

Cover Story
PaperHouse Theatre’s Cutting Comedy Asks, ‘What About the Women?’
While the kids are upstairs watching TV, the adults are in the basement plotting revolution. It’s a Thursday night at the south Charlotte home of Nicia Carla, artistic director at PaperHouse Theatre. One of the kids is her daughter. Two others belong to actress Shawnna Pledger, who is conspiring with Carla and cast members Caroline…
AUDIO: Foxture Says Charlotte Music Fest Will Prove Alternative Sounds More ‘Relatable’ to People of Color
BLA/ALT celebrates black alternative rock in the Charlotte area on Oct. 21.
Ruben Galindo’s Family, Lawyers Call for Investigation into Police Shooting
Attorney says family has already spoken with DA’s office
VIDEO: SunQueen Kelcey Says Recent Unrest is Why Now is the Right Time for a Black Alternative Music Festival in Charlotte
BLA/ALT celebrates black alternative rock in the Charlotte area on Oct. 21.
VIDEO PREMIERE: Cuzco Releases New Video Exclusively at ‘CL’ Vibes
The math-rock band played a video-release show Friday at Snug Harbor
CMPD Releases Footage of Officers Fatally Shooting Ruben Galindo
Galindo’s arms in the air when officers fired
Blade Runner 2049: Back to the Future
BLADE RUNNER 2049 ***1/2 (out of four) DIRECTED BY Denis Villeneuve STARS Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford Let’s slice through the studio hype and fanboy hyperventilation and immediately answer the pressing question on everyone’s mind. Is Blade Runner 2049, the long-awaited sequel to 1982’s Blade Runner, a masterpiece like its predecessor? Definitely not. To be blunt,…
Stars tower over The Mountain Between us
THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US **1/2 (out of four) DIRECTED BY Hany Abu-Assad STARS Idris Elba, Kate Winslet An adaptation of the novel by bestselling author Charles Martin, The Mountain Between Us casts Idris Elba and Kate Winslet as surgeon Ben Bass and photojournalist Alex Martin, two of the many folks stranded at the Salt Lake…
Muslim in Charlotte: Duston Barto
Muslim in Charlotte: Duston Barto from Creative Loafing on Vimeo. After serving a long tenure as editor of Muslim American magazine in Charlotte, Duston Barto decided he wanted to go into business for himself. He turned his passion for anime into a gift shop for rare trinkets in Maiden called Kitty in a Box. “Christians…
Wendy Hickey Continues Growing ArtPop, Bringing Local Art to the Masses
Speaking with Wendy Hickey, executive director and founder of ArtPop, at Nova’s Bakery in Plaza Midwood on a recent morning, her passion for local arts, like her billboards, is hard to miss. She gets excited just to speak about the program, which highlights the work of local artists on billboards and in other public spaces,…
Mastodon and Eagles of Death Metal give rock a much-needed punch
Dynamic duo hammers crowd with Southern rock and metal.
Children of the Corn, A Ghost Story, Vampyr among new home entertainment titles
(View From The Couch is a weekly column that reviews what’s new on Blu-ray, DVD and Streaming. Ratings are on a four-star scale.) BENEATH THE 12-MILE REEF (1953). Billed as “The Modern Miracle You See Without Glasses” — an acknowledgment of (and dig at) the 3-D pictures popular at the time — CinemaScope revolutionized the…
Listen Up: Lute Is Living The Dream On ‘Local Vibes’
Fresh off the release of his debut Dreamville release, West 1996 Pt. 2, Lute came by the studio to talk about how one day he was getting in trouble for using his phone at his job in Walmart, and the next he was kicking it with J. Cole, who just so happened to be a…
Weekly Horoscope (Oct. 5-11)
ARIES (March 21 to April 19) You might feel compelled to get involved on the “right side” of a seemingly unfair fight. But appearances can be deceptive. Get the facts before going forth into the fray. TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Bullying others into agreeing with your position could cause resentment. Instead, persuade them…
Johnson C. Smith University Announces New President
The Johnson C. Smith University Board of Trustees this morning announced the selection of Clarence D. “Clay” Armbrister as the new president of the university. He will be the historic black college’s 14th president. Armbrister currently serves as president of Girard College, an independent college preparatory five-day boarding school for academically capable students from economically…
Succotash, Suffered Gladly
Being a Child of the North, I never ate succotash. My introduction to the word came via the exasperated utterances of Sylvester the Cat, who would sputter “Suffering Succotash!” when things were not going his way. The expression, it turns out, is one of many cooked up by those who would prefer to keep their…
Cuzco Subtracts One from Business People, Adds Four to Create Exquisite Soundtrack
The scene is straight out of a nonexistent film we’ll call Indie Bromance. The venue is the Fillmore Charlotte; the date, Aug. 6, 2010: Will Schoonmaker and Nic Robinson, high school music nerds, are in different spots in the audience at a Silversun Pickups show, each singing his heart out amid colored lights and the…
Confronting Energy Poverty in Charlotte’s Low-Income Communities
One thing becomes clear after spending just a short time in DeAndrea Salvador’s small office, tucked into the back of the Hygge West co-working space on Remount Road: she’s a minimalist. When Creative Loafing stopped by on a recent morning, her desks were cleared, with just a laptop, a bottle of water and a lone…
Do I Have to Drink to Have a Good Time?
Nearly three years ago, my first editor at Creative Loafing, Kim Lawson, forwarded me an email from an avid follower. He wanted to wish her farewell as she was leaving the publication, but he also wanted to chat with her about me. He pretty much asked her if she thought that I, a promising writer…


