Jodie Valade
Editor, Digital News and EngagementJodie Valade has been a Digital News and Engagement Editor for WFAE since 2019. Since moving to Charlotte in 2015, she has worked as a digital content producer for NASCAR.com and a freelance writer for publications ranging from Charlotte magazine to The Athletic to The Washington Post and New York Times. Before that, Jodie was an award-winning sports features and enterprise reporter at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. She also worked at The Dallas Morning News covering the Dallas Mavericks — where she became Mark Cuban's lifelong email pen pal — and at The Kansas City Star. She has a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University and a Master of Education from John Carroll University. She is originally from Rochester Hills, Michigan.
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Festival in the Park has been held in Charlotte's Freedom Park since 1964, and canceled just twice — including for the coronavirus last year. A smaller version is back this weekend with about half the vendors and some COVID-19 precautions that include no shuttle buses for off-site parking.
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The Charlotte Symphony and Charlotte Ballet both announced Friday that they will require proof of vaccination for COVID-19 or a negative PCR test within 72 hours to attend events at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.
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A year after the pandemic puppy boom, Charlotte's animal shelter is full and Animal Care & Control is asking the community to help alleviate the problem by fostering, adopting or taking dogs home for a "staycation."
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Join WFAE "All Things Considered" host Gwendolyn Glenn as she and Jodie Valade, co-writer of WFAE’s arts and entertainment newsletter, Tapestry, go through this weekend’s slate of events. The slate is highlighted by "Wicked" coming to Ovens Auditorium and Historic Brattonsville’s annual festival to celebrate the heritage of local African Americans.
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Yard Art Day is this Labor Day. The annual celebration of community art encourages people to walk and drive through neighborhoods to see artistic displays outside.
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A sign was removed in Charlotte’s Plaza Midwood neighborhood Friday. Normally that wouldn’t be big news. Buildings and signs in the city go up and down all the time. It’s a reflection of the rapid growth and development in the area. But this one at the former Penguin restaurant site had another significance.
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FixaPlate is a new immersive theatrical experience that aims to tell the history of Charlotte through food.
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The popular Immersive Van Gogh exhibit at Camp North End was closed Thursday and Friday because of a power outage and flooding caused by heavy thunderstorms in the Charlotte area Wednesday night.
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Artist J. Stacy Utley wanted to honor the history of Charlotte's West End for his public art sculpture in the new Five Points Plaza. That's why he turned to a famous image of one of West End's most revered residents, Dorothy Counts-Scoggins.
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This weekend's list of "Unforgettable" entertainment options includes a tribute concert to both Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole along with the Panthers' Fan Fest, the Harlem Globetrotters, the Charlotte African-American Festival and a vinyl art workshop.