Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com July 29 – August 4, 2015
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CONTENTS
by Brian Clarey
Business
Publisher Allen Broach allen@triad-city-beat.com
Editorial
Editor in Chief Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com Senior Editor Jordan Green jordan@triad-city-beat.com Associate Editor Eric Ginsburg eric@triad-city-beat.com Editorial Interns Chris Nafekh Daniel Wirtheim intern@triad-city-beat.com Investigative Reporting Intern Nicole Zelniker Photography Interns Amanda Salter Caleb Smallwood
Art
Art Director Jorge Maturino jorge@triad-city-beat.com
Sales
Director of Advertising and Sales Dick Gray dick@triad-city-beat.com Sales Executive Alex Klein alex@triad-city-beat.com Sales Executive Lamar Gibson lamar@triad-city-beat.com Sales Executive Cheryl Green cheryl@triad-city-beat.com
Contributors Carolyn de Berry Nicole Crews Anthony Harrison Matt Jones
22 UP FRONT
MUSIC
3 Editor’s Notebook 4 City Life 6 Heard 7 Commentariat 7 The List 8 Barometer 8 Unsolicited Endorsement 9 Triad power Ranking
24 Heard a rumble, will travel
NEWS
GOOD SPORT
10 Plaintiffs rest their case 12 Aycock besmirched 14 HPJ: I am a man = my life matters
30 Foosball World Cup
OPINION 15 15
Editorial: The usual suspects Citizen Green: An urban homestead
rises in south Greensboro 16 It Just Might Work: Forage away! 16 Fresh Eyes: Hispanic grown
COVER Cover photography by Caleb Smallwood
Urban planner Patrick McDonnell wants to kick a little sense into downtown Greensboro.
Gotham
17 Kick out the jambs!
FOOD 22 Those buns tho 23 Barstool: The Tap at West End
TCB IN A FLASH DAILY @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1.00. ©2015 Beat Media Inc.
ART 26 Tortured artist
STAGE & SCREEN 28 West Side Story in W-S
GAMES 31 Jonesin’ Crossword
SHOT IN THE TRIAD 32 Eastchester Drive, High Point
ALL SHE WROTE 34 Cigarettes in Camel City
This week I spent my days walking and driving the streets of downtown Greensboro, thinking about the emergence of the modern American City, urban architecture, livability. And every free moment I could get, I spent gliding through the skies of a very different city, swooping down to fight crime and gather clues. That’s right: In my spare time I’m Batman — at least I am when my teenage boys aren’t around and I can have unfettered access to the PlayStation. Like other video games of the franchise, Arkham Knight is magnificent. Lush graphics. An engaging storyline. Superior ass-kickability. When I’m Batman, I routinely take out groups of a dozen guys or more with brutal grace and balletic finishing moves. It struck me over the weekend that Gotham, for all its problems with masked supercriminals and creepy lighting, is a great American city. It’s a coastal archipelago, not unlike New York City, of three main islands: Uptown, Midtown and Downtown, and a few smaller ones connected by ample bridges and tunnels. One of the islands, unfortunately, was relegated to house Arkham Asylum, a very poor piece of urban planning. But there are business and government districts along the south shore, residential neighborhoods along a central park and an amusement park in the far north, just past Crime Alley. A true rail system cuts across vertically, horizontally and diagonally, giving comprehensive access to every corner of the city for those who don’t glide above it like a nocturnal mammal. The architecture, too, is stunning: a mix of urban gothic, art deco and new-city glass and steel, with cranes everywhere working on new construction — a constant battle in a city Gotham, for all its like Gotham where huge exproblems with masked plosions often take out entire supercriminals and creepy lighting, is a city blocks. great American city. It’s got red-light districts, high culture, a casino and a harbor. I’ve got to assume the restaurants are pretty good — good enough, anyway, for millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne — and from the looks of it, there are plenty of great apartments. The problems with Gotham, though, are the same as with every American city its size and age: corruption and crime, a crumbling infrastructure, income inequality and the loss of manufacturing jobs which led to a lack of good positions for working people. On top of that, its people have to deal with fancy, costumed terrorists, fear-gas attacks, frequent kidnappings, the occasional mandatory evacuation and random explosions. But that, friends, is what Batman is for.
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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
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July 29 — Aug 4, 2015
CITY LIFE WEEKEND
July 29 – August 4
Discordia Days Burlesque Festival @ Community Theatre of Greensboro (GSO) The Discordia Dames bring Discordia Days, a two-day tribute to the slap and tickle with more than a dozen performers and aficionados flooding South Elm Street on Friday and Saturday night. See discordiadaysbirlesquefest.com for tickets and showtimes. West Side Story @ Stained Glass Playhouse (W-S) When you’re a Jet, you’re a jet all the way… unless you fall in love. The Stained Glass players revive a Broadway classic in their boutique space through Saturday. See the review on page TK, and check stainedglassplayhouse.org for more info.
THURSDAY
Conversations on Creativity @ the Weatherspoon Art Museum (GSO) Longtime TCB friends and contributors Carolyn DeBerry and Harvey Robinson talk about film, photography and the elusive Monkeywhale at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public, and we hear there will be snacks. Lynchburg Hillcats @ W-S Dash (W-S) After wrapping a three-game home stand against Wilmington, the Dash welcome the Lynchburg nine into the confines of BB&T Ballpark for another three at home. See wsdash.com for more. HopFest Pre-Hustle @ Gate City Growlers (GSO) HopFest happens at the juncture where beer, cultural capital, public transportation and fellowship meet. The pre-party is a way to generate some enthusiasm for the big one, which happens Aug. 22. This one begins at 7 p.m. Dance From Above presents Braille @ the Crown (GSO) Resident DJs, old-school 45s and a big shot from LA highlight this month’s installment of the dance series at the Crown. Be sure to hit la Rue for pho afterward. Showtime is at 9 p.m.
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WEDNESDAY Beer education @ Gibb’s Hundred Brewing (GSO) Every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., beer lovers gather at Gibb’s to discuss varietals and process for the Fifth Ingredient beer-education series. No charge, but bring a bottle of your favorite brew and be prepared to share.
Paddleboard yoga @ Salem Lake (W-S) Engage your core while balancing on a paddleboard in Salem Lake with the instructors from the Breathing Room at 5:30 p.m. See thebreathingroomws.org for details. I Am Chris Farley @ Geeksboro (GSO) The funniest big man — and the biggest funnyman — ever to grace the cast of ‘Saturday Night Live” is the subject of this biopic kicking off its North Carolina premiere week at Geeksboro tonight at 7 p.m.
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Bingo/ drag show @ the Elm Street Center (GSO) Guilford Green’s drag bingo takes on a beach-blanket theme this week at 6 p.m., followed by a drag-show fundraiser at Limelight afterwards. Trans-dressing is encouraged, but please no alcohol on the bingo floor. Check ggfnc.org for more.
SATURDAY
Uptowne Market @ High Point Library (HP) The Third City’s weekly food, craft and entertainment market begins at 8:30 a.m. Southern Constellations opening reception @ Elsewhere (GSO) Southern Constellation fellows Regina Agu and Iman Person discuss their work and light a ceremonial kiln at 8 p.m. at the living museum. See goelsewhere.org for more. Rock show @ Reanimator Records (W-S) Marshmallow Coast out of Athens, Ga. joins Judy Barnes for a free show in the shadow of the Innovation Quarter, which has great acoustics and lighting at dusk. Show starts around 8 p.m.
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July 29 — Aug 4, 2015
Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art
HEARD “They’re the most shirt-off-their-backs, the most awesome, giving-est people we’ve met.” — Spencer Elles of Bare the Traveler, on his friends in Someday Rumble, page 24
“A lot of what I do is teach people not to be pussies. [They say], ‘You can’t do that! That’s not how it’s done!’ And then you go and show them how it’s done. You start to realize that ‘No’ is a paper tiger.” — Urban planner Patrick McConnell, in the Cover, page 17
“I’m more of a defensive specialist. That’s how my grandfather’s game was, and his father before him; it’s in my blood. Joey’s a little bit different. He’s an offensive genius. He’s Steve Spurrier and I’m Bill Parcells.” — Dan Watson, aka el Savor, one half of the Foos-Me? Foos-You! foosball team, in Good Sport, page 30
But the neighborhood is now trying to distance itself from its segregationist namesake — city mapping specialist and neighborhood board member Brian Gillies said they are currently removing “Charles B.” from all signage, making the Aycock name more ambiguous. And the neighborhood association’s website appears to contain no direct mention of the man, despite its slogan reading, “History matters.” — Eric Ginsburg, on the Aycock neighborhood’s relationship with its namesake — segregationist Charles B. Aycock, page 7
“I was beating myself over the head delivering vegetables to [the residents’] door and they were looking at me like an outsider. I’m trying to get to where people are not as dependent on currency. Your value is not this piece of paper that you have; it’s what you can do, what you can trade, what you can barter.” — Tinece Holman-Payne, in Citizen Green, page 15
Today I order in Spanish for the $1 tacos at El Torito Taqueria food truck located next to Rice Toyota and for fresh chorizo from El Mercadito 2 on Gate City Boulevard near the Habitat ReStore. In my college years I would go to Rumba Latina and Artistika; since then many other Hispanic clubs have popped up, simply for the enjoyment of my culture, dancing salsa, cha-cha, merengue and bachata with a variety of friends and family.
Good Sport
The drivers, it must be said, are exceedingly friendly and accommodating. While I was boarding the evening bus back from Winston-Salem, a man who was obviously intoxicated judging from his slurred speech and wretched breath told the driver he was trying to get to Chapel Hill. Patiently but firmly she explained to him that there was no way he could make the Greensboro connection in time to get to Chapel Hill that day and persuaded him to get off the bus.
Games
Stage & Screen
— Jorge Maturino, in Fresh Eyes, page 16
“We’re here to let you know that your life does matter. Not just one color, all colors.”
— Jordan Green, in Unsolicited Endorsement, page 8
Shot in the Triad
“We have ruled by force, we can rule by fraud, but we want to rule by law.”
All She Wrote
— High Point NAACP President Oveter McLean, in High Point Journal, page 14
But with 10 people lounging outside and half as many dogs, including one that was so over-excited by its new companions that it peed a little, the Tap is definitely a dive. Especially given that the little pisser — who also licked a few other dogs on the mouth and has just one ear sticking up at times — is named “Fleek,” though the early twentysomething white owner didn’t bother to explain to the other drinkers that the word is made up but is in vogue with Top 40 rap artists.
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— Segregationist governor Charles B. Aycock, who was raised from the dead to provide testimony in the federal voting rights trial, page 10
— Eric Ginsburg, in Barstool, page 23
Food Music Art Stage & Screen Good Sport Games
3. The road Aycock Street has been around since 1924 or 1925 — the city isn’t sure of the exact date at which it changed the name of Dairy Street — and it is now a major north-south thoroughfare just west of UNCG’s campus. Its users may be more familiar with obvious crude jokes based on the name than the man behind it.
Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
4. The neighborhood Aycock Historic District, a neighborhood just northeast of downtown Greensboro, chose its
Cover Story
2. The school Aycock Middle School, founded in 1922 just 10 years after the former governor’s death, was the first thing in Greensboro to be named for the man, preceding the auditorium at UNCG (then known as the North Carolina College for Women). The middle school’s website says: “His greatest achievements in the field of education included increasing teachers’ salaries, extending the school terms, and building close to 3,000 schools,” adding that Aycock is now the home to the city’s first Spanish immersion middle school program. Today the school is 65 percent black, 12 percent Latino, and only 10 percent white.
Opinion
Way to go guys! [“The List: Four reasons we’re excited to join the AAN”; by Eric Ginsburg; July 22, 2015] The hard work is paying off. Amanda Lehmert, Greensboro
name based on the pre-existing middle school within its borders. “The neighborhood approached the city about local historic district designation in the early [1980s] and the area was ultimately designated in 1984,” city preservation planner Stefan-leih Geary said via email. But the neighborhood is now trying to distance itself from its segregationist namesake — city mapping specialist and neighborhood board member Brian Gillies said they are currently removing “Charles B.” from all signage, making the Aycock name more ambiguous. And the neighborhood association’s website appears to contain no direct mention of the man, despite its slogan reading, “History matters.”
News
Cheering section You “Triad City Beat” folks keep up the good work! [“Trying to make it in a dying industry”; by Eric Ginsburg; July 22, 2015] We need your voice in our communities. Carolyn Highsmith, Winston-Salem
by Eric Ginsburg 1. The auditorium A subcommittee of UNCG’s board held its first meeting to consider renaming Aycock Auditorium last week, and with good reason (see more on page 12). The longstanding auditorium is named for segregationist North Carolina governor Charles B. Aycock, who supported black disenfranchisement and campaigned on white supremacy. Aycock is also considered to have been an education governor, dramatically expanding free, public (segregated) education. In 1928, a committee of alums recommended naming the auditorium after Aycock based on his support for the school and public education more broadly.
Up Front
Then again, maybe not Any idea what it would cost? [“It Just Might Work: Two years of service”; by Brian Clarey; July 22, 2015] Estimates of direct costs that I’ve seen run $80 billion to $120 billion a year, with other economic losses not directly incurred by taxpayers. We could solve a lot of problems a lot more efficiently with that kind of money. And then there’s this: I don’t think the real crisis is in the sense of national citizenship and belonging. I think the real crisis is a lot more local: People don’t know their neighbors anymore, and all sorts of social ills stem from that, including many that national service purportedly would cure but probably really wouldn’t. If you want to tackle that, let’s try something that we know would work. And if we don’t know what that is yet, let’s try a lot of small pilot projects. Lex Alexander, Greensboro
Four things named for segregationist Aycock
triad-city-beat.com
Format flummox I have to criticize this article [“Pizza and potential at Pintxos Pour House”; by Eric Ginsburg; July 22, 2015]. I can’t help it. I thought it was poorly written… I was confused throughout the entire read. I could not tell if it was about a new restaurant, or the authors bro-crush on the owner of Atelier, who he referred to as de Valle almost the entire time, but then switched it up and used his first name Pablo. This caused me momentarily to question if there was a third person involved that I had missed from the beginning, before I realized it was de Valle’s first name. I am not a fan of criticizing any restaurant (or small business for that matter) in Winston Salem, I believe that this city is finally on the right track to revitalization, and it needs all the positive support it can get. That includes Atelier. Something that also bothered me was the recount of the experience with the server. Being “overeager” does not sound like something to fault a person for in the food service industry, as much of a server’s job includes great and friendly customer service. A handshake is a sign of respect, and is typically something done when first meeting, not always after. As a whole, I am left totally confused on whether the author would recommend this restaurant, or not. No matter though, I plan on seeing for myself. Ty, via triad-city-beat.com
Charles B. Aycock’s history is complex. See page 12 for more.
COURTESY PHOTO
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Research Parkway adds a new vantage point for admiring Wake Forest Innovation Quarter.
JORDAN GREEN
July 29 — Aug 4, 2015 Art
Music
Food
Cover Story
Opinion
News
Up Front
Winston-Salem at a crossroads
The PART bus (in practice)
All She Wrote
Shot in the Triad
Games
Good Sport
Stage & Screen
by Jordan Green
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My colleague, Brian Clarey, has endorsed the PART bus as a theoretic framework for increasing public-transit options in the Triad. I’ll meet your endorsement, Mr. Clarey, and raise the stakes with a full-on endorsement of the PART bus in actual practice. It’s true that for riders of choice, it’s a hard sell to park the car and take the bus, especially with gas prices being so low over the past couple years. Regional public transportation doesn’t provide the flexibility of traveling to destinations beyond the central business districts, hospitals and universities, or hanging around in the evening for public meetings or rock concerts. The last buses running between Winston-Salem and Greensboro depart from their respective locations at 6:30 p.m., so this is essentially a service for 9-to-5ers regularly traveling between established locations. As a professional with access to a car, however, I found a set of circumstances in which taking the bus provided an elegant and inexpensive solution — covering the trial of North Carolina’s election law at the federal building in downtown Winston-Salem’s Government District. At $4.80 for a round trip between Greensboro and Winston-Salem, the cost of bus fare is actually not that much of a savings over fueling up the car to make the trip.
Parking is the factor that tips transit over the edge. On-street parking at the electronic pay stations the city of Winston-Salem has scattered around different parts of downtown is relatively inexpensive for short periods, but it’s engineered to promote circulation. It’s somewhat counterintuitive: You might expect a discount for buying parking in bulk, but this works exactly the opposite. The rate continues to increase as the hours accumulate, so that three hours costs $2, while six hours costs $10. You can keep running outside to feed the meter while traversing a cumbersome security detail or risk getting hit with a $15 parking fine for overstaying, but neither of those options are very appealing. One day I tried parking on a public deck on North Main Street, which has an early-bird discount for customers who leave before 5 p.m. Leaving the trial early, and potentially missing something important, is a non-starter, so I paid the full fee of $10. Imagine my delight, then, in being able to drive to the Depot in downtown Greensboro on a recent Monday morning, park my car (for free!) for the day, and hop on the PART bus minutes later. Riders are welcome to sleep, read the paper or text en route, although I had to leave my cell phone at home because such devices are banned
from the federal building. The bus, which runs every half hour, dropped me off right in front of the federal building, with a half hour to spare before the trial got underway. After the court hearing wrapped up for the day, I walked a short three blocks to the Clark Campbell Transportation Center, and waited about 10 minutes for the Greensboro bus to arrive. The drivers, it must be said, are exceedingly friendly and accommodating. While I was boarding the evening bus back from Winston-Salem, a man who was obviously intoxicated judging from his slurred speech and wretched breath told the driver he was trying to get to Chapel Hill. Patiently but firmly she explained to him that there was no way he could make the Greensboro connection in time to get to Chapel Hill that day and persuaded him to get off the bus. We were soon on our way. Overall, it was a great experience. Riding the bus for riders of choice, just like taking a bike or walking, is a matter of being creative and smart about figuring out what types of trips make the most sense for each mode of transport. I’m on the bus, Mr. Clarey.
Yes
Unsure
8%
1. Greensboro
Stage & Screen
The city of Greensboro just added its second pubic charging station at the Greene Street parking deck, which runs $1.25 an hour. The other station, a DC Fast Charger system in the public lot nearby between Elm and Greene streets, cost $12 an hour for the juice. A cluster of charging stations at car dealerships on Wendover Avenue bring Greensboro’s total to five.
Art
There’s a free charging station at the Phillips Collection on Finch Avenue, installed by owner Mark Phillips who recognizes that someone has to take the leap before the technology can catch on. A private station at a car dealership brings High Point’s total to just two, but Phillips’ proactive approach scores bonus points.
27%
Music
2. High Point
65%
Food
The Electric Car Edition
No
Readers: Our readers who responded said “No,” or at least 65 percent of them did. Of the remainder, 27 percent said “Yes” and 8 percent responded “Unsure.” Christian Yorkshire’s commented: “Honestly, my answer is
Cover Story Good Sport
Not too many people drive fully electric cars these days, but their presence is growing on our streets —3,100 of them were clocked as of last summer in the entire state, in 92 of our 100 counties. But just like a cell phone that’s about to go dark, electric cars need a place to charge, which can take up to 12 hours. Winston-Salem has one public charging dock, a two-car deal on Main Street by Old Salem, which carries a cost of $2 an hour. There are two private stations at Modern Nissan and Flow BMW, but for this ranking, we’re only counting public stations.
Eric Ginsburg: As the reporter covering this issue, I’ll plead the Fifth.
New question: Will you look for an experienced politician or a newcomer with good ideas when voting in the Greensboro City Council election this fall? Visit triad-citybeat.com to vote!
Opinion
3. Winston-Salem
Jordan Green: I don’t think it’s really a matter of trust. Whatever conclusions the department draws in their studies of traffic search disparities, their findings will not be more credible than the damning UNC-Chapel Hill report. But they do need to study the data to understand it on a granular level and ensure that they are upholding their constitutional duty to provide equal protection under the law — which also means that black motorists shouldn’t bear a disproportionate burden as the subjects of enforcement.
yes only because there is a spotlight on the subject. Left to its own, I feel the GPD would breeze over the data and put it in a box in a basement somewhere.”
News
Brian Clarey: Unsure. I’m torn here, because just on pure principle I don’t trust any police department to self-report, a position based on years of snow-jobs from departments that will say or do anything to avoid spooking the herd and eroding confidence in the force. I have never seen a police department self-investigate and then report on something that would make it look bad. But I’m inclined to give the new chief a chance at true transparency. My instinct is to let Chief Wayne Scott’s department handle this one to see if he plays it straight. If not, we
know he’s just like all the rest.
Up Front
Last week we wrote about the Greensboro Police Department’s plans to study data that allegedly shows a racial disparity between searches of black and white motorists. The department will prepare its own report in the wake of one from researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill. Tell us why you do or do not trust the police department to analyze this data and draw its own conclusions, which Chief Wayne Scott said will be informed by more data than the UNC report.
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Do you trust the GPD to study traffic search disparities?
Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
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July 29 — Aug 4, 2015 Up Front
News Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art Stage & Screen Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
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NEWS
Plaintiffs rest their case in federal trial of NC election law by Jordan Green
The history of black political participation and a review of instances of documented fraud round out the plaintiffs’ case as the federal trial of North Carolina’s election law begins its third week. Plaintiffs seeking to overturn North Carolina’s new, restrictive election law rested their case with the testimony of Alexander Ealy, an African-American sergeant in the US Army stationed at Fort Bragg, at the end of the second week of a federal trial in Winston-Salem. Ealy, like dozens of other lay witnesses called by the plaintiffs, testified that he was prevented from voting in the 2014 election. In Ealy’s case, the trouble lay in the fact that he wrote his physical address rather than his unit address under the section on his voter registration form designated for his mailing address. The Cumberland County Board of Elections had been unable to confirm Ealy’s registration, and his name was not on the rolls when he appeared at the local public library during the early-voting period. Prior to the passage of the 2013 omnibus election reform law, Ealy would have been allowed to register and vote on the same day during early voting. Earlier on July 24, the court had heard from James L. Leloudis II, a history professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, who placed the barriers to voting enacted the state General Assembly in the context of a long history of conservative backlash in response to exertions of black political strength. “North Carolina has a long and cyclical history of struggle of minority voting rights from the time of Reconstruction to the present day,” Leloudis wrote in an expert report submitted to the court. “During the late 1860s, then in the 1890s, throughout the civil rights movement that followed World War II, and again in recent decades, black citizens pressed for free and fair access to the franchise, made alliances with sympathetic whites, and used the power of biracial politics to democratize the state and its institutions.”
Penda Hair, cofounder of the Washington, DC-based Advancement Project, is the lead attorney in the lawsuit against North Carolina’s election law.
At least one feature of the new election law, known as HB 589, copied the pattern of the white-supremacist resurgence of the late 19th Century that routed the interracial fusionist rule and would effectively disenfranchise blacks for the next 67 years. In repealing fusionist reforms in 1899, the General Assembly passed a law allowing “any elector” to “challenge the vote of any person” on suspicion of fraud, according to Leloudis’ report. Likewise, in HB 589, state lawmakers relaxed regulations on vote challenging. Where in the past only a voter from the same precinct could challenge a citizen seeking to cast her ballot, under the new law any voter from the same county could do so.
Vote-challenging by the white supremacists who seized control of state government during the 1898 and 1900 elections had a distinctly violent and intimidating cast. Alfred Waddell, a white-supremacist campaigner is reported to have exhorted a crowd in Wilmington on the eve of the 1900 election: “You are Anglo-Saxons. You are armed and prepared, and you will do your duty…. Go to the polls tomorrow, and if you find the negro out voting, tell him to leave the polls, and if he refuses, kill him, shoot him down in his tracks.” Yet whatever claims the white supremacists may have made about fraud under fusionist rule, they saw little need
JORDAN GREEN
to deny their own use of it. Charles B. Aycock, who won the gubernatorial election of 1900, declared, “We have ruled by force, we can rule by fraud, but we want to rule by law.” (Read more about Aycock on pages 7 and 12.) Stated concerns about fraud undergirded HB 589, which began simply as a voter ID bill before blossoming into an omnibus legislative package with provisions such as the elimination of same-day registration, cutting provisional out-of-ballot voting and curtailing early voting that plaintiffs say disproportionately burden black, young and poor voters. “Each significant effort to protect
Up Front
News Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art Stage & Screen Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
ation and other forms of voter fraud.” While the plaintiffs have argue that restrictions on access to the polls falls more heavily on black, young and poor voters, testimony by one of their witnesses on July 23 demonstrated that the provisions can create collateral casualties. Case in point was Anna Grace Martin, the daughter of North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Mark Martin. Testimony by Wake County Elections Director Gary Sims indicated that Anna Grace Martin was prevented from casting a ballot during the early-voting period in the 2014 general election because of a clerical error by the state Division of Motor Vehicles. Access to same-day registration, which was eliminated the previous year, would have provided a workaround. Martin’s father was appointed to the position of chief justice by Gov. Pat McCrory and was backed by the Republican Party in the 2014 election. The state of North Carolina, the defendant in the lawsuit, called its first witness on July 24. Janet Thornton, a labor economist at Florida-based Economic Research Services, provided testimony that countered expert witness testimony for the plaintiffs supporting their contention that the new election law tends to discourage participation by blacks, Latinos and youth. Thornton testified that turnout among voters ages 18 to 24 increased from a share of 17.5 percent of the electorate in 2010 to 18 percent in 2014 — a difference that was “statistically significant.” Undercutting claims by the plaintiffs that the 2013 election law exerted a negative effect on black electoral participation, Thornton testified that the greatest drop-off of the African-American vote occurred between 2008 and 2010. And despite the reduction in early voting days, Thornton testified that the percentage of black residents who used early voting went up from 35.9 percent in 2010 to 43.1 percent in 2014. Judge Schroeder is likely to base his opinion on legal distinctions, but Leloudis suggested in his expert report that history waits in the wings. “It is clear that today, as in years past,” he wrote, “the future of North Carolina’s democracy — for better or worse — will be forged on the anvil of race.”
triad-city-beat.com
and extend the right to vote” during the modern civil rights era has been met with arguments “that reduced barriers would lead to voter fraud,” Lorraine C. Minite, an associate professor of public policy at Rutgers University, wrote in an expert report prepared for the plaintiffs. The court has reviewed a video of a March 2013 MSNBC interview with then-state House Speaker Thom Tillis that articulates the legislature’s rationale for HB 589. “Well, we call this ‘restoring confidence in elections,’” Tillis said in the broadcast. “There is some voter fraud, but that’s not the primary reason for doing this. There’s a lot of people who are just concerned with the potential risk of fraud, and in our state it could be significant. This is just a measure that we think makes three-fourths, nearly three-fourths of the population more comfortable and more confident when they go to the polls.” Minnite reported that the NC Board of Elections referred one case of voter impersonation — the type of voter fraud that would be deterred by photo ID — for prosecution from 2000 to 2012. She wrote that 377 out of 631 cases of alleged illegal voting uncovered by the state Board of Elections involved people with felony convictions whose voting rights had not yet been restored, predominantly in the 2008 election. Her report quoted elections investigator Marshall Tutor as saying that many of the offenders were felons who were likely unaware that they were required to re-register to restore their franchise. Minnite also cited a federal prosecution effort between 2002 and 2005 that uncovered just two cases of alleged voter fraud. One involved Joshua Workman, a Canadian citizen who got involved with the local College Republicans chapter at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, while the other involved a vote-buying scheme on behalf of Gary Clark, a Republican candidate for sheriff in Caldwell County in 2002. “Requiring voters to produce a government-issued photo identification has no prophylactic impact on vote-buying,” Minnite wrote. Minnite testified that voter fraud in North Carolina is “exceedingly rare” and offered the opinion that stringent photo ID requirements “are not justified to reduce or prevent voter imperson-
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July 29 — Aug 4, 2015 Up Front
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UNCG takes time with Aycock Auditorium renaming by Eric Ginsburg
Almost a year after UNCG began reconsidering the name of Aycock Auditorium — which honors education reformer and white-supremacist former governor Charles B. Aycock — a new subcommittee meets for the first time on the issue, and proposes an extended timeline.
That may change once more people become aware of Aycock’s history, board members said at the July 23 meeting. It’s complicated, board member and Capsule Group CEO Randall Kaplan said. To many, It would be one thing, UNCG Vice Aycock can be credited with a Chancellor and Chief of Staff Bonita tremendous push for public edBrown said, if the board subcommittee ucation at the beginning of the suggested taking its time in the face of 20th Century. widespread community outcry. That “The other side is he ran on might look like the board of trustees an absolutely racist platform,” wanted to drag its feet. But given that Kaplan said, later adding: “His UNCG’s leadership began considering election was actually a tipping this issue of its own accord, there’s no point into segregation.” harm in extending the timeline for a Aycock became governor of decision on a potentially controversial North Carolina in 1901 after issue, she said. running on a white-supremacist Buildings bearing the name of former platform to oust a biracial fusion North Carolina governor Charles B. government. He argued for Aycock at other college campuses in the public education for everyone ERIC GINSBURG Board members, UNCG administrators and staff discuss Charles B. state have been the subject of criticism — through a segregated school Aycock at the first subcommittee meeting last week. by alums and students in the last year; system — and the disenfranof the violent Wilmington race riot to committee deliberation. Duke University renamed Aycock chisement of black voters whom overthrow the city’s biracial governThe group, chaired by retired LabResidence hall last summer and East he saw as too stupid to vote. ment, possibly even expressing his desire Corp CFO Brad Hayes, spent the first Carolina University’s board voted in “We must disfranchise the negro,” to have participated directly. portion of its July 23 meeting discussFebruary to rename a dorm and place Aycock once said in a speech. “This UNCG’s board began reconsidering ing a perceived need to expand from Aycock’s name — alongside facts about movement comes from the people. Polthe name of Aycock Auditorium in four members to nine to 12. The four his complex history — in a new “Heriiticians have been afraid of it and have September 2014, creating a committee members — Hayes, Safran, Kaplan and tage Hall.” hesitated, but the great mass of white “to review and respond to the statewide civic leader Frances Bullock — noted And at UNC-Chapel Hill, the board men in the state are now demanding concern” about buildings named for the that they are all white and could use renamed Saunders Hall in May, removand have demanded that the matter be man, who died while running for US racial diversity as well as input from ing a reference to former settled once and for all. Senate in 1912. non-trustees. Several names were tossed KKK leader William To do so is both desirThe committee aimed to review out; Bullock suggested Justin Outling, Saunders, but stopped able and necessary — Read UNCG’s “Aycock’s history and relationship with a young black lawyer who was recently short of doing the same desirable because it sets report and more UNCG, studying how our peer instituappointed to finish Zack Matheny’s for a dorm named after the white man free to tions have responded to concerns, and term on Greensboro City Council and Aycock. about discussions move along faster than inviting feedback from faculty, staff, stuwho has said he will run for the seat At other schools, he can go when retarded to rename Aycock dents, alumni and friends,” according to in the upcoming election. Bullock said UNCG board Chair by the slower movement Auditorium at a website set up specifically to chronicle Outling is “tall, good-looking,” an alum Susan Safran said, there of the negro.” its efforts. and “very articulate,” but other commithas been a considerable Kaplan made no inaycock.wp.uncg. The committee submitted its final tee members said he likely doesn’t have push from community dication about whether edu. report to the board on May 6, 2015, listtime. members to remove the he thought the auditoriing the split response from community Other prominent black leaders were name. At ECU, black um should be renamed surveys and also making no explicit recmentioned for consideration — “Why alumni mobilized in large numbers, and during the meeting. But he did talk at ommendation overall about the auditowouldn’t you include Shirley Frye?” Kastudents protested the name at other length about how the “man of his time” rium’s name. The board charged a new plan said after arriving late and hearing schools as well. But at a board subcomargument didn’t apply to Aycock, who subcommittee that month with making the list so far — as well as history faculty mittee meeting to address the name of was actually part of a wave of white a recommendation on what to do, with and others who might broaden the comAycock Auditorium at UNCG last week, supremacists who removed blacks from a tentative deadline of December. mittee’s knowledge base. attendees mused over the fact that UNpositions of political power gained But at the new subcommittee’s first In some ways, the committee is recCG’s community has been somewhat during the Reconstruction Era after meeting last week, board members reating its predecessor, both in reaching ambivalent. slavery. expressed a unified interest in exploring out to UNCG’s community for input “I don’t know why it’s been so quiet Acting Chancellor Dana Dunn — a longer timeline that would allow for and in calling for greater study of the here,” Safran said, adding that it is who attended the meeting — added more community education and careful issue. Bonita Brown, one of four staff rather amazing. that Aycock made statements in support
News Opinion
by Eric Ginsburg
Up Front
Greensboro City Council race, by the numbers
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and administrators who joined the meeting last week, said afterwards that it isn’t redundant and will build on research completed by the last group. Kaplan said in the meeting that he was “not impressed” with the report because it is too “thin” and provided “little guidance” on what to do. Board members agreed that a shared understanding of who Aycock was — through readings and expert presentations — would be important moving forward. But the entire conversation may be moot, Hayes pointed out, because the state General Assembly is considering legislation that would require state approval before “objects of remembrance,” including structures, “created to remind the public of a person or event” could be removed or renamed
9: The number of total seats on city council.
Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
1: The number of news sources you need to read for comprehensive election coverage. Visit triad-city-beat. com/category/elections/ for continuing updates on candidates, issues and more for the 2015 Greensboro City Council race.
Games
2: The number of days that filing has been open as of press time. Filing began on Monday and lasts for two weeks.
Good Sport
3: The number of challengers who have filed so far, as of 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Former councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small is running against Sharon Hightower in District 1, and Thessa Pickett is challenging Jamal Fox in District 2. Brian Hoss filed to run at-large on Tuesday.
Stage & Screen
4: The number of years Wade wants to make city council terms. The current length is two years.
Art
5: The number of votes each person can cast (one district, three at-large, and one mayoral).
Music
6: The day in October that the primary election is scheduled. The general election will be held Nov. 3.
Food
7: The number of incumbents who have filed for re-election — Justin Outling, who was appointed to finish Zack Matheny’s term in District 3, and Mike Barber at-large have not yet filed. We’re taking Tony Wilkins, who said he would file on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m., at his word. The six other council members all filed on Monday.
Cover Story
8: The number of districts state Sen. Trudy Wade sought to create on council, eliminating at-large (citywide) positions. A federal judge temporarily blocked the new state law, keeping the Greensboro election process the same as past years, for now.
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July 29 — Aug 4, 2015 Up Front
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14
HIGH POINT JOURNAL
NAACP youth conference tackles internalized racism by Jordan Green
Students at an NAACP youth conference hear messages about self-esteem and being safe when they encounter the police. A youth summit for area high school students sponsored by the High Point NAACP put a new twist on the slogan “black lives matter,” which is typically framed as a protest against institutional racism. Under the banner of “My life matters,” the summit — the first in what organizers hope will become an annual event — largely shifted the externalized protest of “black lives matter” into an inward focus on self-development. “We’re here to let you know that your life does matter,” Oveter McLean, president of the High Point NAACP, told the roughly 40 students assembled in the auditorium at Welborn Middle School on July 25. “Not just one color, all colors.” She told the students, who came from Andrews High School, Penn-Griffin School of the Arts and Southwest High School in High Point, Ragsdale High School in Jamestown, and Page High School in Greensboro, that the word “colored” in the organization’s full name — National Association for the Advancement of Colored People — means “all people.” Several speakers addressed the students, including Jadon Success, a positive rapper with two popular YouTube videos that celebrate urban areas of High Point; Greg Commander, a motivational speaker, who shared his story about rehabilitating himself and earning a bachelor’s degree after serving 18 years in federal prison; and Calvin Shorter, an educator who operates a charter school in Greensboro. The Rev. Brad Lilley, who serves on the executive committee of the High Point NAACP, told the young people that recent events motivated organizers to put on the summit. “Across the nation, we see young people who have lost their lives to the police and others,” he said. “A cry has gone up that black lives matter, even saying all lives matter. So we want you to understand — that’s why there’s this
conference is because all lives matter.” Lilley, a former member of the Black Panther Party and pastor at Shekinah Glory International Ministries, talked about mass incarceration and the resegregation of schools by race, about recent decisions by the US Supreme Court to limit voting rights while allowing ever greater sums of money in the political process. He compared the present historical moment to 50 years ago, when people marched and died for voting rights, and said young people today have a similar opportunity “to transform the nation.” When the pastor asked the young people to stand up and proclaim, “My life matters,” some complied while others slouched in their seats or stared down at their smart phones. Some mumbled the slogan into their hands, while others stood with arms folded or shifted uncomfortably from side to side. “When you walk into a store or your driving down the street you need to know that your life matters,” Lilley continued. “If you believe that, you’ll show it. When you say your life matters, you’ll project that in your actions and your conversations.” As the program progressed into the late morning, Lilley raffled off event posters and headphones. He announced that there were five sponsored NAACP memberships for youth. “How many of you would like to belong to the High Point NAACP youth department?” he asked. Two hands tentatively went up, then three and four. Then McLean instructed the young people to count off and break into small groups for discussion. Trent Stubbs, who starts his first year at GTCC in August, and Landon Leftwich, a rising junior at Page High School, wound up in group No. 5. They decided to tackle the first question: “How do you feel about the recent events that have happened in our nation?” Although Lilley mentioned as examples the Charleston shooting and recent church burnings, Stubbs and Leftwich focused on the killing of unarmed black men. They agreed that people who have
Police Chief Marty Sumner addresses high school students at a youth summit sponsored by the High Point NAACP.
adverse experiences with the police need to take more personal responsibility. They also expressed misgivings about people who react with violence to police abuses and said people should not tar all police officers with the same brush because of the misbehavior of some. “You have a choice,” said Stubbs, a youth member of the NAACP. “Don’t act crazy and do something that will get you in a situation.” Leftwich said he often sees his peers try to provoke the police, including at Page High School. “I have a friend who cusses out a police officer,” he said. “I tell him, ‘If you give the worst, expect the worst.’” Even in the case of Walter Scott, a black motorist who was shot and killed by a white police officer in North Charleston, SC, the two said that the victim shouldn’t have run from the officer. “People get stuck on themselves,” Leftwich said. “I see videos of white police officers shooting white people, but people don’t say s*** about that.” Another perspective came from Jewel Tillman, a rising junior from Penn-Griffin School for the Arts, who reported back from group No. 3. Tillman said
JORDAN GREEN
her group felt scared about recent national events. When Lilley asked Tillman whom her group felt scared for, she responded, “For us, black people, white people, youth, everyone living in our society.” Before the conference broke for a lunch of hot dogs and pizza, the students watched a video with 10 rules of survival for encounters with police before hearing from police Chief Marty Sumner. The chief said he agreed with the advice in the video, which included the admonition to not make sudden movements or argue with an officer about a citation or arrest. “If an officer stops a car, we don’t know if we’re dealing with a good guy or a bad guy,” Sumner said. “So give us the signal that you’re a good guy.” Lilley recounted a recent stop by police. He knew he hadn’t done anything wrong, but he kept his cool. “I have to watch my tone of voice, my facial expressions,” he said. “I know I can’t have an attitude. I know that officer is nervous, too. Both of us got up in the morning and put our pants on, and just want to get home safe. We just want you to get home safe.”
EDITORIAL
The usual suspects
An urban homestead rises in south Greensboro
Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art Stage & Screen Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
corporate job at American Express. They had to make a “deep cut” in their food budget and shop at Sav-A-Lot and Food Lion. Tinece developed throat cancer — she’s fine now — but the experience catalyzed the family to start producing their own eggs. “This is a food desert,” Tinece said. “There is a Food Lion, but it’s far away. I mean, it’s within walking distance, but not when you’re talking about carrying five bags of groceries. It’s more like, ‘Let’s go to the corner store and get some chips, and call it a day.’” Tinece and Ronald also own land in Pleasant Garden where they hope to one day build a cob house at a cost of a couple thousand dollars and remain free of debt. They have a contract to own the house on Ashe Street from a New Jersey-based real estate investment fund that acquired the property from a bank for $8,565 in 2011. Once they build their house in the country, they plan to operate the Ashe St. Community Garden & Education Center as a nonprofit. It was no accident that they chose a location in an area of high poverty. “They tell you to lead by example,” Tinece said. “I was beating myself over the head delivering vegetables to [the residents’] door and they were looking at me like an outsider. I’m trying to get to where people are not as dependent on currency. Your value is not this piece of paper that you have; it’s what you can do, what you can trade, what you can barter.” Among other African-American women, Tinece looks to Majora Carter, an activist concerned about food justice, as an inspiration. Meeting Carter during the latter’s visit to Guilford College turned out to be a pivotal moment. “She took this empty lot and grew a garden in it, and she ended up getting married there,” Tinece recounted. “She’s really into taking things that are ugly and making them beautiful. I am too. It was like a match made in heaven.” Musing on the economic crisis in Greece, Tinece considers the situation in her own neighborhood, where 57 percent of residents are not in the formal labor force. When the economy fails, there’s still land and the genius of human resourcefulness and cooperation. “I want to encourage others who don’t have property,” she said. “There’s so much land. You could grow tomatoes on a plot on my land or my neighbor’s land. Let’s help each other: I’ll grow potatoes and JORDAN GREEN you grow tomatoes, and together we can get what we need.”
News
Tinece Holman-Payne had been napping when I texted that I was looking for the chicken-coop building workshop early on Sunday afternoon. She had been up since 5 a.m., and being that she’s carrying a child she had by Jordan Green decided to get some rest. My wife and I drove up and down Ashe Street in Greensboro looking for the place. Based on the location listed on the Facebook invitation — Ashe St. Community Garden & Education Center — I had expected a recreation center or church annex. The only hint of something out of the ordinary in front of the house on the street was a hand-painted sign reading “Cob Collective Community.” Ashe Street runs along the spine of the poorest Census tract in the city, as measured by median household income and percentage of families living below the federal poverty rate. The Hampton Homes public housing community is just to the east on the other side of Ashe Street, while Warnersville, the oldest planned African-American community in Greensboro, lies to the north. The demographics of the Census tract skew female, while the vast majority of residents are black. Tinece’s husband, Ronald Payne, was working in the backyard as she settled into a chair on the patio to eat lunch — some fresh greens in a stainless steel bowl. The backyard showcases their experiment with urban self-sufficiency: A modest-sized garden bed with zucchini, melons and tomatoes and a smaller plot with strawberries that the squirrels have ravished. They’re also growing garlic and rosemary. In the far corner of the yard, they’re erecting a chicken coop using the cob building technique, which similar to adobe, involves an aggregate of clay, granite sand, straw and water. They already have a n 8-by-9 foundation laid, with two sections of wall erected. Over the course of five days culminating on Wednesday, the Paynes are taking on all comers — up to eight at a time — to demonstrate the sustainable building technique. Eventually, they’ll have four hens laying eggs. The family once bought organic eggs at Deep Roots, but shopping for a family of seven, with five children, became too The Holmes-Payne family expensive after Tinece left her
Up Front
A judge’s injunction last week may have stopped state Sen. Trudy Wade’s plan to overthrow Greensboro City Council, but it was more of a stun than a killing blow. The city’s lawsuit against the county board of elections has yet to be heard and adjudicated — though things look pretty good for the city as no one showed up to defend the case in federal court last week. But the bill could be resubmitted without the poison pill, a last-minute addition that completely removed Greensboro’s authority to control its own elections and government that no one — no one — is claiming. Wade says she didn’t know about that clause. Rep. John Blust said that the House would never have had the opportunity to amend the bill they voted on. Either someone added it with an eye on killing the bill, or she committed an unconstitutional overreach of governmental authority. Either way, that’s the piece that makes Greensboro’s case, and it could be pulled from the text of the bill as easily as it was put in there. Then there’s the matter of the original bill to contend with. SB 36 could always be kicked down the road for the next session. And remember that its architects can keep writing as many laws as they want as long as they hold elected office. But at this point the more sensible people in the General Assembly are starting to ask themselves: What is up with this woman and her beef against Greensboro? And the people in Wade’s corner are already trying to figure out how much it will cost to get her re-elected, and if she will be able to count on her usual campaign contributors to get it done. Her renewal date comes up next year. Meanwhile in Greensboro, a majority of incumbents have already filed for the race. As of press time, Tony Wilkins, Mike Barber and Justin Outling are the only ones who haven’t re-upped their bids. Incidentally, they’re among the most vulnerable: Wilkins for supporting Wade’s gambit, Outling because he has yet to win an election — and if he does, he will be the first African-American voted into to a district seat that was not drawn specifically for black representation. As for Barber… we haven’t seen that guy in weeks. We’re anxiously awaiting some new names and faces to enter the fray. Homeless advocate Thessa Pickett, who is taking a shot at Jamal Fox in District 2, counts as one. Because while Wade’s gambit may have been inartfully conceived, ham-fistedly executed and employed for all the wrong reasons, it absolutely would have reshuffled the deck. So far, all we can look forward to is a rematch between Sharon Hightower and Dianne Bellamy-Small in District 1, which Hightower win in 2013 by a mere dozen votes. For serious election junkies, that won’t be enough.
CITIZEN GREEN
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OPINION
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July 29 — Aug 4, 2015 Up Front News
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IT JUST MIGHT WORK
Online food forage maps by Jordan Green
I think I spotted some ripening blackberry bushes on the right-of-way along my street near the Wendover Avenue/ Holden Road interchange. Around the corner from where I used to live in Westerwood, someone planted fruit trees in a vacant lot owned by Guilford County Schools. And in May, the Guilford County Parks & Recreation Department opened an urban orchard in southwest High Point that will eventually yield berries, grapes, figs, pecans, plums and persimmons. These are all examples of sources of free and natural foods that urban residents could access to supplement what comes from Food Lion or Deep Roots. Fruit and nuts, unlike vegetables, typically don’t require much watering, weeding and fertilizing and grow in right-of-ways, along property boundaries and in private vacant lots. Consequently, there’s less an issue with permission and trespassing than harvesting vegetables from a community garden, which may or may not be free for the taking. So when my cousin Gabe told me there’s a fruit map for Champaign-Urbana, the twin cities that are home to the University of Illinois’ flagship campus, I thought it was genius. Sure enough, there’s a Facebook page for “CU Fruit Map.” The most recent update, dated July 21, shows a picture of plump blackberries ready to fall off the vine. “Picked some blackberries out at Lohmann Park yesterday,” the status reads. “Y’all picked anything tasty lately?” Another post, from June, features pictures of juneberries, with a description of their taste, discussion about how the tree is commonly used for landscaping and how to detect and avoid fruit tainted with herbicides. The Facebook page provides a link to a Google Maps page with perhaps a hundred pinpoints. Each pinpoint on the map displays a photograph and the kind of information that would have practical value to someone who might live within a half-mile and have access to a bike. As an example, one entry reads, “There’s a small cluster of apple trees at the corner of Maple and Main St. They seem to have been abandoned. Several different apple varieties [are] missed together with crab apples where they’ve been suckered out.” The crowdsourced map includes notes about when particular fruit trees are in season, whether the owners welcome foragers and hunches about whether herbicide has been applied. In our region, I think it would make sense to create a website for each of the three cities, so that the information would have utility to any person with a bike, a bus pass or two feet. It’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t want to heavily market because it’s in no one’s interest to wipe out the harvest; instead, it should be the kind of resource that’s shared among people in the know. Likely as not, demand for the information would be self-regulated by the limited number of people who are avidly pursuing food justice and food sustainability, including those with limited access to transportation and low income. As they say, this is low-hanging fruit.
FRESH EYES
Hispanic grown Growing up Hispanic was confusing from time to time. I’m not white, I’m not black, well then what the heck am I — beige? Why can’t people pronounce the letter “J” in my name like an “H”? by Jorge Maturino Both my parents were born in different parts of Mexico and moved to San Antonio, Texas at a young age. At the time they were only able to say a couple words of English. The careers of their parents fit into what many would consider the typical Hispanic stereotype. My grandfather on my father’s side was a janitor for a Catholic church and for the school my father attended. My widowed grandmother on my mother’s side became a seamstress in a factory. Determined to overcome the difficulties of poverty, my father completed his degree as an engineer, joined the military and married my mother. San Antonio is where my two older brothers and I were born. As an engineer my father lived the American Dream, rising through the ranks at AT&T. He had to relocate his family first to Kansas City and then, in the summer of 1989, to Greensboro where there was a minimal Hispanic population. In this new position there was only one other Hispanic professional he worked with, a man who was from Peru. This was the summer before I attended the fifth grade in a school where there were maybe five other Hispanic students. Throughout my time at Guilford Middle School and Western Guilford High I do not remember there being more than 20 other students in the entire school from a Spanish-speaking country. Some of those students were from Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Mexico, from what I remember. I began Appalachian State University in 1997, where the minority population was a mere 2 percent; out of that, there were 98 Hispanics. I still remember the exact number. But our numbers in North Carolina keep increasing. Restaurants, food trucks and dance clubs display our culture. Spanish is in demand for some careers in the Triad. Organizations have grown. Today I order in Spanish for the $1 tacos at El Torito Taqueria food truck located next to Rice Toyota and for fresh chorizo from El Mercadito 2 on Gate City Boulevard near the Habitat ReStore. In my college years I would go to Rumba Latina and Artistika; since then many other Hispanic clubs have popped up, simply for the enjoyment of my culture, dancing salsa, cha-cha, merengue and bachata with a variety of friends and family. Winston-Salem is the home of a salsa band called West End Mambo,
which my wife and I follow with gusto. These forms of music originate from the Caribbean countries but touch lives throughout Latin America. In every single position I’ve worked, Spanish has been extremely useful in one way or another. In 2010 I joined the Verizon Wireless Spanish team as an art director. Located at Pace Communications in Greensboro, this position was solely for Spanish-speaking business professionals. The team was extremely diverse with people from Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and South Africa, as well as African Americans and white people. Over the years I’ve belonged to the Latino Community Coalition and the North Carolina Society of Hispanic Professionals. In the fall of 2014 I joined the YMCA Latino Achievers of Forsyth County. The YLA program addresses the growing group of Hispanic/Latino students, and reaches out to high school and middle school students. By partnering with the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System and Hispanic and/or bilingual community professionals, whom we call Adult Achievers, a career-based curriculum is used to show students the value and importance of a high school diploma. Program goals are to help each teen develop a positive sense of self, raise academic standards, expose students to diverse career options and provide role models whose success and knowledge will inspire youth to set and reach their goals. Through the YLA in November 2014 I agreed to speak to East Forsyth High School thinking I would be speaking to about 20 students. It turned out be 120! That many Hispanic students in one school blew my mind. Since then I’ve had the opportunity to speak at four more schools and brought my father on to be a speaker as well. Currently, my father lives in Greensboro as a retired engineer and retired Army colonel. When I first moved to the area I didn’t see that many Hispanics in the Triad, and it was difficult. I was challenged by trying to balance my rich heritage while being immersed in American culture. It was hard growing up and not having friends from the same background to relate to. It took time to find my sense of self and to discover the advantages of being uniquely different. Today I’m given the opportunity to enter the school system once more with a greater understanding and purpose: to share my knowledge and experiences and continuing to encourage others to be proud of where they come from. Jorge Maturino is Triad City Beat’s art director and runs his own design business with Deo Duce Design.
triad-city-beat.com
An urban planner reimagines downtown Greensboro by Brian Clarey
Cover Story
The railroad trestle running below Elm Street, connecting Davie and McGee, is either the best piece of urban engineering in the city or the worst. Urban planner Patrick McDowell, who’s been in Greensboro for six months now under the auspices of Elsewhere living museum, thinks it’s both. “Of course it’s bad,” he says, standing underneath the trestle as a soft rain begins to fall on downtown. “It cuts off connectivity between the north and south. The tracks are a physical barrier that separates the two sides of downtown. But this trestle is the literal and metaphoric gate to the Gate City.” Besides presenting a not-so-elegant solution to the frequent freights and passenger trains that block car and pedestrian travel on the city’s central thoroughfare, this railroad trestle is the first piece of reactive urban planning in the city, an accommodation to the car culture that would come to define the layout of the whole place. The streets came first: Elm, Davie and Greene, planned in 1808 around the Guilford Courthouse, which was to be the central spot in the new city. The North Carolina Railroad began construction of its statewide
Patrick McDonnell, urban planner and strategist, made sure that Elsewhere’s hopscotch grid passed underneath the South Elm Street trestle, which he considers to be the actual gate of the Gate City. CALEB SMALLWOOD
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July 29 — Aug 4, 2015
“We call them ‘road diets.’” McDonnell, a native Texan, cuts a small figure on Greensboro streets, where he walks three to five miles a day with a backpack and water bottle, reading the currents of the city. He’s an urban planner along the lines of Andrés Duany, the discipline’s most noteworthy adherent who critiqued the hell out of High Point in 2013, but at 34 he’s much younger. Elsewhere brought him here to shepherd the South Elm Projects — a dozen or so urbanization efforts designed to fill sprawl, beautify and add an element of artfulness to that once forgotten end of Greensboro’s main strip. “There is an urban-planning question at the core of the South Elm Proj-
ect art experiment, which is how do we support more creative and connected communities through civic and social infrastructures,” says Elsewhere Executive Director George Scheer. “It is nice to have someone on the team saying, ‘I get the art concept, but how is that actually going to improve walkability, public participation, small business need, livability, or social equity in downtown?’” McConnell dove in by buying a car — “I never think of public transportation in Greensboro,” he says — and making friends in city hall to provide him with maps and stats. In six months he’s built a working model of the city in his brain, cradles [cradled?] by shoulder-length curls just starting to show strands of gray.
“I like Greensboro because it’s legible,” McDonnell says. “I can walk around and figure it out.” It was important that the hopscotch pattern make a pass through this spot. The sidewalk hopscotch was the first of the South Elm Projects that McDonnell undertook with Elsewhere and a team of a dozen artists in from around the world for this specific purpose. It begins with No. 1,693, continuing a long chain that left off in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and ends at 3,082. Tile 3,083 is in Denver, where artist Augustina Woodgate has been commission by the city to continue the run. The Greensboro segment winds
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track in Greensboro in 1851, with the first stretch — 130 miles between Greensboro and Goldsboro — up and running by the end of in 1855. Cars didn’t start using city streets until after the turn of the 20th Century. By then the city was spreading out; automobiles further enabled the sprawl. All street design that came afterward did so with the car in mind. Like the downtown streets and the outer loops that feed into them: “Their function is to calm traffic,” McDonnell says. “The closer you get to downtown, the less and less arteries you have, so it squeezes [out] traffic, and that’s why it doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of traffic downtown. It was designed that way.
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The backyard at Elsewhere, another of the South Elm Projects, was completed last week. Built in conjunction with property owner Andy Zimmerman, the living museum and its visiting squadrom of artists, the nondescript alleyway has besome a showplace.
CALEB SMALLWOOD
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McDonnell trudges up the incline back to South Elm Street and heads towards Gate City Boulevard, ducking into the doorway at Area home-furnishings store
as the soft rain swells. With his phone he snaps a photo of a passing bicyclist — he collects them and posts them to his Instagram, patrickm02L, as a means of chronicling bike use in the city. “You don’t see a lot of bike racks downtown,” he says. “You don’t see them in front of bars. You don’t see a bike shop downtown. But I see a lot of people biking around the city.” He suspects that cyclists are approaching critical mass in Greensboro, at which point more accommodations will be made for them: racks, shops, designated paths and the like. It’s the same thing with downtown. About 2,000 people currently live downtown. He says we need 8,000 more to hit a critical mass of 10,000 residents, at which point things will be very different. “It’s that simple,” he says. “It’s a matter of density. When you have enough people, transportation, stores, restaurants — then they become an issue you can’t ignore. “These big-city ideas don’t ever get talked about at [city] council meetings — high-speed internet, connectivity, urbanization,” he adds. “These are big concepts that you have to plan for, but they don’t come up.”
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through all of the South Elm area, beginning over by the old Daily Bread Flour Mill on the corner of Gate City Boulevard and meandering along the slim sidewalks of South Elm. It ducks under a sewer grate and pops up again here underneath the train tracks. “The transportation department came out and looked at that,” McDonnell says, not unsympathetically. They needed to make sure no one would get hurt. Before coming to Greensboro, he worked in the urban design department for the city of Dallas. He understands the bureaucratic mindset. The muscle behind the movement is a $200,000 grant, procured by Elsewhere, from Art Place America — enough to support McDonnell, the artists and assistants, and to supply materials for all the pieces. In all, a dozen or so projects are slated to be completed by the end of the year. Some, like the hopscotch and a couple downtown murals, have already gone up. Others are set to emerge from the pipeline this week: converted alleys and activated green spaces around the South End neighborhood. It’s a one-time deal, but McDonnell hopes he can get the city to see the benefit of the projects and allow the work to continue. Says Scheer: “This question of civic and public infrastructure… bends the public art paradigm to be about how artwork can help express the kinds of social spaces that already do or could exist in our city.” “We want to flood the market with these ideas,” McDonnell says. “This is a pilot year; we’re showing what can be done. You can only talk so much — at some point you have to do. “I talk to my urban planner friends all the time, and they’re freaking out,” he continues. “They do maybe six to eight projects a year. But this six-month sprint down the mountain helps us figure out how to be more intentional.” It’s a movement that incorporates urban planning, design, culture and, at its heart, art. “It’s a craft, right?” McDonnell asks. “A way to articulate your ideas without words in order to get those ideas across. And this is a key moment where art can be at the center of development.”
He’s worked in an elementary school, taught graduate classes at his alma mater, the University of Michigan, where he earned masters degrees in urban planning and higher education. As an Army sergeant, he played saxophone in the 399th Army Band. He has other skills, too. “Your run-of-the-mill urban planner doesn’t know how to draw,” he says. He’s also a strategist and a designer. He worked for the city of Dallas as an urban designer in its city-owned studio, CityDesign, and has been on the board of the Association for Community Design since 2012. “In one sense I’m a big fish in a small pond,” McDowell says. “In another sense, I’m the only fish… I’m sitting on this mountain of knowledge I can’t use.” McDonnell walks several miles a day in downtown Greensboro. He attends every city council meeting. He talks to city staffers, elected officials and business owners in the district. “I knew coming in how to get involved and how to integrate into cities,” he says. In six months he’s learned a lot, includ-
“In one sense I’m a big fish in a small pond,” McDonnell says. “In another sense, I’m the only fish.”
CALEB SMALLWOOD
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July 29 — Aug 4, 2015
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ing the identification of a nasty strain of naysayism that permeates the culture, and a realistic assessment of the city’s assets. “Greensboro doesn’t know how good they have it,” he says. “It’s not that big — bigger cities are more restricting. [There’s] a phenomenal history. People don’t realize that a lot of American culture — like denim and flannel — exist here. The railroads are a huge deal, this connectivity throughout North Carolina and regionally from Washington DC to New Orleans.” Moving south on Elm, he turns on Lewis Street, where an abandoned gas station awaits activation. An old box truck slept in this space before it was targeted for the South Elm Projects a few months ago; now the stained and scarred concrete is exposed underneath a tin awning that once covered the pumps. It’s old, with flourishes of rust and dead wires poking out like unkempt hairs. The space has been dormant for so long that most people stopped seeing it, another dead zone in Greensboro’s most important corridor. But South Elm artists keyed in on this early, activating the space with a mural of pointillist spirals by the Milagros Collective out of Miami. Other murals in a similar style adorn the sides of buildings on South Elm, on the ball sculpture at the corner of Gate City Boulevard and a few hidden downtown spaces. The tin awning will come into play soon. “That’s an asset,” McDonnell says. “It’s very Greensboro, the way it thinks of itself — they don’t see an asset; they see an eyesore.” The real tragedy, he says, is that the space was unused for so long. People could be gathering here, eating lunch, talking with their neighbors, connecting. It’s one of the only open spaces along South Elm Street, and reclaiming it for the neighborhood fits in with the mission. “Who else is going to do that down here?” he asks. “Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? People in the neighborhood do stuff, and then you champion it.” Farther down East Lewis Street is a private green space, owned by the SR Max shoe company, whose squat and modern white building sits on the property. The Elsewhere folks call it Breakup Park — “A lot of Elsewherians have broken up here,” McDonnell says — but other than a nice patch of grass and a few shade trees, the park does not exist for public purposes. The owner, he says, wasn’t interested in opening it to the public. “Naysaying is probably 90 percent of what I deal with,” he says. “You let them talk and then you just go and do.” So around the corner and across the way, in another open lot in the Ole Asheboro neighborhood, five wooden platforms rise from the green grass, each a pentagon connecting with the next in a short spiral. The work should be finished by the end of this week. “We’re calling them ‘Black Lunch Tables,’” McDonnell says of the piece by artist Heather Hart, “but they’re for everybody to use. Location is important — the greenway will be coming through in the next two years. But we got here first.” It harkens back to one of the most notorious chapters in Greensboro history: the 1960 sit-ins. Unlike the Woolworth lunch-counter, these tables are for whoever wants to use
More than a dozen artists convened from across the globe to pull off the South Elm Projects, Elsewhere’s first major foray into urban design.
CALEB SMALLWOOD
Photography by Sara Lyn
On a first-floor wall at Elsewhere, McDonnell has hung a big map of the city’s neighborhoods: East White Oak, Lindley Park, the Cardinal, more than 100 of them laid out in dotted lines, like a butcher’s diagram of a cow. He requested it from city staff when he was having trouble figuring out where one neighborhood ended and the next began. “This should be on its own website,” he says. “People need to know their own neighborhood.” Meanwhile, in his own corner of the city, they are tending their own gardens. The Elsewhere backyard was completed on July 24 — a meandering path between terraced beds and rustic rock walls running behind the museum and parallel to Lewis Street. It’s a joint project between Elsewhere and Andy Zimmerman, who owns the adjacent buildings where Gibb’s Hundred Brewing and the Forge do business. The urban oasis came with a price tag of $20,000. And then, down the alley to the street, McDonnell has parked his own last-minute contribution to the South Elm Projects: an 8-by-14 trailer that’s already been sanded and weather-protected. By First Friday, it will be a parklet: a mobile public space that fits in on-street parking spaces, a bit of tactical urbanism designed to reclaim the city. There aren’t supposed to be any parklets in Greensboro — efforts by Downtown Greensboro Inc. to establish them were thwarted by a tangle of bureaucracy and politics. But McDonnell, who secured a blanket permit from the city for the South Elm Projects, just went ahead and did it anyway. “A lot of what I do is teach people not to be pussies,” he says. “[They say], ‘You can’t do that! That’s not how it’s done!’ And then you go and show them how it’s done. You start to realize that ‘No’ is a paper tiger.”
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them, and will be the site of community meetings and neighborhood events for years to come. He notes the irony of new construction at the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church on the same block with a price tag of $5 million. The tables cost $16,000.
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Food
Pre-pre-game? Hopfest Pre-Hustle @ Gate City Growlers (GSO), Thursday Create Your City celebrates Hopfest three weeks early. Attendees can drink a bit, explore the beer store and win prizes like Hopfest tickets, shirts and stickers. It’s never too early for a nice cold pint. For more information, visit Gate City Growlers on Facebook. Two glasses is better than one Wine pairing dinner @ Village Tavern (WS), Thursday Five courses of wines to taste, smell and sample will no doubt quench the strongest of thirsts. It’ll be a classy evening of aromatic proportions with people pretending they know how to talk wine. For more information, visit villagetavern.com. Hot dogs ‘n Vinyl Friday Cookout @ Reanimator Records (W-S), Friday Vinyl lovers around Winston-Salem can have a pint, have a laugh and browse Reanimator’s record collection every Friday evening. Starting the weekend is more interesting with funky tunes, funny friends, and grilled grub from the barbeque. Visit reanimatorrecords.com for more information, and see this week’s All He Wrote on page 38.
SAM BRIDGES
Korean steamed rolls, kimchee pancake delight
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photo of the buchu japchae — small pieces of pork with chives tossed in sesame oil and served with steamed rolls — is the best looking dish on the menu, but at $18 for the smaller appetizer portion, my friend Sam and I figured we’d order the 20 water dumplings and five-piece chicken in Korean sauce for a fraction of the price. Our main courses — the lunchbox special and the bibimbap — cost just half of the small pork, chive and roll appetizer each. But the woman serving us at Da Sa Rang, a small restaurant in the plaza outside Super G Mart in Greensboro with an overhead sign whose lone English words are “Korean restaurant,” didn’t want to hear it. After taking down our appetizer orders, a question from Sam about the buchu japchae prompted her to insist we try it instead, though she had just finished saying the smaller size is designed to share amongst a group of
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I think I could eat the pork with chives and steamed rolls every single day.
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At first we peeled them open, using three or four. Even though Sam had the semi-sweet bread like injera in been here before — apparently enough Ethiopian cuisine to scoop up the pork that she remembered his interest in and chives. But with our permission or spicy food — and I’d previously dipped in to try the kimchee pancake, we’re outserver showed us a better approach, cracking the top open almost like an siders. Already teetering on the edge, egg by sticking forefingers from both her admonishment pushed us over. hands into a roll and pulling it apart. It may be the best call either of us Next, she explained, we should stuff it made all week, and that’s saying somewith the buchu japthing considering we chae. Both approachtook tubes down the Visit Da Sa Rang Korean es were immensely Dan River two days Restaurant at 4929 W. satisfying, as was later. using silverware to The buchu japMarket Street (GSO) or nab any stray stuffing chae would’ve been find it on Facebook. once the white rolls satisfying enough on disappeared. its own, but more I first came to Da exciting than the Sa Rang on the advice of a friend, who heaping green portion in the middle said that if nothing else, stopping in for of our shared plate was the eight rolls the unique kimchee pancake as a shared sitting around it like campers by a fire. snack was not to be missed. As enjoyThe steamed rolls looked like Silly Putty able as that excursion was, and as tasty folded back on itself repeatedly and as our entrees last week proved to be, squished into a ball, with the consistenthe pork with chives and steamed rolls cy and feel of a hand-sized exercise ball.
entrée inkling, the jjol myun, a cold dish with thick, spicy noodles served with bean sprouts and vegetables. Our server pushed for that as well, comparing it to a sweet and sour sauce taste but spicy, and suggesting it as his likely favorite of the buffet of noodle options. He didn’t listen that time and emerged on the other side perfectly content, but I’m so glad we ponied up for the buchu japchae and steamed rolls. I think I could eat it every day.
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ing the jam bong spicy seafood noodle soup — on the menu before, it would take a while for anyone to work through the onslaught of options. There’s spicy pork, octopus or squid lunch specials, one dish that looks like it contains a whole young chicken and other rarities including mackerel, Korean sausage and pork hock. Da Sa Rang even offers Korean-style bacon cooked on the grill for $24, one of its most expensive choices. This is the sort of place where it seems near impossible to go wrong. I’m guessing Sam wouldn’t have been any less pleased had he chosen his initial
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great takes on the standard fare. And for anyone familiar with bibimbap, a mixed rice dish with meat and veggies that is most identifiable for the egg cracked on top, Da Sa Rang’s offering holds its own, albeit not presented in a stone bowl that continues cooking the contents after being served like Don on Tate Street. An avid bicyclist and outdoorsy kind of guy, Sam said the flour noodles topped with black soybean paste and pork and vegetables would be perfect after a long bike ride. Even though he’s tried it and a few other things — includ-
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should be considered one of the best menu items in the Triad. As Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” switched to Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” on a barely audible radio in the kitchen, we dug in. Truly everything Sam and I tried at the small, L-shaped Korean restaurant delighted us. Runner up belongs to the bulgogi, or Korean beef, that came in the “lunch box” special. Paired with somewhat pickled slices of cucumber, kimchee, rice or shredded carrots, the bulgogi tasted sinfully good, even in comparison to other local restaurant’s
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by Eric Ginsburg
The Tap at West End
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The bar at the Tap filled up suddenly around 6 p.m. on a recent weekday as patrons turned out for a US men’s soccer match against Jamaica.
Visit the Tap at West End, aka the West End Tap Room, at 473 West End Boulevard (W-S).
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takes all comers. So it went that recent weekday afternoon, with couples, lone wolves and a few groups of friends commingling by three standing fans inside and under lush tree branches on the raised deck. Natural light poured in from a line of windows, assisted by strings of bright blue lights hanging from the ceiling inside the place that looks like it could be a former diner. And everyone, especially the dogs, seemed right at home.
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opposite end of the bar and who looked like he was trying out for the role of a Miami grandfather, sipped on a martini. It was his first time trying Sutler’s Spirit gin, one of four available here but the only one that’s made around the corner, and he gave it an approving nod. The most interesting of the seven beers on draft also originates at the nearby West End Mill Works; the other draft selections such as Yuengling and Leinenkugel’s summer shandy generally appeal to a different crowd than the Hoots Extra. But a dive bar, including this one with a deck overlooking the Reynolds High School practice fields,
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explain to the other drinkers that the word is made up but is in vogue with Top 40 rap artists. By 6 p.m. almost every seat at the bar was taken, as men lined the countertop and switched several TVs over to the Jamaica vs. US men’s soccer match. A young bartender, probably in her twenties and wearing a sundress, was alone behind the bar, visible Sailor Jerry-esque birds tattoos on her collarbones. Before the seemingly unexpected rush began, she appeared to know most people by name, including a mustachioed man who earnestly used the term “powder room.” Another man, at the
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Every dive bar has its tells. The lack of a drink list or menu is a good indicator, and if Sharknado 3 is playing on an overhead television, there’s little room for doubt. If two guys saunter in from the deck and order two shots of house whiskey — in this case, Jim Beam — around 5:30 p.m., on top of every other sign, it isn’t even worth debating what sort of venue is involved. But the Tap at West End isn’t a stereotypical dive bar. It may not exude quite as much character as the West End Opera House or Hoots Roller Bar in the same Winston-Salem neighborhood, but the corner bar is just as popular. Few dives provide personalized glassware for their drinks, but everyone relaxing on the deck one recent afternoon held a glass with the bar’s logo emblazoned on the side. And it’s rare to find a hole in the wall that bothers to set up potted plants, let alone planters affixed to either side of the door leading to and from the deck. But with 10 people lounging outside and half as many dogs, including one that was so over-excited by its new companions that it peed a little, the Tap is definitely a dive. Especially given that the little pisser — who also licked a few other dogs on the mouth and has just one ear sticking up at times — is named “Fleek,” though the early twentysomething white owner didn’t bother to
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Setlist
MUSIC
by Jordan Green
Putting Daddy Issues to bed Daddy Issues @ the Garage (GSO), Wednesday Daddy Issues, Greensboro’s badass surf-punk girl group, is winding down. Hannah Hawkins, one of the original members, has already vacated the drum set and decamped for Charlotte. Now that front woman Lauren Holt is starting grad school and bassist Madeline Putney is moving to Portland, Ore. it’s truly time to break up the band. Blizzard Babies and Sharkmuffin support the bill. Show starts at 9 p.m. The blind leading the blind Braille @ the Crown (GSO), Thursday Praveen Sharma, aka Braille Sounds, whose music floats between four-onthe-floor dance rhythms and down-tempo lush soundscapes, appears as the eminence at this month’s installment of Dance From Above. Darklove, Fiftyfootshadows and Alvin Shavers provide local support on the turntables, while Charles Dean of Charleston, SC spins classic soul and funk 45s and Durham’s Treee presents original music. Thefacesblur contributes visuals. Show starts at 9 p.m. Carolina on his mind James Taylor @ Greensboro Coliseum, Friday Since his signing with the Beatles’ Apple Records in 1968, former Chapel Hillian James Taylor has, for better or for worse, defined the singer-songwriter idiom. His brand is well defined and he’ll appear with his all-star band. Show starts at 7:30 p.m. Sons of Willie Lukas Nelson @ Ziggy’s (W-S), Friday Lukas Nelson was probably 15 when he appeared with his pops, Willie, at Newbridge Bank Park in Greensboro in 2005, but he and his brother Micah favor Neil Young-style grunge over outlaw country. Lukas and Micah backed Neil on his The Monsanto Years, and now their band the Promise of the Real is on the road. Native son Caleb Caudle opens
Daryl Gall combines youth-pop charisma with steampunk affectation as the frontman of Bare the Traveler.
JORDAN GREEN
Heard a rumble, will travel by Jordan Green
started out as two members They of hardcore band in Boone, Jon Dwyer playing guitar and Andy Decker on bass. The pair found it was easy to share musical ideas and write songs together; between the other members of the band, not so much. They also synced personally. So, about a year and a half ago, Decker dropped the bass and taught himself to play drums, and Someday Rumble as a two-piece was born. They moved in together — an arrangement that gave them plenty of opportunity to practice. With only two members, they found it easier to schedule gigs. And they found that they could tour in Decker’s Saturn,
which they drove up and down the East Coast last summer, at dramatically less expense than they would have needed to keep a van on the road. Inevitably, Someday Rumble’s perambulations led them down the mountain to Greensboro, where fans told them they ought to play with a band from Winston-Salem called Bare the Traveler. When the two bands finally played a show together at New York Pizza, Dwyer recalls that one of the members of Bare the Traveler suggested that the two bands put out a split EP. “It was maybe a joke, but I took it seriously, maybe too seriously,” Decker said, picking up the tale outside the Blind Tiger at the bands’ joint release
party on July 25. “Jon and I were going into the studio right after that. We went into the studio and recorded these songs the day after we wrote them. We ran into Bare the Traveler and we said, ‘We recorded these songs and they sound dope. What do you think? We’re gonna do this split, right?’ I think we kind of forced their hand.” Although Bare the Traveler’s overhead is higher with six members, the two bands are similarly positioned with one or two EPs on the market. Both bands have the material and motivation to record long-players, with enthusiastic fans ready to reward the effort. Bare the Traveler is trying to save up for a van. Lead vocalist Daryl Gall said they
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energetic stage presence that has well served North Carolina acts including the Avett Brothers and House of Fools. The elements of Bare the Traveler’s music are familiar while the overall combination comes across as unique. The raspy bark of Gall’s vocals vaguely recalls the Mighty Mighty Bosstones or Dropkick Murphys. The alt-rock and pop song structures used by the band take on a different feel with a patina of carnivalesque folk through Eric Doomy’s acoustic guitar. While Josh Godfrey’s piano often provides rhythmic punctuation, Doomy’s unorthodox guitar playing builds out from the chorus rather than underpinning the verses. The band’s devoted fans contributed syncopated handclaps and spirited singalongs at several points in the show. When the band lunged gleefully into “Maggots,” a cut off the new split EP, it sounded like the boundless possibility and fleeting moments of youth that animate the age like opposing charges. “We control our futures with words and the flick of the wrist,” Gall and Elles sang together. “And where we end up is just based on perception of others and the paths that we missed.” In the buoyant crowd, it was easy to miss the sardonic inversion of a later verse. “What am I to do now? I’m buried six feet underground,” Gall sang. “And the maggots started eating at my brains.” And right on cue, Elles playfully squealed, “Oh, no!”
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Someday Rumble’s 20-minute set provided a blast of catharsis. Buoyant and fierce, Dwyer dispatched chunky bar-chord progressions with electric cattle-prod-like urgency that he matched with supple vocals, while Decker’s steady and assured drumming contributed a dynamic underpinning. Just a quickly as the band went full-bore into a sonic primal scream, they would suddenly drop down to quiet, melodic contemplation suggestive of a haunting Appalachian ballad. Somewhere between where PJ Harvey left off and the White Stripes picked up, Someday Rumble’s music mines a dark and rich seam in punk-rock’s lineage. Dwyer’s plaintive lyric as the dust settles from a sonic barrage in “Become,” a song on the band’s recent self-titled EP, is representative of the Someday Rumble’s posture. “Are we so hell bent on finding heaven that we make prophesies of our pain,” Dwyer sang. “We pray the stars to send down rain/ and we run like thieves when the river rolls too fast.” When Bare the Traveler took the stage just after midnight, they replaced Someday Rumble’s sorrowful snake-handling church with a raucous circus. Strip away the band’s hobo-thrift appearance and their substitution of ukulele and keyboards for electric guitar, and you get a balance of melodic articulation and frenzied explosiveness, coupled with sincere vocals and
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would like travel to Texas and Pennsylvania to play for fans who have yet to see the band live. It’s clear that that the members of Bare the Traveler and Someday Rumble hold one another in high regard. As the two members of Someday Rumble recounted the details of their collaboration with the other band, Spencer Elles of Bare the Traveler materialized before them. The ukulele player and vocalist was dressed in a bike messenger’s cap with a full beard and eyeliner, denim vest with punk patches, fanny pack and plaid pants. “They’re the most shirt-off-their backs, the most awesome, giving-est people we’ve met,” Elles said. In keeping with the minimalist blues-punk-rock howl approach of their music, the guys in Someday Rumble favor a kind of casual, active-wear style of dress — cutoff jeans, T-shirts and chin stubble at varying stages of growth. That’s only one contrast with Bare the Traveler, a band with a dynamic stage presence that makes a distinctive visual statement. Combined with Elles’ transgressive carnie look, singer Gall’s hornrimmed glasses, headband, sleeveless flannel and old-fashioned radio microphone gives the band a decidedly steampunk orientation. The androgynous kids thronging the Blind Tiger for the release party — mostly in their early twenties — looked the part of a tribe, sporting bike-messenger caps, heavy eyeliner and partially shaved heads.
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Jon Dwyer (left) and Andy Decker, from Boone, pared down to a duo to form Someday Rumble.
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ART
by Chris Nafekh
Can I get a picture? Conversations on creativity @ Weatherspoon Art Museum (GSO) Thursday This installation of the Weatherspoon’s discussion-based series focuses on photography and filmmaking. Guest speakers Harvey Robison and Carolyn de Berry will share their knowledge and hopefully entice inspiration onto young, eager-to-learn minds. For more information, visit weatherspoon.uncg.edu. Pretty enough for the front-page Flawlessly Feminine opening reception @ WSSU’s Diggs Gallery (W-S), Aug. 2 The university celebrates the opening of its latest art gallery, which honors the beautiful women who’ve been featured on the cover of Jet magazine. The exhibit features African artwork by Willie Cole and Mario Moore. For more information, visit wssu.edu. Exhibiting excellence National Black Theatre Hall of Fame Preview Exhibit @ New Winston Museum (W-S), Aug. 4 The New Winston Museum offers a sneak peek at its latest exhibit, which captures the history of the festival, which starts on Aug. 3 across the city. For more information, visit newwinston.org.
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Devin Leonardi’s work explores American identity by reimaging history.
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DANIEL WIRTHEIM
Tortured artist paints American mythology Southeastern Center for When Contemporary Art exhibitions curator Cora Fisher began selecting pieces for a Devin Leonardi exhibit, she had no idea that she would be showing a retrospective. The collection, Figure at Dusk, opened at SECCA nearly a year after the artist’s suicide. Themes of isolation and an afflicted American ethos are consistent throughout the artist’s short career. Leonardi paints from 19th Century and early 20th
Century photographs. That is, he uses for talking about American identity through history. the photographs as source material to create new meaning from old visual In “Charleston,” three sullen black narratives. children hunker at Leonardi’s early work, the base of a column, Figure At Dusk will starting around 2006, is surrounded by ruins of run through Oct. 4. a once-great society, mostly black-and-white Visit secca.org for portraits of a racially a foretelling narrative divided America. There of Charleston’s recent more information. are no Confederate flags racially fueled killings. Another from his or slaves in Leonardi’s earlier period, “Mississippi Springs,” work. It’s not about exposing injustice as much as it providing a platform is more elegant and telling of Leonar-
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di’s political playfulness. Along a river town, swans bathe under a “Saloon for white patrons.” Six figures, both white and black, stand along the riverbank. The moving figures are painted in blurs, much like a photograph of the time would pick up movement. There are no wires in the electrical lines, and what appears as inadequate painting plays into a larger narrative of American identity crises occurring during the Industrial Revolution. More often than not, that narrative is of isolation and disenchantment. In the few instances where the narrative takes on a celebration-of-times-gone-by feel, the result is eerie — almost supernatural. “Trappers on the Little Missouri” is a hipster’s paradise. Two men rowing a boat have stopped their movements to stare at the viewer with the still and earnest 19th Century portrait-photography look. One sports a long beard, and rifles lie in the boat. The canyon they row through could be on the surface of Mars. Stars illuminate the sky, giving the paintings a striking, mythological feel. Leonardi’s mid-career paintings are marked by a 2010 move to Montana, where he took on visual narratives of Western expansion, often depicting his subjects as submissive to nature. In “Will Avery,” a man in a white hat, presumably the hero, looks gravely towards the ground. He might be praying. He’s well dressed, too well dressed to be traversing the Western frontier. He holds the reins of a black horse with a rifle tucked in its saddle. The colors are muted, but expressive; a grayish-blue sky above a yellow-golden field. Leonardi’s landscapes engulf the subjects so as to leave the focus on the inevitable submission to nature. “Two Friends Somewhere Along the Shore of Long Island” is the obvious hit. The shoreline weighs on the bottom third of the painting, allowing a star-studded sky to breathe in the larger upper portion. Below, a man and woman in 19th Century dress sit in the lower left corner, their bodies facing the ocean. Darkness surrounds them, and stars fluoresce the sky. It has all the elements of Devin Leonardi — the isolation, the longing for some transcendent feeling always beyond reach and an appreciation for the transience of American innovation. In his last year of painting, Leonardi’s internal strife is more explicit. The artist’s suicide hangs over the exhibit like a dark cloud. A dead, twisted branch is set before a night sky in “The Woods are Black, but the Sky is Still Blue,” a depressing piece of art that seems to hint at Leonardi’s tortured mind. In “Strains of Happiness,” cattle bones are piled high, making up the lower third of the painting that is otherwise a white, blank sky. The most telling of Leonardi’s lost hope is “A Spark of Decency.” On the edge of a densely wooded forest, outlined by a serene and meandering river, a small light pokes through the branches. It’s a miserable scene, one final flicker of hope before everything goes dark.
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July 29 — Aug 4, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Food Music Art
Everything is awesome A Lego Brickumentary @ Red Cinemas (GSO), Friday This film documents America’s most popular kids’ toy that changed the world. From movies to video games, sculptures and newspaper art, Legos are the most recognizable plaything in toy stores everywhere. This is entertainment for kids and adults, who can reminisce and remember childhood dreams, while learning something new. Visit redcinemas.com for more information. Ghost of skaters past Sunset Edge @ A/perture Cinema (W-S), Aug. 2 When four aimless teens take refuge in an old, abandoned skatepark, a story of haunting suspense unfolds. They’re not alone. A lonesome boy, confronting his own horrific past, slowly draws them into the woods. For more information, visit Sunset Edge or A/perture Cinema on Facebook. Turn it up to eleven This is Spinal Tap @ The Carolina Theatre (GSO), Aug. 4 Vanity, music, misogyny… this movie has all that. It’s a mockumentary about the washed-up ’70s heavy-metal band Spinal Tap, who take pride in being “England’s loudest rock band.” The boys go back on tour after a rocky history of mild success and instability, only to undersell tickets and struggle to hit the charts. For more information, visit carolinatheatre.com.
The female cast of West Side Story during “America.” Counterclockwise from top left: Krishma Steele, Maria Butner, Ann Davis-Rowe, Christina Ward, Charee Cuthrell and Mary Upchurch.
JENNY L. VIARS, DANCING LEMUR PHOTOGRAPHY
Humble theatre, huge show from Stained Glass by Chris Nafekh
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Tyndall, a stout man with Alvin white whiskers and glasses, stood behind escalating rows of plastic chairs and in front of an urban-industrial set. It was a maze of metal poles and platforms, spray-painted like MTV graphics from 1980. The set was cold as life on the streets — hard and unforgiving. But on the top platform stood a pot of roses, confined by a fence like a prisoner in a cell. Perhaps it was purposefully placed; was the illicit love of Tony and Maria, the musical’s two main characters, not confined by social restraints? West Side Story is a more contemporary retelling of Romeo and Juliet; it’s a well-known story of forbidden love, family and race. Maria is a young Puerto-Rican girl whose brother leads a
challenges of urbanization; the groups street gang: the Sharks. She falls in love with Tony, a white boy whose best budforced to live in these places clash culdy is leader of the Jets. And wouldn’t turally, morally and violently. It’s hard you know, the Sharks and Jets hate each not to consider current events when watching West Side Story. That’s part of other like Montagues and Capulets. why the Stained Glass Playhouse, which “Things were crammed into holes in buildings and within this confined is connected to Marvin United Methodist Church, wanted space with fences and ladders… all to make the 1960s West Side Story is showing at play its own. By the people had to localizing the play, live,” said Tyndall, the Stained Glass Playhouse the Playhouse the artistic direcin Winston-Salem on Friday, rekindled a contor of the Stained Saturday and Aug. 2, Glass Playhouse in versation on race relations. Winston-Salem. “And when you Before the show’s run began last put two cultures slammed together in weekend, the small set that couldn’t the same amount of space, you have warfare.” have been bigger than a mid-level apartment looked still and lifeless. Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein wrote the play to emphasize the From behind the curtain in a practiced
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Poor property value The Osanbi Deal @ Greensboro Cultural Center (GSO), Thursday Living in urban Carolina country near a waste dump, the Solid family learns about themselves, their environment and the mysterious truth about their home. Reconciling past mistakes is the family’s first step towards harmony. This play won the Drama Centers’ 2015 New Play Project, and more information can be found at exploregreensboro.com.
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One play, two plays, three plays... National Black Theatre Festival @ multiple locations (W-S), Monday A myriad of theatrical productions by locally and nationally renowned playwrights will be performed in a number of Winston-Salem’s performance theaters. Whether they’re acting, writing, stage managing or any number of relevant crafts, professionals from around the country are coming to the Triad. For more information, visit nbtf.org.
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When love is not enough Stop Kiss @ Theatre Alliance (W-S), Saturday Sara and Callie, two women in love, are sharing their first kiss together in a late-night New York City. Then, they become victims of a hate crime. Severe injury starts a fight for life and love while the character’s struggle with hate, reality and acceptance. Visit spiritgumtheatre.com for more details.
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Speaking of race relations West Side Story @ Stained Glass Playhouse (W-S), Friday Stephen Sondheim’s premier musical about racial tensions in urban New York only has a few showings left at the Playhouse. Actors from UNC School of the Arts and theater veterans make this play a sight to see and pleasant listening. For more information, visit stainedglassplayhouse.org.
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leading lady Gillian Thornton, who sang Maria’s part with a voice bigger than herself. “I Feel Pretty” complements her voice, which resonates around the room delightfully in full, pleasant tones. What’s more important, she and the other female actors were visibly happy during the song — there was a joy on stage, something more than the pretend emotions taught in acting school. Her voice evokes, renders and shapes emotions like nobody else on stage, be it happiness, sorrow or affection. Though the first act’s vocals and choreography were slightly rocky on Friday night, a grand finale to “America” proved that Stained Glass Playhouse could put on a small, successful rendition of West Side Story while remaining true to the play’s spirit. During the second act, the halls of Stained Glass Theater disappeared until a little alleyway, Doc’s drugstore and the dress shop were all that was left. At first glance, it didn’t seem plausible, a small venue like Stained Glass Playhouse showing an immense musical like this. But after the show, the cast and crew bowed to a standing ovation.
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the back left corner of the room. He isn’t kidding; above the set is a covered balcony from which music is projected. During the performance, the audience can see musical director Marilyn Gaylord wave her hands, swiftly conducting the Playhouse musicians. The compact band is made up of a flute, clarinet, trombone, a drum set and one accompanist. A keyboard is no replacement for raw strings, but unless you’re a perfectionist, the difference isn’t distracting. The show-tunes are vibrant and well orchestrated; Gaylord does well with what’s available. “It’s a small orchestra, but it works for a small space,” Tyndall said. Although there were minor disparities in the first act, the cast proved to have abundant hidden talent. Stephen Howard embraces his role as Tony, Maria’s beloved. Howard has a soft voice and is always on pitch; he’s one of the show’s best vocalists. His acting skills are seasoned — this is one of several high-end musicals he’s performed in. Howard plays the perfect boy in love, but his falsetto needs serious work. He has a natural chemistry with
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Puerto-Rican accent, a woman called, “We’re readyyyy!” Soundcheck ensued and soon the lights dimmed. And out of nowhere, the cold, hard set vibrantly transformed into a New York alleyway. Snapping, shooting, running, hooting, the Sharks and Jets danced naturally. Every cast member took the stage during the highschool dance scene, one of the plays most grandiose moments. Though they huddled together only feet apart, the choreography was mostly smooth and precise. As if the stage was a mile wide, the actors moved around each other with ease, dancing to Bernstein’s music and singing Sondheim’s libretto. The film West Side Story has a bustling grand overture that captures the scenery perfectly — when it’s performed, one can’t help but think of Manhattan. It’s like hearing “Rhapsody in Blue” after watching Fantasia 2000. The imagery sticks to music like an idea on paper. But if Stained Glass Playhouse had an orchestra, there would hardly be room for an audience in the cramped space. “We have a full orchestra in the balcony,” Tyndall said, gesturing towards
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Stephen Howard plays Tony, while Gillian Thornton plays Maria.
JENNY L. VIARS, DANCING LEMUR PHOTOGRAPHY
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July 29 — Aug 4, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Food Music
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Whole lotta love Winston-Salem open ball-person tryouts @ Wake Forest University Indoor Tennis Center (W-S), Friday Ball-persons are an essential part of any tennis match. Who else is going to retrieve the balls — the athletes? Yeah, right. Being a ball retriever is the next best thing to being a tennis star, and there’s no better seat in the house. All applicants should know the rules of the game and be prepared for a few training sessions. Visit winstonsalemopen.com for more information. Cat fight Winston-Salem Dash vs. Lynchburg Hillcats @ BB&T Park (W-S), Friday Watching America’s favorite pastime is a great way to start the weekend. Grab an all-beef hot dog and a cool brew in the shade; as long as the game is alright and the home team wins, everyone walks away happy. For more information, visit wsdash. com. Heels on wheels Women’s roller derby @ Greensboro Coliseum (GSO) Saturday Roller derby is an authentic American sport. Brawling it out on their four-wheeled rollers, these all women teams race and rumble to be the last one standing. It’s a tough, potent and strangely sexy experience. For more information, visit greensbororollarderby.com.
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GOOD SPORT Foosball World Cup at Old Salem Six French foosball tables. Twelve orange foosballs. Sixteen teams of two. Thirty-two competitors. by Chris Nafekh Two giant inflatable foosmen. Fifteen Games, five goals to win, four brackets, one winner. It was all part of the 2015 World Cup Foosball Tournament, part of an attempt to bring younger patrons to Old Salem, the historic village and gardens. The evening was more amusing than competitive, but a few die-hards came to win. None of the attendees were professional foosballers, but everyone anticipated stiff competition. At the front desk, event coordinator Tabitha Renegar welcomed spectators who were still streaming in. “It’s the perfect amount of competition,” she said. “It’s not cutthroat, nobody’s going to the regionals.” Food, wine and Old Salem merch was the packaged first-prize for the winning team. The two-player teams were diverse; some were friends with strong shared foosball history. Around the room were likely pairs, like father-son duo Ken and Vince Nocito. There was Patrick Schell and Ben Schroeder who played for Carolina’s Vineyards and Hops, which catered the open bar and supplied Nuevo Rouge, pinot grigio, one keg of Mother Earth’s Weeping Willow Wit and another of Working Man’s Lunch from Fullsteam in Durham. Putters Patio and Grill donated 150 chicken wings, 120 quesadillas and 120 club sandwiches. “I wonder if that counts.” Joey Papuga said after his slap-shot bounced out of the net. “It probably doesn’t.” “We’re okay.” Dan Watson, Papuga’s partner said hopefully. “We’re going to win tonight.” The two were practicing foosball shots on a table in the Old Winston Visitors center before the competition. They wore matching blue shirts and red shorts. The back of their Ts displayed team nicknames. Papuga’s
read “Polish Hammer” and Watson’s read “El Savor,” which is Spanish for “the goalie.” Together, they called themselves “Foos-Me? Foos-You!” “I’m more of a defensive specialist,” Watson explained. “That’s how my grandfather’s game was, and his father before him; it’s in my blood. Joey’s a little bit different. He’s an offensive genius. He’s Steve Spurrier and I’m Bill Parcells.” Like soccer with fewer concussions, foosball has a number of rules that the World Cup tried to follow. To start, no windmills were allowed — players couldn’t spin the sticks wildly in hopes of a strong shot. Teams must toss a coin to see who places the ball first, and no tilting the table. In an average competition, after a team makes a goal, that team rotates offensive and defensive positions. But nobody enforced this rule. In their first game of the evening, Foos-You played Kelly and Wes Benson. The Bensons played foosball together as elementary school friends, and later fell in love and got married. “Good luck guys!” Papuga said as the players looked at each other. “Ready?” The ball dropped, drifting slowly towards the middle. With a flick of her wrist, Kelly Benson made the first goal of the night. The ball was tossed back in the arena and, after numerous shots bouncing left and right, nearly slipped into Foos-You’s goal. Dan saved it with his middle goalie and then snapped the ball across the table for a goal. Soon, the game was tied at three. “Put it in!” yelled a woman chomping a club sandwich, avidly watching Foos-You take on Kelly and Wes Benson. Wes made a shot, which Watson saved, passing up to Papuga for a goal. And another. Foos-You won the first match, paving a path that eventually led into the finals. “Man, I was nervous,” Dan exhaled. “That girl was good.” Across the room, the Carolina’s Vineyards and Hops duo prepared for their next game, to be played against Foos-You. “I used to play a lot,” Ben Schroeder
reminisced. “In my co-op in college, we had a table.” Carefully approaching the table, Schroeder began to explain his technique. Like a well-trained bartender, a foosballer must know his shots. Everyone can windmill, that’s easy. But a pushshot, using one side of the foosman to push the ball diagonally, that takes skill. There’s the pull shot, the wall pass, the wrist-rocket and the notorious pinchshot. By pinching the ball perfectly between a foosman and the table, one can kick the ball with force without moving it. By doing this a few times to fake out the other team and following with a push-shot, any player can make a crafty goal. Foos-You and Carolina’s Vineyards approached their table and began with a series of high-stress fast passes and shots. Each team scored a goal. With a failed power-shot, Papuga sent the ball flying backwards into Schroeder’s territory. Schroeder capitalized on the miss and scored a goal of his own. The game was 3-3, but Carolina’s Vineyards took the lead, which they held onto for a win. “The dream’s over,” Joey sighed. With a thumb down and frowny faces, FoosYou deserted the table. The final match was one for the books. Ben and Pat played two underdogs named Pirouz Daeihagh and Chris Marshall, who had quietly made their way to the final rounds. After the ball drop, Pat slapped the ball relentlessly, twisted his sticks and made the first two goals. They tossed the ball in again, and Ben stopped it in his defensive corner. With a determined look, he propelled it all the way across the table for the team’s third goal. After Pat and Ben’s fourth goal, Daeihagh and Marshall rotated. Daeihagh made a shot on the goal, which Schroeder’s defenses reversed and wall-passed to Schell at the offence. Schell pushed the ball in for their final goal of the night and spectators cheered and hi-fived. Daeihagh grunted as he left the table. “We got lucky,” Patrick said with a smile.
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1 Mimic 2 Party reminders with a “Maybe” status 3 Big shot 4 Old-fashioned theater name 5 Antiseptic target 6 Wisdom teeth, e.g. 7 Afghani neighbor 8 Dirty-minded 9 Word with King or Donkey 10 Humidity factors into it 11 Dinghy thing 12 1980s icon with his own breakfast cereal 13 Golfer Ernie 19 Rink fake-out 21 Olympic fencer 25 Nick’s wife in “The Thin Man” 26 Couturier Christian 27 Ax’s cousin 29 Chilly response 30 Novelist Rand 31 Stayed put 32 Beyond bad 33 Page by phone? 35 Light-bulb lighter? 36 In shreds 37 Film colleague of Morpheus and Trinity 38 Bargain basement container 39 Physicist with a law and a unit named after him 43 Admission exams, casually 44 “Help!” 45 Pro tracker 46 “Cocoon” Oscar winner Don 47 Left one’s job in a huff 49 Feature of much witty blogging 50 Company with a duck mascot 52 “Going Back to ___” (LL Cool J single) 53 Jackson of country music 54 “Fiat lux” is its motto 55 “Bubble Guppies” watcher 56 Electric toothbrush battery size 57 Stand-up comic Margaret
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1 Cloud over 6 Cookie’s partner? 10 Wi-fi setting 14 Avoid by deceit 15 “Who’s that kid with the ___ cookie?” (old jingle) 16 “My Name Is ___” 17 Beverage unit 18 Former picnic game that should’ve been titled “The Most Dangerous Game” 20 Cookie Monster, why do you like playing fetch with your dog? 22 Former New Jersey governor Tom 23 Longtime Mex. ruling party 24 ___ sorta 28 Superlative suffix 29 Wanna-___ 30 Lymphatic mass near a tonsil 32 Poet’s “before” 33 “Just so you’re aware...” 34 Embattled TV host 35 Cookie, what’s that picture of the Cheshire Cat with Winnie the Pooh? 39 Carbon dioxide’s lack 40 Masters’ mastery 41 Say no to 42 Toast opener 44 ___ Dew 45 Checked out 48 Japanese comic book genre 49 Hang like a diaper 50 ___ mater 51 Cookie, I don’t like this blindfold, but is that...aluminum? 55 Entree where you eat the bowl 58 Hen’s comment 59 Aloha Tower locale 60 “Tomb Raider” heroine Croft 61 Wood shop machine 62 Art colony in the desert 63 Like new stamp pads 64 Hurt all over
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Cigarettes ease the awkwardness for an outsider in Camel City
While the hot dogs sweltered on a small charcoal grill, the sounds of disco drums and acoustic guitar emerged from by Daniel Wirtheim the walls as muffled noise. Facebook showed that 42 people were meant to be there, but there were only six of us at Reanimator Records, a vinyl shop near the Innovation Quarter. I bought a record, drank a beer and tried to act like I belonged. Coming to these events is awkward when you’re the new guy. There’s a close-knit circle of friends so the conversation inevitably revolves around me not being from Winston-Salem. “It’s not a bad place to be,” said Sturgill, a skateboarder covered in tattoos, sipping a PBR in front of the store. He had tried living in Asheville for a time and did his share of traveling, but he keeps coming back to Winston. He just got out of a three-month stint in jail, where he lost 17 pounds. The food was awful in jail, he said. But the food in Winston is not so bad. Last month was the first time I put my feet down in Winston-Salem. I had never had a reason to go until now. A few months ago, I graduated from UNCG and landed an internship at Triad City Beat, which requires I make regular trips to the Camel City. To my college friends and me, Winston was always the “other city” — a city built on cigarettes, a city that was just out of our way. One of my few
encounters with the city was an indirect approach through cigarette branding. The first cigarette I smoked was a Winston. That was thanks to a neighborhood friend whose stepdad would spend long hours working in a small shed behind his house, which he called his “shop.” There were plenty of trinkets and even an alarm system, but there was nothing a person might note as markedly entrepreneurial about the man’s workspace. There were broken-down lawnmowers, garden tools that might have belonged to Buffalo Bill and, above a mini-fridge full of Busch Light, a carton of Winston cigarettes. “You ever smoke before?” said my redheaded friend, who looked like Opie might have if he had fetal alcohol syndrome. My mother had stopped smoking years ago, always reminding us kids what a nasty habit cigarettes were. But my friend helped me to understand that smoking was something that great actors and charismatic businessmen do. His stepfather was far from any of those things, but I blamed that on his drinking problem. It was a less than ceremonious hunt. Opie’s stepdad would be passed out in the early evening, so we simply walked in the shop, grabbed a pack and walked down to a clearing in the woods where I lit my first cigarette. It was much worse than I had imagined. I was comforted by knowing then that I had tried and loathed the taste of tobacco; that I was saved from growing up with yellow teeth and fingernails and whatever other ailments lifelong smokers endure. But somewhere between
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As I bummed a light from Sturgill, I could see the columns from an old tobacco factory on Fourth Street like a relic from the city’s golden era. I imagined that this was a time when smokers ruled, when a person could walk through the supermarket with a cigarette dangling from their lips and four out of five school children preferred Camels to Winstons. I got the feeling that I was standing on hallowed ground, here in the Camel City. The place where they processed the state’s richest cash crop so that I could hold it in my hands, transcend it through my body and send it to the heavens in a cloud of carcinogenic smoke. This gave my body the sense of balance I had always thought unattainable. This is the place I can thank for my smoking habit. “I’m not the new guy,” I’ll tell them. “I’m a pilgrim paying my respects to the Camel City.”
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high school and college my obsessive compulsions worsened. I would spend 20 seconds at a doorway, touching the handle two times with each hand and then once with both. If I made the slightest mistake, or something didn’t feel right, I would have to start over. I was searching for a sense of balance that was always beyond my grasp. When I tried smoking again, in a more casual setting, I understood what others found so appealing about cigarettes; they gave my hands a better reason to exist than for satisfying my physical compulsions. Instead of spending my class time rearranging pencils on my desk and touching the flour “one, two, three, four” times, I would politely dismiss myself from the classroom and stand with the other smokers — the manic depressives, the multiple-personalities, people with varying degrees of social ticks. Cigarettes became a rallying point for our social interaction, an even ground to meet on.
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