $65+. Sat, Jan. 15, 8 p.m. Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Rachel Despard plays at the Cat’s Cradle Back Room on Friday, Jan. 14 PHOTO COURTESY OF CAT’S CRADLE

Erasure $36+. Tues, Jan. 18, 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham. Stick Fly $20+. Jan. 19–Feb. 6, various times. PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill.

Mucha: The Story of an Artist Who Created a Style screens at NCMA on Saturday, Jan. 15.

music

PHOTO COURTESY OF NCMA

Teia Elaine $12. Wed, Jan. 12, 8 p.m. The House, Durham. Fading Signal with Take It To Heart, Broken Vow, and No Longer At Ease $12 (advance), $15 (day of). Thurs, Jan. 13, 7:30 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

art PARALLEL/SHIFT Jan. 12–Feb. 27, by appointment only. Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill. Smelt Art Gallery Color Reception Wed, Jan. 12, 5 p.m. The Plant, Pittsboro.

Reckoning and Resilience: North Carolina Art Now Thurs, Jan. 13, 10 a.m. The Nasher, Durham. Live from the Studio: Sloan Siobhan Sat, Jan. 15, 1:30 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.

NCMA Cinema— Mucha: The Story of an Artist Who Created a Style $10 (members, youth 7-18, college students), $12 (nonmembers). Sat, Jan. 15, 2 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.

Andrew Kasab Fri, Jan. 14, 7 p.m. Vecino Brewing Co., Carrboro. Rachel Despard $10 (advance), $12 (day of). Fri, Jan. 14, 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Marvelous Music Mainstage: No Fear and Blues Long Gone: Nina Simone $27. Fri, Jan. 14, 7:30 p.m. Cary Arts Center, Cary.

Marvelous Music Family: Linda Gorham presents African American Heroes and Sheroes $8. Sat, Jan. 15, 11 a.m. Cary Arts Center, Cary.

North Carolina Symphony: Beethoven Triple Concerto $20+. Jan. 14-15, 8 p.m. Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Junction Trio $35 (general public), $10 (Duke students). Sat, Jan. 15, 8 p.m. Baldwin Auditorium at Duke University, Durham.

Magic City Hippies $20. Sat, Jan. 15, 9 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Citizen Cope $33+. Sun, Jan. 16, 8 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham. Boyz II Men $45+. Sun, Jan. 16, 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham.

FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR: INDYWEEK.COM INDYweek.com

January 12, 2022

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January 12, 2022