Bull City Rising

The Beast, Nnenna Freelon release free EP "Catalyst" to benefit Durham Arts Council

A few weeks back, Durham-based, jazz-inspired hip hop group The Beast teamed up with Grammy-nominated jazz singer and Durham favorite daughter Nnenna Freelon for a live performance at Pure Sound Studios downtown to benefit the Durham Arts Council.

The Beast -- which includes emcee Pierce Freelon, daughter of Nnenna and renowned architect Phil Freelon -- has completed mixing the performance and have released it as an EP available for digital download.

It's their second EP, and it's free -- though an online donation to the Durham Arts Council is strongly encouraged. Get the album and make a donation from their web site.

The Beast is currently working on their feature-length first album release. More information on the group follows below the jump.

Old Carmike Cinemas on Avondale liquidating equipment today, tomorrow

Looks like those rumors of some reopening or reuse of the old Carmike Cinemas off Avondale by the Compare Foods aren't going anywhere -- or at least, the reuse just got more expensive.

A Norfolk-based auctioneer is selling off the old movie theater's equipment today and tomorrow from 10am to 5pm each day.

Among the loot: 1,348 movie theater seats, just perfect for that home theater you've always wanted to build (though we're not sure if they'll break lots.) Plus, everything from old projectors to subwoofers to 24 ft. wide movie screens. Also: "Lots of upcoming movie trailers," presumably for movies not so upcoming anymore.

We here at BCR were kind of hoping to see a second-run theater or perhaps a Spanish-language cinema open up there, though that gets a bit harder if a lessee has to bring their own equipment. No word on other future plans for the shell.

DPAC nets 65,000 to initial Broadway series; parking discounts part of strategy to triple attendance

The DPAC's first Broadway series season is over, its run abbreviated by the December opening, but nonetheless pulling 32 performances of four national tours (Rent, Fiddler on the Roof, Legally Blonde, and The Color Purple) to the heart of downtown Durham.

The result? 65,000 guests attended the performances -- and with 6,000 season tickets sold, about 24,000 of those guests were subscribers to the package.

Based on the Indy's sometimes-curmudgeonly reporting last fall on the DPAC's grand opening, those numbers surpass the nearly 54,000 tickets one would expect for breakeven, given the 60% of capacity (about 1,680 seats per show) listed by the alt-weekly as the stop-loss for the Nederlander/PFM-managed facility.

Not a bad start, it would seem -- but just a start, given the ambitious growth numbers projected by the operator and the city administration for the next year.

And to accomplish that, they're asking for a bit of help in the form of another City-owned asset: the north parking deck at American Tobacco.

The Monti brings June performances back to Alivia's

If you haven't had a chance to attend a performance of The Monti since the storytelling night expanded from its initial quarters in Chapel Hill to the Bull City, you're missing out on one of the best nights of entertainment you can imagine.

And if you've wanted to attend but haven't gotten around to it, you'll have two chances to see The Monti this month at Alivia's Durham Bistro.

Tickets go on sale Monday at 10am for the June 16 StorySLAM performance. Come just to enjoy the performance -- or if you'd like to take a shot at storytelling, put your name in the hat for a chance to become one of ten people chosen at random to try a five-minute storytelling gig.

The theme for the June 16 show (7:30pm) is "It's All Relative: Stories about Family." (Find out more about how the StorySLAM format works at The Monti's web site.)

If you're interested in attending, pick up tickets fast -- these shows tend to sell out well, well in advance of the night of the show.

Later in the month, the "full" Monti returns to Alivia's with a June 30 show themed "Games People Play," featuring Sam Stephenson, Tiffany Lopez, Zeke Smith, and more storytellers in the show's traditional format. Tickets go on sale on June 22.

Pin Projekt auction, Downtown Durham Resource Fair, Five Points Palooza in city center this weekend

The ABCDDurham listserv has been a-twitter these last couple of weeks with discussions of why festivals like CenterFest and Taste of Durham moved out of the city center (or downtown entirely), moves that organizers say have to do with cost, but which downtown residents and workers say bring character to the CCB Plaza and other core spaces.

Well, there's at least three opportunities this weekend to enjoy some good ol' fashioned fun in the heart of Durham -- one of which is a self-organized music jam and picnic set for Saturday night.

First up: Friday night's Pin Projekt fundraiser, the fifth-annual version of this event, all the proceeds from which benefit Durham's Troika Music Festival. The eponymous pins are bowling pins that local creatives have recreated into "decorative and functional art."

The event starts at 6:30pm with viewing of the pins and cocktails, with the pins being auctioned starting at 8:00pm. Durham's own Cool John Ferguson will bring his brand of blues to the Pinhook starting at 10pm.

A variety of restaurants -- including Amelia, Pop's Backdoor, Chamas, Piazza Italia, Piedmont, Revolution, and Six Plates -- are providing food during the cocktail hour to boot.

Scrap Exchange presents Swap-O-Rama tomorrow

Tonight's Third Friday festivities have a range of events happening around the Bull City -- check out the web site for more info. But if Saturday's more your speed, there's a fun, funky event taking place tomorrow in the Durham Armory downtown.

The Scrap Exchange is tomorrow hosting its sixth Swap-O-Rama, described as "a giant clothing swap and series of do-it-yourself activity stations in which community members explore reuse and creativity through the recycling of used clothing."

Creativity over consumerism, sez the Scrap Exchange -- and in these economic times, hey, who can argue with that?

A number of designers -- including the good folks from SeeSaw Studio -- will be on hand to show off new ways to sew and make treasure out of someone's else's, er, discards.

It's simple: bring a bag of unwanted clothes to the event, and your suggested donation to the Scrap Exchange of $10 (kids free.) Then find other people's clothes you want, dress 'em up, even model them down a runway at one of four "Trashion shows" throughout the day -- and then take home what you want. The extras go to Urban Ministries of Durham.

Find out more at the Scrap Exchange's web site.

Local photographer, Durham Neighborhood College team share what's great about Durham

Not one but two nice tributes to the Bull City crossed the BCR inbox on Tuesday.

First up: a terrific Durham visitor's guide, written by local photographer and Cleveland-Holloway resident Jessie Gladin-Kramer (web site) for the national blog Design*Sponge.

Besides featuring some of the best of Durham, from bars to restaurants to retail, Gladin-Kramer's photography provides a stunning look at Durham's architecture and people, capturing what one of the Design*Sponge commenters calls "the Edward Hopper-like magic hour glow we get here at dusk."

LabourLove Gallery opens Friday at Golden Belt

As we noted here at BCR a couple of months back, new art gallery LabourLove is set for its grand opening in Scientific Properties' Golden Belt development on E. Main St. – the first retail business to arrive in the historic factory redevelopment.

LabourLove's owners will hold their grand opening in the space this Friday, May 15 from 6pm to 9pm.

The grand opening celebration will feature the Cadillac Stepbacks, an area bluegrass band, and a free, limited-edition Giclée art prints for the first 50 visitors. Also present: the always-popular OnlyBurger and Sabor taco trucks and desserts from Daisy Cakes, plus local brewmaster Jason Salemme.

Co-owner John Pelphrey describes his new business as an art gallery “for the people.” While some galleries prefer to do the ‘ultra-high-end museum thing’ just fine, Pelphrey describes LabourLove as seeking to be more relaxed and open.

Tickets on sale Monday for American Dance Festival

Tickets go on sale for the American Dance Festival tomorrow at 10am; the ADF, now in its 75th year since its founding in Vermont, will this year move some of its largest performances from Duke's tired Page Auditorium to the Durham Performing Arts Center downtown. 

The Reynolds Industries Theater at Duke will continue to show many of the festival's dance works; Duke has been home to the annual summer festival showcasing modern dance since 1978.

Willie, Cougar, Dylan to play DBAP as part of MiLB ballpark tour

What does Durham have in common with Pawtucket, R.I.; Dayton; and Round Rock, Tx.?

All are home to minor league baseball teams. And what's more: the parks those teams play in will all see something other than baseballs blowing in the wind this summer.

Bob Dylan's taking a third pass at a tour of minor league ballparks, this time bringing along Willie Nelson and John Cougar Mellencamp for the ride. (Nelson played the neighboring DPAC earlier this year, and we trust his memory of the town won't be so, er, hazy as to impair his finding his way next door to the ballpark.)

It'll set you back $67.50 to get a ticket to the Tuesday, July 28 show. Hat tip to Grayson Currin at the Indy Weekly for the breaking news on this one.