Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point
August 9 - 15, 2018
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August 9 - 15, 2018
EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
The fleeting joy of beauty
by Brian Clarey
“We don’t mess with crow’s feet on men,” Dr. Becky told me as I leaned back into her chair. “Women like them.” She grabbed my chin with a rubber-
deal, really. I take them with the same spirit of inevitability as the changing seasons. And I never thought I’d, you know… do something about it. And then Witneigh introduced me to Dr. Becky. When Witneigh Davis, one half of the leadership team at Greensboro Fashion Week, makes a style suggestion, I take it seriously. So when she scheduled me for a session at Eye Salons in Greensboro, I showed up with an open mind and an open schedule. Pedicure. Eyebrow tint and, later, a wax. But before that they handed me off to Dr. Becky. That’s where she pointed out the (rare!) bifurcation of my procerus muscle before administering 10 units of Botox to it, and complimented my dimples before erasing my nasolabial folds with needles full of filler. The difference in my face is quite subtle, not really noticeable to anyone except myself and the people who are closest to me, which I suppose is the point. My eyebrows spend most of their time behind my glasses — I can’t even see them myself unless I’m a couple inches away from the mirror. But I know they are, most assuredly, on fleek. And I’ve still got that chin going for me. Dr. Becky says it makes me look like royalty.
gloved hand. “You’ve got a great chin,” she said. “Makes you look like royalty.” And I blushed like the Peach Queen at the county fair. I have come to terms with the fact that I am a man of vanity. I’m not as vain as my father, who sometimes executes three wardrobe changes a day, each with its own shower and hairstyling session, including 20 minutes under the blow-dryer. Every time. My maternal grandfather, too, I remember, was fastidious about his appearance and, according to my grandmother, somewhat enamored of his own reflection in the mirror. I’m fine with the way I look, but still I push my thinning locks around to cover my bald spots. I suck in my stomach during work hours. I shave the back of my neck. Like that. As I hit my own midlife malaise, I’ve become more aware of the things that mark my age, particularly on my face: deep lines in my cheeks and forehead, a pronounced ruddiness of the skin, crow’s feet. No big
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
This is not a gentrification project. This is a comprehensive, mixed-use redevelopment providing additional quality workforce housing in mind at the heart of it.
-Councilman Dan Besse, in the News, page 8
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August 9 - 15, 2018
NCDOT TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETING FOR THE JOHNSON STREET (S.R. 1818)/SANDY RIDGE ROAD (S.R. 1850) WIDENING FROM SKEET CLUB ROAD (S.R. 1820) TO I-40 IN GUILFORD COUNTY STIP PROJECT NO. U-4758 The N.C. Department of Transportation will hold a public meeting to present information on the proposed widening of Johnson Street (S.R.1818)/Sandy Ridge Road (S.R.1850) from Skeet Club Road (S.R. 1820) to I-40 in Guilford County. The proposed corridor will consist of a 4- to 5- lane divided roadway with sidewalks and bike lanes. The meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 14 at the Deep River Community Center located at 1529 Skeet Club Road, in High Point from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Interested citizens may attend at any time during the meeting hours. Please note there will be no formal presentation.Anyone requiring special services should contact Tony Gallagher, Environmental Analysis Unit, at 1598 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1598, by phone (919) 707-6069 or by e-mail at magallagher@ncdot.gov as early as possible so that arrangements can be made.
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At the meeting there will be maps of the proposed plans as well as project team members who will be available to answer questions and receive feedback. All comments will be taken into consideration as the project progresses. The opportunity to submit written comments will be provided at the meeting or can be done via phone, email, or mail no later than September 14, 2018. As information becomes available, it may be viewed at the NCDOT Public Meeting Webpage: https://www.ncdot.gov/news/public-meetings For additional information please contact NCDOT Project Manager, Gene Tarascio, by phone at (919)707-6046 or by email at gtarascio@ncdot.gov or Consultant Project Manager Robert Boot, by phone at (919)431-5276 or by email at Robert.boot@atkinsglobal.com. NCDOT will provide auxiliary aids and services under the Americans with Disabilities Act for disabled persons who wish to participate in this meeting. Anyone requiring special services should contact Lauren Putnam via email at lnputnam1@ncdot.gov or by phone at (919) 707- 6072 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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August 9 - 15, 2018
CITY LIFE Aug. 9 - 15, 2018 by Lauren Barber
Opinion
News
Up Front
THURSDAY
Summer Nights concert series @ Historic Bethabara Park (W-S), 6 p.m. Head to the pavilion with blankets and chairs for an evening with the Bethabara Concert Band. Munch on Dino’s Hot Dogs and 25-cent ice cream, and enjoy colonial-era games and hayrides. The historic park’s free music series runs through October. Find the event on Facebook. Latin social dance class and dancing @ Footnotes Coffee & Cocktails (W-S), 6:30 p.m. It’s time to unwind with some social dance lessons in the Jade Room of the new(ish) café and events space between Foothills Brewing and Bookmarks Bookstore on Fourth Street. The half-hour salsa, bachata and merengue class begins at 6:30 p.m. with two and a half hours of free dance time to follow. Learn more at foothillsbrewing.com/events.
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Shot in the Triad
Culture
Authoring Action performance @ SECCA (WS), 7 p.m.
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Local teen authors will deliver original written work, songs, spoken work and short films during the culminating event of their summer intensive program. Catch follow-up performances Friday and Saturday. Learn more at authoringaction.org.
FRIDAY
Tristin Miller @ Irving Park Art & Frame (GSO), 5:30 p.m.
5 by O. Henry @ Greensboro History Museum, 7:30 p.m.
The 32nd season of 5 by O. Henry kicks off this Friday as a handful of the storyteller’s best-known plays are featured on stage. This year’s production includes An Adjustment of Nature, The Unknown Quantity, Blind Man’s Holiday, The Marry Month of May and The Octopus Marooned. Performances run through Aug. 19. Learn more at greensborohistory.org/event. Jurassic Park @ Bailey Park (W-S), 7:30 p.m. Local artist Tristin Miller gives a talk at 6:30 p.m. during the opening reception of her solo show Past in Present, which “explores abstraction, experience, time, and discipline.” Watercolors, daily drawings, drawings on antique paper from the 19th Century will make up this body of work. The exhibit runs through Aug. 31. Find the event on Facebook. Queen of Katwe @ LeBauer Park (GSO), 7 p.m. UNCG presents a free sunset (8:15 p.m.) screening of Queen of Katwe, a biographical drama about Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan girl who becomes a Woman Candidate Master after victories at the World Chess Olympiads not too long after she’s introduced to the game in the slums of Katwe. On the fence? Go just for Lupita Nyong’o and grab some eats from Ghassan’s, Porterhouse Burger Company or Café Europa before lounging on the lawn or participating in free, family-friendly activities with giveaways. Learn more at greensborodowntownparks.org and find the event on Facebook.
Chill out with the people you love and your leashed dog on the downtown lawn while Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill flee from cloned dinosaurs in the first installment of the Jurassic franchise at 8:30 p.m. Come an hour early for food from Hunger Flames and Zeko’s 2 GO food trucks. Hoots Beer Co. has us covered for beer and wine and Aperture Cinema supplies fresh popcorn and movie trivia at 8 p.m. Find the event on Facebook. Gate City Cypher @ Shiners (GSO), 8 p.m. IC Shows & Crank It Loud present Gate City Cypher: The Next Generation, hosted by Ed. E Ruger and featuring performances by Blaze Belushi, Samson, Fam U, Chris Lewis, Coop, Kaylon Toure, Swanky Dank, Rashaad King, Tru Pain and 2AM Bravo. The show starts at 9 p.m. Find the event on Facebook.
August 9 - 15, 2018
SATURDAY
Dr. Bacon @ Wise Man Brewing (W-S), 8 p.m. Up Front
Peach Day @ High Point Farmer’s Market, 8:30 a.m.
B-String Allstars & Luxuriant Sedans @ 6th St. & Liberty St. intersection (W-S), 7 p.m.
The seven-piece Appalachian funk-rock band out of Asheville returns to the taproom to provide an evening of blended soul, jazz, rock, blues, folk, hip-hop and funk. Find the event on Facebook.
News
Love Language @ Monstercade (W-S), 8 p.m. Indie-rock band the Love Language, on tour for their new album, Baby Grand, stops by the southside spot to share the stage with indie-pop act Moon Racer, garage dream-poppers Positive No and Greensboro’s Totally Slow. Musicians take the stage at 9 p.m. Find the event on Facebook.
Opinion
SUNDAY
Guitarist Mike “B” Bennett, owner of the “B” String guitar shop on Trade St., performs blues rock anthems with a backing band. The Luxuriant Sedans bring bluesy soul and rock ’n’. Learn more at downtownws.com/music.
The nine-person band performs everything from Latin jazz to original orchestral salsa arrangements to classic salsa genres like bolero, rumba, guaracha and son montuno. Whip out the lawn chair, blankets and picnic dinners. Learn more at westendmambo.com and find the event on Facebook.
Puzzles
Orphée Project @ Wake Forest University (WS), 7:30 p.m. This intergenerational dance and music event is a collaborative performance between Wake Forest students and faculty, children living with neurodegenerative disease in the Community Ballet program, older adults in Wake’s Lifelong Learning program and professional dancers in the community. Learn more at musiccarolina.org.
Shot in the Triad
August is National Peach Month and this weekend marks the end of National Farmers Market Week, and High Point’s biggest market is celebrating in style. Leanna Grace Caddell, North Carolina’s Peach Queen will be on site enjoying peach ice cream, peach-related crafts and cooking demonstrations alongside market goers. Somehow unsurprisingly, the High Point Museum has a collection of peach-pit carvings they’re loaning to the public library for display on this holy day. Enter the peach recipe contest at 10 a.m. or dress your pet as your favorite fruit, vegetable or barnyard animal for a pet costume contest at 11 a.m. James and the Giant Peach screens at 2 p.m.
Culture
West End Mambo @ Mendenhall Transportation Terminal (HP), 6 p.m.
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August 9 - 15, 2018 Up Front
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
9 random thoughts about the closing of Winston-Salem’s Hooters by Brian Clarey 1. Do people still go to Hooters? Apparently not. 2. The concept — dressing young women in workout gear circa 1980 and sexualizing them while they serve chicken wings and beer — lasted a lot longer than it should have. 3. The last time I went to Hooters, which was easily 10 years ago, my server was at least six months’ pregnant.
News
4. Uncomfortable disclosure: I have on at least two occasions been a judge at a Hooters bikini contest. A long time ago.
Opinion
(336) 456-4743
3723 West Market Street, Unit–B, Greensboro, NC 27403 jillclarey3@gmail.com www.thenaturalpathwithjillclarey.com
5. Remember the guy that got turned down for a job as a Hooters girl and then sued for sexual discrimination? Turns out it happens all the time — most recently in Corpus Christi, Texas, where a class-action, sexual-discrimination suit was settled for an undisclosed sum. The corporation also gets sued regularly for sexual harassment. 6. Many, many years ago, I took my art director — who was of non-traditional sexuality and gender — on their first trip to Hooters using a gift card I had received as a bonus from our employer. My art director seemed amused by this parochial display of cis weirdness, but admitted after the first bite that the Buffalo chicken sandwich was absolutely top notch.
Culture
7. Hooters has a kids’ menu. Think about that. 8. The best time I ever had at Hooters was in 2008, after covering a wrestling event at the Greensboro Coliseum — all the wrestlers were there. I saw Kelly Kelly eating chicken wings, watched the crowd swoon over the Edge and got threatened by Matt Striker. I was still drinking pretty good back then.
Puzzles
Shot in the Triad
9. I never made it to the Winston-Salem Hooters. NBD.
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Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles
I went to the AMC Classic Greensboro 18 on Tuesday to see the pro-Trump docupolemic Death of a Nation, half expecting to see a mob kitted in MAGA hats and “Molon labe” T-shirts spill out into the parking lot after the movie ready to round up “illegals,” harass antifa, dehumanize high school “gun-grabbers” and shower disdain on libtards. It wasn’t that kind of party. In fact, I almost ended up occupying the theater myself until a friendly, graying white couple came in. “She asked me how many people do you think will be there?” the man chuckled. “Ten?” Then he assured me: “You’re not alone.” Even if the theater had been full, it would have likely been a somber affair: The conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza narrates the film with a kind of earnest chagrin that strikingly contrasts the gleeful trolling that his hero uses to whip supporters into a frenzy. Throughout the film, D’Souza wears the pained expression of a man haunted by the fact that the subjects of his fragile, torturously constructed historical narrative don’t play along with their assigned roles. With the ridiculous notion of Trump as the second-coming of Abe Lincoln at the film’s centerpiece, D’Souza argues that the Democratic Party and the left in general are a kind of cancer threatening to destroy America. Contrary to the conventional historical view that the two parties have gradually swapped ideologies, D’Souza contends that the white supremacist Democratic Party of the 19th Century was actually a “progressive” institution that promoted slavery as a kind of European-style social welfare state. And the Democratic Party of today supposedly promotes a “plantation” mentality of “big government” that maintains “black ghettos, Latino barrios and Native American reservations.” While the polemicist never explores the questions of why African-Americans overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party, the black choir singing “Battle Hymn of the Republic” at the film’s conclusion is surely intended to underscore D’Souza’s sincerity. So, no Confederate flag-waving in this sanitized hymn to “Make America Great Again.” Dang, that must take all the fun out of it for Trump’s red-blooded American true believers. D’Souza makes the case that Trump is not a racist or a fascist. He carries a heavy burden, and to vanquish the notion, he must prove that the fascism of Hitler and Mussolini was a movement of the left as opposed to the right. While alleging a chummy relationship between Hitler and FDR — who of course epitomized Democratic progressivism in America — he never explains why the United States went to war with Nazi Germany. And while fascism was supposedly a left-wing movement, he fails to mention that American leftists — communists and anarchists — went to Spain as volunteers to fight against the fascist forces led by Franco. He also conveniently leaves out the part about right-wing noninterventionist Charles Lindbergh leading the “America First” movement, and how Trump appropriated the slogan. The timing for the release of Death of a Nation is curious, coming just before the one-year anniversary of the Unite the Right rally. “Charlottesville” — the word drips from D’Souza’s mouth like a radioactive sneer, as he complains that the left continually throws the debacle in Trump’s face. To deal with this inconvenient truth, D’Souza gets white nationalist Richard Spencer alone and all but accuses him of being a dupe of the left sent to discredit Trump. While Spencer acknowledges that he wants to repatriate brown immigrants, D’Souza makes the spurious argument that Trump is only concerned about illegal immigration. The term “s***hole countries” somehow never figures into the conversation. As D’Souza’s hero might say, “Sad!”
August 9 - 15, 2018
Trump’s America: Death of a Nation by Jordan Green
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August 9 - 15, 2018 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles
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NEWS
Winston-Salem experiencing unprecedented housing boom by Jordan Green Three new multifamily housing developments will increase the housing stock in downtown Winston-Salem by 25 percent by 2020. Major projects like BB&T Ballpark and Biotech Place, respectively on the west and east sides of downtown Winston-Salem, fell into place like frontier fortifications over the past decade. With continued financial support from the city, an unprecedented surge in housing development is filling in the gaps. Across the street from Biotech Place, an early flagship of Wake Forest Innovation Quarter that opened in 2012, the new Link Apartments at Innovation Quarter rises like an ocean freighter in a space that once served as a surface parking lot stretching between Patterson Avenue and an active rail line. With an investment of $51.7 million, the mixeduse complex with a planned 340 housing units is the largest downtown development project since city planners started tracking the numbers in 2013. At the other end of the central business district, the high-end West End Station apartments are nearing completion, with 229 units, filling out a once desolate stretch of fallow urban territory west of Broad Street not far from the ballpark. Grubb Properties, the Charlotte-based developer responsible for the Link Apartments at Innovation Quarter, has already made a foray into the Winston-Salem market. The company’s first project was the Link Apartments Brookstown, which opened in 2014 and affords direct views onto the ballpark. A third project is set to go although it hasn’t yet broken ground: As part of a larger undertaking to renovate the former GMAC Tower as a new headquarters for Flow Companies, Grubb Properties plans to build another apartment building with 230 units on a one-block surface lot along West Fourth Street. When the planned Link Apartments at Fourth Street opens in 2020, the three projects combined will have added about 800 units to downtown, representing a 25-percent increase in housing stock, according to numbers maintained by the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership. The partnership’s running tally of residential projects charts an explosion of growth around 2014, with the repurposed Plant 64 leading a surge from 2,094 units to 3,233 today. Investment by the city of Winston-
Salem and Wake Forest University in the Innovation Quarter was a major inducement for Grubb Properties to develop housing across downtown. “We think that all the investment the city is making, all the investment Wake Forest University and the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter are making — we’re excited,” said Emily Ethridge, a spokesperson for Grubb Properties. “We’re seeing a lot of professionals coming in, including medical professionals. We’re seeing demand for a great new product with amenities, a demand for apartments located where you can walk to work and at a price that’s affordable.” Ethridge said prices for the new Link apartments at Innovation Quarter and Fourth Street will likely be comparable to the Link Apartments Brookstown, where monthly rents for one-bedroom apartments begin at $1,025 per month. With the Fourth Street project, Grubb Properties agreed to designate 30 percent of the units as so-called “workforce housing” at 110 percent of area median income. Assistant City Manager Derwick Paige told council members the agreement would translate into rents of about $1,100 per month for the “workforce” units. Both Link projects — at Innovation Quarter and Fourth Street — are materializing through significant public investment. A parking deck associated with the Link Apartments at Innovation Quarter received $8 million in economic assistance through matching pledges by the city of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County in property-tax reimbursements. Similarly, the city agreed to a grant of up to $1.65 million over 10 years — equivalent to 75 percent of new tax revenue — to help pay for the renovation of the former GMAC Tower and development of the Link Apartments at Fourth Street. The incentives packages have received unanimous support from city council members. But sensitive to criticism that the new downtown housing prices out many residents, city leaders have also looked for ways to support affordable housing around the periphery of downtown. Councilman Dan Besse cited the city council’s unanimous support earlier this year of a rezoning request to allow the nonprofit Shalom Project to build 60 units of affordable housing at the southwest corner of Peters Creek Parkway and Academy Street where the Budget
The Link Apartments at Innovation Quarter are scheduled to open in 2019.
Inn is now located. “This is not a gentrification project,” Besse said prior to the vote on the project, which straddles the Ardmore and West Salem neighborhoods. “This is a comprehensive, mixed-use redevelopment providing additional quality workforce housing in mind at the heart of it.” Although there’s no magic threshold, Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership President Jason Thiel said the new burst of housing inches downtown closer to transportation and shopping improvements. “We’d like to think we’re close or right there,” he said. “[A grocery store] is one of those needs. We’ve talked about bringing in a cooperative grocery. You’ve got things like valet parking that becomes visible. “When it comes to transportation, should we think about things like streetcar or light rail?” he added. In 2014, city council discussed the idea of putting a bond referendum before voters to fund a streetcar line that would have wound around downtown, connecting Winston-Salem State University and Baptist Hospital while stimulating affordable housing development. But, sensing ambivalence from voters, council members ultimately decided not to put the project on the ballot. “There was some concern that the
JORDAN GREEN
voters weren’t ready for that, between the people who are skeptical of all transit and people who said, ‘Fix our bus system first,’ a streetcar referendum that year would have been premature,” Besse said. “We’ve been working hard to fix our bus system so that folks who are oriented towards the bus option will feel they’ve been heard, and improvements have been made.” Besse said he hopes that with Democratic gains in Congress and the North Carolina General Assembly, additional federal and state funding will become available for local transit projects. Incidentally, he’s running for state House this year. “When you look at the longer-term trends of what younger people want in terms of transportation options, especially the ones who are flocking to metropolitan city centers like ours is becoming, you understand that there’s going to be an increasingly greater demand in our city for ways to get around that don’t require using your car all the time,” Besse said. “For a lot of folks that don’t require having a car, the mindset that everyone wants to live in the suburbs and drive everywhere is no longer the across-theboard reality, if it ever was. We need to recognize that, and build an infrastructure that recognizes it as well.”
August 9 - 15, 2018
Ed Hanes announces retirement from NC House by Jordan Green Rep. Ed Hanes, a Democrat who has represented District 72 in the state House since 2013, abruptly announced his retirement after serving three terms.
whomever accepts appointment to fill his seat.
Montgomery said that when Hanes initially approached him, he questioned whether the House seat would give him the opportunity to continue the work he’s been doing on city council.
“There are some great folks who have been working in the East Ward,” he said. “I don’t want to prematurely state any names. I do have a couple folks in mind that I think will do an amazing job.”
“One of the reasons that led me to say yes to the task is that it offers me the opportunity to do the same work on another level. Fighting for affordable housing, working for the creation of jobs in the community for everyone at many different levels of competency, that’s something that’s very important to me,” he said.
Ed Hanes was elected to the General Assembly in 2012, when the Republican Party consolidated control by winning a super-majority in both houses and taking the Executive Mansion.
Montgomery said he also looks forward to advocating for additional support for schools and teachers in the state legislature.
Montgomery expressed confidence that the East Ward will be well served by
“I was able to remain committed to a singularly policy-driven focus,” Hanes said in a press release. “I came to Raleigh to create relationships and bring people together on difficult issues and I was able to do that. I’m proud that I
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Montgomery’s anticipated elevation to the state House creates a vacancy for the East Ward seat on city council. Mayor Allen Joines said that rather than hold a special election, the council will likely appoint a replacement to fill Montgomery’s unexpired term through 2020. Joines said the city council would likely act on a recommendation from the local Democratic Party.
was able to remain policy focused while avoiding most of the politics that has created the stratified political environment that exists nationally.”
Shot in the Triad
“I will say wholeheartedly that we have heard that Councilman Derwin Montgomery is interested in serving our city as a state legislator,” Ellison said. “I think Derwin has done an excellent job. He is everything we would want in young leadership. He would do a fantastic job at the state level. He is a rising star. That said, the Forsyth County Democratic Party believes in democratic values. All Democrats that reside in the 72nd District are welcome to come forward and express their interest in the seat.”
Ellison said anyone interested in the House seat should contact him.
SCREENSHOT
Culture
Montgomery’s appointment to the fill the vacancy in District 72 and replace Hanes on the ballot in November is not automatic. Ellison said the Forsyth Democrats’ executive committee will meet on Sunday at 4 p.m. to name a successor to forward to Gov. Cooper as Hanes’ replacement.
Rep. Ed Hanes, a Democrat from Winston-Salem who represents state House District 72, announced his retirement from the state legislature less than three months before his election contest with Republican Reginald Reid.
Opinion
Hanes has asked Winston-Salem Councilman Derwin Montgomery to replace him in the House. Montgomery said he has spoken with Forsyth County Democratic Party Chair Eric Ellison and state Sen. Paul Lowe about the appointment, which would be made by Gov. Roy Cooper at the local party’s recommendation.
News
Hanes ran unopposed in the Democratic Party and was facing Republican Reginald Reid in the November general election. The Forsyth County Democratic Party will have to appoint a replacement to fill Hanes’ unexpired term and to be placed on the ballot as the Democratic nominee in the general election. Hanes said a professional opportunity “just came up as something that has presented itself,” adding that in hindsight he would have preferred to announce his retirement earlier to allow for a Democratic primary contest to decide his replacement.
Up Front
Hanes said in an interview on Tuesday that he is giving up his House seat representing Winston-Salem effective immediately to pursue “cross-platform opportunities” and explore various options “over the next two or three months,” although he declined to specify his plans.
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August 9 - 15, 2018 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles
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OPINION
EDITORIAL
CITIZEN GREEN
act of duty — and defiance Agapions, institutional Voting is anAmidst a Republican-instigated dissolving the Presidential Advisory Commission on Elecmemory and futility hysteria over massive voter fraud, tion Integrity, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, before It is sometimes said among the more senior members of a newsroom staff: There are no new stories, only new journalists. Greensboro’s Agapion family and Arco Realty, the company it controls, seem intent on proving this old adage to be true. Arco specializes in low-income housing of the type afforded to people with few other prospects — bad credit, criminal records and underemployment among them. Their apartments at the corner of Summit Avenue and Cone Boulevard cater most specifically to refugees. The family that perished when one of the units caught fire in May — all five children — came to Greensboro from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Concurrently, Arco Realty is being sued by the widow of Gary Lee Hickenbottom, a plumber who was electrocuted while working on an Agapion property on Kersey Street, Triad City Beat’s Jordan Green reported in June. A building inspector reported afterward that no permits had been secured for the wiring in the building, and that it was dangerously below code. In February 2015, City Beat’s Eric Ginsburg reported that the Agapion family, through different companies, owed $346,775 in outstanding fines on their 400 Greensboro properties. Fox 8 News reported in August 2013 that two Agapion apartment buildings on Floyd Street had been condemned by the city. Credit Greensboro activist Andrew Young with reminding everyone on social media this week of a 2006 News & Record article by a forgotten staffer about a motion in Superior Court that accused family patriarch Bill Agapion of forging a tenant’s initials on an agreement indicating the tenant was aware of the lead paint in their Agapionowned apartment — the family was suing the Agapions after a doctor found lead in their 4-year-old daughter’s bloodstream. Legendary N&R reporter Lorraine Ahearn made it her business to hound the Agapion family through their various escapades in civil — though never criminal — court. One short piece from 2005 described Bill Agapion’s reaction to the Greensboro Housing Coalition after they took city council on a tour of distressed properties in the city, many of them under his control: A certified letter that read, in part, “Stay off our property.” The paper trail goes back to the 1970s, for anyone who cares to delve into it. And yet the Agapions still maintain their family business, even as they have disrupted so many other families. It’s not a reporter’s job to ask why, and so it falls upon the editorialist to ask the question: With a long record of inattention to properties and an actual body count, why is the Agapion family still doing business in Greensboro? And what is the point of exposing them when it doesn’t seem to make a difference?
the state Board of Elections underit released its final report. Of course, there never was any took an audit of the 2016 election. massive systemic voter fraud. Out of 4.8 million North CaroIn North Carolina, the state board of elections referred lina voters participating in the 2016 the two cases of voter impersonation, which involved family general election, the state board members voting in the place of a recently deceased loved of elections found 441 cases of one and forging the deceased’s name, to prosecutors. by Jordan Green voting by suspected active felons, Alamance County District Attorney Pat Nadolski is one of 41 cases of non-citizens voting, 24 cases of double voting the few prosecutors in the state that has opted to pursue and two cases of voter impersonation. The board of eleccriminal charges against individuals caught up in the audit. tions audit, released in April 2017, noted, “It is important to The Alamance 12, as they’re known, are all people who viorecognize that suspected cases of ineligible voters casting lated election law by virtue of voting as felons on probation ballots and/or committing fraud represent a tiny fraction” or parole. And considering that the courts and law enforceof the overall number of voters in the election. ment disproportionately arrest and lock up people of color, This was an election in which Republican Pat McCrory it should come as no surprise that nine out of 12 are black. lost his reelection bid by 10,277 votes, or 0.2 percent. McFive defendants interviewed by the New York Times said Crory, who refused to concede the race for 27 days after they didn’t know that what they were doing was a crime. In the election, pledged on election night: “We’re gonna make many states, it isn’t a crime. In Pennsylvania, Ohio and 12 sure every vote counts in this election in all 100 counties… other states, along with the District of Columbia, voting and we’re gonna need your help.” rights are automatically restored once McCrory’s volunteers came an offender is released from prison. through by protesting 600 DemoIn Maine and Vermont, felons are cratic ballots, including many people allowed to vote by absentee ballot “It is important to recogwho turned out to be eligible voters prison. nize that suspected cases from exercising their right to participate One of the Alamance County in the democratic process. A report of ineligible voters casting defendants, 28-year-old Taranta Holreleased by the watchdog group man, had never voted before 2016, ballots and/or committing and only did so at the urging of his Democracy North Carolina charged, “For weeks, media reports bombardfraud represent a tiny frac- mother. Considering the string ofed the public with allegations of voter fenses on his criminal record over the tion” of the overall number past 10 years — everything from B&E fraud, and dozens of innocent voters had their reputations impugned and vehicles to misdemeanor drug posof voters in the election lives disrupted. Fortunately, elections session — voting almost seems like an – NC Board of Elections officials stopped the coordinated use act of civic redemption. Holman told of phony protests to corrupt the electhe Times that when relatives called tion results, but they cannot undo the him to say there was a warrant for his corrosive impact of voter-fraud hysteria on people’s faith in arrest for voting, “I thought they were playing with me.” fair elections.” Ironically, Holman had seen little incentive to vote for The inherent sore-losery of searching for phantom either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. He seems to have systemic voter fraud was not limited to the losers. Chafing learned his lesson all too well. under the reminder that he lost the popular vote while car“Even when I get this cleared up, I still won’t vote,” Holrying the electoral vote, President Trump began making the man told the Times. “That’s too much of a risk.” unsubstantiated and false claim that the popular vote was It’s worth remembering that when the student civil rights “stolen” millions of votes by noncitizens. In a case study for workers of the early 1960s escalated from lunch-counter how fantasy can warp reality, NPR political reporter Mara sit-ins to voter-registration drives, racists in Mississippi and Liasson asked then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Jan. 24, Alabama responded with a wave of bombings, murder and 2017: “If 3 to 5 million people voted illegally, that is a scanterror. And as Student Non-violent Coordinating Commitdal of astronomical proportions. Doesn’t [President Trump] tee alum Charles E. Cobb recounts in the 2015 book This want to restore Americans’ faith in their ballot system? Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed, Southern black comWouldn’t he want an investigation of this?” munities often carried firearms to defend themselves and Spicer responded, “Well, maybe we will.” their neighbors against intimidation while exercising the And sure enough, on Jan. 25, Trump tweeted: “I will be franchise. asking for a major investigation into VOTER FRAUD, There used to be an excuse made by people who wanted including those registered in two states, those who are to justify their indifference: If voting changed anything, illegal and… even, those registered to vote who are dead they’d make it illegal. (and many for a long time). Depending on results, we will In many cases they have. strengthen up voting procedures!” On Jan. 3, 2018, Trump quietly issued an executive order
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Antonio Rickard graduates from Providence Kitchen’s Culinary Training Program after applying through Forsyth Tech and obtaining a grant from Goodwill. Most students’ tuition is covered by scholarships.
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cheered them on. Providence are graduates too, and that’s by design according Antonnio Rickard, a 33-year old with a bushy black beard to Faughman. and wide smile, said that he found To ensure students have the Providence through Forsyth Tech. opportunity for real-life experiAfter applying and receiving a grant ence, Providence offers paid Learn more about Providence’s Culinary from Goodwill, he says he was acresidency for top-performing cepted into the training program, graduates. Of the 14 employees Training program at hungernwnc.org/ which normally costs about $400. in the Providence kitchen, 12 how-we-work/tck.html Tuition for most students are came from the training procovered by scholarships, according gram. That’s how Sturdivant got to Bacon. her job, she said. “We’re not just a culinary “It’s so surreal,” said Sturdischool,” Bacon said. “We’re a social enterprise model. We’re vant, who helps others like her find the school. “They gave feeding people who are hungry. Kids in schools, the elderly.” me opportunities I didn’t have before. Now, I just want to give But for many of the students like Rickard, who plans to back.” open up a wing shop next year, the school marks a new chapter in their lives. “The last time I graduated was 14 years ago,” said Rickard, as he accepted his certificate. “The dream never died. This is what I love to do.” And while Rickard has picked a path as an entrepreneur, many from the program go on to work in local restaurants both in and out of the kitchen. “Our impact with local partners is so deep,” said Tina Faughnan, the director of client services at Providence. “It would be hard to name them all.” A few include the executive chef at Tanglewood Pizza Kitchen and the manager at the Village Tavern. Most of the staff at
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p until a few months ago, Saranda Sturdivant, lived in the Salvation Army’s emergency homeless center in north Winston-Salem. The 25-year-old, who was pregnant at the time, said she struggled with finding a job. “I knew I was smart, but I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Sturdivant said. Fast forward to today, and the mother of two is now working as the client-services assistant at Providence Restaurant inside the DoubleTree Hilton off University Parkway. It’s a job that she’s grateful for, not just because it helps pay the rent at her new apartment, but because it’s a symbol of the life-changing experiences she’s had in the last year. Before landing this job, Sturdivant was part of Providence’s Culinary Training program, an intensive, 13-week, handson curriculum that trains those who are unemployed and underemployed in the community. “It’s a solution-based approach to homelessness and unemployment,” said Jeff Bacon, the executive director of the Providence Restaurant Group, which is comprised of the restaurant, a catering business and soon-to-open farm-to-table spot in the BB&T building downtown. “The foodservice industry is famously bad at training people,” said Bacon, who founded the program. “Many end up going to expensive culinary schools and then they can’t make enough money to pay back their loans.” A part of the Second Harvest Food Bank, the school teaches students the skills they need to work in a kitchen, from basic knife skills to catering and sanitation. Students also give back to the food bank by practicing mass-food production and preparing ready-to-heat meals. The program has been around for just over a decade and has graduated more than 600 trainees since its inception. Eleven of those graduates sat in rows of chairs in the DoubleTree’s ballroom on the afternoon of Aug. 3 as they eagerly waited to walk across the stage. One by one, they were called up by Bacon, who stood behind the podium and handed them certificates. “You must cheer and hoot and holler,” he said as he began the ceremony. Men and women from diverse backgrounds and generations graced the stage, as their friends and family
August 9 - 15, 2018
CULTURE Providence takes cooks from soup kitchen to prep kitchen
by Sayaka Matsuoka
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August 9 - 15, 2018 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles
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CULTURE Aunt Jemima no more: Black artists at the Delta Arts Center
by Lauren Barber
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n the Delta Arts Center in Winston-Salem, Aunt Jemima grimaces with rage, spatula wielded high in her right hand as she bursts free of the pancake-and-wafflemix box inscribed with Chicago police badges as stars in the American flag, a black-gloved fist and “ingredients” like Somalia, Haiti and Harlem. Murray DePillars’ 1968 pencil drawing re-envisions the corporate icon, confronting the soothing, comfortable “mammy” stereotype of white-supremacist fancy, depicting black women who worked as housekeepers and often nursed white families’ children during slavery. “Aunt Jemima” adorns the walls of the Delta Arts Center, a relatively unsung gem of Winston-Salem’s arts scene, as part of an exhibit highlighting significant 20th and 21st century works by AfricanAmerican artists. The pieces are on loan from the art collection at Bennett College, a historically black college for women founded in Greensboro in 1873. The exhibit, on display through Nov. 10, includes paintings, multimedia works, collage and drawings from artists such as Arturo Lindsay, Faith Ringgold, Benny Andrews, Varnette Honeywood and Louis Delsarte. The late Eva Hamlin Miller keeps company, too. In 1937, she became Bennett College’s first art professor and chaired art departments at Bennett, Tuskegee Institute and Winston-Salem State University throughout her career. She taught and founded the HC Taylor Art Gallery at North Carolina A&T State University and served eight years as the art supervisor for Greensboro city schools. Many of her commissioned stained-glass works still nest in windows of Greensboro churches. In 1991 she and a former student, now-Congresswoman Alma Adams, joined with others to found the AfricanAmerican Atelier in the Greensboro Cultural Center, where she served as curator in the months before her death. Her 1991 acrylic on canvas “Nefertiti” now adorns a far wall at the Delta Arts Center. The Egyptian queen’s race remains a topic of debate but, here — like many artists of the African diaspora — Miller claims her as a woman of black ancestry. The wealthy era of her reign alongside husband Akhenaten is reflected in eye-catching patterns and vivid colors: In the foreground of lush
Eva Hamlin Miller’s “Nefertiti,” on loan from Bennett College, hangs in the Delta ARts Center. Miller was Bennett’s first art professor and Rep. Alma Adams’ former art teacher.
EVA HAMLIN MILLER
swaths of drapery she lies on a bed of maroon, gold and purple High Point, found a mentor in Miller, his former instructor. — colors associated with royalty — and her state of repose Also a founding member of the African-American Atelier Galclothed in only sheer, angel-blue fabric indicates royal standlery, he collaborated with Miller on a number of local projects ing. Nefertiti rests on a saffron-orange pillow, perhaps a nod including a mural in the Williams Dining Hall on the A&T to Aten, or sun disc, the sole god worshipped after the relicampus. A giclée print of his original 2002 painting “Liberty gious revolution she led upon ascension to the throne. Viewers and Justice for All,” now in the Delta Arts gallery, depicts the catch her gazing into her own eyes without expression in the four men who performed the Woolworth sit-in outside the old golden, ovular bedside mirror. Is this how she sees herself, or a luncheonette on the foreground of the Betsey Ross flag, with reflection of the observer’s gaze? specters of four civil rights protestors holding signs reading Miller’s “Complexities of the Madonna” in oil hangs in “support the sit-in movement,” “one nation indivisible,” and stark contrast: highly abstract, featuring an earthier palette. “equal rights NOW” in the white stripes. However promiIn Western fine arts, the Madonna is a representation of the nent — in the Rogers’ painting or real-life — all eight figures’ Virgin Mary, primarily rooted shadows point in the same in Catholic and Orthodox direction: forward. Christian interpretations durThe exhibit features artists Learn more at deltaartscenter.org/gallery and ing the Italian Renaissance. from across the US, though, visitat 2611 New Walkertown Road (W-S). In this 1964 nonfigurative from distinct backgrounds rendering, though, Miller that manifest on the canvas. appears to wrestle with the Still, it’s notable how many Madonna-whore complex, a featured artists have local misogyny-laden psychological conflict in which women — catties. The Delta Arts Center first sponsored an Elizabeth Catlett egorized as either virginal, saintly Madonnas to be admired or exhibit at the Urban League Building in 1986. She and Dr. Maya depraved whores to be sexually objectified and dominated — Angelou, then a Wake Forest University professor, shared a are ultimately loathed while compelled to grapple day-to-day public conversation in the midst of her 2008 exhibit. Romare with the fabricated contradiction. Freud, of course, offered Bearden, born in rural Mecklenberg County outside of Charhis psychoanalytic theories, though many scholars point to lotte, designed “Homage to Roots,” currently on the Delta the evolution of the false dichotomy in Western mythologies Arts walls, for a 1977 TV Guide cover story about the waterand Judeo-Christian theology. Given her lifelong critical focus shed television series Roots: The Saga of the American Family. on race, it’s fair to assume that “Complexities” is at least part It’s fitting that DePillar’s defiant Jemima is the first work commentary on the unique ways in which black women are gallery-goers encounter; she makes clear that the space is forced to navigate a cultural crossroads of gender and racial brimming with works from African-American artists invested Catch-22s in a post-chattel slavery America. in decolonizing their art, unapologetically forging new concepJohn Rogers, a painter, graphic artist and designer living in tions of an inherited identity.
August 9 - 15, 2018
CULTURE Paranormal Cirque creeps through the Triad
by Sayaka Matsuoka
S
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ally Rotten, a bloody, painted circus freak crept on visitors as they made their way into the billowy black and red tent. Zombies and a Leatherface lookalike lumbered inside and terrorized unsuspecting customers. One woman got so scared that she reflexively huddled behind a man nearby and hid her face, waiting for the dedicated actors to find another victim. Hordes of people showed up to the recently constructed Big Top in the Four Seasons Center parking lot on Aug. 4 to attend Paranormal Cirque, a traveling horror-themed circus. The show is a part of Cirque Italia, an Italian entertainment company that describes itself as a “vivid, dramatic and moving experience under a customized traveling tent” and was finishing up a stint in Greensboro after haunting Winston-Salem in early July. The event promised to be a thrilling combination of circus, theater and cabaret, all tinged with horror.
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The show blends theatrics with horror, acrobatics and burlesque for an adult-themed evening under the freaky big top.
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And while the actors shambled like the undead and intimidated those in their paths, the real scares came from the amazing feats performed by the show’s talented acrobats. Marked by bloody facial scars and a devilish grin, an Exorcist-inspired actress rolled out in a bed, writhing and hissing as she emerged. Like a scene from a movie, the possessed woman cursed at the nearby priest before ascending into the air, her long white nightgown trailing beneath her. The only thing suspend-
the curtains and quickly began climbing up the beams of the rig, swiftly ascending to the top. As he made his way into the wheel, the weight of his body began tilting the whole thing, starting the terrifying cycle. As the whole contraption began spinning in huge circles, the man started to run and jump, timing his movement to the rotations of the death trap. And if that wasn’t enough, after a few minutes of warming up, the daredevil climbed onto the outside of the wheel — now almost 30 feet in the air — and began running on top of it. Then, he added a jump rope. Then, a blindfold. As the audience gasped and hollered, the man skipped and jumped, tripping a few times, nearly missing the edges of the beams. Spectators screamed while others covered their faces. And before anyone could say occupational hazard, the performer slowed his speed and brought the Wheel of Death to a stop. One woman quietly exhaled, “Oh, thank god.” As truly novel moments dwindle in our cyclical society, Paranormal Cirque offers a unique, single night of shocking feats that’s a refreshing break from the usual binge-watching sprees.
Shot in the Triad
Aerialists owned the space at the top of the tent.
ing her from the wire in the ceiling? — her ponytail. As she rose higher, the confident athlete began twirling and posing like a spider weaving her web. Audience members ogled as she spun in circles and the wire pulled her around the tent, yanking her hair taut, making her smile wider. One onlooker shook his head in disbelief. During the almost three-hour show, unbelievable acts like this one were countered by segments of humor that were mostly sexual in nature, offering a lighter, if crass, alternative to the freaky feats. Still, the audience laughed at the masturbation jokes and the dry humping between the show’s highlights like the scantily-clad female acrobats who gracefully contorted themselves in mid-air or the burlesque dancing and segments of magic by the ringmaster. And as the gags and gigs wrapped up, the show introduced its finale. Shaped like a giant lollipop made of metal or a giant hamster wheel attached to a long arm, the Wheel of Death took four men to configure. A squat man appeared from behind
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August 9 - 15, 2018
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Ted Johnson Parkway, Greensboro Touchdown on a summer night.
CAROLYN DE BERRY
by Matt Jones
China, Taj Mahal, or Empire State Building 58 Cable movie channel owned by Lionsgate since 2016 61 Lou Gehrig’s nickname, with “The” 62 TV input or output component 63 Appellation 64 Johnny of “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” 65 Color for rolls of dimes 66 Actress Natalia of “Stranger Things” 67 “Undertale” character named for a derided font
37 42 46 48 ©2018 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 49 50 24 Short nap 52 25 Makes happy 53 26 Leave out 54 27 Chinese restaurant style 28 Repetitive-sounding province of the Philippines 55 56 29 Brought bad luck to 57 30 Brewer’s dryer 58 31 Archaeological site 59 32 The “A” that turns STEM into STEAM 60 35 Joining with heat 36 Harvard-set Turow book
Fit together Range of perception “Christopher Robin” character Like feelings from ASMR videos, for some Mock-innocent reply Team VIP Golden ___ (Sir Francis Drake’s flagship) Airplane seat attachment Head bobs De Matteo of “The Sopranos” Channel with a “Deportes” version.0 Sales force members Succumb to gravity NBC News correspondent Katy Ending for Power or Gator
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Down 1 Tail movements 2 Skilled 3 Burrito bar side, for short 4 Prefix with plasm 5 Sardine cousins 6 Look after 7 “Was ___ harsh?” 8 “No ___ Traffic” 9 Renaissance 10 Bowl game venue, maybe 11 Roadside rest stop 12 Insect egg 13 Keanu, in the “Matrix” series 18 “___ ever-changing world ...” 21 Living room piece
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Across 1 Worker’s compensation 5 “M*A*S*H” actress Loretta 9 Wilson of “The Office” 14 Have ___ in the oven (be preggers) 15 “What ___ God wrought” (first official Morse code message) 16 Muppet wearing a horizontally striped shirt 17 2000 movie with the quote “What we do in life echoes in eternity” 19 Box lunch? 20 Relative that might be “once removed” 22 Wood for baseball bats 23 Removed 27 Mustard sometimes mixed with mayo 31 “Out of the Cellar” glam rockers 33 ___-de-France (Paris’s region) 34 1998 skating gold medalist Kulik 35 In-between feeding time invented for a Taco Bell ad campaign 38 Olympus ___ (Martian volcano) 39 Come together 40 90 degrees from norte 41 Intuitive power 43 “Don’t change” 44 Suffix similar to -let 45 Painters’ mediums 46 Lunar cycle segment 47 Present-day 49 Act like an old-timey suitor 51 Honorific for landmarks like the Great Wall of
August 9 - 15, 2018
CROSSWORD “Even Chances”--the odd one’s out.
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