INDY Week March 6, 2024

Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill

NEWS

8 Despite pollution concerns, the Haw River is a vital community centerpiece.

BY EMILY GIBSON RHYNE

10 Bull City Summit seemed like it might draw crowds to downtown Durham. But some small business partners say the founder's big promises didn't add up, and now he's facing charges of fraud. BY

SARAH EDWARDS

15 As the rate of pedestrian deaths is increasing in North Carolina and nationwide, Triangle officials work to end the troubling trend. BY

LUCAS THOMAE

Bikini Trill performs at Cat's Cradle on March 16 (See calendar, page 36.)

17 INDY's 2024 Festival & Events Guide

CULTURE

28 A twenty-something walking across the United States gets a dose of Bull City hospitality. BY

CHASE PELLEGRINI DE PAUR

30 The Apple Juice Kid draws in Deepak Chopra, Sly and Robbie, and other global legends on new album Love Love BY

BRIAN HOWE

32 Incoming! movies: fever dreams, aging assassins, canine-androids, and more.

BY GLENN MCDONALD

4

WE MADE THIS

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John Hurld

Editorial

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Jane Porter

Culture Editor

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Lena Geller

Reporters

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Contributors

Mariana Fabian, Desmera Gatewood, Spencer Griffith, Carr Harkrader, Matt Hartman, Tasso Hartzog, Brian Howe, Kyesha Jennings, Hannah Kaufman, Jordan Lawrence, Elim Lee, Glenn McDonald, Thomasi McDonald, Nick McGregor,

Gabi Mendick, Cy Neff, Shelbi Polk, Byron Woods, Barry Yeoman

Copy Editor

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Creative

Creative Director

Nicole Pajor Moore

Graphic Designer

Ann Salman

Staff Photographer

Angelica Edwards

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Publisher

John Hurld

Director of Revenue Mathias Marchington

Director of Operations

Chelsey Koch

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Dear INDY readers,

By the time you read this note, North Carolina’s 2024 primary election races will have been decided. Republican and Democratic candidates up and down the ballot will know whether they’re advancing to the general election in November, taking their seats without further challenge, or going back to their day jobs.

And since I’m writing this note pre-primary, I don’t have any takeaways about the election results just yet, but I do have lots of thoughts about the INDY’s primary election coverage that has busied our staff for the past two and a half months.

Our four writers did a compelling, comprehensive job of covering the Triangle’s local primary races.

Lena Geller, in collaboration with The Assembly’s Michael Hewlett, wrote the definitive profile of Durham district attorney Satana Deberry, who challenged congressman Jeff Jackson to be the Democrats’ candidate for state attorney general this fall. Justin Laidlaw captured a growing, changing Durham in his story on the board of county commissioners races and in interviews with NC Senate candidates Mike Woodard and Sophia Chitlik. Chase Pellegrini de Paur probed the dynamics of the Orange County Schools board of education races. And Jasmine Gallup, who has since left the INDY to embark on travels in Europe, kept an eye on Wake County where Democratic primaries for district court judges’ seats were on the ballot and two Democrats vied for an open seat on the board of county commissioners.

We’re proud of this work and we’re already looking ahead to the general election on November 5.

Along with our news reporting, our editorial coverage— our endorsements and online candidate questionnaires— have been as popular as ever, drawing tens of thousands of readers to our website in the last month.

You may have noticed we’re doing things a little differently now. In keeping with our reenvisioned mission to provide hyperlocal news to the Triangle, including election coverage, we are dedicating our staff resources to reporting on and making endorsements in only the local races—municipal, county-level, school board, state legislative, and judicial races. Unless there is a local connection, such as in Deberry’s AG race, we are no longer covering or making endorsements in statewide, congressional, or national elections.

Many readers—dozens of you—wrote to us expressing disappointment in that decision, and still more sent notes to INDY editors looking for suggestions of where to find

information on those top-of-ballot races to help inform their choices at the polls.

I don’t see the INDY going back to covering those higher office races. We’re a community paper with a very small staff, and writing about the community at the local level— not about the goings-on in Washington, D.C., or the state legislature—is where we want to maintain our focus, energy, and resources going forward. We’re always happy to point readers to resources on higher-office elections and will try to respond to all emails that come to us to that effect; feel free to reach out any time to editors@indyweek.com with any election-related queries.

I also want to address some other questions that arose about endorsements and candidate questionnaires. Our team of writers and editors collectively decide on and write our endorsements. The endorsements are based on research and reporting from our own staff and other trusted media outlets, public records, conversations with sources, voting records for incumbents, and other sources of information that we vet and have access to. We do not make endorse-

ments based on responses to our or others’ candidate questionnaires. Candidate questionnaires are for readers’ information only. This is why we decided and published our endorsements before we published candidate questionnaires on our website.

Finally, when it comes to making endorsements, our only agenda is to try to recommend to voters the candidates that we think will best serve the residents they’re elected to represent. We hope we made good recommendations this cycle. We hope we’ll all survive the general election in November with our state government, and the U.S. democracy, intact.

Thank you for reading and supporting the INDY, as always. If you enjoyed our primary election coverage, or relied on our endorsements, or emailed us for recommendations, please join our Press Club. Your financial support makes our work possible and ensures we’ll be able to continue it for many years to come.

—Jane Porter INDY Editor-in-chief

PHOTO

VOIC E S

Artist and Muse at Once

To a figure drawing model, the local arts community offers reciprocal life lessons, community, and opportunities to grow.

BY ELIM LEE backtalk@indyweek.com

Iwasn’t allowed to go to art school. So I went to Wesleyan University. There, Drawing 1 was known as a bucket-list class. Somehow, one semester made anyone capable of charcoaling incredibly lifelike studies of hands. My drawing professor became important to me. She lauded my propensity for using color and encouraged me to lie at the top of a graveyard at sunset, covered in flowers, take photos, and recreate it for my final. Her empathy and thoughtfulness made it feel safe to venture into modeling. The Studio Art Department loved to “hire their own.’’ Artists made the best models. We knew how to procure the gestural, how to be poetic with our positioning—darting and dashing limbs around for the most interesting composition.

That’s how it came to be that on a Saturday afternoon I might be driving deep into Wake Forest to a small home studio blanketed with fall leaves. Maybe the host artist’s wife makes me a martini to enjoy on my breaks from the pose. Maybe one of the artists has commissioned an artisan charcuterie board (artists support small businesses) because it’s her birthday and she’s turning 71. She gives everyone a gift to celebrate: a small personal viewfinder that has shade saturation levels on its frame.

It’s not just staying still, figure modeling. It’s almost meditative, and you get to liken yourself to a muse with your energy, gaze, and expression. Sometimes, I adopt one singular pose, and artists have three hours to bring me to life. Some sketch furiously in small notebooks, some bring their sets of oils and a primed canvas.

If it’s a drawing class, they study the figure more than the details. I pivot on the balls of my feet and swivel, alter-

nating between heights of standing, bending and crouching, sitting, and kneeling. Thinking, How do I entangle my limbs to allow for folds in the skin? How do I stretch and jut into angles that illustrate negative space?

The community has seen me through my postgrad transitions. Alia, a local artist, has hosted me in her studio as a girl cobbling together gigs, listened to me wax dismally about my corporate job, and watched me find new life as a teacher. Alia referred me to the moderators at the Durham Arts Council, and every class I modeled for would have artists asking me to model for their other classes. I quickly found myself surrounded by artists. People were so excited to be in practice with one another, and as I looked around at all the different faces studying me, I thought about the implication of the varying ages of the artists. Young artists today are incredibly demanding, stringent, and impatient. I say that as one of them. There is something to learn from those that are older than us, have lived more, and still keep art as a part of their livelihood and daily practice.

Linda is a regular painter at Alia’s studio. She turns 67 at the end of February but says she feels like she did in

her 30s. Linda didn’t start referring to herself as an artist until the last decade or so. She majored in the sciences but loved the pottery classes she took in college. Later, with a busy corporate career, she used the money she made with her full-time job to fall in love with oil painting. Setting up a “home office,” she painted while she took conference calls long before there was Zoom.

Hedy is an artist at the Durham Arts Council. She’s a 74-year-old military brat who has lived all over, participating in figure drawing groups here and there for 30 years. As a dancer, she was “enamored with the figure,” and took a liking to the (sometimes monotonous) practice of studying the body. When she was four, she got in trouble for drawing on the blank pages in books. She didn’t start calling herself an artist until she was 20, at the death of her mother, who was “the artist in the family before that.”

Linda remembers spending time at the easel in kindergarten. J tells of preferring paints over dolls as a child. Darya says she was shy in her relationship with art at first, but developing her niche made her more comfortable in her skin.

Jane, 80, says that “now that I am retired from business,

Annabel Wharton, 79, of Durham, paints during a long pose figure drawing class at the Durham Arts Council. PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

from sailing, and have become a widow, making art full-time has filled the places left by these major changes in my life.”

Crystal, 40, says “I am happy with my growth in art at this point in my life. I have more time now in this season of my life. It’s fun! It’s relaxing!”

When asked what advice they would give to other artists, Jane says, “Cast your mistakes in bronze. Keep them around enough to learn from them.”

Linda says, “The time is now …. Don’t wait.”

Crystal tells us to explore.

Darya implores us to keep trying new methods and mediums until we find the one that can say what we need to tell the world.

We all want to be artists. It might be a desire we have to extend lifelong patience to. As J sums up, doing art is more gratifying than any product.

When Hedy took a turn as moderator,

she wanted me to model. It provided the perfect backdrop for bringing this column to life. I thought to myself, “The photographer for this article that I’m writing is giving me a ride to the drawing class where I’m the model.” As I lay strewn across the platform in front of all these artists, watching INDY photographer Angelica weave around the easels to take photos of their drawings of me, I felt like both artist and muse at once.

How lucky am I that I get to say that? W

Elim Lee is a Georgia peach who took a detour in New England and came back to her roots in the South this past year. Her least-in-progress, most-finished project is her children’s book Needle and the Too Big World. Follow her on Twitter at @wellwhatgives and Instagram at @elimscribbles

Long pose figure sketches by Derek Poindexter.

PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

People sketch during a long-pose figure drawing class at the Durham Arts Council. PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

N E W S Chatham County River Revival

Despite pollution concerns, the Haw River is a vital community centerpiece.

BY EMILY GIBSON RHYNE backtalk@indyweek.com

Mac Jordan’s family members have built their livelihoods around the Haw River for generations, first as owners and operators of the Saxapahaw Cotton Mill and now as owners and property managers of the newly revitalized Saxapahaw Rivermill apartments and commercial space.

What before was a small industrial mill community has become a favorite spot for local tourism.

With miles of walking trails along the Haw River, paddle excursions, concerts, restaurants, and even its own craft brewery, Saxapahaw is bursting at the seams on weekends with visitors from Greensboro, Raleigh, and everywhere in between.

Saxapahaw resident Amanda Graham describes how surprised people are when they come to visit her, explaining that this now-booming little oasis wasn’t on their radar in the past.

“Because it stank,” Graham says.

People who have lived in the area long enough remember the days before the 1972 Clean Water Act took effect.

Reminiscing, Jordan describes the river of his childhood.

“It was a dead river. There were dyes being poured in, raw sewage. I would walk to school across the bridge [and suds] would just float up in the air,” Jordan says.

In those days, the reek of dead fish kept people away from the river, but not so today.

“It is the thing that brings people here in every sense of the word,” says Kevin Weil, who works at the Saxapahaw General Store.

The Haw River is now a vital piece of every community along its banks. The river and its tributaries span five counties and include dozens of public access points.

Holding a pair of binoculars, Dave Surratt describes what he loves most about the Haw: the birds.

“I really love to see the herons and kingfishers especially. It can make my week just seeing one or two of those guys and hearing them chatter at each other,” Surratt says.

A quiet walk along the river’s banks reveals its thriving ecosystem of fish, aquatic birds, and even otters.

“It’s a place where I go when I am in need of connection or in need of being solitary,” says Taylor Barrett, who travels from nearby Carrboro to find peace by the river.

“I’ve built a lot of relationships sitting right next to the Haw, repaired a lot of relationships. It’s facilitated connection and the building of love and reparation. That’s beautiful,” says Anna Maynard, a Saxapahaw resident.

The moon is peeking over the horizon on a perfect fall evening at the old Bynum Bridge, a community landmark for its historical significance and distinctive graffiti-soaked concrete. A group of good-natured neighbors mills about, walking their dogs and catching up with one other as the river gurgles happily below.

In Bynum, residents talk about the river as a way of life. Hiking, paddling, swimming, tubing, and fishing along the river is part of their everyday.

But years of concern about pollution are hard to ignore.

Barclay and Ian Spotz have lived next to the Haw for 18 years.

“We swim, we float, we walk by the Haw. We’ve raised our kids here, and they have been swimming in the Haw ever since they were two,” Barclay says. But when asked whether they are concerned about pollution in the river, Barclay quickly responds, “Yes, we are very concerned.”

The couple participated in a 2020 Duke University study on potentially cancerous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), and discovered that while Barclay’s PFAS levels were normal, the levels in Ian’s blood were “not OK.”

Residents in the town of Pittsboro, which sources its drinking water from the Haw River, had PFAS levels two to four times higher than the general population of the United States, the study found. But many residents along the Haw River have come to accept pollution as an unfortunate reality.

“Because we’ve spent so much time on the river, in a certain way you just accept things like PFAS or other pollution. You kind of ignore it. You’re just kind of like, ‘Well, I’m surrounded by so much pollution, at least I’m feeding my soul,’” says Ryan Smith, a Bynum resident.

Emily Sutton is the Haw riverkeeper and a well-known community leader up and down the river. She can be found several times a week testing water at dozens of points along the Haw River and its tributaries and has been fighting the many threats to the river’s health since she began working with the Haw River Assembly several years ago.

Threats to the Haw’s water quality are varied. But right now, Sutton’s biggest concern is the industrial chemicals,

Haw riverkeeper Emily Sutton searches for pollution indicators in the Haw River to measure the river’s health. PHOTO BY EMILY GIBSON RHYNE

including PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, making their way into the Haw, especially from Burlington-based industries.

“These are relatively new chemicals,” Sutton explains. “I mean, they’ve been around since the ’70s, but we’re just now getting the chemistry to understand them, because until now they were proprietary”—meaning that the companies owned rights to the chemical composition and were not required to release that information publicly.

In the past year, there have been three episodes of 1,4-dioxane leaving the Burlington Wastewater Treatment Plant in high concentration, heading downriver toward Pittsboro’s drinking supply intake. In each case, the Town of Pittsboro is forced to suspend drawing water from the Haw River and run the town on minimum supply for days.

Bridget Perry works at Chatham Marketplace, which partners with the Town of Pittsboro to provide free reverse-osmosis-treated water to residents during these incidents. Perry describes an uptick in water customers when the town issues a water quality advisory.

But Perry feels confident that Pittsboro’s new granular activated carbon (GAC) filter, installed in late 2022, is doing its job to filter out the vast majority of PFAS and other industrial chemicals from Pittsboro’s water supply.

Pittsboro’s GAC filters cost $3 million but are more suited for filtering PFAS than 1,4 dioxane. The town recently announced plans to continue improvements to its water filtration system, altogether resulting in enormous expenses for the small town.

On February 12, the Pittsboro Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to sue Burlington-based Apollo Chemical, which has been traced as the source of the 1,4-dioxane releases into the Haw River.

While threats to water quality persist, so do unyielding community efforts to protect the river and instill its importance in younger generations.

A group of fourth graders from Pittsboro Elementary School clusters around Sutton, peering into the petri dish in her outstretched hand at a Learning Celebration event organized by the Haw River Assembly.

“This is my most favorite bug. Can you identify which one it is? How many tails does it have? How many legs does it have?” Sutton asks the students. Clutching guides in their hands, the kids consider a list of macroinvertebrates.

“It’s a stone fly!” they yell.

Stone flies are one of the most pollution-sensitive macroinvertebrates found in North Carolina’s waters—so a stone fly in the Haw River is an important marker of the decades-long progress that’s been made to heal the water and recover its thriving ecosystem. W

For more information about the current issues facing the Haw River, join the Haw River Assembly for a presentation on the state of the Haw River March 11 at Durham South Regional Library.

ABOVE:

TOP: A Haw River Assembly volunteer pauses while searching for macroinvertebrates, which will be displayed at the Haw River.

Haw Riverkeeper Emily Sutton instructs a group of fourth graders from Pittsboro Elementary School to listen to the sounds of the river using a technique called “deer ears.” RIGHT: Macroinvertebrates are an important indicator of the water’s health.

PHOTOS BY EMILY GIBSON RHYNE

Bull City Summit’s Discontents

A new music and technology festival seemed like it might bring big crowds to downtown Durham. But some small business partners say the founder’s big promises didn’t add up. Now he’s facing charges of fraud.

BY SARAH EDWARDS sedwards@indyweek.com

Groovewagon cans are bright and eye-catching with the important figures spelled out: the amount of delta-8 each THC beverage contains, its caloric content, and the phone number of company co-owners Reilly Dunn and Sasha Klimczak.

The couple, who don’t have social media for the product, prefer to do business this way, directly over text. Sure, it might seem like a gimmick, Dunn says one November morning over coffee, but Groovewagon is a homegrown “mom-and-pop operation” and the number really is theirs. To illus-

trate, he holds up a beat-up iPhone with a glittery pink case.

This number was how Parag Bhandari, CEO of the marketing and events company UG Strategies, first reached out to them last May. “Big fan of your products,” Bhandari, who lives in Fuquay-Varina, wrote. “I wanted to reach out to someone about events in NC.”

Bhandari explained that he was the founder of Bull City Summit, a “music, art, science and technology festival” planning its second year. He told Dunn and Klimczak that he thought Groovewagon

would be a perfect fit for event sponsorship at the next summit, scheduled for September 18–24, 2023.

The summit, as Bhandari described it, was dynamic and polished, with a draw like SXSW. Events would take place all over downtown Durham, at venues like Motorco, the Fruit, the Pinhook, and the Armory. There would be fireside chats, VIP lounges, happy hours, concerts, and community events alongside keynote speeches from prominent thought leaders. There would be an NFT of a “key to the city.”  It seemed promising, but within months,

the relationship between the two companies soured, and venues and vendors distanced themselves from the summit. Groovewagon accused Bhandari of financial fraud amounting to $18,500 in unfulfilled services and filed a charge of obtaining property by false pretense with the Durham police—a Class H felony in North Carolina. On December 29, Fuquay police arrested Bhandari and released him on unsecured bond that night.

In reporting this story, the INDY reviewed court documents, emails, texts, recordings, and contracts regarding the summit and

Groovewagon owners Sasha Klimczak and Reilly Dunn with one of their children.

PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

spoke with more than 20 local business owners, artists, and former contractors and employees who have worked for UG Strategies or as contractors for other events. Many did not want to speak on the record, citing fear of litigation and retribution.

In the beginning, though, Dunn and Klimczak, who live in Raleigh and have four children, were excited by the partnership. While they describe their core audience for Groovewagon, founded in 2020, as “dads, dogs, and banjos,” THC drinks are an adventurous market and they’d recently sold their drinks at Hopscotch and Dreamville, even selling out of beverages at the latter event. Festivals seemed like a solid path for growth.

Bhandari sent the couple a link to the UG Strategies (“UG” stands for underground) website—skeletal but polished—that greets visitors with an assurance: “We work with the world’s most famous brands.”

“He had no social media, [but] I didn’t view it as suspicious because we don’t have social media,” Dunn says. “So my dumb ass is like, ‘This is cool as shit. Of course there’s no real evidence of any of this work he’s done—because he’s underground.’”

Bhandari and Groovewagon drew up plans for promotional events across the state, including the summit. He told them

he envisioned even greater things for the young company, and that he would see to it that Groovewagon got into festivals like Bonnaroo, Sundance, and Coachella.

“You guys are Red Bull,” Klimczak recalls Bhandari telling them often. “You guys are gonna be so big.”

Festivals are a difficult business, one that generally requires specific personalities—galaxy-brained, charismatic, determined—to helm them. Bhandari, a 45-yearold raised in New Jersey, fits the description. Animated and imaginative across various interviews on podcasts and in videos, he seems quick to see potential in branding opportunities, weaving enthusiastic connections between ideas.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Bhandari has been CEO of UG Strategies since 2003. The website lists offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Durham and clients ranging from University Studios and JetBlue to HBO and Armani Exchange. Over the years, Bhandari has produced events and business through UG Strategies but says that he wanted to “start fresh” with Bull City Summit LLC, which is what he was producing the event through. According to the NC secretary of state’s website, UG Strategies’ certificate

“A rising tide does lift all boats. That’s why we all want a festival in Durham.”

of authority to do business was revoked effective May 16, 2023.

Bhandari came to North Carolina in 2018, when the popular electronic festival Moogfest, then newly relocated from Asheville to Durham, was in the throes of management troubles. Moog Music granted Bhandari the license to the festival, which he then administered. It proved successful; headlined by artists like Kelela and Yves Tumor, it created $7.1 million in economic impact for Durham and received a glowing recap from online music magazine Consequence of Sound calling it a “festival to remember.”

It would be one of the last Moogfests to remember: Several months after the festival, Moog Music terminated Bhandari’s festival licensing. The following year, the 2019 festival, run by a different festival CEO, became the final event. Soon after, UG Strategies sued Moog Music, claiming that the festival was in breach of its threeyear contract.

Pitchfork reported in September 2021 that UG Strategies sought damages in excess of $25,000—a relatively low figure but one that Bhandari told vendors allowed him to finance Bull City Summit. (According to records from the Wake County Superior Court the case was dismissed;

Bhandari says he is legally restrained from discussing the settlement.)

Festivals, for all their complications, can be game changers for midsize cities. In 2023, Hopscotch brought 25,000 attendees to downtown Raleigh and generated about $3.3 million for the local economy.

J. Cole’s high-voltage Dreamville drew an audience four times that size and left an economic footprint of almost $8 million.

Durham’s Full Frame Documentary Film Festival has brought consistent international prestige since 1998, in addition to economic impact: $3.7 million in 2019, the last year the film festival was held (it’s slated to return this April). The city also had a solid seven-year run with the Art of Cool, a festival shining light on local Black music, that held its last event in 2019.

“A rising tide does lift all boats,” Durham Bottling Co. owner Nick Jordan says, reflecting on the need for more downtown events. “That’s why we all want a festival in Durham.”

By the time live events began to return post-pandemic, downtown business was sluggish and Durham was in a festival deficit. Bhandari had been involved in a few successful downtown events, like a series of pandemic-era outdoor concerts in the

2018 Moogfest in Durham

PHOTO BY CAITLIN PENNA

“I presented him with the small pile [of bills] that he definitely needed to take care of to avoid small claims court and traffic court. He thanked me genuinely, tore them up, and threw them away.”

parking lot formerly adjoining Motorco, and had his sights on an ambitious new event to fill the gap.

Depending on how you feel about the promise of things like cryptocurrency and AI, the tenor of proposed Bull City Summit events might seem like an odd fit for Durham, a city more commonly associated with Pride parades and the performing arts. But the city’s demographics are also rapidly changing, with an influx of tech companies and a new upper middle class, and Bhandari seemed to feel there was solid ground for a new venture.

The first summit, originally planned for March 2022, was postponed to that September and scaled down when the timeline proved tight. Bhandari described it as a “pilot” in an interview.

“I didn’t realize what a debacle enacting BCS was going to be until I was in too deep. Little of the important details were organized, things were missed, overlooked, or changed often,” says one contractor for the 2022 summit, who asked to remain anonymous, fearing litigation and retribution. “He wanted basically 18 months of work to come together in six weeks.”

Jeromy Barber, a videographer hired to shoot and edit videos for the 2022 summit, said the first year was bumpy and seemed

disconnected from the community.

“Lack of management and lack of communication appeared, to my eyes, to be rampant,” Barber says. Turnout was also low.

“Like 75 percent of the seats were empty, easily,” Barber says. “There would be a band playing to a room of their girlfriends and that’s it, with nobody from the festival except for us.”

But Bhandari seemed confident enough in the summit’s vision to pursue another year.

“Durham, North Carolina,” Bhandari wrote in a press release last year, “is a visionary hotbed of creativity and we are proud to share our diverse, purpose-led programming with the community and abroad.”

The 2023 summit seemed off to a good start, with $13,000 in grant funding from the City of Durham, routed through the summit’s fiscal sponsor, local nonprofit Families and Community Rising (FCR). It was one of the 15 cultural events the city supported through grants.

In most fiscal sponsorships, a nonprofit lends its tax-exempt status to a project related to its mission. Established in 1969, FCR states that its mission is “to educate and empower children, families, communities and organizations by delivering unique educational and supportive services.”

It’s unclear what FCR saw as the mission-related benefit of partnering with Bull City Summit, but the nonprofit covered festival costs, including some contractor and artist payments, and contributed a day of community programming featuring local artists and food trucks.

By the end of the summit, the nonprofit—which did not have a contract or memorandum of understanding in place ahead of the event—had spent around $80,000 on the summit, according to Bhandari. In a conversation with the INDY, Bhandari said that FCR did not want a contract and was content with the arrangement.

“It was always about ‘We’ve got a budget and we can help,’” Bhandari says. “‘We’re gonna do this together and take care of bills that are related to the festival with the understanding that BCS is going to create corporate funding programs for FCR.’”

Bhandari told the INDY that he had fundraised about $30,000 in sponsorships, ticket revenue from Motorco door sales, silent auction sales, and the city grant for the nonprofit and had plans to raise more. “I want to go into 2024 raising 100 grand for them,” he told the INDY

FCR seemed to have a different understanding of events. When the INDY reached

out to the nonprofit’s CEO, Terry David, with quotes from Bhandari and a request for comment, David contested Bhandari’s characterization of the relationship.

“What Parag is not saying is FCR expenses for BCS were over $100,000 and FCR was not reimbursed for those expenses,” David wrote, adding that the nonprofit is considering legal options “up to and including litigation.”

Bhandari says that FCR declined to be involved in the 2024 summit but that local nonprofit Triangle Blues Society is on board to be the fiscal sponsor. (Attempts to reach the Triangle Blues Society for comment were not successful.) Meanwhile, Bhandari says that while FCR has declined future fiscal sponsorship, he has plans to generate “additional value that their CEO is well aware of and is welcoming.”

“FCR has no plans for a continued relationship with BCS or Parag,” David wrote.

In the months leading up to the 2023 summit, Groovewagon was also experiencing troubles and was, they say, losing money on projects with Bhandari. He’d told them that Elements, a three-day EDM festival in Pennsylvania, wanted 24,000 cans—a large number, given that 18,000 people reportedly attended the festival.

“From the beginning, I was very skepti-

Groovewagon Delta-8 THC drinks.

PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

cal just about how large of an amount of orders that was,” Dunn says. “I was like, ‘Nobody knows who we are up there. This is an entirely new product category, that sounds kind of crazy—are you sure?’ And over and over, he’d be like, ‘If anything, I’m concerned we’re not going to have enough.’”

A fraction of the cans sold. Groovewagon says they ended up with around $6,000 in the hole, an amount they still owe Elements.

The couple also allege that they’d wired Bhandari $31,500 for tents, banners, and other merchandise from Telepathic Graphics, a local design company that worked with UG Strategies. But months later, Telepathic Graphics sent an invoice, saying that Bhandari had told them Groovewagon was paying directly. The companies are still disputing the payment.

The INDY reviewed an email from Bhandari in which he states that the materials cost $31,500 and asks Groovewagon to wire him that amount, as well as two deposits the couple made earmarked “Elements.” Bhandari denies receiving money specific to the merchandise from Groovewagon.

When reached for comment, Telepathic Graphics owner Bob Boyle declined to say much, beyond stating that he’s always had a positive experience with Bhandari: “No

comment except that I want someone to put on their big-boy pants and pay me.”

“There is an element,” Dunn says, reflecting on UG Strategies’ touch-and-go events approach, “that is just moving from one to [the next]—shuffle money around for a long time; keep people involved.”

Contractors who worked with Bhandari on past events also cited a track record of the entrepreneur not paying bills. Matt Lascala was hired by Bhandari as a contractor a few times, including one occasion where he was hired to organize Bhandari’s tax documents after the 2022 Bull City Summit and shortly thereafter when he was hired to work as event staff at the Fortnite Championship Series at the Raleigh Convention Center in November 2022.

Lascala cited concerns about unpaid bills for things like contractors and storage rentals and says that, while organizing the tax documents, he found “bills and invoices and organized them into which [expenses] he still had to take care of, believing his answers when I ran each invoice by him and he told me which were paid, resolved, or expired.”

“I presented him with the small pile that he definitely needed to take care of to

avoid small claims court and traffic court,” Lascala says. “He thanked me genuinely, tore them up, and threw them away.”

Lascala says he also still has a $1,000 outstanding invoice from working the Fortnite event. Bhandari denies ignoring invoices, tearing up bills, and owing Lascala money.

“That’s just not true,” Bhandari says in response to the allegation. “He was paid for his services and his work. I have the invoices and the payments, and if there’s an additional amount that’s in dispute, I have the right to dispute that, right? If he didn’t do what I think he should have done, or vice versa?”

Ryan Snyder worked for Moogfest for several years as a photographer and as a staff member. In the summer of 2018, he was hired by Bhandari, through UG Strategies, as an editorial manager. In August of that summer, Moog Music pulled Bhandari’s license to run the festival.

“He paid me up until the day that he was no longer managing the festival,” Snyder says. “However, he left me hanging without the severance that I was owed in the amount of $4,000.”

Bhandari says that he isn’t sure about the severance and suggested payments he could not make were the responsibility of

Moog Music.

“If there was a payment that was not made we may have not been able to pay it based on the fact that we didn’t get the funds from Moog,” Bhandari says. “It’s not like we got paid everything and then just didn’t pay invoices. With Moogfest, if there’s $4,000—compare that to the $2 million of invoices we did pay.”

Sean Thegen, who worked for Bhandari as a contractor for Moogfest in 2018, says he also has an unpaid invoice for UG Strategies. “I was told Moog should be paying it, but that’s the only explanation I ever received despite all my other invoices pre-festival being paid by UG Strategies.”

“I have no comment to this,” Bhandari said, “These are invoices from five years ago that I do not have.”

Many people who worked with the summit or for Bhandari on other events were reluctant to speak on the record. Conversations with dozens of sources began and ended the same way: they wanted to talk but worried about legal or reputational risk.

Bhandari says those characterizations of him are false.

“I hate litigation,” he says. “I don’t seek it. I don’t want it. You know, I just love Durham and want to do my best here.”

A 2023 Bull City Summit panel PHOTO BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW

With Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, headlining and performances from Lee Fields and Death from Above 1979, 2023’s Bull City Summit promised “a mammoth gathering of minds in music, the arts, science, and technology.” Events included topics like the “new crypto bull market” and the “synergy between personal branding and the visual arts industry.”

By this point, Dunn and Klimczak say, they were still holding out hope that the hometown exposure might justify the expenses they’d already shelled out. Of their appearances at the festival, the couple says they had three summit events scheduled: one at Motorco, another at the Fruit, and another at LouElla.

“If they’re telling you that certain amounts of money were to go to certain venues, that’s completely false,” Bhandari told the INDY

The INDY , however, reviewed correspondence between Bhandari and Groovewagon confirming logistics for the three events, as well as a recording in which Bhandari said he had spent $32,000 on Groovewagon sponsorship for the festival, including $13,000 on the Motorco event, $3,000 on the Fruit event, and $2,500 on the LouElla event.

The events didn’t happen. When Groovewagon employees showed up at Motorco and the Fruit with a stash of drinks, venue owners told them they had no knowledge of the arrangement and turned them away. Bhandari canceled the brunch event at LouElla, an indoor venue, citing rain.

When Dunn emailed Bhandari to ask how the $32,000 was “deployed,” Bhandari replied, “It is not upon you, nor is it in our sponsorship contract, to dictate how our sponsorships funds are used. You do not have auditing rights.”

Some events did draw a sizable crowd, like Motorco’s Saturday evening concert from Canadian duo Death from Above 1979. (When the INDY reached out to the band’s manager and asked for a comment on the festival, he replied that “it doesn’t benefit me or my artist to comment on my experience that day” but added, “This email doesn’t surprise me.”)

The INDY also reached out to several local musicians who performed at the summit. While a few provided background information, none were willing to go on the record, citing reputational concerns. Former festival employees also declined to speak at length on the record, including Tess Mangum of Sonic Pie Productions, an experienced local producer who abruptly quit working with UG Strategies

last summer. “I/Sonic Pie Productions will not work with [Bull City Summit] again,” Mangum wrote.

Some cited more mundane concerns, like low attendance or poor promotion of events. Tim Walter, owner of the Fruit, said that while attendance was “below expectations,” he is “sympathetic to any producer who is persevering during these slow times” and is holding dates for the 2024 summit.

A series of daytime talks at coworking space Durham Bottling Co. were well attended, Nick Jordan says, though he was surprised when an FCR employee showed up and asked for $5,000, stating that Bhandari had told the nonprofit that the company was a festival sponsor. Jordan said no—he was already letting UG

has worked with Groovewagon since the company launched and was upset about its experience with Bhandari.

“I’ve enjoyed doing business with them and selling their products. It’s great to have a product like that from good people,” Davis says of Dunn and Klimczak. “For them to be affected is very unfair.”

The Pinhook is also not participating again. “I want something that calls itself Bull City anything,” owner Kym Register says, “especially Bull City Summit, to really have the values of our community intact and communication with people and cultural workers and artist venues that reflects how the Durham that I know has held space for the culture and art that creates a big part of the vibrance of this city.”

“I want something that calls itself Bull City anything, especially Bull City Summit, to really have the values of our community intact.”

Strategies use the space free of charge— and the issue was dropped. Jordan says that he is “undecided” about participating in the 2024 event.

Durty Bull owner Matt Pennisi says that, following its experience with the event in 2023, the brewery does not plan to work with the summit again.

“They were supposed to have one event at Durty Bull, but didn’t promote it and no one showed up for it,” Pennisi wrote in an email. “Another event, they never actually scheduled with us, but they promoted. No one actually showed up for that either.”

“Motorco is no longer involved with Bull City Summit,” Jeremy Roth, co-owner of Motorco, said on a phone call, declining to say more on the record.

LouElla owner Cam Davis also says that he does not plan to work with Bull City Summit in the future and adds that he

After 2023’s summit drew to a close, Dunn and Klimczak began talking to people across town who had been involved in it. Throughout their sponsorship, they say, Bhandari had a habit of keeping communication siloed between various employees and vendors, often telling them that other people were untrustworthy, an allegation that Bhandari denies. They soon learned they were not the only people who had issues with Bhandari.

“There’s just enough legitimacy,” Dunn says. “I bet the killer bands are getting paid. But then there’s also this element of like, what’s real and what isn’t? Because some of it is real.”

Sensing a pattern, Dunn and Klimczak decided to pursue fraud charges in the hope of regaining some funds and making other local businesses aware of their experience. Fuquay police arrested Bhan-

dari on December 29 and released him that night on unsecured bond.

“Cute. Get ready,” Bhandari texted Dunn and Klimczak the next morning after he learned who was behind the charge. “You have no idea who you are dealing with.”

That may have been true at the start of the relationship, but Dunn and Klimczak say that they now have a clearer picture of the entrepreneur. One night after the summit, for example, the couple’s nanny, outraged on behalf of her employers, sat down with an Excel spreadsheet and a bottle of wine and began Googling Bhandari’s various enterprises.

Search results pulled up civil lawsuits against UG Strategies in New York—a photographer alleging copyright infringement, another pending case against UG Strategies from a capital fund—as well as a lawsuit against Uphoric, a streaming service (described by Bhandari in a press release as “ESPN for festivals”) that Bhandari had cofounded.

Reflecting on their experiences, across hours of interviews, sources expressed conflict about how to quantify their experiences with UG Strategies and Bull City Summit. Many say that they believe that Bhandari was committed to executing his vision for a creative festival experience in Durham. Maybe a bad experience was just the product of someone who wasn’t very good at writing checks and signing contracts; a dreamer who’d bitten off more than he could chew.

Reilly Dunn, though, believes the situation is more straightforward.

“I do think he’s specifically preyed on us,” Dunn says. “I think he chooses artists and people who he knows won’t fight back or people who he thinks that he can bully into not talking to other people.”

Dunn and Klimczak say they have fallen behind on mortgage payments as they try to recover lost costs and continue to run their business. Their case is expected to be heard in Wake County superior court later this month.

“At the end of the day,” Bhandari wrote in an email to the INDY, “I’m proud of the work that I do, and the money that I spend in this town and the relationships that I am building, for this town, which is my home.”

The third annual Bull City Summit is planned for November 12–17, 2024, and the Durham Cultural Advisory Board has recommended that the city allocate another $13,000 to support it. Early-bird badges, according to the website, include “exclusive discounts on concert pre-sales, VIP ticket upgrades, exclusive BCS artist experiences, and more.” Tickets start at $99. W

Striving for Zero

The rate of pedestrian deaths is increasing in North Carolina and nationwide. Triangle leaders are struggling to end the troubling trend.

BY LUCAS THOMAE backtalk@indyweek.com

One November evening in Chapel Hill, Sinclair Larson’s life changed forever when she was struck by a car on a Franklin Street crosswalk while walking her dog Jasper.

Larson and her dog were lucky enough to survive, although she doesn’t remember the collision. She doesn’t even recall leaving to go on the walk—the result of a significant brain injury. However, a comment the nurses made to Larson after she woke up at UNC Medical Center still sticks with her today, three years after she was hit.

“The nurses were like, ‘Oh yeah, we get people that were hit on crosswalks all the time here,’” Larson says. “And I was like, ‘All the time?’ Like, that’s a problem.”

Larson—who was struck at the flashing pedestrian crosswalk near Davie Circle—was the third pedestrian in Chapel Hill to be struck by a vehicle that week, according to data on pedestrian-automobile collisions kept by the NC Department of Transportation (DOT). There were 17 such collisions in 2020, and that number increased to 29 in 2021, 27 in 2022, and 33 in 2023.

The rate of pedestrian deaths is increasing nationwide, and NC DOT data shows that North Carolina is no exception to that trend. The issue is particularly apparent in the Research Triangle. Pedestrian collisions occur in Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Durham at rates higher than the state average, despite all three of those local governments having dedicated traffic safety programs committed to curbing preventable accidents. Achieving the goal of zero traffic fatalities has proven to be a challenge in the face of limited funds and the Triangle’s booming population.

Why are pedestrian deaths increasing?

Automobile-pedestrian collisions in North Carolina increased from 1,932 in 2007 to 2,229 in 2022, although much of that increase can be explained by the state’s population growth. In fact, the rate of pedestrian crashes per 100,000 residents in 2007 was higher than it was in 2022.

What’s baffling community leaders and researchers alike is a more alarming trend: the rate of pedestrian deaths has been steadily increasing for at least the past decade in North Carolina and across the United States.

Some experts have suggested that drivers are more distracted than ever by smartphones and touch-screen displays in cars, although researcher Stephen Heiny said there isn’t great data to corroborate that explanation.

Heiny is a research associate at the UNC Highway Safety Research Center, which is headquartered on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard right in the middle of Chapel Hill. His work focuses primarily on pedestrian safety.

“These fatalities are largely occurring on really one type of roadway,” Heiny says. “These are wider, multi-lane roads, and most of them are in more built-up areas, so urban-suburban areas with a lot of commercial residential development around them.”

That description fits many of the major roads in the Research Triangle that are seeing more and more traffic each year as people are lured to the area by a lucrative job market.

Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh all experience pedestrian collisions at a higher rate than the state average. While there’s no discernible trend regarding pedestrian

deaths in Chapel Hill and Durham, fatalities are rapidly increasing in the state capital. There were 23 pedestrian deaths in Raleigh in 2022, a 64 percent increase over the previous high of 14 deaths in 2019.

Local governments work toward zero traffic fatalities

Chapel Hill is a Vision Zero community, meaning that the town decided to join a global network of municipalities across Europe and the United States committed to eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries. The basic philosophy of the Vision Zero Network is that traffic deaths are a systemic problem, not a behavioral one, and that road infrastructure and related policies should be designed to expect human error and lessen the severity of crashes.

The Chapel Hill Town Council pledged to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries within a decade in its 2021 Vision Zero Resolution, which evolved from an earlier version of a traffic safety program that the town adopted in 2018. Chapel Hill is one of 18 communities in North Carolina, including Raleigh and Durham, that have begun implementing Vision Zero strategies.

Bergen Watterson, the mobility and greenways manager of the Chapel Hill Planning Division, leads the town’s Vision Zero efforts. She said that one of the main goals of the program is creating more traffic-calming measures.

“If you’re driving 25 miles an hour, you have a way less likely chance of killing somebody than you do if you’re even driving 35,” she says.

Graphic by Carson Elm-Picard; data visualizations (next page) by Lucas Thomae

Watterson and Heiny both emphasize that multi-lane roads with wide lanes are particularly problematic because they can make drivers feel more comfortable driving at high speeds. Watterson says that Chapel Hill has taken several steps over the past several years to slow cars down on heavily trafficked roads.

Some of those efforts include changing the speed limits on all locally owned roads to 25 miles per hour; installing rectangular rapid flashing beacons—commonly known as RRFBs—at midblock crosswalks on MLK Boulevard and Franklin Street; and erecting bollards between lanes in sections of MLK Boulevard.

Sean Driskill is the program manager for Raleigh’s Vision Zero Program, which was adopted in 2022. He says his team is looking into similar “low-cost, high-impact” solutions to lessen the severity of pedestrian-automobile collisions.

“We’re still averaging 30 to 40 percent of our fatalities a year unfortunately being pedestrians,” Driskill says. “So for my group, that’s why there’s an approach to target those individuals around schools, around downtown areas, just overall around locations where we know there’s high [pedes-

trian] traffic.”

Driskill says that the city improved the signage around school zones and is also looking into installing raised crosswalks in its efforts to slow drivers down.

The City of Durham, which became one of the first North Carolina communities to pass a Vision Zero resolution in 2017, hired Lauren Grove to be its first dedicated Vision Zero coordinator in December.

Grove came from Houston, where she coordinated Vision Zero in the U.S.’s fourth largest city. She says Durham has implemented many pedestrian-safety measures over the past several years and that the next step was to have someone dedicated full-time to the city’s Vision Zero efforts who could draft an action plan.

“You can have a resolution and say you commit to ending traffic deaths, but you really need to put resources behind that,” Grove says.

A long road ahead

Representatives of Chapel Hill and Raleigh say they are optimistic about their respective pedestrian safety efforts,

although both of their Vision Zero programs are in the early stages of implementation.

Right now, it’s too early to tell from the data whether the initiatives are creating positive change. Both Heiny and Driskill say continued funding and buy-in from their local and state governments will be necessary to see their goals through.

Chapel Hill allocates $50,000 of its yearly budget to Vision Zero and an additional $75,000 for bicycle and pedestrian safety. In its most recent budget, Raleigh set aside $3.2 million for maintenance, traffic signals, and Vision Zero.

Still, that’s just enough money for smaller projects and necessary maintenance. The programs rely on grants from the DOT and the Governors Highway Safety Association for more ambitious undertakings.

At least for right now, the progress on Vision Zero initiatives across the Triangle have been slow moving—so slow moving that many residents likely don’t know that Vision Zero exists. Some say that they haven’t noticed much change in terms of pedestrian safety at all.

“I don’t know that we’ve gotten a ton of community feedback on Vision Zero. In fact, I probably say that the majority

of the community doesn’t know what it is. We are working to change that,” Watterson says.

Larson, who hadn’t heard of Chapel Hill’s Vision Zero program, still walks her beloved Australian shepherd daily. The collision that nearly took her life occurred on an RRFB— proof that even the pedestrian-friendly infrastructures that some municipalities are choosing to build aren’t perfect. Larson says she’d prefer stoplights at some of the midblock crossings with RRFBs.

“I don’t know if necessarily I would say that I see the infrastructure being set up for the pedestrian safety, but hopefully that’s something [town leaders] work on in the future,” she says.

For now, Larson says she and Jasper will continue to avoid the crosswalk near Davie Circle. W

UNC Media Hub, which originally published this story, is a collection of students from the various concentrations in the Hussman School of Media and Journalism working together to create integrated multimedia packages covering stories from around North Carolina and beyond.

in the Triangle Occur at Higher Rate Than State Average

MARCH

MARCH 8

The Ringer Presents: One Shining Podcast with Tate Frazier LIVE!

The Carolina Theatre of Durham https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ the-ringer-presents-one-shining-podcast-withtate-frazier-live/

MARCH 12

Queen of the Night: A Whitney Houston Tribute

The Carolina Theatre of Durham https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ queen-of-the-night-a-tribute-to-whitney-houston/

MARCH 13

Weave & Spin Open Mic 18+

Eno Arts Mill

https://artsorange.org/weaveandspin/

MARCH 15-31

Trouble in Mind

Raleigh Little Theatre RaleighLittleTheatre.org

2024 Festival & Event Guide

Spring is almost here, and that means outdoor festivals and events are near. From Dreamville, which returns to Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Park in early April, to the resurrected Full Frame Film Festival, to summer music festivals and concerts, food, beer, and wine events, art exhibitions, Pride, and much more, there’s so much to do in the Triangle and beyond when the weather turns warm. Check out our exhaustive festival and event directory to find what most interests you—there’s always something fun to do with your friends, family, or on your own. And save this special pull-out section as a reference guide for the rest of the year.

MARCH 15

Imagine (ft. Jim McKeon) Reception at 5 Points Gallery

5 Points Gallery, Durham https://5pointsgallery.com

St Patricks Kickoff 21+

The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP https://www.facebook.com/ events/3674261596143446

MARCH 16

Granville Ambulance Chase & Food Truck Rodeo Downtown Oxford, Oxford www.cosmicraysfilmfest.com

Annual Children’s Easter Egg Hunt at The Barn at Vino Barn at Vino in Stem, NC https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

Good Hope Monthly Workday 14+

Good Hope Farm, Cary carync.gov/goodhopefarm

Good Hope Farm Tour

Good Hope Farm, Cary carync.gov/goodhopefarm

MARCH 19

LouElla presents - Next Generation Loire Valley Winemakers Tasting 21+ with Auntique Vin and Rue Cler LouElla Wine Beer & Beverages, Durham www.louelladurham.com

MARCH 23-24

The Viking Experience

The Barn at Vino, Stem https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

MARCH 23

Da Kine's Kava Spring Maker's Market

Da Kine's Kava, Durham Instagram : @dakineskavadurham

MARCH 25

Weil Lecture on American Citizenship Hill Hall, UNC-Chapel Hill campus https://iah.unc.edu/event/weil-lecture-2324/

MARCH 27

Spring Tree Talk: Planting 12+ & Early Care Online http://carync.gov/green

MARCH 29

CLUB BEY : ACT 1 & 2 18+ Legends Nightclub Complex Legends-club.com

MARCH 30

Joe Satriani & Steve Vai DPAC

https://www.dpacnc.com/events/detail/ joesatrianiandstevevai-2024

MARCH 31

The Zombies: Different Game Tour

The Carolina Theatre of Durham https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ the-zombies/

APRIL

APRIL 4-6

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Across downtown Durham fullframefest.org

APRIL 4, 18

LIVE@LakeRaleigh

Lake Raleigh, NC State Centennial Campus

https://live.arts.ncsu.edu/livelake-raleigh/

APRIL 4

Movies in the Garden: The Sandlot Raleigh Little Theatre

http://raleighlittletheatre.org

APRIL 5-7

Bliss Boogie Festival Pittsboro, NC Blissboogie.com

APRIL 5

Statewide Star Party at Prairie Ridge

NC Museum of Natural Sciences at Prairie Ridge, Raleigh

https://naturalsciences.org/calendar/event/ statewide-star-party-at-prairie-ridge-2024

APRIL 6

Tacos 'N Taps Festival - Cary 21+

Koka Booth Amphitheatre https://cary.tacosntaps.com/

Arbor Day

Page Walker Arts and History Center, Cary http://carync.gov/arborday

NC Sci-Fest with Carolina Wetlands Association Hemlock Bluffs, Cary http://carync.gov/green

APRIL 7

Bull City Beer Mile 21+ (to compete) Durham Central Park https://runsignup.com/Race/NC/Durham/ BullCityBeerMile

APRIL 9

Botanica Dance Party 21+

Da Kine's Kava, Durham Instagram: @dakineskavadurham

APRIL 10

The Psychology of Serial 18+ (recommended) Killers

The Carolina Theatre of Durham

https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ the-psychology-of-serial-killers/

APRIL 12-14

OBX - Taste of the Beach

The Outer Banks

https://www.obxtasteofthebeach.com/

APRIL 13

The Fab Four: The Ultimate Beatles Tribute

The Carolina Theatre of Durham

https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ the-fab-four-the-ultimate-tribute-24/

Pimento Cheese Festival

Downtown Cary Park, Cary

https://downtowncarypark.com/things-to-do/ calendar/w_pimento-cheese-festival

Spring Litter Sweep Age restriction dependent on location Various locations in Cary

http://carync.gov/green

Carpenter Community Garden Open House

Carpenter Park, Cary

https://www.carync.gov/recreation-enjoyment/ parks-greenways-environment/communitygardens-urban-agriculture/carpenter-communitygarden

APRIL 18

An Evening with Phil Rosenthal of Somebody Feed Phil

The Carolina Theatre of Durham

https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ an-evening-with-phil-rosenthal-of-somebodyfeed-phil/

APRIL 20

North Carolina 'Cuegrass Festival

Fayetteville Street, Downtown Raleigh

http://www.cuegrass.com

Kountry Wayne: The King of 18+ Hearts Tour

The Carolina Theatre of Durham

http://www.cuegrass.com

The Price is Right Live!

DPAC

https://www.dpacnc.com/events/detail/theprice-is-right-live-2024

Bearthday: A Celebration of our 13th Birthday and Earth Day

800 North Blount Street, Raleigh, NC 27604

https://raleighcityfarm.org/events

Fields of Funk Beer Festival 21+ Steel String Brewery at Pluck Farm, Mebane https://steelstringbrewery.com/fields-of-funk/

Children's Day Festival

Downtown Cary Park

https://downtowncarypark.com/things-to-do/ calendar/w_childrens-day-festival

Oxford Main Street Arts & Wine Festival

Oxford

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

Good Hope Monthly Workday 14+

Good Hope Farm, Cary carync.gov/goodhopefarm

Good Hope Farm Tour

Good Hope Farm, Cary http://carync.gov/goodhopefarm

APRIL 21

Durham's Earth Day Festival

Durham Central Park

http://dprplaymore.org

The Dixie Dregs with Special Guests: Steve Morse Band

The Carolina Theatre of Durham https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/thedixie-dregs-with-special-guests-steve-morse-band/

Earth Day Trail Workday 16+ Hemlock Bluffs, Cary http://carync.gov/green

APRIL 22

Residential Solar Virtual Class 15+

Online

http://carync.gov/green

APRIL 25-28

MerleFest

Wilkesboro, NC

https://merlefest.org/

APRIL 26

Three Dog Night

The Carolina Theatre of Durham https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ three-dog-night-24/

APRIL 27-28

The 11th Annual Festival of Legends: Shiny Things

Sugg Farm at Bass Lake Park, Holly Springs www.festivaloflegends.com

APRIL 27

Spring Daze Arts + Crafts Festival Bond Park, Cary www.carync.gov/Springdaze

Canine Field Day Rock Quarry Park, Durham DPRPlayMore.org

Highland Games & Sheaf Champions at Central Children’s Home Oxford

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

Earth Day Celebration Bond Park, Cary http://carync.gov/green

Dueling Dinosaurs Grand Opening NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh https://naturalsciences.org/calendar/event/ dueling-dinosaurs-grand-opening

APRIL 29

Matteo Bocelli

The Carolina Theatre of Durham https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ matteo-bocelli/

MAY

MAY 2, 16

LIVE@LakeRaleigh

Lake Raleigh, NC State Centennial Campus https://live.arts.ncsu.edu/livelake-raleigh/

MAY 3

Pink Floyd Laser Spectacular

The Carolina Theatre of Durham https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ pink-floyd-laser-spectacular-24/

MAY 4-12

Looking for Roberto Clemente Raleigh Little Theatre RaleighLittleTheatre.org

MAY 4

Star Wars Day - May the 4th (PG)

The Cary Theater https://thecarytheater.com/

Legends Annual White Party

Legends Nightclub Complex Legends-club.com

Cary Dog Daze and Pet Expo

Cary Town Hall Campus, Cary

https://www.carync.gov/recreation-enjoyment/ events/special-events/cary-dog-days

MAY 5-7, 13-14

Cedar Creek Gallery’s Spring Pottery & Glass Festival Creedmoor

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

MAY 5

GAG! Presents Johnson Street 21+

Yacht Club Tea Dance

Johnson Street Yacht Club www.instagram.com/gag_raleigh

MAY 10-11

Longleaf Film Festival

Independent films are not rated by MPAA; most would fall into PG-13 range North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh LongleafFilmFestival.com

MAY 10

Leonid & Friends: A Tribute to the Music of Chicago

The Carolina Theatre of Durham https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ leonid-friends-a-tribute-to-the-music-ofchicago-24/

MAY 11

Carpenter Community Garden Open House

Carpenter Park, Cary carync.gov/green

MAY 15

Triangle Businesses for Good 18+ Summit

City Club Raleigh, Raleigh

https://activategood.org/take-action/ triangle-businesses-for-good/

MAY 17-18

2024 Beaufort Music Festival

Gallants Channel, Beaufort https://beaufortmusicfestival.com/

MAY 18-19

Durham Greek Festival

St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, Durham

www.DurhamGreekFestival.org

Artsplosure - The Raleigh Arts Festival

Downtown Raleigh - Fayetteville Street www.artsplosure.org

MAY 18

Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival Rock Quarry Park, Durham DPRPlayMore.org

Good Hope Monthly Workday 14+

Good Hope Farm, Cary carync.gov/goodhopefarm

Good Hope Farm Tour

Good Hope Farm, Cary carync.gov/goodhopefarm

Hops & Blues Festival

The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP http://glass-jug.com

Rooftops and Alleyways: Community Canvas

413 E Chapel Hill Street, Durham, NC 27701

http://www.durhamproductions.com/

MAY 23

Movies in the Garden: Moulin Rouge! Raleigh Little Theatre RaleighLittleTheatre.org

MAY 25

Carnival Circus

The Forest Theatre in Chapel Hill

https://www.triangleyouthballet.org

MAY 30

Trampled By Turtles with Benjamin Tod & Lost Dog Street Band

Cary's Koka Booth Amphitheatre

https://www.boothamphitheatre.com/ events/detail/tbt

MAY 31

Small Town Murder Podcast 2024 Tour

The Carolina Theatre of Durham

https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ small-town-murder-podcast-2024-tour/

MAY 31-JUNE 1

Butner Summer Festival Butner

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

March 6, 2024 INDYweek.com

JUNE

JUNE 1

2024 Beaver Queen Pageant

Duke Park Meadow in Durham www.beaverqueen.org and www.ellerbecreek.org

PrairieFest

NC Museum of Natural Sciences at Prairie Ridge, Raleigh

https://naturalsciences.org/prairie-ridge

Queer Community Picnic

Steel String Brewery at Pluck Farm, Mebane https://steelstringbrewery.com/queercommunity-picnic/

Handmade Parade

Churton Street, Hillsborough https://www.hillsboroughartscouncil.org/ handmade-parade

Chapel Hill Pride Promenade

Start: Peace & Justice Plaza, End: 140 West Franklin Plaza https://www.chapelhillarts.org/

JUNE 2

Desi Banks: The Purpose 18+ (recommended)

Chaser Tour

The Carolina Theatre of Durham https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ desi-banks-the-purpose-chaser-tour/

JUNE 7

Downtown Oxford Music on Main Downtown Oxford - Oxford https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

JUNE 7-8

Cherry Bounce Festival POPS, Forest City www.townofforestcity.com

JUNE 8

The Apex Pride Festival

Apex Town Campus, 73 Hunter St https://facebook.com/events/s/4th-annualapex-pride-festival/292814350485233/

JUNE 7-23

Kinky Boots

Raleigh Little Theatre RaleighLittleTheatre.org

JUNE 11

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue with Big Boi

Koka Booth Amphitheatre

https://www.boothamphitheatre.com/events/ detail/trombone-shorty-big-boi

JUNE 13-JULY 28

American Dance Festival

Durham

www.americandancefestival.org

JUNE 13

Little Feat: Can't Be Satisfied Tour

Koka Booth Amphitheatre

https://www.boothamphitheatre.com/events

JUNE 15

Marc Maron: All In 18+ (recommended)

The Carolina Theatre of Durham

https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/marcmaron-all-in/

Beach Music Festival at The Barn at Vino

The Barn at Vino, Stem

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

American Summer

The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP

http://glass-jug.com

JUNE 15-SEPT. 29

Amazing Pollinators

NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh

https://naturalsciences.org/exhibits/specialexhibitions

JUNE 16

GAG! Presents Johnson Street 21+

Yacht Club Tea Dance

Johnson Street Yacht Club

www.instagram.com/gag_raleigh

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Juneteenth

Hargraves Community Center

https://www.chapelhillarts.org/

JUNE 19

Pod Meets World Live: The Kids Wanna Jump! Tour

The Carolina Theatre of Durham

https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/podmeets-world-the-kids-wanna-jump-tour/

JUNE 20-23

Durham Summer Wine & Food

Downtown Durham and various bars, hotels, and restaurants throughout The Bullpen www.durhamsummer.com

JUNE 21-22

FlushFest: World Music for a Better World

West Hillsborough FlushFest.org

JUNE 22

Midsummer Celebration

Steel String Brewery at Pluck Farm, Mebane

https://steelstringbrewery.com/midsummercelebration-2024/

Bee Jubilee Festival & Food Truck Rodeo

Granville Expo Center - Oxford

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

Legendary Pride 18+

Legends Nightclub Complex Legends-club.com

Out! Raleigh Pride 2024

Fayetteville Street, Downtown Raleigh https://outraleighpride.org/

JUNE 23

Pride Patio Party 18+

Legends Nightclub Compex

https://steelstringbrewery.com/midsummerLegends-club.com

JULY

JULY 4

Chapel Hill July 4th Fireworks

Southern Community Park, Chapel Hill

https://www.chapelhillarts.org/

Fourth of July Fireworks

Lake Holt - Butner

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

JULY 4, 6

Festival for the ENO West Point on the ENO www.enofest.org

JULY 12-14

ConGregate Winston-Salem www.con-gregate.com

JULY 13

JULY 17

Flaming Lips

Cary's Koka Booth Amphitheatre

https://www.boothamphitheatre.com/events/ detail/the-flaming-lips

JULY 20

9th Annual Blueberry Festival

Botanist & Barrel

https://square.link/u/jDFf3Lp0

JULY 21

GAG! Presents Johnson 21+ Street Yacht Club Tea Dance

Johnson Street Yacht Club

www.instagram.com/gag_raleigh

AUGUST

AUGUST 2-3

Beer Bourbon & BBQ 21+ (to sample drinks) Festival - Cary

Koka Booth Amphitheatre

https://cary.beerandbourbon.com/

AUGUST 2-4

Audio Advice Live

Sheraton Hotel – Raleigh

https://live.audioadvice.com/

AUGUST 3

International Mead Day

Directed towards adults 21 and over, but children are welcome

Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro

https://www.starrlightmead.com/upcomingevents

AUGUST 7

Iron & Wine: Light Verse Tour 2024

Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts

https://www.ticketmaster.com/ event/2D006042C3BF86FD

AUGUST 8-11

OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival

Carolina Theatre of Durham

https://carolinatheatre.org/festival/outsouth/

AUGUST 9

Yacht Party

The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP http://glass-jug.com

Music on Main Street Oxford Oxford

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

AUGUST 10

MINDURO wee less grueling bicycle race and music fest

21+ (to compete)

Pine State Coffee and The Laboratory www.manduro.rocks

AUGUST 11

An Evening With John Legend Koka Booth Amphitheatre

https://www.boothamphitheatre.com/events/ detail/john-legend

GAG! Presents Johnson 21+ Street Yacht Club Tea Dance Johnson Street Yacht Club www.instagram.com/gag_raleigh

AUGUST 16-17

Hot Nights Cool Rides Car Show 108 East Main Street, Forest City www.townofforestcity.com

AUGUST 17

Groove Dance Party

The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP http://glass-jug.com

AUGUST 24-25

Lazy Daze Arts + Crafts Festival Downtown Cary www.carync.gov/lazydaze

AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 1

John Coltrane Jazz & Blues Festival High Point, NC https://coltranejazzfest.com/

SEPTEMBER

SEPTEMBER 2

Labor Day Celebration and Fundraiser

SEPTEMBER 11

The 9/11 Day of Service 5+

Location TBD

https://activategood.org/9-11-serviceremembrance/

SEPTEMBER 14

10th Anniversary Oktoberfest

The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP http://glass-jug.com

BugFest

NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh https://bugfest.org

The Big Stomp

Botanist & Barrel

https://checkout.square.site/buy/ WM4P3CEGXPDPAGOGYJ57WY5O

Creedmoor Music Festival

Creedmoor

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

SEPTEMBER 17

Melissa Etheridge & Jewel

Koka Booth Amphitheatre

https://www.boothamphitheatre.com/events/ detail/melissa-etheridge-jewel

SEPTEMBER 21-22

Centerfest Arts Festival

Downtown Durham

https://durhamarts.org/centerfest/

SEPTEMBER 21

Whiskey Wine & Fire - 21+ (to sample drinks)

Cary

Koka Booth Amphitheatre cary.whiskeywinefire.com

Steel String Brewery at Pluck Farm, Mebane https://steelstringbrewery.com/labor-daycelebration-fundraiser

SEPTEMBER 5-8

BEYOND: The Cary Film Festival

The Cary Theater, Cary https://thecarytheater.com/beyond-film-festival/

SEPTEMBER 6-7

NC Hot Sauce Contest Oxford

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

26 March 6, 2024 INDYweek.com

SEPTEMBER 29-30

IBMA Bluegrass Live! powered by PNC Bank

Downtown Raleigh

https://worldofbluegrass.org/festival/

OCTOBER

OCTOBER 1-31

Granville Haunt Farm

Oxford

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

OCTOBER 4-5

Lord Granville Heritage Association’s Harvest Show

Butner

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

OCTOBER 4-6

Slingshot Festival 18+

The Fruit, Durham Slingshotfestival.com

OCTOBER 4-6, 12-13

Cedar Creek Fall Pottery & Glass Festival

Cedar Creek Gallery, Creedmoor

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

OCTOBER 5-6

Oktoberfest 2024

Steel String Brewery at Pluck Farm, Mebane

https://steelstringbrewery.com/ oktoberfest-2024/

OCTOBER 5

Band Together - Mighty Giveback 2024

Red Hat Amphitheater www.bandtogethernc.org

SEPTEMBER 23

Pride: Durham

Across Durham

https://www.lgbtqcenterofdurham.org/slidetitle-here/

SEPTEMBER 28

Mead Fest

Starrlight Mead, Pittsboro

https://www.starrlightmead.com/mead-fest

FlutterFest

NC Museum of Natural Sciences at Prairie Ridge, Raleigh

https://naturalsciences.org/prairie-ridge

Apple Fest with Live Apple Pressing + More

Botanist & Barrel

https://square.link/u/6oVqGvKp

PlantFest 2024 (plant sale and garden festival)

Bonnie B. Davis Environment and Agricultural Center, Hillsborough www.TheOrangeGardener.org

Creedmoor City Tavern Fall Festival Creedmoor

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

"Sweet 16th" ANNUAL INDOOR John W. Coltrane Music 'Edu-tainment' Festival (JCMEF)

1935 Ghio Osborne Road, Hamlet, NC E-mail: 4JCMEF@gmail.com

Text/phone: (347) 286-8742

OCTOBER 11-13

GreenWood Wrights’ Fest

Ages 9+ to participate in workshops, familyfriendly camping

Shakori Hills Community Arts Center, Pittsboro

Greenwoodwrightsfest.com

OCTOBER 12

Masonic Homecoming Festival

Oxford

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

Freights & Pints

The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP

http://glass-jug.com

OCTOBER 19

Noel Miller: New Supply Tour

The Carolina Theatre of Durham

https://carolinatheatre.org/events/live-event/ noel-miller-new-supply-tour/

OCTOBER 25

Zombiepalooza 2024

Downtown Cary Park - Great Lawn (rain venue is The Cary Theater)

https://thecarytheater.com/zombiepalooza/

OCTOBER 26

Chapel Hill Festifall Arts Markets

140 West Franklin Plaza

https://www.chapelhillarts.org/

Military History Show

Henderson-Oxford Airport, Oxford

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening

NOVEMBER

NOVEMBER 2-3

Pumpkin Smash!

Steel String Brewery at Pluck Farm, Mebane

https://steelstringbrewery.com/pumpkin-smashparty/

NOVEMBER 2

Chapel Hill Festifall Arts Markets

140 West Franklin Plaza

https://www.chapelhillarts.org/

The Hub Craft & Brew Fest

Oxford

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

Ales & Outlaws

The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP

http://glass-jug.com

NOVEMBER 2-APRIL 27, 2025

Journey to Space

NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh https://naturalsciences.org/exhibits/specialexhibitions

NOVEMBER 2, 3, 9, 10

The Eleventh Annual Ignacy Jan Paderewski Piano Festival of Raleigh

NC Museum of Art Auditorium; Saint Mary's School Smedes Parlor www.paderewski-festival.org

NOVEMBER 9-10

Durham Pottery Tour

Participating pottery studios across Durham County durhampotterytour.com

NOVEMBER 9

Fool's Faire Renaissance Festival

Steel String Brewery at Pluck Farm, Mebane

https://steelstringbrewery.com/foolsfaire-2024/

NOVEMBER 16-17

Durham Art Walk Holiday Market

Durham Arts Council, Durham

https://durhamarts.org/art-walk/

NOVEMBER 23

Family Volunteer Day 2+ Marbles Kids Museum, Raleigh

https://activategood.org/family-volunteer-day/

DECEMBER

DECEMBER 6

Butner Christmas in Park

Butner

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

Creedmoor Tree Lighting ceremony

Creedmoor

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

DECEMBER 7

Butner Christmas Parade

Butner

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

DECEMBER 14

Oxford Jingle & Mingle

Oxford

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

Winterfest

NC Museum of Natural Sciences at Prairie Ridge, Raleigh

https://naturalsciences.org/prairie-ridge

DECEMBER 14-16

Delrayno’s Live Drive-thru Nativity

Oxford

https://visitgranvillenc.com/whats-happening/

JANUARY 2025

JANUARY 24-26

Carrboro Film Fest

Carrboro Library and Cultural Center, Carrboro Carrborofilm.org

Walk the Line

A twenty-something walking across the United States is raising awareness about pedestrian safety. In Durham, he received a dose of Bull City hospitality.

BY CHASE PELLEGRINI DE PAUR chase@indyweek.com

Holden Minor Ringer is a man walking across the United States, but he does not particularly want to be called “the walking man.” He does not want to talk about how many pairs of shoes he’s gone through in the last year. And he definitely does not want to hear your shitty Forrest Gump jokes. “I don’t want to be pigeonholed into one thing,” says the man who is more than 340 days into a walk across the country. But Ringer is a nice guy, and he knows that we are only human and cannot resist asking questions and making jokes, so if you do indulge, he’ll answer with a smile

On February 20, day 333 of his 3,000mile walk from Washington State to Washington, D.C., the 26-year-old walked into the Bull City, heading east on Chapel Hill Street and pushing a stroller full of travel essentials. Having grown up in Dallas and graduated from Emory University in Georgia, being back in the South is a bit of a homecoming.

“It’s the worst region in the entire country to walk through,” Ringer tells me, perhaps affectionately as we walk around Durham’s downtown.

Ringer’s journey across the country is partly to promote pedestrian safety and partly because he thought it would be a cool thing to do. Along the way, he’s met local advocates and strangers alike.

He’s a strange person with a strange hobby, but he would rather talk about his reason for walking, rattling off the relevant statistics (“44,000 people die in car crashes every single year”).

The idea for Ringer’s trek, which has taken him on a curving path—from Washington State down to Atlanta, then rounding northeast through Durham—came to him when he was about to graduate college in 2021

and feeling the stress of final exams.

“As a form of procrastination I started Googling ‘walking across America,’” Ringer says. “And the seeds were just planted.”

In 2023, he started the walk.

Ringer mostly walks alone, accompanied only by his stroller, Smiley—a storage unit for sustenance (water, lots of canned pears), shelter (a tent), and other essentials (books). Smiley is also a companion, in keeping with the Tom Hanks theme, maybe in the mold of Cast Away’s Wilson. But the stroller is also a reminder to keep finding a reason to smile, even in hard stretches—like struggling across the High Plains out west.

“You’re staring at thousands of miles of sagebrush,” Ringer says, “Meanwhile, I was getting over a breakup at the same time, and it’s like, you’re seeing your ex in all the sagebrush.”

“If you take one takeaway from meeting me, it’s: America is not a walkable place,” Ringer continues, adding, “And there’s lots of generous people in America.”

“Walkability,” as it turns out, is not just about sidewalks.

“It’s like, where do I go to the bathroom? Where do I sit down at a bus stop? How close is a grocery store to my house?” Ringer says.

Ringer spends a lot of time walking on highway shoulders. And lots of the people he sees there aren’t exactly doing it for fun. “Oftentimes, it’s poor folks that may not have any other option,” he says. “Departments of transportation across the country see these people as invisible.”

Ringer has also walked past a lot of roadside memorials, often large crosses marking the spot where someone was killed by a careless driver. These deaths, he says, are preventable.

“I can see [a driver] on their phone, you know, from hundreds of meters away. And it’s like, I can tell that they’re on their phone before I ever see the phone,” Ringer says. “That’s the scariest thing that I deal with.”

Ringer points out that in the South, much of the infrastructure was built during the postwar era of the automobile. That’s the case in Durham, where downtown revitalization plans led to the creation of pairs of two-lane one-way streets, like Duke and Gregson, and Roxboro and Mangum. That design leads to increased driving speeds and thus higher danger for pedestrians.

While in the city, Ringer met with Bike Durham advocates currently campaigning for changes to Roxboro and Mangum Streets. The speed limit on that parallel pair of north-south streets is 35 miles per hour, though a resident-run Twitter account, @ RecklessRoxboro, regularly posts photos of cars going faster than 60 miles per hour in the residential stretch. While in Durham, Ringer visited Roxboro and took some videos for Bike Durham to demonstrate how unsafe it is.

Over the journey, Ringer has also dealt with the oddity of becoming a minor internet sensation. Headlines like “Emory University alum’s epic journey” and “WOW: Man Attempting to Walk Across Country” appear like footprints behind him. He also keeps a blog and posts on Reddit, platforms that help him plan ahead and make

inroads for his next stop. In his five nights in Durham, for instance, he scored a free night at the Durham Hotel (“probably the nicest hotel that anyone has ever gifted me”) and then four nights with some kind-hearted Bike Durham advocates. When he can’t find someone to host him through Reddit or asking around, he’ll pitch his tent in a yard or a church.

As Ringer walked around Durham, he shared stories about parking minimums in Greensboro; a preacher in Gaffney, South Carolina; and accidentally herding goats near Winston-Salem. In return, Durham residents shared tales of the pedestrian nightmare of the Loop, the rise of One City Center, and the Ellerbe Creek Trail dinosaur.

On Day 338, Ringer walked north on Roxboro Street headed toward Oxford, taking those Bull City stories with him. His walk officially ends in D.C., but he plans to walk up to New York and see the Atlantic. By May, he’ll make it to New Haven, Connecticut, where his grandparents are memorialized.

On Day 339, having moved on toward Virginia, he posted: “Leaving Durham yesterday I felt some real sadness. From the very first interaction I had with folks in town I felt the sense of warmth and community so prevalent that remained throughout my stay in Bull City.

“So thank you Durham, you are special and I hope to return one day.” W

Holden Ringer, 26, of Seattle, walks on Sunday, February 25, 2024, in Durham. PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

M U S IC

Dharma Chameleon

With a laptop and a microphone, a dream and a scheme, the Apple Juice Kid draws in Deepak Chopra, Sly and Robbie, and other global legends on new album Love Love.

BY BRIAN HOWE music@indyweek.com

One night almost a decade ago, Stephen Levitin was leaving a movie at Southpoint when a jazz band in the plaza stopped him in his tracks. He was especially floored by the saxophonist, whom he approached after the set. They went on to cut several tracks together, including “AfroTrap,” where sinewy sax licks link up the slabs of a mammoth beat.

“At some point in the sessions, he said, ‘You don’t know who I play with, do you?’” Levitin recalls. “I was like, ‘No, you’re the guy I saw at Southpoint who could make this instrument do backflips.’” As it turned out, the guy in question was Marcus Anderson, then a staple in Prince’s band.

“AfroTrap” appears on Love Love, the new producer album by Levitin, aka the Apple Juice Kid. A clearinghouse for tracks he made over years in the Triangle, it touches on every point in his fascinating career: drumming in the ’90s jazz-hop band Sankofa, cofounding the Beat Making Lab at UNC-Chapel Hill in 2012, and placing beats with big artists like Azealia Banks, Mos Def, and Wale.

In the COVID era, Levitin has been living in Melbourne, Australia, and he’s picked up the accent so strongly you’d never guess he’s a North Carolina native. But the home fires burn brightly on Love Love, which teems with features by locals such as Diali Cissokho and Trice Be and has original artwork by painter Mark Abercrombie.

“I’ve always been kind of a chameleon,” Levitin says via video chat. That’s evident on an album where the style seamlessly shifts from ’90s hip-hop to reggaeton to big-tent house, or to whatever idiom will activate the vocalists on the marquee. In collecting the vibrant stubs of larger proj-

ects that weren’t to be (the Anderson songs, for instance, had hopes of reaching Prince until he passed away), Love Love portrays an artist relentlessly pressing the point where serendipity and opportunity meet.

For example, when Levitin heard that the famed DJ Spooky would be appearing at a conference in Saxapahaw, he finagled himself into the lineup. There he connected with Spooky and then wound up doing some work on Spooky’s 2018 album Phantom Dancehall for reggae giant VP Records. The budget was gone by then, but he said he’d work for free if the label would send them to Jamaica for authentic final mixes. They did, for three days, but he stayed for months, eventually meeting the iconic rhythm duo Sly and Robbie.

Several Love Love tracks incorporate unreleased session files they gave him, including the standout “Dictionary.” It also has the melodic fingerprint of auxiliary producer Sup Doodle, a star pupil of Beat Making Lab, which Levitin cofounded with Pierce Freelon and Mark Katz to build community around the technical side of hip-hop, leading workshops and donating equipment in Senegal, Panama, Ethiopia, and other places around the world. The project also became an Emmy-winning PBS show of the same name in 2013.

“I made a trip back to Jamaica to play the songs for Sly and Robbie, and they flipped out,” Levitin says. “My original intention was to make a group with them, but then Robbie died in 2021, and Beat Making Lab getting really big had put a lot of my producing on the side burner.”

Of course, with a glance at Love Love’s track list, you’re probably most curious about “Time,” in which the rapper Ace Hen-

derson, who is from Raleigh, chops it up with Deepak Chopra. That New Age titan is whom Levitin asked to meet when Spooky offered to open his “golden Rolodex” in return for working on the dancehall project.

“I’m a very spiritual person, and he’s someone I respected that also has a lot of success,” Levitin explains, noting Chopra’s ties to Oprah Winfrey. “I thought if Oprah could get wind of Beat Making Lab, I could get in that upper echelon. Like a lot of things I do, it’s half me on a personal level and half an entrepreneurial level. I’d have been one of a million producers that Jay-Z had met, so somehow, in my little chess game of life, this seemed like the right move.”

Chopra wound up interviewing Levitin onstage in New York. The night before, Levitin decided to sample Chopra’s voice from an audiobook and make a beat to play live. That first version of “Time” also sampled Oprah, which had to be cut because that connection didn’t pan out—yet. But Levitin did travel to India with Chopra’s team to explore doing a Beat Making Lab there.

Several songs feature guitar, bass, keys, and vocals by Mark Wells and Matt Brandau, Levitin’s compatriots since Sankofa, which was one of the biggest party bands at UNC in the ’90s, opening for groups like OutKast and the Roots and selling out Cat’s Cradle shows. On Love Love, they appear on the radiant “Wake Up,” which also features

rapper Geechi Suede from Camp Lo, a New York duo known for the 1996 hit “Luchini AKA This Is It.”

They later moved to North Carolina and became one of the most important connections of Levitin’s life. This was after college and Sankofa, when he had been winning beat battles with Nirvana samples and bongo solos, first at Local 506 and then at top events in New York.

“I was playing drums for YahZarah in Raleigh, and Suede saw me there,” he remembers. “He also saw me in a battle with 9th Wonder at NCCU. It was the first time I’d had anyone from the music industry really corner me and say, ‘You’re the one; I want to get in the studio with you.’” The duo has now done multiple projects together as Freebass 808. “I love that this is the first song and has probably my closest friends in the world. They’d be the best men at my wedding.”

Indeed, inasmuch as Love Love is a producer’s showcase, it’s also a document of his personal journey since his last producer album, Plus+, more than 20 years ago. “I fell a bit into the artist trap of wanting the album to be perfect,” Levitin says, “and after Plus+, I was in the music industry cycle of trying to get beats placed with major artists. I’m so excited for my next producer album; I almost guarantee you there will be another album in a year or two because of the cathartic release of this material.” W

Apple Juice Kid’s Stephen Levitin PHOTO BY HANNIBAL MATTHEWS

TH 3/7: @CAT’S CRADLE KMFDM W/ MORLOCKS

FRI 3/8 @CAT’S CRADLE MITCH ROWLAND

CAT'S CRADLE

3/7 TH: KMFDM W/ MORLOCKS

3/8 FR: MITCH ROWLAND

3/9 SA: MAE CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF DESTINATION: BEAUTIFUL

3/19 TU: JERVIS CAMPBELL

5/8 WE: CKY W/ CROBOT, X-COPS

5/13 MO: DESTROY BOYS

W/ MARGARITAS PODRITAS, CHOKECHERRY

5/19 SU: SOEN W/ TROPE

5/20 MO: WILD CHILD W/ OH HE DEAD

5/22 WE: MIKE, 454, NIONTAY

3/29 FR: LIGHTHEARTED W/ GOOD DEAL, EMMA GEIGER

3/30 SA: SHEER MAG W/ DE( )T

4/1 MO: BRISCOE

4/4 TH: GRANT LEE PHILLIPS

4/5 FR: AJ LEE & BLUE SUMMIT

5/29 & 5/30 @CAROLINA THEATRE (DURHAM)

7/20 SA: MC CHRIS

8/3 SA: THE BLAZERS – 50 YRS!

9/10 TU: KING BUZZO W/ TREVOR DUNN

10/25 & 10/26: THE OCEAN BLUE

3/20 WE: SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM W/ TITAN TO TACHYONS

3/21 TH: BRIAN SELLA W/ KAMARA THOMAS

3/22 FR: UNWOUND W/ CHERUBS

3/23 SA: ELIZA MCLAMB W/ MINI TREES

THE MAGNETIF FIELDS PLAY 69 LOVE SONGS

3/26 TU: ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS OCTOBOKE BEAVER

W/ DRINKING BOYS AND GIRLS CHOIR

3/28 TH: TAY TAY DANCE PARTY

3/29 FR: SARAH SHOOK & THE DISARMERS W/ H.C. MCENTIRE

3/30 SA: MARSHALL CRENSHAW (W/ BAND)

4/4 TH: SAM BURCHFIELD & THE SCOUNDRELS + TOPHOUSE

4/5 FR: ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS THE CRANE WIVES W/ RACHEL BOBBIT

SOLD OUT

4/9 TU: SNOW STRIPPERS W/ DRES

4/12 FR: CARBON LEAF

4/13 SA: DAVID MORRIS

4/14 SU: LOS STRAITJACKETS

30TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

4/16 TU: GOOD KID W/ ADAN DIAZ

4/17 WE: ROBYN HITCHCOCK

4/22 MO: HELADO NEGRO W/ MAREM LADSON

4/23 TU ATERCIOPELADOS

4/25 TH: HAYES & THE HEATHENS FT. HAYES CARLL / THE BAND OF HEATHENS

4/26 FR: PROXIMA PARADA + OLIVER HAZARD

4/27 SA: BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD

SOLD OUT

4/28 SU: ANDMOREAGAIN + MOTORCO PRESENT T WRP DIGITAL NIGHTMARE 2024

5/1 WE: FUTUREBIRDS

5/3 FR: LOW CUT CONNIE

5/7 TU: SARAH JAROSZ W/ LE REN

5/25 SA: REVERED HORTON HEAT W/ SURFRAJETTES

6/4 TU: SHANNON & THE CLAMS

6/7 FR: SYMPHONY X W/ HEATHEN

6/11 FR: THE MENZINGERS, LUCERO +THE DIRTY NIL

6/18 TU: THE CAMERA OBSCURA

6/21 FR: KIM GORDON

7/21 SU: TINARIWEN

7/24, 7/25, 7/26, & 7/27: MERGE 35 SINGLE NIGHT TIX ON SALE SOON

10/15 TU: HOMESHAKE W/ FREAK HEAT WAVES

CATS CRADLE BACK ROOM

3/6 WE: VIDEO AGE W/ SEAN NICHOLAS SAVAGE

3/7 TH: SATELLITE DOG, JUNIPER AVENUE, STAN & DENGHY

3/8 FR: PROVOKER W/ KUMO 99

3/9 SA: MAYA DE VITRY W/ EMMA GEIGER

3/10 SU: SUB-RADIO W/ MOONTOWER

3/15 SU: AN EVENING WITH PETER HOLSAPPLE + CHRIS STAMEY

3/16 SA: BIKINI TRILL

3/17 SU: KELSY KARTER & THE HEROINES

3/18 MO: JEN CURTIS, VIOLIN + NILAFOUR SHIRI, KAMANCHEH

3/19 TU: THE ROCKET SUMMER

3/20 WE: CHARLIE PARR

3/21 TH: MCLUSKY W/ GANSER

3/22 FR: ¡TUMBAO! W/ THE MOON UNIT, GUSTAV VIEHMEYER

3/23 SA: AZUL W/ MAIA KAMIL, TORCHLIGHT APOTHECARY

3/28 TH: THE TYSON BROTHERS W/ THE MODERN AGE, HIGH JUNE

4/6 SA: REMO DRIVE W/ WIT

4/9 TU: HOTLINE TNT W/ CICADA

4/11 TH: ILLITERATE LIGHT

4/12 FR: KILTRO W/ NINA DE FREITAS

4/13 SA: UNPROCESSED

SOLD OUT

4/14 SU: 723, CUFFING SEASON, MADISINN

4/17 WE: SATSANG

4/18 TH: CHRISTIAN KURIA

4/19 FR: MIKAELA DAVIS

4/20 SA: SPEED STICK + PIPE

4/23 TU: EARTHLESS + MINAMI DEUTSCH

4/24 WE: SLOW HOLLOWS W/ COMPUTERWIFE

4/28 SU: AARON LEE TASJAN

W/ MOLLY MARTIN

4/30 TU: TEEN SUICIDE W/ AWAKEBUTSTILLINBED

5/4 SA: ROYEL OITIS W/ GIRL AND GIRL

MOVED TO LINCOLN THEATRE

5/5 SU: GRACE CUMMINGS

5/8 WE: CALVA LOUISE AND VUKOVI W/ STELLAR CIRCUITS

5/11 SA: FLESHWATER

W/ MODERN COLOR 9MILLION

SOLD OUT

5/12 SU: LØ SPIRIT

5/24 FR: SKATING POLLY

W/ LORD FRIDAY THE 13TH

5/26 SU: SAM EVIAN W/ HANNAH COHEN

5/28 TU: ZACH SEABAUGH

6/4 TU: LIP CRITIC

6/7 FR: KASSI VALAZZA

6/14 FR: SETTING W/ VERITY DEN

6/22 SA: ROSE CITY BAND

W/ DRUNKEN PRAYER

HAW RIVER BALLROOM (SAX)

3/20 WE: GUSTER

4/12 FR: MADISON CUNNINGHAM + JUANA MOLINA

4/14 SU: MIGHTY POPLAR

4/21 SU: COWBOY JUNKIES

5/26 SU: REAL ESTATE

6/8 SA: MDOU MOCTAR

6/18 TU: CAMERA OBSCURA W/ PHOTO OPS

SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT

LOCAL 506 (CHAPEL HILL)

7/24 WE: MATES OF STATE MOTORCO (DURHAM)

3/21 TH: BAR ITALIA

5/17 FR: CHEEKFACE W/ YUNGATITA

10/4 FR: LA LUZ

COASTAL CREDIT UNION MUSIC PARK (RALEIGH)

4/27 SA: THE POSTAL SERVICE + DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE CAROLINA THEATRE (DURHAM)

5/29 & 5/30: THE MAGNETIC FIELDS PLAY 69 LOVE SONGS – OVER TWO NIGHTS KINGS (RALEIGH)

4/13 SA: JULIA WOLF W/ SCRO MARTIN MARIETTA CENTER (RALEIGH)

6/24 MO: FUTURE ISLANDS

DURHAM BULLS ATHLETIC PARK

5/31 & 6/1: GOOD MOON FESTIVAL –SYLVAN ESSO, FLEET FOXES, HIPPO CAMPUS, DEHD, REYNA TROPICAL, TRUTH CLUB

WE 3/20 @CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM CHARLIE PARR

SA 3/9 @CAT’S CRADLE MAE CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF DESTINATION: BEAUTIFUL

TH 3/21 @CAT’S CRADLE BRIAN SELLA (OF THE FRONT BOTTOMS)

SA 3/23 @CAT’S CRADLE ELIZA MCLAMB W/ MINI TREES

SA 3/30 @CAT’S CRADLE MARSHALL CRENSHAW W/ BAND

TU 3/19 @CAT’S CRADLE JERVIS CAMPBELL

Fever Dreams, Aging Assassins, and Canine-Android Dynamics

Suggestions and potential options for a night out at the movies in March.

BY GLENN MCDONALD arts@indyweek.com

For those who still like to leave the house to see a movie, Incoming! is a monthly feature spotlighting interesting films coming to local theaters. All the movies below are slated to play locally, but bookings change all the time, so check your online listings.

How’s this for an intriguing premise:

Young Salvadoran toy designer Alejandro, rejected by toy conglomerate Hasbro’s talent incubator program, takes a job at a cryogenic corpse-stashing facility. Desperate for a visa sponsor, he teams up with an NYC art-world kook and works out his toughest dilemmas in a feverdream alternate universe of the mind. Pretty good!

That’s the setup for Problemista, the surreal comedy from actor-director-screenwriter Julio Torres, former SNL writer and aspiring comedy auteur. The film premiered to enthusiastic reviews at last year’s SXSW festival and is getting a nationwide release from reliable indie distributor A24, which is a recommendation in itself.

Reviews from the festival circuit suggest that Problemista is that most valuable of commodities: an original vision shepherded from script to screen by one person’s unalloyed comic sensibilities—think Wes Anderson or Being John Malkovich. Critics are praising Torres’s ambitious screenplay, which tackles everything from NYC art-world weirdness to the byzantine hor-

ror of U.S. immigration policies. Also on board: Tilda Swinton, Greta Lee, Isabella Rossellini, and RZA.

For a darker night at the movies, the indie thriller Knox Goes Away is another film where the star is the director. This time, it’s Hollywood veteran Michael Keaton, who’s having a pretty great second-wind career. The setup—underworld hit man with dementia—sounds ridiculous on paper, but this is the kind of thing that can play out nicely in the heightened realm of neo-noir.

Keaton, at 72, is still a commanding performer. He’s got that movie star thing where you get nervous taking your eyes off him, lest something awesome happen when you’re not looking. The script is said to be pleasantly twisty with a great reveal, and Keaton is a proven filmmaker. His 2008 drama The Merry Gentleman is a good movie-night-at-home option. (Come to think of it, he plays a hit man in that one, too.)

For something completely different, the Spanish-French hand-drawn animated film Robot Dreams is getting you-must-see-this reviews worldwide. (It’s up for an Oscar this year.) The film defies synopsis, really, but the story follows the friendship of a robot and a dog in 1980s Manhattan and the enduring majesty of Earth, Wind & Fire’s classic song “September.” Find the trailer online for a sense of it all. The film is safe for kids and if you’re leery of subtitled movies, no problem: no dialogue!

QUICK PICKS

Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan headline the buzzy indie Asphalt City, based on true stories of NYC paramedics during the crack epidemic of the 1990s. For city vibes with a love story built in, Kristen Stewart stars in the gritty romantic thriller Love Lies Bleeding

If you’re in the market for a big dumb popcorn movie, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire finds Earth’s two alpha kaijus teaming up to fight some new chthonic beastie. Bonus trivia: It’s the 38th Godzilla movie in

franchise history, which dates back to 1958.

Straight from this year’s Sundance film festival, The American Society of Magical Negroes is a satirical comedy concerning the Hollywood trope of folksy Black people helping to make white people’s lives easier.

At seven p.m. on Wednesday, March 13, the Alamo in Raleigh will host a special Pulp Fiction screening with party favors including fake adrenaline hypodermics, candy Red Apple cigarettes, and a “Serious Gourmet Shit” coffee mug. No word on $5 milkshakes. W

Problemista IMAGE COURTESY OF A24

MUSIC

Cool Cool Cool 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh

Video Age 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro

STAGE

Murder on the Orient

Express 7:30 p.m.

PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill

Pieces of Me 7:00 p.m. West Duke Building 101, Durham

PAGE

Live Dead: The Grateful Dead, Live Recordings, and the Ideology of LivenessEric Mlyn in conversation with John Brackett 6:30 p.m. Letters Bookshop, Durham

MUSIC

Alcantara / Frida Kill / Shop Talk 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham

KMFDM 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro

Music Madness Presented by The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle 7:30 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham

Satellite Dog 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro

Hip Hop South Series: Dasan Ahanu Presents: Writin’ Dirty: Southern Lyricism And Storytelling

7 p.m. CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio, Chapel Hill

STAGE

Murder on the Orient Express 7:30 p.m. Playmakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill

ART

Lectures in Art History: Shanna Ketchum-Heap of Birds 5:30 p.m. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill

Thursday Night Art with Andi! 7 p.m. Art and Healing Space, Durham

COMMUNITY

Botany Spotlight: Carnivorous, Xeric and Tropical Plant Adaptations March 7 & 14, 7 p.m. Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Durham (online)

MUSIC

Cosmic Charlie 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh

Evil Eye w/ Skull Servant, Scrape, Doomsday Profit

7:30 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill

Keith Ganz Quarter

7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham

Mitch Rowland 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Durham

Rhapsody in Blue with the North Carolina Symphony 12 p.m. Martin Marietta

Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh

Rivals On Deck: UNC vs Duke 8 p.m. The Fruit, Durham

COMMUNITY

Experimental Driving by Calvin Brett 10 p.m. The Fruit, Durham

The Ringer Presents: One Shining Podcast with Tate Frazier LIVE! 8 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham

Cool Cool Cool is playing at Lincoln Theatre on March 6.

PHOTO COURTESY OF COOL COOL COOL WEBSITE

MUSIC

Cumbiatron - The Cumbia

Rave 21+ 8 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh

MAE 8:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro

Tens of Thousands w/ J Waves, Jam Stylez 7 p.m. Local 506, Durham

The Shake Something

Dance Party 10:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham

Thrio 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham

Thus Love w/ Jenny Besetzt 7 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham

SCREEN

Aftersun 2 p.m. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

COMMUNITY

Moving Units II: A Record Fair 11 a.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham

MUSIC

Banff / Cinema Hearts / Shalom 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham

Common Woman Cabaret 6 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham

JJ Grey & Mofro 7:30 p.m. Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham

Rumbletramp / Marble Berry Seeds, Wabi-Sabi 7 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill

Sub-Radio 8:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro

STAGE

Goodnights Presents: Shapel Lacey 8:15 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh

Jimbo’s Drag Circus World Tour 8 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham

PAGE

Second Sunday Poetry

Series 2:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill

COMMUNITY

Weinberg Lecture On Egyptology—Ancient Ink: Discovering The Tattooed Women Of Ancient Egypt 2 p.m. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

MUSIC

Washer / Rick Rude / Ravine / Sweet Homé 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham

MUSIC

Candlelight: A Tribute to Adele 6:30 p.m. MerrimonWynne House, Raleigh

Cowgirl Clue / 3L3LD3P / MGNA CRRRTA 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham

STAGE

Neil deGrasse Tyson 8 p.m. Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham

PAGE

Silent Book Club 6 p.m. Letters Bookshop, Durham

ART

Exhibition of Landscape/ Seascape Paintings & Glass

Art 11 a.m. Cary Gallery of Artists, Cary

Jimbo’s Drag Circus is coming to Carolina Theatre on March 10.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JIMBO’S DRAG CIRCUS

WED 03/13

MUSIC

Ally J on the Roof 7:30 p.m. The Durham Hotel, Durham

Maddy Walsh and the Blind Spots / Emily Musolino 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham

STAGE

The Monti StorySLAM - Bamboozled! 7:30 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham

PAGE

These Bodies Between Us 6:30 p.m. Letters Bookshop, Durham

MUSIC

Beach Weather 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham

PAGE

Sage Rountree Presents: The Athlete’s Guide to Recovery 6 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill

SCREEN

Backchannel Cinema 7:30 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham

COMMUNITY

Midday Meander 12:15 p.m. Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Durham

Pi(e) Day with Phoebe

Lawless 1 p.m. The Durham Hotel, Durham

MUSIC

Bash Back: A Queer Underground Music Show 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham

Introducing Janinah Burnett w/Haines, Bradford and Hampden 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham

The Floor w/ DJ CZ 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham

PAGE

The New Romantics 6 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill

COMMUNITY

Hands-On History Friday 11 a.m. West Point on the Eno Park, Durham

MUSIC

Adulting: An Early Dance Party 7 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham

Bikini Trill 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro

Lydia Salett Dudley & Jazz Xpressions 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham

Rhett Miller 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham

STAGE

TheatreWorks USA’s The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System 10 a.m.

Garner Performing Arts Center, Garner

COMMUNITY

Art In Bloom, Presented By PNC, Sensory-Friendly Hour 9 a.m. North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

MUSIC

Kelsy Karter & The Heroines 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro

COMMUNITY

Afrobotany: African American Agricultural, Botanical and Horticultural Traditions 1 p.m. Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Durham

Dollar Bin Sundays for Charity 12 p.m. Rumors Durham, Durham

Beach Weather is playing at Motorco Music Hall on March 14.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MOTORCO

SUN 03/18 MON 03/19

MUSIC

This Is Lorelei w/ Fantasy of a Broken Heart 8 p.m. Rubies on Five Points

MUSIC

Jervis Campbell 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro

Thomas Taylor’s 3rd

Tuesday Jam’s: The Music of George Gershwin 5:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham

COMMUNITY

Leading Authentically in a Fractured World: A Public Conversation with David and Christopher Gergen 5:30 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham

CROSSWORD

Thomas Taylor brings together other musicians for a night of jazz music by George Gershwin on Monday, March 19 at Sharp 9 Gallery.

PHOTO COURTESY SHARP 9 GALLERY

SU | DO | KU

SERVICES

Difficulty level: HARD

SU | DO | KU

© Puzzles by Pappocom

There is really only one rule to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box. The numbers can appear in any order and diagonals are not considered. Your initial game board will consist of several numbers that are already placed. Those numbers cannot be changed. Your goal is to fill in the empty squares following the simple rule above.

Difficulty level: MEDIUM

EMPLOYMENT

Associate Director

There is really only one rule to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box. The numbers can appear in any order and diagonals are not considered. Your initial game board will consist of several numbers that are already placed. Those numbers cannot be changed. Your goal is to fill in the empty squares following the simple rule above.

If you’re stumped, find the answer keys for these puzzles and archives of previous puzzles (and their solutions) at indyweek.com/puzzles-page or scan this QR code for a link. Best of luck, and have fun!

Associate Director, Technology sought by Definitive Media Corp d/b/a Thread in Cary, NC to strategize at scale alongside product management to implement new platform capabilities across the THREAD software as a service (SAAS) platform and manage the entire Software Development Life Cycle to ensure project deliverable. Requires a US master’s degree, or its equivalent, in Computer Science or a related field; and 18 months of experience in Associate Director, Technology, Technology Business Analyst, or related occupation. The position requires 18 months of experience in executing project management methodologies, frameworks (e.g., Agile, Scrum, Waterfall), and best practices. Utilization of project management tools and software including Jira, Confluence, Slack, and Smartsheet. Utilization of software development methodologies and processes, including requirements gathering, coding, testing, deployment, and maintenance. Managing technical projects, such as software development projects, infrastructure implementations, system integrations, or other technology-driven initiatives. Reviewing prioritized backlogs, critical fly-ins, analysis of deployment plans and architecture solutions. Writing database queries to generate reports. Developing technical application of design, development, and implementation software solution, systems, or products. Addressing gaps and creating processes and SOPs to help team efficiency and consistency, including, training, onboarding and process flows. Technical skills required: Jira, Confluence, Slack, Smartsheet, SCRUM, Agile, and Waterfall. May work from anywhere within the U.S. Any suitable combination of education, training or experience is acceptable. Send resumes to Definitive Media Corp d/b/a Thread to Human Resources at talent@threadresearch.com.

© Puzzles by Pappocom

C L A S S I F I E D S

EMPLOYMENT

Manufacturing Manager

Professionals MANUFACTURING MANAGER (Durham, NC) needed to monitor yields & efficiencies of production processes, & implmtd improvements to reduce downtime, improve reliability & quality. Reqs: Bach’s deg in Mechanical Engg, or foreign equiv; 1 yr exp in 2D drawings in AutoCAD & 3D models in SketchUp; 1 yr exp as Mfg Engineer, monitoring yields & efficiencies of production processes; Skills of using AutoCAD, Sketchup, MS Visio, MS Excel, 2020 Design, Xilog Maestro CNC Prgmg s/ware. Must refer to Job# SGNC2023BUSINESS SYSTEMS SPECIALIST (Durham, NC) needed to be responsible for administration of business systems using Microsoft 365, Replicon, PowerBI, Azure, Smartsheets, Kneat, Agile, Constant Contact, & PII Protect. Reqs: 2 yrs of exp in s/ware & system administration; 2 yrs of exp in d/base implmtn & maintenance; 2 yrs of exp in implmtn of cybersecurity measures & s/ ware; Skills of using Photoshop, Azure, Microsoft 365, Replicon, prgmg in PowerBI inc using Azure, Smartsheets, Kneat, Agile, Constant Contact, & PII Protect. Must refer to Job# GRNC2023.To apply: Send resume to HR, PharmEng Technology, Inc. 1 TW Alexander Dr, Ste 125, Durham, NC, 27703.

Quality Control Analyst

Quality Control Analyst Raleigh (Wake County)

Functional control of quality processes, inspections and tests required to assure food quality and conformance with product specifications. Oversee customization/improve processes, concepts, and best practices. Identify quality problems and recommend or initiate the necessary corrective/ preventive actions. Develop and maintain positive relationships with customers and 3rd party inspectors through proper business etiquette and professionalism. Deal with quality improvement by completing product, company system and organizational audits. Continually build knowledge and stay abreast of current functionality, capabilities and technologies. Perform audits to supervise cleanliness of equipment, utensils, and work areas of the restaurant to maintain quality standards. Requires at least 2 years of experience working as Quality Analyst in the food industry. Send resume to heli@guasaca.com. Real Food Central LLC.

Robotics Engineer

Robotics Engineer sought by Asensus Surgical US, Inc. in Durham, NC to research, design, and implement advanced robotic and control algorithms, encompassing kinematics, dynamics, and various control strategies. Assess and identify technical risks conducting comprehensive system evaluations and simulating robotic mechanisms and control methodologies. Work with mechanical and software teams to continuously enhance mechanical design and control solutions to optimize system performance. Facilitate cross-functional design reviews to ensure a holistic approach to system development and refinement. Prepare and meticulously review technical documentation, including formal reports, such as intellectual property, product specifications, regulatory requirements, and verification testing protocols. Maintain strict adherence to regulatory requirements and company design control procedures throughout the development process. M.S.

Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, Controls or a related field (U.S. or foreign equivalent). Proficiency in developing, implementing and troubleshooting robot control algorithms. Understanding of mechanical principles, enabling rigorous modeling and analysis. Knowledge of C++ development within a Linux environment. Proficiency in working with ROS (Robotic Operating System); modeling and simulation software (MATLAB/Simulink); ROTS (RealTime Operating System). Employer performs drug testing/screening, reference and background checks, education verification and employment verification. Resumes to mschilling@asensus.com.

Systems Engineer

SAS Institute, Inc. seeks a Systems Engineer in Cary, NC to present lectures in industry marketing events on Credit Scoring about AI & Machine Learning Models. Reqs: BS in Stats, Econ, Fin, Comp Sci, Eng or rel + 3 yrs exp or MS in Stats, Econ, Fin, Comp Sci, Eng or rel+ 1 yr exp. Travel req’d across U.S. and Canada 15% of the time. May work remotely pursuant to SAS’ Flexible Work Program. For full reqs & to apply visit sas.com/careers & reference Job # 2024-35328.

2/21/24 CROSSWORD SOLUTION