TCB Feb. 27, 2020 — Bringing the heat

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point Feb. 27-Mar. 4, 2020 triad-city-beat.com

WINSTON-SALEM EDITION

FREE

Bringing the heat Winston-Salem firefighters show off their culinary skills PAGE 14

Guilford reckons with lynching history PAGE 16

John Railey on W-S transportation PAGE 13

Bye bye, Preyer PAGE 6

Feb. 27-Mar. 4, 2020

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

At 6, Triad City Beat’s mission endures After about two weeks of prep, the first issue of Triad City Beat rolled off the line six years ago this week — Feb. 26, 2014. It came

by Brian Clarey amid a late-February winter surge; the ensuing road ice would, within a few days, claim my 2006 silver Jetta, which spun out as I crossed the frozen railroad tracks on Yanceyville Street, then smashed face-first into the concrete bridge abutment over the creek.

All it meant back then was that I’d inherit my wife’s beat-ass Saturn Wagon, with the squeaky brakes and sad front bumper, because it was her turn for a new ride. But now I think of it allegorically: the sloughing off of an old husk that, eventually, would evolve into something better.

And so it has.

After six proper years in business, we’ve put more than 300 issues of TCB to bed from our tiny offices on South ElmEugene Street, encompassing thousands of interviews, quotes, stories, photos and opinions — moments captured on paper, that most antiquated and ephemeral of

media, and saved for posterity in the digital abyss.

We’ve won a good handful of national awards since then, and our writers have gone on to see their bylines in the Washington Post, Gourmet magazine, Teen Vogue, the Raw Story, the Guardian, the Nation, the Bitter Southerner and other outlets that, as a young freelancer, I used to dream of cracking.

Not anymore.

These last six years have shown me that my highest purpose in this business no longer lies in the written word — though I do like to dabble.

It becomes more clear every week that my role is to keep the fires lit, keep the water flowing through the pipes, to hold the line against the forces looking to consume our industry.

And every week, it remains an honor to sit in this chair.

A few years ago, the Saturn died a peaceful death in my driveway, just a few months before I stopped driving a weekly newspaper route. I was able to graduate to something a little less noisy, a little more sleek, better on gas mileage and, ultimately, able to take me further on down this road.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

The centrifugal force of a system that no longer provides a meaningful sense of belonging to the vast majority of its citizens means that the political energy is at the polar ends.

—Jordan Green pg. 12

1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 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 jordan@triad-city-beat.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sayaka Matsuoka sayaka@triad-city-beat.com

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

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STAFF WRITER Savi Ettinger savi@triad-city-beat.com

INTERN: Rachel Spinella calendar@triad-city-beat.com

ART ART DIRECTOR Robert Paquette robert@triad-city-beat.com SALES

KEY ACCOUNTS Gayla Price gayla@triad-city-beat.com

CONTRIBUTORS

Carolyn de Berry, Matt Jones, Jen Sorensen

TCB IN A FLASH @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1. ©2018 Beat Media Inc.

Feb. 27-Mar. 4, 2020

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Feb. 27-Mar. 4, 2020

CITY LIFE Feb. 27-Mar. 2, 2020

by Savi Ettinger

THURSDAY Feb. 27

The Buddy Holly Story @ Winston-Salem Theatre Alliance (W-S) 8 p.m.

Old Crow Medicine Show @ the Ramkat (W-S) 7 p.m.

Puzzles

Shot in the Triad

Culture

Opinion

News

Up Front

The River and the Wall @ UNCG (GSO) 6:30 p.m.

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This cinematic film is the fifth movie of 2019 from the Sustainability Film and Discussion Series. The story centers around five friends and their journey from El Paso to the Gulf of Mexico on horses, canoes and even mountain bikes in order to document the frontier and to explore the potential side effects of having a border wall. Find the event on Eventful for more information.

Based on the true story of rock musician Buddy Holly, the teenage protagonist sets out with his band the Crickets to play the music that they want to play. He and the group are invited to Nashville where they achieve this opportunity to record, but instead end up encountering creative differences with the producing staff. In this musical, viewers will learn about Buddy’s rise to fame and his tragic death less than two years later. Find out more information on Eventful.

FRIDAY Feb 28.

Hispanic League Beating Hearts Zumbathon @ Legacy Stables and Events (W-S) 5:30 p.m.

North Carolina Women Abstract Painters @ Greenhill Centers for North Carolina Art (GSO) Noon

Five of the state’s outstanding women artists will be the focus of this year’s 2020 exhibit. For Women’s History month, various programs will discuss many women throughout history, such as Eleanor Annand, Katy Mixon and Felicia Van Bork.

Museum directors Susan Fisher Sterling of the Museum of Women in the Arts and Valerie L. Hillings of the North Carolina Museum Art will delve into their respective associations and their input of women artists during two lectures at Greenhill.

Find out more information on the website Greensboro Chamber of Commerce.

This league and the Legacy Stables and Events are hosting this Zumba marathon.

Guests will have a chance to participate in different activities besides dancing such as health screenings, pampering stations, and a smoothie and food bar with all sorts of special treats. There will also be a children’s watch area that will engage kids with a mini Zumba performance. Find the event on Facebook for more information.

An Evening with Shakespeare @ Westchester Day School (HP) 7 p.m.

This school will be presenting a play that features selections from William Shakespeare’s classic theatrical performances, such as A Midsummer’s Night and The Taming of the Shrew. As Shakespeare himself said, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.”. For more information find the event on Facebook.

Recording since 1998, this Americana string band from Nashville will be playing live this Friday. Best known for their ninth album, Remedy, that won a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album in 2015, this group will be joined by the husband-andwife Americana duo Birds of Chicago.

JT Nero and Allison Russell refer to their music as “secular gospel.” Check out both Americana bands if you’re a fan of folk music. Find the event on Facebook for more information.

Kathy Contant and Julia Edwards @ Scuppernong Books (GSO) 7 p.m.

UNCG’s MFA writing program will host a poetry and fiction reading where speakers Kathy Contant and Julia Edwards will be reciting as well as discussing their work to attendees. Contant is an MFA candidate in fiction at UNCG. A finalist in the 47th New Millennium Writing Awards, she has also been accepted to the 2019 Lighthouse Writers group. While Edwards is a poet and writer from New York, much of her work has appeared in Bat City Review and Brooklyn Magazine. Like Contant, she is also an MFA candidate at UNCG but in poetry. Find the event on the Scuppernong Books website for more information.

Feb. 27-Mar. 4, 2020

SATURDAY Mar. 1

Lauren Daigle’s World Tour-Child fund Volunteer @ Greensboro Coliseum Complex (GSO) 5 p.m.

Black Minds Matter @ Ink Photography Productions (GSO) 6:30 p.m.

Up Front

Fantasy Family Fun Night and Dance @ Lindley Recreation Center (GSO) 5 p.m.

Raising funds to go to Savannah, Ga. this summer — Girl Scout Troop 02983 is hosting a fundraising dance for family and friends. The event will feature music played by DJ Jordan, attendees will also solve mysteries in the escape room and can bid in a silent auction. Food, drinks plus dessert will also be provided for guests. Find the event on Eventbrite for more information.

SUNDAY Mar. 2

Post Malone @ Greensboro Coliseum Complex (GSO) 8 p.m.

News

Illusions, the Drag Queen Show @ Club Orion (GSO) 7 p.m.

Opinion

Currently on her world tour, contemporary Christian music singer and songwriter Lauren Daigle will be taking the stage this Saturday. Known for her single “You Say,” a pop crossover mix that went on to debut at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, she became the highest charting Christian album by a woman in 20 years. Be sure to grab a seat with some friends and watch this Grammy award winning singer hit the stage. Find the event on Eventbrite.

UNC School of the Arts: Winter Dance @ 405 W. Fourth St. (W-S) 7:30 p.m.

Rapper, singer and songwriter as well as record producer Austin Richard Post, aka Post Malone, will be performing this Sunday. Joining him on stage are rappers Swae Lee, known for his single “Unforgettable” and Tyla Yaweh from Orlando. Find the event on Facebook.

Culture

This fashion show will be showcasing rising African-American designers, musicians, artists, hairstylists and make-up artists. The purpose of the event is to raise money, in hopes of becoming a nonprofit organization along with building a useful and functional prototype for the iOS mobile app titled Oasis. For more information find the event on Eventbrite.

Triad Spring Dessert Market @ Foothills Brewing Tasting Room (W-S) 1 p.m.

Shot in the Triad

Come and satisfy your sweet tooth on the first day of March. This alehouse will be having a selection of different baked goods from local dessert shops and bakeries with alternative options like vegan or gluten free and even sugar free desserts. Bring your family and friends to treat yourself to some sweet pastry treats. Find the event on Eventbrite.

Puzzles

This show combines comedy and burlesque performances by the corporation’s funniest and best celebrity impersonators. Come see drag queens take on imitating the likes of Madonna, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, Beyoncé, Joan Rivers, Adele, Cher and many more. Food and drinks will be provided for guests. Find the event on Eventbrite for more information.

For this year’s winter dance the university’s arts program will be performing the classic tale The Sleeping Beauty, Act III, the ballet by Petipa and Tchaikovsky, as well as variations for specific dance acts such as “Bluebird,” “Puss in Boots” and “The Lilac Fairy.” Guests will also have a chance to see award-winning Chicago-based guest artist Stephanie Martinez performing a new contemporary ballet piece.

For more information, find the event on Eventbrite.

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Feb. 27-Mar. 4, 2020 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

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Preyer Brewing’s last hours

by Sayaka Matsuoka It’s the final hours at Preyer Brewing, and there’s nowhere to sit. Couples nursing the final dregs of the brewery’s drafts occupy the cushy, swivel chairs, and the high-top bar tables are swarmed by large groups of friends taking it all in, one last time.

Even the seating by the bathrooms is taken.

Everyone wants to be here to see the beast to the end of its life.

When Preyer opened up in 2015 in downtown Greensboro, it completed a trifecta — along with Gibbs Hundred Brewing Co. and Pig Pounder which both opened in 2014 — of businesses that kicked off the craft brewery scene in the Triad’s largest city.

Little Brother, South End, Joymongers, Oden — none of them existed yet.

The only purveyor in town was Natty Greene’s until the likes of Preyer and others showed up.

The brewery announced on Facebook on Feb. 5 that they were closing at the end of the month.

“We want to thank the incredible community that has supported us — our dedicated employees who have become lifelong friends, our wholesale partners, our regulars, and anyone who has ever joined us for a pint,” wrote the owners. “You have all changed our lives for the better and we hope that a small piece of Preyer Brewing lives on in us all.”

SAYAKA On its last night, Preyer Brewing was packed with regulars, former staff and the like.

On Feb. 22, customers chat and down their beers, ciders and wines like MATSUOKA usual. Some carry six packs to go as souvenirs, vestiges of the soon-to-disappear standby. Spotless glasses line the shelf behind the bar, ready to perform Behind the bar, Jeff and Donna move swiftly around each other in a dance, as they serve their sole duty. Tomorrow, they’ll have to find a new life. Several beers on the paper menus up draft after draft. Chris, whose hair is pulled back in a petite man-bun, goes around the clasped to wooden clipboards have been crossed out. brewery whisking up empty glasses, making sure things are neat and orderly.

One of the last remaining offerings, the Lunsford Robust Porter is rich and dark, with Charles Jones, a former Preyer employee who worked here for about three years, makes notes of chocolate and a hint of smoke — bittersweet. his rounds, hugging friends and former customers while wearing his old Preyer T-shirt. He works at Potent Potables now, after leaving Preyer in 2018, but came back tonight for a last round.

A few hours earlier, during a huge rush, Jones and Jennie Savage, another former employee, joined the others behind the bar to help out.

“We’re all family,” says Sara Manchester, an employee since 2016. “This place is family.”

In the corner, Calder Preyer, one of the owners, stands next to an illuminated fridge full of canned goods, surveying the lay of his land. He wears a blue plaid shirt and a baseball cap with a mesh back. He waits alone at the end of the bar, counting down the final hours.

The place is his baby. It’s been his anchor and commitment for half a decade.

In a tweet from Feb. 5, Preyer stated that he was “burnt out” and was looking forward to having a job where he could clock out and not take it home with him. He also said that “building relationships through making beer was always the highlight.”

“I’m glad that everyone came out tonight to have a good time,” Preyer says as he leaves the building just past 10 p.m. “I appreciate all of the support we’ve had over the years.”

There’s this idea of a third place — somewhere other than your home or work where you spend a chunk of your life. For some it’s the local coffeeshop or restaurant. For others, it’s a local bar. For many, over the last five years, it’s been Preyer.

And even though no one knows what’ll replace the brewery, it’s impossible to ignore the impact that Preyer has had on the landscape of the city. Without it, neither the beer scene nor the downtown scene in Greensboro would look the way it does now.

Manchester recalls that on the first night the brewery was open, she danced on the bar with one of her friends.

Tonight, surrounded by friends who have become family, she waits and bides her time, drinking, talking, waiting for the right moment to hoist herself up onto that bar one last time.

by Brian Clarey

News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad

Recycle this paper.

Up Front

I got out of the political prognostication business on Nov. 8, 2016, a little after 9 p.m., just after the incoming returns began to indicate that Donald Trump would be the next president of the United States.

I was at the Guilford GOP event in the southwest corner of Greensboro, and a lot of things happened in that room right about then. A lot of people started cheering and drinking. The smartest and most party-pure of them stood silently, their hands touching their faces, as they stared at the big screen where the returns were still rolling in.

Much was made in the heady aftermath of the 2016 election of the national media and pollsters who “got it wrong.” But no one in the room with me that night saw Trump coming. Even the ones who thought they did.

That the polls were wrong did not surprise me. People lie on polls. Human error corrupts the data, or human malfeasance manipulates it. I never trust the “conventional wisdom,” either, no matter which direction it flies from. We all, to some degree, have everybody-I-know disease, as in: “Everybody I know has a gun in their house,” or “Everybody I know went to college,” or, “Everybody I know got high last night.”

The thing is, this country is absolutely enormous. Our electorate has gotten so large as to defy easy categorizations, which makes prediction difficult — especially when there’s so much we don’t see.

And this year there are just too many variables. I have been saying for months that the default position is four more years of Trump, that it would take something extraordinary to change that trajectory.

Welcome to the extraordinary.

Bernie’s popularity. Bloomberg’s money. Warren’s persistence. Buttigieg’s damnable sensibility. Whatever it is Joe Biden’s got going on.

There’s propaganda coming from every angle, making the truth muddier. Fake news is absolutely rampant. Traditional voter blocs are breaking down and becoming unpredictable: the educated vote, the black vote, the Wall Street vote, the blue-collar vote… who knows which way they’ll, or even if they’ll galvanize behind a single candidate. A friend who works in television says all the Teamsters on his set are pro-Trump.

Meanwhile, after his acquittal, our president has been trashing our system of checks and balances like a man using his golf cart to turn doughnuts on the putting green (which I’ve heard Trump does). Believe it or not, this is turning a lot of Republicans permanently off.

And then there are moneyed Democrats who are unable to vote for Sanders or even Warren. You know, because of their 401Ks. Trying to call these races is a fool’s game. The only hard truth is the same as it is every election. On Super Tuesday this year, it all hinges on who shows up.

Feb. 27-Mar. 4, 2020

You don’t know what you’re talking about

Puzzles

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Feb. 27-Mar. 4, 2020

Guilford County Democratic voters will see four different seats for district court judge on their ballots for the March 3 primary. District court judges are elected to four year terms and hear civil cases involving less than $25,000 and criminal misdemeanors. They also oversee juvenile court and the magistrates, which handle things like small claims and evictions.

News

Democratic district court judge candidates vie for seats across Guilford

Up Front

NEWS

by Sayaka Matsuoka Two open seats for district court judge have drawn in four Democratic candidates from across Guilford County who hope to ascend to the bench, while two incumbents fight off challengers for their seats.

Puzzles

Shot in the Triad

Culture

Opinion

Seat 12

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Greensboro attorneys Gavin Reardon and Kelvin Smith are facing off for Seat 12 during the Democratic primaries.

Attorney Gavin Reardon currently works as a partner at Rossabi Law Partners in Greensboro. Both Reardon and Amiel Rossabi represent 10 police officers involved in a 2016 case against Zared Jones.

The case, which involved the police officers confronting a group of young black men, including Jones, in downtown Greensboro, caused public accusations of racial profiling and police brutality at the time. In 2018, an amicus brief to which Triad City Beat is a party, was file, and petitions for the removal of a gag order which restricts city council members who view police body camera footage from the incident from discussing its contents.

In a phone interview with Triad City Beat, Reardon repeatedly discussed his commitment to social justice as the reasoning for his occupation and run for district court judge.

“For me, the biggest issue at this point in my career is that I want to give back more,” Reardon said. “Social justice issues are the things I’m concerned about the most. I need to get off the sidelines.”

When asked about his involvement in the 2016 case, Reardon responded by saying, “You don’t represent people just because they’re popular.”

Reardon also came to the defense of the officers involved, saying they want the police body-camera footage released, but they don’t want city council to be able to talk about the videos without them being released for all to see.

As for the gag order, which Reardon

supported in a brief, he said that he doesn’t agree with the statute that allowed for the gag order to be placed in the first place and said that he “would not have signed a brief that reduced transparency and accountability” but that “there should be privacy for the police officers as well.”

Reardon also said the decision to represent the police officers pro bono wasn’t his to make and was made by his partner, Rossabi.

Reardon, who mentioned issues such as mandatory fines, pretrial incarceration and implicit bias as reasons for his run, said that if elected, he would work to combat racial disparities in the judicial system. He said he advocates for more organized data to track what kinds of sentences people get so that it is uniform across the board; he also said he will advocate for a racial-disparity scorecard for individual judges.

Reardon’s opponent, Kelvin Smith, noted that while he has less experience than Reardon, he is the better candidate because he works in district court every day.

“Maybe his district court experience was 15 years ago,” Smith said. “My opponent practices on the appellate level.

That’s admirable work, however, we’re running in a race for district court, the people’s court and I service them every day between Greensboro and High Point. I am uniquely aware of what goes on.”

Smith has only been practicing law since 2016 but argued that he has the experience needed to ascend to the bench.

“I have the integrity and the confidence to do this job,” Smith said. “It doesn’t take 25 years to understand what happens in district court.”

Smith, who is one of six black candidates in the district court judge races, said it’s important for the bench to have a diverse group of judges who reflect the people that it serves.

“When you see a docket and you see the majority of people that are in our courts, it is African-American men that are facing our system every day,” Smith said. “I think it is important that we have a diverse bench that reflects the people that we serve.”

Smith talked about the lack of trust between many members of the community and the judicial system. He said he hopes to change that by making sure to

From left to right, top to bottom: Tomakio Gause, Angela Foster, Brian Tomlin, Caroline Pemberton, Gavin Reardon, Kelvin Smith, Michele Lee and Moshera Mills.

hear everyone’s side of the story.

“It doesn’t mean that [African-American men] are going to be treated better,” he said. “But I want African-American men to know that the system in Guilford County is fair and your cases will be ruled on fairly. Like they’ll think, I didn’t get what I want, but that judge treated me fairly.”

Reardon, who is white, said that while he believes in the importance of diversity, the bench in Guilford County is already diverse enough.

“We are over two-thirds female and over 50 percent black,” Reardon said.

“We are not talking about creating diverse bench because we already have it.

“It’s more about, do people have the experience?” he continued. “The more important thing is getting judges who have experience. I don’t think anyone’s color is a qualification. I’ve got 25-plus years of experience practicing every level of law; he’s got three. There’s no comparison.”

Seat 4

Another candidate who has ties to the 2016 Zared Jones case is Caroline Tomlinson-Pemberton, who is running for Seat 4 against Tomakio Gause in the primary.

Pemberton, who was hit by a car in January, said on Sunday that she is “recovering” and that she’s not letting her accident get in the way of the campaign.

“I’m not in the race for money,” she said. “I’m in this race because I truly believe in the judicial system.”

Pemberton, who has worked as an assistant district attorney for the past 13 years, gave Jones a deferred dismissal on charges of drunk and disorderly conduct and second-degree trespassing from the 2016 case. Rather than give Jones a voluntary dismissal, Pemberton said she opted for the deferred dismissal because the case was set for trial and she believes that “the state had enough evidence to convict Mr. Jones.”

However, Pemberton said she opted for a dismissal because she “wanted to give him another chance.”

Eventually, the charges against Jones were dropped.

“When Mr. Holt handed me the file, he didn’t ask if it was going to be a voluntary dismissal or a deferred dismissal,” Pemberton explained to TCB. “So, I gave him a deferred dismissal and handed the file back to Mr. Holt.”

According to Pemberton, Holt then waited two years to come back to the courts to appeal to the district attorney that the deferred dismissal be stricken.

“I told him that I can’t just strike a deferred dismissal, you have to file a motion for appropriate release,” she said.

“But Mr. Holt refused, and he said no.

That deferred dismissal had been in the judicial system for two years. And when he realized that he did not pay atten-

won sole custody for her client, she said that afterwards, she received referrals from the mother’s side because of the way she handled the case.

“I think she appreciated that I treated her with respect,” Gause said.

News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad

maintain consistency within the courts and ensure that people feel the system is just and fair.

“I just hope to do my job really well in a way that people feel that they’ve been treated fairly,” he said, “and people think that the results of their case was just.”

A lawyer of 23 years before he ascended to the bench, Tomlin said his array of experience makes him a good judge.

“I think having seen what I’ve seen and done what I’ve done makes me able to cover and handle the things you see as a judge,” he said.

Tomlin’s challenger is a private attorney with 18 years of experience.

Mills said she thought about running 10 years ago but opted to wait until her two kids were older to run for office. She said she’s running to make sure people are “treated fairly and with human dignity and respect.”

Like Reardon, Mills wants a way to track charges so that everyone who comes before a judge gets treated equally.

“There should be some tracking system so the public can hold judicial officials accountable for decisions,” Mills said. “If all things are equal, people should have the same punishments.”

Mills also noted the importance of efficiency within the courtroom, so cases don’t drag on for years and years.

“It’s about managing the docket,” she said. “Whatever court a judge is assigned to, it’s their duty to look at the docket and have some docket management within each individual courtroom. In criminal court, the district attorneys are in charge of calling the cases but in my experience, the most effective judges that are able to clear dockets are the ones that get involved working with personnel in the courtroom in that docket management. Everyone has a different way of doing it, but I personally admire the judges who are there for the docket call.”

Mills said she doesn’t consider herself a politician and just wants to do whatever she can to help her community.

“I think everyone needs to have a voice and I believe that on the bench, I’m the one that can hear all those voices,” she said. “Usually it’s just good people who are going through the worst time in their lives.”

Up Front Puzzles

these people act like a family unit now.

They’ve stopped coming to court. They are visiting their father. If their mother went to jail, they would have gone to live with their father.”

Michele Lee, a senior judicial hearing officer and probate judge in the office Seat 7 of the clerk of superior court, said she’s District court judge Angela Foster is running for the seat because she wants to fighting to remain in her seat this elecchange the way people think about the tion cycle against challenger Michele court system.

Lee. “The public distrust is very high for Foster, who has been in Seat 7 for 12 the judicial system,” Lee said. “It is exyears, is a certified juvenile judge and traordinarily problematic. It doesn’t give said that she’s concerned with family people the confidence to report crimes reunification and helping foster children or come in as a victim of a witness.” in her capacity as district court judge.

Lee is a the third generation in her She also talked about the importance family to practice law. Her father, Miof addressing drug use so that children chael Lee, and her grandfather, Kenneth can be reunited with their parents.

Lee, were lawyers as well.

“A child is born addicted because a “The law is in my blood,” Lee said. parent was using drugs while pregnant,” She said that as a judge, she would she said. “I want to try to get them off listen intently to all who come before her drugs. I’m very concerned about that. If in court.

I can’t get a parent to stop using those “I know it can be difficult to do that drugs, I can’t reunify that family.” on the district level because you see so To combat these issues, Foster said many cases, but you have to remember that she tries to refer parents to outpathat each case is an individual case,” she tient therapy or said. “And you drug re-education have to remember programs so that to treat people The North Carolina primary they can confairly and give takes place on March 3. Visit tinue to see their them their dignity. children, the bond vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup to look People walk away between them is remembering how up your sample ballot. not broken. you made them In September feel.”

2019, Foster was Lee said that censured by the NC Supreme Court for while she bears no personal ill feelings ordering bailiffs to handcuff a mother towards Foster, she does feel like the seat and place her in a holding cell while needs change.

Foster lectured her two teenage children, “It’s problematic in the way that some according to local news reports. The Supeople perceive Judge Foster,” Lee said. preme Court found that Foster engaged “It is public record some of the things in “inappropriate conduct” and failed to that have happened. I don’t want to “remain patient, dignified and courtespeak negatively about her, but the inforous” in a January 2018 hearing. mation is out there.

The case involved two boys who had “It comes down to character,” Lee disobeyed a court mandate by refusing to continued. “Who you are on the bench visit their father over their winter break. comes from who you are outside of the Once in court, Foster told the boys that bench. I will work hard. I would never their mother could be jailed over their do the things that would create that sort refusal to see their father, to which they of public distrust. Your interaction with replied that they would rather their me would never make you feel like you mother go to jail. At that point, Foster were disrespected.” ordered the bailiff to handcuff their Seat 13 mother and place her in a holding cell.

Incumbent Brian Tomlin, who was ap“It was never my intention to embarpointed to fill the seat left open by Judge rass her,” Foster told TCB, “but it was Lora Cubbage by Gov. Roy Cooper in my intention to show her children that March 2019, is also fighting to remain their actions could lead to this. That it’s in his seat against challenger Moshera not the right way to go about that, and Mills. you don’t have to like your parent, but Tomlin, like many others running for you need to give them the opportunity district court judge, said he wants to to be your parent. I’m happy to say that

Feb. 27-Mar. 4, 2020

tion to his client’s case and that he got a deferred dismissal instead of a voluntary dismissal, then he decided to start a campaign against me that I did it in secrecy. But it’s written on the case file, how could it be secret?”

Holt, who was reached by phone on Sunday, said he couldn’t comment on the case because he longer represents Jones. The case file indicates that Pemberton checked off a box for “Deferred dismissal” on May 24, 2017.

Pemberton said she’s running because of her passion for juvenile court and her passion for “breaking the cycle” for those who get caught in the judicial system.

She said she wants to take greater advantage of second-chance rehabilitation programs and make sure juveniles get fair and equal treatment.

“I’m in the courtroom every day,” she said. “Defense attorneys come to court and they’re all over the place, but an assistant district attorney is in the courtroom every day with hundreds of cases.

I’ve been complimented on moving cases efficiently and dealing with different clients. You can’t beat that experience; that’s the kind of person you want on the bench.”

Pemberton’s opponent Tomakio Gause, has been running her own private practice for nine years and has been practicing law for 14. She handles civil, family law and criminal cases. In an interview, she said that she wants to prioritize addressing mental health, substance abuse and poverty in the courtroom.

“We have to try to address issues with clients that we’re seeing over and over again,” Gause said. “As an attorney, if my goal is to help you with housing issues or employment issues, I can give you the tools to do that, but as a judge I have more authority. You would have to do it.”

Gause said she’s made it her goal to work with indigent clients — those who cannot pay for an attorney and have one assigned to them by the court system — in order to make sure everyone has a fair chance in court.

“They have the misconception that if you’re a court-appointed attorney, that you’re not going to take any time for my case,” Gause said. “but I’ve made it my goal to make a personal connection with people and to give people a different perspective of what the system looks like.”

Gause said she doesn’t spend much time on advertising, and instead relies on referrals for her clients. She mentioned one case in which she represented a father and argued against the mother for custody of their children. While Gause

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Warren surrogate at A&T: E is for ‘Elizabeth’ and ‘electability’

by Jordan Green Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) told voters during a recent visit to NC A&T University that they shouldn’t count Elizabeth Warren out of the Democratic presidential nominating contest.

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Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) speaks to voters outside an early-voting polling place at NC A&T University on Feb. 21.

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counterparts in the presidential race, are more alike than different. Similar to the 2008 election, he said he believes the vigorous campaign debate over healthcare will carry over into a policy debate and action after the election.

“When you look back in 2009, when Democrats had control, we had this same kind of banter back and forth when we were dealing with the [Affordable Care Act] and we ended up not getting as progressive a policy because they took the public option off the table,” Montgomery said. “This dialogue, no matter who wins the presidential election, this dialogue is going to translate into the next Congress in 2021.”

Foxx sought to distinguish herself from Montgomery, saying she’s the only candidate in the race who has applied to join the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

“I believe if we elect people with the right priorities, we can fund basic healthcare,” she said. “We can get to a place where we all have quality healthcare. We can get to Medicare for All. It’s going to take work. We have to realize that in the interim, while we get to Medicare for All, we have to strengthen the healthcare system that we have.

“We have to be firm,” Foxx continued, “and understand that the only way we can eliminate disparities in our healthcare system is if we have basic universal healthcare.”

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get a helping hand, but a helping hand up, not a helping handout. I want to see income inequality lessened, and I think this will be a help to do that.

“I like that she is a grassroots [person], that she is beholden to none but the voters” Van Deese continued. “I think that is a big part of where big money in politics makes it corrupt. I like her Green New Deal. I like her flair, her managing style, her experience in office.”

Pressley’s visit to A&T on Warren’s behalf drew about 45 people, including two local congressional candidates.

Rhonda Foxx, a former congressional aide who is running in the 6th Congressional District, has received Pressley’s endorsement. Foxx posed for a photo with the Massachusetts congresswoman, but did not speak during the rally. Derwin Montgomery, a state House representative and former Winston-Salem City Council member who is also seeking the Democratic nomination in the 6th Congressional District, also attended the rally.

Foxx and Montgomery have both come out in support of universal healthcare, commonly described as “Medicare for All.” That position aligns them with Warren and Sanders in the progressive lane of the Democratic primary.

Montgomery said during an interview on Friday that he believes the 6th Congressional District Democratic candidates’ positions on healthcare, like their

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believe that the reason why we have not been able to realize racial justice, gender justice, climate justice, LGBTQIA justice, healthcare, housing justice is because of a deficit of resources, it’s actually because of a deficit of empathy.

“Let me remind you of the power of Es,” Pressley continued. “Elizabeth Warren is energetic. She is empathetic. She is effective. And she is electable.”

Warren’s most direct competitor in the contest for votes in the Democratic primary is her friend, Sanders.

Seth Washington, a junior at A&T who is majoring in political science, cast his vote for Sanders on Feb. 13, the first day of early voting. But he said Warren is appealing for many of the same reasons as Sanders.

“Who do I align with most? Of course,” he said, “Bernie and Elizabeth Warren with the clearing debt, that’s a good talking point to especially college students. We love to hear stuff like that because that directly affects us.”

Vivian Van Deese, who came from Davidson County to attend the rally, said supporting Warren was “an easy call,” adding that Sanders’ advanced age is a liability.

“I like her stand on just about everything, and she has a plan for everything,” said Van Deese who works as a reset specialist at a grocery store. “I like her wealth tax to be helping our poor and our needful people in this country — to

JORDAN GREEN

Opinion

Ayanna Pressley, a congresswoman from Massachusetts who won her seat through a primary upset against an incumbent fellow Democrat in 2018, told students at NC A&T University not to count out Elizabeth Warren.

During a stop outside the Dudley Building, the early-voting site at A&T, on Friday, Pressley recalled that the polls had her down by 13 points, but she won by 18.

“And that is because you cannot poll transformation,” Pressley said. “So, do not ride the poller-coaster. Transformation is afoot. A paradigm shift is afoot.

And this movement is about big, structural change.”

Pressley broke ranks with other members of the “Squad” — four progressive Democrat women of color elected to Congress in 2018 — by endorsing Warren, a senator who also hails from Massachusetts. The other members of the Squad, most visibly Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have endorsed frontrunner Bernie Sanders.

Today’s get-out-the-vote rally was Pressley’s second visit to A&T on Warren’s behalf. Pressley appeared alongside Warren at Harrison Auditorium in November when the candidate was interviewed by CNN and NPR commentator Angela Rye. Today’s stop at A&T followed an appearance by Pressley earlier in the day to rally volunteers at Warren’s Durham campaign office.

Warren has struggled to gain traction, with disappointing third- and fourthplace finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, respectively, but her fiery takedown of opponent Michael Bloomberg during the last debate in Las Vegas on Wednesday has re-energized her campaign going into the Nevada caucus, which takes place tomorrow.

Pressley said Warren presents “the starkest contrast to the current occupant” of the White House, who she called an “equal-opportunity offender and abuser-in-chief, this go-it-alone narcissist.”

“She is a coalition and a movement builder; we have someone who sows the seeds of division,” Pressley said. “We have someone who lives and thrives on chaos. And some might lead you to

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CITIZEN GREEN

OPINION

The people vs. the political class

Given the absolute fealty that Republican lawmakers now demonstrate before President Trump, the recent past seems like a reverse speculative fiction so outrageously fanciful that someone must have made it up.

The headline in the New York Times four years ago to this day literally read,

by Jordan Green “Inside the Republican Party’s Desperate Mission to Stop Donald Trump.”

The story opens with this apocalyptic assessment by a party mandarin: “The scenario Karl Rove outlined was bleak.”

The opening paragraphs bear quotation in full: “Addressing a luncheon of Republican governors and donors in Washington on Feb. 19, he warned that Donald J. Trump’s increasingly likely nomination would be catastrophic, dooming the party in November. But Mr. Rove, the master strategist of George Bush’s campaigns, insisted it was not too late for them to stop Mr. Trump, FILE PHOTO according to three people present.

Bernie Sanders greeting supporters in Greensboro in 2015.

“In public, there were calls for the party to unite behind a single candidate,” the article continued. “In dozens of interviews, elected The centrifugal force of a system that no longer provides a meanofficials, political strategists and donors described a frantic, lastingful sense of belonging to the vast majority of its citizens means ditch campaign to block Mr. Trump — and the agonizing reasons that the political energy is at the polar ends — expressed in rising that many of them have become convinced it will fail. Behind the white nationalism fed by the tea party on the right, and a warming scenes, a desperate mission to save the party sputtered and stalled feeling towards socialism and anarchy rooted in the Occupy moveat every turn.” ment on the left.

The senior party officials, consultants, donors and, yes, journalGive the Democratic establishment a frontrunner who can win ists who make up the political class often forge a consensus around in November, and what do they do? Pretty much exactly what their a type of candidate considered viable, someone who can supposRepublican counterparts did four years ago. edly gain the support of an electoral majority. The people often Just to sample some of the hysteria among the sages of the have another idea.

Democratic establishment, listen to James Carville, Bill Clinton’s In late 2015 and 2016, Donald Trump’s savage xenophobia, fearpolitical strategist, react to Sanders’ win in the Nevada caucus tellmongering against Muslims and dystopian descriptions of urban ing MSNBC host Brian Williams: “If you’re voting crime and disorder coupled with shameless panderfor him because you think he’ll win the election, ing to the Christian evangelical, gun-rights and politically, you’re a fool.

And that’s just a fact. It’s anti-abortion movements fueled a white-nationalist no denying it, there’s so much political science, so The anger in the insurgency that swept through the Republican much research that this is not even a debatable primaries, and, against all conventional wisdom, the American question.”

November general election.

Or Chris Matthews, another MSNBC host. electorate has He couldn’t possibly win after he was caught on Beyond comparing Sanders’ victory in Nevada to a video bragging about grabbing women’s genitals. only intensified Nazi invasion, his willful misrepresentation of SandAnd then he won. ers’ democratic socialism stands out as singularly from 2016 to 2020.

There’s another candidate who maintains an bizarre and paranoid.

He really said, “I believe if ambivalent relationship with his party, whose rallies Castro and the reds had won the Cold War, there draw huge crowds, who is supposedly weighed would have been executions in Central Park, and I down by fatal liabilities, who commands loyalty from a base of famight have been one of the ones getting executed.” natical supporters, and whose appeal reaches beyond the comfortBefore Sanders’ win in Nevada, Rep. Debbie Wasserman able parameters of the party.

Schultz, who was forced to resign as chair of the Democratic NaHe is an independent senator from Vermont who is seeking the tional Committee in 2016, chastised a reporter at the Miami Herald Democratic nomination. His name is Bernie Sanders, and, incidenby saying, “We’re a long way from who is going to be our nominee tally, he is holding a rally at Winston-Salem State University today. and so that speculation is really not helpful at all.”

How can the political class be so blindered? On the Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala, another south Florida Democrat, was even side, far from learning their lesson from the Hillary Clinton fiasco, more blunt. they promoted Joe Biden, a legacy institutionalist with a platform “He’s not going to be our nominee,” she said. “That’s a hypothetand persona crafted to appeal to everyone and no one. ical question, and since I don’t think he’s going to be the nominee, I The anger in the American electorate has only intensified from don’t have to answer the question.”

2016 to 2020. Across the political spectrum, it’s fueled by the acMourn the loss of the political center if you must, but undercelerating wealth divide, endless and exorbitant wars, and the sense stand where the political energy is. that the system only works for a corrupt, politically-connected elite.

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Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

There is a needed symmetry job-hunting to accessing medical care now has an extra developing in the local push to hour tacked on. That is equivalent to a car rider driving to reduce poverty, and Winston-SaHigh Point to see a doctor, Walkertown to get groceries lem State and Wake Forest uniand Lexington to get to work — sometimes all in one day. versities will continue that alignAll that means it’s very expensive to be poor.” ment with a panel on Thursday at Barrella noted another big problem: “There’s a history Wake Forest: “Transportation and in cities across the US of putting significant transportaInequity in Winston-Salem.” tion infrastructure though lower-income neighborhoods,

by John Railey This promises to be a lively like US 52, Business 40 and University Parkway…. What discussion that could encourage dialogue in our comare we doing now to address some of those issues that munities. are still affecting communities, and how can we do that in The lack of reliable transportation to get to jobs, a way that is neighborhood- and residents-led? They’re among other crucial destinations, cuts across almost the real experts because they’re the ones who experience every facet of local poverty. The general subject of it every day.” transportation in Forsyth County and Winston-Salem has In regard to the city bus system, one issue may be a a long, controversial and complex history that resonates lack of awareness. Regan said: “I’m not sure, on average, to this day in unresolved problems. most of our elected public officials have much experience “Transportation issues are not just one-dimensional,” using the bus system.” One problem, she indicated, may said Elise Barrella, a professional engineer and one of the be lack of good data. “Elected officials don’t always have founding faculty members of the Wake Forest University access to complete information,” she said. Perhaps the Department of Engineering. “There’s the policy side, the city should collect better data on bus use, she suggested. fiscal-infrastructure side, the service side. There’s housing.

Data is coming from other sources. There is the It’s a really, really multi-dimensional Center for the Study of Economic issue. The panel is taking that apMobility’s research on local bus proach.” riders. Significant local data has The other panelists will be come from Phillip Summers, The panel discussion, free also Megan Regan, a visiting associate who left his job as a public-health professor of economics at Wake specialist to drive a city bus for a and open to the public, Forest; WSSU economics profesyear. sor Craig Richardson; and WSSU Local professors continue to will be Thursday at 5 p.m. geography professor Russell Smith. study transportation and related isRichardson is the founding director at the Z. Smith Reynolds sues, such as urban infill. They talk of WSSU’s Center for the Study of about cities making advances in Library Auditorium on the that regard, most notably Portland, Economic Mobility.

Smith indicated that transportaOre. That city has made strides WFU campus. tion inequities here, and nationin encouraging urban living and wide, date back to World War II, easy transportation, but property when people began to move out and rental prices have shot up in of the cities for the suburbs. Later, Portland. factories moved out of the cities as well, handicapping Smith acknowledges the challenges in incorporating residents of poor, inner-city areas in their access to facnew ways of strategic planning. “It’s really hard since tory jobs. The system, Smith said, has “been predicated you’ve been doing something the same way since World on everyone having an automobile…. There is a relationWar II,” he said. ship between the built environment and traffic inequities,” These are challenges well worth tackling, and the panel he said. on Thursday is part of the path.

Regan noted that the transportation problem also limits Smith said: “We’re talking about how people’s ability to access to grocery stores for people of low-income. generate wealth and follow the American dream might Bus riders often complain about the Winston-Salem be impacted by how we build things…. Factories are not Transit Authority, especially the fact that most of its citygoing to come back downtown. What are the alternabus rounds are made hourly instead of every 30 minutes, tives? That becomes the question of transportation. It all as was the case a few years ago. Research by the Center ties together.” for the Study of Economic Mobility of local bus riders who commute to their jobs has found that working bus Railey is senior writer and community-relations consulriders spend an average of 12 hours a week commuting, tant for CSEM. He is the former executive director of the time that inhibits their job advancement and family time, Partnership for Prosperity, an initiative fighting poverty in including time spent involved in their children’s schoolWinston/Salem Forsyth County, and the former editorial work. page editor of the Winston-Salem Journal. He can be Richardson said: “The effect of urban sprawl and long reached at raileyjb@gmail.com commutes is that it places a hidden tax on folks without a car — a time tax. Everything from grocery shopping to

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Nik Snacks Winston-Salem firefighters jump from the fire into the pan

W

hile police officers are known as the city’s finest, firefighters are known as the city’s hottest, and not just due to the nature of their profession. On the low, firefighters are known for their cooking skills. There are

by Nikki Miller-Ka books, competitions, restaurants and TV shows devoted to “firehouse” cuisine. So, what are the hottest of the Winston-Salem Fire Department cooking and eating?

Doug Simmons, an engineer at Station 2 on Somerset Drive, admits that when he started with WSFD, he didn’t really know how to cook.

“I was a terrible cook, a typical bachelor,” he remembers.

“Mac and cheese and hot dogs,” Simmons says. “All you need to know how to do that is boil water.”

Fortunately, he knew how to grill a steak and that was a start to his passion for cooking.

Today, Simmons is a married man who started at Winston-Salem 18 years ago after a stint as a volunteer with the Clemmons Fire Department.

“When I got hired on in Winston-Salem, I learned that most of the stations have some form of a cooking rotation,” he says.

One person shops, buys groceries and divides the cost amongst those working the shift. There’s a schedule with everyone’s name listed and they’re checked off as they pay. Simplicity and economics win over everything. $2 meals are common. Steak (if it’s on sale), mashed potatoes and green beans are a perennial favorite.

This week, Simmons makes fried chicken, brown-sugar sweet potatoes and apple-cider collard greens. He cuts boneless, skinless chicken breasts into strips and marinates them in Texas Pete hot sauce for four hours, breads them in seasoned flour, an egg wash and dips them in flour a second time for that thick, crisp crunch.

Frying them in batches with a deep fryer on the counter, Simmons explains the kitchen rotation at the station.

Four to eight guys take a rotation. The meal is usually a group decision. The less expensive, the better.

“Everybody has a dish that they’re really good at,” he says. “One guy does taco salad every time. Another does spaghetti.”

A lot of Simmons’ inspiration comes from a Facebook group for firefighters.

Once, Simmons grilled whole pineapples and stuffed them with fried rice, chicken, grilled pineapple chunks and garnished it with sesame seeds and a sweet and sour ponzu sauce.

For simpler dishes, Simmons likes cheeseburgers but adds his own flair.

Simmons mixes in Worcestershire sauce, steak sauce, or whatever is on-hand with minced onion, garlic, and steak seasoning.

“I like to knock the ground beef flavor out of it,” he says.

For side dishes, he likes to keep it simple: tater tots,

Fried chicken tenders, brown sugar and butter sweet potatoes, apple cider vinegar collard greens

by Doug Simmons

French fries or pasta salad. In the summertime, he adds homemade ice cream to the mix. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, pineapple and peach are favorites.

A typical shift week at the firehouse is 24 hours on and 48 hours off. Lots of guys volunteer or work at other fire departments on their days off and quite a few have second jobs. Simmons works construction on his days off, so does Mason Smith.

Smith, an engineer with Rescue 1, which operates out of Station 7 on Arbor Road, actually went to culinary school at Johnson and Wales in Charleston. He matriculated alongside Sammy Gianopoulos, owner of Gianno’s in High Point and Fratelli’s in Winston-Salem, and George Leloudis, owner of Out West Steakhouse in Kernersville.

“The long hours and the schedule just got to me,”

NIKKI MILLER-KA

Smith says. “I have a passion for the fire department, so I left to pursue that.”

One of Smith’s favorite dishes to make is a Sicilian spaghetti. Charred crushed tomatoes, sugar, red pepper flakes, basil and garlic are cooked together to make a sauce while warmed olive oil infused with garlic, fresh basil leaves is drizzled over the hot pasta once it’s plated and served with either blackened chicken or grilled sausage.

Back at the station, with the cooking done, Simmons is off kitchen duty. Winner, winner chicken dinner at Station 2 is served. The simple meal is well-executed and filling. As the men relax and dig into their food, I ask them what happens after dinner.

Everyone chimes in: “The dishes.”

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CULTURE Local group works to reckon with Guilford’s history of lynching

by Sayaka Matsuoka

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homas Frazier. Richard Cotton.

Doyle Bryant. Elijah Church.

These are just a handful of the hundreds of black men who were lynched in North Carolina between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War II. These names are often lost to history, forgotten, their stories never told.

One name that a local coalition is looking to resurrect is Eugene Hairston — the only documented victim of a lynching in Guilford County.

According to recent investigative work done by members of the Guilford County Remembrance Project, Hairston was just a teenager — no more than 17 or 18 years old — when he was lynched in 1877 in Greensboro after being accused of attempted rape against a young, white woman.

On Monday evening, the coalition gave a presentation at Guilford College, where many of the members work.

Allison Spooner, an academic coach and tutor at the college, opened the evening by asking for a moment of silence, followed by a reading of victims’ names.

Spooner also acknowledged up front the fact that the three speakers of the evening, including herself, are all white women.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge that in this room, that we are presenting, as white women, the death and suffering of a young black man,” Spooner said. “And there’s not really anything more that I can say about that except for to just acknowledge that and say that this work is messy and complex and even just talking about lynching can be traumatic for many people and part of that is because we live in a whitesupremacist society still to this day. We have not moved on; we have not healed from our past.”

The work of the Guilford County Remembrance Project stems from a trip that some of the members took to Montgomery, Ala. in 2018, where they visited the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice, both products of the Equal Justice Initiative founded and run by lawyer Bryan Stevenson of Just Mercy fame. The museum aims to educate visitors on the lasting effects of slavery in America, while the memorial calls attention to the country’s history of lynching. The latter is made from hundreds of dark, metal columns that hang from a vast sheet

of metal that appears to float off the ground. Each column corresponds to a county where a lynching took place and has etched upon it, the names of the victims. The column for Guilford County has just one name carved into its surface: Eugene Hairston.

Since that trip, the group has been working towards three concrete goals set forth by the Equal Justice Initiative: collecting soil from the lynching site to be displayed alongside others at the museum in Montgomery, installing a historical marker in Greensboro at a prominent location to commemorate and explain how Hairston was killed, and the erection of a monument using a copy of the column that hangs at the site in Montgomery.

During the presentation on Monday, Sarah Thuesen, an assistant professor of history at Guilford College, explained the social and political landscape during the time when Hairston was killed.

“In 1877, African Americans were gaining ground in certain ways, in terms of politics and the economy,” Thuesen said.

She noted how black men were beginning to hold elected offices, and organizations like the North Carolina Industrial Association were founded to promote black economic progress. Black teachers were vocal COURTESY PHOTO Guilford County’s marker has just one name etched about a state-supported black college, which eventu- into it: Eugene Hairston ally led to the opening of NC A&T University in 1891.

Because of these instances of advancement, Thuesen cal marker in a prominent location within the city, then bring said, there was a growing white backlash to black power. the twin monument back to a quieter, more introspective site “These lynchings were not just random acts of violence, I for people to visit, and contemplate the life that was lost. mean sometimes they were,” Thuesen said. “But this was also “Eugene Hairston was a kid,” Hammond said. “He was a perabout power. This was a white backlash to rising black political son who had joys and sorrows in life. I want to learn as much and economic power.” about him as a human being rather than as just a statistic.”

Against the backdrop of this growing resentment of black After months of research, Hammond was even able to find progress came the death and lynching of Eugene Hairston. On one of Hairston’s descendants, an elderly woman named Dolothe evening of Aug. 23, 1877, according to white newspaper res who still lives in Kernersville. She had never heard about accounts, Mahala Sapp, a young white woman, was “accosted Eugene, but she gave the group her blessing. by a negro with evil purposes” in Kernersville, and within 30 Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan, who attended the meetminutes of news of the attempted rape, a mob had formed ing, expressed interest in moving forward with the historical with the intention of killing Hairston. marker and wanting to help with the One newspaper reported that logistics. She said she had visited the those in favor of lynching Hairston museum in Montgomery just two were “the best citizens in Piedmont To learn more about the Guilford weeks earlier and was moved by the Carolina.” Local authorities transmemorial.

County Remembrance Project, ported him by train to Greensboro, “When we got home… we wanted visit guilfordremembranceproject. where he was held in the local to learn about Eugene,” Vaughan wordpress.com or find them on jail. Not long afterwards, the mob said. “You don’t want to go on the descended upon the building where trip and then not do anything about Facebook.

Hairston was being held and forced it. I think this is something that we their way inside, taking Hairston to need to follow up on. I think the city a nearby schoolhouse where he was should assist in any way that we can lynched and left as a community spectacle. to make this a reality.”

Using newspaper clippings and old maps, Terry Hammond, Vaughan said that the next steps are finding out how to who works as director and curator of the art gallery at Guilmake both the marker and the monument a reality. For ford College, managed to narrow down the site where HairSpooner and the rest of the coalition, the ultimate goal of the ston was killed. Formerly known as the “Little Brick School,” project is to educate the community.

Hammond found out that the location is where the Presbyte“We have to grieve this part of our past,” Spooner said in rian Church of the Covenant in the College Hill neighborhood the closing remarks. “We have to understand the truth and is today. The plan, according to the group, is to gather soil truly come around each other as a community so that we can from the site sometime in May to send it to the museum in bring about reconciliation and healing.”

Montgomery. After that, the group hopes to erect the histori-

by Savi Ettinger

A

Students wrestle with written word at NC poetry contest

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Forsyth County student Marrianna Flores performs her first poem of the final round.

SAVI ETTINGER

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the center of the green-carpeted stage. After adjusting it to through the process of writing, her tone growing frantic or her height, she begins the recitation of her first finalist poem more relaxed as the process grows difficult or easier. She — “1969” by Alex Dimitrov. finishes the finals with a poem that carries a more formal “The summer everyone left for the moon,” she proclaims, structure: “The Paradox” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. “even those yet to be born.”

She takes a more comedic approach for her middle piece.

She goes through the poem in a romantic tone, recasting Having near to no experience with more humorous subjects the moon landing, the space race, entwinin the medium, Flores tackles “End of Days ing them with hope for the future. She Advice from an Ex-Zombie,” by Micheal suddenly drops her cadence to deliver the Derrick Hudson.

For more information kicker.

“To think,” Flores begins, “I used to be so “We came in peace for all mankind,” she good at going to pieces, gobbling my way about Poetry Out Loud, says. “Then returned to continue the war.” through the cops.” visit poetryoutloud.org.

This year’s competition is DeStasio’s Her voice grows nostalgic, filling in the third, and it lands her in the runner-up role of the Ex-Zombie, addressing the spot. She explains that the difficulty of audience through undead memories and memorizing so many poems has given her even more of a questions about humanity. She goes staccato, the fantastical love for literature. She finds that the best way to approach subject turning into a metaphor for people’s own lives. the challenge is by exploring each piece — figuring out what’s As the day ends, Flores hears the announcement that her behind the figurative language. performances set her in first place. The win, other than send“Poetry is a different kind of story,” DeStasio says. ing her to the national competition, symbolizes her love of For Marrianna Flores, a senior from Atkins High in Forcreative writing, as a poet herself. syth County, the final round offered a chance to share three “Poetry is a very big outlet in my life,” Flores says. “And it’s such stories from three different poets. Her first poem walks gotten me here.”

Culture

s the crowd quiets, Dasan Ahanu rubs his hands together.

The friction creates a sort of humming that travels through the room. The attendees join in, frantically running the palms of their hands together, contributing to the sound.

Ahanu says it all adds to the energy.

Ahanu skips the applause as he amps everyone up for the reveal of the final five contestants in the annual statewide Poetry Out Loud competition. After a series of smaller competitions at the classroom, school-wide and countywide levels, high-schoolers from more than 30 schools across North Carolina gather at Triad Stage in Greensboro.

They spend a recent Saturday reciting poems by other authors, vying to go to the national competition in Washington, DC. The National Endowment for the Arts puts on the contest each year with help from the Poetry Foundation and, on the state level, the North Carolina Arts Council. The 2020 contest marks its 15th year nationally. Other than spots in the national finals, the student winner and runner-up each receive a check and small funds for their high schools to purchase poetry books of the students’ choosing. Rebecca Moore, senior program director of marketing of the North Carolina Arts Council, finds that the challenge helps students to get more involved with creative writing.

“It’s a recitation contest, but it’s so much more,” Moore says. “It teaches the theatrics of the written word.”

For the final round, each student takes turns reciting poems, line for line.

They go for two rounds until the final cut is made, leaving only five students to perform a third.

“The kids can pick a poem that speaks to them,” Moore says.

As the emcee, Ahanu ushers many students up to the microphone, listening to how each analyzes their poem. From his work as a creative writing professor at Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, along with his other work, he finds that adding the competitive edge encourages a closer connection with the works.

“As an educator,” Ahanu says during a brief interlude, “this is a good way to get them familiar with the poems that are part of our poetry tradition.”

Talia DeStasio, a junior from Wake County, steps up to the microphone in

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SHOT IN THE TRIAD

Puzzles

Snowy morning at Hamilton Lakes Park.

18

CAROLYN DE BERRY

Across

by Matt Jones

Cesar and Guests

Every Tuesday

Jon Walters and Special Guests

Every Wednesday

Matty Sheets and the Nervy Bees with Laura Jane Vincent

Up Front

Every Tuesday Open Mic Night

Friday February 28th

Socialize with Socialists!

©2020 Jonesin’ Crosswords

(editor@jonesincrosswords.com)

Saturday February 29th

Laura Jane Vincent - All These Machines record listening social!

Answers from previous publication.

(336) 698-3888

Opinion

602 S Elam Ave • Greensboro

News Culture Shot in the Triad Puzzles

1 Buster?

5 Bad mark 11 Actor Cage, in tabloids 14 “Remote Control” host Ken 15 “Now I remember!” preceder 16 “Another Day on Earth” artist Brian 17 Dish list 18 Winter wear with check stubs in the pockets?

20 “Hamilton” Tony winner Leslie ___ Jr. 21 Q-V connection 22 Top of the line 23 Furry neckwear 26 Fort ___ National Monument 28 Lacking, like a bad luau?

34 Brit. award since 1886 35 Poet-political activist Jones ©2020 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 36 Zodiac sign boundaries 39 Diamond alternative 41 Kipling’s “Rikki-___-Tavi” 43 “Right away!”

44 Kayak’s kin 46 “I’ve got my ___ you” 48 Drink machine output 49 Feathery cattle comforter?

52 Sleeping-sickness vector 54 Brewpub stuff Answers from last issue 55 About, formally speaking 56 Candidate’s proposal 27 Bars below ISBN numbers 60 Tug 28 1700, to Caesar 64 Distill happiness and box it up?

29 Actress Fisher 67 Team on a farm 30 Official name of Seattle’s MLS team 68 Zapp Brannigan’s assistant, on “Futurama” 31 “Good ___!” (Charlie Brown phrase) 69 Consideration 32 2020 Olympics city 70 Get up 33 One who may leave a trail 71 Utah’s capital, for short 37 Spanish guitarist ___ De Lucia 72 Props for some movie fights 38 Crockpot dish 73 Punta del ___ 40 Baby’s knitted shoe 42 Tiniest bit Down 45 Disgusted remarks 1 1995 N.L. Rookie of the Year Hideo 47 Org. with Sharks and Predators 2 Troy’s friend on “Community” 50 Sibling’s son 3 It’s near Carson City 51 Dreary Milne character 4 Debris in a toaster 52 Clock sounds 5 ASPCA part 53 Slow-moving creature 6 “___: Ragnarok” (2017 Marvel film) 57 “___ Masters” (2020 Fox reality show) 7 “___ gonna say that!”

58 Just open 8 WTO precursor 59 “L’Etoile du ___” (Minnesota motto) 9 Apply incorrectly 61 Pivotal point 10 Get from ___ B 62 Bird’s ___ soup (running joke in former 11 Like family-friendly organizations?

HQ Trivia chats) 12 Senseless 63 On bended ___ 13 More bashful 65 RadioShack’s ___-80 computer 19 Renowned 66 RB’s gains 24 Fryolator stuff 25 Work without ___

EVENTS

Every Monday

Feb. 27-Mar. 4, 2020

CROSSWORD ‘Is It Or Isn’t It?’—I didn’t, but you did. SUDOKU

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