WEB EXCLUSIVE After much debate, the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) has decided to delay students’ return to campuses and begin the school year through online instruction.
Back in April, when Wake County Public Schools initially closed and switched to remote learning, education officials were made aware that many students did not have access to the internet or proper technology necessary to continue their classes. In order to provide for those students, WCPSS partnered with Activate Good, a nonprofit organization that mobilizes volunteers to improve the community, to help configure over 10,000 hotspots for families without internet access.
Now, WCPSS has called on Activate Good again to help distribute over 40,000 laptops and 10,000 more hotspots for the upcoming school year. They are committed to getting the necessary technology to students as quickly as possible in order to make the start of the new school year as seamless as possible. Marlo Gaddis, Chief Technology Officer for WCPSS, says that their partnership with Activate Good has been critical during this time.
“The need for volunteer support in our community has increased overall during the pandemic,” says Amber Smith, executive director of Activate Good. “We especially hope the community will rally around kids and families as they return to school this month. Volunteers can really make a huge difference here to make sure thousands of kids will have access to the same learning opportunities as their peers this year.”
Activate Good hopes to recruit hundreds of volunteers to support this effort in safety distributing laptops to an estimated 40,000 families over the next couple weeks. Volunteers will help guide families when they arrive to pick up their devices at one of five school pick-up locations across Wake County. Social distancing, mask requirements, regular cleaning and other safety measures will be taken to ensure volunteers feel safe. Shifts begin Monday, August 17.
WEB EXCLUSIVE If there’s one thing that’s been helping Paige Derouin and Noah Trimner get through quarantine, it’s yoga. Trimner just completed his yoga teacher certification a couple weeks ago, while Derouin has been teaching yoga at Raleigh’s YoBa Studio for three years and also teaches a yoga elective at Cardinal Gibbons High School.
“Both of us kind of fell into yoga by accident and realized it was having really positive changes in our lives,” Derouin says.
In April, almost a month into quarantine, the pair realized that neither of them would feel comfortable going back into the yoga studio to practice or teach–likely not before the end of the year, anyway. At the same time, Trimner stumbled upon a 1974 Airstream Argosy trailer on Facebook Marketplace.
So, they bought the trailer on a whim with the goal of turning it into a mobile yoga provider. They named their new venture Argosy, after the trailer.
Derouin and Trimner spent the next couple months taking the Airstream apart and rebuilding it from the bottom up. A tree had fallen on it, they say, and ants, mice and squirrels were living in it. Moss had started to grow.
“It’s been a huge project but it’s been a really fun adventure and we’re really excited to get it back out on the road really soon,” Derouin says.
Noah Trimner and Paige Derouin
Per Gov. Cooper’s phase 2 order, Argosy’s yoga classes will take place outside in public parks or on privately-owned land in picturesque areas, with a maximum capacity of 25 people. Derouin and Trimner say there are quite a few barriers that come with parking their Airstream in public park space–something they feel they need to do for the concept to work, they say–but they’ve been able to obtain permits to reserve space in several local parks and have been allowed to use private farms, too.
After classes, Derouin and Trimner encourage attendees to stick around for a cold drink available through a tap system they installed on the side of the Airstream. Wild Roots Kombucha from Fayetteville and cold brew coffee made with beans from Little Waves Coffee Roasters and Cocoa Cinnamon in Durham will be available, along with iced tea.
“We don’t want this to feel like just going into another studio to practice,” Trimner says. “We want you to hang out afterwards—safely—once that’s an option.”
Both Derouin and Trimner emphasize that yoga is for all and that there’s no skill requirement to sign up for their classes.
“We want [yoga] to be accessible for everyone and that’s kind of why we’re in a mobile trailer—we can be everywhere,” says Derouin. “We want to knock down some of those barriers that are preventing people from trying yoga.”
View Argosy’s class schedule and reserve a space for classes on the website or via Instagram.
WEB EXCLUSIVE Who doesn’t love a good burger? Whether you’re a meat eater or a vegetarian (hello veggie burgers, black bean burgers and Impossible burgers!) a burger comes in clutch for takeout during the summertime, a cue that many local restaurants are taking when adapting their menus for pickup and delivery.
The newest Raleigh restaurant to jump on the burger bandwagon is Vidrio, which is starting a new “Burgers and Burgundy” concept this Friday, July 31. The concept will feature a menu of three different burgers, fries and boozy ice cream floats all available in Vidrio’s upstairs Fiera Lounge for dine-in or takeout.
Katsuji Tanabe, Vidrio’s current chef in residence, always liked the idea of doing a high-end burger concept in a fine dining restaurant, such as Vidrio, with wine and other drinks available for pairing.
“Burgers are very approachable,” Tanabe says. “We wanted to showcase high-end, amazing ingredients in an upscale location.”
Tanabe’s burger creations include the Black Label Burger topped with Emmental cheese, onion-bacon jam, garlic aioli and a demi-glace made from black truffles and foie gras; the Blue Label Burger—a traditional, LA-style gastropub burger, as Tanabe describes it—with arugula, onion-bacon jam and blue cheese on a brioche bun; and the Gold Label Burger, a simple burger topped with heirloom tomatoes from a local farmer, house made pickles, cheddar cheese and garlic aioli. All burger patties are made from a mix of chuck, brisket and short rib.
The burgers will be available a la carte, with the option to add standard salt and pepper fries or truffle parmesan fries on the side. For dessert, Tanabe has crafted a classic double chocolate brownie with ice cream and hot fudge and a variety of boozy ice cream floats.
Over in Durham, popular cocktail bar Kingfisher, which opened shortly before COVID-19 forced the owners to close its doors in early March, are working on a new backyard pop-up concept called QueenBurger, expected to open mid-August.
QueenBurger | Photo courtesy of Kingfisher
Owners Sean Umstead and his wife, Michelle Vanderwalker, are transforming Kingfisher’s parking lot and adjacent upper deck into a pop-up burger bar serving both beef and vegan “smash burgers” with griddled onions, hoop cheese, Duke’s mayo and pickles. Pre-bottled cocktails, wine and beer will also be available to enjoy at socially distanced high top tables.
While we’re all certainly sick and tired of the COVID-19 pandemic by now, if our “new normal” involves more burgers, we personally can’t complain.
WEB EXCLUSIVE The COVID-19 pandemic may have put the whole world on pause, but Dorothea Dix Park is still moving ahead with plans to make the park the “most important and exciting park project in America today.” Dix Park Conservancy president and CEO Sean Malone says the conservancy is committed to raising and contributing $10 million to move the creation of Dix Park forward, before the temporarily deferred bond initiative to support Raleigh parks and greenways makes additional public funds available.
Rendering by MVVA
Most recently, the city and Conservancy established a new Community Committee that ensures the conservancy is successful in creating “a park for everyone, built by everyone.” Members of the committee will represent the broad interests of the entire community and support outreach efforts in order to make sure that all voices are heard in the planning of the park.
“Both the Conservancy and the City are committed to ensuring that the creation of Dix Park is informed by diverse community voices,” Malone says. “[The Community Committee] embraces the importance of diversity at the decision-making table by being inclusive, equitable and representative of Raleigh’s population.”
The first big project in the Dix Park Master Plan that’s underway is the grand plaza and adventure play area. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, the Master Plan’s design team, is leading the creation of the area which will include spectacular fountains, one-of-a-kind play structures, family gathering spaces and inspirational public art. It’s sure to be a fun space for both the young and the young at heart.
Gateway Plaza and Playground Concept | Rendering by MVVA
Additional projects include rehabilitating the hospital’s historic All Faiths Chapel into the Park’s first public building to be used as a gathering space featuring gardens and an outdoor event space, as well as developing signs to be placed throughout the park to share its history and help with navigation. An urban path that will connect Dix Park, through downtown, to John Chavis Memorial Park is also in planning.
These exciting plans are shared in conjunction with Dix Park’s fifth birthday tomorrow (Friday, July 24), marking five years since the City of Raleigh purchased the 308 acres from the state. Follow Dix Park on Instagram for more birthday fun. Happy Birthday!
WEB EXCLUSIVE The fight for voting rights for African Americans and people of color, as well as for racial equality, has been going on since even before the 1960s, when mass civil rights protests broke out over the right for equal rights for Black people as well as for their right to vote. Though the 15th Amendment prevents the federal government from denying any citizens the right to vote, ingrained racism and voter suppression targeting people of color has become even more apparent in the electoral system as of late.
Renowned artist Shepard Fairey believes voting rights are human rights, and that everyone should have equal voting access regardless of race or economic circumstance. In an effort to share this message on a larger scale, he collaborated with photographer Steve Schapiro, who documented many important civil rights protests in the 1960s, on a new 18-foot high mural for the exterior of the Cortez restaurant on Glenwood Avenue. The work, titled “Voting Rights are Human Rights,” was also created in response to George Floyd’s murder.
Photo by Joshua Steadman
Wyatt Closs of Big Bowl of Ideas, a creative production company that collaborates on projects surrounding themes of social justice, selected Fairey’s art for a national project called “Walls for Black Lives.” The project will support a national day of strike for Black lives on July 20. As part of the project, eight cities around the country—including Raleigh—now feature artworks supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.
Closs says he chose Raleigh as one of the participating cities because of its notoriety. “[Raleigh] is a flashpoint for voting rights and the minimum wage is too low, both of which disproportionately impact Black people, a metaphorical set of ‘knees to the neck’ for African Americans generally,” Closs says.
“Voting Rights are Human Rights” is Fairey’s first large-scale installation in Raleigh. Closs says the mural should last at least a month, but he hopes it can last until Election Day on November 3—because of the medium of the artwork, it’s hard to predict how long it will last. Raleigh Murals Project secured the location and local artists Taylor White and Sarahlaine Calva installed the mural at Cortez.
Closs says he hopes Fairey’s mural will make Raleighites pause and contemplate what’s going on in the world right now. “It’s really a message to folks that, not just that Black lives matter, but it’s important to channel the energy from [the strike] into civic engagement and voter participation and be a voice for change,” Closs says.
Fairey also created the Barack Obama “Hope” poster for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. In Wisconsin, Fairey will paint the same “Voting Rights are Human Rights” mural on the south side of the 12-story Railway Exchange building in downtown Milwaukee, which served as the city’s headquarter’s for President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. The piece is expected to be completed in time for the Democratic National Convention in mid-August.
