TCB July 11, 2024 — Unwelcome by Triad City Beat

JULY 11 - 24, 2024

CITY LIFE

THURSDAY

Moonshine Revival @ Smokin’ Harley Davidson (W-S) 5 p.m.

Smokin’ Harley Davidson says this is a bike night you don’t want to miss with Moonshine Revival bringing its “old school rock, blues, and country hootenanny.” More information on Facebook

Flight Night @ Steel Hands Brewing (GSO) 6 p.m.

JULY 11 - 13

A Goofy Movie @ High Point Museum (HP) 8:30 p.m.

High Point Museum invites you to enjoy a free screening of A Goofy Movie for movie night. Water and popcorn will be provided. Visit the event page on Facebook for more information.

FRIDAY

Scan the QR code to find more events at triad-citybeat.com/local-events

Family Fun Night @ High Point City Lake Aquatic Center (HP) 7 p.m.

High Point Parks & Recreation is hosting an evening of swimming and games for the whole family. Show off your hula hooping skills, dive for treasure and more. Visit the event page on Facebook to register.

SATURDAY

Cooks Flea Market is hosting its back to school family fun fest with a bounce house, inflatable slide and snow cones. There will also be a backpack with school supplies raffle. More information on Facebook 11

Flight Night, hosted by United Airlines and Piedmont Triad International Airport is your chance to score two roundtrip flights from PTI on United to Denver. Indulge in a special flight of four craft beers curated with Denver in mind. Visit steelhandsbrewing.com/greensboro-events to find out how to enter.

ConGregate 10 @ Downtown Marriott & Embassy Suites (W-S) 10 a.m.

ConGregate partners with the SAGA writer’s conference for a weekend of science fiction, fantasy, horror fandom, books, movies and music. Head to con-gregate.com for more information. Register at the door.

Back to School Family Fun Fest @ Cooks Flea Market (W-S) 12 p.m.

14 - 19

Greensboro Roller Derby @ Greensboro Coliseum (GSO)

2:30 p.m.

Head to the Coliseum for an exciting bout of roller derby. Ages 12 and up require a ticket, but ages 11 and under are free. Get your tickets at greensborocoliseum.com

SUNDAY

Beautiful Beads

Workshop @ Lam Museum of Anthropology, WFU (W-S) 2 p.m.

This workshop will show participants beads from the museum and how they were made and used by a variety of cultures. Then participants will make their own beads out of polymer clay, paper and tin. Advance registration is required at wfu.universitytickets.com

MUSEP: Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs and Folkknot @ Country Park (GSO) 6 p.m.

Creative Greensboro is hosting its Music for a Sunday Evening in the Park series with Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs and Folkknot. Food trucks in attendance include Kibi’s Crazy Casserole and StayFresh Italian Ice. See the full schedule at loom.ly/2_5Mtsg

MONDAY

Playdate at the Park @ High Point City Lake Park (HP) 10 a.m.

Her Hive and Her Meetups is hosting a playdate for you to get some fresh air and engage in conversations and for your kids to play on the park’s new playground! Event will be canceled if it rains. More information on Facebook

THURSDAY

Paw Crawl @ Wise Man Brewing (W-S) 5 p.m.

As the final stop of Forsyth Humane Society’s 2024 paw crawl, this is going to be the biggest celebration yet. Enjoy conversations with other pet lovers and owners and good drinks while supporting FHS. Don’t forget to bring your dog! Find

more information at forsythhumane.org/ pawcrawl

Fight Club @ Carolina Theatre (GSO) 7 p.m.

On the screen this time for Carolina Theater’s summer film fest is Fight Club, the story of two men who start an underground fight club with “strict rules to fight other men who are fed up with their mundane lives.” Purchase tickets at carolinatheatre.com

FRIDAY

The Lion King KIDS @ Centennial Station Arts Center (HP) 7 p.m.

High Point Community Theatre is hosting a production of The Lion King KIDS with performers ages 6-12. Join them for this classic tale featuring music from the Broadway musical. Purchase tickets on the Facebook event page

Winston-Salem Italian Beef @ Truist Stadium (W-S) 7 p.m.

For just one day, the Winston-Salem Dash is rebranding as the WinstonSalem Italian Beef. Long story short, on May 25, Dash President and General Manager Brian DeAngelis failed to eat Italian Beef sandwiches as part of the 9th Inning Challenge in celebration of National Italian Beef Day. Since he failed, he would have to be the Dash bat boy for an upcoming game this season. The rebrand pays homage to Chicago, the hometown of the Dash’s affiliate. Enjoy the rebrand, merch and Brian as the bat boy at this game. Purchase tickets at milb.com/winston-salem/fans/salute-tochicago

Jon Reep @ the Comedy Zone (GSO) 7 p.m.

You’re in for a good laugh at this comedy show with Jon Reep. The nationally touring comedian is known for his appearances in “One Mississippi,” “Black-ish” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Purchase tickets at thecomedyzone. com

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OPINION

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

To protect democracy, we need to back Biden

Iknow what you’re thinking. I would rather vote for a soggy piece of toast than cast my vote for Joe Biden, again.

I hear you. After seeing clips from the now infamous June 27 presidential debate, it is hard to root for Biden, who is not all that convincing and appears to be in declining health.

But I’m begging you, please, don’t jump off this ship.

In the hours, days and even weeks after the debate, mainstream media hasn’t shut the hell up about how Joe Biden is unfit to serve as president and how he should step down. It’s like we’re back in 2016. Remember when CNN and all of the political pundits and the New York Times ran all those distraction articles about Hillary Clinton’s emails? And how that led to her defeat and the subsequent rise of Donald Trump? And then do you remember how we had four years of reign by a tyrannical, misogynist fascist who worked to overturn Roe v. Wade? Remember?

Well it’s happening again.

I know voting for Biden isn’t really many

people’s cup of tea. It’s certainly not mine. But asking, demanding him to step down or entertaining the idea that someone else could come in at this point in the campaign cycle and run as president is absurd. It’s lunacy.

What we need to do now is quell the calls and vote for Biden. Because the alternative, frankly, is kind of unimaginable. And as people have been saying all along, we’re voting for a platform, not just a single person. Do you know what the platform for the other side is? Have you heard of Project 2025? Because that’s what will happen. I’m not being overdramatic.

Political power players have been laying the groundwork for a Christian, white-nationalist ethnostate for years, and if Donald Trump is elected president again in November, we’re on a clear path to a very calculated kind of hell for most of us.

The Supreme Court ruling in favor of Trump, giving him — and all other future presidents — immunity is just one step in this direction. There are many more in the works.

So yeah, voting for Biden may not be your first or second or third choice. But it’s the one we’ve got. And it’s the only option given that the other side literally wants to demolish democracy.

allen@triad-city-beat.com

OF COUNSEL

Jonathan Jones

EDITORIAL

MANAGING EDITOR

Sayaka Matsuoka

sayaka@triad-city-beat.com

CITYBEAT REPORTER

Gale Melcher

gale@triad-city-beat.com

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, Michaela Ratliff, Jen Sorensen, Todd Turner

WEBMASTER

Sam LeBlanc

ART DIRECTOR

Aiden Siobhan aiden@triad-city-beat.com

COVER: Design by Aiden Siobhan Photo by Marielle Argueza

by Sayaka Matsuoka

How Greensboro’s cover-up of a contaminated park is impacting residents decades later

by Marielle Argueza, Gale Melcher

It’s a hot and humid afternoon in Greensboro. School just let out for the day, and the faint tune of an ice cream truck jingles in the distance. A big, yellow school bus rolls through the Morningside Homes neighborhood. It squeaks to a stop, and a little boy jumps out and into the arms of his sister and cousin.

Across the street sprawls 12 green acres at Bingham Park — just a skip, hop and a jump away from the family’s home. On a summer day, it’s the perfect place to play. Instead, it’s blocked off by a chain link fence. That’s because Bingham Park is a cover up — literally.

Between the 1920s and 1950s, the site served as an incinerator and landfill for waste from the US military and Guilford County. Landfills weren’t lined back then, allowing for a host of adverse compounds to leach into the site’s soil and groundwater. Then, in the 1970s, the city covered up the landfill and called it Bingham Park.

Until April of this year, the park was open — with precautions. Signs posted around the property warned visitors to not eat the dirt or drink from the stream that runs across the grounds. But once new guidance around acceptable lead levels in soil from the Environmental Protection Agency dropped in January, the city rushed to close down

the park three months later and put up the fence.

“They didn’t even tell us they were putting up the gate; that was a shocker,” said longtime Bingham Park area resident Antwuan Tysor.

City council is slated to make a decision on the future of Bingham Park this month, which could impact the health and wellbeing of thousands of Black and low-income Greensboro residents for generations to come.

The park, which is located in the 27401 ZIP code, is home to a predominantly Black population — more than half of the residents are Black, according to 2020 Census data. The demographic makeup stems from 70 years ago, in 1951, when Morningside Homes, a segregated community for Black families, was built to the west of the landfill. Fifty years later, in 2002, the development was demolished to make way for Willow Oaks, a mixed-housing and mixed-income community built as a federal housing redevelopment project

Spencer Street draws a stark line between the bright and modern townhomes of Willow Oaks and the older houses and apartments across the way.

Tysor grew up on the other side of Spencer Street and has lived in a home overlooking the park for 13 years. It was once a respite for Tysor and her children.

Greensboro’s Bingham Park has been closed to the public since April.

PHOTO BY MARIELLE ARGUEZA

“As a little kid, I used to play over here,” Tysor told TCB as she gazed out over the park. “We used to all hang out here. Didn’t know it was on a hope and a prayer.”

“Look at it,” she mused. “It’s beautiful.”

Acknowledgement of the dangers in the park began in the 2000s when the park’s basketball court began to crack, which led NCDEQ to eventually designate the site as an inactive hazardous waste or pre-regulatory landfill.

The court, where Tysor’s son used to play, is now inaccessible. That’s because the park has been designated a “brownfield,” or an area that has the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant, leading to complications in the property’s reuse, redevelopment, or expansion, according to the EPA. There are approximately 450,000 brownfields around the U.S. according to the agency.

For years, Tysor and other Bingham Park residents had no idea that what lay beneath the topsoil could harm them and their loved ones through adverse health effects.

In the last few months, the city has begun plans to remediate the park by transporting the contaminated soil to one of three landfills. One of the options — White Street Landfill, which is situated four miles south of the park — has been met with pushback from residents who live around White Street and Nealtown Road, an area that is also home to predominantly Black and lower-income families.

Studies have shown that landfills and other environmental hazards including factories and industrial farms are disproportionately located in communities of color and poorer areas.

Although the park has long been an environmental hazard, the fact that it’s taken so long to be addressed has been painful for residents around the park.

“Truthfully, I feel sad; I feel that they don’t care about us,” Tysor said. “I’m pretty sure if we were on another side [of town], this would have been fixed by now. We’re the last to get anything fixed over here.”

The price of pollution

ccording to the EPA, populations living within half a mile of a brownfield site were more likely to be from minority demographics, poorer and non-English speaking. The CDC outlines the health risks of living in the vicinity of a brownfield including poor air quality, lack of options for physical activity, poor quality housing options, and higher risk of disease and early death.

AIn February 2023, the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission voted for full remediation, meaning that the dirt from the park will be taken away and placed in an area where it won’t harm anyone. So far, the city has identified three landfills where it can be dumped: Uwharrie Landfill in Troy, Great Oak in Asheboro and the city’s own White Street Landfill.

Recognizing the damage brownfields have on communities, the EPA awards grants or loan assistance to local municipalities to help clean and redevelop brownfields under the Brownfield Program. And it’s been a success for many communities since the start of the program in 1995. In 2023, the EPA awarded $215 million to 267 communities to help with clean-up problem areas.

In 2008, Coventry, RI received a grant after purchasing a former dumping site and wetland in 2000. The funds went toward cleaning up the site and wetland restoration. When the site was cleaned-up it was added as an expansion to a neighboring nature conservation area.

Council Bluff, Iowa received $600,000 to clean up the residual contaminants in the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company Building, which was then redeveloped into a performing arts and cultural center for the town.

But EPA Brownfield Assistance Grants are not an option for Bingham Park. And that’s because the city is at fault.

“For sites contaminated by hazardous substances, persons, including government entities, who may be found liable for the contamination under [the Superfund law] are not eligible for grants,” the EPA’s eligibility requirements states.

The city of Greensboro’s Environmental Compliance Support Manager Richard Lovett explained there is a good reason for that limitation.

“They don’t want to reward people who contaminate the site,” he said. “Otherwise Exxon would be like, ‘Yeah! Bring it on!’ It’s really unprecedented to get funding for a site when you’re the responsible party.”

Given the expense of remediation, the city has made the argument that using White Street Landfill would be the cheapest and easiest option. Currently, the landfill only accepts yard waste and construction debris; filling it with Bingham Park’s dirt would close White Street Landfill eight years earlier than originally anticipated.

Some of the city’s key decision-makers are leaning toward that option.

Bingham Park falls under the purview of District 1, represented by Councilmember Sharon Hightower. In an interview, Hightower explained her views on moving Bingham’s dirt to White Street.

“It’s just basically to move unsafe dirt into a safe space,” she said. “There’s a lot that goes into it, and there’s a lot that people don’t understand.”

One of the remediation options would have been to place a cap on the land, which would prevent contamination by placing a barrier such as clay, concrete or asphalt to cover the ground. While it would have been a cheaper option, it wouldn’t get rid of the toxic material.

“We don’t want a Band-Aid,” Hightower said, “We want a complete remediation to be able to have a safe park in a neighborhood that’s deserving of it.

So far, the city has identified between $14.7 and $22.1 million in federal and state funding for the project. The state legislature is providing the city with

Resident Malinda Pagett voices concerns at a meeting about Bingham Park and White Street Landfill.

PHOTO BY MARIELLE ARGUEZA

up to $11 million, which could be shared with other city projects, plus $7-10 million from the state’s Department of Environmental Quality which will determine the final amount. The city also requested $4 million for the project from a federal appropriations bill through the office of Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC), but received $1.1 million. Even if the city acquires the maximum amount of funding, they will still need to bring millions of dollars to the table to accomplish the task.

Because the nature of the waste is industrial and toxic, there are only a few sites big enough, close enough and safely regulated enough to take it. According to the city, White Street Landfill is the safest and the most cost-effective option at an estimated $24-$27 million and a four-month timeline. The two other sites the city considered would require at least $10 million more and add months to the project.

But the area around the landfill has a history of contamination as well.

While Bingham’s toxic dirt would be going to White Street’s lined landfill, two of its landfills are unlined, which previously led to contaminated soil and groundwater. In 2011, a study by the NC Division of Public Health confirmed there were elevated rates of pancreatic cancer in residents around White Street Landfill.

Even with some of these concerns, Hightower said that she wants the city to move forward as quickly as possible so they don’t miss out on using funding.

But just because the numbers make sense to the city, doesn’t mean they feel fair for residents. The residents of both neighborhoods, who are majority Black and lowincome communities, are asking their policymakers, why them?

White Street Landfill is located in District 2, and the district’s councilmember Goldie Wells said she’s still making her decision.

“I’ve just been trying to help people become educated about it. I’m going to make an informed decision on what I think is best for all the citizens,” said Wells, who is encouraging residents to visit the landfill.

For residents like Malinda Pagett, who was an outspoken participant of a June 12 community meeting on Bingham Park, the city’s plan is an example of environmental racism.

Pagett told reporters at the meeting that she and her neighbors were not fans of any of the solutions and the waste, regardless of the prices, shouldn’t be anywhere near people — and in particular, Black people.

“If you want me to make an informed decision, fine, give me the information,” she said. “But, again, don’t take [the waste] out of one Black community and put it in another.”

The impact of pollution on health

he waste of Bingham Park has followed Malinda Pagget throughout her life. She grew up in the Bingham Park community in the ’70s, when the property was first redeveloped as a park. She didn’t know that she was playing in contaminated dirt and water.

As an adult, she moved out of the city for work, then returned to Greensboro only to settle in the White Street neighborhood. News of the city’s plans to decontaminate her childhood neighborhood by moving the waste just blocks away from her current home didn’t come as a surprise to her.

T“Every time, they’re putting these things in Black neighborhoods,” Pagget said. “It’s always one Black neighborhood against another, and we’re tired of that.”

One of the factors that keeps the EPA’s Brownfield Program funded is the federal government’s acknowledgement that it’s usually socioeconomically disadvantaged communities that bear the brunt of brownfields and superfund sites. Superfunds are essentially brownfields that are more heavily contaminated and thus exhibit more toxic properties.

According to the CDC, the census tract around Bingham Park has high rates of asthma, high blood pressure, kidney disease, depression, but not cancer.

According to the CDC’s National Healthcare Statistics, people who live in the census tracts near White Street Landfill have a lower life expectancy of 71-75 years. In the census tract around Bingham Park, the life expectancy is around 73.1. Both fall below the state’s life expectancy of 78 years.

Morningside Homes, a segregated community for Black families, was built to the west of the landfill in 1951 and demolished in 2002.

PHOTO BY MARIELLE ARGUEZA

A 2016 Risk Assessment memo by Analee Thornburg, the State’s Department of Environmental Quality’s Bingham Park project manager, concluded that none of the eight parcels tested at Bingham Park exceeded the EPA’s or the state’s maximum allowable excess cancer risk. Follow-up analysis in 2015 using bores in the soil identified asbestos at levels greater than 1 percent, which is considered hazardous to human health according to various health and safety agencies.

Other organizations have been looking for solutions, too. In October 2020, doctors Stephen Sills, Sandra Echeverria and Kathy Colville were awarded a three-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to “develop a framework” for addressing environmental justice concerns in communities of color, which included building a case for remediating the park and streams. In an email to TCB, Echeverria explained that the project involved establishing the Bingham Park Environmental Justice Team to center “community voice, direct lived experience and leadership development” that would guide park remediation. While other studies have revealed that incidences of pancreatic cancer were more frequent around the White Street Landfill, the team did not publish a health-risk study for Bingham Park.

During a March 2023 meeting between the doctors, BPEJ team members and city leaders, team member Courtney Ullah, who lives in Willow Oaks, explained that her children love to play in parks, but the closest one — Bingham Park — “has never been a clean, safe option to enjoy.” Instead, their family has to visit other parks around the city.

“It is too far to walk to these parks with little legs, and sometimes we just simply can’t afford to spend the gas money,” Ullah said. “As a mother, I feel guilty when I am unable to load them into our shared car to drive them to enjoy what they naturally need: Fresh air, green spaces and human connection.”

In August 2023, a two-page policy brief resulted from the group’s project. It included recommendations for full remediation and site restoration, engaging and empowering

A sign posted at the park outlines the reasons why the area is closed.

PHOTO BY MARIELLE ARGUEZA

the community, adopting an environmental justice framework, sustainable land use planning and design, continued monitoring of the site and improving inclusive engagement across the state.

A glimpse at the future

ithout help from federal agencies, there are few options for cities like Greensboro to reverse the harmful environmental state and prevent further health disparities created by their own hand. But it is possible.

In California, the city of Berkeley is leveraging about $2 million in state grants alongside specific taxes to keep up with remediation and improve pathways and bathroom facilities at Cesar Chavez Park, a former city landfill.

WIn other cities, various entities sometimes pool their resources to get large-scale projects done.

This is the case for Philadelphia’s beloved FDR Park, which was developed nearly 110 years ago and has been affected by surrounding construction projects and industrial dumping at the site.

Because of its importance as a drainage basin during the flooding season, its cultural significance and its proximity to the airport, the Philadelphia International Airport became a major collaborator with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and the Fairmount Park Conservancy. In 2022, the airport agreed to a $30 million wetland restoration project as a part of a $250 million, three-year redevelopment plan of the park.

So what’s next for Bingham Park?

At the upcoming July 23 city council meeting, city leaders are slated to make a decision regarding whether to support full soil removal at Bingham Park using White Street Landfill as a dump site, according to the city’s Parks and Recreation Director Phil

Fleischmann.

Hightower remains optimistic, and hopes that people will “understand that it’s a business decision; it’s not pitting one community against the other.”

Rather, “it’s the embrace of us all to work together, and say, ‘Let’s make a cleaner, safer space,’” she said. “That, to me, is the best, smartest decision that we can make.”

July 23 meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. at 300 W.

The

Washington St. in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber. View the meetings online on the city’s YouTube channel or on their website.

Jen Sorensen jensorensen.com

Project 2025 — Saying the quiet part out loud

by Brian Clarey

ome-

times I forget that, as a bona fide member of the news media, I live in society’s rarefied air — or, perhaps its scabrous underbelly.

Because of my job, I stay on top of the news cycle like an old lady watching her sidewalk through the blinds of her living room window. I’m on the feeds all day, my phone pinging with alerts from news sites and texts from people with the most valuable kind of news — the stuff that other people don’t know about yet.

I realize that most people do not share this obsession.

But I thought the story of Project 2025 — the Republican plan for a new America after Trump’s reelection — had made it to the mainstream months ago. I learned about it in January, from a tweet that led me to the project’s website

every Republican in the NC General Assembly, who in turn have already submitted Heritage bills to become NC law.

And I thought everyone already knew about it until last week, when it truly went mainstream.

John Oliver’s comedic dissection of Project 2025 explained the depth of its depravities better than I can in 350 words, educating the casual news viewer on this plan. And then Taraji P. Henson warned attendees and viewers of “The BET Awards” about the plan and its dire consequences for Black folks

I thought everyone already knew about Project 2025.

It’s a terrifying list of changes to how this country is run, to be deployed during Trump’s first six months: relegating civil-service employees from “hundreds of agencies” into political appointees; establishing partisan control over the DOJ, the FBI, the FCC and the FTC; eliminating the departments of education and homeland security; reducing and then cutting Medicaid and Medicare; abolishing abortion throughout the country; criminalizing pornography; creating internment camps for immigrants… it just goes on and on and on.

It’s a project of the Heritage Foundation, the most powerful extremist right-wing group in the country. They’re already contributing to the campaigns of virtually

Now, finally, people are getting riled up about it, so much so that Trump officially denied knowing anything about it a few days later, which is a pretty huge lie, even for him. We should all get on board. Explore the website where the Heritage Foundation spells out its plans for everyone who is not white and Christian. Blast it out on your social media channels, if you’re into that sort of thing. Tell your rightwardleaning friends that a vote for Trump is a vote for a fascist autocracy. Ask everyone on the Republican ticket why they support this plan, because they are all on board whether they want to admit it or not. We’ll be bringing it up in our election coverage every chance we get. And we’ll be writing about it more in this space as the election looms closer.

And if you’re a Trump supporter, you need to read it to know what you are signing on for.

Consider this: Last week, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said the quiet part out loud.

“[W]e are in the process of the second American Revolution,” he said on Steve Bannon’s radio show, “which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

John Cole

Courtesy of NC Policy Watch

CULTURE

At Greensboro’s Silent Book Club, low pressure reading is the goal

by Priya Dames

Tucked into the back half of Scuppernong Books in downtown Greensboro, two members of a unique book club ponder the logistics of how a ghost might read a book: all at once or by flipping the pages one by one? Another pair discusses the length of their “to be read” list on Goodreads.

Patrons of the bookstore browse the “used” sections surrounding the perimeter and ask the group of readers how the Silent Book Club works.

Rather than all of its members reading the same book, what differentiates the Silent Book Club from others is that participants read different books based on their own tastes and at their own speeds. There is no set schedule to read a certain amount or questions to discuss.

On a recent Sunday, about a dozen members sit in the circle of chairs and introduce themselves along with the books they have brought to read. Their tastes range from Critical Digital Pedagogy: A Collection to The Yellow Wallpaper to The Greatest Beer Run Ever

One participant introduces a book they brought last time but decides partway through their introduction that they would rather crochet instead. Some participants bring Kindles or audiobooks.

Then, the group begins one hour of silent reading.

María Perdomo founded and held the first meeting of the Silent Book Club’s Greensboro chapter with her friend Eddison Wilkinson, in November 2019 after hearing about the idea on NPR. She had returned to Greensboro and wanted to find community.

“Really taking the pressure off of reading is really important to me,” Perdomo says. “To dismantle a bit of what we think reading is.”

Guinevere de la Mare and Laura Gluhanich of San Francisco created the concept in 2012 after finding that they enjoyed reading with other people but did not like the pressure of book clubs. Since then, chapters of the book club have popped up all over the world.

After putting the club on hold during the pandemic, Perdomo revived the book club in March 2023, this time by herself.

One of the advantages to the Silent Book Club is how easy it is to customize depending on the city it is held in.

Consistency has been the best strategy for the Greensboro chapter, Perdomo says. This includes meeting at Scuppernong Books every second Sunday of the month from noon to 2 p.m. The space works

Greensboro resident Maria Perdomo started the club with her friend back in 2023 and now runs the club by herself.

COURTESY PHOTO

The Silent Book Club is a low-pressure reading group where people can gather and read whatever they want.

COURTESY PHOTO

well because it is quiet enough for members to focus but busy enough with customers that conversations from the book club are not bothersome.

Elizabeth Lantzas moved to Greensboro recently and wanted to find a community who shared her interests.

“This felt like a good low pressure way of doing that,” Lantzas says.

Members comment on what it feels like to get an hour of uninterrupted reading time, Perdomo says.

“Whether you’re a parent or have a busy work schedule, a lot of folks feel a relief that comes with being able to do it and commit to it,” Perdomo says.

Accountability is another aspect of the book club that participants find helpful.

“Some people might think reading with a bunch of strangers is really weird. I think it offers an accountability piece that’s really important.” Perdomo says.

For example, when she starts to look at her phone, she feels a pull to come back to reading and being present with the group through the informal accountability they have with each other.

There is pressure to read quickly on social media, Perdomo says. This leaves some readers feeling inadequate, Perdomo adds. Instead, Perdomo tries to reframe some of the language used to describe reading to be more positive. If a participant describes themselves as a slow reader for returning to the book club with the same book from last month, she does her best to correct it on the spot.

“It keeps us from enjoying literature, reading and talking about books. You don’t have to be a certain type of person to read a book and share and enjoy it,” Perdomo says.

She believes this makes this book club different from others.

“I try really hard for us to be like, ‘It’s okay if it took you one year to read that book. We don’t think any less of you, as long as you enjoyed it,’” Perdomo says.

Kim Mercer has been to three meetings.

“Reading is a solitary activity, and yet all of us here are book readers,” Mercer says. “It can be hard to find that community, and this is a way to find camaraderie even if it is a solitary activity.”

PUBLIC MEETING FOR PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS TO U.S. 74 (INDEPENDENCE BOULEVARD) FROM I-277 TO I-485 CHARLOTTE, MECKLENBURG COUNTY

STIP NOS: U-6103 AND U-2509

CHARLOTTE - The N.C. Department of Transportation will hold an open house style public meeting to provide information on the proposed improvements to U.S. 74 (Independence Boulevard) from I-277 to I-485 (Charlotte Outer Loop) in Charlotte and Matthews.

Tuesday, July 23 - 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

East Mecklenburg High School - Cafeteria

6800 Monroe Road, Charlotte

The project will widen and upgrade U.S. 74 (Independence Boulevard) with additional general-purpose lanes, auxiliary lanes, express lanes in the median, and the replacement of at-grade intersections with interchanges and overpasses. The project will also extend and connect existing parallel collector roads in the corridor.

NCDOT representatives will be available in an informal, open house-style setting to answer questions and gather public input regarding the proposed project. The opportunity to submit written comments or questions will be provided and is encouraged. Citizens may attend at any time between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. There will be no formal presentation.

Project maps and other information can be found on the project website https://www.ncdot.gov/projects/us-74-express-lanes.

For more information contact Bryan Key with the NCDOT Project Management Unit at bckey@ncdot.gov or (919) 707-6263.

Silent Book Club meets the second Sunday of the month from noon to 2 p.m. at Scuppernong Books. The next one takes place on July 14. Stay updated at scuppernongbooks.com or on Instagram @silentbookclubgso.

NCDOT will provide auxiliary aids and services under the Americans with Disabilities Act for disabled persons who want to participate in this public open house. Anyone requiring special services should contact Diane Wilson at pdwilson1@ncdot.gov or (919)707-6073 as soon as possible so that arrangements can be made.

Those who do not speak English, or have a limited ability to read, speak or understand English, may receive interpretive services upon prior request by calling 1-800-4816494.

Aquellas personas no hablan inglés, o tienen limitaciones para leer, hablar o entender inglés, podrían recibir servicios de interpretación si los solicitan antes de la reunión llamando al 1-800-481-6494.

CULTURE A

The Triad’s smallest galleries let people bring and take art for free

by Sayaka Matsuoka | sayaka@triad-city-beat.com

colorful metal person made of bolts and screws; a slice of melting pizza atop a purple background; a tiny Etch-A-Sketch; carefully crocheted coasters. These are just a number of little crafts and pieces that can be found at two of the smallest art galleries in the Triad. The Free Little Art Galleries in Winston-Salem and Greensboro have been delighting neighbors and random dog walkers for the past several months since they popped up.

“It’s a community art project in a way,” says Taylor Hayes, coordinator of the Free Little Art Gallery in Winston-Salem, located in Washington Park on South Broad Street.

Hayes, a visual artist who has worked at Sawtooth School for Visual Art and presented work at Artworks Gallery in the past, says she came across the concept on Instagram a few months ago. Similar to the Little Free Libraries, the Free Little Art Galleries project is a grassroots effort to share art in local neighborhoods across the country. While the organization appears to have been around for about a decade, the project has become more popular since the pandemic.

That’s when Ash Hine of Greensboro started the Free Little Art Gallery in the Dunleath Neighborhood on Percy Street. They had also seen other little free art galleries on social media and wanted to start one in their neighborhood.

“We have a lot of little boxes in our neighborhood,” says Hine, who created the Greensboro gallery in 2022. “We have a Little Free Library, a puzzle gallery where people can exchange puzzles and a seed exchange at our community garden around the corner. So I really liked the idea of adding to that.”

Similarly, in the Washington Park area in Winston-Salem, Hayes says there is a Little Free Library and also a free food pantry up the street. And like those other projects, the Free Little Art Gallery is meant to be a stress-free collaborative space for people to share art without any strings attached.

“There’s no cost,” Hayes says. “It’s just something you can stumble upon and not feel judged.”

The gallery in Greensboro was made by Hine and their partner and looks similar to the little free libraries. It’s essentially a wooden box with a door affixed to a pole. The one in Winston-Salem is a little bigger, made of metal and is bolted directly into the side of a fence and sits on top of a stone wall. Both have a little description of the project and tags to their Instagram pages where they share new work that comes in.

Because there’s an established national network, both Hine and Hayes say that they’ve received art from people outside of the state.

In one instance, a person from Maryland sent a painting of a menorah to the Greensboro gallery during the holidays. Hayes says artists from as far as Washington state have sent in objects for the gallery.

“It’s a fun way for them to get their art in other places,” Hayes says of out-of-state artists.

In the Greensboro gallery there used to be little people who acted as “spectators” in the box, Hine says. The little people have been taken in the last few months, but the art continues to be displayed on little lines, almost like clothing lines, inside the box. The Winston-Salem gallery is a bit more freeform, with a shelf that allows for a

lot of art to be displayed inside and on the metal walls via magnets. The WinstonSalem location also has a doodle book for anyone to leave notes or draw in. That’s one of Hine’s favorite parts about the gallery.

Visit the WinstonSalem gallery (@ freelittleartgallerywsnc) at the corner of Broad and Sprague Streets. Visit the Greensboro location (@percystflag) on Percy Street near Yanceyville. Learn more about the national network at freelittleartgalleries.art.

“You can come by and visit,” they say. “You don’t have to make anything. There is always something to be taken; it is not a requirement to make something to take something.”

Still, if someone wants to make something and contribute, there are no rules. Anyone can create what they want and put it in the gallery. In the past, kids have made drawings, neighbors have dropped off decorated cookies, and people have even dropped off plant cuttings in the boxes.

“We want art from anyone and everyone,” Hine says. “We love it all.”

The point is to make art accessible to everyone, Hayes says. “In a world where there’s a lot going on, it’s just a tiny moment where you can experience something fun or unique that you didn’t expect to,” she says.

So the next time you’re in the neighborhood, why not open the door and see what’s inside?

Greensboro’s Free Little Art Gallery coordinator Ash Hine poses next to a gallery in Washington DC.

COURTESY PHOTO

Winston-Salem’s Free Little Art Gallery is located in Washington Park on South Broad Street.

COURTESY PHOTO

Party Like It’s the Turn of the Century at the Children’s Museum in Downtown Greensboro

There’s nothing quite like childhood nostalgia. Just thinking about watching hip hop music videos on MTV to securing butterfly clips to a favorite hairstyle, fills us with cozy memories of a simpler time.

This July, let the DJ spin you back in time to another era, by attending Party Like It’s 1999 at the Miriam P. Brenner Children’s Museum. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Museum, and in celebration it is paying homage to the year it opened its doors!

Dress up in your bucket hat and overalls and step into the ‘90s, with this 21+ event in downtown Greensboro that drums up all the pop culture references that are safely stored in the back of your mind.

Check your knowledge of ‘90s history, movies, and sitcoms with trivia! You may even win a big prize, such as tickets to see The Rocket Man Show: A Tribute to Elton John at the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts or a free night’s stay at the Hampton Inn & Suites Raleigh Downtown!

Play classic ‘90s games including Twister, Bop It, and giant Jenga. If you think you’re lucky, punch your hand into our box of surprises to see if you will win a nostalgic sweet and sour candy, such as Ring Pops, Warheads, and Push Pops, or get Nickelodeon “slimed”!

Afterward, make a pit stop at the Reconsidered Goods’ craft area to create graffiti-inspired artwork.

Take a break from all the crafts and games and purchase wine or beer from Little Brother Brewing, or a mocktail from MACHETE and Yokai. Nibble on some Korean corn dogs by Astro Dogs food truck or Caribbean cuisine by Jamaica Coast Catering food truck. Stop by the Museum’s Snack Shack for complimentary desserts provided by The Fresh Market.

Remember the jams of the era by listening to DJ and emcee The Mothers of Chaos and spend some time in the rave area, where you can see ‘90s music videos and don glow in the dark jewelry.

Before the night’s out, play like a child again throughout 20+ indoor and outdoor Museum exhibits!

Party Like It’s 1999 is Thursday, July 18, from 6:30p-10p. Admission to the event is $25, with one free drink ticket included. Get tickets by visiting mbcmuseum.com or using this link: tinyurl.com/mvrh6mnr.

All guests must be 21 or older. A valid ID must be shown at the entrance.

SHOT IN THE TRIAD

BY CAROLYN DE BERRY

Winston Street, Greensboro

Scene from the Zenke family estate sale. From 1950-80 the Zenke family firm designed interior spaces for some of Greensboro’s most opulent homes and clubs. The company was long-considered the Southeast’s top interior design firm.

DOWNTOWN JAZZ

JULY 12

ERIC ESSIX

CORPENING PLAZA

SUMMER ON FOURTH

JULY 13

THE PHASE BAND

4TH ST. IN FRONT OF FOOTHILLS BREWING

CROSSWORD

by Matt Jones

SUDOKU

by Matt Jones

PUZZLES & GAMES YOUR AD GOES

Across

1. Fencing sword

6. Like used briquettes

10. Add-ons in the self-checkout lane?

14. Slangy summons

15. Fencing sword

16. Alike, in Avignon

17. Single file

19. Long ride?

20. Front-of-book list, for short

21. Fails to be

22. Ab-building exercise

23. Bombarded, Biblical-style

27. Poem with a dedicatee

28. Top of the mouth

29. Forearm bone

32. “I ___ reason why ...”

34. Portrayed

37. Action seen in “The Hunt for Red

October”

41. “Abbott Elementary” principal

42. Crates

43. Pretentious, as some paintings

44. Org. that works with the JPL

45. Blu-ray player predecessor

47. Lyric from Hall & Oates

53. Picked

54. Astronaut’s beverage

55. Classic Japanese drama form

57. Jabba the ___

58. Interlocks, like what each theme answer does?

61. Title figure in a Scott Turow book

62. Pound, for one

63. “You’re All ___ to Get By”

64. Small spot on a globe

65. Like doilies

66. Ancient Scandinavians

Down

1. Tam wearer

2. Response to “Are too!”

3. Firewood wood

4. Notable period

5. Laced again

6. Insurance company named after a mountain

7. ___ bars (raps)

8. Dress line

9. “___-haw!”

10. Conviction

11. Antsy feeling

12. Full range

13. Pig feed

18. “... even ___ speak”

22. Hoity-toity type

24. Wander

25. Peaches and pears, e.g.

26. “Game of Thrones” actress Chaplin

29. Letters on Forever stamps

30. Sweetie, to Brits

31. Org. that has guards

32. Wakeup hour, for some

33. Ethyl or methyl follower

34. 1812 event

35. Do something

36. Field in a jigsaw puzzle, often

38. Cheapen

39. “The Horse Fair” painter Bonheur

40. Acidic

44. Quik maker

45. Big name in set diagrams

46. Coop up

47. Cold-shoulders

48. Monopoly buy

49. Storage spot

50. Awful, like some colds

51. Key near the double-quotes

52. Dramatis personae

53. Former “Top Chef Masters” host Kelly

56. Robert Louis Stevenson villain

58. Ending for spoon or scorn

59. TV chef Garten

60. “That’s ___ brainer”

Thu 7/11

2024 Wine Warrior Challenge at Grandover

@ 6:30pm / $120

The Grif�n Room at Grandover, 1000 Club Road, Greensboro