Mark Robinson, candidate for NC Governor, is a constant flop in his hometown Earlier this week, the Greensboro City Council Chambers were a sea of green and black, with some rainbow mixed in. The chambers were so crowded for the City Council meeting that a TV and chairs were set up for overflow, and the tee-shirt colors continued out there. …

How a small town in North Carolina celebrated drag in the face of extremism — Masked men are marching up the street. Some cars slow down at the spectacle, but others zip away before the children in their back seats can see. It’s not exactly the sort of thing you want to run into on a sleepy Saturday afternoon in small town Albemarle. Tiffany Dahle…

AI, tech, and the 2024 elections. My son shows me a video on his phone. It’s a series of photographs of Mitch McConnell, DeSantis, and other GOP leaders in drag, set to Doja Cat’s “Boss B*itch.” …

Tennessee and North Carolina need you in, not out. “Why don’t you come north for the summer?” a friend texts me, he means to be sweet. He sends along a picture of the view from his back window, a charming New England town, a birdhouse painted to match his cabin…

Anti-LGBTQ legislation and how it hurts every child in our public schools. Sixty four years ago, Farmville, Virginia, became the only place in the nation without public education. When Farmville and Prince Edward County were ordered to comply with the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation ruling, the local school board cut off funding and closed every school in the county. Farmville’s…

Death, dying, and our loved ones — We are driving looking for soup from a grocery she can’t remember the name of in a town that she believes is somewhere south of here. My grandmother will turn 99 in a few months and has been talking about this soup long before I even got into town and…

Fantasy worlds of children trying on futures for size. While traveling down the east coast, we stayed at a hotel in Florida. In the morning I was walking through the parking lot with my coffee and this little girl, probably about seven, was walking along holding car keys in her…

Big corporations are making record profits and my state needs to increase our minimum wage right now. — “You better eat all that.” My friend is admonishing her daughter at the kitchen table, pointing to an omelet. She’s probably said this a thousand times over the years to her children, but the look in her eye today says she’s pretty serious. …

And, Yes, We Know Who is Responsible. The men standing before the cameras in Moore County were sober-faced and serious as they addressed the intentional and targeted attacks on two electric substations the night before. …