TCB Feb. 20, 2025 — The Last One by Triad City Beat

THE PEOPLE’S PAPER FEBRUARY 20, 2025

THE LAST ONE

Eleven years of the ‘Little Paper That Could’

In this last issue, you’ll read reflections from past writers (in yellow) and our many supporters who made it all worthwhile. Thank you for the last 11 years. It was more than we could ask for.

The last one, but not the end

Sayaka Matsuoka Intern, staff writer, managing editor, 2014, 2018-25

When I first started working at Triad City Beat back in late 2014, I had no idea what journalism was or what it entailed. I could never have anticipated the heartbreaks, the joys, the never-ending river of stories that come from the job.

I was a freshly graduated college kid looking for the next thing to do when I found an ad for editorial interns at this new paper. I thought, why not?, and gave it a go. At the time, I had no idea that applying for the position and working at TCB would change my life forever.

For the next five months, I learned the many ins and outs of the trade. How to source a story, how to write a lede, a kicker, a scene. I learned how to make public records requests and the difference between a city council and a county commission. I learned about word count, deadlines, quick turns. I learned the difference between a feature, a news and an opinion piece. I learned that this is what I want to do forever.

Since returning to TCB in 2018, I’ve seen the many iterations that the paper has gone through. As a scrappy, small newsroom, Triad City Beat has always taken on the identity of the people who have worked here. In the beginning, when it was mostly Brian, Eric and Jordan running the joint, the pages were filled with long cover stories about the cities, Eric’s columns about local food and drink and Jordan’s investigations into right-wing extremists. When I started taking over the editorial side a few years back, we began shifting deeper into the racial component of the cities, which all came to a head in 2020 with the pandemic and the reckoning wrought by George Floyd’s murder. In the years since, we’ve doubled down on our civics reporting with stories that chronicle the ins and outs of city government in a way that has been lost in many of our other local publications.

What I mean to say is that things have changed.

In the last 11 years, Triad City Beat has shifted, evolved, warped, even, to fit the needs of the community and reflect back the things that have been going on here. And that’s what made this paper great.

The willingness and flexibility that it had to always put the communities it covered

first above all else.

So this may feel like a sad thing that’s happening. An ending. A death.

But actually, if you really think about it, we’re not losing the core of this paper — its stories.

And that’s because the stories weren’t created by us. Sure, we found them, pitched them, transcribed them, wrote them, edited them and published them. But the stories were never about us. They were about you. We were simply the vessel.

A paper doesn’t exist without things to cover, the people and places that make a community.

And that’s why no matter what, the things that made Triad City Beat what it is will continue, because you will continue.

Often, when I tell people that I’m a journalist, people respond with, “Wow, that must be tough.”

And sure, it is. But more than anything it is the thing that gives me hope.

In the years I have dedicated to working here, I have seen the most amazing and inspiring things.

Mothers coming together to demand justice for their kids Women cleaning each other’s homes for free People volunteering to teach yoga to refugees Artists creating for the greater good Workers advocating for better treatment for themselves and their peers Communities fighting for access to healthcare. Neighbors protecting their neighbors.

It is impossible for me to stay despondent, discouraged or disengaged while doing this work. Instead, it is a salve.

Every story, every interview uncovers an aspect of humanity — which I still believe is good. And I have you to thank for that.

So even if Triad City Beat doesn’t exist to tell these stories, the work of journalism can, and is, being done by all of us. It happens when you tell someone about a new coffee shop that you love. It happens when you volunteer for a new organization, when you connect someone with resources, when you tell your friend about a beautiful moment you experienced during your day. Because journalism, at its core, is about storytelling.

And stories are everywhere, all around us, always.

We just have to take the time to look and listen.

One of our favorite shots from the last 11 years was this one by Carolyn de Berry taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. It shows one of our newspaper boxes on Walker Avenue in Greensboro. And the message is still relevant today: We’ll get through this.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

Brian Clarey Co-founder, publisher, 2014-25

It was never my dream to own a scrappy little newspaper. That came later. But since I was little, it had always been my dream to write. I loved words.I loved sentences. I loved anything that carried the written word from a writer’s head to a reader’s eyes. In childhood, before cable TV and video games came out, I devoured these things: my mother’s novels, my father’s newspapers, my grandparents’ old Life magazines — whatever I could get my hands on.

It wasn’t until much later that I began making real sentences of my own.

It was tough for me to break into this business. I had no real mentors or allies in the beginning. Though I had yet to accomplish anything of substance, I carried a terrible arrogance, plus I looked like a freak and was kind of a drunk.

But I worked harder on my writing than I had ever worked at anything before, and I simply refused to quit, to “find something else,” or to “explore other options,” both pieces of advice I had gotten from people who meant well but just didn’t understand me.

A professional writer, they say, is an amateur who never quit. The same can be said of any creative endeavor. Never stop, and eventually you’ll get there. And so persistence, stubbornness and doggedness have been driving principles in my life.

I suppose that’s why I stayed with Triad City Beat for so many years, after the other founders peeled off, when it began to affect my family life, through the hardest years of my career as external forces and malevolent actors emaciated the business of journalism until it became unrecognizable from the thing I signed on to all those years ago.

All the things that I loved about newspapering — metro columns, experimental features, travel writing, profiles, slice-of-life pieces, reported opinion, relevant cultural coverage among them — have been scuttled to the wayside by most local news

orgs, ostensibly to focus on the things that matter in a kind of civic triage. I’m talking about local government, which touches our lives on the daily: what our homes are worth, when our garbage gets picked up, what we do with the land we live on, how we enforce the law, taxes and how we spend them, schools and parks…. If you’re reading this I probably don’t have to tell you the importance of local government functions. And I probably don’t have to tell you that right now, in the Triad, no one is covering the school board.

That’s another reason I stayed so long: Someone in Triad media has to give a shit about this stuff. For a time it was me and, mostly, the people around me. TCB has always been a product of those who work there. Writers don’t get assignments; they give pitches. Editors have been largely free to follow their instincts without interference. Our content has always reflected this, shifting with the talents of those who make it happen. Most of it had very little to do with me; I just got everyone together in the room.

That has been my favorite part of it all: the people in the room.

In the beginning there were just four of us: me, Jordan Green, Eric Ginsburg and Jorge Maturino, our first employee. Together we defined TCB in those first few months with our content and design. We loaded it on the website and made it into weekly papers that we delivered ourselves, with some help from my dad.

We’ve had a few dozen folks come into the room since then, dropping in like individual elements that forever changed our chemistry, an 11-year experiment that got us to here, the end of the line. For me, anyway. As they’ve done since the beginning, when our folks leave the room they often find themselves in other rooms, ones with bigger markets and better pay and nicer furniture. So while the sun sets on TCB, the thing we made here will exist in those people, as well as anyone else who connected with our work and how we did it, which was the point of it all.

If we don’t do this, we thought, no one else will. But I believe that’s not true anymore. I believe in what we started here at TCB, and its power to endure. I believe in all of you who worked with us as we made our stand. I will miss you the most.

Eric Ginsburg, Brian Clarey and Jordan Green started Triad City Beat in 2014.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

Jordan Green

Co-founder, senior editor, 2014-21

Triad City Beat started with a business plan by Brian Clarey after he was fired from his position as editor of Yes! Weekly on Election Day in 2013, leaving me and Eric Ginsburg to run the news operation.

Brian invited me and Eric to join him at the new venture, and shortly afterwards we tendered our resignations. Within a space of less than two months, we pooled our funds, refurbished some newspaper boxes, and put out the first issue in February 2014.

I remember Brian telling me that the 21st century was getting a late start, and 2014 was the true beginning of the new century. We felt confident that it was our time.

He was right, but not in the way either of us thought. We drew up a mission statement that focused on small cities as hubs of innovation, embracing a very Obama-esque idea that entrepreneurship could lift all boats. Within two years, my view on that would shift. The data and reporting on real people’s lives would make it abundantly clear that gentrification is driving a widening gulf between a small wealthy elite and a growing swath of the population that struggles to gain an economic foothold.

Still, the spirit that animated our coverage in those early years was the promise of liberation, with the experiences of a widening cross-section of humanity enriching the shared life of our cities.

We witnessed the explosion of the Black Lives Matter movement with the killing of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in that first year, and much of Triad City Beat’s coverage turned towards police abuses and racial profiling. The Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision the following year upholding the right to same-sex marriage leant validation to our pro-LGBTQ+ editorial stance, and our coverage helped push the burgeoning consciousness surrounding trans rights that came into sharp focus with the backlash against the 2016 law rushed through the General Assembly to ban trans people from using public bathrooms in accordance with their gender.

The zeitgeist of Donald Trump’s first election in 2016 did not throw us off our trajectory towards a more inclusive and equitable editorial agenda. The cover of our first issue after the election displayed a photo of Trump, accompanied by the text, “God help us.” A collage of historical demagogues and authoritarians, including Joseph R. McCarthy, George Wallace, Jesse Helms and Adolf Hitler loomed in the background.

The cover had been drawn up in advance by Jorge Maturino, our art director, but when the results came in, a dispute emerged, with one faction of our staff insisting that we had agreed this was the cover we would use in the event that Trump won, while the other faction argued that we hadn’t really given serious consideration to the possibility that he could win. Fortunately, the right side of the debate — if not the right candidate — won out.

The first Trump election actually had the effect of boosting an oppositional progressive culture in the city halls, neighborhoods and college campuses across the Triad. The #MeToo movement in the fall of 2017 prompted a nationwide reckoning over the ways power and privilege shape relationships in workplaces. This revaluation helped spur investigations by Triad City Beat that exposed sexual abuse by prominent figures in the community.

Similarly, by the time of Trump’s first election, an inquest into the institutional legacy of white supremacy was well underway across North Carolina. Although I can’t remember Triad City Beat devoting significant coverage to it, the name of Charles B. Aycock, the white supremacist governor who ushered in the Jim Crow era in North Carolina, was stripped from a UNCG building in 2016, followed by a Greensboro middle school and neighborhood in 2017 and a street in 2019.

More dramatically, from the vantage point of Triad City Beat’s coverage and community passions, the city of Winston-Salem removed a Confederate monument in 2019, as part of a ripple effect following a deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Va. two years earlier.

But looking back, the ground was already shifting in ways that I didn’t fully appreciate during the late Obama era when Triad City Beat started. We didn’t cover the Gamergate controversy in 2014 and 2015 because it wasn’t directly relevant to our local readership. But the seeds of the ascendant MAGA-techbro alliance now in firm control of the federal government and seeking to purge DEI, “wokism” and Black history from every institution were there in 2014 and 2015, when young white men launched a campaign of harassment against women game developers to reclaim what they viewed as a cultural preserve of maleness.

Similarly, the deadly white supremacist massacre at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. struck me as anomalous in 2015, but in hindsight it looks more like a harbinger of the terrorism and extremism to come.

Beginning around the time of the 2016 presidential campaign, Triad City Beat nurtured my interest in right-wing extremism coverage and allowed me space to pursue freelance reporting. A 2019 story I wrote about violent threats to disrupt a Winston-Salem concert by the Tuareg band Tinariwen was re-published by Raw Story. That led to freelancing for the national online news outlet, where I now work as staff investigative reporter.

My view on this may be skewed by the fact that I left Triad City Beat in early 2021, but for me the newspaper’s finest moment came in 2020. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, then racial justice protests against the murder of George Floyd, and finally the rising political violence surrounding the election, our reporters and editors put in countless hours, often dropping everything at a moment’s notice to cover a protest.

I’m sad to see the closure of Triad City Beat, but only a little bit. I’ve always believed that the beating heart of journalism is the working reporters, not the institutions. Good journalism has always been a labor of love and a public service, not a profit center. I only hope that going forward we can figure out how to pay a living wage to the local reporters keeping an eye on the ground truth.

Eric Ginsburg

Co-founder, 2014-17

I’ve always said that the Triad is the kind of place that’s brimming with culture and stories, but you have to be willing to dig beneath the surface. That’s what Triad City Beat has done for over a decade, acting as that local guide and bringing the region to life. What a privilege and joy it was to be a part of it for those first four years. Other than being a parent, it’s the best job I’ve ever held because of the creative freedom, importance of the work, and opportunity to make a difference. The Triad won’t be the same without TCB

I will soon be managing editor at 6AM City, a newsletter company that includes the WS Today. I’m also a freelance food writer.

Sandra Pell

I’ve followed Triad City Beat to get information on what is “really going on” in the Triad area. This became a critical source of information I could trust during the challenging times we all faced in 2020 due to pandemic and social injustices across our country. I became aware of local groups working to bring awareness to social injustice through live reporting from by Brian and Sayaka. I watched every LIVE report I could. While my health didn’t allow me to protest in person, I was able to support these groups financially and spiritually thanks to the reporting done by TCB Triad City Beat provided me a much needed connection to the outside world during a very difficult time.

From the beginning, Triad City

(see what we did

diverse communities, including the

Living in Greensboro, Triad City Beat was like an old friend you see out and about town. I don’t quite remember how we first met, but like people in the area, you just bump into each other at the coffee shop or bar or whatever and shoot the sh*t with. Keeping score on the good folks vs. the bastards and who’s up and who’s down.

Like a lot of people in the area, TCB leaving is the same as someone leaving town. The familiarity that makes it cozy also makes the heart yearn for new faces and adventures. Feels more like TCB just caught the next hot ticket out of town. Good luck, babe.

Valarie Snell

When my husband and I first moved to Greensboro in 2006, we were disappointed with the independent newspapers that were available. Then we saw the Triad City Beat in a news stand in 2014, and we thought we would take a look. The quality of the stories and information on local events has been invaluable. We have gotten used to seeing the paper version and web version. We will greatly miss TCB; you have been a beacon of hope and reason.

Gale Melcher CityBeat reporter, 2023-25

In December 2022, Brian and Sayaka took a chance on me, a kid with a biology degree and no reporting experience. During the job interview, Brian said something that has stuck with me. Along with no formal training as a reporter, I didn’t have a body of work behind me, so I didn’t have much “clay on the wheel.”

He also said that was exactly what it takes to write.

Just open up a blank document.

Just put words on the page.

Just get started.

Brian and Sayaka gave me a chance to get started, and remembering those words keeps me going when I’m stuck.

As for my favorite story, I don’t have one. I can’t choose. It’s hard for me to do so because so many of the stories I’ve worked on are sad, and end with people not getting the result they wanted or they’re left in limbo. Bingham Park Crystal Towers Clifford Apartments Willie Davis Drive. Free Palestine protests at universities, churches and city halls. The topic I’ve spent the most time writing about is housing, stories that led me to so many amazing and resilient people. It has been such a gift to spend time with the people who live at Crystal Towers; the majority of whom are elderly, Black, disabled and very poor. As former vice president Hubert Humphrey said, “[T]he moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life—the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” And Pearl Buck wrote, ““Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.” Remember that when your federal and local leaders say they don’t have enough money to help those living in the dawn, twilight and shadows. It’s easy to feel indecisive and directionless in this job because there are so many ways to tell a story. And some days are really hard. Sometimes the job is depressing. Coming face to face with the hard truths of humanity is the most difficult part of it — not the writing.

Becoming a journalist has changed me. I’ve made a difference and I’ve made mistakes, but every day here has given me a chance to take some clay and sculpt a vessel. I’m so thankful for that.

Beat prided itself

there?), on centering

LGBTQ+ community. This shot is from a 2022 Stonewall Riot march in Greensboro.

PHOTO BY JULIET COEN

Kareem Starks

Marielle Argueza

Reporter, 2024

Iwas welcomed into Triad City Beat as a fellow to cover racial justice narratives and I only had four months to do it. One of the most important stories that I worked on during that short amount of time had to be my story on Faith Action Network’s municipal IDs

While I knew the existence of similar programs in other immigrantdense cities, it was a fascinating crash course for me (as a non-native North Carolinian) to see how embedded and different immigrant communities were here versus other places I’ve covered like New York and California. There are a lot more political challenges and nuanced conditions I never thought of that could impede a program like this. It’s both frightening and empowering to see how much cities and their departments as well as independent nonprofits influence the lives of people who simply don’t have the right pieces of paper.

I’m adding another story too because Triad City Beat was and is a small but mighty team doing the work of a robust news room and I got to be part of the experience covering the fight over what to do with the contaminated Bingham Park. I got to work side by side with fellow reporter Gale Melcher as we walked the streets knocking on doors to talk to Greensboro residents. We reported together again, when we attended a tense community meeting. The park had been contaminated for literal decades, and it was a great reminder that people are paying attention and do want to be involved with the decisions of their policymakers.

Triad City Beat to me represents my time in North Carolina and introduction to reporting in the South. I’ve reported all over the country, but never in the South and I’m glad Triad City Beat was my guide to a nuanced region that most national publications consistently mischaracterize. It was good to be on an altweekly team again that was unafraid of holding the powerful to account and encouraged me to do the same, even as a newcomer. No one ever doubted my ability to do ambitious reporting, and I was empowered to dig deeper and use my past experiences as advantages. Triad City Beat is a rare team and a valiant effort to keep local news alive and residents civically engaged.

I am currently freelancing for several local and national publications in New York City.

Chris Cecil

My favorite edition of TCB was the “Dejoy Ride” cover. I’m a long time union activist in the Triad - not in the post office but adjacent in the same industry. NC is a very low-union density state so there’s not a lot of labor reporting here. I was pretty proud TCB made the “Greensboro” connection. Perhaps just as important, my good friend Rob Paquette (who died young and is no longer with us) designed the cover art. Seeing that cover reminds me of Rob and how happy I was he had made it to the big leagues as an artist.

Lauren Barber Staff writer, 2017-19

Writing for Triad City Beat showered my life with gifts beyond entry to cultural events — a greater sense of purpose and belonging, permission to view myself as a professional creative and incredible mentorship, to name a few. I am profoundly grateful for the camaraderie and professionalism that characterized TCB’s editorial room, as well as every minute spent interviewing brilliant artists, musicians and activists – particularly those like Debbie the Artist who boldly embody all three archetypes.

These days, I provide childcare for several families and am an occasional contractor and volunteer for DanceSafe, a public health nonprofit that promotes health, safety and fulfilling experiences for people who use drugs and their communities. I am also breathing new life into my spiritual services business, Ace of Wands Energy, LLC, through which I offer Tarot and Akashic Records readings and Reiki energy healing.

In addition to hard-hitting news stories, TCB made space for cultural stories like this one about a lowrider gathering in Winston-Salem. It’s often these stories that showed the colors of our unique communities.

Over the last 11 years, photographer Carolyn de Berry took a photo every week for a series we called, ‘Shot in the Triad.’ In these photos, de Berry captured the essence of our cities, often taking shots of everyday people living everyday lives.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

PHOTO BY JERRY COOPER

Kristen Jeffers

I will never forget the February 11-15 2015 cover story that named me as one of the #GreensboroNow. I can say this now as it’s been ten years and my return home is imminent, that I thought I’d never be able to walk the streets the same way again.

But as I was reading back my words in that article and my August 2015 article on my first days away doing the work I loved in Kansas City, I realized that despite how much we wanted our activism now in those days, our activism sometimes comes later.

It comes in the ways you don’t expect and you don’t know it. And it’s still ongoing, but now, it’s swinging back to Greensboro for a bit to set up the next ten years.

Thank you for giving me some of my first solid bylines. None of the rest of the national press and bylines compare to any of my bylines in my hometown papers, andI’m so sad to see this one go.

Thanks for everything.

Luca Ettinger

Intern, freelancer, 2018-20

You can build yourself through writing.

In October 2019, I wrote my favorite story with Triad City Beat, about a quartet of transgender clergy members of North Carolina.

About two months later, I’d inject my first dose of testosterone.

Triad City Beat not only allowed me a space to grow into a better writer, but showed me I didn’t have to settle for workplaces that misgender or deadname me. With that assurance, I felt confident meeting people, interviewing strangers, and writing stories about it all.

Since then, I moved to Brooklyn, where I’ve gotten married and work at a print studio. My journalism experience shapes my current writing practice of poetry and essay.

Local stories from independent writers remain vital, even as print papers close. I hope everyone involved in TCB keeps creating wherever they may be, and every supporter keeps engaging.

We can build each other up with writing.

Over the years, TCB covered a lot of politics, both local and national. As a battleground state, we often got a front row seat to campaign events for presidential candidates

We moved to the Triad about 2 years ago and TCB was such a great resource for us to learn about the local events and activities happening in the communities around us. Thank you for helping us to feel connected to the new place we now call home! We’ll miss you.

Suzy Fielders

Freelancer, 2022

Nicole Zelniker Reporter, 2021-22

M Iy favorite TCB article I wrote was on the formula storage that occurred in 2022. This was my favorite piece to write as I loved talking with local parents and medical experts. Plus, I was expecting my second daughter at the time so was potentially helpful information for myself!

I loved that TCB told all stories and focused on inclusion and diversity. I’m proud to have been a part of this news team!

I’m currently writing for several local publications and handles marketing for local small businesses.

‘d nearly given up on journalism when I started working for Triad City Beat. Brian Clarey and Sayaka Matsuoka brought me on as a reporter in the spring of 2021 and through TCB, I learned that there was still good to be done at local outlets.

I covered all kinds of stories in the Triad, but my favorite article is one where I interviewed five folks about their abortions. I believe the old adage that journalism should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed and I believe this story did that.

Now, I work in higher ed, run a lit mag, and write my own books. I don’t know that I’d be where I am now without the support of the people at TCB. I’ll always be grateful for my time there, both for what I learned and the people I met along the way.

Anne R.

like these two for Kamala Harris in 2024 and Donald Trump in 2020.

PHOTOS BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

Priya Dames

Freelancer, 2024

TCB is a place where I grew so much as a reporter. I appreciate how the paper was committed to looking beneath the surface and finding niche stories. TCB courageously covered issues that would have otherwise gone unreported.

My favorite story would have to be about the Revival Reimagined series that was taking place across North Carolina last August. It felt like an important story to tell considering the upcoming election. I found such a dense network of activists, religious leaders, and artists who were committed to protecting their communities which was really inspirational.

I will be training to become a librarian-archivist in the fall. I can’t wait to use the passion for storytelling that I explored at TCB in my library work.

Clay Howard

I was in a unique position to watch TCB from literal Day One, and have seen Brian and crew navigate the world of a start-up and all its pitfalls from a close proximity. Kudos, and job well done to all of you. Perseverance, temerity, hard work... all demonstrated in large quantities.

Proud to know you. Onward and Upward.

Eleni Harrison

TCB is/was my print version of NPR and will greatly be missed.

Triad City Beat always worked hard to center and amplify the voices of those who have historically been marginalized including the Palestinian community in Greensboro in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks.

PHOTO BY MAAROUPI SANI

Autumn Karen

Freelancer, 2022-24

ISO: A Community Paper We Needed

GIVE: Beautiful vase my sister gave me but I don’t have any use for. Seeking a loving home.

Porch pickup only.

ISO: Side Table with drawer.

GIVE: Box of granola bars that my kids didn’t like - two missing. Porch pickup in Irving Park.

I met Sayaka Matsuoka through the local Buy Nothing group on Facebook during the pandemic.

When the world shuttered itself to preserve itself, the online trading group became a lifeline for human connection. As a single mom during lockdown trying to get work done while guiding three kids through virtual school, I found community in trading jackets, snacks, side tables, and plants back and forth across porches. The community grew through posts and comments.

ISO stands for “in search of”, and folks posted regularly about their needs for everything from school supplies to toys. More common were GIVES, where people let go of things that they didn’t need in favor of a new home that did need them. Sayaka wrote a wonderful piece on Buy Nothing and its tremendous community in TCB later.

After moving to Greensboro as a single mom in the wake of a messy divorce in 2018, I didn’t have a community. My brothers and my mom lived here, but we were all from a small town east called Roanoke Rapids and I had no roots in the Triad. I had to redefine myself as a person in the world and as a writer.

Triad City Beat built me up on both fronts.

Out of Buy Nothing, Sayaka and I became Facebook friends. She came to speak to my adjunct class on ghostwriting in the Honors College at UNCG. Before I knew it, she and Brian were interviewing me to be a contributor. My fingers fidgeted frantically out of view on that Zoom.

Though I’d been a professional writer for a decade, that was in books and online as a freelancer. I’d never done journalism or worked with an editor. I was terrified.

They nurtured me as a writer. They built my confidence. They gave me a professional community at a time that I was utterly lost. I can confidently say that TCB changed my life. My current position as a faculty member at a local university is due in huge part to the credentials and skill I built at TCB. My son will go to college tuition free at a great school in New York because of that job. I got into grad school at UNCSA in large part because of their incredible ability to foster growth in my writing.

The work they allowed me to do echoes through the lives of the people whose stories they published, but on a personal level for me and my kids, we would not be here without them.

It’s strange how it all started with jackets and plants on a Facebook group. But Sayaka and Brian both have that magic about them. We needed Triad City Beat. I needed it.

Luis H. Garay

Freelancer, 2022-24

Ijoined TCB when I was still new-ish to Greensboro and finding people to connect with. It also instilled possibility in me, I didn’t know I could be a freelance writer until Sayaka reached out to me and guided me through the process. I owe TCB so much.

Hands down my favorite story was the panaderías of the Triad story. I was able to blend my cultural upbringing and think about panaderías as spaces of community and connection for me and other Latine people. Plus, driving 171 miles across the Triad helped me learn more about our incredible, diverse areas. It also won a national award!

I am currently in a PhD program at UNCG in their Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations department while maintaining a full-time job and being a Greensboro food content creator (IG: @eatswithluis)

Anthony Harrison

Intern, sports writer, 2015-17

TCB has been a critical resource for me as a community member who grew up in Greensboro. It has helped me develop a more balanced worldview and developed my passion for serving the community and becoming a local activist. Triad City Beat built a foundation of trustworthy, factual reporting that I have used to inform and organize others. I will deeply miss its wonderful writing staff and hope that Greensboro’s local journalism scene finds ways to keep the light alive!

My tenure as a sportswriter for Triad City Beat counts as my favorite position I’ve yet held in my professional life.

TCB lays claim to the best writing I’ve ever done. I wrote everything from quick listicles and unsolicited endorsements to three cover stories, and much in between about sports and leisure, food and drink, arts and politics.

My favorite TCB story is the one that showed how Keep Gate City Housed achieved a major victory by advocating for rental assistance and the right to counsel at City Hall. The paper showed me powerful stories that transform lives and inspired me to become a tenant organizer.

But perhaps my favorite article for TCB was the final entry in my series on the Carolina Panthers’ 2015-2016 season ― an ultimately tragic post-mortem on Super Bowl 50, “Tears.” I found myself groping to describe the universal sensation of eating crow. By necessity, I wrote it immediately after the Panthers’ defeat in that game, in the moment as I felt all that pain and disappointment, but it came to me easily enough.

The best pieces always do.

I wish the best to all my TCB comrades. We did something great and will keep doing so.

Jonah Montgomery

Anita Washington

TCB chronicled the abortion rights movement even before the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which resulted in mass protests like the one seen here in 2022.

PHOTO BY JULIET COEN

Todd Turner Photographer, 2016-23

Iremember reaching out to Brian many years ago simply out of respect for the authenticity and transparency of the publication that he had built. I wanted to be a part of it all. I had an undying passion for visual storytelling and I lived for experiences. He was gracious enough to add me to the TCB family and what a ride it was!

In the years that I spent covering a wide variety of topics for Triad City Beat, I was introduced to countless local talents, witnessed a multitude of local events, and perhaps most importantly, I learned things about my community that I never would’ve been privy to without the opportunity. This is something that I will be eternally grateful for.

One particular assignment that stands out for me is when Sayaka and I went out to cover a BDSM fitness class in High Point. I’d certainly never experienced anything like that. It was a wild experience that shed serious light on the less publicized subcultures in the triad. We truly do have a robust, multi-faceted community here, and I was able to witness this countless times.

In reflection, I am so happy to have made that phone call to Brian. I am so grateful that he welcomed me into the family. Because, for the past 7+ years, I have learned so much. I’ve become a better journalist simply by surrounding myself with some of the best. I’ve become more integrated and connected to my community than ever before. TCB was so special and I will carry these lessons with me into all that I do in my city for many years to come.

Billy Ingram Freelancer, 2014

Iremember it like it was yesterday, which is to say I barely remember it at all.

On a Friday in July of 2014, I conducted an interview with a long-time, very influential downtown Greensboro restaurateur, Minas Dascalakis, who had immigrated as a young man to the United States from Greece in 1949. This I undertook even though, at that time, I didn’t have any reliable outlet for local scribblings but the old man was dying so I jumped at the chance to hear his tales about downtown Greensboro from the 1950s forward as witnessed from behind the counter of Matthew’s Grill, next door to the O. Henry Hotel on North Elm.

Arriving home from this amazing encounter, before I even had time to light my pipe, my Nokia began vibrating. It was Brian Clarey on the line, stuck for a cover story for the next issue of his new weekly.

I had contributed a few articles during that first year of TCB, gratis, as a gesture of support. I recall my story about Aunt Bee’s cat house in Siler City eliciting a sour reaction from that small town’s folk. Another column in 2014, about my experience in college with then Governor Pat McCrory, must have ruffled feathers in Raleigh because the following Saturday a gleaming, like-new trash truck pulled up to the back of my residence where the driver emptied both the trash and recycling bins into the pristine well of that truck then drove off to who knows where. The same thing happened the next weekend, weird huh?

Over the phone, Brian agreed that Dascalakis’ recollections would make for an interesting story. Wasn’t going to pay anything (again) but the notion that this revered restaurateur’s story would appear within his limited lifespan was impossible to resist. I told Brian I’d have 2,500 words to him on Monday, the magazine dropped on Thursday, Dascalakis passed away very soon after.

Plucky little publication. In the world of magazines, especially the great ones, an 11year run is considered a rousing success. Spy Magazine, for example, lasted only a year longer. Clarey was the founding editor of Yes! Weekly in 2005 before co-founding TCB in 2014, both serving as significant launching pads for a number of important voices, his being one of them.

Can’t say I know (or knew) the guy more than superficially but will confess to always admiring the fuck out of Brian Clarey. So much so, once again working for free goddammit, it would be considered an honor if TCB chooses to publish these musings. Only fitting if this too pisses somebody off.

Triad City Beat has done their best, and more, to cover local news stories and provide easily understandable voting guides every election. They will be sorely missed, as they were truly a great local resource. We love y’all.

Andrew Young

TCB played an incredibly important role by providing in-depth stories about issues that people care about but rarely saw reviewed, reported on, or investigated by other media. It put officials and public figures on the record, too, and during Trump 45 and COVID, helped keep Democracy going.

I always looked forward to reading the latest edition to learn about upcoming activities and potential outings. You will be sorely missed.

such

appreciate

Vikki Vassar

Mia Malesovas

As an alt-weekly paper, Triad City Beat often covered stories that no other outlet would touch, including this story about a kink-inspired fitness class out of High Point. We put this photo on the cover and called it, ‘No Pain, No Gain.’

PHOTO BY TODD TURNER

Bonnie

have

admiration for Sayaka - a first class reporter who doesn’t mince words on important news stories. Hope she finds a new publication that will

having her on staff.

Michaela Ratliff Intern, freelancer, 2020-24

“H

ey Michaela, got time to talk this week?”

In 2020, I emailed several Triad publications in search of a job or internship, hoping one of them would take a chance on me. I stared in amazement as Brian Clarey, publisher of TCB at the time, was the only one who responded. I became the paper’s editorial intern, and later contributor.

‘Straw Into Gold’ highlights work of Rosa “Malikia” Johnson who braided Stevie Wonder and other greats, is my favorite story I’ve written not only because of its imagery, scene and details, but because of the experience I had writing the story. Viewing artifacts from someone who worked side-by-side with Stevie Wonder is an opportunity I would’ve likely never had if I wasn’t a contributor.

I’m currently a digital producer at FOX8 WGHP, a position I know I wouldn’t have if not for the nurturing and motivation I received at TCB. Grateful isn’t the word.

Jason Heyman

TCB had the best election coverage hands down. They would give helpful insight to each candidate including their voting history, positions on important issues, their personal information and work history. No other paper covered elections so well. Their in-depth candidate biographies will be missed, along with all of their thorough reporting on local stories.

Ian Penny

Alt weeklies are a great counterbalance to an increasingly sanitized corporate mediasphere. TCB always had an eye for social justice issues and a heart for local residents. This paper will be sorely missed. Good luck on future endeavors.

While we may not have always succeeded, TCB worked hard to shine light into communities that were often overlooked in our cities.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

Courtney Singleton Freelancer, 2024

Ifell in love with this publication due to its genuinely supportive atmosphere. When I published my first story with them, not only did it make the cover, but the whole TCB family were sure to join in the celebration of my success.

How could you ask a writer what their favorite story is? How cruel! Okay…If I must pick, I’ll say the story I did on the Artist Bloc’s 10th anniversary. It’s my mom’s favorite, so maybe knowing that makes me bias, but I didn’t know that’d be my last TCB story at the time.

Although the paper is ending, the relationships I’ve established within it have become everlasting. As a young emerging journalist, it is my hope that the techniques I’ve learned here will help me expand my network so that I may continue to educate and entertain the public on topics I am passionate about.

Sudarshan Krishnamurthy Freelancer, 2024

To me, TCB has lived up to its name of being ‘the people’s paper. It has always felt like the paper’s focus has been to highlight the voices of folks from the margins — the folks whose voices are often left unheard through mainstream news. Its focus on pieces that highlighted local community organizing and activism was what made me want to write for TCB, and its absence in the Triad will be deeply felt.

My favorite TCB story that I wrote was about ‘What Da Pho’, a family-run Vietnamese restaurant in Winston-Salem. This was special, in part, because it was my first time ever writing for a news outlet along with my first time writing for TCB. It was initially a nerve-wracking experience, but my nerves were calmed by a warm bowl of pho as I interviewed Xia and his family. Like many of the other incredible individuals I’ve written about for TCB, this piece has resulted in a lasting friendship with Xia, Anna, and their son, Xander. On that note, go visit Xia’s new restaurant in Winston-Salem, Xia’s Asian Tapas!

I’m an MD-PhD Student at Wake Forest, and I still have a few years left in my education. I’ll be around in the Triad for that time, continuing to visit my favorite haunts!

TCB gave me as well as the rest of GSO an invaluable resource that was unafraid to dig into issues missed or disregarded by other local media as well as profile people and places that gave our city its verve and eclectic spice. TCB also provided young writers a place to hone their craft. And in our era where journalistic opportunities are vanishing at an alarming rate, TCB became incredibly crucial with each passing year. Plus, TCB showed all of us through grit and sheer determination what one journalist could do. He had a burning desire and a dream to provide readers an outlet that made them understand a bit better the world beyond their front door. Brian, our city says, “Thanks.”

Bill Horner III

Brian has always been a warrior, and the way he led his troops into the trenches so often for TCB’s readers was something many of us admired from afar. Too often, the noise of life makes us deaf to watershed moments. TCB’s closure is one of them; it darkens a light on truth. I’m thankful to Brian for his work, for the way he mentored his staff, and for his unyielding commitment to truth and great journalism. This is a loss not just for TCB’s readers, but for truth in the Triad and for our industry.

Jonathan Michels

Freelancer, 2014-17

For journalists like me, Triad City Beat represented the best of what alternative media has to offer. TCB gave us the opportunity to file reports and commentaries grounded in truth, backed up by facts and deep reportage. We were free to be irreverent both in style and substance. We wrote stories about topics no other mainstream publication dared to touch, including white supremacists and mass protests.

When I pitched a long-form article exposing the state’s shameful history of forced sterilization, TCB co-founder Brian Clarey graciously let the piece take up almost every inch of that week’s issue.

Despite the heaviness of these stories, TCB editors and designers were nonetheless able to make every issue punchy and fun to read.

Muckraking in the Triad will never be as stylish, fun or vital for the public good.

Nikki Miller-Ka Food writer, 2019-21

Writing for Triad City Beat changed my life. Some might call it luck; others might say it was destiny. For me, it was an invaluable opportunity to grow and learn. This “little alt-weekly that could” shaped my writing, leading to my most impactful story — the one that helped El Sabor Tabasqueño get a food truck — along with features in national publications and viral success.

But more than that, TCB grounded me in the community where I grew up, showing me its heart from the inside out. Today, as senior food and wine editor at a luxury magazine in Southwest Florida, I carry that experience with me. It was an honor to contribute to the food history of our region.

I’m deeply grateful to Brian Clarey for believing in me from day one. TCB will always hold a special place in my heart, and I’m proud to have been part of its story.

Jeri Rowe

It’s no secret that legacy media has treated the HBCUs in the area in less-than-savory lights in the Triad. But within our pages, we worked hard to show the beauty of these local schools and their cutures.

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

Stan Sussina

Photography intern, 2022

Iwas a photography intern in the spring of 2022 while attending Randolph Community College. My favorite assignment was covering a portion of former president Joe Biden’s visit to Greensboro. It was an exciting opportunity, especially for a student with no experience covering large local news events.

Working at Triad City Beat was incredibly instrumental in my growth as a young aspiring photojournalist. I was tasked with photographing a wide range of community experiences and subcultures that I had never been exposed to. The paper gave me my first published work and the experience of working with a staff of dedicated and passionate journalists. Seeing my picture on the front page of the paper was a huge confidence booster to keep going. I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity to work with such an important local publication.

I’m currently a staff photographer at The Journal Gazette, Fort Wayne, Indiana’s newspaper.

Barbara Cassidy

I’ve been reading TCB for several years and, durn, you are so going to be missed! A lovely, thoughtful, left-leaning, in-depth reporting and responsive community paper that has kept me informed, aware and involved. Besides the online reporting, I really appreciated the in-person candidate forum in W-S as well as every kind and thoughtful response I received to an email. I even won a couple of tickets from Brian to see Mark Normand at the Carolina Theater last year when I responded to his post. For all of that and more, I thank you. My heart goes out to Brian and his family after that devastating accident and I’m saddened that we, as a community, did not support you enough financially to continue. You’ve been a true asset to our community. We need you and I’m hoping you can somehow remain an active voice in the Triad. I wish you all well going forward.

Lisa Allen

PHOTO BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

TCB provided a great civic service in always giving a detailed account of candidates for all the elections. I seem to remember in the early days a reporter standing up for the lowly possum which was used in a New Year’s Eve Drop (which is no longer done as a result) and a good piece looking at the influence of HPU on the city. The latest pieces on the homeless man with the dog and the Hot Mess Express nonprofit really stuck with me. Thanks for everything!

Jorge Maturino

Art

director, 2014-17

Istarted at Triad City Beat before the first print and spent almost four years designing covers and layouts. Brian gave me so much freedom when designing the paper that it often didn’t feel like work. Working in such a small office it felt like family. Jordan was the dad that made sure things kept running, Eric was my brother from another mother and Brian was that crazy uncle... everyone has one of those. I miss those days.

The cover I designed that was my favorite would be the Pay Day cover from August 3, 2017. LEGOs were a staple in my home growing up so incorporating that into a design was really fun and nostalgic.

Currently, I am working with Cone Health as a Visual Designer on the Innovation team. I do extend my services outside of my full-time career on a freelance basis.

1451 S. Elm-Eugene St. Box 24, Greensboro, NC 27406

Joel Sronce

Sports columnist, 2016-17

Though choosing my favorite story was no easy task, I think I’ll have to go with “Maintaining a tradition,” a cover-story about the role that soccer plays in immigrant and refugee communities in Greensboro. In part it featured the work of three communitysoccer organizers, three tireless stewards of the beautiful game.

The day that story was published, one of the organizers asked for the contact information of the other two, inspired through their connection and wanting to get together to see if a soccer tournament could be possible. Soon after, the four of us met with the City of Greensboro and were able to lay the groundwork for an eight-team tournament that took place in late July, 2017. Thankfully, I got to write about the tournament for TCB, too, and the tournament happened annually for several years.

While I didn’t continue a career of being a weekly sports columnist, I’m always thankful to carry the skills and interests honed at TCB, writing about the intersection of sports and politics as often as I can

BUSINESS

PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Brian Clarey

brian@triad-city-beat.com

PUBLISHER EMERITUS

Allen Broach

allen@triad-city-beat.com

OF COUNSEL

Jonathan Jones

EDITORIAL

MANAGING EDITOR

Sayaka Matsuoka

sayaka@triad-city-beat.com

CITYBEAT REPORTER

Office: 336.681.0704

KEY ACCOUNTS

Gale Melcher gale@triad-city-beat.com SALES

Chris Rudd chris@triad-city-beat.com

AD MANAGER

Heather Schutz heather@triad-city-beat.com

TCBTIX

Nathaniel Thomas nathaniel@triad-city-beat.com

CONTRIBUTORS

Carolyn de Berry, John Cole, Owens Daniels, James Douglas, Michelle Everette, Luis H. Garay, Destiniee Jaram, Kaitlynn Havens, Jordan Howse, Matt Jones, Autumn Karen, Jen Sorensen, Todd Turner

aiden@triad-city-beat.com

COVER: Design by Aiden Siobhan

Part of Triad City Beat’s legacy is its dogged commitment to chronicling and shedding light on the unjust killings of Black and brown members of the community. In Greensboro, the paper was one of the first that started reporting on the murder of Marcus Deon Smith, who was killed by police in 2018.

At Revity Federal Credit Union, financial freedom for all

t’s like a scene out of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life

“Your direct deposit helps fund your neighbor’s car loan,” explains Amie Wheeler, Revity Federal Credit Union’s chief operations officer.

“When somebody has their direct deposit with the credit union, it’s helping someone get their first car or repair their first house. The money our members deposit is how we lend.”

The local credit union has deep ties to the city. Originally known as Greensboro Municipal Credit Union, Revity was founded in 1937 in the middle of the Great Depression when banks were failing. Five employees with the city of Greensboro decided to pool their resources to make small loans for their coworkers. The credit union’s first loan was $50 to a man named Walter.

Almost a century later, Revity has expanded to three locations in the city, most of them focused in what the census calls “low-income tracts,” or places that historically are considered financial deserts.

There is one location off of Randleman Road near Smith Homes, one off of Phillips Avenue in East Greensboro and their main location is their downtown branch off of Greene Street, which is currently being renovated. The location is set to reopen next month.

“We’re trying to make it a community hub,” says Heather Lyons, Revity’s marketing manager.

That’s why last year when the organization decided to undergo a name and brand change, they landed on the new name: Revity — a combination of “revitalize” and “community.”

“That’s literally why we exist,” Wheeler says. “We are here to help people revitalize their finances and to be here for our community and help lift them up.”

The name, according to CEO Jerry Wise, has helped the organization broaden their reach and let people know that anyone can join the credit union, not just city employees.

“The culture is very open now,” Wise says. “It’s open for everybody. We’ve taken steps to be able to do that.”

As a credit union, Wheeler says that Revity differs from banks because it is a not-forprofit organization. They have to make enough to pay their employees, but at the end of the day, the money goes back into the credit union. That allows for the credit union to offer lower interest rates and higher dividends to its members. Revity also offers rewards checking accounts without minimum balances. It’s all part of the credit union’s push for financial freedom for every person, not just those with means.

“We don’t just take someone’s credit score into account,” he says. “We look at their whole situation. It’s not a one-size-fits-all. That’s our approach.”

The way that Wise explains it is that “it’s not all about dollars and cents.”

“It makes it more inclusive,” Wheeler says. “We’re in the business of relationship lending. You may have bad credit, but we will look at your entire situation. You are not just a number at Revity.”

One of Wheeler’s favorite memories is how Revity once helped a woman, who became a member eight years ago, fulfill her dream. She was a single mother of three children and when she first walked into Revity’s doors, her financial situation wasn’t the best. But with Revity’s help, she was able to build up her credit, get a credit card, then an auto loan and eventually her first home loan.

The joy that the woman felt was shared by everyone on the staff, Wheeler says.

“We all wanted to go to the closing with her,” she says. “I swear, the whole credit union felt this with her.”

And that’s exactly the kind of place that Revity aims to be: community-minded and equitable for all.

“Nobody should be excluded,” she says. “We believe that everybody needs a financial institution that has their best interest at heart.”

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

Walker Avenue, Greensboro

This is our last issue! Sayaka Matsuoka, TCB Managing Editor, and her husband TCB Webmaster Sam LeBlanc, will be keeping this paper box, thank you very much.

PUZZLES & GAMES

by Matt Jones

CROSSWORD SUDOKU

by Matt Jones

Across

1. ___-building game

5. Part of CD

9. Opposite of flow

12. Notion

13. You are here

14. “___ Land” (2016 musical film)

16. ___ Fein (Irish political group)

17. Old copy machine, for short

18. Like some lattes

19. Behind-the-scenes theater worker’s been specially selected?

22. ___-deucey (backgammon variation)

23. Walker’s Prawn Cocktail snacks, e.g., in the U.K.

24. Fifth U.S. president

27. “___ the Sheriff” (1974 hit song)

29. Hydrox rival

30. ___ Martin (007’s auto)

31. Wall Street index, briefly

34. Pre-owned greeting with a firm grip?

38. Sound of admonition

39. Albertan NHLer

40. Belonging to us

41. Walk with pride

42. Oppose vigorously

44. Peevish

47. “Yeah, I bet”

48. Straight or flush indicating one way to go to hell?

54. Opera highlight

55. Journalist Cornish of CNN

56. 1/12 of a foot

57. Turkey meat preference

58. Pretzel shapes

59. Gospel singer Winans

60. “___ Boot” (1981 film)

61. Part of a skate blade

62. Sharp as a tack

Down

1. Talk smack about

2. Make some changes

3. John who’s supposedly tough to see

4. Qantas logo animal

5. How often Wordles get released

6. “Garfield” waitress

7. Instruction

8. “Quickly!”

9. Bring out

10. Is a supporter of

11. Sound of censoring

13. Show host

15. Tacks on

20. “Foucault’s Pendulum” author Umberto

21. “Reversal of Fortune” Oscar winner Jeremy

24. The majority

25. Natural resources

26. Shirt measurement

27. Dot in the ocean

28. Symbol over an 8

30. Org. that defends individual rights

31. Paint ineptly

32. Gumbo ingredient

33. Toward sunset

35. Observant person

36. No-bake dessert that may be garnished with gummy worms

37. Nostalgic, perhaps

41. Lectures

42. Dice, most often

43. Singer Rita

44. Apple product that debuted April 2010

45. Org. that tracks Santa

46. “Ran” director Kurosawa

47. Bitter feeling

49. Ilsa’s surname in “Casablanca”

50. Work like ___

51. Leg hinge

52. “Behold!” to Caesar

53. At that moment

GRAMMY®-Winning Tenor KARIM SULAYMAN Returns!

Britten & Mozart

Mar 8 | 5PM & 9 | 3PM

Centenary UMC

Karim Sulayman, 2019 GRAMMY® Award winner and 2024 nominee, joins hornist Christopher Caudill for Britten’s haunting Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings—plus music by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and Mozart’s final symphony! Three masterworks for smaller orchestra in the beautiful sanctuary of Centenary Church.

The Music of Tina Turner

Apr 5

Hits by the Queen of Rock-n-Roll, including “What’s Love Got To Do With It” and “Simply The Best” with LIVE symphony orchestra!

Experience Music in a New Way

Tickets: wssymphony.org

Thu 2/20

Mugshot

@ 7pm

Hangar 1819, 1819 Spring Garden St, Greensboro

Water Culture with feedthrightwolf, Holy Figures, Rosary

@ 7pm

Hoots Beer Co., 840 Mill Works St, Winston-Salem

Taylor Hunnicutt

@ 7pm

The Ramkat & Gas Hill Drinking Room, 170 W 9th St, Winston-Salem

Water Culture with feedtherightwolf, Holy Figures, Rosary

@ 7pm

Hoots Beer Co., 840 Mill Works St, Winston-Salem