In a culture that limits much of its political discourse to 30 seconds of TV time, it’s a challenge to communicate all of the things wrong with the Bush administration. But about 1,500 people gave it a shot in MoveOn.org’s “Bush in 30 Seconds” contest. Winners were announced last week, and the political group has […]
Fiona Morgan
Posted inNews
In rocking for rights
You have the right to rock, and the right to choose. Enjoy one right and defend the other at “Rock n’ Roe” this Thursday, as a great lineup of local musicians–Glory Fountain, Shannon O’Connor, Regina Hexaphone, Ameliorate, Destroyed by Kittens, and Lise Uyanik and the Mobile City Band–fill the Cat’s Cradle. Proceeds from the $10 […]
Posted inNews
‘Present our very bodies’
After being arrested in Birmingham, Ala., the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a long, respectful letter to his detractors on the scraps of paper he was able to get. “As the weeks and months unfolded we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise,” he wrote to the Alabama clergy who had […]
Posted inNews
The so-called compromise
As the president touts an emerging democracy in Iraq–one made up of leaders hand-picked by the American government rather than chosen by Iraqi votes–the Bush administration is celebrating another tweak to democratic process. A media ownership provision in the omnibus spending bill passed by Congress in late November was revised by the president, thanks to […]
Posted inNews
The center cannot hold
Much has been made of Howard Dean’s groundbreaking use of the Internet as a grassroots organizing tool, and one of its architects paid a visit to Durham last week. Zephyr Teachout is a 32-year-old Vermont native who graduated from Duke Law School in 1999 and subsequently co-founded the Fair Trial Initiative, an organization that provides […]
Posted inArt
Falling Hard
In the summer of 2002, Cary entrepreneur Don Piper was riding in a friend’s car when he saw the downtown stretch of Main Street for the first time in many years. “I just gasped at the devastation. Nothing was happening with these beautiful old structures,” he remembers. Piper, who describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur,” […]
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Copywrong: Copyright laws are stifling art, but the public domain can save us
Artists steal. It’s a well-known fact. Blues musicians built upon the tradition of other blues musicians playing on the same circuit, and rock musicians built upon their music in turn, sometimes appropriating wholesale their songs and styles. Writers, it’s been said, choose from a limited number of plots and write the same story over and […]
Posted inNews
It starts small
Sometimes fighting for change feels like fighting over scraps. The victories are so hard-won, and so small when they do come, and the fight itself lasts longer than any of our lifetimes. But this week there are many small victories to celebrate and exciting proof that they can add up to unexpected coups. A year […]
Posted inGuides
Women’s stories
Political arguments only go so far in explaining the need for abortion rights and birth control. The bulk of the evidence is in the stories of women’s lives. Janet Colm, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina, has been fortified by those stories since her college days. When clinic hours are over […]
Posted inArt
Master plan
Durham is in the process of uniting its cultural offerings and audiences into a master plan. What this will mean for the artists who live and work in Durham is an open question, as is the role of art in the larger context of culture. City and county government has enlisted the Durham Arts Council […]