Indy Week

Textile artist Cynthia Mollenkopf has owned and operated the Cocoon Gallery on Downtown Apex’s main thoroughfare since 2017. She knows that running a North Salem Street storefront means there’s often change. Cocoon Gallery supports a revolving door of 70 to 80 artists, Mollenkopf said, selling to customers who happen past the store or purchase online. Larger-than-life felt creations and colorful rugs hang in the space, bathed in natural light.

Sometimes I go to the movies and skip the concession stand, content to feast solely on the action onscreen. Such transcendence has never found me at a baseball game. Respectfully, I’ve come to view the sport as an outdoor dining experience: a picnic held around the edges of a field, a forum for eating phallic foods without eye contact. And yet in years of attending Durham Bulls games, I’ve never ventured beyond ultraclassic concessions like hot dogs and peanuts.

A Wake County initiative announced Monday sets an ambitious goal of moving 400 people from homeless encampments into housing in the next 18 months.

Hayaa Hyder takes matcha seriously. When she takes a sip of the creamy green drink, she’s searching for a very specific flavor profile. Not too milky. Not overly syrupy. She wants a cup that’s light, strong, and fresh. Last December, Hyder’s hunt for the perfect matcha led her and her husband abroad. After trips, tastings, and even personally grinding tea leaves into powder, the Morrisville resident finally found her dream matcha at a small farm in Japan.

One of Cary’s only affordable neighborhoods for working-class families is now empty of residents. Ahead of the June 30 move-out deadline, 144 households—roughly 700 people—vacated Chatham Estates mobile home park.The property’s owner, Curtis Westbrook, who set the deadline back in December, plans to sell the downtown-adjacent property to Toll Brothers, a construction company, for $30 million. When Westbrook announced his intent to sell in 2023, residents wondered where they would go.

The Durham Cultural Advisory Board (DCAB) is revamping its process for distributing grant funding, with the goal of better facilitating festival and event growth throughout the city.

The cafeteria inside the State Legislative Building has been on my list of places-to-try since I started writing this column. It’s about as hidden as a hidden gem gets—literally underground, in the basement of the marble fortress in Raleigh where the General Assembly convenes. But I’ve procrastinated on my visit, because government facilities give me the willies. I always feel like someone’s going to tell me I’m in the wrong place.

In late May, Granville County teachers and administrators met around a U-shaped table to review the results of an experiment that had pushed the small district north of Raleigh outside the mainstream of public education in 2026. At the beginning of the school year, Superintendent Stan Winborne had declared Tuesdays and Thursdays “tech-free.” The Chromebooks and iPads now ubiquitous in American classrooms were replaced by old-fashioned pencils and paper across all grade levels.

This story is part 2 of “Barely Legal,” The Assembly’s investigation into North Carolina hemp. Learn more here. At first, Lt. Jay Floyd ignored the complaints he received about Onslow County’s vape shops. As the new leader of the narcotics division of the sheriff’s office, he had bigger concerns than teenagers scoring tobacco. But throughout 2023, outreach grew more serious.

The Block the Bombs act (officially known as H.R. 3565) was introduced in the United States House over a year ago by Rep. Delia C. Ramirez (D, IL-3).