SO GOOD PUPUSAS 919-791-7744 www.sogoodpupusas.com Cecilia Polanco’s mom loves feeding people. In college, Polanco often brought friends home to Durham to meet her family, advising them to arrive with an empty stomach. Pupusas, the national dish of El Salvador since 2005, are what Polanco grew up eating on special occasions with her Salvadoran family. And […]
Sayaka Matsuoka
Posted inFood & Drink
Sangha Teahouse Launches “Tea Trike” on Sunday
Alisa Burns doesn’t seem like your average tea drinker. You know, someone mellow. She gives firm handshakes, talks fast, and moves quicker than the Roadrunner cartoon. She strikes me more as a coffee gulper than a tea sipper. At just over five feet tall, her bubbly energy could fit a person twice her size. Her […]
Posted inArt
As Trump Tries to Erase LGBTQ Histories, The Durham County Library Pushes Back to Preserve Them
Donald Trump had hardly been sworn into office when the LGBTQ rights pagealong with other issues the Obama administration deemed importantvanished from the White House website. At a time when many marginalized communities’ rights and livelihoods are under threat, a Durham County Library online exhibit is strengthening the city’s LGBTQ community by preserving just what […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Sankofa Farms Plants Seeds of Empowerment for Black Youth in Durham
Kamal Bell remembers what it’s like to grow up in a food desert in Durham. In the nineties, he lived on the northeast side with his parents and older brother, in a mostly black neighborhood near Southern High School. He remembers after-school car rides to Whole Foods, around the corner from Immaculata Catholic School, where […]
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H Mart’s Seafood Pajeon Brings an Unapologetically Asian Experience to the Suburban South
H Mart 1961 High House Road, Cary www.hmart.com Almost every cuisine around the world includes a pancake-like comfort food. The French have crepes. The Indians have uttapam. We Japanese have okonomiyaki. But my favorite type of savory pancake has to be the Korean jeon. Crispy around the edges and layered with scallion slices, these savory […]
Posted inGuides
Pay It Forward
Miriam Valle’s childhood growing up in Durham isn’t something she looks back at fondly. Her father was an abusive alcoholic, she says, and her mother was unable to protect her family. Valle says she was molested twice by family friends. She fell into depths of despair that led her to self-harm and eventually try to […]
Posted inArt
In the N.C. Chinese Lantern Festival, Sichuan Artisans Light Up the Dark in Cary
N.C. CHINESE LANTERN FESTIVAL Through Jan. 15, 6–10 p.m. Tues.–Sun., $10–$15 Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary www.boothamphitheatre.com A little more than two months from now, lanterns of all shapes, sizes, and colors will light up the streets of China’s cities. At the end of the Chinese New Year, children will carry paper lanterns as they marvel […]
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Local Compost Services Turn Your Food Scraps Into Richer Soil and a Healthier World
It doesn’t smell as bad as you would think. I’m standing in the back of a van, surrounded by dozens of four-gallon plastic square bins with snap-on lids. Each is stamped with a teal “CompostNow” logo and lined with a green biodegradable plastic bag. One of these black buckets is mine. Misha Hoskins weighs my […]
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Behind Prison Walls, North Carolina Inmates Are Training Service Dogs—Or Are the Dogs Training Them?
With graying hair and a bushy moustache that spreads across his upper lip, Grady Meredith speaks with an air of confidence that hints at years of life experience. He stands at about five feet six and has a muscular stature that looms over Lucy, the Labrador mix that sits at his feet. He walks the […]
Posted inArt
“Black on Black” Is Too Often Followed by “Violence.” At Visual Art Exchange, Curators and Artists are Taking It Back.
BLACK ON BLACK Through November 4 Visual Art Exchange, Raleigh What do you think of when you hear the words “black on black”? Whether it’s in the news or on the walls of social media, the phrase is almost always used in a negative way to describe crimes committed by African Americans against other African […]