A sanctuary for marginalized creatives and those who bear witness.
NorthStar is a community for the conscious, the caring, and the outcast - a place where art is our sword and our shield.
Founded in a historic church originally designed for the deaf community, NorthStar continues to be a place of respite for those pushed to the margins. Sunday Service is the heart of our work, a gathering where we ground in our bodies, explore the spiritual power of art, and practice what it means to build new worlds together.
Our programs are our ministries. We hold spaces for movement, for making, for collective study, for healing, for remembering, for imagining. Each offering extends the core belief of Sunday Service: that creative practice is a path toward liberation, connection, and community care.
In a rapidly changing Durham, NorthStar protects a vital home for Black, working-class, and LGBTQIA+ artists. We nurture the conditions that allow artists not only to create, but to live with dignity and to shape the cultural life of this city on their own terms.
the HEART OF NORTHSTAR
SUNDAY SERVICE
Our twice-monthly gathering for grounding, imagination, and collective creativity
Sunday Service is a community-led ritual space where we explore the spiritual, political, and creative frameworks that help us survive the world as it is and imagine the world as it could be. Beginning in 2026, Sunday Service takes place twice a month: First Sundays with Ifasina Clear and Third Sundays with Kamakshi Duvvuru, each bringing their own lineage, voice, and spiritual technology to the practice.
ALL OF OUR EVENTS ARE PROUDLY INTERGENERATIONAL.
Each Sunday Service includes Sunday School, a facilitated art and reflection space for children ages 5–12. Kids explore the same themes we hold in the main service through storytelling and art practices that honor their agency and wisdom.
Every service weaves together somatic grounding, shared reflection, artistic inquiry, and communal conversation.
Together we’ve explored themes like grief, abolition, gender freedom, spiritual reclamation, Black futurism, and the rituals that keep our communities alive.
Our Sundays often include collaborations with people and organizations shaping Durham’s cultural life, from the Radical Healing to Durham Community Fridges, The Beautiful Project, and local movement healers, artists, and archivists. Gatherings feature live performance, visual art, collective art-making, or small-group reflection. Over the last three years, we’ve drawn guidance from Octavia E. Butler, Nina Simone, Emory Douglas, Toni Morrison, Alvin Ailey, Kathryn Dunham, Pauli Murray, Sangodare Wallace, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, and the countless cultural workers who built our lineages.
NorthStar is funded by a community of generous donors, foundation support, and city, state, and federal grants.
NORTHSTAR’S STATEMENT OF BELIEFS
At NorthStar, we don't define spirituality through doctrine or dogma. We maintain a practice of returning to the body, to each other, and to the truth that change is the only constant. Our approach is shaped by a lineage of diasporic church traditions, secular humanist spaces, movement work, somatics, and the creative imagination of artists who have always dreamed our futures before we arrive in them.
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Community & Care
We believe that care is a collective responsibility, not an individual burden.
We believe that every person holds wisdom worth listening to.
We believe that community is built through practice, and that gathering, struggling, and imagining together is holy work.
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Art & Imagination
We believe that imagination is a muscle, and community strengthens it.
We believe that art is one of our oldest forms of spiritual technology.
We believe that change lives in the body, and artists teach us how to move with it.
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Lineage & Place
We believe that BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ creators are culture-bearers, futurists, and builders of new worlds.
We believe that healing is not linear, and that people deserve spaces to arrive as they are.
We believe that Durham’s cultural life belongs to the people who built it.
Through innovative programming and strategic partnerships, NorthStar goes beyond traditional artistic support, offering a community hub where working artists can flourish creatively while making an impact on Durham’s social landscape.
Space 15
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MUSIC
NorthStar’s performing arts programming brings diverse voices to the forefront, featuring concerts from local artists and series like Jazz Age. We create spaces where music ignites inspiration and cultivates connection.
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SPOTLIGHT EXHIBITION SERIES
Explore NorthStar’s dynamic visual art programs, from our Spotlight Exhibition Series to artist workshops and community projects like our public mural initiative. We uplift artists and stories that provoke thought and celebrate the creativity of our community
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MOVEMENT
Reconnect with yourself and others through NorthStar’s movement offerings, including yoga, dance, and somatic workshops. Our classes are rooted in inclusivity and accessibility, prioritizing movement for all bodies.
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COMMUNITY EVENTS
NorthStar is a community hub that connects people working toward a better Durham. From sliding scale rentals and commercial events to recurring community gatherings, we bring people together in ways that matter.
SUPPORT NORTHSTAR
With your support, we can continue to provide a platform for creative spiritual expression and foster deep healing in Durham, especially for artists of color. Every contribution, no matter the size, helps us sustain vital programming and maintain the space where art and activism unite.