ggies spend a lot of time outdoors during the Great est Homecoming on Earth, which began in earnest on Sunday and will roll all week, until the game on Saturday and whatever comes after. Right now, the campus of NC A&T State University teems with students clad in bulldog gear, school colors, logo apparel on an unseasonably warm fall afternoon. They gather in clusters that break up and then regroup, like starlings, laying out the week’s plans one huddle at a time.
Browning leaves drift down to scuttle across concrete paths while tiny robots crisscross the quads delivering snacks, and grand, new structures gleam above the turning treeline, like garnets among the more stolid red-brick low-rises that more or less defined the campus for a century, when there wasn’t a lot of “new” going on around here.
Besides the capital investment on campus and in the neighborhood, A&T is on a roll, with Olympic ath letes passing through its halls, a role in Space Force, a former NBA star on its golf team and a capital investment campaign for its football program, which recently upgraded its conference affiliation and is making a play for the big time.
In the world of HBCUs, A&T has always been big time — it’s why Black folks all over the country know about
AGreensboro, NC even as so many white people in the United States have never heard of us. And it’s why GHOE is GHOE.
If you’ve never been, it’s impossible to explain: a football game, yes, and a parade, but also pageantry, pride, artistry, joy, excellence…. A&T is, in its own way, like the Howard University of Ta-Nahisi Coates, which he called Mecca. The vibe at A&T in the days before GHOE is so palpable, even a middle-aged white guy can feel it.
And it’s been happening here since long before the money started coming in.
The football field is now Truist Stadium — aren’t they all? — where solitary foot steps make echoes on the aluminum bleach ers and the women’s track team runs drills on the lanes that circle the fields.
At ground level, you can see a slight dome effect on the football field, a barely discernible convexion all but invisible when the place is full. From the stands, 27 rows up, you can hear the hum of the highways and thoroughfares that encircle the campus, note the faded letters on the 50-yard line and the patina of rust on the ancient west bleachers, see the radio towers tall enough to reduce everything on the ground to insignif icancy.
But you can also see greens, reds, yellows, oranges and browns on the trees that carpet the campus at A&T in autumn, a blanket wrapped around Aggieland, as always just in time for GHOE.
The vibe at A&T in the days before GHOE is so palpable, even a middle-aged white guy can feel it.by MICHAELA RATLIFF
The Hollywood Horror Show @ Village (W-S) 8 p.m.
Makeup Battle @ Van Dyke Performance Space (GSO) 6 p.m.
GRAWL Brawl XIV: GRAWLoween @ Oden Brewing (GSO) 8 p.m.
The Greensboro Arm Wrestling League is hosting a Halloween-themed arm-wrestling competition and benefit for the nonprofit Youth Focus. Watch as Smother Earth, the Fairy Bod Mother, Kraken Skullz and Father Figure take on Ruth Bader Ginsborg, Toy Soldier, Amazon Prime and K9, wrestling on behalf of Youth Focus. Find more information and reserve your space at youthfocus.org/grawl.
Horror film director Dean Jones and producer Starr Jones present a movie-quality haunted house walkthrough attraction with realistic scenes, creatures and characters from horror films. Purchase tickets from Ticketmaster
HYPE’s Trick-Or-Treat! @ Truist Point (HP) 6 p.m.
The High Point Rockers and their mascot HYPE have partnered with High Point LEAP (Literacy Empowers All People) for a free community event with treats, activities and a Book-A-Treat. Local author Sterling B. Freeman will do a live reading of his books from the “Little Dreamer” series including “Wake Up, Little Dreamer” and “Goodnight, Little Dreamer.” Visit high pointrockers.com for more information.
Carceral County: Punishment without Trial, Carissa Byrne Hessick @ Scuppernong Books (GSO) 6 p.m.
Picture Studios is hosting a live makeup battle where makeup artists will combine elements of cosplay and makeup artistry to impress the judges for a grand prize of $500. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at makeupbattle.com.
True Tales of the Macabre: An After-Dark Tour of Mendenhall Homeplace @ 603 W. Main Street (Jamestown) 6:30 p.m.
This tour of Mendenhall Homeplace includes true tales of the macabre that occurred in that very location. Admission is $10 per person with proceeds benefiting the Historic Jamestown Society. For more information, please call 336.454.3819.
Día de los Muertos @ High Point Museum (HP) 10 a.m.
Halloween Drag Brunch @ Joymongers Barrel Hall (W-S) 11 a.m.
Join Brenda the Drag Queen, seven other queens and one drag king for this exciting drag brunch with good food, great performances and delicious cocktails. Purchase tickets at queerwinstonsalem.com
Truck & Treat BOOsted 2022 @ Kaleideum North (W-S) 1 p.m.
As part of Scuppernong Books’ eight-part Carceral County series discussing social justice and the Carcer al State, author and UNC law professor Carissa Byrne Hessick will discuss her book Punishment Without Trial: Why Plea Bargaining Is a Bad Deal, which shows how plea bargaining undermines the criminal justice system. For more information, visit scuppernong books.com.
High Point Museum and the YWCA Family Latino Cen ter for a Day of the Dead celebration honoring loved ones no longer with us. The day begins with a family film at 10, followed by crafts at noon. An altar exhibit will also be on display until Nov. 5. For more informa tion, visit the event page on Facebook.
5th Annual Halloween Bar Crawl @ Radar Brewing Company (W-S) 4 p.m.
Head to Kaleideum North’s Outdoor Science and Environmental Park for this family-friendly Halloween event. Learners can trick-or-treat, enjoy weird science, live entertainment and other fun activities. Find more information and purchase tickets at kaleideum.org.
Creative Arts Studio Art Silent Art Auction @ Theater Art Galleries (HP) 6 p.m.
Send your events to calendar@triad-city-beat.com for consideration in City Life and the Weekender.
More than five venues are participating in this Hallow een Bar Crawl with food specials at select locations, waived cover charges, a spooktacular after party and a costume contest with a $1000 grand prize. Find more information and purchase tickets from the event page on Facebook.
The Arc of High Point is hosting “Curiouser and Curi ouser,” an Alice in Wonderland-themed art auction event and fundraiser providing instructions and supplies for the art students. More than 90 original pieces of art from the students will be auctioned. Admission is $10 and includes light hor d’oeuvres and wine. For more information, visit arcofhp.org.
The chair and vice-chair of the Guilford County School Board have filed formal complaints against a local conservative group they say has been operating illegally.
On Oct. 21, school board members Deena Hayes and Winston McGregor sent letters to the Guilford County Board of Elections, the NC Secretary of State’s office, the state attorney general’s office and the NC Board of Elections, asking each entity to investigate the ac tivities of Take Back Our Schools. They say that the group has been illegally participating in election activities.
As Triad City Beat has reported, Take Back Our Schools is a local conservative group loosely formed a few years ago by parents to oppose certain school board pol icies, but quickly gained traction during the pandemic as they rallied against mask mandates, vaccines and school closures. In more recent months, the group has been vocal about critical race theory and book bannings.
According to the letter, Hayes and McGregor allege that Take Back Our Schools has been engaging in election activities such as endorsing candidates, raising funds, contributing to campaigns and coordinating campaign strategy, which is illegal for a 501c(3) organization.
Since a year ago, Take Back Our Schools has been actively endorsing Guilford County School Board candidates Crissy Pratt (District 2), Linda Welborn (District 4), Tim Andrew (District 6) and Demetria Carter (At-large).
McGregor is not up for re-election this year but Hayes is running unopposed for re-election in District 8.
“While we have endured harassment and outright lies about our schools, educa tors, students and district leaders, we cannot stand by and allow illegal activity to persist and damage such a critical electoral process,” the letter states. “We call on you to act immediately with all appropriate authority to end their illegal activities.”
And that’s where confusion kicks in.
At the bottom of Take Back Our Schools’ website, they claim that they are a 501c(4) organization. However, their articles of incorporation filing with the state from Aug. 2, 2021 include a checked box and wording that suggests they are filed as a 501c(3).
While both are nonprofit organizations that are tax exempt, there are a number of important key differences between 501c(3)s and 501c(4)s.
In this case, the argument being made by Hayes and McGregor is that a 501c(3) is not allowed to partake in any election or political activity.
As stated on the IRS website, 501c(3) organizations are charitable organizations that “may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate in any campaign activity for or against political candi dates.”
501c(4) organizations, on the other hand, are what are known as “social welfare” organizations that are allowed to “engage in some political activities, so long as that is not its primary activity.”
According to Eugene Parker, who filed to incorporate Take Back Our Schools, he accidentally checked the box that denotes the organization as a 501c(3) when he filed paperwork to the state more than a year ago.
“I incorrectly checked Box 2,” he said. “I didn’t realize the fine print.”
On Monday, Parker filled out an ar ticles-of-correction document that he is filing with the Secretary of State’s office to correct his error. TCB was sent a copy of the document.
Parker also argued that even though the organization was incorrectly incorporat ed at the state level, Take Back Our Schools is recognized by the IRS at the federal level as a 501c(4).
“501c(3) and 501c(4) status is regulated by the federal government and not the state government,” he said. “The state has nothing to do with that. The error has no impact on our status. We have advertised ourselves as a 501c(4) since the beginning.”
Parker sent TCB a copy of the application summary that was sent to the IRS on July 27, 2021, to file Take Back Our Schools as a 501c(4). On the IRS website, it is noted that the “IRS is required to acknowledge that an organization’s notification has been submitted” and that the organization “can expect to receive an acknowl edgement from the IRS within 60 days of submitting your notification.” However, Parker said that he never received any notice from the IRS that the application was accepted.
Additional research into the organization leaves more questions than answers.
A search of Take Back Our Schools on the IRS website doesn’t reveal much infor mation. Besides the fact that the organization has filed two Form 990-N e-Postcards — which are used by nonprofits that make less than $50,000 — the listings don’t denote whether or not the organization is filed as a 501c(3) or 501c(4). A search of the organization in the master database for all of North Carolina’s nonprofit organi zations doesn’t list Take Back Our Schools at all.
Additionally, because the organization is a nonprofit, their tax returns, includ ing all revenue and expenditures must be available to the public. But because the organization says that they make less than $50,000, full tax returns that are ordinari ly available online do not exist. And that creates a sort of black box for Take Back Our Schools. As an organization that has repeatedly asked for transparency from the school board, including forcing the district to do audits, the lack of information around Take Back Our Schools’ structure and finances is concerning, McGregor and Hayes said.
“The inaccuracies and the accusations they have made and used, we’ve been au dited by the auditor’s office…. The school district was audited based on accusations that my company provides training to the district and I’m making so much money off the back of the district, which I’ve never done in 20 years, I never would do….” Hayes said. “Just the misinformation and the accusations that the superintendent’s hiding money and here, ‘Oh, we made a mistake.’”
Hayes is the founder and managing director of the Racial Equity Institute. The school district received a clean financial audit report in January.
“I just think it’s important for people to be aware,” McGregor said. “They’re engaged in what may be well-funded, we don’t know where the money comes from. We don’t know how much is from this community, from outside of it, nationally funded…. We think it’s okay to ask those questions.”
hile Take Back Our Schools has advertised themselves as a small, grassroots organization, the group has had some significant state backing in the last year.
According to their website and social media, in July, Take Back Our Schools launched a campaign kickoff and fundraiser at Starmount Country Club that featured Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson as a guest speaker.
After the event, Stephanie Mitchell, one of the primary organizers of Take Back Our Schools wrote a long note that was posted on the organization’s website.
“A huge thank you and a debt of gratitude to both to [sic] Lt. Governor Mark Robinson and Mrs. Yolanda Robinson for taking the time to join us in the mission of electing these BOE candidates,” she said. “We so appreciate all your hard work and encouragement to keep going.”
She also alluded to the fact that Take Back Our School’s mission is no longer one just tied to the local level.
“This is an exciting time in America and in North Carolina specifically,” Mitchell writes. “We are seeing more and more candidates coming together and running on common grounds. Joining forces and becoming teams. Currently the common issue is education.”
As reported by TCB in the past, the tactics used by the group are part of a larger, national playbook that includes using critical race theory as a scapegoat, attacking LGBTQ+ student rights and contesting books in schools. Their alignment with Robinson, who is known for his anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and push for more “trans parency” in schools through book and course challenges, is an example. At the bottom of Take Back Our Schools’ website is a link to Robinson’s FACTS task force that was started last year to combat so-called indoctrination in schools.
“There’s been a connected effort across the country around this playbook,” McGregor said. “It’s not just this little group of concerned parents who care about schools here. I’m not saying they’re not parents, and of course, they seemed to be concerned about all kinds of things, but it’s ok for us to push back and call it out on occasion.”
In July 2021, protests by Take Back Our Schools outside of the school board meetings garnered national attention after a right-wing conspiracist posted a snip pet of footage on his Youtube page.
Gary S. Franchi Jr. of the Next News Network out of Illinois alleged that critical race theory was being pushed into schools and that members of Take Back Our Schools were kept out of the school board meeting. In reality, the school board meetings were public; they just had been live-streamed and members of the public were able to submit comments online.
“I’m calling out and standing up against what I often think is dangerous rheto ric,” McGregor said.
McGregor said that so far, the complaints have fallen on deaf ears.
Andrea Leslie-Fite, the Guilford County attorney, responded to the complaints by stating that, “The Guilford County Board of Elections is not authorized to investigate nor enforce federal laws or regulations concerning not for profit corporations (Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3)) or social welfare organizations (Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(4)).”
Instead, she suggested they contact the state board of elections to “determine if the concerns noted may rise to a level of investigation warranted by NCSBE’s statutorily authorized powers.”
However, Lindsey Wakely, deputy general counsel for the NCBSE, responded by stating that they do “not enforce federal laws or regulations regarding a nonprofit organization’s tax exempt status.” Wakely suggested that they file a complaint with the IRS if they suspect Take Back Our Schools of not complying with federal tax laws. Additionally, Wakely suggested that they file a complaint form if they “believe
the organization may have also violated North Carolina campaign finance laws.” McGregor said they are filling out that form and will send it soon.
“There’s a lot of kicking the can around,” McGregor said.
According to David Heinen, vice president for public policy and advocacy for the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits, it is unlikely that the IRS will get involved. Instead, Heinen said that the best argument that could be made against Take Back Our Schools is the simple fact that they are currently filed as a 501c(3) at the state level and they have been engaging in political activity, which is illegal.
“If I were trying to challenge what they were doing, I would probably do it on the basis that they are operating in a manner that is inconsistent with their current articles of incorporation because regardless of their tax exempt status, whether they are a 501c(3) or c(4), their articles of incorporation… the organization is bound to the language in that,” Heinen said. “[T]hey’ve got all the provisions to be a 501c(3).”
Heinen said that the issue isn’t really something that the Secretary of State’s office would review. Alternatively, he said that whoever was “most harmed” by Take Back Our Schools’ could attempt to take legal action.
In a text on Tuesday, McGregor said that they “will consider all appropriate options including the full range of legal ones.”
Heinen also said that more realistically, the reputational harm of the missteps taken by Take Back Our Schools might be the biggest outcome.
With that, McGregor agrees.
“I hope the voters come back to the place where they want reasonable people serving on the board of ed, who can work together,” she said. “...It’s up to us as individuals to raise and elevate the exercise of politics. And if reasonable people… don’t voice that, then we just leave the playing field to the extremists and they never get called onto a reasonable level of play.”
The case file for Smith v Greensboro, the civil action that Mar cus Smith’s survivors initiated after he was killed by Greensboro police in 2018, con tains 235 individual documents. The first, filed April 10, 2019, is an 18-pager that distills the Smith’s terrible demise into more palatable legalese.
The last, probably, was filed on Monday: an order from US Dis trict Court Judge Loretta C. Biggs that permanently seals some of the evidence and testimony from the case: depositions and other testimo ny, body-camera footage, emails, the criminal investiga tion file and other discovery items that the public will never know about.
The documents in between tell the tale of a man killed by agents of the city, defendants’ efforts to minimize their accountability and, ultimately, the judgment for the plaintiffs and settlement, which was $2.57 million, awarded to his survivors.
As this chapter ends — for us, anyway; Smith’s murder will always be a part of his survivors’ story — it’s an appropriate time to take stock in what we’ve learned.
One takeaway is something we
all already know: Sometimes po lice kill citizens through gross neg ligence and outright violence, and when they do, pretty much nothing happens to them. In fact, seven of the eight officers responsible for hogtying Smith — which was the cause of his death — got merit raises last year And a condition of the settlement is that none of the defendants must admit liability.
One positive outcome is that GPD can no longer use the hogtie restraint, known as RIPP hobble, on the people they’re sup posed to protect, putting them in line with every other law enforcement agen cy in the Triad.
We’re also reminded how expensive it is for police to kill peo ple. In addition to the $2.57 million settlement, the city spent more than half a million dollars defend ing their indefensible case. It’s less than one percentage point of the city budget, but it is more than five times the total of the city’s partici patory budgeting initiative.
In addition, $10,000 of the settlement will go to the Interac tive Resource Center, for a plaque commemorating Smith and his time at the homeless day center, the last reminder of a life snuffed out by the very people who were supposed to help him.
Sometimes police kill citizens through gross negligence and outright violence and when they do, pretty much nothing happens to them.
Nestled in the heart of Winston-Salem’s downtown Arts District, you’ll find 6th and Vine Wine Bar & Restaurant, which has been holding down the Arts District near the corner of 6th and Trade for 18 years.
The focus is on eclectic wines that you don’t see every where, but also on making wine accessible. The new Winter Wine List will be unveiled this week, featuring many stunning and unique wines.
“I love changing the wine list because tastes and trends are always evolving,” says owner Kathleen Barnes. “We have about 25 wines you can try by the glass, including several reserve wines like the Jordan Cabernet or the Belle Glos Pinot Noir.”
There have been some changes in the kitchen as well. This year, 6th and Vine is thrilled to welcome Niki Farrington as the new executive chef. Niki is perhaps best known in the Triad for her famous Niki’s Pickles and Niki’s Pimiento Cheese, which are both incorporated into the 6th and Vine menu. She brings many other local, farm-fresh products into the picture.
Of course, you can still find the Baked Brie and Spicy Crab and Artichoke Dip, but now starters include a Pork Belly and Pimento Cheese Flatbread Pizza.
Niki is always experimenting with your favorite comfort food.
Her latest is a fancy-ass sloppy Joe, which features Darcy Farms heritage pork andouille, peppers, onions, sweet-and-spicy goo, melted Swiss, Bosc pears and shaved Brussels slaw on a toast ed brioche, topped with Niki’s Pickles Super Sour Dill Chips. The combination of ingredients is never dull — Niki is always pushing the envelope with new twists on old favorites. Customers who have been with us for years are happy to see Niki taking the menu in new and creative directions.
and Vine is well known for its enormous outdoor patio, surrounded by brick build ings and vines, but they also have cozy couches for groups to hang out with friends and enjoy wine and charcuterie. It’s a great place to have a cocktail party for the holidays as well!
Book your events by emailing: sixthandvine@yahoo.com
Sixth and Vine celebrates 18 years in business in 2023 and as they say, “never a dull moment.” They are always focusing on brilliant crafted food and beautiful wine, although there are also fun craft cocktails and a unique beer selection. With a myriad of dining areas, a vibrant bar and the famous back patio area with heaters and fire pits, 6th and Vine is a fine place to watch autumn turn to winter.
anger Center for the Performing Arts just kicked off its second Broadway season with seven new performances including Pretty Woman, Cats, The Book of Mormon and Frozen, and MACHETE is the perfect spot for dinner before a show. Located just a few blocks from Tanger Center, across the street from Deep Roots Market, you can enjoy a modern, elevated meal with cocktail and wine pairings at MACHETE and still have plenty of time to get to your seat before the curtain rises. If you arrive by 5:30 p.m., you can enjoy MACHETE’s Theater 3-Course, currently $36 per person. Reservations are recommended for MACHETE and can be made at its website at machetegso.com.
600 C Battleground Ave. (GSO)
eppelah Challah offers a whole line of breads including plain, old-school challah, challah with toppings, stuffed challah and assorted sweet goods, made in her home kitchen and delivered to your door. Peppelah Challah breads are also available on Thursdays at Kau Butcher Market and New Garden Bagels in Greensboro, where they sell out quickly.
The Fall Menu extends until Thanksgiving, featuring pumpkin, pumpkin-cheesecake, applecaramel and cinnamon-golden raisin. The Fall Menu is an online exclusive, not in stores. Shipping is available nationwide for holiday gifts, with local pickup every Friday.
(order online)
What counts is passion, attention to detail, and ultimately, what comes out of that exceptionally hot oven. Long-fermented dough, a proprietary sauce blend, and high-quality ingredients go into the puffball pizzas that beg to be consumed on the spot. This is one of those all-too-rare places where you catch a glimpse of Neapolitan pizza’s origins as a portable (and entirely elegant) street food.
Smith makes a pizza like it’s a meditation on the art of pizza: He scrutinizes it, coddles it. Half a minute after it enters the hulking wood-fired oven that dominates his open kitchen, he’s back with his paddle, tilting your pizza toward the hot embers for the right amount of charring, turning it so the cheese melts just so, lifting it into the storm of smoke rolling inside the oven to finish it off.
State
But it’s like this: The South got somethin’ to say.
707 Trade St. NW (W S)
The historic Bahnson House, the 1920s mansion where Chef Tim Grandinetti created Spring House Restaurant, Kitchen & Bar, is perfect for an occasion dinner, small bites on the patio, a casual meal in the bar.
And it’s perfect for private events.
The Main Dining Room can seat up to 22 guests in white-linen elegance, with a working fireplace, French Doors and a 12-foot coffered ceiling with the original plaster molding.
Originally the parlor in the Bahnson House, the Magnolia Room, light and airy, has views on the front patio and garden for up to 18 guests.
The Sun Porch is casual and comfortable, with leaded windows and French doors that open onto the Lawn Terrace, adding an outdoor element to your event. It seats up to 30 guests.
The Boardroom, upstairs, is perfect for corporate gatherings of up to 18 people. The Blue Room, the newest space, fuses the old and the new to make a space perfect for artisan cocktails and casual gatherings.
Finally, the Spring House Terrace can accommodate up to 120 guests under a tented pavilion.
Grandinetti and crew create Southern fare “in cadence with Mother Nature,” which means a menu that changes frequently but with consistent quality and creativity. They can make the perfect array of dishes for your event.
450 N. Spring St. (W-S) 336.293.4797 springhousenc.com (reservations recommended)
Introducing Havana Phil’s signature vodka, a smooth and sophisticated choice that could only come from Havana Phil’s.
Distilled in Madison, NC, Havana Phil’s Vodka is made from 100% North Carolina-grown corn, filtered through charcoal barrels six times for an unmatched smoothness, suitable for mixing, sipping, shaking or shooting. You can find Havana Phil’s Vodka on the top shelf of the finest Triad bars, at ABC stores across Greensboro and, naturally, in the lounge at Havana Phil’s.
1628 Battleground Ave. (GSO)
havanaphils.com
ouble Oaks Bed & Breakfast offers comfortable overnight stays, unique public events and private event rentals, all in the historic setting of the 1909 Colonial Revival mansion. Since they opened in 2016, Double Oaks has steadily added new ways for the public to enjoy time there. Their most recent offering is dinner service on Thursday and Friday nights from 5–9 p.m., with a gourmet menu that changes seasonally.
Despite unpredictable fall/winter weather, Double Oaks is a great place to dine, as you can choose to sit inside in the historic home’s grand dining room if it’s a cold or rainy day; choose to sit outside in the large gardens on those surprise warm days. Working fireplaces in the dining room are lit on the coldest evenings to add to the cozy atmosphere. Come by and try the menu by Chef Jared Hugg, which includes gourmet entrees as well as shareable small plates. Reservations are recommended, but not required.
our favorite farmers market is gearing up for the holidays with the Winter Market, open from 8 a.m.-noon until spring.
The Greensboro Farmers Curb Market is there for your Thanksgiving needs with a pre-holiday Market Wednesday, where you’ll find everything you need for your table.
The Made 4 the Holidays arts, crafts and pottery market — a Greensboro tradition for more than 20 years — lands on Sunday, Nov. 13 and Sunday, Dec. 4. Wares include expertly crafted cutting boards, wooden spoons and other kitchen tools; local food gifts such as Guilford Hills Spices, Turmeric Zone Honey, unusual jams and jellies. The event features a hot cocoa and coffee bar, homemade ice cream, Bull City Cider, live music and more. See our website or Facebook agefor more information.
by Sayaka Matsuoka
The curve isn’t very sharp at all.
“But it’s blind,” says Win ston-Salem author Jason Roach. “You can’t see anything coming at you no matter what direction you’re coming from.”
And that’s how the turn got dubbed Dead Man’s Curve.
The stretch of road in Statesville has been called that as far back as the ’60s when Roach’s mom was growing up, he says. Now, he’s used the nickname in the title of his new book, The House on Dead Man’s Curve.
Part autobiography, part fiction and part haunted-house tale, the book is Roach’s first foray into longform writing, a story that places a character very much like himself at the center of the action.
“It follows a team of paranormal inves tigators going on a paranormal investiga tion of a lifetime,” he explains.
The group stays at a haunted Airbnb; from there, the book delves into clanging kitchens, opening windows, shadowy figures and noisy apparitions. All of the experiences that befall the characters in the book have happened to him, Roach says.
The book is set in Statesville, where Roach grew up. In his twenties, he lived in a house on Dead Man’s Curve where he experienced a myriad of paranormal activity.
One time, he and his partner left the house for a few hours; when they re turned at night, all of the windows had been opened. A few weeks later, the same thing happened again. When they asked the landlord, he told them he didn’t know anything about it.
On another occasion, Roach was sitting in his room reading a book when he saw someone come into his room.
“They didn’t say anything and I didn’t really acknowledge them,” Roach says. “They came into my room and stared at me.”
When he asked his partner why he came into his room, he said he didn’t know what he was talking about.
“I noticed that the clothes he was wearing was a white shirt and tan shorts,” Roach says. “And I distinctly remember that the person who walked into my room was wearing a purple shirt and jeans. The house is very small so he couldn’t have changed without me noticing.”
Other times, Roach says, they would hear clanging in the kitchen and screen doors opening and closing.
“Sometimes I wonder if things aren’t drawn to me specifically for them to
be occurring everywhere I go,” he says. “It’s some thing that I’m working on trying to figure out.”
In 2020, motivated by his experiences, Roach joined the Association of Paranormal Study, led by Alex Matsuo and based in Virginia. Currently the organization has four members, two each in Virginia and North Carolina.
Since joining, Roach says he’s gone on 10 or so investigations.
His most vivid experience includes a visit to the USS North Carolina battleship that’s stationed in Wilmington. Roach says that while the team was in the sick bay of the ship, they saw a shadow figure cross the door. A short while later, the team caught the sound of sirens going off through their electronic voice phenomenon recorder, or EVP.
“The theory is that spirits can manipulate words in the system and get different words to come out of it,” Roach explains. “On this night, we started discussing the torpedo that hit the ship in WWII, and instead of words out of the system, we got an actual replay of sirens going off when the ship was hit.”
All of it, according to Roach, was documented on the crew’s camcorders.
His favorite experience took place at the Trivette Clinic in Hamptonville. According to Roach, it was a medical clinic in the 1930s turned into a supper club, a nursing home and then a private residence. It currently stands empty.
“It’s said to have over 80 spirits that come and go out of this place,” Roach says. “I’ve probably been there six or seven times and we’ve had activ ity that is paranormal every time.”
And that’s saying something because Roach says the team is actually made up of skeptical believers.
“One of the things I’ve learned is that not everything is always what it seems to be,” he says. “Not everything is paranormal. Ninety-five percent of the time, there are logical explanations for things and that’s why we try to go back to places multiple times to see if we can get things to happen again and again. Once you establish a pattern, then you may have some thing.”
Although his book just came out, Roach says he’s already working on a second one. And next year, he plans to start his own LGBTQ+-focused publishing company. In the meantime, he’ll continue to go on more investi gations.
“I do it because I love it,” he says.
Learn more at authorjasonroach.com and by following Jason Roach on social media at @JasonRoachAuthor. Learn more about the Association of Paranormal Study at associationofparanormalstudy.com.
Everyone knows about Spirit Halloween stores, those seasonal pop-ups that pick up short-term leases in abandoned storefronts across our entire nation.
Their wares include animatronic yard clowns, a Flamin’ Hot Cheetos costume, vampire-teeth hair clips and no fewer than seven sexy-nun outfits. And their business model relies on the caprices of economic fortune, occupying, hermit crab-like, the forgotten husks of what were once vibrant businesses but did not make it through the long, hot sum mer.
You’ve seen the meme: the temporary Spirit Halloween signs photo shopped across notorious structures like Memphis’ downtown pyramid,
Buckingham Palace, the White House, Chicago’s Soldier Field — shorthand for any business or other enterprise that is nearing the end.
This Halloween, Spirit stores near us took over retail spaces that once supported stalwars of retail; brands like Bed, Bath & Beyond; Sears; Dollar General; Stein Mart; Shoe Carnival; Pier 1; JC Penney; and AC Moore.
Adjust your stock portfolios accordingly.
Six Spirit Halloween stores have found purchase in empty storefronts in Greensboro and Winston-Salem — none in High Point, but that’s probably because of Furniture Market. Each one represents the shattered hopes and dreams of business owners and the shifting sands of retail.
So-called high and low art deliberately collide in the work of Gajin Fujita. As the child of a Japanese father who was an abstract land scape painter and a Japanese mother who worked as a conservator, Fujita frequently turns to iconic Jap anese artworks as one source of imagery. However, as a native of Los Angeles and a former graffiti artist, he is also just as likely to lift images from American street culture, and regularly incorporates the signature tags of other such artists along with layers of popular commercial symbols.
Here, he invited eleven friends to add their tags across a four-paneled painting so large that it feels like the side of a building. The beginning of its title, “Invincible Kings,” is a nod to Fujita’s early days of art-making with those friends, who called themselves the KGB, Kings of Graffiti Bombing. Often, he recalls, they would refer to themselves with words such as invincible in order to “sound bigger” than other crews. One night, they even painted the word on a wall near a local farmer’s market, though it proved all too mortal when whitewashed by authorities within a day. Recalling those youthful claims to might and grandeur,
The painting’s opulent gold-leafed surface under scores these notions of personal grandeur. Fujita has shared that he was thinking about the gilded walls of a receiving room at Nijo Castle in Kyoto, the 17th Century home of the Japanese emperor’s military leader, and a space designed to demonstrate power. Fujita has re-created Fujin, the revered god of wind, with his vibrantly hued skin, wild hair, and billowing sash, but instead of depicting him in the sky, he has brought him to earth and surrounded him with oversized peonies and a lion on a chain. This abundance of natural ele ments — wind, flora, and fauna — speaks to the artist’s concern for the environment, and his frustration with the human hubris that disregards it: “I painted this work in hopes that it would send a clear message that nature rules over all of us on this planet.” That we so often fail to honor it makes our current culture, as the artist notes in the second half of his title, a “mad, mad world.”
Gajin Fujita, ‘Invincible Kings of This Mad Mad World,’ 2017A monthly glimpse at the works in the current exhibition Gilded: Contemporary Artists Explore Value and Worth. On view at the Weatherspoon Art Museum at UNCG through April 8. in this painting from 2017, Fujita includes the image of a lion — king of the jungle — plus two ornate crowns and the word KINGS lifted from the logo of the city’s professional hockey team.
There’s almost always a Spirit Halloween on or just off Battleground Av enue, where small retail shops compete for attention on a five-lane road. There are two this year, this first one in the Northwest Centre strip mall a couple doors down from TJ Maxx. The Spirit website identifies the spot as a former home furniture store — it was at one time Carolina Home Furni ture and Bedding — but Google Street view, captured June 2022, shows an empty shop for lease. The spot has also served as an Intrex Computers, pre-2010.
This second B-ground location is in the corner spot at the Westridge Square shopping center, which in its past life was a Hallmark store and a Colfax Furniture outlet. Trivia: The spot is just a few doors down from what was once Kyoto Fantasy Express, the Japanese restaurant owned by the parents of TCB Managing Editor Sayaka Matsuoka.
I admit I have not yet been, but this Spirit store at the Four Seasons Mall sounds like the granddaddy of them all, located in a former Dillard’s de partment store that measures 148,000 square feet. As far as I can tell, it became available when Dillard’s moved across the mall into the old Belk’s spot in 2016; the Four Seasons Belk closed in 2014. This begs the question: Would people shop at department stores again if it was just Halloween stuff? Maybe….
This spot in the Reynolda Manor shopping center, Between Lowe’s Foods and East Coast Wings, has been a Spirt Halloween store as far back as 2016.
The proliferation of Spirit Halloween stores inside shopping malls na tionwide could be a whole other story. This one’s a puzzler: It occupies what was once a Pottery Barn, which is a wildly successful chain, inside Hanes Mall, which has always been more vibrant than Four Seasons. It closed about a year ago — an isolated closure, as far as I can tell, but another North Carolina store, in Raleigh’s Crabtree Valley Mall, closed in July. The Raleigh shop moved to Cary; in the Triad, there is still a Pottery Barn at Friendly Center.
This spot at the Marketplace Mall, listed on the Spirit website as “next to Hamrick’s,” defies the imaging power of Google Street View. But it’s in the same spot as the Lost in Time Antique Mall and Marketplace Cinemas.
Each store represents the shattered hopes and dreams of business owners and the shifting sands of retail.
BY CAROLYN DE BERRY
Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro
