—article by Brian Howe North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green has been the state’s leading international champion of literature’s ground-level power for decades. Her vital voice, last heard in all its solemnity and splendor on the album The River Speaks of Thirst in 2020, fell silent only after the death of her daughter, Imani, in… Read More →
Orange Crush
Orange Crush: The Darkroom Stays in the Picture
—article by Brian Howe Modestly sized, matted but unframed, and mounted on plain, honest wooden boards, the pictures flow in a sinuous grid along Epilogue’s crumbly brick walls. Taken one by one, they tell the stories that five photography students at UNC-Chapel Hill sought to sear onto black-and-white film and coax out in the darkroom, on… Read More →
Orange Crush: Into the Wild New Yonder
—article by Brian Howe When I call Eryk Pruitt, he’s immersed in an advance reader copy of a Southern crime novel that somebody wants him to blurb. Eryk spends plenty of time with ARCs, as the author of several acclaimed chicken-fried thrillers and the local ringleader of the national crime-fiction reading franchise Noir at the Bar…. Read More →
Orange Crush: Wendy and Luva (A Love Story)
—article by Brian Howe A Cosmic Connection Wendy Mann and Luva Zacharyj remember the first time their eyes met. It was three years ago, when Luva arrived at Local 506 to talk about a job. “She walked in the door, and it was like, ‘Hello, magic, we’ve known each other for lifetimes,’” remembers Wendy, a… Read More →
Orange Crush on The Digital Commons Festival
—article by Brian Howe The Commons, the four-weekend local performing-arts festival that just got underway at UNC’s Carolina Performing Arts, is unique in many ways. One is just a social-distance necessity: the residencies awarded to four local artists are resulting in videos instead of live performances at CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio. But even this compromise… Read More →