This week at Saint Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, the first of hundreds of cookies were being prepared in anticipation of the church’s annual Greek Festival. It will be held this year on June 1 and 2, the first time at the church since the Byzantine-style church was constructed on Highway 751 in 2009.

Memorial service at Lowe’s Grove Baptist on Sunday
Memorial service at Sanctuary UMC on Sunday
Women’s Day at Community Baptist
Islamic Center recognizes Joe Harvard for interfaith efforts
Summer camp at Mt. Vernon Baptist
Revival, Women’s Day at Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist
Women’s Day at Fisher Memorial UHC
VBS, revival at North East Baptist in June
Yard sale in Walltown Saturday
Doer of the Word cookout Saturday at Solite Park

Q. I’ve relied on natural crystal deodorants for years, with the understanding that they were safer than the usual antiperspirants. I was under the impression that they were free of aluminum. When I checked the label, it said “potassium alum.” Does that mean aluminum?

It’s the strangest thing. Since the third member of our merry little family band, The Kid, has come home for summer break, our food bills have gone up by almost exactly one third.

Did Aztec Indians know a weight-loss diet secret that disappeared with their civilization 500 years ago?

A student who loves making people laugh wants a future saving their lives.

For their third release, “Coyotes,” the wife-and-husband-duo of Andrea and Pete Connolly – better known as Birds and Arrows – wanted to extend their sound palette. Audiences who follow the Chapel Hill and Durham-based duo have heard them perform together, exchanging duties on drums and guitar, at other times performing with cellist Josh Starmer.

As novels go, criteria for reading during the summer seems to be a seaside story setting because of the assumption we’ll all vacation at the beach at some point. What is for sure, though, is that a more consistent staple of summer down time includes our families.

Symphony to present pops concerts
KidZNotes to give annual concert
Animal rescue to hold auction
Manbites extends production run for ‘The Homosexuals’
Comedian Kevin McDonald coming to Cat’s Cradle
DSI announces summer classes
Tickets for Lewis Black show on sale today
Gallery to open Herrera exhibit
Fearrington to present ‘Art in the Village’
Organist Reed to perform music of Bach
Poets to perform at Scrap Exchange today
Liberty Arts to open new show
Casbah goes unplugged

This year’s UNC Chapel Hill MFA exhibition began with a partnership between the studio and art history departments. The eight MFA candidates, Nicole Bauguss, Julia Gootzeit, Ali Halperin, Michael Lauch, George Jenne, Lauren Salazar, Damian Stamer and William Thomas, needed a curator for their show and so the idea went forward to ask some of the art history Ph.D. candidates if they wanted the task. Two, Kim Bobier and Russell Gullette, who are specializing in contemporary art, answered the call. It is the first time the two departments have partnered like this. The curators did studio visits and sat in on class critiques. The result is an exhibition which includes manipulated paper to look like coral; oil paintings which mimic photographs; clothing made rigid with tar and plastic; images transferred onto Walmart blankets; a ghostly installation of ordinary objects; videos about the environment and personal biography; and a fiber-made site-specific installation.

Dark Water Rising, Mary Johnson Rockers and The Bluegrass Experience are some of the artists who will perform during this year’s Bynum Front Porch music series.

The Ciompi Quartet will present its Summer Chamber Music Series in Duke Gardens.
Concerts in the series will take place on three Tuesday evenings at 7:30 p.m. in Kirby Horton Hall at Sarah P. Duke Gardens. Each concert will feature a member of the Ciompi Quartet joined by guest artists. Both new and celebrated chamber masterworks are explored musically to establish a deeper relationship between the composers, guest artists, and the audience.

In the late 1950s and early ’60s, there was a resurgence of interest in American folk, blues, gospel and other traditional styles of music that became known ironically as “the folk scare.” The scare has jumped a generation or two, and some of the artists playing in that tradition (now often called Americana) will perform during this year’s Music in the Gardens Series at Sarah P. Duke Gardens.

The Carolina Inn’s 11th season of its popular end-of-the-workweek celebration called “Fridays on the Front Porch” continues today with a performance by The Gravy Boys, a local band that plays “acoustic Americana.” Other musicians on the roster include Big Fat Gap, Mel Melton & the Wicked Mojos and more.

This year’s Sundays at Six Series at Southern Village includes performances by artists from the Music Maker Relief Foundation roster and the North Carolina Symphony.