Alex Granados

Nonviolent political action had a long and successful history in the 20th Century. When people look back on the great activist leaders, names like Martin Luther King Jr. or Gandhi may come to mind, but the women who were essential to the civil rights, peace and other movements are often overlooked.

Nick Prueher was bored working at McDonald's the day he discovered one of his life-long passions. He found a hilarious training video for McDonald's janitors, watched it and was hooked. He would spend years collecting all the weird videos he could find, until in 2004, he and his friend Joe Pickett decided to have a festival. The Found Footage Festival has been going strong ever since. It's coming to the Rialto Theatre in Raleigh June 8 at 8 p.m.

Therese Fowler’s new novel “Exposure” (Ballantine Books/2011) is a Romeo-and-Juliet story with a modern twist. Eighteen-year-old Anthony is involved in a secret relationship with 17-year-old Amelia. When Amelia’s father finds naked photos of Anthony on his daughter’s computer, the boy faces potentially devastating legal consequences. The plot is one that mirrors real life. Fowler's son was arrested for sending nude photos to his girlfriend when he was 19.

Archeologist Shawn Patch loves his job. But sometimes, he needs an outlet for the music he hears in his head. He put together an acoustic duo a few years ago, and then started adding musicians. That duo has now grown to a full-fledged Americana band called The Radials. They’ll be at the Broad Street Cafe in Durham tomorrow. Doors open at 5 p.m.

Jon Gosier and Jonathan Kuniholm don’t seem to have much in common at first glance. One built a company that helps East Africa's budding software entrepreneurs, and the other created an open-source prosthetics nonprofit. But both are speaking at Chapel Hill's TEDx event tomorrow at the Varsity Theater. Gosier and Kuniholm are part of a panel called "Global Health: What's Technology Got to Do with It?" They join host Frank Stasio to talk about their innovative work and TEDx.

We think of our bodies as being our own private property, but in reality, that privacy is often violated. According to Duke University professor Karla Holloway, it is often women and African-Americans who suffer from that violation. In her new book, “Private Bodies, Public Texts: Race, Gender, and a Cultural Bioethics" (Duke University Press/2011), she uses case studies to explore the ways in which the law and medicine have overlooked rights of personal privacy.

Go to a competitive swim meet and you are likely to encounter a sea of white faces. Minorities are notoriously underrepresented in the sport.

Most of the works of writer Ron Rash begin life as single images — ones that live in his head. His first novel, “One Foot in Eden” (Picador/2003), started as a snapshot of a farmer standing in a field with his crops dying all around him. His second novel, “Saints at the River” (Picador/2005), originated as a vision of a child looking up through water.

Brenda Linton began singing as a child at Catholic school musicals. When she was eight, she was introduced to the piano and classical music. Over the years, this childhood love of song would carry her into the realm of folk music. In 2005, Linton released her first CD, “The Secret,” an album about loss inspired by the grief she experienced after the death of her mother.

Comic books have long reflected the culture that created them. Captain America represented the power and patriotism of America during the Second World War, and Superman is seen as a symbol of "truth, justice and the American way." But the times are changing. Superman renounced his American citizenship in a recent issue of Action Comics. He said he did not want to be seen as a tool of American policy. What does it say that the “Man of Steel” no longer wants to be associated with the United States? And what can we learn about ourselves by reading comic books?