Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point May 31 - June 6, 2018 triad-city-beat.com
Jay Pierce jumps PAGE 6
Rev. Barber returns PAGE 9
Big bamboo PAGE 13
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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
Teenage car wreck He’s outside the coffeeshop pacing on the sidewalk, just a few years out of drinking from juice boxes, his face growing by Brian Clarey more red as he listens. He’s got his dad on the line, making the phone call that just about every teenager, myself included, must someday inevitably make: “I hit someone’s car.” This is not my teenager — mine belong to that cohort of their peer group that has no real interest in driving a car. Why would they, when it’s so much nicer just to ride? It is, however, my car. It was parked on the street, and the kid backed his giant pickup just a couple inches too far: a slow-motion, reverse Tbone. I intuit this from the smear of dents and scrapes along my quarter-panel; the pickup is almost completely unscathed. But the teenager is pretty shaken up. “I’m so sorry,” he says, red-faced, into the phone. “I’m so sorry,” he says to me. I flash back to one night in the 1980s,
after I had inadvertently removed one of the side-view mirrors from my mother’s minivan using a tree in a friend’s driveway. And another one, when my sister scraped my father’s Cadillac against the basketball pole the day he had it painted. And when Dr. Lawyer punched a hole in the grill of his mother’s new Thunderbird. And the time Serf backed into a teacher’s car in the high school parking lot. I stop myself right there. The list of teenage car wrecks is, like the universe itself, constantly expanding. As far as these things go, this one was fairly innocuous. “Breathe, kid,” I say. “You’re doing great.” And because I’m a dad, I can’t resist slipping in a teachable moment. “Remember this,” I say. “You were only going a couple miles an hour, and look what happened. Driving a car can be incredibly dangerous. “And hey,” I add. “This happens with new drivers all the time. I mean, all the time.” “That’s what my dad said,” he replies. My own teenager gets his license in one week; my time on this side of the teenage car wreck equation has just begun.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK It ain’t just Trump’s fault, but Obama didn’t do what he was supposed to either. Now, y’all won’t say ‘amen,’ but we gotta tell the truth.
— Rev. William Barber, in the News, page 9
BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com
PUBLISHER EMERITUS Allen Broach allen@triad-city-beat.com
EDITORIAL SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green
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lauren@triad-city-beat.com
CONTRIBUTORS
STAFF WRITER Lauren Barber
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1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 Cover photo of a vintage ART typewriter on display at the ART DIRECTOR Robert Paquette Greensboro History Museum robert@triad-city-beat.com by Robert Paquette
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TCB IN A FLASH DAILY @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1. ©2018 Beat Media Inc.
STIP PROJECT NO. U-6018 The N.C. Department of Transportation is proposing to make improvements to N.C. 62 near the interchange with I-85 and realign the intersections of N.C. 62 and Kersey Valley Road and Weant Road in Archdale. The open-house public meeting will be held at the Pine Grove Baptist Church located at 6308 Modlin Grove Road in High Point from 4:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. on Tuesday, June 5, 2018. The purpose of this meeting is to provide interested citizens the opportunity to review maps of the project, ask questions and provide feedback. Interested citizens may attend at any time between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Please note that there will not be a formal presentation. Maps of proposed improvements will be presented at the meeting and staff of NCDOT and the Consulting firm of Ramey Kemp will be on hand to provide information and answer questions.
SUMMER VEGAN FESTIVAL
Presented by the Triad Vegan Society and Deep Roots Market
May, 31 - june, 6
NCDOT TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETING JUNE 5 REGARDING PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS TO N.C. 62 NEAR THE I-85 INTERCHANGE AND REALIGNMENT OF THE KERSEY VALLEY ROAD AND WEANT ROAD INTERSECTIONS GUILFORD COUNTY
Sunday, June 3rd Animal Rights Day 11:00 am–4:00 pm Deep Roots Market, 600 N. Eugene, Greensboro
Family Friendly! Music and Speakers all day. Children’s Panel – 11:15 am Mask Making and Face Painting before Animal Rights Costume Parade at 1:00 pm Vegan Cooking Demonstrations. Learn about plant-based diets. In-store specials on many vegan foods. For schedule and more information, visit the Triad Vegan Society@
www.triadvegfest.org facebook.com/triadvegfest
Project maps are available online at http://www.ncdot.gov/projects/publicmeetings/ For additional information please contact NCDOT Project Engineer Brian Ketner by phone at 336-487-0075 or by email at bkketner@ncdot.gov or Consultant Project Manager, Devyn Lozzi with Ramey Kemp and Associates at 919-872-5115 or by email at dlozzi@rameykimp.com. Comments will be accepted at the meeting or by mail or email following the meeting but should be submitted by June 20, 2018. NCDOT will provide auxiliary aids and services under the Americans with Disabilities Act for disabled persons who wish to participate in this workshop. Anyone requiring special services should contact NCDOT Senior Public Involvement Officer Diane Wilson by phone at (919) 707-6073 or by email at pdwilson1@ncdot.gov as early as possible so that arrangements can be made.
Persons who speak Spanish and do not speak English, or have a limited ability to read, speak or understand English, may receive interpretive services upon request prior to the meeting by calling 1-800-481-6494.
Aquellas personas que hablan español y no hablan inglés, o tienen limitaciones para leer, hablar o entender inglés, podrían recibir servicios de interpretación si los solicitan antes de la reunión llamando al 1-800-481-6494.
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May, 31 - june, 6
Tuesday the 1st wolfie chalhoun Saturday 24th mitch hayes and matty sheets June 26th Andrew Kassab
CITY LIFE May, 31 - June, 6 by Lauren Barber
THURSDAY
Bring Your Own Vinyl @ Gas Hill Drinking Room (W-S), 8 p.m.
Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles
Free community day @ Reynolda House Museum of American Art (W-S), 11 a.m.
Saturday 22nd
Underdog Records and the Ramkat unite record heads for a BYOV party. Find the event on Facebook and don’t leave your favorite record at home — the turntable awaits.
FRIDAY
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Seamus McGraw @ Bookmarks Bookstore (W-S), 6 p.m.
pretty, pretty, ugly Sunday 23rd juju guru
News
Up Front
EVENTS
602 S Elam Ave • Greensboro
(336) 698-3888
Park Days for the Greenway @ LoFi Park (GSO), 2 p.m. Celebrate National Trails Day on the Greenway meets LoFi Park where you’ll find live music, Bandito Burrito and lawn games outside Joymongers. The celebration continues on Saturday with an official Downtown Greenway walk at 9 a.m., live music beginning at 11 a.m. and Presto Italian Food Truck and El Taco Vaquero later in the day. Bring your lawn chairs, blankets and pets. Find the event on Facebook.
McGraw discusses his book A Thirsty Land about contemporary water issues through lenses of history, science and personal narrative. Learn more at bookmarksnc.org.
SATURDAY
National Trails Day celebration @ Piedmont Environmental Center (HP), 10 a.m.
Spring festival @ Historic Bethabara Park (W-S), 11 a.m.
Play ’round the Maypole, mosey through a garden tour or simply enjoy the sunshine. The historic park marks the beginning of spring with a marketplace of local vendors, a food truck rodeo and live music from Goilìn, a traditional Irish band. Find the event on Facebook.
The Animalia of Dreams developmental reading @ Greensboro Cultural Center, 5 p.m.
Gabrielle Sinclair delivers a developmental reading of her newest play, The Animalia of Dreams, as she wraps up her 10-day pop-up residency at GreenHill Center for NC Art. Find the event on Facebook.
Reynolda House launches its new app Reynolda Revealed with an all-day festival including art, music and lawn games reflecting the history of the estate. The app enables users to hear stories never before shared with the public on selfguided tours inside and outside the house. Find your lunch and snacks with the Ice Queen, Dough-Joe’s NC, Jersey’s Best Hotdogs and the restaurants of Reynolda Village. Learn more at reynoldahouse.org.
Shop with local vendors between a guided hike and a birds-of-prey living exhibit tour. Find the event on Facebook.
Community discussion about violence against women @ High Point Public Library, 1 p.m. Join hosts Debra Kaufman and Melissa Hassard for an afternoon focused on how gendered violence is written about. Because this event is rooted in a poetry anthology called Red Sky: Poetry on the Global Epidemic of Violence Against Women, edited by Hassard, expect poetry readings and opportunities to write. Find the event and register on Facebook.
May, 31 - june, 6
SUNDAY
Triad Summer Vegan Festival @ Deep Roots Market (GSO), 11 a.m.
Big Boi @ the Blind Tiger (GSO), 8 p.m.
This week June 1-3 Friday June 1st “Shock Comic”Comedians tell jokes with shock collars on! Hosted by Drew Harrison & Jack Nelson ft. Mat Millner, Reid Pegram, Dejahzh Hendrick & more!Door 9pm, $5 Pleasures, 1970s Filmstock & Beach ath Door 9pm , Cover $5 Timothy Eerie, The Old One-Two, The Dingos <3 Door 9pm , Cover $5
336.893.8591
Pleasures @ Monstercade (W-S), 9 p.m.
Playing June 1-5
This summer, Geeksboro invites you to party down with the merriest gang of comic book nerds ever assembled! Don’t miss the INFINITY BALL, a super hero themed gala dance party event featuring a LIVE DJ set, Cosplay Contest, Injustice Tournament, Art Auction, Door Prizes, Karaoke, Games, Alter Ego Love Confessions, and More!
Culture
Big Boi, best known as Andre 3000’s Outkast partner, takes the stage alongside KP the Great, Renegade and Ed E. Ruger. Learn more at theblindtiger.com.
Opinion
204 W Acadia Ave, Winston-Salem
It’s Animal Rights Day and vegans of the Triad indoor and outdoor activities including panel discussions for children and adults alike, cooking demonstrations and a march around the block. The co-op will feature in-store vegan options and offer a veganfriendly hot bar. Learn more at triadvegfest.org.
News
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) @ Hanesbrands Theatre (W-S), 2 p.m. The Little Theatre of Winston-Salem presents an abridged performance of Shakespeare’s 37 plays in 97 minutes. Catch the condensed comedies, histories and tragedies by June 10 and find more on Facebook.
Up Front
Spirits of Summer festival @ Fourth Street (W-S), noon Camel City-based Texas Pete morphs its annual summer festival into a downtown affair with wineries, breweries and local restauarants out on 4th Street. Learn more at spiritsofsummer.com and don’t miss the afterparty at Foothills where live music continues into the evening.
Japanese stab-binding workshop @ Preyer Brewing Company (GSO), 1 p.m. Shot in the Triad
--OTHER EVENTS & SCREENINGS--
Alcohol and sharp implements are better together. Sip on your favorites and learn to craft four styles of Japanese stab bindings: fourhole, noble, hemp leaf and tortoise shell. Find the event and register on Facebook.
Beer! Wine! Amazing Coffee! 2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro geeksboro.com •
336-355-7180
Puzzles
The Arcadia spot never fails to book bands that describe their sound somewhere along the line of experimental electro-pop, dark groove, space psych or a melancholic noise project. This weekend, those bands are Pleasures, 1970s Film Stock and Beach Bath. Find the event on Facebook.
Board Game Night 7 p.m. Friday, June 1st. More than 100 Games FREE TO PLAY Midnight Radio Karaoke Admission is FREE with a drink purchase! The event starts at around 11:15 p.m. Saturday, June 2nd. Totally Rad Trivia 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 5th $3 Buy-In! Up to Six Player Teams! Dragonball FighterZ Tournament League 5 p.m. Sunday, June 3rd $5 Venue Fee! $5 Entry Fee!
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May, 31 - june, 6 Up Front News
Q&A with Chef Jay Pierce by Lauren Barber Chef Jay Pierce came to the Triad in 2006, working first at Lucky 32 and most recently at the Traveled Farmer, which closed in December. On June 2, he debuts as Mozelle’s new executive chef at the restaurant’s Texas Pete Festival booth. What do you love about Mozelle’s? They have a sterling reputation in town and it’s just so intimate; it’s cozy. All the details are attended to and so cared for that you feel like you’re in a big city, it’s this tiny, little big-city place. I’ve never been to Europe, but the stereotype is that everything is run by a proprietor who takes tremendous pride and it’s like welcoming you into their home and that’s what it feels like at Mozelle’s.
Puzzles
Shot in the Triad
Culture
Opinion
What is your favorite dish on the current menu? The wine-friendly dishes are really the key to that menu. A lot of people rave about the wine list, but I think the food goes hand in hand. You know, you can have good wine at home but to have a wine and food experience, your best bet is to go out and trust someone who’s got a proven track record for taking care of you.
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What changes can patrons expect under your leadership? Lightening up some of the dishes; we need more dishes that are white wine-friendly without changing the complexion of the menu or radically altering what people are looking for. Additionally, more folks are choosing to forego meat so having this modular cuisine where the dishes COURTESY Chef Jay Pierce, who previously helmed Lucky 32 and the Traveled Farmer in work without the meat component is the key to the way people eat now Greensboro, has landed at Mozelle’s in Winston-Salem. and we want to explore that more. Jennifer and I are of the same mind a way to multiply your effect on the community, too. We’re not idealistic to the point that — just because it says “Southern” doesn’t mean only pork and grits and it hinders the restaurant experience or the profitability of a restaurant, but we want to pimiento cheese. They have their place, but they shouldn’t be on every plate. make the smart decisions that make a difference to our guests. No one wants to eat at a “Portlandia” episode. Why is the farm-to-table model important to you? To me, it’s always been disconcerting that this food magically appears at your back door on this big truck in these pretty boxes when there’s people in your community who are following their own dreams of making pickles or raising pigs or growing strawberries. It’s
by Jordan Green
vindicated, even though the report would show — were it public — that he’s engaged in all kinds of shady, unethical and self-dealing behavior. His supporters love it, and go into the midterms energized by the good news. Congressional Republicans, cowed by Trump’s rallying popularity and worried about their own political survival, don’t make peep. Of course, conventional wisdom says this is a blue-wave election. That being so, 2016 was also supposed to be a wipeout for Trump, and many of us were also wondering aloud whether Republican lawmakers like Sen. Richard Burr would get pulled down in the undertow. Obviously, that didn’t happen. It seems entirely within the realm of possibility that the Democrats could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again. I won’t take any pleasure in saying, “I told you so.”
Up Front News
Take charge of your mind, body and spirit Test pH balance, allergies, hormones Balance diet, lifestyle and emotions Create a personalized health and nutrition plan
Opinion
Nelson W. Cunningham — formerly a federal prosecutor, general counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee and White House Office of Administration who has served variously under Rudy Giuliani, Joe Biden and Bill Clinton — predicts in a recent article in Politico that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will not indict President Trump. Even so, he expects plenty of upheaval that could play out in unexpected ways just before the November mid-term elections. The prognostication set forth by Cunningham is a twisted path constructed from multiple turns devised out of most likely outcomes. It goes something like this: With no indictment, the Mueller report lands in the lap of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. To protect grand jury materials, FISA warrants, NSA intercepts and other intelligence findings, Rosenstein either releases a heavily edited executive summary or hands the report off to the Judiciary Committees. Which leads to Trump firing Rosenstein, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigning to avoid disgrace. The unexpected development that Cunningham sees is that the Republican Congress will finally find its backbone and refuse to confirm Sessions and Rosenstein’s replacements, ratcheting up public pressure to release the report. “And so ironically, Trump may have succeeded in creating narrow majorities where just enough Republicans join every Democrat to demand to see the Mueller report. If they do, court precedent says they will get it. Trump’s efforts to shut down the report could backfire spectacularly.” My own prognostication is considerably gloomier. For the record, I tend to make political predictions from a place of pessimism. Although I sensed that Trump would win the 2016 election, I also publicly predicted that Gov. Pat McCrory would win re-election on the strength of a white, law-and-order backlash against the protests that erupted in Charlotte after the police killing of Keith Lamont Scott. Still, even with that disclaimer it seems entirely plausible that the scenario envisioned by Cunningham might play out in an entirely different way. Imagine a predictable partisan struggle over whether to release the report, while Trump crows that he’s been completely
May, 31 - june, 6
Trump’s America: Mueller and the mid-terms
Culture
(336) 456-4743
Shot in the Triad
3723 West Market Street, Unit–B, Greensboro, NC 27403 jillclarey3@gmail.com www.thenaturalpathwithjillclarey.com
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Puzzles
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May, 31 - june, 6
NEWS
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ICE arrests of immigrants without criminal convictions surge by Jordan Green Josue Zarate-Maya, a 25-year-old T-shirt screen-printing operator from Mexico, was arrested by an ICE agent near his home in south Greensboro on May 22. It started out as a Tuesday morning like any other for 25-year-old Josue Zarate-Maya, a machine operator at a local T-shirt screen-printing company, when he left the modest, brick ranch house he shared with his partner in Greensboro’s Spring Valley neighborhood and headed to work. An agent with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement wearing a vest marked “police” was waiting for ZarateMaya en route to work and took him into custody, starting a process that will likely end in his deportation to his native Mexico, and throwing his family in Greensboro into turmoil. “We have to move through the immigration process,” said Wendy Chavez, Zarate-Maya’s partner, “and let them know he is the many we know him to be — a good man, a good provider, a good person. Our family needs him here.” Chavez said she and Zarate-Maya have been together for about two years. Zarate-Maya is the father of Chavez’s youngest child, and she has four other children from a previous relationship. “He was the main provider for our family,” Chavez said. “He paid the rent and paid for all kinds of things like school supplies, especially for the youngest of my children. He bought diapers and baby wipes, which can get really expensive.” Chavez said her partner came to the United States in 2009, initially settling in Atlanta where he hoped to find construction work through a brother who lived there. Eventually, he found his way to Greensboro and discovered that he could make better money working in screenprinting. Bryan D. Cox, a spokesman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, confirmed that an agent apprehended Zarate-Maya near his home on May 22. Cox described Zarate-Maya as “a person in the country unlawfully.” Cox said Zarate-Maya will go before an immigration judge, who will determine whether he is eligible for release on bond pending final determination of his status. “We have to have hope through the faith we have in God that He will bring him home,” Chavez said. “If that doesn’t
work out, we will be together as a family, one way or another.” Chavez said the family will try to make a humanitarian case on her partner’s behalf. “Josue is a good, contributing member of society,” she said. “Our family needs him with us. He didn’t commit a crime.” ICE arrests of undocumented people without prior criminal convictions, like Zarate-Maya, have risen dramatically since President Trump took office, and nowhere more so than the areas covered by the Atlanta and Philadelphia field offices, where the number of non-criminal arrests jumped by 323 percent between 2016 and 2017. The Atlanta regional office covers Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, while the Philadelphia office covers Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia. Immigrants with criminal convictions still make up the majority of those arrested, although an ever-diminishing share. During the last two years of the Obama administration, when the Department of Homeland Security rolled out its Priority Enforcement Program focusing convicted felons, gang members and persons deemed to be a national security threat, individuals with criminal convictions accounted for roughly 90 percent of ICE arrests in the Atlanta region. During Trump’s first year in office, the share fell to 67 percent of 13,551 people arrested in the Atlanta region. And to date in 2018, only 61 percent — 4,765 out of 7,788 — arrests involve persons with criminal convictions. Sen. Dick Durban (D-Ill.) and 16 other Democratic lawmakers submitted a letter to the US Department of Homeland Security on April 27 raising concern that under the leadership of acting ICE Director Thomas Homan the agency Has “greatly reduced the use of prosecutorial discretion and sharply increased arrests and detentions of immigrants with no criminal background instead of focusing ICE’s limited resources on those who pose a threat to our security.” Homan has led the agency since Jan. 30, 2017 without being confirmed by the Senate. The lawmakers wrote, “We understand that the Trump administration may be concerned about Mr. Homan answering questions under oath about his leadership of ICE, as well as the
Wendy Chavez, with her son in front of their home in Greensboro. Chavez’s partner was arrested by ICE on May 22.
possibility that Mr. Homan’s nomination could be defeated in the Senate.” ICE spokesperson Bryan D. Cox emphasized in an interview that what the agency deems “criminal arrests” doesn’t include individuals with pending criminal charges who have not been convicted. A recent analysis by the Pew Research Center found that the majority “non-criminal” arrestees were taken into detention with a pending criminal charge although they had not been convicted. Cox said that’s the case with ZarateMaya, who faces traffic charges for driving while intoxicated and driving with a revoked license in Guilford County. Cox said Zarate-Maya was arrested by a State Highway Patrol officer on April 22, adding that the criminal charge was “what put him on ICE’s radar.” Laura Garduño Garcia, an organizer with Siembra NC — a project of the American Friends Service Committee — said it’s typical for ICE agents to make arrests when undocumented people are commuting to work. And she said the word “police” on the agents’ vests creates confusion. ICE agents don’t wear uniforms although they carry badges identifying their agency. “They bank on people’s trust in the local police,” Garduño Garcia said. “They
JORDAN GREEN
want to cooperate based on the idea that it can be a regular traffic stop. [The agents] will be walking through neighborhoods, and they’ll say, ‘Do you know this person?’… We tell people in the immigrant community: ‘You know your neighbors’ schedule. You know when they’re coming and going to work. Don’t say anything.’” Cox defended the agency’s practice of putting agents in the field without uniforms and using the word “police.” “Agents encounter people who speak multiple languages and some who don’t speak English,” Cox said. “‘Police’ is the universally understood term for law enforcement. Cox made no apology for ICE capitalizing on goodwill built by local law enforcement, but argued that people in immigrant communities shouldn’t let adverse experiences with ICE color their attitude towards local police. “It’s important to note that local law enforcement has absolutely no authority to make arrests for immigration violations,” Cox said. “A person who is a victim or witness to domestic violence or any other crime, they should have no reluctance to contact local law enforcement.”
Up Front News Opinion
The Rev. William Barber (center right) attempts to negotiate entry to the NC General Assembly with a General Assembly police officer.
Two speakers focused their remarks on gun violence. “When you prioritize a piece of paper and a weapon over human rights, we have a gun problem,” said Lily Levin, a 17-year-old student. “Before we go to school, to our sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, loved ones and friends we say goodbye, knowing that this could be our last goodbye. I stand here in front of you because America has a gun problem.” Kim Yaman, with Moms Demand Action, recalled helping a group of children practice a Turkish folk dance in a classroom building at the University of Iowa adjacent to a conference room where four researchers were fatally shot by a disgruntled post-doc more than 25 years ago. “That was 1991 — before Columbine, before Charleston, before Sandy Hook, before Parkland, before any one of hundreds of mass shootings,” Yaman said. “At the time we thought, ‘Oh, this is a once-in-a-lifetime. We’ll get past this. We’ll move on. We’ll get the counseling. It will be okay.’ That’s not what happened…. We deserve better. We can do better than this. So stand up. Do not let them back you down for one moment.”
Puzzles
let President Obama or the Democratic Party off the hook. He said, “It ain’t just Trump’s fault, but Obama didn’t do what he was supposed to either. Now, y’all won’t say ‘amen,’ but we gotta tell the truth.” His voice quivering and rising in volume, Barber said, “When you have 1,500 children missing that’s afraid to even pick up the phone because of what might happen to them… there’s a scripture that I wish could be read to every politician, to the president, to [Attorney General] Jeff Sessions ’cause they claim they believe, they claim they believe! Maybe they haven’t read that one that said, ‘It would be better for somebody to tie a stone around their neck and to be thrown into the ocean than to offend and hurt these little ones.’ “And it didn’t say, ‘Hurt the black little ones,’” he continued. “Or, ‘Hurt the white little ones.’ Or, ‘Hurt the brown little ones.’ Or, ‘Hurt the Latino little ones.’ Or, ‘Hurt the gay little ones.’ Or, ‘Hurt the straight little ones.’ It said, ‘Any of the little ones.’” Following Barber’s speech, several people in the audience chanted in appreciation: “Thank you, we love you.”
Shot in the Triad
chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. As president of the North Carolina NAACP, Barber led the Moral Monday Movement, a progressive coalition that protested the hard-right turn by the Republican-controlled General Assembly week after week during the legislative session in 2013 and onward. “Dr. King said that to continue to put more money in militarism and weaponization — I might paraphrase — in a nation and in a state is to do nothing but have a tragic death wish that will create moral injury, economic injury and will open the way to authoritarianism,” Barber said. “And some of my Jewish friends are telling me, will open the way for fascism. That’s why we have to connect systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy, the proliferation of guns and the false moral narrative.” In keeping with the theme of the day, Barber focused much of his attention on human needs going unmet because of military spending, and on gun violence, but his speech built to a crescendo when he turned to the issue of immigration policy. Declaring, “We have now weaponized deportation,” Barber didn’t
JORDAN GREEN
Culture
Sandy Irving, a retired statistician at UNC-Chapel Hill, had been warned that she would be placed under arrest if she refused to leave a hallway outside a committee room where members of the state Senate and House were deliberating on the budget. She told the General Assembly police officer she would stay. Taking stock of Irving’s walker, the officer held off on making the arrest until the police could procure a wheelchair. Irving took advantage of the additional time to keep talking. “You know, the people in North Carolina need healthcare,” she told the officer. “There’s a lot of veterans that come home from war, and they’re hurt. And they can’t get healthcare because North Carolina has not expanded Medicaid, and people are hurting. And some of you policemen might retire and not be able to afford health insurance. And if Medicaid was expanded, then everybody could have healthcare. “We don’t like the war economy,” Irving continued. “That is an economic draft that drafts our poor. And when our poor are drafted and they come back and they have healthcare problems, and they can’t get healthcare because North Carolina has not expanded Medicaid. The North Carolina veterans are hurting. They’re committing suicides at enormous rates.” Irving was the 12th and final person arrested at the North Carolina General Assembly on Tuesday. Some were led out of the committee room with their hands bound in zip ties after disrupting the budget meeting; others were arrested after police said they received “numerous complaints” about chanting and singing in the hallway and ordered them to leave. The civil disobedience in Raleigh was part of a coordinated string of actions in 23 state capitals and the District of Columbia as the third week of the Poor People’s Campaign got underway on Tuesday. The Poor People’ Campaign is a national effort meant to continue the interracial assault on poverty, racism and militarism conceived by the Rev. Martin Luther King before his assassination 50 years ago in 1968. Each day of the campaign has focused on a theme, and Tuesday’s was “The War Economy: Militarism and the Proliferation of Gun Violence.” The rally in front of the General Assembly, which drew about 125 people, also served as a homecoming of sorts for the Rev. William Barber, the co-
May, 31 - june, 6
Arrested at NCGA as People’s Campaign turns focus to militarism by Jordan Green
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May, 31 - june, 6
OPINION
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EDITORIAL
Phil Berger becomes a bergermeister
NC Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger is not one of ours — his redrawn District 26 currently covers the entirety of Rockingham County with possible Democrat voters in the northwest quadrant of Guilford County excised by the most recent redistricting. But the most powerful Republican in North Carolina has been at the source of everything awful the NC Legislature has done since the GOP took over in 2011: HB2, the defunding of teachers and schools, environmental deregulation, the dismantling of the UNC System, our gerrymandered districts, quashing free municipal wifi, blocking public access to police body cameras… good god there are so many more outrages they would take over this whole space. Suffice it to say, Berger is the sort of guy people are referring to when they say, “The bastards are winning!” And he’s showing no sign Phil Berger is of slowing down. Last week, the Rocknot one of ours. ingham County Board of Elections voted along party lines to disqualify Berger’s opponent in his next election, Jennifer Mangrum, his first serious challenger… perhaps ever. Berger ran unopposed in his first election in 2000, back when it was still called District 12. In his eight successful re-election bids, he has run either unopposed, against token Democrats or, once, a Libertarian and, in 2016, a write-in campaign by an Elon professor, Mangrum’s different — a UNCG professor who says she moved to Reidsville this year specifically so she could stay in Berger’s district and run against him on the ballot. She has said she will file an appeal with the state board of elections. Then this week, Berger gave everyone in the state a reason to root against him. The state budget process capped off just before midnight on Memorial Day, when Berger and House Speaker Tom Moore released it, without any input from Democrats in either the Senate or the House. The content of this budget is unimportant — it’s the process here that makes Berger and everyone on his team anti-American. No open deliberations. No public hearings. No committee discussions. No deliberations and no opportunity for amendments. The 758-page, $23 billion budget, which most legislators saw for the first time on Tuesday morning, is set to be voted on this week, with a predetermined outcome as long as all the Republicans keep their mouths shut and stay on board. This is what happens when the bastards keep winning, and then stack the deck to make it impossible to lose.
CITZEN GREEN
Free speech for people who share our beliefs and culture
Soon after Trump took office in January 2017, campus leftists and antifascists began mobilizing, sometimes violently, to shut down conservative speakers like provocateur Milo Yiannopolous, who amplified the dehumanby Jordan Green izing rhetoric aimed at Muslims, refugees, immigrants and transgender people that helped get Trump elected. Almost overnight, “free speech” became the rallying cry of the right, but they were already largely primed for it. There’s a whole cottage industry of right-wing media stoking the fear and loathing of liberalism, progressivism and socialism — collapsible and interchangeable terms to their foes. Trying to prevent a speaking engagement at UC Berkeley by Ben Shapiro, the author of Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America and Brainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America’s Youth, might not have been the most optically sound tactic. Alt-right trolls on the Daily Stormer website and 4chan discussion boards gleefully churned out violently antiSemitic memes intended to red-pill potential recruits and trigger opponents. The newly-minted Proud Boys and the gladiatorial “Based Stickman” Kyle Chapman hit the streets in Berkeley to do battle with Antifa during “free speech” rallies in Berkeley last April. Emerging groups like Identity Evropa, who cloaked their white nationalism in softer rhetoric about preserving Western civilization, melted into the crowd. Right-wing patriot militias could claim to be supporting the First Amendment while maintaining plausible denial about white nationalism. President Trump, notably, has never made much claim to support free speech. During a March 2016 rally in Fayetteville, where a supporter punched a black protester who was being escorted out of the arena, Trump said, “They used to treat them very, very rough, and when they protested once, they would not do it again so easily.” And scarcely a month after Trump’s moral equivalency about “blame on both sides” in Charlottesville, while defending those who protested taking down the statue of Robert E. Lee and criticizing “the alt-left that came charging,” Trump squarely attacked black NFL players protesting police brutality. Trump had previously suggested that people who burn the flag should go to jail — a blatant violation of the Constitution. In contrast, the gesture made by Colin Kaepernick and other players was solemn, even respectful expression of dissent — kneeling during the National Anthem. “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when someone disrespects our flag, you’d say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired,’” Trump said to loud applause while campaigning for US Senate
candidate Luther Strange in Huntsville, Ala. Notably, “I Stand” Facebook profile photos blossomed on the pages of many of the same patriot militia activists who only five months earlier made righteous sermons in support of the First Amendment rights of conservative speakers in Berkeley. Now that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has decreed that all players must stand to show respect for the flag and the anthem (with the bizarre carve-out that players who choose to not stand for the anthem may stay in the locker room, as if protest is a private act like prayer), the right is suddenly no longer the champion of free speech. The NFL protest ban is the perfect emblem of a new study by Steven V. Miller and Nicholas T. Davis, two political scientists at Clemson University and Texas A&M University respectively, entitled “White Outgroup Intolerance and Declining Support for American Democracy.” Using data from the World Values Survey, the authors found strong evidence to suggest that white people who fear becoming a minority are comfortable abridging democratic freedoms as a trade-off for maintaining racial dominance. “White Americans who would not want an immigrant/ foreign worker, someone who spoke a different language, or someone from a different race as a neighbor are more likely to support strongman rule in the United States, rule of the US government by the army, and are more likely to outright reject having a democracy for the United States,” the authors write. Trump frequently signals to his aggrieved white base. Many of the ideologically committed activists in the white nationalist movement — a comparatively small cohort — have grown impatient with the president. They make no pretense at venerating the democratic processes or the Constitution. Michael Hill, president of the League of the South — one of the larger groups in the Nationalist Front coalition that supplied shock troops for the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville — said in a 2013 speech: “We’re not wedded in the League or in the true South to a universal proposition. Equality, democracy, the universal rights of man — all of these poisonous things that have been foisted upon us we’ve been conditioned to think are good. No, we are wedded to a real historical order, based on, as I said, blood and soil, kith and kin.” Democracy is not compatible with a politics built around racial or religious identity. Lest there be any doubt about the League’s agenda, Hill lays it out pretty clearly in an April 25 open letter: “We have radicalized by openly and directly addressing the Negro (and general dark-skinned) Question and the Jew Question. We are de facto and openly professed white/Southern nationalists, meaning that we seek to restore the South to the dominance of the white man and to make it our own ethno-state for our posterity.”
by Brian Clarey
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Maya Angelou’s electric Adler typewriter, now on display at the Greensboro History Museum, still bears a sticker from Executive Office Machines in Winston-Salem.
ROBERT PAQUETTE
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the same way photorealistic painters disavowed the camera An IBM Selectric thunders like machine-gun fire when it gets when it came on the scene. They said the typewriter disrupted going. An elegant electric Smith-Corona emits a gentle ding the natural flow between when it’s time to hit the hard mind and hand and pen return. and paper. These dings and clacks… type-WRITE: Typewriters from the Soboroff But it upped word count a typewriter demands the from about 25 a minute user’s attention not just to Collection at the Greensboro History Museum — which even the fastest every word but to every letter through Aug. 19. More: greensboroyhistory.org scribbler can barely exceed as it’s thrown onto the page, — to twice that and, as the attuned to the hard margins years and technology wore and the satisfying thwack on, exponentially faster: The current world record holder, Barand scroll of the return bar. Stacks of paper. Ribbons of ink. An bara Blackburn, maintains a rate of 150-212 words a minute. edit means retyping the entire thing all over again. And at any Museumgoers can try their hands at an array of vintage given time, there’s only a single copy of the current work. machines, both manual and electric, arrayed on tables in the Truman Capote wrote his last three books on the Smithsecond half of the exhibit. Corona Electra 110, as well as hundreds of pieces of corresponAn old manual Underwood demands strict intervals bedence before he died in 1984. tween keystrokes lest they become jammed in the carriage. His personal letters, though, he still wrote by hand.
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n 1971, Truman Capote could have bought any typewriter he wanted. This was five years after the publication of In Cold Blood, his seminal nonfiction novel, and 10 years after the film version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s made him a rich man. Capote says he wrote both of these manuscripts by hand, in pencil. Yet for his typing he chose the Smith-Corona Electra 110, a sturdy workhorse that merged the best features of the old iron manuals and the dawning computer age. Ernest Hemingway preferred to write by hand, too, though he used a typewriter to write dialogue, usually standing. His 1929 manual Underwood Standard, surprisingly small against the author’s outsized legacy, must have proved up to the task. They’re both part of the collection of Steve Soboroff, the current president of the Los Angeles Police Commission and onetime mayoral candidate for that city, who has been gathering them since 1999. Some of his most prized typewriters are on display at the Greensboro History Museum through Aug. 19. One of Maya Angelou’s typewriter is here, also under glass: an electric Adler that still bears a sticker from Executive Business Machines, back when WinstonSalem had a 910 area code. Here is Tennessee Williams’ 1936 Corona, upon which he wrote his first plays at Washington University in St. Louis. There is George Bernard Shaw’s 1934 Remington, through which he channeled his last five plays. Gore Vidal’s SmithCorona. John Lennon’s 1951 Imperial, the one he used to write all the songs for the Quarrymen, the predecessor to the Beatles. Ray Bradbury’s manual Royal, dated to 1947, is here as well, though Bradbury wrote all of his early stories, including Fahrenheit 451, in the basement of a building at UCLA, on typewriters he rented for a dime an hour. O. Henry’s typewriter, a 1912 portable Corona small enough to fit in a handbag, makes the rest of them look fairly high-tech. Before the cloud, before the internet, before the hard drive, the floppy and before the personal computer and its forebear, the “word processor,” the typewriter was a revolution in 47 keys, a standardized writing platform that enabled the user to get words on paper at a much faster rate. The purists eschewed it from the beginning, in much
May, 31 - june, 6
CULTURE Working against type at the Greensboro History Museum
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CULTURE Jason Isbell defies the weather at Gears & Guitars by Spencer KM Brown
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he rain couldn’t stop the music. Clad in raincoats and ponchos and with umbrellas spanning overhead, the crowd stretched across the grassy field of Bailey Park in Winston-Salem’s Innovation Quarter. Heavy clouds rolled across the sky, just above the tops of old brick tobacco chimneys, but the weather was hushed behind the roar of the crowds, behind the wailing guitars and thunder of drums. May 25 marked the opening night of the Gears & Guitars Festival in downtown Winston-Salem. The weekend-long event brought performances by national acts Cold War Kids, Blues Traveler and Jason Isbell, in conjunction with the Winston-Salem Cycling Classic. Hundreds of cyclists raced through the city-wide course for the annual four-day competition, but it was the evening events that brought the weekend’s sweet release. With the anticipation of nostalgic headliners Blues Traveler on Saturday night, the crowd sat through the scattered rain. Some took shelter under thin branches of maple trees or under the beer tents, while hundreds more embraced the wet for a chance to get next to the stage. Fans sang along at full voice as Soul Asylum played “Runaway Train.” Blues Traveler kept the audience dancing through the night, playing their catalog of hits that span their 30-year career. And yet the nostalgia could only carry so far past the hits the majority of the crowd knew. All seemed to be constantly building to the weekend’s main event of Jason Isbell on Sunday night. Four-time Grammy winner and former member of Drive-by Truckers, Jason Isbell and his band the 400 Unit filled the park to near capacity. Fans held parties in nearby apartment buildings facing the park, and as the night rolled on, windows opened and balconies shook under dancing feet several stories high, overlooking the raucous crowds that stood cheering below. Since beginning his solo career, Isbell has released six records, two of which won Grammy awards for Best Album. Isbell’s music is deeply rooted in the folk tradition of country-rock. His songwriting neatly aligns with Neil Young and Ben Howard yet pushes forward with deeply passionate and heart wrenchingly powerful vocals. Isbell is married to singer, songwriter and fiddle player
Jason Isbell’s set was the crown jewel of the Gears & Guitars lineup, which also included Blues Traveler and Cold War Kids, in Winston-Salem over the weekend.
Amanda Shires, with whom Isbell performed before his band took the stage behind him. The crowd’s applause and cheers bellowed among city buildings; the near electric energy emanating from both performers stirred the air of the festival to something beyond a simple musical performance, but rather, gave a glimpse into the power of music. Fans were in tears as they sang word for word along with Shires and Isbell, happily exchanging the view through cellphone screens for the real thing. Rows of bright-colored lawn chairs sat empty across the hill as the crowd stood to dance and sing and moved closer to the stage.
SPENCER KM BROWN
The rain was dried up towards the end of the night, and in a nearly picturesque scene, the moon glowed warm and pale as the music carried on late into the night. And while each day of the festival saw a brilliant array of performances and attendance numbers topping previous days, it was Isbell’s set that made sitting through the rain worthwhile. It was a moment of art’s perfection for Winston-Salem. For three consecutive years the festival has grown considerably in size, with 2018 recording record numbers for the event. Sports blended with music, bringing something special to the heart of Winston’s expanding downtown scene.
by Lauren Barber
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Up Front News
Regional farmers learn the basics of growing bamboo for profit during a demonstration and walkthrough at NC A&T University’s bamboo field.
LAUREN BARBER
Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles
cept Europe,” he says. “We share roughly the same latitude land passed down from her grandfather in Hillsborough, and the same climate as China, which is where these spejust east of Greensboro. “I see bamboo as a product of the cific species are native. North Carolina — really the whole future. Anything green, anything less caustic to the envisoutheastern United States, and the parts of China where ronment and cost-effective. I see it as a product that can it grows are like the two best areas in the world to grow have even beyond the 1,500 uses that it has other than just this type of bamboo.” eating and flooring and things like that. I see it as a product Bamboos are evergreen perennial flowering plants that industry would use in the long term and we can use known to reduce soil erosion on river banks and shorelines. it for lots of people in society whether it’s food or housing Among hundreds of species are or clothing, you can help a lot of the fastest-growing woody plants people.” in the world, diverse enough Benfield contends that the Learn more at brightsidebamboo.com to provide ideal material for hardy crop could be the best and onlymoso.com. everything from construction move for farmers around and flooring to clothing, arts Winston-Salem where tobacco and crafts. Its timber is lightreigned supreme for decades if weight and flexible but touts a not centuries. higher compressive strength than brick or concrete and “It’s not a great time to be a farmer, but bamboo is a resists tension nearly as well as steel. It’s antibacterial and terrific substitute for some of our traditional economies antifungal properties make it ideal for botanical extracts, that’ve gone away, specifically tobacco, because it works teas, medicine and livestock forage. It’s an excellent source well in a system where people are working together,” Benof nutrition for people, too, carrying one of the highest field said. concentrations of protein of any vegetable and significant That’s an important note: Small-scale farmers will need doses of fiber, potassium and trace minerals. to effectively start their own business selling to regional What’s most appealing? Farmers won’t need to reach for restaurants. And one of the biggest selling points for compesticides or herbicides, and these perennials require little panies like OnlyMoso is that they’ll pick up your crop and maintenance. When it’s time to harvest, a small shovel sell it for you. or asparagus harvesting tool will do. According to the US “I think that the US market has not probably discovered Department of Agriculture, the average age North Carohow useful bamboo can be yet,” Barber says. “I think this is lina farmers is 59, a number that’s been inching upward a ground floor.” for decades. A lightweight crop that doesn’t require heavy The soil is ready, and the seeds planted; whether or not machinery sounds alright to most who till the land. these woody shoots are to become the Southeast’s next “What appeals [to me] is that you don’t have to replant cash crop, though, rests in the eyes of the farmer, the capiit,” says Réne Barber, who wants to revive acres of farmtalist and the consumer.
Opinion
amboo has a reputation: an ever-metastasizing nuisance; a third-world weed; “the poor man’s timber.” But it wasn’t always like this. River cane — one of three bamboo varieties native to the American southeast — once flourished along Carolina riverbeds and across vast, dense acreages known as canebrakes. “As a part of the colonization of America, European settlers fed their cattle on the giant timber bamboo because it was the most nutritious thing, outcompeting and driving the buffalo away, which was itself part of the effort to eradicate native people, the Cherokee in this region in particular,” farmer Everest Holmes says. Currently a mushroom farmer outside Asheville, he finds himself among a younger generation of farmers seeking to rethink the hows and whys of small-scale agriculture. “To me, [bamboo] is the epitome of regenerative farming because it lives for so long and is good for the environment, producing three times more oxygen than any other plant,” Holmes says. “You’re getting a timber product, a food source and a potential agrotourist attraction.” On May 24, he found himself walking NC A&T University’s farmland as the Cooperative Extension co-hosted a free workshop on cultivating bamboo as a cash crop, along with OnlyMoSo USA Corps, a sales and consulting company focused on the creation and maintenance of bamboo plantations. OnlyMoso pitched to around two dozen convening farmers from across the Carolinas and Virginia. Importing bamboo seeds and plants from abroad is illegal in the United States, but private companies filled the resource gap in the decades since the US Department Agriculture’s bamboo program went dark in the early ’70s as the country focused on corn, wheat and soy, and made big shifts in production, moving towards the factory-farm model. David Benfield, a bamboo consultant and co-founder of Brightside Bamboo, the largest bamboo nursery in the Carolinas, attended. He says there are several species highly suitable for commercial farming in North Carolina. “We typically think of bamboo as an Asian plant, and it’s not — there’s bamboo native to every continent ex-
May, 31 - june, 6
CULTURE Despite reputation, farmers consider bamboo as cash crop
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May, 31 - june, 6
W. Market Street, Greensboro
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Nothing to see here.
CAROLYN DE BERRY
by Matt Jones
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Pump, e.g. Back muscle Org. that goes around a lot Schticky joke ender Requesting versions of items at a restaurant that aren’t on the list “Breaking Bad” network Jouster’s weapon PiÒata part Minigolf’s lack Out of money Golfing great Sam
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36 Fridge sound 37 Settle securely 41 Vague 42 Endeavoring to, much less formally 45 Tamed 46 Key disciple of Buddha 47 Went from two lanes to one 49 Unmovable 50 Be hospitable to 51 Little argument 52 Philosopher David 54 Domini preceder 56 Shakespearean quintet? 58 Pirates’ org. 59 “___ Haw”
Opinion
Down 1 Compounds 2 Three-horse team, Russian for “a set of three” 3 Onion features ©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 4 Ancient Greek marketplace 5 Like some gummy candy 22 ___ Mae 6 Nail site 25 Set of steps? 7 B, in the NATO phonetic alphabet 27 Fitting 8 Other, in Oviedo 29 Movie crew electrician 9 Barely competition (for) 30 Group within a group 10 Paris-to-Warsaw dir. 31 Out of business, for short 11 One with shared custody, maybe 32 They consist of four qtrs. 12 Planet’s turning point 33 Noisy bird 13 Putin putoff? 34 Velvet Underground singer Reed 18 Actor Rutger of “Blade Runner” 35 Runner on soft surfaces
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Across 1 World book? 6 Steakhouse order 11 Hominy holder 14 “Rocky IV” nemesis Ivan 15 “What the Butler Saw” playwright Joe 16 Moron’s start? 17 Question from one possibly out of earshot 19 Pizzeria order 20 “The Treasure of the ___ Madre” 21 Sammy Hagar album with “I Can’t Drive 55” 22 Rapidly 23 Edible pod 24 Sketchy craft 26 Nicholas I or II, e.g. 28 “The World Is Yours” rapper 29 Pomade alternative 30 Picturesque views 33 “Taxi” actress with a series of health and wellness books 35 Bundle of wheat 38 Hunk of goo 39 Oven protectors 40 2004 Stephen Chow comedy-martial arts film 43 “That really wore me out” 44 Ending for bow or brew 45 River blocker 48 Newspaper dist. no. 49 Pig’s enclosure 50 Top-of-the-line
May, 31 - june, 6
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The Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship... Culture Shot in the Triad
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G r e e n s b o r o Fa s h i o n W e e k p r e s e n t s
The Preview
June 23 816 S Elm Street (mill entertainment complex) Doors open at 5pm
Greensborofashionweek.com for ticket information