The William C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations

10/15/2026

Thoughts from 2026 WLI board chair Shannon Moretz (Class of 2017-19)…

Explore a couple conflicting visions for our state's future, and a 2-year statewide fellowship that allows you to develop a practice of connecting across lines of difference.

10/01/2026

📣📣📣Nominations and applications are now open for North Carolina residents to apply ✍️ for the next class of William C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations.

Full details with application and nomination forms at link below.

This unique North Carolina leadership experience seeks to build relationship👥 across difference. The tuition free program includes six extended weekend residential seminars at locations throughout the state. Goals include better understanding and relationship to one’s self, each other, and communities around the state.

Apply or nominate growing and emergent community leaders from all of North Carolina through December 10, 2026.

The William C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations is a program of Wildacres Leadership Initiative (WLI). The fellowship honors the legacy of longtime UNC system president Bill Friday, who charged the first class with embracing personal growth and learning in the service of all North Carolinians.....

09/07/2026

Excerpted:

“In Gastonia, though, it seems people want to forget. Filmmakers hoping to make a documentary about the strike in the 1980s have trouble finding willing interviewees. In 1986, a proposal to create a historical marker is still controversial. Some want the marker to ignore the deaths and mark the site where ‘local citizens defeated the first Communist efforts to control southern textiles.’

In April 2013, the North Carolina Office of Archives and History unveils the marker commemorating the event. It’s taken 27 years to approve 21 words: ‘A strike in 1929 at the Loray Mill, 200 yards S., left two dead and spurred opposition to labor unions statewide.’”

https://www.ourstate.com/loray-mill-strike/

Demands for higher pay and a 40-hour workweek ignite the Loray Mill Strike and a furor in Gastonia in 1929.

09/01/2026

Would you like to apply or nominate someone to the Friday Fellowship?

Online Info Sessions will be held on
Tuesday, September 29 at 4pm
Wednesday, October 14 at 12:30pm

Registration links below or on our website:

https://www.fridayfellowship.org/event/Sept2026InfoSession

https://www.fridayfellowship.org/event/Oct2026InfoSession

Formal applications and nominations will open online on October 1, 2026.

This unique North Carolina leadership experience seeks to build relationship across difference. The tuition-free program includes six extended weekend seminars at locations throughout the state. Goals include better understanding and relationship to one’s self, each other, and communities around the state.

08/24/2026

Excerpted from an interview earlier in 2026:

“We think the court…will…save us from this. We think…somebody will do something in the end. No. It’s us. And when I talk about humility, I mean this. There is nothing. There is us, only. You know, it’s me and you. That’s it. And this should be enough. But in order to believe to that this is enough, we have to believe in each other.”

https://www.channel4.com/news/ece-temelkuran-democracies-dont-collapse-overnight

In particular, consider the 80 seconds from the 19:55 mark to the 21:12 mark.

Ece Temelkuran’s latest book, Nation of Strangers, explores belonging and exile.

Ece Temelkaran is an award-winning journalist and novelist who has spent years warning that the collapse of democracy rarely announces itself with a bang. Instead, it happens gradually - institution is weaken, truth is eroded and what once felt unthinkable becomes normal.

08/13/2026

Read 👓 and see 👀 more about Seminar Three of the Friday Fellowship Class of 2025-27 held in July 2026 on the barrier island known as Bogue Banks in Carteret County. More links 💻and pics 📸 are in the article now available on our website and at the link 🔗 below.

Direct link: https://www.fridayfellowship.org/news/733000/Seminar-Three-of-the-2025-2027-Friday-Fellowship-Held-in-July-2026.htm

08/10/2026

Wildacres Retreat annual applications for artist-in-residence and environmental-artist-in-residence programs are open from August 1, 2026 through October 15, 2026 for residencies during the 2027 calendar year.

For more information, please visit Wildacres.org and click on the Programs menu.

Feel free to share as you wish!

https://wildacres.org/wildacres-residency-program/

https://wildacres.org/wildacres-evironmental-artist-in-residence-program/

08/02/2026

07/15/2026

Excerpted from a recent episode of ON POINT WITH MEGHNA CHAKRABARTI

“But the trick was a perfect demonstration not only of how magicians and illusionists take advantage of your blind spots for wonder and amazement, but also how blind spots can leave us quite vulnerable. Think more broadly for a moment. Politics, misinformation, deepfakes, AI, even commerce in general all seek to exploit our blind spots, to make us believe things that are not true or behave in ways that we might not want to.”

Full episode here:

We all have our blind spots, but with AI and the spread of misinformation, we are more vulnerable to them than ever. Can we learn from a master illusionist on how to avoid falling trap to them?

07/06/2026

https://spectruminfocus.com/section/in-focus/in-focus-shows/2026/07/05/in-focus-darin-waters

We talk to Darin Waters, deputy secretary for the Office of Archives and History at the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.