The State of Things

Writer and musician Shirlette Ammons is not afraid of intimacy. Her poems and songs are like diary pages that she invites audiences to flip through at their leisure. Ammons is used to sharing her personal space. She grew up in a rural country home with a twin sister and dozens of cousins. After she left home for college, she started to explore her race and sexuality and used the power of the pen to document her self-discovery.

When America’s last space shuttle mission blasted off, astronauts weren’t the only living creatures aboard the Atlantis. Thirty mice also went along for the ride. After orbiting the Earth, they may return with some important answers about bone density that can help scientists treat human bone diseases like osteoporosis.

The Small Ponds combines the vocal and instrumental talents of Triangle musicians Caitlin Cary and Matt Douglas, backed by Jesse Huebner and Skillet Gilmore. Their music has been described as gorgeous art folk.

The partnership that fuels the heralded local band Filthybird is both creative and romantic. Renée Mendoza and Brian Haran found personal salvation and professional redemption when they met in Greensboro, NC a few years ago.

Gambling is big business in Western North Carolina. A new report by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shows that Harrah's Cherokee Casino pours more than $380 million into the local economy there. That has led to improvements in life expectancy, poverty rates and even education in the area.

Classic rock meets classical music as the North Carolina Symphony takes on the music of iconic British band Queen. In “The Music of Queen,” hits like “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Somebody to Love” and “We Will Rock You” have been arranged for a symphony orchestra by guest conductor Brent Havens.

A new exhibit at Duke University explores the footprint of Simón Bolívar in the United States. Bolívar was the liberator of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Panama from Spanish rule in the 19th century. He was heavily influenced by the principles of the American Revolution and spent time in the United States learning about the new democracy. Numerous towns, cities and memorials in the U.S. have been named or erected in Bolívar’s honor.

Nearly 55 million Americans live in communities that are governed by homeowners associations, or HOAs. In exchange for dues, residents have access to neighborhood amenities like pools, parks and club houses. But more and more, HOAs are responsible for providing services and maintenance once offered by city and municipal governments – like trash pick-up and sewage system repairs.

In a move to help reduce the rate of unemployment, more North Carolinians are getting a clean slate. In the last 10 years, expungements of criminal records have tripled.

It's tough to imagine the 112,000 muck-filled, bug-swarmed acres of the Great Dismal Swamp looking like paradise. But for enslaved people in the 18th- and 19th-century, the swamp provided protection from those who wished to keep them in bondage.