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The Daily Tar Heel

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Sunday March 26th

Elevate: Amplifying voices in our community

Elevate is here to do exactly what it says — to give a platform to those whose voices are often silenced. This is a page to celebrate and uplift the underrepresented communities that make up Chapel Hill, who contribute to our culture and daily lives in ways that are often not reported. Elevate adds depth to stories across campus, the town and Orange County.


The page is in part put together and reported by members of the Sharif Durhams Leadership Program, a talent and leadership development course for DTH students from underrepresented groups. Elevate accepts pitches throughout the year for op-eds and letters from members of different groups in our community. Please send submissions to elevate@dailytarheel.com.

Chapel Hill Town Hall stands on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. 

'This is my home': Chapel Hill to provide millions for affordable housing, help community

By Maggie McIntyre | Aug. 30

The Town of Chapel Hill announced on Aug. 18 that it will be releasing up to $7.8 million to help fund affordable housing projects in the area. 

  • In addition to Town-initiated projects, outside agencies such as nonprofit affordable housing developers or other organizations that work towards affordable housing goals can apply for funding. 
  • The Town is using a common funding application and will accept applicants until noon on Sept. 30.

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Chapel Hill Town Hall stands on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. 

'This is my home': Chapel Hill to provide millions for affordable housing, help community

By Maggie McIntyre | Aug. 30

The Town of Chapel Hill announced on Aug. 18 that it will be releasing up to $7.8 million to help fund affordable housing projects in the area.  In addition to Town-initiated projects, outside agencies such as nonprofit affordable housing developers or other organizations that work towards affordable housing goals can apply for funding.  The Town is using a common funding application and will accept applicants until noon on Sept. 30.

Read More »
The Alpha Chapter of Alpha Pi Omega sorority is pictured. Photo Courtesy of Ivan Richardson.

Founded at UNC, Alpha Pi Omega — the country's oldest Indigenous sorority — turns 28

By Emily Shih | Aug. 28

The country’s oldest Indigenous sorority — Alpha Pi Omega (APiO) — will be turning 28 years old on Sep. 1 in remembrance of Founder’s Day.  The sorority founded its first chapter, UNC's Alpha chapter, in 1994, and now represents more than 130 tribes and has 24 chapters chartered nationwide.  “It’s so important to have an Indigenous sorority on campus because we are the minority of the minority,” UNC senior and Alpha chapter president Hayley Jacobs said.

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Nikole Hannah-Jones is an investigative reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine and the creator of "The 1619 Project," which marked the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first ship carrying enslaved Africans to America. Photo courtesy of John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

"Put that listening into action," Campus impact of the Hannah-Jones' settlement

By Liv Reilly | Aug. 24

After over a year since the Board of Trustees’ initial failure to grant Nikole Hannah-Jones a tenured position at UNC, a settlement was recently reached between the University and Hannah-Jones.  Three campus initiatives were included in the settlement to extend action of the Carolina Next: Innovations for Public Good plan. The initiatives are: training 20 faculty and staff members as search and selection process advisers through the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, posting a position for a trauma-informed therapist in the Multicultural Health Program by July 31 and reserving money each fiscal year for events sponsored by the Carolina Black Caucus. 

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John Caldwell, current music ensemble teacher, teaches students at Hill Hall on Monday, Aug. 15, 2022.

‘It teaches you how to just vibe’: UNC’s Indonesian music ensemble

By Liv Reilly | Aug. 17

UNC's Nyai Saraswati Gamelan is an Indonesian musical ensemble that features melodies of male and female voices alongside dozens of unique instruments, ranging from metallophones to wooden xylophones. The instruments have been housed at the University for over 20 years since their three-month journey across the ocean from Central Java, a province of Indonesia, to Chapel Hill in December 2000. “I think it's important to UNC, because especially when it comes to music programs, they're really centered in Western art music, which is the 1600s, the 1800s, white male dominated and basically just in the United States,” said UNC music major Jaidan Pearce-Cameron.

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Community members gather to honor and demand justice for James Lewis Cates Jr. — in the 1970s at the Silent Sam statue (left) and in 2018 at temporary memorial in The Pit (right). Cates was 22-years-old when he was murdered. 

Remembering James Cates: UNC announces plans for a permanent memorial

By Natalie Varma | Aug. 17

The University announced plans to develop a permanent memorial in the Pit dedicated to James Lewis Cates Jr. last Friday. Cates — a 22-year-old Black Chapel Hill resident — was murdered by members of a white supremacist motorcycle gang after a November 1970 event on UNC's campus near the Pit. Community organizations have worked for years to demand justice for Cates and establish the permanent memorial. “It was 50 years of other people's work that ultimately got us here,” Taliajah “Teddy” Vann, UNC's student body president, said.

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Antonio Alanís, the full-time artist at Frank Porter Graham Bilingüe Elementary, paints the "Mi Comunidad de FPGB" mural on Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. 

Mural at Frank Porter Graham Bilingüe Elementary celebrates diversity, immersion

By Madison Ward | Aug. 16

Inaugural Frank Porter Graham Bilingüe Elementary School resident artist Antonio Alanís has been working with students on a mural that celebrates diversity and will finish before Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools start classes on Aug. 29. His residency began in May 2022 with the purpose of making a mural to address cultural pride, community-building and multiculturalism, among other themes.

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N.C. court extends voting rights to tens of thousands with felony convictions

By Ethan E. Horton | Aug. 15

The 2-1 ruling in Community Success Initiative v. Moore said the denial of voting rights to people on probation, parole or post-release supervision violates N.C. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. Before the ruling was implemented by the Court of Appeals, people with felony convictions who were not in jail or prison could not vote under a 1973 general statute. More than 56,000 people who have been denied voting rights under the almost 50-year-old statute will become newly eligible.

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