The HB 2 Issue

If you only read the INDY once in your life, make it this week’s very important issue. Our HB 2 special begins with a deep dive into the thirty years that got us here by the unparalleled Barry Yeoman, and then dials in on a wide array of perspectives and issues from Paul Blest, Lily Carollo,Hannah Pitstick, Abigaile Hoile (who is in high school, and scarily good at writing), Fred Hobson, Jane Porter, and Grayson Haver Currin. I’m proud of the very small hand I had in putting this together, and of the writers and photographers and designers who contributed so beautifully, but it was really Jeff Billman’s project, and my hat is off to him for putting so much vision, energy, leadership, and substance into anatomizing an issue as important and bewildering as HB 2. This is the INDY at its best.

The Carrack Modern Art Moves, Shifting the Center of Gravity in Durham

Laura Ritchie in the new Carrack / photo by Alex Boerner for INDY Week

If you’d like to read a story about Durham that didn’t come from the Guardian’s slush pile, here is something. Let’s not bury the lede: Yes, the Carrack Modern Art is leaving its beloved Parrish Street loft at the end of June, when it will join the hive buzzing around Golden Belt (Spectre Arts, The Shed, UNEXPOSED,Alicia Lange’s new Torus Building) — and, I believe, significantly shift the center of gravity in the art scene while continuing to provide the superlative community service it’s known for. In addition to Laura Ritchie, Heather Gordon, and others, I spoke with Ginger Wagg about her DIDA show, AndAlwaysWhy, a deeply envisioned movement and music installation whose premiere this week is the first event in the Torus Building gallery that will soon house the Carrack. We explore the momentum and meaning of the move for the Carrack, Golden Belt, and the shape of downtown in this INDY cover story. And somehow, not to brag, but I got through the whole thing without a single Bull Durham reference.

Afua Richardson and NC Comicon

Afua Richardson. Photo by Camron Wiltshire.

NC Comicon returns to the Durham Convention Center this weekend. I had a really interesting interview with Afua Richardson, a comics artist with a crazy-impressive background (Soul Train! MTV Jams! Melvin Van Peebles!) who broke out with the chillingly-timed Genius (it came out during and reflected events in Ferguson last August) and is now headed for Wonder Woman at DC. We talked about the new wave of diversity in comics and the likely MMA influence of her Wonder Woman. Read it here.

William Gibson interview

After a trilogy of novels set in the present, sci-fi legend William Gibson has gone back to the future in The Peripheral. I had the pleasure of interviewing him yesterday as he prepares to read from the book at Motorco in Durham. Read it here.

Interview: Jad Abumrad of Radiolab

Jad Abumrad of Radiolab. Photo courtesy of The Barclay Agency.

I enjoy listening to Radiolab on WUNC on Sunday afternoons, so it was pleasure to interview co-host Jad Abumrad about the show and his new solo talk, “Gut Churn,” which he performs at the Carolina Theatre this weekend. Abumrad talks honestly about the chaotic origins of Radiolab and how he gets through times of feeling creatively lost. Read it here.