INDY Week July 10, 2024

Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill

July 10, 2024

durham durhamcounty county Best2024 of theTriangle

Fighting Food Insecurity

Mariela Hernandez's journey from struggling to feed her family to making sure the local community isn't going hungry. By Mila Mascenik, p. 9

Local community fridges operate with an abundance mindset, removing barriers to access. By Gabi Mendick, p. 33

Raleigh W Durham W Chapel Hill

CONTENTS

5 Durham has plans to draw drinking water from Jordan Lake by 2029. BY CHASE PELLEGRINI DE PAUR

7 El Futuro received a nearly half-million dollar grant to expand its Mentes Fuertes mental health counselling program. BY LENA GELLER

9 Orange County housing manager Mariela Hernandez reflects on her family's journey out of food insecurity. BY MILA MASCENIK

CULTURE

33 “You can honestly have as much as you want. It’s not our place to govern that or to surveil," says Taylor Holenbeck, an organizer with Durham Community Fridges BY GABI MENDICK

35 Southeastern Camera celebrates 30 years this July. BY MILA MASCENIK

37 Album reviews of music by Bats & Mice; Jake Xerxes Fussell; Joseph Decosimo, Luke Richardson, Cleek Schrey; and Radio Haw. BY BRIAN HOWE, JORDAN LAWRENCE, AND NICK MCGREGOR

40 Twisters, Kinds of Kindness, and other new movies playing in local theaters. BY GLENN MCDONALD

42 Exhibitions around the Triangle to catch this summer. BY MATTHEW JUNKROSKI

THE REGULARS

3 Op-ed 43 Culture

Publisher

John Hurld

Editorial

Editor-in-Chief

Jane Porter

Culture Editor

Sarah Edwards

Staff Writer

Lena Geller

Reporters

Justin Laidlaw

Chase Pellegrini de Paur

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, Nick McGregor, Gabi Mendick,

Copy Editor

Iza Wojciechowska Interns

Matthew Junkroski

Mila Mascenik Avery Sloan Creative Creative Director

Pajor Moore Graphic

Staff Photographer Angelica Edwards

Advertising

Publisher

John Hurld

Director of Revenue

Mathias Marchington

Director of Operations Chelsey Koch

Circulation Berry Media Group

Membership/subscriptions John Hurld

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Empty film canisters sit in a box at the Southeastern Camera store in Carrboro (see story on page 35).

PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

Cy Neff, Sam Overton, Shelbi Polk, Byron Woods, Barry Yeoman

Growing Together

Since the Brown v. Board of Education decision, North Carolina schools are more segregated than ever. Durham Public Schools’ redistricting plan seeks to rectify that.

BY JOVONIA LEWIS backtalk@indyweek.com

Considering the fact that public schools in North Carolina are more segregated now than after the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling in 1954, it’s no wonder that Durham Public Schools (DPS) is taking such bold, purposeful measures with the Growing Together initiative. The Brown v. Board of Education unanimous decision compassionately determined that segregated schools were “inherently unequal.” Now, 70 years later and still struggling with segregation and inequality, DPS has called out school resegregation directly and has devised a plan that splits Durham into five regions, creating a student assignment plan where students can attend a neighborhood or magnet school. In their unwavering commitment to diversity and in support for the collective community, the efforts of DPS administrators have been to reimagine student assignment and improve the quality of learning environments within DPS. To bring this vision to life, DPS leaders implemented three key changes: introducing the new DPS Regional Access Model, improving program placement across all elementary schools, and refining DPS school boundaries. DPS leaders listened to educators, parents, students, and community members and crafted Growing Together to improve and ensure diversity and equity,

efficient transportation services, academic offerings, and issues related to over- and undercrowding.

Overall, these revisions were developed to achieve diversity and equity goals district-wide and combat the many issues and barriers families in our community have faced for years. At the place of execution, the loudest voices of opposition are coming from the most “intensely segregated” schools. As I hear dissension about the purpose of Growing Together, the policy being made more simple, and getting buy-in from stakeholders, I have to stay grounded in what I know to be true across Durham and the resegregation of our school.

Segregation across the district

In 2016, it came to light that enrollment in George Watts Montessori School was discriminatory. The priority zone magnet lottery had no mechanism to avoid recreating segregated schools like in 1955. Several parents, myself being one of them, began to demand answers from DPS regarding the purpose of magnet schools, the purpose of priority zones, and the disaggregated data to assert their assumptions. The answers varied depending on who you asked. Was it

to prevent white flight? Was it to attract more white students to create diversity in George Watts? Was it to attract students across the district to have the benefit of a Montessori curriculum? Unfortunately, the entire district did not have the same level of access as those in the priority zone.

program, while 90 percent of its 32.7 percent Black students did not receive the same rigor. At Jordan High School, the in-school suspension rate (resegregation) of Black students was over six times higher than the suspension rate for white students (20.81 percent Black, 3.23 percent

Inter-school segregation

In 2018, inter-school segregation corrupting local learning environments was unearthed. At E. K. Powe, Black students were not receiving equitable access to a rigorous curriculum. In 2018, 78.5 percent of the school’s 39.2 percent white population was being pulled out of class for the Advanced and Intellectually Gifted (AIG)

white, and 6.72 percent Hispanic). The suspension rate for white female students was almost nonexistent (0.83 percent). Another example of upholding resegregation came in 2019, when the DPS administration brought before the Board of Education recommendations to rezone due to overcrowding in Githens Middle School, whose demographics are 24.3 percent white, 37 percent Black, and 31.7 percent

George Watts Montessori School PHOTO BY NICOLE PAJOR MOORE

Hispanic, and move students to Brogden Middle School, whose demographics are 14.4 percent white, 33.4 percent Black, and 45.8 percent Hispanic. The administration presented to the board the natural boundary of Cornwallis Road. If you were south of Cornwallis, then you would be zoned for Githens, and if you were north of Cornwallis then you would be zoned for Brogden.

On November 7, 2019, a handful of families from one community (Duke Forest) appealed to the board to allow their neighborhood north of the boundary line to attend Githens, an already-determined overcrowded school with a higher white population than Brogden Middle School. Their reasons varied: they wanted to keep their kids together; some families would not choose DPS; it was more convenient. The DPS Board of Education directed the staff to further investigate, and within two weeks granted the requested change, putting students in an already overcrowded school despite publicly stating that they were trying to avoid this. These are examples of “exceptions to the rules” that continue to perpetuate inequities in a school district.

Learning together

Growing Together does not have to be painful if communities are willing to learn together. At the height of racial and economic diversity at George Watts in 2018, school and district leadership began to reckon with these disparities and authentically engage Black parents. As a result of this engagement, George Watts had the greatest academic growth for Black students across the district that academic year. In 2019, the school had its most

inclusive fundraising carnival (inclusive of minority-owned vendors, cultural inclusion and participation from families, and authentic outreach for participation) that raised upward of $50,000 for their school community, which led to partnering with a majority-minority Title I school to offer a donation and one-to-one support to build their parent engagement community. When we can have open discussions about race, implicit bias, and building authentic relationships with students and families, everyone in our community thrives.

Growing Together has the ability to ensure that diversity, equitable access to rigorous curriculum, global language, arts, and STEM programming is extended to every student in our community, regardless of their zip code. Growing Together has the ability to bring economically diverse backgrounds together and potentially result in more equitable distribution of resources.

Parents have complained about fragmented information, confusing applications, and a lack of information-sharing between central administrators and schools with the Growing Together plan. While I can acknowledge that there are several moving pieces to start the 2024–25 school year, the courage to do what this administration has done is commendable. Communication throughout the process is paramount, and this will help resolve questions that families have; however, I can also speak truth to power and expose that some of the public comments being made are out of personal desire and not personal hardship or communal, inclusive “raising the tide.” W

Lewis is a former Durham Public Schools Board of Education member.

George Watts Montessori School playground PHOTO BY NICOLE PAJOR MOORE

Jovonia

The Triangle Water Works

Durham has a plan to partner with other municipalities to use Jordan Lake as a new drinking water source for its growing population.

BY CHASE PELLEGRINI DE PAUR chase@indyweek.com

At the release end of the Jordan Lake dam in Chatham County, an osprey fishes for its dinner.

The bird spins in the air, dives low over the water, and yanks a fish out with its talons. A heron, watching from the riverbank, squawks with jealousy and lunges at the osprey. But with its long legs and giant beak, the heron is too slow and cumbersome compared to the osprey, which soars away with its scaly meal.

The scene plays out in the Haw River as it runs through the concrete hill of the Jordan Lake dam on its way to the sea. The Army Corps of Engineers built the dam in 1974 to flood the valley, holding back about 70 billion gallons of water to form the Triangle’s favorite spot for fishing, boating, and drawing municipal drinking water.

For years, taps in Wake and Chatham Counties have sucked from the lake. Now, as the flow of newcomers to the Triangle grows from a trickle to a flood, Durham is about to get thirstier than its current reservoirs can manage. The city, in partnership with Chatham County, Orange County, and the Town of Pittsboro, wants to stick its own straw into Jordan Lake by 2029.

Local water planners hope that—unlike the osprey and the heron—the municipal governments surrounding the lake can cooperate to share its resources.

It’s the kind of government work that, frankly, doesn’t seem to matter that much until you turn your tap on and nothing comes out. Durham employees say the city isn’t close to that—yet.

“We plan 50 years out,” says Sydney Miller, water resource director for the City of Durham. He says that, without this plan, it would take about 10 years for people to notice some new restrictions on water usage.

“You’d be getting much more frequent calls from the utility saying we need you to start conserving water,” Miller says. “No more outdoor water. Can’t do any pressure washing. Car washes? Nope. We need you to cut back on the showers you take, we need you to reduce the number

of times you wash laundry.”

The plan, still in initial phases, is to build a water intake on the west side of the lake. That pipeline will flow into a new water treatment plant before being sent through transmission pipelines to join the existing infrastructure for distribution, supplementing Durham’s roughly 28 million gallons per day from Lake Michie and Little River reservoir.

Planners say that the new intake would not impact Jordan Lake’s current uses as a recreation hub and a water source for other parts of the Triangle.

“One of the tenets of the Triangle Water Partnership is to ensure that—in meeting our own current and future needs for water—we in no way compromise the ability of those communities downstream in meeting their own current and future needs,” Miller says.

That’s a much more neighborly tone than exists out west, where states and native nations are locked in legal disputes over the limited resource.

“We actually have more water available in comparison to our needs,” says Miller. “So we don’t have quite the strain on our resources that they do.”

Local environmental groups aren’t ringing the alarm over this project, but they are cautious about the potential downside of allocating more of the lake’s water supply.

“If we have worse droughts due to climate change, I don’t believe that was factored in,” says Elaine Chiosso, head of local nonprofit Haw River Assembly. “There’s a lot of attention being paid to water conservation, and perhaps this will all work out in the end, but I do worry that not enough attention is [paid] to the impacts of just constantly drawing down water.”

In the droughts in the 2000s, water levels dipped low enough to reveal some of the submerged roads under the lake. Chiosso says droughts like that, coupled with increased human use, can have negative impacts on wildlife.

“I think it’s very hard for us as humans to think about the carrying capacity of a landscape for humans,” says Choisso.

Still, Durham has kept its water usage relatively constant for several decades despite a growing population. That mostly comes from improvements in technology, like toilets and showerheads that use water more efficiently, for which the city offers rebates.

James Lim, Durham’s water efficiency manager, says that the city started focusing on water management in the 1990s with a pair of bond referenda. And in the 2000s, a pair of droughts got residents thinking about how to conserve water even in non-drought times.

“If we use less water, that’s the same as buying more water or acquiring more water,” says Lim. “So we really want to encourage people to think about efficiency and conservation as a resource, as opposed to making a sacrifice or reducing a standard of living.”

Chiosso says that as North Carolina and its metro areas like Durham grow, lawmakers at the state level need to assume more responsibility in making sure natural resources are protected and managed in ways that are conducive to sustainable growth.

“We need a legislature that’s willing to pass rules that will protect the environment and to fund staffing,” Chiosso says. “There are so many vacant positions in important environmental jobs in the state of North Carolina right now, it’s really kind of shocking.” W

The B. Everett Jordan Dam at Jordan Lake in New Hill PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

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N E W S Orange County

Strong Minds

Nonprofit El Futuro will receive a grant to expand its Mentes Fuertes program, which provides mental health services to Latino communities in Orange County.

BY LENA GELLER lgeller@indyweek.com

Alocal nonprofit that provides mental health services to Latino communities will receive nearly half a million dollars in funding over the next two years from Alliance Health, the managed care organization (MCO) that serves uninsured residents and Medicaid recipients in the Triangle. The funding will go toward expanding El Futuro’s Mentes Fuertes, or “Strong Minds,” program, which launched earlier this year. Mentes Fuertes draws inspiration from the promotoras movement in Latin America that sees people who are already trusted and ingrained within a community trained to serve as mental health workers for their friends and neighbors. Mentes Fuertes currently employs four bilingual community health workers and has enrolled 78 participants to date.

The $464,000 commitment that Alliance Health announced last week comes about a year after the MCO furnished $500,000 to get Mentes Fuertes off the ground. The funding reflects a feat of community organizing that came in response to the refusal of Cardinal Innovations, Alliance’s predecessor, to fund mental health services for undocumented immigrants. Groups including Orange County Justice United and the North Carolina Congress of Latino Organizations began organizing around the issue early in the pandemic and spent two years building people power before organizing an accountability assembly that attracted more than 300 residents and pushed Alliance to make its first contribution.

The INDY spoke with El Futuro founder and executive director Luke Smith, a psychiatrist, to learn more about the community-driven approach to mental health care that the money from Alliance is helping to support.

INDY: Can you talk about the evolution of El Futuro’s relationship with managed care organizations?

SMITH: El Futuro was founded in Carrboro in 2004. Our mission is to nurture stronger familias to live out their dreams. We look for individuals and families who are suffering mental health or substance use problems in the Latino

community and try to deliver a service that will help them. A bunch of people came together to bring this work about: social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists.

In 2012, the state—which contracted with what then were called LMEs, local management entities known now as MCOs—put a local management entity in place in Orange and Chatham Counties called Cardinal Innovations Healthcare Solutions. When Cardinal came in, it immediately said that it would no longer provide any type of funding for services for people who are undocumented. That impacted a significant number of people that we served.

Around 2015, we found that offering services in Orange County was going to cause us to not be solvent. We were going to go bankrupt because of the lack of funding from Cardinal Innovations, which was a proxy for the state and the county. (County commissioners select this organization, which contracts with [Health and Human Services], brings down funding from the state, and distributes grant funding from the federal government.) We weren’t getting that money and we found our work in Orange and Chatham Counties to really suffer because of that. We were able to keep our clinics in Durham and Siler City open, but we had to shut down our Carrboro clinic.

Thank you for walking me through the context.

Why this story becomes so incredible is, in the fall of 2022, a grassroots group—made up primarily of churches,

including a lot of people from St. Thomas Moore, the Latino parish—came together in Orange County and said, “This is not right. We’re not getting services. It doesn’t matter if we’re undocumented or what our status is. This is a basic human right.” (And actually, the federal government agrees with that. There’s precedent that mental health is kind of like tuberculosis, or HIV AIDS, or the COVID-19 pandemic: it’s communicable.)

There was a big community meeting at Binkley Baptist Church. Everybody from state senators to county commissioners to school board members were there. And the community made demands. This was very different from when we exited in 2016 in a little cloud of dust. The very community we’re serving found its voice powerfully, went to decision-makers in the front of the room, and said, “These are my demands: Will you agree to them or not?” And one by one, those decision-makers said, “Yes, yes, yes.” There were tears of joy. And the community says, “Well, we just got you on tape, and we’re going to check in with you in six months to see how things are going.”

So now we come back to the drawing board. As it turns out, we found ourselves very closely partnered with Alliance Health, which is the MCO over Orange County, Durham County, and other counties including Mecklenburg and Johnston. We came to the table with them in a very “Let’s do this” kind of manner. We said to them, “We could start another clinic in Orange County, but we found that there’s another intervention that’s really powerful—and it’s Span-

El Futuro staff PHOTO COURTESY OF EL FUTURO

ish-speaking community mental health workers.”

Tell me about the bilingual community mental health worker approach.

When El Futuro was founded, we envisioned that we would be working within churches and schools and primary care clinics and community organizations. We have an appreciation that mental health isn’t just getting people into an office for therapy and psychiatry and substance use counseling; it’s being out in the community. We tried to do that, but the system doesn’t really pay for that type of service very well. You need grant funding to do that kind of work.

But then, during the pandemic, the Department of Health and Human Services began to employ what in Latin America are called promotores de salud, or community health workers. With the urgency of things, all of a sudden there was a full-scale implementation. It’s a very time-tested model throughout Latin America.

One of El Futuro’s board members, Gabby Livas Stein, along with a partner at Harvard, had begun to to test an approach back in 2017. This was a new frontier. They tested an intervention that found that after three months of training, somebody who has trust, or confianza, somebody who has street cred in the community, they can go out and provide 10 sessions of very foundational mental health support for individuals who are struggling.

So we told Alliance, if you would give us the money, we think we can make it go further and be more effective by finding individuals who can do this work in Orange County and employing them.

Earlier this year, in January, we began that work. It has been lights-out amazing. We advertised it once on a Facebook Live post, and automatically 48 people signed up. The community health workers went to churches and rape crisis

centers. They offered these sessions right there in the community and in trusted places. And it’s been tremendous. People are getting better. They felt valued and supported. So about a month ago, we went back to Alliance and said, “This is really working.” And they said, “We’re excited about it.” We had employed four community health workers fulltime. They said, “We want to help you make them full-time.”

So the new funding from Alliance Health will be going toward salaries for those workers?

Yes, initially. These are individuals who are on the front lines. When they first started, we were hearing them say things like, “This person is expressing feelings of suicidality, and I don’t really know how to handle that,” or “This is really hard for me. I don’t know how to get up and go do this work again tomorrow.” It’s really hard getting their feet wet. I was nine years into training before I got to the point of taking care of patients. They’re doing it after three months of training. So we have to provide really good supervision support for them, in order for them to stay for the long term and provide quality work.

What you see in these individuals is that they’re thinking holistically. Oftentimes, in the academic worlds that we’ve created, we don’t think holistically. Watching their intuition to really be community driven and anchor themselves in community feedback is something that we’re all learning from them.

Can you speak to what the need for mental health services looks like for Latino communities in Orange County right now?

A lot of our work begins with people who are struggling with mood disorders like depression or anxiety. They’ve suf-

fered from some kind of traumatic experience in their home country or during the migration journey, or when they get here; discrimination is one of the big things people report. We call them acculturation stresses: the disruption of family networks, being estranged from family, going into new environments and feeling isolated or othered. We’re trying to increase their ability to buffer those acculturative stresses. The data shows that the longer they live in a community, the less ability they have to buffer against those stresses and they actually have worse health outcomes, the longer they live in the host nation. So an immigrant comes here and they’re actually healthier, but as they live here, they succumb more and more to those stresses.

What does the community health workers model look like in practice?

There’s 10 sessions. We want to be able to work with them for some length of time. We really stop, listen to their story, meet them where they’re at, and also bring these tools— behavioral activation, motivational interviewing, supportive care, self-care, mindfulness activities, a lot of things—in a way that, the next time a crisis comes up, they’re able to deal with it. What we’ve seen is that after the 10 sessions, people are really able to go on their merry way and get back into life.

Traditional treatments like psychiatry or therapy are good, but we need to look upstream, to think about building resilience and building engagements. Here are some things that can help: strengthening family, connecting them to community resources, helping them with their “hopeful orientation”—that they don’t lose hope. Another one that I love to talk about is cultural pride. One of our board members, Rosa Gonzalez-Guarda—she’s a dean in the School of Nursing at Duke—she did a really foundational research project that found that when a person who is Latino feels more pride in their culture, they will experience less depression and less anxiety. If a young girl who is 15 years old has a quinceañera, for instance, she’s going to be less vulnerable to the stresses that cause depression, anxiety, and so on.

So [since launching Mentes Fuertes], our community health workers have been organizing events. We had celebrations for Dia de los Muertos; for the Posadas; for Dia de los Madres, or Mother’s Day. Hundreds of people came. So these community health workers are not just doing these sessions, but they’re also helping us to cultivate that cultural pride. And that becomes a treatment intervention.

What kind of specific benefits does this approach have?

Something that we’re seeing is a better uptake from men. Oftentimes, women are the primary users of mental health services, proportionally. But we’re seeing that more men are actually seeking this kind of help. Why it’s working, I think, is the cornerstone of trust. Our values here at El Futuro are confianza; calor humano, which is human warmth and authenticity; and then respeto, respect. That means meeting them where they are: maybe in how they want to be called, or what their type of Spanish or Indigenous language is, or going to the place where they feel most at home, which is at a site like a church. The key foundational element of this that’s making it work is that they are moving along lines of trust. W

Celebrating Dia de los Muertos PHOTO COURTESY OF EL FUTURO

N E W S Orange County

Fighting Food Insecurity

Mariela Hernandez, an Orange County housing manager who helps connect local residents to needed resources, reflects on her own family’s journey out of food insecurity.

BY MILA MASCENIK backtalk@indyweek.com

It happened almost a decade ago, but Mariela Hernandez still remembers the scene when a woman from her free Zumba class invited her and her four children out to Buns, a burger restaurant.

“Oh, no thank you. We have food at the house,” said Hernandez.

“No, we don’t,” countered her seven-year-old son, Anthony.

“Yes, we do.”

“But I really want it!”

“Anthony, let it go. We have to go home.”

“You never let us do this!”

“Anthony, shut up. We ain’t getting it. Get in the freaking car.”

She pushed the kids inside her 2003 red Nissan Altima, which had a history of breaking down, and drove home in silence. They sat down to canned soup and quesadillas for dinner. She was silent because there was no money for four burgers from Buns. On their slender budget, there was barely enough to pay the bills or buy necessities for the kids, such as school supplies.

As a single mom with four children, Hernandez was working multiple jobs and receiving food stamps—but it was never enough for her to feel certain she could feed her children nutritious food all week. Anxiety gripped her when she had to figure out how to stretch the 90¢ can of tuna or vegetables. She often cried in the bathroom.

“I had this dryness down my throat, my chest was hurting, and a pit in my stomach,” she says.

Hernandez was one of 44 million Americans the USDA calls food insecure, living in a household where everyone lacks access to enough food for an active and healthy life.

North Carolina is the 10th hungriest state in the country— more than 1.2 million people were food insecure in 2021, Feeding America reports.

Hernandez is one individual, but her story is a testament to the challenges that many North Carolinians face when they don’t make enough money, don’t have family support, and can’t depend on government programs to ensure their families are fed.

Now, she works as the rapid rehousing manager for the Orange County Housing Department, and her oldest kids are grown—but before, her experience with food insecurity was too painful to talk about for a long time. After receiving therapy for two years from 2016 to 2018, building a support network of friends, and working with others who also faced food insecurity, Hernandez was ready to tell her story.

Assistance from PORCH, a hunger relief organization in Chapel Hill, and others such as TABLE were instrumental in helping Hernandez feed her family when it was difficult for her to do so alone. Now, she connects others in her community facing food insecurity with the resources that brought her back to stability.

“There’s so much data and reports done about food inequities, but when you hear a story, you can make it more meaningful,” Hernandez says.

Food insecurity can result from an illness, accident, job layoff, or any situation where someone must choose between food and other life expenses. It often happens to families where one small incident moves them from barely making ends meet to crisis.

For Hernandez, the tipping point was her husband’s incarceration in January 2016.

Her husband, whose name Hernandez doesn’t want to disclose, was detained for his undocumented status and a charge of theft and battery attributed to someone with the same name as him. While he spent a year and a half in facilities across North Carolina, Ohio, and Arizona, Hernandez was alone with their three children at the time: Maria, then 16, Carolina, then 12, and Anthony. She had a fourth child, Manny, who’s now five, in 2018.

Theirs became one of the 70 percent of households that have difficulty meeting basic needs, including food, after a family member has been incarcerated.

Hernandez’s husband was the breadwinner as a self-employed carpenter and remodeler. She was working 20 hours a week at Family Success Alliance—a group of organizations working to end generational poverty in Orange County. She made $18 an hour, and when combined with her husband’s salary, it supported their family.

But two months after his incarceration, she was forced to pick up interpreting jobs and clean houses to help pay the bills. Even then, she’d skip the water bill one month and electricity the next. Even then, she couldn’t afford the mortgage.

Even then, she rationed food so it could last, like when the kids wanted five chicken nuggets each, but she only had enough to give them three.

A social services worker told Hernandez that her mortgage was the reason she didn’t have money to buy food and suggested she move to low-income housing.

She left the Orange County Social Services Department in tears. It wasn’t her first time speaking with someone who didn’t understand that food insecurity isn’t a choice and that someone can hold multiple jobs but still worry

Mariela Hernandez in her vegetable garden at her home in Chapel Hill. PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

whether they can feed their family.

“They saw me with a house, and they’re like, ‘She’d rather pay for her house than buy food’—it’s those assumptions,” she says.

Hernandez made dishes with little or no meat because of the high cost, usually sopita de fideo—a Mexican noodle soup. She cooked canned-tuna patties, or chicken patties, as the kids called them, instead of meat.

The average low-cost weekly budget for a family of four is $243.80, according to U.S. News. Food stamps covered $150 of Hernandez’s food weekly, but she spent at most $90 when it came from her pocket. An avid coupon user, Hernandez used them on each trip to the grocery store to buy dairy products and household items such as toothpaste, which she usually got for free. Sometimes, she resold the items for a lower price to get money for food or a treat at McDonald’s.

Her pantry shelves were bare and contained a few canned goods and boxes of spaghetti. Gone were the days when it was full of enough rice and beans to last a month and her children’s favorite foods like Nutella. The fridge no longer chilled the string cheese or Yoplait yogurt they enjoyed.

If they went out to eat, it was once every two or three months when Hernandez’s sister invited them. Still, the kids asked for Burger King, Monterrey Mexican Grill, and Chinese takeout, but she said no each time.

“It was a rude awakening for them to learn that you don’t always have money,” Hernandez says.

Despite these dinner invitations, her family never called to ask if the kids had enough to eat. Community members and friends, including Marya Plotkin, stood by Hernandez the most.

The two were neighbors when they met in 2014. Plotkin bought an extra bag of everything when she went to the grocery store and gave it to Hernandez after she learned about the family’s food insecurity.

On a couple of occasions, she asked her family and friends to pick up gift certificates for them at the grocery store. But she says she helped the family most by creating a GoFundMe campaign for their needs that raised $4,000.

As a single mom of two boys herself, the family’s emotional health concerned Plotkin the most.

“The idea of not being able to provide food for your children would set any mother into an absolute panic,” she says. “It’s a basic need that you feel as a parent you can never compromise.”

Each of the kids had therapists through their schools. Hernandez’s daughter Carolina cried out of fear they would end up homeless. Maria struggled with anxiety and depression most of her life, but with her dad gone and her mom struggling on her own, she isolated herself more.

Hernandez had many sleepless nights; the thought that she would lose everything and become homeless consumed her. The anxiety became unbearable to the point where she had to get back on anxiety medications.

She was diagnosed with fibromyalgia—a chronic condition that causes pain and tenderness throughout the body, often triggered by physical or psychological stress—after her husband was released in May 2017.

Carolina was a fifth grader at McDougle Elementary in Carrboro when she had to drink two Ensure nutrition shakes daily because of a food intake issue and low iron. Hernandez couldn’t afford the shakes, so Carolina went to the school social worker for help, who gave the family $35 gift cards every few weeks to buy them.

The social worker connected Hernandez to PORCH, a hunger relief organization in Chapel Hill, which became one of the resources she used most frequently to get food. While there are federal government food assistance programs those in need can apply for, such as SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, and WIC, several factors are considered for a person to be eligible. These can include house-

hold size, income, and even immigration status.

Along with these potential limitations in accessing food, Hernandez says some community members may be wary of government assistance programs because they may not want to be identified by the government. Programs such as PORCH, she says, don’t ask as many personal questions during the application process, such as requesting a Social Security number, which might make them more approachable.

When Hernandez worked at Family Success Alliance as a navigator connecting families in crisis to resources, she recommended PORCH to many of the program’s clients, including Regi Joy.

“The karma came back in the good things I’m able to do in my community,” Hernandez says.

Joy lived in Chase Park, a subsidized apartment community in Chapel Hill when he met Hernandez in 2017. He was a disabled, single dad to his seven-year-old daughter, Makayla, and often didn’t have enough or couldn’t afford food for them both. His disability and having to care for her left him limited to the jobs he could hold, which were in IT.

In addition to PORCH, Hernandez informed Joy about TABLE, a program that delivers healthy food to children in Orange County, and Inter-Faith Council for Social Service in Carrboro, which provides year-round food donations. Joy says it was amazing how she understood the rough time he was going through.

“Anytime I picked up the phone she was there, and that was really instrumental in getting me out of survival mode,” he says.

While Hernandez worked at Family Success Alliance, she was also a member of the PORCH advisory council. The group wanted input from PORCH participants and community members about the program, such as how to communicate better and the type of food people wanted.

Susan Friedman, a volunteer with PORCH, became a member of the council at the same time Hernandez did in 2021.

“The care and concern she showed for the people she knows are in need of services is exceptional, as is her willingness to convey that to people,” Friedman says. “She’s a strong, positive force for change.”

Hernandez started two WhatsApp groups, one for English speakers and the other for Spanish speakers, in 2015 called the “parent solidarity network” to connect members with local organizations that provide food. Together, the groups have about 120 members, and Hernandez says word of mouth has helped them grow. During the holidays, she sees the need for food in the groups at its greatest.

Hernandez says Anthony, who plays football and lacrosse at Chapel Hill High School, is always willing to help her give away food in the community.

He was in elementary school when food insecurity cast a dark cloud over his family. But even as a third grader, he knew the sacrifices his mother—the sun when their lives were cast over by clouds—made for the family, as he wrote in a letter to her:

My mom is my influence because she gives me everything and she is my mom that gave me my life.

She gave me what I need a bed, food and water to keep me in good shape.

My mom teach as a person is that a child has to be treated fairly so they can grow up to be a good person in life. W

(From left) Emmanuel Guerrero Hernandez, 5, Carolina Guerrero Hernandez, 20, Mariela Hernandez, 45, and Maria José Guerrero Hernandez, 24, at their home in Chapel Hill. PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

Another year, another round of winners in the INDY ’s much-imitated, never-replicated Best of the Triangle contest, where you tell us who’s the best of the best in our beloved region.

durham durhamcounty county Best2024 of the Triangle

While Best of the Triangle has been running for two decades now, astute readers and INDY fans will notice that we’re doing things a little differently. Instead of presenting all winners in all categories, ranging from restaurants, bars, and yoga studios to hair salons, museums, and preschools, all at once, we’re running individual contests and presenting winners in different categories one county at a time—Wake, Durham, and Orange—now, we’re on Durham.

This year’s list of Durham winners, as voted by our readers, is a wonderful reflection of the community in Durham County and all that it has to offer. You could make a perfect local day—or several—out of dining at the restaurants, touring the parks and museums, and shopping at all the stores for which our readers cast their ballots. There’s so much else to do, too: catch a show, a play, or a movie at one of Durham’s premier venues, drop in at a bookstore, or support a local nonprofit.

Thank you for nominating and voting for all of your favorites! Congratulations to all of the finalists in Durham who will receive our coveted star decal to display in their windows. Winners will also receive a poster to display in their shop.

Look forward to learning our Orange County winners soon, and we’ll be celebrating all of our winners in all three counties in our special-edition paper in December.

Contributors: Lena Geller, Justin Laidlaw, Chase Pellegrini de Paur, Matthew Junkroski, Avery Sloan, Jane Porter

durham durham county county 2024 Bestof the Triangle

d & beve rag

e

BEST ALCOHOLIC COCKTAILS ALLEY TWENTY SIX

Runners-up: The Velvet Hippo Bar & Lounge, Kingfisher Durham

BEST BAGEL

ISAAC’S BAGELS

Runners-up: Monuts, Everything Bagels at Durham Food Hall

BEST BAKERY

GUGLHUPF BAKERY, CAFE + RESTAURANT

There’s a special ingredient that defines Guglhupf: memories of lovingly made food from south Germany. Since 1998, Guglhupf’s iconic bakery has brought in customers flocking to scratch-made baked goods. Try classics like the focaccia or the gugfruit tart, or try something new in the seasonal scones. Regardless of what you enjoy, we guarantee that even the most picky of eaters can find a nice spot to sit and enjoy Guglhupf’s

fresh coffee. Whether you plan to stop in for a quick bite, or you need to get some work done, Guglhupf’s tranquil atmosphere and delicious food will be motivation enough to get out of bed in the morning. —MJ

Runners-up: Lutra Cafe and Bakery, Loaf

BEST BARBECUE THE ORIGINAL Q SHACK

Runners-up: Picnic, Lawrence Barbecue

BEST BEER RETAIL STORE BEER STUDY

Runners-up: The Glass Jug Beer Lab, Durham Beer Garden

BEST BISCUITS RISE

Runners-up: Monuts, Foster’s Market

Best Alcoholic Cocktails: Alley

Twenty Six PHOTO BY CAITLYN PENNA

to stop to get tranquil will be bed in Bakery,

BEST BREWERY

PONYSAURUS BREWING

Runners-up: Fullsteam Brewery, The Glass Jug Beer Lab

BEST BRUNCH RESTAURANT

GUGLHUPF BAKERY, CAFE + RESTAURANT

Runners-up: Elmo’s Diner, Little Bull

BEST BURGER

QUEENBURGER

Runners-up: Queeny’s, Alley Twenty Six

BEST CATERING

ALPACA PERUVIAN

CHARCOAL CHICKEN

Lab,

You know that feeling when you show up to an event having skipped dinner, but then you take a look at the buffet and wonder if the catered food will actually be edible? But then, your eyes widen and your mouth waters as you spot the Alpaca logo and smell the delicious pollo a la brasa–style chicken and finger-lickin’ sides, which wash away all your worries. With massive portion sizes and reasonable prices, there’s always plenty of food to go around. Alpaca is the ultimate event-worthy comfort food. —JL

Runners-up: Neomonde Mediterranean Durham, Full Street Wings Cafe

BEST CHEESE SHOP

DURHAM CO-OP MARKET

Runners-up: Meat & Graze, Whole Foods Market

BEST CHINESE RESTAURANT

SHANGHAI RESTAURANT

Runners-up: Happy China, Hong Kong

BEST COFFEE SHOP

COCOA CINNAMON

Runners-up: Joe Van Gogh, Bean Traders

BEST DESSERTS

ROSE’S NOODLES, DUMPLINGS AND SWEETS

Runners-up: Guglhupf Bakery, Cafe + Restaurant, Dulce Cafe

BEST DRAFT SELECTION

BEER STUDY

Runners-up: Growler Grlz, The Glass Jug Beer Lab

BEST ETHNIC GROCERY STORE

LI MING’S GLOBAL MART

Runners-up: Compare Foods Durham, Al-Taiba Halal Market

BEST FOOD TRUCK

BEST CHEAP EATS

COSMIC CANTINA

Climb the stairway to burrito heaven at Cosmic Cantina and venture into an intergalactic food experience that Durhamites have enjoyed for decades. Even after all these years, Cosmic promises a simple menu and good vibes, and it’s still one of the few restaurants where friendly drunkards and hangry nighthawks can find refuge after last call. —JL

Runners-up: Elmo’s Diner, Heavenly Buffaloes

CHIRBA CHIRBA DUMPLING TRUCK

If you answered the question posed on Chirba Chirba Dumpling’s website— “Were you born ready to eat dumplings right now?”—with “Yes!” then this is likely the food truck for you. Chirba Chirba— directly translating to “eat eat” in Mandarin—is appropriately named for a food truck that sells dumplings. The truck itself moves around the Triangle, with a calendar on its website. If using the truck tracker is too difficult, the truck itself is also bright yellow, making it hard to miss. Owner Nate Adams spent 14 years in Taiwan before founding Chirba Chirba and, according to its website, Chirba Chirba prides itself on using quality ingredients in an authentic Chinese style. —AS

Runners-up: Bulkogi Food Truck, Alsies Ice Cream Truck

BEST INDIAN RESTAURANT VICEROY

Runners-up: Lime & Lemon Indian Grill & Bar, Cheeni

BEST ITALIAN RESTAURANT GOCCIOLINA ITALIAN RESTAURANT

Runners-up: Mothers & Sons Trattoria, Cucciolo Osteria

BEST JAPANESE RESTAURANT M SUSHI

Runners-up: Shiki Sushi, Koumi Japanese Restaurant

BEST LATE NIGHT MEAL –PAST 10 P.M. QUEENY’S

Runners-up: Cosmic Cantina, Alley Twenty Six

BEST MEXICAN RESTAURANT MEZCALITO

Runners-up: NuvoTaco, Monterrey Mexican Grill, Michoacán Mexican Restaurant

BEST NEIGHBORHOOD BAR

THE VELVET HIPPO BAR & LOUNGE

It’s hard to imagine a better spot than the Velvet Hippo for going on a first date, having a night out with friends, or cradling a drink while gazing out over the rooftops of Durham. The over-the-top fauna theme transports patrons to a vacation in the heart of the Bull City, while menus for cocktails, small bites, and nonalcoholic options keep the vibes high. —CP

Runners-up: Queeny’s, Growler Grlz, The Glass Jug Beer Lab

BEST NEW RESTAURANT LITTLE BULL

Runners-up: Seraphine, Cheeni

BEST NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINKS

THE VELVET HIPPO BAR & LOUNGE

Runners-up: Alley Twenty Six, Kingfisher Durham

BEST PIZZA

PIZZERIA TORO

Runners-up: Randy’s Pizza, Tomato Jake’s Pizzeria

Best Japanese Restaurant and Best Sushi: M Sushi PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

& spot than first date, or craover the over-the-top patrons to a Bull City, small bites, the vibes

Grlz, DRINKS &

BEST SEAFOOD

SALTBOX SEAFOOD JOINT

Runners-up: M Sushi, Sho Nuff Seafood

BEST SMALL PLATES/TAPAS MATEO

As a non-denizen of Durham, it’s always a treat to check out the Bull City’s vibrant food scene. Too bad my family and I can’t seem to branch out much, because we inevitably return to our favorite Durham dining spot: Mateo. Then there’s the next challenge: narrowing down what to order from a long list of tapas and más tapas. A few stalwarts: the datiles —dates stuffed with goat cheese and serrano ham—is a sweet-savory combo that borders on dessert; the almejas, calamares fritos, and gambas al ajillo are perfect for the seafood lover; and the ensalada and remolacha provide a light touch alongside more filling fare. Or go and be adventurous: octopus, roasted bone marrow, squid, and headon shrimp are also all on the menu. —JP

Runners-up: Little Bull, Juju Asian Tapas + Bar

BEST SOUTHERN FOOD

LULA & SADIE’S

Sushi:

BEST SUSHI M SUSHI

Runners-up: Sushi Love, Peony Asian Bistro

BEST WINE LIST

LOUELLA WINE BEER & BEVERAGES

Runners-up: NanaSteak, Rue Cler

BEST WINE RETAIL STORE

WINE AUTHORITIES DURHAM

Runners-up: LouElla Wine Beer & Beverage, Hope Valley Wine & Beverage

BEST WINGS

HEAVENLY BUFFALOES

Runners-up: Tomato Jake’s Pizzeria, Nzingas Kitchen

BEST THAI RESTAURANT

THAI CAFE

Runners-up: Thai at Main Street, Twisted Noodle

BEST VEGETARIAN EATERY

GOORSHA

Dining in at Lula & Sadie’s is lovely (particularly on Sunday mornings, during jazz brunch), but if you’re in a to-go kind of mood, here’s our recommendation: get to the restaurant an hour before sundown. Order the Nashville-style hot chicken sandwich (there are vegetarian and vegan options!) and get a lavender lemonade to drink while you wait. After you’ve secured the sandwich, go pick up some milk somewhere (this is because the sandwich is very spicy and you’ll need it, but it’s also a tribute to Lula & Sadie’s owner Harry Monds, who last month told the INDY that he “literally drink[s] a gallon” of milk “every two days”) and go to your scenic spot of choice. Eat the sandwich. Drink the milk. See God. —LG

Runners-up: Plum Southern Kitchen & Bar, Succotash Southern & Creole Kitchen

Runners-up: Pure Soul, Cheeni

durham

Bestof the Triangle

durham county county 2024

Places

BEST ARBORETUM OR GARDEN

SARAH P. DUKE GARDENS

Sarah P. Duke Gardens has 55 acres of specialized gardens, with attractions that include a carnivorous plant collection, terrace gardens, a pond-viewing shelter, and much more, seeing more than 600,000 visitors a year. With its location on Duke University’s campus that hosts camps and programs for young kids as well as events such as weddings, the Duke Gardens are a space for people of all ages. With both the natural cycle of nature on display and the celebratory cycle of major life events taking place, one could consider this a modern-day Garden of Eden—but with fewer apples and much less trickery. —AS Runner-up: Beber Sculpture Garden

BEST DANCE VENUE

THE FRUIT

Runners-up: Rubies on Five Points, The Velvet Hippo Bar & Lounge

BEST GOLF COURSE

WASHINGTON DUKE INN & GOLF CLUB

Runners-up: Hillandale Golf Course, Croasdaile Country Club

BEST HOTEL

THE DURHAM HOTEL

Runners-up: 21c Museum Hotel Durham, Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club

Best Dance Venue and Best Electronic Concert Venue: The Fruit PHOTO BY WILSON

BEST HOTEL LOUNGE

THE DURHAM HOTEL

“Durham’s living room,” as it has been described, is like the bar in Cheers; all the staff remember your name, and seeing a familiar face is basically guaranteed. The music—often a blend of jazz standards, lo-fi beats, and classic oldies—is rarely suffocating but distinguished enough to perk your ears up and make you whip out the Shazam app. Grab a drink or a bite to eat and make yourself at home! —JL

Runners-up: 21c Museum Hotel Durham, Washington Duke Hotel Bull Durham Bar

BEST KARAOKE PLACE/EVENT THE PINHOOK

Runners-up: The PickleBack 2, K-Mix Karaoke & Bar

BEST PLACE TO PEOPLE WATCH

DURHAM FARMERS’ MARKET

Runners-up: Downtown, Durham Bulls

BEST PRESCHOOL/EARLY EDUCATION PROGRAM

CAROLINA FRIENDS DURHAM EARLY SCHOOL

Runners-up: Indigo Montessori School, First Environments Early Learning Center

BEST SPORTS BAR

BULL MCCABE’S IRISH PUB

Runners-up: Dain’s Place, Bralie’s Sports Bar & Grill

BEST SUMMER CAMP SCHOOLHOUSE OF WONDER

Runners-up: American Dance Festival, Camp Riverlea

BEST TRIVIA BAR/EVENT TOMATO JAKE’S PIZZERIA

Runners-up: Hammered Trivia at Gizmo Brew Works, Hammered Trivia at Durty Bull

Bestof the Triangle

durham durham county county 2024

people & Misc.

BEST CHEF CARRIE SHLEIFFER

Runners-up: Matt Kelly, Ricky Moore

BEST DJ

JORDEN THE DJ

Runners-up: DJ Wicked, Fifi Hi-fi

BEST DRAFT-SLINGER

TOM FISHER, QUEENY’S

Runners-up: Lauren Luke at the Glass Jug, Lindsey Helm at Growler Grlz

BEST KIDS NONPROFIT

MUSEUM OF LIFE AND SCIENCE

Across the Triangle, there are few places more enthralling for kiddos than Durham’s Museum of Life and Science. Explore Apollo-era space artifacts or immerse yourself in the butterfly house. Meet black bears, lemurs, and resident red wolves. Tinker, take a train ride, or

sound off in the Sound Garden. Open all day, seven days a week, it’s always a reliable option for parents who want to get their kids out of the house and give them something engaging. And because the Museum of Life and Science is a nonprofit, your support ensures that it will be enjoyed by generations of kids to come. —JP

Runners-up: Book Harvest, Schoolhouse of Wonder

BEST LOCAL ACTIVIST GROUP

BIKE DURHAM

Runners-up: People’s Alliance in Durham, Duke Graduate Students Union

BEST MIXOLOGIST

LESLIE MATISTA, THE VELVET HIPPO BAR & LOUNGE

Runners-up: Shannon Healy at Alley Twenty Six, Richard Marin at Kingfisher Durham

BEST NONPROFIT TROSA

Runners-up: Hope Animal Rescue, Book Harvest

BEST POLITICIAN NIDA ALLAM

Runners-up: Leonardo Williams, Nate Baker

BEST REASON TO LEAVE DURHAM COUNTY

NC LEGISLATURE

In North Carolina’s constitution, the legislature reigns supreme. From Tricia Cotham’s post-election party switch (which gave Republicans a supermajority to override Governor Roy Cooper’s veto on a restrictive abortion law) to House Speaker Tim Moore’s case before the Supreme Court (in which he argued that the legislature should be allowed to gerrymander however the hell it wants without oversight from federal or state courts), the GOP-led General Assembly is a compelling reason to get out of the state. That said, there are a million reasons to stick around Durham—including hope for a better future. —CP

Runners-up: Gentrification, Construction/Traffic

BEST REASON TO LOVE DURHAM COUNTY

DIVERSITY

Runners-up: Culture, People

BEST USE OF PUBLIC MONEY

DURHAM PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Runners-up: Affordable Housing, Durham County Library

BIGGEST WASTE OF PUBLIC MONEY

TAX BREAKS FOR NEW APARTMENTS THAT ARE NOT AFFORDABLE

Runners-up: ShotSpotter, Parking

Best Politician: Nida Allam

PHOTO BY WILSON

the Triangle

durham durham county county 2024 Bestof

BEST BARBER SHOP

health

ROCK’S BAR AND HAIR SHOP

Runner-up: Dennis Best Men’s Salon, Jack’s Barber Shop

BEST CHILDCARE

INDIGO MONTESSORI SCHOOL

Runners-up: Camelot Academy’s Nature Start School, Giggles and Smiles Playschool/Childcare

BEST CHIROPRACTIC PRACTICE

UNIVERSITY CHIROPRACTIC

Runners-up: Bull City Family

Chiropractic, Chiropractic Partners of Durham

BEST DENTAL PRACTICE

DURHAM PEDIATRIC DENTISTRY AND ORTHODONTICS

Runners-up: Sunrise Dental, Independence Park Dental Arts

BEST DERMATOLOGICAL PRACTICE

REGIONAL DERMATOLOGY OF DURHAM

Runners-up: Durham Dermatology Associates, Duke Pediatric Dermatology Patterson Place

BEST GYM

DUKE HEALTH AND FITNESS CENTER

Runners-up: Downtown Durham YMCA, United Thai Boxing & MMA

Best Barber Shop: Rock’s Bar and Hair Shop PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

BEST HAIR SALON

FUSS AND BOTHER SALON

Runners-up: Vent Salon, Willow Hair Studio

BEST HOLISTIC MEDICINE DUKE INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE CENTER

Runners-up: Bionic Health, Meridian Health Solutions

BEST MASSAGE THERAPIST

KIM TURK, DUKE HEALTH & FITNESS CENTER AND DUKE INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE

Runners-up: Hayley Ware at Auroraflow, Heidi Barg at Bella Trio Salon & Spa

BEST PEDIATRIC PRACTICE REGIONAL PEDIATRICS

Runners-up: Durham Pediatrics, Chapel Hill Pediatrics

BEST SPA AURORAFLOW MASSAGE

Runners-up: The Retreat, Bella Trio Salon & Spa

BEST VETERINARY PRACTICE ENO ANIMAL HOSPITAL

Runners-up: Park Veterinary Hospital and Urgent Care, Urban Tails Veterinary Hospital

BEST WOMEN’S HEALTH PRACTICE

CHAPEL HILL OBGYN

Runners-up: Durham Women’s Clinic, Durham OBGYN

BEST YOGA STUDIO THREEHOUSE STUDIOS

Runners-up: Yoga Off East, Blue Point Yoga

durham

Triangle

BEST ATTORNEY

BETSY MARTIN LAW

BEST AUTO DEALER

business

SOUTHPOINT HONDA

Runners-up: Constantinou & Burkert, Polanco Law, P.C.

Runners-up: Hendrick Subaru Southpoint, Durst Automotive

BEST AUTO MECHANIC

WASP AUTOMOTIVE

Runners-up: Massey Brothers Automotive, Parrot’s Automotive

BEST CBD/HEAD SHOP

CAROLINA HEMP HUT

Runners-up: Heal Tree CBD, Smoke Rings

BEST CLOTHING CONSIGNMENT

PENNIES FOR CHANGE

THRIFT BOUTIQUE

Runners-up: Rumors Durham, MODE Consignment Boutique, Plato’s Closet

BEST DANCE STUDIO

NINTH STREET DANCE

Runners-up: American Dance Festival Scripps Studios, Fred Astaire Dance Studio

BEST DOG BOARDING

SUNNY ACRES PET RESORT

Runners-up: Eno Animal Hospital, Page Point Animal Hospital and Pet Resort

BEST DOG GROOMING

ELLIOTTE’S PET SPA & SALON

Runners-up: Eno Animal Hospital, Livy’s Lavish Self Wash & Grooming

BEST DOG TRAINING

PAWSITIVE EMPOWERMENT

Runners-up: YAYDog!, Marcia’s Best Dogs

BEST DOG WALKING

BULL CITY PET SITTING

Runners-up: dogwalk, Wag!

BEST ELECTRICIAN

VOLT DOCTORS

Runner-up: Kellas Electric

BEST HVAC COMPANY

ALTERNATIVE AIRE

Runners-up: Maynor Service Company, Comfort First Heating/Cooling

BEST INSURANCE COMPANY

BULL CITY INSURANCE

Runner-up: Debbie Leonard at State Farm, The Sorgi Insurance Agency

BEST JEWELER/JEWELRY STORE

JEWELSMITH

Runners-up: Hamilton Hill Jewelry, Gold Clover Company

BEST LANDSCAPER

TROSA LAWN CARE

Runners-up: Lawns by Carlito, Plants Unlimited

BEST LOCAL BOOKSTORE

THE REGULATOR BOOKSHOP

In a world of constant change, the Regulator Bookshop is one of several comforting stalwarts of continuity on Ninth Street. Founded nearly 50 years ago by lefty young folks, the Regulator comes from the same progressive seeds as the INDY. Through the decades, the shop has hosted speakers from Margaret Atwood to Al Gore and continues to draw in both longtime Durhamites and out-of-town strollers taking their first walk down Ninth Street. —CP

Runners-up: Golden Fig Books, Letters Bookshop

BEST NEW BUSINESS THE VELVET HIPPO BAR & LOUNGE

Runners-up: Durham Beer Garden, Missy Lane’s Assembly Room

BEST PAINTERS

ZARAZUA PAINTING

Runners-up: Hansell Painting Company, Sykes Painting Company

BEST PLACE TO BUY LOCALLY MADE ART

DURHAM FARMERS’ MARKET

Runners-up: Cecy’s Gallery & Studios, The Artisan Market at 305

BEST REAL ESTATE COMPANY

INHABIT REAL ESTATE

Runners-up: Urban Durham Realty, Fathom Realty

BEST REALTOR (INDIVIDUAL’S NAME)

JUSTIN BURLESON

Runners-up: Jon Fletcher, Alison Domnas

BEST VINTAGE STORE

TROSA THRIFT STORE AND DONATION CENTER

Runners-up: Gibson Girl Vintage, Dolly’s Vintage

Best Local Bookstore: The Regulator Bookshop PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

Bestof the Triangle

durham durham county county 2024

CECY’S GALLERY &

BEST ART MUSEUM

arts

BEST ART GALLERY (ART FOR SALE)

STUDIOS

Runners-up: Ella West Gallery, The Artisan Market at 305

NASHER MUSEUM OF ART AT DUKE UNIVERSITY

Whether it’s your first trip or your fifth, there’s always something new to find in the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. The Nasher focuses on contemporary art and prioritizes works by historically underrepresented artists who may traditionally be excluded from the art world through a vast non-Eurocentric collection you won’t see anywhere else. But beyond the Nasher’s incredible permanent collection, it has curated and presented countless exhibitions, some of which have traveled worldwide. Alongside a diverse collection and rotating exhibitions, the Nasher features programming throughout the year, ranging from regular events such as family days to unique ones such as dance exhibits or gallery talks. There are few other museums that offer as much as the Nasher does, all for free. You might as well take that next Nasher trip soon. Who knows what they’ll have in store? —MJ

Runners-up: 21c Museum Hotel Durham, The Durham Art Guild

BEST COMEDY CLUB/EVENT METTLESOME

Runners-up: Durty Bull Brewing Stand Up, Offthe147comedy

BEST DRAG SHOW/EVENT

THE HOUSE OF COXX

The House of Coxx is called “Durham’s local drag family” for a reason. For over 10 years, the House of Coxx has helped Durham’s drag community flourish with programming including traditional themed drag shows, comedy nights, and trivia nights—though this only scratches the surface of what the House of Coxx offers. Between beautiful outfits and spectacular performances, you won’t regret attending one of the House of Coxx events. Vivica C. Coxx, creator and mother of the House of Coxx, strives to create drag events for everyone to enjoy, from the young to the old. Regardless of who you are or where you come from, the queens and kings of the House of Coxx will put on a performance you aren’t soon to forget. —MJ

Runners-up: The Pinhook, The Pink Triangle

Best Drag Show/Event: The House of Coxx

2024 Bestof the Triangle orange orange counties counties

& chatham & chatham

BEST ELECTRONIC CONCERT VENUE

THE FRUIT

Runners-up: Motorco Music Hall, DPAC

BEST FILM THEATRE VENUE/ EVENT

CAROLINA THEATRE OF DURHAM

Built in 1926, the Carolina Theatre is a historic building that has adapted to the calls of a modern time. The theater balances showings of blockbuster movie releases with local cultural events such as the Full Frame Festival. Theater visitors should get there early and spend a few minutes walking through the lobby’s exhibit on the Carolina Theatre’s own history, including the protests against segregation in the 1960 that happened outside its famous box office. —CP

this Best Of category (after just eight months of being on the air) suggests that the people have, indeed, zigged. Veteran reporters Tiberii and Inge make it easy: whether they’re augmenting a top-of-the-hour news item with regional context or spotlighting Southern arts and culture, their stories always feel timely, thorough, and fresh. —LG

Runners-up: Embodied, Criminal, Discover Durham

BEST RADIO STATION WUNC

Runners-up: WNCU, WXDU

BEST SCIENCE/HISTORY MUSEUM

MUSEUM OF LIFE AND

SCIENCE

Runners-up: Museum of Durham History, Bennett Place

The most recognized award throughout the Triangle is back for 2024 — next up:

Orange and chatham counties!

Nominate your favorite Orange and Chatham County bar, veterinarian, bookshop, museum—whatever it may be, there are over 100 categories in which you can profess your favorite Orange and Chatham County treasures.

ORANGE AND CHATHAM COUNTY NOMINATIONS ARE LIVE ON 7/24!

Runners-up: Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Hayti Heritage Center

BEST LOCAL/REGIONAL PODCAST

DUE SOUTH

Around the time Due South launched last fall, Jeff Tiberii, who cohosts the daily WUNC show with Leoneda Inge, told the INDY that the show would be “reliable, not predictable.” “We’re trying to zag a little bit,” Tiberii said, “and we want people to zig.” Due South ’s win in

BEST THEATRE COMPANY

THE DURHAM SAVOYARDS, LTD

Runners-up: Bulldog Ensemble Theater, Vault Theatre

BEST UNPLUGGED CONCERT VENUE

MOTORCO MUSIC HALL

Runners-up: The Blue Note Grill, The Pinhook

Best Unplugged Concert Venue: Motorco Music Hall PHOTO BY BEN MCKEOWN

eight suggests zigged.

DURHAM COMMUNITY FRIDGE LOCATIONS

St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church at 1902 West Main Street | Part & Parcel at 1901 Chapel Hill Road

Cultivating Abundance

Durham Community Fridges began with an ethos of access to free food for all. Two years—and several fridges later—that still holds true.

BY GABI MENDICK food@indyweek.com

It’s an 86-degree day in late June. Open the painted door of the refrigerator—this one set next to the garden bed at Lakewood bulk store Part & Parcel—and you’ll find stacks of rainbow chard, a few cantaloupes, two pints of blueberries, and a drawer full of beets. Fresh produce is abundant this season, but on another given day you might find the refrigerator stocked with premade sandwiches, containers of soup, loaves of bread, and much more.

In October 2022, new local organization Durham Community Fridges (DCF) launched with its first community fridge in the Triangle located at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church at 1902 West Main Street. What began as a group of passionate individuals has since grown into an expansive network of volunteers, partners, and coordinators, all with a shared belief in access to free food for all.

A second community fridge opened at Part & Parcel in July 2023, and there are now plans for a third Durham

fridge to begin operating later this year outside Omie’s Coffee Shop. DCF hopes to expand to more neighborhoods in Durham to increase food access for the community; earlier this year the Triangle community fridge network also expanded to Chapel Hill, with a fridge opened by the Community Empowerment Fund.

Community fridges tend to be set up as refrigerators, freezers, and food pantries where anyone can drop off or take food. They often also act as a way to mitigate waste, with restaurants, organizations, and households dropping off surplus food. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when nonprofit organizations were overwhelmed with high rates of need and federal aid lagged, mutual aid groups stepped in to fill the gaps.

Community fridge database Freedge currently lists 375 community fridges in the United States, a growing number that reflects growing food insecurity issues. In 2023, 27

Sharmîn Aziz, a Durham Community Fridge organizer, restocks a refrigerator outside Part & Parcel.

PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

percent of adults in the United States experienced food insecurity, an increase from 24.9 percent in 2022.

In Durham, DCF volunteers regularly table at community events, spreading awareness about the organization and distributing free food to community members where they are. Such events include the monthly Really Really Free Market and, more recently, rallies supporting Palestine.

“We’ve been to different Palestine rallies, and that of course intersects with our work very importantly—food apartheid over there has the same roots as the food apartheid here,” shares Beau Borek, a member of the DCF team.

“We really see our work very interconnected with the Palestinian struggle in that way.”

“To a lot of people, protesting against genocide seems radical, but to me it’s human,” Taylor Holenbeck, another DCF organizer, says. “And the same thing here—to give out free food could be perceived as a radical act, but it really is just a human act. Because it’s just a right, just as life is a right, food is a right.”

Holenbeck works as the grower services coordinator at Happy Dirt, a produce distributor that focuses on organic produce and the creation of more sustainable food systems, and Borek teaches at Lakewood Montessori Middle School. Both Holenbeck and Borek have dedicated significant time and resources to DCF since its inception (Holenbeck even donated his old refrigerator, which became the first Durham community fridge).

Nonprofit CANDOR runs Part & Parcel, the host of DCF’s second community fridge location. An eco-conscious, package-free grocery store, Part & Parcel’s business is modeled on disability, economic, environmental, and food justice movements—making it an ideal partner for DCF.

Even before playing host to the fridge, Part & Parcel became a partner in the biweekly West End Free Market in Lyon Park. The market distributes fresh produce from local farms and dry goods from Part & Parcel, free of charge, to 85 households.

“At every single access point that is trying to enhance the food security of people, there are parameters around it,” CANDOR founder T Land explains. “And as much as we try to remove those obstacles—for example, you don’t have to prove need when you shop with us [at the market] and there aren’t limits—but you do have to be there on a Thursday at two o’clock.”

“With a community fridge,” Land continues, “those other barriers aren’t there either, but a community fridge is 24/7. No matter your schedule, you can get there. If you can get there, you can get food.”

DCF is a mutual aid effort, not a nonprofit, which dictates its structure and operations.

“We have no fiscal sponsors or financial backing at all,” Holenbeck explains. “We purely operate off of our time as the biggest resource and the community pitching in and donating food to the fridges.”

Keeping the doors open

There are many benefits to the mutual aid model. There are also realistic challenges.

“The nonprofit relies on the current capitalist structure. They have more resources, they have more agility,” Borek explains. “We’re more interconnected and we’re reliant on the community—which maybe moves slower but, to me, is more abundant and stronger.”

Not relying on donations or grant funds means that DCF doesn’t adjust goals and values to align with funders’ requests or grant requirements. Though resources are more limited, they are also more consistent and reliable, organizers say.

Still, other local for-profit and nonprofit organizations pitch in: regular food donations are received from Baggingit4kids, Root Causes, Feed Durham, Whole Foods, and other sources.

“We’ve seen a lot of those food rescue orgs utilize the fridges as places to take the food they’re rescuing instead of certain pantries,” Holenbeck says. “It’s a much more accessible and immediate place to take food that gets taken the same day typically.”

There are very few hard and fast guidelines when it comes to community fridges— an intentional ethos, according to organizers: close oversight can create additional barriers for people in need. The open nature, though, does come with its own challenges.

Some community members and fridge visitors, for instance, have expressed concern that people may abuse the fridge system and take more than their fair share, leaving nothing for the next person.

A few months ago I made a drop-off at the first DCF location at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church, and after unloading, an Uber driver who was parked on the street and waiting to schedule a ride waved me over to his car. He began by thanking me for bringing over the surplus food and then relayed that he’d regularly seen people visiting the fridge and nearly emptying it of its contents. Several volunteers and fridge visitors have also expressed concern that some people may be reselling the food.

Nevertheless, Holenbeck contends: “You can honestly have as much as you want. It’s not our place to govern that or to surveil.”

One way DCF has responded to the challenge is by creating fridge status updates on its website. Fridge visitors can submit a form reporting how full the fridge is, what its contents are, and offer feedback on what they’d like to see more of.

“There are probably so many things that people think are gonna be problems, and it’s an imagined deterrent from someone being able to set up something like that in their own spaces,” Land says. “And we just haven’t hit any kind of challenge that has ever outweighed the benefit.” W

PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

and fridge expressed confridge sysfair share, person. drop-off Joseph’s unloading, an the street waved me thanking me and then people visemptying it of and fridge concern that the food. contends: much as you govern that or the chalupdates submit a fridge is, what feedback on things that problems, and someone like that in “And we just that has

SOUTHEASTERN CAMERA

205 West Main Street, Carrboro | 2410 Atlantic Avenue, Raleigh

Time Machines

This July, Southeastern Camera celebrates thirty years of helping people with a lost art: Capturing life on film.

BY MILA MASCENIK arts@indyweek.com

On a busy summer afternoon at 205 West Main Street in Carrboro, Crystal Silva, a photo technician, is helping usher magic into existence. She’s processing color film, and slowly pictures begin to emerge—maybe a graduation or road trip, a trip to the zoo or a quiet moment at home. It’s 2024, so Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter are playing inside the photo lab. Thirty years ago Salt-NPepa or Mariah Carey might have been blaring, during this timeless process, but otherwise this scene would’ve looked much the same.

The store, owned by Tony Mansfield, opened in July 1994 at its original location on Chapel Hill’s East Rosemary Street. In 1997, Southeastern Camera moved to Carrboro and eventually settled at its current location on West Main Street. This summer marks 30 years of analog paradise.

“I’m happy we’ve been able to help people all this

time,” Mansfield says. “I really feel that the customers are extremely loyal.”

After Mansfield graduated from the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at UNC-Chapel Hill (then the School of Journalism) in 1988, he managed a now closed camera store, University Camera, in Durham. When he decided to open his own store, Mansfield picked Chapel Hill as Southeastern Camera’s first home, because it was the only town in North Carolina that didn’t have a camera store after Foister’s Camera Store closed in 1979, he says. He also was familiar with the area, he says, and wanted to help supply photography students at the Hussman School with materials for their photography classes, such as film.

In addition to selling all things photography, Southeastern Camera has a full-service photo lab in which photo technicians perform film processing for black-and-white and color film. This service is one of the store’s most

popular, along with taking passport photos and facilitating camera repairs.

“If somebody is walking through that door, it’s probably because they’re dropping off films,” says Chris Johnson, the store manager. “That’s a lot of the faces and activity we see on a daily basis.”

With two locations—the one in Carrboro and one in Raleigh at 2410 Atlantic Avenue—Southeastern Camera represents one of the last local camera stores. In the Triangle, there is only one other store that develops film, Peace Camera in Raleigh.

It hasn’t always been this way: Johnson remembers during the early 2000s when camera stores were abundant across the state; by 2010, though, many had closed. He says these closures were mostly due to the advent of the internet, where people could purchase a camera online more cheaply.

To him, the primary reason Southeastern Camera has remained open after all these years is because it sells a range of equipment, including both new and vintage cameras, lenses, filters, and external flashes. The store usually serves up to 50 customers a day and its reputation with customers doesn’t hurt, either—often counter service includes personal advice on the best cameras or film.

“Sometimes people come in and ask for help that’s not even related to photography,” Johnson says.

Johnson became the manager of Southeastern Camera in 1996. Back then, the store only sold film cameras; in 2000, it also started selling early digital cameras. While this type of camera didn’t initially take over film because of its high cost, it eventually did begin to outpace film cameras. Around 2015, Southeastern Camera experienced

Tony Mansfield, the owner of Southeastern Camera

PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

a significant drop in film sales, leaving Johnson wondering if film photography would disappear completely.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the resurgence in the popularity of film photography at Southeastern Camera. During a year where time seemed to move more slowly, perhaps it was only natural to document it in a slower way, too.

“I think a lot of people were looking for hobbies, and film was a good thing to do,” Johnson says. “I started shooting more in film, and we’ve seen the rise ever since.”

It may be, too, that younger generations want to catch a break from their phones: in a recent poll by Pew Research Center, 38 percent of teens 13 to 17 said they spend too much time on their phones. Maybe, too, younger generations are drawn to the messier, less-curated images that digital cameras tend to produce. In the last year, the hashtag #digitalcamera in the United States topped at around 1 billion views on TikTok, with 87 percent of the searches coming from adults 18 to 24.

Cynthia Liu, a photographer from Cary, was new to film photography when she first visited Southeastern Camera three years ago. At the time, she was in her sophomore year at UNC-CH, and she bought her first film camera, a Minolta X-700, at the store. Starting film photography can feel intimidating at first, she says, but the Southeastern Camera employees made it feel more accessible. She’s gone on to purchase a camera strap and point-and-shoot camera for a friend and develops all of her rolls at the store.

“Out of like probably 50 or 60 rolls of film that I shot,” Liu says, “I think I’ve only ever gotten like three developed anywhere that’s not [Southeastern Camera].”

Liu’s film is one example of the nearly 100 rolls of film

Silva receives per day. She spends most of her day scanning and printing color film in the lab amid the hum of machines over 20 years old.

When customers drop off their film at Southeastern Camera, Silva tapes it to a card that gets pulled through a color processing machine. After the film comes out of the machine, it is considered developed because it has images. It’s then taken to a scanner that makes digital files of the pictures, which are emailed to the customer or printed out if the customer opts to get prints.

Adam Aji, another photographer from the area, is new to film photography. He first visited Southeastern Camera in October 2023 to get his film developed. Since then, he has started returning regularly.

“I’m still exploring what it means to be a photographer for myself,” he says. “I’m looking forward to trying out different sorts of ways of developing and scanning my photography.”

During the summer, Silva notices a drop in film processing because students are out of school. Much of her workload depends on what is happening elsewhere; for example, this year’s solar eclipse gave her a lot of film to process. UNC-CH activities also drum up traffic.

“It’s really cool to be like, ‘Oh God, Duke game tomorrow, that’s gonna be my problem at work,’” she says with a laugh.

Silva says people across North Carolina and the country also mail film to Southeastern Camera. Some of her favorite photos to process are those of weddings, pets, and vacations.

Katherine Apuzzo, another photo lab technician at Southeastern Camera, has spent two years managing black-andwhite film development. Unlike color film processing, she

has her hands on the film every step of the detailed process, and it takes longer—usually around two weeks.

The main steps include sorting the film by type to determine the length of processing time; loading it into metal cylinder tanks in a dark box, which shields the film from light; and developing the film using chemicals and timing it. At the end, Apuzzo matches the film with the customer’s bag and hangs it for scanning or calls the customer to pick up their process-only film.

“It’s a lot of focus work, not thinking about anything else, but I like work like that,” she says.

Dillon Ingold, who attends to the machines in the photo lab, says everyone who works in the lab knows how to do each other’s jobs and that they rotate positions; for example, he can process black-and-white film like Apuzzo if needed.

But his main role, he says, is to ensure that every person’s images and films that pass through the machines are treated equally.

“It has to go through the same process, and we have a quality control and standard that we’ve established for ourselves over the past three decades that really can’t be muddled,” Ingold says.

Looking ahead for Southeastern Camera, Johnson says he hopes the store will continue to stay relevant.

But one thing is certain: Ingold and the other employees will remain committed to fostering an environment of care for every customer who steps inside Southeastern Camera.

“Photography is such an integral part of every person who works here’s life and existence as a whole,” Ingold says. The job, he says, is really about “building community and building friendships.” W

Left: Dillon Ingold pulls out a roll of film at the Southeastern Camera store in Carrboro. Right: Chris Johnson, manager of Southeastern Camera’s Carrboro location since 1996, cleans a camera. PHOTOS BY ANGELICA EDWARDS

M U S IC Summer Album Reviews

Bats & Mice: PS: Seriously.

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Lovitt Records | May 31

In 2020, I wrote an INDY feature on the “Lost Era of Indie Rock,” arguing that the local bands who made their impact circa 2000 had largely been forgotten because they weren’t covered by the major press like ’90s bands or captured on the internet like later ones. Four years on, I’m still regularly slapping my forehead when I remember someone I left out—though at least that does lend support to the premise.

But really. How the hell did I forget Bats & Mice?

Releasing its debut EP in 2000 and its lone album, Believe It Mammals, two years later, this Chapel Hill trio was one of the hottest local vendors of what we then called “post-hardcore” (because each generation makes up its own name for prettifying punk), a developmental stage that explains how emo got from Sunny Day Real Estate to My Chemical Romance.

Though Bats & Mice had all the soaring, desperate yelping you could want, they were subtler and more atmospheric than some shamelessly overwrought peers, heavily dosed with Joy Division, setting their livid outbursts against eerie, curving melodies and dark-hued guitar textures. They had multiple singers, and you could even sort of tell them apart. But they were all in other bands, and they eked out just two more short EPs.

Fourteen years since the last one, they’re back with a new full-length, PS: Seriously., and honestly, it’s way better than it should be. This isn’t just the boys dusting off the old stuff for a nostalgic cruise around the block. It’s the worthy follow-up Mammals always deserved, the sound intact but respectably matured, the band delivering the goods without

trying to squeeze back into the skinny jeans.

Bats & Mice was sort of an indie rock rebranding of the melodic hardcore band Sleepytime Trio, and it shared members with groups like Engine Down and Rah Bras. Ben Davis was in the great Milemarker, the only group I know of to put the Carrboro Harris Teeter in a song. He also heads the long-running Ben Davis & the Jetts, whose dream-poppy 2001 album, The Hushed Patterns of Relief, I secretly liked even better than Bats & Mice.

Leaving out many lineup shifts, suffice it to say that two original members, singer-bassist Davis and singer-guitarist David NeSmith, are here on PS: Seriously., with drummer Mark Oates, who joined when the album began percolating in 2012.

Why did it take so long? Starting families, building careers—all the life you write songs about.

Davis has said the songs were developed by playing long jams around meditative instrumental loops, and it shows in their focused but varied propulsion.

Opener “Out of Line” finds NeSmith in lively, inspired form as he webs together bendy licks and fluid runs much like Seth Jabour, the guitarist of a recently reunited Bats & Mice

contemporary, Les Savy Fav. With Oates pounding long smears of sleepy vocals to a screamy climax, it’s got everything you’d want in a Bats & Mice song.

Then “Buried Just Beyond” is like a pastoral take on arty British punk, and the guitar doesn’t explode with full force until “Space Race,” where Oates finds the exhilarating place between a groove and a roll and just sits in it like it’s no big deal. “Staring Straight” is especially striking, surging and crashing around one stuck, squealing loop, a good trick that reminded me of R.E.M.’s “Leave.” But each song has a distinct feel, something unique to admire, and mood almost never relegates melody to afterthought, making PS: Seriously. one of the best, most surprising indie rock comebacks, in a crowded field, in recent memory. —Brian Howe

Radio Haw: Counsel of Serpents

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Self-released | May 31

Counsel of Serpents, the debut fulllength from Pittsboro musician Matt Gray’s musical project, Radio Haw, is adept at conjuring the spirits of the many folk music forebears who inspired him.

It calls to mind The Tallest Man on Earth’s early efforts. Gray’s album has a different feel, hypnotic and slithering, but like The Tallest Man, is similarly consumed by the shadow of Dylan while carving out a distinct and personal vibe.

Gray’s online bio asserts the album could sit on a shelf between Elliott Smith and Bad Debt, the intimate early acoustic album from Durham’s Hiss Golden Messenger.

While his own prowess, both in sound and words, is outstripped by the greats he’s in conversation with, Counsel of Serpents makes it easy to believe Gray might grow to make his own lasting mark.

Album opener “Someone Dosed the Fiddler” is a Dylan-esque dirge that sticks remarkably close to his oft-imitated style. But while such a move could prove insufferable, Gray, who plays most everything besides drums, manages it admirably.

As organ swirls above determined strums and drums, like a spell drawing unsuspecting souls toward certain doom, Gray offers weary rhymes that feel the dread of his own fraught period in history: “Ghosts dance in smoke as shots start flying / Our Great Lady tall wavers, falls / Clings on to her isle and calls, I’m dying.”

“Grand Ole Medicine Show” comes close to the profundity Hiss Golden Messenger manages when expressing frustration with religious strictures, questioning whether there’s any difference between peddling faith and selling snake oil.

As guitars and drums undulate uneasily and far-off voices echo around his words, Gray’s huckster confesses, “Let prophets profit heavenly / What I desire is earthly things / Gonna hide behind the good book / Let’s take a look / It’s got your cures inside.”

“A Change” is the best show of Gray’s potential, echoing out a tangle of effects-laden guitar and keyboard as he poignantly grapples to untangle his anxieties from their causes and his own temporary remedies.

“I need a change in my state of mind / I’ve been seeing too clearly for too long a time,” he moans before keying on the lessons learned from the struggle: “I once was lost / And I might not be found / But at least I’m not going back that way / This time around.”

He isn’t there yet, but in following the path set down by songwriting luminaries, Gray is quickly finding ways to branch out and make statements of his own.

—Jordan Lawrence

Summer Album Reviews

Joseph Decosimo, Luke Richardson, Cleek Schrey: Beehive Cathedral

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Dear Life Records | June 28

Itook a long, lonely drive to Asheboro last month, barely cracking 50 mph as I crisscrossed the endless cornfields and cow pastures of Chatham and Randolph Counties. With the windows down and the summer bugs thrumming, Beehive Cathedral—a new trio record from Americana savants Joseph Decosimo, Luke Richardson, and Cleek Schrey— felt like an appropriate soundtrack. Little did I know how perfect this 15-song slab of old-time exploration would sound.

Hypnotic in some spots, unhinged in others, Beehive Cathedral constructs its droning buzz from standard instrumentation like the fiddle and five- and six-string banjo. But it mixes in more esoteric fare, such as a Hardanger d’amore, a 10-string bowed instrument with resonant, sympathetic strings, and a vintage pump organ. From the jump, Beehive Cathedral mimicked my drive: Lead single “Betty Baker” rolls and tumbles, while “Pompey Ran Away” approximates the curves and hills of the Piedmont’s back roads. “Blackberry Blossoms” was tender and thorny—perfect for a spot on the side of the road in

search of this iconic fruit’s summer brambles. And “Cluck Old Hen” called back to a simpler land-based day and age, in both name and spirit.

That evocative sense of past and present intermingling permeates all 40 minutes of Beehive Cathedral. Sure enough, the Durham-based Decosimo, alongside Richardson and Schrey, recorded the album live together in a Tennessee cabin, foraging and rambling by day and playing music by night. Most songs are grounded in that Appalachian terra firma, particularly the Cumberland Plateau, where Decosimo learned several firsthand from regional icon Clyde Davenport. Others, meanwhile, were sourced from historical field recordings, vintage 78s, shape note hymnals, and even 18th-century Scottish songbooks. Yet Beehive Cathedral packs a decidedly modern punch. Given their variegated experiences in the worlds of folk, bluegrass, indie rock, and experimental sound, Decosimo, Richardson, and Schrey slant their songs with sumptuous exploration. Buzzing strings, off-kilter tunings, and droning dirges on deep cuts “Rockingham,” “Chimes,” and “Red Bird” lend corporeal heft to the album. But other interpretations like “Prettiest Girl in the Country” were as pleasant as pie—so breezy they could drift off into the ether.

Perhaps that’s why Beehive Cathedral burrowed its way so deep into my subconscious on that back-road drive. In this part of the state, traditional Americana just sounds right. It’s even better when a thoughtful sense of communal interplay honors the past while moving it adventurously forward. “You can’t step in the same river twice,” Richardson notes in press for the album. How right he is.

—Nick McGregor

M U S IC Summer Album Reviews

Jake Xerxes Fussell: When I’m Called

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Fat Possum | July 12

When I’m Called is the fifth album from Durham guitarist and singer Jake Xerxes Fussell. But it feels like the first that’s really a Jake Xerxes Fussell album.

For the better part of a decade, Fussell has blown the dust from and breathed new life into songs from folk music’s forgotten corners, proving himself an expressive arranger and attentive scholar, packaging charmingly antiquated lyrics within music that sometimes rollicks and sometimes broods, always balancing reverence with a keen sense of what the songs mean in the present.

His earlier albums feel motivated by a sense of responsibility to maintain tradition. But in When I’m Called, he switched things up, sketching melodies first and then picking songs that work with them.

Populated with songs that consistently find characters at varying moments of transition, it’s enhanced by Fussell’s clear-eyed baritone as well as rich and airy arrangements played by a variety of gifted backers—multi-instrumentalist and producer James Elkington, bassist Ben

Whiteley, and drummer Joe Westerlund form the core.

The album doesn’t come across as solely anchored to the past. Rather, it’s adrift in the expanse of time, feeling both the burden and the freedom of folk music’s long tradition and Fussell’s fleeting time carrying the torch.

Travel songs loop, repeating their first verse at the end. Suggesting that the rider on opener “Andy,” guided by the blearily grinning lope of Fussell’s solitary guitar, will constantly be chasing his goal of taking Andy Warhol’s star. That the narrator of “Leaving Here, Don’t Know Where I’m Going,” carried along by elegantly intertwining guitars, bass, drums, and horns, will always be departing.

Chance meetings sear in the brain but don’t last in the physical world. On “Feeing Day,” an encounter with a bonnie lass ends with them forgetting their troubles—“Glass after glass / The time did pass”—before the song fades into a haze of relaxed strums, resolute horns, and entrancing acoustic drone.

A fun and rambunctious animal tale is haunted by death and responsibility. Giddy picking can’t outrun the drums and piano that commandingly thrum on “Who Killed Poor Robin?” as the lethal sparrow, the grave-digging crow, and more all do their part to carry the deceased to ground. The owl declares “I’ll scream and I’ll howl” when he preaches the funeral, but it won’t change what’s happened.

None of these moves are, on their face, new or revelatory. But on When I’m Called, Fussell displays the depth of feeling they inspire in him. And that is where the magic happens. —Jordan Lawrence W

Surreal Satire, People Power, and Extreme Weather

Anthology film Kinds of Kindness, big-budget tornado blockbuster Twisters, and other films playing locally.

BY GLENN MCDONALD arts@indyweek.com

In any given month, when making odds for the movies you want to see, it can often be useful to just look at the cast lists. Certain actors are known for selecting only the best and most interesting film projects. It’s not a foolproof method—good actors make bad movies sometimes—but it’s a fun way to choose.

For instance, the new anthology film Kinds of Kindness features the kind of performers who can be trusted to make good career choices, including Willem Dafoe, Emma Stone, Hong Chau, and Jesse Plemons. The director, as it happens, is another sure bet: the subversive Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos, who recently brought us the brilliant Victorian-era freak-out Poor Things Kindness is being described as a surrealist satire told in three thematically connected stories, with the performers switching roles and relationships between vignettes. Plemons initially headlines as a corporate lackey in thrall to his sadistic boss (Dafoe), but the narrative soon swerves into strange new territories. Body swapping. Sex cults. Amputations. This sort of thing.

Reviews out of the Cannes Film Festival— where the film got a six-minute standing ovation—bode well. Even the most jaded critics are calling the film shocking, hilarious, and utterly unpredictable.

Another intriguing option for July, in a break-your-heart kind of way: Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot tells of 22

families in East Texas who adopted dozens of traumatized children—mostly Black kids—from the region’s foster care system. The film is based on actual events, and you may have already seen this one playing a few weeks back.

The independent Angel Studios, known for their Christian films, sponsored free screenings for the Juneteenth holiday.

Film snobs may be scared off by the message-movie aspect here, but advance word is that Possum Trot is a real film, gritty and inspirational. In my experience, Christian-themed movies don’t necessarily suck; they just usually suck. I plan to keep an open mind. Possum Trot tells an important story about the power of community, it features good actors like Nika King and Elizabeth Mitchell, and, anyway, the trailer made me ugly-cry.

Finally, from the guilty-pleasure department, the big-budget tornado movie Twisters is expected to be one of the summer’s big blockbusters. Disaster movies are best experienced on the big screen, and we can safely expect improved 21st-century special effects for this one.

The film also stars extremely fit movie star Glen Powell in a damp white T-shirt, and there’s just no arguing with that man’s torso. But the most interesting part, for my dollar, will be to see what this most mainstream of movies does with the climate change elements of the story. Movies are

one of the ways we talk to ourselves, as a culture, about what we’re afraid of. What’s the proper tone for a popcorn movie about an imminent existential threat? Let’s find out!

QUICK PICKS

Kevin Costner’s late-career gamble Horizon: An American Saga—a big, honking, epic Western that should linger in theaters—is the first installment in a fourfilm series that purports to tell the true history the Old West. American mythology tends to resist rewrites, but maybe we’ll see something new.

The indie coming-of-age drama Janet Planet, concerning complex mother-daughter dynamics in the hippie enclaves of 1990s Massachusetts, is the feature film debut of Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Annie Baker. Reviews from the festival circuit are calling this one a must-see.

Based on actual events, the independent drama Sing Sing follows a group of inmates who mount an original stage comedy at the infamous maximum security prison.

If you like occult thrillers or serial-killer movies, the horror film Longlegs is a little bit of both and it’s getting solid early reviews. The heavy is played—inevitably, somehow—by Nicholas Cage. W

Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot COURTESY OF ANGEL STUDIOS

Kinds of Kindness COURTESY OF SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

Art Crawl

A

rundown of some of the art exhibitions opening and ongoing across the Triangle this summer.

BY MATTHEW JUNKROSKI arts@indyweek.com

As the summer days grow longer and hotter, few things are more tempting than finding an activity that involves air conditioning—mercifully, new and ongoing exhibits at art museums across the Triangle offer enriching, colorful ways to beat the heat.

Here are a few of the many local exhibitions ongoing or opening over the summer.

To Take Shape and Meaning | North Carolina Museum of Art | Through July 28

Featuring carefully curated work by Native American artists across the United States, To Take Shape and Meaning is NCMA’s first major exhibit of contemporary Indigenous art.

Opened in March, the exhibit contains 96 three-dimen-

sional works by 75 different artists, eight of whom are based in North Carolina. The wide-ranging exhibit invites viewers to engage with Indigenous culture and art in a new context, as artists from over 50 tribes share their stories and cultures in one space, with some artwork specifically created for the exhibit. While each work tells a story of its own, each part of the exhibit uplifts Indigenous art by focusing on stories and themes shared among tribes.

Nancy Strickland Fields, guest curator for To Take Shape and Meaning and director/curator of the Museum of the Southeast American Indian at UNC Pembroke, tells the INDY that she wants museum guests to not only understand the breadth of Indigenous art but see the people in the art.

“You know, a lot of times Native people seem invisible in plain sight, and that’s certainly not the case,” Fields says. “This is a big declaration that Native peoples are

here and thriving with incredible stories to share and phenomenal art.”

When I visited To Take Shape and Meaning recently, I was stunned by the breadth of colors and mediums— though the stories behind the artwork took center stage. As Fields led a tour through the building, explaining the stories behind each piece, I found myself lost in imagining the rich histories that brought each piece to the NCMA. Fields says that she called each artist herself, developing an individual relationship with every artist as she curated each work and making sure all Native tribes from North Carolina were represented.

Walking from one end of the exhibit to the other, Fields started the tour by talking about one of the pieces that inspired her to curate the collection: a stunningly intricate burial pot that was “killed”—that is, broken at the bottom—to release the spirit of the child it formerly held.

The tour went on to explore other stories behind the artwork, including an intricate portrait of Henry Berry Lowry, a Native Robin Hood, made with over 20,000 dice; stunningly beaded punching bags that represent the passing along of physical energy; and a sleek black Chevy El Camino with matte black accents representing Española’s lowrider culture.

Fields says that, as the exhibit is the first of its kind at North Carolina’s flagship museum, it may be the start of a “new chapter” for the NCMA.

“They are committed to Native art and also the rework of their permanent gallery, to where art is being looked at and told in other ways that are not siloed,” Fields says. “I’m excited about how the acquisitions that they’re making are going to be incorporated with this new approach to their curation, that it doesn’t just have to be boxed into Indian art. It can be included with all different genres of art and curated in many different ways.”

Each ticket costs $20 and the museum has a free upcoming community day on July 21.

“Pantheress” by Georgie Nakima | The Ackland | Through July 21

Unlike the other exhibits mentioned here, “Pantheress” by Charlotte-based artist Georgie Nakima is a single site-specific installation. However, “Pantheress” stands proudly by itself as a spectacular piece featuring rich, vivid colors that seem to pop off its “canvas”—a mix of

A photo of artwork featured in To Take Shape and Meaning PHOTO COURTESY OF NCMA

cut wood and custom wallpaper.

While Nakima now focuses on art, she has a background in biology. Her love of life sciences inspires her art, which is rife with a balanced blend of natural and geometric forms. Her work encourages the viewer to look toward a hopeful future, one in which both the natural and the unnatural can coexist as beautifully as it does within work like “Pantheress.”

Samantha Everette, Jalen Jackson, and Zaire Miles-Moultrie | Raleigh Contemporary Art Museum | Through Sept. 8

This summer, with new leadership, the CAM is making an extra effort to uplift BIPOC artists. While the CAM will have special events all summer, Samantha Everette’s, Jalen Jackson’s, and Zaire Miles-Moultrie’s exhibitions are available to visit at any time.

Everette’s Crowning Glory focuses on the art and meaning of braiding through photography and the deeper spiritual meaning hair has in Black culture. Jackson’s God’s Plan for Shone features oil paintings inspired by his past that combine surrealism and naturalism to give viewers a sense of nostalgia and Black soul. Miles-Moultrie’s exhibit work, meanwhile, explores Black identity and memory through collage, “breathing new life into images of the past to resonate powerfully in the present.”

Holding Space: Dreams and Memories | Ella West Gallery | Through Sept. 21

Holding Space: Dreams and Memories, the latest exhibit at downtown Durham’s Ella West Gallery, which opened last summer, features artists Isabel Lu, Julia Rivera, and Toni Scott. The exhibit focuses on the concept of space, specifically the practice of “holding space” by focusing on acceptance and compassion of your own and others’ internal struggles.

Each artist boasts unique styles, from Scott’s multimodal work, with vibrant colors and interesting collaged subjects, to Lu’s dreamlike oil-on-wood paintings that marry realistic models with running pastel paint and Rivera’s stunning mixed-media artwork that melds bold subjects with collage and gold leaf.

Alongside differing styles, each artist has wildly different experiences. Lu, a 2023 Emerging Artist in Residence at Artspace, creates art inspired by concepts in traditional Chinese medicine, reworking these to fit various modern topics. Rivera, who has studied art around the world, creates work stemming from a mix of poetry and humor. Scott, who has presented various solo exhibits throughout the world, creates work inspired by her family’s multicultural heritage.

Throughout the exhibit, the works serve to “hold space” not only for the artists but for visitors who might see themselves in or find their views challenged by the works. W

Artist Isabel Lu with a work at Ella West Gallery

PHOTO BY MARQUISE COVINGTON

MUSIC

Artists Notes 7 p.m. The Corner on NC State Centennial Campus, Raleigh.

Boney James with Special Guests Maysa and Kenny Lattimore 7 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.

Galloway / The Good Doods 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Kid Cudi with Pusha T & EarthGang: 2024 Insano World Tour 7 p.m. PNC Arena, Raleigh.

Pine Cone Bluegrass Jam 7 p.m. Riparian Provision Company, Raleigh.

STAGE

Milka Djordjevich 7:30 p.m. Rubenstein Arts Center, Durham.

PAGE

Publisher Pop-Up: Recommendations, Raffle, and More with Hachette and Algonquin Books! 6 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

SCREEN

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

COMMUNITY

Digital Art with Canva (Grades 9-12) 1 p.m. Artspace, Raleigh.

MUSIC

Kate McGarry/Keith Ganz Quartet 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Popcorn Blue Band Live 6 p.m. The Glass Jug Beer Lab, Durham.

STAGE

Hush Hush: Comedy Based on Secrets 9 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.

PAGE

Genre Nonconforming Book Club Meeting: Scorched Grace 6:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Kristy Woodson Harvey: A Happier Life 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

ART

MERGE 35 BREAK THE GLASS 6 p.m. Peel Gallery, Carrboro.

MUSIC

Alice Gerrard’s 90th Birthday Celebration: Pinecone 7:30 p.m. Fletcher Opera Theater, Raleigh.

Bicycle Face / Evil Weiner / Teeth of England 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Durham Parks and Recreation Presents: DJ

N.A.B.S. & Company 6 p.m. Rock Quarry Park, Durham.

Hill View 73 / Rain Recordings / Nonsense 6:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Morning Choir: Coco & Breezy EDM 9 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.

Nat Myers 6 p.m. Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw.

Nicole Mitchell Ensemble: A Certain Something 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Summerfest Presents the Catalinas 8 p.m. Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary.

Totally Tubular Festival: ’80s New Wave Tour 5:45 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

Yacht Party 4 p.m. The Glass Jug Beer Lab, Durham.

STAGE

Footprints 7:30 p.m. Reynolds Industries Theater, Durham.

ART

Screen Printing Pop-Up 11 a.m. Glass Jug Downtown, Durham.

SCREEN

Outdoor Films: Barbie 8:30 p.m. Joseph M. Bryan Jr. Theater in the Museum Park, NCMA, Raleigh.

COMMUNITY

Book Harvest’s Annual Summer Block Party 1 p.m. Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Durham.

MUSIC

Blab Schooll / E / Speed Stick 7:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

COMMUNITY

Raleigh Underground Market 11 a.m. CCU Midtown Park in North Hills, Raleigh.

Sunday Night Swing Dance 6 p.m. Raleigh Elks Lodge, Raleigh.

The manic whirlwind of Milka Djordjevich’s Bob hits the stage on July 11. PHOTO COURTESY OF AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL

Listen to the Nicole Mitchell Ensemble explore a variety of musical influences at Sharp 9 Gallery on July 13. PHOTO COURTESY OF SHARP NINE GALLERY

MON 7/15

PAGE

Queer Death Book Club Meeting: Death Nesting 6:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

ART

Intro to Lap Loom Weaving 6 p.m. The ArtsCenter, Carrboro.

COMMUNITY

Views from the Durham with Morehead Planetarium 9 p.m. The Durham Hotel, Durham.

TUES 7/16

MUSIC

O.A.R. / Fitz and the Tantrums / DJ Logic 6:30 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

PAGE

Claire Millikin and Ross White Poetry Reading 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

ART

6,142 Miles: An Exhibit by Mothers* for Ceasefire July 16–Aug. 3, People’s Solidarity Hub 1809, Durham.

WED 7/17

MUSIC

Triangle Jazz Orchestra 7 p.m. The Plant, Pittsboro.

Winnetka Bowling League / Akira Galaxy / Darryl Rahn 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room.

STAGE

Urban Bush Women 7:30 p.m. Reynolds Industries Theater, Durham.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike July 17-28, various times. Theatre Raleigh, Raleigh.

COMMUNITY

Tarot Art 6 p.m. The ArtsCenter, Carrboro.

THUR 7/18

MUSIC

El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico and Luciana Souza with Chico Pinheiro 7 p.m. Joseph M. Bryan Jr. Theater, NCMA, Raleigh.

Lucki: Gemini Tour 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.

PAGE

Jasmin Graham: Sharks Don’t Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Lev Grossman: The Bright Sword 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Tatiana Johnson-Boria & Maurisa Li-A-Ping 6:30 p.m. Letters Bookshop, Durham.

ART

Cyanotype Workshop 10 a.m. Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh.

FRI 7/19 SAT 7/20

MUSIC

The Connells / Dillon Fence / Love Tractor 6:30 p.m. Joseph M. Bryan Jr. Theater, NCMA, Raleigh.

Hirs Collective / .Gif from God 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

STAGE

ShaLeigh Dance Works 7:30 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.

PAGE

The New Romantics Book Club Meeting: You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty 6:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

MUSIC

Beehive Cathedral and Alice Gerrard 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

The Carolina Cutups 6 p.m. Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw.

mc chris / Crunk Witch / D&D Sluggers 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

The Couch with Astronate and Yahliq 6:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

The Queens of R&B: Xscape & SWV 7 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park, Raleigh.

Two Door Cinema Club / flipturn 8 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

SCREEN

Outdoor Films: Kiki’s Delivery Service 8:30 p.m. Joseph M. Bryan Jr. Theater, NCMA, Raleigh.

Enjoy the imaginative and immersive performance of ShaLeigh Dance Works at the Fruit on July 19. PHOTO COURTESY OF AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL

Irish alternative dance-punk outfit Two Door Cinema Club is headed to Red Hat Amphitheater on July 20. PHOTO COURTESY OF TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB

MUSIC

Jake Kohn / Cody Christian 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Talib Kweli 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Third Eye Blind 6:30 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park, Raleigh.

Tinariwen / Basic 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Triangle Blues Society 4 p.m. Speakeasy, Carrboro.

COMMUNITY

Durham Farmers’ Market 25th Anniversary Celebration Dinner

5:30 p.m. Durham Central Park Pavilion, Durham.

MUSIC

Mei Semones / Mia Joy 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

MUSIC

Hot Freaks / Dante Elephante 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Small Black 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

STAGE

Radical System Art 7:30 p.m. Reynolds Industries Theater, Durham.

ART

Intermediate Collage 6 p.m. The ArtsCenter, Carrboro.

Natural Patterns July 23–Aug. 25. Hillsborough Gallery, Hillsborough.

The most recognized award throughout the Triangle is back for 2024 — next up:

Nominate your favorite Orange and Chatham County bar, veterinarian, bookshop, museum—whatever it may be, there are over 100 categories in which you can profess your favorite Orange and Chatham County treasures.

CROSSWORD

To download a pdf of this puzzle or view its solution, visit indyweek.com/puzzles-page

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.

Associate Director

Associate Director, Product Owner, IQVIA RDS Inc., Durham, NC. May telecom frm anywhre in US (wkg EST hrs). Supv 1-2. Salary: $188,573 - $199,000/yr. Maintain prod dev roadmap for anlytcs pltfrm & Clin Anlytcs prod. Reqs bach/ mast in Comp Sci, Comp/ System/SW Engg, Data Sci, Data Anlytcs/ any HC rel/ equiv & 5 yrs w/ bach / 3 yrs w/ mast progressive bus anlys exp incl (w/ bach 5 yrs / w/ mast 3 yrs): use prod mgmt prncples; wrk w/ clin trl data; use knwl & undrstndng of clin data mgmt & clin ops practcs; wrk w/ clin data tech like bus intel tools, data WH, clin trl mgmt sys/ elctrnc data capture sys. Reqs (w/ bach/ mast) 3 yrs: del SaaS SW prod; dev SW prod rel to clin trls, clin trl data pltfrms/ HC data; perfrm proc anlys & diagrm in Lucidchart/Visio/othr proc diagrm tools; wrk w/ Agile SW dev mthd; 1 yr: use Jira SW dev tool; & use Aha! prod roadmap tool. Reqs < 5% US trvl. 8a- 5p EST & occ aft hrs. Apply: resume to: usrecruitment@iqvia.com & ref #112356.

Clinical Scientist

Clinical Scientist, IQVIA RDS Inc., Durham, NC. Must telecom from anywhre in US. Dev SAS prgrms that generate MDR Listings in MS Excel Format. Salary Range: $113,575 - $152,100/ yr. Reqs at least bach in Math/Stat/Comp Sci/ Anlytcs/Reg Affrs/Biomed/Hlth or Pharma Sci/ rel/equiv. Reqs 2 yrs of stat progrm exp incl 2 yrs: SAS SW progrm; 1 yr: wrk w/ clin data in life sci ind; use MS Off tools incl MS Excel. Reqs up to 2% US trvl. 8a - 5p, w/ occ OT & wknds. Apply: res to: usrecruitment@iqvia.com & ref#113521.

EMPLOYMENT

Data Engineering Lead

Opening for a Data Engineering Lead by Banc of California in Durham, NC. Duties include responsibility for managing safe/efficient deployments into production environment. Build infrastructure for optimal extraction, transformation and loading of data. Provide application production support and maintenance. Assemble large, complex sets of data. Identify, design internal process improvements. Mentor/ lead team on data engineering design approach. Work with business/data transformation team on new requirements/change requests. Troubleshoot. Supervisory duties. Annual wage scale: $116,688 -$160,000. A Bachelor’s degree required in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field, or foreign equivalent and 5 years of experience in Data Engineering, or in a related position in building data pipelines in Azure or AWS or GCP. Experience must include: Informatica tools (MDM, DQ, IICS), in both Windows and LINUX environment, in process design/documentation analytical, in building data pipelines in cloud environment, with ETL data products, in leading/mentoring the team on design and best practices and in SQL/PL-SQL including performance tuning and query optimization. Apply online: https://careers-bancofcalifornia.icims.com/ jobs/3707/data-engineering-lead/job

Software Engineer

Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings in Durham, NC seeks a Software Engineer to develop complex RESTful web services in a cross-functional and agile development team. Can work remote. Reqs BS+7yrs exp. To apply, send resume to: Labcorphold@labcorp.com ; Ref #240603.

Software Engineer

Software Engineer, Veradigm LLC, Raleigh, NC. (3 openings). May telecom frm anywhere in US. Dev & spprt sys w/ .NET, VB & SQL Server Tech. Reqs at least Bach in CS/ CIS/ IT/ rel/ equiv & 2 yrs dev exp to incl 2 yrs: .Net; C#, ASP.NET; Transact SQL & Stord Proc; DB desg; AngularJS; 1 yr: JavaScript; jQuery; Selenium; Web API; ADO.Net; LINQ; Entity Frmwrk; & 6 mos: AJAX. 40 hrs/wk (8 - 5 M-F) w/wknd wrk as needed. Apply: resume to: applicants@veradigm.com & ref. job 112834.

6/26/24 CROSSWORD SOLUTION