Jeffrey Sykes

Separate projects at various stages of progress could propel one of Greensboro’s central thoroughfares past its reputation for urban decline. The High Point Road/Lee Street corridor would be a model of urban renewal if the plans come together. There are many challenges to the success of a seamless renewal that could result in a patchwork of improvements that leave clusters of decay amidst millions of dollars of investment.
From Gateway University Research ...

New mapping technology, and a dedicated research center at UNCG, is giving community health and housing advocates in Greensboro the ability to focus their efforts on specific needs like never before.
Community groups like the Greensboro Housing Coalition, Cone Health System, and others, possess mountains of data showing a connection between substandard housing, environmental conditions and poor health, but it’s often difficult to translate the da...

There are soon to be three prominent coworking spaces in the Triad, and much like the collaborative rationale for creative people forging new businesses in close proximity to each other, those involved in developing and managing the spaces believe each brings something unique to the mission of economic development.
First came Flywheel in Winston-Salem, a for-profit coworking space located in the 525@Vine b...

The late summer sun shines crisply down across the varied elevations of Bingham Park. It’s quiet and peaceful, beautiful almost, until you remember that a City of Greensboro incinerator once sat on this spot adjacent to Maplewood Cemetery.
The ground is firm as you rise up the terraced-like landscape, past the softball field to the basketball court with its 8-inch thick concrete surface that’s cracked and s...

While the $60 million dollar plan for the Tanger Performing Arts Center gets all the headlines, it’s the collection of small street art projects known as tactical urbanism whose sum could eventually transform the true character of Downtown Greensboro.
The monied interests of the city have the power to change the skyline by demolishing entire urban blocks in order to erect new buildings “” hotels, apartments, civic centers “” but without a street-l...

There’s a good chance that most of the students at NC A&T State University know Everette Slocum and Keenan Smith on sight, especially if the two collegiate entrepreneurs are sporting their Aggiesland t-shirts.
Slocum is an imposing figure. A standout in high school football in Miami, Florida, the 6’4″ offensive tackle had multiple college football scholarship offers until he tore the rotator cuff in his right shoulder. Undaunted, Slocum threw...

Imagine you’re an average road comic at home on a Wednesday evening, scribbling in your notebook or working out that new joke you know will just kill if you can get the delivery down pat.
That’s what James Hodge was doing back on Nov. 5 when the phone rang. It was his friend, comic Tom Simmons, who said booking agencies were looking for local comics to open up for Dave Chappelle that night at the new Cone Denim Theater in Downtown Greensboro.
The agencies ...

New Ventures Accelerator
With 10 days remaining before Demo Day 2017, members of the second cohort in the New Ventures Challenge and Accelerator in Winston-Salem are finalizing their products and beginning to attract customers.
On Sept. 8, the four idea-stage startups will pitch software solutions to a room of 200 potential investors willing to help them scale.
The program is one of few startup accelerators in North Carolina, and because many of Winston-Salem’s most influential investors are ...

A video interview project with the co-authors of Out in the South, an award winning LGBTQ series that I served on as project editor. Shot with my Cannon DSLR and edited in Resolve.

A video project for an art exhibit at NC A&T State University in Greensboro, NC.

The call to prayer goes up, rising in succinct tonal steps as men gather early on a Friday afternoon in December. One by one they remove their shoes, enter the worship space and face the Imam, robed in white and standing at the front of what is soon to be 500 practicing Muslims at the Islamic Center of Greensboro.

Camp Little Hope looks at South Elm through a diffe...

South Elm Projects preserve neighborhood in transit...

Joymongers adds to craft beer game in Greensboro | ...

Switch box helps bike patrol keep hands on | YES! W...