TCB Dec. 14, 2016 — A family between two countries

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point triad-city-beat.com December 14 – 20, 2016

A family between two countries

As Trump takes office, the Vazquez family is persevering through a complex immigration system that has already torn them apart.

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Dead Man’s Eggnog PAGE 17 London calling PAGE 23 The people’s docs PAGE 6

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Dec. 14 — 20, 2016

A selfie with Social Repose

Our finest parenting moment of the year was captured in a single selfie, snapped in haste midby Brian Clarey day near the bathroom at a country-western bar in Greensboro.

To set the scene, I’ll take you back a couple hours earlier, when my wife and I brought our 12-year-old daughter and her friends to see her first rock show, the Somewhere Before Christmas tour, a teenybopper slate of YouTubers and pretty boys with a following comprised almost exclusively of middle-school girls.

She had us ditched before we even turned off the car, inserting herself into a long line of her cohort queued outside the steel hangar that is Arizona Pete’s, all of them exhibiting their alternativeness with identical black jeans, Chuck Taylor hightops and cheap chokers of plastic filigree.

The meet-and-greet promised an intimate acoustic set by Johnnie Gilbert and headliner Say We Can Fly, but my daughter and her friends came to see a somber 24-year-old in a rock-and-roll headdress named Richie Geise, known to his screeching fans as Social Repose.

I’ve picked up quite a bit about him on

our drives to school in the morning: how he’s really shy, that he actually shaved his head in the YouTube video for “Island of Yours,” which has 2.8 million views and rolling, and that some people think his headdress is offensive, which it isn’t, or that it’s cultural appropriation, which it is.

Oh how they screamed when he coyly crossed the stage during Gilbert’s intimate acoustic set and then disappeared backstage — he’s really shy, you know — and they wedged themselves against the front of the stage before the performance began, my 12-year-old daughter front and center, just like her mother used to do.

We were relegated to the decidedly un-cool reaches of the upper deck, with the merch tables, the bar, the sleeping mechanical bull and the other parents, staring into their cell phones or drinking or catching snoozes on the banquette.

It was up there in the loser section that my wife showed me the selfie, captured in relative privacy after a trip to the ladies room: A shot of her and Social Repose, all made up and be-headdressed and giving a shy little smile. He’s really shy, you know.

But the kid put on the set of the night, a blast of electronica and lights and ukulele that I swear I would sit through again.

Just before he went on, my wife texted the selfie to our daughter up at the front.

She replied almost immediately.

“Delete it.”

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EVENTS

Wednesday, December 14 @ 8pm

Jon Walters

Thursday, December 15 @ 8pm

Open Mic Night

triad-city-beat.com

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

Friday, December 16 @ 8pm

Earleine

Saturday, December 17 @ 8pm

Stray Owls & Rob Williams Monday, December 19 @ 8pm

Mystery Movie Monday

Tuesday, December 20 @ 7pm

Caroling & Cocoa

Wednesday, December 21 @ 7pm

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK I know parents are not supposed to have favorites; my mom’s favorite kid is my brother. My mother lived to please him, to cook for him. They ate three meals a day together. He was so proud of his roses. Every morning he would get up and cut a rose for my mother. Sometimes, if I was lucky, I would get one, too. They did everything together. They would watch movies together, too.

— Carolina Vazquez, in the Cover, page 12 1451 S. Elm-Eugene St., Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406 Office: 336-256-9320 BUSINESS PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Brian Clarey

ART ART DIRECTOR Jorge Maturino

PUBLISHER EMERITUS Allen Broach

SALES DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING Dick Gray

brian@triad-city-beat.com allen@triad-city-beat.com

jorge@triad-city-beat.com

dick@triad-city-beat.com

EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Eric Ginsburg

SALES EXECUTIVE Cheryl Green

SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green

tynesha@triad-city-beat.com

eric@triad-city-beat.com

jordan@triad-city-beat.com

cheryl@triad-city-beat.com

DIGITAL SALES Tynesha Brown

EDITORIAL INTERN Naari Honor intern@triad-city-beat.com

TCB IN A FLASH DAILY @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1.00. ©2016 Beat Media Inc.

CONTRIBUTORS Carolyn de Berry Kat Bodrie Jelisa Castrodale Stallone Frazier Anthony Harrison Matt Jones

Cover photography by Carolyn de Berry Carolina Vazquez and her family at Oak Hollow Mall

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Dec. 14 — 20, 2016

CITY LIFE Dec. 14 – 20

by Naari Honor

ALL WEEK

Music series @ City Hall (W-S), Wednesday-Friday Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines hosts a week of holiday music concerts to be performed by local school choruses in the lobby of Winston-Salem’s City Hall and invites the public to partake in the festivities. Parkland Magnet High School performs Wednesday at noon, East Forsyth High School is Thursday at 11:30 a.m. and Reagan High School will be Friday at 12:30 p.m. For more information go to cityofws.org.

ALL WEEKEND Ballet performance @ Greensboro Day School’s Sloan Theater (GSO), Friday-Saturday Greensboro Day School brings the ballet of the Snow Queen to the stage for your viewing pleasure, for two days only. The first performance is held on Friday at 7 p.m. The second takes place on Saturday at 2 p.m. More information can be found by visiting artisticmotiondance.com or calling 336.617.5099.

WEDNESDAY

Meet & greet @ LaRue Elm (GSO), 7 p.m.

Your friends at Triad City Beat have added two new members to the fold, columnists Kat Bodrie and Jelisa Castrodale, and we invite you to ring in the holidays with the team you’ve hopefully come to know and love. More info at our Facebook page.

THURSDAY

Elf @ Carolina Theatre (GSO), 7 p.m.

Stop me if you know this one: “He’s an angry little elf.” The Carolina Theatre screens the comedy classic Elf just in time for the holidays and your viewing pleasure. So grab the whole family and sit a spell. For more info regarding viewing visit carolinatheatre. com Campus Xmas @ HPU (HP), 5:30 p.m.

It’s that time again for Christmas on the campus of High Point University. Choose from any one of the many activities the university has planned, from horse rides to pictures with Santa to hot cocoa and guided tours and giveaways for the whole family. For more info, visit highpoint.edu/community/christmas/.

FRIDAY 4

Gameshow @ the Idiot Box (GSO), 10 p.m.

Dude, it’s a live game show at a comedy club and there will be prizes. What more do you need? More info can be found at idiotboxers.com.

SATURDAY

Krankies Craft Fair @ Wake Forest Biotech Place (W-S), 12 noon Krankies hosts its semi-annual craft fair, and there will be food trucks. If that isn’t enough to get your motor running, the Kranksters have invited more vendors than last year, there will be a coloring room set up for aspiring artists and there will also be an area dedicated to featuring local women artisans and their goods. For more info visit innovationquarter.com.

Gingerbread-house making @ Gibb’s Hundred Brewing (GSO), 6:30 p.m.

Join the folks at Gibb’s for their third annual drunk gingerbread-house making event.

Construction experience is not required, just the desire to have fun and not take yourself too seriously. Tickets are required for this event and can be purchased in the tap room or at gibbshundred.com/product/ drunken-construction-12-17.

production, which annually features a couple of pros in the roles of the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Cavalier Prince — this year it’s Martin Harvey, formerly of the London Ballet, and Winston-Salem native Megan LeCrone, now a soloist with the New York City Ballet who is a UNCSA grad.

Jordan Green: Sorry, I haven’t seen any of the Triad productions of The Nutcracker.

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Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

Now circumstances — namely a CIA report outlining the ways the election ws influenced by Russian agents — bring Burr to bear against his sort-of ally.

As chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he will oversee the investigation into these allegations — not a special investigation like Benghazi, mind you, just a regular old Senate investigation.

Burr has been called “the CIA’s favorite senator” for his hawkishness on national security. And on these matters he genuinely seems to know what he’s talking about.

But the Electoral College meets on Dec. 19, putting the North Carolina senator in a bit of a squeeze. Either he gets it done before the EC vote — which would hardly be thorough, considering the timeframe — or he kicks it down the road and begins an investigation against a sitting president, perhaps before he’s even inaugurated.

Crossword

In those halcyon days before the election results came pouring in, there was some speculation that a Hillary win might claim Sen. Richard Burr as a casualty. His Senate race against Deborah Ross was viewed as an opportunity for a pickup for the Democrats.

There was further speculation earlier that Burr, whose Southern-conservative bona fides and position as chair of the intelligence committee gave him a built-in voter base and foreign-affairs credentials, might make a suitable vice-presidential candidate for Trump.

Burr pulled it off by almost 6 points, mostly without mentioning his party’s presidential candidate, though he did come out against Trump back on Oct. 7 — you know, after the “grab them by the pussy” thing; remember that? — but

by Oct. 10, according to the News & Observer, had “forgiven” him. And Burr was one of three GOP senators in close races to attend the national convention in July.

Sportsball

by Brian Clarey

Kudos, Jelisa What a fantastic description of a truly awful experience [“Triaditude Adjustment: Take this job…”; by Jelisa Castrodale; Dec. 7, 2016]. I love that you calmly walked away and out the door.

Becky Medlin, via triad-city-beat.com

Culture

Sen. Richard Burr gets squeezed

Negotiating with Trump on regs President-elect Trump says he wants to repeal two corporate regulations for every one created.

Many conservative Republicans want to get rid of corporate regulations but for some reason they don’t want to get rid of regulations on individual American citizens. Why is that? Many politicians say that corporations are people but they don’t think that people should be treated like corporations.

Donald Trump and the Republican Congress can really change the status quo by creating one law. We should have a national law, or constitutional amendment that states that all laws, taxes and regulations are temporary. If these regulations work, and are supported by the people, they can be renewed.

If they don’t work, or aren’t supported by the people, they can go away. Imagine if all government was temporary.

Chuck Mann, Greensboro

Cover Story

Greensboro Ballet

Hashing on Hush I wasn’t super impressed by the chatty bartenders who clearly don’t know that a speakeasy you speak privately and only when spoken to [“Barstool: Let’s talk about Hush speakeasy”; by Kat Bodrie; Nov. 30, 2016]. Bartending was very subpar, having to review lists before making anything, uncertainty of what spirits were stocked, and above all the employees dress code was further subpar [than] their bartending skills. Good idea, but seriously needs to take some hints from Little Branch in Manhattan. This place would be amazing if it was refined and tuned a bit better, so I’ll give it another chance as I bought a membership for a year.

Recent Hush Visitor, via triadcity-beat.com

Opinion

47% UNCSA 41% High Point

12% 5

Eric Ginsburg: haven’t seen The Nutcracker since I was a little kid, when my ballet-dancing, next-door neighbor performed in the Boston Ballet’s production. (Technically I did see a socalled hip-hop reproduction last year, also in Boston, but there was nothing

Readers: You made this a close one until the end, with UNCSA taking an early lead

and High Point coming on strong towards the end. But we finish with UNCSA in the lead at 47 percent, and High Point taking second place with 41 percent. Greensboro Ballet never got in the game, finishing up with just 12 percent of the vote.

News

Brian Clarey: Honestly, I think The Nutcracker is one of the most torturous pieces of seasonal entertainment in existence, a droning and dry narrative stuffed with Russian pomposity and pretense. But what the hell… it’s Christmas, and traditions are such that I understand the magic that happens every year. That being said, I choose the only one I’ve been to, the UNCSA

Biggie or Pac would’ve liked about this largely white affair, so I’m going to bury that unfortunate memory in the sands of time.)

Up Front

It’s a timeless holiday tradition: the soaring music, Clara and he handsome prince in the cold Russian winter, the dance of the Sugarplum Fairies. Every year, at least three productions grace Triad stages; this year, we have one in each city in three downtown venues, with their own charms recommendations. But which is best?

triad-city-beat.com

Which Nutcracker is best?

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Dec. 14 — 20, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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NEWS

Citizens demand city council release Cole investigative file

by Jordan Green

public records, saying, “I feel it’s important for me to review their communication and give advice to [city council] before commenting to the press.”

During a closed-session meeting in October to discuss the A multiracial coalition of investigative file, council voted Greensboro citizens delivered an ul5-4 to not release the file, turning timatum to city council on Tuesday down a request from Councilmorning demanding the release of woman Sharon Hightower to files from the police department’s review the file. Subsequently, internal investigation of former Hightower was allowed to review Officer Travis Cole’s altercation in the file, which she said amounts June with Dejuan Yourse. to more than 200 pages, as a Cole resigned from the force privileged document, but not on Aug. 19, two months after the allowed to take possession of it. incident, amid an investigation that Hightower, who did not attend later determined that Cole violated the press conference and said departmental directives for use of she was not consulted about force, courtesy towards the public, the action by GSO Operation arrest, search and seizure and also Transparency, said she plans to compliance to laws and regulations. introduce a resolution to release JORDAN GREEN CJ Brinson (right), a representative of GSO Operation Transparency, negotiates the Greensboro City Council voted the file to the public. transfer of a request to city council with Greensboro City Clerk Betsy Richardson. to release the police body-worn “We need to begin to build camera video, which showed Cole, public trust so we can have transdistrict attorney after the investigation?

City Attorney Tom Carruthers said a white officer, punching and throwing parency,” she said.

And perhaps, most importantly, why did after the press conference that he wantYourse, who is African American, to the Hightower said the chain-of-coma majority of city council members pass ed to confer with city council before ground. The video shows an initially mand investigation for use of force incion reviewing the full information? What commenting on the request, but cited polite interview, with Yourse respectfully dents is supposed to take no longer than are they afraid of finding out?” a section of state law governing the answering questions on his mother’s 45 days, but this case took 53 days.

CJ Brinson, a member of the coaliprivacy of municipal employees, which porch, that suddenly escalated when “I would like to speculate that it was tion, said GSO Operation Transparstates that the city manager with the Cole became upset about Yourse calling just because [the investigator] was trying ency came together to ensure that city concurrence of city council may release a friend on his cell phone. to do a good job,” Hightower said, council members understand that the personnel information after determining “We’re here because something went adding that she wants the documents issue is important to citizens from all “in writing that the release is essential terribly wrong and we don’t have all the to be released to the public before she corners of the city. to maintaining public confidence in the information about exactly what went articulates any concerns she might have “Organizations within the community administration of city services.” wrong, what part of our police manabout what its contents reveal. wanted to communicate together to The citizens are demanding the reagement protocols in this city failed,” “I want people in the community to change this narrative that this issue is lease of the documents by noon on Jan. said Isabell Moore, who lives in the be able to say, ‘We’re able to know what just synonymous with African-American 11. If the documents are not released, Glenwood neighborhood, during a press goes on in the process,’ she said. “If it community,” Brinson said. “We’re sendthe group has said in a press release that conference demanding release of the doesn’t appear to be working, then we ing the message that various members “it will conduct a nonviolent ‘people’s investigative file. “We know that a memneed to address those processes.” within the community across the city document search’ to acquire and release ber of our community, Dejuan Yourse, Hightower added that she’s confeel this needs to be exposed.” the information that should be available was brutally beaten while sitting on his cerned that Cole’s case wasn’t flagged After the press conference, the citizens to the public in order to restore public mother’s porch. We all saw the video; it by department brass earlier, considwalked upstairs from the plaza-level atriconfidence in city administration.” was extremely disturbing.” ering that he had a known history of um to the city manager’s suite to deliver The citizens group is relying on the Holding up a banner depicting a citizen complaints. The city reached letters to the nine city council members same statute cited by Carruthers for timeline of events, the citizens, who call a $50,000 settlement in May — just demanding the release of the investitheir pledge conduct a ‘people’s docuthemselves GSO Operation Transparone month before the Yourse incident gative file on Cole’s actions. City Clerk ment search’ to acquire and release the ency, questioned what took place during — with Rufus and Devin Scales, two Betsy Richardson told the citizens that information. They declined to elaborate a roughly 55-day period between when African-American brothers who were the council members were not in their on exactly what action they might take, June 18, when an officer in the chain of subjected to a frivolous arrest by Cole. offices, but promised to scan and email but Moore said they planned to submit command was notified of the incident, Hightower also said she’s concerned the correspondence to them as well as a public records request on Tuesday, and Aug. 9, when Chief Scott allegedly that it took four months for city council leave hard copies in their mailboxes. well ahead of the deadline to turn over learned about it. to find out about the Yourse incident.

The citizen advocating release of the the records.

“Why didn’t the police do anything And she said the incident first came to documents said the city council has the Carruthers sidestepped a question when they first saw the video?” Moore her notice thanks to a constituent, who authority to do so through a vote, using about whether citizens have the legal asked. “Why did it take so long for them requested anonymity. the same legal mechanism they relied authority to “conduct a people’s docto act? What did they recommend to the on to release the video in September. ument search” to acquire and release A citizen coalition threatens a “people’s document search” to acquire and release documents if city council does not vote to release the investigative file on former Greensboro police Officer Travis Cole’s altercation with Dejuan Yourse.

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New Hope Manor

by Jordan Green A panel of Winston-Salem City Council is moving forward a loan request from the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem to acquire a troubled apartment complex.

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Up Front

Dec. 14 — 20, 2016

Home for people with HIV closes

by Jordan Green

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AIDS Care Service, a Winston-Salem nonprofit, is putting the former Holly House on Poplar Street up for sale

Holly Haven, a home for individuals with HIV who need significant assistance with physical and mental health needs in Winston-Salem, has closed.

A family care home that served individuals with HIV who are experiencing significant physical and mental health challenges in Winston-Salem has closed.

Ashley Love, the interim executive director of AIDS Care Service, confirmed that the agency’s board of directors voted to close Holly Haven, a family-care home licensed with the state Department of Health and Human Services. The target date to close the facility was Nov. 30, but Love said the agency successfully transferred all six residents to skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities by Nov. 15.

“It’s been bittersweet for the board and staff,” Love said. “It was tough for everyone involved. It was tough for our staff and tough for our clients.

Those staff that worked for Holly Haven, we were especially concerned to make sure we supported our clients and their families to help them transition and to help provide any care and resources that we could.

We followed very strict steps to make sure our clients knew we were going to support them through this transition.”

State law requires family care homes to give 30 days notice before they’re transferred or discharged.

For 17 years, Holly Haven has provided a home for people living with HIV who require 24-hour care, including help managing medication, assistance with daily living activities and access to outside activities like support groups. When Holly Haven opened there was a need for end-of-life care for people with HIV, and the facility was envisioned as a hospice, Love said.

Over the years, the disease has changed as medical advances have allowed people with HIV to live longer and healthier lives.

“Over the last 17 years it’s been discussed with our

JORDAN GREEN

board members and our staff regarding the unique services that it’s a bit more difficult to fund Holly Haven,” Love said. “This is a good thing. Resources for clients with HIV and AIDS have expanded and there are more services and facilities that are willing to provide services to our clients.”

Love said each of the six former residents of Holly Haven has a different type of health insurance to cover the cost of care and housing. AIDS Care Services received federal funds through a program called Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS, or HOPWA, to pay staff at Holly Haven. Jacquelyn Clymore, the HIV/STD coordinator for the state Department of Health and Human Services — which administers the program — said AIDS Care Services made its final request for reimbursement for HOPWA funds to support Holly Haven in September and October.

Love said the board has voted to sell the property, which is located on Poplar Street in the Holly Avenue neighborhood.

While the agency opted to close Holly Haven, AIDS Care Service hasn’t completely gotten out of the housing business. The agency still provides emergency and temporary housing for up to five families at Horseshoe Apartments, and operates a housing assistance program to provide rent and utility assistance to people with HIV who need help. Notwithstanding the agency’s decision to liquidate Holly Haven, Love said AIDS Care Service is on sound financial footing.

“Nonprofits across the city are having conversations about how to change and how to provide better services, about how we’re providing adequate and quality services, how many clients we serve, and how… we can address their emergent needs,” she said. “When you have conversations like that, you have to make tough decisions. Sometimes they’re bittersweet, but they’re the best decisions to grow the agency and to provide more and better services to the clients.”

The finance committee of Winston-Salem City Council green-lighted a $1.6 million loan to the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem to acquire the troubled New Hope Manor Apartments. The unanimous vote by the four-member panel on Monday forwards the request to the full council for consideration at its next meeting on Dec. 19. Mayor Allen Joines, who votes only in the event of a tie on the eight-member council, attended the finance committee meeting and spoke in support of the loan, all but ensuring its approval on Dec. 19.

The acquisition of New Hope Manor Apartments is considered essential to the housing authority’s efforts to revitalize the area around Cleveland Avenue Homes, a public housing community. The city has already committed $4.5 million to support the effort in the event that the US Department of Housing & Urban Development approves a $30 million Choice Neighborhoods grant. City leaders have come to view the privately owned New Hope Manor Apartments, which are located about a block away from Cleveland Avenue Homes, as a potential downward drag on the revitalization effort. Housing Authority CEO Larry Woods told council members last month that many families in the apartments are enduring heating breakdowns, sewage backups and a lack of security because of inoperable locks, although owner Bob Crumley denied that the property had outstanding code violations. Woods also said that many of the units have been taken over by squatters and that the apartment complex regularly draws crowds of people who converge to drink and listen to loud music.

The housing authority ultimately plans to tear down the buildings, rebuild, and lease the new apartments at market rate.

Kevin Cheshire, general counsel for the housing authority, acknowledged to council members during the finance committee meeting on Monday that there was a discrepancy in documents his agency submitted to the city to represent reported financial losses by Crumley and his business partner, Nathan Tabor. A Nov. 18 letter from the housing authority to Joines represents that the owners are taking a net loss of $700,000 on the sale, but an affidavit submitted by Crumley indicates that he and Tabor have invested a total of $1.1 million in the property while not taking any profits, commissions, salaries or other compensation. Cheshire told council that the $1.1 million figure is the accurate one.

Councilman Derwin Montgomery, who is not a member of the finance committee but participated in the meeting, retorted that he doesn’t believe anything the owners say about financial losses from the investment.

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CITIZEN GREEN

EDITORIAL

Remembering Z, a Jesus follower and white Southern radical

Finding a post-fact narrative What is the role of actual reality in our post-fact world?

It’s a serious question, because surely at some point, it is going to rear its head and issue a serious correction to our timeline. Isn’t it?

Right now, we’ve got some of the same people who thought it perfectly reasonable to spend four years and more than $7 million on an investigation into the hollow piece of nothingness that was Benghazi arguing against investigating a CIA report that makes very real allegations of tinkering by the Russians in our most recent election.

Russians!

We’ve got career Republicans like incoming Chief of Staff Reince Priebus — as well as the president elect of the United States — trying to brush off the threat of Russian cyberwarfare, forcing a leftist media to come in and defend the integrity of the CIA, which is a little bit like Bob Woodward defending the integrity of Richard Nixon.

But that’s how far through the looking glass we’ve come.

And in this post-fact era, a discernible truth only seems to matter if people believe it.

There was a time, not so long ago, when every single soul in this country would be absolutely freaked out by the news that Russian agents had manipulated our election, like the plot of some bad ’80s movie or, you know, what the CIA did in the Philippines.

But today, the truth is but one of dozens of competing narratives, one of which, posited by President-elect Donald Trump, demonstrates that Russian President Vladimir Putin is doing a “great job” and that the two will likely “get along” after Trump is sworn in.

The beauty of the post-truth is that we are free to choose which version of the story we like the best.

And yet, TCB remains in the truth business and the factbased reality in which it lives. And the truth is that just a few days before the Electoral College is set to cast their votes for Trump, which happens on Dec. 19, we have discovered that Russians — Russians! — have interfered with our election, the extent of which we have yet to discern.

If you believe the CIA, that is.

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The Rev. Zeb North encouraging presence at truth and reconciliation gathHoller Jr. was a Jesus folerings, press conferences to highlight discrimination lower. I’m having difficulty against black police officers, and meetings to grapple at the moment thinking of with allegations of police misconduct against civilians. anyone who more fully lived I will always think of Z — along with his wife, Charlene in to that noble yet humble — as a friend because he consistently greeted me with calling. a wide smile and asked with genuine interest how I was I first encountered Holler, doing. Once, he asked me for feedback on a collection

by Jordan Green who died on Dec. 8 at the of essays that he wrote about scriptural teachings, while age of 88, as a speaker at also seeking references to other young people who Government Plaza in downtown Greensboro at the culcould help him hone his message. mination of a march from the site of the former MornZ was a white Southern pastor and World War II ingside Homes to commemorate the 25th anniversary of veteran who didn’t hesitate to take a stand for racial the 1979 Klan-Nazi massacre. This is a paraphrase, but justice when it was dangerous and unpopular to do so I recall Z — as he was known to everyone — essentially — in other words, when it counted. As a young pastor, saying that we should be able to agree that a society he hosted the freedom riders in Anderson, SC in 1960, where all people are valued and treated with respect is ignoring a threat from the Ku Klux Klan, and later, in a worthy goal. His words have stayed with me over the 1968, his church in Atlanta fed thousands of people past 12 years as an essential truth, both as a statement who came to mourn the death of the Rev. Martin of first political principles and moral values.

Luther King Jr. In 1979, just two months after becoming In the context of the Greensboro the pastor of Presbyterian Church of Truth & Reconciliation Project, the Covenant in Greensboro, he rode which Z helped launch, these words Z. imparted to me that in the lead hearse of the cortege for could be taken as both a salve to the the five people killed in the Klan-Nazi a society where all suffering and a challenge to political massacre so that he could lend moral establishment and authority. If a sopeople are valued and support to the funeral director, who ciety where all people are valued and had expressed reservations about treated with respect treated with respect is a worthy goal, taking the bodies because of fear of then how does one accept that five violence. is a worthy goal. people organizing to improve the The Rev. Nelson Johnson, whose lives of low-income millworkers could friends were killed in the massacre, be extinguished without adequate recalled during a memorial service on police protection, and that their killers could be acquitSunday how he had met with a group of white pastors ted in a court of law when their crime was committed shortly after he was unjustly jailed in the aftermath in broad daylight and captured by television cameras? of the atrocity. One of them was Z, who asked him a How is it possible for public opinion to be manipulated serious of questions. towards the cause of demonizing the victims rather “Here was a white man that treated me with respect than addressing the root cause of inequality that proand who landed a plane on an aircraft carrier in World duced the violence?

War II,” Johnson recalled. “That stood out to me.”

These are radical questions, and Z’s life reminds They went on to co-found the Beloved Community me that Jesus’ ministry was Center, an interracial activist center in Greensboro that geared towards building a took as its inspiration King’s call for a “beloved commucommunity that welcomed nity” — a translation of the theological concept of “the outcasts and the poor, and kingdom of God.” also reminds me that practicAs Z’s health was declining, Johnson said he would ing authentic solidarity with often say during visits: “Nelson, we’re good friends.” those who are shut out of the Explaining during the memorial service that his life has power structure often requires been shaped by race and racism, Johnson said that he a willingness to sacrifice preswould respond in all sincerity: “Z, you’re my best white tige and wealth. friend.”

By the time I got to know Z On their last visit, a couple weeks ago, Z told John— long after he had officially son: “Nelson, we are good friends, good friends.” retired as a pastor — he had This time, Johnson’s response was different. become something of a be“I didn’t say, ‘Z, you are the best white friend that I neficent elder. He was not the have,’” Johnson said. “I told him: ‘I want you to know principal organizer or the most that you are among the best friends that I have and visible orator, but rather an that I ever expect to have.”

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DELIVER

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White working class? We need to talk.

Opinion Cover Story

towards race and ethnicity manipulated or misunderstood, and how do these attitudes influence how they view themselves? How does the white working class’ belief that their values and identity are central to defining what is “American” prevent the kind of introspection and self-examination necessary to discuss these issues?

These are more than mere academic questions to me.

I was a member of the white working class as recently as 2015, when I was delivering prescriptions to Medicaid and Medicare patients. I heard my Fox News-watching clients complain about “big government” and “socialism” as they signed for their deliveries, seemingly unaware of or indifferent to the fact that “big government” was paying for both their medication and its delivery.

I listened to my white coworkers gripe about the Affordable Care Act, apparently not realizing that without it I wouldn’t have health insurance. I have relatives who criticize public assistance “freeloaders” while their own grown children, unable to make ends meet with parttime service industry jobs, receive food stamps. And I wonder if I’m even still a member of the white working class myself, having overcome my dislike of “elites” and enrolled in a four-year college.

Ultimately, these are all issues that the white working class needs to discuss within itself. No amount of patriotic bamboozlement from the right or condescending lecturing from the left is going to change that.

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economic circumstances and fearful of losing their social dominance in a multicultural society. Without frank discussions among the white working class about its values and the contradictions that those values create, there’s no hope of addressing the circumstances that have created this anger and fear.

There is no shortage of people claiming to speak for the white working class, or to speak to them. On the right, Fox News and talk-radio hosts present listeners and viewers with a constant stream of conspiracy theories and scapegoats for their problems, while plying them with patriotic bromides and assuring them that they’re the “real Americans.”

On the left, the white working class is either derided as backward bigot, or provided with solutions in the form of leftist ideologies that few of them are interested in. The only place that a real conversation can take place is within the white working class itself.

And there are plenty of contradictions to be discussed. How does the white working class’ distrust of college-educated “elites” serve to discourage the pursuit of the higher education that’s increasingly necessary in today’s workplace? How does the white working class’ prized “self-sufficiency” prevent them from supporting and taking advantage of government programs that could benefit them, such as universal healthcare?

How is the white working class’ complicated attitudes

Up Front

When I worked at the Carolina Peacemaker, Greensboro’s newspaper covering the African-American community, one of my tasks was to put together the op-ed page. For a white person uninitiated to the internal conversations of

by Daniel Bayer the black community, the subject matter was illuminating.

There were calls for more black entrepreneurship and a greater emphasis on pursuing higher education, stronger families and help for troubled youth, and yes, “What’s wrong with kids today?” diatribes about saggy pants and rap lyrics (the distaste of elders for young people’s musical and sartorial choices cuts across ethnic and racial lines). The op-ed page was an often-frank public square where the community itself came to discuss the issues facing it, without the interference of outside actors pursuing their own agendas.

Today, more than a month after Donald Trump’s election victory, it’s obvious that it’s time for the white working class to find a similar space and begin having the same discussions. Trump’s shattering of the Democrats’ supposed “blue wall” of Rust Belt states shows that white working class voters are both angry over their

triad-city-beat.com

FRESH EYES

Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

11

Dec. 14 — 20, 2016

A family between two countries

As Trump takes office, the Vazquez family is persevering through a complex immigration system that has already torn them apart

Cover Story

by Jordan Green

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Guadalupe Vazquez came first, leaving his family in Mexico and heading for California, looking to earn some money to send home. From what his daughter, Carolina, has been told by an aunt who accompanied him on the journey, the siblings went through some tough times, and eating sometimes meant foraging for food in trash bins.

Eventually, Vazquez made contact with a family friend who helped him settle in High Point.

Meanwhile, his family stayed behind in Mexico City, where they lived in a three-bedroom house. Each of the two bedrooms included a bed and a chair, and the kitchen was so small that it could fit only a stove and a table. Six of them — Carolina, her five brothers and her mother — shared one of the bedrooms. The other bedrooms were occupied by two separate families, including one headed

by Guadalupe’s sister.

“Obviously, that was no way of living,” Carolina said in an interview in the atrium at the High Point Library. The fifth of six kids, Carolina, who is now 28, occasionally cast glances into the children’s room at the library to check up on her own children — 8-year-old Dayami and 6-year-old Anthony. “That’s how we got the idea to come here and join my father.”

Guadalupe returned to Mexico to bring his wife and their six children back to High Point in 1992. They had to walk for a short distance, and Edgar, the fourth oldest of the children, remembers hiding from helicopters at the border. He added that the journey was nothing like the difficulty experienced by today’s migrants, who might walk for days or weeks in the desert at risk of dehydration because of the militarization of the border and have to worry about criminal predators. Edgar was 6 at the time of the journey and Carolina was 4.

Carolina summed up the reasons for her migration to North Carolina with her mother and five brothers in four words: “For the American dream.”

Among the cruel ironies of the Vazquez family’s story is that they followed their father to North Carolina seeking a

better life, but Guadalupe was deported nine years ago.

He returned to Puebla, his home state, and now makes a living operating a salvage yard.

“He got deported for driving without a license,” Edgar said. “I read all these stories about how they say they only deport criminals, but I have firsthand experience that says that isn’t the case.”

Carolina’s mother remains undocumented. Carolina obtained a U-visa — a document granted to survivors of domestic violence to prevent abusers from wielding their immigration status as a weapon of control. Edgar applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, in 2013. The following year he received approval for the program, allowing him to obtain a Social Security card and a work permit. One brother obtained a visa through marriage to an American citizen, Carolina said.

Three other brothers do not hold papers.

One of the realities of life for immigrant families that is not widely understood is that legal status often varies within families from one member to the next. “Legal” or “illegal” is something of an artificial binary imposed on families thanks to the fraught debate over immigration that erupted in the summer of 2006 and escalated through the emergence of the tea party and the rise of Donald Trump. And for individual family members, immigration status can also be a matter of evolution through a halting set of bureaucratic steps towards citizenship. In Carolina’s case, her U-visa makes her eligible to apply for a green card, conferring lawful permanent-resident status.

Just to get a U-visa, Carolina said she had to undergo therapy and drug testing. Now, she’s working with an immigration lawyer in Greensboro to assemble character references for her green-card application.

Earlier this year, Edgar, who is now 30, visited Mexico to pay last respects to his maternal grandfather, using travel documents known as “advanced parole” that are associat-

Carolina Vazquez — with her children Dayami and Anthony and h

ed with DACA, but customs officials prevented him from re-entering the United States. To aggravate matters, Edgar received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security notifying them that his DACA status was being canceled because he requested permission to re-enter the country after his travel documents had expired.

The efforts to reunify Edgar with his family in North Carolina and advance his sister’s efforts to obtain lawful permanent residency — agonizingly slow under the best of circumstances — are suddenly charged with an acute sense of urgency considering Trump’s impending inauguration on Jan. 20.

triad-city-beat.com

her mother — holds a photograph of her brother, Edgar, at Oak Hollow Mall in High Point. Edgar liked to bring the children to the Christmas display at the mall.

After Trump won the election, Carolina said she dropped off some documents required for her residency application and wrote on the back of the packet: “Does my application even have a chance of coming back or is it a waste of time?”

Carolina said Dayami, her daughter, started crying when she told her that Trump had won.

“She said, ‘I don’t want to go back to Mexico,’” Carolina recounted. “The funny thing is she was born here. My kids are both citizens, of course.”

Edgar said he stayed up until 3 a.m. on election night listening to the returns on the radio, and found the result

“terrifying.”

Guadalupe’s deportation in 2007 exacted a psychic toll on the family. Between Guadalupe’s efforts to run a business in Puebla and Carolina’s responsibilities as a single mother, Carolina said it’s difficult to maintain much of a relationship with her father.

Now, with Edgar’s exile in Mexico, the cycle of separation seems at risk of repeating itself.

“I’m a single mom, and he helped me raise my kids,” Carolina said. “My kids see him as their dad.”

Edgar, who is two years older than his sister, worked for a company in High Point that sets up furniture showrooms

CAROLYN DE BERRY

before he left to visit his family in Mexico in May. Carolina said he’s the kind of person who knows how to do a little bit of everything, from gardening to construction and electrical work, and he likes to keep busy.

“He’s quiet; he keeps to himself,” she said. “He keeps occupied all the time. He’s always taking care of people.”

Edgar is especially close with his mother.

“I know parents are not supposed to have favorites; my mom’s favorite kid is my brother,” Carolina said. “My mother lived to please him, to cook for him. They ate three meals a day together. He was so proud of his roses.

Every morning he would get up and cut a rose for my

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Dec. 14 — 20, 2016 Cover Story

14

mother. Sometimes, if I was lucky, I would get one, too.

They did everything together. They would watch movies together, too.”

Over the years, the Vazquez family has become friendly with Eustace Conway, an author and naturalist in Boone who is a subject in the History Channel reality TV show “Mountain Men.” Conway said he got to know Guadalupe first.

“I met him years ago at the flea market and realized he’s a nice person,” Conway said. “I enjoyed talking with him, and enjoyed learning some Spanish and some culture from him. I took him deer hunting and enjoyed sharing that with him. I enjoyed having the family come and visit my farm. And when my house burned down, he sent his children and extended family to help out in rebuilding my house. It was a very kind and deeply meaningful gesture.”

Conway said Edgar sold him some produce right before he left for Mexico.

Edgar had been renovating Carolina’s house. She said he left interior walls stripped down to the studs and electrical wiring disconnected, promising to finish the job when he returned.

When he learned that his maternal grandfather in Oaxaca, a southern state on the Pacific coast of Mexico, was dying, Edgar applied through the US Department of Homeland Security for travel documents in February. By the time his travel papers were approved, on May 15, his grandfather had already died, but Edgar decided to make the journey so he could visit his grandfather’s grave and see family members. He drove to the US-Mexico border in Texas. He wanted to be on the safe side to make sure the documents would allow him to travel freely between the two countries. The officer told him he had to return to the United States by July 15, Edgar said in a phone interview last week from San Martin Alchichica, Puebla, a state due south of Mexico City where he lives with his father.

Edgar’s reunion with his mother’s family in Oaxaca after 24 years was a joyous occasion, but it was also a difficult time. Two great-uncles died and a distant relative was murdered during the visit.

The day before his travel documents were to expire, Edgar left Oaxaca in a car borrowed from his father, but encountered a delay because of a teacher’s strike that shut down major roadways in the state. Eventually, he arrived in San Martin Alchichica, the town where his father lives in Puebla. His father drove him to the outskirts of Mexico City, close to where an aunt lives, and from there, Edgar took a taxi to the airport. At the airport, he presented his visa to an airline employee. Out of concern that they would be saddled with the expense of transporting him back, the airline refused to allow Edgar to board the flight because the flight wouldn’t arrive in the United States until the following day. Panicking, Edgar and his aunt took a taxi to the US Consulate in Mexico City.

“I was turned away,” Edgar recalled. “There was a security guard there — it was a Friday — they told me they’re closed for the weekend. I came back on Monday, and the same security guard told me: ‘You have to have an appointment.’ He could have told me that the first time.

He said he didn’t remember me. He gave me a phone

number, and they told me there was nothing they could do for me to help me at all.”

Cognizant of the dangers of traveling in the country, Guadalupe insisted on accompanying Edgar in his journey to the border.

“Just give me a couple days to get some money together and take care of some things,” Guadalupe told his son.

Walking from the bus station to the bridge across the Rio Grande at the border, Edgar said they were stopped by members of a drug cartel, who wanted to know what they were doing in their territory.

By the time Edgar was able to speak to a customs agent at the border, it was July 20 — five days past the deadline.

“They fingerprinted me and they held me there for six hours questioning me and trying to get me to stumble in my answers,” Edgar recalled. “Finally, they pulled me aside and said, ‘We can’t let you back in.’”

Ann Marie Dooley, the immigration lawyer who helped Carolina with her visa and later took on Edgar’s case, said she always advises client not to cut it close.

“When it says ‘by the day,’ it really means ‘by that day’ and that’s it,” she said. “I’m sure Edgar did not realize it

‘He can’t get back to where his family is and his job and his life is. It’s very unfortunate and very wrong. I wish it hadn’t happened.’

– Eustace Conway

was so hard and fast.”

Conway said he finds it regrettable that customs officials took such an inflexible position.

“He had no idea he would be stuck in Mexico,” Conway said. “It’s bizarre, it’s almost surreal: He’s a few hours late and all of a sudden his whole life has changed. He can’t get back to where his family is and his job and his life is. It’s very unfortunate and very wrong. I wish it hadn’t happened.”

The decision left Edgar with no other choice but to go back to Puebla. For a while he stayed with his paternal grandparents, who live up the hill from his father. At his grandparents’ place he slept on a sofa in a living area, with a rod and curtain making a partition for his grandparents’ sleeping area. Guadalupe’s place is even more primitive, lacking electricity, running water and sewage. It’s difficult to find work, Edgar said, and the pay for a full day’s work is the equivalent of only $10.

“My dad has an employee that works with him in his salvage yard, and he’s not a person to do wrong by people,” Edgar said, “so he’s not going to fire someone just to hire me if they’re good people. Also, my pride would not allow

me to just take money from him.”

Edgar said he occasionally helps his father, although he doesn’t take money for the work, and does chores around the house for his grandparents.

“I just try to help them out and do whatever I can, trying to keep busy so my mind ain’t on my problems,” he said.

Carolina said her grandfather told her mother that she needs to do something about Edgar’s situation because he’s getting depressed and hardly ever talks.

“My brother is so Americanized he wouldn’t survive down there,” she said. “He’s been here since he was 5.

In the house there is no plumbing, no electricity. The bathroom is brick room outside with a bucket. It’s not a bathroom. There’s no heating. There’s no air conditioning.

The house has no floor; it’s just dirt. That’s stuff he’s not used to.”

For Carolina and her brothers, North Carolina is the only home they know. Edgar’s trip back to Mexico was his first since he came to North Carolina as a child.

At the end of my interview with Carolina, perhaps motivated by a desire to cement my bona fides, I mentioned to that I had traveled to Oaxaca with a Witness For Peace delegation in 2009. She smiled politely, and her lack of reaction prompted me to say more. I went on to say that I had also visited Mexico City, and was awed by the city’s staggering population, along with the complexity and diversity of the country as a whole.

“I don’t really know much about it,” Carolina finally responded. “I’ve never been back.”

The news that Edgar could not return to High Point hit their mother, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, especially hard.

“When he called and let her know he couldn’t come back, her health started [declining],” Carolina said.

Their mother doesn’t have health insurance, and Edgar typically paid out of pocket for her doctor’s visits. Carolina said she doesn’t have much extra money, and consequently her mother has had to cut back on visits to the doctor.

Carolina texts with her brother, but reserves data on her phone so he can talk with her children every other day to ask how their day is going.

Edgar said being away from the children is the hardest part of his ordeal. It’s small things like going to their school awards ceremonies, taking them to the movies on Saturdays or treating them to ice cream when they do well in school that he misses the most.

As if being exiled in Mexico — a country where Edgar feels like a foreigner — weren’t depressing enough, his status in the United States has deteriorated in his absence.

In a Kafkaesque turn of events, Edgar received a letter from Homeland Security accusing him of trying to re-enter the country illegally, apparently because of the time he presented himself at customs on July 20.

“I got a letter to my house in High Point saying I tried to enter the country illegally,” he said. “They canceled my DACA permit. It’s messed up.”

Ann Marie Dooley, the Greensboro immigration lawyer who helped Carolina obtain her U-visa and is helping her with her residency application, has filed something called an application for humanitarian parole on Edgar’s request.

boss, and he assures me that I still have a job waiting for me.”

Trump’s election creates uncertainty in Edgar’s case, Dooley said. While using inflammatory rhetoric to describe Mexican immigrants during the campaign and pledging to carry out mass deportations, Trump has made contradictory statements about how he actually intends to implement a national immigration policy.

“Many people were surprised by the outcome of the election,” Dooley said. “We have requested that they expedite the request. There’s some uncertainty about whether the DACA program ends with the next administration. I don’t think our chances are good. I think there’s a lot of uncertainty and as we get past Jan. 20 I’m not as hopeful, given the rhetoric I’ve heard.”

Brisley did not respond directly to a question about whether Customs & Border Protection is attempting to expedite immigration cases ver to get them resolved before Trump’s inauguration, saying in an email only that the agency “enforces the laws that currently exist and we are in no position to speculate on what/if any changes would occur under a new

administration.”

Edgar acknowledged he feels depressed in Mexico, while saying that he and his lawyer are hoping for a good result.

“We’ve been Americanized,” he said. “We do Thanksgivings and Christmas. For the first time in 24 years, I missed Thanksgiving. It looks like I’m going to miss Christmas and New Year’s Eve, too.”

While Edgar loves his father and his grandparents in Puebla, he described them as “an estranged family.”

“The family I know and love is in America,” he said.

“Everything I know and love is in America. My true family is in America.”

triad-city-beat.com

“I’m cautiously optimistic,” Dooley said. “They certainly can do it, and I don’t know why they wouldn’t. There’s an urgent need for this young man to come back and be with his family and resume his life.”

Rob Brisley, a spokesperson for US Customs & Border Protection, said that while he is not allowed to comment on any specific case, humanitarian parole is only “sparingly used” for specialized needs such as “life-saving medical care in the US” — an exigency that wouldn’t apply in Edgar’s case.

Brisley said Customs & Border Protection has the discretion to grant “port parole or waiver of documents.”

Edgar’s lack of DACA status — caused ironically by Edgar presenting himself to customs agents at the border when he tried to return to the United States — undermines his chances of relief. “Discretion cannot be exercised favorably for aliens who may contribute to the illegal population of the United States,” Brisley said.

Customs and Border Patrol also considers previous criminal history and previous violations of immigration laws in determining appeals for relief. In that regard, Edgar said his only offense are two parking tickets in the past 10 years, with the possible exception of his parents bringing him to North Carolina as a child.

Edgar said he wouldn’t consider illegally crossing the border to reunite with his family in High Point.

“Doing it the illegal way is really dangerous and expensive,” he said. “That’s not something I want to do. My job requires that I have a valid driver’s license. I talked to my

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Dec. 14 — 20, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

16

CULTURE Porkbelly lollipops, specialty burgers, sugary shakes and Instagram

by Eric Ginsburg

T

he full force of Instagram finally arrived in the Triad, landing inside a ready-made photo booth complete with all of the necessary props.

The neon logo for Burger Batch — the new restaurant that shares a kitchen with Small Batch brewery in downtown Winston-Salem — is the first sign of the restaurant’s tailor-made hipness, glowing off-white and reminiscent of Austin, Texas. A rich brown booth runs along the right wall of the long and narrow space, abutting the white tile wall that makes it space feel like an old-school frozen-custard joint. The left wall, featuring an extended horizontal mirror, is painted a robin’s egg blue, the perfect color for holding up a milkshake for a one-handed Instagram shot.

It’s not that hipster aesthetics haven’t already hit the Triad — Small Batch already had the unfinished-wood thing going for it, and a vibrant purple-beet gose beer. There are plenty of Instagrammable spots in town, from the Christmas-adorned bridge in Old Salem to the art park to old smokestacks. But few seem as intentionally designed with social-media snaps in mind as Burger Batch, a well lit room that offers the ideal lighting for phone photos.

Taking selfies in front of the new murals in downtown Greensboro or sculpture in LeBauer Park are all well and good, almost rites of passage for any well manicured photo stream, but the kind of beautiful rooms where people snap pics of ornate and ridiculous food across New York and LA have so far proven ERIC GINSBURG One of the milkshakes at Burger Batch comes with a giant slice of funfetti cake and cotton elusive. candy on top, but all of them are similarly loaded up.

It’s not just the décor at Burger Batch, of course. It’s the $9 milkshakes decked out with candy, cereal and – one in front of them. It didn’t seem like they actually with its tobacco onions and Duke’s chipotle mayo more absurdly — cookies, doughnuts or a gigantic slice shared — but they definitely spent a while snapping sauce, and preferred the porkbelly pops to both. of funfetti cake wrapped in cotton candy. photos before digging in.

I know I would’ve liked the Carolina Cuban, fried They’re all massive, and at most tables on Sunday Given that Burger Batch is an offshoot of a brewery, chicken sandwich or Korean beef tacos given that afternoon at least one of the customers failed to finish and that you can walk between the two spaces withthe new spot shares a kitchen with Small Batch, and the over-the-top dessert. These are for sharing, to be out going outside, I expected the long awaited new I wouldn’t mind trying the bacon-wrapped meatloaf certain, and maybe best consumed between meals restaurant to feel more like a bar. Some treated it that with mac & cheese and gravy, or the chicken & waffles. rather than immediately after taking down a burger. way, ordering beers with their burgers and salads, but For those seeking something simpler, Burger Batch But you can still Do It for the ‘Gram here without the vibe is much more in line with New York ice cream sells pork & beans for $3 and three salads including ordering a shake; try the porkbelly lollipop appetizers, parlor than the somewhat dimly lit bar filled with one with quinoa, peanuts, pecans, cheddar, avocado, for example, that come on a bed of purple pickled young professionals watching sports on the other side carrots, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and greens. cabbage. The four fatty bites are too unwieldy to eat of the wall.

But I didn’t regret my order at all, except I wish I’d on the sticks they’re served on, going down more easily The good food is what will keep Burger Batch from had space for the frozen Arnold Palmer, which can with a fork and knife. That’s true of the cake-topped just becoming a novelty spot, somewhere that image come with alcohol for a $2 upcharge. When our milkshake as well — my girlfriend and I slid conscious teens and millennials bring their smart shake arrived after we’d finished lunch, the slice, cotton candy and whipped phones once in a while. But it’s bound to continue the diners next to us remarked loudly cream into a dish to avoid making a serving that purpose too, and it’s by design. about how extreme the cake shake Visit Burger Batch at gigantic mess. seemed, and mused loudly about the 237 W. Fifth St. (W-S) After taking copious photos, of number of calories in our dessert. course. Just like everyone else around or find it on Facebook.

Pro tip: Don’t ever be that person Pick of the Week us. who talks about the calories in someFeasting among friends Even if that’s not your intention one else’s food. That’s half the appeal Potluck @ Peeler Recreation Center (GSO), Dec. 19, 6 when you arrive, the scene is set so well for a shoot of this place anyway, and you’re chowing down on a p.m. that how could you not? It’d be modern day malpracburger so I don’t really want to hear it.

The Renaissance Community Co-op holds its tice.

Their judgy comments didn’t make me regret getting annual holiday party, and this year they’ve decided Small Batch knows how to deliver good food, the ’grammable dessert either, though the slightly to go potluck style. If you’re interested in adding something established with the menu next door, and sour taste of the shake itself made us wonder if we to the smorgasbord of yummy goodness or have the same carries over to Burger Batch. Unsurprisingly, I should’ve selected a different one of the four varieties questions, contact Board Treasurer Eleanor Graves picked the Figgy Piggy burger, with balsamic bacon-fig available. at 336.587.3899 or email ej504@bellsouth.net. Adjam, goat cheese and grilled onions, and loved it. But At a different table, four twentysomething women ditional info can be found at renaissancecoop.com.

I longed for more of my girlfriend’s Reynolds burger enjoyed their shakes in peace, each one with a different

triad-city-beat.com

Dead Man’s Eggnog

Up Front

by Kat Bodrie

News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment-

Listen, I’m no Boston transplant (cough Eric Ginsburg). I’m Carolina born and bred, even if I’ve lost some of my accent due to college and befriending Yanks.

So you can trust me when I say my family’s eggnog is some of the best around.

We’ve been getting together for 20-plus KAT BODRIE Three pints of Kentucky Gentleman, years to make Dead a blended bourbon, are added to the mixture.

Man’s Eggnog, a recipe borrowed from a family three ounces of dark rum. This year, friend and tweaked to include extravwe experimented with brandy in place agances like vanilla and more booze. of rum, but I couldn’t tell a difference.

It’s a detour from my Great Uncle Joe’s (What’s three ounces to three pints, recipe, which required long hours stirreally?) ring over low heat. He was a pastry chef We’re not alcoholics, but we make who worked winters at Miami’s historic two batches a few weeks before Fontainebleau hotel, so he had the Christmas, and since that’s long gone patience and talent to pull it off, unlike

by Christmas day, we’ll make one more the rest of us. later to share with relatives.

A few years ago, one of my uncles It’s best to let it sit a day, which helps was concerned about bacteria in raw the foam settle. Even then, you’ll want eggs, so they tried Great Uncle Joe’s to stir it up real good in the pitcher technique again, predictably making before you drink it, and sometimes, I scrambled eggs and ruining the batch. take a spoon to it while I’m sipping. (Is So far, though, the Dead Man’s recipe that Southern?) Sprinkle a little nutmeg ironically hasn’t killed us or given us E. in your glass, and you’ve got a bona fide coli, and it’s so easy to make, we can Southern delicacy. have a couple drinks while we make it Many of my friends have told me without ruining the recipe. they’ve never had fresh, homemade Separating the eggs is the first and eggnog. Just this once, try it yourself. If hardest part. The key is breaking them you don’t like brown liquor, fine. If you on a flat surface rather than the edge don’t like eggs, try a vegan substitute of the bowl, and transferring the egg — which would be really interesting. If yolk from one half-shell to the other a you don’t like vanilla, there’s no hope couple times to let the whites drip into for you. the bowl. We add a half-cup of sugar No matter how you make it, let us to the whites and one cup to the yolks, know what you think when you stop and take a mixer to each one, making

by TCB’s holiday gathering at LaRue in sure the whites get good and stiff. After downtown Greensboro this Wednesday we spoon the whites into the yolks, we night. I’ll see you there! add the good stuff: two pints whipping cream, two pints whole milk, one tablespoon vanilla and finally, “brown liquor,” as my grandfather calls it.

Kat loves red wine, Milan Kundera, and We like three pints blended bourbon the Shins. She wears scarves at katbodrie. (you really can’t add too much) and com.

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Dec. 14 — 20, 2016 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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CULTURE Tinmouth sends a letter from Philly

by Anthony Harrison

I

t takes some brass to make any sort of cold call. And it definitely takes some brass to start a band, make the music that rattles in your head for years and present it to complete strangers as you go on tour outside of your hometown.

The intersection between the two happens more than you might think. Sometimes, though, the art behind the call warrants special attention.

Here’s one story of such an intersection.

Tinmouth, a noise-pop trio from Philadelphia, mailed a package directly to the Triad City Beat offices. Their troubles included $4.13 in postage paid, a quartet of stamps bearing an identical illustration of some unidentified, periwinkle-colored butterfly with red eyespots on the bottom of its wings, “Fragile” scrawled twice in blue permanent marker on the white stickers bearing the addresses, underlined both times.

On opening the black shipping envelope, out dropped two items.

First, a letter from Timothy Tebordo, Tinmouth guitarist.

“Dear TCB,” it read in all caps. “It seems like y’all are the people to know for music in the NC Triad.”

A little flattery goes a long way.

“Philly noise-pop trio is hitting yr area on our December tour and we’d love if you’d consider giving us a shout.”

Secondly, a handcrafted CD case made from a sheet of college-ruled paper — the kind you’d hastily fold during lunch in high school to conCUURTESY PHOTO The Philly-based noise-pop trio impressed the author tain those mixes you’d compile for not-so-secret with a two-song demo. crushes — containing their two-track single, A Letter from Home. verse and chorus, but ventures out on a syncopated, crashing Now, this unsolicited sursie could have gone a few differcoda all its own. ent ways. The music could have been horrid. It could have “From Home” nods more towards an experimental bent been okay, but unworthy of mention, due either to derivative than its companion track. A velvety riff, doubled on bass, flits mediocrity or being just too damn weird — “noise pop” could with a hint of a trippy reversed effect before Tebordo lets have meant anything from the Jesus and Mary Chain to, say, crunchy Neil Young-esque minor chords ring out and Sterthe clamor of hammers thrown at a concrete floor covered nick’s bass fills in harmonic cracks, the reverb on Tebordo’s by crash cymbals while a chorus sing doo-wop syllables. Or, vocals only adding to the spaced-out feel. Shea’s 16th note tom maybe on an outside chance, it could be great. taps keep the mid-tempo track grounded rhythmically at first Thankfully, it was the latter. while she brushes the snare here and there for variety before The first track, “A Letter,” opens with a splatting three-beat she complicates the beat towards Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” thud from drummer Alyssa Shea before Tebordo’s throaty territory. guitar and Aaron Sternick’s chunky bass punctuate the downThen, after quietly and steadily asking the chorus question: beat.

“What did you want when you came back home?” the track “We’ll treat it like a picture/ A work of art you love/ Inthrows a temper tantrum. terpret it like scripture/ Like it comes from above,” Tebordo “All I wanted was somebody to talk to/ All I wanted was pleasantly twists, like REM’s Michael Stipe reaching for notes somebody to hold,” Tebordo and Sternick sing in tandem, at the summit of his own range. maintaining beautiful harmonies despite the punkish thrash.

The chorus splashes in with twinkling sleighbells, Shea The outburst devolves into a Pavement-like freakout before syncopating jazzily against a steady ride cymbal, Tebordo’s Sternick plucks out a slow line introducing a sludgy, droning atmospheric chords diced up with meaty tremolo and Sternick bridge soaked in cymbal crashes and overdriven arpeggios. harmonizing both vocally and with a meandering bass line.

Yet, even though the band explores the composition’s Back into the verse, the band toys with the sonic structure newfound direction, Tebordo comes back to that old question in a breakdown, Sternick fuzzing out his bass and playing legaasked in the chorus before delivering a crushing coup-de-grace to, Shea smacking at the skins more randomly and Tebordo of a final, distorted chord. approaching the vocal melody with a similar stutter and in a The question remained unanswered, because the single lower register, his guitar now accenting the backbeat. could only leave you saying, “Wow.” The bridge finds foundation in both structures of the second

Tinmouth deserves their shout if only for taking a longshot at what little publicity we could afford them, but also due to the quality of their work.

And while their local tour stop took place at Test Pattern in Winston-Salem last week, hopefull Tinmouth will return to the Triad soon. We’d be happy to hear from them.

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(336)955-1888 Pick of the Week Calypso bells Caribbean Christmas @ LJVM Coliseum (W-S), Friday, 7:30 p.m.

The infamous Wailers join forces with the Piedmont Wind Symphony to create an epic musical collaboration for the holidays that will leave an impression on your soul long after yuletide has come and gone.

The Wailers perform such great hits as “One Love,” “Three Little Birds,” “Could You Be Loved,” “Get Up, Stand Up” and “Jamming.” For more info, do a little jig on over to ljvm.com.

triad-city-beat.com

CULTURE New music venue coming to downtown Greensboro

by Jordan Green ary’s

(336) 723-7239

Up Front

Gourmet Diner

breakfastofcourse.com News

Recycle this paper.

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Entrepreneur Dustin Keene has put down a deposit on a building owned by Andy Zimmerman for a music venue tentatively named Lewis Street Music Foundry planned to open in April.

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Adulting with crayons and wine Coloring book party @ Ma’ati Spa (W-S), Dec. 19, 6:30 p.m.

Ma’ati Spa follows the advice of psychiatrists and makes a night of it by creating a sacred space where adults can gather to color works of art and get sloshed all at the same time. For more info about this RSVP-preferred event with an open wine bar, find Ma’ati Spa’s Facebook event.

Crossword

working with the [Piedmont] Blues Society. We want it to have a community feel so that all the local musicians can hang out and collaborate.”

The venue’s name is a nod to the building’s function in the early 1900s as a foundry. Keene said Alan Peterson, a local musician, tracked down the original owner’s granddaughter.

“I believe there’s artifacts and machinery that she might let us display,” Keene said. “It has a brick and steel and foundry feel, but it’s also very warm and intimate.”

Culture

D

ustin Keene, the entrepreneur who operates Common Grounds Coffeehouse, is opening a new music venue in the hip south-end area of downtown Greensboro under development by Andy Zimmerman.

Keene said he hopes to open the music venue, likely to be named the Lewis Street Music Foundry, in April on the back side of Boxcar Bar & Arcade.

The building where the defunct Lotus Lounge nightclub was located is currently being renovated to house the barcade.

Keene said he has a deposit down for the space in the back, which is accessed through an alley running behind South Elm Street. He and Zimmerman plan to meet soon to sign a lease.

The capacity for the venue is likely to be 300 or 350.

“Seven nights a week is what we’re planning for,” Keene said. “I want to have music as many nights a week as possible. When you’re working with booking companies, you don’t say, ‘We’re only open Thursday through Saturday.’ If they have an awesome band coming through on a Monday, you book them. It’s going to be an opportunity-based situation. We’ll have everything from jazz to blues, strings. We’re

JORDAN GREEN

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Dec. 14 — 20, 2016 Up Front News Opinion

T

he Greensboro Swarm, the new NBA D-League affiliate of the Charlotte Hornets, started their inaugural season pretty rough. They took something of a pounding in their Nov. 12 home opener hosting the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, losing

by Anthony Harrison 120-98 in front of a packed house. But they showed real gumption, outscoring their opponents 61-41 in the second half.

Of course, looking at their record, anyone can see that they lost their first five games. As of this writing, yes, the Swarm have a rather paltry 4-8 record. This might not inspire confidence.

But the story of any team cannot be reduced to the score of a single game. Hell, even the final score can’t tell the story of that game, as the Swarm’s premiere shows. I contend that the team shows more potential than their record states.

First off, we need to talk about 6-foot-3 guard Xavier Munford.

Before eventually coming to the Swarm, the New Jersey native played college ball for three schools: Miami Dade College, Iowa Western Community College and his final two seasons at the University of Rhode Island, where he reached 1,000 points scored quicker than any other player in program history. Following

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SPORTSBALL Catching up with the Swarm

20

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graduation, Munford went undrafted, but played the 2014-’15 D-League season with the Bakersfield Jam. Midway through the next season, the Memphis Grizzlies signed Munford to assist a roster riddled with injuries. He performed so well the Grizzlies initially offered him a multi-year contract, but reneged on their option. The Swarm acquired Munford right before their first game.

Munford was relatively quiet in the Swarm’s debut.

Though he was one of five Swarm players who posted double digits, guard Prince Williams’ late-game heroics and center Mike Tobey’s double-double stuck out more.

Since then, it’s been hard to focus on anyone but Munford.

Right out the gate, Munford scored a phenomenal 33 points on 50-percent shooting in the Swarm’s second game against the Westchester Knicks on Nov. Pullout 16, a matchup the Swarm lost by only – By 5 despite Munford’s efforts. He tallied another 30-point effort in a second tight, 116-111 loss against the Delaware 87ers on Nov. 21, tallying 34 points, again on 50-percent shooting; the league acknowledged him as the Performer of the Week after the Swarm picked up their first two wins in the coming days. He played valiantly with 23 points in a 106-104 loss against the Raptors 905 on Dec. 7 and led the team in scoring on Dec. 2 in a road win against the Austin Spurs. On Dec. 10, Munford scored only 17 points — only! — but logged 13 assists in a big win against the Windy City Bulls.

In these first 12 games — all of which he has started, and for good reason — Munford has averaged 20 points, five rebounds and five assists. He may be one of the best guards in the D-League right now, and he’s a prime asset for the Swarm’s fortunes moving ahead.

Another recent addition has proven fruitful for the Swarm: former University of Kentucky guard Aaron Harrison

(no relation to the author).

Technically, the Charlotte Hornets signed Harrison last year, but he has bounced back and forth between different leagues and different teams. Harrison played for the Oklahoma City Blue and Erie Bayhawks last year before the Swarm’s creation. Now, the Hornets juggle Harrison between Charlotte and Greensboro.

He shows his worth playing for Greensboro, though.

In the Swarm’s first win on Nov. 25, Harrison posted 31 points against his old teammates from Erie, beating even Munford’s 26-point tally. He’d lead the team again the next day in a down-to-the-wire, 96-95 win against the Bayhawks, scoring 24 while Munford added 23. In the most recent win against the Bulls, Harrison scored 28 points. In the loss against the Raptors, he put up 15 points, his lowest scoring appearance with the Swarm.

The Hornets organization seems impressed by Harrison’s showing, but unsure of where to keep him, assigning him to the Hornets before shipping him back up Interstate 85 to play for Greensboro. I’m sure the Swarm wishes they would keep him in the Triad for the remainder of the season. And I’m sure Harrison would like the opposite.

Harrison isn’t the only ex-Kentucky recruit who’s made a good impression with the Swarm.

Archie Goodwin, a 6-foot-5 guard, previously played professionally for the Phoenix Suns and briefly for the New Orleans Pelicans before the Swarm picked him up last month.

While Munford has proven the star guard for the Swarm, Goodwin’s momentum has rolled right along in his short time with Greensboro.

In his debut against the Texas Legends on Dec. 1, Goodwin contributed 18 points, just behind Munford’s 19. Goodwin added 19 to the board in the Swarm’s big win against Austin the next day. Fast-forwarding to the Raptors 905 game, Goodwin posted 21 points on 50-percent shooting.

And then, he blew the lid open.

I’ve already mentioned the Dec. 10 win against the Windy City Bulls as a big to-do. Many of those assists Munford recorded must have gone to Goodwin, who lit up the board with 31 points, including 14 of 16 free throws.

A team can be more than its win-loss record. For such a green team as the Greensboro Swarm, I expect things will only get better from here.

Pick of the Week Kings of Karts 15th Annual Carolina Karting King of the Concrete @ Greensboro Coliseum (GSO), Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m.

The blatting roar of low-capacity engines in an enclosed space awakens the senses like little else on the planet. If you’re down for watching glorified bumper cars duke it out at moderate speed, bring your earplugs to the Special Events Center this weekend. The show starts at 8 p.m. on Friday and 6 p.m. on Saturday.

For more info, visit greensborocoliseum.com.

‘Make It Work’ a freestyle puzzle full of style.

by Matt Jones

Playing December 15 – 17 “Yelling and Prizes!

A Live Game Show” --OTHER EVENTS & SCREENINGS--

Christmas at Pee Wee’s Playhouse!

Secret Santa Screening! 7 p.m. Sunday, December 18 $5 Tickets & Bring a Gift to Exchange with a Stranger!

A fast paced live game show with all the twists...

AND PRIZES! 10 p.m. Friday, December 16. $5 Tickets.

OTHER SHOWS Open Mic 8:30 p.m. Thursday, December 15. $5 tickets!

Board Game Night

Friday Night Standup!

8:30 p.m. Friday, December 16. Featuring headliner Jejahzh Hedrick with Maddy Gross, Zo Myers, Anthony Lowe and Lucas Gumbrecht! $10 Tickets

Doctor Who 2016 Christmas Special!

Family Matinee Improv ALL AGES COMEDY! 4 p.m. Saturday, December 17

7 p.m. Monday, December 19. No Set-Ups Needed!

Free Admission With Drink Purchase!

7 p.m. Friday, December 23. More than 100 Board Games -- FREE TO PLAY! UPCOMING: An All New Companion! An All New Adventure!

9 p.m. Sunday, December 25. $5 Reservations Now Available!

Beer! Wine! Amazing Coffee!

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Triaditude Adjustment

tion tanks 31 Ride, perhaps 35 Tropics definer 36 2016 NBC family drama full of surprise moments 40 Original host of “This Old House” 42 What some ribbons denote 43 Spanish Formula One racer Fernando 44 “I Want ___!” (1958 Susan Hayward film) 47 “Freek-A-Leek” rapper ___ Pablo 49 Basketball Hall-of-Famer Thomas 50 Al ___ (pasta request) 51 Neatens a lawn 54 Transportation to Tel Aviv

Holiday Cereal Screening: “Elf” Starring Will Ferrell Ticket includes a BOTTOMLESS BOWL OF CEREAL! 12 PM Saturday, December 17. $5 tickets!

News

Down 1 Obiter ___ 2 “___ Life: The John Lennon Story” (2000 TV biopic) 3 Mushroom features 4 Like some cranes 5 Bumps an R down to a PG-13, perhaps 6 Peaceful poem 7 Barnyard fowls 8 Troika 9 More questionable, maybe 10 1980s defense secretary Weinberger 11 Tardy 12 Phish lead vocalist Trey 13 Rifle-man?

14 Suspected Soviet spy of the McCarthy era 25 Title sheep in a wordless Aardman movie

Playing December 17 – 25

Up Front

Across 1 Divisions of “The Hunger Games” series 10 One-named R&B singer with the hit “1, 2 Step” 15 Unaware 16 Historic account 17 1990 Warrant hit that was overplayed on MTV, but banned by Canada’s MuchMusic 18 Urban Dictionary fodder 19 Need to unwind 20 So last week 21 Strong quality 22 Home to part of Lake Tahoe, for short 23 Essence from rose petals 24 “Guarding ___” (1994 Nicolas Cage movie) 26 Nearby ©2016 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) 28 Put the ___ on (squelch) 31 Bezos or Buffett, e.g.

32 Enjoy Mt. Hood, say 33 Eerie sign 34 Phone setting 36 Accessories often gifted in June 37 Bait shop purchase 38 1958-61 polit. alliance 39 “Nature ___ a vacuum” 41 Put under a spell 44 “Star Trek: TNG” counselor Deanna 45 South African playwright Fugard 46 Potential Snapchat debut of 2017 48 Track on a compilation album, maybe 52 “___ More” (Backstreet Boys song) 53 Broadcast 55 Chronicler of Don Juan Answers from previous publication.

56 Exploiting, in England 57 Orange Free State colonizers 27 Fenway star Garciaparra 58 Cheapen 28 Bulgogi or galbi, e.g.

59 Chimichanga ingredient 29 “Can’t fool me!”

60 Protectors of the orbs?

30 Source for wood used in Budweiser fermenta-

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CROSSWORD

21

Dec. 14 — 20, 2016

North Church Street, Greensboro

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Delancey Street makes it really easy.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

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to apologize.

I’m here because of Brexit or, more accurately, because the pound’s value plummeted on Britain’s collectively awful morning after, and the exchange rate has been in the dollar’s favor ever since. And then after Election Day, when Americans raised an eyebrow toward the Atlantic Ocean and said “Oh yeah? Watch this,” airfares dropped, too. So because I tend to measure my life in passport stamps (that, and seasonal skin disorders), I booked a trip to England to do some Christmas shopping and pretend that I’m just a ribbed turtleneck away from being Love, Actually’s most boring subplot.

Here’s where I just paused to walk back to the buffet to drop another meaty rasher of bacon on my child-sized plate. A woman whose gleaming nametag said NASTYA appeared.

“Excuse me,” she said in an accent that was pure Bond villain. “But haven’t you had buffet already?”

Yes, I have. Of course I have.

“Please, no, the guests have one buffet each day,” she said, gently pulling the plate away from me.

And now I understand why we fought a war against the English.

Despite the morning’s unreasonable breakfast restrictions, I do love London. If you add it all up, in the past decade-plus, I’ve spent a couple of months here, starting with a trip I took with the theater department at Wake Forest. I actually minored in theater at Wake, although my roles have been limited to one show with Theatre Alliance and that time I acted delighted when an ex-boyfriend gave me a letter opener.

The show I did was The Cripple of Inishmaan, the darkest of dark Irish comedies that allowed me to say several dozen heavily accented F-words onstage. Later I saw it here in London, with Daniel Radcliffe in the title role, when he traded his Hogwarts degree for a deformity and its accompanying depression.

The play was at the Noel Coward Theatre in the West End, a 113-year-old building decorated in the style known as Your Great Aunt’s House, with ornate lighting and an abundance of velvet. I was sitting in the uppermost balcony, where the seats were the perfect size for anyone born without a pelvis. I’d just origamied myself between the armrests when an elegant seventysomething man started inching down the aisle.

He carried himself proudly, despite the metal crutches that he was using, and he spoke with an unmistakably posh accent when he asked if I could help him with his coat. It was a practiced dance for him. He slowly waltzed with one crutch and then the other, while I pulled on the sleeves of his cashmere coat, one that cost more than every piece of furniture I’ve ever owned.

“Thank you, dear,” he said, as he started lowering himself to his seat, one painful inch at a time.

The aisles were so tight that when he sat down, he had to pass one of his crutches to those of us beside him, the rings on his hands catching the light as he gripped the gray plastic handle of the other. We handed them back and forth as he

moved toward the seat, holding them over our heads like the saddest possible version of the Wave. When he finally settled, he instructed us to tuck the crutches behind our feet, sliding them slowly across the carpet.

It was an exhausting process to watch, one that made me crumple my forehead into its most sympathetic expression.

He was a fantastic companion, though, and seemed to have seen almost every comedy, tragedy, musical, debut or revival for the past half-century. We talked about theater and travel, London and America, history and current events, and he was such an enjoyable conversationalist it was almost a letdown when the lights dimmed.

At intermission, my bladder was punching its tiny fists against my abdomen, but I wasn’t about to move, because I didn’t want to make him do his entire routine four more times. But when the lights started to flash, signaling Act Two, a well-dressed woman stood impatiently at the end of the aisle, staring past all of us at her empty seat. I looked at the bookish man on my new friend’s left, silently willing him to say something.

“Erm, could you try the other side,” Bookish Guy said softly.

“No, I’m afraid I can’t,” she said. “I’m just over there.” Her bracelets clanked as she pointed past us.

She was insistent. We had no choice. The man exhaled slowly as we reached under the seats to retrieve his crutches. His face stayed completely neutral as he slowly curled his fingers around the handles, shifting his weight until he was able to lever himself into a standing position, like a living diagram for some simple but complicated machine.

When he was finally upright, shaking slightly from the effort, she slid past him silently. She didn’t acknowledge him and her only thank you was the lingering scent of her perfume, which seemed to be based on Chelsea’s finest funeral home.

The second act was underway by the time he’d settled himself again. “She has no idea how much trouble she just caused,” the bookish guy hissed.

“Yes, she does,” the man said quietly.

“She’s my ex-wife.”

I think of that man — and his god-awful ex — often. I’m thinking of him today, in the hours before I go to the theater and I’m thinking of her, as I elbow past Nastya and pinch a piece of bacon with my bare hands, my coat flapping behind me as I make for the door.

Up Front

by Jelisa Castrodale

ello from London, where I’m writing this from a very tiny table in the cramped, windowless breakfast room of my otherwise lovely hotel. I’m currently sticky with marmalade and sweating in my overcoat — I couldn’t take it off without elbowing a middle-aged Swedish man in the head — so I’m basically Paddington Bear without the adorable accent or the willingness

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TRIADITUDE ADJUSTMENT Hello from London

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