Joanna Pearson

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ArtsCenter's Tighter Budget Streamlines Concert Series, Staff

By Joanna Pearson | April 17

Local artists and musicians might have a harder time finding a venue these days -- at least temporarily. The Carrboro ArtsCenter, a nonprofit organization that provides a wide variety of cultural activities for the community, is suffering from a $50,000 deficit that will curtail its evening concert series and lay off two ArtsCenter employees, according to former Entertainment Director Ron Royster. "Our number one priority is to get the ArtsCenter operating in the black again," said Colin Bissett, executive director of the ArtsCenter.

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N.C. Literary Festival Coming to UNC

By Joanna Pearson | April 1

Whether it's poetry, fiction, science fiction or even storytelling, there's bound to be something for everyone right here on UNC's campus April 5-6. The second North Carolina Literary Festival, sponsored by UNC and Duke and N.C. State universities, will bring together more than 100 writers and performers. On Friday, April 5 at 7 p.m.

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'Moon Woman' Author To Read Excerpts of Work

By Joanna Pearson | March 8

UNC graduate Pamela Duncan tells it like it is -- and her gift for depicting small-town North Carolina life has helped establish her as one of the up-and-coming new Southern writers. Duncan's first novel, "Moon Women," is about a family of women living in the hills of Madison County. Drawing from the stories she heard from her grandmother and from her own background growing up in Black Mountain, Swannanoa and Shelby, she has created her own distinctive flavor of regional literature. "I write about blue-collar folks.

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Blind Boys Make Believers Out of Cradle Audience

By Joanna Pearson | February 21

The Blind Boys Cat's Cradle Sunday, Jan. 17 5 Stars If the second coming had happened Sunday night, I would have been right there. When Jesus does come back, he's going to look for The Blind Boys of Alabama -- and from the way they sing, Jesus shouldn't have a hard time finding them. The Blind Boys performed at the Cat's Cradle, transforming the place from a smoke-filled den of slinkers into a room of rollicking, hand-clapping folks just hollering for the Holy Spirit to descend.

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Talk to Put Photographer in Focus

By Joanna Pearson | February 12

Deborah Kogan is the sort of person who if a war, a plague and a tornado were all three about to strike in the same place, she would immediately go there. She's also the sort of person who, once there, would face the situation with humor and aplomb, probably take a lover or two and in the end come back with thoughtful stories and amazing photographs documenting what had happened.

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dive recommends

By Joanna Pearson | February 7

"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" This grotesque film stars real-life rivals Bette Davis and Joan Crawford as an aged child star and her dependent paralyzed sister. Includes choice moments such as when Baby Jane decides to serve rats for dinner. Digable Planets, Reachin' An absolute essential to anyone's music collection. Smooth jazz-hip-hop-socially-conscious blend by a bunch of early-'90s hipsters who will remain perennially "cool like dat." Joanna Pearson can be reached at jkpearso@email.unc.edu.

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Exhibit To Open In Wilson

By Joanna Pearson | January 15

In the beat writers' world of the 1950s, Chapel Hill is hardly associated with San Francisco or the "angelheaded hipsters" of Allen Ginsberg. But a new exhibit sponsored by Wilson Library's Rare Books Collection is about to prove otherwise. Titled "Visions from the Underground: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights Books, and Alternative Publishing in America," this exhibit on beat poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti will open today in Wilson Library.

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"Assassins" Pits Murder Against Religious Philosophy

By Joanna Pearson | November 1

Our Lady of the Assassins 3 Stars "Our Lady of the Assassins" is one of those movies that falls into my oversimplified guide to foreign film viewing: if it's a French language film, it's about sex; an Italian language film, love; and a Spanish language film, violence. "Our Lady of the Assassins" is in Spanish, set in Medellin, Colombia. It is most definitely about violence. Director Barbet Schroeder has crafted a film based on the writing of Fernando Vallejo, and appropriately, the main character is a middle-aged writer named Fernando (German Jaramillo).

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Welch, Rawlings Deliver Causal, Perfect Set

By Joanna Pearson | October 4

Gillian Welch and

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`World' Adapts Pain, Humor of Comic Book

By Joanna Pearson | September 20

Ghost World4 Stars I used to worry that some people never really recover from adolescence. After seeing "Ghost World," I realize I'm not alone in this opinion. A new film by Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes, "Ghost World" explores the fierce friendship between two war-wounded high school graduates, Enid (Thora Birch) and Becky (Scarlett Johansson). Enid and Becky bond over their mutual awkwardness and disgust at almost everyone around them.