7.13 Indy Week

Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill July 13, 2022

ven a m n: p e r o al p missi of e d m o n a eing n a s is ell-b y. s t e n Fitn es Hu the w dustr n J a m sform r a n t i n u tra r e s t a the

CHEC K BY LENA GELLER,

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Raleigh W Durham W Chapel Hill VOL. 38 NO. 28

“You know when you go to a minigolf course and stuff is obviously fake and kind of weirdly proportioned?” local resident Matt Phillips says, in reference to Pittsboro's Big Hole facility. “Very similar energy.” p. 12.

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY HANNAH KAUFMAN

CONTENTS NEWS 4

Some Raleigh residents have concerns about gentrification that new zoning districts along the city's transit corridors could accelerate.

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Nine-year-old Z'yon Person's killer was convicted, but the state of gun violence in the Bull City hasn't changed much since 2019.

BY CARYL ESPINOZA JAEN

BY THOMASI MCDONALD

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While summer is in full swing, four candidates for two seats on Cary's town council are stuck in campaign mode. BY JASMINE GALLUP

10 Plans are shaping up for the Durham School of the Arts new magnet location. BY MADDIE WRAY

WE M A DE THIS

ARTS & CULTURE 11

A new Raleigh opera company looks to reinvent the genre. BY BYRON WOODS

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Does a rural Pittsboro facility serve as Stranger Things inspiration? An intern investigates. BY HANNAH KAUFMAN

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The restaurant industry can be an unhealthy place to work—but one chef and personal trainer is on a mission to change that. BY LENA GELLER

16 On the heels of a Netflix adaptation of her novel Along for the Ride, Chapel Hill YA author Sarah Dessen takes a look back. BY SHELBI POLK 18

An interview with Amelia Meath and Alexandra Sauser-Monning about their new duo, The A's. BY AMANDA WICKS

PUBLISHER John Hurld E D I TO RI A L Editor in Chief

Jane Porter Managing Editor

Geoff West Arts & Culture Editor

Sarah Edwards Staff Writers

Jasmine Gallup Thomasi McDonald Lena Geller Copy Editor

THE REGULARS 3 Backtalk/15 Minutes

21 Culture Calendar

Contributors Madeline Crone, Grant Golden, Spencer Griffith, Lucas Hubbard, Brian Howe, Lewis Kendall, Kyesha Jennings, Glenn McDonald, Nick McGregor, Gabi Mendick, Dan Ruccia, Rachel Simon, Harris Wheless

C R E AT I V E

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BACK TA L K

Last week for the web, Lena Geller wrote about the Durham City Council’s unanimous vote to increase parking rates in downtown Durham between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. from $1.50 to $2.50 per hour for street parking and from $1.25 to $2.25 per hour in city parking garages. Our readers had thoughts.

“How can they imagine this will help businesses that really need customers???” wrote Facebook commenter MARY MOLINA. “All that ‘Get back on the bull’ … yeah, right.”

“Need to raise money to pay for artsy crosswalks somehow,” wrote commenter DAVID RUBIN. But a couple of readers had a different take.

“For all who are against the increase, how often do you visit the downtown area weekdays, between 8:00 am and 7:00 pm?” asked commenter MARTY O’SULLIVAN. “My guess is the increase is to deter downtown workers from using up parking spaces that are meant for visitor use. I’m not crazy about it, but they need to make up for all the years of free parking!”

“GOOD! Taking the bus is better for the environment and congestion,” wrote Twitter commenter @BOLANDERKNOWS. “This city is growing exponentially. We can not have everyone driving to the city. Also, i dont want to pay the taxes of others who choose to drive in a city … Glad they are offsetting the burden to drivers.”

Commenter @COLLARDSANDWICH comes with the anarchist’s approach: “I will continue not to pay. Never put money on the meters and never been caught.”

Good luck with that! We also published a profile on Durham’s longtime, outgoing clerk of court Archie Smith by Maddie Wray from the 9th Street Journal. We got this message from STEVE LIVINGSTONE: “I enjoyed very much the subject article published in your July 6 edition. Mr. Smith’s stoic and professional statements surrounding his acceptance of his loss to Ms. Thompson embody in my opinion what it means to think, act and perform like a public servant (others could take a lesson). The article describes how Mr. Smith acted to expand the role of his job to include large increments of time and energy for the direct support of people in his district and beyond it. You don’t find this in a job description! Durham County, North Carolina was very fortunate to have him at the court’s helm for 20 years!”

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PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA

Cary

e

15 MINUTES Aida Guo, age 18 Green Level High School graduate who won first place in the #makenoisetoday “Letters to …” contest out of 900 entries on the subject of race, ethnicity, and identity

BY HANNAH KAUFMAN backtalk@indyweek.com

How did you first hear about the #makenoisetoday “Letters to …” contest, and what inspired you to enter?

I actually saw this on a website from North Carolina Asian Americans together. I was a senior in high school, so I was applying to colleges and thinking about how this was a pretty good scholarship opportunity and how I like writing, and the prompt of writing a letter to somebody who had impacted your identity stuck out to me, since I’d thought a lot about my identity during college applications. So I ended up applying.

Tell me about your letter, “Mama”? What does the letter mean to you?

I wrote a letter to my mom, or my mama, which is how I call her in Chinese. She’s raised me as a single mother since I was in kindergarten, so I’ve grown really close to her. It’s just been me and her for a lot of my life, and there’s been a lot of ups and downs, especially since she’s an immigrant mom from China and, you know, she has an accent and she grew up in a different culture. So there was kind of a lot of tension as I grew up, once I started going to American high school and was surrounded more by different aspects of American identity and whiteness and everything. So it’s like a love letter to my mom and to kind of apologize for some stuff I’ve done and then also just say that we’re going to be together until we can’t.

Do you think this contest gave you and other students a place to amplify your voice and share your perspective on racial inequities?

I couldn’t be there in person, but I was there virtually for the readings, and I also read through the actual online essays that other people wrote, and it was nice to hear people from across the country share these vulnerable feelings. And I even connected with a girl, I think from South Carolina, who was also Asian American, and we kind of just connected by talking about our identities and we related a lot to each other. But even just with people who weren’t Asian American, who were other ethnicities or races, a lot of our struggles are intertwined and so it was just really nice hearing everyone and reading everyone’s work.

What was the hardest part of this experience? The most rewarding?

The hardest part of this experience was, when writing, I definitely had to be pretty honest with myself and some of the things I’m actually pretty ashamed of doing. I mentioned some of the stuff I would do when I was younger, like feeling embarrassed when my mom would talk or [about] the food that she packed. A lot of people go through that, but that was pretty hard to actually admit to myself. But I think it was really rewarding, because after writing everything I could come to terms with how I grew and just like how this is kind of part of my journey and part of who I am, and now I can grow from those experiences. W INDYweek.com

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Raleigh Wake County Housing Justice Coalition members Yolanda Taylor & Reeves Peeler PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA

The Housing Puzzle Raleigh residents say a rezoning proposal with density bonuses along the city’s transit corridors won’t be enough to combat gentrification.

BY CARYL ESPINOZA JAEN backtalk@indyweek.com

W

ith the implementation of the Wake Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system well underway, Raleigh’s city council has begun to approve and finalize a new zoning district to address development and affordability across the city’s public transit corridors.

City officials hope the new Transit Overlay District (TOD) will create walkable, vibrant districts with retail and affordable housing centered around the city’s upcoming BRT stations in Raleigh’s New Bern Avenue, Western Boulevard, Southern, and Northern transit corridors by allowing developers to build taller structures in exchange for including needed amenities such as affordable housing.

But many Raleigh residents are afraid the new TOD won’t do enough in certain areas of the city, with some saying it will hasten gentrification and make the poten4

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tial for displacement of residents worse—especially in the Western Boulevard corridor.

The debate came to a head at a July 5 public hearing, when around two dozen residents showed up to the council chambers to oppose the proposed TOD for new BRT planned for Western Boulevard and the Southern corridors. But, these residents insist, they’re not against public transit and growth in Raleigh—they just have concerns.

“When we were talking about the Western BRT the other night [during the public hearing], I can’t tell you how many times people were saying, ‘Oh, you’re anti-transit.

What, you hate buses? You hate seeing Raleigh grow?’” says Reeves Peeler, a member of the Wake County Housing Justice Coalition, a group of activists who seek to address gentrification and advocate for affordable, equi-

table housing through grassroots organizing. “It’s like, no, that’s absolutely not the point of this.”

The July 5 hearing focused on proposals to rezone parts of the existing area around the confirmed BRT routes on Western Boulevard and along the Southern BRT corridor.

On Western Boulevard, that’s about 666 acres between downtown Raleigh and downtown Cary, and in the Southern corridor, it’s about 517 acres connecting downtown Raleigh to stations in Garner along the largely industrial South Wilmington Street.

Despite the backlash the council received from a handful of public commenters, who were allotted eight minutes to speak, the council unanimously approved the TOD for the Southern corridor. The Western Boulevard corridor vote was pushed back to the August 16 city council meeting.

Matthew Klem, a senior planner for the Raleigh Planning and Development department, told the council that the TOD is designed to regulate development along the BRT corridors on Western Boulevard and the Southern corridor and to address potential gentrification the area might face by building more affordable housing. Klem said the TOD includes “another piece of the affordable housing puzzle” with the implementation of a density bonus along rezoned property.

According to the TOD guidelines, rent-controlled units will receive a 50 percent height bonus if 20 percent of additional units are affordable for people with an income of less than 60 percent of the average median income (AMI) and will remain affordable for 30 years. Developers can receive a 30 percent height bonus for small-scale commercial uses. Overall, new construction can be taller and closer together.

“I don’t think it’s enough,” said Josh Bradley, a commenter at the public hearing and a candidate running at-large for a city council seat this fall. “Right now, with the way the city’s growing, we’ve got a lot of people that are living here under bridges …. It’s potentially good that we’re getting all this business coming in—Apple’s coming in, a lot of people are coming here—but there’s a whole lot of people that have lived here for a long time that are in situations where they can’t afford to anymore.”

With Raleigh one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, Wake County Housing Justice Coalition advocates say they are not against the council doing more to increase access to public transit, but they were clear that they have concerns.

Haley Kinsler, one of the public speakers at the hearing, said that while they are in favor of increased public transit, they aren’t seeing enough guarantees and certainties with the BRT plan and the rezoning process that affordable housing will remain in the area.

“I see that the Food Lion is being rezoned; I see that my favorite restaurants, all the stores that I go to are being rezoned, and we don’t have a design yet,” Kinsler said. “I just need more guarantees for myself and my neighbors that we’re gonna be protected, because so many of us live in naturally occurring affordable housing. I don’t think that an additional two stories for 60 percent AMI for just 30 years is enough. I think we need more.”

Yolanda Taylor, a community lawyer and member of the Wake County Housing Justice Coalition, tells the INDY that with Raleigh’s expected business and economic boom, rent prices are very likely to go up and the city must get more creative in ensuring affordable housing.

“There is such a thing called transit-induced gentrification,” Taylor says. “A walkable community that is connected to lightrail transit is going to be in high demand, and by the very nature of going in there, connecting transit to housing to retail to office spaces, that itself is going to increase the property value.”

According to Taylor, residents are right to be concerned because they have experienced mass displacement and mass gentrification due to increased development in downtown and other places.

“I just need more guarantees for myself and my neighbors that we’re gonna be protected .... so many of us live in naturally occurring affordable housing.”

“We want to say that we’re not anti-transit,” Taylor says. “We understand the need for transit, especially in an area like Raleigh that’s gonna see unprecedented growth.”

During the public hearing, council member Nicole Stewart said the Raleigh BRT program is “one piece of the puzzle” of the city council’s long-term affordable housing plan and that the TOD is not the only way Raleigh is addressing housing inequality across the city. “[The rezoning] is ensuring that we can encourage affordable housing through density along our transit line so we don’t do what Charlotte did along their metro line, which is put a whole bunch of very expensive, high-rise housing,” Stewart said.

“We want to make sure we get that affordable housing built in there.”

Council member David Cox asked how many naturally existing affordable housing units already exist within the pro-

posed BRT corridors. Klem said city staff would follow up with the council with more statistics.

“That’s a major piece of the puzzle we’re missing,” Cox said. “We don’t know how much naturally occurring affordable housing there is in these corridors. We don’t know how much we will potentially lose and how many people would be affected by losing that. The only guarantee that we have with these TOD standards is 20 percent of 50 percent, which is, at the most, 10 percent of the units would be affordable at 60 percent of AMI or less.”

Because local governments in North Carolina don’t have the authority to mandate inclusionary zoning from developers under state law, Peeler and Taylor say it makes sense that the city council would work its way around that with the density bonus. But both say it isn’t enough to

combat the rise of housing inequality in Raleigh because it is ultimately optional for developers.

“The developer doesn’t have to do it,” Taylor says. “It’s all about creating new affordable housing, but when you look at the percentage of what’s going to meet the need, it’s very small. And we were concerned about the preservation of naturally occurring affordable housing: what are we going to do to also preserve as we build new?”

While both Peeler and Taylor acknowledge the rezoning around the BRT corridors on Western Boulevard and the Southern corridor seems to be set in stone, Raleigh residents should also be aware of other rezoning and development projects around the city that could affect low-income housing, such as the Heritage Park and Moore Square redevelopment and the large parks bond that will appear before voters on the fall ballot.

“It takes years to redevelop something.

Where do those people go in the meantime? Is the city going to set aside an apartment for them to live at the same rent while their old place gets redeveloped? Certainly not,” Peeler says. “There’s no legal mechanism for that and there’s no history of that happening.” W

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Durham

Collateral Damage Z’yon Person’s killer is found guilty, but little has changed since the child’s death. BY THOMASI MCDONALD tmcdonald@indyweek.com

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’yon Person, the lovely child who was killed three years ago on a late summer evening while traveling with his family for a snow cone, would have turned 12 this year.

Three years ago, the hopes and dreams of the nine-yearold were shattered by a barrage of gunfire during a driveby shooting in North Durham, just one day after the child learned he was going to start at quarterback for his youth football team.

This month, the hopes and dreams of 27-year-old Antonio “Lil Tony” Davenport were also erased when a federal jury found him and an accomplice guilty of firing the gunshots that killed Z’yon.

Davenport was convicted on one count each of murder in aid of racketeering, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a violent crime, and discharging or possession of a firearm to commit a violent crime in aid of racketeering that caused Z’yon’s death.

Looking at a potential two life sentences plus 10 years in prison, life as a free man is pretty much over for Davenport, who had just signed a recording contract with Forever Rich Records, a division of Atlantic Records, as a member of the rap trio known as 83 Babies.

It’s as if Davenport were on the precipice of realizing his lifelong dream of fame and fortune as a member of 83 Babies and lost it all in a hail of senseless, retaliatory gunfire.

According to the meticulous nearly gavel-to-gavel reporting of the court case by The News & Observer’s Virginia Bridges, the rap trio, before Davenport’s arrest, performed a harsh brand of lyrics that glorifies Black gang violence in New York, Florida, California, and other places and posted photos on social media with girls, cash, and fancy cars.

Davenport, with the fleeting success he enjoyed as a rapper, was living a life he didn’t know was possible, he told Bridges during an interview. ”I had wanted to be a rapper since I was nine years old,” Davenport reportedly said.

Sadly, Davenport had already sold his soul to the Eight Trey Gangster Crips, a criminal street gang accused of racketeering activities that fund the enterprise through the sale of narcotics, bank fraud, witness tampering, “and other illegal activities,” according to an indictment filed in North Carolina’s U.S. Middle District Court in Greensboro on October 27, 2020, when the case went federal.

Federal prosecutors accused the street gang of maintaining control over illegal activities occurring within their “territory” by “keeping rival gang members and the public at large in fear of the enterprise, and in fear of its mem6

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bers and associates through threats of violence, and .... through the use of intimidation, violence, threats of violence, assaults, and other violent crimes.”

Two years ago, on September 9, U.S. magistrate judge Joi Elizabeth Peake denied Davenport’s request to attend his father’s visitation and graveside service.

Peake acknowledged that while Davenport’s desire to attend his father’s burial services was understandable, the charges filed against him were “extraordinarily serious and reflect ongoing gang-related violence.”

Peake also explained that given the evidence presented during a detention hearing, “even a funeral visitation could become a site for continuation of that gang-related violence.”

Davenport actually made it easy for police to charge him with the fatal drive-by shooting. Peake, in issuing her denial that prohibited Davenport from going to his father’s service, noted that Davenport was wearing an electronic monitoring device as a condition of his release from jail when he was involved in Z’yon’s death.

As the INDY previously reported, there’s an ongoing gang feud that started in 2017 between the Eight Trey Gangster Crips in Bragtown, of which Davenport is a member, and the nontraditional O-Block and 8 AM gangs.

“We’re seeing shootings involving these two entities that started with the shooting death of Kyle Fisher, whose alias is the letter O. O-Block thinks the Eight Trey Gangster Crips were responsible for Fisher’s death,” Maria Jocys, a retired FBI agent who is challenging Durham’s incumbent sheriff Clarence Birkhead in the November election, told the INDY in May. Bridges has noted that since 2017, O-Block is connected with other gangs, primarily the United Blood Nation sets that include Southside, Brentwood, and Nine Trey Gangsters. Meanwhile, 8 AM members are former Eight Trey Gangster Crips who formed a new crew.

It’s hard to conjure up sympathy for Davenport, who thought he and two accomplices were taking aim at a Ford Escape occupied by O-Block members who had assaulted him days before at the Streets at Southpoint mall and then shared a video on social media to belittle him and the Eight Trey Gangster Crips.

And little has changed since Z’yon’s death. In fact, it’s worse.

On June 29, WRAL premiered a nearly 30-minute documentary, Durham Under Fire, that featured Z’yon as the face of violent crime in the city.

Z’yon’s grandmother, Sandra Person, who spoke with the INDY in 2019 after Z’yon’s death, was featured in the WRAL documentary.

Z’yon Person

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PERSON FAMILY

“I can still see it to this day,” Person said in the documentary. “My baby, lying in bed with a hole in his head, and they even said he tried to hang on, but if he would have made it, he would have been a vegetable, you know? So, I guess God seen fit for Him to take him home.”

The documentary aired two days after jury selection for Davenport’s trial and painted a dismal picture of gun violence in the Bull City. Last year’s 50 homicides were the most in the city since 1995. Police have reported 1,100 shootings over the past year and a half, meaning the city experiences two shootings each day. There are 111 vacancies among the police department’s 537 sworn officer positions and, after George Floyd’s murder, no one is rushing to fill the open spots.

The documentary notes that during the Black Lives Matter protests, the word “DEFUND” was painted in giant yellow letters on East Main Street, right in front of the downtown police headquarters and remained there for 13 months before it was removed.

“I cannot imagine going to work and having ‘defund the judge’ or ‘defund the dean’ and people not being hurt by that and scarred by that,” said Durham mayor Elaine O’Neal, a former judge and retired law school dean before she was elected last year as the city’s first Black woman mayor.

At the heart of the documentary is the question: why is gun violence so bad in Durham?

The documentary focused on the law enforcement side of the issue, with the unstated axiom that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. But little attention was focused on another axiom that’s gaining traction: the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good-paying job with benefits. It’s difficult to shoot

someone at 7 p.m. if the perpetrator has to work a third-shift job that starts at 11 p.m.

Durham district attorney Satana Deberry, interviewed in the documentary, points to “personal choices,” but she also points to structural poverty. It’s no surprise that much of the gunfire happens in the city’s most underfunded communities.

“You shove them into public housing and then you turn your backs on them,” says Paul Scott, an activist minister and founder of the Black Messiah Movement.

Deberry, who was first elected in 2019, promised criminal justice reforms that include opting to not aggressively prosecute low-level offenses that have resulted in mass incarceration and the overpolicing of Black and brown communities. According to the documentary, she’s also wiped clean the records of hundreds of children who were charged as adults.

“Of course I’m tough on violent crime,” Deberry says.

Still, the word on the streets is if you want to get away with murder, do it in Durham.

The WRAL documentary reports that before Deberry was elected, Durham, in 2016 through 2017, had a felony conviction rate of 51 percent, excluding plea bargains. During Deberry’s tenure that number has dropped to 33 percent.

“We don’t prioritize conviction rates,” Deberry explains. “What we prioritize is working on the most serious and violent crime.”

But the documentary also notes that the Bull City’s current conviction rate for first-degree murder is 24 percent. By comparison, Wake County has a 67 percent conviction rate, and the statewide average is 45 percent.

Deberry says that gun violence is not unique to Durham.

“Violent crime is up nationwide,” she says.

“And so this idea that Durham is exceptionally violent is simply not true.”

But that’s little solace for people like Z’yon’s grandmother, Sandra Person. City leaders, she says, have to “figure out a way to get the community back.”

Though Davenport’s actions that led to Z’yon’s death may prompt little or no sympathy, he and the child he was convicted of murdering still both represent the promise and potential that has been marred and destroyed by the glorification of gun culture.

Say their names, indeed.

“Z’yon Person,” city council member and mayor pro tem Mark-Anthony Middleton says at the documentary’s end. “The efficacy of this government, and the greatness of our city, will be measured by whether or not Z’yon can go get an icee.” W

BILL BURTON ATTORNEY AT LAW Un c o n t e s t e d Di vo rc e Bu s i n e s s L a w UNCONTESTED In c o r p o r a t i o n / L LC / DIVORCE Pa r t n e r s h i p MUSIC BUSINESS LAW Wi l l s INCORPORATION/LLC WILLS C o l l e c t i o n s SEPARATION AGREEMENTS Mu s i c

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bill.burton.lawyer@gmail.com INDYweek.com

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Cary A nonpartisan canvassing team organized by ONE Wake comes together before knocking on doors in Cary to let residents know about the upcoming runoff elections PHOTO COURTESY OF ONE WAKE

Summer Running Early voting is underway in runoffs for two town council seats in Cary, plus for the Democratic primary candidate for Wake County sheriff.

BY JASMINE GALLUP jgallup@indyweek.com

F

or most political candidates in the Triangle, the first round of elections was over in May. Winners celebrated their victories and losers trudged along the roadsides to collect campaign signs. But for four candidates for two seats on the Cary Town Council, the race is still on.

Of the three town council seats that were up for grabs in May, only one candidate secured enough votes to avoid a runoff election—incumbent Jennifer Robinson, who won the District A seat with 75 percent of the vote. In North Carolina, a few nonpartisan municipal elections, such as Cary’s, require runoff elections to take place when candidates don’t earn enough votes to be declared the winner outright. Under state statute, in municipalities using this election and runoff method, candidates have to win at least 50 percent of the vote to secure a victory.

In the race for the at-large seat, the first-place finisher was Carissa Johnson, a Democrat, who secured about 40 percent of the vote. This month, she faces Republi8

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can Ken George, who earned 39 percent. In a surprising upset, incumbent Ed Yerha, who is unaffiliated, fell to his challengers in May, finishing in last place with 21 percent of the vote.

In the race for District C, Republican Renee Miller finished in first place with 28.54 percent of the vote, barely edging out unaffiliated incumbent Jack Smith, who earned 28.04 percent. Miller beat longtime council member Smith by just 45 votes, and the two face off again on July 26.

As Cary grows rapidly and politics become more partisan, this month’s election will determine the direction the city heads in for at least the next two years. One council member, Ya Liu, is also running for the state House, so if she’s elected in November, a new member will be appointed to fill her spot.

On the current council, four members are unaffiliated, with moderate voting records that often lean liberal on issues of development and conservative on issues of

finance. Robinson, a registered Republican, is also part of that cohort. Two members, Liu and Lori Bush, are registered Democrats and solidly liberal, but they also tend to vote based on the local landscape rather than along party lines.

“On the whole, the [current] council is fairly moderate and has traditionally been nonpartisan and focused on local issues,” says Devin Ross, a local advocate for affordable housing with the nonprofit ONE Wake. “What’s unusual about this race is how national politics are filtering down.”

This year, partisan politics have infiltrated the race, giving an edge to candidates backed by the Democratic and Republican Parties. Both unaffiliated candidates, Yerha and Smith, trailed their partisan opponents. One explanation for the results could be the delay in the election, says Smith. Cary’s town council elections typically take place as stand-alone races in odd-numbered years. But this year, because of pandemic-related delays in reporting the decennial census data, the 2021 election was rescheduled to take place at the same time as a partisan primary.

“It is the first time in recent history we’ve had a race moved into a partisan primary year,” says Smith. “Both parties had candidates that just wanted to ride the coattails of the organization. I talked to people that voted, and they said, ‘Look, we love what you’ve done for Cary, but this is a bigger issue now. We have to send a message to the country … to stop this [growing] hate.’”

The results of the runoff elections could create a council that leans more heavily toward liberal or conservative ideals. Hot-button political issues, such as LGBTQ rights and immigration, have also become part of voters’ considerations. One flyer left on doors in Cary this week urged people to vote for Ken George to “protect” the city from events like the Apex Pride Festival.

“This event … was aimed to sexualize, groom and indoctrinate our children, clearly a Marxist assault on our family values!” claims the flyer. A Democratic majority in the Cary Town Council “risks Cary going the way of Apex,” and Equality NC, which endorsed Johnson, George’s opponent, is a “radical organization,” the ad continues.

If Miller and George win, the council would be composed of three Republicans, two unaffiliated members, and two Democrats. The two candidates, along with Robinson, could significantly influence the council majority to start voting more conservatively on issues of development, public safety, and taxes. Neither candidate is an extreme conservative, but their election could mean the town council slows its current course.

District C Race Who is Renee Miller?

Miller said via email that she was not available for an interview but has written on her website about prioritizing public safety, low taxes, infrastructure, and “strategic growth.” Miller writes that Cary will be kept safe by providing first responders with “proper equipment and training” and by keeping pay competitive.

She says the town council needs to preserve Cary’s “hometown feel,” “welcoming spirit,” and “charm” by balancing the rights of property owners with “excessive rezoning requests.” Miller adds that the city should “guarantee our current citizens’ needs are met before adding more developments.”

What:

Where:

Cary Town Council runoff election and second Democratic primary for Wake County sheriff

During early voting, you can cast your ballot at Herbert Young Community Center, 101 Wilkinson Ave., Cary; or at Wake County Board of Elections, 1200 N. New Hope Rd., Raleigh. Find your Election Day voting site at vt.ncsbe.gov.

When: Early voting has already started and will run through July 23.

On weekdays, people can vote from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. You can also cast your ballot July 17 1–6 p.m. and July 23 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Election Day is July 26 from 6:30 a.m.–7:30 p.m.

INDY Week endorsements: Cary District C: Jack Smith Cary At-Large: Carissa Johnson Wake County sheriff, Democratic primary: Willie Rowe

Who is Jack Smith?

Smith is a moderate council member who has served on the town council for the past 32 years, a fact he admits didn’t boost his chances in the most recent election.

“I’m not blind. People say, ‘Well, he’s been there 32 years, maybe it’s time for someone else,’” Smith says. “Am I the same Jack Smith who ran in the ’80s? Probably not.

You can’t be afraid to say, ‘I’ve changed, I’ve evolved.’ When I talk to [people], I talk about what we’re doing now.”

Smith says one of the biggest things he brings to the town council is an open-minded and responsive attitude. He has a record of serving under mayors from both sides of the political spectrum, focusing on practical, local issues. It’s a trait that may serve him well in the coming years as political fights become more heated.

“What needs to be considered is good governance,” Smith says. “We can’t rest on rhetoric, we can’t rest on fear, we can’t rest on whatever the Supreme Court is doing this month. It’s not that those issues are not important, but at the local level, we affect people’s lives the most.”

Smith has a broad coalition of support, including the Wake County Democratic Party (although it has not officially endorsed him) and three of his former opponents—Mary Insprucker, Amanda Murphy, and George McDowell.

“Fundamentally, we were pretty much on the same page,” Smith says. “In the end, when somebody says, ‘I’m for the environment,’ I get to say, ‘Yes, so am I, and this is what we’ve done.’”

During his time on the city council, Smith prioritized diversity in hiring; supported Project Phoenix, in which police officers were assigned to work with specific apartment communities; and helped launch Cary’s sister city program, which promotes cultural festivals and education.

Smith also helped create Cary’s affordable housing plan and fund the effort with $10 million in this year’s budget.

“I want to make sure that every citizen in Cary enjoys all the benefits that Cary has to offer, not just the wealthy, affluent neighborhoods,” Smith says. “You can talk all you want about quality of life, but if you don’t feel safe, or you feel intimidated, or you feel uncomfortable then … we’re kind of losing the essence of what we’re all about and that is to be welcoming and inclusive to all.”

At-Large Race Who is Ken George?

George, who previously served on the town council from 2015 to 2019, is a fiscal conservative who says one of his top priorities is keeping property taxes low. Cary’s recent boom means some property owners have seen a 14 percent tax hike, he says. George also takes issue with the increase in the price of Cary’s Downtown Park, a project that was initially projected to cost $50 million. Voters approved a bond in 2019 that included funding for the park, but the town recently upped its estimate to about $69 million, a move George calls a “bait and swap.”

Another of George’s priorities is affordable housing, he says. Cary has grown massively in recent years, with Apple planning to renovate a seven-floor office building and Epic Games building its new headquarters in the dilapidated Cary Towne Center. Development downtown has also skyrocketed with the Fenton mixed-use development on Cary Towne Boulevard and a new sports complex planned for Buck Jones Road.

Activists with ONE Wake, the community nonprofit lobbying for more investment in affordable housing, are worried that rising housing costs and property taxes will lead to long-term residents being displaced. In response to a survey by the group, George pledged to maintain the current level of funding for affordable housing.

He also wants to expand the city’s home repair grant program to include renovations for in-house rental units and accessory dwelling units, or “granny flats,” that would come with a guarantee of reduced rent for 30 years.

These units would help fixed-income homeowners earn rent, George says, as well as give the city more affordable housing options. In addition to subsidizing these units, George wants the city to waive development fees, which can be anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000.

“We have a large number of houses in Cary that are not part of a homeowners association that would prohibit a garage apartment, for instance,” George says.

“I want to make it so school teachers, firefighters, people who need workforce housing can rent from somebody [in the neighborhood]. We’ve already got the infrastructure in place. We can get more density without having to plow down a lot of trees.”

Who is Carissa Johnson?

If Johnson wins, a liberal voice would replace Yerha’s moderate position, leading to a group of three solid Democrats on the council. The town council already voted unanimously in favor of an affordable housing plan and a nondiscrimination ordinance, but Johnson could influence the

council to lead more aggressively on issues of development and social justice.

Johnson, a first-time candidate, says the housing affordability crisis was what made her want to run for office. She knows what it’s like to be uncertain about where you’re living, she says.

“During the 2007–2008 recession, I got laid off and didn’t get a job very quickly. I had to have two or three jobs to make ends meet,” Johnson says. “I know what it feels like to lay in bed wondering where in the world my daughter and I are going to be in a month or two …. It’s a visceral ache. It makes everything feel unsettled.”

Johnson says the town council needs to do more work to fund affordable housing, especially as federal and state dollars eventually dry up. She also wants the town to relax zoning regulations to allow for more dense and diverse housing types, instead of just single-family homes, Johnson says.

The mixed-income project on Southeast Maynard Road is another good example of what the town should pursue, she says. The development includes 130 rental units, half of which are market rate and half of which are reserved for affordable housing. The project is a partnership between the town and a nonprofit.

Johnson also supports green building standards and solar power housing, which she says will both attract higher-income individuals and support lower utilities for people in need.

On social justice, Johnson says Cary needs to have “a proper Pride Month celebration” and should work to hire and hear from the town’s Asian and Hispanic communities. The town has a responsibility to reflect the values of its residents, she says.

A Summer Election For all candidates, the biggest fight is to get people to turn out and vote. Spreading the word that an election is happening in the middle of summer is no easy feat, especially when many eligible voters are on vacation, enjoying the beach, and simply not thinking about politics yet because it’s not November.

“Half of my battle is getting people to understand there’s a runoff election,” Johnson says. “A significant number of people have congratulated me on my win, and I have to tell them I didn’t win, because in Cary, it’s a nonpartisan race, you have to get 50 percent plus one vote.”

Smith agrees.

“We just got to get people to remember there’s another election in middle of summer,” he says. W INDYweek.com

July 13, 2022

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N E WS

Durham Durham School of the Arts’ current campus downtown.

PHOTO BY MILENA OZERNOVA

New School in Town Durham School of the Arts will open its new campus in North Durham as school system leaders weigh potential new uses for the downtown DSA site.

BY MADDIE WRAY backtalk@indyweek.com

T

he summer weather is heating up, and so is development of Durham School of the Arts’ new campus in North Durham.

In a June 9 work session, Durham Public Schools board members approved a $491,623 contract with O’Brien Atkins Associates and Perkins & Will design firms for the pre-design and planning of a new DSA campus at 2900 Duke Homestead Road.

The school will continue to serve grades 6–12 but will increase capacity to 2,000 students. It will be located on a 54-acre tract of land purchased from Duke University for $4.1 million in 2010.

Construction funding for the new school will be voted on as part of the November bond referendum. The current budget for the school is $120 million, but that amount may be revised based on the current construction market, said Frederick Davis, Durham Public Schools’ executive director of building services.

Meanwhile, school system leaders say they are weighing several different educational uses for the current DSA campus in Downtown Durham.

“I think it’s important for us as we plan for that site going forward to make sure it does have an educational use and 10

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that we take the time to deeply involve the community,” said school board member Natalie Beyer, “because it’s a unique public space with a lot of deep history.”

The magnet arts school’s current sprawling, college-like campus occupies three blocks of a key area of Durham, between North Duke and Gregson Streets. The site was originally home to Durham High School, built in 1906. In 1993, the school closed down, and two years later, DSA took over the left-behind space.

However, an October study by NEMA Management deemed the school in need of renovations or complete reconstruction due to crumbling infrastructure, accessibility issues, and traffic problems.

“We know historically DSA was not built or designed to be a true performing arts and creative thinking school,” said Davis. “It was just an idea, and we had an abandoned building at the time.”

Davis said the space could potentially be used as administrative offices and extra classroom space for overcrowded local schools like New Tech High School, a public magnet high school with a STEM focus, and Ignite! Online Academy, a new school providing hybrid learning for grades K–12.

Alternatively, the site could serve elementary schools also on the docket for revamping. Alongside DSA, Holt, Morehead, Club Boulevard, Mangum, Bethesda, and Glenn Elementary Schools were determined to need renovation and are included in the November bond referendum. The school board is considering moving these elementary schools into DSA buildings while renovations are underway so education is not interrupted, Davis said.

The school’s downtown location is both prime real estate and a historic site that community members treasure.

Many parents welcome improved facilities, but some worry about the loss of DSA’s downtown location. Not only is the new campus less accessible to students living in the city and southern Durham, but the downtown location is an important part of what the school is, said DSA parent Sammy Banawan.

“I think putting [DSA] in the middle of Durham really increases awareness of the school itself,” Banawan said.

“They’re moving away from what I think makes DSA an interesting and unique campus.”

Banawan and others are concerned that the move could bring a loss of social and arts opportunities. The transition to a new, more suburban campus will potentially end the long-standing relationship between the school and the bustling downtown, he said.

Taking these concerns into account, O’Brien Atkins and Durham Public Schools administrators will engage with administration and community to develop a “vision” for the new school, Davis said.

The pre-design process will last until at least the end of August, and construction on the new school will likely begin in June or July of 2023, Davis said. Construction will take an estimated 18 to 24 months, with a goal of completion in June 2025 in time for the new school year.

Pre-design will be followed by detailed design work, including site plans, floor plans, and elevations. The school system will then solicit construction bids for the new campus.

“No activity on this site is going to happen for at least another year or so,” said Davis.

Once designs are drafted, they will be shown to the community ahead of the November bond referendum. This means community engagement and approval are vital to the design process, Beyer said.

“I think it will take time and input from [students and teachers] specifically to think entirely outside the box about that school,” said Beyer. “Not just what it has been but what more it can be.” W This story was published through a partnership between the INDY and 9th Street Journal, which is produced by journalism students at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy.

Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.

STAGE

COVID CHRONICLES: Paradox Opera Livestream: Twitch.tv/Divatron9000, July 15, 7 p.m.

Live performances: Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh, July 16, 7 p.m. | St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Durham, July 17, 7 p.m.

St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Hillsborough, July 19, 7 p.m. | paradoxopera.org/covid-chronicles

A New Act A young Raleigh opera company is determined to make the music form more accessible.

BY BYRON WOODS arts@indyweek.com

A

lissa Roca is a very rare thing: a maverick soprano.

And since she is, we’re getting an unconventional new opera company, devoted to emerging artists, new music, and intriguing takes on older works, in its first performances across the Triangle this weekend.

Paradox Opera—a brainchild born out of a generation of artists’ frustrations with the outdated aesthetics of privilege cemented in the art form’s conventional training and practices—bows this weekend in its first production: Covid Chronicles, a decidedly accessible and broad-ranging concert/cabaret taking stock of how much the world and we have changed after two years in a pandemic.

The company’s next work? Autonomy: a cycle of newly commissioned songs on Roe v. Wade, coming this fall.

The path to create a new opera company in the region—one particularly devoted to changes long needed in the genre—hasn’t been easy. After a 12-year career as a coloratura who’d worked with professional companies including the Dallas and Miami operas, Roca moved to the region in 2020.

She wasn’t looking for a career reset. She’d concluded that opera desperately needed a reset as an art form instead.

“Opera is dying because the audience is dying,” Roca says. Despite a long decline in ticket sales at most opera houses, she notes, “It’s very exclusionary. It’s museum culture: on all fronts, the industry is extremely gatekeeping—for the audience as well as the singers.

“The big hitters right now are not interested in pitching things to younger people and making things accessible. I’ve been through the whole of the industry, and it’s very uncommon to find people who encourage you to do something different.”

Legendary stage director Peter Brook reached the same conclusion decades ago. In his 1968 book The Empty Space, Brook wrote that opera “is a nightmare of vast feuds over tiny details … that all turn around the same assertion: Nothing needs to change.”

According to Roca, that dynamic hasn’t changed. “There’s this overwhelming idea that that kind of music has to be done one way, and if it’s not done that way, it’s wrong.”

Constrictive, traditional aesthetics have all but straitjacketed opera students, and women in particular, Roca asserts. She recalls a harrowing collegiate competition performance during her first year in college where the judges tore her work to shreds.

The judges had no criticism of Roca’s singing, she recalls; they were simply distressed that she had made a single hand gesture during her performance.

“I think audiences feel we’re just sort of puzzle parts in someone else’s museum piece,” Roca says. “I’ve been told so many times in my academic career, ‘Just stand there and be the pretty girl in the dress.’

What is that crap?” After that experience, she began pushing back against the conventions in her training. “I was very much the anomaly among the singers. I just told people no. And that was weird.” When her graduate vocal teacher assigned her repertory works, Roca brought in new music by new composers. “He sort of gave up and just said, ‘OK, what are you doing?’”

Roca has forged her own path ever since.

“It’s funny. My whole career basically has just been me walking up to an ensemble or group and saying, ‘I’m doing this, I’m going to produce it, and here it is.’”

To test that proposition even further, Roca started Paradox Opera during the

A Paradox Opera recital

PHOTO COURTESY OF PARADOX OPERA

pandemic, assembling a board of directors and reaching out to longtime colleagues to get things underway.

The company and its work represent a series of departures from business as usual in the opera world. The focus and subject matter are clearly present-tense; the production logos, which merge graffiti with edgy graphic novel sensibilities, are clearly pitched to a younger audience.

In another divergence from the industry, the production is more cabaret than recital: a multifaceted compilation of 19 works ranging from Mozart to Sondheim, with new composers given prominence alongside canon stalwarts including Verdi, Rossini, and Saint-Saëns. Among the set, pensive takes on isolation and loss from recent chamber operas like William Finn’s A New Brain and Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years contrast with irreverent updates of Gilbert and Sullivan and excerpts from Lend Me a Roll, Vince Gover’s unlikely pandemic farce on the toilet paper crisis of 2020 and 2021.

“It’s not just like, OK, come in here and be depressed for 90 minutes,” Roca grins.

“To have all of these different stories— probably everyone in the audience will have something that happened to them that fits in some of those boxes.”

Also, the group won’t present its music in an exclusive downtown opera house to overdressed swells in black tie and evening dresses. After livestreaming Thursday night on Twitch.tv, the quartet takes its unconventional show to equally unconventional venues: a three-night tour of churches in Raleigh, Durham, and Hillsborough.

Dress is casual, they say; come as you are.

Offstage, the company has departed from the norm as well. Soloists rarely have the opportunity to choose the work that they perform in public. Here, the music reflects the tastes and aesthetics of the artists on stage: old friends Roca called on for her company’s first show, including Chicago-based mezzo-soprano Melissa Simmons, baritone Christopher Fotis from Brooklyn, and composer and pianist Rachel Dean, who is currently in Broadway’s Moulin Rouge. (Future productions will draw on local artists, Roca notes.)

“I want to give back power to the artists, so they feel like they’re really a part of what is being created,” Roca says. The headstrong singer and producer wants her artists “to have the opportunity to say what they want to say, not what somebody else tells them they want to say.”

“If I can and I have to,” she concludes, “I can pave the way.” W INDYweek.com

July 13, 2022

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E TC. The exterior of the Big Hole facility PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY HANNAH KAUFMAN

Stranger than Fiction The Duffer brothers based much of their hit show on the Triangle.

Does a secretive Pittsboro facility called Big Hole serve as inspiration for the show’s notorious lab? BY HANNAH KAUFMAN arts@indyweek.com

A

t first glance, Big Hole Road appears to be an ordinary, dusty country road—the kind of dead-end street a wrong turn might lead you down if you’re lost in Pittsboro.

But if that wrong turn takes you farther down Big Hole Road, you might notice that some of the houses along the road seem a little out of place—mismatched and clashing in a world of homeowners associations and uniform suburbia.

You might also wonder why the road is empty, despite it being the middle of the day.

The lure of this place, though, doesn’t lie along the road but at the end of it, where you’ll be met with an empty guard box, a warning sign in blaring red font, and a tall barbed-wire gate adorned with the AT&T logo. Dig a little deeper—seven stories deep, even—and you might find a giant, secretive underground bunker that stretches somewhere below the site’s 191 acres of property. You might need a pretty big shovel.

Like Nancy Wheeler, one of the characters in the wildly popular Netflix show Stranger Things, I’m an intern at a local paper trying to get a start in the world of journalism.

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Unlike Nancy Wheeler, though, my editors actually give me the chance to explore stories.

Stranger Things is the creative brainchild of identical twins Matt and Ross Duffer, who were born and raised in Durham. If you pay careful attention through the show’s four seasons, the Duffer brothers have hidden North Carolina Easter eggs throughout the entire show, including the layout of the show’s fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana with identical street to Durham names like Kerley and Cornwallis; bodies of water named Jordan Lake and Eno River; and a direct reference to Durham in Season 4.

The brothers have confirmed many of these details as being influenced by their childhood—but have provided little information on the inspiration behind Hawkins Lab, the creepy government building at the center of the plot.

That’s is where this assignment on Big Hole—an underground facility located in Chatham County—comes in.

Named after the not-so-subtle 75-foot hole dug in the ground during its construction, it is rumored to be several stories deep, while atop its grassy surface sit a few oddly

shaped buildings, huge security cameras, and antennae.

The entirety of the facility is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and “no trespassing” signs. The site dates back to the 1960s when AT&T built five central facilities as part of the Project Offices program. Within this confidential program, AT&T built and maintained several structurally sound facilities along the East Coast of the United States in the mid-20th century for an ongoing non-public project.

In addition to Big Hole, these facilities were also constructed inside various northeastern mountains.

AT&T has never disclosed the purpose of these bases, besides a vague assertion of “communications,” but according to a 2008 News & Observer article, the sites were originally intended as nuclear bunkers for government and military officials during the height of the Cold War. With the rise of the nuclear age in the 1960s, the federal government contracted with AT&T to run classified communication networks at secret sites around the country. Project Offices was one such classified program—the five facilities were linked by a troposcatter radio system so that government officials inside one site could still communicate with the other four facilities and maintain a skeletal national system for “continuity of government” (COG) in the case of a nuclear attack.

The most publicly known COG facility is the Greenbrier Bunker, a presidential relocation facility in West Virginia that now lies under a luxurious hotel after being exposed in a 1992 article and decommissioned, leaving little evidence behind—except for a telephone switchboard with the words “CHATAM” and “HGRSTOWN” on it, linking it to Big Hole and the Project Office in Hagerstown, Maryland.

But even among the specialized Project Offices, Chatham County’s sticks out like a sore thumb. The locations of the other four facilities, which are all Washington, DC –adjacent, are more logical. The Chatham County facility makes the least sense. It’s all the way in the remote woods of North Carolina, removed from the other four neighboring Project Offices—what makes Big Hole so special?

In a 2000 INDY Week piece about the site, former Pittsboro mayor—and former AT&T employee—Chuck Devinney had this to say about his time at Big Hole: “I wiped it all out of my head. When I went out the door, I never looked back.” Reached over email, current mayor Cynthia Perry didn’t offer much more: “I don’t know any details about the Big Hole,” she wrote. AT&T media contacts did not respond to INDY requests for comment.

Rebecca Kastleman, an assistant professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, grew up in Chatham County and published a scholarly article called “Big Hole: Excavating Intimate Histories of a Nuclear Homefront” in 2020. She says it’s the site’s very remoteness that may have given it a leg up as a nuclear bunker for military or government officials.

“Its distance from DC might have been seen as an advantage in certain nuclear scenarios,” Kastleman says over the

phone. “I think the real question to ask is, why is there a direct line to the Chatham station from the Greenbrier Hotel? Who would the president need to communicate with at Chatham?”

If you’re befuddled by the site’s history, its present-day state guarantees still more questions. The facility was rumored to close in 2008, and it’s unclear whether it’s still active. When I visited this week, I noticed that the pavement was fresh and the grass had just been mowed. Validating my suspicions, longtime Chatham resident Daniel Fields says Big Hole Road has remained surprisingly busy over the years, despite its apparent abandonment.

“I’ve seen people there over the years, turning down that road or turning out of it, trucks working on the lines right near there,” Fields says. Matt Phillips, one of Fields’s childhood friends who lived in the South Chapel Hill–Chatham County area, says he recalls his friend group’s growing curiosity around Big Hole and the mismatched homes along the road.

“You know when you go to a minigolf course and stuff is obviously fake and kind of weirdly proportioned?” Phillips says.

“Very similar energy.”

In the INDY Week article about Big Hole, two decades ago, local residents told the paper that they witnessed unexplainable phenomena at the facility over the years, like an isolated dark cloud and sporadic lightning over the site on an otherwise sunny day. Stories like these have given rise to conspiracies about paranormal activity and extraterrestrial communication, which were only expanded on a decade later when Fields says he heard a story about a truck with a Roswell tag parked in a driveway off Big Hole Road.

As teenagers in 2008, Phillips and his friends would often stop by Big Hole Road on their way to or from lunch at Allen & Son Bar-B-Que. These visits normally included gawking at the barbedwire fence, though one day, he says, they pulled up in his friend’s Subaru hatchback—barbecue in hand—to an open gate.

Phillips says the facility appeared to be transitioning to new ownership, as people inside the fence were unloading items out of the ground entrance and cars were driving in and out of the gate—an opportunity his friend group took to drive in.

“We drove into the little parking circle, and I had the distinct feeling that everybody who was there clocked our car, saw it drive in and be a civilian car full of teenagers, and looked directly at us,” Phillips says. “All of the people involved kind of mentally went, ‘Oh shit, Code Red, there are people here who shouldn’t be here’

and watched us make the loop, at which point I remember freaking out and being like, ‘We gotta go right now.’”

“When you drive up, you see that field that’s open at the top, and there was a separate time where I saw a bunch of folks in white lab coats with clipboards walking around,” Phillips says. “I mean, it could have been out of any movie, and I just remember thinking specifically, ‘This doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with communication.’”

Over a decade later, in trying to glean information from locals, I found that this level of secrecy hasn’t changed. When I asked one worker at a nearby store what he knows about Big Hole, he cut me off midsentence—“We don’t talk about it”—adding that, though he had once done a construction job for the facility and descended two stories deep, he’d had to undergo a background check and sign an NDA about his time on-site.

“As I got into the world as an adult and talked to more locals about it, I think everybody has that similar sense of ‘ick’ about it.”

Driving along Big Hole Road, I hopped out of the car and asked one neighbor if she knew anything about the facility. Her answer was automatic: “We don’t know anything. AT&T sold it years ago, and that’s all we know.”

But the giant AT&T logo on the front gate says otherwise. Is Big Hole just that—a big, empty hole, left with only the dust of 20th-century history under its surface? Or is it still a hive of technology and secret governmental affairs, operating under the facade of a decommissioned facility?

The Duffer brothers may have once asked themselves the exact same questions. It’s well known to Stranger Things lovers that the experiments that were done on the children in Hawkins Lab are based on a real CIA project in 1953 called MKUltra, which aimed to develop mind-control techniques that could be used against Russia in the Cold War. Of course, this dark bit of American history matches up well with Eleven’s teleki-

netic powers and Dr. Brenner’s use of her as a weapon, as well as season 3’s plot of a Russian invasion in Hawkins. But despite the Duffer brothers’ transparency about what inspired Brenner’s experiments, there is little information on how they dreamed up the lab itself.

Could two young, curious Duffer brothers have stumbled upon Big Hole growing up or read about it and become fascinated with its mystery and conspiracy? Although the Duffer brothers were unable to provide a comment for this story, the directors have confirmed that they had an obsession with film from an early age, and Phillips says Big Hole is most often explored by people who don’t live right next door.

“I think that specifically that area has kind of been knowingly avoided by people that live in North Chatham just because it seems like there’s nothing good that can come from that,” Phillips says. “So I can see why the Duffers would have that as some sort of exploration point, especially in a TV show that already has so much local respect.”

Just as the show’s fictional Jordan Lake is proximal to Hawkins Lab, Jordan Lake is in the backyard of Big Hole. The facilities in both Hawkins and Chatham are secretive and, despite some curious teenagers poking around, most people in the surrounding towns tend to steer clear of them. But the biggest difference is that while Stranger Things allows us to uncover some of the answers behind the lab’s mysteries one season at a time, Big Hole’s gate remains up and its facility remains, thus far, impenetrable.

Stranger Things inspiration or not, Phillips says the conspiracies and eeriness surrounding Big Hole were easy to believe as a bored teenager—but even into adulthood, as someone who is level-headed and not often gullible, he says his feeling of apprehension hasn’t diminished.

“As I got into the world as an adult and talked to more locals about it, I think everybody has that similar sense of ‘ick’ about it,” Phillips says. “I don’t think that is unjustified, and I don’t think it would happen unless there was something significant to pay attention to out there.”

Kastleman has a broader, and blunter, take on what the facility represents.

“I think it’s really imperative for us to understand the space that military infrastructure occupies in our landscapes,” she says. “One of the things that knowing the existence of this site can do for the community around Big Hole is invite us to ask questions about its use—and to become aware of the fact that the federal government and corporations occupy space in our community which isn’t always known to us.” W

YOUR WEEK. EVERY WEDNESDAY. FOOD • NEWS • ARTS • MUSIC

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July 13, 2022

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FO O D & D R I N K

HUNT 4 FOOD AND FITNESS @instagram.com/chefjayroc919

James Hunt with a Hunt 4 Food and Fitness meal PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA

Fit Check Fitness and meal prep maven James Hunt is on a mission: transform the well-being of the restaurant industry.

BY LENA GELLER lgeller@indyweek.com

I

t’s a soupy, 98-degree morning on the outdoor turf deck at Durham’s O2 Fitness Club and James Hunt is wearing sweatpants and a hoodie—with the hood up. The arms of his aviator sunglasses are positioned outside his hood to keep it pinned in place while he works out.

“I’m like a horse wearing blinders,” Hunt explains. “My vision is blocked and I’m tuned in. All I see is my goals, my dreams, and my work ethic.”

Hunt is here to coach a client who recently enrolled in “Hunt 4 Food and Fitness,” a personal training and meal prep service Hunt created to enhance the health of restaurant workers.

Hunt 4 Food and Fitness rests on two tenets: 1) proper nutrition and physical activity are equally essential in leading a healthy lifestyle, and 2) if you take care of yourself, you’ll do a better job taking care of customers.

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Hunt trains clients at three gyms in Durham—O2, Elevate Fitness and Wellness, and AB Fitness—and typically rents gym time by the hour so that clients aren’t obligated to buy their own membership. His meal prep service, which is strongly encouraged but not required as a supplement to personal training, provides 10 pre-portioned dishes to clients on a weekly basis. (Over the past decade, meal prepping has gained popularity in online fitness and clean-eating communities as a way to save money and reduce the temptation to eat out.)

Physically fit workers are better equipped for working long hours on their feet, he says—and, because physical fitness often leads to mental wellness, workers who partake in his program will be happier all around, a trait that may be reflected in the quality of their hospitality.

By promoting self-care, Hunt also hopes to steer workers away from substance abuse, which runs so rampant

in the restaurant industry that it might be considered an occupational hazard. (New hit show The Bear, currently airing on Hulu, is one particularly evocative depiction of the ways that hardcore restaurant kitchen environments can run workers into the ground.) “[Restaurant workers] don’t have health benefits,” Hunt says. “We don’t have health care. So we have to be proactive.”

Before his family settled down in Fayetteville, Hunt spent the first decade of his life in Germany, where his father was deployed in the military. Hunt 4 Food and Fitness, he says, is in part inspired by the European approach to restaurant work.

“Over here, it’s a job,” Hunt says. “Over there, it’s a career.”

He recognizes that the American restaurant industry isn’t likely to experience a seismic shift anytime soon, but he wants to encourage local servers, bussers, food runners, and kitchen staff to embark on their work with the same eye toward sustainability that they would with a long-term profession.

“A lot of people are just passing through,” Hunt says.

“But that doesn’t mean you gotta leave feeling like ‘I ruined my life, I drank and I smoked and I was depressed.’

It shouldn’t be like that. You should leave saying, ‘I’m a better person.’”

Hunt is intimately familiar with the highs and lows of the industry; the 42-year-old has been working in restaurants since he was 16, when he dropped out of high school and got a job flipping burgers at a McDonald’s in Fayetteville.

He spent the next 20 years working both front- and back-of-house positions at a string of corporate chains, and though he doesn’t go into detail about his life during that period of time, he emphasizes that he was “troubled.”

“I did all that knucklehead stuff,” Hunt says. “I grew up in the industry, so I’ve seen it all and done it all.”

Things changed in 2015 when he tore his Achilles tendon and was instructed to stay off his feet for several months.

Out of a job, he decided to get his GED and enroll in culinary school at the Chef’s Academy in Morrisville, where he became gym buddies with a student named Paul Ooka.

Driven by the same ideals that now shape Hunt 4 Food and Fitness, Hunt and Ooka launched a pro bono fitness program for their fellow classmates that included Zumba, weight lifting, and full-body circuit classes. After Hunt graduated in 2017 and landed a job as a cook at Saint James Seafood in Durham—and Ooka moved away—he decided to continue the program on his own, getting certified as a personal trainer and adding a meal prep service when Saint James owner Matt Kelly offered him use of the restaurant’s commercial kitchen space.

Kelly also paid Hunt to offer discounted training and meal prep for the employees at all four restaurants he owns in Durham, though the 2019 gas explosion in downtown Durham that shuttered Saint James for nearly a year—followed by the pandemic, which extended the restaurant’s

“A lot of people are just passing through. But that doesn’t mean you gotta leave feeling like ‘I ruined my life, I drank and I smoked and I was depressed.’ It shouldn’t be like that.” enables him to be more energetic at work and more excited about the gym.

“When I think of working out, I usually just think of lifting weights and protein shakes,” Pankey says. “But every time I’ve trained with Jay Roc, I’ve done a different workout, and every time I’ve learned something new. Working with him has made exercising more fun.”

And fun it is. Hunt is all business when it comes to the workout itself—after putting on a Drake album, he references a giant leather-bound notebook filled with scrawled workout routines (“These workouts are like recipes”) and does each exercise (pushups, mountain climbers, sprints, squats, a slew of dumbbell routines that he created himself) alongside Pankey, occasionally fixing Pankey’s form and keeping a strict regimen of 40 seconds of activity and 20 seconds of rest—but his commentary is erratic and entertaining. Remarks are sometimes humorous (Pankey is “from Wakanda”; I’m “Peter Parker”); sometimes serious (“Did you hear Brittney Griner pleaded guilty?”); and sometimes startlingly earnest: after he hands me his phone and tells me to film and post videos to his Instagram story—no need to run them by him first—he says, almost to himself, “Always wanted to be a star.”

In the near future, Hunt hopes to start working with James Beard Award–winning chef Ashley Christensen (who recently commented, “Killin’ tha game!!! I think you need to get me into shape, boss!” under one of his Instagram videos). Long-term, Hunt envisions franchising a two-story brick-andmortar “one-stop shop” with a gym on the top floor and a restaurant and meal prep service on the bottom. In these future businesses, he tells me, his mission for better customer service will come full circle: he’ll be equipping clients with tools that boost their hospitality but also leading a team of service workers in his own right.

Then, on the spot, he gives Pankey a pop quiz.

“The customer asks for what?” Hunt asks, hesitates, then answers his own question. “Nothing. You don’t wait until they ask for a refill—you give them a refill. You anticipate their needs.” W

th

ke up w a W i

closure and incapacitated the industry at large—put an indefinite pause on that gig.

During the years that Saint James was closed, Kelly was still paying employees, so Hunt put all his energy into growing his business: designing scores of his own workouts; expanding his meal prep menu, cooking in a commissary kitchen that Kelly used to own; and building a social media following—which translated into a surge of new clients. On his Instagram, @chefjayroc919, he posts a stream of cooking videos, workout time lapses, and mini motivational speeches, most of which open with his trademark greeting, “What up, what up, it’s your boy, Jay Roc.” When Saint James reopened in April 2022, Hunt resumed his position in the Saint James kitchen and developed a weekly routine of training clients in the mornings, working the line at night, and cooking meal prep in the kitchen on Sundays and Mondays when the restaurant is closed.

Hunt’s meal prep menu rotates from week to week, though each dish always includes six ounces of protein and four ounces each of both a starch and a vegetable. He describes his cuisine as international and farm-to-table; some of his current offerings include barbecue salmon with mashed potatoes and asparagus; turkey meatballs with a sweet potato and summer squash medley; and Jamaican-style curry chicken with rice, carrots, and bell pepper.

Folks who don’t work in the restaurant industry are welcome to purchase meal prep or training sessions, but they have to pay a higher rate—$110 instead of $99 for a 10-meal package and $20 instead of $10 for an hour-long training session— as Hunt wants to maximize the number of slots available for restaurant workers with tight budgets.

“We’re not in it for the money,” Hunt says.

“We’re in it to change the world.”

Occasionally, he’ll even accept barter deals; when I meet him on the turf deck at O2, he’s coaching a client, Aaron Pankey, who films and edits Hunt’s promotional footage in exchange for free meal prep and training sessions.

Pankey works in the front of house at Saint James and says Hunt’s program

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July 13, 2022

15

PAGE Sarah Dessen and the cast of Along for the Ride PHOTO COURTESY OF NETFLIX

The Rest of the Story On the heels of the Netflix adaptation of Along for the Ride, prolific Chapel Hill author Sarah Dessen takes a look back.

BY SHELBI POLK arts@indyweek.com

G

rowing up, Sarah Dessen was on the quieter side. She loved having gregarious friends but mostly, she sat and listened. “I was the storyteller,” Dessen says. “I remembered everything. I was the Oracle.”

Staying in her hometown is one of the things that’s kept her in touch with those teenage voices. Being in Chapel Hill for most of her life, Dessen still has a connection to those stories.

“It’s really easy for me to put myself back in that place,” Dessen says. “It’s not always a good thing.”

She’s not a huge fan of having to hold on to the adolescent angst that defines many of her protagonists and much of her own high school experience, but it is, at least partly, what she thinks has allowed her to write more than a dozen successful young adult books.

“I remember graduating at Chapel Hill High School, and everyone had their little Class of ’88 keychains,” she says.

Everyone was so excited. And I was like, get me out here.”

She didn’t leave, though. After graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill, she worked mornings as Chapel Hill writ16

July 13, 2022

INDYweek.com

er Lee Smith’s assistant and in the evenings pulled shifts as a waitress at the Flying Burrito. In between, she sat down to write every day, seven days a week.

“If I wasn’t writing,” Dessen says, “it was like having that feeling like I left the curling iron on.”

After about a year of rejections, Smith enjoyed one of Dessen’s books enough to send it to her agent who passed it along to another agent, who has worked with Dessen ever since. For nearly a decade, Dessen kept working alongside her writing, moving from waitressing to teaching at UNC’s creative writing program. She became a full-time writer before the book release and tour for 2006’s Just Listen.

With her daughter away at summer camp, Dessen agreed to speak from her vacation on a North Carolina beach about the Netflix adaptation of her 2009 novel, Along for the Ride, which came out in May. She’s been along for her own kind of ride. In the 25 years she’s been writing from Chapel Hill, Dessen has seen the young adult genre grow up, even if she’s worked hard to

keep her voice that of a teenager. When Dessen’s first book came out, in 1996, there was no real young adult section.

She said her books were shelved—metaphorically, at least— next to Goodnight Moon.

“Now you go in, and you can find a paranormal romance YA section. It’s so specific!” Dessen said. “The big sea change was when we realized booksellers and librarians are always ahead of the curve. Teenagers don’t want to walk into the kids’ section.”

When selling her first book, Dessen resisted the label.

“I was like, ‘Oh, God, no, I don’t write YA,’” she remembers telling her agent. “‘I’m a serious writer.’” But Dessen decided to trust her agent, et voilà: “And now here I am, 25 years later, and it’s a dream. It’s amazing. I think sometimes the genre picks you.”

If you’ve read one of Dessen’s novels, you’re acquainted with the comfortable rhythm with which she writes. An isolated teenage girl with some kind of life-defining problem or obsession meets a boy—and usually his friends and family—whose problems intersect with hers in some way.

There’s usually a new interest, music or BMX riding, and at least one major fight or misunderstanding. They all help each other grow.

If Dessen has repeated the same message through many of her 15 young adult novels, it’s one that withstands the repetition. Vulnerability is dangerous but important. Her characters might think they need to be perfect to feel healthy, but humans need each other to grow and overcome everything from PTSD to insomnia.

As a result, her books are wildly popular among their intended crowd, enough to make her a #1 New York Times bestseller several times over. Dessen has become a one-woman YA empire, so it might seem surprising that there haven’t been more film adaptations of her work.

Mandy Moore and Allison Janney starred in How to Deal, a film mash-up of two of her books in 2003—otherwise, until this film, it’s been crickets.

Along for the Ride is the directorial debut of Sofia Alvarez, who, notably, wrote the adaptation of Netflix’s blockbuster To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Netflix owns the rights to three other Dessen books: This Lullaby (2002), The Truth about Forever (2004), and Once and for All (2017). Netflix’s exact viewing numbers can be opaque but Dessen was told that, on its first weekend, Along for the Ride hit the top 10 globally on the streaming platform. It’s not alone in the YA boom: series like Jenny Han’s The Summer I Turned Pretty and Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone are reaching tens of millions of viewers and reviving interest in books released years before the current YA audience started reading.

Leigh Feldman, Dessen’s agent since her first book in 1996, told Dessen they just needed to wait until her first generation of fans worked in development. That’s exactly what happened: in 2019, three different people in Hollywood were interested in acquiring rights to her nearly 20-year-old books. Netflix won out and now owns the

rights to four of Dessen’s books. She also knows that a script exists for one of the other books Netflix has the rights to, though she doesn’t know which one.

“The idea was to do one a year, but with COVID it’s a miracle this movie even got made,” Dessen says. “It’s such a triumph to even think about the next one.”

Along for the Ride, Dessen thinks, might be a particularly poignant film for teens who lost time to the pandemic: “This movie tracks so much with the idea of things that you didn’t get to do, missed opportunities.”

Just as her main character, Auden, didn’t have a memorable high school experience because of her ambition, Dessen saw her own daughter, who is 14, miss out on formative social experiences during the thick of the pandemic.

“The idea of the bucket list, I feel like that really resonates,” she says. “Even if we’re not addressing the pandemic at all it’s still sort of there.”

Along for the Ride follows 18-year-old Auden, (yes, named after W.H. by her work-obsessed novelist dad) the summer after she graduates high school. Auden is an insomniac who uses her sleepless nights to gain an academic edge, reading ahead for the college courses she’ll be attending in the fall.

Realizing she has no social memories of high school, Auden decamps to her father’s house in a small beach town (modeled, Dessen says, on “Emerald Isle with a boardwalk”). There she makes a group of friends and also meets Eli, a damaged teenager who wants to help her catch up on the things she missed in high school.

Alvarez’s vision for the book met expectations.

“I drove down here for filming, and I literally pulled right up at the pier and walked into my book,” Dessen says. “It was insane.”

The film version was shot in Carolina Beach, with some small updates to bring it up to speed a few years. Emails are replaced by annoying voicemails and Auden’s cast of friends includes a Black girl and a lesbian.

It’s not a complete overhaul, but Dessen— who, it should be mentioned, almost exclusively writes about straight white girls— acknowledges the necessity.

“In this case, it’s a perfect opportunity to update the book and to show the world more as it is,” Dessen said. “And I thought Fia [Sofia Alvarez] did an amazing job with that.”

Dessen was hands-off with this adaptation and expects to be going forward, as well. She had one three-hour phone call with Alvarez at the beginning of the project, after which she says she had full faith in Alvarez.

The biggest change Dessen celebrates in the decades since beginning her writing career, she says, is the growing diversity of stories available to YA readers.

“When I was getting published, there were not a lot of writers of color that were getting published,” Dessen said.

“Now we’re getting all these stories. And they mean so much for teenagers. That’s what it’s all about.”

Dessen regularly writes about things like anxiety and eating disorders in an effort to make girls struggling with their mental health feel seen, so she can imagine the way representation matters to teens of color.

“You feel lost and hopeless,” Dessen said.

“But you open a book and there’s somebody that’s like you.”

Still: “YA has gotten much more inclusive, but we still have a lot of work to do.”

While she celebrates the fact that editors want diverse stories, Dessen doesn’t see herself straying from a lead character who is a straight, white woman. Her last book, 2019’s The Rest of the Story, features the first lesbian she’s written—a supporting character—which is something she says readers have been asking for for years.

“We were very careful,” she said. “We had a sensitivity reader. We worked really hard because I knew that people were watching me.”

But her desire to reflect her readers is balanced out by an acknowledgment of her own privilege.

“As a white cis woman, I should not be telling certain stories,” Dessen said. “That’s not my story to tell. Right? I have my story.

So it’s respecting other people’s stories but at the same time showing the world as it actually is.”

“I do think I have more responsibility,” Dessen adds. “I think at the time I did the best I could. Looking back, I wish there was more diversity. I wish I showed more sides of things so that more people would feel included in the books, and all I can do moving forward is say I’m doing better and I’m listening. For white writers who have already been successful, we need to be listening.”

Listening, and maybe also taking a breather, as Dessen watches her stories come to life on-screen. She’s finishing up her 15th book right as her own daughter turns 15 and wonders if it’s time to give teenage angst some space.

“I’ve always sort of said that I wanted to step out of YA for a couple of years while she was a teenager and just let her live her life and not, you know, have her mom writing books about people her age, you know?”

Dessen says. “So that’s always the plan. But I don’t know.” W

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July 13, 2022

17

M U SIC

THE A’S: FRUIT

[Psychic Hotline Records; Fri., July 15]

Amelia Meath and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig PHOTO BY KENDALL BAILEY ATWATER

AMELIA MEATH: Eventually, we realized that the songs that didn’t make it on the record weren’t full of glee enough.

SAUSER-MONNIG: They didn’t elicit strong feelings in us, despite being beautiful melodies and lyrics and cool songs.

MEATH: The whole recording process of this record was so full of joy. I haven’t belly-laughed casually about a band more.

What was the rehearsal process like?

SAUSER-MONNIG: We’d go for morning jogs or have

solo morning time and then around lunchtime, we’d come out [to the Betty’s porch] and bring our notebooks and instruments.

MEATH: We made a lot of extravagant vegan meals.

SAUSER-MONNIG: And tiki cocktail hour.

MEATH: Yeah, Alex’s roommate’s parents had filled the back of their car with fresh mangos from their yard. We made fresh mango mai tais.

How did you want the original track “When I Die” to fit into the larger tapestry of the album?

MEATH: It was a song I’d written during the pandemic and

it felt like it fit.

Bearing Fruit

The production’s so distinctive compared to the others— much more contemporary.

MEATH: It was something I wrote and demoed with Sandy.

With new duo The A’s, Amelia Meath and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig channel early folk’s whimsy and wonder. BY AMANDA WICKS music@indyweek.com

A

lexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Meath have spent years exploring the almost cosmic good fortune of their kindred vocals as two-thirds of the folk group Mountain Man (along with Molly Sarlé). Yodeling was something they always did on the side; on long tour drives, they’d listen to singers like The DeZurik Sisters, a duo from the 1930s, and try to figure out how they could achieve that lovely yip or warbled trill.

When their fascination didn’t quiet, it became clear a new outlet might be necessary to capture the stunning clarity of their intertwined voices. Like on a loom, these were clearly two threads that wanted to be woven together.

As The A’s, they’re set to release their debut album, Fruit, on July 15 via Sylvan Esso’s label Psychic Hotline Records.

Fruit features the original song “When I Die,” which Meath originally demoed with Sylvan Esso, alongside covers of early country and folk. It’s a collection that feels transplanted from the past—equal parts whimsical and worshipful.

The traditional song “Swing and Turn Jubilee” sits alongside Harry Nilsson’s moony-eyed “He Needs Me” (from the 1980 film Popeye) and Patsy Montana’s 1930s country song “My Poncho Pony.” Sauser-Monnig 18

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INDYweek.com

and producer Nick “Sandy” Sanborn brought the original’s trot-like rhythm alive by turning kalimbas upside down and tapping on the back to create the titular pony’s clip-clop.

That sense of play turned into a found-sound feast, even though The A’s didn’t set out to make that kind of record.

They went roving around Meath and Sanborn’s recording studio, Betty’s, grabbing clips of gravel, birds, and shorts (yes, shorts) to frame their warm, dulcet vocals and impressive yodels (see especially “Why I’m Grieving”).

As the birds chattered, the dogwood blossoms slowly dropped, and a new resident turtle made itself comfortable near Betty’s back porch, The A’s spoke with the INDY about the seeds of their project, the sheer fun they had recording it, and what they love most about each other’s voices.

INDY WEEK: How did you narrow down what you wanted to cover?

ALEXANDRA SAUSER-MONNIG: The list of songs came

from the sphere [of early folk music] that exists in a childfriendly realm of silliness and play. I think that was sort of a touchstone in a way.

SAUSER-MONNIG: I was obsessed with it.

MEATH: Then we flipped it. It didn’t feel like a Sylvan Esso song. It fits into the world of The A’s in that there’s a lot of whimsy and a delicate tinge of menace.

Mountain Man seems like it could have been a natural outlet for this project. Why develop it as a duo?

SAUSER-MONNIG: The beginnings of this project were

really these stunt yodel songs. They didn’t make sense for Mountain Man because Amelia and I were like, “We should sing these crazy songs and learn these insane yodels.” And Molly was …

MEATH: Not down.

SAUSER-MONNIG: Was not into the yodels, which is so completely fair. But we were also like, “We love the yodels.

Can we though?”

MEATH: So we did.

How did you first discover The DeZurik Sisters?

SAUSER-MONNIG: They were on a German compilation of

American folk and cowboy songs. We would listen to the first yodel, then pause it and practice, and then relisten to the yodels.

MEATH: We wanted to learn.

SAUSER-MONNIG: “How did they do that hiccup?”

MEATH: Alex wrote out [the songs] phonetically and that really helped, just reading a bunch of nonsense syllables.

SAUSER-MONNIG: It’s like, “What does that sound like? It sounds like a dee, followed by a doodly-daa,

followed by a brrrrr, followed by a hiccup sound.”

You two sound like sisters, though you’re not. Was that quality always there or did it develop the more you sang together?

MEATH: I think it was definitely always

there. The first couple of times we sang together, it was like a new-love feeling or something very magical, so much so that we couldn’t really stop doing it once we figured it out. As we’ve both gotten better at singing and better at singing together, it’s gotten smoother.

If anything, I think we’ve gotten more confident in our individual voices and that makes it more interesting.

What do you love about the color of each other’s voices?

MEATH: All I can really think about is two

barn swallows doing the swoops together.

It’s hard to articulate. The coolest thing that happens is when you’re both doing it together you lose time and all of the trash of existence, and you get to simply be with somebody.

Kind of like a flow state?

SAUSER-MONNIG: I think that’s when it’s

at its best, when we’re both fully present.

It’s easier to arrive at with [Amelia] in some ways and something to aspire to always. In terms of Amelia’s voice, she’s very emotive and I’ve always found that inspirational, being able to channel emotion and compassion and feeling in a way that translates very immediately to anyone that’s listening.

MEATH: For me, Alexandra has a clarity of note that almost feels like a Möbius strip, because she can take this beautiful, clear bell and then there’s a crack moment [Snaps.] where it looks like it just disappears, and then you see the underside of the note, which is so … it feels textural like you could lick it. [Both cackle.]

You’re going to have to unpack that later. You mentioned whimsy in the recording process. Tell me more about the found sounds you pepper throughout the album.

MEATH: We weren’t like, “We’re going to

make a found-sound record,” but we’d be like, “Well, we want it to have this percussive feeling that’s also …” and then Sandy would start doing something on his shorts, and we’d be like, “Let’s get that.”

SAUSER-MONNIG: “Let’s mic your shorts.”

MEATH: Once we’d done it, it became the rule, like, “The first thing we find that sounds like what we want will be the thing.” W

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9/23 ANDREA GIBSON 9/28 TINARIWEN 10/6 ALEX G W/ BARRIE 10/17 MADISON CUNNINGHAM W/ BENDIGO FLETCHER SOLD 10/26 VIOLENT FEMMES OUT (ON SALE JUNE 24)

11/14 SOCCER MOMMY W/ HELENA DELAND THE ARTSCENTER (CARRBORO) 9/14 JOE PURDY 10/16 BOB MOULD SOLO ELECTRIC W/ H.C.MCENTIRE THE RITZ (RALEIGH) 9/4 INTERPOL 10/18 MOTHER MOTHER W/ SIR SLY KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE (CARY) 7/25 IRON & WINE AND ANDREW BIRD ($40- $60)

W/ MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO

NC MUSEUM OF ART (RALEIGH) 9/14 LAKE STREET DIVE W/ THE DIP 10/1 WATCHHOUSE (FORMERLY MANDOLIN ORANGE) W/ ALLISON DE GROOT & TATIANA HARGREAVES PINHOOK (DURHAM) 8/12 L.A. WITCH CAROLINA THEATRE (DURHAM) 9/8 CROCE PLAYS CROCE—

50TH ANNIVERSARY

(A.J. CROCE PERFORMING THE MUSIC OF HIS FATHER, JIM CROCE )

CATSCRADLE.COM • 919.967.9053 • 300 E. MAIN STREET • CARRBORO

CULTURE CALENDAR

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

Spider Bags and Greg Cartwright perform at The Pinhook’s Benefit for Reese McHenry on Sun., July 17 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PINHOOK

stage American Dance Festival Jun. 3–Jul. 20, various times.

Various venues, Durham.

The Half-Life of Marie Curie $10+. Jul. 13-17, various times.

Durham Arts Council, Durham.

music Goodnight Texas The Bronze Age $10. Wed, Jul. 13, 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Live Jazz with Marc Puricelli and Friends Wed, Jul. 13, 7 p.m. Imbibe, Chapel Hill.

Steve Von Till $18.

Wed, Jul. 13, 8 p.m.

Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Paradox Opera: Covid Chronicles $35. Jul. 15-19, various times. Various locations, Raleigh, Durham, and Hillsborough.

Barenaked Ladies: Last Summer on Earth Tour $39+. Sat, Jul. 16, 7 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

Big Time Rush: Forever Tour $25+.

Fri, Jul. 15, 8 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

The Emo Band $15+.

Sat, Jul. 16, 9 p.m.

Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Chris Brown & Lil Baby: One Of Them Ones Tour $39+. Fri, Jul. 15, 7 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park, Raleigh.

Jazz at the NCMA presents: Arturo O’Farrill, The Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble, and Veronica Swift $50+. Thurs, Jul. 14, 7:30 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.

Ethan Iverson Trio $30. Fri, Jul. 15, 8 p.m. Sharp Nine Gallery, Durham.

Mellow Swells Thurs, Jul. 14, 7:30 p.m. Imbibe, Chapel Hill.

Remember Jones $12. Fri, Jul. 15, 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Rebekah Todd $10.

Thurs, Jul. 14, 8 p.m.

Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Madhouse: Season Finale! $12. Fri, Jul. 15, 9 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Stray Local $10. Fri, Jul. 15, 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Orchestra Noir: The Atlanta African-American Orchestra $69+.

Sat, Jul. 16, 8 p.m.

Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Queer Agenda! $7. Sat, Jul. 16, 10 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Rhett Miller $20. Sat, Jul. 16, 9 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Rodolfo Zuniga Quartet $15+.

Sat, Jul. 16, 8 p.m.

Sharp Nine Gallery, Durham.

A Benefit for Reese McHenry $15. Sun, Jul. 17, 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Brent Pella $22+.

Wed, Jul. 13, 8 p.m.

Goodnights & Factory Restaurant, Raleigh.

NCMA Groove: The Joy of Soul Sun, Jul. 17, 3 p.m.

NCMA, Raleigh.

The Monti StorySLAM: F*@k. Marry. Kill. $15. Thurs, Jul. 14, 7:30 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

In Tha Fest $10. Tues, Jul. 19, 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Fenton Live! Music Series Tues, Jul. 19, 6:30 p.m. Fenton, Cary.

King Bach $22+. Jul. 15-16, various times.

Goodnights & Factory Restaurant, Raleigh.

Comedy Night with Andy Forrester and Mark Brady $15. Fri, Jul. 15, 8 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Drag Show hosted

by Naomi Dix $10.

Sat, Jul. 16, 8 p.m.

Vecino Brewing Co., Carrboro.

Nimesh Patel $35.

Sat, Jul. 16, 7 p.m.

The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

CHEER Live! $25+. Sun, Jul. 17, 7:30 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

Stand-Up on the Roof Mon, Jul. 18, 7 p.m. The Durham Hotel, Durham.

Frenchman’s Creek screens at The Carolina Theatre on Weds., July 13 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CAROLINA THEATRE

page Marcie Cohen Ferris: Edible North Carolina Thurs, Jul. 14, 7 p.m.

Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Beau Ciolino and Matt Armato: Probably This Housewarming Tues, Jul. 19, 6 p.m.

Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Frenchman’s Creek $8. Wed, Jul. 13, 7 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail $6.

Jul. 14 and 16, various times. The Cary Theater, Cary.

North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra $25.

Tues, Jul. 19, 8 p.m.

Sharp Nine Gallery, Durham.

Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour 2022 $8+.

Jul. 15-28, various times. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Steely Dan: Earth After Hours $99+.

Tues, Jul. 19, 8 p.m.

DPAC, Durham.

Outdoor Film Series—SpiderMan: No Way Home $7. Fri, Jul. 15, 8:30 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.

Tune Up Tuesdays with Charly Lowry Tues, Jul. 19, 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Smash the Plate[triarchy] Fri, Jul. 15, 6 p.m. Outer Loop Arts, Durham.

Live from the Studio: Nikita Yogaraj Sat, Jul. 16, 1:30 p.m. Online; presented by NCMA.

Kwame Mbalia: The Royal Trials Tues, Jul. 19, 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Live Jazz with the Brian Horton Trio Tues, Jul. 19, 9 p.m.

Kingfisher, Durham.

screen

art

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and Mars Attacks $10.

Fri, Jul. 15, 7 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Legally Blonde Brunch $11. Sun, Jul. 17, 11 a.m. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Raleigh.

Piano to Zanskar Tues, Jul. 19, 7 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Watch Durham: A VERY Durham Film Screening Series Tues, Jul. 19, 7 p.m.

Durty Bull Brewing Company, Durham.

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

July 13, 2022

21

P U Z Z L ES

T OUN DISC FREE C LU B A L L FOR ORS & E CAT EDU LTH CAR S A HE RKER WO

If you just can’t wait, check out the current week’s answer key at www.indyweek.com, and click “puzzle pages” at the bottom of our webpage.

In-Store Shopping Curbside Pick Up www.regulatorbookshop.com 720 Ninth Street, Durham, NC 27705

Hours: Monday–Saturday 10–7 | Sunday 10–6

su | do | ku

this week’s puzzle level:

© 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.

If you just can’t wait, check out the current week’s answer key at www.indyweek.com, and click “puzzle pages.”

Best of luck, and have fun! www.sudoku.com solution to last week’s puzzle

22

July 13, 2022

INDYweek.com

7.13.22 INDY CLASSIFIEDS classy@indyweek.com

C L AS S I F I E D S EMPLOYMENT

HEALTH & WELL BEING

Java Developer (Cary, NC) Pundit Inc. seeks Java Developer for its Cary, NC office to perform requirements gathering and analysis and understand functional, business and system requirements. Use JMock, Mockitto frameworks for testing the code. May travel and relocate to various unanticipated sites throughout the U.S. Must have Master’s degree in Comp Sci, Info System or a related field. Email resume to dave@punditinc.com. EOE. No Calls.

Lead Infrastructure Engineer (Raleigh, NC) Lead Infrastructure Engineer, F/T at Truist (Raleigh, NC) Resolve complex tech’l issues for Truist Network applications. Perform problem tracking, diagnosis & root-cause analysis, replication, troubleshooting, & resolution for complex issues. Must have Bach’s deg in Comp Sci, IT, IS, or related tech’l field. Must have ServiceNow Administrator Certification. Must have 3 yrs of exp in dvlpmt or prgmr positions performing the following. applying in-depth knowl in info systems & ability to identify, apply, & implmt best practices; understanding of key business processes & competitive strategies related to the IT function; planning & managing projects & solving complex problems by applying best practices; mentoring or providing direction to less experienced teammates; ServiceNow Dvlpmt; & demonstrating proficiency in Java, JavaScript, Shell Script, HTML, XML, AWS, & Python Scripting. Email resume w/cvr letter to: Paige.Whitesell@Truist.com (Reference Job No. R0062734) Data Engineer Senior (Raleigh, NC) The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. has an opening for a Data Engineer Senior in Raleigh, NC. Within the Enterprise Data Management department, the position will be responsible for performing analytical tasks on vast amounts of structured and unstructured data to extract actionable business insights. Specific duties include: (i) ingesting large volumes of data from various external sources into Hadoop, and able to build data pipelines (ii) developing IT based Hadoop strategies for business data implementation, date acquisition, execution, reporting, and archive recovery; (iii) advising IT, business, applications, and operations counterparts to ensure data integrity and availability; (iv) developing the PoCs for business problems leveraging Hadoop eco system; and (v) educating business community users with Hadoop best practices and latest techniques to optimize the code.

Master’s degree in Technology, Analytics, Engineering, Mathematics, Information Technology, or Information Systems Management plus 3 years of experience conducting data engineering and analytics on large volumes (Petabytes) of data is required. Experience must include: (i) handling, manipulation and analysis of large datasets (multiple terabytes of data); (ii) leveraging Trifacta or Informatica for data preparation and wrangling activities; (iii) utilizing data query tools including HQL, SQL, R, and Python to manipulate, analyze and interpret data; (iv) writing and implementing code/software to clean and transform multiple terabytes of unstructured data sets with numerical and textual data; (v) building data pipelines using pySpark, to prepare the consumable datasets for data analytics and reporting; (vi) integrating with external data sources to identify interesting and relevant trends; (vii) programmatically extracting data from a Hadoop database and transforming the data into presentable form such as an ROC curve, map, or Tableau visualization; (viii) ingesting real time data from Kafka streaming platform into Hadoop and preparing consumable datasets; (ix) converting existing complex SQL code from Teradata/SAS/Oracle into Hive Query language/pySpark; (x) optimizing and troubleshooting the Yarn/Impala applications; (xi) providing training to hundreds of business users and technology partners about Hadoop best practices and latest Hadoop tools & techniques; and (xii) understanding business problems and designing the architecture solutions for data consumption using Hadoop ecosystem.

40 hours/week, 8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Interested individuals apply online at www.pnc.com using keyword R108743.

PNC provides equal employment opportunity to qualified persons regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, veteran status, or other categories protected by law.

INDY CLASSIFIEDS classy@indyweek.com

919-416-0675

www.harmonygate.com

LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE M I S C.

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July 13, 2022

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