WALTER Magazine - September 2022

HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU, KID

– Humphrey Bogart

10 years of partnership,

100 photo shoots, 520 weeks of laughter, 3,652 days of patience and 87,648 hours of editing...

Created many amazing friendships and countless happy memories.

Happy 10th Anniversary!!

Hand-Knotted Rug from Pakistan, Bench by Mr. & Mrs. Howard, Dining Table by Hickory White, Accessories by WALTER Magazine

Observer (BEN FOLDS); Mike Dunn (BEAR)

FEATURES

YEARS

64Cultivating Corners

The Ashley Christensen effect by Catherine Currin

photography by Bob Karp

66By the Numbers

What’s happened in Raleigh by Emma Ginsberg

81Cardinal by Mary Silverthorne

illustration by Marie-Louise Bennett

82En Pointe

Carolina Ballet at 25 by Hampton Williams Hofer photography by Justin Kase Conder

55 The First Decade

56Cover Stories

WALTER over the years

60The Statesman

Catching up with Webb Simpson, WALTER’s first cover star by Liza Roberts photography by Bob Karp

67Top 10 Web Stories

Plus, a Cherry Bounce recipe! by Catherine Currin photography Joe Pellegrino

68Picture Perfect

Iconic photos from our pages

78Magazine Memories

WALTER staff photos!

94Remembering Frank Jr. A tribute to the late publisher by Jim Jenkins

100Character Builders

Airy, travel-infused design by Ayn-Monique Klahre photography by Catherine Nguyen

110A Stitch in Time Artist Precious Lovell by Colony Little photography by Samantha Everette

Juli Leonard

HOMES

Love Your

This is what I did last month: shuttled kids to camp, checked on cats, watched tomatoes ripen and followed a tremendous construction job as it made its way down my street. This utility project came upon us rather suddenly in June (yes, we did get a warning from the city) and is taking forever. They’ve run into all sorts of issues, including — surprise! — about 15 feet of stone between the asphalt they were lifting and the dirt where they want to lay some new sewage pipes.

So these guys are our new neighbors, the folks we’ve said Hi to every morning on our way to work and camp. We brought them Krispy Kreme donuts on our Friday morning runs. And they took care of us, too: One day, my youngest hit the sidewalk, hard, on a walk around the block. The workers were there in seconds with not one, but two first-aid kits — these tough, tatted-up, dusty guys fussing over her skinned knee.

Meanwhile, we’d been waiting to start a construction project on our own house. We drew up the plans nearly three years ago, got approvals almost two years ago, locked in the contractor last spring. And finally — yesterday — we started! Now a ceiling is missing, half our stuff is in storage or wrapped in plastic, and we’re living in a rental. We were prepared, but not really prepared.

Honestly, it’s kind of like the tomatoes:

You set them on the windowsill when they’re green, and then nothing happens, nothing happens… and then they’re red! And you must eat them!

It’s also how I feel about this magazine reaching its 10-year anniversary with our September issue. Liza Roberts and Jesma Reynolds founded WALTER in 2012 with a vision of, as Liza wrote in her first editors’ letter, “embracing and reflecting all that’s great about this City of Oaks.” Month after month, we share stories that reflect the same “dynamic, fast-growing Raleigh” that deserved a magazine a decade ago. I came on board in 2018 to continue the vision, and the last four years have gone by in a flash.

Thank you, readers, for being with us on this journey. We love the ideas and feedback you share with us. We’ll continue our work of capturing the people and culture that make Raleigh so unique in our pages — in the faith that 10 years from now, there will still be more amazing stories to tell.

Ayn-Monique Klahre Editor

Left: A view of my street. Right: Me with previous editors Liza Roberts and Jessie Rumbley.

Courtesy Ayn-Monique Klahre

Exquisite Pavé Diamond Bracelet and Earrings

Signets for the Holidays!

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At Haydon & Company… of course!

At Haydon & Company… of course! Signets for the Holidays!

18 karat white gold, exhibiting over 51 carats of brilliance in the cuff bracelet and over 12 carats in the earrings.

Available in 18 karat yellow gold, 18 karat rose gold or platinum. Christmas delivery guaranteed if ordered by October 1, 2022.

SEPTEMBER 2022

EDITORIAL

Editor

AYN-MONIQUE KLAHRE ayn-monique@waltermagazine.com

Creative Director

LAURA PETRIDES WALL laura@waltermagazine.com

Associate Editor ADDIE LADNER addie@waltermagazine.com

Contributing Writers

Kara Adams, Seth Crossno

Catherine Currin, Jim Dodson, Mike Dunn Hampton Williams Hofer, Jim Jenkins Colony Little, David Menconi

Liza Roberts, Mary Silverthorne

Billy Warden, Lori D.R. Wiggins

Contributing Copy Editor

Finn Cohen

Contributing Photographers

Justin Kase Conder, Samantha Everette, Bob Karp, Juli Leonard, Catherine Nguyen, Joe Pellegrino, Bryan Regan, Gus Samarco, Trey Thomas

Contributing Illustrators

Marie-Louise Bennett, Jillian Ohl, Gerry O’Neill

Interns

Reyna Crooms, Emma Ginsberg, Hayli Ira, Ellie Lindsey, Sophia Melin

PUBLISHING

Publisher DAVID WORONOFF

Advertising Sales Manager JULIE NICKENS julie@waltermagazine.com

Senior Account Executive & Operations CRISTINA HURLEY cristina@waltermagazine.com

Events Manager KAIT GORMAN kait@waltermagazine.com

Finance STEVE ANDERSON 910-693-2497

Distribution JACK BURTON Inquiries? WALTER OFFICE 984-286-0928

Address all correspondence to: WALTER magazine, 421 Fayetteville Street, Suite 104 Raleigh, N.C. 27601

WALTER is available by paid subscriptions for $25 a year in the United States, as well as select rack and advertiser locations throughout the Triangle. Subscribe online at waltermagazine.com/subscribe

For customer service inquiries, please email us at customerservice@waltermagazine.com or call 818-286-3118.

WALTER does not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Please contact Ayn-Monique Klahre at ayn-monique@waltermagazine.com for freelance guidelines.

Owners

JACK ANDREWS, FRANK DANIELS III, LEE DIRKS, DAVID WORONOFF In memoriam FRANK DANIELS JR.

© WALTER magazine. All rights reserved.

Art Aficionados, Meet Your Muse

Relaxation and adventure, your getaway is ready. Whether savoring eclectic dishes at our 100+ downtown eateries, exploring historic homes-turned-art museums, creating your own Craft Draft Crawl, strolling through lush heirloom gardens, exploring our great “art”doors, or sampling award-winning wines from our 45+ nearby wineries, you’ll look forward to traveling back to Winston-Salem.

SEPT. 9 - 11

Gears & Guitars

Music Festival

SEPT. 22 - 25

Bookmarks Festival of Books and Authors

Plan your getaway at VisitWinstonSalem.com

NOV. 19 - 20

Piedmont Craftsmen’s Fair

CONTRIBUTORS

COLONY LITTLE / WRITER

BOB KARP / PHOTOGRAPHER

Little is a Raleigh-based freelance writer and founder of the blog Culture Shock Art. She is a recipient of the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant and a member of the 2022 cohort for the MHz Curationist Critics of Color residency. Her work has appeared in Artnet, The Art Newspaper, ARTS.BLACK, Hyperallergic and W Magazine. “Spending time with Precious in her studio was an honor. She has imbued the space with the special memories of the objects she collected during her travels and the rich histories behind the fabrics she creates and uses in her works. Her energy and creative vision are powerful. We are lucky to enjoy her presence and wisdom here.” Courtesy contributors

JIM JENKINS / WRITER

Jim Jenkins’ first appearance in WALTER was some years ago as the leader of Rode Hard the band, a group of fellows in their 60s who became friends late in life through music. Jenkins, an editor, columnist and chief editorial writer at The News & Observer for 31 years, found another new friend in his first article for the magazine — the late Frank Daniels Jr. Of profiling Daniels, long-time publisher of The N&O, Jenkins says, “I knew the fellow most of my professional life, and liked him even better the more I learned about him.” Jenkins now writes “life stories” for clients who want to preserve their memories.

“My two shoots for this issue were a study in contrast. My first was with Webb Simpson and his family. I was a little intimidated by the five children — it might be tough to organize a sitting portrait! — but they were perfect models and even did a costume change. The entire family worked together to make chocolate chip cookies and insisted I take one for the road. (It was delicious!) After meeting Ashley Christensen at her legendary Poole’s Diner, we quickly bonded over one of my favorite subjects, pizza, telling her how excited my New Jersey friends were that I had finally found a great pizza spot in North Carolina — her Poole’side Pies, right next door.”

JUSTIN KASE CONDER / PHOTOGRAPHER

Conder is an editorial and commercial photographer who spent seven years traveling as an international photographer before settling in Raleigh. His clients run the spectrum from Otis Elevator to Nickelodeon — but stories that highlight our incredible local arts community fill his cup. “In the 25 years I have worked as a professional photographer, there is not a story I can recall that left me as gobsmacked and impressed as the dancers I was so so privileged to spend five nights with. They’re beautiful and absolutely brilliant.” Learn more at jkase.com

We love to hear from you! A few recent notes from readers...

“[August] is the best issue in a long time! So much to read and to know about. Many interesting features. Thank you!”

— Rosemary York

A few of the muddy shoes worn at the wedding of Katharine and Kevin Kane, where Ladyfingers served its first ham biscuits. The couple lives in Raleigh and they’ve been married 33 years.

“I loved reading the story on Ladyfingers serving ham rolls for the first time at a rainy outdoor wedding years ago because I knew that it was my sister’s wedding in our backyard! Ham rolls were my mom Peggy Anne Hogan’s signature item. She made them as a labor of love for special people in her life and wanted them served at my sister Katharine’s wedding.”

— Louise Hogan Walker

“Rarely

expectations

what happened when we moved

but

The Cypress of Raleigh. If you want to develop meaningful friendships, engage in fun and interesting activities, and have the peace of mind that

Cypress is the place to be.”

OUR TOWN

Welcome fall with colorful festivals, great music and opening weekends for sports and arts alike.

by WALTER STAFF

IBMA WORLD OF BLUEGRASS

Sept. 27 - Oct. 1 | See website

NOTED

This year celebrates 10 years hosting the IBMA World of Bluegrass. While the conference at the convention center attracts music industry pros for career development and networking, locals know it best for the Bluegrass Ramble, the twoday showcase of bluegrass talent that wraps it up. Check out emerging artists like Breakin’ Strings, Carley Arrowood and Cedar Hill on the street stages downtown, or head to the Red Hat Amphitheater for Grammy-award winning acts such as The Infamous Stringdusters and The Dan Tyminski Band — all for free this year! In addition to the bevy of bluegrass, the street festival will include food trucks, North Carolina brews and an art and craft market powered by Artsplosure and Black Friday Market. Free general admission; 500 S. McDowell Street & downtown Raleigh; worldofbluegrass.org

THROUGH THE LAYERS

Aug. 1 - Sept. 21 | See website

North Carolina-based artists Wiley Johnson and Eduardo Lapetina present Through the Layers, an art exhibit sponsored by the Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability Conference (LEAD) at the Block Gallery inside the Raleigh Municipal Building. Both Johnson and Lapetina identify as having a disability and have found a shared visual language through their art. Johnson’s abstract paintings use layering as a key technique, and Lapetina utilizes a variety of methods such as scraping, pouring and dripping to create symbolic shapes and colors. Free; 222 W. Hargett Street; raleighnc.gov/arts

AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL FESTIVAL

Sept. 3 - 4 | See website

Honor African American culture on Labor Day weekend through art, music, dance, food and community at the 13th Annual African American Cultural Festival of Raleigh and Wake County. Visit the Art Gallery Walk on Fayetteville Street, where local and nationally known artists will display original works on canvas, handcrafted jewelry, sculpture and ceramics. Make sure to grab a bite from the several food vendors guaranteed to satisfy your fried, fruity, frozen or veggie needs. Free; downtown Raleigh; aacfestival.org

HOPSCOTCH MUSIC FESTIVAL

Sept. 8 - 10 | See website

For more than 10 years, this homegrown music festival has celebrated independent musicians of all genres. Across multiple stages, rock on with guitarist MJ Lenderman from Asheville or tap into your country side with headliner Charley Crockett from Texas. Hip-hop lovers can look forward to seeing up-and-comer Quelle Chris from Detroit, and folk-music folks can

DATEBOOK

see Tomberlin, whose music has landed her on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Buy tickets by the day, or splurge on the VIP experience for a three-day pass, drink vouchers and access to VIP parties and lounges. From $79 for a single day pass; Moore Square & One City Plaza; hopscotchmusicfest.com

WOLFPACK VS. BUCCANEERS

Sept. 10 | 12:30 p.m. Grab your “pack” for North Carolina State University’s first home football game of the season against Charleston Southern’s Buccaneers at Carter-Finley Stadium. This matchup also marks the annual Wolfpack Club Day and AG Day, celebrating North Carolina’s agricultural scene with live music. From $35; 4600 Trinity Road; gopack.com

All

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG

Sept. 14 - 25 | See website

The award-winning Broadway comedy The Play That Goes Wrong is a play about another play — a farcical portrayal of the disasters that strike a group of performers on opening night of The Murder at Haversham Manor. Between a discombobulated cast who can’t even recall their lines and an actress having trouble playing dead, this cheerful performance offers the best of British humor. From $30; 6638 Old Wake Forest Road; theatreraleigh.com

WINNOVATION

Sept. 16 | 4 p.m.

WALTER will host its eighth annual WINovation summit at The Umstead Hotel & Spa, an event that is sure to

This month offers a few opportunities to wander through impressive gardens and get inspiration — or some new plants — for your own yard. On the weekends of Sept. 16 to 18 and 23 to 25, visit master plantsman Tony Avent’s Juniper Level Botanic garden, where you’ll encounter 28 acres filled with more than 30,000 varieties of plants. You can shop for everything from native perennials to exotic plants and an array of trees and shrubs (jlbg.org). While the JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State is open year-round, get a new perspective on the park during a guided Evening Garden Stroll on Sept. 13 or a Photography Walk with outdoor photographer Mary Louise Ravese on Sept. 15 (jcra.ncsu. edu). On Sept. 24, combine food and flora with a tour through the edible garden of bestselling author and horticulturist Brie Authur. Free with no registration needed; promenade the ornate garden, grab a bite to eat from Medi-Bites Food Truck and purchase garden essentials (briegrows.com).

courtesy Juniper Level Botanic Garden

THE GREEN CHAIR CHAIRITY EVENT

September 14 - 17 | 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Forty North Carolina designers will come together to combat homelessness for The Green Chair Project at its 10th annual fundraiser, called Chairity. This year they’ve expanded the event, auctioning off entire room scenes and adding cooking, art and DIY demonstrations. “In the past, we just offered the re-imagined chairs — adding the living spaces allows us to connect with more designers and manufacturers,” says Jackie Craig, the nonprofit’s executive director. “We hope that will bring more engagement, awareness and ultimately more money to support people in need.” Chairity kicks off on Friday with talks from Sheri Castle and Spoonflower artists Danika Herrick and Katie Hayes, plus a first look at the goods up for auction. Saturday and Sunday, explore living areas where everything’s for sale, from the fixtures to the furniture. Design firms such as Lauren McKay Interiors, Kate Hutchison, Design Lines Signature and La Maison are participating this year. Craig says that need is dire: “These days, we’re serving more families in a week than we would in a month, pre-Covid.” Green Chair will use the proceeds to help individuals transitioning out of homelessness furnish their new spaces. From $75 for an all-day pass; 1853 Capital Boulevard; thegreenchair.org

inspire innovation, creativity and the entrepreneurial spirit and celebrate diversity in women. This year the speakers include acclaimed architect Zena Howard, poet Jaki Shelton Green, North Carolina Museum of Art CEO Valerie Hillings and Anita Watkins of Rex Health Ventures. Guests will enjoy professional development workshops, networking and a three-course dinner prepared by James Beard-winning chef Steven Devereaux Greene. From $125; 100 Woodland Pond, Cary; waltermagazine.com/winnovation

BUGFEST

Sept. 17 | 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences will be transformed inside and out into a land of bugs, with more than 100 arthropod-themed exhibits, crafts, games, activities and food — yes, insects to eat! — presented by entomologists. Working to educate the public about

the natural world, BugFest is the largest bug-centered event of its kind in the entire country. This year the NCMNS will be spotlighting the arthropod subphylum Myriapoda, which has about 13,000 terrestrial species, like the common millipede and centipede. Free; 11 W. Jones Street; naturalsciences.org

LA FIESTA DEL PUEBLO

Sept. 18 | 12 - 6 p.m.

North Carolina’s largest and most diverse festival of Latin American culture is back — in person! — downtown this year. With live music and dance performances, education booths and visual and folk art exhibits, the annual celebration is led by El Pueblo, a local nonprofit that supports leadership development for Latinx youth. Free; Fayetteville Street; elpueblo. org/fiesta

DATEBOOK

PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

Sept. 23 - 24 | 8 p.m.

The North Carolina Symphony is kicking off its 2022-2023 season with a powerful weekend of performances at Meymandi Concert Hall, conducted by new music director designate Carlos Miguel Prieto. Revel in the sonic impact and orchestral color of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, along with Debussy’s Iberia, Ravel’s Rhapsodie Espagnole and Jennifer Higdon’s Fanfare Ritmico From $21.50; 2 E South Street; ncsymphony.org

FARM AID FESTIVAL

Sept. 24 | All day

Country superstars and music legends such as Willie Nelson, Chris Stapleton, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds and John Mellencamp are returning to Raleigh for the second annual Farm Aid Festival, with a mission to support family farms and celebrate

AMERICAN DANCE FESTIVAL

Sept. 8 - 11 | 7:30 p.m.

Shasay on out to the North Carolina Museum of Art for this four-day series of outdoor performances. Start your weekend on Thursday with Micaela Taylor’s the TL Collective, known for its hip-hop-infused performances. On Friday, contemporary collective Limón Dance Company will celebrate its 75th season; Saturday, see the award-winning PHILADANCO! and on Sunday, check out Chapel Hill-native tap dancer Luke Hickey. Purchase tickets for all four performances and receive 20% off. From $30; 2110 Blue Ridge Road; americandancefestival.org

courtesy American Dance Festival

the food they work hard to provide their communities with.

Join them at Coastal Credit Union Music Park to hear classic songs and learn about North Carolina’s agriculture and farmers. Check out the

HOMEGROWN village, where you can learn tricks of the trade and participate in farm-themed arts and crafts. This allday event will have concessions provided by farmers using sustainable practices, including local produce, humanely raised meat and homemade bread made from organic flour. From $75; 3801 Rock Quarry Road; farmaid.org

HURRICANES VS. LIGHTNING

Sept. 27 | 7 p.m.

Take warning: The Carolina Hurricanes are back on the ice. Dust off your best black-and-red and head back to PNC Arena for the first preseason exhibition game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. This exciting match-up kicks off the new season and welcomes new team members such as defenseman Brent Burns, left wing Max Pacioretty and forward Ondřej Kaše to Raleigh. From $25; 1400 Edwards Mill Road; nhl.com/hurricanes

A GREAT BIG WOOLY MAMMOTH THAWING FROM THE ICE

Sept. 29 - Oct. 16 | See website

Burning Coal Theatre Company is kicking off its 2022 - 2023 season with a new play by West End playwright Tatty Hennessy. Inspired by a New York Times article, this mystery/adventure takes place in Alaska, where a tech giant, activist and oil driller cross paths and explore how the effects of climate change can impact personal relationships. Directed by London-based Lucy Jane Atkinson, a longtime collaborator with Hennessy, this timely world premiere sets the tone for the rest of the intriguing season at Burning Coal. $30; 224 Polk Street; burningcoal.org

Shop Zest Online!

In 1866, the American artist Edmonia Lewis moved to Rome. There, among a vibrant community of artists, she worked in marble, sculpting busts of presidents and poets, queens and freedmen. Unlike her peers, most of whom sent their clay and plaster models off to Italian marble carvers to be cast into stone, Lewis did the work herself. She chiseled by hand, a tedious process, undertaken both for lack of funding and for prevention of fraud.

One of her few surviving works is a 21-inch marble sculpture called The Old Indian Arrow Maker and His Daughter. It’s a new acquisition of the North Carolina Museum of Art — monumental not in size but in the narrative that surrounds it.

“Edmonia Lewis was remarkable, overcoming so many seemingly insurmountable obstacles in her life,” says Lauren Applebaum, the NCMA’s curator of American art. The sculp-

Anchored in STONE

A new acquisition at the NCMA offers a fresh perspective

by HAMPTON WILLIAMS HOFER photography by TREY THOMAS

tor worked in a male-dominated world, and was a person of Black and Native American descent in a country where slavery was still legal and Indigenous peoples were derided. The daughter of a Chippewa mother who wove Indigenous souvenirs for a living and a Haitian father who worked as a gentleman’s servant, Lewis could not afford formal artistic training. She spent her childhood fishing, swimming, making moccasins and living up to her nickname, Wildfire.

Lewis was orphaned at a young age and grew up with her maternal aunts in upstate New York. When her brother hit it big in the California gold rush, he sent her to receive a proper education at Oberlin College in Ohio, one of the first higher-learning institutions in the country to accept women of color. Then she moved to Boston to pursue a career as a sculptor, fashioning her own tools to make plaster medallions of famous abolitionists. She held her first solo exhibition in

The Old Indian Arrow Maker and His Daughter by Edmonia Lewis.

1864, garnering attention with a bust of Col. Robert Shaw, a Union officer who led the first all-Black regiment in the Northeast during the Civil War. She made enough money from sales of copies of the bust that she was able to travel to Europe, eventually settling in Rome in 1866, a place that offered creative opportunities unavailable at home to a woman of color.

It was there that Lewis created The Old Indian Arrow Maker and His Daughter, inspired by arguably the most popular piece of literature of her time: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1855 poem Song of Hiawatha. “This sculpture had been on my radar,” Applebaum says, “and I knew it was important for us to acquire it.”

While countless artists across all genres in the late 19th century drew inspiration from Longfellow’s poem, Lewis’ portrayal is different. The epic poem follows the legendary

Ojibwe warrior Hiawatha and his love for a Dakota woman named Minnehaha in a fictional tragedy. There is a moment in the story when the suitor Hiawatha approaches Minnehaha and her father: At the doorway of his wigwam/ Sat the ancient Arrow-maker… At his side, in all her beauty/ Sat the lovely Minnehaha. This is the moment of Lewis’ focus. In her sculpture, the Arrow-maker and Minnehaha, both with their hands at work, look outward as Hiawatha comes to greet them, the deer at their feet a symbol of courtship. The viewer, then, assumes the position of the advancing chief. “A prominent way of viewing Indigenous people at this time was as a vanishing race,” Applebaum says, “but Lewis is showing an intergenerational scene of a father and daughter, the daughter working on a traditional craft practice while father makes an arrowhead… it speaks to perpetuation.”

Valerie Hillings, the director of the NCMA, was intrigued

Clockwise from left: Staffers at work installing art as the NCMA reimagines The People’s Collection. The Old Indian Arrow Maker and His Daughter in transit.

by Applebaum’s passion for adding a Lewis piece to the museum’s collection. “I was particularly thinking, as a director, how does this artist connect to what’s here, or change what’s here?” Hillings says.

As it turns out, Lewis fits right in. The museum’s Grand Portrait Gallery boasts Saul Under the Influence of the Evil Spirit, another marble sculpture carved by William Wetmore Story, an American living in Italy in the 1860s. There’s also Daphne, a marble bust of the Greek tree spirit by another American sculptor, Harriet Hosmer. Hosmer was also in Italy at the time, and one of few well-known female sculptors of her era. She became a friend and mentor to Lewis. While Lewis never achieved the commercial success of the

other two, it’s fitting that her work sits alongside that of her contemporaries, more than a century later.

And Lewis isn’t the only artist at the NCMA who drew inspiration from Longfellow’s popular poem. Thomas Moran’s 1875 painting, Fiercely the Red Sun Descending/ Burned His Way Along the Heavens, stuns at the museum with its fiery oil-on-canvas depiction of the two lines from the poem that became its title.

To these three works, the addition of Lewis’ The Old Indian Arrow Maker and His Daughter offers an alternate interpretation, a parallel narrative. It’s the same medium, marble, from the same era — but a sympathetic, proud depiction of Native Americans, by a woman of Indigenous descent. It’s the same literary muse, but a different focal point, one that turns a lens on family and tradition, at a time when many were depicting Native Americans as savages.

And this is exactly the point of adding this piece, at a time when the museum is rethinking The People’s Collection with an eye towards inclusivity and broadening the narrative. Lewis is what Hillings calls an “anchor artist,” one who roots an exhibit, and in this case the anchor artist will help to tell the story of American art in a wider way, a fresher way. “What is rich about this work is that it has all this narrative about someone who was in a circle of artists working abroad, creating an incredible sculpture,” Hillings says. “And also that there is a woman in the portrait, that it’s a representation of a woman by a woman. It tells so many stories.”

“What is rich about this work is... that there is a woman in the portrait, that it’s a representation of a woman by a woman. It tells so many stories.”

— Valerie Hillings

Fullsteam Brewery

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12

6:00 PM | The Merrimon-Wynne House

& Co-Founder, Firsthand Foods

Join us for a farm-to-table dinner honoring the outdoors. Enjoy a delicious menu from chef Dean Neff, pitmaster Wyatt Dickson, brewer Sean Wilson, and purveyor Jennifer Curtis to hear about why sustainable, local ingredients are important to them.

PRESENTED BY WITH SUPPORT FROM SCAN HERE FOR TICKETS

DEAN NEFFWYATT DICKSONSEAN WILSONJENNIFER CURTIS Chef & Owner, Seabird Pitmaster & Owner, PICNIC Owner,

CEO

EVENTS GUIDE FALL

classical season highlights

Opening Weekend Pictures at an Exhibition

FRI/SAT, SEPT 23-24, 2022 | 8PM

Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor

The Mighty Beethoven Eroica

FRI/SAT, OCT 14-15, 2022 | 8PM

Kerem Hasan, conductor

The Immortal Mozart Requiem

FRI/SAT, FEB 24-25, 2023 | 8PM

Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor

North Carolina Master Chorale

The Greatest Story Ever Told Handel’s Messiah

FRI/SAT DEC 2-3, 2022 | 8PM

North Carolina Master Chorale

Epic, Heroic, and Monumental Mahler Symphony No. 1

FRI/SAT, MAY 12-13, 2023 | 8PM

Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor Stella Chen, violin

A Celestial Showpiece Holst The Planets

FRI/SAT, APR 14-15, 2023 | 8PM

Thomas Wilkins, conductor

Experience the ultimate trip through the galaxy, gravity-defying circus acts, a stroll through music’s most famous art gallery, an unforgettable cinematic concert event, and much more during the 22/23 season with your North Carolina Symphony! We offer many packages to suit every taste and budget.

HOLST THE PLANETS

The Circus meets the Symphony!

Cirque Dances with Troupe Vertigo

FRI/SAT OCT 7-8, 2022 | 8PM

Michelle Di Russo, conductor

Halloween Weekend!

The Music of Harry Potter

FRI OCT 28, 2022 | 8PM

SAT, OCT 29, 2022 | 3PM

Michelle Di Russo, conductor

Annual Tradition Holiday Pops

FRI, DEC 9, 2022 | 8PM

SAT, DEC 10, 2022 | 3PM & 8PM

Michelle Di Russo, conductor

Weekend Sponsor: CEI-The Digital Office

Concert Sponsor: Wells Fargo

The Queen of Soul!

Aretha: A Tribute

FRI, JAN 20, 2023 | 8PM

SAT, JAN 21, 2023 | 3PM & 8PM

Lucas Waldin, conductor

Capathia Jenkins, vocals

Concert Sponsor: The Forest at Duke

Valentine’s Weekend Revolution: The Music of The Beatles A Symphonic Experience

FRI, FEB 10, 2023 | 8PM

SAT, FEB 11, 2023 | 3PM & 8PM

Michelle Di Russo, conductor

Concert Sponsor: WakeMed MyCare 365 Primary & Urgent Care

Celebrate May the Fourth Weekend!

“Star Wars: The Empire Strikes

Back” In Concert

THUR, MAY 4, 2023 | 7:30PM

FRI/SAT, MAY 5-6, 2023 | 8PM

Conner Gray Covington, conductor

at the north carolina museum of history

October 28, 2022 –

february 26, 2023

Highlights from country music’s female trailblazers shared through their instruments and costumes, this exhibition from the GRAMMY Museum® in Los Angeles features artists from Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton to Taylor Swift and Rhiannon Giddens.

SAVE THE DATE:

Exhibition Opening Celebration:

• Member Opening: Oct. 27

• General Public Opening: Oct. 28

Southern Songbirds Concert Series:

• Charly Lowry, Caitlin Cary, + H.C. McEntire: Oct. 29

• Tift Merritt: Dec. 10

• Alice Gerrard & Friends: Dec. 11

• Rissi Palmer: Jan. 21

NEW: Museum members exhibition tickets are FREE! Visit ncmuseumofhistory.org for details, full exhibition program listing, and tickets!

“Secret Garden II” mixed media on canvas, 36 x 48, c. 2015

THEATRE IN THE PARK 2023

Your Season Awaits...

A s

SEASON

MEMBERSHIPS NOW ON-SALE!

You are invited to Theatre In The Park’s 2023 season! We based our season off of the wonderful suggestions from our audience members, and we know you’re going to love what’s in store for you. We have musicals, comedies, dramas, histories, and spooky delights for the whole family to enjoy!

Dec 9-18, 2022

Broadway’s Greatest Hits

Feb 16-26, 2023

Inherit the Wind

Apr 13-23, 2023

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One history,Many voices

PHOTO BY BEN LINDEMANN

photography by Justin Kase Conder

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The New York Times Bestselling Author of Under the Tuscan Sun

OVER the MOON

Each autumnal equinox, this couple throws a party to draw their friends together

by LORI D. R. WIGGINS

Twice a year, the Earth’s axis tilts neither toward nor away from the sun, giving us a near-equal amount of day and night, an equinox. In Historic Oakwood, the autumnal equinox is marked by an annual party that starts at sunset, filled with friends and food. Glowing with twinkling lights and decorated in brilliant silks, it’s an event that conjures the moon as a symbol of harmony and unity.

“My husband and I are involved in a lot of different organizations — nonprofits, church, work, politics — so we make lots of friends who are wonderful, but don’t know each other,” says Ann Robertson, who hosts the party with her husband, Hans Linnartz. “One year, we said, Let’s see if there’s some way to bring them together, to give our friends a chance to get to know each other.” After scouring lists of special events throughout the year, they locked in

on the mid-September fall equinox. “Both the equinox and the solstice holidays are celebrated because they are astronomically interesting,” Linnartz says. Plus, Robertson says, not much else is happening that time of year, “and the weather is warm.” It also reminded them of an engaging 2005 visit to Lijiang, China. They happened to be there during a lunar festival and were taken by the fanfare and tradition of family that they witnessed. They decided

courtesy Ann Robertson

to name their own event the Equinox Moon Party. Each year, they riff on the theme through fantastical decor, party favors, signature cocktails and more.

The first Equinox Moon Party, in 2017, happened to mark the 100-year anniversary of the Moon Pie, so they handed out the classic treats as favors. In 2018, the theme was “The Moon Shines on Robertson Landing,” as Robertson’s grandfather had discovered moonshine tucked away on some land off Highway 64 in eastern North Carolina when he bought it back in 1948. “The Tale of the Fortune Cookie” was 2019’s theme, honoring the Chinese traditions around various lunar occurrences. The couple wrote the messages tucked inside the fortune cookies

given as favors. (One held a quote from Mary Oliver: “Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”)

Like many traditions, the Equinox Moon Party was eclipsed by Covid restrictions in 2020, so Robertson says that year doesn’t count in the party archive. But that year there was a blue moon, making it a fitting celestial carryover for the 2021 theme. There was Blue Moon beer, and lyrics to the Rodgers & Hart song of the same name were printed on the party invitations. (They’re keeping mum about 2022’s theme as the party preparations are underway.)

To establish the scene each year, they enlist a longtime friend, Deborah

Owens, as a set designer, who in turn works with Brian Biddle of ThemeWorks to make the magic happen. “We’re all about helping people to envision whatever theme they have and help it come to fruition,” says Biddle. “We’ve been able to make this space come alive.” The entire backyard is tented; tables are draped in cinnabar-colored silks, oversize urns are filled with bamboo and props have ranged from mini pagodas to a 3-foot-tall golden dragon. Last year, there was a waterfall; in years past, there have been full-sized trees. A giant moon is always above the bar. “That’s the showstopper,” says Owens. “It’s the wow!” Guests mingle and lounge on an eclectic mix of couches, benches and

Opposite page: A scene from the Equinox Moon Party one year ago. This page: Hans Linnartz and Ann Robertson (bottom middle) and a few photographs of guests and decor from over the years.

courtesy Ann Robertson

garden stools. Phillip Lin of Catering by Design serves up Asian cuisine in honor of the party’s roots, like noodle boxes, dumplings and stir-fry cooked on site. Robertson’s friend Julia Bryan also helps with the planning. “The highlight for me is the whole process,” she says. “When Ann does something,

it’s thorough. When people come to this party, they know she’s thought about everything. We have a lot of fun.”

And while the party’s theme changes each year, the guest list has stayed pretty constant — the goal of bringing together their friends has worked. Sig Hutchinson attends the party each year with his wife, Nancy. “The party brings together an eclectic, diverse group of people,” he says. “Whether you’re talking to their next-door neighbor or the governor, you’re having an interesting conversation.”

That’s just what Robertson was hoping for: a celebration of community, in the spirit of the friendly moon. “It’s neat to draw people together from the different departments of our lives,” she says. “These are folks that probably would not have connected if they weren’t already connected to us.”

courtesy Ann Robertson

Catherine Nguyen Photography

OCTOBER 13-30, 2022

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BEAR COUNTRY

Remarkable encounters inside our Coastal Plain wildlife refuges

words

and

photography by MIKE DUNN

Iremember seeing my first bear when I was a kid. My parents took me to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and a bear ran across the road in front of our car. I was so excited — a bear in the wild! That sighting inspired me to learn more about these charismatic mammals.

For the next couple of decades, I saw only the occasional bear, usually while vacationing in the mountains. Then, I started working for the North Carolina State Parks System in 1981. A ranger at Pettigrew State Park suggested I visit the nearby Pungo National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) on my next vacation to see the

wintering waterfowl.

On my first trip to the refuge, my friend and I walked down a gated gravel road to the sounds of tundra swans and snow geese on Pungo Lake, just beyond a tract of forest that bordered the road. We took a side trail that went out to the lake. My friend stopped to look at some tracks while I continued down the path to the water. As I approached, I saw the top of a sapling shaking back and forth. I eased around to see what was causing it and was amazed to see a black bear scratching her back by rubbing against the trunk of the tree. There was a young bear next to her, probably a year-old cub judging by

its size. I took a few photos and waited for my friend. By the time he got there, the bears had walked off into the brush. When I told him what he’d missed, he replied that I’d missed something too: a bobcat sitting near where he entered the woods. What an incredible place!

That visit started what has been a 40year love affair with the public lands of our state’s wild and wonderful Coastal Plain. Since then, I have traveled to this refuge, now called Pocosin Lakes NWR, and nearby Mattamuskeet and Alligator River NWRs hundreds of times in all seasons. The Pungo area has one of the highest densities of black bears — the

Left: A BLack bear standing in wheat field. Right: Bear cubs looking toward their mother.

NATURE

only species of bear in the Eastern United States — in North America. The total number of bears in Eastern North Carolina is believed to be around 10,000, compared to an estimated mountain population of about 6,000 bears. The world-record black bear was found in Craven County and weighed 880 pounds! Their large size, and my winter sightings, are due to the mild climate and ready availability of food year-round. These bears typically don’t hibernate long, if at all, and continue feeding through much of the winter.

On a hot August afternoon a few years ago, we came across a huge male sitting in the water of one of the roadside canals at Alligator River NWR. He just sat there, soaking it all in, eyes half shut, like you or I might do on a sultry summer day. Eventually, he opened his eyes, climbed the steep bank and ambled across the field to get a snack.

One reason I like bears so much is that their behavior can seem so similar to ours. This is particularly true when they’re standing. Bears have an incredible sense of smell but somewhat limited

vision, so a bear will rise to get a better view of its surroundings and lift its nose to catch the scent of an unknown object.

One year, when we were helping lead bear tours during the North Carolina Black Bear Festival in Plymouth, I was showing people a young bear walking through a farm field in our general direction. It angled off a bit toward the roadside canal, and when it got to the water, it stood up and walked across.

Another winter, I stood in awe at thousands of snow geese swirling into a field of corn stubble to feed. From a distance I saw them leap into the air, circle and settle back down several times. As I approached, I could see why: A young black bear was running out into the field from a nearby line of trees and spooking the birds, and then running back to the forest. The bear did this a few times, and the birds simply flew over it to land again and feed. I still wonder if it was playing or trying to grab a feathered snack.

One day as I drove down a dusty refuge road, I passed a single tree by a roadside canal. To my surprise, there was a bear lounging on a limb, just barely out of

sight of the several cars that had already driven by. I stopped, poked the camera out the window and took a few photos. The bear started chewing on the tree, and I realized it was making a more comfortable spot to lay on the big limb by getting rid of a branch poking its side. After a few minutes, the annoying branch was gone, and the bear fell asleep.

The only thing better than a sleeping bear in a tree is a cub in a tree. One day, several of us visited the Pungo Unit and were walking down a road talking when an adult bear startled us by sliding down a nearby pine. It was like a fireman sliding down a firehouse pole, except it made a lot more noise. The bear ran off into the woods, and as we recovered our wits, we saw two cubs sitting high up on one of the larger branches. They looked around, yawned and got comfortable, as mom had undoubtedly signaled for them to stay put. We opted to move along after a couple of quick photos so she could come back and be with her babies.

I always enjoy seeing cubs — they’re so playful and cute. This summer I happened upon a mother bear with three cubs hanging out on a huge dirt pile at the edge of a field. One cub was pawing at the tolerant mother bear while the other two were having a wrestling match in the dirt, just like kids in a sandbox. I sat down to watch and photograph them for several minutes before they climbed down off the dirt playground and headed into the woods. As usual, I used a telephoto lens and kept my distance so as not to influence their behavior. Though they will generally run from people, bears are wild animals that should be treated with respect.

Want to see bears in the wild? Head down to either Pocosin Lakes NWR or Alligator River NWR, especially early or late in the day, and cruise the roads. Keep an eye on the fields or down the road in front of you, and don’t forget to look up in the trees as well. Alligator River also offers tram tours for viewing wildlife, including bears, throughout the summer and fall. Visit fws.gov/refuge/ alligator-river for more information.

A large male black bear that came out of the woodS onto a grassy road.

NEW HEIGHTS

Disability advocate Ali Ingersoll

by BILLY WARDEN photography by JOE PELLEGRINO

Aug. 21, 2010: In photos of the day her world shattered, Ali Ingersoll is honey blonde and sun-kissed. She is 27, confidently sporting a blue string bikini, frolicking with handsome friends at a Bahamas tiki bar that juts over a calm, emerald Atlantic Ocean. Laughing and grooving to Lady Gaga, Ingersoll approaches the tiki bar’s edge and dives in. Her skull slams into the sand. Her neck snaps. She tries to push her head above the sloshing surface — but she cannot move.

"

Twelve years later, Ingersoll rolls through a slanting rain in Raleigh.

Compression gloves protect her hands and forearms from the March wind. Without them, her bare skin would suffer pinpricks of pain — one of the many symptoms of being a quadriplegic, the result of her shallow dive.

Paralyzed from the chest down, Ingersoll guns her motorized wheelchair to the next storefront at The Village District shopping center. With the help of her caretaker, she maneuvers inside to make her pitch.

Her radiant smile, still framed by blond tresses, seals the deal. Ingersoll nets another contribution to the array of auc-

tion items — gift certificates and swank merchandise — for the Casino Night fundraiser of the Alliance of Disability Advocates in North Carolina.

In her first year as the group’s board chair, Ingersoll is betting big on the success of Casino Night. She started the position shortly after taking the title of Ms. Wheelchair North Carolina 2022. Now, she’s ramping up to compete in the Ms. Wheelchair America pageant in Michigan.

“In one of the rounds, I have to dress up like a mermaid,” she chuckles. “Actually, that could be kind of fun.”

Ingersoll’s up-for-anything drive, highbeam optimism and advocacy for people with disabilities have taken her from physical and sometimes emotional wreck to local celebrity and emerging national leader. In June, she throttled through Capitol Hill, lobbying lawmakers on behalf of the United Spinal Association.

When not advocating or making a living as a corporate disability consultant and day trader, she chronicles her twisting life on her tell-all social feeds and blog, QuirkyQuad.com. Seeking tips on squeezing benefits out of a reluctant insurance behemoth? They’re here. Insights on intimacy with a quadriplegic? Here. A dash of dark humor? Here, too.

Working from a wall of voice dictation computers in her airy condo, Ingersoll touches everyone from CEOs to fellow folks with disabilities “who aren’t as fortunate financially as I am, who have to count catheters.”

“Ali is one of the most impressive individuals I’ve ever met,” says Alliance executive director Vicki Smith. “She’s passionate. She’s frank. She works tirelessly. She is who we are trying to help other people in her situation to be.”

She is also complicated. “I have demons,” Ingersoll says, “and they start coming out when I’m too quiet. I compartmentalize my life. I keep padlocks on the different compartments. Though sometimes they come out.”

Face-down in the waters of the Bahamas, unable to move, Ingersoll wondered if she would drown. “I remember the crash,” she says. “I didn’t lose consciousness. I was kind of terrified.”

Her entourage — including her mother — pulled her out. Loaded onto the back of a pickup truck, dragging on a joint to calm her nerves, she waited as her parents scrambled to secure an emergency jet to the mainland.

By that point in her kaleidoscopic life, jets were nothing new. Her family had always been on the go: England, France, Germany, China. Ralph, her father, was a

publishing executive in the United States and Europe. Between work and vacations, the family traveled far and wide.

Ingersoll’s childhood was a bright romp, but with adolescence came shadows. “I was an overweight kid with glasses and braces,” she says. “High school was hell. I was bullied. I never fit in. I was a loner.”

With time, though, her body stretched, her features sharpened, her teeth straightened and she emerged a bona fide beauty, out to “make up for lost time.” “A psychologist would say I was overcompensating,” she says. “I was a blond, tan kickboxer, and I went WILD.”

At Occidental College in Los Angeles, a party-hearty friend took to performing at a “gentlemen’s club,” where, Ingersoll says, Hugh Hefner himself discovered her. The friend wound up not only in the pages of Playboy, but as a resident of Hefner’s mansion, with Ingersoll frequently joining her. “There were trampolines and monkeys wandering around the grounds,” she smiles. “There was everything.”

The whirlwind of parties accelerated into a cyclone throughout her 20s. Money. Cocaine. First in Los Angeles, later in Miami. “This was the pinnacle of my coolness. We went to all the clubs. We were treated like kings and queens,” she recounts. “I’d fly off to the South of France with rich guys. Islands. Yachts.”

The storm of excess capsized the metaphorical pleasure cruise. Ingersoll’s college career sunk. Cocaine buoyed her, but only temporarily. She felt “embarrassed and ashamed.” Looking back, she wonders, “Was I really an addict, or was I just lost and lonely? I still don’t know.”

She checked into rehab, followed by more college and a couple professional ventures, before she headed to her family’s home in the Bahamas to study up on a new career: day trading. To celebrate the conclusion of a training course, she headed to the local tiki bar.

Casino Night arrives in a spring gale of last-minute preparation. Ingersoll enlists

her two caregivers to help prepare gift baskets and lock down logistics.

As caregiver Briana Lindsey puts it, “Ali doesn’t get stressed — Ali gets focused.”

By April, Ingersoll has secured 50 contributing businesses and 18 gift baskets. Her drive isn’t just run-of-the-mill Type-A gear grinding, it’s what has kept her alive. “After the accident,” she says, “I had six years of medical hell and then stagnation.”

Hell included the discovery of a massive cyst on her lower spinal cord in 2013. It was creeping upward, possibly bringing death. U.S. doctors deemed surgery too risky, so Ingersoll’s father identified willing surgeons in China. A team of People’s Liberation Army doctors succeeded in lancing the cyst, but complications were plentiful and painful, including breaking a femur during rehabilitation. She has since named her oddly bent right leg Gumby.

Returning to the U.S., Ingersoll worked fitfully through understanding her

traumatized body and finding caregivers. As she adapted, she took to heart her father’s counsel, which she boils down to: “Your body’s broken; your mind is not.”

She settled in Raleigh, home to one of her three siblings. Her parents joined her in a leafy condo enclave off Glenwood Avenue. The neighbors embraced her.

Eventually, she reached a point where she could indulge another ongoing interest: the opposite sex.

On dating apps, she was wide open about being in a wheelchair. She set her first date for a coffee shop. She waited. And waited. She was being stood up, she knew, but she couldn’t leave it at that. So, still sitting there, she called the guy. And called. Until he answered and copped to “chickening out” about dating a quad.

In 2016, she met Aaron Watkins, an adventurous sort who once lived out of a van while working in an oil field. Three years later, they married. “I just wanted someone I enjoyed spending time with

Make a

and have things in common with — an interest in economics, dark humor,” Watkins says. “I didn’t have any idea what I was getting into. But here I am!”

Watkins has been front row for Ingersoll’s transformation from survivor to activist. “She’s really redefined her sense of purpose,” he says. “It’s not just about the day-to-day anymore. She’s involved in the community, responsible to other people. And that’s what builds character.”

At Casino Night in April, Ingersoll is a queen in her own kind of carriage. Draped in her signature Lilly Pulitzer colors, she is — as on that fateful day in the Bahamas — the beaming life of the party. Her auction items find eager takers at robust prices. The Alliance hits its goals.

And the lonely kid who never fit in, who partied herself dizzy and who thought she’d lost everything, says of her new life and all its exploits: “I’ve never had a high like this.”

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ost rock musicians of my era would be doing a great service to admit where they got help along the way,” Ben Folds says. “I was lucky with the music teachers I had. They were great at encouragement, validation and teaching the right thing at the right time.”

It’s for that reason that Folds —a platinum-level pop star — started a charitable initiative called Keys For Kids this past May, using his fame to raise funds in support of arts education programs across North Carolina

Handing Over THE KEYS

Through charitable initiative Keys for Kids, Ben Folds is creating opportunity for aspiring musicians

by DAVID MENCONI

“Mthat provide instruments and lessons to young students who need them.

Folds has charted a highly unconventional course since his late1990s peak, when Ben Folds Five were Chapel Hill’s biggest hitmakers. Since then, Folds has performed and recorded with everything from symphony orchestras to a cappella vocal groups, and even served as a celebrity judge on NBC’s The Sing-Off contest show.

Folds thinks enough of teachers that he dedicated a chapter of his bestselling 2019 memoir A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons to remembering the best ones

he had growing up in Winston-Salem. Of particular note was the legendary John “Chick” Shelton at Wiley Magnet Middle School (not to be confused with Raleigh’s Wiley Elementary School). Shelton taught generations of Winston’s finest aspiring musicians over the years, including Folds and members of bands like The dB’s and Let’s Active, and now the middle school’s band room is named after him.

“He could play any instrument in the band better than anyone, so he could show everyone in class how to do it right,” The dB’s co-leader Peter Holsapple remembers of Shelton. “He's one of the

Joe Vaughn

three people who made me feel I could pursue music as a career and a life. I loved him dearly.”

After high school, Folds went on to the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music on a drums/percussion scholarship, where he encountered a harder-edged class of teacher. (After seeing the 2014 film Whiplash, for which actor J.K. Simmons won an Oscar for his performance as a hot-headed jazzdrumming teacher, Folds even made inquiries to see if the character was based on one of his old Miami professors. The reply: “No, but a few people have asked that about him.”) College was a high-pressure environment that ended with Folds throwing his drum kit in a lake after he had to perform his final with a broken hand. He flunked out.

“It was not the most positive experience, but I wouldn’t trade it, either,” Folds says of his brief college career. “They would turn students against each other, try to make you so uncomfort-

able that you’d push beyond what you’d normally do. In retrospect, I’m glad I got some scars to toughen me up.”

Within a few years, Folds was back in North Carolina playing in bands, eventually landing in Chapel Hill with the piano-pop trio Ben Folds Five. They caught on fast and had a hit single with “Brick,” plus a million-selling album with 1997’s Whatever and Ever Amen Folds is still keeping busy, with current projects including a recurring role on the TV drama series The Wilds (in which he plays himself in hallucination form) and working on his first new album since 2015. But arts advocacy, especially Keys For Kids, is taking up a lot of his bandwidth. On July 11, Folds played a livestream concert from Osceola Recording Studios in Raleigh, raising money in partnership with the North Carolina Arts Council and the North Carolina Arts Foundation. They, in turn, will distribute the money to local nonprofits that offer both instruments

and instruction of piano and keyboard to students who can’t afford them.

“It’s fantastic to have a musician with his track record and visibility wanting to help students,” says Wayne Martin, interim director of the North Carolina Arts Foundation, a Keys For Kids cosponsor. “I do not know of anybody else at his level doing anything like this. Ben really remembers the teachers and mentors who inspired him, and he’s a deep thinker who wants to make the world a better place. I feel privileged to be his partner in this.”

For Folds, it’s less about creating future rock stars than the challenge, practice and joy of learning an instrument.

“I’m not trying to get kids to become musicians, necessarily,” Folds says. “But the discipline of learning to play music makes them better scientists, communicators, parents. The earlier you get kids playing music, the better it is.”

courtesy The News & Observer

“It’s fantastic to have a musician with his track record and visibility wanting to help students. I do not know of anybody else at his level doing anything like this.”

— Wayne Martin

My Poetic Summer Vacation

by JIM DODSON

Whenever our friend Joe comes to supper, he helps himself to a slice of my wife’s carrot cake before we all sit down to the meal. His simple and sweet philosophy is “Life’s short. Better eat dessert first.”

Sometimes, though, the best things come later in life.

More than a year ago, mired in a world shut down by Covid, I proposed to my wife that we take our far-flung American clan to Scotland to celebrate her birthday and the playing of the 150th British Open Championship, which would occur in summer of 2022. It would be our first family summer vacation in more than half a dozen years.

As is always the case with revolutions and family vacations, success lies in careful planning. With grown children and two sets of parents converging from compass points as disparate as Los Angeles, Chicago, New Jersey and North Carolina, it took no small amount of coordination to finalize a game plan.

Fortunately, I am married to a wom-

an who could organize a convention of drunken anarchists. With her usual efficiency, Wendy promptly arranged flights and secured tournament tickets, parking passes and rental cars. She booked a dwelling in the East Lothian village of North Berwick, a place I’ve returned to many times since the early 1980s.

Though I’d been to Saint Andrews many times in my golf-writing career, I’d never been to the Open there, and the chance to attend the oldest golf championship in the birthplace of the game was something I’d dreamed of doing since I was knee-high to a ball washer.

So was another bucket list item for the eternal English lit major in me.

Long a student of English Romantic poetry, especially that of William Wordsworth, I’d always hoped to someday find my way to Tintern Abbey in Wales, the ancient ruin on the River Wye that inspired England’s greatest Romantic poet to write one of his most beloved poems of the same name.

It was my clever wife who suggested a way to check two boxes with one trip. By flying to London a few days before the

clan assembled in Scotland, we could take our own sweet time motoring through the countryside, taking in the abbey and maybe even the Lake District, where the poet once resided.

England’s Romantic Age of poetry was, in large part, a reaction to 19th-century industrialization that robbed mankind of its intimate connection to nature. The world is too much with us; late and soon, warned old Bill Wordsworth. Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— / Little we see in Nature that is ours; / We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

Unfortunately, in the hours before we set off, the world seemed very much with us.

News reports of transportation strikes and acute shortages of workers described travelers stranded at airports and train stations amid thousands of pieces of lost or unclaimed luggage. Queues were said to be hours long at London’s Heathrow Airport, the epicenter of traveler chaos. To add to the fun, Boris Johnson’s abrupt fall from grace had unleashed the usual jamboree of warring cabinet ministers eager to take possession of 10 Downing Street. Meanwhile, weather forecasters

Like dessert, the sweetest endings are meant to be shared

illustration GERRY O’NEILL

were warning of the deadliest heat wave to hit Britain since medieval times.

Remarkably — I’m not sure how — we managed to escape the madness with luggage, golf clubs and most of our dignity intact, speeding on to the gorgeous Welsh countryside in a zippy rental car.

Few of the world’s iconic landmarks have made my proverbial jaw drop as did the first sight of ancient Tintern Abbey (circa 1131) as we rounded a high meadow curve above the winding River Wye. There it rose in the vale below, startlingly large and bigger than life. Scarce wonder Old Bill was inspired by his first sight of this setting: O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro’ the woods, / How often has my spirit turned to thee!

Two hours of exploring the quiet abbey ruins — followed by a plowman’s lunch of crusty bread, local cheese and good Welsh ale — sent us up the River Wye Valley hungering for more. Over the next three days, we wound our way to the Lake District along rural backroads and narrow hedgerow lanes, pausing only to hike through spectacular forests and explore ancient market towns, including Ludlow, where my other favorite English poet, Alfred Edward Housman, set his famous paeon to over-indulgence: Terence, this is stupid stuff: / You eat your victuals fast enough; / There can’t be much amiss, ’tis clear, / To see the rate you drink your beer.

To our good fortune, Ludlow’s famous summer food festival was just getting underway, so we briefly joined the fête, discovering what Housman meant when he wrote: And malt does more than Milton can / To justify God’s ways to man.

By the time we reached our cottage in Scotland, I almost felt like a man who’d managed to shed the stresses and cares of modern life, just in time to celebrate an ancient game’s birthplace and the Open’s historic sesquicentennial.

By design, we’d arranged tickets for the first and final day of the competition, allowing time for me to introduce my future son-in-law and his golf-mad papa to a trio of the most celebrated links courses in Scotland. As usual, the

stout North Sea winds took a heavy toll on our scores, but we loved every minute of the challenge. Like Joe with his carrot cake, it was the perfect appetizer for the main course to come across the Firth of Fourth at Saint Andrews.

The hottest, driest summer in memory left the Grand Old Lady (as Saint Andrews’ Old Course is fondly called) at her most exposed in many a year. But to the record crowd of 290,000 on hand to shout and serenade their favorite players, that mattered little.

The theme of this year’s historic Open — displayed on everything from grandstands to golf caps — was “Everything Has Led To This,” a fitting coda for one who had finally made a journey he’d dreamed about since boyhood.

The finish was predictably rowdy and wonderful. In the end, the veteran faded with dignity, allowing for a young and promising upstart to have his name carved on the coveted Claret Jug, joining 149 previous Champions of the Year.

My favorite moment, however, came when I walked my daughter and her intended through the iconic Royal & Ancient clubhouse, home to the keepers of the game, where I’ve had the good fortune to be a member for many years. Old friends and fellow members made them feel most welcome.

“Dad,” she said, clearly moved by the history and pageantry around us, “thank you for bringing us here. I never imagined anything so beautiful.”

It was one of those moments that felt, in retrospect, a bit like a homecoming and a farewell. Whichever it was, I shall never forget it.

Her words called to mind my favorite lines from Old Bill’s Tintern Abbey, the perfect coda to a poetic journey:

To them I may have owed another gift, Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood, In which the burthen of the mystery, In which the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world, Is lightened: — that serene and blessed mood, In which the affections gently lead us on.

Charlotte. Our memory-making places and friendly faces – even furry ones – are begging for an introduction. Cozy up at outdoor patios where four-legged friends are the toast of the town. Endless epicurean adventures for every member of the family lead to full bellies…and full hearts. Plan your trip at charlottesgotalot.com.

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“A must read.”

- Sir Walter Raleigh

Bryan Regan

The First Decade

As WALTER celebrates 10 years, a look back at some of our iconic stories, subjects and imagery.

56 Cover Stories

60 The Statesman: Webb Simpson

64 Cultivating Corners: Ashley Christensen

66 Raleigh By the Numbers

67 WALTER’s Top 10 Web Stories

68 Picture Perfect: Our Favorite Photos

78 Magazine Memories: Snaps from Work

Bryan Regan

Cover STORIES

Every cover of WALTER is a challenge: How do you choose just one image, just a few words or phrases, that encapsulate all the work that goes into each issue? Over the last decade, the team here has produced more than 100 magazines. Each issue is a universe unto itself, but taken as a whole, the covers start to tell the stories of how Raleigh has grown and changed.

On its covers, WALTER celebrates athletes and artists, musicians and philanthropists, entrepreneurs and craftspeople, leaders and savants of all stripes. We celebrate the spaces that are emblematic of our city, and capture intimate moments that move the conversation forward.

One recurring cover star: Sir Walter Raleigh. So far he’s shown up five times, always interpreted by a different local artist. Much like imagining the stories we’ll tell inside our pages each month, coming up with a new perspective on Sir Walter could be considered a challenge. But just like there are so many good things to celebrate in Raleigh, there’s an abundance of talented artists to revisit his iconic face — and we’re not in danger of running out of ideas.

Over the next few pages, take a spin through the last 10 years of WALTER — then check in with two of our earliest cover subjects.

YEARS

The Statesman

Catching up with Webb Simpson, WALTER’s first cover star

by LIZA ROBERTS

photography by BOB KARP

Ten years ago, when WALTER first met Webb Simpson, the Raleigh native and onetime Broughton Magnet High School golf champ was 26, and he had just returned home to Charlotte from his third PGA Tour victory with the U.S. Open trophy under his arm. He and his wife Dowd had a little boy, James, and a baby on the way.

Simpson was packing a lot into his years then, and his pace has only quickened. Now 37, he’s a father of five with seven PGA Tour wins to his name — 11 second-place finishes and 82 top-10 finishes. Along the way, he has become a respected leader in the world of golf, a player’s player and an exemplar of the sport.

“Webb is a fiery competitor and a player who has served as an incredible role model to so many of the young guys on tour,” says Davis Love III, announcing Simpson as one of four assistant captains of the U.S. team for the global Presidents Cup tournament at Charlotte’s Quail Hollow Club this month. Simpson will

Webb Simpson with his wife, Dowd, and their children. Inset: The family on the first issue of WALTER.

walk over from his home by the course’s seventh tee to represent his country, joining Fred Couples, Zach Johnson, Steve Stricker and Love in helming the 12-man U.S. team in this biennial international competition. It’s a major honor in a sport that takes these roles seriously, one Simpson has earned over the course of his 14-year PGA career.

“To add someone with Webb’s experience to the team room, who is also a peer and one of the top players in the game, will be a great addition to the week at Quail Hollow,” Love says. “I know he’s excited to help lead the U.S. team on his home course.”

Simpson says he appreciates these high points more now than he probably did at an earlier point in his career. Like any elite athlete, he’s had his challenges: dry spells, a recent injury and changes to the game itself. In 2016, when the PGA banned the practice of anchoring a putter against the body, Simpson’s short game went into a tailspin. He’d used a belly putter for 11 years, and putting was one of his strengths. Learning a new technique with a new club was not what he’d bargained for.

“I started putting very inconsistently,” Simpson recalls. “My world ranking started dropping. I would think, I want to quit this. I was once such a competitive golfer, at the top of the PGA Tour, and now I can’t even make a team. I can’t even make it to the Tour championship.” But his father’s voice rang in his ears: “My Dad raised me in such a way that quitting was never an option. He was always in the back of my head.”

Webb learned his sport at his father’s side as a child at Carolina Country Club, and Sam Simpson was his son’s staunch supporter until his death in 2017. So Webb Simpson didn’t quit, but he did stubbornly keep making the same mistakes. Finally, after struggling with three-putts at the Barclays tournament that year, his caddy, Paul Tesori, put it to him straight: Stop being so closed-minded, he told Simpson. Hire a putting coach, find a sports psychologist and quit trying to figure this thing out on your own. “And really good stuff came from it,” Simpson

says. “I learned a new method, the arm lock method, and I believe that ultimately led me to winning the Players in 2018.”

2018 was a seminal year for Simpson. It had been four and a half years since he’d won a golf tournament on the PGA Tour, and when he won the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., it felt like it was as much about the people around him as it was about himself: “It’s where my caddy grew up, so it’s kind of his home tournament. It was Mother’s Day. I was so happy to share that with my wife, and my mom, so soon after my dad died. We got to celebrate together, happy tears and

sad tears,” he says. “When I look back on the last 10 years of golf, that’s definitely been the highlight.” Another milestone that received fewer headlines but represented a personal watershed: In 2018, Simpson finished fifth on the PGA Tour in putting.

By Simpson’s side through those professional reversals and triumphs, and through the loss of his father, was his wife and their five children: James, 11; Willow, 10; Winnie, 8; Mercy, 6; and Eden, 3. “It’s just an absolute joy to raise five kids with my wife,” Simpson says. “Marriage has been a gift. I love being married to Dowd, for every reason, and I am so thankful to her over the past

“To add someone with Webb’s experience to the team room, who is also a peer and one of the top players in the game, will be a great addition to the week at Quail Hollow.”

— Davis Love III

The Simpson family at home.

10 years for being there for me every step of the way.”

Before James started kindergarten, and before there were five, Dowd and the kids were there with Webb for every tee, even when he was on the road. These days, that only happens a half-dozen times a year, because the four oldest are enrolled in school, one actually cofounded by his wife, now called Calvary Christian Academy.

While the kids can’t always be with their dad on the Tour, Simpson has changed his schedule so he can be home with them more often. He’s pared back to 20 tournaments per year (the Tour average is about 28) and has spaced those tournaments out so that he’s generally gone for no more than six days at a stretch. “I got to a point a few years ago where I had to say: I can’t look at this as what is best for me professionally,” he says. “I have to look at what is best for my family, and then I will make my schedule around that. They are the priority, not my work.”

Having his priorities straight is one reason he’s admired by his fellow pros. In February, PGA players elected Simpson co-chair of the 16-member PGA Player Advisory Council, which advises the Tour Policy Board on issues and policies affecting players and the Tour.

“Webb’s a statesman among his peers,” says Ted Kiegiel, Director of Golf at Carolina Country Club, who coached

Simpson for years and remains a close friend and adviser. “He’s seen as someone who is measured and stoic, making good decisions … he’s extremely well-liked; he’s a magnet for people who want advice.”

Simpson describes himself as an optimist, and that’s clear when he talks about nearly anything, but especially about what’s next. “I want to see what the game of golf has for me,” he says. “I’ve got six to eight more years of high-level golf that I believe I can play.” He’s always dreamed of captaining a Presidents Cup team or a Ryder Cup team. Another dream: “To win another major, especially the Masters.” What about another 10 years from now? “The Champions Tour,” he says. “I’ve always thought that would be really fun.” But ask him about the thing that thrills him most about the future, and golf doesn’t come up: “My oldest is 11, and I’m so excited about the next few years from a family standpoint. It’s just so fun, watching them grow up.”

“Webb’s a statesman among his peers. He’s seen as someone who is measured and stoic, making good decisions… he’s a magnet for people who want advice.”

— Ted Kiegiel

Left: Former coach Ted Kiegiel. Right and opposite: Webb Simpson.

WEBB SIMPSON’S TOP 10 NORTH CAROLINA COURSES

Country Club of North Carolina

Dogwood Course; Pinehurst

Pinehurst No. 2, Pinehurst

Mid Pines Country Club, Southern Pines

Carolina Country Club, Raleigh

Quail Hollow Club, Charlotte

Eagle Point Golf Club, Wilmington

Country Club of Landfall, Nicklaus

Course, Wilmington

Porters Neck Country Club, Wilmington

Diamond Creek Golf Club, Banner Elk Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro

courtesy Carolina Country Club

YEARS

Cultivating Corners

Ashley Christensen put down roots in Raleigh — and spread them wide

by CATHERINE CURRIN photography by BOB KARP

Don’t forget kindness. These three simple words mean a lot to chef Ashley Christensen. For almost two decades, the Kernersville native has been spreading kindness — along with delicious food — throughout Raleigh. Over the course of 15 years, Christensen has expanded her vision for the city through Ashley Christensen Restaurants (AC Restaurants, for short): today her stable includes Death & Taxes, Bridge Club, Fox Liquor Bar, Beasley’s Chicken + Honey and Poole’side Pies. “I certainly didn’t envision a restaurant group when I started Poole’s, but I did envision a growing city,” Christensen says. “There wasn’t a lot going on at the time, but you saw things happening, and they were happening fast. I realized that this was a city that really wants to be something.”

When WALTER first featured Christensen 10 years ago, Poole’s Diner had been in business for five years, and Beasley’s Chicken + Honey and Fox Liquor Bar had recently opened. Within a few blocks of one another, her restaurants sit

Ashley Christensen at Poole’s Diner, the first restaurant she opened in Raleigh.

proudly within the framework of downtown Raleigh, often at high-traffic intersections. Christensen calls it “firing up the corners.” “It’s important to me that things exist in the center of the city,” she says. “I wanted to do things on corners to get people excited about what’s inside and what’s outside.”

“She creates a place at the table for everyone to feel welcome,” says Lauren Ivey, executive chef at Death & Taxes, who, like many on Christensen’s team, got her start as a line cook at Poole’s Diner, then moved up the ranks. Ivey says that with Christensen, there’s an attention to detail with everything — from the way she talks about ingredients to how she teaches cooking techniques. “She takes the time to explain the ‘why’ behind everything. It’s usually simple, but done really well,” says Ivey. Over the years, Ivey says, this backto-basics approach has graduated her from student to collaborator; now she’s presenting her own ideas and working with Christensen to develop the menu at Death & Taxes. “Now, the meals we offer speak more to me and the space I’m in,” Ivey says.

That mentorship is part of Christensen’s ethos. “One of my biggest goals is to make people feel seen, and to help them find their voice,” she says. Her talent pool — from line cooks to bartenders to general managers — has been with AC Restaurants for years, even decades. Among them: Alan Brown, who’s been a server and bartender at Poole’s for 14 years; AC Restaurants director of operations Emily Berry, who started as an assistant manager at Beasley’s nine years ago; and culinary assistant Charlotte Coman, who started as a line cook at Poole’s 11 years ago. Pastry chef Britny Stephenson and savory chef Chris Tobin have each been with the company for eight years; line cooks Teresa Sanchez and Rosa Cruz have each been there for nine.

“Ashley hires, empowers and makes space for talented employees,” says Lesley Anderson, the district general manager of Poole’s Diner and Poole’side Pies. Anderson started with AC restaurants

as a server at Beasley’s Chicken + Honey, and says that she’s learned a lot from Christensen after eight years with the team. “She taught me to always leave your environment better than you found it — whether that’s through a friendly interaction with an employee, a quick tidying of the dish pit or sweep through the dining room, or simply watering the plants,” Anderson says.

Sometimes, that empowerment takes folks beyond AC Restaurants. Christensen serves as mentor and friend to many former staff who have made their own way in the restaurant industry here in Raleigh. “I love being able to stay in the conversation with folks,” she says. “My goal was to take some chances to inspire people, and if they love this city as much as I do, to take a chance on it, too.”

One of those people is chef Sunny Gerhart. He cooked alongside Christensen at Enoteca Vin and helped her open Poole’s as its sous chef from the very first night of service. Gerhart says she taught him how difficult, yet rewarding, running a restaurant can be. “To see Poole’s grow and develop, and to be able to watch it from the outside as a friend and a guest is a very humbling experience,” he says. By 2013, Gerhart was running Christensen’s former concept, Joule Coffee + Table. And when Christensen decided to move on from the space in 2016, Sunny was conveniently looking for a spot to open his own endeavor. The serendipitous

timing led to St. Roch Fine Oysters + Bar. “Ashley and her restaurants are my north star for where I want to go in terms of the values and standards that are important to me,” says Gerhart. “I hope to have that same sort of legacy.”

Matt Fern worked with Christensen for years, first at Poole’s and eventually as beverage director at AC Restaurants. Last year, he opened (ish) delicatessen, a casual sandwich shop he envisioned thanks to, in part, Christensen’s mentorship. “The biggest distinction with Ashley — I never felt like I worked for her, but with her. That’s a sign of a good boss and a good owner,” he says. In working with Christensen, Fern realized he didn’t need all the answers — if you hire the right people, you can usually figure it out.

Fern and Gerhart are among dozens of folks — including Ashley Noonan at North Street Beer Station, Ryley Eckersley at Jarana PDX, John Upsal of Scratch Catering and James Johnson at the new Fullsteam at Boxyard RTP — who cut their teeth at AC Restaurants then went on to support Raleigh’s growing food scene at other venues. “I’m proud of every person that’s ever left this company,” Christensen says.

Christensen’s gift to allow her team’s talents to shine — at no cost to her own light — aligns with her vision to keep evolving. “Ashley embraced our ability to be trusted,” says Fern. “It helped a lot of us — and Raleigh — grow.”

Christensen with Sunny Gerhart on his first day at Poole’s.

YEARS

By the Numbers

What’s been happening in Raleigh since WALTER was created? Well, since 2012 …

by EMMA GINSBERG

Raleigh’s population has grown by 46,519 people

Raleigh restaurants and chefs have received

30 James Beard Foundation nominations

Nine of ‘em were for Ashley Christensen — see p. 64!

The Greenway Trail System has grown from 68 miles to 120 miles

The City of Raleigh has designated 43 Local Historic Landmarks

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences has shown 16 special exhibits

The North Carolina Museum of History has shown 50 new exhibits

The North Carolina Museum of Art has shown 121 exhibits

CAM Raleigh has shown 72 exhibits

38,449 cats and dogs adopted from the Wake County Animal Center have found forever homes

About 8,000 employees have started working downtown Downtown Raleigh has gained more than 100 restaurants, bars and clubs

WALTER magazine has published 104 issues!

Geoff Wood (GREENWAY); courtesy James Beard Foundation (AWARD) Joshua Steadman (DOG)

WALTER’s Top 10 Web Stories Were …

20 Raleigh Hidden Gems and Long-standing Restaurants Worth Supporting Here’s to 10 more years of eating local!

20+ Raleigh Restaurants and Bars with Heated Outdoor Seating A peak search during a pandemic winter

7 Small Towns to Explore in Central North Carolina We love taking weekend getaways close to home in our great state!

This Small-town North Carolina Barbeque Joint is Getting National Attention A tour of Matt Register’s Southern Smoke

Cleaning Out While You Stay at Home? Here’s Where in Raleigh to Donate Your Stuff One of our first web exclusives!

Thirteen Haunted and Spooky Spots in the Triangle Somehow, this is a year-round favorite

Exclusive: New Real Estate Developments Y’all loved these 2022 April Fool’s Day headlines

Make a Cherry Bounce Sample Raleigh’s official elixir

A Nude Attitude: An Inside Look at the Triangle’s Naturist Community We got a lot of buzz when WALTER bared its soul

Signature drinks live across the world: the Pimm’s Cup in London, New Orleans’ Sazerac, the Mint Julep in Kentucky. Here, it’s the Cherry Bounce, a boozy, sweet-yet-tart concoction made from preserved fruit that was a favorite at Isaac Hunter’s Tavern on Fayetteville Street in the late 1700s. Local lore says the Cherry Bounce may have been instrumental in the selection of Raleigh as our state capital city, as bartender Hunter served the potent beverage to commissioners on decision night. Today, the team at Foundation uses the same technique as folks did 250 years ago — soaking cherries in liquor and sugar — to create a fruit-infused syrup that can be enjoyed on its own or mixed into a beverage. “The Cherry Bounce has a deep history here, and our patrons want to connect with that,” says Foundation bar manager Kyle Hankin. Foundation is known for its domestic-only product selection and focus on local ingredients — which makes it a great place to sip Raleigh’s unofficial-official cocktail. Here’s their recipe. — Catherine

Currin

30+ Notable Strip Mall Eats in Raleigh These unassuming storefronts are our best-kept secret

The Cherry Bounce: Raleigh’s Official Cocktail Cheers!

Cherry Bounce

INGREDIENTS

1 bottle of Quinn’s American Whiskey from Great Wagon Road Distillery in Charlotte, North Carolina

2 liters pitted North Carolina cherries

1 liter brown sugar

DIRECTIONS

Combine cherries and whiskey in a blender for about 1 minute. Pour mixture in a separate container and add in brown sugar. Let sit for 2-3 days, then strain out any of the solids. Bottle and enjoy.

You can also use it as a mixer! Find a recipe for a Cherry Bounce Manhattan at waltermagazine.com

YEARS

Iconic images from the past decade

PICTURE perfect

One thing WALTER is known for is its incredible imagery. We are grateful to work with so many talented local photographers — and we love to showcase their art in our pages. From stunning scenery to intimate portraits to a lens on everyday moments, here are a few dozen shots that stand out from the last 10 years.

curated by LAURA PETRIDES WALL & JESMA REYNOLDS

Tim Lytvinenko, Keeping Cool in Raleigh City Pools, August 2013

Samantha Everette, Life in Tune, August 2021

Kate Medley, The Feel of Fall, November 2021

Justin Kase Conder, Farm to Freezer, June 2019

Justin Kase Conder, Fair Game, March 2021

Smith Hardy, Slam Dunk, December 2018

Tim Lytvinenko, Pitch Perfect, November 2014

Nick Pironio, Raleigh’s Rodeo, August 2014

Bryan Regan, The Need for Speed, July 2021

Joe Pellegrino, Home Grown, August 2021

Liz Condo, Fresh Cut, July 2020

Catherine Nguyen, Eye Candy, July 2021

Gus Samarco, Boulevards, April 2018

Bob Karp, Surf & Sea, August 2020

Eamon Queeney, Secret History, December 2021

Joshua Steadman, Lake Escape, September 2019

Christopher Wilson Through her Lens, June 2021

Trey Thomas, Artful Living, October 2021

Keith Isaacs, Alchemy & Balance, October 2020

S.P. Murray, Hope Springs, April 2021

Eamon Queeney, Sunny Side, February 2022

Juli Leonard, Slant of Light, November 2020

Gus Samarco, Hopscotch: Celebrating 10 Years, September 2019

Geoff Wood, Run to Believe, June/July 2014

Taylor McDonald, Where to Eat & Drink in 2020, January 2020

Catherine Nguyen, Pattern Play, June 2020

Justin Kase Conder, A Diva is Born, January 2022

Magazine Memories Y

ou may love reading WALTER, but we love making it! We have been blessed with wonderful staffers and partners over the years, and we especially love getting out into the community and meeting our subjects and readers through our events and photo shoots. Here are just a few snaps from the past decade — looking forward to another 10 years of serious fun.

Cardinal

by MARY SILVERTHORNE

Like a spot of blood against the blue sky, a Cardinal perches on the shepherd’s hook where I hang suet and a cylinder of seed-feeders I gave Sylvia for her last Mother’s Day. The birds are a gift to me now. Her beautiful ashes fill a marble blue urn and rest near one of her crazy quilts in the foyer to welcome visitors. Buddha is there on a table and guards her keepsakes, a cleaned-out bookshelf holds her high school portrait, a cross-stitch she made for me. Every little corner has its memory of how short a sweet life can be.

illustration by MARIE-LOUISE BENNETT

Twenty-five years in, Carolina Ballet stays on its toes

by HAMPTON WILLIAMS HOFER

photography by JUSTIN KASE CONDER

BBefore every performance of the Carolina Ballet, Zalman Raffael drives to The Women’s Center in Boylan Heights to pick up women who are experiencing homelessness and take them to Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. There, they will see a show of arresting beauty, of mighty athletics and artistry, the work of a team of people who extend far beyond the curtain.

“Everyone deserves to feel the power of ballet,” says Raffael, the artistic director and CEO of the ballet company. This is Carolina Ballet at 25: a world-renowned company that’s not just located in Raleigh but deeply rooted here. It’s driven by a community-minded crew whose devotion to the art of ballet is matched only by their boundless talent.

Raffael — “Zali” to everyone who knows him — grew up in Manhattan. He trained at the School of American Ballet and performed with the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater. A prodigy of the craft, he was already dabbling in choreography by age 9. He came to Raleigh to dance with Carolina Ballet when he was 20. “When I got here, I was fascinated by the fact that a ballet company was in a place like Raleigh, where the culture of the people is very different from what I had known,” he says. Seventeen years later, he runs a critically acclaimed ballet company that has staged over 100 world-premiere ballets and grown from a budget of $1.2 million to $6 million with 38 dancers in eight programs annually.

Raffael has enamored ballet-goers with his creations for the company, including Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Rhapsody, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and In the Grey. He has a militant work ethic that sends him to the gym even after 12-hour studio days. “You want to have an edge,” he says. “Once you get your blood flowing, it’s easier to just keep going.” That may be in the vein of the classic obsessive ballerina, but it’s undercut by his general niceness. He loves people, and he’s committed not just to the ballet, but to the community it serves. “I believe we need one another,” Raffael says, “and we need art. It’s vital to the emotional being.”

A whole host of dancers, administrators and production team members like him have come from other states and countries to set up their lives here with Carolina Ballet. The company often spends more time in their sunny studio on Atlantic Avenue than in their own homes. “They are why I come to work every day,” says Terry Baker, the ballet’s costume director and resident costume designer. For Baker, it is literally a family affair: His husband is Carolina Ballet’s technical director.

In the large storage room that houses the light-pink

PRACTICE, PRACTICE

Previous pages: Principal dancers Margaret Severin-Hansen and Richard Krusch outside of the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. These pages: Zalman Raffael and dancers including Bilal Smith, Jan Burkhard and Luke Potgieter at the tech rehearsal of Giselle.

THE PERFECT FIT

The costume director customizes every pair of pointe shoes to fit each ballerina before every performance. Almost all of the costumes are made in-house in two workrooms at their Atlantic Avenue studio full of sewing machines, tulle, fabric and ensembles that have been worn for decades.

pointe shoes, you’ll probably find Baker fitting each dancer with a customized pair of slippers that may last only a day or two, depending on the intensity of the choreography. “It’s a lot of up and down,” Baker says. “Even with hundreds of layers of paper and paste, the block will start to deteriorate.” He makes essentially all of the costumes in-house in the two workrooms at the studio, full of sewing machines, strewn with tulle and fabric. He makes alterations when needed for costumes that are handed down year after year, dresses and vests that stand the tests of time — and thousands of pirouettes. Last season’s production of Romeo and Juliet featured decades-old costumes, but Baker and his team are always working on something fresh. He starts by sketching, and then his first hand of costumes, Amber Funderburk, turns the drawings into patterns. From there, the team gets sewing, bringing life from the page to the stage.

Margaret Severin-Hansen, originally from New York, has been a principal dancer with Carolina Ballet for more than 20 years, after she came to Raleigh for its inaugural season in 1998 as an 18-year-old apprentice. Severin-Hansen and fellow principal dancer Richard Krusch, who played the Princess and the Prince in Sleeping Beauty, have their own fairy tale offstage. Their 1-year-old son, Nolan, toddles around the studio and on the sets at A. J. Fletcher Opera Theater, where his parents perform. “Ballet is difficult both mentally and physically, so we rely on the ones around us to help guide and comfort us through the process,” Severin-Hansen says. “We then also can share our milestones — weddings, babies, performances. Carolina Ballet has molded me into the person I am today, both on stage and off.”

Carolina Ballet has produced some 400 different ballets; Raffael choreographed 40 of them himself. “For a regional ballet company of our age and time, these numbers are unheard of,” he says. Carolina Ballet is young enough that the initial artistic creators and founding principal dancers are still around. Many remain deeply invested: “This is how the art form survives, through the artistic team passing on the work and helping it grow with new talent,” says Raffael, who wears dance clothes to work, breaking a sweat as he demonstrates choreography. His standards are high for his dancers and himself. He’s good at being in charge, but he holds deep reverence for the ones who came before him. The ballet itself has had ups and downs, skimming by on a shoestring budget in the early years, finding its footing in the community and then slogging through the pandemic. Raffael, the second CEO of Carolina Ballet after Robert Weiss, who started the company in 1997, is grateful for the foundation he stands upon: “It’s pretty incredible to be in a place where I watched Ricky and the board living month to month, sometimes week to week financially, and now to be in a space beyond that — it’s humbling,” Raffael says.

The founding principal ballerina of Carolina Ballet, Melissa Podcasy (who’s married to Weiss), is still in the studio every day, rehearsing with the principal women preparing for the big roles. “She was my choreographic light,” Raffael says of Podcasy, who helped mold him from dancer to choreographer. “I would discuss the relevance of movements and how things worked, and she was always right beside me.” As Raffael’s mentors, the couple gave the young choreographer the best gift: “Ricky saw me as another person with talent, and he pushed me,” Raffael says of Weiss. “He supported me in a way no one else in my life has.”

Each show presents new hurdles. The production of Macbeth called for giant bowls of fire. To keep things safe and legal, product manager Matthew Strampe fashioned a combination of steam and LED lighting for a fiery effect on stage. A recent production of Snow White featured a custom glass coffin, as well as a mirror whose frame Strampe carved himself, large enough to show a dancer on the other side of it. Both of those pieces are stored in the ballet’s warehouse in east Raleigh, where Strampe spends most of his time. He loves the artistry of his work, the drawing and carving, the melding of engineering and sculpture. Most of all, he loves the camaraderie it all creates: “When you put up a show, you become so close to the varied group of people you’re working with, learning their stories. As someone who grew up in South Dakota, a very monocultural place, it’s the diversity that’s so appealing to me,” says Strampe, who loves the chaotic weeks leading up to shows, when he works 7 a.m. to midnight, managing crews of 20 to 50 people.“The magnitude of that teamwork is unbelievable,” he says.

Bilal Smith, who has danced with Carolina Ballet for seven years, says that behind the scenes, the dancers and producers are just people, living their lives, doing their jobs. “We just happen to be athletes and artists at the same time. So that comes with its own level of stress and intensity,” he says. At the end of the day, they try to stay calm and focused: studying for degrees on the side, taking yoga classes, meditating or hitting a favorite burger joint.

Raffael appreciates each of the unique personalities that make his ballet work — he says there are jokesters and shy folks, nags and drama queens, lovers and leaders — they’re all part of the mosaic. He has known some of them since he was a child, like Jan Burkhard Catlin and Yevgeny Shlapko, who also trained in New York and joined Carolina Ballet along with Raffael. He’s had Catlin and Shlapko partner in the majority of his choreographed ballets. “They are my greatest inspirations,” he says with a laugh, “even though they are the biggest divas in Raleigh.”

The family is ever-extending: the founding dancers of Carolina Ballet, Pablo Javier Perez and Dameon Nagel, are now ballet masters — coaches, of sorts — who oversee large portions of the repertoire. Debra Austin, who became

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Dancers rehearsing for the closing number of their spring season, Giselle Middle right: Zalman Raffael and stage manager Julia Tyson work on the computer. Bottom right: Guest ballet mistress Olga Kostritzky teaches a dance. Below: Corps member Madeline Rogers. Bottom left: Founding member and ballet master Dameon Nagel.

SHOW TIME

To date, Carolina Ballet has produced around 400 ballets, including more than 100 world premieres.

“Everyone deserves to feel the power of ballet.”

– Zalman Raffael

the first Black female principal dancer in a major American ballet company when she was with Pennsylvania Ballet in Philadelphia in 1982, is the ballet mistress. She and her husband, Romanian ballet dancer Marin Boieru, work at the School of Carolina Ballet, coaching the ballets they once danced. Raffael opened the school in 2018 to train the next generation of dancers in a rigorous program serving everyone from preprofessionals to kids as young as 6. There’s Lilyan Vigo Ellis, the baby ballerina of the company when it all began, who danced with Carolina Ballet for 19 years. She lives nearby and is still in a seat at every show, cheering with her children.

Perhaps most acclaimed ballet companies work with such a collective effort, but for Carolina Ballet, the community extends beyond the company. Raffael has called on Victor Lytvinenko of Raleigh Denim, for example, to work together on costume designs. Raffael and Baker will sit down with Lytvinenko in what Baker calls “an explosion of ideas.” Baker will sketch out costume renderings, beginning with silhouettes. “I like to ask Zali how the music makes him feel, what emotions he’s trying to evoke. Is it dark and moody? Do we go more flowy or more streamlined? Victor will chime in on color or skirt length. He sees it all differently, looking at the aesthetics, while I’m making sure it’s danceable,” says Baker.

When Raffael was searching for ways to make the ballet more accessible to marginalized members of the community, he pulled in Molly Painter, a leader in the charge against homelessness in Raleigh. She connected him to Brace Boone III of The Women’s Center, where Raffael and other dancers now teach ballet to ladies experiencing homelessness. The women there, many of whom had never been to a performance, have taken both to the art and to the teachers. “We are so fortunate to have a community leader who recognizes the importance of including all people in the ballet,” Painter says, “and that’s Zali.”

A key for ballet accessibility lies in most people’s first introduction to ballet: The Nutcracker. Each holiday season, the merry classic draws crowds (and ticket sales) that help fund the ballet for the year, but who are also, in many cases, getting their first taste of Carolina Ballet’s magic.

“The Nutcracker has been this huge thing worldwide for ballet,” Raffael says. “It’s vital now more than ever that we build it and grow it so that people see themselves in it, that they love it.” This year’s production of the timeless tradition will boast better representation, like in the party scene at the beginning, which will include all sorts of families, with single parents and same-sex couples. The Nutcracker will be the same fairy-tale journey with improved lifestyle depictions, and it’s the pinnacle of what Raffael has done with Carolina Ballet: He has made it something for everyone.

GOING LIVE

“We share our milestones — weddings, babies, performances. Carolina Ballet has molded me into the person I am today, both on stage and off,” says Margaret Severin-Hansen, right, who’s been with the company for more than 20 years. Left, principal dancer Amanda Gerhardt; bottom right, corps member Braden Hart.

The News & Observer (BLACK AND WHITE); others courtesy Julie Wood

A tribute to a longtime newspaperman and community leader

FRANK JR. REMEMBERING

Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Frank Daniels Jr. with his father; Frank IV, Frank Jr. and Frank III; working at the paper; Frank Jr. and his wife Julia with grandchildren Kimberly, Frank IV and Joe; a Pulitzer panel at Elon University including (from left to right) Rolfe Neill of the Charlotte Observer; Horace Carter of the Tabor City Tribune and Frank Jr., with emcee Dr. William Friday, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Frank Jr. and Julia with Patsy Daniels-Lindley and Lucy Daniels.

by JIM JENKINS

Frank Arthur Daniels Jr. died at the age of 90 on June 30 in his hometown of Raleigh. It was the peaceful conclusion of a life full of professional accomplishment, financial success and contributions to the community. But for his multitudes of friends and family, Frank Jr. — as just about everybody called him — is remembered for his capacity to give and receive love. Here is his story, as told by those who knew him best.

EVERY DAY WAS HIS HAPPIEST

It’s late July when I meet with Frank Jr.’s daughter, Julie Daniels, in the cavernous dining area of her parents’ home on White Oak Road. She sits with her husband, Tom West, contemplating a tough upcoming day — the one-month anniversary of her father’s death — dabbing her eyes a bit as she looks around at the family portraits and mementos. We pause at a portrait depicting her father, then 65, in front of a printing press.

“Look!” she says. “He’s got the little red book in his pocket. He always had that.” Yes, Frank Jr. always carried a book with the names of his best friends, their phone numbers and their birthdays. When he was younger, he’d send cards; as he got older, he found it easier to call them on those birthdays and sing to them (and anyone who was with him would be expected to sing along).

Julie is one of two children of Frank Jr. and his wife, Julia, and her memories are exactly what her father would want them to be. “I remember the best qualities of my parents: They always had friends over seeking solace, wanting their advice, their comfort — and they were always there for them,” she says.

“Oh, they had fun — parties all the time, events at the paper, things like that,” she continues. “But they always put me and my brother first. I don’t remember that they had all kinds of money and they didn’t think of themselves that way. But when you ask me, what was his happiest day, I’d say just about every day was his happiest.”

THE EARLIEST DAYS

Frank Daniels Jr. was born at the “Old Rex Hospital,” on Sept. 7, 1931. His father, Frank Daniels Sr., was one of four brothers, three of whom were active in running The News & Observer, which was owned by Frank Jr.’s grandfather, Josephus Daniels. Frank Jr. and his younger sister, Patsy, were both raised firmly with good manners.

That said, Frank Jr. was capable of getting into trouble. Spurgeon Fields, a longtime aide to his father, used to get him out of it — including a time

when Frank Jr. tried to take the family car out and got wedged in the driveway. “Spurgeon,” Frank Jr. said later, “got me out of stuff all the time. He liked to remind me of that.”

Frank Jr. attended Woodberry Forest School near Orange, Virginia, and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1953. He did two years in the U.S. Air Force in Japan and tried a year at law school, but was inevitably drawn back to The N&O, which turned out to be his birthright, his destiny.

Though he was raised in comfort and power, Frank Jr. was a righteous man. He had a sense of right and wrong that transcended the views of the generation from which he came, and of the family from which he descended. His son Frank Daniels III recalls going to the ACC basketball tournament with his father in 1968, when he was 12. It was the first varsity year for Charles Scott,

a UNC sophomore who was the first Black basketball player for the Tar Heels. Frank III loved the tournament time with his father, just the two of them. But on this night, a man behind them began taunting Scott. It was something Frank’s dad tolerated until he heard the n-word. “He turned around — now he was only 36, remember — and told the guy to shut the hell up and then said, We don’t need you here. The guy left,” says Frank III. “That really took something.”

AT THE PAPER

Frank Jr. worked various jobs in all departments at The N&O and was popular with the other workers at the paper. Sometimes Frank Jr. chafed a bit working for his father (who, as the publisher, ran the business operations) and his uncle Jonathan, the editor. But he stayed the course, and after working his way up, he became publisher in 1971.

Frank Jr. was a big man for his time — 6’3” and burly, probably six inches taller than the average of his era. He had a booming bass voice that carried through a room and huge hands. His eyes possessed a mischievous twinkle, and he loved a good joke.

Gary Pearce, now a longtime political strategist, remembers his boss from his own early days as an assistant city editor at The N&Oin the mid-1970s. “He’d walk through the newsroom every day about 5 o’clock to go talk to Claude Sitton,” says Pearce, referring to the editor of the paper at the time. “One day, Frank’s walking through and there’s a phone ringing at an empty desk. No one’s there, so Frank — the publisher, now — puts down his briefcase, answers the phone, puts a piece of paper in the typewriter and takes down the item — it was a minor news brief. Then he sticks it in the basket, gathers his stuff and walks on down the hall, not saying a word to anybody. Most publishers wouldn’t have done it. That told me a lot.”

While at The N&O, Frank Jr. took some courageous stands as a fellow that owned a newspaper too liberal for many local business and community swells. He pushed for a merger of the Wake

Above: Frank Jr. at press with grandfather Josephus Daniels in 1939. Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Julia and Frank Daniels Jr.; Frank Jr. & Wade Smith at lunch; Frank Jr. and David Woronoff; Julie Daniels, Frank Daniels Jr., Julia Daniels and Kimberly Daniels Taws; Joe Bryan, Tom Kenan and Frank Jr.; Joyce Fitzpatrick, Frank Jr. and Joan Johnston. courtesy Julie Wood

County and Raleigh schools, supporting a controversial change that led to vastly improved, integrated schools. He supported civil rights and women’s rights and didn’t balk when the newspaper started asking some troubling questions about Vietnam. Those were not easy things to do, and he did them.

A MAN IN FULL

In addition to leading the paper, Frank Jr. rose to the top of dozens of professional associations. He was chairman of The Associated Press, and part of the leadership of nearly every civic organization in Raleigh — from United Way to school support groups

to the YMCA board to chairing the boards of the North Carolina Museums of History and Natural Sciences. At one point, he was president of the Raleigh Kiwanis Club, one of the largest in the United States.

Frank Jr. couldn’t stand it if he saw someone chairing a board who didn’t know about what an organization’s workers were doing. His board memberships and chairmanships over nine decades were too numerous to name, but his son says that his favorite post was chairman of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Board.

That connection made a huge difference in North Carolina. All his life, Frank Jr. supported the idea that museums should reach all the people. That’s why he had a special passion for the Smithsonian, which encompasses several museums and a zoo. During his tenure, he arranged partnerships between the Smithsonian and North Carolina’s history and science museums. They reflected his lifelong belief that everyone, at every station in life, deserved to know about art, history and science, and that the knowledge should be free.

Frank III says that his father’s seemingly natural capacity for leadership always put him in charge of whatever organization he had been asked to join. “Every group he was in, he rose to the top,” Frank III says. “I think it was his capacity for empathy. He could see what people needed and it was important for him to help them.”

LIFE AFTER RETIREMENT

The Daniels family sold The News & Observer to the McClatchy newspaper company in California in 1995, and Frank Jr. remained as publisher until he retired in 1996.

But in retirement, he became busier than ever, continuing his board memberships, staying active particularly in Democratic Party politics. Virtually every governor paid him a call, and he admitted “I’m a pretty big giver” when it came to campaign contributions. (No one is sure if he ever gave to a Republican. During his tenure, as with his grandfather

“Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Forgive the guilty. Welcome the stranger and the unwanted child. Care for the ill. Love your enemies.”

– Frank Daniels Jr.

courtesy Julie Wood

and father, The N&O never endorsed a Republican candidate for office.)

Frank Jr. bought a building on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh and established an office on the sixth floor, where he entertained movers and shakers and fellow board members and politicians. He found himself to be a sort of permanent sage, and through his membership in social and golf clubs he influenced another two generations of business people, candidates and entrepreneurs. Until the very last month of life, Frank Jr. rarely had an empty lunch date or an evening without some kind of activity.

“Julia and I,” he said, “always make it a point to go out somewhere every day. Don’t want to get in the habit of just staying home.”

Frank Jr. supported new ventures and publications, even some created after his departure from The N&O, and he was instrumental in new golf clubs in the area, such as Old Chatham.

Shortly after his retirement, Frank Jr. and four others bought The Pilot, an established community newspaper in Southern Pines then owned by Sam Ragan, a former N&O managing editor. Why did he do it? “It just gets in your blood,” was all he ever said.

One of the other owners is David Woronoff, Frank Jr.’s nephew. Woronoff, who runs the business for the partnership, was young at the beginning, confident but willing to ask his uncle’s advice. “He’d never let me call up and say, this happened, what should I do?” he laughs. “But he’d give advice — not that he expected you to take it.”

In one case, a prominent Pinehurst businessman called Woronoff, the publisher of The Pilot, after the newspaper was critical of a venture in which the businessman was involved.

“He was screaming at me,” says Woronoff, “really rough stuff.” Woronoff called his uncle and Frank Jr. was unequivocal. “He said, David, you never go wrong punching the biggest bully in town in the nose,” Woronoff recalls. “What would be wrong would be if you didn’t give the person in need a hand up.”

Frank Jr. stayed involved in the publishing group until his death, as it added a bookshop, another community paper and five magazines — including WALTER magazine, which was purchased from The N&O — to its stable.

ALWAYS LEARNING

Frank Jr. built friendships from childhood that lasted him a lifetime, at the many golf and country clubs he joined and through his professional associations. What he enjoyed most about all his associations was just learning.

Frank Jr.’s granddaughter Kimberly Daniels Taws remembers visiting the beach with her grandfather when she was young. She joined him on the deck, where he was sitting next to a foottall stack of unusual reading material: clippings, folders, magazines, books. “I said, what are you doing?” she says. “And he said, Well, I’m trying to figure out how I feel about nuclear power.” Today, Taws runs The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, the store owned by The Pilot group.

Many years ago, Frank Jr. hired attorney Wade Smith to help with some legal issues involving the newspaper. That led to a deep, lifelong friendship. “He was older than I, and his friends played golf at the country club and I didn’t. But if the newspaper had an issue I’d come on to help,” Smith says. “To me, Frank was larger than life — he was the owner of the newspaper! But Frank… Frank was real. There was no putting on airs about him. He would be straight with you in all ways and I liked that about him.”

Communications consultant Joyce Fitzpatrick met Frank Jr. when she rented space in a downtown building he owned some 20 years ago. She began regular lunches with him and Smith once or twice a month. “He was a hypersocial person,” she says. “He loved to have his lunches planned. We always typed out an agenda. It covered everything — politics, world events. People would come over to sit with us, wanting to know the latest.”

One thing he didn’t seem to have was inhibition. “Oh,” Fitzpatrick says,

“we’d switch from politics to golf to what happens when we die. In the last few lunches, Wade would give comfort: We’ll see each other again.”

A MAN OF GREAT GIFTS

Perhaps, in the end, Frank Arthur Daniels Jr. is proof that a man can be great without being perfect. Frank Jr. was the first to laugh at his own flaws; he enjoyed off-color humor, indulged in profanity and played practical jokes. But if he felt he’d been too rough on someone, he’d apologize. “He had a brusque exterior and spoke his mind — sometimes I thought a little too readily — but he would do anything for you. And he had a world of experience to discuss. He was fun,” says Smith. “I loved Frank. Loved him and cared about him.”

“From him I learned the beauty of friendship and being with other people. The importance of generosity. And that sense of humor!” says his daughter Julie. “Sometimes you don’t realize the great gifts.”

“He was the anchor of the family for 60-plus years, the center of it. We were orbiting around that sun,” says Frank III, his son. At his father’s funeral at White Memorial Presbyterian Church, he shared a note that Frank Jr.’s longtime personal assistant, Julie Wood, found on his desk after he passed: Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Forgive the guilty. Welcome the stranger and the unwanted child. Care for the ill. Love your enemies.

“It’s a list of what he thought religion — and we — should teach,” Frank III says. He closed his eulogy with: “We’ll do our best.”

Jim Jenkins is an award-winning writer who has received North Carolina’s highest honor, the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. He retired from The News & Observer in 2018 after 31 years as an editor, columnist and chief editorial writer. He now writes “life stories” for clients who want to pass their memories along to their families.

LIGHT & AIRY

The homeowners opened up an enclosed staircase to bring more light into the open-plan great room. The custom railing was inspired by time living in Las Vegas. The leopard-print wallpaper in the powder room was a “must.” “The homeowners appreciate playful designs — if it’s out of the box, they’re like, let’s do it!” says interior designer Betsy Bardi.

A Cary couple updates their Tudor to reflect their travels, family and taste

character BUILDERS

by AYN-MONIQUE KLAHRE photography by CATHERINE NGUYEN

When this couple moved to Cary, they had an idea of what they wanted. They’d lived on and off in the Triangle for 30 years, so they knew the Lochmere neighborhood. And as they settled into retirement, they were looking for a space with a first-floor primary suite and beautiful landscaping to tend to.

They found these elements in this 2000s Tudor-inspired home, but it hadn’t been updated in the last two decades. So right away they enlisted Raleigh-based interior designer Betsy Bardi, with whom they’d worked on previous projects, to help make it their own. “The house was just out of

date, and they wanted a lighter space with a more open floor plan,” says Bardi.

To do it, Bardi enlisted builder Jay Guilford of Jayco Construction. They opened up the main level and extended off the back, enclosing a porch to create a breakfast room and reconfigure the kitchen. “At this stage, we are having more casual meals, so we wanted a large eat-in area where we could host our kids and grandkids,” says the wife. “We always wanted a big island to sit around and cook around,” adds her husband.

There are nods to the Tudor style throughout, like diamond medallions in the cabinetry, brick accents and steep angles that play off the roofline. “We worked with the existing architecture and made it cool,” says Bardi. In the sitting area, they removed dated woodwork and redid the bricks, running them nearly 20 feet to the ceiling; the brick pattern repeats near the stairs leading to the basement. “Now it grounds the

room — there’s a nice symmetry between the fireplace and the range hood on the opposite wall,” says Bardi. “I like for every room to have a focal point or something that grabs you,” says the husband.

Beyond the structural changes the couple wanted to make, they also wanted their home to reflect their full life thus far. “My husband and I like to pick up things while we travel and feature things that remind us of places we’ve visited,” says the wife.

The wallpaper — Leopard’s Walk by British company Milton & King — reflects extensive time spent traveling through the United Kingdom. “We love the bold wallpapers and antiques you find in English houses,” says the wife. The abstract painting over the fireplace is by California artist Van Hoople, and they purchased it while living in Las Vegas. “The sun represents light to us,” says the wife. A triptych by Piero Fornasetti in the TV room is from their time in France;

several paintings by German artist Peter Keil are a nod to a daughter and grandchildren who live in Germany; a painting called Palm Trees by artist Juan “Pepe” Guzman reminds them of living in Las Vegas and California, where another daughter and two grandchildren live.

“We love items with history,” says the wife. “This home is a timeline of our lives.”

WARM TOUCHES

Jody Price of JBP Woodworks created the cabinets in the conversation area. There’s a lot of animal print, but it’s subtle, like this deconstructed zebra stripe on the sitting room chairs. “You see it and it adds contrast but doesn’t scream animal print,” says Bardi. In the kitchen, they worked with cabinet supplier Refresh Custom Designs and redid the layout to include a large island. Matte black hardware ties back to the stairway railings, and champagne bronze fixtures add warmth. Now, it’s a place to host and cook with the grandkids. “We like to entertain as much as we can,” says the wife.

COMFORT LEVELS

The owners enclosed a porch to create a breakfast nook and beverage area with all the bells and whistles: charging stations, mirrored cabinet doors that light up and — at the husband’s request — a built-in coffee machine. “And I definitely wanted it hard-plumbed so I wouldn’t have to refill the water!” he says. There’s also a wine fridge and plenty of storage for linens, silverware and glassware. “It’s really everything you need for hosting,” says Bardi. In the living room, French doors open onto Juliet balconies. A 60-inch square coffee table offers plenty of surface area for books, magazines or to put one’s feet up, and the leather sofa offers a contrast to the fabric elements. “Everything in this room is just comfortable and inviting — even though it’s tailored, it doesn’t feel formal,” says Bardi.

SPA-WORTHY STYLE

In the primary bedroom, neutral tones let the view be the star. “We love all the windows,” says the wife. Bardi used different shades of gray to add dimension to the room. The Kelly Wearstler wallpaper in the bedroom offers a “soft geometry” to the room, says Bardi, while the ochre velvet chair balances the gold tones in the chandelier. The primary bathroom features huge Walker Zanger tiles worked into a diamond pattern. “I just fell in love with it,” says the homeowner. There’s a lot of mixing of metals, like polished nickel fixtures and a champagne bronze on the mirror. The homeowners also wanted a zero-entry shower with an open glass shower stall. “It’s a more European style to have the ‘wet room’ with no barriers,” Bardi says.

“The homeowners really appreciate playful designs — if it’s out of the box, they’re like, let’s do it! ”

— Betsy Bardi

CASUAL LIVING

On the walk-out garden level, a casual living room and bar area open onto a covered patio, something that reminds them of the indoor-outdoor living of their days in California. They created the built-ins around the existing fireplace to showcase artwork by a relative, North Carolina painter Carleen Davis.

Precious Lovell reframes fabric art with her provocative pieces

A STITCH in TIME

by COLONY LITTLE

photography by SAMANTHA EVERETTE

Yoo Sangho

Precious Lovell in her Anchorlight studio. Opposite page: One of Lovell’s works of art, Wangari Maathai (War Shirt).

“Clothing is one of our most intimate relationships,” says Precious Lovell.

“Every day, we get up and we put on something to present ourselves to the world.” Whether it’s a little black dress or a well-worn baseball cap, Lovell believes clothing speaks volumes about who we are and how we want to be perceived — and that it can be a powerful tool for storytelling through art.

Fashion and art are close bedfellows for Lovell. She spent 20 years in the fashion industry, then another two decades teaching fashion, fiber and surface design. Now in her 60s, she’s a full-time visual artist, using her knowledge and expertise in textile and clothing design to create thought-provoking sculptures and installations from found garments and original weavings.

As a child in Pilot Mountain, clothing — and its fabrication — was an ever-present influence on her. “I come from a family of women who stitched, whether it was quilts or clothing,” she says. “My great-grandmother lived next door to us and my great-aunt lived with us. I always had these women stitching and I was doing it myself from a very young age.”

Lovell studied fashion design at Virginia Commonwealth University and later relocated to New York City for a career in the garment industry, specializing in children’s clothing design for Healthtek and OshKosh. As a pattern maker, designer and fashion forecaster, Lovell traveled extensively, visiting 45 countries. “Travel has taught me that I’ve had to rethink my servitudes,” says Lovell. “No matter where I go on earth there’s one thing I see: Everybody is trying to strive for a better life and especially a better life for their children.”

Her travels prepared her for a new career and life abroad. She moved to Qatar in 2001 to teach fashion design at VCUarts Qatar, a school established

between the VCU School of the Arts and the Qatar Foundation, a nonprofit that fosters university-level scholastic study in Doha, particularly for young women. After six and a half years teaching, she decided to pursue more schooling in fibers and surface design to augment her teaching experience. Lovell returned to the United States and earned her masters in Art and Design at North Carolina State University and continued to teach at the Oregon College of Art and Craft, Keimyung University in South Korea and North Carolina State University.

But even as she taught, Lovell pursued her own projects in visual art, using clothing and textiles as tools of communication and storytelling. Her works begin with clothing designs that are often embellished with text and symbolic imagery that convey messages of hope, history, memory, resistance and resilience. In one powerful piece, called Time’s Effing Up!, Lovell recreates the teal suit that Anita Hill wore during Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings for the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991. The suit contains embroidered text and black award ribbons with phrases that draw parallels between that era, the #MeToo movement and the 2018 testimonies of Christine Blasey Ford against Brett Kavanaugh during his own confirmation hearings. On the front of the suit Lovell places a large, red “A,” the scarlet letter that calls to task discrimination, humiliation and violence towards women nearly 200 years ago. The suit connects the past to the present, demanding that the viewer acknowledge patterns that keep repeating themselves.

“I’m always exploring the narrative potential of cloth and clothing,” says Lovell. During an artist talk for her 2017 solo show, The Ties That Bind, at CAM Raleigh, Lovell recalled two pieces of historical needlepoint that informed her point of view as an artist: a cross-stich by a young African-American girl with a call for the end of enslavement, and an embroidered piece by an English girl who’d left home at 13

“I think it can scream really important things with a stitch or a technique that evolved out of this domestic realm that women existed in.”

— Precious Lovell

This page, clockwise from top: Gallery view of a 2017 exhibition at CAM, The Ties That Bind; Precious Denita Lovell Apron detail; Perlina Arnold Apron detail. Opposite page: A wider view of Perlina Arnold Apron.

to become a nursery maid. “She stitched about things that had happened to her that were so horrible she could not speak of them,” says Lovell. In the absence of other platforms, she says, “cloth was the only safe place and stitching was the only safe means they had to do these powerful things.”

For Lovell, these examples reframe sewing and needlepoint, so often dismissed as “women’s work,” as an important tool for preserving memory and asserting voice. “It’s always been viewed as this sweet, quiet, nonconfrontational thing that women do,” says Lovell. “I think it can scream really important things with a stitch or a technique that evolved out of this domestic realm that women existed in.”

One of her most poignant pieces grew out of a creative collaboration with Mike Williams from the Black on Black Project, called The Legacy of the

N-Word: N-slaved, N-carcerated, N-sanity, N-destructible! Lovell designed a pair of garments worn in a performance piece that was part of a group show called Black on Black V2 at VAE Gallery in 2017. In one piece, Lovell fashioned a straitjacket from the fabric of cotton picking sacks. Bolls of cotton tumble out from the back like the train of a wedding dress; the year 1619, when the first enslaved African people were brought to the United States, is stenciled on the front. Its partner piece is a long black hoodie stenciled with the year 2019 and a Kongo cosmogram, a traditional cultural symbol, on the back.

While the piece is a commentary on the 400 years of brutality African Americans have endured, it’s also a powerful allegory on resilience.

During the performance piece, models wearing the garments faced

each other, with cotton bolls and bullet casings on the floor around them.“It’s about how the past is influencing the present,” says Lovell, noting one frequently misinterpreted element of the piece. “The symbol on the back of the hoodie looks like a shooting target, but it actually represents birth, life, death and rebirth — that’s why it’s called N-destructible.”

In October 2021, Lovell was named the inaugural artist-in-residence for Anchorlight Studio’s Brightwork Fellowship. “Artists need time, space and money,” says Shelley Smith, founder of Anchorlight, who notes that the purpose of the fellowship is to make North Carolina artists know that they are “valued and validated in their practice, that they do not need to leave the state they call home for the sake of opportunity, and that opportunities of this nature will one day cease

this page: Samantha Everette (STUDIO); opposite page: Christopher Ciccone (ROBE)

to be few and far between.”

Lovell’s ability to balance storytelling with her technical expertise made the artist a natural choice for the Anchorlight Fellowship. “Her depth of research, quality of craftsmanship, and attention to every detail of her practice is beyond reproach,” says Smith. “Her commitment to shining an unflinching light on American history while also creating objects of careful beauty and consideration results in work that holds powerful space, speaking to both our past and present, asking us not to look away.”

Research fuels Lovell’s ideas. On her desk sits a pile of art and textile books that support the themes in the solo exhibition she’ll present at the end of her fellowship. The wall of her studio space is dedicated to reference images, quotations, sketches and materials that map out the ideas for the show, while the rest of the studio space contains dress forms, found objects and material — all the trappings of her work in process.

While previous solo exhibitions showcased distinct design practices that she aligned with specific narratives, Lovell’s work for her Anchorlight show will include a broad range of techniques including quilting, embroidery, crochet and clothing design, which will each contain both coded and overt messages about inequality and the legacy of slavery. While she won’t divulge the themes ahead of time, Lovell promises to pull no punches, putting on a show that will require slow and purposeful looking, while also creating a safe space for healing and growth.

Anchorlight’s selection of Lovell also affirms how important it is to support artists at all stages of their career, no matter when they choose to embark on their journey. “I’m Black, I’m female and I’m over 60 — those are not things that are often celebrated in America’s art world or the art world in general,” she says. “I feel like this is a great opportunity for me. I’m a North Carolinian, I’m a native daughter. I feel like if I can’t talk about N.C., who can?”

Opposite page: Lovell in her studio; This page: Lovell’s ensemble from the NCMA’s 2017 Inspiring Beauty exhibition.

Our signature innovation event featuring inspiring workshops and moving talks by local female leaders.

WINnovation

sharing STORIES. inspiring ACTION.

PRESENTEDBY

Friday, September 16 at The Umstead Hotel & Spa

SUPPORTED BY

SCAN HERE FOR TICKETS

!

Inspired. Empowered. Energized.

That’s how we feel when we’re surrounded by driven, successful women at our signature leadership summit. On September 16, we’ll host our eighth annual WINnovation at The Umstead Hotel & Spa in Cary.

The evening is headlined by leaders in our community from diverse backgrounds. And while their stories and paths are different, they share the same innovative spirit. During their talks, you will hear about their career journeys and the lessons they’ve learned along the way. In addition, WINnovation offers an interactive opportunity to flex your strategic thinking, expand your professional skills and network with other participants. Here’s what you can expect.

WORKSHOPS Think outside of the box

We open the day with professional development sessions led by Kristine Sloan, executive director of Leadership Triangle; Sarah Glova, CEO of Reify Media; and Sharon Delaney McCloud, director of corporate communications at UNC Health.

NETWORKING

Continue the conversation Grab a refreshment and meet fellow guests! Discuss what you learned in your workshop and grow your network.

PANELIST TALKS Listen and

learn

Over a three-course dinner, our speakers will share their career journeys, successes, obstacles and lessons learned along the way. Following the talks, there will be a Q&A with the panel.

2022 WINnovation Panelists

JAKI SHELTON GREEN Writer, North Carolina

Poet Laureate

Now in her second term as poet laureate, Green is a 2019 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow and 2014 NC Literary Hall of Fame inductee. She teaches Documentary Poetry at Duke University Center for Documentary Studies and is the 2021 Frank B. Hanes Writer in Residence at UNC Chapel Hill. Her publications include Dead on Arrival, Masks and i want to undie you.

VALERIE HILLINGS

CEO & Director, North Carolina Museum of Art

As director of the NCMA since 2018, Hillings has set forth a strategic plan for sharing the People’s Collection and highlighting diverse histories, voices and perspectives. Prior to joining the NCMA, she held senior positions for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation. She graduated from Duke University and earned her MA and PhD in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts in New York City.

ZENA HOWARD Principal, Global Cultural and Civic Practice Chair, Perkins&Will

An award-winning architect, Howard’s career has been defined by culturally significant projects such as the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. She has been integral in developing and realizing Remembrance Design, a design process that engages historically marginalized communities to redress painful issues, bridge experiences, inspire communities and infuse culture into projects.

ANITA WATKINS Managing Director, Rex Health Ventures

WORKSHOPSPONSORS

Watkins leads a team to spur innovation in healthcare through strategic equity investments in early stage companies. She serves on the board of multiple companies and organizations, including Biostable Science and Engineering, ReDiscovery Life Sciences, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development and Innovate Raleigh. She was recently awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship. Watkins holds a JD and masters from the UNC-Chapel Hill and a BA from NC State.

THE WHIRL THE WHIRL

Courtesy The Frankie Lemmon Foundation

Taylor Manning, Clark Hippolito and Trey Bailey at Milburnie 2.0.

THE WHIRL

KHERA OPENING CELEBRATION

Khera Gynecology & Wellness celebrated its grand opening on August 13 with a tour of the West Jones Street location, followed by a dj dance party and dinner. Founded by Dr. Naina Khera-McRackan, the new practice aims to offer a holistic, functional medicine approach to gynecological care.

Naina Khera-McRackan, Rosanny Abreu Rani Ray, Meg Bernstien, Stephanie Ziegler

Kay Coleman, Paige Presler-Jur, Sally Collins, Jess Gotwalt, Margaret Maloney

Naina Khera-McRackan, Dan KheraMcRackan and their children

Anna Kusterer, Sahar McLure

BEAUFORT SUMMER PARTY

The Beaufort Historical Association held its annual summer party in July with food from Scarborough Fare Catering, lively music from the Shakedown Band and a silent auction featuring items from local businesses throughout the state. The proceeds benefited the association’s education and preservation programs.

DAY TRIPPERS WELCOME

Sunday, September 11 • 2 - 4 pm

“Classical Music Sundays”

Duo Rose with Skirmante Kezyte, Pianist

Elizabeth Pacheco Rose, lyric soprano, and Saxton Rose, bassoon.

Members: $25 / Non-Members: $35

Sunday, September 18 • 2 pm

“His Honor, the Mayor” Radio Play

Hear the original recording of the Free Company radio play written by Orson Welles. The Free Company plays were the brainchild of Weymouth founder James Boyd and performed on CBS Radio in 1941 as a response to Nazi propaganda during WWII.

Members: $20 / Non-Members: $25

Sunday, September 25 • 11:30 - 2

“Come Sunday” Jazz Series

Outdoors on our beautiful grounds. Bring your own blanket, chairs, and a picnic. Cash bar with mimosas, beer, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages available.

Members/Non-Members Tickets: $25/$35 - Kids 12 and under are free

For tickets visit: weymouthcenter.org

To receive 5% off, use promo code: DTWA

Just a short drive away, there’s a perfect place to escape for the day. Our 100-year-old historic house is a storied venue for events and programs that will spark your mind, and feed your senses. If you prefer, you are welcome to roam our 26 acres of gardens and grounds, or picnic on our lush lawns.

We’re conveniently nestled in the heart of Southern Pines, a quaint town, which boasts a host of restaurants and cute boutiques that also offer something for everyone.

So next time you have the urge to get out of town, put us on your GPS. You can experience a real getaway, but still get home in a single day.

We’re celebrating 100 years of our historic Boyd House with 100 events in 2022.

Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities

555 E. Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines, NC

A 501(c)(3) organization

Trent Ragland IV, Reilly Mason, Wes Ragland, Trent Ragland

Vick Moore, Nikki Dunn, Pat Moore

Robyn Eiler, Ken Eiler, Charlie Burgess, Naomi Chappell, Kathy Leffler

Designed For Joy

Handmade in our Raleigh studio

Providing immediate employment for women in crisis.

517 W Cabarrus St. Suite A, Warehouse District shop and visit Monday-Saturday 10 AM-2 PM

designedforjoy.com

PART OF THE FABRIC OF RALEIGH SINCE 1899

PART OF THE FABRIC OF RALEIGH SINCE 1899

Our patients receive state-of-the-art care in a warm, professional, safe and friendly environment. We welcome new patients!

Our patients receive state-of-the-art care in a warm, professional, safe and friendly environment. We welcome new patients!

GALAXYCON 2022

The weekend of July 27 to 30, the Raleigh Convention Center hosted GalaxyCon, a four-day “festival of fandom” that gathers artists, writers, cosplayers and entertainment celebrities from the worlds of comic books, sci-fi, fantasy, anime, gaming and more. WALTER sent photographer Bryan Regan to photograph some of the characters in attendance.

OUR SIGNATURE SERVICES INCLUDE: Comprehensive & Cosmetic Dental Care Same-Day CEREC Crowns Invisalign Orthodontics Dental Implants Sleep Apnea

TMJ Therapy

OUR SIGNATURE SERVICES INCLUDE: Comprehensive & Cosmetic Dental Care Same-Day CEREC Crowns Invisalign Orthodontics Dental Implants Sleep Apnea

TMJ Therapy

919-782-0801

www.drgregweaver.com

919-782-0801

wwwdrgregweavercom

Bryan Regan

Supergirl from Raleigh

GalaxyCon 2022

Beardman from RaleighVinny and Gianna from Mebane

Leather tassels

Lumi, Lexis, Anna from Raleigh

Jennifer from WilsonIvy from Raleigh

Sepp from RoxboroAnna from Cary

Maddison and Finn from RaleighKarina from Cary

THE WHIRL

CELEBRATE the SEASON

CREATIVEMORNINGS RDU

On July 29, CreativeMornings RDU featured Grammy award-winning jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon at 21C Hotel in Durham. She was introduced by her daughter, Maya Freelon, and previous CreativeMornings speakers Cheetie Kumar and Josh Cohen also gave talks. Breakfast was provided by Counting House and Counter Culture Coffee.

Justin Kase Conder

Nnenna Freelon

Cheetie KumarChristina Marie Noel, Aaron Thaddeus

Adruebbe Jernigan, Bianca Rodriguez, Michela Shanyce, Shana Tucker

THE WHIRL

PARAGON GRAND OPENING

On June 30, the Town of Cary and residents of the Triangle region celebrated the grand opening of Paragon Theaters at Fenton with a ribbon cutting ceremony and festivities throughout the weekend. A focal point within Fenton, Paragon Theaters and the Agency Social and Bar are the region’s newest, state-of-the-art entertainment destinations.

HAYES FAMILY REUNION PICNIC

On June 11, the Hayes family had its annual reunion at Pullen Park. The family, including the Hayes sisters, who have been featured in WALTER, enjoyed an afternoon of catching up and grilling out with more than 80 relatives and five generations that traveled from around North Carolina and as far as Maryland.

WORK. DINE. LIVE.

This is where Raleigh happens. Vibrant energy meets classic Carolina style at City Club Raleigh, the city’s go-to destination for high-tech business amenities, outstanding personalized service and world-class fun. This is the place where industry, professional and civic leaders gather in the states capital for meaningful business connections and vibrant social activity.

Tony Ciamillo, James Herd, Mike Wilson, Ani Kerjilian, Jared Comess, Ashley Dreps, Chris Jenkins, Frank Donnelly, Ron Manarang, Dalton Brown

Alease Bobo, Dallie Davis, Kathleen Stephenson, Alean Chavis

Christopher Grissom, Julien Grissom, David Bobo

wrightsville beach

Summer

THE WHIRL

MILBURNIE 2.0

The Frankie Lemmon Foundation, in collaboration with Alan and Evelyn Hughes, held its summer fundraiser at Milburnie Fishing Club. It featured food by Jake Wood of Lawrence BBQ in Durham and wine from Pax Mahle of Pax Wines in Sonoma and Steve Reynolds of Reynolds Family Winery in Napa Valley. Guests also enjoyed Leisureland Lager, a collaboration between Trophy Brewing Co. and Lawrence BBQ.

Mild weather, gorgeous sunrises, crowd-free beach, and evening sunset cruises all await you on the island of Wrightsville Beach. Summers are endless at the historic Blockade Runner Beach Resort.

blockade-runner.com

(855) 421-2884

Courtesy

The Frankie Lemmon Foundation

Kim Whitley, Michael Thomas, Britt Thomas

Steve Reynolds, Pax Mahle

Jake WoodAlan Hughes, Evelyn Hughes

The

Looking for a quick midday bite? Here’s where to get sandwiches, salads and coffee near Fayetteville Street.

5 QUESTIONS WITH... LAUREN KENNEDY BRADY

Theatre Raleigh co-founder is creating space for performers in the Triangle in her new artistic home.

A GUIDE TO EATING LUNCH IN DOWNTOWN RALEIGH

Inside the September 2032 Issue

What’s next for Raleigh? In honor of our 10-year anniversary, here’s a look at what we just might see in WALTER a decade from now…

by SETH CROSSNO illustration by JILLIAN OHL

VIEW FROM THE TOP Scenes of our ever-changing skyline, photographed on an evening cable-car ride from downtown to Dorothea Dix Park.

CELEBRATING THE BIG FOUR

After conference realignments jeopardized college athletics in the early 2020s, four universities — North Carolina State, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest — created a tournament with true local support. A look at this tradition in the making.

MEET RAL•E

Newly installed at Pullen Park, the city’s first Public Parkbot is pushing kids on swings, wiping noses and fetching Loco-Pops — much to the relief of parents. Here’s what we can expect from this friendly, artificial intelligencepowered robot.

UNDER THE SEA-BOARD

When American Aquarium joined forces with the Save Seaboard Station movement back in 2022, few could have imagined that the former train depot would be transformed into this stunning underwater adventure park.

PEACING IT TOGETHER

The Peace Street Bridge has withstood more than a million truck crashes — now, a Raleigh engineer has harnessed its remarkable power to build disasterproof homes across the state.

BEYOND THE BEYOND

This virtual reality photo essay offers a tour of I-640, the skyway commonly known as the “Outer, Outer, Outer Beltline.”

WHEEL OF FORTUNE

Marking the success of the downtown social district, a ferris wheel — once only erected for Artsplosure’s annual Acorn Drop — is now permanently open at the south end of the Fayetteville Street Pedestrian Plaza.

NICE SHOT!

The recently renovated Lonnie Poole Disc Golf Course includes beautifully landscaped fescue, basket trays with goldplated chains and sparkling water fountains along its 18hole course.

SKY’S THE LIMIT

From his office in the penthouse of Pendo’s new, 200-story headquarters, CEO Todd Olson talks about their recent acquisitions of Amazon, Apple and Alphabet — and what’s next for this homegrown tech company.

THE WHIRL: RED CARPET EDITION

Stars descended upon Raleighwood — the renamed stretch of Glenwood that boasts dozens of independent movie theaters — for screenings, workshops and panels during the fifth annual Rialto-DeBose Film Festival.

Innovation.

It’s feeling the pulse of the next level of cardiac care and wellness. It ’s seeing possibilities where others see roadblocks. Pioneering new minimally invasive procedures and robotic-assisted surgeries. Transforming theor y into curative strategies. Even more than that, however, it ’s passion, compassion, th its assion, co All joining experience, exper tise and technology. novation forces to create a special place where in saves lives. Visit us at ear ts. wakemed.org/h

Your heart. Your choice.