TCB Nov. — Two-faced by Triad City Beat

Greensboro / Winston-Salem / High Point Nov. 16 - 22, 2017 triad-city-beat.com

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Peak hipster PAGE 14

Tactile horrorshow PAGE 6

Arts in crisis PAGE 10

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

CONTENTS Nov. 16 - 22, 2017

Are we all Weinstein?

UP FRONT 2 4 6 6

Editor’s Notebook City Life 4 takeaways from Nathaniel Persily’s redistricting do-over Mayonnaise is repugnant

8 10

Local agency to drop home-care services to terminally ill children Arts council forced to drastically reduce support funding to grantees

NEWS

OPINION

CULTURE

14 Food: 5 foodie things to do this weekend in Winston-Salem 16 Art: Tall Tales: an ode to a generation of weirdos 17 Performance: NC Dance Festival breaks the fourth wall

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

18 Battlegroung Ave., Greensboro

CROSSWORD

19 Jonesin’ Crossword

12 Editorial: The Garage is too big to fail 12 Citizen Green: Greensboro, 2017: An election is not a revolution

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“You see the was capable of going Weinstein once in thing about Louis a while. And then there’s Trump, who was CK?” I ask TD. Weinstein before Weinstein. “Yeah,” he So TD and I — men of a certain age, breathes. “We all passive inheritors of a set of privileges, knew that one was beneficiaries of mores and norms escoming.” tablished well before we were born but TD has worked with which we knowingly complied — are by Brian Clarey in film and televiauditing our past. It’s an uncomfortable sion in New York City for decades, pretty process strung up with phone calls and much the whole time since he was my spiderwebbed with memories, some college roommate, and he knows a lot barely remembered and others shamefully of things about showbiz types. He didn’t stark, all encompassed by the existence bat an eye when Harvey Weinstein was of our young daughters, his barely old exposed as… what? A serial groper? A enough for school and mine quickly apsurly creep? A proaching the age sexual predator? And then there’s Trump, who was that might attract What do you call the unwanted atWeinstein before Weinstein. a man who has tention of men like been accused by Moore. 79 women of conflating sex with power in “As far as my professional life goes,” TD so many callous, brutal and downright ilsays, “I’m good. I never operated like that.” legal ways that his name is now shorthand “Me too,” I say, and we are thankful for for that special, male kind of disgusting those slices of goodness among our past known all too well by pretty much all sins: the gropes, the innuendo, what must women and most girls everywhere, since be hundreds of hours of unwanted attenforever. tion we’ve showered upon women who Now we know Louis CK got a little were too polite to tell us to screw off. Weinstein-y with the female comics on Maybe we’re not total Weinsteins, but tour. And Roy Moore, the Republican we are still part of the same bulwark. Or, Senate candidate in Alabama had a little at least, we were. Weinstein thing going on when he was Now, we’re trying to do better. the DA, and even Bush 41, it turns out,

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

It’s less about creating an institution and more about providing the opportunity for things to evolve. It’s providing gasoline instead of the foundation of the building. — Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County President & CEO Jim Sparrow, in the News, page 10

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

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Nov. 16 - 22, 2017

CITY LIFE Nov. 16 – 19 by Lauren Barber

Panel discussion @ Mars Hill Baptist Church (W-S), 5:30 p.m. Rosemary Millar, assistant professor of liberal arts at UNC School of the Arts, moderates a panel titled Envisioning Columbian Heights, the New Winston Museum’s final installment of the Lost, Found and Transformed salon series. Enjoy light refreshments while community experts discuss the relationship between the Columbian Heights neighborhood and the development of Winston-Salem State University. Learn more at newwinston.org.

Taste of the South @ Milton Rhodes Arts Center (W-S), 6 p.m. Just Us, a filmmaking and writing program for court-referred teens, hosts an evening of Southern cuisine, regional wine and beer to fund the program. Live music from Karon Click & the Hot Licks provides a backdrop to a silent auction, raffle contest and good eats. Learn more at authoringaction.org.

Valerie Jarrett @ NC A&T University (GSO), 6 p.m.

FRIDAY

Super FamiCon @ Elm Street Center (GSO), 5 p.m.

Opinion

News

Up Front

THURSDAY

Culture

Super FamiCon presents tournaments, cosplay and game tournaments, a comedy show and panels on everything from women in gaming to writing the history of gaming. Win prizes and explore the work of artists and vendors throughout the weekend. Learn more at superfamicon.com.

Crossword

Shot in the Triad

Sleep Out @ Bailey Park (W-S), 8 p.m. The Bethesda Center for the Homeless hosts an overnight event featuring a simulation of what it is like to lose a home. Help spread awareness and raise funds to support people experiencing homelessness in Forsyth County while engaging in this and other activities. Find the event on Facebook.

Opening reception @ Theatre Art Galleries (HP), 5:30 p.m. The Theatre Art Galleries hosts an opening reception for fall exhibits. Greensboro pastel artist Laura Pollak’s work is featured in an exhibit titled Pure Color in the Main Gallery while the Upstairs Gallery showcases the annual Artists Who Teach exhibit. Artwork from students in several local elementary schools is housed in the Kaleidoscope Youth Gallery. Learn more at tagart.org.

NC A&T hosts Valerie Jarrett — the longest-serving senior advisor to President Obama and former chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls — as the fall Chancellor’s Speaker Series’ keynote speaker. Erica Baker, senior engineer at Slack Technologies and an advocate for diversity in technology, will moderate a discussion with Jarrett in Alumni Foundation Event Center. Learn more at ncat.edu.

The Last One @ Greensboro History Museum (GSO), 7 p.m. In coordination with the weekend-long exhibition, Triad Health Project presents a free screening of The Last One: Unfolding the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a 2015 documentary that chronicles the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the evolution of LGBTQ activist Cleve Jones’ “Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt,” in the Mary Norris Reyer Hall Theater. Learn more and reserve a seat at triadhealthproject.org.

Community Work Day @ 200 Block of Washington Street (GSO), 9 a.m. Join artists associated with the Greensboro Mural Project as they seal a large portion of a new mural based on “love letters” residents wrote to the city. The mural is across the street from the depot and all skills levels are welcome. Find the event on Facebook.

SUNDAY

Homegrown Artisan Market @ Preyer Brewing Company (GSO), 1 p.m. Interact with one dozen local artists and makers while enjoying Cara Walton’s live performance, onsite beer and gourmet hot dogs and nachos from Frank Sinacho’s. Find the event on Facebook. The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson @ North Star LGBTQ Center (W-S), 2 p.m.

News

Piedmont Craftsmen’s Fair @ Benton Convention Center (W-S), 10 a.m. More than 100 artisans from the Southeast showcase their work with glass, leather, clay, wood, metal and fibers. Talk to artists about their trade and view demonstrations of craft techniques through Sunday. Learn more at piedmontcraftsmen.org.

Up Front

Apple Pancake & Celebration Day @ Farmer’s Curb Market (GSO), 8 a.m. The curb market celebrates this seasonal fall fruit with apple samples and vendors offering apple-inspired products. Guest chefs Alex and Tim Amoroso of Cheesecakes by Alex cook up apple pancakes while Tony Low and Julien McCarthy perform live music. Learn more at gsofarmersmarket.org.

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SATURDAY

Leland Melvin @ Greensboro Coliseum (GSO), 4 p.m.

Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad

Holiday concert @ Old Salem Museum & Gardens (W-S), 3 p.m. The North Carolina Harp Ensemble presents its free holiday concert in Gray Auditorium in the Visitor’s Center. The program includes holiday classics like “Carol of the Bells” and “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from The Nutcracker. Find the event on Facebook.

Crossword

The Greensboro Public Library hosts astronaut and former NFL wide receiver Leland Melvin as a continuation of the One City, One Book series based on Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures. Hear Melvin share his path to working on the International Space Station and inspiring young people to pursue STEM careers in the Special Events Center. Learn more at greensborocoliseum.com.

North Star LGBTQ Center and Winston-Salem United for Racial Justice screen The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, a film documenting the 1992 murder of the transgender rights pioneer. Find the event on Facebook.

Nov. 16 - 22, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword

is repugnant 4 takeaways from Nathaniel Persily’s Mayonnaise By Lauren Barber redistricting do-over by Jordan Green 1. Racial gerrymanders to nonpartisan redistricting Nathaniel Persily, a California law professor, was appointed by the federal courts to redraw Senate District 28 and House District 57 in Guilford County after they were found to be “unconstitutional racial gerrymanders” in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. We got a bonus in the draft plan released on Tuesday: Nonpartisan maps. “This is not to say that the plan will not have partisan, incumbency-related, or other electoral effects — all redistricting plans do,” Persily explained. “Rather, the principles that guide the production of the plan must be nonpartisan in nature and the changes to the districts must be explainable on that basis.” 2. A compact district that covers most of Greensboro The proposed Senate District 28 looks like something we’ve never seen in a redistricting process — an almost perfect circle that maximizes compactness and is “contained almost completely within the city of Greensboro and is made up of whole precincts.” The map shifts some Democratic-leaning areas near the airport into District 27, while swapping more conservative, affluent white areas in northwest Greensboro into District 28. While urban District 28 most likely remains Democratic while the suburban and rural District 27 stays Republican, but the new map makes them each slightly more competitive. 3. Nonpartisan and color-blind House districts To address the courts’ concern that District 57 over-concentrates African Americans, Persily moves the district lines west and north to incorporate predominantly white areas from Kirkwood up to Bur-Mil Park. Two additional districts — 58 and 61 — are drawn within Greensboro incorporating a broad spectrum of racial and wealth demographics. Although the map was drawn without consideration to partisan advantage, in effect it clearly allows Democrats to pick up a House seat in Guilford, but they’re so color-blind that it arguably make it more difficult for a black candidate to prevail in the county’s four Democratic leaning districts. 4. Justify yourselves, incumbents The Persily plan doesn’t completely ignore the custom of protecting incumbents, but he makes it clear that it’s not going to be the priority. By releasing this draft plan in advance of his Dec. 1 deadline, Persily cleverly shifts the onus onto the lawmakers. Persily gives the Republican-controlled General Assembly — the defendants in this lawsuit filed against the state by citizens — until Friday to submit briefs, suggesting, “The parties are encouraged to include in these submissions suggestions as to how incumbents shall be unpaired without degrading the underlying features of the plan, as specified in the court order.” The new proposed maps place several lawmakers in the same districts — most notably, Republican Trudy Wade and Democrat Gladys Robinson in the new Senate District 27.

My deep, unyielding revulsion to the mere sight or smell of mayonnaise is as old as my consciousness. Mayo is unequivocally gross and I will not be moved on this subject. But I don’t necessarily aim to move you either. Hear me out regardless. I grew up in a household where my nana — born the daughter of dairy farmers in 1930 Indiana — ruled the kitchen. She used it all the time. I’m the only family member who endures this particular aversion and I’ve caught some flak for it over the years, both within and outside of my family circle. When people discover my distaste for mayo, they act like I’ve divulged a cardinal sin or denounced them as peasants. And I won’t lie: I’m a little bougie. I prefer stone-ground Dijon to soulless yellow mustard and use a lot of fancy punctuation. But my disgust has nothing to do with you or your lifestyle, mayonnaise lovers; it stems from the sight, smell and tactile horrorshow that is this heinous emulsion of oil, egg yolk and vinegar. When I say I have a gag reflex, I’m saying I avert my gaze when I walk past its prominent home in the second aisle to avoid feeling sick. Ironically, I enjoy the distinct ingredients. Eggs are a gift from the gods and I always add oil and vinegar to a hoagie or salads. Those close to me also point out that mayonnaise is a key ingredient in tuna fish and chicken salad. To them, I say it pains me that I can’t be the one to make some of my favorite dishes and that there is a sensitive threshold to mayo’s inclusion. I can respect the utility of the substance — every sandwich needs a little spread, and it’s relatively inexpensive. Truth be told, I will brave a very thin spread of an herbed or spiced variety when I must. Even when I can’t see it and the sandwich tastes pretty good, though, I psychologically convince myself I am not in the same room as the stuff. All I’m asking is: Aside from cost, why not fall in love with any of the other options? And why the shaming? I don’t think I’m better than you — I just think your beloved condiment is garbage.

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Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword

Nov. 16 - 22, 2017

NEWS

Local agency to drop home-care services to terminally ill children by Jordan Green

Crossword

Shot in the Triad

Culture

Opinion

News

Up Front

Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro has announced that it will drop pediatric homecare services to 19 families of terminally ill children.

The parents of 19 terminally ill and medically fragile children are receiving the harsh news this week that they’ll be dropped by Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro at the end of the month. Kristen Yntema, the nonprofit’s president and CEO, informed medical providers and referral partners of the decision to discontinue the pediatric home-health services program in a letter on Nov. 10, and the agency issued a public statement confirming the decision on Monday. Dara LaJoie, whose 4-year-old son Emilio suffers from a rare genetic disease, absorbed the news on Monday evening while visiting her friend, Dania Ermentrout, at her home in Greensboro’s Hamilton Lakes neighborhood. Ermentrout’s 5-year-old daughter, Moira, napped on a plush cushion after receiving a strong dose of pain medicine to help her cope with the symptoms of a similar condition. “I’m a single mother and I work fulltime,” LaJoie said. “The home-health aspect is very important. I’m constantly in contact with them. I can text them anytime day or night for their advice. It’s crucial. Not having to go to the emergency room means I don’t have to miss work. I’m a dental hygienist. If I don’t work, I don’t get paid. They have counselors. It’s a lot to deal with, and being able to vent to someone is huge.” Emilio is nonverbal and unable to hold his body upright. As a result of a chromosomal abnormality, he suffers from severe scoliosis that affects his breathing. He has an implant in his lungs and requires surgery every four months to be able to breathe. As his mother talked and occasionally stroked his arm, Emilio lay on a blanket listening and patting his hand on the floor with an expression of contentment. The pediatric home-health service under the axe by Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro also provided social workers to help parents manage their

Dania Ermentrout (left), with daughter Moira, visited with their friends Dara LaJoie, with son Emilio, on Monday.

children’s periodic health emergencies. “They paid my rent one time because I was in the hospital with him,” LaJoie said. “They got a church to contribute $400 to cover half of my mortgage payment.” Ermentrout, who previously worked as a research professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, said Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro’s home-health program was a nationwide model of care up until a couple months ago. Home health is one of four components of Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro’s Kids Path program. The agency has indicated it plans to continue the remaining three components, which include hospice for a tiny number of children who are certified by two doctors as being within six months of death, grief counseling for about 200 children a year, and case management for medically fragile children. “Not many families are in this circumstance, but if you are, this type of thing can make the difference between your

family being able to live a semblance of normal life and being in total purgatory,” Ermentrout said, fighting back tears. “It’s a very terrible situation.” Yntema, the organization’s president and CEO, declined several interview requests for this story, but the agency released a prepared statement citing a 2014 consultant’s report highlighting the challenges of providing home-health services to a relatively small patient population spread over a large geographic area. The statement acknowledged that financial cost was a factor in the agency’s decision to discontinue the program. “Expenses associated with the home health component represented more than 35 percent of the Kids Path budget — nearly $300,000 annually,” the agency said. “Pediatric home health is available from several other providers. Therefor the service is a duplication of available resources at significant expense. Charitable support remains strong for the program and necessary to continue

JORDAN GREEN

to provide services for more than 200 children a year. Yet the shortfall created by the home health component was not sustainable.” Ermentrout said the relatively high cost of home-health service results from a couple factors. Unlike hospice, the agency doesn’t receive a per diem reimbursement from the federal government, and the number of children served by the home-health program is 10 to 20 times larger than the pediatric hospice population. “Most children who are in lifethreatening circumstances are in home health,” Ermentrout said. “Many children die in home health. For all intents and purposes, you can see home health as pseudo-hospice, but they’re not getting the reimbursement per diem.” Dr. Ernie Schiller, who served as medical director for Kids Path up to his retirement in 2015, said he argued with the former CEO for the last seven years of his tenure that pediatric home health

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home health services will still have access the same response from Yntema readto Kids Path’s wrap-around services for ing: “The rumor that you heard is false. medically fragile children, including There are no plans to close Kids Path.” counseling for adults and children with Ermentrout charges that Yntema’s access to volunteer and spiritual care response amounts to “semantic games” support,” the statement said. that she called “sick,” considering that Contradicting Hospice and PalliaYntema acknowledged to her persontive Care of Greensboro’s position that ally at the end of August that the agency pediatric home health is not finanplanned to discontinue the pediatric cially sustainable, Ermentrout said the home-care program. agency passed up an opportunity to join Following the Aug. 4 resignation of forces with Cone Health to operate the Kids Path Director Marion Taylor, program. Ermentrout added that she ofErmentrout said her daughter’s social fered to leverage her connections in the worker put in her last day in October, medical community and grant-writing and two registered nurses on the homeexperience to raise money for the prohealth team gave notice the same month. gram. And she said a past donor to Kids “Our staff developed a communicaPath reached out to Yntema to offer tions plan to announce this decision as future financial support. The overtures soon as it was appropriate,” the agency were rebuffed or ignored, Ermentrout said in its prepared statement on Monsaid. day. “Staff turnover has shortened the “I did fundraisers for them,” Ermentransition timeline.” trout said. “There’s an outdoor musiSchiller said at this point it’s probcal instrument that is dedicated to my ably too late for Hospice and Palliative daughter in their garden.” Care of Greensboro to reverse course on Dr. Schiller said he the decision to cut loose believes that if the public pediatric home health. He understood the plight of ‘For all intents and said the former employees the children and the numwouldn’t go back bepurposes you can, cause their trust has been ber affected, they would rise to the occasion and you can see home broken. open their wallets. “I hope with time health as pseudo “I think it’s scary that Advanced Home Care hospice.’ the healthcare system is will learn and grow into so complex we don’t even the skills,” he said. “They – Dania Ermentrout know how many kids are need to because they at home on ventilators,” don’t have the confidence Schiller said. “Duke Power probably of the pediatric community now. They’ll knows better than us.” tell you, ‘We don’t have any accrediting Despite his offer, Schiller said the leaddings,’ but if you talk to the pediatriership at Hospice and Palliative Care cians, they’ll tell you: ‘Ehhh, I’ll use was unwilling to entertain the idea of a them if I have to.’” concerted fundraising push. As Ermentrout and LaJoie visited on “There was not even a willingness to Monday evening, they worried aloud give it a try,” he said. “I offered my time about a future in which their children’s to be a spokesperson. I was never taken survival is tenuous, even under the best up on it.” of circumstances. The decision to discontinue pediat“I have a lot more faith Emilio is goric home care is likely catching many ing to grow up, and that’s probably not parents by surprise. LaJoie said on going to happen for us,” Ermentrout, Monday she wouldn’t have known but Moira’s mother, said. “But whether it’s for Ermentrout, her friend, who got Moira or Emilio, there are so many risks wind of the impending changes from her these children face. I will tell you this daughter’s pediatrician in early August. about the nurses at Kids Path: They LaJoie said she reached out to staff with have this fount of information that is so her concerns around the same time, specialized. No one else provides anyand received an assurance that nothing thing like it.” would change. Similarly, other supporters who wrote emails expressing concern about the stability of Kids Path received

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was sustainable, ultimately to no avail. At the time of his retirement, Schiller said there were 45-50 children in the pediatric home health program — a number that has dwindled over the past couple years. Even the previous patient population was only a fraction of the actual number of terminally ill children in Guilford County, which Schiller said is probably closer to 200. Schiller said he advocated to the agency’s leadership that they expand the program rather than shutting it down. Yntema said in her letter to the service providers who work with Kids Path that the 19 families who receive home-health services will transition to Advanced Home Care or another service provider of their choice at the end of the month. The Greensboro-based company describes itself as “one of the largest Medicare-/Medicaid-certified home care organizations in the Southeast,” serving more than 30,000 patients per day, and Yntema reasoned that “Advanced Home Care has expertise in home health that surpasses our own.” Ermentrout harbors doubts that Advanced Home Care will be able to match the quality care provided by the registered nurses at Kids Path who are familiar with symptom management for children with complex needs, and perform skilled procedures like the porta-cath flush her daughter receives once a month. She said she fears that the transfer from Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro to Advanced Home Care will be the first step towards discharge for many children, especially if they require procedures that aren’t reimbursable by insurance. “There’s no reason why Advanced will keep them,” Ermentrout said. “Kids Path kept them because they were referred by local providers…. It was guided by a mission and there was fundraising to support it. When you’re being transferred to an agency that bills insurance and has no mission for caring for children, what is the incentive for them not to discharge the children?” Advance Home Care could not be reached for comment for this story. Some of the non-medical services currently provided under the Kids Path home-care program will continue, Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro said in its official statement. “Families who previously received

Nov. 16 - 22, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword

Arts council forced to drastically reduce support funding to grantees by Jordan Green Arts organizations in Winston-Salem are sustaining major cuts after the annual campaign by the arts council missed its goal by a whopping $400,000. An email from Jim Sparrow, the president and CEO of the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County, to the executive directors of some of the city’s largest arts organizations foreshadowed some of the financial challenges the arts community would face. The arts council was experiencing cash-flow problems, Sparrow said, and he hoped arts organizations would understand if payments from the 20162017 organizational support grants were behind schedule. “The cash wasn’t here to give out,” Sparrow said in a recent interview. “I did send out a note, and said, ‘We don’t have extra reserves. We don’t have a cushion. We’re giving it out as fast as we can.’” Sparrow acknowledged normal payments to some of the 18 major arts organizations supported by the arts council may have run as much as two months behind. Sparrow had already warned arts organizations that previous levels of support weren’t sustainable, and they should brace for reductions ranging from 15 to 20 percent. When the 2017 annual campaign ended $400,000 short of its $2.81 million goal, it became clear the cuts would go deeper. Reynolda House Museum of American Art and Old Salem Museum & Gardens suffered the deepest cuts in consideration of their position of relative strength as institutions with significant endowments, with Reynolda House dropping to $40,000 from its previous allocation of $75,000. Old Salem fell to $40,000 from $60,900. RiverRun International Film Festival, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, WinstonSalem Symphony and Piedmont Opera all took 33 percent cuts. The Sawtooth School for Visual Art; Triad Stage; the NC Black Repertory Company, the organization responsible for the biannual National Black Theatre Festival; and Little Theatre of WinstonSalem received funding reductions of 28 percent. Smaller organizations received special consideration, with Bookmarks

The arts council owes $4.5 million on the Milton Rhodes Arts Center, which opened in 2012. Balancing its own viability with grants to arts organizations remains an ongoing challenge.

receiving a raise from $15,000 to $20,000 and Piedmont Wind Symphony going from $20,000 to $30,000, while Winston-Salem Festival Ballet saw a 10.3 percent increase to $35,974. Piedmont Craftsmen’s grant was cut by a relatively modest 6.7 percent to $74,652. “There was a conversation about the fairest way to do this that we had with the grantees,” Sparrow said. “There were a variety of tiers. Approximately 30 to 33 percent had to be cut from the overall pool that pulled about $400,000 out of that initial $1.4 million. Rather than doing it across the board, we asked ourselves: How do we do this in a way that manages our resources well and gives all of us the ability to operate? The smaller groups, the ones with the smallest budgets were the ones that not only did they score the highest, but a reduction was going to be significant. It wasn’t going to be something they could make up.” Geoff Corbin, the executive director of the Sawtooth School, credited Spar-

row with proactively communicating to the grantees about the shortfall. “He telegraphed to us that the cut was going to be deep,” said Corbin, whose organization saw a reduction from $121,800 to $87,696. “He forecasted to us that the fundraising wasn’t going to meet the goal.” Corbin said he is confident his staff’s dedication will carry the Sawtooth Center through a difficult year without any compromise to the quality of its classes and other programming. And he said the arts council is offering to help defray costs by sharing internet, phone and financial services considering that they’re housed in the same building. Allison Perkins, Reynolda House’s executive director, said the funding cut is disappointing although understandable, and her organization will be forced to seek funding from other sources to maintain the quality of its programming. Sparrow said two national trends are making arts fundraising more challenging. Mid-tier corporations are less willing

LAUREN BARBER

to pony up money for general operating expenses, and increasingly want to see their dollars support specific projects or initiatives. And corporations are less willing to grant united giving campaigns access to their employees for workplace fund drives. Rich Whittington, the managing director of Triad Stage, holds a unique vantage point as a representative of the only grantee organization with a presence in both Winston-Salem and Greensboro. Triad Stage’s 28-percent funding loss this year from the Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County looks remarkably similar to the 29-percent hit the regional theater took when ArtsGreensboro ran into a funding gap in the summer of 2016. Triad Stage’s grant from the Greensboro arts council remained flat this year. “What we’re seeing in Winston-Salem is what we’ve also seen in Greensboro,” Whittington said. “I’m hoping this becomes a call to our community to rally and realize this is a regional problem

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in Fort Wayne, Ind., Sparrow is familiar with the consequences of losing a corporate headquarters. “The community I came from where Lincoln Financial moved its headquarters to Philadelphia, when I started it was giving $250,000 to the arts and providing a $100,000 workplace — literally the building that housed us — to the arts council,” Sparrow said. “By the time I left, it was down to $50,000. That was a loss of $300,000.” The funding reduction to major arts organizations comes at a time when the viability of live music is also under strain. The Garage, a beloved venue for original live music in downtown Winston-Salem, announced that it will stage its last concert on New Year’s Eve. Other indicators also spell trouble: Phuzz Phest, an indie music festival that previously received financial support from the arts council, went dormant earlier this year. And Ziggy’s, then the city’s largest music club, closed in early 2015. Sparrow said he received a phone call on Monday inquiring whether the arts council could step in to support live music at the Garage. He’s not sure of the answer, although he was quick to say that live music is an important cultural asset. Musing on the question of how the community will respond to the plight of the Garage, Sparrow said the arts council of the future might be more of a facilitator than an institution-builder. “I think figuring out ways we can provide resources and cash and technical support — it’s less about creating an institution and more about providing the opportunity for things to evolve,” Sparrow said. “It’s providing gasoline instead of the foundation of the building.”

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that we have to come together to address. The arts are too important to not solve this funding problem. Imagine this community without the theaters, the symphony and the operas. It would be a very different place.” The arts community in Winston-Salem is adjusting from an ambitious and successful comprehensive campaign led by former arts council President & CEO Milton Rhodes that provided a major cash injection but also incurred significant costs to build the arts center that bears his name. “Back in 2007-2010, the arts council ran a campaign that helped build the Milton Rhodes Arts Center,” Sparrow said. “That was sold as a comprehensive campaign for building, marketing and grants. We were able to stretch that gift over several years. The increases to operating grants were made with the expectation that we would raise that money annually.” Before he took the job in 2013, Sparrow said the arts council arrived at a reckoning that the previous grant levels would not be sustainable. Sparrow said the arts council’s challenge is to find the “equilibrium” between dispensing grant money and eliminating debt, including more than $4.5 million owed on the arts center, while also building reserves. Before reducing grants, Sparrow said, he trimmed administrative expenses by moving his staff from a rented facility into the arts center. And his staff has shrunk by three positions since his arrival in 2013. Sparrow indicated there’s no reason to expect fundraising prospects to improve in 2018. British American Tobacco’s acquisition of Reynolds American earlier this year adds to the uncertainty. From his previous experience as an arts leader

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Nov. 16 - 22, 2017

OPINION

EDITORIAL

CITIZEN GREEN

This week, in a space where we generally lambast or praise events on the harder side of the news cycle, we bemoan an unthinkable development on the cultural side of things: the apparent demise of the Garage in downtown Winston-Salem, the best rock room in the Triad. In its own way, the Garage has been as important to the development of downtown as the Innovation Quarter, Krankies or Hanesbrands Theatre — in some ways even more so, because it came first. Richard Emmett opened that place on a dollar and a dream in a neighborhood most people had already written off. This was before the Silver Moon, which Emmett opened around the corner a few years later, before Finnigan’s Wake, before 6th & Vine and even before Elliot’s Revue, the divey little spot that grew across the street and would eventually morph into Test Pattern. The area around the corner of Sixth and Trade streets had not yet been officially designated as the Arts District when the Garage first opened its doors. Through its all-too-short history, the Garage blended seamlessly into the city’s landscape and also drove it into new territory with experimental acts and off-the-nose bookings. And though it is not the largest outpost on the cultural map, the Garage is too big to fail. In his missive to the press and business communities, current owner Tucker Tharpe announced that the Garage’s “last show” will be on New Year’s Eve. And though — in inimitable Tucker style — he left room for interpretation as to the club’s final fate, it’s clear that the community to which the Garage has contributed so much needs to give back. And by that we mean that the city’s institutions should subsidize it or buy it outright. It’s not such a strange proposition. The town of Carrboro regularly sponsors events at the Cat’s Cradle. The Orange Peel in Asheville got a $50,000 grant and a $250,000 loan from the Buncombe County Convention & Visitor’s Bureau in 2009, jump-starting a major expansion. The city of Los Angeles owns the Greek Theatre outright; same deal with Denver and Red Rocks. And of course, the Greensboro Coliseum Complex is public property, too. The live-music business is a tough one, and it’s more difficult than ever for clubs to stay open, let alone turn a profit. But the Garage is essential to the city’s nightlife, a key factor in its retention of young people and integral to the overall character of the city and the neighborhood in which it stands. It’s worth saving, any way we can.

Few people anticipated the proto push back on that, but the real work will continue to gressive wave that swept over the happen outside of council chambers through the work of electoral landscape last Tuesday. ordinary residents organizing and agitating for meaningful Beyond the much-heralded change.” Virginia election that saw a guberKennedy will have the opportunity to join incumbents natorial candidate who trafficked in Sharon Hightower and Yvonne Johnson in holding Mayor Trump-like racial demagoguery go Nancy Vaughan’s feet to the fire to address the city’s stubby Jordan Green down in flames, not to mention the born poverty rate and accelerate the city’s commitment to first out trans person elected to a state legislature and selfraise the minimum wage for city workers to $15 per hour. described socialists elected to local and state office across Kennedy, Hightower and Johnson are also the “three relithe country, major shifts also occurred in North Carolina. able votes for police accountability,” as Kernodle observed. Charlotte elected its first black female mayor, Vi Lyles, Curbing poverty will be an uphill battle for even the most while propelling Braxton Winston — whose image standing cohesive and focused council, with structural employment shirtless and with a raised fist before a row of riot police patterns driving a widening wealth gap in cities across the came to represent the unrest over the police killing of Keith country. Lamont Scott last year — to city council. Al Heggins, the Efforts to reform racial disparities in policing are likely to former human relations director for the city of High Point, run into even more resistance. Two years after a New York won the highest number of votes for Salisbury City CounTimes exposé on the Greensboro Police Department, the cil, which means by custom that she will likely be the city’s pressure to reduce arrests for minor offenses and address next mayor. Only two years ago, Heggins was fired by the the over-policing of the black community seems to have city of High Point after city council members raised a stink abated. Repeated occurrences of apparent police abuses, about a police-community relations forum she organized from the Scales brothers and Dejuan Yourse to Jose that employed the term “white supremacy.” Incidentally, Charles and Zared Jones, show no sign of letting up. And Heggins’ chief persecutor, Jim Davis, lost his bid for mayor. when people complain about police mistreatment, they In Greensboro, of course, the two most conservative often encounter a confusing and demoralizing bureaucracy city council members, both with little transparency. In other white men, were replaced by there’s no reason to think ‘We may have a couple new council words, progressive women. Tammi longstanding tensions between members...but the real work will Thurm’s unseating of the Tony police and the black community Wilkins, the only Republican continue to happen outside of coun- have reached resolution thanks on the board, in District 5 by a to Kennedy’s election. 10-point margin was astounding cil chambers.’ Contrasting Facebook posts – John Robert Kernodle III enough. Even more dramatic, by Irving Allen and CJ Brinson Michelle Kennedy, who has — two Black Lives Matter orgaearned a reputation for forcenizers whose Greensboro City fully speaking out against policies that criminalize poverty Council campaigns were cut short in the primary — capture and enable police abuse, dislodged Mike Barber, a develthe paradoxical reality of the election. oper-friendly council member who ran for re-election with “Greensboro makes a huge shift on its city council last the backing of the Greensboro Police Officers Association. night!” Allen wrote. “Congrats to Michelle Kennedy and Kennedy takes office as the first openly gay member of the Tammi Thurm for running amazing campaigns in the city. council and proudly wore a T-shirt on election night to proThis is where the work begins. Excited about what is posmote the UE Local 150 Greensboro City Workers Union. sible moving forward.” And yet, for all the dramatic storylines and eye-popping Posting with the hashtag #CarryOn, Brinson offered optics, there’s no guarantee at least in Greensboro that city a glass-half-full analysis: “In the midst of white joy, white government will undergo a dramatic transformation. moderate liberalism, and the perception of a left-leaning John Robert Kernodle III, a divinity student at Wake ForGreensboro… black bodies still feel clouds of terror hoverest University whose late father served on Guilford County ing around our existence.” School Board, tempered expectations in an election-night The contradiction between those two frames likely marks Facebook post. the fissure between two emerging blocs on city council that “Expect a council that will refuse to stick its neck out both call themselves progressive — one that congratulates for civil rights, racial and economic justice, and basically itself for new hotels and brewpubs and another that cauanything that isn’t developer-approved,” wrote Kernodle, tions us not to forget working families who aren’t getting by a self-described socialist and anarchist. “We may have a or people of color who feel oppressed rather than procouple new council members who are ready and willing tected by the police.

The Garage is too big to fail

Greensboro, 2017: An election is not a revolution

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Nov. 16 - 22, 2017 Up Front News Opinion Culture Shot in the Triad Crossword

CULTURE 5 foodie things to do this weekend in Winston-Salem

by Eric Ginsburg

1. Mac & Cheese Fest @ Old Winston Social Club It’s time for my favorite annual Triad food event! This Saturday, Old Winston Social Club hosts its 2017 Mac & Cheese Fest, beginning at 3:30 p.m. The best part: It’s free. This is the sixth year that the Burke Street neighborhood bar (which is sometimes overrun by Wake Forest students on weekend nights) hosts the contest, where locals bring their best mac to compete for cheesy glory. It’s free to the public, which means that if you show up on time — or a little early, to be safe — you can try a dozen or so different recipes at no cost. Literal heaven. My sister has earnestly considering flying into town to attend, but the Mac & Cheese Fest always seems to sneak up on me. Don’t let it slip by you, too. If you’re somehow still hungry the next day, the Porch Kitchen & Cantina is hosting a family-style Friendsgiving; see Facebook for details about both events. 2. Honey tasting @ Colony Urban Farm Chances are that you, like me, have a list of places you’ve been meaning to check out but never get around to it. And then when you’re presented with free time, you can’t remember any of the ideas you had because you failed to write them down. Don’t beat yourself up — I’ve got you covered. Colony Urban Farm is arguably the most interesting food-oriented retail space in the city this year. The store offers a pretty wide variety of products, from beekeeping tools to natural soap, but the honey is the real draw. If eating lobster mac & cheese at OWSC wasn’t decadent enough for you, come taste a few of the 30 varieties of honey sold at the store. This is not a drill: Colony Urban Farm offers honey on tap. If you’re too busy for that, you need to seriously reevaluate your life choices. Related: If you haven’t been to Black Mountain Chocolate on Trade Street yet, we can’t be friends. 3. Eat dessert @ Humble Bee Shoppe Let’s stick with the sweet end of the spectrum for a moment here, and the whole pollinator-inspired name thing. This West End bakery specializes in cookies, and people bring it up to me constantly. Winston-Salem loves its

treats — home of Dewey’s, Krispy Kreme, a chocolate factory, a downtown candy store and more — and Humble Bee fits right in. The bakery takes gluten-free baking seriously, with separate aprons and utensils used for making flourless items. But unlike some specialty operations in the Triad, that’s not all it does. Whether its fresh flowers on cakes or pumpkin butter macarons, Humble Bee distinguishes itself with beautiful and unique products. Maybe that’s part of the reason it has a perfect 5.0 rating on Facebook. Find more at thehumblebeeshoppe.co. 4. Drink a Pretty Boy Croix @ Bar Piña The latest from John William Tate is still pretty young, but it has already received attention from the venerable Bitter Southerner. Though the out-oftown author mistakenly claims that it’s the first tiki bar in Winston-Salem (let’s acknowledge the recently-defunct EMILY PATTERSON The author in heaven (AKA Old Winston Social Club’s Mac & Cheese Fest in Luna Lounge, or even Harry’s 2014). Kahuna Tiki Grill in wayyy west Winston), there’s a reason Bar I wouldn’t trade experiences — plan a date at QB right now if Piña is attracting attention. you haven’t been in a minute — but I did feel mildly betrayed Most obviously, Tate. The man behind Tate’s Craft Cocktails and slightly stupid that I didn’t already know about this miand the beloved (but also defunct) Honey Pot brings us a sleek raculous new menu offering. rooftop space with a scintillating draft cocktail menu — a “You didn’t tell me y’all have a MAC & CHEESE BAR. Dude,” I mule, a paloma and sherry limeade — as well as a starting texted Blain from my barstool that night. lineup of “cold bevvies.” Take the first cocktail on the menu, “Yes sir,” he wrote back. “Because there’s nothing like mac for example; where else can you find a drink with Cristal rum, n cheese with pork belly and a beer washed down with a milklimon verde, sugar, fresh spearmint and the lime La Croix?! shake.” Peak hipster achieved. If anywhere in town was going to do something like this, it’s If that isn’t enough to convince you, search the location tag no surprise that it’s coming from the kitchen at Small Batch. on Instagram and look at the moody, neon-infused photos, Few places put as much thought into their bar snacks; they’re soak in the rooftop vibes or plan what you’ll wear to pose for a the best of any brewery in the Triad. (Runner up: Foothills, or selfie in front of the leafy wallpaper. Crafted/Preyer and the Porch/Hoots, though those don’t truly count.) 5. Mac & cheese bar @ Small Batch And arguably nobody understands the Instagram-ready Yeah, more mac & cheese. Get over it. angle locally than the purveyors of Burger Batch next door I’ll admit to being pretty pissed when I learned that Small (same team, adjoining space) where a sleek diner and sort Batch Beer Co. has a build-your-own mac & cheese bar. of ridiculous milkshakes meet. If you’re trying to be Insta-faI text with co-owner Ryan Blain semi-regularly (usually mous, eat dinner here and then walk to Bar Piña for drinks. Or answering his questions about where to eat with his family go ham and knock out everything on this list over the weekin Greensboro, since they live in Winston-Salem), so when end it would be remarkably cheap, and would definitely make I showed up at Small Batch for a drink after snagging some everyone jealous. Even me. first-rate pasta at Quanto Basta, I arrived on a full stomach.

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