Jedidiah Gant

I grew up in a bowling alley, at least on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Both my mother and father were weekly bowlers, the sort to own their own balls and bags and shoes and contend in local leagues. Their alley of choice sat in a small strip of a Lumberton shopping center, sandwiched between a […]

When I moved from London back to Raleigh in 2005, I was jobless and broke. A college friend and his then-girlfriend offered a room in their rented duplex until I figured life out in North Carolina. That little Oakwood house served as tight quarters for three 20-somethings, but it provided a solid foundation for our […]

I played my first soccer game in the outfield of a baseball diamond in a small neighborhood park in the late ’80s. There were only about 22 kids on the pitch, just enough for two teams. The blue team and the red team both wore thick cotton shirts from Burger King. We played the same […]

While my son, Oliver, was undergoing cancer treatment, my family of three read a book about Curious George heading to the fishing hole. That imagewhich reminded me so much of my own childhood, trotting down a wooded path like Opie Taylorseemed like the perfect leisurely escape from the hospital’s cosmos of sadness. Oliver grasped the […]

Given my love for cities and their downtowns, some people are surprised to learn that I come from a family of farmers. Though agriculture skipped my parents, all of my grandparents and great-grandparents planted crops to make a living or cook the night’s dinner. On my mother’s side, both great-grandfathers farmed tobacco in Robeson County, […]

As a child, I heard the phrase “It takes a village” attached to several generic situations. “It takes a village to win a game,” my coach might have said, referring to practicing at home with our parents or having fans in the crowd. “It takes a village to build a park,” a local official would […]

The first time I made the trip to Manhattan, the year was 1997. I was a senior in high school. It was an art-club expedition, a bunch of kids from a small town trying to make sense of “The Big Apple.” I visited the Guggenheim, the Met and many of the other typical tourist spots […]

Between the fall of 2003 and the winter of 2005, I lived in the heart of London. It was cold, dense, bright and amazing. When my son was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, I never expected to start considering the hospital a home, much less start comparing it to one of the most metropolitan […]

It has been nearly three months since Oliver, our 2-year-old son, was diagnosed with cancer. In February, the news devastated me, my wife, our families and friends; life as we knew it changed with a simple doctor’s visit. Our shock has subsided, and just as we knew we must, we’ve found a new “normal” way […]

In talking about their inspirations and influences, musicians often mention their parents’ record collections. That’s understandable, as, early on, these are the tunes that shape us most. While I was only in a band for a short stint in high school, the music of my youth, and of my parents’ adulthood, is somewhat congruous. As […]