The last time I saw John Edwards in person was in South Carolina in 2004 on the presidential primary campaign trail. On a daylong tour of the state, I remember he did best at a barbecue joint in Kingstree in the heart of the economically depressed Pee Dee region, where he wowed a multi-racial group […]
Barbara Solow
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Durham activist is one in a thousand
Last week, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Mohamed ElBaradei, who runs the organization, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But they had competition from a woman from Durham: Activist Mandy Carter was one of 1,000 women from 150 countries whose name was submitted for the prize by a group called 1000 Peace […]
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I’m so blue
When old friends from the Northeast learned that my husband had been offered a great job at Rutgers University and we’d be relocating to New Jersey by the end of the summer, they were thrilled. Maybe a little too thrilled. “Hey, this is great! You’ve been wanting to get out of the South for years, […]
Posted inGuides
Collage Dance Company
On a steamy Saturday in Durham, the dance studio at Hayti Heritage Center resembles the famous audition sequence from Flashdance–but with an African flair. In place of a lone performer, there are dozens of girls clumped together at the bar. Instead of a panel of judges in suits, women in flowing skirts lead warm-ups while […]
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Smoke screen
State Rep. Bill Faison was one of a handful of legislative Democrats from mainly rural districts whose opposition to raising North Carolina’s cigarette tax–now the lowest in the nation–almost doomed a House budget proposal last week. The freshman Democratic lawmaker, whose district covers all of Caswell County and part of Orange, made a campaign promise […]
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Living and dying with the crossover
It’s been called a “mythical beast,” a “highwire” and “artificially imposed,” but whatever you want to call it, Crossover Day at the North Carolina General Assembly was June 2–the official deadline for all non-budget bills this legislative session. Any bill that had not been adopted by either the state House or Senate by then is […]
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What hope sounds like
I went to a great block party the other day in East Durham. The host neighborhood didn’t look like it had much to be cheerful about. It was mostly a sad string of worn-out houses, crumbling streets and empty lots along Angier Avenue. But outside a brick apartment building near the corner of Young Street, […]
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Can we stop domestic violence?
Maj. Gary Blankenship doesn’t fit the typical profile of a domestic violence survivor. For one thing, he’s a man. For another, he’s in law enforcement as Operations Commander for the Chatham County Sheriff’s Department. With his military bearing and close-cropped hair, Blankenship is the picture of brisk professionalism and control. Yet, here he is, at […]
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It’s not just a family matter
We like to think we have this problem licked. We like to think this will never happen to us. We like to think that if we ourselves aren’t violent or don’t come from a violent home, we are not responsible for family violence. None of that is true. The headlines in the paper this week […]
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When feminism had mystique
A few weeks ago, I had a chance to talk with Mary Turner Lane, a pioneer for women’s studies–and women’s rights–at UNC-Chapel Hill. Gracious, elegant and poised are some of the words that come to mind in describing her, but somehow, they fall short of truly capturing her persona. There was something else about her–a […]