My social media feeds are increasingly full of women whittled down to their smallest frames—not people I know, but bodies pushed by the algorithm, influencers, and celebrities selling diets and various other forms of self-denial. Being unhealthily skinny is back with a vengeance. Thankfully, there are counterbalances like Casey Johnson, author of new book A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting.
Johnson has been writing the newsletter “Ask a Swole Woman” for several years now, in which she offers strength training guidance (aka how to get swole) in a way that feels measured and markedly different from many other fitness influencers. A Physical Education asks, per the Flyleaf website, “why so many of us spend our lives trying to get ‘healthy’ by actively making our bodies weaker.” In this author talk, she is joined by writer and yoga teacher Alexandra DeSiato.
Over the past few months, WUNC reporters have been documenting the effect of rising temperatures on North Carolina labor. The special project follows the ways that workers in specific industries—including transportation, agriculture, and construction—disproportionately suffer from heat exposure.
To illustrate the project, WUNC made informational zines in Spanish and English for distribution (download a PDF of the zine here). You can learn more about both the project and the dangers of heat to workers at this event held at Chapel Hill bookstore Epilogue and hosted by WUNC reporters Celeste Gracia and Aaron Sánchez-Guerra. Free drinks and snacks are available beginning at 6 p.m., and a 6:30 p.m. panel discussion includes perspectives from Ashley Ward (Duke’s Heat Policy Innovation Hub), Leticia Zavala (El Futuro es Nuestro), and Janeth Tapia (NC Farmworkers Project).
When community organizer Dasan Ahanu was appointed as the 2023 Piedmont Poetry Laureate, INDY staff writer Thomasi McDonald wrote that his poetry “astounds in its richness of metaphor and is relentless in its quest to present gifts of love and insight, family and value, nuance and affirmations of spirituality.” At this event, Ahanu joins longtime collaborator Bluz for an evening of interactive spoken word poetry at NorthStar Church of the Arts—no script, no notebooks, just pure, off-the-cuff poetry. Here’s how the event description spells it out: “Watch as our talented wordsmiths take audience stories and flip them into spontaneous verses, rhymes, and maybe a few delightful disasters.” Admission is $10 and the event run-time is two hours, so bring a date and your best stories and settle in for an evening of fiery poetry.
I was skeptical, recently, walking to a Bad Bunny dance party at Motorco for a friend’s birthday—do people even go dancing anymore?? Do people still get low?? The line around the door pointed to a resounding yes, as did an enthusiastic, crowded dance floor. Durham still dances! And while I don’t know that Flo Rida and Avril Lavingne have as devout a contemporary following as Bad Bunny, this is a good opportunity to revisit turn-of-the-millenium hits (“Hey Ya,” “I Gotta Feeling,” “Hot in Herre,” etc.) and pull out low-rise jeans and chicly pair a trucker hat with a velvet crop jacket. But regardless of whatever doesn’t happen to hold up over the years, one thing definitely does: Dancing with your friends.
This summer marks 20 years of Saxapahaw’s outdoor concert series, which takes place on a grassy slope beside the post office (trust us, Saxapahaw is small—you’ll know when you get to the show area, but you can also find a map here). If you’ve ever been, you know you’ve stumbled onto something magical: every Saturday between May and August, a band plays a free show, with food trucks, craft vendors, and a small farmer’s market set up in an adjoining area. Carolina bluegrass band Big Fat Gap kicks things off this Saturday, with a wide range of acts to follow in the series, including Tre. Charles, Omar Ruiz-Lopez, Lou Hazel, Weird, and Country Cruel. Consider your Saturday evenings for the next few months booked.
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