Sarah Edwards
@eddysarah.bsky.social
writer and culture editor at @indyweek.bsky.social | poetry + fiction sometimes, gchat often | sedwards@indyweek.com | eddysarah.substack.com
Even if you can't make it on Thursday, you can still contribute to the cause by buying raffle tickets (and win prizes!) www.eventbrite.com/e/rollin-wit...
Rollin' with Pride
Skate, celebrate, and support Durham's LGBTQ+ community at Rollin' with Pride, all proceeds directly support the community.
eventbrite.com
Great reporting from our student journalists at the Duke Chronicle on increases for the most highly paid Duke employees in the wake of unnecessary massive layoffs: www.dukechronicle.com/article/duke...
As cost-cutting began, Duke’s highest-paid employees took big raises
Tax filings reveal administrators, including President Vincent Price and Provost Alex Gallimore, saw their compensation rise in fiscal year 2025. Managers of Duke’s endowment and standout athletics co...
dukechronicle.com
My god, this story is so devastating; the cruelty is unspeakable. Came to the US when he was three years old. Taken by ICE on June 19. Developed an aggressive form of leukemia while detained and did not receive medical attention. Died on July 22.
INDY Week@indyweek.bsky.social · 6d agoPrisciliano Trejo Ricano began feeling ill while detained at a Georgia detention center, where he had been for three weeks. He reported that he had not received medical attention after experiencing severe symptoms. He died on Wednesday, July 22.
Prisciliano Trejo Ricano began feeling ill while detained at a Georgia detention center, where he had been for three weeks. He reported that he had not received medical attention after experiencing severe symptoms. He died on Wednesday, July 22.
Mexican Man From Durham Dies From Leukemia While In ICE Custody
Prisciliano Trejo Ricano began feeling ill while detained at a Georgia detention center. He died on Wednesday, July 22.
indyweek.com
“Breweries were a place where working-class people would come in for a beer, but now, houses that were once $200,000 have been bought up,” said Matt Pennisi, owner of Durty Bull. “The people moving into [higher-priced housing] may not be as beer-centric.”
Why Are Durham’s Breweries Drying Up?
Long a centerpiece of social and cultural life, breweries are struggling. In Durham, Durty Bull is the latest business to announce a closure.
indyweek.com
“These are women that I just want to be in conversation with—that I just want to hang out with, and talk to them about their process and what inspires them and where they are and be at the same table and be in community,” said Tift Merritt of the performers.
Curated By Tift Merritt, a Free Concert Series Uplifts the Legacy of Women Musicians
The four-part Duke Arts concert series at Durham’s American Tobacco Campus kicks off on September 9 with a performance by Patty Griffin.
indyweek.com
The goal is to satisfy the *emotions* behind every information need without providing real information.
Matt Seybold@mattseybold.bsky.social · last wk.The cross-platform enshittification of search functionality is such an infuriating exercise of authoritarian creep. They would like to kill the inclination to find information & enforce satisfaction with be fed information.
move over, Odysseus, we got a new Boat Guy in town
INDY Week@indyweek.bsky.social · last wk.Over the past two years, passersby in the surface parking lot behind Toast and Rubies on Five Points may have caught a glimpse of Ariail working on his most recent ship, a 12-foot SCAMP (Small Craft Advisor Magazine Project) sailing dinghy.
Woohoo! Super proud of our smart, scrappy, talented @indyweek.bsky.social team.
INDY Week@indyweek.bsky.social · 2w agoThis year, the INDY was recognized with five first-place, two second-place, and four third-place awards from the North Carolina Press Association.
At libraries around the country, "Avoiding AI" workshops have elicited unprecedented demand.
Librarians are hosting viral 'Avoiding AI' workshops for people who are fed up with Big Tech | TechCrunch
At libraries around the country, "Avoiding AI" workshops have elicited unprecedented demand.
techcrunch.com
"A state official, who requested anonymity to discuss private planning, said the facility could be open as soon as late September." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/u...
ICE Targets ‘Detention Desert’ With New Facility in North Carolina
Even as ICE has retreated from its plan to buy warehouses, the new complex near the Virginia border signals that the agency remains determined to increase its detention capacity.
nytimes.com
in one decade, duke enrolled stephen miller, richard spencer, the doj lawyer trying to end birthright citizenship, the lawyer in charge of trump's immigration cases, a trump speechwriter fired for going to a white supremacist event, and more www.theassemblync.com/news/educati...
Dukes in Trump’s Court
Duke University alumni have played high-profile roles in the Trump administration. A 2000s culture clash helps explain why.
theassemblync.com
This year, the INDY was recognized with five first-place, two second-place, and four third-place awards from the North Carolina Press Association.
The INDY Wins 11 North Carolina Press Association Awards
This year, we took five first-place, two second-place, and four third-place North Carolina Press Association awards.
indyweek.com
Denise Oliver-Velez, a Powerful Voice of the Left, Dies at 78 She became the highest-ranking female member of the Young Lords in New York, where she pressed for women’s rights, and later joined the Black Panthers. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/20/u...
Denise Oliver-Velez, a Powerful Voice of the Left, Dies at 78 (Gift Article)
She became the highest-ranking female member of the Young Lords in New York, where she pressed for women’s rights, and later joined the Black Panthers.
nytimes.com
@eddysarah.bsky.social took first place in Profile Writing for her intimate, perceptive look at the various versions of North Carolina singer Tift Merritt on the occasion of the 20th anniversary reissue of Merritt’s debut album, Bramble Rose.
Tift Merritt, a True North Carolina Gem, Still Has Plenty of Material to Mine
This month, Tift Merritt releases a 20th anniversary reissue of "Tambourine," as well as a compilation of demos and unreleased songs.
indyweek.com
Culture Editor @eddysarah.bsky.social's placed first in the Arts and Entertainment Reporting category with stories on the Eno River as a muse for local artist Sylvia Heyden, the life of the late artist Allan Troxler, and North Carolina’s historic influence on modernist architecture.
The Archive Tells the Story
On October 26, the Durham artist Allan Troxler died. A trailblazer in the fight for gay rights, he leaves an indelible legacy behind.
indyweek.com
Always take the back roads so you can discover a fun-to-say NC place name you hadn't heard before
As the Eno Arts Mill prepare ma to reopen on August 7, here’s a look back with Andrea Richards’ story on the devastating flooding that the Orange County arts community has had to recover from. (@indyweek.bsky.social)
At the River’s Edge
Several months out from Tropical Storm Chantal, two arts organizations take stock of what was lost—and how they’ll adapt to what lies ahead.
indyweek.com
In: the state budget, finally, after a yearlong stalemate Also In: @writingthings.bsky.social’s lunch budget column
INDY Week@indyweek.bsky.social · 4w agoThe 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.
This @koriedean.bsky.social interview with Nicole Carr about her new book is great & touches on so many things at once. “We often find so many firsts in Black history—not just for Black people, but for the country, because our full citizenship is what allows America to realize its promise.”
How the Rise and Fall of Shaw’s Medical School Helps Explain Modern Racial Disparities
Journalist Nicole Carr’s debut book includes pieces of North Carolina history that surprised the Tar Heel State native.
indyweek.com
From the archives: Raleigh’s Terpsichorean Club claims to put on the last statewide debutante ball in the United States. Raleigh writer Mary Lambeth Moore, a former debutante, explores its shadowy culture on “Recovering Debs.”
In a New Podcast, North Carolina Debutantes Take Their Gloves Off
Raleigh writer Mary Lambeth Moore's new podcast, "Recovering Debs," takes a look at North Carolina's shadowy debutante culture.
indyweek.com
How the Tar Heel state shaped the history of modernist architecture—and how local preservationists help keep the dream alive today.
Back to the Future With North Carolina's Modernist Design Advocates
North Carolina looms large in the history of modernist design. Today, dedicated local preservationists and architects keep the dream alive.
indyweek.com
"We bought this house thinking we would have a family in it. And then now to think, ah, we might not have a family because of this house."
A Year After Chantal, Durham's Old Farm Neighborhood Is Still Recovering
With disaster aid limited, some residents have struggled to repair their homes, or afford to keep them at all.
indyweek.com
"In 1944, she visited a fortune teller who told her her drawings had predicted the war—and implied that they could end it. Within a few days, she heard a mysterious voice saying, “Why don’t you draw or die?”"
From Her Garden Post in Wilmington, Prolific Artist Minnie Evans Patrolled the Borders Between Worlds
A new documentary unspools the story of Minnie Evans, a North Carolina artist whose visionary work channeled a dialogue with the divine.
indyweek.com
"What is particularly obnoxious about the moral case against the Weather Underground is the implication that their limited recourse to violence constituted some unique and inconceivable evil, that Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers crossed lines unimaginable to Henry Kissinger."
Ashwini Vasanthakumar@ashwinivasantha.bsky.social · last mo.A review essay for grown-ups on political violence and the political violence we normalise and even celebrate. Like the best review essays, it might be better than its source material.
This is incredible journalism by the INDY Every Durhamites' blood should boil: corporate landlords getting major property tax breaks + county tax office incompetence = big budget holes for the city indyweek.com/news/durham-...
How $4 Billion Came Off Durham’s Tax Rolls Last Year, Mostly Benefiting Corporate Landlords—and Blowing a Hole in the City Budget
Landlords and national companies won billions in property tax reductions. City leadership, banking on the revenue, didn’t know until April.
indyweek.com
Really happy to pub this mesmerizing story by Brian Howe on North Carolina artist Minnie Evans: “Her art seems to plumb a level deeper than influence, a universal intuition. When humanity peers into the infinite, in any era, these interlocking shapes are what it sees.” (@indyweek.bsky.social)
From Her Garden Post in Wilmington, Prolific Artist Minnie Evans Patrolled the Borders Between Worlds
A new documentary unspools the story of Minnie Evans, a North Carolina artist whose visionary work channeled a dialogue with the divine.
indyweek.com
If you Google the jazz pianist and composer Yusuf Salim, one of the first results is a grainy 1979 clip from a program called Arts in Durham. The interviewer begins with a question: “Why Durham, North Carolina?”
The Joyful Ease of Yusuf Salim's Unifying Jazz
He composed more than 50 original works and brushed shoulders with jazz greats. But that's just the beginning of Yusuf Salim's story.
indyweek.com
