Good morning, readers.
Topping the ranks of our informal “local people to watch” list is artist Dare Coulter, who recently received a $143,000 grant from the city of Durham to create a public art installation at (the iconic) Wheels Roller Skating Rink—and who, on Monday, won the incredibly prestigious 2024 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for illustrating An American Story, a children’s book by author Kwame Alexander that confronts the realities of slavery.
Coulter told the INDY that she was mindful to depict joy and strength in her illustrations.
“You’re dealing with these overarching themes of horrific abuse, but you’re also trying to speak to the human-ness of the people who were enslaved,” she says. “So it was important these illustrations weren’t what they call ‘pain porn.’ That they weren’t images of people being beaten and whipped. The visual takeaway is that these were people, and they mattered.”
Coulter created the illustrations by sculpting and photographing clay figurines then using acrylic paint, charcoal, and digital brushes to add shadows and scenery. The effect is stunning.
We’ve got a new paper out today that includes a cover story about the sketchy ownership at an Durham apartment building, a rundown of Wake County’s district court judge races, and a Q&A with Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam.
Have a good Wednesday, everyone.
—Lena
Editor’s note: The primary election is just around the corner and we are planning our Election Guide for February 7. Endorsements in local races will publish in print and online, and candidate questionnaires, which are being sent to local campaigns this week, will publish on our website before early voting begins on February 15.
Durham
Residents living at North Durham’s JFK Towers, the subject of complaints for months about unsafe, unclean living conditions, have filed a class action lawsuit against the apartment complex’s owner Millennia.
Students at Hillside High School propose their own solutions to some of Durham’s—and the world’s—most pressing problems.
Op-ed: Durham should pay the $6 million the city owes Darryl Howard.
Wake
Here’s who’s running for district court judges seats in Wake County this primary.
Friendships coalesce over air hockey at Boxcar Raleigh.
Bandwidth, a communications software company based in Raleigh, has withdrawn from an incentive agreement with the state that would have required it to create 1,100 local jobs in exchange for $32 million in state funds if it hit that target. Bandwidth says it wants flexibility to create jobs out of state.
There’s been an increase in crime reported in downtown Raleigh, but police say that’s because there has been more law enforcement in the area.
Orange
UNC’s student housing waitlist currently has 900 students on it, partly due to ongoing renovations at Avery Residence Hall.
Meanwhile, The Edition on Rosemary street, an apartment complex where many students signed leases, finally opened after months of delays.
Here’s more on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board’s decision not to adopt two portions of the ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’ law.
North Carolina
North Carolina homeowners spoke out in opposition to the North Carolina Rate Bureau’s proposal to increase insurance rates by an average of 42 percent in some of the state’s eastern counties.
Today’s weather
Mostly cloudy with a high of 67 degrees.
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