TCB Sept. 21, 2017 — The Primary Election Guide

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point Sept. 21 – 27, 2017 triad-city-beat.com

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2017 Primary Election Guide PAGE 6

Everything you need to know to vote in the primary

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September 21 – 27, 2017

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK Even in its languid flaccidity, Gavin Glass’ penis is magnificent.

It’s not the star of the show in this collection of portraits — nude,

by Brian Clarey semi-nude and otherwise, a series by photographer Chad Perry, known professionally as eliQQN, now on display at the 512 Collective on High Point’s Washington Street — but here it is, dangling saucily in a row of yoga poses, and there it is again, in a Photoshop job, emerging from his mouth like a long tongue.

It’s not like everybody wasn’t warned.

“The back room is… definitely PG13,” Perry tells the crowd on the front lawn before the doors of the exhibit opened.

“But I’m gonna tell you to go to the back room on your way through. We’re pushing boundaries, people.”

The series itself is gloriously lit with a technique Perry calls “thin-wall lighting,” casting a strong shaft of light across a dark space and allowing Glass to play in its shadows. And when he came up with it a year or so ago, Perry says, he had Glass in mind.

This is a near-perfect collaboration.

Glass is a singular artist, known in

burlesque circles as Stage Slave Gavin, whose onstage antics with his Vaudeville After Dark troupe both tickle and titillate.

But the man himself is a work of art, from the cascade of curls in his sculpted beard to his style of dress — tonight for the reception, he’s wearing a multicolored, polka-dotted waistcoat with matching shorts and pale pink loafers — to his tanned, glabrous form that Perry has so masterfully captured in stark light, right down to his penis, which as I’ve mentioned is magnificent.

And in all of these shots, the beauty of his soul exudes through the shadows and light.

As they shuffle through the back room of the exhibit, some avert their eyes and others blush, but most take the scene in with due appreciation. The onlookers bottleneck near the entrance and then trickle out the rear door for the backyard party, which will include stilt-walkers and firedancers, and is about to begin.

Perry slips through this mass of people to put stickers on the pieces he’s already sold, five of them so far, all of them from the back room.

Portraits of Gavin Glass will be on display at 512 Collective through the end of October. See the Facebook event page for details.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

People like to say Disney World is the happiest place on Earth. I like to say DragonCon is because it’s the most accepting place on Earth. You can be anything, do anything, dress as anything — whatever; be whoever you want and nobody’s going to judge you as long as you don’t hurt anyone.

If there’s a part of you that you like to suppress, you can bring it out.

— Cosplayer Sarah, in Culture, page 20

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

triad-city-beat.com

All of Gavin

Help Triad City Beat editor Brian Clarey choose his next pair of glasses and win a pair for yourself!

Each voter will be entered to win a free pair of glasses from Oscar Oglethorpe Eyewear! On October 31st, we will award Brian his new specs, and announce the three lucky winners.

Cast your vote online or in-store at OscarOglethorpe.com | 226 South Elm Street

150

$ every day every pair

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

jordan@triad-city-beat.com

CONTRIBUTORS Lauren Barber Carolyn de Berry Spencer KM Brown

Cover illustration by Jorge Maturino Good bye Triad City Beat!

For my last issue here I thank you for the opportunity working as your art director. I wish you the best... except Ginsburg — I wish him only mediocre.

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

Matt Jones Amy Bell Green

226 S. Elm Street • Greensboro, NC • 336-333-2993 OscarOglethorpe.com

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September 21 – 27, 2017

CITY LIFE Sept. 21 – 27

by Lauren Barber

THURSDAY

Salon series panel discussion: Reclaimed cemeteries @ Delta Arts Center (W-S), 5:30 p.m.

The New Winston Museum and the Winston-Salem African-American Archive present the first of a three-part salon series, Lost, Found and Transformed: Our Storied Places in African-American History. This panel explores the histories of African-American cemeteries — Happy Hill, Oddfellows and Brooks — in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.

Enjoy light refreshments while UNCSA professor Rosemary Millar moderates the discussion with cemetery representatives Maurice Pitts Johnson, Deltra Bonner and Maxine John. Find the event on Facebook.

Student race relations forum @ RJ Reynolds High School (W-S), 6:30 p.m.

High school students from Forsyth County high schools discuss their perspectives on race relations during a panel discussion at the RJ Reynolds High School auditorium covering topics like their generation’s view toward racial attitudes and their personal experiences with race. The public is welcome to listen and participate in a question-and-answer period. Learn more at cityofws.org.

Chasing Coral @ Weatherspoon Art Museum Auditorium (GSO), 6:30 p.m.

This 90-minute documentary follows a team of sea divers and scientists as they investigate massive reef die-offs. Alex Dornburg, research curator of ichthyology at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences leads an informal post-screening discussion. Learn more at weatherspoon.uncg.edu.

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Best of 48-Hour Film Project @ HanesBrand Theatre (W-S), 7:30 p.m.

RiverRun International Film Festival presents encore screenings of this year’s 16 local award-winning short films from the 48-Hour Film Project competition, which challenges filmmakers of varied experience to create short films within a two-day weekend. Learn more at riverrunfilm.com.

FRIDAY

Beyond Imagination: An interactive public art experience @ Center for Design Innovation (W-S), 5:30 p.m.

Imagination Installations presents an interactive, multi-media art-immersion event, Beyond Imagination: Thinking Big Outside the Box, Dreaming Big Inside the Cube, that features a video depicting the development of a “dream seed” into a four-story tall Tree of Life, as well as paintings by local artists and a variety of media that integrates photographs of Winston-Salem’s past with locals’ community dreams collected over the past six years.

Within the 60-cubic-feet concrete building, attendees create, write and share their own dreams for Winston-Salem’s future. Learn more at imaginationinstallations.com.

Architects, artists and interior designers exhibit @ Double Oaks Bed & Breakfast (GSO), 6 p.m.

The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art hosts a showcase of North Carolina’s leading architects, artists, builders, furniture makers, ornamental plasterers, landscape architects and interior designers. Savor hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine catered by Josephine’s Catering Kitchen while the Aaron Matson Quintet (featuring Brandon Lee) performs a combination of modern jazz and jazz standards ranging from Duke Ellington and Lee Morgan to Christian McBride.

Learn more at double-oaks.com.

Moonlight Madness 5K & Fun Run @ Bailey Park (W-S), 7:30 p.m.

United Way of Forsyth County kicks off of its 2017 community campaign with this unique fundraising event set at dusk. Whether or not you participate in the one-mile fun run at 7:30 p.m. or the 5K at 8 p.m., this block party features a DJ, live music, food vendors, dancing and beer starting at 6:30 p.m. Arrive early for an opportunity to chat with United Way’s partner agencies about issues in our communities.

Learn more at moonlightmadness5k.com.

SATURDAY

25th annual Fiesta @ Fourth, Popular and Spruce streets (W-S), 11 a.m.

Winston-Salem’s Hispanic League celebrates the richness and diversity of Hispanic culture in the Triad. Entertainment includes a medley of Latin music and food, cultural programs, a children’s area, a beer and margarita garden and local artisans. Kick off festivities with the “Running of the Bulls Magnifico Mile” and Fun Run at 8 a.m. Learn more at hispanicleague.org.

West Salem Sidewalk Chalk Fest @ West Street along Granville Park (W-S), 1 p.m.

West Salem invites artists of all skill levels and ages to transform sidewalks into an open-air community gallery of chalk creations. The event includes chalk games in addition to a cakewalk and raffle, face-painting, kid crafts, music and food trucks. Chalk is provided. Find the event on Facebook.

Oktoberfest @ Wise Man Brewing (W-S), 2 p.m.

Wise Man Brewing hosts its first annual Oktoberfest celebration in conjunction with the Piedmont Wind Symphony. Urban Soil, Dangermuffin, Brother Bear Presents “3PC & a Biscuit,” and the Travers Brothership are also performing. Wise Man is offering throwback brews and releasing a special beer for the Travers Brothership. Boone Doggies, Food Freaks of NC and Goodtimes Bar-b-cue food trucks serve from distinctive German menus. Find the event on Facebook.

Project Shimmy world dance showcase @ Van Dyke Performance Space (GSO), 7:30 p.m.

Twisted Dance Collective presents Project Shimmy, an annual benefit performance for Triad Health Project, a local HIV/AIDS service organization.

Dance professionals from across North Carolina perform a wide array of world dances. Learn more and purchase tickets at twisteddance.com.

SUNDAY

Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride @ Select Cycle (GSO), 11 a.m.

Motorcycle riders donning tweed suits, waxed mustaches, shined shoes and bow ties gather at Select Cycle to participate in a two-hour ride through each Triad city to help raise funds and awareness of prostate cancer and men’s suicide prevention on behalf of the Movember Foundation. All genders are welcome to participate in the ride and spectate an array of café racers, bobbers, classics, sidecars and vintage scooters. Learn more, register to ride or sponsor a rider at gentlemansride.com.

Sowing Seeds Children’s Festival and Food Drive @ Bailey Park (W-S), 1 p.m.

Children artists share and sell their works of art, donating $5 of their earnings to the Winston-Salem/ Forsyth County Schools Food Pantry, which helps families in need in the Forsyth County school system.

Festivalgoers can enjoy activities as varied as kids’ yoga and face painting to performances from the DiggsLatham honors orchestra and band.

Taqueria Luciano, Airwheel Coffee, Kona Ice and Cafe Gelato pitch in, and festivalgoers are encouraged to donate non-perishable food. Learn more at innovationquarter.com.

Ugly Food Feast @ Guilford County Cooperative Extension (GSO), 5 p.m.

Chef N’Gai Dickerson uses produce that didn’t make it to market for a nutritious community meal for up to 100 community members, kicking-off Guilford Local Foods Week. Celebrate local food, learn methods to reduce food waste and meet some new neighbors. Learn more and register at ces.ncsu.edu.

Wes Anderson film festival @ Geeksboro Coffee & Beverage Company (GSO), 6:30 p.m.

Geeksboro invites audiences to vote between two Anderson films The Darjeeling Limited and The Fantastic Mr. Fox for this week’s installment of its semi-annual Wes Fest. Learn more at geeksboro.com.

triad-city-beat.com

5 takeaways from the juggalo rally

by Jordan Green

3. This cultural moment was great for wordplay In response to my query about whether the juggalos are a new political force to be reckoned with, my photographer friend Daniel Hosterman replied on Twitter: “They are MOAR formidable than some.” And on Facebook, Greensboro small press publisher Andew Saulters observed, “The struggalo seems pretty real to me.”

5. A weird convergence of freaks The convergence of the juggalos and the new MAGA tribe of “Bikers for Trump, Three Percenter militia guys, 4chan Kekistan s***posters, and Captain America cosplayers,” as Woods recounted — along with antifa interlopers — seems somewhat cosmic. It’s as if the freaks were meant to find each other to allow for a new cross-pollination in our nation’s rapidly evolving politics. They share something important, as Woods observed: “The juggalos, antifa and the militia are all freaks. All three groups are hated and feared by the average Americans, the normies.” It’s like high school all over again.

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

SPREADING JOY ONE PINT AT A TIME

Culture

by Lauren Barber

Shot in the Triad Monday Geeks Who Drink Pub Quiz 7:30 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 8:30 Saturday Marcus Horth Band 8:30-11 Sunday BEER

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

Crossword

For her second book, Pushout: The Criminalization of Black tell how school administrators caused them shame through Girls in Schools, economic and social justice scholar Monique arbitrarily applied dress codes, including being sent home for Morris focuses on the unique penalties black girls endure “distracting” classmates with their natural hair. in the education and justice systems, dispelling any illusions Morris also illuminates the impact of trauma on girls’ that teachers and school administrators apply zero-tolerance interaction with the legal system. According to the National policies equitably across race and gender.

Council on Crime and Delinquency, up to 90 percent of girls Morris argues that just as conversations about police killings in detention have experienced some form of sexual, emotional of unarmed black people tends to center black boys and men, or physical abuse. When girls most need support from schools, understandings of the school-to-prison pipeline the system fails them; for black girls, that failure disregard the realities of black girls and women Find Pushout includes punishment. Implicit racial biases mean who are more likely to be charged with misdethat teachers are more likely to perceive their in your local meanors and status offenses. Morris calls this coping behaviors as “bad attitudes” and depresdistinct phenomenon the school-to-confinement sion symptoms as lack of intelligence; black girls bookstore. pathway and asks: How can educators expect are consequently removed or ignored. black girls and teens to invest in classrooms that Through thoughtful analysis and amplifying the do not value them? How can black girls recover academically voices of black girls, Morris reveals how the very institutions when truancy charges further interrupt their access to educameant to help children flourish reproduce racial and gender tion? inequities, and how black girls and teens creatively resist steThough she weaves scholarly data throughout her prose, reotypes and systematic degradation. Pushout may be viscerMorris centers the personal narratives of black girls in Pushout. ally and intellectually challenging at times, but it’s an accessible Morris spent countless hours in detention-center visitation and required read for educational and legal professionals, if rooms as teens like Faith described how a teacher equated not for the rest of us, too. her asking too many questions with being “disruptive.” They

Opinion

4. The juggalos are a family (then again, aren’t all gangs?)

As Baynard Woods recounted in Nuvo, “Chris Lopez,

a man with a van dyke beard, long hair and a DARE baseball hat, walks up and hands a sweatshirt and a sandwich to Michael Troy, who wears a suit and a red toboggan hat and sports a handlebar mustache. They did not know each other. ‘He’s like a brother I never met before,’ Troy says, taking a bite of his sandwich.”

And Hosterman, who photographed the rally, reported: “They were all insanely nice and chill today, for what it’s worth.”

News

2. Juggalos — last, best hope of the left Several observers have detected a kind of nascent progressivism in the juggalos — a line that Nathan Rabin, a sympathetic Insane Clown Posse biographer, is promoting. As Rabin told Scott Simon on NPR’s “Weekend Edition”: “If you actually look at the music and the lyrics of the Insane Clown Posse, it’s very class conscious, it’s very anti-bigotry, it’s very anti-redneck, it’s very anti-racism. So if you actually look at the words and the ideology, it’s very leftist, it’s very progressive. At

the same time, Insane Clown Posse and most juggalos consider themselves very apolitical. ICP in particular have walked this very fine, weird line, where they’ve said we’re going to throw this political rally, but it’s only about this one issue about the FBI designating our fans this hybrid gang. So, what I would like would be for this to be the start of something, you know, for them to take on profiling in all its forms — police brutality, government overreaching, law enforcement persecuting people on the basis of how they look.”

Up Front

1. This is a movement?

America suddenly discovered a political movement known as the juggalos, fans of the Detroit rap-rock duo Insane Clown Posse, over the past weekend, when they descended on the National Mall to protest being designated “a loosely organized hybrid gang” by the FBI. The movement undoubtedly benefited from a fluke of circumstance in scheduling their rally for the same day as the so-called Mother Of All Rallies, or MOAR, to support President Trump. The forced comparison was all the more striking in that by all accounts the juggalos vastly outnumbered the Trumpists.

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September 21 – 27, 2017

VOTERS GUIDE

Opinion

News

Up Front

2017 primary election guide

by Jordan Green

Early voting for the Oct. 10 primary elections in Greensboro and High Point opens today. For roughly two weeks, voters will be able cast their ballots at the Old Courthouse in downtown Greensboro and Washington Terrace Park in High Point.

With more than 50 candidates on the ballot between the two cities, it’s the most exciting municipal election in at least six years. Visit myguilford.com/ elections/ to see who’s on your ballot, read this election guide and go vote.

GREENSBORO — a fellow Democratic mayor — was recently primaried in Charlotte this year.

Crossword

Shot in the Triad

Culture

Mayoral (vote for 1)

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Nancy Vaughan (I): In her two terms as mayor, Vaughan has become a kind of standard-bearer of urban politics in North Carolina, presiding over a progressive council that passed resolutions opposing HB 2 and welcoming immigrants while shepherding a brisk downtown renaissance, albeit with a performing arts center as the signature project that’s running behind schedule.

Like other progressive mayors facing discontent over policing, Vaughan has walked a difficult tightrope between responding to calls for reform and backing the police. In a normal political year Vaughan shouldn’t have to worry much about two newbie opponents, but it can’t bode well that Jennifer Roberts

John T. Brown: Greensboro elections are nominally nonpartisan, but the GOP donors, including the Greater Greensboro Republican Women’s Club, are decisively swinging behind Brown, a businessman given to overheated rhetoric. He argues that the city is hemorrhaging quality jobs, and that crime is out of control. His prescription for improving police-community relations is to have city council butt out.

Diane Moffett: A pastor at St. James Presbyterian Church and cochair of the Greensboro Faith Leaders Council, Moffett has owned a house

in Jamestown with her husband for 12 years, but updated her voter registration to a Greensboro the day she filed to run for mayor. An energetic and inspiring public speaker, Moffett’s platform of business promotion and inclusion is at heart not too far removed from the policies of the woman she hopes to unseat, although she’s gained traction with progressive reformers, earning a 4.3 rating from voters who attended Democracy Greensboro’s candidate/ platform conference on Sept. 16.

At-large (vote for up to 3) Yvonne Johnson (I): A former oneterm mayor and city council member since 1993 — with the exception of a

two-year gap from 2009 to 2011, the 74-year-old Johnson is like the den mother of Greensboro politics. The only African American who’s been elected mayor, Johnson has traditionally enjoyed support from the city’s development interests while maintaining a strong social justice voice. At Democracy Greensboro’s conference on Sept.

16, Johnson ticked through a number of initiatives she’s taken that align with the progressive group’s platform: Leading the charge to pay city employees a minimum of $15 per hour, being a champion for participatory budgeting, prodding the city attorney to sue the state to block a racially gerrymandered redistricting scheme, creating a Community Sustain-

ability Committee and voting in support of unsuccessful efforts to create a police review board.

Shot in the Triad

James Ingram: Ingram attracted Republican state Reps. Jon Hardister and John Blust to his campaign kickoff and has earned the support of the Greater Greensboro Republican Women’s Club, but part of the first-time candidate’s bio is a temporary stretch of being homeless. Consistent with his conservative governing philosophy, Ingram favors low taxes and champions the generosity of the faith community.

The 28-year-old Ingram is the kind of candidate who makes politics personal.

“It’s all about letting someone know that there’s someone that loves you,” he said in a recent interview. “I want to fight for you.”

Culture Crossword

Tijuana Hayes: A former president of the Guilford County Association of Educators, Hayes retired from Guilford County Schools in 2014. She projects a positive and inclusive attitude in her pitch to voters. “I feel now is the time for Sister Hayes to get up off the couch and become more involved in the city,” she told voters at a recent Democracy Greensboro forum. “As a citizen, I will work for you, the citizens of Greensboro. I’m a native. I’ve been here all my life. I love Greensboro. Greensboro is a great place to live, a great place to work, a great place to advocate for the least of those among us.”

Sylvine Hill: A recent college graduate putting her sociology degree to work as a restaurant host in downtown

Opinion

Dianne Bellamy-Small: When Bellamy-Small served as representative of District 1 for a decade, she played the role of firebrand, going to the mat for her constituents’ interests, even if

Jodi Bennett-Bradshaw: A special-education teacher with Guilford County Schools making her first run for elected office, Bennett-Bradshaw is given to dramatic declarations like, “It is time for white women like me to stand up and bravely say, ‘Black lives matter,’” but it’s not really clear how, if at all, they indicate the kind of job she would do as a city council member.

News

MA Bakie: A businessman involved in the export industry, Bakie highlights the need for investment in battered industrial corridors like Randleman Road, South Elm-Eugene Street and East Market Street, and argues that public safety is a perquisite for economic development. The police department needs to be “strengthened,” he told TCB, “so gang members will not overpower them.”

Greensboro, Hill is making her second run for council, and speaks persuasively about the economic frustrations of her fellow millennials. An uncharacteristically reflective candidate, Hill has said she isn’t raising money for her campaign and plans to ride the bus on a “listening tour.” Ordinarily that doesn’t sound like a recipe for success, but in this strange political year, who knows?

Up Front

Mike Barber (I): A longtime elected official, Barber served on city council from 2005 to 2009, and then returned to the dais in 2013 after a family sojourn in Spain and after reinventing himself as a youth-services nonprofit director. He’s a reliable vote for new development that will increase the city’s tax base, but he’s tangled with advocates for police reform. In a voter guide produced by the League of Women Voters and others, he identifies public safety as the most pressing issue facing the city, adding, “We are beginning to feel the effects of a number of factors leading to higher crime and gun availability on the streets. Opioid and other drug use, the continued erosion of school system effectiveness, [and] the challenges of supervision in economically challenged households are among a few.”

Irving Allen: Part of a wave of Black Lives Matter candidates in Greensboro politics, Allen is the nephew of the late David Richmond — one of the famed A&T 4 — and a member of the human relations commission. Allen’s call for investment in east Greensboro to offset the punishing effects of racial segregation will sound familiar, but his call for divestment from the police department is a break with his black political elders.

triad-city-beat.com

Marikay Abuzuaiter (I): A former restaurateur and protégé of Johnson’s, Abuzuaiter cut her teeth on the human relations commission before winning her first election to council in 2011.

Now that she’s retired, the 63-yearold incumbent tells voters that serving on city council is her full-time job.

Abuzuaiter has become a policy wonk on transportation, serving as a liaison to the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transit and troubleshooting dangerous crosswalks, but progressives have faulted her for reflexively backing the police when their conduct towards civilians is called into question. An endorsement from the Greensboro Police Officers Association suggests her efforts haven’t gone unappreciated.

meant fighting alone. Opposing a teen curfew in downtown was one example.

Now that her ally-turned rival Sharon Hightower has succeeded her in District 1, Bellamy-Small is taking on a new role — that of seasoned veteran — as she attempts to return to council as an atlarge candidate. She’s currently on the Guilford County School Board.

Dan Jackson: One of two at-large

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Michelle Kennedy: The executive director of the Interactive Resource Center, the city’s homeless day center, Kennedy out-raised all 14 opponents in campaign fundraising through the end of August. An influential voice, Kennedy has been credited by Mayor Vaughan for helping her understand the criminalization of poverty, and she hasn’t shrank from criticizing the council for any number of shortcomings, including a panhandling ordinance that indirectly led to a Greensboro woman’s death in the county jail in 2015. Kennedy earned a 4.5 rating from voters at a recent Democracy Greensboro platform conference, the highest among at-large candidates.

September 21 – 27, 2017 Crossword

Shot in the Triad

Culture

Opinion

News

Up Front

candidates with backing from Republican donors, Jackson wants to leverage his experience in supply management to make Greensboro’s tax rate more attractive to businesses considering relocation to the city.

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Andy Nelson: A novice candidate retired from the transportation field, Nelson possesses a rare quality in politics — a complete and utter inability to pander. “I’m really a moderate with libertarian tendencies, so I’m not sure I’m going to match up well with this platform,” Nelson told the progressive group Democracy Greensboro.

It wasn’t a complete loss, however.

“I’m completely for demilitarizing the Greensboro Police Department,” he added. “That speaks to my libertarian tendencies.”

Lindy Perry-Garnette: Perry-Garnette, CEO of the YWCA of Greensboro and a member of the human relations commission, has a political backstory that either hurts or helps.

After reviewing the police body-cam-

era video of officers’ interaction with Jose Charles as a member of the police community review board, Perry-Garnette told the News & Record: “If we can’t see this one as wrong, we can’t see anything as wrong.” The statement put Perry-Garnette at odds with the police department and four members of city council. It also resulted in Perry-Garnette’s removal from the police community review board. The candidate has fashioned the experience into a character testimonial.

Dave Wils: A former party officer with the Guilford Dems, Wils is a rising political talent straight out of central casting. His chosen profession as a public school teacher at Grimsley High School provides the perfect slogan for the post-Obama Democratic Party: “We all do better when we all do better.”

Like three other candidates in the race currently serving on the human relations commission, Wils wants to address affordable housing, to bridge the city’s racial divide and to improve police-community relations.

on the citizens committee that helped select former police Chief Ken Miller prior to her election, but as a council member has proven to be a reliable ally of community members pushing for greater transparency and accountability from the police. Her record includes votes to release the investigative file in the Cole-Yourse case, and she publicly stated that she disagreed with fellow council members who said the police acted appropriately in the Jose Charles case. Hightower voted against giving police officers a 7.5 percent raise this year, arguing that it was insensitive to other city workers.

Devin King: Two years ago, King figured that with no prior political experience he had a pretty good shot at mayor. He lost to incumbent Nancy Vaughan, 286 votes to her 18,031. This year, he’s appropriately adjusted his sights on a more attainable goal. Yet his campaign has no digital footprint and he could not be reached by phone, so it’s not at all clear what his platform is.

District 1 (vote for 1)

Sharon Hightower (I): Prior to winning election in 2013, Hightower logged years of service as a neighborhood leader and voter-education activist in east Greensboro. She served

Paula Ritter-Lipscomb: An intervention specialist with Guilford County Schools, Ritter-Lipscomb says her work experience will help her build strong relationships within the community and that the city’s most pressing issue is budget restraints. She showed up for Democracy Greensboro’s platform conference, and 12 voters gave her an average rating of 3.2 out of 5. * Charles Patton Jr. confirmed that he has withdrawn from the race, but his name will remain on the ballot.

District 2 (vote for 1)

Goldie Wells (I): A revered community leader, Wells led the fight to close the White Street Landfill before winning election to the District 2 seat in 2005 and serving through 2009, but her reputation as a fighter soared afterwards when she led the successful fight to keep the landfill from reopening and then helped spearhead the effort to open the Renaissance Community Co-op. On July 18, she was appointed to fill the unexpired term of former District 2 Councilman Jamal Fox.

CJ Brinson: Part of the Black Lives Matter wave of candidates, community organizer Brinson has embraced a class-conscious and intersectional approach to black empowerment. He willingly subjected himself to arrest in January with a group of activists demanding that the city release the ColeYourse investigative file, and supported a march of undocumented immigrants in downtown Greensboro in February.

While Wells is championing Revolution Mill as a milestone in economic development for District 2, Brinson charges that the jobs aren’t benefiting black residents and the project risks displacing poor people. Brinson received a rating of 4.8 out of 5 from Democracy Greensboro.

Jim Kee: A developer, Kee represented District 2 from 2009 to 2013, when he was unseated by Jamal Fox. While Kee was part of the successful effort to keep the White Street Landfill closed, his efforts to steer the Renaissance Community Co-op into a private

Culture Shot in the Triad

cations professor, Kenton was motivated to run in part because he wanted to push incumbent Nancy Hoffmann to the left. Whether that tack pays off or not, Kenton has been putting in his legwork, subjecting himself to arrest — along with District 2 candidate CJ Brinson — in January while demanding that the city release the Cole-Yourse investigative file, and helping Democ-

Sal Leone: It’s hard to keep up with all the times that Leone — a law enforcement officer from New York City — has run for council. The most recent of his attempts — none of them successful — was for mayor two years ago.

Leone’s most interesting idea is merging the Greensboro Police Department with the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office. It’s hard to know where he stands on police

Crossword

Nancy Hoffmann (I): In 2011, Democratic businesswoman Hoffmann swept out reactionary Republican Mary Rakestraw with a campaign that embraced millennials and inclusion. Now, as a representative of a new pro-growth, pro-police establishment, Hoffmann finds herself challenged by a progressive electoral force eager to hold representa-

Tony Wilkins (I): More conciliatory than his predecessor, Trudy Wade, who has moved on to the state Senate, Wilkins is the only Republican on the council and its most conservative voice.

He can be counted to stand with the police when their conduct is called into question, and to oppose new spending outside of public safety. He opposes participatory budgeting and cast the lone vote against the city issuing an apology for the 1979 Greensboro Massacre in August. He frequently talks about the city’s food insecurity rate, too. While the district was drawn to favor a Republican, it’s not monolithic, with a racially diverse and working-class corridor running through the middle that is bracketed by affluent islands at either end.

Opinion

District 4 (vote for 1)

Andrew Belford: A project manager for Defense Department contracts who works with the Navy, Belford said he was inspired to run for city council by his father, who serves as a regional counselor in New Zealand. Now that council members will serve four-year terms, Belford said he thought it was especially important that incumbent Nancy Hoffmann have a challenger.

“I’m definitely a long shot,” he said.

“I’m keeping a low profile, and that’s all right.”

Gary Kenton: A retired communi-

District 5 (vote for 1)

News

Justin Outling (I): A business litigation lawyer with the Brooks Pierce law firm, Outling was appointed to the District 3 seat in 2015, when Councilman Zack Matheny resigned to take the job of president of Downtown Greensboro Inc. Outling has achieved a rare political alchemy as the first African American elected to represent the majority-white district, while raising a sizable campaign war chest from an array of business professionals. As an enthusiastic booster of the resurgent downtown and an ally to police and firefighters, Outling has landed big endorsements from the Greensboro Police Officers Association, the Professional Firefighters of Greensboro, Equality NC and the Replacements Limited PAC. Antuan Marsh: An interior painter,

Craig Martin: Public defender Martin is running on a modest slogan, “Consider Craig,” but in an unsettled political year rife with resentment towards the status quo, there’s a segment of the electorate primed to hear what he has to say. The campaign’s Facebook page talks about going beyond the removal of Confederate monuments to address mass incarceration, and Martin received a near perfect score of 4.9 from Democracy Greensboro. It’s a telling that Martin, who is white, has received the endorsement of Black Lives Matter leader April Parker. * Payton McGarry confirmed that he has withdrawn from the race, but his name will remain on the ballot.

tives’ feet to the fire. Probably figuring she wasn’t likely to gain any votes from the new Democracy Greensboro, Hoffman made a bold play by deriding an illustration in one of the group’s brochures as “socialist art from the 1950s,” and attacking part of its platform as “incendiary.” Hoffman’s red-baiting rhetoric lays down a line in a fight over who gets to define what it means to be a Greensboro progressive in 2017.

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District 3 (vote for 1)

Marsh wants to promote employment.

His specific plan for job growth involves hosting three job fairs per year, one in the spring, one in the summer, when students are graduating from area colleges, and a third in November when seasonal hiring takes off. Some parts of his platform come across as unfocused, as when he talks about mediating unspecified issues “so the city and citizens can have a win-win situation.”

triad-city-beat.com

development deal and his backing of a controversial redistricting plan that was struck down by the federal courts has left a bad taste in some residents’ mouths. Many of Kee’s solutions come back to economic development. “I want to do like my friend, [Mayor] Bill Bell did in Durham,” Kee said recently. “He proposed a neighborhood revitalization bond — $50 million neighborhood revitalization bond. $30 million went to the majority community, $20 million went to the minority community. And he stimulated economic development.

He improved neighborhoods. We can do the same thing in Greensboro.” * Felicia Angus and Tim Vincent announced they have withdrawn from the race, but their names will remain on the ballot.

racy Greensboro develop its platform.

Kenton said he sees himself in the mold of Durham City Councilwoman Jillian Johnson, who considers herself an activist first and an elected official second.

Whatever the moderate leanings of District 4 voters, Kenton pledges to keep raising issues of institutional racism and poverty.

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September 21 – 27, 2017

HIGH POINT Mayor (vote for 1)

Tanner Lucas: A political neophyte, Lucas’ responses to the League of Women Voters’ questionnaire indicates that he sees manufacturing jobs as the city’s top priority. “Ever since Greensboro has lost textile mill jobs a decade ago, Greensboro has been in need of specializing in producing important material goods,” he writes.

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accountability because on one hand he argues for greater sensitivity and transparency, but then accuses the current council of pandering to “the east” (read: black people).

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Tammy Thurm: A firm administrator at the Hagan, Barrett & Langley law firm, challenger Thurm has raised $27,110 — more than double what her incumbent opponent has generated.

Thurm’s campaign finance reports paint a picture of a candidate closely tied into the city’s business and philanthropic networks, but her progressive bona fides are established by a perfect 5 score from Democracy Greensboro. She favors tying business incentives to an average minimum salary for workers, using tax increment financing for economic development, and providing as much public access to police body cameras as legally permissible. Two pro-LGBTQ committees — Replacements Limited PAC and Equality NC — are banking on Thurm with endorsements.

Bruce Davis: Former Guilford County Commissioner Davis has experienced a run of tough breaks in his quest for higher office. When the position of mayor came open with Bill Bencini’s announcement that he would not seek reelection, it was an irresistible prize to the veteran politician and daycare operator. A Democrat, Davis will likely corral the black vote in High Point, and he goes into the primary with the endorsement of the pro-LGBTQ Replacements Limited PAC. High Point elections are nominally nonpartisan and the city’s politics don’t necessarily break along party lines. As a supporter of the downtown stadium as a catalyst project, Davis lands in the same camp as opponent Jay Wagner, a pro-revitalization Republican. As chairman of the High Point Convention & Visitors Bureau, Davis has part of discussions about the stadium since the inception of the idea. Where he might break with his opponents is over matters of policing and racial equity. Earlier this year, he took the police department and city manager to task for not showing up for a community meeting to discuss the city’s alarming homicide rate.

appointed to fill the unexpired term of Mayor Bernita Sims when she resigned and pled guilty to a felony charge of passing a worthless check. The following year, Davis’ complaints about a public forum on police-community relations organized by the city’s black human relations director set the stage for her firing. On the downtown stadium — the single most galvanizing issue in the election — Davis wound up voting with his colleagues in April to approve $15 million for land acquisition and site design for the project, but not without expressing misgivings.

Jay Wagner: Since his first unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2010, lawyer Wagner has sometimes sung a lonesome song as an advocate for reinvestment in the core city. After his election to Ward 4 in 2012, he often found himself outnumbered by his change-averse colleagues, particularly when he aligned himself with the new urbanist vision of Andres Duany. With the 2014 election, the revitalization forces gained a slim majority. And now, with the approval the downtown stadium, the winds are seemingly at Wagner’s back. “I think we’ve reached the point where the city, the general public, the business community and High Point University are all on the same page,” he told TCB.

about keeping taxes low for the city’s poorest property owners. Since her election to council three years ago, she found herself in the curious position of being the second most popular politician after Mayor Bill Bencini, but ostracized and isolated at the losing end of votes on the new pro-revitalization council. And true to form, she cast the only no vote against the downtown stadium project in April. She’s keeping the issue live by demanding a do-over with a referendum to give citizens a voice in the decision.

Mary Lou Andrews Blakeney (I): When four NC A&T students launched a sit-in at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960, 15-year-old Mary Lou Andrews and her classmates at William Penn High School took note and duplicated the effort 10 days later at the Woolworth’s in High Point. After moving away for a time, Blakeney returned to her hometown and became an advocate for senior services. Her activism led to her election to an at-large seat in 2008, but she was unseated two years later. Her priorities are still the same, and she wants to find ways to support housing for seniors so they can avoid high-cost assisted-living facilities.

At-large (vote for up to 2)

Jim Davis: The other Davis in the race, Jim represents the city’s conservative Republican base. A builder who currently represents Ward 5 on the north end of the city, Davis like many of his current constituents takes a skeptical view of spending public dollars on the revitalization of the core city. He’s the only candidate in the race who has previously held the seat. In 2014, he was

Cindy Davis (I): A populist fiscal conservative, Davis’ skepticism towards public spending is framed by a concern

Daniel Gardner: The 26-year-old Gardner works as a community branch banker with BB&T and possesses a friendly demeanor. He got started in politics as a middle schooler working polling places for local conservative politicians Jim Davis and Chris Whitley, who are respectively running for mayor and for the Ward 5 seat. Gardner takes a skeptical view of the stadium project,

Culture

Deric D. Stubbs: The suburban demographics of Ward 5 generally favor conservative candidates, as exemplified

by Jim Davis, the Republican vacating the seat to run for mayor. And while Stubbs’ Facebook page doesn’t say much about his platform, posts about DACA and harsh sentencing practices against children suggest that his politics lean to the left.

Opinion

Don Scarborough: Recently retired as vice president of planned giving at High Point University, Scarborough comes into the race with powerful connections and fundraising acumen.

He’s upbeat about the police, emphasizes listening to people from all parts of the city, and says the city council should take a hands-on approach with the proposed downtown stadium.

Wesley Hudson: A construction company owner, Hudson says he’s running for the District 4 seat for one simple reason: Because Jay Wagner, the current occupant, is running for mayor.

“I’ve always been a great supporter of Jay’s,” Hudson said, who’s received the endorsement of the Replacements Limited PAC. “He has always served the city well; he’s always been a property of downtown revitalization. When I found out he was running for mayor, I wanted to be part of the excitement.” Previously a resident of Winston-Salem, he ran unsuccessfully against then-Councilwoman Molly Leight.

Vic Jones: Jones’ campaign has a pretty thin digital footprint, but his business website indicates that he owns a limo service on Greensboro Road, and served as a Marine sergeant in the second Iraq war. His Facebook page doesn’t say much about his platform beyond praise for a presentation on the stadium project.

News

Ward 4 (vote for 1)

Chris Whitley: Whitley is the candidate to beat. After all, he held the seat for several years before vacating it to run for mayor in 2012. Whitley lost to Bernita Sims, opening the field to Jim Davis. Although Whitley falls at the conservative end of High Point’s political spectrum, he expressed admiration for High Point University President Nido Qubein’s presentation on the downtown stadium. * No primaries in Ward 1, Ward 2, Ward 3 and Ward 6

Crossword

Jim Bronnert: A retired custom-car painter from Cincinnati, Bronnert’s workingman presentation disguises a dedicated public servant who serves on the Guilford County Parks Commission.

As president of the Oakview Citizens

Jody Kearns: A self-employed plumber, Kearns complains that Jay Wagner, the ward’s current representative, has been unresponsive to constituents. Kearns clearly sees himself as a different kind of public servant — a good listener. While qualifying that he’s not opposed to the stadium, he doesn’t think public dollars should pay for it, and at the very least he believes residents should have a say through a bond referendum.

Shot in the Triad

Britt Moore: A property manager who served on city council from 2010 to 2014, Moore was unseated by Cindy Davis. He tends to swim in the main current, depending on the consensus of the group he’s working with. Although he took a skeptical view of public spending on economic development during his tenure, he backs the stadium project, arguing that it’s a risk the city needs to take to achieve growth. Not one to insist on an exclusive claim to wisdom, Moore says, “I’ve had up votes and down votes on different issues. The ultimate thing for me is to be correct as much as I can. Even when votes don’t go my way, I still want things to go as best as they can.”

Sarah Jane Otte: An employee in the admissions office at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Sa-

lem, the 25-year-old Otte has earned the endorsement of Equality NC. As a candidate, she makes a virtue out of modesty. “I am running a total grassroots campaign, just me and my dog,” she says. “I talked to my mom and she said, ‘That should be your campaign slogan.’”

Ward 5 (vote for 1)

Up Front

Michael A. Holmes: An unsuccessful candidate in 2014, Ikea lean manufacturing expert Holmes is giving it another shot, and this time he has an endorsement from the Replacements Limited PAC. Holmes’ motivations pretty much amount to the fact that he lives in High Point. “I’m a guy who moved to High Point about nine years ago because the Southwest [Guilford High School zone] was ranked one of the best,” he said. “I’m now part of High Point. High Point is where I’m raising my family. I want High Point’s future to be bright, not just because I live here but because everyone lives here.”

Council, Bronnert has made common cause with other neighborhood leaders across the city. Bronnert, a white Republican, and Jerry Mingo, a black Democrat who leads the Burns Hill Neighborhood Association, are an inseparable pair. Despite previous skepticism about public investment, Bronnert counts himself a supporter of the downtown stadium project, citing the revitalization of the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in his hometown as an example of urban transformation.

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and says council should hold a bond referendum.

11

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September 21 – 27, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword

14

OPINION EDITORIAL

No endorsements, but a plea to vote We don’t do endorsements at Triad City races, because they determine who the Beat, a decision born from the realization candidates will be. of the demographics of our market that And in the primary, where 3.8 percent of took hold when we started this thing in eligible voters turned out last time around, 2014 and remains true today: The Triad is a a roomful of people can change history. political fault line, and the field of opinion You need to vote, but before you do, you — even among our select readership — is as need to do the reading; this week’s TCB is wide as the White Street Landfill. a fantastic place to start: Know your district Instead we bring you a primer on the or ward and the issues important to you candidates every election season, with and your neighbors. Seek out your district facts and quotes that serve rep, and mayoral and as a Rorschach of sorts. at-large candidates as Early voting for the When we say a candidate well — the candidates Oct. 10 primary runs favors charter schools and in these city elecopen-carry laws, or a living through Oct. 7. See the tions are wonderfully wage and a police review accessibly — to ask board with subpoena power, Guilford County Board them questions and it means different things to tell them how you of Elections website different people. feel. for locations.

Facts, we feel, are more Guard your vote useful than our opinions jealously and don’t when it comes to elections give it away without in the Triad. careful consideration. Think about your We’re not going to use this space to conown self-interest; think about the issues in vince the people of Greensboro and High your neighborhood and think about the Point — the only elections in our coverage direction your city is heading. Think about area this go-round — to vote one way or party politics if you must, but we don’t adthe other. But we’re not above issuing anvocate that — these elections are nonparother call to action here in the editorial slot. tisan, and city governance transcends the You need to vote. Yes, you. And yes, red/blue paradigm. now.

In the end, we get the government we Early voting in the primary starts today, deserve, and it’s too important to let 3.8 and primaries can be even more important percent of the population make the decithan the general election in city council sion for the rest of us.

CITIZEN GREEN

DACA recipient: My mother, hero Maria Cortez-Perez has known she was undocumented practically from the time her mother carried her

by Jordan Green across the US-Mexico border at the age of 2 to join her future stepfather, who was working in the booming construction industry in High Point in the late 1990s.

“My parents told me: ‘You are undocumented — that’s your ticket to a better life,’” Cortez-Perez told me last week as we sat on a patio facing the stately columns of Reynolda Hall on the campus of Wake Forest University.

“Education was my sanctuary.”

A sophomore with aspirations to study law who directs the Social Justice Incubator on campus and holds a seat on the Student Budget Advisory Committee, Cortez-Perez is also a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, the program established by President Obama in 2012, then rescinded by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Sept.

5, 2017, and now batted around as a political bargaining chip by President Trump and the Democratic leadership in Congress.

The stakes could not have been higher when Cortez-Perez’s mother reviewed the circumstances of a life in

Veracruz, on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, and decided she could not accept a future in which she couldn’t guarantee that she would be able to feed and clothe her daughter.

As Cortez-Perez told about 60 people gathered at Manchester Plaza at Wake on Sept. 14, her mother’s first attempt to cross the border proved unsuccessful.

“It was late at night, but I couldn’t stop crying, and people were getting angry at my mother, yelling, ‘Shut that girl up; you’re going to get us caught,’” said Cortez-Perez, recalling the end of the journey as they approached the border. “I didn’t want to be held by anyone in the group. My mother was exhausted, six months pregnant.

And when things couldn’t get worse, I scraped my whole hand on a cactus.

You can only imagine what happened.

I started screaming at the top of my lungs, and I attracted the attention of ICE immigration patrol. At the sight of this everyone ran to the other side and left us behind.

“My mother had to stop, kneel, put me down and raise her arms in the air, and she asked for help because she needed help because I was vomiting, sweating, cold and she was afraid that I might die,” Cortez-Perez continued.

“The authorities later confirmed that I could have died of dehydration. The officers that night gave us food, gave me a glass of milk, and us a jail cell

way to citizenship, who will they be able to get to work in their meat factories? They pay us low wages. They know we’ll take the low wages because we’re a desperate and vulnerable people.”

Cortez-Perez said the attack on immigrants has empowered her to fight back and organize her community, but she recognizes that many of her fellow DACA recipients are feeling intimidated.

“I’ve seen a lot of anxiety, a lot of tears, a lot of fear,” she told me. “The message I would send is: Don’t be afraid. It’s Washington that should be afraid. We have a right to be here.”

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through, but when she graduated she had to reckon with the fact that her lack of access to in-state tuition would make college prohibitively expensive. She decided to be proactive, and resolved to tell her story wherever she got the opportunity.

She volunteered at the Latino Family Center of Greater High Point, and landed an internship with the American Friends Service Committee. Eventually, her moxie paid off when she learned she had been chosen for a Golden Door scholarship, which pays for undocumented students to attend college. She entered Wake Forest University as a freshman in the fall of 2016, following a two-year gap.

While much of the current debate over immigration narrowly focuses on the US government’s betrayal of DACA recipients, Cortez-Perez takes a longer view.

She blames both major political parties for dragging their heels on reform over the past decade as a means of exploiting immigrant labor while denying them their full humanity.

“We go to work every day,” Cortez-Perez said. “The majority of us never get to enjoy the fruits of our production. The reason they won’t make a pathway to citizenship for 12 million people is they know that when that happens they won’t be able to use us at their will. If they create a path-

triad-city-beat.com

with a small bed. My mother tells me I was so happy and giddy afterwards, she said I started making funny faces at the officers and they started laughing. I’ve always thought that part was kind of ironic considering our circumstance at that moment.”

The conventional narrative surrounding DACA is that while the children deserve compassion because they didn’t a have a say in the matter, their parents exercised bad judgment by bringing them here without legal authorization. That’s not the way Cortez-Perez sees it.

“She’s my hero,” Cortez-Perez told me, “and because of her courage I’m here today.”

When the 2008 recession hit and the construction industry ground to a halt in the Triad, Cortez-Perez’s stepfather found himself out of work. Cortez-Perez and her three younger sisters pitched in to help make ends meet by mowing lawns and helping their mother make lunches to sell at workplaces. Her mother started cleaning houses, and a couple years ago started a housecleaning business. The earnings from the business allowed Cortez-Perez to buy her own house on the north side of High Point.

As a high school student, Cortez-Perez assumed hard work would carry her

Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword

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September 21 – 27, 2017

CULTURE Cocktails, comfort at Vintage Sofa Bar

by Eric Ginsburg

Playing September 21 – 23

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The Idiot Box Presents

Ultimate Comic Challenge X Celebrating 10 Years of Competitive Comedy!

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8:30 p.m. & 10 p.m. Friday, September 22nd.

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The food at Vintage Sofa Bar is prepared on an unnamed food truck outside, but patrons order inside at the bar. Try the beef empanadas (top right).

--OTHER EVENTS & SCREENINGS--

Board Game Night FEATURING ALL NEW GAMES! 7 p.m. Friday, September 22nd. More than 100 BOARD GAMES -- FREE TO PLAY!

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16

Beer! Wine! Amazing Coffee!

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D

ERIC GINSBURG

espite a name that elicits mental images of a makeshift observed, as we maneuvered a menu under a lamp’s light in man-cave cobbled together with maybe grandma’s old, order to read it in the dimly lit seating area. The presence of an lime-green and stained couch, a beat-up coffee table and adjacent store that sells light fixtures and a wealthy-motherof-three vibe from some women reclining nearby abetted his a cooler full of Bud Light, Vintage Sofa Bar is a decidedly classy observation. venue with a carefully sculpted image.

The clientele leans towards the Gen X side But Vintage Sofa Bar is more than its of the spectrum — the age where you might stoneworked walls and somewhat moody Visit Vintage Sofa Bar expect a group of guys to gravitate towards art that give it the feel of a castle basement.

There’s shuffleboard, and solid $5 Old Fasha remodeled garage as a getaway for sports at 1001 Burke St. (W-S) ioned cocktails on Fridays, and a growing and Doritos — but there’s nothing particor find it on Facebook. ularly masculine or casual about the new cohort of twenty- and thirtysomethings as Burke Street bar in Winston-Salem. Instead, evenings progress. patrons exude money, as if they’d spent Two young guns — almost certainly their Saturday golfing but had time to come home and freshen fresh-minted graduate students at Wake Forest — flirted in an up with a shower and then a martini before sinking into one of almost exaggerated fashion, him standing while she perched the bar’s welcoming sofas. on a barstool, tossing back her long hair and stirring her drink, as they animatedly discussed their workout regimens. As I The place feels almost like an after-hours Pier 1, a friend

Up Front News Opinion

several I tried, the trio of beef empanadas proved to be the most memorable. A meat & cheese board is an obvious choice, and more in line with the place’s overall tone.

The stonework, décor and low light almost scream wine cellar, making a red a particularly fitting choice.

Don’t overlook the cocktail menu though, or the rotating selection that recently included a gorgeous pinkish-orange peach Julep with bourbon, Barolo Chinato, Demerara, lemon, peach bitters and a peach wedge and sprig of tiny lilac-colored flowers.

It’s a far cry from the venue that used to inhabit this space — Club Snap. Friends with me at Vintage explained how they used to enter the dark gay club from a more discrete back entrance, adding that while it had been a favorite for good dancing and impressive drag shows, they preferred what the new tenants had done with the place. Though I never made it before the switch, the changes are obvious from the exterior, with a suburban kind of patio that looks inviting day or night, the kind of place that could be the backdrop for a catalog photo shoot rather than the kind of spot that appeared purposefully plain to outsiders.

With the demise of Snap on Burke Street and Q Lounge in neighboring Greensboro, it seems that local queer-centric venues are on the decline. But Vintage didn’t push Snap out, instead taking over an otherwise empty storefront at one of the city’s drinking hubs.

Based on the turnout and thanks to its rather unique offerings, it’s clearly been well received.

triad-city-beat.com

stood behind them waiting for a drink, I half expected her to ask him to flex his biceps so she could test his brawny glory, but I escaped back to my friends holding court in a corner before she got the chance.

The venue filled around 11, though most seats at the bar and out on the fenced-in patio in front had been locked down for a while. That evening, Vintage Sofa Bar seemed to have primarily attracted groups of friends rather than pairs or even double dates, giving the bar a more vibrant and upbeat vibe rather than a coolly romantic or delicately refined mood.

That’s a good thing. The tony nature of Vintage Sofa Bar threw me off at first, but I realized that’s in part because it doesn’t fall neatly into typical bar categories. It isn’t a raucous or divey joint, and it isn’t a hushed bougie spot where people pretend to be important or debonair. T-shirts and suits would equally be out of place. It’s an appropriate choice for celebrating a friend’s birthday (my reason for arriving); go up the street if you’re looking for karaoke or a college crowd, and head elsewhere if you want to stare deeply into your lover’s eyes.

The sofa bar breaks the mold in a more obvious way, though — instead of running a kitchen, it operates a nameless food truck outside. But customers still order inside at the bar and food is brought directly to them, eliminating toe-tapping waits on the sidewalk or lines.

(Despite not giving our names or being given numbers, servers somehow still found us to deliver our food orders.)

Smaller items dominate the offerings, and of the

Culture Shot in the Triad

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September 21 – 27, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword

18

CULTURE With Gilded Palms, Estrangers break four-year silence

by Spencer KM Brown

T

he summer of 2011 marked the Thangs” Mueller at the famous Fidelitosurprising beginnings of Winrium studios in Kernersville, the record ston-Salem band Estrangers. contains a new side of Estrangers, one Formed and led by singer-songwriter with darker, dreamy psychedelic overPhilip Pledger, Estrangers surfaced from tones, with driving rhythms comparable the unknown and rapidly rose in poputo the Dandy Warhols keeping them larity from within the Triad music scene. grounded, and a more mature, intenHammering out their stellar debut EP tional sound that breaks the band’s Black Ballroom only a few months into sound free from previous records. The this new endeavor, the album garnered 10 songs clock in just shy of 35 minutes, them deserved praise and allowed but somehow time seems a nonissue. them to share billing with such acts as From the opening track “Hotel Savoy,” Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Titus to the pensive closing song “White TiAndronicus. But as the musical direcger,” one gets lost in the poetry of lyrics tion grew weak with members’ interests and synchronicity of perfect balance dividing and dedications faltered, the between words and music. band saw several line-up changes, but With Pledger’s vocals and song strucstill managed to tour, release three ture, one is instantly reminded of early more albums and remain close in the ELO and psychedelic-dabbling Kinks, hearts of dedicated fans. while at the same time fully enveloped Sept. 29 marks the release of Esin the indie-pop tones similar to that of trangers’ newest record Gilded Palms. It Real Estate and Tame Impala. will be their first release since the 2013 Gilded Palms is a refreshing break in a album Season of 1000 Colors. While time of over-engineered and manufacstill in the dreamy, pop-rock genre that tured music. While the band definitely they’ve stuck close to in the past, Gilded pays homage to its influences, EstrangPalms is a leap into new territory for the ers sounds original at the same time. band.

The use of keyboards and effects in the Sticking close to the band’s original album, though present throughout, is musical direction of layered guitars, done with a consciousness that adds heavy danceable drums and a fresh, vianother level to the mountain EstrangALBUM ART BY MATIAS Estrangers’ new record Gilded Palms will be brant voice, the ers have built, as SANTA MARIA released on Sept. 29 record doesn’t opposed to falling take many risks, in line with popular To listen to “Croc Rock” or album, “Croc Rock” brings back the sort of charming, dancemostly because music and using electronics as a means of able tunes that call to mind David Bowie. pre-order Gilded Palms visit it doesn’t have simply filling in the gaps where songwriting An album should be a cohesive river that, while containing estrangers.bandcamp.com. to. Each song is has failed. The harmonious synergy between its meanders and rapids, constantly flows as a part of the calm and colall instruments catches the ear first, inspirsame force, driving towards the same inevitable end. Gilded lected, wrought ing a feeling that everything fits neatly in Palms does just that. It is a true album, the kind that you don’t with the sort of professional musicianits place and simply belongs together. The twists and turns on mind standing up to flip on the turntable. From beginning to ship that most contemporary artists the album provoke a feeling of anticipation, yet soothe the ear end, it’s clear Estrangers have taken their time in composition would envy. with a resolution of inevitability; while the track “Sunrise at and writing, making the most of the four years since Season of Engineered by Rebecca “Missy Big Horn” touches on the psychedelic and shoegaze side of the 1000 Colors.

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echelon of great music, proof that whole albums are not a thing of the past, and neither is this esteemed local band.

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The brightness created from the record is still put in check by a stormy edge that looms in the background of all the songs. But this is the sort of balance that can make albums — not just single songs, but entire records — a truly moving experience. Gilded Palms has earned its golden name and raises Estrangers’ catalogue into an upper

Up Front News Opinion

Rhiannon Giddens

Culture

University Concert and Lecture Series presents: Celebrating UNCG Founders Day

Crossword

for more information and tickets, visit:

Shot in the Triad

Thurs, Oct. 5 UNCG Auditorium 8:00pm

ucls.uncg.edu 19

September 21 – 27, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword

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CULTURE Glowing tails and family traditions at Greensboro’s Comicon

By Lauren Barber

A

s Dippy Catt accepted the First Place award for her original rendering of Bowser, a domineering Nintendo character, her eyes popped wide and her mouth gaped for a genuine but uncomfortable minute.

Catt, who will only give her first name, Abi, didn’t expect recognition but, then again, she should know there are always surprises at a con.

The Elm Street Center’s lavish ballrooms, typically reserved for weddings and corporate events, hosted the first annual Greensboro Comicon last weekend. These festivals feature massive arrays of comic books for sale, video-game competitions and panels on everything from zombie makeup to why black and queer heroes matter. At least half of attendees cosplayed, meaning that at any given time they dressed as a character from a video game, comic or anime title.

As attendees scuttled through winding hallways, one cosplayer lit the way — literally.

Kristen Chong, an electrical engineer, isn’t new to cosplay, but over the last

eight months she succeeded in her first custom build for competition— Arcade Ahri from League of Legends.

The enchanting structure she crafted secures to her belt and shoulder harnesses in order to support the weight of luminous threaded rods enveloped in an impossibly soft, white material that allows color-shifting lights to radiate from the ninepronged tail.

“She’s one of my favorites,” Chong said. “I was really enthralled with the tails because I’ve seen a lot of cosplayers do the tails either with a great structure and okay lights or really awesome lights with an okay structure; I was like, ‘I could do this better.’”

Judges tend to reward cosplayers who put in significant handiwork or who can at least explain the stitching and materials utilized in the making of their costume. Sapphire Nova, dressed as Starfire, and Rocky Melvin, as Optimus Prime, presided over the judges’ table upon a raised black podium front and center, facing tightly packed rows of audience members.

Rick Nova of Superheroes Unlimited — the organization that planned the cosplay contest — emceed the mid-afternoon contest, inviting cosplayers to pose in several locations with a stop at the judges’ table.

A UNCG student and seasoned con-goer named Sarah — who declined to give her last name — took second place. She effortlessly described the technical elements of her outfit, but the real story of her Asuna Yuuki cosplay lies in its origin story.

Sarah’s grandmother is a seamstress who specializes in historical costumes and often participated in Civil War reenactments alongside her son, Sarah’s father, while raising her family in Virginia. When her dad fell in love with cosplay, Sarah’s grandmother sewed his Battlestar Galactica costumes and, eventually he took his daughter along for the ride where she, too, fell in love.

“Growing up, my whole family would go hard for Halloween and dress up for Renaissance fairs… and she’s been dressing me in costume since I was born,” Sarah said.

Naturally, this year’s cosplay was a team effort.

Her grandmother, who now lives in Connecticut, sewed the clothing with

LAUREN BARBER Kristen Chong cosplayed Arcade Ahri from League of Legends at Greensboro’s Comicon, earning third place in the cosplay competition.

only Sarah’s measurements and a photo of the Sword Art Online character’s outfit while her father — a machinist who typically manufactures paintball guns — molded a sword and sheath from a mix of metals, plastics and 3D printing. Sarah created her armor and boot covers with craft foam and Mod Podge and embellished everything with paint and gemstones.

The craftsmanship certainly swayed the judges, but Sarah said the most meaningful part of the experience was collaborating with her biological family as part of a tradition of working with textiles and the new, chosen family she makes at every con she attends.

“People like to say Disney World is the happiest place on Earth,” Sarah said. “I like to say DragonCon is because it’s the most accepting place on Earth. You can be anything, do anything, dress as anything — whatever; be whoever you want and nobody’s going to judge you as long as you don’t hurt anyone.

If there’s a part of you that you like to suppress, you can bring it out.”

Cosplay is about more than dressing up, she said — it’s a chance to live in a character’s skin or more fully express yourself.

“Cosplay can really bring out different parts of you, Sarah said. “My Black Canary was my first real cosplay and that was fun because she’s so confident and sexy — she kicks ass. The second I put that cosplay on, I become her. I’m so much more confident and you can bring that into your real life. Cosplay helps you be who you want to be.”

by Matt Jones

48 Up to date with, with “of” 49 Microsoft’s counterpart to Siri and Alexa 50 Tied up, to a surgeon 51 Sanders, for one 52 A, in France 53 Hosp. features 54 Image worship

Answers from previous publication.

36 “Possession” actress Isabelle 37 ___ Farm (cheap wine brand) 38 Prepare for mummification 41 Glorify 43 Predetermined outcome 44 Person at the computer 45 1960s-’80s Ford models that go by initials 47 Woody Guthrie’s son 49 Half of CDII

News Opinion

Down 1 Give a hand 2 Dictation experts, once 3 Ironer’s target 4 Old detergent brand with a self-descriptive name 5 ___ dixit (assertion without proof) 6 Changing areas on some seasides ©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 7 William Dreyer’s ice cream partner Joseph 27 Marching band section 8 Ford make until 2011, informally 28 “Gone With the Wind” character Butler and 9 Knievel of motorcycle stunts “Good Mythical Morning” cohost McLaughlin, 10 Miniature plateau e.g.

11 Lets up 29

Chile’s mountain range 12 Ultimate goals 30 Drink from India or Sri Lanka 13 Swiss company that owns Butterfinger and 31 Author Christopher whose writing inspired Buitoni “Cabaret” 16 Group that breaks stories 32

Free 23 Dr. of old pajamas 33 French Revolution radical 24 Series gaps 34 Ricky Ricardo’s theme song

Up Front

Across 1 Attribute (to) 8 Hebrew letter before nun 11 Mil. VIP 14 Like most candy canes 15 The slightest amount 17 Fisher-Price toy that teaches animal noises 18 Fixes up the lawn 19 Momentarily 20 Scratches like a cat 21 Meh 22 “Good” cholesterol 25 Move, as merchandise 26 “The Waste Land” author’s initials 27 Gather wool from sheep 29 “It is ___ told by an idiot”: Macbeth 30 Quality of a spare tire holder?

32 Eight days out from the beginning of the work week, often 33 “Ultimately, we have the upper hand” 34 Bygone brand of “flavor bits” 35 Hoopster Archibald and statistician Silver, for two 36 “Honest” presidential nickname 39 Dull soreness 40 Azerbaijan, once (abbr.)

41 Old Dead Sea kingdom 42 Capacity of a liner, perhaps 46 Bikini or Brazilian, e.g.

triad-city-beat.com

CROSSWORD ‘Grid Expectations’ freestyle for now.

Culture

Triad Stage invites you to be part of its most ambitious production to date.

presented by

in partnership with

Crossword

Triad Stage, in partnership with UNC Greensboro, brings to life one of Broadway’s most iconic musicals. The world is at war, and on an island in the South Pacic the U.S. has created a military stopover for young men on their way to the front lines of battle. But love is also in the air. Emotions run high as a Midwestern nurse and a young lieutenant each navigate the treacherous waters of unfamiliar cultures and new romances. Winner of the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacic will sweep you away with the delightful cast of characters and unforgettable songs like “Bali Ha’i,” “I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair,” and “Younger Than Springtime.”

Shot in the Triad

SEPT. 17 - OCT. 15, 2017

BUY TICKETS TODAY! 232 SOUTH ELM STREET | GREENSBORO | 336.272.0160 | TRIADSTAGE.ORG

21

September 21 – 27, 2017

Bethabara Road, Winston-Salem

Culture

Opinion

News

Up Front

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

Caramel the Llama at Apple Fest at Bethabara Park.

Crossword

Shot in the Triad

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

22

Yvonne Johnson, City Council PAID FOR BY THE COMMITTEE TO ELECT YVONNE JOHNSON

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BOR RT · CHOPIN · HAYDN · MOZA 8PM 0, 2017 - RE 3 / 8 2 P E T S THEA CAROLINA

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nancyvaughangso.com TICKETS: Carolina Theatre Box Office · 310 S. Greene St. · 336-333-2605 · www.CarolinaTheatre.com · Ticketmaster.com GreensboroSymphony.org · 336-333-5456 x 224 (*A $3.00 theatre Facility Fee is added to the price of each ticket. Sales Tax is included in ticket price.)

Paid for by the Committee to Elect Nancy Vaughan

Sept. 20-24, Downtown Greensboro

GreensboroFashionWeek.com