INDY Week 2.26.20

RALEIGH February 26, 2020

THHE HOUUSE KNOCK DOWN

ALWAYS WINS

Erica Smith sees herself as a progressive idealist taking on the Democratic Party’s deep-pocketed machine. But the story of the Senate primary isn’t quite that simple. BY LEIGH TAUS S , P. 12

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February 26, 2020

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Raleigh

We Are Dust

VOL. 37 NO. 9

T

CONTENTS NEWS 8

Growing up in Durham when your father’s in prison.

BY THOMASI MCDONALD

10 In which we revisit our endorsement for Wake County Register of Deeds.

11

The two theories for beating Donald Trump.

BY JEFFREY C. BILLMAN

FEATURES 12

The Senate primary isn’t as simple as outsider versus establishment.

BY LEIGH TAUSS

FOOD + DRINK 18

Saint James is the most food you can have with food.

BY NICK WILLIAMS

MUSIC 21

Music has changed. Archers of Loaf hasn’t.

Enter the tragic, moonlit garden of Ebony G. Patterson.

BY JAMEELA F. DALLIS

29 Can technology ease the alienation technology created?

On Sunday night, I was at an event at The Pinhook celebrating the new Piedmont chapter of PEN America, an organization that champions free speech and expression. David Potori, the literature and theater director for the North Carolina Arts Council, spoke about the beauty in that ritual—the acceptance and embrace of mortality, the knowledge that a hundred or a thousand years from now, everyone we know will be gone, and everything we’ve done will be forgotten.

Even for the nonreligious, Potori said, that sentiment offers a kind of peace, a sense of freedom that allows you to not get wrapped up in daily tremors and tumults.

I’m not Catholic, and I’m not prone to kumbaya sentiments. (During my spoken-word portion of the event—called “Literary Frivolity”—I discussed the very frivolous subject of my anxiety disorders.) I’d always taken that “from dust to dust” phrase as a nod to human insignificance before the almighty.

But this interpretation, or my recollection of it, anyway—I’d had a couple of whiskeys, and I wasn’t taking notes—has been rattling around my head these last few days.

BY CHARLES AARON

ARTS + CULTURE 27

his issue comes out on Ash Wednesday, when Catholic priests all over the world smudge repentance ash on penitents’ foreheads and say the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

BY SARAH EDWARDS

I spend a lot of my day consuming news, and a lot of it is objectively terrifying: Donald Trump’s authoritarian power-grabs are unprecedented in modern American history.

Coronavirus has not been contained, probably won’t be, and might tank the global economy in the process. The climate crisis is already upon us, it’s going to get worse, and much of the world is in denial. I could go on.

I dwell on them, obsess over them, and I so often feel helpless swimming against the tide of cruelty and ignorance and injustice.

DEPARTMENTS 4 Voices

19 Where to Eat and Drink This Week

5 15 Minutes

20 1,000 Words

6 Quickbait

23 Music Calendar

7 A Week in the Life

30 Culture Calendar

But I don’t think the idea is that we’re not supposed to care, or that we’re not supposed to act or get involved. We are, and we should. (Which reminds me: Early voting ends on Saturday, and the primary election is on Tuesday, so get out there.)

I think the point is that we should recognize our place amid the much bigger arc of history, and that we should take comfort in it and do the best we can for each other.

We are dust, and to dust we shall return.

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

COVER Design by Annie Maynard, photos by Jade Wilson

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Editor in Chief Jeffrey C. Billman Arts + Culture Editor Brian Howe Raleigh News Editor Leigh Tauss Deputy A+C Editor Sarah Edwards

Contributing Food Editor Nick Williams Theater+Dance Critic Byron Woods Voices Columnists T. Greg Doucette, Chika Gujarathi, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Courtney Napier,

Barry Saunders, Jonathan Weiler Contributors Jim Allen, Jameela F. Dallis, Michaela Dwyer, Lena Geller, Spencer Griffith, Howard Hardee, Laura Jaramillo, Kyesha Jennings, Glenn McDonald, Josephine McRobbie, Samuel Montgomery-Blinn, Neil Morris, James Michael Nichols, Marta Nuñez Pouzols, Bryan C. Reed, Dan Ruccia, David Ford Smith, Eric Tullis, Michael VenutoloMantovani, Chris Vitiello, Ryan Vu, Patrick Wall

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February 26, 2020

3

BACK TA L K

It’s our last issue before the primary election— that’s Tuesday, March 3—so we’ll turn over this space to critics of our endorsements.

First up, ROBIN KIRK argues for keeping Steve Unruhe on the Durham County Board of Education: “Steve has deep experience working to better our schools as a teacher and adviser (to the Riverside Pirates’ Hook, which my son wrote for). As an elected official, he and his fellow board members have made huge strides in improving our ever-changing schools for all children, including by promoting more cultural awareness and ESL support, better pay and teacher support, and changes in disciplinary policies to ensure more kids get help and stay in school. For me, Steve has the teaching experience and proven leadership ability to continue that vital work.”

In that race—we endorsed Alexandra Valladares— DONNA KING is upset that we didn’t mention Paula Januzzi-Godfrey, whom she describes as perhaps “the most qualified candidate ever to run for the Durham school board. Her platform is progressive and ambitious, and her professional history as a parent, teacher, instructional coach, mentor teacher, and in so many other roles across many schools and settings in Durham would make her a real voice for the people ‘on the ground’—especially in our most challenged schools.”

Several writers pushed back against our recommendation of Amy Fowler over Mark Marcoplos for Orange County commissioner. Among them, BARRY JACOBS: “You suggest someone ‘a little more skeptical’ than Marcoplos might have better served the county’s fiscal interests in working to advance light rail. Yet you have heartily endorsed without similar qualification both an incumbent Durham County commissioner and a mayor far more vociferous in supporting GoTriangle’s plans. You question the expenditure of a large chunk of county funds to address climate change and criticize the lack of a predetermined plan that accommodates public input. Then you turn around and praise a challenger for embracing collaborative decision-making. You also criticize the climate change expenditure in a county ‘already among the highest-taxed counties in the state.’ Yet you endorse a pair of challengers from a Board of Education that perpetually complains it is starved for funds and can’t tame its capital needs or close a huge, persistent achievement gap.”

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February 26, 2020

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voices

No Rest for the Dead Even in the grave, Black people aren’t immune to the struggle in Durham.

BY ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS @alexispauline

W

hen it rains, it floods—at least in Beechwood Cemetery.

Water clouds the names on the once-flat headstones in the section reserved for African American veterans of foreign wars. The metal rusts. In some cases, the careful symmetry of those who wore uniforms is interrupted by headstones now crooked with the weight of history, although their stone inscriptions say they were placed not long ago.

We’re coming up on the 100th anniversary of Beechwood Cemetery, founded in 1923 as a public repository for the segregated dead.

What does that mean? In addition to being a contemporary burial site, Beechwood is where Black people go when they are evicted from what would have been their final homes. That was the original purpose of Beechwood, and generations of ancestors ended up here when they were uprooted from the historic Wolf Den Cemetery, also known as Violet Park, now a parking lot. (If you walk around the perimeter of the new, smooth parking lot, you’ll see headstones and markers intertwined with the roots of the trees.) Beechwood is where you went if you were exhumed from the historic Geer Cemetery because the city deemed it overcrowded, and it was one of the repositories for over a thousand graves moved from the Crest Street neighborhood to make room for Highway 147.

A couple of months ago, I wrote that the cars driving along 147 were driving through ghosts. I didn’t know they were literally driving over the soil of displaced graves.

How can we think differently about this moment of rapid development and shifting earth? What if we acknowledge that the displacement of Black people in Durham is not new, nor is it limited to the living.

Even in death, Black people have not been able to rest without a fight.

Durham let the city’s Black dead wait half a century before creating a public cemetery. First, Maplewood Cemetery was established in 1872 for Durham’s white deceased. And as Pauli Murray writes in Proud Shoes, the rifle of a Confederate memorial pointed directly out of that cemetery toward the back of her grandfather’s house, where she grew up. But again, we can’t only look above ground. More than a hundred years ago, Murray’s grandfather, a Union Civil War veteran, started complaining to the city that drainage pipes flowed directly onto his prop-

erty, eroding the foundation of his house. The city ignored him. The water flowing through the decomposed remains of the Confederate dead threatened Black housing.

So when it rains, it pours.

Over a hundred years later, thanks to the work of the Pauli Murray Project, the drainage flow has finally been shifted. Can you imagine the current city government making a developer wait a hundred years for infrastructure changes—or even one?

Documentary artist Anthony Patterson grew up in the Crest Street neighborhood, one of the few communities able to mitigate the impact of 147 on their lives. Patterson’s research has shown that his community has existed for about as long as Durham has been incorporated.

When he was growing up in the wake of highway construction, people would say that he and the other children were playing on the site of unmarked graves.

His mother was involved in keeping track of who was where when the highway displaced what Patterson’s grandfather says was the central burial ground for Black people on the west side. The Crest Street organizers sought to preserve New Bethel Baptist Church (which recently celebrated 140 years) and to continue to attend to those graves as best they could.

New Bethel continues to be a site of progressive community building. And across the highway in New Bethel Memorial Gardens, you can see generations: headstones put up just this year, worn headstones that are not engraved but are beautifully embedded with small white stones, and those markers engraved without birthdates, signs of those ancestors who society suggests were not born but were instead made in the crucible of slavery.

By contrast, on the other side of the tree line is an abandoned white cemetery where large headstones with some of the city’s most prominent slaveholding names are overgrown with thorns, untended for decades.

In this moment, when progress seems to flood in one direction, and Durham can’t help but be carried away, we should ask the Patterson family, the New Bethel community, the people who insisted on access to each other, to loved ones living and dead, how they held tight to one another’s hands and stayed rooted in shifting ground.

I, for one, had to pay my respects in that welltended garden. W Voices is made possible by contributions to the INDY Press Club. Join today at KeepItINDY.com.

ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS is the author of M Archive: After the End of the World, Spill: Scenes of Black Feminist Fugitivity, Dub: Finding Ceremony, and co-editor of Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines.

15 MINUTES

PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

Julia Gartrell, 33 Artist and creator of Radical Repair Workshop, a traveling art project housed in a vintage camper

BY WILL ATKINSON backtalk@indyweek.com

You were born and raised in Durham. What brought you back?

I went to college in Michigan, and while I was in college, my family moved away from Durham, so I moved back to anchor myself to the town. I felt like otherwise, I wouldn’t have a relationship to it. I worked full-time at the Scrap Exchange for about three years as a store manager.

What do you think Durham’s relationship to reuse and repair is?

The Scrap Exchange is a pretty monumental benefit to this town, and growing up here, I didn’t really think about it as being really unique. But leaving for college and for other adventures in the past 15 years, it became really clear that it’s such an obvious resource that every community should have. It’s not hard to be a thoughtful consumer here if you are interested in doing so.

Every single community could do better in terms of consuming less from the get-go.

It’s really, really easy to buy things online and not really think about the impact of that practice. I’m not saying I’m perfect by any means. But I think that a circular economy is really important. Before you

buy a brand-new thing, thinking about, well, a) do I need that thing?, b) do I have something that could suffice, or could I borrow it from someone?, and c) is there a way that, if I’m replacing something, the thing I’m replacing could just be repaired?

Going through that thought process before you pull the trigger to buy something is something everyone everywhere could do.

How has the participatory aspect of the Radical Repair Workshop influenced the project?

Everyone has some story of a broken object in their life, be it their favorite mug or their favorite toy or whatever. One of the most meaningful elements that the project has had so far was this collection of [what is] basically your most-used T-shirt. I got 25 or 30 people to lend me their most holey— both full of holes and sort of wholly valuable—T-shirts and send me a description of their story. It was a really interesting take on the idea of repair and the idea of the history and memory of objects because basically everyone has that item of clothing. They all hold some kind of complicated, personal story. W KeepItINDY.com

February 26, 2020

5

Population as of July 1, 2018*

W

469,298

e heard a lot about the spike in violent crime in Durham last year. Indeed, it became a central issue in the city’s fall elections. But Raleigh had a much more significant increase in both its homicide count and its murder rate, according to data the Raleigh Police Department released this month. Now that we have comparable 2019 stats for the Triangle’s two largest municipalities, let’s see what stories they tell us.

Homicide Rate per 100,000 People: 20

# of people

RALEIGH

274,291

Raleigh* Durham**

15 10

DURHAM

5 0

*U.S. Census Bureau

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

Year *Provided by RPD. **Calculated based on population estimates.

Aggravated Assault

Homicides* 50

Raleigh

Durham

40

1000

1200

800

600

300

10

0

900

2015

2016 2017 2018 2019

0

Rape 200

150

Total number

20

Total number

30

Robbery

1500

Total number

Total number

Q UIC KBA I T

Crimetowns

600

400

50

200

2015

2016 2017 2018 2019

0

2015

2016 2017 2018 2019

Year

Year

100

Year

0

2015

2016 2017 2018 2019

Year

*Durham’s data includes only criminal homicides. Raleigh’s homicide total includes noncriminal incidents such as self-defense. Its reported murder totals for these years are 17, 23, 27, 17, and 19.

The Good, The Bad & The Awful d goo

Snow!

Durham County Government

The two-or-so inches of snow the Triangle received last Thursday—depending on where you live—was the first we’ve seen ’round these parts since December 2018, nearly 14 months ago. And it was just about perfect: It was more than a dusting, but there wasn’t too much. The kids got a snow day, the roads weren’t iced over for a week, the region only shut down for a morning, people maintained a reasonable amount of calm, and it all melted

by Saturday, when temps were back in the 50s. So nice work, everyone. Had this storm missed us, 2019–20 would have marked only the 12th winter since 1887—as far back as records go—with no measurable snowfall, and (so far as we can tell) the first ever without so much as a trace.

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February 26, 2020

INDYweek.com

bad

Last week, the INDY obtained a letter that Durham County manager Wendell Davis sent Commissioner Heidi Carter on February 11 accusing her, pretty bluntly, of racism. But there’s some context needed here. Carter is up for re-election. A former school board member, she and Davis have battled over school funding. Davis’s contract, meanwhile, comes up for renewal next year; if Carter loses, he probably has a better shot at keeping his job. School board chair Mike Lee—who is black—argued that Davis was lodging allegations of racism for political purposes. Carter says Davis’s letter contains “misquotes and fabrications,” and “its primary audience was the press.” In response to an outcry from Davis’s supporters at its meeting on Monday night, the Board of Commissioners took steps toward launching an investigation into the matter.

ful

Meddlin’ Mitch McConnell

It’s not clear whether the Faith and Power PAC’s goal was to actually help Erica Smith win the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, to try to force Cal Cunningham to take more progressive positions than he otherwise would have ahead of the general election, or to simply cause chaos. Nor is it clear whether the PAC’s involvement did the job or backfired. It was a huge ad buy—the $3 million Faith and Power has dropped on Smith’s behalf is about 10 times what she’s raised herself. But it didn’t take long for media outlets to figure out that Faith and Power had GOP connections, which allowed Cunningham to claim that incumbent Senator Thom Tillis was scared of him. Tillis denied it. But then last week, we learned that Faith and Power is pretty much a pass-through for the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC run by allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. So even if Tillis isn’t scared of Cunningham, it sure seems like his boss is.

aw

A WEEK IN THE LIFE

2/18

RALEIGH MAYOR MARY-ANN BALDWIN, along with former mayors Nancy McFarlane and Charles Meeker, endorsed Michael Bloomberg for president.

The INDY reported that, on February 11, DURHAM COUNTY MANAGER WENDELL DAVIS sent a letter to Commissioner Heidi Carter alleging that she has “an inherent bias that you harbor not merely towards me, but people of color in general.”

Facebook took down NORTH CAROLINA BREAKING NEWS, a proTrump fake-news page operated by a Russian bot and/or N.C. State students conducting a social-media experiment.

The Raleigh City Council joined the Wake County Board of Commissioners in approving $193 MILLION in tourism taxes to fund a sports complex in Cary.

2/19

Durham County school board chairman MIKE LEE cast doubt on Wendell Davis’s accusations that Carter was racist, saying Davis was interfering in the upcoming primary to protect his own position.

The N&O reported that Wake commissioners are exploring leasing 151 ACRES OF RDU LAND for mountain biking. As part of RDU’s quarry lease with Wake Stone, the mining company had committed to help Wake County with the lease, but that was delayed as the Umstead Coalition’s lawsuit to block the quarry played out. With RDU considering spending $2 million to fence off the land, the county might move ahead anyway.

2/20

It SNOWED. JUDGE ALLEN BADDOUR ruled that the Sons of Confederate Veterans has 45 days to give Silent Sam back to the UNC System, along with the $2.5 million the UNC Board of Governors gave the group. The SCV had already spent $52,000 on legal fees.

A Raleigh City Council committee drafted SHORT-TERM RENTAL regulations that would allow homeowners to rent out their properties, including their whole houses, for up to 30 days at a time with a permit.

The Durham City Council voted to give the Durham Housing Authority $1.4 MILLION to purchase electric, rather than gas, stoves for homes in McDougald Terrace, which was evacuated last month following concerns about elevated carbon monoxide levels.

2/21

UNC’S BOARD OF GOVERNORS said that figuring out what to do with Silent Sam won’t be a top priority.

The Hill reported that the Republican-aligned Faith and Power PAC that is bankrolling ads on behalf of underdog Democratic Senate candidate Erica Smith is itself being funded by MITCH MCCONNELL’S SUPER PAC.

2/24

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

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a lawsuit over whether the Appalachian Trail should effectively block the ATLANTIC COAST PIPELINE.

Wake up with us.

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February 26, 2020

7

N E WS

Durham (Of the Durham Police Department’s 250 unsolved murders, 95 took place during those years.)

Like too many black kids of his generation, Walker grew up without a father. He went to Durham Academy, but he found a home with the dope pushers in McDougald Terrace.

And as he got older, he began to wonder if he was destined for his father’s fate.

They shared the same blood, after all.

Walker, too, was wild and confrontational, and when he got angry, his thoughts turned to violence.

Walker never knew his old man, but he couldn’t escape him.

T

PHOTO COURTESY OF ZADIE WALKER

Break Every Chain Zadie Walker’s new documentary explores growing up in Durham while your father’s in prison for murder

BY THOMASI MCDONALD tmcdonald@indyweek.com

I

n 1994, when Zadie Aarie Walker was 10, his father shot and killed the boy’s uncle.

The way a cousin later explained it, Calvin McLean Moore’s father had died, and he was supposed to take care of the family farm. He failed to live up to his duties. One day, Calvin’s brother Lonnie confronted him. They both had handguns. Lonnie drew first.

Calvin fired first. Lonnie died.

“It was some Cain and Abel shit if I ever heard of it,” Walker says.

Moore was convicted of manslaughter and spent four months in prison. He was released on January 27, 1995.

About a year and a half later, Moore gunned down his brother-in-law.

This time, he got 25 years.

Walker, a Durham native who lives in Brooklyn, never really knew his father, even before he got locked up. He only met him twice: in 2001, at a prison hospital, and on Halloween 2015, a month after Moore’s release.

Walker, a filmmaker, chronicled the second meeting for a documentary exploring how his fatherless childhood affected his life. “I had a hole in my heart, this nagging feeling of incompleteness,” he says.

Across the Marsh—the title refers to a colloquial name for Farmers Union, the rural community near Lumberton that’s home to the Moore family farm—offers a stark reflection on the anger and heartbreak common to boys who grow up without their fathers. It’s set against a backdrop of mass incarceration and a city and country engulfed by the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1990s, Durham’s deadliest decade.

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February 26, 2020

INDYweek.com

he first time Walker met Calvin—he always calls him “Calvin”—his father was a patient at the now-closed McCain Correctional Hospital in Raeford. He’d gotten into an argument with a fellow inmate over a TV. A guard let the other inmate into his cell. The inmate bashed in Calvin’s skull with a lock in a sock.

The prison wrapped Calvin’s head with a wool blanket. When he healed, strands of wool were left in his brain.

There, Calvin told his 17-year-old son about the second murder: His sister Loretta’s husband was beating her. She wanted to leave him. Calvin went to their place and told him to get out. But the husband told Calvin he’d kill her and him first. Calvin took that as a threat and put a bullet in his head.

He put the man’s body in the back of his truck, drove to a compost site, and burned the corpse. Six months later, he was doing cocaine with a girlfriend, they got into an argument, Calvin threatened to kill her, and she ratted him out to the cops.

This version probably isn’t the whole truth. Walker’s mom told him later that Calvin was seen driving around in the victim’s truck. His cousin told him the killing was planned.

However it happened, Calvin tried to gloss over it. He told his son he was a changed man, that he’d found the Lord.

Walker wasn’t convinced.

“Christian, my ass!” he remembers thinking. “I was about to yell out, ‘Guard! This man is crazy!”

He adds: “Every time I share that story, I feel like I’m doing a 30 for 30 for like John Wayne Gacy or Charles Manson.”

S

oon after Walker was born, his mother finished her bachelor’s degree at Duke.

She went to Brown and earned her master’s, then returned to Durham to go to N.C. Central’s School of Law. Yvette Walker took pains to ensure that her son grew up in a healthy environment. She enrolled him at Durham Academy, a mostly white, affluent private school. They lived in a squat red-brick house on a sloping hill across the street from the law school.

At Durham Academy, Walker found himself having to answer the inevitable question, asked innocently enough: Where is your father?

“It was terrifying to answer that question for white people,” he says. “I walked around for decades not wanting to talk about it. In the black communities, it’s normalized. But the white community feels sorry for you. I would tell them, ‘No, I’m fine. I have my mommy. She loves me.”

The Walkers’ house was just down the street from the McDougald Terrace public housing complex. Then, like now, the Mac was rife with drugs and violence. Walker started hanging out there. He could show a side of himself there that no one at school could see.

“I loved the street. I loved the dope boys,” Walker says. “The edginess spoke to me. They would ask, ‘Who is this lightskinned motherfucker who goes to a private school?’ But my boys would say, ‘Naw, he cool.’ I’d be thinking to myself, ‘I’m crazier than everyone in here.’”

Calvin was like a demon lurking inside of him.

“It’s like I lived a double life because of Calvin,” he says. “When I was at Durham Academy, I didn’t talk about Calvin, but when I was in the Mac, playing on the basketball court, that shit was normal. That was the vibe. It was like, ‘And so what? I ain’t got no daddy either,’ and didn’t nobody care he was in prison for murder.”

F

ourteen years after the visit in the prison hospital, Walker and his mother drove to Lumberton to meet Calvin for the second time, this time with a cameraman in tow.

Walker went to UNC-Chapel Hill after graduation, but he only lasted a semester.

In 2005, he moved to New York, where he discovered a love of acting while studying at the William Esper Studio.

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He’d made a few attempts at starting the documentary, but the wounds were too raw. With Calvin getting out of prison, though, he took it up in earnest.

“I wanted to get to know him beyond the murderous villain trope that was playing out in my mind,” he says. “I wanted to humanize him because all I could feel was the pain and heaviness of not having him in my life.”

But as they drove to Lumberton, Walker had second thoughts: “I don’t know what I want from this whole thing anymore,” he says in the film. “I’m more interested in basically sticking up for that kid who couldn’t stick up for himself in terms of where has his father been.”

They were supposed to meet at a Walgreens, but Calvin wasn’t there. Calvin’s two sisters were. They drove to their house in Farmers Union and went into the living room. Still no Calvin.

Walker, his mother, and the aunts he’d just met walked into a sunny, wood-paneled day room filled with potted plants.

Walker turned around and saw Calvin talking to his mother.

After decades in prison, his father was a broken man, shriveled and gaunt.

“I went through so much anxiety staring at him,” Walker says. “I wanted to yell a primal scream. I was enraged.”

Father and son walked outside, followed by a small, yelping family dog. Calvin wanted to show Walker his new white GMC Sierra, parked under a graying, weather-beaten wooden shed, its chrome rims reflecting the late afternoon sunlight. Calvin asked his son if he wanted to sit in the driver’s seat. Walker climbed in and turned

February 28, 2020 at 5:30 PM

PHOTO COURTESY OF ZADIE WALKER

on the radio. Patti Drew’s “Working on a Groovy Thing” was playing.

Calvin reached over and changed the station. The voice of Tasha Cobbs told listeners there was power in the name of Jesus “to break every chain, break every chain, break every chain.” Calvin stared at his son and nodded in time with the lyrics. His son did the same.

Then Calvin hugged him.

“I love you, son.”

Calvin Moore died in that truck the following September. He drove off a highway and crashed. He was pronounced dead in the ambulance. He died alone.

To reserve your seat please call 919-969-1414.

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I

n the months that followed, Walker wrestled with the concepts of forgiveness and self-acceptance. He says it was important to no longer internalize his feelings of rejection and to abandon narratives of self-sabotage. He wanted to give back— not only to black boys who grow up without their fathers but also to white boys like the ones who attended Durham Academy, whose parents are home but absent because of 18-hour workdays.

He finished the film in January, and he’s begun working with a mental health professional to develop an educational curriculum to accompany it. His scars remain, he says, and they’re deep. But he’s learning to forgive. And that’s a gift he wants to share with the world.

“I want to start the healing process for at least a million teens in single-parent and dysfunctional homes,” Walker says.

“I want to inspire people young and old to find forgiveness in their hearts for the shortcomings of their parents.” W KeepItINDY.com

February 26, 2020

9

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Endorsements

Endorsements, Revisited One race we’ve reconsidered, one we’ll weigh in on backtalk@indyweek.com

February 26, 2020

INDY’s

2020

PRIMARY Voting Guide State & Federal

Wake County Register of Deeds Based on new information, the INDY is rescinding our endorsement of WILLIAM MADDEN in the Democratic primary.

Instead, we’re endorsing TAMMY BRUNNER. On Saturday, Madden was campaigning at an early-voting site in Cary. When a poll worker told him that he could not campaign inside the voting area, according to Wake County Board of Elections director Gary Sims, Madden became “aggressively confrontational” and cursed out the poll worker. He called other officials names and took issue with a parking attendant, with whom he had a beef. The Cary Police Department was called.

Madden says he was just cursing out the parking attendant, not the poll worker.

This isn’t the only offputting thing about Madden, who moved to Wake last year.

When he registered to vote, he tried to list his race as “Irish,” which we found odd: “I feel that this whole white or other [thing] is continuing to hold up the binary—white or nonwhite race—within our society, and if I wanted to describe myself as Irish for race, there’s no good reason why I can’t.”

Another thing: His website makes reference to him “losing his wife” in 2007, which is sad. Except she’s alive. They got an annulment. His explanation: “I did lose her. I never said that she died.”

Lastly, we asked Madden if he had an anger problem: “Do I have an anger problem? I don’t think anybody readily wants to admit to having an anger problem,” he said.

Then, “I don’t like people who have a position of authority who abuse other people.”

So, yeah, we bombed this one. Fortunately, TAMMY BRUNNER is great.

Among other things, she’s the former director of the state Democratic Party and ran a PAC that recruited legislative candidates to break the Republican supermajority. She has experience in innovating and managing organizations. And she has our enthusiastic support.

10

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U.S. Senate Two weeks ago, we said we’d punt on our Democratic Senate endorsement until we released our feature on the race. It’s here, and the choice is no less difficult.

We want to believe in ERICA SMITH. We like so much about her: her perseverance, her indefatigable spirit, her energy, her sense of humor, her progressive politics, the fact that she’s won in a previously red state Senate district, the hope that she could appeal to women and African Americans.

But we also really want to beat Thom Tillis, a spineless Trump sycophant. And here Smith gives us pause. She can argue that raising less than $300,000 shows her independence, but in reality, she’s just not good at fundraising. Nor is she particularly good at running a statewide campaign.

If she wins the primary, she’ll owe that victory to Mitch McConnell, whose super PAC has funneled $3 million—more than 10 times what Smith has raised—into ads to prop her up. That says a lot about whom Tillis would rather face.

CAL CUNNINGHAM has the opposite problem. He has all the money in the world.

And he’s, in some ways, a quintessential North Carolina Democrat: veteran, from a small-town, loves barbecue, more Buttigieg (for whom he voted) than Bernie. He is, in other words, fine. Not inspiring, but fine.

Folks in Durham might resent him for his work on the 751 South development, where he leaned on the General Assembly to force the city and county to approve the controversial project. But otherwise, he’s mostly nonthreatening. And, truth be told, he’s more likely to beat Tillis.

The question, then: Head or heart?

Sigh. Head.

Tillis’s seat could determine whether McConnell is Senate Majority Leader next year—which, in turn, will determine the fate of Supreme Court picks, executive appointments, and key legislation. We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

We’re endorsing Cunningham. W

President Democrat: Elizabeth Warren Republican: Bill Weld U.S. Senator Democrat: Cal Cunningham Republican: None U.S. House, District 2 Democrat: Deborah Ross U.S. House, District 4 Democrat: David Price Governor Democrat: Roy Cooper Republican: None Lieutenant Governor Democrat: Chaz Beasley Republican: None

Durham County NC Senate, District 20 Democrat: Natalie Murdock Durham Board of Commissioners Democrat: Nida Allam, Nimasheena Barnes, Heidi Carter, Brenda Howerton, Wendy Jacobs Durham School Board At-Large Alexandra Valladares

Orange County NC House, District 56 Democrat: Verla Insko Orange Board of Commissioners, At-Large Democrat: Amy Fowler Orange County Board of Commissioners, District 1 Democrat: Mark Dorosin, Jean Hamilton Orange County Schools Board Of Education Carrie Doyle, Jennifer Moore, LaTandra Strong District Court 15B Seat 3 Democrat: Hathaway Pendergrass

Wake County

Attorney General Republican: Christine Mumma

State Senate, District 18 Democrat: Sarah Crawford Republican: None

State Auditor Democrat: Beth Wood Republican: Tim Hoegmeyer

State House, District 33 Democrat: Antoine Marshall

Commissioner of Agriculture Democrat: Jenna Wadsworth Commissioner of Insurance Republican: Mike Causey Commissioner of Labor Republican: None Secretary of State Republican: Chad Brown Superintendent of Public Instruction Democrat: Jennifer Mangrum Republican: Catherine Truitt State Treasurer Democrat: Matt Leatherman

!

Early voting through Saturday, February 29.

Election Day is Tuesday, March 3.

State House, District 35 Republican: None State House, District 36 Republican: None State House, District 37 Republican: Anna Powell State House, District 38 Democrat: Abe Jones District Court 10B Seat 3 Democrat: Tiffanie Meyers District Court 10F Seat 3 Democrat: Damion Mccullers Wake County Board of Commissioners, District 1 Democrat: Sig Hutchinson Wake County Board of Commissioners, District 3 Democrat: Maria Cervania Wake County Register of Deeds Democrat: Tammy Brunner

SOA P BOXE R

The Bloom and the Bern The two theories for defeating Donald Trump

BY JEFFREY C. BILLMAN @jeffreybillman

T

here are many, many things wrong with Michael Bloomberg’s billion-dollar vanity exercise. But there is one thing he gets right, and it’s also the thing that gives me pause about Bernie Sanders’s increasingly likely nomination.

The issue isn’t ideology. On that score, I’m mostly in Bernie’s camp. I believe in universal health care and a Green New Deal.

I think ICE should be abolished, private prisons should be banned, wealth should be taxed, coal plants should be shut down, public schools should be better funded, public universities should be free, childcare should be publicly supported, and military adventurism should be vastly curtailed.

But I also think Donald Trump poses a singular threat to our institutions, and that if he wins, we’ll spend four more years sliding toward authoritarianism. So defeating him is priority one.

Bloomberg’s campaign isn’t premised on ideas. The whole thing can be summed up in one sentence: Trump is bad, and I can beat him.

Let’s make one thing emphatically clear: Mike Bloomberg is the absolute wrong person to deliver this message. Bloomberg’s history of racist, sexist, transphobic comments is disqualifying. Stop-and-frisk is disqualifying. Trying to literally buy an election is qualifying. Having the plutocrat hubris to suggest that other candidates drop out before his first debate is disqualifying. (Watching Elizabeth Warren disembowel him was fun.)

But that doesn’t mean we should ignore the one thing he accurately intuits: If the election is a referendum on Trump, Trump will lose.

Unseating an incumbent is hard under the best circumstances; only once in the last hundred years has a party lost the White House after one term in power. It’s even more difficult when the economy is growing. Any normal president would be favored this year, when GDP is growing

at about 2 percent, we’re adding about 200,000 jobs a month, and unemployment is under 4 percent.

But Trump isn’t a normal president. He’s never had positive approval ratings. He probably never will.

Bloomberg’s theory, then, is to simply let Trump beat himself.

For all of his braggadocio, Trump doesn’t want that kind of referendum. He wants an enemy—an outlet for resentment, someone he can make as despised as he is.

Any Democrat will be attacked, called a commie, a baby killer, the Antichrist, perhaps have Trump’s Department of Justice launch an investigation into one of their family members. But Sanders is leading a self-described political revolution. He also has a history of praising aspects of repressive regimes, including the Soviets and the Sandinistas. (Just this weekend, on 60 Minutes, he threw in some nice words for Fidel Castro’s literacy program.)

So an election that could be a referendum on Trump will instead become a referendum on (democratic) socialism, Sanders, and his revolution.

That’s what Trump wants. In a way, it’s what Bernie wants, too—sweeping reforms shouldn’t be secondary players. It is not what Democratic Party leaders—or Dems in vulnerable congressional districts—want.

I normally don’t find establishment pearl-clutching interesting. For decades, the party has been terrified of its own shadow even as radicalizing Republicans redefined the political center. But I do worry that Sanders might be the wrong person running the right campaign at the wrong moment.

The thing about revolutions—or major legislation—is that they usually follow national trauma. The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments followed the Civil War. The New Deal came amid the Great Depression. The Civil Rights Act followed JFK’s assassination. Even the Affordable Care Act followed a global economic collapse.

The economy isn’t as great as Trump claims, and perhaps it will crash in the next eight months—coronavirus fears tanked global stock markets on Monday— but right now, we’re not there.

That’s not to say Sanders is unelectable, or that Democrats vying for the moderate lane would be more electable. Sanders can inspire and mobilize in a way that Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg never will.

But I suspect that a campaign focused more on prosecuting Trump’s malice, incompetence, and corruption than selling an overhaul of the U.S. economy—while explaining the differences between communism, socialism, and democratic socialism/ social democracy—is more apt to succeed.

Peter Hamby made a compelling argument for Vanity Fair last month that my concerns are misplaced: “What if Sanders is actually the MOST electable Democrat?

In the age of Trump, hyper-partisanship, institutional distrust, and social media, Sanders could be examined as a candidate almost custom-built to go head-to-head with Trump this year.”

Sanders, Hamby continued, has five things going for him: celebrity, media-savvy, a clear message, a fundraising machine, and an army behind him.

The last thing is the most essential.

Bernie’s theory is that he’s going to rewrite the playbook, that his movement will inspire young and disenfranchised voters to turn out in record numbers, while his populist message will peel away segments of Trump’s coalition.

In a close election, which econometric forecasts suggest this will be, a surge of new voters could put Sanders over the top—if they’re in the right states, and if they’re not offset by otherwise-Trump-wary suburbanites scared off by the S-word.

This is Bernie’s high-stakes gamble. It’s also a bet Trump appears eager to take.

Then again, Hillary Clinton was eager to run against Donald Trump. W

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THHE HOUUSE KNOCK DOWN

ALWAYS WINS

Erica Smith sees herself as a progressive idealist taking on the Democratic Party’s deep-pocketed machine. But the story of the Senate primary isn’t quite that simple.

BY LEIGH TAUS S ltauss@indyweek.c om

E

rica Smith is late.

Her empty chair sits on the stage beside three men hoping to challenge Thom Tillis this fall. National Democrats have pinned their hopes on the one to the far left, Cal Cunningham, a six-foottall veteran in a dark gray suit who has, by today, January 25, already raised north of $3 million.

Cunningham looks like a senator, like one you’d order from central casting. If you close your eyes and think of the words “North Carolina Democrat,” something like him probably comes to mind. He’s from a 12

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small town. He served in a war. He has a beautiful wife and picture-perfect children.

He’s a successful lawyer. He has a winning smile. He’s politically nonthreatening.

Cunningham grips the mic with intention. Though seated, his voice projects loudly to the audience at the RaleighWake Citizens Association’s candidate forum, his confidence tangible as he regurgitates soundbites from his by-now-familiar commercials, his tone somewhere between that of a minister and a car salesman.

“Together this fall, we’re going to replace Thom Tillis in the U.S. Senate,” he says.

He repeats, nearly verbatim, remarks he gave a few hours earlier at an NAACP forum in Greenboro—how when he served as senior trial counsel in Iraq and Afghanistan, he could have never imagined that the country’s greatest threat would come from Washington, D.C. Erica Smith was late to that forum, too.

Cunningham finishes. Little-known candidate Steve Swenson goes next, offering a forgettable introduction. He’s followed by Mecklenburg County Commissioner Trevor Fuller, who stands to address the crowd.

Cunningham appears to take a mental note, wishing he’d done the same.

As the candidates spar over the first question from the panel, Erica Smith bursts through the doors in the back of the room and bolts to claim her space on stage. She’s in an elegant navy pantsuit, but her style has a certain joyous imperfection. The state senator, who has represented North Carolina’s rural northeastern edge for the last five years, asks to be allowed an introduction.

With the mic in her hand, her energy consumes the room. Unscripted and jarringly earnest, Smith recounts her journey from Boeing engineer to teacher and preacher, from being raised in Eastern North Carolina to working her way up the ranks of the General Assembly.

Smith was the first Democrat to enter the race, back in January 2019. In June and again in August, she made a pitch to the party’s powerbrokers in D.C., but she says they were noncommittal. She later learned the DSCC had met with Cunningham in May. He got the group’s endorsement in October.

She says she knew the campaign would be an uphill battle. But her entire life has been an uphill battle. She grew up poor and black. She almost died in childbirth.

She watched her youngest son die and her second husband get charged with rape.

But she’s persevered. Everything she’s accomplished, she did herself, through grit and determination and her unassailable brilliance. She was made for the hustle— and made from it. At 50, she’s learned not to listen to the doubters.

There are plenty of doubters. Objectively, there’s good reason to doubt.

At the end of 2019, Cunningham had an 11–1 cash advantage, which has helped him buy TV ads and amass a 27-point lead in the most recent poll.

Gary Pearce, a former adviser to Governor Jim Hunt, says that to win elections, you need to abide by the “two Ms rule”: You need a message, and you need money—and the organization that money buys—to get your message out. Smith has the first. She lacks the second.

“Particularly Democrats, we’re idealists,” Pearce told me. “We like to think money is the root of evil, and it is, in a lot of cases.

But it’s also the only way to get information to people.”

Smith isn’t listening. She’s focused on the hustle—swearing off corporate PAC money, driving from forum to forum on a shoestring budget, taking her message to voters one at a time if she has to. The system is broken, she says, especially for women of color. But it doesn’t have to be.

She’s determined to prove that big ideas can overcome big money.

“Let’s be honest here,” she says. “Black women are never going to have the money that white men have. We don’t earn dollar for dollar. We earn 65 cents on the dollar.

As a public school educator, I don’t have $50,000 to loan to my campaign. I have truly shown what can be done with a reasonable budget a reasonable fundraising plan. If you truly want big money out of politics, then you will back the candidate that is based on the merit and the message.”

But Tillis is vulnerable, and this isn’t an election Democratic bigwigs are willing to lose by gambling on an ideological purist.

The party, says political consultant Perry Woods, made “a raw calculation who they think can best win. There’s a moral imperative. What’s on the line, frankly, this year is whether we are going to continue the great American experiment and save our democracy.”

Smith’s supporters would counter that, while Cunningham is likable, he’s not exciting. She’s the race’s wildcard, a candidate willing to buck convention. The question is, how far can a candidate go swimming against the tide?

to weed out misconduct among military contractors. For that work, Cunningham was awarded the Bronze Star and General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award.

He carried a gun, but he never fired it at an enemy. For exercise, he ran around the base in Kuwait. Time moved slowly.

In 2010, he returned to the Middle East to serve a second tour in Afghanistan, a country he describes as even more desolate and “primitive.” At least in Kuwait, he says, there was a McDonald’s.

(Of North Carolina’s major cities, Cunningham is most likely to meet resistance in Durham. In 2013, he represented a controversial luxury housing development known as 751 South. The city and county governments tried to block it. Cunningham, however, leaned on his relationship with future House Speaker Tim Moore—a law school friend—to get the General Assembly to force the city to provide water and sewer to the project.)

Cunningham’s pitch to Democrats is straightforward: He can beat Thom Tillis, a former state House speaker who narrowly defeated Senator Kay Hagan six years ago, but who is now one of the least popular incumbents in the country. Tillis ran promising to be an independent voice, but he’s bound himself to President Trump, hoping the president’s coattails are long enough to pull him over the finish line.

Tillis’s inevitable efforts to paint his opponent as a wild-eyed socialist won’t work on him, Cunningham says, no matter who’s atop the Democratic ticket.

He’s more moderate than Erica Smith on issues like health care and the climate crisis. He wants a public option, not Medicare for All. He’s been an environmental lawyer, but he hasn’t signed on to the Green New Deal. He voted for Pete Buttigieg—a fellow veteran—not Bernie Sanders. He’ll appeal to the suburbs, not play to the base. He’s not running to spark a revolution but to restore dignity.

Today, he tells me, is his daughter’s 18th birthday (yes, she’s registered to vote), and she’s responsible for his decision to run for office—lieutenant governor at first, then U.S. Senate. One morning last year, as the family was getting ready for school, she heard someone on television talking about one of Trump’s late-night Twitter rants.

Suddenly, his normally reserved daughter pointed at the TV: “So what are you gonna do about it, Dad?” Cunningham tells this story a lot. He tells a lot of his stories a lot. There’s nothing Cunningham tells me that he hasn’t told thousands of potential voters already (save, perhaps, for an admission that he

J

ames Calvin Cunningham III grew up in Lexington, population 19,000, the self-proclaimed “barbecue capital of the world,” where the town hall contains 19th-century brick pits, prominently displayed.

“I love my barbecue,” Cunningham says, biting into a bacon, egg, and cheese croissant at Cafe Carolina, a few blocks from his house in Cameron Village. He’s sprawled out at a table in the back beside his communications manager. A white three-ring binder packed full of notes and research sits open on the table.

The oldest of three children, Cunningham says he learned to take responsibility at a young age. He grew up active in the church and mowed lawns on the weekends to save up for his first guitar. He attended Vanderbilt University before transferring to the UNC-Chapel Hill, where he studied political science and philosophy. He graduated in 1996, then earned his law degree from UNC School of Law. Without missing a beat, Cunningham launched into his political career. In 2000, he ran for the General Assembly at age 27, and won, but only served one term before redistricting turned his rural district, south of Winston-Salem, red.

After 9/11, Cunningham joined the army reserves. In 2007, he shipped out to Iraq to serve as a prosecutor, working with the Judge Advocate General’s office

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13

spent summers waking up in the dark to pick cucumbers for the farmers market. The family wasn’t well off. They needed the money.

After high school, Erica and Alicia attended North Carolina A&T State University and earned engineering degrees. Erica moved to Seattle to work for Boeing after graduation, and four years later followed her husband to Washington, D.C., where she got a job with the U.S. Patent Office.

She married, had two children, and divorced, moving back to Gaston to care for her ailing father while continuing to commute several hours a day to the patent office. Sick of the commute, she started teaching math in Virginia public schools. She married and divorced again. She earned a master’s degree in divinity from Howard University and got ordained. Following her first divorce, Smith ventured into politics. In 2006, she unsuccessfully ran for the school board in Northampton County, then ran again and won two years later. She’d been mapping out her next step—the state Senate–since 2005, but really, it had been a dream since childhood.

In 2014, she made her move, challenging Republican incumbent Clark Jenkins. It was a GOP-friendly year, but she won a Republican-leaning district by eight points.

Despite working in a Republican supermajority, she was named Freshman Senator of the Year in 2016.

She started thinking about moving up again. She set her eyes on the U.S. Senate.

Erica Smith takes pictures with voters at an early-voting location in Chapel Hill.

PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

loves the Grateful Dead). He is careful and disciplined. He knows the script and he sticks to it.

He’s also very intelligent and very organized. And his campaign is a well-oiled machine.

While we finish breakfast, a gaggle of staffers is already driving to Greensboro, where Cunningham would address the NAACP in a few hours. We leave in time to arrive early.

His communications manager takes the wheel of a silver Jeep Compass, and Cunningham assumes the front seat. I ask questions to the back of his head. He leafs through the white three-ring binder.

I ask if he color-coordinates all of his binders.

No, he replies. His binders are always white. I ask why.

“White is for the good guys. I’ve never rethought it.”

E

rica Smith is late.

Her black and gray poncho is slung over the stall door of the Sheetz bathroom. She shuffles inside, changing into evening wear.

“I change in gas stations all the time,” she says.

Smith has no gaggle of advance staff, no communications manager to drive her, no staff photographer snapping pictures everywhere she goes, no white three-ring binders. Her campaign is often her and her identical twin, Alicia, who hates politics but loves her sister, as well as a campaign manager and some volunteers who may or may not show up when needed. She’s always rushing. There’s always chaos. Today—February 8—is no different.

We were supposed to head to Alicia’s house in Durham so Smith could change before driving to Charlotte, where she’ll deliver a keynote to the nation’s oldest black sorority, Delta Sigma Theta. But we lingered too long at the HKonJ rally in Raleigh, so the Sheetz off Miami Boulevard will have to do.

Smith’s car, a red Toyota Venza hatchback, is a mobile closet, full of dress pants, blouses, dresses, and shoes. Alicia rummages through the trunk as Smith emerges from the gas station in a sparkly red dress suit and bright blue sneakers. Smith flings stilettos onto the pavement as she puts mismatched heels on her stockinged feet and asks which pair matches the dress.

“This is real, people,” Smith laughs. “A real democracy.”

They go with taupe.

Alicia and Erica were born in Fort Bragg to a military family and moved to the Philippines and then Texas before eventually settling on a farm in Gaston, where the girls 14

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I

t hasn’t been a smooth ride.

During her first year in the legislature, her second husband, Maud Ingram, was indicted on rape charges.

Smith doesn’t like to talk about it—out of respect for the victims, she says.

When I ask how it affected her, she deflects.

“We kept our eyes focused on our work and the community we serve and raising my family and getting us through that crisis,” Smith says. “I never paused to think about how I feel and how it affects me because the priority is the other people who were impacted by this, whose lives were devastated.”

She did the only thing she knew how to do: She kept going. She’d done it before when she’d met tragedy.

During her third pregnancy, Smith suffered from hypertension. At the end of her second trimester, tests showed the baby was in distress. Her doctors asked her who she wanted to save—her or her baby.

At 37, Smith decided she was prepared to die.

Despite the odds, Elias was born at 24 weeks, weighing just over one pound. But he suffered a cranial bleed and had to be given a tracheostomy due to his prematurity.

And so began Smith’s agonizing years-long battle with her insurance company, which refused to cover a component for Elias’s trach tube and initially denied her request for an in-home aide.

It only ended when Elias died in 2012 at the age of five.

Cal Cunningham greets future voter.

PHOTO COURTESY OF CAL CUNNINGHAM’S CAMPAIGN

But Smith didn’t give in to anger or sadness.

“There are people all over this nation who go through worse, and every day they have to fight their way to get up. I have always had a strong support system and a positive outlook on life,” Smith says.

“It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you respond and how you keep moving forward.”

Smith is funny and down to earth, smart and quirky. She looks you in the eyes and makes you feel seen.

There was a fundraiser scheduled for after her speech in Charlotte, but Smith hears there’s a power outage, so she cancels it. Raising money isn’t her top priority, she says.

As I write this, Smith says she’s raised $275,000, mostly from small donors, $5 or $10 at a time.

We’re already 20 minutes late to the sorority event when snow starts to speckle the windshield. Alicia starts to worry.

Erica puts on headphones and meditates, her pre-speech ritual.

The chaos never fazes her.

“They see Tillis as extraordinarily weak, and their best play is to cause mischief.”

C

unningham wasn’t Chuck Schumer’s first choice. Or second, or third.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee courted state Senator Jeff Jackson, former state Senator Eric Mansfield, and former Treasurer Janet Cowell before it glanced in Cunningham’s direction. Jackson would later say he turned the party down because he didn’t want to spend 16 months in a “windowless basement” dialing donors for money to run attack ads on Tillis.

To hear Cunningham tell it, the DSCC didn’t recruit him at all. In the spring of 2019, he was traveling the state, cam-

paigning for lieutenant governor. But the people he met asked him to take on Tillis instead.

“Every time I was having a conversation, and invariably, and I can say this with almost no exception: ‘Why aren’t you offering to run against Thom Tillis?’ It was over and over and over again,” Cunningham says. “It just took off, and it made sense, and it was never about anyone else.”

Like so much of what Cunningham says, this story has a canned, almost robotic quality to it.

But no matter whose idea it was, to party officials running out of options, Cunningham—and the $500,000 he’d already raised (including $200,000 he’d loaned himself)—was increasingly attractive.

The DSCC knew him, too. The party had backed him in 2010, when he challenged Elaine Marshall in a messy Senate primary.

Marshall came out nine points ahead but didn’t secure a majority. Cunningham called for a runoff. Marshall crushed him, winning by 20. But she had to spend time and money doing it—time and money that could have gone toward battling Richard Burr, to whom the now-secretary of state lost handily.

Marshall got no help from the DSCC. Thomas Mills is still salty about that.

“I have a lot of resentments against them,” says Mills, a Democratic consultant who ran Marshall’s campaign. “Had [the DSCC] not pushed the primary, Elaine may have had a lot more money, and they may have been putting more money into the race behind us.”

In June, Cunningham announced that he was abandoning his lieutenant governor campaign to run for Senate. By July, it was clear the party was in his corner. Out-ofstate donations poured in; donors maxed out. In October, the DSCC made it official, formally endorsing Cunningham’s campaign.

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Smith issued a blistering response: “This endorsement cuts to the integrity and ethics of this election. If the DSCC has been involved all along, then it should disclose the details of its prior involvement to the voters of North Carolina. Ultimately, the voters of North Carolina will decide who their next United States Senator will be— NOT a handful of DC politicians making backroom deals in windowless basements.”

The DSCC, Smith says, “has a history of not endorsing black candidates and not backing women.” Progressives have sharply criticized the party’s involvement. In a state that, not counting judicial races, has only elected one black person to a statewide position, the party’s decision couldn’t help but be seen through a racial prism.

Indeed, earlier this month, civil rights leader the Reverend William J. Barber II blasted the party on Twitter for “picking a candidate in the primary.”

But Mills thinks the DSCC was simply being pragmatic: This is a race Democrats need to win to take back the Senate. And they looked at Smith and saw a campaign—and a candidate—that wasn’t ready for primetime.

Three months after Smith entered the race in January 2019, she’d raised just $21,000. To the DSCC, that’s a red flag; it costs about $40,000 a month to run a large-scale statewide political operation.

“The only reason to get into a race that early is to clear the field,” Mills says.

“And you do that showing you can raise the money and you can put together the organization.”

Had she done those things, she would have been a strong contender. To win statewide, Democrats need high African American turnout and for suburban women to break their way. With the right message, Smith could likely deliver both.

“You could make an argument, strongly, that Erica would be better on the ticket to turn out votes,” Woods says. “More minorities and low-information voters may be more willing to show up to vote for Erica than for Cal.” But, he adds, “Erica has not demonstrated the ability to raise the money it’s going to take. It’s sad, but it’s where we are.”

I

n February, TV ads went up all over the state praising Smith for her commitment to the Green New Deal and Medicare for All, spliced with a picture of progressive darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She was “the real deal,” the black narrator said, the race’s “only proven progressive.”

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But the ads didn’t come from the Smith campaign. Instead, they came from a brand-new PAC called Faith and Power, which, media outlets quickly learned, had ties to the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Last week, The Hill reported that Faith and Power was funded by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s super PAC. Smith disavowed the ads, but it didn’t matter. The message, according to Cunningham, was clear: Tillis was afraid of him, so Republicans were trying to prop up a weaker adversary.

“It probably illustrates the stakes—that they see that Thom Tillis is extraordinarily weak, very vulnerable, and that their best play is to cause mischief,” Cunningham says. “We’re wise to it, and we’re on alert that there will be more to come.”

In response, Cunningham upped his own ad buy. He already has PACs working on his behalf: The Vote Vets Action Fund has shelled out more than $6 million so far, while Carolina Blue has spent $1.1 million promoting Cunningham.

He has little reason to be concerned: The most recent poll, from Public Policy Polling, has him besting Smith 45–18.

S

omehow, we arrive at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Charlotte at precisely 2:00 p.m.— late, but in time for Smith to give her keynote address to Delta Sigma Theta. As we enter the banquet hall, we’re greeted by a sea of crimson dresses. As frenzied as the day has been, everything worked out.

The same was true with the RWCA event: She came late, but she got the group’s endorsement.

This sort of serendipity lends itself to faith, and Smith has that in abundance.

Her speech is a rousing sermon on the urgency of the moment. She’s sick of waiting for the patriarchy to give her the green light. Rosa Parks didn’t wait. Shirley Chisholm didn’t wait.

Erica Smith isn’t going to wait.

She’s bitter at the DSCC—bitter that the party interfered, that party elites tried to erase her, that they chose a white man over a black woman. But damned if she’s going to let that stop her. She’s never listened to doubters before. She’s not going to start now.

“We cannot wait another day,” Smith tells the crowd. “Until we have a voice that looks like us, understands us, has been through our struggles, been through our troubles, we don’t need to wait another day!” W

KeepItINDY.com

February 26, 2020

17

FO O D & D R I N K

Restaurant Review

SAINT JAMES SEAFOOD

806 W. Main St., Durham | 984-219-7900 | saintjamesseafood.com

Play With Your Food The reopened Saint James Seafood remains, hands down, the most fun place to eat in Durham

BY NICK WILLIAMS food@indyweek.com

O

ysters arrive, 20 of them, immaculate, encircling a bouquet of condiments. Next, an incantation, as their mustachioed bearer aims his pen at each variety and recites their names: Alpine Bay, Salt Shaker, Deep Cove, Sea Siren, Blackbeard’s Gold—magic words that condense the dining experience into a focal point, a mandala of glistening bivalves.

Saint James Seafood closed its doors— along with several other restaurants and businesses—on April 10, 2018, following the tragic gas explosion that claimed two lives and leveled a historic block in Durham’s Brightleaf District. The adjacent buildings suffered serious damage, and while it was spared from subsequent demolition, Saint James was about as adjacent as you can get.

Somewhat miraculously, it has returned, its lofty dining room and shadowy “Captain’s Quarters” intact, the paintings of sundered vessels and comely merpeople and yellow-slickered sea dogs still hanging in place, the enormous blue marlin gloriously unblemished. It remains quite simply the most fun place to eat in Durham, an embodiment of the iconoclastic vision and stringent execution of chef-owner Matt Kelly and his team of skilled accomplices.

For example, they have something called chowder fries, a nautical poutine of slivered potato drenched in clam chowder, cheddar, and famously smoky Benton’s Bacon. It’s a ridiculous dish—a State Fair-level stunt—but it’s pleasing on about 12 different levels, from low-brow to intellectually vivifying.

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February 26, 2020

INDYweek.com

Above: The lobster roll. Right: seafood stew.

PHOTOS BY JADE WILSON

There are “towers,” of course, icebound and vertiginous, bristling with spine and shell, claw and carapace, providing a tour of the restaurant’s stellar raw bar. Oysters— aforementioned, the city’s best selection.

Clams in their own pungent liquor. Mussels and crab claws, expertly seasoned and prepared. A whole lobster, sectioned for easy access to the juiciest bits.

Aguachile of flounder and avocado is fiery and refreshing, while the coctel de camaron hits the comforting notes of a childhood trip to Red Lobster. Lemon lifts the bubbling weight of hot crab dip, but the smoked fish dip is more enticing, with a horseradish bite and accompaniment of ingenious fried saltines.

The BBQ local shrimp are good, but the bowl of butter and BBQ sauce in which they float is better. Drag some garlic bread

through that blood-red sea, and, oh man, you’re done, that’s it.

All of these dishes invite gleeful sharing, and while singlehandedly housing a plate of chowder fries might be a heroic act of self-destruction, Saint James’ heady joys are better experienced as a group.

That way, you can get two Calabash platters, one with scallops (good) and one with catfish (better). Served with the traditional accompaniment of fries and slaw, the platters are a showcase of the deep-frying arts, golden and crispy and immensely satisfying. They are pricey for what is essentially a plate of fried stuff, but the quality of the catch is evident beneath the expert batter.

There’s plenty to drink, too, tiki classics and well-heeled cocktails and a cooler full of cold frosty ones. The rum old-fashioned

is fascinating if slightly too sweet, but the Jungle Bird is note-perfect; if you’ve never experienced this concoction of dark rum, bitter Campari, and Demerara, by all means, make the bar at Saint James the vessel for your maiden journey.

The wine list has returned from hiatus in marvelously expanded form. A dry Riesling from New York’s Finger Lakes region paired excellently with the entire menu, but it would take multiple visits to work through the list’s highlights, most of them proudly estate-grown and seafood-friendly.

Saint James has brought most of its oeuvre back from limbo—like the weirdly addictive brussels sprouts—but the menu features plenty of new additions. And one glaring omission: The gangster-ass classic Lobster Newburg failed to make the reincarnation. The deviled crab spaghetti, however, slyly replaces that timeless dinosaur dish, with crab that is acceptably crabby, pasta twirlingly light, and a snowfall of crumbled saltines filling in for oreganato.

Another new dish, the squid ink shells, aims for lofty continental highs more in line with some of Kelly’s other restaurants.

The rich, briny ink subtly infuses the whole dish and carries morsels of chopped octopus along with it. Spicy ’nduja acts as a foil, and the whole thing ends up as a head-smackingly clever confluence of pork and seafood.

The best course of action at Saint James is to stick to all things raw, bite-sized, shareable, and fried. The entrees are fine, mostly. You can’t argue with shrimp and grits, lobster rolls, or the well-buttered NY strip that all good seafood restaurants must provide. Dishes like salmon with field peas and striped bass on rice, however, feel out-of-step with the wild indulgences that

E VE NTS define the overall vibe. They are a little too fancy, too constructed, too nice.

There is one standout entree, however, that should serve as the centerpiece for any group dinner: the seafood stew. A lusty reimagining of cioppino, the roasted tomato broth is cut with earthy-sweet fennel and comes brimming with shellfish and cephalopod. It’s convivial, hearty, and a triumphant illustration of the concept of “getting your money’s worth.”

Saint James is Kelly’s fifth Durham restaurant, and it’s the purest distillation of the chef’s personality. I don’t like to lionize chefs—and I try to avoid the biases of friendship—but I’ve known Kelly for over a decade, and I always find him garrulous, funny, and big-hearted, with his own distinctive brand of stoner charm.

I’ve also come to know him as a chef and restauranteur who is deeply inquisitive, thoughtful, and exacting. I compare his restaurants to the work of filmmaker Wes Anderson, suffused with exquisite minutiae and a romance that celebrates the moods and trappings of experience without becoming mired in sentimentality.

Saint James weaves an illusion, albeit a different one than Kelly’s other spots. It’s a phantasmagoric blend of stylish modern restaurant and salt-encrusted coastal seafood joint, the kind with a lobster tank and a snow crab special for $8.99 and maybe your dad has one extra whiskey sour and lets you go crazy on the Galaga machine and maybe you realize that fried shrimp is the best fucking thing in the entire world and you eat your first raw oyster and it changes your life and the way you think about food forever.

The kind of place that feels palpably real, even though it may only exist in youthful, beach-bound memory.

Beyond the peerless quality of the ingredients and the dexterous creativity of the cooking, beyond the marshaled dignity of the staff and the exhaustively sourced decorative ephemera, you can find Kelly’s best yet most unrecognized asset—a singular, unwavering eye for detail, and an ability to sculpt that detail into experiential coherence.

And that detail makes Saint James more than just a meal. It’s a romp. W This review is made possible by contributions to the INDY Press Club. Join today at KeepItINDY.com.

SUN., MARCH 1, 2–6 P.M., $30

2020 INDYpendent Local Craft Beer Festival We invited 12 of the best local breweries to bring their finest concoctions to Durty Bull on Sunday, where our guests will taste them, judge them, and then we’ll all get nice and saucy and decide which ones we like best. (There is an UNCONFIRMED RUMOR that Bond Brothers will be debuting Fourth Estate, the insane quad they made to benefit the INDY Press Club, at the event, but this is just a RUMOR.) Hope Animal Rescue will be on-site with puppies for you to love on, and The Dankery will be serving up the fried goodness. No under-21s; advance tickets required (see below).

INDYpendent LOCAL CRAFT Beer festival TASTE • VOTE • LEARN Tickets at bit.ly/INDYBeerFest

12

e Triangl s Brewer

Durty Bull Brewing Company 206 Broadway Street, Durham 919-688-2337 Purchase tickets at bit.ly/INDYBeerFest

$30

SUN., MARCH 1, NOON–4 P.M.

Winter Seafood Jubilee At this sixth-annual Winter Jubilee, a host of experts—fishers, oyster farms, and seafood advocates—will be on hand to answer questions about North Carolina seafood. There’ll be oyster steaming and fish frying, too, of course.

The event will be followed on Monday by the eighth-annual NC Catch Summit, held at Transfer Co. Food Hall.

2 HIGH-END BEERS

Only 125 tickets available

per person 21+ only

PER BREWERY WITH FOOD TRUCK

THE DANKERY

Adoptable Puppies from Hope Animal Rescue on-site!

Locals Oyster Bar 500 East Davie Street, Raleigh 919-594-1459 | localsoysterbar.com

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

MON., MARCH 2, 6 P.M., $45

Sunday, March 1, 2020 | 2pm-6pm

Umstead Unbottled This new event series from the Umstead marries a “classroom-style” environment with wine. At the inaugural evening, which will take place in the hotel banquet space, in-house sommeliers will guide attendees through an Old World versus New World wine list.

The Umstead Hotel 100 Woodland Pond Drive, Cary 919-447-4050 | theumstead.com

BY SARAH EDWARDS

KeepItINDY.com

February 26, 2020

19

1,000 Words

Tea to the People WORDS + PHOTOGRAPHY BY JADE WILSON

Last April, our friends at Jeddah’s Tea popped up at the PopUp @ American Tobacco. In September, with the community’s support, this black-owned tearoom moved into a brick-and-mortar on the corner of Market Street and East Chapel Hill Street in downtown Durham. It shares an entrance with The Zen Succulent, another black-owned business.

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M U SIC

King Learo The inchoate frustrations of youth and adulthood combust in Archers of Loaf’s revivified music BY CHARLES AARON music@indyweek.com

Slicing the Loaf Here’s why an exemplar of Chapel Hill indie rock is singing about Raleigh in its comeback song

BY BRIAN HOWE bhowe@indyweek.com

“R

PHOTO COURTESY OF MERGE RECORDS

R

ock ‘n’ roll spews out a few big, beautiful emotions really well, and most of them are related to whether or not you’re having sex.

In the indie-alternative cosmos of the 1990s, inchoate frustration was the rock emotion du jour.

Launching a long national tour at Cat’s Cradle last Friday, Archers of Loaf showed why they, perhaps more than any local band besides Superchunk—with apologies to Polvo, Dish, Motocaster, Finger, et al.— incited sane people to hype the Triangle as “the next Seattle,” i.e. the nation’s most promising wellspring of rebellious, youth-soundtrack whoop-de-doo.

The Loaf was, and is, inchoate frustration incarnate. It’s their métier. But singer-guitarist Eric Bachmann, guitarist Eric Johnson, bassist Matt Gentling, and drummer Mark Price now lurch, churn, thud, and get on their metaphorical knees without the slapdash smear of sound that plagued them 20 or 25 years ago.

Bachmann’s gnomic sentence-fragment lyrics range narrowly from annoyed to stymied, but within that tight space, his haunted, dry-roasted bellow somehow tracks an entire life cycle of frustration—personal, collective, or both—from simmer to boil to explosion to exhaustion.

I missed the band’s 2011–12 shows in support of Merge Records’ reissues of their four remastered albums, but while facing a teeming crowd of a certain age (plus some curious under-thirties), the foursome made an authoritative roar. Their early, bro-ish goofiness was not missed. It was the first time I’d ever imag-

ined the band commanding more than a club stage.

They tore through their ornery catalog with the moxie of dudes who are finally able to inhabit the power of their racket. It was exhilarating from start to finish.

Highlights: “Raleigh Days,” from their upcoming Merge album of new songs, was a brisk, wistful blast that sounded wiser but no less gritty than their original tirades. “Wrong” and “Might,” from their 1993 debut album, Icky Mettle, inspired immediate pogoing. The first captures the epic struggle of two people very sarcastically yet very earnestly telling each other to fuck off, while the second is one self-loathing person trying to write a song for another.

Bachmann’s lyrical gift is for the overwrought—the nonsense proclamations that frustrated humans tend to blurt. They can emerge out of a shambly, discordant lull like a scrap of pointy dialogue, from stray gripes (“Strike up the band/Turn up the random/Calling out to the A&R,” as “Lowest Part Is Free” would have it) to much-quoted maxims (especially “The underground is overcrowded,” from “Greatest of All Time”).

That was once heard as a commentary on underground rock’s transformation into a chum bucket for major-label alt-rock sharks. Now, who knows? Is the underground still overcrowded? What’s the underground? That line might as well be about the sweltering bodies swarming London’s subway. The world has changed, but Archers hasn’t, and these days, you can find frustration wherever you look. Maybe this second comeback is right on time. W

aleigh Days” is Archers of Loaf’s first new song in more than 20 years, but only the lyrics let on that any time has passed. Singer Eric Bachmann still sounds like he might headbutt you. Guitarist Eric Johnson still seems one reckless string bend away from pitching headlong off the stage. Not only is this the careening, scorch-marked Archers of yore, it’s pitched at a nostalgic frequency that only longtime locals will hear.

Archers helped make the Chapel Hill indie-rock sound a national craze in the 1990s, in the last salad days of print media both high-toned and Xeroxed. So it seems almost perverse that, after a decade of reunion shows dedicated to their ‘90s Chapel Hill classics, they would return with a song about … Raleigh.

Archers isn’t much of a band for lyrical exegesis. Fans have spent decades mumbling through indecipherable words that make even less sense when you look them up (see “Learo, You’re a Hole”), and that rough-hewn surrealism continues here—until you get to the shout-along chorus.

“Raleigh days, from the Fallout Shelter stage, heard you scream you’re gonna be somebody someday,” Bachmann blortles. It’s the emotional key to a song about moving forward by looking back.

In Raleigh, where Flex Nightclub now stands, there once was a venue called the Fallout Shelter where all the young rock bands played as the punk shows of the ‘80s gave way to the A&R-scout feasts of the ‘90s. In that last flash of record-label excess, music journalist David Menconi remembers the venue as the site of an “insane” bidding war over local band Motorola, later Motocaster.

In an interview with me some years ago, Superchunk and Merge’s Mac McCaughan ranked it alongside the Cradle and the Brewery in importance at the time.

If Archers of Loaf’s invocation of the little-documented venue is an Easter egg for locals, it’s also a reminder that the legend of Chapel Hill was largely a media concoction, and that Raleigh and Durham played major roles in indie rock’s creation myth.

Though Archers’ chorus might be directed at any band they saw striving at the Fallout Shelter, it might also be directed at themselves, 30 years ago, when they stood on that stage, about to be swept up in the post-Nirvana indie feeding frenzy. (Courted by major labels, they were stuck in a bad contract with the indie Alias.)

Are they somebody, now that it’s someday? They made all of their music in 10 years and then nursed a fan base that can sell out the Cradle for 20 more. It might not be the career they’d have imagined then, but it’s a legacy, and with new songs emerging at last, the band appears primed for a meaningful second act.

(By the way, “blortle” is a word I made up specifically to describe Bachmann’s singing. It’s something between a blurt and a chortle.) W KeepItINDY.com

February 26, 2020

21

FR 2/28 @CAT’S @CAT’S CRADLE

JUNIOR BROWN

Chocolate Lounge & Wine Bar Fri 2/28

John Stevens with Zach Drill

Sat 2/29

Larry Bach & John Gillespie

Sun 3/1

Rob Gelblum 2pm

Tues 3/6

Karen Novy with Neville’s Quarter

Wed 3/7

Gnarly Blue with Michael Paris

Sat 3/14

Alice Osborn

Music Performed from 6pm to 10pm Beer & Wine Served Daily Timberlyne Shopping Center, Chapel Hill 1129 Weaver Dairy Rd • specialtreatsnc.com

723 RIGSBEE AVENUE • DURHAM, NC 27701

RECENTLY ANNOUNCED: Nile WED

2/26

The Monti StorySLAM

7 DEADLY SINS Duke Performances presents Building Bridges: Muslims in America with

THU

2/27

GNAWA LANGUS

W/BUCKSHOT BETTY

TH 2/27 @CAT’S @CAT’S CRADLE

FR 2/28 @CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM

W/ED SCHRADER’S MUSIC BEAT, BOULEVARDS, JENNY BESETZT

W/ADULT MOM, LOAMLANDS

DAN DEACON

FR 9/18 ADHOC PRESENTS OH SEES W/ MR. ELEVATOR ($25/$28)

FR 2/28 JUNIOR BROWN W/BUCKSHOT BETTY ($20/$24)

MO 9/21 ADHOC PRESENTS BIKINI KILL ($29.50/ $35)

SA 2/29 OF MONTREAL W/LILY'S BAND ($17)

WE 3/11 DESTROYER W/NAP EYES ($20/$23)

SA 11/14 HOODOO GURUS ($25/$28) CAT'S CRADLE BACK ROOM WE 2/26 WISH YOU WERE HERE (JESSEE BARNETT OF STICK TO YOUR GUNS) W/SCOTT RUTH AND DEREK TEDD ($12/$14)

SA 3/14 RADICAL FACE W/AXEL FLÓVENT ($25/$28)

TH 2/27 ZEN FRISBEE W/TEETH OF ENGLAND, JOE BRZOSKA ($8)

WE 3/18 WHITE REAPER W/YOUNG GUV, BUDDY CRIME ($15/$17)

FR 2/28 PALEHOUND W/ADULT MOM, LOAMLANDS ($13/$15)

SA 3/21 BEST COAST THE ALWAYS TOMORROW TOUR W/MANNEQUIN PUSSY ($25/$27)

SA 2/29 ENO MOUNTAIN BOYS W/CHUCK MOUNTAIN, WINFIELD ($8)

TH 3/5 MOLLY TUTTLE W/OLIVER HAZARD ($20/ $23)

TH 3/26 REBIRTH BRASS BAND ($20/$23) FR 3/27 WUNC MUSIC PRESENTS SOCCER MOMMY W/ TOMBERLIN ($18/$20) SA 3/28 ANTIBALAS ($18/$22) FR 4/3 SHOVELS & ROPE W/INDIANOLA ($25/$28) TU 4/7 ATERCIOPELADOS AND LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES ($32/$35)

SAT

WE 4/8 STEPHEN MALKMUS W/QAIS ESSAR & THE MAGIK CARPET ($20/$23)

OM

FR 4/10 BROTHER ALI - OPEN MIKE EAGLE, DJ LAST WORD ($18/$20)

Wovenhand SUN

School of Rock Chapel Hill Mid-Season Showcase

MON

3/2

Flash Chorus sings “Jump” by Van Halen and “Trampoline” by SHAED

THU

LITTLE PEOPLE / FRAMEWORKS

3/1

3/5 FRI

3/6 SAT

3/7 TUE

3/10

Yppah Cat’s Cradle presents

Downtown Abby and the Echos Fifth Annual Rock Roulette: A Benefit for Girls Rock Duke Science & Society presents Periodic Tables: Pet Tabbies, Not Tigers

Durty Dub’s Tribute to Charley Pride COMING SOON: Post Animal, Against Me!, Asgeir, Mdou Moctar, 75 Dollar Bill, Tiny Moving Parts, Laura Marling, Dance With The Dead, Magic Sword, Black Atlantic, Caspian, Deafheaven, Vundabar, Shannon & the Clams, Kevin Morby, Sebadoh, Okilly Dokilly, Harley Poe, Oso Oso, Prince Daddy & The Heyena, CBDB, Napalm Death, Fu Manchu, Neil Hamburger, The Cybertronic Spree, Diet Cig, Stephen Lynch, Risk!, Greer

22

February 26, 2020

INDYweek.com

SU 3/1 ORPHAN RIOT ALBUM RELEASE SHOW W/SIBANNAC, LUNCHBOX HERO ($7)

J RODDY WALSTON (SOLO)

SOLD TU 3/3 KNUCKLE PUCK UT OW/HEART ATTACK MAN, BETTER LOVE

W/PALM PALM

WE 3/4 J RODDY WALSTON (SOLO) W/PALM PALM ($15) FR 3/6 SIR WOMAN (KELSEY WILSON OF WILD CHILD/ GLORIETTA) ($15) SA 3/7 TYLER RAMSEY ($15)

TU 3/17 POST ANIMAL W/TWEN ($15/$17) MO 4/6 MIGHTY OAKS ($12/$14)

SU 3/8 DAN RODRIGUEZ ($15)

WE 4/8 VETIVER ($15/ $18)

TU 3/10 PHANGS W/90’S KIDS, LOWBORN, SEASONS ($12/$14)

TH 4/9 THE NATIONAL PARKS ACOUSTIC SET ($12/$15)

WE 3/11 HEART BONES W/COLD CREAM ($10/$12)

FR 4/10 MATTIEL ($10/$12) TU 4/14 ALLAN RAYMAN ($22/$25)

FR 3/13 SONGS FROM THE ROAD BAND W/BIG FAT GAP ($12/$15)

TH 4/16 INDIGO DE SOUZA W/ TRUTH CLUB ($10/$12)

SA 3/14 VERSUS ($15)

FR 4/17 AN EVENING WITH JILL ANDREWS ($14/$17)

MO 4/27 WAVVES KING OF THE BEACH 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY USA TOUR W/SADGIRL ($22/$25) TU 4/28 47 SOUL ($20/$23)

SU 3/15 CALL ME KARIZMA W/CYRUS, MXRCUS ALEXIS, STICKY ARROW ($15/$18)

WE 4/14 BENT KNEE ($15)

SA 4/18 JOHN CRAIGIE W/HONEYSUCKLE ($12/$15)

WE 3/25 TINY MOVING PARTS W/BELMONT, CAPSTAN, JETTY BONES ($18/$22) TU 4/14 DEAFHEAVEN W/INTER ARMA, GREET DEATH, ALL YOUR SISTERS ( $25/$28) FR 6/5 DIET CIG W/SAD13 ($15/$17) THE RITZ (RAL) CAT’S CRADLE AND LIVE NATION PRESENT TU 6/16 CAR SEAT HEADREST W/TWIN PEAKS (ON SALE 2/28) HAW RIVER BALLROOM TH 2/27 TODD SNIDER W/LILLY HART SOLD ($25/$28) OUT TU 3/24 JOHN MORELAND W/S.G.GOODMAN ($15/$18) SOLDMO 4/20 SHARON VAN ETTEN W/JAY SOM ($28/$31) OUT

MO 3/16 GRADUATING LIFE W/KING OF HECK

MO 4/19 DYLAN LEBLANC ($14)

SU 5/3 THE RESIDENTS ($30/$35)

TU 3/17 BAMBARA W/BLACK SURFER, GRAY YOUNG ($10/$12)

TU 4/21 KATIE PRUITT W/WILLIAM PRINCE ($10)

FR 4/24 WAXAHATCHEE W/OHMME ($18 ADV/ $20)

MO 5/4 STEREOLAB W/DERADOORIAN ($35/$38)

FR 3/20 THE OLD CEREMONY W/REESE MCHENRY ( $10/$12)

SU 4/26 SAMMY RAE & THE FRIENDS ($12/$15)

FR 5/1 TENNIS W/MOLLY BURCH ($18/$20)

TU 5/5 ANDY SHAUF W/ FAYE WEBSTER ($18/$20)

SA 3/21 MELLOW SWELLS ALBUM RELEASE SHOW W/RODES AND POCKET ENVY ($7)

FR 5/1 KEVIN KRAUTER W/WHY BONNIE ($10/$12)

SA 5/9 POOLSIDE ($20/ $25) SU 5/10 GREG DULLI W/JOSEPH ARTHUR ($33/$38)

WE 5/13 BOB SCHNEIDER (SOLO) ($20/$23)

LEE FIELDS & THE EXPRESSIONS

SU 3/4 @CAT’S @CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM

WE 4/22 CRANK IT LOUD PRESENTS: NOTHING, NOWHERE. W/DANGER INCORPORATED, RO RANSOM, BOGUES ($18/$22)

TU 5/12 JOJO

3/13

W/LILY’S BAND

TH 3/12 SONG TRAVELER'S WRITERS NIGHT

MO 5/11 BARNS COURTNEY ($22/$25) FRI

SAT 2/29 @CAT’S @CAT’S CRADLE

OF MONTREAL

MO 4/20 REAL ESTATE ($25/$28)

SA 5/2 GUIDED BY VOICES ($30/$35)

ELLIS DYSON & THE SHAMBLES

SA 8/8 WEYES BLOOD W/ANA ROXANNE ($17/$20)

CAT'S CRADLE TH 2/27 DAN DEACON W/ ED SCHRADER'S MUSIC BEAT, BOULEVARDS, JENNY BESETZT ($15/$17)

TU 3/24 PORCHES W/SASSY 009 ($16/$18)

2/29

PALEHOUND

TH 5/14 YOLA WALK THROUGH FIRE WORLD TOUR W/AMYTHYST KIAH ($20/23)

TU 3/24 STEVE GUNN, MARY LATTIMORE, & WILLIAM TYLER ($20/$22)

WE 6/17 PINEGROVE W/HOVVDY ($21/$25)

TH 3/26 CONSIDER THE SOURCE W/EMMA'S LOUNGE ($10/$12) LD LAUREN SANDERSON - MIDWEST O3/28 S SA OUT KIDS CAN MAKE IT BIG TOUR

SU 3/29 THE JACKS ($10) MO 3/30 VILRAY ($12)

FR 5/29 HANK, PATTIE & THE CURRENT W/DIRTY GRASS PLAYERS ($12/$15)

TH 4/2 VAGABON W/ANGELICA GARCIA ($14/$16)

SA 6/6 BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB W/LIZA ANN ($32/$35)

FR 4/3 HONEY MAGPIE ALBUM RELEASE W/RODES AND ENO RIVER RATS ($8/$10)

TH 6/11 BAYSIDE W/SENSES FAIL, HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS, CAN'T SWIM ($25/$29)

SA 4/4 CHERRY POOLS W/JET BLACK ALLEY CAT, SMALL TALKS, MOBS ($13/$15)

MO 6/15 THE GROWLERS ($30)

SU 4/5 CALEB CAUDLE ALBUM RELEASE TOUR W/WILD PONIES AND DAWN LANDES ( $15/$20)

WE 6/17 PINEGROVE W/HOVVDY ($21/$25)

SA 5/23 FRANCES QUINLAN ($16/$18)

NC MUSEUM OF ART (RAL) SU 4/26 BRITTANY HOWARD

(OF ALABAMA SHAKES)

W/ NU MANGOS ($35-$60) ARTSCENTER (CARRBORO) TU 3/24 JAMES MCMURTRY W/BONNIE WHITMORE ($22/$25) MOTORCO (DUR) FR 3/6 ELLIS DYSON & THE SHAMBLES W/DOWNTOWN ABBY AND THE ECHOS ($10/$12)

SU 5/3 SNAIL MAIL W/ HOTLINE TNT ($20 / $22) SU 6/21 GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV W/ CHE APACHE ($36) MO 6/22 GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV W/ CHE APACHE (36) THE CAROLINA THEATER (DURHAM) WE 4/15 ANGEL OLSEN W/MADI DIAZ ($32.50/$35) TH 4/30

BEN GIBBARD ($32.70+)

DPAC (DURHAM)

TH 8/27* CODY KO & NOEL MILLER

TINY MEAT GANG - GLOBAL DOMINATION ($24.50+) *rescheduled from april FLETCHER HALL (RAL) TH 5/14 BRUCE COCKBURN ($37-$50)

CATSCRADLE.COM  919.967.9053  300 E. MAIN STREET  CARRBORO

D OW N T H E ROA D *

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

The Black Keys will perform at Walnut Creek Amphitheatre on Sunday, August 30.

PHOTO BY ALLYSE GAFKJEN

Mar. 3 Jacquees The Ritz, 8 p.m., $25 Mar. 4 Zac Brown Band PNC Arena, 7 p.m., $30+ Mar. 12 Billie Eilish PNC Arena, 7:30 p.m., SOLD OUT Mar. 20 Michael Bublé PNC Arena, 8 p.m., $65+ Mar. 21 Best Coast Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m., $25–$27 Mar. 27 Soccer Mommy Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m., $18–$20 Mar. 30 Mandy Moore DPAC, 8 p.m., $40+ 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., SOLD OUT Apr. 22 Lake Street Dive DPAC, 7:30 p.m., $35+ Apr. 24 Waxahatchee Haw River Ballroom, 8 p.m., $18-$20 May 3 Snail Mail Haw River Ballroom, 8 p.m., $20-$22 May 12 JoJo Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m., $30+ May 24 Ozuna PNC Arena, 8 p.m., $40+ Jun. 2 Local Natives Red Hat Amphitheatre, 6:30 p.m., $25+

Jun. 2 The Lumineers Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $35+ Jun. 20 The Doobie Brothers Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, $30+ Jun. 23 Alanis Morissette Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $55+ Jul. 4 The Black Crowes Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 8 p.m., $29+ Jul. 10 Thomas Rhett Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7:30 p.m., $44+ Jul. 11 Tedeschi Trucks Band Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 6:30 p.m., $45+ Aug. 1 Harry Styles PNC Arena, 8 p.m., $36+

Aug. 2 Rage Against the Machine PNC Arena, 8 p.m.

Aug. 10 Journey, The Pretenders Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $35+ Aug. 25 Goo Goo Dolls Red Hat Amphitheatre, 6:30 p.m., $25+ Aug. 30 The Black Keys Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $61+ Sep. 9 KISS Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7:30 p.m., $40+ Sep. 12 Maroon 5, Meghan Trainor Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, 7 p.m., $50+ Sep. 18 Bikini Kill Cat’s Cradle, 7 p.m., TBA

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February 26, 2020

23

M U SIC CA L E N DA R

FEBRUARY 26– MARCH 4

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27

Tall Juan Like much of his music, Tall Juan’s move to Far Rockaway several years ago was inspired by The Ramones. The Argentinean rocker still pays tribute to his heroes with acoustic, jittery rhythms, though he’s recently also ventured into sultry cumbia.

The gritty proto-punk of opener Drag Sounds suggests Television’s twin-guitar attack and arty detours, while last year’s crucial IV found the Durham trio ratcheting up its intensity with urgent, unhinged howls and muscular riffs.—Spencer Griffith Shadowbox Studio, Durham 8 p.m., $5-$7 suggested

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27

Gnawa Langus

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27

Dan Deacon Dan Deacon’s live performances are uniquely experiential. And while it could be easy to get blissfully lost in the electronic composer’s dense productions, Deacon also orchestrates organized chaos among show-goers, keeping attendees on their toes.

On the heels of his fifth full-length studio album, Mystic Familiar, Deacon manifests dreamy electronic dance tracks with a heavy existential undercurrent. Vast cinematic synth pads build a spacious soundscape as gritty low-end bass lines and frenetic drumbeats bubble into the mix, making for heady yet high energy output. Ahead of the show, get some stretches in and ready to take a prayerful knee alongside fellow crowd members as Deacon’s waves of jubilant electronic whirs and whistles wash over Cat’s Cradle. Deacon is joined by fellow Baltimore-based synth rockers Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, while local funk phenom Boulevards and woozy dream-pop outfit Jenny Besetzt open the show. —Grant Golden Cat’s Cradle, Chapel Hill 8 p.m., $15–$17

Moroccan master musician Samir LanGus plays the sintir, a lute-like bass instrument with three strings that is, in his hands, earthy, plunky, and hypnotically romantic.

With his ensemble Gnawa LanGus, LanGus presents the Gnawa tradition of AfricanIslam ritualistic music, alongside nods to flamenco, jazz, and Indian genres. The performance is a culmination of the group’s residency with Duke’s Building Bridges: Muslims in America initiative. —Josephine McRobbie

pick

Dan Deacon

PHOTO BY SHAWN BRACKBILL

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28

Palehound Palehound initially began as the college recording project of vocalist and guitarist Ellen Kempner. After dropping out of school, Kempner moved to Boston and transformed the act into a trio, with the assistance of bassist Larz Brogan and drummer Jesse Weiss. This new configuration of Pale Hound, honed in on sincere lyricism and intricate guitar patterns, is currently touring behind Black Friday, its third record released last June on Polyvinyl Records.

Adult Mom, the bedroom-pop act of Stevie Knipe, opens. —Sam Haw Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro 8 p.m., $13 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28

Wye Oak Ahead of its ambitious JOIN tour—which kicks off this week in Asheville, with a second stop at Baldwin—Durham’s dreamy electronic duo Wye Oak has unrolled a set of singles, over the past few months. Stack and Wasner are famously painterly with their music, and these recent releases are no exception; each song is a bright, perfect prism of joy and fear. My favorite single, “Fortune,” is spiky, daring, and mercurial—an ascendant ode to letting go.

—Sarah Edwards Baldwin Auditorium, Durham 8 p.m., $25

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February 26, 2020

INDYweek.com

Motorco Music Hall, Durham 8 p.m., $25

M U SIC CA L E N DA R

review

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28

Personality Cult

HHH

After fronting Last Year’s Men and Natural Causes, Personality Cult leader Ben Carr has a reputation for infusing wild-eyed garage rock and punk with unshakeable power pop hooks. Now a full band supergroup of the area scene, new LP New Arrows finds Carr and company blasting through seemingly simple romps riddled with infectious refrains, concealing sudden shifts and other unexpected treats. The slate of likeminded openers includes UV-TV’s noise pop, De()t’s sneering sprints, Cochonne’s femme post-punk, and Stevie’s bittersweet jangles. —Spencer Griffith Nightlight, Chapel Hill 9 p.m., $10

Chris Larkin Neptunes Parlour, 10 p.m. $8.

Morgan Creek Bluegrass Blue Note Grill, 7 p.m.

Pity Genovese The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested.

Scythian Lincoln Theatre, 8 p.m. $17-$160.

Todd Snider, Lily Hiatt Haw River Ballroom, 8 p.m. $25-$28.

Tall Juan, Drag Sounds, Triangle Soul Society DJs Shadowbox Studio, 8 p.m. $5-$10.

Wild Street, Dirty Remnantz Slim’s Downtown, 9 p.m. $5.

Gnawa LanGus performs at Motorco on Thursday, February 27.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DUKE PERFORMANCES

Wilmette, Meet Me At The Altar, Zealotrous, With Clarity Local 506, 8 p.m. $10-$13.

Wed. 2/26

Dermot Kennedy The Ritz, 8 p.m. $35-$225.

Thu. 2/27

Zen Frisbee, Teeth of England, Joe Brzoska Cat’s Cradle Back Room, 8 p.m. $8.

$5 Elvis The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested.

Passafire, Bumpin Uglies, Joey Harkum Pour House Music Hall, 8 p.m. $15-$18.

The Broadcast, Striking Copper Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $5.

Fri. 2/28

919noise Showcase: High Tunnels, feltbattery, Benjamin David Felton, Heavy For The Vintage Nightlight, 8:30 p.m. $7.

Jesse Barnett Cat’s Cradle Back Room, 8 p.m. $12-$14.

Peekaboo Lincoln Theatre, 9 p.m. $15-$22.

Pocket Vinyl, Spaced Angel, Lazaris Pit The Maywood, 8:30 p.m. $8.

Zephyranthes, Shake the Baby Til the Love Comes Out, Green Aisles, Through the Tallwoods Ruby Deluxe, 8 p.m. $7.

Dan Deacon, Ed Schrader’s Music Beat, Boulevards, Jenny Besetzt Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m. $15-$17.

Tim Armacost Sharp Nine Gallery, 8 p.m. $20.

Gnawa LanGus Motorco Music Hall, 8 p.m. $25.

Baats And The Afterglow, INS Kino, Cozm And Naught The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested.

Jooselord, Capri, Madrique, Rome Jeterr Kings, 8 p.m. $15.

Junior Brown, Buckshot Betty Cat’s Cradle, 8 p.m. $20-$24.

I Don’t Know About “You”

BY BRIAN HOWE bhowe@indyweek.com

Though he works fulltime as a gigging musician, it’s been more than a decade since Raleigh’s Chris Titchner has released an album of his own. That fallow spell ended at The Wake Forest Listening Room on Sunday, when Titchner released Already Gone, which sounds like the work of a greener musician—in a good way, mostly.

Titchner, a sprightly acoustic guitarist and singer, has a fresh, springy sound, bright and coursing like a brook. He also has a clear, natural voice and a knack—for better and worse—for fitting long, complex, grammatically correct speeches into catchy singalong tunes. Though his folk-pop tunes are professionally wrought, his energy is more eager, earnest college student than grizzled songwriter, and the combination is musically winning.

The album opens with “I’ll Come Back Around,” where a fine, flitting melody and Titchner’s lightly dancing voice buoy up his apologetic second-person lyrics.

This mode of address always makes me feel like I’m uncomfortably eavesdropping, and it pervades the album. On the second song, “Hold Up,” the gracious acres of ringing chords, ropy leads, and country-radio-worthy choruses hold more appeal than the interpersonal litigation of the verses.

As a musician and songwriter, Titchner is sound, but his overall vision still needs focusing. Though the acoustic palette holds the album together, he sometimes seems to be checking off boxes to see what will stick. There are blowsy jazz horns on Luddite anthem “Kerosene.” “Day Old Ticker Tape Parade” is like acoustic Death Cab for Cutie. “I Don’t Mind” is basically the album’s “Nightswimming.”

Next time, Titchner might do well to go all in on a writerly noir vibe, like The Old Ceremony, or on the unfussy singer-songwriter fare of his own “No Easy Way Out.” And dial down that pesky pronoun. I don’t know about you, or “you,” but I don’t like spending too long in someone else’s argument, which slightly sours an album otherwise notable for its sweet, inviting sound.

Chris Titchner: Already Gone [Self-released; Feb. 24]

KeepItINDY.com

February 26, 2020

25

M U SIC CA L E N DA R SUNDAY, MARCH 1

Daniel Romano The prolific Canadian musician Daniel Romano has the voice of a mid-70s Bob Dylan—twangy and flushed with a slight down-on-the-luck sneer—the drifting poetic sensibilities of Jonathan Richman, and the swagger of a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid-era Paul Newman. So why, a decade and change after his first album, isn’t he a touch more famous? It’s hard to say—but we like being in on the secret, and his dark, brassy twist on country is right on track for Kings. With Paradise Motel Lounge. —Sarah Edwards Kings, Raleigh 8:30 p.m., $13–$15

Julia, Mellow Swells, Alo Ver Local 506, 9 p.m. $8-$10.

Megachrome Slim’s Downtown, 9 p.m. $5.

The Nelson Files Nightlight, 10 p.m. $10.

No Love, Cold Cream, Cochonne Duke Coffeehouse, 9 p.m. $5.

North Carolina Symphony Classical Series: Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 Meymandi Concert Hall, 8 p.m. $20+.

Of Montreal, Lily’s Band Cat’s Cradle, 8:30 p.m. $17.

Palehound plays at Cat’s Cradle Back Room on Friday, February 28.

Off With Your Radiohead Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $10-$12.

PHOTO BY GRACE PICKERING

DJ Debt Stalker Ruby Deluxe, 10 p.m.

Daniel Donato, Into The Fog, Taylor McCall Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $7-$10.

The Gravy Boys, Mad Crush Kings, 8:30 p.m. $12-$15.

The HillBenders Fletcher Opera Theater, 7:30 p.m. $30-32.

Anya Hinkle, Tellico Wake Forest Listening Room, 7 p.m. $12.

Ingested, Visceral Disgorge, The Last Ten Seconds of Life, Cabal, Septicemic, Malediction The Maywood, 6:30 p.m. $15-$17.

The Mac McLaughlin Group Arcana, 9 p.m.

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Mikey Erg Band, Slow Death, Doc Hopper, Loose Behavior, Almost People Local 506, 8 p.m. $8-$10.

North Carolina Symphony Classical Series: Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 Meymandi Concert Hall, 8 p.m. $20+.

Palehound, Adult Mom Cat’s Cradle Back Room, 8 p.m. $13.

Personality Cult, UV-TV, De()t, Cochonne, Stevie Nightlight, 8:30 p.m.

The Straight 8’s, Joe’s Cousin The Kraken, 8 p.m.

Thick Modine, GSO, Lemon Sparks Slim’s Downtown, 9 p.m. $5.

Tiffany The Ritz, 8 p.m. $17+.

February 26, 2020

INDYweek.com

Katharina Uhde, R. Larry Todd Duke Campus: Nelson Music Room, 8 p.m.

Elonzo Wesley, Chessa Rich The Station, 8:30 p.m.

Whiskey Foxtrot, Jared Stout Band, Tyler Resch Lincoln Theatre, 8 p.m. $5-$7.

The Wiley Fosters Blue Note Grill, 9 p.m.

Community Old Time Stringband Jam The Kraken, 7 p.m.

Day Party with DJ Nabs Provident1898, 2 p.m.

Donations suggested.

Orlando Parker Jr., Floor Model, Leisure Moan The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested.

DJ Gay Agenda Ruby Deluxe, 10 p.m.

Poinsettia Wake Forest Listening Room, 7 p.m.

Duke University Wind Symphony Duke Campus: Baldwin Auditorium, 8 p.m.

Eric Sommer, Maggie Yarborough The Station, 7:30 p.m.

Wye Oak Duke Campus: Baldwin Auditorium, 8 p.m. $25.

Eno Mountain Boys, Chuck Mountain, Winfield Cat’s Cradle Back Room, 7:45 p.m. $8.

Sat. 2/29

False Prophet, Sadistic Vision, Edge of Humanity The Maywood, 9 p.m. $10.

Annual Spectrum Concert UNC Campus: Hill Hall, 7:30 p.m. $10.

Tim Armacost Sharp Nine Gallery, 8 p.m. $20.

OM, Wovenhand Motorco Music Hall, 9 p.m. $21.

Aaron Hamm, Tan Sanders, Heads Up Penny, Rebel’s Fox Lincoln Theatre, 8 p.m. $10-$12.

Daniel Stevenson Pour House Music Hall, 5 p.m.

Johnny White, The Elite Band Rhythms Live Music Hall, 8 p.m. $15.

Gray Young, Proper Sleep, Cold Comfort, Pnltybx Kings, 8:30 p.m. $10-$12.

Sun. 3/1

Mon. 3/2

Wed. 3/4

Carla Copeland-Burns, Inara Zandmane, Michael Burns Duke Campus: Nelson Music Room, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Flash Chorus: Van Halen, Shaed Motorco Music Hall, 7 p.m. $7.

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

Lydia Loveless Pour House Music Hall, 7 p.m.

Jon Curry, Thom Nguyen Neptunes Parlour, 8:30 p.m. $10.

The Cowboys Neptunes Parlour, 10 p.m. $10.

Clark Stern, Chuck Cotton The Cave Tavern, 9 p.m. $5 suggested.

Duke Symphony Orchestra, Jeffrey Brown Duke Campus: Baldwin Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.

Tue. 3/3

Leyla McCalla Rubenstein Arts Center - von der Heyden Studio Theater, 8 p.m. $25.

Fallow Ground Wake Forest Listening Room, 2 p.m.

Mahalo Jazz, Big Fat Gap, Grand Shores, Violet Bell, DJ Rang Haw River Ballroom, 2 p.m. $20.

Freekbass, The Bump Assembly Pour House Music Hall, 9 p.m. $15-$18.

Rachel Cole Band Pour House Music Hall, 3 p.m.

Maddie Fisher Arcana, 8 p.m.

Daniel Romano, Paradise Motel Lounge Kings, 8:30 p.m. $13-$15.

Home Body, Cevra, Best Believe Ruby Deluxe, 8 p.m. $7.

School of Rock Chapel Hill Mid-Season Showcase Motorco Music Hall, 1 p.m.

Jacquees The Ritz, 8 p.m. $25-$149.

Michael Smerconish Lincoln Theatre, 2 p.m. $45+.

Bobby Sparks Pour House Music Hall, 8 p.m. $18-$25.

Weird God, Megachrome, Micah Moses The Pinhook, 8 p.m. $7.

Hanns Zischler, Stefan Litwin UNC Campus: Hill Hall, 7:30 p.m. $15.

Knuckle Puck, Heart Attack Man, Better Love Cat’s Cradle Back Room, 8 p.m. Sold out.

The Musicians MBA, Christian Tamburr Sharp Nine Gallery, 7 p.m.

NC Master Chorale: Dvorak’s Requiem Meymandi Concert Hall, 7:30 p.m. $30-38.

Slippery Hill, Fiddlin’ Al McCanless The Station, 7:45 p.m.

Transviolet, Armors Local 506, 7 p.m. $13$15.

Bob Weir and Wolf Bros Durham Performing Arts Center, 7 p.m. $50+.

The Minks, Reality Something, Hey Champ!

The Pinhook, 8 p.m. $10-$12.

Postmodern Jukebox Durham Performing Arts Center, 7:30 p.m. $40+.

Soulfly, Sergio Michel, X-Method, Systemhouse, Suppressive Fire Pour House Music Hall, 7:30 p.m. $25-$30.

Joe Jack Talcum, Coolzey, DJ Halo Local 506, 9 p.m. $10-$12.

J Roddy Walston, Palm Palm Cat’s Cradle, 8:30 p.m. $15-$18.

Zac Brown Band PNC Arena, 7 p.m. $36+.

A RT

EBONY G. PATTERSON: . . . WHILE THE DEW IS STILL ON THE ROSES . . .

Opening reception: Thursday, Feb. 27, 5:30–8 p.m. | Exhibit through Jul. 12 | The Nasher Museum of Art, Durham

Ebony G. Patterson PHOTO BY DANIEL MOODY/COURTESY OF MONIQUE MELOCHE GALLERY, CHICAGO

The Beauty Trap Artist Ebony G. Patterson immerses the Nasher in her haunting, tragic moonlit garden

BY JAMEELA F. DALLIS arts@indyweek.com

O

n February 27, the Nasher Museum of Art will open the exhibit . . . while the dew is still on the roses . . ., a major solo show by Ebony G. Patterson, who was born in Kingston in 1981 and now splits her time between Jamaica and Chicago.

The exhibit, which was organized by Pérez Art Museum Miami, immerses Patterson’s distinctly embellished drawings, tapestries, videos, and sculptures in an installation environment. It’s a moonlit garden of both haunting beauty and tragic resonance.

Filled with ersatz flowers, Patterson’s exhibit invokes the functions and forms of memorials and funerary arts and the pleasure, danger, death, and revelation associated with gardens in art and literature. Think of the Biblical Eden, Hieronymus Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” or Toni Morrison’s Tar Baby.

Patterson’s growing body of work, which is held in public collections from the National Gallery of Jamaica to 21c Museum Hotels and the Nasher, “investigates forms of embellishment as they relate to youth culture within disenfranchised communities,” according to the Nasher.

Patterson’s work is in a lineage with Miriam Schapiro’s “femmages” of the Pattern and Decoration movement of the ‘70s and ‘80s and self-taught Jamaican artist Leonard Daley’s abstract yet representational work on found boards and dwelling walls. In a recent interview with the INDY, Patterson said she loves and is inspired by both artists, also mentioning the influence of Kerry James Marshall and Trenton Doyle Hancock.

Patterson draws, paints, works with video, incorporates performance, and creates elaborate tapestries laden with multicolored glitter, beads, sequins, fabric, and her signature artificial flowers. Her works exude beauty, excess, and an essential polyvalence.

Patterson conjures the faces, shapes, and experiences of people who are black, brown, average, poor, queer, beautiful, complicated—and their relationship to beauty, land, and place.

Patterson says that the exhibit’s title comes from Charles Austin Miles’s 1912 hymn “In the Garden,” which was inspired by Miles’s vision of Mary Magdalene with Jesus in the garden. In the Gospel of John, Mary goes to visit Jesus’s tomb in the garden and is devastated upon

finding it empty, and then temporarily mistakes the resurrected Jesus for the gardener.

“The garden is where all of this happens,” Patterson says. “It is a site where beauty is unfolding and, at the same time, as it is in the song, it’s a place of death.

Dew references wetness—the tears and the ooze of the body—and while the rose is a funerary flower, it’s also a flower of love.”

Patterson also emphasizes the title’s focus on transformation; the adverb “still” suggests potential and opportunity for change. Patterson has often been quoted as saying that in her work, beauty functions as a trap to lure us in. Its lush, ornate, glittering, and excessive permutations draw in viewers, who must reckon with the work’s complex entanglements of oppression, violence, and death.

The exhibit incorporates work from many series over the past decade, along with work created specifically for this show. “Untitled Species VIII (Ruff)” is a drawing on paper embellished with rhinestones and glitter from a series that explores Jamaican dancehall culture and its fluid relationship to gender and identity. Patterson understands beauty and pageantry as acts of cultivation, and she’s especially concerned with the ways working-class people cultivate beauty.

For Patterson, everyday dress is a form of memorialization, a concept that takes on multilayered meaning in “Entourage.” In this photograph, she explores Jamaican gang culture through subjects in floral, colorful clothing on a floral-patterned background to complicate conventional structures of masculinity and family. The piece also refers to Jamaica’s 2010 Tivoli incursion, a two-day standoff between police and the Shower Posse drug cartel that left more than 70 people dead. This violence was initiated by the United States calling to extradite the cartel’s leader.

The works “... moments we cannot bury ...” and “Where We Found Them – Dead Treez” are especially arresting large-scale tapestries. The first is positioned so that half of the viewer’s body, as curator Tobias Ostrander says, is “positioned below what would represent ground level;” silk flowers—birds of paradise, hyacinths, and lilies of the valley, all poisonous varieties—partially conceal objects and body parts cast in glass. The piece also includes a “cloud” of hundreds of women’s shoes covered KeepItINDY.com

February 26, 2020

27

INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF RALEIGH

MARCH 6TH-8TH

25,000 PEOPLE 3 DAYS 60+ CULTURES INTERNATIONALFESTIVAL.ORG

JIM GRAHAM BUILDING AND EXPOSITION CENTER NC STATE FAIRGROUNDS Friday, March 6: 10am to 10pm Saturday, March 7: 10am to 10pm Sunday, March 8: 11am to 6pm

“Dead Tree in a Forest . . .” by Ebony G. Patterson PHOTO BY ORIOL TARRIDAS/COURTESY OF MONIQUE MELOCHE GALLERY, CHICAGO

Come celebrate global culture, cuisine, arts, education, and cross-cultural communication.

FOOD, DANCE, MUSIC, EXHIBITS, SHOPPING, FASHION SHOW, KID’S STUFF, ART, CRAFTS, NATURALIZATION CEREMONY, COOKING DEMOS, DANCE WORKSHOPS, PASSPORT SCAVENGER HUNT The International Festival is funded in part by the City of Raleigh based on recommendations of the Raleigh Arts Commission

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February 26, 2020

INDYweek.com

in black glitter, hanging from the ceiling, which recalls the shoes hanging from power lines that mark gang territories.

Meanwhile, the second tapestry hovers just above the floor, covered in lush plant life, beads, gold thread, lace, and found objects such as women’s shoes and fans.

It refers to the “anonymous wild grasses and flowered fields in which dead bodies are often found,” says Ostrander, and from above, viewers eventually discern two sets of legs wearing the same shoes positioned on the plane.

Both works reference photos of slain bodies of black and brown people that are circulated on social media in ways that trouble Patterson. She wants viewers to confront the presence and absence of these bodies and consider their humanity.

Patterson notes that she’s been misquoted many times saying that she used the actual images in her work.

“I have never, ever done any such thing!” she says. “I worked with models,

and I was using these images as points of reference. It’s not even that I staged the models based on the photos, either.”

Instead, she photographed models from above and, during editing, erased anything that revealed skin, because she was also “interested in the question or the opportunity for the audience to kind of fill in who it is … and ideas around visibility and invisibility.”

While her work is rooted in place and nation, Patterson also recognizes that many of the themes she examines are much broader, because recontextualizing gender norms and bearing witness to racism and violence transcends national borders.

“From the very entry of the show, its title, I want to shift the way the viewer thinks about my work if they already know my work,” Patterson says.

While this exhibit acknowledges the inherent beauty of the garden, it also suggests that “its beauty, like all beauty, is fleeting. And time may run out in the garden because the weeds come for everyone.” W

PAGE

KAITLIN UGOLIK PHILLIPS: THE FUTURE OF FEELING

[Little A; Feb. 1]

Empathy Machines Can technology ease the alienation technology created?

BY SARAH EDWARDS sedwards@indyweek.com

you’re communicating with other people, but that it’s a temporary respite. Turning it off and going back to your actual IRL life brings up issues of anxiety and depression for a lot of people because it feels like you were in this space with a whole bunch of other people—and then you’re alone.

How does an increased need for validation tie into a decrease in empathy?

E

ver since I got an iPhone, I’ve experienced something akin to an ache in the middle of conversations: an inane compulsion to make contact with my phone, followed by shame and the fear that some part of myself has been sanded down.

As I learned from the Durham-based journalist Kaitlin Ugolik Phillips, there’s a term for this: “phubbing,” which means to snub someone by looking at your phone instead of at them.

In her new, debut book, The Future of Feeling: Building Empathy in a Tech-Obsessed World, Phillips explores the ways that technology has altered the ways we relate to each other.

She also interviews a variety of experts—doctors, teachers, and scientists—about the technology that is evolving to bridge these gaps in empathy.

Does this mean that we’re in the clear, then—that technology can solve the interpersonal problems it has created? Not really.

Phillips, who has written for places like VICE, Quartz, and the Columbia Journalism Review, is a deft researcher and an accessible writer, but she’s not particularly optimistic about our slow slouch toward dystopia. The Future of Feeling is more about taking stock of concerns about where we are, with a sideways glance toward where we might go.

On a recent snowy Thursday, I gave Phillips a call—hey, we planned to meet face-to-face, but Mother Nature had other plans—to chat about clicks, likes, swipes, and everything human in between.

INDY: How did this grow from an interest to a book?

KAITLIN UGOLIK PHILLIPS: I call myself an old millennial—I’m 32, so I grew up with a lot of social media use, Myspace and then Facebook. Around 2014, a lot of people were in groups, and we would talk about things that were really important to us, like politics and feminism. It seemed like people were trying to talk about really big, really important things, but just kind of talking at each other more than really considering what the other person was saying—and I include myself in that, too. I wanted to find some hope, and so I looked into whether anyone was studying this. And thankfully, I found that they were, and I wanted to read a book about it—but it didn’t exist.

You also mention this idea that people are becoming less lonely but more isolated.

What’s the difference?

Research has shown that we spend more time physically alone but communicate with people by our devices. The research on loneliness is really interesting but changing as we speak.

They’ve shown that people tend to feel less lonely when they use social media because

There’s a correlation, in some survey research, between people who are seeking validation all the time and people who are not great at perspective-taking, which is another way of kind of describing empathy.

That makes sense, anecdotally.

Yeah, a lot of this is anecdotal, and one of the reasons that I wanted to write the book is that I wanted to take the importance of technology—especially social media—in our lives seriously, and also the concerns about what that might be doing to us. We don’t have concrete answers to a lot of these questions, but I don’t think that means that we shouldn’t write about it and talk about it.

What are some of the technologies that made you optimistic about technology’s ability to generate empathy?

I did learn and write about some people who are using chatbot technology to make connections with people who might not otherwise feel that they can connect with people. It can help direct people to mental-health resources and things like that— kids who were afraid to call a suicide hotline or go to a person for help. I really like VR, but I also really understand a lot of the criticisms of it. I think it’s a useful tool for a lot of organizations that are trying to raise money or raise awareness about different issues, to get people to put on headsets and embody the experience of someone else.

Did you finish the project feeling hopeful?

I don’t know. I think that I feel more hopeful that someone is trying to address these things, and [that] people are talking about it and are concerned about it. There’s potential for regular people to have agency in how we use tech. But it’s more like a faith-in-humanity kind of thing than optimism that everything’s going to be, you know, puppies and roses. W KeepItINDY.com

February 26, 2020

29

C U LT U R E CA L E NDA R

FEBRUARY 26– MARCH 4

SUBMIT! Submit your event details at indyweek.com/submit#cals by 5 p.m.

Wednesday for the following week’s issue. QUESTIONS? spequeno@indyweek.com

Compose and Materialize Group show. Through Mar. 7. Durham Arts Council, Durham.

arts

Consensual Hallucination: Dara Morgenstern Through Mar. 20. Holy Mountain Printing, 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.

Painting by Maxan Jean-Louis, depicting the assassination of Jean Dominique. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE RUBENSTEIN ARTS CENTER

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27

Radio Haïti-Inter: Three Decades of Resistance From 1957-1971, former president of Haiti, François “Papa Doc” Duvalier led one of the most tyrannical regimes in the country’s history, largely through what “Radio Haiti Project” archivist and author Laura Wagner describes as “the violent silencing of the free press.” Even up until its eventual 2003 closure, Radio Haiti-Inter was subjugated to various attacks in the name of suppressing broadcasts which promoted Haitian ideals. This story of collective fearlessness is the subject of a two-week multimedia exhibit inside Duke’s Rubenstein Arts Center. This opening reception kicks off the exhibit, as well as When I Say Africa: Photographs from the Continent, which will be on display through March 8, also at the Rubenstein. —Eric Tullis Rubenstein Arts Center, Durham 6 p.m., FREE

Opening Ebony G. Patterson: ... while the dew is still on the roses ... Mixed Media.

Feb. 27 - Jul. 12. Nasher Museum of Art, Durham.

In Conversation: Leyla McCalla, Kiyoko McCrae, Laura Wagner Fri., Feb. 28, 12 p.m. Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke University , City of Durham.

THRIVE 2020 Creative conference with keynote speakers. $50+. Feb.2829. The Fruit, Durham.

Smoke Sculptures Photography. Sun., Feb. 28-Mar. 22. Skylight Gallery, Hillsborough.

Michael Kovick Handmade guitars and mandolins. Fri., Feb. 28, 12 p.m. Music Maker Relief Foundation, Hillsborough.

Quiet Moments Photography. Feb. 28-Mar. 22. Skylight Gallery, Hillsborough.

Opening Reception: Smoke Sculptures and Quiet Moments Photography. Fri., Feb. 28.

6 p.m. Skylight Gallery, Hillsborough.

Henna Extravaganza Sat., Feb. 29. 10:30 a.m. Forest Hills Neighborhood Clubhouse, Durham.

Sarah Jane Tart: The Wonder Collection Paintings. Mar. 3-Apr. 29.

Urban Durham Realty, Durham.

Ongoing Josef Albers and Homage to the Square Paintings.

Through Aug. 30. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh.

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

All is Possible: Mary Ann Scherr’s Legacy in Metal Jewelry and design.

Through Sep. 6. Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh.

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.

Megan Bostic, Andy Mauery, Rosemary MezaDesPlas: Hairstory Art made of human hair.

Through Feb. 29.

Artspace, Raleigh.

Cornelio Campos: My Roots Paintings. Through Mar. 12. Durham Arts Council, Durham.

Cultures of the Sea: Art of the Ancient Americas Mixed media. Through May. 31. Nasher Museum of Art, Durham.

Design By Time Group Show. Through May 17.

Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh.

Domestic Demise: Elizabeth Alexander, Patty Carroll Group show.

Through Apr. 11. Artspace, Raleigh.

Favorite Things Paintings.

Through Feb. 29. V L Rees Gallery, 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.

Gifts of Earth and Intimacy Copper works.

Through Dec. 31. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham.

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.

Mar Hester: Action/ Reaction Photography and origami. Through Feb. 29.

Artspace, Raleigh.

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.

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.

Jane Kraike: Serigraphs Prints. Through Mar. 28.

Adam Cave Fine Art, Raleigh.

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.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29

Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson: A Moving Grove Local painters Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson work together so closely, so attentively, that it’s hard to say where one ends and the other begins in the exhibit A Moving Grove, which has an artist talk and closing reception at Anchorlight in Raleigh on February 29. Friendly fabric snakes coil around clean-lined visions of sci-fi architecture, while enigmatic shapes evoke both landscapes and cellular biology; other chimerical creatures are glimpsed through striking spatial abstractions in this self-described “feminist, ecocentric” cosmology. —Brian Howe Anchorlight, Raleigh 4-7 p.m., FREE

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.

Organized Chaos #1: Geometric Shapes & Patterns Paintings.

Through Mar. 10.

Triangle Cultural Art Gallery, Raleigh.

Ali Osborn: Macadam Drawings. Through Apr. 11.

Oneoneone, Chapel Hill.

Past Lives Mixed media.

Through Mar. 14. The Scrap Exchange, Durham.

Corey Pemberton: creature, comfort Paintings. Solo exhibition.

Through May. 10. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh.

“A Charm of Powerful Trouble” by Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levinson PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

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C U LT U R E CA L E NDA R 2.29 3.1

A R T S C O N T.

3.4 3.7

Kenneth Proseus: Reasons to Get out of Bed Paintings. Through Mar. 8. Golden Belt Arts, Durham.

QuiltSpeak: Uncovering Women’s Voices Through Quilts Through Mar. 8. NC Museum of History, Raleigh.

The Right Angle, the Meander, & the Star Maps. Through Mar. 16.

Durham Arts Council, Durham.

Gillian McDunn The Queen Bee and Me 2pm Erik Larson The Splendid and the Vile at MEREDITH COLLEGE’s Jones Chapel (Ticket Required) 2pm Sundry Poets 2pm Joseph Wheelan Bloody Okinawa 7pm David Plouffe A Citizen’s Guide to Beating Donald Trump 7pm

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Seeing Red Group show of women artists. Through Feb. 29. Local Color Gallery, Raleigh.

Linda Starr: No Lack Of Color Solo exhibit. Through Mar. 1. Personify, Raleigh.

Sydney Steen: Fault Lines Vignettes. Through Oct. 25. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham.

Billy Strayhorn Solo exhibit.

Through Mar. 22. Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, Hillsborough.

Think Big!—A Small Works Exhibition Group show. Through Mar. 16. 5 Points Gallery, Durham.

Cheryl Thurber: Documenting Gravel Springs, Mississippi, in the 1970s Photography. Through Mar. 31. UNC Campus: Wilson Special Collections Library, Chapel Hill.

To The East Group show. Through Feb. 29. The Centerpiece, Raleigh.

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.

Urban Saga Group show. Through Mar. 18. Litmus Gallery, Raleigh.

Elizabeth Teresita Howard in Jacqueline Lawton’s XIX PHOTO BY DONN YOUNG / COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27 & FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28

The 19th Amendment Project In two different showcases, UNC faculty artists present four new works commemorating the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Dance-theater work The Debate examines depictions of women in politics over the last century and multimedia piece #19 views the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment through laseretched film, archival footage, and music. A solo show depicts Sojourner Truth’s journey, meanwhile, while fourth work XIX—which considers the amendment’s racial divide—will have a staged reading, ahead of its October premiere at the Women’s Theatre Festival.

—Byron Woods CURRENT ArtSpace + Studio, Chapel Hill 7:30 p.m., $5 suggested

Jeff Whetstone: Species Complex Photos. Through Mar. 14. Lump, Raleigh.

William C. Wright: New Works Paintings. Through Mar. 22. Gallery C, Raleigh.

Seussical Jr. (SensoryFriendly Performance) Musical. $12-$17. Sat., Feb. 29, 1 p.m. Raleigh Little Theatre, Raleigh.

SoMogo Stories: A Musical Celebration Of Storytelling Across The African Continent $10.

Sat., Feb. 29, 6 p.m. Duke Campus: Page Auditorium, Durham.

3/13

LEAHY 2/28– DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE 3/1 (presented by One Song Productions) 3/14 JOHN JORGENSON BLUEGRASS BAND 3/20 DOM FLEMONS WITH CHRIS FRISINA 3/22 ALASH

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Ongoing GCA Stand-Up 101 Graduation Showcase Comedy. $10. Wed., Feb. 26, 8 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Loving Play. Showtimes: Fri. & Sat.: 8 p.m. Sun.: 3 p.m. $24. Through Feb. 29. Pure Life Theatre, Raleigh.

The Old Man & The Old Moon Play. Showtimes: Feb. 14-15, 20-22, 28-29, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 16 and 23, 3 p.m. Mar. 1, 3 p.m. $33.

Through Mar. 1. Theatre In The Park, Raleigh.

Louis Watts: Sequoyaland Drawings.

Through Mar. 22. Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill.

Michael Weitzman: Natural Beauty Photography. Through Mar. 21.

Herbert C Young Community Center, Cary.

One Song Productions: Dead Man’s Cell Phone Play. Showtimes: Fri.-Sat.: 7:30 p.m. Sun: 3 p.m. $10. Feb. 28 - Mar. 1, The ArtsCenter, Carrboro.

Opening H.L. Boney, Janeen Slaughter Comedy. $10.

Sat., Feb. 29, 9:30 p.m.

The People’s Improv Theater (PIT), Chapel Hill.

GCA Improv 101 Graduation Showcase Improv. $10. Thu., Feb. 27, 8 p.m. Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh.

Corey Holcomb Comedy.

Showtimes: Fri.: 7 p.m. & 9:15 p.m. Sat.: 6:30 p.m. & 9 p.m. Sun.: 7 p.m. $25-$75. Feb. 28 - Mar. 1, Raleigh Improv, Raleigh.

Julius Caesar Play.

Showtimes: Mar. 4-7, 10-13, 17-21: 7:30 p.m.

Mar. 8, 15 and 22: 2 p.m.

Mar. 14: 2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. $15-$64. Mar. 4-22, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill.

SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical $30+.

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. Through Mar. 1.

Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham.

Sweat Play. Showtimes: Fri. & Sat.: 7:30 p.m.

Sun.: 3:30 p.m. $5-$23.

Through Mar. 1. Umstead Park United Church of Christ, Raleigh.

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February 26, 2020

INDYweek.com

A Tribute to Robin Williams The Cary Theater salutes the oddball genius of Robin Williams in a look back at some of his most famous comic and dramatic roles. Night one features two of Williams’ best performances: his Oscar-winning therapist in Good Will Hunting and his Quixotic homeless man in The Fisher King, which combines his abilities to play both manic comedy and tragedy.

Saturday has the broad comedy of The Birdcage and Williams’ first major dramatic role in the adaptation of the zany bestseller The World According to Garp, while Sunday has a matinee of the increasingly problematic family classic Mrs. Doubtfire, which is somewhere between a light cross-dressing comedy and a dark look at a bitter divorcee stalking and gaslighting his family. Legacies are strange things. —Zack Smith The Cary Theater, Cary Various times, $6

Special Showings

On Happiness Road Sat., Feb. 29, 2 p.m.

Rubenstein Arts Center Film Theater, Durham.

Always In Season Thu., Feb. 27, 7 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Showgirls $7. Wed., Feb. 26, 9 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh.

Bedlam Tue., Mar. 3, 7 p.m. Durham Arts Council, Durham.

The World According to Garp $6. Sat., Feb. 29, 9:30 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

The Birdcage $6. Sat., Feb. 29, 7 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Demon Within, Biotherapy Fri., Feb. 28, 10 p.m.

Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh.

Extra Ordinary $13. Sun., Mar. 1, 9 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh.

The Fisher King $6. Fri., Feb. 28, 9:30 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

For Sama Thu., Feb. 27, 7 p.m. Rubenstein Arts Center - Film Theater, Durham.

Four Minutes Til Midnight Fri. 4:50 p.m. & Sun. 4:10 p.m. $10. Feb. 28 - Mar. 1, 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Good Will Hunting $6.

Fri., Feb. 28, 7 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Hobbit Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings 7 p.m. all showtimes. $9. Feb. 21 - Mar. 1. Marbles Kids Museum, Raleigh.

I Was at Home, But… Fri., Feb. 28, 7 p.m. Rubenstein Arts Center - Film Theater, Durham.

Mrs. Doubtfire $6. Sun., Mar. 1, 2 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Nevermore Film Festival See website for full schedule. $10+. Feb. 28 - Mar. 1.

Carolina Theatre, Durham.

The Phantom of the Opera Tue. 7 p.m., Wed. 7 p.m. $12. Feb. 25-26. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh.

Odd Squad $5. Sat., Feb. 29, 10 a.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh.

The Shawshank Redemption $8. Fri., Feb. 28, 7 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh.

Opening The Invisible Man—This adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel stars Elisabeth Moss as a woman stalked by an obsessive, controlling ex—who has figured out how to turn invisible.

Rated R.

Dolittle—Robert Downey Jr. plays the eccentric veterinarian in this fantasy action reprisal. Rated PG. ½ Downhill— A bleak comedy from a talented team, Downhill is a real conundrum, with some things done very well and others completely botched. Rated R. 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 INDY uses a five-star rating scale. Unstarred films have not been reviewed by our writers.

 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

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

Gretel and Hansel— Horror fantasy remake of the fairy tale about two children whose hike goes awry. Rated PG-13.

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

Jojo Rabbit—Black comedy about a German boy who discovers that his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in the attic. Rated PG-13.

Now Playing

Birds of Prey—Irreverent superhero flick about the supervillain Harley Quinn.

Rated R. Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island—The twisted fantasies offered by a remote tropical resort slowly twist into nightmares— who knew? Lucy Hale stars. Rated PG-13.

Brahms: The Boy II—Katie Holmes stars in this sequel to The Boy; in this film, a young boy crafts an unsettling friendship with a doll named Brahms. PG-13.

The Call of the Wild— Harrison Ford shares the screen with a CGI Great Bernard, in this adaptation of the classic Jack London adventure novel.

Rated PG.

The Photograph—Issa Rae plays the estranged daughter of a famous photographer whose life is turned upside-down by the emergence of a photograph— and by a handsome journalist, played by LaKeith Stanfield, who wants to tell its story. Rated PG-13.

The Rhythm Section— Blake Lively plays a woman hellbent on revenge after her family is murdered in a plane crash. Rated R. Sonic the Hedgehog— Sega’s video game mascot hits the silver screen, now with less-scary teeth and legs after fan outcry over its trailer. Rated PG.  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

Jumanji: The Next Level— This adventure comedy picks up where the 1995 flick left off. Rated PG-13. ½ 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.  Parasite—This Oscar-winning social satire from filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho is crammed with dark twists and intricate metaphors. Rated R. —Sarah Edwards

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Sonya Renee Taylor PHOTO COURTESY OF NC STATE UNIVERSITY

page

Gillian McDunn The Queen Bee and Me. Sat., Feb. 29, 2 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26

Sonya Renee Taylor “The body is not a math test / The body is not a wrong answer” writes activist, performer, and author Sonya Renee Taylor in her poem “The Body Is Not An Apology.” Now a book, pedagogy, and online community, the piece’s title has come to be shorthand for Taylor’s vision of a radical self-love movement that centers the experiences of marginalized bodies.

Taylor is the keynote speaker for NC State’s Womxn’s Herstory Month. —Josephine McRobbie Witherspoon Campus Cinema, Raleigh 6 p.m., FREE

Readings Adam Domby The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory.

Wed., Feb. 26, 7 p.m.

Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Adam Domby The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory.

Thu., Feb. 27, 5 p.m. Duke University: Classroom Building, Durham.

Carolyn Forché What You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance. Mon., Mar. 2, 5 p.m. Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Durham.

Thomas Goldsmith, Laurent Dubois, Joe Newberry Earl Scruggs & The Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Tue., Mar. 3, 7 p.m. Regulator Bookshop, Durham.

Rebecca Hodge Wildland. Sat., Feb. 29, 11 a.m. McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro.

Wesley C. Hogan, D’atra Jackson On the Freedom Side: How Five Decades of Youth Activists Have Remixed American History. Thu., Feb. 27, 7 p.m. Regulator Bookshop, Durham.

Charles C. Ludington, Matthew Morse Booker Food Fights: How History Maters to Contemporary Food Debates. Tue., Mar. 3, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Erik Larson The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz.

Ticketed event. $40.

Sun., Mar. 1, 2 p.m.

Meredith College: Jones Auditorium, Raleigh.

Meredith Leigh, Beth LittleJohn The Ethical Meat Handbook: From Sourcing to Butchery, Mindful Meat Eating for the Modern Omnivore.

Thu., Feb. 27, 7 p.m.

Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Jennie M. Ratcliffe Nothing Lowly in the Universe. Wed., Mar. 4, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Julius S. Scott, Vincent Brown The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of the Haitian Revolution and Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War. Sun., Mar. 1, 1:30 p.m. Regulator Bookshop, Durham.

Joseph Wheelan Bloody Okinawa: The Last Great Battle of World War II. Wed., Mar. 4, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Lectures Black History Month Read-In Sat., Feb. 29, 1 p.m.

Pure Life Theatre, Raleigh.

Black History, Black Futures Wed., Feb. 26, 6 p.m. Orange County Main Library, Hillsborough.

Census 2020: Let’s Make it Count! Thu., Feb. 27, 4:30 p.m. Chapel Hill Public Library, Chapel Hill.

The Monti StorySLAM $12. Wed., Feb. 26, 7:30 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

Sonya Renee Taylor: The Body is Not an Apology Wed., Feb. 26, 6 p.m. NCSU Campus Cinema, Raleigh.

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C L AS S I F I E D S NOTICES Durham County Board of Elections Notice of Resolution to Adopt a Time for Counting of Absentee Ballots On 1/9/2020, the Durham County Board of Elections met at 201 E Main St., Durham, and adopted a resolution of the following effect: 1. The Board of Elections shall meet at 2:00 p.m. on Primary Election Day, Tuesday, 3/3/2020 at 201 E Main St., Durham (Room 126), to count absentee ballots.

2. The results of the absentee ballot count will not be announced before 7:30 p.m. on the date of the primary/election.

3. The Board of Elections shall meet at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, 3/12/2020 at 201 E Main St., Durham (Room 126), to count additional timelyreceived absentee ballots prior to the county canvass. 4. Any member of the public may attend these meetings.

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.

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Classes/workshops throughout the Triangle. Magic Tortoise School - Since 1979.

Call Jay or Kathleen, 919-360-6419 or www.magictortoise.com Energy Healing Lynne C. Johnson, Ed.D. Red Hat Qi Gong Practitioner Lynnecjohnson.com 919.928.4100

MEDICAL SERVICES Attention Diabetics!

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THE 2019/2020 ISSUE IS O U t N OW !

OUT NOW!

YO U R G U I D E TO A F U N L I F E I N T H E T R I A N G L E

YOUR GUIDE TO A FUN LIFE IN THE TRIANGLE

LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE

HISTORY TRIVIA: • On February 28, 1935, the General Assembly ratified the Uniform Driver’s License Act, marking the beginning of drivers’ licensing in NC. Driving exams, however, did not begin until 1948 • On March 3, 1891, the General Assembly passed a bill establishing Elizabeth City Colored Normal School (today’s Elizabeth City State University) to educate black teachers. The bill was introduced by the African-American representative Hugh Cale.

Courtesy of the Museum of Durham History

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:

© Puzzles by Pappocom

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

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

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

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

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

INDY CLASSIFIEDS classy@indyweek.com

KeepItINDY.com

2.26.20 February 26, 2020

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