Introducing the CAROLINADAZE essay series

As part of our mission to bridge arts and activism, CAROLINADAZE — a music, arts, and civic engagement project led by Common Cause North Carolina — is pleased to sponsor an essay series in partnership with Facing South and the Institute for Southern Studies, reflecting the voices of young North Carolinians from across our state.

The CAROLINADAZE series was inspired by our desire to answer a set of questions: What does the future of democracy look like in North Carolina? And what are the lesser-known or untold stories that can help us make sense of a radically different future from our present?

My job as a journalist is to witness. Raised in a bilingual immigrant family and calling North Carolina home since I was seven years old, I quickly learned how to decipher accented English in all forms, whether through rolling r’s or Southern drawls. At my family’s restaurant, I noticed the nuances of the rural working class — in the kitchen and in the diner booths. I often joke that hush puppies put me through college. I came to learn about my home as a restaurant kid and, later, through my work as a journalist. Since 2008, my writing and reporting have explored systemic inequities while celebrating the affected people’s lives and their strengths, not just highlighting their challenges.

Outsiders seem to hold a persistent myth about the South: that all of us, and our culture, are monolithic. We know this as a falsehood. Yet it remains a blanket talking point every election cycle. But my work has afforded me the privilege to witness that everyday, individual worlds are what impact collective power, healing, and liberation.

Our essay series has been curated to highlight these everyday worlds. And we’re publishing essays with a very clear personal point-of-view because there is no better way to learn about us than listening to us. As we imagine a future for North Carolina, we also take notes from our rich past, the historic movements we’ve studied. Some we’ve heard as firsthand accounts, passed down in family lore; others from our direct experience with community organizing.

These essays come from the minds of emerging writers — young journalists, academics, and artists — who have shared their reporting, imaginative prose, research, and personal experience. They are witnesses to North Carolina’s future. With this series we aim to highlight communities and stories that show how our state is forward-thinking, politically active, and diverse in all aspects of its democracy.