Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point August 23-29, 2018 triad-city-beat.com
FREE
SILENT
SAM FALLS
CITIZEN GREEN PAGE 10
No handoff in WS PAGE 7 GSO’s best eats PAGE 11 Scooterific PAGE 6
August 23 - 29, 2018
EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
Mountain allegory It’s all allegory someone else’s future. We needed a good in the mountains: mountain allegory to make sense of it all. the elevated The next day we rose before dawn, view of the world headed south on the Blue Ridge Parkway from the top, the and hopped on the Linville Falls Trail. struggles we enAt the first perch at the upper falls, dure to get there, about a half mile in, we stood on a beach the things we take made of rock and watched the water run by Brian Clarey away. You can’t from twin falls into a shallow pool, then spend five minutes on a trail off the Blue rumble down a stone chute to disappear, Ridge Parkway without having a mindroaring, into a deep gorge. At the next bending insight smack you right between outpost, more than half a mile up, we the eyes like a wet wad of toilet paper. could see the water’s violent introduction So it was appropriate, into the gorge. And from at this intersection in our the very top, Erwin’s So it was appropriate, lives, to take what lesView, we understood at this intersection in our sons the mountains had that that the rushing lives, to take what lessons to give on the weekend waters leveled off into the mountains had to give. we dropped our eldest a placid brook that child off at college. In meandered through a the mountains. mountain panorama so beautiful that even It’s not like it came out of nowhere — now as I type, I pause to close my eyes we’ve been planning for this day pretty and remember the view. much since he came into the world. But The trees. The rocks. The water. The still, the feels caught us a little off guard sky. It all comes together in an ancient as we brought him to his dorm room, symphony to remind us that the water unpacked his stuff and then said our always flows, the rocks slowly give, and goodbyes: happy and proud, sad and that the further you get along the trail, the empty, confronted with the reality of the more it all makes sense. passing years while bursting with hope for
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
This is unjust; it’s a disenfranchisement of the voters of the East Ward by them not having a way to participate in their own representation. — Phillip Carter, in the News, page 7
BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com
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EDITORIAL SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green jordan@triad-city-beat.com
STAFF WRITERS Lauren Barber lauren@triad-city-beat.com
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GINA
August 23 - 29, 2018
The
nts� a new exciting season! High Point Theatre PreseSAUCE THE SAUCE BOSS BOSS
THE MANHATTAN T THE Raleigh Ringers HIGHPOINT BALLET Sept. 14, 2018 Legendary performer (as chronicledein Jimmy Buffett’s 1999 hit “I Will Play o forv Gumbo”), rs e t Bill “Sauce Boss” Wharton, his Florida Lbrings t e
BRANFORD PASSPORT To Entertainment
L
N hot DEown slide guitar blues, his gumbo, andRhis A A E LINDEN B R A sauce to every multi-sensory performance. B AL
MARSALIS QUARTET
FOR TICKETS, call 336-887-3001 2018 & 2019 or visit HighPointTheatre.com
Show | 8pm / Doors | 7pm
RYTHM OF THE DANCE
H
THE QUEEN’S CARTOONISTS
We will be partnering with the Greater High Point Food Alliance to collect items for food banks across the High Point area. Please bring a donation of non-perishable food items with you to help this great cause!
Acts and dates are subject to change. For tickets and updates, go to HighPointTheatre.com or call (336) 887-3001.
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August 23 - 29, 2018
CITY LIFE Aug. 23-29, 2018 by Lauren Barber
THURSDAY
Up Front
The Original Wailers @ the Ramkat (W-S), 8 p.m.
4-year anniversary celebration @ the Artist Bloc (GSO), 8 p.m. The fine arts gallery, coffeehouse and art supply store celebrates four years with live performances, food, drinks and artist vendors. Learn more at theartistbloc.com.
Dread & Delight gallery reception @ Weatherspoon Art Museum (GSO), 5 p.m.
SATURDAY
Culture
Opinion
News
All the President’s Men @ Aperture Cinema (W-S), 9:30 a.m.
Songwriter and guitarist Al Anderson, known for his work with Bob Marley & the Wailers, joins the Original Wailers — none of whom are the original Wailers. Pure Fiyah Reggae Band rounds out a reggae-full evening. Learn more at theramkat.com.
FRIDAY
Downtown Jazz: Marcus Johnson @ Corpening Plaza (W-S), 6 p.m. Local jazz guitarist Vincent Crenshaw opens for jazz musician and producer Marcus Johnson. Learn more at downtownws.com/music.
Dread & Delight: Fairy Tales in an Anxious World is a collection of contemporary artwork rooted in often disturbing fairy tales from around the world. Expect mature content and a cash bar. Learn more at weatherspoon.uncg.edu.
Tabletop Game Day @ Central Library (W-S), 10 a.m. Join the Winston-Salem Gamer’s Guild in the Makerspace on the library’s second floor and choose from a wide variety of games. The event is open to all ages. Find the event on Facebook.
Quilts at the Mill gallery reception @ Revolution Mill (GSO), 6 p.m. Quilter Judi Bastion created quilts inspired by photographs of Revolution Mill in honor of the millworkers from the days of yore. Learn more at revolutionmillgreensboro. com.
Aretha Franklin tribute @ Hemphill Library (GSO), noon
Nikki Morgan & Eric Quigley @ Tate Street Coffee House (GSO), 7:30 p.m.
The library plays film clips and recordings of the Queen of Soul and invites the community to share thoughts on Franklin’s influence in their lives. Learn more at library. greensboro-nc.gov.
Folk singer-songwriter Nikki Morgan returns home from Chicago for an evening with Tate Street patrons and Eric Quigley, a bluesy folk rock singer-songwriter. Find the event on Facebook.
Puzzles
Shot in the Triad
National Lampoon’s Vacation @ Reynolda House Museum (W-S), 7 p.m.
Two intrepid Washington Post reporters follow money trails in their investigation into the botched burglary of the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex in 1972. Ben Baker, an actor and director with ties to Triad stages and universities, leads a post-film discussion about the craft of acting for film.
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Join the Griswold family on their raucous cross-country road trip to Wally World with wine or beer in hand. The classic 1983 comedy starring Chevy Chase screens at dusk. Learn more at reynoldahouse.org/calendar.
Rebecca Todd Peters @ Parkway UCC (W-S), 3:30 p.m.
August 23 - 29, 2018
Mad Max: Fury Road @ Geeksboro (GSO), 8 p.m.
Up Front
SUNDAY
Art on the Table @ the Green Bean (GSO), 2 p.m.
The professor of religious studies and director of the poverty and social-justice program at Elon University is also a reverend and feminist social ethicist whose work concerns globalization and economic, environmental and reproductive justice. Stay after hearing some of her perspectives on these issues in relation to the upcoming elections for light refreshments and information about and local electionrelated events. Find the event on Facebook.
Opinion Culture
The Elm Street coffee joint welcomes seven Greensborobased artists to paint outdoor patio tables. Sip coffee while mingle with the artists or simply admiring their work. Find the event on Facebook.
News
The post-apocalyptic fourth film in the Mad Max franchise tails the silent titular character as he meets valiant women who challenge a patriarchal warlord and his army in a desert wasteland. Bring your lawn chair or rent from Geeksboro in preparation for the outdoor “lawn-chair drive-in.” Stock up on drinks, popcorn, candy and popsicles before the movie starts at sundown. Find the event on Facebook.
Food-truck festival @ Greene St., Market St. & Elm St. (GSO), 3 p.m.
Shot in the Triad Puzzles
Fifty food trucks converge, creating a cruel paradox of choice dilemma for attendees. The Raleigh Rockers, Greg Musgrove, Hot Wax & the Splinters and the Lane Edwards Band will provide live entertainment and festivalgoers will find opportunities for face painting, creating spin art and acquiring balloon animals. Children can be momentarily cast off on fire-truck rides while adults drink North Carolina beers and wines, responsibly. Learn more at greensborofoodtruckfestivals.com.
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Trump’s America: Countdown to implosion? Maybe not. by Jordan Green
The conviction yesterday of President Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was bad. The plea deal accepted by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was worse. In pleading guilty to campaign finance law violations, Cohen reportedly testified that then-candidate Trump “directed” and “coordinated” his arrangements to pay off two women in an effort to keep their allegations of extramarital affairs out of the press in the lead-up to the election. That potentially makes Trump an unindicted conspirator. In the countdown to political Armageddon, it seems that the doomsday clock is striking 11. CNN’s Chris Cillizza doesn’t think that indictment is likely, however — namely because Rudy Giuliani has said that Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller has pledged that he won’t pursue it. An indictment would likely unleash spasms of violence by Trump’s far-right supporters who would view the criminal justice system working against their guy as a “Deep State” coup. Cillizza raises the possibility of impeachment. That, of course, is a political question, as opposed to a legal one, and it depends a lot on when Mueller’s report is submitted to Congress and what it says. Whatever the findings, the outcome depends on partisan power. No less a figure than Steve Bannon told Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs on Tuesday: “Today clarifies that November is a referendum on impeachment — an up or down vote. Every Trump supporter needs to get with the program.” If the Republicans maintain control of the House and Senate, it hardly matters what Mueller finds. The report could find that Trump and Putin are operating an international Satanic child-mutilation cult, and Republican lawmakers wouldn’t buck him for fear of inviting the wrath of Trump’s white-nationalist base.
Opinion
News
Up Front
August 23 - 29, 2018
Downtown scooters by Brian Clarey
Puzzles
Shot in the Triad
Culture
The revolution will be scooterized.
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COURTESY PHOTO
Quietly, and with no marketing fanfare, a fleet of zippy little electric scooters has been installed in and about downtown Greensboro. It’s like a LimeBike — you can rent one wherever you find it using a smartphone app, and leave it parked when you’re done — except, of course, way better and cooler in every single way. It’s got a motor, so it’s perfect for quickly traversing the distance between, say, Lindley Park and Tate Street, or UNCG and Midtown, or the north and south ends of Elm Street without breaking a sweat. It’s an inexpensive fill-in for gaps in the city’s publictransportation system. And when you ride one the wind blows back your shirttails and hair like you’re surfing a perpetual concrete wave. Predictably, my friend Allen Johnson at the News & Record pointed out that the scooters are, technically speaking, illegal in downtown Greensboro — a mode of conveyance along the lines of skateboards, which we all know are synonymous with trouble, and, probably, unicycles. Are they a nuisance? Absolutely! They dart in and out of traffic like flying squirrels, and I’d be surprised if they haven’t racked up a dozen little accidents on Greensboro streets since they arrived. But, really, everything on downtown streets is a nuisance: bicycles, cars, slow-moving pedestrians, people who jaywalk, parking meters, lightposts — basically everything except for freestanding newspaper boxes is completely annoying and potentially hazardous to those who aren’t paying attention. And it’s too late. The scooters are here, and golf carts and those pedal-pushing drinking buggies are on their heels. Also, they are awesome. (So I assume — I have yet to ride one of these things, but so what?)
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Plan for filling East Ward seat on hold as residents ask for a say by Jordan Green East Ward residents balk at their representative hand-picking his successor.
Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles
It was supposed to be a coronation process, but residents of the East Ward told Winston-Salem City Council on Monday that they weren’t on board. In the face of objections raised during the public-speakers’ portion of the meeting, council members voted to reconsider a motion that set up a process for receiving applications from interested candidates, with council members then voting to appoint a new representative to fill a vacancy on the East Ward. The ward’s current representative, Derwin Montgomery, has accepted the Democratic Party nomination to fill a vacancy in the state House, and plans to resign from city council. “I made a mistake, and I’m woman enough to admit it,” said Councilwoman DD Adams, who seconded the motion to reconsider made by Mayor Pro Tem Vivian Burke. “You’re right: We need to let y’all fight this out.” After reconsidering the motion, the council voted to table the matter. Montgomery and other Democrat council members, including Dan Besse, have framed the process of filling the vacancy as a binary choice between a council-led process and holding a special election. They argued that a special election would be the least appealing of the two choices because it would require the East Ward to go without representation for a period of time, while also questioning whether there would be time to get the contest on the ballot for the upcoming November election. But the two choices presented by Montgomery and his allies on council don’t include the very option used in 2001, the last time there was a vacancy on council: The executive committee of the political party for the incumbent member forwarded a recommendation for appointment, who was then approved by the council. “The Republican executive committee nominated someone — by the way, it wasn’t me; it was another gentleman — he served out,” said Councilman Robert Clark, the sole Republican on the dais. “That name was put forward and he was approved by the council, and luckily or unluckily I beat him in the general election in November. The point being here: If we can’t have a typical election, I’d rather the citizens that serve as precinct
chairs and other positions in the Democratic Party to select their nominee than the folks sitting up here…. I’d rather have them pick it then up here where there’s only one person in the East Ward.” Under a party recommendation process, typically only party officers, including precinct chairs and vice-chairs, who live in the ward get a vote. “That’s probably going to be a relatively small body of active folks coming in and making a decision in a single meeting,” Besse said. City Attorney Angela Carmon confirmed in an interview with Triad City Beat on Wednesday that council has the option of accepting a recommendation from the Forsyth County Democratic Party without calling for a special election and placing the contest on the ballot for the November election. COURTESY PHOTO Nicole Little, seen with former city council member Larry Little (no relation), “In the past the party of speaks during a 2013 protest against the acquittal of George Zimmerman. the councilman resigning has come up with a recommendacandidate to fill the vacancy. tenant, and civil litigation.” Little detion,” Carmon said. “The council would Sean Hawkins, the Democratic chair clined to comment for this story. Nicole vote on that recommendation. That’s for precinct 402, echoed Carter’s conLittle is not related to Larry Little, a what they’ve done typically.” cern in an interview with Triad City Beat. former member of Winston-Salem City A popular elected official who enjoys “It should be a special election where Council who has acted as a political the support of his colleagues on city it’s not decided from the city council mentor to Montgomery. council, Montgomery has shared with perspective,” Hawkins said. “The perMontgomery declined to confirm that constituents in the East Ward that he spective should come from the voters or he’s asked Nicole Little to fill his seat. would like his seat to be filled by Nicole the people. I really believe if it’s done in “I’m still not going to make any comLittle, a young lawyer with a background a way that’s fair and just, the results will ment on potential successors; I want that in racial justice and housing advocacy. not only be better but more acceptable.” to flow up from the community,” MontNicole Little is Montgomery’s handBut not everyone in the ward is ungomery said. “If folks in the community picked successor, according to Marva happy with the proposed process. are supportive of specific individuals, Reid, a community leader with the East James Lewis, Democratic chair for that’s where it needs to come from. I Ward Safe Coalition. Precinct 405 said he trusts city council to have my thoughts, but I will reserve my “He has shared with some of us who make the right decision. thoughts until a later date.” he has selected, and I could not agree Joycelyn Johnson, who represented the Some Democratic leaders in the East more,” said Marva Reid, a community East Ward from 1993 to 2009, when she Ward view the process set forth in the leader in the East Ward. “She is overwas unseated in an upset by Montgomproposal that was tabled on Monday as qualified. She has accepted the selection. ery, said she is still weighing a decision of an end-run around the will residents. I’m excited. I’ve worked with her. I’ve whether to step forward as a candidate “This is unjust; it’s a disenfranchiseprotested with her.” to fill her former opponent’s unexpired ment of the voters of the East Ward by Little earned her law degree from NC term. them not having a way to participate in Central University in 2017, and gradu“Several people have asked,” she said. their own representation,” said Phillip ated from Wake Forest University with a “I really enjoy what I’m doing now. I Carter, who serves as 2nd vice chair of bachelor’s degree in sociology in 2013, the Forsyth County Democratic Party have not made a confirmed decision.” according to her LinkedIn profile, which and also as chair of Precinct 404 in the Johnson said she believes the person identifies her as a “young and charisEast Ward. Carter unsuccessfully chalwho accepts appointment to fill the unmatic solo attorney, practicing in areas lenged Montgomery in 2013, and said expired term should commit to not run of criminal defense family law, landlordhe plans to put his name forward as a for the seat in 2020 to allow for an open
August 23 - 29, 2018
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August 23 - 29, 2018 Up Front News
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election without one candidate enjoying the advantage of incumbency. She also said the city and the Democratic Party should coordinate a forum to ensure that residents have an opportunity to hear from candidates. Although the resolution under consideration on Monday makes no mention of a role for the Democratic Party, Montgomery said he is open to input. “I would think that anyone who comes forward with a recommendation of support from a diverse group of people who reside in the East Ward, that would carry a lot of credibility,” Montgomery said. Eric Ellison, the chair of the Forsyth County Democratic Party, told City Beat he hopes city council will consult the party. “The Democratic Party believes in the value of openness and disclosure and getting as much input as possible,” he said. “We would hope to be at least included in that conversation to get good input from all parties.” Montgomery’s transition off city council represents a paradox: His popularity with both voters and his colleagues on council gives him the clout to essentially name his successor, but after almost a decade on council his political brand still
projects youthful change. The three-term council member made history as the youngest member of council when he was elected in 2009 as a 21-year-old senior at Winston-Salem State University. For Marva Reid, one of the Montgomery’s most ardent supporters, these calls for more community involvement in the appointment process look like the old guard trying to reassert itself. Reid noted that under Montgomery’s watch, the city has acquired and begun renovations on the old Union Station transit hub, and a swimming pool, lazy river and children’s water playground has opened at Winston Lake Park. She said the city has demonstrated more transparency on issues from urban planning to policing since Montgomery took office. Young entrepreneurs are starting businesses in the ward for the first time in a long while, she said. “I swam, I had safe youth centers when I grew up here,” Reid said. “I came back and there was nothing. No, you’re not going to do that. You’re not going to put those antiquated people back in. If you can’t build a website when they give it to you for free, then you can’t deal with the global world today. We need youth. Now it’s time to let these young people build this com-
munity. I don’t want nobody my age to come back on council.” Nicole Little changed her voter registration on Aug. 15 to a rental house in the Dreamland neighborhood in the East Ward. Previously, she was registered to vote at an apartment in the Southwest Ward. Prior to that, she was registered at another address in the East Ward. In 2013, after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges in the death of Travyon Martin, Little organized a protest that drew hundreds of people. “I’ve worked with her on different projects,” Reid said. “As a student, she would attend Councilman Montgomery’s meetings. She was always active with him. She worked at Cleveland Avenue Homes with the people over there. She’s done quite a lot, and just like Barack Obama she was the president of the bar association at her school and she graduated with honors. She’s a practicing attorney. She’s overqualified for this position. She not only grew up down the street in Reynoldstown, she relocated to the general area. A lot of people have opted to leave. She has the passion that I have for the East Ward.”
Greensboro City Council approves recommendations in a disparity study focused on minority and women-owned business contracting, but implementation remains a matter of contention.
Up Front News
Councilwoman Sharon Hightower questions City Attorney Tom Carruthers on efforts to improve city contracting with minority- and women-owned businesses.
Puzzles
Hightower credited the comparatively high level of minority participation to the Water Department going “out of their way to do outside the box.” In other business, the council unanimously approved the creation of a Criminal Justice Advisory Commission to monitor and review trends in policing, and provide regular reports to the public. The resolution shifts the police community review board, which investigates complaints about police misconduct from members of the public, from the Human Relations Commission to the new Criminal Justice Advisory Commission. The new commission will report directly to the city manager’s office. Assistant City Manager Barbara Harris said the commission will have one staff member assigned to provide support. The city council also approved the sale of property at the southwest corner of West Gate City Boulevard and South Elm Street from the Greensboro Redevelopment Commission to WinstonSalem-based Arden Communities to develop about 60 townhomes and 8,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial retail. “I encourage you to use as much of the minority contractors as you possibly can,” Johnson said. “Because this is a minority community. It was. It will be integrated, but I would hope that you would use as many of our minority contractors and women as you can.”
Shot in the Triad
“Black folk are not working, and I’m not going to apologize for saying it,” she said. “I see it, I hear it every day. They are being left out, omitted from the process…. If it takes $1.5 million, we spend it.” Mayor Nancy Vaughan said she was willing to put additional money into the M/WBE program, along with Councilwoman Michelle Kennedy, an at-large member. “I can’t say it’s $1.5 million,” Kennedy said. “I can say it’s something.” Kennedy, who was elected to council last year, also said she needs to take responsibility for doing a better job as an elected representative. “One of the things I’ve said, along with the mayor pro tem [Yvonne Johnson] and Councilwoman Hightower is that I will never again vote on spending money that doesn’t meet its M/WBE goals,” Kennedy said. Indeed, Kennedy, Hightower, Johnson and Councilwoman Goldie Wells cast the four votes in opposition to awarding a $349,448 contract to Cisco Capital to support the city’s “unified communications (VOIP phone system) platform” for five years. The company received a waiver from minority and women participation goals, according to city documents. In contrast, a $497,300 contract unanimously approved by council to Arcadis G&M of North Carolina for sewage outfall improvements achieved a goal of 14 percent minority participation.
Culture
We see beyond what some of the others don’t see in our community.” Hoffmann, who represents District 4, expressed disagreement with Oliver’s language. “I think it’s not helpful when I read in the press and I hear that this is being characterized as some sort of Jim Crow economics,” she said. Council members identified increasing the share of minority and women contracting as a priority at their retreat earlier this year. But, with few exceptions, they balked at a demand by the Greensboro Business League, an organization that promotes black economic empowerment, to allocated $1.5 million to support the M/WBE program. The Greensboro Business League also asked council to use some of that money to pay Griffin & Strong to oversee the implementation of an improvement plan. “Every disparity study that the city has done, they’ve had recommendations — good recommendations,” said Earl Jones, a former council member who is the co-chair of the Greensboro Business League. “But guess what? They weren’t implemented appropriately. Griffin & Strong has expertise. They have the track record, and they have implemented the program working with the city manager, the city attorney and the staff.” Councilwoman Sharon Hightower was one of the few members who gave a full-throated endorsement to the Greensboro Business League’s request.
JORDAN GREEN
Opinion
Greensboro City Council voted unanimously to approve a slate of recommendations by a private consultant for improving minority and women participation in city contracting on Tuesday, although some members remained noncommittal about a request for additional funding to ensure compliance. The comprehensive slate of recommendations, part of March 2018 Disparity completed by the Atlanta-based Griffin & Strong public policy and law firm, calls on the city to revise aspirational goals, increase the monitoring capacity of its M/WBE Program Office, reduce bonding requirements to open opportunities for smaller businesses, improve data tracking on minority and women business subcontracting, and increase vendor rotation. The firm also recommended improving compliance by businesses that receive tax incentives and infrastructure improvements. The report found only 1 percent minority and women business utilization on projects that received assistance from the city. The firm also flagged the city’s on-call contracting program, finding that only three out of 49 firms contracted were either minority- or women-owned. The firm wrote, “Oncall contracts can be a deterrent to an open procurement process, particularly when they are closed to any new entrants for 3-5 years. Whenever possible, contracts should be separately bid, except in emergency situations.” City staff partially agreed with the recommendation. “The flexibility of on-call contracts for critical services is necessary to maintain city infrastructure, facilities and services,” the report said in the city staff response section. “It’s very sad that we’re going through these Jim Crow-like areas, economically,” Galen Oliver told council members. “We’re 35 percent of taxpayers; 49 percent of the population. And I’m here trying to do the best I can to encourage and give hope to those who are not employed. Because people just getting out of prison needs jobs. They need opportunities.” Addressing Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann directly, Oliver said, “AfricanAmerican firms hire African-Americans.
August 23 - 29, 2018
City council accepts recommendations on minority contracting by Jordan Green
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August 23 - 29, 2018 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles
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OPINION
EDITORIAL
At UNC-Chapel Hill, silence is complicity It was a hell of a way to start the school year.
On Monday night, activists and students at UNCChapel Hill pulled down the statue of Silent Sam, the Confederate memorial that has been at the heart of controversy, protest and state law as of late. It’s been on the campus since 1913, almost 50 years after the Civil War ended but right in the meat of the Jim Crow years, funded by the Daughters of the Confederacy when they were at their most active and influential. On the day it was dedicated, industrialist Julian Carr — for whom, incidentally, the town of Carrboro is named — described in some detail how, just a few months after the war ended, he “horse-whipped a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds” in front of federal soldiers near the spot. He added some claptrap about the purity of the Anglo-Saxon race, just in case anyone were to doubt the intentions of the crew who put this thing up. We all know how Chapel Hillians love We all know how their traditions. But this one was a 100Chapel Hillians year stain on UNC, a love their direct contrast to the temple of learning traditions. But this that the country’s first public university is one was a 100supposed to repreyear stain on UNC. sent, a cosmic joke at a school primarily known these days for its basketball team. It should have come down long before 2015, when the state made it illegal for entities like cities, counties and schools to decide for themselves if they want to celebrate the Confederacy — traitors who took up arms against the US in a losing effort to preserve their right to own other human beings for the purposes of making money. Make no mistake, the people who tore down Silent Sam broke the law. It was an act of civil disobedience along the lines of the Greensboro Four at Woolworth’s, Muhammad Ali against the draft board, Bree Newsome tearing the Confederate flag off a statue outside the South Carolina Capitol Building. It reminds us of those excluded from the political process, the oppression that still exists right here at home, and that, unlike Sam, the will of the people cannot be long silenced.
CITIZEN GREEN
Post-Silent Sam, cue demonization of antifascists
The University of North Caroan official statement that “no one was injured.” lina police officers stood around Berger’s response emphasizes form over content. It’s an Silent Sam in the inky darkness, interesting echo of the current fixation among conservawatching apprehensively as antifastives on free speech, which includes white nationalists who cist students and other protesters declare their right to exercise the First Amendment while advanced. downplaying the content of their speech. I jotted some notes, and then Linking arms around the statue before they tore it down, when I looked up the officers had the students sang the old Appalachian labor song, “Which by Jordan Green vanished and the protesters had Side Are You On?” taken their place. The atmosphere was charged. Their Berger, like the administration at the University of North faces seemed to glow with a kind of invincibility borne of Carolina, is still attempting to maintain a posture of studied absolute certainty in their cause: the rejection of a symbol neutrality. of centuries-long violence against and degradation of black Despite his insinuation that the antifascists are a “violent lives. mob,” I am not aware of Berger making any statements The statue had already been boxed into four towering, denouncing the death threats against Maya Little, the slate-gray banners. “For a world without white supremacy,” graduate student who protested Silent Sam by pouring one declared. The banners formed an enclosure that alred liquid on the statue in April. I have collected multiple lowed protesters to move inside undetected, fastening the screenshots from a Triad-based Confederate fan Facebook rope that would eventually wrest page that feature comments like, “Mindthe monument from its plinth. less virtue-signaling communist is worthy “Tear it down, tear it down,” the of stoning.” I have emailed an inquiry to crowd yelled. Berger, and look forward to his clarificaWhat responsibility do I hadn’t really believed it tion on how he views these threats. was mechanically or logistically Little noted during Monday’s rally Republican legislators possible to remove the statue, althat Silent Sam was “a memorial to white bear for threats to though it clearly happened almost supremacy and to slave owners, and to a year earlier in Durham. And students of color and white people who murdered my ancestors.” as a reporter, I hadn’t received a Along with being a continual reminder antiracist accomplices? tip-off, or even so much as a hint of the degradation of black people, that it might be worthwhile to stick Actually, quite a lot. the unresolved tension surrounding the around. Evidently, most of the monument created an atmosphere that people in the crowd didn’t see it compromised students’ safety. coming either, because when the What responsibility do Berger and statue toppled the euphoric colhis fellow Republican legislators bear lective yell sang an admixture of joy and disbelief. for threats to safety experienced by students of color and Republican politicians are predictably responding with white antiracist accomplices? Actually, quite a lot. “law and order” appeals while demonizing antifascists rather After Dylann Roof massacred nine black parishioners at than addressing the white supremacist ideology that Silent Mother Emanuel church in Charleston, SC in June 2015 Sam represents. and pressure mounted for the removal of Confederate “Many of the wounds of racial injustice that still exist in flags and monuments, Republican lawmakers in North our state and country were created by violent mobs, and Carolina rushed to enact a new law banning state agencies I can say with certainty that violent mobs won’t heal those and local governments from taking down any “object of wounds,” Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said. “Only remembrance” on public property that “commemorates a civil society that adheres to the rule of law can heal these an event, a person, or military service that is part of North wounds, and politicians — from the governor down to the Carolina’s history.” What more proof could be needed that local district attorney — must start that process by ending Confederate symbols are an incitement to violence than the deceitful mischaracterization of violent riots as ‘rallies’ the photo of Roof holding a Confederate flag and his and reestablishing the rule of law in each of our state’s cities admission that he wanted to start a race war? and counties.” Thus, when another white supremacist terrorist attack Notice how Berger’s statement implies that a “violent occurred in Charlottesville in August 2017, cities from mob” carried out a “violent riot” in Chapel Hill without Baltimore to Lexington, Ky. quickly removed Confederate specifically stating it. For the record, I did witness protestmonuments, along with the University of Texas at Austin. ers and counter-protesters jostling and shoving, and I saw But the administration at the University of North Carolina, an antifascist protester punch a cop in the cheek during a meanwhile, was effectively bound by law. quick series of tussles when protesters were trying to deThe students in Chapel Hill acted on Monday night, arrest comrades who were defying orders to remove masks. clearly and unequivocally rejecting white supremacy. The antifascist protesters were nothing if not cohesive, They demanded to know: Which side are you on? acting with impressive coordination to hold the space. As Silence is its own answer. to violence against persons, Chancellor Carol Folt said in
August 23 - 29, 2018
CULTURE 10 restaurants that define Greensboro
by Eric Ginsburg
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o get to really know a place, you need to eat the food. The way the locals do. If you just landed at PTI (thank god they didn’t change the name… yet) and direct your Lyft driver to one of these restaurants, you’ll quickly start to understand Greensboro. This isn’t a list of the city’s “best” — that’s too arbitrary. Instead, it’s an attempt to identify cultural catalysts and guardians of tradition that represent what gives Greensboro its soul.
5. Beef Burger Hops Burger Bar is Greensboro’s most famous burger place, and it’s also home of the best burger in the Triad (or maybe the state, but TripAdvisor went too far). Yet Beef Burger is more quintessentially Greensboro, with its affordable pricing, horrifically ugly décor, endless deals, and outdated games. Don’t miss the shakes or mac & cheese bites. 6. Smith Street Diner Biscuits are the No. 1 food I miss since moving to Brooklyn. You could argue that Biscuitville’s headquarters should garner it a place on this list. But with biscuits the size of your head at Smith Street, a top ranking from Southern Living and admitting that I’m a Bojangles partisan, this truly local business belongs. Smith Street filled the void left by Robinson’s —one of the first mainstream black-owned restaurants in the city — and paved the way for places like Scrambled.
8. Crafted: The Art of the Taco A symbol of the changing downtown, few if any restaurants in the Gate City have garnered as much hype in the last decade. Though in some ways it’s been eclipsed by its street food successor, this taco joint acted as the vanguard of the latest wave of downtown dining, making a path for posher places like 1618 Downtown and White & Wood. Crafted: Taco has transformed in the process, moving into a much bigger space across the street and adding a Winston-Salem location, too. 9. Sticks & Stones / Fishbones The Lindley Park pizza place made Greensboro cool before it was ready. Accompanied by sister restaurant Fishbones across the street, it transformed a neighborhood and helped the city kick it up a notch. This is where your out-of-town friends suggest meeting up when they come back to visit. 10. Bandito Bodega If Greensboro is lucky, Bandito Bodega is a harbinger of what’s next for the city’s food world. A food truck-turnedstorefront that masterfully pulls together global ingredients and tastefully injects personality, Bandito should demarcate the beginning of a new era for the city’s restaurant scene. It’s one of the few local places where you could bite into a new dish blindfolded and easily name its source. As Greensboro grows up, that should be one of its chefs’ goals.
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7. Stamey’s The best barbecue in Greensboro comes from Boss Hog’s on East Bessemer. (Stop being so white and go over there already!) But Stamey’s is the Greensboro spot for this North Carolina favorite, in part because of their cooking approach. That’s why George W. Bush stopped there. If you’ve never been, what claim do you even have on this city?
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4. Dame’s Chicken & Waffles Yes, the chicken & waffles. But also the mac & cheese is the best in the city, the grits and greens are on point and Dame’s is a community hub. The food might be heavy, but it’s phenomenal. It’s also one of the first recent examples of a business from elsewhere in the state expanding to Greensboro, a bubbling trend that would’ve been rather unthinkable not that long ago.
Bandito Bodega evolved from a food truck before fitting into a storefront near downtown Greensboro.
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3. Mi Casita If Pho Hien Vuong typifies immigrant food gone mainstream, Mi Casita is the opposite. Few people know about this incredibly worthwhile Mexican spot in the city’s “International Restaurant Row.” And that’s part of the reason it belongs on the list; to truly appreciate what the city has to offer — culinary and otherwise — you must dig.
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2. Stephanie’s Easily one of the most popular restaurants in Greensboro, Stephanie’s is one of the few that deserves the mantle of “culinary institution.” Barack Obama and thousands of others have been here for the delicious soul food, and also because it’s the most prominent black-owned restaurant in the city. Plus, it’s easier to find than the International House of Prayer.
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1. Pho Hien Vuong Real ones might fawn over Van Loi II, Binh Minh or Banh Mi Saigon. But Pho Hien Vuong is the best example of a local restaurant serving international food that’s crossed into the mainstream. Greensboro is partly defined by its large immigrant and refugee communities, and Pho Hien Vuong illuminates that more clearly than most.
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August 23 - 29, 2018 Up Front News Opinion
CULTURE BlacKkKlansman panel explores narrative of the oppressed
by Sayaka Matsuoka
H
undreds of men and women brandishing torches while shouting, “You will not replace us,” flash across the screen as viewers watch in dead silence. A silver Dodge Challenger drives into a group of protesters, killing one Heather Heyer, reminding viewers of how far we have not come. We’ve seen it all before. Only this time, the scenes don’t play out on a smartphone or laptop or TV screen; they carry a new kind of weight as the coda of Spike Lee’s latest film, BlacKkKlansman, in movie theaters across the country. The movie, which debuted on Aug. 10, marked the one-year anniversary of the events in Charlottesville and chronicles the real-life story of how Ron Stallworth, the first black police officer of the Colorado Springs Police Department, infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1970s. As the harrowing scenes come to an end, Lee offers up an image of the American flag and turns it upside down and drains it of color, leaving it black and white. It’s a telling shot, one that serves
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as the backbone and theme throughout the movie: that America is and has always been, a country that has failed to address its racist heritage, causing it to forever teeter back and forth between the black and white, the oppressed and the oppressor. Larry Little, who attended a screening of the film at a/ perture in WinstonSalem on Aug. 16, doubled down on the idea. Little grew up in Winston-Salem and helped found the city’s Black Panther Party in 1969, the first chapter in the South, before becoming a city alderman and, later, a professor of SAYAKA MATSUOKA Larry Little, former Black Panther and Winston-Salem city alderman, told the story political science at of Clyde Brown after the BlacKkKlansman screening at A/perture. Winston-Salem State the hands of white supremacy throughout America’s history. University. In one of the tensest stretches of the film, Colorado Col“I have a lot of emotions from watching the film,” said lege’s black student union invites a senior black activist, Little, during a dialogue at the end of the film. The event was played by Harry Belafonte, to a meeting. There, Belafonte’s part of a new series by a/perture and the New Winston Mucharacter, Jerome Turner, tells the true story of Jesse Washseum called the New Winston Dialogues that invites special ington, a black teenager who was lynched in Waco, Texas in guests like Little to lead conversations after select films. 1916. The episode is one of the most gruesome accounts of The screening for BlacKkKlansman, which took place at a/ lynching in history, with a white mob chaining Washington, perture, was sold out. cutting off his fingers and genitals, then burning him alive for The film uses its bizarre premise of a black police officer hours. Photographers sold pictures of the event as postcards infiltrating the KKK by pretending to be a white man on the and children stopped on their lunch break to watch. As Turner phone, then using his white partner for in-person meetings recounts the horrors, members of the student union gasp and to paint the film as a kind of comedy. And while the movie shake their heads. certainly has its moments for During the film’s discussion after laughs, including when Stallthe screening, Little offered a simiworth unwittingly uses his real BlacKkKlansman will be screened at lar story to the audience. He talked name to talk to the KKK for the about the story of Clyde Brown, a first time, Lee makes sure to keep a/perture through Aug. 30. Tickets can black teenager who openly dated audiences woke by weaving realbe found at aperturecinema.com. a white woman in Winston-Salem life quotes by President Trump in the 1950s. After being spotted throughout. by the woman’s father, Brown KKK and white supremacists in was convicted of rape and found the movie make references to “making America great again” guilty by an all-white jury who sentenced him to death by gas and calling black people “murderers and rapists.” There’s even chamber. a scene towards the beginning of the film when Stallworth is Little, who echoed Lee’s central argument from BlacKtold by his superior that David Duke, the Grand Wizard of the kKlansman, said that racism was and is alive and well in the KKK at the time, is attempting to clean up his image to run for city. office to which Stallworth naively insists, “No one would elect “In Winston-Salem, you don’t see the Klan but you see someone like David Duke for president of the United States.” people in three-piece suits with the same racial biases,” Little Groans and laughs from the audience ensued. said. “We have to come together to make the future that we Countering these lighter, yet all too familiar instances of deserve. We deserve better than the grand wizard. We deserve racism are more serious accounts of the terror that the black better than that.” community and other marginalized groups have had to face at
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tick-thin septuagenarians — most complicated patoversized oculars perched on the terns beget a soothing bridge of the nose — and giggling rhythm. Seated with little girls, red wine splashing pedals in position, around plastic cups just above their Lagueruela propels a heads, wove through the least homogwooden device with enous crowd in Greensboro at Studio two pointed ends hold503 on Aug. 16. ing a bobbin of weft The 22,000 square-foot renovated thread called a shuttle industrial property is situated five blocks from right to left within away from Elm Street in downtown and a matrix of tensionsoffers affordable workspaces for artists, wrought warp threads, a permanent photography studio to shifts the pedals, goes document their work and communal again. Often, she isn’t areas like an outdoor courtyard and sure what she’s making conference space. until the piece starts to Last Thursday, the 15 residents and take form. She says it’s other Greensboro artists revealed an easier to know what it exhibition titled Oculus GSO featuring isn’t; a foot-wide piece their latest work and created spur-ofwon’t end up as an area the-moment pieces as chatter with rug, for instance. eventgoers rose up and up to the high Sunny Gravely, a ceilings and the evening’s DJ released a painter and muralist, steady stream of bass that reverberated works a little differentagainst concrete floors and masonry ly. She recognizes artwalls. making as a therapeutic Megan Lagueruela’s shared space lies practice and comes to straight back from the studio’s main her canvas with a misentrance, where tonight a nearly 6-foot sion in mind. metallic bull comprised of materials Following Sandra LAUREN BARBER Megan Lagueruela demonstrates weaving techniques on her loom at Studio 503. as nonsensical as golf clubs, saws and Bland’s jail cell death Often, she isn’t sure what she’s making until the piece starts to take form. crowbars, stands proudly. Fiber is her in 2015, Gravely found medium and eco-consciousness is her herself contemplating a bloodied palm. brand. She lives up to her promise of everyday martyrs as she grieved. Two dark-skinned angelic That Lagueruela is creating in an affordable space, that hand-making sustainable textiles from beings tower above planet Earth cradling Bland’s limp figure Gravely is exhibiting and connecting others in the community materials like bamboo, or purchasing in their hands among whirlwinds of plum and lavender swirls. to the Artist Bloc, and that Messer is flourishing as an artist threads Gravely, who is also one of the are all due in part to access to resources in large, communal with no founders of the Artist Bloc on Gate artistic spaces. Renovations like these are an unsurprising plastics City Boulevard, tends to draw on Learn more at studio503gso.com and development in an old textile town with a burgeoning arts or oils, contemporary social and political scene, but also alongside the momentous surge of grassroots visit at 503 E. Washington St. (GSO). ensuring issues in pieces like “Saved,” which social and political movements reflecting a shift in popular that her reflects her perspectives on imvalues. So it’s not new, but creatives and supporters appear to creations migration, fear and the American be revising classic concepts of what an arts space is, prioritiz— everydream. As with most of her work, ing access and democratizing space. thing from clothing to pillows — are this piece also reflects elements of spirituality. Winged angels biodegradable. She’s thoughtful when it reach downward to souls drowning in comes to dyes, as well. sickly, chartreuse waters just in front of a “You often have to use heavy metals busy cityscape. to stick [dyes] to the fabric, which then Local illustrator, sculptor and ceramicist goes into your water runoff,” she says. Michael Messer doesn’t rent at Studio “So I use some natural dyes that are 503. He spends most of his creative hours colorfast without using metals and then at Forge, a non-profit community makalso low-impact synthetic dyes that are erspace in Greensboro where he forages safe for the water.” scrap wood from furniture-makers. A Throughout the evening, she demnumber of his polished, abstract wooden onstrates weaving methods, at one sculptures hang on a wall but “Descenevery point handing over the reins to a girl dants of Cain,” his pen-and-ink illustraGood through 10/4/18 Tuesday, who quickly took to raising and lowtion, stole the spotlight. all day Monday – Thursday ering the loom’s five wooden pedals, In the foreground of a swollen crimson Order online at pizzerialitaliano.net not unlike those on a piano. There is a sun, an abstracted Cain carries an anvil unique physicality to weaving. Even the and bars of gold, clutching wheat grains in 219 S Elm Street, Greensboro •
August 23 - 29, 2018
CULTURE Studio 503 democratizes art spaces
by Lauren Barber
13
August 23 - 29, 2018
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Last night of the 2018 season at Bowman Gray Stadium.
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“The Long Name”--ooh, someone’s in trouble. by Matt Jones
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Piece of Necco candy Desert of Mongolia Zany, formally? Practical applications Love on the Loire Mine vein Quartet member George Eliot’s “___ Marner” City near Tulsa “The Facts of Life” actress Mindy Ibsen heroine Gabler Brown and Rather, for two Answers from previous publication.
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41 Harry Potter accessory 45 Stopped suddenly, as an engine 47 He held over 1,000 patents 49 Be shy 51 Overrun (with) 52 First Lady of the ‘50s 53 Castigate 55 “Criminal” singer Apple 56 “There’s no ___ sight!” 57 Orchestra needs 58 Nacho topper, slangily 59 1952 Olympics host 61 College courtyard 62 “Major” constellation
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Down 1 Gives off 2 Newscast summary 3 Echo responder? 4 Orchestral section ©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 5 Dress in Delhi 6 His mother raised Cain solo playing in your mind right now) 7 “On the Beach” author Shute 28 D.C. diamond denizens 8 Hawaii’s “Garden Isle” 30 Cartman, to his mom 9 Fail to exist 31 Truffle fries topper 10 RBG’s group, for short 32 Victorian expletive 11 Mass transit vehicle, formally? 33 Hashtag acronym popularized by a Drake song 12 Small songbird 34 Casual “industry,” formally? 13 It comes twice after “Que” in a song 36 50-Across “Cousin” 21 Herd comment 37 Comedian/actress Butcher of “Take My Wife” 25 “I want catnip” 38 Inspiron computer maker 27 “Careless Whisper” group (yeah, that’s the sax
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Across 1 Chunks of history 5 Decaf brand 10 Lumberyard tools 14 Turn into a puddle 15 “Fuzzy Wuzzy was ___ ...” 16 Preserve, as meat 17 Cupcake decorator 18 Show with skits 19 “Remote Control” host Ken (or German for “upper”) 20 IRS collection, formally? 22 Poke ingredient, often 23 “Saved by the Bell” character Jessie 24 Acid-base indicator 26 Formal attire 29 Actor Rob, or either candidate named Ron who competed in a 2018 Kansas congressional primary 32 “___ of Laura Mars” 35 Coif 39 George Gershwin’s brother 40 Amorphousamount(andan“ArrestedDevelopment”character) 41 Light bulb measure, formally? 42 Zero, on some fields 43 “It’s hard to be humble when you’re as great as I am” boxer 44 Beer named for a Dutch river 45 Religious offshoot 46 It’s six of one ... and six of the other 48 Bunches 50 36-Down’s “Family”
August 23 - 29, 2018
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Answers from previous publication.
©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com)
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