The arts live on
Raleigh Little Theatre opened its first online-only show this week with She Kills Monsters. Outer Banks, the record-breaking Netflix original series set in a campy teen drama version of North Carolina, was picked up for a second season this weekend. Taylor Swift released new music, sure, but so did local acts like M8alla, Libby Rodenbough, and Sylvan Esso. There are more local projects and releases than we can count, and that’s exactly the point. The Triangle’s arts scene is still as vibrant as ever, providing much-needed light and inspiration to an overwhelming world. More good news: You can be a part of that work by donating to an artist relief fund, becoming an arts sustainer, and buying tickets for their online events.
University reopenings
As we said last week, there aren’t any great options for reopening schools during a global pandemic. That doesn’t mean the steps being taken by area universities aren’t bad. UNC’s Board of Governors announced Thursday that students won’t see tuition or fee decreases even during a highly limited online-only semester. Duke announced Sunday that on-campus housing will be available only to first- and second-year students in the fall, which has left thousands of upperclassmen scrambling to find somewhere to live just three weeks out from the first day of classes. There’s also bad news for campus employees: The UNC system asked campuses to submit plans for potential budget cuts of up to 50 percent.
Town hall hackers
On Sunday, the Northern Orange NAACP held a virtual town hall to discuss police reform. The public meeting was designed to give Black and Latinx residents a place to discuss their experiences, but it was quickly hijacked by white supremacists who flooded the screen with racial slurs, clips of KKK rallies, and other racist images. It’s hard to imagine a more peaceful form of protest than an online town hall, and the fact that even this meeting was disrupted should make it obvious that some cries for people to protest racial injustice “the right way” are really just thinly-veiled demands for oppressed people to stay quiet. “It’s a shame that respectful dialogue cannot be engaged in without that portion of the population that believes people of color are less than,” the NAACP chapter wrote in a post after the event. “HOWEVER,” the post continued, “you know you are doing the right thing when people feel they have to disrupt your mission or resort to childish behavior as a way to upset your moment!”
Follow Editorial Assistant Cole Villena on Twitter or send an email to cvillena@indyweek.com.
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