Ben Fountain’s New Novel Imagines a Political Reality Even More Dangerously Absurd Than the Trump Era
‘Rasputin Swims the Potomac,’ the North Carolina writer’s new political satire, touches down with a pandemic of “weeping sickness,” a mystical professional wrestler, and an American president making a power grab for a third term.

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Where to Go See Art This Summer
Local exhibitions this summer explore flight, work from Black Mountain College, and the West writ large, among other things.
UNC-Chapel Hill Trustees Reject Hiring of Tenured Women’s Studies Professor
The rare move comes a year after the board delayed dozens of votes to confer tenure, sparking outcry from faculty.
Duke University Plans a Data Center It Says Will Boost ‘Environmental Responsibility and Sustainability’
The small project is underway at Central Campus, with room for expansion. Its energy usage could complicate the university’s climate goals.
ART
In Wide-Ranging New Exhibition of Native American Artists, Ancestral Knowledge Animates the Stories of Today
‘Stories Told By Breath: Native American Voices in North Carolina’ is on display at the Gregg Museum of Art & Design through September 26.
Resistance Was at the Heart of This Year’s QuiltCon
At the recent Raleigh event, quilting’s radical history took center stage, with dozens of works that commented on censorship and corruption and called for change.
How the Eno River Served as a Muse for Artist Silvia Heyden’s Weaving Practice
Small in size but not in scope, the Nasher Museum of Art’s exhibition on Silvia Heyden celebrates the enduring influence that nature and music had on the pioneering Durham artist’s work.
PAGE
The Epic Real-Life Friendship Behind an Acclaimed Novel
Lily King’s “Heart the Lover” commemorates three men who bonded as students in Chapel Hill.
A Raleigh Writer’s New Memoir Revisits the Culinary School Trenches
“Salt, Sweat & Steam: The Fiery Education of an Accidental Chef,” Brigid Washington’s account of her time at the Culinary Institute of America and beyond, releases on April 28.
“Power to the People, Y’all” Revisits a Revolutionary Winston-Salem Chapter
Tressie McMillan Cottom’s new documentary short looks back on the first Black Panther Party chapter to be established in the South, and how its legacy lives on today.
SCREEN
Incoming! Professional Shoplifters, Liminal Spaces, and Avenging Sheep
A rowdy, anti-capitalist crime comedy from Boots Riley, Renate Reinsve in horror flick “Backrooms,” and more films coming to theaters around the Triangle.
The Filmmakers Behind “The Great Experiment” On Resisting Tidy Narratives
Eric Daniel Metzgar and Steve Maing’s new documentary, which screens at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival this week, paints a portrait of the national mood during the first Trump administration.
“A Little Part of Everyone Somewhere in Her Story”: Talking to Filmmaker Alan Berliner About BENITA
The documentary, a posthumous portrait of experimental filmmaker Benita Raphan, explores creativity, loneliness, and mental health. It screens at Durham’s Full Frame Documentary Film Festival this week.

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