Press Releases

Award-winning musician and bandleader Tyrone Jefferson has an impressive résumé. He served several stints as music director for entertainer James Brown between 1979 and 2006, and he has recorded with such artists as LL Cool J, Public Enemy and Pee Wee Ellis. 

Dream of being a daring pirate or a beautiful princess? Young dreamers are invited to the N.C. Maritime Museum during Beaufort’s annual Pirate Invasion on Friday, August 7 and Saturday, August 8.

As a volunteer docent at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh, you can meet people from around the world and share the history of the Tar Heel State. Each year the museum’s award-winning exhibits, special events, and programs for all ages attract more than 330,000 visitors. Museum volunteers provide invaluable learning experiences for visitors and assist with exciting events. Additionally, docents enjoy benefits such as field trips to historic sites, dinner programs, and an annual appreciation reception.

Breathtaking scenes of North Carolina’s mountains and waterfalls appear in the 1992 blockbuster “The Last of the Mohicans.” To create upstate New York in western North Carolina, the movie crew constructed a replica of Fort William Henry alongside Lake James, near the Pisgah National Forest. Additional shooting took place at the Biltmore Estate, in parts of DuPont State Recreational Forest, and around Hickory Nut Falls, in Chimney Rock Park. 

East Carolina University assistant professor of history Dr. Kennetta Hammond Perry will explore the role played by African Americans in the early Civil Rights movement during World War I with a free lecture held at the North Carolina History Center Saturday, Aug. 8, from 2-3 p.m.

Almost a half million public school students in North Carolina have learned math, science, geography and language with direct classroom experiences in the arts through the A+ Schools Program, celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer.

The 1771 War of Regulation was a turbulent time and evidence of the struggle survives at Alamance Battleground State Historic site. Descendants of participants of that battle - Regulators, Tryon's militia and the Allen family - will exchange stories and share genealogy research Aug.

Acclaimed singer and songwriter John Ondrasik, best known by his stage name Five for Fighting, joins the North Carolina Symphony onstage for the first time ever on Saturday, April 2, 2016, at 8 p.m., in Meymandi Concert Hall in downtown Raleigh. Tickets for the one-concert only performance go on sale Monday, Aug. 3, at 10 a.m. at www.ncsymphony.org.

What do you get when you mix a group of pirates, a carefree surfer, a mermaid and a talking Octopus?  Why Rainbow Puppet Productions “A Pirate Party,” of course!  The show is a happy salute to beach movies of the 1960’s and will be held in the Indoor Theatre at Roanoke Island Festival Park August 5, 6, 7 at 10:30 a.m. Tickets are $5 and may be purchased in advance at ticket sales at Roanoke Island Festival Park or the day of the event. Ages 5 and under are free. 

The North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources is pleased to announce that 15 individual properties and districts across the state have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The following properties were reviewed by the North Carolina National Register Advisory Committee and were subsequently approved by the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Officer and forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register.