Arts & Culture
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Black as the Cosmos Explores Culture Through Crystal Art, Music, Sex and Magic
Brianna Daniels is an unclassifiable creative. Like the light-refracting crystals she uses to fashion wearable art, there are many facets to her personality and passions. As B/rianna or Brianna Daniels, she’s a theater technician and actor, a yoga guide, a crystal Reiki practitioner, an artist who crafts crystal “cosmosis stones,”…
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‘Sex, Lies, and a Sycamore Tree’ Goes for the Jugular, Almost
Away somewhere in Sycamore Grove, a subdivision in the burbs of a certain fast-growing New South city in the Carolinas, there’s a diversity problem. For the McLeans and the McDaniels, lily-white next-door neighbors in playwright Elaine Alexander’s new comedy Sex, Lies, and a Sycamore Tree, there’s still too much of…
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Chromatic Roots Builds a World of Art and Sound for Exploration
Friday marks the opening of Chromatic Roots, a multi-sensory, immersive exhibit that blends installation art, storytelling and interactive world building in the lower floors of the Arts+ Community Campus facility at the former Plaza Presbyterian Church on The Plaza. Held in collaboration with art gallery and studio Activation Studios, also…
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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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New Immersive Theatre Production Tackles Mental Health and Misperceptions
The Reynolds are your typical 21st-century family. Natasha Reynolds, the matriarch, suffers from insomnia and anxiety related to her struggles with unemployment. Her daughter Kasey, a recent graduate of East Mecklenburg High School, feels intense pressure to be perfect going into college. Then there’s Auntie Torie, who’s fully burnt out…
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Greg Sestero Discusses ‘The Room’ Before IPH Double Feature
What’s it like when your claim to fame was starring in a film widely beloved for being bad? Greg Sestero is one of the rare people who can speak to that experience, having been the leading man in Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 film The Room, which over the last 22 years…
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‘Side Show’ Honors Two Little-Known Personalities from Charlotte History
When Louella Parsons, the undisputed queen of Hollywood gossip, saw the Hilton Sisters’ first movie in 1932, she proclaimed: “For pure sensationalism, Freaks tops any picture yet produced. It’s more fantastic and grotesque than any shocker ever written.” At the height of their fame, Daisy and Violet Hilton could draw…
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Krystle Baller’s Debut Solo Project Is Meditational, Immersive Art
In shamanic mediation, shamans use an introductory drum beat to pull you into a spiritual journey and a closing beat that calls you back out. The repetitive, rhythmic beats throughout the meditation lure the listener into a trance state, guiding their spiritual bodies through grief, loss and healing. For Krystle…
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A Tour of Comedy Open Mics in Charlotte
My introduction to the Charlotte comedy scene came a couple of years ago when my wife suggested we check out an open mic comedy night at the Common Market in South End. It sounded like a cheap, fun evening of entertainment — no cover charge and a slew of comics…
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The Delphic Oracle Sings The Go-Go’s in ‘Head Over Heels’
Heaven, Elysium, Utopia, Paradise and Arcadia are all perfect places in our minds, too placid and static to be considered as settings for comedy, thrilling action or drama. If you were in search of a perfect backdrop for the music of The Go-Go’s, you would more likely pick a city…
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The True Charlotte Crime Story Behind Channing Tatum’s New ‘Roofman’ Movie
Paramount and Miramax on Wednesday released a trailer for Channing Tatum’s latest movie, Roofman, which was shot in Charlotte last fall and is based on the true local exploits of an infamous but benevolent burglar who operated in the area after escaping from prison in 2004. It was filmed on…
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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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City to Launch Creative Growth Grant Program for Local Artists, Orgs
The city of Charlotte will open the application process tomorrow for its 2025 Creative Growth Grants, comprising three types of grants ranging from $2,500 to $25,000 for grassroots arts nonprofits and individual creatives living and working in Mecklenburg County. The program is open to individual artists shaping the Charlotte area’s…
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11 Ways to Celebrate Juneteenth in the Charlotte Area
The best way to kick off your summer early is with any of these Juneteenth celebrations spread throughout the greater Charlotte area. House of Africa’s Annual Juneteenth Festival June 12-15 | Times vary | House of Africa, 1215 Thomas Avenue | Free Launched in 1998, House of Africa owner Pape…
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Low Groves Doc Kicks Off ‘Wish You Were Here’ Event Series
An impressive crowd packed into the Evening Muse on a rainy Sunday evening for the start of something special. They broke into applause following a screening of Nick Will’s new music documentary, The 10,000 Hours of Low Groves, before the subject of the film, local alt-folk singer/songwriter Adam Naliwajko, who…
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Skylar Schock Uses Comedy to Open a Door to Mental Health
There are any number of groups one might expect to find meeting in a church on a Saturday night — 12-step meetings, Bible study, book clubs, etc. A comedy show is likely to be low on that list. However, down the otherwise empty halls of Watershed Church in southeast Charlotte’s…
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