Carolina Comments: History & Politics in Several Guises

ABROAD AT HOME:  A NUGGET OF RALEIGH HISTORY

Pope House Museum

This week we toured the Pope House Museum in downtown Raleigh not far from the capitol.  Built in 1901, this small two-story building was the home of Dr. Manassa Pope and his family.  Pope was the first licensed African American doctor in North Carolina.  Born in 1858 to free parents, he graduated from nearby Shaw University and then got his training at Leonard Medical Center.  He fought in the Spanish American War and later helped start a bank in Durham.  

Manassa T. Pope, 1910 (Pope Museum)

Dr. Pope and his first wife Lydia bought the land and then built this house.  She died of tuberculosis in 1906, and he and his second wife Delia, an educator, had two girls.   The house was in a middle-class Black neighborhood and a mark of his success.  It faced Wilmington Street which was the dividing line between the African American neighborhood and a White neighborhood. 

In 1919, during the Jim Crow era, Dr. Pope was a candidate for city mayor.  He didn’t expect to win but wanted to show that African Americans had the right to vote.  His daughters, Evelyn and Ruth, became teachers and lived in the house until their deaths.  Neither married nor had any children.  Fortunately, the city of Raleigh acquired the property and preserved it as this museum.

The house is small but worth a visit to see the artifacts and photos documenting this man’s prominent role during a difficult era in history.  February, Black History month, is still being observed in towns like Cary. It is a fitting moment to see the Pope House Museum, to reflect on the past, to appreciate how far our society has come, and alas, to be fearful how far backwards we may go.

LOVE AND POLITICS: A NOVEL

How to Sleep at Night by Elizabeth Harris

Author Harris (nyt.com)

Elizabeth Harris is a New York Times reporter who covers the publishing industry and authors.  She has frequently written about trends in book banning including how it can be done under the radar.  How to Sleep at Night is her first novel, and it’s a treat.

Ethan and Gabe are a married gay couple with a 5-year-old daughter.  When Ethan announces, he is going to run as conservative Republican candidate for Congress, Gabe, who is a Democrat, is stunned and flummoxed, but agrees to go along.  Ethan’s sister Nicole is a suburban mother of two kids married to Austin.  Her marriage has become stale, and she feels somewhat adrift.  Nicole re-engages with old college flame Kate, who is a newspaper reporter, and both their lives become more complicated. 

Politics plays a big part in this novel, but it’s equally a novel about love, the vagaries within marriage, and the appeal of new love.  The characters are well drawn–even the children are convincingly real– and there is wit and warmth midst the chaos.  Recommended! (~JWFarrington)

BRAIN FOOD: GREAT DECISIONS PROGRAM

America’s Role Going Forward

The Chief Penguin and I are participating in one of the Great Decisions discussion groups offered here.  Great Decisions is an annual program developed by the Foreign Policy Association.  They provide a text which contains background reading for the weekly sessions, each chapter written by a different expert. The 2025 theme is “America at a Global Crossroads.”  An accompanying DVD has sections related to each chapter.  

Thus far, I’ve been impressed with the quality of the background reading and have found the DVD lectures building on and expanding the chapter information.  It’s clear that the materials were prepared after the 2024 election making them very relevant.  Tariffs and the history of American trade policy since WWI were part of our most recent session.  Food for the brain!  

BLACK HISTORY BOOK DISPLAY

Note: Unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

CAROLINA COMMENTS: READING & ART

This week I’m sharing my thoughts on a new novel by Fiona Davis along with some works I found striking at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke. I’m continuing to consider some of our outings in Cary and beyond as other examples of Abroad At Home.

ENTERTAINING NOVEL: THE MET AND EGYPT

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

Fiona Davis (facebook.com)

True to form, The Stolen Queen, the latest historical novel by Fiona Davis, centers on an iconic building in New York City.  Earlier novels featured the New York Public Library (The Lions of Fifth Avenue), the Barbizon Hotel for Women (The Dollhouse), and Grand Central Terminal (The Masterpiece), to name just several.  For this work, it’s the Metropolitan Museum of Art and specifically its antiquities and Egyptian collections.

Set in 1936 and 1978 in Egypt and Manhattan, it’s the story of two women and their search for a stolen artifact (the queen of the title), a missing jewelry collar, and a lost daughter.  Charlotte Cross was a budding archaeologist in Luxor in the 1930’s when her life was upended by tragedy.  In 1978, she is an associate curator at the Met, keenly focused on her study of a female pharaoh, yet still torn by not knowing the fate of her infant.  Annie Jenkins is nineteen, loves fashion, and by happenstance becomes Diana Vreeland’s gopher in the run-up to the Costume Institute’s annual gala.  Due to some unusual circumstances, Annie and Charlotte join forces to search for the missing antiquity which involves traveling to Egypt and excavating the demons of Charlotte’s past.

The novel is a romp in the Met Museum, fun for anyone who has spent any time at all there, while simultaneously being a complexly threaded set of relationships and events.  The female pharaoh and a few other characters are based on historic figures.  It’s a quick read and enjoyable, even if it all seems to be resolved too neatly!

ABROAD AT HOME:  ART IN DURHAM

Nasher Museum of Art

Friends invited us to join them for an outing to the Nasher Museum of Art on the Duke University campus in Durham.  I knew of this museum but had never visited, nor had I ever seen it.  The building itself is stunning with a soaring wide lobby topped by angled metal trusses and lots of glass.  Designed by noted architect Rafael Vinoly and opened in 2005, it’s a light-filled welcoming space.  Galleries and exhibit spaces are off to the side in appropriately semi-dark rooms.  

Interior, Nasher Museum

Several exhibits are currently on view and some are small so, we were able to explore them all to some extent.  We spent the most time in By Dawn’s Early Light, a major exhibit marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 set against the historical backdrop of the Constitution and several key amendments.  The exhibit is wide-ranging in its coverage of people and documents through photography, painting, and sculptural pieces. Here are several works that I found striking.

Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, a Native American from Montana, presents a map of the United States emphasizing its whiteness with white paint colors instead of state names.  The countries surrounding the US are multi-colored.  North Carolina is Breakwater White.

Fifty Shades of White, 2018
Detail showing North Carolina and neighbors

Americans have the right to bear arms. I found this Celtic cross composed of AK 47 rifles a chilling statement on what one might call “gun worship.”

Cross for the Unforgiven, 2002, Mel Chin

Another powerful piece for me was the historic Confederate flag, part of a performance piece in which the flag was deliberately torn. The colorful threads on the shelf at the bottom are formless and perhaps available for something new.

Unravelling, Sonya Clark, 2015
Tabaco, Diego Camposeco, 2015

Individuals from other lands come here seeking to fulfill the American dream for themselves.  Many of these are migrant workers, often Latinos. See Diego Camposeco’s print at right.

There is also moving section, “Freedom to Assemble” with images of Martin Luther King and others gathering and facing down armed troops at the Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965.  Mounted on mirrored sienna glass, the photos are very reflective making it impossible to get a photo worth sharing.  

By Dawn’s Early Light is timely and worth a visit. It runs through May 11. 

The museum also has an informal café space offering tasty salads, sandwiches, eggs benedict many ways, and omelets.  We four enjoyed lunch there midst the Under 25 set.  We had escaped our home bubble for a student-filled campus bubble.  Fun!

Note: All unattributed photos by JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Header photo is of the massive bronze sculpture, MamaRay, by Nairobi-born artist Wangechi Muta. It was installed at the museum in 2021.

Carolina Moments: January Diversions

January is a winter month, and very much so this year for much of the U.S. We cocoon more, spend more time reading and watching TV, and only venture out when the weather moderates. Here you’ll find a thoughtful novel, a comforting drama series, good food in Cary, and reflections on a noted chef.

NOVEL OF THE WEEK

Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett

Author Haslett (hatchettebookgroup.com)

Prize-winning fiction writer, Adam Haslett is the author of short stories and several novels.  I found his 2016 novel, Imagine Me Gone about depression within a family, compelling and sensitive.  His latest novel, Mothers and Sons, might simplistically be dubbed a novel about gay love.  But it is so much more than that.  It’s a novel of feelings, nuanced relationships, estrangement, violence, and secrets.  

Peter Fischer is a 40ish immigration lawyer in New York, dedicated to his work almost to the point of obsession.  He deals with individuals traumatized by the violence or abuse they experienced in their home country, who seek to stay legally in the U.S.  Peter has little social life outside the job and tepid relationships with his work colleagues.  He is estranged from his mother Ann and seldom in contact with his sister Liz.

Ann was an Episcopal minister who left her husband, Peter’s father, for another woman.  Together she and Clare founded and built a retreat center for women in rural Vermont.  In dealing with the case of Vasel, a young gay man from Albania, Peter finds himself reliving and agonizing anew over his adolescent friendship with his classmate Jared.  Haunted by his reflections, he at last visits his mother to explore their mutual past.

This is a deliberate novel with perhaps too many immigration cases leading up to Peter’s focus on Vasel.  Vasel’s elusiveness and withholding of details push Peter to review his own relationships and actions of twenty years ago.  Meanwhile, his mother misses her son but is examining her own love for Clare, while trying to shove aside her attraction to another community member.  The events of twenty years ago don’t really feature in her memory until Peter comes to visit.  

This novel probes its characters’ innermost feelings. They are complex individuals whose vulnerability and weaknesses the author shares. Chapters occasionally alternate between present day and Peter’s memories of his teenage years.  Recommended for fans of literary fiction!  (~JWFarrington)

COMFORT VIEWING

All Creatures Great and Small Season 5 (PBS Masterpiece)

Helen, Jimmy, & James (parade.com)

If you’re looking for something soothing and somewhat sentimental, Season 5 Of All Creatures Great and Small may be just right.  It takes place in a somewhat simpler time, albeit marked by James’ and Tristan’s war service and the anguished worry and waiting of their family back home. 

Quirky veterinary intern Richard Carmody provides additional color while security warden Mr. Bosworth’s gruff and exacting exterior masks a soft center.  Baby Jimmy ‘s cuteness appeals to everyone, and Helen and Mrs. Hall capably maintain the household and keep Siegried and everyone on an even keel.  It’s a heartwarming series with moments of poignance and levity.  Recommended!

ABROAD AT HOME: LUNCH IN CARY

Pro’s Epicurean Market & Cafe

Colorful olives

The weather on Saturday had warmed up enough that we walked downtown, by the park, and farther on to try Pro’s Epicurean. It’s a brightly lit, attractive restaurant that also functions as a market for wines, vinegars and their dishes.  The cuisine is a mix of French and Italian with charcuterie and cheeses, crepes, salads, pastas, meat and seafood entrees, and a host of specialty sandwiches.  The staff were friendly and very welcoming.  

Between us, we sampled the olive medley, the country pate, and a best-to-be-hungry sausage, peppers, onion, and melted mozzarella Raphael sandwich.  The sandwiches can be had on a baguette, seeded rye, or a soft roll; the Raphael would have been easier to eat had it been on a roll.   Wines, beer, mixed and soft drinks, and creative mocktails are also on the menu.  In warmer weather, you can eat out on their patio.  Recommended!

REMEMBERING CHEF CHARLES PHAN

The Chief Penguin and I enjoyed many delicious Vietnamese meals at Charles Phan’s Slanted Door restaurant in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Some of my favorite dishes were the imperial spring rolls, his signature shaking beef cubes, and cellophane noodles with crabmeat.  He was a pioneer who gave Vietnamese cuisine new prominence on the food scene.

We also got to know Charles a bit as he created and oversaw the first dining venues at the then newly open California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.  Over the years, he opened satellite locations of Slanted Door along with developing other restaurant concepts.  Covid closed the Slanted Door in San Francisco, but other locations exist in Napa and elsewhere.  Sadly, Charles Phan died of a heart attack at 62 this past week.  We have fond memories of his cooking.

Note: Header photo of January sunrise and olive medley ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Carolina Comments: Viewing & Eating

NOTEWORTH MOVIES

Continuing to focus on likely Oscar nominees, the Chief Penguin and I watched two recent films on Netflix last week.  Both included music, but one was intense and unconventional; the other was reflective and the winding down of a career and a life.  The films are Emilia Perez and Maria.

GENDER TRANSITION AND MORE

Emilia Perez (Netflix, in Spanish with English subtitles)

Emilia (usatoday.com)

Emilia Perez is a wild, operatic, intensely emotional movie with music, dancing, and some humor.  It’s based on an opera libretto that was adapted from a novel.  

Manitas del Monte, a drug lord with a long history of violence lures Rita Moro Castro, a young lawyer looking for greater recognition and more professional challenges, to oversee his disappearance and transition to a new life as a female.  His wife Jessie must believe he is dead and go into hiding with their two children.  His new life as Emilia is a rollercoaster ride full of surprises and twists.   The soundtrack is great, several dances add levity, and yet there is also mystery and darkness.  

The cast is superb with Karla Sofia Gascon, a trans woman, as both Manitas and Emilia, and Zoe Saldana as the glamorous and selfless Rita.  The film is truly unconventional, but I highly recommend it—if you are seeking something different.

A DIVA REFLECTS BACK

Maria (Netflix)

Angelina Jolie as Maria (nytimes.com)

Greek and American soprano Maria Callas was one of the most noted and talented opera singers of the 20thcentury.  Maria, the film, takes place in Paris during the fall of 1977 with flashbacks to some of Callas’ performances during her stunning career.  Now suffering from a diminished voice, she valiantly rehearses with the faint hope of performing once again.  

While Callas, as convincingly evoked by Angelina Jolie, is the focus, this diva’s life is made comfortable by the care of Bruna and Ferruccio, her stalwart household help.  Her relationship with Aristotle Onassis is also touched upon.

The plot line is simple and measured and interspersed with marvelous singing.  Angelina Jolie does some of the singing, but when Callas is in her prime the recordings are primarily of Callas.  It is not a perfect film but should be enjoyed by opera buffs and Callas fans.

SPIES ON TV

The CP and I are also always on the lookout for good drama and crime series on television.  We recently watched the somewhat different British thriller series called Black Doves.

FRIENDS, LOVERS, & AGENTS

Black Doves (Netflix)

Sam, Helen, & Reed (netflix.com)

When undercover spy, Helen Webb’s secret lover Jason is assassinated, her original trainer, Sam, is sent to London to keep her safe.  Helen nominally leads an ordinary life as a politician’s wife and mother of two children.  Yet, she is part of a covert group called the Black Doves and regularly reports to Reed, her handler.  As Sam and Reed and now Helen become involved in the mystery of who killed the Chinese ambassador to Britain, there is violence—shootings, killings, and kidnappings.  

It is often hard to follow the plot and the motivations of the secondary characters.  What is noteworthy and most enjoyable is the richness of some of the relationships.  Helen and Sam have a genuine longstanding friendship, and there is the bittersweet once-upon-a-time love between triggerman Sam and the upstanding Michael.  

I kept thinking we should abandon this series, but we kept coming back to it.  The cast is wonderful with Keira Knightley as Helen, Ben Whishaw as Sam, Sarah Lancashire as Reed, and familiar faces from Bridgerton and The Crown.   Overall, I recommend it, knowing it will not appeal to everyone.

CARY DINING

Shinmai (N. W. Maynard Road near Lowe’s)

Interior, Shinmai
Salmon bento box

This attractive Japanese restaurant is small, but its menu is extensive.  I dined here for lunch this past week with the Adventurous Eaters.  Our group of 17 took up almost the entire restaurant.  While ramen is a Shimmai specialty, there are plenty of other noodle dishes featuring soba and udon noodles as well as dishes with fish or crab.  Some of us sampled gyoza (little spicy beef dumplings), vegetable tempura, lemongrass ribeye, okonomiyaki (a squid pancake not often seen on menus), a chicken and cabbage bowl, and the teriyaki bento box with salmon.  

The food was very tasty.  On a return visit, I’d like to try more items from the First Flavors part of the menu.   

Note: Shinmai photos and header photo of seesaw park ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)