INDY Week 2.5.20 by Indy Week

RALEIGH February 5, 2020

Words of the Damned

In a new book, inmates on North Carolina’s Death Row explore what life is like when you’re waiting to die

By Thomasi McDonald p. 12

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February 5, 2020

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Raleigh

Batt le Royale

VOL. 37 NO. 6

CONTENTS NEWS 8 Should the state redefine anti-Semitism?

BY MICHAEL PAPICH

10 A Raleigh police review board almost no one will like.

BY LEIGH TAUSS

FEATURES 12 A bleak life on North Carolina’s Death Row.

BY THOMASI MCDONALD

FOOD + DRINK 16 Michael Chuong’s small new restaurant has big ambitions. BY MICHAEL PAPICH MUSIC 20 The buzzy Raleigh band Truth Club bounces back from burnout.

BY SAM HAW

29 How to become Carson McCullers.

I’d arrived in the middle of the NCAA Tournament—Duke won that year—but college basketball wasn’t really my thing. It had been when I was a kid, and in the ’80s, UNC had Michael Jordan and Kenny Smith and J.R. Reid, so even though I lived in Florida and had neither set eyes on Chapel Hill nor could find it on a map, I followed the Tar Heels religiously. (Which, of course, meant I hated Duke religiously, too.) But time passed, I moved on, and the world of college ball—really, sports in general—slipped from my mind. Moving here didn’t rekindle the fire. And I never did choose a side. I opted instead to remain casually agnostic, respecting the fact that Duke-UNC is the greatest rivalry in college hoops, even if the Tar Heels have gone belly-up this year. The game is Saturday night. If I’m at a bar that’s showing it, maybe I’ll watch for a bit. But there’s another Duke-UNC rivalry that’s closer to my heart. Right up until tipoff—5:59 p.m. on Saturday—the two universities’ student-run newspapers are facing off in their second-annual fundraising competition, a challenge to see which newsroom can bring in the most money. The Daily Tar Heel topped The Chronicle last year, with both publications pulling in a collective $75,000.

ARTS + CULTURE 28 Two ways of remembering mortality.

ne of the first things I was told when I moved here nearly five years ago is that you have to choose a side: Duke or UNC (or, I suppose, N.C. State).

BY BYRON WOODS

BY SARAH EDWARDS

These outlets are valuable to this community right now. This year, the DTH has been all over the Silent Sam story. And with Chapel Hill effectively being a news desert, the ferocious student paper is indispensable to the town, as well. The Chronicle, too, has broken stories the Duke administration would rather have kept hidden, like the time it sold students’ data to the Chinese government.

DEPARTMENTS 4 Voices

Soapboxer

16 Where to Eat and Drink This Week

5 15 Minutes

23 Music Calendar

6 Quickbait 7 A Week in the Life

30 Culture Calendar

But these papers are also immensely valuable to the uncertain future of my profession. These students know that a journalism degree isn’t an MBA. They’re doing it because they want to do it, and student papers are giving them the chance to learn how to do it well. They’re talented, they’re tenacious, and whatever form journalism takes next, they’re going to be leading the way. So do me a favor: Head over to dukechronicle.org or dailytarheel.com (or both) and throw a few dimes in the bucket. Then settle back and watch the game—if that’s your thing.

33 Nightstand

—Jeffrey C. Billman (jbillman@indyweek.com)

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February 5, 2020

BACKTALK

For this week’s Backtalk, let’s do a lightning round!

First up is LIZ ROURKE, who didn’t appreciate our description of spineless Senator Thom Tillis in last week’s Good, Bad & Awful. She writes: “Let’s not insult squid. They are useful and tasty.” Noted. Next! “Doesn’t matter if you vote the blue party line or the red party line,” writes KUANYU CHEN. “How about at least don’t vote for criminals and [ jackasses] and indecent human beings?” Agreed! One more on Tillis, from KRIS LAWSON CARABETTA: “He LOVES his fidget spinner, which, BTW, was given to him by his fellow senator, Mr. Burr, as confirmed by a man at Burr’s Winston-Salem office today. He was quite proud of the fact, even proclaiming that he was playing with one even as he took my call.” The same column mentioned Dennis Nielson, a state Senate candidate who seems to have a bit of an alleged misogyny problem. Over to you, JESÚS GUTIÉRREZ: “The saddest part is that Dennis Nielson will probably win his primary because that’s the kind of person Republicans vote for lately.” And you, JANE HOLDING: “I am so sorry to see that such a creep lives in Johnston County.” Last week, we reported that former national security adviser John Bolton, who will not get the chance to testify to Congress about President Trump’s very obvious quid pro quo, is coming to Duke on February 17. STEPHEN ADVOKAT is not amused: “Now that it’s all over except for the shouting, Bolton is coming to Duke to chat up his book? BS! Boycott, anyone?” In last week’s paper, Thomasi McDonald wrote about the longstanding issues surrounding public housing funding. That’s not the real problem at McDougald Terrace, JENCY MARKHAM writes: “With that large of a budget, there is no way these places shouldn’t have been maintained all along. Over 100 employees to manage the DHA properties, and that’s not enough? That’s a stunning lack of efficiency by the administrators.” Finally, a mea culpa. As DAVE TOLLEFSEN points out, our Local Beer Issue missed one: “So this year is Carolina Brewing Company’s 25th anniversary, and they aren’t part of the article. You know them, down in Holly Springs, oh, but you don’t because you didn’t write about them.” This is correct. We apologize to Carolina Brewing.

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February 5, 2020

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voices

17 Cents You deserve a break. So do the people who make your Big Mac. BY BARRY SAUNDERS backtalk@indyweek.com

hile driving down the street a month ago, I experienced a Big Mac Attack. This really blew my mind, since I hadn’t thought of a Big Mac in several years—and hadn’t had one in probably 20. My truck turned, seemingly of its own volition, into the McDonald’s parking lot on Roxboro Street. I went into the restaurant and—mouth and heart filled with anticipation—ordered one. Big mistake, folks. The two all-beef patties were cold, the lettuce wilted, and the special sauce was anything but. Don’t even ask about the pickles. Under normal circumstances, I’d have tossed that culinary disaster into the trash after one bite and kept on truckin’. But I was hungry, so I ate the whole thing. Even so, after 20 years, I refused to let the bad burger slide. The restaurant’s telephone number was on the receipt, so I called and, in my best “Let me speak to the manager” voice, said, “Let me speak to the manager.” I explained what had happened—that after 20 years, I decided to buy a Big Mac, and the one I got was stone cold, and it would probably be another 20 years before I bought another one. Was the manager understanding? Did he offer my money back? Did he tell me to come down so he could prepare one just for me with some “extra-special” special sauce? Negative. Dude merely explained that “a lot has changed in 20 years,” and they no longer make the burgers to-order when you come in. The patties, he explained, might have been sitting under a heat lamp for a considerable length of time when I ordered them. Sensing that I, like Mick Jagger, was about to get no satisfaction, I then went online and filled out what seemed like a 200-question customer service questionnaire, at the end of which I reported the manager’s candid but insufficient response. That was weeks ago, and I’ve yet to hear a word from Ronald, the Hamburglar, or anyone else associated with the corporation. That unsavory McDonald’s experience came to mind recently when I saw some McDonald’s employees and their supporters outside the downtown Durham location banging the drums—actually, red plastic buckets and anything else they could get their hands on—in support of workers’ demand for a $15 hourly wage. The protest, wrote the INDY’s Thomasi McDonald— my cousin, but no relation to Ronald—was part of Raise Up NC/Fight for 15’s ongoing campaign calling on McDonald’s to “protect its employees’ safety, address

what they say is rampant sexual harassment, pay its workers $15 per hour, and recognize workers’ right to organize a union.” A 2015 study by Purdue University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism Management contends that if workers were paid $15 an hour, the cost of that Big Mac that now costs $3.99 would soar to—wait for it—$4.16. I don’t know about you, but I’d gladly pay—wait a minute, let me do some cipherin’ here—an extra 17 cents for a burger if I knew that the person who prepared it could afford to feed her or his own children or had health insurance or benefits that allowed them to stay home when sick. The study also found that raising the minimum wage would save the restaurant industry billions of dollars because employee turnover—and the cost of training new employees—would be lower: People tend to stay longer in jobs where they feel appreciated. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? If so, some people are walking around with no brains. The number of people who were unsympathetic to the workers’ cause surprised me. Of the 10 people to whom I spoke—some as they exited a McDonald’s with a bag of vittles—four of them said either that the workers didn’t deserve $15 an hour or, if they did, they wouldn’t be willing to pay more to ensure they got it. “If they don’t like it, they can always get another job that pays more,” said one minivan-driving mom. “Fifteen dollars an hour is a lot of money just for flipping burgers,” a black-leather-clad man in a red bandana said as he crossed the parking lot to his Harley. Yikes. My soul rests a little easier, though, because the majority of people were willing—nay, eager—to pay more. They felt as I do: Seventeen cents is a small price to pay to ensure that the person handling your food is happy, has health care, and doesn’t have to come to work sick. As a certified Jeopardy! addict, I recall a Final Jeopardy question decades ago—possibly further back than when I had my last Big Mac—that went something like, “This is the national minimum wage.” One contestant—who probably could tell you the name of Louis XIV’s wigmaker’s second cousin—hadn’t a clue. Her response: $15. Knowing that the minimum wage at the time was under $4 an hour, I thought, man, I’d love to live in her world. I still would. 2 Voices is made possible by contributions to the INDY Press Club. Join today at KeepItINDY.com.

BARRY SAUNDERS is a former columnist for The News & Observer. He now publishes thesaundersreport.com.

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YOUR WEEK. EVERY WEDNESDAY.

Jennifer Richmond, 47 Master stylist at Rock’s Bar and Hair Shop BY SARA PEQUEÑO spequeno@indyweek.com

FOOD • NEWS • ARTS • MUSIC

How did you get into being a hairstylist? My first husband—it was a dare. It really was. I was in nursing school and I hated it, and he told me to quit. I was an at-home mom, and he got sick of [the kids] looking like Angela Davis. They wore afros every day. He was like, “Why don’t you go to beauty college and do hair?” I said, “I can’t do hair, I don’t want to do that.” And he said, “If anything else, do the kids’ hair.”

What do you feel a good barber or barbershop adds to a community? I think it’s a place where especially men—we do a lot of women, too—where people can come together and talk and be themselves. I remember growing up, women went to beauty salons and men and went to barber shops. When I was going to barber shops with my brothers and my cousins, it was a way for men to get together and talk about manly stuff. And a lot of that happens here, too. It makes people feel good that we keep it more old-timey hip. Everybody can be themselves.

What is one thing that you love and one thing you wish people knew about your job? There’s never a dull moment. I don’t care if you do the same haircut every day, all day. Every person in your chair is different. What people need to know is that we work hard. “Oh, you only do hair.” It’s not just mental, this job can be physically draining, too. We have to stand behind a chair eight to 10 hours, and you just stand there and cut hair. It puts a lot of pressure on my legs and my back. W

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February 5, 2020

6.5 6.5 6 6

6,627,391 6,627,391

11-4-14 11-4-14

11-8-16 11-8-16

11-6-18 11-6-18

Date Date

#2 #2

Wake Wake

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg

Republican Republican

28% 28%

30% 30%

32% 32%

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#4 #4

Guilford Guilford

N.C. N.C. Registered Registered Voter Voter Breakdown 2014) Breakdown by by Party Party (since (since 2014) Democrat Democrat

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Unaffiliated Unaffiliated

#5 #5

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N.C. N.C. Registered Registered Voter Voter Breakdown Breakdown by Gender (since 2014) by Gender (since 2014)

7 7 6 6

#1 #1

1-25-20* 1-25-20*

Female Female

33% 33%

Male Male

5 5 4 4

30% 30%

3 3 2 2 1 1 0 0

42% 42%

40% 40%

38% 38%

% % of of Registered Registered Voters Voters by Generation by Generation 80 80 60 60 40 40 20 20

54% 46% 54% 46%

11-4-14 11-4-14

11-8-16 11-8-16

54% 46% 54% 46%

11-6-18 11-6-18

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11-4-14 11-8-16 11-6-18 1-25-20* 11-4-14 11-8-16 11-6-18 1-25-20*

Date Date

100 100

54% 46% 54% 46%

37% 37%

General General Election Election Participation Participation Rate by Generation Rate by Generation

14% 14%

11% 11%

10% 10%

34% 34%

32% 32%

31% 31%

8% 8% 30% 30%

27% 27%

26% 26%

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27% 27% 5% 5% 11-6-18 11-6-18

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registeredvoters voters %%ofofregistered

INDYweek.com

7,092,686 7,092,686

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8 8

registeredvoters voters %%ofofregistered

February 5, 2020

7.5 7.5

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QUICKBAIT QUICKBAIT

n 2016, Donald Trump n 2016, Donald Trump won North Carolina by won North Carolina by 3.6 points. Four years 3.6 points. Four years before that, Mitt Romney before that, Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama by about 2 beat Barack Obama by about 2 points. Four years before that, points. Four years before that, Obama defeated John McCain by Obama defeated John McCain by roughly 14,000 votes. We have roughly 14,000 votes. We have a moderate Democratic gova moderate Democratic governor who knocked off a GOP ernor who knocked off a GOP incumbent by about 10,000 incumbent by about 10,000 votes, a radical GOP legislature votes, a radical GOP legislature (and congressional delegation) (and congressional delegation) entrenched through gerrymanentrenched through gerrymandering, and a Dem-tilted state dering, and a Dem-tilted state Supreme Court. Supreme Court. We are, in other words, a We are, in other words, a swing state. swing state. And, on paper, we’re a swing And, on paper, we’re a swing state in which Democrats could state in which Democrats could do well this year. Since Trump’s do well this year. Since Trump’s election, we’ve seen the eradielection, we’ve seen the eradication of the GOP in the metcation of the GOP in the metros, a GOP election-fraud scanros, a GOP election-fraud scandal that led to a do-over condal that led to a do-over congressional race, and the state gressional race, and the state GOP chairman plead guilty to a GOP chairman plead guilty to a bribery charge. bribery charge. In addition, the November balIn addition, the November ballot will feature the least populot will feature the least popular U.S. senator in the country lar U.S. senator in the country (hi, Thom!) and, assuming Dan (hi, Thom!) and, assuming Dan Forest wins the March 3 primary, Forest wins the March 3 primary, a Republican gubernatorial candia Republican gubernatorial candidate who thinks The Handmaid’s date who thinks The Handmaid’s Tale is a policy manual. Tale is a policy manual. But Democrats aren’t as conBut Democrats aren’t as confident as all that might sugfident as all that might suggest. The election will be close, gest. The election will be close, and whatever happens will likely and whatever happens will likely depend on Trump—and how he depend on Trump—and how he affects turnout. affects turnout. With registration for the priWith registration for the primary set to close on Friday—you mary set to close on Friday—you can same-day register throughcan same-day register throughout the early-voting period, out the early-voting period, which starts on February 13—we which starts on February 13—we wanted to see how the compowanted to see how the composition of the state’s voters has sition of the state’s voters has changed since November 2016. changed since November 2016. One interesting nugget, One interesting nugget, according to the State Board according to the State Board of Elections: North Carolina of Elections: North Carolina has added more than 300,000 has added more than 300,000 people since 2016. But as of people since 2016. But as of January 25, it has about 4,000 January 25, it has about 4,000 fewer registered voters. fewer registered voters.

55 Largest Largest Counties Counties by by Registered Voters (since 2014) Registered Voters (since 2014)

(since 2014)

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Total Voters Total Registered Registered Voters in in N.C. N.C. (since 2014)

Who’s Who’s Voting? Voting?

100 100 80 80 60 60 40 40 20 20 0 0

Date Date Gen Z Gen Z

2012 2012

2016 2016

2014 2014

2018 2018

Year Year Millennials Millennials

Gen X Gen X

Baby Boomers Baby Boomers

Greatest/Silent Greatest/Silent Percentages rounded. *Most recent data available. Percentages rounded. *Most recent data available.

A WE E K IN THE L IFE

The Good, The Bad & The Awful

1/28 1/29 1/30

In oral arguments during its appeal of a multimillion-dollar nuisance verdict, SMITHFIELD FOODS claimed that the smell of pig poop isn’t as bad as the plaintiffs allege. That prompted a stern lecture on environmental justice from Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III. SENATORS BURR and THOM TILLIS voted against allowing additional witnesses and documents in Trump’s impeachment trial.

2/1

FRANKLIN GRAHAM was banned by a second UK city—Sheffield—over his “repulsive” anti-gay rhetoric. North Carolina reports nine more FLU-RELATED DEATHS, totaling 54 for the season. The percentage of North Carolina PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS who left the profession has declined from 9 percent in 2015–16 to 7.5 percent in 2018–19. A Raleigh police officer shot KEITH COLLINS near Glenwood Avenue after someone called 911 and said he was armed and acting suspiciously. He later died. Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown pledged to seek the release of body-camera footage. JIM WHITEHURST, the CEO of Red Hat, is named president of IBM. A Triangle-based Hindu group announced plans to build a temple with the world’s tallest statue of the warrior god LORD MURUGAN, soaring 155 feet into the air, in east Chatham County. Durham city manager Thomas Bonfield criticized city council member JILLIAN JOHNSON over a USA Today op-ed she co-authored in which she said that the Durham Police Department is “one of the poorest performing cities in the country when it comes to use of force.”

After missing 11 games, UNC star freshman COLE ANTHONY returned to the court, but the Tar Heels lost to Boston College 71–70. The KRISPY KREME CHALLENGE, which involves running and donuts, happened for an inexplicable 16th time in downtown Raleigh.

2/2

A new report from ENVIRONMENTAL NC shows that the Durham-Chapel Hill metropolitan area had 90 days of poor air quality in 2018—the second-highest in the state, following Winston-Salem. Raleigh had 75 days. The Durham Housing Authority’s price tag for repairs and evacuations of MCDOUGALD TERRACE tops $5 million. Eighty-eight UNC ALUMNI filed an amicus brief challenging the UNC System’s $2.5 million settlement with the Sons of Confederate Veterans, arguing that the deal “seriously damages the reputation of the University.”

SIR WALTER WALLY saw his shadow, meaning we’re in for another six weeks of winter. (That’s a weird sentence to write when it’s 72 degrees outside.)

2/3

SENATOR RICHARD BURR announced that he’d oppose removing Donald Trump from office even if there was a quid pro quo. The Research Triangle Foundation announced a partnership with the Dallas-based KDC to develop HUB RTP, a 43-acre multiuse urban district with a million square feet of office space and 30-story buildings.

1/31

(Here’s what’s happened since the INDY went to press last week)

Trustees at EASTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY were accused of bribing a student to run for campus president and vote with them. Responding to a lawsuit over its coal-fired power plant, UNC-CHAPEL HILL argued that, under the Clean Air Act, it couldn’t be sued because a regulatory agency is reviewing the claims. UNC professors petitioned the campus’s BOARD OF TRUSTEES to allow the school to rename buildings honoring slaveholders and white supremacists.

d goo

The Greensboro Four

bad

UNC Board of Governors

f aw

Sixty years ago Saturday, on February 1, 1960, four North Carolina A&T freshmen—David Richmond, Franklin McCain, Ezell A. Blair Jr., and Joseph McNeil—walked into a Woolworth’s on Elm Street in downtown Greensboro, purchased toothpaste and other products from the desegregated retail counter, then sat down at the lunch counter and asked for coffee. As they expected, they were refused. “We don’t serve Negroes here,” a waitress told them. But they didn’t move, not until the store closed. They went back to A&T, recruited 20 more black students, and returned the next day. They made the news. The third day, 60 people joined. The fourth, more than 300. Soon the movement spread across the South. By July, that Woolworth’s store desegregated, then most others followed. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act banned segregation in public accommodations.

It’s hard to think of how the UNC System could have handled the Silent Sam debacle any worse. Not only did the system give the Sons of Confederate Veterans $2.5 million to build a shrine to the felled monument, but now we learn that the other part of that settlement, the $74,999 the System gave the group, wasn’t to keep it from waving Confederate flags on UNC campuses. That was a lie. As The Daily Tar Heel reported last week, the System actually gave the SCV the money to purchase the rights to the statue from the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which had given it to UNC in 1913. That way, the SCV would have legal standing to sue UNC. Follow us here: UNC gave the SCV money so that the SCV could sue UNC so that UNC could give the SCV money. Hooray, fiscal responsibility! Oh, and about that very precise dollar amount: If it had gone to $75,000, the BOG would have needed Attorney General Josh Stein’s approval.

Senator Richard Burr We’ve dunked on Thom Tillis for being a spineless dope throughout the impeachment process. But with the final vote coming Wednesday and Donald Trump’s acquittal all but guaranteed, it’s time we paid Richard Burr some attention. He, after all, is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He’s been a senator for 15 years and was a congressman for a decade before that. He’s not running again in 2022, so he’s not beholden to the MAGA crowd. So if anyone was poised to be this generation’s Sam Ervin—the North Carolina senator who chaired the Watergate committee—it’s Richard Burr. Except Burr doesn’t give a shit. Even if there was a quid pro quo (there was), even if the president tried to coerce a foreign government into announcing sham investigations into his rivals (he did), that doesn’t “rise to the level of removal,” Burr declared last week. And then, to underline that he does not give a shit, Burr handed out fidget spinners during the trial. (And, of course, he voted against allowing evidence or testimony, because who needs that?) KeepItINDY.com

February 5, 2020

N E WS

North Carolina

Defining Hate The state’s Human Relations Commission might redefine anti-Semitism. Activists worry that could silence criticism of Israel. BY MICHAEL PAPICH backtalk@indyweek.com

fierce debate that started in Durham last year over what is and is not anti-Semitism has spread to the state’s Human Relations Commission—and it could move to the General Assembly. At the state HRC’s September 26, 2019 meeting, representatives from the North Carolina Coalition for Israel asked the commission to encourage the legislature to adopt the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism. Adopted in May 2016, this definition includes several components related to the state of Israel: Claims that Israel’s existence is racist, requirements that Israel do things not demanded of other democratic nations, and insinuations that Jews are collectively responsible for Israel’s actions are all considered anti-Semitic. However, “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic.” But at another HRC meeting last Thursday, members of Jewish Voices for Peace pushed back, arguing that changing the definition would shut down dissent over Israel’s policies and Palestinian rights. “It’s flawed logic to label critics of Israel as anti-Semitic,” Trude Bennett told commissioners. “It portrays me as having a failed loyalty and Palestinians as criminals.” This controversy originated last year with a Durham City Council statement that its police would not participate in international exchanges that included military-style training. That decision followed pressure from the coalition group “Demilitarize! Durham2Palestine,” which asked the city not to allow its police to undergo counterterrorism training in Israel. While the council’s statement covered exchanges with any country, an opening paragraph quoted Chief C.J. Davis

saying there had been no effort to initiate exchanges with Israel. That—along with an understanding of where the statement came from—sparked a firestorm. The N.C. Coalition for Israel sued the city when it refused to remove the mention of Israel from the statement. It was one of three lawsuits, in fact; another argued that the council had violated the Open Meetings Law by discussing the statement in group emails. All three have been dismissed, most recently the N.C. Coalition for Israel’s in December. The group plans to appeal. In September, Coalition members made it clear why they wanted the state’s definition of anti-Semitism to change. “We ask that you protect us,” Jerome Fox, who is part of the Coalition’s lawsuit, told the HRC. “How can you do that? You can encourage the North Carolina legislators to adopt the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism. That could go a long way in preventing the Durham situation from occurring in other unsuspecting North Carolina towns.” They didn’t buy the argument that criticism of Israel is a separate thing. “Make no mistake,” said Amy Rosenthal. “When these groups say Israel, they mean Jews.” Durham isn’t the only place where this debate has surfaced in North Carolina. In March 2019, the U.S. Department of Education investigated a conference held by the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies over accusations of bias and because several speakers were involved in the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. “I don’t see how you can talk about the conditions in Gaza without talking about its relationship to Israel,” says UNC professor Elyse Crystall, an adviser to Students for Justice in Palestine. The conference was also criticized for a performance by Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafar, who started a song by calling it his “anti-Semitic song.” Crystall says Nafar was being satirical, calling attention to the notion that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism. “If your song is anti-Semitic, you’re not going to say that,” Crystall says. “The song was about being in love with a Jewish woman.”

“What a Jew is, is now redefined as a national identity, as if all Jews come from Israel. What connects us is not national origin.” 8

February 5, 2020

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The Department of Education’s investigation, instigated by Republican congressman George Holding, led to threats to cut the Middle East studies consortium’s Title VI funding—$235,000 in total. “We do not see how these activities support the development of foreign language and international expertise for the benefit of U.S. national security and economic stability,” said Robert King, assistant secretary for postsecondary education. King also alleged that the consortium was treating Islam more favorably than Christianity and Judaism. In December, President Trump signed an executive order classifying discrimination against Jews as a Title VI violation, which refers to discrimination based on “race, color, or national origin.” The order also expands the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism to include college campuses. “What a Jew is, is now redefined as a national identity, as if all Jews come from Israel,” Crystall says. “What connects us as Jews is not national origin.” In 2017, Governor Cooper signed into law a bill banning the state from doing business with companies that boycott Israel—an indication that, were the HRC to push the new definition, lawmakers might adopt it. This, Fox says, would be a victory for the Jewish community. In his view, you can’t separate anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism. As he told the HRC in September: “Although the anti-Israel cohorts who influenced the city council members have not drawn swastikas on my doors, I contend that denying the Jewish people, one of the oldest nations on the planet, a right to a sovereign state of their own, in their ancestral homeland, is tantamount to anti-Semitism.” Globally, anti-Semitism has been on the rise, with farright political parties taking power in Brazil, Poland, and Hungary. All three of those countries, however, maintain close ties with Israel. “The Israeli government, which says it is for the protection of Jewish people, ignored the cries of Jewish people,” John Luke Kurucz, of Jewish Voice for Peace, told the HRC last week. The HRC didn’t indicate which way it was leaning, though committee member Angelo Mathay asked Jewish Voices for Peace representatives last week if they had a different definition of anti-Semitism. They pointed toward the definition used by Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, which says in part: “It has functioned to prevent the prevailing economic system and the almost exclusively Christian ruling class by diverting blame for hardships onto Jews. The myth changes and adapts to different times and places, but fundamentally it says that Jews are to blame for society’s problems.” W

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February 5, 2020

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Raleigh

The Middle Is a Muddle Mary-Ann Baldwin’s police review board compromise might not make anyone happy BY L EI G H TAU S S ltauss@indyweek.com

utside the Big Lots, a man in a gold jacket stood near the trash cans, the 911 caller said. A black handgun fell to the ground from under his shirt. He picked it up and stuck it in his jacket, then looked around and entered the store. “He was an African American, older man with a gold jacket—it looks like he’s getting ready to go on Saturday Night Live—and a toboggan on,” the caller said. “He was acting shady.” Less than an hour later, he’d be dead, shot by a Raleigh police officer responding to the 911 call. Keith Dutree Collins, 52, lived in a nearby apartment complex and was likely walking home on Pleasant Valley Road when the officer approached him. Instead of following the officer’s orders, Police Chief Cassandra Deck-Brown says, Collins ran. While being chased, Collins produced a gun. The officer fired multiple rounds, striking Collins multiple times. He was taken to the hospital, where he died. Collins’s death is the latest in a series of high-profile use-of-force incidents that have drawn calls for police accountability, including a viral video of two officers beating Braily Andres Batista-Concepcion until his face was covered in blood. For years, Raleigh activists have sought an oversight board with disciplinary and subpoena powers. Last year, the city’s Human Relations Commission agreed, but the city manager refused to allow the HRC to present its recommendations to the council. Deck-Brown opposes any board, believing it will interfere with her officers’ ability to do their jobs. In a unanimous vote at its meeting on Tuesday, the Raleigh City Council struck a compromise that gave neither group what it wants: a largely toothless review board. “We need to do something, and it’s a first step and a compromise,” Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin told the INDY Monday. “Sometimes, when you make nobody happy, maybe that is the best solution.” City staffers presented a report based on community feedback from six forums late last year. Only 191 people attended the meetings, and 83 were police officers. The report concludes that “there is a strong desire from community member[s] that Council should do something to address the issues of transparency and accountability in the form of some type/model of review board.” The board will consist of five members—a mental health professional, a civil rights attorney, a representative from the LGBTQ community, a victims’ advocate, and an appointee from the police department. The board would be charged with reviewing the police department’s policies and “building trust” with the community, Baldwin says. Giving a review board subpoena or disciplinary power, Baldwin points out, would require asking the General Assembly for permission. She thinks that’s a losing battle. Deck-Brown did not respond to a request for comment on Monday. Diana Powell, the executive director of Justice Served NC, says the board won’t “solve all the problems, but at least we’re getting a start versus having nothing.” City council member Nicole Stewart—who previously opposed a review board because she didn’t think it would be effective—agrees.

February 5, 2020

INDYweek.com

Cassandra Deck-Brown

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CITY OF RALEIGH

“Does putting something on the ground help us move forward, or are we giving everybody nothing that they want?” Stewart says. “I’m hopeful that by moving forward, we’re giving folks something and starting to build some trust and test some ideas to see what works and learning from what doesn’t.” But the activist group Raleigh Police Accountability Community Task Force, which has lobbied for years for more police oversight, isn’t happy—not with the feckless board Baldwin is proposing, and not with the fact that it wasn’t given a headsup before it was announced. Far from building trust, PACT argues, the city is taking a step backward. “This board does nothing,” PACT coalition coordinator Surena Johnson told the INDY Monday night. “It gives us no power to make any decisions. This is setting us back because it’s an illusion of progress.” W

“This is setting us back because it’s an illusion of progress.”

SOA P BOXE R

Hunting for a President Early voting starts next week. What should we look for in a candidate? BY JEFFREY C. BILLMAN @jeffreybillman

fter 15 interminable months, God knows how many debates, thousands of campaign ads, a million polls, a billion VERY URGENT fundraising emails, frontrunners collapsing (sorry, Kamala), nobodies becoming somebodies (heya, Pete), flashes in the pan burning out (Beto!), should-have-beens never being (we’ll always have that housing plan, Julian Castro), and billionaires making TV stations rich—after all of that, voting in the Democratic primaries finally (finally!) began this week. I have no idea what’s going to happen over the coming weeks—and, as the INDY goes to press, I’m still not entirely clear what happened in Iowa on Monday night. But in North Carolina, early voting starts next week, so after months of vacillation, I’ve got a decision to make. Ideologically—according to those myriad online quizzes—I most align with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. But ideology isn’t my primary motivator. My decision is more rudimentary, framed by one key principle: Donald Trump and the authoritarian movement that brought him to power is a malignancy that has infected the Republican Party; the longer he remains in power, the more likely it is to corrupt the entire body politic. Which brings us to the most important thing I’m looking for in a candidate: Someone who can win. Right now, polling generally shows Joe Biden outperforming the rest in head-toheads with Trump, but not by enough to matter, especially after Trump’s propaganda machine makes the Ukraine conspiracy theory Hillary’s Emails 2.0. Besides, Biden hasn’t raised a lot of money or generated much enthusiasm. He does, however, appeal to the Trump-wary suburbanites who won Democrats the House in 2018. (So does Mike Bloomberg.) But he’ll have problems marshaling the base.

Bernie Sanders won’t. If he’s successful in turning out new voters, he’ll fundamentally reshape the electorate. But it’s a highrisk, high-reward proposition: After a billion dollars of hammer-and-sickle ads, those suburbanites might stick with the devil they know. Elizabeth Warren, meanwhile, is trying to split the difference, reaching out to Bernie’s voters while playing footsie with the party establishment—a strategy that’s pleased editorial boards but hasn’t seemed to pay off otherwise. As 2016 taught us, winning more votes isn’t enough. You have to win the right votes in the right places. This year, that will mean Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona, and Florida. Which brings us to the second thing: Someone who can win the Senate. When this era’s history is written, there will be no greater villain than Mitch McConnell. And as long as he’s running the Senate, any Democratic president will be hamstrung—not just on ambitious things like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, but on judicial nominations and budgets, too. Assuming Doug Jones loses in Alabama, Democrats will need four pickups to win control. Maine and Colorado look doable, but Senate victories in North Carolina, Arizona, and Georgia will require a strong top-of-ticket showing. These are redder states where Dems have traditionally run as pragmatic moderates. Then again, in North Carolina, millennials and Gen Zs comprise 36 percent of registered voters, up from 30 percent in 2016 and 32 percent two years ago. In 2018, when the state’s Democrats narrowly outvoted Republicans, about a third of them showed up, while two-thirds of baby boomers did. If a candidate can double their turnout, you can throw out the old playbook. Number three: Someone who will democratize our democracy.

By 2040, 70 percent of the country will live in 16 states, which means 30 percent of the country—mostly white, rural, and conservative—will have a supermajority in the Senate. They’ll also have an outsize say in the Electoral College, which means they’ll have an outsize say in judicial nominations, too. Ours will be a government by a minority dictated by geography. This isn’t just a future problem: The last two Republican presidents claimed the White House after receiving fewer votes than their opponents. The 53 Republican senators represent 15 million fewer Americans than the 47 Democrats. The next president needs to put this democracy gap front and center—beginning with a push for the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and statehood for Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. There’s a lot more on the next president’s agenda, of course: Trump’s racist and environmentally calamitous executive orders need to be shredded. Alliances need to be rebuilt. Democratic guardrails need to be reestablished. And yes, we urgently need to address climate change and universal health care and socioeconomic inequality and criminal justice reform. To accomplish any of that, the Senate needs to kill the filibuster. Warren and Pete Buttigieg are on board, and Sanders and Amy Klobuchar are open to it. (Biden, who still labors under the delusion that he can turn the GOP sane, isn’t.) Even then, the next president will need the likes of Joe Manchin to get legislation through the Senate. That will constrain the realm of the possible. Ultimately, big structural reforms will require big reforms to our institutional structures. First things first, though: We have to excise the cancer. W

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February 5, 2020

Words of the Damned In a new book, inmates on North Carolina’s Death Row explore what life is like when you’re waiting to die

BY THOMASI MCDONALD tmcdonald@indyweek.com

“The day I walked onto Death Row, I felt like an alien. My mind was a haze of confusion and disbelief. I wore sadness on my shoulders and disaster behind my eyes. Condemnation thudded in my chest. With leaden steps, I walked into a warped capsule that was desolate, though filled with men—men with empty gazes and dejected postures, like forgotten relics tarnished by the cruelties of incarceration. I have never seen a walking dead man before; I was now cast amongst them. I dragged what was left of my mother’s son and my state-issued property into a dim six by ten foot single cell, collapsed onto the folds of a mattress, and cried. As sleep reached up to cradle me, I prayed that I would not wake up.” —Michael J. Braxton

February 5, 2020

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n 1996, Michael Braxton was sentenced to die for killing another inmate at the Caledonia Correctional Center in Halifax, where he was already serving a life sentence for killing a man during a robbery in Raleigh. According to court documents, he was running an illegal canteen-and-cards operation at Caledonia. A man named Dwayne Maurice Caldwell owed him $17. Though other inmates pooled their money to pay off Caldwell’s debt, Braxton gave them their money back, telling them, “It was a principle thing.” He then stabbed Caldwell 18 to 20 times in the shower. It’s not the kind of story that elicits sympathy, and it contrasts with the poetry of his words, which have been compiled by Tessie Castillo as part of her new book, Crimson Letters: Voices from Death Row. So, too, are the words of his fellow Death Row residents Lyle May, Terry Robinson, and George Wilkerson, who likewise were convicted of horrific crimes. In 1999, May was given two death sentences for the stabbing and beating murders of a 24-year-old woman and her four-year-old son. That same year, Robinson was sentenced for fatally shooting a Pizza Inn manager during an attempted robbery. And in 2006, Wilkerson was given two life sentences for shooting and killing an 18- and 19-year-old. Castillo started working on the book when she was an advocacy and communications coordinator with the

North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, a nonprofit that seeks to reduce opioid overdose deaths. In that role, in 2013 she pushed the General Assembly to pass a Good Samaritan law, which allows a person experiencing or witnessing an overdose to call 911 for help without fear of criminal repercussions. She quit her job in 2018 to work on the book full-time. Its title, she says, reflects the color of the jumpsuits the inmates wear. Despite their crimes, she says, her time with them convinced her of the need to share their humanity with the world. “The true genius of prison as punishment is not to lock men in cages or condemn them to die,” Castillo writes in the prologue, “but to starve them of love.”

“My stepdad left when I was 9, telling me I had to be the man of the house. It was a brutal environment. People had to know they couldn’t fuck with me. That’s where my focus had to be. But I didn’t do a good job. I was not a good big brother or ‘man of the house.’ I was afraid. I was a kid. I was conflicted. My spirit is gentle, yet I had to compete and contend with killers.” —Paul Brown (who began but left the Crimson Letters project)

Released in January, Crimson Letters comes at a critical moment in the history of capital punishment in North Carolina. The state hasn’t executed anyone in almost 14 years, not since Samuel Flippen was given a lethal injection on August 18, 2006, and it’s unlikely the machinery of death will restart anytime soon. Juries are doling out the death penalty less and less. In 2019, three inmates were adding to Death Row; the two years before that, none were. It’s clear that race has always been a factor in deciding who lives and who dies in North Carolina. In his 2019 book Lethal State: A History of the Death Penalty in North Carolina, UNC-Chapel Hill history professor Seth Kotch argues that from the beginning, “lynching and the death penalty were in fact closely related,” with “racial subjugation as a principal goal of the criminal justice system.” Right now, 143 people—140 men and three women—are sentenced to die in North Carolina. More than half of them are black, though blacks account for just 13 percent of the state’s population. Only 53 are white. That fact is at the heart of an appeal the state Supreme Court heard in August. Attorneys for six condemned inmates—five men and one woman— argued that racial bias marred their trials and resulted in their death sentences. Their case stems from the Racial Justice Act, which the General Assembly passed in 2009. It required a review of potential racial discrimination in death penalty trials. Four of those inmates—Tilmon Golphin, Christina Walters, Marcus Robinson, and Quintel Augustine—were resentenced to life without parole. But after Republicans gained a supermajority in 2012, they repealed the RJA, and the four were sent back to Death Row. The other two prisoners, Andrew Ramseur and Rayford Burke, filed RJA claims before the law was repealed, but those claims weren’t heard until after, and their appeals were dismissed because the RJA no longer existed. The Supreme Court hasn’t yet decided whether the first four are entitled to life sentences, or whether Ramseur and Burke have the right to have their claims

heard. (Last February, a group of former prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement officials filed an amicus brief asking the court to go a step further and throw out the death penalty altogether.) If the court rules in their favor, it could have far-reaching implications for the future of the death penalty in the state.

Castillo’s time as a volunteer was short-lived. Six months into the program, she writes in Crimson Letters, she was bothered by newspaper accounts of a newly condemned “I’d much rather have a quick man’s trial and the gunshot to the head or the public cries of what heart than endure this type she describes as an of agony. It’s excessive. “off with his head” mentality. Though the I committed a crime. prison psychologist I deserve to be punished. had warned her to Well then take me and keep her activities on blow my brains out right Death Row a secret, Castillo says, she away, but don’t do me decided to speak out. like this! 24 years of torment?! I Someone had to pull didn’t torment any of my victims like back the veil. this. This is the type of shit that will “I had spent enough make a mind unravel. It breaks you. time with convicted …This shit will make you lose your sanity men to understand until you are falling apart. I don’t want the term ‘monster’ to get out of bed sometimes. It’s a reflects more on the shame when the only relief you can accuser than the hope for is death.” accused,” she explains —Braxton in the book. “Most people, even the rulebreakers, are not dangerous, immoral, or In late 2013, Central Prison opened unredeemable. Everyone is broken, but for Death Row to community volunteers for some, the brokenness is easier to hide.” the first time. Castillo started a journaling In May 2014, she wrote an op-ed class that gained 24 participants. for The News & Observer: “I have been “Others came in and taught yoga, art, meeting twice a month with about 15 toastmasters, chess, and restorative men on Death Row, and the experience justice,” Castillo recalls. “They even put on has been both edifying and moving. I plays for the Vera Institute. Death Row was don’t see heartless killers, though a lively place for a while. But that was shut they might have killed in a moment down after a couple of years. A new warden of heartlessness. I see anger problems, came in who is real old-school and about stubbornness, lack of self-control, punishment. All the classes are gone now.”

Terry Robinson, Lyle May, George Wilkerson, Michael Braxton PHOTOS COURTESY OF TESSIE CASTILLO

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February 5, 2020

immaturity and miseducation. I see those qualities in people outside of prison, too. I see them in myself sometimes. But in these men I also see pain, regret, a capacity for kindness and self-reflection—and a desire to be seen for what they are, flawed and very human.” She appealed her dismissal, writing that, with her journaling class gone, her students “lost something that broke the relentless monotony of prison life.” Her pleas came to no avail. But she didn’t give up. She began writing the men. What was initially a “flurry of responses” turned into a “steady correspondence” of letters about prison, family, books, spirituality, personal growth, and coming to terms with their sentences. Sometimes they were cheerful, she writes. Other times, they were “halfmad from emasculation and grief.”

February 5, 2020

INDYweek.com

“Having no deep relationships deprives us of the richness of humanity has to offer,

to love with all our hearts, to laugh till we cry, to grieve till we feel almost dead. Life isn’t meant to be bland comfortable and safe and painless.” —George Wilkerson A condemned person’s capacity for kindness and reflection was best exemplified by former drill sergeant Earl Richmond Jr., who was executed in 2005 for the 1991 murders of four people while addicted to drugs and alcohol. Known as “E,” his fellow Death Row prisoners later described him as a peacemaker who talked others out of fighting. He was universally respected by guards and prisoners alike. Two guards who worked on Death Row

transferred to other prison blocks after his execution; it was too painful. The day the state killed Richmond, he refused a last meal, medication, or self-pity. “My victims got no last meal,” Richmond wrote in a letter he read the night before his death to 78 fellow prisoners. Lyle May was one of them. In 2003, North Carolina put seven inmates to death, making it the deadliest year at Central Prison since the state reinstated capital punishment in 1984 after a 23-year hiatus. May began cutting his legs and arms with razors. “Self-mutilation is something I dealt with since childhood, never really understanding why I did it, but turning to it in dark moments like the worst kind of drug,” May writes in Crimson Letters. “On Death Row the behavior continued as a way to pierce the mindnumbing horror of executions.” He stopped, he writes, when Richmond began training him in calisthenics. Exercise became an alternative to prison-prescribed drugs and self-abuse. Under Richmond’s tutelage, May’s self-esteem improved. He began taking classes offered by UNC-

Chapel Hill. In 2007, he transferred his studies to Ohio University’s Independent Studies Program, where he earned an associate of arts degree in 2013. In 2017, he was accepted into the university’s bachelor of specialized studies program. Along the way, he’s spoken to college classes via telephone and contributed articles to criminal justice websites and essays to Scalawag, a Southern social justice magazine. “Though E freely admitted his guilt and remorse for his crimes,” May writes, “he used it as a catalyst for change instead of a scourge, living the remainder of his life as we all should have from the beginning.” When Richmond’s execution date was set for May 6, 2005, there was talk among prisoners of disrupting his sentence. Richmond put a stop to the threat of violence. “I know y’all love me,” Richmond told the prisoners. “I know this hurts. It hurts me too, but love and respect me enough to keep calm. Help one another through this like we have done for other executions. Because we’re family, and that’s what family does.” W

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Soulful Chefs: What Feeds Us

Michael Chuong says his new eatery in a historic Cary cottage will be shaped by its size— and that’s a good thing

This is a super-secret event, so if you sign up, organizers will send the address of its farmhouse location. If that detail isn’t enticing enough, maybe the list of local chefs will help: Phoebe Lawless, Ryan McGuire, Sophia Woo, Matthew Krenz, and Kim Hunter all have a hand in preparing the meal. There’s no official website for this intimate pop-up, but you can find out more by searching the event name on Eventbrite and Facebook.

BY MICHAEL PAPICH food@indyweek.com

s Cary begins work on its new downtown park, just across the street, one of the city’s oldest buildings is taking on a new life. Michael Chuong’s MC Modern Asian Cuisine is taking over the historic Sam-Jones House at the corner of Walnut and Academy, next to the Cary Arts Center. The restaurant is slated to open for dinner on February 11. “There’s not enough fine dining or unique restaurants in this area, and that’s what we want to provide,” says Chuong, formerly the executive chef at the now-closed An Cuisines and the executive chef and owner of Elements Restaurant & Wine Bar in Chapel Hill. A modest Queen Anne-style cottage with a wraparound porch, the house was built in 1902 and acquired by the town in 2011. In 2017, the building gained historic-landmark status; that year, Chuong entered into a 10-year lease with the town. It had previously been occupied by the Southern farm-to-table restaurant Belle, which closed in 2016 after failing to pay sales taxes. Chuong says that, at just over 2,000 square feet, MC will be the smallest space he’s ever operated. Chuong’s family fled communist Vietnam when he was 15, first to a Singaporean refugee camp and then, several moves later, to New Orleans. There he studied architecture and worked in the kitchens of the InterContinental Hotel as a side job. The culinary arts snapped into place as his sole focus, though, and he worked in hotels and restaurants around the city. In 1997, he moved to Cary and began work as an executive chef at the Prestonwood Country Club, where he remained for nearly a decade before opening An in 2006. Compared to these efforts, MC Asian Cuisine is a smaller project, but he expects it to be lively. “I’ve always wanted a restaurant in a classical, fun setting,” Chuong says. “It’s the intimacy, it’s the history here. I will work as long as my health allows. Cooking is a passion. I will keep coming up with new dishes and exploring new techniques and flavors.” Chuong plans to split his time between MC and Elements, whose menu features a high-end mix of European and East Asian culinary styles. At MC, he says, the smaller digs will require a more dynamic menu. “The kitchen is small so it cannot provide a lot. So that means we will have a smaller menu, and we will have to change it so people don’t get bored,” Chuong says. “But that’s also good for us. It’s good to change up our dishes, and we can use seasonal products.” 16

February 5, 2020

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Location TBA, Durham SAT., FEB. 8, 10 A.M.–NOON

Boulted Bread Pop-Up Sometimes the expanse between Raleigh and Durham feels infinite; luckily, the occasional pop-up bridges the distance. This week, The Durham Hotel’s Sweet + Salt series brings a selection of Boulted Bread’s seasonal croissants and pastries to the Bull City. Next up: carbohydrate offerings from Bonjour Y’all in Davidson.

Chef Michael Chuong

PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

As for what customers can expect, Chuong says it will be in line with what he’s offered at Elements—Asian-style seafood and French-style vegetables—but it will also include more high-end sushi, with a starting menu that features Japanese seafood and wagyu beef. Under Chuong’s direction, the Sam-Jones house is getting a makeover. He’s put in new wood floors, relocated the bathrooms, and restored and opened up the central fireplace. “I wanted to embrace the historical,” Chuong says. This includes the use of traditional-style Italian furniture, as well as antique artwork and Vietnamese instruments as decoration. In the dining room, antique red-and-black hand-painted cabinets from China are functional as well as decorative. In MC’s entryway, a custom wine cabinet fills an entire wall. MC also serves as an entry point to downtown Cary, which has gotten much busier in the four years since the completion of the Academy Street renovation. It will get busier still once the seven-acre, $50 million downtown park opens in 2022. “The park is a great thing for the town of Cary. The infrastructure downtown was old, so now the town is taking a different approach. I’m glad to be a part of it,” Chuong says. W

The Durham Hotel, Durham 315 E. Chapel Hill St., Durham 919-768-8830 | thedurham.com FRI., FEB. 7–SUN., FEB. 9

Gizmo Brew Works Grand Opening The Raleigh-based Gizmo opens its Chapel Hill brewery this weekend with a slate of true North Carolina programming: beer, live music, and basketball. Pop by the new dog-friendly Franklin Street spot to watch the Duke-UNC game on Saturday and try one of the 50 beers on tap—or take home a 32-ounce crowler. Gizmo Brew Works 157 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill 919-636-4410 | gizmobrewworks.com BY SARAH EDWARDS

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1,000 Words BEYOND MCDOUGALD WORDS + PHOTOGRAPHY BY JADE WILSON

While Durham’s attention has been focused on the crisis at McDougald Terrace, unhealthy living conditions persist at other Durham Housing Authority properties, too. For one resident at Cornwallis Road Apartments, maintenance needs have been neglected for at least eight years—the biggest one being the electrical problem. Another resident has had multiple electrical fires, while a third says the back burner on her stove sparks every time she uses it. Some residents say they’re not able to shower, and several units have extensive water damage. W

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Truth Club

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Moment of Truth Truth Club bounces back from burnout to reclaim its place as one of Raleigh’s brightest new bands BY SAM HAW music@indyweek.com

February 5, 2020

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rom the outside, 2019 looked like a great year for Truth Club. The Raleigh indie-rock quartet released its debut record, Not an Exit, on Tiny Engines in May, and then completed a 25-date national tour. In October, Stereogum named it one of the best new bands of the year, alongside the likes of 100 gecs and DaBaby, dubbing Truth Club “the wistful, nervy relatives of indie rock’s past and present.” But at the time of that signal boost, the band had been on hiatus for more than a month, since its last-minute Hopscotch Music Festival cancellation. And by November, its label, Tiny Engines, would be embroiled in controversy when another signee, Adult Mom, accused it of late payments and other contract violations. The story behind the hiatus is a familiar one for young touring bands: Singer Travis Harrington was burned out. But after a period of recuperation, Truth Club is returning this weekend at WKNC’s 17th-annual Double Barrel Benefit at Kings. It’s the band’s first show since August, and they’re ready to pick up their momentum where they left off. “Travis is not feeling well and decided it would be best for him to take some time to recover,” said the Facebook post announcing the band’s withdrawal from Hopscotch. Then Harrington, with guitarist Yvonne Chazal, drummer Elise Jaffe, and bassist Kameron Vann,

took the rest of the year off. It seemed that the album’s title track had been prophetic when Harrington sang, “I can work for so long on a dissolve, but there is not an exit.” Harrington says he has bipolar disorder, and touring had taken a toll on his mental health. Going back to school and playing a music festival proved to be too much. “I pretty selfishly mandated that we take some time off because I was super depressed and burnt out,” Harrington says. “I just needed a break. My mood is just going to fluctuate over time and luckily, right now, it has moved out of a state of depression. I feel some degree of clarity because of that, but also from taking some time away and finding that intuitive desire to play again.” That inspiration came in part from Raleigh singer-songwriter Max Gowan. Gowan, who performed at last year’s Double Barrel, invited Harrington to play drums in his live band in the fall. Harrington credits drums as his primary instrument, yet he never had the opportunity to play them in a band. Backing Gowan, he rediscovered his initial attraction to music in a low-pressure environment. Truth Club will headline night two of Double Barrel. (Raleigh rapper Pat Junior caps night one.) Three of the four members attended N.C. State, the school to which WKNC belongs. Chazal is an alumnus of the radio station’s board and was program director from 2015–2016. “[Playing Double Barrel] is something I never thought would happen,” she says. “It’s really exciting because back in the day I put so many hours into it. It was such a big accomplishment to the team at WKNC, so it’s really cool to be on the other end.” As well it should: Many Double Barrel headliners were or went on to become staples of the Triangle scene. The Mountain Goats, Future Islands, Bowerbirds, American Aquarium, Des Ark, and The Love Language have all headlined in the past. Truth Club’s origins aren’t shrouded in press-release mythology; it’s clear that they’re good friends making music for its own sake. The members are post-grads teetering on the line between millennial and zoomer, but their ethos is more aligned with the indie-rock bands of their birth decade. The band’s energetic, overdriven sound evokes Sonic Youth, Pavement, or even Nirvana. But more important, they’re tight,

dynamic, and relatable—everything you could want in a college-rock group. Harrington’s introspective lyrics take on post-adolescence nuances like returning home from student housing. Jaffe’s distinctive drumming draws as much influence from her marching band and classical music background as it does from indie rock. Combined with Vann’s steady bass lines and Chazal’s atmospheric leads, you’ve got one of the most captivating guitar-based bands coming out of Raleigh.

“Double Barrel was such a big accomplishment to the team at WKNC, so it’s really cool to be on the other end.” Harrington and Vann have been playing together since middle school. In high school in Wilmington, they had a band called Astro Cowboy. After high school, they parted ways as Vann set off for Appalachian State and Harrington went to N.C. State. But they kept in touch, and Harrington quickly established himself his school’s D.I.Y. scene. “I knew who Travis was prior to when he came to State,” Jaffe says. “His old band would play in Raleigh and we’d go to shows together.” Harrington and Jaffe started practicing and writing songs in the fall of 2016. They soon began looking for other members, and the band officially formed in early 2017. Their first show was at a house venue nestled in the Fairmont neighborhood behind Hillsborough Street. Their second was at Duke Coffeehouse, where they opened for Palm and LVL UP. By that summer, they were already on their first East Coast tour. They’re planning to record and tour another album, with or without a label. They only had a one-album deal with Tiny Engines, and they already do their own booking. They’re ready to pick up their momentum where they left off, but perhaps with new wisdom to see it through. W KeepItINDY.com

February 5, 2020

Chocolate Lounge & Wine Bar

Fri 2/7 Sat 2/8

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Valentine’s Day Party

Gourmet chocolate truffles & Champagne 6pm–11pm, $10 cover tickets on FB @specialtreatschapelhill 7–9pm Dianna Milz, piano 9–11pm Robinson Lee Earle, guitar

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WED

AJJ FRI

2/7

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BLOCKHEAD Arms and Sleepers / il:lo

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2 HIGH-END BEERS

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Tacocat / Emperor X

An Adult Nightclub Open 7 Days/week | Hours 7pm - 2am

2/5

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2/9

Motorco Madness 2020 presented by E.K. Powe PTA:

WITH FOOD TRUCK

Cat’s Cradle presents

THE DANKERY

Slaughter Beach, Dog

@Durty Bull Brewery | 206 Broadway St. #104, Durham

BEAUTY WORLD / JH EL PRINCIPE / THE BEAST

WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS TUE

2/11

FRI

2/14 SAT

2/15 SUN

2/16

Sunday, March 1, 2020 | 2pm-6pm GREAT DANE / STAYLOOSE Crank It Loud presents

WHILE SHE SLEEPS

He Is Legend / Savage Hands

DAVID WILCOX

Duke Science & Society presents 2/18 PERIODIC TABLES: Healthy as a Hunter-Gatherer: Sorting Paleo Fact from Paleo Fiction TUE

WED

HARI KONDABOLU

2/19 Liz Miele

COMING SOON: Paul Cauthen, Remember Jones, Daedelus, Gnawa LanGus, OM, Little People, Frameworks, Ellis Dyson & The Shambles, Post Animal, Against Me!, Asgeir, Mdou Moctar, 75 Dollar Bill, Tiny Moving Parts, Dance With The Dead, Magic Sword, Black Atlantic, Caspian, Deafheaven, Vundabar, Shannon & the Clams, Kevin Morby, Sebadoh, Okilly Dokilly, Oso Oso, Prince Daddy & The Heyena, Fu Manchu, Neil Hamburger, Diet Cig

Adoptable Puppies from Hope Animal Rescue on-site!

February 5, 2020

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Don’t miss your favorite band in town. Follow @INDYWeek on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for breaking news.

D OW N TH E ROA D *

*Be on the lookout for these big names coming through the Triangle

WE'RE HIRING Lake Street Dive performs at DPAC on Wednesday, April 22.

Feb. 6 Tove Lo The Ritz, 8 p.m., $30 Feb. 8 Whitney Haw River Ballroom, 8 p.m., $25 Feb. 9 Tony Bennett DPAC, 7:30 p.m., $65+ Feb. 11 Celine Dion PNC Arena, 7:30 p.m., $125+ Feb. 28 Wye Oak Baldwin Auditorium Mar. 3 Jacquees The Ritz, 8 p.m., 8 p.m., $25 Mar. 4 Zack Brown Band PNC Arena, 7 p.m., $36+ Mar. 12 Billie Eilish PNC Arena, 7:30 p.m., $350+ Mar. 20 Michael Bublé PNC Arena, 8 p.m., $65+

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

Mar. 21 Best Coast Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m., $25–$27

May 3 Snail Mail Haw River Ballroom, 8 p.m., $20

Mar. 27 Soccer Mommy Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m., $18–$20

Jun. 2 Local Natives Red Hat, 6:30 p.m., $25+

Mar. 30 Mandy Moore, DPAC, 8 p.m., $30+ Apr. 2 Vagabon Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m., $14–$16 Apr. 15 Angel Olsen Carolina Theatre, 8 p.m., $33–$35 Apr. 20 Sharon Van Etten Haw River Ballroom, 8 p.m., $28–$31 Apr. 22 Lake Street Dive DPAC, 7:30 p.m., $35+ Apr. 24 Waxahatchee Haw River Ballroom, 8 p.m., $18

Jun. 2 The Lumineers Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $69+ Jun. 4 Kenny Chesney Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7:30 p.m., $100+ Jun. 20 The Doobie Brothers Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, $51+ Jun. 23 Alanis Morisette Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $68+ Jul. 4 The Black Crowes Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 8 p.m., $50

Jul. 10 Thomas Rhett Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, time TBD, $91+ Jul. 11 Tedeschi Trucks Band Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 6:30 p.m., $84 Aug. 1 Harry Styles PNC Arena, 8 p.m., $76 Aug. 10 Journey, The Pretenders Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $59+ Sep. 9 Kiss Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7:30 p.m., $81+ Sep. 12 Maroon 5, Meghan Trainor Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $87+

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February 5, 2020

M U SIC CA L E N DA R

FEBRUARY 5– FEBRUARY 12

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8

Whitney My first listen to Whitney was met with skepticism, my second with affection. Singer-drummer Julien Ehrlich’s distinct falsetto can be off-putting—it’s fragile and unrefined, but it’s also endearing. But it’s that, combined with guitarist Max Kakacek’s addictive melodies, which makes Whitney one of the most refreshing folk-rock acts of the last five years. The band’s optimistic, easy-going sound, is comparable to Bon Iver’s “For Emma” or The Band’s “Ophelia,” and its latest album, Forever Turned Around, is bucolic and sentimental. The record, which was co-produced by Durhamite Brad Cook and Foxygen’s Jonathan Rado, was written over the course of a frigid Chicago winter, yet it feels more suited for an autumnal drive through rural Orange County. The Japanese quartet Chai will open for Whitney. Their sophomore album Punk was met with critical acclaim for its upbeat and outlandish nature. —Sam Haw

pick

Haw River Ballroom, Saxapahaw 8 p.m., $25

Whitney

PHOTO BY OLIVIA BEE

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9

Hannah Kaminer

Seratones

Johnny Gandelsman

Since returning to her birthplace in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Hannah Kaminer has spun wistful folk songs from autobiographical tales of young adulthood, filled with hard realizations and plaintive melodies delivered via her sweet, silvery voice. “People changing is a good thing, we were ugly way back then/but your memory sure looks pretty when I stop and let it in,” she sings on “Oh, Sweet Home,” a standout track about the conflicted feelings of coming home. —Spencer Griffith

Coming three years after Seratones’ debut LP, last fall’s Power sounded like an almost entirely different band. While the Shreveport quintet added a keyboard player and replaced their guitarist, they also swapped the rowdy garage rock and rough-and-tumble R&B of Get Gone for a polished brand of vintage soul music spiked with synthesizers. Always a powerhouse vocalist, AJ Haynes flexes both her range and songwriting growth on the tender ballad “Crossfire,” which caps the album. Hardworker opens. —Spencer Griffith

Violinist Johnny Gandelsman is perhaps best known for his recordings of Bach’s sonatas and partitas. At this concert, he performs Bach’s suites for unaccompanied cello on the violin. It might sound audacious to the uninitiated, but the project pays tribute to a composer who often recycled pieces so that they could be performed by different instruments. Contemporary musicians have showcased the versatile and instantly recognizable suites on everything from marimba to tuba to ukulele. —Josephine McRobbie

Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro 8 p.m., $13–$15

CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio, Chapel Hill 7:30 p.m., $37

The Wake Forest Listening Room, Wake Forest 7 p.m., $10 suggested

February 5, 2020

INDYweek.com

M U SIC CA L E N DA R

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 9

Joan Osborne The 1995 hit “One Of Us” was not written by Joan Osborne, but one might be shocked to realize this fact. Maybe it’s because Osborne reached fame during a zeitgeist of women songwriters performing somewhere on the spectrum from funk to folk, or maybe it’s because she sang the searching ditty with such guileless conviction that the words seemed hers and hers alone. Osborne has written her own music over the years, but she’s also continued to interpret the songs of others with her honeyed voice, most recently releasing an album of Bob Dylan covers. —Josephine McRobbie The ArtsCenter, Carrboro 8 p.m., $36

Wed. 2/5 AJJ, Tacocat, Emperor X Motorco Music Hall, 8 p.m. $20-$25. Jonathan Byrd & Pickup Cowboys The Kraken, 7 p.m. Maddie Fisher The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested. Henhouse Prowlers, Pierce Edens Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $10-$15. Asher Skeen The Pinhook, 8 p.m. $8.

Thu. 2/6 The Antique Hearts, The Yardarm, Be The Moon Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $5. City Sessions #5 Nightlight, 8 p.m. $10. Curtis Symphony Orchestra with Osmo Vänskä & Jonathan Biss Duke Campus: Baldwin Auditorium, 8 p.m. $25. The Fab Four: Beatles Tribute Carolina Theatre, 8 p.m. $35-$70. F/e/a/t/h/e/r Arcana, 8:30 p.m.

Joan Osborne makes a stop at the ArtsCenter on Sunday, February 9. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

Grass Is Dead, The Road Band, South Hill Banks Lincoln Theatre, 8 p.m. $12.

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February 5, 2020

M U SIC CA L E N DA R Lyn Koonce, Kate Tobey, Laura Jane Vincent, Casey Noel Perkins Arcana, 8:30 p.m. Pedro Maia, Christina Lai UNC Campus: Person Recital Hall, 3 p.m. Motorco Madness 2020: The Beast, Beauty World Motorco Music Hall, 2 p.m. $5-$15. Nikki Meets the Hibachi Wake Forest Listening Room, 2 p.m. Joan Osborne The ArtsCenter, 8 p.m. $36. Reese McHenry Pour House Music Hall, 3 p.m. Jer Warren Pour House Music Hall, 5 p.m. Dale Watson, Louis Waymore Pour House Music Hall, 8 p.m. $15-$20.

Mon. 2/10

Wed. 2/12

Sarah Burton The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested.

Jonathan Byrd, The Pickup Cowboys, Johny Waken, Austin McCall, Bob Beach The Kraken, 7 p.m.

Tue. 2/11 Church Girls, Canadian Airports, Goddamn Wolves Slim’s Downtown, 9 p.m. $5. Celine Dion PNC Arena, 7:30 p.m. $125+.

A Million Dollars, Pictures of Vernon Slim’s Downtown, 9 p.m. $5. Mordechai, Aisle Knot The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested.

Slow Hollows Kings, 7 p.m. $13-$15. Szlachetka, Bryan Elijah Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $7-$10. We Were Promised Jetpacks, Slaughter Beach, Dog Motorco Music Hall, 8 p.m.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11 Seratones perform at Cat’s Cradle Back Room on Saturday, February 8.

Krosis, Awake in Providence, Death Of A Tyrant, Discoveries, Stygian Complex Lincoln Theatre, 6:30 p.m. $10-$12. Nash Street Ramblers Blue Note Grill, 7 p.m. Rumbletramp The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested. Tove Lo The Ritz, 8 p.m. $30.

Fri. 2/7 Juan Alamo, Stephen Anderson Duo Sharp Nine Gallery, 8 p.m. $20. Baroque & Beyond: Genuine George St Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 7:30 p.m. Donation suggested. Bob Marley Birthday Bash: Mickey Mills and Steel, Jamrock, Zion Project, DJ Ras J Cat’s Cradle, 8:30 p.m. $12-$15. The Broken Hearts Ball: Dahlia Vee, Pearl Vandammit, Darth Rubie, Mantranome, Ruby Liqueur Ruby Deluxe, 10 p.m. $5 Butter, Triangle Afrobeat Orchestra The Station, 9 p.m.

Choral Society of Durham Winter Concert Duke Campus: Duke Chapel, 8 p.m. $10-$22. DJ Fuego, DJ Miami Vice The Ritz, 10 p.m. $5-$10. Double Barrel Benefit 17: Night One Kings, 8 p.m. $13-$22. Dr. Bacon, Yam Yam Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $10-$13. David Greely, Blake Miller, Amelia Biere Nightlight, 8 p.m. $15. The Groovynators Blue Note Grill, 9 p.m. Hannah Kaminer Wake Forest Listening Room, 7 p.m. High Fashion Dance Event The Fruit, 10 p.m. $5-$12. The Loose Lucies, Cyril Lance The Kraken, 8 p.m. Lords and Liars, Subliminal Surge, Eyeball The Maywood, 9 p.m. $8. Mega Colossus 15th Anniversary Show: Children of the Reptile, Mortal Man, Vassal Cat’s Cradle Back Room, 9 p.m. $10.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAT’S CRADLE

Nashville Songwriters Durham Performing Arts Center, 7:30 p.m. $24-39.

Laura Blackley, Admiral Radio Wake Forest Listening Room, 7 p.m.

North Carolina Symphony: Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 Meymandi Concert Hall, 8 p.m. both nights. $20+.

Blockhead, Arms and Sleepers, il:lo Motorco Music Hall, 9 p.m. $15-$18.

Jason Ringenberg, Chris Holloway Motorco Music Hall, 8 p.m. $12. Small Town Records, Pitchforks, Momentum Duke Coffeehouse, 7 p.m. Tacoma Park, Stray Owls, Judy Woodall The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested.

Divine Treachery, Sacrificial Betrayal, Origin of Disease The Maywood, 9 p.m. $10-$16. Doric String Quartet Duke Campus: Baldwin Auditorium, 8 p.m. $25. Double Barrel Benefit 17: Night Two Kings, 8 p.m. $13-$22.

Secret Shame, Sunny Slopes, M is We, The Gunline Nightlight, 9 p.m. $10. Seratones Cat’s Cradle Back Room, 8 p.m. $13-15. Thrio, Brian Miller Sharp Nine Gallery, 8 p.m. $20. Toke, Witchtit, Cosmic Reaper Slim’s Downtown, 9 p.m. $7-$10.

ZOSO, The Petty Thieves Lincoln Theatre, 8 p.m. $15-$25.

Like No Tomorrow, Born Again Heathens, Halebopp Astronauts, Handi-Capitalists The Cave Tavern, 8 p.m.

Tony Bennett Durham Performing Arts Center, 7:30 p.m. $65+.

Sat. 2/8

The Nighthawks, Rev. Billy C. Wirtz Blue Note Grill, 8 p.m. $25.

Elliot Moss, Derover Kings, 7 p.m. $17.

Abbey Road LIVE! Cat’s Cradle, 4 p.m. & 8:30 p.m. showtimes. $8-$15. Big Daddy Love, Mike Dillon Band Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $10-$12.

Porch Light Apothecary Pour House Music Hall, 5 p.m. Queer Prom: DJ Vespertine Arcana, 7 p.m. Saint Motel The Ritz, 8:30 p.m. $25.

Motorco Music Hall, Durham 8 p.m., $15

ZOSO Lincoln Theatre, 8 p.m. $15-$25.

Sun. 2/9

20th Century Boy Lincoln Theatre, 9 p.m. $5.

2018’s The More I Sleep the Less I Dream is the sound of a once-teenage band reaching full maturity. Founded in 2003, the Scottish indie-rock group blend post-punk grooves with Adam Thompson’s angsty, heavily-accented vocals. But as We Were Promised Jetpacks get older, their songs have become less pining, more self-concerned and tighter overall. They aren’t pushing boundaries, but rather finding confidence in their instincts. Slaughter Beach, Dog, the solo project of Jake Ewald from Modern Baseball, will open. —Sam Haw

Whitney, Chai Haw River Ballroom, 7 p.m. $25.

Eyes Like Kites, Meaux The Station, 8:30 p.m.

Wilder Maker, S.E. Ward, Rodes Slim’s Downtown, 9 p.m. $5.

We Were Promised Jetpacks

DJ Pangean Slim’s Downtown, 10 p.m. $5.

Fin The DJ The Pinhook, 8 p.m. $8-$10. Johnny Gandelsman Current ArtSpace + Studio, 7:30 p.m. $27. Randy Johnston Blue Note Grill, 5 p.m.

Johnny Gandelsman performs at CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio on Sunday, February 9. PHOTO BY SHERVIN LAINEZ

February 5, 2020

INDYweek.com

M U SIC CA L E N DA R

review

HHH 1/2

PRESEN

The Long Blink BY DAN RUCCIA music@indyweek.com

The first time I listened to “There Is Only One Three,” the opening track from Tacoma Park’s debut album, Floating Point for High Fives, I blinked, and the song was over. But when I looked at the clock, 12 minutes had passed. On the surface, not much had happened: crickets (and later, birds) chirped in a languid loop; a buzzing drone meandered, lost, through the harmonic series; an acoustic guitar picked a single chord, eventually joined by a second guitar; and synthesizer filigrees pinged at random. It’s the way these elements unfurl—unhurried yet focused, not so much creating tension or expectation so much as just building—that lenses time. Tacoma Park is the duo of Ben Felton (from Jett Rink, Pegasus, and Blood Revenge) and John Harrison (North Elementary, jphono1). They’re certainly not the first band to use extended drones to play with our perceptions of time. Precursors such as Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno, and Growing have already plumbed drone’s capability for temporal distortion. None of Felton or Harrison’s previous projects have really gone to such extended, heady spaces, rooted as they were in songs. So the two approached this group as a way to experiment with intentionally crafting the space of a drone. They ask, when is a song too long? When is it too short? When might something that feels static not be? Second song “Between One and Three” arrives at the same result as the opening track through slightly different means. It feels more acoustic somehow, its drone tambura-like, its small details derived from the plucks and decays of string instruments, somehow reminiscent of the more expansive tracks from Matmos’s The Civil War. Even when a synth bass line begins swirling through the stereo field, it feels organic rather than digital. When the album’s first chord change arrives about eight minutes in, the effect is less a revelation than a barely perceptible change in the lighting—one I didn’t notice until at least my third time listening to the song. The best moments on Floating Point for High Fives come when Tacoma Park leaves chord changes, with their inherent desire to go somewhere, aside. When they do use looping chord changes, it feels somehow more languid and less temporally charged. They seem to have mastered a certain kind of stasis, one that is anything but stationary. Tacoma Park: Floating Point for High Fives Release show: Friday, Feb. 7, 8 p.m. | The Cave, Chapel Hill

Nomination Time Is Coming Soon! NOMINATION PERIOD

February 17 – March 15 Every year the Triangle votes on yearly favorites from coffee shops to orthodontists. The top nominees in each category make it to the final ballot for voting from March 29 – April 26.

February 5, 2020

STAGE

Morality Plays

hough the Imperial Foods fire in Hamlet was one of the worst industrial disasters in North Carolina history, the catastrophe quickly receded into the past, a casualty of our culture’s unwillingness to count the human costs of an economy where cheapness supersedes most other values. That makes local playwright Howard L. Craft’s latest drama, Orange Light, an act of

both remembrance and defiance. Its credo comes in an early interview sequence for a supposed documentary, when orphaned character John Crutchfield (Carly P. Jones) says, “We do a lot of forgetting in this country. I tell my story for the memory.” Those memories are somewhat scrambled, though, by Craft’s choice to make Orange Light a theatrical roman à clef. Some characters are easily paired with real-world counterparts: Venomous plant manager Bob Buchanan (a vivid Abbey Toot) is a clear stand-in for Brad Roe, son of plant owner Emmett Roe, who opened his chicken-processing plant in a small, economically depressed Southern town after difficulties in states with stronger unions and safety regulations. Racist former fire chief J.P. Calhoun (Elisabeth Lewis Corley) is presumably David Fuller, who repeatedly refused help during the disaster from an African-American volunteer fire department only five minutes away. Only Jesse Jackson retains his name in video footage and an on-stage impersonation by Lakeisha Coffey. But the five women at the heart of this drama remain more obscure. Coffey lends her trademark authenticity to Wilma Everette, a no-nonsense woman whose carpal tunnel syndrome jeopardizes her job. Under Joseph Megel’s direction, Jones plays Everette’s friend, Laverne, a single mother struggling to raise two contrary boys. Actor Aurelia Belford ably brings to life the bright Quisha King, who tries to convince coworker and songwriter Jenny Buckley (Kri

Schafer) to agitate for safer working conditions. Corley also depicts the plight of Mary Ford, an aging worker who falls prey to Buchanan’s machinations to keep his workers under his thumb. There’s song and dance: In the country anthem “Woman Through It All,” versatile songwriter Rissi Palmer conjures a deadend small town where “ain’t no point to prove / ain’t nowhere to move.” (A later love-beyond-death song, “Mama Made It Happen,” is more mawkish.) In “Sixty Thousand Pounds,” Aya Shabu’s choreography mechanizes the rhythmic lockstep of factory labor. The frame of Alex Maness’s videos evokes Anna Deavere Smith’s documentary theater works. But the fictional composite characters suggest that the experiences of the living and the dead are more important collectively than individually. When a character speculates on a motive other than theft-control for the padlocked fire exits, are we in the realm of lightly fictionalized fact or the playwright’s imagination? The unlikely admissions of a defense attorney further stretch the limits of believability. The strife and strivings of workers “trapped,” in Jackson’s words, “by economic desperation and oppressive work laws” ring the truest in Craft’s play, which Bulldog Ensemble Theater is currently producing at The Fruit. But its less-clear fictive trappings call into question the act of memory that Orange Light seeks to be. W

suddenly hijacked by an Intro to Theater professor who vends conventional dramaturgy on Everyman’s history before an apprehensive, ingratiating conclusion: “But, um, it’s safe to say we’re dealing with some fairly old and ancient material, so maybe let’s trust it to be really wise and meaningful, OK?” If a playwright thinks a medieval morality play is that hard a sell for contemporary audiences, perhaps he should find a different line of merchandise. After an initial frame festooned with footnotes, Jacobs-Jenkins dials down the ancient Christian terror of the Judgment Day to something more akin to a post-life PowerPoint presentation. Death itself, and

not anything that may follow, holds the greatest fear in this watered-down take. The title character is chosen from the ensemble by chance at each performance; on opening night, April Mae Davis played her with conviction. As in the original version, Everybody seeks out allegorical characters to accompany her through death to her appointment with God (played by Hunter-Williams). Predictably, most forsake her: Friendship (given a vapid comic turn by Emily Bosco) drops out early, as do Kinship and Cousin (a wound-up Omolade Wey and an urbane Anthony August). After earthly possessions, personified as Stuff, won’t make the journey, we learn whether Love

(an authoritative Trevor Johnson), Beauty, Mind, Strength, or Understanding will. But director Orlando Pabotoy’s strange taste for darkness rarely pays off. A jaw-dropping fantasia of black-lit sea creatures and skeletons was a true coup de théâtre, but elsewhere, a lengthy monologue by God and a series of unlit transitional scenes in which friends conversed and argued just left us inexplicably in the dark. But just as Jacobs-Jenkins’s allegories turn cheesy, Pabotoy re-anchors them in the wrenching graveside scene that closes the show. Even if Everybody bids us to consider our legacies more than our afterlives, there’s still food for thought at its end. W

Two local productions ask what we can take with us and what we have to leave behind BY BYRON WOODS arts@indyweek.com

PHOTO BY ALEX MANESS

Orange Light HHH½

Through Sunday, Feb. 16 The Fruit, Durham

Everybody HHH

Through Sunday, Feb. 9 Paul Green Theatre, Chapel Hill

here’s more than a note of doubt—if not a playwright’s outright remorse— in the uneven opening monologue of Everybody, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s adaptation of the famous fifteenth-century drama Everyman, which is currently running at PlayMakers. After an usher (Kathryn Hunter-Williams) riffs for a dilatory page on theater preshow announcements, her lines seem 28

February 5, 2020

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JENN SHAPLAND: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CARSON MCCULLERS

Wednesday, Feb. 12, 7 p.m. | Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill

Being Carson McCullers Jenn Shapland gleans a suppressed story of queer desire in the life of the famed Southern author BY SARAH EDWARDS sedwards@indyweek.com

ow do you tell a story that you believe someone was never able to tell? Jenn Shapland answers this midway through her first book, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, which she’ll read from at Flyleaf Books on February 12. “To tell another person’s story,” she writes, “a writer must make that person some version of herself, must find a way to inhabit her.” Shapland’s memoir accomplishes this by weaving her own process of self-discovery with that of her subject. Her interest in the writer began in 2012, when she was interning at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas, where some of McCullers’s material is archived. She’d never read any of McCullers’s writing, but upon stumbling across a set of fiercely tender letters between the author and a woman named Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Shapland was transfixed. In these letters, Shapland saw a queer side of the Southern author, which has always been known but never explored in depth. She also began to work through transcripts from McCullers’s therapy sessions with a woman named Mary Mercer. In McCullers’s photos, letters, and transcripts, formative relationships with these two women flicker just below the surface, never fully seeing the light of day. Shapland also began to see her own experience—a childhood in a small town, struggles with chronic illness, evolving queer desire—reflected in the research. Soon, newly in her first relationship with a woman, she found

Love the

herself staying at McCullers’s childhood home in Columbus, Georgia, ordering takeout pizza and taking long, possibly forbidden baths in the family tub. The resulting memoir is a fluid, fragmentary blend of archival research and personal storytelling that pays homage to the complexity of queer narratives. McCullers, a playwright and novelist of outcasts and misfits in the deep South, was born in 1917. Upon marrying Reeves McCullers—an ex-Army man and failed writer who was often given false credit for her work—at the age of 20, she moved with him to North Carolina, first to Charlotte and then to Fayetteville, where McCullers finished The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. The debut novel won instant acclaim; in The New Republic, Richard Wright wrote that the book possessed “astonishing humanity” and a despair that was “unique and individual.” She was 23. As a literary persona, McCullers cut an eccentric figure: In photographs, her lounging posture is as leisurely and lugubrious as her drawl. She died at the age of 50, and during her life she experienced chronic illnesses, a tumultuous marriage, the suicide of her husband, and—as Shapland would have it—a sexuality she was never able to fully inhabit. She was deeply in touch with loneliness and longing, and her writing is threaded with brutal truths about reciprocity. “Most of us would rather love than be loved,” she wrote in The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories. “Almost everyone wants to be the lover. And the curt truth is that, in a deep secret way, the state of being beloved is intolerable to many.” McCullers’s feelings for Schwarzenbach—a tempestuous figure who, in the letters, seems more into being beloved than returning the favor—were largely unrequited. With Mercer, whom McCullers began therapy with at age 41, there appears to have been more mutual affection. In Illumination and Night Glare, McCullers’s unfinished autobiography, she writes that meeting Mercer was “the happiest and most rewarding experience of her life” and made her “awash in the joy of self-revelation.” Still, Shapland says that biographers have never made much of McCullers’s relationships with women. In the

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Jenn Shapland PHOTO BY CHRISTIAN MICHAEL FILDARDO

posthumously published autobiography, her correspondence with Schwarzenbach was omitted entirely, despite McCullers’s explicit wish that it be included. “It was her retroactive closeting by peers that I found most disturbing,” Shapland writes. “If Carson was not a lesbian, if none of these women were lesbians according to history, if indeed there is hardly a lesbian history, do I exist?” My Autobiography of Carson McCullers draws that history to the surface, queering the text with an experimental, sinuous style that honors the nonlinearity of McCullers’s own experience. Shapland is an informal writer, but her genre-blurring search for the self is serious. At no point does she claim to be an objective or reliable narrator: As she sinks into McCullers’s bathtub, she is making good on her promise to inhabit the writer. The result is raw and a little messy, like a paper cut, but that’s as it should be. McCullers’s writing is also raw and messy. Her characters flicker at the edges, lonely, homesick for love, unable to articulate their desires or step fully into the frame. They yearn. Their writer does, too. W

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February 5, 2020

C U LT U R E CA L E NDA R

FEBRUARY 5– FEBRUARY 12

Opening

Ongoing

Artist Talk: RJ Dobs, Shelly Hehenberger, Luna Lee Ray Fri., Feb. 7, 6 p.m. FRANK Gallery, Chapel Hill.

5 Points Gallery Six Month Celebration Group show. Through Feb. 17. 5 Points Gallery, Durham.

CAM Raleigh First Friday Fri., Feb. 7, 6 p.m. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh.

All That Glitters: Spark and Dazzle from the Permanent Collection Costumes. Through May 17. Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh.

Favorite Things Paintings. Feb.7- 29. V L Rees Gallery, Raleigh.

“Found Fawn” by Jeff Whetstone PHOTO COURTESY OF LUMP

arts

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7

Jeff Whetsone Jeff Whetsone’s Species Complex is a testament to his lifelong love for fauna and invokes the enduring influence of the first book he ever bought, the Audubon Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians, which he says became somewhat of a Bible to him. The exhibition explores the drive to search for wild animals and, he explains, as well as “the complex paradox between wonder and control.” Species Complex marks a homecoming for Whetsone who now resides in New York but lived in Durham and taught at UNC-Chapel Hill for many years. This opening reception kicks off the exhibit, which runs through March 14. —Jameela F. Dallis LUMP, Raleigh 6 p.m., FREE

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First Friday: Micah Johnson Paintings. Fri., Feb. 7, 6 p.m. The Art of Style, Raleigh. Guided Exhibition Tour: Toriawase and Yayoi Kusama Wed., Feb 5. 1:30 p.m. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. Mar Hester: Action/ Reaction Photography and origami. Feb.7- 29. Artspace, Raleigh. Opening Reception: Action/Reaction Fri., Feb. 7, 6 p.m. Artspace, Raleigh. Seeing Red Group show of women artists. Feb. 7- 29. Local Color Gallery, Raleigh. Sensory Saturday Sat., Feb. 8, 10 a.m. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh. To The East Group show. Feb.7- 29. The Centerpiece, Raleigh. Urban Saga Group show. Feb. 7-Mar. 18. Litmus Gallery, Raleigh. Louis Watts: Sequoyaland Drawings. Feb. 9-Mar. 22. Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill.

Art’s Work in the Age of Biotechnology Other exhibits at NC State Libraries and GES Center. Through Mar. 15. Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh. John James Audubon: The Birds of America Ornithological engravings. Through Dec. 31. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. John Beerman: The Shape of Light Paintings. Through Feb. 29. Craven Allen Gallery, Durham. Christopher Bickford: Legends of the Sandbar Photos. Through Feb. 15. Through This Lens, Durham. Megan Bostic, Andy Mauery, Rosemary MezaDesPlas: Hairstory Art made of human hair. Through Feb. 29. Artspace, Raleigh. Michelle Brinegar Through Apr. 11. Saladelia Cafe, Durham. Cornelio Campos: My Roots Paintings. Through Mar. 12. Durham Arts Council, Durham. Compose and Materialize Group show. Through Mar. 7. Durham Arts Council, Durham. Cosmic Rhythm Vibrations Mixed media. Through Mar. 1. Nasher Museum of Art, Durham. Stephen Costello: Places Sculpture. Through Feb. 29. Craven Allen Gallery, Durham.

A Creative Protest: MLK Comes to Durham Through Apr. 5. Museum of Durham History, Durham. Design By Time Group Show. Through May 17. Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh. Flora fem Fauna Group show. Through Feb. 25. Meredith College: Weems Gallery, Raleigh. Ryan Fox: It’s Easier To Be A Painter. Through Feb 17. 5 Points Gallery, Durham. Joe Frank: At the Dark End of the Bar Radio shows. Through Feb. 25. Lump, Raleigh. The Full Light of Day Group show of artists with disabilities. Through Mar. 6. VAE Raleigh, Raleigh The Future is Female Group show. Through Dec. 31. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham. André Leon Gray: lost lux libertas Mixed media. Through Feb. 25. UNC Campus: Hanes Art Center, Chapel Hill. Gifts of Earth and Intimacy Copper works. Through Dec. 31. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham. Green Group show. Through Feb. 23. Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, Hillsborough. Abie Harris: Painting Music Through Mar. 1. The Community Church of Chapel Hill Unitarian Universalist, Chapel Hill. Shelly Hehenberger, Luna Lee Ray, R.J.Dobbs Mixed media and sculpture. Through Mar. 7. FRANK Gallery, Chapel Hill. Here to Hear // Hear to Here Interactive audio installation. Through Feb. 16. Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke University, Durham.

Horse & Buggy and Friends: Satellite Parrish Street Gallery Group show. Through Apr. 1. Horse & Buggy Press PopUp Shop, Durham. Instruments of Divination in Africa: Works from the Collection of Rhonda Morgan Wilkerson, Ph.D. Sculpture and objects used in divination. Through Jun. 7. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. Danielle James: Secondhand Salon Neon art. Through Feb. 7. VAE Raleigh, Raleigh. Daniel Kariko: Surburban Symbiosis Insectum Domesticus Photography. Through Mar. 1. Nature Art Gallery, Raleigh. Jeana Eve Klein & Anne Hill: Meditative Obsessive Mixed media. Through Feb 29. Horse & Buggy Press and Friends, Durham. Yayoi Kusama: Open the Shape Called Love Solo exhibit. Through Apr. 12. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. Law and Justice: The Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1819- 2019 Artifacts, images, texts. Through May 31. NC Museum of History, Raleigh. A Moving Grove Paintings. Through Feb. 29. Anchorlight, Raleigh. Eleanor Mills: Wildflowers of Crested Butte, Colorado Photography. Through Apr. 18. Duke Campus: Lilly Library, Durham. Native Places: Drawing as a Way to See Watercolor sketches. Through Feb. 20. Rebus Works, Raleigh. Organized Chaos #1: Geometric Shapes & Patterns Paintings. Through Mar. 10. Triangle Cultural Art Gallery, Raleigh.

Paintings From The Estate of Robert Broderson Through Feb. 9. Gallery C, Raleigh. Property of the People: The Foundations of the NCMA, 1924–1945 Photography. Through Feb. 9. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. QuiltSpeak: Uncovering Women’s Voices Through Quilts Through Mar. 8. NC Museum of History, Raleigh. Leanne Shapton: La Donna Del Lago Painting and photography. Through Feb. 25. Lump, Raleigh. Sydney Steen: Fault Lines Vignettes. Through Oct. 25. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham. Cheryl Thurber: Documenting Gravel Springs, Mississippi, in the 1970s Photography. Through Mar. 31. UNC Campus: Wilson Special Collections Library, Chapel Hill. Matt Tomko Paintings. Through Apr. 12. Mad Hatter Bakeshop & Cafe, Durham. Toriawase: A Special Installation of Modern Japanese Art and Ceramics Through Apr. 12. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. JP Trostle: Quantum Flux Photography. Through Jul. 14. Durham Convention Center, Durham. ¡Viva Viclas!: The Art of the Lowrider Motorcycle Designed motorcycles. Through Feb. 9. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh. Waging Peace in Vietnam: US Soliders and Veterans Who Opposed the War Historical artifacts. Through Feb. 15. Westbook Building, Durham. Telvin Wallace: CARE FOR ME Prints and paintings. Through Feb 16. Durham Arts Council, Durham.

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C U LT U R E CA L E NDA R 2.5

Tim Garvin A Dredging in Swann 7pm

2.9

Raachel Jurovics Under One Crown 2pm

2.10

Erin Hunter Bravelands #5: The Spirit-Eaters 7pm

2.11

W. Jason Miller Langston Hughes 7pm Jerry Mitchell Race Against Time: A Reporter Reopens the Unsolved Murder Cases of the Civil Rights Era 7pm

2.13

film Special Showings

Return of the Living Dead III $7. Tue., Feb. 11, 9 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh.

Apollo 11 Wed., Feb. 5, 7:30 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Singin’ In the Rain, Clerks Sun., Feb. 9, 2 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Asako I & II Fri., Feb. 7, 7 p.m. Rubenstein Arts Center - Film Theater, Durham.

Wild at Heart Tue. 7 p.m. & Wed. 7 p.m. $7. Feb. 11-12. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh.

The Awards Show & Red Carpet Fundraising Gala $10. Sun., Feb. 9, 7 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh.

The Wild Goose Lake Thu., Feb. 6, 7 p.m. Rubenstein Arts Center - Film Theater, Durham.

Blue Velvet, Body Heat $10. Fri., Feb. 7, 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. Dracula $8. Mon., Feb. 10, 7 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind $7. Wed., Feb. 5, 7 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. Heat Lightning $7. Wed., Feb. 5, 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham.

The Wonderland $10. Sat., Feb. 8, 2 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh.

Opening Birds of Prey—An irreverant superhero movie about the supervillian Harley Quinn. Rated R.

Now Playing

Keeper of the Flame $5. Sun., Feb. 9, 2 p.m. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh.

The INDY uses a five-star rating scale. Unstarred films have not been reviewed by our writers.

Little Shop of Horrors Showtimes: Tue.: 7 p.m. Wed.: 9 p.m. $13. Feb. 4-5. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh.

1917—Epic war drama about two soldiers taskd with sending a message that could save 1,600 soldiers. Rated R.

Motion for Pictures Screening Series Presented by Triangle Filmmaking Community $6 Wed., Feb. 5, 8 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Bad Boys for Life—Buddy cop comedy about a midlife crisis. Produced by Will Smith. Rated R.

Oscars on the Silver Screen $5. Sun., Feb. 9, 6:30 p.m. Rialto Theatre, Raleigh. Phantom Thread $25. Sun., Feb. 9, 2 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. Red Carpet Awards Viewing Party Sun., Feb. 9, 8 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood— Audiences can’t get enough of the Mr. Rogers content, and for good reason. In this rendition, Matthew Rhys plays a journalist assigned a profile of Fred Rogers,played by a perfectly-cast Tom Hanks. Rated PG.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6

www.quailridgebooks.com • 919.828.1588 • North Hills 4209-100 Lassiter Mill Road, Raleigh, NC 27609 CHECK OUT OUR PODCAST: BOOKIN’ w/Jason Jefferies

The Wild Goose Lake A dead-or-alive bounty is placed on mob leader Zhou Zenong (Chinese superstar Hu Ge) after killing a cop by accident. Running away from both the police and ruthless gangsters, Zhou crosses paths with a mysterious woman (Gwei Lun-mei) who helps him navigate the seediest joints in the city of Wuhan. Ultra-violence, moments of beautiful cinematic detail, and thrilling bike chases punctuate this innovative neo-noir piece by Diao Yinan, director of the acclaimed Black Coal, Thin Ice. —Marta Núñez Pouzols

2/9

JOAN OSBORNE

Rubenstein Arts Center, Durham 7 p.m., FREE

2/13 2/14 2/15 2/22

Doctor Sleep—Stephen King sequel to The Shining. Rated R.. Dolittle—Robert Downey Jr. plays the eccentric vetenarian in this fantasy action reprisal. Rated PG. Frankie—Isabelle Hupert stars as an ailing matriarch in this sprawling family drama. Rated PG-13. Ford v. Ferrari—Matt Damon and Christian Bale star in a biographical sports drama about a legendary race. Rated PG-13. Frozen 2— In search of the origins of her powers, Elsa and her sister Anna strike out beyond their frosty homeland. Rated PG.  The Gentleman— Guy Ritchie, the undisputed kingpin of the British gangster film, is back with a high-energy action comedy. Rated PG-13. —Glenn McDonald Gretel and Hansel— Horror fantasy remake of the fairy tale about two children whose hike goes awry. Rated PG-13. The Grudge—Real estate difficulties (among other things) are exacerbated when a cursed suburban house goes on the market. Rated R.

Harriet—Kasi Lemmons stars in this biographical film about the heroic abolitionist Harriet Tubman. Rated PG-13. A Hidden Life—Terrence Malick takes his roving cinemotography, and love of furtive interior lives, to the story of a man who refused to fight for Nazi Germany. Rated PG-13. Jojo Rabbit—Black comedy about a German boy who discovers that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in the attic. Rated PG-13. Jumanji: The Next Level— This adventure comedy picks up where the 1995 flick left off. Rated PG-13. Just Mercy—Based on the book of the same name, this film tells the story of Bryan Stevenson, a young lawyer defending a client who is unjustly on death row. Rated PG-13. Like a Boss—Things go awry for raunchy and ambitious duo Mia (Tiffany Hadish) and Mel (Rose Bryne) when things sour with a beauty tycoon. Rated R. Midway—This WWII flick about Pearl Harbor and the subsequent Battle of Midway stars a fleet of hunks. Rated PG-13.

½ Pain and Glory— In this auto-fictional exercise, the director Pedro Almodóvar is honest about his life but guarded about his psyche. Rated R. —Marta Núñez Pouzols  Parasite—This highly-anticipated social satire from filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho is crammed with dark twists and intricate metaphors. Rated R. —Sarah Edwards  Queen & Slim— A bad date turns into a manhunt after Queen and Slim kill a police officer in self-defense. Had it avoided the more moralistic clichés of the crime melodrama, it could have been more compelling. Rated R. —Ryan Vu

 Uncut Gems— Loud and brash, with extreme close-ups and a discordant score ratcheting up the unease, this Safdie brothers flick stars Adam Sandler as a jeweler who places a high-stakes bet. Rated R. —Neil Morris

POPUP CHORUS TRANSACTORS IMPROV: VALENTINE’S DAY MUSICAL NO SHAME THEATRE - CARRBORO BUSTER KEATON’S “SHERLOCK JR.” LIVE SCORE BY TIM CARLESS

Get tickets at artscenterlive.org

Underwater—Kristen Stewart stars in a science-fiction flick—which is perhaps not for those who are claustrophobic or scared of water—about a crew of underwater researchers terrorized by mysterious creatures. Rated PG-13. Waves—An emotional movie about a suburban African-American family navigating loss. Rated R.

Richard Jewell—Clint Eastwood reconsiders the story of Richard Jewell, a security guard falsely accused of bombing the 1996 Olympics. Rated R. The Rhythm Section— Blake Lively plays a woman hellbent on revenge after her family is murdered in a plane crash. Rated R.

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February 5, 2020

C U LT U R E CA L E NDA R

Opening 462 Stand-Up Comedy Show $10. Sat., Feb. 8, 9:30 p.m. The People’s Improv Theater (PIT), Chapel Hill.

stage

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater $47+. Tue., Feb. 11, 7:30 p.m. UNC Campus: Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill. Danny Canoe Comedy. $13. Sat., Feb. 8, 8 p.m. The People’s Improv Theater (PIT), Chapel Hill. Felipe Esparza Comedy. Showtimes: Fri.: 7 p.m. & 9:15 p.m. Sat.: 6:30 p.m. & 9 p.m. Sun.: 7 p.m. $20+. Feb. 7-9. Raleigh Improv, Cary. Eyes Up Here Comedy Showcase $7. Fri., Feb. 7, 7 p.m. Neptunes Parlour, Raleigh. Jurassic World Live Showtimes: Thu. & Fri.: 7 p.m. Sat.: 3 p.m. & 8 p.m. Sun.: 1 p.m. & 5 p.m. $15+. Feb. 6-9. PNC Arena, Raleigh. Shuler King Comedy. $22. Sun., Feb. 9, 7 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Tim and Eric

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COMEDIANS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7

Tim and Eric: 2020 Mandatory Attendance World Tour Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim are self-described non-comedians who have nonetheless been influencing the language of comedy since the early 2000s, beginning with their cult-hit Adult Swim shows. It’s best to look up some clips—otherwise phrases like glitchy, boundary-pushing, hallucinogenically parodical, and, yes, truly innovative—are just meaningless descriptors. The contents of this tour are secret, but the duo is reportedly ready to try out even weirder, potentially more alienating stuff than usual. —Anna Cassell The Carolina Theatre, Durham 8 p.m., $40–$60

Kinky Boots Musical. Showtimes: Tue.-Fri.: 7:30 Sat. & Sun.: 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. $31+. Feb. 11-16. Memorial Auditorium, Raleigh. Jo Koy Comedy. $50-60. Sat., Feb. 8, 8 p.m. Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham. Edna Lewis Theatre. Showtimes: Thu.: 7:30 p.m. Fri.: 8 p.m. $27. Feb. 6-7. 7:30 p.m. Current ArtSpace + Studio, Chapel Hill.

OHIO! Play reading. Tue., Feb. 11, 8 p.m. Arcana, Durham. Tim and Eric Comedy. $40-$60. Fri., Feb. 7, 8 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. The Vagina Monologues Reading. Showtimes: Fri.: 8 p..m. Sat.: 3 p.m. & 8 p.m. $17-$25. Feb. 7-8. 8 p.m. Pure Life Theatre, Raleigh. Venus & Adonis Play. 7:30 p.m. both nights. $10 suggested. Feb. 9-10. Pure Life Theatre, Raleigh.

Ongoing Bourbon at the Border Play. Showtimes: Fri. & Sat.: 8 p.m. Sun.: 3 p.m. $15-22. Through Feb. 9. North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre, Raleigh. Carolina Ballet: Rhapsody in Blue Showtimes: Thu. & Fri.: 8 p.m. Sat.: 2 p.m. & 8 p.m. Sun.: 2 p.m. $37+. Through Feb. 16. Fletcher Opera Theater, Raleigh. Everybody Play. Showtimes: Tue.-Sat.: 7 p.m. Sun.: 2 p.m. $15+. Through Feb. 10. Center for Dramatic Art, Chapel Hill.

Orange Light Play. Showtimes: Thu.: 7:30 p.m. Fri. & Sat.: 8 p.m. Sun.: 2 p.m. Through Feb. 16 Durham Fruit Company, Durham. Talley’s Folly Burning Coal Theatre Company. ThuSat: 7:30 p.m. Sun: 2 p.m. Through Feb. 9. Burning Coal Theatre at the Murphey School, Raleigh. The Wiz Musical. Showtimes: Thu.-Sat.: 8 p.m. Sun.: 2 p.m. $15. Through Feb. 9, Duke Campus: Sheafer Lab Theater, Durham.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11 & WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater One of the country’s premiere African American dance companies showcases multiple generations of women choreographers over two different evenings of works. Tuesday, Camille A. Brown’s pensive, intense City of Rain is bookended by former company artistic director Judith Jamison’s Divining and A Case of You, set to Joni Mitchell’s song of the same name. Wednesday, rising Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton’s BUSK precedes Jessica Lang’s one-hundredth ballet, EN. Both nights close with the company’s signature work, Ailey’s Revelations. —Byron Woods UNC’s Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill 7:30 p.m., $47

Kathleen Madigan Comedy. $25-$45. Sat., Feb. 8, 8 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. Mean Girls Musical. Showtimes: Tue.-Thu.: 7:30 p.m. Fri.: 8 p.m Sat.: 2 p.m. & 8 p.m. Sun.: 1 p.m. & 7 p.m. $125+. Feb. 11-16, Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham. Leanne Morgan Comedy. 7 p.m. both nights. Sold out. Feb. 5-6, Raleigh Improv, Cary. Sam Morril Comedy. Showtimes: Thu.: 8 p.m. Fri. & Sat.: 7:30 p.m. & 10 p.m. $17-25. Feb. 6-8. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

PHOTO BY ANDREW ECCLES

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S ER NE CCalendar CC UR LTEU A L E NDA R PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

N I G H T S TA N D

What Your Local Bookseller is Reading Stumped about what to read next? Nightstand, a semi-regular column, goes straight to the source for ideas.

page

BY SARAH EDWARDS sedwards@indyweek.com

Readings

Today, meet Elese Stutts, Lead Book Buyer and Manager (and former librarian) at Flyleaf Books. What kids books are you excited about right now? I’d given this [advanced reading copy] to my son a few months ago, and he loved it. It’s called A High Five For Glenn Burke by Phil Bildner; it’s a middle-grade book. It’s the story of a kid—he’s really into baseball, he’s on a baseball team—and he’s doing a school project on Glenn Burke, who is someone I didn’t know anything about. He played for the Dodgers [and] invented the high-five.

Whoa! I didn’t know it could be invented! So anyway, this [kid] is presenting to his class about the high-five, and the other thing about Glenn Burke is that he was gay and that was something that was not able to be out in the ’70s in Major League Baseball. And this kid is also grappling with his sexuality and trying to come out, and the way he is trying to come out is presenting about Glenn Burke. It was so great. I loved it. I’m halfway through, and loving, a kids graphic novel called All Together Now by Hope Larson. It’s this girl in middle school, she’s got a best friend and they’re in a band, but her best friend starts dating the drummer, and they kick her out of the band. It’s got all that middle-school angst in it.

Other Picks

Do you feel like graphic novels are having a moment? They really are. I have to say that any adult who has any skepticism about it [should] sit down and read one, because it works a different part of your brain. My son told me that the way he reads a graphic novel is, he reads it really quickly for the plot and then he reads it a second time and looks very intently just at pictures. And then he reads it again and integrates it. It’s a great way to get kids [to start reading] because you have so many context clues in the pictures. We have a great kids graphic-novels section, and this leads into your question about what’s hot: There’s nothing hotter than Dog Man. W

KIDS BOOKS

Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia ADULT BOOKS

The Ladies Handbook for Mysterious Illnesses by Sarah Ramey The Night Watchmen by Louise Erdrich

Raachel Jurovics Under One Crown. Sun., Feb. 9, 2 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. W. Jason Miller Langston Hughes. Tue., Feb. 11, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Jasmine Brown The Money Club: A Teenage Guide to Financial Literacy. Wed., Feb. 5, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Second Sundays Poetry Series: Debra Kaufman, Katie Bowler Young Sun., Feb. 9, 3 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Deborah Y. Clarke, Julia Grumbles The Insider’s Guide to Working with Universities: Practical Insights for Board Members, Businesspeople, Entrepreneurs, Philanthropists, Alumni, Parent. Mon., Feb. 10, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

David Zucchino Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. Sun., Feb. 9, 1 p.m. Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Durham.

Crime Scene: Mystery Bookfest Sat., Feb. 8, 10 a.m. McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro.

Chinese New Year Celebration Storytime Sat., Feb. 8, 10:30 a.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Judy Dearlove Play On!. Tue., Feb. 11, 7 p.m. Regulator Bookshop, Durham. Tim Garvin A Dredging in Swann: A Seb Creek Mystery. Wed., Feb. 5, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Lectures

Piedmont Patch Garden Talk: Why June is the Berry Best Month Sat., Feb. 8, 10 a.m. Episcopal Church of the Advocate, Chapel Hill.

Tim Garvin A Dredging in Swann. Tue., Feb. 11, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

What is a Resource Curse: Energy, Infrastructure, and Climate Change in Native North America Wed., Feb. 5, 5 p.m. Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Durham.

Erin Hunter Bravelands #5: The Spirit-Eaters. Mon., Feb. 10, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Zoorotica: A Fundraiser for Australian Bushfires Tue., Feb. 11, 6:30 p.m. Fullsteam, Durham.

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February 5, 2020

C L AS S I F I E D S NOTICES Notice of Durham County Primary and School Board Election Tuesday, March 3, 2020 PHOTO ID IS NOT REQUIRED TO VOTE The Primary and School Board Election for Durham County will be held in Durham County, NC on Tuesday March 3rd. All Durham County precincts will be open from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. 17-year old Durham County voters who are registered and will be 18 years old on or before Nov. 3, 2020 may vote in Durham’s Primary. 17-year-olds are not permitted to voter in the School Board Election. Party primaries will be open to voters registered with that respective party. Unaffiliated voters may vote a non-partisan ballot that will only include the School Board Election OR choose to participate in either the Republican, Democratic, or Libertarian primaries. The Constitution and Green parties have opted not to allow unaffiliated voters to participate in their respective primaries. The following contests will be on Durham County ballots*: • State and Federal Offices • U.S. House of Representatives • N.C. Senate • Durham County Board of Commissioners • Durham County Board of Education (Final Election) *Offices will only appear on your ballot if you are eligible to vote for the respective contests. ABSENTEE ONE-STOP (EARLY VOTING) LOCATIONS South Regional Library, 4505 S. Alston Ave., Durham North Regional Library, 221 Milton Rd., Durham Criminal Justice Resource Center, 326 E Main St., Durham NCCU Law Building, 640 Nelson St., Durham

February 5, 2020

Duke University Brodhead Center, 406 Chapel Dr., Durham Durham Tech North, 2401 Snow Hill Rd., Durham East Regional Library, 211 Lick Creek Ln., Durham Eno River Fellowship, 4907 Garrett Rd., Durham ELECTION DAY POLLING PLACE LOCATION CHANGES • Precinct 16, previously temporarily located at Jordan High School has moved back to Holy Infant Catholic Church, located at 5000 Southpark Dr., Durham, NC 27713. • Precinct 19, previously located at Merrick-Moore Elementary School has moved back to American Legion Post # 7, located at 406 E Trinity Ave., Durham, NC 27701. • Precinct 53-2, previously located at Barbee Chapel Baptist Church has moved to Waypoint Church, located at 6804 Farrington Rd., Chapel Hill, NC 27517. VOTER REGISTRATION DEADLINE: The voter registration deadline for the March 3, 2020 Primary and School Board Election is Friday, February 7, 2020 (25 days prior). Voters that miss the registration deadline may register and vote during the Absentee OneStop Voting Period (Early Voting). Voters who are currently registered need not re-register. Registered voters who have moved or changed other information since the last election should notify the Board of Elections of that change by February 7, 2020. SAME DAY REGISTRATION: Voters are allowed to register and vote during early voting. It is quicker and easier to register in advance, but if you have not registered you can do so during One Stop voting with proper identification. This same day registration

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FOR SALE is not allowed at polling places on Election Day. Information regarding registration, polling locations, absentee voting, or other election matters may be obtained by contacting the Board of Elections. PHOTO ID IS NOT REQUIRED TO VOTE Website: www.dcovotes.com

SERVICES

Phone: 919-560-0700

Save Big on Home Insurance! Compare 20 A-rated insurances companies. Get a quote within minutes. Average savings of $444/year! Call 844712-6153! (M-F 8am8pm Central) (AAN CAN)

Notice To Creditors All persons, firms, and corporations having claims against Joyce Wilson Biggers, deceased of Orange County, NC are notified to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before May 5, 2020, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This 30th day of January, 2020. Sara M. Biggers Executor, 101 Aberdeen Court, Carrboro NC 27510.

HEALTH & WELL BEING

Online Only Auction Charlotte City Club Renovation & Surplus, Begins Closing 3/5/2020 at 6pm, Property at 121 Trade St. #3100, Charlotte, NC, 28202 ironhorseauction.com, 800.997.2248, NCAL 3936

FINANCIAL

PAID FOR BY DURHAM COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS

Email Amanda: classy@indyweek.com

AUCTIONS

Email: elections@dconc.gov Fax: 919-560-0688

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HOME IMPROVEMENT Attention Homeowners: Government Loan Program. Up to $25,000 has been set aside for Qualified home improvements. Roofs, Siding, Windows. Low Monthly Payments NO MONEY DOWN 888-878-6443 Eliminate gutter cleaning forever! LeafFilter, the most advanced debris-blocking gutter protection. Schedule a FREE LeafFilter estimate today. 15% off and 0% financing for those who qualify. PLUS Senior & Military Discounts. Call 1-877-649-1190 Bathroom Renovations EASY, ONE DAY updates! We specialize in safe bathing. Grab bars, no slip flooring & seated showers. Call for a free in-home consultation: 877-898-3840

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www.harmonygate.com HOLISTIC HEALTH Tai Chi Traditional art of meditative movement for health, energy, relaxation, self-defense. Classes/workshops throughout the Triangle. Magic Tortoise School - Since 1979. Call Jay or Kathleen, 919-360-6419 or www.magictortoise.com

MEDICAL SERVICES Farmers, Landscapers, or Garderners Did you or a loved one use Roundup Weed Killer and were diagnosed with NONHODGKINS LYMPHOMA (Cancer)? You may be entitled to compensation. Call Attorney Charles Johnson 1-800-535-5727 A Place for Mom The nation’s largest senior living referral service. Contact our trusted, local experts today! Our service is FREE/no obligation. CALL 1-888-609-2550

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EMPLOYMENT FTCC Positions Available Fayetteville Technical Community College is now accepting applications for the following positions: Admissions Evaluator, Gunsmithing Instructor, Maintenance Technician I, Senior Systems Administrator Technician. For detailed information and to apply, please visit our employment portal at: https://faytechcc. peopleadmin.com/ Human Resources Office Phone: (910) 678-7342 Internet: http://www.faytechcc.edu An Equal Opportunity Employer Airlines are Hiring Get FAA approved hands on Aviation mechanic training. Financial aid for qualified students - Career placement assistance. CALL Aviation Institute of Maintenance 866-441-6890 Painters & Roofers Needed! Coating manufacturer looking for companies or individuals to apply coating systems on commercial roofs in North or South Carolina. CALL 740-656-0177

M I S C. Is your home SMART yet? Get a FREE quote from Vivint, the #1 HomeAutomation Company! Fast & Affordable! $100 VISA giftcard w/installation! Restrictions Apply. Call 855-589-7053

HOUSING For Rent in Carrboro 3 bedroom house, 2 ½ bath. New. On bus route. New kitchen, new stove, new microwave. Great appliances. Master bedroom on 2nd floor, 2 bedrooms on 3rd floor. Call (919) 933-7252 Need a Roommate? Roommates.com will help you find your Perfect Match™ today! (AAN CAN)

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LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE

Dental Insurance from Physicians Mutual Insurance Company NOT just a discount plan, REAL coverage for 350 procedures. Call 1-844496-8601 for details. www.dental50plus.com/ ncpress 6118-0219 Medical Billing & Coding Training New Students Only. Call & Press 1. 100% online courses. Financial Aid Available for those who qualify. Call 833-990-0354

INDY CLASSIFIEDS classy@indyweek.com

P U Z Z L ES

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

su | do | ku

this week’s puzzle level:

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

INDY CLASSIFIEDS classy@indyweek.com

KeepItINDY.com

2.05.20 February 5, 2020

DANCE CLASSES IN LINDY HOP, SWING, BLUES

ESCAPE TO ASHEVILLE

BULL CITY COMMONS COHOUSING

EXPERIENCE

THE JAPANESE ART

At Carrboro ArtsCenter. Private lessons available. RICHARD BADU, 919-724-1421, rbadudance@gmail.com

Urban Durham cohousing community seeks new member households, only 4 units left! www.bullcitycommons.com

D E E P R E L A X AT I O N

WE'RE HIRING WE'RE JUNIOR ACCOUNT H IEXECUTIVE RING

HISTORY TRIVIA: • On February 8, 1898, in Concord, NC, Warren Coleman laid the cornerstone of the Coleman Manufacturing Company, the first black-owned cotton mill in the US. • On February 10, 1962, runner Jim Beatty broke the 4-minute mile barrier on an indoor track. Born in New York, Beatty moved to Charlotte, NC at age 4 and later attended UNC-CH. T H E U LT I M A T E

Courtesy of the Museum of Durham History

DO YOU KNOW TASVIR “TASS” SHAH? Do you know an employer by the name Tasvir “Tass” Shah? Does he owe you wages for completed work in Alamance, Durham or Orange county? For years, this man took advantage of the immigration status of workers to avoid paying them for their hard work. We are in seek of more brave workers that want to stop the exploitation of this employer. We are Apoyo and our organization exists for the purpose of supporting our undocumented neighbors and community members by building a larger united, informed and self protecting community. You can contact us on facebook.com/apoyoNC, on our page ncapoyo.org or via phone at 919-307-5785.

OUTDOOR SPA ASHEVILLE, NC P R I V A T E S A LT T U B S , MASSAGE, WET CEDAR SAUNA, TUB SIDE TEA SERVICE A N D OV E R N I G H T AC C O M M O DAT I O N S

POSITION:

919-286-1916 @hunkydorydurham We buy records. Now serving dank beer.

828•299•0999 S H OJ I R E T R E AT S .C O M

FULL-TIME HOURLY + POSITION: COMMISSION JUNIOR ACCOUNT

SEEKING AN OUTGOING, EXECUTIVE SALES-ORIENTED INDIVIDUAL TO JOIN THE INDY WEEK+TEAM. FULL-TIME HOURLY COMMISSION

The position is focused on Durham and SEEKING AN OUTGOING, Orange counties and will be based out SALES-ORIENTED INDIVIDUAL of our downtown Durham office.

TO JOIN THE INDY WEEK TEAM. Send resume to jhurld@indyweek.com

The position is focused on Durham and Orange counties and will be based out of our downtown Durham office. Send resume to jhurld@indyweek.com

Contact advertising@indyweek.com or John Hurld at 919-286-1972

Upcoming Special Issues Feb 12

2020 Primary Endorsement

Feb 19

Wedding Guide

Feb 26

Triangle Finds: DT Durham/9th Street

Mar 4

Festival Guide

Mar 11

Beer Madness Winners

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