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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
The lay of the land
by Brian Clarey
22 UP FRONT
OPINION
3 Editor’s Notebook 4 City Life 6 Commentariat 6 The List 7 Barometer 7 Unsolicited Endorsement
14 Editorial: Cops on a new beat 14 Citizen Green: Let us now condemn famous men 15 It Just Might Work: Mandatory consent training 15 Fresh Eyes: Teachers as rock stars
NEWS 8 Larson v. Hightower 10 Travis Page death in custody 11 Cops and firefighters 12 Police quietly prepare for a riot
22 Music: Amplifier turns down 24 Art: Moravian Christmas
GOOD SPORT 26 Zero to hero
GAMES 27 Jonesin’ Crossword
COVER
SHOT IN THE TRIAD
16 A long time ago...
CULTURE
28 Reynolda Road, Winston-Salem
20 Food: Not a fancy date 21 Barstool: Holiday growlin’
30 Don’t tell Mama!
ALL SHE WROTE
QUOTE OF THE WEEK He said, ‘You don’t want to go with me. It’s just a bunch of college kids in a warehouse in the valley and they’re doing it all wrong. It’s a space movie and — get this — it’s called Star Wars.’ We busted up laughing because the title was ridonculous… — Patrick Read Johnson, in the Cover, page 16
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At Action Greensboro headquarters, a tasteful suite of rooms in a downtown corner walled off from the rest of center city by the hulking News & Record property and a methadone clinic, maps of the Downtown Greenway splay across long tables, with treatments for strategic intersection points on easels by the wall. “Some people need to see it to get on board,” says Dabney Sanders of Action Greensboro and a project manager for the walkable loop that will encircle the heart of the city and the coalition of public and private money that will fund it. You couldn’t build a decent office building for $30 million, the price tag for the trail. And make no mistake: This is a transformative project for downtown Greensboro, the kind of amenity a city like Greensboro — with its ample, cheap land and serious need for infill, is uniquely suited to construct. The leg of the transformation happening around Eugene and Smith, near the recently activated corner where Deep Roots, Preyer Brewing and Crafted now hold court, is heralded by orange traffic barrels and much jackhammerage to make way for the green. This impending trail greenway and a small park being created alongside it has effectively cut off a small spur of Battleground Avenue, which holds Smith Street Diner, Undercurrent restaurant and Zeto wine shop. There are four automotive garages in the neighborhood. Like the others, Autotrends has been here for decades. “You were either lost or nosy if you were on this section of Battleground,” says John Hill, who owns the shop and a couple attendant businesses around it. He’s been bobbing and weaving on this street for 30 years, first in a repair shop that specialized in the Nissan Z. It was long enough ago that people still sometimes called them Datsuns. “They quit making the Z,” he remembers, “so we had to diversify or we’d of gone home.” He opened the practice to Jeeps, figuring that specialization would make up for the lack of drive-by traffic. He started selling motorcycles out of the lower storefront on Eugene Street, and after Hurricane Katrina, when gas prices tripled, he added scooters to the line. Between the bikes and the specialized car repairs, Hill has done a brisk business on this forgotten street. “Sixty percent of our clients are females who work in the office buildings,” he says. “We run a clean operation, but we don’t need prime real estate to do it.” As the grass and concrete roll through, Hill will move his operations to a part of the city more appropriate for his enterprise, with ample land and street visibility. He’s resigned to it: The greenway is bigger than us all. “As the owner of this real estate, we think it’s great,” he says. “As a business owner, I despise it.”
triad-city-beat.com
CONTENTS
3
Dec. 16 — 22, 2015
CITY LIFE
December 16 – 22
by Daniel Wirtheim
WEDNESDAY
Community conversation @ Congregational United Church of Christ (GSO), 7 p.m. A coalition of Triad organizations discusses the Syrian refugee crisis. Panelists include representatives from the NC African Services Coalition, the Islamic Center of Greensboro and the director of research for UNCG’s Center for New North Carolinians. Find the event page on Facebook for more details. Test Kitchen Trivia @ the Marshall Free House (GSO), 7 p.m. The Triad’s only UK-themed gastropub hosts a night of trivia with Scottish comedian Mick McKenna and a “test kitchen,” in which executive Chef Jay Price whips up whatever’s on his mind. Expect small plates and UK-style libations. Visit marshallfreehouse.com for more information.
THURSDAY
RAHliday Party @ Reynolda House (W-S), 4:30 p.m. Reynolda After Hours is hosting a real laidback celebration. Visitors can make prints, stroll the Artist’s Garden (a living garden presenting the history of American garden movements), and enjoy small plates and champagne. Nothing says wintertime coziness like the historic Reynolda House. Visit Reynoldahouse.org for more details. Dangerous and Dirty @ Delurk Gallery (W-S), 7 p.m. The Delurk collective calls artists and musicians of all kinds to join in as they tap into some dark energy. They’re bringing out the inner savage and encourage participants to bring whatever it is they work with. Visit delurkgallery.com for more information.
Coffeehouse yoga @ Urban Grinders (GSO), 7:30 p.m. Two instructors are leading a yoga class at the street art coffeehouse. Bring a mat and join in an evening of stretches. Find the Facebook page for more information.
4
Sisters in Flight @ the New Winston Museum (W-S), 5:30 p.m. A panel of retired female aviators and a flight attendant from the defunct Piedmont Airlines discuss the early days of female aviation. This is the last in a series of transportation-themed discussions. A historian from Wake Forest University moderates. Visit newwinston.org for more information.
FRIDAY
Community meeting @ People’s Perk (GSO), 10 a.m. The Greensboro Mural project drums up support for its upcoming projects. They’re look for community-oriented people to roll up their sleeves and get involved. Find more information on the Facebook page or at greensboromuralproject.com. Photonapalooza @ Freedman Theatre, UNCSA (W-S), 7:30 p.m. Student teams compete to win the audience’s vote with a themed light show in this friendly competition. Projections and multimedia use are encouraged. So put on your Pink Floyd shirt, maybe some sunglasses and vote for your favorite team. Visit uncsa.edu/performances for more information.
triad-city-beat.com
SATURDAY Krankies Craft Fair @ BioTech Place (W-S), noon Krankies promises their biggest craft fair yet. Local crafters are lining up their works, food trucks are cooking as Krankies handles the drinks. Find more information at krankiescoffee.com. Transyberiandorkestra II @ Krankies Coffee (W-S), 9 p.m. The Krankies stage is transformed into a winter wonderland as Winston-Salem’s experimental doom-metal band, Primovanhalen, tell the story of Christmas as they know it, which could mean anything, really. Expect both a bizarre and touching play. Proceeds go to benefit the Animal Adoption and Rescue Foundation. Find more details at krankiescoffee.com Unknown Hinson @ the Blind Tiger (GSO), 7:30 p.m. The hillbilly vampire singer returns to his home state for a night at the Blind Tiger. Unknown Hinson has acquired a sizable cult following for being the dark-comic of classic western troubadours. Is it hideous or hilarious? You be the judge. For more information visit theblindtiger.com.
SUNDAY Manger Faces @ Green Street United Methodist Church (W-S), 7 p.m. The church hosts an evening of both secular and sacred seasonal music and poetry. Jazz is the genre and the church has about eight musicians lined up, including a small horn section. Visit greenstreetchurch.org for more information. Mediocre Bad Guys @ the Garage (W-S), Mount Airy-based folk-rock band Mediocre Bad Guys play alongside Winston-Salem’s acoustic-pop band Lions & Liars and Greensboro’s alternative rockers Mark Kano and Mike Garrigan. Find more information at the-garage.ws.
5
Dec. 16 — 22, 2015
Up Front
NYP sets the scene Oh my goodness gracious me. [“New York Pizza for sale, new owner lined up”; by Daniel Wirtheim; Dec. 8, 2015] Could be good. Daniel Francis, via triad-city-beat.com
All She Wrote
Shot in the Triad
Games
Good Sport
Culture
Cover Story
Opinion
News
I hope everything works out for the best. This place always welcomed me. Martamique Ngozi, via triad-city-beat.com
6
HIRING
Triad City Beat is hiring motivated full and part-time sales people for commission based advertising sales. College degree and prior successful sales experience preferred but not required. Local travel and light lifting included in sales responsibilities. Occasional evening and weekend work. Must be a team player. Send resume to brian@triad-city-beat.com. No Calls accepted.
My 6 favorite Star Wars characters
by Brian Clarey
1. Han Solo
I’m decidedly old school in my Star Wars tastes, but they run pretty deep. I’ve been a huge fan since I was 7 years old, the year the first movie came out. And I’m taking this opportunity to geek out over the release of the newest film, which I’ll be seeing before our next issue comes out, after which I’ll undoubtedly have some new nerd crushes. But my first favorite was Han Solo, the cavalier smuggler with something to prove. Also looked cool in vests.
2. Jango Fett
Not to get too nerdy here, but Jango Fett was definitely the baddest of the Mandalore sect of assassins to which he belonged, bad enough that he was chosen to lend his genetic code to form the mighty clone army. The only one who comes close is his “son” Boba, but everyone knows that Boba, even though he’s an exact replica of Jango, is just another clone. I’ll go with the genuine article.
3. Kit Fisto
You can have your Mace Windus and your Yodas and your Shaak Tis. When it comes to Jedi, make mine Kit Fisto, the alien-eyed master with tentacle
dreads who fought so valiantly at the onset of the Clone Wars and who boasts a name that sounds like he’s just aching to punch someone in the face. A Nautolan from the planet Glee Anselm, Fisto was eventually slain by Emperor Palpatine.
4. The Wookies
They’re basically a bunch of bigfoots.
5. Lando Calrissian
Okay, so in Empire, Lando Calrissian sells out his pal Han Solo, but he didn’t have much choice and damn if Billy Dee Williams didn’t look cool doing it. And even then, he eventually put on the guy’s clothes, hopped in the Millennium Falcon and saved him. So Lando’s square, as far as I’m concerned. Plus, coolest name ever. If my wife would have let me I would have named both of my sons Lando.
6. Aayla Secura
She’s the blue-skinned Jedi Master who sometimes rocks twin lightsabers. Totally indestructible — until she was blasted down by her own clone troopers after Order 66 was issued and executed in Episode II. Brutal.
New question: Do you agree with Winston-Salem’s city manager that the footage from the arrest of Travis Page, who died in police custody, should be released? Vote at triad-city-beat.com!
80 70
50
30 20
68% Yes
26% No
6%
Unsure/maybe
All She Wrote
10
Shot in the Triad
40
Games
60
Good Sport
90
Culture
Jordan Green: Yes. With a burgeoning craft beer scene it’s important for Greensboro to keep its flagship brewer. But more importantly, it will provide an anchor for the renovation of the resplendent Revolution Mill, a huge stride for economic development in northeast Greensboro. My only reservation is that before city council approved the related grant for redevelopment of Revolution Mill, they didn’t ask for an accounting of how many businesses owned by people of color or women will be housed in the complex, and how many people of color and women will be employed by the busi-
Cover Story
Readers: The overwhelming majority of our readers who responded said yes (68 percent) while about a quarter (26 percent) said no. The remaining 6 percent voted for unsure/ maybe. Corey Clement wrote on our Facebook: “Yes. I am glad they invested in a local company. They were about to give Stone Brewing the keys to the city just for a chance for them to come here. Natty’s was born here, they have invested in this city.” But Katei Cranford disagreed: “Revolution needs some love and foot traffic, which Natty’s could totally bring. That reason enough is worth incentives. But the way Natty’s threatened to move away is some bogus bully extortion action. No bueno.”
Opinion
Brian Clarey: Incentives suck and generally nobody likes them except the people who get them. But incentives are not like Santa Claus: They exist, whether you believe in them or not. And Natty Greene’s, at the vanguard of the North Carolina beer explosion, should get one to stay in town, particularly at this new location. Revolution Mill is in Greensboro’s District 2, which rarely benefits directly from incentive spending. It has the potential to transform that part of the city once dominated by these hulking mills. A proven winner like Natty Greene’s would give the development instant cachet.
by Daniel Wirtheim At first it was just nice to look at. The approximately 2- by-1 box that lay on my coffee table with the words Building Stories written in various fonts within illustrated blocks like something from the cubist movement. My brother had given me Building Stories, illustrator Chris Ware’s irregular graphic novel, as a gift only a few months ago, as something that I should “explore,” he said. There’s really no starting point here. When you take the lid off of Building Stories you’re confronted with 14 different stories in various, unique formats. There’s a dispatch from “The Daily Bee,” an entire stand-up cardboard layout of a brownstone apartment building in Chicago, various comic strips, a journal and a few accordion-folded comics. Through these artifacts, Ware tells the story of a woman living in a Chicago brownstone. The heroine, if you can call her that, is never named but lives on the third floor, which she has a hard time getting to considering that she has a prosthetic leg. As readers, we follow her through art school, her first love interest, an abortion, a birth and the subsequent loneliness spurred by her failed dreams of being a successful artist. Along the way we’re privy to the thoughts of the little old landlady, a couple who’s about to break up and even the building itself. Ware injects a playful sense of self-awareness to Building Stories, making it that much more compelling. At one point the protagonist comes across a copy of Building Stories in a bookstore. In another sequence, students from 150 years in the future read the characters’ memories from a “consciousness cloud,” commenting on how boring and incredibly misguided people in the 21st Century were. It’s a lot to take in, but Building Stories, which took Ware about 10 years to complete, is an incredibly reflective, fast-paced and thoughtful work of art. While all of the stories are self-contained, they overlap in the big picture, so it’s not just mindless fun. In fact, it’s downright depressing at times. Loss is a common theme throughout Building Stories. Tenants leave, children grow old, and the aspiring artist loses her ambition and leg but Ware maintains that life must go and ensures the reader that every tenant, every story is part of a much larger narrative. And at times Building Stories is akin to a graphic prayer novel for 21st Century apartment dwellers — a comic-sutra, perhaps.
News
Eric Ginsburg: As the reporter covering this whole thing, I’m going to decline to comment, but I think it’s important to keep in mind this was one of several incentive grants passed at the same meeting, and I haven’t heard any reaction on those.
Building Stories
Up Front
nesses. Winston-Salem City Council did just that before they approved incentives for the next stage of redevelopment West End Mill Works last year. It’s important that Revolution Mill not become an island of hip, young entrepreneurial white people in a sea of black poverty.
The Greensboro City Council approved a grant last week not to exceed $387,500 for the city’s longstanding brewery Natty Greene’s to expand its business to Revolution Mill. The brewery’s owners had considered whether to relocate the growing company, but if they accept the grant, it will be part of a multi-million dollar investment in the property in northeast Greensboro. Do you support the city council’s vote?
triad-city-beat.com
Do you support the grant to Natty Greene’s?
7
Dec. 16 — 22, 2015
Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
8
NEWS
An insider and a populist vie for South Ward seat on city council by Jordan Green
A longtime community leader and voice of dissent goes up against a vetted insider and anointed successor in the contest to represent the South Ward on Winston-Salem City Council. Winston-Salem voters will elect at least one new city council member in next year’s municipal election with the retirement of Molly Leight, who has represented the South Ward since 2005. Before Leight announced her decision, she approached John Larson, the vice president of restoration for Old Salem Museums & Gardens, to run for the seat. “He’s obviously so smart and is a proponent of all the things that I hold dear — of safety and historic neighborhoods,” Leight said. “Who could have more experience with that than John?” Leight said she took the advice of Wanda Merschel, a former city council member who retired in 2013. “Molly, just think of someone you would trust with your neighborhood,” Merschel told Leight. The 66-year-old Larson is retiring from his job at Old Salem at the end of the month. A South Carolina native with a background in history and architecture, he moved to Winston-Salem in 1976 to work with Old Salem, a landmark in Winston-Salem and the South Ward particularly. “Some people talk about Old Salem as a tourist attraction — economic growth, heads in beds,” Larson said during a recent interview at Washington Perk & Provision. “It’s also a major neighborhood. Residents live there. There are churches. There’s a college and a museum. My role has been to deal with the facilities. As you drive through Old Salem, what you see is years of effort to stabilize a neighborhood that was in decline since the 1950s. “This began long before me,” he continued. “I’ve always championed preservation, including removing non-performing commercial properties. All of that requires working with the city.” Along with Leight’s endorsement, Larson is inheriting her most ardent
political opponent — community leader Carolyn Highsmith. The two will square off in the Democratic primary, scheduled for March 15. Prompted by her neighbors in the Konnoak Hills neighborhood who were concerned about a rash of house breakins, Highsmith blindsided Leight by running as a write-in candidate in the 2009 general election. Officially running unopposed, Leight garnered only 57.8 percent of the vote in that election, thanks to write-in votes for Highsmith, along with Republican candidate Nathan Jones. In the next election, Leight ran an active campaign, and fended off an official challenge from Highsmith, carrying 72.2 percent of the vote. The 62-year-old Highsmith holds deep roots in Winston-Salem. And like Larson, she’s no stranger to city government. While the historic Moravian settlement of Salem attracted Larson to Winston-Salem almost 40 years ago, Highsmith moved to Konnoak Hills, a suburban neighborhood established in 1929, with her parents in 1963. She said her grandparents “have long lines of living in south Winston-Salem.” A nurse practitioner, Highsmith moved to Chapel Hill for several years but returned to Winston-Salem to provide end-of-life care for her mother in 1996. She became active as a neighborhood leader in 2007, when Konnoak Hills experienced what Highsmith described as “our first crime wave ever” — the unintended consequence of police clearing drug houses from the old Brookstown neighborhood to make way for BB&T ballpark, and displacing them to the south. At the police’s suggestion, Highsmith formed several neighborhood-watch groups serving 100-200 households each. Eventually, the newly activated neighbors brought the watch groups together under the umbrella of the newly formed Konnoak Hills Neighborhood Association. “When you begin to address the factors that create crime, you being addressing all the socioeconomic factors,” Highsmith said.
John Larson
JORDAN GREEN
Highsmith’s involvement in the South Suburban Area Plan further burnished her leadership credentials. Against the recommendation of the planning department, Highsmith said a group of developers pushed for commercial development on both sides of Peters Creek Parkway south of Interstate 40. Highsmith and other residents supported the original plan, which limited commercial development, and saw it through to approval in 2011. “That’s when I stepped out from being a neighborhood leader to being a community leader,” Highsmith said during an interview under a gazebo at Konnoak Hills Moravian Church. Larson has also experienced some success as a community leader. When the NC Department of Transportation announced that one of the interchanges of the Business 40 downtown expressway would be decommissioned, Larson made a vocal plea for it to be the Main/ Liberty interchange — the corridor that runs through Old Salem. Greg Errett, a transportation-planning director for the city, advocated instead that the Cherry/ Marshall interchange close because of concern that funneling more vehicular traffic will disrupt the pedestrian experience on the West Fourth Street Restaurant Row. Many of the city’s institutional players ultimately took Larson’s view,
Carolyn Highsmith
JORDAN GREEN
which prevailed in the final planning document. “I worked very hard to protect the Main Street exit and have Cherry/Marshall be the main connector,” Larson said. “Main Street will be the cultural corridor. It needs to be a core anchor. You will be able to take that historical corridor and tie it back to the city. The first step is to take Main and Liberty back to two-way.” Larson noted that the corridor connects downtown to Old Salem, Salem College, UNC School of the Arts, and residential neighborhoods like Washington Park and Konnoak Hills. He added that mothballing the ramps on and off of Business 40 will allow for infill that makes the pedestrian experience more seamless, with wider sidewalks and enhanced street lighting. Both Larson and Highsmith cite owner-occupied, single-family homes as an anchor of neighborhood stability, and both expressed sensitivity to the needs of residents in outlying areas of the ward who might not see a direct benefit of the spectacular resurgence of downtown, with its burgeoning parks, art galleries and fine-dining scene. Both also want to see the downtown renaissance continue. Preservation comes up as a central theme of Larson’s campaign, while
READER’S CHOICE ON HIS NEXT PAIR!
Everyone who votes will be entered into a drawing for a free pair of glasses from Oscar Oglethorpe! December 30th, we will award Brian his new specs (that the readers picked) and also announce the three winners of new glasses. Voting will be on our website, or can be done in person at the store.
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Up Front Opinion
WEEK FOUR...
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Cover Story
poverty. I’ve seen the gap in the South Ward.” Larson said Winston-Salem needs to take care to preserve “reference points” that undergird the city’s unique cultural identity such as Old Salem and the Reynolds Building. “Size is not what this is about,” he said. “It’s about quality experience. I think Winston-Salem is a quality experience. All the people who have invested their lives in this city need that advocacy. It doesn’t matter what their race is. It doesn’t matter what their economic status is. All we’re asking for is a mechanism to move this city forward in a rational, progressive way.” Larson’s election to the South Ward seat would likely reinforce the cohesion and steady forward movement of the current council, but if Highsmith wins she said she’ll make sure the working class has a voice. “It really is the people versus the elite,” Highsmith said. “They’ve got their vision, but they really need to hear mine, too. We want to build on the success, but if we’re not careful we won’t recognize this city in 25 years.”
triad-city-beat.com
Highsmith talks about the widening class divide in Winston-Salem, worrying that people who live far away from downtown will feel increasingly left out. Leight said one of the most gratifying aspects of her service on city council is her observation “that there are fewer neighborhoods buying into fighting City Hall because the city has been so proactive in helping neighborhoods and doing things to maintain quality of life in neighborhoods.” Highsmith doesn’t exactly see it that way. “I’m passionate about people where they live and their economic survival,” she said. “I’ve been a grassroots community organizer. You can make a lot of impact as a grassroots community organizer, but there are decisions made for us at a policy level. If I’m on city council I can make a bigger impact. “We have a thriving cultural scene, a great restaurant scene,” Highsmith continued. “That’s a fruition of the vision of some movers and shakers 20 years ago. That’s kind of a top-down vision. There’s a widening gap with Winston-Salem having a high level of
Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
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Dec. 16 — 22, 2015
Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
10
City pushes DA to release video of death in custody by Jordan Green
Winston-Salem city officials want the public to see videotape of the arrest of Travis Page, who died in police custody, but the district attorney is blocking the release. If the prosecutor determines the tape holds no evidentiary value, city officials might take a different view from their counterparts in Greensboro, who have argued that video in a similar case is protected as a personnel record. The death of a 31-year-old black man in police custody in Winston-Salem last week has local officials scrambling to maintain public trust amidst a national climate of frayed relations between police and the black communities. City Manager Lee Garrity said that he, Mayor Allen Joines and several other members of city council have asked Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill to review police video of the incident and release it as soon as possible. “I think the public needs to know what happened,” Garrity said on Monday. “This is a national issue; there was just an incident in LA yesterday. We believe in transparency.” Responding to a shots fired call at 4404 Old Rural Hall Road at 7:28 p.m. on Dec. 9, the police said an officer deployed pepper spray after a brief struggle ensued with Travis Nevelle Page. Once the police gained control and placed him in handcuffs, Page became unresponsive. The department reported that officers initiated life-saving efforts and requested emergency medical services. Page was declared dead when he arrived at Baptist Hospital. The police said they seized a handgun and a controlled substance during
Page’s arrest. Cpl. Robert Fenimore, Officer Christopher Doub, Officer Austin Conrad and Officer Jacob Tuttle have been placed on administrative duty — standard procedure whenever a death in custody or officer-involved shooting occurs — while the State Bureau of Investigation investigates the case. O’Neill warned City Attorney Angela Carmon in a Dec. 10 email that he would not permit the video to be released, adding that his objection is shared by the lawyer assigned to represent at least one of the officers involved in the incident. O’Neill cited prosecutorial rules under state law, which prevent law enforcement agents from making “extrajudicial comments that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused.” He added that releasing the video “may more specifically be viewed as interfering with an ongoing investigation and tampering with evidence that is the property of this office.” O’Neill concluded, “There is no doubt that the courts would agree that the evidence contained on the Axon cameras from last night’s in-custody death investigation, belongs to the prosecutor’s office, and it would similarly be protected for the benefit of any defendant, if in fact, any criminal charges arose. I hope that it will not be necessary for the state of North Carolina, the lawyers currently representing the officers, and the people of this state that we represent from filing an order with the court sealing the evidence, but this this office has and always will protect
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the integrity of an investigation and the right for the accused to have a fair trial.” Noting that the SBI investigation could take weeks or months considering the time required for a toxicology report, Garrity said he hopes the video can be released before then, adding, “The sooner the better.” Garrity said O’Neill has spoken with Mayor Joines “and committed to try to move it as quickly as possible.” As demands from community leaders for transparency have mounted in Winston-Salem, discussion has centered on whether release of the video would compromise the ongoing investigation as opposed to whether the police might shield it as a personnel record. Garrity and Carmon indicated they were familiar with the case of Chieudi Thi Vo, a 47-year-old Vietnamese woman who was killed by a police officer in Greensboro in March 2014. In that case, Greensboro police and city officials refused to release the video even after Officer Timothy Bloch was cleared of wrongdoing, claiming that it was protected as a personnel record. “I know Greensboro has argued that,” Carmon said. “I have not formulated a definitive opinion on that. “I would look at some of the companion cities,” she added, “and look at once they’ve gotten over the evidentiary issue, whether it’s considered a personnel record.”
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by Jordan Green
Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
Watching the public safety committee meeting on remote feed from the overflow room on Monday evening, fire Battalion Chief Shirese Moore and Firefighter RF McMillan nodded knowingly as city officials talked about the dramatic gap in pay between Winston-Salem and neighboring Triad cities, and the department’s difficulty in retaining talented employees. “We’ve lost several firefighters from past rookie schools,” McMillan said. “We’ve lost several young firefighters. We’ve had a lot of turnover. We’ve also lost guys with tenure. We’re talking about people with eight years or more of experience. “Many of us work another job so everything can come together,” he added. “Slowly the economy has turned around. It makes it hard to stay when you know there are other opportunities.” It’s easy to understand why. Starting pay for Winston-Salem firefighters is 9 percent less than the average for other Triad governments — including the cities of Greensboro and High Point, the town of Kernersville, and Forsyth and Guilford coun-
ties — according to a study released by the Winston-Salem Human Resources Department last week. Firefighter trainees in Winston-Salem earn 10 percent less than their counterparts. The stats aren’t much better for police officers and police trainees — 6 percent and 10 percent respectively. “A lot of the other jurisdictions have mechanisms for moving their salaries up even when there’s no market increase because they have steps and that sort of thing,” Human Resources Director Carmen Caruth told city council members on Monday. “Our salaries only move when there’s merit raises.” While the gap for starting firefighters and police officers in Winston-Salem is bad enough, it only widens over time, Caruth’s study reveals. Pay for Winston-Salem firefighters increases by 16 percent over their first five years on the job, while their counterparts in Kernersville see their pay go up 27 percent through annual adjustments to bring salaries up to market rate. High Point firefighters’ salaries increase by 28 percent through a program called “Career Ladder” that incentivizes them to get new certifications. The “Step Pay Plan” in Greensboro results in average salary growth of 21 percent. The picture is similar for police officers. The study indicates that the city of Winston-Salem loses 12 percent of its
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Winston-Salem elected officials signal determination to bring pay up for police and firefighters, who earn significantly less than their counterparts in Greensboro and High Point.
JORDAN GREEN
resents the Southwest Ward, urged his colleagues to considering implementing pay increases in January, which could cost the city anywhere from $309,750 to $929,250. Winston-Salem firefighters know their colleagues in neighboring cities well, McMillan said. Moore, who was born and raised in Winston-Salem, said that while she personally has no interest in changing jobs, it isn’t that hard to commute to High Point or Greensboro. “From a department standpoint,” McMillan said, “as you train people, as far as the camaraderie, getting on an apparatus and working together to get the job done….” Moore finished his sentence: “…you lose that cohesion.”
Up Front
Police and firefighters listen to Councilman Dan Besse talk about gaps in pay between Winston-Salem and other cities.
police officers and 10 percent of its firefighters every three years because of job opportunities, family relocation and other voluntary reasons. The study estimates that it could cost the city as much as $2.3 million to close the salary gap in the 2016-17 fiscal year. Council members expressed determination to address the disparity, and at least two indicated they would consider a tax increase to pay for it. “Citizens need to understand that times have changed, and we haven’t kept up with the change,” said Councilwoman Denise Adams, who represents the North Ward. “And now we’re struggling to keep the best of the best, whose training we have already paid for.” Councilman Dan Besse, who rep-
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Winston-Salem leaders vow to close pay gap with neighboring cities
11
Dec. 16 — 22, 2015
Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
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Police quietly prepare for a riot by Eric Ginsburg
Behind the scenes, the Greensboro Police Department has been preparing for “civil unrest,” assembling a little-known team to respond about a year ago. There is no mention of a “civil emergency unit” on the city of Greensboro’s website. Marikay Abuzuaiter, the chair of Greensboro City Council’s public safety committee, said she had never heard of it, and committee vice-chair Tony Wilkins doesn’t think he has either. “If I’ve been briefed on that I don’t recall,” Wilkins said, “but we get so many documents that I’m not going to say I’m not aware of it, but it doesn’t ring a bell.” The unit’s existence came to light through documents obtained by Triad City Beat in a public records request. Internal police emails repeatedly referred to the civil emergency unit, or CEU, but police spokesperson Susan Danielsen remained tight-lipped about the team in a Dec. 3 email to Triad City Beat. “We will decline the interview about the CEU,” Danielsen wrote, offering no explanation. After Triad City Beat responded by filing additional public-information requests regarding the unit and scheduled an interview with Capt. John E. Wolfe who oversees the special operations division, Danielsen canceled the interview with Wolfe but provided a statement and agreed to answer additional questions via email. “The mission of the civil emergency unit is to protect lives and property by maintaining community order during incidents of civil unrest through a contingency that uses specially trained and equipped personnel,” Danielsen wrote. “The unit can respond to civil disorders, natural disasters, search for [an] at-risk missing person or any catastrophic event that cannot be handled by the normal allotment of on-duty officers. “The need for a unit with this capability was illustrated during GPD’s support to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte,” she continued. “Members of the unit are all volunteers. They train together monthly. Again, the mission of the unit is to protect lives and
property.” In subsequent emails responding to follow-up questions, Danielsen said the civil emergency unit “is flexible and scalable,” adding that about 90 people in the department are trained to handle “civil emergencies” and that “the group may be used in whole or in part depending on the circumstances.” Danielsen said that assignments to special teams, including the civil emergency unit, are part of personnel records and thus couldn’t be released. She confirmed that for training and administrative purposes, the unit is under the command of Capt. Wolfe, and when deployed would be “under the operaFILE PHOTO tional control of the incident Greensboro police mobilize for a Black Lives Matter protest at Whole Foods in Greensboro earlier this year after the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. commander,” which would be pre-designated. in Ferguson or other clashes between rings and 100 baton o-rings. “If you are asking who heads the police and Black Lives Matter or other In an April 30 email, Capt. Wolfe CEU as part of its organizational protesters. said that the personnel equipment was structure during its employment, the “GPD, like many other police departthe only gear he was “interested in CEU does have a team leader,” Danments across the nation, watched and procuring at this time.” It totaled almost ielsen wrote. “If you are asking for the learned from events that unfolded in $17,500, and the department also name of that officer, it is protected from Ferguson, Baltimore and other cities,” purchased an LRAD 300x for $13,000 disclosure by law.” she wrote. “However, the decision to a couple months later. The LRAD Greensboro police “saw the need for staff and train a CEU came from the has several functions, according to the specially trained people” while providDNC.” department, one of which is crowd ing support for the 2012 Democratic In August 2015, the Charlotte CEU control. National Convention in Charlotte, was deployed to quell protests after the Danielsen said via email that the only Danielsen said. charges against officer Randall Kerequipment that has been purchased for The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Civil rick in the shooting death of Jonathan the civil emergency unit is “personal Emergency Unit is used to “provide seFerrell ended in a mistrial, according to protective gear to prevent officers from curity, traffic control and crowd control NBC Charlotte. getting injured by flying objects,” and during large events,” according to the Internal Greensboro Police Departalso said that the LRAD is not part of city-county website. ment emails obtained by Triad City Beat the CEU, but that the team “is only one “The unit is also utilized during times in a public-records request regarding of the units that may need the ability to of natural or other emergency situathe purchasing of a long-range acousclearly communicate over long distanctions,” it reads. tic device, or LRAD, earlier this year es.” But Greensboro’s unit wasn’t pulled uncovered the existence of GreensA brochure provided to the departtogether until more than two years boro’s civil emergency unit. The LRAD ment prior to purchasing the LRAD after the convention, and more closely purchasing request appeared in a explains that one of its functions allows aligned with the timing of confrontadocument titled “Civil Emergency Unit police to deter protesters or crowds. tions between police and protesters in Equipment List” that also lists requests “When LRAD’s deterrent tone is used Ferguson, Mo. after an officer shot and for “individual personnel equipment” at close range, protesters sense audible killed teenager Michael Brown. Danincluding 40 shin guards, 40 elbow discomfort, cover their ears and move ielsen said that the Greensboro Police pads, 100 gas-mask bags, 50 gear bags, away,” it reads. “Just the act of covering Department wasn’t motivated by events 100 forearm protectors, 100 baton snap ears with hands reduces the sound pres-
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said she’d learned about it within the last week — after Triad City Beat filed formal requests for information about the unit — and said she wanted to look into the matter to learn more. “I just know it exists,” she said. Councilman Barber said it’s part of a larger plan for thinking about how Greensboro would react to “occurrences like we’ve seen around the country,” and made vague references to recent “race related” incidents in other cities but declined to specifically mention unrest in places like Ferguson and Baltimore following officer-involved shootings. Barber added that it is important for the department to be proactive and develop a plan rather than just being reactive. Part of the plan Barber referred to has involved intentional meetings between city leaders and well-publicized public forums, but the other side — the one with riot gear, munitions and a civil emergency unit of up to 90 officers on a team that trains monthly — remained in the shadows for a year, only emerging now reluctantly.
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response email from Franks or Wolfe that didn’t explicitly mention the LRAD wouldn’t have been provided. The city has not yet provided any documents from subsequent public-records requests filed on Dec. 4 about the civil emergency unit. According to a Bureau of Justice Assistance with the US Justice Department report on the Democratic National Convention, Charlotte’s civil emergency unit in Charlotte made good use of bicycles, motorcycles and four-person Kawasaki Mules. “These vehicles were paramount to controlling crowds,” it reads, adding that among other things, they were used as physical barricades to direct crowds, made the squad look bigger, and were “outfitted with additional response equipment to respond/attend to civil unrest situations.” Though Greensboro City Council members Abuzuaiter and Wilkins were either unaware of or couldn’t remember hearing about the civil emergency unit, the two other council members on the public safety committee had, but neither said they knew many details. On Dec. 10, Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson
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refers to and Danielsen couldn’t be immediately reached for comment to clarify, though it potentially refers to someone responsible for utilizing tear gas or smoke grenades. The memo argues that incorporating ATVs, an enclosed trailer and a vehicle to pull the trailer into the civil emergency unit would create several benefits including blocking intersections, supplying hydration or equipment and “handling munitions storage for grenadiers.” And one of the ATVs would be equipped with a mount for the LRAD system, it says. A Nov. 2 email from Cpl. Goodykoontz to Capt. Jonathan Franks — who championed the LRAD’s purchase — and Capt. Wolfe said the unit wanted a Yahama ATV that is heavier and could support the LRAD as well as two Polaris ATVs. “We are looking at acquiring the following things from the ATV team and turn them over to the CEU for use with your approval,” Goodykoontz said. Because Triad City Beat obtained the email and preceding memo as part of a public-records request pertaining to the department’s LRAD purchase, any
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sure level by approximately 25dB and could prevent protesters from throwing projectiles.” A Nov. 10 draft of the rules for operating the LRAD —sent by Capt. Wolfe — states that the device would be the responsibility of the team leader of the civil emergency unit “or his designee,” and would “be stored and inventoried as part of CEU equipment.” Danielsen said that, “working drafts are subject to change” and emphasized again that multiple units may need to use the LRAD’s communications features. The standard operating procedure for the device hasn’t been finalized yet, she said. An internal Sept. 28 memo to Wolfe from “Corporal EA Goodykoontz, Civil Emergency Unit” proposes incorporating an ATV component into the CEU and further explains the unit’s functioning. “The CEU is comprised of several sub-components with specialized training in each section,” the memo reads. “The CEU has a medic team, arrest team, mobile field force team, grenadier team, and a bike team component.” It is unclear exactly what “grenadier”
Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
13
Dec. 16 — 22, 2015
Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Good Sport Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote
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OPINION EDITORIAL
Cops on a new beat Travis Page was young — just 31 — when he died in police custody in Winston-Salem last week. And like so many other Americans who have suffered the same fate, he was black. In satisfying these requirements, Page’s death taps into a source of national outrage and shame. Too many young, black men die at the hands of law enforcement — it has ever been thus in the United States. But in this new century what was once an epidemic of isolated incidents across the country has become a violent tapestry held together by cell-phone video and social media posts. People now have the ability to connect the dots, and they are enraged by the picture that emerges. Parallel to the movement that has grown in response to police killings is an increasing militarization of our police departments — see Eric Ginsburg’s piece on the new Greensboro riot squad on page 12 — and the use of technology to gather evidence, which is explored further in Jordan Green’s page 10 article on the body-camera footage of Page’s death, the release of which the district attorney is resisting, even though both the mayor and city manager are laudably calling for it. It’s a misstep by the district attorney, which unlike the city administration has not realized the adjusted parameters for police work wrought largely by technology, but also by changing attitudes among government and the public. Transparency can no longer be achieved at the discretion of police departments — both for the protection of citizens and the officers themselves, who shouldn’t fear transparency if they’ve acted in accordance with the dictates of their duties. And new techniques must be espoused to right institutional wrongs. Consider the case in Greensboro, where in response to publicized numbers showing that black people in the city were getting pulled over at a rate alarmingly higher than that of whites, the order came from the top down: No more traffic stops for minor vehicle infractions. It’s rare, in our experience, when a police department does something meaningful in the face of legitimate criticism. And in doing so, Greensboro’s department has made a move towards becoming a modern police force.
CITIZEN GREEN
Let us now condemn famous men It’s not exactly the stuff of a blockbuster action movie. At the 1:55 mark in the 15-minute dash-cam video, NC State Trooper JD Allred’s cruiser swings out into traffic on Main Street in Archdale. At 2:05 you can hear the cruiser’s siren activate and the by Jordan Green vehicle accelerate. Around 2:20, Rep. Cecil Brockman’s black BMW comes into view and eight seconds later the cruiser is right behind the state rep’s car. After another 10 seconds, Brockman merges into the passing lane and keeps driving. As the trooper stays on Brockman’s tail, he appears to slow down and after 13 seconds pulls off onto a side road and comes to a stop. Standing on its own, the tape — which was leaked to WBTV News in Charlotte — puts Brockman, a Democrat who represents District 60 that stretches through urban portions of High Point and Greensboro, in a pretty bad light: Soon after Trooper Allred, who is white, approaches his window, Brockman mentions that he’s a state representative. Then seven minutes into the encounter, Brockman can be heard in the video saying, “I just think it’s amazing that you can really write a ticket to a state representative who was literally at the First Citizens Bank and traveled just to here and then you guys think this is doing any kind — I don’t know what you think you’re doing because this is very frustrating. I can’t even leave First Citizens Bank and have a simple mind lapse and you guys think it’s okay to write me a ticket. That’s amazing. I’m very dumbfounded and confused as to how you guys think you’re doing justice. We’re supposed to be partners together.” The state lawmaker, who is black, continues: “I don’t get this. It’s like no kind of anything. And I think if I was a white representative, you guys would have been like, ‘Okay, I’m sorry, sir. Sorry about that.’” WBTV published the video on Dec. 11. On Sunday, Sgt. Danny Jenkins, president of the NC Troopers Association, posted a “call to action” on the association’s Facebook page urging “all our trooper and law enforcement supporters to demand his resignation. “He falsely accused a trooper of mistreating him when he was clearly attempting to use his position as a lawmaker to bully the trooper into not issuing a ticket,” the post continues. After sharing the lawmaker’s email and phone number, Sgt. Jenkins signs off: “Let’s make him famous.” There’s more to the story than what the tape shows, Brockman says. He told me during a phone conversation on Monday that it was a mistake for him to bring his status as a state lawmaker into the conversation with Trooper Allred when he was trying to explain why he felt like he was being mistreated. Chalk it up to his anger getting the better of him and having trouble articulating himself, he said.
Although the video shows two troopers on the scene, Brockman contends that when he pulled over there were three units behind him. “I was not driving erratically; I was not speeding,” Brockman told me. “I don’t think the threat level would be so high if I was a person of another color.” Brockman also said his outburst at the end of the stop came after the troopers accused him of stealing his own car. That’s not in the video. Around the 5-minute mark, Trooper Allred can be heard remarking from inside his vehicle that he doesn’t know how to run Brockman’s tag. Thirty seconds later the trooper returns to Brockman’s vehicle and can be seen checking the VIN number on his windshield and then speaking to him, but the audio stays in the trooper’s car instead of following him. That’s when Brockman says the trooper suggested he had stolen the car. Two minutes and 45 seconds of conversation between Allred and Brockman is unrecorded, but when the trooper returns the lawmaker’s license at the 9:52 mark, the audio picks up again. “Any time a young, African-American man dies, the reason given is that the police say they feel threatened,” Brockman told me. “We have to have a discussion about the threat level. It’s three state troopers for a seatbelt violation? It’s not okay to ask a young, black man if they stole the car…. You have to have reasons for that. If a state legislator had tags stolen, then it might be understandable. Don’t profile me. Unfortunately, that’s what happened.” I asked Jenkins if he thought it was appropriate for the troopers, who are employed by the state and work for the citizens, to intervene politically by calling for Brockman’s resignation. “Troopers are citizens of the state as well as we’re taxpayers,” he said. “Troopers are held to a high standard of conduct, and if we’re going to be held to a high standard, I think everyone should be held to that same high standard of conduct.” He also said, “If we don’t stand up and be the voice of reason, you would see a fine, young trooper being falsely accused and there would be no repercussions.” That’s fine as far as it goes, but it’s important to note that Brockman wasn’t the one who went public with the episode. Brockman said he was so upset about the way the stop was handled that he reached out to Jarret Burr, the legislative liaison for the NC Department of Public Safety. He asked to see the dash-cam video and to discuss the encounter. He never heard back from Burr, and the next he knew the video had been leaked to a TV station. The same day that the story aired, Rep. Justin Burr, a Republican lawmaker who is the brother of Jarret, tweeted, “Unbelievable. He should be ashamed of his behavior and accusations. Those state troopers were just doing their jobs.” Just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
IT JUST MIGHT WORK
Mandatory consent training
Carroll Leggett is a public relations professional in Winston-Salem.
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teachers are like that. Like my mentor, I tried to be a good teacher. My blood boils when I see petty politicians attack our public school system and demean our teachers. I ponder the injustice of it all — that successful people like Ben Folds give credit to their teachers for their success and yet teachers in our state are paid a pittance and made scapegoats. I opted for liberal arts as an undergraduate. I am a strong believer that is a time for inquiring. For questioning. For mental exploring. For learning to think. And for learning to express in words and in writing what one thinks. Phyllis Dunning helped Ben Folds begin that process at the high school level and encouraged him to include expression through music. And he remembers. It is grand to be remembered. Buies Creek, North Carolina, where I grew up and taught English for ever so short a time, is having its first Christmas parade this year. It has been organized on short notice and will be long on enthusiasm and probably short on marching bands, fancy floats, and the usual makings. Former students of mine, including Kenneth Upchurch who gives energy to the high school alumni association and plays Santa for Toys for Tots in the region, are the mainsprings. They have invited me, along with their other former teachers, to participate in the parade. I am honored and will meet them at 7 p.m. on Saturday at the firehouse. I have no idea what will happen next, but it will be fine with me if we just sit before the fireplace and have a glass of eggnog or spiced cider. It’s enough that something we said or did a half century ago made an impression, and that makes me happy at this season and throughout the year. By every measure, Ben Folds gave a great performance in Winston-Salem on Dec. 9. We thank him for that. But he did us a greater favor than just returning to his hometown to share his talent. He reminded us that public education is important, that teachers count, and that those great teachers, such as Phyllis Dunning, have lasting impact on the students who come through their classrooms. Applause!
Opinion
Fresh food & natural ingredients from Margarita’s garden
I confess. I had no clue what the buzz was about. I know next to nothing about pop culture and by Carroll Leggett had never, ever heard of local-boy-made-good Ben Folds before the Piedmont Wind Symphony announced he was coming to Winston-Salem to perform with Matthew Troy’s amazing group. I am still about as clueless, but I now have tremendous respect for Folds after he gave a shout-out to my neighbor and friend, Phyllis Dunning, his high school English teacher. Phyllis apparently didn’t teach classes; she taught students. Individual students. And she recognized something special and unique in Ben and gave him a way to express it. Ben still remembers it. Appreciates it. And has a special place in his heart for Phyllis Dunning who made a difference in his life. For a very short while a full half-century ago, I was a high school English teacher, also. It was one brief period in what I now consider a long and happy life. I went on to law school. Politics. Public relations. Writing. Far more than a boy from a small town in eastern North Carolina could reasonably expect from life. But looking back, I see that one year in the classroom with fewer than 100 students as one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I attended high school in the very classrooms where I later taught. I had good teachers who prepared me for college, for university and for the world. I think particularly about one English teacher. Like Phyllis Dunning, she knew there was more to learning than slavish devotion to textbooks. Her instruction in composition and grammar created the foundation for the skill that has served me all my life — writing. But she went further and brought the world into our classroom. She expanded our horizons, and she held our attention. And she got fired for it. The principal believed that the printed textbooks distributed by the county were the alpha and omega of teaching, and she believed all the world should be our textbook. Good
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and exploring what it means will allow for greater clarity in our actions, it will reduce harm and will foster an outlook that more regularly takes into consideration our impact on others. Consent could easily be incorporated into countless existing subjects taught in our schools. Teaching kindergarteners about unwanted touching, be it hitting or hugs, would address consent. A middle school history lesson about the Louisiana Purchase could dig deeper if students were asked to think about who did and did not consent to the deal, and what the implications are. And it sure as hell should be part of high-school health and sex-ed classes. If we were raised to consider consent, maybe people wouldn’t use photos without giving credit to the photographer as often, maybe people would ask before touching someone else’s hair or grabbing someone’s arm to examine tattoos, and maybe white hipsters would think more about how moving into Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn and trying to remake the historically black neighborhood in their own image might violate their new neighbors’ wishes. Or maybe not. But I have a hard time believing that incorporating an understanding of consent into mandatory school curriculums wouldn’t lead to fewer people committing “sexual” assault, and wouldn’t foster a culture that was more intentional and mindful than our current one. We need it desperately.
Up Front
Why is it that I didn’t explicitly learn about consent — at least the name for the by Eric Ginsburg concept — until college? And even then, it only arose thanks to my peers, and not the curriculum. Worse, how can it be that someone can pass through 17 years of formal education and, in many cases, still never come across the idea? When consent is raised, it seems to generally happen in the context of an attempt to acknowledge the difference between willing participation in sexual activity and unwanted assault (often called “sexual assault,” but considering that sex and rape are mutually exclusive categories, we kind of need better terminology here). But consent is about so much more than that. Through the framework of consent, we can more intentionally approach so many fundamental parts of human interaction. Asking the eternal internal question, “Does this person accept and welcome what I want to do to them?” and analyzing the various forms that consent can and should take will make us better friends, partners, colleagues and just people in general. It isn’t that consent looks the same in every scenario. Consent isn’t possible in plenty of circumstances — the point is that it would enhance countless others. Learning about the principle
Teachers are the true rock stars
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FRESH EYES
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Dec. 16 — 22, 2015
A long time ago… by Joe Scott
There are two kinds of people in the world: People who love Star Wars and people who are wrong.
But in the beginning there was just this silly little film, released without much ado or fanfare. It came to the Triad quietly, but quickly turned into a huge deal, the aftereffects of which are still being felt around these parts today.
Cover Story
Since Episode IV first hit theaters in 1977, Star Wars has
been a genuine phenomenon, a modern-day mythology that forever changed the genre of science fiction, the concept of the Hollywood blockbuster and the course of nerd history.
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Greensboro cosplayer Kenya Thompson reps Anakin Skywalker, her preferred Star Wars character. “Star Wars fans are both the best and the worst fans in the world,” she says.
cup factory with her mother who had worked there her entire life, and I was mesmerized and overwhelmed and completely and utterly infatuated with her. And my mom was like, ‘Oh s***, he’s not gonna go. He’s not gonna leave. He’s gonna stay here.’
The founder of the once legendary but now demolished Janus Theatre traveled to England and toured the studio where the film was being produced, according to Hammond Bennett’s son Bobby.
Not content to watch her son squander his imagination and potential, Johnson’s mother reached into his bedroom closet where she found copies of the popular filmmaking magazine American Cinematographer, and looked up the publication’s editor, Herb Lightman, on the masthead.
Bobby Bennett: My father actually was given a tour in the London studios. I don’t know why. We didn’t even know what Star Wars was at the time. But on the big sound stages, he saw the set-up for when the Millennium Falcon was in the Death Star. He saw the set that was made up, because they did a lot of running around on the soundstage for that. And when he saw that, he said, ‘You know, that looks like a film I want to get.’ To book the film, Hammond Bennett had to bid against other theaters and even install a Dolby stereo system inside the Janus. The latter proved a costly upfit since Star Wars was the first film that required the use this new sound technology. Fortunately, the financial risk paid off. Star Wars blew up in such a big way that his father had to play the film in as many as four theaters at a time, Bobby Bennett said. It played so often that the theater’s projectionists had to replace five or six different film reels after they were worn down by continuous wear and tear. By at the end of it all, the Janus screened the movie for an initial run of one year and three months, a number that would have been longer had the movie’s studio not concluded its run. Outside of those who worked on the film, one of the first people who saw actual screen footage of Star Wars in the entire world was filmmaker and UNC School of the Arts School of Filmmaking instructor Patrick Read Johnson. A native of Wadsworth, Ill., the 14-year-old Johnson had been making movies with a Super 8 camera since he was in elementary school. Johnson: I started borrowing my dad’s Super 8 camera while he was at work without his knowledge and began setting fire to my train set and blowing up things in the back yard and making Planet of the Apes movies at my friend’s house. A child of divorce, Johnson was set early on to leave his home for Hollywood to pursue a career in filmmaking, just like his heroes Steven Spielberg and special-effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull. But then Johnson met a girl. He met the girl. COURTESY PHOTO
Johnson: She had worked at the Solo plastic
Johnson: My mom just cold-calls this guy and says, ‘I’ve got this kid. All he knows and breathes and lives for is movies. If I put him on a plane out there, will you introduce him to Douglas Trumbull and Steven Spielberg and all these guys?’ And [Lightman] was like (sarcastically), ‘Of course I will. Of course I will ma’am. I will do anything I can do to help your son.’ And then he went ‘click.’ Two days later, the teenaged Johnson was knocking on the clubhouse door of American Cinematographer magazine. Johnson — who would later go on to direct a handful of major studio movies including Spaced Invaders (1990) and Angus (1995) — has fashioned this most unlikely, albeit completely true story into his latest feature film, 5-25-77. Named after the original release date of Star Wars, the autobiographical movie tells the story about how his fateful, weeklong trip to LA forever changed his life. Together, Johnson and Lightman visit Spielberg and Trumbull on the set of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The editor interviewed the filmmakers while Johnson got the chance to operate the movie’s spaceship. Lightman then attempted to persuade Johnson to strike out on his own for a tour of Universal Studios while he visited the set of another movie the following day. Johnson: He said, ‘You don’t want to go with me. It’s just a bunch of college kids in a warehouse in the valley and they’re doing it all wrong. It’s a space movie and — get this — it’s called Star Wars.’ We busted up laughing because the title was ridonkulous…. And I said, ‘You know, I came out here to see everything I could possibly see, so let me tag along.’ The duo visited the original offices of Industrial Light and Magic, where they were greeted by special-effects master and frequent George Lucas collaborator John Dykstra. Johnson recalls Dykstra as being a crazy man who talked a mile a minute. He was unable to share any still photographs from the movie, but offered the next best thing — a chance to watch an incomplete,
work-in-progress version of the film. Johnson: And he starts showing literally a rough cut of the movie, with no composites done. The star destroyer is up against a blue screen, and there’s no music. There’s no sound effects. You can hear Kenny Baker inside R2-D2 talking. You can see the grips outside the Millennium Falcon just shaking it. It’s just ridiculous, but it’s also amazing. It’s staggering.
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The first Triad resident to see any part of the first Star Wars film — Patient Zero if you will, of the cultural phenomenon that would rage almost 40 years after its 1976 theatrical release — would most certainly be the late Dr. Hammond Bennett.
Bennett says on his first proper viewing he was blown away by the movie’s finished sound effects. Bennett: I think we ran it the night before it came out. We had a full crowd. The opening of it is one of the most impressive openings of a movie ever. It still is. You got to remember that Dolby stereo was new. In the very beginning, it comes out with the 20th Century Fox drumroll, and that’s in stereo. And then it got quiet and it ran through the opening crawl, ‘In a galaxy far far away.’ Then it gets real quiet and at first it’s just stars, then it pans down onto a planet and all of the sudden that big star cruiser comes in from behind you and it would start on the rear speakers behind, and it just went, ‘Whoosh!’ And it went all the way up to the front speakers and you could tell. It was impressive. Despite Bennett and Johnson’s glowing initial reactions, the film did not earn entirely positive reviews. In his advanced review of the film, which ran in the Greensboro Record on June 21, 1977, columnist Charles Newman opined, “Star Wars is a three-scoop sundae with gobs of whipped cream and extra maraschino cherries. It’s sheer extravagance, utterly without higher significance, but delightful.” Months later, when it was clear that Star Wars was a runaway cultural phenomenon, Russ Edmonston, staff writer for the Greensboro Daily News, assailed the film in a think piece titled “Why is this plotless flick such a successful force?” The old guard had simply missed the point. Winston-Salem comic book artist Ben Towle says the plot of Star Wars is deceptively simple. Towle: I love the fact that you are just sort of dropped into this crazy environment and they don’t kind of explain everything. There’s just this understanding that you are a smart person and you will figure it out. Even if you’re just a smart kid. And I think that comes from Lucas watching a lot of [Japanese filmmaker Akira] Kurosawa movies. You can watch one of those things, and you don’t need to know about feudal Japan to know what’s going on.
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Dec. 16 — 22, 2015
Aside from the fact that great cinematic art does not require a plot in order to exist, Star Wars excelled at being a mashup of genre and character archetypes. Propelled by impeccable design aesthetics, a gloriously symphonic score by John Williams and, of course, innovative visual effects. With Star Wars, writer/director George Lucas had created a cinematic stir-fry, combining elements of space operas, family drama, Westerns and samurai movies, all on the extended platter of a vintage movie serial. And yes, the movie made a lot of money — both around the world as well as here in the Triad.
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Bennett: I remember people walking in [to the Janus Theatre] and yelling, ‘42!’ talking about how many times they had seen it. In comparison, Johnson had only managed to watch Star Wars in the theater a paltry 28 times. But he and his filmmaking friends made it their mission to ensure that everyone in their hometown had a chance Darth Vader never actually said, “Luke, I am your father.” But aficionados agree that The Empire Strikes Back is the to see the movie. most important film of the franchise to date. Johnson: I remember driving down the streets of Waukegan, Ill. on Scoop the Loop night, and asking people, ‘Have you seen Star Wars?’ And if they would say no we would take them and rush them over to the theater and pay their way and we would drag them in there and make them watch Star Wars. I was an acolyte. I was a monk. An empire of memories If Star Wars, which would later be retitled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, was left to be the first and only chapter in Lucas’ space opera, maybe film buffs would regard it the way we discuss beloved standalone sci-fi films like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Blade Runner. But according to Johnson, without the superior follow-up film Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars would not be the cultural phenomenon nor the expansive, sprawling space epic that it has become for generations of sci-fi nerds. Johnson: Empire is a masterpiece. Star Wars is a masterpiece in its own way. Had it not been for Empire, there would not have been anything else. Star Wars would have been it and it would have gone away. Empire is the film that created everything that has come since. The relationships and revelations of that film have created the groundwork of everything that has come after and there’s so much to mine from that, and they will and they are in Episode VII.
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One person who was especially drawn in by Empire’s tractor beam was Bret Parks, owner of Ssalefish Comics in Winston-Salem. His first connection to Star Wars was through a chance discovery of a Darth Vader action figure he found on the floor of a K-Mart.
Parks: And I pick it up and instantly think it’s the most awesome toy I have ever seen. I just remember begging my parents to buy it for me, So they did. It was my first Star Wars toy, but I had no idea what Star Wars was. I remember playing with it. I played with it in the car, I played with it at home, it was my favorite toy. And then I just remember a little bit of time later, someone says, ‘‘There’s a movie for those toys you like.’ My parents were like, ‘We’ll take you to see the movie,’ but I was scared. I didn’t know what Chewbacca sounded like, but I had the toy and I knew he was a monster. I knew they had guns and they had knives and I didn’t want to go because I was scared. Now 41, Parks is ashamed to admit that the kid version of himself passed on seeing Star Wars in 1977, as well as during its subsequent re-releases in 1978 and 1979. Parks: But then 1980 comes around and I’m 6. So I tell my dad I want to see the new Star Wars movie. And he’s like, ‘All right.’ Parks and his dad rolled to the former Reynolda Cinema, then a two-screen theater that later closed in 1996 and is now home to the Reynolda Manor Public Library. Parks: The tickets were sold out. And we didn’t have Fandango or pre-orders or pre-sales or anything like that. And if you were in that situation, you did one of two things: You went home, or you waited. And my dad actually offered to wait until the next showing. So the whole running time of the movie and the previews, we stood outside and we waited, and that’s how I saw my first Star Wars movie. The wait, which Parks described as a simple, albeit profound act of fatherly love, became the basis of “Strikes,”
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an autobiographical mini-comic book that Parks wrote. The book was illustrated by customer and fellow Star Wars fan Towle. Towle: As a kid, I really latched onto the visual aspects of Star Wars. I remember having, and I still have at my house, the script book. It has all those amazing Ralph McQuarrie concept drawings of stuff. And I remember being really fascinated by those, and I think somewhere in my brain was churning the idea that there’s somebody who draws this stuff before it turns into anything real, and that’s what their job was. I guess it was sort of the idea that there was such a thing as design and that things get designed. To add a stylistic flourish to Parks’ story, Towle reimagined the story with Parks and his late father inserted into key scenes in Empire Strikes Back. Towle: I kind of pitched him on the idea of, there being elements or beats in this story that are very similar to some of the beats in the movie. And I was like, ‘What if we incorporated sort of this fantasy setting where we inserted you and your dad into the world of Star Wars at certain points?’ That was my contribution to it. Parks green-lighted the idea, and the result is a 19-page comic book that is as beautiful as it is touching. As for the movie Empire itself, Parks says there’s no better gateway into the Star Wars universe. Parks: Empire was the best movie as a movie. Take the Star Wars out of it, get critical, and look at the technical aspects of the movie and Empire was the better movie. I think it’s just so exciting.
And when Darth Vader reveals that he’s Luke Skywalker’s father? Sure, now it’s just such a common fact. But at that time, in the movie theater, when Darth Vader says that, it was mind blowing. If we had an internet back then, it would have been destroyed! A phantom ‘failure’? The original Star Wars trilogy concluded satisfyingly with the release of the 1983 film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. In a wire story written by Dale Pollock that ran in the Greensboro News & Record on May 29, 1983, a burnedout George Lucas told Pollock he would be taking at least a two-year vacation before returning to the Star Wars franchise. Sixteen years and one Howard the Duck movie later, the long-awaited follow-up came in the form of the 1999 prequel Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Towle: When the first prequel came out, you couldn’t help but be excited about that. I saw the first one several times in the theater and it still had the visual stuff that I liked a lot. I do remember liking it and parts of it, but I do distinctly remember when the film started rolling and you heard that trumpet herald and that crawl with the letters, and when the thing was over, and it just stopped, there was just silence in the theater and people kind of got up and left, and I thought, Well that’s kind of weird. Parks: So I saw the movie with my friends, and we’re hanging out at the movie theater after the movie, talking. And no one wanted to say that it was horrible. I kept hearing over and over, people were saying, ‘Darth Maul was awesome.’ Or, ‘That pod race, well that was something.’ But no one wanted to talk about how awkward and just not good it was. And I really did think it was horrible. Jermaine Exum can remember the exact moment when he stopped caring about Star Wars. The co-manager of Acme Comics in Greensboro had no issue with the poorly regarded first Star Wars prequel. He also managed to endure its dull, tedious follow-up Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. For Exum, the straw that broke the Wookiee’s back was Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Jedi are being exterminated by Stormtroopers. A group of child Jedi trainees — known as “younglings” — are cowering in their temple only to be viciously mowed down by Anakin Skywalker. Exum: There’s a variety of heroes to be had in the original [Star Wars] movies. Maybe you’re a Han Solo guy. Maybe you really like the droids. Maybe you like Lando Calrissian. Maybe you like Princess Leia or Luke Skywalker.
In the prequels, you really didn’t have that variety. You either like Obi Wan Kenobi or you like Anakin. And if you did like Anakin, you had to deal with him participating in some pretty dark content for any fantasy/sci-fi series.
with the sequence because Boyega is black and his character Finn, is ostensibly one of the main characters in The Force Awakens, the newest film in a movie franchise dominated almost entirely by white on-screen protagonists.
He basically kills his fan base. That’s how I’ve always looked at that scene. Kids at that time really liked his character and connected to him because that was what was available. He was the young guy, he was the kid. And sometimes younger audiences will see something like that and say, ‘Hey, that’s the kid.’
Greensboro cosplayer Kenya Thompson knows the myopic and sometimes overtly racist fanboy criticisms that Boyega faces all too well. An African-American costume designer and nerd entrepreneur who grew up on a steady diet of science fiction and comic book superheroes, she has taken flack at fan conventions in the past for cosplaying as characters who are white or male. She accomplishes both with her most polished cosplay inspired by Star Wars — the young, morally flawed Star Wars prequel hero Anakin Skywalker, who was played by Hayden Christensen in the films.
The story became so far removed from what I thought it would be or whatever I was hoping it would be that, for a long time, I completely stopped thinking about Star Wars — to the point where I couldn’t even remember some characters’ names. But not everyone hated the prequels. There are adults today who first watched the prequels when they were kids — or “Jar-Jar babies” — and considered the prequels to be a perfect way to spend time in a dark theater. Brittini Harbin, a life-long sci-fi/fantasy and comic book nerd and expert at the Apple Store in Greensboro, is one of these so-called Jar-Jar babies. Harbin was 10-years old when The Phantom Menace hit theaters. Harbin: When the new ones came out in theaters, we went of course. And for the first two, I went with my family. And for the third, I went with a friend. And so it kind of represented the transition from being a kid-kid and starting to do things on your own. Everyone now will talk about how bad they were, but those were the new ones to us. We saw those in the theaters, and at the time, I did like those characters and did think those movies were better. But now that I’m not 13, I know that they are not better. And it’s funny. At the end of the last movie, the guy sitting in front of us kind of stood up and he was like, ‘And you can just tell there’s gonna be a sequel!’ My friend Jamie and I laughed really hard, and it was probably rude, but thinking back, we knew what was coming up after that. These were prequels, but he had no idea. Parks: I realized those movies were not made for me. Episode I, II and III, they were not made for a guy who is 40 years old right now who loved Star Wars all his life. They were made for kids who wouldn’t think Jar-Jar is stupid. A ‘New Hope’ The first scene in the teaser trailer for the newest Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, is one that some fans did not expect to see: The camera opens on a desert landscape, then suddenly an out-of-breath character played by John Boyega jumps into the frame. Many fans beefed with the brief sequence because the relatively unknown Boyega is black and was dressed as a Stormtrooper, one of an infinite squad that the Star Wars mythology posits are footsoldiers cloned from Jango Fett (Boba’s dad), a character played by Maori actor Temuera Morrison. Even more shamefully, some fans were upset
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It’s not how a movie ends. Sure we knew another movie was happening, but it was those strange feelings that you felt like your friends were in trouble and you wanted to help them but you couldn’t do anything for a couple of years. It really stayed with you.
Thompson: People don’t like it when things aren’t the way that they think it should be, and Star Wars fans are both the best fans and the worst fans in the world. They can be the worst, because some can be very picky about what they want to see and what they want to experience. They get comfortable. And I think because Star Wars fans can be so set in their ways, the Star Wars franchise as a whole has become stagnant, almost to the point of death. According to Thompson, the addition of a black male leading character into the Star Wars cinematic cannon will inject new life into the film series as well as embolden young children of color who might have previously felt shut out by mainstream genre films. Thompson: Having young kids, particularly African-American or kids of color in general, to have someone to look at and say, ‘Oh my God, he’s going through this struggle!’ And then in real life, face an obstacle or something that they have to deal with, they will be able to say, ‘Well you know what? If Finn can do it, I can do it.’ So that very positive reinforcement I think will be great. With new characters and story backed by an all-new creative team that includes producer Kathleen Kennedy and Star Trek and “Lost” director JJ Abrams, even Johnson, the self-described “first fan” of Star Wars cannot help but be excited. Johnson: Kathy Kennedy and JJ Abrams are going to do an amazing film. I have no doubt in my mind that what is coming is going to be one of the best, and I’ve already said this in print, it might be the best Star Wars movie. And that’s a big claim, but I actually believe its possible that it might be the best. As for older fans like Exum who felt burned by the less-than-spectacular prequels, if they had to sum up their expectations for The Force Awakens in one word, that would most certainly have to be “redemption.” Exum: I want to be excited about the Star Wars movies again. I want them to be something that sparks a new generation of young people to get into science fiction and science fantasy. Bare minimum, that’s what I want.
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Dec. 16 — 22, 2015
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Not a fancy date, but it could be: Dinner at Diamondback by Eric Ginsburg
his can’t be right, I thought to myself as I followed my phone’s navigation through winding residential streets not far from Wake Forest University. I must have entered the address wrong. But at the last possible curve in the road before supposedly arriving at my destination, a small commercial complex with a couple of storefronts came into view. I had slowed my car to a crawl at this point but still didn’t see a sign for a restaurant, only what looked like a private bar with two dapper gents standing out front and sharing a cigar. There’s no way, I thought as I parked around the corner, behind a BMW and directly in front of a few sizeable homes. This can’t be Diamondback Grill. When a friend recommended one of his go-to Winston-Salem restaurants, he made Diamondback Grill sound like a low-key spot to grab a sandwich that might possess a little pizzazz, and said something about farm-to-table ingredients. I’d pictured a neighborhood spot, yes, but a dive, or at most something upscale yet casual like Emerywood Fine Foods in High Point. With that in mind, I invited my friend Andrew to join me for a bite so we could catch up while trying something new. As soon as I walked in, a couple minutes before my friend, I immediately thought, This is going to look like an awkward date, and Andrew’s going to be wondering ERIC GINSBURG The scallop salad with pieces of grapefruit proved to be a worthwhile special. why the hell I nonchalantly invited him to a place with $23 grilled swordfish and pork chop specials. But Andrew’s a cool dude, and appeared unfazed by recommended this place: fresh, local ingredients inof almonds and pepper — are a great starter to share, the white tablecloths and clientele that overwhelmcluding a strong selection of seafood but also comfort not pretentious or classless but right in the middle, ingly looked dressy enough to be at a wedding recepitems like veggie lasagna and shrimp & grits, making ideal for a friendly meal or a date alike. tion. I immediately made a joke about it, and pointed it easy to show up regularly and have widely varying And if the well prepared scallop and unique and out that the menu also contained a $10 sloppy Joe experiences. satisfying pairing with grapefruit is any indication of or $9 turkey, apple and brie sandwich to balance the The quinoa bowl with artichokes, roasted beets and how this kitchen handles seafood (which takes up a scales. herbed cashew cheese tempted me, but on our server’s considerable amount of the menu), then sign me up. The large television behind him showing the Boston recommendation, I ordered the sea-scallop salad spePatrons crowded Diamondback Grill on a recent Celtics game and the lively mood in the room helped, cial, which came with cranberries and chunks of grapeFriday night, likely the reasons that orders took longer too, and we were seated on what appeared to be the fruit. And I threw in the enticing Devils on Horseback than expected to emerge from the kitchen. And if I more casual half of the restaurant. — maple bacon wrapped around raw almonds, gournay hadn’t had somewhere to be, I would’ve tried to conRegardless of what anyone expects on their first trip cheese and peppadew pepper vince Andrew that we should order another round of to Winston-Salem’s Diamondback topped with house sriracha — as beers, pick a shared plate or two, and stick around for Grill, they probably won’t antician appetizer. a little while. Visit Diamondback Grill at pate the scope and versatility of Andrew ordered the baked kale 751 N. Avalon Ave. (W-S) or the restaurant without a careful and beet chips to share; I’m glad Pick of the Week account from someone who’s at diamondbackgrill.com. he did, especially thanks to the Testing, testing, one, tuna, brie already been. A close read of the beet chips, which were firmer and Test Kitchen Trivia @ the Marshall Free House (GSO), menu on Diamondback’s website more flavorful. And as I imag7 p.m. will help — there’s lump-crab hushpuppies, seared yelined after taking in the menu before he arrived, he Executive Chef Jay Price knows more than anylowfin tuna, a quesadilla of the day and oyster nachos, gravitated towards the sandwich section, opting for one that a good meal is all about the last-minute and that’s just a partial listing of the “snacks” section. the blackened chicken tacos. They proved to be tasty, tweaks. That’s why the menu for this trivia night Where else around here can you order a vegan burmuch more so than the accompanying sweet potato is all up to the whim of chef. He’s preparing small rito, Paleo zucchini noodles, grilled Norwegian salmon fries, but didn’t hold together well. plates, “testing” them on the audience, while quesand hazelnut picada or a sloppy Joe? Plus the menu But my choices really delivered. tions are answered and Scottish comedian Mick lists four taco options, a filet mignon salad and baked I still wish I’d ordered the lump-crab hushpuppies, McKenna does his routine. Visit marshallfreehouse. kale and beet chips. but the Devils on Horseback — a variation on a dish I’ve com for more information. Scouring the menu, I could see why someone had had before by the same name with figs or dates instead
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with an exact sense of how many 64-ounce growlers we needed, but considering the shop’s buy-one-get-one-halfoff deal on Saturdays, we decided to round out these five with a sixth. Dick, our advertising foot soldier, loves hoppy beers, Brian said, and with a nudge from the guy working behind the bar towards a more expensive choice, we picked Wicked Weed’s popular Pernicious IPA, one of the only North Carolina beers to take home a gold or silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival this year. Beer — more popular than box wine at the It wasn’t clear until Triad City Beat holiday party. the Triad City Beat holiday party — celebrated on the seventh night of Hanukkah with Christmas and New Years looming — that we’d gone overboard. With the Pernicious quickly opened and left easily accessible on the bar top at our house party, Foothills’ IPA was overlooked. And at 8.7 percent (compared to 7.6 for the Wicked Weed brew or just 4.7 for the Flying Circus), some people may have passed on it more intentionally. In our attempt at diversity of beers, I picked a sour that made at least one attendee pucker, and nobody ended up pouring a pint besides me. It didn’t help that someone showed up with North Carolina spirits, including gin from Sutler’s and Topo and Defiant whisky in addition to the rum we provided. But I’m not complaining; I took the Deep River, Foothills and what little remained of the Preyer home. And when I brought the local IPA to a fish-fry Panthers-watching party the next day and the older crowd preferred Natural Ice, that was all right by me, too.
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The supply of Great Lakes Christmas Ale started to dwindle first, which makes sense considering we opened the growler prior to the other five, before most people showed up. And, to be fair, this was a holiday party, so what did we expect? When my girlfriend Kacie and I arrived with the beer and opened it not long after, Brian’s kids were already wailing on Guitar Hero in the basement, Mary still stood over the stove — readying mini ham biscuits, I believe — and most of the Triad City Beat family hadn’t made their way over yet. Ours is a big team, especially considering the cramped size of our office. Several of the people behind this publication work remotely, but with their partners and a few kids in tow, plus a few outside near-and-dear friends coming, Brian and I struggled to anticipate our guests’ drinking habits. We snagged a few boxes o’ wine — two reds and a white, just in case — and figured our publisher Allen and his partner would have plenty in reserve in case of emergency. We picked up some dark rum to add to the hot mulled cider that Allen would provide, and more than enough soda for the kids and sober adults who’d be in attendance. But what should we do about beer? Our first good move, which Brian deserves the credit for, was heading to Gate City Growlers, a bottle shop next to 1618 Wine Lounge on Greensboro’s Battleground Avenue with enough draft lines that I could actually choose between two sours. Brian is sober, but he put in his share of drinking early in life, working behind the bar in New Orleans among other misadventures, and his nose proved to be enough to help guide our expedition. We nabbed the two Triad options on draft — Foothills’ December IPA of the Month and Preyer’s new vanilla porter. With the ends of the beer spectrum set, we attempted to fill in the middle while pursuing variety, adding the Flying Circus hefeweizen from Check Six Brewing in Southport, NC, the Christmas Ale and the Sunnyvale Berliner Weiss sour beer from Deep River Brewing in Clayton, NC. Brian and I hadn’t even showed up
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Dec. 16 — 22, 2015
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Amplifier, champion of music scene, retires from print after two years by Jordan Green
he’s not necessarily the first person you notice in the room. Coolly surveying the scene from behind a merch table in the back, the delicate features of her face are a mask of self-possession and awareness like a figure in a Vermeer painting. She’s easy to overlook amidst the scrum of aficionados hovering around the band, losing themselves in the music or greeting old friends at New York Pizza. Since 2013, Jen Hasty has been producing Amplifier magazine, a publication with a finger on the pulse of Greensboro’s music scene that expanded across the state from Wilmington to Boone in short order. More than a fanzine, Amplifier has cast a wide net beyond local bands, also shining a spotlight on noteworthy ventures like the Piedmont Print Co-op, activist efforts like Queer People of Color Collective, and a local venue’s challenges with law enforcement due to exceeding capacity. “The idea was finding that band that you really get into, and taking something you love and writing about it,” Hasty says during a recent interview at Tate Street Coffee. “There are some really great bands out there, and I think they’re kind of overlooked in a town like this. Everything is in cliques, and you’ll find this incredible band that only has 20 people at their shows. I think that’s why we started Amplifier — to give them the exposure.” Now, Hasty is retiring Amplifier as a print product, although the publication will maintain a digital presence. Hasty and her collective of writers and photographers have always marked the release of each new issue with live-music showcases, and the final issue is no exception. The knowledge that this is the last gathering has drawn a capacity crowd, and the room vibrates with the sense that this is the only place to be in Greensboro on this Friday night. It doesn’t hurt that the first band on the lineup, LeBaron, is kicking ass with an ambient and noisy sound that calls to mind an electrical storm. Hasty started Amplifier as a recent UNCG graduate with an English degree stuck in an unsatisfying 8-5 office job, and the effort directly led to her hiring as an associate editor at Pace Communications, so in one sense the venture has served its purpose. But Hasty is quick to clarify that, while she loves her job at Pace and feels grateful to have it, the marketing work for corporate clients that provides her with a livelihood is no substitute for the creative fulfillment she’s experienced through Amplifier. “If we had the money to sustain it, we wouldn’t be having a final issue show,” she says. “I need to be able to move on with my life, and do some things like a normal adult. There are bills I haven’t been able to pay. So it’s more like a responsible decision than anything else.” Hasty paid for the magazine out of pocket, with
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print runs totaling anywhere from $300 to $600. She priced each copy at $7, estimating that to actually cover costs she would have needed to charge $10 to $15. The final issue release party at New York Pizza on Dec. 11 would, in fact, prove to be the first time the magazine ever broke even. Hasty tried selling advertising to defray costs, she says, with only mixed results. She’s the first to admit that she isn’t the best businessperson: Even the issue release parties were more geared towards garnering exposure for the JORDAN GREEN Amplifier publisher Jen Hasty in front of New York Pizza in bands than promoting Greensboro, where the publication held its release party on Dec. 11. the magazine. “We don’t push our publication and as a figurative home for the music stuff,” Hasty says. “We’re there to support the bands. scene, but Hasty says interest seemed to diminish We want people to buy the bands’ merch.” after the fifth issue release show at the Green Bean in Among the many epiphanies as a publisher and November 2013. promoter with discovering new talent, Hasty menShe made the decision to retire the magazine after tioned the first show the magazine promoted outside the most recent show at the Green Bean in September. of Greensboro, at the BlackCat Burrito in Boone in It was a relatively small crowd — only about 50 people February 2015. — and the magazine didn’t draw much interest, Hasty “This band ET Anderson — they’re incredible,” Hasty says. Worse, the draw from the door, which went says. “Ivadell came to me; they said, ‘This band is directly to the bands, was paltry. touring with us. Can we get them on the bill?’ It was “I think it’s hard to keep people’s interest in this at the BlackCat. It was rainy and cold, and there was town,” Hasty says. “I wish more people understood ice on the ground outside. It’s concerts like this where that saying that you don’t realize something is valucareers in journalism make it worth it. No one in the able until it’s gone. It seems like people wanted to care room had ever heard this band except for the couple of about it after we told people it was gone.” people who they came with. A hundred people heard them. You’ve booked a show, and introduced all these Pick of the Week people to this band. That was the first show out of The other Christmas classic town, and it was packed. People knew who we were. It Transyberiandorkestra II @ Krankies Coffee (W-S), was inspiring.” Saturday 9 p.m. The Amplifier banner quickly attracted not only If experimental-doom-metal is not your thing, talented contributors but bands hoping some of the that’s okay. This play is mostly about sticking it magazine’s magic would rub off. to mainstream Christmas, and Primovanhalen “We had this brand of quality people that are is as good as any a band to rise to the task. And talented and businesses that are worthwhile,” Hasty they’re donating all of the proceeds to the Animal says. “We would always have people in bands calling Adoption and Rescue Foundation — did the Trans us up and asking if they could be in the magazine or if Siberian Orchestra ever do that? This is a commuwe could put them on the bill for a show. That’s the nity-driven play and for the occasion the Krankies hardest part is telling people no.” stage is turning into a winter wonderland. For more Amplifier in its first year generated significant exciteinformation visit krankiescoffee.com. ment, both as a stylishly designed and smartly curated
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Candle Tea lights up Old Salem Christmas season by Daniel Wirtheim
ne of the sisters poured a mix of hot beeswax and tallow, or animal lard, into a tin mold that held eight of the skinny candles and passed it along. The next sister in the assembly line used a metal rod with a hook affixed to the end to pull a cotton wick through each melted stick then placed the mold in the windowsill to congeal. Thousands of these beeswax candles will be lit during the Christmas Eve Lovefeast candle services at Home Moravian Church in Old Salem. As the tradition goes, members of the church’s Women’s Fellowship hosted six days of Candle Tea in the first two weeks of December to beckon in the Old Salem Christmas season. “Sisters” are what the Women’s Fellowship volunteers call one another during the candle tea. They dress in 18th Century garb and enact traditions of the Moravian church that date back 200 years, like baking cookies and singing hymns. It was the early Moravians who learned that cutting the beeswax with tallow allows the candles to burn smoother and longer. As one cooled candle mold is taken from the windowsill, it’s passed down the line to a sister who uses a knife to chip away some residual wax until eight candles are dangling from their wicks, for a group of children to see. Sarah Hunter, Chair of the Candle Tea Committee, said that of the more than 11,000 visitors to attend the DANIEL WIRTHEIM Thousands of the beeswax and tallow candles will be lit at the Christmas Eve Lovefeast. Candle Tea this year, scout groups and school groups make up the majority. Meanwhile in an upstairs chapel room, called by it’s “putz,” sits in the Basement of the Single Brothers’ Children follow a slightly different route than the German name “saal,” a congregation of about 50 sang House, which provided the perfect cold storage space adult visitors. The young ones watch a nativity scene to the sound of a 1798 Tannenbeg pipe organ. for hanging meats, said one Candle Tea guide, Marcia while the adults sing in a congregation. The children It’s the smaller of two organs created by David TanPhilips. snack on Moravian sugar cookies while the older attennenberg, a master organ maker sometimes cited as the Warm yellow lights shone through the windows dants sample sugar cakes and a twice-brewed coffee most important organ maker of his time. The younger, of the balsa wood and cardboard houses covered in with sugar and cream. larger organ is housed in the Old Salem Visitors center. marble dust to look like snow as Despite it’s name, there is no The Tannenberg is the sound of Christmas. Philips expressed points of interest tea at a Candle Tea. It was in 1949 About 10 feet of wall area is covered in a row of to a group of elementary school Take part in the Christwhen the women’s auxiliary to the pipes, as a sister controls the pressure-powered pipes students. church combined a showing of the mas Eve Lovefeast at the from her seat at the organ, facing the crowd who sang, There’s the shop where iron tools miniature Christmas village with a Home Moravian Church in were made, the small, shed-like “Noel, noel, born is the king of Israel.” candlemaking demonstration that Old Salem or by streambuilding where the musicians the name was coined, said Hunter. practiced, the firehouse, the Single “Back in the day women always ing the service online at Sisters and Single Brothers’ House, had afternoon tea together so they homemoravian.org. Pick of the Week all laid across 30 feet of table. called it ‘Candle Tea.’” According to Philips, residents of History lesson A decorations committee placed 18th Century Salem were categorized into choirs, meanSisters in Flight @ the New Winston Museum (W-S), luscious wreaths throughout the home. The wreaths ing groups based on gender and marital status. The Thursday 5:30 p.m. display objects important to the Old Salem MoraSingle Brothers’ House, the site of the current Candle Even today, aviation is a bit of a boys club, but vians. Cotton and cayenne peppers were tied into a Tea and putz, is where the unmarried men lived, before more than 30 years ago it was extremely rare to see wreath behind the candlemakers. Cinnamon, pheasant meeting appropriate ladies from the Single Sisters’ a female pilot. To discuss what it was like to be one feathers and gourds from one in the kitchen and on House, after which the townspeople would build the two aviators and a flight attendent from Piedmont the stairwell okra and fungi were included. According new couples homes of their own. Airlines (which merged into US Airways in 1989), to Hunter, these uncharacteristically Christmas items The putz is the last item of the tour for school and share their memories. Michele Gillespie, a historian were extremely important to the Old Salem Morivians scout groups. They see a nativity scene as a sister reads at Wake Forest University, moderates the discusof the 18th Century. the story of Christmas from scripture. sion. You can find more details at newwinston.org. A miniature village, called by its German name
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Zero to hero
igh Point University has been on a roll lately. For years, the university slogged along quietly without glitz or glamor. But then, their campus and student life received attention from by Anthony Harrison national outlets on slow news weeks. Tall tales of free ice cream, gorgeous fountains, gourmet steak dinners and other swag made attending HPU seem as much like a carnival cruise as it is a respected academic institution. Within a decade, HPU went from a Nowheresville college to one of the swankiest and most notorious private universities in the country. Just as with the grounds and campus life, High Point University began investing in the future of their athletic program. The Panthers men’s basketball team may exemplify this rise from relative ashes. HPU hosted the UNCG Spartans in the Millis Center for a Big South v. Southern Conference showdown on Dec. 9. The game wound up being a showcase of HPU’s rocketing stardom. Longtime residents may recall the turn of this latest century when the UNCG men’s basketball program habitually made a case to show up for the Big Dance, also known as the NCAA Tournament. As champions of the Big South Conference in 1996, they received entry to the first round as a 15 seed in the Southeast region and went up against the No. 2 Cincinnati Bearcats. While close, they lost, but eventually so did the Bearcats. The Spartans then joined the Southern Conference,
winning the SoCon Championship in 2001 and an automatic bid to the national tournament, where they again got trounced, this time by No. 1 Stanford. The next year, they made it to the NIT, but got shut down by eventual champs the Memphis Tigers. Since then, not much of a postseason peep from the Spartans. But High Point may be gaining some steam for an eventual, similar slew of stabs at the tourney. Since head coach Scott Cherry — you may recall him as team captain of the ’93 Tar Heels squad that won the national title — has helmed the Panthers, they’ve made postseason runs in invitational tournaments three times in a row, all in the past three seasons. They even made it to the second round of the CollegeInsider. com tournament last year, only to lose in a heartbreaker to East Kentucky. This season, they’re playing with some fire under their asses. As of Sunday, HPU’s record stands at 8-2. The two losses come at the hands of Texas Tech and Georgia: As members of power conferences, both programs are known to make the occasional deep run in the Big Dance. Even more promising, neither of these losses were blowouts: Texas Tech won by four points and Georgia by only three. What have been blowouts are High Point’s smackdowns on some of their competition. A 24-point margin against NC Wesleyan. A 24-point margin against Longwood University. And an 18-point margin against the UNCG Spartans on Dec. 9. Honestly, as is often the case, the final score can’t
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tell the whole story. The game between two Triad cities was a tale of two halves. The Spartans stuck around with the fierce Panthers thanks to slash-and-burn attacks from guard Diante Baldwin, three-balls from small forward Marvin Smith and strong post play from center RJ White. But High Point turned it on in the second half, thanks largely to their leader apparent, No. 0 redshirt senior forward John Brown. Since I’ve been writing this column, I’m not sure I’ve seen a competitive spirit like him in person. Brown played his wiry 6-foot, 8-inch butt off. Despite producing a nice jumper and a huge dunk as the shot clock ran down, he was benched early as the Panthers struggled to stifle the Spartans. As he sat down, he let out what you might call a litany. But Cherry stepped in. “You’ve gotta relax a little bit,” Cherry said, calming the fiery forward. “You’re helping out your team.” And the Spartans were looking for the upset, leading by as much as six halfway through the first half. But the Panthers came back and secured an 8-point lead at the midpoint, thanks to Brown and three-point sniping by senior forward Lorenzo Cugini. An aside: The 6-foot-7 Cugini happens to shoot 61 percent from the arc, putting him in the top five most accurate three-shooters in the country. The second half was a purple haze. Brown and Cugini shot the lights out, as did senior guards Haiishen McIntyre and Adam Weary, who’d have a perfect night from the floor and the line. These four starters combined for a 70-percent shooting performance, good for 49 of HPU’s 90 points. And the guys weren’t done for the week: On the night of Dec. 13, the Panthers obliterated the visiting Virginia-Wise Highland Cavaliers 111-74. High Point may have a wake-up call this Wednesday against the NC State Wolfpack, but in their element they play like men among boys. Explosive victories. Senior talent and depth. Experience in the postseason. A proven leader as a head coach. These elements add up to possible sleeper runs and a further heightening of High Point University’s national profile.
High Point University Men’s Basketball comes of age against the UNCG Spartans.
ANTHONY HARRISON
Ram on Fairmont State University Falcons @ Winston-Salem State University Rams (W-S), Saturday WSSU’s men’s basketball team looks rather strong at 5-3, with two of those losses coming at the hands of the venerable UNC Pembroke Braves. The Montreat Cavaliers make the drive down Interstate 40 to meet the Rams for a game on Wednesday night, but I’d reserve a seat for the matchup against Fairmont State, ranked No. 10 in NCAA Division II with an 8-1 record. The game starts at 4 p.m.
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Uncle G: How did you get your mother’s ashes through
security? Me: It turns out that small of an amount of cremains looks like heroin so I put them in an old eye shadow container in my by Nicole Crews make up bag. Uncle G: Any problems? Me: No, I was totally expecting a full body-cavity check, but all they did was throw away my hand lotion and feel me up a little. The trip from LaGuardia to Tribeca, the pre-tip of Manhattan’s appendage, is a long one considering the limited distance. And considering the baggage I was carrying — my mother’s ashes — it made it feel all the longer. The dismal gray of Queens, the abysmal traffic, the multiculti hawkers of throwaway goods as we edged Delancey and Chinatown all harkened back to a conversation I once had with mother that would have made Donald Trump proud. Me: It’s interesting that your immigrant parents were from such diverse backgrounds. Mother: What are you talking about? My parents weren’t immigrants. Me: Um. Your mother was Canadian and your father was Greek. I suppose his stopover at Ellis Island was just part of the “grand tour” he was on. Mother: Oh, well, that doesn’t count. I was heading to Soho Photo Gallery where my childhood friend George was manning a show. I was there to pick up a key to his digs before settling in to a long weekend of pilgrimages to places near and dear to mother’s heart. There was her old apartment off Park Avenue West,
Don’t tell Mama!
of course, where I was going to drop the ashes — or at least not let them fly directly into a Sabrett hawker’s hot dog cart. There was Benihana, the groovy, ’70s teppanyaki Trader Vic’s of Manhattan, where mother was obliged to take her tourist friends on visits. (She hated it, but had — and still have — a killer collection of Buddha cocktail vessels from years of playing tour guide.) There was the Museum of Modern Art, where she took me to see the Picasso retrospective when I was a wee lass and when I think I finally quit rolling my eyes and realized I was in the presence of greatness. A collection of Picasso sculpture serendipitously installed — for my visit I’m convinced — brought our mutual love of museums full circle. And speaking of Serendipity, there was the classic restaurant that sold delightful baubles, many of which ended up in my mother’s carry-on bag on trips back to North Carolina. I still have the camel boho hat with a multihued peacock band — now back in vogue. I still wear the green crystal necklace every holiday. And the stack of bamboo bracelets will be all the rage — at least on my arm — for resort 2016. And then there was church. St. Patrick’s Cathedral you ask? St. Paul’s Chapel? Trinity Church? No, I’m talking about the mother of all churches: the 5th Avenue cathedral known as Bergdorf Goodman. I eyeballed the legendary holiday windows, as holy as stained glass. I edged my way past the other worshipers, solemnly and slowly made my way from level to level via the thin, central escalator that ascended to my version of heaven — the designer salon’s sale floor. All the saints were present: Chloe, Dolce & Gabbana, Alexander McQueen, Akris, Elie Saab, Carolina Herrera, Valentino, Stella McCartney, Lanvin and mother’s patron saint Balenciaga. As fate would have it, there happened to be a black, deep V, crepe jumpsuit that made me look like a cross between a Bond Girl and my mother circa 1975. I
danced around the amply sized dressing room, posed like a Charlie’s Angel in the mirror, then, like a frugal Greek girl, slid out of it, placed it properly on its hanger and fled the store with my next month’s mortgage payment still intact. Mother would have been proud. Or she would have said, Kid, it’s Christmas, Balenciaga at 60 percent off, and you don’t want to look like yesterday’s news. Me: Mother, I work for newspapers. I am yesterday’s news. The haunting continued as I climbed the stairs to George’s apartment for the umpteenth time and realized that the upholstery in his living room was designed by mother. It hit me like a flash. Then as George and I descended the same stairs to attend a campy musical I got a text from stylist and bon vivant Colin Lively who was meeting us there. It read, “You can’t miss the theater. It’s right across from that piano bar — ‘Don’t Tell Mama!’” Don’t worry Colin. I don’t have to. She already knows.
A love affair with no end in sight.
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Nicole and bon vivant Colin Lively at Don’t Tell Mama!
A lady always wears a hat to church.
Host George Grubb, Nicole and Colin Lively soak up the post-theater atmosphere.
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