Sarah Edwards

1 week ago | indyweek.com | Sarah Edwards

Friday, June 20, 6-9 p.m. | Merge headquarters, DurhamIf you’re out and about for Durham’s annual Third Friday Art Walk and Gallery Crawl, consider stopping by a familiar downtown storefront that’s not usually open in the evenings: Merge Records.

2 weeks ago | indyweek.com | Sarah Edwards

When Congress passed the “No Tax on Tips” bill in the U.S. House of Representatives in May, it was vaunted as a rare policy win for service workers. The legislation, supported by both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on the 2024 campaign trail, would allow tipped employees to deduct up to $25,000 in tip income from their federal taxes. The tax break is projected to save eligible workers an average of $1,800 per year.

3 weeks ago | indyweek.com | Sarah Edwards |Daneen Khan |Eva Flowe

Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning classic comes to life in musical form this month, with a Theatre Raleigh production directed by Tia James. Beginning in ​​turn-of-the-century Georgia, The Color Purple follows Celie—Black, poor, and abused by men time and time over—through a series of letters that trace her evolution across 40 years as she gains confidence and is able to heal and challenge the forces of her oppression.

4 weeks ago | indyweek.com | Sarah Edwards

This story originally published online in The 9th Street Journal. On a recent Tuesday night, on the center patio of Ponysaurus, a woman in a magenta tennis outfit juggles a pilsner in one hand and a tawny puppy in the other. One table over, a little girl with two vertical blond pigtails totters across a picnic bench like it is a balance beam.

1 month ago | indyweek.com | Sarah Edwards

Last September, the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) annual World of Bluegrass festival fell on the same weekend that Hurricane Helene swept through the Southeast. Several of the artists coming down from Western North Carolina had to cancel, as the festival trudged through its last year in Raleigh under rain and somber conditions. World of Bluegrass has since decamped to Chattanooga, lured by support from Tennessee’s Special Event Fund.