INDY Print Edition Jan. 28, 2026

A House District Divided

The frontrunners for the Triangle's 4th Congressional District seat align on many policies — but their approaches to politics are radically different.

By Chase Pellegrini De Paur, p.4

Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill

4 The Democratic primary match-up between Rep. Valerie Foushee and Durham County commissioner Nida Allam is a rematch from 2022. But a lot has changed in the district in four years. BY CHASE PELLEGRINI DE PAUR

9 The town of Cary is taking steps to rebuild trust with residents after the town manager left amid accusations of misspending. BY CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL 10 Since Durham voters passed a $95 million housing bond, the funding has helped build or preserve more than 2,000 affordable units. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW

12 Made in Durham's BULLS program is making sure locals get jobs in the Triangle's flourishing life sciences industry. BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW

Culture

14 "It was my way of looking into what I thought were gaps in the most canonized text in the world," says North Carolina poet Diamond Forde of her new poetry collection, The Book of Alice. BY SARAH EDWARDS

16 New restaurants like Kaara Modern Indian, Urban Angeethi, and Cheeni in RTP are part of Wake County's growing Indian dining scene. BY JASMINE GALLUP

20 Two arborists’ uncommon hobby takes them deep into the woods to look for the state’s leafy giants. BY JONATHAN PATTISHALL

Mariana Fabian, Jasmine Gallup, Desmera Gatewood, Tasso Hartzog, Elliott Harrell, Brian Howe, Jordan Lawrence, Elim Lee, Glenn McDonald, Nick McGregor, Gabi Mendick, Cy Neff, Andrea Richards, Barry Yeoman

BACKTALK

Earlier this month, Chloe Courtney Bohl interviewed Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht about former Town Manager Sean Stegall’s resignation and how the Town Council can win back the public’s trust following allegations of misspending. (The State Bureau of Investigation has since opened a criminal inquiry into Stegall over potential fraud.) Weinbrecht was candid about missing some red flags and seemed to view Stegall’s actions as a betrayal of his and the council’s trust. Readers in the Cary Reddit channel had plenty of thoughts about the interview.

From Redditor JOHN_JOSEPH7:

It really does boil down to trusting the wrong guy. But it’s also their fault for doing that. When you put your life in the hands of someone without checks and balances, whatever they do is on you (for relinquishing your responsibility to them.)

It’s just strange that the manager had such a long tenure and this is just coming up now. I wonder if he went off the rails recently or whether it’s been a decade and he’s just been good at hiding it.

From Redditor SLASHTHIRTY:

People want to know why he wasn’t aware of the problems? Because he was “FRIENDS” with Stegall. Not his manager, employer, associate. Friends. Not friendly ... but close enough to feel betrayed. Which meant any employee who reported wrongdoing was certain that their complaint would go directly to Stegall, rather than being dealt with in an appropriate manner. ...

It is obvious that some members of council want to pretend that their role is no more complex than sitting on an HOA. They want to meet once or twice a month, and trust the town staff to do all of the hard work. But Cary is more complex than it’s ever been. It has a HALF BILLION dollar budget. It’s time we have a council and mayor who is willing to engage at a level the roles demand.

Also earlier this month, Justin Laidlaw published an update on how Durham has spent the $95 million affordable housing bond that voters passed in 2019, the largest in state history. You can read his story in this week’s edition on p. 10.

Redditor CYPHERX was pleased to see the city get its bang for the buck on affordable housing with the bond money:

I’m so surprised when this stuff actually goes according to plan.

Almost $39 million went toward new construction and preservation, which allowed for the creation of 1,068 new affordable rental units using funds from the Forever Home bond and the Dedicated Housing Fund

In total, 1,169 rental units—917 affordable units and 252 market rate units— are in the midst of construction or rehabilitation

Lastly, over 500 affordable units are in the planning pipeline

So let’s say the numbers are a bit inflated, most of the second block are cheaper rehabs, and most of the final 500 never get built.

That’s still maybe 1500 rental units built for $95M. $63k a unit? Not bad Durham!

Vocalist Julia Keefe leads an all-star ensemble of Native and Indigenous jazz musicians exploring jazz’s deep Indigenous roots, featuring music by pioneers Mildred Bailey and Jim Pepper, plus contemporary works.

“Julia gives me hope for the future of jazz" —NPR 'Jazz Inspired'

NEWS North Carolina

A House District Divided

The front-runners to represent the Triangle’s solidly blue 4th Congressional District align on many policies. But their approaches to politics are radically different—and which candidate voters choose could be a bellwether for the future of the Democratic Party.

BY CHASE PELLEGRINI DE PAUR chase@indyweek.com

“NORTH CAROLINA WARNING,” anti-Muslim agitator @AmyMek tweeted to her 588,000 followers on a recent Tuesday night. “The Zohran Mamdani of North Carolina—congressional candidate Nida Allam—is actively working against federal immigration enforcement.”

The post described efforts by Allam—a young Muslim populist running in North Carolina’s solidly blue 4th Congressional District—to alert communities to the presence of federal immigration officers in the Triangle. She attached a selfie-style video that Allam had filmed in November describing how to report sightings.

Allam was all too happy with the comparison. The next day, she changed her bio on X to another quote about her from Mek: “BEWARE THE NEXT ZOHRAN MAMDANI.”

The 32-year-old Durham County commissioner is chal-

lenging incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee in this year’s Democratic primary. The race is a rematch: Foushee, who has served for nearly three decades at just about every level of local government, defeated Allam by 9 points in 2022 and subsequently cruised to victory in the general. In 2024, Foushee ran unopposed in her primary.

But a lot has changed since their last matchup. Donald Trump is back in the White House with a vision of retribution against liberal hubs like the Triangle: In November, the area was targeted by federal immigration agents, and the district’s prominent universities, hospital systems, and scientific research and development companies have suffered millions in federal funding cuts, the most of any district in the nation.

In addition, the war in Gaza has also upended the poli-

tics of the Middle East within the Democratic Party, pushing Foushee to pledge not to accept campaign donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which was among the groups that funneled more than $3 million in outside spending into her 2022 campaign.

And then there is the new mayor of New York City, whose rapid rise has suggested what might be possible for a young, social-media-savvy, progressive, antiestablishment Muslim candidate. Mamdani’s campaign manager, Maya Handa, also managed Allam’s 2022 effort, and she acknowledges the parallels. “North Carolina is not New York and Nida is not Zohran,” Handa told me recently. “What they do have in common is outspoken, unbought leadership and a message that deeply resonates with working people in this crisis of democracy and affordability.”

On policy, Foushee and Allam are both solidly left of most House Democrats, and their voting records likely wouldn’t differ dramatically. Both support providing universal health care through Medicare for All, investing in clean energy and infrastructure via the Green New Deal, codifying Roe v. Wade, and raising the federal minimum wage. And yet, they are also radically different in their approach to politics. Allam has an aggressively pro-worker message and a penchant for TikTok trends and selfie-style Instagram videos. Foushee is a measured, 69-year-old stateswoman and the highest-profile member of a local political dynasty. Consistently, Allam is a step more antiestablishment. Foushee cosponsored legislation to ban selling certain heavy munitions to Israel; Allam supports a full arms embargo. Foushee has called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign; Allam says ICE should be abolished. Foushee has sworn off money from AIPAC but has recently received donations from PACs affiliated with weapons manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies; Allam has pledged not to take any money from corporate PACs or “right wing” special interests and has accused Foushee of being funded by “big pharma,” “big tech,” and “corporate defense contractors who ensure that billions of our tax dollars are being spent to fund genocide and war abroad.”

This is one of the nation’s bluest districts and, in that sense, a bellwether—not for the country as a whole but for

the mood of the Democratic Party’s core voters. If a candidate like Mamdani is going to ascend to Congress anywhere outside New York City in 2026, this would be one of the likeliest places—but it is far from a sure thing. “Louder is not always better,” Foushee told me recently, and the March primary may go a long way toward answering the question: Exactly how outspoken and defiantly left-wing do Democrats want their politicians to be in 2026?

Allam’s first official 2026 campaign event took place in Durham Central Park on a warm December afternoon. She wore a gray shirt emblazoned with her first name, and orange face paint peeked from under her hijab. She was joined by 25-yearold activist David Hogg and about 30 campaign volunteers.

“Raise your hand,” Hogg asked the group, “have any of you seen Valerie Foushee in public, at all? OK, two of you, congrats.”

Foushee is unapologetic about her quieter approach to politics. “I’m not one who’s going to be tooting my—hey, hey, hey, look what I did—I’m not doing that. And you can criticize me all day and all night. I’m not doing that,” she said in a recent interview. “My goal is to be successful in achieving the goals of the district, and so I have

developed a way of doing that that may not get me noticed by the media, because you don’t see me standing on steps with a microphone or megaphone.”

Before entering politics, Foushee was a police department administrator. In preparation for our December interview, I listened to a 2017 oral history for a local community center, in which she described hearing the phrase “two Black males” repeated over the radio at her job. “I was raising two Black males,” she said, referring to her sons. “I’m listening to it all night. ... I would go to bed hearing ‘two Black males’ or wake up reading ‘two Black males,’ or ‘young Black males.’”

When we met at New Hope Market in Chapel Hill—she said she often conducts business here because she’s friends with the owner—we began by talking about her first election: a 1997 Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board race. Foushee frames that campaign, and every election since, as part of her belief in public service. She describes her political career in earnest terms: “Seeing a need, and wanting to give back to a village, a community, that had given to me.”

Foushee was the first Black woman to serve in most of her roles—as the district’s school board chair, as an Orange County

bills, though in an era of GOP control of Congress, none have passed. If Foushee—a more traditional and high-profile politician obligated to split her time between her district and D.C.—is accessible only through a gauntlet of aides and controlled town halls, Allam is almost unavoidable, especially on social media. Her claim to the progressive mantle is inseparable from her millennial-Gen-Z-style campaign. Her TikTok videos range from a recent visit to the Durham Animal Protection Society (“Simba!” she exclaims as she lifts a cat in the air a la The Lion King) to the first-person video she took of immigration enforcement agents detaining several people in November (“Do you have a warrant?” she loudly asks the masked officers).

Like her opponent, Allam said she was pushed into politics by contact with the American justice system. In 2015, three of her friends in Chapel Hill were murdered in a hate crime. After working on several campaigns, including Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential bid, she joined the state Democratic Party’s executive board. She became the first Muslim woman to win public office in North Carolina in 2020 when she was elected to the Durham County Board of Commissioners and became the state’s youngest county commission chair in 2023; she’s currently in her second term on the board.

commissioner, in her state House, state Senate, and now U.S. House seats. Her pitch to voters, delivered in a Piedmont accent and peppered with quotes from South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn and the Bible, is experience. “People see that their everyday costs of living have increased to a point where it’s difficult,” she said. “There’s still more work to be done, and ... I have the experience and the relationships that exist in Congress now to get it done.”

Foushee is a careful interviewee, who tends to speak in threes. (“Nobody else has the experience, nobody else has developed the relationships, nobody else knows this district better than me.”) She is quick to clarify if she feels a question has been framed unsatisfactorily, or to hold up a finger for silence when she’s ready to answer. Her allies describe her as a background operator who puts her head down and does the work for the district. There’s “not a person that I can think of who’s more progressive than me,” Foushee said. “I’m just more pragmatic than most.” (Per a UCLA analysis, Foushee is more liberal than 84% of House Democrats.) In 2024, she secured over $11 million for district projects, such as affordable housing in Chapel Hill and a sewer infrastructure extension in Granville County. Since 2023, she’s sponsored 23

Allam, who was born in Canada and moved to the U.S. when she was six years old, has pointed to her own experience as evidence that she is the right person to stand up for immigrant communities. She has worked to create an immigrant and refugee services coordinator position in Durham, raise the minimum wage for county employees to $19 an hour, and advance housing affordability initiatives. Her platform includes making public colleges tuition-free, fully funding Section 8 housing vouchers, ending Citizens United, and banning congressional stock trading.

Her pitch to voters, in part, is that she is more of a fighter than Foushee: Voting and sponsoring legislation, she told me recently, are “the bare minimum” for a member of Congress. “Are you whipping votes? Are you rallying your community? Are you pushing the party internally to support Medicare for All? The Green New Deal?”

But no issue has come up in the race as persistently as Israel, which dominated local politics for a time in 2023 and continues to reverberate. In November 2023, a Jewish-led group of protesters blocked rush-hour traffic on the Durham Freeway for hours under the banner “NC JEWS SAY CEASEFIRE NOW! CALL REP. FOUSHEE.” Some of those same protesters also packed

and shut down city council meetings; in one tense incident in Durham, a dozen police officers formed a wall between demonstrators and council members. The Carrboro and Durham councils eventually passed resolutions that denounced the war; the former urged Foushee to follow suit, and the latter’s was forwarded to her and then-President Joe Biden. Over two years, Foushee shifted her language away from her previously full-throated support of Israel and toward concern over the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza.

I asked Foushee what it was like to be the target of so much high-emotion criticism. “I think what’s most important is that I listened,” she told me. But she clearly didn’t want to dwell on it in 2026. “Let me put it this way,” she said, “I don’t think that people feel that that is a very important issue as it relates to kitchen-table conversations. She does, however, see it as “an important issue because we all want peace in the Middle East,” noting that she has “always been for a two-state solution.” She also thinks she hasn’t always been heard clearly on the matter: “I think people discounted much of my sentiment about that situation because it was clouded by the fact that I took money from AIPAC.” And she added that, in 2023, she represented four counties where protests and resolutions were not unfolding.

Allam has made the Gaza war a centerpiece of her advocacy, as well as her case against Foushee, over the past few years. When Foushee traveled to Israel on an AIPAC-sponsored trip to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2024, Allam penned a critical op-ed. Allam describes herself as a pacifist and said she looks at the devastation in Gaza and sees her own two young children. “And then every time I open my phone, I see a child who’s been beheaded,” she told me. “I see a child who’s now an orphan—the largest population of child amputees, and it’s all our taxpayer dollars that’s funding it. Like, I just morally, I don’t understand how that has, like, been allowed to occur.”

While Durham and its long history of liberal politics are at the heart of the 4th District, other towns on its fringes—Cary, Apex, Morrisville, Holly Springs, and Fuquay-Varina—have the potential to be something of a wild card in the AllamFoushee matchup, because they’ve been newly drawn into the district. Allam’s political career is tied to Durham, while Foushee’s is tied to Orange County, and they each won their respective political home in the 2022 primary. Neither of them has previously been on a primary ballot in the terra incognita of Wake County.

In 2023, Republican lawmakers drew portions of western Wake and eastern Chatham counties into the district, replacing parts of several more rural counties to the north of Durham where voters had overwhelmingly favored Foushee in the past. Of the roughly 40,000 votes that Foushee won in 2022, about 22% came from areas no longer in the district. The changes affected only about 5% of Allam’s voters.

Asher Hildebrand, a Duke University politics and policy analyst who used to work under Foushee’s congressional predecessor, cautions against making any assumptions about whom those new boundaries may favor. “In its iteration then and now, even though it has portions of other counties, Durham, as a community, as a population center, is the center of gravity in the district,” he said.

Allam, however, is hoping that immigrant residents, largely concentrated in the newly added portion of Wake County, will help her. Morrisville, for example, is 42% Asian and home to an increasingly politically active Asian American and Pacific Islander population.

While the federal immigration crackdown in North Carolina has focused on Spanish-speaking communities, Allam said that all immigrant communities are on edge and

noted that she plans to “invest very heavily” to reach first-time and immigrant voters. “There’s so many Indian and Chinese Americans and other immigrant communities that are struggling because they’re being targeted and living in fear,” Allam said. “They’re walking around with their passports now.”

Wake County is historically less liberal than Durham and Orange, though the Democratic apparatus there has had recent success in local elections after working for years to try to mobilize votes for younger and more progressive candidates. In the purplest parts of the district (Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, and Fuquay-Varina), Democrats swept town council seats last fall and ousted Republican mayors. In Pittsboro, in the new southwestern corner of the district, nearly a quarter of the town’s 4,600-person population showed up to an April “No Kings” rally.

Wesley Knott, the 29-year-old chair of the Wake County Democratic Party, has personally endorsed Allam (the organization doesn’t typically endorse in partisan primaries). In an interview with one of my colleagues, Knott painted the contest as a referendum on the current state of the Democratic Party. “For me, this is fundamentally not about Valerie Foushee. I think

she’s served honorably and with integrity,” Knott said. “And if you think that the Democratic Party is on the right track, then I think she’s a perfectly acceptable option in the primary.”

For Foushee’s allies, though, the election is also a referendum on the representation of Black voices in the party. One of North Carolina’s other two Black congressional representatives, Don Davis, is at risk of losing his seat after redistricting, and NPR recently reported that 15 other Black U.S. House members are at risk of being drawn out of their districts if several Republican-led states succeed in weakening a provision of the Voting Rights Act.

State Sen. Natalie Murdock, who represents Chatham and Durham counties and first met Foushee a decade ago while working as a vice president of the North Carolina Democratic Party’s African American Caucus, put it in stark terms to me over coffee in downtown Durham: “Why at this time in history—where we will likely lose Black members of Congress—why should this district, Durham, that is very progressive, say we are going to fire a Black woman that is showing up and doing her job?”

Murdock has been an effective campaign surrogate for Foushee in the past, telling my colleague in 2022 that she would “brag on

DURHAM CO UN T Y Board of Elec tions

NOTICE OF DURHAM COUNTY PRIMARY AND ELECTION

Tuesday, March 3, 2026

The Primary and Election for Durham County will be held in Durham County, NC on Tuesday March 3, 2026. All Durham County precincts will be open from 6:30 am until 7:30 pm.

17-year-old Durham County voters who are registered and will be 18 years old on or before Nov. 3, 2026, may vote in the Primary Election. 17-year-olds are not permitted to vote in School Board elections as they are final.

Party primaries will be open to voters registered with their respective party. Unaffiliated voters may vote a non-partisan ballot that will only include non-partisan races OR choose to participate in any participating party’s primary election. Voters registered with political parties that are not participating in the primary election will be eligible to receive a non-partisan ballot.

The following contests will be on Durham County ballots*:

• US Congress

• NC Supreme Court

• NC Court of Appeals

• NC General Assembly

• NC Superior Court

• NC District Court

• Durham County Sherriff

• Durham County Clerk of the Superior Court

• Durham County Board of Education (Final Election)

• City of Raleigh City Council*

*Offices will only appear on your ballot if you are eligible to vote in the respective contests.

DURHAM COUNTY EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS

South Regional Library

4505 S. Alston Ave., Durham

Duke University –

Karsh Alumni Center

2080 Duke University Road, Durham North Regional Library 221 Milton Road, Durham

3825 S. Roxboro St., Suite 101, Durham, NC 27713 (919) 560-0700

NOTICE OF CHANGE IN TIME FOR ABSENTEE BOARD MEETINGS

At a meeting duly called and held on the 11th day of December 2025, at 3825 S. Roxboro Street, Suite 101, in Durham, North Carolina, the Durham County Board of Elections changed the time for scheduled absentee ballot review meetings required under NCGS 163-230.1(f) from 5:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. These meetings will begin on the 5th Tuesday prior to Election Day and will occur each subsequent Tuesday prior to Election Day, March 3, 2026. To see the full Board of Elections meeting schedule, please visit our website at www.dcovotes.com.

David K. Boone, Chair

Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship 4907 Garrett Road, Durham East Regional Library 211 Lick Creek Lane, Durham

NCCU Law School

Durham County Main Library

300 N Roxboro St., Durham

640 Nelson St., Durham Durham County Board of Elections

3825 S. Roxboro St., Suite 101, Durham

Early voting schedule: Thursday, February 12, 2026 – Saturday, February 28, 2026 Hours are consistent at all eight early voting sites.

• Weekdays: 8:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

• Saturdays: 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

• Sundays: 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Voter Registration Deadline: The voter registration deadline for the Primary and Election is Friday, February 6, 2026 (25 days prior). Voters that miss the registration deadline may register and vote during the Early Voting period. Voters who are currently registered need not re-register. Registered voters who have moved or changed other information since the last election should notify the Board of Elections of that change by February 6th. Party changes are not permitted after the voter registration deadline.

SAME DAY REGISTRATION: Voters are allowed to register and vote during early voting. It is quicker and easier to register in advance, but if you have not registered you can do so during Early Voting with proper identification. This same day registration is not allowed at polling places on Election Day. For more details on the requirements associated with Same-Day Registration during Early Voting, visit our website at https://www.dcovotes.com/voters/voting/early-voting.

Information regarding registration, polling locations, absentee voting, or other election matters may be obtained by contacting the Board of Elections.

Website: www.dcovotes.com Phone: 919-560-0700

Email: elections@dconc.gov Fax: 919-560-0688

her because she won’t do it herself.” Murdock is hardly the only political figure rallying behind Foushee. Gov. Josh Stein, former Gov. Roy Cooper, nearly every state representative and senator in her district, Durham Mayor Leo Williams, and the sheriffs of Chatham, Durham, and Orange counties have all endorsed her. So has the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, via chairs Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) (whom Allam lists as a political inspiration) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.). Foushee also scored a quiet endorsement from former Rep. David Price, who represented the district for over 30 years and did not endorse in 2022.

Allam has endorsements from the Justice Democrats, the Sunrise Movement, the Working Families Party, and Hogg, the irreverent Zoomer and controversial former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. “What Nida represents here is the opportunity for us to create real change in our party and send a clear message to establishment Democrats that the days of taking corporate—if you are taking corporate money, your days in power are fucking numbered,” Hogg told the crowd at the Allam event in December. He added that this district was “the best opportunity that we have in our party to flip a seat back

from a corporate-controlled AIPAC-backed Democrat.” After the event, and before he set up to film social media content with Allam, I asked him what message he had for Foushee. “Retire,” he said, after a long pause. In 2022, outside money was a key factor, said Handa, Allam’s former campaign manager: “If Nida’s campaign had not been outspent … by super PACs we would have won.” Allam has made outside spending a central issue in this race. In the first nine months of last year, Foushee’s campaign raised $222,000, according to the most recent reports available. Unions were among some of the top donors (including machinists, aerospace workers, and state and county employees), followed by pharmaceutical companies. Allam said that those donations are in conflict with Foushee’s stated values, like support for affordable health care and campaign finance reform. Foushee said she is simply representing the Research Triangle, which is home to “corporations that bring jobs to the people in this district,” including pharmaceutical companies like Merck, GSK, and Eli Lilly.

Allam announced in a press release that she had raised $200,000 on the first day of her campaign. Those donations will be viewable in the report due in January, but Allam said that they came via more than

to summon a gaggle of reporters with a single email. At the end of our interview, she thanked me sincerely for “listening to me and hearing it from my mouth.”

Her incumbency may give her some name-recognition advantage, but it’s also put her on the defensive. The challenger can campaign on criticism of the incumbent, while the incumbent needs to defend a congressional record that has played out in an era of Republican control. Per conventional political wisdom, Foushee tends to avoid talking about Allam at all. When I mentioned her “challenger,” she reminded me that she has several. This dynamic has made for a somewhat lopsided debate, allowing Allam to frame the election as a referendum on Foushee, her campaign funding, and her political style.

And that contrast—between a measured, traditional establishment-backed politician and a younger, outspoken candidate happy to be compared to Mamdani—may, in the end, be the deciding factor in the race. Months from now, Democrats beyond North Carolina can read the results and see how, or whether, the mood of their voters has shifted since 2022. In particular, they may discover a judgement on what progressive voters perceive as the job of a Congressional representative in the second Trump era.

3,500 individual donations averaging $58 each. Her website says she is campaigning “without a dime from billionaires or rightwing corporate interests.”

While national money—and attention—is likely to flow to the race, it is also sure to involve its fair share of esoteric local politics, like Allam’s perceived feud with a Black former Durham City Council member or where the candidates stand on a planned data center in Wake County. Allam recently won the endorsement of one influential local PAC, the People’s Alliance, while Foushee clinched the endorsement of another, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People. (There’s also a low-profile Democrat in the race, Mary Patterson. The winner of the primary is expected to easily defeat perennial Republican candidate Max Ganorkar, whose website calls on residents to “BE

AN ANTI-SOCIALISM WARRIOR.”)

Foushee’s aversion to self-promotion seems to have left her feeling unfairly portrayed. At an August town hall in Carrboro, she thanked a resident who asked her about her stance on Gaza: “You just don’t know how many times I’ve been waiting for someone to ask that publicly so I can answer it publicly,” she said, as if a local political heavyweight doesn’t have the clout

“It is not, in my opinion, my role to elevate my work,” Foushee told me. She has served in public office consistently since her 1997 school board election but, until Allam, hadn’t faced a strong challenger in a decade. “And I’ll say this: If that’s a requirement, then I probably won’t ever be reelected, because I’m not going to start today doing that.”

2026 ELECTIONS IN THE TRIANGLE

Primary elections, including the Democratic primary for the 4th Congressional District, take place on March 3. Early voting begins on February 12.

To look up whether you live in the district, use the State Board of Elections' voter search at vt.ncsbe.gov and check the “Your Jurisdictions” section.

Find more INDY election coverage online at: indyweek.com/ elections2026

Cary

Changing Factors

Cary leaders approved funding for an internal investigation and employee satisfaction initiative; additionally, another member of the town’s senior management team has left his role following former Town Manager Sean Stegall’s resignation.

BY CHLOE COURTNEY BOHL chloe@indyweek.com

The Cary Town Council approved a proposal to spend $150,000 on an internal investigation into the former town manager, Sean Stegall, and another $100,000 on an “employee engagement initiative” at its regular meeting last week. Both items are part of a bigger effort to repair community trust following Stegall’s December resignation over alleged misuse of town funds and abuses of power.

Since Cary announced Stegall’s departure in mid-December, residents have been clamoring for more transparency from town leaders about his spending, his workplace conduct, and the town council’s oversight of his work and behavior. The council, for its part, has been discussing potential reforms and how to check the town manager’s authority going forward.

Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht announced plans for the internal investigation last month. Immediately following Stegall’s resignation, Weinbrecht said the town had hired Womble Bond Dickinson, a law firm that specializes in employment investigations, to “join us in looking deeply into [Stegall’s] activities … to ensure that we are fully aware of any problems, and that we put process changes in place so that something like this will never happen again in Cary.”

According to information included in the town council meeting agenda, the law firm has already begun its review, which will cover three areas: “(1) procurement card usage, reimbursement of Town funds, and expenditures of Town funds to Stegall and his support staff, other senior staff, and the Council; (2) Stegall’s reporting of Town finances to the Council; and (3) the work environment created by Stegall with Town staff and the Council.”

In addition to the internal investigation

commissioned by the town of Cary, the State Auditor’s Office and the State Bureau of Investigation are each investigating Stegall’s spending. In public statements, Weinbrecht has welcomed the dual investigations and promised the town will cooperate fully.

According to the agenda for last Thursday’s council meeting, the employee engagement initiative includes a survey of town of Cary staff (approximately 1,300 people). The initiative allocates $40,000 to the facilitation of in-person focus groups; $32,500 to design, distribution, analysis, and reporting of the employee engagement survey; and $22,500 to communications to drive participation.

Earlier this month, Weinbrecht told the INDY that he had asked Stegall to commission a staff satisfaction survey multiple times prior to his resignation, but it never happened. Weinbrecht said he wished he had pushed harder for the survey, since he later learned that Stegall “was unpredictable” in the workplace, “doing things, saying things to certain staff members that were inappropriate, and they felt like he was not being the leader he once was.” The agenda packet noted that Cary had previously conducted employee surveys in 1999, 2001, 2006, 2012, and 2015. Stegall started with the town in 2016.

The meeting agenda noted that the $250,000 total in proposed spending on these initiatives will come from Cary’s General Fund as a midyear appropriation. (Cary’s total budget for fiscal year 2026 is about $511 million, with $1 million set aside for midyear appropriations “to nimbly and adaptively respond to economic and other changing factors during the fiscal year.”)

The internal investigation and employee engagement initiative aren’t the first chang-

es prompted by Stegall’s departure, and they’re unlikely to be the last.

Weinbrecht previously told the INDY that interim Town Manager Russ Overton will not hold one-on-one meetings with council members as Stegall did but will include more people and better documentation.

Weinbrecht also said he wants to make the annual budget process more transparent to the public.

At a January 8 town council work session, Councilmembers Sarika Bansal and Lori Bush asked staff for more information and updated recommendations related to the town manager’s spending authority, the town’s fund balance, the external audit process, senior staff travel expenditures, and the land acquisition process—noting they knew staff were already looking into some of those topics.

“These discussions will help strengthen trust and ensure we are fulfilling our responsibilities to the residents we serve,” Bansal said during the work session.

Town staff are preparing a report based on Bansal and Bush’s requests, which they will present at a future council meeting.

The INDY also learned last week that another member of Cary’s senior management team has departed from town government.

Dan Ault, an assistant town manager and the town’s chief innovation officer, resigned on January 8, leaving open one

of four assistant roles that report directly to the town manager. The town of Cary has not responded to questions from the INDY about whether Ault’s resignation was related to Stegall’s, and Ault has not responded to a request for comment.

Ault reported directly to Stegall for about 17 years, first in Elgin, Illinois, and then in Cary. In 2008, Ault worked as an intern for the city of Elgin, where Stegall was city manager. In 2010, Stegall tapped Ault to help with the rollout of Elgin’s 311 citizen information service. In 2016, four months after Stegall took the Cary town manager position, he recruited Ault to come work with him again and help launch a similar 311 program in Cary.

In his book The Top of the Arc, published last August, Stegall wrote that he and Ault shared a zest for local government. “We both recall wanting to be city managers at ridiculously young ages,” he recounted. In another passage, Stegall wrote that Ault “was very bright, he was tech savvy, he embraced responsibility, he worked his ass off, and he would never surrender to can’t.” (“Surrendering to can’t,” in Stegall’s parlance, means accepting the status quo rather than innovating.)

Overton, Cary’s former deputy town manager, was sworn in as Cary’s interim town manager last month. The town has not responded to further questions about any other recent town staff departures.

Raising the Roof

As the region grows and the city works to rewrite its land use regulations, here’s a look at the progress Durham has made on affordable housing since the 2019 bond.

BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW jlaidlaw@indyweek.com

North Carolina is one of the fastest-growing states in the country. World-class universities, expansive state parks, proximity to an international airport, the beach, and the mountains, and that sweet Southern charm are big draws for the Tar Heel State. According to the NC Chamber Foundation, the number of households in the state will increase by 218,160 between 2024 and 2029. The state needs a whopping 764,478 housing units, a mixture of for-sale and rental housing, to meet such high demand.

Durham County is one of the places facing down the massive influx of residents to the state. The report says that Durham ranks fourth in overall housing gap—the number of units needed to keep up with population growth—at 32,992 units needed, behind Mecklenburg, Wake, and Guilford counties. Low-income homeowners and renters are feeling the pressures more acutely. According to the Triangle Community Foundation, Durham is short roughly 25,000 units for low-income and working-class families.

There are many paths to reaching Durham’s housing goals, each with its own merits and shortcomings. Nearly every solution involves a combination of public- and private-sector contributions and scales from accessory dwelling units and single-family homes to quadplexes and, yes, even those gaudy high-rises.

In 2019, Durham voters overwhelmingly supported a $95 million housing bond to facilitate the construction and restoration of hundreds of affordable housing units across the community. City officials also included $65 million in additional funding from the city’s Dedicated Housing Fund and federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act to round out the $160 million invested in a five-year affordable housing program, parts

of which are still ongoing.

While the city has a strong grasp of the impact the housing program has made on units created by those funds, there is limited and scattershot data on the entire housing landscape in Durham. Private developers, local nonprofits, and other organizations also play a role in increasing housing stock.

The City Has Spent Almost All of Its 2019 Bond Funds

At the onset of the five-year affordable housing program, building new affordable housing units was a top priority. The city set a five-year goal of creating 1,600 new affordable rental units while also preserving 800 units. It exceeded both goals.

Almost $39 million went toward new construction and preservation, which allowed for the creation of 1,068 new affordable rental units using funds from the Forever Home bond and the Dedicated Housing Fund. Over half of those units were in partnership with the Durham Housing Authority, which rehabilitated its JJ Henderson and Morreene Road developments, as well as constructed new units at The Vanguard and The Joyce. DHIC and Self-Help also contributed to two major projects: Ashton Place, which supports senior living, and Hardee Street Apartments, a 132-unit apartment complex in East Durham. Residents have already begun to inhabit most of the properties. A multitude of other projects are also under contract. In total, 1,169 rental units— 917 affordable units and 252 market-rate units—are in the midst of construction or rehabilitation, including Phases 3 and 4 of the Southside projects near historic Hayti, more construction on the former Liberty Street Apartments site, and 20 accessory dwelling units as part of a pilot program with Coram Houses.

Lastly, over 500 affordable units are in the planning pipeline. The former Forest Hills Heights redevelopment is expected to create 185 units, and The Villages of Hayti would add 252 units, bringing much-needed housing to neighborhoods on the periphery of downtown. But these future projects come with a much higher price tag due to their prime location. The city has allocated roughly $46.8 million for the 571 units planned, more than it has already spent on the 1,608 built so far.

More units will likely be maintained through the city’s Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing preservation pilot program.

The city of Durham also surpassed other critical benchmarks by moving over 2,000 families into permanent housing and helping roughly 4,700 low-income renters and homeowners continue to stay where they live through rental assistance and home improvement programs. The city has fallen short thus far in reaching its goal of providing financial support for low-income homebuyers; only 125 residents, out of a goal of 400, have taken advantage of the program. Although the city hit the five-year benchmark, some projects within Forever Home, Durham, are still ongoing.

The Region Is Growing

The story of Durham’s growth is no longer a best-kept secret. And for every accolade the city receives highlighting the Bull City as a “best place to live” with James Beard-winning restaurants, the cost of living surges.

Since 2019, the area median income (AMI) at nearly all levels is up 36%. This

measure is used to set price levels for affordable units—for example, units in one apartment complex may be set aside for residents making 80% of the AMI. When the AMI goes up, the price of units available to residents making a percentage of the AMI rises accordingly. While wages have increased, they haven’t kept up with housing prices and cost of goods, and recent cuts to federal agencies like USAID and the potential loss of Medicaid expansion at the state level are putting added pressure on families from a wide swath of Durham.

But How Does Durham’s Affordability Stack Up Against Its Peers’?

According to the Durham Housing Dashboard, median home values in Minneapolis have grown $127,000 since 2014, reaching $322,000 a decade later. In half that time, Durham home values jumped $147,000, hitting over $400,000 in 2024. The sharp increase is due in part to Durham County’s property revaluation schedule. After completing the reappraisal process last year, the county will move to a four-year revaluation schedule (the state requires revaluations at least every eight years), in an effort to minimize the sticker shock that could come from long gaps between home appraisals. Rental costs have also increased in Durham. Tenants are paying roughly $400 more per month than they were in 2019. Many of those rental units are concentrated in the downtown area and often do not account for what housing advocates say is lacking in Durham: workforce housing and mid-density options like duplexes, known as

“missing middle” housing.

Still, Durham boasts commendable stats in important categories. Durham has a high homeownership rate compared to other peer cities. At 55%, Durham outpaces Minneapolis, Ann Arbor, Portland, and Boston, which sits at just 35%.

Durham also has a relatively moderate housing cost burden to both homeowners and rental tenants, according to the Durham Housing Dashboard. Housing cost burden occurs when residents pay more than 30% of their incomes on housing costs. In Durham, 54% of homeowners with household incomes between $20,000 and $35,000 are considered cost-burdened, compared to 75% in Minneapolis and 89% in Ann Arbor. At $50,000 to $75,000, 27% are cost-burdened in Durham; in Minneapolis it’s 40%, and 54% in Portland.

The City Has Made Strides in Creating More Housing Through Private

Partnerships

Veterans of the Monday city council meetings recognize a similar pattern of behavior. Private developers come before the dais to make their requests for an annexation or rezoning of property, and in return, the city council often rebuts with asks for affordable housing, in the form of either dedicated units set aside at a specific level of AMI or contributions to the city’s dedicated housing fund.

City council cannot require private developers to build affordable housing, per the North Carolina General Statutes, but developers can offer to include affordable housing as a sign of goodwill, particularly if they are local or frequently bring cases inside City Hall. Developers can also take advantage of the city’s “density bonus” outlined in the unified development ordinance (UDO), which raises the number of units they can build in a certain zoning district, provided that at least 15% of the units are affordable (measured by AMI) for a minimum of at least 30 years.

Through these privately initiated proffers, Durham signed off on 766 income-restricted units through approved development plans in 2025, a significant bump from the 297 approved in the previous year, according to data provided to the INDY by the city planning department. In addition, 474 additional affordable housing units were created through the density bonus, up from 74 units in 2024. As of 2025, the total number of units for each category is 2,177 and 898, respectively.

The UDO Rewrite Can Provide Options But It Won’t Solve the Affordability Crisis Alone

Housing advocacy in Durham is a dan-

gerous pool to swim in. Sharks lurk in the waters of public discourse and online forums. The issue was at the forefront of local elections last fall and continues to drive the conversation about Durham’s long-term sustainability.

If there’s one thing that both YIMBYs and NIMBYs can agree on, it’s that Durham needs more housing, at every level, for rent and homeownership. How we get there is where the battle lines are drawn, and one tool that folks believe is the skeleton key that unlocks their desired outcomes is the UDO.

Since Durham city councilors and county commissioners passed the Comprehensive Plan in 2023, the planning department has been grinding away at rewriting the UDO, the legislative tool that governs land use in Durham, to better align with the goals set forth by the Comprehensive Plan, which is the visioning document that lays out what Durham residents want their neighborhoods to look and feel like.

Proponents believe new zoning codes would give small, local developers more flexibility to fill gaps in the housing supply with accessory dwelling units, quadplexes, and other housing types that national homebuilders tend to shy away from. The new housing stock would also increase the tax base across Durham, increasing property tax revenue for the city and county to use on essential services.

Skeptics see the UDO, and specifically upzoning, as a path for an already wealthy and powerful group (developers) to get rich quick while increasing the financial strain on Durham’s working class and pressures on the environment. Skeptics also want to rein in development, which some say the city council has been too quick to approve, and give control back to residents, particularly on larger tracts of land like old shopping malls.

The planning department plans to finalize a full UDO draft by the spring, after which the document will undergo immense scrutiny from residents and council members. No matter what the final draft looks like, it will not be the silver bullet. While the increase in supply will have an effect on market competition, it will not automatically solve Durham’s affordability issues. City and county officials have hinted at putting another housing bond on the ballot in the near future, and different leadership at the state and federal levels could provide additional funding sources, but local officials can’t afford to wait and see. They will have to make do with the resources available to them if they hope to make a dent in Durham’s housing shortfall.

DURHAM CO UN T Y Board of Elec tions

RESOLUTION TO ADOPT A POLLING PLACE CHANGE IN DURHAM COUNTY

At a meeting duly called and held on the 8th day of January 2026, the Durham County Board of Elections passed the following resolution:

WHEREAS the county board of elections shall have power from time to time, by resolution, to establish, alter, discontinue, or create such new election precincts or voting places as it may deem expedient, under G.S. 163-128(a);

WHEREAS Precinct 52 Polling Place was located at Evangel Assembly of God, located at 1011 Lynn Road, Durham, NC 27703;

WHEREAS representatives from Evangel Assembly of God informed the Board of Elections of a renovation project to the facility that will prevent its continued use as a polling place;

WHEREAS the Apostolic House of Deliverance, located at 2806 Cheek Road, Durham, NC 27704, has agreed to allow usage of their facility as a polling place for Precinct 52;

WHEREAS the Apostolic House of Deliverance is within the prescribed boundaries of Precinct 52, and is permitted for use as a polling place consistent with G.S. 163-128(a);

WHEREAS a Polling Place Accessibility Survey has been completed for the site and it was found to be ADA compliant; and

WHEREAS the Board of Elections shall notify all voters of the polling place change.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Durham County Board of Elections hereby unanimously approves the relocation of Precinct 52 Polling Place from Evangel Assembly of God to the Apostolic House of Deliverance, located at 2806 Cheek Road, Durham, NC 27704.

This the 8th day of January 2026.

David K. Boone, Chair

Phone:919-560-0700 www.dcovotes.com elections@dconc.gov

NEWS Durham

Down to a Science

Made in Durham’s BULLS Life Sciences Academy and Durham Tech are building a pipeline to land young people from Durham in the area’s flourishing life sciences industry.

BY JUSTIN LAIDLAW jlaidlaw@indyweek.com

The Research Triangle has been a major science and technology hub for decades. In 1984, as the tobacco and textiles industries—long-standing pillars of the North Carolina economy—moved overseas, academic and business leaders saw the writing on the wall and urged legislatures to welcome a burgeoning industry to the Tar Heel State: life sciences.

Across the state, the biotechnology sector has grown 38% since 2018 and is now home to more than 840 life sciences companies. Economic growth in life sciences and biotechnology across the state far outpaces nationwide growth. According to the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBiotech), life sciences and biotech companies invested over $7.6 billion between 2020 and 2022 alone, adding more than 6,000 new jobs. But they had a problem: filling the positions.

Many of the jobs created by these investments offer starting salaries at or above the living wage plus benefits and don’t require advanced degrees. Durham Technical Community College offered the requisite degree and certificate programs in partnership with NCBiotech, but leading up to the COVID pandemic, enrollment was stagnating. In 2020, when most of the economy was retreating inward and folks were leaving the office, the pharmaceutical industry ramped up, heightening the need for new employees. But not enough Durham residents were taking advantage of the programs to fill the available jobs.

Made in Durham, a nonprofit founded in 2014 that focuses on strengthening the “education to career” system for Durham residents, joined forces with city and county staff, Durham Tech, the Durham Chamber of Commerce,

and NCBiotech to come up with a solution for matching these high-quality job opportunities with candidates at a time when jobs were scarce. Through funding from NCBiotech, Durham Tech was able to offer free tuition for anyone to enroll in its BioWorks certificate program, while Made in Durham worked with community partners to recruit students. That year, enrollment in the BioWorks program increased by 300%.

Durham Tech and its partners succeeded in attracting more future employees into the life sciences career pipeline, but a significant demographic of Durham residents were still being left out: About one in five young adults ages 16 to 25 were neither in school nor working. In Durham, many of those youth belonged to communities of color.

“What we saw was people that really didn’t need our help,” said Casey Steinbacher, executive director of Made in Durham, who served as president of the Durham Chamber of Commerce when Made in Durham was created in response to a report conducted by MDC on disconnected youth.

In 2021, Made in Durham created the BULLS Life Sciences Academy to recruit young adults into the BioWorks program at Durham Tech and help prepare them for careers in the industry.

The first cohort included five students. Made in Durham received a grant from the Oak Foundation for $50,000 to provide stipends for the students. At the end of the inaugural program, two out of the five students had passed. But where graduation rates fell short, program leadership learned a lot. Durham County, already a funding partner for Made in Durham, offered $250,000 apiece to Made in

Durham and Durham Tech to beef up the BULLS initiative. Dominique Oliver, director of strategic initiatives at Made in Durham, said BULLS was not just about increasing enrollment for Durham Tech but about meeting the industry needs and building a pipeline for economic prosperity for Durham’s young adult residents.

“When the BULLS started, it didn’t start as a Durham Tech solution, and it’s not a Durham Tech solution,” Oliver said. “What we were looking at was an industry problem. The industry had a huge talent pool that they were missing because Durham residents were not getting those life sciences jobs.”

Figuring out the right model for the program has taken years of tinkering. At the end of every cohort, Steinbacher says the BULLS partners all meet to debrief and make adjustments. A major boost came when Made in Durham received federal funding through the American Rescue Plan Act and the Build Back Better Act, which the organization used to pay other local community groups to help with recruitment and become ambassadors for BULLS Academy.

But it wasn’t just about getting students in the door. They needed to get them across the stage on graduation day. On average, the first five cohorts posted a graduation rate of just 55%.

Academic coaches were already provided to the students through Durham Tech, but Made in Durham worked with the college to add “success coaches” that not only support student academics but prepare students for professional life by helping with writing résumés, preparing

for job interviews, and learning how to navigate the life sciences industry.

In addition to free tuition, students also are granted a $10,000 stipend providing financial support for life expenses like housing and transportation. Students receive a portion of the stipend just for participating. The other half is based on academic performance throughout the program, creating incentives for the students to stay engaged and see the program through until the end.

The final step is getting students into the workforce. Made in Durham expanded its corporate partnership staff to better connect students with professionals in the field, as well as bring businesses into the program to meet with students.

All of these adjustments led to improvements in student achievement.

“The students needed to understand that this wasn’t an activity to get a job. This was an activity to start a career,” Steinbacher said.

Constant iteration allowed the program to finally catch its wind. The next six cohorts graduated 93% of their students, who were also having better success in the job market.

In the first couple of cohorts, Steinbacher said, about one in seven students got a job within the first three months. After deepening corporate partnerships and expanding the number of success coaches, one in three students met that same benchmark.

Since the program started, over 200 students have graduated from BULLS, with 77 now in the field of life sciences across 22 different companies. The BULLS Life Sciences Academy is currently recruiting for its 14th cohort.

Students that join BULLS are enrolled as students at Durham Tech for a fivemonth certification program in life sciences. Students must be 18 to 25 years old, have a high school diploma or equivalent certification, reside in Durham County, and pass a drug test and background check. Interested students have to attend an orientation on life sciences before they can apply, giving them a better understanding of what to expect in the field once they complete the program.

Compared to other industries, a specific certification is more universally accepted by life sciences businesses.

“One of the big things about life science that is different from a lot of other jobs is there’s one certification that all companies recognize,” Oliver said. “So when we’re looking at the way that we structure BULLS, and the reason why we chose the classes that we did, it really gives our students the best opportunity to create a full pipeline for

all of the life science companies.”

Students who finish the program can take their newfound talents into the job market. Others return to pursue further education by completing the associate’s degree in biotechnology or transferring to a four-year university.

Participants have gone on to work at Novo Nordisk, a Danish pharmaceutical company that produces popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which opened a new facility in Durham in 2019 after already investing more than $2 billion in nearby Clayton; and Novartis, a global pharmaceutical company that announced last November it was constructing two new facilities in Durham as part of a $23 billion U.S.-based infrastructure investment. Other multinational pharmaceutical companies like Merck and Lilly have also hired BULLS graduates.

Landing a job in life sciences for BULLS graduates can be a game changer. Starting salaries for some positions go as high as $80,000, far above the poverty line in Durham and higher than the minimum living wage. And the opportunities don’t stop there. Employees in the life sciences industry are well positioned for upward mobility.

“Life science companies are one of the most well-known industry sectors to invest in your personal education,” Steinbacher said. “They have dedicated funding for each position to keep them growing in the industry. That’s why we tell everybody it’s not just a job.”

The Research Triangle, with its acclaimed education system and health-care institutions as well as investments from local and state governments, has the ideal conditions to support the continued growth of the life sciences and biotechnology industries that have made a home in the region.

Unlike jobs at tech companies, many of which are remote and can employ people from around the world, life sciences companies are choosing Durham because of the local talent and training infrastructure already available, making Durham competitive in attracting other life sciences companies to the region, even though building facilities may be cheaper elsewhere.

And now, thanks to programs like Made in Durham, the workforce pipeline is stronger than ever, especially for residents in Durham’s disadvantaged communities. Over the past four years, Durham County has invested $2 million in the BULLS program, while BULLS graduates are bringing in over $3 million in salaries, a significant return on the taxpayer’s investment.

“I believe that the BULLS program is a national model and is one of the most

important things that the county is doing,” said County Commissioner Wendy Jacobs.

The Durham County Board of Commissioners proclaimed January 12 “BULLS Academy Life Sciences Day” in honor of the program’s accomplishments.

“This is about structural systems change,” Jacobs said. “This is the kind of program we have to keep investing in to really transform economic mobility in Durham and make sure that young people, especially young people of color, are directly connected and prepared for the good-paying jobs that we have in Durham.”

BULLS Academy now gets twice as many applications as it can accept, Steinbacher said. The program hopes to take its model and grow workforce training in other sectors, too.

Steinbacher said parents are some of the biggest cheerleaders of the program. At a graduation last year, an enthusiastic mother who had already sent two kids through the program told Steinbacher she was sad not to have more kids to enroll in the BULLS Academy. Twenty minutes later, Steinbacher said the mother came back beaming. She had convinced her niece to give the program a shot.

“Parents are very, very supportive of it,” Steinbacher said. “They come to the graduation, they yell and they scream and they have a good time. And just about every kid in this program would tell you, once their parents found out about [BULLS], they were taking it, whether they wanted to or not.”

DURHAM NEWSMAKERS

Join the INDY and The Assembly Network for a detailed conversation on how Durham is innovating to meet future workforce needs. Staff reporters Justin Laidlaw and Korie Dean will lead the audience through a series of conversations with folks at the forefront of Durham’s economic future, including Durham Technical Community College President JB Buxton and head of alliance development at Novo Nordisk, Nicole Niwa.

When: February 4 at 5 p.m.

Where: Full Frame Theater, Durham Tickets: $10 (free for INDY Press Club members)

GET TICKETS HERE:

DIAMOND FORD: THE BOOK OF ALICE

Scribner Books | January 20, 2026

Holy Book

Talking with North Carolina poet Diamond Forde about faith, family, storytelling, and her new collection, The Book of Alice.

BY SARAH EDWARDS sedwards@indyweek.com

Diamond Forde’s grandmother Alice kept her King James Bible close at hand on her nightstand.

“She was one of those older women who got very little sleep, so she’d sleep for four hours and go straight into the book for a meditation and prayer,” Forde recalled of her grandmother, who was born in the Jim Crow South and had eight children. “If she were talking on the phone in another place in the house and needed it, I would rush off and grab it for her.”

When Alice died, Forde inherited that family Bible—a well-worn red leather copy with gold-leaf edging—and drew from it for The Book of Alice, her second collection of poetry, published January 20 from Scribner Books. Forde is an assistant professor at North Carolina State University; her award-winning 2021 debut collection, Mother Body, touches on some of the same themes as The Book of Alice, like family, identity, survival, and the experience of being a Black woman in America.

With both her collections, Forde strikes a polished, profound balance of formal innovation and lyrical depth. Writer Kiese Laymon called The Book of Alice “ecstatic,” and that feels right—the book is organized into five sections, each named after books of the Bible (with one apocryphal addition), weaving between stylized forms (census reports, recipes) that effortlessly reflect their subject. References abound, from Toni Morrison to Doechii, ham hocks to cicadas.

The Book of Alice digs into the stories we inherit—those passed down between generations of family and those passed down through an ancient text that has offered both comfort and harm to those who hold it close. “Dear LORD, why did you make me in your image if you wanted me ta kneel?”

Alice implores in “Womaning.” This question of subjugation is transformed into a granddaughter’s brave expression of liberation, a few poems later, in “Acts of Submission,” a response to the Book of Timothy: “You tell me to submit / so I submit / to fish & grits / to the goodwill of well-timed rain,” the speaker intones, concluding, “I deserve each earthly pleasure / before the world flits into hot mist.”

In advance of Forde’s January 29 reading at Quail Ridge Books, the INDY spoke with her about family, faith, and storytelling. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

INDY: Can you tell me about your grandmother Alice?

FORDE: She is a complicated woman. I think that is what being human requires, that we’re all a little bit complicated—that being human means we have our successes and failures. My grandmother was no different. Part of what I’m trying to capture in the book is the successes and failures of my grandmother’s survival and, in particular, the way that that surviving still manifests in me as a thing that I am holding on to.

But also, she was a human subject to the insecurities of the world, especially as a Black woman navigating pre-civil rights America, trying to save both herself and her children, which is probably what led her to her faith the most. When my grandmother couldn’t believe in the safety of the world, she could believe in the safety and security of eternal life. Trying to think about what the importance of that investment must have meant to her—the ways it would have affected the way that she raised my mother, the way that, in turn,

affected the way that my mother raised me. My grandmother wasn’t perfect. One of the hardest things I had to learn was that my grandmother didn’t tell my mother that she loved her. That’s a really mind-blowing and difficult thing to learn, but it also means that, as a mother, my mom kind of worked double time to make sure I understood how much she loved me. Thinking about inheritances across multiple generations—not just in the Bible that she gave me, but in the way that she has created a force that [shaped] how my mother and I have moved through the world—is part of what I’m trying to unpack in this book.

I wanted to ask about that poem where you mention how Alice never told your mother she loved her. In Southern families and families that have experienced trauma, a lot of things are left unsaid. What was the process like of putting and imagining words to things?

In any Southern family, especially my own, we’re pretty good at weaponizing silence against ourselves and each other. There were times when even the ideas of womanhood were constructed in and through silence—for my family, the harms and navigations of family life were constructed in and through silence.

I remember being maybe like 10 years old, a young girl, and listening to my mom and my aunts have a conversation with my grandmother. They’re talking about my grandmother’s last husband, who was incredibly abusive—I also found out later in life that my grandmother didn’t know a man who didn’t hurt her. As they are talking about this man, my grandmother gets really angry. They’re trying to, like, tell my grandmother, “He abused you.” And she says, “No, he didn’t. He never did that. He would never do that. He never hit me.” And it was really surreal to watch, because my mom’s face drops. My aunts all look very confused and startled. They were like—“What are you talking about, mom? We had to pull that man off you. We had to call cops.”

There’s this palpable physical violence that lives inside the memories of my mother and my aunts that my grandmother refused to acknowledge and in that, honestly, only hurt herself, truly, right? We have no way of understanding what weaponized or motivated that silence—whether it was some kind of amnesia, a refusal to acknowledge, or a whitewashing of the history. I have no way of knowing what was motivating that particular moment.

But just because my grandmother doesn’t want to acknowledge the hurt and harm doesn’t mean that it goes away. One of the things that I’ve had to sit with in the tell-

ing of this project is giving voice to those silences that my own family has tried to manufacture, trying to respect the balance between what is my story to tell and what also is the thing that I can allow to exist in silence? Trying to tease out those possibilities was probably the most challenging part of trying to write this book. But in doing so, I do hope that I found my grandmother’s voice in ways that she couldn’t find while she was still here.

You have the Bible to work with but also all this ephemera, like recipes and the census. How do family texts work as storytelling vehicles?

There’s this essay by Saidiya Hartman called “Venus in Two Acts.” In that essay, she talks about the archive of violence that basically shapes Black history, in particular during enslavement. She talks about the ways that we can only find evidence of Black life through archives that are meant to categorize our death. We’re looking at stock lists, at obituaries, at police reports. Taking that as a lens through which you capture history, part of what I wanted to do with this project is to resist that dehumanization. What are alternative forms of history that we often overlook, that are often forgotten, that do signal subjectivity, that do signal humanity—or at least could be put into tension with the ways that they are trying to erase our humanity?

We have recipes, which I think are beautiful celebrations of a life, because there is, it’s a life that is contingent on this feeding and this feeding of family, like you’re not just cooking for yourself, you’re cooking for others, and you’re cooking for reunions and celebrations. There are all of these opportunities for joy and for wholeness and care that we don’t necessarily find in something like a census. We’re thinking about these two very different modes of categorizing a person, and how we create or find the tensions of humanity in between those spaces.

I’m curious about the book structure—you have Genesis, Exodus, Lamentations, Daughters, Revelations. How did you go about choosing which Bible books to include? Were any other books on the short list?

When I first conceived of it, there were only three [books]: Genesis, Exodus, and then I believe Revelations was the last one. In thinking through the arc of the book, and thinking through all of the poems that were conceived in these sections, I really wanted to think about origins, which is a beautiful manifestation of Genesis. And Exodus has

a parallel of leaving, in particular [Alice’s] travel northward from the Jim Crow South but also, at the same time, an exploration of her own journey into death, right? Which is its own kind of leaving. And then Revelations, which is kind of like, “OK, well, where do we go from here?” That the joy of leveling is in revelry, is something that I wanted to kind of move toward in the end.

As I was looking at the full scope, I realized there were so many different intimacies and minor themes that were being overlooked in some of those books, and so I expanded outward from there. That’s when we opened up to Lamentations, and that’s when I created my own apocryphal book, Daughters. Part of what I was trying to do is look at the Bible [as] my grandmother’s first and true understanding of poetry. It was the only poetry that she knew and consumed on a regular basis, so if I wanted to connect with her, I needed to do it through that poetry. But also, it was my way of looking into what I thought were gaps in the most canonized text in the world. Who are the voices that are the most overlooked?

The first printing of The Book of Alice has some text in red, the way that Jesus’s words are sometimes printed in the Bible. Can you tell me about that style choice?

I knew I wanted to play with red letters, but I didn’t know whose voice I wanted the red letters to be in. There’s always the tension of who plays savior in a biblical text, and one of the things that I wanted to resist was the idea of a savior. There is no singular savior in this particular book. That’s not something that I’m interested in recreating. Instead, when I’m using the red-letter text, what I’m trying to highlight is my grandmother’s humanity—her ability to speak, the importance of her voice, the thing that we do lose through systematic violence but also through time, through death. To resurrect her voice as a means of understanding who she is but also, most importantly, who I am.

There is a clear tension in the fact that I am the one constructing this voice, thinking about the tensions between what moments are spoken and what moments aren’t. Part of what I wanted that red letter to encourage—what I want from the audience, or rather readers, most of all—is for them to read this book out loud. I want these words to live off the page. That’s part of the point; my grandmother did live off the page. And I hope that even though I’m constructing her story on the page, that at some point during the reader’s experience, the words get to live off of the page.

DURHAM CO UN T Y Board of Elec tions

RESOLUTION TO ADOPT A POLLING PLACE CHANGE IN DURHAM COUNTY

At a meeting duly called and held on the 8th day of January 2026, the Durham County Board of Elections passed the following resolution:

WHEREAS the county board of elections shall have power from time to time, by resolution, to establish, alter, discontinue, or create such new election precincts or voting places as it may deem expedient, under G.S. 163-128(a);

WHEREAS Precinct 28 Polling Place was located at Mangum Elementary School, located at 9008 Quail Roost Road, Bahama, NC 27503;

WHEREAS after additional information was provided by Mangum Elementary School regarding voter access to the facility, it was determined that the facility is not suitable to serve as a polling place for Precinct 28;

WHEREAS Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, located at 8021 Stagville Road, Bahama, NC 27503, has agreed to allow usage of their facility as a polling place for Precinct 28;

WHEREAS Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church is within the prescribed boundaries of Precinct 28, and is permitted for use as a polling place consistent with G.S. 163-128(a);

WHEREAS a Polling Place Accessibility Survey has been completed for the site and it was found to be ADA compliant; and

WHEREAS the Board of Elections shall notify all voters of the polling place change.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Durham County Board of Elections hereby unanimously approves the relocation of Precinct 28 Polling Place from Mangum Elementary School to Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, located at 8021 Stagville Road, Bahama, NC 27503.

This the 8th day of January 2026.

David K. Boone, Chair

Phone:919-560-0700 www.dcovotes.com elections@dconc.gov

FOOD & DRINK

Dishing Out

As Western Wake grows, so does the area’s polished modern Indian dining scene.

BY JASMINE GALLUP backtalk@indyweek.com

I

f you’re in search of good Indian food in the Triangle, you don’t have to look far. A short drive through western Wake County will take you past a dozen great options, whether it’s a casual curry joint with extra-spicy vindaloo or a strip mall eatery where you’ll be treated like family. These are restaurants that offer more than just American interpretations of classic Indian dishes. On most menus, past the chicken tikka masala and garlic naan, you’ll find dishes local to specific South Asian regions: food from North India and the Punjabi region, South India and Tamil Nadu, and the Nepalese Himalayas.

The culinary diversity found in Apex, Cary, and Morrisville reflects the area’s growing international population. In 2023, the most recent year for which data is available, Morrisville had the highest population of people identifying as Asian Indian, at 34.3%. That number doubled since 2010, when the percentage of people identifying as Asian

Indian in Morrisville was around 17%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Thousands of people attend Cary’s Asia Fest each year, and in the fall, Cary and Morrisville each hold events for Diwali, the festival of lights celebrated widely across India. And as the community grows, so does an appetite for Indian food, represented this winter by a burst of new restaurants on the scene. Kaara Modern Indian, an upscale, modern space, opened in October. Just a few months later, in December, chef Preeti Waas opened a new café, Cheeni in RTP.

This April, popular Cary restaurant Urban Angeethi plans to reopen following a massive renovation. And later this year, the team behind Durham’s Urban Turban Indian Grill and Bar plans to open a new restaurant in northern Cary: Reserve—Elevated Indian Dining.

Indian restaurants in the area already had a strong cus-

tomer base. But a growing demand for international food, combined with new construction, has created a golden opportunity for restaurateurs—particularly those specializing in fine dining. In 2024, 261 new commercial building permits were issued in Wake County, including 20 in Cary, 19 in Apex, and two in Morrisville.

New apartment complexes, mixed-use developments, and shopping centers have been springing up in and around Interstate 540 as Wake County’s population grows rapidly. From 2020 to 2024, the total number of residents in Wake County jumped by more than 140,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

That has created openings for restaurants to move in on the ground floor, including in new “live-work-play” communities like Sweetwater Town Center.

Kaara Modern Indian | 2700 Stokesdale Ave., Unit 120, Apex

With its pristine sidewalks and vividly green center lawn, the newly built Sweetwater Town Center in Apex has a polished feel. Inside the center, a new modern Indian restaurant offers an urban mood.

Kaara Modern Indian has its own sophisticated flair. With maximalist decor and soft instrumental music, even a simple lunch at the restaurant feels luxurious. For co-owner Bala Mummidi, it’s all in the details—like the unique bronze cutlery or custom wall panels with a stylized star anise symbol.

“We haven’t seen any place that is upscale in this area,” she said. “That gave us a motive to start a restaurant with ambience and good food, a combination of both. We’ve seen repeat customers from all the communities coming in. They love that there is something to go to here in Apex, rather than going to Cary.”

The restaurant opened on October 24 and has already seen success hosting large parties and corporate events, said Mummidi. Its white-tableclothed dining room seats about 80 or 90 and is connected to a more casual space that seats about 30. The restaurant also has a private dining room, outdoor patio, and bar, the latter of which is a visual pleasure in and of itself. Custom cocktails in vivid colors, topped with perfectly placed garnishes, use distinctive Indian spices and flavor combinations.

The menu includes a mix of northern and southern Indian cuisine, as well as a few Indo-Chinese dishes like Sichuan noodles. Diners can easily find familiar favorites like samosas and chicken korma, but won’t be disappointed if they’re in a more adventurous mood. The restaurant has a wide range of vegetarian options, including a rich, spicy gobi manchurian and the incredibly savory and addictive crispy corn, a standout appetizer that families are sure to fight over.

CAT'S CRADLE

FEBRUARY

2/1 SU: BRONWYN KEITH-HYNES W/ SUGAREE STRING SOCIETY

2/5 TH: FANCY GAP AND LUA FLORA W/ DAVIE CIRCLE

2/7 SA: JONAH KAGAN SOLD OUT W/ ANNA GRAVES

2/10 TU: ELECTRIC GUEST W/ SNACKTIME

2/11 WE: LANGHORNE SLIM W/ LANEY JONES AND THE SPIRITS

2/13 FR: THE CONNELLS W/ EARLY EXIT

2/14 SA: BOB MARLEY BIRTHDAY

CELEBRATION W/MICKEY MILLS AND STEEL, DUB ADDIS, ZION PROJECT JOEL KEEL, DJ RAS J

2/15 SU: KNOCK ON WOOD: STAX RECORDS TRIBUTE

2/21 SA: PETER MCPOLAND W/ DUG

2/22 SU: BRISCOE W/ JACK BLOCKER 2/26 TU: STS9

2/28 SA: MICHAEL SHANNON, SOLD OUT JASON NARDUCY & FRIENDS

PLAY R.E.M.’S LIFES RICH PAGEANT MARCH

3/3 TU: GOLDIE BOUTILIER W /SYD TAYLOR

3/5 TH: NOTHING W/ FULL BODY 2, CRYOGEYSER

3/6 FR: THE NUDE PARTY W/ SIX FOOT BLONDE

3/7 SA: ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS: DIRTWIRE

3/10 TU: ATERCIOPELADOS

3/11 WE: PUMA BLUE W/ SALAMI ROSE JOE LOUIS

3/13 FR: DOGPARK

3/15 SU: THE EARLY NOVEMBER AND HELLOGOODBYE W/ PUNCHLINE

3/20 FR: MASON JENNINGS (SEATED SHOW)

3/21 SA: BENEE W/ BAYLI

3/30 MO: MADISON CUNNINGHAM W/ ANNIKA BENNETT

3/31 TU: INDIGO DE SOUZA APRIL

4/1 WE: BIG STAR QUINTET CELEBRATES FIVE DECADES OF THE INFLUENTIAL BAND’S LEGACY

4/8 WE: TIGERS JAW W/ HOT FLASH HEAT WAVE

4/10 FR: BILLIE MARTEN

4/14 TU: SARAH KINSLEY W/CHARLIE BURG

4/15 WE: KISHI BASHI: SONDERLUST 10TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR W/ BAYONNE

4/16 TH: MARTIN SEXTON (SEATED SHOW) 4/18 SA: ELIZA MCLAMB: GOOD STORY TOUR

4/20 MO: THE MOSS W/ HOTEL FICTION

4/29 WE: FISHBONE: IN YOUR FACE 40TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

MAY

5/2 SA: WEDNESDAY W/VERITY DEN SOLD OUT

5/3 SU: WEDNESDAY SOLD OUT W/ TRUTH CLUB

5/4 MO: WEDNESDAY SOLD OUT

5/5 TU: CASS MCCOMBS

5/6 WE: UNPROCESSED W/ ALT, MIDWINTER

5/17 SU: IRON & WINE W/ IMPROVEMENT MOVEMENT JUNE

6/18 TH: THE BETHS SOLD OUT AUGUST

8/7 FR: DIGGY GRAVES W/ RESENTFUL, RYAN OAKES OCTOBER

10/18 SU: BENJAMIN TOD & THE INLINE SIX CAT'S CRADLE BACK ROOM

JANUARY

1/28 WE: CARRBORO BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL PRESENTS BLUEGRASS IN THE BACK ROOM (SEATED SHOW) W/LARRY & JOE, CAROLINA CUTUPS

1/29 TH: JOHNNY SUNRISE AND THE CLOUDS W/SUPERMUTT AND AUTUMN HOUSE

1/30 FR: DAVIE CIRCLE, JACKSON SLATER BAND, BILL MOORE + HIS SECRET ADMIRERS, YAKAMASHII

1/31 SA: MEGA COLOSSUS, MORTAL MAN, ARCHAOS FEBRUARY

2/1 SU: CANDI JENKINS W/ KIT MCKAY BAND

2/2 MO: FRIENDSHIP. W/ NATALIE JANE HILL

2/4 WE: MATT PRYOR W/ WITH LOVE AND SMALL UNCLE

2/5 TH: BAD BAD HATS W/ SMUT

2/6 FR: TOBACCO ROAD W/ FUDGE

2/7 SA: NO COCKER MAD DOGS & ENGLISHMEN TRIBUTE

2/13 FR: BLUE CACTUS / SKYLAR GUDASZ

2/14 SA: AMELIA DAY W/ MAIA KAMIL

2/15 SU: CUPID’S JAM (FUNDRAISER FOR TABLE)

2/19 TH: THE JACK WHARFF BAND W/ MAX ALAN

2/20 FR: CHRIS CHISM EP RELEASE PARTY W/ NICOLE TESTER, LONNIE ROTT, OMAR RUIZ-LOPEZ

2/21 SA: VACATION MANOR W/ RHINELAND

2/23 MO: NUOVO TESTAMENTE W/ DARK CHISME

2/26 TU: TYLER RAMSEY & CARL BROEMEL W/ MAGGIE HALFMAN

2/27 FR: PAUL MCDONALD & THE MOURNING DOVES

2/28 SA: NEP W/ BRIZB MARCH

3/3 TU: AL OLENDER

3/4 WE: ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS: COMA CINEMA W/ TRACE MOUNTAIN

3/6 FR: IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE W/ POISON PEN, DJ STATIC

3/7 SA: SLOW TEETH, SCRAPE, MINOR STARS

8 SU: RACHEL BOHNER

3/10 TU: BEDROOM DIVISION W/ WILIAM HINSON, LENNON KC

3/11 WE: LOS STRAITJACKETS & DEKE DICKERSON

3/13 FR: SURFING FOR DAISY

3/14 SA: ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS: TWEN W/ MONSOON

3/16 MO: SKULLCRUSHER

3/19 TH: PRESSING STRINGS / DRIFTWOOD

3/25 WE: MODEL / ACTRIZ SOLD OUT

3/26 TH: CLOVER COUNTY

3/27 FR: THE STILL NOT OKAY TOUR FT. TURTLE SMASH: PERFORMING AS MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, FAKE HAPPY: A TRIBUTE TO PARAMORE, THE DIRTY LITTLE REJECTS : A TRIBUTE TO THE ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS (RESCHEDULED FROM JAN 24)

3/28 SA: HUDSON FREEMAN W/ RUBY PLUME APRIL

4/3 FR: REMEMBER SPORTS

4/5 SU: VAULTBOY

4/6 MO: CAMPING IN ALASKA

4/7 TU: IN COLOR

4/10 FR: WILD PARTY W/ PRETORIA

4/12 SU: FIELD MEDIC. + EUPHORIA AGAIN

4/16 TH: NEVER ENDING FALL 4/17 FR: WALLICE W/ FAKE DAD

4/18 SA: REC HALL

4/19 SU: DELICATE STEVE

4/23 TH: EASY HONEY

4/24 FR: KROOKED KINGS

4/25 SA: GATLIN

4/28 TU: LUNA LUNA

4/29 WE: ARTS FISHING CLUB / HARVEY STREET

30 TH: FOXTIDE MAY

5/1 FR: EMILY YACINA

5/2 SA: LUCY BEDROQUE SOLD OUT

5/5 TU: GELLI HAHA

5/7

“We are keeping the traditional taste, but we are enhancing the richness and creams of it with the different masalas in it, the flavors,” Mummidi said.

Urban Angeethi | 5033 Arco St., Cary

Ten miles away, in a brick shopping center off I-540 in West Cary, an overwhelmingly popular local restaurant has plans to expand.

Urban Angeethi, known for its chic dining room, North Indian cuisine, and Punjabi dishes like butter chicken, first opened in 2021. From Day 1, there was a line out the door, said co-owner Chakshu Singh Agrawal.

Agrawal was surprised to see so much interest in the restaurant during its early days, she said. But the quality of the food kept people coming back, sustaining the restaurant during hard times and in the years that followed.

Four years later, the restaurant has seen major growth and is now at the point of having to turn down some reservation requests. Agrawal and her co-owners had already planned to expand when a space next door opened up, allowing them to keep the restaurant in the current location.

The renovation, planned for this spring, will double the restaurant’s size to an expansive 4,600 square feet. In addition to expanding the kitchen, there will be more space for customers, with the dining room growing from about 110 seats to 230 seats. There are also plans for a new outdoor space expected to seat about 70, says Agrawal.

The renovation won’t just revamp the space, however. Agrawal also plans to rebrand the restaurant and reinvent

the menu. Don’t worry, traditional Indian dishes and customer favorites will remain untouched, said Agrawal. But she and her co-owners hope to introduce new menu items that will prove just as popular.

Over the last few months, they’ve already tested out some new dishes common to Kashmir—a region in the far north of India that borders Pakistan and China—like methi chaman, which has been a hit. Agrawal said they plan to keep experimenting, with plans to unveil a brand-new menu after the restaurant reopens. There are also plans to “elevate the ambience,” Agrawal said.

“I want to design a very unique and really aesthetically beautiful restaurant. When people come in, I want them to feel like, ‘Oh, wow,’” she said. “If you go to North Raleigh, there are a lot of good restaurants. I always thought we should have something upscale, a fine dining Indian restaurant, we can introduce to RTP people.”

Agrawal said she expects the restaurant to close for about a month for renovations but hopes to open again in mid-April, before Mother’s Day.

Cheeni in RTP | 3151 Elion Dr., Research Triangle Park

In Research Triangle Park, James Beard award-nominated chef Preeti Waas is bringing her simple but flavorful food back to Wake County.

Waas’ first full restaurant, Cheeni Indian Food Emporium, was located in North Raleigh. Locals will remember the spot’s chai and counter service fondly, along with its welcoming communal atmosphere. Unfortunately, after

learning the building was being sold to an out-of-state company, and already struggling with high rents and operating costs, the restaurant closed in 2023. Around the same time, Waas expanded to the Bull City with Cheeni Durham.

Now, Waas is reviving her original concept in Research Triangle Park, with a community-oriented café that opened on December 17. RTP is the perfect home, Waas said, with a space designed for interaction.

Horseshoe at Hub, where the restaurant is located, “encourages strolling the green, children playing in the splash pad, live programming on the stage,” she said. Waas is already offering cooking classes in the new space, an element that was part of her original vision for Cheeni.

The menu at Cheeni in RTP doesn’t mark a big departure from Waas’ area of expertise—it’s simply a new place to enjoy her excellent South Indian and Punjabi dishes. One of the most popular meals on the menu is the kebab roll, which proves to be a perfect weekday lunch. People often visit Cheeni “for the freshness of our food,” said Waas. “Our samosas are made daily, naan made to order, the sambar chock-full of vegetables.”

“The biggest physical difference is in the space itself,” Waas said. “ We have intentionally carved out a private dining room to accommodate both corporate and private events, as well as having an open kitchen.”

The restaurant is currently open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday. But in the coming months, Waas also plans to begin dinner service that will be “completely different from that in downtown Durham—both in terms of menu, as well as service style.”

Old Growth

Two arborists’ uncommon hobby takes them deep into the woods to look for the state’s leafy giants.

BY JONATHAN PATTISHALL backtalk@indyweek.com

More than two dozen species of oak are native to North Carolina. But with a quick glance and some context clues, Luke Ferreira and Spencer Cain can identify pretty much all of them. Not to mention most trees in every other native genus as well.

On a johnboat cutting up Turkey Quarter Creek in the eastern part of the state, Ferreira has been instructing me about the differences between water oaks and laurel oaks.

“Water oaks have a leaf shaped like a teardrop, and laurel oaks have an almost diamond-shaped leaf,” he says. “And believe it or not, laurel oaks like water more than water oaks do.”

Ferreira takes his trees seriously, but he also allows himself a moment of amusement at the water oak’s ironic name. Then it’s right back to swamp ecology. “Water oaks still like water,” he tells me. “They just don’t necessarily like standing water.”

Turkey Quarter Island, which lies between the creek on one side and the Neuse River on the other, is flooded from a nor’easter that recently passed over Craven County, home to nearby Vanceboro. There’s water almost everywhere.

That’s okay, though. The specific tree we’re looking for right now doesn’t mind getting its roots wet. It thrives in the swamp. It’s grown so big out here, it has earned itself a title.

“When we found this one, it was in the most perfect health we’ve seen,” Cain says.

Luke Ferreira and Spencer Cain hunt for champion trees along Turkey Quarter Creek. (Madeline Gray for The Assembly)

He and Ferreira are hoping the tree’s good health helped it through the storm. Big trees are generally big because they’ve been growing a long time. In other words, because they’re old. And like many older things, old trees are liable

to blow over in a nor’easter. It’s not guaranteed we’ll find this one upright.

But as Ferreira throttles the motor and we glide around a bend in the creek, an enormous mass emerges from the subtropical thicket and immediately commands our view. There it is, the largest known water hickory in North Carolina.

“I’ll be danged,” Cain says with relief. “Look at that.”

“Still standing,” Ferreira confirms.

Deep Into the Woods

Ferreira and Cain began hunting for champion trees five years ago. This uncommon hobby takes them deep into the woods to look for the biggest trees they can find in any given species—both the biggest of the big and the biggest of the small.

Though they keep their eyes open for superlative trees everywhere they go, they hunt for them predominantly in central and eastern North Carolina. Their big finds reflect the tree species native to those regions.

The North Carolina Forest Service, which is part of the state Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, maintains a list of the largest known tree for each species in the state, and the University of Tennessee maintains the National Register of Champion Trees for the biggest ones in the country. Ferreira and Cain seek out giant trees mostly for fun, but if they discover a clear contender, they’ll nominate it to the relevant organization to see if they’ve found a new state or national champion.

Such was the case two years ago, when they first came across this particular water hickory. They thought it must be bigger than the current state champion, so they measured it and sent their numbers to the N.C. Forest Service, along with the tree’s coordinates.

In keeping with its protocols, the agency sent out a county ranger, who checked their measurements and confirmed that their tree was indeed larger than the previous champion. Ferreira and Cain haven’t seen the hickory since it was crowned champ and added to the state list, so they wanted to drop in for a wellness check.

“We’ll throw a tape measure on it, see if it’s grown any,” Ferreira says.While they work, they talk me through the mechanics of measuring trees. Even within the same species, trees can vary so widely in their dimensions that it’s not always clear how to evaluate differences in size. Over the years, foresters and tree hunters have developed a

more or less standardized approach for these comparisons, which is used today by both the National Champion Tree Program and the N.C. Forest Service.

Trees are given scores on three criteria: one point for each inch of trunk circumference and a quarter-point for each foot of average crown spread (both measured with a simple tape measure), as well as one point for each foot of height (measured with a laser rangefinder or a clinometer). When tallied, these points allow for comparisons between different tree shapes.

It takes Ferreira and Cain working together to string the tape measure around the behemoth water hickory. When they reconnect the ends of the tape, it reads 216 inches, or 18 feet on the dot.

“It gained six inches in circumference, so it’s still growing pretty vigorously,” Ferreira says. “When something reaches the end of its life, its growth slows way down, almost to the point of not growing at all. Six inches in two years is promising.”

Standing at the hickory’s base and looking up, I’m awestruck by its presence. Its topmost twigs and leaves reach out high above the forest canopy, and its larger branches don’t even begin emerging from the trunk until 40 or 50 feet above the ground. To think that this tree is still growing vigorously is inspiring, and almost unbelievable.

What Others Miss

“We keep this as a hobby,” Ferreira tells me as we trudge through the semi-aquatic underbrush at our next stop. “We don’t want it to feel like a job.”

We’re searching now for an overcup oak, a particularly stout one that Ferreira and Cain know they’ve seen out here somewhere. They haven’t had a chance to measure it before, but they think it might give the current state champion overcup oak a run for its acorns.

I know what Ferreira means about hobbies and jobs, but I still find his statement a little curious. Both men work in the Raleigh office of Bartlett Tree Experts, one of America’s largest tree care companies. Ferreira is a safety coordinator, Cain a sales representative. Both are certified arborists. Working with trees is their job.

The two became fast friends at Bartlett. After Cain discovered the North Carolina big tree list online, he and Ferreira realized that their specialized knowledge would give them an advantage when looking for champions.

In the woods, Cain and Ferreira are literally hugging trees to get the tape measure around massive trunks, but neither is anything like popular ideas of the metaphorical tree hugger.

Ferreira touches the roots of a massive water hickory.

They use a special set of criteria to measure the trees and compare them to the list of state and national champions.

(Madeline Gray for The Assembly)

A country boy who grew up in New Bern, Ferreira, 26, tells me with his easy Southern drawl about all the different hunting seasons—actual animal hunting, not tree hunting—he enjoys. “Deer, bear, rabbits, squirrels, ducks, doves,” he says. “Pretty much everything.”

His favorite place to get barbecue is Skylight Inn in Ayden, the mark of a true eastern North Carolinian. Cain, 29, is an Army veteran from Apex. He joined Bartlett after spending four years as a paratrooper and 50-caliber machine gunner with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg. He’s more reserved than Ferreira, but he opens up to direct questions.

“Feels like five decades ago,” he says when I ask him about his Army service. “I forget I was in a lot. Just like, ‘Oh, yeah, I did that, right.’”

Though they still get out on tree hunting excursions when they can, the frequency dropped about three years ago, when both became fathers within six months of each other. Ferreira and his girlfriend had their daughter first; Cain and his fiancée welcomed a baby girl shortly thereafter Before I can ask them more about fatherhood, something interesting catches Ferreira’s eye.

“Oh, I thought that was a Carolina ash,” he says, inspecting the leaves and bark on a slender tree more closely. “That would have been a huge one.”

It turns out it’s just a relatively small green ash, but the mix-up reveals one of the quirks of champion tree hunting. Two trees of the same size that look identical to the untrained eye might actually be different species, making one a runaway champion and the other a middling wannabe.

Ferreira and Cain’s dendrological expertise gives them a leg up, both in tree hunting and in the outdoors more generally. They see and appreciate things in the woods that most people take for granted, or miss entirely.

The mere presence of the green ash here also transmits some meaningful information.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard of the emerald ash borer,” Ferreira says, referring to an invasive beetle from Asia that has been ravaging North American ash species for the last two decades. “As far as I’ve seen, this island hasn’t been affected by the borer yet at all.”

This feels like good tidings, or at least like temporary relief in an era where each day seems to bear worse environmental news than the one before. Mature ash trees are particularly beautiful inhabitants of our forests, with branches that sweep elegantly away from their trunks and furrowed bark that looks like something out of a storybook. They are old inhabitants as well—ashes have been growing in the southeastern United States for more than 30 million years.

It will be a great pity if the North American varieties are all wiped out by the emerald ash borer, which is a very real possibility. For today, at least, they are alive and seemingly healthy on this remote swamp island.

Forest of Champions

For some perspective on champion trees, I reached out to Gary Williamson, one of the most prominent big tree hunters in America. The 81-year-old Williamson and his friend

Byron Carmean, both of Virginia, have found hundreds of state and national champions in their four decades of searching. In the latest National Register of Champion Trees, they are noted as the most prolific nominators in the country—of the 548 trees on the national list, Williamson and Carmean tracked down 62 of them.

A few years ago, Ferreira contacted Williamson online. Ferreira and Cain had started finding potential champions of their own, and he was eager to compare notes with the two experts north of the state line. A kind of intergenerational friendship ensued, one centered around giant trees.

“We have a good national program at the University of Tennessee, and from what I understand, North Carolina’s big tree program is rolling,” Williamson said. “It’s in good shape with two young hunters like Lucas and Spencer. Those two are the future of the North Carolina big tree program.”

But what about tree hunting itself? I asked Williamson. Do champion trees have any role to play in our lives—in forest management, for example, or in conservation? Do they do anything other than just stand around, being big?

“They can play a big part, and I’ll use the Congaree as an example,” he said.

The Congaree floodplain spans thousands of acres in Richland County, South Carolina. It’s a special kind of ecosystem, an old-growth bottomland hardwood forest, one of the best preserved and largest remaining of its kind.

“When it was just Congaree Swamp, and it was under private ownership, they called it ‘Congaree, Forest of Champions,’ because it had so many big, impressive champion trees,” Williamson said.

The landowners, however, were from a logging family, and they harvested timber from the property off and on from the 1880s into the 1970s. The logging eventually threatened the last remnants of the old-growth forest, producing a public backlash and a popular movement for the federal government to buy the property and preserve it.

Congress acquired the land and turned it into a national monument in 1976 and then a national park in 2003. The number and sheer size of the champion trees in the area was central to the push for protection.

“It became a national park,” Williamson said. “Because those trees were so impressive, the Congaree was saved.”

A List of Big Finds

Cain and Ferreira eventually locate the overcup oak right where they left it two years ago—a few hundred feet inland from

Turkey Quarter Creek, next to a mucky slough. It’s the perfect place for an overcup oak, a swamp-dwelling species that loves to cast shade over standing water with its lustrous, deeply lobed leaves.

The tree is huge, especially around the trunk. But Ferreira, estimating the height at close to 100 feet, determines that it’s probably too short to challenge the 124foot specimen in Martin County that currently holds the state title, even if its trunk circumference and crown spread turn out to be larger.

At best, it might be named a co-champion, a designation given to trees that score within a few points of the current state or national champion but aren’t large enough to supplant it outright. However, Cain and Ferreira aren’t interested in nominating co-champions. If they were, they would have nominated a half-dozen other specimens they’ve found—including a hackberry, an American bladdernut, a Washington hawthorn, and others—that are big, but probably not big enough to become undisputed state champions.

Still, Cain and Ferreira mark the coordinates of this overcup oak. Seasoned tree hunters keep running lists of their notable finds, even if they aren’t yet clear contenders. No one knows which trees will keep growing and which will fall. Should the current champ die, it’s good to have potential replacements at the ready and to know exactly where they are.

I ask Ferreira and Cain if the trees we’ve seen today have any commercial value.

“Yeah, a lot of these trees out here do,” Ferreira says. “Laurel oaks, not so much. But the overcups do. And on a bit higher ground than this, cherrybark oaks, they’re one of the most commercially valuable oaks. They grow fast, really tall, and straight.”

That species name awakens a memory in Cain. “We found a huge cherrybark oak on the north end of Jordan Lake, near Durham,” he says. “And right at the base of it was a bobcat and its babies. That was the first time I’d ever seen a bobcat.”

I’ve never run into a bobcat before, and I’m not sure I would want to in a forest wilderness, especially if it was with its babies. But Cain’s story is a welcome reminder that commercial value isn’t the only kind of value these trees hold. Oaks, in particular, nourish and shelter countless species.

Back in the boat and cruising down a cut-through to the Neuse River, we pass a section of Turkey Quarter Island we haven’t seen yet. Ferreira, one hand on the tiller of the outboard motor, lets his gaze run across the canopy overhanging the creek and sighs with disappointment. He points to a few sickly trees next to the bank, their outer-

most twigs and branches bare of leaves. “I was talking about how the emerald ash borer hadn’t made it out here,” he says. “I think it’s made it now.”

Treatments exist for ash trees infested with the borer, but they are too expensive and impractical to be used in forest settings. Within 20 years, this section of the river likely won’t have a single mature ash left alive—whether green, Carolina, or any other kind. Saplings might continue sprouting up here and there for a while, but no ash will ever live long enough to resemble anything close to a champion.

A Modest Champ

Out on the flooded banks of the Neuse River, Ferreira and Cain have brought me to the last tree of the day, a very big deciduous holly. This one is so big, they’re thinking of bypassing the state big tree list entirely and nominating it directly to the national list.

Though when I say big, I mean big for a deciduous holly. These are naturally smaller trees, and when we find the specimen partly submerged in the floodwaters, I’m struck by the possibility of a champ that’s so modest in size, at least relative to the other trees we’ve seen today.

Ferreira points out, though, that the champion trees of smaller species are often the most impressive. They don’t get the kind of attention that huge oaks and pines do—most people walk or boat right by them, oblivious to their existence—but they’ve survived a long time to get where they are.

“They grow pretty slow, especially being in the understory here,” Ferreira says, “but this one’s probably about 100 years old.”

Due to the flooding, it’s impossible to get exact metrics on the tree for a nomination, so they take some approximate measurements instead for a quick check on its chances of making the national list.

“I think the national champion is what, 80 points, Spencer?” Ferreira asks.

“Oh, close,” Cain confirms.

“Forty-one inch circumference,” Ferreira says, inspecting the tree, “and then probably, oh, I read it at 30 feet tall. So that’d be 71 points right there.”

And that’s not even including crown spread, which would add more points to its score.

“It’d probably be right around 80 points,” he says. “And it might be taller than 30 feet. Definitely the biggest deciduous holly I’ve ever found.”

Ferreira and Cain determine that it’s worth coming back in drier conditions to get numbers for an official nomination. If a certified tree measurer from the National Register of Champion Trees comes out and validates those numbers, and this tree does score 80 points or more, it will easily replace the current national champion, which sits at 76 points.

In other words, if this big holly on the Neuse River keeps doing what trees do, putting one ring on top of the other, it stands a good chance of becoming a champion some day. And if it can defy the forces arrayed against it—floods, storms, pests, and others surely to come—it might even remain champion, at least for a while.

CULTURE CALENDAR

WED 1/28

MUSIC

Left To Suffer 7 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

The Movement: Visions Tour 2026 With Special Guests Tropidelic 7:30 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

STAGE

Active Imagination: A Festival of New Dance + Music Jan. 27-29, 7 p.m. Shadowbox Studio, Durham.

Bulldog Ensemble Theater Presents: Fatherland Jan 22 - Feb 1, various times, Mettlesome Theater, Durham.

Connor Wood Presents: Fibs & Friends 7 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Primary Trust Jan 28 - Feb 15, various times. Playmakers, Raleigh.

Rhinoceros Jan. 22-Feb. 1, various times. PSI Theatre, Durham.

Larry & Joe, Carolina Cutups 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

The Remember Balloons 1 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

THUR

1/29

MUSIC

1000 Birds 7:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

The Glenn Miller Orchestra 7 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Island Moons with Run Hill 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Johnny Sunrise and the Clouds 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Logan Crosby: The So Damn Free Tour 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Paradise Motel / Grady Drugg / Severed Fingers 7:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

STAGE

Tom Papa: Grateful Bread Tour 7 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Stupid F##king Bird Jan. 29-Feb. 1, various times. Kennedy-McIlwee Studio Theatre, Raleigh.

Super Diamond: The Neil Diamond Tribute 8 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh.

SCREEN

Full Frame Road Show 2026: Come See Me In The Good Light 7 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

FRI 1/30

MUSIC

Appalachian Road Show

7:30 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Chapel Hill Alt-Country Show 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

E’LON JD Record Release / ZONES 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Finger Heart: K-Pop Dance Party 9 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Josh Ritter Jan 30-31, 8 p.m. Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw.

Last Friday Night 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

Madame Butterfly Jan. 30Feb. 1, various times. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Matt Booth Quintet 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Panic Stricken: A Tribute to Widespread Panic 8:30 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Waking April with Whoop 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

STAGE

Ms. Pat 8 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show 11:55 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh.

Zachariah Porter: The Big Back Behavior Tour 8 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

SAT 1/31

MUSIC

Anne-Claire 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Electric Feels 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.

Kai Lance Group 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Knot Your Kind: A Tribute to Slipknot 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Mean Habit / Hex Files / Salt Man 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Mega Colossus, Mortal Man, Archaos 9 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

NINAJIRACHI’s I Love My Computer Tour 9 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.

Shuddup and Play the Hits 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

Zealotrous *Final Show* with Blab School, 30 is Dead, and Franky & The Slight Incline 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

STAGE

Garrison Keillor 7 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Hannah Berner 7:30 p.m. DPAC, Durham.

Pop Up Chorus Broadway 7:30 p.m. The ArtsCenter, Carrboro.

Serial Killers with Dr. Scott Bonn 7:30 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

SCREEN

Workshop: Making Your First Short Film 10 a.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

SUN

2/1

MUSIC

Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, Sugaree String Society 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Cool Cats & Hot Fiddles Fest with Bob Vasile and friends 3 p.m. The ArtsCenter, Carrboro.

Candi Jenkins 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Night Moves, Johnny Delaware 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

The Stray Lions with The Sheeps, Dover and the Elevators, and Dakota Proctor 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

MON 2/2

STAGE

Cirque Immersif Feb. 2-3, 6:30 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Friendship, Natalie Jane Hill 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

SCREEN

Stop Making Sense 7 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh

TUES 2/3

MUSIC

BYOV Night 6 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

Ernest Turner Trio 7 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

North By North with Chicken Ranch Road Show and Juniper 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Room 112 Tour With special guests Total and Case 8 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

SCREEN

Prickly Mtn. and my Design Build Life 7 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh.

WED 2/4

MUSIC

25th Anniversary of Musicforthemorningafter

Pete Yorn 8 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Koffin Kats 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Matt Pryor, With Love, Small Uncle 7:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

THUR

2/5

MUSIC

American Aquarium Feb. 5-7, various times. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Bad Bad Hats, Smut 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Emma Jane, bedrumor, Airport Baby 6:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Fancy Gap, Lua Flora, Davie Circle 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Melodramatic with Kill the Buddha and Alexa Jenson 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Odd Mob 9 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.

Little River Band 7:30 p.m.

Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

The Stage of Aquarius 7:30 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

SCREEN

Full Frame Road Show

2026: Mr. Nobody Against Putin 7 p.m. The Cary Theatre, Cary.

STAGE

Carolina Ballet: Carmen Suite Feb. 5-22, various times. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Margaret Cho: Choligarchy 8 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

PAGE

Jason Zengerle: Hated by all the Right People with David A Graham 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Poetry In The Galleries: An Interactive Evening and Book Signing with Jameela F. Dallis 6 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.

FRI 2/6

MUSIC

C. Shreve The Professor / OC from NC / Tab-One / SkyBlew / Frank the Fre$h / Katie Blvd 8:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Can’t Feel My Face: 2010s Party 9 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Eric Lee Hardt and Friends with Sugaree String Society and Kait Bird 8 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

The Freedom Trio with Paul Creel, Donovan Cheatham & Kevin Bales 7:30 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Friday Favorites: Gershwin & More 12 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Gershwin & Bernstein Feb. 6-7, 8 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Spice 10 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

Tobacco Road, Fudge 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro

The Wombats: Oh! The Ocean Tour 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh.

SCREEN

The 2nd Annual Wheels Of Love Event, Featuring the short film Tandem 7 p.m. The Rialto, Raleigh.

CULTURE CALENDAR

SAT 2/7

MUSIC

Artemis: An Interdisciplinary Opera 7:30 p.m. The ArtsCenter, Carrboro.

Babe Haven, Gasket, Fading Signal, Flora in Silence 7:30 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Gregory Porter 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham.

Jonah Kagen, Anna Graves 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

Marie Vaunt 9 p.m. The Fruit, Durham.

Mimi Fox Trio, Steve Haines, Sarah Gooch 7 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Mad Dogs & Englishmen Tribute, Jimmy Ray Swagger, The Fussy Eaters 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Outta Pocket and Invoke with Eyez Wide Shut, Deprave, and Skin You Alive 7 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

The Tan & Sober Gentlemen 8 p.m. Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw.

Vermilion Green / Red October / Yuno 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

SCREEN

Beyond The Belt: The Legend Of Karriem Abdallah with Filmmaker Q&A 5 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

SUN 2/8

MUSIC

Alcantara / General Purpose / Lazaris Pit 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Hermeto Pascoal Tribute 3 p.m. Sharp 9 Gallery, Durham.

Sights and Sounds on Sundays Concert Series: Julian Rhee and Shai Wosner 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.

STAGE

CAFA Chinese New Year Gala: Music, Dance & Tradition 4:30 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

PAGE

Flyleaf Second Sunday Poetry Series: Mark Cox and Crystal Simone Smith 2:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

TUES 2/10

MUSIC

BYOV Night 6 p.m. Rubies on Five Points, Durham.

Dar Williams 7:30 p.m. Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Electric Guest, Snacktime 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

PAGE

Olivia Muenter: Little One 6:30 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Patti Varol

“DARN IT ALL” BY

PRIYANKA SETHY & RAJIV SETHY

Toiling away Swanky events

of the

River that crosses the equator twice

SUDOKU

There is really only one rule to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box. The numbers can appear in any order and diagonals are not considered. Your initial game board will consist of several numbers that are already placed. Those numbers cannot be changed. Your goal is to fill in the empty squares following the simple rule above.

If you’re stumped, find the answer keys for these puzzles and archives of previous puzzles (and their solutions) at indyweek.com/puzzles-page or scan this QR code for a link. Best of luck, and have fun!

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For Rent: Renovated 2BR/1BA duplex on 90 scenic acres with two rivers and pond. Peaceful country setting. All appliances included. Extralarge storage closet. Free water; electric only, no gas. 25 minutes to downtown Durham. $1,500/month. Durham County. 210-908-7629

LISTEN DYANI WHITE HAWK

FEB 12 – JUL 5, 2026

White Hawk: LISTEN is organized b� Marshall N. Price, Chief Curator and Nanc� A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Curator of Modern and Contemporar� Art. This exhibition is made possible b� The Duke Endowment and the Maril�n M. Arthur Fund.

White Hawk, Razelle Benall�, LISTEN (still), 2020. MP4 Eight-channel HD video with sound, edition 1/5. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke Universit�, Durham, NC. Museum purchase with funds provided b� Marjorie (P’16, P’19, P’19) and Michael Levine (’84, P’16, P’19, P’19) and Benjamin Wiener, 2024.8.1. ©D�ani White Hawk. Image courtes� of the Artist, Bockle� Galler�, and Various Small Fires.

nasher.duke.edu