What's happening

Holiday Potluck Dinner

DPNA will hold our holiday potluck dinner at the home of Rebecca Crocker and Rafe Sagarin on Friday, Dec. 7 at 6pm. The address is 1411 N. Mangum St. Please BYOB and a dish to share.

Night of Lights, Dec. 16

The Night of Lights—the lighting of luminarias throughout Duke Park, as well as other Durham neighborhoods—will be held this year on Dec. 16. Sales of luminaria kits will be held in Duke Park on the weekends of Dec. 8-9 and Dec. 15-16 from 10am to 2pm. In the late afternoon on Dec. 16, volunteers will also light luminarias around and throughout the park. Please feel free to drop by and help light candles! After luminarias are lit, neighbors stroll the neighborhood to see just how beautiful it can be. This is a great opportunity to meet your neighbors!

If you would like to volunteer for a 2-hour shift selling luminaria kits, please contact DPNA president Dan Read at readlaw at aol dot com, or 688-0535.

Get Involved!

Meet your neighbors and improve your neighborhood! DPNA is always looking for neighbors who want to lend a hand, whether planning a picnic, lobbying the city council, or improving the park. Here are some of the opportunities for involvement, and who to call for more info:

Event planning (potlucks, picnics, meetings):
Barry Ragin (bragin at nc.rr.com, 956-8054)

Bathhouse committee:
Michelle Old (shallfish at earthlink.net, 683-2544)

Newsletter committee:
Marty Jarrell (mysamdog at verizon.net, 688-6004)

Newsletter delivery:
Carol Donin (bluehen27701 at yahoo.com, 680-6339)

Website and photo archives:
Claire Doyle (canyonwomn at yahoo.com, 956-8054)

In addition, there are other events throughout the year, such as the spring yard sale and fall plant exchange. All DPNA events and committees were started because of a neighbor who saw something that needed to be done, or something that would be fun to do. If it weren't for the involvement of Duke Park neighbors, we would probably still be waiting for a playground in the park, and would definitely not have the crosswalk at Roxboro and Knox. Don't be shy. If there is an issue you would like to tackle, or an activity you'd like to plan, come to a DPNA meeting or call a board member and get your neighbors involved.

Meet Your Neighbors

Grammy Nominee on Hollywood Street
While many of us were curled up in front of the TV on Feb. 8 to see which of our favorite musicians were competing for the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, Duke Park resident Mamadou Diabate was sitting at a large table in the Convention Center in L.A., anxiously waiting to find out if he had won...

Clowning Around
When people refer to their neighbor as a clown, it's usually not a good sign. But when the folks on Acadia say it, they're just talking about "Mr. Rainbow", AKA David Bartlett. The funny thing is, David Bartlett never wanted to be a clown...

The DJ from Divaville
You can hear Duke Park neighbor Christa Wessel on WCPE most weekday afternoons, but for a really swinging good time, tune the FM to 88.7 on Thursday nights from 6–8. There you'll hear Christa hosting Divaville, two hours of non-stop jazz, swing, and big-band era vocals ...

Discovering Geer Cemetery
Neighbor Jesse Eustice tells the tale of how she discovered Geer Cemetery, a 19th-century African-American cemetery in the Duke Park neighborhood.

Meet Mr. Bain
You may not know Don Bain but you’ve probably waved to him countless times. He walks through Duke Park almost every day, usually wearing a light jacket and baseball cap. He is the caretaker of Duke Park.