TCB May 4, 2016 — No change of heart

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com May 4 – 10, 2016

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No change of heart

Kalvin Michael Smith and North Carolina’s long PAGE 16 struggle with wrongful convictions

Subprime market PAGE 8

Jailhouse fare PAGE 20

Tap-room science PAGE 21

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May 4 — 10, 2016

George the Cat

by Brian Clarey

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

NEWS 8 Subprime market 10 The furious 6th 12 HPJ: Taxes vs. fees

OPINION 14 Editorial: Love is a hot dog 14 Citizen Green: ‘Their voices are silenced completely’

15 It Just Might Work: A musician-filmmaker summit 15 Fresh Eyes: Growing up poor

NEST 25 Fabulous indoor flora

COVER

GAMES

16 No change of heart

27 Jonesin’ Crossword

CULTURE

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

20 Food: Lunch on lockdown 21 Barstool: Tiki’s beer lab 22 Music: A capella, upside down 24 Mijoo Kim’s ‘trail of threads’

28 Carolina Street, Greensboro

ALL SHE WROTE 30 I remember mama

FUN & GAMES 25 Jocks should take a stand

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Justice did not come because they had a change of heart; justice came because God demanded it. God sent me through whatever it was for us to be here tonight and to fight for somebody else because freedom — Kalvin is freed in his heart because he knows he didn’t commit this crime — the justice system refuses to do what it is supposed to do…. Let me change that. The justice system is doing what it do: Nothing.

— Darryl Hunt, in the Cover, page 16

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CONTRIBUTORS

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EDITORIAL INTERNS Joanna Rutter intern@triad-city-beat.com

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nest@triad-city-beat.com Carolyn de Berry Nicole Crews Anthony Harrison Matt Jones Amanda Salter Caleb Smallwood

Cover photography by Garrett Garms Students from WSSU, WFU and Salem Colllege march for Kalvin Michael Smith

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It took George the Cat a few days of slinking around corners and careful watching of the other cats before he became acclimated to life in our house.

He is the seventh cat to have taken up residence in our space — the eighth, if you count the soft gray kitten that didn’t survive the first few hours of life after being born underneath my daughter’s bed — and one of the four who remain.

The other three largely ignored George in those first few days, snubbed his nose-forward, feline advances in what seemed to me like an act of hazing, or mockery. After we fully integrated them, George fought with his housemates for simple things like space in the food line and time in the litter box. But he had youth and pluck on his side, if not size — two of our cats are as big as basset hounds — and eventually established for himself these basic rights. And in doing so, I believe, he learned a few things about himself.

I’m pretty sure George didn’t realize he was a cat until he came to us. He spent his first few months of life with another family as an “only,” disallowed from venturing outdoors where he might come upon another of his species. And cats don’t look at themselves in the mirror — or, at least, they don’t fully understand what they’re seeing when they do.

For those first few days, and for weeks afterwards, George studied the herd. He noted the spots on the couch and bed, the tight corners where they lazed in the afternoons and began setting himself there. He chose Tony — an apathetic cat the size of a small bear who’s adopted a second family around the block to supplement his diet — as a role model, and for the last couple months has taken to following him around, grooming him, flopping next to him on Sometimes he’ll hide the bed as the evenings grow long. Sometimes around a corner and he’ll hide around a corner mount a sneak attack and mount a sneak attack against his mentor. against his mentor, which Tony will fend off with nothing more than a sneer and a slightly raised paw.

But George has earned a place for himself, at least with the humans in the house. He’s one of those cats who likes to be held over the shoulder like a baby, and he’ll nuzzle his cold little nose against your neck while he purrs. Sometimes, I swear to god, he’ll throw both paws around you like a hug. It’s absolutely irresistible.

Tony, affectionate though he may be, would never go for that kind of crap. But then, he’s made a point of proving to us that he’s perfectly capable of finding his own food, that he doesn’t need us. While George — still, to his mewling dismay, a housecat — is still figuring it all out.

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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

CONTENTS

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May 4 — 10, 2016

CITY LIFE May 4 – 10 ALL WEEKEND On Site/In Sight @ downtown W-S Helen Simoneau Danse presents a dance festival throughout downtown Winston-Salem.

The weekend will include movement classes, pop-up, rooftop, and courtyard performances, and site-specific works throughout Winston-Salem’s downtown. If you’re regularly befuddled or intimidated by modern dance, this is the baptism you need to become obsessed with this beautiful, abstract and important art form. Local artists Blakeney Bullock, Cara Hagan, Julianne Harper, Jessie Laurita-Spanglet, Caitlyn Swett and Helen Simoneau organized the whole thing; admission is free. Visit helensimoneau.com for a full lineup of events.

THURSDAY

FLOC’s March on Reynolds @ Winston Square Park (W-S), 9:30 a.m.

Join the Farm Labor Organizing Committee at Reynolds American’s annual shareholders meeting to call on the company to sign an agreement with FLOC guaranteeing freedom of association to all farmworkers in their supply chain. FLOC has been in discussions with multiple tobacco companies over the past few years around a solution to the abuses in NC tobacco fields, to no apparent avail. “Until they sign an agreement, this campaign continues!” proclaims the event page. We like their zeal. There will be transportation available for anyone who is unable to walk between the points. If you are interested in volunteering, email flocnc@floc.com.

Spring Job Fair @ Central Library (GSO), 10 a.m.

Put on your fanciest pants: It’s time to do the damn thing and get a job. Lucky for you, it’s never been this beautifully convenient, as more than 20 area employers will be on hand, including the city of Greensboro, Cone Health, FedEx, Guilford County Schools, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Quaintance-Weaver, the Home Depot, Walgreens and more. Bring copies of your resume. TCB wishes you the best of luck. For more details, go to greensborolibrary.org.

Cinco de Mayo @ Triad-wide If you can’t make the trip out to the official Triad Cinco de Mayo festival in Archdale on May 8, which would be a travesty, you can celebrate in the comfort of your own metropolis. In Winston-Salem, the Porch Kitchen & Cantina celebrates all day long with a special outdoor taco bar starting at 5 p.m. and frozen margaritas. La Bamba in Greensboro boasts “la mejor fiesta del Cinco de Mayo en Greensboro desde el 1989” and will have a live DJ starting at 5 p.m. and go until God only knows when. San Luis in High Point will have “grandes especiales” and is probably your best bet for a good time.

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by Joanna Rutter

First Friday @ downtown GSO and W-S Aw, hell yeah, it’s First Friday, and it’s warm enough to really start appreciating longer days and lovely summer nights. In Winston-Salem, the On Sight/In Sight festival will have a nighttime performance at the Wherehouse Rooftop above Krankies Coffee at 9 p.m. Before catching that, don’t miss ogling new works by heart-of-gold artisan Laura Lashley at Kleur starting at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, in Greensboro, a new show from Colombian artist Nico Amortegui opens at Urban Grinders at 6 p.m., and the Van Dyke Dance Group will perform a short set at Greenhill at 7 p.m. Note that the city will be closing Elm Street between Washington and Market streets and from Market Street to Friendly Avenue from 5 to 9 p.m. to kick off Bike Month.

triad-city-beat.com

FRIDAY

May artist: Michael Hayworth @ DeBeen Espresso (HP), 7 p.m.

Enjoy a night of creative expression and conversation to celebrate High Point local Michael Hayworth with the opening night of his month on the walls of DeBeen. No clues as to what his medium may be, so it could be a sort of fun surprise. The venue says they’re “conversation pieces.” For more info, find DeBeen on Facebook.

SATURDAY Free Comic Book Day @ Triad comic book shops We have a lot to thank nerds for (shout out to pocket protectors and the X-Files) but the greatest debt to them we may owe them is probably the nationwide high holy day of Free Comic Book Day, a thing the internet decided to invent. GSO’s Geeksboro will start the festivities early on Friday night with a line party for people who take being first in line for next door neighbor Acme Comics very seriously; Parts Unknown in the same city will be giving away prizes for the best costumes all day. Winston’s Ssalefish shop will be raffling off a CGC graded Dark Knight III sketch signed by Frank Miller. For more info about the national event, check out freecomicbookday.com.

Edu-Consciousness series premiere @ Beloved Community Center (GSO), 4:30 p.m.

Afri-kin Common Thread presents a new series of documentaries and dialogue, kicking it off with a film by Claud Anderson, author of the epically titled PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America. Admission is free but bring a dish to share. For more info, find Afri-kin on Facebook.

Made in Winston fashion show @ Benton Convention Center (W-S), 7 p.m.

Truth Life Revolution, a Winston-based clothing label, hopes to bring some fresh excitement around streetwear at this inaugural show, showcasing what they’ve started in Winston-Salem but also creating a platform for others to do the same.

For details, visit tlrevolution.com.

SUNDAY Homegrown Artisan Market @ the Blind Tiger (GSO), 12 p.m.

Diva is a female version of a hustler, therefore, expect to see a lot of crafty divas at the Blind Tiger this Sunday afternoon hustling their wares. Pro tip: Bring your darling mama and buy her a gift here for Mother’s Day, which you forgot about and she certainly did not. There’ll be live music, a food truck and the bar will be running. Check the event on Facebook for details about the vendors.

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May 4 — 10, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games NEST Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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Abuse of prisoners’ rights I was told by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (a jail employee) that my friend was “theirs now.” [“Family pursuing suit against healthcare company company at Forsyth jail”; by Jordan Green; Jan. 13, 2016] They wouldn’t supply medication.

When asked if they would supply heart medication they said no. They seemed to have no interest in restoring or maintaining property (how they regarded prisoners) to a proper or original condition upon release. I guess if you can hide behind sovereign immunity you can act in an immoral manner.

Juan, via triad-city-beat. com Love letter to Cedar A beautiful love letter to this unique pocket of the city and really to Greensboro as a whole. [“Palaces of Cedar: Life in Greensboro’s sweet spot”; by Eric Ginsburg; April 27, 2016] Makes me miss it even more. <3 Sayaka Matsuoka, via triadcity-beat.com Substation III in High Point?

SubStation II is my favorite sub place in Greensboro. [“My go-to to-go sandwich spot”; by Eric Ginsburg; April 27, 2016]. I used to work over on Patton Avenue and would go there at least once a week for lunch. I live in High Point and work near Piedmont Triad International Airport so I rarely get to go by these days, so I wish they would open a second location.

Bearsmom, via triad-citybeat.com

The 5 people I most want to meet

by Eric Ginsburg

1. Michael Jordan I’ve been scheming for a legitimate reason to request an interview with Michael Jordan and exploit my profession for personal gain (someone please hire me to write a profile on him). I don’t care so much about the interview itself, other than that it would grant me more of his time than a quick handshake. There’s nothing I particularly want to ask him — I just want to stand in the presence of my childhood hero, to meet the man that I idolized for so long. Y’all can throw as much shade as you want or make a Crying Jordan meme out of my unrequited aspiration, but nobody can knock MJ from the top of my list. And to be honest, the whole reason I wrote this is just a weak attempt at putting the idea out into the universe.

3. Assata Shakur Five years ago, at the very beginning of my professional career in journalism, I wrote a list of 10 people I’d like to interview. Former Black Panther Assata Shakur — considered a fugitive by the FBI and a political refugee on the lam in Cuba by others — ranked third on my list then and still does now. The desire to meet and/or interview her is only heightened by the cooling of tensions between this country and the island nation, which may put her freedom in jeopardy.

4. Zach de la Rocha and Tom Morello I’d be equally happy to run into the former lead singer or guitarist from Rage Against the Machine, the only band that ever truly qualified as my favorite. Like everyone on this list, I’d lose it if I ever met either of these musicians, and would stumble over my words as I tried to explain how much I revere them while asking to take a selfie. Until then, I’ll just keep following Morello on Instagram.

2. Taylor Swift Taylor Swift is far and away the next name on my list. When she announced a tour date in Greensboro last year I relentlessly pursued an interview for eight months leading up to the show, but I didn’t even make it past the coliseum staff to her people. I don’t want to be her in the same way I used to dream of becoming Jordan, but she’s undoubtedly my star from the present.

5. Aziz Ansari I originally put actor Wendell Pierce here, and it’s true that I’ve been thinking about what it’d be like to get a drink with the star from “The Wire” and the forthcoming Confirmation since hearing him on Another Round podcast. And while I’d love to meet him and a wide range of other celebs, Aziz Ansari could probably leave a glow on the rest of my year with a simple handshake and a cool “What’s up?”

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We recently had some T-shirts made — shout-out to Zeke and his crew at Home State Apparel — because we never seem to have them when we need them. They’re beautiful: the classic heathered pewter shortsleeve and a few three-quarter-sleeve baseball Ts, like the kind I used to wear when I was 11 years old.

I suppose we’ll sell a few of them, but the point is to put them on the backs of people who appreciate what we do and want to wear them.

The local T is nothing new — Home State Apparel, Airtype, Camel City Goods and other Triad companies are built on them. But if you look around, you’ll notice that more and more people are wearing T-shirts that support local businesses and institutions. Some of us, me for instance, are just repping our own brands (I’m not generally a big T-shirt guy), but everyone else is showing love for the things they appreciate in their communities.

It may be true what Eric Ginsburg says: that “local” as a descriptor is kind of over. But “local” as a concept is very much alive; if we’ve learned anything since the great bottoming-out in 2008 it’s the importance of investing in our own cities and supporting those who do. Small businesses like ours, in particular, rely almost entirely on local dollars to stay afloat. We know we’re all in this together. Repping each other’s projects is the least we can do.

So I’m going to figure out how to incorporate more T-shirts into my wardrobe. All the kids are doing it.

And with our new passel of T-shirts, we’ve got the leverage to make some trades.

As those selfsame kids say: Lemme kno.

Cover Story

New question: Should parking be free in downtown Greensboro? Vote at triad-city-beat.com!

by Brian Clarey

Opinion

Jordan Green: I’m going to say news as a matter of loyalty. I gravitated to newspapers and hard news at Columbia J-school in 2002-03. There’s kind of a binary between hard news and features, or hard news and culture, and I hold hard news in a privileged position as being critical to holding government accountable and allowing democracy to flourish. I push interns to get their reporting chops covering city council. Since I joined the altweekly world in 2005, I’ve come to love writing about culture (a throwback to my high school days of ’zine making) and Brian Clarey has instilled an appreciation of good feature writing in me.

Readers: Most of you said “Culture” — or at least those who voted did, and considering that we don’t require a photo ID or even a login, there’s no excuse not to vote — easing past “News” for the No. 1 slot (55 percent to 26 percent). Considering that culture stories are the vast majority of what we place on the cover, we’ll take that as a vote of confidence. Maybe next time we’ll ask which specific cultural stories you’re interested in (Dance? Music?

Food?). Opinion ranked third (13 percent) and sports last (6 percent), unless you count “Other” which nobody picked.

Homegrown T-shirts

News

Brian Clarey: There are a lot of ways to tell stories, and the editor’s standard bag of tricks includes essays, profiles, graphics, reporting and photography. But I like the enterprise stuff: investigative journalism, conceptual pieces, narratives that read like literature. And there’s nothing wrong with pulling off a good, old-fashioned list once in a while.

Eric Ginsburg: Well if we’re adding categories to the list (which I guess technically just counts as a vote for “Other”) like Brian, I’ll say investigative. We do have an investigative fund, and we’re looking for pitches from freelance writers to do some digging. I’ve said on occasion that we could use some more sports coverage (we average about two a year) and there aren’t too many opinion cover stories either.

Up Front

This week, at the suggestion of our sports writer Anthony Harrison, we’re asking which subjects people would like to see more of in our cover section. He may not be too happy with how his area of expertise fared, though.

triad-city-beat.com

What do you want to see on the cover?

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NEWS

Activity at Liberty Street Market, but so far no vendors

by Jordan Green

Eighteen months after its opening, the Liberty Street Market has yet to attract a consistent group of vendors, but community leaders are using the facility to distribute free food and clothes, and as a location for a fitness class and worship services.

Since the Liberty Street Market opened on a busy corridor in a struggling part of northeast Winston-Salem in October 2014, the facility has yet to attract a group of vendors who regularly show up and sell their goods to the public.

Mercedes Miller, who initially won a contract from the city to operate the market, pulled out last year in the middle of the growing season. In the absence of a viable plan to set up a functioning market, the facility is being used as a staging area for distributing free food and clothing and as a site for a community fitness class and worship services.

For the past seven months, a truck from Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest NC has been showing up every Thursday morning to distribute breakfast cereals, produce, sodas, cookies and cakes. The local coordinator for the effort is Mattie Young, the president of the residents’ council at Cleveland Avenue Homes, a public housing community.

The Cleveland Avenue Transformation Team, or CATT, holds its East Side Energizer fitness class under the market’s open pavilions every Saturday morning.

And Glory of God Worship & Enrichment Center hosts worship services at the facility every Sunday morning.

Winston-Salem Community & Business Development Director Ritchie Brooks said the church distributes free food and clothing after its service once a month.

Marquita Wisley, a cofounder of CATT, said the facility got off to a rough start.

“When they first built the market, they didn’t speak to the residents about it; they talked to the businesses about what they wanted,” she said. “Fencing off the market, it showed the residents

that they didn’t want us.”

She added that prior to the construction of the facility — a pair of pavilions, one enclosed and one open, and a parking lot — the area served as a cut-through from Cleveland Avenue Homes to the stores on Liberty Street. Now that the facility is fenced off residents have to walk around it, creating a hardship for the elderly in particular.

A lack of market research also hampered the success of the effort.

“I don’t think they took into account the kinds of things that residents would buy,” Wisley said. “Someone said, ‘I’m going to go over there because they’re living in a COURTESY PHOTO food desert. I’m going to take Mattie Young, resident council president at Cleveland Avenue Homes, over zucchini and cauliflower.’ coordinates food distribution by Second Harvest at Liberty Street Market.

A lot of people in the comCommunity Market as a volunteer in Wisley credited the city with promptly munity don’t eat zucchini and cauliflowan open lot at Hooper Funeral Home opening the market to residents any er. They don’t know how to prepare it.

— about five blocks from the Liberty time they want to use it.

People buy produce over here — things Street Market — from 2009 to 2014.

“A lot of people don’t have cash to like onions, peppers, potatoes, snap Reid said her market attracted up to 10 spend on food because they get EBT peas, beans — the kinds of things that vendors selling everything from jewelbenefits,” Wisley said. “If the market African Americans customarily eat.” ry and computers to dolls, sundresses was open and it was EBT accessible I’m Another disconnect occurred with the and cologne. Reid sold produce that sure it would be utilized. I’m not even cultural programming in the market’s she grew from her garden, and a man sure anyone has thought about that.” early days. occasionally brought watermelons. She Brooks said any discussion of a mar“There were a couple community said two vendors eventually graduated ket study to determine what compleconcerts that we just didn’t have any to brick-and-mortar stores, including ment of goods people in the neighboridea they were going on until we heard her nephew, Elreeso Miller, who now hood want and what price point would the music and we walked over,” Wisley operates the Munchies Delight store on work for both vendors and customers, said. “It kind of shows that they didn’t Sprague Street. at best, is the preliminary stage at this make this for us. I don’t think people do Reid has said in the past that she point. things like that on the west side. I find didn’t want to leverage her influence “There has been some discussion on it hard to believe that they would throw to promote the Liberty Street Market that, although not a lot in detail,” he an event and not tell the residents.” because she believes the selection of said. “One of the groups that we have Notwithstanding her concerns about a coordinator was politicized and she talked with has even discussed doing how the market was launched, Wisley didn’t want someone else to profit from that. It would be safe to say that we’re and other residents at Cleveland Avenue her effort. During a recent interview she open to any group that would be able to Homes are working on some initiatives expressed concern that distributing free provide a good service that we can work to help the facility gain traction. They’re food at the facility will undermine any a reasonable agreement with.” collaborating with the Ministers Conferfuture effort to establish a commercial Marva Reid, president of the East/ ence of Winston-Salem & Vicinity and market because people who are in the Northeast Winston Neighborhood the Cooperative Extension Services to habit of getting goods for free will be Association, has criticized the misplant a garden on 22nd Street with the reluctant to pay for them. management of the market from the goal of eventually having the residents Brooks said he sees no conflict outset. She operated the East Winston earn income by selling produce.

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between the facility being used in the interim to distribute free food and a future market with commercial vendors seeking payment in exchange for their goods.

“Even if there were some kind of commercial market in that area there’s still a certain population that needs the kind of assistance that Second Harvest and certain other groups would be able to provide,” he said. “I don’t think it would be a competition for vendors and nonprofit groups to be in the same area.”

From the perspective of Mattie Young, who at 89 years old is known as “the mayor of Cleveland,” the food distribution is much appreciated. She said the service attracts 170-200 people per week.

“It’s a wonderful program,” she said.

“I also give out clothes. A lot of people are in need of a lot of things. I’m trying to help people. A lot of people have need at this time. There are a lot of young mothers with children they need to clothe, and they have no husband. I think the Lord is keeping me around to help.”

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Further right eats the far right in D6 Republican primary

by Eric Ginsburg

First-time candidate and police officer Chris Hardin challenges one-term incumbent Congressman Mark Walker in an upcoming special election to decide the Republican candidate for North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District.

Congressman Mark Walker stunned many observers when he defeated political heavyweight Phil Berger Jr. — the son of North Carolina’s Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger Sr. — in a Republican primary runoff election two summers ago. Low-turnout special elections such as that 2014 race can create unpredictable political conditions, and that’s exactly what Walker’s challenger is hoping will happen this June.

North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District is one of two that will appear on ballots in Guilford County during a special election this summer — the county is split between the redrawn 6th and 13th districts. Voters in Forsyth County will vote in the 5th district primary.

In the 6th district, first-time candidate Chris Hardin of Browns Summit aims to knock Walker out in the Republican contest. He’s counting on turnout from dissatisfied conservative voters who feel — as he does — that Walker isn’t upholding his campaign promises or taking stances that are far enough to the right.

The new 6th District covers about half of Guilford County, with the 13th District spilling in like a wave from the southwest corner and radiating in a semicircle from the High Point area, leaving the northwest, northeast and southeast corners of Guilford County in the 6th District, along with a good portion of Greensboro. The 6th district previously covered a larger portion of Guilford County and stretched along the Virginia border from Surry to parts of Granville County.

The new 6th District is still predominantly rural, but drops Surry, Stokes and parts of Orange, Durham and Granville counties while adding Randolph, Chatham and Lee. The district previously covered much of Alamance County but now blankets all of it.

Guilford is the only partial county in the new 6th District, but it’s home to both Republican contenders: Mark Walker of Greensboro and Chris Hardin of

Browns Summit.

Hardin was born on a beef cattle farm in Guilford County, and currently works in the pharmaceutical industry and as a reserve police officer in Graham. He previously served in the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Reserve, and worked as a full-time police officer in Graham for eight years as a street cop, school resource officer and in vice/ narcotics before switching to reserve status for the last decade.

And he’s pretty mad at Mark Walker.

Hardin says Walker has betrayed the people of the 6th District by not providing the sort of strong conservative leadership they expected when they elected him. As proof, Hardin points to Walker’s support of John Boehner for Speaker of the House as a contradiction of his 2014 campaign pledge to support more conservative leadership. Hardin cited an article published on Breitbart, a popular right-wing news site that names Walker in a piece called “The forked-tongue Freshman Five who told constituents they would vote against Boehner for speaker [and] then broke their promises.”

“It’s disheartening,” Hardin said, referring to Walker and the Republican Congress more generally. “It’s almost like these people think we don’t have a brain.”

Walker could’ve avoided the vote, staying home or voting for someone else for speaker, but because he didn’t, Hardin said: “I think it’s going to cost him this election.”

The same Breitbart article claims that Walker “certainly left many of his constituents with the impression that he would vote against Boehner and for Representative Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC)” but goes on to clarify that “Walker was careful to ‘contextualize’ his comments about his willingness to stand up against Boehner when it was in the interest of his constituents” and provided a link to a candidate debate.

The website gives Walker a “Liberty Score” of 75 percent on his voting record — undoubtedly conservative but not enough so for people like Hardin; after all, that’s a “C” grade on the conservative website.

“He’s in lockstep with the [Republi-

can] leadership,” Hardin said. “That unfortunately is not what we the people were told and it’s certainly not what we the people want.

“This guy ran as a conservative,” Hardin added. “I’m not sure he’s a Republican, but he’s certainly not a conservative.”

Walker could not be reached for comment before press time.

Hardin believes the country is rejecting politics as usual in Washington, DC, fed up with a government that stands with Wall Street and lobbyists rather than properly funding the Veterans Administration or infrastructure needs.

Watching the presidential election unfold, it’s easy to see that Hardin’s candidacy is part of a national trend, bucking the Republican establishment in favor of further right stances. What’s interesting is that Walker played the exact same role two years ago when he bested Phil Berger Jr. and ascended to Republican Congressman Howard Coble’s former seat. Coble opted not to run for reelection in 2014 and passed away not too long after leaving office after several decades in the post.

The June Republican primary for the 6th District will hinge on turnout — the special election scheduled after state lawmakers were ordered to redraw gerrymandered Congressional districts is expected to suffer from anemic voter participation.

The change in the district, including the addition of the populous Randolph County, will certainly play a role in the results. It’s possible Hardin’s ties to Graham thru his role as a police officer there could help boost his numbers in Alamance County, the second most populous in the district. But Hardin will need strong support from consistent conservative voters to topple Walker, including many in his native Guilford County.

Hardin describes himself as a constitutional conservative, saying he supports lowering taxes, letting the free market reign and focusing more on national security. He supports building a wall on the Mexican border — “We need to build a wall and we need to build a wall today” — though he added that he doesn’t necessarily support presiden-

Chris Hardin

JORDAN GREEN

tial contender Donald Trump’s stance but does believe strongly in deporting violent felons who are undocumented.

Hardin’s Facebook campaign page and website include statements in support of North Carolina’s controversial HB2 and the Second Amendment, and his campaign shared a message from a supporter thanking him “for serving our country and for standing up for Christianity.” Hardin’s Facebook campaign page says he will support Cruz or Trump for president, writing, “I possess the constitutionality of Ted Cruz and the spunk of Donald Trump and that causes great concern to the establishment class.”

Hardin’s post goes on to rail against Walker for allegedly supporting Syrian refugee resettlement.

“You see, unlike my opponent who things that we can solve the Syrian refugee problem by getting into a group hug and singing kumbaya, I understand that we are dealing with people that don’t know the words or have any desire to learn them,” Hardin writes.

Hardin cites Walker’s support for HR4038, the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act of 2015.

The law would have required FBI screening of Iraqi and Syrian refugees in addition to the existing Department of Homeland Security screening.

Walker caught flack in Greensboro for his support of a “pause” on the refugee resettlement program over fears that refugees could pose domestic terrorism threats despite the existing admittance process and questionable evidence that

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ment due in part to trade agreements that destroyed manufacturing jobs and the perception that big government is coming for their guns. But more than any singular issue, Hardin said what separates him from Walker is that he will actually do what he says he’s going to do, something he charges his opponent with failing to carry out and that he’s counting on voters to agree with.

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any threat exists, but Hardin argues that Walker’s position doesn’t go far enough.

“Where in the Constitution is the ability for the federal government to bring over people that may want to blow us up?” Hardin said, adding that the federal government is involved in many things it shouldn’t be. States should handle schools, he said arguing that the Department of Education and HUD don’t need to exist and that “a good start most days would be half the government shutting down.”

The War on Drugs hasn’t worked, Hardin said, but he doesn’t support legalizing hard drugs and doesn’t necessarily agree with looking at sentencing requirements, adding that, “the bottom line is we can’t move away from the rule of law.”

“The rule of law is under attack because police are under attack,” he said, and while he knows there are some bad officers, the “vast majority” of cops perform their jobs well.

Hardin has other concerns that he says voters in the district share — the Republican Congress’ inability to thwart Obamacare, a lack of employ-

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HIGH POINT JOURNAL

Tax-to-fee conversion looking less appealing to city of High Point

by Jordan Green

High Point City Council is considering a tax cut that would continue to shift the cost of government onto the backs of the poor, while putting aside additional funds to combat blight.

High Point City Council is considering a 1.25-cent tax cut for the FY 201617 budget as part of a four-year plan launched under former Mayor Bernita Sims to shift financing of the city’s garbage collection from property taxes to a fee-based system.

At-large Councilman Latimer Alexander argued against the proposal last year before the council voted to reduce the city’s tax rate from 66.4 cents per $100 of valuation to 65 cents. And he renewed his criticism on Monday during a preview of the upcoming budget.

“In essence what we’ve done is we’ve increased taxes on citizens who own property valued less than $285,000, and called it a tax decrease,” Alexander said.

Budget Director Eric Olmedo confirmed that the fee hike costs each household $12 a year — the equivalent of the tax savings for a property valued at $285,000. The swap-out lowers the cost of government for families with properties valued at more than $285,000, while those with less valuable properties end up paying more.

“It’s always nice to say you’re giving the citizens a tax decrease, but what you’re doing is you’re changing your tax to a fee — fees are not deductible off your income tax — and if you own property of less than $285,000, this is a more expensive way of paying for it than the other way,” Alexander said.

“I’ve always thought this was the dumbest damn thing we ever did.”

Alexander was elected to his seat in 2014, after a two-year hiatus from council.

Mayor Bill Bencini, who took office with Alexander in late 2014, agreed with his colleague that converting taxes into fees “punishes the low end of the spectrum.”

Olmedo told council that three consecutive years of tax decreases in High Point have resulted in an unintended consequence of causing the city to lose

$600,000 in sales-tax revenue, and that if the property tax rate is cut again, the city will forfeit $800,000 annually.

The three consecutive tax cuts have been approved by two separate councils, from the coalition under Sims that took a skeptical view of revitalization efforts to the more forward-looking group headed by Bencini.

Meanwhile, the proposed budget also includes a $1 per month fee increase to raise $1.3 million annually towards debt service on $21 million in stormwater capital projects over the next five years. The five projects, including a $14.3 million investment on Ray Avenue along the north side of High Point Regional Hospital, are all clustered in the hospital JORDAN GREEN The city of High Point is investing $14.3 million in stormwater mitigation on Ray area, the tony Emerywood Avenue, which runs along the north side of the hospital. neighborhood and the central business district. not growing as fast as some other cities demolish burned-out and dilapidated Alexander said after the meeting that are.” houses, but it would have barely made a what the areas challenged by stormThe 2015-16 budget included dent in the problem. He added that the water runoff have in common is that $500,000 for redevelopment and city is trying to be strategic in addressthey’re located in older parts of the city addressing blight, and the proposed ing blight. A 2015 housing market study that were built up before developers budget for the next fiscal year includes on the core city area of High Point by were subject to regulations limiting iman additional $500,000 for the same the Center for Housing & Community pervious surface and managing erosion. purpose.

Studies at UNCG found 31 structures “You’re kind of building the barn With less than three months left that were candidates for demolition, after the cattle have wandered into the in the current fiscal year, the city has including 22 with major fire damage. field,” he said, adding, “It was never spent only $65,000 of the allocation for Williams argued that the city needs engineered to handle it.” redevelopment. The funds have been to be strategic in tackling blight, adding Olmedo said he and City Manager spent to bring in three additional code that any unspent funds from the current Greg Demko asked themselves why city enforcement officers from a private firm year budget allocation will carry over revenues aren’t growing as fast needs to assist two others who are employed into the next year. are. The answer, he said, is that that by the city. Councilman Chris Williams, “I see code enforcement in place property values aren’t growing quickly who represents Ward 2 where some and aesthetics looking better,” he said. enough to keep up with demand for of the city’s most blighted housing is “You’ve increased quality of life in the services. located, said the inspectors have issued blighted area. Even if you have a board“And some of the things we’re hoping 158 public nuisance citations, along ed-up house, it needs to meet code.”

— some of the programs we’re putting with 401 sign violations and four vehicle At-large Councilwoman Cynthia in place we’re hoping will increase that violations in the past two weeks. The ciDavis questioned the city’s commitment property tax assessed value, but that tations include violations for high grass, to eliminating blight, citing photographs takes time,” Olmedo said. “This year I junk cars and placard signs that create of deteriorated houses with trees growthink we’re just over 1 percent growth in what he called “eyesores.” ing out of them. assessed value. It’s just hard to continue Williams said the city could have “How are we going to continue to operations at current levels when we’re immediately spent the $500,000 to ignore those?” she said. “I mean, we

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can throw money at anything and everything else that the majority of this council wants to do, but when it comes to removing houses of blight in neighborhoods where people live every day, which you wouldn’t have in your neighborhood — most of us in this room wouldn’t tolerate it. You wouldn’t want a burned-out house next door to you, whether it’s in Emerywood or any place else. But we have set a bar so low that people have to continue to live that way because we’re sending a message that people don’t matter. And that is not okay.”

Williams pushed back, noting that of the three priorities identified by council earlier this year — addressing blight, retaining millennials and promoting a catalytic project like a ballpark — the city has only committed funds to one: addressing blight.

Councilman Jeff Golden, who represents Ward 1, also took issue with Davis’ charge.

“I’ve seen more effort to address blight in the past year than the 20 years prior,” he said.

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OPINION EDITORIAL

Love is a hot dog There was something in the air at Skippy’s hot dog joint in downtown Winston-Salem Saturday night.

For the last week, volunteers from downtown kitchens kept the place open while owner Mike Rothman underwent initial treatment for a brain tumor in Pennsylvania. More than 13,000 hot dogs went out over the high counter last week — cooked in a manner, it should be noted, far from the exacting processes Rothman instilled upon his menu — and as the clock wound down, exhaustion and goodwill overload gave everyone, patrons and volunteer staff alike, big, goofy grins.

The good people of Winston-Salem’s restaurant community raised more than $100,000 for Rothman in seven days, one of the most prodigious grassroots fundraising efforts in local history. And we daresay it’s a feat that could not be duplicated in either of the Triad’s other cities.

There’s really not much of a restaurant culture in High Point, outside of pop-up furniture market catering halls and the steakhouse at High Point University. Greensboro has a healthy downtown dining scene, but it’s hard to imagine Gate City restaurant owners throwing in together to help one of their own the way chefs down Business 40 did.

And that’s not to besmirch the other two cities so much as to point out that Winston-Salem has got something special going on.

The Camel City Renaissance began before the turn of the 21st Century. Projects big and small — the Arts District, the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts, BB&T Ballpark, the Innovation Quarter, Restaurant Row, Krankies — carried the momentum for more than a decade. The revolution was economic, cultural, entrepreneurial and social. And those who lived through it show a love for their city that others in the state should envy.

And nowhere is it more evident than in its restaurant scene.

In Winston-Salem, independent kitchens, bars and dining rooms share employees, parking spaces and other resources. They wear each other’s T-shirts and talk up everyone’s events, whether they’re directly involved or not. They’re sharing in the delight of a burgeoning restaurant scene — how long before the city spins out a James Beard Award winner? — and they know they are very much in it together.

In how many other cities would a dozen restaurant owners walk away from their kitchens to squeeze out a few bucks for a friend?

Not to be forgotten are the patrons, some of whom ate more than a dozen hot dogs during Mike’s Week, and each of whom contributed to the astounding six-figure total that must be some sort of historic first.

Restaurants close all the time. But an action like this is absolutely singular, and completely in keeping with the Camel City Renaissance.

CITIZEN GREEN

‘Their voices are silenced completely’ US District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder’s decision last week to uphold North Carolina’s sweeping overhaul of election law — curtailing early voting, and eliminating same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting, while

by Jordan Green imposing a photo ID requirement — shouldn’t have come as a huge surprise.

After all, Schroeder rejected a preliminary injunction sought by the plaintiffs in North Carolina NAACP v.

McCrory in 2014, reasoning in part that they were unlikely to prevail on the merits of their argument.

By the same token, a ruling on the preliminary injunction by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va. that same year might give us some indication of the shape of things to come.

Writing for the majority on a three-judge panel for the Fourth Circuit, Judge James A. Wynn, a North Carolinian, took Schroeder to school. Before charging that Schroeder’s analysis had revealed “numerous grave errors of law that constitute an abuse of discretion,” Wynn laid out some ground rules. “Everyone in this case agrees that Section 2 has routinely been used to address vote dilution — which basically allows all voters to ‘sing’ but forces certain groups to do so pianissimo,” he wrote. “Vote denial is simply a more extreme form of the same pernicious violation — those groups are not simply made to sing quietly; instead their voices are silenced completely.”

As an example of what unconstitutional voter suppression might look like, Wynn quoted none other than the late US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, an arch-conservative hardly known as a friend of the oppressed and disenfranchised.

“If, for example, a county permitted voter registration for only three hours one day a week, and that made it more difficult for blacks to register than whites, blacks would have less opportunity ‘to participate in the political process’ than whites, and [Section] 2 [of the Voting Rights Act] would therefore be violated,” Scalia wrote.

Wynn concluded in the Fourth Circuit’s slapdown of Schroeder, “At the end of the day, we cannot escape the district court’s repeated findings that plaintiffs presented undisputed evidence showing that same-day registration and out-of-precinct voting were enacted to increase voter participation, that African-American voters disproportionately used those electoral mechanisms, and that House Bill 589 restricted those mechanisms and thus disproportionately impacts African-American voters. To us, when viewed in the context of relevant ‘social and historical conditions’ in North Carolina, this looks like the textbook example of Section 2 vote denial Justice Scalia

provided.”

Give Schroeder at least this credit: His 485-page opinion evaluated virtually every piece of evidence presented by the plaintiffs against the guidelines set by Wynn, while coming to a conclusion opposite the appellate judge.

Schroeder’s decision essentially comes down to a single sentence in his ruling: “Plaintiffs have failed to show that any North Carolinian who wishes to vote faces anything other than the ‘usual burdens of voting.’”

Schroeder reasoned that an uptick in African-American turnout from 2010 to 2014, when many provisions of the new law went into effect, undermined the plaintiffs’ argument that “so-called convenience voting procedures” suppressed voting rights. The judge may have missed the testimony of North Carolina NAACP President William Barber II and other witnesses called by the plaintiffs.

Encapsulating the political dynamics of the 2014 election year, Steve Ford, a volunteer program associate at the North Carolina Council of Churches, wrote for NC Policy Watch on Monday: “When an even stronger Republican majority was joined by a newly elected Republican governor, Pat McCrory, in 2012, a sea change in state policy began in earnest. A conservative agenda highlighted by tax and spending cuts, along with other measures decried by progressives, led to a huge backlash spearheaded by the state chapter of the NAACP.” Ford noted that the 2014 election provided an opportunity for black voters to push back at the polls and that a tightly contested US Senate race between Kay Hagan and Thom Tillis likewise boosted turnout.

“Just because more black citizens voted in 2014 than four years before, that doesn’t necessarily mean they weren’t bucking a tide of discrimination,” Ford concluded.

“They simply may have been swimming harder.”

The plaintiffs have appealed Schroeder’s ruling, ensuring that the case will again come before the Fourth Circuit, although it’s far from certain that the plaintiffs will have the good fortune to have as sympathetic as jurist as Wynn assigned to the case.

The Supreme Court has never before considered a Section 2 vote-denial claim, and it’s easy to imagine North Carolina v. McCrory one day coming before the high court. The 5-4 majority that handed down Shelby County v. Holder in 2013 — which eliminated the preclearance provision of the Voting Rights Act and prompted the NC General Assembly to hastily pass the sweeping voting restrictions at issue — is now split right down the middle with the death of Scalia.

It’s worth remembering what Justice Ruth Ginsburg wrote in her dissent for Shelby: “Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”

A music-film summit

by Jordan Green

Growing up poor

Cover Story Culture Fun & Games NEST Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

Terry L. Austin is a retired jill-of-all-trades, having worked at everything from operating a key-punch machine (actual key blanks) to managing a NYC acting studio to editing web pages for the EPA. She is most proud of co-founding, with Ervin Brisbon, the NC Racial Justice Network and Future Leaders youth program. She lives in Jamestown and is the mother of three and the grandmother of three, soon to be four.

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is connected, and 2) that no matter how little you have, you can always help someone else. That’s why all us kids trudged off to church on Sunday mornings, each clutching a quarter to donate to “the children starving in Armenia.”

Even as children, we were aware that other people looked down on us, and that we were being shortchanged. Utica’s bussing policy was to bus any children who had to walk a mile or more to school. Our elementary school was 0.9 miles away. The “playground” in our project was a concrete pad next to “the garbage house” (a shed where people took their trash until it was picked up by the city). It had two large concrete three-quarter moons, a small sandbox, a couple of benches and a chain-link fence around it. Teenagers in our neighborhood actually hung out there at night in the summer, and the cops would regularly drive by and chase everyone off.

The older brother of one of my friends once went to jail for a couple of days for some petty crime. When he came back, all the kids gathered around him to hear what it was like. He told us, “It wasn’t so bad. I got to go to the dentist.”

It wasn’t until I was older and had close friends who were raised middle-class that I realized the advantages I had growing up poor. Middle-class folks are taught that the highest principle to operate by is that “everything is okay.” (A corollary is “Don’t make waves.”) As a child, do you see racism, sexism, injustice? “No, no, this is America, everything is okay.” There’s child abuse or alcoholism in your family? “No, no, we don’t talk about that, everything is okay.” Middle-class children soon learn to mistrust their own perceptions, become very unsure of themselves, and worry constantly about being “nice.”

In contrast, working-class, poor and other oppressed people highly value “telling it like it is.” We’re the target of lots of economic, racial and sexual injustice, and we know everything’s not okay. We have good BS detectors. We’re more aware that all we have for security is other people and we tend to be closer and more supportive of each other. We also use sarcasm, black humor and sick jokes to help us deal with what we suffer, and none of those are “nice.” So, especially in middle-class contexts, we often end up feeling like we’re “too” — too frank, too disruptive, too angry.

Actually, more than most people, we know who we are, we can think clearly, and we know what’s what.

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I grew up poor, in “the projects” of Utica, NY. We were never “on welfare,” but we did get surplus food — huge blocks of cheese made from milk bought by the government to keep the dairy farmers around us afloat, white

by Terry L. Austin margarine that looked like lard until you mixed the blob of yellow food coloring into it and 5-pound jars of Crisco and peanut butter.

Public housing was segregated then in New York: There was another project for black people downtown, and way in the back, on one end of one of the five buildings in my development, lived three Mohawk Indian families. The men built skyscrapers in summer when the weather was good and were unemployed the rest of the year.

Utica was filled with immigrants from Sicily, Syria and Eastern Europe (mostly Poland, Lithuania and the Ukraine). Many were predominantly Catholic countries, and it was before Vatican II, so there were many large families in the projects. My best friend was the oldest of seven, and another good friend was one of six.

Almost all the fathers in our neighborhood were employed, and they made decent salaries as butchers, truck drivers and workers in textile factories (before the plants moved to North Carolina). But their large families, work injuries and childhood diseases like polio made it hard to save anything. Plus, many of the guys stopped at a bar on the way home to decompress from work, and some bet on the horse races at a nearby harness track.

Though our family was small, only the four of us, money was hard to come by for us, too. I was always tall for my age and had long and very narrow feet. I had one pair of shoes at a time — black or brown “to go with everything.” Every time I needed new shoes, I noticed my parents couldn’t afford to go out on Saturday night for about three months. There was one period I was growing so fast that I needed new shoes about every three months.

When my Dad got a raise one year, I was told never to talk about it to anyone. I think it might have put us over the cut-off for public housing.

Long-distance phone calls were really expensive then.

After my father’s mother moved to California, we talked with my favorite grandmother only twice a year for 10 minutes or so, at Easter and Christmas. Once I got $5 for my birthday and spent it all on five little “jeweled” pins in the shape of birds and animals. My mother couldn’t understand why, but now I realize I had never before bought anything I didn’t need.

My parents were raised Catholic, and though the church was very sexist and there were rumors the local priest was sleeping with his housekeeper, some of its teachings stay with me today. Two good things I was taught by Catholics: 1) that everyone all over the world

Up Front

Phuzz Phest co-presented the mock horror movie Lace Crater — about a young woman who hooks up with a ghost during a drug-fueled weekend in the Hamptons, no less — during RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem last month.

It’s the first time the two festivals — one dedicated to indie rock and the other to cinema — have collaborated.

For the record, a year ago I proposed that Phuzz Phest and RiverRun cross-promote their programming, so it’s gratifying to see that the two festivals have done just that. The tie-in is intuitive here: Lace Crater was scored

by Alan Palomo — frontman for the Brooklyn-based chillwave band Neon Indian, who were one of the headliners at Phuzz Phest.

As an aside, I also have to note that in the same article, “It Just Might Work: RiverRun, shake hands with Phuzz,” I proposed that Phuzz Phest add music-related seminars to its programming. And voila, this year, WFDD staffer and musician Eddie Garcia hosted a panel discussion on sustaining local music communities.

I’m batting two for two!

We definitely need to build on the cross-pollination initiated here. And one excellent idea for strengthening the relationship between the two festivals that would benefit both musicians and filmmakers landed in my lap during a recent lunch meeting with Americana artist Molly McGinn and electronica vocalist/producer Anna Luisa Daigneult, aka Quilla (she performed at Phuzz Phest this year). It’s McGinn’s idea, but she gave me her blessing to run with it, so here goes.

McGinn proposed a “summit” between filmmakers and musicians on scoring soundtracks and placing songs in movies. McGinn told me that for a lot of musicians, figuring out how to get music placed in films can be a real mystery, and she perceives that music is often an afterthought for filmmakers resulting in them making do with whatever they can afford from what’s left of their meager budgets. What if they started working together from the outset of the project? With a more intentional process, musicians would likely produce an auditory complement that is more integrated with the vision of the film as opposed to the filmmakers.

Collaboration and exposure on multiple platforms is the only way to advance a career in the music business today — just ask Beyoncé. The time when an artist put out an album and promoted it as their primary commodity and source of income is long past in this era of free music streaming. Exposure through song placements in film and TV can make all the difference in helping an artist break through the noise in an overcrowded marketplace. The relationship can be mutually beneficial; a solid soundtrack can help an otherwise decent cinematic work achieve lasting impact.

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IT JUST MIGHT WORK

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May 4 — 10, 2016

No change of heart

Kalvin Michael Smith and North Carolina’s long struggle with wrongful convictions

Cover Story

by Jordan Green

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A story of unfinished justice holds no tidy endings.

A torchbearer for the struggle loses his own battle against despair. A group of student activists graduate. A filmmaker screens an early draft of his work for a senior thesis. A powerful politician aspiring to higher office dodges moral responsibility. All the while, a wrongfully convicted man sits in prison, and his family carries the pain of his absence.

Kalvin Michael Smith, a black man from Winston-Salem, has spent 19 years behind bars after being convicted of the brutal beating of retail worker Jill Marker, based on a police investigation that former FBI Assistant Director Christopher Swecker called “seriously flawed and woefully incomplete.” The movement to free Smith has faced at least two major setbacks.

Swecker’s independent review of the case went on to say that the flaws in the police investigation “question whether the original jury trial rendered their verdict based on all the relevant and accurate facts of the case.” He agreed with a finding by an official committee impaneled by the Winston-Salem City Council that “there is no credible evidence that Kalvin Michael Smith was at the scene of the crime,” and said he believes Smith deserves a new trial.

One of the major disappointments of the case was Forsyth County Superior Court Judge Richard Doughton’s decision in January 2009 to turn down Smith’s request for a new trial after four days of hearings.

Keith T. Barber was a reporter for Yes Weekly at the time (Disclosure: Triad City Beat Senior Editor Jordan Green and Editor-in-Chief Brian Clarey worked with Barber at the paper back then). Barber left the courtroom that day stunned by the outcome, while processing the blow through the hurt and determination expressed by several speakers outside the Forsyth County Hall of Justice. They included Darryl Hunt, a Winston-Salem man who had been wrongfully convicted of murder and then freed after 19 years in prison after being cleared through DNA evidence; Larry Little, a community leader and professor who had spent years fighting for Hunt’s release; and Sheila LeGrand, Kalvin Michael Smith’s mother.

Barber, who screened an early version of his film Ordinary Injustice for his senior thesis in UNCG’s documentary filmmaking program at Hanesbrands Theatre on April 28, found himself walking from the courthouse to Krankies Coffee to make a blog post for Yes Weekly that January 2009 day.

“And as I was walking the two blocks from the Hall of Justice to the coffee shop I just got angrier and angrier and angrier,” he recalled during a Q&A session after the screen-

Jaylon Herbin, a student organizer at Winston-Salem State University (right), speaks at teach-in, alongside professor Larry Little.

ing last week. “My perspective was someone who had no clue how the criminal justice system worked. I had no idea.

And I was very naïve about that. And as you see, Kalvin Michael’s greatest sin was that he was naïve, too. As you heard in the film, he said, ‘I went down there [to the police department] because I thought I was going into the hands of people who were going to protect me, but I guess I was wrong.’ And I learned that day that justice does not always prevail. That’s how the original impetus of the story was born. That’s the emotion that’s kind of carried me through the last seven years.”

In 2013, another setback for Smith occurred when US District Court Judge Catherine Eagles turned down Smith’s habeas corpus appeal. Despite the damning report of its own committee, Winston-Salem City Council had declined requests by Smith’s supporters to file a friend-of-court brief underlining the shoddiness of the original investigation.

And state Attorney General Roy Cooper, who inherited the case by virtue of the Forsyth County District Attorney’s office’s recusal, refused to file a motion to vacate the conviction, calling the Swecker report “irrelevant.”

That might have been the end of the story, but Smith’s lawyers at the Duke University Innocence Project and a

GARRETT GARMS

group of concerned citizens in Winston-Salem known as the Silk Plant Forest Truth Committee have never stopped fighting for Smith’s freedom.

Thanks to the efforts of truth committee co-chair Stephen Boyd, a religious studies professor at Wake Forest University, and Little, a political science professor at Winston-Salem State University, students at the two institutions have taken up the cause. Teach-ins at both universities and Salem College prompted students from all three institutions to join forces under the banner of NC Students Against Wrongful Convictions. Together with their elders in the truth committee, the student activists have waged a campaign to link Cooper’s bid for governor with his unwillingness as attorney general to use his prosecutorial discretion to intervene on Smith’s behalf. The Democratic primary, in which Cooper easily prevailed over an opponent who was more sympathetic to Smith’s case, came and went without the attorney general relenting, but Smith’s supporters have vowed to keep up the pressure. Meanwhile, the legal team at the Innocence Project has filed an appeal to the state Supreme Court in hopes of presenting new evidence if they can get a hearing.

In another development in the case, the Winston-Salem

information about the case.

“After the Silk Plant Forest Truth Committee’s teach-in I was hooked from there,” said Shakera Keyser, a junior at Salem College with a double major in English and criminal studies.

“I know you remember Freddie Gray,” Keyser remarked, referring to the highly publicized death in custody that resulted in weeks of unrest. The Baltimore native added that distrust of law enforcement and the legal system is endemic in Charm City.

Virginia Parnell (left), a student at Salem College, speaks during a Q&A after the screening of Ordinary Injustice, as Keith T. Barber, Phoebe Zerwick, Gus Dark and Theresa Newman listen.

to the killing. And in Smith’s case, his lawyer failed to put on evidence that the police dropped a suspect who was known to have visited the store where Marker worked, had lost custody of his children the day before the assault and was subject to a domestic violence restraining order. Both Sharpe and Smith were turned down by state courts in their Motion for Appropriate Relief hearings, but in Sharpe’s case a federal district court found in his favor, only to have the ruling overturned by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on the basis that the federal courts should have deferred to the state courts as finder of fact in the original trial.

For the Black Lives Matter generation steeped in an understanding of the disproportionate killing of black people by law enforcement and vigilantes and in possession of a firm grasp of the systemic forces driving mass incarceration, Kalvin Michael Smith’s railroading seems more like a feature of the criminal justice system than a glitch.

In contrast to Keith T. Barber’s rude awakening about the dynamics of lopsided justice in the Kalvin Michael Smith case five or six years earlier, many of the younger students came more intuitively to the cause after being exposed to

JORDAN GREEN

Virginia Parnell, a senior at Salem College majoring in English and minoring in criminal studies, learned about the case through a class taught by Kimya Dennis.

“I’ve always really cared about wrongful convictions,” she said. “I’m interested in working with the Innocence Project, so I thought this would be a good way to get my hands in it.”

Jaylon Herbin, a senior at Winston-Salem State University who is majoring in political science, has been steeped in activism throughout his college career, participating in a walkout to honor the life of Trayvon Martin, who was killed by an overzealous neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida, and taking part in the 2015 Million Man March.

Herbin, who was appointed chair of the political action committee at the university by the student body president, learned about the Kalvin Michael Smith case from a criminal justice class taught by Larry Little.

Hayden Abene, a senior at Wake Forest University majoring in religious studies, learned about the case in the spring of 2015 as a student in Stephen Boyd’s religion and public-engagement class. Abene was one of the handful of students who chose the Kalvin Michael Smith case as a project for the semester.

Bennett Heine, a senior at Wake Forest University majoring in anthropology, said he was pulled into the effort when he was called on to speak about the case in Abene’s place at a public event.

“Before I’d even reviewed the facts, over the past couple years people have recommended books focused on how the criminal justice system works,” he said. “A lot of people have come to the realization through Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow that there needs to be a certain level of skepticism towards the criminal justice system. I was predisposed to take the story of a poor, black man in the criminal justice system seriously.”

Boyd said in his three decades as a professor at Wake Forest University, this is the first time he’s aware that students at the three institutions have come together to work on a single campaign. Even before the formation of Concerned Students for Kalvin Michael Smith (the forerunner of NC Students Against Wrongful Convictions), Anne Donovan, a graduate student in the religious studies program at Wake Forest University, launched Facebook and Twitter pages for the Free Kalvin Michael Smith movement.

Donovan is now a co-chair of the Silk Plant Forest Truth Committee.

“The way that happened on Wake Forest campus is Hayden became aware and Anne became aware, and they’ve remained essential to this effort,” Boyd said.

“Hayden shared with his friends at Wake Forest about the campaign, and Hayden approached me and the Silk Plant Forest Truth Committee, and said, ‘We want to see how we can help with this.’”

The students and their elders in the Silk Plant Forest Truth Committee struggled over the question of whether to link the effort to free Kalvin Michael Smith to Attorney General Roy Cooper’s quest for the Governor’s Mansion.

Abene described the process as “a lot of long, frustrating conversations among ourselves, Steve Boyd and Kelly Carpenter,” the latter of whom is the senior pastor of Green Street United Methodist Church and a co-chair of the Silk Plant Forest Truth Committee.

“It’s not a get-out-the-vote campaign,” Abene said.

“There was a realization that Cooper has not been responsive. He has not met with Chris Swecker. He suppressed the appeal. It’s a last resort because the only thing he’s going to respond to is a threat to his political career. That’s what it’s come down to.”

The students held a press conference at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Winston-Salem on Feb. 10 demanding that Cooper intervene on Smith’s behalf as the Democratic primary loomed a month away.

In response, the Attorney General’s office release a statement saying, “We understand the community’s concerns and we want to work with them on systemic issues in the criminal justice system but at this point in the legal process only a court of law can overturn Kalvin Smith’s conviction.”

The statement implied that Cooper was powerless to act, but the students were savvy enough to understand that while a judge will have the final say, a joint filing by the attorney general and the defense counsel expressing no confidence in the conviction would almost certainly cause a judge to take notice. So soon after, during a Feb. 18 rally

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students traveled to Raleigh on March 24 as the North Carolina NAACP launched an initiative demanding that Cooper file motions to vacate the convictions of Smith, along with Dontae Sharpe, a black man from Greenville who was convicted of murder.

The cases are eerily similar. Sharpe was convicted in 1995, Smith in 1997. Since their convictions, key witnesses in both cases have recanted. In Sharpe’s case, the trial court judge refused to admit testimony from a woman who said her boyfriend, who committed suicide before the trial, admitted

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May 4 — 10, 2016 Cover Story

Bennett Heine, Jaylon Herbin, Hayden Abene, Virginia Parnell and Shakera Keyser (l-r) are among the principal organizers of NC Students Against Wrongful Convictions.

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to support Smith at Dillard Auditorium at Winston-Salem State University, the students rolled out a giant banner that read, “Free Kalvin Now: Move to Vacate.”

They demonstrated that they understood full well the legal tools at Cooper’s disposal.

The attorney general did not respond to efforts to reach him for comment for this story.

After gathering more than 200 signatures on the banner, the students traveled to Raleigh on March 7 seeking a meeting with Cooper. The attorney general refused to meet with the students, and Herbin and Parnell wound up handing off the banner to a security guard.

Among those who spoke at the rally organized by Concerned Students for Kalvin Michael Smith was Darryl Hunt. Upon his release from prison after being cleared of wrongdoing by DNA evidence, a reporter had asked whether there were other Darryl Hunts — innocent men who had been wrongfully convicted — in the state prison system. “Yes,” Hunt had responded. “Kalvin Michael Smith.”

Shaking with emotion at the February rally, Hunt gave what would turn out to be his final public speech at Dillard Auditorium.

Hunt noted that he had spent exactly the same amount of time in prison that Smith has to date before he was released — 19 years. He also observed that if not for a single juror who objected to applying the death penalty, Hunt would have been dead long before DNA evidence cleared him.

“Justice did not come because they had a change of heart; justice came because God demanded it,” Hunt said.

“God sent me through whatever it was for us to be here tonight and to fight for somebody else because freedom — Kalvin is freed in his heart because he knows he didn’t commit this crime — the justice system refuses to do what it is supposed to do.”

He paused for a moment.

“Let me change that,” he said. “The justice system is

JORDAN GREEN

doing what it do: Nothing.

“Kalvin is an African-American that is in a prison system that’s designed to keep him, to destroy him, and destroy the fabric of our community,” Hunt continued. “You have to stand up. And I’m so proud to see young kids standing up and taking on this fight because don’t allow them to tell you what they’re gonna do. You tell them what you want done. Because you are the people.”

Less than a month later, Hunt would be found dead inside a pickup truck in a parking lot across the street from Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Police said he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Shortly after Hunt’s death, on March 24, the students returned to Raleigh, this time joining the North Carolina NAACP, as it launched an initiative to free Kalvin Michael Smith and Dontae Sharpe, the Greenville man convicted of murder in 1995. Hayden Abene, Bennett Heine and Virginia Parnell stood beside the Rev. William Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP, during a press conference at St. Paul AME Church in Raleigh. Smith’s parents, Gus Dark and Sheila LeGrand, sat with Sharpe’s mother, Sarah Blakely, in the front.

“Today is Maundy Thursday, when we remember as Christians the night that Jesus was wrongfully arrested, tried in a kangaroo court, sentenced and found guilty by execution through a corrupt system,” Barber said. “Pilate had a chance to overturn the wrongful conviction, but chose not to do so. In love and truth we call on Gov. McCrory and Attorney General Roy Cooper — while they may be competitors in a governor’s race — to put that aside. Come together, free Brother Smith, free Brother Sharpe, and do not become the modern-day Pilates.”

Later that day, the three parents lead a march to the Attorney General’s office and requested a meeting with Cooper. The request, somewhat surprisingly, was granted.

“During that hour or so I felt the man wanted to be legitimate about dealing with this problem,” Dark recounted during the Q&A after the screening of Barber’s documentary film last week. “One thing I realized is that my son went into prison in a political year, and now politics in

North Carolina might get him out or keep him in there.

What I’m afraid of is that now’s a bad time for people to think that Roy Cooper’s soft on crime.”

He paused and caught his breath.

“The only thing I told Mr. Cooper is that he has to do the right thing regardless of how he might feel,” Dark continued. “Because the people here in Forsyth County literally dumped this mess on him. And I suggested that he needed to carry it back to Forsyth County and dump it on them.”

Dark, who regularly corresponds by mail and talks on the phone with his son, has proven to be an anchor for many of Kalvin Michael Smith’s supporters.

“My friendship with Gus Dark was the thing that kept me involved,” Barber acknowledged during an interview before the screening of his film.

Four days earlier, the students had held a rally at Merschel Plaza in downtown Winston-Salem and march to the Forsyth County Hall of Justice. The activities included a vigil to remember Darryl Hunt and a renewed call on Cooper and McCrory to free Kalvin Michael Smith.

“Seeing [Kalvin’s] mother cry the night of the rally and hearing Gus Dark tell us we bring his family joy, it was bittersweet,” Jaylon Herbin recalled. “Seeing those who have the ability to do justice and don’t — it’s shameful.”

Many of the students are graduating this month, and

Kalvin Michael Smith

COURTESY PHOTO

each are assessing in different ways what the transition means for their commitment to Kalvin Michael Smith and the cause of actual innocence.

Bennett Heine, for one, will be returning to his hometown of Louisville, Ky. “It feels like I’m walking away from it,” he said. “There’s an artificial finish line. I’ll be able to go home, and Kalvin will still be in that correctional unit.”

Virginia Parnell is still figuring out what comes next

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after graduation, but she said her relationship to the cause is unlikely to change.

“Wherever I land,” she said, “I’m never going to stop advocating for Kalvin and those who are wrongfully convicted.”

The injection of new energy from the students, in part, motivated Barber to screen an early draft of his film.

“What I see is an opportunity to add to the dialogue with the students at Salem College, Winston-Salem State University and Wake Forest University, and with Pat McCrory and Roy Cooper,” he said in an interview before the screening. “It’s not a comprehensive story. It humanizes Kalvin Michael Smith. You have objective observers like Phoebe Zerwick [the investigative reporter who broke the story about the case in the Winston-Salem Journal]. And it shows the loss experienced by three families.”

The case has certainly taken a toll on the Marker and Smith families, but less obviously, Barber noted that the family of Kenneth Lamoureux — an early suspect in the assault, who is white — has also suffered.

One of the most illuminating interviews in Barber’s film is Ellen Lamoureaux — Kenneth Lamoureaux’s ex-wife — a nurse who suffered physical abuse from her husband and spent several years after the Marker assault on the run to keep her family safe from him.

“I was really very surprised it had shifted from the intensity of Ken Lamoureux to some black man from Crimestoppers,” Ellen Lamoureux says in Barber’s film.

She recounts a conversation with Detective Don Williams in another scene: “They were sure that’s who did it and I questioned Detective Williams because they had all this evidence pointing towards Ken Lamoureux. And I asked him what happened with that and he said, ‘What does it matter? We’re getting a black drug dealer off the street.’ Which frightened me ever more because Ken Lamoureux was still on the street.”

Compounding the egregiousness of Williams’ rationalization, there is no evidence that Smith ever sold drugs.

The requirements of Barber’s master’s thesis imposed a 40-minute limit on the early draft, and necessitated painful cuts. Future versions of the film will include more detail about the legal complexities of the case, and Barber said he plans to include a list of people who declined to grant him interviews, including Williams, Attorney General Roy Cooper, District Attorney Jim O’Neill and former police Chief Scott Cunningham.

Introducing Ordinary Injustice at HanesBrands Theatre, Barber said, “The film will not be done until the day Kalvin Michael Smith is released. The final scene will be a reunion with his family.”

Another person who has not granted an interview to Barber — at least to date — is Arnita Miles, who was the first police officer at the scene at the Silk Plant Forest store after the assault on Jill Marker in December 1995.

During the Q&A after the screening of Barber’s film at HanesBrands Theatre in Winston-Salem last week, Miles rose from the back row to address Barber.

“Seeing your film, it broke my heart, especially being one of the last people to actually talk to Jill Marker before she went into the state she was in,” Miles said. “So

The late Darryl Hunt, who spent 19 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder, spoke in support of Kalvin Michael Smith at Winston-Salem State University in February.

my question to you is, Mr. Barber, what do you want to accomplish with this film?”

Barber’s answer was complicated and lengthy, but he concluded by saying, “My hope with this project is to hopefully give a human face to wrongful convictions, and allow Kalvin Smith to have a voice, which he didn’t have until 2009, until the [Motion for Appropriate Relief] hearing, and mostly to give his family a voice.”

Smith’s parents, Gus Dark and Sheila LeGrand, joined Barber at the podium for the Q&A, along with James Coleman and Theresa Newman from the Duke University Innocence Project, and Zerwick, the investigative reporter.

Dark asked the student organizers to join him.

“These young people are amazing,” he said. And as Virginia Parnell took her place beside him as the student’s representative, Dark said, “Thank you so much.”

Dark told the audience that the struggle to free his son calls for a broader strategy.

GARRETT GARMS

“There’s some things that really don’t even belong to us, and they came down from above,” he said. “That’s like love and peace and justice. If they fail to do the right thing for my son, Kalvin Michael Smith, we’ve got to start fighting for Dontae Sharpe or someone else who’s going through the same situation. This stuff have to stop. I don’t know about y’all; I’m tired of racism, tired of injustice. I’m ready for peace.”

One woman asked Dark how he and his son are able to maintain such positive attitudes. Dark responded that considering that their ancestors came through slavery, their situation is not as hopeless as it might seem.

“I think about a shipload of black slaves shackled in the bottom of a boat,” Dark said. “And one of those people, or maybe two was an ancestor of mine. If they could hang in there and endure — if they could do that — then I can stay on this for the rest of my life.”

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CULTURE Lunch on lockdown: What’s on the jail menu

by Eric Ginsburg

T

here’s a practical reason to feed inmates well.

If a meal isn’t filling or doesn’t look appealing, the officers on the floor will catch grief over it.

“We try to make it to where we have a pretty robust diet,” Guilford County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Chuck Williamson explained. “Our philosophy has always been… when you’re in custody, there’s not a lot that you have to look forward to.”

So, the logic goes, if the food is good enough, things will run more smoothly.

Adult inmates in Guilford County are served an average of 3,000 calories a day — well above the state-mandated figure but not a budget-busting amount, Williamson said. The meal plan must be designed by a registered dietician and include a certain amount from each food group, and the jail caters to different dietary needs for inmates who are diabetic, pregnant, kosher or who have high blood pressure, he said.

Food service provider Aramark, a company that can also be found on college campuses, has provided three daily meals in the county for the last five years, and while the county is undertaking an RFP process for bids, Williamson said his office is “very satisfied” with Aramark’s service.

“They’ve done an excellent job for us,” He said. “I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”

Guilford County staffers approve a rotating menu submitted by Aramark, and a good portion of it sounds about as appealing as you’d expect; for the last four dinners during the second week on the schedule, inmates receive a tangy BBQ turkey sandwich, a bologna sandwich, a salami sandwich and a ham sandwich. All come with fruit and a vitamin-rich fruit drink.

There’s variety in the meals, to be sure, though not exactly much. Items are swapped around, meaning that the sloppy Joes come with a garden salad, Cajun potatoes and a fudge brownie one Thursday and then with au gratin potatoes, carrots and fruit the following Monday. On the second Wednesdays and Fridays, inmates receive ham for lunch, the first time with rice, pinto beans and coleslaw and the second time with scalloped potatoes and cabbage. Two days later, the ham comes as a sandwich with mustard and cheese.

The following week, turkey acts as the main fare in four dishes, spread out on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Breakfast offerings fluctuate. The skimpiest appears to be the first Wednesday in the rotation, where inmates are given creamy whole-grain oatmeal (1.5 cups) and a muffin — though the taco lunch that day sounds like one of the more appetizing. And the arguably the best breakfast comes on the third Friday, as the oatmeal this time comes with ham, hashbrown potatoes and a biscuit.

Sounds alright to me.

But then I think about my friend who spent almost

Inmates at the Guilford County jail in Greensboro apparently can’t get away with making their own wine anymore.

a year in Forsyth County lockup, only to be found not guilty on all charges. These meals indeed would be only of the rare things to look forward to, save for visits. I don’t know what the meal plan looks like in Forsyth — I didn’t hear back immediately as I did in Guilford — but at least there inmates receive face-to-face visitation rather than seeing loved ones via video conferencing.

Many of the 750 to 800 prisoners behind bars in Guilford County, like their counterparts in Forsyth, are in for more than just a few days — we’re talking about people denied bond or who are unable to pay, sitting in their units with minimal space to exercise and no yard for months on end.

These are folks who, generally speaking, are awaiting trial. Some will be found not guilty — almost everyone else will plea regardless of the specifics of their case so that they’ll be released sooner.

If, while they’re there, they grow tired of the three meals provided a day, inmates can supplement their meals with commissary purchases. Not that the list is overflowing with options; there are 21 kinds of candy available and 75 snacks, which sounds like a lot until you realize that many of the choices are chips, cookies and crackers. If you’re genuinely hungry, your best bet is some overpriced ramen, a $1.55 granola bar, or slightly more expensive beef summer sausage ($2.45).

Considering that Williamson said the jail doesn’t provide inmates with access to a microwave though, it’s difficult to imagine the ramen being particularly appealing.

Maybe instead inmates opt for the Snyder’s jalapeño chops (93 cents), a Honey Bun ($1.49) or pepperoni sticks ($4.95).

ERIC GINSBURG

Guilford County outsources its commissary system to a company called Kimbles Commissary, which provides everything from du-rags to Bibles to toothpaste to radios. Inmates are allowed to place orders weekly, with a cap at $50 for food items and $25 for other goods, Williamson said. And the state regulates pricing, requiring that it be comparable to stores nearby.

“Every week inmates can order most of the things that you could walk into a convenience store and buy,” Williamson said.

And that’s a good comparison — the pricing is more akin to a gas station mini-mart than a grocery store.

Williamson said one of the perks of the (relatively) new jail in downtown Greensboro is that correctional officers are actually in the units with inmates rather than patrolling the perimeter of a floor, which makes it nearly impossible for inmates to do things like making wine with aged fruit or Kool Aid. Other facilities may have that problem, he said, but not this one.

I guess, even if the officers on the floor catch grief for it, that sacrifice just isn’t worth it.

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Tiki’s beer lab

Up Front News Opinion

Tiki Adkisson (center) runs the lab at Foothills with help from two full-timers — Andy Daniels and Claudia Gerardo — and a part-timer.

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Tiki Adkisson isn’t the only woman working on the production side of things here — there’s Gerardo, of course, and Foothills hired its first female brewer earlier this year. Women occupy other important roles too, including COO, comptroller and both pub general managers, a not insignificant fact in an industry temporarily dominated by men. And the Adkissons aren’t the only beer couple to be found at the Winston-Salem heavyweight either, most notably joined by COO Sarah Bartholomaus and her husband Jamie, the company president.

As Foothills grows, so do the responsibilities of Tiki Adkisson’s lab, as well as the wish list of things she’d like to add. But just like the massive warehouse space where the production brewery operates around her (in a building that used to house a manila envelope manufacturer), Adkisson is quickly running out of space.

Culture

science above all.

And that’s what you want, really, as a beer drinker or a brewery owner. They’re perfectly polite, and will begrudgingly pose for a picture, but before you’ve left the room they’ll turn back around to their devices, entering data into spreadsheets or hunkering over a beaker.

Not that there’s no fun in that tucked away corner of Foothills’ brewery — there’s a baseball in there, and the trio joke around with each other and interlopers alike.

Adkisson’s interest in beer didn’t begin with the Foothills position, she said, though it certainly doesn’t hurt that her husband is TL Adkisson, who Foothills recently promoted from head brewer to brewmaster, the guy who created the seminal Jade IPA as his first recipe for the company.

ERIC GINSBURG

Cover Story

Some people dream about working at a brewery. Tiki Adkisson aspired to be a field biologist. She ended up doing a little of both.

Before Adkisson joined the team at Foothills — the second-largest North Carby Eric Ginsburg olina-based craft brewery — in 2011, she worked at an independent water-testing company along the Carolina coast. There she would test drinking water, and waste much of it: not exactly a glamorous life, or what she envisioned as a student at UT Knoxville in her home state of Tennessee. But her scientific background would help qualify her for a sexier — albeit unexpected — position as the head of Foothills’ beer lab.

Smaller breweries generally go without the level of oversight and quality control that a lab like the one at Foothills affords, but Adkisson and her small team play a fundamental role in assuring the consistency of the Winston-Salem brewery’s products. It’s not that smaller breweries don’t go through great pains to deliver precise output, but when Foothills grew to its Kimwell Drive production facility in southwest Winston-Salem, a lab seemed like an integral part of its expansion.

Two full-timers helped fill out the lab team — Claudia Gerardo and Andy Daniels started as interns while pursuing associate degrees in biotechnology at Forsyth Tech before being hired on — as well as a part-time staffer. Together Adkisson’s crew tests each beer at every step of the brewing process, sometimes under a microscope or with beer-specific tools to check for consistent CO2 or dissolved oxygen in finished bottles.

Adkisson, Gerardo and Daniels like beer; it’s sort of part of the job description, and they do frequently taste beers during production and after completion.

But unlike any brewery employee I’ve ever met, the beer is a secondary motivation, more of a perk than anything else — these three are passionate about the

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22

CULTURE Roomful of Teeth turns a capella upside down

by Joanna Rutter

S

omewhere amid the throaty gasps, cinematic bass notes and eerie whistling, it became quite apparent that Roomful of Teeth ain’t your teen sister’s Pitch Perfect or “Glee”-style acapella group.

Amid students wisely avoiding finals crunch season, the experimental octet quickly eliminated all mental images of amateur-hour barbershop ditties by dweeby freshmen in liberal arts schools or snooze-y high school choirs. Roomful of Teeth replaced them with professional vocalists trained in Inuit throat singing and yodeling, among other voice-as-instrument techniques.

This a capella group, by the way, also collaborated with Kanye West and won a Grammy for its debut album that they funded via Kickstarter.

The main event of the evening at Wake Forest University’s Brendle Recital Hall on April 29 was a performance of group member Caroline Shaw’s composition Partita for 8 Voices, which won a Pulitzer.

The New York Times’ magazine recently featured the piece among the 25 examples of “where music is going,” alongside the Hamilton soundtrack and Kendrick Lamar’s The Blacker the Berry. In the beginning of the piece vocalists abruptly begin with BONICA AYALA On April 29, a capella group Roomful of Teeth brought their unique vocal stylings to Wake Forest University’s overlapping spoken word, a juxtaposition Brendle Recital Hall, filling it with bizarre sounds woven together in a surprisingly beautiful unity. that makes zero sense, but by the end of the piece, the dissonance feels fitting. sounded as if the group swallowed noise and then spit eight minutes of the night, Roomful of Teeth played Though broken into four distinct movements, the out angelic harmonies, eventually exploding into some with words just as much as with sounds, delivering Partita is coherent as a single musical work. A narrative kind of rebel yell. Bass vocalist Cameron Beauchamp lyrics like “your words are shampoo” and “beneath the urgency untangles each building, chaotic phrase to used the mic to produce a sound like an Australian purple tree rots poisonous mangoes” with the evident ease back into central themes, never losing momendidgeridoo. glee of a shared joke between the performers. At one tum or its ability to surprise.

Several elements invisible to the audience seemed to point, a few vocalists mimicked airy bird calls; by then, A rapt audience, including a busful of UNCSA stuanchor the performance throughout, mainly a tempo most of the audience was on board enough with the dents packed into the front rows, the wackier Wake and sheet music. Only the tiniest foot taps gave away weirdness to laugh at the noise. crowd (meaning, sans Sperrys),and an older enclave the governing rhythm, and the eight singers did have Alto Virginia Warnken belted out a solo that would clustered in the back, ensured the joy of the performusic stands in front of them, though there’s no tellgive Idina Menzel a run for her money, singing, “there mance wasn’t limited to Roomful of Teeth alone. ing what the notation looks like for such music.

When the theater emptied for intermission, one auThe “courante” movement, which means “running” Pick of the Week dience member attempted mimicked some of Partita’s in French, aptly began with sharp gasps and “ah” Cast reflect on all yr haterz noises to their seatmate, then said, “I could do that.” noises, a breath rapidly passed back and forth among A New World: Intimate Music from Final Fantasy @ After a moment’s pause, though, they conceded, the vocalists, and culminating in the final movement, Scales Fine Arts Center (W-S), Sunday, 7 p.m.

“Well, not like that.” which returns to the main chord progression, adding Odd that a classy Mothers’ Day spectacular feaThat’s a understatement. The first movement is into more chaotic spoken word and messing around tures mainly music from a video game your mom mainly reminiscent of early church music, such as Grewith vocal fry effects. The audience, likely overprobably got tired of hearing when you were in high gorian chanting or polyphonic organum compositions whelmed, provided barely adequate applause. school. No matter. It’s still an amazing soundtrack, from the 1100 and 1200s, ending in piercingly haunting An intermission provided a short breath for the and the versatile New World Players chamber enminor unison in female voices as men provide anchoraudience to process and prepare for the bizarrities semble, led by Grammy-winning conductor Arnie ing bass, closing in quiet but powerful hums. ahead, a set of shorter works that delved into yodeling Roth and joined by pianist Benyamin Nuss, are sure Aptly describing the main theme through the secand opera. to do it justice. Go to ffnewworld.com for tickets. ond movement may be impossible, but here goes: It In “Amid the Minotaurs,” probably the weirdest

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is no subtlety in death, it’s like a hurricane” in an off-puttingly stirring interlude between all the wackiness.

Speaking of gorgeous voices: soprano Esteli Gomez’s hauntingly beautiful voice had a chance to shine through Italian operatic stylings during “Suonata.” She hit what sounded like a high C with delicate strength, precision and piercing clarity; a high note exactly as the soul wants to hear it sung.

The evening closed with “Quizassa” composed by Merrill Garbus of TuneYards, who borrows from the same eclectic mix of inspiration as Roomful of Teeth. The end product of their combined forces touched something primal with gibberish tonal chanting interrupted by nasal harmonies reminiscent of alt-J’s “Fitzpleasure” that wouldn’t be out of place sung while dancing around a campfire under a full moon.

Cartoonish shrieks and coughs morphed into the vocal equivalent of a guitar solo, in which Warnken screamed like a bona-fide rock star, punctuated by a hair toss. Immediately after the song finished, the entire audience shot up in a standing ovation for the beaming octet. No other reaction would do.

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24

CULTURE Mijoo Kim captures a ‘trail of threads’ through her lens

by Joanna Rutter

T

he scene of a woman sitting on a bed in a room with shallow background, her hand rested lightly on the mattress, feels like any Romantic painter’s rendition of a seated portrait. Except for one small detail: The woman is wearing a linen bag over her head.

The photograph — Mijoo Kim’s 2014 piece called “Red Dress” — is part of her current exhibit at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem. It stirs an uneasy longing mixed with menacing implications, touching on feminine identity and the power of clothing in shaping that identity.

Kim is showing from two of MIJOO KIM As part of SECCA’s 12x12 North Carolinian pop-up exhibition series, Chapel JOANNA RUTTER ‘Cover the Head,” 2014, her recent fine-art series, Rolefrom the Re-Figure series.

Hill-based photographer Mijoo Kim explores displacement and identity.

Play and Re-Figure. The former uses posed fabric set against No harm done. Turns out the gun-toter was a ham bachelor’s degree from the School of the Art Institute surreal backdrops or the North Carolinian outdoors radio enthusiast who, upon being solicited for stories, of Chicago. to juxtapose themes of belonging and being lost. In took the pair down into his basement to show all of his “Before moving to North Carolina, I was interested Re-Figure, peppy prints are paired with the ominous radio equipment. in documentary style,” Kim said in an interview. anonymity of the artist’s presence.

Serendipitous moments like this are the reason Kim Growing up in South Korea, Kim’s father was an Kim is one of 12 artists in the 12x12 artist salon series enjoys her medium, adding that she has the ability to migrant worker, and the beginning of her interest in at SECCA, which presents a dozen artists from North represent different pieces of a cultural tapestry in her photography intersected with her interest in other Carolina, the nation’s 12th state. Curator Cora Fisher work. workers’ stories, she said. worked with a team of guest curators to pick the parToday, she isn’t in any strangers’ basements. She’s in She remembered first beginning to try her hand at ticipants for the series, which runs through the spring Long Island City for her second artist residency in New photography 10 years ago, using her grandfather’s of 2017. Each month’s artist opens with a casual salon York state, the first having been in 2014 at the Center Canon, and pursuing street photography. Her street talk, culminating in a final collaborative show with for Photography at Woodstock, and now with the savvy served her well when she moved to Chicago and pieces from all artists involved. plainly named Artist Residency Program New York. encountered sharp sensations of displacement and Kim’s surreal approach can seem sterile upon first The perks of the Woodstock residency? estrangement. glance, but there’s some not-so-hidden, menacing “They pay for everything,” Kim said with a small “At first, it’s really hard,” Kim said. “I was still learnsubtext under the familiar backdrops, such as in “Polka laugh. ing English. I dragged around a camera to talk to other Dot Dress,” set at a fairy tale-esque wooded babbling Spoken like a true artist. people with a camera and a tripod.” brook and featuring a rumpled dress abandoned in the In that way, photography was her second language. foreground, hinting at some dark event that may have “That’s why I was a street photographer,” she said. taken place just before the photographer arrived.

“Taking photos, it’s another language Visitors are encouraged to think of Pick of the Week to connect.” the series as pop-up mini exhibits, which Mijoo Kim’s 12x12 Kim shared a story of crossed cultural Man, you got to do your best makes sense seeing as SECCA’s Preview wires that took place with her cousin, pop-up exhibit Concrete Canvas Mural Fest @ the art park (W-S), Gallery space is rather limited compared also a Chapel Hill student. The two of Saturday, 8 a.m. runs at SECCA’s to the expansive architecture of the rest them went on a photo field trip, driving This all-day event features 11 mural painters from of the museum. It’s essentially a small Preview Gallery to Northern Illinois in search of stories.

Winston-Salem and Greensboro as they redecand low-ceilinged extension of the atriin Winston-Salem They picked a house at random and orate Winston-Salem in this all-day marathon. um, which permits a less solemn vibe to walked right up to the front porch. through May 15.

It wouldn’t be a Triad arts festival without some take over the room.

“I didn’t know [this] was weird,” Kim body painting and some food trucks, so there’ll be That complements Kim’s brightly colsaid. some of both, and local acts like the Finks and Star ored photographs on themes of identity, When the door opened, a man stood Wizard with provide ambiance. Arrive with your offmigration and belonging — though she didn’t always behind it with a gun in his hand, considering their visit spring in tow at noon for a special guided art projfocus on fine-art photography. Before earning her MFA invasive. ect for kids. For a full list of artists and performers, from UNC Chapel Hill in 2015, Kim studied photogra“My professors said, ‘Are you crazy?’” she said, go to the event’s Facebook page. phy in her native South Korea and then earned another remembering.

Triad athletic conferences must oppose HB2

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For example, the Big South Conference, represented ing the spring semester to establish agendas for the

by High Point University, has no current opinion. following year. HB2 and strengthening diversity and “I’m sure, internally, we do have some thoughts on inclusion in athletics must top the docket.

[HB2],” Big South Assistant Commissioner of Public “This would be uncharted territory for us,” ODAC Relations Mark Simpson said in an interview, “but the Commissioner Brad Bankston said in an interview. commissioner would be the better person to speak to “Nothing comes to mind — to me — to have been that than I would.” something that we would have taken a stand on in a Commissioner Kyle Kallander could not be reached similar fashion.” for comment.

Yet just because conferences haven’t publicly The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, opposed oppression doesn’t mean it shouldn’t hapbased in Charlotte only since 2015 and represented pen. After all, just because there’d never been a black

by Winston-Salem State University, stated it would baseball player didn’t stop Robinson from signing with relocate neither its headquarters nor any tournathe Dodgers. ments from North Carolina. However, the conference Considering HB2, the NBA has considered relocatpromised to educate both its members and athletes on ing the 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte. Following LGBT rights and issues. the NCAA’s resolution, Greensboro’s bid for hosting The ACC released a stronger statement reiterating the first two rounds of the Division I Men’s Basketball its devotion to diversity. Yet when asked if the conTournament lays in jeopardy. ference, long based in Greensboro and harboring four But setting aside HB2’s impact on sports-driven North Carolina universities, condemns HB2 specifically economic gain, leaders of the sports community must or would alter its bid system, ACC Senior Associate quit playing politics, set their priorities straight and Commissioner Amy Yakoda replied, “The statement denounce outright this ghastly bigotry. stands for itself.”

These conferences are wide open with a chance to At least one conference has already established firm promote justice. They should take the shot. plans to address HB2 and the NCAA’s new process.

“I can assure that, in the bid process, state philosophy and how they view discrimination is gonna be part of bidding,” Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Commissioner Dr. Dennis E. Thomas said in an interview; Pick of the Week Greensboro’s NC A&T University is a member. “Most fair-minded, objective people who do not want to see Dogs and cats playing together — mass hysteria discrimination rear its ugly head will say that [HB2] is Savannah State University Tigers @ NC A&T Universinot a good thing for the state. I’ll leave it at that.” ty Aggies (GSO), Saturday, 1 p.m.

Indeed, the time for ambiguity has expired.

The final home weekend for Aggies baseball kicks All Triad conferences should join MEAC to bridge the off with a double header. A&T hosts the Savannah gap between their members and the NCAA by expressState Tigers for two Saturday games, one starting ly condemning HB2. While they’re at it, if they employ at 1 p.m. and the second at 4 p.m., and a 1 p.m. a bidding system for major events, they should adopt Sunday matinee, all at War Memorial Stadium. For the stance espoused by the NCAA and vow not to hold more info, visit ncataggies.com tournaments in North Carolina while HB2 is in effect.

If tournament locales are determined by rotation, exclude North Carolina venues from the queue.

Most extremely, conferences should discharge schools unwilling to officially defy HB2.

These actions could Frank Slate Brooks force Triad schools to conBroker/Realtor® sider not only HB2 more 336.708.0479 cell 336.274.1717 office seriously, but also their frankslate.brooks@trm.info own purported values.

1401 Sunset Dr., Suite 100 Most conferences’ Greensboro, NC 27408 boards convene follow-

Up Front

T

hough fun and games often lack the importance to impact everyday life, sports can influence and drive social change.

When the Brooklyn Dodgers drafted Jackie Robinson at second base, finally including

by Anthony Harrison an African American in the sacred national pastime, it was considered a landmark moment in the Civil Rights Movement. After Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson contracted HIV, his inspired performances in the twilight of his illustrious career dismissed awful stereotypes and fears of the disease. More recently, several high-profile professional athletes have come out as LGBT either during or following their careers, prompting others to play openly.

Now should be another time for athletic organizations to fight for what’s right.

The NCAA board of governors approved an amendment to their bidding process on April 27 requiring cities vying for major association events to provide non-discriminatory facilities and atmospheres, “safeguard[ing] the dignity of everyone involved in the event,” as outlined in its official release.

This process implicitly responds to legislatures passing discriminatory laws, such as the General Assembly’s infamous HB2.

However, the NCAA’s mandate doesn’t extend universally.

While the NCAA regulates nearly all facets of almost every intercollegiate athletic program, individual athletic conferences under the NCAA’s auspices may determine particular bylaws, including their processes for setting tournament venues. Thus, the NCAA cannot demand conferences to follow its lead regarding the anti-discriminatory bidding process.

To stand firm against the statewide wave of oppression, conferences represented within the Triad should join the NCAA and take this hardline stance against HB2 as policy.

Eight of the nine Triad schools — Bennett College being the exception — compete in as many conferences governed by the NCAA. While public universities must follow state law regardless of institutional disagreement with HB2, three private schools — Guilford College of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Wake Forest University and Great South Athletic Conference member Salem College — have publicly rejected the bill’s stipulations.

Of course, this announcement from the NCAA came but a week ago; most conferences haven’t had the chance to formulate an opinion on how to react to their parent association’s policy change.

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FUN & GAMES

25

May 4 — 10, 2016

How To Grow Fresh Air A go-to guide for an indoor air upgrade.

by Alexandra Klein

A

ll those reading this article from your cubicle, corner office or living room, raise your hand. Now if you notice green in your periphery, in the form of flowers, potted plants (silk replicas don’t count!) or those smallish trees often kept in the lobbies of large buildings, raise your other hand up and give yourself a high five. Betcha quite a few of you cubicle dwellers were left hanging — and you might be feeling sore about it. And as it turns out, you should be. If you’re stuck inside all day — and you most likely are, since Americans on average spend 90 percent of their time indoors — you could be unnecessarily suffering the consequences of poor indoor air quality.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, indoor air is often found to have higher levels of pollutants than outdoor air, which may seem counterintuitive to many. This discrepancy is due to many factors, including chemical off-gassing of manufactured products, commercial cleaning supplies and poorly designed ventilation systems. And though removing the source of pollutants is the best way to improve air quality, that task is often impractical, if not impossible.

But air quality can be vastly improved by simply adding a few indoor plants to your work or living space. NASA conducted a study in the mid ’80s which found several plants were able to filter out volatile organic compounds, and that basic idea has been studied and proved time and again by various scientific organizations. Most plants purify the air, but some of them are much better at it, or easier to care for, than others. We did our homework and picked four best-loved plants for NEST’s fresh-air guide, below.

Now put your hands down, people are staring.

Spider Plant (aka Airplane Plant) Remember the above-mentioned NASA study? The spider plant was made famous in 1984 when NASA released research findings that stated the humble plant could filter pollutants from the air, as tested on its space facilities. This plant produces long slender green leaves with a yellow or cream stripe down the center of each, and can flower at any time of year creating “plantlets” after the white buds fall off that look almost airborne.

Areca Palm (aka Yellow Palm or Butterfly Palm) While all palms are great air purifiers, the areca is consistently top-rated for removing all indoor air pollutants tested. Tolerant of indoor environments, the areca helps humidify dry living spaces and is also fast-growing and easily maintained. A quick search yielded areca’s available for under $40 at the local Home Depot. With beautiful, feathery, yellow-green fronds, this larger plant is beloved for both functionality and aesthetics.

Golden Pothos Quite possibly the most easily recognizable houseplant, it is also the easiest to grow and the best to have if you are likely to neglect it. You can put this houseplant in a dark corner of your home or office and it will still keep its vibrant green heart-shaped leaves without fading or browning. A top-rated air purifier, this plant should be on every office manager’s short-list, and in every person’s living space.

Aloe Vera Best known for its ability to relieve sunburn, aloe is also an excellent air purifier. A small to large succulent with easy-care instructions, this popular plant is superior for bedside tables. The reason? Aloe differs from most houseplants in that it releases oxygen and takes in carbon monoxide at night.

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Tell your home or design story in NEST: email Alexandra Klein @ alex@triad-city-beat.com

‘Slammed’ prepare to be taken down.

by Matt Jones Across

Cover Story Culture Fun & Games

1 Zippo 2 Theater sign 3 Much of soc. studies 4 Michele’s “High School Reunion” friend 5 “Pulp Fiction” actress Thurman 6 Mishmash of a “Jeopardy!” category 7 Play thing?

8 First month on a Mexican calendar 9 “And so on” 10 Majestic 11 “You couldn’t even find your own butt on a Waze app” 12 Trivial Pursuit edition

Opinion

Down

13 Cosmetics mogul Lauder 18 Pizza destroyer of old Domino’s ads 23 “The Fresh Prince of ___-Air” 25 Home of the Mustangs, for short 27 1993 Texas standoff city 28 Speedy breed of steed 29 “Buying your weed wearing a pot leaf T-shirt? Like that’s original” 30 Went out with 31 “Pet” irritation 33 ___ di pepe (tiny pasta variety) 36 Sucks the strength out of 37 Blue-green hue 38 Model with a palindromic name 40 How lottery numbers are chosen 43 Gear tooth 44 Text-interpreting technology, briefly 47 Champagne bucket, e.g.

48 Piece of paper 49 Australian leaf-eater 51 “Otello” librettist 54 Loch ___ Monster 56 Abbr. on a bottle of Courvoisier 57 Where the Himalayas are 58 Partakes of 59 Pack of playing cards 60 Bad time for Caesar 63 “Lord of the Rings” tree creature

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48 Visit Vail, perhaps 50 Talk and talk 52 Machine to watch “RoboCop” on, way back when 53 Didi of “Grease” and “Grease 2” 55 Astronomical flareups 57 Automaker headquartered in Bavaria 61 Make a clickbait list, e.g.

62 “Your hair looks like it was styled by kittens” 64 Brews that may be Scotch or pale 65 Early Nebraskan 66 Lisa, to Patty and Selma 67 Stamp inkers 68 “Cleanup in aisle four” tools 69 To-do list items

Up Front

1 Jacket style named for an Indian prime minister 6 Impala, to a lion 10 Scoring advantage 14 “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” e.g.

15 “Game of Thrones” actress Chaplin 16 Safe contents?

17 “All that over your fireplace--are you trying to put Hummel out of business?”

19 Fails to be 20 Courtroom fig.

21 Beethoven wrote just one 22 Detective’s lead 23 Life sentences?

24 Yiddish interjections 26 Sweet suffix 27 Crumpled into a ball 32 “Hello, I’m ___” (recurring ad line from Justin Long) 34 Sans-serif Windows font 35 Unteach, in a way 39 It immobilizes 40 Rock venue 41 A couple of gossip columns 42 Aim 44 When infomercials start running, sometimes 45 Wavy lines, in a comic strip 46 “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” songwriter

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GAMES

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Answers from previous publication.

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©2016 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com)

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May 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 10, 2016

Carolina Street, Greensboro

The baby life.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

On May 5th, take your business to the next level!

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Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center | 9am-6pm www.greensborochamber.com

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Mother’s Day

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News Opinion Cover Story Culture Fun & Games NEST Games Shot in the Triad All She Wrote

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e: Mother, how would you describe your sense

of style?

Mother: You either got it or you don’t, kid.

Up Front

May 4 — 10, 2016

ALL SHE WROTE

COURTESY PHOTOS

It was a mild morning In the studio The Parsons years With baby Nicole in the late in May when I heard studio Joann’s column photo my phone’s customary lone ring trill on for 10 minutes from the shower stall 10 feet away. “This can’t be good,” I said to myself. Sure enough the missed calls typed out HOSPICE like a macabre marquee flashing five times over. There were at least as many from Tracy, Mom’s right hand man.

Ugh. It was time.

I grabbed my pre-packed overnight bag, made arrangements for the dogs and bolted down Interstate 85, OJ-style.

Mother’s Day had come and gone, but this was our moment of truth. I told her she didn’t need to worry about me or anything else. She had given me the tools — and then some — to battle this beast of a world we live in and I was ready.

She died in my arms that afternoon like a baby bird and it was hard to distinguish the baptism of my still-wet hair on her brow from the tears. She died in her own bed in the very spot where my father had passed 30 years Sailing in upstate New York A bathing beauty The Florida Keys before. She died after 84 years of living life on her own terms and sharing much of it with me, her only kid.

So, in honor of mothers everywhere — especially the ballsy and stylish ones — I pay tribute to my favorite fashionista in the whole round world: my mother, Joann Crews.

Born Joann Pappas, mother was the youngest of five children born to a Greek immigrant shopkeeper and Canadian seamstress in Duluth, Minn., in 1931.

A “driven woman” as females were referred to when they eschewed early marriage, mother graduated from the University of Minnesota with an art degree and set out for New York. She taught art to support herself and enrolled in what is now Parsons the New School for Design. Her cousin, Margie Leftcourt, worked in fashion and got mother a gig as a fit model for designer Pauline Trigere.

“When I moved to New York I had three blouses and two skirts and rotatBernhardt Furniture in the 1960s Skiing in Austria With actor Cliff ed them endlessly,” said Mother. “I ate crackers I pocketed from the coffee Robertson shooting a furniture commercial shop for dinner and bought fresh fruit and vegetables when I could afford it.

I ate and dressed like a French woman before anybody wrote about it.”

A fortuitous meeting at Parsons with Kay Lambeth of Erwin-Lambeth Furniture brought mother South in the late 1950s, where she entered the fields of furniture design and interior design — still rare for a female. (“I never understood feminists because I was too busy working,” is a favorite quote.)

“When I went to work for Bernhardt [Furniture] I remember John Christian Bernhardt’s wife telling me that ‘ladies in the South did not wear black, nor wear eyeliner’ Take charge of your mind, body and spirit and she took me to Montaldo’s and bought me a pink A-line dress with a green and white block-print silk scarf. I felt like an ice cream cone,” said Joann.

Test pH balance, allergies, hormones Through the years she worked designing high-end upholstery and showrooms for Balance diet, lifestyle and emotions Create a personalized health and nutrition plan Bernhardt, Tomlinson, Century, Dansen, Lane and many more. She designed fabrics for several houses and worked as a consultant well into her seventies. Through it all, her chic, classic, workaday style has endured.

(336) 456-4743 • jillclarey3@gmail.com “I used to shop at Bergdorfs [Goodman], now it’s Land’s End,” said Joann, “because 3723 West Market St., Unit–B, Greensboro, NC 27403 life is too short to worry too much about fashion.” www.thenaturalpathwithjillclarey.com

by Nicole Crews

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Illustration by Jorge Maturino