The Fight that Fractured Saint Augustine's University
As the Raleigh HBCU battles to retain accreditation, internal complaints and lawsuits reveal deep disputes about how the board of trustees has managed the institution.
By
Chloe Courtney Bohl and Erin Gretzinger, p. 8
Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill
VOL. 42 NO. 5
NEWS
Contents
5 How would you spend $2.4 million on the Bull City? Durham is taking ideas now for the next participatory budgeting cycle. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW
7 With reduced service, Durham Public Schools has hired and retained enough bus drivers to cover all current routes—but the school system is still short of its goal. BY CHASE PELLEGRINI DE PAUR
8 "Having survived so much for so long, SAU now teeters on the edge of chaos": How Saint Augustine's University's went from a pillar of the community to an imperiled institution. BY CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL AND ERIN GRETZINGER
INDY'S 2025 FESTIVAL & EVENTS GUIDE
13 Whatever your interest, you’ll find a unique way to explore it in the Triangle this year. We’ve compiled it all for you in our annual festival and event directory.
CULTURE
26 "Politicians feared The News & Observer": Author Rob Christensen talks about his new book on the North Carolina newspaper's long legacy. BY CARR HARKRADER
28 Talking with Tracey Deonn, as she returns to her home state to promote Oathbound, the third book in her bestselling Legendborn Cycle series. BY JASMINE GALLUP
29 Sarah McCombie of Chatham Rabbits on the duo's new album, outgrowing friendships, and beating the system. BY SARAH EDWARDS
32 Mickey 17, The Friend, and other movies playing locally this month. BY GLENN MCDONALD
THE REGULARS
4 Backtalk 34 Culture calendar
Correction: In our story on the Athens Drive Community Library two weeks ago, we incorrectly stated that Rolesville was the second library being replaced under the countywide library bond. Rolesville is actually getting its first library under the bond; Wendell Community Library will be replaced.
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Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh (see story beginning on page 8).
PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS
Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh (see story beginning on page 8).
PHOTO BY ANGELICA EDWARDS
In January, Justin Laidlaw wrote about a proposal to build a new convention center in Durham that would offer event space for visitors as well as activities for locals. Readers continue to have thoughts about the story:
From reader WAYNE via email:
Durham, with its crappy roads, crappy schools, no affordable housing and so much crime they can export it to the surrounding communities, needs a $540 MILLION convention center even less than UNC needs a new basketball facility (so the fat cats can sit in their luxury boxes and order drinks to be delivered to their seat).
Leonardo Williams reminds me of [Harold] Hill, in The Music Man: “Oh we got trouble, right here in Durham City, that starts with T and rhymes with C and that stands for Crime, Uuhhh I meant Programs, We need more Programs, And a Convention Center to make me Proud..
Looks like another Bull City Grift to me.
Jane Porter reported on the uncertain future of the Athens Drive Community Library—and residents’ attempts to save the current location from closure once again. Readers had thoughts, and memories, to share:
From Reddit user LESSTHANPI:
For what it’s worth, I’ve been trying to advocate to the City of Raleigh that strategically, it makes sense to keep the library close to another community asset like Ath-
ens High School, especially considering how accessible it would be for high school students with no car and no money. By keeping it close to the school, it means the City, theoretically, only has to invest in the infrastructure around these community spaces once. It amplifies the necessity of safer street infrastructure in a concentrated area where we know more vulnerable users of the public roadways will be present at all times of the day. What an opportunity to build a unique third space, y’know?
But I’m also pretty sure that whenever I talk to council, they just hear the Peanuts trombone voice.
From Reddit user THEDIZZLEDAZZLE:
It’s currently located off a trail and transit, including the 11L and [about] 25 minutes (a bit far, I will say) now frequent every 15 minute route 11. Plus being integrated in the school currently makes it a unique community gathering place.
I get the security concerns, but it should be located near where it currently is to stay multi-modal accessible, and serving a lower middle-income community, that has a level of gentle density.
And TikTok user KATY TEACHES EC:
That was my high school. I got kicked out of that library many times for shenanigans. Good memories.
Last month, Sarah Edwards compiled a list of Black History Month events across the Triangle. A reader shared his perspective on honoring Black history in Durham:
From reader MIN. PAUL SCOTT via email:
In regards to the article “Five Ways to Recognize Black History Month,” Sarah Edwards mentioned how Black History is now seen as subversive in this political climate. What we did in Durham is form a “gang” to combat that, called the Black Hoodie Brigade. We use GANG as an acronym for “Getting Academics Not Guns.”
The movement was inspired by the political education classes of the Black Panther Party but instead of Black Leather jackets, our uniform is the more readily available black hoodie as a symbol of unity and resistance.
We don’t seek permission from others to celebrate our culture, we go to the street corners in Durham and pass out free Black History books and conduct impromptu Black cultural and political education classes. Our motto is “Knowledge is a Weapon.”
So, we do not just celebrate Black culture in February, we celebrate it 365 days a year. What good is celebrating Black History if we are not creating a better Black Future for the youth in the Bull City in 2025.
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“They Got a Foot in and They Thrived”: Participatory Budgeting Engages Durham Residents in Local Government
Through participatory budgeting, residents can vote on how to spend $2.4 million in city funding. Project ideas are being collected now for the fourth funding cycle.
BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW jlaidlaw@indyweek.com
Participatory budgeting is back for its fourth cycle in Durham, allowing residents the opportunity to allot $2.4 million in city funding on (almost) whatever project idea they can dream up.
Durham began using participatory budgeting (PB) in 2018. Carmen Ortiz, budget engagement manager with the City of Durham, has worked on PB since the first cycle.
“It’s not just about giving residents these projects but also about educating them, empowering them, and training them on how to be engaged in the city and learn how to move through the process,” Ortiz says.
One of her proudest moments on the PB team comes from working with a group of Latina moms who she says were engaging with local government for the first time through the budget process.
“There was a lot of hand-holding, because they didn’t speak English, and I had to kind of guide them,” Ortiz says.
For some residents, the PB cycle is their first foray into local government. Residents as young as 13 can vote. The projects that folks propose, like ADA-compliant park equipment, or lighting and cameras to improve resident safety, interface with a host of city departments including parks and recreation, public works, transportation, and yes, finance. Those who participate in the PB process get a detailed look at how city initiatives move from idea to implementation.
Ortiz says that participants in participatory budgeting, like the group of women Ortiz helped shepherd through the PB process in year one, often take what they’ve learned and find other opportunities to continue engaging in their community.
“It’s almost like they got a foot in and they thrived and did so well,” Ortiz says. “And that’s what you’re giving community members with PB; an opportunity to step in and learn how things work and become a leader on your own.”
The “participatory” side of the process only has two requirements: being a Durham resident and at least 13 years old. Folks can submit projects online or join one of the information sessions held throughout the budget cycle. The PB Steering Committee does resident outreach to ensure that as many residents as possible can join in the fun and that communities want the projects proposed for their areas.
The idea collection phase is underway, meaning residents can submit their proposed projects now. Next, over the summer, budget delegates will review proposals for feasibility, equity, and community support. Finally, in October and November, residents will be able to vote on which projects they want to see funded.
Speed and efficiency are important to voters who participate in the process. Some projects are already being considered by the city, and the PB process can help them jump ahead. Additionally, some projects proposed through the PB cycle are already being funded by the city and get bumped off the list.
“One of the things that’s really important for us is that projects are implemented in a timely manner,” Ortiz says.
The PB team wants projects that can be implemented in two to three years.
“Why? Because we want residents to see results,” Ortiz says. “If people are not seeing the results, they’re no longer going to trust you.”
Proposed projects are scored based on feasibility, impact, and equity.
A mural at El Futuro made possible by participatory budgeting. PHOTO BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW
“One of the things that we’re being very intentional about in this cycle is really informing people what is feasible, what is not feasible, so that we get proposals that are more realistic,” Ortiz says.
The city council already has several budget retreats and public hearings where community members can make direct requests to their representatives. They are overloaded with requests restricted by budget constraints. On the other hand, funding for participatory budgeting is already accounted for, clearing one of the biggest hurdles.
Recurring requests relate to safety and security and parks and recreation. Ortiz says that when enough projects following a similar theme are presented through the PB process, city departments take that feedback and try to incorporate those needs into their own budget to avoid using the PB money.
Alex Ramos, chair of the steering committee, has spent most of his young career working in civic engagement and sees PB as a way to inform more of his community about local government.
While a student at Riverside High School, Ramos worked with organizers to pack the room at city council and school board meetings to advocate for interpreters and support for undocumented and immigrant students. He says that experience opened his eyes to how local government affected his day-to-day life.
After graduating from Duke University with an economics degree, Ramos continued his civic engagement work through Poder NC Action, where he hosted workshops on the importance of local government. When the PB team put out requests for residents to join the steering committee, Ramos saw it as a chance to leverage his skills in a new way.
Ramos has focused on bringing more youth voices into the budget conversation. Those not old enough to vote in elections can feel like government either isn’t accessible to them or doesn’t affect their lives.
“I think a lot of youth think, ‘Oh, it’s down the road. It doesn’t matter.’” Ramos says.
Presenting ideas and voting for projects gives Durham’s adolescent population in particular a taste of the electoral process. The steering committee includes positions for Durham’s youth “so that those voices are included,” Ramos says.
“I’ve had so many moms who were like, ‘Hey, tienes que votar. You have to do this,’ with their kids who are in high school,” Ramos says. “I don’t know if this person will remember, but at some time, they will say, well, I’ve done something that’s like voting and is related to elections and deciding something for their local community.” W
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NE W S
Durham Public Schools Says All Bus Routes Are Being Covered
With reduced bus service, DPS has hired and retained enough drivers to reliably cover all current routes, but the school system is still short of its goal.
BY CHASE PELLEGRINI DE PAUR chase@indyweek.com
Perhaps the best way to get a snapshot of the current severity of the ongoing Durham Public Schools transportation crisis is to count the number of corny jokes made by Chief Operating Officer Larry Webb at any given meeting.
“Since January 23, all of our routes have been covered,” Webb told local city and county officials at a joint meeting on February 11. “This is due to the extraordinary efforts of our full-time bus drivers, school employees, and transportation employees who are going the extra mile—literally—to fill in as needed as we try to grow our bus driver workforce.”
“[Director of auxiliary services Kenneth] Barnes and his team have really stepped on the gas and accelerated through this process—see what I did there?” Webb said at a February 6 meeting, referencing efforts to get routes covered by DPS staff who already have commercial driver’s licenses. “This is really where the rubber meets the road—see what I did there again?” he said later in the meeting, giving kudos to school-level staff for their problem-solving. “The wheels on the bus are going around and around,” he told joint government sessions on both February 11 and February 18.
Webb isn’t quite taking a victory lap— see what I did there?—but his dad jokes do mark a change from the previously grim tone of the besieged district leadership. The school system’s transit crisis is certainly not over, but having all routes covered is a massive improvement from the beginning of the school year, when students were left waiting hours for buses that never arrived. With 135 drivers (which does not include drivers who have other primary roles in the
district and only serve as substitute drivers) the district is still below its target minimum of 155 drivers. In response to questions from the county commissioners, Webb said that a staff of 200 drivers would allow DPS to cover current routes (with drivers who are dedicated to driving only), have a pool of substitute drivers, and possibly even expand service while eliminating the need for drivers to cover multiple routes in a day.
This new era of reliable daily service comes as a result of having more drivers but also from decreasing the total number of students transported by the district compared to the beginning of the year. Since the end of rotational coverage, though, the district has steadily added students to routes.
Administrators, seemingly wanting to avoid making promises they can’t keep, have not made clear exactly what service will look like in a future with more drivers.
That’s left parents with questions about express stops, which the board approved in December but administrators put on hold in January. Express stops (which would have families transport their children to a nearby school that they do not attend, where students would then catch a bus to their magnet school) may still go into effect for some magnet schools next year, though the district has not given a substantial update on that plan since its initial rollout was paused.
“I am once again asking you for the information that family should have had weeks ago,” parent Chad Haefele said via written public comment last week. “Where will express stops be? What times will they operate? What are the expectations of parents at pick up and drop off? … If you can’t answer these questions by now, you
shouldn’t be using this model.”
Webb told INDY via DPS spokesperson Crystal Roberts that it is “too early to predict, so express stops remain an option for consideration for school year 2025–2026.”
The future is also uncertain for those in “family responsibility zones,” areas close to 21 elementary schools in which students do not receive district transportation.
The January rollout of FRZs was not entirely smooth—nearly every conversation about FRZs has included Hope Valley Elementary, where administrators suspended the plan after parents raised concerns about ongoing construction that makes the school, at the corner of roads with three and four lanes of traffic, unsafe to walk to.
Webb said that the district has hired 15 new drivers since January 6 and still has several currently going through training.
Superintendent Anthony Lewis has shouted out organizations like the DPS Foundation, which have stepped in to help with the roughly $400 that it costs to even become a DPS driver (that cost includes getting a physical exam, getting the CDL, and taking other tests and certifications).
Webb has also repeatedly said that “retention is the new recruitment,” meaning it doesn’t matter how many new drivers the district hires if it can’t keep those it already has.
In December, Durham Association of Educators union member and 38-year DPS veteran bus driver Retha Daniel-Ruth told the school board that, without access to staff bathrooms in schools, “some of us are out there dancing around hoping we don’t wet our clothes.”
Since then, bus drivers have been allowed
to use the bathrooms in schools and the administration has also moved to set up break rooms at at least two high schools where drivers in between routes may have some “creature comforts,” said Webb.
Winston Churchill probably wasn’t thinking about the DPS transit crisis when he said to “never let a crisis go to waste.” Families and local electeds, though, have been trying to harness that crisis energy to create lasting change.
City council member Javiera Caballero pointed out that by getting a DPS student to use a public, rather than district, bus, the city was creating a future transit user.
“There are so many people who don’t want to get on our buses just because they’ve never done it before. If you get [them] on a bus at 12 or 13, you build a user into the system.”
Kristen Brookshire, lead school planner, highlighted the city’s ongoing Vision Zero and city-county bicycle and pedestrian plans as opportunities to “revisit the way that projects near schools are prioritized and consider whether these projects should be held to a higher design standard,” including wider sidewalks and increased traffic-calming infrastructure.
“If we design for kids, we design for everybody,” Brookshire said.
Jacopo Montobbio, Bike Durham’s education program manager who has been hustling to provide street safety education and reflective vests to students, previously told INDY that he hopes “the next time there’s a crisis, perhaps the streets will be ready and the infrastructure will be in place to make it easier for the next generation of kids to be able to safely walk and bike to school.”
ILLUSTRATION
The Fight That Fractured Saint Augustine’s University
As the Raleigh HBCU battles to retain accreditation, internal complaints and lawsuits reveal deep disputes about how the board of trustees has managed the institution.
BY CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL AND ERIN GRETZINGER backtalk@indyweek.com
When a five-member crew of higher education professionals arrived at Saint Augustine’s University in October 2023 to scrutinize its finances and operations, the small, private, historically Black school was already on thin ice. Founded in the late 1860s by the Episcopal Church as a school for newly freed slaves, Saint Augustine’s, also called SAU, was a pillar of the East Raleigh community with a legacy of educational access and achievement. But that reputation had become imperiled over the years as enrollment trended downward, finances dwindled, and the school repeatedly ran afoul of requirements set by its accreditor,
the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, also known as SACS.
SACS had put the university on probation before, but SAU had managed to win back the accreditor’s favor—a necessity for higher education institutions to access crucial public funding.
At the 2023 meeting, two presidents of other HBCUs, two senior administrators from Christian colleges, and the vice president of SACS converged on SAU to comb through the school’s financial statements and interview more than 20 employees, trustees, and consultants.
The committee’s report, which is not public but was obtained by INDY and The Assembly, said that the school had dire and fundamental financial challenges and a board of trustees that lacked the ability to evaluate risks to the institution.
The committee found no evidence that the board had “developed a process for managing the financials of the institution or any strategies for timely audits.” The board had consistently approved budgets since 2019 “without externally audited or verified evidence of resources or operational results.” The university’s auditors recommended “extensive training” for the board to improve its fiduciary oversight of the school.
“It was not evidenced that the Board has a clear understanding of its role in the management process, nor does it have a clear understanding or appreciation of the severity of the current fiscal issues,” the committee wrote.
Two months later, SACS withdrew the university’s accreditation, citing the board’s fiduciary oversight as one of six violations. SAU appealed the decision and clawed its way back to a probationary status with SACS, but it didn’t last.
In December 2024, as the school’s enrollment dropped precipitously to just a few hundred students, SACS revoked SAU’s accreditation again.
In many ways, SAU’s plight is not that different from that of small colleges across the country facing enrollment declines and financial pressures—challenges that are exacerbated for HBCUs due to historical funding disparities compared with other public and private counterparts.
But SACS also has focused on the board charged with overseeing the university. And more than a dozen former employees and trustees have accused the board of overreach or misconduct over the past six years, according to a dozen interviews, several lawsuits, and internal complaints, emails, and documents obtained by INDY and The Assembly Allegations against the board, particularly its two most recent chairs, include silencing dissenting opinions, wrongful termination, and violations of university policies and SACS requirements. One alumni group, Save SAU, sued the school in hopes of reconstituting the board. The state attorney general’s office is also investigating the school over allegations involving the board of trustees, a spokesperson for the attorney general said.
“Having survived so much for so long, SAU now teeters on the edge of chaos, brought to its knees by the misfeasance, malfeasance, and utter neglect of its Board of Trust-
ILLUSTRATION BY NICOLE PAJOR MOORE WITH MATERIAL FROM INTERVIEWS AND SOURCE DOCUMENTS
ees, and especially its two most recent chairmen,” reads the Save SAU lawsuit filed against the school in May 2024. (It was dismissed in November for lack of standing.)
The university denied all allegations of wrongdoing on behalf of Brian Boulware, the current board chair, and James Perry, the immediate past chair who continues to serve as a trustee.
“Chairman Boulware, Trustee Perry, and the Board of Trustees have demonstrated their commitment to addressing such baseless claims while steadfastly working closely with the university’s administration to execute a robust financial plan to position SAU for future success,” the university wrote in a statement. “We remain dedicated to our mission and the well-being of the university amidst all opposition.” Perry didn’t respond to specific requests for comment.
Boulware said in an interview that the university’s financial predicament long predated the actions of the current board. “Years of neglect from within have caused the problem,” Boulware said. In response to SACS’s citations of the board in recent years, he said that trustees have made changes, including hiring an internal auditor and taking steps to get financial reporting processes in order. SAU has been negotiating a deal to lease an undisclosed amount of its property to a Florida-based developer, which has been controversial with alumni and onlookers but which university officials say will give them more financial runway.
Boulware said he would not resign now, as some alumni have demanded, saying that would have a “devastating” and destabilizing impact on SAU while its future remains uncertain. Once the university is on a path to long-term success, he said he’d consider stepping down.
SAU appealed SACS’s decision to pull its accreditation at a hearing last week, and as of this printing, no
decision has been announced. But even if the university retains its accreditation, its long-term survival remains an open question.
Trustee trouble
A little over six years ago, the mood on SAU’s campus was much lighter.
“By God’s grace, I am here today and can report to you that we have saved Saint Augustine’s University,” Everett Ward, the university’s president, declared in December 2018 to the cheers of students, alumni, and community members packed into the library. The university had just come off probation with SACS after struggling for three years.
“I’m not a quitter, we’re going to fight this through… Once we prevail, I’ll be glad, on my terms, to yield to new leadership.”
—Brian Boulware, board chair
Ward joined SAU after his predecessor was fired in 2014, amid financial turmoil at the university, and pressure was on him to turn the situation around. Ward was a former executive director of the NC Democratic Party and a graduate of the school. Under his leadership, annual donations nearly tripled over a four-year period, the school said. After a yearslong streak of declining enrollment, head count had also begun to tick up.
“Now that we have no issues with accreditation,” Ward told the crowd in 2018, “the sky’s the limit.”
But the celebration would be short-lived. While some trustees at the time saw the SACS decision as a victory for Ward, other members worried the university was not out of the woods and questioned whether he was leading the institution in the right direction.
Ward announced in January 2019 that he would retire that summer, but that wasn’t quick enough for some trustees. In March, the university announced that Ward’s replacement, interim president Gaddis Faulcon, would begin “effective immediately.”
Perry, a retired Florida Supreme Court justice who was chair of the board in early 2019, told WRAL that the school could not “have two presidents.”
Ward did not respond to requests for comment, but four former trustees said Perry and Boulware, an alumnus and businessman, were among his critics. The pair “facilitated Ward’s departure,” said Rudolph Morton, who was then vice chair of the board. “It definitely shifted the power of the university to Boulware and Perry,” Morton said.
Charles Francis, a Raleigh attorney who had served as general counsel at SAU since 1994, quit the day Faulcon was announced as interim president, writing to the trustees that pushing out Ward might have violated SACS rules by
Members of the Save SAU Coalition gathered in downtown Raleigh in November to protest a loan taken out by the university with a 26 percent interest rate. PHOTO BY ERIN GRETZINGER FOR THE ASSEMBLY
Former Saint Augustine’s University President Everett B. Ward. PHOTO BY JAY WIGGINS/SIPA USA (SIPA VIA AP IMAGES)
Internal Complaints and Accreditation Actions at Saint Augustine’s University
JAN 2020
"I believe I am duty bound as a senior o cial at the University for the past ten months and before, to report issues to you regarding what I feel are violations of SACSCOC guidelines."
Senior administrator Ronald Brown complains internally about board overreach and contracting concerns at the university.
FEB 2020
SACS requests a response report addressing Ronald Brown’s complaint
DEC
2022
SACS places SAU back on probation
DEC 2018
SACS removes SAU from probation
APR 2020
Former trustee makes formal complaint to SACS, requesting a full investigation of the board of trustees
APR 2020
Then-university administrator Debra Clark Jones complains internally about the board of trustees, citing possible threats to SAU's accreditation:
"I am concerned that current leadership has demonstrated the propensity to commit acts that place the University and its accreditation at grave risk."
broaching the firewall between the responsibilities of the board and administrators.
Ward’s exit was followed by years of turmoil for the board. By the end of Perry’s first year as chair, 15 out of 21 trustees had left the board, according to the school’s public tax forms. Multiple trustees told INDY and The Assembly that they were given less and less information on the university’s finances, and they said decisions were frequently made without following university bylaws and procedures. It rapidly became “the most dysfunctional board that I had ever served on,” said Henry Debnam, a former trustee who resigned. “And I have served on quite a few.”
One former trustee submitted a complaint to SACS claiming Perry “stacked the [board] members to his favor,” including by removing several trustees with ties to the Episcopal Church, which is still a financial backer of the school. Anne Hodges-Copple, an Episcopal trustee who was among those voted off the board, said in an interview that “it was very clear I was targeted for questioning decisions” Perry and Boulware had made. (Perry and Boulware did not respond to specific questions about removing trustees.)
Some trustees left of their own accord. These included John Larkins, who came to the board in 2019 as an “alumni trustee” nominated by SAU’s National Alumni Association. He resigned less than a year later and led the association in a vote of no confidence against the remaining trustees, calling for the board to be reconstituted.
Larkins and Debnam later joined the 2024 alumni lawsuit that sought to replace SAU’s board. The lawsuit stated that instead of resigning, the trustees revised their bylaws
OCT 2023
SACS special committee finds that SAU’s board “was not able to demonstrate…detailed processes and procedures for fiduciary oversight and fiscal management of the institution” and lacked “a clear understanding or appreciation of the severity of the current fiscal issues.”
DEC 2023
SACS votes to revoke Saint Augustine’s accreditation
JUL 2024
SACS arbitration panel restores SAU’s accreditation
to limit the association’s power to select an alumni trustee and make it harder to remove trustees—requiring a twothirds majority rather than a simple majority.
“By driving away board members who might ask hard questions or look underneath all the rocks, the Board of Trustees is now a corrupt echo chamber,” the lawsuit said.
In response to questions, the university directed reporters to a June 2024 letter from Boulware to the SAU community in which he called the complaint “defamatory” and said Larkins and Debnam were “disgruntled former board members” making “unsubstantiated claims” as part of a “personal political agenda.”
Boulware wrote that the former trustees’ “tactics are irresponsible, unconscionable, and equivalent to a terrorist attack against SAU.”
The disputes stretched beyond the board, as well.
George Williams, a 1965 graduate, coached SAU’s track and field teams to 39 NCAA Division II national titles over four decades, served as the athletic director for 23 years, and also coached the U.S. Olympic track and field team in 2004. He is a three-time recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine award, the highest civilian honor in North Carolina.
In December 2019, Williams wrote to a longtime trustee complaining about Boulware’s behavior toward SAU employees, without giving examples. Williams urged the board to formally censure Boulware.
“In my 43 years as a senior staff member … I have never seen our employees suffer the level of unnecessary harassment that Mr. Boulware has inflicted,” Williams wrote. “No one should have to endure the verbal abuse, threats and
FEB 2025
SAU appeals SACS’ decision to revoke its accreditation
DEC 2024
SACS again votes to remove SAU’s accreditation
physical intimidation that he shows employees.”
Eight months later, Williams was out of a job. The university released a statement saying it offered to keep Williams as track coach but replace him as athletic director, and he declined the offer. Williams filed a wrongful termination lawsuit accusing the university of not investigating his complaint about Boulware, which he included in the legal filings. He said he was told in July 2020 to accept a 50 percent pay cut and step down as athletic director or be terminated, which he believed was retaliation.
Faulcon, who had been named interim president in 2019, joined Williams’s lawsuit, saying he was ousted for refusing to participate in Williams’s termination. Three other former SAU employees also signed on, saying they were fired for raising complaints about the trustees or other issues at the school.
Boulware and Perry didn’t respond to questions about the leadership changes. In their responses to the 2020 lawsuit from the former employees, they denied all allegations of misconduct and retaliation.
The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in April 2021. The lawyer who represented Williams and the other plaintiffs said he could not comment about the case, including how it was resolved. Williams declined to comment, and the other plaintiffs didn’t respond to requests for an interview.
Construction of reality
Multiple employees wrote internal complaints about
Data on SACS inquiries and concerns at SAU sourced from lawsuits, reports, internal complaints, emails, and other documents obtained by The Assembly and INDY as well as prior news coverage.
Boulware’s handling of construction contracts at the university, according to documents reviewed by INDY and The Assembly. The complaints concerned his relationship with the Hughes Company, a Georgia contractor that worked with Boulware on a cigar bar he opened in the Atlanta suburbs.
Ronald Brown, a longtime university administrator, wrote in an internal complaint that Boulware hired an Atlanta company in 2019 to renovate dorms that Brown said had HVAC, mold, and mechanical issues. He said Boulware was continually involved in “oversight” of their work as a “construction facilitator,” but he didn’t think the contractor had resolved the problems. (Brown, who joined Williams’s 2020 wrongful termination lawsuit, did not respond to requests for comment.)
After Brown’s complaint was published in HBCU Digest, an industry newsletter, SACS’s vice president asked the university to prepare a report addressing the allegations, documents show.
Debra Clark Jones, who was vice president of university advancement and external affairs at the time, was tasked with producing the report. By the end of her efforts, she filed her own internal complaint against the board of trustees, which was also later reported by HBCU Digest.
“My moral dilemma reached a breaking point,” Clark Jones wrote.
Clark Jones wrote that the university had paid the Hughes Company $375,000 in 2019 to repair dorm buildings without conducting a bidding process, signing a contract, or receiving board approval for the project. (Four former trustees who spoke with INDY and The Assembly said they did not recall voting on or approving work the Hughes Company performed in that period.)
As questions about the contractor arose, Clark Jones wrote that during a call with Boulware and Maria Lumpkin, the university’s interim president at the time, Perry suggested that they “amend” board meeting minutes to indicate a contract was approved. Clark Jones said they ultimately
didn’t submit the inaccurate minutes to SACS, but she worried the officials could put the school’s accreditation at risk.
“This behavior places policies and processes secondary to how they choose to manage issues facing the institution,” she wrote, adding that it is clear that Boulware and Perry “love the institution and have had genuine concerns about its dire state.” Still, she continued, “their concerns, shared by many, do not justify committing fraudulent acts.”
Perry and Boulware did not respond to specific questions about the complaint. The university denied any wrongdoing on their behalf. Lumpkin and Hughes Company representatives did not respond to requests for comment.
In the letter Boulware wrote last summer, he said that he brought the Hughes Company to SAU upon learning that the university had “less than $40,000 in the bank,” while nearly $2 million in dorm renovations were needed. Boulware wrote that the Hughes Company agreed to fix the dorms “at cost” and that “all parties, including former [board] members and complainants, understood and agreed with the solution.”
A lawyer for SAU raised concerns in early 2020 about a second project Hughes worked on, updating a community health center under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. “There appears to be a contractor performing work on a building without a contract, who did not bid for the work, who may not be licensed in North Carolina,” the lawyer wrote, noting that could violate federal or state rules. Federally funded projects often must conduct a competitive bidding process.
Lumpkin responded that a Triangle-based company licensed in North Carolina was the general contractor. She emailed the lawyer a copy of the contract, though she said it wasn’t “executed yet.”
Derrick Sauls, then chair of the university’s department of public health and the project manager for the health center renovation, questioned why the Hughes Company was involved. “Nobody ever explained why we needed somebody from Atlanta,” Sauls said.
The university’s last four audits, which are public documents, found that “significant contracts” were not appropriately approved prior to execution, and the university did not adhere to “appropriate procurement policies and procedures,” including for projects with federal funding. The university responded that it checks for conflicts of interest among board members and university employees.
In an interview, Boulware said connecting Hughes Company to SAU for the dorm renovations was part of his role and obligation as a trustee. “A board member is supposed to bring resources to the university,” he said. Boulware also said he was not involved in hiring Hughes for the health center project.
Boulware’s personal relationship with Hughes and with another trustee who invested in his cigar bar business did not end on such a positive note.
A court ordered Boulware to pay the Hughes Company $94,000 that he owed them, and fellow trustee George Brooks sued Boulware to recoup a $600,000 loan. (Boulware disputes the ruling in Brooks’s favor and is asking for a new trial, according to court filings.)
Walking in a graveyard
By the time SACS revoked the university’s accreditation in December, alumni, former employees, and former trustees were openly criticizing university leaders.
In recent years, SAU had dealt with IRS tax liens totaling $10 million, a series of lawsuits claiming it failed to make payments to numerous contractors totaling more than $1 million, and a U.S. Department of Labor investigation that ultimately awarded nearly $1 million in unpaid wages to more than 370 employees, a department official said. Recently, deferred maintenance issues on campus forced the school to move all classes online. Before SAU was put on probation, the accreditation agency initiated four monitoring reports into the school between 2020 and 2023,
“This behavior places policies and processes secondary to how they choose to manage issues facing the institution.”
—Debra Clark Jones, former university administrator
Brian Boulware worked with the Hughes Company on his cigar bar in Fairburn, Georgia, as well as projects at Saint Augustine’s. PHOTO BY BRIAR MURPHY FOR THE ASSEMBLY
A series of recent decisions have intensified the public outcry. The university drew hefty criticism for taking out a loan last fall with a 26 percent interest rate. SAU rejected a lower-interest loan offer with the stipulation that Boulware and Perry resign, INDY reported.
Now, a land lease deal under negotiation behind closed doors with a Florida developer leaves the future of SAU’s campus property, its most valuable asset, up in the air.
For Benjamin Johnson, an alumnus and member of the group that sued last year, the question of the school’s survival is deeply personal. Johnson’s father taught science and coached football there for 35 years, and his mother, three brothers, and more than 20 cousins, nieces, and nephews attended. He described matriculating there himself as a true homecoming.
Decades removed from those warm memories, he’s convinced of who’s to blame for the university’s downward spiral. “The one constant denominator through all of this has been the board,” Johnson said.
Felecia Commodore, an associate professor of education policy at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who studies HBCUs and board governance, said universities facing existential challenges often have to take a critical look at their oversight bodies.
“Externally, if it [the board] signals that instability and problematic operation and possibly fiscal concerns, it makes it hard to attract partners,” Commodore said. “This is not the time that we want to be restricting resources.”
For the contingent that wants the board out, there are no avenues beyond public pressure and lawsuits. Although the state attorney general’s office confirmed that it is investigating allegations against the board of trustees, it’s unclear how long that will take or what authority the office can exercise.
At this crucial junction, Boulware said it would be “irresponsible” for the board to step down. “I’m not a quitter, we’re going to fight this through,” Boulware said in an interview. “Once we prevail, I’ll be glad, on my terms, to yield to new leadership.”
University officials have argued that it is actually their critics who have caused the most harm to the institution’s reputation. Boulware previously described SACS’s accreditation decisions as the result of “a premature investigation fueled by personal vendettas rather than factual evidence.”
Janea Johnson, a spokesperson for SACS, said that if the agency receives information that raises questions about a school’s compliance, it follows a standard procedure to determine compliance and provides multiple opportunities to demonstrate improvement. “Being removed from membership is definitely a rarity, so I would hesitate to say that it is vindictive or retaliatory when there are so few instances,” Johnson said.
Alumni and university leaders are both focused on keeping the faith as the university awaits a decision on its accreditation appeal.
To make its decision, SACS is evaluating whether the university can operate sustainably with sound financial resources and that it can comply with state and federal regulations. SAU also needs to show that its board of trustees is capable of overseeing its finances.
Even if the university is successful in convincing SACS, it could still be too little, too late.
Steven Williams, a 1998 SAU graduate and the co-founder of the alumni group Falcons Unite, said circumstances have never felt more dire. Alumni aren’t donating like they used to because “it’s like giving to a black hole,” he said. Nor does campus feel like it did when he was a student.
Walking around SAU today, Williams said, is “like walking in a graveyard.” W
“Having survived so much for so long, SAU now teeters on the edge of chaos, brought to its knees by the misfeasance, malfeasance, and utter neglect of its Board of Trustees, and especially its two most recent chairmen.”
—Save SAU lawsuit
Above: Benjamin Johnson, a 1983 graduate of Saint Augustine’s University and member of the Save SAU coalition that sued the school. Right: Steven Williams, a Saint Augustine’s University alum, said circumstances at the school feel dire.
PHOTOS BY ANGELICA EDWARDS
INDY's 2025 Festival & Event Guide
Around the Triangle, the muddy slush piles have thawed and daffodils are starting to poke up, which means that spring is almost here—and with it, festival season and numerous opportunities to have your memories multiplied by the community around you. Find food, beer, and wine events; art exhibitions; Pride happenings; and much more. Lock into the Triangle’s music scene with free summer concerts and festivals like Pittsboro’s sprawling Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival or go see some movies—Durham hosts the prestigious Full Frame Documentary Festival every year and there are plenty of smaller indie events like BEYOND: The Cary Film Festival and Chapel Hill’s Cosmic Rays Film Festival in Chapel Hill. Whatever your interest, you’re sure to find a unique local way to explore it this year—and we’ve compiled it all in our annual festival and event directory. Don’t forget to keep our special pull-out section on hand as a reference guide for the rest of the year—and see you out there!
MARCH
MARCH 7
OCAG Spring Show Reception
Higgins & Myers Custom Framing and Fine Art Gallery, Chapel Hill
https://higginsandmyers.com/home-main/fine-artgallery-2-2/
MARCH 9
Jewish Food Festival
Jewish for Good at the Levin JCC, Durham https://www.jewish-food-festival.com
MARCH 15, APRIL 19, MAY 17, JUNE 21, JULY 19, AUGUST 16, SEPTEMBER 20, OCTOBER 18, NOVEMBER 15, DECEMBER 20
Pop-Up Raleigh
Trophy Brewery, Raleigh Popupraleigh.com and @PopUpRaleigh on socials
MARCH 15-16
St. Patrick's Day Weekend at Pluck Farm
PLUCK FARM - Steel String Brewery - Mebane https://steelstringbrewery.com/events/st-patrickscelebration-weekend/
MARCH 16
Welcome Tattoo 6 year Anniversary Party
Welcome Tattoo, Durham https://www.instagram.com/welcometattoonc/
MARCH 21-23
Carrboro Django Reinhardt Festival
Cat's Cradle Back Room, Carrboro https://onyxclubboys.com/carrboro-django-reinhardtfestival
MARCH 21
Anne Heartt Gregory: 5 Points Gallery
Featured Artist
5 Points Gallery, Durham https://5pointsgallery.com
MARCH 22
GameMakers Showcase
Apex Town Campus - Senior Center https://www.eventeny.com/events/ gamemakershowcase-17621/
MARCH 23
The Block Party at Artpost Artpost, Durham https://www.instagram.com/artpostdurham/
MARCH 28, APRIL 25, MAY 30, JUNE 27, JULY 25, AUGSUT 25, SEPTEMBER 26, OCTOBER 31
One Tribe Final Friday Drum Circle & Fire Show
Old Library Site, Cary https://onetriberhythms.com/
MARCH 30
Spring Patchwork Market
The Durham Armory https://thepatchworkmarket.com
APRIL
APRIL 3-6
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Downtown Durham https://www.fullframefest.org/
APRIL 4-6
Taste of the Beach
The Outer Banks https://obxtasteofthebeach.com/tickets-events/
APRIL 8, MAY 12, JUNE 9, JULY 8, AUGUST 12, SEPTEMBER 8
Preservation Durham 21+ (tosampledrinks)
Summer Cocktails and Cornices
Walking Tour
TBD https://www.preservationdurham.org/tours
APRIL 10, APRIL 24, MAY 8, MAY 22
LIVE@Lake Raleigh
Lake Raleigh, Corner of Main Campus Drive & Campus Shore Drive https://live.arts.ncsu.edu/livelake-raleigh-2025/
APRIL 11-13
Oak Grove Rhythm Retreat
Oak Grove Retreat, Tarboro https://www.oakgrove-retreat.com/rhythm-retreat
APRIL 11-13
Kick Back and Carve
The Plant, Pittsboro http://greenwoodwrightsfest.com/
APRIL 12
Electric Garden 21+ (tosampledrinks)
The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP http://glass-jug.com
APRIL 12
Fur-get Me Not Spring Festival
Steel String Brewery - Mebane https://steelstringbrewery.com/events/fur-get-menot-spring-festival/
APRIL 12
Tacos 'N Taps Festival21+ (tosampledrinks)
Cary
Koka Booth Amphitheatre https://cary.tacosntaps.com/
APRIL 12-13
Hop Into Spring - New Hope Valley Railway
New Hope Valley Railway http://triangletrain.com/
APRIL 13
Vintage Spectacular Market 1526 Wake Forest Rd. Raleigh https://www.trunkshowraleigh.com/events
APRIL 13
Multi-Farm Plant Sale
Botanist & Barrel https://botanistandbarrel.square.site/product/multifarm-plant-sale/893
APRIL 18
Annie Nashold: 5 Points Gallery
Featured Artist - Opening Reception 5 Points Gallery, Durham https://5pointsgallery.com
APRIL 18
Anne Gregory: 5 Points Gallery Featured Artist - Opening Reception 5 Points Gallery, Durham https://5pointsgallery.com
APRIL 19
The Flart Market Artpost, Durham https://www.instagram.com/flartmarketdurham/
APRIL 19
The North Carolina 'Cuegrass Festival Fayetteville Street, Raleigh cuegrass.com
APRIL 20
4/20 Fest at Nature's Releaf 21+ 5517 Western Blvd. Raleigh https://www.facebook.com/events/ 638178118765993/
APRIL 23
Running Bull Film Festival Carolina Theatre of Durham https://carolinatheatre.org/festival/running-bull-filmfestival/
APRIL 26
Durham Symphony Free Family Concert
Emily K Center, Durham https://durhamsymphony.org/season-schedule/
APRIL 26
Bearthday - Raleigh City Farm’s Annual Bearthday Fundraiser
Raleigh City Farm - Corner of Blount and Franklin Streets raleighcityfarm.org
APRIL 26
Bull City Beer Mile 21+ (tosampledrinks)
Durham Central Park
https://www.facebook.com/bullcitybeermile
APRIL 26-27
The 12th Annual Festival of Legends: Journeys
Jefferson L Sugg Farm, Holly Springs www.festivaloflegends.com
APRIL 26
Canine Field Day
Rock Quarry Park
https://anc.apm.activecommunities.com/dprplaymore/ activity/search/detail/16567
APRIL 26
EarthFest
Apex Town Campus - 73 Hunter Street
https://www.eventeny.com/events/ apexearthfest-17511/
APRIL 26 - 27
Rhythms Reimagined:
NC Youth Tap Ensemble with Luke Hickey & Elizabeth Burke
Carolina Theatre of Durham www.ncyte.org
APRIL 26
Spring Daze Arts + Crafts Festival
Bond Park, Cary
https://www.carync.gov/recreation-enjoyment/events/ festivals/spring-daze-arts-and-crafts-festival
APRIL 27
Earth Day Festival
Durham Central Park
https://anc.apm.activecommunities.com/dprplaymore/ activity/search/detail/16178
16 March 5, 2025
MAY
MAY 1-4
Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival
Shakori Hills Community Arts Center, Pittsboro
https://www.shakorihillsgrassroots.org/
MAY 2, JUNE 6, JULY 4TH, AUGUST 1, SEPTEMBER 5, OCTOBER 3
PLAYlist Concert Series
Durham Central Park durhamplaylist.com
MAY 3 - 4
Durham Greek Festival
St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, Durham DurhamGreekFestival.org
MAY 4
Durham Symphony Free 'Pops in the Park' Concert
Durham Central Park, Durham https://durhamsymphony.org/season-schedule/
MAY 4
Movies Under the Stars
Carolina Square Lawn
https://www.chapelhillarts.org/calendar/movies-underthe-stars-6/
MAY 16
Jim McKeon: 5 Points Gallery
Featured Artist - Opening Reception
5 Points Gallery, Durham https://5pointsgallery.com
MAY 17
Bull City Yoga Festival 21+
Durham Central Park
https://www.bullcityyogafestival.com
MAY 17
Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival
Rock Quarry Park
https://anc.apm.activecommunities.com/dprplaymore/ activity/search/detail/16171
MAY 17-18
Preservation Durham 2025 Home Tour: The Golden Anniversary
Orchard Park Shelter, Durham https://www.preservationdurham.org/hometour
MAY 18
Grown Up Book Fair + Nomad Pop-Pp
Botanist & Barrel
Not available yet.
MAY 24
Carrboro Bluegrass Festival
Cat's Cradle Back Yard https://catscradle.com/event/carrboro-bluegrassfestival/cats-cradle-back-yard/carrboro-north-carolina/
MAY 29 - JUNE 1
Bliss Boogie Festival
Lakeside Retreats, Raleigh https://blissboogie.com/
MAY 30
Glow in the Park 21+
Durham Central Park https://durhamparksfoundation.org/glow-in-the-park
MAY 31
Hope for Teens Queer Prom 2025
Hilton Raleigh North Hills https://givebutter.com/Queer_Prom_2025
JUNE
JUNE-AUGUST
Camp RiverQuest 10-15
Saxapahaw tinyurl.com/campriverquest
JUNE 1
Queer Community Picnic
Steel String Brewery - Mebane https://steelstringbrewery.com/events/queercommunity-picnic/
JUNE 5-7
Barriskill Dance Theatre 12+ School Recital
Barriskill Dance Theatre School, Durham https://www.alyssanobledance.com/recital
JUNE 6 - 8
Southern Documentary Convening Motorco, Durham https://southerndocumentaryfund.org/southerndocumentary-convening/
JUNE 7
Beaver Queen Pageant
Duke Park Meadow
https://www.facebook.com/BeaverLodgeLocal1504/ and https://bsky.app/profile/beaverlodge1504.bsky. social
JUNE 7
Chapel Hill Pride Promenade
Start: Peace & Justice Plaza, Chapel Hill End & celebration: 140 West Franklin Plaza, Chapel Hill
https://www.chapelhillarts.org/calendar/pridepromenade/
JUNE 12-JULY 26
American Dance Festival Agerequirements varyforprograms
Duke University. Durham https://americandancefestival.org/
JUNE 12-15
NC Rhythm Tap Festival
Chapel Hill https://www.ncrtapfest.com/
JUNE 14
American Summer 21+ (tosampledrinks)
The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP http://glass-jug.com
JUNE 14
The 8th Annual Triangle Community Band Festival
Durham Central Park. Durham www.durhamband.org
JUNE 14
Resistance Fest ... Resist Hate & Reclaim Love
Life’s Journey UCC, Burlington https://www.eventbrite.com/e/resistance-fest-resisthate-reclaim-love-tickets-1257161336399
JUNE 14
Brew ’n Choo - New Hope Valley Railway
New Hope Valley Railway http://triangletrain.com/
JUNE 15
Father's Day Celebration at Pluck Farm
Steel String Brewery - Mebane https://steelstringbrewery.com/events/fathers-day/
JUNE 19
Chapel Hill-Carrboro Juneteenth Celebration
Carrboro Town Commons, Carrboro https://www.chapelhillarts.org/calendar/juneteenthcelebration/
JUNE 20-21
2025 Out! Raleigh Pride 18+ Friday Fayetteville Street, Downtown Raleigh
JUNE 21
Midsummer Celebration
Steel String Brewery - Mebane https://steelstringbrewery.com/events/midsummer/
JULY
JULY 4-5
46th Annual Festival for the Eno West Point on the Eno Park, Durham www.enofest.org
JULY 4
Chapel Hill July 4th Celebration
Southern Community Park https://www.chapelhillarts.org/calendar/fireworks/
JULY 12
Cosmic Jam 21+ (tosampledrinks)
The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP http://glass-jug.com
JULY 12
Blueberry Fest
Botanist & Barrel Not available yet
JULY 18
King Nobuyoshi Godwin: 5 Points Gallery Featured Artist - Opening Reception
5 Points Gallery, Durham https://5pointsgallery.com
AUGUST
AUGUST 1-3
Audio Advice Live Sheraton Hotel, Raleigh https://live.audioadvice.com/
AUGUST 1-2
17th Annual Beer Bourbon 21+ (tosampledrinks) & BBQ Festival - Cary
Koka Booth Amphitheatre https://cary.beerandbourbon.com/
AUGUST 2
Take Up Space Fashion Show (presented by The Spotted Beauty) Triangle Town Center Mall, Raleigh https://www.facebook.com/ share/14sDqMySiH/?mibextid=wwXIfr
AUGUST 9
Hops & Blues 21+ (tosampledrinks)
The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP http://glass-jug.com
AUGUST 14-17
OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival Carolina Theatre of Durham, Durham carolinatheatre.org/outsouth
AUGUST 23
Packapalooza
Hillsborough Street along NC State's campus https://packapalooza.ncsu.edu/
AUGUST 23-24
Lazy Daze Arts + Crafts Festival Downtown Cary carync.gov/lazydaze
AUGUST 30-31
The John Coltrane International Jazz and Blues Festival
Oak Hollow Park, Highpoint https://coltranejazzfest.com/
SEPTEMBER
SEPTEMBER 6
Glass Jug Oktoberfest 21+ (tosampledrinks)
The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP http://glass-jug.com
SEPTEMBER 6
11th Anniversary 21+ (tosampledrinks) Oktoberfest
The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP http://glass-jug.com
SEPTEMBER 7-17
Jewish Film Festival
The Chelsea Theater, Chapel Hill https://www.jewishforgood.org/film-festival
SEPTEMBER 11-14
BEYOND: The Cary Film Viewer discretion advised Festival
The Cary Theater, Cary https://thecarytheater.com/beyond-the-cary-filmfestival/
SEPTEMBER 13
Big Stomp Botanist & Barrel
Not available yet.
SEPTEMBER 13
Whiskey Wine & Fire - Cary 21+ (tosampledrinks)
Koka Booth Amphitheatre https://cary.whiskeywinefire.com/
SEPTEMBER 19
Yuko Nogami Taylor: 5 Points Gallery Featured Artist - Opening Reception 5 Points Gallery, Durham https://5pointsgallery.com
SEPTEMBER 20
Hispanic Heritage ~ Fiesta ~ de la Herencia Hispana
Shakori Hills Community Arts Center, Pittsboro https://www.facebook.com/events/ 1546754279221826
SEPTEMBER 20
Durham Oktoberfest 21+ (tosampledrinks)
Durham Central Park https://www.facebook.com/events/ 460059630168118/
SEPTEMBER 20-21
CenterFest Arts Festival Downtown Durham https://durhamarts.org/centerfest/
SEPTEMBER 26-28
Octobullfest
107 E. Parrish St. Durham https://www.bullcityburgerandbrewery.com
SEPTEMBER 26-28
Pride: Durham, NC Durham https://www.lgbtqcenterofdurham.org/program/ pride/
SEPTEMBER 27
Beer Garden Yacht Party 21+ (tosampledrinks)
The Glass Jug Beer Lab - RTP http://glass-jug.com
SEPTEMBER 27
Mead Fest
Starrlight Mead & Cider, Pittsboro https://www.starrlightmead.com/mead-fest
SEPTEMBER 27
Apple Fest
Botanist & Barrel
Not available yet.
OCTOBER
OCTOBER 3-4
Raleigh Wide Open Bluegrass Festival Fayetteville Street, Raleigh raleighwideopen.com
OCTOBER 4
FlushFest
West Hillsborough https://appropriatesanitat.wixsite.com/flushfest
OCTOBER 4-5
Oktoberfest Weekend at Pluck Farm Steel String Brewery - Mebane https://steelstringbrewery.com/events/oktoberfestpluck-farm/
OCTOBER 5
14th Annual Durham School of the Arts Fall Art Festival: Dia de los Muertos
Durham School of the Arts https://www.instagram.com/dsa_faf
OCTOBER 9-11
Slingshot Festival 18+
The Fruit and Surrounding Venues https://www.slingshotfestival.com/
OCTOBER 11
Bike Loud '25! Fundraiser Steel String Brewery - Mebane https://steelstringbrewery.com/events/bike-loudfundraiser/
OCTOBER 11
PlantFest 2025 (Orange County Master Gardeners)
Blackwood Farm Park Chapel Hill theorangegardener.org
OCTOBER 11, 18, 25
Halloween Train Rides - New Hope Valley Railway
New Hope Valley Railway http://triangletrain.com/
OCTOBER 11
Blacktoberfest 2025
Proximity Brewing Company, Durham blacktober-fest.com
OCTOBER 14-17
Destination 2025 18+
Cherokee Convention Center, Cherokee https://www.accelevents.com/e/destination-2025sponsorship-opportunities
OCTOBER 17
Jenny Blazing: 5 Points Gallery
Featured Artist - Opening Reception
5 Points Gallery, Durham https://5pointsgallery.com
OCTOBER 17-19
GreenWood Wrights'Fest
Pittsboro http://greenwoodwrightsfest.com/
OCTOBER 18
5th Annual Bullhorn Fest
Shadowbox Studio, Durham bullhornarts.org
OCTOBER 18, NOVEMBER 1
Festifall Arts Markets
140 West Franklin Plaza, Downtown Chapel Hill https://www.chapelhillarts.org/
OCTOBER 19
Duke Gardens Harvest children must beaccompanied byanadult Festival
Charlotte Brody Discovery Garden, Durham https://gardens.duke.edu/
NOVEMBER
NOVEMBER, 1-2 & 8-9
Kramer / Weinstein Open Studio 2025
501 Landerwood Lane, Chapel Hill https://emilyeveweinstein.com/events
NOVEMBER 1-2
Pluck Farm's Pumpkin Smash
Steel String Brewery - Mebane https://steelstringbrewery.com/events/pumpkinsmash-party/
NOVEMBER 1-2 & 8-9
The 12th Annual Ignacy Jan Paderewski Piano Festival of Raleigh Saint Mary's School (November 1 and 2) and NC Museum of Art (November 8 and 9) www.paderewski-festival.org
NOVEMBER 8
Fool’s Faire - Renaissance Festival
Steel String Brewery - Mebane https://steelstringbrewery.com/events/fools-faire-2025
NOVEMBER 8
Pullen & Sertoma Fall Arts Fair
Fred Fletcher Park, Raleigh https://raleighnc.gov/arts/services/arts-centers/fallarts-fair
NOVEMBER 8-9
Durham Pottery Tour
Durham durhampotterytour.com
NOVEMBER 8
Golden Belt Arts Holiday Market
Golden Belt Arts, Durham
NOVEMBER 15
The 9th Annual Liberty Arts Iron Pour
Durham Central Park https://www.libertyartsnc.org/iron-pour
NOVEMBER 21
Susan Woodson: 5 Points Gallery
Featured Artist - Opening Reception 5 Points Gallery, Durham https://5pointsgallery.com
NOVEMBER 28
SmashFest
The Scrap Exchange https://www.scrapexchange.org/smashfest-2024
DECEMBER
DECEMBER 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 20
Santa Train Rides - New Hope Valley Railway
New Hope Valley Railway http://triangletrain.com/
DECEMBER 7
33rd Annual Boylan Heights Artwalk
Historic Boylan Heights Neighborhood https://www.boylanheights.org/art-walk
JANUARY 2026
JANUARY 1
Kwanzaa Fest
Durham Armory, Durham https://aadekwanzaafest.wixsite.com/kwanzaafest
JANUARY 23-25
Carrboro Film Fest
The Drakeford Library Complex, Carrboro https://www.carrborofilm.org/
24 March 5, 2025 INDYweek.com
Print Matters
Talking with Rob Christensen about his new book on The News & Observer’s long North Carolina legacy.
BY CARR HARKRADER arts@indyweek.com
One North Carolina governor called it “congenitally critical.” Senator Jesse Helms, not surprisingly, was a bit more pointed: the newspaper was “vicious,” a “hit squad,” “cowardly,” and slanderous to the point of libel. Other, more sympathetic readers called it “the most fearless paper in the South.”
It seems that for however long the Raleigh News & Observer has been printing the news, people have had opinions about it. Now, Rob Christensen, a journalist at the N&O for 45 years, has written a new book about his alma mater paper: Southern News, Southern Politics: How a Newspaper Defined a State for a Century. Out this month with UNC Press, the book takes a close look at both the newspaper and the Daniels family, the powerful publishing dynasty that shaped North Carolina politics during their lengthy reign as publishers of the paper. Ahead of the book’s release, the INDY spoke with Christensen about the N&O, the family behind it, and the future of media in the Tar Heel State.
INDY: Josephus Daniels, who published the N&O for years starting in the late 19th century, is a complicated man to understand in today’s time— in how he ran the paper, in his politics, in his legacy. How would you describe him first? A journalist, a publisher, an advocate?
ROB CHRISTENSEN: You could describe him as a politician who ran a newspaper or a newspaperman who was also a politician. He was both, and that was not unusual in that age.
He is a hard person to understand today, nearly impossible. I think one person called him part of a group of Jim Crow liberals. That is sort of a mind-boggling concept, because people think of someone who’s a liberal as tied into racial fairness. But Josephus Daniels was a racist, certainly, and a white supremacist, and that didn’t make him stand out in his day. But he was also progressive in many ways. He was a big supporter of women’s suffrage, organized labor, and public education. He fought antisemitism. He fought the Klan. On so many issues he was regarded as
a liberal by people who were his contemporaries. It’s hard to see that today because the racism clouds over all his other progressive ideas and efforts.
That is a good segue to what was going to be my next question. I was wondering if you could put in context how different his more progressive stances at the paper were from most Southern publishers’ when he took it over in the late 19th century and the effect they had in the wider political context.
This was the age of the huge corporations and U.S. Steel and various monopolies. That was the age when railroads were as powerful as any of the social media are today, when you think about Facebook or X. Daniels was very close to William Jennings Bryan and he helped turn the Democratic Party in the 1880s and 1890s from a party that was pretty conservative to a party that was worried about social and economic justice and fought some of those big corporations. Josephus Daniels was a very influential figure because he was very much a part of that movement of the American political left, whether it was the populism of William Jennings Bryan, the progressiveness of Woodrow Wilson, or the New Deal liberalism with Franklin Roosevelt. But he was born during the Civil War. He was brought up during Reconstruction and in the part of the state that was most like the Old South and had the largest African American population. So he was very much influenced by both the racism in that era and the glorification of the Confederacy, and also this real skepticism about big business.
His son Jonathan led the N&O to take a more moderate line on the race issue, but certainly not one that satisfied many in the civil rights movement. How did the N&O navigate issues around race?
Jonathan took over the paper when his father became Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s ambassador to Mexico in the 1930s. Jonathan had a totally different background than his father. Jonathan was born in the 20th century, just right at the very beginning of the century. He was raised in Raleigh but also in Washington, D.C., where his father was secretary of the navy under Wilson for eight years. And so he was much better educated [than his father].
And he had some different approaches from his father. He was pushing for more racial fairness. Over and over again he would print editorials attacking some of the most egregious examples of racism, police brutality, etc. But he really didn’t feel like he could come out against segregation. In that era, there was no institution in the South of any size that was opposed to segregation. It was the whole ideology that was locked into the whole region. You know, Jesse Helms said in 1953 that the paper had been selling out the South. That’s how it was viewed by conservatives. But when we look at it today, it’s like two steps forward, one step back. He and the paper were very, very incremental. And a lot of what he did really doesn’t stand up today as being very progressive, but it was for the South of Jonathan Daniels’s time.
Over the entire 100-year-plus span of the Daniels
Author Rob Christensen. PHOTO BY ROBERT T. WILLETT
family, what kind of impact did the paper have on North Carolina politics? Where did it succeed, and where did it fail?
Former governor Jim Hunt said that the N&O was the second most influential institution in North Carolina, in terms of its politics—the first being the University of North Carolina. So here was the Observer, and it was mainly circulated in Eastern North Carolina. That is the most conservative part of the state, and it was a progressive voice. It gave a lot of politicians political cover to push for more moderate policies, like Terry Sanford, Jim Hunt, Frank Porter Graham, and other people.
It had a major influence in terms of pushing the state and making it one of the more moderate states in the South. It was a very feisty, crusading newspaper. A lot of things that it pushed did not get passed, but it did mean that, unlike a lot of other Southern states, there was a strong progressive voice. It was a must-read for all the people involved in the political and government world of North Carolina.
In the last quarter of the book, you look at how the N&O struggles with many of the issues facing the newspaper industry as a whole. Over the past few years, it has lost subscribers, page numbers, influence. What kind of impact do you think it has now in North Carolina? What do we lose as a reading public without a strong, vibrant newspaper?
The N&O, like most newspapers across the country, is greatly diminished. It went, in a few years, from around 270 journalists to around 50 journalists. It is no longer as powerful or as feared. And it no longer has nearly as strong a voice in the capital as it once did. I think the fact that we’ve had the rise of Republican control in the state—well there are a lot of reasons, but one reason is the diminishment of The News & Observer and other newspapers as a counterbalance. Politicians feared The News & Observer They’re always looking over your shoulder, not only just in the state legislature but at city councils and county commissioner meetings, school board meetings, but also college athletics and labor unions. There was a real watchdog element to The News & Observer, and that’s diminished. That’s not to say that they don’t still do good stories. It’s just not the same. They still have some very good reporters, but they do not have the numbers anymore, so it’s much more difficult for the paper to carry out its watchdog function. That hurts. W
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PA G E
TRACY DEONN
March 19, 7 p.m. | Witherspoon Student Center, Raleigh
Tar Heel Legend
North Carolina author Tracy Deonn returns to her home state this month to promote Oathbound, the third book in her bestselling Legendborn Cycle series.
BY JASMINE GALLUP arts@indyweek.com
I
n a time when readers are increasingly searching for fantasy stories with diverse characters and unconventional worlds, perhaps it’s no surprise that Tracy Deonn’s engrossing debut novel, Legendborn, became a New York Times bestseller.
The young adult book—about Bree, a Black teenager who gets pulled into a magical war—stayed on the bestseller list for nine weeks when it was released in 2020, reflecting the popularity of the genre. Now, Deonn is about to release Oathbound, the third book in the Legendborn Cycle, and is planning a fourth installment.
Deonn, who grew up in North Carolina and attended UNC-Chapel Hill, doesn’t shy away from her Southern roots. Ahead of the book’s March 4 release and March 19 stop at NC State University, the award-winning author shared some thoughts over email about Legendborn, her changing relationship to the phrase “Black Girl Magic,” and life in the South.
INDY: What can we expect from Oathbound? No spoilers!
TRACY DEONN: Great question! At the end of Bloodmarked, the second book in the series, we saw the main character, Bree, make a big decision with huge impacts on the other characters in the world. That decision has now isolated her with a major villain, a plotline that plays out with serious consequences throughout Oathbound I also recently announced that Oathbound is the first book in the Legendborn Cycle to incorporate multiple POVs [points of view], so readers can expect to experience the inner thoughts and motivations of four characters other than Bree. It was important to me to keep Bree as the focus of the story, so I’m very excited for readers to see how she remains central, even with new voices in the mix.
What drew you to fantasy as a genre? You explore a lot of current social justice issues in your books. How does fantasy help you explore these issues and tell these stories?
Fantasy as a genre does this truly incredible thing where it invites—even demands that the audience loosen their hold on their current reality in order to imagine a new one. Not just imagine that reality but take it seriously and see its stakes, challenges, and possibilities.
I think that makes the genre an extremely pivotal tool in our human storytelling toolbox. Anytime you can ask someone to allow for the unrealized or unseen, and ask them to deeply consider how those elements might impact the world around a character they love, we’re doing the work of making it more possible to reexamine our own world and lives, too.
What do the words “Black Girl Magic” mean to you? Of course there’s a literal interpretation, but many readers also appreciate the way your characters are able to find a power within themselves to create, express, and affect the world around them.
Honestly, my relationship to that phrase has changed quite a bit in the past nearly five years since Legendborn was written. There is a way that “Black Girl Magic” can feel empowering, at least to me, but I also think it can be a problem to be called otherworldly when you are, in fact, a human being with human needs and limitations.
It can be a backward compliment. The deeper I go into this book series, the more I want to show that “magic” is not without cost, both on the page and off.
One of the main settings for the Legendborn Cycle is UNC-Chapel Hill, your own alma mater. Can you tell me about your experience there?
When I was an undergraduate at UNC, I always felt like I was walking through history, and that there were hidden stories and unearthed legends around every corner. Exploring new ideas in a setting as old and nationally significant as UNC certainly added a unique undercurrent of scale and importance to everyday college life.
I feel very fortunate to have been encouraged to ask big, complicated questions and pursue complex answers by the faculty, classes, and peers around me at the time.
What book(s) have you been reading? Do you have any recommendations for our readers?
I always recommend L. L. McKinney’s A Blade So Black for folks who want to read more contemporary fantasy with a mix of real-world issues and Alice in Wonderland magical lore.
I am looking forward to reading (S)Kin by Ibi Zoboi, which was just published and is a contemporary fantasy novel in verse. For nonfiction, I love recommending The Disordered Cosmos by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, which is a multiaward-winning book about the night sky itself and who gets to dream about it. W
Author Tracy Deonn. PHOTO BY KATHLEEN HAMPTON
Present Imperfect
On the heels of Chatham Rabbit’s fourth album, Sarah McCombie talks about gravitating toward more personal songwriting, complicated friendships, and beating the system.
BY SARAH EDWARDS sedwards@indyweek.com
Sarah and Austin McCombie’s songwriting is populated with other people’s stories.
Over the course of the married Americana duo’s past three albums, voices from the past are resurrected by Sarah’s 1921 banjo and Austin’s 1941 Gibson guitar—a sharecropper, a rambler, and a pack horse librarian share a songwriting universe with figures from the couple’s respective family histories and, on commissioned songs, figures from the family lore of fans.
Even the duo’s band name, Chatham Rabbits, is an interpretative nod to the past: In the late 19th century, the Piedmont was home to a flourishing foodway: the eastern cottontail rabbit travde. Upon buying a millhouse in Bynum several years ago, the McCombies also discovered that their home was once occupied by a musician in a string band named The Chatham Rabbits that played for nearby millworkers. Once you start digging, the past always provides.
Be Real With Me, released February 14, takes a different approach to the material. New textures—drum machines, synthesizers, pedal steel—layer the duo’s traditional sound, pulling it forward alongside a more personal style of songwriting that takes the McCombies from their late twenties to early thirties. The wistfulness reflected in the songs is a matured kind of yearning,
one that regards the past and the future in equal measure. “We could not have made this album,” Sarah tells the INDY, “without the life experience that predated it.”
I met Sarah briefly, around 2013, before the formation of Chatham Rabbits, when we both worked at Saxapahaw’s Haw River Ballroom. I remember being impressed by her hustle—she’d show up in a homespun vintage dress, stash her banjo behind the coffee bar during a shift, and then take off afterward for a gig. That work ethic has threaded throughout the McCombies’ career: in 2018, the pair quit their jobs as teacher and financial analyst to take on the risky dual venture of being full-time musicians and moving to Guilford County to manage the 64-acre farm that has been in Sarah’s family since the mid-1700s.
That’s a prosaic enough story on paper, but being a musician in 2025 also requires being realistic about health care and the algorithm. On the heels of the album release, the INDY had a candid conversation with Sarah McCombie about having complicated friendships, contemplating motherhood as a musician, and beating the system. A longer version of this interview is available online.
INDY: Y’all have talked about this as a millennial and coming-of-age album.
I’d love to hear why it feels that way.
SARAH MCCOMBIE: This album is so different from our previous records because [before], we relied on other people’s stories and the folk tradition of turning stories into songs. This record is all about our own experience—each song is something that happened to one of us.
But as far as the millennial piece of it all—I’m 31, Austin’s 32, and a lot of the things that we’re grappling with in this album are coming to terms with our shifting from an adulthood with limitless possibilities and being naive about the future. Now stuff is getting very real for people our age; thinking about family or wanting a family, thinking about health care or lack thereof, thinking about reeling in your drinking or partying.
Was it a conscious choice to shift to the first-person perspective, or was it just something that you all found yourself writing more and more about?
I think it’s both. We’ve both been in therapy for a while, and I think that helped us get to this place. But also, just naturally, we’ve been at this for seven years—we’ve grown a little tired of story songs about other people, and the traditional, formulaic bluegrassy arrangements. This feels really fun and natural to us.
As someone also in the age bracket you referenced, the song “Collateral Damage” really spoke to me. The straightforwardness of the lyric “I want, my freedom / I want a baby” is captivating and also really vulnerable. What is it like to have that song out in the world? To be a woman and say you want both of those things is hard right now.
I’ve always wanted to be a mom, but we live in this place that is bizarrely fixated on women being pregnant but also on not supporting them at all once the kid is actually here. I worry about—OK, if I’m pregnant, what if I have a miscarriage and we’re touring and in Oklahoma? What would life look like? When I wrote this song, I was like, this first line is so abrasive and plainspoken. I was almost embarrassed to sing it for the first time because I was like, “This sounds so simple, maybe this is stupid.”
It’s not.
Yeah, I’ve learned that it’s not. This past weekend we played a sold-out show in Atlanta, which was amazing; it was our first time selling out there. I had three different women come up to me at the merch table afterward. One lady had had six miscarriages and was finally able to carry her daugh-
Austin and Sarah McCombie of Chatham Rabbits. PHOTO BY SAMUEL COOKE
CHATHAM RABBITS: BE REAL WITH ME Matador | February 14
ter—now she has a two-year-old. Another lady had five children, and she came to the show with her two youngest, who are twins that have cerebral palsy, and they’re in wheelchairs and are in their twenties. She is in her upper sixties and is still mothering, as if, you know, she had young children. Another woman came up to me and her husband was standing right there, and she was like, “We’ve decided not to have kids and you would not believe the reception that that gets.” All that to say, I think it’s really good that these songs are creating conversations at the merch table or amongst people. And it brings me some relief to know that I am not alone in being worried about my body and what I want for my future.
It’s hard enough finding childcare support and day care when you’re not in a touring position—to add that to the equation, I just don’t know how people do it.
If you want to piss me off, be a 50-year-old dude who comes up to the merch table and is like “There’s no perfect time to have a kid!” I’ve just started telling people, “Well, if you don’t have a uterus, you’re not allowed to give me advice.” I used to never give crap back to anybody but I’ve started putting up some boundaries.
I was reading another interview that you and Austin did—and I appreciate how forthright you both are about the difficulties of being a touring musician—and Austin said something along the lines of “Spotify is just a business card.” As in, that’s just the first step, everything else comes after. Could you speak a bit to the obstacles that musicians face right now, whether with monopolies like Ticketmaster or venue merch cuts?
The biggest thing for us is that people are waiting until the last second to buy tickets, and it makes it very difficult to plan. And I don’t mind if you print this, but prior to the pandemic, we had sold out Cat’s Cradle, we had over halfway sold out the Carolina Theatre before COVID hit—and now it’s hard to make it to 60 percent of those tickets. We’re just now getting back to that point, and
we’re, like, seven years into this industry. The consumer culture has just really changed since the pandemic.
Secondly, the Spotify thing: We have tried so hard to play the industry game, we’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars on PR, on digital marketing, just to try to work with the algorithm. And it has helped a teeny bit, but nowhere near what we’ve put into it. It feels like a rat race right now, and it’s sad that artists are expected to not only play the music, but you’re also expected to create things that feel inauthentic just to get views on Instagram. We have made decisions about our songs so that in the first 10 seconds it will, like, be playlistable, right? You know, so that it catches the attention of a playlist editor listening to it. It sucks that we’re making any decisions based on that.
And there’s no pleasing the algorithm, ultimately.
No, there’s no pleasing the algorithm and it’s incredibly frustrating. And now some venues take about 15 to 20 percent of our merch sales—when venues do that, we put up a sign that says, “We are having to raise our prices here at the merch table to reflect what the venue is taking from us. You can pay this or you can buy them on our website where it’s cheaper.”
A lot of venues will work with us or work with bands to not take a merch cut, because the thing is, we bring our own merch seller, too. So we’re paying someone $150 to sell our merch, and then we also have to pay 20 percent, so we’re only making a profit margin of 30 percent.
I don’t ever want to come across as gripy and whiny, because Austin and I both feel very, very blessed to do this for a living. To be self-employed is a miracle and I’m so grateful for it. But just like everything else in America right now, [the industry] is being run by the man at the top, and everybody else is working and making them money and we’re not seeing any of it.
I’m curious about the live music aspects of this. Why do you feel like people are so much more hesitant to get out and see live music?
I think that we got really comfortable being at home and on our phones. I mean, now Netflix is an algorithm and we can flip through and be mindless. It takes effort to go to a show. What people forget is that going to see live music is just like going to therapy or going to the gym. You might not want to, but putting tennis shoes on is the hardest part—just buy the ticket and go! You will leave feeling 100 times better than when you got there. You’re always gonna have a good time, because it’s with people, it’s community, it’s art.
Oh, the other thing I will say—we’re trying to start earlier and catch people as they’re leaving work to come to our shows instead of going home, getting comfortable, and then heading back out. We’re trying to beat the system.
Are there local shows on this tour you’re excited about?
We’ll be all up and down the East Coast for the next month and a half. We’ve got the Haw River Ballroom—the first show is sold out, but the second night still has plenty of tickets. And then the end of March, it will be the 28th in Wilmington and the 29th in Charlotte.
We are also doing more and more events on our farm in Greensboro. So we do concerts for our Patreon community, and the community is very robust and our patrons hang out with each other when we’re not there—they are all buddies. We’re gonna do concerts on our farm this summer and we’re gonna do a Chatham Rabbit summer camp for kids, which we did last year, and it went so well we’re gonna do that again. W
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
across as gripy both feel living. To and I’m so everything else industry] is being everybody them money
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comfortable being mean, now can flip effort to forget is that going to might not on is the and go! better than always gonna with people, say—we’re trying as they’re shows instead comfortable, and trying to beat this tour East Coast We’ve got Ballroom—the first the second of tickets. March, it will Wilmington and more and farm in concerts community, and robust and with each there—they gonna do this sumdo a Chacamp for year, and gonna do edited clarity.
CAT'S CRADLE
MARCH
3/6 TH: RIVALRY NIGHT: UNC VS DUKE DAVIE CIRCLE (UNC), THE MECHANICS (DUKE), WEEKEND THERAPY (DUKE), THE WALLABIES (UNC), BRALESS (UNC)
3/8 SA: ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS DIRTWIRE W/ THE SPOOKLIGHTS
3/14 FR: COROOK W/ KEL CRIPE
3/18 TU: LOW CUT CONNIE W/ MATTY FRANK
3/21 FR: OF MONTREAL THE SUNLANDIC TWINS 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR W/ WHOOP!
3/22 SA: LAST DINOSAURS W/ TIPLING ROCK, JASPER BONES
3/23 SU: THE HARD QUARTET W/ SHARP PINS, UNMASTERED MASTERS
3/25 TU: PATTERSON HOOD W/ LYDIA LOVELESS APRIL
4/1 TU: CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAHPERFORMING THE DEBUT ALBUM W/ BABEHOVEN
4/4 FR: JOHN VINCENT III W/ MURDO MITCHELL
4/10 TH: STEPHEN WILSON JR. SOLD OUT
4/11 FR: TAN & SOBER GENTLEMEN, DRIFTWOOD
4/12 SA: THE WAR AND TREATY
4/16 WE: RUBBLEBUCKET W/ CAPYAC
4/17 TH: BACK TO BACK TO BLACK: THE AMY WINEHOUSE CELEBRATION
4/18 FR: MIKE W/ SIDESHOW, NIONTAY, EL COUSTEAU
4/19 SA: TANK AND THE BANGAS W/ ELLIOT SKINNER, DJ ZEUS
4/21 MO: FREE THROW W/ BEN QUAD, HARRISON GORDON
4/23 TH: JENNIFER CURTIS VIOLIN WITH FRIENDS FROM NC SYMPHONY: SCHOENBERG: TRANSFIGURED NIGHT
4/25 SA: DARREN KIELY
4/27 SU: GANG OF FOUR SOLD OUT
4/28 MO: SAWYER HILL W/ THE CRITICALS
MAY
5/1 TH: TROUSDALE - GROWING PAINS TOUR
5/2 FR: NAPALM DEATH + MELVINS W/ WEEDEATER, DARK SKY BURIAL
5/9 FR: NICOTINE DOLLS
5/10 SA: ELECTRIC SIX W/ MESSUR CHUPS
5/11 SU: JIMMY EAT WORLD SOLD OUT
5/13 TU: LEPROUS W/ WHEEL
5/16 FR: ARMS LENGTH W/ PRINCE DADY & THE HYENA, RILEY! AND BIKE ROUTES
5/17 SA: LUCIUS W/ VICTORIA CANAL
5/29 TH: THE LAST REVEL JUNE
6/2 MO: PETER HOOK & THE LIGHT
6/7 SA: REVEREND HORTON HEAT W/ NATHAN & THE ZYDECO CHA CHAS AUGUST
8/22 FR: BETH STELLING OCT0BER
10/15 WE: DESTROYER
10/16 TU: SAM BURCHFIELD & THE SCOUNDRELS
CAT'S CRADLE BACK ROOM
3/5 WE: THE IKE REILLY ASSASSINATION
3/6 TH: MONOBLOC W/ SID SIMONS, CATCHER
3/7 FR: TRIANGLE AFROBEAT ORCHESTRA, BOOM UNIT BRASS BAND
3/8 SA: HOVVDY W/ VIDEO AGE SOLD OUT
3/9 SU: POST SEX NACHOS W/ VEAUX
3/11 TU: JAMES FELICE W/ NICOLE TESTER
3/12 WE: BASIC W/ BARK CULTURE
3/13 TH: ABI CARTER W/ LAUR ELLE
3/14 FR: ANXIOUS W/ ULTRA Q, STATESIDE
3/15 SA: MISSIO W/ LAYTO SOLD OUT
3/16 SU (3 PM): PAUL MCDONALD & THE MOURNING DOVES
3/16 SU (7 PM): WYATT EASTERLING, ROD ABERNETHY
3/19 WE: PETER CASE & SID GRIFFIN
3/20-22: CARRBORO DJANGO REINHARDT FESTIVAL
3/25 TU: ALEXSUCKS W/ REHASH*
3/26 WE: YOUR NEIGHBORS W/ DREAMFONE
3/27 TH: CASSANDRA JENKINS W/ MERCE LEMON
3/28 FR: ¡TUMBAO! WITH ELORA DASH + AFRICA UNPLUGGED
3/29 SA: PALMYRA W/ CLOVER-LYNN
3/31 MO: ALAN SPARHAWK (OF LOW) W/ CIRCUIT DES YEUX
4/1 TU: POM POM SQUAD
4/2 WE: WILLI CARLISLE
4/3 TH: WIM TAPLEY
4/4 FR: LIZ LONGLEY
4/6 SU: CHASE PETRA W/ SMALL CRUSH, SORRY MOM
4/9 WE: TEEN MORTGAGE W/ BABE HAVEN
4/10 TH: THE CRYSTAL CASINO BAND
4/11 FR: THE WELLERMEN
4/12 SA: HUSBANDS W/ JAGUAR SUN
4/15 TU: MERCURY REV W/ RYLEY WALKER, LIZ LAMERE
4/17 TH: THE WILDMANS
4/18 FR: JOHN HOWIE JR AND THE ROSEWOOD BLUFF ALBUM RELEASE SHOW W/ SEVERED FINGERS, DAVID PRATHER
4/19 SA: FUST
4/20 SU: CHEEKFACE W/ PACING
4/21 MO: THE MYSTERY LIGHTS, LEVITATION ROOM
4/22 TU: LOWERTOWN
4/24 TH: THE TANNAHILL WEAVERS
4/25 FR: PETER HOLSAPPLE ALBUM RELEASE SHOW W/ FLORENCE DORE
5/2 FR: EVENING ELEPHANTS W/ FAZE WAVE
5/3 SA: BLUE CACTUS ALBUM RELEASE
5/4 SU: PHONEBOY W/ INOHA
5/7 WE: BRIGITTE CALLS ME BABY W/ COR DE LUX
5/9 FR: THEM COULEE BOYS
5/13 TU: L.A. WITCH W/ DAIISTAR
5/15 TH: BODIE W/ GRACE BINION
5/16 FR: ANDREW DUHON
5/20 TU: MELISSA CARPER W/ TODD DAY WAIT
5/21 FR: HOLY FAWN
5/22 TH: PET SYMMETRY
5/31 SA: MEI SIMONES
6/20 FR: LAUREN SANDERSON W/
4/18 FR:
INCOMING! INCOMING!
Incoming! Big Dogs, Pop Stars, and Space Clones
Robert Pattinson stars as a clone in Mickey 17, Naomi Watts inherits a 150-pound Great Dane in The Friend, and more movie picks playing locally this month.
BY GLENN MCDONALD arts@indyweek.com
The term “doppelgänger” comes from the German (literally “double walker”), and it refers to a ghostly apparition that manifests as an exact copy of a living person. The basic concept of the double has been around forever, across world literature and folklore. But in contemporary speculative fiction, the trope has taken a technological turn: clones, time travel, multiverse weirdness.
The new sci-fi comedy Mickey 17, opening this week, provides a new riff on the doppelgänger trope with the story of poor Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), circa 2054. It seems that Mickey is an “expendable,” a human clone designed for dangerous space exploration work. Death is an occupational hazard without actually being a problem: Mickey just gets printed out again.
The film comes from the great South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho (Parasite), which means we can safely anticipate layer upon layer of social commentary and grim allegory. Judging from the clips in circulation online, Mickey 17 has a lot on its mind: class conflict, corporate cruelty, hallucinatory politics, and some dark existential speculation.
Thinky sci-fi films like this, with ambitious filmmakers like Bong Joon-Ho, are a good place to go for a fun-house-mirror perspective on our current circumstances. Science fiction stories are never about the future, not really. They’re all about the here and now. It should be especially interesting to get a non-American POV on this wave-
length of bleak, black comedy.
On a similar frequency band, keep an eye out this month for the satirical thriller Opus, which stars Ayo Edebiri as a rookie journalist invited to the exclusive listening party of an aging pop superstar (John Malkovich). The posh gathering of devoted apostles and weirdo sycophants soon turns bloody.
Writer-director Mark Anthony Green, a former magazine writer himself, is clearly taking aim at the cult of celebrity that surrounds the self-proclaimed geniuses of pop music. Let’s not name names. Word is that Malkovich’s performance is off the rails, as usual, and he provides the actual vocals to new tracks from veteran hitmakers Nile Rodgers and The-Dream.
If you’re looking for something a little calmer, wait around until the end of the month for The Friend, an intriguing indie with some old-school star power. Naomi Watts stars as a New York City writer who inherits a 150-pound Great Dane after the death of her beloved friend and mentor, played by Bill Murray.
Big dog, small apartment. It sounds like the setup for a comedy, but that’s what’s fascinating about The Friend. It’s a drama all the way. Based on the novel by Sigrid Nunez, this is a story about grief, memory, art, and friendship—the book won the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction. And the filmmakers behind this adaptation, co-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel, have a way with unsentimental melancholy. (Track down the excellent Montana Story sometime.)
QUICK PICKS
The weeks after the Oscars are a good time to find international films that otherwise rarely get theatrical bookings. Several official submissions to the International Feature Film category are still playing locally: Emilia Pérez (France); Vermiglio (Italy); I’m Still Here (Brazil); Dahomey (Senegal); The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Germany); Flow (Latvia); and Universal Language (Canada). Check online listings for theaters. Director Steven Soderbergh is back yet again with Black Bag, a looks-like-fun spy thriller with Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Naomie Harris, and Pierce Brosnan. Harris and Brosnan are 007 series vets, and
you know that casting is on purpose. If you can stomach another postapocalypse vision, In the Lost Lands stars Milla Jovovich and the improbably awesome movie star Dave Bautista, based on a short story by nerd-culture godfather George R. R. Martin. Speaking of doubles, the 1950s crime drama The Alto Knights features Robert De Niro in a dual role as real-life gangsters Vito Genovese and Frank Costello. Legend holds that iterations of this script by Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas) have been around since the 1970s.
Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd headline the horror-comedy Death of a Unicorn, concerning an unfortunate roadkill incident. W
Mickey 17 COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC.
Opus COURTESY OF A24 The Friend COURTESY OF THE FRIEND LLC.
WED 3/5
MUSIC
The Ike Reilly Assassination 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Pecos and the Rooftops 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
STAGE
Confederates March 5-23, various times. Playmakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill.
Ethics and Public Policy Experiments 4:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
Lectures in Art History: Kency Cornejo, UCLA 5:30 p.m. Davie Hall, Chapel Hill.
SCREEN
Shucked March 4-9, various times. DPAC, Durham.
PAGE
Afternoon of Open Mic Poetry, Spoken Word, and Prose at Five Points
2:30 p.m. Five Points Center for Active Adults, Raleigh.
Holly Yates and Shawn Costello Whooley: The Inner Critic Workbook 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.
Thinking with Philosophy with the UNC-Chapel Hill Philosophy Department
2:15 p.m. Chapel Hill Public Library, Chapel Hill.
THUR 3/6
MUSIC
Austin Royale / Uniity / 13edge + Phinesse Tha Phantom / Wastoid 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Monobloc 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Tophouse / The Wildwoods 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
The Travelin’ McCourys 8 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh.
Zenlarge / Ghost Dog / Nick-E-PalmTreeZ / Torch Hop 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.
STAGE
First Thursdays Improv Comedy 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham.
Improv Comedy with Stolen Identity 6 p.m. Succotash, Durham.
Joe Wong Comedy 6:30 p.m. Witherspoon Student Center at NC State University, Raleigh.
PAGE
Amal El-Mohtar: The River Has Roots 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
CULTURE CALENDAR
FRI 3/7 SAT 3/8
MUSIC
Dixon Dallas 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.
Dominican Jazz Workshop 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.
Georgia Moon and the Wrong Band / Partygirl / Basically Nancy / Rat Palace 6:30 p.m. Neptunes Parlour, Raleigh.
High + Tight: A Lifetime of Soul, Funk, and Disco 8 p.m. Wolfe & Porter, Raleigh.
Mikele Buck Band / Cooper Greer Band / Chip Perry 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
Tim O’Brien with Jan Fabricius 7:30 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.
Triangle Afrobeat Orchestra / Boom Unit Brass Band 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Varsity Vocals: International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella Semifinal March 7-8, various times. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.
Winter Wonderland 10:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
STAGE
Hush Hush Improv Comedy Fridays at 9 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.
Museum Movie Night: Spaceballs 5:30 p.m. NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh.
The Racket: Women’s Month Edition 8 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.
MUSIC
Black Orchid / The Wild Ones / Star People Band 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
Coyote Island 9 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.
Dirtwire Pyrochrome Tour 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.
El Club Dance Party with EK BALAM 10:30 p.m. the Pinhook, Durham.
Hovvdy 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Musical Exploration with KidzNotes 11 a.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.
Onyx
Roland Burnot Quartet 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.
Soot / Hot Brains / Franky and the Slight Incline 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Club Boys: Gypsy Jazz, Swing 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham.
Former doorman and gravedigger Ike Reilly brings his poetic take on punk/folk to the Cat’s Cradle Back Room on March 5. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAT’S CRADLE
CULTURE CALENDAR
STAGE
Golden Age 8 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.
Manic Focus 8 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.
Shallow Cuts Presents: MADONNA vs. MADOGNA 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.
SCREEN
A Song for Imogene 8 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.
SUN 3/9 MON 3/10 TUES 3/11 WED 3/12 THUR 3/13
MUSIC
Lilly Hiatt / Suzie Chism 7 p.m. the Pinhook, Durham.
Post Sex Nachos: The Minor League Tour 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
PAGE
Enneagram in Nature Series 2 p.m. Muse Gallery, Carrboro.
MUSIC
Common Woman Cabaret Fundraiser 6 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.
Walt Weiskopf European Quartet 7 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.
STAGE
Mettlesome @ Yonder 5 p.m. Yonder, Durham.
MUSIC
The Amity Affliction 6 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.
James Felice 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
STAGE
A Good Time: Stand-Up Comedy Showcase 7 p.m.
Bond Brothers Eastside, Cary.
Thomanerchor Leipzig 7:30 p.m. Duke Chapel, Durham.
MUSIC
BASIC 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Dan Spencer / Monadi 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.
Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents: New Orleans Songbook 7 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.
Joseph Decosimo / The Horsenecks 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Rare of Breed: The Redemption Tour Part 2 with Joe Nester and Just Nate Musik 7 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
Ron Pope 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.
MUSIC
Abi Carter 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
The Coyotes / Newspaper Taxis 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Damn Tall Buildings 8 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.
Kolby Cooper / Jay Webb 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
Tabitha Brown: Hello There, Sunshine 6 p.m. Hayes Barton United Methodist Church, Raleigh.
The Righteous Brothers: Lovin’ Feelin’ Farewell Tour 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham.
Ron Wayne Band EP Release Show with The Goodbye Horses 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.
STAGE
Being Chaka March 13-30, various times. Burning Coal Theatre Company, Raleigh.
SCREEN
Ann Arbor Film Festival Touring Show 8 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham.
PAGE
Derek W. Black: Dangerous Learning 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
Catch singer-songwriter Lilly Hiatt at the Pinkhook on March 9. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PINHOOK
The German boys’ choir Thomanerchor Leipzig graces Duke Chapel with their ethereal voices on March 11. PHOTO COURTESY OF DUKE CHAPEL
CULTURE CALENDAR
FRI 3/14 SAT 3/15 SUN 3/16
MUSIC
Ani DiFranco 8 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.
Anxious 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
corook: Committed to a Bit Tour 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.
The Dirty Pretty / Kult Ikon / Felix Tandem 7 p.m. The Night Rider, Raleigh.
Fatale Frequencies 9 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.
High + Tight: A Lifetime of Soul, Funk, and Disco 8 p.m. Wolfe & Porter, Raleigh.
Kate McGarry, Keith Ganz Quartet 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.
Manifest 7 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.
Tim Wells and Les Bons Temps: Cajun, Zydeco and More 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham.
Undertow / Enrage against the Machine 8:30 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
STAGE
Ben Schwartz and Friends
8 p.m. DPAC, Durham.
Hush Hush Improv Comedy Fridays at 9 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.
The Racket 8 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.
MUSIC
The Crones of Anarchy: Blues, Rock, Americana 7 p.m. Succotash, Durham.
Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country March 15-16, 8:30 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
Elias String Quartet 7:30 p.m. Baldwin Auditorium, Durham.
Jambalaya Soul Slam Last Chance Poetry Slam 8 p.m. Hayti Heritage Center, Durham.
Jars of Flies: Ultimate Alice In Chains Tribute with The Phoebes 8 p.m. The Pour House Music Hall & Record Shop, Raleigh.
Lil Wayne / Quavo / Anella 7 p.m. PNC Arena, Raleigh.
Mean Habit / American Motors / Pretty Baby 6:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Missio: I Am Cinco Tour 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Oren and Krystin Bailey 7:30 p.m. Theatre Raleigh, Raleigh.
Preschool Rockstar 10 a.m. Midtown Park, Raleigh.
Trio Incognito with David Bixler 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.
STAGE
Advanced Study Class Show: Narrative Improv 9:30 p.m. Mettlesome Theater, Durham.
Rebuild. Restore. Be More. Dance Benefit Show for Hurricane Helene Recovery 5 p.m. Stewart Theatre, Raleigh.
MUSIC
Live Music with Ed Kincade 12 p.m. Lanza’s Cafe, Carrboro.
Mixed Voices: UpClose Chamber Music 7 p.m. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill.
Paul McDonald & the Mourning Doves 3 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
Wyatt Easterling / Rod Abernethy 7 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.
PAGE
Miriam Zoila Pérez: Camila Núñez’s Year of Disasters 4 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
TUES 3/18
MUSIC
andmoreagain presents: Glixen / Suzy Clue / She’s Green 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.
Low Cut Connie 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.
Thomas Taylor’s Third Tuesday Jam: Music of Lee Morgan 5:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.
STAGE
Beetlejuice March 18-23, various times. DPAC, Durham.
PAGE
p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.
Stories That Connect Us: Behind the Project 6 p.m. Durham County Library, Durham.
Elle Cosimano: Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.
Jill Amber Chafin: Shaken 5:30
Electronic duo Missio plays the Cat’s Cradle Back Room on March 15. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAT’S CRADLE
Glixen plays the Pinhook on March 18. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PINHOOK
CROSSWORD
Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Patti Varol
SU | DO | KU
© Puzzles by Pappocom
There is really only one rule to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box. The numbers can appear in any order and diagonals are not considered. Your initial game board will consist of several numbers that are already placed. Those numbers cannot be changed. Your goal is to fill in the empty squares following the simple rule above. Difficulty level:
If you’re stumped, find the answer keys for these puzzles and archives of previous puzzles (and their solutions) at indyweek.com/puzzles-page
scan this QR code for a link. Best of luck, and have fun!
know the rest,” briefly 14 Buddha’s meditation
Positions to stick after vaults
living a life of prayer
Offers some bad advice?
C L A S S I F I E D S
EMPLOYMENT
Sr. Principal Infrastructure Engineer/Advisor
Sr. Principal Infrastructure Engineer/Advisor, F/T at Truist (Raleigh, NC) Gather reqmts, elicitation, & direct interaction w/ clients. Participate as a highly skilled member on a team of Engineers, providing tech’l expertise for the architecture, dsgng, planning, testing & implmtn phases of projects as assigned by mgmt. Lead efforts related to dsgng, planning, enhancing, & testing all distributed systems platforms used throughout the enterprise incl base-lining current systems, trend analysis & capacity planning as reqd for future systems reqmts. Must have Bach’s deg in Comp Sci or related tech’l field. Must have 5 yrs of progressive exp IT positions working w/ Microsoft SharePoint & prep’g high level & low-level dsgn for Microsoft Technologies. Must have at least 3 yrs of exp performing/utilizing the following: working w/ distributed systems; knowl of data flow, infrastructure, problem analysis & s/ware tuning; knowl of multiple Microsoft prgmg/script languages w/ proficiency in dvlpmt of systems & prgm interfaces; & demonstrating proficiency in: Microsoft SharePoint 2016 & above; Powershell Scripting; Nintex Forms & Workflows; Microsoft Technologies; Agile Methodology; Microsoft Office products; .NET Prgmg language; HTML, CSS, CSOM, JQuery, & JavaScript libraries; & Windows Server 2016 & above. Position may be eligible to work hybrid/ remotely but is based out of & reports to Truist offices in Raleigh, NC. Must be available to travel to Raleigh, NC regularly for meetings & reviews w/ manager & project teams w/in 24-hrs’ notice. Apply online (https://careers.truist.com/) or email resume to: Paige.Whitesell@Truist.com (Ref Job# R0099428).
Technical Architect
Technical Architect sought by LexisNexis USA in Raleigh, NC to utilize advanced, specialized knowledge of LexisNexis’s proprietary, internally developed software products to provide effective architectural/structural design, ensure ongoing development, maintenance, & delivery of technical knowledge/expertise, determine technical feasibility of development projects. Minimum of Bachelor’s degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, or rltd (employer will accept three or four year degree as equivalent) + 4 yrs exp in job offered or rltd occupations required. Employee reports to LexisNexis USA office Raleigh, NC but may telecommute from any location within US. Interested candidates should apply via following link: https://relx.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/ relx/job/Raleigh-NC/Technical-Architect_R90970.
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