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  • Dexter Phuong is Making It Werk
  • Under-the-Radar Items in Durham’s Budget
  • Our Weekly Event Picks
  • Checking in on DEI Efforts at NC Colleges
  • A Lecture on Raleigh’s LGBTQ History

Good morning, readers.

This week, we launched Character Studies, a new series about familiar faces around the Triangle—and the stories you may not know about them. 

First up: Dexter Phuong, who recently quit his marketing director job to become Durham’s self-proclaimed Carrie Bradshaw.

The 25-year-old has built a combined TikTok and Instagram following of more than 80,000 by semi-ironically documenting the struggle of being fashion-forward in a mid-sized Southern city. His videos show him slow-motion walking empty sidewalks in “Brat” merch and archival Miu Miu, lamenting the lack of divas to serve with in Durham.

Growing up as the son of first-generation immigrants in a tiny Appalachian town taught Phuong what it meant to stand out. Now he’s transformed that outsider perspective into content that resonates with anyone who’s ever felt out of place.

“I feel like whenever I was younger, I never saw representation for myself outside of my family,” Phuong told me. “Being gay was hard, but being a person of color was harder.” 

Read more about Phuong’s journey below and have a good Thursday.

—Lena

Read the Full Story on INDYWeek.com

The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) announces new Performing Arts and Film Events Inspired by the People’s Collection in Place of Summer Outdoor Concert Series. The NCMA offers performing arts and film series and events both on and off its campus, reimagining ways in which audiences can engage with the People’s Collection and bridging music, dance, film, literary arts, and theater experiences to the visual arts. Upcoming highlights include pop-up music performances in West Building, commissioned dance performances in partnership with local and regional university dance programs, outdoor movies in Moore Square in partnership with Downtown Raleigh Alliance and more.

Learn More

Under-the-Radar Items in Durham’s Budget

For this installment of Ask INDY, Justin Laidlaw answers a reader question about smaller items in the recently passed Durham city budget.

INDY Selects

A Shrek rave, stargazing at The Durham, a pop-up with the BOOM Club, and more events around the Triangle this week, recommended by the INDY.

How Are DEI Orders Playing Out in NC?

The Assembly teamed up with student newspapers to examine how diversity initiatives have evolved at North Carolina’s public and private colleges.

If you’d like to advertise your business to The Daily’s 20,000-plus subscribers, please contact [email protected].

STATE: Speaking of anti-DEI orders, bills seeking to ban the teaching of “divisive” topics in North Carolina’s public schools and universities are headed to Governor Stein, NC Newsline reports.

CLIMATE: Have we mentioned it’s hot outside, y’all? So hot in fact that Raleigh and Durham were apparently the hottest cities in the entire country by heat index yesterday, per a Washington Post analysis.

HEALTH: After the first reported NC case of measles—in Greensboro—Triangle hospitals are monitoring for symptoms and urging families to get vaccinated, WRAL reports.

  • Duke researchers contributed to a new telescope in Chile with the world’s largest camera, which can capture 10 million galaxies in an image. Check out the first images from the Rubin Observatory.
  • Today: Take your lunch to the City of Raleigh Museum for a lecture about significant places in the Oak City’s LGBTQ history. Before you go, read Jane Porter’s story for the INDY on the subject.
  • People on Reddit are talking about where to swim for free around Chapel Hill (or, more realistically, for a low fee).
  • INDY’s Lena Geller—and her report on salvaging $6,000 in luxury goods left behind by Duke students—was featured yesterday on an episode of WUNC’s Due South about recycling and dumpster diving.
  • Join us for: ANTICONFESSIONAL : MISTRIAL a 90-minute participatory performance and political workshop by queer artists Telmo Branco and Ren Mauney on July 6th at the Fruit, questioning state allegiance and practicing queer abolition through immersive artistic intervention.
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