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PHOTO COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE PRIDE.
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You can find Alexis Michelle of RuPaul’s Drag Race hosting a Pride afterparty at Chasers on Saturday night.
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NEWS&CULTURE SEARCHING FOR CHANGE National spotlight is on east Charlotte clinic, but same problems remain
BY RYAN PITKIN 10 EDITOR’S NOTE BY MARK KEMP 13 THE SCRIBE’S CORNER BY KONATA EDWARDS 14 THE BLOTTER BY RYAN PITKIN
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FOOD ATTACK OF THE ZUCCHINI ZOMBIES Need some squash recipes? You
got ‘em
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PRIDE GUIDE THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT Blame the Youth invigorates Charlotte Pride BY PAT MORAN 23 PERFORMERS SPOTLIGHT 24 PRIDE EVENTS LISTINGS 25 A NEW PRIDE BY RYAN PITKIN 26 PRIDE SCHEDULE
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VIEWS
EDITORS NOTE
NATIONAL BECOMES LOCAL Racist imagery infects music scene; Pride diversifies SOMETIMES NATIONAL becomes local.
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will present a special edition of our weekly Earlier this year, Creative Loafing made music podcast “Local Vibes,” featuring several a conscious change in the way we cover the musicians speaking frankly on these issues. news, shifting to a local-only focus. But in the Listen for the podcast in early September. National news events can shine a light on wake of the deadly Aug. 11 white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Va., national news local problems in ways that inspire protests, which are a great way of showing solidarity. became local. The events there left local communities But nothing is more healing than face-toacross the country, and especially in the face conversations where communities hold South, rethinking Civil War monuments. On fellow community members accountable. Charlotte’s LGBTQ community has been Saturday, Aug. 19, hundreds showed up at Marshall Park for a peaceful vigil organized having those conversations for decades and by Charlotte Uprising, the group that formed celebrating its solidarity at its Pride parades and out of the protests that followed last year’s other events. This week, Charlotte Pride holds local police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott. its annual parties and parade on Aug. 26 and Many Charlotteans demanded that local 27. But the LGBTQ community has not been without its own controversies and discussions. Confederate memorials be taken down. Last year, CL’s Ryan Pitkin reported on The national had become local. the Trans and Queer People of Color Also on Saturday, an old photo Collective, or TQPoCC, which was of a Charlotte musician holding concerned that trans people a burning cross resurfaced of color were being relegated on social media, sending a to smaller stages and less wave of anger through the visibility at Charlotte Pride. CLT music community. “Diverse doesn’t mean Creative Loafing solicited booking cis[gender] people comments from musicians for the main stage and for an online story about putting trans and queer the image as well as about people in the back,” Lara general issues of bigotry in Americo, a trans woman of the scene. Many commented color and sometime Creative MARK KEMP that the musician pictured Loafing contributor, told Pitkin. with the cross — Robby Hale of Those issues have not been the band Scowl Brow — had long fully resolved, but Charlotte Pride took displayed abusive behaviors through misogynist and homophobic lyrics and a step in the right direction by booking a local band on this year’s main stage that threats to fellow musicians. “We have refused to play with this band for better represents the spectrum of the LGBTQ years and have probably lost friendships over community. And CL has put that band, Blame it,” Lunchbox Records owner Scott Wishart of the Youth, on the cover of this week’s issue, which also includes our annual guide to the the group Late Bloomer told CL. Wishart’s band mate Joshua festivites beginning on page 20. In staff writer Pat Moran’s story on Robbins suggested the entire local music community Blame the Youth, featured in our special Pride had been complicit in section, bassist Amber Daniel says her group remaining silent on this is, collectively, a walking, talking, singing and playing political statement, and a testament to issue for so long. “If we’re going to the diversity of Charlotte’s LGBTQ community “You’ve got three black women here fronted indict Robby Hale for this,” Robbins wrote to by a Mexican trans-man,” Daniel says. “We’re CL, “are we going to indict political just by existing. It’s revolutionary for all of the people that just us just to be in a public space.” The presence of Blame the Youth at didn’t say anything when questionable things popped this year’s Pride is the result of hard, frank up over the years? The picture in conversations — the kind of conversations we question has been up for two years and no one all must have if we are to continue to heal as has said anything, and also multiple people a city. Hopefully, in the case of Charlotte Pride’s liked the picture that routinely speak out against violence and racism in the community.” prominent booking this year of Blame the Youth, the local will become national. The national had become local. In light of behaviors in the music scene (Listen to members of Blame the Youth talk that threaten a safe, inclusive space for artists about their appearance at Charlotte Pride on to create without fear of reprisal from hate this week’s CL “Local Vibes” podcast, on iTunes.) groups or hateful individuals, Creative Loafing MKEMP@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | 11
NEWS
FEATURE
SEARCHING FOR CHANGE National spotlight is on east Charlotte clinic, but same problems remain RYAN PITKIN
T
HE TEMPERATURE was already scorching outside of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center at 11 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 17, when a group of women gathered under a small tree to hold a press conference calling on the city to do more to protect Charlotte’s abortion patients. Save for a handful of media folks, however, nobody was there to heed the call. Jen Ferris, director of reproductive advocacy at Progress NC, led the press conference, speaking out against aggressive picketers who over the last year have stepped up their tactics at clinics like A Preferred Women’s Health Center in east Charlotte. She was joined by representatives of SisterSong, NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina and other advocates. “I am here because Charlotte abortion clinics are under attack,” Ferris said. “Every single day, when people try to access abortion, they can’t. They have to think twice when they come down roads and they’re greeted with pictures of disembodied bodies, they’re greeted with people shouting at them, they’re greeted with people calling them names.” Ferris called on the city to take action on three fronts: to ensure police enforce laws that protesters have repeatedly broken, such as sound ordinances and standing in the street while cars approach; to place No Parking signs in front of the clinic; and to ensure that sound permits are distributed evenly. Clinic staff and volunteers have consistently tried to apply for the same sound permits regularly given to protesters, but are rarely approved. They hoped a recent change in the process, which requires permit seekers to apply through email to a specific person, would change things, but said they have been ignored on that front, as well. Despite the absence of city leaders at Thursday’s press conference, the need for action outside of APWHC has gotten more attention since Creative Loafing reported on the escalation of protests outside the clinic in March. In June, Cosmopolitan ran a profile of Calla Hales, co-owner and lead administrative assistant at APWHC. In July, Hales was featured in a Rewire documentary called Care in Chaos, which showed first hand 12 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
RYAN PITKIN
Calla Hales speaks at a recent press conference in which she and others called on the city to help mitigate extreme tactics used by protesters outside of abortion clinics in Charlotte. the harassment that staff, volunteers and patients face on a daily basis at the clinic. We sat down with Hales following the press conference and asked if the recent attention has helped in her efforts to make APWHC a safer, less intimidating place for patients. “I think it has,” she answered. “Especially with the documentary. It’s stuff that you can’t really negate. When you see evidence from a third party filming this and then comparing it to another city, it’s pretty obvious that something’s wrong.” On Aug. 14, Progress NC launched a campaign to help raise awareness about abortion-clinic access at APWHC and around the state. Three digital billboards ran for a week along interstates 77 and 85 in north, west and south Charlotte; they read, “The people of Charlotte deserve access to abortion without shame and stigma.” Hales, whose parents founded APWHC, says she doesn’t believe any pro-choice such billboard campaign has taken place in the state’s history. On the day the billboards appeared, Mayor Jennifer Roberts released a statement in support of making changes outside of APWHC that could lessen the intimidation factor for patients. Roberts suggested enacting policies asked for by Ferris and others at the press conference earlier that day, such as training police to better enforce existing sound ordinances and placing No Parking signs in front of the clinic, where protesters often park large RVs meant to confuse patients and make it more difficult for them to get to their appointments. Hales also believes on of the RVs hosts the enigmatic “Abortion Info” Wi-Fi signal, an unprotected network meant to lure patients to log in, but not before forcing them to watch a slew of anti-abortion videos. “If we do not trust women to make these choices, then women will never be
equal,” Roberts wrote in her statement. “If we as a city do not stand up for women’s constitutionally protected rights, who will?” It would take an effort from the city council and city manager to make any real change outside of APHWC. City council members such as Julie Eiselt have spoken fervently in favor of easing access for patients at the clinic, while others have reached out to Hales personally, saying they are with her but there’s not much they can do. “I think [Mayor Roberts’] statement was a step in the right direction, and that’s more than anyone’s done so far,” Hales said. “So there’s definitely a sense of positivity about it, but I’m just not sure it’s going to do anything. It’s an election year, so you’re not really going to do anything before the election to jeopardize your votes. It really comes down to who’s going to do something after the election?” In April, City Manager Marcus Jones said the city would not restrict parking in front of the clinic, as the street where it’s located isn’t busy enough to justify it. Jones promised a heavier presence of police outside of the clinic, which Hales has seen, although she said it hasn’t helped. “There has been an increase in presence on Saturdays, but it does not lead to enforcement. They just sort of stand there,” Hales said. “Then you have weekends like last weekend, where [protesters] brought their kids out and the cops had them in their cars. They were babysitting protesters’ kids in their air-conditioned cars, and then you think to yourself, ‘Wow, would you have done that at a Black Lives Matter rally?’” Last fall, as reported by Rewire, police responded to a call about a protester openly carrying his gun in plain view of clinic patients, but did not confront the man, nor did they file a report. Hales has every reason to demand that police protect her, as she’s no stranger to threats herself.
In June’s Cosmopolitan article, Hales opened up about the time she was raped in a parking lot after a man she had been on a date with found out she was an abortion provider. She’s faced constant internet harassment since the article was published. On Aug. 8, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte notified police that someone had left a voicemail at its charity offices seeking guidance “after having thoughts of doing physical harm to an abortionist.” Hales was unaware of the report until Creative Loafing informed her of it but the pressure has been building, and it’s beginning to show. In July, Hales had a rare moment in which she lost her cool, screaming in the face of a protester who continued yelling at an AWPHC patient even as the patient broke down crying and fell to her knees in the parking lot. The police stood nearby and watched passively. Halles regretted the incident, and apologized to her staff and team of volunteers. “I get mad at them when they do that stuff, so I really shouldn’t,” she said. She knows the dangers of doing the work she does. The threat has been reinforced in her mind ever since close family friend Dr. George Tiller was murdered in 2009. “His death fucking terrified me,” Hales recalled. “My parents tried to keep it from me. I came out of a study session to multiple texts and voicemails from friends asking, ‘An abortion provider was murdered, are your parents OK?’ There were five years between George’s murder and my start at the clinic. I had time to process it and let it resolve, but I still think about it for a split second if I’m walking through public, open areas.” There was a police officer on hand at Thursday’s press conference, but he was there to serve, not to protect. Shortly after the women were done speaking, a Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s deputy served a summons to Leila Forbes, a volunteers at APWHC, demanding that she appear in court on Aug. 28 on charges of damage to personal property. Forbes said the charges stemmed from an incident that happened months ago in which she and other volunteers noticed a GoPro attached to the hood of a pick-up truck filming patients as they walked into the clinic. Forbes said she placed a red Solo cup over the camera to protect patients’ privacy, but weeks later found herself charged with vandalism by Daniel Parks, a pastor associated with the Concord-based Cities4Life group, which leads the daily protests outside of APWHC. Forbes said she didn’t believe she damaged the camera, and that she already attended mediation and offered to pay for a brand new GoPro if Parks would agree to stop filming patients, to which he refused. On Thursday, she could only shake her head at the summons, while her fellow volunteers promised to join her on her court date. “The idea that an empty Solo cup can irreparably break a camera known for being used in extreme situations seems pretty ridiculous to me,” Hales said later of the incident. “Then again, the idea that someone would spend their days sitting outside a health clinic to harass women seems pretty ridiculous to me, too. Yet here we are.” And there they will remain, at least until Election Day. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM
NEWS
A SCRIBE’S CORNER
HEIRS JORDAN Charlotte’s pro athletes should speak out like Hornets owner IN THE LAST 14 days, this country has Undefeated in July 2016. “I grieve with the seen events that make the scope of sports families who have lost loved ones, as I know seem paltry. Events such as the tragedy in their pain all too well. “I was raised by parents who taught me Charlottesville and the subsequent civilian removal of a Confederate monument in to love and respect people regardless of their Durham make you wonder if the concept of race or background, so I am saddened and sport being independent of politics is possible frustrated by the divisive rhetoric and racial anymore. Athletes such as Malcolm Jenkins tensions that seem to be getting worse as of and others nationally have been shedding late. I know this country is better than that, light on the plight of people of color and and I can no longer stay silent. “We need to find solutions that ensure other marginalized groups in this country. “Stick to sports.” It’s a common tagline people of color receive fair and equal many sports viewers use to discourage athletes treatment and that police officers — who put from speaking up on real-life issues, when the their lives on the line every day to protect us fact is, sports and politics have always been all — are respected and supported.” Jordan subsequently donated $1 married, whether or not one acknowledges it. million to both the Institute for The playing of the national anthem Community-Police Relations is a largely political act. While some and the NAACP Legal Defense may see it as honoring troops Fund. But for a city that’s 35 who sacrifice their lives, to percent African-American, others it is another painful is there no other athlete reminder of a country that’s that the citizens of the historically ignored their Queen City can identify plight. with who can speak to In Charlotte, which their pain of injustice? Is has seen its share of police there no one who would shootings in cases like like to speak up about the Keith Lamont Scott and KONATA Confederate monuments Jonathan Ferrell, it hurts to EDWARDS within the city, which serve watch as city leaders refuse to as flashing neon signs that read initiate police reform following “You’re not welcome here” to people last year’s protests. of color? Is there no athlete in this city who So where are the Charlotte professional athletes to speak out on these local matters? can stand up and say, “I acknowledge you, I see For those who would retort that athletes you and I understand,” regardless of the color cannot change policy, I’d point out that sports of their skin? Some local athletes use Twitter to speak have been a primary factor in change in this country since at least the 1940s. Jackie broadly on political issues, like Charlotte Robinson, who integrated baseball during Independence defender Bilal Duckett, who that period, was credited by Dr. Martin regularly takes to social media to share his Luther King, Jr., as a factor behind the civil stance on issues local and national, from the MLS debate to Donald Trump’s refusal to rights movement. So back to the question: Where are the denounce his white supremacist following. Duckett agrees that Charlotte could use Panthers or Hornets or NASCAR drivers who aren’t OK with the current status quo? The more athletes willing to speak their mind. “I’d love to see more athletes stand up closest anyone has come to saying or doing anything was former Carolina Panthers safety for what they believe in — especially in ways Tre Boston, who didn’t actually say or do that are authentic to who they are,” Duckett says. “We’ve earned this platform. I believe we anything while in a Panthers uniform. Charlotte needs an influential sports have every responsibility to use it as positive figure to pick up the torch lit last year by members of our communities.” We’ve all heard the saying, “Those who Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan. “As a proud American, a father who lost his ignore history are doomed to repeat it” so own dad in a senseless act of violence, and a I implore any Charlotte Hornet or Carolina black man, I have been deeply troubled by the Panther to take Duckett’s lead and speak up deaths of African-Americans at the hands of law for a city that sits less than 300 miles south enforcement and angered by the cowardly and of Charlottesville. Do not ignore history. hateful targeting and killing of police officers,” The current climate implores you that it’s Jordan wrote in a statement to ESPN’s The imperative you not “stick to sports.” BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | 13
NEWS
BLOTTER
BY RYAN PITKIN
ARROWHEADS A man filed a police report last week after he unexpectedly found the American equivalent of a buried treasure: a gun. The man told police he was doing surveying work near Robinson Church Road in east Charlotte when he hit something hard. He thought it was a rock at first, but the shape was a bit off as he uncovered it. The item turned out to be a .22-caliber rifle that had been buried at some unknown time. SAFETY CHECK Employees at a daycare on Hickory Grove Road in east Charlotte called police last week after finding something strange on the playground that they couldn’t find the owner of. Officers reported that the employees came across a case full of power tools lying under the playground. They turned the tools in to police, but I’m hoping that the next move they made was to check every single nut and bolt on that whole damn playground before letting another child on. LOST STASH In another found property
report, someone called police after finding a stash of drug paraphernalia along the side of a road that runs along the Catawba River in southwest Charlotte. The reporting person handed over to police a small black leather clutch that was holding 12 syringes, two
14 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
spoons and a razor, all with drug residue on or in them. The designer clutch said, “Messy hair, don’t care,” on it, which is good, because now police have a description of the suspect who left it there.
LOG JAM A 40-year-old woman in south
Charlotte found some property on her lawn when she woke up one morning last week, but it wasn’t a gun or a bag of drugs that she could just hand over to police. The woman said that some unknown suspect dumped a pile of giant logs onto her property, both in front of her porch and on both sides of her driveway. She said the logs were too large to move by hand and that she wanted to press charges against whomever it was that left them there.
IT WASN’T ME A 42-year-old man in east Charlotte proactively filed a report before any crime was committed, or alleged, for that matter. At some time around 10 a.m. one morning, the man called police and said he wanted to file a report because he “was concerned about getting in trouble by his girlfriend,” according to the report. The man said he had been arguing with his girlfriend all night, and his concern was that she would take it upon herself to make false claims about him sometime soon, as she’s apparently done in the past. So he wanted a report filed
just to let police known on the record that he did not doing anything criminal during their argument and wasn’t planning on doing anything criminal that day. I can’t decide if this guy is an asshole trying to cover his tracks or a genius of a man who knows how to think ahead.
CITIZEN’S ARREST A man in northwest
Charlotte called police last week after one of his neighbors went a little too far in enforcing the leash law. The man told officers that he was standing at the top of his driveway with his dog, which was off the leash, when a man approached wearing a backpack. The suspect reached into the backpack and pulled a gun, pointed it at the victim and asked “for him to get his dog,” according to the report.
MINIMAL ROI A 19-year-old woman living
in the University area was the victim of a home break-in last weekend, but the thief made off with surprisingly little for all the effort they put into it. The woman told police that the suspect, whom she knew, broke in through the back window of her home using some sort of tool, then ransacked her entire living room. In the end, the suspect did steal some money from her — a whole dollar bill — before leaving the scene of the crime.
DRUNK DRIVING Police responded to a
Wendy’s on Freedom Drive last week after a woman was holding up the drive-thru line and was found to be asleep when employees approached her car. Officers woke the woman up and found that — surprise! — she was intoxicated. In an unrelated incident, police were working the scene of a fatal accident on Brookshire Boulevard recently when a motorcycle suddenly appeared right in the middle of the crime scene. Officers reported that the motorcyclist drove past several patrol cars with their lights on and through the crime scene tape and suddenly found himself right among the investigators. Police would soon determine that — surprise! — the man on the motorcycle was impaired.
THIRD TIME’S A CHARM A 37-year-old woman finally filed a police report last week after someone had apparently been targeting the front porch of her west Charlotte home for theft. The woman told police that someone stole a package containing front door mats last week, but that two other packages — one containing an iPhone case and the other a chrome door cover — had been stolen from her front porch within the last month. She said she didn’t realize she should file a police report for these items until the third item went missing and someone told her that somebody was probably stealing them.
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CLCLT.COM | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | 15
FEATURE
FOOD
ATTACK OF THE ZUCCHINI ZOMBIES You need some squash recipes? You got ’em. BY ARI LEVAUX
I
F YOU DON’T typically lock
your doors, now would be a good time to start. You’re going to be inundated with zucchinis. Behind the usual pleasantries, your neighbors are already probing you for weakness, trying to decide who among your fellow neighbors will be most likely to break and accept a bag-load. Gangs of farmhands will soon be roaming the streets, leaving zucchinis on porches and in unlocked vehicles. There are zucchinis growing in your compost pile, maybe. One way or another, you have zucchinis on your hands. And that’s why I’m here. Let’s cut straight to the point, because there isn’t much time. Nobody is even trying to sell zucchinis anymore at market. We are surrounded. They are swelling as we speak, creeping steadily closer, like zombies on steroids. So, here’s some encouraging news: Any amount of zucchini can be handled, and probably with less effort than you fear. If you can, adopt a can’t-stop-won’t-stop approach: I will eat a lot of zucchini, and I will like it. Believe it or not, it will be cheaper than what you would have made if you didn’t have zucchini. Try to name any food that cannot be made with zucchini. You can’t. Bread, soup, salad, pasta (as in, shredded into noodles) or steak (fried, grilled, broiled or breaded). Parmesan, ratatouille, and other Italian styles, as well as Thai-style (in curry), Vietnamese-style (with cold noodles), Chinese-style (with oyster sauce and whatnot), Russian-style (fried). Or Ari-style Chocolate Zucchini Mayo Cake. Since that one is mine, why not start there? It is so simple: Step 1: Prepare chocolate mayo cake batter Step 2: Add grated zucchini to the batter before baking it, and mix it in Step 3: Proceed I got my chocolate mayo cake recipe from the jar of Hellmann’s mayo that we always had in the fridge growing up. But the essence of mayo cake is that you substitute mayo for the eggs and oil in virtually any cake, including cake from a mix. The shreds of zucchini melt into the batter, where they act as the secret glue behind the moist glitter. They don’t interfere with the baking process, and they add 16 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
PHOTO BY ARI LEVAUX
Hmong squash leaf stir-fry. moisture, fiber and density to the finished product, even while hiding in the background. Consider peeling the larger individuals, as squash skins will toughen as they age. Like many who are sweet of tooth, I have a salty side as well. And the zucchini department is no exception. In summer, my quick and tasty go-to recipe is one that works with the honker monsters of summer, with no need to peel them. It works equally well in a pan, under the broiler or on the grill. It turns my kids into ravenous monsters, which is a great thing if its veggies they are ravaging. Slice a large zucchini thickly, up to an inch, and lay the slices on a tray. If there is room, add thick slices of onion as well. Sprinkle zucchini lightly with salt on both sides, and then pour on some olive oil (about 1/4 cup for a decent-sized one), white balsamic vinegar (1 tablespoon), red balsamic (1 teaspoon), and soy sauce (1 tablespoon), followed by many hard shakes of garlic powder. Turn over the zucchini slices as a way of mixing the marinade and coating the slices, and then let them sit for a moment while you heat up your grill/pan/broiler. Don’t mess with the onions. Just leave them alone on the tray while you flip around the zucchini, and then transfer them gingerly to the heat when it’s ready. Lay the zucchini and onions on the heat, and cook them until soft. In a pan they need no extra oil. On the grill, where they can be placed amongst the hamburgers, beware of flare-ups. These lusty, juicy steaks are light and fun to consume, and consume, and consume. And
it’s a beautiful thing to watch a young family get full on zucchini. Those slices go well atop a burger, as well, or in place of a burger on a bun. At the other end of the size spectrum, if you are so lucky to acquire some, are baby zucchinis, those finger-sized individuals that are small enough that they still have beautiful, edible flowers attached. They would do fine in the above marinade, as would any size of summer squash, but because baby zucchinis are so delicate, they’d be more effectively enjoyed by a slow, gentle frying in butter, intact with the flowers. Turn when they brown, and add minced garlic before the final minutes of cooking. Or, if you want to batter-coat and deep-fry them, I most definitely won’t stop you.
SPEAKING OF FLOWERS, how about a recipe for another kind of squash? I learned about eating squash leaves from a friend in the Hmong community where I live. North Carolina has the fourth-largest population of Hmong — the Southeast Asian ethnic group that settled mostly in the western part of the state after the Vietnam War — and you’ll find them selling their crops at farmers markets in Charlotte. The other day, I made the following Hmong Squash Leaf Stir-Fry with my Hmong friends in mind. Try it: Ingredients * 1 or two pieces of bacon cut crosswise into inch-chunks (alternatively, cooking oil of your choice).
* Two or three squash (or zucchini or pumpkin) leaves, on the young side, so they are tender and small and can be left whole. Trim out the stems. * Garden veggies: I used homegrown peas, basil, tomatoes, garlic and Hmong-grown baby carrots (and a gringo-grown onion). I considered using market zucchini, but my dish felt busy enough. * Soy sauce * Fish sauce or oyster sauce * Lime or rice vinegar Directions Cook the bacon in a pan on low-ish. When it starts to give up the grease, add the squash leaves and help them lay flat in the pan in the grease. Monitor both leaves and bacon, turning when necessary and steering them into a light crisp. Remove each leaf and bacon slice when ready. Add the carrots, sliced, to the grease, and the sliced onion, turning up the pan as necessary for a steady, mellow cooking. Add tomatoes, in chunks, and ginger if you have it, and garlic, along with a squirt of fish or oyster sauce. Finally, add the peas and basil and soy sauce, and stir-fry for just a second. Add back the bacon and squash leaves, add pinches of black pepper and garlic powder, and a dash of lime juice or rice vinegar, and stir around one more time. Serve with hot sauce and rice. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | 17
THURSDAY
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EXPOSED/EXPUESTA What: Ten photographers showcase work that explores Mexico’s complex culture; its absorption of different traditions and strong Catholic values that mix with indigenous, pre-Hispanic customs and other religions to create a mosaic society. Some pieces are not what you would call “safe for work,” so curators suggest parents come and preview the work before bringing children. The exhibit questions and challenges notions of identity through personal and cultural explorations of the artists’ own environment. When: 6:30-8:30 p.m. Where: The Light Factory, 1817 Central Ave. More: Free. lightfactory.org
18 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
THURSDAY
24
THINGS TO DO
TOP TEN
Adayla [left] w/ Morgan Gayla WEDNESDAY PHOTO COURTESY OF ADAYLA
FRIDAY
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GENTE DE ZONA
PET PHOTO SHOOT
What: Reggaeton’s popularity has subsided in the states, but the genre is still a juggernaut overseas. Cuba’s Gente De Zona (“People from the Neighborhood”) is one of reggaeton’s longest-running success stories, mostly because the group has not been afraid to switch up the format. Longtime leader Alex Delgado mixes the combo’s hip-hop and dancehall rhythms with Cuban folk forms such as son and timba; experiments with salsa; and collaborates with acts as wideranging as Pit Bull and Enrique Inglesias.
What: The world seems to be falling apart around us and everyone is losing their minds, but you can always count on your pup in these ridiculous times. Scrub him or her up real good and bring them to Lucky Dog to get a portrait shot. While that may sound like the most vain thing in the world, it’s all for a good cause. Proceeds go directly to Humane Society Charlotte. (Note: there’s a minimum order of three photos and spots must be booked in advance.)
When: 8 p.m. Where: Fillmore, 820 Hamilton St. More: $35. fillmorecharlottenc.com
When: 5-8 p.m. Where: Lucky Dog Bark & Brew, 2220 Thrift Road More: $35 sitting fee, $20 per photo. agoldphoto.com/charlotte
FRIDAY
25 STREET SOCCER 658 What: Forget all the debates about MLS, the Smith family and Memorial Stadium, this tourney is all about the love of the game, purely and simply. Teams are made up of at-risk men and women who, for the most part, have no stable living condition, and are touring so they can live out their dreams. Teams will come in from Richmond, Va.; Philadelphia; New York; Chicago; and St. Louis to take part in this unique, fast-paced, 4-on-4 game. Donations are welcome on site or online. When: 4-8 p.m. Where: Romare Bearden Park, 300 S. Church St. More: Free. streetsoccer658.org
FRIDAY
25 GOD SAVE THE QUEEN CITY What: God Save the Queen City is the big bang of homegrown Charlotte Music fests. Since 2011, it has expanded like a supernova to three days and multiple venues. This year organizers have reined it in a bit to Friday and Saturday night at the Neighborhood Theatre, but the bill is explosive as ever, boasting Faye, Benji Hughes, Shadowgraphs and more. Debates about whether GSTQC is the QC’s answer to Raleigh’s Hopscotch are moot. The fest is its own rampaging beast. When: 7:30 p.m. Where: Neighborhood Theater, 511 E 36th St. More: $15 - 20. gstqc.com
Pet Photo Shoot FRIDAY
Exposed/Expuesta THURSDAY
NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS
Queen City Battle of the Bands SATURDAY PHOTO COUTESY OF QCBOB
FRIDAY
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FRIDAY
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SATURDAY
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POETRY VS. HIP-HOP
THE VELDT
Q.C. BATTLE OF THE BANDS
What: Are you familiar with the line that separates poetry and spoken word from full-on rap? Yeah, neither are we. And at this event, you won’t be required to know. Just sit back and enjoy the flow as Dee Dray’s band of Charlotte emcees, #TeamHipHop, squares off with host Queen Sheeba’s #TeamPoetry. Also in the house will be DJ Knodat, Q and the Soul Providers, and the poets of the Queen City Collective. By night’s end, you may have learned the difference.
What: Led by twin brothers Daniel and Danny Chavis, The Veldt burst upon Chapel Hill’s early-’90s altrock scene and promptly spread confusion. Were they shoegazers? Their cloud-layer of guitars and their soulful, muffled-in-cotton vocals sure sounded dreampoppy. Or were they a hybrid of indie rock and hip-hop? Their blissed-out velvetmorning vibe threaded through some awfully rawboned beats. Our theory is they traveled back in time from 2017 where that hyphenatedgenre shit no longer matters
What: Bragging rights are at stake as some of the best college bands of the South converge on Memorial Stadium for one big show before marching into the new football season. N.C. reps include North Carolina Central and Winston Salem State universities, but out-of-towners such as Bethune Cookman University and Miles College will be looking to come in and snatch the crown. Whoever wins, you can definitely expect a show.
When: 9 p.m. Where: Morehead Tavern, 300 E. Morehead St. More: $10-$50. moreheadtavern. com
PHOTO BY DIEGO MORENO
PHOTO COURTESY OF AGOLDPHOTO PET PHOTOGRAPHY
When: 10 p.m. Where: Snug Harbor, 228 Gordon St. More: $7. snugrock.com
When: 5:30-9:30 p.m. Where: Memorial Stadium, 310 N. Kings Drive More: $20. queencitybattleofthebands.com
SATURDAY
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MUSICAL JOURNEY OF SUFI & GHAZAL What: Islam’s mystic Sufi sect is responsible for some of the world’s most beautiful and sensual devotional music. In the ’90s, the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan mesmerized his native Pakistanis and Western rock stars alike with heart-rending qawwalis — devotional poems set to snaky Middle Eastern and Indian melodies. Indian prodigy Ranjeet Rajwada performs in a similar Sufi tradition, ghazal. This week, get mesmerized by the young, buttervoiced native of Rajasthan. When: 8 - 11 p.m. Where: Pease Auditorium, 1206 Elizabeth Ave. More: $29-$69. bit.ly/2vQmSaZ
WEDNESDAY
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ADAYLA W/ MORGAN GAYLA What: Two Charlotte singers who’ve been making waves on the local hip-hop/R&B/indie-folk scenes, Adayla Turner and Morgan Gayla (they really should just go ahead and form a duo, because... Adayla and Gayla? Come on!) are teaming up for a double dose of soul. Adayla performs acoustic-based lyrical jazz and is working on her first EP; Gayla, who’s sung with Hip Hop Orchestrated, is a neo-soul vocalist about to release her own debut. When: 8:30-11 p.m. Where: Old Town Public House, 21314 Catawba Ave., Cornelius More: Tip-jar contributions. drinklivemusic.com
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | 19
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT Blame the Youth invigorate Charlotte Pride BY PAT MORAN
KYNADI HANKINS drapes a rainbow pride flag over her shoulders like Supergirl’s cape and strikes a heroic pose. “She’s Super-gay!” says Francisco Gomex. The Charlotte band Blame the Youth are on the top deck of the AvidXchange parking garage, sweating bullets in the late morning sun. In addition to christening a new superhero, Gomex and the others are getting their photos taken for the cover of Creative Loafing’s Pride issue. The conditions are sucking the life out of CL’s art director Dana Vindigni and me, but the members of Blame the Youth are energetic and highspirited. Their group’s debut EP The Hourglass, released last March, has generated positive buzz, and they’ve just been tapped to be the only local band to represent the city on the Wells Fargo Stage at Charlotte Pride Festival on Aug. 26. Nothing is going to spoil their fun — not even Amber Daniel getting kicked in the head. “It was a handstand gone wrong,” Daniel says, sticking Band-Aids on her nose and forehead. We’ve moved into the air-conditioned CL office now, and I’m seated in a circle with drummer Hankins, singer, guitarist and keyboardist Gomex, bassist Daniel and guitarist Alexa-Rae Ramkissoon. Daniel had been injured after we’d moved to a second location for the photo shoot — a grassy area where Hankins offered to do a handstand for the camera. The stunt occurred too fast and too close, and Hankins’ sneaker clipped and cut Daniel’s face. But the band members are already shrugging off the accident. Besides, they’re still over the moon about landing their biggest gig to date. Daniel says the Pride Festival, with its message of diversity and inclusivity, fits the band like a glove. 22 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
A revolutionary quartet: Francisco Gomex (from left), Alexa-Rae Ramkissoon, Kynadi Hankins, and Amber Daniel are Blame the Youth. “You’ve got three black women here fronted by a Mexican trans-man (Gomex),” Daniel says, pointing to the band’s Pride-friendly makeup. The members are still surprised they got the slot. “We got the email and asked each other, ‘Have you guys seen this?’” Hankins says. “Then there was screaming.” “A lot of screaming,” Daniel says. “And crying,” Ramkissoon adds. Matt Comer, a Charlotte Pride organizer, was looking for the perfect beat. “This year we really wanted to seek out awesome local talent to showcase on our stage,” he says. Recommendations from friends pointed to Blame the Youth. “The band is made up of members of the LGBT community,” Comer continues. “They’re local, they’re talented and they have great onstage presentation.” Gomex views the gig as an opportunity to express gratitude to the local LGBT community. “We’ve wanted to play Pride for a while, but we were still working on our presence in the community,” Gomex says. “I think we’ve been out here for a while, and we’re getting popular enough that this is the next step up.”
PHOTO BY DANA VINDIGNI
Did I mention that Blame The Youth is also young? At 24, Gomex is the eldest; Daniel is 23, Hankins is 22, and Ramkissoon is the youngest at 21. Hankins came up with the name, derived from Janelle Monáe’s “Givin Em What They Love.” Monáe sings, “I am sharper than a razor / Eyes made of lasers / Bolder than the truth / They want me locked up in the system / Cause I’m on a mission. / Blame it on my youth.” “I meant the name to be funny,” Hankins says, “because whenever people have problems, they blame the millennials.” Daniel chimes in, citing claims about the avocado shortage, supposedly caused by millennials buying too much of it. “It’s like the napkin industry,” she continues. “Napkins?” Hankins asks, incredulous. “Millennials are not using enough paper napkins,” Gomex says. “We buy cloth napkins, and then wash them and reuse them.” “We’re destroying department stores and malls because we’re too thrifty,” Daniel adds. Blame the Youth kick-started its career of pissing off cranky boomers in 2012. That’s when Gomex and Hankins, who were dating, began playing shows as a duo.
“Our first show was like ‘Baby’s first talent show,’” Hankins says, laughing. “It was rough.” “We were still feeling our way,” Gomex says. Daniel picks up the story. “[Then] they decided they needed a guitarist. So they talked to their guitar teacher, who put them in contact with Alexa, who incidentally went to the same school [Northwest School of the Arts] as Kynadi.” In 2014, Blame the Youth began performing as a trio. The jazzy-pop tune “Earworm,” a hightlight from The Hourglass, dates from that period. The melody darts in and out of Ramkissoon’s coiling whipcord guitar line, which ends the song with a bluesy metallic coda. Gomex wrote the tune’s supple bass line, but piano is his first instrument, and he increasingly found himself wanting to play keys. He lobbied to recruit a new bassist. Ramkissoon suggested her coworker Daniel, who taught violin at Music and Arts, a music store and school in Charlotte. Despite their youth, the band is comprised of trained, accomplished musicians who read music, although Gomex admits they rarely write anything down. Many of the tunes on The Hourglass developed in jam sessions, a process that gives songs like the pulsing, time signature-shifting “ABACA” and funky, roiling “P.O.T.K.” an elliptical slipknot quality. Aside from “Earworm” and the lyrical R&B anthem “Oasis,” the compositions shun pop’s traditional verse-and-chorus song structure. A standout track on the EP is “5th Street,” with its allusion to economic inequality. It’s the closest BTY comes to being overtly topical. “We’re political just by existing,” Daniel says, pointing to all the red flags the band members pose to authoritarians and white supremacists: black, Latinx, female, trans, gay. “It’s revolutionary for us just to be in a public space,” she adds. “People don’t see people like us all the time.” “A fan told me recently that we completely change the environment of the room where we’re playing,” Gomex adds. “We create a place to relax; to calm down and have a good time. A recurring theme for our music is creating a safe place, an escape from all the bullshit. “We’re transitioning in front of the public eye right now,” he says. “By being who we are, we’re saying it’s OK to be who you want to be.”
DEBORAH COX She’s been entertaining Pride audiences since the mid-’90s and charting on the R&B and Dance Billboard lists since her 1998 No. 1 Hot R&B single “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here.” In Lifetime’s Whitney Houston biopic, Cox displayed a powerhouse voice that uncannily channels that of the late, legendary R&B diva. And Cox knows how to work both her voice and a stage. During her 25-city U.S. tour of the Broadway musical version of The Bodyguard, she’s continued to channel Houston and gain more fans through her love of musical versatility. To experience Cox’s amazing range — and maybe have a little moment of Whitney nostalgia — head over to the Wells Fargo Stage at 8 p.m. Aug. 26. — Kia Moore
PERFORMERS 2017 Drag Race. Davenport’s training in dance at the North Carolina School of the Arts in WinstonSalem finds its way in the display of the drag performer’s dexterity. Davenport is known for bringing dance moves and clean body lines to her lip-synching performance like a true professional. This is a performance you will not want to miss.
SANDRA VALLS Riding the wave of two Showtime comedy specials (The Latin Divas of Comedy and Pride: LGBT Comedy Slam), Valls brings groundbreaking humor that celebrates Latinx culture and sexuality. Her entertaining and enlightening comedy won Valls the 2013 International Woman’s Day Award and even recognition from the California State Senate. Valls says she’s ready to hit the Queen City’s Pride fest in the wake of the nasty HB2 debacle and powerful uprising that followed the Keith Lamont Scott killing. “There will be healing, there will be empowerment, and a reminder that love wins always,” she tells CL. The unstoppable cabrona takes the Wells Fargo Stage at 5 p.m. Aug.26. — Grey Revell
KEKE WYATT A preacher’s kid turned R&B diva, KeKe Wyatt is known for her virtuosic vocals and sassy personality. Wyatt first burst onto the mainstream music scene when her warm, dynamic, gospel-tinged vocals were intertwined with the R&B crooning of Avant in the 2001 chart-topping single “My First Love.” As her songstress star was rising, domestic violence at home shifted Wyatt’s
Sandra Valls (clo Kennedy Davenp ckwise from top left), ort, Keke, and Lo s5 trajectory from R&B starlet to assumed crazed diva. Years later, in 2012, she would embrace her diva title as she joined the TV One reality show cast of R&B Divas: Atlanta. Since Wyatt’s resurgence to the camera and lights, she has found herself returning to her first love — sharing her music with others. Catch Wyatt on the Charlotte Pride Wells Fargo Stage Saturday, Aug. 26, at 7:30 p.m. — K.M.
Delight: Cynthia Lee Fontaine is a drag performer known for having a thick Puerto Rican accent that projects excitement and delight into her performances and costuming choices. She starred in season 8 and 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. If you are looking for fun with a whole lot of Cu Cu added in, then Fontaine’s is a performance to add to your itinerary.
uplifting messages for the curvy and buxom body types in the crowd. — K.M.
LOS 5 Rock en Español is coming to Charlotte Pride from Los Angeles by way of Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. Los 5, made up of members from all those countries, has been sending seismic SEE
PERFORMERS
P. 26
u
Empower: Eureka O’Hara is a plus-size drag performer always ready to represent for the big girls. With her big smile and bomb-ass outfits that make you do a double take, O’Hara is ready to bring it to the Charlotte Pride crowd. If you are ready to be pulled into O’Hara’s Barbie-style world, you will surely be taken on a fantastic ride filled with confident outfit choices, entertaining dance moves, and
THE GIRLS OF RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE If your entire world stops when you hear the phrase, “Lipsync for your life. And, don’t... fuck it up,” then you are most certainly in for a treat on Sunday, Aug. 27 at 3 p.m. RuPaul’s Drag Race reality TV stars Kennedy Davenport, Cynthia Lee Fontaine, and Eureka O’Hara will be sashaying it up on the Charlotte Pride stage to entertain, delight, and empower onlookers with their performances.
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHARLOTTE PRIDE
Entertain: Kennedy Davenport is a Texas native with deep North Carolina ties who starred in season 7 of RuPaul’s CLCLT.COM | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | 23
EVENTS 2017 August 25
Official Charlotte Pride Afterparty
Pride Barn Dance
Billed as the only country-western dance event at Charlotte Pride, go get your two-step and line dancing on.
Alexis Michelle and Shangela Wadley will be on hand to host, but the line-up includes more than 13 performers from around the Carolinas including Kassandra Hylton and Chloe Cassidy.
When: 6 p.m.-2 a.m. Where: Bar Argon, 4544 South Blvd. Suite H More: $3-8; barargon.com
When: 6 p.m.-2 a.m. Where: Chasers, 3217 The Plaza More: $20 and up; chaserscharlotte.club
Sabrina Carpenter
Wonder Woman Pride Party
This is not necessarily an official Pride event, but the young pop star’s Belk performance is well-timed for folks looking for a fun time on Friday night.
This dance party features a $200 cash prize Wonder Woman costume party and bumping music from top Charlotte DJs and producers like headliner DOMii, followed by Fotizo, Tamalea, Richi Da Kid and more.
When: 7-9:30 p.m. Where: Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon St. More: $24.50 and up; blumenthalarts.org COURTESY OF CARMEN TATE
Movies Under the Stars: Beauty & the Beast
There were a lot of folks sour at the thought of a live-action adaptation of a beloved Disney film featuring a gay character, which is all the more reason to go celebrate this retelling of a children’s classic. When: 7-10 p.m. Where: Symphony Park, 4400 Sharon Road. More: Free; bit.ly/2idnfJv
Pride Takeover
Craft City has been hosting Takeover Fridays throughout the summer, but this one lands on Pride Weekend, so expect a packed pool. When: 7-11 p.m. Where: CC Social Club, 555 S. McDowell St. More: Free; takeoverfriday.com, craftcitysocialclub.com
24 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
Carmen Tate
Carmen Tate Pride Kickoff Charlotte’s favorite “rock star realtor” kicks off Pride downstairs at Draught.
When: 8 p.m. Where: Draught Charlotte, 601 S. Cedar St. More: Free. draughtcharlotte. com
LKN Pride Kickoff
In August, the monthly Liquid Illusions Drag Show lands on Pride, so go north to see hostess Ms. Lilli Frost emcee a showcase featuring the fabulous Tia Douglas and Carla Cox. When: 10:30 p.m. Where: Liquid, 17036 Kenton Drive, Cornelius. More: Free; liquidlkn.com.
August 26 Mimosa Party
The 5 Points Realty crew celebrates with its 7th annual Mimosa Party, featuring music, mimosas and more. Stop in for a few minutes or stay for a couple hours. When: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Where: 5 Points, 415 Beatties Ford Road. More: Free; 5pointsrealtync.com
One Voice
Charlotte’s premiere gay, lesbian and gayaffirmative chorus was founded in 1990, when many singers were afraid to print their names in concert programs for fear of persecution. In other words, CLT’s LGBT OGs. When: 1 p.m. Where: Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, 420 S. Tryon St. More: Free; onevoicechorus.com
When: 9 p.m. Where: Bassment Charlotte (below Dilworth Neighborhood Grille), 911 E. Morehead St. More: $15-$20; facebook.com/bassmentclt
EVENTS 2017
A NEW PRIDE Trans Pride turns up in Charlotte RYAN PITKIN
IN LAST YEAR’S Pride Guide, we reported on
Sabrina Carpenter COURTESY OF BLUMENTHAL ARTS
Yellow Brick TWIRL
Sydney’s favorite drag queen, the awardwinning DJ Kitty Glitter, delivers every time, whether fun and campy or grown and sexy. Her motto is, “A little bit of glitter goes a long way.”
August 27 Derek and Romaine Listener Brunch
When: 10 p.m.-12:30 a.m. Where: Flight Beer and Music Hall, 341 N. College St. More: $20-25; flightclt.com
The GLAAD Award-winning, New York-based daily radio show Derek and Romaine will be in town for Pride and want you to join them at the soda shop to wash away the hangover that comes from Pride weekend.
Pride Celebration Show
When: 6 p.m.-2 a.m. Where: Chasers, 3217 The Plaza More: $20 and up; chaserscharlotte.club
Get your thrills cheap at Hattie’s Pride party, featuring the awesome MollyWops along with Sherri Brown & Floaty, Arlo Ramsey, Swayhaus and DJ XL, kicking out the jams alongside a parade of drag performers including Malayia Chanel Iman, Cierra Nichole, Isa Violet, Gloria Holes and more; as well as games, drink specials, a food truck and boatloads of fun. When: 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Where: Hattie’s Tap & Tavern, 2918 The Plaza. More: $5; hattiescharlotte.com
Official Charlotte Pride Closing Party
One last hoorah to close out the weekend, featuring Eureka O’Hara and Coco Montrese of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Other performers, including Shelita Bonet Hoyle, Amber Rochelle and Alexia Nicks, join the sexy dancing men of Chasers. When: 9 p.m.-3 a.m. Where: Chasers, 3217 The Plaza More: chaserscharlotte.club
conflicts among LGBTQ organizations regarding diversity and trans representation at Charlotte Pride. Members of the local Trans and Queer People of Color Collective, a subgroup of Charlotte Uprising, said they were being ignored — or at best tokenized — by Charlotte Pride organizers. In the lead-up to this year’s festivities, we checked in with Matt Comer, spokesperson for Charlotte Pride, who told us the organization’s board undertook a strategic planning process earlier this year that made intersectional inclusion a priority in all efforts surrounding 2017 Pride. “Those strategies will take time to implement,” Comer wrote in a statement. “But we’re extremely proud that many of our year-round programs have already begun to grow and become more inclusive, including Charlotte Latin Pride, our film festival Reel Out Charlotte, and the Pride festival and parade. In the meantime, we’re ensuring that this year’s festival and parade is among the most diverse we’ve ever seen, including entertainers who represent a variety of communities.” As told in this week’s cover story (page 20), Charlotte Pride will feature local band Blame the Youth — made up of three queer people of color, including a trans Latinx man — on the main stage this year, which is a step forward from last year. Ash Williams, a leader with TQPOCC who spoke out against a lack of trans representation on the main stage last year, said they are unaware of this year’s efforts around diversity. “I think people forgot largely about what happened last year,” Williams says. “I haven’t really heard of anyone having any trouble, but I’m also not in community with a lot of folks that I was in community with last year around this time. I feel like everything worked out, though.” Folks like Williams aren’t interested in attending Pride for a slew of reasons, including a heavy police presence and past problems such as the ones CL covered last year, but Williams
believes it all “worked out” because they have been busy planning Charlotte’s first Trans Pride, an event centered on trans people that will include multiple events held throughout the city between September 15-17. In recent years, Trans Pride has been held in Greensboro, but Williams reached out to organizers there who were game for bringing it down to the Queen City. The weekend will kick off that Friday with a screening of Kiki, a documentary that follows LGBTQ youth-of-color performing the ballroom dance style known widely as voguing on the Christopher Street Pier in New York City. The location for the screening has not yet been worked out. The following day will feature more of a convention atmosphere at UNC Charlotte Center City, where people and organizations will host workshops, sell goods and offer services for trans folks, including a free name-change clinic. In a separate Self-Care Tent, experts will offer reiki healing, palm and tarot readings, massages and mental-health consultations. That night, the party moves to South End, where LeAnna Eden will headline a Trans Open Mic night at Three Spirits Brewery, Charlotte’s only black-owned brewery. The weekend will close out with #TforT, a trans-exclusive pool party at a private residence in Ballantyne, on Sunday, Sept. 17. In the few weeks left before Trans Pride, organizers are attempting to get more youth involved in leadership roles. They are offering $25 gift cards to youth under 20 who want to faciitate workshops on Saturday, and allowing them to bypass the application process by emailing transpridenc@gmail.com. “We want young people to be involved. We just want them to come to Pride and we want to have shit there for them to do,” Williams says. “What we’re trying to do is just make it super accessible.” CLCLT.COM | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | 25
PERFORMERS 2017 PRIDE SCHEDULE SATURDAY, AUG. 25 Time Event 12:30 Opening Ceremony 1:00 Youth Entertainment 1:40 Miss & Mr. Prides QC 2:55 Buff Faye 3:10 Kassandra Hylton 3:30 Blame the Youth 4:00 Chasers Drag Review 5:00 Sandra Valls 5:20 Matteo Lane 5:35 Sam Jay 6:00 Los 5 7:30 Keke Wyatt 8:00 Deborah Cox 8:45 Cazwell 9:15 DJ Bryson
Charlotte’s source for affordable original artwork Check out art for sale at alexanderhoodart.com @alexanderhoodart
PERFORMERS FROM P. 23 t waves throughout the Wild West since winning iHeart Radio’s 2016 Rising Star competition in November, with appearances on Univision’s Despierta America and NBC’s Today Show as Elvis Duran’s Pick of the Month. The bicultural band has made it a mission to project positivity into a divided world with its singular brand of bilingual pop rock, and will grace the Wells Fargo Stage at 6 p.m. Aug. 26. — G.R.
CAZWELL Massachusetts born and New York club-bred electro artist Luke Cazwell has toured the world since 2014, promoting his second album Hard Mateo Lane (above 2 B Fresh, on the Brooklyn-based indie label ), Sam Jay (bottom) Peace Bisquit. With collaborators including the edgy Peaches and Justin de Nobrega of MATTEO LANE the hip-hop group Die Antwoord, Cazwell Still buzzing from a recent performance on Late brings the fierce to tunes like the Spanish Night With Seth Meyers and Adam Devine’s Harlem-flavored “¡Spicy!,” but for his Charlotte House Party on Comedy Central, Matteo Lane Pride appearance, he will undoubtedly put is about to be featured The Comedy Jam. He the spotlight on “Loose Wrists,” his first single studied storyboard and illustration at the Art produced and released on Snow Cone, his own Institute of Chicago, before settling in New York new label. Catch Cazwell on the Wells Fargo City as a fashion illustrator. That’s where Lane Stage at 8:45 p.m. Aug. 26. — G.R. caught the comedy fever, and subsequently some decent heat with his appearances on MTV’s Girl Code and MTV2’s Guy Code. Lane will appear at 5:20 p.m. Aug. 26 on the Wells Fargo Stage. — G.R.
SAM JAY
SUNDAY, AUG. 26 Time Event 12:30 2:15 2:30 3:00 5:00
DJ Ian Miss Day of the Dead Brenda Guzman The Girls of RuPaul’s Drag Race: Charlotte Pride Awards IDE CHARLOTTE
COURTESY OF PR
26 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
Being female, African American and lesbian has made Sam Jay stand out in the maledominated comedy world. And she makes those facts relatable and blindingly hilarious to her audiences. That’s what earned her this showcase at Charlotte Pride. Jay’s 2013 appearance at the nearby Laugh Your Asheville Off Comedy Festival and 2014 turn at the Women In Comedy Festival in Boston — not to mention stellar performances at comedic institutions including Gotham NYC and the Comedy Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts — have garnered Jay praise from Comedy Central and BET. She will be on the Wells Fargo Stage at 5:35 p.m. Aug. 26. — G.R.
free park ing
drink specials The peace piper
$7
$5
Horny unicorn shots $5
fireball very berry
MIMI
lemonade $7
MONDAZE AT 9PM
drag show HOSTED BY Jack dahlia
SUNDAY
LBGT COmedy show 8pm charlotte’s only Hosted lgbt Hookah Lounge
By
204 W Woodlawn Rd h, Charlotte, NC 28217
(980) 859-0838
doors open at 9
show starts at 10pm 21+Valid ID required
CLCLT.COM | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | 27
MUSIC
FEATURE
FAMILY MATTERS Yung Citizen assembles a tribe of Charlotte talent for ‘Alive Sessions’ BY MARK KEMP
C
HRIS WILLIAMS is trying to make the world a better place, starting with his hometown. The producer and emcee’s 2014 song “Power People,” released under Williams’ hip-hop name Yung Citizen, has taken on renewed resonance in the wake of the deadly violence sparked by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia — not to mention the September 2016 uprising that followed the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott in this city. “This is to the power of the people,” Yung Citizen raps in “Power People,” an uplifting track fueled by stuttering, gospel-like choral vocals, digital hand-claps, and a swelling synthesizer on the refrain. The lyrics offer a message of hope: “You need to start fighting for your freedom,” Citizen continues, and then, “Everything’ll start to be peaceful.” “I watch a lot of news and see a lot of stuff that I’m inspired by,” Williams says. “I’m inspired by the ways we can effect change. Some people say, ‘Why you so serious all the time? Make it fun.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I can make it fun. I can do that. It’s just that I’m so passionate about change and making an impact.’” The 29-year-old musician sits behind an M-Audio keyboard and Numark turntable in the second-floor studio of his childhood home in an upper-middle-class northeastern Charlotte neighborhood. Propped against a chair next to him is a brand new Taylor acoustic guitar. “I’m learning how to play it,” Williams says. He’s wearing a white baseball cap and black T-shirt emblazoned with CHARLOTTE, both made by the Queen City-based apparel company F4mily Matters. What he wears matters to Williams, who has a deep love for his extended CLT family. In “Bad,” from his latest Yung Citizen EP Alive Sessions, Williams gives Charlotte an enthusiastic shout-out: “Blacker than a Panther, we always keep pounding / Queen City crowning, I love the way that’s sounding.” Although the line is an obvious reference to the Carolina Panthers, he says, “I’m also talking about my city. We are the crown. I feel like Charlotte, North Carolina, is the best city in the United States. “I’m so passionate about this city,” Williams continues, “and that line came because I was about to leave and move to New York last October, but it didn’t end up happening. And I think that’s because, 28 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
“Some people say, ‘Why you so serious all the time? Make it fun.’ ... I’m like, ‘I can do that. It’s just that I’m so passionate about change and making an impact.” — Chris Williams, aka Yung Citizen right now, I’m supposed to stay in my city and impact it in a way that’s motivating and positive. So as far as my lyrics go, I like to write about things that are happening right now, and about how we can make it better.” Right now, Williams is making Charlotte better by bringing local musicians together. The six tracks on Alive Sessions feature vocals by several area artists including Williams’ older sister N’Chanted, R&B vocalist Dexter Jordan, pop singer Michael Remisi, jazzinflected neo-soul singer Mori Bea, rapper
all fun. I could see the talent, but I’d always remind him, ‘Son, if it doesn’t sound good, I’m going to tell you to drop it.’” Chris Williams laughs. “When I first started making beats and my dad heard what I was doing,” he says, “he was like, ‘Uh, that’s not really sounding so good. You might want to think of something else to do to pay the bills.’ But once I got to college and got the right training and the right knowledge — he’s been supportive ever since.”
PHOTO BY QUENTIN JONES
Williams began toying with the digital audio workstation FruityLoops, or FL Studio, making rudimentary beats. “I was playing around with FruityLoops and listening to N.E.R.D. and some of the other records that the Neptunes produced for artists like Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake and Gwen Stefani. I just loved what they were doing. I liked that they sounded so different. It inspired me to be different as a producer. But when people would hear my production, they would say, ‘This is not what I hear on the radio.’ And I
“I’M INSPIRED BY THE WAYS WE CAN EFFECT CHANGE.” -YUNG CITIZEN Modest Jon and DJ Sir Charles. On Aug. 28, Williams will bring his Yung Citizen show to Petra’s as part of singer-songwriter LeAnna Eden’s music series “Session: A Listening Party.” Jordan and the other artists on the new EP will accompany him. It’s all designed to showcase Charlotte’s rich talent pool. “I already knew all of the people I brought into the project,” Williams says. “Dexter and I had worked together on several records, and I’ve also done records for the white guy, Michael Remesi. And then there’s my sister, N’Chanted.” And then there’s his father, Dennis, who says family — both blood and otherwise — has played an important role in Yung Citizen’s musical career. When Christopher Williams was a much younger citizen, his father was wary of the music business and was frank with his son about it. “I’m brutally honest with my children,” says the elder Williams, who now manages Yung Citizen’s career. “In the beginning it was
BORN DURING the late-’80s golden age of hip-hop, Christopher Michael Williams’ first passion was Michael Jackson. “My parents taped a Michael Jackson concert and I used to watch that video every day,” he remembers. “And then I heard Kris Kross. I think I loved them so much because my real name is Chris.” Dennis Williams, who works for Duke Energy, initially shielded his son from rap, which he felt was too violent. “My parents didn’t really let me listen to hip-hop when I was younger, so it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I started to really get into it.” He discovered the more positive messages of acts like N.E.R.D. and its production core of Chad Hugo and Pharell Williams. “They were my favorite,” he says. “I listened to them all the time in high school, and there was this magazine called Scratch that I would read.” That’s when Williams adopted his Yung Citizen moniker, “because, you know, I was young and I was a citizen of the United States,” he says, with a laugh. “It was that simple.”
would say, ‘Yeah, that’s the point.’” He also played football in high school, and in 2007 landed a partial scholarship to attend Catawba College in Salisbury, where he studied the business side of music. “I got really involved in the music program, and did production work on the side,” Williams says. But doing both music and sports was overwhelming. “I had to practice football all the time, and then I also had to practice piano all the time. It got too tiring to do all of that,” he says. “I realized football was not going to take me anywhere, so after two years I decided to stop playing football and focus on my studies.” The school agreed to transfer his partial football scholarship to the music department. “That’s when I got heavily involved in the music department. I was production manager; I would run sound when we had shows. And we had this vernaculars program. What that means is that if you wanted to learn rock, we had a rock program where the students would
Yung Citizen studies the knobs on his console. form rock bands; if you wanted to learn country, we had a country program; and we had blues and other genres.” What they didn’t have was a good hiphop/R&B program, Williams’ father says. So David Fish, the chairman of Catawba’s music department, encouraged Williams to start one. “None of the vernaculars was really targeted to people of color,” Dennis Williams says. “Dr. Fish allowed Chris to create a vernacular called Urban Soul. What I like about Dr. Fish is that he really saw the talent in Chris and gave him the opportunity to go into the studio at Catawba and just create.” “He wanted diversity,” Chris Williams says of Dr. Fish. “He wanted everybody to experience all different genres.” During his junior year, Williams traveled to New York City for an internship at Jambox Studios near Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan. It was an eye-opening learning experience for him to work in a studio where artists affiliated with the Ruff Ryders label recorded. “Sometimes they would allow me to sit in on sessions so I could learn,” he remembers. After returning to North Carolina to finish his degree, Williams landed his first major beat placement with the artist Neako, who was part of Wiz Khalifa’s camp. Neako eventually formed his own camp, LVLYSL, and called on Williams to create some beats. “Everyone on campus knew about it and was like, ‘Oh snap,’” Williams says, “but I’m like, ‘I’m nowhere near where I want to be.’ It was just a first step.”
YUNG CITIZEN’S next step was to pick up
the mic and start writing. That led to “Power People” and now Alive Sessions. He’s still not where he wants to be, but says he’s well on his way. But if Williams thought he’d have to leave Charlotte for New York or Los Angeles to make it, he now knows that’s not true. That realization came with maturity, he says. Williams doesn’t believe in the idea of young or old; he says he’ll always be young, but with an old soul. As he talks about his ideas of youth and maturity, the popular
PHOTO BY QUENTIN JONES
SESSION: A LISTENING PARTY (YUNG CITIZEN W/ DEXTER JORDAN AND OTHERS) Monday, Aug. 28. 7 - 11 p.m. $5. Petra’s, 1919 Commonwealth Ave. 704-332-6608. petrasbar.com
late-’90s Nickelodeon cartoon Hey Arnold! plays on a big-screen TV on the studio’s far wall, the sound turned to silent. The old-soul title character in the cartoon moves about the screen while Williams explains what kept him in Charlotte — and what will keep him here forever. “When it didn’t work out for me to move to New York or L.A., that’s when I came to the realization that I really need to be here,” Williams says. “My dad would say to me, ‘Why do you want to leave Charlotte anyway?,’ and I’d say, ‘I don’t know. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?’ “And then I realized that you don’t have to leave your city to be seen,” he continues. “You make a way to be seen. You can do anything you want to do. A lot of people leave and go to other cities and they find themselves in the same position as they were when they were in their own city. But then they’re in a city where they don’t know anybody. I’ve seen a lot of people move away and end up coming right back.” Besides, Williams says, Charlotte itself is on its way to becoming a destination for creative people. “There’s a ton of talent here, and I think we’re all starting to feel like, ‘OK, let’s come together and see what we can do.’ We’re in a totally different place now than where we were a few years ago,” Williams says. “And that’s where the Alive Sessions project came from — I wanted people to realize we can work together, like a family, and make this thing pop.” MKEMP@CLCLT.COM CLCLT.COM | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | 29
MUSIC
SOUNDBOARD
AUGUST 24 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH John Alexander Jazz Trio (Blue Restaurant & Bar)
COUNTRY/FOLK Front Country (U.S. National Whitewater Center)
DJ/ELECTRONIC Le Bang (Snug Harbor)
POP/ROCK Carmen Tate (Eddie’s Seafood & Raw Bar, Mooresville) Consumed with Hatred, Kairos, Rites to Sedition (The Station) Gente De Zona (The Fillmore) Jerry Jacobs (Tin Roof) Jim Garrett Trio (Comet Grill) Karaoke with DJ ShayNanigans (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Kevin Reid Band, Raincoat, The Whiskey Predicament (Petra’s) Lisa DeNovo (RiRa Irish Pub) Lost Dog Street Band, Dead Cat (The Evening Muse) Shiprocked! Pride Party: DJs Scott Weaver, Longchild, Blondzai. Performances by Heiress Hilton, Jack Dahlia, James Alsop, Your Fuzzy Friends, Salvador Dolly, Saturos. (Snug Harbor) The Widdler, Cut Rugs, Murkury (Milestone,) Throwback Thursdays: 80s and 90s Music (Morehead Street Tavern)
Shopping Center) Music Box Lunch (Romare Bearden Park) The Bald Brotherhood (RiRa Irish Pub) Bruce Hazel (NoDa Brewing Company) Dave Desmelik (Birdsong Brewing Co.) El Malpais, Chocala, TKO Faith Healer (Milestone) Evergone (The Evening Muse) Evergone, The Menders (The Evening Muse) God SaveThe Queen City - 7th Annual Music Festival: Diarrhea Planet, Jeff The Brotherhood, Spaceface, Daddy Issues, Faye (Neighborhood Theatre) Jerry Jacobs (Tin Roof) Linnie & Amy Joy (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Sabrina Carpenter: The De-Tour (Belk Theater) The Smashed Cardinals (Vinyl Pi, Huntersville) Stu Larsen, Matt Sanders (The Evening Muse) Toke, Green Fiend, Hivelords, Surgeon, Umbra, No Anger Control (The Station) The Veldt, Jason Herring & The Mystery Plan, Occam’s Portal (Snug Harbor)
AUGUST 26 COUNTRY/FOLK Frank Foster, Out of the Blue (Coyote Joe’s) Ryan Culwell (U.S. National Whitewater Center)
DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Method (RiRa Irish Pub) New Wave Undertow with DJ Price (Milestone) Su Casa (Petra’s)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B
AUGUST 25
Lyricist’s Lounge (Upscale Lounge & Restaurant)
CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH
POP/ROCK
Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant) Sounds on the Square: Jazz with Buff Dillard and Friends (Spirit Square)
BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Steven Engler Band (Blue Restaurant & Bar)
COUNTRY/FOLK Live on the Green (First Ward Park) Luke Pell, Chris Bandi, Out of the Blue (Coyote Joe’s) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill)
DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Overcash (RiRa Irish Pub) DJ Phalse ID (RiRa Irish Pub) Mirror Moves – 80’s Underground Dance Party – Pride Edition (Petra’s)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Dru Hill, Bobby V. (The Fillmore)
POP/ROCK Blakeney Summer Concert Series (Blakeney 30 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
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Blakeney Summer Concert Series (Blakeney Shopping Center) Aaron Woody Band (Vinyl Pi, Huntersville) Beyond the Fade, Reason Define, Skipper the Lion, Death of August (The Underground) Big Mammas House of Burlesque: Rainbow Connection Pride Show (Visulite Theatre) Drag Show and LIVE Music by the Molly Wops (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) God Save The Queen City - 7th Annual Music Festival: Strand Of Oaks, Twin Limb, Benji Hughes, Ancient Cities, Shadowgraphs (Neighborhood Theatre) The Matty McRee Band (RiRa Irish Pub) Nita B & Her Soirée (Comet Grill) Porcelain Mary, English (The Rabbit Hole) Sam Burchfield Band, Emma Hern (The Evening Muse) The Seduction, JaggerMouth, Space Wizard, Good Good Grief (Snug Harbor) Sixteen Candles (The Fillmore) Thirsty Horses (Tin Roof) An Evening with Matthew Whitaker (Friendship
Missionary Baptist Church)
AUGUST 27 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazz Brunch (RiRa Irish Pub)
COUNTRY/FOLK Jim Lauderdale (The Evening Muse)
POP/ROCK Goo Goo Dolls, Phillip Phillips (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre) Johnny Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls & Phillip Phillips (Tin Roof) Morgan James (McGlohon Theater) Rothschild, Paperback, Downhaul, But You Can Call Me John, Atlantic Lungs (The Station) Omari and The Hellhounds (Comet Grill)
AUGUST 28 HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Knocturnal (Snug Harbor) Stone Soul Mic Love (Freedom Factory @ Seeds) #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge)
SOUNDBOARD
MUSIC
AUGUST 30 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Tony Hayes (Morehead Street Tavern) The Clarence Palmer Trio (Morehead Tavern)
DJ/ELECTRONIC Cyclops Bar: Modern Heritage Weekly Mix Tape (Snug Harbor)
COUNTRY/FOLK Open mic w/ Jared Allen (Jack Beagles, Charlotte) Open Mic/Open Jam (Comet Grill, Charlotte)
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THIS FRIDAY
LUKE PELL WITH
CHRIS BANDI
TICKETS ON SALE NOW $15
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THIS SATURDAY
FRANK FOSTER LIMITED ADVANCE $10 ALL OTHERS $12
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POP/ROCK Party in the Park (Romare Bearden Park) David Liebe Hart, Asbestos Boys, Tony Wain and the Neon Leons (The Station) Eilen Jewell, The Edwards Brothers (Neighborhood Theatre) Karaoke with DJ Pucci Mane (Petra’s) Open Mic & Songwriter Workshop (Petra’s) Pluto For Planet (RiRa Irish Pub) Snug Harbor 10 Year Anniversary Celebration Residency: Andy the Doorbum, Ghost Trees, Cult Wife (Snug Harbor) Trivia & Karaoke Wednesdays (Tin Roof)
THURSDAY, AUG 31
LAUREN ALAINA FREE CONCERT
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SATURDAY, SEPT 16
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CLCLT.COM | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | 31
ARTS
FEATURE
THE SUBMISSION $22-$28, Aug. 24-26. 8 p.m. Duke Energy Theater, 345 N. College St. 704-372-1000. blumenthalarts.org
A FARCE TURNED FIERCE Sidney Horton tackles race in the arts with ‘The Submission’ BY PERRY TANNENBAUM
W
E’RE RIGHT to be suspicious of leaders who loudly spout their righteous certitudes. Thoughtful people know that moral rectitude, ethnic traditions, civil liberties, and political correctness can often crisscross into bewildering tangles and conundrums. Sidney Horton, who is directing Three Bone Theatre’s The Submission, puts it more bluntly: “We all are clumsy when we deal with race and sexual orientation.” Jeff Talbott’s comedy-drama, which opened at Spirit Square Aug. 17 and runs through Aug. 26, goes one better than holding up a mirror to our clumsiness. The playwright turns his mirror back around from his audience and shows that the same clumsiness — and assorted prejudices — also afflict theater artists. Talbott’s protagonist, Danny Larsen, has written a play about an African-American mother and her cardsharping son striving to escape the projects to build a better life. Trouble is, Danny is white, which could seriously hurt his chances of getting produced at the prestigious Humana Theatre Festival, where he submits his manuscript. At an ill-advised moment, Danny, who also is gay, decides to overcome this liability by submitting his playscript under the very African name of Shaleeha G’ntamobi. Getting selected for the festival compounds Danny’s woes, because he can’t come clean about his true race and gender. Instead, he decides to hire a black actress, Emilie, to bring Shaleeha to life. But Danny is in for a lot more blowback than he bargains for: Emilie isn’t buying Danny’s premise that, just because he’s gay, he can understand the challenges of growing up black in America. Horton’s choice to play Danny isn’t exactly surprising. He chose Scott Miller, who is playing his second writer in the past four months after his role as Trigorin in Stupid F@#%ing Bird, an Anton Chekhov knockoff staged by Actor’s Theatre. Miller also played Martin, the most promising writing student in the acerbic Seminar, last August. “Trigorin in Stupid F@#%ing Bird, was a joy to play because he’s one of those characters that knows how sleazy he is and revels in it,” Miller says. “Danny is the most 32 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
Dan Grogan (from left), Daniel Henry, Lechetze D. Lewis, and Scott Miller in The Submission. troubling to play, and the most challenging in many regards. He justifies his prejudices and thinks his self-appointed victimhood gives him license to do more-or-less whatever he wants.” Standing up to such insidious entitlement is a formidable task, and Horton made a bold choice in casting Emilie. Lechetze D. Lewis, after returning to the Carolinas from Emerson College in Boston, where she earned a graduate degree in publishing, has circled the Q.C. in three previous outings — two in Concord, one in Mooresville — but her role in The Submission will mark her Charlotte debut. “Lechetze had a fire about her in auditions,” Horton remembers. “I knew I had to have someone strong that could more than hold her own against Scott. I took a chance with Lechetze, and boy did it pay off.” Needing to ensure that all four of his cast members felt comfortable with one another at rehearsals, Horton prompted plenty of discussion about the issues that Talbott’s script addresses. And yes, there were disagreements as the cast talked things out, but professionalism prevailed. “The play deals with LGBT rights, racism, discrimination, affirmative action, nontraditional casting and who has the right to say or do things when it comes to someone else’s identity or culture,” Horton says. “All of these issues are pretty hot right now in America — we are more divided now that we have been in recent years. The thing that strikes me most, and one of the main reasons I wanted to do this play, is it deals with these issues in the arts community. We as artists like to think of ourselves as being all-accepting and non-judgmental. Are we really?”
PHOTO COURTESY OF THREE BONES THEATRE
With such questions floating in the air, rehearsals can be stressful. In the heat of the moment, hurtful comments hurled in your face by a fellow actor addressing your fictional character can still hurt. Identifying with Emilie as a black artist, as Lewis must, she can hardly be invulnerable when the conflict with Danny has so much relevance to her daily life and self-image. “Something that really gets to me is his idea that black actors who win awards don’t deserve to win what was created for whites,” Lewis says. “As an artist, I hope that any awards I receive will be acknowledged as something that my hard work has earned... but Danny doesn’t see it that way. Scott is an amazing actor to work with and he definitely doesn’t hold these views, but he’s talented enough to make those words sting. I am so lucky to be working with an actor who takes the time to check in on how we’re both
feeling and if we’re okay to move forward.” Horton has also been helpful for Lewis, frequently reminding her that she does win in the end. Conversations with Miller and the other two cast members, Dan Grogan and Daniel Henry, about how the script has affected them personally have been doubly beneficial for Lewis — not only soothing her emotions but helping her to shape her performance. Of course, Emilie also dishes out a harsh word or two. “I will admit to having a bit of fear regarding how she’ll be perceived,” Lewis confides, “because so much of what she says is hypocritical. But it doesn’t mean that, in some aspects, she’s completely wrong.” Horton has another succinct comment about the intensity of the crossfire in The Submission: “Thank God for the comedy in this show — it makes it palatable.” Talbott doesn’t turn on the heat immediately. There’s a certain point, says Miller, when the tone begins to change. Even then, there’s a gradual crescendo leading up to the inevitable fireworks between Danny and Emilie. Along the way, we realize that Talbott’s farcical plotline isn’t going to play out strictly for laughs. At the same time, the playwright is turning his telltale mirror toward us. There will likely be a recoil factor when we recognize ourselves. “While watching The Submission,” Miller cautions, “many people will agree with some of the controversial things the characters say. I predict several lines will get a chuckle before the audience realizes the inappropriateness of the character’s comment. The play is not out to condemn or chastise anyone in the audience. But I think – or hope – it will make many think about their implicit and explicit biases.”
Channing Tatum, Riley Keough and Adam Driver in Logan Lucky.
ARTS
BLEECKER STREET
FILM
HIT-AND-MISS AFFAIRS Two new films sporadically stay the course BY MATT BRUNSON
A
PARTICULARLY priceless moment in cinema can be found in 1982’s 48 Hrs., when the street-smart crook played by Eddie Murphy (in his film debut, no less) saunters into a bar filled with racist rednecks and barks, “I’ve never seen so many backwardsass country fucks in my life!” While that quip can be applied to many real-world instances (Trump rallies, for example), it gets reclaimed for the screen by Logan Lucky (**1/2 out of four), Steven Soderbergh’s first film as director since his ersatz retirement following 2013’s Behind the Candelabra. Logan Lucky is a movie filled with so many Southern-fried yahoos, it makes the characters in Smokey and the Bandit look as cultured as those in Howards End by comparison. Soderbergh, who was responsible for those largely middling Ocean’s flicks starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, returns to the scene of the same type of crime with his latest effort, which similarly follows the planning and execution of a major heist. In this case, the seemingly impossible robbery is being attempted by a band of down-andouters, among them siblings Jimmy, Clyde and Mellie Logan (Channing Tatum, Adam Driver and Riley Keough) and a loopy con named Joe Bang (Daniel Craig). Their target? The NASCAR coffers at Charlotte Motor Speedway, filled to the brim during the CocaCola 600 over Memorial Day Weekend. Locals who lamented that 1990’s Days of Thunder transposed the word “Charlotte” over an image of a good ol’ boy drinking out
Bodyguard (**1/2 out of four) largely depends on one’s acceptance of the “buddy action-comedy” rising from the grave like one of the zombies in a George Romero (RIP) horror flick. Indeed, the script for this rather generic endeavor feels like it’s been sitting on a desk since the late 1980s, gathering dust as stars like Schwarzenegger, Nolte, Glover and even Piscopo hemmed and hawed over whether to sign on the dotted line. Samuel L. Jackson plays the hitman, set to appear before the International Court of Justice in The Hague to testify against an Eastern European war criminal (Gary Oldman). Ryan Reynolds plays the bodyguard, an outsider who’s brought in to protect the hitman after it becomes clear that there’s a leak inside the corridors of power. The hitman and the bodyguard are sworn enemies, but by being forced to work together, they find moments of bonding amidst the hours of bickering. If it sounds entirely predictable and pedestrian — well, no argument there. Yet what saves the picture is the chemistry between its principal players. Reynolds and Jackson work exceedingly well together, and Jackson and Salma Hayek — as the hitman’s no-nonsense wife — also work well together. Yet what’s even more pleasing is that Jackson works well alone. It’s been a while since he’s surprised us as an actor, but here he’s loose and relaxed and very, very funny. The Hitman’s Bodyguard features at least one tiresome car chase too many, and the final half-hour feels as if it’s going to stretch into next week. But even these debits can’t completely diminish the bullseye turns by the winsome protagonists.
of a Mason jar while standing in front of a dilapidated barn will be further disheartened with the representation here. There are precious few characters who don’t look and sound like they just got back from molesting Ned Beatty alongside the Georgia river — one of the few exceptions is an arrogant British race car driver played unconvincingly by Seth MacFarlane. The script by Rebecca Blunt (suspected by many to be a pseudonym for Soderbergh, who often employs fake names while working in other capacities on his films) veers between treating these characters with care and treating them with condescension — that’s probably the proper way to frame these types of Red State folks who more often than not mean well but idiotically vote against their own best interests again and again, but it leads to too many passages buckled by an overbearing affectedness. Indeed, Logan Lucky isn’t that much different from last year’s Masterminds, which suffered horrible reviews while this one is being overpraised in some circles. Honestly, the difference between the pair isn’t that pronounced, although this one definitely comes out on top thanks to a solid second half (due to some satisfying plot intricacies) and some sharper performances. Tatum is especially fun to watch as Jimmy Logan, although it’s Craig who most holds our attention as the live-wire Joe Bang. I won’t reveal whether the outlaws successfully pull off the heist, but let it be known that Craig easily steals the film. One’s tolerance of The Hitman’s CLCLT.COM | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | 33
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A NIGHT DOWN SOUTH Q.C. After Dark goes to Columbia MY FRIENDS and I had been planning a
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hitting definitely reminded me that we weren’t too far from home. trip to Columbia, South Carolina, for months You may or may not know that Tin Roof to celebrate one of the gal’s birthdays. in the EpiCentre isn’t the only Tin Roof. In Coincidentally, her birthday fell on Monday, fact, after the first one was built in Nashville Aug. 21, the day of the eclipse. Seeing as in 2002, 13 other locations have grown. Columbia was slated to have 100-percent Even though I’m a fan of only two musicians coverage during the monumental event, — one who sang “Dick in a Box” to me on a the trip couldn’t have been planned more fake birthday, and another, Mic Larry, whose perfectly. music is clearly influenced by a larger variety Not that we saw much of it. of genres than most live performers I’ve seen For those of you who don’t know, at Tin Roof — the venue will always feel like Columbia is only an hour and a half away home base. It reminds me of my early days in from the Queen City. If you ask Charlotteans Charlotte with my P.I.C. where long nights at about South Carolina, you’ll probably hear rumblings of the South Carolina Gamecocks, AA5 turned into long weekends. markets in Charleston, or “Dirty Myrtle” I was surprised at how large the Columbia Beach. However, what’s funny is you’ll find location was. But its huge bar was similar to quite a bit in common between Charlotte the one in Charlotte, with the same tacky and Columbia if you’re up for a weekend Christmas lights and a wooden sign hanging road trip. over it bathed in fluorescent red light that On Friday, the excitement said, “Welcome to the World Famous of the birthday weekend we’d Tin Roof.” We crossed the room been planning for way too after surveying the fresh long overwhelmed us and meat — there was none no matter how tired we — and danced in front were after a long week of the band as it played of work, we were going “Country Girl Shake it for out. You may be familiar Me Girl,” to which I belted with our first stop, Pearlz out the few words I knew. Oyster Bar. There’s one in Yes, I know, my friends Ballantyne. With its fun think it’s comical, too, how and intimate atmosphere, little (or sometimes how Pearlz is a great spot for AERIN SPRUILL much) country music I’m grabbing drinks and seafood familiar with. What can I say? with friends. While the Columbia No matter how much I like looking location shares similar menu items at Chris Stapleton’s beard, his music and maintains the eclectic atmosphere of the will never get me hype like Lil’ Wayne! Charlotte location, Columbia’s Pearlz offers The patio put the Q.C. hideaway in the something quite unique — an “upstairz” EpiCentre to shame. There was much more lounge. space and picnic tables that were perfect for We passed the server’s window after socializing while still listening to the live entering the bar and walked upstairs. The music inside. We met a few Army folk who, live jazz from the Soda City Brass Band was by the time we were done chatting up our intoxicating. (The experience was especially next move, wanted to experience PT’s 1109, exciting because the music reminded me of an alternative bar where you’ll find a similar the sounds I’m expecting to hear in New scene to what you see at most LGBTQIOrleans for our next girls’ birthday trip!) We friendly spots in Charlotte: male dancers, grabbed a drink and snagged a lounge space drag queens, neon lights and twerking that for the group to gather while I sat confused would rival that in your wildest dreams. as to whether or not we were actually in a Needless to say *Kevin Hart voice*, “They different city. wasn’t ready!” If you’re looking for a dive bar? We got And that was just Night One. By 2 a.m. our fair share of that, too! Uncle Louie’s is we were piling in an Uber and heading back “the only real tavern in the Vista.” When we to the house for a nightcap. Sounds like an walked through the door, we were welcomed average night in the Q.C., if you ask me! by the same scents and sounds you’d find By the way, speaking of the big eclipse in Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Snug Harbor, Jeff’s day: Has anyone seen the meme of President Bucket Shop or the Thirsty Beaver. Not Obama’s face over Trump’s saying, “I wish to mention, the prices were also what I this was the eclipse?” (#rofl, that meme wins expected. If looking at our friendship #eclipse2018 on my timeline!) necklaces that we’d gotten that day wasn’t enough, the Columbia nightspots we were
34 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
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CROSSWORD
CHOW TIME ACROSS
1 Last letter, to Brits 4 Peeve 8 Family car 13 Scenic views, as of sea or land 19 Schooner fill 20 State boldly 21 Put forth, as energy 22 Nook 23 All-points bulletin, e.g. 26 Little laugh 27 Bits 28 Pulitzer Prize category 29 “Great” title film role for Robert Duvall 30 Politico Kefauver 31 Pellets of precipitation 32 Raising false alarms 35 Low grade 36 Barnyard feed 37 CEO’s “C” 38 Broadway honors 39 Candid 41 Mer liquid 43 San -- (California county or city) 45 Distinctive barnyard sound 50 Stephen of “Angie” 51 Cat’s gripper 55 28-Across set to music 56 Actress Maryam or Olivia 57 Makes whole 59 Facts and figures 60 Snail as food 62 -- Bator, Mongolia 64 Dangler on a grad’s cap 66 201, to Ovid 67 Storm flash 71 Antique 72 Soapsuds 74 Brain flash 75 “The Creation” by Haydn, e.g. 77 Spots in la Seine 78 Boogie, e.g. 81 Warty animal 83 Rear- -- (car crash) 84 Irksome sort 85 Adam’s madam 86 Decorative cloth laid atop a bureau 89 Wide-ranging 91 Lyrical verse 92 Per-unit cost
93 Big foil maker 97 See 89-Down 99 Sneaking 100 Needlefish 103 A team often punts on it 105 Really slow 107 Berry of “X-Men” films 109 Emu and ostrich 110 Hopping mad 112 Indemnified 113 Sneaker part 114 Richard Belzer’s “Homicide: Life on the Street” role 117 Lined the roof of 118 15% taker 119 1492 ship 120 AFL partner 121 Actor James of “Gunsmoke” 122 Sapheads 123 Not hidden 124 What the ends of 23-, 32-, 45-, 67-, 86-, 103- and 114-Across are synonyms of
DOWN
1 Gave an electric jolt 2 “The River” actress Mumford 3 Backspace over, say 4 Spiked clubs 5 Currier’s art partner 6 Grazed, e.g. 7 TGIF’s “F” 8 Neighbor of a petal 9 Quiz’s cousin 10 Cut off, e.g. 11 Bow shape 12 Indefinitely large 13 The enemy below? 14 Hold firmly 15 Second play section 16 Magical drink 17 Fair way to divvy things 18 Small letter flourishes 24 Drink cubes 25 Lanka lead-in 29 Strained 31 Shamefaced 33 Top of a cup 34 Pine (for) 36 “You there!” 37 -- -de-sac
graB Your copy today
39 Gumbo soup vegetable 40 Big name in eye care 41 Die away 42 Was plentiful 44 Neighbor of Boyle Hts., California 45 Bicycle pedal add-on 46 Affluent 47 Lists orally 48 Cussword 49 Arose (from) 51 They made vinyl passe 52 Former Dodgers manager Tommy 53 Artist’s workplace 54 Statler’s Muppet sidekick 58 Leeds loc. 61 Building beam 63 Big fish story 65 Verify 68 Habitual idiosyncrasy 69 Snake types 70 Tidy 73 33rd U.S. prez 76 In time past 79 Eschews 80 “Groovy!” 82 Sugar suffix 87 Turn bad 88 Sunshine bit 89 With 97-Across, has a huge fight 90 -- Jones Industrials 93 Benin locale 94 Auto shop courtesy 95 Interrupts rudely 96 Blue Jay rival 98 As one 99 Flying flocks 100 Look quickly 101 Keys of song 102 Fiery 104 Is mindful of 105 Alliances 106 Homer hitter Mel 107 Macho type 108 “The Simpsons” storekeeper 111 City with lots of slots 112 Painter Magritte 114 Pops 115 Self-esteem 116 “C’est la --!”
SOLUTION FOUND ON P. 38.
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I’m still too upset about Charlottesville to be I’m a woman in my early 30s having sex impartial. Or, hey, maybe this guy is already with a guy in his early 20s. The sex is more than casual, and we really care about a Nazi and hasn’t revealed the full extent each other. My concern is this guy has of his odious political beliefs to you, CL, some alt-right sympathies that reveal because the sex is good and he’s hoping to themselves in our political discussions. fuck the Nazi into you before you can fuck He’s a Trump guy, but hesitates to admit the Nazi out of him. it because he knows I’m anti-Trump. He shares memes created by Mike Cernovich I’m a female masochist and super subby and Milo Yiannopoulos, he gets his news — I see nothing wrong with that. For from hard-right publications, and his the last couple of months, I’ve been sister and brother-in-law are Holocaust pursuing “death wish” fantasies. When deniers. This concerns and confuses I start feeling low, I seek out guys on me, because he’s such a sweet guy and, hookup sites who are sadistic enough honestly, so goddamn good in bed. He that they might potentially help me might be the best lay I’ve ever had. I can’t carry it out. I’ve even gone so far as to reconcile these two sides of him, put together a “blackmail package” but I also can’t help trying to for them, in case they start enlighten him a little bit. One feeling like I might tell on of his best features is his them. I honestly wouldn’t open-mindedness. He’s want anyone to get in read books and watched trouble just because I’m documentaries I’ve not thinking right. My recommended. I feel a therapist knows about responsibility to this the masochist end of young, confused and things, but I’m afraid to frankly not-too-bright tell her this other part person who’s surrounded because I don’t want to DAN SAVAGE by bad influences. I want be put on any crazy pills. Is to be understanding and there a way for me to switch gently guide him in a better my brain from thinking about direction, but sometimes his this and somehow find my way ignorance is aggravating. I can also sense back to normal BDSM or something else that he’s beginning to feel a little judged, entirely without turning off my sexuality which can only make things worse. I completely? RATHER NOT SAY MY NAME keep thinking of your Campsite Rule, and I wonder at what point does one give up throwing logic and articles at There are fantasies that are simply too someone who thought Hillary Clinton dangerous to realize, RNSMN, even with ran a child sex ring out of a pizza parlor? a willing victim/sub and a reckless perp/ Can I continue to have sex with someone dom. And any person who pushes a woman’s who thinks the left is conspiring to turn “death wish” fantasy into potentiallyeveryone communist? carrying-it-out territory deserves whatever CONFLICTED LOVER trouble comes their way. Murder is wrong, even if the person wants it. And taking Don’t fuck Nazis. If someone you just met advantage of someone who clearly isn’t in tells you they’re a Nazi, don’t fuck that Nazi. their right mind doesn’t magically make If you’re already fucking someone and they manslaughter not criminal — “blackmail reveal themselves to be a Nazi, stop fucking package” or no “blackmail package.” that Nazi. If someone tells you they’re a Nazi You must open up to your therapist and you fuck that Nazi anyway and keep about the risks you’re taking, RNSMN. fucking that Nazi because they’re good at sex Some people with extreme and/or dangerous (for a Nazi), your effort to “gently guide” that sexual obsessions have been successfully Nazi away from being a Nazi doesn’t make it treated with talk therapy and low-dose OK for you to fuck that Nazi. antidepressants — meds, not “crazy pills.” OK, OK: This guy might not be a Nazi A good therapist and/or the right low-dose at all — it’s possible this young, confused medication could help you find your way back and not-too-bright boy is merely a Trumpto safer and saner BDSM practices without supporting conspiracy theorist and maybe shutting off your sexuality completely.
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SOLUTION TO THIS WEEK'S PUZZLE
WHERE WE ALL REFUSE TO WEAR SOCKS.
FOR ALL SIGNS Saturn turns direct on
the August 25, 2017 for the next 5.5 months. This happens every year, but not on the same dates. While direct, Saturn is a taskmaster. (S) He is also the Judge or the Teacher. He has been retrograde since April 5, 2017. While he is retrograde, we are given time to think about what we “should” do and prepare for the time that we will do it. Then he turns direct again and it is time. We must fulfill whatever is required or the consequences will materialize. Since she is now in the sign of Sagittarius, we must define our rules/ laws and expect to abide by them. Now that Saturn has again turned direct, we must clear and clean the slate.
ARIES It will be important to use firmness about your boundaries. This is likely to be particularly so with children, and even lovers who may want to overrun your plans. If you have wondered whether or not to approach a potential lover, the time is now. The warrior is in your corner. Count on it. Others will pay attention. TAURUS Your avatar, Venus, moves into your fourth house which is related to home, property and family matters. You may have a desire to improve the appearance of the environment around you, whether at home or at work. You may be attracted to activities that allow you to play or work with your favorite colors. Venus remains there until September 18, 2017. GEMINI Recall that Mercury, your planetary avatar, is retrograding. This week he makes several minor, but challenging aspects. Your schedule may be hard to plan. Work around the house may require two trips to the hardware store and then another tweak. Hold onto your sense of humor. CANCER Now that the August eclipses
are over, you have the opportunity to take a break and clean up whatever messes may have developed. It is a matter of good mental health that you take some time to rest and recover. Eclipse seasons are generally hard on Cancerians.
LEO Venus enters your sign on August
26, 2017 and will be traveling “with you” through September 18. Her presence gives you an air of poise and people will simply like how you look. Often when Venus is prominent we become more interested in art forms and want to make things in the environment more attractive. We are also more interested in beautifying ourselves.
VIRGO THE VIRGIN (Aug 22--Sep 22) While Mercury retrogrades in your sign, it 38 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM
will be a challenge to make decisions. Unless they are minor in nature, it might be less energy consuming to avoid them altogether. If you are pressed to move forward, do your research well ahead of making a commitment.
LIBRA Venus, your ruling planet, travels
with you into the territory of friendships, community and organizational affairs. Over the next three weeks she will enhance your presence within any activity of this sphere. It is a good time to plan a party for friends or to meet new people at other gatherings.
SCORPIO You likely will be presented with a new career or life direction opportunity. Although you have doubting inner voices and a few obstacles, you can do this. The symbols suggest it is on your life path, so help will be available.
SAGITTARIUS You are reaping benefits of
a work well done during this last two year period. An opportunity surfaces to show your new skills. Perhaps there will be an experience that makes this clear this week or next. Take heart. Your effort has been noticed. Take a careful step into the new option.
CAPRICORN Business in general is favored for you most of the summer through midSeptember. Unexpected opportunities are coming your way. It is up to you to respond and take action. These will help you toward a big transition that comes early in 2018. At present the legal irritations may require your attention, but in the bigger schema they are just nits. AQUARIUS Aspects are favorable in the
areas of travel, education, publication, and legal interests. If you are not already traveling, you may be planning your next trip now. A surprising event or encounter is likely to occur this week. Boredom could cause you to decide to do away with the old to make room for the new.
PISCES Money or other material goods may be repaid or returned this week or next. Positive opportunities may develop via career contacts. Be aware that you are in a sensitive frame of mind and may misinterpret that which is said to you. You may be the one who hears what you want to hear. Take your impressions with a grain of salt until you clarify what was originally intended.
Are you interested in a personal horoscope? Vivian Carol may be reached at 704-3663777 for private psychotherapy or astrology appointments. You may also visit her at www. horoscopesbyvivian.com.
Fight night at the
Uptown
L A R G E S T V I D E O WA L L I N T H E S O U T H E A S T
V I P E X P E R I E N C E I N T H E T I TA N I U M R O O M
S P E C TA C U L A R F O O D A N D D R I N K S P E C I A L S F I G H T T O B E S H O W N O N M U LT I P L E S C R E E N S
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40 | AUG. 24 - AUG. 30, 2017 | CLCLT.COM