INDY Week 11.10.21

Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill November 10, 2021

Spirits RAISING

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Will HB 890 bring North Carolina’s liquor laws out of the past?

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Raleigh W Durham W Chapel Hill

"Not by Sight's Eye" and "Walk

by Faith's Child" by Lakea Johnson, p. 17

VOL. 38 NO. 43

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAM RALEIGH

CONTENTS NEWS 5

Candidates endorsed by Chapel Hill neighborhood group CHALT fared poorly in this month's election. Is CHALT dead?

BY LEIGH TAUSS

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Fair housing advocates made a powerful case for tenants' rights before Durham city council members last week.

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Refugees, advocates, and nonprofits stress the need for better messaging on how Afghan refugees can access mental health resources.

BY THOMASI MCDONALD

BY MONA DOUGANI

10 Activists and nonprofits are working to make voting easier and more accessible for North Carolina residents.

BY JASMINE GALLUP

P U B L I S H E RS

ARTS & CULTURE 12

Her Take: In conversation with Charlotte rapper DEVN.

BY KYESHA JENNINGS

13 Will HB 890 bring North Carolina's old-fashioned liquor laws into the present day?

BY LENA GELLER

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WE M A DE THIS

At CAM Raleigh, an exhibiton of mixed-media masks interrogates questions about what it means to be protected.

BY JESSICA KARIISA

Contributors Will Atkinson, Madeline Crone, Grant Golden, Spencer Griffith, Lucas Hubbard, Layla Khoury-Hanold, Brian Howe, Lewis Kendall, Kyesha Jennings, Glenn McDonald, Anna Mudd, Dan Ruccia, Jake Sheridan

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BACK TA L K

Last week in print, we published part two of writer Jasmine Gallup’s in-depth report on the state of the housing market and housing affordability for buyers and renters in the Triangle. Twitter commenter YOLANDA TAYLOR shared a thread of her thoughts in response to the piece.

“...just in general I’m annoyed by all the circular talk in Raleigh on this topic. None of it grounds racial justice equity, and just because you stick the word “Equitable” on your transit plan and ostensibly seek to build “affordable” housing along transit [lines] doesn’t mean it advances the health, the opportunity, or the quality of life of folks who are being displaced now. If you are leading this plan without impacted people, then you aren’t equitably developing housing for people priced out of the market. If someone making $70k annually is struggling to live here, then we know folks making less are as well. If you’re not creating communities where all people can afford to live here then your housing policies don’t advance equity and they don’t advance racial justice. It you applaud developers being able to build what they want in a city that’s becoming less affordable you don’t care about strategies that prevent displacement. Equitable change has never trickled down from those in power and who don’t share their power with the people. Equitable change comes from the ground up. Developers can’t lead the solution to the affordable housing crisis. I understand the law of supply and demand, but if that law doesn’t lift the needs of people being displaced then it’s an unjust principle and law that doesn’t offer the solution to the problem of affordable housing. A growing canon of research has identified measures that show racial disparities in outcomes related to growth. We must always analyze the impacts of proposed growth strategies on the most vulnerable communities. Equity has to be more than an output, it must be an outcome.”

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OP - E D

An Urgent Need The world is burning; it’s time for a bold Triangle-wide climate summit.

BY NATE BAKER, URBAN PLANNER & CITY OF DURHAM PLANNING COMMISSIONER backtalk@indyweek.com

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he science has spoken: Human-induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes across the globe and in the Triangle. We have years, not decades, to drastically reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases or face the dire consequences of climate change.

These consequences include increases in the frequency and intensity of heat waves, increased flooding and droughts, sea-level rise, and greater damage produced during more numerous and more intense hurricanes. We will all suffer, but those most impacted will be poor people, Indigenous groups, immigrants, people of color, and all other marginalized groups.

As global leaders meet at COP26 to discuss solutions, here in the Triangle our leaders must do their part at the regional scale to urgently reduce emissions and build resilience against an unpredictable future. We need to start by creating a methodical and comprehensive, multijurisdictional, Triangle-wide climate action plan. The plan would both assess our current emissions and resilience status as a region, including each of the local governments and major institutions, and chart a path forward with measurable goals, tangible actions, and accountability. The planning process should include a highly visible and engaging week-long climate action summit, with expert panels, discussions, and bold commitments from our governments, institutions, developers, and major employers. Future summits should be held to monitor progress and to hold local governments and regional institutions accountable.

Young people have made their voices heard loud and clear, calling on leaders to act. Duke and UNC have held climate-related events, and other organizations have advocated for climate justice. The Museum of Life and Science is even hosting its own youth climate summit for Triangle high school students. We need a summit hosted by government leaders, with Triangle-wide leadership among attendees and resulting in concrete and significant climate action commitments.

Historically, political and corporate leaders have called on individuals to change their behaviors to solve this and other systemic problems; however, that is insufficient. We need systemic solutions to this systemic, existential problem.

One major cause for the high levels of carbon emissions in the Triangle is our sprawling built environment.

Our buildings and streets are disconnected and spread far apart, making nondriving transportation options like walking, biking, and bus travel dangerous, difficult, and unreliable. Only 4 percent of Triangle workers can realistically walk, bike, or use transit to get to work, a percentage that is not improving due to current sprawling land use and transportation policies. As a result, automobile-generated green-

house gas emissions have increased by 74 percent in the Triangle since 1990, more rapidly than population growth, and today the average household drives 20,000 miles annually. Our current zoning, infrastructure, and development practices continue to take us in the wrong direction.

This reality presents challenges and solutions that can be uniquely addressed by local governments. At the local and regional level, a key transformative climate initiative is the systemic reform of land use policy, urban growth, and our daily transportation options, while ensuring that inclusive engagement remains at the heart of major policy change.

Thus far, most land use change initiatives that have taken place in municipalities around the Triangle have not achieved the bold and creative transformations we actually need. Perhaps decision-makers have not realized the immediacy of our climate problem, or perhaps resistance from powerful profit-motivated finance and real estate industries has been too strong. Whatever the case, it is unequivocally time to end auto-oriented sprawl in the Triangle, manage growth, and build walkable, sustainable, and equitable places. By making policy changes in this area, we can actually make our cities more green, inclusive, affordable, and livable.

Raleigh and Chapel Hill each have strong climate action frameworks and recently adopted plans, but there is little in place to monitor their implementation and hold them accountable. There are no consequences, political or otherwise, if they do not follow their plans. Meanwhile, Durham’s carbon-neutrality plan only addresses government emissions, which consist of less than 2 percent of community-wide emissions. These local climate action initiatives are important but lack the opportunities that come from regional collaboration.

To achieve carbon neutrality in the Triangle, we need to think regionally, coordinate across jurisdictions, commit to more engagement with communities, and even reimagine what metropolitan-wide governance looks like. “RaleighDurham” may not be a city, but the Triangle needs to recognize itself as a single interconnected metropolitan region with many shared interests. We need a Triangle-wide plan and climate summit that addresses growth and development, open space, transportation, energy, and jobs. Solutions need to center the needs of working-class people, especially our most vulnerable populations.

If we are going to enact the transformative changes necessary to achieve carbon neutrality, we need all of our local governments working together, with shared goals, metrics, and systems of accountability. Urgent change is required, and we owe it to future generations to act boldly. W

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Chapel Hill The Aura RENDERING COURTESY OF THE TOWN OF CHAPEL HILL

Chapel Hill voters backed development-friendly candidates in this month’s election. What does that spell for a local community group?

BY LEIGH TAUSS ltauss@indyweek.com

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or the last three election cycles, nearly every candidate endorsed by Chapel Hill’s notoriously anti-development community group, CHALT—the Chapel Hill Association for a Livable Town—won election to local office.

That ended last week.

Mayor Pam Hemminger handily defeated CHALT-backed candidate and town council member Hongbin Gu, and three pro-growth candidates won seats on the council. Only one CHALT-endorsed candidate—Adam Searing—made it on to the council, and he received the fewest votes. “[CHALT] took a gut punch in this election,” says former Orange County commissioner Mark Marcoplos. “It could be the beginning of a new era here.”

For those paying attention, the signs were all there (and no, we’re not talking about the anonymous political signs accusing Karen Stegman of “betraying” residents with her vote for the Aura development, which CHALT denied putting out). CHALT’s power and influence was waning, criticism

was mounting over the group’s allegedly divisive political tactics, and a new progressive agenda promoting a denser, more walkable town was gaining popularity.

A recent survey from Public Policy Polling also indicated CHALT’s apparent decline: just 26 percent of participants reported having a favorable view of the organization. Forty percent claimed to have an unfavorable view of CHALT, and 34 percent responded “not sure.”

“I think this election really showed people are seeing a different path forward,” Hemminger says. “They want Chapel Hill to become vibrant, they are interested in bikeways and greenways, and interested in how we can create that middle housing.”

Hemminger secured a fourth term as mayor with 61 percent of the vote to Gu’s 37 percent. (UNC–Chapel Hill law school student Zachary R. Boyce won 2.5 percent of the vote.) In the council race, the top vote getter was Stegman, possibly boosted by the backlash garnered from the anti-Aura signs. Stegman, Camille Berry,

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Is CHALT Dead?

and Paris Miller-Foushee received about 20 percent of the vote each. Searing hung on to fourth place with 17 percent of the vote, edging out CHALT-backed candidate Vimala Rajendran.

The results were vindicating, Stegman says. Voters, she says, “are tired of the same old, same old …. People are craving, especially after the last two years of living through a global pandemic, they are craving connection, they are craving authenticity, and cooperation, and collaboration.”

CHALT was formed in 2015 by a group of citizens dissatisfied with the town’s leadership at the time. They felt neighborhood issues were being overlooked, and members promoted themselves as environmentalists.

Founder Julie McClintock would tell you CHALT’s members aren’t against the town’s growth but want Chapel Hill to grow in the right way—a way that preserves “what people love about the town” and not “just add more people.”

McClintock didn’t respond to the INDY’s request for comment on the election but took an optimistic tone in an op-ed published on Chapelboro.com, writing that “elections ebb and flow and there are many measures of success.” She praised Gu’s mayoral campaign and Searing’s election to council.

“We are looking forward to building bridges and sharing what we’re about to the community,” McClintock wrote.

Discussion took on a less congenial tone on neighborhood networking site Nextdoor, where one supporter spiraled into a rant that was shared on social media.

“CHALT is not dead,” began the Election Night comment. “THIS IS NOT A SPRINT.” The post went on to state that CHALT’s opposition “took a few pages from the GOP and Nazi handbooks.”

That kind of rhetoric is what’s sown a new level of divisiveness in Chapel Hill politics, Marcoplos says. He says he hopes the new council will be “one with a shared vision rather than divisiveness and tribalism dominating the debates.”

As for CHALT? “I don’t know what they do to regroup at this point,” says Hemminger. W

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Durham

A Social Contract Fair-housing advocates make a powerful case for tenants’ rights before the city council.

BY THOMASI MCDONALD tmcdonald@indyweek.com

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lex Prolman, a volunteer organizer for Bull City Tenants United, a local organization of renters who want to build tenant power and put an end to evictions, has his fair share of landlord horror stories.

For five years, he lived in an apartment with a major roof leak, he told Durham’s city council members at a virtual work session last week. The landlord refused to make repairs, Prolman said, but would spray the roof with a thin sealant every three to four months.

“The sealant would last about two hours’ worth of rain, then it would start raining throughout the apartment,” Prolman said.

Prolman, a Durham Tech student who works as a nursing assistant at UNC Hospitals, said that over time, he and his roommates feared being electrocuted, so they would minimize their use of electricity when it rained. Worse, while Prolman and his roommates suffered from asthma attacks, respiratory infections, constant fatigue, and unexplained rashes, they realized the roof had become “a mold factory.” Prolman said laws that allow mold to go unaddressed were “a failure of public health officials,” because controlling for the substance is “not a part of the public health code.”

Durham’s city and county leaders readily acknowledge that addressing the rise in violent crime and keeping communities safe are top priorities. But with soaring rental and home prices, perhaps the greatest existential threat moving forward remains the question, Who gets to live in the Bull City?

Last week, the council members referred a list of recommendations from Bull City Tenants United to the city’s manager and deputy city manager that proposes 6

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to shift the balance of power in landlord-tenant relationships.

The city is seeking legal expertise before crafting a tenants’ rights bill, a concept that was first introduced to the city council in early August by council member DeDreana Freeman on behalf of the tenants’ rights group and housing advocates. The need to protect tenants’ rights came to the forefront amid growing concerns about the end of the blanket federal moratorium on evictions and foreclosures.

There were 13 recommendations submitted to the council as a means of protecting residents, but a number of the proposed measures are preempted by state law, city attorney Kimberly Rehberg stated in an October 20 letter to the city council.

For instance, Rehberg points to a 2019 state legislative bill that would have allowed city and county officials to “repair, close, or demolish a dwelling deemed unfit for human habitation due to fungal growth” (mold) that poses a health risk. House Bill 1012 never made it out of committee.

Likewise, Rehberg noted that state law prohibits local governments from regular, mandatory inspection of rental units, unless it is for a “reasonable cause or as part of a targeted area to address blight.”

However, the city attorney wrote, state law does not make clear whether a tenant can withhold paying rent until repairs are made in the unit where they reside. Rehberg said that Charlotte has a provision in its city code that makes it unlawful for the owner of a place of habitation that is “imminently dangerous to health or safety to collect rent” from the occupant of the residence at the time it was “imminently dangerous to health or safety.”

Fany Sarmiento and her children are tenants at Garden Terrace Apartments PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

As the INDY previously reported, there is a forced, ongoing exodus of working-class African Americans from Durham’s inner city, driven by skyrocketing property taxes, an influx of new homes that are far beyond their financial reach, and neighbors who no longer look like them. They are selling their homes to developers and individuals for above, but not far above, market value.

The issue becomes even more complicated by the arrival of comparatively affluent newcomers who are looking for places to live during a citywide housing shortage. It’s a seller’s market and rental prices have soared far beyond what even those making a living wage can afford.

Today, the average rent for a Durham apartment is just over $1,400. According to the Living Wage Calculator for Durham, an adult with one child would have to earn a yearly income of $55,155 to afford it.

Here in Durham, often touted as a mecca of Black history, arts, culture, and inclusivity, a little over 21 percent of African Americans live in poverty. Trying to make ends meet is even more dire for Lat-

inx residents: more than 31 percent live below the poverty line. By comparison, just under 8 percent of whites in Durham live below the poverty line.

As a consequence, Durham’s Black and Brown residents struggle to stay afloat and scrape up the financial means to rent substandard dwellings that fail to meet basic quality-of-living standards. Those dwellings include places like the Garden Terrace apartments in Lakewood, where many of the residents are Spanish speaking. Inspectors with the city’s Neighborhood Improvement Services Department visited Garden Terrace late last year and found 120 housing code violations.

Despite the harrowing outlook, Stella Adams, a nationally recognized expert on the Fair Housing Acts and former executive director of the NC Fair Housing Center, reminded the council members of their ability to address the city’s housing crisis, which impacts its most vulnerable residents. Adams’s case in point was the public health crisis that happened at the city’s oldest public housing complex months before the pandemic. It was in early January 2020 that gas

leaks, mold conditions, lead paint, pervasive sewage issues, and the unexplained deaths of three infants at McDougald Terrace reached a tipping point. By the end of that month, the Durham Housing Authority reported elevated levels of carbon monoxide in 211 kitchen appliances after inspecting 346 apartments.

“We had our public housing residents living in unaffordable conditions, unsafe conditions with stoves that are 70 years old. Endangered everyday,” Adams told the council. “And yet that’s public housing. That’s public money. One thing the city doesn’t need the state or federal government to do …. Any time a city dollar is spent on a property, you require an assurance and certification that it’s kept in a safe, habitable condition. If not, you can force those city dollars to be returned. That’s something you can put in the contract.”

Howard Machtinger is a policy team member of Bull City Tenants United.

Machtinger, during the work session, said the purpose of the recommendations is to support the city’s renters “in the short and long run who are facing multiple crises,” including “rampant gentrification and pending evictions.”

“Already, there [are] over 750 evictions since the moratorium ended, with rising

“When we shop for toys or food, there are assurances that [the items] are not toxic.

What assurances are there for close and intimate living spaces?” rents and homes in disrepair,” Machtinger told the council members.

Machtinger, who previously served on a housing subcommittee of the city’s Racial Equity Task Force, said contracts between landlords and tenants in North Carolina swing strongly in favor of the landlord.

“We want to shift the balance of power in the landlord-tenant relationship and expand the tenant rights,” he explained.

“For instance, when we shop for toys or food there are assurances that [the items] are not toxic. What assurances are there for our close and intimate living spaces?

Everyone in town is aware of the diminishing affordable housing. This is a snowballing crisis dramatically exacerbated by the pandemic. So the time is now. Tenants’ rights is one key for action.”

Five of the recommendations by Bull City Tenants United call for an expansion

of housing codes to make sure the city’s renters are living in habitable homes, along with expanding the city’s use of emergency repairs when landlords are unresponsive, preventing landlords from charging for rent when their units are in disrepair, expanding access to home inspections particularly when language barriers arise and ensuring the availability of interpreters, and providing city support of tenants’ right to organize.

“We understand that much needs to be done on the state level,” Machtinger said.

“But the city can and must do more to help tenants and provide affordable housing.”

Prolman, the Durham Tech student and organizer, also told of a family of six living in a two-bedroom apartment in the Lakewood district. The family, he said, “went weeks” that turned into three months before the landlord decided to replace a stove and

refrigerator that had both gone out.

“Can you imagine trying to feed six people under those circumstances? How would that make you feel as a parent?” he asked.

“This is the kind of passive violence that must be aggressively penalized by the city.

It’s not okay for landlords to get a slap on the wrist for making people live like this.”

Prolman later added that “functional kitchen appliances must be a part of the housing code, and right now they are not.”

Council member Mark-Anthony Middleton echoed a unanimous sentiment among his fellow council members when he said that in addition to this “being a policy issue, it’s a moral issue, decent and safe housing.”

While wondering about the city’s legal authority to adopt the recommendations, Middleton said he wants “as robust and impactful [an] ordinance as we can deliver. Whatever it looks like, in every area we can.”

At the end of a near-hour-long discussion, City Manager Wanda Page told the council members that she and her staff members had listened, taken notes, and wanted to review “point by point” the tenant group’s recommendations. She promised to return to the council “with more research and a comprehensive response.” W

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North Carolina Amina working on making a pink leather handbag at the Designed for Joy headquarters located in Raleigh PHOTO BY MONA DOUGANI

tal health services,” she told NC Health News in an interview in Farsi.

Images of war and violence were haunting her husband. He left Afghanistan with family still there.

Though Amina left family behind, too, she has been overwhelmed by the support she has found in Raleigh.

The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nonprofit organization that set up an office in North Carolina in 2007 to provide support to refugees in their transition to life in this country, has been helpful.

Amina also found support and work at Designed for Joy, a nonprofit in Raleigh that hires and helps women who come from vulnerable situations. At its new shop near the city’s warehouse district, the organization also sells earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and other gifts, while women stitch together handbags and more in a room attached to the store.

In the evenings on Monday through Thursday, when Amina is not hard at work making handbags, she takes English classes. She does all this while also tending to her four children, who range in age from toddler to teen. But memories of war are always a stressor lurking in the background.

The ongoing war and violence in Afghanistan over the past two decades has taken a serious toll on the mental health of Afghan residents and refugees in this country and elsewhere.

Support Systems Refugees, advocates, and nonprofit organizations stress the need for better messaging on how Afghan refugees experiencing PTSD can access mental health resources.

BY MONA DOUGANI backtalk@indyweek.com

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sheville, Charlotte, Durham, Greensboro, and Raleigh are starting to see Afghan refugees, who were displaced from their home country in August, resettle in North Carolina.

As the refugees arrive, other Afghan residents already in this state have lessons to share about some of the mental health challenges that often accompany refugees fleeing turmoil who are suddenly thrust into a new life in a foreign place.

Since the Taliban overthrew the Afghan government on August 15 and U.S. troops withdrew from the country 15 days later, many who had lived in the country and fled for safety reasons are being dispersed around the globe.

But a larger exodus from Afghanistan has been going on for two decades now.

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Over the years, roughly 6 million Afghans have been forcibly displaced from their homes, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. Of those 6 million, about 3.5 million are still living in Afghanistan, while 2.6 million are refugees living around the world.

North Carolina is expecting about 1,169 refugees in this most recent wave.

A new way of life Amina, an Afghan refugee who came to the Triangle nearly a year ago, said though the journey was difficult with the language barrier, she felt that she had support.

“I got help with finding a job, English classes, finding school for my kids, and my husband was able to find men-

PTSD, anxiety, and depression According to a 2019 article from Human Rights Watch, about half of the Afghan population experiences post-traumatic stress, anxiety, or depression.

Khadija Bahari, an Afghan woman from the Hazara ethnic group who moved to this country in 2005 and now lives in Virginia, often speaks about seeking equality for women in Afghanistan. In a recent telephone interview, Bahari said that it has been hard to watch and read the news about the Taliban takeover of the government.

“I feel terrible,” Bahari said. “I feel very painful. I can’t describe when the Taliban was moving forward, taking over, I was very much in fear and shock.

“Nothing is good,” she added. “Every day there is bad news, not one bad news, several bad news.”

Though the news has been disheartening for Bahari and other Afghans, Bahari is focusing on what is working for her.

“I mean, I have a good life,” Bahari said in August.

“I have a husband that I love, I love my job, I love my family, I have great friends and support. The best thing I can do is to read the news less and stay away from reading the news.

“For someone like me, who was involved in Afghanistan social activities, it’s hard not to in this critical moment, and not to look at the news and to see what’s going on,” Bahari added.

Some people do not seek professional help to soothe their anxiety and mental stress. Bahari, who understands some of the challenges and disparities that her ethnic group faces in Afghanistan, has found support among other Hazara women. In recent months, they got together and lamented that Hazara Afghans do not seem to be able to leave the country as easily as some of the other ethnic groups.

Creating partnerships

Relief Durham has been partnering with the UNC School of Social Work on a refugee and mental health wellness initiative.

“By partnering with a university, and professionals in the mental health industry, we are tapping into trauma-based counseling and trauma-informed service training for all of our team,” Clark said.

“We’re able to provide services that are not available to most resettled refugees because of that partnership and our work with them.”

In addition to this partnership, World Relief Durham also has a community engagement team to help support refugees’ mental health. The group focuses on cultural competency training for volunteers to build supportive friendships with refugees and immigrants to combat the social isolation that refugees face.

Though the Triangle is among the larger areas across the country welcoming refugees, people in Charlotte are also aiming to help.

After Amarra Ghani held a Friendsgiving get-together in 2017, she wanted to do something for refugees from Syria.

Her small act of service turned into a nonprofit organization called Welcome Home Charlotte to serve new refugees in Charlotte.

Ghani works full-time at Bank of America but says Welcome Home is her “24/7” job.

Welcome Home’s main programs include an English language program, a food bank where volunteers can donate food, and an appointment program where volunteers take families to appointments.

“I never intended, and I don’t think any board members really intended, that it would reach what it’s reached,” Ghani said.

“We are very grateful and overwhelmed with the support, so now we know that there’s a community behind us, which is great because that means that we can fall back and we can have a community that is going to support us.”

Welcome Home also has seen the need for mental health access.

“Right now, we’re in the works of connecting our refugee families to those mental health services as well,” Ghani said.

“There’s nothing completely set in stone, but if there are people out there who are licensed therapists or psychiatrists or are under that mental health field, we will love to hear from them. We will love to partner up with them, because we definitely have a scarcity in that section, for sure.” W

In an attempt to help refugees access mental health services, since 2015, World

This story was originally published online at NC Health News.

A support group of her own Although Bahari has a support system of her own, she questions whether the most recent arrivals from Afghanistan will have sufficient resources.

“I don’t think there are very many sources,” Bahari said. “Lots of people, maybe 90 percent of these people, cannot speak English. They are coming from rural Afghanistan with those mentalities, and it’s all shocking, even the good things in the U.S. are shocking for them. They have to go through adjusting to a new culture.

“So, I don’t think there are enough sources, in my opinion, there are, but very limited because all these people need interpreters to translate for them,” Bahari added.

Adam Clark, director of World Relief Durham, a refugee resettlement agency that helps with school enrollment, housing, job hunting, and more, said that the language barrier can sometimes make it difficult for new refugees to access mental health services.

“What we’re seeing on the news, what Afghans are going through, is unfortunately very common for all refugees coming from all the nations that send the United States refugees,” Clark said.

“For decades, there’s been very little access for them to mental health services. The current Afghan evacuees will face the same barriers that all refugees face in the U.S., primarily around language access but also having sufficient health insurance. In general, they’re just a marginalized population that does not receive as much access as others to mental health support.”

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North Carolina North Carolina’s history of voter suppression

Practical Civics Activists and nonprofit groups are working to make voting easier and more accessible for North Carolina’s residents.

BY JASMINE GALLUP jgallup@indyweek.com

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urtis Shannon Jr., a 20-year-old student in Greensboro, has never taken the right to vote for granted. As soon as he turned 18, he started going to the polls. Shannon, now a junior at North Carolina A&T State University, started voting because of the discrimination and injustice he experienced growing up in Lima, Ohio, he says. One of the young Black man’s earliest memories is of his parents being pulled over by the police.

Later, when Shannon was 17, he was handcuffed in the driveway of his home. Police falsely identified the teenager as a much older Black man seen leaving “a known drug area.”

“They pulled me out [of my car], put me in handcuffs, said I was a danger to myself,” Shannon says. “I sat in the 10

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back of a police car for two or three hours before they let me go to my mom.”

Until his encounter with the police, Shannon wanted to be an orthodontist, he told the INDY. Afterward, he turned his attention to prelaw. It was fear and frustration that led Shannon to become an activist championing the right to vote.

“There’s so much that’s out of our control,” he says. “[Change] starts locally. Anything you see in your local government, we have the power to control.

Disproportionate sentencing, we can change that by the vote, because we’re electing judges, mayors, city officials.”

Voting, however, isn’t always easy, especially in North Carolina.

As soon as Black men were given the right to vote in 1870, white people in power started pushing back. In the wake of the 15th Amendment, North Carolina and other states passed a series of laws designed to prevent Black people from voting: poll taxes, felony disenfranchisement, and literacy tests, a provision still included in the North Carolina Constitution today despite the fact that it is unenforceable.

The Jim Crow era lasted almost a century, until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed. North Carolina’s legacy of voter suppression, however, is far from over, says La’Meshia Whittington, deputy director for nonprofit Advance Carolina.

“If those [Jim Crow] tactics are still being used and still working, it’s not history,” Whittington says. “The very Supreme Court cases that were supposed to alleviate burdens [like the literacy provision] are still under attack in 2021.”

This year alone, five bills were introduced in the Republican-led state legislature to make it more difficult for people, particularly people of color, to vote. One law, if enacted, would prohibit local elections administrators from accepting much-needed private donations, limiting the money available for voter education. Another would likely purge some naturalized citizens from voter rolls.

The cohort of voter suppression bills also includes the deceptively named Elections Integrity Act, or House Bill 259, which lessens the time available to request and return absentee ballots, making it harder to vote by mail. Under the law, people would only have one week before Election Day, not two, to request a mail-in ballot. The bill also eliminates the three-day grace period, requiring mail-in ballots to be received by five p.m. on Election Day. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, HB 259 is “part of a nationwide, GOP-led backlash to robust turnout by Black, brown, and Indigenous voters in 2020,” often credited for Donald Trump’s loss. Nearly one in five North Carolinians cast their vote by mail in that election. If HB 259 had been in place, more than 31,000 of those ballots would have been rejected, found a study by Western Carolina University.

With such a big push to keep Black people out of elections, it often “feels like you’re running against the tide,” Whittington says.

Solutions Each new law that limits hours at polling places, removes early voting days, or purges names from voter rolls erodes the right to vote a little more, says Dustin Chicurel-Bayard, communications director for the ACLU of North Carolina.

“Taking [the laws] one by one, it’s easy to dismiss or not fully account for the impact the policies will have as a whole,” Chicurel-Bayard told the INDY. “But when you put all those things together, it paints a pretty clear picture that North Carolinians’ right to vote is constantly under threat.”

For Chicurel-Bayard, the biggest win for voting rights would be the creation of fair and equal congressional maps. The redistricting that occurs every 10 years has historically been hijacked by party leaders, most recently Republicans, who divide voters so they can stay in power.

Racial and partisan gerrymandering makes it “harder for voters to hold elected officials accountable,” Chicurel-Bayard says.

“Far too often, the outcome of elections is determined far before a single vote is cast.”

Preserving the right to vote doesn’t necessarily require big policy changes, however. Removing small, bureaucratic barriers to voting can also have a big impact, says Caroline Fry, interim advocacy director for Democracy NC. Submitting a mail-in ballot, for example, is currently a multistep process. People have to request a ballot, check their mailbox, and find two people to witness their vote before they mail the ballot back.

“It’s all these little hoops you have to jump through in order to vote,” Fry says. “Those are the things we can really be working on and in some cases, they’re small changes that would have a huge impact on the number of voters who are turning out for elections.”

Democracy NC is calling for the state to make voting by mail easier by eliminating the witness requirement, offering paid postage for mail-in ballots, and installing secure drop boxes for returning ballots. North Carolina is one of only 10 states that forbids counties from offering drop boxes for ballots, according to Fry. The nonprofit is also asking that voters be allowed to pick up their mail-in ballots in person and opt in to mail-in voting for future elections instead of requesting a new form each time, as well as asking to lengthen the window for mail-in voting.

There are dozens of other policy changes the state legislature could enact to make voting easier, Fry says. For people who work two or three jobs, it can be difficult to get to the polls. Creating additional days of early voting on weekends is one of the recommendations from Democracy NC. The nonprofit also suggests allowing counties to set flexible voting hours and increasing the number of early voting sites based on population.

Registering to vote can also be a challenge, Fry says. North Carolina now allows people to register online, but only those with a driver’s license or ID. The state should open online registration to everyone, including those who may be homeless or without a car, according to the nonprofit.

North Carolina could create automatic voter registration (like 20 other states), or allow people to register or update their

registration on Election Day (like 18 other states and the District of Columbia).

Ultimately, legislators should do everything they can to make voting more accessible, including making Election Day a state holiday and creating a new funding source for elections, says Fry. “Precincts are [being] consolidated because of a lack of funding,” Fry told the INDY. “[State] legislators swear up and down, ‘Our elections are 100 percent appropriately funded.’ But if you actually listen to the conversation that’s happening at the county board of elections level, that’s not the case.”

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On the ground In the meantime, Whittington and others will keep encouraging people to vote.

Kate Fellman, founder of nonprofit You Can Vote, is working to empower voters by recruiting “voting ambassadors” like Shannon, the young student activist. Helping new voters establish a voting habit is key to widespread participation in elections, Fellman says.

“The biggest indicator of future voting is voting,” she says. “If we can get folks to vote in all four elections through 2024, they will all be voters for life.”

The nonprofit focuses on educating new voters and those who may not know they’re eligible, like people who have been incarcerated and don’t know they have the right to go to the polls. Volunteers answer basic but important questions like “When’s the next election?,” “Where do I vote?,” and “How do I register?”

The number one thing on Fellman’s wish list is a “practical civics” class for high school students, where they learn about how to exercise their right to vote. Instead, Fellman’s nonprofit is filling that role, teaching new voters about what’s on their ballot and the steps they need to take to stay registered.

The nonprofit is also working to correct myths around elections, Fellman says. Narratives that your vote doesn’t matter or that you’re not qualified are false.

“The voters who show up decide the elections. If people hear, ‘No one votes in this,’ they think, ‘Why should I bother?’” Fellman says.

“You might not care about this candidate, but what you care about in your community is on your ballot … clean drinking water, nondiscrimination policies, affordable housing—these are all things young people are concerned about. They need to know that the way to get better community outcomes is by electing leaders who will really represent their vision for the future.” W

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M U SIC

Her Take: On Carolina Hip-Hop ILLUSTRATION BY JON FULLER

Persistence Pays In conversation with Charlotte rapper DEVN about his journey from the choir to the charts

BY KYESHA JENNINGS

music@indyweek.com | @kyeshajennings

I

n interviews, one of the most popular questions artists get asked is “How did you come up with your name?”

For singer, rapper, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Devin Christopher Mitchell, the answer lies in a stylized remix of his birth name, Devin, which then became DEVN. Lately, the Charlotte newcomer has had a lot to celebrate. For one, his debut EP, St. Luke St.—a rumination on love and romance that he engineered himself—was released this summer.

The industry has noticed: Album opener “The Chase” was included in the “Discovered on Apple Music” segment of hip-hop radio host Ebro Darden’s Apple Music 1 show.

DEVN was also recently featured on Dreamville rapper and fellow Queen City native Lute’s new record, Gold Mouf, which was released to favorable reviews.

While his sound might be a hodgepodge—bringing to mind auto-tune forefathers like T-Pain, melodic rappers like Juice WRLD, newer R&B luminaries like dvsn, and pop 12

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icons like The Weeknd—DEVN’s identity as an artist is largely inspired by the rawness and authenticity of sixties and seventies soul music and early-2000s-era neo-soul.

His musical journey began at the young age of eight. He was raised in the church, where his grandmother had a requirement that everyone sing in the choir.

Almost immediately, adults began to whisper about his vocal abilities.

“I kind of knew that something was special about me,” Mitchell says. “As a kid, I would hear people say, ‘Oh, he can sing, he can do this.’ And they would [give me compliments] more than they did others.

So that’s kind of how I figured out, OK, I know how to do something.”

When he wasn’t in choir practice, Mitchell would sneak to the back of the church to play around on the piano. When the church’s drummer caught him one day, instead of scolding him, he showed Mitchell how to play chords, thus introducing the young child to another musical skill set he didn’t realize he possessed.

Despite having gospel music embedded in his upbringing, the first song DEVN recorded was a rap song.

Thankfully, he did not grow up in a strict religious environment where secular music was avoided.

“It was never like that for me,” Mitchell says. “My family wasn’t strict like that. The great thing about it is both sides of my family are great at music. My uncle had his own band, and he wasn’t doing gospel. He would play at the family reunions. Watching him play sparked something. The crazy part is, I never thought to record gospel music. When it was time for church, it was time for church. But I recorded what I wanted to, there was no ‘Hey, you can’t do this or you can’t do that.’”

With years of recording experience under his belt, DEVN identifies as a trapsoul artist; creatively, he pulls influence from the likes of Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Waka Flocka, Lil Wayne, and T-Pain.

There’s a drive in his work and commitment to staying the course that can be felt, even through the phone. To that end, in the middle of our conversation, while

talking about career obstacles, he stops and thanks himself.

“First, I want to thank myself for continuing,” Mitchell says. “When I started I didn’t have much and I didn’t know what I wanted. But I ran into this guy who was signed with Columbia Records and he showed me everything I needed.

That was a highlight moment for me— just stepping out on faith. I’d sit in the studio and say, ‘Yo, can you just show me how you do XYZ …. I just want to record.’

In exchange, I took out the trash and did food runs for the artists that were already in the studio. So I want to thank myself for that.”

His persistence and desire to learn have paid off. He now can record his own vocals and do his own engineering.

“As an artist, you want to be a complete package,” he says. “I’m proud to say that I produce, I sing, I write, I rap, I engineer—I do everything, so you can’t just put me in a box and say, ‘Hey, he can’t do this.’”

Things haven’t always been this smooth for the trap-soul star. Like most artists, DEVN battled depression. Financial limits placed a strain on the singer’s mental health, and the curative power of social media didn’t help: the pressure to be popular, to receive a certain number of likes, or even to have the perfectly placed Instagram photo caused DEVN to compare himself to his peers. ”We put out whatever we create on social media and we compare it to what everyone else has going on, and it can make you feel worthless,” he says. “Especially when you look at responses on Instagram or Twitter and you see ‘Oh, well they’re responding to this stuff, so it must be not as important.’ I struggled with just trying to fit in and find myself.”

DEVN’s Instagram name, @whoisDEVN, perfectly captures his journey through these struggles. And he remains grateful to have music as a therapeutic outlet.

“I don’t talk to too many people,” he says. “I put it on the microphone, and I let it all out there. And it has helped me find my purpose. If I wasn’t doing music, I don’t know what I would be doing.” W

FO O D & D R I N K

Raising Spirits Will HB 890 help bring North Carolina’s old-fashioned liquor laws out of the past?

BY LENA GELLER lgeller@indyweek.com

Y

ou’re on vacation in another state.

Let’s call it Dearth Carolina.

On the last day of the trip, you wake up craving something hot and greasy. Blearyeyed, you type “breakfast near me open now” into Google, landing on a local fried chicken joint with rave reviews. At the restaurant, you’re presented with a buffet of greasy goodness, and you decide you’ll surprise your sleeping partner by bringing back a fried chicken smorgasbord: tenders, biscuits, maybe even a Cobb salad.

You’re two to-go boxes deep when an employee comes up and yanks the tongs out of your hands.

“You can look and smell, but you can’t touch,” he says. “Are you from out of town?”

You nod.

“It’s Sunday,” he says. “We can’t sell fried chicken on Sundays.”

“Then why are you even open?”

He walks into the kitchen and returns with a small paper cup.

“You can have one-quarter of a chicken nugget,” he says. “After you finish it, I can give you another one, but you should take it slow, these nuggets can sneak up on you. Wouldn’t want you falling asleep behind the wheel.”

You didn’t plan to eat here, you tell him; you were hoping to bring a meal back for your wife.

“Sorry,” he says, gesturing vaguely. “It’s the law.”

“OK, so should I just go to Chick-fil-A, or whatever that place is called?”

“Chick-fil-A,” he laughs, wiping his eyes.

“That’s a good one.”

If that allegory was too opaque, here’s the SparkNotes: The fried chicken joint is an independent North Carolina distillery.

The buffet is bottled liquor. The quarter chicken nugget is a cocktail. Chick-fil-A is an ABC store.

And though I doubt that Olde Raleigh Distillery owner Brandon McCraney would ever laugh in a customer’s face, here, for symbolic purposes, he is the employee— primarily because he, too, is well acquainted with having to tell customers that he can’t sell them his product.

Or he was, until a month ago, when Governor Roy Cooper signed the landmark House Bill 890 into law. HB 890 loosens state liquor restrictions in a number of ways, but for McCraney, whose distillery occupies a 10,000-square-foot building in downtown Zebulon, one key provision stands out: locally owned distilleries can now sell bottled spirits on Sundays.

Three weeks before the bill passed, on a Sunday in September, McCraney manned his distillery’s bar from open to close.

During that one day, he had to turn away twelve different customers who came in looking to buy a bottle of bourbon.

“That translates to about $1,100 in sales,” McCraney says. “They left empty-handed and disappointed and there was nothing I could do about it.”

As an alternative, he had offered to sell them cocktails—ever since House Bill 290 passed in 2019, distilleries have been allowed to sell mixed drinks on their premises, which is why many distilleries are open for business on Sundays—but most customers were out-of-towners with long drives ahead.

“They wanted to buy a bottle, get home, and drink responsibly,” McCraney says.

Having entered the distilling business to raise people’s spirits, McCraney

Brandon McCraney, owner & master distiller/blender at Olde Raleigh Distillery PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA

says turning away customers has been frustrating.

Representative Tim Moffitt, R-Henderson, the chair of the House Committee on Alcoholic Beverage Control and a sponsor of HB 890, says the bill is part of a state effort to “modernize a very antiquated alcohol control system” that has had a hold on the state since 1908, when North Carolina became the first state to enact statewide Prohibition.

When distilleries began selling spirits on Sunday, October 3, it was the first time in over a century.

The bill’s Sunday sales allowance also comes with a bonus for independent distillers: it doesn’t apply to ABC stores, thus giving local businesses a boost over their

state-controlled counterparts. Furthermore, local distillers are now able to sell bottled spirits on five holidays that ABC stores are closed on, including Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July.

“How many times have you been stuck in a pickle where you want to go celebrate a holiday but you don’t make it to the store in time, and then you don’t have the spirits to do it?” asks Chris Powers, co-owner of Young Hearts Distilling in downtown Raleigh. “Now you can.”

Before opening Young Hearts, Powers worked primarily in beer—he co-owns Raleigh’s Trophy Brewing Co. and State of Beer—and says the bill gives North Carolina distillers “more parity with breweries and wineries.”

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The bill also establishes a Spirituous Liquor Advisory Council, which will function similarly to the Brewers Guild and Wine Council in developing and promoting public awareness of the spirits industry.

And, thanks to another major facet of the bill, council members won’t be the only ones working to increase exposure for local liquor producers. HB 890 has authorized the creation of designated public outdoor areas known as “social districts,” in which people can drink alcoholic beverages sold by surrounding purveyors.

According to Moffitt, the concept is flexible and local leaders can determine which structure works best for their communities: districts may be defined by city blocks or barricades, for example, and can be perpetual or event-only. “[Social districts] will allow some of the most creative people in our communities to work with local leaders and create a vibrant business scene that brings people back downtown, to areas that need to recover from the pandemic,” Moffitt says.

The city of Kannapolis has already approved a social district that spans a number of blocks and features three approved vendors. McCraney, meanwhile, is working with Zebulon town leaders to establish a district near his business.

“It will be good not only for distilleries but also [for] ushering in and promoting customers going from business to business,” he says.

Young Hearts is the only distillery in downtown Raleigh, and though the city has not yet established a social district, Powers is thrilled by the potential of being able to hand out cocktails to go.

“It gives us an opportunity to help build a Johnny thriving agritourism business,” Powers says.

“We can capture tourists as they’re coming through town on a Sunday and get them excited about coming back.”

If you prefer tipsy sports-watching to window-shopping, HB 890 has something for you, too: In an effort to shorten vendor lines, athletic venues can now sell one person two glasses of beer or wine at the same time.

Distilleries, wineries, and breweries will also be able to obtain special-events permits to hand out free samples of their product at conventions, farmers markets, and street festivals.

For purveyors hoping to participate in community events, this is a big deal; in May, for example, after Durham Distillery signed up to be featured in a “Main Street Crawl” event intended to help small businesses recover from the pandemic, it was forced to pull out last-minute: even though attendees had paid money for their tickets, the distillery’s planned cocktail samples still fell under the state’s definition of “free” and would have been illegal to serve.

A

fable about the difficulties of buying liquor in North Carolina should involve mention of another recent limitation: since this summer, spirits have been low.

Let’s say that Dearth Carolina recently passed a bill enabling local restaurants to start selling fried chicken on Sundays.

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It’s true that technical difficulties, international container shortages, and distribution delays have certainly contributed to the problem.

But given that most other states aren’t facing anywhere near the same liquor deficit as North Carolina, though, it seems likely that the commission’s draconian control over state alcohol consumption is also to blame.

The ABC system was already in disarray years before the pandemic triggered problems with the global supply chain; in 2018, an audit revealed that the ABC had been losing close to $1 million of taxpayer money every year since 2005 due to poorly handled contracts and inadequate management.

In September of this year, ABC Commission chairman A.D. “Zander” Guy resigned from the board. He had been experiencing excess stress from the liquor shortage, he told the Associated Press, which resulted in sleepless nights spent “worrying about things that you can’t control.”

If the chairman of the ABC was experiencing a lack of agency, you can only imagine how helpless folks at the bottom of the chain are feelin. With big-name brands like Tito’s, Jameson, and Crown Royal out of stock at ABC stores for weeks at a time, and nationally operated chain restaurants hoarding the supply as soon as bottles are made available, local bars and restaurants are being forced to take drinks off the menu or find substitute spirits.

And when buyers are notified that their long-delayed orders are finally ready to pick up, the items are often still out of stock, according to several Triangle restaurant workers who wished to remain anonymous for fear of aggravating an already tenApple Mule at Olde Raleigh Distillery PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA uous relationship with the ABC. It’s huge news for independent purveyors, who now The shortage is also leading some local distilleries to have an edge over corporate brands with Sunday closures refrain from selling their product at ABC stores, for fear that are rooted in religion, and customers are thrilled of it getting lost in the state’s distribution system. that chicken biscuits are back on the menu for Sunday “One reason we elected to hold on distributing was brunch. During the rest of the week, though, the major- because of this state distribution issue. As a business ity of Dearth Carolinians will still head to Chick-fil-A for owner, at least I know where my inventory is,” McCraney their fried chicken fix; it’s more accessible in terms of says. “The second it’s set in a state distribution wareprice and location, and they’ve yet to find a local spot house, I can’t say that.” that sells anything comparable to Chick-n-Minis.

Moffitt says the General Assembly is referring the disBut there’s a problem. tribution issues to “government ops,” who are now “digOver the past few months, Chick-fil-A hasn’t had any ging into more detail about why we are here and what’s of its usual products in stock. Some of its less popular the problem in getting it resolved.” menu items are available, but if you’re looking for nugLegislators and the ABC are pushing the narrative gets or a Spicy Deluxe Sandwich, you’re out of luck. All that there is still a missing element to the shortage across Dearth Carolina, Chick-fil-A is out of chicken, and that, once unearthed, can resolve the whole issue. It no one seems to know why. seems more likely, though, that the problem lies in an The liquor supply shortage that started in early 2020 old-fashioned, mismanaged system that is attempting has steadily worsened over the course of the pandemic, to function the same way it did when it was established, and according to Moffitt, it’s probably not going away over 80 years ago. anytime soon.

But until the commission is overhauled, bills like HB “It doesn’t seem like it’s getting better,” Moffitt says. 890 can bring small victories for local producers strug“There seem to be a handful of stores that are fully gling to operate under the ABC’s iron fist. stocked, but in large measure, most stores are not.”

“There have been archaic laws for way too long. I’m The ABC Commission is pointing its finger at glob- glad we’re getting closer to catching up to other states,” al supply chain issues, while its warehouse operator, McCraney says. “Anything that is progressive in moving LB&B Associates, is blaming complications from a new this state towards laws that’s going to benefit the North inventory software that the agency implemented in June. Carolina distiller, I am completely supportive of.” W

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A RT

MALIK: SOVEREIGN OF FAITH

CAM Raleigh, Raleigh | Through Feb 22, 2022

Heads Up Lakea Shepard’s powerful mixed-media masks interrogate ideas about what it means to be protected

BY JESSICA KARISAA arts@indyweek.com

W

hen Lakea Shepard was growing up, her father impressed upon her the age-old maxim for dealing with aggressors: “Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words should never hurt you.”

The advice likely would’ve more had she not been aware of the guns he kept in the house, which she was expressly forbidden to touch. This contradiction opened up questions about the meaning of protection, how it was to be brandished, and whom it was for.

And as a Black woman raised in the South, it didn’t take long for Shepard to feel unprotected.

Amid horrific gun violence across the nation, coupled with the tens of thousands of Black women and girls that go missing every year, these questions about protection morphed into the driving theme behind her work—woven mixed-media masks that utilize bullet casings, gemstones, and beadwork to arresting effect.

The masks belong in the series Poppa Said Girls Don’t Play with Guns, which is part of Shepard’s first solo museum show, Malik: Sovereign of Faith, which is on view at CAM Raleigh through February 22. I spoke to the Winston-Salem-based artist about her process, turning pain into purpose, and what protection means to her now.

INDY WEEK: I’m curious about your choice to focus on headgear as opposed to other forms of wearable art.

What do you think is more resonant or powerful about headgear?

LAKEA SHEPARD: Initially, I considered anything from the

shoulders down to be “fashion” and I was so resistant to making fashion. I made up my mind that I was going to focus on the neck and above.

But I’m also a Virgo, so I think a lot. I’m very analytical and everything revolves around my mind. I feel like something that Black people need to tap into more is accepting our thoughts and shuffling through our thoughts so that we don’t pass down those generational curses, trauma, and unresolved issues.

For me, focusing on the head is a form of physical therapy.

“Acuity’s Child” by Lakea Johnson

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAM RALEIGH

With masks, and especially with the type of masks that you make, it completely obscures the identity of the person behind it. That person can be anybody or they can be nobody. Why did you make that choice?

I do that mostly because I feel like I’ve been given a very special gift and I don’t want people to focus on my skin tone versus my gift. People get so distracted by the skin tone of Black people that they can’t receive the message.

I like to obscure the face so they can be focused on what I’m trying to present.

I’ve noticed in your work, especially the piece Culture Vulture, that when you look at the masks from afar they can appear intimidating, but when you get closer and examine the details, you see a lot of delicacy and preciousness. Is the integration of those two concepts intentional?

With the details, I wanted it to feel very luxurious. But the message behind it isn’t luxurious. That particular mask was inspired by the fact that so many Black people have gotten their ideas stolen, gotten their land stolen, gotten their physical body stolen, and we need to talk about it. Why is this happening and why are we letting this happen?

I wanted to combine materials that will draw people in; then when they look at it they see little messages in there. For example, there’s a little hand that’s choking a little Black person, and there are some little legs that are broken off and bloody at the end. I wanted people to be drawn by the beauty, but then I wanted them to be exposed to the real story.

A lot of the pieces date back to 2013. How has your relationship to them changed over the years?

I’ve actually gone through several phases of that body of work. When I initially made it, it was extremely heavy on me, simply because I put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into them. And then after finishing one of the first pieces, there was [the Sandy Hook] school shooting. So after that happened, it solidified exactly what I was supposed to be doing, which was trying to figure out how to protect myself as a Black woman in a world of people who don’t accept me.

As I’ve grown into an adult, I’ve realized that the work was very necessary for me to sort out all the thoughts that I had about what it means to be protected from the people around me with my faith, with relationships, and with love. It makes more sense to me now and I feel like it’s current work. When I made it, it was way ahead of my time.

How do you understand protection today as a Black woman? What does that look like to you?

I feel like protection now means listening to my intuition.

I feel like I’ve made a lot of mistakes because I’ve second-guessed my intuition, and I feel like as women, we were blessed with that sixth sense. Along with that is utilizing the wisdom that has been passed down and not being afraid to turn my pain into purpose. Then turning that purpose into wisdom that I can hopefully pass down to other women that will be protected from making the same mistakes that I’ve made. W INDYweek.com

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ALL & ENTS T STUD TORS GE A C EDU

FF O % L 10 ON ALKS

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© Puzzles by Pappocom

There is really only one rule to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box.

The numbers can appear in any order and diagonals are not considered.

Your initial game board will consist of several numbers that are already placed. Those numbers cannot be changed. Your goal is to fill in the empty squares following the simple rule above.

If you just can’t wait, check out the current week’s answer key at www.indyweek.com, and click “puzzle pages.”

Best of luck, and have fun! www.sudoku.com solution to last week’s puzzle

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November 10, 2021

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11.10.21 INDY CLASSIFIEDS classy@indyweek.com

C L AS S I F I E D S EVENTS

EMPLOYMENT Sr. Statistical Programmer I (Durham, N.C.) Sr. Statistical Programmer I sought by ICON Clinical Research, LLC in Durham, NC. Deliver high quality SAS programming outputs for all assignments that consistently meets study timelines, quality standards, sponsor and/or contractual requirements. Telecommuting available. Apply @ www.jobpostingtoday.com #31455.

PATHWAYS FOR PEOPLE, INC IS LOOKING FOR ENERGETIC INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE INTERESTED IN GAINING EXPERIENCE WHILE MAKING A DIFFERENCE! POSITIONS AVAILABLE ARE: Full Time Clinical Supervisor (QP) Full time Clinical Supervisor (QP) needed to coordinate and monitor services and supports for individuals served.

Job duties include but not limited to: supervising of direct care staff, reviewing and maintaining adequate documentation of services, and developing training interventions/strategies for achievement of outcomes/ objectives for individuals. Must have a 4 year degree and 2 years post graduate experience working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Please contact Gloria at gloria@ pathwaysforpeople.org Day Program General Instructor General Instructor needed for Day Program in Cary.

Hours are Monday - Friday 9:00am to 4:00pm. Job duties include: planning for and leading a variety of classes. Experience working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities is required and college degree preferred. Please contact Rachael at rachael@pathwaysforpeople.org Habilitation Technician Habilitation technician needed to work with a young adult male with autism in his Chapel Hill home and within the community. Hours are Monday - Friday 7:30am to 6:15pm.

This position can be a full-time position or split shifts.

Please contact Gloria at gloria@pathwaysforpeople.org

CRIT TERS Looking for a loving cat companion?

Goathouse Refuge, a no-kill cat rescue in Pittsboro, NC, has many cats and kittens in need of loving homes. We also care for “unadoptable” cats, giving them attention and comfort they deserve. Please support our mission by adopting, sponsoring, volunteering or donating today: goathouserefuge.org.

L AST WEEK’S PUZZLE

For a list of other available positions go to: www.pathwaysforpeople.org

HEALTH & WELL BEING

919-416-0675

www.harmonygate.com

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November 10, 2021

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