Chapel Hill
RANDALL KENAN
ACKLAND ART MUSEUMA gay, African-American author raised in Chinquapin, N.C., and currently an associate professor at (and alumnus of) UNC-Chapel Hill, Randall Kenan writes with a vibrancy that’s so very Southern. Kenan’s prosepopularized by the short stories collection Let the Dead Bury Their Dead (which will be discussed tonight at 7:30 p.m.) but epitomized by his brilliant first novel, A Visitation of Spiritswashes trenchant, focused narration into a slipstream of surrealism. The result is a body of work that’s at once as challenging as it is grounding. Grayson Currin
Raleigh
HUMPBACK JACK, WAYLANDSPHERE
THE POUR HOUSESelf-described hybrid-rockers, Humpback Jack speaks of jam-rock ecstasy: Their debut full-length The Red Eye Home departs from their Electremental EP’s pop-oriented roots to experiment with textured electronics and techno-funk beats. Check the brilliant slow-burn of “Freebase Suitcase”electronic skitters chasing slippery synth and guitar crescendosfor a preview of the band’s dance-floor potency. Raleigh’s own groove-masters Waylandsphere headline. Show starts at 9 p.m. for $6. Kathy Justice
