Arts & Culture
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Keg-Fueled Nights Answer to Title IX Consequences in ‘Actually’
When Anna Ziegler’s Actually was first staged in 2017, looking back on a sexual harassment complaint lodged by one Princeton freshman against another in 2015 or 2016, neither of her protagonists, Amber Cohen or Thomas Anthony, likely knew much about Title IX that would apply to them. Nor would they…
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David McGee Debuts ‘The Griot & the Nightingale’ at the Bechtler
A griot is a West African storyteller who keeps tribal histories and cultural traditions alive by sharing oral histories through stories or songs. A nightingale is a small, brown bird with a melodious song that’s known as a symbol of poetic inspiration — a migratory muse of sorts. When Houston-based…
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The Evolution of an Album and a Rock Group Shapes ‘Stereophonic’
Pressure and deadlines are good for creatives. Or as Duke Ellington famously put it, “Necessity is the mother.” What David Adjmi’s Stereophonic explores — at excruciating length — are the consequences of no time pressure at all. Adjmi’s unnamed and ostensibly fictional band closely tracks with Fleetwood Mac in the…
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My Trip Through the Introductory Improv Class at CATCh
Having bounced around the local stand-up comedy scene doing all the open mics I could find in Charlotte, I recently took a turn at improv after hearing a recommendation from a friend, who described the extemporaneous craft as “almost like being a kid again.” I found that description to be…
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Questions Surround Light Factory Crowdsourcing Campaign to Honor Late Artist
A recent Facebook post from Charlotte artist Sharon Dowell has raised questions about what happened to thousands of dollars in funding that was raised three years ago to launch a photography mentorship program in honor of late artist Deborah Triplett. Charlotte photography studio The Light Factory raised more than $6,500…
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Immersive American Revolution Exhibit to Make East Coast Debut in Charlotte
More than three years of work will come to fruition on April 14 when Charlotte Museum of History (CMoH) opens American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition, which uses video game technology and augmented reality to immerse visitors in the key members of the Revolutionary War in the Charlotte area and beyond. …
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‘God of Carnage’ Bites but Merrily Refuses to Draw Blood
Human masterworks and monstrosities cover the globe, fly through the air and reconfigure the sky, bringing breathtaking changes to land, sea and climate. So it’s rather quaint to spend an evening with a playwright who has built her reputation on the notion that civilization is a thin veneer clothing our…
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‘King Hedley II’ Marks Latest Stop for BNS on August Wilson’s Century Cycle
With over 3,300 No Kings protests popping up across the USA and on three other continents during its first weekend, you can call BNS Productions’ local premiere of August Wilson’s King Hedley II an example of serendipitous or awkward timing. But you couldn’t deny that Wilson’s tragedy, the first BNS…
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ESSAY: Why Alfred Hitchcock Still Matters Today
Sam Shapiro taught film courses on Alfred Hitchcock at UNC Charlotte for 30 years and worked as a film archivist, among other film-related roles, at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. He’s also co-curator of The Anticipation of Fear: Alfred Hitchcock’s Essentials, a film series that starts tomorrow at Independent Picture House. Below,…
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Having Coffee with Sam Shapiro, Charlotte’s Hitchcock Expert
Alfred Hitchcock once remarked that his films were “intended to make people scream and yell and so forth, but no more than screaming and yelling on a rollercoaster … So, you mustn’t go too far because you want them to get off the ride giggling with pleasure.” For Sam Shapiro,…
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Multi-Hyphenate Talent Germôna Sharp Expands Repertoire with Writing, Directorial Debuts
In one story, a 6-year-old Black boy is suddenly transported into a strange new world that floats above a planet. There he meets his grown-up self, who is lauded as the savior of this future society. In another, set in the 1950s, a magnetic and ambitious Black singer and dancer…
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Removal of Late Artist’s Mural at Optimist Hall Sparks Outcry
Members of Charlotte’s creative community are speaking out after the “disrespectful” erasure of late local artist HNin Nie’s mural at Optimist Hall, which was removed from a wall next to one of the property’s main outdoor stairwells on Friday. A beloved fixture of Charlotte’s artistic community, Nie passed away on…
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Ace Custom Tattoo Moves to Belmont Avenue After Three Decades in Plaza Midwood
After three decades in Plaza Midwood, one of Charlotte’s longest-operating tattoo shops has moved into the abutting Belmont neighborhood, with a grand opening celebration scheduled for next month, the business announced Tuesday. Ace Custom Tattoo, an artist-led studio owned by Rodney Raines, will host an open-house celebration at its new…
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RnBrew Celebrates One Year of Coffee, Culture and Vibes
Do you find yourself entering the week more tired than you left the last one? Catching vibes shouldn’t have to mean late nights, hangovers and bad music. What if your social life centered on nourishment over burnout? That’s the question that Yameen Thomas and Lance Pryor have asked and answered…
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‘The Revolutionists’ Mixes Comedy and High Ambition
Badass. That’s how Lauren Gunderson describes all the women in her feminist fantasia, The Revolutionists. The current Warehouse PAC production of Gunderson’s 2016 script — the second all-female cast to take the stage this month in Mecklenburg on the heels of Blumenthal’s Suffs — underscores one of the subtler achievements…
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Booked Book Club Highlights Black Authors, Hosts Unique Meetups in Charlotte
With the backdrop of fog settling low over the Queen City skyline on a temperate March morning, a group of about five people gathered beside a pavilion at Independence Park in the Elizabeth neighborhood fervently discussing a book called Capone, part of an urban fiction series written by Jahquel J.…
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