- Arts & Culture
Swanee Theatre Renovation Drives Revival of Kannapolis Music Scene
Though the repeated “Charlotte tears down its history” trope may be rote (albeit without the lessons learned), there are surrounding towns focused on progress through preservation. One such town is Kannapolis, about half an hour north of the city. Before Charlotte ever saw its first social district, the West Avenue…
Read More » - Music
Black Notes Project Uplifts Black Voices in Orchestra, Other Genres
Thirteen years ago, Michael Kitchen attended a show featuring hip-hop artist Common, who performed with the backing of a live orchestra. Kitchen didn’t know it at the time, but the experience stirred something in his soul. At that point, Kitchen was nearly a decade into his namesake project The Sol…
Read More » - Arts & Culture
Opera Carolina Pushes Back on Stereotypes with New Productions
Claudio Ferri walks into The People’s Market on Elizabeth Avenue in a sports coat and tie, looking almost intimidatingly dapper for an early Monday morning meeting. He joins me at my table as we begin to discuss Opera Carolina’s upcoming lineup, but we’re overtaken by the building’s chill and the…
Read More » - Guides & Events
A Guide to Charter Schools in the Charlotte Area
With over 141,000 K-12 students in the 184 schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School (CMS) district, problems are destined to exist. Aside from problems specific to CMS, many of the state’s traditional public schools have seen their fair share of problems, leading Gov. Cooper to declare a state of emergency for…
Read More » - News & Opinion
OPINION: Tipsy Pickle Is a Bad Direction for Camp North End
A century ago, a Model-T and Model-A Ford factory was built off what is now North Graham Street. During World War II, the site transformed into a Quartermaster Depot to support the US Army. The Cold War saw the site transform into CAMP (Charlotte Area Missile Plant), followed by a…
Read More » - Arts & Culture
Kenny Nguyen’s Art Is an Epic Tale Sculpted With Silk
After a decade-long process, Kenny Nguyen and his family — father, mother, two sisters — made their way to the United States from Vietnam in 2010. The visa process, prompted by Nguyen’s uncle who runs a successful insurance business out of the Asian Corner Mall on North Tryon Street, took…
Read More » - Food & Drink
The Artisan’s Palate Is an Art Gallery Restaurant with a Femme-Forward Focus
Christa Csoka sits at the end of an industrial chic, community-style bar table at The Artisan’s Palate dressed in a Blondie t-shirt, sipping her iced coffee as customers, artists and staff repeatedly call for her attention, not unlike a matriarch of a large, blended family. Patiently, happily, she listens to…
Read More » - Health & Wellness
How ‘Green Witch’ Kate McFadden Launched Solitary Magic Sex Oil
Last September, Kate McFadden announced a new product launch she’d been working on for months by inviting followers to answer a series of seemingly unrelated, cryptic questions on her Solitary Magic Instagram account. But, as with all things McFadden does, there was a connection between the questions, namely, How do…
Read More » - Food & Drink
NC Historian Looks at How Anti-Asian Hate Translates to the Food Industry
There is a scene in the 1983 film A Christmas Story in which, after a Christmas turkey has been trampled by the Bumpas family’s hounds, the Parker family relents to Chop Suey Palace to redeem their Christmas dinner. The scene opens with the family watching and laughing, albeit jovially, as…
Read More » - News & Opinion
Neighbors Commiserate After Phillip Adams Kills Six People and Himself
The shooting deaths of seven people by Phillip Adams on April 7 shocked a community in Rock Hill, South Carolina, as neighbors recalled their last memories with the shooter and the victims while trying to make sense of an inexplicable tragedy. Dr. Robert Lesslie, 70; his wife, Barbara Lesslie, 69;…
Read More » - News & Opinion
Doubts and Delays Hindered Mary Collins Murder Investigation
The following is Part 2 in a two-part series about the disappearance and murder of Mary Collins in spring 2020. Part 1 can be read here. There’s a bit of a discrepancy in what happened to Mary Collins and where it falls in CMPD’s protocol for missing persons reports. CMPD’s…
Read More » - News & Opinion
A Grieving Family Calls for Missing Persons Reform After Pleas Ignored
According to CMPD, more than 3,500 people are reported missing in Charlotte annually. On the department’s website, the protocol for missing persons reports is laid out relatively clearly, with stats that emphasize how rarely a missing persons report is the result of violent crime: 70% are teenagers, mostly runaways, while…
Read More » - Arts Features
Kilee Price Turns Childhood Home Garage Into Stone House Art Gallery
The approach to Stone House Art Gallery (SHAG) is highly industrial in one direction — lumber, trucking, an emptied-out auto auction site — with the commercialized outcomes of suburbia in the other. SHAG’s location, just outside Coulwood West in northwest Charlotte, is best known as home to farm-focused restaurant Heirloom’s…
Read More » - Food & Drink
Undercurrent and Not Just Coffee Merge To Make Night Swim Coffee
Charlotte’s coffee community has been abuzz this week with news of the newly formed Night Swim Coffee, a partnership between two prolific local businesses, Not Just Coffee (NJC) and Undercurrent Coffee. The group of owners — Miracle and James Yoder of NJC and Erin and Todd Huber of Undercurrent —…
Read More » - Arts Features
City Plan for Arts Funding Raises Discussion Over Value of Creativity
Recent weeks have seen arts funding back at the forefront of people’s minds for the first time since the failure of the so-called “arts tax” increase on the county ballot in 2019. A newly-formed ad hoc arts committee led by Mayor Pro Tem Julie Eiselt has suggested the city begin…
Read More » - News & Opinion
Mourning Mothers March Against Gun Violence in Charlotte
While the city slept and soaked in the rain and fog of the first Saturday of 2021, hoping to leave the destruction of 2020 in the past, Sevhn Doggette, founder of Mommies Matter 2 Kyyri, marched alongside her fellow “Angel Mommies,” all of whom had lost loved ones to gun…
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