INDY Week 5.22.19

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DIRTY BUSINESS, P. 11

VIEW TO A THRILL, P. 13

BEING BLOUNT, P. 21

SATURDAY, JUNE 15 N O O N — 4 P M

E L G N A I R T e h t f o T BES

H S A B 2019

MUSIC 2 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

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WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK RALEIGH

VOL. 36, NO. 21

DEPARTMENTS

6 The Garner police had a warrant to seize devices that could produce disruptive noise. They took seven iPhones, two computers, and an alarm clock.

6 News 13 Food

8 The day after Donald Trump was elected president, Caroline Sullivan learned she had breast cancer.

16 Music 17 Arts & Culture

10 Like a car that leaves the lot, in Alabama, the sacred gift of life becomes less valuable once it slips out of the birth canal.

22 What to Do This Week 24 Music Calendar

11 Food scraps make up about 22 percent of America’s waste.

Almost a third of Durham’s trash is compostable.

29 Arts & Culture Calendar

13 The first time Chris Borreson and Sara Abernathy passed by the Boylan Bridge Brewpub, they wondered if it was open.

14 The best Japanese food is borne out of a monastic dedication to technique.

16 Yan Westerlund had a musical breakthrough while dog-sitting for Phil Cook.

17 “I would say it’s the next Atlanta,” Shari Díaz, co-founder of Oak City Comedy Festival, says of the Triangle’s comedy scene.

Mikisa Thompson’s neighbor called 911 to complain about “loud Islamic-Muslim preaching” (see page 6). PHOTO BY LEIGH TAUSS

On the cover ILLUSTRATION BY STEVE OLIVA

On Stands Now INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 3

upfront

Keep It Vibrant. Keep It INDY. THRIVING TRIANGLE ARTISTS NEED THRIVING ARTS JOURNALISM.

BY JOINING THE INDY PRESS CLUB, YOU’LL HELP US HELP THEM.

BY BRIAN HOWE

C

an you believe that, not long ago, the Triangle had two alt-weeklies?

I hardly can, and I wrote for both

of them.

After warming up in Chapel Hill music zines (shout-out to Sup), I embarked on this wonderful, ridiculous, precarious path of writing about art for a living at Raleigh’s The Spectator in the early aughts. I got the gig by arguing with the music editor about his At the Drive-In review. I cut out my newsprint clips and pressed them in a photo binder. We carried News of the Weird and Onion Head Monster.

It was a simpler time.

Only when the INDY bought and absorbed The Spectator in the mid-2000s did I move to these pages, freelancing for nearly a decade before joining the editorial staff five years ago. I had no idea what was coming.

You read local media, so you know what’s become of regional arts coverage. Almost all of the dailies’ longtime critics are in the wind (some kind of Rubicon was crossed when News & Observer vet David Menconi had his first INDY byline this year), and a few glossy mags aren’t making up the difference. Blogs are valiantly filling gaps, but they often lack centralized audiences, resources, and time-tested protocols.

For sustained critical attention to local artistic practice; for intimate profiles of people from the stage to the admin office; for informed analysis of the radical ideas, relevant controversies, and hidden connections that flourish here; for a consistent perspective on life as it’s lived, week by week—well, we’d rather not be the only game in town, but we are. And that means we take our mission to document, appraise, understand, and nourish the arts here more seriously than ever.

Arts journalism is sometimes thought of as a parasite, but let’s be real: In the commercial sphere, the relationship is symbiotic. Artists and journalists work long 4 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

“For sustained critical attention to local artistic practice, we’d rather not be the only game in town, but we are.

And that means we take our mission more seriously than ever.”

Raleigh Durham | Chapel Hill PUBLISHER EDITORIAL

Susan Harper

EDITOR IN CHIEF Jeffrey C. Billman ARTS+CULTURE EDITOR Brian Howe STAFF WRITER Leigh Tauss ASSOCIATE ARTS+CULTURE EDITOR Sarah Edwards FOOD+DIGITAL EDITOR Andrea Rice EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Cole Villena THEATER+DANCE CRITIC Byron Woods RESTAURANT CRITIC Nick Williams CONTRIBUTORS Amanda Abrams, Jim Allen,

Elizabeth Bracy, Timothy Bracy, Jameela F. Dallis, Khayla Deans, Michaela Dwyer, Spencer Griffith, Howard Hardee, Corbie Hill, Laura Jaramillo, Kyesha Jennings, Glenn McDonald, Josephine McRobbie, Samuel MontgomeryBlinn, Neil Morris, James Michael Nichols, Emily Pietras, Marta Nuñez Pouzols, Bryan C. Reed, Dan Ruccia, David Ford Smith, Zack Smith, Michael Venutolo-Mantovi, Chris Vitiello, Ryan Vu, Patrick Wall INTERN Lena Geller

ART+PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION MANAGER Christopher Williams ART DIRECTOR Steve Oliva

CIRCULATION

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Brenna Berry-Stewart DISTRIBUTION Laura Bass, Richard Lee,

Marshall Lindsey, Gloria McNair, Timm Shaw, Freddie Simmons, Hershel Wiley

days and then spend nights and weekends in galleries, theaters, and clubs. (I don’t think our longtime theater critic, Byron Woods, has had a weekend off in eons.)

All of them need to be paid, because their work is essential to both our quality of life and areas of social justice where art always takes the lead.

The Triangle isn’t a place where artistic production just rolls along on a juggernaut apparatus. Local artists without academic support are seeking revolutionary ways to survive on the labor of enriching our cultural landscape with a certain atmosphere of vitality you probably couldn’t imagine living without, even if you don’t regularly partake.

As they seek new, more egalitarian financial models, we have to do the same thing. Publisher Susan Harper and editor Jeffrey Billman have already detailed the collapse of print advertising across the industry, and while other papers have folded or vanished behind paywalls, it’s crucial that we keep the INDY free.

If it isn’t free for those who can’t afford it, it isn’t the INDY.

The Triangle will probably never have two weeklies again, but, for five years and counting, I’ve been working as hard as I can to make sure it has one. I love free weeklies.

Picking one up is the first thing I do when I visit a city (if one still exists there). To me, they’re one of those rare, magical institutions, with no profit-driven reason to exist, lit by the stubborn little flame left of the belief that knowledge is a public right—like, I can have this lifeline into a community’s arts scene, for free, every week?

That is just wild, and we should never take it for granted.

I’ve been covering the arts here for twenty years because I believe they have a transformative, life-saving power, and I’ve been doing it at the INDY because I believe there’s nowhere else that treats them that way. If you’re able, help us help artists thrive by joining the INDY Press Club today at KeepItINDY.com—or by mailing your contribution to PO Box 1772, Durham, NC, 27702—so we can keep it free for everyone else.

Keep it free. Keep it INDY. bhowe@indyweek.com

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ba

W

Last week an old, p an Instag took issue “gross”: “T animals same type they have ailing gra person e probably ‘probably “I’m be “I will has beco bordering There ar varying d consider is overus cultural p So don’t p hazard a Capitol d long befor “I used courthous He woul the few f Oxford to scratch. H vigil in th tremendo call gross, “When or pregn Facebook old and fa “He is Leslie Laz As for assistant, story, and any comp That’s t Last we Raleigh C from its that prov but also h and a p After we before th council m

backtalk

Who’s Gross?

Last week, Leigh Tauss wrote about Tucker, an old, portly pussycat that has become an Instagram sensation in Raleigh. Dan took issue with our headline calling Tucker “gross”: “The type of person who calls older animals gross, accurately or not, is the same type who gives their pets away when they have children and happily houses their ailing grandparents in retirement homes—a person easily inconvenienced. But that’s probably not the author. I mean, someone ‘probably’ thinks Tucker is adorable, right?

“I’m being mean, sorry.

“I will point out that, although Tucker has become a sensation, he is only just bordering on the definition of ‘meme.’

There are too few derivative works with varying degrees of social application to consider him as such (the term ‘meme’ is overused in describing specific sociocultural phenomena, so cut that shit out).

So don’t pigeonhole Tucker. In fact, I would hazard a guess that most downtown (read: Capitol district) folk enjoyed his company long before his foray into social media.

“I used to hang out with him on the courthouse steps after a date with the law.

He would occasionally accompany me the few feet from the front doors of The Oxford to Sono in exchange for a light cheek scratch. He is urbane and genteel. He keeps vigil in the shade. We rightfully worship this tremendous feline. If you want something to call gross, do more reporting on the NCGOP.” “When I saw him, I thought it was sick or pregnant,” Varvara Krasa writes on Facebook. “Now I know that it’s just a very old and fat cat.”

“He is chonky and he is proud!” adds Leslie Lazarus.

As for Tucker himself, his human assistant, Ron Kirk, texted: “He read the story, and, while indifferent, he didn’t have any complaints.”

That’s the best we could have hoped for.

Last week, Tauss also wrote about how the Raleigh City Council had diverted $30,000 from its contingency fund to a nonprofit that provides health care to the indigent but also has ties to an anti-abortion group and a pro-LGBTQ conversion church.

After we published the story online—but before the print edition hit the streets— council member Kay Crowder, who pushed

“The term ‘meme’ is overused in describing specific socio-cultural phenomena, so cut that shit out.”

her colleagues to award NeighborHealth Center the money, announced that she had changed her mind and wanted to rescind the grant.

Matt Ballentine doesn’t see what the big deal is: “This happens all the time with Catholic and Muslim nonprofits, hospitals, and universities. What exactly is the difference here? Of course they are personally pro-life but also have to abide by the patient’s choice. The connection to conversion therapy is a stretch. According to their website, they have twenty-three partners, including six different churches of various backgrounds, homeless shelters, and the YMCA. So because one of these twenty-three partners has a link on their own website for Beyond Imagination, it’s implied that this community health center is complicit as well? I’m glad they were awarded this grant. This article states that they’ve seen 1,190 uninsured patients.

That’s an amazing thing.”

Amy Simpson doesn’t think it’s quite so amazing: “How was this even a consideration? The description [of NeighborHealth as] ‘faith-based’ should have been all they needed to know to decline the grant. The First Amendment prohibits giving public funds to religious organizations.”

And George Greene writes that council member Stef Mendell’s rationale for saying that NeighborHealth should keep the money even though she thought the council’s decision was a mistake “is plumb stupid.

No matter how good their work may be, there are plenty of other health-care-related nonprofits that could use that same money to do the same amount of good, without the pseudo-religious bigotry attached.”

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Join the INDY Press Club at KeepItINDY.com.

Want to see your name in bold? Email us at backtalk@indyweek.com, comment on indyweek.com or our Facebook page, or hit us up on Twitter @indyweek.

INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 5

indynews

White Noise

ordinance the loud a warrant w seized. W to whethe content o concerne and the fa plaint fro Barnett content, w “Islamic“When people an for a wh kind of s Barnette While the ACLU of North Carolina hear that declined to comment on the specifics of Barnett the case, field manager Jessica Turner says “I don’t h the situation follows “a disturbing pattern person th of people calling 911 on black and brown he says— people for simply engaging in everyday life Thompso like gardening in their backyard. It’s quite wake him literally life and death for people of color playing s hours pro when the police are called on them.”

Last year, several police-involved inci- These dents of “existing while black” made nation- part of a al news, including a white Yale student who before Ba called the cops on a black student napping his Labra in a common area, black men arrested while Yorkie aft waiting for a friend at a Philadelphia Star- no charge bucks, and a white man who called Win- police. B ston-Salem police because a black woman playing th harassed was using a community pool.

Thompson—whose daughter Takiyah “My fam was among the activists who toppled a Con- of a hate c federate monument in Durham in 2017— “The v says her rights have similarly been violated. up the ph “I’m a second-class citizen in the eyes crime tha of Garner and the Garner PD,” she told the playing INDY after her first run-in with the police counters. on April 22. “It feels like the things that black, and Malcolm X spoke about in the sixties are black, and On Ma exactly the same in 2019.” police a se She recorded one visit from the police house at a that day and posted it online. In the video, an officer told her she was playing speeches that he co

by Malcolm X and Angela Davis too loudly. line—whi The speeches are audible in the background Garner’s n but don’t overpower Thompson and the is, as ther is “detrim officer’s conversation.

In a statement, Garner police told the any indiv INDY the stereo’s speaker was pointed at The po from a m Barnette’s house.

“Our officers did everything they could at Thomp at the time to try and bring a peaceful con- execute it clusion to this issue before seizing the Binns s speaker,” Captain Joe Binns wrote in an to “keep t email. “First, we warned Ms. Thompson “It’s gon and asked her to turn it down. When she just beca refused and received a second complaint, Thompso we issued her a citation for violation of the radio bac

AFTER A WHITE NEIGHBOR CALLED 911, GARNER POLICE RAIDED A BLACK WOMAN’S HOME, SEIZED HER PHONES AND COMPUTERS, AND CHARGED HER WITH PLAYING LOUD MALCOLM X SPEECHES

BY LEIGH TAUSS

A

t about 10:00 p.m. Thursday, a swarm of Garner cops banged on Mikisa Thompson’s door, as police cars, with red and blue lights flashing, flooded the street in front of her split-level house on Vandora Springs Road, partially blocking traffic. A booming voice demanded that she and her family step outside.

It’s unclear how many officers were there—at least a half-dozen, though Thompson thinks it was twice that. (A police captain couldn’t give a precise number.) Regardless, it was a large enough presence to frighten Thompson’s children, who hid in the upstairs bathroom.

But then they realized that Thompson would be facing armed police alone, and that scared them more. So, with a cell phone broadcasting the incident on Twitter, they went downstairs as she opened the front door. The police read Thompson a search warrant. Then they spread throughout the house, seizing a MacBook, an HP laptop, a computer monitor, computer speakers, seven iPhones, and an alarm clock. They also issued her a summons to appear in court on June 24.

“My children were terrified,” Thompson says. “I was terrified that there was a whole bunch of men with guns in my house.”

Her alleged crime: violating the town’s noise ordinance, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of a $500 fine.

Specifically, they’d executed a search warrant late at night, seeking and confiscating any device capable of producing disruptive noise, because Thompson’s white neighbor had complained that she’d played Malcolm X speeches too loudly.

“The raid was officially insane and based on an unconstitutional statute,” says Thompson’s attorney, T. Greg Doucette. “Doing a midnight raid with nine officers—over a noise ordinance, of all things—is a disproportionate show of force that shows there’s something else 6 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

Mikisa Thompson

PHOTO BY LEIGH TAUSS

at play. That’s the type of overkill that’s intentionally designed to terrorize and punish people, not to actually do what’s necessary for enforcing the case.”

This wasn’t the first time the Garner police had seized Thompson’s property for allegedly violating the noise ordinance following the same neighbor’s complaint.

On April 22, Don Barnette called 911 to say that Thompson, who has a Black Lives Matter sign in front of her house, was playing “loud Islamic-Muslim preaching” in her backyard while she cleaned her patio.

Officers came to her property three times that day, eventually issuing her a $50 fine for violating the noise ordinance and then obtaining a search warrant and seizing her $250 beFree stereo.

She’s yet to get it back, she says.

They returned on May 16 because Barnette told police that Thompson had continued to play “amplified speech being projected by some sound amplification device,” according to the second search warrant.

The police never conducted a decibel reading to see how loud the sound actually

was. Under Garner’s noise ordinance, they don’t have to. The section Thompson allegedly violated bans “the creation of any unreasonably loud, disturbing and unnecessary noise … of such character, intensity, and duration as to be detrimental to the health and welfare of any individual.”

The ordinance also forbids the “playing of any radio, phonograph, television set, record player, sound reproduction device or any musical instrument in such a manner or with such volume during the hours between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., as to annoy or disturb the quiet, comfort, or repose of persons in any dwelling house, apartment or other type of residence.”

None of Thompson’s alleged violations of the ordinance occurred during this time period, so the police did not cite this portion of the ordinance in the warrant.

Jonathan Jones, a Durham lawyer who specializes in First Amendment law, says the ordinance’s vague wording leaves the question of whether a crime occurred up to the police. That “creates a standard that is too flexible and therefore open to abuse.”

ordinance. And finally, when she continued the loud and unreasonable noise, a search warrant was obtained and the speaker was seized. While I cannot make an inference as to whether Mr. Barnette took issue with the content of the noise, our officers were only concerned about how loud the noise was and the fact that we had a valid noise complaint from a neighbor.”

Barnette did take issue with the noise’s content, which he described to the INDY as “Islamic-Jihadist-type messages.”

“When it’s talking about killing white people and if you’re black and you still work for a white man, you’re a slave, all that kind of stuff, I don’t need to hear that,” Barnette says. “My grandkids don’t need to hear that mess.”

Barnette, sixty-five, says he’s not racist— “I don’t have anything against any black person that acts like they’ve got sense,” he says—but the noise coming from Thompson’s property was loud enough to wake him up at 7:15 a.m. (Thompson denies playing speeches that early, or during the hours proscribed by the ordinance.)

These neighborly tensions appear to be part of an ongoing dispute. A few weeks before Barnette called 911 on Thompson, his Labrador retriever killed Thompson’s Yorkie after the Yorkie got under the fence; no charges were filed, according to Garner police. But Barnette says Thompson is playing the victim while his family is being harassed through the excessive noise.

“My family and I feel like we are victims of a hate crime,” he says.

“The victim of a hate crime is picking up the phone on black people whose only crime that you can detect is that they are playing ‘Islamic speeches,’” Thompson counters. “All you know is it was loud, it was black, and it was somebody proud of being black, and you wanted to put it to an end.”

On May 16, after Barnette contacted the police a second time, officers met him at his house at about 5:30 p.m. An officer reported that he could hear sound from the property line—which, again, is only violating Garner’s noise ordinance if the police say it is, as there’s no objective standard for what is “detrimental to the health and welfare of any individual.”

The police obtained a search warrant from a magistrate at 8:45 p.m. and arrived at Thompson’s house at about 10:00 p.m. to execute it.

Binns says the police were merely trying to “keep the peace” in the neighborhood.

“It’s gone to the extreme that it has mainly just because of the uncooperation of Ms. Thompson and the fact she keeps turning her radio back up and annoying her neighbors,”

says Binns, who says he’s unaware of any other noise-related complaints against Thompson. “We normally don’t have to go to this step. We’ve charged many other folks before with a noise ordinance violation, but never to this extreme.”

Doucette calls the raid “absolute overkill.

All crime in Garner must have been solved” for the police to commit that many resources to a misdemeanor violation, he says. (The Garner Police Department has sixty-three sworn officers, according to its website.)

The police took computers and phones “to make their lives harder, to make sure they had no way of communicating with anyone,” Doucette adds. An iPhone, he points out, can’t produce disruptive noise; the police also left the family’s televisions.

“It is punitive. It’s not trying to do an investigation, it’s not trying to gather evidence for the district attorney to decide what to do,” Doucette says. “It is trying to use the process to punish someone even though they have not actually committed a crime.”

Though the Garner police say they were only concerned with “how loud the noise was,” the May 16 search warrant notes twice that Thompson was playing Malcolm X. Jones says that “just sets of all sorts of red flags that perhaps there’s some animus here about the actual content as opposed to just the noise level.” If the content played a role in the police’s action—consciously or subconsciously—that would be a violation of the First Amendment. Courts have ruled that all restrictions on speech have to be content-neutral.

Interestingly, the police had responded to a noise complaint at Thompson’s address in March 2015, before she lived there. In that incident, records show, an officer noted that music “could be heard from the street.” But the officer decided that the music didn’t violate the ordinance, so he didn’t issue a citation.

After her first encounter with the Garner police, Thompson told the INDY that she couldn’t sleep.

“I don't feel comfortable here,” she said, “because it’s not just the neighbors. It’s the police that uphold the white supremacist ideology. That’s painful.”

At 3:00 a.m. Friday, five hours after the cops raided her house, Thompson emailed to say she feared for her life: “There was no provocation or warning,” she wrote. “They were watching the house all day. Garner PD wants to kill me.”

Since the raid, the family has moved into a hotel, Doucette says. ltauss@indyweek.com

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Caroline Sullivan Doesn’t Have Time to Be Petty AFTER BEATING CANCER, THE RALEIGH MAYORAL CANDIDATE THINKS SHE CAN BRING TOGETHER AN INCREASINGLY POLARIZED CITY BY LEIGH TAUSS

C

aroline Sullivan describes herself as the world’s luckiest unlucky person.

In 2016, Sullivan was a member of the Wake County Board of Commissioners. After Democrats swept the board in 2014, the GOP-led General Assembly had overhauled how commissioners were elected, creating gerrymandered single-member districts and two “super districts,” one of which Sullivan ran for. But late in the election season, a court threw out the new districts and reinstated the old. Sullivan was essentially left without a race.

A few months later, another blow came.

The day after Donald Trump’s election, Sullivan learned she had breast cancer. It was a long, hard-fought battle, and she still bears the scars, but she beat it.

Now, she’s ready for another fight.

In March, Sullivan—the executive director of the North Carolina Business Committee for Education, a nonprofit operating out of the governor’s office— announced that she’s running for mayor of Raleigh. She presents herself as a unifying force in a city polarized by issues of growth and neighborhood protection, and argues that she can push the city council to get out of the weeds and see the bigger picture.

The INDY spoke with Sullivan—one of four declared candidates for mayor; the others are former council member (and Sullivan’s friend) Mary-Ann Baldwin, Raleigh lawyer Charles Francis, and former council candidate Zainab Baloch—earlier this month about why she believes she’s the best person for the job.

This interview has been edited and condensed. Listen to the entire 8 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

conversation—including more on Sullivan’s background and what drew her to politics— on INDYcast, which you can find on iTunes or Stitcher, or at soundcloud.com/indycast.

INDY: You’ve been out of politics for a few years. Why get back in it now?

CAROLINE SULLIVAN: Sometimes, in life and in politics, it's all about timing—the timing of what’s good for the city and also what’s good for the candidate. Personally, I am at a new juncture in my life. I will be an empty-nester. I’ve been focused on my kids for a while and now I’m ready to focus more holistically on the community and the city.

In the city, it’s a time of change and growth and the problems we’re facing are complex and need a collaborative approach to solve them both in the short term and the long term. And I’ve got a history and a track record of doing that. I’ve professionally worked in the federal system, federal government, the state government, the county government.

I now work in a nonprofit where we have business leaders addressing educational issues. I’ve been on many boards that focus on everything from early intervention and mental health and child abuse to housing and health and patient care. So I think I’m able to synthesize the systems, the nonprofits in the community in a way that is helpful as we reach this point of the city.

We’ve heard that Mayor Nancy McFarlane asked you to run. She’s been frustrated with how things have been going on the council for a couple of months. Are there things that frustrate you about with the direction the city’s headed in?

Caroline Sullivan

PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA

Number one, especially in times of change and growth, you need to get out ahead with your vision—what’s the shared vision of the community and how do you bring people together to come up with this shared vision?

Because then it’s easier to move forward with policies if we all know what we’re working toward. But also I think some of what is going on at the federal level and the state level is starting to bleed down into local politics, which is really unfortunate and unnecessary. These are not partisan boards.

I am an eternal optimist, and I believe people are good. And I think that if we can figure

out where each other are coming from, we can come up with a solution. I heard what Nancy was talking about [with] a “reset,” and I think things have gotten kind of toxic, and I don’t think they have to be.

There seems to be this ideological divide between people who want to preserve what they believe makes Raleigh a great place and people who want to embrace the city’s growth. Where do you see yourself?

Sometimes when there’s a time of great change, you want to try to keep everything the same, and that’s understandable. But

the growth is going to happen. So we’ve got to figure out, as a community, how do we grow together forward and not leave people behind? And I think we need to have that conversation. A lot of these big, complex issues, we’ve been focusing on one or two little strategies, and you’ve got to have a lot of strategies all fired at the same time. But you’ve got to do it under this umbrella of a shared vision and path forward.

One big proposal is John Kane’s plan to build a forty-story tower, which wouldn’t border on any single-family neighborhoods. Is this how we need to build density downtown?

I think it’s a balance between neighbors that are there and where you’re building the density, but you’re [building] in places where there aren’t that many neighbors. We’ve got to have more density, and we have to have more stock. That’s part of the problem.

There’s this supply-and-demand portion of this discussion to where we’re growing a lot, and there are not enough places for people to go. So density where it makes sense.

You’ve talked about providing opportunities and lifting up a diverse group of people. My question is, how are we able to combat gentrification in a way that also embraces the growth we're seeing?

It’s hard. And it’s another [issue] that cities all over face. Where people want to live has changed. And the demographics of our city have also changed. Some of the people love it, and it’s less folks with two-point-five children who are going to public schools and want to live in the suburbs. And a lot of times, it’s more older people who don’t want houses or younger people who don’t want or can’t afford houses. But a lot of people want to live close to downtown. There is a generation coming up changing their relationship with the automobile, which is something we need to look at when we’re thinking about transit and roads in the future.

But when it comes to the changing of the cities, you have to go back to that comprehensive plan. That is one of the pieces of this complex issue and how can you try to protect what you have—you know, protect the stock that you have that’s affordable before it gets sold to something not affordable. And also, how can you engage with the community on strategies through different funding sources to try to protect people who need to sell, but might not want to sell to a developer who might put up something that’s substantially different than what is there now?

There’s also this piece of community. Is community the exact house where you live?

Is community what things look like? Or is

community who you are? And how do you build community in a different way? I am a firm believer that the path forward out of the issues Raleigh has—and let’s face it, this is a fantastic place—[is that we have] got to figure out, how do we bring it together and how do we do it as a community? We view each other not as neighbors and family, but as the other, and it’s dangerous. And a lot of the reason why we can view each other as an other is because we just don’t have the opportunity to know each other. That’s the kind of community that we’re also talking about.

“Is community the exact house where you live?

Is community what things look like?

Or is community who you are?”

Zoning questions are part of the bigger vision question. The council seems to play very close attention to a vocal minority, and council members are very hesitant to make anyone upset. Are you willing to make some of those hard choices?

Life is all about hard choices, but I think you need to bring everybody together. And I think when you have a real conversation that’s not coming from a place of animosity, but coming from a place of value, that we can all go forward as a community together.

[The county’s transit initiative] didn’t make

everybody [happy]. Nobody walked out of that transit process getting everything they wanted, but everybody walked out of it feeling heard and understanding what these choices were. When all of this energy is around housing, which is fantastic, we need to harness that—get leaders from the county and the city and nonprofits and developers and funders and all the banks, people who were all in this space can work on this together because it is not going away.

You served on Wake County Board of Commissioners from 2012 to 2016. What were your biggest achievements?

When I got elected—and this is the thing people need to understand: politicians will listen to you—a constituent I had never met before gave me a call, and she was a nurse and getting a graduate degree, but she also had a child with some significant health challenges. She was in Apex, where it was one nurse for two thousand eight hundred and fifty students, which is appalling. The General Assembly has never supported nurses in Wake. So I worked with the county staff and one of my Republican colleagues to get in the budget the first substantial expansion in the human services that we have had post-recession, adding ten nurses a year for four years. People in my kids’ schools and the teachers still say that’s the most impactful thing.

The second one I think is mental health.

I was the point-person on mental health in the county. It’s a complex issue. We launched the Wake Network of Care. It’s a one-stop shop for human services and support, and it’s got a great mental health library and all of the crisis lines. And we funded a position to keep that up.

I had another constituent who wanted to talk about the gender gap, which it turns out in Wake County is worse than the gender gap nationally. And when the constituent came to talk to me, I did some research and decided we needed to look into it. We had a task force where we had great leaders work together for nine months on recommendations on how to address this gender gap. We decided to form a collective impact model called Wake Invests in Women, and I still serve on that advisory board. This is important not just for the equality piece of it. It’s important because we need everybody in this community work to their greatest abilities because we need to grow a talent pipeline in the city.

So 2016 was a tough year for you. First, you were essentially prevented from running for reelection. And then, the day after Trump was elected president, you got some pretty devastating news.

Yes. I was diagnosed with breast cancer the day after the election. It’s just the whole world falling apart for Caroline that day. I’m pretty tough, so I’ve never, you know, I’m not wanting to feel sorry for myself and I’m one to just think—what do we need to do? I just moved forward with the surgery and, you know, what kind of treatment we needed to to do. Just the timing was really interesting and ironic. But I’m lucky. I’m a very lucky unlucky person. I had good insurance and great doctors and we have good hospitals and lots of support and fantastic family and friends. Cancer’s a journey. I think, at the end of the day, if you're lucky enough to have all of these supports, it’ll make you strong.

How do you think cancer changed your approach to politics?

You have a different view of what’s important and time. I’m less likely to get upset about personal slights, and I’m less likely to want to spend my time being spiteful or vengeful or any of those things.

I never really was much of that anyway.

But I think life’s a gift and, you know, none of us have unlimited amounts of time. And if you view how lucky we are, and if you have the gift to be able to have time and the experience and the ability to try to make things better for people, you should.

So this lets you put aside the pettiness that comes with politics.

I’m not gonna fall into any sort of a toxic trap. It’s unnecessary and unhelpful. I’m trying to talk to everybody. I think one of the things that the mayor can do to try to bring the council together is to understand where everybody’s coming from and what is important to their district and what their district needs, but also being able to take the long view of the city and how does that all fit together.

There are other people in this race who’ve had experience on the city council. What makes you the best person to lead the city in 2020?

My skill set and how I approach government and challenges is the right fit for right now. I’m not running against anybody. I’m running for what I think I can do to help my community. I think it’s great so many people are running, actually. But I think at this time, the city needs somebody who has experience and a track record of taking on complex problems and finding ways to address them holistically, systematically, and having people be a part of it.

And that person’s you?

That’s what I think. ltauss@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 9

804 W. Peace St. • Raleigh • 834-7070

217 WEST MILLBROOK RD. 919-787-9894

10 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

Welcome to Gilead

ALABAMA’S ABORTION BAN ISN’T ABOUT ABORTION. IT’S ABOUT CONTROL.

BY JEFFREY C. BILLMAN

L

ast Tuesday, two-dozen scientifically illiterate white men in Alabama who believe they are on a mission from their invisible sky deity declared that a doctor who terminates the pregnancy of a twelve-year-old rape victim—a routine, humane, and decidedly uncontroversial medical procedure everywhere else in the developed world—should spend more time in prison than the rapist who impregnates her.

Last Wednesday, Governor Kay Ivey signed their bill into law, proclaiming it “a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious [and] that every life is a sacred gift from God.” About that sacred gift: Alabama has the worst education system, the secondhighest infant mortality rate, and the fifthhighest child poverty rate in the country, with one in four kids living below the poverty line, most of them clustered in majority-black counties. Half of the state’s counties have no obstetrician. Nearly 90 percent of its rural hospitals are bleeding red ink. And, of course, the state has refused to expand Medicaid.

Like a car that leaves the lot, that sacred gift becomes a lot less valuable the second it slips out of the birth canal.

What Ivey meant to say is not that every life is sacred, but—to borrow from Monty Python—that every sperm is sacred. Actually, not even that—and not even that every fertilized egg is sacred, because Alabama’s abortion ban doesn’t apply to fertilized eggs stored in a lab, only fertilized eggs inside women. (Coincidentally, white women of means are more likely to use in vitro fertilization. Women of color account for about two-thirds of Alabama’s abortions.)

It’s not even about abortion, either. If Alabama really wanted to further reduce the number of abortions—the number of Alabama abortions fell 41 percent from 2005 to 2016, before an uptick in 2017— it could follow Colorado’s lead and make widely available free and low-cost IUDs.

After Colorado began doing that in 2009, its teen birth rate declined by 54 percent and its teen abortion rate dropped by 64 percent over the next eight years.

An ounce of prevention, after all, is worth a pound of cure. But again, preventing abortion is not what this is about. It’s about control. What this law seeks to codify—and what Alabama lawmakers truly consider sacred—is the right of a small but politically powerful cohort of social conservatives to dictate traditional gender roles and enforce sexual mores according to their interpretation of fundamentalist dogma.

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Indeed, in neither Alabama nor anywhere else does such an aggressive attack on reproductive rights have majority support; even Pat Robertson—yes, that Pat Robertson—thinks it’s extreme.

Alabama isn’t alone, of course. Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri have all undertaken similar efforts, with bills that ban abortion when a “heartbeat” can be detected, usually around six to eight weeks of gestation, under the theory that having a “heartbeat” imbues a fetus with

personhood. Never mind that it’s not a heartbeat; at this stage of development, a fetus—the size of a shrimp and lacking a central nervous system—doesn’t have a heart. What’s being detected is cardiac activity from a tissue called a fetal pole.

Then again, it’s not like the anti-choice crew have ever been sticklers for science.

Georgia’s ban includes exemptions for victims of rape and incest. The laws in Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri—like Alabama—do not.

By design, all of this is unconstitutional, or rather, explicitly designed to force the Supreme Court to reassess abortion’s constitutionality. Almost a half-century ago, Roe v. Wade legalized the right to abortion; two decades later, Casey v.

Planned Parenthood affirmed that right. The Supreme Court has held that states cannot prevent women from obtaining abortions before a fetus is viable, roughly through the second trimester.

But with two new, uber-conservative Supreme Court justices on the bench— appointed by a president of dubious legitimacy and confirmed by a Senate that represented a clear minority of the American population—anti-choice activists see opportunity: Though neither the science nor the legal arguments have changed since Casey, they believe Donald Trump’s rightwing court majority will simply disregard precedent and throw Roe out the window, embracing the textbook definition of judicialfries at a C doesn’t fin activism conservatives claim to loathe.

And you know what? They’re probablysubscribe right. Which makes you wonder: What’sthis is wh next? Gay marriage? Further erosions ofTriangle’s civil rights? Authoritarian power grabs? Brooks For the right—desperate to impose its will1990s, bu as it slips into a demographic and culturalthough, it minority—if the courts are no longerbut fast-g willing to be democracy’s backstop againstcompostin extremism, then everything’s on the table. created th That worst-case scenario we warned youmost of th Triangle— about in 2016? It’s here.

T

jbillman@indyweek.comAmy Bro

THE BEAUTIFUL BUSINESS OF

Decomposition As climate change looms, composting is becoming more popular.

But the industry is surprisingly precarious.

STORY BY AMANDA ABRAMS • PHOTOS BY BOB KARP hirty years ago, this thirty-acre patch of dirt in southwestern Chatham County was a dairy farm. Today, full of big machines busily moving piles around, it’s growing something else.

When a kid tosses out her French fries at a Chapel Hill school, when a Durham Co-Op customer doesn’t finish his chickpeas, or when a Raleigh CompostNow subscriber puts a bucket of scraps out to be whisked away, this is where it all ends up: Brooks Contractor, one of the Triangle’s only large-scale composting facilities.

Brooks has been engaged in composting since the early 1990s, but the company has faced hard times. These days, though, it’s on the upswing, thanks to CompostNow, a small but fast-growing company that’s somehow managed to make composting sexy. Together, Brooks and CompostNow have created their own small ecosystem, symbiotically harvesting most of the residential and consumer-driven compost in the Triangle—and reaping profits in the process.

T

But as composting goes mainstream and cities like Durham consider progressive new policies, that tenuous balance could shift. The change would likely be a win for the region’s residents, but it could significantly alter the landscape for the current big players.

First, though, a tutorial. Composting, of course, is the act of letting organic matter decay naturally, something gardeners and eco-minded folks have been doing for decades.

But with climate change an ever-looming threat, the practice has gotten more notice—for good reason. Composting aficionados talk about how composting “closes the loop” on the farm-to-table philosophy: It returns organic matter to its origins so that it can once again be productive. In contrast, food and paper products that go into a landfill take up critical space, produce methane—a greenhouse gas—and can never be used again.

In the United States, food scraps make up roughly 22 percent of waste, the largest single component; a 2016 Durham waste study found that about 30 percent of the

city’s trash is compostable. So if we want to cut down on the amount of trash going to the landfill, the best place to start is with food.

There are other benefits to composting, too: It captures carbon, reducing the amount in the air. It also adds fertility and beneficial microbes to soil, cutting down on the need for pesticides and artificial fertilizers.

“Most North Carolina soils have less than one percent organic matter. When you add compost, you’re jumpstarting all of that activity,” says Frank Franciosi, the Raleigh-based director of the U.S. Composting Council.

“There are all these positive ecosystem services that you get by producing and using compost.”

Those advantages are well-known now, though they weren’t when Dean Brooks was seeking an alternative to dairy farming in 1989. But he saw an opportunity in the state’s new Solid Waste Management Act, which banned some organic waste from landfills, and he began collecting debris from chicken hatcheries.

Amy Brooks Fulford, assistant compost facility manager of Brooks Contractor INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 11

It was a start, but his facility didn’t really begin flourishing for a decade, not until Orange County sought his help boosting its composting program.

“We engaged with Brooks and set up a contract whereby Orange County paid Brooks to pick up food waste from larger-scale commercial generators,” recalls Blair Pollock, a solid waste planner with the county.

That launched Brooks’s foray into composting food scraps on a large scale, something novel at the time.

“I think we were the first company on the East Coast to collect [organic waste] the way we do and compost it,” says Amy Brooks Fulford, Brooks’s food-waste collection manager and a partial owner of the family business. (She is Dean’s daughter and grew up at the facility.)

Orange County wound up launching what’s been the Triangle’s most forward-thinking composting program.

For a while, the county paid Brooks to collect food waste from big generators like UNC—both the university and

Amy Brooks Fulford talks with a loader operator. the hospital—as well as Whole Foods, Weaver Street Market, and the Chapel Hill Restaurant Group’s eateries.

Eventually, it sent most of them off to negotiate their own contracts with Brooks, though the county’s program still covers about forty local restaurants and institutions.

And at every elementary and middle school in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School system, kids segregate their food waste and Brooks picks it up for composting, for which the company is paid about $40,000 a year. (Because the system’s trash pickup costs are reduced, that program is cost neutral.) In five years, the school system has diverted 1.3 million pounds of food waste from the landfill.

Meanwhile, other institutions got on the bandwagon.

Duke University has been collecting and sending its compost to Brooks for years, as has the EPA office in the Research Triangle Park.

For Brooks, this has all been good news. The compost biz is surprisingly precarious. The material might be waste, but transporting it costs money, and the machinery needed to pick up, turn, screen, and deliver it comes with a high price tag. A single piece of equipment can cost half a million dollars. Today, though, the company—which is deeply invested in advancing sustainable practices in the 12 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

region—processes about sixty-five thousand tons annually, assisting with transport and providing a destination facility.

There, over the course of six months to a year, organic waste slowly turns into rich black dirt.

That finished compost has found its way to the landscaped yards of new developments all over the Triangle, as well as farms and university campuses, including Duke Gardens.

Composting isn’t yet at a point where it makes good economic sense, though. In Orange County, the institutions that donate food scraps to Brooks benefit from lower trashpickup costs. But the entire operation is subsidized by the county, which pays Brooks up to $180,000 a year. For businesses that have their own contracts with Brooks, the costs can vary.

“Smaller businesses, if they really sharpen their pencil, can get close to making diversion of food waste pay for itself,” says Pollock.

Close, yes, but not all the way there. At this point, it’s still cheaper to simply throw food scraps away—which means that for many companies, composting is a missiondriven decision.

But that dynamic changed somewhat when CompostNow entered the market. Started in 2011

by Matt Rostetter of Raleigh, the compost collection company has seen exponential growth, quickly gobbling up competitors Tilthy Rich Compost and Food Forward. The business now also operates in Asheville, Charleston, and Atlanta, but about half of its five thousand members are in the Triangle.

With its ease of use, reasonable prices, and good timing, CompostNow has managed to make rotting vegetation cool. And it’s achieved something else that diehard environmentalists have been waiting for: “They’ve planted that seed of, this isn’t waste, it’s a valuable resource that’s not being used properly,” says Franciosi of the U.S. Composting Council.

In essence, CompostNow has served as an ambassador for the practice.

The message has certainly gotten through to Lakisha Chichester, a Durham resident and enthusiastic CompostNow customer. She says she’s no tree hugger; a coworker turned her on to the benefits of composting.

“After that conversation, every time I scraped something into the trash, I thought about it: What am I doing—why am I taking something that can be used and putting it in the trash?” says Chichester. Like two-thirds of the company’s clients, she doesn’t ask for the finished compost (which is free to customers); it simply feels like the right thing to do.

This sentiment is becoming increasingly common.

Office-based composting, for example, has been taking off “unlike anything we’ve seen before,” says Kat Negro, the head of marketing and engagement for CompostNow. “We see this demand from employees to work in a sustainable, environmentally focused office. Employers are thinking it helps attract talent.”

CompostNow also services Wake County’s compost collection sites and has hundreds of smaller institutional clients all over the region.

ind

But that expansion is possible only through its collaboration with Brooks Contractor. CompostNow specializes in collecting, sorting through, and cleaning out compost bins, something Brooks doesn’t really have time for. Meanwhile, Brooks provides the acreage, machinery, and know-how to create the final product. Together, they’ve found a mutually beneficial balance.

This being a relatively nascent industry, however, that balance could shift. And it might. Durham has big plans that could make it a leader in composting across the state and perhaps even the nation, but that could affect CompostNow’s business model.

At the moment, Durham contracts with the company Atlas Organics to compost its yard waste at a facility on East Club Boulevard. But the city owns five acres of compost sheds that are permitted to receive and compost food scraps, as well as biosolids. The latter is treated sewageBY AN sludge—aka human feces. Its use on food crops is mildly controversial, but the substance is heavily regulated and t’s tested by the EPA to ensure its safety. Like animal manure, even it increases soil fertility. gent What all of that means is that Durham could be doing farcovered p more composting than it currently is. And it’s fixing to changehighest va that. Once this exceptionally wet spring dries out, Atlas willviews of experiment with composting a combination of yard wastehorizon. and biosolids. Meanwhile, the city government will researchto take i and pilot a program to collect household food scraps. pose for “The city is really interested in making this happen,”compani says Muriel Williman, Durham’s senior assistant solidmetropol waste manager. She was hired five months ago to helpsetting is guide this initiative. somethin How exactly it’ll all work is unclear—but some big brains Where are on it. Durham’s Innovation Team, which is funded by Chris B Bloomberg Philanthropies, together with Duke’s CenterAberneth for Advanced Hindsight have taken on the project and arequestion currently examining best practices around the country andpassed by the barriers Durham faces. In six to twelve months, they’llBrewpub pilot a curbside collection program with about two hundredarchitect households that are already signed up for yard waste collec-2006, a y tion and see how it goes.

Cap—and Durham will also establish drop-off sites for food waste.Raleigh c If municipal curbside compost collection succeeds, though,the brew it would be the first in the state—and make Durham one ofbeen kno only a few dozen municipalities in the country to compostbest vie all three types of organic waste that a city produces: yardRaleigh, waste, biosolids, and food waste. maybe b “The ramifications are huge, not to mention the carbonoften emp reduction,” says Williman. “Talk about resilient cities—wesixty-five could do all of it ourselves.” in Decem But if Durham established residential curbside food-wasteSan Diego pickup and did its own composting, the big loser would beupon the CompostNow, which has hundreds of subscribers in the city.if it was o Brooks, with its wider customer base, would be less affect-one was i ed—although that might change, too, if Durham’s initiative “We goes well and other municipalities start their own compost-imagine w ing programs. Already, Carrboro officials are mulling launch-this place ing their own curbside food scrap pickup effort.

The ne CompostNow says it’s not concerned. And who knows?ing a brew Durham might decide to hire CompostNow to do the curb-Aberneth side pickup. After all, that’s what the company does. with Boy No matter what, no one’s going to suffer too badly. Asitself: Fam everyone in the industry agrees, there’s more than enoughple to Lea organic waste to go around. about a p backtalk@indyweek.complan to tr

Bo

BOYLA A CRO

I

indyfood

WYE HILL KITCHEN + BREWERY 201 South Boylan Street, Raleigh www.wyehill.com | Opens June 5

Boylan Bridge Has Fallen Down

BOYLAN BRIDGE BREWPUB, WHICH HAD KILLER VIEWS OF DOWNTOWN RALEIGH BUT STRUGGLED TO DRAW A CROWD, CLOSED SUNDAY. ITS NEW OWNERS HAVE BIG PLANS—AND A NEW NAME—FOR THE SPACE.

BY ANDREA RICE

I

The same creative flair will go into Wye wye is not only symbolic for a change in gether. Leager was ready to retire. Runt’s a beautiful, balmy late-spring Hill’s boutique wine offerings, which will direction. It’s also a hub where we meet and ning the bar, he told Borreson, “has been evening just before sunset. A warm, include several on tap that will rotate part ways, a stopover that takes us from very hard.” gentle breeze drifts through a woodthrough the seasons. Max Trujillo, who place to another.

By September 2018, the couple had covered patio bar nestled atop one of the was hired as a consultant, is developing The first order of business was to acquired the brewpub. They immediately highest vantage points in the city. Sweeping pre-made batch cocktails—old-fashioneds, improve the beers on tap. That began began devising a new concept, including views of a burgeoning skyline adorn the margaritas—that will be served as a shot several months ago. They hired Brad Wynn a new name. On Sunday, Boylan Bridge horizon. A cold beer in hand, you pause and paired with a beer. to take it all in, or maybe “We’re a brewery first,” pose for pictures with your Trujillo says. “The beer companion against the is preliminary, then it’s metropolitan backdrop. The culinary, then cocktail, setting is perfect, and yet but it all pushes back to something is amiss. the brewery.”

Where is everybody?

Which is exactly where Chris Borreson and Sara the concept behind Wye Abernethy had the same Hill’s chef-driven bar food question the first time they comes in. Bobby McFarland passed by the Boylan Bridge (Royale, Cafe Lucarne) has Brewpub. Established by developed a menu more architect Andrew Leager in appealing to herbivores than 2006, a year after Pop the the heavy classic pub fare of Cap—and at the vanguard of Leager’s reign.

Raleigh craft-beer scene— From a chicken the brewpub’s patio has saltimbocca, an Italianbeen known for having the style chicken breast served best view of downtown over cheesy purple grits, Raleigh, despite being (or to Fox Farm & Forage maybe because it was) so mushrooms drizzled with often empty. It was a perfect garlic and honey, to beersixty-five-degree evening forward pilsner mussels in December 2017, and the with chorizo, to Durham’s San Diego transplants came Snap Peas with tahini yogurt upon the bar and wondered topped with hazelnuts if it was open. It was, but no and fresh mint, inclusive one was inside. decadence is a common “We asked ourselves, theme. The new menu will imagine what we could do to Sara Abernethy and Chris Borreson will open Wye Hill Kitchen + Brewery on June 5. PHOTO BY ANDREA RICE also include a pub cheese this place,” says Abernethy. upgrade and a Super Sexy Burger—a short (formerly of Big Boss and Pennsylvania’s officially ended its run. In its place, opening The newlyweds hadn’t considered openrib and sirloin blend from Firsthand Foods Victory), who switched to local malts and June 5: Wye Hill Kitchen + Brewing. ing a brewery when they moved to Raleigh, topped with fried pickled okra. developed six new nano-batch beers— The name is connected to their vision Abernethy’s hometown, in May 2017, but Wye Hill will initially open for dinner, one of which, a delightful sour, was a for the space, as an inclusive neighborhood with Boylan, the opportunity presented eventually expanding to lunch and dinner refreshingly tart complement to a recent bar: “The reason why this view is the most itself: Family friends introduced the cousix days a week and serving food until hot day on the patio. They hope to offer unbelievable view is because this building ple to Leager, who initiated a conversation eleven, and possibly later. up to sixteen small-batch beers onsite and is built over a wye—it’s where trains change about a partnership, which evolved into a arice@indyweek.com eventually sell bottles elsewhere. directions,” Abernethy explains. But the plan to transfer the bar’s ownership altoINDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 13

food

M TEMPURA

111 Orange Street, Durham 919-748-3874 m-restaurants.com/m-tempura

R E S TA U R A N T R E V I E W

Tempura Temptation

MIKE LEE’S ODE TO JAPANESE DEEP FRYING PURSUES PERFECTION—AND COMES PRETTY CLOSE

BY NICK WILLIAMS

M Tempura’s eggplant: pure magic

H

PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

alfway through dinner at M Tempura, a piece of pure magic appeared on my enamel tray: a stout half-moon of eggplant encased in an ethereal cloud of translucent batter.

I cradled it between my chopsticks and took a bite. The crisp shell cracked gently, the interior molten like a campfire marshmallow. In its yielding cloud of earthy sweetness was the essence of eggplant, brought to its apogee by absolute care and precision.

In a meal that was essentially a procession of impeccable marvels, it stood out as the apotheosis.

The best Japanese food is borne out of a monastic dedication to technique. Many of the culture’s most beloved gastronomic 14 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

exports—sushi, kaiseki, ramen—lay at the fulcrum of cooking and craft, and to prepare them at the highest levels requires rigorous practice. This acute attention to detail, and the idea that it provides elite-level dining experiences has made Japanese cuisine immensely popular in the United States.

This has naturally brought a wave of establishments that have, at best, a shallow understanding of the devotion required to get things just right.

M Tempura could easily have ridden the currents of fashion to a position of comfortable mediocrity. Instead, it pursues perfection—and often comes astoundingly close to achieving it.

Tempura is all about the batter, a delicate crispness surrounding one-or-two bite-

sized morsels with little-to-no adornment.

The batter must be mixed to order and kept ice-cold, lest it become stodgy and doughy. The oil must be immaculate, the temperature monitored assiduously. It’s tricky, even for deep-frying experts.

Originally a technique for making a meal of green beans less depressing, tempura was brought to Japan in the sixteenth century by the Portuguese. It quickly blossomed into an ongoing game of “can we fry this?” and eventually achieved ubiquity. While it’s now found everywhere from humble bento lunches to noodle soups, tempura is best experienced at tempura-ya, temples of batter and oil where the meal is an omakase procession of expertly fried bits of seafood, vegetable, and other delicacies.

M Tempura is a classic tempura-ya, one of only a handful in the United States. If it seems strange that such a place has landed in Durham, well, it is. Chef Michael Lee envisioned M Tempura as a “someday” restaurant, a down-the-line addition to his mini-empire founded at the excellent M Sushi. But Lee moved the idea to the front burner when presented with the opportunity to take over the old Scratch Baking spot on Orange Street. Cozy and intimate, with a roomy kitchen and the footprint of a dining counter, the space was perfect for a tempura-ya.

Dinner service at M Tempura is available in three multi-course “sets,” each launched with a few palate-prepping bites before moving on to the main event. We started with a salad of local greens and shaved cauliflower, dressed in a ginger vinaigrette that I happily associate with the salads served at strip-mall Japanese steakhouses, antecedents to yelling, chopping, and shrimpflipping. Although a bit more elegant and certainly more subtle, it serves the same purpose here—a cleansing bite of green as prelude to spectacle.

Next came a crudo of bluefin tuna. Yes, bluefin is delicious, but here it’s an unnecessary indulgence, especially when plopped halfheartedly in a pool of ponzu and roe and slivers of radish that end up as a scattered handful of fancy-looking “stuff” that slides off into a pile at the very idea of being picked up and eaten. Perhaps it’s an afterthought, because the evening’s main event soon obliterates any lingering doubts caused by familiar-tasting salads and rawfish false starts.

Each diner is presented with a tray upon which rests the DIY accoutrements of proper tempura eating. The essence of tempura is how the natural flavors of simple ingredients are heightened and enhanced by the delicate batter and precision cooking, so each fryer-bound item is essentially unseasoned. Flavoring the finished bite is up to the diner, to whom

thwe server helpfully provides a tiny bowl of salt and a sliver of lemon (ensconced in a fish-shaped metal “squeezer”). A subtle dipping sauce of dashi, mirin, and soy gets a dollop of shaved daikon and nestles alongside a small bowl of pickles in candyvibrant shades.

The scene set, the tempura begins to arrive. It’s appropriate that the procession begins with shrimp, the tempura-treated sea creature with which American diners have the most familiarity. This shrimp bears zero resemblance, however, to whatever late-nineties “fusion” holdover P.F. Chang’s somehow forgot to scour from its menu.

The batter is in a class by itself: impossibly crisp and dainty, not so much dissolving

aroma, which may or may not be a problem depending on how often you want to revisit your meal over the next few hours.

It’s a neat trick to experiment with seasoning along the way. Some dishes take well to a dunk in the ambrosial sauce. Others need a sprinkling of salt and a squirt of lemon. Others require no help at all, like the Mero sea bass. Dense and hearty, but flaky and yielding within its shell of batter, it’s essentially the world’s greatest fish finger.

Most of these dishes, in fact, conjure a childlike sense of fried food satiety, only streamlined and sophisticated. The scallop tastes like a fairytale version of something you might get on a boardwalk, dumped with fries in a paper basket. The sweet

DOWNTOWN CARY

Neighborhood Restaurant + Bar 160 East Cedar Street

The tempura set

Beer. Wine. Cider. Drafts.

120 E. Chatham Street

PHOTO BY JADE WILSON

on the tongue as evaporating. The shelled shrimp tail is wonderfully meaty and sweet, but the whole, soft-shelled version is a lesson in spiny deliciousness, little shrimp heads exploding with juicy brine.

Vegetables follow. Shiitake mushroom, chewy and savory. Asparagus, flamboyantly in-season, tender, and lemony-sweet. A chunk of lotus root that flirts with undercooking but, thanks to impeccable frying, emerges apple-crunchy and satisfying.

The eggplant.

I believe I mentioned the eggplant.

There are a few missteps. The okra, raw-tasting, slides clumsily out of its batter shell, a casualty to the vicissitudes of fryer-time. The salmon is visually enticing but weirdly disappointing, unctuous and overly rich, one of the only dishes that felt like less than the sum of its parts. Another caveat: The dining room’s overworked ventilation system practically guarantees that you will leave infused with ambient fryer

potato—the only item on the menu to be partially cooked before frying—would be a perfect accompaniment to a hunk of BBQ. The limited drinks list at first seems like a final quibble, but the selections end up pairing perfectly with the meal. Both a squeaky clean Sancerre and an ice-cold Asahi are charming accomplices, but our server effortlessly recommended an excellent sake, which stole the show with its dry finish and round texture.

In the case of a restaurant like M Tempura, any drinks list, appetizer, or ambiance is going to end up ancillary to what is primarily a long-form technical masterpiece, the aim of which is to deliver simple and perfectly executed comfort food. By the time the final set pieces arrived—a bowl of toothsome soba noodles followed by a few bites of ginger ice cream—I had stopped being impressed and remained merely delighted. food@indyweek.com

deep dive EAT • DRINK • SHOP • PLAY

The INDY’s monthly neighborhood guide to all things Triangle

Coming May 29:

CARRBORO For advertising opportunities, contact your ad rep or advertising@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 15

indymusic

Feed the Meter

YAN WESTERLUND, A MAN ALONE IN THE WILD REGIONS OF RHYTHM

BY DAN RUCCIA

Yan Westerlund PHOTO BY LIBBY RODENBOUGH

M

an Alone, Yan Westerlund’s new album as Quetico, opens with a flurry of rhythm. The title track starts with a stuttering set of chords outlining a lopsided beat that seems to toggle between groups of three in two different tempos. The synth tone is warm, with a slight percussive click. A higher synth tone comes in, bell-like, on a different subdivision; a lower kick-drum-like pulse hits on yet another. Just when you can almost start to intuit the beat, a dramatic swoosh ushers in an explosive drum pattern. And that’s just the first thirty seconds.

For the rest of the song, Westerlund juggles these competing patterns with ease in a way that seems unstable yet totally 16 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

in-time, even as he occasionally slips into something like a pop or jazz groove.

As a drummer, Westerlund is unsurprisingly intrigued by the possibilities of rhythm. What sets him apart from many drummers, though, is his eagerness to explore more unusual patterns: beats in groups of five or seven, or patterns that occasionally stray from the even pulse that defines so much rock and pop. Over coffee on a sunny Thursday morning, it quickly becomes clear how thoroughly he has absorbed these odd-meter grooves. He often breaks into scatting to demonstrate the kinds of patterns that he is thinking about: “ba-baa-t, ba-baa-t, ba-ba-baa-t, ba-baa-t.”

Westerlund has been a Triangle mainstay for nearly a decade, playing in groups such as Bowerbirds, Mipso, Phil Cook, Canine Heart Sounds, Lost in the Trees, and numerous others. As enjoyable as all those bands have been for him, he says, “I just finally realized that I needed to make something on my own to feel satisfied musically in all corners. I hit a point where I wasn’t feeling that this or that song was fitting this group or that group. Or, if they were, they were changing too much, and I wasn’t as excited about them.”

Westerlund plays practically everything on Man Alone’s nine instrumental tracks, which allowed him to take his music wherever he wanted without compromises. Consequently, questions of solitude are central to his conception of the band, which is named after Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario, a place he closely associates with being alone.

Westerlund’s training in rhythm started early. Growing up in Wisconsin, he was a jazz-obsessed kid, diving into John Coltrane and Miles Davis albums. He joined his first band in sixth grade.

“We covered everything from Run-DMC to the Mortal Kombat theme song to anything we wanted,” he recalls. His older brother, Joe Westerlund, was also a big influence.

“We shared a bedroom for a long time, and he would play me records and records and records,” Westerlund says. The record stack included Albert Ayler and Ornette Coleman. Then, Westerlund moved to Duluth to attend the University of Minnesota, where he majored in jazz and spent his days honing his drum chops, learning to play piano, and making his first forays into composition. And those complex rhythms kept appearing.

“I would play along to Brad Mehldau records, and just hash out a 7/4 groove for three hours every night,” he says. Or he would challenge himself to “keep a pattern of triplets grouped in five and see how long I could go until my brain melted.” He was listening to Tiki Obmar—a short-lived Minneapolis group that played Aphex Twinstyle beats in the context of a live trio— and jazz players like The Bad Plus, Chris Speed, and Tim Berne. In 2009, he followed his brother Joe and friends Brad and Phil Cook (the trio that composed Megafaun) to the Triangle, where he quickly found a sympathetic musical scene.

ind

In 2012, Westerlund played on the last Bowerbirds album (The Clearing) and he credits Phil Moore and Mark Paulson with pushing him in new directions.

“Phil can write some of the best, oddlyphrased songs,” he says. “Playing with them, I started to go down that path a little bit: Let’s drop a beat, let’s add a beat to the end of that phrase to add a little tension,BY ZAC in a very simple way.” Westerlund’s 2015 duo album with cellist Andrew Anagnost, ve Crossing Streams, played with time and Y space in an even more thoroughgoing way. li Through all this, Westerlund startedforgotten writing the compositions that wouldRaleigh c become Man Alone. While dog-sittinghasn’t for for Phil Cook one Christmas, shortly “It’s the after moving to Raleigh, Westerlund wasCarolina,” playing Cook’s piano when somethingback to th clicked. Little ideas for songs startedsecond-an pouring out. Some of them found theirnext Atlan way into his various bands, but mostly, Díaz, a he kept them to himself, slowly refininglina come them over the years. When he joined theClub regu indie-bluegrass group Mipso, he decidedshe can t it was time to forge a sound that satisfiedwith the all of his musical inclinations. He boughtthe cours recording equipment and synthesizersval will fe and got to work. formers in “It was like a daily ritual for me to recordin Raleigh and compose at the same time, loopingFive Poin phrases and improvising over them andinclude th writing,” he says. “I did that for the betterand nume part of the last couple years when I wases), Tonig home from tour.” Songs would start withGina Brill a rhythmic idea, a chord progression,and Durh or a bass line, and he would iterate andComic St layer until everything fell into place.local and The melodies almost always came last,well; Diaz giving structure and focus to the complexthree hun underlying beat patterns. Then, he had Díaz’s reed player Matt Douglas add bass clarinetto provid to a few songs to introduce “more of awho migh human quality.” comedy f The resulting songs groove with catchyto provid tunes, enveloping synths, and a sensibilitylocal com somewhere between pop, jazz, and dancemade an music. Westerlund seems to revel in thething like complexity of it all. Near the end of ourdian Sam conversation, after a long discussion ofGoodnigh rhythmic theory, he remarks, “I think that’sfestival th about as far as I can go.” But this recordby last ye would suggest otherwise.

“Events music@indyweek.comlight on t

QUETICO

Thursday, May 23, 8 p.m., $10 | The Pinhook, Durham | www.thepinhook.com

Jo

OAK C

E

from the upcoming to meet an says. “It’s

indystage

OAK CITY COMEDY FESTIVAL

Wednesday, May 22–Sunday, May 26 Various times and venues, downtown Raleigh www.oakcitycomedyfestival.com

Jolly in Raleigh

OAK CITY COMEDY FESTIVAL IS A LAUNCHPAD FOR LOCALS AND A MAGNET FOR NATIONAL TALENT

BY ZACK SMITH

E

ven though she’s moved back to New York City since the time when she lived in Raleigh, Shari Díaz hasn’t forgotten the years she spent as part of the Raleigh comedy scene, and it definitely hasn’t forgotten her.

“It’s the strongest comedy scene in North Carolina,” she says by phone while en route back to the Triangle to produce her festival’s second-annual outing. “I would say it’s the next Atlanta.”

Díaz, along with longtime North Carolina comedy staple and Goodnights Comedy Club regular Matt White, is doing everything she can to raise the area’s comedy profile with the Oak City Comedy Festival. Over the course of five days this week, the festival will feature more than one hundred performers in multiple club and theater venues in Raleigh, including Neptunes, Imurj, Proof Five Points, Kings, and others. Headliners include the Lucas brothers (22 Jump Street and numerous TV and podcast appearances), Tonight Show writer Jourdain Fisher, Gina Brillon (Kevin Can Wait, The Conners), and Durham’s own Lauren Faber (Last Comic Standing). There are dozens more local and national comedians performing as well; Diaz says they were chosen from about three hundred applicants.

Díaz’s biggest goals for the festival are to provide a platform for local comedians who might not know how to get into other comedy festivals across the country and to provide a spotlight for diversity in the local comedy scene. The festival quickly made an impact in an area where something like it was much needed. Local comedian Sam Mazany, who is performing at Goodnights, Kings, and The Outpost in the festival this year, says he was “blown away” by last year’s debut.

“Events like Oak City do a lot to shine a light on the really talented folks that are from the local area, while also bringing upcoming talent from across the country to meet and showcase their talent,” Mazany says. “It’s nice when these festivals bring in

Above: Shari Díaz PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SUBJECT Below: Matt White PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SUBJECT

talent from the ‘A-list’ cities, like New York and Los Angeles, and the local talent can hold their own.”

Díaz and White came up with the idea for the festival while Díaz was a student in White’s comedy class at Goodnights, which led to them putting together the local

showcase Boogie Down South Productions.

White, who has produced multiple comedy festivals in the past, wanted to build one from the ground up in Raleigh, where he’s lived for several years.

“My whole comedy background, I had to create my own stage time, so I’m used to

this,” he says. The Oak City Comedy Festival is helping to fill the gap left by the closing of DSI Comedy Theater and its NC Comedy Arts Festival, which both folded in 2017 amid accusations of sexual harassment and a toxic environment. White, who worked as a performer and improviser in that festival, does not feel that DSI’s closing has had as much impact on the area’s stand-up comedy scene, Oak City’s purview, as it did on the improv scene.

“The gap I intend to fill is the distance between two styles of comedy,” White says.

“I started improv first, and it has made a huge difference in my stand-up. I would like to see more crossover shows and more overall support for each other. With the NC Comedy Arts Festival gone, it allows for something new and different to take its place, and we plan to be new and different each year of the festival.”

White says the first Oak City Comedy Festival was “better than I ever thought it could be,” drawing about one thousand attendees to twenty-three shows over five days. This year increases the number of venues, shows, and comedians participating. White says Raleigh’s current phase of growth makes it a unique environment for comedy right now.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for stage time here,” he says. “There’s a lot more shows going on than people know about. Some of the venues are not huge, but you don’t need a hundred people to have a show.”

So, while the festival will be a win for local comics and comedy fans even if not every show sells out or transforms careers, Díaz is eager to make it an industry flashpoint, and thinks it could be, with nothing else like it in the area to serve a vibrant, jam-packed comedy scene.

“We need more agents, more directors, to see this talent,” she says, and it’s already paying off for her. “When I got back to New York, I kept getting booked there because of connections I made at last year’s festival.” arts@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 17

stage

Kindred Spirit

TRISTAN ANDRÉ PARKS TIME TRAVELS WITH JAMES BALDWIN IN THEY DO NOT KNOW HARLEM

BY JAMEELA F. DALLIS

Tristan André Parks in They Do Not Know Harlem: In Communion with James Baldwin PHOTO BY UNIFYED VISUALS

A

s an immersive artist, dancer, movement activist, organizer, and storyteller, Tristan André Parks is someone to follow. A recent graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Professional Actor Training Program, Parks is an ambitious visionary, and his new performance work reflects this. Parks’s They Do Not Know Harlem: In Communion with James Baldwin, which recently had its staged premiere at the Rubenstein Arts Center, disrupts the boundaries between performance and conjuration.

18 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

The show is, Parks says, “a spiritual workshop.” There were moments when I was unsure if Parks was sharing an intimate expression of himself, performing the author in the title, or essentially channeling a time-traveling Baldwin. Scenes and personalities changed through lighting and sound. A tambourine marked the transition from Parks-as-Baldwin to Parksas-himself, but the line was thin, and the effect was uncanny. I felt that this sense of erased boundaries is exactly what Parks has intended to create.

Thomas DeFrantz’s SLIPPAGE Lab, a performance-research group located in the Ruby, was an ideal place to develop and premiere the work. There is no orchestra pit or elevated stage to separate the performer from the audience. The result invited participation, something Parks acknowledges as being a part of the Africanist aesthetic he seeks to perpetuate. In the first moments of the piece, percussionist and singer Aarik Duncan, alto saxophonist Lance Garrett, and singer Brentton Harrison entered the space dressed in white. Harrison began the

Negro spiritual “I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray” and invited the audience to sing with him. Many people joined in. This participatory impulse characterized the evening.

In a voice that is distinctly Southern but also something else, Parks channeled Baldwin’s recollection of Harlem, Park Avenue, and the addresses of the homes Baldwin’s mother created. He lamented the changes gentrification and over-policing has wrought in Harlem, saying, “Something terrible has happened.” In this moment, I was not sure if Baldwin, Parks, or both men were

aghast. He asked an audience member if they remembered their first address, inviting us to reflect on our earliest memories, consider the sacrifices our parents made to keep us safe and housed, and ponder the costs of so-called progress.

artistic expression, and queerness.

Parks’s own upbringing is rooted in the black church, which is where he says he first came to know art through dance, storytelling, and song, in a language that has been “passed down from our

THEY DO NOT KNOW HARLEM: IN COMMUNION WITH JAMES BALDWIN 

May 10 & 11, 2019 | The Rubenstein Arts Center, Durham | www.slippage.duke.edu

Parks’s performance provides a rich history of Baldwin’s life, thoughts, loves, profound losses, and enduring impact on our present moment. Parks achieves this through choreography, music—including gospel, jazz, and trap—and video clips ranging from Baldwin’s voice to tiki-torchwielding white supremacists. Informed by modern dance, Parks’s movements begin as sudden, jerking, and expressive; they are desperate and searching. They mirror Baldwin’s trajectory from child to young man and his struggle to find space between and within the black church,

stage

foremothers and forefathers [through the] post-transatlantic slave trade.”

Parks’s choreography travels through graceful, deliberate, ballet-inspired movement and the latest street and contemporary dance, revealing the ever-evolving and multifaceted nature of black expression and storytelling. The variety of genres also reflects Baldwin’s life—he was born into the height of jazz and died after the birth of gangsta rap.

At the end of the evening, Parks invited the audience to join him as his “chains fall off,” and we witnessed a soul train of joy. arts@indyweek.com

BRIEF

THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE 

Through Sunday, Jun. 2 Peace University’s Leggett Theatre, Raleigh www.honestpinttheatre.org Casey (Matthew Hager) stands alone on stage, encased in a white jumpsuit, an oversized wig, and too-big aviator glasses, his sneer more suggestive of Elvis Costello than Elvis Presley. After he lip-syncs the King’s hits, drag impresario Tracy Mills (David Henderson) provides the postmortem: “Your Elvis act died on the toilet. Let it go.”

Clearly, something’s got to give for Casey in The Legend of Georgia McBride, which is currently enjoying a raucous Honest Pint Theatre production at William Peace University. After his tribute act tanks, Casey’s wife interrupts a fight about their latest bounced rent check to reveal the positive results of her pregnancy test. But just as all hope seems lost, redemption comes as he’s forced to go on as a last-minute understudy in the drag show replacing his Elvis revue.

After a furiously comic five-minute costume and gender change backstage and a none-toosteady homage to Edith Piaf, Casey’s on his way to becoming the top drag queen in Panama City, despite the crippling shortcoming of heterosexuality.

Playwright Matthew Lopez poses one serious question amid the fish-out-of-water mirth: How can anyone attempt drag if they’re unaware of its legacy in the gay community? “Drag is protest,” diva Rexy Nervosa (Jesse Gephart) chides Casey at a crucial juncture. “Drag is a raised fist inside a sequined glove.” Ultimately, Casey has to face not only these questions and his own mixed emotions about the genre, but a wife (newcomer Tiffany Lewis) he’s kept in the dark.

With help from drag consultant Vivica C. Coxx and costumers LeGrande Smith, Shanna Burns, and Laura J. Parker’s wigs, director Suzanne Hough devises a series of amusing, imaginative, stirring tributes to Southern song makers Trisha Underwood, Reba McIntyre, and Shania Twain, alongside standards by Barbra Streisand, Judy Garland, and Gloria Gaynor. And along the way, a showbiz loser finds his best self in the last place he thinks to look. —Byron Woods

Your week.

Every Wednesday.

ARTS•NEWS•FOOD•MUSIC INDYWEEK.COM INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 19

MAY

TH 23 A NIGHT OF SONGWRITERS 7p SISTER SPARROW &

FR 5/24 • 7:30P

SISTER SPARROW & THE DIRTY BIRDS FR 31 FADE TO BLACK

(A TRIBUTE TO METALLICA) 7:30p JUNE

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FR 7 JUSTIN WEST W/ PINE BOX SA 8 TH 13 FR 14 SA 15 SU 16 WE 19 TH 20 FR 21 FR 28

DWELLERS / KAYLIN ROBERSON / TAN SANDERS AND THE DERELICTS 7p GTOPIA FEATURING: AJ MITCHELL, SASHA SLOAN, AUSTIN BROWN 7p TECH N9NE 6:30p THE BREAKFAST CLUB 8 PM NIGHTRAIN (GNR TRIBUTE) & THUNDERSTRUCK (AC/DC TRIBUTE) W/ THE FIFTH 7:30p NAILS W/ MISERY INDEX / DEVOURMENT / OUTER HEAVEN 6p THE RECORD COMPANY 7p SCRANTONICITY (A WORKPLACE COSTUME & DANCE PARTY) 6:30p THE STRANGER – BILLY JOEL TRIBUTE FEATURING MIKE SANTORO 7p LIQUID STRANGER 8p

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7/16 CHARLEY CROCKETT 8p 7/18 LATE SHOW- UM AFTER PARTY. DOOM FLAMINGO 10:30p

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AT KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE 5:30p

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8/10 8/21 BERES HAMMOND – NEVER ENDING

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indypage

JOANNA PEARSON AND BELLE BOGGS Thursday, May 23, 7 p.m., free, Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill www.flyleafbooks.com

Psychiatrist, Heal Thyself

AUTHOR JOANNA PEARSON CONNECTS HEART AND MIND IN EVERY HUMAN LOVE

BY JOHN STEEN

To

OLD-S

BY BRI

G

H

ow close is the mind to the heart?

If therapy and medications treat the disorders of the first, what remains to heal the second? These questions pulse beneath the fourteen stories in Every Human Love, the debut collection by Chapel Hill-based psychiatrist and fiction writer Joanna Pearson, who will read from her work at Flyleaf next Thursday with novelist and essayist Belle Boggs.

As the backdrop to many of the collection’s stories, psychiatry allows Pearson to explore the fault lines that underlie personal and professional identity in contemporary America. Many of the protagonists are female psychiatry residents working long hours in emergency rooms and outpatient addiction clinics while, as one character puts it, “real life” is put on pause. In addition to lending the collection a through line of psychiatric vocabulary, Every Human Love’s backdrop emphasizes just how democratic human misery is. Pearson’s fictional psychiatrists, however dutifully they cite DSM-5 criteria for their patients, often struggle to diagnose their own problems. One loses her medical license in a sex scandal; another steals from her patients; a third begins carrying a weapon in her white coat pocket after a mugging.

As a whole, the collection doesn’t so much dismiss psychiatry as it shows that the selfreflective psychiatrist has just as much to learn from her patients as she has to impart.

In “Higher Things,” a vacation cabin comes to resemble an inpatient ward: a newly sober, aspiring writer grows preoccupied to the point of madness by the clawing of an imaginary animal in the attic. She succeeds in distracting herself from her boyfriend’s impending lung transplant, but at a high cost to both her relationship and sanity, calling attention to the lengths that “every human love” will go to avoid pain. Here, those lengths result in blinding fear. Elsewhere in the collection, there’s inescapable loneliness, rivalry, and unforgivable superficiality—all the disorders of the heart.

pa

Joanna Pearson PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR Every Human Love can be bleak. In “Romantics,” a psychiatrist informally diagnoses an “urban hiker” who has settled in her neighborhood and recognizes that we all have the same disorder: “Mental illness or no, my theory is that we each carry within us, like a fault line, the seam of our own destruction.” And before we know it, the destructive person she’s dismissed is in her arms in a consoling platonic embrace. The professional takes comfort from the amateur who may, in terms of human love, be the expert after all.

Despite the focus on psychiatry, Pearson’s language is anything but clinically austere.

Some of her most powerful writing is about mothers and the primal fear that can make

e w t The fir mark Blou a deforme another n Trump.” J morphs in another p Alex Jone man who “chefs tha But oth There are verses by dinator, w fundamen There are ics of Jank your mus Axelrod’s Best Ass E “If this Jenne say and edited I’ve got m more abou He trails o Blount gramming tion a cou all rational thought (and professional advice)unmoored disappear in an instant. In “The Undead,”familiar w a mother finds her young daughter holdingand the p a vampire burial in an alleyway, piercing aXeroxed o dead bird’s heart with a discarded syringe. Many z Despite the strange circumstances, Everyfor circa 2 Human Love articulates the underlying fearmany wer that any of us might have: “Panic transmogri-others we fied to its most animal form. All those patho-ness. The gens, furious and tiny and alive, that might ortradition, might not be replicating inside her baby, herPart art m Isabel—how could she stave them off? Bynineties p what force of prayer or potion or magic could Jenne w you save your own flesh and blood? By whatby two fo charm or chant could you protect anyone?” artfully co arts@indyweek.combetween z

page

To Be Blount

OLD-SCHOOL PUNK MEETS ART-WORLD CHIC IN LUMP’S NEW ZINE. WARNING: THERE WILL BE ASSHOLES.

BY BRIAN HOWE

G

eorge Jenne knew he wanted to kick off his new zine with “The Asshole Issue,” but he never dreamed that the contributors would take it quite so literally.

The first issue of Blount Force, a publication of the landmark Blount Street art gallery Lump, sports Jenne’s photo of a deformed Trump mask on its cover, and the president gets another nasty look inside, in Gil Kofman’s portrait, “Bullshit Trump.” Jenne’s essay on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 morphs into a reminiscence about a friend’s asshole ex, while another page is simply a double-column list of jerks, from Alex Jones and Bill Clinton to “the medium handsome Italian man who can’t be bothered to pick up his own dog’s shit” and “chefs that require you to call them Chef.”

But otherwise, it’s pretty much cover-to-cover to anuses.

There are drawings of them spouting ants and tails and universes by Conner Calhoun, Lump’s special projects coordinator, while Lump director April Childers contributes a fundament-focused painting called “Dirty Fucking Hippy.”

There are stenciled maxims by the art-historical insult comics of Janks Archive (“A thousand English ships couldn’t pull your mustache hairs from my asshole”), and there’s Monica Axelrod’s pop-academic essay, “Somebody Point Me to the Best Ass Eater,” which—well, use your imagination.

“If this is a Lump production, it needs to be inclusive,” Jenne says. “We encourage anyone to submit; it’s not curated and edited. When you do that, you have to go with the flow.

I’ve got my idea of what ‘The Asshole Issue’ is, which was more about the people and politics of the day, but that’s not …”

He trails off with a speechless laugh.

Blount Force is one of the ways Lump is spending the programming grant it received from The Andy Warhol Foundation a couple of years ago. The enterprise might seem baffling, unmoored from any particular cultural frame, unless you’re familiar with both the anarchic, anatomical spirit of Lump and the pre-internet world of zines, little magazines people Xeroxed off as dispatches from their cultural microclimates.

Many zines, like the Chapel Hill-based ones I used to write for circa 2000, were rooted in regional music scenes. But as many were about any kind of subculture you can imagine, and others were just random collections of weirdness and crudeness. The premiere issue of Blount Force is strongly in the last tradition, but with a cover charge ($5) and slick, glossy paper.

Part art magazine and part profane purge, it’s like a bunch of nineties punk kids tried to make an issue of Juxtapoz.

Jenne was encouraged to make his zine dream a reality by two former Lump directors, founder Bill Thelen—whose artfully coarse drawings in the first issue are aptly poised between zine doodles and wall art—and Kelly McChesney,

who held Lump down for a year between Thelen’s twodecade tenure and Childers’s appointment. Once the Warhol money came in, Jenne says he “had to actually pony up.” He had never made a zine before, but the project draws on several elements of his background.

Gothic video, “Spooky Understands,” in the Nasher exhibit Southern Accent, you definitely remember it).

One of Jenne’s key inspirations for Blount Force was Foodbox, a zine produced by his friends in one of the best nineties Chapel Hill bands you might not have heard of, Hellbender, whose members would go on to do all kinds of interesting stuff: Harrison Haynes became the drummer of Les Savy Fav and a noted North Carolina visual artist; Al Burian formed the band Milemarker and gained indie-press renown for his Burn Collector zine; Wells Tower became a nationally acclaimed fiction writer.

“They would travel around and print this little zine at Kinkos,” Jenne says. “It was named after the little food crate they carried around in their tour van. I thought I could do something in the spirit of that, hilarious and irreverent, but with increased production value. Also, most people can’t afford to buy art off the wall, even at a gallery like Lump, where it’s pretty reasonable. But now, you can walk away with a piece for Lump for five bucks.”

“Most people can’t afford to buy art off the wall, but now, you can walk away with a piece of Lump for five bucks.”

After studying filmmaking at Rhode Island School of Design in the nineties, Jenne spent some time making lowbudget music videos in LA, then gave up film for a decade to work in more tactile mediums, such as sculpture. But he started making art videos again when technology made it easier and less costly (if you saw his postmodern Southern

You can pick up Blount Force at Lump or order it at blountforce.org. You can also submit story ideas for the next issue, which Jenne hopes to publish in September. In this experiment in community curation, the first issue doesn’t necessarily predict what’s to come.

“The zine encapsulates the spirit of Lump,” Jenne says.

“You go into Lump and you never know what to expect, and I would argue that it’s also a pretty irreverent gallery. Each issue, the concept can go many directions, and you get this weird mess of ideas inside.”

The next theme is “The Beyond,” which should be hard for anyone to take too literally but is also open to unpredictable possibilities. Jenne imagines it being about “all things conspiratorial and unexplained, alien-abduction nerd-out things like that.” But he’s been wrong before, and he knows that, really, it’s up to you. bhowe@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 21

WHAT

TO DO THIS WEEK 5.22–5.29 FRIDAY, MAY 24

AJ GHENT

WHITE

Gus is an artist with a problem that he’s about to make worse. His old friend Jane has announced that a “New America Exhibition” she’s curating will change the public face of a prestigious big-city art museum. By this, she means it will include no work by white artists, like Gus. His response? Hire an African-American actor, work with her to develop a fictitious persona, and submit his artwork under her name. North Carolina native James Ijames’s 2017 dramatic comedy sounds like an over-the-top lampoon of white privilege and race in the world of fine art.

Then you learn it’s based on the true story of “Donelle Woolford,” a fictitious African-American artist that white New York artist Joe Scanlon created with two actors, whose inclusion in the 2014 Whitney Biennial resulted in protests and artist boycotts. JaMeeka Holloway-Burrell directs a cast including Jordan Clifton, Monèt Noelle Marshall, A.C. Donohue, and Raely Qiu in this Bulldog Ensemble Theater production. —Byron Woods

Carrboro’s own Elizabeth Cotten was a self-taught banjoist at seven, a guitar innovator by twelve, and, after a period spent raising her family, an elder stateswoman of blues and folk throughout her later decades. At the age of ninety-two, she finally received a Grammy. Her legacy of inventiveness and perseverance provides the ethos behind the Freight Train Blues Music Series, which is run by the Music Makers Relief Foundation. The summer series kicks off with AJ Ghent, a soul and blues songwriter whose own history-rooted experimentation is best-glimpsed in his “singing guitar” stylings. Ghent solicits delicate notes from a resonator guitar and lap steel hybrid to mimic singing voices, from the falsetto of Prince to the lugubrious croon of Eric Clapton. Coming from a family of sacred steel royalty, he draws with reverence from his elders, including his great-uncle, one of the creators of the style, who billed himself as “Little Willie Eason and His Talking Gospel Guitar.”

—Josephine McRobbie

THE FRUIT, DURHAM Various times, $10-$20, www.bulldogdurham.org

CARRBORO TOWN COMMONS, CARRBORO 6:30 p.m., free, www.musicmaker.org

AJ Ghent PHOTO

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

THROUGH JUNE 9

WHAT ELSE SHOULD I DO?

ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS AND TYREE DAYE AT THE REGULATOR (P. 30), MEETING GORBACHEV AT THE CARY THEATER (P. 32), CHARLIE PARR AND PHIL COOK AT KINGS (P. 24), JOANNA PEARSONAT FLYLEAF BOOKS (P. 20), NEW FACES OF TRADITION AT THE RUBY (P. 29), QUETICO AT THE PINHOOK (P. 17), DAVE STONE AT THE PIT (P. 31) 22 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

MONDAY, MAY 27

PAUL MCCARTNEY

Back in 2015, Paul McCartney cut a couple of songs with Kanye West. (Well, as much as one writes a song with West; McCartney characterized the encounter in GQ as building an “ingredient pool.”) One of the songs, “FourFiveSeconds,” which West made into a vehicle for Rihanna, became McCartney’s biggest hit since 1983, when he dropped “Say Say Say” with Paul McCartney PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST Michael Jackson. It also prompted a legion of Kanye stans to think their idol had just plucked a then seventy-three-year-old British granddad out of obscurity. The idea, of course, is patently ridiculous: McCartney was in The Beatles, the most successful and influential band of their era and the most enduring pop group in recorded history. When someone brings up the greatest songwriting teams, Lennon-McCartney is usually number one. He’s less man than myth. Who else has formed half of an all-time great songwriting partnership then launched a successful, if scattershot, solo career with impressive longevity? Who else could? —Patrick Wall PNC ARENA, RALEIGH | 8 p.m., $131+, www.pncarena.com

Nappy Roots PHOTO

COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

SUNDAY, MAY 26

NAPPY ROOTS

Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz and The Humdinger—with some spelling variation—do double duty, as the titles of two of the Kentucky-bred rap quartet Nappy Roots’ most successful albums and the names of the two craft beers that they released last May. “It’s unusual for a hip-hop group to pursue opportunities in the craft beer business,” said the two-time Grammynominated crew co-founder, Fish Scales. “But it’s our passion and a great way for our followers to more deeply connect with the Nappy Roots brand.” While it is, in fact, an alternative revenue stream for hip-hop artists, it’s not that unusual these days for rappers to tap into the beer game. Petey Pablo, Run the Jewels, Deltron 3030, and Slim Thug have all collaborated with brewers. And for a group like Nappy Roots, which hasn’t released an album since 2017’s Another 40 Akerz and mainly rely on touring to stay afloat, slangin’ brews doesn’t seem like the worst idea. It’s also not a bad idea to keep on making tour stops in the Triangle, where we might be known to like a beer or two. —Eric Tullis THE PINHOOK, DURHAM | 8 p.m., $25–$50, www.thepinhook.com

deep dive EAT • DRINK • SHOP • PLAY

The INDY’s monthly neighborhood guide to all things Triangle

Coming May 29:

CARRBORO

For advertising opportunities, contact your ad rep or advertising@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 23

music WED, MAY 22

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM: Ghost of Paul Revere; $15. 8 p.m.

THE CAVE: Expert Timing, Charlie Paso, Wrigleyville, Alright; $5 suggested. 9 p.m.

KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE: Steve Hobbs; $5. 5:45 p.m.

LOCAL 506: Pictures of Vernon, Ol Sport, Charm, Dollhands; $7-$9.

8 p.m.

MOTORCO: Thad, Kenny Roby; $17-$20. 8 p.m.

NEPTUNES PARLOUR: Zen Mother; $10. 10 p.m.

THE PINHOOK: Rhymers Resurgence: Liion Gamble, Kelly Kale, Shame, King Draft; $10-$12. 9 p.m.

THU, MAY 23 WEDNESDAY, MAY 29

CHARLIE PARR AND PHIL COOK Growing up in Wisconsin with an obsession with all manner of American folk traditions, it’s little surprise that Phil Cook found inspiration in veteran Duluth songwriter Charlie Parr, whose ragged country blues seem rooted in both the Piedmont and Delta. While Cook and Parr share interest in the Southern folk vernacular, Parr’s stripped-down tunes—often built around just a resonator or banjo—show off his instrumental wizardry and gruff vocals, standing in stark contrast to some of Cook’s more ambitiously arranged songs, like his rousing, gospel-inflected reinterpretation of Parr’s “1922 Blues.” On As Far as I Can See, Cook’s recent release of solo instrumentals, the two feel like the kindred spirits who have collaborated together in recent years. After a week of shows together in the Midwest, this date kicks off their Southern run. Expect Cook and Parr to share the stage frequently while also ceding it to the occasional solo tune. —Spencer Griffith

KINGS, RALEIGH | 2 p.m., $3-$5, www.catscradle.com

Charlie Parr

PHOTO BY NATE RYAN

FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR INDYWEEK.COM 24 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

CAT’S CRADLE: Led Zeppelin 2; $12-$15. 8:30 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM: Marti Jones & Don Dixon, Jeffrey Dean Foster; $15. 8 p.m.

THE CAVE: The Clams, Jordan Hurwitz, Rachel Ohnsman; $5 suggested. 9 p.m.

COASTAL CREDIT UNION MUSIC PARK:

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band

[$32–$135, 7:30 P.M.] This tour is billed as the seventy-year-old heartland rock hero’s last. Other artists have changed their minds about such things, but Seger seems like a man of his word. And though his pipes have gotten a little more leathery over the years, his songs are indelible and he still puts his all into them. So if you want to see a quintessential classic rocker in action, you should probably maximize the opportunity. —Jim Allen

WE 5/22 GHOST OF PAUL REVERE W/ TEXOMA ($15) TH 5/23 MARTI JONES & LD DON DIXON W/ J.D. FOSTER SO OUT

FR 5/24

THE JAPANESE HOUSE

THE LEMONHEADS TH 5/23 LED ZEPPELIN 2 ($15)

FR 5/24 THE JAPANESE HOUSE W/ART SCHOOL GIRLFRIEND ($18/$20) SA 6/1 ABBEY ROAD LIVE (BEATLES TRIBUTE) (2 SHOWS- 4 PM & 9 PM)

SU 6/2 THE DISTILLERS W/ STARCRAWLER($28/$30)

YOUR WEEK. EVERY WEDNESDAY. FOOD • NEWS • ARTS • MUSIC

SA 5/25 VIOLET BELL (FULL BAND) W/ LIBBY RODENBOUGH OF MIPSO AND TATIANA HARGREAVES ($8/$10)

FR 5/31 THE SH-BOOMS W/ BLOOD RED RIVER ($12) SA 6/1 SOLAR HALOS RECORD RELEASE SHOW W/ MAKE, MOURNING CLOAK SU 6/2 THE MYSTERY LIGHTS W/ FUTURE PUNX ($12/$14) WE 6/5 CAROLINE SPENCE W/ WHISPERER FR 6/7 JACK WILLOW ALBUM RELEASE SHOW

W/CHRISTIANE AND MKR

FR 6/7 @RED HATE AMPHITHEATER

LAKE STREET DIVE & WOOD BROTHERS LOCAL 506 (CHAPEL HILL) SU 7/21 COVET W/ VASUDEVA AND HOLY FAWN CAROLINA THEATRE (DUR)

TH 9/26 JOSH RITTER & THE ROYAL CITY BAND W/ SPECIAL GUEST AMANDA SHIRES DPAC (DUR)

FR 11/22 AND SA 11/23 (TWO NIGHTS) SYLVAN ESSO "WITH" / PLUS MOLLY SARLE (OF

SU 6/9 THE LEMONHEADS, TOMMY STINSON ($25/$28)

WE 6/12 EARTH W/HELMS ALEE ($15)

FR 5/31 THE CONNELLS W/ LEISURE MCCORKLE ($20/$25)

TH 6/13 DYLAN LEBLANC W/ ERIN RAE ($12/$15)

WE 6/12 REMO DRIVE W/ SLOW PULP, SLOW BULLET ($15/$18)

CLENENDING

TU 6/18 SEBADOH W/ WAVELESS ($18/$20) TH 6/27 PARACHUTE W/ BILLY RAFFOUL ($20/$23) TU 7/9 YEASAYER W/ STEADY HOLIDAY ($27/$30) FR 7/12 THE LOVE LANGUAGE:

CELEBRATING THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR SELF TITLED DEBUT. FEATURING THE ORIGINAL LINEUP ($14/$16)

TU 7/16 BILL CALLAHAN ($22/$25) SU 7/21 THE GET UP KIDS W/ GREAT GRANDPA ($22/$26)

TH 8/1 DONAVON FRANKENREITER ($20/$24) WE 8/7 MENZINGERS W/ THE

SIDEKICKS, QUEEN OF JEANS TH 8/8 NEUROSIS W/ BELL WITCH AND DEAF KIDS MO 8/19 PEDRO THE LION / MEWITHOUTYOU ($25/$27)

SA 6/15 DANTE HIGH W/ MOLLY SARLE

DANTE ELEPHANTE, MOTEL RADIO

TH 6/20 JOSH ROUSE ($20) FR 6/21 NIGHT MOVES W/ COMPUTER SCIENCE SA 6/22 MARK LEE (OF THIRD DAY) WE 6/26 KRISTIN HERSH ELECTRIC TRIO ($18/$20) SA 6/29 TAN & SOBER GENTLEMEN, TUATHA DEA, VIRGINIA GROUND SU6/30 DOCTOR SIG W/ NITE BEAST ($10) SU 7/7 WAND W/ DREAMDECAY ($13/$15) SA 7/13 COLD CREAM, DE()T,

SNEAKERS AWARD

SU 7/21 TIJUANA PANTHERS AND TOGETHER PANGEA W/ ULTRA Q

TU 8/27 ELECTRIC HOT TUNA W/ ROB ICKES & TREY HENSLEY ($45/$50)

MO 7/22 PRINCE DADDY & THE HYENA W/RETIREMENT

SU 9/15 PENNY & SPARROW

WE 7/31 GABBY’S WORLD,

MO 9/16 CAT POWER WANDERER TOUR 2019”

TH 8/1 SCHOOL OF ROCK

WE 9/18 TINARIWEN ($30/$33)

SA 8/3 DELHI 2 DUBLIN

TH 9/19 SNOW THA PRODUCT

TH 8/8 ANDREW BELLE ($15/ $17)

SA 9/21 WHITNEY

FR 8/16 SIDNEY GISH

W/ CAROLINE SPENCE

W/ HAND HABITS FR 9/27 RIDE TU 10/1 MT JOY

SU 10/6 BUILT TO SPILL- KEEP IT LIKE A SECRET TOUR ($28/$32) MO 10/7 LUNA PERFORMING

PARTY, OBSESSIVES

BELLOWS

ALLSTARS

TUE 10/1 THAT 1 GUY WE 10/2 B BOYS TH10/3 BLANCO WHITE SA 10/5 TYRONE WELLS W/ DAN RODRIGUEZ ($17/$20)

PENTHOUSE

WE 10/9 ELDER ISLAND

WE 10/16 MELVINS AND REDD

FR 11/15 BLACK MIDI ($13)

KROSS W/ SHITKID

SU 10/20 THE BAND CAMINO

W/ VALLEY

WE 10/23 OH SEES W/PRETTIEST EYES FR 10/25 STIFF LITTLE FINGERS

W/ THE AVENGERS

SA 11/16 GAELIC STORM FR 12/6 OUR LAST NIGHT

HOP ALONG ($17/$20) FR 7/19 SUMMER SALT W/

TU 7/16

MO 6/17 CULTURE ABUSE ($15/$18)

MO 7/29 WE

WERE PROMISED JETPACKS ‘THESE FOUR WALLS’ 10TH ANNIVERSARY W/ CATHOLIC ACTION ($16/$18)

FRI 6/21

GOOD ROCKIN SAM

SAT 6/22

JOHNNY WHITE AND THE ELITE BAND (JOHNNY WHITE RLMH MUSIC ACHEIVEMENT AWARD)

FRI 7/12

KINGS (R AL) WE 5/29 AN EVENING WITH CHARLIE PARRANDPHIL COOK NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART

FR 6/14 STEEP CANYON RANGERS WITH CHATHAM RABBITS SA 6/22 TRAMPLED BY TURTLES WITH DEER TICK TU 7/2 COURTNEY BARNETT SA 7/13 ANDREW BIRD WITH

CRYSTAL GAYLE SUN 7/14

SPECIAL GUEST TIFT MERRITT

TU 7/23 BRUCE HORNSBY AND

THE NOISEMAKERS/AMOS LEE SA 7/27 JOHN BUTLER W/ TREVOR HALL

TRIO+

WE 8/7 AN EVENING WITH

LYLE LOVETT AND HIS LARGE BAND SA 8/24 OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW TH 8/29 CHAKA KHAN SA 8/31 MIPSO W/ BUCK MEEK SA 9/14 SNARKY PUPPY WE 9/25 RHIANNON GIDDENS AND FRANCESCO TURRISI RED HAT AMPHITHEATER (RAL)

RUMORS: THE ULTIMATE FLEETWOOD MAC TRIBUTE SHOW FRI 7/26 • SAT 7/27 AARON MILLS PROJECT= FUNK AND JAZZ

SAT 8/17

THE GATLIN BROS

FRI 8/23

SOULE AND THE SUPERBAND-

MUSIC OF JAMES BROWN AND MORE

SUN 9/1

FR 6/7 LAKE STREET DIVE/

CHOCOLATE BUTTERMILK BAND

THE RITZ (RAL)

90’S SUPERGROUPS HI-FIVE & SOLO

THE WOOD BROTHERS

(PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION W/ LIVENATION)

ARTSCENTER (CARRBORO) TH 6/27 THE SPILL CANVAS BOTTLE OF THE RED TOUR

FR 10/11 EXPLOSIONS IN THE

SA 9/21 MANDOLIN ORANGE W/MOUNTAIN MAN

SAT 6/15

MARCUS ANDERSONS LETS GO CRAZY SHOWTHE MUSIC OF PRINCE

SU 9/15 BLEACHED ($15/$17)

MO 6/10 LOCAL NATIVES W/ MIDDLE KIDS

KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE (CARY)

FRI 6/14

THE HEATERS

MO 9/30 GENERATIONALS

SA 11/16 THE BLAZERS

‘HOW TO ROCK’ REUNION

TROUBLE FUNK & JUS ONCE BAND

MOTORCO (DUR)

FR 6/14 EILEN JEWELL ($15/$18)

SU 6/16 LOS COAST

SUN 5/26

MOUNTAIN MAN)

FR6/7FRENSHIP W/GLADES ($15/$17)

MO 6/10 GNASH W/ ANNA

MUSIC HALL

2020 CHAPEL HILL ROAD SUITE 33 • DURHAM, NC 27707

AFRICA UNPLUGGED, THE UP & UP ($10)

SA 6/8 MATT ANDERSON W/ERIN COSTELLO ($15-$18)

WE 7/24-SA 7/27 MERGE RECORDS 30 YEAR CELEBRATION

INDYWEEK.COM

CHARLIE PARR & PHIL COOK

FR 5/24 SONS OF PARADISE,

TH 5/30 HARDWORKER, MAGNOLIA COLLECTIVE, CASEYMAGIC SU 6/9

WE 5/29 @KINGS

RHYTHMS LIVE

SKY 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR SA 11/23 CAAMP HAW RIVER BALLROOM FR 11/8 BIG THIEF W/ PALEHOUND ($20/$23)

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

FRI 9/13

SAT 9/14

DREAMS BAND

ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND MEMBERS

FRI 9/20

SPELLCASTERS

SAT 11/2

DELBERT MCLINTON

RHYTHMSLIVENC.COM INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 25

6/5 THE SINGING OUT TOUR WITH HEATHER MAE AND CRYS MATTHEWS 5/31-6/2

HELVETICA PRESENTED BY ONE SONG SITTING PRETTY: A LIVE RADIO SHOW

6/1-2

PRESENTED BY ODYSSEYSTAGE

Get tickets at artscenterlive.org

Follow us: @artscenterlive • 300-G East Main St., Carrboro, NC

RECENTLY ANNOUNCED:

Mikal Cronin, Blackalicious, The Way Down Wanderers, Tessa Violet, Kindo, Russian Circles, Immolation

WED

5/22

THAD Kenny Roby

THAD COCKRELL Kenny Roby

RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS

PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER PAPER

Violet Be

THE PINHO

POUR HOU Beer: Supatig

FRI, M

CARRBOR COMMON ARCANA:

THU

5/23

BLUE NOT Band; $10. 9 p

SLUM VILLAGE Shame plus DJ Nevy

CAT’S CRA

SLUM VILLAGE

The Jap

Shame plus DJ Nevy

FRI

5/24

FRI

5/31 SUN

6/2 MON

6/3 TUE

6/4 FRI

6/7 SAT

6/8

[$18–$20, 8

MONO Emma Ruth Rundle

MONO

Emma Ruth Rundle Cat’s Cradle presents THE CONNELLS Leisure McCorkle Crank It Loud Presents AARON WEST & THE ROARING 20’s Primitive Ways and SommerKill Booking present DEICIDE, ORIGIN Jungle Rot, The Absence, Suppressive Fire and Edge of Humanity THE NEW RESPECTS Apollo LTD / James William MARK FARINA Tomas C (Magic City Disco) Purple Note Durham: Celebrating the Life of Prince Through Jazz Plus After Party: A King & A Prince

COMING SOON: Remo Drive, Maimouna Youssef,The Crystal Method, Remember Jones, Young Bull, Kooley High, Cavetown, Damien Jurado, She Wants Revenge, Mystery Skulls, Hop Along, Chris Webby, Summer Salt, Dan Baird & Homemade Sin,The Rock*A*Teens, Escape-ism, Myq Kaplan,We’re We Promised Jetpacks, Cowboy Mouth, Supersuckers, Sophomore Slump Fest, BoDeans, Sinkane, Bleached, flor, Boy Harsher, Genrationals, Kero Kero Bonito,Warbringer, Sonata Artica, Nile

Also co-presenting at The Carolina Theatre of Durham: Criminal LIVE SHOW (on Oct 5th)

26 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

Present this coupon for

The Price Japanese House The Japanese performs House at Cat’s performs Cradle on at Cat’s Friday,Cradle May 24. on Friday, May 24.

Member Admission PHOTO COURTESY OF CAT’S PHOTO CRADLE COURTESY OF CAT’S CRADLE

(Not Valid for Special Events, expires 01-20)

919-6-TEASER for directions and information

www.teasersmensclub.com 156 Ramseur St. Durham, NC

GIBSON GIRL VINTAGE: Matvey & Katya Lapin; free. 7 p.m.

LINCOLN THEATRE: A Night of Songwriters; $13-$15. 7 p.m.

LOCAL 506: Frontside, Velocirapture, Anamorph; $8. 8:30 p.m.

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

TeasersMensClub

@TeasersDurham

MOTORCO: Slum Village, Shame, DJ Nevy; $20-$25. 9 p.m.

NEPTUNES PARLOUR: Breathers, Triple X Snaxxx; $10. 10 p.m.

NIGHTLIGHT:

Chuck Johnson [$10-12, 8:30PM]

The sounds that Chuck Johnson creates via fingerpicked guitar, pedal steel, and ambient electronics are mood-shifting, able to evoke distinctive feelingstates through subtle tone and texture variances.

As leftfield 2010s do, songwriter launched h synth vehic House, fro press shot narratives, brittle indi your third moonlighti Twin. This Falling colo with Bain fi as the twe savant beh With Art S —David Fo

Johnson’s talent for mood has led to stints composing CAT’S CRA sound for film and television, Sons of Parad including A Chef’s Life. He’ll Up and Up; $1 THE CAVE perform solo at this show, Band; $5 sugg and also as part of the duo Saariselka with Marielle HAW RIVE State Birds; $ V. Jakobsons on piano and synths. Tacoma Park and KINGS: Soc Christensen&Crowmeat also Computer Sci perform. —Josephine McRobbie $10. 9 p.m.

BOOTH AMPHITHEATER:

POUR HOUSE: Day Party: Jason Moss & The Hosses, David Taylor, Wes & The Railroaders; $5. 2 p.m.

[$13-$26, 7 P.M.]

POUR HOUSE: The Up & Up, Fux; $7-$10. 9 p.m.

Triangle Wind Ensemble

It’s been fifty years since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped foot on the moon. To celebrate, the Triangle Wind Ensemble is playing a concert of moon-themed music. There are the usual pieces that pop up any time a large ensemble thinks about space—“Mars” from The Planets, Also Sprach Zarathustra, Star Wars—to which they’ve added some moon-centric additions: “Moondance,” “Moon River,” “Fly Me to the Moon.” All that’s missing is some Sun Ra. —Dan Ruccia

Violet Bell performs at Arcana on Saturday, May 25.

THE PINHOOK: Quetico; $10. 8 p.m.

POUR HOUSE: Local Band Local Beer: Supatight, Maj Deeka; $5. 9 p.m.

FRI, MAY 24

CARRBORO TOWN COMMONS: AJ Ghent; 6:30 p.m.

ARCANA: The Paco Band; 9 p.m.

BLUE NOTE GRILL: Jamie McLean Band; $10. 9 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE:

The Japanese House [$18–$20, 8 P.M.]

As leftfield pop stars of the 2010s do, British singersongwriter Amber Bain launched her prismatic synth vehicle, The Japanese House, from the shadows. No press shots or fantastical PR narratives, only anonymous, brittle indie pop, possibly your third grade math teacher moonlighting as a Cocteau Twin. This year’s Good At Falling colors in the scene a bit, with Bain finally recognizable as the twenty-three-year old savant behind her fog machine.

With Art School Girlfriend.

—David Ford Smith

LINCOLN THEATRE: Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds, Peter More; $17-$27. 8:30 p.m.

LOCAL 506: My Epic, Valleyheart; $12-$15. 7:30 p.m.

MOTORCO: MONO, Emma Ruth Rundle; $14-$16. 9 p.m.

POUR HOUSE: The Accused A.D., Gross Reality, Old Codger, Nemesis; $12-$15. 9 p.m.

SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS RALEIGH: Orphan Riot, Izar Estelle; 7 p.m.

SLIM’S: BANGZZ, Wet Nurse, Sister, Brother; $5. 9 p.m.

UNITY CENTER OF PEACE: David Roth; 7:30 p.m.

SAT, MAY 25 ARCANA:

Whorechata [$7, 10 P.M.]

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM: Sons of Paradise, Africa Unplugged, The Up and Up; $10. 8 p.m.

At this dance party, the local femme DJ collective Mamis & the Papis promises all the trapchata and neoperreo jams you could hope for. (The former’s a trap take on the Dominican Republic’s bachata music, while the latter’s a Very Online version of reggaeton.)

Some of the proceeds support the Black Mamas Bail Out Fund. —Brian Howe

THE CAVE: Car Crash Star, DRL Band; $5 suggested. 9 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM:

HAW RIVER BALLROOM: The State Birds; $15-$17. 8 p.m.

[$8-10, 8 P.M.]

KINGS: Soccer Tees, Max Gowan, Computer Science, Madam! Madam!; $10. 9 p.m.

Violet Bell

As Violet Bell, soulful singer Lizzy Ross allows her inspired musings freedom to roam a

NEPTUNES PARLOUR: Natural Velvet, The Txlips, Hndclw, Black Surfer; $10. 9 p.m.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS

broad Americana spectrum, thanks to the adventurous contributions of multiinstrumentalist Omar RuizLopez. Bouncing from dramatic ballads to breezy ditties, they’ll have lush full-band backing as they preview their long-awaited debut LP, due in October. Tatiana Hargreaves, Kate Rhudy, and Mipso’s Libby Rodenbough open as a progressively minded roots trio that keeps an eye on old-time, showcasing dazzling fiddle tunes and stunning harmonies.

—Josephine McRobbie

RHYTHMS LIVE: Trouble Funk, Jus Once Band; $29. 8 p.m.

MON, MAY 27 PNC ARENA: Paul McCartney; 8 p.m.

POUR HOUSE: Dead Meadow; $15. 9 p.m.

SLIM’S: Basura, Misanthropic Aggression, Culling; $5. 9 p.m.

THE STATION: Jimmie Ray Swagger & The Fussy Eaters; 9 p.m.

WED, MAY 29 THE CAVE: Stem Cells, Dad’s Day Off; $5 suggested. 9 p.m.

KINGS: Body Talk: Robyn Dance Party; $5-$40. 10 p.m.

TUE, MAY 28

KINGS: Charlie Parr & Phil Cook; $20.

8 p.m.

KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE: Peter Lamb & the Wolves; $5. 5:45 p.m.

ARCANA: Little Mazarn, Heartbreak Landscape; 8 p.m.

LOCAL 506: It Looks Sad., Haybaby; $10-$12. 9 p.m.

THE CAVE: Ravary, TC Superstar, Distributed Systems; $5 suggested.

9 p.m.

NEPTUNES PARLOUR: Joe Baiza, Jason Kahn, Crowmeat Bob, Jil Christensen, Dougie Bowne; $8.

9:30 p.m.

KINGS: No Vacation, Okey Dokey; $13-$15. 8 p.m.

NIGHTLIGHT: Kala Btz, Sand Pact, Sister, Brother, Jasmyn Milan; $8. 9 p.m.

POUR HOUSE: Hank & Brendan, Infielder; $6-$8. 9 p.m.

THE PINHOOK: Nappy Roots; $25$50. 8 p.m.

SHARP NINE GALLERY: NC Jazz Repertory Orchestra; $20. 8 p.m.

NIGHTLIGHT: Cliff Hale & The Grand Ole Ospreys; 7 p.m.

SLIM’S: Pullover, Sportsmanship, The Dead Bedrooms; $5.

9 p.m.

THE CAVE: Billy Sugarfix and the Early Girls, Kitty Box, The Johnnys; $5 suggested. 10 p.m.

KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE: NC Symphony: Symphonie Fantastique & Play with the Pros; $30-$33. 7:30 p.m.

THE MAYWOOD: Mojo Rising, Siren, Two of US; $10. 8:30 p.m.

POUR HOUSE: Pacific Dub, Seranation; $12-$15. 9 p.m.

SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS RALEIGH: Emo Raleigh NC Showcase: Paperback, LunchBox Hero, Strongman and Company; free.

6 p.m.

SLIM’S: Ghostt Bllonde, Pleasures, Chew; $7. 9 p.m.

WAKE FOREST LISTENING ROOM: Roman Spring, Chris Holloway Band; 8 p.m.

SUN, MAY 26 THE CAVE: Jawsfest: Blood Red River, Phantom Phunk; $10 suggested.

10 p.m.

Chuck Johnson performs at Nightlight on Thursday, May 23 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST

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OPENING New Faces of Tradition: Documenting North Carolina’s Young Artists: Documentary portraits. May 28-Jun 30.

Rubenstein Art Center Gallery 235, Durham. artscenter.duke.edu.

ONGOING 150 Faces of Durham: Photos.

Thru Sep 3. Museum of Durham History, Durham.

All the Pop: Thru Jun 2. Nasher Museum of Art, Durham. nasher.duke.edu.

Keith Allen, Ben Hamburger, Kaidy Lewis, Carolyn Rugen: Thru Jun 8. FRANK Gallery, Chapel Hill.

TUESDAY, MAY 28

NEW FACES OF TRADITION: DOCUMENTING NORTH CAROLINA’S YOUNG ARTISTS Promotion is one aspect of art-making that, unlike the creative process itself, is seldom a labor of love. New Faces of Tradition, a collaborative photographic venture by the N.C. Arts Council, Duke Art, and the Rubenstein Arts Center, meets that need. These portraits, taken by students at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill, along with other community members, capture a broad swath of artists whose work is rooted in longstanding traditions (bluegrass music, Turkish water marbling, classical Indian dance); at once artfully documenting a new generation of North Carolina artists, and helping to get their names out into the world. In each portrait, an artist is captured in their element: a painter holds a brush in her studio, a poet pensively rests his head on a hand, a guitarist smiles candidly on a park bench. —Noah Rawlings

THE RUBENSTEIN ARTS CENTER, DURHAM | Various times, free, artscenter.duke.edu

LeJuane (El’Ja) Bowens, author, spoken word poet, and veteran.

PHOTO BY WILL WARASILA

Wim Botha: Stil Life with Discontent: Mixed media.

Additional work on view at 21c Museum Hotel. Thru Aug 4.

NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. ncartmuseum.org.

Bull City Challenge: Group show. Thru May 31. Bull City Art & Frame Co, Durham.

Stacey L. Kirby: The Department of Reflection: Multimedia. Thru Aug 4.

Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. ackland.org.

Kathleen Deep: Still: Mixed media and photography. Thru May. The Centerpiece, Raleigh.

Eric Kniss: Sifting: Thru Jun 8 VAE Raleigh, Raleigh. vaeraleigh.org.

Linda Ruth Dickinson: Resonant: Paintings. Thru May 24. The Mahler Fine Art, Raleigh. themahlerfineart.com.

Left-Handed Liberty: Outsider art. Thru Jun 23. Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh. gregg.arts.ncsu.edu.

Durham Art Guild Members’ Showcase: Group show. Thru Jun 8. Durham Art Guild, Durham. durhamartguild.org.

Christian Marclay: Surround Sounds: Synchronized silent video installation. Thru Sep 8. Nasher Museum of Art, Durham. nasher.duke.edu.

Ancestry of Necessity: Group show. Curator, April Childers.

Thru Aug 24. Reed Bldg, Durham.

Charles Eneld: Upcycled: Upcycled Haitian art. Thru Jun 29. Triangle Cultural Art Gallery, Raleigh. triangleculturalart.com.

Annual Photography Show: Riverside High School student exhibit. Thru Jun 2. West Point on the Eno, Durham.

Byron Gin & Andy Farkas: Paintings and prints. Thru Jun 1. Adam Cave Fine Art, Raleigh. adamcavefineart.com.

April Showers, Art Flowers: Group show. Thru May 26. Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, Hillsborough. hillsboroughgallery.com.

Kate Gordon: Juggling Chainsaws: Paintings. Thru Jun 2. The Carrack Modern Art, Durham. thecarrack.org.

Shib Basu & Peggy Van Arnam: Ink and Chains: Ink and crayon, jewelry. Thru May 28.

Cary Gallery of Artists, Cary. carygalleryofartists.org.

Ellie Brenner: Backyard: Mixed media. Thru Jun 14.

The Scrap Exchange, Durham. scrapexchange.org.

Kennedi Carter: East Durham Love: Photos. Thru May 30. Golden Belt, Durham. durhamartguild.org.

Allison Coleman, Gabriella Corter, Angela Lombard: Thru Jun 27. Artspace, Raleigh.

Beyond Despair: An Environmental Call for Art: Work from 33 artists about, including, and referencing the environment. Thru Jun 22.

National Humanities Center, Durham. vaeraleigh.org.

Jim Kellough: Vine Paintings: Thru Oct 10. Durham Convention Center, Durham. durhamarts.org.

Rachel Goodwin: Look Through This: Mixed media.

Thru Jun 29. Horse & Buggy Press and Friends, Durham. horseandbuggypress.com.

Bryant Holsenbeck & Kathryn DeMarco: We the Animals: Sculpture and collage. Thru Jun 29. Craven Allen Gallery, Durham. cravenallengallery.com.

Dawn Hummer: By Her Hands: Thru Jun 2. Pleiades Gallery, Durham. pleiadesartdurham.com.

Michela Martello: Consequential Stranger: Illustrations. Thru Jun 1.

Artspace, Raleigh.

Joy Meyer: A Few Hours After This: Paintings and video.

Thru May 30. The ArtsCenter, Carrboro. artscenterlive.org.

Chris Musina: Paradise: Paintings. Thru Jun 2.

Oneoneone, Chapel Hill. oneoneone.gallery.

N.C. Artists Exhibition: Juried group show. Thru Jun 9. CAM Raleigh, Raleigh. ralfinearts.org.

Oops! Happy Accidents: Art based on accidents. Thru Jun 2. Pleiades Gallery, Durham.

Our House: Durham Arts Council student-instructor exhibit. Thru Jul. 6 Durham Arts Council, Durham.

I AM A MAN: Civil Rights Photographs, 1960-1970: Thru May 31. Center for the Study of the American South, Chapel Hill. south.unc.edu.

Susan Harbage Page: Borderlands: Documentary photos and found objects from the US-Mexico border. Thru Jul 28. Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh. gregg.arts.ncsu.edu.

John James Audubon: The Birds of America: Ornithological engravings. Thru Dec 31.

NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. ncartmuseum.org.

Pop América, 1965-1975: Latin American pop art. Thru Jul 21. Nasher Museum of Art, Durham. nasher.duke.edu.

INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 29

art

CONT’D

Portraying Power and Identity: A Global Perspective: Thru Jan 31. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham.

21cmuseumhotels.com. [re]ACTION: Artistic renditions inspired by scientific images.

Thru Jun 23. Golden Belt, Durham.

V L Rees: I Love Paris: Paintings.

Thru Jun 29. V L Rees Gallery, Raleigh. vlrees.com. reNautilus: Thru Jul 31. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham.

21cmuseumhotels.com.

Susannah Sayler and Edward Morris: Their World Is Not Our World: Video installation.

Thru Jul 7. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. ncartmuseum.org.

Smelt Art & Skittles Inaugural Exhibit: Sixteen local artists.

Thru Jun 29. Smelt Art & Skittles, Pittsboro.

Southern Oracle: We Will Tear the Roof Off: Interactive sculptures. Thru Oct 31. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. ncartmuseum.org.

Kirsten Stoltmann: I am Sorry: Thru Jul 31. Lump, Raleigh. lumpprojects.org.

Tilden Stone: Southern Surreal: Furniture. Thru Sep 8. Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh. gregg.arts.ncsu.edu.

Eun-Kyung Suh: Lost and Preserved: Sculptures. Thru May 31. VAE Raleigh, Raleigh. vaeraleigh.org.

Cher Shaffer: Art from the Holler: Folk art. Thru May 31.

Alexander Dickson House, Hillsborough.

William Paul Thomas: Disrupting Homogeny: Portraits.

Thru Jul 31. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham.

21cmuseumhotels.com.

Katie Shaw: Residency. Thru May 31. Artspace, Raleigh artspacenc.org.

Cheryl Thurber: Documenting Gravel Springs, Mississippi, in the 1970s: Photos. End date

5.22

Carrie Knowles Black Tie Optional: 17 Stories 7pm Under the Tree Storytime 10:30am

5.27

Kacey Ruegsegger Johnson Over My Shoulder: A Columbine Survivor’s Story of Resilience, Hope and a Life Reclaimed 11am Stories on Sunday (weekly children’s storytime) 10:30am Mz Linda’s Toddler Storytime 10:30am

5.29

Rick Atkinson The British Are Coming 7pm

5.25

5.26

TBA. UNC’s Wilson Special Collections Library, Chapel Hill.

Lien Truong: The Sky is Not Sacred: Multimedia. Thru Jun 22. Artspace, Raleigh.

UNC-Chapel Hill MFA Class of 2019: Sacred Wasteland: Group show with guest curator, William Paul Thomas. Thru May 26. Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. ackland.org.

Ely Urbanski: Layers: Monoprints. Thru Jul 6.

Durham Arts Council, Durham.

Christina Lorena Weisner: Explorations: Science sculptures. Thru Jul 28. Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh. gregg.arts.ncsu.edu.

Tim Williams: Pure Pigment: Paintings. Thru May 31.

The ArtsCenter, Carrboro. artscenterlive.org.

Within the Frame: Photos.

Thru Jul 7. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. ncartmuseum.org.

RECYCLE THIS PAPER

READINGS & SIGNINGS Rick Atkinson: History The British are Coming. Wed, May 29, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. quailridgebooks.com.

Belle Boggs & Joanna Pearson: Novels The Gulf and Every Human Love. Thu, May 23, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. flyleafbooks.com.

Iris Tillman Hill, Ricky Garni: NC Poetry Society reading. Sun, May 26, 2 p.m.

McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro. mcintyresbooks.com.

Kacey Ruegsegger Johnson: Over My Shoulder: A Columbine Survivor’s Story of Resilience, Hope, and a Life Reclaimed. Sat, May 25, 11 a.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. quailridgebooks.com.

Carrie Knowles: Short story collection Black Tie Optional.

Wed, May 22, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. quailridgebooks.com.

Andy Parker: Memoir For Alison. Sat, May 25, 11 a.m.

McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro. mcintyresbooks.com.

Lewis Shiner: Novel Outside the Gates of Eden. Thu, May 23, 7 p.m. Regulator Bookshop, Durham. regulatorbookshop.com.

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

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page

LECTURES ETC. Mandy Carter & Matt Meyer: Intersectional and Intergenerational Organizing Skills & Strategy: Activists in conversation. Wed, May 22, 7 p.m. Regulator Bookshop, Durham. regulatorbookshop.com.

NCDOT Table Talk: Wake UP Wake County.

Discussion on NCDOT’s 2050 comprehensive work plan. Networking event to follow. Wed, May 22, 7 p.m.

Clouds Brewing, Raleigh. cloudsbrewing.com.

Top: Tyree Daye, Bottom: Alexis Pauline Gumbs PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE REGULATOR

WEDNESDAY, MAY 29

ALEXIS PAULINE GUMBS AND TYREE DAYE “Breathing seems individual but is also so profoundly collective,” the poet and intersectional feminist scholar Alexis Pauline Gumbs said in an interview with BOMB Magazine.

Gumbs, whose most recent book, M Archive: After the End of the World, is out from Duke Press, reads with the poet and 2019 Whiting Award winner Tyree Daye. The lyric poems in Daye’s debut, River Hymns, gather and lose their breath on the banks of the Neuse River. Gumbs, whose work could be also described as an anti-academic academic text, meets Daye’s on common grounds of ancestry and the South. From her poem “Finding Ceremony: A Song for/from Seven Generations”: “stay/for the smallest sound. stay your behind right here and sit directly on the ground./ open your mouth. now give us what you found.” From Daye’s poem “Field Notes on Beginning:” “I don’t want to die in the south like so many of mine. I want to be / carried back.” —Coco Wilder

THE REGULATOR BOOKSHOP, DURHAM 7 p.m., free, www.regulatorbookshop.com

stage OPENING Lilith Flair: Drag. $5. Wed, May 29, 8 p.m. Ruby Deluxe, Raleigh. rubydeluxeraleigh.com.

Maura García Dance Fundraiser: Dance. $15. Sat, May 25, 7 p.m. The Carrack Modern Art, Durham. thecarrack.org.

Faizon Love: May 2-26.

Goodnights Comedy Club, Raleigh. goodnightscomedy.com.

Oak City Comedy Festival: Stand-up comedy at venues across Raleigh. Full schedule online. Downtown Raleigh. oakcitycomedyfestival.com.

Six: Staged reading by Carrie Knowles. Sun, May 26, 3 p.m.

Burning Coal Theatre at the Murphey School, Raleigh. burningcoal.org Dave Stone: Comedy. $10-$12.

Thu, May 23, 9:30 p.m. The People’s Improv Theater, Chapel Hill. thepit-chapelhill.com.

White: Bulldog Ensemble Theater. Play. May 23-26.

Durham Fruit Company, Durham. bulldogdurham.org.

ONGOING Bizarre: Drag. $7. Sat, May 25, 10 p.m. Ruby Deluxe, Raleigh. rubydeluxeraleigh.com.

Comedy in a Cave: With host Michelle Maclay. $5 suggested. Sat, May 25, 8 p.m.

The Cave Tavern, Chapel Hill. caverntavern.com.

Hello, Dolly!: Musical. $31+.

Thru May 26. Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham. dpacnc.com.

The Legend of Georgia McBride: Musical. Thru Jun 2. William Peace University’s Leggett Theatre, Raleigh. honestpinttheatre.org.

THURSDAY, MAY 23

DAVE STONE Comedian Dave Stone isn’t afraid to dig into the stranger corners of the world—or his own life—for comedy. His work has chronicled his decision to live in a van to save money in LA, his fascinations with the paranormal, and also, barbecue (alongside fellow comedian Kyle Kinane on the podcast The Boogie Monster), and his efforts to find a new diet after an alarming health diagnosis (the upcoming Netflix documentary Gutbuster, which Stone also wrote and helped produce). He’s been a regular presence on TV as well, with appearances on Last Comic Standing, as a voice on Adult Swim’s cartoon Squidbillies, and on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Stone’s unique and offbeat comedy has earned him a cult following, and his return to the Triangle promises more hilarity and strangeness. This show has a two-drink minimum. —Zack Smith

THE PIT, CHAPEL HILL | 9:30 p.m., $10-$12, www.thepit-chapelhill.com

Dave Stone PHOTO COURTESY OF THEPIT-CHAPELHILL.COM

FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR

INDYWEEK.COM

INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 31

screen

WEDNESDAY, MAY 23

MEETING GORBACHEV It’s been nearly four decades since Werner Herzog ’s brilliant and disastrous movie Fitzcarraldo indelibly established the auteur’s reputation among history’s most “maniacally determined or admirably persevering” filmmakers (Los Angeles Times). But recently, the prolific director, who’s released seven films in the past five years (including last week’s premiere of Family Romance, LLC, at Cannes) has increasingly turned to the documentary form, usually in pursuit of subjects familiar from his fictional works: humanity and nature in extremis, on the edge of volcanoes (Into the Inferno), in Antarctica (Encounters at the End of the World), and in caverns containing the earliest drawings of humankind (Cave of Forgotten Dreams). By contrast, in his improbably warm new documentary, Meeting Gorbachev, Herzog seeks, over three conversations, the context of the Russian leader who, in six brief years, reversed the global arms race, ended Soviet control of Eastern Europe, reunified Germany, and oversaw the peaceful dissolution of the Soviet Union. —Byron Woods

THE CARY THEATER, CARY 2 p.m. & 7 p.m., $3-$5, www.thecarytheater.com

OPENING Aladdin—Will Smith walks in Robin Williams’s curly genie shoes in this live-action remake of the nineties Disney classic. Rated PG. Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché—This biopic rescues the “first female filmmaker” from unjust obscurity. Unrated.

N OW P L AY I N G

Booksmart—Overachievers Amy and Molly let loose in this rowdy coming-of-age comedy. Rated R.

 Amazing Grace—A dazzling testament to the Queen of Soul at the height of her career. Rated G.

Little Darlings: $7. Wed, May 29, 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org.

BrightBurn—What if a meteor falls from the sky and brings a bad superhero baby instead of a good superhero baby? This horror flick takes a stab at that question. Rated R.

 Captain Marvel—Brie Larson is an intergalactic fighter questioning who she is.

Rated PG-13.

Maximum Overdrive: Wed, May 22, 9 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh.

The White Crow—Ralph Fiennes directs this biopic about Soviet ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev. Rated R.

SPECIAL SHOWINGS Asbury Park: Riot, Redemption, Rock ‘n Roll: Wed, May 22, 7:15 p.m.

Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh.

The Battle of Algiers: Hillsborough Classic Films.

Free. Sun, May 26, 3 p.m.

Orange County Main Library, Hillsborough. co.orange.nc.us/library.

Chicken Run: Free. Sun, May 26, 2 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org.

32 | 5.22.19 | INDYweek.com

Female: $7. Wed, May 22, 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org.

The INDY uses a five-star rating scale. Read reviews of these films at indyweek.com.

 Hail Satan?—A funny, compelling portrait of a group that’s pushing the limits on just how far a prank can go. Rated R.

½ John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum— A bloody, Buster Keaton-esque ballet meets Sam Peckinpah.

Rated R. ½ Long Shot—The sex jokes and political satire both sag in this Seth RogenCharlize Theron rom-com.

Rated R.  Tolkien—All the dots between The Lord of the Rings and the author’s life are connected in a strangely dispiriting biopic.

Rated PG-13.

food & drink

Vegan Memorial Day Cook Out: Benefit for Piedmont Farm Animal Refuge. Mon, May 27, 2 p.m. Durty Bull Brewing Company, Durham. durtybull.com.

indy classifieds services

employment AIRLINES ARE HIRING Get FAA approved hands on Aviation training. Financial aid for qualified students Career placement assistance.

CALL Aviation Institute of Maintenance 866-441-6890

FTCC HIRING FOR SEVERAL POSITIONS: Fayetteville Technical Community College is now accepting applications for the following positions:Communication Instructor, Dean of Corporate & Continuing Education, Dental Hygiene Instructor, Medical Office Administration Instructor, Payroll & Benefits Supervisor, Senior Systems Administrator Technician.

For detailed information and to apply, please visit our employment portal at: https:// faytechcc.peopleadmin.com/ Human Resources Office Phone: (910) 678-7342 Internet: http://www.faytechcc.edu An Equal Opportunity Employer

HIRING PT ADMIN ASST. Durham environmental justice nonprofit NC WARN is hiring a part-time administrative assistant. NCWARN.org for more info. Women, people of color, LGBTQ encouraged to apply.

SYSTEMS DEVELOPER NEEDED IN MORRISVILLE PPD Development, L.P. seeks a Systems Developer II in Morrisville, NC to provide systems analysis, design, development, testing, and support for moderately complex technical information systems components. BS & 3 yrs, MS & 1yr, or equiv. For full req’s and to apply email: global.recruitmentSM@ ppdi.com Job Reference Number: 157570

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PUBLIC AUCTION Saturday, June 1 @ 10am 201 S. Central Ave Locust, NC. Selling Vehicles Box Trucks, Mowers, New Tools, Industrial Items. www.ClassicAuctions.com 704-791-8825 NCAF5479

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ALL PERSONS, firms and corporations having claims against ELMA JOYCE HONEYCUTT, deceased, of Wake County, NC, are notified to exhibit the same to the undersigned on or before August 5, 2019, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of recovery. Debtors of the decedent are asked to make immediate payment. This 8th day of May 2019.

Joanne H. Gibson, Executor, 8241 Allyns Landing Way, Raleigh, NC 27615. INDY Week: May 8, 15, 22, 29, 2019.

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RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER INDYweek.com | 5.22.19 | 33 RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER

crossword 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.

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© Puzzles by Pappocom

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

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

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

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2 7 3 4 6 and click “puzzle “Puzzle Pages.”

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solution to last week’s puzzle

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HIMALAYAN FRONTIERS CLOSING SALE UP TO 80% Triangle Town Center 919-649-9006 Handcrafted: Asian art, carvings, paintings Silver jewelry Meditation Crystals, Gemstones

BAREFOOT AT THE TABLE

Men’s naked supper club, Triangle, NC www.meetup.com/Triangle-Men-s-Naked-Supperclub/

DANCE CLASSES IN LINDY HOP, SWING, BLUES

At Carrboro ArtsCenter. Private lessons available.

RICHARD BADU, 919-724-1421, rbadudance@gmail.com

SMOKY MOUNTAIN WHISKEY CRACKERS ® available at: Saxapahaw General Store, Southern Season, New Hope Market, Special Treats, Heart of Carolina, Oasis Fresh Market

ART SUPPLY STORE

LEARN TAI CHI IN 2019!

Improve balance, flexibility, strength.

New classes start in May and June throughout the Triangle.

Visit www.taoisttaichi.org for details. 919-787-9600

Formerly known as HappymessART artpostnc.com • 718 Iredell St. • 919.286.9763

IMPROVE THE SOUND OF YOUR VOICE! WWW.LAURECEWESTSTUDIOS.COM

COMEDY BASED ON SECRETS

919-286-1916 @hunkydorydurham We buy records.

Now serving dank beer.

Hush Hush: Friday’s 9pm 401 W Geer St. thisismettlesome.com/Live

MOVE YOUR BUSINESS AHEAD ™ WWW.EASILYCREATIVE.COM

CECI N’EST PAS UNE PUBLICITÉ!

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