TCB June 20, 2019 — Poverty Inc. by Triad City Beat

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point June 20-26, 2019 triad-city-beat.com

POVERTY INC. The business of profiting off of poor people PAGE 8

Trump and militia PAGE 13

LGBT+ yoga PAGE 16

Nik Snacks! PAGE 15

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June 20-26,2019

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

The latest last call Early on Friday, the story for almost two weeks. And then in our tattered the worm turned. office on South On Thursday, we knew, one of the Elm-Eugene subjects of the story shut off the power Street, Jordan at Georgetown Manor apartments. This Green informed alerted the News & Record to our enterme that it was prise. Their piece came out on Saturday time to make the morning. by Brian Clarey last call. We hated to lose the scoop, but our The last call is the most important one piece had so many moving pieces that in investigative reporting. It’s the one would have been irresponsible to rush it made to the entity being investigated, be out. it person, place or thing, and it’s not made On Sunday, we ran the story past our until the reporter’s got all the aggravating lawyer — who agreed the task was urgent evidence nailed down and squared away. enough to work on Father’s Day. On And it’s rarely the last call, Monday we went through because new information the piece line by line, always emerges. Occaincorporating the lawyer’s The last call is sionally we get credible edits, clarifying some explanations that need to sentences and properly the most be checked out. Someanointing attribution. It important one in sounds tedious, and it times they even do. But it’s always the most is, but it’s the gist of the investigative exciting call to watch. So, job, and it’s important to reporting. I decided to stick around get it right. We dropped for a while, because it on the site Monday watching Jordan work afternoon, hoping people the phones is a lesson would see it during their in journalism all in itself: his immaculate evening newsgathering sessions, anticipatpreparation, his soft and calm voice, his ing a major shitstorm while simultaneously impenetrable logic, his insistent pushback. wondering if anyone would even notice. I’ve been admiring his technique for You never know what will gain traction out almost 15 years. I even remember the first there. time I saw him do it in 2005, when nobody Sometimes a 15-minute turnaround will in the Triad knew who he was, and though jam up the site and cause newspapers to I can’t quite remember who was on the fly off the racks, and sometimes the things receiving end I do remember thinking, In a that take months come out on the page few years, people are going to start panickand barely make a ripple. ing when they hear that Jordan Green is on What happens to a story once its the phone. birthed is not up to us. We just make sure By Friday, Green had been grinding on we can deliver it the best we can.

BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey brian@triad-city-beat.com

PUBLISHER EMERITUS Allen Broach allen@triad-city-beat.com

EDITORIAL SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green

EDITORIAL INTERN Cason Ragland ART ART DIRECTOR Robert Paquette

jordan@triad-city-beat.com

robert@triad-city-beat.com SALES

sayaka@triad-city-beat.com

gayla@triad-city-beat.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sayaka Matsuoka SPECIAL SECTION EDITOR Nikki Miller-Ka niksnacksblog@gmail.com

STAFF WRITER Lauren Barber lauren@triad-city-beat.com

1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 COVER: The Georgetown Manor STAFF WRITER Savi Ettinger apartment building. [Photo savi@triad-city-beat.com illustration by Robert Paquette]

KEY ACCOUNTS Gayla Price CONTRIBUTORS

Carolyn de Berry, Matt Jones

June 20-26,2019

CITY LIFE June 20-23, 2019 by Cason Ragland

THURSDAY June 20

4 annual Celebration @ the Grove Street People’s Market (GSO), 6 p.m. The farmers of Glenwood will gather later today to sell their produce for this special edition of the Grove Street People’s Market. There will be several vendors and activities for all ages. Find out more about how you can support your green-thumbed neighbors on Facebook.

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Artists Unite 2019 @ the Ramkat (W-S), 7 p.m.

FRIDAY June 21

Minecraft Coding Camp @ Code Ninjas (HP), 9 a.m. Released by Mojang in 2009, Minecraft has gone on to become the best-selling video game of all time. The open-ended nature of its design allows players to create almost anything from entire civilizations to virtual circuit boards. If your child is already familiar with how the game works, they can also learn quite a lot about coding with the proper guidance. More details can be found on Facebook.

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Summer Solstice Party @ the Weatherspoon Art Museum (GSO), 5:30 p.m.

This event spans two nights and will offer discussions on Thursday and performances on Friday. Demi Day, Alfred Clemonts, LB the Poet and Blitz the Ambassador will all perform on the second night. Blitz will also present his critically acclaimed film the Burial of Kojo. Check all the details on Facebook.

This free event will have all of WAM’s galleries open as well as several other ongoing activities. Kids can take part in face-painting and a scavenger hunt while the adults can peruse the exhibits and listen to J. Timber, a pop-rock and soul artist, give a live performance. WAM’s website has more details.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope @ the Carolina Theatre (GSO), 7 p.m. Star Wars was in theatres for 44 weeks after its release back in 1977 but there’s still a chance you might’ve missed it when it was on the big screen. Since then, there have been some re-screenings and now there’s one at the Carolina Theatre. Find out more info and buy tickets via the theater’s website.

SATURDAY June 22

Vegfest @ Center City Park (GSO), 11 a.m. The 3rd annual Vegfest will go down this weekend in downtown Greensboro. Festival-goers can enjoy some tasty, plant-based food and have the chance to learn more about vegetarian and vegan lifestyles. The event is free to anyone and you can learn more about the festival on Facebook. Pitmaster Challenge BBQ Fundraiser @ Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts (WS), 4 p.m. The Little Theatre will enter it’s 85th season this year and this fundraiser will help ensure that they continue to produce great, live theater for the city of Winston-Salem. Attendees will receive a plate of different barbecue samples, beans, slaw and a drink with their purchase. The event’s Facebook page has more details.

No Ordinary Daughter: Clara I. Cox’s Many Ministries @ High Point Museum (HP), 11 a.m. Clara I. Cox was a Quaker pastor and activist during the early 20th Century. This presentation, given by librarian and college archivist Gwen Erickson, will cover how Cox collaborated with state and national leaders to address the injustices of her time. For more info, check out the event’s page on Facebook.

SUNDAY June 23

Pride Dance Party & Drag Show @ Boxcar Bar + Arcade (GSO), 9 p.m. Pride month may be coming to a close soon but that’s all the more reason to get out there and support Greensboro’s LGBTQ community. Ivy Carter, T-Money and KayKay LaveLLe will put on a drag performance while DJ Wa Wa will be on the ones and twos. Drink specials will be served and you can find out more about the event on Facebook. YRK Tour: Solstice Paddle & Potluck @ Yadkin Riverkeeper (W-S), 1 p.m. The Yadkin Riverkeepers will host a 9-mile paddle this weekend in honor of the longest day of the year. The event will have live music and registration ends June 20. Those who plan to attend are asked to bring a dish for the potluck. Find out many more details on the Yadkin River Keeper’s website.

June 20-26,2019 Up Front News

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June 20-26,2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

How to learn street smarts by Brian Clarey

My oldest approached me the other day after he had burned several hours and gallons of gasoline with a cautious admission: “I think I met a grifter.” I knew the day would come. Despite his quiet intelligence and undeniable beauty, the kid looks a little bit like a goober… like the kind of kid who gets his wallet lifted while he’s looking up at the tall buildings… the sort who gets sucked into an alleyway dice game… the type who just might be talked into buying the undercoat on a new car. So I braced myself for the worst. He said the guy approached him at a gas station asking for a ride. And while I’ve tried for many years to impart some of my hard-won street smarts upon my children, I somehow failed to teach this kid that the answer to that question is just about always, “No,” or sometimes a more harsh variation. Before the guy got in the car, my kid said, he managed to procure two cold drinks from inside the store, though he professed to have no cash. And with a whisper, my son’s new friend convinced a third party inside the store to cover the gas for the car. “Pretty solid,” I said. “Where’d you take him?” “To the bus station,” he said. “That’s it?” “That’s it.” We talked for a while about the poor choices he made, ran through the worst-case scenarios to which he exposed himself, isolated the points of decision that could have cut this thing short. I hope it did some good. But the thing about street smarts is that they are hard won, one lesson at a time, almost always with a price tag. “You give him any money?” I asked my son. “A little,” he said. “I guess that’s okay,” I said. “The guy earned it.”

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1. Congratulations! What does it mean to you to become one of the first black, transgender ministers in North Carolina? It means a lot, and it also means little to me. It means a lot in the sense that there already exists black, trans, non-binary ministers in the state but, because of barriers to get licensed; in the black church, I’m one of the first. Hopefully this helps them become publicly acknowledged by their church, by the state and by their community.

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3. How does your identity, particularly you being transgender and non-binary, affect your faith and your practice? I identify as somewhat Christian but also somewhat agnostic. I perceive the binary between Christian or not Christian like I perceive gender to be a false binary. There are so many nuances of what it means to be Christian, what it means to be a non-binary Christian. There is a fluidity to it, just like there is a fluidity to my gender. Those boundaries and categories that we place ourselves in per religion is damaging and limiting for someone that exists outside of the binary like me. That impacts my faith practice because I’ve made a commitment to minister to all people. God doesn’t have a binaristic way of perceiving God’s ministry. I’m always striving to deconstruct those categories.

5. What would you tell members of the LGBTQ+ community who are wary of religions, especially Christianity because of the hateful rhetoric Jenny ‘J’ Vu Mai (right) stands with COURTESY that comes out of the faith at PHOTO partner, Rev. Demi McCoy. times? I would tell them that they have right to be wary of that. As someone who has experienced spiritual violence from Christianity, whatever journey they take through healing is a valid journey — it’s part of the Christian journey. Even if you are wary and don’t feel like you connect, you are a valid voice. I want [them] to know that people like me are willing to sit in that tension and be present with [them], especially because of how [they] feel about religion. Christian ministers, in particular, are obligated to extend to people who have been harmed by religion deeply.

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2. What are the kinds of barriers that you talk about to getting licensed as a black, trans, non-binary person? People feeling comfortable exploiting the labor — emotional, spiritual, mental — of black trans non-binary people. [The church] wants that person to do all the work of being minister without them having the systemic acknowledgement of being a minister. For a long time, being licensed or ordained has been a barrier. I want to make sure other people are legit and official. I’m not trying to be more legit; I’m trying to say that anyone can be legit. This has a lot to do with the church I’m at too. Maybe at another church I wouldn’t have gotten ordained. That is a huge component as to why I was licensed, because of Rev. Mendez. He was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” It’s because of folks who are willing to take a chance on trans, non-binary folks within the black church. I also have access; my hope is to create more access for people.

4. What do you hope to preach and practice now that you are a minister? My initial sermon was about how God speaks in many native tongues. That includes transgender, non-binary queer people, even though our experiences have been placed on the margins. I also hope to preach trauma-informed messaging, especially for black folks, preaching about liberation from generational trauma. I hope to preach that people are worthy, that they’re enough and have the capacity to be fully loved the way they deserve to be loved, not the way society has told them they deserve to be loved which is very minimal.

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Jenny Vu Mai (aka “J”) made history at the beginning of June by becoming one of the first black, transgender, non-binary ministers of the Christian gospel in the North Carolina. Mai, who is also part Vietnamese, is a rising second year student at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity and was licensed by the Rev. John Mendez of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Winston-Salem. Mai anticipates receiving their master of divinity degree in 2021 and currently works as a graduate assistant the Wake Forest University’s LGBTQ Center. Mai uses they/them pronouns.

June 20-26,2019

5by Sayaka questions for Jenny ‘J’ Vu Mai Matsuoka

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Poverty Inc.: Agency accused of defrauding Medicaid, abusing clients by Jordan Green “They acted like we were walking checks,” said one client, describing her experience with United Youth Care Services, an agency that provides substance abuse treatment tied to offers of housing to people who are enrolled in Medicaid. Recruiters for the agency found women desperate for housing and with limited finances, many of them either pregnant or with young children, and offered them what seemed like an invaluable gift. Not only would they receive shelter, but the agency also provided mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment, and childcare while the parents received services. But the housing provided to clients of United Youth Care Services through a network of rundown apartment complexes and seedy hotels across Greensboro turned out to be infested with mold, bedbugs, frequent sewage backups and inoperable heating systems. The hotels and apartment complexes were plagued by rampant drug use. Clients were often denied keys to their rooms, leaving them exposed to theft and assault, and at the mercy of unscrupulous site managers. As bad as the housing conditions were, many of the clients wagered that homelessness would be worse. They discovered that their Medicaid enrollment was a cash spigot for United Youth Care Services, and that if they failed to attend the therapy sessions, which count as billable units for the agency, they would find themselves subject to punishment, including lockouts of up to 72 hours, and possible eviction. Utilities shutoffs and rent hikes were also a common complaint. Zalonda Woods, a former client who filed a fair-housing complaint against the agency with the city of Greensboro last month, has described United Youth Care Services’ substance abuse intensive outpatient program as “a fraudulent Medicaid scam.”

Allegations of false substance-abuse diagnoses

ight former participants, including two who spoke on condition of anonymity, described an array of ploys UYCS allegedly used to establish and maintain

false substance-abuse diagnoses so they agency could bill Medicaid. Some said that recruiters and intake interviewers encouraged them to exaggerate or lie about their substance use, or in some cases, they say staff falsified their paperwork with the clients’ cooperation. Others allege that staff tampered with urine samples to ensure that each client’s results showed up as positive. And one former client, Woods, said she wasn’t even aware that she was in a drug treatment program, but later discovered that her case file falsely described her as using cocaine and “drinking a gallon of liquor each day at the facility,” she said in a supplemental narrative provided to TCB. “They told me to act like I was doing cocaine, but I wasn’t,” Dion M. Garner said. “I was just using weed and alcohol.” Garner is a former client of UYCS and mother of four who spent about a year at the Travel Inn in southwest Greensboro. “I told ’em I did weed,” Garner continued. “They said, ‘Weed is not really an addiction.’ I had stopped using coke for a while. In order to get in, you had to be doing hard drugs. So, I started using coke again.” Mia Zeigler, a former client who was forced to seek shelter at the Interactive Resource Center on June 13 after water and power were shut off without warning at Georgetown Manor apartments, recalled being told by a recruiter: “Lie to get your foot in the door.” Zeigler said she told Donald Booker, the founder and president of the agency, and Richard Brian Graves, the program director: “All I do is smoke weed every day.” Their response, according to Zeigler, was, “That’s not enough.” Lenora Bratcher, who left her housing placement at South Pointe Apartments in southwest Greensboro in April, said she smoked marijuana and used alcohol. She said she also told the intake interviewer accurately that she had a history of mental-health issues. “They said, ‘Mental health ain’t enough,’” recalled Bratcher, who was seeking housing for herself and her 5-year-old daughter at the time. “Alcohol isn’t enough on its own. He said, ‘How much do you drink?’ I would tell him, ‘I could kill a fifth of liquor in 24 hours.’ He said, ‘That’s not enough.’ He said, ‘If you drink four bottles, that’s enough.’ He winks. I said, ‘Yes.’ I was in

Georgetown Manor is one of several developments where clients of United Youth Care Services live.

total agreement to it because there was no shelter at Urban Ministry, Salvation Army or Pathway. “I’m not an alcoholic, sir,” Bratcher told TCB, “but I did what I did to get in — to receive housing.” Two other former clients — one pregnant and the other with a daughter less than 2 years old — who spoke on condition of anonymity, also told TCB they lied at the instigation of recruiters so they could participate in the program and gain access to housing. Bristling with anger at the indignity of having their water and electricity turned off, a group of residents from Georgetown Manor gathered outside the Interactive Resource Center on June 13, where a city parks and recreation bus brought them for emergency shelter. TJ Little, who is Mia Zeigler’s husband, said he was never formally enrolled in the substance abuse program at UYCS, but attended classes anyway. “If you pee clean, they can’t use you,” he said, “so they’ll switch out your urine with someone who’s dirty.” Although she herself was not signed up for Medicaid, Calibra Brewington said she joined her mother, Latitia Burch, who is a client of United Youth Care Services, at Georgetown Manor. Brewington said she declined to attend classes or submit to urine tests,

JORDAN GREEN

but she became acquainted with staff. She said one staff member, who’s name she doesn’t recall, told her about the practice. “If you pee clean, they’ll switch it out, or just mix it with someone else’s,” Brewington said. Zalonda Woods said in her supplemental narrative obtained by TCB that her caseworker showed her a synopsis in her file that “stated that I was an active cocaine user and an alcoholic with psychotic and paranoid delusions.” Woods went on to say, “All of those claims are false, and totally fabricated. I was never tested for cocaine use, nor do I use cocaine, nor did I receive a psychiatric evaluation warranting such diagnoses.” Woods, who had two children — ages 8 and 14 — with her during her time at UYCS, said a caseworker, identified only as “Nicole,” “stated that if I claimed to not be on drugs, I would be terminated from the program, because they required us to attend treatment sessions so they could bill Medicaid for treatment.” She added that she saw multiple forms in her file where her signature had been forged, including at least one in which her name was misspelled. Woods said staff told her that the printer was broken, and she could not receive a copy of her file. Reached by phone, Nicole told TCB: “I felt like we were trying to give Za-

June 20-26,2019

londa good services. I disagree.” Without elaborating, she abruptly ended the call. A spokesperson for United Youth Care Services initially asked TCB to meet with agency representatives and its attorney at its offices on Monday, but then canceled the meeting. Enasha L. James, the spokesperson, said in a Facebook message on June 15: “No statement will be made until you are contacted by our attorney.” A short promotional video that James shared with TCB touts the agency’s 16-year history of providing “a medical and clinical approach to combat substance abuse.”

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‘All of that is true’

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Residents at Georgetown Manor prepare to board a city bus to emergency shelter after their water and power was unexpectedly shut off on June 13.

Continued on page 10

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off on a criminal charge, but the charge was subsequently dismissed by the Guilford County District Attorney. Grace, in turn, filed a civil suit against Walker to obtain a restraining order, accusing her of harassing phone calls and texts. Under a section of the complaint headed “Other relief sought,” Grace wrote, “Not contact any client affiliated with the employer in efforts to drive clients away, refrain from retaliatory efforts with governing agencies (Sandhills) and licensing boards to get back at agency or any staff.” In her complaint against Walker, Grace wrote, “She has a mental illness and refuses help.” In an order enjoining Walker from contacting any of Grace’s clients, thenJudge Avery Crump — who is now the district attorney for Guilford County — validated the statement that Walker “has a mental illness” as a judicial finding. “I’m not a mental case,” Walker told TCB. Regardless of whether the characterization is true or not, Walker questioned the legality of Grace making the assertion. “Sandra diagnosed me, which she can’t do,” Walker said. “That’s illegal; she’s a colleague. It’s not on any record. I didn’t choose her as my therapist.”

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progress notes, in 2015-16, and that Donald Booker, the president, was refusing to pay her if she didn’t recruit new clients. Walker, along with a number of clients, singled out Sandra Grace, the agency’s clinical director, as a key figure in falsifying clients’ diagnoses and enforcing participation in the therapy session. “She’s saying they have drug problems when they don’t,” Walker said. Walker said both Grace and Booker, the president, tell clients: “I’m just trying to help you out so you can get housing.” Grace abruptly hung up on TCB when contacted by phone on June 15. Court records show a history of conflict between Walker and other employees, including Grace. Walker said Grace bullied her, while Grace has complained that Walker harassed her. In an affidavit filed with a Guilford County criminal magistrate in February 2018, Walker alleged that during an agency function in early September 2016, Grace “grabbed my neck and began to choke me until my neck swolled up and my eyes were blurring.” Two weeks later, Walker said Grace assaulted her at her desk by placing her index finger on her temple and shoving it twice, and then laughing and saying, “What you going to do?” A magistrate signed

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There’s little doubt that Sandhills’ staff is aware of the complaints against United Youth Care Services. Brett Byerly, the executive director of the Greensboro Housing Coalition, said his agency has received “dozens” of complaints from former clients who come looking for housing who have disclosed details about United Youth Care Services’ substance abuse treatment program. In 2016, Byerly said he submitted a formal complaint to Sandhills about United Youth Care Services. “To the best of my recollection about the verbal complaint I made to Sandhills, to the quality-of-care folks, was in regards to concerns that we had from our experiences with clients that they had offered housing contingent on them having a diagnosis relating to substance abuse and them telling us that they did not have substance abuse issues,” Byerly said in an email to TCB. “In other words, they had to fail a drug test to be able to get enrolled in the program and get housing, but they weren’t actually using anything. Of course, it’s easy to take something and fail a drug test if your housing depends on it, which several reported that they did.” Walker, the former employee, said she repeatedly reported UYCS to Sandhills for falsifying records, including client

JORDAN GREEN

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ne former employee of United Youth Care Services, Talencia Walker, backed up former clients’ accounts. Walker, who left United Youth Care Services in February 2018 and now lives in the Baltimore area, said without hesitation after hearing a summary of the former clients’ allegations: “All of that is true.” Walker said the falsification of clients’ substance-abuse status occurs during clinical assessments and continues as staff updates progress notes in the clients’ files. United Youth Care Services advertises “SAIOP” — an acronym for Substance Abuse Intensive Outpatient Program — on its website. A manual published by the NC Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services in 2017 describes it as a “treatment program that operates at least 3 hours per day and at least 3 days per week and is on an individualized treatment plan.” The manual indicates that the billing unit is one event per day for a minimum of three hours. The Sandhills Center, a “local management entity-managed care organization” that covers nine counties, including Guilford, is responsible for authorizing Medicaid payments for services to people with mental-health and substanceabuse issues. Heather Odendahl, a communications specialist for Sandhills, confirmed that UYCS is one of the agency’s providers. “We take that seriously,” she said. “If we are to get a report of waste, fraud or abuse, the protocol is that we look into it certainly, but we would have to keep that under wraps and confidential.” Odendahl went on to say that if Sandhills investigators find credible evidence of wrongdoing, they will turn it over to the NC Department of Health and Human Services for possible prosecution.

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Continued from page 9

Another judge, Angela Foster, later declined to issue a permanent no-contact order, finding that Grace failed to make her case. Grace also took out a criminal charge for misdemeanor harassment against Walker. That charge is still pending. Judge Crump’s order did not apply to licensing boards or governing agencies, and Walker promptly filed an ethics complaint against Grace with the NC Substance Abuse Professional Practice Board, airing her accusations of assault. In April 2018, the board notified Walker that after investigating the allegations it was dismissing the complaint. Barden Culbreth, the board’s executive director, signaled the reason for dismissal in an email to Walker even before the ethics committee had completed its investigation. “On the face of it, this appears to be a dispute between employees of an agency,” Culbreth wrote on Feb. 18, 2018. “This is the reading so far from the board’s attorney. Do you have evidence of her mistreatment of clients?”

Drugs, discourtesy, curfew, keys and assault

n interviews with TCB, former clients of United Youth Care Services alleged a wide array of mistreatment, ranging from discourtesy and exposure to drugs to dangerous housing, and even assault. In a February 2019 email to Barden Culbreth, the executive director of the NC Substance Abuse Professional Practice Board, Talencia Walker said clients had filed a total of 32 complaints against United Youth Care Services with Sandhills in the past year. Walker promised to send Culbreth a video of a client briefly complaining about Grace in connection with an alleged assault by a site manager at his apartment. In the video, dated Sept. 16, 2016, which Walker shared with TCB, a 64-year-old man describes the site manager pushing him into his bathtub while the two men were arguing over a personal search. The client says he was fishing his phone and cigarette lighter out of his pocket when the staff member insisted on doing the search himself. “I said, ‘No, you won’t, man. Just leave me alone,’” the client recounts in the video. “So, I was standing right there by the end of the bathtub, and he just

pushed, tried to stick his hand in my pocket, and pushed me over the side. I fell back in the bathtub. He caught me and pulled me back up. ‘You all right?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not all right, didn’t you just push me in the damn bathtub?’” The client said he was in trouble with staff for missing an appointment, explaining to Walker that he’d had to go to Burlington to pick up his two young sons after their grandmother notified him that she couldn’t watch them. “That’s when site manager called Sandra, told Sandra: ‘This ain’t gonna work. He got to go,’” the client recounts. “So, she came over here raising hell about me missing an appointJORDAN GREEN ment. I told her, ‘It was Clients of United Youth Care Services are bused from a network of apartments and hotels to classes at the agency’s office on Fourth Street five days a week. an emergency with my kids.’” located off 16th Street across the highway is substandard. Zalonda Woods and Former clients interviewed by TCB from the Pyramids Village shopping another client, who spoke on condition said security agents cursed at clients and center. of anonymity, said the children don’t get acted unprofessionally. “People were selling drugs and selling enough to eat in the childcare program, “They make us leave the apartment marijuana,” Bratcher recalled. “Crack. and Woods said she complained to at 8, but the class didn’t start until 10,” Cocaine. Molly. Pills.” management about workers smoking Dion Garner said. “They’re banging on Two clients, including one who spoke marijuana while on the job. the door early in the morning telling you on condition of anonymity, went as far to get out.” as to say that staff encouraged clients to Clients who said they signed up for the use drugs. program not because they needed treat“Some of the teachers are telling us to ment for substance abuse but because smoke crack, weed, molly, whatever — they needed access to housing said the drugs,” Mia Zeigler said. residential setting, if anything, increased ccounts provided by clients that Lee, the only current client who spoke their exposure to drugs. are backed up by reports by city to TCB, said she doesn’t have a key to Demetris Lee, a warehouse worker code inspectors indicate that a lock her door at South Pointe Apartwho said she didn’t have adequate rotating array of facilities operments, where she is a current resident. income to pay for housing, recounted, ated by the agency in four out of five city Before she left South Pointe in April, “They put me in a dingy hotel. I smoke council districts over the past three years Bratcher said she lived without a lock weed, but these are heroin addicts.” are rife with extensive violations. on her door, and her vacuum, shoes and Lee said clients typically have to sign In May 2018, a city inspector cited clothing disappeared. Every one of the in for curfew — 10 p.m. on weekdays a former assisted-living community residents displaced from Georgetown and 11 p.m. on weekends. that the agency commandeered on Old Manor due to the June 13 utilities shutoff “The security men come around with Battleground Road for broken windows, said they did not have keys to their own pants sagging,” Lee said. “They smoke missing smoke detectors, mouse holes, apartments. weed just like I do. Why would you hire inoperable air conditioning and heating, Latitia Burch, one of the residents at someone who smokes weed? I have to and clogged gutters. Georgetown Manor, said that Leo, the sign a form for this guy every night.” Following a zoning meeting in late rent collector, constantly gave her a hard Three former clients, including one June of that year, code inspector J. Mctime about having her children with her. who spoke on condition of anonymity, Clintock met with the city’s planning “They said we couldn’t have kids singled out another employee for using manager and deputy city attorney to because they’re bringing in pedophiles,” drugs and for buying drugs from clients. discuss the facility. City officials detershe said. Before she moved to South Pointe mined that the building was operating as Clients also said the free childcare serApartments, Bratcher and her daughter a group care facility. Under city ordivices offered while they attend therapy were placed at Regency Inn & Suites, nance, such facilities are limited to 30

Mold, raw sewage, fire, no heat, power shutoffs

‘They don’t get paid if we don’t show up’

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her Medicaid ran out,” Zalonda Woods wrote in her statement. “The staff laughed at her while she cried.” Talencia Walker, the former employee said simply: “They treat clients like garbage.” Bratcher said staff, including Sandra Grace, the clinical director, constantly told clients if they complained to Sandhills, the agency would get shut down and they would have nowhere else to go. “Everybody was scared about losing our housing,” Bratcher said. ‘If Sandhills shut us down, you won’t have nowhere to live.’ That’s how they kept us silent.” Bratcher said during a group meeting she counseled other clients to get mail sent to their address, so they could establish a legal record of residency. That way, the agency couldn’t throw them out without undertaking a proper eviction proceeding. Bratcher said she was discharged from the program in January, although she was supposed to continue through June. “Sandra Grace told me I had to go because I was a threat to the business,” Bratcher said. When Zalonda Woods refused to sign an agreement stating that she would adhere to certain housing rules, she said she was told to meet with Grace, who she said was regarded as “the enforcer” of the rules. “When I spoke to her about the form I was asked to sign, Sandra Grace insinuated that a DSS complaint could be made against me because my housing is unstable,” Woods said in her written statement. “I took this to mean that she was threatening to remove my children from my care because I refused to participate in their fraudulent Medicaid scam. She said that security personnel were in my home waiting to ‘get the word’ to throw my things out if I did not agree to sign their document.” Many clients said they want to see United Youth Care Services shut down. “I do not feel that the staff… behave in ethical ways towards people with disabilities,” Woods said in her fair-housing complaint. “I believe they should immediately cease operations as a healthcare provider, treatment program and housing provider. Additionally, I believe they should admit to falsifying documents and diagnoses, take corrective action to clear up false statements in persons’ files, and offer damages to people whom they have harmed, including my family.”

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supposed to be getting money from Woods received a letter in March orderMedicaid.” ing her to vacate her apartment at South Residents had called a man named Pointe, written on behalf of “United Leo, who collected their rent. The reYouth Care Foundation Inc.” — a slight sponse was less than satisfactory. variation on United Youth Care Ser“Leo says, ‘It’s not my problem that vices. Woods said that in February clients they cut off your water,’” TJ Little had been told that their housing provider recounted that night. “How’s it not your was changing from United Youth Care problem if you’re collecting my rent?” Services to New Day Transitional HousReached by phone the next day, Leo ing Program. told TCB: “I don’t know why all hell broke loose. A few tenants thought they were thrown out. Those are probably the ones stirring up shit.” He suggested that ormer clients of United Youth the shutoff was an accident, saying, “My Care Services said it didn’t boss lady had the units turned off that matter if they were sick, they wasn’t occupied, and they turned off all had work or there was inclemthe units.” After being told he was being ent weather; agency staff constantly quoted, Leo angrily hung up the phone. reinforced that it was essential that they Residents said they have been told attend classes. that their housing and drug treatment “You had to be there every single day, services are separate — an assertion also Monday through Friday, even snow days made by the caseworker named Nicole and hurricane days, when the county and by a second employee who spoke to was out, when school was out,” Lenora TCB on condition of anonymity. Bratcher said. “They don’t get paid if we “That’s a lie,” Talencia Walker said. don’t show up. A sign in one of the vacant units at “If you had the flu, you still had to Georgetown Manor explicitly makes come to the group meetings.” the connection: “Attention: If you are One client who spoke on condition not attending class daily, rent is $350 of anonymity mentioned another client no exceptions! Per Ms. who showed up an hour Delores!!!” Another early for class, signed in, sign reads, “All clients and then immediately MUST go to class or headed off to work. get off the premises durPeople were selling “I just been going ing class hours per Ms. to work, sir, and ain’t Delores!!!” drugs and selling been thinking about Considering that that class,” Demetris Georgetown Manor res- marijuana,’ Bratcher Lee, who is currently a idents were required to recalled. ‘Crack. Coclient, told TCB. “If I sign an agreement with can just sign that paper caine. Molly. Pills.’ an entity called “Daily so they can bill MedicLiving Source LLC,” aid….” “Delores” appears to be Lee was one of four Delores Jordan, who is clients, including one listed as an official on speaking on condition of anonymity, the company’s articles of incorporation, who said clients faced a 24-hour lockout on file with the NC Secretary of State as punishment for not showing up for office. class. In 2017, the Charlotte Observer identified On occasion, former clients said, Jordan as the operator of a hotel where conduct by staff could be described as families with children, including people heartless. with disabilities and those who were simMia Zeigler said she cooked for ply desperate for housing, were exposed United Youth Care Services. After one to “unsafe and squalid” conditions. The shift at the agency’s office on Fourth same year WBTV News reported that Street, she said she was so worn out that Jordan was housing people with mentalshe soiled herself. She said she begged health and substance-abuse issues at an someone to drive her back to her hotel Econo Lodge in Gastonia. City officials so she could change her clothes, but they shut the program down. told her she would have to wait until the A message to Jordan on Facebook for end of the evening class. this story went unreturned. “I witnessed this organization evict a While Georgetown Manor residents woman with babies in her arm, sendwere warned their rent would be raised ing them out in the rain simply because if they didn’t attend classes, Zalonda

June 20-26,2019

occupants. McClintock’s notes indicate that the finding generated a notice of violation based on the facility exceeding the limit. Mia Zeigler, who stayed at the Old Battleground Road location, recalled, “There was an electrical fire…. They rushed us to a hotel.” After the city shut down the Old Battleground Road facility, Zeigler said she was moved to South Pointe Apartments. The apartment was covered in mold, Zeigler said, and that she suffered a miscarriage there. “The plumbing, the sewage and all that spitting out from other people’s feces in my tub overflowing,” Bratcher recalled of her time at South Pointe. “My daughter and I had to wear boots. Our clothes got molded and we had to throw them away.” Five tenants who spoke to TCB provided an overlapping litany of complaints about conditions at South Pointe, including lack of heat and running water, worn and dirty carpets, and roaches. Terri Buchanan, a code inspector, documented two cases of apartments at the complex without heat during the past winter. In one case, opened on March 15, Bratcher wrote: “Reported heat when out back in December and it caused a fire causing all outlets in the home to not work and there is no electricity in the living room. The dishwasher hasn’t been working since they moved in. In May, feces was coming out the sinks.” Buchanan’s notes also reflect that she directly observed raw sewage on the playground in May 2018. “No matter how much I would bleach the apartment down I would smell the mold,” said one former client, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I pulled down the blinds; there was mold everywhere. Inside the wall. I woke up one day; I couldn’t talk, my vision was blurry…. My daughter had a bad cough. My roommate had two daughters. They went to the hospital, and got papers saying they had mold. That’s the only reason they were able to move out of the apartment.” Numerous clients complained in interviews with TCB about food spoiling because of staff shutting off the power, either as punishment for not attending classes or paying rent, or sometimes for no apparent reason at all. “This isn’t the first time you turned out the lights,” Latitia Burch lamented the day residents were displaced from Georgetown Manor. “It’s not the first time you turned off the water. You’re

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President Trump dialogues with the militia men

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Outside the controlled pagdamn dots? We need to be in perpetual debt, disarmed. eantry of the Amway Center in ’Cause they’re ready to roll out the New World Order…. Orlando, Fla., where President “It’s all about upholding and defending our Constitution Trump treated supporters to scornfrom all enemies foreign and domestic,” Hill continued. ful denunciations of “the fake news “Muslims, they’re here for one reason — that’s to take media” and “radical socialism,” a over…. Throw in 30 million illegals. We have to stand up, rowdier analogue was playing out man. They’re gonna run right over us.” on the sidewalk and the streets In Orlando on Tuesday, President Trump said, “Just imagby Jordan Green surrounding the venue. ine what this angry, left-wing mob would do if they were in A Trump supporter, angered that the Orlando Sentinel’s charge of this country. Imagine if we had a Democrat presiMichael Williams was videotaping him getting ejected from dent and a Democrat Congress in 2020. They would shut the arena during the official launch of Trump’s re-election down your free speech, use the power of the law to punish campaign on Tuesday evening, walked up and tried to their opponents — which they’re trying to do now anyway…. knock the reporter’s phone out of his hand. They would strip Americans of their Constitutional rights Earlier in the day, dozens of Proud Boys, some of whom while flooding the country with illegal immigrants in the could easily be described as over the hill, marched alonghopes it will expand their political base.” side the venue, chanting, “Roger Stone did nothing wrong,” As his speech wound down, Trump made the Constituand “Pinochet did nothing wrong.” Stone, of course is the tionally-suspect proposal: “No one who supports sanctupolitical dirty trickster and former Trump consultant who is ary cities should be allowed to run for the president of charged with witness tampering, obstructing a proceeding the United States.” Rapturous applause poured from the and making false statements to the Special Counsel investicrowd, and Trump continued, “Republicans believe welfare, gation into Russian interference with the 2016 election. schools, hospitals, public resources should be protected for More ominously, Augusto Pinochet was the Chilall Americans.” ean general who overthrew the democratically elected Pivoting from immigration to healthcare, Trump said, president in a US-backed coup in 1973, and “More than 120 Democrats in Congress instituted military rule, while jailing, torturing have also signed up to support ‘Crazy’ Bernie and executing tens of thousands of political Sanders’ socialist government takeover of Scare-talk opponents. One of the Pinochet governhealthcare. about ‘socialment’s most heinous methods of disappearing “He seems not to be doing too well lately,” opponents was dropping them out of helicopthe president added. Actually, Sanders was ism’ clearly ters to their deaths in the Pacific Ocean. The doing quite well, considering that a Quinresonates with nipiac University poll released on Tuesday alt-right extremists who tried to hitch their movement to Trump’s star during the 2016 showed Sanders leading Trump 48-42 among Trump’s base. election produced the “free helicopter rides” Florida voters. meme as a direct homage to Pinochet. Scare-talk by the president about “social“For the last two-and-a-half years, we have ism” clearly resonates with Trump’s base and been under siege,” Trump thundered in Orlando. “And with voters even further to the right. the Mueller report, we won; and now they want a do-over…. In another Facebook Live video, a liquor-fueled group No president should ever have to go through this again. It session back in March with militia members flashing handis so bad for our great country. A hoax. A great hoax. Our guns at the camera, Chris Hill fretted: “Socialist are running patriotic movement has been under assault from the very for Congress. Socialists are running for president. Socialists first day. are, like, inside our politic body. And these mother***ers, “We went through the greatest witch-hunt in political they shouldn’t get tarred and feathered. They should be, history,” he continued. “The only collusion was done by the like, strangled within an inch of their life, dude.” Democrats, the fake-news media and their operatives, and In another section of the video, discussing Muslims the people who funded the phony dossier, crooked Hillary supposedly attempting to impose sharia law, Florida Strike Clinton and the DNC.” Force III% member Greg Scott opined, “So, you have 200 Whether by instinct or forethought, Trump masterfully rounds, you want to at least make sure that 175 of them speaks a language well understood by his far-right supportrounds are kill shots.” ers without requiring him to explicitly endorse them. Nodding in agreement, Hill said, “They are live targets. A “patriotic movement” that “has been under assault” is The enemy is here, and wants to f***ing destroy us and language that the militia movement and its white-power our way of life. And when they get froggy and jump, we’re allies have used since the early 1990s. gonna put ’em on their ass.” “We came this close to a damn coup d’etat — the FBI Hill brought up the Christchurch mosque shooting, working with the damn [Obama] White House,” Chris prompting Scott to interject: “That’s because he was Hill — head of the Georgia Security Force III% — told his provoked!” followers in a Facebook Live video three months ago. “FBI But Hill wanted to make another point. is always at the center of this shit, all the terrorist attack, “One false-flag operation, one psy-op,” he said. “Guns false-flag attacks. Can’t you see the pattern, connect the are gone, and it’s an Islamic country.”

June 20-26,2019

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The price of poverty Poring over the facts from this week’s ollary: “[I]f one is a member of a captive cover story, “Poverty Inc.” (page 8), one population, economically speaking, fact seems to provide underpinning to one’s feet have simply been placed on the entire episode. the treadmill forever.” It is ridiculously easy to take adBut it’s easy to forget — say, from the vantage of poor people — to gain the comfort of an air-conditioned office or upper hand, to apply leverage, to disin a car speeding down the highway — enfranchise. But to make real money at just how vulnerable they are. it, you have to apply it to large groups This is why religions around the world of them. bless them, and why we judge people Over the course of and the societies they the story it became create by how they clear that many clients treat the least among There have always of United Youth Care them. Services did not have For there have been poor people, keys to their own living always been poor just as there have spaces, were subject people, just as there to arbitrary rules have always been always been those and forced to attend those ready and willing ready and willing to to take advantage of recovery meetings whether they used them. take advantage of drugs or not. Our policies and them. Many took advangovernment institutage of the opportutions need to address nity presented: a shortthis, not exacerbate it. term place to stay with a few strings The scheme “Poverty Inc.” uncovered attached. Many of them were single saw scared and hungry people being mothers looking for any safe port in mined for their misery, the tab picked their personal storms. All of them were up by Medicaid dollars without quessubject to the fear that one day they’d tion or examination. And it all seemed come home and see their belongings so easy to perpetrate. out at the curb, and there would be Simply being poor was the most difnothing they could do about it. ficult part of the arrangement. James Baldwin remarked in 1961 how expensive it is to be poor, with the cor-

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Uncle Buzzy’s closed its doors, not because of the Business 40 construction, says owner Dave Hillman. “Rather, it was several misguided decisions made by me.”

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walk-up ice-cream cone, new branding opportunities pour kegged beer and wine on tap,” Bradford says like the former Mad Hatter now called the Social on with a smile. Friendly Avenue in Greensboro, new food trucks and “We don’t know.” planned breweries are popping up across the Triad. Other restaurants have not felt a negative shift in Even High Point is making strides with a high-end the air at all. seafood restaurant, Coast. “We prepared for the shut down,” says Executive Open only three weeks, owner Joseph Bradford Chef Tim Grandinetti of Spring House Restaurant of Lill Dipper and originator of Kitchen and Bar in WinstonHoots Flea Market said his cusSalem. “Reservations are up, tomer base has changed. and business has actually gotten Nikki Miller-Ka blogs at “I have people driving here better.” niksnacksonline.com. and all from Yadkinville and Greensboro He credits checking in with other with their kids to our little microdowntown business owners perisocial-media channels. Her business here,” he said. odically with staying afloat. column appears every week. In contrast, Bradford and his While the construction is business partner, Rachel McKahead of schedule, fingers are enzie, jointly owned Tin Can, a crossed for a smooth transition sundries and gift shop next door but recently decided during the uprooting of the highway and area restauto shutter the business in order to decide on the next rants are “cautiously optimistic” about the season pivot. ahead and what it will bring. “We might change it into a bottle shop where we

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It’s time to take the temperature of Triad restaurants. Summer is upon us and while the weather is hot, the water seems lukewarm at best. While the ebb and flow of openings and closings is by Nikki Miller-Ka quite steady and regular, the abrupt and unforeseen shuttering of a beloved restaurant can seem like a death in the family. Fortunately, there will always be someone waiting in the wings, ready to take its place. Just as schools began to close for the summer, news came of some area restaurants closing down — Uncle Buzzy’s, Hutch and Harris, Table on Elm and, Let It Grow Produce, just to name a few. But not all of the closing restaurant apocalypse news is bad. Hutch and Harris is shutting down for an undetermined period of time, but its auxiliary Side Bar is still open. Table on Elm is simply consolidating baking operations into its space in Asheboro. Dave Hillman, owner of Uncle Buzzy’s, Quiet Pint Tavern and both Burke Street Pizza locations, shut down all social- media profiles and rented a U-Haul to remove equipment from the diminutive storefront space. The operation had a small footprint, with just a handful of employees, but the impact rippled through online Winston-Salem social-media groups, with many speculating on the cause. Hillman answered the question himself via on a post via Facebook on June 9: “[I]t was not the Business 40 closing that caused Buzzy’s to fail! Rather it was several misguided decisions made by me.” He ends by saying, “As far as Uncle Buzzy’s goes, he’s not dead. I have big plans for that building.” The Business 40 shutdown has affected restaurants throughout downtown Winston-Salem and its environs. It’s not easy to get from the east to the west side of the city or down into Brookstown District anymore. The detours have become clogged, traffic is not as flowing as it once was down Restaurant Row, aka Fourth Street. When asked about restaurants opening and closing, Caitlin Smith, a regular restaurant patron said, “It takes longer to get anywhere. When you get home, the last thing you want to do is fight traffic to get to the other side of town.” Everyone must adapt to survive. But not everyone is as up-front about it as Hillman. Some suggestions for survival during the long, hot summer: Expand summer hours, pull back the reigns of menu changes, simplify menus, control the message a help or a hindrance to business, sound the trumpet to let the world know of the changes. But not everything looks dull and bleak across the Triad culinary scene. Lill Dipper, a cash-only

June 20-26,2019

Nik Snacks Things are not as dire as you think in the Triad restaurant scene

June 20-26,2019 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

CULTURE LGBT+ yoga: An inclusive approach to body-positivity by Savi Ettinger

n a cozy office, Lana Skrypnyk sits on her rainbow-colored mat, stretching her feet out in front of her. She leans forward with her torso parallel to her legs and hooks her fingers around the tips of her toes as she leads a small session. She tells the room to do what feels comfortable, placing their hands on ankles or calves rather than their feet if needed. She begins to pose questions. “Maybe asking, ‘How do you define yourself?’” she says. Skrypnyk leads with self-reflective meditation during a Sunday-afternoon yoga session in the office of the Guilford Green Foundation in Greensboro. Though she only started yoga herself a year ago, Skrypnyk has crafted a schedule of courses throughout the Triad which focus on LGBT+ inclusion, body positivity and inner healing. Wrapping a strap around her left foot, she lies down on her mat. Wisps of blonde hair fall onto her rainbow-striped eyeglasses as she uses the band to help lift her leg straight up, at an almost 90-degree angle from her hips. Skrypnyk insists on personal limits, asking her students to keep the leg lower if necessary. Her LGBT-inclusive approach to yoga aims to create a safe space in her mini studios. Skrypnyk requests students reflect on themselves and leave outside expectations at the door. “I believe a lot in using my experience as a queer person to connect,” she says. In 2018, Skrypnyk became curious about yoga during a rough patch in her life. She describes her depression as being at its worst at the time, while dealing with strain on personal relationships and mental health. However, after purchasing a yoga session through Groupon, she discovered that her mind quieted for an hour when she stepped onto the mat. For Skrypnyk, yoga allows her peace of mind that could help heal her LGBT+ peers. “A lot of us in the LGBT+ community struggle a lot with mental health and trauma,” she says. Skrypnyk’s currently teaches in both Winston-Salem and Greensboro. She will also be teaching a class on June 28 at Athleta Fitness in Greensboro for Pride month. Skrypnyk finds that undoing the damage done by heteronormativity, homophobia and transphobia to be equally as important as welcoming and encour-

Lana Skrypnyk runs LGBT+ ypga sessions at various safe rooms around the Triad.

SAVI ETTINGER

aging LGBT+ individuals onto the mat in the first place. She holds up a yoga block with a grey, marbled pattern and Her school of yoga, called Off the Mat, Into the World, priplaces it down in front of her. As she balances her left foot oritizes social activism as a part of the training. Skrypnyk says onto the stabilizing cube, her left arm extends out in front. many exercise spaces can be excluHer right leg rises behind her and sive, forcing students to carry their she grasps it with her right hand. As closets into a place that should help she elevates in a delicate balance, For more info, visit healingvibesthem grow rather than hinder them. struggling to keep her limbs in line, bylana.com, or find classes at the She’s seen firsthand how transgender Skrypnyk reminds her students that people looking for a chance to work difficulty is part of the journey. Guilford Green Foundation or the out may face judgement or dyspho“Maybe it’s a little wobbly, maybe Holistic Commons in Greensboro, ria-inducing instruction. it’s a little precarious,” she says. “Self and North Star LGBTQ Center in From a plank-like pose, Skrypnyk love is hard, y’all.” angles one leg forward underneath The lights dim as she demonstrates Winston-Salem. her torso, using the opposite arm as how to cool down, laying on her back, a cushion for her head to rest on as her palms flat on the ground at her she pulls her other leg up towards her sides. Skrypnyk then gives a final rear. breathing instruction. “This is probably not the most comfortable shape,” she “On each inhale, begin to say, ‘I am worthy’,” she says. “And says, “but know nothing in life is permanent including discomon each exhale say, ‘I am enough.’” fort.”

CULTURE Engraving Injustice prints focus on human condition

June 20-26,2019

by Sayaka Matsuoka

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Duke environmental-policy professor Robert Healy amassed the 50 or so prints that comprise Engraving Injustice, most bvy members of Mexican colective Taller de Gráfica Popular, in African American Atelier.

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Americans like Crispus Attucks, Frederick Douglas and George the soldiers echoes the current protests in Hong Kong. The Washington Carver. young black boy looks harrowingly like Trayvon Martin. “The workshop was one of the first self-supporting artist They serve as a reminder of how far we’ve come but also workshops,” says Mariana Rodriguez, the artistic director and how far we’ve yet to progress. co-founder of Casa Azul. “They created and published their “We decided that it was absolutely necessary to show this own work. They did a lot of satire work and used social justice exhibit now,” Rodriguez says. “It felt like it was the right conas a way of informing the community about things that were text to show it in a place like Greensboro. The city is looking going on.” for ways to learn about their own communities, maybe the The works focus on the human condition. The heroes in the Latino communities. We think the community would really foreground represent the common benefit from learning about Mexico’s people who resist authority. A woman history.” with jet-black hair cradles power lines Healy expressed agreement and Healy gives a talk about the and a smoking factory, whose pollulamented the rampant xenophobic work on Friday from 7-9 p.m. tion empties out into a body of water rhetoric against the Latino population that serves as a home to a pair of in politics these days. Engraving Injustice is on display fish. A man boldly stands in front of “I have a real reason for wanting to at the African American Atelier a line of guns that point at him while display this art at this time,” he says. through Aug. 2. To learn more, a crowd of people lurk in the back“In the last 25 years or so, the Latino ground. A young African-American boy population… has increased from 0 to visit casaazulgreensboro.org. makes unyielding eye contact with the 10-15 percent of the population. I think observer as he unshackles the chains that North Americans don’t appreciate that encircled his wrists. Revolting the richness of Mexican culture. People slaves with weapons assemble behind him. may like taco trucks and Cinco de Mayo… but this is only a tiny The prints, despite being mostly black and white, prove part of what is one of the world’s greatest cultures.” powerful and moving. Made decades ago, in a vastly different While the collective is no longer active, the TGP’s legacy and political climate and country, the images have the power to messages continue to live on through its work. evoke emotions because of their current relevance. “Their work is didactic,” Healy says. “I want people in The woman cradling the industrial complex reminds viewers Greensboro to have a chance to enjoy this but also learn from of the ongoing injustice in Flint, Mich. The man confronting it.”

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The lines cut deep into the faces of the protagonists, weathering them, signifying years of lived experience with each groove — years of oppression, resistance, resilience. The faces that peer out from the frames are part of a new art exhibit in Greensboro that features work by members of Taller de Gràfica Popular, a Mexican social-justice art collective that spoke truth to power through prints during the mid-20th Century. Engraving Injustice opened at the beginning of June in the African American Atelier gallery in the Greensboro Cultural Center and is presented by Casa Azul. The exhibit features close to 50 prints collected by Robert Healy, a Duke environmental-policy professor and avid print collector. “I have always like art with some sort of message,” Healy says. “Work for not merely aesthetically pleasing aspects but also to express some thought or emotion or political emotion and I think that’s what the TGP does very well.” Healy began collecting prints by the TGP during his travels to Mexico for work. Soon he found himself seeking them out each time he visited, eventually befriending the printer and some administrators in the group. Taller de Gràfica Popular was founded in 1937 by three artists — Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O’Higgins and Luis Arenal — in the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution as a way to further the ideals that came about during the previous two decades. In its heyday, through the 1960s, the collective — which translates to “The People’s Graphic Workshop” — boasted about 40 members and produced thousands of prints, mostly linocuts and woodcuts that were inexpensive and whose materials were easy to obtain. Rather than producing work for galleries, the artists printed images on whatever they could find: newspapers, posters, cards that could be handed out or displayed in the streets. The collective was open to anyone who wanted to be an artist regardless of nationality or social class and worked to lay bare a variety of social-justice issues such as the exploitation of the poor and peasant rights. They criticized European fascism and imperialism from the United States. A series of prints in the beginning of the exhibit, some by prominent black American artist Elizabeth Catlett, features portraits of significant African

June 20-26,2019

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1 What “x” may mean 6 Web presence? 10 Hunk of granite 14 “___ It Goes” 15 “Mighty Bruins” is their fight song 16 Lake Titicaca neighbor 17 Meals provided at meetings, sometimes 19 Z, on some graphs 20 “The Lord of the Rings” actress Tyler 21 Comprehended 23 Allowed 24 Touches down 26 Interstellar dust cloud 28 2004 Google event, briefly 29 “Casablanca” star 31 Tagliatelle, e.g. ©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 34 Hawaii’s “Gathering Place” 35 Current measurements 38 “All Things Considered” host Shapiro 39 Oversized candy that includes paraffin 42 Mo. with National Pulled Pork and Cinnamon Roll Days (not at the same time, ew) 43 “Thank U, ___” (Grande album) 45 Office note 46 Reason to use sunscreen 48 Perks (up) 50 Network that revived the CBS show “Press Your Luck” 51 Salad that traditionally has anchovies 53 French automaker that turned 100 in March 57 Alex’s “Jeopardy!” predecessor Answers from last issue 58 Ingredient in some margaritas 61 Voting “aye” 29 Soothing ointments 62 Bit of dust 30 Cedar Point’s location 64 Magnifying glass component 31 Frying need 66 One with a laptop 32 “What ___ you thinking?” 67 Additive in some tissues 33 Like none of the words in this clue, uncharac68 Blunt teristically 69 It comes twice after “Que” in a song 34 Beasts of burden 70 “Monstrous” loch 36 “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” label 71 Theater capacity 37 “Animal Farm” setting 40 Cheese in a wrapper Down 41 Underlying themes 44 “Whether ___ nobler in the mind ...” 1 Small Indian hand drum 47 DVD player predecessor 2 How doughnuts are often prepared 49 “Batman Forever” actor Kilmer 3 Year that Mary Tudor was born, in Roman numerals 50 Senator’s assistant 4 Adult ed. course 51 “L’Etranger” novelist 5 Left-hander 52 Got up 6 Penguin projectiles? 53 Some areas in “The Legend of Zelda” 7 Have a hankering 54 “Nixon in China,” for one 8 Remote valley 55 Dadaist painter Max 9 Relaxing 56 Mr. Potato Head parts 10 Massage place 59 Underground burrower 11 Comic book villain introduced in 1940 60 Space chimp of 1961 12 Flounder’s friend 63 Major time period 13 “Woo Hah!! Got You All in Check” rapper Rhymes 65 “Go Set a Watchman” author 18 Treaty that turns 70 in 2019 22 “Big Read” gp. 25 “Vamoose, varmint!” 27 Frat guy, probably

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June 20-26,2019

CROSSWORD ‘It’s the Big One’—a sizeable pair. SUDOKU