Fifty years on, Crystal Towers’ residents continue to fight for change
BY GALE MELCHER AND JAMES DOUGLAS | PG. 4
THURSDAY JULY 13
Scuppernong Books presents Jeannette Walls @ Congregational Church of Christ (GSO) 7 p.m.
New York Times best-selling author Jeannette Walls is hosting a discussion of her book Hang the Moon, described by the Times as “a rip-roaring, action-packed novel set during prohibition filled with head-spinning plot twists and enough dead bodies, doomed romances, and sudden betrayals to make you wonder if George R.R. Martin had decided to ditch fantasy for Southern Gothic.” Find more information at scuppernongbooks.com
FRIDAY JULY 14
The Enrichment Center Artist Exhibit @ Arts Council of Winston-Salem (WS) 5 p.m.
by MICHAELA RATLIFFThe Enrichment Center, dedicated to supporting intellectually and developmentally disabled adults in Forsyth County, celebrates 40 years of service with “The Yellow Brick Road of Events,” 40 events held over the next year ranging from bingo nights to advocacy dinners. On this day, enjoy the opening of the Enrichment Center artist exhibit, on display until Aug. 23. Visit enrichmentarc.org for a full calendar of events.
JULY 13 - 15
SATURDAY JULY 15
Make Your Own Ice Cream @ High Point Museum (HP) 12 p.m.
Children under age 12 are invited to celebrate National Ice Cream Day by making your own in a bag. Visit the event page on Facebook for more information.
p.m.
Adults 21 and up are encouraged to head to the sprayground for nostalgic playground games, music provided by a DJ, food and drink vendors and more. Visit the event page on Facebook for more information.
Find more events and add your own to our calendar at triad-city-beat.com/local-events/.
(HP) 3 p.m.
High Point is pleased to announce the launch of its first art and design festival featuring mural painting, live music and performances, interactive activities and more for the family to enjoy. Head to High Avenue and Green Drive for the fun. Find more information at mainincolor.com
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
Gale Melcher gale@triad-city-beat.com
TCB
SALES
KEY ACCOUNTS
Chris Rudd chris@triad-city-beat.com
AD MANAGER
Noah Kirby noah@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 ART DIRECTOR Aiden Siobhan aiden@triad-city-beat.com
COVER:
hen I first saw the trailer for Joy Ride a few months ago, I was so excited. A raunchy comedy with an all-female, Asian-American cast? Hell yeah. It’s what I have been waiting for.
Wforcibly tied into neatish knots. As a whole, the film felt unfinished. I felt let down. The movie was, in its full definition, mid.
But then, turning to Sam to analyze the movie on the way home, we came to the same conclusion.
by Sayaka MatsuokaPart Bridesmaids meets The Hangover with a unique adoptee backstory, the film promised to be the kind of hilarious summer movie experience not unlike the Apatow-laden funnies that made up the mid-to-late 2000s, but with faces that I could relate to. But when I came out of the theater an hour and a half later, I was wrought with disappointment. The acting was fine; the jokes felt forced. And the story… well, it was all over the place. Threads were started and left limply hanging or
It’s okay!
Why can’t we (the collective, nonwhite we) have things that are mid? Mediocre? Kind of a waste of time?
Not all of the art that we put out has to be an Everything Everywhere
All At Once or Parasite or Beef-level work. In fact, only striving to create accolade-worthy art kind of feeds into the model minority myth, doesn’t it? We are allowed to exist and create things that aren’t that good. I mean, white people have been doing it since the dawn of time.
Did you know that they’re making another Expendables movie?
So yeah, Joy Ride isn’t perfect. But that’s perfectly okay, because neither are we.
To suggest story ideas or send tips to TCB, email sayaka@triad-city-beat.com
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Once you get put into the shitcan, you’re gonna be shitted on.
Phillip Carter, pg. ?
Astandard apartment at Crystal Towers consists of a small bathroom, a bedroom, a living area and kitchenette. The tiled floors evoke the setting of a hospital room, made for quick cleanups. The peeling paint — five decades of it — obscure the age of the walls. The wooden cabinets in the kitchen splinter due to years of use.
The 11-story low-income housing facility is the result of the city of Winston-Salem’s effort in the mid 1960s to create a place where elderly people on fixed incomes — but still independent — could reside. The notion of a community of people with similar needs housed in a cost-effective downtown highrise appealed to those who did not have traditional care options, so on July 31, 1972, the first residents moved into the building’s 201 units, according to reporting by the Winston-Salem Journal
But much has changed since 1972.
Now, 50 years later, the original idealistic dream of Crystal Towers is unrecognizable to its 196 residents. The world is different now: Poverty among the elderly is on the rise. The state of Crystal Towers’ facilities and its surrounding resources struggle to match the needs of the aging building’s population.
And it’s a complicated issue. Resident advocates point to the city’s housing authority, which owns the property, as failing to meet residents’ needs. The housing authority, on the other hand, focuses blame on the fact that their hands are tied when it comes to funding derived from the federal government.
In the end, the residents are the ones often left in the lurch. Ongoing issues such as broken elevators, bedbug infestations, flooded
floors and even undiscovered deaths of residents have plagued those living in the building for years.
“It’s easy… once you get put into the shitcan, you’re gonna be shitted on,” said Coalition for Accountability and Transparency member Phillip Carter who often advocates on behalf of the residents. “People that live in low-income communities — whatever the case may be — once they’re in that shitcan, they’re gonna be shitted on.”
“There’s an attitude from management that we have what we deserve and nothing more,” added resident Michael Douglas.
In the ’60s, architect Michael Newman of the Lashmit, Brown & Pollock firm designed Crystal Towers and Sunrise Towers for the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem, or HAWS.
Most localities have some form of government-run housing assistance. These are led by local housing authorities who have boards chosen from local governments. Standards differ from localities due to need, availability and demographics. Virtually all are funded by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Funding from federal sources means the input and distribution, while local, is tied to national directives. Federal budget cuts leave local housing authorities stymied as they decide what to do with lower budgets and ever-increasing needs.
The Housing Authority of Winston-Salem manages approximately 4,600 units under the Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8, a federal program that helps low-income families, older adults and people with
disabilities afford housing.
On the housing authority’s website, the section addressing inspections within the Housing Choice Voucher Program states: “It is the department’s responsibility to ensure that through the inspection process, residents reside in housing that is safe, decent, sanitary and in good repair.”
According to HAWS Executive Director Kevin Cheshire, maintenance staff regularly check the building, and it was last inspected by HUD in January 2023, by HAWS staff in February 2023 and is scheduled to be inspected by US Inspection Group in July 2023.
Crystal Towers’ architectural twin, Sunrise Towers on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, has 195 units, while Townview Apartments near Gateway Commons Park has 49 units. Other large facilities include 244 units at Cleveland Avenue Homes and Piedmont Park with 240.
To upkeep and maintain the buildings, HAWS receives two forms of subsidies from the federal government: an operating subsidy and a capital subsidy. Operating subsidies cover the difference between the revenue HAWS receives in rent and the ordinary maintenance expenses of operating the building, such as fixing a cupboard or a toilet.
During a 2018 city council meeting, former HAWS Executive Director Larry Woods explained how the difference in rent and maintenance costs at Crystal Towers was posing a problem. At the time, Woods explained how HAWS had to pay more than $700,000 in bedbug treatment
“We’re taking money from other properties just to keep this one going,” Woods said.
The lowest monthly rent that Crystal Towers’ residents pay is $50 and the median rent paid is $215, Woods said, noting that Crystal Towers was approximately $7 million behind in maintenance costs.
At the time, the committee included council members Derwin Montgomery, Denise D. Adams, Dan Besse and Robert Clark. Additional council members present at the meeting included the Northwest Ward’s Jeff MacIntosh as well as John Larson and James Taylor.
“We do not have the operating dollars to operate the building at a level that we think the residents should live under,” Woods told city council members in 2018.
A more recent conversation with Cheshire, who became executive director in 2020, revealed the same issue.
“The affordable rents are obviously not high enough to cover those expenses, so HUD bridges that gap and gives you the subsidy,” Cheshire said.
But the subsidies often aren’t enough.
The second type of subsidy from the federal government — the capital subsidy — addresses needs like a roof replacement. During fiscal year 2021, HAWS received $6.2 million in operating subsidy and $3.2 million in capital subsidy. In 2022 they received $6.5 million and $4 million, respectively.
Cheshire said that HUD calculates what they think it should cost to operate a variety of different buildings based on the construction of the property. For example a high-rise building is calculated differently than garden-style apartments. HUD then prorates that calculated amount, Cheshire told TCB
“They run a calculation, say, ‘It should cost you $1 million a year to run this building, your rent that you collected last year was $500,000. So you should get $500,000 from us just to break even.’ But every year HUD applies a proration to that amount.
“They’re only giving you a proration of what HUD itself determines it should cost to operate these buildings,” Cheshire said.
That makes it difficult for HAWS to budget how to maintain the buildings.
“Every year we’re sort of all on the edge of our seats waiting for them to determine what the proration factor is gonna be…. That’s for both of our large programs — public housing and Section 8,” he said. “They run a calculation and then they apply a proration factor, to say, ‘How much of what we’ve told
The ongoing issue of maintaining Crystal Towers came to a head in 2018 when HAWS announced that they were considering selling the building
But in January 2022, HAWS announced that the sale of Crystal Towers was canceled and they would renovate the aging building instead. Residents rejoiced and held a 50th anniversary party to celebrate.
Now, HAWS and the city will be partnering on an alternative strategy that includes “a commitment to identifying a scope of work that will drastically improve the look, feel, functionality, safety, and security of Crystal Towers,” Cheshire said.
More than a year after the sale’s cancellation, repairs have just begun.
According to Cheshire, they’ll take place in stages, starting with the installation of two new elevators which sit in a large shipping container just outside of the building.
The current elevators, which often have issues and break down, weren’t fixed until this March; efforts to replace them altogether began in early May. Each elevator car will take approximately 12 weeks to install, Cheshire said. Once they complete that, then they can modernize the lobby and relocate the laundry facilities. After that, HAWS will assess future needs. They won’t know how many changes they’ll be making until the design team conducts the assessment.
Each residential floor is laid out with apartment units that sit along a long hall that extends to a balcony or elevator area and the floor-specific laundry rooms.
The laundry rooms currently sit front and center when exiting each elevator, each containing one washer and one dryer for all of the residents on that floor. Water covers the floors in many of the laundry rooms, according to residents. Flooding is one of the reasons the elevators are constantly out of commission, HAWS representatives say. The plan is to centralize the laundry to the first floor in order to combat this. Disabled residents on higher floors who are used to their laundry room being down the hall will now have to navigate their way to the first floor with every other resident.
A few months ago, before crews removed floor tiling from the first floor for the laundry relocation process, they tested it for a carcinogenic material often used in construction until the 1980s — asbestos — which was found in the tiles. That’s where it’s been found so far.
“There’s been no other asbestos testing because we’re not working anywhere else,” Cheshire told TCB
Some residents told TCB that they had no idea the asbestos removal was even happening.
In early May, TCB spoke to many residents who were either unaware that asbestos was being removed or did not know where it was located.
Cheshire said that management had been tasked with letting residents know what was going on. A flyer hung in the lobby informing residents of possible health hazards of the asbestos removal.
Cheshire noted that staff had a meeting with residents after the removal to address any questions and explain the process.
“This meeting should have taken place before the removal.” Cheshire acknowledged.
In addition to the elevator and flooding issue, residents also face issues with temperature control.
According to a search of Forsyth County property records, the building has no HVAC and no sprinklers. Cheshire confirmed to TCB that the building does
not have a sprinkler system, and that while the first floor of the lobby does have central HVAC, the residential units do not.
This often causes the hallways to get hot and muggy. According to residents, the doors to the balconies at the ends of hallways are usually propped open — which goes against fire code.
“Yes, doors being propped open by residents is indeed a problem,” Cheshire wrote to TCB in an email. “Management does its best to ask residents to not prop doors open and to take enforcement action against repeat offenders. However, as an independent living facility, the building is not staffed 24/7 and residents are expected to abide by building rules. Management staff is unable to go behind residents all day closing doors.”
During an April 17 city council meeting, Housing Justice Now organizer Dan Rose spoke about the state of Crystal Towers: “We see that the housing authority is struggling.”
“Many of us are believers in housing low-income people in this community, but we know that the city can be doing more to support the housing authority’s efforts there,” Rose said.
About $1 million has been spent on Crystal Towers since the sale was canceled in 2022, according to Cheshire. As far as Crystal Towers’ profits go, Cheshire said that the building had a negative cash flow of $152,393 during the 2021 fiscal year, which was covered out of cash flows from Cleveland Avenue Homes. In 2022, it had a negative cash flow of $286,328. Cash flows from Cleveland Avenue Homes, Townview Apartments and Camden Station covered the losses that year.
In a May 9 text to TCB, Cheshire discussed funding for renovations, noting that he wasn’t sure how much they would get from the city moving forward.
“[The] City has committed to work with us to make the upgrades, but we do not have a figure on that need yet,” he wrote, adding that they anticipate having that number by the end of the year. “[W]e do not know how much of that need the City will fund.”
Mayor Joines told TCB in a June 8 interview that the amount of funding that the city will provide hasn’t yet been set in stone.
“We’ve talked in the range of $2 million, but we’re waiting on them to make an official request,” Joines said.
But part of creating a safe living environment will take more than just improving the actual building, residents say.
In early April, Rose, Coalition for Accountability and Transparency member Phillip Carter and 76-year-old resident Samuel Grier, who is also president of Crystal Towers United, met to unload a laundry list of needs at Crystal Towers that advocates and residents alike believe are not being addressed.
Grier, who leads the initiative that allows for residents to advocate for one another, is soft-spoken, unassuming. He knows everyone who passes by and greets them with kindness. Both he and Douglas want better tenant representation.
“What they really need — and some of those people up there are earnest in what they’re doing — but they need people that are living through this process in those positions,” Douglas said about management.
One of the most harrowing issues facing residents is the fact that when some of them pass away, it can go unnoticed by neighbors and staff alike.
“I had to report two dead bodies,” Grier said. “A person on my floor was deceased for I don’t know how long, but the smell.... Once you smell that, you will never forget it”.
In June 2022, Rose emailed HAWS attorney Alex Boston to let them know that Freddie Kirkland, a resident facing eviction, had passed away.
“He moved out to a nursing home and died. After he died, I saw his name on the eviction dockets. They didn’t even realize that he was gone,” Rose told TCB
Cheshire confirmed to TCB in June that two residents had passed away in their apartments in approximately the last 10 months.
“In the first instance, the resident’s family members had not spoken with her since the previous day,” Cheshire explained. “When they could not reach her, they contacted law enforcement for a welfare check. Law enforcement entered the apartment for a welfare check and found the resident deceased. In the second instance, the residents’ neighbors began noticing a smell of unknown origin and contacted management. While no report was received by management, presumably the resident in the second instance had been deceased inside the unit for multiple days.
“As heart-wrenching as that is, and as tragic, we don’t have social workers,” Cheshire explained. “This is an independent living building. And it’s a shame and it is sad and tragic, but that’s not a housing management issue.”
Still, Cheshire explains that staff try to be as attentive as possible.
When a water main break left much of downtown without access to water on May 25, Cheshire said staff members alerted residents and provided them with water bottles.
Staff members stayed past midnight to help residents, Cheshire said. One week later on Memorial Day, a blackout occurred downtown. Staff spent the holiday at the building supporting residents when the power went out.
“We are property managers, period,” Cheshire said. “We are maintenance
workers and property managers.”
Still, the needs of Crystal Towers’ population are just different than those at other properties, Cheshire said, and the reality is that while they are neither equipped nor funded to try to meet those needs, they do anyway.
While staff tries their best to address the facility issues within the building, they also try to address mental health, behavioral health, substance abuse and emotional health needs.
“That’s the situation we’re in and that’s the environment in which we are operating,” Cheshire said. “We’re doing our very best to manage a population that we’re not funded to manage.”
Cheshire said that many of his staff members either grew up in public housing or still live in it. “You’ve got people working in this industry who are doing it for the right reasons,” he said. “That’s not to say that they always get it right…. I don’t always get it right. But we’re here fighting this fight for the right reasons because we care about people.”
Cheshire also said that they have created a community engagement team, noting that the two positions are not typical HUD positions.
“We have had to identify a way to fund these positions because it is important to me that our agency provide services to residents and advocate for residents rather than simply manage the brick and mortar buildings,” Cheshire said.
Douglas wants to get an on-site social worker to assist residents and help meet their needs.
“We’ve got people in the building with mental health issues,” Douglas said. “We’ve got people in this building that could use some of the programs offered by the state, the county, the city… that they have no knowledge of.”
An onsite social worker might have helped resident Deborah Watkins, who told TCB that she had a seizure and laid on the floor of her apartment for two days before anyone checked in to help her. Watkins, who is missing both hands and lower legs, travels everywhere via an electric wheelchair, including going from picnic table to picnic table to visit with her neighbors.
“My nurse demanded a key from the office so she could get in to see what was wrong because she had been calling me and I didn’t answer my phone,” Watkins said.
In previous reporting by TCB, Watkins said she faced difficulties when the elevators would shut down.
“I can’t get to my doctor’s appointments,” she said. “I can’t get out of this building. I’m on the fourth floor. I can’t take the stairs.”
Douglas also said that Watkins is a perfect example of why the elevators needed to be working.
“She can’t go up and down no steps,” he said.
“If a fire catches in here, are you going to expect me to jump out the back? You crazy,” Watkins said.
Today, the building continues to house elderly and disabled residents in its 201 units of small and large one-bedroom apartments. But a younger population has been moving in, and now the ages of Crystal Towers’ residents now range from 23 to 84. Most of the residents who aren’t homebound rely on public transportation, but a few own cars that are parked in an outside lot. In warmer weather, residents gather outside the building at the lobby entrance or at a few picnic tables that surround a garden area. The small community garden is surrounded by a metal wire gate and boasts dozens of large concrete pots that hold various plants and vegetables that the residents lovingly tend to.
During their meeting, Grief and Douglas brought up yet another issue faced
by residents: the issue of paying and recording rent.
On occasion, they said, residents do not receive receipts proving their payment when they pay their rent. Rose, who has paid tenants’ rent in the past, made similar allegations.
“I’ve been in there with tenants where I had a cashier’s check if they were behind on rent and they asked us for help,” Rose said. “I said, ‘Can you please give me a receipt for my organization?’”
Rose claims he was met with a reply of, “I can’t do that right now, you’re gonna have to come back tomorrow,” from management staff.
Cheshire told TCB that staff at Crystal Towers report never having received any payment directly from Rose. Rose has “apparently paid online (through Rent Café),” Cheshire wrote, adding that payments through Rent Café automatically generate a receipt that is emailed to the resident and can be printed via the Rent Café portal.
“In the absence of a signed authorization from the resident, staff is not able to provide a receipt to Mr. Rose for payments made on behalf of residents,” Cheshire added. “This is because the receipt includes a full payment history and is, therefore, unable to be released without approval from the resident.”
Rose disputed Cheshire’s claim, stating that he has never paid a tenant’s rent online, and provided an email showing proof of his in-person payment to HAWS to TCB
Despite the problems, at least one resident, who has lived at Crystal Towers for 15 years and preferred to remain anonymous, told TCB that he was grateful to be living there.
“When nobody else gives you a place to live and these people give you a place to stay, you ain’t got no other choice but to like living here,” he said.
As for the way the building is managed, the resident said: “They could do better. We all know that. They could do better. But I just appreciate them giving me a place to stay when I needed a place when nobody else would…. They opened the door…. If it weren’t for them, I’d probably be homeless.”
And those who are critical of HAWS and the state of Crystal Towers like Douglas and Grier know that Crystal Towers is a unique place. It exists for people like them who can’t afford to pay the ever-increasing rent prices in the city. But that’s all the more reason to continue advocating on behalf of each other, Douglas said.
Sitting on a bench next to the flourishing gardens, Douglas recalled the property manager of the building where he grew up with his father as child.
“I grew up in apartments down in South Carolina. And Miss Lockhart… I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Miss Lockhart,” he said.
Douglas said she’d ask his father, “You feed that boy today?”
“She would get in his shit and make him,” he said. “My daddy didn’t know no better.”
Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup and rice was a staple in their home.
“That’s all my daddy could do to feed his child…. She made him take care of me,” he said.
This kind of attentiveness and care is what the building needs, Douglas said.
As Douglas, Grier and Watkins sat around a picnic table outside of the building chatting, they noticed a woman wearing red using her walker to stroll toward the community garden. Grier recognized the woman.
“This woman right here, with the red on… she doesn’t speak English,” he said. “She speaks French fluently… and her native tongue is Swahili or Kiswahili.”
He added that he is able to communicate with her by way of a translating app. Grier waved at the woman.
She smiled, and passed the picnic table into the garden.
If it weren’t for them, I’d probably be homeless.
“ “
North Carolina’s medical marijuana bill is one of the worst in the nation — or, it would be if it could pass the NC House. But that’s where it’s stalled, according to recent reporting by the News & Observer.
After a year on the bench, SB3 sailed through the NC Senate in March after sponsor Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick/Columbus/New Hanover) testified on the floor that medical marijuana likely saved his life during a bout with colon cancer 10 years ago. It benefited, too, from support by heavyweight Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger, who calls a lot of the tunes when the NC legislature is in session.
This is not a recreational marijuana bill, and seems designed to obfuscate any bit of the pleasure some folks derive from cannabis. A prospective user needs to be pretty sick — cancer, HIV/AIDS, ALS, Crohn’s and MS are among the “debilitating medical conditions” listed in the bill, as well as any terminal illness and PTSD. But it’s what politicos call a “crack in the windshield” because it sets up systems for suppliers and distributors, which is the first step towards realizing the serious tax revenue recreational marijuana might bring. In 2022, only two states that collect cannabis taxes claimed less than $100 million in revenue. California took in almost $775 million; Illinois netted almost $467 million. Plus it clears all the weed cases out of the courts and jails, and gives cops something
better to do.
Berger might be in it for the money, which would explain the political maneuver Senate Republicans pulled on their House colleagues. As explained in the N&O, in June Rabon leveraged his position as chair of the Rules Committee to insert language into a random House bill about physician’s assistants that would make it valid only when his own SB3 “becomes law.” The Senate then approved the amendment 36-8.
But House GOP should be feeling cornered. Recreational marijuana is popular with voters in NC — 57 percent approve, according to a Survey USA poll. And 72 percent believe in medical marijuana. Plus, people like the bill. Its restrictions notwithstanding, SB3 does some of the heavy lifting of creating an industry in the state, with a little something for in-state farmers who can come up with $50,000 to get the initial licensing for suppliers. It even has rules for advertising the facilities, which “shall be tasteful, respectful, and medically focused and shall not appeal to minors or contain cartoon-like figures or attempts at humor.”
Despite its popularity, no one is lining up to make medical marijuana an election issue next year. But for now, Rabon seems willing to die on this hill and he’s got most of the rest of the Senate behind him. That, and maybe a couple of sweeteners in the form of political favors, might be enough to sway the House GOP.
of NC Policy Watch
Despite its popularity, no one is lining up to make medical mairjuana an election issue next year.
Dripping in Versace from head to toe, rapper 2 Chainz dons a dark pinstripe athleisure suit as he poses on the edge of a black chair. His neck, fingers and wrists drip with ice so cold it sends a chill through the room. His feet wear a pair of gray Versace “Chain Reaction” sneakers, adorned with dual zippers, a crocodile-inspired collar and chunky heel. He’s fresh, he’s fashionable for his 2019 Versace collaboration. And he has Jordan Page to thank.
Page, a designer, stylist and creative director from High Point landed the gig through Salehe Bembury, lead footwear designer of Versace at the time. The two used to work together at a small shoe company in New York, and Bembury believed Page’s expertise would be an asset to the shoot.
“He was looking for a stylist and I was like, Hell yeah,” he said during a 2019 episode of “Points On the Board,” a podcast hosted by Kyle Harvey of “The Shadow League.”
Page graduated from NC A&T State University in 2008 with an economics degree; however, his artsy nature urged him to pursue more expressive endeavors.
“As a natural creative, I just really wanted to find a more authentic path,” he says.
Unable to ignore his heart’s desires, he headed to Brooklyn in 2010 to pursue a career in music and has lived there ever since. He secured a marketing position at The Fader, a music magazine, and deejayed on the side, providing the local dance scene with upbeat house and techno mixes.
“Music was the initial passion,” he explains.
In and out of the doors of The Fader included notable fashion brands: Nike, Converse and Levi’s. While Page always had an interest in fashion, it wasn’t until he assisted high-profile clients that he considered a fashion career.
“I realized I liked working with fashion brands more than I liked working with music and music artists,” he says.
In 2017, he parlayed that interest into an Instagram account, @veryadvanced, described by Page as a “contextual, historical fashion account.”
Boasting more than 79,000 followers, the page is full of images, reels and memes that pay homage to pivotal moments in fashion and reference pop culture. As Page shared his style icons and exclusive, vintage finds, art-directing and styling opportunities began pouring into his DMs. While Page was good at highlighting pieces online, he had yet to try it in reality.
“Of course I said yes even though I never styled anything before in my life,” he says.
He succeeded, his keen eye leading him to scout old magazines and early versions of websites for lesser-known trends and images that could be used for inspiration.
“I worked with brands like Supreme and Stüssy helping them find obscure references,” he says.
After proving himself with these brands, Page’s inner circle pushed him to
design his own line. In 2020, just a week before lockdown, Page launched Colour Plus Companie, a relaxed clothing brand that “blurs the lines between casual and streetwear.”
Through T-shirts featuring bold hues, embroidered handbags and other items, Page expresses his love of color theory and explores how hues complement each other.
“For me it’s all about my love of fashion and how color relates to that and how I can tell stories through color,” he emphasizes.
This is evident in the “Analysis” tee, a cream cotton T-shirt featuring a 3-by3 grid of boxes that create a gradient, red color palette. It reads “Colour + Co.” in cream font, each letter and symbol taking up its own box.
Rapper Yo Gotti didn’t lie when he said “It goes down in the DM,” because that’s exactly how Colour Plus landed a collaboration with footwear and apparel company Saucony not long after the launch of Colour Plus.
The companies reimagined the Saucony Jazz 81 sneaker and titled it “Find Your Colour,” complete with a colorway of beige tones and textures inspired by vintage wooden and ceramic plate palettes.
This year, Saucony aimed for a bigger presence amongst footwear brands at Men’s Paris Fashion Week, held in June. Page jetsetted to the City of Light and on June 20, at Saucony’s House of Originals showroom, Colour Plus and Saucony revealed their second collaboration, the Grid Shadow 2. With these shoes, Page implemented earth tones, durable materials and textured surfaces reminiscent of various hiking terrains.
Page acknowledges that getting the collaboration wasn’t as easy as it seems.
“It sounds like it was really simple and quick, but it was a culmination of
decades-long networking and grinding in New York that led to a moment like this,” he says.
Page has also worked with Vogue magazine, Caterpillar and Nordstrom, but says he wouldn’t mind taking a walk on the preppy side with Polo Ralph Lauren.
“That’s the first brand I really fell in love with; I’ve always included prep in my personal style,” he says about his dream collaboration.
Whether it’s denim caps, carpenter pants or hoodies, each piece Page creates is an extension of his own aesthetic and style.
Page wants consumers to feel comfortable when they wear his items. He values the chill vibe of streetwear and despite the big names to which he’s lent a helping hand, he remains down-to-earth and hopes that transfers to Colour Plus’ customers.
“I don’t want anyone to feel like they have to try too hard or be too clouty or self-important or self-indulgent to wear the things that I make,” he says. “I want to make things for people that enjoy fashion but don’t take it too seriously.”
JUNE
Greensboro, North Carolina
Page’s collaboration with Saucony yielded Grid Shadow, a collection in which the designer implemented earth tones, durable materials and textured surfaces reminiscent of hiking terrains.
Gil Shaham, violin (July 8)
Mighty 5’s, Beethoven/Mahler (July 15)
Drew Petersen, piano (July 22)
Awadagin Pratt, piano (July 29)
Tucked into High Point’s downtown just two turns off of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, past the habitual taco trucks and the once shiny but newly abandoned designer furniture storefronts, is a crisp, clean, off-white urban winery that looks more like a brewery or a coffee shop than it does a place peddling merlots and pinot gris. In fact, it looks like it belongs somewhere in California or New York, or even Asheville or the Triangle — really anywhere but High Point.
But that’s where Nomad Wine Works’ owners Dave Armstrong and Aaron Sizemore wanted it.
The two grew up in High Point and said that the time was ripe — pun intended — to open the business downtown.
“We started looking here because it’s where we live, and also there’s room for growth,” Armstrong says. “There’s a lot of stuff that’s just starting.”
Like many Triad residents over the years, the two had watched as the city’s downtown core was taken over and largely defined by Furniture Market and High Point University. But in just the last few years, the duo says the city has awakened to the possibility of a different kind of Main Street. And they’re part of that plan.
Outside of Nomad Wine Works, which opened in December and boasts more than 5,000 square feet of space, a small metal sign announces the area’s footprint as a social district. Similar to the two that have taken off in Greensboro, the square territory — marked off by the boundaries of Lindsay Street, Westwood Avenue, Broad Avenue and Hamilton Street — designates an outdoor drinking district in which patrons can stop from brewery to winery
and back, all without having to finish their drinks beforehand.
Initially, Armstrong and Sizemore said that the district, which opened last summer, was mapped out to be smaller. When they announced their plans to open Nomad at the current location, they said the city expanded the outlines to include them and other businesses in the area. It’s a sign that city officials understand the need for some kind of cultural shift.
“We thought it was necessary to stay here to help the growth and be a part of that change,” says Armstrong, who sits at one of the first tables near the entrance. Backlit by the early afternoon sun and flanked by the broad leaves of a monstera plant and palm tree, he answers most of the questions about the business while Sizemore, the quieter of the two, nods in agreement.
The two have known each other for about two decades, orbiting each other as they worked in different industries in the Triad. Sizemore spent years doing subcontracting, renovating kitchens and restaurants, and worked as a production brewer at Natty Greene’s before helping open Radar Brewing in Winston-Salem in 2020. Armstrong worked beer and wine retail in the area for about 14 years and opened the Brewer’s Kettle in 2009, which now has multiple locations across the state. When the two reconnected a few years ago, they turned their attention to wine and mead, something they say the Triad hasn’t really explored in a way that other places across the country have.
“We have the most ability to do something new and unique because our approach is different,” says Armstrong who started getting into wine about seven years ago. “I think everybody is really caught up in the beer thing. Don’t get me wrong, I love beer, but there hasn’t been that much growth outside of new beer. We’re catering to people who are interested in wine.”
Because the idea of an urban winery is new to many in the Triad, part of the business model is helping people understand what exactly that is, the two explain.
“I think people are still confused about what we do here because they associate a winery with a vineyard,” Armstrong says. “Whereas on the West Coast, you would see garage wineries, not attached to a vineyard. They don’t understand that we make wine here.”
And often when people think of wineries, the image is different.
“Most people think of a winery as a traditional, dark, stone and wood kind of place,” Sizemore says.
The interior at Nomad, which was largely designed by Sizemore, is anything but. The bright, white walls butt up nicely against subway tile that’s splashed behind the main wooden counter running the length of most of the interior. Light wooden bar tops on gunmetal legs allow the colorful, abstract artwork displayed on the walls to shine. Indie pop streams through the speakers.
“The sensibility is modern and clean, but has the feel of a taproom or brewery,” Armstrong says. “It’s not super stuffy; it’s relaxed, and that’s not always the case with wine.”
Aesthetics aren’t the only factor that differentiates Nomad from the various
traditional wineries that dot the Triad. The way the wine is made is different, too.
Currently Nomad has 20 items on tap: five reds, five rosés or whites, five meads or ciders and five beers; about half are made in-house. Because they don’t grow their own grapes, they source them from around the country and purchase fruit and juice from places where the products are in season. That allows them to be more flexible with their offerings throughout the year.
The other big thing they’re pushing is mead, a fermented drink made from honey, different from wine or cider, which is made from fruit. Often, mead is sweet but heavy on the alcohol, something that can be prohibitive for those who want a lighter drink, Armstrong says. So they decided to make something easier. For example, two of the meads they offer right now — the tiki torch, which has pineapple and mango, and their raspberry and cherry mead, both clock in at about 7 percent.
“We want really clean, balanced beverages at least for the summertime,” Armstrong says.
Seven months into their endeavor and the two say that business has been going well. It’s slow this time of year because the students leave a sort of consumer vacuum, but High Point residents are starting to see downtown as a destination, rather than something to avoid. Apartments are going up across the street, and Nomad sits just a block or two away from the popular food hall that opened about a year ago.
“There are unique things to do here; the city is giving people a reason to come to High Point, which you wouldn’t have seen 10 years ago,” Armstrong says. “People would go more to Greensboro or Winston-Salem. But now, the city and residents are actively pushing for things to do.”
And like the city’s changing downtown, the two say they’re just getting started.
“We sit down and when we work on stuff, we do stuff as a team,” Armstrong says. “Together, we make one decent wine maker.”
To that, Sizemore responds, “I’ll take that.”
Learn more about Nomad Wine Works at nomadwineworks.com or follow them on social. Their next event, a doughnut pairing, takes place on July 18.
BY CAROLYN DE BERRY
Summer evening scene with mural by Kathleen Kennedy.
by Matt Jones
Across
1. Go halfsies on
6. Host Convy or Parks
10. College grad
14. Novelist Ferrante
15. St. George’s setting
16. Facility
17. University with a focus on adventurous journeys?
19. Actor Reynolds
20. Turmoil
21. Longest river within Spain
23. “___ Along” (Pet Shop Boys song)
24. Roswell visitors(?), for short
27. Abate
31. First name in TV “neighborinos”
32. “The King of Queens” actress Remini
33. Start of a Steinbeck title
34. Potential brand name for a cleaning polish for reflective surfaces?
36. Philosopher with a “razor”
39. “I ___ you one!”
40. One of the Three Musketeers
41. Planned undertaking to visit the coast?
44. Large moon of Jupiter
45. “___ that special?”
46. “Exit full-screen mode” key
49. Unleash, as a tirade
50. Serene type of garden
51. Muppet who hosted the “Not-TooLate Show”
52. Sunset direction
54. Turmoil
56. Nil
59. Nuts about a particular disco dance?
62. Love, in a telenovela
63. Voting against
64. Part of a “Supermarket Sweep” route
65. Hockey projectile
66. Routes
67. Fold and press
Down
1. Costume sparkler
2. Deep dive
3. Looked rudely
4. Map adjunct
5. Body art
6. “Close ___ no cigar”
7. Airport stat
8. Cost per minute, say
9. Amorphous movie villain
10. “Dream On” rock group
11. Put down, as tile or carpet
12. Olympics chant that’s often parodied
13. “The ___ Who Stare at Goats” (2009 movie)
18. Take the helm
22. Bend with a prism
25. Deck with wands
26. Entertainment realm
28. “OK, whatever” sound
29. “OK, whatever” sound in response, maybe?
30. Shrimpboat gear
32. Key dessert
34. “La Mer” for Debussy, for example
35. Joaquin’s “Walk the Line” costar
36. European GM affiliate
37. Motley ___ (Tommy Lee’s former band)
38. Actor Bud of “Harold and Maude”
42. Kate who married Spielberg
43. Cancel out
46. Plaza Hotel girl
47. It’s almost always used to spell “and”
48. Like old phones, retronymically
51. Rommel of WWII history
53. Subway option
55. Mountain range feature
56. Bolt from the blue
57. Adelaide biggie
58. “1001 Nights” creature
60. Porcine home
61. 1999 Frank McCourt book
LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS:
‘Both Sides Now’ — one side precedes, the other side follows.© 2023 Matt Jones © 2022 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com)
Join Triad Local First on Sunday, October 8th for Blue Jeans, Bourbon, and the Blues!
Sunday, October 8th from 4:30pm to 9:30pm at The Gardens at Gray Gables
Dancing | Food | Silent Auction
Cigars | Bourbon Tastings
Music by Mama and the Ruckus, Chef is Brian Dicey of Starmount Country Club, Cigars by Silver Smoke
Join us as we celebrate local chefs, farmers, breweries, wineries, distilleries and all things food and drink! In addition to partaking in some delicious, seasonal, fresh, local foods and beverages you will be supporting those in the Triad food-beverage industry.
Tickets on sale now at triadlocalfirst.org
