INDY Selects: What to Do in the Triangle This Week

Raleigh’s free, family-friendly concert series is back for the summer, and this time around, all of the featured artists have North Carolina ties. For the May installment, alt-rock band Weekend Excursion and singer-songwriter Tre. Charles will share the City Plaza stage. Weekend Excursion—who, in their own words, are “known for their hook-laden melodies, tasty guitars, and rich harmonies”—are a sixsome who began releasing music in the nineties and continue to tour intermittently while also working day jobs around the state (one is an attorney, one works in senior care, another is a photographer; the list goes on).

Durhamite Tre. Charles blends eclectic influences—alternative R&B, choral music, rock, hip-hop—to produce a sound that INDY’s Brian Howe called “calming, but in a transfixing, time-halting way, like dancing candlelight.” Food trucks and drink options round out Live After 5 as a true block party experience. Parking is free for the first two hours in the city-owned lots around downtown. And if you can’t make it this week, upcoming Live After 5 shows in June, July, and August will feature North Carolina acts Rissi Palmer, Duck, Kooley High, Charly Lowry, Chatham Rabbits, and Jack The Radio. –Chloe Courtney Bohl

When I think of art on paper, my mind immediately goes to ink and pencil. But the medium encompasses everything from collages and zines to paper dolls, print, and photography—all of which and more will be available for purchase on Friday night’s original art marketplace. 

The paper-based market comes from the mind of screenprinter Bill Fick, one of the creators of Durham’s Zine Machine Festival. With 60 unique vendors (including Houston-based artist Carlos Hernandez as a special guest) and PhDJ providing the perfect soundtrack for browsing their original work, the event is free to attend and open to all. — Daneen Khan

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In Ancient Greece, Asclepieia—named for and dedicated to Asclepios, the god of healing—were sites of medicine and recovery. The nonprofit collective Hidden Voices draws inspiration from these temples with How the Light Gets Gold, a new immersive exhibit that “contends with experiences of sexual violence in a communal and interactive format.”

The event runs through the end of May at Hillsborough’s Eno Arts Mill, and although much of May is already behind us, there’s still time to catch the powerful stories featured in the exhibit, as well as two special reflective events this weekend: a dance performance, from dust we rise, performed by killmanning/noforwardingaddress at 7, 7:30, and 8 on May 23, and a candlelight soundbath therapy experience that costs $15 and runs from 7:30-8:30 on May 24. —Sarah Edwards

The Carrboro Bluegrass Festival has a bit of a Mandela Effect on me because this seems like the kind of festival that, surely, Chapel Hill’s crunchy younger sibling has always had. But this is in fact the event’s inaugural year, staged in the Cat’s Cradle “backyard” area, and those mourning the departure of IBMA can find solace in this new festival. The knockout bluegrass lineup includes multiple Grammy winner Jim Lauderdale, The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, Graham Sharp & Friends (Sharp is the banjo player in the area’s star bluegrass act), and numerous other bands. Gates open at 1 p.m. and sets start at 2 p.m.; bluegrass aficionados can find seated and standing tickets at $64 and $43, respectively. –Sarah Edwards 

On Tuesday, Mathias Svalina, poet-in-residence at Chapel Hill’s dreamy private exhibition space, Cassilhaus, gives a reading alongside Triangle poets Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Laura Jaramillo. Svalina, the author of eight books of fiction and poetry, is known for creating entrepreneurial poetic experiences; his gig economy-esque “dream delivery service,” for example, delivers “daily dreams to subscribers for a month at a time.” Calvocoressi, meanwhile, is a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and the author of three books of poetry as well as the author of the (very deservedly!) viral poem “Miss you. Would like to take a walk with you,” while poet/critic Jaramillo is the author of two books of poetry, most recently, 2022’s Making Water. There is no door fee from this reading, but donations to the artists are encouraged, and merch and books are available for purchase. —Sarah Edwards

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