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Hi! Happy weekend.
Last month, I picked up a new UNC Press title, The Fabulous Ordinary, out of the mail pile. Written by Carrboro author Georgann Eubanks, the book introduces readers to phenomena across seven states that “you should see before they’re gone,” as she invites/warns. These include blue ghost fireflies, dimpled trout lilies, and the bioluminescent larvae that light up an Alabama canyon.
It hooked me: Reading it on my porch swing across several early summer nights, I felt affection for the Southeast’s rich biodiversity and all of its keepers, as Eubanks draws in the conservationists, scientists, and tour guides who balance trying to protect and share these places, so that we know just how much is at stake in the climate emergency. (Any one of these fascinating characters could’ve gotten the whole hog Susan Orleans treatment!).
It had me wanting to go up to anyone who would listen to share my new facts about moths and tree frogs, like a 2nd grader—which I didn’t do, for the record, though the compulsion still lurks under the surface. There are a lot of books about climate change, but this one stands out as a meditative yet galvanizing portrait of wonder.
Happy long weekend! I hope you get to spend some time outside. Below, find a couple of links from this week at the INDY.
“We’re in a lot of trouble,” Georgann Eubanks says. “We’ve got a lot of smart people working on the problem. But we need more people who care.” Photo by Angelica Edwards.
elsewhere in the culture section
If you weren’t able to make it to Durham’s annual Bimbé Cultural Arts Festival, this recap and vibrant photo series will give you FOMO. Sorry!
The good news is that if you are still looking for things to do this week, we’ve got you covered: Here are our weekly event picks.
A Durham musician seeks to make sense of the madness with a political protest album, Is This America?, featuring songs like “Misinformation Disinformation” and “King Trump.”
Finally, here’s a new Lunch Money column in which Lena Geller once again goes over her allotted $15 budget goal—but I think you’ll be able to look past that, once you read her mouthwatering write-up of Yagg Sii Tenn, an Apex restaurant with a pan-African menu.
ICYMI: Ken Burns, goodbye Littler, and a visit to TaTaco.
— Sarah Edwards —
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