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Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill June 22, 2022

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Raleigh W Durham W Chapel Hill VOL. 39 NO. 25

“A lot of the modern DIY scene is not based on style as much as genuineness and emotion,” says Nathan McMurray, one of the three founders of Carrboro's Trash Tape Records. p. 18 PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA

CONTENTS NEWS 5 6 8

For North Carolina's community health centers, expanding Medicaid would make the world of difference. BY AMANDA ABRAMS As towns and cities move forward on LGBTQ+ rights in Wake County, the town of Holly Springs is going in the opposite direction. BY JASMINE GALLUP Raleigh, like cities across the country, is dealing with a lifeguard shortage.

BY JASMINE GALLUP

10 Orange County commissioners abruptly suspended the county's climate council, but officials say a countywide climate action plan is on the way.

BY HANNAH KAUFMAN

12 14

Durham sheriff Clarence Birkhead is challenging the candidacy of an opponent set to run against him this fall. BY THOMASI MCDONALD Durham residents lambast plans for Fayette Place. BY AKIYA DILLON

ARTS & CULTURE 15

At Queeny's in downtown Durham, lone diners and full parties alike find a table to eat at. BY LENA GELLER 16 Raleigh’s XP League is gaining ground in the quickly growing landscape of youth esports. BY JAMAL MICHEL 17 In Phantom of the Open, Mark Rylance plays a terrible golfer with big dreams. BY GLENN MCDONALD 18 Trash Tape Records gives a Gen Z update to the ethics and aesthetics of a Gen X record label. BY BRIAN HOWE

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A COUPLE OF CORRECTIONS FROM OUR BEST OF THE TRIANGLE EDITION FROM LAST WEEK: Brandwein Bagels is located on Rosemary Street in Chapel Hill, not Franklin as we originally reported. Temple Beth Or Preschool is open to children aged 1 through Kindergarten, not Pre-K. And K9 Kabana won "Best Pet Boarding in Wake County," not Green Beagle Lodge (which operates in Orange County).

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June 22, 2022

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BACK TA L K

Last week, our summer intern Mariana Fabian wrote about the antiLGBTQ backlash that’s cropping up in some of the more conservative corners of Wake County— notably the town of Holly Springs—that we’re seeing during this Pride Month. Our readers had some thoughts about the story.

“Soo threatened. Pitiful, actually,” writes Facebook commenter ERIK ENGBERG. Facebook commenter JIM MCDONALD suggests a novel way that “Those People” who feel threatened by LGBTQ people might see fewer of them: stop procreating. After all, the LGBTQ community is composed of all of our neighbors, family members, and our children—even Those People’s. “‘Conservative’ is no longer the proper descriptor for Those People,” Mcdonald writes. “This headline writer might substitute ‘Hateful’ or ‘Regressive’ to make it more accurate. Those People want to shove citizens back into closets and padlock the door. I suggest if they want to rid society of non-straight citizens, there’s this *one weird thing* they should stop doing immediately.

As a bonus—no more abortions.”

Facebook commenter ROBIN CUBBON agrees the term “conservative” is not the most accurate way to describe anti-LGBTQ homophobes. “conservative is not the right word and really never was. no one that’s been their victim thinks of them as conservative. its just a code word, now more than ever.”

Read staff writer Jasmine Gallup’s follow-up story on Holly Springs’ anti-LGBTQ council in this week’s edition of the paper on page 6.

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Chapel Hill

e

15 MINUTES Matt McCarthy, 41 Digital collage artist with a focus on cats

BY MARIANA FABIAN backtalk@indyweek.com

How did you get started with art? Were cats always your muse?

I’ve always been artistic; I went to school for architecture and that just didn’t pan out. I did a lot of illustration work and then I got into collage.

Once I got into digital collage, I started making these giant cat pieces—I had this idea running through my head.

I hadn’t lived with cats until I was in my 20s, when I moved with someone who had a cat. I started to really resonate with their personalities. Cats are more aligned with humans than any other pet or domestic animal.

They became my muse after that.

I would do illustration work and always be drawn to cats. The giant cat pieces idea actually came from watching my own cats, seeing how they interacted with bugs around the house and stuff. We were living in New York at the time, so I thought, “What if I started putting these giant cats in urban settings?” and the idea kind of took off from there.

It was also a time when I was searching for my own voice and the cats became my muse, they became my outlet. Through their personalities, I was able to express what I was trying to say.

Who are/were your biggest artistic influences for your art?

The pop artists and mid-century modern architects had a huge influence on me growing up and I feel like some of their sensibilities are still present in my work. I like pieces to be funny or clever and I’m very focused on craft when creating. I also enjoy the process of finding connections between two images, and the works of collage artists John Stezaker and Kensuke Koike are inspiring to me. And while I’m not a photographer, I would be remiss to not recognize the work of Walter Chandoha, the world’s greatest cat photographer. His images defined the way the 20th century viewed cats and paved the way for the internet cat culture of today.

How many cats do you have? What are their names? Are they the cats you usually portray?

Currently, I only have one cat. His name is Atticus and he’s 17 years old. He’s a black cat and he’s very, very distinguished.

My wife [Katherine Cox] and I looked into adopting for several years, but it was kind of like “cats will find you,” and they did.

We’ve stumbled across a couple outside our grocery store and rescued them. We gave them great lives. We only have one old man and no plans to add any. He’s our main focus right now.

I don’t actually use any of our cats for my pieces. It’s hard for me because I know their personalities so well. I prefer using and finding public domain cats because it gives me an empty palette to put my own personality to that cat. I rarely use mine.

I’m also really bad at photographing Atticus. Since he’s black, we call him “The Void.” I can never get a great photo of him to use for my art. The public domain cats are easier to work with.

What’s your favorite piece to date?

I have many favorites, but one that resonates with me right now is the first piece you’ll see when you walk into my Magnus Cattus show. It’s titled “Campfire Tales” and features an enormous cat making eye contact with you, illuminated in the glow of a campfire. I was inspired by the way a good story can fully transport you somewhere you’ve never been to experience things you never thought possible. It’s something I try to do with every piece I create. W Matt McCarthy’s Magnus Cattus art show is going on until June 28 at the Cary Arts Center.

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North Carolina

Caring for More For community health centers in North Carolina, Medicaid expansion would make all the difference.

BY AMANDA ABRAMS backtalk@indyweek.com

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incoln Community Health Center in Durham always seems to be bustling.

The patients drifting in and out of the clinic’s main location on Fayetteville Street offer a snapshot of the city’s lower-income population: a mix of Black, white, and Latino residents who are there for low-cost medical, dental, mental health, or pharmacy services.

Heidi Flores is just leaving the facility.

With her T-shirt, cutoffs, and shy smile, she looks like the young woman on the precipice of adulthood that she is. She was here for a checkup.

“It was my first checkup, actually,” says Flores, who just turned 20. She doesn’t have health insurance and had been worried about how much a visit to a primary care provider might cost. She’s seen her aunt receive bill after bill following medical visits. In response, Flores, like several of her friends, has simply stayed away.

But the health center charges on a sliding scale, and the appointment only cost her $20. Happily, everything looked fine on this visit, though she had some blood work done and is waiting on the results. Flores says she’d definitely come more often if she had health insurance.

Flores—and roughly 600,000 other low-income North Carolinians—may be in luck. Early this month, the North Carolina Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill that would expand Medicaid for people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $18,000 for an individual. After almost a decade of resisting Medicaid expansion, the senate’s vote was historic. But it wasn’t decisive: to become law, the bill must still pass the state house of representatives, where the reception is likely to be much chillier.

No group arguably stands to gain as much from Medicaid expansion as community health centers and their patients. Located across the state, these mission-driven

nonprofit clinics, also known as federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), are legally obligated to accept everyone regardless of ability to pay. They see roughly 560,000 North Carolinians; the vast majority are poor, and 40 percent lack health insurance.

In the Triangle, four community health organizations run a total of about 27 clinics, reaching from Louisburg, located just east of Wake County, to Siler City in western Chatham County. Each one is a little different, but generally they all offer primary care to adults and kids, dental care, and some mental health services.

The clinics and their patients—more than 100,000 Triangle residents—would vastly benefit if Medicaid were expanded.

“We see a very sick population,” says Claretta Foye, Lincoln’s CEO. “Diabetes, hypertension, COPD, asthma—a lot of our patients have all of those.” Those chronic conditions are best managed through preventive care and regular checkups, but over half of the center’s patients lack health insurance or are “under-insured,” paying for lab tests or specialists out of pocket. And with inflation spiking, even $20 to see a provider can be prohibitive.

The result is patients who wind up much sicker, often needlessly so. Problems that could’ve been prevented early on may blossom into full-blown crises—and patients, with little recourse, may wind up at the emergency room.

“I had a patient with a large diabetic foot ulcer who was sent to the emergency department due to concerns of osteomyelitis, an infection in the bone,” Dr. Raleigh Rumley, a primary care provider with Advance Community Health in Wake County, wrote in an email. “Because of their lack of insurance, the emergency department just made sure they were stable and discharged them, not obtaining the expensive tests needed to check the severity of

PHOTO VIA UNSPLASH

the ulcer.” Thanks to an assistance program that helped with costs, the patient saw an orthopedist the next week. But in the end, part of their foot had to be amputated.

There’s no shortage of similar stories among FQHC providers: Patients who urgently needed surgery but had to wait because they didn’t have insurance. People diagnosed with cancer who postponed care because they didn’t want their family to be burdened with high medical bills after they died. Medicaid coverage would end those life-or-death dilemmas, and it would allow beneficiaries to receive preventive care to keep them healthier in the first place.

But there would be a secondary benefit for the health centers. Not only would their patients get better treatment under Medicaid; the clinics themselves would receive reimbursements for care that could be used to strengthen their service provision.

Just about all FQHCs in states that have expanded Medicaid have seen a significant increase in revenues.

“Part of the community health center model is doing a lot with very little,” says Brendan Riley, vice president for government relations and external affairs at the NC Community Health Center Association.

“By our mission and requirements, health centers reinvest all reimbursements into expanding access to care. So [the absence of Medicaid expansion] is really capping our potential to care for more patients and expand to a broader array of comprehensive services.”

First of all, the centers could see more patients. “The need is much larger than there are community health centers,” says Daniel Lipparelli, CEO of NeighborHealth Center, an FQHC in central Raleigh. Providers at some clinics report being asked to see increasing numbers of patients every day, because demand for their low-cost services is so great.

And with more revenues coming in, the centers could broaden their range of offerings to wraparound services like chronic disease management and nutrition. In particular, just about every FQHC leader mentions a major uptick in the need for behavioral health services—among adults with PTSD in the wake of the pandemic, young people struggling with anxiety, and those with substance abuse issues seeking medically assisted treatment. It’s becoming an urgent priority among all of the area’s FQHCs. But they can’t meet the need without the funding to hire more providers.

Brian Toomey, CEO of Piedmont Health Services—the largest FQHC in the Triangle, with clinics in Orange, Chatham, and Alamance Counties—thinks Medicaid expansion itself could reduce some of that demand.

“You take someone who’s uninsured, has chronic conditions, is working, needs to take care of their health, and is worried about their existence. To take that burden of anxiety off their plate? That’d be tremendous for them,” he says. “Our depression screenings will improve because of it, we think.” W INDYweek.com

June 22, 2022

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Holly Springs

Backward Momentum While most towns and cities in Wake County are embracing Pride Month and supporting a nondiscrimination ordinance, the Town of Holly Springs is not on board.

BY JASMINE GALLUP jgallup@indyweek.com

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egal risks. Lack of understanding. Existing protections. Those were all excuses that members of the Holly Springs Town Council gave last week as they stalled signing onto Wake County’s nondiscrimination ordinance (NDO), which would defend LGBTQ people from bigotry in the workplace, retail stores, and elsewhere.

The real reason for the town council’s inaction, however, is simple: it’s homophobia, says Donna Friend, a six-year Holly Springs resident who lives with her wife, Linda. The two have been married for nine years and partners for 41 years. “[The town council’s discussion] was all based on homophobia. There’s no question about it. It wasn’t really about any legitimate [concern],” Friend says. “I don’t understand how our town council swears an oath to protect all its citizens, and yet marginalized people, they don’t want to protect.

What happens in the nail salon if someone who’s trans wants to come in and have their nails done and they don’t want to let them in?”

Friend was one of about 40 people who showed up outside the Holly Springs Law Enforcement Center on Tuesday as council members inside discussed whether to adopt the NDO, which not only protects LGBTQ people but also outlaws discrimination based on race, ethnicity, hair, creed, sex, pregnancy, marital status, veteran status, age, and disability.

The crowd carried rainbow flags and colorful signs urging the council to “say yes to the NDO” and “respect my existence or expect my resistance.”

Chuck Tryon, another one of the protesters, says he and others wanted to make their voices heard during the town council workshop, where there were no public comments.

“The town is still proving resistant to supporting a nondiscrimination ordinance and 6

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it really makes no sense,” Tryon says. “I was extremely heartened to see so many people out supporting the rally …. I think there are a lot of people in town who recognize the stakes of this.”

Pride Month protest Holly Springs residents started becoming concerned with the town council’s attitude toward the LGBTQ community earlier this month, when the council refused to pass a proclamation recognizing Pride Month, Tryon says.

“It’s really hurtful to see that expression of disrespect, coupled with other attempts to either curtail LGBTQ rights or to use fear of LGBTQ people as a kind of political prop,” Tryon says. “It bothers me a great deal to see these attacks taking place.”

Tryon, Friend, and others showed up to comment in favor of the proclamation earlier this month, standing 24 strong against one naysayer, resident Steve Schneider, who compared gay and trans people to “serial killers and pedophiles.”

“Future generations suffer if we deny the reality of two genders or that men cannot become pregnant or that homosexual marriage is not marriage at all,” Schneider said at the council meeting. “Being true to who you are means accepting the way that God made you. God does not make gay people or trans the same way he does not make serial killers or pedophiles.”

Eighteen people submitted written comments in favor of the Pride Month proclamation and NDO, while only three opposed.

This response came in spite of councilwoman Kristi Bennett putting out a call on Facebook for people to show up in protest of the Pride Month proclamation.

PHOTO VIA UNSPLASH

“The pride proclamation is significant because even if it’s just ‘a public statement,’ it tells members of the town that they are affirmed and that they’re welcome in the community,” Tryon says, adding that just one affirming space for LGBTQ youth can reduce the risk of suicide and mental health challenges.

“There are many parents who don’t accept their LGBTQ children. Having that space for someone and ensuring that they know that they’re protected, I think, would make a world of difference.”

The nondiscrimination ordinance The town council’s discussion of the NDO on Tuesday had a continuous theme—that an ordinance protecting LGBTQ people and people of color was “not right” for Holly Springs and its 40,000 residents.

The NDO—which has been adopted

by Wake County and 19 municipalities in North Carolina, including Raleigh, Apex, and Durham—allows people who feel they’ve been discriminated against to file a complaint, which leads to an out-of-court mediation. If the mediation is unsuccessful, individuals can then file a civil lawsuit to obtain an injunction against the business or organization in question.

If Holly Springs adopted the NDO, Wake County would be responsible for responding to complaints and would cover the costs of enforcement for the first 18 months.

Despite the success of Wake County’s ordinance, however, council members remain unwilling to adopt it, with some suggesting the town attorney rewrite the NDO more narrowly for Holly Springs.

Mayor Sean Mayefskie, mayor pro tem Daniel Berry, Kristi Bennett, Timothy Forrest, and Shaun McGrath all took positions against the ordinance Tuesday, citing legal concerns and worries about enforcement and questioning whether the ordinance was even needed.

The sole voice in favor of the NDO was council member Aaron Wolff, who, visibly frustrated, asked his colleagues to specify what problems they had with the existing NDO and what changes they would request for a Holly Springs–specific ordinance.

“The workshop on Tuesday, if it did nothing else, illustrated beyond a reasonable doubt that there are massive, gaping holes in antidiscrimination law that affect the residents of Holly Springs,” Wolff says.

“The NDO that Wake County put together covers all of those gaps. Why would we not want to fill gaps that allow people in our community to be discriminated against?”

In the past month, community members have made it clear that discrimination is

still a problem in Holly Springs, Wolff says, citing a recent conversation with a transgender resident.

“He does not feel safe being his true, authentic self in Holly Springs,” Wolff says.

“That’s a problem. To sit there and say, ‘Holly Springs is fine the way it is … there’s nothing to be fixed,’ is just to bury your head in the sand and say the lived experiences of the countless residents who have reached out to us don’t matter.”

“We could make a real impact to law in Holly Springs that [makes a difference for our residents] and at the same time affirm their existence in our town and their importance to our community,” Wolff continued.

“And we are refusing to do both.”

Wolff says the exact reasoning for council members’ opposition to the NDO is a mystery to him, given the demonstrated success of Wake County’s ordinance and the multiple months council members have had to seek answers to their questions. But even after the lack of progress during Tuesday’s workshop, Wolff has continued talking to council members, imploring them to take action.

“I’ve said privately to my colleagues, ‘Just because you guys push this aside does not mean it’s going to go away,’” Wolff says.

“We’re going to continue to have pressure on us, not just from private residents but also from our business community.”

“If we can come together and find a solution, then we can move on. Unfortunately, out of the five of us, I seem to be the only one who’s really interested in finding a solution in any reasonable time,” Wolff says.

“It’s immensely frustrating, it feels like a no-brainer to me. I feel like the arguments that were made and the answers that were received made it a pretty easy, obvious choice to approve this, but they still won’t.”

Mayefskie, who was elected to his first term as mayor in 2021, may have been swayed in part by businessman Robert Luddy, who happens to be his top individual campaign donor. Luddy, the founder of Thales Academy private schools and Franklin Academy charter school, is a conservative activist who gave $5,000 to Mayefskie’s campaign.

Luddy has also been crystal clear about his feelings toward LGBTQ people, defending Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and including policies in his private schools that prohibit students from “promotion, affirmation, or discussion” of LGBTQ people or issues.

Christine Kelly, a former Holly Springs Town Council member, now candidate for NC House District 37, seemed equally frustrated with the council’s stonewalling during a phone conversation last week.

Kelly, who challenged Mayefskie in the

2021 election for mayor, has been critical of the current council.

Like Wolff, Kelly pushed for the NDO while she was still on town council and met resistance. Ultimately, the council decided to revisit the NDO after Wake County had enacted it and they were able to gather more information, she says.

“Now, they’ve pushed it under the rug and [Wolff] is the only one talking about it,” Kelly says. “What do we know that we didn’t know then? We know now that the NDO is going well and [Wake County] is going to manage the cost …. There’s no downside for the town. It’s more stall tactics.”

The political climate Holly Springs is one of several more conservative communities in Wake County that is moving backward on LGBTQ rights. Many activists are seeing backlash against previous victories this year, as local officials hesitate to pass LGBTQ protections and state legislators moved forward with House Bill 755, or the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Overall, the political climate is frightening for people like Friend and her wife, Linda. The couple are transplants from New York, and while they originally felt comfortable moving to liberal Wake County, they’re now beginning to wonder what challenges may lie ahead.

“We’re really worried about this midterm election and where we’re going to be at the end of it,” Friend says. “I see a rollback of a lot of things that everybody enjoys as their civil liberties being taken away. If they rescind the same-sex marriage act, what do we do now? It wasn’t that long ago that if I was in the hospital and went into intensive care, Linda would not have been able to visit me because she’s not [recognized as] a family member.”

For that reason, Friend will continue fighting for her own rights and the rights of other LGBTQ people, she says.

“I’m not backing away from this one,” Friend says. “We’re going to do the best we can to make sure that some sort of ordinance gets passed. [And] if it turns out [the ordinance] is all about the groups that are already protected and they’re going to kick the ones who are marginalized to the street, then we’ll really know what this town is about.”

Election Day is November 8. The next round of elections for the Holly Springs Town Council is in 2023, when McGrath and Wolff will be up for reelection. The remaining members—Mayefskie, Berry, Bennett, and Forrest—will not face elections until 2025. W INDYweek.com

June 22, 2022

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Raleigh

Summer Understaffed How Raleigh is dealing with a national lifeguard shortage

BY JASMINE GALLUP jgallup@indyweek.com

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qua blue light ripples off the tile walls of the Pullen Aquatic Center last Tuesday, home to an Olympic-sized swimming pool and more than a dozen lifeguards-in-training.

The teenagers, mostly wearing casual exercise shorts and T-shirts, are waiting for their chance to dive in and practice the skills they’ve learned in a weeklong training class.

Those skills include lifting their partners out of the water, giving CPR using a rescue mask, and using backboards designed to stabilize people with neck injuries.

“If you’re being lifted, it’s really hard, because if some members of your group can’t lift you up properly, you will drown,” says Jackson Jones-Selater, 16, poking fun at his partner Jaiden Phillips, also 16.

“I’ve been partners with him all week, I’ve been having to lift him out of the water,” Phillips explains, gesturing to Jones-Selater’s six-foot frame. The teen must outweigh her by at least 30 pounds. “You’re so heavy. I’m not saying anything bad, you’re just heavy.”

Learning lifeguard skills has been challenging at times, the teenagers agree, but also fun.

“You have to trust the people you’re working with,” says Olivia Poteat, 15. “You’re practicing saving someone drowning, so you have to lay facedown in the water and just trust that they’re going to get you. The first day, that’s what we did. I had no idea who anyone was, but I’ve made friendships now.”

The group of teenage applicants, soon to be literal lifesavers, are also a saving grace for Ken Hisler, assistant director of Raleigh’s parks, recreation, and cultural resources department. Raleigh, like cities nationwide, has been struggling to find lifeguards for its pools—four that are open year-round and four that are typically open from Memorial Day, in late May, to Labor Day, in early September.

The national lifeguard shortage, however, forced Raleigh officials to keep sum8

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mer pools closed this year through midJune. Even now, only two of the four summer pools are open, and only during weekends. At year-round pools, staff have had to close sections, reduce hours, and limit swim lessons.

City officials prioritized opening Biltmore and Longview pools, both located in low-income neighborhoods in southeast Raleigh.

Unlike in some richer, whiter, parts of the city, there aren’t many private neighborhood pools in the area for families to use.

Pools there are an important resource for children and active adults, Hisler says.

“When we looked at our seasonal operation, our priorities were looking at those communities that may not have access to a pool,” Hisler says. “Our focus was ‘How do we make sure those communities that don’t have another resource are prioritized?’ That’s why Longview opened first, [because] we’re the community pool in that [neighborhood].”

Raleigh’s pools serve four different groups, Hisler says: families and children who use the pools for recreation, people who are taking water safety and swim lessons, people who swim regularly as exercise, and third-party groups like swim teams. At the moment, Hisler is trying to ensure people can use summer pools for recreation and find swimming instruction at yearround facilities.

“Our first responsibility is to serve the public,” Hisler says. “Right now what we’ve tried to do is make sure we can maintain [opportunities at year-round pools]. We’ve been able to balance those four communities to a certain extent.”

Why is there a lifeguard shortage?

The lifeguard shortage isn’t a new problem. Staffing public pools and beachfronts has been an issue for the last 20 years, says

Olivia Poteat watches the pool at Pullen Aquatic Center Bernard Fisher, director of the American Lifeguard Association.

A drop in the number of interested applicants combined with a spike in the construction of new public pools created the perfect storm. The ratio of lifeguards to pools became unbalanced, Fisher says. Increased development also created more beachfront area for fewer lifeguards to patrol.

The situation was bad, but not unmanageable, Fisher says. At least until the coronavirus pandemic.

“We [usually] bring in about 300,000 new lifeguard candidates every year. The first year of the pandemic, we pretty much didn’t train anyone,” Fisher says. “Also, the certification is good for two years. So the people who got their certifications two years before the pandemic, they needed to come and renew it … but we missed them.”

The pandemic created a backup in the number of new lifeguards coming through the training pipeline, so now, as officials are trying to fully reopen pools, there’s a severe shortage of workers.

“We didn’t have as much demand [during the pandemic],” Hisler says. “Therefore, there wasn’t as much of a push [for workers]. There just weren’t as many people coming to the pools.”

As the pandemic has died down, however, demand has increased rapidly. Many more people are coming to public pools, and the city, like other industries, is playing catchup. About one-third of pools across the country will be closed this summer because

PHOTO BRETT VILLENA

of the shortage, increasing to about half of all pools in August, says Fisher. “[The pools] that have opened … we’re not going to be able to keep them all open until Labor Day, because we rely heavily on the youth that have to go back to school,” Fisher says.

Hisler is anticipating a more severe shortage of lifeguards come August, as high school and college students go back to school, he says. Staffing has historically been a problem during the earliest and latest weeks of summer. One possible solution is to hire retirees, according to Fisher.

“They come down and they are swimming laps for fitness and health. They enjoy it.

They like the community and want to help,” Fisher says. “We just need to let them know that, hey, there’s no age limit to coming down and getting trained and helping your community pool.”

Per Fisher’s advice, Hisler and other Raleigh officials are trying to reach out to active adults and retirees, many of whom come to the pool daily and have schedules that enable them to work during the daytime hours. City staff are also considering offering retention bonuses for lifeguards who will stay on until Labor Day, Hisler says.

Another problem Raleigh faces is getting qualified applicants. The city is now seeing more applicants for lifeguarding positions, but not everyone who applies can pass the swim assessment, Hisler says.

“Even if somebody’s interested in becoming a lifeguard, they have to be able to

A group of lifeguards in training. From left: Addie Coral, Olivia Poteat, Rosalind Hollar, Katie Hu, Jaiden Phillips, Jackson Jones-Selater PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA

pass the certification requirements, and that’s not something that everybody’s able to accomplish,” he says. “Hiring lifeguards across the country has been challenging for many of us, because it is a little more physically demanding than a lot of parttime jobs.”

NA One solution to that problem may be hirut half of ing lifeguards with shallow water certifications, which are easier to get than deep d … we’re water certifications, says Fisher. Shallow m all open water lifeguards can’t guard deep diving heavily on areas but can guard wading pools, shallow o school,” water areas, and five-foot lap lanes, freeing up more experienced lifeguards to watch e severe the deep end. ugust, as Fisher adds that cities should also do s go back their best to keep pools open for swimming istorically classes and lifeguard training, which create t and lat- better swimmers and more lifeguards. e solution sher. swimming What now? enjoy it. t to help,” The good news is that Raleigh officials hem know have been able to hire more lifeguards in o coming recent weeks. Eighteen lifeguards have been ping your hired since June, and another 19 recently graduated training and are in the midst of nd other the hiring process. To open all the city’s ch out to pools full-time, officials need to hire about of whom 50 more lifeguards, according to Hisler. ve sched- Recent news coverage of the crisis has uring the helped get the word out, he says. o consid- “There’ve been a lot of parents recents for life- ly … [who will] look to their kids and go, abor Day, ‘You can swim, you can meet these requirements. Let’s go and see if we can help out.’ is getting That’s been super exciting,” Hisler says. ow seeing “Another community member recognized positions, their local pool was going to be impacted pass the and went out and found teenagers they already had a relationship with. They said, n becom- ‘Let’s go to the job fair and submit our e able to applications, because we know that if we

can be guards, then that helps get our community pool open.’”

At least one teenager applied for a lifeguard position this month because of recent news coverage. Addie Coral, 15, says she heard about the job opportunity through WRAL, and her aunt encouraged her to apply.

“I’ve actually worked before, I worked for a little bit at a general store. But I felt like it would be a fun job to do,” Coral says.

Plus, “it was better pay than what I’ve been getting,” she says. “When my brother started lifeguarding, it was like $7.25.”

The raise in hourly pay is another strategy Raleigh officials are using to try to recruit new lifeguards, Hisler says. Raleigh raised starting pay for lifeguards from $9 an hour to $13 an hour. More experienced lifeguards can make up to $15 an hour.

The strategy seems to be working. Phillips and Jones-Selater each said the higher pay was one of the reasons they decided to apply. Jones-Selater plans to use the money he makes this summer to buy three new rolls of leather, he says. One of his hobbies is crafting leather bags and wallets.

If city officials are able to hire enough lifeguards, they plan to open the Lake Johnson pool next, Hisler says. They also want to add weekday hours at Biltmore and Longview as temperatures climb into the 90s.

“Thirty minutes after we opened [Longview], there were already kids in the pool, and they were jumping [around]. For me, that’s why we do what we do,” Hisler says.

“There’s nothing better, during the summer, than family and friends having the opportunity to just come together. That’s what the pools create. They’re community gathering spaces. [They] break down barriers. It’s just an opportunity for kids to be kids … for neighbors to connect in a relaxing atmosphere, maybe meet somebody new.” W

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June 22, 2022

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Orange County The Orange County Climate Council was created to increase alternative energy use and climate resiliency among other initiatives PHOTO COURTESY OF ORANGE COUNTY

Climate Action Consensus Crisis Orange County commissioners abruptly suspended a countywide climate council that its members say had made some tangible progress.

Commissioners say a county climate action plan is on the way.

BY HANNAH KAUFMAN backtalk@indyweek.com

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n climate work in Orange County, it’s been two steps forward, one step back. Most recently is the unexpected shelving of a countywide climate council that had made progress in sharing information and planning climate action initiatives among local experts and governments. The board was suspended, its members offended, but—hopefully—the situation will soon be amended.

Last April, the Orange County Board of County Commissioners officially reorganized and effectively suspended the Orange County Climate Council based on the recommendations in a report from the county’s Climate Council Review Subcommittee that was formed in October 2021 with the purpose of evaluating the council.

The 31-member climate council formed in September 2019 to share information and collaborate on climate change initiatives between local jurisdictions, schools, experts, community members, and environmental advocacy institutions. The council had issues with attendance—compounded by remote meetings and COVID-19—from the get-go, but had success10

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fully completed multiple projects, and members were in the process of trying to organize themselves internally by drafting bylaws and working on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to better communicate between the jurisdictions of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Hillsborough.

The county’s Climate Council Review Subcommittee, spearheaded by commissioner Jamezetta Bedford and joined by commissioners Amy Fowler and Anna Richards, looked into the progress and performance of the council.

Council members say the committee took the council’s efforts to organize as a sign of dysfunctionality and, ultimately, the committee members decided more was wrong with the council than was right.

“I think this was totally ineffective—I mean, they couldn’t make quorum,” Bedford says. “The membership had never been completed, they weren’t diverse. I don’t think they were an effective or operating council.”

Members who were on the council came to starkly different conclusions, though.

At the April 26 meeting where the council was suspended, the chair of the climate council, Melissa McCullough, gave a speech about alleged inaccuracies and mistakes— including the assertion that the group couldn’t consistently make quorum—within the commissioners’ subcommittee report. Following her thorough address, the subcommittee presented its findings and the seven county commissioners discussed potential solutions, including disbanding the council entirely, until the commissioners came to the decision to suspend and reorganize the council to follow a model in which it would meet three times a year following its suspension.

Council members say the subcommittee’s recommendations were made without collaboration with the council members, and the majority of these members say they had no idea the council faced an imminent possibility of suspension—McCullough says she wasn’t aware that the commissioners would be taking action until the day of the meeting.

“I found out rather inadvertently,” McCullough says.

“Somebody saw it, and they called me up and said, ‘Do you realize that this is on the agenda?’”

McCullough says information wasn’t shared with the council members. She notified the other three elected officials who represent Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Hillsborough about the meeting, but they couldn’t attend on such short notice.

“That kind of explains why I am the only person who spoke,” McCullough says. “Amy Ryan, who represented Chapel Hill on the council, asked [Bedford] if they would delay the discussions so that the other electeds could have some input—and she was told no.”

Bedford says she knew that the council reorganization item was going to be on the agenda for a week before the April 26 meeting and still did not notify the council members, something she says she takes accountability for.

“I could have handled that better,” Bedford says. “If I thought about it, I could definitely have sent an email to the whole climate council to inform them. I’m sure it bothers many of the council members—that’s a legit complaint. But I don’t believe at all that it would have changed the 7-0 vote whatsoever, and I think it is a form over substance issue there.”

Mark Marcoplos, the founder of the council and a former county commissioner, says the process the commissioners undertook was done with a “very disturbing lack of transparency.”

“If you were a responsible elected official and you saw this committee that you thought was not fulfilling its function and didn’t have any value and it needed to be addressed, you would reach out to the members of the committee and you would express your thoughts on that to them,” Marcoplos says. “Let them know that you have these concerns, get their feedback, and work together to come to some kind of consensus on what needs to happen.

“Well, this was clearly just a hit job.”

The council’s work so far

Why reorganize the council?

Since its formation in 2019, the Orange County Climate Council has collaborated on a variety of projects, research initiatives, and climate discussions. One of those projects included the Climate Action Relational Database, a spreadsheet that incorporates all of the climate initiatives that the different municipalities are carrying out. The database, while seemingly an obvious first step, was crucial to helping each municipality understand what the others had done by consolidating countywide climate actions, says Chapel Hill representative and sustainability expert Donna Rubinoff.

“The first thing you have to do is just understand what you’re working with,” Rubinoff says. “It’s not rocket science, but it was needed and it was important that it happened.”

Another project initiated under the council was Rubinoff’s work directing several student interns to study climate justice and climate communication strategies and data on how people from various demographics engage with information about climate change.

“Climate action isn’t just about building solar panels and wind and then weatherizing houses and the technology of climate change,” Rubinoff says. “So much of it has to do with the quality of climate communication your organization presents—research has found that one of the most important and valuable tools for getting people involved in climate action is to get them to just simply start talking about it.”

Rubinoff says she had hoped that this work could eventually help inform the county’s climate action plan, which has not yet materialized despite Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Hillsborough all having climate plans of their own.

The council was also working with the three jurisdictions, mayors, and the county board of commissioners’ chair to begin the official process of forming an MOU, an exercise that was meant to preempt situations like the suspension of the council, says Sammy Slade, a member of the Carrboro Town Council and chair for Carrboro on the climate council.

“Our attorneys were already working on a draft that the council was going to review and provide input on, given the experience we had already acquired by then,” Slade says. “So it was just very strange that they aborted that process and have taken this unilateral approach.”

Marcoplos suspects that the suspension of the council was merely political.

“Nothing really points to the fact that it was disingenuous more than the fact that we went [about] eight months without an Orange County representative on the climate council,” Marcoplos says. “And then all of a sudden [Bedford] rolls in for a couple of meetings, and she turns around and she gets two of the newest commissioners who know the least about the history of this stuff to form a committee with her and tells them why the council is no longer useful and needs to be done away with.”

But Bedford says the politics between herself and Marcoplos have nothing to do with the reorganization, and that the council never notified the commissioners that Orange County’s previous representative, Mark Dorosin, who relocated to Florida last year, wasn’t showing up to meetings.

“I have too much to do—I work, and I do this, and I’m a grandma, and I’m a mom— to care politically about [Marcoplos],” Bedford says. “It’s absurd—I mean, climate just has to be elevated and it was kind of disappointing to find out that for [about] six months prior, Dorosin had never shown up and no one, including the electeds, had told any of us on the [board].”

Bedford also says it’s incorrect to say that her fellow subcommittee member Anna Richards didn’t know much about the council, as she was the NAACP representative in the beginning and had attended periodically.

Ultimately, Bedford says, she had no personal gain from reorganizing the council except to help advance county climate action.

“For me, it’s about: this group is wasting staff time and we don’t have time with climate,” Bedford says. “And we have got to get a county climate action plan and get going on this—that’s why I was reorganizing, I really did not think we would be suspending.”

While the suspension was legal under the board’s scope of power, Slade says it violated something that goes beyond law: the spirit of the organization.

“Typically we have laid-out instructions for how to dismantle an organization and for lack of having that, they legally could dismantle it,” Slade says. “But the spirit of collaboration and the spirit of how this group formed was violated in that there wasn’t an attempt to work and benefit and glean what the experience from the council itself was in a collaborative way with the other jurisdictions and representatives.”

Spirit aside, the commissioners’ chair,

Renee Price, says it’s the commission’s duty to look into councils and committees that are not meeting Orange County standards.

“Any advisory board serves at the pleasure of the Board of County Commissioners,” Price says. “It would be our responsibility that if an advisory board or commission is having some difficulty or if we have issues with it, for the sake of everybody, we should investigate.”

Bedford says it comes down to the council’s lack of a specific charge and MOU, something she says she apologizes for on behalf of the elected officials who helped form the council in the first place.

“It was just bizarre operations, it was really the work of one or two people—it wasn’t a climate council doing work or sharing information—and in my opinion, that’s one of the key things that needs to change,” Bedford says. “The electeds let [constituents] down by not having a charge, not having an MOU. We’re going to fix it and start again.”

Going forward The commissioners’ next step is to create an Orange County climate action plan, something they hope to expedite given the existing climate plans of the other local jurisdictions.

“The county’s fortunate that Carrboro’s had a plan for several years, Chapel Hill’s had one for a year and a half, Hillsborough’s is almost finished,” Bedford says. “So we can copy-paste, copy-paste, hopefully it won’t—it shouldn’t—take us two years. We don’t have two years.”

Slade says that the reorganization has only set the county back in its future work to combat climate change.

“We have a very short, diminishing window for climate action, and it’s just frustrating to be involved with organizations and electeds who set things back, as this is doing,” Slade says. “Dismantling a group that was trying to find its rhythm is a big disruption to the vital work we have and dealing with the climate emergency on the local level.”

Price says climate action is a top priority to the county, but in addition to encouraging the use of more expensive climate initiatives like electric vehicles, she also emphasizes the importance of finding ways for underserved communities to participate in mitigating the effects of climate change that impact them most intensely.

“We are very concerned about climate change here,” Price says. “And it may appear differently when you talk to different people, they may address it in different ways.

But we definitely have to look at it.” W INDYweek.com

June 22, 2022

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Durham Sheriff Clarence Birkhead (l) and Maria Jocys

In Dispute Durham sheriff Clarence Birkhead challenges the candidacy of a formidable potential opponent whose signature-collecting process had some notable problems. BY THOMASI MCDONALD tmcdonald@indyweek.com

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urham’s Board of Elections this week will review a challenge filed by county sheriff Clarence Birkhead against “certified, unaffiliated” candidate Maria Jocys’s right to be placed on the midterm election ballot in her bid to unseat the incumbent, who is seeking a second term.

But in an emailed statement to the INDY, Jocys this week said “the staff of the Durham County Board of Elections did its job.”

“They thoroughly reviewed the petition signatures, and they determined that 9,599 signatures were valid. Disqualifying our campaign at this point would, in effect, disenfranchise thousands of voters who want a choice in November,” Jocys says.

Jocys, pronounced “JO-cees,” is a Durham native who retired from the FBI in December. One month after retiring, she contacted local media and political action committees, talked with friends, reached out to community members, and set up a website in a quest to persuade 4 percent of Durham’s registered voters to sign a petition that would allow her to run as an unaffiliated sheriff’s candidate in November.

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As the INDY previously reported, Jocys may pose a formidable challenge for the incumbent, who is Durham County’s first Black sheriff.

Jocys graduated from Southern High School and worked in East Durham’s Wellons Village as a teen. After graduating from East Carolina University, she began a 32-year law enforcement career that started with the Greenville Police Department followed by 24 years with the FBI. While working for the FBI, Jocys led counterterrorism investigations around the globe and was the first woman to lead the FBI’s Raleigh office.

Before retiring, Jocys worked for five years with the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, which focuses on criminal street gangs in Durham.

Birkhead’s challenge comes on the heels of a NC Board of Elections announcement last month that Jocys’s campaign is under investigation to determine why the names of thousands of registered voters that appeared on her petition to get on the ballot are invalid.

In a request to keep Jocys’s name off of the fall’s midterm ballot, the incumbent also questioned the challenger’s political affiliation.

Birkhead said Jocys first registered as a Democrat with the state board of elections in 1998, before changing her party affiliation to unaffiliated in November 2021 and then back to Democrat just one month later. The state’s general statute “prohibits party changes within 90 days of the filing period,” the sheriff said. Jocys began her campaign in January after retiring from the FBI in December.

“As a Democrat, Maria Jocys should have filed for the Democratic primary,” Birkhead says.

Jocys, however, says the 90-day deadline the sheriff cites for switching party affiliation has nothing to do with unaffiliated candidates.

“It applies only to candidates who want to run in a party primary.”

Patrick Gannon, a spokesman with the NC Board of Elections, told the INDY in late May that Jocys is set to appear on the November ballot as an unaffiliated candidate for Durham County sheriff after she submitted a petition with 15,685 signatures to the Durham County Board of Elections on May 17. Gannon noted that state law required Jocys to collect 9,248 signatures—4 percent of Durham County’s registered voters—to appear on the ballot.

But state elections officials say more than a third of the 15,685 signatures are suspect.

Birkhead, in a seven-page challenge filed with the Durham Board of Elections, stated that 41 people who signed the petition are dead.

He further cited the state election officials’ investigation before asserting that Jocys’s petition “has fraudulent and forged signatures, duplicate signatures and other irregularities” and that “with the elimination of duplicate signatures,” Jocys’s campaign “has not met the four percent threshold to be named on the ballot.”

Birkhead asserts that Jocys’s campaign submitted 9,599 signatures that “were deemed valid.”

“This exceeded the 9,248 threshold by 351 ballots,” he stated. “With the elimination of 566 duplicate signatures, the Maria Jocys campaign fails to qualify as an unaffiliated candidate.”

Birkhead stated in a memorandum in support of his candidate challenge that his campaign’s request for copies of Jocys’s petition was denied by the county board of elections, which instead provided him with a “petition status report.”

Birkhead’s campaign now asserts that two of the 41 voters he claims are dead passed away in 2016. Three more died in 2017. One died in 2018. Two more died in 2019. Five died in 2019. Sixteen expired last year, and four died this year.

“Even though the irregularity was ‘caught’ by the [Durham] Board of Elections, the submission of the names

of deceased individuals is an indication of forgery and fraud which raises questions about the validity of the other signatures,” Birkhead stated in his challenge.

The incumbent also stated that several Durham County residents whose names appeared on the petition contacted the local elections officials or community members to report “that they never signed a petition in support of Maria Jocys’s unaffiliated candidacy.”

Birkhead pointed to a very much alive 87-year-old woman who, after receiving a letter from county elections officials indicating her alleged signature on the petition had been canceled, “became upset and informed her children that she had never signed a Maria Jocys petition,” according to the sheriff’s challenge.

Birkhead also pointed to a story that appeared in the INDY on May 30, when Durham resident Gina Torres-Perryman, whose name appeared on the petition, told the INDY in an email that she had not even heard of Jocys until she received a letter in the mail from the county board of elections.

Birkhead said that 479 signatures on the petition status report—or 3 percent— were illegible and that Jocys’s campaign has admitted hiring a signature firm to obtain signatures for the candidate petition that gets “paid by the signature.”

Birkhead also stated that Jocys’s campaign “has not submitted proper finance campaign reports which makes it impossible and difficult to research and/or examine the signature firm for past irregularities or illegal activities.”

The sheriff further stated that last year on December 13, Jocys’s campaign indicated in an organizational political disclosure report “an individual contribution as an in-kind contribution in the amount of $50,984 for a ‘ballot access contract.’”

Birkhead closed his challenge by stating that if local and state elections officials determine that Jocys should not be disqualified, her candidacy “should not be confirmed as an unaffiliated candidate until any investigation is completed and the 9,599 signatures are verified by contacting the purported signatories.”

This week, Derek Bowens, the director of the Durham County Board of Elections, told the INDY that although he could not make public “a deliberation time frame,” he expects the board will make a decision at the conclusion of the hearing.

“The Board,” Bowens said in an email, “must issue its written decision no later than 20 business days from the date the challenge was submitted, which would be June 28.” W INDYweek.com

June 22, 2022

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Durham

A speaker wearing a Hayti Reborn T-shirt (l); longtime Durham activist Lavonia Allison PHOTOS BY MADDIE WRAY

The More Things Stay the Same Residents lambast Fayette Place plans.

BY AKIYA DILLON backtalk@indyweek.com

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n a Monday evening, Hayti residents, community leaders, and city representatives file into the Monument of Faith Church sanctuary. The room bustles with anticipation as attendees exchange greetings and scribble their names and addresses on public comment cards. The subject of the meeting is the Durham Housing Authority’s proposed Fayette Place project in Hayti; the goal, community reconciliation.

Earlier this year, the housing authority stirred controversy after tapping Durham Community Partners to redevelop the Fayette Place site. The proposal calls for the construction of 774 affordable housing units on Fayette Place, a parcel of vacant land within the historically Black Hayti neighborhood. In 2017, the City of Durham awarded the housing authority a $4.2 million grant to purchase the plot, stipulating that the agency create a community engagement program for the project. How14

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ever, Hayti residents argue that little has been done to include them.

Mayor Elaine O’Neal opens the meeting and introduces City Attorney Kimberly Rehberg and Durham Housing Authority CEO Anthony Scott, who outline the details of the Fayette Place development.

Using PowerPoint slides that feature tiny, indiscernible words, Scott explains the project’s timeline, the selection criteria used in scoring proposals, and the request for proposal (RFP) process that resulted in the selection of Durham Community Partners. Audience members interrupt Scott often, criticizing his presentation as inaccessible to the visually impaired.

“We can’t even see the slides! You’re talking, and we’re losing it,” says Lavonia Allison, a longtime Durham activist and former chair of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People. Scott closes shortly after, and the public comment period opens.

Some speakers have come to criticize the housing authority’s rejection of Hayti Reborn, a community revitalization project that was one of five proposals submitted to the housing authority for Fayette Place.

Hayti Reborn proposed a 2,000-acre mixed-use commercial, retail, and residential space on Fayette Place, along with the establishment of an R&D fund to reinvest wealth into the community.

Anica Green wears a black T-shirt emblazoned with the Hayti Reborn logo.

On the back, white lettering reads, “The more things change … the more they stay the same!”

“The reason for inequality in this country is because we use white supremacist standards and processes to make people compete when there are inadequate equal resources,” Green says. “You are making multinational, national, and international organizations compete with local, homegrown organizations.”

Henry McKoy, project director for Hayti Reborn, says the process for choosing the Fayette Place developers was not transparent.

“Hopefully some folks don’t think it’s just a kind of a sore-loser syndrome here, right?”

McKoy says. “We entered into this RFP. We weren’t accepted—so now we’re sore losers.

But, the work that happened on this goes long before this RFP ever came along,” Allison is among the final speakers. While other speakers are asked to migrate to one of two mics strategically placed between the sections of pews, “Mama E” orates from her seat—per the mayor’s request. Her walker sits untouched in the aisle.

“Those 20 acres have got to be used for the benefit of Black folk who have lost everything!” Allison says. “We cannot turn it over to the housing authority. They have not been successful.”

The mayor and fellow city council members close the meeting by expressing sympathy for the Hayti community. Still, Mark-Anthony Middleton, the mayor pro tem, explains that the housing authority’s RFP process has strict legal guidelines to prevent misconduct and favoritism.

The city does not have jurisdiction over Durham Housing Authority contracts, he says, echoing earlier comments by the city attorney.

“We don’t have the authority to cherry-pick an RFP,” Middleton says. “If I could do it for you, I could do it for a friend—or family member. You don’t want that.”

City council members, including DeDreana Freeman and Monique Holsey-Hyman, advocate for continued conversation. So does O’Neal, who grew up in Durham. “I’ve spent years walking down Fayetteville Street …. We got to get to a yes,” the mayor says.

The Durham Housing Authority will hold additional community meetings about the development this month and next. The first took place last Thursday.

The remaining meetings will be held on July 14 and 28. W This story was published through a partnership between the INDY and 9th Street Journal, which is published by journalism students at Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy.

FO O D & D R I N K

QUEENY’S 321 E Chapel Hill Street Suite 100, Durham | queenysdurham.com

Dawn of the Nighthawks Lone diners, full tables, and service workers clocking out after late-night shifts all find a place at inclusive downtown Durham restaurant Queeny’s.

BY LENA GELLER lgeller@indyweek.com

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n late 2020, shortly after they separated as a married couple, Michelle Vanderwalker and Sean Umstead signed the lease for the space that would become Queeny’s, a cozy neighborhood bar and restaurant on East Chapel Hill Street in downtown Durham that sits above a popular craft cocktail bar they opened in 2019.

Joining forces on a new venture while parting ways romantically was perhaps unorthodox, but the two were confident in their compatibility as business partners.

“We just really saw the potential, and we had already created such a good thing together,” Vanderwalker says. “I didn’t want to let that go.”

Unlike the aforementioned craft cocktail bar, Kingfisher, which is more distinct to Vanderwalker and Umstead’s long-shared vision of “what we wanted to put into the universe”—specifically, pushing seasonal, produce-forward, “ground-to-glass” craft cocktails—Queeny’s is “more responsive, more reactive,” says Umstead, shaped by the community and the moment.

For Vanderwalker, part of that “moment” involved a renewed exploration of her own queerness; she had questioned her sexuality as a teenager but was “part of that last generation where being bi was not really embraced by either [the queer community or the straight community]” and had thus taken the “easy route”—she was attracted to men, so she just said she was straight.

But when the pandemic and marital separation afforded her an unprecedented amount of time for introspection, she began to acknowledge her bisexuality more directly, a shift which she says ended up having an impact on the way she designed Queeny’s. She named the small bookshop in the back of the bar “Ruby-

fruit” after the 1973 lesbian coming-ofage novel Rubyfruit Jungle and stocked the shelves with inclusive literature; she volunteered Queeny’s as a space for hosting the monthly Great Durham Bakeoff, a combination baking competition and drag show previously held in an organizer’s backyard; and she branded the Queeny’s merchandise with rainbow-hued logos.

“I didn’t consciously say, ‘I’m gonna make a gay set of mugs,’” says Vanderwalker, an art school grad who moonlights as a ceramicist and whose undercut hairstyle and chunky earrings exude a distinct “cool high school art teacher” energy. “But as soon as I made that rainbow, I was like, ‘Oh.’” While some of Queeny’s’ inclusive elements are the work of Vanderwalker’s subconscious, most are deliberate and tailored specifically toward groups who aren’t always accommodated by the food and beverage scene.

On a given night at Queeny’s, you may spot a group of restaurant workers gathered around a cocktail table, fresh off the clock and digging into a bowl of fried pickles (Vanderwalker and Umstead were keen to keep Queeny’s open seven days a week, with food service until two a.m., in order to be accessible to service workers getting off the clock); you might see some friends taking photos with the Queeny’s resident Polaroid camera and tacking them up on the corkboard that overhangs the bar; if you’re there before 10 p.m., you may see some kids in Rubyfruit immersed in the colorful section of children’s books.

More often than not, you’ll spot one or two solo diners at the bar, nursing a drink or chatting with the bartender, “Nighthawks” style, or burying themselves in a book from Rubyfruit’s selection. In a post-vac-

Michelle Vanderwalker, on the job at Queeny’s cine world, it seems, people are finding it refreshing to be alone together.

“You can come and hang out for hours, you can come and have one drink and sit in the bookshop, you can come and not drink,” Vanderwalker says. “I think that’s a sort of inclusive thing where it’s not like a ‘bar bar’ where you feel awkward if you’re alone or if you’re not having alcohol.”

The food and beverage menus at Queeny’s are designed to be simple and nostalgic, according to Vanderwalker, with enough options that every customer can find something they like—an entrée-sized kale salad; chicken tenders; beer, wine, and classic cocktails; soda and chocolate milk—but not so many that they feel overwhelmed. Most dishes and drinks hover around $8, and the food is strictly dine-in only; “No Take-Out,” the bottom of the menu reads, “Hang Out!” You won’t find this directive at Vanderwalker and Umstead’s forthcoming restaurant, Queenburger, despite its similar name.

This venture began as a pandemic-era popup—“we felt we needed a way to keep our staff employed and continue to pay the rent, so we transformed [Kingfisher’s] back parking lot into a little oasis of astroturf and a ’90s color scheme,” Vanderwalker says—and was successful enough that,

PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA

after a year, they signed a lease to give it its own brick-and-mortar spot. Queenburger is set to open in the American Tobacco Campus next month, and Vanderwalker says it will be “more of an in-and-out kind of place” than Queeny’s, with a simpler menu—mainly just burgers, cocktails, and beer—though a similarly “poppy, inclusive place to be.”

While all of their establishments showcase work from local artists, Vanderwalker says Queeny’s has the greatest focus on serving Durham’s creative community: the bar hosts stand-up comedy nights and free usage of its podcast studio, which Vanderwalker and Umstead constructed in a room that was formerly used as a safe.

Xander Stewart, a restaurant worker and visual artist whose glass cloche artwork is displayed on a shelf in Rubyfruit, says that Queeny’s stands out as both a late-night haven and a resource for creatives.

“It isn’t interested in just being a space for people to get intoxicated at but a space that honors creative work, both the process of creating and the end result of the creation itself,” Stewart says. “I love a spot that will do what it can to provide resources and opportunities that it absolutely isn’t required to.” W INDYweek.com

June 22, 2022

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E TC. XP League CEO Jay Melamed PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SUBJECT

Game Changing Raleigh’s XP League is gaining ground in the quickly growing landscape of youth esports. BY JAMAL MICHEL arts@indyweek.com

O

ver the course of the pandemic, gaming trends have enjoyed a popularity boost, as people—in particular, children and teenagers—spent more time at home. According to multiple reports by Inside Intelligence, viewership of video-game-related content spiked in 2020, with viewership across Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook Gaming averaging over 650 million hours in 2021.

These reports highlight what Raleigh entrepreuner Jay Melamed, who founded XP League in September 2020, aims to tap into: a market slowly expanding in size and reach. Melamed, alongside his wife and business partner Eva Melamed, has sought to create an environment where the traditional elements of youth sports can work in an electronic sports-based arena. According to the Inside Intelligence reports, digital gamers in the United States are expected to hit over 180 million in 2023, up from 178 million in 2021. Further research has found that 20 percent of gamers identified as under the age of 18—and those numbers continue to grow.

This correlates to a decline in traditional sports: a recent New York Times report found that participation in youth 16

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INDYweek.com

sports has been waning since before the pandemic, with the percentage of kids ages 6-12 who participated in youth sports dropping from 45 percent to 38 percent between 2008 and 2018.

With Raleigh as its backdrop, XP League seeks to stake a claim in an industry dominated by dollar signs. And Melamed, a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, an ardent fan of esports, and a father of four, is off to a good start: The league now has over 20 locations nationwide.

“Raleigh is my hometown. While I wasn’t born here, I have lived in the area since 2002,” Melamed said over email. “It’s the perfect place for an esports organization like XP League.”

Since he launched XP League, Melamed noted in his email, North Carolina has passed legislation focused on attracting esports to the area, and institutions like NC State University and William Peace University have both announced major esports plans.

Melamed says that he prioritizes keeping family at the core of his esports experience—a mission that stems from his relationship with his own children.

“It’s hard to find kids who aren’t active in gaming,” he says. “I recently saw a statistic that over 80 percent of kids under 17 have played at least an hour of video games in the last week. My kids are no different. My wife, Eva (who is also the chief brand officer of XPL), and I have 13-year-old triplets and a bonus 10-year-old, all of whom are active gamers.”

According to the organization’s website, XP League is Positive Coaching Alliance’s (PCA’s) first youth-based esports partner, with a mission of connecting parents with kids that works much the same way that intramural youth sports have in the past. (In Hanover, PA, for example, one group of parents organized the Hanover XP League Parents Association to extend support and resources to regional children involved in esports.)

The PCA’s mission of providing participants with supportive and constructive criticism could nudge the current trend of gaming culture in a more positive direction with XP League now in its alliance.

“At XPL, we have decided to take this even one step further,” Melamed says. “We have partnered with a recognized esports coaching training and certification organization, Next Level Esports, to design a custom program that interweaves the skill-building and tools to coach younger esports players within the positive framework designed by the PCA. This will be an exclusive training and certification program offered to XP League coaches.”

While Melamed’s ambitions for XP League are many, the esports landscape in his own backyard is ripe for cultivation, with studios and developers like Epic Games, Ubisoft, and FUNCOM having laid the groundwork.

Ed Tomasi, a former senior executive at ESL Gaming and current cochair of the Greater Raleigh Esports Local Organizing Committee, said competitive gaming took off with some seriousness 12 years ago when Major League Gaming (MLG) hosted an annual tour stop between 2010 and 2012.

Additionally, from 2019 to 2021, Raleigh played host to a number of esports events, including the Rainbow Six Major and the XP League National Finals, Tomasi adds.

“What Jay and Eva have created for youth esports is innovative and remarkable,” Tomasi says. “If you look at the competitive video-gaming landscape today, most of it is celebrated and focused from the top down—meaning it’s all about the professional players who are franchised teams [reportedly] making/winning millions of dollars.”

Video games have long had the capacity to reach across different social and cultural barriers, and competitive gaming is no different. With the XP League, Melamed has the opportunity to be a trailblazer in youth esports.

“What we saw, following the pandemic, was a global phenomenon [and] not just in greater Raleigh,” Tomasi said.

“The return to live, in-person esports events is, in my opinion, where Raleigh is going to reap benefits.” W

SC R E E N

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPEN | HHH

Opens in theaters Friday, June 24 Raleigh's Community Bookstore

Mark Lewis Jones and Mark Rylance in The Phantom Of The Open PHOTO COURTESY OF SONY PICTURES

Latest on Bookin’ Available

6.20

Mirin Fader, Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA Champion Events IN-STORE

FRI

Hole in None A stylish, well-crafted comedy about a terrible British golfer offers a summer respite.

BY GLENN MCDONALD arts@indyweek.com

T

he virus. The economy. Ukraine. The climate. Insurrection.

The stakes feel awfully high these days and it can be rough on the psyche. I don’t think we’re supposed to constantly toggle between rage and despair, as a people. The good news is that the movies can be genuinely useful in times like these by distracting us with some seriously low-stakes situations.

To wit: The Phantom of the Open, a slight and entirely diverting British sports comedy, in theaters this Friday. English actor Mark Rylance headlines as Maurice Flitcroft, the real-life amateur golfer who infiltrated the elite British Open in 1976, posting the worst score in the history of the event. Flitcroft’s antics, famous in golf circles, were powered by equal parts naïveté and audacity. He simply sent in an application, the paperwork went sideways, and next thing he’s on TV with Tom Watson.

Flitcroft became a kind of folk hero after that, especially among amateur golfers and the sporting press of the day. The British Open is one of the snootiest gatherings in the Western world and Flitcroft’s blue-collar heroics were a middle finger to the snobs.

Director Craig Roberts takes the bones of Flitcroft’s real-life biography and fleshes out an amiable story about golf’s elitist nonsense and the power of family love. It’s a winning combination. There’s not much at stake here—no apocalyptic dilemmas, no violence, no real aggression, even. Phantom induces pleasant feelings the old-fashioned way, by earning them with stylish, well-crafted comedy.

Approximately 65 percent of the good feelings in Phantom are generated by veteran British actor Sally Hawkins, who takes the typically thankless spouse role and turns it

into something better. Hawkins is famous for this kind of maneuver. She’s usually the best thing about any movie she’s in, and her billion-watt smile should really be considered a global alternative energy source.

As Maurice’s wife Jean, Hawkins brings warmth and wisdom to a story that regularly verges on slapstick. Her performance provides the critical emotional grounding that makes the rest of the comedy work.

It’s an axiom that so many filmmakers miss: jokes are funnier when you really care about the people involved.

Rylance, meanwhile, gives a performance that expertly dances away from the traditional pitfalls of the “holy fool” archetype.

Maurice isn’t all there, clearly. His earnestness and openness suggest a man unfamiliar with society’s cynical rules of engagement. But Rylance reveals Maurice in layers, and there’s a hint of the immortal Trickster in his manner. His schemes are modest and harmless, but they’re still schemes. He’s like a normcore pixie, sprinkled with the impossible luck of the faerie folk.

The supporting characters seem like screenplay inventions but evidently are true to life. Maurice’s twin teenage sons really were the world disco dancing champions of 1976, though I’m not sure how official any of these rankings are. The plot meanders around a bit like this, but incident is subordinate to character here. The story of Maurice Flitcroft could have gone a dozen different ways. Director Roberts found one of the more interesting approaches.

If his technique feels a little heavy-handed, that’s easily forgiven. The sports comedy has certain requisite beats, and Roberts’s take on the training montage is funny, at least. His attempts at stylized hallucinations don’t really land—think The Big Lebowski but with golf instead of bowling. And the intrusive musical score is a distraction.

But you know what? Who cares? At least the entire goddamn world isn’t collapsing, and the most serious crime is 1970s casualwear. The Phantom of the Open is a respite, humbly submitted by Britain’s professional filmmaking community. We’ll take it!

Thanks, guys. W

7PM

Matt Browning, The Definitive Golden Girls Cultural Reference Guide in conversation with David Matthews

TUE

MEET & GREET

6.24

6.28

Kendra Adachi, The Lazy Genius Kitchen

6-8PM

IN-STORE

Bill Rawls, The Cellular Wellness Solution: Tap Into Your Full Potential with the Science-backed Power of Herbs

THU

6.30 7PM

Register for Quail Ridge Books Events Series at www.quailridgebooks.com. www.quailridgebooks.com • 919.828.1588 • North Hills 4209-100 Lassiter Mill Road, Raleigh, NC 27609 Offering FREE Media Mail shipping and contactless pickup!

INDYweek.com

June 22, 2022

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M U SIC

TRASH TAPE RECORDS SHOWCASE Monday, June 27, 7 p.m., $10–$12 | Local 506, Chapel Hill Tuesday, June 28, 7 p.m., $10–$12 | Schoolkids Records, Raleigh | trashtaperecords.bandcamp.com

Nathan McMurray, Evren Centeno, & Eilee Centeno, founders of Trash Tape Records at their home practice studio in Carrboro, NC PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA

Do You Get Déjà Vu? Trash Tape Records gives a Gen Z update to the ethics and aesthetics of a Gen X record label. BY BRIAN HOWE music@indyweek.com

S

top me if you’ve heard this one: Two high school kids meet at a Superchunk show at the Cradle. After bonding over the DIY values of Merge, Dischord, and Elephant 6, they start a band, then a label, releasing music by people in their circles in small batches of tapes, which they dub one by one. If this story sounds ripped from 1990, think again: It’s taking place three decades later, demonstrating how durable certain antiquated-seeming punk principles can be for young artists today.

Nathan McMurray, 18, just graduated from Durham’s Riverside High and is heading for Chicago’s DePaul University in the fall. Evren Centeno, also 18, is poised between Chapel Hill High School and UNC-Asheville. Evren’s sister, Eilee, is a 20-year-old NC State student. In 2020, they founded Trash Tape Records with a Bandcamp page that now houses a baker’s dozen digital releases and a selection of tapes and trucker caps. After a number of virtual concerts, they’re running their first IRL showcase tour from Atlanta to New Jersey, with home dates in Chapel Hill (Local 506, June 27) and Raleigh (Schoolkids Records, June 28).

Though it seems like the cassette has been on the verge of a vinyl-like renaissance for at least a decade, Trash Tape 18

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came to it through the same combination of limited means, happenstance, and resourcefulness that their role models did.

Nathan found a cheap, unopened pack of 90-minute tapes at a used bookstore and started dubbing albums onto them, playing wav files on a phone plugged into the stereo and “mastering” the levels with the volume knob.

“In smaller circles, people are starting to buy tapes again.

They sound cool, they look cool,” says Nathan, who has embarked on new format experiments since the label has sorted out how to properly make tapes. “Now, I’m trying to cut five-inch vinyl records using a Japanese toy record maker. It’s terrible quality. I’ve been trying all sorts of weird stuff to get it to sound good.”

Nathan and Evren, who run the label with Eilee’s help, met at Merge’s 30th-anniversary show in 2019. They gravitated to each other for the obvious reason: “We were the only two people there who weren’t middle-aged,” Nathan says.

As the children of indie-rocking parents, they were already fans of Superchunk, Destroyer, and the Mountain Goats. Nathan can talk about Dischord Records and “the ethos and work ethic of ’80s hardcore” like a balding punk dad, though none of them really listen to old hardcore.

“I think a label’s only job should be to support the artist, and it shouldn’t do anything else,” he says. “It shouldn’t try to make gross profits, just enough to support itself.”

Evren, meanwhile, idolizes the freewheeling collaboration of the Elephant 6 Collective.

“We were inspired by the stories of that time as much as the music,” Evren says. “A conglomerate of artists in one city, all offering up their skills, with Julian Koster from Neutral Milk Hotel playing singing saw on an Olivia Tremor Control record—there was so much collaboration, and it’s not that it’s been lost, but those steps are being reconnected over the internet.”

Indeed, while their forebears were strongly associated with regions and genres, reflecting the record-store-divider culture of their times (the Chapel Hill indie of Merge, the DC post-hardcore of Dischord, the Athens psych-pop of Elephant 6), Trash Tape artists hail from Sweden, Australia, and all across the United States, playing in a wide variety of styles.

Nathan and Evren’s band, Welcome to Berlin, a sort of screamo Modest Mouse, has yet to release any music but is performing on the tour. The local dates also feature Koudi, a dance-y shoegaze band from New Jersey; Hill View #73, a young Atlantan from Bangladesh whose beguiling bedroom pop has vintage K Records vibes; and Durham’s NO PARKING, which thrashes the line between electro-punk and rap-metal.

Because many Trash Tape projects mainly exist online, Evren is drumming for no less than three bands on tour, while also working on a new collaboration with an artist from Sweden. These connections translate into opportunities, building a network of artists that can play or tour or couch surf with one another and pooling their fans—all virtues of the old-school indie community, though severed from the clannish, doctrinaire impulses that sometimes weighed it down.

“A lot of the modern DIY scene is not based on style as much as genuineness and emotion,” Nathan says. “People aren’t coalescing around how something sounds but around the fact that the music is very personal to them.”

“We have a group chat with all of our artists, and that’s really useful,” Eilee adds. “We haven’t even met in person, but people will send songs and say, ‘What do you think of this?’ or ‘Does anyone play drums or trumpet or do mixing?’

Sharing your art can be pretty vulnerable, and it’s nice that we’re all able to open up to each other.”

If the message is Dischord and the medium is Discord, then the spirit is accord, from the label’s earnest, affirmative marketing voice to the personal relationships that underlie it.

“I’m so proud of Evren and Nathan,” says Eilee, the only one who was old enough to handle PayPal transactions when the label started. “They’re my best friends. All the artists are so sweet, and I just wanted to make things happen for them.” W

SU 8/21 & MO 8/22 @HAW RIVER BALLROOM

LUCINDA WILLIAMS

SU 6/26 @CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM

WE 10/26 @HAW RIVER BALLROOM (ON SALE JUNE 24)

INTO IT, OVER IT

SU 7/10 @CAT’S CRADLE CAT'S CRADLE

[CANCELLED] BIKINI KILL W/ HC MCENTIRE

W/ POOL KIDS, COUPLET WE 11/2

TH 6/23

FR 6/24 MELVINS W/ HELMS ALEE, HARSH MELLOW FR 7/1 CAN’T YOU HEAR ME ROCKIN’: A TRIBUTE TO THE ROLLING STONES (FUNDRAISER FOR AID TO UKRAINE ) SU 7/10 BAYSIDE W/ PINKSHIFT AND SAVE FACE ($28/$33) TU 8/30 FR 9/9

BRISTON MARONEY

MO 9/12

W/ MEDIUM BUILD

TH 9/8 @CAROLINA THEATRE

A.J.CROCE PERFORMING THE MUSIC OF HIS FATHER, JIM CROCE

SALES

TU 9/13

($23/$25)

FR 9/23 CRANK IT LOUD PRESETS: W/ WLDLFE, GOOD PROBLEM

FLOR

SU 9/25 MOVEMENTS W/ ANGEL DU$T, ONE STEP CLOSER, SNARLS

GIRLPOOL

MO 9/26 TU 9/27

OSEES

W/ BRONZE ($25/$28)

ELECTRIC SIX/ SUPERSUCKERS

TH 9/29 FR 10/1

JUKEBOX THE GHOST

TU 10/4

OF MONTREAL

W/ LOCATE S,1

WE 10/5 SU 10/9

IBEYI

CAROLINE ROSE W/TOTH

FR 10/14

STEREOLAB

MO 10/17

KMFDM

CALEXICO W/ADA LEA

TU 10/18

WE 10/19 BLACK ANGELS (RESCHEDULED FROM JAN '22) FR 10/21 SHAME/ VIAGRA BOYS/KILLS BIRDS SU 10/23 PANCHIKO W/ COMPUTER WIFE TU 10/25

WHITNEY

THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT

WE 10/26

W/ MONDO COSMO SA 10/29

TOO MANY ZOOZ W/YAM YAM

W/ REZN

FR 11/4 ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS

BETH STELLIG

SA 11/5

CHLOE MORIONDO

W/ DREAMER ISIOMA

THE MENZINGERS: ON THE IMPOSSIBLE PAST 10 YR ANNIVERSARY TOUR SU 11/27

W/ TOUCHE AMORE, SCREAMING FEMALES WE 12/14 MCLUSKY

BORIS W/ NOTHING

SPIRITUALIZED LIVE

RUSSIAN CIRCLES

6/29/23

EELS

CAT'S CRADLE BACK ROOM

FR 6/24 MELLOW SWELLS W/ BELLA NONA ($7/$10)

SA 6/25 SPIRIT

OF THE BEAR SU 6/26 INTO IT, OVER IT W/ POOL KIDS, COUPLET

MO 6/27 COLA W/ SINAI VESSEL AND COR DE LUX TU 6/28 DANIEL NUNNELEE W/ DRUMMING BIRD FR 7/1 LUNAR VACATION W/ THE SLAPS AND FUTURE CRIB

MC CHRIS W/ CRUNK WITCH WE 7/6 GOODNIGHT, TEXAS FR 7/8 HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE W/ STRANGE RANGER, THEY MO 7/4

ARE GUTTING A BODY OF WATER

SU 7/10 VANSIRE W/ YOT CLUB WE 7/13 STEVE VON TIL (OF NEUROSIS) W/ HELEN MOODY TH 7/14 REBEKAH TODD / JULIA. ($10/$12) FR 7/15 REMEMBER JONES FR 7/22 JON WARD BEYLE W/ WILL EASTER & THE NOMADS AND COURTNEY LYNN & QUINN ($10/$12)

SA 7/23 HONEY MAGPIE W/ ANNIE STOKES, HEATHER SARONA TU 7/26 GET SAD Y’ALL PRESENTS:

MERCI, MY KID BROTHER WE 7/27 ELF POWER W/ E.R. JURKEN TH 7/28 SPRING SUMMER (AKA JENNIFER FURCHES) W/ SPEED STICK ($12/$15 )

SA 7/30 BRICK + MORTAR W/ANDRES, AMERICA PART TWO

STEPHEN DAY BAD BAD HATS

WE 8/3 TH 8/4

W/ GULLY BOYS

BLUE CACTUS / LIBBY RODENBOUGH SU 8/7 A GIANT DOG ($15/$17) FR 8/12 THE BLAZERS FR 8/5

2022 SUMMER REUNION

YELLOW OSTRICH WE 9/7 HOLY FAWN

TU 8/16

W/ ASTRONOID

MO 9/12

TALL HEIGHTS

MOTORCO (DURHAM) 8/11 THE DEAR HUNTER W/TWIABP… 8/21 MAN OR ASTRO-MAN? W/ SHUTUPS 10/4 RARE AMERICANS 10/28 ALGERNON CADWALLADER 11/6 OSO OSO W/ M.A.G.S. ANXIOUS HAW RIVER BALLROOM (SAX) 7/6 LOST DOG W/ WILL CARLISLE 8/20 SNAIL MAIL

W/ TOWRS

8/21 & 8/22 LUCINDA WILLIAMS

BRONCHO SU 9/18 THE KING KHAN & BBQ SHOW

9/23 ANDREA GIBSON

FR 9/16

W/ MIRANDA AND THE BEAT

WE 9/21

S.G. GOODMAN W/ LE REN

WE 9/28 KING BUFFALO W/ HEAVY TEMPLE TU 10/4

MELT

FR 10/7 TYRONE WELLS W/ NATHAN COLBERG

CLEM SNIDE & JILL ANDREWS FR 10/21 JON SPENCER & THE HITMAKERS TH 10/27 MO LOWDA & THE HUMBLE FR 10/28 ALGERNON CADWALLADER WE 11/2 TROPICAL FUCK STORM SU 11/6 THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS W/ ORBIT SERVICE TU 11/8 COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS TH 11/17 STOP LIGHT OBSERVATIONS MO 11/28 BLACK LIPS SA 10/8

W/BLOODSHOT BILL

WE 12/9 NEW SHOW: KELSEY

WALDON: NO REGULAR DOG TOUR ($15/$18)

(2 NIGHTS)

9/28 TINARIWEN 10/6 ALEX G W/ BARRIE 10/17 MADISON CUNNINGHAM W/ BENDIGO FLETCHER 10/26 VIOLENT FEMMES (ON SALE JUNE 24) 11/14 SOCCER MOMMY W/ HELENA DELAND THE ARTSCENTER (CARRBORO) 9/14 JOE PURDY 10/16 BOB MOULD SOLO ELECTRIC W/ H.C.MCENTIRE THE RITZ (RALEIGH) 9/4 INTERPOL 10/18 MOTHER MOTHER W/ SIR SLY KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE (CARY) 7/25 IRON & WINE AND ANDREW BIRD ($40- $60)

W/ MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO

NC MUSEUM OF ART (RALEIGH) 9/14 LAKE STREET DIVE W/ THE DIP 10/1 WATCHHOUSE (FORMERLY MANDOLIN ORANGE) PINHOOK (DURHAM) 8/12 L.A. WITCH CAROLINA THEATRE (DURHAM) 9/8 CROCE PLAYS CROCE—

50TH ANNIVERSARY

(A.J. CROCE PERFORMING THE MUSIC OF HIS FATHER, JIM CROCE )

CATSCRADLE.COM • 919.967.9053 • 300 E. MAIN STREET • CARRBORO INDYweek.com

June 22, 2022

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C U LT U R E CA L E NDA R

Please check with local venues for their health and safety protocols.

MUZI performs at the Pinhook on Saturday, June 25.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE PINHOOK

art

music

Museum Park Tour Jun. 24-25, 9:30 a.m.

NCMA, Raleigh.

Blends with Friends (Open Decks) Wed, Jun. 22, 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Here Comes the Sun: Exhibit and Third Friday Reception Fri, Jun. 24, 5 p.m. 5 Points Gallery, Durham.

Durham’s Architecture & Urban Landscape Walking Tour Sat, Jun. 25, 10 a.m.

“Major” the Bull Sculpture, Durham.

Kudzu Basket Weaving: Vessels of Place with Angela Eastman $66. Sat, Jun. 25, 11 a.m.

NCMA, Raleigh.

The Magical Realism of Henryk Fantazos: Closing Reception Sat, Jun. 25, 4 p.m. PS118 Gallery, Durham.

Radical Repair Workshop: Chair Repair Sat, Jun. 25, 12 p.m. The Nasher, Durham.

Scott Hirsch $12.

Sun, Jun. 26, 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Silica Gel $10. Sun, Jun. 26, 9 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

We Will Rock You: The Music of Queen $15+. Sun, Jun. 26, 8 p.m. Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary.

Home Free: Summer 2022 $28+. Wed, Jun. 22, 8 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Cola $15. Mon, Jun. 27, 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Live Jazz with Marc Puricelli and Friends Wed, Jun. 22, 7 p.m. Imbibe, Chapel Hill.

Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo $60+.

Mon, Jun. 27, 7:30 p.m. Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary.

Machine Gun Kelly $25+. Wed, Jun. 22, 7:30 p.m. PNC Arena, Raleigh.

Trash Tape Records Showcase $10. Mon, Jun. 27, 7 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Puscifer $35+. Wed, Jun. 22, 7:30 p.m.

DPAC, Durham.

Billy Strings $50+. Jun. 23-25, 8 p.m. Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary.

Mellow Swells Thurs, Jun. 23, 7:30 p.m. Imbibe, Chapel Hill. $7. Fri, Jun. 24, 9 p.m.

Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Anne Malin $8.

Thurs, Jun. 23, 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Baby Bugs $9.

Thurs, Jun. 23, 9 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

Jazz at the NCMA Presents: Ledisi Sings Nina $70.

Thurs, Jun. 23, 7:30 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.

Into It. Over It. $25.

Sun, Jun. 26, 8 p.m.

Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Air Supply $45+. Fri, Jun. 24, 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham.

Melvins $25. Fri, Jun. 24, 9 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.

BLK PWR SOCIAL CLUB presents: MDNGHT PPL $5.

Fri, Jun. 24, 10 p.m.

The Fruit, Durham.

The Veldt $10.

Fri, Jun. 24, 8:30 p.m. Local 506, Chapel Hill.

The Breakfast Club (America’s Favorite 80s Tribute Band) $12. Fri, Jun. 24, 9 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Erisy Watt $10. Fri, Jun. 24, 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

H.E.R: Back of My Mind Tour $193+. Fri, Jun. 24, 7:30 p.m. Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh.

Amos Lee $40+. Sat, Jun. 25, 7:30 p.m.

DPAC, Durham.

Angela Bingham Group $25. Sat, Jun. 25, 8 p.m.

Sharp Nine Gallery, Durham.

Backstreet Boys: DNA World Tour $39+. Sat, Jun. 25, 7:30 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park, Raleigh.

FRESH Sounds with Carly Prentis Jones + Friends $45.

Sat, Jun. 25, 7 p.m.

Artspace, Raleigh.

James Taylor $55+.

Sat, Jun. 25, 8 p.m.

PNC Arena, Raleigh.

Lord Fess $15.

Sat, Jun. 25, 9 p.m.

Motorco Music Hall, Durham.

MUZI $15. Sat, Jun. 25, 8:30 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Performance Edge 2022 Summer Showcase Sat, Jun. 25, 2 and 7:30 p.m.

Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Queer Agenda! $5. Sat, Jun. 25, 11:55 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham.

Spirit of the Bear $10. Sat, Jun. 25, 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Trap Bingo $20+.

Sat, Jun. 25, 8 p.m.

The Ritz, Raleigh.

Triangle Synth Party Summer Showcase Sat, Jun. 25, 3 p.m. Carrboro Century Center, Carrboro.

Ian Noe $17. Sun, Jun. 26, 8 p.m.

Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.

Daniel Nunnelee $12. Tues, Jun. 28, 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro.

Fenton Live! Music Series Tues, Jun. 28, 6:30 p.m. Fenton, Cary.

Live Jazz with the Brian Horton Trio Tues, Jun. 28, 9 p.m.

Kingfisher, Durham.

stage American Dance Festival Jun. 3–Jul. 20, various times.

Various venues, Durham.

What If If Only and Air $30. Jun. 9-26, various times.

Burning Coal Theatre Company, Raleigh.

Man of La Mancha $14. Jun. 10-26, various times. The Justice Theater Project, Raleigh.

Echoes: From Here Wed, Jun. 22, 1 p.m.

The Nasher, Durham.

Comedy Night with Al Goodwin and Corey Hunter $15.

Fri, Jun. 24, 8 p.m.

The Cary Theater, Cary.

Rupi Kaur: World Tour Fri, Jun. 24, 8 p.m. Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh.

Return to Wakanda Fashion Show $20.

Sat, Jun. 25, 1 p.m.

Raleigh Convention Center, Raleigh.

North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra $25.

Tues, Jun. 28, 8 p.m.

Sharp Nine Gallery, Durham.

FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR: INDYWEEK.COM 20

June 22, 2022

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C U LT U R E CA L E NDA R Encanto screens at the North Carolina Museum of Art at Friday, June 24.

LOCAL ARTS, MUSIC, FOOD, ETC.

in your inbox every Friday

PHOTO COURTESY OF NCMA

the Triangle’s Arts & Culture Newsletter

screen Ourselves in Stories and No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics $6.

Thurs, Jun. 23, 7 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Preview Screening of The Great American Recipe and Q&A Thurs, Jun. 23, 7 p.m.

Online; presented

by PBS NC.

page

MysteryRealm Film Series $10+.

Jun. 24-30, various times. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.

Outdoor Film Series: Encanto $7.

Fri, Jun. 24, 8:30 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh.

Chef $6. Sat, Jun. 25, 7:30 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

The Lunchbox $6. Sat, Jun. 25, 5 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Matt Browning— The Definitive Golden Girls Cultural Reference Guide Fri, Jun. 24, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

Outdoor Film Series: Soul $7. Sat, Jun. 25, 8:30 p.m.

NCMA, Raleigh.

VHSaturday Morning Cartoons Sat, Jun. 25, 11 a.m.

The Fruit, Durham.

Pitch Perfect Movie Party Sun, Jun. 26, 6:45 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Raleigh.

Ratatouille $6. Sun, Jun. 26, 4 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary.

Elvis Brunch $10. Sun, Jun. 26, 11:30 a.m. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Raleigh.

Watch Durham: A VERY Durham Film Screening Series Tues, Jun. 28, 7 p.m.

Durty Bull Brewing Company, Durham.

B’rukhim Haba’im: Stories of Welcome Tues, Jun. 28, 9 a.m. City of Raleigh Museum, Raleigh.

Rebecca Sharpless— Grain and Fire: A History of Baking in the American South Tues, Jun. 28, 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill.

Kendra Adachi—The Lazy Genius Kitchen Tues, Jun. 28, 6 p.m.

Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh.

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June 22, 2022

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P U Z Z L ES

NEWDED AN S! EXPO R H U

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.

In-Store Shopping Curbside Pick Up www.regulatorbookshop.com 720 Ninth Street, Durham, NC 27705

Hours: Monday–Saturday 10–7 | Sunday 10–6

su | do | ku

this week’s puzzle level:

© Puzzles by Pappocom

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

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

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

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

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

22

June 22, 2022

INDYweek.com

6.15.22 INDY CLASSIFIEDS classy@indyweek.com

C L AS S I F I E D S M I S C.

HEALTH & WELL BEING

919-416-0675

www.harmonygate.com

EMPLOYMENT IT Project Manager (Wake County, NC) IT Project Manager to provide technology services in Wake (county), North Carolina.

The IT Project Manager shall: 1. Be responsible for carrying out tasks as well as plan and supervise tasks as it relates to maintaining Triangle Geriatric and Memory Clinic’s use of desktop computers and peripheral hardware testing and deployment. 2. Effectively oversee and coordinate lifecycle management for all desktop infrastructure, architecture, business continuance, and service restoration strategies, and ongoing roadmap for effective access to information services and systems platforms. 3. Continually evaluate the current state of Triangle Geriatric and Memory Clinic’s desktop strategy, architecture, and services against goals and objectives, and adapt operational strategies to maintain alignment.

4. Troubleshoot and support EMR software, healthcare support systems that facilitated hospital workflows, and IT equipment related to the ergonomic configuration of IT hardware specifically designed for the healthcare environment. 5. Provide first and second-tier support and service to end-users on software and hardwarerelated problems. 6. Ensure desktop computer and deployment strategies meet business and clinical needs by use and maintenance of testing and validation checklists. 7. Help establish and maintain wiring and design standards. Send CVs to Triangle Geriatric and Memory Clinic at satyalakshmi14@yahoo.com

Can you imagine a polio-free world?

We are looking for healthy adults, 18-45 years old who have been previously vaccinated against polio to determine if new oral polio vaccines are safe and effective. The study will involve 5-7 study over 6 months, and study participants can earn up to $1670. Please complete the study screener to see if you qualify at https://go.unc.edu/PolioStudy. For questions, contact poliostudy@med.unc.edu or 984-364-7897.

SERVICES

Timeless Skills to Survive and Thrive Join us in Franklinville for classes, workshops, and skillshares covering everything you need to know to shelter, feed, and equip yourself in any environment

LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE

Every 3rd Saturday March 2022 - November 2022 www.deepriverfolkschool.com (919) 799-6819

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June 22, 2022

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