TCB Nov. 18, 2015 — Addicts and jail

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com November 18 – 24, 2015

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Should we fix the jails or get addicts out of them?

What went wrong, part 2 PAGE 16

Ziggy’s no more?

PAGES 10

Like a refugee PAGES 6, 14, 15

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Nov. 18 — 24, 2015

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One for Jill

22

by Brian Clarey

UP FRONT 3 Editor’s Notebook 4 City Life 6 Commentariat 6 The List 7 Barometer 7 Unsolicited Endorsement

NEWS 8 Food for the hungry 10 Ziggy’s remembered 12 The Green Party’s Jill Stein

OPINION 13 Editorial: Southern hostility

13 Citizen Green: No safe spaces for queer and trans folk 14 It Just Might Work: Service-industry emergency fund 14 Fresh Eyes: Why we welcome refugees to the Triad

24 Art: Knitting Lindley Park

COVER

27 Jonesin’ Crossword

16 S hould we fix the jails or get addicts out of them?

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

CULTURE 20 Food: Funky curry 21 Barstool: World of Beer 22 Music: Maximum sound, minimal band

GOOD SPORT 26 Panther party

GAMES

28 Atlantic and Yadkin Greenway, Greensboro

ALL SHE WROTE 30 Forever in blue jeans

QUOTE OF THE WEEK I know for a fact with my family if it becomes a danger to the person they’re going to force them to go to the infirmary to get IV. That’s what’s always done in a jail. It’s amazing to me that not only as an addict, but also as a pregnant woman she had to be their priority. She’s a pregnant woman going cold turkey off opiates, which is going to make her sick.

— John McCormack Jr., in the Cover, page 16

1451 S. Elm-Eugene St., Greensboro, NC 27406 • Office: 336-256-9320 BUSINESS PUBLISHER Allen Broach

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING INTERN Nicole Zelniker

EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Brian Clarey

jorge@triad-city-beat.com

allen@triad-city-beat.com

brian@triad-city-beat.com

SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green jordan@triad-city-beat.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Eric Ginsburg eric@triad-city-beat.com

NEST EDITOR Alex Klein

alex@triad-city-beat.com

EDITORIAL INTERNS Daniel Wirtheim intern@triad-city-beat.com

ART ART DIRECTOR Jorge Maturino SALES DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING & SALES Dick Gray dick@triad-city-beat.com

SALES EXECUTIVE Lamar Gibson lamar@triad-city-beat.com

SALES EXECUTIVE Cheryl Green cheryl@triad-city-beat.com

NEST Advertise in NEST, our monthly real estate insert, the final week of every month! nest@triad-city-beat.com

Cover image courtesy of the NC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner

CONTRIBUTORS Carolyn de Berry Nicole Crews Anthony Harrison Matt Jones Amanda Salter Caleb Smallwood

TCB IN A FLASH DAILY @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1.00. ©2015 Beat Media Inc.

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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

CONTENTS

She’s over there on the couch, still in her work clothes though it’s long past the hour when she likes to get cozy. I can see the glow from her laptop screen pushing against her face, furrowed in lovely concentration.

She’s insisting on returning emails and paying bills, while also watching “The Voice” with our oldest son, a weekly ritual that transcends her workload, which is, as always, formidable.

I don’t profess to know how she keeps the whole house going, but I suspect it has something to do with her boundless energy, her fighting spirit and the sheaf of lists she carries with her all the time, frequently referring to them and checking items off.

Today her delicate timing pattern was disrupted by a faulty electric plate, which meant that the crock pot never got started, pushing back dinnertime and monkeywrenching the complicated loop of destinations to which she ferries the kids every Monday night.

My own Mondays are consumed with writing and editing, meetings and sales. I can never get too comfortable — something unusual always happens.

But she pulled me out of my office tonight with her tale of woe, prompting me to get home to start dinner while she worked reconnaissance with the kids.

I’m not the only man I know who is fortunate enough to live with a woman like this, one who binds our little worlds with tanks of gasoline and calendar entries and little notations jotted on scraps of paper. But I’m definitely the luckiest.

Now, with a flicker of the laptop light, she’s up on her feet.

Again. There’s a pile of laundry that needs folding, and it’s just not in her nature to sit on the couch and let it be. She sings along with the songs on “The Voice” while she She breathes long and deep, folds pants and in through the nose and out handicaps the through the mouth. Every so contestants with often she smiles. our teenage son.

She moves with easy deliberation as the piles of folded laundry, one for each of us, grows on the table. She breathes long and deep, in through the nose and out through the mouth. Every so often she smiles.

Soon there will be tomorrow’s lunches to make, the morning coffee to be prepped. Sleep will have to come soon so she can do it all again tomorrow.

I don’t know how she does it. I don’t know why she does it.

But I’m powerfully grateful that she does.

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Nov. 18 — 24, 2015

CITY LIFE November 18 – 24 WEDNESDAY

by Daniel Wirtheim

FRIDAY

Cindy Woolf and Mark Bilyeu @ Centenary United Methodist Church (W-S), 7:30 p.m.

Partners in song and life, these are two folk singers whose passions run deep.

Cindy Woolf provides spellbinding vocals with a raspy twang and Mark Bilyeu plays some serious roots guitar music. Find more details at rootsrevivalws.org.

The Head @ New York Pizza (GSO), TBD Imagine Echo & the Bunnymen playing through a filter that makes them sound a little like Joy Division and little like every other alternative ’90s rock band and you’ve got the Head. That’s not to say that this Atlanta-based three-piece is not fun, endearing or danceable. They’re all those things inside a ’90s time warp. Follow the New York Pizza Facebook page for more information.

THURSDAY

Feast of Caring @ Greensboro Urban Ministry (GSO), 5 p.m.

Share some of your good fortune with a very hungry city in honor of Thanksgiving. It’s a fundraiser with food from more than 20 restaurants, a silent auction and an opportunity to get a handcrafted bowl in exchange for a small donation. Visit greensborourbanministry.org for more information.

Roadmap to Paris @ Wake Forest University (W-S), 7 p.m.

The Conference of Parties brings CEOs and powerful minds from all over the world together to discuss climate change. Miles Silman, John Knox and Justin Catanoso (a biologist, lawyer and journalist, respectively) are Wake Forest faculty members who attended last year’s conference in Peru. They’ll discuss the trajectory various countries are on and what exactly will go on in this year’s conference in Paris. Find more details at sustainability.wfu.edu.

Culinary Workshop @ High Point Public Library, 6 p.m.

Before he set out to make the world a healthier place Chef N’gai Dickerson grew up eating things like collard greens cooked with ham hock, foods that he loved but were full of fat. With a college degree he set out to cut fat from these recipes and bolster all of nutrients provided. Now he’s sharing his methods with the young. Visit highpointnc.gov for more information.

4

The Drowsy Chaperone @ UNCSA (W-S), 7:30 p.m.

It’s an existential play, sort of — a show within a show. The man in his armchair puts on his favorite musical, The Drowsy Chaperone, and the characters are there with him while the audience watches him watch them. It’s all a little unsettling and incredibly interesting. Find more details at uncsaevents.com.

A poetry workshop in sensory emotional connections @ Kleur (W-S), 7 p.m.

Triad area poet Katie Kehoe was working with blind students when she re-imagined the way that sensory experience can influence poetic output. Now she’s sharing her gift with the public as she leads a meditation on coffee, booze and cigarettes through poetry. She’s gathered her materials from Krankies Coffee, Hoot’s Roller Bar and Sutler’s Spirit Co. Find more information at kleurshop.com.

Holy Ghost Tent Revival @ Blind Tiger (GSO), 7 p.m.

With a larger horn section since their move from Greensboro to Asheville, Holy Ghost Tent Revival promises a more soulful Motown-esque sound. It’s worth checking out and always a good show for dancing. Visit theblindtiger. com for more information.

Crafts Fair @ MC Benton Convention Center (W-S), 10 a.m.

When buying crafts it’s best to talk to the maker, learning the technique and the story behind an object.

That’s what makes this craft fair special. Vendors from around the Piedmont are willing to show you how it is they do their thing while they sell. There’s an eclectic mix of stuff here from clay to printmaking. Find more information at piedmontcraftsmen.org.

Visual journal and sketchbook workshop @ Shelf Life Art & Supply Co. (GSO), 11 a.m.

Get out of that lonely studio and learn to play and laugh again at this workshop designed to inspire.

Making visual art is best with friends — at least that’s what two artists at Shelf Life are saying. You can find more information at shelflifeart.com.

SUNDAY Jingle Bell Jazz @ Mack and Mack (GSO), 5 p.m.

Don’t be a Grinch this year. The Touring Theatre of North Carolina is hosting what might be the first Christmas party of 2015 with seasonal jazz by two local artists and many opportunities to walk home with prizes. Even Christmas-haters will love the open bar. For more information visit ttnc.org.

triad-city-beat.com

SATURDAY

Touring Theatre of North Carolina invites you to an evening of

Jingle Bell Jazz

at its Festive Pre-holiday party Sunday, November 22, 5:00pm – 9:00pm at Mack and Mack

Diwali @ Greensboro Coliseum (GSO), 6 p.m.

It’s the biggest event of the year for the India Association of the Triad, which is hosting this night of dancing, food, costumes and all things India. Visit iatnc.org for more information.

Winter Celebration Concert @ Ardmore Baptist Church (W-S), 7 p.m.

“Angelic” might be the word to describe the sound of 85 children singing in perfect harmony to the sounds of winter. The Winston-Salem Youth Chorus is a nonprofit arts organization with kids from the ages of 8 to 18. They’ve recently received Mayor Allen Joines’ endorsement as the premier youth chorus and Ambassadors of Winston-Salem. Find more information at wsyouthchorus.org.

220 South Elm Steet

featuring sensational, seasonal jazz singing

by Sheila Duell and Jimmy Tunstall

while you socialize, shop, sip and savor

Celebration of Giving Thanks @ Guilford College (GSO), 4 p.m.

“We are One” is the theme of this year’s all-inclusive, everyone’s-invited festival of thanks. The Piedmont Interfaith Council strives to get diverse religious groups to see the common threads that make us human, not the ideological differences that make us different. Part of their agenda involves a performance of the Triad Tapestry Children’s Choir, a unity drum circle and lots of dance. You can find more information at piedmontinterfaithcouncil.org.

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Nov. 18 — 24, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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Eric’s awesome Oh dude, excellent work! [“Playing the numbers”; by Eric Ginsburg; Nov. 11, 2015] Love my City Beat!

This is getting exciting! Anybody smell smoke? Yep! Also, interesting story about farmer Mangili. I love anything close to Guilford College.

Thanks for your hard work!

Bob Norfleet, via email Italian comfort food Hey Brian: Just wanted to let you know that your essay, “Schcarole” [by Brian Clarey; Nov. 11, 2015] was like a wonderful time travel back home to the days of my youth. My mother was a fabulous cook, and she made the best “Italian Wedding Soup” (and she didn’t call it that either) — such a great meal on those cold, snowy days in upstate New York.

I have two new “dog” stories coming out in December. Triad Happy Tails Magazine (available free in supermarkets) is featuring “Mr. MacAfee’s Magical Mischief” — about an old man and his dog helping a homeless soldier — a real tearjerker.

And on Christmas Day, the News & Record is featuring “Maggie’s Gift” — a story about O. Henry’s dog.

Please share them with your family and friends.

James Colasanti Jr., via email Quasi-legalization of marijuana This email is simply to bring up a discrepancy that you may or may not be aware of [“Barometer: Should Triad cities decriminalize small amounts of marijuana?”; by staff; Nov. 11, 2015]. Small amounts of marijuana in North Carolina are decriminalized.

If a person is found to have marijuana for personal use, meaning it’s not bagged up in small amounts or scales are found on the person (indicating intent to distribute) there is a sliding scale of penalties based on weights and intentions.

To be fair, marijuana possession is still a criminal misdemeanor, but the

offenses don’t carry the threat of jail time.

For instance if a person is found to have half an ounce (~14 grams of marijuana) there is absolutely no jail time which can be ascribed and it only carries a maximum fine of $200.

Between half and 1.5 ounces (36 grams) you can be incarcerated for up to 45 days but again it’s only a misdemeanor on your record which if I understand correctly is better because unlike felonies they drop off your record after seven years and don’t bar you from certain forms of employment.

I actually was pulled over with hash, paraphernalia, and one gram of marijuana in Sampson County on my way back to UNCW in 2009. I was given a ticket and a court date and drove home that evening.

When I went to court I paid a $25 fine for marijuana and $25 fine for paraphernalia and the DA dropped the hash charge. I walked out the court with $50 in fines and $120 in court costs.

These policies are clearly more strict than other states where decriminalization does not result in a misdemeanor however they are absolutely less draconian than most other East Coast states, and North Carolina with these policies is the most friendly to marijuana in the South.

I graduated undergrad, went to grad school, became a notary (NC public official) and now work for the Conservation Fund in Winston-Salem, at no point did my marijuana possession charge bar me from getting employment or attending school because it wasn’t a felony.

People are always shocked when I tell them this but I thought in light of your poll you might want to mention that to a certain extent marijuana is decriminalized, however much remains to be done to free this harmless substance from criminality.

Quinn Coleman, via email

5 waves of refugees to the United States

by Brian Clarey 1. 1938-41: European Jews All it takes for the United States to recognize people as a refugees is that they have a “well-founded fear of persecution” in their home countries. So when Hitler began his thing in Europe, pretty much every European Jew qualified. Thousands came to the United States in these years, and in 1944, FDR’s War Refugee Board helped bring thousands more in from the Eastern Bloc countries like Romania and Hungary.

2. 1948 Displaced Persons Act With Europe still reeling from World War II, the United States passed legislation aimed specifically at European countries such as Italy, Austria, Germany and Czechoslovakia.

Refugees who could stay out of jail and off public assistance could live here with their spouses and any children under 21.

3. 1960-80: Cuban Revolution More than 1 million Cubans came to the United States after Fidel Castro’s coup in 1959, mostly aristocrats who had no place left in the society. In 1980, Castro declared that anyone who wanted to leave could do so, and the United States, under President Jimmy Carter, prepared to receive all with

open arms. But while many political prisoners made it here during what became known as the Mariel Boat Lift, so too did thousands of Cubans recently liberated from that country’s jails and mental hospitals — that’s what the first scene from Scarface was all about. Miami would never be the same.

4. 1975-present: the Montagnards When the Vietnam war came to a final end in 1975, US allies in the region were in danger. Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Indochina, including the tribal Montagnards, made their way to our shores — many of them settling in Guilford County. This inspired the Refugee Act of 1980, which created an infrastructure to serve all who sought asylum in our land. Since then, more than 70 million refugees have been resettled in our country, mostly from southeast Asia and the former Soviet Union.

5. 2015; the Syrians President Obama announced this year his intention to fold 10,000 Syrian refugees, fleeing a civil war and terrorism in their own country, into our ranks. Compared to past waves of refugees, this is barely a trickle.

Allen Toussaint

by Jordan Green

Unsure

10%

Nope

All She Wrote

38%

Shot in the Triad

Carolina fans

Games

52%

Good Sport

New question: What’s your favorite Thanksgiving replacement for turkey?

Vote at triad-city-beat.com!

Culture

Readers: It looks as if 52 percent of our readers are faithful Carolina fans, or at least that’s how many don’t land on the pessimistic side of the spectrum. A full 38 percent said “Nope,” while the remaining 10 percent said “Unsure/Maybe.”

Cover Story

Eric Ginsburg: Totally. The difference between me and Clarey, of course, is that I’m a fan. I won’t jinx the Cardiac Cats 2.0, as our sports writer Anthony Harrison dubs them on page 26, by saying it will happen, but I strongly believe the Panthers can pull it off.

Opinion

Jordan Green: Sure. Professional football barely makes any impression on my life. But I’ve been loving Anthony Harrison’s coverage of the Carolina Panthers in Good Sport.

News

Brian Clarey: The Panthers? Undefeated? Get real. It’s been a wonderful season for the cats, and they should slip into the playoffs without a problem. And they might even win the Super Bowl. But they’ve got four division games coming up, including two against the Falcons and one against the Saints who are famous late-season spoilers. They can probably handle the Redskins and the Cowboys, also on their second-half schedule, but they’re playing the Giants in New York on Dec. 20, right before Christmas. No way they will win that one, especially if they run into injury problems, which every team does in the last eight games.

Allen Toussaint, who died last week at the age of 77 after performing a concert in Spain, was a more refined exponent of the classic New Orleans piano style developed by Professor Longhair.

His touch was so light, his manner so humble and his collaborative spirit so generous that he was kind of like the water of the Golden Age of New Orleans R&B in the early and mid-1960s.

From replacing Huey “Piano” Smith in Earl King’s band at the age of 17, he went on to work behind the scenes as a songwriter and producer, making an indelible impact with Lee Dorsey on “Working In A Coal Mine” and “Ride Your Pony”; and Irma Thomas on “It’s Raining” and “Ruler of My Heart.” Toussaint’s “Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette),” as performed by Benny Spellman, is one of the great, sublime pop-R&B evocations of romantic betrayal and obsession. The B-side, “Fortune Teller” — also written by Toussaint — became a staple of the British invasion, with covers by the Rolling Stones and the Who, not to mention Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. In the next decade, Toussaint produced “Lady Marmalade” for LaBelle at his Sea Saints Studio, and penned “Southern Nights” — a No. 1 hit on both the country and pop charts for Glen Campbell.

In other words, Toussaint’s music defied category.

In the 1970s, Toussaint embarked on a fruitful solo career, putting out a handful of masterful albums that nonetheless did not garner as much attention as his production work. The subtle funk of Life, Love and Faith, released in 1972, with songs ranging from the gentle snapback of “Soul Sister” to the trenchant blues of “On Your Way Down,” is a highlight.

From artist to songwriter to producer, the last four decades of Toussaint’s career also include wonderful flashes of his work as a sideman.

Spend some time on YouTube and check out Toussaint and Dr. John backing Etta James or sharing the spotlight with Irma Thomas on her classic “Time Is On My Side.” As an accompanist, he displayed modesty, good humor and total class.

Typical of his self-effacing manner, when music critic Greg Kot commented during an interview for PRX’s “Sound Opinions” that much had been made of Professor Longhair’s influence on his music, Toussaint was quick to respond: “Not enough.”

Up Front

We asked our readers this week if they believed the Carolina Panthers could remain undefeated for the rest of the regular season. When we posed the question, the Panthers were 8-0, but as of now after beating the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, the Cats are one of two remaining undefeated teams in the NFL. The other team? Last year’s Super Bowl champs, the reviled New England Patriots, who also defeated the Panthers in the 2003 Super Bowl.

triad-city-beat.com

Can the Panthers remain undefeated?

7

Nov. 18 — 24, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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NEWS

Community Thanksgiving meal grows, requires help

by Eric Ginsburg

A longstanding volunteer effort to feed those in need on Thanksgiving in Greensboro aims to serve even more people this year, but organizers are asking for help to pull it off.

Early on Thanksgiving this year, sometime around 4:30 a.m., Ted Hoffler will pull Excalibur out of a rock and set to work, just as he has for decades.

Hoffler, one of several longtime restaurant industry folks behind the effort to feed neighbors in need, has probably told the same joking story a thousand times over the years. He’s talking about his electric carving knife Excalibur, which has been with him since the beginning and was handed down through his family.

This Thanksgiving will be the 29th year that Hoffler dedicates his day to making sure that those who would otherwise go without have a hearty meal. Giving back and saying thanks to the community at large is what this day is about, he says. Being in a room full of people who just want to help is the most magical place in the world, Hoffler says, and he implores people to be there to witness it, more for their own benefit than anything else.

There’s a small group of people who COURTESY PHOTO The goal of the free Thanksgiving meal at the United Church of Christ is to provide a welcoming have been a part of the Community environment for families that avoids the stigma of a soup kitchen, co-organizer Mary Lacklen said.

Tables initiative since the beginning, including Hoffler and the organization’s Recently Lacklen, a community hosts, later adding delivered meals as well as time to operate, especially in a co-chairs Mary Lacklen and Ken Convolunteer and activist, reflected privately through different local service agencies year like this where anticipated need for rad. The number of on the duration of such as Senior Resources and Triad the meal has already climbed. That’s on people that shows up Community Tables Health Project. When their efforts outtop of an existing steady rise in recent to eat or has a meal meal and realized, grew the Salvation Army they moved to years, Lacklen said.

To donate to the free delivered has grown “That’s half my life.”

Urban Ministry, and when that became Practically all of the money that each year — this Community Tables The desire to serve too small, they relocated to the Greensfunds Community Tables comes from Thanksgiving, it’s exindividual donors, and none of it goes Thanksgiving meal, visit and fill a need is only boro Coliseum. pected to cross 5,000 part of her motivaA wide network of volunteers contribtowards administration or overhead. A cfgg.org and select the and possibly reach tion. utes to making the free meal a reality — year-round fund, orchestrated by the 6,000, which Lacklen Thanksgiving/Holiday “To me, it puts Victory Junction cooks the turkeys, and Community Foundation of Greater said is “a big jump.” dignity back in the will make the mashed potatoes this year, Greensboro, allows people to give all Fund. Find volunteer What started with holiday, and that’s too. The Painted Plate is responsible year, but Lacklen is hoping a push bea small core group sign-up information on one of the things it for the stuffing and gravy, but the rest is fore the holiday will help not only with growing out of the was missing,” she prepared and packaged by volunteers at this year, but longer term viability. the Community Tables now-defunct Guilsaid. “It’s expensive the donated space at the coliseum. With Part of the reason demand has risen Facebook page. ford County Restauto have a ThanksExcalibur in hand, Hoffler will oversee for the free Thanksgiving meal, Lackrant Association has giving meal with the turkey carving. len said, is that Community Tables has mushroomed into a everything.”

Lacklen describes the process as “a reached out to churches who are likely team of 300 volunteers, many of them Lacklen and others initially provided well-oiled machine,” but Community tapping into a deeper food insecurity regulars at the annual affair.

Thanksgiving meals on site at various Tables relies on people to donate money that extends beyond the area’s homeless

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Thanksgiving meal at the Congregational United Church of Christ, pastored by tireless progressive advocate Julie Peeples. There’s live music, tablecloths, donated floral arrangements from Plants & Answers, volunteer servers and more designed to make the meal festive and communal — the kind of place, Lacklen said, that a family would want to go and that avoids the stigma of a soup kitchen.

This year, free buses will also run from Center City Park, Urban Ministry and the Interactive Resource Center to the UCC and back from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. to help ensure that all who want to attend are able, Lacklen said.

All told, the Thanksgiving will cost around $20,000, she said.

But the outpouring of support for the event — and its Christmas counterpart — is moving, Lacklen said.

“Greensboro has such an immense population of people who are willing to pitch in and help,” she said, adding: “A lot of people have built it into their Thanksgiving tradition.”

triad-city-beat.com

population. That stark reality shouldn’t surprise anyone around here, especially after the Greensboro/High Point metro area was recently rated as the most food insecure area of the country, meaning people struggle to afford putting food on the table.

With a broader network supporting the effort and reaching more families in town, Lacklen said she expects the number of meals requested will continue to grow. Over the duration of the Thanksgiving meal, she estimates they have served 82,000 meals.

Community Tables also supports a similar effort on Christmas day. Back when the Thanksgiving meal started, the Guilford County Restaurant Association modeled the event after something Marc Freiberg at the old Hams — where the Mad Hatter is now located on West Friendly Avenue — had already implemented on Christmas, Lacklen said. Freiberg was determined to make sure everyone had a good meal to eat on the holiday, and now his daughter carries on the tradition at her establishment, Bender’s Tavern, Lacklen said.

Community Tables serves the

Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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by Jordan Green

All She Wrote

Shot in the Triad

Games

Good Sport

Culture

Cover Story

Opinion

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Up Front

Nov. 18 — 24, 2015

Winston-Salem music venue Ziggy’s to close in February

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The resurrected Ziggy’s (above) opened in 2011 as a partnership between Jay Stephens, Charles Womack and Brad McCauley. Hank Perkins and Drew Gerstmyer, the landlords, have declined to renew the lease and the music venue will be closing at the end of February 2016.

The Winston-Salem music venue Ziggy’s is closing in February, bringing an era to a close and raising questions about what the future holds in store for the local music scene.

The renowned local music venue Ziggy’s will close at the end of February 2016, marking the end of a three-way partnership between owners Charles Womack, Brad McCauley and Jay Stephens.

A letter from 9th Street Properties LLC, which owns the property, notified the business owners that a new lease would not be negotiated and the business would be expected to vacate the premises by Feb. 28.

9th Street Properties LLC is owned by developers Hank Perkins and Drew Gerstmyer, who are responsible for a complex of restaurants and venues at the north end of Trade Street that were rezoned as an Entertainment District

by Winston-Salem City Council. They recently renovated Big Winston Tobacco Warehouse, which houses Black Mountain Chocolate and Broad Branch

Distillery, and the partners own the old Angelo Bros. wholesaling building — next door to Ziggy’s — which will soon be home to Wise Man Brewing.

Other tenants of properties developed

by Perkins and Gerstmyer at the north end of Trade include Camel City BBQ Factory, Mary’s Gourmet Diner, Mission Pizza Napoletana and the Famous Toastery.

The current Ziggy’s, a 1,000-person capacity venue at Trade and 9th streets, opened in 2011 with a concert by veteran local industrial punkers Codeseven.

The opening marked a triumphal return for Stephens, a respected figure who operated the club at its former location on Deacon Boulevard near Wake Forest University. Stephens needed investors to make a go of it at the new location, and he brought in Womack and McCauley, respectively the publisher and a sales representative at Yes Weekly, an altweekly in Greensboro. (Disclosure: Triad City Beat’s editors, including the author, were all previously employed by Womack at Yes Weekly.)

Womack said in an email on Monday that he was “sad” and “confused” about the decision by 9th Street Properties to not renew the lease. Womack said the reasons given by the landlord for not renewing the lease were late rent payments and confusion about insurance certification.

“The late rent was a misunderstanding that our partners, Jay, had with the landlords,” Womack said. “It happened three or four times, but ultimately it is on me for trusting someone else with my credit and my reputation.”

Stephens declined to comment on the characterization, but said he is severing his relationship with Womack and McCauley. Stephens’ relationship with Womack and McCauley was famously contentious from the start, and Womack concurred that he and McCauley have no plans to work with Stephens going forward.

Ziggy’s in its previous incarnation, which closed in 2007, achieved a near mythical status.

Ed Bumgardner, a local musician who

JORDAN GREEN

wrote about music for the Winston-Salem Journal from the 1980s through the 2000s, recalled that glam-rock band Great White played at the old Ziggy’s shortly before the band’s tragic West Warwick, RI concert in 2003, in which 100 people were killed in a fire caused by the band’s pyrotechnics display.

“The old Ziggy’s was just a magnificent mess,” Bumgardner said. “It was totally hand-built and in reality I don’t know how it passed code. Great White played there literally the day before the incident in Rhode Island. Ziggy’s was literally wood and tarp. It’s amazing it didn’t go up in flames. You had hippies doing the wiring. Everybody was smoking. You couldn’t believe the whole thing was running.

“I’ve never been in a cooler room,” Bumgardner continued. “If you played there, you were not going to have a bad night. Jay had a great staff over at that place. Some of them were the craziest hipsters you met in your whole life. But they always got the job done.”

Bumgardner said Stephens developed

will book local bands that play original music,” he said. “I think we need a mid-sized venue between Asheville and Chapel Hill. National acts stopping in your town tells people that you have a music scene.”

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music venue for the people of Winston-Salem.’

“Live ‘roots rock and reggae’ was the goal and there have been all kinds of great shows there (from hip hop to metal), but consistently being late on rent and violating lease terms does not make that situation sustainable,” the representative added. “Downtown Winston-Salem, and the Entertainment District in particular, is for everyone.”

The representative of 9th Street Partners said the company is leaving its options open as to what will happen with the facility at Trade and 9th streets, but added that it’s fair to assume it will again function as a music venue. For his part, Womack said he is “looking at other options.”

Howard said the closing of Ziggy’s leaves a vacuum.

“It’s one of the mid-sized venues that

triad-city-beat.com Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

a reputation for not only cultivating not a bad decision,” Bumgardner said. local talent, but also spotting national “There was another faction that wanted bands on the rise. to see hip hop.

“Jay has this uncanny knack to be “There were too many cooks,” on top of and in front of musical Bumgardner added. “Traditionally, if movements,” Bumgardner said. “Dave you look through the music business, if Matthews, Hootie & the Blowfish and you have two or three people making Phish all played there. Years ago, I can decisions that’s going to cause chaos.” remember seeing Dave Matthews. I reZiggy’s status as the only downtown member getting calls at the paper from venue that consistently provides a people saying, ‘You need to see these showcase for hip hop has caused some guys. They’re from Charlottesville, and anxiety about whether fans of the genre they’re going to be big.’ They were big. will have a place to gather.

It was a thing of beauty.”

Eric Pegues, a local hip-hop promoter, Clay Howard, a local musician who is told Triad City Beat that landlord Hank now the vice president of the Nussbaum Perkins expressed to him that he has an Center for Entrepreneurship in Greensaversion to hip hop shows. boro, opened for the Derek Trucks Pegues said that after Stephens raised Band at the old Ziggy’s in 1997. objections about his decision to bring “Probably the best description of Kevin Gates, a Louisiana hip-hop artist, it that I’ve heard came to Ziggy’s in August, he from Chris Robinson and Perkins discussed the of the Black Crowes,” matter.

Howard said. “He said, “Hank’s conversation ‘When we showed up to with me was, ‘I don’t ‘The old Ziggy’s play, it was like playing have no problem with the was just a magnif- parties, as long as they on your parents’ deck.’”

The old Ziggy’s operat- icent mess. It was keep it country, rock and ed under a mantra of reggae,’” Pegues said. totally hand-built “roots, rock, reggae” — a “He kept specifically and in reality I signifier carried over to saying, ‘Reggae like the its signage at the current old Ziggy’s with Jay.’” don’t know how it location — but also occaPegues alleges Perkins’ passed code.’ sionally booked hip-hop comments made during a – Ed Bumgardner shows. conversation about pro“I saw Public Enemy moting parties at Status, there,” Bumgardner a former Winston-Salem recalled. “The Nation nightclub operated by of Islam was out in full Womack, were more force. It was a surreal site to see the frat explicit. boys with their backwards baseball caps “Charles used to just do pop and disand the Nation guys with their bowties.” co at the club,” Pegues said. “We came Howard, who played at both venues, across the idea of mine of doing urban complimented the acoustics and staff at parties with urban people. As soon as the club in its different incarnations. we started doing that, the owners of the “They had a great sound system,” he building — Hank is the one I’m familiar said. “Even if you’re a local band, you with — he didn’t want to have dance get treated well.” parties — black parties — downtown in The new Ziggy’s has continued its that building that Charles was leasing. core value proposition of “roots, rock, His quote was, he didn’t want ‘hip-hop reggae” with Donna the Buffalo and parties.’”

Peter Rowan booked on Thursday, A representative of Perkins and Gerwhile the Wailers and Tab Benoit are stmyer’s company, who spoke to Triad scheduled into January and February.

City Beat on condition of anonymity, reThe venue has broadened its booking sponded in an emailed statement: “This into country, metal, hip-hop and ’80s sounds like a mischaracterization of the glam-rock nostalgia acts. comment, ‘The venue shouldn’t be a “There was a faction that wanted country club, metal club, hip hop club, to see Cinderella and the resurrected rock club, or polka club. The building hair-metal bands, which business-wise is needs to house a non-style specific live

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Nov. 18 — 24, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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Green Party candidate Jill Stein visits Greensboro

by Jordan Green

Jill Stein, the frontrunner for the Green Party’s nomination for president, brings her low-key campaign to Greensboro.

What happened next could be a cautionary tail for the Green Party, were it able by some stroke of amazing fortune to break through in the US political It wasn’t exactly the hero’s welcome process. that Bernie Sanders, the progressive “Syriza kind of hit the wall because it candidate seeking the Democratic was facing this debt from the European nomination for president, received when Central Bank,” Stein said. “It needed he spoke to an overflow crowd at the support across borders. Had there been Greensboro Coliseum Special Events other radical-left political parties in the Center in September. other states of the EU, Syriza wouldn’t Dr. Jill Stein, the frontrunner in the have been stopped. It’s still an ongoing Green Party’s presidential nomination struggle; it’s not over yet. But I think contest, by contrast, shared a dais with we’re all going where Greece is…. I three other panelists during an appearagree with the sentiment that we’ve got ance on Monday night at the Joseph to take the struggle into the realm of M. Bryan Jr. Auditorium at Guilford politics: We’ve got to fight in the streets College. Compared to the estimated and fight in the voting booth.”

9,000 people who showed up for SandFielding questions during a one-oners’ appearance, about 40 people — a one interview in Hege Library before left-field mixture of Palestinian-rights the panel discussion, Stein demonstratsupporters, Black Lives Matter activists, ed that she has prepared for the inevitaenvironmentalists, radical gardeners ble Bernie question. and single-payer healthcare proponents “He’s doing a great job in the wrong — filled the auditorium seats for Stein party,” Stein said. “They have a way of and her fellow panelists. Other panelists exercising the kill switch to stop candiincluded John Heuer, a national board dates that challenge the corporate status member of Veterans For Peace; Dr. quo.”

Jonathan Kotch of Healthcare for All She went on to say that Super NC; and Tony Ndege of Hands-Up Tuesday, with 12 states cued up to hold Winston-Salem and Occupy. primaries on March 1, “requires candiStein made the best of dates to have hundreds the forum, eagerly adof millions of dollars to ‘He’s doing a great run TV ads, and that dressing questions from the audience and looking weeds out the non-corjob in the wrong for ways to rhetorically porate candidates.” She party. They have a added that the super delcomplement her fellow way of exercising panelists. When one egates — generally party audience member asked insiders who are not the kill switch to about the most effective beholden to their states’ stop candidates.... popular votes — act as way to carry out mass – Dr. Jill Stein resistance, Stein raised the “ultimate insurance the example of the Syriza policy against non-corpoparty in Greece. rate candidates.”

“Syriza was originally the radical-left As the Green Party nominee in 2012, party in Greece,” she said. “Originally, Stein is expected to again prevail as the it was a movement, like the movements party’s standard-bearer at the nominatin the street with protests and mobiliing convention in Houston next August. zations. It got really big… and when it In 2012, Stein won the nomination created a political party it was actually against actress Roseanne Barr. able to take power. It went from like Tactics aside, Stein says the Green below the radar to 1 percent to 3, then Party differs with Sanders’ social-dem7 percent and it was 37 percent. And it ocratic platform, particularly in foreign was the dominant party.” affairs. She characterized Sanders’ for-

Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for US president

eign policy positions as a continuation of President Obama’s interventionist stance.

“We think foreign policy should be based on international law, human rights and diplomacy,” Stein said. “He believes you can fight these things out.

Our view is we created ISIS through our foreign policy.”

Stein laid out a foreign-policy stance that would be difficult for any Democratic Party candidate to embrace without exposing themselves to charges of being weak on national security.

“I think military domination is obsolete,” Stein said. “It’s not a choice; it’s coming to terms with reality. We need to be partners in a collaborative approach.

“Russia has provided us with indicators that they’re ready to be partners,” she added. “Russia’s defensiveness around Ukraine should be compared to our defensiveness about Russia putting missiles in Cuba. As a condition of Germany’s reunification, we agreed that NATO would not expand to the east, and we absolutely broke that agreement.”

Stein said the Green Party’s domestic platform is more robust than the

JORDAN GREEN

proposals advanced by the Sanders campaign.

“We go further than Bernie, who calls for works program that would provide jobs for 13 million people,” she said.

“We propose a works program that employs everyone.”

The party’s proposed Green New Deal includes a two-pronged approach to protecting the environment — creating sustainable food systems and enhancing public transportation, including sidewalks and bike infrastructure.

Stein says in interviews and campaign appearances that Cuba’s experience producing food after losing access to oil in the 1990s is an example of how the Green New Deal could be economically sustainable.

Predicting that Hillary Clinton will prevail in the Democratic nomination fight, Stein said she expects that Sanders supporters will be tempted to jump ship — to the Green Party’s benefit.

“When Bernie folds into Hillary’s camp, I think there’s a very strong movement that’s going to need a place to go,” she said.

Speaking at Bryan Auditorium, Stein proved equally adept at fielding ques-

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tions about causes with widespread support among voters and topics that might be more divisive.

Responding to a question about what prevents the United States from adopting paid maternity leave, Stein said, “There are so many things which are basically motherhood and apple pie which are thwarted by the political system, which is essentially fronted by predatory banks, fossil-fuel polluters and war profiteers.”

When another audience member asked a rambling question about the United States’ stance on Israel and Palestine, Stein tackled it with equal eagerness.

“We should not be in the business of funding a war criminal,” she said. “As outrageous as that is, it’s even worse that Obama is meeting with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu now to discuss increasing the funding for the Netanyahu government.”

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Nov. 18 — 24, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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OPINION EDITORIAL

Southern hostility It did not take long — just three days — for a false controversy to be generated in the wake of the weekend’s attack on Paris.

A visceral reaction is understandable: When teams of psycho bombers blast through a city like Paris, it certainly gets everyone’s attention. And the whole point of terrorism is to instill fear. In that way, the siege of Paris was successful.

It hit home in a way that the suicide bombs in Lebanon the day before did not: These were rock shows and cafés and soccer games, targeted in commando-style raids across the city. This was Paris, and though many Americans still would have trouble placing it on they globe, even the most insular of us has at least heard of the City of Light.

Compared to Paris, Beirut will always be the “other.”

It’s the same way for the Syrian refugees headed for our shores — perhaps they look a little too much like Mexicans for our governor’s taste.

Just three days after the death toll in Paris passed 100 — and 40 in Beirut — Gov. Pat McCrory joined more than a dozen other governors in officially requesting that their states no longer take in Syrian refugees. As of press time, all but one of the 20 governors are Republican, with Gov. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire the lone outlier.

These refugees are the people who fled their home country because acts like those in Paris and Beirut have become regular occurrences. A civil war has diminished Syria’s population by 20 percent, down to 16.6 million from 22 million. The United Nations estimates there are 3 million Syrian refugees seeking asylum. The rest of them are probably dead.

Why, then, would North Carolina turn its back?

The truth is that it cannot. States don’t have the authority to deny sanctuary approved by the feds. We’ve already taken in 59 of the 10,000 refugees President Barack Obama has pledged to resettle here this year. More are in the pipeline.

But McCrory, empowered by his partisan echo chamber, driven by his impending election and fueled by bad information — a fake Syrian passport was found at the scene of one Paris bombing — will put on his show anyway, ensuring that the few dozen Syrians who make it to our state will receive the kind of welcome for which we are increasingly becoming known, full of fear, mistrust and anger.

It wasn’t always like this. North Carolina, and the Triad in particular, has a rich history of providing safe haven for the oppressed. Look no further than the Montagnards, whose presence has enriched Guilford County for decades.

Or look to the Muslims already living in North Carolina — 26,000 of them as of 2013, with nary an explosion to their names.

CITIZEN GREEN

No safe space for trans folk, even at LGBT night

by Jordan Green

The show of police force in front of Greene Street at 1 a.m. on Monday was so clearly not the outcome Jonathan Green was looking for when seeking a meeting on the sidewalk with the general manager to get an explanation for being thrown

out of the club.

I had received a call from April Parker, a leader in the Queer People of Color Collective and Black Lives Matter, after midnight. She breathlessly told me that a trans person had been ejected from the women’s restroom and assaulted during the club’s LGBT night.

“We’re not calling the police,” Parker told me. “We as queer people and trans people don’t feel safe and comfortable with the police.”

About 20 minutes later, when I arrived on the scene, a dozen squad cars with lights activated blocked the street in diagonal formation. A knot of officers stood in front of the club entrance and a small crowd of patrons was filtering back inside as people decided the drama outside wasn’t important enough to warrant interrupting the party. Green, Parker and about eight others stood about 50 feet down the sidewalk, frustrated and angry, but in no way causing any disruption.

Eventually, Green’s crew decided to call it a night.

I spoke with Green and with the general manager, who identified himself only as Bobby to me. It’s no surprise that on several points their accounts of what transpired during the altercation diverge. Most notably, Green claims to have been manhandled by Bobby, while Bobby says he gently, if forcibly showed Green to the door.

On one point, however, they agree: Green complied when asked to leave the women’s restroom on the first floor of the club, but was thrown out of the club anyway.

“Me and my friends went out to Greene Street for LGBT night,” Green told me. “We were there for about 10 minutes. I go to the restroom — the women’s restroom. I identify as gender non-binary/gender queer.

I was asked to remove myself, and I did remove myself.

I went to the upstairs restroom, which is not labeled. I was approached by two bouncers. Bobby, the general manager, asked me if I have a penis, and I said, ‘I don’t identify as such.’”

During a phone conversation the next day Bobby told me he had posted a sign outside the restroom about three weeks ago earlier stating, “Females only, no exceptions, zero tolerance.” The sign is posted, he said to “protect the females that work there and the females that are straight.”

He considers that fair warning, and feels that summary

ejection is a reasonable consequence.

“He preceded to tell me that he didn’t identify himself as a male,” Bobby said. “I said, ‘Your driver’s license says you are a male.’”

Maybe he doesn’t understand that being trans is not an act or a lifestyle, but Bobby’s insistence on referring to Jonathan by male pronouns is offensive. Reducing a trans person to the gender they were assigned at birth diminishes their humanity and boxes them into a confined identity that doesn’t feel natural to who they actually are.

And whatever the fears of Greene Street’s employees, trans people are the least likely to commit an assault and, in fact, are among the most vulnerable and marginalized people on earth. The National LGBTQ Task Force reports that, as of Oct. 16, at least 23 trans women and gender nonconforming people, most of whom are black and Latina, have been murdered this year in the US. All things being equal, Greene Street seems like the kind of place where trans people should be able to find acceptance. Bobby told me that Sundays, which is marketed as LGBT night, is the club’s biggest draw.

Talking with him, I got the sense that he genuinely wants to operate a club that is welcoming to trans people.

He reiterated what he told one of Green’s friends early Monday morning: The club has designated the two upstairs restrooms as gender neutral — it’s not really clear whether this happened prior to the incident or as a result of Green’s supporter demanding accountability.

But especially considering that the club called the police, I found it troubling that twice during our conversation Bobby brought up the threat jail in the context of gender identity.

“If you go to jail tonight where are they going to put you?” he said. “They’re going to put you with the males.”

He added, “I’m not coldhearted. I really feel for these people. My whole thing is I have to protect my staff.

That’s the only reason I have an issue. I have five to six ladies that work there that don’t want to be in [the restroom] beside a male.”

The Queer People of Color Collective has issued three demands: a public apology from Bobby for the way Green was treated; mandatory trans sensitivity training for staff, including the DJ and party host; and a copy of the surveillance videotape showing the alleged assault.

Parker said her group would be happy to meet with the female employees at Greene Street.

“We have no problem sitting and talking about LGBT people’s experience with straight women that work there,” she said. “You should be willing to have a conversation. The club is utilizing the police. We did not engage the police, and as of yet no charge has been filed. We’re talking about restorative justice. That has to mean dialogue where each side is being heard.”

A restaurant-workers emergency fund

by Andrew Timbie

by Danica Kushner

Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

Andrew Timbie and Danica Kushner work with World Relief High Point, a faith-based nonprofit resettling refugees in the Triad since 1989.

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When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, Madeline Albright and her family were forced to flee.

In 1948, they came to America with no option to return to their home country. Many years later she was sworn in as the 64th secretary of state under Bill Clinton. The first female secretary of state in the United States was a refugee.

The rise of the Nazi party and anti-Semitism against German Jews eventually created a hostile view towards Albert Einstein; his books were burned and his return to his homeland became impossible. He was eventually forced to immigrate to the United States where he became a dual citizen. The man behind the Theory of Relativity was a refugee.

The contribution of refugees for the benefit of our world cannot be understated but it often goes unrecognized. For more than three decades, refugees have been formally resettled through the US government and nonprofit agencies. More than 10,000 refugees have been resettled in the Triad through the assistance of nonprofits like Church World Service, African Services Coalition and World Relief. Throughout this time, the communities have seen first, second and now third generations of refugees assimilate into our community and way of life, becoming part of the tremendous fabric of culture being built in Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point. They are rich and poor, educated and illiterate, young and old and all are seeking a way to rebuild their lives in a community that allows them to thrive.

It is clear that the refugee crisis is amplifying as the daily news highlights the atrocities of countries such as Syria and Eritrea. Eyes have been opened and heads have turned as pictures circulate, detailing the horrific reality of those crossing the treacherous Mediterranean Sea to seek safety and stability. As the crises continue we are confronted with the reality that the refugee situation does not only affect those who are fleeing, but also those who are hosting. The United States is the leading country in refugee resettlement and has agreed to accept 80,000 people within this fiscal year.

The Triad alone will welcome roughly 1,000 refugees from countries such as Syria, Eritrea, Iraq, Sudan, Burma, Somalia and Congo. Over the years, this area has evolved into a multicultural

melting pot of refugees from all around the world, and continues to grow. As our refugee population grows and we welcome the newcomer, it is essential that we facilitate an environment that fosters assimilation.

Refugees arrive to the United States with legal permanent resident status and the documents needed to work. When they arrive, resettlement agencies and volunteers assist them in receiving all that they need to start on the road toward self-sufficiency. This process is expected to holistically equip newcomers to engage in life vocationally, culturally and relationally. As they integrate, most prepare to become United States citizens, which takes place five years after arrival. Considering the permanence of the resettlement process, and critical value of this population, we must be diligent to help refugees assimilate into our city. It is mutually beneficial to engage them in the work force, share in culture, and cultivate relationships. As Madeline Albright said to a group of new American citizens: “[This] is an ongoing chapter in the story of America which is, above all else, the story of immigrants.”

As refugees assimilate, companies profit from a reliable and determined work force that consistently meets production and exceeds expectation.

Likewise, refugees learn workplace behavior, receive an income, and build vocational rapport for future advancement. For many, these jobs are the first opportunity to work legally with proper documentation and status, therefore representing far more than their modest earned income. Men and women have expressed the depth of pride, purpose and place as they go to work each day and contribute to the growth of our country’s economy.

Cities take on new and meaningful dimensions as cultures are shared and diversity is welcomed.

Refugees in turn are given an opportunity to express their valuable heritage while gaining customs and cultures. Relationships can be a conduit for collaboration while propelling communities toward holistic, healthy change. It should be our expectation that the refugee population presses into each facet of life in the United States while we make great effort to maximize this opportunity and support them in this process. Through intentional action, we can make refugee arrival and assimilation safe, seamless, and successful.

So reach out to your new neighbors and invite them to be a part of your lives. You never know who will be the next great contributor to your life, our community, or the world.

Up Front

I don’t remember exactly why Carroll Leggett, a real man about town in Winston-Salem, brought it up as we stood in front of Willow’s Bistro recently. All I remember is thinking that his idea is a brilliant one.

Restaurants are asked to donate food and volunteer participation in so many

by Eric Ginsburg different charitable and community-driven initiatives, Leggett said, that maybe there should be one where the rest of us give back to them.

Think about it. How frequently do we call on restaurants to aid the cause of the greater good, acting as complimentary caterers for our events? We’ve done it here at Triad City Beat, and several restaurants and caterers obliged, providing food and gift cards to our Kickstarter parties. We owe our success, in part, to them. And I’ve seen the pattern repeated at countless fundraisers, art openings, consciousness-raising events and more.

There are multiple ways to return the favor, the most obvious being to patronize and How frequently do we promote these local chefs and call on restaurants eateries. But there’s a whole class of people that we might to aid the cause of be overlooking if our efforts the greater good, ended there: the employees. asking them to act Restaurant workers don’t enjoy much stability, Leggett as complimentary pointed out, and often don’t caterers for our have much of a safety net to fall back on. What if, on a events? This would recurring basis, we came tobe one way to balance gether for a fundraising party the scales. aimed at supporting them when they need it most?

There are plenty of details to figure out, like what sort of emergency would be eligible and how funds would be disbursed, but I love Leggett’s premise. Maybe someone would need to be employed at the same place for at least six months to qualify, he suggested, adding that he could imagine money going towards anything from helping during sickness to covering someone’s airfare to attend a parent’s funeral.

The annual party, Leggett said, could be more than just a fundraiser, and might include things like industry awards. And if an existing nonprofit — maybe one returning the favor — would administer the funds, it would save some unnecessary hassle.

I could pontificate on a more specific structure for the Restaurant-Workers Emergency Fund, or spend hours researching if something similar exists in other cities. But for Leggett’s idea to work, it will require buy-in from the local industry, which is in a much better position to articulate specific needs and solutions than either of us.

Why we welcome refugees to the Triad

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Nov. 18 — 24, 2015

Should we fix the jails or get addic What went wrong, part 2

by Jordan Green

Cover Story

T

he first installment of this story, and prevent it from shutting down due to lack of published on Sept. 30, introduced Jen oxygen and blood flow, according to a report by McCormack, a high-spirited 31-year-old Dr. Patrick Lantz, a pathologist at Baptist. The who became addicted to a prescription painkiller procedures appear to have made little differand suffered a heart attack while awaiting trial ence considering that Dr. Lantz’s postmortem in the Forsyth County jail. She was 18 weeks pregreport next indicates that Jen was transferred to nant at the time. A disclosure here: I knew Jen the intensive care unit, where she developed hythrough a circle of friends, mainly UNCG alumni, poxic ischemic brain injury and was mechanically who gathered at parties held at our mutual friend, ventilated until Sept. 18, when she died after her LaToya Winslow’s apartment on Mendenhall family made the decision to remove her from Street in Greensboro. Like most of her friends, I life support. had no idea that Jen had developed a dependenJen’s father and brother, respectively John Sr. cy on opiates and was shocked to hear about first and John Jr., received the news in Pennsylvania, her arrest and then her death. where they live.

Episodes of incontinence and falling, as “She had already gone to the hospital when detailed in jail incident reports, raised troubling we found out, me and my father,” John Jr. requestions about the quality called. “I’ve never seen my of Jen’s treatment under dad cry except when he the care of medical staff had to pass me or my sister employed by Correct Care off because our parents Solutions. are divorced. He cried What remained unwhen he called and said, answered in the first ‘We have to go down to installment was what level North Carolina; your sister of culpability the Forsyth is in critical condition.’ We County Sheriff’s Office and made a mad dash, and Correct Care Solutions hold made it there in six hours.” in Jen’s death, and more Working backwards importantly whether adfrom the cardiac arrest, – Dr. Jacquelyn Starer dicted persons, particularly Dr. Lantz’s postmortem pregnant women, should be external examination lists locked up instead of receivthe probable cause of Jen’s ing treatment while they face criminal charges. death as hypoxic ischemic brain injury — the two terms refer to depletion of oxygen and What happened to Jen McCormack in the blood flow, respectively. That primary cause of Forsyth County jail sometime before 10:33 death, Dr. Lantz determined, was triggered by a a.m. on Sept. 13, 2014 is described in an official cascading sequence of crises. From most proxireport by a county medical examiner as the mate, they include complications of acute renal “onset of injury or illness” — more specifically, failure — another way of saying kidney failure; cardiac arrest. hyponatremic dehydration — a deficit of body Once she arrived by ambulance at the emerwater accompanied by low sodium; and finally, gency department at Winston-Salem’s Baptist decreased fluid intake.

Hospital, staff intubated her and induced hypoPut aside for a moment that one physician I thermia to lower the temperature of her brain contacted — Dr. Robert Newman — challenged

‘The incarceration of addicted pregnant women is one of the major crises for our times, and immediate criminal justice reform is needed.’

16

the probable cause of death findings; maybe they don’t tell us all that much about what went wrong for Jen while she was awaiting trial in the Forsyth County lockup on charges of prescription drug fraud.

“Pathologists are very limited,” Dr. Jacquelyn Starer, a consulting physician in Massachusetts with extensive experience in addiction treatment, told me. “The cause of death can’t tell you whether someone received adequate medical care. You can’t rely on an autopsy for that.

The end cause of death is often very similar in very different types of cases because your information is so limited. You need all the medical records to determine what happened.”

There are a lot of important details that we still don’t know: • Janis, Jen’s mother, said that she was treated with Suboxone — an opioid medication that contains the drug buprenorphine and is used to treat narcotic addiction — when she underwent a drug-treatment program at Forsyth Medical Center in the eight days prior to her incarceration. Janis reported that she turned over the Suboxone to the jail authorities so Jen could continue treatment, but Correct Care Solutions has declined to address whether they continued Jen’s Suboxone or any other kind of medication-assisted therapy.

• Janis also said that Jen had a prescription for Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication, but that jail officials refused to allow her to bring the medication into the jail. We don’t know if Jen had access to Xanax or any other benzodiazepines — the active ingredient in the drug — while she was in jail.

• We don’t know why Jen was transferred out of the jail for off-site medical treatment on Sept.

3, 4 and 8.

• The jail logged an unexplained incident on Sept. 9, but the county declined to release the report on that basis of it being a “medical record” and “not within the purview” of North Carolina public records law. So we don’t know

what happened on that date.

What is clear is that more and more women who are pregnant and addicted to opioids are likely to wind up in local jails in North Carolina and across the country, often without access to adequate medical care, not only endangering their health but also jeopardizing their pregnancies.

Rates of “opioid-exposed pregnancies have risen sharply across the state,” according to the NC Pregnancy & Opioid Exposure Project, a collaboration between the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work and the state Division of Mental Health. As an indication of the number of pregnant women struggling with addiction — who by virtue of their substance use are likely to wind up in the criminal justice system — the rate of hospitalization associated with drug withdrawal in newborns multiplied fivefold from 2004 to 2012, according to the State Center for Health Statistics.

“The incarceration of addicted pregnant women is one of the major crises of our times,” Dr. Starer told me in an email, “and immediate criminal justice reform is needed. But, even with the status quo, incarcerated persons should receive appropriate and humane medical care, which is certainly not my impression of the care given in this account.”

‘Torture or a lingering death’ o make a successful claim for legal redress, prisoners must prove that prison or jail officials acted with deliberate indifference.

The standard was established the 1976 Estelle v. Gamble case, in which the US Supreme Court ruled that deliberate indifference to an inmate’s serious illness constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Writing for the majority, Justice Thurgood

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Marshall cited “the government’s obligation to provide medical care for those whom it is punishing through incarceration.”

The definition of “cruel and unusual punishment” goes back to the re Kemmler case, decided in 1890, in which the court articulated that “punishments are cruel when they involve torture or a lingering death.”

“In the worst cases, such a failure may actually produce physical ‘torture or a lingering death,’ the evils of most immediate concern to the drafters of the Amendment,” Marshall wrote. “In less serious cases, denial of medical care may result in pain and suffering which no one suggests would serve any penological purpose. The infliction of such unnecessary suffering is inconsistent with contemporary standards of decency as manifested in modern legislation codifying the common law view that ‘it is but just that the public be required to care for the prisoner, who cannot, by reason of the deprivation of his liberty, care for himself.’”

Deliberate indifference might play out with jail or prison guards “intentionally denying or delaying access to medical care or intentionally interfering with the treatment once prescribed,” Marshall added.

John McCormack Jr., Jen’s brother, declined to comment on whether the family is planning to file a lawsuit.

Whether or not the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office and Correct Care Solutions demonstrated deliberate indifference in failing to adequately respond to Jen’s medical problems would be up to a court to determine should Jen’s family decide to pursue a claim. The more important question might be why we’re locking up people who are sick and in need of treatment.

To recite some of the information previously published in the first installment, Jen was booked in the Forsyth County jail

triad-city-beat.com

cts out of them?

Jen McCormack spent 18 days in the Forsyth County jail before undergoing cardiac arrest, leading to her death at Baptist Hospital.

at 12:46 p.m. on Aug. 28, 2014. Her intake report indicated that she was “experiencing withdrawal,” and another booking document noted, “Pregnant!”

“I would speculate that a lot of what should have happened, didn’t happen,” Dr. Starer said. “The standard management for a pregnant woman with opioid dependence would be for her to be treated throughout the pregnancy with either methadone or buprenorphine.

“When she went into jail she would have been continued on that medication or tran-

FILE PHOTO

sitioned to methadone if buprenorphine was unavailable, but if she had a prescription she should have been able to receive buprenorphine,” Starer continued. “Unfortunately, a lot of jails and prisons don’t allow opioid agonist treatment in jail.”

As reported previously here, a National Institutes of Health consensus panel recommended methadone maintenance as the standard of care for pregnant women addicted to opiates in 1998, according to a protocol published by the US Department of Health and Human Services. And

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Nov. 18 — 24, 2015 Cover Story

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a committee opinion reaffirmed by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists warns: “Abrupt discontinuation of opioids in opioid-dependent pregnant women can result in preterm labor, fetal distress or fetal demise.”

There is no state law or regulation in North Carolina requiring local jails to continue medication-assisted therapy for individuals who are prescribed buprenorphine or methadone to treat opioid addiction. Drug treatment is a hodgepodge of different practices across the state’s 100 counties. Each county jail maintains its own medical plan, which is approved by the county public health director, said Alexandra Lefebvre, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The Durham County Detention Center is a rare example of a local jail where inmates who come in with a prescription for methadone continue to receive treatment, said Melissa Godwin, a clinical instructor at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work.

“It is not seen by and large that county jails are set up to provide substance abuse services,” Godwin said. “The norm is to not have any medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder.”

Lonnie Albright, an assistant county attorney with Forsyth County, said the jail does not have a policy on whether to provide medication-assisted therapy to addicted individuals who come into the system with a prescription, referring questions to Correct Care Solutions, which he said holds responsibility for such decisions.

Karla West, a spokesperson for Correct Care Solutions, declined to comment for this story.

“I think it was straight cold turkey when they took her in jail,” said John Jr., who is about 18 months younger than his sister.

“From what my mom told me, she had nothing.”

The first sign of trouble for Jen came on Sept. 4, her ninth day in jail, when Pfc. McBride discovered through the camera monitoring system that she was on the floor, while observing “a large puddle of water on the floor and the cell was not sanitary,” as noted in the incident report.

Jen reported that she had fallen, and the detention officer “moved the bed that appeared to have trapped her against the wall.”

“If she was allowed to go into withdrawal, that could lead to a number of prob-

lems,” Dr. Starer told me. “Additionally, if mined.” she wasn’t allowed to take her Xanax, that State officials determined that a hunger would have also caused a lot of problems strike allegedly undertaken by Jen “con— if she had been consistently taking Xatributed to her death, and although not nax prior to coming into jail. The largest strong enough to determine her death as risk of Xanax withdrawal is seizures. a suicide, a natural classification was also “If you see someone who has fallen not appropriate,” said Alexandra Lefebvre, down and become incontinent of urine the spokesperson with the state Departand trapped against the bed, my first ment of Health and Human Services. thought was that this person had a seiLefebvre said state officials based their zure,” she added. conclusions that Jen was engaging in a Three different physicians across the hunger strike on information in Lantz’s country who reviewed for this story Jen’s report, which in turn comes from detenpostmortem and jail incident reports tion officers at the jail. Janis, Jen’s mom, expressed concern about the possibility has said in the past that she disagrees with of withdrawal from benzodiazepine, the the characterization. active agent in Xanax.

But Dr. Spencer Greene, the director of An incomplete picture medical toxicology at Baylor College of History received from detention Medicine in Houston, said in his opinion officers: She had been incarcerthe symptoms Jen presented are not ated 2.5 weeks prior, and while in consistent with benzodidetention center she was azepine withdrawal. placed on suicide pre‘It does seem a little “Her findings as well cautions,” Lantz wrote in as her lab results are odd that she would be his postmortem report. more consistent with a “She had been on hunfound unresponsive combination of starvager strikes attempting tion and dehydration to starve herself, spitting just 15 minutes after and under resuscitation out food and liquids for being checked and prior to arrival at the a number of days. She found alert. I’m not hospital,” he said. “The refused to drink or eat timing is also not typical most of the time.” sure what the check for benzodiazepine Incident reports filed entailed. They may withdrawal.” by detention officers in Dr. Greene’s opinhave thought she was some ways contradict ion dovetails with the the accounts staff prosleeping.’ analysis of Dr. Lantz, the vided to Dr. Lantz, and – Dr. Patrick Lantz Baptist Hospital toxiinclude critical details cologist who performed omitted from Lantz’s reJen’s postmortem exam. port. Those details would have put events “Looking at her laboratory values, when in a different light. she came in being dehydrated, with her Four incident reports authored by dekidney function test it indicates that she tention officers make no mention of Jen was dehydrated,” Lantz told me. “She had “spitting out food and liquids,” as Lantz kidney failure and all the complications wrote, although the reports indicate she thereof. It matches fairly well unless there was experiencing a loss of appetite and was something else going on.” refusing to eat.

Lantz’s postmortem exam, reported The postmortem report completed by on a standard form issued by the state Dr. Lantz makes no mention of multiple Department of Health and Human incidents of Jen falling and urinating on Services, checked off manner of death as herself, which are documented in the jail “natural.” As a matter of course, reports incident reports. by county medical examiners are reviewed Lantz told me he doesn’t recall seeing by the state Office of the Chief Medical any reference to those incidents in any Examiner, which holds the authority to of the reports he reviewed, but he added override the local examiner’s findings. On that had he seen the information he Jen’s postmortem, Dr. Nabila Haikal, an doubted that it would have changed his associate chief medical examiner at the conclusions. state office changed the manner of death Dr. Robert Newman, a former assistant finding from “natural causes” to “undetercommissioner for addiction programs for

“

the New York City Health Department who was responsible for implementing the city’s methadone program in the early 1970s, challenged Dr. Lantz’s conclusions about the likely causes of Jen’s death after reviewing the report.

“The medical examiner’s entries under the heading ‘probable cause of death’ seem to me to be totally unsupported — and, indeed, refuted by the limited information available,” Newman said.

“Nothing confirms the cause of death: ‘hypoxic ischemic brain injury’ — what brain injury? When did it ostensibly occur? Examined by what medical facility?

Treated how? Observation period after the ‘injury’?”

Lantz’s postmortem report alluded to the fact that Jen’s suicide watch required that jail staff conduct observation checks on her every 15 minutes. The contrast between the check reported at 10:15 a.m. and the one at about 10:30 on the morning of her sudden failure of health is jarring.

“At her 10:15 check, she was alert and mentation was appropriate,” Lantz wrote.

“Around 10:30 she was found to be slightly discolored, a nurse was called and she was determined to have a weak pulse. Shortly after no pulse found, CPR initiated.”

Lantz told me in a recent interview: “It does seem a little odd that she would be found unresponsive just 15 minutes after being checked and found alert. I’m not sure what the check entailed. They may have thought she was sleeping.”

If Jen had been sleeping during the reported 10:15 a.m. check, it’s hard to understand how she would have been “alert.”

Newman told me that the implication that Jen “died as a result of lack of fluid intake seems to me preposterous. She was under constant supervision — every 15 minutes. At 10:15 she is said to be ‘alert and mentation appropriate.’ Eighteen minutes later she was ‘discolored’ and unresponsive and without a pulse. The timing itself would have demanded a full autopsy.”

Under state guidelines, the decision of whether to perform an autopsy, as opposed to a more limited external exam, is up to the county medical examiner.

“Based on her period of hospitalization she was here [at the hospital] for six days,” Lantz told me, explaining his decision not to perform an autopsy. “There wouldn’t have been much to learn from an autopsy.

If she had come directly from the jail

underneath her and soaked with urine,” McBride wrote. “We could not mop up the mess around her with her in the cell without producing a hazard.”

Dr. Starer said in her opinion the episode is “not consistent with dehydration.”

While maintaining that he hadn’t been aware of the urinary incontinence episodes, Dr. Lantz made a statement that seems to cut against his position.

“Toward the very end if she was dehydrated you wouldn’t expect her to urinate because the kidneys have a mechanism to hold on to as much water as possible and the urine will be concentrated,” he said.

After Jen was relocated to a new cell, McBride reported that she “refused to respond to directives and just stared at officers.” The report goes on to say: “Medical assisted by placing an ammonia capsule under her nose. At that time Inmate McCormackschuler held her breath and medical administered a chest rub to get her to respond.”

The report struck Dr. Starer as odd when she read it.

“You do a chest rub to see if somebody’s conscious, but if she’s staring at officers then she’s conscious,” she said.

“None of that makes sense.”

Starer added that in her opinion Jen should have been transferred off site long before the episode on the eve of her collapse.

Dr. Lantz suggested that any judgments about whether Jen should have been transferred to a hospital earlier can’t help but be colored by the knowledge that the worst ultimately transpired.

“That would be in hindsight,” he said.

“It looks like if she transferred earlier it may have made a difference. Then again, it’s going to depend on protocols and everything else as far as what all the factors were.”

John Jr.’s perspective on the relative quality of care Jen received at Forsyth County jail is informed by his family’s history of involvement in the detention industry. His parents worked together in the profession, and John Sr. has continued to operate detention centers while Janis has spent much of her career working in dispatch for police departments. As a child, John Jr. spent time hanging around detention centers and developed a familiarity with their processes.

“I don’t know if she was having a hunger strike,” he said. “I know for a fact with my family if it becomes a danger to the

person they’re going to force them to go to the infirmary to get IV. That’s what’s always done in a jail. It’s amazing to me that not only as an addict, but also as a pregnant woman she had to be their priority. She’s a pregnant woman going cold turkey off opiates, which is going to make her sick.”

Along with being unaware that Jen had been falling and urinating on herself, Lantz was also not informed that Jen was released from custody a day prior to her death. He marked on her postmortem report that she Jen’s “death occurred while in custody.”

“I didn’t know that,” Lantz said. “That never got passed down to me. Technically when someone comes from the jail I would assume they were in custody. If a district attorney did give an order to lift the bond I had no knowledge of that.”

As a bizarre coda to the story, John Jr. said when he arrived at Baptist Hospital, the sheriff’s office was limiting the family to 20 minutes with Jen per day, so that each person was allowed to spend five minutes with her. A sheriff’s deputy was posted in Jen’s hospital room throughout, until the family worked one of Janis’ law enforcement connections to get Jen released from custody so they could have full access to her before they took her off life support and allowed her to pass.

John Jr. couldn’t handle the hospital room scene, and left two days prior to Jen’s death to spend time with his grandfather in Kernersville.

“To have a sheriff looking over her and to hear my last words to my sister felt degrading,” he said. “And a needless use of force. There was no reason why they needed to waste resources to watch her.”

‘She needed a higher level of care’ r. Jacquelyn Starer, the physician from Massachusetts, said that overall it sounds like Jen was “horribly mistreated,” adding that the tragedy could have been avoided if the authorities had looked for alternatives to incarceration.

“She needed a higher level of care,” Starer said, “and it sounds like whatever level of care she received made her problems worse.”

Considering his family’s background in law enforcement, John Jr. said he appreciates that his sister needed to be held accountable for her crimes, of which she was evidently guilty. But he also believes

D

there’s a right and wrong way to run a jail.

“I believe that what happened with my sister was that nobody was paying attention, and once they found her in cardiac arrest it was too late,” he said. “People were careless. You’re going to have people walk away from their post. They’re not owning up to anything that went wrong.”

Dr. Jody Rich, the director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at Brown University, suggested Jen’s death should raise questions about the decision to hold her in jail as much as about the quality of care she received there.

“Jen’s death should prompt people to ask themselves if society did right by her in processing her through the criminal justice system,” Dr. Rich said. “Apparently, she did break the law,” he said, “and yet, the blind enforcement of the law in this instance resulted in the most tragic outcome of all.”

Melissa Godwin, the clinical instructor at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work, said she would like to see individuals in jail have better access to buprenorphine and other medications approved to treat opioid addiction — both for the health of the women who are incarcerated and their pregnancies.

“That does jeopardize the pregnancy, and that is what frequently happens in the jail: Pregnant women are forced to go into withdrawal, which does create potential complications for the pregnancy,” she said.

“I think it would be terrific if that issue were looked at in all 100 counties in how those services are provided to not just pregnant women, but all people who are coming in and having that aspect of health addressed, as well as high blood pressure and other conditions,” Godwin added.

In broad strokes, there’s a growing cry for more treatment and less incarceration.

“The take-home for me is, we need more treatment of addiction, we need more alternatives to incarceration, we certainly need more services for pregnant women with addiction, and we need more examination of what actually works,” Dr. Rich said. “Even if she had not been pregnant and had not died, it is unlikely that her time incarcerated would have stopped her from relapsing to drug use — in fact, it likely would have made things much worse than if she had gotten good quality addiction treatment and support.”

triad-city-beat.com

and died, it would have been a different matter.”

The theory that Jen was carrying out a hunger strike and suffering from dehydration is confounded by reports that on at least two occasions she experienced significant urinary incontinence, suggesting that she was taking in at least some water.

Going back to Jen’s ninth day in jail — also nine days before she was found unresponsive — when she was discovered trapped against the wall by her bed with a large amount of urine on the floor, Nurse Carol Surratt advised Jen “to eat her meals and slow down drinking water,” according to the report filed by Pfc. McBride.

“They probably told her to slow down on drinking water because of the incontinence episode,” Dr. Starer told me, “because there is no medical reason for that advice.”

Starer’s theory that Jen had suffered a seizure puts the official story that she was on hunger strike in a different light.

“When you have a seizure you go into a fugue,” Starer said. “You wouldn’t really be inclined to eat.”

A theme of the jail incident reports is the suggestion that Jen was faking her symptoms.

“Inmate McCormackschuler has been refusing to walk or use the toilet on her own,” Pfc. McBride wrote again on Sept.

13, using a compound of Jen’s last name and a name from her previous marriage.

“Medical has stated that Inmate McCormackschuler is capable and there is no medical reason at this time that she cannot walk on her own.”

The report was made scarcely eight hours before she was found unresponsive in her cell.

Dr. Jody Rich, director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at Brown University in Rhode Island, said there could be some truth to staff’s characterizations about Jen’s behavior.

“The truth is, they probably often do have patients who malinger, act out, deliberately pee all over themselves and worse,” he said. “And who knows, I am sure she felt miserable — maybe some of her behavior was deliberate.”

Pfc. McBride’s reference to Jen’s urinary incontinence on the eve of her collapse adds a curious twist to the theory that dehydration contributed to her death.

“The active suicide gown that had been issued to Inmate McCormackschuler was

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Nov. 18 — 24, 2015 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

20

CULTURE The home of Indian curries, kimchi cheese fries and dim sum

by Eric Ginsburg

n my relentless quest to find quality food, especially overlooked international restaurants in pockets of the Triad cities, several people suggested I’d missed something important. Hakka Chow, some argued, lies at the end of the search for superior food from various Asian nations, at least as far as Winston-Salem goes.

When it comes to the culinary reputations of the Triad’s cities, Greensboro consistently receives higher marks than Winston-Salem for the variety and quality of international food. There are plenty of worthwhile restaurants serving international fare in the Camel City, and I’ve made it a point to write about places such as Golden India, Thai Sawatdee, Taco Riendo 3, Sampan Chinese, Uncle Desi’s Jamaican and Mizu Japanese.

But a perception exists that Greensboro is home to better Vietnamese, Thai and Korean options in particular, a perception that I’d argue is totally valid, especially when it comes to Vietnamese cuisine. To that, some Winston-Salem residents have ERIC GINSBURG The Hakka traditional chicken curry entree (above) was the best thing my friend and I tried at Hakka Chow. countered that I couldn’t speak Also pictured: the vermicelli bowl and Korean bulgogi bowl. authoritatively unless I had tried Hakka Chow.

The restaurant’s enthusiasts are certainly onto the Vietnamese vermicelli bowl with lemongrass beef, The restaurant on the southwest side of the city in something, particularly when it comes to the Hakka I couldn’t help but think about experiences ordering a large shopping center is built out like a PF Chang’s — traditional chicken curry on the lunch menu. The Indithe same thing at other restaurants. They lacked the it’s massive, but it managed to do steady business on an-style dish with yellow curry, onions, potatoes, green flavorful nature and maybe the freshness of the bulgolunch on Monday. The menu is an amalgam of culinary peas and carrots, garnished with cilantro, stood plainly gi at Don Japanese Asian Restaurant or the vermicelli traditions from countries as far flung as India and above the other dishes my friend bowl at Van Loi II, both in Greensboro.

Mongolia, tapping into nations and I tried, its bold and distinctive Similarly, the imperial rolls appetizer, a Vietnamese throughout the continent includflavors making it worth my midbeef starter recommended by our server, didn’t leave Visit Hakka Chow at 615 St. ing China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, day drive from Greensboro.

George Square Court (W-S) Vietnam and Singapore.

Lunch specials come with a Pick of the Week I haven’t seen some of these opor at hakka-chow.com. soup or salad, and like the Hakka Senses working overtime tions anywhere else around here, curry entrée, the curry chicken A poetry workshop in sensory emotional such as Korean BBQ beef naan coconut soup is a delight. The connections @ Kleur (W-S), Friday 7 p.m. flatbread, Mongolian tofu and kimchi cheese fries. But mushroom, lemongrass and scallions add welcome Taking a moment to meditate on the foods you as interesting as these sound, I wanted to get at the dimensions to the flavorful appetizer, and though I ingest might help you live a more fulfilled life as a heart of Hakka Chow to see how the claims hold up. have no complaints about the wonton soup, its curry poet or foodie. Triad-area poet Katie Kehoe is hosting Considering that Hakka Chow offers more than 100 counterpart helped make the meal memorable. a workshop where she’ll lead a poetic-mediation different things, a comprehensive survey would be Based on these two dishes, I’d extrapolate that the on Krankies Coffee, beer from Hoot’s Roller Bar and relatively impossible without much deeper pockets or other curries — including a Malaysian chicken curgin from Sutler’s Spirit Co. You’re bound to taste countless visits over time. Instead, a representative ry, and Thai red and green curries — are particularly something in a way you’ve never tasted before. Visit sample of three entrees, one appetizer, two soups and savory. kleurshop.com for more information. a salad would have to do.

But as I tried the Korean BBQ spicy pork bulgogi and

I

by Eric Ginsburg

triad-city-beat.com

World of Beer

Up Front News Opinion

SynerG’s On Tap event at World of Beer proved to be so successful that getting to the bar for a drink was a challenge.

Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

that even for someone as social as me, mer — we joked that this is the equivit’s difficult to imagine exchanging more alent of Jake’s Billiards for people who than résumé items with anyone. would normally be at Outback SteakSo I brought my social lubricant — house, but with fewer beers. It’s a fair my extroverted pal Sam — and bought comparison, especially considering that some more in the form of the Jardinier, one of the Outback guys bought and a pale ale from the Bruery in the unexpanded this chain, according to the pleasantly named Placentia, Calif. It still kitchen manager who Sam befriended. wasn’t enough, and once we flagged You could point to other examples of down someone from the understaffed passive networking that night on our team, who seemed less ready than I was parts; there was Stephan the Introvert, for the crowds, we dipped outside. our server Jessica who plays basketball Sam, his girlfriend Lauren and I joined for Elon University and state Rep. Jon a stranger around the fire pit, who joked Hardister, who I flagged down as he that it seemed appropriate that someleft the event and convinced to join us one like him drinking Left Hand’s Introbriefly. vert beer had also That is to say the fled the masses. It event wasn’t a bust was here, sitting — we enjoyed ourVisit World of Beer at 1310 around the fire and selves, and I made Westover Terrace (GSO) eating tater tots, small talk with at or at worldofbeer.com/ that I discovered my least two acquainlocations/Greensboro. favorite thing about tances — and the World of Beer: the same could be said blankets. for the venue. The Yep, there are super warm blankets food, though a little pricey, was tasty. draped over the backs of comfortable Beers from every Greensboro brewery chairs in the front corner of the patio, flow on tap, and there’s actually a pretdesigned to provide that living room ty legit and affordable cocktail list. And couch feel. It’s so simple and yet so let’s not forget those blankets, which brilliant that I’d return for that experiare big enough for snuggling or wearing ence alone. inside like a cape. You know, whatever In other respects, World of Beer is you’re into. kind of a letdown. Its name is a misno-

Culture

The crush of people pressing against the expansive bar was so thick that it formed an almost impassible blockade.

My friends and I joked that the best way to introduce yourself at this networking event would probably involve flinging a handful of business cards in the air above the crowd.

If the idea of a flash mob ever caught on with yuppies, this is what it would look like.

I had showed up to a SynerG young professionals group On Tap networking event at World of Beer, a hefty chain that just opened a Greensboro outpost.

It wasn’t my first time at one of the group’s drinking/networking socials — I accidentally showed up at Gibb’s Hundred Brewing during one of their On Tap events and was so promptly overwhelmed by the wall of khaki that I turned on my heels.

But I like the folks who put these on, and most of the people I’ve met at them, like newly minted Councilman Justin Outling, Elizabeth Wicker, Zac Engle and Tyler Quinn. Okay so it turns out, apparently I don’t meet anyone at these events except for the welcoming people who help run the organization (see: everyone named above, and a few others like Hillary “Meadows” Meredith and Masha Beversdorf). It’s not that nobody shows up; so many people come,

ERIC GINSBURG

Cover Story

us raving.

To be fair, “raving” is a pretty high standard. And when it comes to the two curry things we tried, we both left pretty impressed.

As we ate, my mind drifted to other Asian restaurants in Winston-Salem, like Xia where I enjoyed the Thai peanut noodles and a heaping bowl of pho. I wondered how Downtown Thai — which I still haven’t tried — compares as well.

Hakka Chow is a family-run restaurant, with the husband-and-wife duo on hand. They have close ties to Bernardin’s and Bleu Restaurant & Bar, two similarly upscale restaurants in town. That and the couple’s history — our server said the pair is Chinese but both spent formative years in India — helps explain where Hakka Chow is situated in the city’s scene, and to whom it’s designed to appeal.

I’d be more inclined to bring a large group, maybe consisting of family, coworkers or friends of friends I didn’t know as well, to Hakka Chow than most hole-in-the-wall type international restaurants I often frequent. The menu and aesthetic cater to cautious eaters who might feel more comfortable with some of the sushi items or something listed under “classics,” like kung pao chicken. The variety also makes it a safer choice for a first date, or a meet-the-parents type scenario.

But some elements of Hakka Chow — like the chicken curry — not only make it stand out, but distinguish it from the pack in Greensboro as well.

Just last week, a friend’s coworker raised a desire for a dim sum place in the Gate City, a common complaint among more adventurous eaters.

Why is it, she asked, that somewhere as near as Durham can support such venues and Greensboro can’t? And yet here’s a mid-length dim sum list, with Cantonese pork sui mai, Shanghai spare ribs, Kobe beef dumplings, lettuce wraps with porkbelly, and more.

It’s a good reminder that there’s always more to explore close to home, even if, like me, you’ve been to Hakka Chow once before.

21

Maximum sound comes from minimal band

by Daniel Wirtheim

All She Wrote

Shot in the Triad

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Culture

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Opinion

News

Up Front

Nov. 18 — 24, 2015

CULTURE

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Despite their coffeehouse-band appearance, Benyaro sounded like a band of four at their show at the Garage on Nov. 12.

DANIEL WIRTHEIM

Frontman Ben Musser plays a hi-hat, DANIEL WIRTHEIM drum, harmonica, guitar and shakers.

Standing up a band with just two musicians is an t begins with a sort of minor-chord samba on economical move. With only the two of them, Benyaro a nylon-string guitar, a bassline percolating can live cheaply, touring out of a small car. beneath the rhythm, a few hits from a kick “Minimalism,” Musser said after the show. “I don’t drum peppered in along with a couple of vocal “ohms.”

By the time the maraca arrives, “Bullet-Like Belief” is in know if it’s in, or hip, but it’s smart.”

Musser’s other instrument is his voice, which has an full momentum, a gradually rising wall of sound. immediate likeness to Cat Stevens’ by way of phrasRiding that wall is Ben Musser, the creative force ing and a broad vocal range that he can hit without behind Benyaro who along with upright bassist Leif straining his voice. It’s all there and coupled with the Routman played at the Garage on Nov. 12 as part of an East Coast-focused tour that ends this Friday in New acoustic guitar chords it’s undeniably Cat Stevens-like, a comparison Musser’s heard many York City.

Musser plays with a maraca times before.

Access tracks, photos, “Where will our perfect bodies go/ strapped to his foot, the same foot tour info and more at when you’re down with me in the that straddles the pedal of a hi-hat ground,” he sings with a somber, soulcymbal. His other foot is poised benyaro.com. ful voice in “Bullet-Like Belief.” against a kick drum while a harmonica dangles from a holder around his The Benyaro repertoire includes the folky, sweeping numbers one might expect from an neck. There’s no loops or prerecorded soundbytes; Musser and Routman build their immersive music from acoustic two-piece with a guitarist playing kick drum.

But Benyaro can deliver some soul melodies and even scratch. one hip-hop-esque song “Home Cooking,” which is a “Bullet-Like Belief” is Benyaro at its best — soulful, nice lighthearted retreat but a bit jarring in an othertextured and driving. If one were to close her eyes wise acoustic indie-soul set. “Eureka” — a song about during a Benyaro performance, she might image a four-piece band. But Benyaro are masters of sounding a California city that Musser dislikes — is a bass-driven jam that most two-piece acoustic bands would be more than the sum of their parts.

advised to avoid, but it fits well within the abilities of Benyaro’s multi-instrumentalist and accompanying bassist.

The band’s Winston-Salem set also incorporates a cover of Malcolm Holcombe’s “Crossing My Heart to the Homeland,” a gritty blues number that Musser plays with thick, fuzzy distortion while a hi-hat cymbal sits in for a snare to create a mean sonic animal. The stomping, electrified song is a nice change of pace from the acoustic numbers that after about 30 minutes seem to bleed into one long moment of predictable choruses and major lifts.

Musser started Benyaro started about eight years

I

Pick of the Week Holy Ghost Tent Revival @ Blind Tiger (GSO), Friday 7 p.m.

Holy Ghost Tent Revival was one of Greensboro’s biggest acts before they became one of Asheville’s freshest. But they’re coming back with more horn, more soul and two great openers. They’ll play with Major & the Monbacks, a ‘60s throwback with a modern twist, and Driftwood, a folk act with soul.

Visit theblindtiger.com for more information.

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They commented on how tired they were to a thin crowd at the Garage.

They’d played the venue before and had good relations with people in the city and especially Wake Radio, Wake Forest University’s student-run internet radio station, which has given Benyaro tracks regular airplay.

Musser just shrugged off the lack of audience. He played as if it were to a crowd of dedicated fans. It’s easy to not sweat the small stuff when you play four instruments at once.

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ago in New York City. Since then he’s switched up the lineup — most often performing as a duo — and moved to Jackson Hole, Wy., where he lives today. Being away from the city gives Musser the time he needs to write. And he’s been doing so a lot, anticipating a new release next spring with producer Danny Kadar, who worked with North Carolina favorites the Avett Brothers on a popular album, Emotionalism.

Benyaro is a busy band on and off the stage. Before playing in Winston-Salem, they recorded at a studio in Asheville.

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Knitting becomes common thread in Lindley Park

by Daniel Wirtheim

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In an attempt to unify a neighborhood, Kathy Newsom and volunteers knitted for three months in preparation for their Nov. 14 Knit the Bridge festival.

bove six lanes of Wendover Avenue traffic, borhood are not so loved,” Newsom said. “We have the volunteers stitched panels of yarn around the corner that everybody loves, but I hate that bridge. It’s guardrails of the Walker Avenue bridge. They a steep climb and the railing is really low.” covered every space they could before moving to the To embolden her mission, Newsom stressed the telephone lines then to electrical boxes, street signs importance of the bridge’s locale on the neighborhood. and trees.

Most residents believe that the center of commerce at The Walker Avenue bridge was closed and knitters the Elam Avenue and Walker Avenue corner is the cenwere accompanied by an old-time band, a food truck ter of the neighborhood, Newsom said. She explains and a lemonade stand at Knit the Bridge, a yarn-bombthat Lindley Park extends well beyond the Walker Aving that took place in Greensboro’s Lindley Park neighenue bridge, although some people feel the west side borhood on Nov. 14. doesn’t get enough recognition.

“You can’t say ‘bomb the bridge’ — then you’ll get “I’ll meet someone who lives across the bridge,” said arrested,” Stuart Grant said as she knitted a piece of Newsom, “and I’ll say, ‘Oh, you live in Lindley Park’ and material in Kathy Newsom’s home a day before the they’ll say, ‘Yes, but…“ Newsom thought a yarn bomb Knit the Bridge event. Newsom’s house has an entire might be the kind of event that connects the neighborroom dedicated to the project, a colorful workshop hood. with all the evidence of previous ventures like a model After the grant was awarded Newsom got to work, torso for which she’s knitted the internal organs. The taking yarn to a farmer’s market with her daughter in roof rack of her Subaru is search of recruits. Most also covered in yarn and Head west from downtown on Walker people had never heard of two large signs made for a yarn bomb and the first Avenue toward the Greensboro Arbothe yarn bomb hung in her attempts were miserable retum to see the yarn-bombed bridge. failures, Newsom said. She front yard reading “Knit the Bridge” and “This is Knit.” decided to make a “free” Newsom had proposed sign to go along with a Knit the Bridge at a neighborhood association meetlarge basket of yarns and needles. She encouraged ing. The members — all of them men besides Newsom neighbors to return with their progress, a kind of chal— wrote a grant to the Community Foundation of lenge which helped the knit-in movement catch on.

Greensboro’s Building Stronger Neighborhoods. Along For three months knitters met once or twice a with other proposals for a pop-up dog park and a pool month in coffee shops and houses to knit rectangular splash party, Newsom suggested a yarn bomb. panels that would be used to wrap the bridge’s guard“We were brainstorming what areas in this neighrails and then be fastened together. They quickly filled

A

DANIEL WIRTHEIM

that order and started looking for more objects with yarn-bomb potential. They moved onto connectors that held the railing up. Then came 6-foot tall wraps for telephone poles and more for stop signs, electrical boxes and trees.

“It was so empowering, because once you learn, you can teach the next person,” Newsom said. “Usually in a knitting circle you bring what you’re working on. But [at the knit-ins] everyone is working together, you’re just going to be giving it away.”

On the day of the festival banners hung from the railings that spelled out the mission statement: “All you knit is love,” “Knit the Bridge,” and “commuknity.”

The knitters took their panels from bins and stitched them around the railing as the Zinc Kings played oldtime music and an occasional vehicle honked from Wendover Avenue traffic below. Local food truck Bandito Burrito was there as well, along with Common

Pick of the Week Celebration of Giving Thanks @ Guilford College (GSO), 4 p.m.

Some religious groups get a lot of flack for being bigots. But then a group such as the Piedmont Interfaith Council comes along and turns that stereotype upside down in a fun, surprising kind of way. The theme of this year’s Celebration of Giving Thanks is We Are One. Prepare for a choir of children, a unity drum circle and dances with the interfaith community. Get all the details at piedmontinterfaithcouncil.org.

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Grounds Coffee (the Lindley Park shop which played host to the knit-ins), Tea Hugger (Greensboro-based tea makers) and Auntie Mae’s Lemonade. Young children ran in herds across the bridge, sometimes painting the ground and other times being lifted into trees to arrange a panel. The block party lasted for about three hours.

As the festivities died down and the street opened up to traffic, volunteers lit luminaries on either side of the bridge, letting them glow through the night and providing a reflective ambience in the post-yarn-bomb hangover.

The next day Leslie Catlett, who has lived in the east side of Lindley Park on and off since 1951 walked her dogs across the bridge on her way to the arboretum when she crossed paths with another neighborhood resident, Kristin Wampler, who lives on the west side of the bridge and took photographs of the knit patterns.

“Isnt’ it great?” Catlett asked her, saying that she loves it before adding: “Especially the one that says ‘commuknity.”

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26

GOOD SPORT Let’s talk about the frikkin’ Panthers

by Anthony Harrison Y’all. We need to talk about the Carolina Panthers.

First things first: A lot of cool sporting events happened in the Triad last weekend. Greensboro Roller Derby

by Anthony Harrison had its final home bout. Lake Higgins staff stocked a pond with delicious trout and let anglers keep their catch in Greensboro. RJ Reynolds High School hosted the seventh annual Matthew Gfeller Memorial Doughnut Run in Winston-Salem and Gillespie Golf Course in Greensboro had a 5K spread over an obstacle course.

There were even freakin’ chariot races at UNCG for Classics Day. But you know what’s really awesome?

The Panthers are undefeated, nine games into the season, after beating the Tennessee Titans 27-10 on Nov. 15.

In the 20 years of the franchise’s existence, no Panthers team has even gotten close to a perfect record. Not the second year, when the Panthers went 12-4 and made it to the NFC Championship game.

Not in 2003, when the original Cardiac Cats went to the Super Bowl, losing to the New England Patriots off a ball-breaking 54-yard field goal. Not in 2011, after Carolina drafted quarterback Cam Newton, who broke record after record in his rookie campaign.

And definitely not last season, but let’s ignore that weirdness.

No, the best start the Panthers have experienced up until now is 5-0, back in 2003. As mentioned, the Panthers went to the Super Bowl that year.

This season, I’ve done my best to catch every Panthers game, and almost all have been thrillers to the very end.

And that’s why I’ve deemed this team “Cardiac Cats 2.0.”

In Week 6, the Cats came back in the fourth quarter to stun the Seattle Seahawks at home. A few people may have poo-poohed the win, saying the 2-3 Seahawks were weak.

But we’re talking about the defending NFC champions. At home.

The Seattle crowd is notoriously intimidating; twice they’ve been logged by the Guinness Book of World Records as creating the loudest crowd noise in sporting history, most recently at 137.6 decibels during a Monday-night game against the Saints in 2013.

Despite all expectations, the Panthers finished on

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top in the fourth, 27-23.

Next, the Panthers took on the Philadelphia Eagles. Routine win at home, aside from some spooky moments.

The real fun started when the Indianapolis Colts came down to Charlotte in a Monday-night matchup for the ages.

If you didn’t catch it, let me say this: The final score is only half the story.

I watched the game at Natty Greene’s in Greensboro with Triad City Beat Associate Editor Eric Ginsburg, and we were practically the only people upstairs for much of the time. Most of the game, the Panthers’ pass rush absolutely destroyed QB Andrew Luck with five sacks and two interceptions, forcing one of the worst games in Luck’s career and securing a 23-6 lead in the fourth quarter. The bartender started closing shop, stacking chairs as we watched.

But when the rain stopped pouring, Luck and Indianapolis turned on. And they scored two touchdowns on a weary defensive line.

Eric and I were reasonably stressed.

“Dude, if this goes into overtime, we’re gonna have to leave,” Eric said. “I’m not keeping them here late.”

Sure enough, the Colts scored 17 points in the fourth quarter, capped by a field goal around midnight, forcing overtime.

Some fans were watching at the downstairs bar — mostly employees — so despite Eric’s earlier protest, we joined them for the grueling extra periods.

I suffered an elaborate series of heart-attack scares as both teams marched downfield for field goals. And then Carolina linebacker and demigod Luke Kuechly made an interception in the end zone.

Eric will back me up: I ran down the bar, past the front counter and outside, then ran back in, jumping in his arms, screaming triumphantly.

We won that game 29-26 on a long field goal by kicker Graham Gano.

Six days later, we beat the formidable Green Bay Packers, the best team we’ve faced yet, but not before a fourth-quarter rally kept hearts in Panthers fans’ throats.

But another clutch interception in the red zone — this time by linebacker Thomas Davis Sr. — made all the difference.

After that, I was in shock, sitting on my couch, expecting the game to keep going after the commercial break following the broadcast of the final score: 37-29, Panthers.

This should not be happening.

In 20 years, no Panthers team has even gotten close to a perfect record.

The Panthers have suffered injuries, one taking out star wide-receiver Kelvin Benjamin for the season.

Killa Cam isn’t putting up elite numbers as a QB. And they’ve blown huge leads. They’re inconsistent, too.

But one thing is consistent: They keep winning.

The Titans game on Sunday was a classically ugly, brutal Panther victory marked by flashes of brilliance and stultifying foibles. They rushed for over 100 yards.

Cam threw 21-for-26 and ran in — or dribbled in — a touchdown. Tight end Greg Olsen may exist on a higher plane than most humans: He averaged for 10 yards on his eight catches, including a spellbinding onehander. And the defensive line shut down Tennessee in the second half.

That’s called finishing.

But this was supposed to be a blowout.

Defensive holes, the Titans pass rush and a costly block in the back canceling out punt returner Ted Ginn Jr.’s touchdown kept the victory from being an easy one.

You hate it as a fan, but you love the guys. The ends justify all means and mistakes.

The Panthers may not win out for the season — they have a tough rematch at New Orleans and two games with Atlanta, and there are no gimmes in the NFL — but for now, they’re one of only two undefeated teams in the league.

The other is the New England Patriots, perennial contenders and last year’s Super Bowl champs, who’ve handed Carolina their only “loss” this year in a 17-16 preseason matchup.

Cardiac Cats 2.0 is the kind of team they make movies and ESPN “30-for-30”s about: a ragtag bunch of outcasts, has-beens and ringers coming together against all odds to beat the Bad Guys.

I want to see a rematch of the 2003 Super Bowl.

If it happens, the Panthers will keep pounding all the way there.

Pick of the Week Deacons are No. 1!

NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship: Second Round @ Wake Forest University (W-S), Nov. 22 The Wake Forest University Demon Deacons men’s soccer team (15-2-2) have been on a roll for the past few seasons, and even though Notre Dame beat them in the ACC Tournament, they clinched the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

The winner of a contest between UNC-Charlotte and Radford University will meet the Deacons at Spry Stadium at 1 p.m. For more info, visit wakeforestsports.com.

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1 Confined 2 “A Little Respect” band 3 Round and flat in shape 4 “Rendezvous With ___” (Arthur C. Clarke book) 5 Hardly fitting 6 Certain chairmaker 7 “M*A*S*H” actor Jamie 8 “Like that’ll ever happen” 9 California city in a Creedence song 10 Two important ones are a week apart in December 11 Big name in chocolate 12 Bee-related prefix 13 Off-the-rack purchase, for short?

14 Suffix for north or south 20 Give help to 24 McKellen of the “Hobbit” films 25 Frat house H 26 Connector for a smart device 28 It may be pulled in charades 30 Adjective for Lamar Odom in recent headlines 31 Travel division 32 Privy to 33 Created 35 “Livin’ La Vida ___” (1999 hit)

36 Adult material 40 “We ___ Queen Victoria” 41 Aug. follower 42 Beseech 43 Word often seen near 42-Down 44 “Slippery” fish 47 Pizza Hut competitor 48 Mountain dog breed 49 Asylum seekers 51 Practice lexicography 52 Boxing arbiter 56 Like first names 57 ___SmithKline 60 Lie down for a while 61 “SVU” part 62 Running in neutral 63 Cold War news agency 64 Cosmetic surgery, briefly 65 Drill sergeant’s “one” 66 ___ moment’s notice 67 “Dumbo” frame

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1 Comedian dubbed “The Entertainer” 7 Label in a folder 15 Singer Grande 16 Better than usual 17 Meter reader of sorts 18 Makeover, perhaps 19 Houdini, notably 21 Hall & Oates, e.g.

22 Dodeca-, quartered 23 “In ___ of flowers ...”

27 “Ugly Betty” actor Michael 29 They go through a slicer 34 Bike turners 37 Lucy Lawless TV role 38 Apprehend, as a criminal 39 Jupiter and Mars, among others 42 Great respect 45 “___ Your Enthusiasm” 46 Required 50 Show sadness 53 Work with a meter 54 “Twin Peaks” actor MacLachlan 55 Easter candy shape 58 Body scan, for short 59 Pie feature, or feature of this puzzle’s other four longest answers 65 Estate 68 More conceited 69 Tableware 70 Make public

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There’s just something about November in North Carolina.

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Forever in blue jeans

elcome to Jeansboro. It’s official — call it a code blue — but Greensboro has definitely immersed itself in high cotton… of the denim variety.

VF’s Wrangler brand celebrated Jeansboro Day on Tuesday in honor of the town’s textile tradition. The event took place at the company’s downtown headquarters and featured music from McKenzie’s Mill, food, drink and giveaways in partnership with the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club of North Carolina.

by Nicole Crews But that’s not the only thing happening in the jean pool.

Case in point is downtown Elm Street’s newly opened Blue Denim Restaurant. The love child of chef and noted Greensboro restaurateur Jody Morphis and his wife Anne Marsh, Blue Denim’s moniker pays homage to the town’s cotton mills and sets the stage for food ingrained in Southern culture.

“We thought it was emblematic of the South and we wanted the name, like the food, to be local, authentic and comfortable,” says Morphis.

The menu will be familiar to those acquainted with the pair’s pop-up Mardi Gras menus and Morphis’ homage to his native Mississippi and Louisiana during his tenure as a partner in Fincastle’s Diner a few years back.

True to Morphis’s description, the restaurant, located in the building that previously housed Thai Pan, is homey, with an exposed brick wall, silver trays on tables splayed with brown paper for lunch and white tablecloths for dinner, and adorned with blue and white mixed china. The waitstaff is awash in chambray and denim. The menu veers from fried green tomatoes stacked with Morphis’ mother Linda’s pimiento cheese to gumbos, po-boys and all the way to pan-fried North Carolina trout, ribs and a stately ribeye. Look for yours truly to be working the front of the house as the place gets off the ground.

Down the road a ways at the recently renovated Revolution Mill, more denim history is in the works. Prodigal son Billy Cone returns to Jeansboro, to the very cotton mill his great uncles Moses and Caesar Cone opened in 1895. The author of four books of photography on travel and art will be hosting an evening of portraiture, paintings, drawings, photography and collected works on Friday 5-9 p.m. The event will be catered

by Revolution Mill and Maria’s Gourmet and the exhibit will open at noon to Saturday and Sunday and by appointment through Dec. 31.

Cone’s work is comprised largely of portraiture of women, photography of statuary from around the world and engraving and etching inspired figurative pieces. He refers to his work as “faceture” and pulls from the realm of abstract realism.

What’s the dress for the event? Did you even have to ask?

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One of Cone’s Femmes.

Cone’s photography is on display at the Undercurrent Restaurant in Greensboro.

In the studio.

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Billy Cone installing his work.

Faceture featuring abstract realism.

30

Fried green tomatoes stacked with Miss Linda’s pimento cheese.

Portrait of the artist and another notable.

Welcome to Blue Denim.

Morphis taking a rare break.

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“ We don’t make mistakes.

We just have happy accidents.”

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