Wednesday! Let's get to it.

🌫️ Today's weather: Patchy fog, then sunny, with a high of 86 and a low of 63.

Today’s newsletter is 784 words — a 3-minute read.

Rapper Jooselord is bringing a new music festival to his hometown of Durham next month.

Why it matters: All Onyx World is designed to honor Jooselord's son Onyx, who died last spring of brain cancer. Onyx was 5 years old.

What they're saying: "My son was everything I have. My music career and my son," he tells Axios. "Everything that I do will have his name attached to it from now on."

What to expect: Jooselord planned the free festival to resemble a night at Hopscotch, with overlapping shows across multiple clubs.

• 33 performers will take over eight downtown Durham venues on Friday, Oct. 30.
• They're all North Carolina artists. "It's homegrown, purposely," he says.
• Shows are planned at The Fruit, Durham Central Park, Motorco Music Hall, Pinhook, Rubies, Bull McCabe's, NorthStar Church of the Arts and Boom Club.

Zoom in: All Onyx World is a celebration and an opportunity to be together. It's not a fundraiser.

Yes, but: Jooselord is working to launch a nonprofit to support families with sick children — Onyx Is Hope.

• "I was helped a lot by the community through Onyx's time with cancer. They found out he was sick and they jumped into action," Jooselord says. "Like, 'We gotta help Joose. We gotta make sure he's good.' And they did that. But everybody with a sick kid is not Jooselord."

The vibe: A live show by Jooselord — the Moshpit Messiah — is memorable.

• "It's all about emotion and feeling," he says. "Take a break from everything that's going on in the world and just feel, just feel for a little bit. Every show, we cry. Every show, we scream. Every show, we laugh, and we get our anger off about whatever."

What's next: The lineup drops tomorrow.

Tell a friend

Felipe De Brigard, a cognitive scientist and philosopher at Duke University, has joined the ranks of geniuses.

Why it matters: De Brigard is the latest researcher from the Triangle to win one of the MacArthur Foundation's Genius Grants, a prestigious award that comes with an $800,000 stipend that can be used without restrictions.

Driving the news: The 47-year-old native of Colombia was named part of the MacArthur Foundation's 2026 class of fellows yesterday, along with 19 other people.

• Before working at Duke, De Brigard got his master's and doctorate at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Zoom in: De Brigard's work at Duke focuses on how people remember things and how their memory is influenced by their state of mind.

• He focused on the relationship between memory and forgiveness by working with people affected by political violence in Colombia.
• His lab's research found that while the act of forgiving does not affect one's memory of what happened during a harmful episode, it does make the memory less emotionally intense and less negative.

Zoom out: De Brigard is the 16th person based in North Carolina to win the award.

• Other winners include musician Rhiannon Giddens, Self-Help CEO Martin Daniel Eakes, UNC sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom and Duke evolutionary anthropologist Jenny Tung.

What's next: De Brigard plans to use the money to continue his lab's research around memory.

Go deeper into his research

🍖 Dampf Good BBQ says its reconsidering its lease on Geer Street in Durham after community backlash over the owners' political posts. (News & Observer)

🎥 A film studio in Wilmington is for sale as the movie industry in North Carolina slumps. (Triangle Business Journal 🔒)

🤫 UNC tried to keep the Chapel Hill G20 meeting on AI as secret as possible to avoid disruptions from protests. (News & Observer)

📸 Apex is set to debate whether to keep using automatic license plate readers or switch from Flock to Axon as a provider. (INDY Week)

The Carolina Hurricanes kicked off the NHL season with a raucous celebration of its Stanley Cup triumph and the hoisting of a new banner in Lenovo Center.

Why it matters: There's no longer any doubt that Raleigh is a hockey town, and the return of the Stanley Cup to North Carolina ice cemented what has been a year of hockey frenzy in the Triangle.

🎥 Watch this: If you want to feel some chills, the Storm Surge — perhaps the most famous fan celebration of the Rod Brind'Amour coaching era — was one for the ages, with the team circling around the cup.

🏡 Zachery is reading about the steep decline in Americans hosting people at their home.

🃏 Mary Helen wants more game nights.

Thanks to Melissa Oyler for editing this newsletter.