Orange County Arts Commission

Hillsborough singer/songwriter Jonathan Byrd has always been more than just a musician, working the multi-task hustle on a variety of fronts. But this year has still found him moving into some shockingly unexpected areas.

Redbud is a local creative writing organization, headquartered in Raleigh and serving the Triangle; they teach classes out of local bookstores and small businesses, including Flyleaf Books, McIntyres, Golden Fig Books, and My Muses Card Shop.

It takes most people a long time to figure out what they want to do as their life’s work. But Rody J. Huertas was just seventeen when he found his calling.

In 2021, Amanda Gorman—America’s first ever National Youth Poet Laureate —captured the public imagination in her canary yellow suit as she delivered an original poem at Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Dexter Romweber died over a year ago, at the way-too-young age of 57. But traces of the late great roots-music giant remain around his old Orange County stomping grounds, like a mural in the alley behind Chapel Hill nightclub Local 506.

Sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time. That’s what happened to Diana Newton, a local Carrboro artist who specializes in sculptures. Before her retirement in 2019, Newton had spent a decades long career in psychotherapy and leadership development consulting