TCB Aug. 10, 2017 — Jessica's mash-up

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point August 10 – 16, 2017 triad-city-beat.com

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Tillis’ stand PAGE 10 Crepes coming PAGE 16 Gun deaths PAGE 8

The many hats of Jessica Mashburn PAGE 12

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6/21/17

11:01 AM

August 10 – 16, 2017

DWSP_Music17_TriadCityBeat_8-11-17_8-12-17.pdf

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DOWNTOWN JAZZ

SUMMER ON LIBERTY

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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

CONTENTS

triad-city-beat.com

Kevin Coon was made of gold

by Brian Clarey

20

UP FRONT

11 Commentariat

3 4 5 5

12 Jessica’s mash-up

Editor’s Notebook City Life Unpopular Opinion Unsolicited Endorsement

NEWS

6 District 2 candidates spar 8 Mayoral candidate focused on gun deaths

OPINION

10 Editorial: Tillis stands up 10 Citizen Green: How fascism comes to America

COVER

CULTURE

16 Food: Creperie planned for Reynolda Village 17 Barstool: Clowns rule at Gatsby’s Pub 18 Music: After success, Lucinda Williams keeps seeking the truth 19 Art: A new technique at Sawtooth

SPORTSBALL

20 Kids Poetry Basketball assists newcomers through haikus and hoops

CROSSWORD

21 Jonesin’ Crossword

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

22 Westgate Drive, Greensboro

TRIADITUDE ADJUSTMENT

23 Tina Firesheets’ bucket list

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

All the great political protest songs have already been written. And when people come to see me, they expect a little humor. I think it’s the best to write political songs that sound kitschy, like ‘Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.’

— Jessica Mashburn, 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

ART ART DIRECTOR Jorge Maturino

PUBLISHER EMERITUS Allen Broach

SALES SALES/DIGITAL MARKETING SPECIALIST Regina Curry

brian@triad-city-beat.com allen@triad-city-beat.com

EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Eric Ginsburg eric@triad-city-beat.com

jorge@triad-city-beat.com

regina@triad-city-beat.com

SALES EXECUTIVE Cheryl Green

CONTRIBUTORS Carolyn de Berry Jelisa Castrodale Kat Bodrie Matt Jones Spencer KM Brown Joel Sronce

Cover photo illustration by Todd Turner and Jorge Maturino Jessica Mashburn rules the night at PrintWorks Bistro at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro.

Cecil sat on the bench outside Walker’s Bar sucking down the last of his cigarette. After it was gone, he let out a heavy sigh, and the whole corner sighed with him.

It’s been a rough stretch for Walker’s. Its unofficial bandleader Chris Carroll passed last week after an extended illness. And then a couple days later, the unthinkable happened: We lost Kevin Coon.

I still can’t believe it.

I loved Kevin Coon. Right off the bat. More than anybody he eased my acclimation from New Orleans, made me think life in Greensboro might be doable after all. This was before I knew anybody in this city, and nobody knew me; I was waiting tables for a living. As my career started to come together, he was a useful sounding board and critic — somewhere along his short and twisted road he had studied English literature — and without question my favorite bartender in the state of North Carolina.

But forget what he did for me. I loved him for who he was, and here my words become inadequate to describe this man.

He was just so… good. All heart and muscle and bristly red hair, his gravelly baritone and gentle patois one of the most soothing conversational instruments I’ve ever listened to.

I could never write anything that would do him justice. But I’m writing something anyway, because this needs to go on the record. Something must be written down about the He was a man with no passing of this great man and the way he enemies, generous with his made us feel. time and spirit, as genuine He was a man with as a Kennedy half-dollar. no enemies, generous with his time and his spirit, as genuine as a Kennedy half-dollar.

Down on the Corner, he was the best of all of us.

And now, after the tears, perhaps we can be grateful that for a brief moment we shared the same time and space with someone so noble.

Inside Walker’s Bar, faces hang heavy along the rail, and when I meet the bartender’s eyes for a long second she almost breaks down. We both almost break down.

Kevin would not have wanted us to be so sad. But there’s nothing he can do about it now.

cheryl@triad-city-beat.com

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

EDITORIAL INTERNS Lauren Barber & Eric Hairston intern@triad-city-beat.com

TCB IN A FLASH DAILY @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1.00. ©2016 Beat Media Inc.

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August 10 – 16, 2017

CITY LIFE August 10 – 16

by Eric Hairston

Playing August 10 – 12 Friday Night Standup Presents

Ryan Higgins

8:30 p.m. Friday, August 11th. Tickets $10

OTHER SHOWS Open Mic 8:30 p.m. Thursday, August 10th. $5 tickets!

Friday Night Standup Presents Late Nite Open Mic 10 p.m. Friday, August 11th.

Family Improv 4 p.m. Saturday, August 12th. $6 Tickets!

Saturday Night Improv 8:30 p.m. & 10 pm. Saturday, August 12th. $10 tickets!

Discount tickets available @ Ibcomedy.yapsody.com

MS fundraiser @ JuggHeads Growlers & Pints (WS), 5 p.m.

Grab a beer and support a great cause at the same time — what more could you ask for? A portion of the proceeds from the event will benefit the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Food will be available from Food Freaks food truck. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

Cooking class: Gnocchi @ Maple Chase & Country Club (W-S), 6:30 p.m.

In this cooking class taught by Chef Sean Wehr, you’ll learn how to prepare potato gnocchi and ricotta gnocchi with paired sauces. Participants can also sample various dishes and wines. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

FRIDAY

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Vincent Crenshaw @ Corpening Plaza (W-S), 6 p.m.

Winston-Salem’s downtown summer music series hosts jazz artist and multi-instrumentalist Vincent Crenshaw as he performs live with his band Grooveology. For more information, visit downtownws.com.

Playing August 11 – 15

Lucinda Williams @ SECCA (W-S), 7 p.m.

The legendary rock, folk and country music singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams takes over SECCA. Food trucks will be on hand, and Foothills Brewing will provide beverages. For more information, visit secca.org.

DISNEY NIGHT!

Midnight Radio Karaoke presents It’s Bar Karaoke with a HUGE SCREEN, A BIG HEART, and COMMUNITY 11:15 p.m. Saturday, August 12th. Free admission!

--OTHER EVENTS & SCREENINGS--

Board Game Night FEATURING ALL NEW GAMES!

7 p.m. Friday, August 11th. More than 100 BOARD GAMES -- FREE TO PLAY!

Saturday Morning Cartoons BRAND NEW LINEUP featuring SAILOR MOON, BATMAN, ROCKO’S MODERN LIFE & MORE! 10 a.m. & 12 p.m. Saturday, August 12th. FREE ADMISSION

TV CLUB: It’s Winter Baby!

9 p.m. Sunday, August 13th. Free Admission with Drink Purchase!

TV CLUB: Twin Peaks: The Return 10 p.m. Sunday, August 13th. Free Admission with Drink Purchase!

Totally Rad Trivia!

$3 buy in! Winners get CASH! 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, August 15th.

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THURSDAY

Beer! Wine! Amazing Coffee!

2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro geeksboro.com •

336-355-7180

David Feherty @ Carolina Theatre (GSO), 7:30 p.m.

Former professional golfer David Feherty brings his one-man comedy show to the main stage at Carolina Theatre. For more information, visit fehertyofftour.com.

Art of Edible Arrangements @ Something Barowed Candy Bar Station (GSO), 7 p.m.

Learn to make your own edible arrangement, while relaxing and connecting with other guests. Food and beverages will be provided. For more information, visit somethingbarowed.com.

SATURDAY Nutrition & cooking workshop for cancer survivors @ Stocked Pot & Co. Cooking School (W-S), 10 a.m.

Dietitian Julie Lanford leads this special workshop designed for cancer survivors.

Guests will have the opportunity to learn about nourishing food choices and techniques to prepare healthier recipes. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

Stained glass dragonfly workshop @ Sawtooth School for Visual Art (W-S), 10 a.m.

Create a three-dimensional dragonfly with stained glass. Learn the copper foil method to create the stained glass. Materials are included and guests are encouraged to bring their own bag lunch or snacks. For pricing and other information, visit sawtooth.org.

Craft City Sip-In anniversary @ Craft City Sip-In (GSO), noon Celebrate Craft City’s second year with dozens of beer selections and live performances by the Ends and Ded Mullet. For more information, visit craftcitysipin.com.

Anatomy Yoga: The Shoulder Girdle @ Triad Yoga Institute (GSO), 2 p.m.

Take a closer look at the muscles in the shoulder and how they create movement and give your body support. For more information, visit triadyoga.com.

triad-city-beat.com

Cone Health

by Jordan Green

News Triaditude Adjustment

“Chewing Gum” offers an earnest story about just how confusing and embarrassing a journey toward sexual liberation can be for a 20-something virgin.

Coel converted to evangelicalism at age 18 and practiced abstinence for five years before attending Guildhall School of Music and Drama. “Chewing Gum” began as Coel’s 2012 play “Chewing Gum Dreams,” her senior thesis that wound up on the prestigious Royal National Theatre stage.

Notwithstanding phenomenal set and costume design, “Chewing Gum” is uncomfortable, rude and sometimes downright disgusting. As a writer, Coel forces viewers to confront sexual and racial anxieties and puts their susceptibility to second-hand embarrassment to the test. And though Tracey can be a frustrating, self-involved protagonist, her flaws feel satisfyingly real and it’s a delight to get to know one of the most unreserved, raw female characters of the moment.

Pullout: Watch the first two seasons of “Chewing Gum” on Netflix.

Shot in the Triad

boyfriend, Aaron (Kardiff Kirwan). Despite advice from Candice and other neighborhood confidantes, horribly awkward foreplay mars Tracey’s love life which centers her exceptionally mediocre boyfriend, Connor (Robert Lonsdale), a pitiful wannabe poet-rapper who lives with his mother in the same complex. Awkward as in: suffering humiliating nosebleeds whenever she becomes aroused and chewing Connor’s hair after licking his eyelids.

When she’s not navigating her overpowering sexuality, Tracey is forced to face homelessness, her stagnated work life and white men repeatedly fetishizing her blackness.

Throughout, her candor is equally endearing and confrontational. A brilliant physical comedian, creator Michaela Coel writes some of the wittiest banter out there. Hilarious fourth-wall breaks punctuate the six 20-minute episodes each season, during which Tracey lets viewers in on the vulnerability she typically attempts to cloak with compulsive lies. Comedy aside,

Crossword

“Chewing Gum,” a riotous British sitcom chronicling the cringe-worthy mishaps and victory-dance-eliciting triumphs of 24-year-old convenience-store assistant Tracey Gordon (played by Michaela Coel), is set in a public housing community in London not unlike the one in where Coel herself grew up. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the promising showrunner explained that the series’ title references chewing gum on city concrete — two very different substances stuck together like the incredibly diverse yet tightknit community possible in public housing. “Chewing Gum” boldly juxtaposes class, sex and religion as Beyoncé-worshipping Tracey — the eldest daughter of Ghanaian immigrants — embarks on her coming-ofage quest for carnal knowledge.

Tracey’s childhood best friend, Candice (Danielle Walters), attempts to guide her through the wilderness that is modern-day courtship after Tracey realizes her ex-boyfriend is gay, all while Candice works through her own BDSM fantasies with her Eckart Tolle-obsessed

Sportsball

by Lauren Barber

Culture

‘Chewing Gum’ is great

Cover Story

Cone’s commitment to acknowledging and correcting racial disparities also comes from the top. The organization unveiled a historic marker last November recognizing black physicians — including Dr. George Simkins — who won a landmark lawsuit in 1963 to desegregate the hospital. Before the unveiling, Cone Health CEO Terry Akin publicly apologized to Dr. Alvin Blount, one of the suit’s plaintiffs.

“I’d like to say on behalf of Cone Health to you, on behalf of your colleagues, on behalf of the citizens, who were denied access for that period of time,” Akin said, “I would like to apologize on behalf of Cone Health for the segregation and discrimination that you experienced.”

Opinion

Deena Hayes-Greene, an anti-racism trainer and member of the Guilford County School Board, traces Cone Health’s achievements to an initiative by the late community organizer Nettie Coad to bring anti-racism trainings to Greensboro in the 1990s.

“Over 15 years ago a group of trained community members started the Greensboro Health Collaborative to address racial health disparities,” Hayes-Greene wrote in a widely shared Facebook post on Tuesday.

The collaborative’s eventual success came about for five reasons, she said: The group had a sense of urgency, they knew they needed to work together, they acknowledged the work would be long and hard, they recognized they needed to ensure community voices were at the table alongside medical professionals and academics and they “were willing to be uncomfortable and stay unsettled, which equipped us to stay the course.”

If anyone wants to believe there’s nothing that can be done about racial disparities, the progress at Cone Health is proof that it’s not true.

Up Front

In an era when the general state of the world is marked by a sense of continuous deterioration and crisis, and race relations in America probably fall somewhere between stalled-out progress and a precarious slide towards the worse, it’s worth holding up isolated areas of success.

So hats off to Cone Health, the healthcare system that serves Greensboro. (Full disclosure: My wife is employed

by Cone.)

Cone Health was recognized by the American Hospital Association as one of five hospital systems named as 2017 Equity of Care honorees. Among several reasons for the honor, Cone was recognized for reducing the disparity between African-American and white lung cancer patients. Specifically, the hospital system reported that during a five-year period, completion of treatment for black patients improved from 64 percent to 96 percent.

Notably, the gap didn’t close at the expense of white patients: The completion rate for that cohort improved from 76 to 96 percent.

A recent article in the hospital association’s magazine reveals four interventions responsible for erasing the disparity: “Creating a real-time registry that issues automated alerts for missed appointments and unmet care milestones; tracking race-specific data on treatment adherence; employing a nurse navigator trained in culturally appropriate communication; and holding quarterly staff education sessions on unconscious health bias, gatekeeping and other contributors to treatment inequities.”

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August 10 – 16, 2017

A community meeting at a recreation center in northeast Greensboro on Aug. 3 provided an arena for a sharp-elbowed generational clash to determine the leadership of District 2, with candidates’ backers lodging pointed questions to opponents and sometimes shouting each other down.

Held at Peeler Recreation Center, the meeting of Concerned Citizens of NE Greensboro was billed as an opportunity for residents to meet candidates for the District 2 Greensboro City Council seat. Goldie Wells, who formerly served as president of the organization, had several loyalists in the room, but her opponent CJ Brinson swamped the meeting with about 15 supporters, whose questions and reactions set the tone for event.

“You need someone who can feel the urgency of these issues,” said Brinson, a 28-year-old Black Lives Matter activist. “Some folks can’t feel the urgency because they may be in the golden experience of their lives. There is an urgency that exists that people my age, a little bit older and younger are feeling. They don’t feel the hope that maybe you felt before. I’m scared to death for my daughters to be in any interaction with police. And I’m definitely scared for my son, who is coming into this world.”

Wells, a veteran community leader who helped found Concerned Citizens in 1998 and served previously on city

Triaditude Adjustment

Shot in the Triad

Crossword

Sportsball

Culture

Cover Story

Opinion

News

Generation gap drives rancorous meeting of District 2 candidates

Up Front

NEWS

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by Jordan Green

A Black Lives Matter candidate goes on the offensive against two political veterans in District 2.

Goldie Wells, a veteran politician in northeast Greensboro and candidate for District 2, takes a photo of opponent CJ Brinson during a meeting of the candidates hosted by Concerned Citizens of NE Greensboro.

council from 2005 to 2009, owned the slight from her opponent.

“I’m so glad that a young person like CJ can cause you to get involved,” Wells said, addressing Brinson’s supporters.

“My name is Goldie — you heard something about golden. So I will not campaign like the others because I’ve been there campaigning. You promise people and you can’t do it.”

Wells added that she took a more ambitious approach when she first ran for the seat in 2005.

“I came out gung ho, and I wanted to see things change,” she said. “And I did see some changes. But I realized I was only one person on that council. Therefore I can’t make a lot of promises to change council because there are eight other people. Now, what I do promise is

JORDAN GREEN

that I will be faithful to this community as I have been since 1998.”

Wells was appointed by a unanimous vote of city council to fill the unexpired term of Councilman Jamal Fox, who resigned to take a job with the city of Portland, Ore., on July 18. Three days later she filed as a candidate for the next term, which runs through 2021.

Wells said after the forum that she de-

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about police-community relations.

“There’s no question about it — the disparity between the police department and the African-American community,” he said. “All over the country, not just in Greensboro. We have to make sure we are addressing that because we had a major situation in 1979 and we don’t want a reoccurrence of that. I want to make sure that your kids are safe, my kids and my grandkids.”

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Sportsball

336-273-0970

Culture Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

cided to join the race “because of the people who are and social challenges. running,” adding, “I didn’t hear them saying they were “I have a proven record of working with all busitrying to carry on what Jamal was doing. They were far nesses — majority businesses, small businesses and removed from the community. I’ve been here and I did minority businesses — to bring jobs to Greensboro,” not want to see the community regress.”

Kee said. “That will abate a lot of the crime. If people Wells highlighted one of the signature developments have money in their pockets, they don’t need to go out in District 2 under Fox’s tenure as representative of and rob.”

District 2 since 2013.

Kee’s support for a plan proposed by Republican “Right now we have the largest development in the state Sen. Trudy Wade to restructure Greensboro city with Revolution Mill,” Wells said. elections did not come up during the event. He said Brinson argued that the redevelopment of Revoafterwards he has no regrets about signing on as a lution Mill doesn’t benefit the district’s black workdefendant-intervener in a lawsuit challenging the plan. ing-class residents.

A federal judge struck down the plan, calling it “a “No longer should we do development that benefits ‘skewed, unequal redistricting’ intentionally designed to corporations and leaves the community create a partisan advantage by increasbehind,” he said. “In my estimation, ing the weight of votes of RepubliRevolution Mill was not a good plan.

‘We can’t continue can-leaning voters and decreasing the So many people in that community are weight of votes of Democratic-leaning to believe more going to be dispossessed because they voters.” won’t be able to keep up with the tax Felicia Angus said during the Conpolice is going to base.” cerned Citizens meeting that she was stop crime.’

While Wells held the floor, Brinson’s withdrawing because of family obliga– CJ Brinson supporters peppered her with questions tions. Tim Vincent announced on Faceabout how many black people are embook about an hour before the event ployed by the businesses in Revolution that he was dropping out of the race.

Mill, whether businesses recruited by the city provide The three remaining candidates — Wells, Kee and living-wage jobs and what she would do about racist Brinson — presented strikingly different emphases on policing. law enforcement and violent crime.

During one exchange, Black Lives Matter leader “We can’t continue to believe that more police is April Parker interjected, “White owned,” when Wells going to stop crime,” Brinson said. “If you find any noted that craft brewer Natty Greene’s has recently research you find that is not the case. We have to put opened a new brewpub at Revolution Mill. measures in place to hold our police accountable for Nikki Mintz, who is white, picked up the thread. individuals like Jose Charles, who was 15 and was as“When you got black people that live here and you saulted by the police, and lives right here in the district. got businesses that come that people aren’t interested There are other methods to reduce crime — workforce in, doesn’t benefit their families, isn’t a place of interest programs, apprenticeship programs. In New York they at all, not for your community, your culture, your expehave ‘cure violence’ programs where the city invests rience, what was the point in bringing it?” Mintz asked. and sends out interveners into the community so that “So that I can go?” they can intervene on behalf of violence and treat Wells’ supporters hazed Brinson in equal measure. violence as a health issue as opposed to criminalizing “I don’t know how long you’ve been in this commuthose who are impovernity, but this is my first time seeing you,” Georgeanna ished in the community Womack said. “And a lot of projects that we had going and find themselves in on I didn’t see you anytime. I don’t even know if you situations where they have supported us. Your people — the people you brought to be involved in the illicit with you — they know what you’ve done. But I’ve been trade to provide resources in this community going on 40-some years. And this is for themselves.” the first time I’ve heard your name. So your people can Wells lamented that 13 clap on you, but what about us that have been here?” out of the 23 homicides Brinson responded by saying that he’s been a memin Greensboro this year ber of the Renaissance Community Co-op for two to date have occurred in years, that he’s spent the past six months working as a District 2. community organizer to promote police accountability “The other thing that in the Dejuan Yourse and Jose Charles cases, and that bothers me is that the he’s collaborated with local barber Gene Blackmon on suspects or the people who a campaign against community violence. they think caused it are all Jim Kee, a developer who served on city council black,” she said. “So it’s all from 2009 to 2013, is also running for the seat. He black on black.” highlighted his role as a businessperson as an essential Kee gave credit to Brinasset in addressing northeast Greensboro’s economic son for raising concerns

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August 10 – 16, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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Social media campaign against violence turns into mayoral run

by Jordan Green

Damorius Fuller Ali has repurposed a Facebook-driven campaign against violence in High Point into a write-in run for mayor.

Damorius Fuller Ali made a quick stop at Remarkable African Hair Braidery, a barbershop in a threadbare shopping center with a cratered parking lot across from the High Point Police Department, to firm up plans for a project to give free haircuts to the children of homicide victims.

It was Monday evening close to dusk.

David Nyalimo, the owner, stepped out on the sidewalk to catch the fresh air and take a break.

“We gonna do a cookout for all the children who lost their parents and all the children that’s father and mother’s still living,” Fuller Ali said, as Nyalimo nodded. “All the children who have lost their parents will be getting a free haircut on the 13th and 14th.”

The 26-year-old Fuller Ali has been running at a breakneck pace over the past couple weeks on a self-organized mission to stop the epidemic of violence in High Point. Fuller Ali’s cousin, Tavares Malachi, became the 14th homicide victim in the city when he succumbed on Aug. 5 at Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem from injuries sustained in a shooting last month. Malachi was one of seven people shot after a memorial service for yet another homicide victim.

With Malachi’s death, the number of homicides in 2017 so far has already doubled the total number for the entire year of 2016. Compounding Fuller Ali’s grief, his uncle, Darryl Anthony Campbell, was fatally shot in his home in Greensboro on Aug. 4.

Fuller Ali has responded to the violence by paying respect to the fallen and lifting up the children they’ve left behind, but he also wants to make the point that, if anything, it’s more important that people love each other in life than in death.

“It ain’t no joke when you gotta watch people who you came up with, people younger than you leave this world like it ain’t nothing, like they never existed,” Fuller Ali said in a recent Facebook Live video, in which he pulled his car over to the side of the road and gave a tearstreaked testimony. “And then you got

Damorius Fuller Ali, a candidate for mayor who uses social media to campaign against violence, stands up a vase of flowers at the site where Al Macer was found dead last month after suffering from a gunshot wound.

people who sit and treat you so wrong, so bad, and then you end up being the one in the casket and everybody loves you.

“People don’t understand that we stressed out ’ere,” he continued. “People stressed all over. But all this killing though — I tell everybody that I love y’all. You think anybody come up to me out the blue and say, ‘I love you’? Or do it keep taking me saying, ‘I love you’?

There’s people just like me in this world who would go out and tell you every day: ‘I love you.’ A lot of us get walked over. A lot of us get looked past. And then when somebody with a good heart end up dying or getting killed, everybody loves them. If everybody loves people so much, why [are] more and more people getting killed?”

To date, the video has received 2,090

views.

On Aug. 5, Fuller Ali filmed himself walking into the High Point Police Department to notify the chief that he will be bringing Dennis Muhammad, founder of the Peace Keepers — an initiative inspired by the 1995 Million Man March — to the city. (At press time, Fuller Ali was still working on securing a location for the Aug. 13 event.)

“I do feel that the police don’t have the proper equipment or the proper authority to help the people with what’s going on with all these senseless killings, so I’m coming with someone who steps with me in peace,” Fuller Ali told a receptionist at police headquarters.

“There will not be guns, but I do have a security group to help me step through the streets in case we feel unsafe, and they are all licensed. So let Chief

JORDAN GREEN

[Kenneth] Shultz know that Dr. Dennis Muhammad’s coming to High Point, North Carolina on the 13th and 14th.”

After obtaining Chief Shultz’s phone number, Fuller Ali walked back out of police headquarters and said on video: “To any Blood, to any Crip, to any Vice Lord, I don’t care who you are. Come to this meeting.”

Fuller Ali’s commitment to ending the violence channeled into a recent decision to run for mayor, although filing for all municipal elections ended on July 21. He said he hadn’t considered running at the time, adding that several people urged him to run at a High Point NAACP meeting in late July. Considering that he launched the campaign after the close of filing, his fliers — held by supporters, including Asian corner store operators in a string of photos posted

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Sagamora’ just means we’re all native to this land.”

Fuller Ali said regardless of the outcome of the election, he’ll continue his campaign.

“Win, lose or draw, my mission is to make sure I don’t stop showing people that I care about them, so that I can bring some kind of peace,” he said.

“The ways I’m doing it are through love, peace and freedom from fear.”

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on Facebook — urge voters to write in blue-on-black violence. Black-on-black his name on the ballot. violence, blue-on-black violence and Fuller Ali faces three seasoned politidoes the black dollar matter? These cians in the mayor’s race, including Jay are the main issues affecting the black Wagner, a pro-revitalization Republicommunity.” can who has served on city council for Prior to running for mayor, Fuller Ali two terms; Jim Davis, a conservative said he had been working to incorporate Republican who was formerly appointa nonprofit called ed as mayor to serve the unexpired term Yamassee House of Indigenous Sagof Bernita Sims; and Bruce Davis, a amora. The purpose for the nonprofit Democrat and former — which he also wants Guilford County Compursue as mayor — is ‘I’ve been stressed to missioner who helped to establish an enterand depressed incubate a planned tainment/education/ downtown stadium as just like them. I’ve event center sustained by a member of the board donations from nonprofseen just as many its and churches, fees and of directors of the High Point Convention & Visimurders as them.’ city support that would tors Bureau. offer everything from – Damorius Fuller Ali “A lot of people say gymnastics to domestic they weren’t willing to violence counseling and vote until they saw me running,” Fuller free meals.

Ali said. “I’ve been stressed and deExplaining the meaning of the nonpressed like them. I’ve seen just as many profit name, Fuller Ali said, “It comes murders as them. from an Indian name, a native name, a “I’m running this campaign for peoname that is hidden, not talked about. ple of all colors who are the grassroots Indians got along with everybody in community,” he added. “We need to my concept. It means anybody in this decrease domestic violence, decrease house. The world is a house. The Bible black-on-black violence and decrease says, ‘Love your neighbor.’ ‘Indigenous

Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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August 10 – 16, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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EDITORIAL

Tillis takes a stand The scene in the US Senate these days looks a little bit like a game of chicken between the president and the slim Republican majority.

Last week, the junior senator from North Carolina blinked.

It’s easy to forget that Sen. Thom Tillis is relatively new to politics — a dozen years ago he held a seat on the Cornelius Town Council. From there it was straight to the NC General Assembly, a seat won in a primary because no Democrats had filed to run, and then won his next three elections without the obstacle of a challenger from either party. He became speaker of the House after the 2010 Republican revolution. His toughest win was also his biggest: Defeating Kay Hagan in 2014 by 1.6 points and flipping the Senate seat red.

Now, just halfway through his first term in Washington, DC, Sen. Tillis has decided to become the voice of the reasonable right.

Up until last week, Tillis voted in near lockstep with President Trump — FiveThirtyEight, which tracks such things, clocks it at 95.8 percent, with the only disagreement being sanctions on Russia.

But it looks like he’s had enough.

Last week Tillis was so fed up he reached across the aisle — a risky move for a Republican in the US Senate these days — to effectively block the president from firing Robert Mueller, who is currently investigating the administration for ties to Russia.

On the Sunday news shows, Tillis didn’t deny that his bill was directed specifically at the president.

His bill, co-sponsored with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), would allow Mueller — were he to be fired — to challenge the termination before a three-judge panel. A similar bill, by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), would require judicial review before the firing of a special counsel could take place.

The Graham/Booker package seems the better of the two, plus it’s got great name recognition. But the Tillis/Coons bit would make for much better television, and we’re proud to see North Carolina’s own taking a stand.

CITIZEN GREEN

OPINION

How fascism comes to America The continuing skirmishes between the extreme right and radical left can seem distant and irrelevant to those not directly invested in their outcome. And there’s a tendency among people who embrace respectability politics to shun coverage

by Jordan Green of groups on both the far right and left that are willing to use violence to advance their aims, under the misguided belief that ignoring them will make them go away.

But people should pay close attention to what transpires in Charlottesville, Va. — a liberal college town three hours north of the Triad that’s a kind of East Coast analogue to Berkeley — when white supremacists square off against militant activists committed to racial justice on Saturday.

Beyond the glaring and obvious potential for bloodshed, the confrontation portends important clues about the emergence of new forces in American political life. As the nation’s political center continues to deteriorate, the vacuum created by dysfunctional government will increasingly drive people to seek solutions outside of conventional institutions.

The pull to the radical left is obvious: As the US Justice Department abandons its commitment to racial equality in everything from policing and elections to academic admissions, progressives will increasingly fend for themselves instead of trusting government institutions for protection.

The rise of overt white supremacy is rightfully seen as an imminent threat to survival of people of color, immigrants, Muslims and LGBTQ people.

For conservatives grounded in patriot ideology, the Republican Party’s repeated failure to accomplish even as basic a goal of dismantling Obamacare can only undermine faith in government. As Trump’s political troubles compound, they will become increasingly frustrated while blaming the deep state and mainstream media for preventing their president from carrying out his promises.

Further to the right of the patriot movement, the white supremacist or white nationalist vanguard has markedly different aims and motivations. Many of the progressive urbanites who make up the core of Triad City Beat’s readership probably don’t distinguish between the two. But their differences are critically important: While the patriot movement is rallying behind the president, white supremacists are eagerly looking forward to the collapse of the presidency in the anticipation that white people will seek a strong leader from within their ranks. As the former Ku Klux Klan imperial wizard and notorious white supremacist David Duke has put it, the movement’s support for Trump is based on “not the man, but the means.” And while the patriot movement is fundamentally nostalgic, the white supremacist mode is revolutionary.

There are currently deep divisions between patriots and white supremacists, but if the latter can accomplish a merger or subsume the former then the republic is in real trouble.

Charlottesville became a flashpoint for political conflict in the United States because of white resentment over the removal of the city’s Confederate monuments. Richard Spencer, a white supremacist whose ascendance coincided with Trump’s election, organized a torch-lit rally around the statue of Robert E. Lee in April. Efforts by the left in Charlottesville to deny a platform to racists in Charlottesville, in turn, have been used by white supremacists to issue charges that free speech is under attack — a unifying cause on the right. What started as a supposed defense of “Southern heritage” has metastasized into “Unite the Right,” bringing Spencer together with overtly fascist organizations like the Traditionalist Workers Party and the National Socialist Movement.

Brad Griffin, aka Hunter Wallace, one of the white supremacist movement’s leading propagandists, attempted to manipulate the patriot militias’ conception of themselves as the guardians of free speech and public order.

“There hasn’t been a far-right event this large in the United States in over 25 years,” Griffin wrote in a direct appeal on Aug. 4, “and by the end of the day the antifas and [social justice warriors] could be very, very, very triggered. Someone has to protect the public.”

Many members of the patriot movement appear to be taking the bait.

Doc Smith, a patriot activist who hawks homemade beef jerky to finance road trips to skirmish with the left, described the intentions of his crew, known as the Hiwaymen, in a provocative Facebook Live video on Aug. 3.

“You never know where we’re going to turn up,” he said in a put-on roguish English accent reminiscent of Motörhead’s Lemme Kilmister. “We’re just looking for somewhere to start some s***.”

Then he laughed and reverted to the warm and gruff middle Tennessee cadence that is his natural medium.

“Actually, we ain’t looking to start some s***; we’re just looking to step into some,” he said. “And there’s gonna be plenty in Charlottesville, so if you like to swing a stick, that’ll be the place to be.”

Patriot activists like Smith, who profess allegiance to the Constitution, likely see themselves as mustering to scrap with antifas, not acting as the shock troops for fascism.

But Griffin and his overt Nazi confederates have another idea. In a chilling manifesto published on Aug. 4, Griffin wrote about white nationalists’ use of social media to “recruit from a vast and growing pool of culturally alienated, economically distressed, college-educated and working-class white millennial males.”

Young white men unsettled by a perceived loss of status due to the “browning of America,” advances in LGBTQ rights and the growing insistence of Black Lives Matter are ripe for revolution, Griffin says, adding that mainstream media, academia and liberal clergy no longer dominate the national discourse.

“Trump showed how ripe they are for a fall for all the

Cover Story

100 Neighborhood Homes Sold

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Ach i for meving u y ne p to $ ighb 1 orho 69 SQ/ F od S eller T s

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Save the Democratic Party, then the right to choose In my humble opinion, the abortion question brought us the war in Iraq [“Trump’s America: The Democratic

Editor’s note: Dave Coker is the president of the Professional Firefighters of Greensboro — IAFF 947.

Opinion

Jordan Green responds: CJ Brinson, a candidate for District 2, has previously made the point that the residents most at risk of displacement because of rising property values in the area of Revolution Mill are elderly white people who live in nearby millhouses.

Keep it classy, guys Classy artistic rendering of public safety personnel [“Payday: The Triad’s 2017 city payrolls, from brass to bottom”; by Jordan Green; Aug. 3, 2017].

Although I must say I’ve never clinked a champagne glass with a cop holding a wad of cash. Certainly report the facts on municipal employee pay — you have a duty to speak about those important issues — but give me a break with this idiotic graphic.

Dave Coker, Greensboro

News

Gentrification in northeast Greensboro It was bad enough to watch Jamal Fox claim credit for a project [Revolution Mill] that began while Fox was still in grade school, but for Goldie Wells to continue to perpetuate Jamal Fox’s lies demonstrates the lengths she’ll go to keep the status quo entrenched [“Generation gap drives rancorous meeting of candidates for District 2”; by Jordan Green; Aug. 4, 2017]. And it’s not just black people [who will be displaced by the redevelopment]. A lot of white people in the mill village will get pushed out. It is time that Greensboro awakened to the fact that whatever happens to poor blacks also happens to their poor white neighbors. Or does white trash like us just not count anymore?

Billy Jones, Greensboro

Party is abandoning its backbone”; by Lauren Barber; Aug. 3, 2017]. It was an important factor in the election of George W. Bush, and what we now look back on as a minor disaster compared to what we have now. If Democrats would stick to things like income inequality, labor laws, consumer protection, the environment, taking big, dark money out of politics, and providing healthcare and a decent education to all (things that cut across the wedge issues that we Democrats love to bite into) we would do a better job representing our base. Methods of birth control are much better than they were when abortion was declared a woman’s right. STDs have made the use of condoms much more common as well. I believe that preserving the right to choose is important, but not the most important thing. Just now, saving our Democratic Party seems to take precedence.

Fancygapva, via triad-city-beat

Selling Lindley Park

Up Front

Remembering Kevin Coon Beautiful and true [“Editor’s Notebook: Kevin Coon was made of gold”; by Brian Clarey; Aug. 8, 2017]. You captured the impression he gave and left with anyone that crossed his path. One of a kind that exuded friendliness, happiness and peace. It’s a sure thing that anyone that ever met him will never forget him for all the best reasons, and that’s a great legacy.

LC Todd, via triad-city-beat.com

all the tools we need to create our own ‘story about race in America,’ an increasingly receptive disaffected audience, and all the tools we need to mount a powerful challenge to the status quo.”

triad-city-beat.com

reasons mentioned above,” Griffin writes.

“The long-term trends are only going to be more favorable to us. Fifty years ago, they could create ‘a story about race in America’ in a place like Selma that could move legislative mountains. Now, we have

Frank Slate Brooks Broker/Realtor®

336.708.0479 FrankSlate.Brooks@trmhomes.com

11

August 10 – 16, 2017 Cover Story

The many hats of Jessica Mashburn

by Brian Clarey • Photos by Todd Turner

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Among her other musical pursuits, Jessica Mashburn’s pop-up dance party at PrintWorks Bistro has developed into a scene of her own.

The regulars show precisely at 10 p.m. to this pop-up dance party; 45 minutes in, they’re keeping three bartenders and a cocktail waitress hopping with complicated drink orders as dancers fight for space on the floor before the DJ stand. By 11 p.m., the first conga line snakes past the wait station and through the lounge.

“Happy anniversary, Crystal and Jeff!” she shouts through the mic.

The party ends at 1 a.m., so Mashburn’s taking them up a steep curve with some classic disco and a little Bollywood before dropping “Despacito,” Luis Fonsi’s slow-burn dancehall grind with Damn Yankee — the version without Justin Bieber. The number incites vigorous activity on the dance floor, where sweat and hormones are starting to flow. “[This song] will be requested four or five more times tonight,” Mashburn says as an aside to a reporter.

And then it’s “Dancing Queen,” by Abba, and women take turns standing on the raised platform in front of her DJ stand, dancing to the appreciative crowd.

See that girl. Watch that scene. Dig the dancing queen.

“Abba-dabba do it!” Mashburn implores from her perch.

She’s forsaken her usual headgear tonight — a collection of hats, headdresses and fascinators that take up an entire wall of the bedroom she’s appropriated into a costume closet — her hair now in low pigtails and a pair of oversize, pink-tinted glasses that wouldn’t look out of place resting on the nose of Elton John. She’s bouncing and sliding, pumping and rolling her arms so enthusiastically it looks like she might be sneaking in a workout.

The night wears on as a soft, coppery rain falls on the fancy cars in the parking lot and a patron hustles outside to put the top up on his convertible. The demographic swirls with young professionals, empty-nest scenesters and veteran club-hoppers, not too young and not too old, with nowhere else to go on a Friday night.

“There’s not a lot of classy places in town to go dancing,” Mashburn says. Where craft beer, tattoos and local bands are the cultural mainstream, the pop-up dance crowd in Greensboro is a genuine subculture.

She identified and built this scene through hustle and drive, landing it at Print Works, whose parent company, Quaintance-Weaver Mashburn has been associated with since she used to wait tables at the Green Valley Grill more than a decade ago. Now she regularly works wedding receptions here at the

Proximity Hotel and the O. Henry Hotel, both as a DJ and performer, and programs all the music for other QW properties.

And then there’s this pop-up dance party, a way to make the party public.

It’s got the feel of a great wedding reception, a country-club social, the nightclub of a high-end cruise ship, a high-school reunion afterparty. Jessica Mashburn owns it: their diva, their interlocutor, their dancing queen.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” she shouts into the mic, “Lexie is getting married tomorrow!”

Wooooooo!

Upstairs in the Midtown home she shares with fellow performer Evan Olson, across from his studio in the loft, she keeps her finery.

There’s a wall of costumes, every one she’s ever made: a Wonder Woman suit, a Rockford peaches uniform from A League of Their Own, along with patterned dresses and separates in a full rainbow.

The top shelf tumbles with headpieces, some she made for High Point Furniture Market with couches and dressers, others for New Year’s Eve, one for the last episode of “TheLate Show with David Letterman,” another with the five Olympic rings. She made one of a literal house of cards, to commemorate both the Netflix show and the precarious nature of our government. And there’s one she made just last month, the “Spy-crowave,” a shot at the Russia scandal enveloping the Trump White House.

There are pillboxes and sun hats, boas and beads, masks, tiaras, false flowers for her hair, wigs, a cascade of party shoes. Brooches, scarves, wraps, medallions, colors that mimic the brightly colored houses in certain Caribbean neighborhoods.

It’s difficult to tell if the wardrobe is part of her act, or if her act is an extension of the wardrobe.

Mashburn dresses to suit the gig. She plays the chanteuse when she works with Dave Fox’s jazz trio, provides a colorful counterpoint to Olson’s minimalist fashion sense in their AM rOdeO sets, goes full-on Mardi Gras when she’s alone behind the piano. When she sang “America the Beautiful” and the National Anthem before a Grasshoppers game in May, she wore a stylish blue jacket and a short, full, blue houndstooth skirt. When she performed her original piece about repealing HB 2 onstage at Birdland in New York City, she wore a little black dress belted in red with a matching red cardigan. And a swan on her head.

She was born to do this, whatever this is.

Mashburn’s parents are bluegrass musicians whose friends filled her childhood home in Greensboro with that high, lonesome sound. Her father played bass for the Carter Brothers. Her mother was one of the first organizers of Merlefest.

triad-city-beat.com

Tonight Jessica Mashburn is a DJ, posted in the raised corner of the lounge at Print Works Bistro while a genuine disco ball throws raindrops of light across the walls.

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August 10 – 16, 2017

it, she will make it happen.

She plays the solo shows on piano and in the duo with Olson, and holds down vocals with a jazz combo. She takes the wedding gigs as DJ and master of ceremonies, and as an officiant can even consecrate a marriage. She pops onstage at Birdland like a seasoned pro and will even play your birthday party if she can fit it into her schedule.

She’s been asked to take part in stage musicals, but she can never find the time.

She’s booked 16 gigs just this month, between the regular Tuesday night AM rOdeO gigs at Print Works, semi-regular slots in the lobby lounge at the Grandover Resort, private events at the Greensboro Country Club and the Wyndham Tournament and a one-off at the Greensboro Public Library for the One City/One Book Fashion Show & Dance Party.

And if she doesn’t have the perfect outfit for each one,

she will make that happen, too,

It’s the night before the pop-up, and though she’s got no gigs on the calendar there is still work to be done.

Tonight Mashburn is a songwriter, sitting at the piano in her living room while late-afternoon sun streams through the windows.

“Mueller,” she sings softly above a D-minor 7 chord.

“Oh Mueller,” and then the notes move up the C-major scale. “It’s Mueller time… what will he find….”

She stops.

“What rhymes with subpoena?”

The day’s news saw the announcement of Special Investigator Robert Mueller’s grand jury, which has been hearing evidence about possible collusion between the

Cover Story

They taught her to play piano, and from there she ascended through the the Music Academy of North Carolina in Greensboro before completing her education at Sandhills Community College in Pinehurst, NC, with a brief stopover at UNCG. When she was still a student at Southeast Guilford High School, she used to watch her mother spin records at Bench Tavern. Somewhere along the line she learned to tap dance, work a room, write a song and make a hat.

Now she sings and plays guitar, piano and a little bit of mandolin; she could probably do a serviceable job on a drum kit, if you put her behind one. She’s got an accordion she’s trying to wrangle a nice sound out of, and a violin she’s been trying to play, she says, her whole life.

The result is a weird mix between Lady Gaga and Shirley Temple, David Bowie and Liza Minelli, Nancy Sinatra and the New York Dolls. And if she can’t find a stage for

14

Mashburn earned a degree in music theory from Sandhills Community College. “If someone says, ‘Let’s play “Mustang Sally” in C,’ I didn’t want to need the sheet music.”

triad-city-beat.com

She’s got her headgear stored on a long shelf in a room she has converted to a costume shop. There’s one for every occasion, and if there isn’t, she’ll make one.

Trump administration and Russia.

Mashburn’s no fan of the president or his party — she and Olson have a short catalog of political material, though it’s more the Smothers Brothers variety than Phil Ochs. She uses social media, too, to make her opinions heard. Some of it finds its way into her act, always tempered with humor.

“All the great political protest songs have already been written,” she says. “And when people come to see me, they expect a little humor. I think it’s the best to write political songs that sound kitschy, like ‘Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.’”

She rhymes Trump with, “What a dump,” works “Katrina” in there to resolve the “subpoena” issue and casts a verse that glances off the infamous “Pee Pee Tape” and OJ Simpson.

Mashburn says she left UNCG’s music program because it relied so much on classical training and performance, while at Sandhills she could concentrate on music theory.

“I wanted to learn how to be a gigging musician,” she says. “If someone says, ‘Let’s play “Mustang

Sally” in C,’ I didn’t want to need the sheet music.”

She started performing right away, eventually landing slots with UBU out of Jamestown and Billy Scott & the Prophets, two regionally touring bands that brought her from southern Florida to Atlantic City, NJ. “Then I wanted to somehow create a career that was mainly in my own ZIP code,” she says. “You sleep in your car in a Walmart parking lot enough times, that will happen.”

Tonight’s a rare night off from the stage — she gigged with Olson last night and the pop-up isn’t until tomorrow. There’s a DJ slot in two nights at a private party in Summerfield, and then it’s back on the grind by Wednesday.

Maybe the Mueller piece will be ready by then.

“There’s a man that’s been making the news,” she sings now at the piano to a meandering Broadway beat. “You’d not want to be in the president’s shoes. What will he find? It’s Mueller time.”

The song needs some work, but she’s already got the perfect hat.

Jessica Mashburn’s August Thursday: Friendly Center WineStyles, 7 p.m.

Friday: Grimsley High School Reunion (private), 7 p.m.

Aug. 16: Print Works Bistro (with AM rOdeO), 7 p.m.

Aug. 17: Wyndham Tournament (private), 8 p.m.

Aug. 18: Grandover Social Lobby, 7 p.m.

Aug. 19: Greensboro Country Club (private), 6 p.m.

Aug. 21: Charlotte (with Dave Fox Trio), 5:30 p.m.

Aug. 23: Print Works Bistro (with AM rOdeO), 7 p.m.

Aug. 24: O. Henry Hotel lobby (with Dave Fox Trio), 5:30 p.m.

Aug. 25: Grandover Social Lobby, 7 p.m.

Aug. 26: Greensboro Public Library (One City/One Book Dance & Fashion Show), 1 p.m.

Aug. 30: Print Works Bistro (with AM rOdeO), 7 p.m.

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August 10 – 16, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball

M

iro Buzov is hesitant to say that he’s opening a second location of Penny Path Café – his famous creperie based in downtown High Point – but plans are well underway.

Buzov recently signed a lease for the space formerly occupied by Dioli’s, and his business is already listed as “coming soon” on the Reynolda Village website. (Dioli’s maintains its shop up the street.)

Buzov had already planned to expand to Winston-Salem. Triad City Beat reported almost exactly two years ago that the creperie would add a shop on Trade Street, a few doors down from Finnigan’s Wake. But after trying for years to make the space work, particularly from a financial standpoint, Buzov said he realized it was time to give up.

The opportunity to open in Reynolda Village became a way to shift gears.

His experience on Trade is part of the reason Buzov is slightly reluctant to trumpet his plans for the restaurant near Wake Forest University. That’s understandable. But he said Monday that he intends to have plans for redrawing the kitchen to the Forsyth County Health Department later this week, and said he’s hopeful that things will move smoothly.

We don’t typically post on new restaurants opening, at least until they actually serve their first meal. But Penny Path is different.

For almost five years, Buzov has held down an unlikely business in a relatively small storefront in downtown High Point. That part of the city is dead for almost 50 weeks a year — every week except for High Point Furniture Market — yet Penny Path remains busy. Even

Triaditude Adjustment

Shot in the Triad

Crossword

CULTURE Creperie planned for Reynolda Village

by Eric Ginsburg

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(336) 723-7239

breakfastofcourse.com

Penny Path Cafe serves a variety of crepes, ranging from sweet (like this one) to savory, like the Kitchen Sink.

ERIC GINSBURG

that space, Buzov intends to stretch his legs on the menu, though the unofficial downtown of the Third City is actually offering various specials including meat, soups and salads as Uptowne, where Brown Truck Brewery is located, the creperie well as German food and potentially cold cuts as well. remains full despite a lack of foot traffic or active storefronts Penny Path will, no doubt, be a huge hit with Wake Forest nearby. students. But it also fits well with the changing culinary landTo survive there is nothing short of Herculean, and says all you need to know about the quality of the restaurant’s scape of the shopping center by Reynolda House, including a rebooted Silo Bistro & Bar and the product. And Buzov is one of the incredible May Way Dumplings (as only restaurant owners around who well as the more generic Village Tavwill go on tangents describing his Visit the existing Penny Path Café ern chain). Dioli’s fit well with that mission to pay people a comfortable salary, focusing more on his ambismorgasbord too, but in its absence, & Crepe Shop at 104 Martin Luther Penny Path is an excellent addition tions for his team than padding his King Jr. Drive (HP) and keep an to the complex. own ego or accomplishments. He’s eye out for the planned creperie in For those unfamiliar, the location not there yet, but this expansion is Reynolda Village at 2201 Reynolda also boasts a relaxing patio by the hopefully a step on that path, he main entrance, and faces Reynolda said.

Road (W-S), or find it on Facebook.

Road, not far from Silas Creek ParkPeople, myself included, are willing to travel to High Point just way. The Winston-Salem iteration will bear the same name as the first – Penny Path Café & for Buzov’s crepes, which range from sweet to savory and light Crepe Shop. to filling. He won’t be the only business focused on crepes in If the Reynolda Village location is popular enough, Buzov Winston-Salem — there’s also the pink La Vie en Rose food could look to open a third restaurant, this time in Greensboro. truck — but he’ll be the prime brick & mortar destination.

Which is to say that plenty of people in the Gate City are And while Buzov could expand the High Point business’ counting on the kids of Wake Forest gaining that Freshman 15, footprint based on existing customer demand, the Reynolda Village location will outsize its High Peezy counterpart. With and then some.

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Kat loves red wine, Milan Kundera, and the Shins. She wears scarves at katbodrie.com.

Up Front

cop with unfinished business. A dead clown who just wanted to be funny.

Several clowns that murder. And a

by Kat Bodrie singing clown who can’t bear to bury his 37-year-old cat so he puts it in the freezer.

Clown Bar, produced by Spirit Gum Theatre of Winston-Salem, had three encore performances at Gatsby’s Pub last weekend. It was popular for good reason; not only did a $15 ticket come with a drink — the choice of well liquor, draft beer or wine — it was an immersive show, where actors performed amidst the audience rather than on a stage.

Before the show started at the Burke Street corner bar in Winston-Salem, Dusty, played by Mark Flora, shuffled around the room greeting theatergoers in a squeaky voice. Then his first song began.

“Welcome, welcome,” he sang in a smooth baritone as he strolled through the room.

“You’re not welcome,” he sang, pointing a finger into one man’s face. As an aside, he whispered into the mic, “No, it’s great that you’re here. Thanks for seeing the KAT BODRIE Happy and Blinky, played by Alex Stone and Britt Cannino Stone, have a tense reunion during the play Clown Bar at show.”

Gatsby’s Pub. Alex Stone, who played police protagonist Happy Mahoney, said some people had a “deer in headlights” look because of the atypical format of the play.

Pick of the Week I hadn’t experienced immersive theater before, but it was fun to constantly look around to keep up with the story. A few of the characters even ordered drinks from Seafood festival @ Meridian Restaurant (W-S) Saturday, noon the bar.

This family-friendly annual event includes live music, beer and dozens of seaI also didn’t know when someone food options. The full bar will be available inside the classy restaurant, and there was going to walk through one of will also be a kids area with various activities. For more information, visit the Visit Gatsby’s Pub at 1157 Burke the doors and try to kill another Facebook event page. character with a tiny cap gun.

St. (W-S) and find Spirit Gum

By Aug. 5 — the final night — Theatre at spiritgumtheatre.com some audience members like Teresa or on Facebook. Catch Bunker Breakey had seen the show already.

Dogs Improv’s next show on Aug. “When I came Friday, I felt like just observing, but on Saturday 12 at 8 p.m. at the Winston-Salem I felt like I was really part of the Theater Alliance. [clown] bar,” Breakey said.

A comedic actress at Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville since 2002, Breakey described Spirit Gum Theatre’s plays as “avant garde, but not corny.”

Several of the cast members are also part of Bunker Dogs Improv, a group native to Winston-Salem, which helped explain at least some of the ad-libbed lines.

Gatsby’s Pub, a small dive, gave the play an intimate and authentic feel. Next time I go, I’ll remember the moment Happy held Dusty at gunpoint, saying he would bury his cat for him.

triad-city-beat.com

A

Clowns rule at Gatsby’s Pub

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August 10 – 16, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

18

CULTURE After success, Lucinda Williams keeps seeking the truth

“

by Spencer KM Brown

It comes out of nowhere, really,” Lucinda Williams said, talking about her songwriting process. “As simple as a passing thought, an image.

But I have to write it down, and that’s where it starts. I never leave the house without a pen and notepad.”

There is a simplicity to her music, a bare-boned, almost hauntingly empty sound that draws the listener in.

But those simple songs hold in them lifetimes of experience, pain and loneliness, which laid the groundwork in reshaping country and rock songwriting after her breakout, self-titled third album Lucinda Williams was released in 1988. Carrying with them a soft-toned ambiance, Williams’ lyrics and music have the ability to suddenly take you into another realm, showing you the dark underbelly of humanity.

Williams spoke to Triad City Beat from the kitchen of her Indiana home, where, moments before, she had been writing while working through a day of interviews.

“I’m working with this new song I wrote for a dear friend of mine,” Williams said. “I thought it was done but woke up this morning and realized it wasn’t. She won’t be with us much longer, and I want to finish it for her to hear.”

Extracting moments of her life has been the guiding line in Williams’ writing.

“Autobiographical, that’s the only way to write,” Williams said. “I never saw the point in writing fluff songs, or dancing around things. Get to the marrow of things, get to the truth of it.

That’s the only way I know how to write songs. I don’t have any set schedule. I love writing in my kitchen, early in the mornings before the world catches up

Pick of the Week Guns N’ Roses @ BB&T Field (W-S), Friday, 6:30 p.m.

Guns N’ Roses are still rocking, and you can see them take over the gridiron on their Not In This Lifetime tour. Classic members Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan are all still in the band for your nostalgia-fueled enjoyment. For information, visit gunsnroses.com.

with me.”

And if the darker, grittier and more sexual side of songwriting seems perfectly fitting for this hybrid form of country and rock music, it’s only because Williams was among the pioneers in the field.

“I look at music as almost writing in a journal,” Williams said. “I used to write in a diary as a kid and I was always worried about not keeping a journal.

About forgetting moments that happened. And as I got older and started writing songs and stuff, I quit doing that. And I talked with my dad one time and told him I was worried about not writing a journal, and he said, ‘Honey, don’t worry about it. You’re a songwriter. That is your journal.’”

And it was the insight of her father, poet and professor Miller Williams, whose influence on her would set Williams on her course in music and exploring the gritty, harrowing, human side of art.

“Growing up with my dad and DAVID MCCLISTER Lucinda Williams is currently on tour to support her 13th studio album, around all of those poets and The Ghosts of Highway 20. writers, I think it had a major more bare-boned standards. Like a poet, Williams genius is in impact on me from an early age,” her ability to hold an idea or subject in her hands and turn it Williams said. “Writers can’t get away with not getting to the around, examining it from all sides, leaving nothing out. There meat of their work, to the stuff no one wants to talk about. are moments of such gut-wrenching sorrow blended with And songwriters can get away without doing it. They can write angelic melodies that one is simply forced to follow along the fluffy, cute songs. But that never interested me. If you’re not path she guides the listener down. telling the truth, then what’s the point, you know?”

Such genius is what brought Williams out of the pits of As a child, Lucinda Williams moved around the country struggling to survive as a musician in the late ’70s as she constantly as her father took on different jobs, mostly in the began, and into the realm of prominence where only an elite South. Themes of travel, loneliness, loss and restlessness have few are summoned, though her path to success has certainly become a staple in her music; these same themes are what been a long and trying journey. To go along with her myriad of led to the production of her 13th studio album The Ghosts of awards and achievements, Williams was most recently named Highway 20, released in 2016. one of the 100 greatest country artists of all time by Rolling “Ghosts was probably the most effortless album I’ve writStone. But despite such levels of success ten,” Williams said. “I had all the songs and fame, Williams has always placed written and ready to go and brought her fidelity to an artistic vision ahead of them to the studio, but then when we Lucinda Williams performs conventional success. were all in there, it sort of just took on a on Friday at SECCA (W-S).

“The way my mind works is more like shape of its own. We started to groove a poet,” Williams said. “I’m on stage and and I went with it. It was one of the best For tickets and more info, perform in front of people, but when it experiences I’ve had recording.” visit secca.org. comes to the writing, I’m coming from Williams’ albums span a vast arthe point of view of the artist. The view ray of genres and musical expression, that this is my self-expression and who most often falling somewhere in the I am. I come from there first, and then everything else comes categories of Americana, country and folk. And as she has way after. The art must be honest, it must be gritty and real. grown as an artist throughout her 35-year career, there is a And that’s why I’m still doing this after all these years.” simplicity and haunting emptiness that weaves itself close to her songs; while also playing within genres, Williams albums serve as moments of departure, moving from pop to rock to

W

News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad

Pick of the Week Bring your own piece to paint @ Total Bliss (GSO), Saturday, 10 a.m.

Bring your own piece of furniture or accessory to paint and transform into a personalized work of art with help from the crew at Total Bliss. For more information, visit totalblissonline.com.

Triaditude Adjustment

character — stole her heart. Hot-pink, blue and subtle purple accents outline the fictional superhero’s otherwise shadowy representation.

Another piece depicts the pop star Rihanna.

“They’re very colorful and bright and aren’t an exact depiction of the images you see,” Leonard said. “[McCarthy] adds a little more nuance and lots of layers of color, so even if you didn’t know who [the portraits] are [the piece] would still be interesting. You don’t see Rihanna first, you see [the whole]

Up Front

hile working through a dilemma with one of his students around the end of the 2016 school year, Steve McCarthy encountered a new area of exploration that would alter the trajectory of his visual-arts career.

McCarthy, an art teacher for more than two decades who is currently assigned to Parkland High School in Winston-Salem, developed a new and versatile process that applies principles derived from the wax-resist technique that he is calling “pastel resist.” McCarthy’s method involves crayon or oil pastel overlaid with acrylic, latex and enamel paints. Once dried, the top layer of paints is cut and removed, revealing a layer of color beneath.

“This process was a discovery,” McCarthy said. “We were trying to figure out why [the students] were having trouble getting the ink or tempera paint to scratch off, [and] I thought that instead of tempera paint [the students] used acrylic paint because I saw some sitting out. Acrylic is more plastic-y.”

His suspicion turned out to be incorrect — the student most likely didn’t color the area underneath as densely as necessary — but McCarthy began experiments that led to the development of his pastel-resist process. According to McCarthy, oil pastel resists acrylic, a water-based substance, which enables LAUREN BARBER him to cut and remove the acrylic top layer.

Michael Sullivan and his family explore Steve McCarthy’s exhibition at Sawtooth in downtown Winston-Salem.

“It turned out you could do some pretty cool stuff that way,” McCarthy said. “I think the process is as much on display creatively and the way you can do that and then realize it’s Rihanna.” here as the subject because it’s such a different process; I havis to think creatively; that’s one of the Michael Sullivan, who works with McCarthy at Parkland en’t seen it before.” things art can do for you.”

High, said he recognized and appreciated the complex layering On Aug. 4, McCarthy’s first solo exhibit debuted with a work McCarthy blends into his art pieces.

A door connects reception. The Art of Resistance: Explorations in Pastel and their classrooms and the two often share new projects with Acrylic explores a mix of pop-cultural iconography and repreone another. sentations of the natural world and is housed in the Sawtooth “I love the pop-culture [references] but I also love the School for Visual Art, a community art school that offers a layers,” Sullivan said. “If you look closely, there are different broad range of classes and workshops for all ages, along with [features] you can see that jump out. It’s a very time-consumexhibit space. ing process, and I love how it all comes together.”

McCarthy said iconic pop artists Andy Sullivan’s favorite piece is a flower-filled Warhol and Shepard Fairey inspire much silhouette of a maroon vase superimposed of his work, but most of his subject matter over a background of swirling peach and Visit McCarthy’s exhibit comes from his everyday life. mint tones because Sullivan knows how “I was thinking, Who in my lifetime has at Sawtooth School for many focused hours McCarthy spent whitbeen significant to me or significant in the Visual Arts, 251 N. Spruce tling away tiny incisions with his X-Acto broader context of my life?” McCarthy said.

St. (W-S) and learn more knife.

Last summer, his son took a photo of a Sullivan said The Art of Resistance is at sawtooth.org. newt while exploring a riverbed, and the also a story about the nature of the stuimage became the inspiration for a large dent-teacher relationship and the collabopastel-resist painting. McCarthy said the rative problem-solving it demands. piece kickstarted the motif of natural imagery in his pastel-re“Art is all about experimentation,” Sullivan said. “It’s a form sist work, such as a stoic heron in the foreground of bold blues of communication and a way to think creatively. I always tell and greens that captivated many guests at the reception. students… we need to have the book smarts but the future Michelle Merritt Leonard of Bethania loved the heron, problems that you’re going to face, you have to solve them but McCarthy’s “Black Widow” — a rendering of the Marvel

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CULTURE McCarthy method jumps from classroom to gallery

by Lauren Barber

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August 10 – 16, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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SPORTSBALL

Poetry basketball assists kids through haikus and hoops

E

arly in the morning on the first Friday of August, little bustle came from the lofty expanse of UNCG’s Kaplan Center for Wellness. No one sized up a set of weights.

Nobody struggled across the bouldering walls, or tired on a

by Joel Sronce stairmaster like Sisyphus. Only the ripples from air-conditioning disturbed the water in the cavernous pool beyond the thick glass windows at the center’s end.

But from a tucked-away pair of activity courts — in quick bellows of guidance, banter and discipline — a poet’s voice echoed out through the empty halls.

“Get up on him! Gotta pass it! Keep your head up!”

Clement Mallory called to young competing players.

The morning of Aug. 4 marked the final day of Mallory’s Kids Poetry Basketball summer camp. Designed for girls and boys ages 4 to 13, Kids Poetry Basketball aspires to develop creative and critical thinking skills for its campers, as well as encourage self-confidence and a healthy lifestyle through physical play.

After a group breakfast and shoot-around starting at 8 a.m., Mallory ended the first hour of the day by facing off Team Metaphor and Team Simile. Before anyone could attempt a shot, their team needed to pass the ball to each of its players, spelling aloud words such as “tone,” “haiku,” “form” and “lyric” in the process.

Clement Mallory readies his campers for the next activity.

The final week of camp brought out 25 kids, including 17 from UNCG’s Center for New North Carolinians, The Brooklyn native has been a poet and a basketball a resource that helps newcomer populations bridge player for much of his life. Yet it wasn’t until watching cultural divides with existing communities in Greensthe NBA All-Star Game in 2010 that he realized how boro. Five other campers were from Greensboro Urban he could connect his seemingly disparate interests and Ministry’s Partnership Village, a transitional housing use them together to instruct others. facility for families resettling after experiencing home“I was watching the All-Star Game, and I saw the diflessness. This year, two members of Mallory’s staff live ferent activities being done,” Mallory said, referring to at Partnership Village, too. Thanks the 3-point contest, obstacle course to fundraising and scholarships, the other activities included in the camp had only one paying parent in Kids Poetry Basketball and NBA event. “I said to myself: ‘What its final week. holds two hour-long if, when a basket is made, instead of Though Kids Poetry Basketball has a number being shown as a point, a been around since 2010, this is the sessions at Partnerletter is turned around, and the first program’s first year at UNCG and ship Village on Aug. team to spell out their poetry word the Kaplan Center. Mallory hopes wins that game?’” the setting could add another level 10 and 17. More info at Mallory has now developed dozens of inspiration for the campers’ and kidspoetrybasketball. of activities that bring together their futures. poetry and basketball on the court.

“Bringing the kids to a college com.

He hopes the diversity of his activities campus, it’s cool because this is a can help reach all the young minds at literary program,” Mallory said. “It’s his camp. sort of like a miniature tour.”

“One of the aspects of Kids Poetry Basketball is As the morning continued, Mallory stood at center being patient… and understanding that every child has court, holding a basketball and bouncing it occaa different learning ability,” he said. sionally as the kids collected their poetry folders and Sometimes Mallory and his staff must overcome a gathered around him. He began to beatbox, swaying language barrier as well. and rocking to his own rhythm as he held out his hand “Last year [some campers] were really teaching us from kid to kid. Each camper recited the definition of a some Arabic, like for real,” Mallory explained, adding: different poetry word that Mallory had assigned at the “I was hoping they wasn’t cursing me out.” beginning of the week — “stanza,” “theme,” “poetry,” Before a medal ceremony to wrap up the final day, “symbol” and more. As soon as a camper finished, Mallory had one more basketball skill to teach his Mallory swung his finger to the next, never breaking young campers. the beatbox or stopping his bop to the rhythm.

JOEL SRONCE

He addressed the kids: “Alright, the first basketball move we learned was…?”

“Jump shot!” they called back.

“And the second basketball move we learned was…?”

“Layup!”

“The third basketball move we didn’t learn ’cause y’all had to run suicides,” Mallory reminded them.

But now they learned the skill: Hook shot.

As the kids practiced the difficult maneuver and then returned to their folders to identify and label drawings of players completing a jump shot, layup or hook shot, Mallory stepped out to pick up pizzas.

The Kaplan Center hummed a little more now in the late morning. As Mallory exited, gym-goers glanced his way, curious about the origin of the distant commotion, the odd and delightful confluence of kids, poetry and basketball.

Pick of the Week NCBA Golden Spikes tryouts @ NC Baseball Academy (GSO), Aug. 13, 3 p.m.

The NC Baseball Academy holds tryouts for the Golden Spikes college prospect teams. Ballers who make the team will have the opportunity to play in front of college coaches and professional scouts.

For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

‘Schooled’ no, I’m not ready for back to school.

by Matt Jones Across

Tuesday Live music with Piedmont Old Time Society Old Time music and Bluegrass 7:30 Wednesday Live music with J Timber and Joel Henry with special guests 8:30

Thursday Joymongers Band aka Levon Zevon aka Average Height Band 8:30pm Friday, Saturday, Sunday BEER

Cover Story

joymongers.com | 336-763-5255 576 N. Eugene St. | Greensboro

EVENTS

Culture

1 Perfectly 2 Make upset 3 Fake Kazakh 4 Luxury hotel chain 5 Weak conditions 6 Letters on an envelope addressed to a company 7 Bakery sackful 8 ___ and feather 9 Report cards’ stats 10 “Everything Now” group ___ Fire 11 “The Wizard of Oz” scarecrow portrayer

Monday Geeks Who Drink Pub Quiz 7:30

Opinion

Down

12 “Uh...possibly...”

13 Rag on 18 Team Carmelo Anthony was drafted into in 2003 20 Aziz of “Parks and Recreation” 24 Louvre Pyramid architect 26 “Monsters, ___” 27 Ruby of “Do the Right Thing” 29 Shenzi in “The Lion King,” e.g.

31 Island “where America’s day begins” 33 Actor Idris of 2017’s “The Dark Tower” 34 Camp out in the elements 35 Low-cal Cadbury-Schweppes drink 39 “Don’t touch this wall!” sign 40 First compass point clockwise from N (on a 16-point compass) 41 Taco Bell’s parent company ___! Brands, Inc. 43 ___ Paulo (Brazil’s most populous state) 44 Dictionary cross-reference phrase 45 Doted on Doctor Who or Dothraki, maybe, with “out” 46 When some kids’ bedtimes are set 47 “Imagine” songwriter 52 He sang about Bennie and Daniel 54 Pennywise, for one 55 Bandleader Shaw 57 Reprehensible 59 It’s never mine alone 60 L.A. rock club Whisky a ___ 61 Young ___ (kids) 63 Eerie sighting

News

49 President pro ___ 50 Summer in the citÈ?

51 Tool before down or cakes 53 Highlight reel segment 56 Dragging feeling 58 Spaghetti sauce brand you can only get in one place?

62 Megastore for all your ballet accessory needs?

64 Skin softener (“or else it gets the hose again”) 65 Compound with a hydroxyl group 66 Too close ___ comfort 67 Moves around in a Newton’s cradle 68 Contradict 69 Clip-___ (some pinchy earrings) 70 ___ a customer

Up Front

1 Indian drum 6 Toward the back of an airplane 9 Poison dart frog in “Rio 2” played by Kristin Chenoweth 13 “Please continue” 14 OMG or LOL 15 ___ rock (genre for Emerson, Lake & Palmer) 16 “Ditto!”

17 Activist org. that can’t decide?

19 Soccer team whose players are scarecrows?

21 Smartphone bill info 22 Basketball announcer’s phrase 23 D&D or FFXV, e.g.

25 ___ Plaines, Illinois 26 Chemistry suffix 28 PokÈmon protagonist Ketchum 30 “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” author Dave 32 Fail to ever mention God in France?

36 Green with the clean version “Forget You” 37 Outdoor sporting gear chain 38 Orangey-brown, like some port 42 Food list with amortized appetizers and beveraged buyouts?

45 Classic 1981 Galaxian follow-up with tractor beams 48 Devoured

SPREADING JOY ONE PINT AT A TIME

triad-city-beat.com

CROSSWORD

Wednesday, August 9 @ 8pm

The Ladles

Open Mic Night

Friday, August 11 @ 8pm

Sportsball

Thursday, August 10 @ 8pm

One Love Show

Answers from previous publication.

Saturday, August 12 @ 8pm Monday, August 14 @ 7pm

Movie Nite

Crossword

Chris Hedrick

Tuesday, August 15 @ 8pm

Alyssa Walker

Russ Thompson

©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com)

(336) 698-3888

Triaditude Adjustment

602 S Elam Ave • Greensboro

Shot in the Triad

Wednesday, August 16 @ 8pm

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August 10 – 16, 2017

Westgate Drive, Greensboro

Triaditude Adjustment

Shot in the Triad

Crossword

Sportsball

Culture

Cover Story

Opinion

News

Up Front

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

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Jade Maturino performs father-daughter dance with Jorge at her Quinceañera.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

My practical bucket list

At the Vineyard you can come as you are and be yourself.

News

Whatever your thoughts about church, whatever your beliefs about God … you are welcome here.

Up Front

I

Opinion

gatecityvineyard.com

336.323.1288

Cover Story

204 S. Westgate Dr., Greensboro

Culture

Take charge of your mind, body and spirit

Crossword

Test pH balance, allergies, hormones Balance diet, lifestyle and emotions Create a personalized health and nutrition plan

Sportsball Shot in the Triad

(336) 456-4743

3723 West Market Street, Unit–B, Greensboro, NC 27403 jillclarey3@gmail.com www.thenaturalpathwithjillclarey.com

Triaditude Adjustment

’ve been thinking about when we’re all piled up on the couch in the living room death a lot lately. watching a movie.

That’s because three I don’t even care if it’s the 18th time I’ve seen a particular “Shark Week” episode. I delight in our legs people whom I’ve known at wrapped around each other like linguini. Our heads different times of my life died earlier this year. are pressed close as pancakes. We’re so close in those All of them passed away very moments that even our breathing is synchronized. unexpectedly, leaving their Friends who have lost spouses say one of the things

by Tina Firesheets they miss the most are all the little inside jokes they loved ones bewildered and used to share. Jokes that make no sense to anyone else, completely lost. And all of them were younger than I. These weren’t people that I knew terribly well. I but that will have you laughing so hard your eyes water didn’t even see them regularly. I hadn’t seen one of and your belly hurts. them since high school, more than 20 years ago. The We have those moments. Sometimes it’s just the other — a former colleague and fellow journalist — I way we say a certain word that will incite hysteric shrieks. It makes no sense to anyone but us. saw only in bylines and on social media. But my These are the moments I want to collect in my friend’s wife — I had seen her before the holidays, bucket. about a month before she passed away from a rare form of ovarian cancer.

Of course, I have dreams of our traveling to Europe The thing that I can’t stop thinking together or of celebrating our son’s about is that their families had so little engagement in our backyard. My People always talk husband frequently says I’m always time to prepare for their absence in somewhere else. Somewhere in their lives. Some of them didn’t get one about bucket lists... the future, thinking about what last date or one more phone call. Or but I think what I we should be doing or where we one more normal, very real, everyday kind of moment. The kind of moment should be going next. He’s right. I want is more atwhere you’re going about your day as do struggle with being present and tainable. I want as usual, and they do something that in the moment. I like to think that I completely annoys the heck out of you many real moments am ambitious or a good planner. But I realize that when I’m not present, and you wish that that one thing were with my family as I’m missing those real moments. I’m different about them. missing those nonverbal cues that tell They were just — gone. we can have. me what they’re feeling. I’m trying to People always talk about bucket work on it. lists. Things they want to do before The other side of the conversation around death is they die. often about regrets. Perhaps I would regret not seeing Things like climb Machu Picchu or see the Grand more of the world or having more money in savings.

Canyon. Travel the world or jump out of an airplane.

One thing is for certain, though — I don’t want to Maybe it’s to see the great masterpieces of the world regret that I didn’t spend more time with my family. I or beat Serena Williams at tennis.

What is it they say — “YOLO” — you only live once? don’t want them to ever doubt my love for them.

So my bucket list looks like this: So do it already.

Sunday brunches at home.

But I don’t know.

Family movie nights and board games.

Sure, it would nice to be able to return to Hawaii for a couple of months or to visit Tokyo again. Or eat my Cookouts in the backyard.

Bedtime stories. way through Italy.

Laughing until our bellies hurt.

But I think what I want is more attainable. I want as Over and over. And over. Again. many real moments with my family as we can have.

You only live once.

For as long as I can, I want to come home to my son, shouting, “Mommy!” and sounding completely thrilled to see me. Although at the end of the day, I struggle with wanting “me time,” I know I’ll miss his wanting me to lie down with him for just one more minute at bedtime.

For as long as I can, I want to watch how patiently my husband teaches him how to draw and read and catch fish.

I savor the way they feel and the way they smell, even when they’re being stinky boys. I am happiest

Gate City Vineyard is a modern, Christian church that exists to serve the community around us. Our desire is to help people of all ages and backgrounds grow in their understanding of God.

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TRIADITUDE ADJUSTMENT

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