Artist Statement
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Dasia Hood Explores the Dark Side of the Cacao Industry with ‘Eat My Flesh’
When Dasia Hood moved from one Queen City to another, arriving from her hometown of Cincinnati to Charlotte in 2021, she thought of herself as more of a business-minded person. She had been writing poetry since early childhood, but that was the scope of her creative output. In Charlotte, she…
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Ralph Ellis Looks Back 50 Years with ‘The Accident Report’
When Ralph Ellis took a gig at the Thomasville Times for $110 a week, the recent UNC Chapel Hill grad was living amidst what some might call journalism’s finest hour. It was 1974, the year that Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward released All the President’s Men, their…
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Black Philanthropy Exhibit Marks 10 Years with Return to Charlotte
It was 18 years ago that Valaida Fullwood set out to tell the story of Black philanthropy in Charlotte. Fullwood had launched the New Generation of African American Philanthropists [NGAAP] in 2006, tired of misperceptions about giving in the Black community. “I was working in philanthropy as a consultant ……
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Rashaun Rucker Brings the Black Church to UNC Charlotte in Latest Exhibit
When Yvonne Bynoe was first commissioned to curate a trio of art exhibits for UNC Charlotte, she thought as much about the end as the beginning. Having completed two exhibits in her Southern Black Portraiture series, Bynoe is now on the home stretch, wrapping her run of the final exhibit,…
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Mena Mark Hanna on the Changing Face of Spoleto Festival USA
Across the Carolinas, the season flips on Memorial Day in late May each year, signaling the start of summer. In Charlotte and Charleston, our respective tourist meccas, each city’s transformation can be marked by an annual event. In the Queen City, it’s all about Circle-K Speed Street and the Coca-Cola…
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New Novel Shares Teacher’s Mission to Make Fishing More Inclusive
When you think of your typical fly-fisherman, what image comes to mind? It might be someone like Brian Hester, a middle-aged white man. Hester, an avid, self-taught fly-fishing enthusiast and visual arts teacher, knows this is the case, and he’s determined to change it. Centering his efforts on bringing more…
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Activation Studios Creates Needed Space for Indie Artists on The Plaza
When Arts+ announced it had finally found a permanent home in the old Plaza Presbyterian Church on the border of Plaza Midwood and Villa Heights in July 2023, excitement was tempered by the fact that so much work would have to be done to get the campus where the longtime…
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Meagan Church Turns Focus on Baby Scoop Era in New Novel
Meagan Church remembers being with her dad in a video rental store as a child in the late -1980s when he ran into an old high school friend. Being a small town in rural Indiana, meeting someone her dad once knew but she didn’t was not a common occurrence. “When…
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Stephen Copeland Talks Double Door Inn on Book Anniversary
There’s an essay from Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, author, poet, social commentator, and perhaps the most influential and widely published spiritual writer of the 20th century, that rang especially true to local author Stephen Copeland while he was working on his latest book. “Merton says some people never see…
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Mia Love Live Navigates Anxiety in One-Woman Show
There’s nothing easy about anxiety, but when it comes to dealing with it, hiding from the issue is the most simply way out. Putting it on full display to discuss in front of thousands of people is another thing entirely. But if that’s what it takes to address something often…
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A Rendezvous With ‘Sunset Boulevard’ Diva Allison Rhinehardt
After an amazing stage-reading production of Angels in America in Matthews this past spring, followed by a regal Diana: The Musical back up in NoDa over the summer, nothing seemed to be beyond the grasp of Queen City Concerts. Their unique concert style has seemingly been bent to the breaking…
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Charlotte Native John Hoogenakker Talks Drama, Debate and ‘Waco: The Aftermath’
Coming up as a student at South Mecklenburg High School in the early 1990s, John Hoogenakker wasn’t sure what his trajectory would be, but he knew it would involve acting. The son of a commercial and voiceover actor, Hoogenakker began doing plays with Children’s Theatre of Charlotte at a young…
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I’ve Read It In Books Is the Bookstore NoDa Needed
One may have seen opening a bookstore in Rob Banker’s future after he graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with an English degree in the mid-1990s. Yet he took a different route, following the internet boom and entering the tech industry. While he remained fascinated by literature over the years, it…
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Mimi Herman Discusses Debut Novel ‘The Kudzu Queen’
There comes a point in the third act of Durham author Mimi Herman’s debut novel The Kudzu Queen in which Mattie, the story’s narrator, makes a comment as she presents a sprawling field of kudzu that she and her little brother have spent the entire book farming — or watching…
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Kevin ‘Surf’ Mitchell Unveils The Couch Surfing Expedition
I met up with Kevin “Surf” Mitchell at SouthPark Church the day after he held the opening reception there for his new exhibit, The Couch Surfing Expedition. Known for his photography and videography work highlighting local musicians and artists, Surf took The Couch Surfing Expedition cross-country, setting up photo shoots…
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LOCAL/STREET 2022 Expands on the Vision at Mint Museum
When Carla Aaron-Lopez first learned that this year’s LOCAL/STREET exhibit would be held at The Mint Museum’s Uptown location as opposed to the one on Randolph Road, where it debuted last year, her first thought was about expansion. “The Uptown location is so much bigger than last year that it…
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