Hi! Happy Friday.
Hope you’re having a lovely first weekend in August. I’m writing from a three-day trip to the Outer Banks; my first time here, despite being born and raised in North Carolina (I know, I know—you can revoke my Tar Heel card!).
It’s a place that is making me appreciate the work that places like Locals Seafood are doing to accessibly spread the gospel of North Carolina seafood; it’s also an appropriate place to share this interview that writer Fred Wasser did this week with Kathryn Hunter-Williams, chair of the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC-Chapel Hill and one of eleven contributors to Paul Green: North Carolina Writers on the Legacy of the State’s Most Celebrated Playwright.
Green, a playwright born in 1894 and died in 1981, is perhaps best known for The Lost Colony, a play about the Elizabethan-era Roanoke colony that went missing. It’s been performed in the Outer Banks every summer since 1937.
Green is a fascinating character: Born in Harnett County, he became one of the South’s most well-known playwrights, a graduate of and later a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, and a champion of racial justice, prison reform, and anti-war beliefs. Some of the ways he engages with those ideas hold up, some do not; regardless, he’s a fascinating figure to study, especially as the educational tide across UNC system schools (and the nation) turns against the humanities. Read the interview here.
The cover of a new book on Paul Green. Read the Q&A about it here.
elsewhere in the culture section
A Place at the Table has a new food truck and organization founder Maggie Kane says she hopes it can serve as a new revenue source. The pay-what-you-can-to-eat Raleigh nonprofit could use one: Kane says that before the pandemic, “about 70 percent of people paid full price while 30 percent paid reduced prices.” Nowadays, growing need and the spiking cost of living have flipped those numbers. If you’re looking to hire a food truck for a company party or wedding, consider A Place at the Table.
And if you’re looking to go to the movies, Glenn McDonald’s got you covered with a new roundup of movies coming to local theaters. You might also consider Twisters, which Glenn recently reviewed and which is still in theaters.
ICYMI: Fancy Gap tunes to cruise to, the local woman who may make you love vultures, and meeting the baby red wolves.
out and about in the triangle
First up: Are you looking to fill your home with some new art—like, immediately? Peel Gallery released a press release today that the small gallery was informed that its rent is going up by 20%, allegedly with just three days’ notice (spikes in rent are a common theme recently). It’s hosting a fundraiser and you can learn more here.
Med Deli owner Jamil Kadoura talks to the Daily Tar Heel, a year after the devastating fire that swept the restaurant. Med Deli is projected to reopen in late December, Kadoura says. Scott Crawford is reopening his latest concept, Crawford’s Genuine, at RDU this month. Ashley Christensen’s Fox Liquor Bar is closing to the public and reverting to a model as a rental for private events.
And if you’re a lover of Best-restaurant lists, August has them in spades: Axios Raleigh released its list of 30 best restaurants, a wide-ranging list that spans spots from Merritt’s Grill to Brewery Bhavana. Eater Carolinas likewise published its “heatmap” of the 13 hottest restaurants in the Triangle right now and “18 Essential Durham Restaurants” (a handy list that, in my opinion, gets a lot of things right!). Ral Today, meanwhile, has a list of the best beers in Raleigh as well as the best places to seek out for non-alcoholic drinks.
With longtime bluegrass festival IBMA moving to Tennessee, Raleigh looks to be getting a new bluegrass festival in 2025. If you’re looking for a Raleigh music fix sooner than that, Jazz in the Square is coming back.
out and about in the world
Like much of the world, I have been spellbound by Simone Biles and the story of the U.S. gymnastics team. The rise of the influencer chef. August, with its stilled, static energy, seems to inspire good poems; here’s one I’ve always liked. The surprising history of porch culture.
— Sarah Edwards —
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