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She’s more than just a pretty face and a name that’s super fun to say. Hayley Kiyoko is at The Underground on Monday, June 11. Check out the Top 10 on page 14 for more cool shit to do this week.
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NEWS&CULTURE THE WILL TO DECRIMINALIZE Is North Carolina ready to take
marijuana reform seriously? BY RHIANNON FIONN
7 EDITOR’S NOTE BY MARK KEMP 10 THE BLOTTER BY SOPHIE WHISNANT 11 THE CHRONICLE BY RHIANNON FIONN
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FOOD&DRINK THE HOUSE THAT PIZZA BUILT Classic east Charlotte Italian joint reopens after 10-month renovation
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CLCLT.COM | JUNE 7 - JUNE 13, 2018 VOL. 32, NO. 16
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NEWS
EDITOR’S NOTE
HIGH, Y’ALL Give a warm welcome to our first dedicated cannabis reporter, Rhiannon Fionn absolutely nothing to do with getting high? I don’t know the answer to that. You’d have to column by Chris Roberts in 2015. ask a Charlotte Observer editor. “To meet California’s most electric What I do know is that it’s time for politician last Friday, the entrepreneurs and Charlotte to have at least one dedicated workers in the heartland of the country’s reporter to provide you with the facts on the fastest-growing industry donned Carhartt ever-changing cannabis culture in our state work jeans and wide-brimmed sun hats, in and nation. And we’re talking Cannabis in some cases still dirty from the morning’s its most sweeping sense — not just issues work in the family cannabis patch. . .” surrounding medicinal and recreational Roberts was my regular cannabis reporter uses of marijuana and CDB oils, but also at the SF Weekly, the San Francisco-based the cultivation, production and sales of its newspaper I edited back in 2015, about three cousin, hemp. years before cannabis became fully legal in Rhiannon Fionn was the natural person California on Jan. 1 of this year. for the job. She’s Creative Loafing’s long-time In the excerpt above, Roberts was reporter on environmental issues and political reporting on California Lt. Gov. Gavin demonstrations. She knows who to talk Newsom’s trip up to Humboldt to when it comes to getting the County, just north of the Bay science behind environmental Area, where as much as 70 concerns, and she has a full list percent of the nation’s of contacts in the political, marijuana has been legislative, advocacy and cultivated for decades. In activist worlds. the years since the state In Rhiannon’s weekly legalized medicinal uses Carolina Cannabis Now of marijuana in 1996, column, which debuts Humboldt County had June 28, she will be reckoned with how it reporting on the spectrum would transition from an of cannabis issues in North outlaw market to a legitimate Carolina, from evolving MARK KEMP player in an industry that now policies regarding the now-legal stands to generate billions in tax cultivation and sales of hemp, to revenue for California. murky areas such as medicinal uses It made sense that we would have a of cannabis, to full-on recreational uses of dedicated cannabis reporter at the SF Weekly. psychoactive cannabis products and the Cannabis is a major industry in California. (hopefully) changing laws governing it. She At Creative Loafing, we’ve never needed a will speak with people ranging from farmers regular cannabis reporter — until now. and entrepreneurs to politicians to local It all started in 2015, when then-North members of the National Organization for Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. HB766, which allowed people with intractable Get a sneak peek at the sort of news epilepsy to use CBD oil, a non-psychoactive Rhiannon will be following in this week’s cannabinoid derived from cannabis plants cover story on page 8, in which she reports on and reported to have important medicinal N.C. Rep. Kelly Alexander’s sixth attempt to uses including, according to many advocates, get a marijuana-related bill on to the House relieving conditions ranging from depression floor in Raleigh. His most recent, filed May to arthritis to diabetes. 23, is House Bill 994, called simply “Reform Then last year, North Carolina allowed an Marijuana Laws.” industrial hemp pilot program based on the “It’s a wonderful bill,” Corey Hedgepeth, Federal 2014 Farm Bill’s provisions for U.S. director of the Charlotte chapter of NORML, hemp production. Hemp and marijuana are tells Fionn. To Hedgepeth decriminalization both members of the same species, Cannabis is “a no-brainer at this point.” sativa L., although hemp is non-psychoactive It is not yet a no-brainer to most members and has been used for centuries to produce of North Carolina’s Republican-dominated fabrics and oils for lotions and other products. General Assembly. But as times change — as For years, hemp had been lumped in with Republicans like John Boehner, the former marijuana and made illegal. Now that it’s no Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, happily join the nation’s growing marijuana longer illegal, it’s become a hot topic. That hasn’t kept misinformation about industry — momentum is on the side of the hemp from continuing to ooze into the Hedgepeths of the world. And CL will be closely following this issue culture. As recently as two years ago, a Charlotte Observer story on hemp carried the as things evolve here. So enjoy Rhiannon’s ridiculous headline, “Dude, farmers are high cover story — and keep up with her Carolina on the idea.” How could farmers be high on Cannabis Now column beginning June 28. MKEMP@CLCLT.COM the idea of hemp farming when hemp has
IT WAS A TYPICAL beginning to a routine
CLCLT.COM | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | 7
NEWS
COVERSTORY
THE WILL TO DECRIMINALIZE Is North Carolina ready to take marijuana reform seriously? BY RHIANNON FIONN
S
INCE TAKING HIS oath of office in 2009, N.C. Rep. Kelly Alexander, Jr. has filed a marijuana-related bill in the North Carolina General Assembly six times — and six times those bills have languished in committee, failing to make it to the House floor for a debate, much less a vote. That count includes Alexander’s most recent bill, House Bill 994, bluntly titled “Reform Marijuana Laws,” filed on May 23 during the General Assembly’s short session. If enacted, which is highly unlikely, the bill would radically change the state’s marijuana laws, allowing citizens to legally possess up to four ounces, therefore taking power away from police officers to stop and search those they suspect of possessing the drug. If made law, the bill would also enable citizens previously convicted on possession of up to four ounces to pay a fee and expunge their record of the offense. Additionally, marijuana would no longer be deemed a controlled substance in North Carolina. “It’s a wonderful bill,” said Corey Hedgepeth, executive director of the Charlotte chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML. “It puts a halt to the ability of law enforcement to use cannabis to search a car or even to stop an individual suspected of possessing marijuana.” This is important, Hedgepeth said, because “going to jail over small amounts ruins lives.” Under the state’s current law, possession of half an ounce or less of marijuana is a misdemeanor with a maximum fine of $200; possession of half an ounce to one and a half ounces is also a misdemeanor that could lead to up to 45 days in jail and up to a $1,000 fine; possession of one and a half ounces to 10 pounds of weed is a felony for which the penalty is three to eight months in jail and a $1,000 fine. “[Decriminalization is] just a nobrainer at this point,” Hedgepeth said. In his estimation, if politicians dropped their antiquated “reefer madness” stance and looked at the numbers, he thinks that they, too, would see the issue as he does. For example, in 2017, Forbes reported, “if all states had legalized medical marijuana in 2014, the national savings for fee-for-service Medicaid would have been approximately $1.01 billion. This works out to an average per state savings of $19.825 million a year.” 8 | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
‘GOING TO JAIL OVER SMALL AMOUNTS [OF MARIJUANA] RUINS LIVES.’ COREY HEDGEPETH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CHARLOTTE NORML
Here’s another figure: $55 million. That represents North Carolina’s 2010 fiscal cost for marijuana enforcement. The figure includes more than $29 million for law enforcement, more than $17.5 million in judicial and legal expenses and more than $8 million for incarceration expenses, according to a 2013 American Civil Liberties Union report titled “The War on Marijuana in Black and White.” It’s important to note that funds for local law enforcement come from local property taxes, not Raleigh. Presently before the Charlotte City Council is a budget that includes a property tax increase that would allow the city to raise pay for CharlotteMecklenburg police officers by 6.5 percent. (The Fraternal Order of Police requested a 15 percent increase.) The council is expected to vote on the budget on June 11.
FOR ALEXANDER, WHOSE district covers parts of north Charlotte, HB 994 is as much about economics as it is about social justice. “Under the existing statute a police officer has discretion,” he said, “and my bill eliminates discretion. So, if you’re
stopped and you have 3.5 ounces, under my bill you would not receive a fine, you would not receive a citation. It would be, ‘Thank you very much. Go on, sir.’” At present, said Lt. Brad Koch, a spokesperson for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, “There are a multitude of ways an officer might develop a reasonable suspicion, including smelling marijuana, seeing marijuana or if a confidential informant tells the officer that the citizen has marijuana on them.” That “reasonable suspicion,” also known as “probable cause,” can allow police to search a person and their property. This becomes a problem when acting on the suspicion leads to unnecessary escalation, as was made evident in the 2016 fatal Keith Lamont Scott police shooting. It was, after all, marijuana that first drew the officers’ attention to Scott, according to CMPD’s official version of events. Scott isn’t the only example. In 2010, in Las Vegas, Trevon Cole was killed by police during a drug raid at which no weapons were found. In 2012, police officers killed Ramarley Graham in New York as he attempted to
flush pot down the toilet. In 2015, Zachary Hammond was fatally shot by police in Seneca, South Carolina, during an attempted marijuana bust. “Personally, I think Keith Scott would still be alive now were he smoking a (tobacco) cigarette,” said Keith Caughran, a long-time member of Charlotte NORML. “It’s really the only crime you can smell.” Caughran said he’s tried to obtain detailed and current information about marijuana arrests from CMPD, with no luck. According to the ACLU, there were 784,021 marijuana arrests made nationally in 2010. Half a million of those arrests were made in 12 states. North Carolina is 10th on that list with 20,983 arrests. That same year, while black people made up 22 percent of the state’s population, they accounted for 50 percent of the marijuana possession arrests, even though, as the ACLU pointed out, blacks and whites are equally likely to be holding. “Marijuana use is roughly equal among Blacks and Whites, yet Blacks are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession,” according to the ACLU
report. That was the national rate, but in Mecklenburg County, according to the same report, black people were 4.6 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession that year. Further, the report states, law enforcement “has failed to diminish the use or availability of marijuana.”
ENTER DR. FRANK Baumgartner, a University of North Carolina political science professor. In a video posted by CMPD on its CMPDvidcast YouTube channel on March 18, Baumbartner explained that in 1999 North Carolina became the first state to mandate the collection of traffic stop data, first by state troopers then by most local police departments. “No one ever analyzed it,” Baumgartner said. “The law actually mandates that the attorney general give periodic reports, but no report had been given.” Gov. Roy Cooper was North Carolina’s attorney general for most of that time frame, from 2001 until he was sworn in as governor last year. Baumgartner, whose book Suspect Citizens: What 20 Million Traffic Stops Tell Us About Policing and Race is due out this month, said his analysis of the data “pretty much validated the concerns that motivated the legislation. African-American and Hispanic drivers are significantly more likely to be pulled over; about twice as likely compared to white drivers. And when they are pulled over, they are twice as likely — statewide — to be searched.” In Charlotte, Bumgartner said, the odds of a search during a traffic stop are 20 percent. That’s compared to 3 percent statewide. Driving an older-model car, being a person of color and being a young man all increase a person’s odds of being searched during a traffic stop, said Baumgartner. “Young black men get searched at a very high rate,” he said, adding later, “When you get pulled over for an expired tag your odds of a search are much higher.” Dr. Gene Trobini, a CMPD analyst who’s also featured in the video, doesn’t dispute Baumgartner’s findings. He stated that 63 percent of the time, African Americans are pulled over for regulatory offenses such as driving with an expired tag or having a busted tail light. “Police officers have an amazing amount of discretion, and their behaviors are really disparate from officer to officer,” Baumgartner said. He stated that if police focused on stopping drivers for safety violations — such as running a red light or speeding — then he would expect the disparity in property search numbers to drop by 50 percent. According to a data summary that Baumgartner shared with Creative Loafing, “Blacks constitute 62 percent of the marijuana charges and 51 percent of resisting a public officer charges when there are no other charges filed. In the largest cities, their rate of arrest for such charges is many times greater than that of whites.” MARIJUANA WAS FIRST federally regulated in 1937, via the Marijuana Tax Act. Even then, there was strong opposition. In reaction to the law, the American Medical Association wrote, in part, “There
PHOTO COURTESY OF COREY HEDGEPETH
N.C. Rep. Kelly Alexander (left) stands with Corey Hedgepeth two days before filing House Bill 994.
is no evidence, however, that the medicinal use of these drugs has caused or is causing cannabis addiction ... and the obvious purpose and effect of this bill is to impose so many restrictions on their use as to prevent such use altogether. Since the medicinal use of cannabis has not caused and is not causing addiction, the prevention of the use of the drug for medicinal purposes can accomplish no good end whatsoever.” In 1952, another federal law, the Boggs Act, added stiff penalties for criminal offenses involving several drugs, including marijuana. In 1970, the federal government enacted the Controlled Substances Act, which still lists marijuana as a Schedule I drug alongside heroin, a highly addictive drug currently blamed for an ongoing epidemic of deathby-overdose. Schedule I drugs are supposedly drugs that do not have medical uses but do have a high potential for abuse. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has not reported any deaths from marijuana overdose — ever. “Part of Richard Nixon’s war on drugs, the Controlled Substances Act placed cannabis into Schedule 1, along with heroin and LSD, more due to Nixon’s animus toward the counterculture with which he associated marijuana than scientific, medical, or legal opinion,” Time magazine reported in a 2016 article titled “A Brief History of Marijuana Law in America.” “Indeed,” the article continued, “in 1972 the Shafer Commission, an investigative body appointed by Nixon, recommended that marijuana be decriminalized and thus
removed from Schedule 1. Nixon vehemently rejected the Commission’s report.” The N.C. General Assembly’s Judiciary I Committee — where HB 994 is currently stuck — has released the schedule for its regular Wednesday afternoon meeting on June 4, and as of CL’s press deadline, marijuana reform was not on the agenda. That committee is comprised of 13 members: nine are white males, four are white females and one is a black female. The committee is headed by N.C. Rep. Ted Davis of Wilmington. To see movement on HB 994 in this session, Alexander said, constituents need to reach out to Davis to get the bill on the committee’s agenda. “You’ve got to reach out to them, you’ve got to express to them that you want it to get a good hearing,” Davis said. “If you are in a position where you would like to bring testimony in front of the committee, tell them. Ask [that it] be put on the schedule. “The citizens themselves have got to demonstrate to the members of the committee that the old stereotypical responses — the old Nancy Regan ‘Just Say No’ legislation — that we need to get beyond that and consider the merits of the legislation,” he said. Alexander pointed out that perhaps the most progressive part of his bill involves the retroactive expungement of past charges, which would allow anyone previously convicted of possession of four ounces or less to return to the county where they were charged, fill out a form, pay a filing fee and have that conviction automatically expunged. “It wouldn’t be a question of a hearing and all that; it would be a matter of if you meet these basic criteria and you do this basic thing, that part of your record’s gone,” he said. Even though HB 994 has a slim chance of making it through the General Assembly this summer, advocates for marijuana reform are looking toward the future. Alexander already views his underdog bill in the context of future legalization. “In California, they discovered that there were a lot of people that had these kind of
convictions on their records who want to now get involved with the legal cannabis business, and until California changed their law they could not.” Hedgepeth was also eager to discuss the broader fight for legalization in North Carolina, a topic that CL’s new monthly Carolina Cannabis Now column will follow closely, in addition to issues surrounding medicinal use of cannabis, use of hemp and cannabinoid oils, and the economics of cannabis. Hedgepeth emphasized the potential job creation and revenues that legalization could bring to the state, pointing out that North Carolina ranked 17 in the 2017 federal poverty report. “There are things that we’re not taking care of when it comes to poverty,” Hedgepeth said. “But if you introduce the cannabis industry, now you have small business entrepreneurship that is able to be incorporated in some of those poor, rural areas. You create jobs, you create taxpayers and people are able to do something more to get themselves out of poverty.” Asked if he will introduce another marijuana bill in the General Assembly’s long session, which begins in January, should HB 994 fail, Alexander quickly confirmed that he would: “Yes. I believe that elected officials ignore this groundswell at their peril.” (This story introduces Creative Loafing’s new monthly column Carolina Cannabis Now, in which reporter Rhiannon Fionn will report on all things cannabis in the state, from evolving public and professional opinions on medicinal uses of marijuana, to the cultivation and sales of hemp and cannabinoid oils, to issues surrounding the economics of cannabis and evolving policy on cannabis production and sales. For the best information on North Carolina’s changing attitudes about marijuana, hemp and other cannabis derivatives, stay tuned to Carolina Cannabis Now. The column debuts June 28. ) BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | 9
NEWS
BLOTTER
BY SOPHIE WHISNANT
OFF WITH THEIR HEAD It’s a normal
occurrence for folks to steal hair from beauty boutiques in Charlotte, but they usually leave the mannequins modeling the wigs alone, for God’s sake. Such was not the case at Material Girl Boutique on North Tryon Street last week, when an unknown suspect walked out of the store with a $600 wig and couldn’t even be bothered to take if off of the $25 mannequin head that it was displayed on.
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RUNNING SCARED A traffic stop on I-85 last week yielded an average 2-yearold’s weight in meth, a healthy reminder for all drug traffickers going between CLT and ATL to keep the speed down and follow the rules of the road. Police estimated that the 27 pounds of meth found in the suspects’ car could be valued at about $200,000. Somebody’s boss is not going to be happy. AX THE LORAX An unknown suspect took
weed whacking to the next level when they started whacking trees on Fortescue Drive in University Drive last week. The suspect used an unknown object to inflict pain on the foliage, doing $100 in damage. Plant violence is never oak-ay, and the suspect must be held accountable, that son of a birch.
OFF THE DEEP END It’s hot as hell right
now, and our next suspect was willing to do anything to gain access to an area pool. After kicking through a sliding glass door to break into an empty home on Redding Glen Avenue in north Charlotte, the suspect kicked holes in the wall and then went looking for something to steal. The suspect ended up making off with a garage door opener and two key fobs to the community pool, so police should probably check there for their man.
IF YOU GOT ‘EM The things people will
do for cigarettes. Employees at a Rite Aid on South Tryon Street were perplexed when they were doing inventory last week and found that they were missing $1,700 worth of cigarettes. Hoping to keep their jobs and not be blamed themselves, the employees began going through surveillance footage from the last month. They found that at 4:30 p.m. on May 12, two weeks prior to the discovery, two unknown men had grabbed many cartons of cigarettes and fled the store while employees were distracted.
WE WILL ROCK YOU “Ok kids, can you spell P-E-N-I-T-E-N-T-I-A-R-Y?” If these
suspects are caught, they might be in for a vocabulary lesson. A teacher at Allenbrook Elementary in west Charlotte reported that students threw rocks at his car during recess, cracking the windshield and causing $300 in damages. It’s unclear if this was deserved or if the kids are just bullies, but the teacher is now looking to question the adults who supervised this ruthless recess.
FINDERS KEEPERS It’s been over
two weeks since a delivery went wrong at Bradford Commons Apartment Homes in east Charlotte, and police have now gotten involved after the mistaken recipients decided they earned their keep. According to the folks meant to get the package, it contained nothing but clothes hangers and five bottles of herbal supplements. Since the mix-up, the residents that received the package have gone MIA — not returning the package and ignoring requests from the rightful owner to get it back. This leaves us to wonder, just how good are these supplements?
SET THE TABLE Perhaps the worst part of having your furniture stolen is knowing that you have to spend another weekend figuring out how to put 80 bazillion new IKEA parts together. This is the reality for one resident of the Avalon Heights Apartments in east Charlotte, who reported to police around 5 p.m. that a suspect broke into her home and stole the dining room table and chairs. SHRIMP COCKTAIL Stuffing your pockets
with seafood is never a good idea, no matter how badly you want it. You either wind up smelling like a fish or like this suspect, who was caught concealing merchandise in a Walmart on South Tryon Street last week. Security guards stopped the suspect as he tried to leave the store with his pants full of shrimp and crab legs at around 5 p.m. They’ll be serving something a little less appetizing in jail, unfortunately.
GONE GUN Another member of our well-
regulated militia proved why a mandatory IQ test before buying a gun could be a start in the fight for stricter gun policies in this country. The “victim” in this case called police to report his nine-millimeter Taurus handgun missing, although he couldn’t exactly place it after a long night on the town. The man told officers that he had no idea where the gun was, as he had been the passenger in multiple vehicles between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. the previous night, and it could be in any one of those. All stories are pulled from police reports at CMPD headquarters. Suspects are innocent until proven guilty. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
NEWS
THE CHRONICLE
LAWANA MAYFIELD IS WHO SHE’S ALWAYS BEEN She’s an activist, and she won’t back down When I first met LaWana Mayfield she When she defended herself, also via Twitter, was making a lunchtime presentation on the headlines said she’s “doubling down.” for-profit prisons to a handful of elderly After the west Charlotte rep posted a tweet white folks at Myers Park United Methodist on May 31 specifically asking “So who is going Church. It was around 2010, months before work [sic] to remove the BAD cops?” WSOC she announced her bid for city council. reporter Paul Boyd posted a screenshot of the While the District 3 city councilwoman’s tweet, stating, “Fresh calls today for [Mayfield’s] platform has since expanded, her message has resignation after unequivocal broad statements remained much the same as it was back then like this that lump together all police officers.” when she could be found marching through According to Mayfield, her reality is the city’s streets protesting inequality in its different from the media’s assumptions. various forms — something she did for more “Good cops aren’t paying attention to the than 25 years as an activist, she says. media hype,” she said. “I see them in the One thing she wants her haters to know: community every day. I’ve got support from she’s not planning to shut up now. officers — current and retired — that “I’m doing exactly what I have come up to me and thanked said I was going to do when me because they recognize that I first ran for office, and bad officers make their work that is highlighting what more difficult.” is happening in my More importantly, community,” she says. while the Charlotte media She’s referring to focuses on Mayfield’s recent tweets she’s tweets it has failed to posted that have made discuss what prompted the news, including one her posts: the death of yet on March 26 that equated another young black man RHIANNON some police officers with at the hands of the police. FIONN “homegrown terrorists.” I must admit, I feel a bit That led the president of the responsible for Mayfield’s recent Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Twitter rant. When I thought to Order of Police, the police chief and wives reach out to her for this column I reviewed of Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers to our correspondence. The last written words speak out against her. Many people called for to pass between us, the end of a conversation her to step down from the city council. about First Amendment rights, were these, What I haven’t seen reported is the text circa 2012, and they were written by me: “I’ll from the tweet that Mayfield was retweeting urge you to be your own media. Video tape and commenting on when she made her and take photos and blog. Show people what’s controversial comment. Posted by NBC, via @ going on. Don’t wait for the media to notice. NBCBLK, it refers to the shooting of Stephon They probably won’t. They want page views, Clark, shot and killed by two police officers in because that’s what drives ad revenue.” Sacramento on March 18. The original tweet It’s advice I’ve offered to many people reads, “Stephon Clark’s grandmother Sequita over the years, though few take it. Whether Thompson: ‘Why didn’t you just shoot him in prompted by my advice or not, it’s a path that the arm, shoot him in the leg, send a dog, send Mayfield has certainly followed. a taser? Why? ... I just want justice for my baby.’” “For seven years, I have posted so many On March 31, as the dust settled on news things around housing, around community, of Mayfield’s tweets, the Associated Press around job creation, around coming out to reported: “Sacramento police shot Stephon the meetings to speak on the budget and Clark seven times from behind, according to those posts got no attention from the media,” autopsy results released Friday by a pathologist she said. “So all of this stuff I’ve tried to talk hired by Clark’s family, a finding that calls about to educate us, to try to uplift us, to try into question the department’s assertion the to put us in a position of power – the media 22-year-old black man was facing officers and doesn’t want to talk about any of that, but moving toward them when he was killed.” they’re going to focus on Twitter. So, I’m Charlotte media outlets have covered the like, alright if that’s the game we’re gonna Twitter-gate story saying Mayfield is “under play then I’m just going to go straight to the fire,” with WCNC writing, “According to her people and say what I’ve got to say.” Twitter page, Councilwoman Mayfield still Don’t expect her to hush up any time has more than 4,000 followers, but she may soon. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM be losing some voters after the latest Tweet.” CLCLT.COM | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | 11
FOOD
FEATURE
THE HOUSE THAT PIZZA BUILT Classic east Charlotte Italian joint re-opens after 10-month renovation BY SOPHIE WHISNANT
E
VEN BEFORE Samantha Kakavitsas, 29, was spending 15-hour days managing to-go orders in the kitchen at House of Pizza, the restaurant was like a second home to her. “It was my daycare before it was my first job,” she says. Kakavitsas’ aunt and House of Pizza co-owner Maria Kakavitsas has kept the business in the family since 1983, when her siblings first bought it. On a recent morning before the restaurant opens, the two sit at a table in the dining room. “She grew up in here,” says Maria, nodding and motioning towards her ankles, “You know, when the aprons were like, down to here.” House of Pizza can still be found at its original location on Central Avenue, serving Italian staples like pizza and pasta, but the interior of the restaurant is completely different from what it was when Samantha was young. For that matter, it’s much different from what it was just a year ago. The family-run restaurant recently reopened after closing its doors for 10 months to renovate. The project included a complete remodeling of both the kitchen and dining area. While major changes have occurred, the atmosphere of the restaurant remains the same. Thirty minutes before House of Pizza opens, the parking lot is empty, leaving the old-timey neon pizza sign to stand out front peacefully. The “See you soon” sign that hung in the front window throughout the renovation is a thing of the past. Despite the peaceful setting outside, inside the restaurant, the phone is already ringing off the hook. A waitress silently sets fresh Parmesan shakers on each table, enjoying the calm before the storm. The staff in the kitchen is efficiently prepping the food for when customers rush in to get their lunchtime subs. The owners, including Maria, her sister Helen Mitsios and their brother Nick Kakavitsas, Samantha’s father, made sure to maintain the dark interior and decor that 12 | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
House of Pizza hasn’t changed much on the outside (above), but the inside is a whole different story (below) after the recent renovations.
was characteristic of the place prior to the recent renovation. The biggest change occurred in the kitchen, which was completely updated to keep up with new health code standards. A different kitchen has meant a new flow, and the staff is still adjusting to the patterns of a new space. “It’s like you’re looking for one thing here and it’s not there,” Maria says. “It’s somewhere else.”
Samantha says the staff is still learning the ins and outs of the new environment. Both she and her aunt have had to take time from being at the front of the house to make sure the kitchen is in order and the new takeout order area is running smoothly, which is not always the case. Despite the drastic changes to the restaurant, most staff members are more than happy just to be back in the kitchen, regardless of how much it has changed.
PHOTOS BY SOPHIE WHISNANT
With the renovations taking twice as long as planned, most of the crew — including the owners and their children — had to find other jobs in order to pay the bills while the place was closed. “We had no choice,” Maria says. “We have house payments, car payments, that kind of stuff. None of us are, like, living in these huge houses, we’re just an average family.” In the face of financial strain, the family never considered closing the doors for good. The tediousness and frustrations of renovations never outweighed their love for the restaurant. Maria called the reopening a blessing. “This is our livelihood,” Samantha says. “We live off of this.” Once the time came to open the doors back up on May 21, the family was thrilled that every employee was ready to return to the restaurant. It was time to debut the updated look of the classic pizzeria to the public. “The only thing that hasn’t changed is our food,” Maria says. Any anxiety the owners had about customers forgetting about the humble restaurant was quickly squashed after reopening. The return to business has been anything but slow; the place has been slammed, in fact, with loyal customers willing to wait as long as it takes for the food they love. Like House of Pizza’s home-cooked and made-toorder Philly cheesesteaks. “Everybody wants the Philly,” Samantha says. “I can’t help it!” After the Philly, Maria says the restaurant’s most popular dish is the pizza with homemade dough.
“THE ONLY THING THAT HASN’T CHANGED IS OUR FOOD.” MARIA KAKAVITSAS, CO-OWNER, HOUSE OF PIZZA
The genuine, affordable food keeps customers around, regardless of wait times or other inconveniences. “I had one lady, I said, ‘You know it’s going to be about an hour and 15 minutes, an hour and a half wait, for the to-go?’” Maria says. “And she looks at me and she says, ‘Honey I’ve been waiting 10 months — an hour and 15 minutes is not gonna change anything.’ “We’re getting a lot of, ‘So glad y’all are back,’ ‘So glad y’all are open,’ ‘We missed you guys,’” she says. Customers are seemingly not discouraged by the changes, and some days there’s a line oalready at the door before the restaurant opens at 11 a.m. “I’ve seen people come in here two times in a day — two or three times in a day,” Samantha says. “They leave and come back. They come back for dinner.” That loyalty is part of what makes House of Pizza so special. The waitstaff knows the names of most of the patrons, and customers have been sticking their heads in the kitchen door just to shout hello to their favorite employees after nearly a year away. “A lot of people that come in here love to see us here,” Samantha says. “You know, like family.” Family is essential to the restaurant, and it hasn’t been lost in all the changes and updates. About half of the staff is biological family, and the other half is treated as such. Together, the crew has handled the uncertainty of the remodel and the influx of returning customers.
HOUSE OF PIZZA Mon.-Sun., 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; 3640 Central Ave.; tinyurl.com/ HouseofPizzaCLT
“We’re all tired as hell,” Samantha says. “But it feels good.” Maria hopes that ownership of House of Pizza will stay in the family moving forward. With 14 grandchildren among the seven siblings in her own generation, it seems likely. She might get her wish from her niece, who hopes to use her lifelong experience growing up in the pizza joint to one day run the restaurant herself. From the family working together behind the scenes to deliver fresh subs and pizzas, to the network of loyal customers that will never forget about their favorite spot, it seems likely that no matter how much change the restaurant endures, it will always have a welcoming and comforting atmosphere, just as long as they keep pumping out Philly cheesesteaks and pizzas with that same homemade dough and great taste. “We’re a really tight family,” Maria says. “We’re really close, all of us.”
RECYCLE ME, PLEASE
(Only after you’re done reading me)
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CLCLT.COM | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | 13
THURSDAY
7
THINGS TO DO
TOP TEN
Taste of Charlotte FRIDAY
PHOTO COURTESY OF TASTE OF CHARLOTTE
FRIDAY
FRIDAY
8
8
SATURDAY
9
SATURDAY
9
PLAYER MADE
TASTE OF CHARLOTTE
JAPANESE BREAKFAST
HECTORINA
What: It’s the start of a summer residency at McColl Center. Come meet each of the seven new artistsin-residence: Eliana Arenas, Julio Gonzalez, Monique Luck, April Marten, Sam Van Aken, Antoine Williams and Stephanie J. Woods. For this free event, Van Aken will turn the first floor of McColl into an “Open Orchard,” a gallery where he preserves heirlooms and antique fruit varieties through illustrations, tree stumps, pressed flowers and more.
What: It’s been three whole years since Elevator Jay and the Permanent Vacation crew began these Snug parties as an ode to Southern hip-hop spanning the decades. On Friday, Jay will perform live as Jaboi B Rab and A-Huf bump us into the next three years with Southern swag. Make a night of it by showing up at 7:30 p.m. for Berlin-based psychedelic pop craftswoman and experimental vocalist Mary Ocher, with CLT’s own Ghost Trees and esoteric soundscaper VALIS opening up.
What: Always wanted to participate in Charlotte Restaurant Week but too lazy to figure out where to go? Well, you’re in luck, you indolent fuck. Taste of Charlotte brings the food to you, all you’ve got to do is show up in Uptown and walk down the road. Taking up six blocks between Stonewall and 5th streets, this annual event features 100 not-sofree samples from area restaurants, live music, cooking demos, children’s activities and more.
What: A Korean Jew from Eugene, Oregon, Michelle Zauner chose the name for her experimental indie pop project to represent a mix of Asian exoticism and American culture. Growing from a homemade experiment, JB’s second fulllength release, Soft Sounds from Another Planet, shows how she evolved in the year since her debut Psychopomp. Her direction of the new video for her single “Boyish” shows she’s got skills in other fields, as well.
When: 6-9 p.m. Where: McColl Center for Art + Innovation, 721 N. Tryon St. More: Free. mccollcenter.org
When: 10 p.m. Where: Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. More: Free as fuck. snugrock.com
When: June 8-9, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; June 10, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Where: Uptown Charlotte, North Tryon Street More: $10-20. tasteofcharlotte.com
When: 9 p.m. Where: Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36th St. More: $13-15. neighborhoodtheatre.com
What: In 2014, Hectorina won Best Local Album in CL’s Best of Charlotte issue for its second fulllength release, A Thousand Jackals. The self-titled follow up was great, too, so we’ve got high hopes for Muck, recorded at Fidelitorium in Kernersville. The album dropped on June 1, but the band will be celebrating its release with fellow CLT rockers Patois Counselors and emo noise pop band Taxing. A great show for those still sleeping off Player Made in the alley next to Snug.
OPEN HOUSE AT MCCOLL CENTER
‘ 14 | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
the 5th annual
SAT JUNE 23rd
When: 10 p.m. Where: Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. More: $5. snugrock.com
TIX ON SALE
NOW!
Joe Biden WEDNESDAY
‘Black Girl’ SUNDAY
NEWS ARTS FOOD MUSIC ODDS
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts WEDNESDAY PHOTO COURTESY OF BLUMENTHAL
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOAN JETT
MONDAY
11
WEDNESDAY
‘BLACK GIRL’
HAYLEY KIYOKO
What: The latest screening from the Classic Black Cinema Series at Gantt Center, Black Girl is a 1966 French-Senegalese film about a Senegalese woman, Diouana, who takes a job as a governess with a French family in hopes of finding a better life. An unplanned move to the south of France followed by mistreatment and racism throw Diouana’s optimistic viewpoint into disillusionment and despair. Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum called Black Girl “the symbolic genesis of subSaharan African filmmaking.”
What: In Hayley Kiyoko’s new video for “What I Need,” she runs away from home despite her mother’s homophobic rants against her “best friend” Kehlani, who’s also featured on the song. The two then hit the open road, flirting, frolicking and tearing shit up before the video climaxes on the side of the road with the pair getting down and dirty and possibly justifying the mother’s closed-minded suspicions. The point we took from it: Who needs men (or pushy parents) anyway?
JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS
When: 2-4 p.m. Where: Harvey B. Gantt Center, 551 S. Tryon St. More: $7-9. ganttcenter.org
When: 7 p.m. Where: The Underground, 820 Hamilton St. More: Sold out. fillmorenc.com
SUNDAY
10
‘
13
PHOTO COURTESY OF IMDB
WEDNESDAY
13
JOE BIDEN
What: Sure, Joan Jett is technically the opening act at this show, but we’re not going to use a Top 10 to talk up Styx, for God’s sake. After finding international fame with the Runaways in the ‘70s, Jett defied critics and record labels when she rose from those ashes to find success with the Blackhearts over the next decade, giving us some of rock’s most iconic anthems as rock’s proto-riot grrl. Catch the queen in action and dip out early.
What: We’d like to meet the Joe Biden who lives in the memes — the one in aviators holding an ice cream cone or begging Obama to play catch inside the Oval Office. But expect a more retrospective, insightful Joe on Wednesday. He’ll be discussing his 2017 book, Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, which looks back on the year he spent balancing his duties as Vice President with helping his son battle brain cancer.
When: 7 p.m. Where: PNC Music Pavilion, 707 Pavilion Blvd. More: $20 and up. charlottemusicpavilion.com
When: 7 p.m. Where: Belk Theater, 130 N. Tryon St. More: $25 and up. blumenthalarts.org
the 5th annual
SAT JUNE 23rd
WEDNESDAY
13
ANGELO MOORE & THE BRAND NEW STEP What: It’s hard to say what you’ll get when you see Angelo Moore and his band, as there’s only three band members but 21 affiliated musicians who may be playing with the band at any given time. It appears that this time ‘round the guys have brought along Claude Coleman, Jr. of Ween and Ashish “Hash” Vyas of The Thievery Corporation. Take those two bands and throw a Fishbone into the stew, and whatever comes out will be funky. When: 8 p.m. Where: Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36th St. More: $12-15. neighborhoodtheatre.com
TIX ON SALE
NOW!
CLCLT.COM | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | 15
MUSIC
FEATURE
I KNOW WHY THE FREE BIRD SINGS Tombstone Betty frontwoman Adrienne Nixon Basco is reclaiming her time in Southern rock BY MARK KEMP
A
FEW YEARS AGO Adrienne Nixon Basco was hanging out at a music fest with her former band, the Charlotte Southern rock outfit Swamp da Wamp, when a guy approached her with a curious but sincere look on his face. “He got really quiet and said, ‘Let me ask you a question: Is it awkward for you to be performing this kind of music?’” Nixon Basco chuckles at her memory of the guy’s naïveté. He was nice enough, she insists; he didn’t mean any harm. “My answer to him was, ‘Why would it be awkward for me? It’s mine.’” The exchange is not uncommon for Nixon Basco, who’s currently the frontwoman of a newer Charlotte band, Tombstone Betty. She says she’s always answering variations on the same question. After all, she’s a powerful black female lead singer in a musical genre — traditional, old-school Southern rock — that remains one of the last bastions of whiteness in rock ’n’ roll, even though that makes absolutely no sense, given the music’s rich mix of blues, soul, gospel, country and power riffs. But the guy’s question underscores preconceptions that we all, to a certain degree, bring to music events, in terms of cultural identity and cultural expectations. We wear our preferences for certain types of folk, rock, country or hip-hop like badges representing race, nationality, gender identity, political affiliation, religious belief and other specific worldviews. Too often, we draw lines in the sand — either consciously or subconsciously — rather than letting music just be something that pulls us all together. Nixon Basco explained to the guy what she meant by, “It’s mine.” “I said, ‘This music is the product of the Little Richards and the Chuck Berrys and the Fats Dominos. It’s as much my music as it is anybody else’s.’” She’s sitting at a corner table in the back room of Amelie’s French Bakery in NoDa on a drizzly Wednesday afternoon, wearing a white top, faded black jeans and black cowboy boots. Sporting a silver necklace, leather bracelet and gold nose ring — and carrying a giant red vegan tote bag imprinted with a Mexican sugar skull — the slender, 42-year-old singer with the stunning mane of jet-black hair is rock ’n’ roll incarnate. But she’s no Ronnie Van Zant. In a perfect world, Nixon Basco’s very being as the frontwoman of a Southern rock band in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2018, would not be an issue. But we don’t live in a perfect world — we live in today’s world, in which some of the more well-known veterans of ’70s-era Southern 16 | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
rock, such as Charlie Daniels, and younger Johnny-come-latelys like non-Southerner Kid Rock, have jumped on the Trump train, riding defiant cultural insensitivity from small county fairs to nightclubs to large tribal gatherings in sheds and arenas all across the United States. The music, the festivals and the uniforms have become sadly (though not completely accurately) synonymous with reactionary politics. In 2012, far-right fans of Lynyrd Skynyrd, the late Van Zant’s much-mythologized band of Florida-born rabble-rousers, were outraged when sole remaining founding member Gary Rossington suggested in a CNN interview that Skynyrd might back away from displaying the Confederate flag onstage. He quickly backpedalled in a history-challenged note posted to placate fans on the band’s Facebook page. “We know what the Dixie flag represents and its heritage; the Civil War was fought over States [sic] rights,” Rossington wrote. “We still utilize the Confederate (Rebel) flag on stage every night in our shows. . .” Nixon Basco’s experiences with the Confederate flag stand, quite naturally, in stark contrast to those of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s angry fans. On one occasion, she found herself on an outdoor stage next to a giant rebel flag waving in the wind; the performance wound up in a YouTube video. “It was a private party. The man who threw it is this old biker, and kind of a mystery to me,” Nixon Basco says. “For whatever reasons, he loves us to death and he’s always been nothing but nice to me. But yeah, he also has that flag just about everywhere. There was no escaping it anywhere when I was on that stage, and I was like…” — she shakes her head — ‘Wow! Really?’ That was uncomfortable.” Former CL music editor Kandia Crazy Horse, author of Rip It Up: The Black Experience in Rock N Roll, understands Nixon Basco’s dilemma. Crazy Horse is an expert on Southern rock who’s been in the trenches for decades, writing about it, lecturing about it, speaking in documentaries about it and performing her own blend of African-American country and soul on her 2013 album Stampede. “As a fanatic of Southern rock,” Crazy Horse says, “the Confederate battle flag does not give me pause nor prevent me from going where I want to go. The music is mine, a space where the blues and country meet and are refashioned into other sounds. “Both races love and were reared on this music,” she continues, “such that by now there should be no assumption that only our white brethren follow Southern rock.”
PHOTO BY ISAAC RODRIGUEZ
Adrienne Nixon Basco (above) rocks the stage. On the opposite page, Tombstone Betty’s current lineup is: drummer Loren Bates (top), singer Nixon Basco and her husband, bassist Rich Basco (center) and guitarist Boo English (bottom).
‘IT BOTHERS ME THAT SOUTHERN WHITE PEOPLE THINK THEY OWN SOUTHERN ROCK. IT’S NOT THEIRS. IT DOESN’T BELONG EXCLUSIVELY TO THEM.’ — ADRIENNE NIXON BASCO
Crazy Horse gives Nixon Basco big props for carrying on the much-needed tradition of keeping a little melanin in the music. “More power to this sister for prevailing out there on the road,” Crazy Horse says.
ON FRIDAY, JUNE 8, Nixon Basco and her Tombstone Betty bandmates will hit the stage at the Hog Happenin’ Bikes and BBQ fest up in Newton, to play songs from their new self-titled debut EP. While it would be an egregious stereotype to suggest everybody in the crowd will be questioning her role at the festival or waving Confederate flags, some will. And Nixon Basco aims to change their perceptions. “It bothers me that Southern white people think they own Southern rock,” Nixon Basco says. “It’s not theirs. It doesn’t belong exclusively to them. It’s got a blues background, it’s got gospel thrown in, it’s got country.” During Southern rock’s mid-‘70s heyday, British music fans seemed to intuitively understand and appreciate the nuances in the music’s rich gumbo of Southern American styles, perhaps even more than some Americans did. Skynyrd was huge in the U.K., and the Brits had long produced their own Southern American-style bands, from the raw, pre-Skynyrd blues-rock of the Yardbirds to the soulful rock of the Small Faces, who sometimes performed with black American R&B singer P.P. Arnold, to early-’70s acts like Humble Pie and Free. Arnold once said she relocated to the U.K. because, “A young black woman on her own in America in a white environment would not have been treated as well as I was in England.” Says Nixon Basco, “The British are the ones who really got it. They’re the ones who really picked up on what Southern rock actually is — which is this wonderful amalgam of all of these different types of music.” “Southern rock is simply saying rock rock,” Crazy Horse says, “for the music springs from this region and it does so in the image of its greatest practitioners, like [the late Allman Brothers Band guitarist] Duane Allman, who bridged the gap between black and white.” If some of today’s Southern rock fans here, where the music was born, don’t fully grasp these distinctions in 2018, Nixon Basco is here to remind them. “They’ll understand by the end of our shows. They’ll hear all those influences in our music,” she says. “And I’ll speak about it. I mean, I don’t want to make our performances a course in music history, but I absolutely plan to address the fact that there are many different influences in this music — and in Tombstone Betty’s music particularly.” The band’s new EP runs the gamut of oldschool Southern rock and boogie, from the thick, Humble Pie-like riffs and slide guitars of “Try My Wine” to the Harley enginecharged hard rock of “Rev It Up” to the gentle, country-ish “Let it Roll,” an acoustic-based ballad worthy of a cigarette-lighter-waving encore. She wrote the latter song one rainy night while driving her black Cadillac across a bridge over Lake Norman. “I was coming home from work in the rain and saw the water, and it just came to me,” Nixon Brasco says. “So here I am — I’m trying to keep the car on the road while singing into my phone ’cause I don’t want to forget it.” Nixon Basco’s voice, a mix of sassy honkytonk twang and rowdy rock ’n’ roll grit,
captures the essence of whatever she’s singing — in particular, on lines like, “Don’t play around on Tombstone Betty / ’Cause if you do, your nightmares are gonna come true.” Those femme-empowering lyrics come in the refrain of Tombstone Betty’s self-titled theme song, a wild and woolly story-song about a badass woman who will not be fucked with: “She was just a little girl when her daddy left town, and her mama gave a word of advice: / If you ever have a lover who’s loving on another, take him out and don’t think twice. / . . . That’s why any man caught playing ’round on Betty’s gonna surely end up dead.” The band punctuates the storyline with a husky call-and-response: “And all the folks say, ‘Hey’ (‘HEY!’).” “We also have a new song which is not on the EP, called ‘Everybody,’ that’s a little more punk-influenced,” Nixon Basco says. “And we’ve got other songs that we haven’t completely fleshed out that are more countryoriented. That kind of mix is very deliberate. Growing up in the South, you can’t help but have all of those things coming at you at the same time, influencing what you do.”
BORN IN MOORESVILLE when it was
still a small town, Adrienne Nixon always felt different from her friends and family members. “One of my mom’s favorite words to describe me was ‘weird.’ I’m her weird child,” she says with a laugh. Nixon Basco’s mother sang gospel, and her sister — 16 years Adrienne’s senior — introduced her to disco and funk. But her father, who lived in Greensboro and served as band director at North Carolina A&T State University for 30 years, introduced her to classical music. “My father sent me a couple of Mantovani albums early on and I listened to them and totally fell in love with Mozart and then started listening to a lot of Mozart, Holst and all these different composers,” Nixon Basco remembers. “I decided that’s what I wanted to do.” She laughs. “By this point in my life, I was supposed to be scoring movies. I wanted to be a little Danny Elfman or Michael Kamen.” By junior high, Adrienne had graduated to metal because, she says, “Good metal is very technical, like classical music. What really grabbed me was hearing Sepultura’s version of Beethoven’s Ninth. I lost it. I was in love with metal from that point on, and I started getting into Death Angel and Pantera, and ’70s metal like Black Sabbath, and glam metal and the stuff in between, like Guns ‘N Roses.” Her tastes set her apart in Mooresville. “You just didn’t see a lot of people who look like me listening to metal,” she says. “Even now, you don’t see it.” After graduating high school in 1994, she enrolled in Davidson College, initially to study music, but wound up switching to theater. She swore she would never sing in public, she says, “because my mom is such a good singer, I didn’t want to be compared to her.” But three years later, she landed a role in Hair. “They tricked me into it,” she remembers. “They said, ‘Everybody has to do a vocal audition.’ I said, ‘OK, fine.’ So I went in there, sang a little bit and everything got quiet. I said, ‘What did I do wrong?’ They said, ‘Absolutely nothing,’ then got these big smiles SEE
PHOTO BY THOMAS SCOTT
PHOTOS BY ISAAC RODRIGUEZ
PHOTO BY ARVIND BHANDARI
BIRD P. 18 u CLCLT.COM | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | 17
MUSIC
FEATURE
TOMBSTONE BETTY 7:45-9 p.m. June 8. Hog Happenin’ Bike Festival American Legion Fairgrounds 1 American Legion Ave, Newton. $10 (1-day price). hoghappenin.org
BIRD FROM P.17 t on their faces. Next thing you know I was opening the show singing ‘Aquarius.’” Adrienne Nixon hit the ground running after college, landing roles with Children’s Theatre of Charlotte. She got to know Charlotte actor April Jones when Jones played her older sister, Manyara, in the African Cinderella story Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughter. “That was such a great little family
atmosphere that we had at the time with April and Sidney Horton — he was our dad,” Nixon Basco remembers, with a laugh. “Ask her about African Tales of Earth and Sky,” Jones says when contacted for her recollections of her time working with Nixon Basco. “She was a ‘creature’ named Mmotia,” Jones says. “I think she was green.” She laughs, but then gets serious. “I’m not surprised she
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The cover of the new EP. fronts a band now,” Jones says of her former colleague. “Adrienne always was drawn more to the musical theater aspect of performance, so it seems perfect for her.” The band stuff came about four years ago, when Rich Basco, who’s now Nixon Basco’s husband, tracked her down on Facebook. He was the bassist for Swamp da Wamp, a band fronted by the late Gig Michaels, a husky Ronnie Van Zant lookalike who commanded the stage with his brown leather hat and big personality. Swamp da Wamp was looking for a second female backup singer. Nixon Basco was 38 at the time and thought to herself, What the hell? “In my head, that just meant that I’d be one of two women dressed in black in the background throwing in a few ooo’s now and then,” she says. But when the second backup singer left the band to spend more time with her family, Michaels asked Nixon Basco to join him in the spotlight. “Then he had the bright idea for me to start my own band,” she remembers. “I said, ‘We’ll get around to that later. I’m having a good time just backing you right now.’”
IN EARLY JANUARY 2016, shortly after
Swamp da Wamp released its fifth album, Michaels died of pneumonia on the eve of his 52nd birthday. Devastated, the band called it quits. Rich Basco wasn’t sure he even wanted to continue doing music. “He was really heartbroken,” Nixon Basco remembers. “Gig was one of his best friends and one of my really good friends.” But she wasn’t ready to pack it in. After all, she’d just started getting some momentum
and had begun to write songs of her own. “I decided I was going to do what Gig said I should do, and form my own band,” she says. Rich was hesitant. “To a certain extent, he’s still very heartbroken over it, so he was kind of reluctant to play at all at first.” Tombstone Betty’s initial incarnation included other former members of Swamp da Wamp, including guitarist Nick Nguyen, who plays the sizzling slide part on “Try My Wine.” But Nguyen lives in Nashville now, and the trip back and forth to Charlotte was too much for him. The group eventually gelled with two members borrowed from the local funkbased hard-rock act English, whose music is in the vein of the ’70s Atlanta outfit Mother’s Finest, one of the few racially mixed Southern bands of that era. Nixon Basco is happy with Tombstone Betty’s latest lineup, but the process, she says, hasn’t been easy. “It was difficult to get them to believe in me enough to want to be part of the project,” she says of all the members who have floated through the group. “I mean, Southern rock is by nature a very white, very male-dominated genre at this point.” That’s something Nixon Basco is on a mission to shake up. “I want to be a face for change. We want to change a lot of things,” she says with a mischievous smile. With her striking stage presence and passionate vocals on songs played in a musical style that ought to be as mixed as the sounds it draws from, Adrienne Nixon Basco already is a face for change. (CL editor Mark Kemp is the author of Dixie Lullaby: A Story of Music, Race and New Beginnings in a New South, published in 2004 by Free Press/Simon & Schuster, and reissued in 2006 by the University of Georgia Press.)
SURVIVING SEXUAL ASSAULT IN CHARLOTTE. A NEW PODCAST FROM WFAE. AVAILABLE ON APPLE PODCASTS, GOOGLE PLAY, NPR ONE AND AT WFAE.ORG/SHESAYS
18 | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
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CLCLT.COM | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | 19
MUSIC
SOUNDBOARD JUNE 7 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL Archaic Agenda (RiRa Irish Pub) Big Sam’s Funky Nation (U.S. National Whitewater Center)
COUNTRY/FOLK Ashland Craft and Spencer Rush at Alive After Five (Rooftop 210) Open Mic with Lisa De Novo (Temple Mojo Growler Shop, Matthews)
CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Purple Note 3 - Celebrating The Life of Prince Through Jazz: Harvey Cummings II & Friends, That Guy Smitty (Evening Muse)
DJ/ELECTRONIC DJ Karz (Tin Roof) Le Bang (Snug Harbor) Tabloid UK With Your DJ Host Chris Wall (Tommy’s Pub)
POP/ROCK Open Mic for Musicians (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub) Anita Baker (Ovens Auditorium) Bruno Major (Neighborhood Theatre) Colby Dobbs Trio (JackBeagle’s) Jason Moss & the Hosses (Comet Grill) Jordan Middleton and the End (Tin Roof) Shana Blake and Friends (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)
JUNE 8 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazzy Fridays (Freshwaters Restaurant)
COUNTRY/FOLK The Deer (U.S. National Whitewater Center) The Lenny Federal Band (Comet Grill)
DJ/ELECTRONIC Morgan Page (World)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B The Jump Cut (Tin Roof) Player Made 3 Year Anniversary: Elevator Jay, Jaboi B Rab and A-Huf (Snug Harbor) Queen City Get Down - Live Soul Funk Jam: The Goodnight Brothers Band, Shades of Brown, The Bloodworth Project (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)
20 | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
POP/ROCK Almost Kings, Scars Remain, Fear Until Fury, Fifty Flies, NORM (The Rabbit Hole) Altered Perceptions, Nomvdic, Enochian, Above Livius (Milestone) Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls, Lucero, The Menzingers, Homeless Gospel Choir, (The Fillmore) The Highway (JackBeagle’s) ISH (Smokey Joe’s Cafe,) Jesse Dayton (Free Range Brewing Company) King’s X , Modern Primitives (Neighborhood Theatre) Mark Webb Jr. (Legion Brewing,) Mary Ocher, Ghost Trees, VALIS (Snug Harbor) The Mulligan Brothers, Will Kimbrough (Evening Muse) Not Plugged In: Jude Moses, The Raineers, Crenshaw Pentacostal, The Wilt. (Midwood Guitar Studio) Seven Year Witch, Uncle Buck (Heist Brewery)
JUNE 9 DJ/ELECTRONIC Project X - The National Party Tour (The Underground)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Kerri Powers (Evening Muse)
POP/ROCK Groove Fetish (The Music Yard) 30 Year Sick, Malhond, Mauve Angeles, The Two Youths (Milestone) Blue Monday (Tin Roof) Elonzo Wesley (U.S. National Whitewater Center,) Grungefest 2018: Nevermind - Nirvana tribute, Jeremy’s 10 - Pearl Jam tribute (The Fillmore) Hectorina, Patois Counselors, Taxing (Snug Harbor) Japanese Breakfast (Neighborhood Theatre) Journey, Def Leppard (Spectrum Center) Night Riots, Courtship, Silent Rival (Visulite Theatre) Pink Pots, Ol’ Sport, Wayward Kid (Evening Muse) Poor Blue (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Tony Eltora (Primal Brewing, Huntersville)
JUNE 10 BLUES/ROOTS/INTERNATIONAL
MUSIC
SOUNDBOARD Archaic Agenda (RiRa Irish Pub)
DJ/ELECTRONIC Bone Snugs-N-Harmony (Snug Harbor)
POP/ROCK Unicorns in the Snow, Mint Hill, Julian Calendar (Goodyear Arts @ Camp North End) Lany, Colouring (The Fillmore) Omari and The Hellhounds (Comet Grill) The Posies (Neighborhood Theatre) Seven Spires Hate Storm Annihilation, Kairos. Written in Gray (Milestone)
JUNE 11 CLASSICAL/JAZZ/SMOOTH Jazz Jam (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)
HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B #MFGD Open Mic (Apostrophe Lounge) Knocturnal (Snug Harbor)
POP/ROCK alt-J (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre) Boz Scaggs (Knight Theater) Brangle (Smokey Joe’s Cafe) Find Your Muse Open Mic with our friend Brian Dolzani (Evening Muse) Harry Connick, Jr. (Belk Theater) Hayley Kiyoko, Gavin Turek (The Underground) Music Bingo (Tin Roof) Music Trivia (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) The Regrettes (Neighborhood Theatre) Open Mic with Lisa De Novo (Legion Brewing)
JUNE 12 HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B Eclectic Soul Tuesdays: RnB & Poetry (Apostrophe Lounge) Soul Station (Crown Station Coffeehouse and Pub)
COUNTRY/FOLK Red Rockin’ Chair (Comet Grill)
Uptown Unplugged with Riley Byrnes (Tin Roof) Open Jam with the Smokin’ Js (Smokey Joe’s Cafe)
JUNE 13 HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B David Ryan Harris June Residency with Matt MacKelcan (Evening Muse)
DJ/ELECTRONIC Bring Your Own Vinyl with DJ Justin Aswell (Petra’s)
POP/ROCK Angelo Moore and the Brand New Step, The Get Right Band (Neighborhood Theatre) Bob Fleming & the Cambria iron Co., The Menders Ennie Arden (Milestone) Brandon Davidson (Hattie’s Tap & Tavern) Charlotte Symphony Summer Pops: The Kruger Brothers (Knight Theater) CUSP presents: NC Brazilian Arts Project w/ Brut Beat, Beach Bath, Axnt, Party Dad (Snug Harbor) The Hip Abduction, Little Stranger (Visulite Theatre) Matt Stratford (RiRa Irish Pub) Open Mic with Jared Allan (JackBeagle’s) Styx, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Tesla (PNC Music Pavilion)
6/9 NIGHT RIOTS + COURTSHIP & SILENT RIVAL 6/16 TOWN MOUNTAIN 6/21 AMERICAN AQUARIUM 6/29 HAYES CARLL 7/19 ROOSEVELTS 7/20 JGBCB 7/21 JUPITER COYOTE 7/23 FANTASTIC NEGRITO 7/25 THE SHEEPDOGS 8/5 LYDIA 8/11 NATALIE PRASS 8/17 RED BARCHETTA A Tribute to RUSH 9/11 JOSEPH 9/19 NOAH GUNDERSEN 9/28 CAAMP 10/2 MT. JOY
POP/ROCK Anchor Detail, Harrison Ford Mustang (Snug Harbor) Dave Hause (Evening Muse) Harry Connick, Jr. (Belk Theater) The Monolithic, The Business People, Farewell Albatross (Milestone)
NEED DIRECTIONS? Check out our website at clclt.
com. CL online provides addresses, maps and directions from your location. Send us your concert listings: E-mail us at mkemp@clclt. com or fax it to 704-522-8088. We need the date, venue, band name and contact name and number. The deadline is each Wednesday, one week before publication. CLCLT.COM | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | 21
ARTS
FEATURE
BACH IN A HARD PLACE Celebrate the great composer’s work with eight area concerts in nine days BY PERRY TANNENBAUM
B
ACH CELEBRATIONS aren’t totally alien to the Queen City. Charlotte Symphony played with the idea for a few years at Knight Theater with Bachtoberfest, pairing Bach and beer, preferably bock. BachFests have bloomed annually — if only for a day — at St. Alban’s Episcopal in nearby Davidson, and last March, the North Carolina Bach Festival landed modestly for one evening at the Steinway Piano Gallery. None of these foretold the Bach Big Bang that begins this Saturday. The first Charlotte Bach Festival splashes down with eight concerts in nine days — predominantly in the Q.C. but also in churches from Gastonia to Winston-Salem. Unlike the Bachtoberfest brew, which might mix in some Mozart and Wagner, Charlotte Bach kicks off with an allJohann Sebastian lineup. Unlike the chamber offerings at St. Alban’s and Steinway, Charlotte Bach is mostly big Bach: multiple cantatas, a trumpeting Orchestral Suite, a motet and the mighty B Minor Mass. Ambitions are not at all small at Bach Akademie Charlotte, the nonprofit producing company that sprouted up last October — at St. Alban’s, with two cantatas and a motet — with no word about the Big Bang to come. Plans are not only firmly in place to stage Charlotte Bach annually but also to possibly grow the festival to a third weekend. That would put a fully bloomed Charlotte festival in the same elite class as the Oregon Bach Festival, the Big Kahuna among Bach fests in America. Seeds for this astonishing phenomenon were first planted late in 2013, when Charlotte Symphony presented Bach’s St. Matthew Passion under the direction of Scott Allen Jarrett. Singing tenor with the Oratorio Singers of Charlotte at these sacred concerts, Mike Trammell had an epiphany: This was what he wanted to do in life. “Bach always makes you look beyond the page,” says Trammell, “and I was captivated by the context of the piece — the history, the texts chosen, and its structure of arias, recits and chorales. I finally found some classical music that I could connect with beyond the way it sounded to my ear.” But to make a living by singing Bach in Charlotte, the land of Speed Street and tailgate parties? Of course not. So he went 22 | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
Conductor Scott Allen Jarrett is serious about his Bach, his pencils and his heavy-metal devil horns. off and sang Bach in Stuttgart and then Weimar with Helmuth Rilling, the revered conductor and choirmaster who founded Oregon Bach in 1971. Eventually, though, Trammell got to thinking: Why not Charlotte? With other likeminded locals, he founded the Bach Akademie Charlotte, and then he reached out to Jarrett to become its first artistic director. “You have to hear Scott speak on Bach,” says Trammell. “And you have to hear what he does with the music for me to tell you why he’s the best. He’s recognized by his peers as a leading Bach scholar in the country. He knows our city, he knows our people — he speaks our language and the language of Bach.” Trammell flew up to Boston to make his Bach Akademie pitch to Jarrett. Getting Jarrett to sign on was the key to bringing what Trammell calls a “rockstar” staff aboard, including Adam Romey, the festival’s managing director. Romey’s mom is Rilling’s longtime assistant, and his grandfather helped Helmuth in founding Oregon Bach. No doubt Jarrett helped in selling Romey on Charlotte. A native of Virginia who attended Furman University, Jarrett was already at home in the region when he served as assistant conductor at Charlotte Symphony from 2004 to 2015 and music director for the Oratorio Singers. “So it was a real happy 11 years working for the Oratorio and the Symphony, coming weekly to Charlotte for more than a decade,” Jarrett says. “I find the spirit behind people wanting to do this music is really thrilling, and I think it’s brilliant for [the Bach festival] to be in Charlotte. Charlotte is a perfect place for it!” It’s doubtful that anything less than a
Bach festival aspiring to national prominence could have lured Jarrett back. Down in Miami, Jarrett was the first guest conductor to lead the Seraphic Fire ensemble, contributing to their Grammy-nominated recording of Brahms’ Requiem in 2012. Up in Boston, he is resident conductor of the Handel + Haydn Society, and music director of the Back Bay Chorale. At Boston University, he is director of music at Marsh Chapel, where weekly Sunday services are broadcast live. He has also piloted a Bach cantata series at the university for the past 12 years. More importantly, Jarrett brings more precious DNA to our budding festival from the Oregon Bach Festival, where he has been a fixture since 2010. Last year, he kicked off the season conducting the Matthew Passion, making him the only person besides Rilling ever entrusted with that masterwork. This season at Oregon, he presides over another Rilling preserve, the Discovery Series, a unique set of lecture-demonstration concerts that take listeners inside the craftsmanship and the theology of the music. Here in Charlotte, it will be called The Bach Experience — as it has been on Jarrett’s home turf at Boston U. The two themed concerts, “Summer in Leipzig,” will be offered at Myers Park United Methodist Church next Tuesday and Thursday at 12:30pm. Jarrett has chosen Cantata 75, “Die Elenden sollen essen” (“The Hungry Shall Eat”) and Cantata 76, “Die Himmel erzählen die Ehre Gottes” (“The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God”) to take us back to 1723 and Bach’s first two weeks of work as cantor of the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig. Jarrett, the Akademie | Charlotte Cantata Choir, the North Carolina Baroque Orchestra,
PHOTO BY GARY PAYNE
singers from the Akademie’s Emerging Artist program and special guests will all be upfront performing — and demonstrating. Besides the quality of the singers and musicians, who hail from as far away as California and Canada, Jarrett is enthused about the caliber of the Q.C.’s audience. “One of the things that always inspired me about Charlotte is that people here go to Sunday school, they are interested in learning,” Jarrett declares. “It’s not like they go to a concert to get their card punched. They want to know why the music matters. They want to know what the music has to say. And basically, they are curious people, and this is the perfect music for them!” Festivities are bookended by two blockbuster concerts, leading off with the Festival Opening Celebration on Saturday evening at Christ Church Charlotte on Providence Road. Ordinarily, you don’t expect the trumpeting of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 1 to be upstaged. This time, the brassy suite might be less dominant than usual, flanked by the “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied” (“Sing to the Lord a New Song”) motet, which Jarrett describes as the “Brandenburg Concerto for voices,” and the Cantata 147, which includes the beloved “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” — twice. “That cantata is very dear to me,” Jarrett confides. “It’s one of the first cantatas I ever heard and learned, and Bach has a wonderful concertante opening movement with voices and trumpet, a real brilliant feature for voices and players.” The closing concert in Charlotte on the following Saturday, June 16 at Myers Park Presbyterian, is simply called The Masterwork — because Jarrett can find no words to
ARTS
Jarrett Bachs the house.
FILM
PHOTO BY GARY PAYNE
PHOTO COURTESY OF STX
Sam Claflin and Shailene Woodley in ‘Adrift’
PACIFIC GRIM Survival story only partly see-worthy BY MATT BRUNSON
IF IT’S NOT quite as exciting as watching Jarrett conducts the Back Bay Chorale in Boston. overpraise the monumental B Minor Mass. Both the opening and closing concerts get Sunday afternoon encores that will expand the Charlotte Bach Festival’s reach. The Opening Celebration travels to First United Methodist in Gastonia this coming Sunday, and The Masterwork journeys to Centenary United Methodist in Winston-Salem on June 17. At the other end of the Bach spectrum, the Leipzig cantor is the unchallenged master of solo works written for violin, cello and organ. The Visiting Artist Recital Series at the Charlotte festival checks that Bach box as well. Highlighting the series, Bálint Karosi reigns at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church on Friday, June 15, when he will give the new Fisk organ a workout — with pieces inspired by Bach’s name, written by Schumann, Liszt and others. Two kings collide as Karosi, a Hungaraton recording artist and winner of the 2008 International J.S. Bach Competition, displays his skills on the king of instruments.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL J. LUTCH
CHARLOTTE BACH FESTIVAL June 9-17, Various locations. $20-140; bachcharlotte.com
But don’t skip Guy Fishman, principal cellist of the Handel + Haydn Society, who comes to Christ Church Charlotte next Monday evening to play selected Bach Cello Suites. There won’t be many quiet moments when the Bach Big Bang hits Charlotte, but this will be among the most beautiful. “He is an Israeli-American musician,” Jarrett points out, “and just one of the most extraordinary cellists that I’ve ever met, and I’m so grateful to be able to work with him often.” BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
Blake Lively square off against a particularly pesky shark in The Shallows from two summers ago, there’s still enough of interest to keep the new nautical drama Adrift (**1/2 out of four) afloat. Headlined by two YA stars — Shailene Woodley of Divergent and Sam Claflin from The Hunger Games — Adrift is based on a 1983 incident that was placed into print with the release of the 2002 book Red Sky in Mourning: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea. Those who are unfamiliar with the true-life tale might want to shut their eyes during the film’s opening credits, since the acknowledgment of the authors somewhat serves as a spoiler and hints at how this drama ultimately plays out. Woodley (who also produced) plays Tami Oldham, a 23-year-old free spirit who hooks up with 34-year-old Richard Sharp (Claflin) as she’s out exploring the world. Both enamored with the ocean, the two fall in love and get engaged. Richard ends up agreeing to sail his friends’ luxurious yacht from Tahiti to San Diego, but he won’t do it without Tami by his side. And so off they go, little aware of the raging storm that will damage the boat and possibly take their lives.
Adrift recalls 2013’s All Is Lost, which found Robert Redford’s taciturn loner similarly stuck at sea with only his wits to keep him alive. Whereas All Is Lost was basically an existential one-man show, this one is as much a sweet love story as a grueling survival tale, although its realism is tempered with flights of fancy. Whether this latter angle strengthens or weakens the picture will differ depending on each viewer — more detrimental is the decision to tell this tale with flashbacks and flashforwards, a narrative device that often breaks the mounting tension of watching this couple trapped on a waterlogged vessel and facing almost certain death. Baltasar Kormakur’s direction is deft, Woodley’s performance is exemplary, and the cinematography by three-time Oscar winner Robert Richardson (The Aviator) captures the majesty of the ocean while occasionally showcasing the misery it can cause. The inherent limitations of the material prevent Adrift from making enough waves to stand out from the competition, but it does offer an alternative for those seeking a reprieve from the usual deluge of summer blockbusters.
CLCLT.COM | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | 23
In a state that values freedom, why can’t we choose to use cannabis in all its forms? It’s a medical issue! It’s a social justice issue! It’s a freedom issue! Carolina Cannabis Now is a new column from CL reporter Rhiannon Fionn, who plans to get to the roots of these issues and more to give us a regular update on the state of cannabis policy in North Carolina. Check out the first installment of this monthly column in the June 28 issue of Creative Loafing, and read it online at clclt.com 24 | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | CLCLT.COM
Rhiannon Fionn
ARTS
ARTNEWS
FAMILY FIRST PUTS THINGS IN MOTION Gantt Center workshop series introduces kids to arts and technology BY RYAN PITKIN
WITH ABOUT 30 minutes left until
beginning her “All About Animation” workshop at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture on a recent Saturday morning, Jackie Black finished prepping the clay and utensils she would need to lead the class, then wondered exactly how she was going to pull it off. The elementary school arts teacher had been teaching workshops about claymation — a stop-motion animation using clay figures — like this one for seven years during summers in Salisbury where she lives. Black’s only concern was that she was about to teach a three-hour workshop on something that she usually taught in 15. She’s used to leading three-hour classes daily from Monday through Friday, not just one three-hour session on a Saturday. Still, she was optimistic that the kids in attendance would adapt as long as she kept things moving. “This is a very compressed version,” she said. “The main thing we’re trying to do is make a character and hopefully make some sort of instrument, and get them to animate it a little bit. I usually like to spend a little more time just making a clay ball roll across the screen. But these little folks move fast these days. They move pretty fast.” Black’s claymation workshop was the latest in the Gantt Center’s monthly Family First programs, which aim to make different mediums of art more accessible to children who may not be getting an in-depth arts education in school. In honor of African-American Music Appreciation Month, Black instructed kids in creating clay models based on famous black music icons, or make a fictional character inspired by such. The kids used the Stop Motion Studio app, downloaded on tablets available to everyone in attendance, to animate their characters. For David Taylor, president and CEO of the Gantt Center, the workshop was a great way to mix educative experiences between art and curriculums involving science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM as it’s more commonly known. “We want to incorporate STEM wherever we can, to compliment what kids are doing in school,” Taylor said. “But also, this is something that isn’t in the average elementary school, so it’s an opportunity where it’s really a low barrier for families to come and experience a myriad of things,
PHOTO BY RYAN PITKIN
Jackie Black teaches a recent Family First claymation workshop at Harvey B. Gantt Center.
FAMILY FIRST: DIGITAL BEATS + RHYMES July 7; Free to members, $3 for children (9-12 years old), $5 for adults; Harvey B. Gantt Center, 551 S. Tryon St. ganttcenter.org
not just visual arts, but — as you are today experiencing claymation — different genres and experiences. I think it helps families help their kids find their creative identity.” Taylor met Black at a film festival featuring animated shorts at Gantt Center in March. He was interested to learn about her work teaching stop-motion animation, and quickly decided she would be a perfect fit for the Family First program. “One, her passion about what she does was important to us, but also the fact that she had a concept that I thought would ignite the creativity of kids, while also igniting their passion to learn,” Taylor said. “I thought it was important that those are the kinds of programs that we continue to have and highlight, so we were excited to bring that in.” Stop-motion technology has long been a passion for Black, but it was the arrival of easily accessible technology that inspired her to begin teaching it to kids over the summer in 2010. “We’re at the point now where the technology is such that if you have a digital camera and if you’ve got software, you can do claymation and stop motion at home, whereas in the past, you used to have to have very expensive equipment, expensive cameras,” she said. “And so, my experience being as an elementary school teacher, I saw that children love technology, and I knew that they love to play with clay. I was trying to think of something in our community that nobody else was doing. There were plenty of clay classes and painting classes. So I thought, well why don’t I try to combine the two and see what kind of response I get.” The response has been overwhelmingly positive, both in Salisbury and during her first
teaching experience in Charlotte. Black’s Family First workshop at Gantt Center was sold out. At the workshop, Black went through a couple quick exercises in which kids made short movies of rolling balls or melting cubes. She then shared a YouTube video that featured an illustrated reading of Trombone Shorty, a children’s book and true story about the title character’s come-up as a child in the New Orleans neighborhood of Tremé. After watching the video, Black handed out skeletons of foil and wire and blocks of clay to build around the skeletons. Using the illustrations of instruments from the book as inspiration, the kids got to work building models of iconic musicians. One student built a model of Stevie Wonder and designed a backdrop to make it appear he was performing on stage. Black pointed out that North Carolina is the birthplace of some of the most iconic black musicians, from Nina Simone to Thelonious Monk to John Coltrane. The music theme will continue on July 7, as Family First will tackle technology’s
role in hip-hop. Students will compose and record lyrics, download beats and mix audio using a MIDI keyboard and programs like VersePerfect and Audacity. Artist and poet Jefferey Weatherford will host the July class. Weatherford illustrated the award-winning children’s book You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen, as well as three selfpublished books. For Taylor, teaching kids black history that they don’t usually get in school is as important as the arts lessons at Family First programs. “It’s important particularly for AfricanAmerican kids to recognize that it’s not about celebrating who they are for one month a year, but it’s about celebrating who they are and their contributions and their heritage every month, because their history is American history and it’s important that they understand and embrace that,” Taylor said. “I think that’s a gap that is still missing in the cultural divide that we have in our country.” A gap that Taylor is working to fill, one workshop at a time. RPITKIN@CLCLT.COM
CLCLT.COM | JUN. 7 - JUN. 13, 2018 | 25
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persistence of her husband’s interest, I think it unlikely that suppression could ever be successful,” said Dr. Ley. “In this case, I think MADDL’s desire for her husband to have sexual desires she agrees with in order for her to be married to him is a form of sexual extortion, i.e., ‘If you love me and want to be with me, you’ll give up this sexual interest that I find disgusting.’ Without empathy, mutual respect, communication, unconditional love and willingness to negotiate and accommodate compromises and win-win solutions, this couple is doomed, about every little thing I did and then regardless of diapers under the bed.” said he wasn’t going! I went crazy and Now let’s bring in a voice you rarely hear called his mom and told her everything, when diaper fetishists are being discussed: and she said she found a diaper under an actual diaper fetishist. his bed when he was 7! After this crisis, “The common misconception with he agreed to work things out, but then ABDL (adult baby diaper lovers) is that I found adult-size diapers in the house they are into inappropriate things — like — and not for the first time! I took a having an interest in children — and this picture and sent it to him, and he told couldn’t be more wrong,” said Pup Jackson, me that he was tired of me controlling a twentysomething diaper lover and kink him and he is going to do this when he educator. “AB is not always sexual. Sometimes wants. He also said he was mad at me it’s a way for a person to disconnect for telling his mom. I told him from their adult life and become no, absolutely not, he cannot someone else. With DLs, they do this. Then I found adultaren’t necessarily into age size diapers in the house play — they enjoy diapers again this morning and and the way they feel, much freaked out. He says he like people enjoy rubber, never wants to discuss Lycra, or other materials. diapers with me To understand her again, and I’m afraid husband, MADDL needs he might choose them to ask questions about over me! Please give me why her husband enjoys advice on how to make diapers and figure out how DAN SAVAGE him understand that this to deal with it — because a is not him! This is who he lot of people want/need these chooses to be! And he doesn’t kinds of outlets in their life.” have to be this way! OK, MADDL, now it’s time for me MARRIED A DISGUSTING DIAPER LOVER to share my thoughts with you, but — Christ almighty — I hardly know where to begin. First, MADDL, let’s calmly discuss this with “Great guys” can be into diapers; this is a shrink. not who your husband “chooses to be,” since “There’s a fair bit of controversy over people don’t choose their kinks any more whether people can suppress fetishistic than they choose their sexual orientation; desires like this — and whether it’s healthy outing your husband to his mother was to ask them to do so,” said Dr. David Ley, a unforgivable and could ultimately prove to be clinical psychologist, author, and AASECTa fatal-to-your-marriage violation of trust; a certified sex therapist. “Personally, I counselor isn’t going to be able to reach into believe in some cases, depending on the your husband’s head and yank out his kink. support of their environment and personal relationships, it is possible, but only when these desires are relatively mild in intensity.” Your husband’s interest in diapers — which would seem to go all the way back to at least age 7 — can’t be described as mild. “Given the apparent strength and
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SOLUTION TO THIS WEEK'S PUZZLE
THE KINK KRONIKLES
A short lesson on how not to navigate a sexual impasse BY DAN SAVAGE I’ve been married to my husband for two years. Five months into our relationship (before we got married), he confessed that he was an adult baby. I was so grossed out, I was literally ill. (Why would this great guy want to be like this?) I told him he would have to choose: diapers or me. He chose me. I believed him and married him. Shortly before the birth of our child, I found out that he’d been looking at diaper porn online. I lost it. He apologized and said he’d never look at diaper porn again. Once I was free to have sex again after the birth, it was like he wasn’t into it. When I asked what the deal was, he told me he wasn’t into sex because diapers weren’t involved. I broke down, and he agreed to talk to a counselor. But on the day we were supposed to go, he was mad
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(“I absolutely hate that therapists are seen as sexual enforcers who are supposed to carve away any undesirable sexual interests and make people ‘normal,’” said Dr. Ley.) You’re clearly not interested in understanding your husband’s kink, per Pup Jackson’s advice, nor are you open to working out an accommodation that allows your husband to explore his kink on his own, per Dr. Ley’s advice. Instead you’ve convinced yourself that if you pitch a big enough fit, your husband will choose a spouse who makes him feel terrible about himself over a kink that gives him pleasure. And that’s not how this is going to play out. Your husband told you he was into diapers before he married you — he laid his kink cards on the table at five months, long before you scrambled your DNA together — and he backed down when you freaked out. He may have thought he could choose you over his kink, MADDL, but now he knows what Dr. Ley could’ve told you two before the wedding: Suppressing a kink just isn’t possible. So if you can’t live with the diaper lover you married — if you can’t accept his kink, allow him to indulge it on his own, and refrain from blowing up when you stumble onto any evidence — do that diaper-loving husband of yours a favor and divorce him. BACKTALK@CLCLT.COM
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SALOME’S STARS
ENDS
LIBRA (September 23 ARIES (March 21 to
April 19) Your creative side is enhanced by indulging yourself in as much artistic inspiration (music, art, dance, etc.) as you can fit into your schedule. Bring someone special along.
Playmates and soul mates...
TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Take a little restorative time out of your busy life. Go somewhere quiet this weekend. Or just close the door, turn on the answering machine and pretend you’re away.
Who are you after dark? Charlotte:
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GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Your advice might be much in demand by family and friends this week. But reserve time for yourself to investigate a project that could have some unexpected potential. CANCER (June 21 to
July 22) Work-related issues demand your attention in the early part of the week. Family matters dominate Thursday and Friday. But the weekend is yours to spend as you please.
LEO (July 23 to August 22)
Try to keep your temper in check as you deal with someone who seems to enjoy showing disrespect. Losing your Leonine cool might be just what the goader hopes to see.
VIRGO (August 23 to
September 22) A heated confrontation needs some cool-off time before it boils over. Better to step away than to try to win an argument where emotions overrule the facts.
to October 22) Someone very special in your life finally sends that reassuring message you’ve been hoping for. You can now devote more time to the tasks you had put aside.
SCORPIO (October 23
to November 21) Job pressures begin to ease by week’s end, leaving you time to relax and restore your energy levels before you face next week’s emerging challenges.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) Your spiritual strength helps calm a friend who might be facing an unsettling change in their life. An offer to help comes from a surprising source.
CAPRICORN (December
22 to January 19) By midweek you could learn some surprising facts about an associate that might cause you to reconsider a long-held view about someone in your past.
AQUARIUS
(January 20 to February 18) One of those rarefor-you darker moods sets in in the early part of the week. But by Thursday, the clouds lift and you’re back doing nice things for people in need.
PISCES
(February 19 to March 20) Use that sharp Piscean perceptiveness to reel in more information about a promising offer so that you have the facts to back up whatever decision you make.
BORN THIS WEEK Although you prefer the status quo, you easily can adapt to change when it’s called for.
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