The State of Things

By November 15, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor Carol Folt and the school's Board of Trustees will present their plan for the future of the Confederate Silent Sam monument that was topped by protestors in late August. The statue is currently being stored at an undisclosed location.

William Travis Jewelry has been a fixture in Chapel Hill for more than 15 years. Behind the success is William Travis Kukovich, an award-winning jewelry designer with a pedigree in metalsmithing. Kukovich is a fifth-generation metalsmith who became a bit of a prodigy in the jewelry industry when he won the highest award in his profession at the age of 26.

While walking a mall in New Jersey, a teenaged Jim Henderson heard the sound of a group of saxophonists. He rushed to see who these musicians were and found one man playing three saxophones and a nose flute at the same time.

Harvey Milk was not the first openly-gay elected official, but is certainly one of the most famous. After two unsuccessful bids for a set on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Milk won twice, Milk won in 1977 and proudly represented those on the fringes. He believed the only way for the gay community to gain rights was to have a seat at the table.

Tish Hinojosa grew up with her feet in two worlds. Her parents are Mexican immigrants who raised her and 12 siblings in San Antonio, Texas.

Not all horror movies are scary or spooky. Some films, like “Shaun of the Dead” or “An American Werewolf in London,” actually have a big dose of comedy in them. Others, like “Evil Dead II” or “Troll 2,” play up their campy elements.

Many Americans spend a lifetime running away from their own mortality. Death is the so-called ‘great connecter,’ yet it is a topic taboo at the dinner table. But this avoidance is not universal.

A new batch of artists has hunkered down for an experimental, immersive residency in Greensboro's Elsewhere Museum . For the nearly month-long Southern Constellations Fellowship , artists from different generations and backgrounds play, perform and present their work within the walls of Greensboro's thrift store-turned-museum. Host Frank Stasio talks with two of this year’s fellows: photographer SHAN Wallace and performance artist Daniel B. Coleman . Wallace is a Baltimore-based street

When singer-songwriter Laura Jane Vincent set out to record her entry for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert, she knew just the place to do it. Her relatives owned a historic farmhouse tucked away in rural Glendon, North Carolina that still contained the nearly-untouched office of a country doctor named Murdo Eugene Street who died in 1944.

From an early age, Georgiary Bledsoe aspired to a life beyond what she knew as a child. She is the youngest of 17 siblings and grew up very poor in East Saint Louis, Illinois, a city often considered one of the most dangerous in America.