🧵 In Today’s Edition

1. After more than 60 years, the future of the Eastern Music Festival is in doubt
2. What We’re Reading
3. Around The State

A crowd of close to 600 attendees gives a standing ovation at the end of the June EMF faculty artist concert. (Carolyn de Berry for The Assembly)

Facing The Music

For decades, every summer, Guilford College has come alive with young musicians bustling down sidewalks, carrying their instruments as centuries-old oak trees offer shade from the afternoon sun. String instruments hum, mixing with the soft tones from a nearby piano. These are the sounds of the Eastern Music Festival, which has been held on the campus for the last 62 years. But this year, the landscape is quiet.

In February, the annual five-week summer music festival, which draws hundreds of students from around the country every year, was abruptly canceled. This came after mounting tension between faculty musicians, who teach the festival’s students every year, and the organization’s board and administration. 

After years of what they call mismanagement and lack of development, faculty artists have unionized. Their goal is to increase salaries and maintain enough musicians to teach and put on annual concerts. To stay sustainable, administrators argue they must be flexible with programming and, ultimately, staffing. Six months later, the two sides are now attempting to reach an agreement on the core mission of EMF to preserve the historic institution.

Read the full story here.

— Sayaka Matsuoka

Thanks for reading The Thread, a 3x week newsletter written by Greensboro editor Joe Killian and reporters Sayaka Matsuoka and Gale Melcher. Reach us with tips or ideas at greensboro@theassemblync.com.

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What We’re Reading

Woman Found Dead: A woman was found dead on McConnell Road early Tuesday. Greensboro Police identified her as Meyling Mercedes Carrion-Ruiz, 35. Her death is being investigated as the city’s 26th homicide of the year. The News & Record has the story.

A Change of Scenery: Hendon Hooker, once a football star at James B. Dudley High School, was released this week by the Detroit Lions. Lions coach Dan Campbell said Hooker may “need a change of scenery.” Fox8 has the story.

A Changing Landscape: UNCG Professor Nir Kshetri from UNCG has received a Fulbright Scholar award. In January, he’ll begin research in Nepal into how AI may change higher education in developing countries. Read more from UNCG.

(Edit note: The original version of this newsletter contained a typo that misstated the number of homicides in Greensboro so far this year. The correct number is 26.)

Around The State

Looking Up in Chimney Rock

Eleven months after Hurricane Helene devastated the mountain town, tourists are trickling back.

Vets Put Their Stamp on Startup Whiskeys

While military liquor stores have been slow to warm to the trend, veteran-owned distilleries offer […]

New Flood Maps Could Prevent Disasters. Why Are They So Outdated?

Many of the maps that dictate the riskiest flood zones in Western N.C. and elsewhere […]

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Sayaka Matsuoka is a Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly. She was formerly the managing editor for Triad City Beat, an alt-weekly based in Greensboro. She has reported for INDY Week, The Bitter Southerner, and Nerdist, and is the editorial/diversity chair for AAN Publishers.