Field Guide: A special summer music series, a notable burger, and 37,000 archival films

View This Email In Your Browser

Thank you to this week’s sponsor Bliss Boogie: Bliss Boogie is here to change your life during an educational festival of joy that embodies creativity, community, the human interconnected experience, sexuality, and the celebration of living life at the highest vibration.  Bliss Boogie warmly welcomes everyone. Our community proudly supports LGBTQIA+ individuals, and we embrace people of all races and religions. We cherish the diversity that each member brings to our vibrant community.

Hi! Happy weekend.

Jasmine Gallup reported an in-depth story this week on the circumstances that led NC Theatre (NCT), Raleigh’s oldest professional theater company, to declare bankruptcy and close. 

Depressing, yes, but an important read if we want to figure out how to keep other companies and venues alive. NCT, Jasmine reports, was already in dire financial straits before the pandemic. Then came the year of lights off, and then the post-pandemic slump: 

“In the same way audiences were slow to return, sponsoring companies were slow to resume spending after the pandemic, adding yet another layer to NCT’s financial crisis.” 

“Corporate sponsorship is nonexistent, pretty much,” Michele Weathers, longtime arts manager and executive producer at Raleigh Little Theatre, told the INDY in early April. “Folks that we had counted on in years past, both at the [Carolina] Ballet and also at Raleigh Little Theatre, are not sponsoring at the same level or sponsoring at all.”

Thanks for reading. Below, find a story on Duke Arts’ annual summer music series (with a twist!), a Raleigh burger with many fans, a Raleigh audio-visual archivist, a remembrance of Raleigh’s “hardcore scene matriarch,” and more.

also in the culture section

Oh man, I really loved Jane Porter’s piece on archivist Skip Elsheimer, who has preserved 37,000 educational films and will be showcasing (some of) them this weekend at the Fruit’s “Let’s Get Physical” media fest. This quote in the story unfortunately has uncanny resonance with yesterday’s executive order calling for an end to federal funding of public media like NPR and PBS: “There’s films and videos that have keywords that are problematic with the current administration that I’m trying to get on the Internet Archive, onto YouTube, or the National Archives.”

Have you heard of Raleigh’s popular Textbook burger? Elliott Harrell’s got the down-low on LaGana’s hit menu item. 

David Menconi remembers Karen Weatherman, who passed earlier this week. His story begins: “Anyone who knew Karen Weatherman, local hardcore-scene matriarch and co-proprietor of Weatherman Jewelers, will appreciate the bitter irony of her cause of death: apathetic dementia. She had a sparkle and laughed a lot, in a way you’d find flattering if it were for something you said. And whether saving aluminum cans for a down-on-their-luck friend or chaperoning kids at punk shows, she always looked for ways to help others.” Read about her life here.

Music in the Gardens temporarily moves to East Campus this year for its annual concert series, and is building in an afterparty element at the Pinhook. “We wanted to get people in The Pinhook because our staff and our space are a large part of Durham’s music and arts community,” says venue owner Kym Register, who is also curating the series. Read more and see that lineup here. 

It is that summer-shows time of year, by the way: Here’s a WUNC interview with Heather LaGarde about the 20th anniversary of Saturdays in Saxapahaw, which begins next week. And here’s Raleigh’s Live After 5 lineup, which kicks off on May 21. If you’re looking for things to do earlier than that (a Greek festival? A Cary ballet?), here are our curated event recommendations for the week. 

And here’s my dispatch from last weekend’s Biscuits & Banjos festival, with news about when the next event will be held. 

ICYMI: TaTaco. The Triangle farm setting the “gold standard” for produce subscription boxes. Movies to go see. 

— Sarah Edwards —
Send me an email | Find me on Twitter
If you’d like to sponsor the Field Guide,
please contact [email protected]

Want even more local arts and culture content?
Support us by joining the INDY Press Club.