TCB April 12, 2017 — The new pyramid

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point April 12 – 18, 2017 triad-city-beat.com

Vanessa & the Voice PAGE 3

School setbacks PAGES 6 & 8

Passover party PAGE 16

From death into life, artists build collaborative studio

by Spencer KM Brown

PAGE 12

FREE

April 12 – 18, 2017

12 – 5 pm Saturday, April 15

at Westbend Winery and Brewery • 5394 Williams Road, Lewisville, NC Enjoy wine and beer while browsing over 40 unique arts & craft, upcycled, and antique vendors.

There will be live music by Jerry Chapman & Taqueria Luciano’s food truck!

For more information visit

facebook.com/corksandcraftsatwestbend/ or call (336) 945-9999.

Rain or shine the event is FREE, open to the public, and dog friendly.

University Performing Arts Series presents: JAZZ at LINCOLN CENTER w/ WYNTON MARSALIS Wynton Marsalis Speaks Thurs, Apr. 20, 3:00pm UNCG Auditorium Open to the public!

Thurs, Apr. 20 8:00pm

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Scan this QR code with your smartphone to purchase tickets for UPAS performances.

You can also go to upas.uncg.edu or call 336-272-0160.

UNCG Auditorium for more information, visit:

upas.uncg.edu

Mr. Rozzi’s house

Mr. Rozzi has seen it all.

The Greensboro rapper aka Ken Fuller already knows how tonight’s episode of “The Voice” will

by Brian Clarey turn out for his fiancé Vanessa Ferguson, the Greensboro singer who has been slaying the judges on the show since her rendition of “Don’t Let Me Down” by the Chainsmokers that earned her a spot on Alicia Keys’ team.

Rozzi sat through all the tapings of the show for months out in Los Angeles. So while everybody else in the room has no idea what song she will sing, or if she will emerge victorious in tonight’s battle and make it to the live playoffs next week, Rozzi already knows. But he’s not talking — to do so would violate the terms in a stack of documents that the show’s lawyers had him sign before its first episode had even aired.

We’re in the house he and Vanessa share on the west side of Greensboro — filling the couches and armrests, the chairs at the dining room table, ducking through the cutout window in the kitchen to see the screen. A poster of his fiancé, four feet wide, hangs above the couch. Before her slot airs, Rozzi hangs a painted portrait of his bride-to-be on the wall above the television.

Rozzi passes out glasses of white wine and then takes his position near the set,

leaning into an armchair with an afghan draped over the back.

We go quiet for the intro to her battle tonight against Jack Cassidy, scion of a showbiz clan that includes Shaun Cassidy, whose visage was once affixed to pillowcases and sold to teenage girls. The intro includes a piece on Rozzi himself, and his face grows vulnerable for a moment as he watches her talk about him onscreen, right before his phone starts lighting up in his hand.

Vanessa’s work on the Gladys Knight’s “If I Were Your Woman” is transcendent: her mastery of the low end, her tasteful runs, her absolute control. Alicia Keys slaps her podium as Vanessa hits the big note, while in his chair in Greensboro Rozzi holds a clenched fist in the air for the duration.

Before his fiancé finishes, Rozzi slides his thumb across his throat.

When it’s over, Gwen Stefani thanks Vanessa for the performance. “My god,” Blake Shelton says. Alicia Keys calls it “impressive.” And Adam Levine predicts a win.

Now Rozzi’s by the kitchen, scrolling through his texts and IMs, smiling like a man in love. He knew she would be moving on to the next round. And he knows something else — something that everyone in his house tonight is aware of, but has yet to be revealed to the television audience and the judges themselves.

“She’s still holding back,” Rozzi says. The room hums in agreement.

triad-city-beat.com

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

We presented the document at 11:30; they came to talk to us at 12. It’s a document that you can’t digest in a half hour. One of the deans asked, ‘How long are you planning to stay here?’ We said, ‘We’ll stay here until we see action.’ She said, ‘Get comfortable.’

— Salem College student Lorina Morton, in the News, page 6 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

EDITORIAL MANAGING EDITOR Eric Ginsburg

jorge@triad-city-beat.com

dick@triad-city-beat.com

SALES EXECUTIVE Cheryl Green cheryl@triad-city-beat.com

eric@triad-city-beat.com

SENIOR EDITOR Jordan Green

CONTRIBUTORS Carolyn de Berry Kat Bodrie Spencer KM Brown

Jelisa Castrodale Stallone Frazier Matt Jones

Cover photography of several members of the Electric Pyramid Studios by Spencer KM Brown

jordan@triad-city-beat.com

EDITORIAL INTERN Joel Sronce intern@triad-city-beat.com

TCB IN A FLASH DAILY @ triad-city-beat.com First copy is free, all additional copies are $1.00. ©2017 Beat Media Inc.

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April 12 – 18, 2017

SPREADING JOY ONE PINT AT A TIME

CITY LIFE Apr. 12 – 18

by Joel Sronce

THURSDAY

Monday Geeks Who Drink Pub Quiz 7:30 Tuesday Live music with Piedmont Old

Time Society Old Time music and Bluegrass 7:30

Wednesday Live music with J Timber and Joel Henry with special guests 7:30

Thursday Levon Zevon 8:30 Friday, Saturday, Sunday BEER joymongers.com | 336-763-5255 576 N. Eugene St. | Greensboro

Agents of Change @ NC A&T (GSO), 7 p.m.

A&T and the Greensboro Counter Stories Project host a screening of the 2016 film Agents of Change, which explores the racial tensions on college campuses that led to student protest in the 1960s. The film features Greensboro’s Ed Whitfield, who joins Claude Barnes and Stephen Ferguson after the screening to discuss the movement for social change at colleges. The film and discussion take place in A&T’s Academic Classroom Building, Room 108.

More info at agentsofchangefilm.com.

Modern Robot @ Carolina Theatre (GSO), 8 p.m.

Greensboro-based musician Ben Singer has written an original film score to the 1968 zombie movie Night of the Living Dead. As Modern Robot, Singer has created movie experiences with live music since 2010. Kris Hilbert opens the show with a solo set. More info at carolinatheatre.com.

Duskwhales @ the Garage (W-S), 9 p.m.

The Duskwhales, a three-piece, psychedelic Virginia indie-rock band, take the stage in Winston-Salem along with Latina post-punk project Mama and hip hop and punk experimental duo Speak N’ Eye. More info at the-garage.ws.

SATURDAY Easter activities @ Regional Visitors Center (HP), 10 a.m.

The High Point Convention and Visitors Bureau hosts the Easter Bunny in a day that includes an egg hunt with prizes, coloring, games, photo opportunities and refreshments. More info at highpoint.org.

Playdate for Change @ LeBauer Park (GSO), 11 a.m.

Bring your kids and join other politically minded parents to learn about local organizations and projects working to create change. The first Playdate for Change centers around GSO Operation Transparency and the current case about Jose Charles and his mother, Tamara Figueroa.

More info on the Facebook event page.

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2921-D Battleground Ave. • Greensboro

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SUNDAY

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Elder Ones @ Delurk Gallery (W-S), 7 p.m.

Elder Ones performs the compositions of New York City vocalist Amirtha Kidambi. Her collaborators include saxophonist Matt Nelson, bassist Brandon Lopez and drummer Max Jaffe, who have crossed paths as free improvisers in NYC clubs and concert halls. Influences range from hip hop to the avant garde. More info at delurkgallery.com.

Winston’s Got Talent auditions @ 502 N Broad Street (W-S), Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 12 p.m.

Neighbors for Better Neighborhoods invites dancers, singers, comedians, rappers and other entertainers to showcase their skills to the community. Auditioners should be ready to perform with music or props. Groups with more than four members and bands will not be considered. More info at nbncommunity.org.

Three questions for DD Adams

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Triaditude Adjustment

be found hunkered at the rails of our diviest bars, drinking there too are some of our most noble and tragic citizens.

At Igor’s, we served Thanksgiving dinner to our bar family and exchanged gifts at Christmas.

Our regulars helped us get through Mardi Gras every year, and we helped them get through the rest of their lives without judging their decisions.

I suspect it’s like that everywhere.

Case in point: On Monday, while I was working near the corner of Walker and Elam in Greensboro, I left a pack of cigarettes — that might not even have been mine — on a ledge outside Suds & Duds, wide open and in full view, for almost half an hour. When I returned to get them, they were still sitting exactly where I left them.

Bar people are good people, most of the time I think. At the very least, even if they don’t know who you are, they won’t mess with your smokes.

Crossword

In addition to my actual family and my newspaper family, I have a bar family that stretches across hundreds of miles and back a couple decades, most of which center around Igor’s bar in New Orleans in the late 1990s.

We lost one of our own last week when a cocktail of health issues not unrelated to actual cocktails finally reached critical mass and claimed Russell’s life.

I never knew Russell’s last name, but I knew his story: Back in ’96, he built a canoe with his own freckled hands and paddled it from its source at Lake Itasca in Minnesota all the way down to our port city. As far as I know, he never left.

Like a lot of my bar family, Russell was good people — a cheap drinker but a big tipper, with a surprising gentlemanliness towards the ladies and, like the others, fiercely loyal to the best interests of his regular bar and the people employed there.

My experience tells me that, although some of the biggest scumbags in the United Sates can

Recipes fRom the old city of

Sportsball

by Brian Clarey

Culture

Bar folk

about emerging technology what is the new big thing that’s coming that can benefit your constituents.

There’s always homework that elected officials have to put the time in to. It’s like going to college, but it never stops. You can’t think that all you have to do is show up at a city council meeting because someone will ask you about something you don’t know the answer to. You have to be honest to say that you don’t know the answer but you’ll find out, and you’ll seek out the subject-matter experts.

Cover Story

You’ve served on the National League of Cities and played an active role in the Democratic Party, including serving as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. How do you see yourself transitioning from a position in local government to the federal level?

The focus is almost the same, except [at the local level] there aren’t national issues and international issues. I’ve been trained to do my homework and to read the data and documents for my work career in manufacturing.

Effective leadership in government is more than kissing babies. You have to be constantly educating yourself

Opinion

The 5th District is almost evenly split between urban Winston-Salem and rural areas in the northwest corner of the state. It seems as though the rural-urban divide

News

Many qualified and solid Democrats have run unsuccessfully in this district, which is drawn to heavily favor a Republican candidate. What made you decide to take on the challenge?

I knew I would be retired. I know I would be fully involved in public service voluntarism. It’s been my plan to do this over the past 20 years.

It just so happened that it fell on the election cycle when a lot of people are not happy with the situation of our country. In the 5th District we have a situation where a lot of people are not happy. I remember when Richard Burr ran for [the seat]. I know the Democrats didn’t have anyone in the pipeline when Stephen Neal [a Democrat who represented the district from 1975 to 1995] decided to not to run. We didn’t have anyone ready to go. It seems like the stars are aligning when the representatives are not responsive to their constituents. I believe now is the right time to flip the 5th.

has become increasingly pronounced in our country.

How are you going to handle that?

To tell you the truth, I saw this coming a long time ago because I am on the board on the North Carolina League of Municipalities. It’s an advocacy group that has council members and mayors. When I got on it in 2012 I saw small towns were beginning to lose traction. People were leaving the small towns because the businesses left. The jobs left. Nobody paid attention to that until it became a crisis situation. The thing that we failed to do — not just as a party — is that the bigger cites and the urban cities progressed, but we didn’t even think of the smaller cities and towns, that they needed us to help them survive. The urban centers of the states and the districts need to now help facilitate these smaller cities in economic development.

Up Front

DD Adams, the Democratic representative of the North Ward on Winston-Salem City Council, recently announced that in 2018 she plans to run for the 5th Congressional District seat in the US House, which is currently occupied

by Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx.

triad-city-beat.com

by Jordan Green

5

April 12 – 18, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball

Salem student sit-in highlights grievances from dorms to racism

by Jordan Green

Students cite poor conditions and a climate of racism and transphobia as reasons for occupying Salem College’s Main Building. Administrators say they are reviewing the students’ demands and are committed to working together to address them.

Galvanized by a recent mental health assessment of the student body at Salem College, students at the women’s liberal arts school in Winston-Salem initiated a sit-in in Main Hall on Monday morning to protest general conditions, academic quality and what they say is a climate of racism and transphobia.

Beginning at 11:15 a.m., students armed with laptops and school books began crowding into Main Hall. Some of them periodically emerged on the front steps and gathered on the quad, holding signs and chanting to publicize their grievances. At about 5:30 p.m. a student pulled up in a car and delivered a flat of bottled water to the hall.

Leniece Linder, a senior majoring in political science and communication who serves as president of Black Americans Demonstrating Unity, or BADU, said about 120 students are participating in the sit-in. Salem College’s official enrollment is 1,100.

“Salem College has living conditions that are intolerable,” Linder said. “The showers are cold. The food is inedible from mold and it’s not properly cooked.

There’s no wi-fi. There are majors being offered that don’t exist. Salem has promised a lot of people that you can create your own major. They say they offer computer science, but we don’t

Triaditude Adjustment

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Salem College students began occupying Main Hall at 11:15 a.m. on Monday

have that. We do not have German. We do live with termites, roaches and rats in the dorms. There are windows that are painted shut and others that don’t close. Birds are free to fly in and out of the rooms.”

A hand-drawn paper banner hung above the entrance with large type reading “Strong are thy flaws, oh Salem” — a spoof on the college’s official song “Strong are thy walls, oh Salem” — with individual grievances inscribed like messages in a school yearbook.

Although the living conditions affect the entire student body, Linder said the campus also suffers from a social climate that is harmful to students of color and LGBTQ students.

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“There’s racism that’s micro-aggressive and actual racism,” Linder said.

“Professors are saying, ‘Do you know your father?’ and when they talk about black students they say ‘those students.’

There are professors telling black and Hispanic students: ‘You will never make it through pre-med, so you should just stop now.’ There are students calling Muslim students ‘terrorists,’ telling Hispanic students ‘go back to your country’ and calling African-American students n******. The school has no transgender policy. That’s a way to not have to take any action on transphobia.”

President Lorraine Sterritt and Dean Susan Calvoni acknowledged the sit-in in an email on Monday to students in

which they said, “We care deeply about our students, and we acknowledge the importance of the concerns that they have raised. We commit to working with students, faculty, staff, administration, and the boards in order to respond to the call to action.”

Sterritt and Calvoni told employees in a separate email: “Please be aware that classes, activities and work in various offices may be affected by today’s events.”

The students presented administration with a 10-page list of demands, including a requirement for diversity training for members of the board of trustees down to general staff, hiring people of color for faculty positions proportionately to the makeup of the student body, “a visible and intensive effort given to the renovation, restoration and upkeep of residence halls,” and admission of students who were assigned as male at birth and who identity as women, along with students who were assigned as female at birth and identify as non-binary while feeling that they belong in a “community of women.”

Karina Gonzalez, a visitors guide who is studying sociology, and Lorina Morton, who is studying creative writing, said they met with two deans.

“They asked to talk about the ‘call to action,’” Gonzalez said. “We said, ‘We will talk to you when we see action.’”

Morton added: “We presented the document at 11:30; they came to talk to us at 12. It’s a document that you can’t digest in a half hour. One of the deans asked, ‘How long are you planning to stay here?’ We said, ‘We’ll stay here

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An Evening of Spanish Wine 5:30pm, Open Mic Night 8pm Friday, April 14 @ 8pm

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Saturday, April 15 @ 8pm

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Monday, April 17 @ 7pm

Mystery Movie Monday Wednesday, April 19 @ 8pm

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News

Rinaldi Flying Circus, Charming Disaster, Shiloh Hill Opinion

okay, that’s fine,’” Linder said.

Linder said the trigger for the sit-in was a text message received by traditional students with the results of a survey by the American College Health Association that showed high levels of distress among students at Salem College. The survey, which Linder provided to TCB showed that 97 percent of students reported being overwhelmed; 93 percent, “emotionally exhausted”; 75 percent, “very sad”; 68 percent, “overwhelming anxiety”; 65 percent, “very lonely”; 63 percent, “hopeless”; and 42 percent, “so depressed it was difficult to function.”

“That’s what kicked everybody into high gear,” Linder said. “We cannot pretend this is a one-person thing. Everybody was operating under the guise that they were all alone. When those numbers came out, we said to ourselves: ‘I didn’t realize I wasn’t the only one who was depressed.’”

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until we see action.’ She said, ‘Get comfortable.’”

Gonzalez declined to identify the deans with whom she and Morton spoke out of concern that she might violate the college’s honor code.

The administration released an official statement on Monday. “Earlier today, a group of students presented members of the administration with a 10-page call to action, which we are reviewing,” the statement read. “We offered to meet with the students to discuss the contents of the document.

They have advised us that they prefer to continue their sit-in until action is taken. We respect their rights to express themselves in a peaceful manner.”

A spokesperson for the college told Triad City Beat that administration would have no additional comment.

Linder said a group of students and faculty called the “Committee on Community” have been meeting every Friday to discuss ongoing student grievances.

“All the years we have been talking about this and telling administration, ‘The racial tension on campus is about to explode,’ it’s been met with, ‘Oh,

Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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April 12 – 18, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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Teacher assistants on chopping block in superintendent’s budget

by Jordan Green

Guilford County Schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras’ proposed budget would cut about 50 teacher assistants to meet an unfunded mandate by the state General Assembly to reduce class sizes in kindergarten through third grade. And that assumes the success of a budgetary relief bill, which is currently stalled in the Senate.

In her annual budget message to the Guilford County School Board on April 4, Superintendent Sharon Contreras wrote, “What I know for certain is that our budget must reflect our priorities.

We cannot say that we value the education of our children, yet fail to respond to the budgetary needs that influence their very learning. To do so is in direct contradiction to what we know is true — actions, not words, reflect priorities.”

Contreras wrote that since the 200809 school year, the district has cut its budget by $120 million and eliminated 500 positions. Meanwhile, North Carolina teacher pay ranks 41st in the nation, and principal pay ranks dead last. “Despite these dismal rankings, we have some of the most effective and dedicated teachers and principals in the country — for now,” Contreras wrote.

“When professionals feel overwhelmed and underappreciated, they become disillusioned. If our most effective people choose to leave our district because we refuse to address these challenges with decisive action, our children will suffer.”

On the same day, members of the Guilford County School Board received Contreras’ budget message, teacher assistants found out exactly where the pain would be felt in the district’s financial squeeze.

Separate from her budget message, Contreras wrote to teacher assistants across the district: “An unfunded mandate reducing K-3 class sizes adopted by the North Carolina General Assembly during their last legislative session is forcing GCS and other local school districts to make a number of difficult budget decisions — decisions that will likely affect your current position in Guilford County Schools.”

The district is currently planning to reduce about 50 teacher assistant positions to free up funds in order to add classroom teachers in kindergarten

through third grade and meet the General Assembly’s mandate, Contreras said.

The cut to teacher assistants “is just one of many difficult decisions we are making to manage the anticipated budget shortfall,” Contreras said.

“We are also increasing class sizes in grades 6-12, closing High School Ahead, and reorganizing central office.”

The planned elimination of 50 teacher assistant positions assumes the passage of HB 13, a bill that provides some budgetary relief and flexibility to school districts from the mandate to reduce class sizes in kindergarten through third grade. HB 1030, the current appropriations bill, would incur a cost of $16.6 million to the district to meet the mandate, JORDAN GREEN spokesperson Nora Murray Due to an unfunded mandate to reduce class sizes, Guilford County Schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras said the district needs to cut 50 teacher aides. said, while HB 13 would reduce the cost to $4.6 million.

Rabon, a Republican from Brunswick a day and a half. He added that the “The superintendent’s proposed budCounty. Rabon could not be reached for budget squeeze over the years has pitted get is working under the assumption of comment. specialist teachers like himself against what our budget would be under HB 13 Todd Warren, a Spanish teacher at teacher assistants. in the hopes that it would pass,” Murray Guilford Elementary in Greensboro “They are most certainly facing said. “If it doesn’t we would face more who is the president-elect of the Guil[budget constraints] for specialists like difficult cuts.” ford County Association of Educators, foreign languages and art,” Warren The school board passed a resolusaid he suspects Senate President Pro said. “How they addressed it in Guilford tion in late February requesting that Tem Phil Berger and other Republican County has done a good job of making the General Assembly “fully fund any leaders in Raleigh are intentionally sure that although they’ve had to furchanges to class sizes.” delaying passage of HB 13. lough teacher assistants, they don’t have The school board charged in the “There are two reasons,” Warren to let them go. We’ve reached a funding resolution that the state budget “codsaid. “One is to create chaos in our precipice where they have to cut posiifies ratios by statute and precludes budget cycle. I think it’s a bold maneutions now. What it looks like is they’re both locally flexible class sizes for K-3 ver on their part to force localities to trying to save specialists and not teacher and the use of teacher allotment funds come up with extra funding. They know assistants. I think we’re being faced with for teachers of art, music or physical localities are doing their budget right terrible choices: Do you want your right education at those grade levels, and furnow. It’s really backward the way we hand or your left hand? thermore results in funding less elemendo the budget. The localities are setting “I really hate to see teacher assistants tary teaching positions that would be their budgets now based on assumptions going through this,” Warren added. necessary to meet the requirements of about state funding, but the state budget “They’re among our most vulnerathe new class-size allotments and continwon’t be passed until later.” ble and marginalized employees, and ue other important teaching services at Berger, who represents Rockingham they’ve had to take the brunt of our the elementary level like art, music and County and the northwestern part of budget cuts. They’re the least able to physical education.”

Guilford, could not be reached for comtake it financially, and they’ve already HB 13, which would defray the ment for this story. made tremendous sacrifices. They are cost of reducing class sizes, passed Warren said teacher assistants have the magic glue that holds everything the House, but has languished in the been furloughed for four years to allow together. They’re the heroes of elemenSenate Rules Committee since Feb. 20. the district to realize savings, originally tary education.”

The committee is chaired by Sen. Bill with three days eliminated and now

triad-city-beat.com Up Front News Opinion

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April 12 – 18, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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OPINION

EDITORIAL

An insincere war That President Donald Trump would exercise US military might should come as no surprise to anyone who paid attention to candidate Trump back on the trail.

An integral piece of his New York tough-guy persona was his willingness to invoke, literally, the nuclear option as a solution for everything from terrorism to trade agreements.

And whether you believe last week’s missile attack on Syria was in response to the emotions the president felt after seeing the aftermath of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s sarin gas attack on his own people — the very same demographic that Trump swore would not be allowed to enter this country as refugees — or as a more figurative smokescreen to distance the president from his ties to Russia and its president, Vladmir Putin, we should all agree on the sham of it.

Fifty-nine Tomahawk missiles, each equipped with 166 sub-munition clusters, makes for a pretty heavy payload, enough to easily wipe out the Syrian airfield and give us all a nice kaboom to watch on the evening news — or, more likely, YouTube or Facebook.

But, as a Pentagon spokesperson testified the next day, Russian forces were warned in advance of the attack by the US military — to “minimize risk to Russian or Syrian personnel.”

This is not unique to the Trump administration; it actually has a name. It’s called “roof-knocking,” popularized by the Israeli army, which as far back as 2006 would drop non-explosive devices on Palestinian neighborhoods to give them advance warning of an impending bombing in the area. The US has been using the technique in its war against ISIS since last year.

It’s not quite the same thing, though, as tipping off a military target in the hours before launch. And if Putin knew about the attack, it’s reasonable to assume he passed this information to the Syrian forces with which his country is aligned in this civil war.

The Syrian airfield, after absorbing the US missile attack, resumed operations less than 24 hours later, launching a squadron of warplanes the very next day.

So it seems that the only actual purpose served by this intervention into a bloody civil war was to get rid of some old weapons so we can commission some new ones — and perhaps rack up what might look like a win to the uninformed, as well as distract from several Trump controversies embroiling the president and the people around him.

And though the repercussions of this attack will likely have global consequences and be used to justify all sorts of further hawkish action, it was a big nothing down on the ground. In Trump’s America, even war is fake.

CITIZEN GREEN

HB 142 is only the start of a fight over LGBT rights

Chris Mosier, the first transthan a chimera designed to provide cover for sports gender athlete to earn a place organizations like the NCAA to bring sporting events on Team USA, qualified for his back to North Carolina while LGBTQ people remained second national team in Cary in unprotected from discrimination.

May 2016, just months after the While acknowledging that HB 142 was imperfect and passage of HB 2, allowing him to incomplete — it places a moratorium on local ordinances compete in the Duathlon World providing protections against LGBTQ discrimination

by Jordan Green Championship in Aviles, Spain. through 2020 — Cooper announced upon signing the The location of the qualifying bill: “We begin to end discrimination in North Carolina. competition put Mosier, who is the vice president of You We begin to bring back jobs and sporting events. We Can Play, in an impossible position. He had spoken out begin to repair our reputation.” against North Carolina’s infamous “bathroom law,” and Less than a week later, the NCAA Board of Goveryet foregoing the competition would have likely stalled nors announced that the collegiate athletics association his career at the peak of his athletic ability. And besides, would consider returning sporting events to North not competing would have amounted to surrendering to Carolina. The board of governors’ official statement on bigotry. the matter characterizes the decision as reluctant and “It was one of the most meaningful races of my conditional. career,” Mosier recalled last week. “I was nervous and “We are actively determining site selections, and this concerned about not so much the race as getting to the new law has minimally achieved a situation where we race, getting around the hotel. Most of my competitors believe NCAA championships may be conducted in were not concerned about these things. I excelled when I was able to stop worrying about what people said about me at the starting line, and I began winning my age groups. Imagine being at the starting line of one of the most important races of your career: Someone came up to me and asked if I was Chris Mosier, and I jumped because I didn’t know what they were going to say.

“Outside of the competition I chose not to wear my uniform that said ‘Mosier’ because I had spoken out against HB 2,” he continued. “The law said that we are not worthy of legal protections, and that we shouldn’t be included in public life. For me as an athlete, having access to locker rooms is critical. Having access to public spaces like hotels on the way to race or competition is critical.”

HB 142, the so-called “repeal” bill passed by the GOP supermajority in the state General Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper on March 30, was supposed to lift the cloud of COURTESY IMAGE Chris Mosier, the first trans athlete to qualify for Team shame from North Carolina. By now we know it was a little more USA, had to compete in Cary after the passage of HB 2.

along with 11 universities including UNCG and NC A&T University — requesting documentation to show how they will protect LGBTQ persons against discrimination at a site where a championship is awarded.

Meanwhile, since the passage of HB 142, 16 Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Joyce Krawiec (R-Forsyth), have filed legislation that would criminalize people who use bathrooms opposite their biological sex by increasing penalties for second-degree trespass.

Far from being a signal that the fight over LGBTQ discrimination in North Carolina is over, it’s clear that HB 142 is only the beginning of a battle that will be with us for years to come.

Up Front

other states. The NCAAA has shown that there will be no consequences. It’s about more than profit; this is about the safety and inclusion of transgender athletes, coaches, students and fans.”

As part of its conditional reinstatement of North Carolina as a site for athletic events, the NCAA Board of Governors stipulated “that any site awarded a championship event in North Carolina or elsewhere be required to submit additional documentation demonstrating how student-athletes and fans will be protected from discrimination.”

On April 6, the ACLU filed public records requests with Greensboro, Cary and three other North Carolina cities —

triad-city-beat.com

a nondiscriminatory environment,” the statement reads.

“If we find that our expectations of a discrimination-free environment are not met, we will not hesitate to take necessary action at any time.”

Once again, Mosier will be competing in the duathlon national championship in Cary on April 29, but he said he plans to avoid leaving the competition facility so that he isn’t subjected to adverse experiences.

“HB 142 is now more than a symbol of intolerance,” he said. “It is a direct barrier to the equality of LGBT athletes. I believe that by rewarding North Carolina the message has been sent that transgender people are not worthy of inclusion. This type of legislation can spread to

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Culture Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

Some perspective on Meals on Wheels Your comment about Trump and Meals on Wheels shows a rather lack of the facts [“Sam Frazier, on the road”;

by Brian Clarey; April 5, 2017]. Consider that his proposed budget cut for MOW amounts to less than one half of one percent of the MOW total yearly funding. Furthermore, the national MOW organization currently pays no less than 10 of its administrators’ six-figure salaries against a workload that require less than one hour per week. [TCB hasn’t confirmed these figures.]

Trump’s proposed cut is neither aimed at nor does it need to hurt anyone at the bottom where the rubber meets the road. It is intended to cut out the huge amount of waste at the top. The fat cats that make their handsome salaries on the taxpayers’ dime won’t go quietly however, and will use such cuts to fool people (such as yourself apparently) into thinking that

Jamming with Electro I used to jam and party with Electro [“Electro’s swan song”; by Jordan Green; April 5, 2017]. I hit Tate Street back in ’78-’79 and ran straight into him jamming outside the Hong Kong House. He was always hitting me up for beer money. He told me several times that he lived with the Allman Brothers (Greg and Duane) in a house down in Climax (not sure if this is true; other folks have told me the same story).

He had a picture, with them and him, sitting on their porch. It was hard to see if it was actually them or not, and it was singed around the edges from the house fire that sent Greg and Duane packing into history. Electro played with me and Rich Lerner in Broken Ice for a while. We even recorded some songs with him on slide guitar at Tom Rowan’s Sound Lab. That ended when he showed up way too drunk to play a gig with us at Huck’s Deli. He stumbled over to a table in front of the band and heckled us the rest of the night until he passed out. Gotta love him. He was always a hoot. I hope he makes it back to Greensboro and we can jam on a few more songs. Love and healing light to you, Electro.

Craig Pannell, via triad-city-beat.com

Opinion

Greensboro redistricting recriminations Why does it not surprise me that you failed to mention that I voted to support a referendum for citizens to decide this issue? [“The cowardice of the false majority”; April 4, 2017] Tony Wilkins, Greensboro Editor: The writer is a member of Greensboro City Council.

the actual services that MOW provides will have to be cut back. That needn’t happen provided the fat cats at the top will rein in their own waste.

Unfortunately, since they set their budget, that isn’t likely to happen. And the entire world of “nonprofits” operates mostly in a similar manner.

Dick Bostick, High Point

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April 12 – 18, 2017

From death into life, artists build collaborative studio

Cover Story

by Spencer KM Brown

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Bricks crumble down the sidewalls, revealing the building’s aging skeleton. It looks somewhat abandoned from the outside, the sort of place you might drive past a hundred times but never give a second thought.

It sits on the corner of Patterson and Seventh streets in Winston-Salem in the historic Goler Heights section of downtown, away from the busier scene of bars and shops and usual din of the city. Sunlight angles down from the west, holding the bricks and windows in a glow of copper light.

The doors are kept locked and, from the sidewalk on Patterson out front, the place seems perhaps as quiet as the bodies that were once embalmed within — this used to be a funeral home. The dead no longer reside there; now new life fills its rooms.

The building that is now Electric Pyramid Studios sat empty for a few years after the Clark S. Brown & Sons Funeral Home moved to its current location next door. A group of artists who made up the now defunct Electric Mustache Studios at Krankies downtown found themselves in need of new work space after the decision was made to close the studios at the popular coffee house for its restaurant expansion. After a long search and moments of feeling dispossessed, in September 2014 artist Rachel Endsley found the place that would become their new home.

In the few years since, Electric Pyramid has grown from the original group to its current capacity of 13 artists who rent studio space. It’s a mosaic of art and personalities, ranging from visual and mixed-media arts to fashion design and jewelry-making.

And while the renters have made all renovations themselves and spruced the place up, there is still the looming specter of ghosts and a level of implied eeriness, one that seems to add to this eclectic collective.

“One of the first nights I was here working alone, I heard footsteps on the stairs,” painter Laura Lashley recalled. “It was weird. A few other people said they’ve heard similar things, but I haven’t heard anything since that first night.”

Through the main door, a giant, broken mirror hangs on the wall at the far end of the great room-cum-gallery-cum-yoga space. This is the studio’s latest renovation, intended to provide a place for its artists to show their work to the public and to assemble for meetings and hangouts. In the center of the mirror, thick jags of glass

meet and reveal an old advertisement for Tuxedo Club pomade. Artist Jennie Earle Hopkins felt that the mirror was too much a part of the history of the place to simply be thrown away, and across the shattered glass she has repainted the old advertisement’s emblem around the sharp edges, turning what was once a broken mirror earmarked for the trashbin into a piece of art that everyone will see as they enter.

The original debris the previous occupants left behind has been cleared out and replaced with artwork that is everywhere, from small works in progress leaning in hallways and community storage corners to completed, commissioned works waiting to be sent out.

The Pyramid stands three stories tall, with individual studios spaced out among the floors, packed densely enough to fulfill a sense of community yet leaving ample space for necessary moments of creative isolation.

In the basement, mixed-media artist and carpenter Andrew Fansler occupies most of the space with tools used to build an array of sculptures amid the smell of sawdust and wood stain mixed with basement earth and brick dust. A few dim lightbulbs speckle the ceiling, providing enough light to work by, but not so much to lose the charming sense of eeriness. Quilter Kaitlyn Neely has taken over an adjacent room in the basement — the very room once used to embalm the departed — with a 12-foot quilting machine. Fabrics lay on a long table off to the side, near an old sink once used to prepare the dead for their caskets, its function now purely decorative.

The narrow staircase that leads to the main floor creaks and moans, the very stairs that have been the cause of debate as to whether or not the building is actually haunted.

“It was a little unsettling at first,” Hopkins recalled. “Part of me always wished there would be something strange to happen in the building. Then one day I was

Ian Denni

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is works at his desk surrounded by his creations.

SPENCER KM BROWN

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April 12 – 18, 2017 Cover Story

14

here working by myself and I heard footsteps coming up the basement stairs. I went down and opened the door to look and these four chickens came bolting up the stairs. I freaked out and immediately called Laura [Lashley] and told her. She said, ‘It’s cool, they’re just shooting a movie down there.’ So, I sort of calmed down after that. Nothing’s really happened since.”

The main floor hosts five studios, a community kitchenette with a mini-fridge and microwave, storage rooms and the gallery at the main entrance, near artist and musician Ezra Noble’s studio. The front room has spurred on a new level of creativity for how to maximize space and a goal for bringing the artists closer as friends and colleagues.

“It sort of came about because we felt we weren’t putting the space to good use,” Hopkins said while standing in the new gallery room. “We knew we eventually wanted a place to be able to bring our friends to and host pop-up galleries, and this room was just being used for storage really.

Now that it’s cleared out, we also use it for things that sort of bring all of us a little closer together. We have yoga here a few times per week for any of us who want to join. We’re constantly coming up with new ideas of how to bring us all closer.”

Hopkins’ studio is on the other side of the main floor. Through a room occupied by Christina Tyler, an artisan jewelry-maker, Hopkins studio is tucked away in the corner, next to vintage clothing designer Jess Matthews. A small desk stands under a long window on one end, a Laura Lashley’s patterned designs can be found throughout Winston-Salem, shelf full of old InStyle, Oprah and Garden & Gun magazines sits by the including on an exterior wall at Small Batch Brewing. wall opposite. No room for an easel or large drafting table.

“I usually end up doing most of my work on the floor,” she said. “It allows me to move around a little easier.”

Hopkins keeps the studio pristine. On the wall near the door, one of her collage pieces hangs in the glow of pale light that drips through the large window.

With only a few lines drawn in, the captivating image of a woman wearing a Native American headdress is made with clipping and scraps of paper. The canvas bursts with pastel colors and birds fly forth from the woman’s breast.

The rest of the studios reside on the top floor. Laura Lashley, a painter and muralist, rents a large corner studio at the front of the building. Empty canvases lean up against the walls, facing her long drafting table, waiting to be completed and sent to those who commissioned them. Lashley stands in front of her easel adding the final touches to a commissioned painting.

With pallet in hand, she draws the brush across the sea of blue, painting the gentle strokes that make up the petals of her popular floral designs. Dried paint covers the long table beside coffee cups that hold brushes and tools. The windows remain open and the warm spring airs fills the room, blowing the lacy drapes around in the breeze. The thought of what this building once was vanishes in the studio. Bookshelves line the wall, knick-knacks and potted plants fill a corner.

Lashley’s murals can be seen around Winston-Salem in such locations as Small Batch, Bailey Park and Arts Based Elementary School.

A few steps away down the hall, graphic designer Kat Lamp sits behind an L-shaped desk. Two monitors sit before her, which she uses to make most of her work. Lamp has designed concert posters for such acts as Andrew Bird and the Avett Brothers, and copies hang in frames on the wall to her right. Under the glow of a bright lamp, she leans over an old photo of a man from the 1800s, painting psychedelic colors across the bleak face and gray background. A stack of similar photographs lay beside her, all waiting to be a part of her latest project titled “Room Noodles.”

Kat Lamp has designed posters for various music acts, including Andrew Bird.

“The name comes from an ’80s cartoon short I liked when I was a kid,” Lamp said. “I started this series

SPENCER KM BROWN

SPENCER KM BROWN

triad-city-beat.com

the coffeeshop carrying a 9-foot-tall stuffed robot to my studio and everyone would sort of just stop and stare. It would almost make me a little embarrassed, that feeling of being judged or something. But here, everyone is doing something.

No one is put off by the weird things we all do.”

An open community can be helpful at times, though Lamp’s new studio upstairs provides her with a larger space where she can take comfort in the new addition of a door and the ability for intense focus and privacy when needed.

“Before we built the walls downstairs, everything was just sort of open,” Lamp said. “Jennie [Hopkins] and Kaitlyn [Neely] had their space sectioned off with tape. People would just cut through other people’s spaces and start talking and of course I love seeing people and so I would stop and start hanging out. That was difficult. But now that I have a door, it’s a little easier to close myself off and focus when I need to.”

While distraction remains an issue for any creative professional, it has somewhat become a form of collaborative inspiration for the artists.

“I think there are only a few of us who do art full time,” Hopkins said. “Most of us have other part-time or even full-time jobs, so it can be hard to find motivation and keep regular hours. But all the time I’m away from here, I’m always thinking about how I need to get in and do some work. The rent forces me to come as often as I SPENCER KM BROWN The wall in Kaitlyn Neely’s studio is adorned with colorful threads. can. And when I see other people are here working, it makes me want to get over here and be a part of it.”

Because each renter holds a key, they are free to come and go as they shortly after the [presidential] inauguration as a means to channel my depression and outrage into please. something meditative and fun. The ‘Room Noodles’ cartoon felt like the appropriate metaphor for “It’s easy to come here and work when I’m feeling inspired,” Lamp said. the process of creating the paintings.”

“But when I’m not, it’s really hard. I’ll come here sometimes and find other In the cartoon, the room noodles would visit frightened children during the night and bind up, people working and I try and catch it, you know. When you see others at work, tickle and banish the monsters in their rooms. you just want to be a part of their creativity. It just feels so alive when people are Music drifts from down the hall and in through the open door, emanating from the large room here at work.” that hosts three other artists, including Ian Dennis, Tony Fonda and Shawn Peters. Just below “Absolutely,” Dennis agreed. “You make time for it as best you can. Sometimes the electronic music, the thumping needle of Ian Dennis’ sewing machine vibrates through I’ll be here every night for two or three months. Then life stuff gets busy and it starts the old floors. Dennis designs stuffed creations — animals, monsters and science-fiction to slip. You see your friends around town who have space here, and it’s great, but all characters — some of which hang on the walls surrounding him. A stack of fabrics and that means is that neither one of you are working. It means no one is here. And you just stuffing lay close at hand on a table, among desks full of completed creations that will be want it to be filled. Not just for security reasons, but for everyone else’s sake almost.” sent out after a few final details.

The closeness that these makers have with each other comes from not only sharing in On every floor, across every square foot of Electric Pyramid, art is being created. the same profession, but most of them are close friends outside of the studio as well.

While some of the artists seem to have gained more success and have since quit “We’re all kind of excited today,” Hopkins said. “Some of us get together to play cards and their nine-to-five jobs to pursue art full-time, any animosity or tension seems to be have dinner at Laura’s house on Sundays. And it’s beautiful out so that means we get to eat non-existent. outside today!”

“Doing art full time is the dream,” Hopkins said. “I do have another job, but it’s The group laughed among themselves, demonstrating the level of airy friendship that extends nice to come and go here as I please.” beyond these old walls. Each artist brings something unique to the space, sharing and growing “A lot of us do work outside of here as well,” Dennis agreed. “We’re all from one another’s ingenuity. The artists not only find inspiration while here, but also, perhaps most always creating, whether it be in here or out in the community.” importantly, during the hours spent with each other simply as friends.

Distraction seems as if it would pose a great problem with studios in such Every wall, every room, is alive with an electric pulse of color and creativity. A building full of artists close proximity to each other, but the relationships among the artists at doing the work they love. In a place that was once used to care for the deceased, something great has Electric Pyramid have grown deep enough to prevent friction. blossomed; out of death has come boundless creative life. While there is a sleepy look to it from the “When I had my space at the Krankies location, it was a lot harder outside, an endless world of art is humming within the Pyramid. to get things done I think,” Dennis said. “I would be walking through

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April 12 – 18, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword

CULTURE Cooking for a chag sameach, alone

by Eric Ginsburg

T

he Jewish holidays make me miss home.

Monday night, while they were gathered around the table at my parents’ house for a Passover seder, I added red pepper flakes to my pasta shaped like six-pointed Jewish stars — a decidedly inappropriate dish for the holiday, and a holdover from Hanukkah that also featured dreidel shapes, if we’re being honest — before curling up with the latest episode of “Empire.”

I haven’t been home to Boston for Passover since I moved down here at age 18. I’ve held a few seders of my own, with a decidedly more radical political bent than the ones I’d grown up with despite being raised in a Reform congregation. I spent one of my last seders with my family fuming that I hadn’t been allowed to skip the ritual to go to a punk show — the holiday runs for more than one evening, after all.

Seders with friends have served as no substitute. I feel kinship with other Jews, certainly, as evidenced by my small talk with someone shopping for Passover ingredients next to me at Harris Teeter this week. But I generally pass on invitations to celebrate Jewish holidays down here — this may never feel like my Jewish community.

It hasn’t felt all that important to go home for Pesach — or Passover — in the past, so I made no plans to attend this year. I always liked the spirit of the holiday with its liberation-themed message, but it always took so damn long to read through the Haggadah and get to the eating part. Maybe it’s because I didn’t visit this year around Hanukkah, which I usually do, but messaging with my

Triaditude Adjustment

Shot in the Triad

Pick of the Week

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Opening day @ Grove Street People’s Market (GSO), Thursday, 6 p.m.

Come out to the corner of Grove Street and Glenwood Avenue for the first market of the season.

The community market includes handcrafted, homemade and locally grown products, as well as garden supplies, body products and more.

For additional information and to learn about the free vendor space, visit the Facebook event page.

I make charoset (left) every year, but it’s so easy that this Passover I decided to challenge myself with a slow cooked, brown sugar-glazed corned beef dish with potatoes and savoy cabbage, too.

mom on Monday night felt like transmitting messages for a foreign outpost, her just waiting for me to finally come home and me wondering why I wasn’t there next to her, eating some of her tzimmes.

Food would be my only stand-in. For lunch, I grabbed a Jewish friend and ate lox and cream cheese on a bialy, something that has nothing to do with Passover but everything to do with my Jewish identity. I finally cracked open Jewish Slow Cooker Recipes: 120 Holiday and Everyday Dishes Made Easy, a cookbook I’ve owned for about a year, and set out to buy ingredients.

Like Hanukkah when I asked for her sweet-potato latke recipe, I reached out to my mom for guidance. But I’d been a vegetarian for the last five years living at home, and her offer of a recipe for Cornish hens didn’t conjure any feelings of nostalgia or belonging.

I knew I’d make charoset — a mandatory Passover side symbolizing the mortar between the bricks that Jewish slaves used to build the pyramids — both because I love the sweetness of the apple, walnut, wine, cinnamon and sugar-based dish and because the instructions are quite literally to chop the apple and stir the measured ingredients together in a bowl. I’ve been making swift work of charoset since the days when I considered Easy Mac cooking.

This year I subbed out Manischewitz wine — a company with dubious ethics — for a $5 cabernet sauvignon I found, and its sweetness did the trick. Oh, and drizzled honey on top, maybe because the Rosh Hashanah duo is one of my Jewish faves.

I wanted to push myself a little, and though it wouldn’t compare to my grandmother’s brisket — a dish so satisfying I wouldn’t want to sully its name by attempting a clone — I

ERIC GINSBURG

picked a slow-cooked corned beef dish with a pile of veggies and a brown sugar glaze.

Jewish Slow Cooker Recipes author Laura Frankel didn’t include classic Ashkenazi Jewish Passover meals in her cookbook, instead proposing personal favorites like this one. She, no doubt, cooks it for her family or friends, and imagined readers like me doing the same. But even with a supportive girlfriend, I had no use for seven pounds of corned beef, so I procured a third of all the portions Frankel called for, omitting ground cloves because the tiny container I found was going for more than $8.

I didn’t want to impress myself that much.

As the smell of the simmering ingredients filled my house, I began to daydream about the mixture of spices, corned beef and vegetables. And when I finally bit in for lunch on Tuesday, it tasted better than I’d anticipated.

But I still felt sort of like an impostor, the guy whose necklace with a Jewish star pendant broke years ago and keeps making excuses for why it isn’t fixed. And I felt like an outsider too, despite my proximity to a Hebrew academy, knowing a couple local rabbis and counting plenty of Southern Jews as friends. Some of them would react the same way Christians do when met with someone who planned to spend Christmas alone, inviting me in to their seder and likely offering me Elijah’s cup.

The way I “celebrated” Passover is certainly nontraditional.

But it also feels strangely proper to the diasporic experience of Jews. Unlike some of my ancestors, though, I don’t think I’ll have to wander in the desert for 40 years before I feel at home at a seder.

I just might have to go back to Boston.

triad-city-beat.com

Greensboro’s best kept secret for craft beer

News Opinion

The Pipe & Pint on Spring Garden Street in Greensboro offers a wide range of craft beer styles and brands that are rare to the Triad.

KAT BODRIE

The shop’s stock of brands like Wicked Weed and Four Saints Brewing rivals that of other local bottleshops.

KAT BODRIE

Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

Kat loves red wine, Milan Kundera, and the Shins. She wears scarves at katbodrie.com.

Up Front

N

estled between a Citgo gas station and an auto shop on Spring Garden Street in Greensboro is one of the Triad’s best kept secrets for craft beer. The Pipe & Pint — which also offers loose-leaf tobacco, cigars, pipes and wine — sells many styles and brands that are rare to this area.

I entered the shop before close on a recent Thursday afternoon. Situated in a two-story house with a wide front porch, it felt like a 19th Century general store. The hardwood floor creaked

by Kat Bodrie underfoot. The walk-in humidor, a small, enclosed room to the right, had glass windows facing neatly arranged rows.

Owner Larry Christopher stood behind the wooden counter, the sleeves of his peach-colored, button-up shirt rolled up. He seemed at once hard-working and modest, a throwback to a bygone era.

Several regulars came in and asked about tobacco, some of them picking up supplies that had already been set aside for them, but I was here for booze recommendations.

With wine, Christopher asked what I typically go for. I told him about the reds I love, and he asked about my price range — $10 to $20, I said.

He sidled along a wooden shelf by the wall, explaining a petite sirah may be just the ticket. Christopher confided that these are his favorite type of reds, and offered me a bottle of Americano from Napa Valley, which I immediately snagged.

“And for beer?” he asked.

We entered the small back room, filled wall to wall with craft beer of all styles and sizes. Although I recognized some brands on the shelves, like Granite Falls and D9, most of them were new to me.

I described my love for stouts — the darker the better. Christopher pointed out the barrel-aged El Paraiso from Wicked Weed, an imperial stout brewed with coffee and cocoa nibs. The sheer breadth of Wicked Weed offerings beats out even Potent Potables’ stock, giving Pipe & Pint customers plenty of rarer options from which to choose.

A few weeks ago, when I stopped by the shop for the first time, Christopher sold me on Olde Hickory’s Event Horizon, a bourbon-barrel-aged imperial stout brewed with honey. It’s so popular, he said, that he bought the rest of their stock, as the display next to the front counter showed.

This time at the store, I asked how well it was selling.

“I sell between six bottles and a case a week,” he said.

And no wonder: It’s a beautiful beer, like a melted chocolate bar with honey and bourbon added to it. My trust in his recommendations intact, I picked up a bottle of Olde Hickory’s non-aged imperial stout this time.

A nearby refrigerator housed a bunch of growlers from Four Saints Brewing in Asheboro, as well as their brand new canned Bandwagon New England IPA. A customer swore it tastes like orange juice, and proceeded to take a couple of the few remaining cans.

The shop also has a decent supply of meads, including several moderately priced bottles from Starrlight Mead in Pittsboro alongside Visit the Pipe & Pint at 3716 the more expensive but alluring Viking Blod Spring Garden St. (GSO) or from Dansk Mjod in Denmark. thepipeandpint.net.

After yet another haul from this lovely place, Christopher carried my purchases out to my car himself, as he had done for other customers. He said the shop has been in its current location since 2010 but has been operating since 1998 — “20 years come February.” I asked if he will do anything to celebrate.

“Come to work,” he said.

Modesty and substance, just like the Americano petite sirah I savored later that night.

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April 12 – 18, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

18

CULTURE Laura Jane Vincent, Joshua Tell keep folk alive

By Spencer KM Brown

S

he took the stage carrying a glass of water with her, slung the strap of her Taylor over her shoulder and strummed a few simple chords, making sure all was in tune.

She smiled at the thin crowd who made up the audience for the evening, and suddenly the room came to life.

House music muted and her body swayed in soft motion like a lazy tide.

The club echoed with her resounding voice as she picked the strings of her guitar. There was something poetic looming in the air; no sold-out crowd for the night, no line of fans or bombardment of voices and music. Simply a woman and her guitar, playing for the few early members of the audience, playing because it seemed like it’s what she loves.

Laura Jane Vincent opened the show on Monday at Test Pattern in Winston-Salem. And while the crowd was sparse, Vincent played and sang just as confidently as she would to a crowded room of raucous fans.

Usually taking the stage with her husband and drummer Dave Tippetts, the Moore County-based singer blends a mix of country and folk with a more contemporary style of ballads, powered by a ruggedly angelic voice reminiscent of Janis Joplin and Natalie Merchant, and could easily contest the talents of many popular singers. Though the promotion and crowd lacked for the incredible acts that are not Test Pattern’s usual forte, Vincent’s voice set a mellow, warm tone for the evening, almost hypnotic as she performed her songs.

Vincent’s set contained many tracks from her latest LP . . . for a sweetheart from the south, which was recorded at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, the famed studio whose past clientele

Pick of the Week The African Children’s Choir @ Gospel Baptist Church (GSO), Wednesday, 7 p.m.

The African Children’s Choir, a nonprofit humanitarian and relief organization, brings African songs and dances to Greensboro. The free performance features children’s songs and traditional spirituals.

More info at africanchildrenschoir. com.

Laura Jane Vincent soothes a small group of listeners at Test Pattern in Winston-Salem.

include such acts as Widespread Panic, the Avett Brothers, Zac Brown Band and Dawes.

Headlining the show for the night was singer-songwriter Joshua Tell. As the audience expanded only slightly, Tell and bandmates Jamie Velasco on lead guitar and stand-up bassist Pierce Black spread across the stage, settling in to a cool and smooth set.

Originally from Missouri, Tell now resides in Cologne, Germany, performing with his trio across Europe and the United States. The group is currently setting out on a US tour to promote its first record, a self-titled EP, which they released earlier this month.

Tell’s voice drifted above intricate finger-picked melodies in a style that pays homage to Phil Ochs and Mason Jennings, while containing the traditional narrative and story-telling paradigm of Appalachian and Ozark-based folk songs. The trio held a cool façade on stage, adorned in 1950s-style fedoras and worn leather boots as they played under the dim stage lights. Tell blended slow, mesmerizing ballads with upbeat

SPENCER KM BROWN

tunes that even the meager crowd couldn’t help but to tap their feet to.

Test Pattern marked Tell’s second US show on his tour, which will cover 14 shows and eight states in just two weeks.

While the musicians for the evening were deserving of a greater audience and better promotion, the artists gave a solid and classy show. With swinging melodies and whiskey-smooth vocals, Joshua Tell is a hopeful talent in a waning tradition of contemporary folk storytellers, one that might just give the genre a much needed revival. And even with lean attendance and a club whose main attractions usually revolve around punk rock and metal shows, Vincent and Tell mark an honorable step for Test Pattern, giving a home to musicians who might otherwise not have a stage to perform.

All Showtimes @ 9:00pm 4/12

Karaoke with Michael Ray Hansen

4/13

The Phantom Playboys, Pastor John, The Nevernauts, The Bo Stevens

4/14

Crow’s Nest Presents: Murder Maiden, The Bleeps, Manslaughter, Written in Gray, October

4/15

Final Drive

4/17

Riviera, Oh Weatherly, Come Clean

4/18

Illiterate Light, Z Plan, plus Karaoke with Michael Ray Hansen

701 N Trade Street Winston-Salem, NC 27101

(336)955-1888

U

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CULTURE What opioid addiction and gays for Trump have in common

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

by Joel Sronce nder a bright light in an otherwise dark room in Winston-Salem’s Hanesbrands Theatre, Aaron Lovett paused, considering a juror’s question.

“How are you going to reconcile with the fact that the left won’t really want to see it, and the right won’t really want to see it?” Jeremy Workman had asked.

Jurors and audience members at RiverRun International Film Festival’s April 7 Pitch Fest had watched a trailer for Lovett’s “Gays for Trump?”

— a short documentary in the making. Lovett’s pitch was one of four that composed this year’s Pitch Fest, a competition in which student filmmakers from universities around North Carolina had five minutes to present their films, including a 90-second video clip. A 10-minute Q&A with three jurors — professional filmmakers Workman, Amy Schumaker and Jeff Reichert — followed each presentation. The winner would receive a COURTESY PHOTO Mariah Smallwood and Rebecca Firth pitch their short film “Circles” to the panel of jurors cash prize and recognition within the industry.

Lovett, a student at UNC-Chapel Hill, responded to Workman’s query by acknowledging the the three campaigned for the Republican presidential candiseen. challenge he undertakes in making this film. But neither its date. Despite only 14 percent of LGBTQ Americans support“If you can announce [the Southpolarizing nature nor his own conservative upbringing has ing Donald Trump, Boykin, Smith and Presler campaigned to erness] in your title, that will really stopped him. support Trump’s promises to defend the country and the jobs intrigue audiences,” he suggested.

“I’m invested in the idea that dialogue can fix things,” Lovett of its citizens.

The film remains largely in pre-prosaid.

Lovett told the jurors he expected the film to run 15 to 18 duction, as Chernesky and Ali search “Gays for Trump?” follows Peter Boykin and David Smith, an minutes once completed, adding that he didn’t feel he has the for a drag queen who could provide a interracial gay couple, as well as their friend Scott Presler, as talent or resources to make it a feature-length project. minority’s perspective.

Preceding Lovett’s presentation, Mariah Smallwood and The jurors deliberated during lunch, Rebecca Firth — both from UNC-Wilmington — pitched their after which the winners were anfilm “Circles,” which explores the acts of women shaming one nounced. another from ages 15 to 71.

Due to the quality of the film up to “Is there any resolution or transformation at the end?” this stage, as well as Lovett’s sharp, Schumaker asked during the Q&A, having seen only the deliberate presentation, “Gays for 90-second clip of what would be a 13-minute film.

Trump?” won first prize.

Smallwood and Firth answered that resolution came from Jurors voted Wake Forest’s Stan the perspectives of those in the older age groups and the lesWright and his film Mother as the sons they’ve learned through hindsight. runner up, a fitting recognition for a Following “Gays for Trump?,” Stan Wright from Wake Forest well-developed project that so far has University pitched his film “Mother,” which explores the opioid succeed in translating an American crisis in the United States and its effect on the motherhood of crisis onto the screen. women struggling with addiction. Every 19 minutes, Wright said, a baby is born in the United States to a mother with an opioid addiction, and those babies are often taken away from the mothers. Like the other films, Wright considered his an observational character study whose topic takes a glance at larger social issues.

When a juror raised the possibility of a “poverty porn” criticism when considering the film’s subjects, Wright responded Pick of the Week that he hopes the film engages not through schadenfreude, but rather through the commonality of having children.

Right You Are (If You Think You Are) Finally, Julie Chernesky and Kaitlyn Ali from UNCSA pre@ UNCSA (W-S), Wed-Sat, 7:30 sented their film “War Paint,” a documentary that examines p.m. the world of drag queens, particularly in the American South.

In Luigi Pirandello’s funny, philChernesky and Ali hope to explore the effects of Southern osophical play, the truth is twisted culture on the drag scene and to give voice to queens in a time around as friends uncover the relaof political turmoil in North Carolina. tionships of their strange neighbors.

During the Q&A session, Reichert asked how attached the Laura Braza directs. More info at COURTESY PHOTO Aaron Lovett pitches his short film “Gays filmmakers were to the title. For Reichert, the Southern aspect uncsa.edu. for Trump?” to the audience and jurors. sets “War Paint” apart from other drag documentaries he’s

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April 12 – 18, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Cover Story Culture Sportsball Crossword Shot in the Triad Triaditude Adjustment

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SPORTSBALL

Chipper Jones returns to the South

C

arroll Rogers Walton, co-author of Chipper Jones’ new memoir Ballplayer, stood near home plate at BB&T Ballpark in Winston-Salem. Before calling Jones onto the field, she posed a question she had recently

by Joel Sronce considered for the eight-time All-Star, who spent all 23 years of his legendary baseball career in the Atlanta Braves’ organization.

“Is [Jones] gonna be happy to be back in Braves country?” she wondered aloud.

The crowd roared. Despite a cold and windy evening on April 6, 750 supporters showed up to the first tour stop for Ballplayer, an event presented by the Triad-based literary arts nonprofit Bookmarks.

Walton’s question didn’t acknowledge the 300 miles between Atlanta and Winston-Salem, but she was right: Jones was back in Braves country.

It’s a reign more dominant than any other in professional sports in the United States: The American South belongs to the Atlanta Braves.

A quick review of social sports geography is in order.

Despite the pastoral appeal of baseball, it isn’t the South’s favorite game. In the dearth of other Major TERRI BURKE / CATCH A SPARK Chipper Jones and Carroll Rogers Walton, co-authors of Jones’ new memoir League Baseball teams in the Deep South, the award PHOTOGRAPHY Ballplayer, discuss the book and Jones’ baseball career at BB&T Ballpark. goes to football, where collegiate and professional navy-blue blazer and the red tablecloth on the high orange Gatorade — and his description of opposing Allfootball teams divide and conquer the rabid fandom. stand between them, all of the Braves’ colors were Star Jim Thome: “A big, corn-fed country boy.”

At the region’s northern border, college basketball conspicuously represented.

Supporters in the crowd knew the Braves’ history, holds court in Kentucky and North Carolina, and MLB “It’s been 25 years since I’ve been in Winston-Salem,” too. They responded knowingly as Jones discussed his teams are absent until farther north in Cincinnati and Jones told the crowd. He discussed his early days in the first home run that came in the top of the ninth in Washington DC Atlanta Braves organization, playing for the Durham Shea Stadium. They cheered his World Series recolAside from Florida — a state whose southern cities Bulls — then the Braves’ minor league affiliate — and lections, as well as his retelling of a walk-off homer of Tampa and Miami don’t seem to provide the camahis affinity for Bull Durham, which he called his favorite against the Phillies at the end of his career. raderie found above the peninsula — the closest basesports movie.

For those less knowledgeable of the Braves’ traball teams are in Houston to the west and St. Louis and “It’s such a good portrayal of what happens in the ditions, Jones revealed some interesting tidbits and Washington DC to the north. This leaves an enormous minor leagues,” Jones assured, revealing his own tranbaseball subtleties: Past banter with umpires, how the Southern vacuum, and with Ted sition from a being cocky rookie position of a pitcher’s glove foreshadows his choice Turner’s help, the Braves have like Tim Robbins’ “Nuke” LaLoosh of pitch, which players had the messiest lockers, and commanded it for decades. character to a more savvy veteran more.

This summer, Bookmarks Ted Turner, an owner of the akin to Kevin Costner’s “Crash” After his book tour, Jones will have to consider the Braves between the mid-’70s and opens its nonprofit indeDavis. next steps he’ll take. mid-’90s, nationally broadcasted As the conversation between “Getting back into that MLB lifestyle doesn’t interest pendent bookstore at 634 the team’s games on his TBS netJones and Walton continued, the me right now,” he told the crowd when asked about a work — another factor contribW. Fourth St., No. 110 (W-S).

Southern thing came right off the managerial role. uting greatly to their following bat.

But through his role in the Braves’ enduring dominLearn more about its new throughout the Southeast.

A bit blushingly, Walton asked ion, Chipper Jones should find fans across the South Along the parallel arteries of home at bookmarksnc.org.

Jones if she was still his favorite whenever he chooses to barnstorm through.

I-40 and I-10 between the Atinterviewer despite his recent aplantic Ocean and the Mississippi pearances on ESPN, Fox & Friends River, Braves gear hangs in gas and other networks. stations. A familiar, cursive ‘A’ adorns the caps of tens Pick of the Week “Of course you are,” Jones responded. “You’re from of thousands across the region. The South belongs to the South.” the Braves, and Chipper Jones — a native of northern Winston-Salem Dash vs. Buies Creek Astros @ The crowd — fans of all ages adorned in Braves gear, Florida, a World Series champion and National League BB&T Ballpark (W-S), Thursday, 7 p.m. some in camo style — lapped it up.

MVP — helped make it that way.

The Dash play their home opener, beginning a Later, a smattering of applause sounded as Jones As Jones walked onto the Winston-Salem field on seven-game homestand through April 19. Thursrecalled his childhood: “I got many a-whoopins… some April 6, the crowd gave a standing ovation. He and day’s game includes select beers for $1 through the with my pants on, some with my pants off.”

Walton took seats on tall barstools on either side of seventh inning and postgame fireworks. More info Those in the stands appreciated Jones’ pregame home plate as towering space heaters flanked them at milb.com/dash. snack disclosure — four chocolate-chip cookies and an on three sides. Between Jones’ white button-down, his

triad-city-beat.com

CROSSWORD

‘They’re Getting Along Great’ in this puzzle, at least.

by Matt Jones

Fifties fad involving undulation “Terrible” ages Conservation subj.

Product of a between-buildings cookoff?

Ointment ingredient Illinois city symbolizing Middle America “Funeral in Berlin” novelist Deighton Kentucky senator Paul Put up with Animal that can follow the second word in each of this puzzle’s four theme entries

Playing April 13 – 15

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OTHER SHOWS Open Mic 8:30 p.m. Thurs., Apr. 13. $5 tickets!

Family Improv 4 p.m. Sat., Apr. 15. $6 tickets!

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Cover Story

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Culture

Failure of diplomacy Moved stealthily Does nothing Haloes of light Made music?

Clingy critter?

Made like a kangaroo Prevent infestations, in a way The shortest month?

Practical joke Record producer with the 2017 single “Shining” Site of Bryce Canyon Old-school “Fuggedaboutit!”

“Call Me Maybe” middle name Horse’s brownish-gray hue Unironic ankh wearer at night Fillings for some donuts?

Consider officially, as a judge Bruins’ alma mater “On Golden Pond” bird Novel necessity Like joker values Another word for margarine Illumination Entertainment’s other 2016 film (besides “The Secret Life of Pets”) 65 History class division 66 Counterpart of yang 67 Philandering fellow

Opinion

Down 1 Couturiere Chanel 2 “Cornflake Girl” singer Tori 3 Contents of some jars 4 Empty space 5 El Dorado’s treasure 6 Magic’s NBA team, on scoreboards 7 City north of Pittsburgh 8 Big name in Thanksgiving parades 9 Extremely speedy mammals 10 Stow, as on a ship 11 Hand or foot, e.g.

12 Aptly titled English spa 15 Wee 18 Acronym popularized by Drake 22 ___ of Maine (toothpaste brand) 24 Three-letter “Squee!”

25 26 28 29 30 32 33 34 37 38 40 44 45 46 47 51 53 55 56 57 58 60 61 62

News

55 59 63 64 68 69 70 71 72 73

Up Front

Across 1 Animal that can follow the first word in each of this puzzle’s four theme entries 4 Folklore automaton 9 Steering wheel theft deterrent, with “The” 13 “Cheerleader” singer 14 Biblical landing site 16 1980s tennis star Mandlikova 17 Group that gets called about illicit facsimiles?

19 Fix a feature, e.g.

20 ___ buco (veal entree) 21 Canines often metaphorically sacrificed 23 Weather report stats 27 Kleenex crud 28 Classic 1971 album that closes with “Riders on the Storm” 31 Rapper Biggie 35 Jointly owned, maybe 36 Animal who says “Baa, humbug”?

39 2003/2005/2007 A.L. MVP, familiarly 41 Elevator or train component 42 Blacken, as a steak 43 Where to dispose of cooking grease and tropical oils?

48 Apr. number cruncher 49 Plan so that maybe one can 50 Mischievous 52 Breakfast side dish 54 Gambling game played in convenience stores

Playing April 14 – 16 Sportsball

TV CLUB PRESENTS DOCTOR WHO! SERIES 10 PREMIERE! The 12th Doctor’s FINAL ADVENTURES! 8 p.m. SATURDAY, April 15th Free Admission With Drink Purchase!

Answers from previous publication.

Crossword 10:30 p.m. Friday, April 14th! Free Admission With Drink Purchase!

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Shot in the Triad

--OTHER EVENTS & SCREENINGS--

The Return of Mystery Science Theatre 3000!

Great Cartoons! Free Admission! 10 a.m. & 12 p.m. Every Saturday!

©2017 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com)

Geeksboro Anime Club. Free Admission. 1 p.m. Saturday, April 15th Better Call Saul 10 P.m. Monday, April 16th. Free Admission.

Beer! Wine! Amazing Coffee!

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Triaditude Adjustment

TV Club presents “Samurai Jack” NEW EPISODE! 11 p.m. Saturday, April 15th

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April 12 – 18, 2017

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Shot in the Triad

Crossword

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Culture

Cover Story

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Up Front

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

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A lazy Wednesday afternoon.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

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TRIADITUDE ADJUSTMENT How to get away with credit card fraud

FOR LEASE

Up Front

I

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2021 Maywood Unit E Greensboro, NC 27403 2 BR, 1 BA, $525

Culture Sportsball

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Crossword

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Triaditude Adjustment

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Shot in the Triad

had no idea that hair extensions go rogue. were so expensive. I’m scrolling I called the company that sold the hair extensions and gave through pages and pages of luxurithe owner my story — and my police report number. She was ous for-sale bundles of hair, each one sympathetic enough to tell me the name of the person who radiating from a disembodied head. In placed the order, along with her email and IP addresses. This the past hour, I’ve learned about lace energized me and, for almost five solid minutes, I felt like a frontals and closures, about how to combination of Nancy Drew and the “Dateline” subjects who mimic a natural hairline and the differdon’t end up in a shallow grave beside disused playground

by Jelisa Castrodale ence between a body wave and a beach equipment. I thanked her profusely and told her that, if I ever wave. I’ve also learned that someone needed a 360-degree lace frontal, I’d get in touch. tried to buy $443 worth of both waves with my credit card.

When I called the WSPD back, I was connected to the same This is the second large purchase that has been thrown uninterested civilian I’d spoken to before. I gave her the hair toward my unsuspecting Visa balance, all without my consent. thief’s name and her address, in Jersey City, NJ. “That’s their I knew something terrible had happened when my phone problem,” she said, as I listened to her fingers clicking on her rang before 8 a.m. last Saturday morning. Actually, I knew keyboard. “She lives there, she’s not our problem.” something terrible had happened when my phone rang at all; “But she’s my problem,” I insisted. “And I live here.” my friends and I have reached the point where we communiIt didn’t matter. So I called the Jersey City Police Departcate almost exclusively through Snapchat, mostly because it ment and talked to another listless civilian, except this one has a number of photo filters that smooth out our forehead had an accent sharp enough to grate cheese with. wrinkles. Anyway, I answered the phone and someone from “You don’t live in Jersey City,” she asked, after I told the the credit card company asked if I’d just spent an story down to the ends of the fraudulent lace even $100 at Sonic Drive-In. (And, honestly, based frontals. “Because if you don’t live here, then it’s I hung up the on the amount of Wendy’s meals that I end up Winston-Salem’s problem.” paying 19 percent APR on, I’m surprised that they I pressed mute so she wouldn’t hear me chew phone, feeling flagged that as fraudulent.) I told them no, they through my own tongue, before telling her “They dejected, angry said it’s on you.” canceled the card, and I thought it was over.

Two days later, I found out about the hair “Look, I’m sorry for what you’re going through,” and dismissed. extensions. she said, sounding 0 percent sorry. “But I don’t On Monday morning, the thief was still out know you. For all I know, you’re trying to get back there, using my account to fill in the holes in her patchy scalp. at your neighbor by telling me about all of her wigs.”

The owner of the hair extension website texted me and told “Extensions.” me that my order hadn’t gone through. My order, because this “Extend what?” nimble-fingered nightmare was using my contact information, “They were hair extensions,” I said, like accuracy was the spelling my name better than some men I’ve dated. real problem. I hung up.

She’d texted me right at the start of my workday and, There was nothing else I could do. My new best friend at the although I enjoy procrastinating, it’s more like Googling “Who WSPD said that, if she had to, she’d type up a report and give sang the ‘Perfect Strangers’ theme song,” (David Pomeranz, it to the fraud department. No, she couldn’t guarantee they’d btw) than spinning my office chair in slow, angry circles while follow up on it. No, I couldn’t give it to them in person. No, I I wait for a call back from the Winston-Salem Police Departcouldn’t meet a real-life police dog. ment. I finally talked to a bored-sounding civilian who takes I dropped my head into my hands and rubbed my temples calls on the non-emergency number, and she couldn’t have the way people do in yellowing print ads for headache powbeen less interested if I’d just dialed the department to tell ders. Nothing was going to happen and I felt like I’d been let them that I’d just seen a particularly large butterfly. down by my own idea of what police officers are supposed to She dutifully took my information and punctuated most of do, which is admittedly based on a combination of Mariska my sentences with an audible sigh. “It’s fraud,” I said, using my Hargitay characters and Kindergarten Cop. (On the flipside, best victim voice. “It’s theft! It’s the principle of the situation!” if you’ve ever considered stealing someone’s credit card, go She paused, waiting for me to finish, before giving me a report ahead! There are zero repercussions, other than making time number. It felt perfunctory and unhelpful, the exchanging of for all the compliments you’ll get on those sweet-ass hair phone numbers after a charisma-free date. extensions.)

I hung up the phone, feeling dejected, angry and dismissed.

Ten minutes later, I got a text message. Did I just spend According to CNBC, hacked credit-card fraud was projected to $9.99 on iTunes, yes or no? I didn’t respond. It doesn’t matter, add up to $4 billion last year and my kind of fraud — known as either way. card-not-present fraud — was expected to be the most prevalent. I hate being that kind of statistic, and I hate that there’s Jelisa Castrodale is a freelance writer who lives in Winston-Sasomeone out there ordering hair clumps and hamburgers on lem. She enjoys pizza, obscure power-pop records and will probamy dime (or, more accurately, on 5,530 of my dimes). I spun bly die alone. Follow her on Twitter @gordonshumway. my chair in the most furious possible way, before deciding to

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