Photos document a dark era

Upcoming exhibit at Gaston library focuses on century-old images of child labor in mills.

The haunting portraits photographer Lewis Hine made in November 1908 of Gastonia's cotton mill kids were meant to document abuses of child labor laws.

Ty Boyd will be back on the radio Monday

Longtime listeners of WBT-AM (1110) will be forgiven if they tune in groggy Monday morning and think they've been hurled back in time.

Shakespeare Carolinas plays on

Directors say their productions of ‘Twelfth Night' and ‘Richard III' are good enough to pry people away from their television sets.

Shakespeare Carolinas kicked off its annual Queen City Shakespeare Festival last week at Theatre Charlotte with “Twelfth Night.” “Richard III” opens Thursday and the two classics – one comedy, one drama – will play on alternating days between then and the festival's July 26th finale. The Observer recently spoke to directors John Hartness (“Twelfth Night”) and Chris O'Neill (“Richard III”).

A new old face takes over the theater beat

Yes, it's me – the same guy you saw a few pages back in the movie section. Former theater critic Julie York Coppens left to take a job in Ohio, and I'll be theater critic for the fifth time at The Observer.

Gallery Calendar

What's showing at area galleries. Slideshow: Some of the works on display

‘Rising Stars' on exhibit at Mint

Mint's ‘Rising Stars' craft exhibit puts the focus on young and new artists and potential collectors.

Call it Rob Williams' swan song. His final exhibit for the Mint Museum of Craft + Design is on the walls.

Art works of a work in progress

Two hours before show, she was still painting

Two hours before the

Gallery Calendar

Center of the Earth Gallery

Celebrate independence at concerts

Charlotte Symphony's “Celebrate America” concerts will feature rousing music from all over the world.

Johannes Brahms was a German who settled in Austria. Dmitri Shostakovich was Russian. Their music has nothing to do with the United States. What are they doing in the middle of the Charlotte Symphony's “Celebrate America” concerts?

An arresting argument for the grammar police

When I drive to work these days, I pass a billboard for Canadian Club whiskey with a punctuation-challenged message: “That's right your dad drank it”

The bond between them

‘Side Show' tells the true story of the Hilton twins, joined at the hip, who lived in Charlotte

A few weeks ago, Charlotte actors Alyson Lowe and Sydney Shepherd were on their way to a rehearsal for “Side Show,” a musical based on the real-life story of the conjoined-twin Hilton sisters. Lowe and Shepherd were driving separate cars. They approached the same intersection. They made the same wrong turn. “We were both late,” Lowe says, laughing. “It's like we share a brain now.”

• Twins had quiet life in Charlotte
• Excerpt from the song 'I Will Never Leave You'

An extra dose of the high C's

It was the role that made Luciano Pavarotti a star. In April, another tenor brought it to the same theater that had been Pavarotti's launching pad. Juan Diego Florez upped the ante.

NCSC bestows a Blessing

The ‘Chesapeake' author keeps boredom at bay with wordplay, one big plot twist and deeper ideas.

When you know that the star of a one-man show is artistic director of the company putting it on – and he's being directed by his wife, who runs that company alongside him – nasty words such as “self-indulgence” and “nepotism” swirl inevitably around the brain.

Gallery Calendar

Upcoming in area galleries:

In Sires' hands, stone isn't silent

Sculptor Paul Sires is crazy about stone.