Written by: Natasha Townsend

Don’t Waste Durham engages the community to seek sustainable alternatives to plastic and Styrofoam

By Celia McRae and Natasha Townsend

April 10, 2019

Between 2010-2011, Crystal Dreisbach wrote 200 letters to businesses throughout the Triangle. Her mission toward a more sustainable Durham was just beginning. The restaurants Dreisbach wrote to used Styrofoam, and she wanted to talk to distributors about sustainable alternatives, she said. She was working in public health research at the time, and Styrofoam takeout containers […]

Read more

Durham’s Communities in Schools helps students in class and at home

By Natasha Townsend

March 27, 2019

Carmen Settles remembers the first time she learned that going to college after high school wasn’t for everyone. She could venture out on her own path and be successful. Although she graduated from North Carolina Central University with a marketing degree, Settles owes her success to Communities in Schools (CIS), a nonprofit that focuses on […]

Read more

Black Poetry Theatre explores masculinity in the workplace in its latest production

By Natasha Townsend

February 27, 2019

The Hayti Heritage Center buzzed with nervous energy hours before the 4 p.m. showing of “Inside Studio Real: A choreopoetic sitcom” on Feb. 23.  The play, written by director Dasan Ahanu, involves poetry, movement and emotion. Ahanu, 44, is from Raleigh and has been an artist since the ‘90s, he said. He has performed original […]

Read more

Students raise scholarship money with tributes to Queen and Aretha Franklin at DPAC

By Natasha Townsend and Celia McRae

February 13, 2019

The words, “You can do it” reverberated through Tiffany Agerston’s head. She never forgot those words of encouragement, spoken by her chorus teachers when she was younger in an effort to get Agerston to share her singing talent at the annual “An Evening of Entertainment” (EOE) put on by the Durham Public Schools. Agerston eventually […]

Read more

Dream Big Book Drive aims to improve literacy on MLK Day

By Natasha Townsend and Arianna Swain

January 30, 2019

Marneshia Gonzales’ “Nancy Drew” books were being boxed up at the Book Harvest Dream Big Book Drive. They were her childhood favorites, and she wanted to share them. The 12-year-old, who is in sixth grade, was giving books away with her mother, Deidre Gonzales, at the eighth-annual book drive on Jan. 21, Martin Luther King […]

Read more