A profile puts the subject at risk. Originally published in Columbia Journalism Review. IN EARLY MARCH, THE RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER published a front-page profile of Julio Granados, 21, who was working at a local grocery store to support his family back in Guadalajara, Mexico. North Carolina’s Latino population is burgeoning, and Granados represented “Everyhombre,” as writer Gigi […]
Art and States’ Rights
Originally published in The Nation. OF ALL THE FAN LETTERS OUT NORTH Contemporary Art House has ever received, the most surprising has come from a former adversary. Shannon McDade, a member of the Alaska State Council on the Arts, had visited the theater to see June Bride, a one-woman show by Sara Felder about an old-fashioned lesbian Jewish […]
Southern Discomfort
Gays in Charlotte, N.C., strive for community cohesion as they struggle to get back on track after a virulent 1997. Originally published in The Advocate. CHARLOTTE, N.C., PRIDES ITSELF on being the best of the New South. The nation’s second-largest banking center, it’s a booming city of 60-story skyscrapers, historic neighborhoods, and suburbs that stretch to the […]
Spiritual Union: A Case Study
How a community of Guatemalan immigrant poultry workers triumphed in one of the fiercest anti-labor corners of the nation. Originally published in The Nation. Morganton, North Carolina THE CHOIR LOFT SWELTERS. It’s 5 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, and all the heat from a summer day in the North Carolina foothills seems to have refracted through the stained-glass […]
Helms’ Last Stand?
The Senate’s most renowned right-winger faces a new day in the Tar Heel state. Originally published in The Nation. FIFTEEN PEOPLE WERE WAITING when Harvey Gantt showed up at the Whitaker Mill Senior Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. In a small lounge room with straight-back chairs and a bulletin board full of photos, the Democratic U.S. Senate […]
No Ways Tired
Click here for “No Ways Tired,” Southern Exposure, Summer 1996. Opens as a PDF.
No, Jesse, No
Is Senator Helms Gay Public Enemy No. 1? Originally published in Out. IT’S EARLY ON A TUESDAY afternoon, and a pack of reporters has clustered on the second floor of the U.S. Capitol building. With the Balkan conflict reaching a critical juncture, the national media are looking for some punchy sound bites from the top Republican senators […]
Statesmanship vs. Helmsmanship
How the senator from North Carolina holds the world hostage Originally published in The Nation. NOT TOO LONG AGO, JESSE FRIEDMAN, the deputy director of the American Institute for Free Labor Development, and several Nicaraguan union leaders came up with an idea to help low-income workers in that country: a home-improvement loan fund, from which union members […]
Statehouses Drop the Other Shoe
Originally published in The Nation. WHEN THE REPUBLICANS TOOK OVER the North Carolina Statehouse last January, Frances Cummings seemed a fitting choice to head the subcommittee on public education. As president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, she had lobbied for higher teacher pay and better funding for rural schools. She also spoke from experience: For […]
Bad Chemistry
Visions and fissions at the North Carolina School of Science and Math Originally published in Indy Week. WHEN THE N.C. SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS opened its doors in 1980, it was more than a high school for hotshots. It was considered a bold experiment, an affirmation of North Carolina’s commitment to high-tech education. Here was […]