Tagged: The State of Things

Mill villages were once a common feature of the North Carolina landscape from Appalachia to the Eastern counties. Here in the Triad, the Pomona Company operated a pipe factory about five miles outside of downtown Greensboro. The pipe was made out of terra cotta and the village where the factory workers lived was called Terra Cotta. The factory closed down in the 1970s, and now there’s an effort to turn the village into a living history museum.

For Laila Nur, moving from New York to Virginia with her family was a choice. Later, however, moving away from her family was a necessity. Laila came out as queer. And that not only went against her family’s beliefs. It went against her religion – Islam. She has been struggling with these contradictions ever since. Laila developed her revolutionary music style in Greensboro at age 17. She talks with host Frank Stasio and plays live at the Upstage Cabaret of the Triad Stage.

It's no secret that there's a lack of compelling roles for women in Hollywood. Often, they are confined to adoring secretaries or sex objects, but in the noir films of the 1940s and ‘50s, the femme fatale uses her cunning and sex appeal to get the better of men.

The results are in, and Democratic candidate Barack Obama is president. But while the country went blue, North Carolina is now colored solidly red. The Republican Party has its firmest grip on the state in 20 years, taking the governor’s mansion, the House and the Senate. How should we interpret the Republican victory in North Carolina in the midst of Democrats retaining the White House and strengthening their hold on the United States Senate? And what does the Republican stronghold in Raleigh mean for policy across our state?

Tomorrow the nation will go out to the polls and pick its president. Whatever the outcome, you can bet the winner will be either a Republican or a Democrat. But why is that? How did a Democratic nation where the people pick their leaders, whoever they may be, become a choice between two parties?

Social media, early voting, polls, the financial markets, even the weather, they are all factors in next Tuesday’s election. When Americans pick a president, we also pick our congressional delegations and numerous state and local officials, but getting people to pay attention to the races happening down the ballot from the president can be tough. Guest host Isaac Davy-Aronson will talk about why with Jennifer Wig, the assistant editor at the Raleigh Public Record; and Angie Newsome, the director and editor of The Carolina Public Press.