Traction is a progressive non-profit organization promoting civic engagement, based in the city of Durham, North Carolina. Traction's goal is to inform, inspire and connect a growing social network of left-leaning 20- and 30-somethings. The organization focuses on raising awareness of progressive issues including civil rights, health care, the environment, electoral fairness, economic justice and education. These topics are integrated into activities such as movies, dodgeball, art exhibitions, sushi-making workshops, potluck dinners and parties to create issue-based events which inform and mobilize the community for social action.
Traction was founded in 2005 by Lanya Shapiro [1] and became a project of the San Francisco-based Tides Center [2] in early 2007. The group's funding sources include the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, Jonathan and Peter Lewis, and the Open Society Institute. [2]
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Chapel Hill is a town in Orange, Chatham, and Durham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Its population was 57,233 in the 2010 census, making Chapel Hill the 15th-largest city in the state. Chapel Hill, Durham, and the state capital, Raleigh, make up the corners of the Research Triangle, with a total population of 1,998,808.
Chatham County is a county located in the Piedmont area of the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2010 census, the population was 63,505. Its county seat is Pittsboro.
Pacifica Foundation is an American non-profit organization that owns five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations known for their progressive/liberal political orientation. Its national headquarters adjoins station KPFA in Berkeley, California.
The Research Triangle, commonly referred to as simply The Triangle, is a region in the Piedmont of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by three major research universities: North Carolina State University, Duke University, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as the cities of Raleigh and Durham and the town of Chapel Hill. The nine-county region, officially named the Raleigh–Durham–Cary combined statistical area (CSA), comprises the Raleigh–Cary and Durham–Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical Areas and the Henderson Micropolitan Statistical Area.
WUNC is the flagship National Public Radio member station for the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, broadcasting on the FM band at 91.5 MHz. Based in Chapel Hill and operated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, it airs NPR, American Public Media, Public Radio International, and BBC programming in an "all-news-and-information" format. On the weekends, the network broadcasts locally produced folk music programming; the longest-running continuously produced program offered by the station is Back Porch Music, a weekly folk and traditional music program.
Mark Kemp is an American music journalist and author. A graduate of East Carolina University, he has served as music editor of Rolling Stone and vice president of music editorial for MTV Networks. In 1997 he received a Grammy nomination for his liner notes to the CD Farewells & Fantasies, a retrospective of music by '60s protest singer Phil Ochs. His book Dixie Lullaby: A Story of Music, Race and New Beginnings in a New South was published by Free Press/Simon & Schuster in 2004 and issued in soft cover by the University of Georgia Press in 2006.
University of North Carolina Television, branded on-air as UNC-TV, is a public television network serving the state of North Carolina. It is operated by the University of North Carolina system, which holds the licenses for all but one of the thirteen PBS member television stations licensed in the state—WTVI in Charlotte is owned by Central Piedmont Community College. The broadcast signals of the twelve television stations cover almost all of the state, as well as parts of Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The network's operations are located at the UNC Center for Public Television at Research Triangle Park between Raleigh and Durham.
Free Speech TV (FSTV) is an American news and opinion network. It was launched in 1995 and is owned and operated by Public Communicators Incorporated, a 501(c)3 non-profit, tax-exempt organization founded in 1974. Distributed principally by Dish Network, DirecTV, and the network's live stream at freespeech.org and on Roku, Free Speech TV has run commercial free since 1995 with support from viewers and foundations. The network claims to "amplify underrepresented voices and those working on the front lines of social, economic and environmental justice," bringing viewers an array of daily news programs, independent documentaries and special events coverage, predominantly from a progressive perspective.
Indy Week, formerly known as the Independent Weekly and originally the North Carolina Independent, is a tabloid-format alternative weekly newspaper published in Durham, North Carolina, United States, and distributed throughout the Research Triangle area and counties. Its first issue was published in April 1983.
WRTP is a radio station broadcasting a Christian contemporary format. Licensed to Franklinton, North Carolina, United States, it serves the Raleigh/Durham area. The station is currently owned by Radio Training Network, with studios on Falls of Neuse Road in north Raleigh. Its transmitter is located near Warrenton.
Pullen Memorial Baptist Church is a Baptist church known for its progressive theology located in Raleigh, North Carolina, US, right beside North Carolina State University. Pullen, called "a fiercely independent Baptist church" whose traditions have "earned it a reputation far and wide as the South's premier liberal church," has a long history of civil rights activism, and is currently a leader on key issues of the day, from LGBTQ rights to activism in Moral Monday protests to alliances with like-minded people in distant places from Cuba to Nicaragua to Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains and Black Sea.
Michael Curtis "Mike" Munger is an economist and a former chair of the political science department at Duke University, where he continues to teach political science, public policy, and economics. He is a prolific writer, and his book Analyzing Policy: Choices, Conflicts, and Practices is now a standard work in the field of policy analysis. In 2008 he was the Libertarian candidate for Governor of North Carolina.
Jimmy Creech is a lifelong pioneer in LGBT equality issues. Creech is a former United Methodist Church minister who was defrocked for marrying same-sex couples. He was a founding member of the North Carolina Religious Coalition for Marriage Equality, an interfaith same-sex marriage advocacy group, co-author of the Dallas Principles, was a participant in the Marriage Equality Express, and is the current Board Chairman of the North Carolina Social Justice Project, a progressive policy and advocacy organization dedicated to eliminating inequality in North Carolina.
Our State is a monthly magazine based in Greensboro, North Carolina, featuring travel and history articles and photographs about North Carolina people, places and events. First published in 1933 as The State magazine, the publication has become "the oldest regional publication of its kind in the country," according to the Associated Press. It is a member of the City and Regional Magazine Association (CRMA).
Louis Austin (1898-1971) was an African-American journalist, civic leader and social activist. Austin purchased The Carolina Times in 1927 and transformed it into an institution that aided African Americans in their fight for freedom and equality in North Carolina. He used a new approach to civil rights issues in Durham, incorporating lower and middle class blacks, unlike the moderate, accommodationist approach of the black elite in Durham during this time. Austin's unusual strategy of advocating for the majority of blacks to have a voice in society succeeded in galvanizing a broader segment of the African American community in Durham to act for social change. Austin's approach to black activism helped lay the groundwork for the modern Civil Rights Movement in Durham in the late 1950s and 1960s, which also encouraged lower-income blacks to become politically active. His strategies—which were once considered too radical by his peers—allowed Austin to maintain his influence in Durham well into the 1950s and 1960s. In doing so, Austin created a lasting impact for Durham.
Anita Woodley is an American journalist, actress, playwright, literary teaching artist, mixed-media artist, poet, producer, and free jazz vocalist. She grew up in Oakland, California, in housing provided by the Oakland Housing Authority. She attended Oakland Technical High School, where she served as All-Student Body President, PTSA Student Representative, and Youth Commissioner Co-Chair for the Mayor of Oakland's Youth Council.
Criminal is an independently-produced podcast that focuses on true crime. It is recorded in the studios of WUNC in Chapel Hill, NC, and is part of the Radiotopia network from PRX. The show describes itself as telling "stories of people who've done wrong, been wronged, or gotten caught somewhere in the middle."
Lamont Lilly is an American writer, political activist, and community organizer based in Durham, North Carolina. He is also a former vice-presidential candidate with the Workers World Party in the 2016 presidential election.
Steve Schewel is an American politician, businessman, and academic. A Democrat, he is the current Mayor of Durham, North Carolina and formerly served on the Durham City Council and as the Vice Chair of the Durham Public School Board. Schewel is also a faculty member at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy and a former faculty member at North Carolina Central University. He founded the weekly newspaper Indy Week in 1983, and served as its president until he sold the paper in 2012. In 2010 he co-founded the Hopscotch Music Festival.
The Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit support corporation of Duke University dedicated to the documentary arts. Having been created in 1989 through an endowment from the Lyndhurst Foundation, The organization’s founders were Robert Coles, William Chafe, Alex Harris, and Iris Tillman Hill. In 1994, CDS moved into a renovated nineteenth-century home, naming it the Lyndhurst House. That structure and a large addition house the main activities of CDS on the edge of Duke University’s campus in Durham, North Carolina. The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, a CDS program, has its offices on the American Tobacco Campus in the American Tobacco Historic District in downtown Durham.