Cary Magazine April 2026

APPLAUSE! CARY YOUTH THEATRE

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Mixed media artist Dr. Sara Koenig explores cultural identity, ancestry, and historical memory through layered portraiture.

Photo by Jonathan Fredin

April 2026 • Volume 23, Number

EXECUTIVE

Bill Zadeits, Group Publisher Kris Schultz, Publisher

EDITORIAL

Erin McKnight, Editor

Tara Shiver, Digital and Copy Editor

Emily Uhland, Senior Editor

CONTRIBUTORS

Lea Hart

L.A. Jackson

Marti Maguire

David McCreary Jen McFarland

PHOTOGRAPHY

Jonathan Fredin, Chief Photographer DC Chadwick Photography

PRODUCTION

Atiya Batts, Graphic Designer

Jennifer Casey, Graphic Designer

Dylan Gilroy, Web Designer

Beth Harris, Graphic Designer

Matt Rice, Webmaster/SEO

Rachel Sheffield, Web Designer

Lane Singletary, Graphic Designer

ADVERTISING

Maureen Powell, Senior Account Executive

SOCIAL MEDIA

Arlem Mora, Social Media Coordinator

PUBLIC RELATIONS

S&A Communications, Chuck Norman, APR

ADMINISTRATIVE

Kristin Black, Accounting

Lisa White, Senior Event Coordinator and Distribution Manager

Valerie Renard, Human Resources

PUBLISHER EMERITUS

Ron Smith

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editor’s letter

It’s the arts issue — my favorite of the entire year! While every theme in the Cary Magazine editorial calendar is uniquely memorable for those of us working on it, arts and culture always leaves me feeling inspired and invigorated. We are surrounded by visionaries, and getting to spend time with even just a few of these impressive individuals serves as a striking reminder of how remarkably vibrant a community we are.

This month, I am filled with excitement and gratitude for this creative community. The arts are not just a form of expression; they are the heartbeat of our local culture and reflect our shared values and diverse perspectives.

In these pages, you will find profiles of three established women artists — Gowri Savoor, Dr. Sara Koenig, and Susu Hauser — and insights into the next generation of performers who are honing their skills with Applause! Cary Youth Theatre. You’ll also be introduced to people who elevate the everyday into art: Sam Nelson of Pretty Good Coffee Company, who is brewing up something special with latte art; and Frank Yarborough of Frankie B’s Pimento Cheese, which will (of course) be for sale at Cary’s Pimento Cheese Festival and can also be found around town.

Carolina Clay Studio, under the passionate stewardship of Nate Goldman, is shaping community, while United Arts, the county’s designated arts agency, has for more than 50 years supported artists and cultural organizations by helping to fund everything from murals to theater performances to pottery classes to arts festivals.

We have curated this selection to highlight the stories behind the art, the influences that drive our local creators, and the impact of their work on our daily lives. We invite you to immerse yourself and show your support for what moves you.

Thanks for reading!

Erin McKnight, Editor

EPISODE 52

Poppin’

PODCAST? What’s on the

Host Melissa Wistehuff takes you beyond the pages of

Rolling the Dice with That’s Spot On!

Designers Sue and Linda

EPISODE 53

EPISODE 54

Today in the Quay with Jason Wunsch

EPISODE 51

Chatting Collectibles with Adam and Tara of Triangle Area Trading Cards

The Big Cheese with Frank Yarborough of Frankie B’s

From Sgt. Pepper to Sasq’et with Storyteller Maxim Langstaff

EPISODE 55

Spring comes alive at Spring Daze Arts & Crafts Festival in the heart of Bond Park, Cary, North Carolina. Nestled beneath tall trees and scenic trails, this beloved Cary event features professional artists from across North Carolina, live toe-tapping performances, and delicious local eats. Wander the shaded park, find the perfect piece of art, and soak in the sounds and colors of the season. Spring Daze is where art, nature, and community meet.

SATURDAY, APRIL 25 CARYNC.GOV/SPRINGDAZE26

THINGS TO DO

Peak City Pig Fest

April 10, 5–10 p.m.

April 11, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Apex Town Hall Campus peakcitypigfest.com

Bring on the smoke! Taste masterfully crafted barbecue, enjoy live music, visit the beer garden, and watch the policeversus-fire-department rib eating contest.

Pimento Cheese Festival

April 11, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Downtown Cary Park carync.gov/pimentocheese

The only festival in the US dedicated to pimento cheese! Try everything from ice cream to egg rolls made with the Southern specialty, plus live music, activities, and even a cheese sculpting contest.

Wake on Stage!

April 17, 6–9 p.m.

Fuquay-Varina Arts Center unitedarts.org/events/wake-on-stage

A new event from United Arts Wake County brings local celebrities, business leaders, and elected officials to the stage to showcase their artistic talents. The lineup includes WRAL meteorologist Chris Michaels, NC House Representative Mike Schietzelt, and television personality Valonda Calloway, as well as local and professional musicians and performance groups. The evening benefits Artists in Schools, United Arts’ flagship program that places teaching artists in Wake County schools for curriculum-based performances, workshops, and residencies.

’Cuegrass Festival

April 18, noon

Downtown Raleigh cuegrass.com

Celebrate two North Carolina loves: bluegrass and barbecue. Tap your toes while you fill your belly, then shop the vendor village and silent auction. Proceeds benefit SAFEchild and the Occoneechee Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Spring Daze Arts & Crafts Festival

April 25, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Bond Park, Cary carync.gov/springdaze

Shop art from 170+ North Carolina artists in the scenic setting of Bond Park. Kids can choose their own works for just $5 at the Kid Collectors Market. Visit educational booths on Earth Day Lane to learn about sustainability. And as always, catch live performances and enjoy lots of tasty food from vendors.

Apex PeakFest

May 2, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Apex Town Hall Campus peakfest.org

A full day of entertainment awaits with vendor booths, local artists, live music, shopping, and outreach from area nonprofits at this 45th annual event. The festival draws thousands of visitors each year.

Women’s Work

WRITTEN BY ERIN MCKNIGHT | PHOTOGRAPHED BY JONATHAN FREDIN

Two area artists are exhibiting this spring. Using mixed media to explore themes of gender, culture, power, and belonging — both locally and in remote regions — Dr. Sara Koenig and Susu Hauser represent the conscious, collaborative, and creative spirit of our community.

Past Present: Dr. Sara Koenig

“It’s a woman who looks as though she carries the weight of a story,” says Dr. Sara Koenig about how she chooses the subjects she’s interested in working with. “I’m looking for signs of life.”

It is perhaps ironic, then, that Sara relies on archival sources like the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress to locate the photographs she uses in her mixed media portraiture series.

“I don’t know what that story is,” she says. “And I don’t pretend to know.” But Sara senses that there is a story.

Through a process that combines digital editing, image transfer onto paper, saturated acrylic pigments, and dimensional collage, Sara shares her subjects’ stories in layered, textural portrait compositions. Vivid contemporary color disrupts the authority of the archival photographs, while raised surface text elevates Sara’s subjects from a past that has defined them.

Like her subjects, Sara’s life has been heavily influenced by history. Growing up in Cape Cod as the daughter of a history teacher father meant that she was raised alongside, as she describes it, “towers of books … bookcases everywhere … collected artifacts …”

Although influences of magical realism and contemporary fiber practices — as well as the use of products and technology that didn’t even exist when her subjects lived — imbue a sense of suspension between dream and documentation that remains evident in the finished piece, the latter is where Sara’s father’s daughter begins her work.

“What I can know is their context, so I do a lot of research around what was happening at the time and in the region,” she says about locating sources that speak to what her subjects could have experienced and what may have been happening globally.

“America, interrupted” (36 x 48 on canvas) is based on the photo of a second-year nursing student in Fresno, California, who had to leave her studies to be relocated with her family to a Japanese internment camp when the United States entered World War II.

“We had pieces of ancient Persian armor and all of these amazing things. History was everywhere, but it was to be revered. It was ancient. And it was not alive.”

Although the source materials are historical, the themes are distinctly contemporary: gender, culture, power, and belonging. By isolating her subjects from their original contexts and reframing them visually, Sara collapses temporal distance and invites viewers to encounter these women not as relics but instead, as she describes them, “living collaborators.”

But Sara also acknowledges that she can’t ever “really know this individual’s stories.” The same is true when a client comes to Triangle Wellness and Recovery, which Sara founded in 2019 and is expanding for a second time: “I don’t really know their story.”

Combining digitally manipulated photographic imagery with acrylic paint, collage, and paper transfer processes, Sara constructs richly textured compositions that situate figures within symbolic landscapes of past and present.

But she can honor their individuality. She can honor that there is a story there.

After a medical career as a pathologist, its visual appeal a draw for the lifelong artist, Sara’s second act is in the addiction and mental health field. Working with people, mostly women, who have experienced significant trauma has allowed her “this amazing privilege” of being allowed “into these intimate parts of their inner life.”

While she was living in New Mexico, a place rich in history and artistic tradition, Sara started to work with people in and out of prisons and gangs and cartels. The experience of hearing their stories — largely, stories of suffering — eventually led her back to North Carolina and into work that Sara considers “the most gratifying I’ve ever done.”

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“Proximity to Power” (30 x 40) speaks to the pattern Sara has witnessed of women gaining political power by their proximity to powerful men, something she has seen a lot in the medical field.

“Being

a physician and serving the amazing individuals that I have the privilege to work with makes me a better artist, and being an artist actually makes me a better provider as well.”

— Dr. Sara Koenig

Although it’s her portrait subjects that she’s referring to when she says, “You recognize them as a person, not just an artifact,” the same sentiment applies to how Sara views her clients. They are more than symbols of their suffering, but the honor of learning their stories has meant that some have been seared into Sara’s memory.

That’s because unlike in other lines of work, Sara herself is the instrument: her brain; her senses. This means that she must find a way to “metabolize” the stories. Her art is how she does that.

“It’s something that helps me to show up as the best person that I can be,” she says, “for the rest of the people in my life … and my patients. I need to make sure that I take care of myself so that I can pick up on things. Because if I’m preoccupied, if I’m not really present in conversation, I’m not really there in the way that I need to be there to be the kind of provider that I want to be.”

Apart from during medical school, when her energy was split between learning, patient care, and her family (she started with a 9-month-old baby), the “grounding” experience of making art has always kept Sara in touch with herself.

Twenty years after graduating, she reflects on her own history and recognizes: “The periods of time where I haven’t shown up for myself artistically have been periods of time where I’ve struggled personally.”

Which is why her artistic practice is now a “non-negotiable — it’s something that I show up for just as I show up for my clients.”

Yet while other artists may await the day when they can quit their day job, Sara is focused on how she can continue to allow the two parts of her life to “inform and best reflect each other.”

A few years from now, her goal is to work three days a week and make art the other two. “Being a physician and serving the amazing individuals that I have the privilege to work with makes me a better artist,” she acknowledges. “And being an artist actually makes me a better provider as well.”

This year Sara did something she doesn’t usually do and made a New Year’s resolution. She committed to “come out” more as an artist: for third Fridays, to see other people’s exhibits, to museums, and for networking events. She admits that it’s been less than a year since she has started to use the word “artist” to refer to herself — the same amount of

time she has been submitting her artwork.

So to have been included in national juried shows and to have a solo show this spring is “super exciting.” Women Past, in Present Tense: Explorations of Ancestry, Identity, Belonging, and Power Through Mixed Media Portraiture will be on display from April 7 through June 30 in the grand hall at Golden Belt campus in Durham. Sara feels “very honored” to have been chosen after applying to the open call, but she also admits that the prospect of her first solo show is both “exciting and intimidating.”

It’s fitting that the women Sara selected for her richly layered portraits suggest strength and histories she wanted to know. Searching for those stories by transporting her subjects into the present has helped “everything come together in this really beautiful way” for Sara, as she feels she has both found her artistic home and never been professionally happier or more satisfied.

“I am aware of how blessed I am to somehow have figured out this magical balance of things,” she says.t

sarakoenigart.com

@sarakoenigartist

To Be Transported: Susu Hauser

“I’ve got the windows rolled down so I can feel the air,” says Susu Hauser about driving across the Kalahari Desert — alone.

When she declares that the “magic happens when you take the leap and then you find your way,” Susu is speaking from experience. Many experiences. Each one profound. Every single time.

As she was headed to Donkerbos, a remote settlement in eastern Namibia that’s home to the San community, she drew on the grit that has always inspired her. The resilience embodied by her “North Star” mother, who was a Hungarian refugee at the age of 10 and who later would fight a challenging undiagnosed illness yet continue to show grace.

The women Susu was about to meet in Africa would, despite their marginalization, “reflect the same grit, the same grace, the smiles, the warmth, the transportation of suffering and what do you do with your grief” that her mother had modeled for her.

The 476 million Indigenous people in the world spanning 90 countries inspired visual storyteller Susu’s newest project. They belong to 5,000 cultures, speak 4,000 of the world’s 7,000 languages, and protect 80% of our global diversity. While these facts, in her words, “blew me away,” the following are “just heart-wrenching” to Susu and compelled her to pick up her lens.

Indigenous people represent just 6% of the world’s population, yet they account for 20% of the world’s extreme poor. Despite being the backbone of their communities, Indigenous women are always at the epicenter of this poverty and marginalization. “So, to me,” she says, “I wanted to work with — I don’t want to say the most marginalized, because that’s not how I see them — their circumstances are … land dispossession and resources taken away, no healthcare, no education … but I don’t focus on the marginalization. I focus on how they’ve transformed their suffering and hardship.”

That focus came into view at Susu’s The Art of Resilience, which premiered at the Durham Art Guild’s Truist Gallery in the fall of 2024. Filling 3,000 square feet of space, her show doubled record sales for the gallery, which has existed since 1970, in just 1 month of exhibiting. Over 65% of the artisan pieces

sold, and all proceeds went to the nonprofits and artisans featured in the exhibit.

“I don’t focus on the marginalization. I focus on how they’ve transformed their suffering and hardship.”

— Susu Hauser

The fruition of the project comes four years after Susu was first profiled by Cary Magazine. At the time, she shared her work with Maya women in the Guatemalan highlands. “It hit all of the elements: transformation through art, empowerment of women through art, and

empowerment of Indigenous cultures,” she said of her experience at the time.

The August 2022 article included the statement: “Hauser now hopes to find a venue for a fully immersive multimedia exhibit, featuring embroidery, video, photos, and even sound effects from the area.”

Today, Susu picks up the thread to share how “in the last article that we did, at the end I said, ‘I’m just looking for a space.’” When you are on the right track, she has learned, things will fall into place.

One week before Susu left for Southeast Asia to meet Karen, Karenni backstrap weavers, the Durham Art Guild asked for her proposal.

The Art of Resilience started as a full documentary separated into three acts, three countries, and three completely different communities, cultures, and artistic processes. While she was in Guatemala filming with

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Multicolores, a nonprofit that supports the artistic development of Maya women, Susu was forced to confront her own artistic process and some of the industry’s realities.

A full-length documentary would take too long to distribute, and Susu says she realized, “I just need a face. Then I can make a multimedia exhibit out of this. I can show the video; I can show life-size portraits of the women so that you can be blanketed in their beauty, in their essence, in their dignity.”

This immersive experience came to life in the Truist Gallery. Through life-size portraits, artisan interviews, cinematic glimpses of local traditions, and 3D samples of artisan pieces, visitors were transported to the highlands of Guatemala, the Thai-Burma border, and the Kalahari Desert in Namibia.

Though she’d only ever filled 500 square feet of gallery space before, Susu knew she could celebrate the artistry, culture, and unwavering spirit of Maya, Karen, Karenni, and San women in the location. Her goal, after all, is to transport people to countries they will probably never see in their lifetime.

She also wanted to inspire, as these artisans don’t “marinate in their suffering,” as she describes, but instead transform it. Susu also believes that through education comes awareness, which leads to understanding and, ultimately, empathy.

The project also brought a lot of personal firsts for Susu. In addition to being the first time she drove solo in unforgiving regions for 2,300 miles, it was her first experience editing a full-length documentary, her first time filming overseas by herself, her first visits to refugee camps, her first multimedia exhibit. But if she hadn’t done all these things alone, she wouldn’t have developed the self-trust that now makes her feel like she can do anything.

Susu shares a story of how one month before she left for Namibia she had a flat tire here in Cary. Realizing that it was a great opportunity for her to learn how to change a tire, as she’d soon be driving across sand dunes without another vehicle in sight, she pulled up a YouTube video. Despite not having all the necessary tools, she was soon under her car and had managed to get the tire off.

The same self-trust and defying of the odds that her beloved artisans exhibit will surely prove invaluable once again this spring when Susu films with silk weavers in Laos and Hmong weavers in Vietnam.

“You need a creative act to find your resilience,” Susu shares. Her own journey to resilience will find a home at Raleigh’s Artspace beginning May 16. The Art of Resilience will again honor Indigenous artistry with a powerful multimedia exhibition described by Durham artist, professor, and author Pamela George as “one of those rare art experiences where one’s senses vibrate.”

There, visitors will gain rare insight into centuries-old processes by seeing samples of rug hooking, embroidery, backstrap weaving, the natural dye process, and ostrich eggshell jewelry and wall art. They can engage in a walk-through documentary featuring over 30 minutes of dynamic footage across three continents. And they will surely come away with Susu’s desired appreciation that these artists are “not as far away as we think they are.”t susuhauser.com @susuhauserphotography

Light the Way

L ocal artist shares knowledge, craft, and magic with the Cary community

The sun set by 5:20 p.m. on January 10, typical of a midwinter evening, leaving the town of Cary blanketed in cold and darkness — except within Downtown Cary Park.

The paths throughout the park blazed with light and music during the Under the Silver Moon community lantern parade. Hundreds of illuminated paper lanterns, held aloft by local residents, snaked through the park, transforming the dark landscape into “a river of light.”

The parade’s carnival-like atmosphere of celebration and creativity battled back the doldrums of January, leaving participants

hopeful and invigorated for the year ahead.

“Parade has become a vehicle for creativity and collaboration and bringing people together from all different walks of life, all different persuasions, all different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds to celebrate together,” says artist Gowri Savoor, who helped to found Under the Silver Moon with her husband, Angelo Arnold, in collaboration with the Town of Cary. 2026 marked the fifth year of this annual event.

The couple share the artistry and celebration of lantern building and parade

around the country and beyond through their organization A River of Light.

“I had an opportunity very early on in my community arts career to work with different arts organizations in England who would have community workshops in all kinds of parade and processional work. It might be making lanterns, costumes, banners, flags, or instruments. And then we’d come together and have parades in the streets. It was a big tradition in England,” Gowri says.

In 2006, Gowri moved from the UK to Vermont for a residency at Vermont Studio

Center, but did not find the same tradition existed there.

“When I came to Vermont, there was nothing like that. … There were no events taking place in the winter which were free and family friendly and generated this sense of magic that people would contribute to. … I realized I had to find a way to do this work.”

Partnering with schools and towns, Gowri began teaching lantern-making workshops and facilitating lantern parades, first in Vermont, then expanding to Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Missouri, Wyoming, and eventually North Carolina.

“Lanterns are vessels of light. So the outside vessel is anything that you want it to be, and that is the beauty of it. You’re literally creating something three dimensional from sticks and paper and glue. … It’s just an incredible experience and very empowering.

“It isn’t just for lantern parades in the winter. We might have been creating lanterns for a Diwali festival, or it might have been to create gigantic fruits to celebrate a healthy eating campaign — these are actual projects! — there are so many different ways in which you can use lanterns,” Gowri says.

Gowri and Angelo moved to Cary in 2020 — “I loved the multiculturalism of the town, the amount of arts that were here, and the amount of outdoor spaces” — and not long after partnered with Denise Dickens, public art supervisor and curator of exhibitions for the Town of Cary, to start a lantern parade tradition in the Triangle.

Denise was drawn to Gowri from their first introduction, impressed with her communication skills and professionalism, as well as the magic of the lantern parades.

“She was presenting something with these lanterns that I thought was just magical at a

time when it was pretty dark,” recalls Denise.

Despite still being under threat of covid, workshops through Town of Cary Parks Recreation & Cultural Resources — safely distanced and masked — began in late 2021, and the first parade occurred in 2022 on Academy Street.

“It was an attractive prospect to come out at night and celebrate in the street, because it was safe and outdoors. It was an opportunity to have some joy and create a little magic,” says Gowri.

“Being a really dark time of the year and a dark time that we were all living through, I thought, ‘This could really be so uplifting for people.’ And it continues to be. It really is a very hopeful event,” says Denise.

In advance of the 2026 parade, Gowri taught seven different lantern-making workshops, ranging from a two-hour star construction for ages 8 and up to a three-day

In

“The workshops, for me, that’s the meat of the event, because I love to teach and I love to share these skills with people. The parade is the cherry on top.”

Gowri Savoor

experience fabricating large-scale structures with moving parts.

“The workshops, for me, that’s the meat of the event, because I love to teach and I love to share these skills with people. The parade is the cherry on top.

“It is very joyful for me to see that many people come to workshops year after year. ... I try each year to have a new lantern or a variation on a theme of the new lantern, so there’s always something new to try,” says Gowri.

“Seeing kids and parents, adults, or seniors walking out of a lantern making workshop — it just brings me joy. It’s very uplifting,” says Denise. “It’s the reason you do this work. You realize that arts are transformative and can really elevate us in times when we need it and bring us closer together.”

Lanterns of all kinds are welcome at Under the Silver Moon lantern parade, not just those crafted at the workshops.

“The most joyful part is the level of creativity and skill and quality of the lanterns that people are bringing is phenomenal. It makes my heart very, very happy to see that energy around wanting to build, having the motivation to design and build something and then share it with friends and strangers in these public spaces,” Gowri says.

The lantern-making workshops represent one of many ways that Gowri helps others explore creativity. From her early art career shadowing a teaching artist in the UK, Gowri discovered a love for instruction.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to know that you’ve created work in your studio and you’re showing that and people are complimenting you, but there’s something very profound about helping somebody else to find that creative spark in themselves,” she says.

A teaching artist, Gowri explains, is different from an art teacher.

“It’s really about teaching through your art form. … You’re really helping people to find that creativity within themselves and to

Tiny Hero Tales, a series of pen-and-paper illustrations by Gowri Savoor, chronicles the adventures of a paper doll named Tiny. Follow along with Tiny’s adventures in the digital diary My Tiny Beautiful Life on tinyherotales.com

do an activity or an experience through the art form that you are practiced in.”

In the early years of hosting lantern workshops, Gowri realized that resources and training for developing community programs were not common, which led her to found Teaching Artists Connect, a nonprofit that offers professional development programs for educators and artists.

“When I started up, there was no advice or training courses.” Running a workshop involved lots of trial and error, experimenting with different activities and methods to engage participants. Gowri admits that sometimes, she’d fail.

“We started Teaching Artists Connect as a way to help artists to increase their skills, to build their confidence, and to understand how to teach through the arts,” she says.

Teaching Artists Connect helps professionals explore questions such as: “What kind of strategies do you use? How do you work with different populations? How do you organize your time and plan? How do you set up partnerships that are successful? How do you run a business in art?” she lists.

“I recognize how artists view the world can be a little different — through a lens of curiosity and discovery and rising to challenges, being flexible and adaptable. ... When you can put those skills to use, as teaching artists do, you can have a powerful effect on people.”

Denise adds: “Gowri is the real deal when it comes to a teaching artist. To have her in the community to share and excite other artists … to do workshops and events where she can share her knowledge base with other makers is really important.

“Working with her has been a joy, and she has brought so much joy to a huge cross section of the community.”

Gowri was born and grew up in the Midlands of England. Looking back, she knew she wanted to be an artist, remembering

making art as young as 4 years old. Gowri worked in graphic design and advertising as a young professional before becoming a full-time artist in 2000, starting her work on parade art soon after that. Throughout her career, Gowri’s mediums have included painting, sculpture, 3D printed works, drawing, and, of course, paper lanterns.

It wasn’t until 2019 that Gowri’s “big passion project” came to her in the form of a hand-drawn girl named Tiny.

“Tiny is a paper doll who has adventures,” she explains. Those adventures are chronicled through illustrations and stories which Gowri calls Tiny Hero Tales

It takes a specific sepia pen to achieve the fantastical style of Tiny Hero Tales, where every line is intentional.

“There’s something really honest about the line quality, and that is something that is really important to me to preserve, to get that feeling right.”

In a series of drawings, Tiny explores a whimsical world full of nature, animal friends, and cozy settings, forming a visual diary called My Tiny Beautiful Life, which includes hundreds of stories that can be found on tinyherotales.com.

“It brings me an immense amount of joy recreating that place of magic that I had as a child, that I had in reading.”

Whether it be pen and paper illustrations, 3D lanterns, music, or dance, art is a universal language, Gowri says.

“It transcends language. It transcends culture. It transcends differences. … It is something that is innate in every one of us.

“It’s not only joyful, but it’s healing and it’s empowering. Art builds confidence. It helps with critical thinking and problem solving. It helps us to understand one another. It builds empathy. … That is the power of art and why we need it so much in our communities.” t

gowrisavoor.com @gowrisavoor

SATURDAY APRIL 25, 2026 9AM TO 6PM

MOUNT OLIVE, NORTH CAROLINA

Applause! serves more than 1,400 young people every year with workshops, classes, camps, and productions like this 2024 show,

a stage for youth

Applause! Cary Youth Theatre empowers children

WRITTEN BY LEA HART | PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED BY DC

When Emmalena Parker stands backstage before a theater show, a familiar feeling takes over.

A knot in her stomach, a quickening of her breath — classic stage fright. But as the lights come up and she steps into her first scene, that all disappears.

“I get terrible stage fright before I perform,” the 16-year-old Apex High School junior admits with a laugh. “But once I’m in the zone, it’s not bad at all.”

Since 1999, Applause! Cary Youth Theatre has helped kids and teens like Emmalena find that zone. A group of Cary citizens pitched the idea of a youth theater program to town officials, and Applause! held its first production that fall.

In addition to four annual productions, Applause! now offers workshops, classes, and camps — all aimed at kids and teens. Today, the program serves more than 1,400 children each year, with offerings for ages 2 through 18. Parent/child accompanied classes are available for the youngest participants.

Emmalena found her way to Applause!

when her father, a Town of Cary employee, learned about the program and encouraged her to audition. She spent years in dance, but theater, it turned out, was exactly what she didn’t know she was looking for. Her first show, The Hundred Dresses, opened up a whole new world.

“I just loved it so much,” she says. “I’m still friends with people from that show.”

Since then, her roles have run the gamut, including on-stage parts in James and the Giant Peach, Peter and the Starcatcher, and The Tempest, among others. She’s also stepped behind the curtain, serving as assistant stage manager for Tuck Everlasting and as production assistant for The Wind in the Willows

“Seeing the way directors direct has really inspired me,” she says.

For Kids, by Kids

In 2025, 63 performers and 57 backstage crew were involved across the four annual shows, which drew a total of 2,028 audience members. Each production is guided by a faculty of more than 30 trained theater professionals, many of whom work with other groups in the Triangle as well.

While the adults are there to lend their expertise, the productions themselves belong entirely to the youth. From calling the cues to coordinating costume changes to delivering lines, it’s all done by kids and teens.

Some productions incorporate a variety of ages, while others focus on specific age groups, according to Kirsten DeSena, the Town of Cary’s performing arts education specialist. Emmalena has worked on both.

“My favorite productions have been the ones with the younger kids,” she says. “I feel like I’ve adopted them in a way. To see them grow through the process, to get into their character, it fills my heart with so much joy.”

Not Just the Spotlight

A youth design team manages the technical side of each production including scenery, costumes, lighting, props, sound, and more.

“It’s one thing that separates us from others in the area,” Kirsten says.

Candidates for the design team go through their own “audition” process, bringing portfolios that include anything from art projects created in school classes to examples from other theatric productions they have been involved with.

The adult professionals who work with Applause! then train them to run the show themselves from start to finish. That includes safely learning how to use sewing machines for costumes and power tools to build sets.

Kirsten is quick to point out that while some of the kids have worked in theater before, experience is not required, and many

are dipping their toes in for the first time.

“We meet them where they are and help them grow from there,” Kirsten says.

Emmalena says she’s grown and learned from each experience, on or off the stage. As an assistant stage manager in Tuck Everlasting, “I’d go to both tech and acting rehearsals and see how they fit togeth er,” she says. “I could take something from an acting rehearsal and bring it into tech, or vice versa — it opened everything up for me.”

Full Circle

These early experiences sometimes ignite a lifelong passion, as Kirsten knows well. After moving to North Carolina at age 12, a bit shy and looking for a way to meet friends, she got involved with the very first production of Applause!

“That started my journey as a director and performer,” she says.

So when her current position opened up with the Town of Cary, “It just felt like coming home.”

“I’d go to both tech and acting rehearsals and see how they fit together. I could take something from an acting rehearsal and bring it into tech, or vice versa – it opened everything up for me.”

— Emmalena Parker

In addition to a love of theater arts, Kirsten says Applause! equips young people with important skills that will serve them in life like empathy, communication, and creative thinking. Some pursue a career in theater — alumni now work on Broadway tours and in New York — but those who choose an entirely different path still take these experiences forward with them.

Get Involved

Auditions and design team interviews are open to the public. Three of the four mainstage productions are offered at no cost to participants — a deliberate

choice to keep the program accessible, Kirsten says. Classes, camps, and workshops run year-round.

For Emmalena, who is still figuring out the future, one thing feels certain: Theater will be part of it. And for anyone thinking about jumping in, she offers simple advice.

“It’s such a great place to not only get started with theater but to grow a community. To see people try theater and like it enough to stick with it, that’s really something.”

Upcoming Applause! performances include The Giver, July 24–26 at the Cary Arts Center and Me, Jane: The Dreams and Adventures of a Young Jane Goodall, October 23–25. December brings the third annual A Peter Rabbit Christmas, an immersive outdoor production in Downtown Cary Park.t carync.gov/recreation-enjoyment/artsculture/youth-theater

“It’s such a great place to not only get started with theater but to grow a community. To see people try theater and like it enough to stick with it, that’s really something.”

— Emmalena Parker

small business spotlight Carolina CLAY STUDIO

“This business really started with one simple concept, which is community,” says Carolina Clay Studio owner and instructor Nate Goldman. After falling in love with pottery, Nate started teaching and managing studios. Getting to witness how people’s lives were transformed by these spaces meant that when a studio they were managing was forced to shut down, Nate’s students shared the impact of the classes on their lives and how much the community studio meant to them. “I’m opening up my own place,” Nate decided in that moment.

Although it would take another three years to welcome students, and Nate started with “nothing in the bank and a lot of dreams and plans,” Carolina Clay Studio,

“We get a lot of students who say they can’t paint a stick figure … who end up making fantastic work.”

Nate Goldman, owner, Carolina Clay Studio

which opened in October 2025, already has 13 members and is currently bringing on several more. There are a variety of classes offered, with the foundational course being the six-week Intro to Wheel, which focuses on the fundamental cylinder and bowl forms.

Beyond these primary forms, everyone’s individual style is unique. “Every artist,” Nate explains, “is going to create something with their visual voice, so there’s a lot of room for design. We can put handles on our cylinders and turn them into mugs, and then, of course, the way we glaze — which is where we get that glass and color — that is going to be individual to the artist as well.”

A phrase Nate often hears from people

is: “I’m not an artist.” With pottery, though, the surface isn’t two dimensional — it’s a whole-body form of creative expression. “We get a lot of students who say they can’t paint a stick figure … who end up making fantastic work,” Nate shares, pointing out that those with STEM backgrounds or who are good at analytics and processing make great potters because it is such a process-based art form.

Juliana Schiano, a Cary resident who works as a therapist for an outpatient practice based in Raleigh, started pottery and ceramics during graduate school as a way to practice self-care, largely “just playing, and whatever I made, I made.” Juliana says that it wasn’t until she started

ABOVE: Juliana Schiano and Emily Hoffman know they’re safe to ask questions and laugh when something goes awry, as Juliana says, “At the end of the day it’s just wet dirt!”

RIGHT: Annie Hazelton uses the shape of her fingers and hand to make a handle that speaks to her physical uniqueness.

taking classes with Nate that she felt she could be any good at pottery.

Working with your hands and developing something that you can use in your daily life is a mindful practice that requires focus and patience, Nate says. “It’s not something you can rush. You need to be fully present with each step.”

Sometimes, students finish a class and say, with a huge smile on their face, “Oh, I forgot I was having the worst day.” The experience of stepping into the studio space and focusing on the craft is one Nate describes as “otherworldly.” Using the object you create, integrating it into your rituals for coffee or tea or breakfast cereal, is just a bonus.

While some members in earlier stages of life bring unbridled energy, Carolina Clay Studio has a large base of retired individuals who no longer have the strength and flexibility they once did (some with advanced

arthritis). Thanks to the integration of different techniques, every class remains accessible; people with all sorts of abilities can approach and enjoy the medium.

One of Nate’s favorite things about classes is that students are working on things they’ve never done before with people who are in the same situation. “There’s a lot of trial and error,” Nate says. “People are usually pretty focused, and pottery definitely takes a lot of attention and concentration — especially at first.”

The act itself is also intimate. Students’ hands are in the mud, and they are interact-

ing with the wheel, touching every particle of clay that is used to make their vessel. Their fingers make a direct impact and are the main tool. There’s something very humbling and human, Nate says, about using dirt and water to make beautiful works of art. Iron-rich clay has been used as long as we’ve made handcrafted tools, and pottery has developed independently in every major civilization.

Nate selected Cary as the home for the studio because the community comprises many great minds that come from different

facets of life. “With that,” Nate says, “they bring their own unique story … and they’re able to show that in both their art and the way they connect with each other in the studio.” Real creativity, Nate shares, doesn’t happen in private rooms — it happens through conversations with people of different backgrounds.

The shared intimacy of Carolina Clay Studio has already helped great friendships form. People admire each other’s works in progress and give compliments and tips. Nate thoughtfully chooses music to set the

right vibe. Much as with a fantastic meal, there’s room for both silence and focus and interactive chatter.

Nate understands that in the studio, conversations get profound quickly. People, Nate says, “make the space.” Because you can’t have a community pottery studio without a community, a painter recently exhibited on Carolina Clay Studio’s walls, which will transition to rotating exhibitions of members’ work. There’s also a resident potter, and the studio hosts vendors markets across the Triangle.

Nate’s care for the Carolina Clay community is what makes the studio so special, Juliana says. With every piece made and every class taught, Nate’s love for those within the studio and for the ceramics discipline is deeply evident to

students. “The studio is truly a special place, from Nate to the many wonderful community members,” she says. “There are few places I love more in this world than Carolina Clay Studio, and that is largely because of the work and support of those amazing people.”

Nate knows that if you want a mug, you can go to Target and be checked out in three minutes. “If you want to make your own mug,” they say, “it takes so much more time and so much more focus and intention, but then you have a mug that also has so much more meaning.”

Slowing our rate of consumption and inviting mindful practices are just two of the benefits of spending time in Carolina Clay Studio — where ceramics are shaped by community.t carolinaclaystudio.com

“There are few places I love more in this world than Carolina Clay Studio, and that is largely because of the work and support of those amazing people.”

Juliana Schiano, Cary resident

United Arts Wake County

WRITTEN BY MARTI MAGUIRE | PHOTOGRAPHED BY JONATHAN FREDIN

Lee Pike was spending her birthday at work, listening to students read poetry at the High School Spoken Word Contest, an event organized by United Arts Wake County, where she is vice president of development. She planned to duck out early to celebrate her special day, but instead, she sat transfixed, brought to tears by a reflection on a student’s grandmother that reminded her of her own.

“I was weeping, crying, and I’m sitting next to my coworkers who are also crying,” she says, “And I thought, this isn’t just my birthday; it’s a magical moment.”

As the county’s designated arts agency, United Arts has made such magical

moments available to Wake residents for more than 50 years by supporting artists and cultural organizations, helping to fund everything from murals to theater performances to pottery classes to arts festivals across the county.

The organization’s flagship program, Artists in Schools, brings professional teaching artists into K–12 schools, reaching more than 130,000 students in 150 schools a year through performances, workshops, and writing residencies.

Beyond schools, United Arts serves as a major grantmaker for artists and arts organizations across Wake County. It funds

individual creatives, small nonprofits, city and town arts programs, and major festivals, including the American Dance Festival and community celebrations such as African American Cultural Festival of Raleigh and Wake County.

United Arts also runs the Wheels on the Bus Fund, which provides transportation and tickets for students to attend live performances. Field trips often include productions by the Carolina Ballet and shows at Raleigh Little Theatre. Students who might never see a live performance light up at the chance to see professional theater, says Lee, who recently attended

The Nutcracker with a group of students participating in the program.

“The lights go down, the curtains go up, and the kids’ screaming is incredibly loud,” she says. “They just get so excited. It’s just such a joy.”

The organization further supports artsintegration training for teachers, helping educators incorporate creative strategies into subjects like math, science, and language arts.

Among their new initiatives this year are the premiere Wake on Stage! fundraiser, with performances by prominent local personalities, and an ambitious push for greater arts funding from the county, according to Lee.

The April 17 fundraiser will help bring Artists in Schools programming to schools that lack the resources to participate.

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“The lights go down, the curtains go up, and the kids’ screaming is incredibly loud. They just get so excited. It’s just such a joy.”

— Lee Pike, VP of Development united arts wake county

Lemon Lavender & Matcha new

Typically, schools raise money to bring in artists through parent-teacher organizations, which United Arts would then match. But that left some schools — particularly Title I schools and those in higher-poverty areas — with limited or no access,

“We’ve always done pro bono programs when we could,” Lee says, “but in the past couple of years, we’ve been intentional about fundraising specifically to support schools that don’t have those resources. It shouldn’t be an afterthought.”

Performers at the event include Wake County commissioners with jazz artist Shana Tucker, WRAL meteorologist Chris Michaels on drums, as well as members of the General Assembly and Raleigh City Council.

Perhaps the organization’s most sweeping project is its work on a countywide cultural master plan, conducted in cooperation with Wake County and its 12 municipalities. Developed over two years, the report involved a series of surveys, interviews, and statistical analysis aimed at assessing and strengthening the county’s creative infrastructure.

One finding stood out: Wake County currently spends about 41 cents per person annually on arts and culture, while comparable counties in the region invest between $5 and $9 per capita. The plan proposes a phased increase to $4 per person over the next eight years.

Lee says the funding could support infrastructure such as rehearsal space, studios, and affordable live-work housing for artists. It would also help smaller municipalities develop their own cultural identities through everything from outdoor murals to arts festivals.

“We want Wake County to be a place where artists can live and thrive,” Lee says. “And we want arts and culture happening all over the county, not just in the bigger metropolitan areas.”

Another recent initiative aims to bring arts programming into assisted living and

rehabilitation centers, reaching an older audience that can at times face isolation from the larger community. Lee says it’s a natural outgrowth of the organization’s goal of reaching all Wake residents.

If these efforts bring joy and connection, they are also economic drivers, Lee says. Companies relocating to the Triangle often cite quality of life as a major factor, and a vibrant cultural landscape helps recruit and retain talent.

“Arts and culture are part of what make a place livable,” she says. “It’s not just a ‘nice to have.’”

Getting Frank About Pimento Cheese

Frank Bernard Yarborough believes in loving people through sharing his artisan

Inspired by a century-old family recipe passed down from his great-grandmother, Maggie Finch, the 64-year-old Cary resident honors his family legacy through Frankie B’s Pimento Cheese. He handcrafts the delectable spread in small batches at a local com-

“I grew up eating pimento cheese sandwiches that my grandmother and my mother would make,” Frank recalls, adding that the women in his family would also provide the beloved pâté of the South at weddings,

funerals, and other special occasions.

As the years passed, Frank evolved the recipe, tinkering with it only to elevate the quality of its components. He then began giving containers filled with orange goodness to friends, neighbors, business clients, and fellow church members. It resonated so well that people insisted he make the product available for purchase.

Nowadays 8-ounce tubs of Frankie B’s are accessible on the business’s website, and they can be picked up at Frank’s home in downtown Cary. You can also find the pimento cheese at select local merchants (see sidebar on page 89).

Besides the popular Classic flavor, additional variations include habanero-infused Spicy and the well-liked Spicy Bacon, which features applewood and center-cut selections of pork.

“I’m very particular, and I insist on maintaining consistency with the ingredients,” Frank says, revealing that he uses high-quality Cabot Creamery cheese and Duke’s Mayonnaise to make his concoctions stand apart.

According to Frank, there are “1,001 ways to enjoy Frankie B’s.” He relishes eating it cold on two slices of Wonder bread or heating it up open-faced on sourdough from La Farm Bakery.

“One of my neighbors likes putting it in his scrambled eggs,” he says. “And the Spicy Bacon is absolute money on a grilled steak.”

Known for his hospitable nature and commitment to maintaining Cary’s heritage, Frank lives in his grandfather’s historic Colonial-style house on South Academy Street. He is also a longtime baseball coach for Miracle League of the Triangle, an organization providing positive life experiences for individuals with special needs and their families.

Frank recently retired from full-time work and hopes his new enterprise will continue to flourish.

“I ran a technology firm for 28 years, so this is an entirely new endeavor for me,” he says. “I have given away so much pimento cheese over the years, which is such a joy because I love

sharing it with people, but now I am figuring out if I can make it a sustainable business.”

With assistance from longtime friend and Raleigh-based marketing and branding specialist Steve McCulloch, Frank is well on his way to finding success.

“I never even liked pimento cheese before trying Frankie B’s,” Steve says, “but now I’m a huge fan and am glad to help promote it.”

In addition to Steve’s support, Frank’s wife, Jan, helps with packaging, labeling, and refrigerating the containers, while his youngest son, 31-year-old Jack, serves as an enthusiastic brand ambassador.

“Jack has Down syndrome, and he’s my best sales guy,” Frank says with a smile. “We’ll be out somewhere, and Jack will

start talking to a total stranger. He’ll ask, ‘Do you like cheese?’ and the next thing you know he’s giving the person a Frankie B’s business card.”

Last year, Frank participated as a vendor in Cary’s popular Pimento Cheese Festival. He sold all 1,500 containers he had prepared.

“My plan this year is to make 2,000 containers available, and I’m convinced we’ll move every bit of it,” he says. “I expect to have a booth in front of my house as well as at the festival.”

Be sure to see Frank and his crew on Saturday, April 11, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the eighth annual Pimento Cheese Festival in Downtown Cary Park. Festival attendance is free. t

frankiebsplease.com

Frankie B’s Pimento Cheese enters this year’s lineup at Cary’s annual Pimento Cheese Festival , where vendors present dishes showcasing the Southern delicacy.

Saturday, April 11

11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Downtown Cary Park

All

Where To Find

In addition to ordering online or buying product at the upcoming festival, you can find Frankie B’s at the following local establishments:

Dram & Draught

3 Fenton Main St., Cary (bar snack)

New York Butcher Shoppe & Wine Bar

1005 Portrait Drive, Cary (containers)

Pastrami Tom’s Deli 312 W. Chatham St., Suite 103, Cary (burger topping)

Vino & Tap

307 S. Academy St., Cary (bar snack)

C affeinated C anvases : Pretty Good Coffee Company’s Latte Art

WRITTEN BY ERIN MCKNIGHT | PHOTOGRAPHED BY JONATHAN FREDIN

“We call ourselves the Chick-fil-A of coffee,” says Pretty Good Coffee Company owner and Chief Espresso Officer Sam Nelson. “We’re really friendly and really, really fast. And we don’t want to sacrifice either of those.”

Whether the luxury coffee cart company is catering intimate gatherings of 10 people or events of up to 1,000, Sam says he still has to remind himself that “this is a business.”

Considering that the company started with an espresso machine gifted to his wife, Hannah, Sam’s incredulity at his

hobby becoming a legitimate business is understandable — despite Pretty Good Coffee Company’s three-year existence, warehouse space in Raleigh, and four employees.

But had Sam not bought the used home espresso machine, which he ended up liking more than Hannah did, and started to make her vanilla lattes, his enjoyment of preparing drinks and serving people would likely never have taken off. “I got myself a gift back,” he says.

As with any hobby, Sam began collecting more equipment and gaining additional

experience. After the website was built, requests for coffee catering started coming in … “and we just kept going,” he says. The first official events were for apartment communities, and Sam and Hannah — who was operationally involved at that time — invested in training their team and getting the right equipment.

Each of the three custom-built carts, Sam says, allows two baristas to serve approximately 100 people in 45 minutes and provides the same quality and speed as a café.

The catered experience starts with freshly ground coffee beans from Black & White Coffee Roasters in Wake Forest, which produces the Pretty Good Coffee blend of caramel, black cherry, and milk chocolate — flavors that taste good on their own or with milk. An industry-standard La Marzocco espresso machine is bookended on one side of the cart by the latte art printer on the other, the two working in unison to produce something that Sam says “looks and then tastes beautiful.”

The first step in creating latte art is to perfect the canvas, which comes from steaming the milk and introducing tiny bubbles called microfoam. Sam and his team remove as much water as possible because they know that dry steam leads to tasty milk drinks. Whereas most baristas pull shots and proceed to design manually (though Sam’s team can do that, too), the capabilities of Pretty Good Coffee Company’s latte art printer far exceed typical hearts and rosettes.

The idea of printing on a blank coffee canvas was born from Sam’s hospitalityforward mindset. “If you think about a luxury experience,” he says, “it’s meeting your unique needs in the ways that you need them met.” So, the question became: How can Pretty Good Coffee Company obsess even more over clients’ needs?

Sam and Hannah found the answer at their son’s first birthday party, where they printed his face on all the drinks. Now, clients can send any design or image to be printed on coffee and create custom art that speaks inherently to them.

While Pretty Good’s typical cart menu features the Black & White espresso that’s used for classics like the Americano, latte, or cappuccino, whole milk isn’t the only option for printing, as pistachio milk and other alternatives are available. There are also coffee alternatives like chai or matcha and other teas. Scratch-made house vanilla cardamom, cinnamon mocha, and smoked salted caramel syrups also elevate the experience.

“There’s so much to (coffee). It really is an art form, which is super fun.”

Kerrigan Walls, barista, Pretty Good Coffee Company

Sam, a native of Elgin, Illinois, who trained as a pastor, believes,“What transported over (to Pretty Good Coffee Company) was that care for people. … We just so happen to do it now through coffee.” When it comes to the future, and the company’s growth, he draws on their mission statement “to transform events with luxury hospitality.”

Right now, that is achieved through coffee,

but an expansion into mobile bartending or food seems like a natural progression.

Kerrigan Walls, who has been on the team for about a year, has been a barista at a few different coffee shops and considers it meaningful to be able to serve diverse people through coffee.

“This is my favorite job that I’ve ever had,” she says. “Just how supportive Sam is, growing us professionally and personally.”

“There’s so much to (coffee),” Kerrigan continues. “It really is an art form, which is super fun.”

While Pretty Good Coffee Company started as a side business “honestly, just for fun,” Sam confirms something palpable: “It’s still for fun.”t

prettygoodcoffeecompany.com @prettygoodcoffeecompany

Cary | 1388 Kildaire Farm Rd.

Raleigh | 4516 Falls of Neuse Rd.

* Coming soon!

Chapel Hill | 4416 Durham Chapel Hill Blvd.

Cary | 2025 Renaissance Park Place

Raleigh | Transfer Co. Food Hall 500 E. Davie St., Suite 108

liquid assets Larry The Cucumber

FROM

GRAFFITI: SPIRITS, AXES

&

ART | PHOTOGRAPHED BY JONATHAN FREDIN

Botanical gin and elderflower liqueur pair perfectly with the fresh flavors of cucumber and lime in this vibrant green beauty created by Mel Schulz.

1 ½ ounces Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin

½ ounce St-Germain

1 ounce lime juice

1 ounce cucumber juice

¾ ounce jalapeño simple syrup

1 egg white or egg white substitute

Combine gin, St-Germain, lime juice, cucumber juice, and jalapeño simple syrup in a mixing glass and stir. Add egg white or substitute and transfer to a shaking tin with ice. Shake well and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a cucumber slice.

Enjoy new and creative artwork every few weeks at Graffiti: Spirits, Axes & Art in downtown Cary. A seasonal cocktail menu features inventive concoctions, and an expansive bourbon, whiskey, and rye list spans every taste and price point. Six axe-throwing lanes are also rented out hourly for some active fun, and 19 TVs throughout broadcast your favorite sports. graffiticary.com @graffiticary

CAN YOU SEE WILD HORSES AND DOLPHINS IN THE SAME PLACE?

WHERE IN THE OBX

Only in The Northern Outer Banks

Only in The Northern Outer Banks will memories be filled with Corolla Wild Horses roaming free on pristine beaches, historic maritime attractions, luxurious accommodations and abundant laidback family fun. Plan your perfect vacation!

Anne’s Way Kentucky Derby Panzanella Salad

FROM CAROLYN GALLARO

My sister first made this years ago, and it is still a favorite among family and friends, requested by everyone! I like to drizzle a good quality balsamic glaze on top. Use as much or as little of the vinaigrette as you like. I often double the dressing and save the extra for another salad or marinade. Leftover salad can be stored in the refrigerator overnight. Bring to room temperature before serving.

1 baguette, cubed

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, or more if bread is very dry salt and pepper to taste

8 ounces blue cheese, crumbled

¾ cup cinnamon sugar pecans, chopped (recipe on right)

4 to 8 ounces pancetta, cubed and fried until crisp

1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered Vidalia onion dressing, to taste (recipe on right)

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss bread cubes with olive oil and toast in oven until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

• Toss all salad ingredients and bread together. Add the vinaigrette dressing in small amounts, stirring until desired taste. Serve at room temperature.

Cinnamon Sugar Pecans

1 egg white

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sugar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 pound pecans

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Spread pecans in an even layer on a sheet pan and bake for 30 to 45 minutes, until caramelized and fragrant, tossing every 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Vidalia Onion Vinaigrette

¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

½ cup Vidalia onion, finely chopped

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¼ cup honey

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

• Whisk all ingredients together and set aside.

Coming soon: one-dish meals, sheet pan suppers, and all things barbecue! Submit at carymagazine.com/recipe-submissions recipes wanted!

garden adventurer

WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY L.A. JACKSON

Easter Lily-ology

Psst! Did you know Easter lilies aren’t just for Easter? While they are ubiquitous offerings in stores everywhere this time of year as holiday houseplants, Easter lilies (Lilium longiflorum) are actually perennials that can be saved and transitioned this spring to outdoor gardens, where they have the hardiness to not only survive but thrive. And here are a few pointers to help make that happen:

• First, two notes of caution: (1) While your Easter lily is showing off inside, keep it away from cats, as munching on the leaves can be harmful to your feline friends; and (2) place the plant in a location where it won’t be brushed up against because the flowers’ golden yellow anthers are instant stain makers on both skin and clothes.

• Drainage, please. If your Easter lily came in a pot with fancy foil or plastic wrap, remove it to prevent the container from turning into a bulb-killing bog.

• The best place for an Easter lily while it is waiting to head outdoors is in a bright room but out of direct sunlight. Snip off the flowers as they fade, and water the pot only when the soil surface feels dry to the touch.

• After the threat of frost has passed, condition your Easter lily to the outside in an area of filtered sun for a week or two. Then it can be transitioned to the garden. Pick a sunny site that has good drainage and, if possible, some light afternoon shade to shield these beauties from the worst of the summer scorch and prolong their flower displays.

• When planting, remove the pot and set the root ball to a depth that has its top even with the surrounding soil. If the growing site contains dense, stubborn dirt, fluff it up first by mixing in gobs of compost or other organic amendment. Also, mulch and keep these garden newbies on a regular watering schedule. Easter lily is a blooming beauty indoors and out.

To Do in the

GARDEN

April

• Prepare the soil in your veggie patch at the beginning of this month, but hold off adding mulch until May so the strengthening springtime sun can heat up the growing ground to make it comfy for such warmseason edibles as lima beans, cucumbers, peppers (sweet and hot), watermelons, tomatoes, green beans, eggplant, squash, and pumpkins — all of which you can start planting by the middle of April if your green thumb has a serious itch that needs to be scratched early.

• Cool-season veggies such as carrots, collard greens, radishes, spinach, parsnips, and lettuce that were started from seed in the garden last month should now be thinned to their proper spacing requirements.

• Dahlia tubers can be set in ornamental beds as soon as the threat of frost has passed. For taller cultivars, add a support stake in each planting hole to avoid damaging the root systems and (especially) tubers later.

TIMELY TIP

Need a neat plant to help introduce youngsters to the fun of gardening this spring? Annual sunflowers are my choice because they develop rapidly from seeds or starter plants. And then there is the mysterious matter of heliotropism. While annual gardens typically evolve slowly into their splendor over the growing season, which to some youthful minds translates into “boring,” young sunflower blooms pull off a neat trick every day by turning toward the sun, following as it arches westward across the sky, then rotating back to the east overnight to greet the next day’s sunrise, and starting their diurnal dance all over again. After the sunflower blossoms mature and fully open, this motion stops, but until then: “Mom, Dad! Wanna see something cool?”

Sunflowers. Heliotropism — who knew?

• During its first year in the garden, an Easter lily will simply be 1- to 3-foot spikes of green foliage after its original flowers wither away and are picked off. As these leafy spires turn yellow, snip them even to the ground.

• The following spring, for better flower displays, add a dusting of low-nitrogen, time-release fertilizer when new shoots begin to pop from the soil.

• And finally, Easter lilies blooming during the Easter season is the result of a bit of greenhouse magic called “forced flowering,” so don’t expect your pretty to blissfully bloom at Easter next year. In the garden, it will naturally start flowering in the summer.t

L.A. Jackson is the former editor of Carolina Gardener Magazine Want to ask L.A. a question about your garden? Contact him by email at lajackson1@gmail.com.

happenings

Wander is a free, easy-to-use mobile app that combines geographic data, municipal trail information, and commercial listings into one seamless experience. Utilizing open data from an array of local and regional organizations, the app now includes guides and tours for Wake County. With more than 300 miles of greenways and trails, plus over 138,000 acres of open space, there is lots to explore.

Vimal Vyas, Visit Raleigh’s vice president of data, security, and AI innovation, appreciates that Wander solves a very real family problem: what to do after the playground or hike.

“My experience in going out with my family (is asking), what is around? What is there to do? What’s close by?” he explains. “Once the kids are tired at the park, they want ice cream; they want to get a drink. What’s nearby? Is there a coffee shop? Is there a bakery?”

Wander lets you see that full picture — trail plus treats, playground plus lunch, bike ride plus brewery — without bouncing between multiple apps and websites. Because Visit Raleigh maintains a robust database of hospitality partners, and municipalities contribute their trail data, Wander can “snap” those pieces together. t wandermaps.com

—

Jen McFarland

Available Wake County Guides & Tours

These preset tours provide fun options for exploring the area with the planning already done!

Favorite Fall Hikes in Raleigh with 5 locations

The Best Free Attractions to Visit in Raleigh with 10 places

Outdoor Mural Trail with 37 places

Seven Outdoor Wonders of the Raleigh Area

36 Hours in Raleigh with 26 items that will probably be tough to complete in 36 hours!

The Town of Morrisville named Matt Wetherell as its next Public Works Director in mid-February. He brings 15 years of local government experience, including working as Facilities & Grounds Manager for the Town of Apex for the last two and a half years. He also has four years of leadership experience as an officer in the Army National Guard and served in a leadership role on the Town of Cary’s COVID Response Team.

“Matt demonstrated his abilities and leadership capacity through our process and came highly recommended,” says Town Manager Brandon Zuidema. “He comes to Morrisville with a strong background in public works and local government, and I am confident he will hit the ground running as our Public Works Director.”

The NORTH CAROLINA COURAGE women’s soccer team debuted a new kit for their ninth season in the Triangle, which kicked off March 14. The Venus flytrap-inspired “Become” kit features a blue background with a print depicting the “rare, precise, and unapologetically ruthless” native carnivorous plants. The kit will be the primary home jersey for matches at First Horizon Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park. The team will also retain the blue “Believe” and pink “Belong” kits from 2025.

“Our Club is experiencing an evolution, both on and off the field, and this new, bold kit is the perfect embodiment of our vision,” says Courage Chief Operating Officer Ralph Vuono. “It’s sharp, innovative, and uniquely North Carolina. Just like the Courage.” nccourage.com

Morrisville greenways received a new color-coded marking system in early March, replacing worn posts at ¼-mile increments. The markers are painted every 1/10 mile using a different color and symbol for each greenway. The new marking system aims to increase location precision in the event of an emergency.

happenings

Students in the Cedar Fork Community Center After School program created a collaborative Kindness is Magical art piece in March. Staff member Krystal prepared the canvas, and the students decorated “with a burst of color, creativity, and community spirit.”

The iconic OSCAR MAYER WIENERMOBILE rolled through town in late February, with stops at the Western Wake Farmers’ Market, Marbles Kids Museum, and other locations.

Cary native and Green Hope graduate Trey O’Shea, aka Tailgate Trey, was behind the wheel, with Meatloaf Maggie as copilot. “Getting to bring the iconic 27-foot-long hot dog on wheels home to Wake County is an opportunity beyond my wildest weenie dreams,” Trey says.

The DOWNTOWN CARY PARK was one of five parks nationwide to receive a 2025 American Architecture Award, the nation’s highest architectural honor. A press release from the Town of Cary cites Boston design firm Machado Silvetti’s “unified design approach, where architecture and landscape function as one experience,” as a key factor in selection.

“This recognition reflects the vision and care that went into creating a park that truly belongs to the community,” says Downtown Cary Park General Manager Joy Ennis. “Downtown Cary Park was designed to bring people together, and seeing how residents and visitors have embraced the space makes this honor especially meaningful.”

happenings

The Cary Fire Department earned its sixth international accreditation in March following a unanimous vote by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. The department is one of only 334 fire/rescue agencies in the world receiving the accredited agency status. A peer review team visited the department last November to evaluate its training, competency, financial and physical resources, strategic plan, and other factors.

“This is a voluntary accreditation and one of the most comprehensive performance reviews in the fire service,” says Fire Chief Mike Cooper. “This recognition confirms that our department continues to meet the highest international standards for emergency service delivery, planning, and accountability. I’m incredibly proud of the work our firefighters and staff put into this process and grateful for the trust and support of the Cary community we are privileged to protect.”

“I couldn’t be more proud of the men and women of the Cary Fire Department. Earning accreditation once is an accomplishment. Earning it time and time again says a lot about the culture of this team and the commitment they bring to serving our community every day,” says Russ Overton, Interim Cary Town Manager. “Public safety in Cary is a team effort. Our firefighters are on the front lines, but this recognition also reflects the partnership we have across the organization with teams like Public Works, Utilities, Inspections and Permits, Police, and Emergency Communications. A lot of people work together every day to keep this community safe. And this shows it.” carync.gov/fire

The NORTH CAROLINA CHINESE LANTERN FESTIVAL will return to Cary’s Koka Booth Amphitheatre through the 2033–34 season. The Town of Cary, which owns the amphitheater, has agreed to continue its partnership with Tianyu Arts & Culture, Inc., following the success of the festival’s 10th anniversary, which generated more than $11.6 million in direct economic impact.

“For many families, the festival has become a yearly tradition,” says Cary Director of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources John Collins. “People return year after year to see what’s new and to experience the artistry and cultural storytelling that make the festival so special. Extending this partnership means we can keep building on that tradition and continue bringing something truly unique to Cary each winter.”

write

light

BY JONATHAN FREDIN

Cawing calm

A crow perches beneath the dreamy, pastel softness of the dawn sky. The clouds, painted in shades of muted pink and orange, blush behind the silhouette, creating a moment of still mystery captured against the gentle light of the waking world.