Fort Worth Weekly // April 20-26, 2022

April 20-26, 2022 FREE fwweekly.com

Jack Barksdale On his debut album, the rootsy 14-year-old singer-songwriter proves age is just a number — and should be completely ignored.

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FEATURE It will take a lot of human resources to figure out the rot at TCC’s top.

BY EDWARD BROWN

METROPOLIS To hear Tarrant County leaders tell it, every other person you know has been sex trafficked. It’s all a grift.

BY S TAT I C

P A T R I C K

H I G G I N S

EATS & DRINKS West 7th’s Don Artemio has only two locations, and the other one is in Mexico — so you think the food is good?

BY KRISTIAN LIN

SCREEN From the director of The Lighthouse, The Northman is the kind of Viking story metal albums are written about.

BY KRISTIAN LIN

PRESENTS

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9:00pm Sarah Jaffe 8:00pm Ishi 7:00pm SageModeRex 6:00pm Cut Throat Finches 5:00pm Henry the Archer 4:00pm Phantomelo 3:00pm Brave Little Howl 2:00pm Sur Duda 1:00pm Cotinga 12:00pm J/O/E

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BLOCK 8 MAGNOLIA MAKE BELIEVE Henderson Street & Magnolia 1:00pm & 3:00pm The Piano Takes Flight Cliburn Kids artists Corrie Donovan and Nathan Ryland

BLOCK 15 Noon to 4pm Ben Marrow

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9:00pm Lou Charles 8:00pm Yokyo 7:00pm The Cush 6:00pm Robert Ellis 5:00pm Squeezebox Bandits 4:00pm Dead Heirs 3:00pm Jacob Furr 2:00pm Ferals 1:00pm Lazer Blazer!

12:00pm Brandi Waller Pace

The Boiled Owl Tavern 12:00am Mean Motor Scooter 11:00pm Cool Jacket 10:00pm Big Heaven 9:00pm Uncle Toasty 8:00pm Naaman Rodges 7:00pm Christian Carlos Carvajal 6:00pm Upsetting 5:00pm The Road Soda 4:00pm Cameron Smith and the Slings

Vo lum e 1 8

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A pr i l 20-26, 2022

INSIDE This Don (Artemio) has bold ambitions.

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By Kristian Lin

It’s Time to Go A-Goggling ArtsGoggle is back, and it’s this Saturday on the Near Southside.

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Ryan Burger, Art Director Jim Erickson, Circulation Director CONTRIBUTORS

The college’s HR department gets low scores.

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You Don’t Know Jack

This rootsy 14-year-old singersongwriter is wise beyond his years.

By Patrick Higgins

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Megan Ables, Christina Berger, E.R. Bills, Jason Brimmer, Sue Chefington, Buck D. Elliott, Juan R. Govea, Patrick Higgins, Bo Jacksboro, Laurie James, Kristian Lin, Vishal Malhotra, Cody Neathery, Wyatt Newquist, Linda Blackwell Simmons, Madison Simmons, Teri Webster, Ken WheatcroftPardue, Cole Williams EDITORIAL

Edward Brown, Staff Writer Emmy Smith, Proofreader Michael Newquist, Regional Sales Director Jennifer Bovee, Marketing Director Stacey Hammons, Senior Account Executive Jessica Kirksey, Account Executive Julie Strehl, Account Executive Tony Diaz, Account Executive Wyatt Newquist, Digital Coordinator Clintastic, Brand Ambassador

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Anthony Mariani, Edward Brown, Emmy Smith

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Bob Niehoff, General Manager

TCC No Evil?

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STAFF

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Honeypotting the Religious Right Is sex trafficking the “demonic battle of our lifetime” or just another right-wing grift? (We think we all know the answer to that question.)

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It’s the kind of headline that grabs attention.

“115 People Arrested in Tarrant County Human Trafficking Sting,” one October news story read. Several publications, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, posted similar headlines that likely misled readers to assume that Tarrant County

Static Our first story about targeted individuals in 2021 (“Gangstalking,” Jan 22, 2020) drew emails and phone calls from around the world. Over the past year, we’ve heard from people in Texas, across the United States, and in places as far away as Germany, Canada, and England. Emails and phone calls about the first story continue to come in.

Some of the people who contacted us were happy to see the topic of targeted individuals being addressed and wanted to share their stories. Others took offense to the story’s tone and content.

But first, who are targeted individuals? Generally, they are people who believe they are under attack by a group, organization, or individual seeking to destroy their lives or place them in grave physical danger.

The topic is a controversial or emotional one, especially for those who say they are victims.

After the Weekly’s first story, one of the most vocal critics was Richard Lighthouse, who is affiliated with the website TargetedJustice.com. Among Lighthouse’s beliefs is that the U.S. government uses weaponized satellites to experiment on or torture U.S. citizens.

Angry about the tone of the story, Lighthouse and some of his followers

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I on the Target

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METROPOLIS

Sheriff Bill Waybourn and his posse had snagged 115 kingpins who were smuggling sex workers through North Texas.

Far from it. The 115 randomly targeted men were lured by decoys posing as prostitutes. None of the arrested offenders had kidnapped children or women, but that didn’t stop Waybourn from boasting about the felony arrests.

“We will be out there looking for these people,” Waybourn said, following the conclusion of operation Buyer Beware.

Like many Christian Nationalists who disdain this country’s separation of church and state, Waybourn has something of an obsession with human trafficking, which is related to but not the same thing as forced prostitution. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.”

Finding accurate data on the scope of the problem is difficult in Tarrant County

and Texas, partly because politicians and elected officials have an interest in inflating figures to pander to right-wing voters who believe a Deep State-led cabal drives the criminal acts.

The nomination process of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court was a recent example. Republican leader Sen. Ted “Cancun” Cruz fixated on her scant rulings in child pornography cases in a perverse attempt to tie her to online lies about Democrats and Hollywood elites running child sex rings.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the state group that investigates allegations of child and elder abuse, combines suspected and confirmed cases of child trafficking incidents, meaning that it’s impossible to determine whether the incidents (12 for Tarrant County last year) actually happened or not.

The U.S. State Department estimates that, globally, there are around 25 million victims of the crime every year. The DOJ hasn’t released national figures on human trafficking in recent years, but the department estimated in 2014 that upwards of

200,000 youths were caught in some form of forced sex work each year.

In 2017, Waybourn created the Human Trafficking Unit, which is composed of a supervisor and three investigators, according to the county’s website. Based on our open records requests, the unit has completed 561 investigations and submitted 414 cases for prosecutions. We’ve requested data on how many cases were accepted by the district attorney’s office, and one Tarrant County insider recently alleged to us that DA Sharen Wilson and the human trafficking unit’s commander have abused their positions to block our requests for government information and documents related to Waybourn’s human trafficking unit and possibly other areas of our media inquiries.

The confidential source allegedly heard a conversation between the human trafficking unit’s commander and a county employee who oversees the unit’s grant funds.

The commander described in detail the DA’s efforts to block open records requests from Weekly reporter Edward Brown. The trafficking unit head allegedly described his

repeatedly emailed me. Others — both for and against the story — bombarded the Weekly’s office with phone calls and emails. They and others contacted everyone from the receptionist and members of the sales staff to Publisher Lee Newquist.

Although I made repeated attempts to talk to Lighthouse, he refused. I also tried to contact others associated with TargetedJustice.com, but he wrote an article that suggested I never bothered. Copies of my emails and phone logs tell otherwise.

Lighthouse also wrote on Targeted Justice that he declined to talk to me because he knew it would be “an unresearched hit piece.”

Those kinds of tactics are not something you’d expect from a group that claims to want to raise awareness about targeted individuals and harassment.

The system targeted individuals complain about is elusive and difficult to prove, much like many of the things that targeted individuals complain about: mysterious voices that seem to generate from nowhere or directed-energy weapons that cause confusion or serious physical injury. Many of the claims by targeted individuals have led people to assume they are “crazy.”

This time around, I revisited a conversation I had for the first story with Michael Nuccitelli, a Brooklyn psychologist who also studies cyber-harassment and created a concept called iPredator.

By profession, Nuccitelli analyzes behavior through the lens of possible psychological disorders, but he does not automatically dismiss the claims of those

who say they’re being targeted. Anyone — whether they believe targeting exists or not — can have mental health issues that range across a continuum from mild to severe, he said.

“To immediately say all of them are delusional, I would say no,” Nuccitelli said. “Are some? Yes, but it’s all on that continuum.”

In addition to his work as a psychologist, Nuccitelli volunteers on nights and weekends to talk with and help people who say they are being trolled or harassed.

“When I do my volunteer work, I will occasionally get folks who will say that there are devices in the walls,” he said. “I have had folks tell me that there are devices in the television, and then I have to say, ‘Is your television internet enabled?’

Because if it is a smart TV, there is that possibility.”

In part, Nuccitelli’s volunteer work began after he experienced online character assassination and trolling. He knows firsthand what it’s like to be harassed by a person or a group of people. The harassment he endured included accusations — without proof — and an unsuccessful attempt to get his license revoked, which would have likely ended his career, Nuccitelli said.

The experience led Nuccitelli to develop iPredator. Generally, an iPredator uses information and communication technology to cause harm to another person or group. The perpetrators are fully aware they are causing harm. They also use cyber-stealth to create online decep-

tion to “engage in criminal or deviant activities or to profile, locate, stalk, and engage a target,” Nuccitelli says.

A subcategory of an iPredator is what he calls iPredator Bridge. These harassers are not criminal or deviant but harbor other motivations for harassing their target. Their reasons might be different political, moral, or religious beliefs.

Whatever the reason, if the person being harassed feels threatened or frightened because of the potential for physical harm or some other attack, it becomes cyberstalking.

“When it moves into the realm of someone being afraid, or someone is in fear of losing their job, that is cyberstalking,” Nuccitelli said.

Targeted individuals who launch an attack if they are upset with how they’re portrayed in the media, for example, could fall under the iPredator Bridge category, Nuccitelli said. Often, these attacks are aimed at someone’s employer or at their family members and friends, he added.

“They target you, but the reason they’re doing it is that they perceive they’re being affronted, that you don’t believe them,” he said.

In other words, “They perceive that you deserve it,” Nuccitelli said. — Teri Webster

continued on page 5

This column reflects the opinions of the author and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@FWWeekly. com. Columns will be gently edited for factuality and clarity.

Metro

department’s concurrent efforts to obstruct and block the release of information to our news magazine by any means possible. We notified a sheriff department spokesperson about this breach of the public trust, but the spokesperson declined to comment other than to say that the allegations are serious.

The human trafficking unit numbers mean little without context, which is why our open records requests matter. If the DA’s office and sheriff ’s department stop meddling in our open records submissions, we hope to answer these questions.

What alleged crimes were committed?

Were the offenders active human traffickers or just some horny dudes who were honeypotted by a professional decoy?

Waybourn undermines any good work being done by the human trafficking unit through his close connections to Landon Schott and wife Heather Schott. The two are pastors at Mercy Culture Church, a charismatic Christian place of worship on the North Side.

According to the Washington Post, Waybourn told a Mercy Culture prayer group last year that human trafficking is the “demonic battle of our lifetime.” Waybourn is also a leading supporter of a large-scale grift that Heather is peddling — the Justice Residences, which aim to shelter and rehabilitate up to 100 victims of sex trafficking.

“Through the relationships we have made with other restoration homes in our

Cour tesy of Facebook

continued from page 4

When Sheriff Bill Waybourn isn’t managing his shithole jail that is full of largely poor and nonviolent locals, he finds time to speak to Mercy Culture members about the “demonic battle of our lifetime.”

city,” the Justice Residences website reads, “we have had the opportunity to build community with survivors, learn their stories, and teach them how to connect with the voice of God. The [shelter] hosts groups for survivors to have the opportunity to receive healing in a safe space with trained advocates and leaders.”

The project’s founder, and the only staff listed on the project’s website, is Heather — a sign that Landon’s wife is positioned to be the project’s highest-paid staffer. For someone tasked with potentially handling millions in funding to shelter victims of trafficking, Heather is clueless about the extent of the problem in the Unit-

ed States. For two years, based on her social media posts, she maintained that 29 million Americans have been trafficked. It was only after we recently noted through our reporting how far off her figures were that Mercy Culture staffers revised their Instagram page to purge the false information.

Fort Worth’s zoning commission recently recommended denying Mercy Culture’s request for variances related to the proposed project. Nearby Oakhurst neighborhood members overwhelmingly oppose the project that appears stalled for now due to public backlash.

Waybourn’s invocation of a “demonic battle” reflects his belief that the plight

of human trafficking victims is akin to a literal hell on Earth. For Waybourn to take up the cause shows the hypocrisy of the Republican elected official who manages the most hellish shithole in North Texas — Tarrant County Jail. The decrepit building too frequently destroys the lives of nonviolent men and women who can’t afford to post bail because they are impoverished. Ya know, the kind of people Jesus helped? The deaths of homeless Black men and women in Waybourn’s jail have never been mentioned during sermons by Landon or Heather as far as we know.

Sheriff Bill Waybourn may bristle at our reporting, but the Fort Worth Society of Professional Journalists recently nominated the Weekly’s Brown for a First Amendment Award for his investigation into the inhumane treatment of prisoners in Tarrant County Jail (“Treated ‘Like Animals,’ ” Aug. 2021).

The Justice Residences’ website lists transparency as a core value, and donors should reasonably request disclosures of Landon’s salary at Mercy Culture and his wife’s projected salary as the head of the 100bed facility. Human trafficking is a real and serious crime that should be addressed by law enforcement and nonprofits that aren’t in the business of grifting congregations. l This column reflects the opinions of the editorial board and not the Fort Worth Weekly. To submit a column, please email Editor Anthony Mariani at Anthony@ FWWeekly.com. Submissions will be edited for factuality and clarity.

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Double Secret Probation Former employees describe a toxic work environment at TCC.

APRIL 20-26, 2022

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Tarrant County College’s campuses serve around 46,000 students per year.

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usan was excited about the chance to work at Tarrant County College (TCC). The single mom had been hired for a mid-level position in TCC’s human resources department.

Just minutes into her first meeting with HR director Gloria Maddox-Powell, at The Cheesecake Factory downtown, Susan alleges Maddox-Powell gaslighted her. Susan said the director arrived with someone else and, at one point, allegedly left Susan alone with her. Susan said it

was Mercedes Ramirez, TCC’s manager of special projects for HR, who allegedly described an “anonymous phone call” from a former colleague of Susan’s at a North Texas community college who had concerns about whether Susan would be a good fit for TCC’s HR department.

Ramirez then described lengthy allegations that Susan gave preferential treatment to Hispanics and millennials. Susan said she was shocked, but since she had already quit her last job, she took the TCC position to be able to support her child.

Over the course of the next year and a half as a new TCC hire, Susan would learn that no one from her former workplace had called Maddox-Powell or Ramirez.

One TCC employee confided to Susan that the two administrators allegedly frequently used open records requests to obtain embarrassing information about prospective employees.

“They tried to find any information to control me,” Susan recently told me in a phone interview — she is withholding her real, full name for fear of retaliation.

Maddox-Powell “bragged about doing that.”

Susan describes her time at TCC as hell. Several former college workers

whom I interviewed shared similar stories about Maddox-Powell’s allegedly divisive leadership.

The 57-year-old community college that spans several campuses across Tarrant County and serves 46,000 students per year has come under public scrutiny in recent weeks.

TCC’s board of trustees recently voted to terminate the contract of chancellor Eugene Giovannini which paid him $432,836 a year. Earlier this year and before his termination, the trustees placed Giovannini on paid administrative leave as an ongoing internal investigation examined his handling of the firing of Kristen Bennett, a former fundraising executive who is currently suing the college. One trustee cited the handling of Bennett’s termination as the main reason for the chancellor’s ouster.

In court documents tied to the lawsuit, Bennett’s attorney alleges that Giovannini retaliated against Bennett after she tried to address the poor workplace behavior of a woman who was allegedly dating Giovannini.

The attorney who filed the lawsuit, Frank Hill, said TCC has a history of illegal firings.

“The district has a long-standing system problem in failing to give basic due process, and it has already cost the district substantial sums of money,” Hill said, referring to one recent lawsuit (not related to Bennett) that TCC was forced to settle for an undisclosed amount (“A Pattern of Poor Leadership?” March 18). “I lay the primary blame of that at the feet of Giovannini.”

The former employees who spoke to me said that TCC used to be a wonderful and uplifting place to work, adding that the hiring of Giovannini in 2016 and Maddox-Powell in 2019 created a toxic work environment that has sent employees fleeing.

My open records requests seeking employment figures before and after Maddox-Powell’s hiring have been blocked

by TCC’s attorneys. The Texas Public Information Act requires governmental groups like TCC to make good faith efforts to release requested government documents to the public, but the college’s leaders have chosen to misuse the act by requiring that I resubmit my requests with specific legal verbiage to delay or block them. continued on page 7

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continued from page 6

“Maddox-Powell would divide and conquer departments, so people were afraid to talk to one another,” Susan said. “I was continuously oppressed, and it inhibited my ability to do what I was trained to do.”

I forwarded questions for MaddoxPowell and Ramirez to a TCC spokesperson who told me that the college does not comment on personnel issues.

continued on page 8

FORT WORTH, TX DICKIES ARENA

APRIL 20-26, 2022

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After a 20-plus year career as a seminar leader, platform public speaker, corporate trainer, HR consultant, and subject matter expert in HR law, Jenny, who is not sharing her real, full name for fear of retaliation, spent most of her career traveling the country and educating various clients on their rights and responsibilities under federal laws that mandate equal employment opportunities.

She held executive-level positions in HR management before seeking an opportunity to join TCC’s HR department on an annual contract basis.

“Although I was new to higher education in a non-teaching position, I was confident that my previous experience and knowledge as an HR manager, equal employment opportunity consultant, and skilled educator on a public platform for years would be a positive match for the position sought,” Jenny said.

After a lengthy interview process, she joined TCC’s staff for the 20202021 academic year as coordinator of the college’s Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Jenny was tasked with helping employees understand their rights and responsibilities under the federal act — something she took pride in. Jenny began working remotely in August of that year.

Her immediate supervisor, Lorrie Ward, was new at the time and appeared unable to provide consistent answers to Jenny’s questions. Ward leaned heavily on her boss, Maddox-Powell, for help, Jenny alleges.

“During the first three weeks of employment, and after one week of general orientation, there was a lot of information to grasp and unexpected changes as I acclimated to the position,” Jenny recalled of that first month that she helped TCC employees apply for accommodations through the Americans with Disability Act (ADA).

Three weeks after starting her new job, she was placed on a disciplinary Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) drafted and presented by Maddox-Powell.

Jenny provided me with a copy of the PIP.

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“Maddox-Powell’s reasons were based on petty annoyances, negative stereotypes, subjective bias, and false assumptions about my abilities, traits, and work performance,” Jenny alleges.

“Additionally, there was no previous verbal or written record of discussion or awareness of a concern as outlined in the PIP.” Jenny was shocked when she learned why she was disciplined. One infraction, repeatedly showing up to meetings canceled by Maddox-Powell at the last minute, was an honest mistake. Another item placed on the PIP happened during an August phone call with Maddox-Powell, when Jenny said she forgot the name of a file. The PIP meant that Jenny was effectively on probation and ineligible for the types of contractual agreements that guarantee employees a full year of work.

“My job was placed in jeopardy because of such punitive action,” Jenny said. “Maddox-Powell cited many reasons that could not be justified with a relevant or plausible explanation. For example, I was accused of being a liar when I asked clarifying questions during a meeting about a document I had briefly reviewed.”

Based on one TCC HR document, Maddox-Powell wrote, “On August 28th, after being asked by our executive director to review the form she created to send to physicians prior to a later meeting to discuss it, you stated that you had read the form.”

The accusations, Jenny alleges, are baseless.

Based on TCC policy, the college sends letters to retained campus employees through the academic year that starts September 1. Maddox-Powell waited until the last day possible to give Jenny the PIP. Even with the disciplinary action looming over her, the new HR hire said she persevered and filed 91 FMLA forms by the end of October.

“Despite the PIP and brief learning curve, I successfully completed [my assignments] within 45 days; developed a detailed communication strategy for faculty, staff, and employees; redesigned spreadsheets for tracking purposes; and drafted a standard operating procedure for the ADA requests process, which ensured a legally compliant procedure,” Jenny said. “By late fall of 2020, after repeatedly requesting the FMLA training to assume the position for which I was hired, it was delayed indefinitely. I was denied repeatedly, and for five months, I was relegated to my remote office without work to perform.”

Cour tesy of TCC

continued from page 7

TCC’s adjunct instructor contract may violate state labor code laws.

Jenny, whom I met in person during our first interview, is a self-assured, educated, and mature woman. If MaddoxPowell was looking for a subservient worker, Jenny was not that person.

“I did not hide my frustration with” Maddox-Powell’s poor leadership, Jenny said.

By March of last year, the new TCC employee had had enough. She filed a complaint in which she listed several grievances.

“The decision to enforce a wrongful and unjust PIP against me has resulted in the denial of the employment privilege and opportunity to perform the duties and responsibilities of the position for which I was hired,” part of the complaint reads.

“After questioning the legitimacy and validity of the PIP, I have been labeled as an angry, defensive, and argumentative woman. I have been subjected to an extended probationary period of 90 days.

I believe the extension is being used as a pretext to silence me from changing any future unjust or punitive actions against me.”

One month later, Jenny resigned.

She felt her departure was validated after Maddox-Powell allegedly pushed out an elderly, legally blind adjunct professor, a potential violation of the ADA. Jenny is now focused on her consultation business in which she educates clients about their workplace

rights under state and federal law. It was only after leaving the college that she learned that other TCC employees were having similar experiences.

While the ouster of TCC’s chancellor has garnered local media coverage and statements by the college’s board of trustees, the internal problems plaguing TCC’s HR department have not been publicly acknowledged by community college leaders. Attorney Hill, who has successfully sued TCC for wrongful terminations multiple time, sees Giovannini as the primary source of malfeasance at the college while several current and former TCC employees told me that the issues of retaliatory leadership are a pervasive problem across the campuses.

In March, TCC’s trustees voted to allocate up to $200,000 for services from the Dallas law firm Locke Lord to investigate complaints filed with the board by college employees. The board passed the agenda item without discussion. One TCC insider said Locke Lorde will investigate numerous complaints about TCC’s HR leadership.

Throughout his 11 years working for TCC as coordinator of measurement and evaluation, Karl Ronacher saw a steady continued on page 9

Edward Brown

erosion of faculty morale. TCC’s previous head of HR, Dr. Ricardo Coronado, was tough and smart and always looking out for the best interests of the college, Ronacher said.

Coronado “always had an open-door policy,” he continued. “He never held grudges against any employee. He was the best supervisor I have had in my 32-year career.”

Ronacher’s first negative interaction with Maddox-Powell happened shortly after the onset of the 2020 pandemic.

Ronacher believes she targeted experienced employees like him because he feels she is insecure and underqualified. TCC staff have so far refused to release my requested copy of Maddox-Powell’s resume.

“The employees were sent to work from home,” said Ronacher, who specializes in data management and evaluation. “I was ordered to sort mail and complete other duties for which I was not qualified. This was an example of trying to make me miserable in an attempt to get me to leave.”

Ronacher provided me with a copy of TCC’s employee standards of conduct that forbids workers from accepting tasks for which they are not qualified. Ronacher alleges that Ramirez, TCC’s manager of special projects, would frequently ask him to perform basic math problems that a sixth grader should know. Maddox-Powell, he continued, constantly criticized TCC’s HR program and belittled its workers.

Ronacher believes HR director MaddoxPowell’s alleged derogatory demeanor was intended to intimidate everyone who

worked below her and to make her appear to be the solution to problems that never existed before her tenure.

“The philosophy used to be that we help employees become better employees,” Ronacher said. “We taught them how to deal with conflict and how to enhance their careers. It was truly a good place to work. Maddox-Powell is a big bully. Her mode of operation is to pick on people she wants to get rid of.”

In January 2021, Ronacher retired, largely to escape having to deal with the HR department’s toxic environment, and his wasn’t the only exodus around that time.

Rebecca, who is not using her real, full name for fear of retaliation, recently left TCC’s HR department after two years of witnessing what she described as unsettling actions on the part of Maddox-Powell. The HR director created unnecessary highlevel positions, Rebecca alleges, because she did not have the skill or experience to manage the department. The newly created positions, Rebecca alleges, would complete the tasks that Maddox-Powell could not handle herself.

Before Maddox-Powell headed the department, employees were encouraged to discuss salary changes and promotions, Rebecca said. Under Maddox-Powell, Rebecca alleges, employees were expected to do as they were told. Rebecca alleges that Maddox-Powell gave her friend Ramirez a significant raise without requiring more work and without the education requirements for the position, director of special projects.

“To me, that would be favoritism,” Rebecca said. Ramirez was given a job continued on page 10

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS AND PARTIES: Lane Supply, Inc., has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for renewal of Air Quality Permit No. 45894, which would authorize continued operation of a Steel and Metal Fabrication Facility located at 120 Fairview Street, Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas 76010. Additional information concerning this application is contained in the public notice section of this newspaper.

APRIL 20-26, 2022

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Karl Ronacher: “They are a huge organization, and these people are running it into the ground.”

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S TAT E O F T H E A RTS L i f t i n g E v e r y Vo i c e : M a k i n g S p a c e f o r H i s t o r y — a n d H e a l i n g — i n Fo r t Wo r t h Join us as we explore ambitious plans for three new museums or cultural spaces in Fort Worth: the National Juneteenth Museum, the Fort Worth African American Museum and Cultural Center, and the Fred

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

APRIL 20-26, 2022

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Rouse Center for Arts and Community Healing.

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Presented by Kimbell Art Museum & KERA

F r i d a y, A p r i l 2 9 | 6 – 7 p m Visit kimbellart.org/calendar for more details.

title, a pay raise, but “no change in job description. We saw morale lower. We felt demeaned. We were told that [MaddoxPowell] had an open-door policy, but you could tell that she had her favorites.

When I resigned, she offered my position to another co-worker and gave them a pay increase of more than what I made. I was labeled toxic. If you knew more than she did, she felt threatened.”

Susan, who wrote an open letter to TCC’s leadership in December, echoed many of the experiences cited by Rebecca.

Maddox-Powell “told me that I was a poor leader,” Susan said. “She never met with my team. She never [acknowledged] a single thing we produced. Everything she said was wild verbal accusations that weren’t grounded in reality.”

Ronacher said the dysfunction in TCC’s HR department is partly the result of poor leadership at the community college.

“Giovannini has this position that he really cares about the community and the students,” Ronacher said. “The people that he has put in charge, especially over HR, are unethical. They deliberately violate their own policies. And that concerns me.”

Over the course of my several weeks of research for this story, current and former TCC instructors reached out to us with their own horror stories that have ties to the college’s HR department. One current adjunct instructor who asked to go by Sam to protect his privacy said adjuncts were recently given contracts that bar them from state unemployment benefits — an act that is expressly prohibited by the Texas Workforce Commission, the governmental group that provides unemployment benefits (“Higher Ed, Lower Wages,” March 30).

Part of Texas’ labor code reads, “An employer may not require or accept a waiver of a right of an individual employed by the employer.”

One former adjunct who asked that we conceal his identity for fear of reprisal said he was terminated because his dean didn’t want to accommodate his disabilities. Unable to drive, the adjunct said he often could not afford Uber rides to travel to and from work, adding that his pay (around $500 per class per month for adjuncts) was not enough to make buying frequent trips affordable. The adjunct said TCC can expect a federal investigation over his wrongful termination in the near future. He asked our magazine to share his

Cour tesy of TCC

continued from page 9

Former TCC chancellor Eugene Giovannini was recently terminated due to his handling of an employee firing.

message with our readers.

“Tarrant County, this is your junior college,” he said. “It needs to be fixed.

They receive money from the federal government, state, and county. As a Tarrant County resident, I wouldn’t give them a dime if I had my way about it.”

Susan and Rebecca told me they have found rewarding work outside of TCC. Time affords perspective, and the two former county college employees now understand that their past leaders created a hostile work environment that lowered morale and impeded productivity. When they talk to their friends who stayed on at TCC, the feedback is that things are as bad as ever at the college’s HR department.

“TCC is a phenomenal institution,” Ronacher said. “They have helped a lot of people. They are a huge organization, and these people are running it into the ground.

Good people are leaving. I wanted to retire when my wife retired, but I went ahead and retired a year ago because I qualified.

I was sick of dealing with this shit — the harassment, having me do things I’m not qualified to do.”

Before Jenny resigned from TCC, she reached out to Maddox-Powell to have one final face-to-face discussion about her boss’ alleged acts of intimidation. Jenny said Maddox-Powell never responded.

Jenny said that someone at the college needs to hold the head of HR responsible for the torment she caused former and current employees.

“When I joined, I was very excited,” Jenny said. “I was tasked with ensuring that the employees’ rights will be recognized. Within three weeks, I’m on a PIP. What happened to me should never have happened.” l

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Robert Eggers’ last two movies, The Witch and The Lighthouse, were set in New England. His latest film, The Northman, goes even farther north to Viking country, and it’s everything you’d expect in a movie about Vikings. It’s a giant slab of raw meat. It’s the sort of movie made to inspire whole albums of heavy metal music, where warriors do more than just vow, “We will drink blood from the wounds of our enemies.” They actually do it in close-up. It’s also a clever patch on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. There are movies that you call “visceral,” and then there are movies where a guy actually has his intestines pulled from his body. This would be the latter. Enough tweet-length reviews of this. Let’s look deeper.

The story picks up in 895 A.D. on an island north of Britain, when young Prince Amleth (Oscar Novak) welcomes home his father, King Aurvandil WarRaven (Ethan Hawke), from a victorious war with his beloved brother Fjölnir (Claes Bang). The king thinks his son is now old enough to be initiated into

Alexander Skarsgård swears revenge on his enemies in The Northman.

manhood rituals, one of which swears the boy to avenge his father if he should die in battle. This happens almost immediately afterwards, when Amleth sees his father ambushed and decapitated

by Fjölnir and his men. Nineteen years later, an exiled adult Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) has joined a tribe of Slav Vikings pillaging their way through Kievan Rus’ when a vision of a blind seer (Björk) and the news that Fjölnir has been deposed and exiled to Iceland put him back on his mission. He sneaks aboard a slave ship destined for Fjölnir’s village and bides his time there, waiting to kill his unsuspecting uncle until obtaining a sword named Dreigur the Undead. How metal is that?

The Shakespeare parallels don’t stop there, as Amleth confronts the skull of the court jester (Willem Dafoe) and says, “I knew him.” Later, he hides behind a tapestry before confronting his mother and Fjölnir’s queen (Nicole Kidman)

in her bedroom — unhappily for him, his mother turns out to be closer to Lady Macbeth than to Gertrude. Eggers and co-writer Sjón (a songwriter and collaborator of Björk’s who has been writing movie scripts since Dancer in the Dark) combine these elements with less familiar ones from the Icelandic sagas and Beowulf. It’s stitched together adroitly, and Eggers fiddles with the sound mix to make Amleth’s encounters with supernatural beings uncannier.

When our hero has a vision of a Valkyrie, it’s not some dewy Nordic maiden but a revenant that looks ready to tear off someone’s head. So many movies about Vikings never convince us that we’re watching anything but actors dressed like Vikings. This one’s chanting in Old Norse and Old Ukrainian makes the film far more persuasive.

So do the off-the-charts levels of violence here, as Eggers employs smooth, disengaged tracking shots

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Robert Eggers’ The Northman isn’t quite Valhalla, but it’s quite good.

Aidan Monaghan

Go Vikings

through the villages to show the Vikings slaughtering pregnant women and setting children on fire. I could have used some of The Lighthouse’s humor to provide some relief, although it is amusing that when Fjölnir finds two of his men dismembered by Amleth, he blames the Christians and their evil sorcery. Both Amleth and an enslaved Ukrainian peasant named Olga (Anya Taylor-Joy) have access to their own witchery that the other finds strange, which leads to a “how did they do that?” shot when she utters a spell bidding the winds to propel their sailboat, and the camera pans up from her face to the sail filling with air. The performances here are appropriately savage, and Bang, the Danish actor who played weak men so memorably in The Square and The Burnt Orange Heresy, impresses by conveying a bloodlust that persists even though it costs him everyone he cares about.

That’s a running theme here. Amleth is given a chance to live a happy and peaceful life with Olga, and he abandons her and their unborn children to take his long-delayed revenge on Fjölnir. He might be right that the deposed king will keep hunting them unless he’s dead, but after a seer (Ingvar Sigurđsson) has given him a choice between love and cruelty, he picks the latter. The Northman brings his quest to an end by a burning lake at the gates of Hel, the afterlife realm from Norse mythology. Amleth’s macho Viking ethos of conquest and retribution leads to this desolate place of blood and ash and dead bodies as far as the eye can see. Seems like a bad way to end. l

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

SCREEN

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The Northman Starring Alexander Skarsgård and Anya Taylor-Joy. Directed by Robert Eggers.

Written by Robert Eggers and Sjón.

Rated R.

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Officer America

This Fort Worth resident and Arlington police officer is probably fitter than you — as well as every other cop in the country.

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My children are at the age where police officers are real-life superheroes. Flashing lights, authority, uniforms — my sons, who are both younger than 5, eat that stuff up. Those of us who’ve taken a few trips around the sun know that law enforcement — while surely exposing themselves to extreme dangers and performing heroic acts — are mere mortals doing service to the community while living normal lives like the rest of us. Yet a local resident who wears an Arlington PD badge looks and trains a little more like a Marvel character than most.

Justin Dewing is originally from Wisconsin, though no funny accent was discernible when we spoke, and he grew up a pretty normal kid. A natural athlete, the standout shooting guard spent most of high school perfecting his hardwood skills, except when he was playing varsity soccer in the fall in what he described as his endurance training for basketball season. Still in love with roundball when he graduated, Dewing matriculated to Minnesota to play collegiate basketball at Northwestern College for two years before transferring south to the University of Southern Illinois at Edwardsville, where he finished his undergraduate degree. Dewing described himself as a typical broke college kid who needed a job and began personal training clients at a gym in the area. At the same time, he — like many — was introduced by another trainer to the burgeoning sport of functional fitness branded under the company CrossFit. So while he was helping some perform traditional large-gym exercises like tricep extensions and bench presses, he was digesting online workouts calling for Olympic lifting, dizzying numbers of burpees, and handstand walking.

After graduation, Dewing moved back to Wisconsin and became co-owner

APRIL 20-26, 2022

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B Y

Cour tesy Audrey Dewing

STUFF

Justin Dewing is currently CrossFit’s fittest American law enforcement officer. He’ll try to secure the title of fittest in the world next week.

of a CrossFit affiliate for several years.

Anyone who has ever worked for or owned a small business knows it can be grueling, and, while still passionate about fitness, the overworked twentysomething was looking for a new direction in life, an opportunity to plant roots, and a warmer climate. Originally drawn to the notion of becoming a firefighter, Dewing moved to Fort Worth, knowing the quantity of local departments represented ample opportunities to realize his dream.

“The adrenaline, the exciting side of police work drew my interest more and more,” he said of his eventual switch to pursuing law enforcement positions.

Dewing applied in Arlington, partially because it was one of the first cities that populated his internet searches but also because they had an interview process as opposed to completely relying on the civil service examination.

“I knew,” he said, “if I could put my face in front of someone, I’d have a better chance of being hired, instead of just a name on a resume.”

Despite the pressures and workload of owning a CrossFit gym changing his trajectory, Dewing’s love and talent for fitness and competition didn’t change.

CrossFit has an annual online competition available to any competitor who pays the requisite registration fee (usually $20). This year marked the 11th such competition, and Dewing has competed in nine of them. Formerly, competitors with superior times or scores for the assigned workouts would advance to one of several in-person regionals, which Dewing advanced to and finished 16th out of 60 in 2014. The structure of The CrossFit Open has changed since. Starting in 2021, the company introduced an additional level of online competition for those hoping to compete in person or hoping to qualify for the NoBull CrossFit Games. The Top 10% of Open finishers by continent (more than 65,000 signed up in North America

this year) advanced to quarterfinals, and our local officer finished 210th, which qualified him easily. Quarterfinals feature five advanced-level workouts. Of the more than 3,400 North American men who advanced, Dewing finished 149th. While his finish was incredibly impressive, only the Top 120 finishers will move on to one of several in-person semifinal competitions.

To give context to how elite semifinals are, only three DFW locals were able to punch their tickets. Tucker McLemore, the owner and head coach of Rayzor Ranch Crossfit in Argyle, finished 113th and is the lone male to advance. Rebecca Fuselier, who has appeared at the CrossFit Games before but in the teen division and coaches at CrossFit Bolt in Coppell, and Leah Irons, who is a co-owner and coach at CrossFit Ammo in Allen, will both appear in semifinal contests as well.

For Dewing, CrossFit hasn’t been a casual part of his life. In addition to helping him achieve the fitness to serve on the Arlington PD SWAT team, as well as working with a unit that exclusively deals with high-crime areas, he met his wife after starting to work out at Rock It CrossFit (now Dissent Athletics) on the East Side.

After the couple moved to North Fort Worth, he changed gyms and is a current member of Cowtown CrossFit. It was partially his wife, Audrey, who precipitated a focus on this year’s competition. She encouraged her husband to pursue a superior finish this year by dedicating the time and effort he’d put forth in his pre-officer life. For several years, Dewing has worked out in a class setting with other gym members, but for almost the entire past year, he’s taken a different approach to his training.

“I’d go into the gym before work [5pm-3am four days per week] and put about two and a half hours in,” he said.

The officer started following competitor-specific workouts through CrossFit legend Rich Froning’s program

from CrossFit Mayhem in Cookeville, Tennessee. These workouts are incredibly challenging and high volume even for someone who really likes their fitness. Most days prescribe sessions intended to be done at two different times per day, but a man walking the thin blue line didn’t have that luxury of time. “I’d take about a 15-minute break and drink a Gatorade or eat a protein bar and then do the next one.”

He admitted it took a lot of sacrifice for this amount of preparation, especially when he and his wife were expecting their first child.

Yes, their firstborn, a son, arrived on March 22, two days before the quarterfinals stage of competition began. Luckily for Dewing, he was accustomed to the secondshift life with his work schedule and was taking a month off from the department to help out at home and spend time with his newborn. Even though the eventual goal of making semifinals, and perhaps even the CrossFit Games, will have to be deferred to another year, Dewing is hoping to achieve a different title this year: Fittest law enforcement officer in the world.

CrossFit has eight occupational categories in which athletes may choose to compete based on their profession.

Health-care workers, first responders, college students, active-duty military, retired military, firefighters, school teachers, and law enforcement officers all have opportunities to qualify for the Occupational Games division, which is a separate online-only competition held April 21-24 (Thursday-Sunday). Dewing was our nation’s fittest cop based on his CrossFit Open finish, and he’s poised to hold the world title by the end of the month.

After finishing seventh in the world based on the CrossFit Open, the leaderboard for the Occupational Games will probably shake up, as several of the top finishers will be choosing to focus their efforts on achieving an individual or team appearance at the CrossFit Games. Dewing’s closest American competitor, Matthew Greene out of Brentwood, Missouri, finished behind our hometown hero in both the Open and quarterfinals stages.

Regardless of the results of this year’s occupational games, Dewing and wife Audrey have already agreed that he’ll spend another year of focused training to refine a few facets of his fitness to make a run at semifinals again next year. He’s also interested in possibly competing in local competitions with his wife, who is still a fitness junkie herself.

“I told her no matter how much any of these workouts hurt, they can’t compare to how strong she is,” Dewing said of watching her give birth to their son.

As much as I personally want to be the superhero of my kids’ worlds, it might be less exhausting for me to simply let them drop in and watch Officer Dewing train for an afternoon and tell them that’s the real-life Captain America. l

Family Festival | Fiesta de la Familia Amazing Art from Across Africa Art Making

Storytelling

Dance Performances

Free admission to The Language of Beauty in African Art

Sunday, April 24 | noon–5 pm | FREE Visit kimbell.org/calendar for more details.

Join Earthx for the largest green gathering bringing people together to inform and inspire action towards are more sustainable future.

APRIL 20-26, 2022 FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

Cour tesy Ear thX

EarthX’s 12th annual Earth Day celebration at Kay Baily Hutchens Convention Center (650 S Griffin St, Dallas, 214-310-1200) includes four days of exhibits, learning and interactive experiences, outdoor activities, conferences, entertainment, music, and food that provides achievable solutions for a more sustainable globe.

Open this Friday to Sunday, EarthX 2022 brings together environmental citizens, educators, businesses, youth advocates, business executives,

ter, Clean Water Fund, the Nature Conservancy, and Rainforest Trust, just to name a few!

The Congress of Conferences cultivates relationships and forms partnerships between mission-driven advocates, investors, accelerators, researchers, academics, and other concerned world citizens. The conference aims to inform, promote and initiate activities that facilitate environmental initiatives with a substantial positive impact on the planet and all living things.

This year’s topics include energy; law; Latin America; wildlife conservation; farm, forest, and ranch; E-Capital Summit; island and a Corporate Impact Summit.

EarthX 2022 hours are 11am-6pm Fri, 10am-6pm Sat, and 10am-3pm Sun at KBHCCD. This event is free to attend. Register now on EventBrite.com.

Cour tesy Ear thX

Promotional Feature

non-government organizations, and thought leaders to take action towards a more sustainable future worldwide.

Check out the learning and interactive experiences, including storytime hosted by the Dallas Public Library, concerts, science on a sphere, eco-art competition, solar art classes, goat yoga, meditation, rock climbing wall, sensory and soft play station, life-size games, 3D chalk, dueling pianos, face painting, plant wall, and seed station, henna tattoos, eco-art competition, dance classes, outdoor activities, entertainment, a rock-climbing wall, music, and food.

EarthX 2022 features more than 100 exhibitors, including the Dallas Cowboys, Half Price Books, the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, Texas Trees Foundation, Jaguar Rescue Center, Patagonia, Pheasants Forever, John Bunker Sands Wetland Cen-

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EarthX is Back in Person for 2022

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Image: Bandan Koro African Drum & Dance Ensemble

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FREE EXPO! April 22-24 earthx.org

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APRIL 20-26, 2022

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KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON CONVENTION CENTER | DALLAS

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APRIL 20-26, 2022

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fwweekly.com APRIL 20-26, 2022 FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY 16

This exhibition was organized by The Art Institute of Chicago.

The Kimbell Art Museum is supported in part by Arts Fort Worth, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

APRIL 3–JULY 31, 2022 Promotional support provided by

NIGHT&DAY 21

If you “weren’t born in Texas but you got here as fast as you could and now Thursday you don’t know what grows in our Texas heat,” Fossil Creek Tree Farm and Nursery (7744 Blue Mound Rd, 817306-7111) can help. Owner Josh Richards, a certified Texas nursery professional and licensed irrigation expert, hosts the free class New to Texas Gardening 10am-11am.

Learn to navigate the clay soil, rock, weather, and wind challenges and learn about soil preparation and the flowers, plants, and trees that can thrive in our area. Register on EventBrite.com.

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Do you enjoy staged readings of thought-provoking plays and participating in group Friday discussions? If so, meet up with the Play Reading Club at Theatre Arlington (305 W Main St, 817-275-7661) at 7:30pm for a reading of American Son by Christopher Demos-Brown and stay for a discussion with the cast and director Ken’Ja L Brown. The play is about “an estranged biracial couple [who] must confront their feelings about race and bias after their son is detained and appears to be missing following a traffic stop incident. With unrelentingly high tension on every level — maternal, marital, societal — the audience is on the edge of their seat while this couple tries to find out what has happened to their son.” Tickets are $15 at TheatreArlington.org.

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Centered along Magnolia Avenue from 8th Avenue to S Main Street, the Saturday Near Southside’s annual ArtsGoggle festival (@ArtsGoggle) hosts 21 blocks of art, eats, and drinks available for purchase, plus entertainment and live music, from noon to 10pm. This pedestrian-friendly event is free to attend. Visitors are invited to park their cars and rediscover this revitalized urban district by Trinity Metro transit, foot, or bicycle, including Fort Worth Bike Sharing bikes. For more information, visit ArtsGoggle.org.

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Weatherford College Theatre presents The Good Doctor by Neil Simon at Tuesday 7:30pm in the Marjorie Alkek Fine Arts Center (239 College Clearfork (4801 Edwards Ranch Rd, 817- Park Dr, Weatherford, 817-594-5471). “A 975-2886) with photographer Edgar Miller combination of Neil Simon and Chekhov, of Edgar Miller Images at the Bird & The Good Doctor, a comedy with music, is, by Nature Class 6pm-7:30pm. During this turns, charming, hilarious, sad, and touching. free “photowalk,” Miller will teach you tips It centers around a writer who speaks to the and techniques for capturing great pictures audience and shares his writing with them of birds, wildlife, and other natural features throughout one day. He presents them of the river. This free event is rain or shine, with a plethora of scenes: Some are from except for thunderstorms, so check the his childhood, others are from his family forecast. It is recommended that you bring a and friends, and still others are his own life camera with a telephoto zoom lens. Register experiences. The audience meets various SRF2022-FWWkly-Ad4-7_46x8_41-0415-PRESS.pdf 1 4/5/22 12:30 PM at EventBrite.com. characters, all of whom are immediately

relatable and strikingly human.” Doors open at 7pm, and admission is free.

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On the last Wednesday of the month at 8pm, Andrew Wednesday O’Brien “morphs into a human jukebox in front of your very ears” at Andrew, Dear Sings Songs for You at MASS (1002 S Main St, @ MASSFW). According to the folks at MASS, it’s a four-part process: 1.) go to MASS, 2.) scan the QR code to access the song list, 3.) choose the song that you want Andrew to absolutely crush for you, and 4.) sit back and enjoy a beverage as the beautiful sounds wash over you. There is no cost to attend.

By Jennifer Bovee

41stAnnual

All New

Viking &Ale Weekend April 23 & 24

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CM

APRIL 9 THRU MAY 30

Saturdays, Sundays & Memorial Day Monday

MY

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In celebration of Earth Month, the EarthX 2022 Expo is back at the Sunday Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center (650 S Griffin St, Dallas, 214-310-1200) 11am-6pm Fri, 10am-6pm Sat, and 10am-3pm today. The expo features Jaws the Sloth, live musical performances, DIY seed bombs, face painting, stilt walkers, and more. This event is free to attend. Register at EventBrite.com.

25 Monday

Take a walk along the Trinity River Trailhead at Edwards Ranch at

Upcoming Theme Weekends

April 30 & May 1 Live the Fantasy / Spring Celebration May 7 & 8 Celebrating Chivalry including the All New Chocolate Sensations Tasting Event

Get your Ale Festival Tickets at SRFestival.com before they sell out!

Just 30 Minutes South of Downtown Fort Worth

APRIL 20-26, 2022

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CMY

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Join us April 22nd, 23rd and 24th.

Metric Century Bicycle Rally, 5K Fun Run, Sanctioned Cook-Offs

Purchase your tickets online at

LIVE MUSIC from Teague Brothers Band, Shane Smith & The Saints, Lederhosen Junkies and Das Ist Lustig

m u e n s t e r c h a m b e r. c o m

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

APRIL 20-26, 2022

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Heritage Park 301 N Ash, Muenster, TX 76252 940-759-2227 THIS IS A LITTER FREE EVENT. PLEASE REMEMBER TO KEEP MUENSTER BEAUTIFUL!

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THE PAVILION AT TOYOTA MUSIC FACTORY

AUGUST 24

GET TICKETS FRIDAY APRIL 22nd AT 10AM

EATS & drinks

No. 1 or Bust

Last fall, I attended the Fort Worth Food + Wine Festival and was struck by Don Artemio’s food stand, which had six goat carcasses roasting over coals. That was hard to ignore.

So was the fact that this restaurant, located in Saltillo, Mexico, had chosen our city for its second location in the world. The place, whose kitchen focuses on the cuisine of northeastern Mexico, aims to prove that Mexican food deserves the upscale treatment every bit

FIRST BLUE ZONES APPROVED THAI RESTAURANTS IN FW!

though the flaky and lightly crispy chips make a case for it. Of the four accompaniments to the totopos, I liked the kicky serrano dip and the house-made Cotija cheese, which was the best that I’ve ever had.

Other Mexican places serve up soggy, salty curds that could be confused for cheap feta — Don Artemio gives you an airy, slightly tangy, almost powdery cheese that I wish I had a tub of in my refrigerator.

My eating partner noted that the mussel appetizer was a Mexican take on moules frites, with the thinly shaved slices of fried potato standing in for the French fries.

The mollusks were juicy, and my partner couldn’t stop using the empty shells to continued on page 21

“Best Thai Food” – FW Weekly Critics Choice 2015, 2017 & 2019 4630 SW Loop 820 | Fort Worth• 817-731-0455 order online for pickup Thaiselectrestaurant.com

The mussels come with thin fried potatoes and two kinds of salsa.

Don Artemio Totopos ...................................................... $8 Palomas de cabrito ................................... $16 Mejillones en salsa de chipotle ............... $22 El famoso “chile hojaldrado” ................... $28 Pork belly confitado en asado de bodas .... $36 Tres leches del desierto ............................ $16

SPICE

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– FW Weekly Critics Choice Thai Kitchen & Bar 2016 – FW Weekly 411 W. Magnolia Ave readers Choice Fort Worth • 817-984-1800 2017, 2019, order online for pickup at Spicedfw.com 2020 & 2021

THE BEST THAI IN FORT WORTH

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S T O R Y A N D P H O T O S B Y K R I S T I A N L I N

as much as French, Italian, or Japanese. Let our entire Mexican dining scene take note that a serious new player has arrived.

The name comes from Artemio de Valle Arizpe, the early 20th-century diplomat, novelist, and historian who was as famous for his love of good food as for his literary works. His quotes are even printed on the drink coasters. The eatery on West 7th is decorated with Saltillo tile, of course, along with a bookshelf holding 23 of Valle Arizpe’s 54 published novels. Serapes and seashells are incorporated into the decor, with earth tones and high ceilings creating a relaxing feel.

The place charges for its tortilla chips, which will strike some diners as wrong, al-

APRIL 20-26, 2022

Don Artemio, 3268 W 7th St, FW. 817-470-1439.

10am-2:30pm Sun, 11am-2:30pm Mon-Sat, 5-9pm Mon-Thu & Sun, 5-10pm Fri-Sat. All major credit cards accepted.

The pork belly confit is bathed in a red sauce.

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

Is new Mexican place Don Artemio the GOAT? It means to be.

The three goat tacos are quite filling as a lunch entrée.

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APRIL 20-26, 2022

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300 S. Main St. | 817-349-9832 | Facebook.com/TheBeardedLadyFortWorth

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The tres leches came out close to breakfast cereal.

The coaster describes Mexico as “vast like its desire and its ambition.”

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The chile hojaldrado is topped with both black and white sesame seeds.

scoop up the creamy chipotle sauce that brought a pure note of smokiness to the meat. The portion size was enough that, if the dish had been accompanied by bread, it could have made a fine lunch on its own.

My pork belly confit didn’t look like much, a square of meat sitting in a sea of asado de boda sauce. Then I pulled some pork off and ate it, and — holy crap — was it rich. The word “decadent” does not do justice to this bomb of fat and flavor that made my head spin. I appreciated the earthy heat of the sauce, a cross between red chile and mole, but I needed a spritz of lime juice to cut through the fat or more than just the two plantain chips to give the meat a textural contrast. (The confit means there’s no crunchy fried crust.) If you are not watching your waistline or your cholesterol, this dish is your splurge.

The chile hojaldrado, the adjective referring to the fried puff-pastry shell encasing a poblano pepper stuffed with cream cheese and pecans, was a more harmonious combination of flavors and textures, with the nuts and cheese playing nicely against the smoky pepper, which was mercifully not so hot that it overwhelmed the other elements. If you like jalapeño poppers with cream cheese, this is a more grown-up, vegetarian version that’s large and refined enough to work as an entrée without embarrassing you to tell your friends that you had it for dinner.

I went back solo for those goat tacos, which are served only at lunch. Technically, they’re kid, since the “cabrito” in their name refers to animals slaughtered at age 3-5 months, but you can understand why the restaurant might not want to say they’re serving “kid.” Many people associate goat meat with animals that live with humans, eat human trash, and taste like it. These elegant tacos were reminiscent of a more tender version of pulled pork, unctuous and just gamy enough to give it character without putting you off. They came with a red cabbage slaw whose lime dressing did much to counter the meat’s richness. My only complaint was with the sharp bits of bone in the meat — a hazard with goat, which is often cut from the shoulder with a band saw — so you might want to be careful chewing these.

Dessert was a deconstructed tres leches cake that seemed like an example of overthinking. The irregular bits of cake and berries (topped by a seashell-shaped disc of white chocolate ice cream) came in a bowl with evaporated milk at the bottom, while the waiter poured condensed milk over the concoction at the table. The effect made the dessert like breakfast cereal, with the cake pieces quickly becoming milk-logged though still tasty. For your after-dinner course, you may want to try the Mexican labels on the wine list, high-quality stuff that is hard to find outside the borders of Mexico. My spicy, heavily tannic red from Baja California made a good chaser for the tacos, though most of the wines are from Coahuila state. Every phase of Don Artemio’s service promises something unique, a rarefied experience in Fort Worth’s Mexican dining. l

APRIL 20-26, 2022

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FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

Eats & Drinks

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$

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Lunch Special M–F 11am–2pm

Tuk Tuk Thai

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Free Delivery Limited Area & Minimum $20 3431 W 7th St • Fort Worth, TX 76107

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APRIL 20-26, 2022

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817.332.3339

22

WCK provides meals to refugees sheltering in Ukraine or arriving in Hungary, Moldova, Poland, and Romania. If you dine at Wicked Butcher 5pm-10pm Mon, 50% of the proceeds will be donated to help feed Ukrainian refugees.

6.) Discover Denison — the tourism arm of the City of Denison — hosts Bandits, Bluegrass & BBQ 6pm-9pm Fri, Apr 29, at Heritage Park (324 W Main St, Denison, @DiscoverDenison), benefiting the Boys and Girls Club of Denison. Along with a barbecue competition, entertainment will include live music by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Bluegrass Band (a group that infuses Beatles classics with bluegrass), the Quibble Brothers, and a special appearance by Burton Gilliam. Barbecue and drinks will be available for purchase. There is no cost to attend.

4.) Celebrate spring with Cowtown Farmers Market (3821 Southwest Blvd, CowtownMarket.com) at Spring Festival 8am-12pm Sat. Along with the usual vendors, there will be cooking demos by Chef Jen, cooking lessons with AgriLife Extension, face painting, family-friendly activities, gardening advice from Tarrant County master gardeners, and live music by Mel Farsek. There is no cost to attend. For more information and updates, visit Facebook.com/CowtownFarmersMkt. 5.) Located inside The Sinclair Hotel, fine-dining steakhouse Wicked Butcher (512 Main St, 817-601-4621) has been doing its part to help Ukraine by raising money on Mondays throughout April for the World Central Kitchen through Chef Jose Andres’ program #ChefsforUkraine.

8.) But wait, there’s more barbecue. Fort Worth Stock Show Syndicate will host its inaugural Syndicate Smokedown from noon to 11pm Sat, Apr 30, at Panther Island Pavilion (395 Purcey St, 817-698-0700), benefiting the Jim Bob Norman FWSSS Scholarship Fund that helps young livestock exhibitors. This International Barbecue Cookers Association-sanctioned competition starts at noon when top pitmasters compete for $12,000 in prize money. There will be live music throughout the day

by Cory Morrow, Josh Grider & Drew Kennedy of Topo Chico Cowboys, Kyle Park, Lauren Corzine, the Randy Brown Show, and Raised Right Men. Tickets are $25-$150 at SyndicateSmokedown.com/Attend.

By Jennifer Bovee

fwweekly.com

3.) Martin House Brewing Company (220 S Sylvania Av, 817-222-0177) does a lot of special-release events, but 4pm-6pm Fri takes the piroshkie. Piroshky Piroshky Bakery, purveyor of Seattle’s famous hand-crafted pastries at Pike Place Market since 1992, is on tour and stopping at Martin House for local folk to pick up preplaced orders ($50 minimum). “Famous for its long lines out the door, Piroshky Piroshky Bakery has received widespread acclaim over the years, including a feature on Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, and was voted one of the 20 Most Iconic Food Destinations Across America by the Smithsonian.” Place your order by 3:30pm Wed at PiroshkyBakery.com.

Tuesdays mean funnel cakes at Rockwood Go-Kart Park.

7.) The Fourth Annual Beer, Bugs & BBQ Bash is 6pm-10pm Fri, Apr 29, at River Ranch Stockyards (500 NE 23rd St, 817-624-1111), benefiting Brotherhood for the Fallen. Entertainment includes live music by Poo Live Crew and a fireworks finale. General Admission is $55 per person on EventBrite.com and includes crawfish with potatoes and corn, plus chopped beef sandwiches, beans, cole slaw, soft drinks, and three adult drink tickets.

The VIP for $85 per person (or $800 for a 10-guest table) includes all of the above, plus a premium bar with Texas spirits and guaranteed seating near the stage. For more info, visit RiverRanchStockyards.com.

APRIL 20-26, 2022

2.) From 6pm to 10pm Thu, Arlington Charities hosts its annual Help & Hope Celebrity Chef Showcase fundraising event. After a wine reception at 6:30pm, there will be a seated tasting at 7pm, featuring live cooking demonstrations by Gold Ribbon Confections, Hurtado Barbecue, and Prince Lebanese Grill, plus wine pairings and a silent auction. Tickets are $100 per person at Bit.ly/ HelpandHopeAC.

Cour tesy Facebook

1.) Along with $6 rounds of mini-golf and $6 go-kart rides, you can also purchase funnel cakes from Heavens Cake every Tuesday at Rockwood Go-Kart Track (700 N University Dr, 817-626-1913). Like the one pictured with ice cream and fruit, a loaded funnel cake is $15. There are other varieties as well. For updates on other Tuesday specials, follow the Rockwood page at Facebook.com/ Rockwood.GoKarts.and.Golf.

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

Another food- and booze-related holiday is right around the bend. Read next week’s issue for Cinco de Mayo ideas. Meanwhile, here are eight things to do that don’t necessarily involve tequila.

23

Jack Barksdale

On his debut album, the rootsy 14-yearold singer-songwriter proves age is just a number — and should be completely ignored.

B Y

P A T R I C K

H I G G I N S

FO R T WO R T H W E E K LY

APRIL 20-26, 2022

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For nearly five years, Texas singersongwriter circles have been enamored with Jack Barksdale. Since the age of 9, the skinny kid in his signature oversized Texas flag-emblazoned boots and red beanie has been sharing stages with folk and country luminaries three and four

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Ryker Paige

MUSIC

times his age and holding his own. It’s no doubt a bit of a novelty to see a child, practically dwarfed by the body of his acoustic guitar, manage to make his way through a few complete songs, much less be able to command rapt attention for full three-hour sets, but since releasing his debut single in 2017, Barksdale’s songwriting has demonstrated he’s so much more than a child prodigy. With Death of a Hummingbird, his debut album, the now adolescent troubadour is proving his songcraft should be taken at face value, regardless of his age.

“My goal is always just to do the best that I’m capable of and hope that people see that just as they would for any other artist,” Barksdale said. “I know there’s some novelty around my age. I feel like that’s fine.

I’d rather it not be the case, but I hope that as I get older, my songs will be recognized and thought of ” in their own right.

Death of a Hummingbird is a statement of sorts in this regard. The fruits of a grant provided by Barksdale’s beloved La Grange listening room, Bugle Boy, which is given to artists to help fund recordings and other financially intensive projects, the 11-track LP reads like the work of a mature and experienced songwriter decades into the craft exploring his own evolving viewpoints, albeit, delivered in a contrastingly high (high, even for his young age) singing voice.

Saying he’s an old soul is old hat. Barksdale’s songs should be appreciated despite his young age.

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“I’m still pretty young,” he acknowledges, “but as I’m getting older, I’m becoming more aware of things around me, learning about so many things, and figuring out what I think of these things — what I believe and what I stand for. A lot of these songs on this album are kind of arguments or ideas that I was thinking of at the time. I feel like the album is going to be a time capsule for me of what I was thinking about, and what I was wrestling with, and of me figuring some things out. I hope some people find those things helpful.”

Co-writing, for the first time, with heralded Texas singer-songwriters like Guthrie Kennard and Jeff Plankenhorn, Barksdale wrote nearly all of the material on Hummingbird during the early months of the pandemic. His verses explore themes of personal growth or are immersive story songs, and they add in a heavy inspiration by a newfound love for Leonard Cohen.

“I’m not sure if it’s quite the lockdown [that inspired me] as much as it is the music I started getting into during the lockdown,” he said. “I started getting into what I guess you could call ‘hardcore’ songwriting like early Leonard Cohen and, more recently, Tom Waits. Of course, I’ve always been a big fan of Townes Van Zandt, but Leonard Cohen was one of the big eye openers for me. Just the way he words things, phrases he chooses — I’ve really been loving it, and I think some of that shows up. The songs definitely aren’t as good, but I think you can tell that maybe they were inspired by him.”

During the recording last August over three days in Nashville’s 3Sirens Studio with producer Mike Meadows (Hayes Carll, The Grahams) and engineer Dex Green (Elvis Costello, Devon Gilfillian), Barksdale said he learned a lot by working

117 S Main St • Fort Worth

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C Hris H aM

APRIL 20-26, 2022

Music

with the other songwriters and the amazing session musicians who were brought in.

“It’s really interesting because you get to get right in the middle of someone else’s writing process,” he said of the collaborations. “To get to learn how other people write and how other people work, I definitely learned a lot and ended up with some pretty cool songs with musicians and writers that I really look up to.”

Though the actual recording process isn’t necessarily his favorite, Barksdale understands its value.

“You kind of record because you have to,” he said. “I don’t really love recording, but I love the finished product. Making it is never the most fun. It’s fine, but my favorite part is always the writing of the songs.”

That care for the crafting of a song is fully showcased on the record. Whether Barksdale is highlighting his impressive guitar playing on the instrumental tracks that bookend the album, opener “Revival Song No. 3” and closer “Bugle Boy Blues,” spinning haunting tales with tracks like the jazzy New Orleans shuffle of “Man in the Ground” and the slinky, dark, gospel blues of “Before the Devil Knows,” or trying to touch the listener with poetic ballads like “Trances” and the title track, Barksdale is absolutely earning the appreciation he’s receiving. And there seems to be plenty of it, though he shrugs off being overly concerned with it and “obsessively searching for any reviews online.”

As a testament to the response, the tracks on Hummingbird have been streamed tens of thousands of times on Spotify in just over a month since the release.

“Whenever I release music, I think it’s going to be the best music I’ve done [so far] because I’ve learned more since the last thing,” he said, “and I’ll learn more before the next thing. I think that’s the best I can do, and it makes me happy, so I really can’t worry about how it’s received.” l

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Oyster Bar

Holy shit, ArtsGoggle is really happening again.

This is the thought I had a few weeks ago when “Competing Downtown Arts Festivals” was a conversational topic I seemed to have gotten roped into at least once a day. My contributions to these discussions, usually across the bar top at my job, were mostly that I really cared only if artists sold art and if the bartenders made money, because several of my friends were hawking their shit at the Sundance Square festival and I had passed on an offer to bartend at it.

After that happened, I had an additional thought: All y’all who dragged in conversation or social media one or both of these events, remember when those things were canceled for two years?

Now this is basically the theme of my “I Hate SXSW” column from last month, but it bears reiterating that for two years, a couple subsets of the economy — artists, service industry, and all the other craftspeople and intermediaries who make arts festivals happen — were sidelined, and even if you don’t like the logistics or the intent of a given event, you should check them out anyway, because you know, all of the people who work these things have bills to pay. They happen outside, so at least you’ll get some fresh air.

But also, ArtsGoggle, in my opinion, is the best of these annual arts fests,

the one you’d stroll through if you had to pick only one. I’m biased, because I’ve worked in the heart of the festival for a whole-ass decade, but consider this: At those other arts festivals, how many local bands did you see? Because I bet that number is smaller than the number of bands playing the Boiled Owl Tavern on West Magnolia during ArtsGoggle alone.

Full disclosure: I work there, but even if you never drop into the Owl — in which case you’d miss Cameron Smith and the Slings, Upsetting, Naaman the Rapper, Big Heaven, and five other area bands — you could still catch sets from locals like Lou Charle$, Cotinga, The Cush, Ferals, Sagemodewrex, Yokyo (and another 10 great local acts), as well as some bigger artists: Sarah Jaffe headlines the West Stage at 8th and Magnolia at 9pm, and Robert Ellis takes the East Stage at S Main and Magnolia at 6pm — check @ artsgoggle for full rosters and set times.

Of course, there’s the other piece of ArtsGoggle, the arts part, and regarding that, all the artists I’d expect to see on Magnolia this Saturday were probably also at the Fort Worth Art Fair, which kind of makes ArtsGoggle similar to that one but more fun and drama-free. So come through. See some bands. Get day-drunk and buy a print of Baby Yoda eating a Whataburger or whatever. ArtsGoggle is happening again, and you’ll be bummed if you miss it. — Steve Steward Contact HearSay at Anthony@FWWeekly.com.

Going on 50 years.

Come see us!

Fo r t W o r t h 6 1 2 U n i v er s i t y

t k C o u r t e s y Te x a s P i a n o M a n . c o m

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APRIL 20-26, 2022

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The Original FTW

ArtsGoggle Is Here

Texas Piano Man Robert Ellis is among the headliners at this Saturday’s ArtsGoggle.

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Texas Commission on environmenTal QualiTy

NOTICE OF RECEIPT OF APPLICATION AND INTENT TO OBTAIN AIR PERMIT (NORI) RENEWAL PERMIT NUMBER 45894 APPLICATION. Lane Supply, Inc., has applied to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) for renewal of Air Quality Permit Number 45894, which would authorize continued operation of a Steel and Metal Fabrication Facility located at 120 Fairview Street, Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas 76010. This link to an electronic map of the site or facility's general location is provided as a public courtesy and not part of the application or notice. For exact location, refer to application. http://www.tceq.texas.gov/assets/public/hb610/index.html?lat=32.7375&lng=97.085555&zoom=13&type=r. The existing facility and/or related facilities are authorized to emit the following air contaminants: exempt solvents, hazardous air pollutants, nitrogen oxides, organic compounds and particulate matter including particulate matter with diameters of 10 microns or less and 2.5 microns or less.

This application was submitted to the TCEQ on March 22, 2022. The application will be available for viewing and copying at the TCEQ central office, TCEQ Dallas/Fort Worth regional office, and the Tarrant County Clerk, Tarrant County Courthouse, 100 West Weatherford Street, Suite 130, Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas beginning the first day of publication of this notice. The facility’s compliance file, if any exists, is available for public review in the Dallas/Fort Worth regional office of the TCEQ. The executive director has determined the application is administratively complete and will conduct a technical review of the application. In addition to the renewal, this permitting action includes the incorporation of permits by rule and changes in emission factors related to this permit. An amendment application that is not subject to public notice or an opportunity for a contested case hearing is also being reviewed. The reasons for any changes or incorporations, to the extent they are included in the renewed permit, may include the enhancement of operational control at the plant or enforceability of the permit. The TCEQ may act on this application without seeking further public comment or providing an opportunity for a contested case hearing if certain criteria are met.

PUBLIC COMMENT. You may submit public comments to the Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below. The TCEQ will consider all public comments in developing a final decision on the application and the executive director will prepare a response those comments. Issues such as property values, noise, traffic safety, and zoning are outside of the TCEQ’s jurisdiction to address in the permit process.

OPPORTUNITY FOR A CONTESTED CASE HEARING. You may request a contested case hearing if you are a person who may be affected by emissions of air contaminants from the facility. If requesting a contested case hearing, you must submit the following: (1) your name (or for a group or association, an official representative), mailing address, daytime phone number; (2) applicant’s name and permit number; (3) the statement “[I/we] request a contested case hearing;” (4) a specific description of how you would be adversely affected by the application and air emissions from the facility in a way not common to the general public; (5) the location and distance of your property relative to the facility; (6) a description of how you use the property which may be impacted by the facility; and (7) a list of all disputed issues of fact that you submit during the comment period.

If the request is made by a group or association, one or more members who have standing to request a hearing must be identified by name and physical address. The interests the group or association seeks to protect must also be identified. You may also submit your proposed adjustments to the application/permit which would satisfy your concerns.

The deadline to submit a request for a contested case hearing is 15 days after newspaper notice is published. If a request is timely filed, the deadline for requesting a contested case hearing will be extended to 30 days after mailing of the response to comments.

If any requests for a contested case hearing are timely filed, the Executive Director will forward the application and any requests for a contested case hearing to the Commissioners for their consideration at a scheduled Commission meeting. Unless the application is directly referred to a contested case hearing, the executive director will mail the response to comments along with notification of Commission meeting to everyone who submitted comments or is on the mailing list for this application. The Commission may only grant a request for a contested case hearing on issues the requestor submitted in their timely comments that were not subsequently withdrawn. If a hearing is granted, the subject of a hearing will be limited to disputed issues of fact or mixed questions of fact and law relating to relevant and material air quality concerns submitted during the comment period. Issues such as property values, noise, traffic safety, and zoning are outside of the Commission’s jurisdiction to address in this proceeding.

MAILING LIST. In addition to submitting public comments, you may ask to be placed on a mailing list for this application by sending a request to the Office of the Chief Clerk at the address below. Those on the mailing list will receive copies of future public notices (if any) mailed by the Office of the Chief Clerk for this application.

AGENCY CONTACTS AND INFORMATION. Public comments and requests must be submitted either electronically at www14.tceq.texas.gov/epic/eComment/, or in writing to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Office of the Chief Clerk, MC-105, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, Texas 78711-3087. Please be aware that any contact information you provide, including your name, phone number, email address and physical address will become part of the agency’s public record. For more information about this permit application or the permitting process, please call the Public Education Program toll free at 1-800-687-4040. Si desea información en Español, puede llamar al 1-800-687-4040.

Further information may also be obtained from Lane Supply, Inc., 120 Fairview Street, Arlington, Texas 76010-7221 or by calling Mr. Quentin Nichols, Environmental Manager, at (817) 261-9116.

Notice Issuance Date: March 29, 2022

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