TCB Sept. 28, 2017 — Taco Takeover

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point Sept. 28– Oct.4, 2017 triad-city-beat.com

Taco Takeover Envision ing a taquer ia on every cor ner

FREE

GSO mayor’s race PAGE 8

Jesse Helms’ revenge PAGE 10

Elusive folkie PAGE 12

Sept. 28– Oct.4, 2017

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

Jorge leaves his desk

by Brian Clarey

Jorge Maturino lasted longer than most at the art director’s desk, which over the decades of my career has been situated right next to me, down the hall and — as in Jorge’s case — across a small room. He may have lasted longer than anyone who I’ve convinced over the years to make pages for me against tight deadlines, last-minute changes and Jordan Green’s weekly assault on word counts.

Lauren lasted almost three years.

Lindsay and Lisa were good for about a year apiece. Devender hung in there for a at least a couple years before getting poached by the Charleston City Paper.

Mallory put in a solid two and then moved on. And Katie’s two years flew by in a spate of giggles.

Jorge has been with us since the very first issue of Triad City Beat, 189 weeks ago in February 2014. He created the initial template for the paper you hold in your hands, designed the tab system at the margins and, in those first few months, created our back-page marketing cam-

paign with hand-drawn illustrations.

There are lots of people who know the software out there, but most of them can’t draw.

Some new designers cry on their first production day at an altweekly; Jorge just got red in the face and I could tell he was chewing the insides of his mouth by the time we finally sent that first issue off to the printer. We settled the process down quickly, and within a few months Jorge presided over the smoothest production I’ve ever had the privilege to be a part of.

I remember our first meeting, at a coffeeshop where I downloaded to him my entire vision for TCB in the winter of 2013. I really think he thought I was a crazy person. I still don’t know why he agreed to do it. The ethical underpinning of the enterprise? The flexible hours? The complete lack of a dress code?

I try not to overthink it. I’m just grateful he signed on.

This is Jorge’s last issue before he moves on to bigger things. To say I will miss him would be an understatement.

We’ve got a fine replacement— Rob Paquette, who makes his debut this week at the vintage drafting table that serves as the art desk at TCB, and will be imprinting his own mark on the paper over the weeks and months to come.

I’m pretty sure Rob thinks I’m crazy, too.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

I really just prefer not to talk about myself if that’s okay. But what’s going on with you?

— Dylan Venable, in Music, page 12

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 jordan@triad-city-beat.com

ART ART DIRECTOR Robert Paquette

1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 SALES Cover photography by Eric SALES EXECUTIVES Ginsburg Andrew Lazare Caption: The tacos at Pepe el Toro andrew@triad-city-beat.com London Lane are delicious, and land a small blow london@triad-city-beat.com against white supremacy.

CONTRIBUTORS Lauren Barber Carolyn de Berry Spencer KM Brown Matt Jones Joel Sronce

robert@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.

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SPREADING JOY ONE PINT AT A TIME

Playing September 28 – 30 The Idiot Box Presents

Ultimate Comic Challenge X Celebrating 10 Years of Competitive Comedy!

Winner gets $1,000 Prize!

8:30 p.m. & 10 p.m. Friday, September 29nd.

Tickets $10.

OTHER SHOWS Thursday Night Special: Adam Cayton Holland 8:30 p.m. Thurs., Sept. 28th $10 tickets!

Hacks! Your Parents Standup 10 p.m. Fri., Sept.29th Family Improv 4 p.m. Sat., Sept. 30th $6 Tickets!

Saturday Night Improv 8:30 p.m. Sat., Sept. 30th $10 tickets!

Unstoppable Failure Sketch Comedy Show 10 p.m. Sat., Sept. 30th $10 tickets!

Discount tickets available @ Ibcomedy.yapsody.com

2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro idiotboxers.com • 336-274-2699

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

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Sept. 28– Oct.4, 2017

CITY LIFE Sept. 28 – Oct. 1

by Lauren Barber

Procession for immigrants @ Merschel Plaza (W-S), 5 p.m.

The Sanctuary City Coalition of Winston-Salem Community hosts a rally and march to demonstrate solidarity with three people currently taking sanctuary in North Carolina: Minerva Garcia, Juana Luz Tobar Ortega and the Rev. Jose Chicas. Following the rally, attendees wearing black will silently march in a mock funeral procession to highlight human casualties of US immigration policies. A rally will also be held in at the American Language Academy (GSO) at 4 p.m. To learn more, find the event on Facebook.

What Does City Council Do and Why Should I Care & Vote? @ NC A&T University (GSO), 7 p.m.

In collaboration with NC A&T University, the League of Women Voters explains the function of Greensboro City Council versus the role of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners during this forum in Room 240 of the McNair Building on the campus of A&T. Former mayors Keith Holliday and Robbie Perkins will join community activist Amy Murphy to discuss how the city changed during their tenures. Attendees will also learn why A&T is split into two voting locations. Learn more at lwvpt.org.

Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword

Open mic @ Centennial Station Arts Center (HP), 7 p.m.

The High Point Arts Council presents its Fifth Friday open mic featuring music genres ranging from hip hop and gospel to country and indie rock. Though open to all ages, adults can take advantage of deals on local craft beers and wines at the bar. Learn more at highpointarts.org.

SATURDAY

Family First block party @ NC Cooperative Extension (GSO), 10 a.m.

To wrap up Local Foods Week, the NC Cooperative Extension hosts a family-friendly block party featuring food trucks, healthy food demonstrations, exercise classes, garden tours and games. Receive free health screenings and flu shots. This unique event offers everything from a live cow-milking demonstration to free crash courses in financial planning. For more information, visit guilfordextension.com.

4th anniversary and Oktoberfest release @ Hoots Roller Bar (W-S), noon Hoots hosts an all-day festival celebrating Winston-Salem and the coming of fall. The event features food from Bill’s BBQ and the Bahtmobile food truck, a flea market, games, a dunking booth, raffle prizes, contests and the release of the 4th annual Zinzendorf Oktoberfest beer. Enjoy live music from I Anomaly, the Genuine, Bjorn & Francois, Space Cadet Orchestra, Brother Bear Presents “3PC & A Biscuit,” DJ SK, DJ Eighty Four and the Carolina Stars Drumline. Find the event on Facebook.

Margot Lee Shetterly @ Guilford College (GSO), 7 p.m.

The Greensboro Public Library hosts Margot Lee Shetterly, author of the New York Times bestselling book and inspiration for the blockbuster movie Hidden Figures in Dana Auditorium on the campus of Guilford College. Shetterly will talk about her book, the making of the film and the Human Computer Project, an endeavor she founded to catalog the names and accomplishments of the women mathematicians, scientists and engineers who worked at the NACA and NASA in the 1930s through the 1980s. Hidden Figures is the library’s One City, One Book program title this year and will serve as the basis for a variety of programs. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Learn more at guilford.edu.

High Point City Ghost Tours @ Brown Truck Brewery (HP), 7 p.m.

Carolina History & Haunts leads ghost tours combining High Point history and local legends in partnership with the High Point Historical Society. Winston-Salem Wings -N- Fins food truck will be at Brown Truck Brewery both nights. Though the tours are family-friendly, they are best suited for children ages 8 and older. Space is limited, so email teresa.loflin@highpointnc.gov to reserve your spot or find the event on Facebook.

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Sutler’s Spirit Co. tasting @ Sutler’s Spirit Co. (W-S), 6:30 p.m.

The local spirits company hosts its next distillery tour and tasting just in time to unwind from a long week at work. Meet the owner and sip on Sutler’s gin while learning about the gin and rum distilling process and take home a Sutler’s rocks glass. The distillery is open to the public after the tour from 7:45 to 9 p.m. Register at sutlersspiritco.com.

The Queen’s Storytime @ Scuppernong Books (GSO), 11 a.m.

Stonewall Sports hosts drag queen Jean Jacket’s reading of Where the Wild Things Are for children before they enjoy crafting their own monster masks as everyone explores shared interests in dressing up and exercising imagination. Find the event on Facebook.

Opinion

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Up Front

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

Bailey Blues & Bluegrass Festival @ Bailey Park (W-S), 6 p.m.

The Blue Ridge Music Center and the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter present a free folk, bluegrass and blues concert on Bailey Park’s upper lawn. Performers include Dori Freeman, the Aaron Burdett Band and Amythyst Kiah & Her Chest of Glass­­. Learn more at blueridgemusiccenter.org.

Queer Ancestors and Histories @ Elsewhere Museum (GSO), 5 p.m.

All are welcome to participate in QueerLab’s OUTlaws workshop, where North Carolina-based artists — including participants in the Greensboro Mural Project — guide attendees through the histories of queer ancestors and create podcasts to coincide with photos that capture past, present and future stories in an effort to explore queer culture in the South. Learn more at goelsewhere.com.

Blake Worthington @ Forsyth County Public Library (W-S), 6 p.m.

Local author Blake Worthington’s debut novel Murder unto Death landed on the New York Times bestseller list, but it’s not clear whether he will survive his appearance at the new library to promote his book. Willow’s Bistro provides refreshments as guests enjoy a classic “Whodunit” game. Due to language and suggestive humor, the event is recommended for ages 13 and up. Learn more at forsyth.cc.

SUNDAY

Art in the Arboretum @ Greensboro Arboretum (GSO), noon Greensboro Beautiful hosts a juried art and fine craft event exhibiting the work of 50 regional artists in an outdoor gallery. This event also features entertainment on three stages, interactive art activities, monarch butterfly and honey bee exhibits, two food courts and plants for sale. Learn more at greensborobeautiful.com.

Civil rights tour @ Beloved Community Center (GSO), 2 p.m.

The American Friends Service Committee partners with Lewis Brandon and the Beloved Community Center for a tour of Greensboro’s long and rich civil rights history, followed by snacks and stories of the committee’s desegregation work in North Carolina. Find the event on Facebook and reserve you spot.

by Brian Clarey

DINE IN TO GO

CaTErING markET plaCE “You Will Be Pleased”

310 South Elm Street • Greensboro, NC 27401 336.279.7025 | Mon-Sat 11am-9pm | www.jerusalemarket.com

Opinion

*Not America’s team

JERUSALEM

News

propaganda machine. And for some it might not even have been about social injustice — more of a thumb in the eye to a president who thinks he can tell the NFL what to do.

But it’s hard not to imagine the millionaires of color in the NFL have not been profiled a time or two during their lives.

There’s so much to unpack here: the hard rebuke of President Trump, the labor issue, the disconnect between the weekend’s games and the league’s behavior toward former San Francisco 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick who began the protests in 2016 as a response to racial injustice for black Americans and who has since been drummed out of football.

But for those of us too young to remember the Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, the raised fists at the 1968 Olympics or any other time sports has been at the forefront of social change in the United States, it was a powerful indicator of the things that bind us, which are sometimes stronger than those that divide.

Up Front

All those SOBs in the NFL — as President Donald Trump classified them last week — who knelt during this weekend’s football games did more for the resistance than a dozen street protests and a thousand op-ed pieces.

The kicker, when Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones joined America’s Team* in taking a knee during the “Monday Night Football” national broadcast, surely gave even some of Trump’s most ardent supporters pause.

Because if you love the Cowboys, and the Cowboys are pissed off about something, well then maybe you might get upset about that thing, too, especially if it affects their game. Presidents come and go, but fans’ relationships with their teams are forever.

Gestures of protest, ranging from locking arms to kneeling to opting out of the entire ceremony, were deployed by 29 of the league’s 32 teams — the Carolina Panthers being a notable exception.

It was not about veterans or the flag, a canard being propped up by the right-wing

Recipes fRom the old city of

triad-city-beat.com

Taking a knee

Mainstream rock of the instrumental on the Selecter’s “Three Minute Hero.”

The bands that populated the underground here, alongside their counterparts in the UK, went to war against the mediocrity and superficiality of mass culture in Reagan’s America, and since they held no realistic prospect of commercial success, they had no reason to compromise either their message or musical integrity.

The realization about just how underrated ’80s underground rock is crystallized for me with the recent death of Grant Hart, drummer for the seminal Minneapolis power-punk trio Hüsker Dü, whose legacy was lovingly captured by my friend Tigger Lunney in City Pages last week. I wasn’t as familiar with Hüsker Dü’s music at the

Crossword

Hüsker Dü

time, but they were part of a wave of bands — like X and the Dead Kennedys — that broke up just as I was starting to go to punk shows, but set the aesthetic and attitude for everything I paid attention to. In hindsight, it’s easy to see that Hüsker Dü’s tuneful chaos and slouchy irreverence was the template for more successful bands like the Pixies, Nirvana and Dinosaur Jr. And reading Lunney’s piece, I recognize that the uncompromising creative integrity that made Hüsker Dü so fierce and also made it so difficult for Hart to achieve commercial success after the band’s breakup were baked into the culture in the late ’80s.

Success on your own terms. Do it with a sense of integrity, and risk failure if necessary. Don’t compromise your values to meet the demands of the marketplace.

Lunney and I — both alumni of the Kentucky School of the Arts Class of ’91 — inherited the DIY culture in a pre-internet era when hand-copied cassettes with bands like Hüsker Dü and homemade ’zines served as a lifeline from the cultural wasteland of our small-town existence.

They pointed a way to a viable future and a way to live on our own terms. We both owe a huge debt of gratitude to trailblazers like Grant Hart.

Shot in the Triad

Even though Prince, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and Bruce Springsteen, the musical superstars of the 1980s, have held up well, the underground bands of the era were way better.

From the time I was old enough to cultivate my own tastes — which I can roughly pinpoint to the end of 1987 just before my 13th birthday — I was in rebellion against the mainstream. Seriously, whose idea of adolescent rebellion is following the “King of Pop,” or for God’s sake, someone called “the Boss”? Let’s be honest: The multitude of groups in the 1980s that never cracked mainstream airplay ruled. X, the Blasters, Bad Brains, the Dead Kennedys, the Minutemen, Black Flag, Sonic Youth, the Replacements and Fugazi all come to mind. Throw in the 2-Tone ska bands from England, most notably the Specials and the Selecter, and the Toasters in New York. For that matter, the burgeoning hip-hop movement pre-“Yo! MTV Raps” didn’t make much of a dent on radio. You can probably come up with your own list.

The energy, directness and sheer originality of that music remains unmatched, to my ear, whether it’s the taut rope-a-dope guitar riff that opens X’s “Los Angeles,” the 1-minute aggro-jazz poems of the Minutemen or Pauline Black’s frenetic vocal lurching over the jagged propulsion

Culture

by Jordan Green

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Sept. 28– Oct.4, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword

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NEWS

Support for Obamacare repeal collapses as opponents picket Burr

by Jordan Green

Members of Indivisible and the NAACP protested the latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act in Winston-Salem on Monday.

While it’s not clear the two US senators from North Carolina were listening, the bill died the following day because of disunion within the Republican ranks.

Residents from Forsyth and Alamance counties gathered at a busy intersection in Winston-Salem at rush hour on Monday to protest the most recent effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and the next day the bill was dead.

“We’ve focused on saving the Affordable Care Act,” said Dana Courtney, a retired social worker from Graham who is a member of the Alamance County NAACP. “The Affordable Care Act isn’t perfect; it has some flaws that they need to work on. From everything I’m seeing about Trumpcare, it seems like there will be more people that will be uninsured. States will get block grants that won’t be sufficient to meet people’s needs. We want to save the provision that protects people with pre-existing conditions. If they throw that out, literally people will die.”

Courtney came to Winston-Salem as part of a contingent of six people from Alamance County who are active in the NAACP and Indivisible NC-6 in response to a call from the direct action team of Indivisible Forsyth. Trina Harrison with Indivisible NC-6 said her organization decided to come to Winston-Salem because neither of the two US senators from North Carolina has an office in the 6th Congressional District. The sidewalk protest on Monday took place in front of Sen. Richard Burr’s office.

Jim Ferree, a retired US Army veteran active with Indivisible Forsyth, said that “each time they come up to repeal” the Affordable Care Act, “we come out in force.” He added that members have spoken with Burr’s staff at his office in Winston-Salem.

“Sen. Burr, in my opinion, puts party before people,” Ferree said, expressing doubt that protests and constituent calls have swayed the senator.

Burr had planned to vote for the repeal bill filed last week by Sen. Lindsey

Graham of South Carolina and Sen. Bill Cassidy, an aide confirmed, while declining to comment further. Sen. Thom Tillis, the junior senator from North Carolina, also appeared to be leaning towards support for the bill.

Tillis, who did not respond to a request for comment for this story, reportedly told the McClatchy news organization last week: “This bill doesn’t solve it; it just puts it on footing that is more likely to get us to a solution, through other measures that are going to require 60 votes.”

The Graham-Cas- Opponents of Obamacare repeal protested outside Sen. Richard Burr’s office on JORDAN GREEN Monday. sidy bill needed the support of at least “He gets Medicaid through a waiver “I’m for universal healthcare,” Forrest 50 out of 52 Republican members of program,” Layton said. “Without Medadded. “Go, Bernie Sanders.” the Senate, and had looked increasingly icaid we can’t seek weekly therapies.

While the Winston-Salem protest vulnerable with Sen. John McCain of There is school-based therapy, but we focused on healthcare, some people disArizona, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky rely on Medicaid for anything outside played signs addressing other issues like and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine of that…. Without Medicaid, we would white supremacy and Russian meddling publicly withholding support. Then, go crazy in debt. My concern is that in the 2016 election. on Tuesday — only four days after the they will cut a lot of Medicaid funding.”

“I’m really concerned about the bill was filed — the Senate leadership Nancy Forrest with the Alamance Russia connection,” Forrest said. “We pulled the plug, avoiding a floor vote County NAACP echoed concerns that should have a recall connection and that would have resulted in defeat.

Republican efforts to repeal the Affordinvalidate the election. Put as many Validating the fears of the roughly able Care Act will put lives at risk, while people as possible in jail.”

35 residents protesting the repeal effort acknowledging that the current law is Ferree, who said his primary reason in front of Sen. Burr’s Winston-Salem far from perfect. for attending the protest was “to resist office, the Congressional Budget Office Forrest said she and her son, who the white supremacist agenda,” also released a report on Monday evening made an argument for universal healthis 50, have both been diagnosed with projecting that millions of people would care based on his status as a military congenital heart defects. lose insurance if the Graham-Cassidy “We weren’t supposed to live past veteran. bill was enacted. Part of the reason for 30,” she said. “If we lose healthcare “One of the things about healthcare the decrease, the office reported, was we’re dead because we won’t have acthat’s so hypocritical is these Republithat “enrollment in Medicaid would be cess to doctors. I feel as though [repeal cans want to kill the Affordable Care substantially lower because of reducis] going to limit the coverage we can Act,” he said. “They profess to support tions in federal funding.” get. I’m employed now, and my job is the veterans. That’s socialized medicine.

Allison Layton of Winston-Salem pretty secure. My son’s case is different.

If it’s good enough for veterans, it’s attended the protest with her 3-year-old He’s in much worse shape. He’s in a good enough for all Americans.” son, who was born with cystic fibrosis. more tenuous job than I am.

triad-city-beat.com Up Front News Opinion Culture

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Crossword

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Shot in the Triad

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by Jordan Green

of

Up Front

Sept. 28– Oct.4, 2017

Seeking third term as mayor, Vaughan faces challengers from left and right

Crossword

Shot in the Triad

Culture

Opinion

News

NancyVaughan

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Nancy Vaughan, who is seeking her third term as mayor of Greensboro, faces challengers from the left and right.

Since her election as Greensboro’s mayor in 2013, Nancy Vaughan has exemplified urban political leadership as a progressive counterweight to the hard-right Republican cohort that took control in Raleigh around the same time.

Vaughan led a council that successfully fought back against a redistricting plan that would have maximized Republican influence on city government, opposed the anti-LGBTQ HB 2 bill signed into law by then-Gov. Pat McCrory (and subsequently repealed), and passed a resolution declaring Greensboro a “stranger to neighbor” city — a markedly different signal from the General Assembly’s harsh crackdown against undocumented immigrants.

Joe Brown

Under Vaughan’s leadership, Greensboro has rebounded from the Great Recession with a downtown renaissance manifested with a proliferation of brewpubs, continual progress on the Downtown Greenway and a modest construction boom near NewBridge Bank Park.

Yet the progressive consensus in North Carolina cities like Greensboro has shown some signs of fraying in the past two years, with persistent concerns about widening wealth inequality and tepid economic growth, coupled with tensions over police accountability.

Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts, who cuts a profile somewhat similar to Vaughan’s, went down in the defeat during that city’s partisan primary earlier this month. Both Charlotte and Greensboro have experienced turmoil over HB 2 and police-community relations, but Charlotte has faced more acute difficulties as the primary target

Rev. Diane Moffett

the anti-LGBTQ law and the uprising last fall that came in response to the police-involved shooting of Keith Lamont Scott.

Vaughan, who is seeking a third term that she says will be her last, faces challengers from the left and right in the city’s nonpartisan primary scheduled for Oct. 10. (Early voting is already underway.)

John T. Brown, a general contractor with support from local Republican donors, has been waging an aggressive campaign against Vaughan, attempting to make the case that she’s responsible for rising crime and a sluggish economy. The Rev. Diane Moffett, the pastor at St. James Presbyterian Church, has walked a careful line between supporting the police while calling for racial equity, and has offered herself as a unifier for a divided city.

During a recent interview at Green Joe’s Coffee Co. on Battleground Avenue, Vaughan acknowledged that the city’s efforts to attract quality jobs in a handful of targeted areas like medicine and advanced manufacturing has “been frustrating at times.” She talked about the city’s participating in a regional partnership to develop the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite. Vaughan declined to confirm or deny it, but her colleague Nancy Hoffmann has said that Toyota officials looked at the site in early September. While Vaughan said auto manufacturing would be the “gold standard” for the site, she added that a second-tier advanced manufacturing tenant would also make a significant impact on job creation.

“People who say we’re circling the drain, that’s just silly,” Vaughan said.

“There is more negative self-talk about Greensboro. There’s more of that in

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Stranger to Neighbor City resolution unanimously adopted by city council in 2014. The resolution honors FaithAction International House, while endorsing its “Stranger to Neighbor” model “as an effective tool to build bridges of trust and understanding between city institutions and our newest neighbors leading to a better city for all Greensboro residents.”

While there is no legal definition for “sanctuary city,” it typically refers to jurisdictions that limit or restrict cooperation between the police and federal immigration authorities. Nothing in the “Stranger to Neighbor” resolution limits Greensboro police from communicating or cooperating with federal immigration authorities. In fact, sanctuary cities are illegal in North Carolina.

When challenged on the false claim, Brown brought up an unsubstantiated assertion that participants in a recent immigration rights rally took over the streets in downtown Greensboro, arguing that the protesters were breaking the law. But when asked if the police should be allowed to use their discretion to not make arrests if they thought it was in the greater interest of maintaining public safety, Brown said he would leave that up to the police chief.

News

comparison. Danielsen said Greensboro is not included in the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report for reasons she doesn’t understand; she said the department submitted the required data.

As to the rising number of violent crimes, Vaughan said, “I believe the only way we are going to make a dent in this is to build a level of trust between the community and the police department. Crime prevention is hard, but they need help on the closure rate.”

Moffett said she believes poverty is at the root of the rising number of homicides and other violent crime.

“This creates a sense of hopelessness, a sense of abdication,” she said. “That is all related. I think it’s systemic. We have to work very closely together and begin to dismantle those systems that are not helpful. Everybody wants to be safe. Everybody wants to have a quality of life. We’ve got to grow together.

We’ve got to invest together and see what we can do.”

On the issue of police accountability, Moffett said city leaders need to be more proactive about calling out the misconduct of specific officers so that the whole department isn’t tainted, and said the city needs to acknowledge and address racial disparities in policing. She said the city needs to be transparent, while recognizing that state law significantly restricts the release of police body camera video.

Vaughan, who spent 16 months meeting on a weekly basis with police accountability activists like the Rev. Nelson Johnson, defended the city’s record.

“I think the complaint that council has not been transparent with police-community relations is not true,” she said. “We knew there was an issue with citizens not getting access to police body-camera videos, and we were one of the first cities to put together a policy.

Unfortunately, the General Assembly had another idea.”

Brown charges on his campaign website that “Vaughan has increased crime by politicizing and interfering with the police department [and by] designating Greensboro a sanctuary city,” while asserting that the policy allows undocumented gang members to operate in the city.

While the first claim is a matter of debate, the second is simply not true. As support for the claim, Brown cites the

Up Front

ered from a recession that ended eight years ago.”

While noting the advantages held

by Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte, Vaughan said the Triad sustained the highest number of manufacturing losses in the 2000s and then got hit the hardest by the recession, adding, “It’s been a really hard climb back.”

Moffett said as mayor she would bring people together to forge a collective vision of the city’s economic future.

“Charlotte has banking, Winston-Salem is all about the arts,” she said.

“Who are we? We used to be textiles and tobacco, and we’re trying to transform. I believe the answers are within us.”

Brown, like Bill Knight — a conservative Republican who served as mayor from 2009 to 2011 — says his business experience would uniquely position him to recruit employers.

“What I’ve found out is that CEOs of corporations like people who like them,” Brown said. “It’s that personal touch….

I have business experience.”

As part of Brown’s dystopian portrait of Greensboro, he says on his website that the city “is in the grips of a threeyear crime wave.”

Crime stats maintained by the Greensboro Police Department do bear out that violent crime has been on the rise since 2015, but Brown’s claim omits the context that the starting point was a 28-year low. Violent crime hit its lowest point since 1976 — as far back as the department’s stats go — with 484 incidents per 100,000 residents, and then climbed to 608 in 2015 and 667 in 2016. But violent crime in 2016 was still lower than at any point between 1988 and 2009. The property crime rate continues to drop and has reached an all-time low.

Contributing to the perception that Greensboro is dangerous, Brown’s campaign website claims that “91 percent of cities in the US are safer than Greensboro,” citing a real estate website called Neighborhood Scout as the source.

Susan Danielsen, the public information officer for the department, said the crime analysis team found several flaws in the methodology used by the site, including that the “data is several years old,” populations are inaccurate and the site uses a mix of crime reporting codes, resulting in an apples-to-oranges

triad-city-beat.com

Greensboro than any other city in North Carolina. We’ve got a lot of good things going on some people only focus on the negative.”

Brown has hammered a brutal message suggesting that a trifecta of job loss, high crime and high taxes is pulling Greensboro into a downward spiral of deterioration.

He says that the city has lost 1,000 high-wage jobs in the past two years, citing reports of six companies laying off workers, including tobacco manufacturing at ITG Brands and a Kellogg Co. distribution center. The Brown campaign doesn’t talk about jobs added in Greensboro. Since 2013, the year Vaughan took office as mayor, HondaJet has doubled its Greensboro workforce from 904 to 1,800, Lincoln Financial has added 221 jobs while investing $33 million in its downtown building, and Cone Health has added 1,200 jobs, according to company representatives.

And in 2016, the aircraft maintenance company Haeco Americas said that its construction of a new hangar at Piedmont Triad International Airport would result in 500 new jobs.

The Brown campaign has pointed out that wage growth in Greensboro lags behind Durham, Charlotte and Raleigh, and that average wages in Durham are 36 percent higher than Greensboro.

Andrew Brod, an economist at UNCG, explained how the Triad cities lag behind their more dynamic peers in the Triangle and the Charlotte area in a July 2017 column for the Triad Business Journal. Describing Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte as “high fliers,” Brod wrote. “These regional economies feature universities, financial sectors, biotech and computing, consultancies and state government. They depend on skilled labor and attract talented people from around the state and country.”

In contrast, he pointed out that the workforces in Greensboro-High Point and Winston-Salem, along with Hickory, Goldsboro and Rocky Mount, have shrunk since 2008. “In terms of job growth, the last five metropolitan areas are more like rural North Carolina than Charlotte and the Triangle. They face long-term structural challenges related to declining manufacturing industries and changes in agriculture, and the Great Recession exacerbated the pain of adjustment. They haven’t fully recov-

US YOU

9

Sept. 28– Oct.4, 2017 Up Front News Opinion

OPINION EDITORIAL

On the right side of the High Point ballpark There’s a beauty of a city council election brewing in High Point, with several seats guaranteed to have new occupants — including the mayor’s — and the cachet of an odd-year race, which means candidates won’t get lost in a massive state election ballot.

And it’s easy to understand. The High Point City Council election can right now be boiled down to a single issue: the new ballpark project, which is either a magic bullet towards a more prosperous High Point or the first brick on a path that leads to economic ruin for the Furniture City.

As we’ve noted in this space, the ballpark plan hit its first major obstacle when the Guilford County Commission balked at the proposed loss of extra tax revenues from the district and raised questions about the financing. The pro-ballpark faction, led by High Point University President Nido Qubein, fired back by exceeding their fundraising goal and creating heavyweight alliances with Greensboro developer Roy Carroll and Blue Ridge Companies, who both signed on to developments in the ballpark’s footprint.

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The pro-ballpark faction fired back by exceeding their fundraising goal and creating alliances with Roy Carroll and Blue Ridge Companies.

10

On Monday night, the lame-duck council heard from residents on both sides of the issue before passing a resolution to approve a new financing structure, one which obligates the city with a 20-year, $30 million loan, which sounds like a big deal until it’s weighed against the total city budget, about $375 million.

On Thursday, the ball bounces back to the county commission, none of whom are up for re-election this year — but that doesn’t mean its members aren’t engaged in their own political calculus, weighing input from citizens against their contributors and constituencies.

Big ballpark projects can be funny things — Greensboro’s ballpark process back in 2003-04 drew so much pushback — much of it from the Rhino Times, which, ironically, Roy Carroll now owns — that the issue went to a voter referendum.

Now, as the area around Greensboro’s ballpark teems with development — much of that coming from Carroll’s massive hotel project along Eugene Street — it’s difficult to find anyone willing to admit they were against the new stadium back when it was in the planning stages.

CITIZEN GREEN

Jesse Helms’ revenge

Progressive North Carolinians More than 20 years after the Helms campaign signed may have comforted themselves the consent decree, Thom Tillis, speaker of the NC with the notion that Jesse Helms, House, introduced what has come to be known as the the segregationist Republican who most restrictive election law in the nation, saying, “We are served the US Senate for three here to announce that after a deliberate and transparent decades, was a relic of the state’s process, we will be filing a voter ID bill today that protects racist past when he died in 2008. the integrity of the ballot box and respects the sanctity of The truth is many Republican the right to vote.”

by Jordan Green volunteers never stopped revering And who did the General Assembly hire to defend the Helms, and the party’s boosters should have the courage law against a complaint brought by the US Justice Departto admit that NC GOP holds a sordid record of exploitment and the state NAACP? Thomas Farr, of course. ing racial division to maintain power, from the “Southern The law was struck down by the Fourth Circuit Court strategy” backlash against the 1964 Civil Rights Act that of Appeals in a 2016 ruling that concluded that “the new boosted Helms into the Senate to the 2016 election, when provisions target African Americans with almost surgical the party helped deliver the state into Donald Trump’s precision,” while placing it squarely in North Carolina’s column. dishonorable tradition of The throughline of deliberdisenfranchisement. ate racial polarization comrecord makes clear It’s hard to think of a more committed that“The bined with ugly voter suppresthe historical origin of sion tactics against African operative to the cause of racial polar- the challenged provisions Americans has continued unthis statute is not the ization than Thomas Farr, nominated ininnocuous abated over the past 50 years, back-and-forth of held in check only by the US routine partisan struggle that

by Trump to fill a federal judgeship.

Justice Department. It’s hard the state suggests and that to think of a more committed the district court accepted,” operative to the cause than the court ruled. “Rather, the Thomas Farr, who has received President Trump’s nomiGeneral Assembly enacted them in a state with a troubled nation to fill a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of racial history and racially polarized voting.”

North Carolina.

There was a certain poetic irony to the scene of now US As Newsweek recently reported, Farr represented Helms Sen. Thom Tillis presiding over a Senate Judiciary Comin a complaint filed by the Justice Department during the mittee hearing to consider Farr’s nomination on Sept. 20. first Bush administration alleging that the campaign and Apparently overlooking the Fourth Circuit’s rebuke and the NC Republican Party used mailers targeting African neglecting to mention his own role in creating the unconAmericans to scare them away from the polls during the stitutional law, Tillis opined that Farr is “widely respected 1990 election. That year, Helms was defending his Senate as one of the best legal minds in North Carolina.” seat against Harvey Gantt, the black mayor of Charlotte.

Asked by Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of MinneThe 1990 election stands out for its singular ugliness, with sota to explain how he could make the case that the voter the Helms campaign airing the infamous television ad law was not discriminatory, Farr was nothing but genial. showing the hands of a white man in a plaid shirt reading “I’m absolutely bound by the Fourth Circuit,” he said. “I and then crumpling a job rejection letter, while a narrator have the greatest respect for the judges who sat on that intoned, “You needed that job and you were the best panel. They saw things differently than my client.” qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a He also helpfully said that “at the time our clients racial quota. Is that really fair?” enacted those laws I do not believe they believed they The Justice Department alleged at the time that Helms’ were purposely discriminating against African Americans,” re-election campaign was also involved in an effort with without pointing out that one of them was presiding over the state GOP to mail 125,000 postcards, mostly to his confirmation hearing. eligible black voters, suggesting, as the New York Times Richard Burr, the senior senator from North Carolina, reported at the time, “that they were not eligible and warnalso joined in the see-no-evil bonhomie. ing that if they went to the polls they could be prosecuted “Most important thing is Tom Farr’s a good man, and I for voter fraud.” think what we look for is good people to serve in a capacHelms strategist Carter Wrenn denied that the camity like a district judge,” Burr said. “He fills every piece of paign had been involved in the mailing, but said the camthe word good.” paign agreed to settle because it couldn’t afford the cost If defending a politician who mastered the dark arts of of litigating the case. According to an Associated Press racial polarization and also argued for a law that “taraccount, Assistant Attorney General John Dunne issued get[ed] African Americans with almost surgical precision” a statement declaring that the consent decree prohibited match Burr’s idea of a “good man,” he has a strange definithe NC Republican Party “from conducting any so-called tion of the word “good.” ballot security programs directed at voters simply because they are black.”

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12

CULTURE Looking for Wild Blue Yonder: the music of Dylan Vee

by Spencer KM Brown

S

even years ago, when I was at play music with me, and so I just an open-mic night at the now did it myself.” defunct Foothills Café in King, Playing all the instruments on a quiet, somber-looking musician took his home-recorded albums, Venthe stage. Carrying a weathered guitar able was able to capture a unique and a rugged, cool air about him, he besound. With brief moments that gan his set with a humble and shy stage touch on genres such as lo-fi and presence. With a few simple chords, the garage rock, Venable managed room suddenly belonged to Dylan Vee. to take his self-taught style and With a wavering, soft voice, similar produce a raw sound that nearly to that of Connor Oberst, he played a mesmerizes and pulls the listener few songs, and vanished again back into in, all done with a soft, gentle apthe crowd, leaving listeners bewildered proach that resounds in a contemat the sudden rush of raw talent and plative quietude. poetry they had just witnessed.

“I’m more of a be-by-myself And that was the last time many sort of guy,” said Venable. “I never would see Dylan perform. could quite get over playing in Having played a slew of open-mics front of people or doing all the and random house shows, Venable was show stuff. It’s terrifying. But never able to overcome his fear of playrecording at home, working on ing in front of crowds, preferring the things in peace, it doesn’t get solitude of recording in his bedroom. much better.”

It seemed this musician was gone With more than nine albums and never to return to playing in front recorded and several more demos of an audience, leaving only his few never released, Venable’s 2010 recordings behind. But during a show effort All Kinds of Sad showed a this summer, I looked up and saw Dylan new maturity and was perhaps Venable hugging a few friends, nervoushis most popular album. Comly hunched as he talked with people. plete at eight tracks, All Kinds of Dylan Vee With faded jeans tucked into cowboy Sad plunges deep into a realm of boots, Dylan walked over to where I sat. loneliness and solitude that few “Do you have a lighter?” he said in his songwriters are able to capture without overwrought sentisoft, Southern accent. I asked him if he mentality or cliché. was playing that night and he laughed Similar to the iceberg theory of literature, Venable’s lyrics for a moment, then a sort of sadness and music play just upon the surface of themes and images, came to his face. “No, not tonight.” drawing the listener in deeper and leaving them to contemBut even at that moment, it was as if plate the subjects on their own.

I’d rediscovered this great musician. He A remarkable feature of the record is the structure of Venhad finally surfaced and was out in the able’s writing. Rarely sticking to the straightforward format crowd. But as we spoke and the night of verses and choruses, all eight songs hook the listener into carried on, it was clear that as Dylan a feeling of bizarre intrigue, leaving them wondering what stood next to the comes next. Similar to Nick Drake or stage as each perBonnie “Prince” Billy, the music plays off former went on, the poetry of the lyrics, and vice versa.

To listen to Dylan Vee’s music he longed for the The reclusive and lonely nature that’s visit dylanvee.bandcamp.com music, whether prevalent in Venable’s songs is also it was his own or present in his social life. someone else’s, “I really just prefer not to talk about it looked as if the myself if that’s okay,” Venable said, just music is what made him whole. outside Test Pattern. “I don’t mean to offend you or cut you Dylan Venable, who performs under off. But what’s going on with you?” the name Dylan Vee, began recording Since 2011, Dylan Vee has been on hiatus from playing live music at the age of 15 tucked away in shows and releasing new recordings. his bedroom with simple array of instru“I want to get back into playing live again,” he said. “And I ments at his disposal, using only a few will, sometime or another. I’m working on a new record, so microphones and a four-track recorder. we’ll see how it goes.”

“It was mostly a way of getting things But even without the live shows, there is a beauty that out,” said Venable, now 27. “I could remains in the albums he has put out; they have become a never really find anyone who wanted to precious commodity, as if he prefers to engage with his au-

MATTHEW ALLIVATO

dience one on one, keeping the art of his music in a pure and intimate setting.

Raised in Mt. Airy, a small town off Highway 52 most famous for being the setting of the Andy Griffith show, Venable began playing music under the name Wild Blue Yonder, the same name as the 2005 film by Werner Herzog. Venable collaborated with a variety of friends on early recordings. The demos feature unique elements in the sound, such as bells and the prominent clack of a typewriter in his 2009 release Wild Blue Yonder / January ’09.

Certainly, there are a number of undiscovered gems in the world of music, and there are plenty of popular artists that should maybe have never began playing music in the first place. But there is a certain amount of joy and excitement when you can discover one of these gems all on your own.

In a little fold of paper, with song titles typed on the back, my brother first gave me All Kinds of Sad. Within the first moments of driving around and listening to this gentle, sad voice, it was as if I were being let in on a secret; as if the album had been meant for me, directly from an artist who was saying, “Come here, listen to this.”

Though it has been six years since his last performance, Dylan Venable remains a friend and advocate of local music, constantly in attendance at shows of his friends Tim Poovey, the Genuine, the Girl Friends and many others. The love of songs and the musicians who play them are what made Dylan Vee take up the guitar to begin with, and I can only hope it will bring him back to the stage once again.

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Sept. 28– Oct.4, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword

14

CULTURE Where to score suadero and campechanos in the Triad

by Eric Ginsburg

M

aybe you’ve heard of Pepe the Frog, an internet meme of a rather morose looking green creature that’s been co-opted by the fashionable fascists known as the alt-right. Its usage is so prevalent that the appearance of the frog-face emoji in someone’s social media handle or bio indicates Aryan allegiance in the same manner as a swastika armband.

But there’s another animal named Pepe, this on much less well known, even on its home turf. And unlike its hopping Hilterian counterpart, this Pepe represents something much more wholesome and worthwhile — a taqueria.

Located on Greensboro’s East Market Street well beyond the campus of NC A&T University, Pepe el Toro Taqueria is an outpost, one of the lone dining options in the immediate vicinity. There’s a corner store named Apple Tree Grocery nearby, and Skippers Hot Dogs is within sight, but that’s about it unless you pop over to Boss Hogs or another hole in the wall on East Bessemer. Presumably drawing its name from the 1953 Mexican boxing film, it’s the perfect place to land a tiny blow to white supremacy.

In most respects, Pepe el Toro is your average neighborhood taqueria, drawing in a predominantly Latinx clientele with standard fare and a small marA Loaded Plate of Tacos ket. But it’s more compact than most, including small shops like El Mercadito as if they hadn’t been stocked rather than as if they’d been on Gate City Boulevard which boasts a picked clean. The adjacent meat counter too — despite promfuller selection of dry goods, products inent billing — didn’t have anything to offer, at least not that and certainly baked goods, produce evening. That left one reason, save for some household essenand meat. It’s dwarfed by San Miguel, tials and cheap dry goods on a couple shelves, to visit Pepe: another Mexican restaurant in east the prepared food.

Greensboro over For those who live in this area of town, on Yanceyville Pepe el Toro provides the regular suite of Street, and the Visit Pepe el Toro Taqueria Mexican-centric Latin cuisine, including restaurant portion fajitas, tacos and tortas, as well as someis roughly equivaat 2101 E. Market St. (GSO) what less common but still popular items lent to the veneraor find it on Facebook. including menudo, Salvadoran-style pupuble Mi Casita in the sas and antojitos, the range of small plate southwestern part offerings including tostadas de ceviche, of the city. sopes, huaraches and gorditas. All of the antojitos (including Just about the only similar shops that the pupusas) are cheap, available in tandem or trio for around rank as smaller than Pepe el Toro — $8. Patrons seeking variety can switch it up as well, selecting while still qualifying as dining establisha pupusa, sope and gordita (all roughly the same price) rather ments and not just mini markets — are than a triplicate of one. the city’s slew of taco trucks.

And if the menu ended there, that would be enough reason Even so, on a recent Thursday night to stop by. Kids can get cheesy nachos for just $2 (or “macathe shelves that would hold bakery roni and mashed potatoes” for $4), and there’s even a Califoritems and produce appeared vacant,

ERIC GINSBURG

nia-style burrito at Pepe, a surprisingly rare find in the Triad where most restaurants opt for the smothered fork-and-knife approach.

It would be easy to overlook the most compelling reason of all to come in, the thing that makes a trip across the city to this modest, minor player in the Gate City’s food scene: the suadero and campechanos.

I can’t recall ever seeing either of these meat choices on a menu before, though my friend Sam who came along said he’d run into suadero in the Triangle and loved it.

Campechanos, my research indicates, is a generally a mix of pork and beef served on a taco, as is offered at Pepe El Toro, though there are naturally some varied recipes listed online, particularly featuring a spread of pork options. The term translates to “hearty,” which makes sense, and while I couldn’t back up the theory, I wondered if it has ties in the Mexican state of Campeche, on the Yucatan peninsula and bordering Guatemala and a sliver of western Belize as well as the Gulf of Mexico and other Mexican states.

In this case, the campechanos is pork sausage and beef, certainly making for a hearty, delicious and somewhat spicy bite of taco that comes with a handful of cilantro, some

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because the dish possesses more ingredients. And the variation in my opinion could have more to do with how the suadero was prepared on one day compared to the next visit about a month later. Make of it what you will, but both of these beefy tacos are absolutely worth the trip, and despite international popularity, are in limited supply in this area.

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small-diced onion and radish and cucumber slices on the side (I ate the cucumber separately). They taste even better with a dash of hot sauce.

My first trip to Pepe el Toro, I swore the suadero was my favorite, but on my second visit I leaned towards the mix of flavors in the campechanos, while also enjoying the carnitas, pollo and particularly al pastor.

Suadero is a tough cut of beef between the belly and the leg, and while there are slightly different ways people prepare it, the general agreement appears to be that it should be cooked low for a long period of time and cut into bitty pieces so that it’s easier to chew.

Some cooks gently fry it before serving, and people disagree on the best way to season it (though several recipes call for some sort of citrus, like orange). It’s overwhelmingly served on tacos and associated with Mexico City and the surrounding central parts of the country.

If your mouth isn’t watering at least a little, I don’t think we can be friends.

The campechanos are arguably more dynamic in flavor, which makes sense

Crossword

15

Sept. 28– Oct.4, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword

16

CULTURE Imagination Installations returns to basics to dream big

By Lauren Barber

W

alking into Imagination Installations’ interactive, multimedia art exhibit in the cubic 60-foot concrete building at the Center for Design Innovation near Old Salem felt surreal. For one, the sound of a cellist playing greeted visitors as volunteer Melissa Vickers of Winston-Salem passed out acorns she collected in her backyard. The earth-, wind-, water- and firethemed exhibit only appeared more eccentric and extravagant as visitors further explored the space.

Vickers encouraged exhibit-goers to take a moment and set intentions for what they’d like to get out of the exhibit, and to cherish those notions by planting their acorns in the dirt-filled pots when they got to the middle of the Earth.

An elevator that smelled of lemons would carry them down, its car decorated to resemble the bark of a tree.

Participants made their way toward a room representing the earthly elements, decorated with corn, crystals and a flower, their eyes adjusting to darkness with the aid of only a salt lamp.

Moving counter-clockwise, families and some older couples wound through a delicate maze from which colorful ribbons and wind chimes hung. Few resisted the chance to hit a small gong with its accompanying mallet, however softly.

“It’s like a little fairy tale for LAUREN BARBER Rebeccah Byer of Winston-Salem hits a gong in an area of the exhibit dedicated to the theme of air and wind. kids,” attendee Kristie Wallis of Winston-Salem said. construction paper, the same ones laid out on tables or tied to painted on the boxes inside the alcove.

She brought her elementaAs a whole, the space encouraged wonder; despite the metal tree figurines in the entrance upstairs. ry-school-aged daughters Amelia and cold, concrete perimeter it was easy to breathe in the pecu“I thought it was great how they tied in the historical aspect Sadie to the exhibit and eventually liar space. Inevitably, small children of our community,” attendee Rebecfound a seat in a few rows of chairs by cah Byer, 43, said. “You can talk about tilted their heads upward to stare, the entrance, presumably for parents community in a generic sense, or how it starry-eyed, at images of the Milky Way Learn more about Imagination looking for a break.

Installations at imaginationinand sweeping views of lush deciduous relates to us here specifically.”

But adults overwhelmingly particiforests from a helicopter’s perspective Byer who is the executive director of pated in the whimsy first. Parents toyed stallations.com and the Center for projected onto the far four-story high the Olio glassblowing studio, said she with the dangling chimes and grandparDesign Innovation at cdiunc.org. found the water section “fascinating wall. The video also featured historical ents ducked through the openings in a and invigorating.” There, volunteer scenes from the area and photos of giant array of cardboard boxes stacked community members at events such as Cherry Woodburn met participants who to create a fortress for the fire section. wandered into the area and gave each a Earth Day fairs over the last six years.

Inside, a spinning disco-ball represented There Imagine Installations founder Cheryl Schirillo had single word that came to her mind right then, inviting them to a camp-fire and Christmas lights illuprompted them to write their hopes and dreams on pieces of scribble some associations or doodle on large sheets of paper minated words like “glow” and “blaze”

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one of the exhibit’s elements. If someone wanted to write about a dream or something else the water area made them think of, they could find the booklet decorated with blue ribbon and the painted image of dolphins springing forth from the sea.

Schirillo’s set-up encouraged visitors to consider how they might manifest their dreams in the community, translating their experiences into tangible action as hand-painted posters prompted.

“I loved the messaging for kids,” Kristie Wallis said. “Your dreams can be anything and you can dream as big as you want.”

As participants left, a woman tied a red thread around their wrists, symbolizing the connection everyone who attended the exhibit now shares.

Though the exhibit’s symbolism felt heavy-handed from an adult’s perspective, the experience rendered universally-inspiring themes and seemed geared toward driving the message home for kids: The people have the power and to dream big is no silly exercise.

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decorated with simple blue lines representing the “River of Dreams.”

Byer’s sons appreciated the experience, as well.

“It was awesome,” Elliot Rush, 10, said as he jumped and opened his arms wide to express his enthusiasm. “It’s like a museum but better. I liked the box part because you got to write your dreams and you could dance.”

He wasn’t alone in dancing; Salem College dance students volunteered to pirouette around the giant infinity symbol painted in the middle of the floor space. Glow sticks in hand, their movement kept the space dynamic and alive. One father led his two daughters — mostly interested in twirling — around what became the dancefloor.

Rush’s brother Henry, 11, preferred the wind section, particularly the chimes just within his reach. He said the exhibit reminded him of his favorite anime shows, which are often thematically rooted in the elements of earth, wind, water and fire.

“I thought it was elemental and cool and magic,” Henry said.

As Elliot alluded, hand-bound booklets awaited participants after emerging from the fire area, each representing

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Answers from previous publication.

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34 Edison’s middle name 35 Barely enough 36 Act together 37 Factory fixture, maybe 38 Balances (out) 44 Costar of “The Hangover” and “The Office” 45 Original “Saturday Night Live” cast member Newman 48 Go by 49 Fabricates 50 Neighbor of Silver Springs, Florida 51 Eyeglass kit item 53 Plumber’s right-angled joint 54 Bowler’s challenge 57 ___ Cooler (“Ghostbusters”-themed Hi-C flavor) 59 Diner breakfast order 62 Experienced 63 Quiz site 64 Flowery chain 65 Tiny bit of work

Culture

Down 1 Dance move where you duck your head and stick out your arm 2 Gold, to a conquistador 3 Cup rim 4 Passed on the track 5 1977 Scott Turow memoir 6 Peeled with a knife 7 “Toxic” singer, casually 8 Getaway 9 “Get ___ to a nunnery”: “Hamlet” 10 Engine cooling device 11 “___ to a Kill” (Bond film) 12 Prefix for meter or pede 13 Strand of hair 18 Letter before upsilon 22 Pixelated 23 Gore ... and more 24 Blacksmith’s instrument 25 Persistent attack 27 Throw out 31 Words With Friends piece 33 Spotted

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Across 1 Whipped cream amount 7 Meat-and-veggie sandwich 10 It gets checked, hopefully 14 Medium-sized Grande 15 Cheerleader’s yell (though maybe not so much these days) 16 Affirm 17 When to listen to 1950s jazz?

19 It comes between 3 and 27, in a series 20 Kilt fold 21 ___ Field (Brooklyn Dodgers’ home) 23 Receptacle for roses 26 Sand hill 28 Singer/songwriter/actress Jenny 29 Oklahoma neighbor of Vance Air Force Base 30 Glorify 32 The night before 33 Photo that anyone can take?

39 Sty resident 40 Beehive State cap.

41 Herd animal 42 Topaz mo.

43 Place to nap between two mountains?

46 “May ___ excused?”

47 Supremes first name 48 007’s alma mater 49 “Problematic with ___ Kasher” (Comedy Central series) 52 One-fifth of quince 55 “___ Get It On” 56 Say yes (to) 58 It comes way before 18-Down 60 Designer Lagerfeld 61 “Just calm down with your iPhone releases, OK?” 66 Grade sch.

67 Old M&M hue 68 Magazine publisher 69 Lumberjack’s tools 70 Lofty poem 71 Words that can precede either half of the theme entries

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University Concert and Lecture Series presents:

Rhiannon Giddens Celebrating UNCG Founders Day

Thurs, Oct. 5 UNCG Auditorium 8:00pm

for more information and tickets, visit:

ucls.uncg.edu