Duke Memorial United Methodist Church has started a Christmas Market where parents can buy toys for their children at greatly reduced cost. The idea came from similar ministries in other cities, and the response has exceeded the church’s goals.
During a recent walk-through at Chapel Hill’s Frank Gallery, photographer Barbara Tyroler talked about the importance of collaboration and the exchange of ideas. Both ideas are central to a new exhibit she is presenting at Frank Gallery, “Getting Layered: 6 Women Collaborate on Self-Portraiture.”
Q: My son is supposed to go to Carrington Middle School next year, and I heard their academic program is changing. Is that true?
“The Walnut Tree: A Holiday Tale” is an engaging fireside read whether or not “Downton Abbey” has sparked your interest in World War I or if you’re already a fan of Charles Todd.
Novelist William Styron (1925-2006) had many connections to Duke University. He was a student at Duke in World War II, and, after his death, Duke’s library became the repository for many of his letters and papers. Rose Styron, his wife, and historian R. Blakeslee Gilpin have edited a new volume, “Selected Letters of William Styron” (Random House, $40). Drawing on papers from Duke, as well as archives from UNC, Yale and other libraries, this collection touches on Styron’s life as a student at Duke, and later, as the novelist who wrote “The Confessions of Nat Turner,” “Sophie’s Choice” and other major works.
The Durham-based traditional band Carolina Chocolate Drops have been nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award for their recording “Leaving Eden.”
Cher Shaffer, a 70-year-old from western North Carolina is an Outsider Artist of a different stripe; she is white and female. African-Americans outnumber white Americans in the genre we call Outsider Art; women are almost non-existent. Outsider artists are those who are self-taught and draw upon their life stories, their religion and popular culture to make highly personal objects.
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A fanfare of low reed instruments opens an arrangement of the traditional song “Man of Constant Sorrow,” from composer and percussionist John Hollenbeck’s recording “Songs I Like A Lot” (scheduled for a January release). A guitarist plays a rhythmic beat, then vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Kate McGarry sing the tune, which many listeners recognize from the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
Two new Southern novels, both set in small-town Florida in the 20th century, both spin yarns in the great Southern storyteller tradition that makes them great gifts this holiday season.