TCB Aug. 17, 2017 — Back to School with Melissa Harris Perry

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point August 17 – 23, 2017 triad-city-beat.com

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Back to school with Melissa Harris-Perry (and why she loves Winston-Salem, too) PAGE 10

Quarry opens PAGE 7 New brewery PAGE 13 Guns N’ Roses PAGE 19

August 17 – 23, 2017

CITY LIFE August 17 – 23

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

The car

“If you’ve got any emotional attachment to the car,” I said to my boys, “make your peace with it now.”

From the

by Brian Clarey couches by the TV where they spend their summer days, they shrugged.

I had just agreed to accept $149 dollars for the crumbling husk of my 2004 Saturn L300 station wagon, the car that got us this far.

She was a beaut when we picked her up, brand new, off the showroom floor. We chose it because we knew we’d soon need to add a third car seat in the back, and our other car wouldn’t fit them. But we loved it for the six-disc CD changer and dropdown DVD screen.

Yeah, I know. But it was 2004.

Between the three of them, the kids must have vomited a couple dozen times in that back seat. Now, 13 years later, the back carpets wear a mosaic of stains that defy forensic examination. Somewhere in between, the kids grew up, the car got paid off and I drove it absolutely into the ground.

By the time I said goodbye, the leather driver’s seat suffered from psoriatic tears, its seat-warmer long disabled. There may have been some cigarette burns as well. After enduring years of coins being shoved into its DVD slot, the player broke. Once it began sucking from the car battery, I tore it out by the roots and flung it into the trash.

Its body resembled that of a mediocre prizefighter who stayed in the ring a decade too long, its front bumper hanging like a broken jaw below yellowed, hazy headlights. Its electrical system had the automotive equivalent of nerve damage; Its wheezy radiator I patched up with a fiberglass boat sealant, but still it always ran hot. And for the last few years, every time I got behind the wheel I wondered if it would be the last.

It was without a doubt the biggest piece of crap I have ever driven, and I once bought a truck from a bar.

Now’s the part where I pivot and say something sentimental about the car and its place in the history of our family or something. But I just can’t bring myself to do it.

I hated that car. But I’ll always remember it.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

I garden like a crazy person. There’s a bit of a joke among my staff and family that I move every single rock in my yard to a different location each spring because it just should be moved, not even because it has to be. I like change.

— Melissa Harris-Perry, in the Cover, page 10

BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com

PUBLISHER EMERITUS Allen Broach allen@triad-city-beat.com

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

SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green

1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 ART ART DIRECTOR Jorge Maturino jorge@triad-city-beat.com

SALES SALES/DIGITAL MARKETING SPECIALIST Regina Curry regina@triad-city-beat.com

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

CONTRIBUTORS Carolyn de Berry Kat Bodrie Spencer KM Brown

Cover photography of Melissa Harris-Perry by Ann Thuy Nguyen

jordan@triad-city-beat.com

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

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TCB IN A FLASH DAILY @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1.00. ©2017 Beat Media Inc.

Jelisa Castrodale Matt Jones Joel Sronce

by Eric Hairston

THURSDAY Public art block party @ Bellemeade Street (GSO), 6 p.m.

The city of Greensboro hosts a free block party featuring artist Daas as he uses two 80-foot walls as canvases. This event also features other local artists as they create their works of art. Food trucks will be on hand. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

Democracy for Sale @ Center for Design Innovation (W-S), 6:30 p.m.

The Winston-Salem Urban League hosts a screening of Democracy for Sale, a thought-provoking documentary about political spending in North Carolina. The documentary follows comedian Zach Galifianakis, as he sets out to find out where the money trail leads. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

FRIDAY Food Truck Friday @ Bailey Park (WS), 11:30 a.m.

Dozens of food trucks from all over the Triad come together to serve up some deliciousness. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

La La Land @ LeBauer Park (GSO), 6:30 p.m.

UNCG presents a free screening of the Oscar Award-winning film La La Land.

The film stars actors Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets. Food will be available for purchase from Ghassan’s and Noma Food & Co. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

SATURDAY African American Historical Tour @ Oakwood Cemetery (HP), 11 a.m.

This tour led by historian Phyllis Bridges features a walkthrough of Oakwood Cemetery, following the stories of High Point’s black settlers and former slaves.

For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

Tesla test drive @ SECCA (W-S), 10 a.m.

Test drive the award-winning Tesla Model X and the Model S. Participants will have the opportunity to learn about safety features and the benefits of owning an electric vehicle. For more information and to RSVP, visit tesla.com.

The Sandlot @ Bailey Park (W-S), 7 p.m.

A/perture Cinema presents a free screening of the film The Sandlot. A story of baseball and childhood adventure, it follows a group of young boys as they navigate childhood all while maintaining their love for the game of baseball. Food Freaks of NC and Bandito Burrito food trucks, Hoots brewery and RayLen Vineyards & Winery will be serving.

For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

Jarren Benton @ Blind Tiger (GSO), 8 p.m.

Hip-hop artist Jarren Benton comes to Greensboro on his Mink Coat Killa Tour, with special guest and local emcee Ed E. Ruger. For more information, visit theblindtiger.com.

Arts & Drafts @ Revolution Mill (GSO), 2 p.m.

What’s better than beer and art? Enjoy live music and craft beers from a variety of breweries around the Triad. Food will available for purchase from Taqueria El Azteca taco truck, Ghassan’s and Mike & Mike’s Italian Ices. For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

Eclipse viewing event @ Center City Park (GSO), Aug. 21, 1:30 p.m.

Hosted by March for Science, guests are invited to come experience a once in a lifetime event that is educational, exciting and fun. There will be live music and dozens of activities to enjoy all leading up to the event. For more information, visit march4sciencegso.wordpress.com.

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August 17 – 23, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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Verbatim: Matthew Masella, on the Charlottesville car-ramming attack

by Jordan Green Matthew Masella, a member of the International Socialist Organization in Greensboro, recounts what he experienced during the Charlottesville car-ramming attack that took the life of Heather Heyer and injured 19 others on Aug. 12. His comments were made at a vigil in Greensboro the following day.

As we moved down the street, we encountered many parked cars that were in the road stopped by the march. They were honking in support and getting out and cheering. Most were filming on their phones. We reached Fourth Street and Water [Street], and after a brief pause we decided to move up Fourth to return to Justice Park. It was a narrow street that had two parked cars on it, and as before their occupants and drivers were filming, some outside the vehicles.

I turned to the left of those vehicles and walked up onto the sidewalk along a brick wall. At this point I was surrounded by comrades, people I had known for a long time, as well as those I had just met. Our spirits were high, and we were chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets!” I was on that street corner yesterday.

There was a noise I did not recognize.

Some people were standing in between the parked cars, and I watched them be pulled under the wheels of that car as it smashed over them and on top of their bodies. They were run over and the car repeatedly ran over them. I could not see

where my partner was, and then I saw her rushing in to help, and, terrified that more was to come, I tried to hold her back to keep her safe. We then tried to administer aid, but I forgot everything I had learned about medicine and first aid. I had gauze in my backpack, and I had thought maybe we’d get beaten by the police or shot at or had teargas thrown at us, but not this.

And I saw the woman I’d met earlier, and I held gauze on her leg and shouted for medics. And when one came and took over I began looking for my comrades.

My partner was holding a woman’s hand while the medic continued to work. I lost track of the two others in my car I had driven with and was terrified they were hurt. I found comrades and we shouted at each other over the noise to organize and retreat safely. People shouted to clear the intersection, and the noise of the military trucks and fire trucks sounded. As my partner and I left, we moved through a wall of police officers just standing there not doing anything and looking like they wanted to clock out for the day.

When I close my eyes, I see the cars crushing human life. I couldn’t sleep last night. This attack wounded my heart and my mind. We were victims of a terrorist attack, and it stabbed straight into my heart. The wound it left in my psyche and my soul is painful, but it pales in comparison to the loss of the comrade and the injuries suffered by 19 others.

Outdoor concerts

by Eric Hairston swing about as they dance off the beat.

People packed Corpening Plaza to the brim last weekend as they waited to see the That carefree attitude is infectious.

The food is another perk of outdoor scheduled artist perform as part of Winshows. Each concert has its own assortment ston-Salem’s downtown music series. As I set up my folding seat and took my place in of food trucks to go along with the music, and it’s always better and cheaper than it the colorful assortment of camping chairs, the emcee announced that the show would would be at an indoor venue. I often start off with a traditional hot dog from my fabe beginning shortly. vorite truck, Boone Doggies, and may pick I don’t go to concerts very often and I didn’t know the night’s band ahead of time, up a taco or two from Taqueria Luciano, too. but as soon as they started playing, the I also love outdoor concerts because of smooth jazz of Vincent Crenshaw and his the sense of community. There’s nothing band Groveology put me at ease. like a cool night under stars listening to I’ve been to a bunch of concerts this music without the dilemma of assigned summer, braving the heat and sometimes the rain, but the atmosphere is what makes seating and ticket prices; just pull up a chair and relax. outdoor concerts fun. It doesn’t matter so This summer I spent most of my Fridays much who is playing — there will always be that couple or that one guy up front, dead and Saturdays outdoors at various concerts, and I have to say that it was all well worth it. center and putting on a show for the band by dancing their hearts out. Their arms

triad-city-beat.com

NEWS

Proposed charter school adds pressure against social services

by Jordan Green

News Opinion Cover Story

A proposed charter school in the new Gate City Station (left) would be across the street from the Greensboro Depot.

of the place itself. In the McDonald’s example, for instance, does the presence of a ‘play place’ on site just mean the offender cannot go on the premises of the McDonald’s itself, or does the 300foot radius also sweep across adjoining parcels, rendering them (or portions of them) off limits too.”

Markham ended his post by acknowledging that his analysis raised more questions than answers.

Reached by phone last week, he said he wasn’t sure if his analysis had changed since 2011, adding that he wanted to review a recent federal court decision to see if it clarifies the legal

Crossword Shot in the Triad

(336) 723-7239

breakfastofcourse.com

Triaditude Adjustment

He said he didn’t recall any discussion about whether the school might create impediments to registered sex offenders due to the state law.

“It doesn’t fall under planning; it comes from state law, so it’s hard to say,” Kirkman said. “There’s a question about what is a residency, and how do you measure? I’ve asked the legal department to look into it, and they’re researching it.”

The 300-foot restriction — which goes beyond residencies and might potentially affect access to the transit hub — was originally signed into law in 2008.

The statute reads: “It is unlawful for any such person required to register [as a sex offender] to knowingly be in any of the following locations:… within 300 feet of any place intended primarily for the use, care or supervision of minors if the place is located on the premises of a place which is not intended primarily for those purposes.”

Jamie Markham, an associate professor of public law and government at the UNC School of Government, analyzed the provision in a 2011 blog post, writing that it’s unclear “whether the 300-foot radius around the location within a place extends beyond the boundaries

Sportsball

because of children’s services].”

And unlike the more structured shelter program provided by Greensboro Urban Ministry, the winter emergency shelter program at the Interactive Resource Center by its very nature does not vet clients.

“It’s a system that’s built on the fact that there are life-threatening conditions if you have to stay outside,” said Kennedy, who is also an at-large candidate for Greensboro City Council. “There is no restriction when a person’s life is in danger.”

Kotis said he spoke to Planning Director Sue Schwartz about the matter, and that she assured him that there was no conflict because “the shelter was not part of a residency; it was an emergency shelter city thing.” (Although the Interactive Resource Center receives some funding from the city, it is organized as an independent nonprofit.) Schwartz could not be reached to confirm the conversation.

Mike Kirkman, the city’s zoning administrator, said he participated in a meeting with Schwartz and Kotis about the proposed charter school, adding that staff assured Kotis that the school would be compatible with the central business district zoning classification.

JORDAN GREEN

Culture

The city of Greensboro’s sale of the Dorothy Bardolph Building to developer Marty Kotis last year is already disrupting a social service corridor along a twoblock stretch of East Washington Street, with the potential for more far-reaching impact.

Kotis said he anticipates that a methadone clinic operated by Alcohol and Drug Services in the building will close in December, although he said he’s willing to offer the tenant some flexibility as he redevelops the building into a mixed-use complex with sections named Gate City Station and Gate City Candy Factory that features restaurants and retail, along with other tenants.

A possible charter school in the new Gate City Station similarly holds the potential to disrupt the Interactive Resource Center — an agency one block away that provides an array of services to people experiencing homelessness — because of restrictions placed on registered sex offenders under state law.

While the law is ambiguous, a restriction on registered sex offenders living within 1,000 feet of a school is one part of the concern. Another provision with potential repercussions is a rule prohibiting sex offenders from being within 300 feet of a facility that serves children within a larger complex — a definition that seems to fit the proposed charter school to a tee — although the application is ambiguous. Kotis’ new development is located directly across the street from the Greensboro Depot, the city’s public transportation hub and also a key transit resource for the Interactive Resource Center’s clients.

Michelle Kennedy, the center’s executive director, said it’s likely that registered sex offenders are among the people who stay at the facility when it functions as a winter emergency shelter.

That’s in part because the restrictions placed on sex offenders put them at risk of becoming homeless by making it difficult to hold down jobs and find places to live.

“That’s because there is no other place for them to stay,” Kennedy said.

“All of our other shelter options are too close to places [that are restricted

Up Front

Discussions about a potential charter school at the old Bardolph building add to concerns about the displacement of social services on the east side of downtown Greensboro.

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11:01 AM

Up Front

August 17 – 23, 2017

DWSP_Music17_TriadCityBeat_8-19-17.pdf

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SUMM ER O N L I B ER T Y SATURDAYS FROM 7-10 PM A T 6 T H & L IB E R TY

Culture

Cover Story

AUGUST 19 THE TILLS (Indie Rock)

Sportsball

Playing August 18 – 22

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Playing August 17 – 19 Friday Night Standup Presents

Standup Showcase

Crossword

8:30 p.m. Friday, August 18th. Tickets $10

--OTHER EVENTS & SCREENINGS--

Shot in the Triad

Board Game Night FEATURING ALL NEW GAMES!

7 p.m. Friday, August 18th. 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 19th. FREE ADMISSION

Triaditude Adjustment

TV CLUB: It’s Winter Baby! PENULTIMATE EPISODE OF THE YEAR 9 p.m. Sunday, August 20th. Free Admission with Drink Purchase!

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TV CLUB: Twin Peaks: The Return

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$3 buy in! Winners get CASH! 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, August 22

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Friday Night Standup Presents Open Mic 10 p.m. Friday, August 18th Family Improv 4 p.m. Saturday, August 19th. $6 Tickets!

Saturday Night Improv 8:30 p.m. & 10 pm. Saturday, August 19th. $10 tickets!

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meaning of the provision.

While characterizing discussions about the charter school as “preliminary,” Kotis said the location is one of the most compelling aspects of the concept.

“There’s only one downtown school currently — the Weaver School, which is 9-12 — this is a K-6,” he said. “The idea with this is that it would serve a population that normally doesn’t have access to a charter school, and transportation can be a difficult thing.

What’s appealing about it is that it’s within walking distance from east Greensboro and, two, the bus station.

That’s really compelling. We had the idea for a children’s district — if you know Church Street, it runs from this space to Kindermusik and then on to the [Greensboro] Children’s Museum.”

(Kindermusik International previously occupied the entirety of the building at 203 S. Church St., but downsized to about a third of the space, according to a 2014 Business Journal article.)

Kotis added that he’s not particularly concerned about whether his projects affect sex offenders.

“If you’re ranking groups, on my list they rank last,” he said, “along with human traffickers and rapists.”

Kennedy said it’s important for people to consider that under the law, a wide range of offenses can put someone on the sex offender registry.

“Anything from public urination to instances of two kids in high school having consensual sex if he is of age and she is not can land someone on the registry,” she said. “It’s not necessarily so cut and dry as heinous offenses against children or rape or things like that.”

Kotis raised the issue of the likely redevelopment of the adjacent News & Record property, suggesting that protecting sex offender’s rights could discourage corporations and other potential clients from buying in to the potentially transformative project.

He also defended the displacement of the methadone clinic and other social services from the former Bardolph building.

“From our standpoint, if we purchase a property with a group of leases and look at a kind of group of opportunities, in working through that we tell you a methadone clinic or ADS is not on the top of the list for co-tenancy, that may not be a compelling thing for trying to attract a Cheesecake Factory. It’s a little awkward. We think a free-standing location [for addicts] makes more sense.”

Kennedy said the debate over development on the eastern flank of downtown shouldn’t be framed as a choice between children and sex offenders.

“There’s a way to build development in downtown Greensboro that allows good development to happen while protecting the service sector,” she said.

As an example, Kennedy cited developer Andy Zimmerman’s recent purchase of a warehouse next door to the Interactive Resource Center, where he plans to lease space to a bike company and to visual and musical artists, according to a recent report in the Business Journal.

“Andy’s been working really hard with us to find out how we can coexist,” Kennedy said. “It would have been nice to have had the same experience with the neighbor to the right.”

SPREADING JOY ONE PINT AT A TIME

triad-city-beat.com

New regional park opens at repurposed quarry

by Jordan Green

Up Front News Monday Geeks Who Drink Pub Quiz 7:30 Tuesday Live music with Piedmont Old Time Society Old Time music and Bluegrass 7:30 Joel Henry with special guests 8:30

Opinion

Wednesday Live music with J Timber and Thursday Joymongers Band aka Levon Zevon aka Average Height Band 8:30pm

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

EVENTS

Wednesday, August 16 @ 8pm

Russ Thompson and Native Harrow Thursday, August 17 @ 8pm

Open Mic Night

Friday, August 18 @ 8pm

Love Consciousness Show Saturday, August 19 @ 8pm

Dave Cecil Band

Monday, August 21 @ 7pm

Movie Night

Crossword

Wednesday, August 23 @ 8pm

Pauline Pisano

Shot in the Triad

602 S Elam Ave • Greensboro

(336) 698-3888

Triaditude Adjustment

there to be built,” Councilman John Larson said. “The stone coming out of that quarry would be used as part of the development of that town. And that connection, then, to be able to take that hole and celebrate not only the natural environment of it, but to celebrate the construction of the town is a connection that I love to make.”

The new regional park, financed with $4 million in funds approved by voters in a 2014 bond referendum, adds 200 acres of parkland to the city. It also connects three neighborhoods and provides an additional destination in a developing network of greenways that link Waughtown Street to downtown. “[The park] is part of what will bring all of our city to you here in the southeast and connect you through the new trail that is now open all the way downtown and beyond around our city, making it easy for folks on foot, walking or bicycling,” Besse said.

Jake Easter, with the advocacy group Beers N Gears, was one of eight people — including a child 6 or 7 years old — who made the 30-minute bike ride from Krankies Coffee in downtown to the ribbon-cutting at Quarry Park.

“It’s a good ride,” he said. “It has challenging parts. We live in Winston-Salem; it’s steep. It was very enjoyable. There’s almost no interaction with cars. It’s all paved. It’s very accessible.”

Sportsball

“They used to run us out of here; they’d say, ‘You’ll step on one of those blasting caps,’” Walker recalled. “That didn’t do nothing but make us want to look for blasting caps. We used to have some good times. We didn’t have a playground; this was our playground.”

They leaned against a fence at the edge of the concrete overlook, gazing at the deep blue pool of water more than 50 feet below, and then beyond the expanse of trees to the downtown skyline protruding in the distance. Walker estimated that the lake might be 200 feet deep, recalling that the dump-trucks and loaders looked like toys from the edge of the pit when the quarry was in operation.

While the children found delight exploring the quarry, their parents complained.

“You can’t imagine how it was when they were blasting,” Morgan said.

“It would shake our house,” Walker added.

In addition to local dignitaries like former state legislator and city alderman Larry Womble, the ribbon-cutting drew a crowd that included children from Camp Hanes Hosiery who swarmed over a collection of bounce castles as well as cyclists and a couple people with yoga mats.

“The stone that was taken out of the quarry over here allowed that town over

Friday, Saturday, Sunday BEER

Culture

Virtually everyone who grew up in southeast Winston-Salem, it seems, has a story about the old Vulcan Materials Quarry, which wound down operations in the mid-1970s and was donated to the city in 1998.

Councilman James Taylor, who represents the Southeast Ward, came there with his dad when he was a youngster for a talk about “the birds and the bees.”

Over the years, the secret has gradually leaked out. During a ribbon-cutting to mark the opening of the new Quarry Park on Tuesday, Councilman Dan Besse admitted to “slipping past an open gate” to explore the site. And Recreation and Parks Director William Royston said on several occasions he would sneak out to the quarry to enjoy a quiet lunch.

After the ribbon-cutting, Tyrone Walker and Frederick Morgan, who grew up in the Morningside neighborhood, reminisced about sneaking in to play in the quarry in the early 1970s while it was still operating. Back then, a road wound into the pit from the west side and spiraled down to the deep end. There was a pond — where the boys pushed in small boulders to make cannonfire-like splashes — and a dilapidated metal shed they had to abandon one night during a downpour when they discovered the roof was half missing.

JORDAN GREEN

Cover Story

Visitors check out the new observation deck at Quarry Park during its grand opening on Tuesday.

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August 17 – 23, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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OPINION

EDITORIAL

Monumental mistakes The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. was billed as a protective action to defend a Confederate war memorial statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee, the man who almost but not quite turned the tide for an army that had declared war on the United States.

We as a country don’t generally build monuments to the people who shot at us. There is no memorial in New York City commemorating the brave hijackers who brought down the Twin Towers. There is nothing in Oklahoma City to lionize Timothy McVeigh. We don’t celebrate the U-boats that cruised our coastline during World War II. In Charlottesville, a genteel Southern city, residents voted in February to remove this statue and sell it, a far-too-late reckoning that nonetheless attempted to right the wrongs of previous generations.

Like a lot of Confederate monuments, this one went up in the 1920s, a silent enforcer of the Jim Crow system perpetrated in the South by government, media and other institutions. The next big wave of Confederate memorialism came during the Civil Rights Era of the 1960s. Anyone care to guess why?

The freaky alt-right white boys came to town to protect something the city had already collectively decided it no longer wanted nor needed. And everybody knows how that worked out.

This couldn’t happen in North Carolina, not because our people are more enlightened and civil than the Charlottesvillians upon whom this tragedy was visited. It couldn’t happen here because, by law, cities and counties are no longer allowed to decide for We don’t generally themselves if they want to keep their built monuments statues of traitors to the people who who took up arms against the US. shot at us.

It passed in 2015, with the benefit of votes from almost every state House Republican in Forsyth and Guilford Counties: Reps. John Blust, Debra Conrad, John Faircloth, Jon Hardister and Donny Lambeth.

Rep. Julia Howard had an excused absence that day.

And yet, a couple days after Charlottesville, a monument came down in Durham anyway, wrenched by activists off its pedestal and onto history’s scrap heap.

The lesson to the state legislature is the same one imparted by the people who erected these statues in the first place: The victors do not always get to write the history.

CITIZEN GREEN

To Amy Bell, on your 4th birthday Dear Amy Bell, I can’t believe you’re already 4 years old.

I remember the moment you emerged in the world, puffy eyed and no longer than my forearm.

The nurse at Women’s Hospital handed you to me and I held you

by Jordan Green against my bare chest.

You came into the world at midnight. When a hospital employee dropped in to ask us whether we wanted your date of birth recorded as Aug. 9 or Aug. 10, your mother and I were both too sleep-deprived and foggy-brained to properly cognate, and we opted for Aug. 9. Later, after realizing our error, we asked for a do-over and properly recorded your date of birth as Aug. 10. You were born at 12:00 a.m., which is the first minute on the clock, so the date is technically correct and also fitting that you came to us at the first moment of a new day.

We talked about you a lot before you were even conceived in your mother’s womb. We worried about whether we had the financial resources to feed, clothe, shelter and nurture you. Just as important, we worried about the world we were bringing you into.

In some ways, your very existence is improbable. Fifty years ago, it would have been against the law for your mother and I, a black woman and a white man, to be married. Speaking only for myself — your mom is smart enough to know better — I sometimes allowed myself to believe that we could construct a protective cocoon around you by cultivating relationships with other enlightened people in the small, progressive North Carolina city where we’ve made our home.

It’s impossible to explain this to you now, but the love your mother and I share was at one time the very thing that hateful people warned would happen if blacks and whites were allowed to live in the same neighborhoods, go to school and work together. What’s strange is that even as racism infects every part of our society, even the most conservative people we know seem to have no trouble with interracial marriage. All that is just to say that it’s easy for me to get lulled into a false sense of security.

We knew when you were born that fresh hatred and division were stirring in our country, but we wouldn’t have believed in a million years that a washed-up TV reality star spewing hatred towards immigrants, Muslims and women would be the president of our country. If we thought that our progressive urban bubble could be a post-racial utopia, we were sorely wrong. Shamefully, the world we are leaving to you seems to be replacing a shared ideal about equality under law in favor of tribal competition.

And yet I have no regrets.

You can’t imagine how much joy you’ve brought me and your mom. Your uncontained delight at simply being alive has taught me that the starting point for anything in life should be gratitude. Every day I marvel at some new marker in your development — an astute observation, a particularly clean and straight soccer-ball kick, your flawless vocal performance of the Simple Minds song your mom taught you.

Your total openness towards new people is a gift you should never abandon, even though it sometimes worries me, as when you were 2 years old and ran up and plopped down in the lap of the complete stranger sitting on a blanket in Reynolda Gardens in Winston-Salem. Another time, you spotted a little Latina girl in the Butterfly Garden at the Arboretum in Greensboro. You ran up to her and clasped her hand in yours. I didn’t know if the other girl’s mother would think it was an intrusion, and was relieved to find that she was delighted by your instant offer of friendship.

Like our last president, you are a person of mixed race.

When you get older, this duality may allow you to try out and discard, invent and play with identities, but it’s likely that when you start pre-K next month most of your teachers and peers will see you as a black girl. I worry sometimes that since you’re bigger than most of the kids your age that your exuberance may be mistaken for aggression and our white-dominated culture will define you as a threat. I want you to stick up for yourself and also treat others with respect.

Perhaps the greatest gift you’ve given me, Amy Bell, is that you’ve taught me that my actions make a difference.

If I want to teach you courage and compassion, I must first model those qualities through my own actions. A lot of people will tell you that you should be out for yourself, but I want you to never forget that we have an obligation to take care of each other.

It seems like just yesterday that you were born, but you’re going to be teaching me things that I can hardly imagine when you’re 13, and 18, and 25….

Love, Papa

Jordan with Amy Bell

CHERYL GREEN

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August 17 – 23, 2017

Back to school with Melissa Harris-Perry (and why she loves Winston-Salem, too)

Cover Story

by Eric Ginsburg

10

Melissa Harris-Perry raises chickens and grows vegetables and flowers in her yard, which is part of why she enjoys living in Winston-Salem.

ANN THUY NGUYEN

But when Melissa Harris-Perry returned to Wake Forest University — where she is now the Maya Angelou Presidential Chair, the director of the Pro Humanitate Institute, founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Center and more — she felt nervous just like she did as an undergrad student here two decades earlier.

“Benson, our student center, was built while I was here as an undergraduate,” Harris-Perry said, sitting in a meeting room of the Anna Julia Cooper Center on campus recently. “I was standing in Benson, getting my lunch, I don’t know, my first or second week back? And I just absolutely felt 18.”

When she turned and saw Randolph Childress — a former NBA player and Wake’s assistant basketball coach whose time as a Wake Forest student overlapped with her own — Harris-Perry freaked out.

Retelling the story, she jumped a little in her seat and shrieked. Laughing and saying that she “had more than a little crush” on Childress as a student, she said: “I didn’t actually scream, but that was the feeling I had inside me, like, Ahh! I could no more speak to Randolph Childress [then] than I could in [the 1990s].”

They’re both married now, and Harris-Perry has two kids, including a high schooler, but the experience of being back at Wake Forest University coupled with running into Childress — who played alongside Wake’s Tim Duncan and battled UNC’s Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace before going pro — transported her in time.

“That kind of wrinkle in time, that kind of folding in, is both really wonderful and really difficult to manage because Wake is the sort of place where nothing changes but everything is different,” Harris-Perry explained.

“There’s so many things that are just as they were.”

She learned from her father — a retired college professor — that at some point in everyone’s teaching career they need to move from the “hip, young professor” to the “distinguished, older professor” they are at retirement.

At some point, professors need to make the transition, Harris-Perry recounted, adding that “you don’t want to do it too soon because you know it seems like you’re putting on airs, but the really tragic thing is to do it too late and thinking you’re still the hip, young professor when you’re really not.”

When she returned to Wake Forest as a professor a couple years ago, Harris-Perry still thought of herself as the hip, young version. Nothing will make you feel like you’re 20 like being back on your undergrad campus, she

said, but standing in front of a class and realizing that her students were born around the time she graduated drove home the fact that the professional transition that her father spoke of was looming.

Harris-Perry still doesn’t consider herself the “old, distinguished professor” either. Her students call her “MHP” or “Prof MHP,” and despite her widespread acclaim, she doesn’t think twice about pausing an interview to welcome and help a stranger who walks into the Anna Julia Cooper Center on Reynolda Road.

Despite leaving MSNBC — a much longer story that’s been covered by the likes of the Washington Post and others — Harris-Perry still travels constantly. Gone are the predictable weekend trips up to New York for a big paycheck. In their place are regular trips for public lectures as a way to make up for some of the lost income.

But Harris-Perry relishes her time at home in Winston-Salem, and not just because her family — including her husband and Winston-Salem Urban League CEO James Perry, her mother, daughters and sister — lives here. She loves something that Winston-Salem affords her that other cities haven’t: land.

Her family lives on about two acres in the Washington Park neighborhood in southern Winston-Salem, and as soon as the weather allows each year — which Harris-Perry said means February — she’ll be outside digging in the dirt.

“I garden like a crazy person,” Harris-Perry said. “There’s a bit of a joke among my staff and family that I move every single rock in my yard to a different location each spring because it just should be moved, not even because it has to be. I like change.”

Last year she built a patio. At the beginning of the summer, she said she intended to move the whole thing this season, adding that she’s a regular fixture out in the yard with her wheelbarrow.

“No one talks to me while I’m out there,” she said, adding that it’s a nice reprieve. But that’s not the only reason she gardens.

“I was brought up Unitarian Universalist,” Harris-Perry said, “… and kind of our whole faith claim is rooted in nature.”

The resurrection of perennials is like how Unitarians know God is real, she said, adding: “There’s a great deal of faith associated with gardening.”

“You don’t want to get me started on this, because the lessons of the garden, when you have to really prune back things that are dead to get to the things that are good, the faith that’s related to something looking like there’s really nothing in the ground but really there is, being willing to tend a garden, or literally put s*** in a pile for a year and then have it turn into compost,” she continued. “You know, there’s all kinds of lessons from a garden for me that are real, and just sort of operate at a philosophical level that I appreciate, and that I just enjoy out there.”

Harris-Perry constructed a koi pond over spring break last year. She grows flowers including roses, sunflowers and azaleas as well as an abundance of food including tomatoes, eggplants, beans, potatoes, corn, yellow squash, zucchini, Brussels sprouts, cantaloupe, strawberries and

watermelon. She had kale, lettuce, spinach and collards recently too until her chickens — yes, she keeps chickens, too — tore everything but the kale to shreds.

Looking out over the yard recently, while kids played on a swing set and in the small pond and while family grilled and socialized nearby, Harris-Perry felt satisfied.

“This is what I’m going for,” she said. “In my twenties, I would’ve been like, Oh my god, get me out of here. But I’m in my forties now.”

Winston-Salem isn’t perfect, of course. But she said the only day of the week she wishes she lived in Washington, DC or New York is Sunday.

“I know the churches that I’d go to in those two cities,” she said, adding that she and her Catholic husband have struggled to find a church home locally that is progressive like the Unitarians but more racially diverse than the congregations they’ve tried.

As school starts again for the fall, Harris-Perry marks the beginning of her fourth academic year at Wake Forest. No doubt she isn’t as nervous as she was those first weeks in 2014. She’s settled into her role now and has no intention of leaving Wake on Winston-Salem, save for those frequent trips.

But whether she’s in the classroom, on the road with students (taking them around the country for Wake the Vote political education lessons or bringing them to New York as part of a journalism mentorship program), or in her garden, Harris-Perry will be getting her hands dirty, reveling in the opportunity to be digging in the weeds.

triad-city-beat.com

Melissa Harris-Perry’s résumé and endorsements amount to a staggering list. Ta-Nehisi Coates called her “America’s foremost public intellectual” back when she hosted the ‘Melissa Harris-Perry’ show on MSNBC. Since obtaining a PhD from Duke, she’s been on the faculty at the University of Chicago, Princeton and Tulane University. Harris-Perry is the editor-at-large at elle.com, she spoke at the Women’s March in Washington, DC and she’s interviewed Barack Obama, among countless other significant figures.

11

August 17 – 23, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball

I

t’s easy for some people to ignore the links between food and politics, but to do so would be a mistake.

That doesn’t mean that it’s advised to contemplate the oppression of the proletariat with every bite. But if you’re apt to forget about the connection between eating and politics, consider one of two events in Greensboro this week that draw a direct line from immigration and deportation to what’s on the menu.

This Wednesday, the city’s International Advisory Committee launches a quarterly “lunch & learn” event, this one exploring deportation and detention “with the goal to address the fear and concerns many immigrants are currently facing.”

While other local organizations host similar events on a buffet of subjects, the best part of the committee’s event is that it comes with free lunch. Featuring an immigration lawyer, a Greensboro police captain, a mental-health professional and local advocates, the noontime lunch at the Greensboro Public Library downtown is designed to give people an opportunity to hear about people affected by deportation proceedings and provides a platform to pose questions.

On Friday, the American Friends Service Committee (a Quaker-based nonprofit) and Trump-era social justice group Protect GSO host a solidarity dinner at San Miguel Restaurant & Bakery on Yanceyville Street.

According to an announcement for the event, sales at San Miguel plummeted after Immigration & Customs Enforcement detained three Greensboro men on their way to work in the massive parking lot in front of the store.

The groups report that sales nosedived

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90 percent the next day and remained at about 50 percent I’ve been searching fruitlessly for a Mexican or Latin Amerisince. can restaurant with a salsa bar. They’re in great supply in cities They’re calling for “a solidarity ‘eat-in’” as a way to help like Durham and Denver, but I hadn’t seen a single one until the immigrant-owned business — basically a cash-mob event San Miguel. Whether its hot sauce or taco toppings you need, where people turn out and shop en a small cart at the back’s got you masse. covered.

I went with a friend Monday night, The restaurant had run out of peering at the Mexican baked goods, carnitas when we arrived shortly Join the solidarity “eat-in” event ice cream and butchery before snagbefore the kitchen closed at 8 p.m. at San Miguel Restaurant & Bakery ging a seat towards the back, where (with the store staying open until 9), on Friday from 6 to 8 p.m. at 3017 San Miguel provides table service. but my friend ordered the spicy and Our server recommended the tortas enjoyable shrimp dish camarones a Yanceyville St. (GSO).

— massive sandwiches — and as an la diabla. San Miguel serves breakfast unashamed and long-time fan of too, including chilaquiles and hueHawaiian pizza, I picked the Torta vos rancheros, as well as Oaxacan Hawaiiana, which comes with beef, quesadillas, a vegetarian burrito and avocado and more in addition to the ceviche tostadas. obvious ham and You don’t have to join the “eat-in” from 6 to 8 p.m. on Fripineapple. day to support the restaurant and bakery, of course — they’ll This sandwich, no doubt need all the support they can get going forward, and likely all the whether you’re buying a pack of Coronas, a slab of meat, a bag others, arrived of cookie-like treats or some dine-in breakfast. And it isn’t just looking almost like San Miguel, either. I’ve heard several local, anecdotal stories a football, both beabout other immigrant-owned businesses — especially ones cause of the outside primarily frequented by immigrants — facing a downturn in color of the bread consumer demand because undocumented costumers are and the meal’s fearful of ICE. every massive, imposing That’s part of the reason I make such a point to highlight Good through 8/23/17 shape. A few salted immigrant-owned restaurants on a regular basis — even if Tuesday, fries rounded out you’re just reading for the best place to grab some Senegalese all day Monday – Thursday the dinner, which I thiebou djenne or a steaming bowl of pork cutlet udon, poliOrder online at pizzerialitaliano.net couldn’t finish but tics and food are colliding whether you realize it or not.

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JERUSALEM

Up Front Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

ust across the street from the Greensboro Coliseum, a tiny strip mall is slowly being converted into retail space. Big Dan’s Brew Shed moved here in May from its previous location off Highway 68, “with intentions to open a nanobrewery next door,” owner Dan Morgan said.

by Kat Bodrie Around the corner from Natty Greene’s Bunker on Gate City Boulevard and named for its address at 1111 Coliseum Boulevard, Leveneleven will operate a three-barrel system to brew and sell beer on site.

In contrast, Gibb’s Hundred uses a 15-barrel system, and Preyer and Joymongers use a 10-barrel system.

Given Morgan’s presence in the local homebrew industry and his propensity for helping his customers become award-winning brewers, the news is epic.

A brainchild of Morgan’s for more than two years, the planned 49-person taproom will have a neighborhood bar feel and offer four main taps: “Something light, dark, hoppy and something else,” Morgan said.

Initially, Morgan and brewer Derrick Flippin will focus on KAT BODRIE Award-winning brewer Derrick Flippin classic styles. Flippin honed his skills under Morgan’s tutelage pours his and Dan Morgan’s not-so-British golden. and won two bronze medals in the US Open Beer Championship last month, in addition to the coveted Ninkasi Award last of Big Dan’s Brew Shed, awaiting renovation of the adjacent year. space. Although Morgan received his federal license to open “I do Belgian beers and lagers really well, and Dan does a brewery in May, there’s still much to be done, like installing kölsch and German styles,” Flippin said. “Between my brewing plumbing and electrical outlets. ability and his, we can brew everything.”

“We’ve had the Morgan said Flippin has equipment for two “the best nose and the best months,” Flippin palate” for brewing.

Visit Big Dan’s Brew Shed at Recipes fRom the old city of said. “Approval Flippin currently makes 1113 Coliseum Blvd.

(GSO). from the city is a the duo’s recipes in his home drawn-out process, Leveneleven will open at 1111 kitchen. The most recent and we could have lineup included a delicious Coliseum Blvd. (GSO) later this to go through a smoked helles, a West Coast fall. Find them on Facebook. second review saison, an American-style later.” tripel and a not-so-British The pair intend golden that uses an experito open the brewery in late mental hop.

October or early November.

The small size of the brewery will give them the opportunity to “take a lot more chances as homebrewers than pro brewers,” and their connection to the homebrew supply store Kat loves red wine, Milan Kunmeans they have access to “stuff big breweries don’t,” like the dera, and the Shins. She wears hop in the British golden and exotic malts they don’t have to scarves at katbodrie.com. order in bulk, Morgan said.

There will also be a guest tap, and with Morgan’s connections to Four Saints, Joymongers, Wise Man and Gibb’s — havPick of the Week ing met many of them through the Brew Shed — the options are plenty.

Chef’s table @ Tessa Farm A brewery license prohibits the making of cider and mead to Fork (GSO), Aug. 21, 7:30 since they are considered wine, but Morgan said they will offer p.m. both on the menu “because not everybody likes beer, God Enjoy a night of surprises bless ‘em.” with Chef Caleb Smallwood Several food trucks have already expressed interest, and as he prepares a multiDINE IN CaTErING Morgan said there are “good delivery options” like Grub Pub, TO GO markET plaCE ple-course meal, featuring Jimmy John’s and Ghassan’s. They’ll also have bar snacks but “You Will Be Pleased” ingredients sourced from “still need to come up with the menu.” local farmers.

For more infor310 South Elm Street • Greensboro, NC 27401 Morgan hopes a restaurant will set up shop in one of the mation, visit the Facebook 336.279.7025 | Mon-Sat 11am-9pm | www.jerusalemarket.com still-empty storefronts nearby. event page.

Right now, most of the equipment sits in the back room

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J

Big Dan’s Brew Shed will open nanobrewery, taproom

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August 17 – 23, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

14

CULTURE 1970s Film Stock finds its wings with Birds

by Spencer KM Brown

W

ithout language, without the normal means of communication, especially when it comes to music, a world of expression can open up. The artist is forced to channel all he has to say with suddenly so little.

Without words in music, you are left with the marrow of the idea; the bareboned nature of sound that listeners are left to decipher on their own. Winston-Salem musician Eddie Garcia, who performs under the name 1970s Film Stock, examines such ideas in his latest record Birds, released on Aug. 11.

There is a lingering urgency, linked hand in hand with a mournful pensiveness that stretch across the seven songs of Garcia’s second album. Known for his unique use of effects pedals and intricately looped melodies, Garcia has created an iconoclastic sound, abandoning the ideas of norms when it comes to his music.

In the same vein as Garcia’s previous album, Birds is devoid of lyrics and backing instruments, but contains a congruent linear flow across the record. The title track opens the album like a preface of a novel, and melodies slowly building atop on another, sprinkling specifically placed riffs in the background like voices calling on a muse.

As the album progresses, a trapped feeling comes through the music, surfacing ever so gently. A yearning sensation of restlessness with nowhere to go. The songs build upon each other, not in any clear sense of the term, but rather like a meditation. One thought comes through the music, then branches off into another direction, and then another, until each melody has become its own branch from the same tree from which it came.

While the album opens with somewhat inspiring tracks, as if like a call to

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adventure, the songs only break against such a release, ebbing back with aptly named titles such as “We’re Not Going Anywhere” and “Walk Away.” Garcia uses his improvisatory talents for many of these songs, even when recording. The last couple tracks sit on their own as reclusive melodies, turning over a blend of shoegaze and ambient chords that — while sounding beautiful on the surface — contain punchy, dissonant notes that flash like alarms, holding the urgency in place.

Although Garcia has taken on an ambitious task of examining deep realms of experimental music, each song holds a build that the listener follows with hopeful ears, and yet each track only calms just as the storm is about to break, never fully releasing into the necessary pinnacle which was promised in the music.

Perhaps the fact that the album is only seven songs long saves its from slipping into the deadly realm of the boring and monotonous.

ALEX KLEIN 1970s Film Stock’s new album Birds was released Aug. 11.

The subtlety of each track becomes more and more like a concept album with haps thought was coming arrives only in a quiet, suppressed each listen. And although Garcia has broken these songs open, manner. It is a splendid examination of the sound and fury revealing the skeletal structure of each track or looming melothat begin as a simple notion, slowly exploding into a burst of dy, the meat and flavor arrive not with a great moment, but in flames. The ideas behind the music are accomplished without the subtle changes and shifts in melody, bringing the listener words, without driving rhythms and the variance of different full circle to a lonely meditation of sound. instruments.

The stir and churning sensations created at As simply and beautifully as the album the album’s start culminate in the final track, opens, so does it come to a fading end. Like To purchase Birds and “Victory Repeating.” While one guitar holds a great story arc, the album moves forward listen to more music, down the droning, looping riff, a wailing cry with subtle highs and lows, ending just as bursts from under the surface, like a being anxious and beautiful as it began, forcing visit 1970sfilmstock. coming up for a great life-giving breath. It is listeners to immediately press play on the bandcamp.com. a glimpse at the breaking free and flight that opening track once more. Ambitiously, Birds the album dances around for its entirety. It sets out to explore uncharted realms of calls back to previous songs and guitarwork, not smoothing music, and it accomplishes just that, with a simplicity that is the rough surface, but rather churning it even more. The longenough to call a listener to come and join in the expedition. ing to take flight remains present, even until the last notes, never fully spreading its wings, but bringing redemption just the same.

The beauty of Birds comes in a skeletal design of continuous building, while in the end, the direction the listener per-

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News Opinion Cover Story

and physical interventions are temporary, though. In September, Howard and Braddick will return with recommendations for the rest of the neighborhood using Mendenhall as a case study. In the meantime, planners are taking note of where and how often vehicles hit the experimental roadblocks and compliance with speed limits and street signage, but are also evaluating changes in community perception through a survey. Howard said they want to know if residents are talking with their neighbors more often, whether there are more front-lawn parties and whether the art is influencing residents’ sense of pride in their neighborhood.

Langlois and Keith are both optimistic about street art’s ability to bring neighbors together and signal College Hill’s self-determined identity to the rest of the city. “[The art] puts a little smile on people’s faces and makes the neighborhood recognizable,” Langlois said. “They think, Oh, people care around here, so maybe they’ll start caring about [our neighborhood], too.”

Up Front Culture

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For more information, visit the Facebook event page.

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or several years, members of the College Hill Neighborhood Association hoped to mitigate the unrelenting dangers of brazen collegiate drivers and unbothered trucks-drivers but if you’ve taken a recent stroll through the historic district, a sawed-in-half sailboat parked where Carr and Mendenhall streets meet may have come as a surprise.

And it isn’t awaiting a tune-up from an adoring owner –– it’s an interactive art installment with built-in seating and shade-providing sails, designed to help slow down speeding traffic.

“College Hill’s one of the weirdest districts in all of Greensboro,” James Keith, the neighborhood association president, said. “We have an historic district that is heavily impacted by two institutions of education — and that’s great — but [there are] a lot of people passing through day-to-day: Parking here, going to class and leaving. Everybody’s welcome here but slow the hell down.”

Keith said he and other community members want to reclaim neighborhood streets with a combination of physical interventions and quirky artwork they hope will slow motorists down while ANDREW HOWARD College Hill residents enjoy a new interactive art asserting a unique neighborhood identity. installation on Mendenhall St. on National Night Out. In late June, the city contracted with Team Better Block, a group of urban-planning experts, to residents who came out that night filled Langlois’ enormous provide tech services and big-picture ideas for tackling traffic sunflower sketch with canary yellow and peach petals and volume and compliance issues in collaboration with College a center mimicking a ladybug’s shell on a circular, purple Hill residents and city employees. Cofounder Andrew Howard background. According to Keith, Greensboro hasn’t passed and his colleague Jonathan Braddick met with the community an ordinance allowing street art — unlike High Point — so in mid-July when long-fermenting frustration gave way to volunteers used tempera paint on pavement. Though faded, dialogue and locally generated ideas. the sunflower is still visible at the intersection of Rankin and The humble forest-green sailboat was one of them. The Mendenhall. $100 craigslist.com purchase “We had neighbors come is parked right outside Keith’s over who’ve lived here forever front lawn. but we never knew [and] we Follow the College Hill Neighborhood Plan’s “Every morning, I wake up saw so many [city planning progress on collegehillneighborhoodplan. and the kids are sitting on my department] employees like wordpress.com and learn more about Team step [waiting for the school Jeff Sovich sitting in our street bus] and now they’re in the painting,” Keith said. “They Better Block on teambetterblock.com. boat,” Keith said. “How cool is were here, they were active, that? People are hanging out and that meant so much to where it would’ve just been a car; now it’s a sense of place.” us.”

Less-charming modifications like roadblocks that create In homage to the neighborhood’s history, Langlois painted chicanes are forged from recycled truck tires and are mobile, College Hill’s logo allowing for experimentation whereas old-school solutions inside the pergola like speed bumps are more costly and time-consuming to at Mendenhall implement and put significant wear on vehicles. and Walker, and “It’s kind of like Legos for the street,” Howard said. “Some stenciled blue jeans odd ingredients come together when traffic [concerns are] in two crosswalks being met with culture and community. [The process is] a mixreferencing the ture of homegrown ideas with the latest technology.” city’s denim-manBeth Langlois, a 23-year resident of College Hill, drew ufacturing compasketches for pavement art throughout the Mendenhall area, nies Wrangler and but not before testing paint on two parking spaces in front Cone, which have of her home. Her experimentation inspired other residents been in Greensboro to decorate spaces on Aug. 1, National Night Out, when the for more than a implementation team unveiled the changes in a celebration century. with food, music and street painting. Some of the 100 or so All pavement art

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CULTURE Residents reclaim busy College Hill street with art

by Lauren Barber

15

August 17 – 23, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

16

SPORTSBALL

The tireless unseen fuel the Winston-Salem Open

Y

ou kneel at the dividing line. The net offers little protection. It’s the dog days of August; the sun scalds the hardcourt, the kneeling mat, the back of your neck. He bounces the ball. Once. Twice.

Your knee slips in its own sweat.

by Joel Sronce Don’t look down.

The ball ascends, hovers, then it’s gone — 120, 130, 140 miles per hour. Did you see it? Don’t think; here comes the return. It hits the net. Get it. Run across to the other side.

You’re made for this role — limber, persistent and fit.

But you’re frightened, too. You’re only 12 years old.

Dozens will take the court next week during the Winston-Salem Open. Wake Forest hosts the seventh annual tournament that runs from Saturday through A young ball person stands ready for a pause in the match.

Aug. 26, and some of the world’s best players take part. Greensboro native and tournament favorite John begins. For the first training session on Aug 7, about 30 Isner returns after a few years away. Sam Querrey, kids are present. They had to be 12 years old by Aug 1, who defeated Andy Murray on his way to a Wimbledon and no one looks older than 16. semifinal in July, joins him, as do former Winston-SaThe trainers begin with the rules. lem Open champions Kevin Anderson and Pablo Six ball persons take the court for every game. They’re Carreño Busta. numbered 1 and 2 at the server’s line, 3 and 4 at the But among the professional players, about 80 others net, and 5 and 6 behind the far line. As soon as the will take the court with them, and you’ll never know server takes the court, ball-persons 1 and 2 “present,” their names. stretching one arm up and the other down, showing They’re indistinguishable, nearly invisible among the that each hand holds a ball. They both begin with three famous athletes. But they’re as essential as a NASCAR balls, and a server often signals for pit crew, or the below-deck rowers all three, checking each one’s fuzz propelling a grand ship. They’re and returning the least favorable. the tireless fuel that lets a tennis The Winston-Salem Open He places one in his pocket and tournament run. runs from Saturday to readies the other for a serve.

At Wake Forest’s Indoor Tennis CenAt the training session, skilled adult Aug. 26 at Wake Forest ter on Aug 7, the ball persons begin players — two pairs of women and to get ready.

University. More info at two pairs of men — fill the role of Being a ball person is a serious task. winstonsalemopen.com. the Open’s contestants. They take With volleys rocketing in at trementhe training seriously, playing at a dous speeds, anyone participating high speed and signaling for balls in the role risks serious injury. In orwhile remaining silent and expectant. der to prepare the young volunteers, the Open requires When a ball hits the net, Nos. 3 and 4 react, speeding them to attend three of the four 90-minute training to retrieve it and often switching sides. It’s better to sessions in the two weeks before the tournament grab the ball and run clear across the court than to skid to a stop and return to the same side. The person not collecting the ball must follow this movement with no hesitation, We’ll change your oil, not your radio station. switching if required.

The aspiring ball persons at the Indoor Tennis Center show incredible intensity. They sprint and 894 N. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101 scramble. They kneel on pads by the net with their hands on the ground like track sprinters in position.

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They watch with the seriousness of an altar boy, the attentiveness of a border collie.

Parents look on as the first training session begins to unveil the intensity of the tasks their children will face.

For one father, the magnitude of his daughters’ role isn’t cause for concern as much as a welcome opportunity.

Growing up in India, Umesh Raghavan had no chance to be a ball person or watch a tennis match from court-level. But in the United States, his twin 14-yearold girls are taking full advantage of the possibility.

Raghavan and his family moved to North Carolina from California a year ago, but not before his daughters had the chance to be ball persons at the Stanford Open just before their family’s move across the country. They now live in Waxhaw — more than 100 miles from Winston-Salem — but Raghavan will drive his daughters to each of the four training sessions, then again to their tournament assignments.

All three, father and daughters, are thrilled at the opportunity, he says.

“It becomes kind of a science, the way they present the balls, the towels, and how they rotate,” Raghavan says. “It’s not just about watching the players, but it builds self-discipline, too.”

Outside the center, workers assemble the grandstands for the courts where the Open will take place. Many kids in Winston-Salem and beyond await their upcoming days in the sun — if not their own moments of fame, then very much among it.

Pick of the Week Winston-Salem Open @ Wake Forest Tennis Complex (W-S), Saturday, noon This event features singles and doubles and is the final tournament in the nine-tournament series leading up to the US open. For more information, visit winstonsalemopen.com.

‘A Little Bit Country’ but only the very last bit.

by Matt Jones

60 Driving force 61 “Your Song” singer Ora 64 Country action star?

66 Wall mirror shape 67 Arthurian paradise 68 Literary tribute 69 Easter egg solutions 70 Give in 71 Ant. antonym

Answers from previous publication.

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

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26 Biblical tower site 27 “I Love It” band ___ Pop 28 Fender mishaps 30 “August: ___ County” 31 Tobias’s daughter on “Arrested Development” 32 Dials next to speedometers, for short 33 Kind of committee 34 Pressly of “My Name Is Earl” 36 Gone by, as time 37 Actor Efron of the “Baywatch” movie 38 “The Simpsons” disco guy

40 Tabloid topics 44 Antiquing material 45 Enhance 49 Burger chain magnate Ray 51 Century plant 52 Outspoken 53 Bracelet location, perhaps 55 Fundamental character 56 Fawning sycophant 57 “As You Like It” forest setting 59 Hardly open 61 Serling of “The Twilight Zone” 62 Poison ___ (Batman villain) 63 ___ kwon do 65 K+ or Na+, e.g.

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Down 1 “[X] ___ like ...” (picture-based meme) 2 Carne ___ nachos 3 Bath powders 4 Politician who might be the Zodiac Killer, per a 2016 mock conspiracy theory 5 Head doc 6 Have ___ over one’s head 7 Divine sustenance 8 Incited, with “on” 9 Spent, like a battery 10 Nod off 11 Coffee dispenser 12 “Full Frontal” host Samantha 13 Toothy tool 18 Breezed through 22 Actor Kinnear

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Across 1 Porkpie, e.g.

4 Joined (up) 10 Margarine containers 14 Gentle ___ lamb 15 Make really mad 16 Sector 17 Country kitchen implement?

19 Had a hunch 20 1800, in movie credits that didn’t exist back then 21 Really anxious 23 One who lessens the tension 24 Fidget spinners, for one 25 Like some fanbases 29 The Sklar Brothers, e.g.

31 Imperil 32 Blues guitarist ___ Mahal 35 Country actress with famous acting siblings?

39 Mathematician Lovelace et al.

41 Birthstone for Gemini 42 Caged (up) 43 Country baseball squad?

46 Part of UNLV 47 Show of respect 48 ___ it up (laugh) 50 Public display 51 “Middle of Nowhere” director DuVernay 54 Actress Garbo 58 Chinese New Year symbol

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An August afternoon at the Guilford College Farm.

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G

Staying home from Paradise City friend had started livestreaming one of the songs on Facebook. I reflexively looked around my apartment, mouthed a silent apology and pressed play.

Please don’t tell my mother.

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.

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collections. I never found out who passed a copy of that book to my own mother, but I’m sure it was someone at her church. I spent so many Sundays whispering accusations at the backs of their home-permed heads, and convincing myself that their after-church casseroles all tasted like betrayal.

ANYWAY, Appetite for Destruction wasn’t mentioned in Gore’s book but, because she couldn’t pick a different hobby like raising succulents or dusting her own butt, it had one of her Parental Advisory stickers just below the arrangement of skulls on its front cover. The day after I bought it, I came home from school, threw my backpack on the bed and pressed the play button on whatever tinny portable cassette player I had at the time. Nothing happened.

I pressed the eject button and discovered that my tape was gone. I wildly grabbed all of the cassettes that were stacked on my dresser and discovered that my mom had spent her morning raiding my entire collection. I lost Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard, Prince, the Beastie Boys — pretty much anything that wasn’t Billy Ocean, Alabama or the free tape that came in the glove box of a new Mercury Grand Marquis. (Worst of all, she took the tapes, but left their cases, like a T Rex that eats your dog but leaves its chewed collar beside the back door.)

I stomped into the family room, filled with as much rage as you could fit into a pair of Garanimals and saw that damn book, with a tasseled bookmark sticking out of its stupid pages. My music was ALREADY GONE and my mom HADN’T EVEN FINISHED READING IT. (Coincidentally, “Not In This Lifetime” is both the name of Guns N’ Roses’ current tour and what my mom said when I asked when I could get my tapes back.)

After a week of musical deprivation, my nextdoor neighbor and I figured out how to outsmart both mom and Tipper. If you put a piece of Scotch tape over the top of a cassette, you could record over it, so we copied a lot of what I lost onto innocuous looking albums from Eric Carmen and Billy Ocean. (GET OUT OF MY DREAMS, GET IN TO MY NIGHT TRAIN, SUCKERS.) I hid on the far side of my bed and listened to a lot of those DIY versions but, for some reason, playing Guns N’ Roses still seemed wrong. It felt too risky, like my mom — who is still borderline telepathic when it comes to my breaking the rules — would immediately materialize in the speakers like a Japanese movie demon.

That’s why it was almost two decades before I heard the full album, and I almost understand why mom and Tipper were so afraid of it. It still pulses with a dangerous kind of energy, like the best kind of rock music does. That’s why it’s still relevant, 30 years after its release, and why it still resonates with the 36,000 people who cupped their hands around their mouths to shout along with Axl last weekend.

About an hour into that concert, I saw that a

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uns N’ Roses rocked hard enough to soak the bandannas of 36,000 amateur Axl Roses.

It was the first rock concert at the BB&T Field in Winston-Salem since 1990 and, as a long-suffering Wake Forest

by Jelisa Castrodale football fan, I’m pretty sure it was the most coordinated display that has taken place on that field since... ever. While Axl, Duff and Slash were welcoming that enthusiastic crowd to the Jungle, taking them to Paradise City and holding candles in the cold November Rain, I was sitting at home, wishing that I’d gone. It wasn’t that I dreaded the traffic (I did) or thought that the tickets were out of my price range (they were), but mostly, I didn’t see Guns N’ Roses because I was terrified that my mother would find out.

Yeah. I’m thirty-whatever years old but, when it comes to that band, I’m still a wide-eyed elementary schooler whose mom says that they’re off limits. I’m not sure I owned my cassette copy of Appetite for Destruction for a full 24 hours before Mom — instructed by a former vice president’s wife — took it out of its case and deposited it in the garbage. As a result, I was in my mid-twenties before I heard it all the way through, from the opening riff of “Welcome to the Jungle” to the final drawn out “To know that I caaauhh-aaaa-uhhh-rree” of “Rocket Queen.”

I don’t blame my mom, though, because this is all Tipper Gore’s fault. Two years before Appetite appeared in record stores, Gore co-founded the Parents’ Music Resource Center, or PMRC, to frantically warn everyone’s folks that rock music was warping their children’s minds and — in her words — “searing powerful visual images into young brains.” She became convinced that guitars were what controlled our collective genitals after being scandalized by her own kid’s copy of Prince’s Purple Rain, so she decided to ruin music for everyone. Gore and several other senators’ wives proposed that any album with lyrics that were more suggestive than a Sunny Delight commercial needed to be marked with Parental Advisory sticker.

Those stickers became such a big deal that there was even a US Senate hearing to discuss the “Contents of Music and the Lyrics of Records,” and Frank Zappa, John Denver and Twisted Sister’s Dee Snyder all sat behind neatly printed nameplates, trying to explain to those senators why the stickers were problematic.

“Taken as a whole, the complete list of PMRC demands reads like an instruction manual for some sinister kind of toilet-training program to housebreak all composers and performers because of the lyrics of a few,” Zappa testified. “Ladies, how dare you?”

Yeah, how dare you? Two years later, after she got her way with those black-and-white Explicit Content stickers, Gore continued policing the ear canals of America’s youth by writing a book called Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society, which alerted parents to the additional dangers hidden in their kids’ cassette

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