To Attend
Dancing with Bob: Rauschenberg, Brown, and Cunningham Onstage with special guest Paul Taylor Dance Company
June 12-13, 7 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. | Reynolds Industry Theater, Durham
The American Dance Festival (ADF) season is upon us. The season kicks off with a program honoring ADF alumni Paul Taylor, Merce Cunningham, and Trisha Brown—all iconic 20th-century dancers who would go on to have their own companies and carry the ADF tradition forward. Trace the festival’s history through Brown’s Set and Reset, Cunningham’s Travelogue, and two works by Taylor—3 Epitaphs and Tracer. Tickets range from $38 to $70; catch the festival’s official opening party after the June 12 performance or a post-performance talk following the June 13 event.
The Passion Fruit Dance Company then takes the lead on opening weekend, with immersive performance DIM3NSIONS, which will feature “street/club dance, body casting, motion capture, projections, animation, live music, live painting, and photography,” per the festival program. —Sarah Edwards
In February 2024, Flat Duo Jets founder Dexter (“Dex”) Romweber died at the age of 57. The outpouring for Romweber, who lived in Carrboro, was fierce on both a local and national level, with Jack White writing, “They don’t make them like Dex anymore, not till we get our act together as humans.”
Now, a local festival honors Romweber’s legacy with music across three nights at Cat’s Cradle, Local 506, and The Cave, with a free day party at Lapin Bleu on Sunday rounding out the weekend. Catch tributes from Reigning Sound, Boogie Reverie, and Southern Culture on the Skids, alongside a dozen-some other bands. The day party will include storytelling, installations of artwork by Romweber, and more performances. White may be right that “they don’t make them like Dex anymore”—and it’s unlikely we have since got our act together as humans—but at least Romweber’s legacy lives on throughout Chapel Hill and Carrboro’s storied music venues. —SE
Like the North Carolina Museum of Art, I also love anime. I passed my time at home in 2020 watching every series, subbed or dubbed, that I could find on Netflix, bingeing for hours. So if you’re like me, you’ll love the museum’s summertime “NCMA Loves Anime” bazaar. The daylong market will feature anime-related vendors and music, and as attendees browse, the Crispy Gyoza food truck will be stationed for lunch and dinner. The bazaar runs until 7:30 p.m., but the NCMA is also hosting two film screenings afterward: Ushio Tazawa’s short Deji Meets Girl (7:30 p.m.) and Naoko Yamada’s film The Colors Within (8 p.m.). The bazaar itself is free to attend, but the film screenings cost $5 for museum members and $10 for nonmembers. —Daneen Khan
To commemorate Juneteenth, the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission (NCAAHC) and the North Carolina State Capitol are hosting guided walking tours in downtown Raleigh. The new tour is entirely outdoors, covering both the capitol and the historic North Carolina Freedom Park, the latter of which stands as a “timeless tribute to the universal ideas of liberty, resilience, and equality,” according to the NCAAHC. As attendees explore downtown Raleigh, they’ll also learn more about the history of African Americans in the state. Tours will be conducted at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., so be sure to register early to reserve your spot. If you want to make Juneteenth celebrations a weekend affair, the city is hosting its fifth annual Capital City Juneteenth at Dix Park (on Harvey Hill) on June 14 from 2 to 6:30 p.m. Learn more and view the stacked schedule here. —DK
If you are looking for some resilience and hope this Pride Month, The Pauli Murray Center, the LGBTQ Center of Durham, Stand Up for Trans Women at Duke, and Radical Healing are hosting an afternoon of performances, celebration, and reflection. 60+ organizations and artists are partnering up for the event, which includes drag and musical performances from a lineup that includes shirlette ammons, Shasta Kola, Amelia Riggs, Jean Belle-Bleu, KHX05, seiiser, Naomi Dix, and Sinclair Palmer, The event will also hold a panel discussion, moderated by nurse practitioner Destry Taylor, on how to center trangender women’s voices in LGBTQ activism and other spaces. —Eva Flowe
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