TCB Nov. 16, 2016 — Trump's NC

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com November 16 – 22, 2016

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Trump’s North Carolina How the biggest upset in political history went down

Forsyth

Guilford A New Hope PAGE 8

Arson lessons PAGE 19

Back to Bowie PAGE 23

PAGE 12

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Nov. 16 — 22, 2016

From inside the bubble I’ll admit it: I did not see it coming.

I always knew a Trump presidency was on the table, even way back

by Brian Clarey at the beginning of primary season. And in the weeks leading up to the election I had some doubts about a Clinton victory. But, though I would have never bet any money on it, I thought up until about 10 p.m. on election night that Hillary was going to have an easy walk into the White House. I didn’t make the final call until about 1 a.m., at which point it got kind of quiet in the TCB newsroom, where Art Director Jorge Maturino and I were sending off the final pages.

And I had to ask myself: Who’s living in a bubble now?

I’m no Democrat — I had no attachment to Clinton as a candidate except that she was not Trump, who I still regard as dangerous and moronic. And Trump, I’ve always known, is no Republican. His allusions on election night to public works projects, frankly, made me question the nature of reality itself, until I realized he was probably talking about a wall.

And I’m not naïve about the makeup of this state — I always figured Trump could take North Carolina because I know what

it looks like outside the cities.

That’s how it broke down in the place we call home: Clinton scored big in counties with big cities and universities, some, like Orange County, with margins as high as 50 points. In Guilford Trump got just 38.2 percent of the vote, almost 20 points behind Clinton, who came in at nearly 57.9 percent. She took Forsyth by more than 10 points.

So the question becomes: Do we engage with our rural brothers and sisters, overcome our cultural differences and work together for a better state for all of us, or do we wall ourselves off in our sanctuaries and, like Manhattanites or New Orleanians or Austinites, never venture outside the metro area?

The fact is, our state’s economy is inextricably linked to the health of its cities — that’s where the jobs are, the markets, the amenities, the action. So the burden falls on our country cousins to demonstrate their willingness to play nicely.

A good place to start would be to denounce the acts of hate being perpetrated throughout the state in Trump’s name, including the KKK rally scheduled for Dec. 3 in Pelham, 45 minutes north of Burlington, and Trump’s appointment of Stephen Bannon, who crawled from one of the most toxic cesspools on the entire internet to become a cabinet member.

Unless, of course, that was the plan all along.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK I hate that he’s such a butthole. We had a bad choice.

Hillary is a crook. Donald has too big an ego.

— Voter Frederick Karnap, in the Cover, page 12

1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey

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Nov. 16 — 22, 2016

CITY LIFE November 16 – 22 ALL WEEKEND

Gingerbread house making @ Mrs. Pumpkin’s Bakery-Deli (W-S) Join the gang at Mrs. Pumpkins Baker-Deli on Friday and Saturday for their annual gingerbread house baking event while also benefiting Sally’s Angels, a nonprofit that helps support the families of chronically ill children. To reserve a gingerbread kit and baker’s spot, call Mrs. Pumpkin’s at 336.924.9797 or visit mrspumpkins.com.

by Naari Honor

THURSDAY

Mental health awareness @ Greensboro History Museum (GSO), 5 p.m.

The Greensboro Human Relations Department discusses the correlation between mental health and housing in Peace of Mind: The Link Between Housing and Mental Health as part of their mental health awareness series and the second installment of their new series entitled the “Hidden Side of Housing.” The free program is open to the public.

For more information email Jodie Stanley (jodie. stanley@greensboro-nc.gov) or call human relations at 336.373.2038.

SATURDAY Apple feast @ Greensboro Farmers Curb Market (GSO), 8 a.m.

The Greensboro Farmer’s Market pays homage to apples. Samples and pancakes made by guest chef Alex Amoroso of Cheesecakes by Alex will be available for a low price.

Salon series @ New Winston Museum (W-S), 5:30 p.m.

Dr. Jonathan Burdette, a professor of neuroradiology at Baptist Hospital and co-founder of the Laboratory of Complex Brain Networks, discusses current research linking music to brain function. For more information, visit newwinston.org.

Swim invitational @ Greensboro Aquatic Center (GSO) North Carolina College swim teams gather to compete in the NC State GAC Invitationals, Thursday through Saturday at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.

Toma van Houtryve @ SECCA, (W-S), 6 p.m. international photojournalist Tomas van Houtryve discusses his photo series Blue Sky Days, a drone’seye view of America and Traces in Exile, which chronicles the journey of new migrants to Europe as part of the center’s Dispatches series. For more information visit the Tomas Van Houtryve and Pulitzer Center-Talk at SECCA Facebook event .

Live podcast taping @ Wake Forest University, Porter Byrum Welcome Center (W-S), 8 p.m.

Writer and jokester Tracy Clayton from BuzzFeed’s Another Round records a podcast at the Porter Byrum Welcome Center. Admission is free, but reservations are required.

FRIDAY WEDNESDAY

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Job search assistance @ Windsor Recreation Center (GSO), 9 a.m.

The city of Greensboro, NC Works Career Center and Guilford Community College team up to offer the community a job readiness fair. The event will offer workshops and assistance to job seekers in the areas of résumés, the job application process, job search strategies and other additional resources to aid in a successful job search. For more information contact Maria Hicks-Few, diversity and inclusion officer with the city’s human resources department, at 336.373.2657 or visit greensboro-nc.gov/jobfair.

Aaron Draplin @ UNCG (GSO), 5:30 p.m.

Aaron Draplin has designed album covers, logos for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the US Transportation Department’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER initiative, along with work for Nike, Target and Forum Snowboards. He shares the wisdom of his craft in a talk at the School of Education Auditorium.

Teen anime night @ Central Library (GSO), 6 p.m.

Greensboro’s Central library hosts a teen anime night presenting tales from award-winning author Ursula LeGuin. Participants are encouraged to share their art work and talk all things manga. It’s sure to be a kawaii experience.

Art reveal @ Goldston Park (HP), Noon Artist Brian Davis unveils his “puzzling” revamp of a building at the Goldston Park, a project sponsored by the Southwest Renewal Foundation, TAG and the city of High Point. More information can be found on the park’s Facebook page.

Poetry concert @ Church of the Covenant in Greensboro (GSO), 7:30 p.m.

Rumi by Candlelight, a poetic musical holiday event, evolves organically before the eyes of the audience. Performances will include readings by Adrian Vyner-Brooks, Betsy Bevan on piano, Will Ridenour on kora, vocalist Meredith Holladay and Daniel Chambo on the bansuri.

Further information can be found on the 10th annual Rumi

by Candlelight Facebook page.

SUNDAY

Pokémon Tournament @ the Elm Street Center (GSO), 3 p.m.

Super Famicon: Nintendo Convention & Tournament series hosts a tournament of the new game Pokémon Sun & Moon. Admission is free with general admission ticket from Super Famicon. More at superfamicon.com.

Midget Wrestling @ Texas Discotheque 2013 (GSO), 9 p.m.

Midgets and dwarfs battle for the title in this extreme war of wrestling. Ringside seating available along with an opportunity to meet the professionals’ wrestlers and grab a selfie before the bouts begin.

Brian Clarey: Fight the power, baby.

15%

I’m out the game.

4% Cat pics and fail vids.

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1. Polls

2. Debates

3. Endorsements, media and otherwise

5. Experience

Donald Trump is the first person to ascend to the presidency with absolutely no government or military experience, while Clinton has been involved in politics since the 1960s.

6. Racism/xenophobia/sexism

Trump pledged to ban Muslims from entering the United States, build a wall between us and Mexico, and deport all illegal immigrants (13 million of them!). He seems to believe that all black Americans live in inner cities, that all women should not have the final say on their healthcare, that a federal judge with a Mexican surname cannot perform his job due to his heritage (he was born in Indiana) and that Latinos eat taco bowls. He has also been sued, twice, by the Justice Department for refusing to rent New York apartments to black people.

Triaditude Adjustment

None of the major newspapers in the United States endorsed Donald Trump, except for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville; the Las Vegas Review-Journal, owned by Trump ally Sheldon Adelson; newspapers in Santa Barbara, Calif., St. Joseph, Mo. and Hillsboro, Ohio; as well as the National Enquirer and the Crusader, which is the newspaper of the KKK. Also, no living former presidents or first ladies gave their endorsement to Trump.

Clinton outraised Trump by more than $380 million, according to Open Secrets. In all, $1.3 billion was raised for the presidential election, $594 million from super PACs.

Shot in the Triad

The only media outlets that declared Trump the winner of any of the three presidential debates were fake news outlets and partisan commentators — even Fox News admitted that Hillary won the first one. But George W. Bush lost all his debates, too, and look how that turned out.

4. Fundraising

Crossword

Nearly every poll listed at Real Clear Politics favored Hillary Clinton, some by as much as 6 points. The only one that had Trump as the winner was the Investor’s Business Daily, which pretty much nailed it. The LA Times poll also predicted a Trump win, but polls choosing Clinton outweighed Trump 10 to 1.

Sportsball

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Culture

6 things that didn’t matter in this presidential race

Cover Story

0% Spreading the Gospel according to Trump!

Opinion

Our readers are divided much along the same lines as the election itself in the Triad. Almost half — 48 percent — say they want to fight the power. One-third say they want to restore peace and balance to the universe

33% Restore peace and balance

News

Eric Ginsburg: In the wake of this election, I’ve been using social media for a combination of increased political activity and escapism. Especially those Joe Biden memes and Instagram photos of pretty places and food. But honestly, I think I’ve been spending less time aimlessly scrolling and more time meaningfully engaging with people.

48% Fighting the power!

by Naari Honor Lately I have found that I am abnormally tired and not just “I need an extra hour of sleep” tired but mentally and physically drained. While it would be easy to blame my full-time job, internship, side gigs or incessant need to have a social life, the truth is that I am lousy at taking care of myself and organizing my time.

I shared this dilemma with my mother, who is having a secret love affair with Dr. Oz in her mind and as such is a self-proclaimed health expert, and she talked to me about self-care. I know what you are thinking: This is an obvious thing to do and everyone is doing it. But we’re not.

Self-care, like the name implies, is simply taking the time to take care of yourself. It involves listening to your body and its needs. But what does that mean?

I’m sure most of you have heard of the notorious TED talks. Well, as TED would have it, there is a playlist of nine talks dedicated to the subject entitled “The importance of self-care.”

Psychologist Guy Winch, author of Emotional First Aid: Healing Rejection, Guilt Failure discusses the importance of seeking professional help for psychological issues versus attempting to tackling the heavy subject on one’s own, something he calls “emotional hygiene.”

Meditation and mindfulness expert Andy Pudddicombe discusses the importance of taking time out of one’s hectic life to do absolutely nothing. (I can hear the screams now.)

“We live in a busy frantic world,” Puddicombe said.

“When is the last time we took the time to do nothing for 10 minutes undisturbed?”

During his presentation, Puddicombe said we rely so heavily on our mind yet we take little time to look after it.

Health psychologist Kelly McGonigal started her talk off by admitting that what she has been teaching her clients for the past 10 years: that stress is harmful to the body, could possibly have caused more harm than good to her patients. Studies have shown that those who think of stress as damaging are often the ones who exhibit negative health issues due to stress. In her talk, “How to make stress your friend,” McGonigal goes on to say that she has a different outlook on stress and has found a way to reduce stress while working in conjunction with stress by simply thinking that stress isn’t as bad as we have often made it out to be.

Between my mother’s ravings about how I need to take time out for myself and reset my way of living, the TED Talks and my abandoned meditation practices, I truly do know how to engage in self-care. My next challenge is to simply do it.

Up Front

Jordan Green: None of the above really. My primary sentiment after this election is a desire to fight the power, but it won’t be through social media. Facebook has become such an echo chamber that any piece of information or opinion is guaranteed to only reach a pre-selected audience of people who already agree. Even before the election, I had been resolving to cultivate more relationships that are built on face-to-face interactions. I do want to restore peace and balance to my own sanity and protect my family, but I’m not looking to send kumbayas out to political adversaries via Twitter.

via their enlightened feeds. A full 15 percent declared they were pulling out of the Facebook game, and just 4 percent, roughly equivalent to that of third-party voters in this election, are going back to cat photos and fail vids. None of our readers, according to the poll, will be spreading the Gospel of Trump.

Self-care

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How will you Facebook now?

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Nov. 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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NEWS

HIV mentoring initiative takes service directly to patients

by Jordan Green When Wes Taylor received a positive HIV diagnosis a year ago, he found mentors — people who had already gone through the same experience — to be indispensable in figuring out how to live a healthy life. Now, he wants to return the favor.

diagnosis,” Taylor said. “And there are people who will come from another county or town to Higher Ground so people won’t see them in their own community.”

The stigma surrounding HIV is the single biggest barrier to people getting tested, Taylor, and when they receive a positive diagnosis, the stigma is also the biggest barrier to getting treatment.

In an interview at LeBauer Park in downtown Greensboro, Taylor talked about his efforts to repay the support he’s received and he said he found it providential that the interview was taking place exactly one year to the date of his diagnosis.

“The reason I’m willing to sit and talk with you is because I want to normalize the experience of being HIV positive,” Taylor said. “The thing about stigma is it hurts me because I’m not getting treatment and the public is at risk. It hurts us all.

“I think there are many people who assume they don’t know anyone who has HIV,” he continued. “We tend to be fearful of the unknown…. When they get to know me and my personality, and my values, some of the stigma and fear tends to evaporate.”

Taylor said it’s important to emphasize that not all people with HIV are gay.

When Wes Taylor received his HIV diagnosis on Nov. 10, 2015, he prepared for the worst.

“I didn’t know much about it, and I thought I was going to die,” Taylor said.

“I learned quickly that wasn’t the case.”

About a month later he began taking two prescribed medications — Tivicay and Efavirenz.

“By February, I had an undetected viral load,” Taylor said. “Taking medication keeps me healthy, and it keeps JORDAN GREEN Wes Taylor was diagnosed as HIV positive on Nov. 10, 2015, but his my viral load so low I will not be in a viral load is down low enough that the virus is no longer detected. position to infect anybody else. Hopefully, by my behavior I wouldn’t do that 500 people I told you about and got if I have you sitting in that chair to anyway. One, I want to be healthy. Two, reconnected spiritually. I have to see share our experience with this disease. by love and responsibility I don’t want that as a gift.”

The mentor thing is so powerful. It just to infect anyone else.”

He took his last drink in early April. gets back to that we are our brother’s What immediately helped Taylor The medical advances that have taken and sister’s keeper.” after receiving his diagnosis was finding place since the virus was discovered in mentors at Higher Ground, a day center the early 1980s have made it possible for HIV-positive individuals on Bessefor people with the diagnosis to live a mer Avenue that is run by Triad Health relatively normal life if they maintain Project. a disciplined regimen of medication.

“There I learned the importance of While a cure has yet to be discovered, having mentors,” Taylor said. “The the successful treatment of the condipeople there are gay, straight, black, tion might raise the risk that people will white, transgender, men and wombecome less vigilant about prevenen — people who love each other.

Those interested in volunteering as tion.

“We draw upon our own “People that I know that are aware experience to provide support for of the disease consider it to be a mentors for people living with an people with HIV,” he continued. sobering situation to deal with, not HIV diagnosis are invited to attend “We support each other based impossible,” Taylor said. “For most on experience. It works very well. of the people I deal with, complaan interest meeting on Dec. 9 at I was eager to hear from other cency is not an issue. I’ve been told people who have HIV, seeing them 10 a.m. at the Regional Center for that there are young people who are live and be healthy. I met people that way. Maybe it’s because they Infectious Disease in Greensboro. at Higher Ground who had been don’t have the experience of people diagnosed for less than a year, and For more info, call Wes Taylor at dying or being sick.

I met a married couple that have “The message is that you can be 336.338.1215. been diagnosed for 33 years.” healthy with HIV,” he added. “The Taylor’s gratitude for the assisother part of that message is that tance he received — he has a list of “For those of us who are gay, which there are ways to not become infected more than 500 people who have helped would include me, it’s an additional with HIV.” him since he was diagnosed — compels challenge to overcome. I feel like it’s my Taylor hopes the new mentor network him to return the favor, and he decided responsibility to talk especially about at the Regional Center for Infectious to organize a network of mentors to HIV, and when I feel led that the time is Disease will be a lifeline for people who reach people at the Regional Center for right to talk about sexual orientation.” are trying to figure out how to navigate Infectious Disease.

In hindsight, Taylor said his diagnosis life with an HIV-positive diagnosis, just “There are people who are not has been a blessing. as he was 12 months ago. comfortable meeting me at Higher “I was isolated,” he recalled. “I was “Mentors are one of the tools to Ground because they don’t want to be an alcoholic. I don’t think I would have battle stigma,” Taylor said. “I can feel seen around people who have an HIV ever gotten sober without it. I met this much less stigmatized and less ashamed

Up Front

Now accepting intern applications for January – April 2016 Send a resume and cover letter to jordan@triad-city-beat.com

by Dec 1. College grads, women, trans folks and people of color strongly encouraged to apply.

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News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment-

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Nov. 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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Accusations fly between city and owner of troubled apartments

by Jordan Green Winston-Salem City Council members are discussing options for a low-income apartment complex, which could include assisting in the acquisition of the property and temporarily rehabbing some units, or relocating residents.

Meanwhile, one of the owners denies an accusation of criminality as negotiations for the sale continue.

result in the city seizing the property.

“I really hate to throw three-quarters of a million dollars into a project that then is going to be torn down,” Leight said. “To my mind, the absolute best situation would be to find some emergency relocation money and get folks out of there, and then tear the place down, and so there won’t be a place for The city of Winston-Salem is faced the people who hang out there…. It is a with potentially spending upwards of $1 hazard to live there.” million to address alleged substandard Later, Leight asked City Attorney housing conditions in a private housing Angela Carmon: “Is there no legal complex reportedly plagued by lack of recourse against, to my mind, criminal heat, sewage backups and nonfunctionowners?” ing locks.

Carmon responded that the city Parts of New Hope Manor Apartcould file an order of abatement and ments, dubbed by some residents as “No ask a court to force the owners to make Hope Manor,” have been overtaken by repairs. If the owners did not make the squatters and about 100 people conrepairs, Carmon said, a court would verge on the complex after dark to drink typically authorize the city to make rebeer and listen to loud music, Housing pairs and charge the owner. Considering Authority CEO Larry Woods told a that the ownership entity is organized as panel of Winston-Salem City Council a limited liability corporation, Carmon on Monday. The housing authority is said the owners could walk away from seeking a $1.6 million loan to help acthe property and the city could initiate quire the property, which action to seize the propadjoins the Cleveland erty through a tax lien.

Avenue Homes public Bob Crumley, one of ‘Is there no legal housing community, as the owners, denied that recourse against, part of a plan to revitalany aspect of the manize the area. agement the property to my mind, crimi- constitutesofcriminal The housing authority nal owners?’ ultimately plans to tear activity. down the buildings as “What I take great – Councilwoman part of the neighborhood umbrage at is when a Molly Leight makeover, but until the city council says that my agency is able to secure activity is criminal; that financing to redevelop is beyond the pale,” said the property, Woods suggested to city Crumley, a prominent lawyer who owns leaders that they should invest about a law practice in Asheboro with offices $13,000 per unit to rehab 60 to 80 units. in Greensboro and Charlotte. Crumley “A lot of families, they don’t have owns New Hope Manor Apartments heat,” Woods told council members on with Nathan Tabor, a former chairman the finance committee. “Their plumbof the Forsyth County Republican Paring is backing up. Their air conditionty. Tabor said he has not been involved ing’s not working. Their doors don’t in the day-to-day management of the lock properly. Our short-term solution property in almost two years. does bring some certainty that they will Crumley also denied some of the be living in some kind of safe, decent, characterizations made by Woods to deaffordable housing in a safer manner scribe the condition of the units. Taking and a better manner.” a break from a family vacation to DisCouncil members Derwin Montgomney World on Monday evening, he said ery and Molly Leight questioned whethhe confirmed with his property manager er it would make more sense to relocate by phone that all of the occupied units the residents rather than invest in imhave working heat. provements to facilities that the housing “Are the buildings housing code authority ultimately plans to tear down. compliant? The answer is yes,” Crumley That prompted a discussion about the said. “If there’s a violation, we fix it. We cost of relocation and whether the city have had issues with plumbing, and we might take legal action to hold the ownfix it.” ers accountable, which could potentially Crumley blamed many of the past

Winston-Salem City Council has been discussing a request for assistance to purchase New Hope Manor Apartments for months.

violations on tenants.

“When you have people who are flushing large amounts of tampons and other female products down the commode, that creates plumbing backups,” he said. “My company has spent a lot of money going through and fixing those kinds of issues. We have had tenants who intentionally poured things into the drains to stop up the drains in an attempt, so they think, to not have to pay rent.”

Woods said if the city decides against making the $1.6 million loan to enable the real estate deal, the housing authority “would have to walk away.” With the housing authority out of the picture, Brooks suggested the city would still face a liability.

“We would probably end up inspecting those units and initiating emergency relocation for the majority if not all of the tenants, and the city would bear the cost of that,” he said. He also said that many of the vacant units where the city might place the residents have outstanding violations. Any available units that are up to code would likely rent for considerably more than the $450-$470 per month residents are accustomed to paying, and the city would be obligated to make up the difference.

Councilman Robert Clark, who chairs the finance committee, estimated that the city could spend up to $1 million on relocating residents from

FILE PHOTO

New Hope Manor. After the meeting, Kevin Cheshire, vice president for development and general counsel for the housing authority, noted that if the city were to move the residents out, the owners would be free to lease the units out to new tenants.

The finance committee took no action on the matter Monday, but Clark asked staff to put together a proposal to bring back next month. The city recently received an appraisal of $1.9 million for the apartments, but Clark said he believes the property is overvalued.

“My vote will be contingent on a lower purchase price from the bank,” he said. “I think we’re paying way too much. I want it $1.7 [million] or lower if you want my support. Everybody needs to take a haircut on this.”

Crumley accused city council members of trying to “make a political football” out of New Hope Manor.

“The election was last week, and the time for politics is over,” he said. “If the city doesn’t want this apartment complex, then that’s fine. The city’s own staff asked for an appraisal. Now I understand there’s a council member who doesn’t trust that appraisal. For us, as business people, it’s a moving target.”

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Cover Story Culture

Sportsball

Crossword

Shot in the Triad

Triaditude Adjustment-

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Nov. 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball

EDITORIAL

Moving the goalposts Hypocrisy is generally not a concept that is recognized by political types — the job, particularly as its practiced at the highest levels, requires too much situational fluidity for any consistency of conviction.

But the case in North Carolina is exceptionally galling.

Remember, this is a state that’s successfully marginalized its majority through gerrymandering, its General Assembly demonstrating that it’s not interested in assessing the needs of all North Carolinians, but only those who vote for the candidates of the dominant party.

That the GOP was able to deliver the state to Trump is an exceptional victory for the party, achieved in part by legislation designed to deter Democratic voters from the polls, but also tapping into a strong dislike for Hillary Clinton and, ultimately, mining dissatisfaction with President Obama.

Yet at the same time, the top of the GOP ticket in North Carolina ran on its Carolina Comeback, flaunting tax cuts, a budget surplus and a raise in teacher pay — all of which is technically accurate, but in reality somewhat underwhelming — all the while insinuating that these gains came despite policies from the federal government and not because of them.

Reduction of the deficit and job gains under Obama are a matter of record. But the blows to North Carolina’s economy came by its own hand: the disastrous HB 2 “bathroom bill” that may have cost McCrory the election — that one looks headed for the courts.

The biggest gain of the night for Democrats came in the Supreme Court election, which is technically a nonpartisan race, but c’mon.

Judge Mike Morgan’s victory gave Democrats a 4-3 advantage on the court.

Now the scuttlebutt coming from Raleigh says that a special session scheduled for the end of the year, ostensibly to help the parts of our coastline ravaged by Hurricane Matthew, will have a proposal tucked into it to expand the court to nine seats, the two extra to be appointed by McCrory before he steps down.

Because rules, it seems, are for suckers, even for the party of law and order.

Triaditude Adjustment

Shot in the Triad

Crossword

OPINION

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Forsyth County Republicans rejoice on election night.

CITIZEN GREEN

GOP revelers and the forgotten press corps

I saw the world as we know it upended in the ballroom of the Forsyth County Country Club in Winston-Salem on election night.

The contrast between the press corps and the

by Jordan Green GOP revelers became increasingly apparent as the results rolled in, with print reporters and TV news reporters toiling over laptops along a long, narrow table behind the camera riser, while party activists huddled around bar tables, high-fiving, hugging and handing out drinks.

For many of us in the media, for pundits, for Democrats, for progressives, the story was supposed to be about a Republican Party in disarray and about a Democratic wave to repudiate Trump, potentially delivering both the White House and the Senate to the party of Obama and the Clintons while punishing state-level officials for HB 2. And while it wasn’t a complete Republican rout — a backlash against HB 2 would become apparent later with what appears to be the narrowest of defeats for Gov. Pat McCrory — it sure felt like it from about 10:30 p.m. on.

Among many surreal aspects of the night was witnessing a political revolution supposedly on behalf of “the forgotten men and women of our country” from within the swank confines of a genteel country club, but then again we’re talking about a new president who is likely to make Trump Tower his second White House and substitute Mar-a-Lago for Camp David.

At least two Trump supporters who I interviewed on the campaign trail came up to me, and exultantly reminded me that they predicted their man would win, but I also know many of the party activists in that room didn’t vote for Trump in the primary; Forsyth County went for Ted Cruz. Still, winning has a way of bringing people together. When everything you hear leading up to Election Day reinforces a message that your party is on the rocks, and then you pull out convincing wins in one crucial swing state after another, it feels pretty good and makes you prone to forget past squabbles.

If all they got was a victory speech from Sen. Richard Burr, who prevailed over his Democratic JORDAN GREEN challenger in a race that wasn’t even

close, the Forsyth Republicans would be feeling pretty good. But they also got to rub shoulders with Dale Folwell, who received a hero’s welcome after winning election as state treasurer, and Mark Johnson, who ousted Democrat June Atkinson as state superintendent of public instruction. The best, however, was yet to come.

The worrisome signs were evident by 9:30 p.m. when a tweet by journalist Joe Scarborough reporting that the campaigns were anticipating that Trump would win Michigan began circulating through the room. When Ohio was called for Trump around 10:30, the first nail went into the Clinton campaign’s coffin. A man with a bear-like physique clutching a wine glass in the ballroom at the Forsyth County Country Club began bellowing, “Cut the music!” while gesturing at the mounted television, where Megyn Kelly and her cohorts at Fox News were discussing the results. Before the hour was out, Trump had also grabbed the crucial prize of Florida, and the excitement mounted.

The press row looked sullen. Even if professional decorum required that they conceal their feelings about the unfolding outcome, the exhaustion of the work and stress of filing on deadline was showing. The trifecta was completed by 11:14 with the announcement that North Carolina — the GOP regulars’ home state, no less — had been delivered into Trump’s column. The room went nuts. Two middle-aged women leapt on to chairs and hugged each other, rocking each other back and forth in disbelief.

With the suspense by now eliminated, the partisans began to settle back in their chairs, watching with satisfaction as Utah and Georgia predictably fell into Trump’s hands. One of the revelers locked eyes with a television producer and called across the room. “Hey mainstream media,” he said. “You don’t seem that happy.”

“I’m just ready for this to be over so I can go home,” a TV news producer replied.

The ribbing struck me as more humorous than mean-spirited, but I wanted to call back, “Hey, these are the forgotten men and women of America.”

For my part, I was up at 6:30 a.m. to see the first voters lined up to cast their ballots at Western Guilford High School, and I blanketed precincts across two counties to interview voters throughout the day.

After the polls closed, I swung over to the Forsyth County Board of Elections to observe the mechanics of tallying the results. At 9 p.m., I still had yet to get a photo of Burr and grab string from his victory speech for my colleague back in Greensboro, or file my own story. It was a privilege.

Fighting against fake news

Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture

The New York Times this week published an analysis of the effects of Facebook on the election, coming to the conclusion that the proliferation of fake news stories — the Pope endorsing Trump, Hillary’s indictment and others of that ilk — had an effect on the outcome.

The media giants swung into action, Google tweaking its algorithm to prioritize real news sites like this one and Facebook changing its advertising policy to crack down on fake sites posing as actual news entities.

by Brian Clarey The problem with Facebook came in June, when it began throttling news sites and others that post links to outside sites in an effort to get them to pay to boost their posts. I know this because it happened to us.

Then, in November, it was discovered that a town in Macedonia called Veles had turned fake news into a cottage industry. The town, which was once known for its porcelain, is home base for hundreds of sites that have been spewing fake Trump news since April, with headlines like “Hillary Clinton In 2013: ‘I Would Like To See People Like Donald Trump Run For Office,’” and a story about Hillary Clinton being indicted under the hed: “Your Prayers Have Been Answered.”

It’s clear that many Americans don’t know the difference between an article printed in, say, the New York Times, and something on Breitbart.com or OccupyDemocrats.com, just as it’s clear that confirmation bias — or the willingness to believe in something you already believe— rules the day.

It’s becoming more difficult to tell the difference: One of the biggest fake news sites is abcnews.com.co, which today has a story about President Obama signing an executive order for a revote of the 2016 election.

Here’s a pro tip: Get your news from real sources like daily newspapers— the big ones like the Times and the Washington Post are still quite excellent — and real journalists like the ones under employ at Triad City Beat.

If you see a headline that seems outrageous, check it out before posting it to all your friends on Facebook. And if you’re still entrenched in the comment wars, be sure that you’re fighting with real ammunition instead of blanks.

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Trump’s North Caroli

How the biggest upset in political history went do

by Jordan Green

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Hillary Clinton garnered 2,140 votes to Donald Trump’s 1,498 at Griffith Fire Station, a polling place on the Davidson County line serving a growing suburban precinct that leans Democratic

ina

own

c with a relatively high number of unaffiliated voters.

JORDAN GREEN

They took a look at a political insider who was tarnished but not criminally charged in an FBI investigation over mishandled emails, who couldn’t shake her husband’s globalist and tough-on-crime legacy, and they settled instead for a brash real estate developer-turned-reality TV star who bragged about groping women and resorted to openly racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic appeals while disrespecting veterans and mocking disabled people.

In polling places scattered around the suburbs of Forsyth and Guilford counties — places like Kernersville, Clemmons, Summerfield and Jamestown — it wasn’t hard to find people voting for Trump on Election Day, and they almost always expressed their preference as a negative.

“Unfortunately, it was for Trump,” said Stephanie Fabrikant, a white unaffiliated voter after leaving her polling place at Glenn High School in southeast Forsyth. “I didn’t like either candidate. I think we could take four years of him. Hillary Clinton — giving her a promotion from secretary of state, I can’t imagine doing that. Take the situation in Libya that resulted in the deaths of four Americans: She lied and refused to take responsibility. People say Donald Trump is a loose cannon, but look at the situation with [Clinton’s] private server: It shows she has no idea about national security and preventing cyber attacks.”

The charge that Clinton lied about the deaths of the four Americans who died during the 2012 attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi stems from contradictory reports about a gathering at Andrews Air Force Base in which President Obama and then Secretary of State Clinton met with grieving families. Some of the family members have stated in media interviews that Clinton told them the attack was motivated by an American film mocking the prophet Mohammed — something she knew at the time to be untrue — while other family members have said she said nothing of the sort, according to Politifact.

The leaked 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape that revealed Trump talking about grabbing women’s genitals and trying to seduce married women was supposed to torpedo the GOP nominee’s chances with white women in the suburbs, but many of them found Clinton to be the more toxic candidate.

“It was a very difficult decision to vote for Donald Trump,” said Tina Swisher, a registered Republican who wore an American flag sweater and brought her three sons — 10-year-old twins and an 8-year-old — with her to vote at Seventh Day Adventist Church in Kernersville. “I could not vote for Hillary.”

Swisher’s aversion to Clinton went back well beyond the candidate’s time in Washington, to when she served as first lady while her husband was the governor of Arkansas, although she did not name anything specific.

“It’s her whole life story — I don’t have that feeling of trust,” she said. “It’s not just the email server. It’s not just Benghazi. It’s not just her marriage.”

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I

n the end, voters decided Donald Trump was the lesser of two evils — at least in North Carolina and other crucial swing states that tipped the Electoral College.

13

Nov. 16 — 22, 2016 Cover Story Karen Davis, Kevin Costello, Jamie Lynn Courtney and David Sojka (l-r) waited to vote outside Griffith Fire Station about an hour before polls closed.

14

Asked to describe her reservations about Trump, she named qualities that could also be considered appealing.

“He is a bit over the top,” Swisher said.

“That’s what you love about him,” her 8-year-old son interjected.

“That’s what I do not love about him,” Swisher corrected. “He is the lesser of two evils.”

Trump’s treatment of women didn’t particularly bother her, she said.

“He’s a man, and I don’t know if there’s hardly ever been a man that hasn’t said something that could be construed by someone as offensive,” Swisher said.

“I like that he’s a man’s man,” she added.

It’s important to note that the ambush that overwhelmed the Clinton forces in North Carolina — along with other states like Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin, where they felt relatively assured of victory — did not take place in urban, Democratic-leaning counties like Forsyth and Guilford. Trump banked 69,435 more votes in North Carolina than Mitt Romney — the party’s previous nominee — did in 2012 by driving up his totals in a mix of rural and suburban counties, including Brunswick (+7,697) in the state’s southeast corner; Wilkes (+6,098), a conservative redoubt between Winston-Salem and Boone where the annual MerleFest takes place; John-

JORDAN GREEN

ston (+5,635), to the southeast of Raleigh; and Gaston (+5,329) and Union (+5,138), two suburban counties that flank Mecklenburg, home to Charlotte. The upsurge of support for Trump flipped three counties in the Sandhills region around Fayetteville, and four counties in the rural northeastern part of the state that went for Obama four years ago.

Clinton’s election-eve rally in Raleigh likely helped build a net gain of 31,091 votes in Wake County over Obama’s 2012 performance, and Mecklenburg likewise banked 19,996 votes above the previous benchmark. Clinton also posted gains in Durham (+7,559); Orange (+5,204), home to UNC-Chapel Hill; and Buncombe (+4,312), home to liberal Asheville. Guilford and Forsyth counties, anchoring

Similarly, Bill Clinton succeeded at the political project of co-opting two decades of Republican tough-on-crime policies, but then wound up presiding over the largest escalation of mass incarceration in history. Hillary Clinton declared during the primaries that it “was time to end the era of mass incarceration,” but didn’t appear to gain significant traction from the issue.

The most dramatic takeaway from election numbers in Guilford and Forsyth counties might be a repudiation of Trump in predominantly white areas of Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point and their surrounding suburbs, coupled with steep drop-off in support for Clinton in overwhelmingly Democratic precincts with large African-American populations. In precincts in Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point with upwards of 80 percent African-American voter registration, Clinton cornered more than 90 percent of the vote, but suffered drop-offs from Obama’s numbers ranging from 15 to 30 percent.

John Dinan, a professor of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University, said in an email that political scientists are challenged in analyzing voting patterns that depart from prior elections to determine whether they represent “enduring changes or whether these developments are merely a product of particular candidates and circumstances.”

He said, “This was a challenge in assessing the 2008 and 2012 elections, where African-American voters and millennials turned out to vote at higher rates than in prior elections. Going into the 2016 election, a key question was whether key groups that made up the Obama coalition would continue to turn out to vote for Democratic candidates other than Obama. The general verdict post-2016 — and this is evident in North Carolina voting patterns and in other states — is that higher turnout rates among these groups were to a significant extent tied to Obama, and it will be difficult for other Democrats to count on the same level of turnout from these groups moving forward.”

While the Democratic vote weakened across predominantly black areas of the three cities, support for Clinton rallied almost everywhere else, with the candidate posting gains in Democratic-leaning and GOP-heavy precincts alike. Clinton flipped several precincts across Greensboro, including a wide swath of predominantly white neighborhoods clustered between Bryan Boulevard and West Market Street, northern suburbs nestled in the lakes and a band of precincts near the airport, while also converting a handful of precincts on the north end of High Point.

In Winston-Salem, Clinton flipped several precincts on the west side. Outside of Winston-Salem, precincts where Trump received his largest vote totals — located in Lewisville, Clemmons and Kernersville — also showed some of the most dramatic drop-offs from Romney’s 2012 performance, with deficits in two exceeding 400 votes.

Ned Keskin, a Turkish immigrant, was the first person in line to vote at Western Guilford High School in Greensboro when the polling place opened at 6:30 a.m. on Election Day. Keskin said he generally identifies with the Republican Party for reasons of patriotism, and because he supports gun rights and the military. But this year, he

used his ballot to express his disgust for Trump.

“I went with Hillary and Democrats all the way,” he said.

“If it wasn’t for Trump, I would have voted Republican all the way down the ballot. I’m punishing the Republicans for being so stupid as to nominate someone like Trump.”

Keskin said he dislikes Trump because of “the way he talks about blacks, immigrants and minorities in general.”

He added, “He doesn’t inspire confidence. Putin would eat him alive.”

Similar to fluctuations in the black and millennial votes, Dinan said it’s equally difficult to gauge whether the anti-Trump vote represents a permanent shift or a one-time aberration.

“We face similar challenges in assessing whether Trump’s expanded support among non-college educated voters and Clinton’s higher support among college-educated voters is likely to be replicated by Republican and Democratic candidates in future elections,” he said.

“Certainly there are reasons why these developments might be rooted in the candidates and circumstances of the 2016 election and not transferrable to other Republicans and Democrats in coming years. At the same time, there are reasons why the division in 2016 based on voters’ level of formal education is tied to a more enduring trend whereby moral and social issues have assumed increasing prominence alongside of and to some extent in place of economic issues.”

Latino voters interviewed for this story on Election Day, particularly young people, indicated they were motivated

by Trump’s racist rhetoric — calling undocumented Mexican immigrants “rapists” and drug dealers — and pledges to build a wall along the southern border. Still, it’s difficult to determine how much the Latino vote factored in voting patterns in Forsyth and Guilford counties because the populations is relatively dispersed, and precincts with higher Latino registration did not produce measurable gains for Clinton.

Maria Fernandez, a 21-year-old registered Democrat who graduated from Salem College earlier this year, voted at Griffith Fire Station, a busy precinct on the Davidson county line that went for Clinton.

Noting her Latina heritage, Fernandez said, “I don’t want someone like Trump to be president. I think he’s a very big racist, and what he says is ridiculous.”

At the same polling place, Frederick Karnap, a retired hospital-finance director who is registered as a Republican, voted for Trump. He said securing the border is important to him. He added that he supports raising the minimum wage — a position generally not associated with the GOP — as a way to address labor competition from undocumented workers.

“We need a change in Washington,” he said. “It seems to me it’s more about [politicians] being reelected, not serving all of the American people.”

Like others who voted for Trump, Karnap seemed almost obliged to acknowledge the candidate’s faults.

“I hate that he’s such a butthole,” he said. “We had a bad choice. Hillary is a crook. Donald has too big an ego.”

triad-city-beat.com

the state’s third largest urban region, contributed relatively little to Clinton’s effort, improving on Obama’s 2012 performance by only 1,584 and 165 votes, respectively.

Ultimately, Clinton’s gains in 16 counties proved to be an inadequate firewall that was overwhelmed by the Trump insurgency, which swept across 82 of North Carolina’s 100 counties, helping him widen his margin of victory to 3.8 points, in comparison to the 2 points that Romney held over Obama in 2012.

Voting behavior in the presidential campaign reflected a growing urban-rural divide in North Carolina that saw Guilford and Forsyth each tack 3.1 points to the left compared to 2012, with the Democratic nominee’s margin increasing from 16.4 to 19.5 points in Guilford and from 7.2 to 10.3 points in Forsyth. Democratic gains in the two counties are not so much explained by voters rallying behind Clinton as a fall-off in support for Trump compared to Romney, with a deficit of 7,328 votes in Guilford and 5,275 votes in Forsyth.

Hillary Clinton had long acknowledged that she wasn’t a natural politician, and her speech in Philadelphia the day before the election attempted to shift voters’ focus from the flawed candidates at the top of the ballot to issues she believed they cared about that would weigh in her favor.

“If you believe that America thrives when the middle class thrives, then you have to vote,” Clinton argued, launching into a litany of issues that included educational equity, college affordability, criminal justice reform, gun safety, raising the minimum wage and equalizing women’s pay.

“So it’s not just my name or Donald Trump’s name on the ballot tomorrow,” she concluded. “Every issue you care about is at stake.”

The urgency of Clinton’s appeal didn’t resonate with the broad electorate. In what felt like an omen of misfortune for the Democratic candidate, a speech by Bill Clinton at UNCG in Greensboro less than 24 hours before the polls opened was interrupted by a group of protesters who unfurled a banner expressing support for the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline and chanted, “You have blood on your hands,” “Black lives matter,” and, “Shame.”

Lucia Sedda, one of the protesters, said in an email to Triad City Beat: “We think Hillary, who supported the crime bill, her husband, [who] has called black people ‘super predators,’ should be held accountable just like any other politician.”

The Clintons have experienced the curse of living through the end of one major political epoch and into another one that is driven by starkly different currents of popular sentiment. President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, embracing a globalist transformation that was supposed to yield widely shared benefits to citizens who trained up for the new jobs of the knowledge-based economy, but instead his administration augured the beginning of a new Gilded Age with an ever-widening gap between the rich and poor. Despite eventually opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Hillary Clinton was unable to persuade voters that she was a credible messenger for sound trade policy.

15

Nov. 16 — 22, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

16

CULTURE At Phoenix Asian Cuisine, a local alternative to PF Chang’s

by Eric Ginsburg

I

t struck me, somewhere between the appetizers and our main courses, that Phoenix Asian Cuisine is the perfect restaurant to send the typical PF Chang’s diner.

I ate dinner at the Chinese chain last month for the first time in a decade, though I did help a former roommate study for a menu quiz in the interim period when she was working there as a server. PF Chang’s has upped its game in the last 10 years, responding to the farm-to-fork trend with a menu rebranding and hiring someone to shoot high-quality photos to accompany the localist text.

Despite relatively slim pickings when it comes to good Chinese food in the Triad — I favor Captain Chen’s in Greensboro and Sampan Chinese in Winston-Salem — I’ve steered away from PF Chang’s. Not that it isn’t good: I tried several things while eating at the Winston-Salem location last month, and enjoyed everything. But unless I’m looking for something quick, cheap and convenient, I do my best to avoid chains.

And that’s why I realized, while grabbing dinner with my dad at Phoenix Asian Cuisine in northwest Greensboro recently, that the restaurant is an ideal alternative.

Like PF Chang’s, Phoenix is an amalgam of Asian food, with everything from a sushi menu to the restaurant’s take on steamed buns with duck. The menu is ERIC GINSBURG The kung pao shrimp is among the many menu items that would likely be familiar to the filled with items that the PF Chang’s crowd and other average PF Chang’s customer. casual consumers of Asian food will recognize — pad Thai, teriyaki chicken, lo mein, fried rice and kung pao rant and one of the enjoyable things I tried at Captain Gate City Vineyard is a modern, shrimp.

Chen’s — is on the menu here if you’re willing to veer There’s even lettuce wrap appetizers that taste simiChristian church that exists to serve off the beaten path. Or go for the Cantonese roast lar to those I tried at the chain. the community around us. Our desire duck, described on the menu as “true Chinese cuisine” My sense is that places like Captain Chen’s are what consisting of a half duck, bone in. is to help people of all ages and the stereotypical PF Chang’s diner might refer to as Next time I’d probably skip the sushi we ordered as backgrounds grow in their “too authentic,” with its spicy, Szechuan-style food appetizers and go for the Singapore noodles with understanding of God. that immediately woke up and delighted my palate. vermicelli and chicken. Others would And on the other end of the spectrum, prefer the “traditional” sweet & sour At the Vineyard you can come as Americanized Chinese food joints chicken. And that’s kind of the point: Visit Phoenix Asian you are and be yourself. like Golden Wok, another favorite on By offering a little of everything and Greensboro’s West Wendover Avenue Cuisine at 1631 New pandering a little to middle America, Whatever your thoughts about near Bridford Parkway, are better suitPhoenix Asian Cuisine should be well Garden Road (GSO) or church, whatever your beliefs ed to takeout or casual meals. poised to capture the demographic at eatatphoenix.com.

Instead, the low light, booths and about God … you are that usually goes to PF Chang’s. And table service at Phoenix deliver the welcome here. that’s how it should be, because devibe of a chain restaurant even though spite the fact that I genuinely enjoyed it isn’t one, suggesting that this is a good place to bring my recent dinner at the chain, when there’s a compafamily members with divergent tastes that won’t take rable local alternative that can compete, there’s no them out of their comfort zone. Hell, they serve crème reason not to take the short drive down Bryan Boulebrule cheesecake and chocolate lava cake. vard to patronize it instead.

That’s exactly what a lot of diners are looking for, and it’s the appeal of chain restaurants such as PF Chang’s.

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James plied us with more drinks when he returned, handing me a beer after I’d downed a gin & ginger ale and giving me another brewski before I emptied the first.

More than happy to keep him company anyway, let alone buoyed by the drinks, we kept trading stories. Before he made his way through the aisle again, he showed me where the beers were kept — a small compartment that pulled out by the trash — and told me to help myself.

It must’ve taken me 10 minutes to build up the courage to stand and grab a beer. I didn’t even want one at that point, and I had permission, after all.

It felt like crossing a line, and at the front of the small plane I knew just about every passenger could see me. But knowing I’d likely never have a chance like it again, I rose ERIC GINSBURG When the flight attendant gives you almost 20 free drinks, it’s worth and helped myself. getting help from a family member after you land.

In the Jewish tradiing. tion of Passover, we say I don’t need to consume 18 drinks to make it through “dayenu” to mean “it would have been enough.” My the holidays with family, but I still welcomed James’ family likes to apply the term out of context, and this generosity and wished I could repay it. My family was certainly one of those times with repeated dayenu refused to believe my story until I pulled out the bag, moments. But it didn’t end there, either. and my sister and I shared some once we made it to As we started to descend over Ohio, James asked if I our hotel. By that time hopefully James had made it to liked whiskey. I assured him I’d had more than enough his cabin safely with his family and settled in for a nice — probably four or five drinks at this point, and we’re Thanksgiving. only talking about a few hour flight — but he persisted.

Last year I gave thanks for him, among many other When I said yes, he filled up a plastic bag with fistfuls things I’m grateful for in my life, and this year I’m hopof airplane bottles and wished me a happy Thanksgiving to run into the Santa of booze again.

Up Front

Last Christmas came early for me, and this year I’m hoping for a repeat.

It happened unexpectedly, as the best gifts always do, on a flight to Columbus, Ohio to visit family for Thanksgiving.

I flew solo on one of those

by Eric Ginsburg small planes where the leftside seats are single file and the ceiling is too low for me to straighten my spine. The lack of a first-class section on this shuttle allowed me to be the second seat in, close enough to the seated flight attendant that I couldn’t help but make eye contact with him.

I won’t mention the airline or departing city by name, because what happened next is almost certainly against airline regulations. While I’m not flying back to Ohio for Turkey Day this time around — we alternate between sides of the family, so I’ll be Boston-bound — I’m hoping for a stroke of luck that will lead me either back to the same flight attendant or someone feeling similarly generous.

After making his announcements, closing the cabin door and buckling in, the flight attendant made friendly small talk with me and the guy sitting between us.

We’d be arriving late and he’d be driving through the night to a lakeside cabin, he told us. I can’t remember exactly what he looked like or much else of what we discussed, though I’m picturing comedian James Corden — the one who does those Carpool Karaoke videos — as an appropriate stand in.

It wasn’t long before the flight attendant, who I’ll call James, started making his way through the aisle with the drink cart. He offered one to me and the man in 1A on the sly.

I’ve flown enough to have this happen before. Or maybe it doesn’t happen to everyone, just people who are decent towards the flight attendants. The last time I flew, an attendant gave the couple across the aisle from me free Bloody Marys after they established they pulled for the same college football team. I’m grateful when it happens, of course, but it’s nothing to write a column about.

But it didn’t end there.

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18

CULTURE An artistic vision culminates from songwriter’s vow of independence

by Jordan Green

W

hen Cashavelly Morrison wrote the songs that make up The Kingdom Belongs to a Child, she said she “was cutting the umbilical cord” to her family back in West Virginia.

“There was a tremendous need for their love and approval,” Morrison said during a recent interview at Finnigan’s Wake before a performance with her band at the Garage up the street in downtown Winston-Salem. “I had to turn and not seek it out anymore. It was such a hard journey, and it took four years. I can’t live that way. I had to disappoint them.”

Morrison’s decision to break with her family’s expectations crystalized when she read a quote by the early 20th Century philosopher Martin Buber about how ultimately it’s impossible to help anyone else until you first help yourself.

She realized it wasn’t possible for her to accept a life where she was relegated to a supporting role.

The name Cashavelly Morrison, adopted as an artist moniker, pays tribute to generations of Appalachian women whose voices have been suppressed by an internalized code of submission and sacrifices to support the dreams of their men. Morrison is known to her family and friends as Melissa MacLeod. Her husband, Ryan, plays an integral part as an instrumentalist and composer, similar to David Rawlings’ musical partnership with Gillian Welch, but the focal point is Morrison as vocalist and lyricist.

“Cashavelly is my grandmother’s — my father’s mother’s — maiden name, and Morrison is my mother’s maiden name,” Morrison explained. “I think my mother and grandmother had to sacrifice a lot as women. I thought it would be empowering to reclaim their names because they had a lot of creativity, but they didn’t have the opportunity to express it.”

Morrison’s haunting soprano conveys both strength and sorrow with a melodic structure that reflects the tightly knotted hills of her native West Virginia. Nowhere does her voice come through more piercingly than on the lead track of The Kingdom Belongs to a Child, a song called “Long-Hared Mare.”

The refrain, “Take the long-haired mare and go far, far away,” underscores the price paid by a woman driven to murder a man who has sexually abused her daughter.

If the songs sound as if they were

sung a hundred years ago, that’s likely because Morrison wrote them while she was trying to finish a novel set in West Virginia coal company town in the early 20th Century. She listened to a lot of Gillian Welch while she was writing, and later realized she was absorbing a musical training. During that period, she came to discern her true vocation as she found herself writing songs as a way of procrastinating on the novel.

A former ballet student at UNC School of the Arts, Morrison had taught herself to play guitar and write songs in fits and starts from her late teens through her early thirties. Her husband Ryan had studied classical guitar at the School of the Arts, but had put the instrument aside because his instructor’s emphasis on technique drained him of joy. Initially as a favor to his wife, Ryan MacLeod would help her with the songs by filling in guitar parts where she was stuck. Ryan’s enthusiasm for the songs motivated Morrison to keep working on them. “He was really floored, and that was a confidence booster,” Morrison said. “I saw that he was truly impressed.

He wasn’t just being nice to me.”

An improbable journey that began with an MFA student writing songs on the side while trying to finish her novel reached the final leg with the birth of the couple’s first child. “I realized that I’m not just here to be a mother,” Morrison recalled. “That’s a big part, but there was this other part that was unsatisfying. It was in 2013 around the time of our anniversary. I had this wall that I hit, and I realized if I don’t record this music I’m going to die.” She researched recording studios, and in short order booked time at Echo Mountain in Asheville. The engineer responded enthusiastically to the songs, Morrison said, and urged her to add full instrumentation. Meanwhile, Ryan MacLeod had picked up the telecaster and found himself falling in love with music again.

In April 2016, several months after the release of The Kingdom, Cashavelly Morrison opened for the country artist

Cashavelly Morrison is the voice and lyricist of her music project, with husband Ryan MacLeod as an integral partner.

Lera Lynn at Phuzz Phest in Winston-Salem. Lynn performed a handful of songs she had contributed to the second season of “True Detective.” MacLeod, who had started playing a baritone guitar, took inspiration from Lynn’s set to explore a new country noir sound.

MacLeod has taken a more prominent role in writing the music in a batch of songs for the couple’s forthcoming second album, Morrison said. She said the sound reflects more of a western geography, with musical space and a sense of possibility that the first album doesn’t have. Fitting perhaps for the advent of the Trump era, the new songs that the couple plans to record next month at Echo Mountain tap into social issues like gun violence and racism.

Forging a musical partnership with his wife has made them closer, MacLeod said, although sometimes the creative process feels like a trudge.

“One of the new songs is a version we’re not going to put on the album,” Morrison said. “It’s fun to do live. I like it, but my heart doesn’t resonate with it. We might decide that another song doesn’t make the cut, so we’ll deconstruct it, and part of it will go in another

Pick of the Week Finger picking good Charlie Parr @ Centennial Station Arts Center (HP), Thursday, 7 p.m.

No hotdog-eating, finger-picking, foot-banging maestro, singer, song-writer Charlie Parr comes to the Triad to celebrate his new project, Stumpjumper, which was produced by Phil Cook. Join him as he shares his raw talent and gift for Piedmont blues on the Centennial Station stage. More info at explorehighpoint.com.

JORDAN GREEN

song.

“It doesn’t come easily at all,” she added. “I feel like having the pressure of a recording date is what we need to finish these songs. Otherwise, we would work on them for years.”

All Showtimes @ 9:00pm 11/15 Reanimator Presents: Insano

Noise Night ft. Ow I Quit Crack, Cash Slave Clique, Nonospot, and Michael Thomas Jackson 11/16 Comedy Night ft. Troy Coleman,

Maddie Weiner, and JD Etheridge 11/16 Karaoke 11/17 Crow’s Nest ft. Black Plague,

Southern Punk Syndicate, Without a Hobby, and Secret Position 11/18 Cat Herders 11/19 Star Wizard 701 N Trade St., Winston-Salem, NC 27101

(336)955-1888

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CULTURE Sisters in Crime offer inspiration by incineration

by Naari Honor

Up Front

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Assistant Fire Chief Mark Levins explains the steps in proper evidence collection to Sisters in Crime workshop attendees.

technological advances in arson investigation and dispelling myths regarding fires prompted enthusiastic reactions from the crowd.

“People will try to start a fire from inside of a car,” said Thomas Dew, another attendee. “Not knowing that the fumes [can] catch them on fire.”

“Yeah,” Levins said, “and then they say they were nowhere near the fire, but they have no eyebrows.”

Pick of the Week

Triaditude Adjustment-

Shakespeare wasted Shakespeare @ Tate Street Coffee House (GSO) What happens when an intoxicated actor tries to recite Shakespeare’s A Mid-Summer Nights Dream? Visit the Tate Street Coffee House to find out. Showtimes are Friday at 8:30 p.m., Saturday at 5:30pm, Nov. 20 at 8:30 p.m. and Nov. 22 at 8:30 p.m.

Shot in the Triad

she took to get to his talk, he made a mental note of her body movement, which he revealed later.

“See I already know when you are going to lie,” Levins said. “When you answer you look up and to the right. If you were going to lie you would do the opposite.”

Aside from sharing types of fire classifications, fire chemistry, the differences between fires and burns, the dos and don’ts of evidence collection and how to tell if a person died before or during a fire, Levins also shared moments of some of his memorable closed cases.

“There was one lady whose house had been vandalized and set on fire,” Levins said.” The words, ‘Die b****, die’ and ‘Allah is great’ were spray-painted on a wall.”

It turned out that even though the woman had been recorded on video as being in Myrtle Beach at the time of the fire, cell phone towers placed her in High Point, which helped Levins prove that she had started the fire herself to avoid making additional payments on her family home to a developer she had sold the house to in a lease-to-buy deal.

Every account Levin’s shared regarding closed cases,

NAARI HONOR

Crossword

ystanders watch a home engulfed in flames.

Firemen are on the scene fighting a unpredictable enemy in hopes of saving, at the very least, a remnant of what use to be. Not too far away an inspector awaits his moment to assess the scene to try and determine the cause of the inferno. But what does he look for? Where does he begin? How does he know what is important to determining the cause of the destruction and what is an inevitable result of a fire gone awry?

A group of individuals gathered in a small room of the High Point Public Library to listened to Assistant Fire Chief Mark Levins explain how to investigate a fire scene. They aren’t a cohort of arson detectives looking to improve their sleuthing skills, but members of the Murder We Write chapter of Sisters in Crime, a non-profit writers’ organization dedicated to the advancement of female mystery writers.

“For your knowledge of writing books, I think it is important for you to know what to look for and what not to look for,” Levins said. “Basically we are going to dive into what happens when a fire starts all the way into what happens when the fire stops.”

Writers with pens at the ready were determined not to miss a word of what the assistant fire chief had to say. Despite the organization’s name, the event was open to anyone.

“I don’t write crime nor am I a sister,” said Marc Fountain, who works as a webmaster for the Murder We Write chapter, touching his Sisters in Crime button displayed prominently on his lapel. “But they are a supportive group. I write young adult [fiction] and want my work to ring true to the reader who has no idea and the expert.”

Legitimacy was a common thread attendees wanted to take away from the informational session. Levins answered questions pertaining to everything from resources on case studies to investigative techniques during suspect interviews.

“One time I received a call from a detective who said that he had some chicken in the oven,” Levins said. “He needed to know how long it would take for chicken to be reduced to ash when set on broil because they could use this information to determine the time of death of their victim.”

Levins went on to explain that there was a resource called the NFPA 921 “Guide for Fire Explosions and Investigations” that helped investigators properly examine the causes of fires using peer reviewed data.

Several mystery writers immediately wanted to know where they could get their hands on such material.

“I would like to be able to compare my scenes to actual cases for authenticity,” one writer said from the back of the room.

Before Levins could direct the her on where to acquire the publication, several members suggested that she use her new-found detective skills to track a copy down online.

Levins also shared some of his interview techniques by pulling author Jennie Spallone from the audience to ask her a series of general questions. As he asked questions about where she grew up and what route

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Vagabond Saints Society

SPORTSBALL

Swarm stung by Mad Ants in inaugural match

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presents…

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Nov. 16 — 22, 2016

The

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by Anthony Harrison

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Saturday, November 26

@ SECCA Proceeds benefit Second Harvest Food Bank Community Kitchen

$15/$30 Tickets at Eventbrite.com

cross all sports, at any level of competition, every team hopes the first game of the season goes well for them. But the fact of the matter is that the first game of the season rarely bodes any omen, ill or well, for any team’s fortunes.

That said, though, the Greensboro Swarm probably wanted their first game — their very, very first game, mind you — to go much better than it

did.

The visiting Fort Wayne Mad Ants trampled Greensboro at the Nov. 12 opener of the Swarm’s inaugural season, 120-99.

But it could have been much, much worse.

At the half, the Mad Ants had already established a 79-37 lead over the Swarm. Any third grader could draw a potential conclusion from that grisly math.

So, if anything, while the Swarm took a hard loss in their debut, they won a moral victory in what head coach Noel Gillespie called “a tale of two halves.”

Through both halves, the sell-out home crowd acted as Greek chorus for the action on the court.

During the pregame niceties, including the gifts of jerseys to such Greensboro luminaries as Mayor Nancy Vaughan, the Greensboro Coliseum Fieldhouse — nicknamed the Hive, of course — buzzed with activity and anticipation.

The emcee implored the audience, “We don’t sit until the Swarm makes its first basket! We do not sit until the Swarm makes its first basket!”

And the crowd, hyped to the gills, obliged. Thankfully, it only took one minute.

But the Mad Ants had already set the tempo with a wild flourish to the basket within moments of the opening tip.

The Swarm looked shook, and the spectators shivered.

“There were some pre-game jitters,” Gillespie admitted after the game. “You could tell from the warmup line.

“And [Fort Wayne] came out more physical than us, hit us in the mouth,” Gillespie continued. “They were physical from the jump.”

The Mad Ants thumped the Swarm’s abdomen in the first half. Tough defense forced turnovers and bad shots.

But even when relatively open, the Swarm couldn’t seem to land buckets; at the half, Greensboro shot only 28.6 percent from the field to Fort Wayne’s phenomenal 67.4 percent, including hitting over half of their shots from downtown.

Four Mad Ants posted double-digits in the first half, forwards Stephan Hicks and Ben Bentil leading with 18 points each.

The Swarm’s inability to score, even from the free-throw line, made the difference between the first half simply slipping from the Swarm’s grasp and becoming an unfortunate tailspin. Shots just off the rim, rebounds just off the tips of fingers — the little mistakes added up in short time.

Even NBA veteran swingman Damien Wilkins, the only Greensboro player to hit 10 points in the first half, suffered from the line, hitting six of 10.

After one free throw finally fell, he strolled up the paint, popped out his mouth guard and yelled, “Thank you!” to the rim.

The crowd, at first lit with excitement, filled the Hive with a muttering growl, their disappointment palpable. Most surely

hoped the second half would end quickly and painlessly as possible.

Though the team entered the locker room sullen and somber, Coach Gillespie claimed there was “no negativity, no finger-pointing” during the halftime break.

“They knew the mistakes they made; they knew it unraveled,” Gillespie said. “We just kept saying, ‘Hey, take it one possession at a time; let’s cut this lead.’

“You never want to be down 40,” he added. “It was just a punch in the gut. But it was good everyone responded.”

One player responded in a big way: Prince Williams, a 6-foot-4 guard the Swarm picked from the community tryout.

“He’s got a high basketball IQ,” Gillespie said. “He looks to make plays. He doesn’t turn it over, and he’s got good length, so we feel comfortable having him out there.”

He also produced much-needed offense for Greensboro, including a big three halfway through the third quarter that reignited the crowd.

Williams and forward Frank Rogers — another recruit from the open tryout — provided boosts of energy the team needed to finish strong.

The audience got back into the game late. After a long ball from guard Rasheed Sulaimon cut the deficit to 19 with seven minutes remaining, the crowd exploded with rapture most reserve for single-digit margins. Center Mike Tobey landed a big block soon after, and judging from the reaction, one might’ve thought it was LeBron James’ monstrous block from the NBA Finals.

The big man fouled out with 1:27 left, leading Greensboro with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

The hometown crowd ignored the scoreboard as the final seconds dripped off the clock. Their team had held the Mad Ants to only 41 points in the second half.

Gillespie viewed the game as a learning experience. And, of course, he looks forward to developing his team.

“You saw in the second half the team we wanna be,” Gillespie said. “I keep tellin’ the media, tellin’ our guys, ‘We wanna be blue-collar, desperate, scrap and claw and dive for loose balls.’

“There’s only one inaugural game,” he continued. “There’s only one home opener. It’s past us; it’s under our belt. So, we can build from there.”

The Greensboro Swarm next take on the Westchester Knicks at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in the Greensboro Coliseum Fieldhouse.

For more info, visit greensboro.dleague.nba.com.

Pick of the Week Fun for the whole Famicom Super FamiCon @ Elm Street Center (GSO), Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.

Geeks take over downtown Greensboro for Super FamiCon, a Nintendo-themed gathering for fans, by fans.

Events include tournaments for classic games from GoldenEye 64 to Super Smash Bros., a cosplay contest and a premiere event for Pokémon Sun and Moon. Visit superfamicon.com for more details.

‘Go Completely Ad-Free’ in all parts of this puzzle

by Matt Jones Across

Friday, November 18 @ 8pm

Del Ward Band

Saturday, November 19 @ 8pm

Bryan Toney & Chris Nelson Sunday, November 20 @ 6pm

Weaver Academy Monthly Talent Show Monday, November 21 @ 7pm

Mystery Movie Monday

Opinion

602 S Elam Ave • Greensboro

(336) 698-3888

Cover Story Culture

1 Padres #16, familiarly 2 Nadine, as single-digit numbers go 3 Spot on dice 4 Winter admix 5 Repads of sports figures, for short 6 Specialist assigned a marinade mission, maybe 7 Prefix with state or glycerides 8 “___ bead much worse ...”

9 Headman’s sister 10 Aoki of the PGA 11 Anonymous mud wallower?

12 Feel regret for 13 Ade, to Einstein 18 Rough file 22 Kid who eventually liked Life?

Thursday, November 17 @ 7pm

Open Mic Night Potluck Edition

News

Down

23 Lacking stiffness 24 Russia’s ___-Tass news service 25 Garb for milling about the neighborhood?

27 “___ a Man of Constant Sorrow” 31 Caustic chemicals 33 Foot in a meter 35 Eyelid annoyance 37 Wild swine 39 “The Legend of ___” (Nintendo game) 40 Light white wine drink 41 Scalp parasites 42 Actress Palmer of “Scream Queens” 44 Cruisade locale 46 “What a radiot!”

47 Almost on the hour 48 Counterparts of faunae 49 Everybody, down South 53 Brooding feeling 55 Pictographic letter 57 Prefix with America or morph 59 Pound who was a master of the adverse 62 Bank statement abbr.

63 “All Things Considered” reporter Shapiro 64 “Family Guy” daughter 65 Geom. figure

Illiterate Light

Up Front

1 Audio boosters 5 They say “Nowaday!”

10 Tropical getaway 14 Renegade (on) 15 “Wayne’s World” sidekick 16 Connery of “Dr. Nado” 17 Guilty pleasure that’s difficult to accomplish?

19 Mountaintop 20 “Heady, relax!”

21 Munitions maker 23 Roadsters 26 Cedars-___ Hospital 28 Lang. of Cads Lewis 29 Gomez’s hairier cousin 30 Garment fold 32 Source of a meadow 34 Company behind a candy stamped with “mad” 36 Orange sadpud 37 “___ made up, Scotty” 38 Knotted snack 40 Drink for the lactose intolerant 43 “For Your ___ Onlady” 44 Health facility 45 Cheese on crackers 46 MGM Grandad Las Vegas, for one 48 Puget Sound traveler 50 Nickname of Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis

51 “Goad on ...”

52 ___ Lama 54 Bead on the same page 56 Broad, in Spanish 58 Shadow’s partner 60 Toad ___ (just right) 61 Mornings in the world of bears?

66 Busted tirade sound, perhaps 67 More sound 68 Sadat practice 69 Word before “ran” or “known as” 70 Bright-colored fadish 71 Unlike vocal ranges for badasses

EVENTS

Wednesday, November 16 @ 8pm

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CROSSWORD

Night

Sportsball

Board Game Fridays 7pm — 2am

Crossword

Answers from previous publication.

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

2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro geeksboro.com •

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Nov. 16 — 22, 2016 Triaditude Adjustment

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SHOT IN THE TRIAD Jaycee Park Drive, Greensboro

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There are still fish to be caught.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

336-375-1880 • Taylor’s Auto Sales • taylorsautosales.com 11 Dodge Nitro

$13,495 Heat 2WD, Auto, RWD

10 Chrysler

$13,995 Auto, Leather, FWD

08 Acura MDX

$14,595 Rear DVD System, Leather, AWD, Auto

15 Chrysler 200

$14,995 Limited, Auto, FWD

09 BMW 3-Series

$15,795 Auto, RWD, Leather

11 Honda Pilot

$17,595 EX-L, Leather, 4WD

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Saturday 10am – 12pm

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Jelisa Castrodale is a freelance writer who lives in Winston-Salem. She enjoys pizza, obscure power-pop records and will probably die alone. Follow her on Twitter @gordonshumway.

Opinion

tray table, because even Bowie’s blandest attempt at an adult-contemporary record now makes them ache from the inside out. Gladding said that people who refuse to admit that their heroes are gone are the same kinds of people who cling to the wrong kinds of hope, the kinds who have Elvis sightings. He’s probably right, but I can’t help but hope that I have an endless string of David Bowie sightings.

No, I don’t expect to see a man dressed like a space samurai disappearing around a street corner, but I do hope to see others who were inspired by him, who will continue to assert their individuality, to push creative boundaries and now, more than ever, who will refuse to be intimidated by anyone who doesn’t want to or care to understand why we believe in art, in music and in their power to heal.

“Oh no love! You’re not alone,” Bowie sang in “Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide,” repeating that line with an urgency that built until he was seemingly sure that we believed him. I still do.

Thank you, David, for that.

News

through a London art gallery or his long-abandoned Berlin apartment — but I felt like he knew me, starting at the moment when I heard the ragged assurance in his voice at the end of “Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide.” It’s an impossibly complex song, a tangled lyrical knot about separating the art from the artist as he almost counsels himself about abandoning his Ziggy Stardust persona. In the final lines, he theatrically and repeatedly begs, “Give me your hands” — so I did. I gave him my hands and held on as tightly as I could. Now the problem is letting go.

I don’t know how to do that. I don’t know where to start. Shortly after his death, a rock journalist named Rob Sheffield wrote a book called On Bowie that attempts to summarize his own feelings about Bowie’s work, what his legacy will be and why he meant so much to so many of us. The first time I tried to read it, I made it to page 5. The second, I got to page 10 before I closed the cover, turning that familiar lightning bolt symbol facedown on my desk. It’s a book that literally only exists because Bowie is gone and, for now, that’s still a hard reality to reconcile.

“You’re not abnormal,” Gladding promises. “I’m right there with you. But you have to acknowledge that this part of life is over, not only his life, but the great pleasure you had in listening or watching or going to the concerts. Acknowledgement goes first. People who never acknowledge it never get over it.”

I know. I know. People who never acknowledge it have to wipe their own tears off an American Airlines

Up Front

best dang

BISCUITS & DONUTS

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ary’s Gourmet Diner

(336) 723-7239

breakfastofcourse.com

1212 Grove Street, Greensboro, NC 27403

336-609-6168 • glenwoodbooks.com facebook.com/glenwoodbooks/

Rise Greensboro The Friendly Center risebiscuitsdonuts.com /risegreensboro

Crossword

efore last week’s election left me sprawled on the floor, sobbing helplessly into the carpet fibers, the last time I cried was somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, on a flight back from Europe. I was uncomfortably arranged in an aisle seat,

by Jelisa Castrodale listening to David Bowie and trying to pretend that an unconscious stranger wasn’t breathing stale honey mustard directly into my face. There was nothing particularly poignant or even enjoyable about being on that plane, but when “Thursday’s Child” played, I lost it, immediately feeling my tears trace their own flight patterns across my skin.

It wasn’t the song that did it. That’s not a great Bowie song — it wouldn’t be a great Peter Cetera song — but, at that moment, it hit me for the millionth time that he was gone. Despite the deaths of so many icons this year (Prince, Leonard Cohen, America), losing David Bowie at the age of 69 in January left me gutted for all kinds of complicated reasons. It feels simultaneously like I lost both parts of my past and parts of my future, including the ability to wonder what extraordinary thing he might create next. He never ran out of ways to surprise us with his music, his art and the way he lived his life: his quiet cancer diagnosis and unexpected death serve as ironically painful proof of that.

“We all have losses in our lives,” said Dr. Sam Gladding, a professor of counseling at Wake Forest University, said. “We lose our adolescence, our childhood, but those are gradual and those are normal.

When someone like David Bowie dies, it’s just not expected. And when the unexpected comes into our lives, we are shaken a bit in regard to ourselves and how we look at the world. We’ve seen the world differently because of his life and we’ll see it differently because of his death.”

Gladding is definitely onto something.

I never knew David Bowie — I never got closer to him than chasing ghosts across the grooves of a worn vinyl record,

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TRIADITUDE ADJUSTMENT The stars still look very different today

Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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