Nash Roberts

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Country star to play benefit

By Nash Roberts | April 24

Sometimes, it's more about who you know than what you know. This holds especially true for Reece Holbrook, who was 2 years old when he was diagnosed with childhood leukemia in September 2004. Soon after, Reece's parents - Chad, UNC's associate head baseball coach, and Jennifer, Roy Williams' administrative secretary - joined with friends from the North Carolina athletic community to start the Reece Holbrook Golf Classic. The charity was organized to help cover the cost of Reece's leukemia treatments.

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Bang on a Can brings modern global sound

By Nash Roberts | April 14

A genre-defying blend of musical compositions by the Bang on a Can All-Stars challenged audience members' perceptions of musical form Saturday at Memorial Hall. The show was highlighted by original compositions from guest performers such as Burmese pat wang master Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo and Glenn Kotche, drummer for rock group Wilco.

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Musical group to do more than just 'bang on a can'

By Nash Roberts | April 11

Bang on a Can is a group on a mission to push music outside of the confines of rock or classical, jazz or folk. "People like their music to be easily classified, and this is anything but that," said Emil Kang, UNC's executive director for the arts. The core group of musicians forming Bang on a Can have been around officially since 1992, but since then they have been an evolving collective of some of the most influential names in both formal and alternative music.

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Haale hooks crowd

By Nash Roberts | March 20

Before Wednesday, the last time Haale performed in Chapel Hill was summer 2007 at Local 506 on the far end of West Franklin Street. Haale took the stage in Chapel Hill for the second time last night, but this time it was in the 1,434-seat Memorial Hall. Haale is a New York-based rock outfit fronted by the female singer that bears the band's name, Haale. Born in the Bronx to Iranian parents, Haale transcends the musical elements of both Persian music and Western rock. Much of her music is sung in Farsi, the native language of Iran.

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Band Haale to perform today

By Nash Roberts | March 19

Memorial Hall will play host today to a band that bridges the gap between elements of Middle Eastern music and psychedelic rock. The band, Haale, owes its namesake to its frontwoman, Haale, a singer and guitarist who is ethnically Iranian, but was born and raised in the Bronx, N.Y. The concert is a part of Carolina Performing Arts' season. "You just do it," Haale said when asked about incorporating elements from two distinct musical styles. "The fact that I'm from the two traditions is pretty natural."

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Dancers seek to unite through performance

By Nash Roberts | February 25

When differences of language, culture and geographical origin can stand to divide, it can be easy to forget the connectivity humans share. Friday's dance performance at Memorial Hall featuring Brooklyn-based Urban Bush Women and Senegalese Compagnie Jant-Bi was a reminder that despite these differences, people can come together around shared histories, even if the memory of these histories is often painful.

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Dancers explore slavery through performances

By Nash Roberts | February 22

Fourteen dancers of varying African heritage will take the stage tonight at Memorial Hall to perform their interpretation of "Les écailles de la mémoire (The Scales of Memory)," a story of the cultural memory and history of slavery. Half of the dancers are from Urban Bush Women, a Brooklyn-based dance group, and the other half are from the Senegalese dance group Compagnie Jant-Bi. The performance's music was composed by Fabrice Bouillon-Laforest.

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UNC, too, sings America

By Nash Roberts | January 28

An audience of more than 200 gathered in the Student Union Great Hall on Friday night for "I, Too, Sing America," a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life and legacy. The event was organized primarily by the Black Student Movement and UNC's Cultural Diversity Committee and featured a variety of performances from poets, choirs, musicians and dancers.

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Event to raise funds for Deep Dish Theater

By Nash Roberts | January 18

Seven years ago, Paul Frellick saw a vacant men's formalwear store while walking through Chapel Hill's University Mall. That space is now the site of Deep Dish Theater Company, where Frellick is the artistic director. "Chapel Hill has had a chronic lack of theater space, and we were trying to think outside of the box," Frellick said. "Having it in the mall takes away some of the mystification from drama and puts it at the center of your life." Today and Saturday, Deep Dish will host its annual Side Dish Fundraiser to raise money for the organization.

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Local films to be featured at Carrboro film festival

By Nash Roberts | September 20

Filmmakers have until midnight today to turn in their submissions for the Carrboro Film Festival which will showcase local short films on Nov. 18th. Last year, more than 100 films were submitted from filmmakers of all ages and 22 of those were shown at the festival. "Last year we saw everything from 3-D animation to serious documentaries about the war in Iraq," said Nic Beery, chairman of the festival. "We really had it all." And this year's festival has the potential to be an event for filmmakers to showcase their work in a packed house.