INDY Week 6.5.19

: CTION IDE ING SE ssss t t e h INSDVERTIS e h LA n n CIA g g SPE ssii ii u ttll u b o b o p ssp

RALEIGH 6|5|19

No Classrooms. No Teachers.

NO PROBLEM.

Is the wild world of self-directed learning education’s next revolution?

B Y MA RC MA XI MO V, P. 1 4

ROAD RAGE, P. 6

SMALL MAN IN A BIG WORLD, P. 12

WU-TANG FOREVER, P. 25

2 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

WHAT WE LEARNED THIS WEEK RALEIGH

VOL. 36, NO. 23

DEPARTMENTS

6 Terrence Dewberry got used to having weekends off. Then Raleigh overhauled its bus system.

6 News

8 To run for Raleigh City Council, David Knight has to resign as head of the state’s Outdoor Recreation Industries Office.

22 Food 24 Music 28 Arts & Culture

11 Cedar Ridge High School’s principal told parents that she learned of a threatened school shooting on May 24. She knew about it on May 20.

30 What to Do This Week 32 Music Calendar 37 Arts & Culture Calendar

14 Every state has a standing army of professionals paid to teach kids to read. A new “free” school in Durham asks whether the educational edifice is really necessary.

22 The Northern Spy’s Ivana Muszkiewicz moved to Durham from Chicago in a sixty-degree day in February. She wasn’t mad.

23 The largest cheese carving in the world is over fifteen hundred pounds. That record is about to go down.

25 For our writer, getting a long-delayed Wu-Tang Clan tattoo means so much more than music.

26 Touring with queer band Nana Grizol gave Loamlands’ Kym Register a whole new perspective on their voice and musical goals.

GoRaleigh bus driver Terrence Dewberry, president of Local 1328 (see page 6).

On the cover

PHOTO BY BOB KARP

PHOT0 BY BOB KARP

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 3

upfront

Raleigh Durham | Chapel Hill

Keep Durham Great.

Keep It INDY.

PUBLISHER EDITORIAL

A GREAT CITY NEEDS A GREAT ALTERNATIVE WEEKLY

BY BARRY SAUNDERS

T

he two News & Observer editors who took me out to dinner while trying to decide if I’d be a good fit for the newspaper were adamant about one thing: “If you take the job, you have to live in Durham.”

My first question: “What the hell is wrong with Durham if I have to live here?”

They explained that since I’d be writing editorials about the Bull City, it would be best if I lived there, at least for a little while.

After that, I could live wherever I wanted.

That was twenty-six years ago. Guess what? I’m still here.

For one thing, they interviewed me at the exquisite Parizade, which immediately became my favorite local restaurant.

Despite the influx of new, hipper eateries—some of which have garnered national acclaim—Parizade remains my go-to for celebrations.

For another, I found a terrific deal on several houses—remember when that was possible?—and finally picked one a quarter-mile from the then-thriving Northgate Mall and two hundred yards from the excellent Club Boulevard Elementary Magnet School.

On top of that, when Durham’s wonderfulness got to be too much and I wanted to get out of town for the weekend, I-85 was a biscuit’s throw from my backyard.

(Yes, I did throw a biscuit—a burnt one; I’d never waste a good biscuit—to verify that statement.)

Good times, good times.

Even the things that people used to try to demean and belittle Durham were, to me, positive attributes.

For instance: Durham had some of the most savored unsavory night spots in the country, spots some people still speak wistfully about fifteen years after their demise.

If you have to ask—don’t ask.

And in the mid-nineties, anyone who couldn’t get tickets to the WWE to see 4 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

rasslin’ could just go to a Durham school board meeting to see community leaders clash with board members over one issue or another. Those meetings often devolved into a level of rancor and raucousness that any rasslin’ aficionado would love (minus the suplexes, half-Nelsons, and sleeper holds).

Barry Saunders Pearl-clutching friends from around the country, after seeing the latest donnybrook on CNN, would call to ask just what the hell was going on down there. Democracy in action, I’d tell them. Few things are more worth fighting for than the education of one’s children. Who’d want to live in a city where residents didn’t?

As if the civic engagement, affordable housing, mall, school, highway, and nightlife weren’t enough to turn one immediately into a Durham-phile, there was also The Independent Weekly.

A quote often attributed to Gandhi says, “The greatness of a nation can be judged by how it treats its weakest member.”

I can find no evidence that the Mahatma said that, but you can attribute this quote to me: “The greatness of a city can be judged by what kind of alternative weekly it has.”

With INDY Week, Durham—and the Triangle—has one of the greatest.

As someone who grew up reading wistfully about—and later reading—The Village

Voice, I always recall that Bible verse that says, “Where there is no great weekly, the people perish.”

The Village Voice, I lament to say, is no more, existing now only in the memories of those of us who grew up cherishing its coarse pages and coarser writing. It fell victim to the same scourge that has decimated daily and weekly papers across the country, causing many of them to cut their staffs to the marrow in order to survive. (On a related note, one of the veteran journalists who recently left The News & Observer is my cousin, Thomasi McDonald; he joined the INDY’s staff last week.)

Thirty-six years after Steve Schewel founded the INDY, it’s still going strong, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. You can help the paper continue this noble mission by visiting KeepItINDY.com today and joining the INDY Press Club.

A great city needs a great weekly.

For several years in a row, when it was called The Independent Weekly and had those delightful hookup ads that are now verboten, the paper’s readers voted me the best columnist in the Triangle—and the worst. I was thirsty for any award and cherished both, considering that the main award I’d won previously was the spelling bee in Mrs. Robinson’s sixth-grade class at Leak Street School in Rockingham.

Even that one came with an asterisk: All of the smart kids were out sick or on a field trip that day.

Barry Saunders was a News & Observer columnist and editorial writer from 1993– 2017. You can find more of his writing at thesaundersreport.com. Support independent local journalism by joining the INDY Press Club at KeepItINDY.com or by mailing your contribution to PO Box 1772, Durham, NC 27701.

Susan Harper

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

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

ART+PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION MANAGER Christopher Williams ART DIRECTOR Steve Oliva

CIRCULATION

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

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

ADVERTISING

DIRECTOR OF SALES John Hurld MARKETING EXECUTIVES Kathryn Cook,

Sarah Schmader, Hanna Smith CLASSIFIEDS ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Amanda Blanchard

WWW.INDYWEEK.COM

P.O. Box 1772 • Durham, N.C. 27702 DURHAM 320 East Chapel Hill Street, Suite 200 Durham, N.C. 27701 | 919-286-1972 RALEIGH 227 Fayetteville Street, Suite 105 Raleigh, N.C. 27601 | 919-832-8774 EMAIL ADDRESSES

first initial[no space]last name@indyweek.com DISPLAY ADVERTISING SALES advertising@indyweek.com RALEIGH 919-832-8774 DURHAM 919-286-1972 CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISING 919-286-6642 CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2018 INDY WEEK

All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without permission.

ba

Key

Last week about how a Bull Ci then aske the song about the David H ity made black and white folk racist, you “The ly ters Soph Durham’s whole po the sesqu did they Why wou want hip“Great Discover “Are you to write th Over in the city m Commiss oversight part, it se with teeth “[The p Howell. reason—a just hide be held employee oversight “I don’t lawsuit to tion,” wri climate o contextua this infor keyboard facts to s Perhaps and am n is a path that shou Watt shouldn’t should be ed, as ever every righ citizen. If

backtalk

Keyboard Justice Warriors Last week, Chris Heavener broke the story about how Discover Durham commissioned a Bull City anthem from rapper J. Gunn, then asked for changes—including making the song less hip-hop and removing a lyric about the city being “black and proud.”

David Hewitt thinks the tourism authority made the right call: “I find the ‘Durham, black and proud’ lyric to be excluding to white folks. If you think that makes me the racist, you have a problem.”

“The lyric isn’t excluding anyone,” counters Sophia Nell. “It’s expressing pride in Durham’s culture and history, which is the whole point of commissioning a song for the sesquicentennial, is it not? And who did they think they were hiring, anyway?

Why would they hire J. Gunn if they didn’t want hip-hop?”

“Great optics and sense of perspective, Discover Durham,” writes James Gheen.

“Are you gonna try to hire Charlie Daniels to write the song instead?”

Over in Raleigh, Leigh Tauss reported that the city manager kept the Human Relations Commission’s proposal for a civilian police oversight board from the city council—in part, it seems, because any oversight board with teeth would run afoul of state law. “[The police] work for us,” writes Chris Howell. “We deserve—should there be reason—access to their records. They can just hide bad cops this way. They should be held to a higher standard, as public employees who can kill without much oversight as it is.”

“I don’t see any problem with requiring a lawsuit to disclose personnel file information,” writes Benjamin Nelson. “In today’s climate of search and destroy for noncontextual or nuanced data, I would hope this information wasn’t available for every keyboard justice warrior cherry-picking facts to suit their own confirmation bias.

Perhaps I’m misreading the parameters and am not a lawyer, but as long as there is a path for oversight in warranted cases, that should be enough.”

Watt Jones argues that the public shouldn’t have access to police records: “As it should be. Those records by law are protected, as everyone, including police officers, has every right to privacy, much the same as any citizen. If there is wrongdoing, let the courts

“Fortunately for all of us— men and women, black, white, and green—times have changed.” hold them accountable, not some civilian board that wants to be in everyone’s business. Council members are by law permitted to go into executive closed session to discuss personnel matters. Any ongoing criminal investigations records and files are not public record. All state employees are protected by privacy under the State Personnel Act. You want to open those up, too?”

Last week’s cover story by Jordan Green explored the legacy of white supremacy at North Carolina’s most prestigious universities—and the fact that black enrollment at Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest is less than 10 percent of the student body.

“I take grave issue with your headline broad-brushing American history, as if all of America was not based on white supremacy,” writes F. Marion Redd. “The entire English adventure in North America—from the Virginia Company of 1606 to the Massachusetts Bay Company to the Carolina Proprietary of 1663—were all formed by white men. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution at the time of writing imply that rights only applied to free white men. That’s the way it was before, and at the time the universities were founded. Fortunately for all of us, men and women, black, white, and green, times have changed—radically. Instead of focusing on the divisive racist past—which is what it is—why not focus on the future?”

“The idea that Duke, Wake Forest, and UNC-Chapel Hill are ‘more prestigious’ than other universities and colleges, simply because more rich kids from powerful families go to those schools, is whack,” writes Charlie Burnett. “There are a whole host of other colleges and universities in North Carolina, and the idea that they are, somehow, ‘less prestigious’ is pure classism.”

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

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 5

indynews

The Wheels on the Bus Are Falling Off

GORALEIGH DRIVERS ARE MAD AS HELL AT A MANAGEMENT COMPANY THEY SAY HAS STRIPPED THEIR BENEFITS AND RETALIATED AGAINST EMPLOYEES WHO SPOKE OUT BY LEIGH TAUSS

A

fter ten years behind the wheel, Terrence Dewberry is used to every squeak and metallic clank from the hulking carriage of the Number 7 bus.

On Friday morning, his bus pulls out of the downtown GoRaleigh station at 5:45 sharp with just three passengers aboard.

An hour later, it will return with more than twenty riders collected along the South Saunders Street route between South Raleigh and Garner, on their way to work or school or home from an overnight shift.

It’s his second route of the day, and he’s been up since 2:30. Looking at him, you wouldn’t think he’s tired. “Let me know if it gets too hot or cold back there,” he says from the driver’s seat, his eyes fixed on the road.

He is tired, though. At fifty-six, Dewberry had grown accustomed to a consistent schedule, and he liked not working weekends, a benefit of his seniority. But now that’s gone. He works weekends. His shifts start at different times. His sleep schedule’s a mess.

And, he says, this new inconsistency has made his job more dangerous. Knowing your route like the back of your hand, and seeing the same faces every day, offers an added layer of protection. He no longer has that.

“We are creatures of habit,” Dewberry says. “When you have schedules that are inconsistent, that exposes you and the public to more danger.”

In January, the city overhauled its bus routes, an effort to make Raleigh’s fastgrowing bus service more user-friendly.

But the drivers’ union says Transdev Services Inc., the company the city has employed to manage the bus system since 1998, implemented those changes— and eliminated some assumed seniority benefits—with no consideration for their quality of life, leaving them with inconsistent schedules and untested routes.

Worse, the union says, when employees voiced their concerns, Transdev retaliated, even trying to fire one employee.

6 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

of the b weren’t g they wen Parker drivers h speak thr at six s monthly started i learned o revisions went into “Althou within th collective drivers,” make sch cerns. We revisions to the uni

The down

Terrence Dewberry

PHOTO BY BOB KARP

So on Tuesday evening—after the INDY goes to press—Dewberry, president of the Local 1328, plans to be among about one hundred drivers and allies who march down Hargett Street to City Hall, where they’ll demand that the city fire Transdev at a council meeting and a press conference. “[City officials] paint a beautiful picture of the Raleigh Transit [Authority], and they want the Raleigh Transit to be a model for the regional transit, but they’re not telling the whole story of how the bus operators are unhappy and how they are being treated,” says Dwight Spencer, a spokesman for the drivers. “The bus operators have lost faith. They have lost confidence in the management team. They must be replaced, starting with [Transdev] general manager Marie Parker.”

Parker, who has worked for Transdev for two decades but became general manager in 2016, says she’s disappointed to hear that the drivers are calling for her job.

She denies many of the union’s claims, including the retaliation accusation, which she calls “unsubstantiated.”

The city spent nearly $10 million expanding the GoRaleigh system with routes connecting to Southeast and West Raleigh, the largest expansion the system has seen in a decade, according to a May 24 memo.

But that plan led to new schedules for all bus drivers, whereas previous expansions only affected new drivers and those with less seniority. For Dewberry and other longtime drivers, that meant they could no longer count on weekends off, a benefit they’d taken for granted.

Those t says. Afte GoRaleig fired him Dewberry and the m work, acc Transdev denies that it eliminated ben-sage was efits. The only seniority benefits in the Parker contract the union signed in January 2018,sonnel m Parker says, are route selection—the mostretaliatio senior driver chooses his or her favoreddisciplina route, then the second-most senior driver,other rule and so on—and the order in which driversin this ca can choose their days off or pick up extraregarding shifts. Guaranteed weekends off weren’tance proc part of the deal. employee “No processes for selection of schedulesand there have changed at any time,” she says.

Beyond Seniority might let you pick first, thedev hasn drivers point out, but that doesn’t matterthe union if there are no good choices. The unioned in the says the drivers weren’t told about thecompetiti scheduling changes before they ratifiedAlong wi the contract—afterword, Transdevand healt declared the changes within the scopebetween $

of the bargaining agreement—and they weren’t given a chance to weigh in before they went into effect.

Parker says that’s simply not true. The drivers had plenty of opportunities to speak throughout 2018, she says, including at six safety meetings and the city’s monthly Ask a Planner sessions, which started in October. Transdev managers learned of their concerns about the route revisions in December, shortly before they went into effect.

“Although the proposed routes were within the acceptable parameters per our collective bargaining agreement with the drivers,” she says, “the team decided to make schedule adjustments to address concerns. We were able to prepare and present revisions reflecting the driver preferences to the union as early as late February.”

The downtown GoRaleigh transit station Those tweaks weren’t enough, the union says. After a mechanic complained to the GoRaleigh board earlier this year, Transdev fired him over a minor, unrelated offense, Dewberry says. The union filed a grievance and the mechanic was allowed to return to work, according to the union, but the message was clear: Don’t cross us.

Parker says she can’t comment on personnel matters, but she denies that any retaliation took place. “The progressive disciplinary process for accidents and/or other rule violations was followed properly in this case,” she says, adding that disputes regarding discipline go through a grievance procedure, as happened here. “Other employees have spoken at public meetings and there has never been any issue.”

Beyond scheduling, Parker says, Transdev hasn’t heard of other concerns from the union. The salary schedule negotiated in the contract, she says, is “extremely competitive for this industry and region.”

Along with a pension match, on-site gym, and health and dental benefits, drivers earn between $15 and $23 an hour. The average

salary for a full-time driver this past year was close to $50,000, she says, while the top 10 percent of drivers averaged about $75,000. (The math suggests that drivers work a lot of overtime.)

And the public is happy with the expansion, Parker adds. “The positive feedback based on the new service has been overwhelming, as the service has proven to be very well utilized and was much needed by the citizens,” she says.

But the drivers aren’t happy. They’re protesting Tuesday night, Dewberry says, because they have no other choice but to make their fight public. Transdev won’t give its veteran drivers the respect they’ve earned, he says.

“They don’t see the point of view of the driver,” Dewberry says. “They didn’t care for the people who went through hard

PHOTO BY BOB KARP

times. They try to cater their schedule to the people coming in, instead of the people who have been there, and that’s just morally wrong.”

Nathan Spencer, a Raleigh Transit Authority board member, says there’s plenty of blame to go around—including the authority itself. When the scheduling issues surfaced in December, GoRaleigh was stuck between a rock and a hard place— between the riders who needed better service and the drivers providing it.

“GoRaleigh management probably could have done better across the board with the rollout,” he says. “I mean, this was a first experience for us on all ends. When I say management did a bad job of rolling this out, I mean that management worked in the dark to put this together and handed the drivers the info, and said, ‘Based on your contract, we have to hand this to you now.’ They weren’t let in on that process.

The public was, the other parts of the city, other agencies were, but we didn’t include the drivers, and we should have.” ltauss@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 7

news

Resigned to Run

THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP OF NORTH CAROLINA IS MAKING DAVID KNIGHT QUIT HIS JOB TO RUN FOR RALEIGH CITY COUNCIL, EVEN THOUGH THE LAW DOESN’T REQUIRE IT

David Knight

T

PROVIDED BY DAVID KNIGHT

he Oxford Road sidewalk was a turning point, David Knight says.

Five years ago, when he lived in Five Points, he ran along that road, and like many in his neighborhood, he thought that replacing the well-worn dirt path next to it was a no-brainer.

But in January, Raleigh City Council member Stef Mendell convinced her colleagues to kill the sidewalk project, though it was several years and $20,000 in the making, citing the complaints of a few residents.

Mendell has since reversed course, and the sidewalk is back on track, but Knight’s mind was made up: A vague feeling that he should do more for his community had turned into a very real desire to take Mendell’s seat.

But when he disclosed his plans to his boss at the Economic Development Partnership of 8 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

North Carolina, a nonprofit business incubator under the N.C. Department of Commerce, he was told he’d have to give up his job as director of the Outdoor Recreation Industries Office, which pays six figures, to run for city council, a part-time gig that pays about $17,000 a year.

He plans to resign on Wednesday, Knight told the INDY last week.

“It’s unfortunate, and I think I could have done both,” Knight says. “I had to choose, and I’ve chosen to run.”

There’s nothing in state law that requires such a choice. State employees can run for political office so long as they don’t use their employer’s time or public funds.

This week, mayoral candidate Caroline Sullivan stepped down as executive director at the North Carolina Business Committee for Education, which operates out of

the governor’s office, though she remains a senior adviser.

Patrick Buffkin, a candidate for the District A city council seat, is a staff attorney at the N.C. Utilities Commission. He says his employers have accommodated his desire to seek public office.

“We’ve developed an arrangement that would put the appropriate safeguards in place make sure I can get my work done and also get in touch with the folks in North Raleigh that I want to represent on council,” Buffkin says.

Knight thinks he could have made a similar deal with the EDP. After all, it’s nothing new for state employees to seek local office—and isn’t surprising for a region that hosts the state government, several large public universities, and has part-time governing bodies. Longtime Carrboro mayor

BY LEIGH TAUSS

Lydia Lavelle, for example, is a professor at N.C. Central’s law school.

Gerry Cohen, a former special counsel to the General Assembly, worked for the state when he was a Chapel Hill Town Council member in the late seventies. It wasn’t a conflict, but it was a lot of work, Cohen says.

“There’s no flat ban on state employees running for nonpartisan office other than you can’t campaign on state time,” he says.

It’s unclear why the EDP forced Knight to step down to run. Christopher Chung, the partnership’s CEO, declined to comment for this story.

Knight, fifty, calls himself a businessminded environmentalist. He’s the first person to head the EDP’s Outdoor Recreation Industries Department, which aims to connect businesses to state resources. Outdoor recreation, he points out, a $28 billion-ayear industry.

“For a long time, I have believed that Raleigh was on the right track,” Knight says. “Now, it seems we have lost that strong leadership, and the city’s not moving forward.”

He argues that Mendell is part of a council clique that caters to a vocal minority while overlooking the bigger picture—and decisions like the Oxford Road sidewalk display a tendency to disregard the opinions of the city’s staff.

Downtown development, Knight says, should focus on multimodal connectivity that gives residents a variety of transportation options, with sidewalks being the most basic element.

“I’m very confident my constituents are happy with my representation and my outreach and engagement with them,” Mendell told the INDY Monday. “I know not everyone is happy with every decision I’ve made and every vote I’ve taken, but the vast majority of people—the support is pretty overwhelming.” ltauss@indyweek.com

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 9

news

The Message From Redneck Row

AN ALLEGED INCIDENT IN A HIGH SCHOOL PARKING LOT ADDS TO ORANGE COUNTY SCHOOLS’ RACIAL TENSIONS

BY CHARLOTTE WRAY

I

n late April, an Orange High School student parked on campus in or near what’s known among students as “redneck row,” the back row of the parking lot.

When he returned to his car, his mother told principal Eric Yarbrough on May 1, he found a message written in dust on his windshield: “Park in your own spot [N-word].”

Much about this incident isn’t clear. The student didn’t take a photo of the message— he washed it off at a nearby gas station— and security cameras didn’t capture anyone leaving it. Some of the students administrators interviewed said they’d seen the message, but it didn’t use a racial slur, just the

words, “Park in your spot.” Two students accused each other of writing it.

Though Yarbrough contacted law enforcement on May 2, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office never investigated. According to the incident report—dated May 28, after the INDY began asking for it—“The names of all the students involved were not revealed to law enforcement.” The report continues: “Based on the findings of insufficient evidence, administration closed their case.”

Yarbrough says that’s not quite accurate: If someone gave him new information, he’d look into it. And he seems to have taken the matter seriously. (On May 3, he emailed the

SATURDAY, JUNE 15 N O O N — 4 P M

GLE BEST of the TRIAN

H S A B 2019

MUSIC

VENDORS

10 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

FREE

AND

OPEN

TO

THE

PUBLIC

HOSTED BY

AT KIDS ZONE PRESENTED BY

BEER

PRODUCTION SERVICES PROVIDED

BY SONIC PIE PRODUCTIONS

school’s parents: “I was shocked and saddened to hear that this had occurred. Stuff like this is wrong and has absolutely no place at Orange High School.”) But he didn’t have much to go on.

Had this incident taken place somewhere else, it might have escaped notice. But this happened in Orange County, whose school system has been plagued by racial tensions.

According to a report released in 2018, OCS recorded more than seventy racist incidents during the 2016–17 school year.

That year, black OCS students were 3.2 times more likely than their white counterparts to receive an in-school suspension, according to the Racial Equity Report Cards produced by the Southern Coalition for Social Justice’s Youth Justice Project.

In 2017, the system was 5.6 times more likely to refer black youth to juvenile courts than whites, and all of the students deemed delinquent were black.

And while almost half of the district’s students are minorities, just 12 percent of teachers are people of color.

So at the May 6 Board of Education meeting, some parents voiced their frustrations.

“I am not only disgusted by the act itself, but that an incident such as this would not trigger immediate action and a response from the administration and the school district broadly,” one said. “If this was an isolated experience, it would still be unacceptable, but when you add on the reality that similar events have happened in the past and continue to happen, it is deplorable.”

A second speaker demanded a lottery system for parking spaces, rather than letting students pick their spots at the beginning of the year. “I’m sure that we can all agree that redneck row, a row that students have to walk along just to get to the school building each day, really needs to be abolished, just like slavery,” she said, alleging that students who park in redneck row have bullied black students for “more than twenty years.”

Two weeks later, the board agreed to add more parking lot cameras and, in principle,

a parking lottery, though there are some logistics to sort through.

The more pressing issue is getting the district’s new equity plan off the ground.

In January, the school board voted unanimously to adopt an equity policy that acknowledged “persistent racial intolerance, inequities, and academic disparities” throughout the district. The policy was supposed to be a guide for a subsequent equity plan developed by Superintendent Todd Wirt.

But in April, Wirt announced that he would resign this summer. Now, a chief equity officer will take over the project beginning July 1.

Advocates say they’re optimistic.

“As Orange County Schools makes this shift, they are going to be a more desired school [system],” says Latarndra Strong, founder of the Hate-Free Schools Coalition.

“We have the strongest policy in the state, and maybe across the nation, with regard to our commitment to equity. It’s just going to take some time for us to take that policy, convert it into a plan, and implement it.”

But on May 6, the night parents complained about the incident at Orange High, the board voted 4–3, along gender lines, to oust Brenda Stephens, the board’s only black woman, as its chair. Stephens, who was essential to creating the equity policy, was replaced by Will Atherton, a white man.

Atherton says this move had nothing to do with race or gender, but rather a conflict of interest. Stephens’s son, Seth Stephens, is the OCS communications officer who investigated allegations of racial discrimination at Cameron Park Elementary School. After the INDY brought those allegations to light in April, the school board decided to look into them—and in Atherton’s view, this meant Brenda Stephens had to be replaced.

The board hired an outside investigator the day after the reorganization. He’ll be paid $100 an hour for fifty hours of work. backtalk@indyweek.com

news See Something, Say Nothing

A PRINCIPAL AND AN SRO DISCOVERED A SHOOTING THREAT—AND TOLD NO ONE BY THOMAS C. MARTIN

C

edar Ridge High School principal Intisar Hamidullah and school resource officer Corporal André Richmond discovered a school-shooting threat but failed to report it to their superiors for four days—and then did so only after a parent learned of the threat and called 911.

In a joint statement from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Orange County Schools, Sheriff Charles Blackwood called the inaction “unconscionable.”

According to the statement—sent Friday in response to the INDY’s questions— Hamidullah discovered graffiti in the girls’ bathroom the morning of Monday, May 20. The writer threatened that on Wednesday, May 29, “I’m shooting up this hell!! GET READY,” and said they would then kill themselves.

Hamidullah informed Richmond of the threat and directed the custodial staff to remove the graffiti, the statement says.

Richmond, who was to begin a weeklong vacation the next day, snapped a photo before the custodians painted over it.

“Neither the principal nor Corporal Richmond took the matter any further,” the statement says.

“Regardless of what action a school principal is taking in response to a threat,” Blackwood said in the statement, “it is a violation of our policy for a deputy not to immediately report any threat to the safety of our students and school system personnel to his or her superior officer.”

Four days later, on May 24, a student told Hamidullah about more graffiti in the same bathroom; it contained the same threat.

She told Deputy Cristy Faircloth, about it— and mentioned this was the third or fourth time the graffiti had been found. Faircloth, the SRO at Cedar Ridge while Richmond was away, photographed the threatening message at 1:11 p.m.

“At this point,” the statement says, “no administrator at the district level of the school system or at the command staff level

at the OCSO had been notified about either instance of graffiti.”

The school did not immediately paint over the graffiti. A student found it, photographed it, and showed the image to her mother, who called 911 that evening. Deputy Chavez Mendez took the report and called Richmond, who was still on vacation. Richmond, thinking Mendez was calling about the graffiti found on Monday, told Mendez that it should have been painted over by now.

Later that night, Hamidullah alerted district officials, who began an investigation. On Tuesday, custodians removed the graffiti, and Faircloth began reviewing security camera footage to look for the culprit.

That afternoon, Hamidullah told Cedar Ridge staff what was happening, then informed parents via an email and robocall.

However, as the INDY first reported Thursday, she told parents that the school learned of the threat on May 24, not May 20.

Additional deputies were present on the Cedar Ridge campus last week.

On Thursday, school officials found more threatening graffiti, this time in the boys’ bathroom, though the threat didn’t include a specific date. The Sheriff’s Office is offering a $1,000 reward for information.

On Sunday evening, Hamidullah apologized in an email to the school’s parents and faculty: “I accept full responsibility for my inactions. I realize that by not informing our Cedar Ridge Community in a timely manner, I violated your trust.”

Asked last week if disciplinary action would be taken against Hamidullah, OCS spokesman Seth Stephens said he could discuss confidential personnel matters.

On Monday, WRAL reported that OCSO had placed two deputies on leave pending an investigation into their handling of the Cedar Ridge threat. The Sheriff’s Office declined to say whether Richmond and Faircloth were the deputies put on leave. backtalk@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 11

soapboxer

Little Man in a Big World WHAT JACKIE KENNEDY AND THE U.S.S. JOHN MCCAIN CAN TEACH US ABOUT DONALD TRUMP BY JEFFREY C. BILLMAN

A

week after her husband’s assassination, Jackie Kennedy penned a remarkable letter to Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. It was a fraught moment. The Russians were worried they’d be blamed for JFK’s murder, and some in the CIA thought to do just that. Only a year removed from the Cuban Missile Crisis— the closest humanity has come to nuclear annihilation—the Cold War was a hair trigger from turning hot.

Jackie sent the letter, a succinct, elegant note of diplomacy, “because I know how much my husband cared about peace, and how the relation between you and him was central to this care in his mind. … You and he were adversaries, but you were allied in a determination that the world should not be blown up.”

So she implored Khrushchev to put aside impulsiveness and ego: “The danger which troubled my husband was that war might be started not so much by the big men as by the little ones. While big men know the needs for self-control and restraint—little men are sometimes moved more by fear and pride. If only in the future the big men can continue to make the little ones sit down and talk, before they start to fight.”

That line about big and little men has always stuck with me. Keep it in mind as I run through a few recent headlines.

On May 23, Donald Trump retweeted a video that was deceptively edited to make Speaker Nancy Pelosi sound like she was stammering through a news conference.

This came right on the heels of another altered video that circulated through the right-wing fever swamp, this one slowed down to make Pelosi appear drunk or ill.

The White House asked the navy to hide the U.S.S. John McCain during Trump’s recent visit to Japan, as the president’s staffers feared he couldn’t handle the sight of a ship that shares a name with a late senator who didn’t care for him. Trump’s chief of staff said it “was not an unreasonable thing to ask.”

12 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

On Wednesday, Robert Mueller announced that he was stepping down as special counsel and used the occasion to all but shout what anyone who bothered to read his report already knew: Trump obstructed justice and would have been charged with a crime were he not president, but it’s up to Congress to do something about it. Trump responded by calling Mueller “conflicted,” insisting that the Supreme Court wouldn’t let him get impeached (huh?), and saying that he “nothing to do with Russia helping me get elected.” He then said Russia hadn’t actually helped him get elected: “You know who got me elected? I got me elected.”

There are other stories I could highlight, some more significant (the Department of Justice caught lying to a federal court about its census citizenship question) than others (Trump gaslighting about calling Meghan Markle “nasty”). But they all point in the same direction.

The world, of course, is different now than in 1963, the geopolitical challenges more nuanced than the total war between superpowers that Jackie Kennedy feared.

But her point is no less valid: Little people blunder into catastrophe. It’s up to bigger people—specifically, bigger people in positions of real power—to avert it.

“Little people blunder into catastrophe.

It’s up to bigger people to avert it.”

After a mass shooting in Virginia Beach claimed twelve lives, Trump went to Virginia—to his golf course. On Sunday, still in golf shoes, he appeared at a church, not to pray for the victims’ families—the White House said that’s why he was going, though the victims went unmentioned—but so a pastor could pray for Trump’s success, as his pal Franklin Graham had asked evangelicals to do on June 2.

On Monday, Trump told his followers to boycott AT&T, a company that employs more than two hundred thousand Americans, because he found CNN’s coverage of him insufficiently fawning.

Ask yourself: Are these the hallmarks of a big man—a big person—or a little one?

Here’s the thing that keeps me up at night: Trump is a little man, sure, and every day he’s in office inches us closer to catastrophe. But Democrats can yell about corruption and incompetence until they’re blue in the face. They can hold hearings. They can impeach him. None of it will matter until Republicans—the ones with power, the ones who claim to stand for greater principles, the ones who should goddamn well know better—locate their spines and become the bigger people our fragile republic demands.

(Yes, I’m talking to you, Richard Burr.)

The existential danger isn’t Trump.

The existential danger is that there are no more big men. jbillman@indyweek.com

highlight, partment eral court tion) than ut calling y all point

rent now hallenges r between dy feared. tle people to bigger e in posi-

he.

p at night: every day catastrout corrupre blue in They can atter until r, the ones principles, well know come the demands. urr.)

Trump. ere are no

yweek.com

business spotlight business spotlight

CHATHAM ARTS COUNCIL’S ARTISTS-IN-SCHOOLS INITIATIVE Nurturing creative thinkers

(919) 542-0394 hello@chathamartscouncil.org www.chathamartscouncil.org

A

t the Chatham Arts Council, we’re partnering with Chatham County Schools to change the way you think about arts education. Since the 2015-2016 school year, Chatham Arts Council’s Artists-in-Schools Initiative has brought professional artists into schools to support math, science, language, and history curricula. Through interactive, engaging workshops taught by theatre actors, performance artists, dancers, mural painters, West African drummers, and strings musicians, students have unique opportunities for a deeper engagement with learning objectives.

This year, we expanded to all 10 traditional Chatham County elementary schools, reaching 2,766 children with 14 professional artists - helping make 24 direct curriculum connections. What an impact it’s made!

How valuable could arts in education be? Very!

Students involved in the arts are four times as likely to be recognized for academic achievement; four times more likely to participate in a math and science fair; and three times more likely to be elected to class office.

With the Artists-in-Schools Initiative, professional artists work with teachers to foster a personal connection between students and their academic lessons. This could mean working with a West African musician to explore math through music and rhythm. Or incorporating puppets and digital animation to teach literacy and science concepts, resulting in a compelling story of animal migration. Or having theatre artists lead students to interview history buffs in the community about the Civil War to gather oral history about how it affected the area. However the artist residency takes shape, the result is striking. Artists-in-Schools provides schools access to professional artists and educational enrichment that they could not otherwise afford AND links classroom standards and learning objectives with creative work in a way that is useful for teachers, students, and administrators.

To be part of the impact, visit www.chathamartscouncil.org/donate.

CHATHAM CLAY STUDIO

WOMEN’S BIRTH AND WELLNESS CENTER 930 M.L.K. Jr Blvd #202 Chapel Hill, NC 27514 (919) 933-3301 ncbirthcenter.org

136 Fayetteville St, Pittsboro, NC 27312 www.ChathamClayStudio.com 919.533.6606

T

he Chatham Clay Studio is a new community clay studio in Pittsboro for all No. Chatham residents young and old.

More than a year in the making, Chatham Clay Studio is responding to the community’s constant call for a clay studio in No. Chatham.

The studio is bringing a much wanted and anticipated full-service pottery studio to our community. And will grow as our community grows with additional space and class offerings over the coming years.

Our summer camp classes for kid’s kick off on June 17.

Here’s an overview of what’s coming!

Home School Kid’s Classes Tuesday Afternoons Ages 8 -13 Enjoy a delightful afternoon exploring what can be done with clay and an active imagination.

Summer Camp - Bird Feeders & Garden Pots July 29-Aug. 2 Prepare to get dirty for this five day intensive camp. We will get on the potter’s wheel to create flower pots, bird houses and bird feeders!

Summer Camp - Clay Jewelry July 15-19 The sky is the limit with ceramic jewelry! Roll your sleeves up and get ready create some real one of a kind necklaces, bracelets, and earrings.

Summer Camp - Clay Masks June 17-21 Let your imagination run wild in this fun creative camp.

Drawing on mask making traditions from around the world we will create several unique masks over the course of the week.

Summer Camp - Clay to Table July 1-5 In this unique camp, learn to make one of a kind functional ceramic pieces for your family table.

I invite you to visit our website at www.chathamclaystudio.com to book a creative and fun Summer activity that is perfect for you and your family.

L

ocated in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Women’s Birth & Wellness Center is dedicated to providing women of diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds with comprehensive primary, maternity and lactation healthcare throughout the life cycle.

Women’s Birth & Wellness Center is North Carolina’s longest-operating freestanding birth center, and an independent, private, non-profit practice supported by patient fees and the generosity of donors. We believe that every woman has the right to a standard of excellence in her healthcare, to be treated with respect for human dignity and cultural preferences, and to be an active partner in her healthcare. We believe that the establishment of a freestanding birth center and women’s health center provides the best opportunity to succeed in our mission.

At Women’s Birth & Wellness Center, we value your whole health story and all your health care needs! The Nurse Practitioners and Certified Nurse Midwives (all female) at WBWC offer appointments for both ongoing health care management and same-day health concerns beyond your obstetric and gynecological needs.

We want you to confidently approach your pregnancy, labor, birth and beyond with knowledge of options and alternatives that can support you on your journey. We will help you prepare for pregnancy, unmedicated labor and birth, breastfeeding and motherhood with education, resources and time.

Your preferences and needs are considered – active participation in care and decision-making is encouraged.

We know that pregnancy is a time of great potential to make meaningful lifestyle changes. We offer numerous educational opportunities, provide assistance and support during labor, birth and postpartum, appropriately utilize technology when needed, and guide and support our patients who require referral to a higher level of medical care.

Our classes are taught by experienced IBCLCs (lactation consultants), registered nurses and nutritionists who make classes informal, interactive and fun while making sure you get a lot of education in two hours. We also give you an informational packet to take home so you don’t need to remember everything.

6.5.19 • SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION • 13

I.

“This Used to Be a Jail.”

“C

We Don’t Need No

EDUCATION At this school, students teach themselves (or just play Minecraft).

Welcome to the wild world of self-directed learning.

By Marc Maximov • Photos by Bob Karp Olivia Carroll kicks a ball while on a swing at Pathfinder Community School.

14 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

an you go outside with me later?” a small, unexpected voice asked when Hope Wilder opened a utility closet on a sunny Monday in August.

It was the first day of school, and Wilder, the founder and director of Pathfinder Community School, had spent the morning greeting arriving students and their families. “Good morning! Welcome, Ben! Welcome, Scarlet!” she sang out. Their first stop was the “shoe cubby room.” Wilder told the kids they could leave their shoes on, but “most people prefer shoes off.” This is usually her preference, but chatting with parents necessitated “acting like an adult,” so her chunky brown Chaco sandals stayed on.

By 10:30, all fourteen children had arrived. Most had attended Pathfinder’s pilot program that spring, so they were familiar with the space. They settled in. A group of girls strung beads into necklaces at the lunch table, debating a post-lunch foray to the creek.

“You know, this used to be a jail,” one declared. She’s not wrong.

Around the corner from a Costco and a couple of strip malls, downstairs from a family medical clinic and a Montessori school, Pathfinder occupies the basement level of a stately brick building on Durham’s Broad Street that was once a penitentiary. Sunlight slants through the tops of windows laced with old-fashioned wrought-iron bars. The school may be new, but the institutional tube lighting, linoleum floors, and dropped acoustic ceilings have a distinctly old-school feel.

Two boys were sprawled on a rug in the common area, quietly playing a naturethemed board game. Another child was stalking the central hallway in search. So when Wilder opened a dark closet and heard a voice emerge from within, she knew better than to ruin a game of hide-and-seek.

“Yes, we’ll go outside later,” she whispered, and gently shut the door.

W

ilder wouldn’t think to interrupt play to summon kids to learn. Here, play is learning. Children explore, take risks, practice skills, and, most important, figure out how to get along.

Pathfinder—a nonprofit with students between the ages of five and fourteen that is now finishing its first year—is at the vanguard of a resurgent “self-directed learning” movement, which does away with classes, textbooks, and even teachers. It’s rooted in the notion that innate curiosity drives learning, and structured lessons get in the way.

The concept isn’t new—in a sense, it stretches back to the beginnings of our species—but for the past century, it’s been a bit player among educational models. Perhaps the best-known flavor is the Montessori method, which loosens age segregation and allows students to work at their own pace.

But with established curricula and teacherled lessons, even that is more a compromise than true self-direction.

Modern “free” schools like Pathfinder can trace their pedigree to an offbeat British boarding school called Summerhill, founded by the Scottish educator A.S. Neill in 1921. Neill believed children thrive in settings of freedom and approval. His book Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing came out in 1960, anticipating the countercultural zeitgeist. It sold three million copies.

It also inspired the creation of the Sudbury Valley School near Boston in 1968. In turn, over the last half-century, that school has spawned scores of imitators throughout the U.S. It’s hard to overstate how radical the Sudbury model is.

Consider that every county in America has standing armies of professionals paid to teach children how to read. Then consider that Sudbury Valley has no reading instruction whatsoever, yet its graduates all leave campus perfectly literate. That, advocates say, should count as proof of concept. So, too, should the fact that Sudbury persists in a region thick with universities and anxieties about college acceptance, where failure would be quickly snuffed out.

Research on free schooling is slim, but the few extant studies that do exist—most by a Boston College psychologist who’s become a proselytizer—suggest that alumni go on to college and successful careers at the same rate as children from traditional schools.

It’s enough to make you question the whole educational edifice, which is built on a foundation of grade-level benchmarks that require massive investments in teaching, testing, grading, homework, and discipline.

Wilder wants to scrap it all. She promises Pathfinder parents that their children

won’t be just as prepared for the future as their conventionally schooled peers— they’ll be better prepared.

“The school system is antiquated,” she says. “It’s based on a system that was developed over a hundred years ago to prepare people to be Prussian soldiers. But today’s workplaces require dynamic, flexible, creative problem-solving—not taking orders from on high, and not just doing what you’re told. Also, everybody has the internet in their pockets. You don’t need to memorize all the facts. Kids who do self-directed education end up being incredibly confident and comfortable being uncomfortable in ambiguous situations where there’s no right answer.”

Wilder’s point, paradoxical as it sounds, is that if the goal is to turn out self-motivated, socially skilled, adaptable adults, the path to success may come not from making children work, but from letting them play.

II.

“The Curriculum Is Community.”

Children at Pathfinder play a lot. They spend a lot of time outside. They ride kick scooters in the parking lot. They climb trees. They make forts. They run on the grass. With adult supervision, they leave school property and ramble in a creek that runs through a small wooded area a few hundred feet away. They also read, have discussions, or simply relax.

There are only two compulsory daily activities: an end-of-day cleanup that recalls temple-scrubbing Buddhist monks, albeit with less efficiency and more silliness and excuses; and a half-hour morning meeting.

Organized by the adult staff—four paid, one volunteer, not all of whom are there at the same time—these meetings sometimes resemble conventional instruction.

There might be a guest speaker. Or there might be an update on how things are going, with students offering suggestions on how they might go better. Like Sudbury Valley, Pathfinder is “democratic” as well as “free,” so children take an active part in school decisions—not just on trivial questions like whether to install a vending machine (more on that later), but on much of the discretionary budget. The goal is to teach them real-world decision-making in a way feckless student councils never could.

Students must also occasionally report for “jury duty.” Democratic schools involve children in conflict resolution, rather than having them abide by adults’ decisions. And when children play freely, there’s plenty of conflict. Adults are on hand to help defuse arguments, but when a dispute can’t be quickly resolved, a child can bring a complaint to a jury for mediation.

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 15

Pathfinder founder Hope Wilder

B R I NG

TH I S I N FOR AD

15% O ANY F

OOD I

FULL BAR WITH FRESH MARGARITAS GUACAMOLE PREPARED AT YOUR TABLE

FF

TE M S

!

237 S. ELLIOT RD. • CHAPEL HILL, NC • 919-903-9002 16 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

In Pathfinder’s first year, Wilder discovered that while she and the other staffers will sometimes lead attendance-optional workshops or teaching sessions on different subjects (usually by request), they’re mostly teaching kids how to grow into social beings. She insists on a code of mutual respect.

“We’re proactively teaching conflict-resolution skills,” Wilder says. “The curriculum is community.”

In school and at home, this kind of socialization is increasingly rare. Children no longer roam freely through their neighborhoods the way their parents did.

Social interaction takes place through after-school programs, parent-arranged play dates, and on social media and smartphones, which some psychologists have linked to a troubling rise in rates of teenage anxiety and depression. Meanwhile, traditional schools are piling on homework and ratcheting up pressure to perform on standardized tests.

That’s left some parents to seek out alternatives. This search can sometimes lead to Waldorf or Montessori schools, which still have structure but emphasize creativity.

But there are other parents—“unschoolers,”

as youth educator John Holt first described them in the seventies—who want a sharper break with mainstream education.

These parents reject not just traditional schools, but the very idea of traditional schooling.

Lina Stoia is one of them. Conventional education, Stoia believes, teaches children to be compliant and asks parents to reinforce the message.

She has two children at Pathfinder, ages nine and eleven. Before moving to Durham, she and her husband, an assistant music professor at Duke, tried various public and private schools around Boston. Stoia found that the more freedom her kids had, the happier they were.

“Even in the Montessori school, which has so much more choice than other kinds of school, it’s still only a choice of, what order do you want to do things in?” she says.

“There’s a root of authoritarianism.”

It’s hard to pin down precisely how many unschoolers are out there.

More than two million American children are homeschooled—about 4 percent of the school-age population—but most of their parents don’t want to upend pedagogy. They’re homeschooling for religious or

moral reasons, because they believe public schools are unsafe or unstimulating, or because their child has special needs, according to a 2016 survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. In that survey, 6 percent of homeschooling parents cited a “desire to provide a nontraditional approach” as their most important reason for keeping their kids out of traditional schools.

influenced free-school model called Agile Learning Centers. Since 2013, it’s grown from two schools in New York City and Charlotte, respectively, to more than fifty across the country.

A volunteer-run website called Alternatives to School offers a “partial list” of more than a hundred democratic schools, learning co-ops, and homeschooling resource centers in the U.S. and Canada, including

wealthier parents pay more—sometimes a lot more—than lower-income families, an effort to make Pathfinder accessible to a broader mix of Durham residents.

Pathfinder’s website says it needs to average $9,000 a year per member to keep the lights on. Wilder says the school will be viable with thirty-six kids.

Since August, its student body has grown from fourteen to twenty-one.

six in North Carolina. In 2017, Harvard’s Ed. magazine profiled one of the list’s two Triangle entries, Durham’s Dimensions Family School, which had opened the previous year. It has since closed.

That’s not uncommon, Wilder says. Sudbury schools have a high failure rate. So, too, did the previous generation of free schools that arose in the sixties and seventies, characterized by their “brief life spans and the often loosely defined nature of their educational practices,” as one study put it.

To avoid that fate, Pathfinder—the only free school within two hundred miles, Wilder says—needs more students. Like private schools, it’s funded by tuition, or, in the school’s parlance, membership fees.

Unlike most private schools, membership fees are calculated on a sliding scale based on household income. In other words,

“I Was Going to Be a Rocket Scientist.”

Pathfinder Community School Free schools draw from this pool. Indeed, half of Pathfinder’s inaugural class was previously homeschooled, Wilder says.

Legally, they still are. Despite its name, Pathfinder isn’t actually a school. It’s not accredited and doesn’t have a state license, which means it doesn’t have to abide by state laws on mandatory attendance and testing.

It doesn’t award grades, nor will it give out diplomas should it take on high-school-age students. (It will help them create portfolios as part of their college-application process.)

Instead, it’s a “homeschooling resource center,” a place that offers homeschoolers opportunities to socialize and learn in a small-scale, customizable environment.

Because free schools are not regulated, it’s unclear how many exist. Wilder says there are about eighty Sudbury schools in the U.S. There’s also a new, tech-

III.

One month into the school year, Wilder is running barefoot in the play patch, throwing knotted-up socks at her students.

A group game sometimes follows the daily morning meeting, and today it’s “sock wars,” a mash-up of dodgeball and Star Wars that Wilder found in a 1970s-vintage book of summer-camp games. Like most activities at Pathfinder, neither Wilder nor any other adult organized the game, aside from bringing knotted socks and a rope to spread across the field’s midline.

The kids chose teams spontaneously, forgoing a draft or any other systematic method. As a result, while the sides were equal

in number, one had more of the older children, by far more athletic talent, and all the boys. (If this made the game less fun, that’s knowledge they carry into tomorrow’s game. The functioning principle of free play is that anyone can quit at any time.

This makes all rules negotiable, and keeping things fun is in everyone’s interest.)

Sensing the imbalance, Wilder dove in on the underdogs’ side. She gleefully rolled in the grass, chucking socks and calling out the opponents she successfully targeted.

This isn’t typical principal behavior, but Wilder isn’t a typical principal. That’s not even her title: She’s the school’s executive director, or, less formally, “core founder” and “vision keeper,” as Pathfinder’s website puts it.

To understand Wilder’s unorthodox approach to education, you have to understand her unusual history with schooling.

By conventional measures, she was a prodigy. She grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. At fourteen, she entered a gifted program at Mary Baldwin College in Virginia, in which high-school-age students live in dorms and take courses for college credit. After earning a year’s worth of credits, and with a dicey home situation that she’s reluctant to talk about—she mentions a divorce and a latchkey existence—she skipped high school (she never earned a high school diploma), enrolling at the University of South Carolina at age fifteen.

She was too young to live in the dorms, so she and a co-conspirator from Mary Baldwin rented an apartment near campus. “It’s totally not legal,” says Wilder, now in her mid-thirties, with short dark hair and a ready grin. “It was like this con that we were running on everybody.”

She graduated in 2003—at nineteen— with a double degree in biology and German and minors in chemistry and Japanese.

“I think that has shaped a lot of how I think about this, because for one thing, I had this accelerated, intense experience of the education system,” Wilder says. “And I was so good at it. And it was such a waste of my time, and I am so angry about it— the things I could have been doing instead of studying organic chemistry, which has never been useful to me, and was really hard, and made me feel inadequate, like I’m stupid because I don’t understand this.”

After graduation, she again charted an unexpected course.

“Everybody thought I was going to be a rocket scientist or something,” she says. “There was a lot of pressure on me, because I was smart, to excel, and I was not interested in getting on that train. But I also had no idea.”

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 17

They live in an East Durham house they Meanw purchased in 2012 for $99,000, according toyear-old property records. (It’s worth a lot more now.)most of th In 2006, the couple didn’t live in a houseon, starin at all, but rather in a sort of covered wagoncraft. It’s bolted to the top of a car-towed flatbedthey’ll oft trailer, completely off the grid—compostinged PCs in toilet, rain catchment, bucket shower, etc.a twentyOn the threat of hefty fines, the city forcedis waiting them to move their eco-friendly urban car-a device f avan out of Trinity Park.

This m “All we have is our personal choice,” Wild-“Conflict er told the INDY then. “We can’t change theon by th law, [but] we can choose to live the way weintern stu want to—or as close to it as we can.” at Durham Wilder secured a location for her schoolpurpose h in fall 2017; the next spring, Pathfinderhousing r opened for a pilot program: twelve kids, three days a week, four hours a day, for two months, “to test the principles of the program in a low-stakes way,” Wilder says.

In August, it opened for its first full year.

“I was terrified,” Wilder says. “I was completely terrified that it would fail. I was terrified that it would work. In the first few days, I relaxed, because I realized these are just kids, and I know kids. I know how to be with kids. All I have to do is show up, and it doesn’t have to be perfect.”

IV.

Molly Amaro cools off under a sprinkler.

She was accepted to the Peace Corps but didn’t go. Instead, she worked for a year on a wilderness trail crew in Colorado. She realized she liked being outdoors, a choice that defined her professional life for the next decade. She read a self-help book and determined that environmental education would bring together her major interests.

The first job she found—at SEEDS, in Durham—involved teaching children. She discovered that she really liked it.

“I have a very strong inner child,” she explains.

Wilder’s resume reads like a directory of Triangle kid-nature programs: after-school program assistant at SEEDS, lead teacher at Schoolhouse of Wonder, science teacher at River Rock School on the Haw, outdoor school teacher at Clapping Hands Farm, camp counselor at Piedmont Wildlife Center, lead teacher at Duke Gardens. Some of her sessions were free-form playtimes.

Others were school programs designed to sync with state-mandated curricula.

She could capture kids’ attention, but she noticed how children left to their own devices would engage and interact with the natural world—and with each other.

In February 2016, she attended a teacher training at Duke Gardens, in which she pre18 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

tended to be a fifth-grade student in order to train new educators. It was only a simulation, but it made her realize that she hated being told what to look at and where to focus her attention. She also realized that’s what she was doing when she was teaching.

Wilder considered a career change. But that same month, she attended a workshop at Marbles Kids Museum in which the keynote speaker, Boston College psychologist Peter Gray, spoke on the importance of play.

She left with an epiphany.

Gray is a dean of the modern self-directed education movement; his 2013 book, Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self Reliant, and Better Students for Life, is its bible.

In the late seventies, Gray had sent his troubled son to Sudbury Valley and witnessed a remarkable turnaround. After that, he and a co-author—a founding member of Sudbury—decided to poll seventyfive alumni. Three-quarters, they found, had pursued higher education, at a time when only half of the nation’s high-school graduates did; 80 percent said their time at Sudbury Valley benefited their careers. In 1986, they published their research in the American Journal of Education.

It was roundly ignored.

For the most part, it still is. Among education scholars, Gray says, no one even bothers to argue that the Sudbury model is bad; rather, it’s so far out of the mainstream that it’s not debated as a viable option. (The subtitle of a 2015 Schools: Studies in Education article, written by a high school English teacher, pleads for attention: “Why the Sudbury Model of Education Should Be Taken Seriously.”)

Academics might have been indifferent to free schools, but the idea captivated Wilder. And in a flash, it came to her: She should start her own school.

It didn’t happen just like that, of course.

It took two years to lay the groundwork for Pathfinder. Wilder advertised planning sessions at the library, found likeminded supporters and collaborators in the unschooling community, toured free schools all over the Northeast—including Sudbury Valley—and interned for three months at Arts & Ideas Sudbury School in Baltimore.

She also raised money from what she laughingly describes as “friends, family, and fools.” Most of those funds came from “spousal support,” she says. Her husband is a software developer, but they’re not rich.

“He Can’t Sit Still.”

“E w th on w ro

Informally, this is a lunch table. But there’s no lunch period. The kids eat when they’re hungry—there’s a nearby mini-fridge that holds food they bring from home—and this Dannem table in the main area is often repurposed.attack on Today, in September, it’s the setting for aed swing game of “school.” The children seem fullyshe invok two word aware of the irony.

Six-year-old Jeina announces that she’scrossed a the teacher. “First class of the day: spelling!”a discussi Ben ha she says.

For several minutes, they debate how tosimulatio spell “apple”; meanwhile, the terms of theasked for game constantly change. Is this a collegeat Dannem class, or preschool? What’s a better grade,nal! Bad! an A or an O (for “Outstanding”)? Is “Q” acontinued grade? (“Quite good, but nothing to bang aseveral tim drum about,” they decide.) Should Darwin getas the adu in trouble for sketching? Does it matter, if he When intends to be an inventor? Instead of stayingto the lob on task—it bears mention that the older chil-played M dren carry the day with the standard spelling few m of “apple”—they think creatively, weigh each Wild other’s contributions, and collaborate.

Jeina announces math class, and somepublic tal kids drift away. She prepares a worksheet.mer even Nine-year-old Lucy is the first recipient. Shemeeting hour on h begins to fill in answers, then stops.

“This says ten equals ten,” she tells Jeina. “[Child “It should say ten plus ten. The answerto educat is twenty.” those thin

A

Meanwhile, in the empty foyer, eightyear-old Ben has spent most of the day— most of the year—sitting alone, headphones on, staring into an iPad. He’s playing Minecraft. It’s a game all the kids know, and they’ll often play it together on three donated PCs in the computer room. The PCs have a twenty-minute time limit if another child is waiting, but if a parent lets a child bring a device from home, they’re free to indulge.

This morning’s meeting had featured “Conflict Resolution Theater,” a play put on by the adults. Angie Dannemiller, an intern studying early childhood education at Durham Tech, and Jaisy Courtney, an allpurpose helper, enacted the kind of roughhousing restricted to the “rumpus room.”

a setting in which curiosity doesn’t count, [because] it’s not their questions that matter anymore; in which play is not learning, it’s recess, a break from learning; in which sociability, talking to your neighbor about how to solve a problem, is cheating.”

A Pathfinder parent asked a question on everyone’s mind: What about video games?

Gray’s answer consumed eight minutes.

He attacked press reports on studies that have likened the “addictiveness” of computer games to heroin and talked about research that shows that games can bestow cognitive benefits. Then he floated a theory that kids often play computer games, and spend time on social media, “more than they even want to.”

“Even in the Montessori school, which has so much more choice than other kinds of school, it’s still only a choice of, what order do you want to do things in? There’s a root of authoritarianism.”

Alzheimer’s Research Study Dannemiller launched a foam-sword attack on Courtney’s pillow fort, then started swinging the sword at Courtney until she invoked the “stop rule.” Saying those two words together tells a playmate they’ve crossed a line; their use in the play led to a discussion about respecting boundaries.

Ben had mostly frowned through the simulation, but when the children were asked for their input, he leaped up, pointed at Dannemiller, and shouted, “She’s a criminal! Bad! Bad! Bad! Bad!” As the discussion continued, he repeated this performance several times, bringing the meeting to a halt as the adults tried to calm his pointed rage.

When the meeting ended, he retreated to the lobby, put on his headphones, and played Minecraft the rest of the day.

A

few months before Pathfinder opened, Wilder invited Peter Gray to give a public talk at Duke Gardens. On a hot summer evening, in a wood-accented indoor meeting hall, Gray delivered a polished hour on his core philosophy. “[Children] come into the world burning to educate themselves, and then we shut all those things off,” he said. “We put them into

“We don’t allow them to just go out and connect physically with one another,” he said. “Kids—especially by the time they’re teenagers, but even before they’re teenagers—need to be able to communicate with their peers without the prying eyes and ears of adults.”

Gray is a persuasive evangelizer. His blog on the Psychology Today website, “Freedom to Learn,” makes the case for self-directed learning as part of an overall philosophy of respecting children and giving them space to grow. He’s also the founder and president of the Alliance for Self-Directed Education, which hopes to build a movement to make such learning “available to all children, everywhere.”

All kids would benefit from free schools, he argues—not just “highly motivated children, or the white, middle-class students” who go to Sudbury.

Free schools are often criticized as enclaves of privilege and wealth, their success stories dismissed as the result of demographics. Take this 2015 essay from the website Ravishly, in which a parent described her experience with a Sudbury school like this: “Only one student at the

Researchers at Duke University are studying a medication that may help people with Alzheimer’s disease improve their memory and their ability to think and to reason.

We are looking for participants for this research study who: • Are between 55 to 85 years of age • Have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease • Have a caregiver who is willing to attend all study visits Qualified individuals are invited to participate in a no-cost investigational medication research study in Alzheimer’s disease. Compensation may be provided for qualified participants.

Call us to schedule a no-cost evaluation to see if you qualify for this study.

Please call 919-684-7752 for more information.

Pro00093318

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 19

school was nonwhite. Almost all students were middle class or higher, and many came from exceedingly wealthy households. … Only highly educated white people seemed willing to consider the idea that their children might learn best without any instruction at all.”

At Pathfinder, Wilder has struggled to achieve a racial mix that looks like Durham.

Right now, only a handful of children come from nonwhite families. She says she’s trying to recruit more African American staffers in hopes that they’ll make nonwhite families feel more welcome.

“We’ve done our racial equity work,” Wilder says, “and we’re working very hard at the issue, but I don’t think there’s a magic way to solve it.”

She’s had more luck attracting families from across the income spectrum. Wilder, like Gray, believes self-directed learning shouldn’t be restricted to the rich, which led her to develop a sliding-scale tuition system that eases the burden on workingclass families. A family with a household

“Every teacher he ever had—it didn’t matter what school, or what state we were living in—said the same thing,” Courtney says. “‘He can’t sit still. He’s got a lot of energy. He’s the class clown. Disruptive.’

I knew he was energetic, I knew he was active, I knew he was so inquisitive, to the point of [being] disruptive.”

Courtney was raised by strict immigrant parents from Costa Rica and had raised her daughter from her first marriage the same way. But the poor relationship that resulted disquieted her, and she resolved to raise her two kids from her second marriage differently. Instead of forcing Nate to adjust to traditional schools, she looked for alternatives. She considered unschooling, but she also wanted him to experience a community.

She and her husband were willing to relocate for the right situation. They looked into the Agile Learning Center in Charlotte and other schools with self-directed models, but none fit their budget. Then she found Pathfinder’s website and plugged her family’s numbers into its online tuition calculator.

Pathfinder students react during a vote in a morning meeting. income of $40,000 would pay $560 a month to send two kids to Pathfinder. If that same household earned $125,000 a year, their monthly fee would increase to $1,750.

Unlike Gray, however, Wilder doesn’t think all children will do better in free schools. It’s not a question of background, she says, but temperament: “I think there are people, adults and kids alike, who prefer a structure, who prefer to have classes laid out for them, who aren’t comfortable making decisions on a moment-to-moment basis.”

But parents whose kids struggled in conventional environments say self-directed learning has been a godsend.

Jaisy Courtney, a North Carolina transplant from New York City, says she came to free schooling because her eleven-yearold son, Nate, wasn’t well-suited to traditional classrooms.

20 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

After one phone conversation with Wilder, the Courtneys moved to Durham. Courtney took a three-day-a-week job at Pathfinder— she’s since left—and Nate became a precocious, energetic member of the tribe.

V.

“Candy Junkies.”

As the school year progressed, Pathfinder lost one enrollee.

Uli was a fourteen-year-old budding computer expert who took it upon himself to administer the school’s Minecraft server.

There were few children his age, and he wasn’t getting the social or intellectual stimulation he needed. So in a sort of ad-hoc graduation, he left Pathfinder to intern at the web services company where Wilder’s husband works.

But other children came aboard. Austin—not his real name—is a neuro-atypical fourteen-year-old “who they had to pull out of school,” says Wilder. “He’s blossomed.

He’s everybody’s big brother. He’s also a really positive influence on the other teens and tweens, because he’s really gentle and compassionate.”

Juliette is a ten-year-old girl who was also taken out of public school. At her Pathfinder interview, she didn’t say a word, and “her body language was completely shut down,” Wilder says. She spent most of her first week in the library, in nervous apprehension. The staff left her to adjust in her own time. One day a girl came to the library and asked Juliette if she wanted to play.

“She went to play, and basically she hasn’t stopped,” Wilder says. “Now she’s the kid who will not shut up.”

Having whole days free to socialize can drastically speed up the process of finding one’s place, Wilder says. Pathfinder is “like social boot camp, because you can have hundreds of interactions in a day.” This can be hard on introverts—Wilder made the library a “solitary-activities-only space” for kids who need quiet—but the socialization has tangible advantages. “[Free-school kids] are much more mature than kids their same age who are schooled,” Wilder says. “It’s a thing. In Sudbury schools, people usually guess [kids are] two or three years older than they actually are, because they’re so well-spoken and articulate.”

They’re also noticeably more confident when speaking to adults. Whether this is desirable may be a matter of taste—the “seen and not heard” adage comes to mind—but the ability to speak freely to authority figures may bode well for future job interviews.

S

ix months into the school year, nineyear-old Lucy became a candy tycoon.

She was in the habit of bringing candy to share with her friends. She sensed an entrepreneurial opportunity and started charging them a nickel or a dime. This turned into a game called “candy store,” in which candy was exchanged for highfives. Eventually, she asked her mom if she could buy a candy machine, the kind that dispenses a small handful for a quarter.

The other children gave her permission to install it, with the proviso that 13 percent of the revenue would be shared with the school. (It’s a democracy, after all.) So far, it has generated $100 in profits, spurring her to invest in a second machine that sells M&M’s and Jawbreakers.

Soon another child brought a gumball machine she got at a yard sale and filled it with chocolate-filled pretzels and malted milk balls. This crude plastic contraption

makes no distinction between coin denominations—an important lesson in economics (and basic arithmetic).

The jury’s still out on the machines’ benefits and drawbacks. Some children are clearly obsessed—“candy junkies,” Wilder calls them—while those from families who discourage sugar consumption have petitioned for an almond-dispensing machine.

At a morning meeting, when Wilder asked each child what was most needed at Pathfinder, a nine-year-old boy from the latter camp said, “No. More. Candy. Period.”

“These are all the hot-button items of the day,” says Wilder. “These are things that there’s a large spectrum of opinions in the world, and they’re really juicy topics that the kids can sink their teeth into.”

Another juicy topic: profanity. After consulting with parents, Wilder began the year with top-down enforcement of a global “PG” rule, because at a free school she visited, she was put off by the fact that the kids “swear like sailors.” That rule has since been reinterpreted and modified by the school’s Culture Committee, in which the children hash out the school’s ground rules and judge violations. The committee decided that Wilder’s ban on R-rated words went too far, and— with the exception of a some truly offensive, identity-disparaging terms—they could be uttered in private, as long as everyone present was OK with their use. The kids also decided that “crap” isn’t a swear word.

“We talk about profanity with the kids,” Wilder says. “We talk about internet content filtering. We talk about sugar. Rather than the adults deciding everything for them and pretending we have the answers, we’re engaging them in dialogue.”

At a morning meeting in late February, the hot-button issue is screen time. The children are deciding whether to continue a new “screen break” policy, in which the computer room is closed to encourage kids to play with each other (though they can continue playing games on their own devices).

All eyes turn to Ben. He’d spent the morning running, laughing, and playing with friends. While he still likes to play Minecraft, he recognizes the value of an external nudge to turn it off. The “screen break” was his idea.

“Are you guys OK trying that again today?” Wilder asks.

Several children say yes, the rest nod, and the resolution passes unanimously. Ben thrusts out his hand: thumbs up. backtalk@indyweek.com Additional reporting by Thomas C. Martin.

Funding for this story was provided by the INDY Press Club. Support local journalism by visiting KeepItINDY.com.

ALL YOUR GARDENING NEEDS! So much more than a pet store...

Wide selection of seeds, plants, and bulbs Potting soil and gardening chemicals Large variety of tools and supplies

d this a Bring d get n in a ff!* o 10% person, er one p es 6/19 expir

774 Ninth St. • Durham • 919-286-7331 • barnessupplydurham.com *coupon excludes frequent purchase program

Dr. Amber Meade Dr. Adeline Noger 205 Broadway St Durham, NC 27701 (919) 973-0292 bvhdurham.com

ad

To advertise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact advertising@indyweek.com

To advertise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact advertising@indyweek.com

Write advertising@indyweek.com to advertise on our pet page or feature a pet for adoption!

To advertise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact advertising@indyweek.com

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 21

indyfood

THE NORTHERN SPY

FIRST BITE

2812 Erwin Road, #104, Durham 919-321-0203, northernspync.com

Along Came a Cider

WITH THE NORTHERN SPY, A DENVER CIDER EMPIRE MAKES ITS FIRST MOVE INTO THE SOUTHEAST BY ANDREA RICE

“W

e don’t try to follow the trends,” says Ivana Muszkiewicz, general manager of The Northern Spy, a new Durham restaurant and bottle shop from the Denver-based Stem Ciders.

The cider empire came South earlier this year, launching distribution about two months before The Northern Spy’s opening in April, after Stem Ciders co-founders (and Michigan natives) Eric Foster and Phil Kao acquired, shuttered, and repurposed Black Twig Cider House. Though Stem Ciders is known throughout the West and Midwest for its dry, freshly pressed, not-too-sweet style, The Northern Spy—named after an apple common to Michigan—is the cidery’s first bar outside of Colorado and its first bottle shop in the Southeast.

With upward of a hundred different varietals from the U.S. to Spain to France available for purchase, it boasts one of the most diverse and extensive cider portfolios in North Carolina.

Muszkiewicz, a thirteen-year restaurant industry vet, was working as a Stem Ciders sales rep in Chicago before she moved to Raleigh in mid-February on a sixty-degree day. (She wasn’t mad about it). The company also enlisted chef Eric Lee of Acreage Ciderhouse & Eatery, a sister restaurant in Lafayette, Colorado, to develop The Northern Spy’s concept and design a gastropub menu to complement the cider offerings.

Muszkiewicz, who will soon begin studying for her Sicera (i.e., cider sommelier) certificate, has celiac disease, an autoimmune condition that led her to cider. But while cider has proven a viable alternative to beer for the millions of American with gluten sensitivities, it’s also becoming a movement unto itself.

Even so, misperceptions abound. For starters, many Americans still think of it as the non-alcoholic apple juice seasoned with cinnamon sticks and served around the holidays. And so-called hard ciders are often presumed to fall along the lines of the 22 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

“Why would we half-ass our potential for pairings if we’ve put this much effort and intention into the food and ciders and bottle shop?” she says. “You could just have hotdogs and premade sandwiches, or you could elevate people’s experiences from start to finish.” arice@indyweek.com

TASTING NOTES Optimize your experience at The Northern Spy by enlisting friends and pairing different ciders from the bottle shop’s collection with items from the menu. Here are a few combinations to try.

The L’Acier is one of six ciders currently on tap at The Northern Spy. PHOTO BY ANDREA RICE

stereotypically sugary American version, derived from cheaper-to-produce applejuice concentrate.

“Europeans say they hate American cider,” Muszkiewicz says.

Stem Ciders focuses on balancing pH with sugar to create a base flavor profile that’s neither overly acidic nor sweet. Since Colorado apples tend to be more tart and bitter and produce less juice, Stem Ciders sources most of its apples from nonconventional orchards in the Pacific Northwest. Cider made from fresh-pressed juice comes at a higher price point, but, as with wine and beer, the higher price is usually worth it, especially considering how it might be paired with food.

Lee and Muszkiewicz tested each item on The Northern Spy’s menu to ensure that salty dishes could complement dryer ciders, or sweeter dishes would work with sweeter, fruit-forward ferments. The fried chicken sandwich, which was devoid of salt and grease, was served atop Lee’s rendition of a classic buttermilk biscuit—a flaky, buttery pastry of folded laminated dough much like a croissant, and accompanied

with sweet apple butter and savory fennel slaw. The omission of salt may have yielded a few mixed reviews, but the crisp dryness of the L’Acier, one of the six ciders offered on tap, had just enough funk and was sharp enough on the finish to make it work—a balancing act that could have easily been overpowered by excessive saltiness.

The farm-to-table menu, a nod to some of the Acreage’s Basque Country influences, is dynamic, encouraging patrons to get creative with their pairings, whether traversing the vibrant cider spectrum (from dry to fruity), or navigating the bar’s batch cocktail list (a cider spritz, promenade, or Pimm’s Cup).

“How exciting is it that we have an artisanal bologna sandwich?” asks Muszkiewicz.

Indeed, the mortadella, aka “fried bologna,” is made from the heritage-breed pigs of Fra’Mani Handcrafted Foods in California and served with two kinds of cheddar, cider caramelized onions, house-made pickles, and French’s yellow mustard. It makes a few other appearances on the menu and can be added to pretty much anything— including that fried chicken sandwich.

Etienne Dupont: an apple-forward, unfiltered, unpasteurized dry cider from Normandy, France, paired with the bold umami flavor of the cashews, which are dusted with shitake mushroom powder and Korean chili flakes.

Txopinondo Sagarnotegia Cidre: a chewier, funkier cider from the French Basque Country with a little blue cheese on the nose, paired with the Ploughman’s Lunch, a hodgepodge platter with myriad possibilities for perfect bites, featuring cured meats, artisan cheeses, sliced apples, apple butter, cider onions, house-made pickles, and fresh bread.

Sparkling Strawberry Cider (from Botanist & Barrel): a bright and refreshingly tart unfiltered local cider that, despite a strong, berryforward aroma, isn’t sweet, but has an exceptionally easy-to-drink unripened strawberry flavor profile, which, when paired with the fried bologna sandwich, cuts through the gooey richness and makes you rethink pretty much everything you thought you knew about both cider and bologna.

food

PIMENTO CHEESE FESTIVAL Sat., June 8, 11 a.m.–4p.m.

Academy Street, Cary townofcary.org

Caviar of the South

RECYCLE THIS PAPER

AT CARY’S PIMENTO CHEESE FESTIVAL, EVERYONE WILL BE PACKING, BUT ONLY ONE CAN WIN BY LENA GELLER

In case you were wondering what a cheese-carving competition looks like PHOTO BY RICHARD CARTER / COURTESY OF THE PIMENTO CHEESE FESTIVAL

I

n one of my favorite Better Call Saul scenes, the ex-cop Mike Ehrmantraut is with two other men awaiting the arrival of a drug dealer, who will select one of them as his new bodyguard. One man asks Mike what he’s packing.

“Pimento sandwich,” Mike replies.

“No,” the man says. “What’s the make?”

Mike sighs. “Pimento is a cheese. They call it the caviar of the South.”

The man scoffs. Mike disarms both men and secures the bodyguard position.

I don’t know the moral of the story— pimento gives you super strength? Maybe.

Pimento trumps guns? Probably. Don’t get between a man and his pimento?

Definitely.

In Cary this Saturday, everyone will be packing pimento cheese. At least, the eight local restaurants competing in the second

annual Pimento Cheese Festival will be.

Festival-goers will vote on their favorite sample. The winner gets a ceramic pimento cheese sandwich.

The competitors include Postmaster, Tribeca Tavern, and Crosstown Pub, which won last year’s festival, as well as the local chain Ruckus Pizza, which will be serving cheese unadorned with toppings between two slices of bread.

“You don’t really top pimento cheese with anything. You just let the flavor soak in there, baby,” says Dave Beecher, owner and manager of the Ruckus in Cary.

Ruckus held a contest between its four locations to see which one gets to compete.

The Morrisville location prevailed. The chef declined to provide the recipe, but I imagine it’s fairly standard: grated cheddar, cream cheese, pimento peppers, mayo.

You’ll find more offbeat takes among the more than twenty food trucks and vendors serving pimento-cheese-centric dishes at the festival. Though the cheese is a Southern staple, it will be incorporated into foods from a variety of cultures: crab rangoon at Umami on Wheels; ropa vieja melts at Spanglish; and even deepfried pie, a classic Greek dessert at Gussy’s Greek Street Food.

Over ten thousand people came to the 2018 festival, says organizer Ryan O’Quinn.

He expects an even larger crowd this year.

To entertain the masses, this year’s festival will feature new attractions, most notably the professional cheese sculptor Sarah Kaufmann—one of few people who can lay claim to that job title—who will be creating a sculpture inspired by Cary’s public art.

“I’m gonna focus on those hot-button pieces of art that are important to the city of Cary,” Kaufmann says. “It’s going to be abstract. Your art is nice and modern and forward.”

Kaufmann will soon hold the Guinness record for the world’s largest cheese sculpture. She recently carved a 3,462-pound cheese replica of a crocodile. (In 2011, she set a previous Guinness record with a 925pound cheese carving; the current record, set in 2015, is of a 1,524-pound cheeseburger.) The festival’s sculpture will be smaller.

Kaufmann will use a 40-pound block of cheddar as the base, but she plans to integrate pimento into the work as well.

Festival attendees can also try their hand at cheese sculpting in an amateur competition. Mitch Samples, a local chef, will provide a sturdy, Play-Doh-like variation of pimento cheese that holds better and won’t melt in the heat. Two groups of participants will have three minutes to sculpt an item chosen by festival organizers, and the top two from each faction will battle for the title.

Kaufmann won’t judge the contest, but she says she’s willing to offer tips. food@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 23

indymusic

EPHEMERAL: DARUDE Friday, Jun. 7, 10 p.m., $15 The Fruit, Durham www.durhamfruit.com

Before the Drop

CLOWN TRANCE MUSIC ALL YOU WANT, BUT THE ORIGINAL AND MODERN IMPACT OF LEGENDS LIKE DARUDE CAN'T BE OVERSTATED BY DAVID FORD SMITH

T

his October marks twenty years since the 1999 release of the Finnish DJ Darude’s “Sandstorm,” one of the most culturally significant electronic dance singles of all time. A monster crossover hit of unfathomable reach, it’s been kept in circulation in sports and internet culture, partly through its popularity among video game live streamers. The four-minute instrumental’s meme status (in some online circles, “Darude – Sandstorm” serves as a generic reply to any track ID request) is strong enough that Google made it their April Fool’s Day prank four years ago.

Speaking to the INDY from Finland, fresh off a stint as a Eurovision contestant and preparing to headline the new Ephemeral party at The Fruit on Friday, Darude is completely lucid, unjaded, and funny about being trance music’s Rick Astley.

“A lot of us started as techies spending way too many hours in front of computers growing up, downloading and making music,” he says. He should know. In the early, low-bandwidth, peer-to-peer era of illicit MP3 filesharing, “Sandstorm” was one of the first viral hits, with poorly labeled versions going platinum on shady services like Kazaa and Napster.

“When I was initially pissed off at Kazaa people for stealing my song, I tried to remember that these are the same types of people as me,” Darude says. In the current streaming climate, he finds it nostalgic when his newest releases even exist as MP3s.

Darude is typically clocked as one of trance music’s golden boys. Though trance’s true origins are murky, seeping all the way back to German prog and subversive ‘80s electronic acts like The KLF, most people view it through the lens of the ‘00s commercial trance boom that Darude epitomized. A sort of proto-EDM, it was high-drama dance music, rooted in a martial 4/4 stomp and soaring topline vocals that culminated in the now-common ASMR punch of the “drop.”

For techno snobs and people who wander in irony’s endless hall of mirrors, trance’s 24 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

Darude PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST maxed-out supersaw synths and unironic utopianism have long been an easy punchline, a playful late-night DJ set gag. Like Tamagotchi or Shibuya-Kei, it was music born of Y2K-era global-culture fads. Trendy, sentimental, soaring European dance cheese, thriving off utopian goodwill and novelty.

Darude understands the stigma associated with his output and trance music in general.

“I don’t follow American techno too closely, but a thing I’ve regularly seen is that it’s often a huge deal when an artist plays a trance cut,” he says. “It becomes an identifiable highlight of their set, but in other contexts, trance is seen as a saturated, commercial genre. I don’t think those rules are quite fair.”

He’s right, and as the twenty-year revival gap dictates, the sugary stylistic markers of trance seem to be genuinely tunneling back into acclaimed dance music again (see Ciel, Lorenzo Senni)—to the displeasure of purists who loathe the stuff. Their gripes aren’t totally without merit. Trance DJs tend to be

white dudes, and the complaints rightfully drift toward scene lodestars like Armin Van Buuren and Tiësto, who fully embrace the genre’s functional, populist bent and churn out the least fashionable music in existence.

“Especially with genres like trance, people love to put the music in smaller and smaller boxes so they can dismiss it,” Darude says. “I always get categorized as a trance DJ, even though my foundation is melodic sounds, sounds that coexist with other genres, like jungle and Balearic music. One thing I don’t like about dance music in general is when people can’t see outside of those small boxes.”

His recent cross-genre output of singles and records lend his words credence. His last record, 2015's Moments, blended a number of styles—drum and bass, progressive house, American dubstep, and others—into a sprawling, nuanced package that felt sincere and adventurous, if not blindingly original.

Tiësto jokes aside, the continued appeal of Darude and his descendants, evidenced

by the EDM festival boom, is undeniable.

To his credit, his initial era of crossover trance and Eurodance also ushered in a crucial moment where big-room dance music smashed through to post-grunge saturated Top-40 playlists. Courtesy of records like “Sandstorm,” dance music got exposure in markets without curated record stores or Warp-loving college radio DJs or much nonrock music infrastructure to speak of.

Look at Chapel Hill’s Porter Robinson, among the most commercially successful EDM producers. The poster boy for a certain kind of Y2K meets 2010s eclecticism, he whiled away his teenage years trawling through the hyper-colored trance and Eurodance worlds of Dance Dance Revolution and Beatmania video game soundtracks, as well as the backrooms of the online message board ecosystem, where that music had a dedicated cult following. Even when he isn’t directly taking musical cues from “1998” by Naoki, you can feel trance’s euphoric sugar rush throughout his discography. On his recent Virtual Self project, he led the charge toward what he called “neotrance,” a more technical and direct homage to the music of his youth.

Darude’s appearance in Durham ushers in a new two-floor warehouse party series called Ephemeral. It hopes to put The Fruit, a fantastic space that has seen excellent use at events like Moogfest, to work as a dedicated rave zone. This initial outing was put together by promoters Morning Choir, Sugar Society, and Disco Donnie Presents, as well as local Durham promoters Party Illegal and The Floor. Alongside Darude, HEYZ, PlayPlay, Queen Plz & thefacesblur will all be spinning throughout the night.

A final question: What accounts for Darude’s continued cultural relevance?

The easiest answer might be positioning.

Millennials and Gen Z adore irony, but they also thrive on nostalgia and the chasm between ironic and sincere. “Sandstorm” lives down there. music@indyweek.com

music

WU-TANG CLAN

Saturday, June 8, 8 p.m., $55+ Red Hat Amphitheater, Raleigh www.redhatamphitheater.com

Skin Deep

WU-TANG CLAN IS NO LONGER THE CENTER OF THE RAP UNIVERSE, BUT ITS LEGACY LASTS FOREVER

BY ERIC TULLIS

I

n a scene from the new, four-part Showtime docuseries Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, director Jim Jarmusch—who cast Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and GZA in his 2003 film Coffee and Cigarettes—had this to say about the legendary rap crew: “You cannot destroy the strength of ideas, and WuTang celebrates that. They are warriors of the imagination, and the power of the imagination is far stronger than guns or money.”

In 1993, I met the three guys that I still cherish to this day as my best friends. We were all freshmen at a suburban high school in south central Kansas. What we had in common at first (military kids, hoop dreamers, and hip-hop heads) was enough for us to gel and insulate ourselves from some of the racial antagonisms that come with attending a majority-white high school. But Wu-Tang’s genesis that same year, with the release of the single “Protect Ya Neck” and the adventurous album Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), introduced us to a world that we could escape to, just as some of our peers were doing with comic books.

We called ourselves the Ghostface Killahz (back then, your crew wasn’t legit unless you substituted a “z” for an “s” in the plural), named after who we thought was WuTang’s sharpest and most vivid rapper. And in the same way that every Wu-Tang member gave themselves Wu-Gambino aliases (Noodles, Johnny Blaze, Tony Starks, etc.) in addition to their main monikers, we also gave ourselves Wu-Gambino names. There was Jocko the Unique Manifique, Shakes the Handler, and Screwnino. I adopted the name Johnny O’Malley.

In our imaginations, we were the students and swordsmen of the Wu-Tang ethic, and we took pride in vehemently defending the Shaolin rappers’ originality in a hip-hop climate when living in the Midwest meant that you were expected to identify with non-East Coast artists such as Dr. Dre on the West Coast, Scarface and UGK in the South, or Bone Thugs-n-Harmony further north. But to us, the synergy of ten unique emcees who

based their aesthetic on kung-fu flicks, street culture, and the Islam-influenced Five-Percent Nation’s knowledge-of-self foundation was just too mighty to deny.

Over the next three years, our devotion to Wu-Tang gained strength as each member released his solo album. Method Man’s

For me, however, the most meaningful part of my relationship with Wu-Tang was using their music’s many Five-Percent Nation references to explore my own “true existence” as a black adolescent in a white supremacist environment. And while the Five-Percenters’ Supreme Mathematics

Eric Tullis's brand new Wu-Tang tattoo PHOTO COURTESY OF ERIC TULLIS maniacal Tical helped us develop heavyhanded attitudes; Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Return to the 36 Chambers showed us how a savant could be hell-raiser, agitator, and stylist alike. We digested the opulent street tales from Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... to the point of indoctrination, and the GZA’s methodical Liquid Swords intellectualized our understanding of lyricism.

and Supreme Alphabet were a bit too abstract for me to fully immerse myself in the movement, eventually, it was Wu-Tang and other socio-politically forward-thinking hip-hop acts that led me down a principled path to converting to Orthodox Islam at the age of seventeen.

By 1997, Wu-Tang Clan had achieved megastar status, with the reception of the

group’s double-album, Wu-Tang Forever, hitting a global fever pitch. On its release day at record stores around the world, lines were hundreds of people deep.

That day, back home in Wichita, Kansas, Screwnino had camped out for hours in front of our local record store to be the first in line to buy Wu-Tang Forever CDs for all of us. We had just graduated a month earlier and would all soon be off to our separate colleges and walks of life.

That would be the last time that our crew would ever be in the same city to experience a Wu-Tang release date together.

Unfortunately, that also might have been the last time that a Wu-Tang Clan release mattered so much to its legions of fans.

So, we came up with a plan to eternalize our brotherhood and love for our rap heroes. We made a pact to get Wu-Tang logo tattoos before the summer ended, and since Screwnino was the artist of the crew, we’d let him design them. But my newly adopted religion prohibited getting tattoos—especially one that promoted idol worship—and I soon opted out of the agreement.

As the years went on and my passion for new Wu-Tang solo projects persisted, I began to regret pulling out of the tattoo pact. As I examined my life, I realized that Wu-Tang Clan logo was a beacon of nostalgia—my own north star and lasting symbol of my formative years.

So finally, as a forty-year-old grownass man celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and a Wu-Tang concert heading for Raleigh this Saturday, I walked into a black-owned tattoo shop in Durham’s Five Points neighborhood and got the WuTang logo tattooed on my left arm. A pact is a pact, and if there was anything to be gleaned from the Wu-Tang documentary, it’s that the brotherly bonds need maintenance and nurturing, even with a gesture as cliché as a tattoo. music@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 25

JUNE

FR 7 JUSTIN WEST W/ PINE BOX SA 8

DWELLERS / KAYLIN ROBERSON / TAN SANDERS AND THE DERELICTS 7p GTOPIA FEATURING: AJ MITCHELL, SASHA SLOAN, AUSTIN BROWN 7p

TECH N9NE FR 14 THE BREAKFAST CLUB 8 PM SA 15 NIGHTRAIN (GNR TRIBUTE) &

THUNDERSTRUCK (AC/DC TRIBUTE) W/ THE FIFTH 7:30p

SU 16 NAILS W/ MISERY INDEX /

DEVOURMENT / OUTER HEAVEN 6p

WE 19 THE RECORD COMPANY 7p TH 20 SCRANTONICITY (A WORKPLACE COSTUME & DANCE PARTY) 6:30p

FR 21 THE STRANGER – BILLY JOEL

TRIBUTE FEATURING MIKE SANTORO 7p

FR 28 LIQUID STRANGER 8p SA 29 “TRAP APOLLO”

PRESENTED BY BSE / NEMON MARCUS / TJ LEAK / BRINT CITY 9p J U LY

FR 5 THE CLARKS 7p SA 6 SECOND HELPING:

THE LYNYRD SKYNYRD SHOW 7:30p

WE 10 THE NEW MASTERSOUNDS 7p SA 13 GRASS IS DEAD & SONGS FROM THE ROAD BAND 8p

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

FR 19 GREENSKY BLUEGRASS

AT KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE 5:30p

FR 19 INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE:

A SAUCERFUL OF PINK FLOYD W/ EYEBALL 7:30p

SA 20 LONG BEACH DUB ALLSTARS

W/ AGGROLITES / MIKE PINTO 7:30p

CO M I N G S O O N

8/2 COSMIC CHARLIE 8p 8/3 BENNY “THE BUTCHER”

W/ ADAM BOMB/CAPRI/ CEEZ PESO & THE BUFFET BOYS 8p STEPHEN MARLEY W/ DJ SHACIA PÄYNE & CONSTANCE BUBBLE 9p MOTHER’S FINEST 7p 12TH PLANET 8p

8/10 8/17 8/21 BERES HAMMOND – NEVER ENDING

W/ HARMONY HOUSE SINGERS 7p

8/23 JIVE MOTHER MARY

W/ BROTHER HAWK / BIGGINS / SIXTEEN PENNY 7:30p

9/13 WILDER WOODS

LIVE IN CONCERT 7p

METAL POLE MAYHEM 8p BRENT COBB AND THEM 7p BLACK UHURU 8p DREW HOLCOMB & THE NEIGHBORS W/ BIRDTALKER 6:30p 9/29 NOAH KAHAN 7p 10/4 JIMMY HERRING AND THE 5 OF 7 7:30p

8/31 9/15 9/20 9/28

Saturday, Jun. 8, 8 p.m., $10–$20 NorthStar Church of the Arts, Durham www.northstardurham.com

Raise Their Voice

PINHOOK PILLAR KYM REGISTER MAKES THEMSELF HEARD ON GORGEOUS NEW LOAMLANDS RECORD LEZ DANCE BY BRIAN HOWE

TH 6/13 6:30P

8/9

music

LOAMLANDS

ADV. TICKETS @ LINCOLNTHEATRE.COM & SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS ALL SHOWS ALL AGES

126 E. Cabarrus St.• 919-821-4111 www.lincolntheatre.com 26 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

A

s the owner of The Pinhook, Kym Register has such a powerful voice in this community that you might be surprised to hear they ever questioned it as a musician. But as Register tells it, the new Loamlands record is about them finding new vocal confidence—and a new perspective on playing music—on a pivotal tour with queer band Nana Grizol, which led to queer independent label Cruisin Records releasing the stunning Lez Dance. It features musicians such as Solar Halos’ Nora Rogers and Mourning Cloak’s Kris Hilbert, who recorded and coproduced, but it has the intimate, spare feel of a solo record, with no drums and minimal arrangements to buffer Register’s powerful voice as it wraps around genderqueer versions of classic country-rock tales.

“This project happened because very close friends were basically like, ‘I dare you,’” Register says. The result was not only personal growth for Register, but an album that is sure to inspire it in listeners. Hear for yourself at the NorthStar release show on Saturday, with openers Vaughn Aed and Brown Hound, the latter of which just might be the alias of a local musician you’ll be very excited to see.

INDY: Lez Dance feels more like Kym Register than a band. Your voice is so powerful, it doesn’t need a lot of orchestral cladding.

KYM REGISTER: I’m somebody who likes to be vulnerable and explore things, and I also feel the privilege of sharing information, so I’m sometimes scared of taking up that space.

“I dare you to play without a bunch of boys” was the first thing that happened. Then, I made the record and felt the power of having a loud voice and being able to sit in it. That’s something I’m not good at, because I’m highstrung and wired. But something about singing and having it played back in the monitors is settling. It’s the opposite of disassociation.

Which is association. Brilliant. [Laughs] But I feel very disassociated from my body and myself sometimes, because of gender and past, and I think it’s OK to feel selfimportant or like a human in a body. I’ve tried

Kym Register PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST to be like, “What can I do for you?” for so long, very martyred. I don’t think that’s always OK. When you do it consciously, it’s powerful.

What are you showing people with martyrdom, right? Is it more helpful to show them strength and believing yourself?

I guess some people have this confidence that I’m not sure I’ve ever had, artistically. I’ve always worked with people who are amazing, crazy creatives or who know the music industry, and I’ve never taken full control. That doesn’t allow everyone to be at their peak creativeness. So now that I feel more confident in my storytelling and my voice, I’m going to take that excitement to the musicians I’m playing with, and hopefully, we’re all going to elevate each other.

Is it just me or has your singing changed?

I keep thinking of Stevie Nicks, who I haven’t thought of before.

Fuck yeah, that’s awesome. I saw this meme yesterday on The Hard Times, which was

something like “Seventy-six-year-old lead singer finally lifted the level of their voice.”

Also, Kris [Hilbert] was really important. I loved recording with Jon Ashley and Brad Cook, but for this record, my intent was to go more toward Scout Niblett—powerhouse female-fronted electric guitar style. With Kris, who also recorded Solar Halos, it was like, “Treat my voice not like a folk voice.”

It’s almost like your voice structures the songs more than the instrumentation does.

There’s no meter, no click track; they’re all recorded live. It’s the most fun way to tell a story. I’m glad we did it, because I couldn’t go back and change everything.

Did you write these songs over a long or short period of time?

It’s important to carve out creative time, and I’m really bad at it. That’s another thing people were challenging me on. So I wrote them in a month or so, based on information I was receiving from world. I was reading a lot of

Ursula K. Le Guin. And Soni Wolf, the Dykes on Bikes person, died, and I read an article and related it to my grandmother, how it’s possible she was homosexual, but no one will ever know because of the time she lived in.

Did you think a lot about the story you were telling or the energy you were putting out?

Before I made this record, I went on tour with Nana Grizol, this queer punk band.

I was a fan of the lead singer/songwriter, Theo [Hilton], who runs Cruisin with my friend Clyde [Petersen]. It was the queerest tour I’d been on, and all of the feelings of not wanting to tour because of how stressful it is and how unsupported I felt, financially and in my identity—all of that was washed away. Not to say the other people I’ve toured with aren’t supportive, because they’re amazing. But finding that community really changed the way I want to put music out. We played great venues and DIY spaces and came back with money and wanted to keep going, which never happens. It was like, “Oh, I want to write music with my community, for my community,” and that was energizing, not depleting. I was excited to be really vulnerable and confront some internalized homophobia, which is interesting to me, because I’m so queer. But when I went on this tour, I was like, Oh, queers! You know when you’re scared to realize what you want?

SATURDAY, JUNE 15 N O O N — 4 P M

GLE BEST of the TRIAN

H S A B 2019

MUSIC

VENDORS

FREE

AND

OPEN

TO

THE

PUBLIC

HOSTED BY

AT KIDS ZONE PRESENTED BY

BEER

PRODUCTION SERVICES PROVIDED

BY SONIC PIE PRODUCTIONS

Yeah, because then you have to try to get it.

Right. Now I have these friends who are touring sustainably, and it’s not about the next big Pitchfork review—if that happens, awesome, but if it doesn’t, we’re working together as friends and living our queer lives.

This is a queer country record, but there are a lot of songs directed at a “she.”

That’s so interesting. I hadn’t thought about that, because the “she” is these specific people in my life. “Wild Ones” is based on an Le Guin story called “Wild Girls.” I changed the gender pronouns because, if I want this to speak to me, then why this wild “girls” idea? I love the idea of a powerful woman, but I don’t think there are a lot of those songs about genderqueer people. Calling it Lez Dance has to do with being in community. After this tour, realizing I was confronting some past internalized homophobia, I’ve been really listening to my elders: Soni Wolf, or k.d. lang, or Melissa Ethridge. These people were not super accepted as elders because I’d been trying to define myself against them. Now, I’m like, well, I’m genderqueer, I am not a lesbian, but fuck yes, thank you so much, lesbians. Elder queers have done so much work and do get marginalized and compartmentalized. bhowe@indyweek.com INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 27

indystage

GAY CARD

Jun. 7–23, 8 p.m. Fri. & Sat./3 p.m. Sun., $15–$22 North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre, Raleigh www.nract.org

Correcting John Hughes

stage

BRIEF

GO BACK FOR MURDER 

BY BYRON WOODS

Through Sunday, Jun. 16 NCSU’s Kennedy-McIlwee Studio Theatre, Raleigh theatre.arts.ncsu.edu

onathan Keebler, the playwright and lyricist of the new coming-of-age musical Gay Card, still remembers his finest hour of nightclubbing as a college student: drunk, crushing hard on the designated driver, and determined to win him over with an improvised, end-ofmovie-style carpe diem speech.

“It was so dramatic, and I think it lasted a good twenty minutes,” Keebler says, snickering. “I remember saying, ‘When you look back on this date, do you want to be the person who tried something, or the person who chickened out?’” Keebler got the guy—that is, until they broke up the following week.

For most, college is a time of trial and error, experimentation and discovery: a mix of breakthroughs and blunders made while young adults figure out who they are. That’s certainly the case for Logan, the gay central character of Keebler and composer Ryan Korell’s funny, fierce new musical, which premieres this week at NRACT. Having come out at the end of high school, Logan is optimistic that the hardest part of being gay is behind him. But the introverted teen, who’s still a virgin at the start of his freshman year, doesn’t know how to begin exploring and defining his sexuality. When his lifelong friend Melanie and his boorish dormmates aren’t helpful, Logan turns to a dubious how-to-be-gay blog and starts flipping wildly through a rolodex of dodgy stereotypes in search of the perfect fit. As his desperate search for validation deepens, it threatens the only real relationships he has.

“We really wanted to write a show for our adolescent selves: the show we would have wanted to see when we were eighteen and nineteen, struggling with what our identities meant and what we should and could be going into adulthood,” Keebler says. While he and Korell have fashioned Gay Card into an homage to the teen movies they both loved while growing up in the eighties and nineties, there’s a sharpness in the reason why.

“To put it simply, in all those years, we had never seen a teen movie or rom-com, on

At a glance, designer Jayme Mellema’s center-stage set piece seems charming: a Victorian mansion with detailed gables, turrets, and crestings, reduced to the dimensions of an oversize dollhouse. But Chrissie Munich’s stark lighting bathes the edifice in cold shades, bone-white to gray, revealing telltale signs of disrepair along its windows and walls.

Then, you can’t help noticing the several dozen ominous red ropes that extend upward from the house in all directions, toward a series of panels suspended from the wings. Projected on them are documents and photographs that gradually form a rebus of evidence connecting the house to a crime committed there sixteen years before. At their center, a painting of woman stares out in accusation.

Design is often the strongest suit of N.C. State’s University Theatre, and Go Back for Murder, the TheatreFest 2019 summer-season opener, is no exception. The plotting of murder maven Agatha Christie’s rarely produced 1960 play is partly to blame.

Though central character Carla Le Marchant (a resolute Emily Yates) is certainly engaging as she investigates the long-ago slaying of her father, the philandering artist Amyas Crale, we’re never given a compelling reason for the five suspects to return to the scene of the crime.

Similarly, director Mia Self doesn’t make total sense of Christie’s confusing flashbacks in the second act. As the quintet reenacts their actions and reactions to what they witnessed sixteen years before, they’re somehow joined by the deceased himself (Michael Parker), whose indiscretions with Lady Melksham (Laura J. Parker)—whom he’s brought to their home to paint and pursue an adulterous affair— push matters to their crisis.

As the two timeframes bleed into one, we buy the chemistry between Carla and quietly heroic solicitor Justin Fogg (a solid Gus Allen) more than we ever do the more overt dalliances between Melksham and Crale. By the end, color us sold on the who in this whodunit—but less so on the how.

This puzzle box’s jaw-dropping visual appeal surpasses its contents. —Byron Woods

GAY CARD ADDS MISSING DIMENSIONS TO THE CLASSIC TEEN ROM-COM TEMPLATE

J

28 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

Jonathan Keebler and Ryan Korell

PHOTO COURTESY OF NRACT

stage or on the screen, about a gay person. I’d never seen myself in any of those stories that I loved so much, and it still doesn’t happen very often today,” Korell says.

“When you’re not inundated with examples of how to grow up as a gay man, a trans person, or a lesbian, in the real world and in the media, you’re sort of off-footed,” Keebler says. When most of the gay characters in popular culture are tragic, as Keebler recalls them being in the nineties, the available social templates present no way forward. “You can either not really progress or progress on someone else’s narrative,” Keebler says. “That can set you back by years.”

Korell concurs. “Maybe that’s why our story is set in college instead of high school, when a lot of the stories we were inspired by were set,” he says.

In their musical, a Greek chorus of enabling peers outfit Logan with bad ideas and a fake ID—and then provide snarky

color commentary as he stumbles through a series of contretemps, first at a gay nightclub and then a Pride parade.

To Keebler, Gay Card resembles “a long conversation with your old college friend about allllll the stupid things you did.”

“I think I’ve been every single one of the characters in the show at some point,” he says with a rueful laugh.

Because the creators wanted to show gay characters falling in love and actually finding a happy ending, their protagonist finally gets the guy. (The question remains, which one.) Keebler believes this is a necessary corrective in a culture that remains too hesitant to depict gay romance.

“It’s still tiptoed around a bit. Even if it exists, it can’t have the passion and emotional intensity that’s given to straight couples,” Keebler says, pausing for a moment, then adding, “But not here.” arts@indyweek.com

indypage from Vietnam in 1975, and so much of what Vuong describes in his novel felt like distinct but related memories.

“My education as a writer began way before I ever set foot in a university,” he says. “It began in the kitchen with the women in my family. They were artists. I might be the first to read and write, but I am not the first poet in my family.”

In his novel, Vuong distills the monstrous artistry of survival in the U.S.-American climate. This is precisely the moment for his kind of attention, for unexpected stillness, which invites urgent reflection on some of the most neglected contours of historical violence and its relentless repercussions.

Mother Lodestar

AN ACCLAIMED POET’S FIRST NOVEL EXPLORES GENERATIONAL TRAUMA, WAR VIOLENCE, QUEER MASCULINITY, AND THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE

BY JESSICA Q. STARK

Ocean Vuong PHOTO BY TOM HINES

O

cean Vuong’s slow, measured vocal cadence disrupts quick conversational pacing. The result is a great deal of waiting and unexpected stillness. The acclaimed poet’s much-anticipated debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, has a similar effect, undoing time by rethinking how we tell (and retell) personal stories. An autobiographical, epistolary novel addressed to Vuong’s mother, it explores the intertwined reverberations of generational trauma, war violence, queer masculinity, and the precariousness of immigrant experience in the United States.

Like Vuong’s debut collection of poems, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, which won the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Whiting Award, his novel reads like an effort to “un-map” the terrain of U.S.-American experience through the perspectives of the Vietnamese diaspora. In the novel as in the poems, stories take unexpected turns, from the nail salon where his mother worked to the quiet viciousness of his grandmother’s PTSD to scenes of queer intimacy exchanged between farmhands over a sports broadcast.

I had a lot of myself to bring to this conversation. My mother immigrated here

INDY: In the familial relations you explore in your novel, you touch on the complexities of the Vietnamese diaspora and its relationship to generational trauma. What is the relationship between language and regeneration?

OCEAN VUONG: Language itself is creation, and one of the reasons why I wrote this novel was to have language be another character in the book: its development, its uses, its growth throughout the novel and throughout our human species. It's absolutely integral to our species, and even more so when we’re negotiating the language of war and diaspora. Our ancestors sat around a campfire, and we looked up at the stars, and one of us said, “That looks like a little cup,” and someone else said, “That looks like a lion.” We thought we were just pointing out observations, but what we were really doing was revealing ourselves through language. Every person is an archive and we often forget that. We think that language is something that’s standardized. Like we just learn it and carry on with the rest of our professional life. But in fact, it is like water; we’re moving through it with one another.

Where did you come from and how did you arrive? Or, in other words, who are you and whom do you love?

I was born right outside of Saigon. I arrived in America, in many ways, through war; the very factor of war fashioned my American identity. With this book, I wanted to question where American identity begins. And for the character Little Dog, his identity does not begin when he steps on American soil.

It begins when the first American bomb fell on Vietnam. In other words, American identity begins with American foreign policy and American violence. And he is loved first and foremost in the book by women, as am I. I wanted to write a book that honors the women in my life and women in general, because it is often women that pick up the pieces that men create through war. I wanted to honor that without sugarcoating it, and I wanted to honor that by also portraying these characters as complex, difficult, challenging, and flawed—and therefore, more human—people.

In your terms, what is a mother? What is the relationship between survival and motherhood? In some sense, I think there's something monstrous about motherhood, which you touch upon in the novel.

Yes, well, it depends on how you define "monster." The root of the word "monster" is a person of multiple origins. What a wonderful way of looking at a mother! Particularly a mother who straddles multiple continents, cultures, roots, and struggles with multiple languages.

The monster is also a liminal space, and to me, a very queer space. It’s a roundabout with multiple forks. We often look at mixed race children—the “mulatto” figure—as doomed, as the product of a tragic situation. But survival for Little Dog’s mother is not tragedy. Survival for this mother is an incredibly creative act—one that is full of agency. Motherhood, to me, is innovation and a beautiful monstrosity. arts@indyweek.com Read the rest of this conversation at indyweek.com.

OCEAN VUONG: ON EARTH WE’RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS Friday, Jun. 7, 7 p.m., free Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh www.quailridgebooks.com

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 29

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK

6.5–6.12 TUESDAY, JUNE 11

TWENTY ONE PILOTS

When I want to troll other adult-size music nerds, I just mention liking Twenty One Pilots. The Columbus, Ohio duo is one of the most popular bands you might not have heard of unless you are a teenager or you own one. I got into them when I saw the “Stressed Out” video at a bowling alley. They remind me of certain good bad bands I loved in the nineties, like Sublime and 311 but for Midwestern millennials—which is to say, more nostalgic for tantalizingly recent childhood; more rootless in its streaming-algorithm mix of rap metal, emo, reggae, etc.; and more twistily self-aware about appropriating hip-hop in a land of quiet cul-de-sacs. Yes, it’s problematic and ridiculous, but it knows it knows that. Tyler Joseph sings and raps wearing knit beanies with a fake tattoo covering his neck and hands. Josh Dun bashes hip-hop beats like he’s playing with woolly mammoth tusks, a punk rocker jacked on Jock Jams. But they’re real performers: See, in the SNL performance of “Ride,” when Joseph stands up from the piano, pulls out his in-ear monitor, and engineers a casual moment before the last incandescent chorus. Very pro. Sure, I might overstate my TPO love just a smidge, for effect. I’m not as hot on their 2018 album, Trench, as I am on 2015’s Blurryface (no one is—the latter went quadruple platinum; the former is stalled at gold). But “Heathens” is a good song. “Ride” is a very good song. “Stressed Out” is a very very good song. This is where we live, after the fall of the walls that once separated Eminem, Fall Out Boy, Incubus, and Bob Marley. Just relent. —Brian Howe PNC ARENA, RALEIGH | 7 p.m., $56+, www.pncarena.com

Twenty One PIlots PHOTO COURTESY OF TWENTYONEPILOTS.COM FRIDAY, JUNE 7–SUNDAY, JUNE 23

SATURDAY, JUNE 8

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE

PIE FACE GIRLS

UMSTEAD PARK UCC, RALEIGH | Various times, $17+, www.thejusticetheaterproject.org

THE POUR HOUSE, RALEIGH | 9 p.m., $5–$10, www.thepourhousemusichall.com

A series of estrangements separate the characters at the outset of Tony-winning playwright Tony Kushner’s semi-autobiographical chronicle of his early-sixties childhood in the Deep South. After the unexpected death of his wife, a disillusioned Stuart Gellman is estranged from both his faith and his precocious eight-year-old son, Noah. The title character is an African-American maid who works in the Gellman house—a single mother with four children, abandoned by her abusive husband, which leaves her defensive and alienated from all around her, including her daughter, Emmie. In fact, in this backwater Louisiana town, racism has kept whole communities divided for generations. But it’s 1963, and the winds of change stirring in the nation might breach even the most seemingly impermeable walls. In this Justice Theater Project production, Terra Hodge directs a cast including Danielle J. Long, Andrew Farmer, and James Hale. —Byron Woods

In a recent interview, L7’s resident Flying V guitar-wielder, Donita Sparks, said that the band performed its emotional alchemy by “taking a shitty situation and making art out of it.” It’s no surprise that the recently reformed sludge-punk group, along with fiercely aggressive bands like The Germs and Bikini Kill, are an inspiration for Raleigh punk trio Pie Face Girls, which releases its new album at The Pour House on Saturday. The band uses harsh stories and aggressive lyrics as tools to snatch righteously at pleasure and power while also including a great deal of raucous humor. It’s all filtered through the distorted descending power chords of DD Kidd and the heavy rhythm section of bassist Fifi Fritz and drummer Klay. On new album Chewin’ the Root, produced by Missy Thangs and recorded at the Fidelitorium, Pie Face Girls presents more raw narratives of sex and violence, with titles like “Tinderizer” and “A Womb of One’s Own.” Stevie and Vacant Company open. —Josephine McRobbie

WHAT ELSE SHOULD I DO?

ANDERSON .PAAK AT RED HAT AMPHITHEATER (P. 32), MICHAEL BENSON AT SMELT (P. 37), DARUDE AT THE FRUIT (P. 24), SARAH DESSEN AT FLYLEAF BOOKS (P. 38), GAY CARD AT NRACT (P. 28), GO BACK FOR MURDER AT KENNEDY-MCILWEE STUDIO THEATRE (P. 28), JUNK AT THEATRE RALEIGH (P. 39), LOAMLANDS AT NORTHSTAR CHURCH OF THE ARTS (P. 26), RETURN OF THE HERO AT THE CARY THEATER (P. 40), OCEAN VUONG AT QUAIL RIDGE BOOKS (P. 29), WU-TANG CLAN AT RED HAT AMPHITHEATER (P. 25) 30 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

THURSDAY, JUNE 6

JAMILA WOODS

Here’s a revolutionary book club idea: For your group’s next selection, instead of one piece of literature, designate Jamila Woods’s elegant and conceptual album LEGACY! LEGACY! as a listening assignment. While each song on the Chicago singer and poet’s new album discharges equal parts black power, girl magic, vocal mesmerism, and a soulful symbiosis with handpicked producers, there’s also an intellectual touch in the song titles that pays homage to black and brown artists that have influenced her. Find a song, read a chapter in that artist’s biography, and discuss. Woods’s main canon consists of Zora Neale Hurston, Frida Kahlo, James Baldwin, Eartha Kitt, and eight others. “I just got to get away from the Earth, man,” Woods sings on “SUN RA.” “I won’t be around to see it when it goes. Black-girl Garvey, I’ll be on my own.” You can either take it as forlorn Afrofuturism or her own way of flirting with the idea of black deliverance.

Either way, it all comes alive through speakers and on stage. Now, whether your little book club can handle it is a different question. —Eric Tullis

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

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

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

KINGS, RALEIGH | 8:30 p.m., $15–$55, www.kingsraleigh.com

Jamila Woods PHOTO BY BRADLEY MURRAY FRIDAY, JUNE 7

MARK FARINA

Before the experimental beat scene was born, when lo-fi heads were twisting knobs in the name of boom-bap purity, Chicago/San Francisco house DJ Mark Farina was championing, filtering, remixing, and disseminating downtempo instrumental hip-hop through his Mushroom Jazz compilation series. When “acid jazz” was born, it gave him the perfect opportunity to infuse some of the jazz-and-soul-influenced beats he endorsed with his first love, house music. Now, as the owner of the Great Lakes Audio Recordings record label, Farina is again propelling house to the forefront, starting with a deep house jackin’ trip from house visionary JT Donaldson on Farina’s new Faces EP. It gets deep, yes, but it’s only one facet of Farina’s dance arsenal, which shifts from soulful to techno, Latin to bare-bones Chicago house. Physical participation in Motorco’s dance parties sometimes seems optional, but do this house music legend a favor and keep your groove in high gear. A warmup from Magic City Disco’s Tomas C should get you were you need to be. —Eric Tullis MOTORCO MUSIC HALL, DURHAM | 9 p.m., $15–$20, www.motorcomusic.com INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 31

music

6.5–6.12

RUBY DELUXE: Car Crash Star, Black Bouquet, Blue Frequency, Gilt; 8 p.m.

SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS RALEIGH: Slowness Album Release; 2 p.m.

SCHOOLKIDS RECORDS RALEIGH: That Virginia; 7 p.m.

SHARP NINE GALLERY: Juan Alamo Album Release; $20.

8 p.m.

SLIM’S: Oak City 5, Palehorse; $5. 9 p.m.

THE STATION: Ashley Heath & Her Heathens, Charles Latham; 8 p.m.

SAT, JUN 8 BLUE NOTE GRILL: Chris O’Leary Band; $10. 8 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM: Matt Andersen, Erin Costelo; $15-$18. 8 p.m.

THURSDAY, JUNE 6

ANDERSON .PAAK & THE FREE NATIONALS Dr. Dre’s oversight was the common denominator of Anderson .Paak’s two most recent albums, Oxnard and Ventura, released six months apart with strikingly different results. Save for a few gutsy soul-funk throwbacks to .Paak’s 2016 breakout, Malibu, like “6 Summers” and the J. Cole-featuring “Trippy,” Oxnard’s ruin could be blamed on a combination of graceless sequencing and an overpopulated production room of polymaths driving .Paak’s cool into commercial collapse. But he bounced back almost instantaneously on this year’s Ventura, essentially taking the reins and “spreading his wings on the production and on the writing,” as he told Esquire. The pivot led to a patchwork of love-ethos jams that bred Smokey Robinson feels on the compassionate “Make It Better;” another ceremonious guest verse from the inimitable Andre 3000 on the album’s opener, “Come Home;” and duets with ballad charmers Lalah Hathaway, Jazmine Sullivan, Brandy, and newcomer Sonyae Elise. Retaliation never sounded so smooth. The fury comes during .Paak’s live performances; backed by his band, The Free Nationals, he turns sweet soul moments into fireworks. With Thundercat and Noname. —Eric Tullis

RED HAT AMPHITHEATER, RALEIGH | 7 p.m., $45–$80, www.redhatamphitheater.com

Anderson .Paak

THE ARTSCENTER: Crys Matthews & Heather Mae, JJ Jones, Joe Stevens; $20. 8 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM: Caroline Spence, Whisperer; $10-$12. 8 p.m.

THE CAVE: Clark Stern & Chuck Cotton; $5 suggested.

9 p.m.

COASTAL CREDIT UNION MUSIC PARK AT WALNUT CREEK: Florence and the Machine, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats; 7:30 p.m.

KINGS: Awen Family Band, Xylem, Innerspace; $12. 9 p.m.

THE PINHOOK: Nine Fingered Thug, Savage Knights, Corina Mortis; $7. 8 p.m.

32 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

POUR HOUSE: Freddie McGregor & the Big Ship Band; $25-$30. 8 p.m.

THU, JUN 6

FRI, JUN 7 BLUE NOTE GRILL: Wiley Fosters; free. 9 p.m.

BLUE NOTE GRILL: Darrell Scott, Me & David Burney; $30-$35. 7 p.m.

CARRBORO TOWN COMMONS: NC Gospel Jubilee; free. 6:30 p.m.

GIBSON GIRL VINTAGE: Four Piece Supremes; free. 6 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE: Frenship, Glades; $15-$17. 9 p.m.

KINGS: Jamila Woods; $15-$55.

8:30 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM: Jack Willow Jr. Album Release with Christiane, MKR; $8-$10. 9 p.m.

LOCAL 506: Motherfolk, Wylder; $8-$10. 8 p.m.

MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL: NC Symphony: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons; $67+. 7:30 p.m.

POUR HOUSE: Local Band Local Beer: Aaron Woody Wood, The Love Drugs, Shay Martin Lovette, Chris Frisina; $5. 9 p.m.

THE CAVE: DYADO, Chris Frisina, Joe’s Cousin; $5 suggested. 9 p.m.

KINGS: Mega Colossus, Youth League, Mega 300 Dog Night; $10. 9 p.m.

KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE: NC Symphony: Piazolla’s Four Seasons; $30-$33.

7:30 p.m.

IMURJ: The Geb Album Release with Zoa Black; 6 p.m.

KINGS: The Moon Unit, Raptor Taxi, Charlie Paso; $8-$10. 8 p.m.

KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE: NC Symphony: Vivaldi’s’s Four Seasons; $30-$33. 7:30 p.m.

LINCOLN THEATRE: GTOPIA: AJ Mitchell, Sasha Sloan, Austin Brown; $10. 8 p.m.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDERSONPAAK.COM

WED, JUN 5

THE CAVE: Flesh Tuxedo, Madam Madam, Julian Creech Pritchett; $5 suggested. 9 p.m.

LINCOLN THEATRE: Justin West, Pine Box Dwellers, Kaylin Roberson, Tan Sanders and the Derelicts; $14. 8 p.m.

POUR HOUSE: People’s Blues of Richmond, Young Cardinals, Doco; $10$12. 9 p.m.

LOCAL 506: Grade 2, Sibannac, Totally Slow, Over the Wire; $10.

8:30 p.m.

THE MAYWOOD: Console Command, Infinite Eve, War in the Pocket; $10. 9 p.m.

MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL: NC Symphony: Latin Classics; $31. 12 p.m.

MEYMANDI CONCERT HALL: Night of Lyrics and Laughter with LeAndria Johnson and Guests; $32.

7 p.m.

RED HAT AMPHITHEATER

Lake Street Dive

THE MAYWOOD: Raleigh Deathfest: False Prophet, Paagtheaan, Morose Vitality, Rotting Obscene, Datura, Chaosmic, Vomit Stain, Antenora, Demon Eye; $12-$15. 5 p.m.

MOTORCO: Mark Farina, Tomas C; $15-$20. 9 p.m.

NIGHTLIGHT: Sunny Slopes, Mean Queen, Wailin Storms; 8 p.m.

THE PINHOOK: Royal Skyyy, Bigg Brad, Suga Bee, Mic Breeze, Hazy, Gemynii; $10. 8 p.m.

[$28–$65, 7:30 P.M.]

By blending classic soul influences with indie pop and tossing in dashes of folk and jazz flavoring as the mood strikes, Boston-bred band Lake Street Dive has kicked up quite a stir over the last few years. And with the largerthan-life voice of Rachael Price leading the way, the band’s organic vibe gains even greater presence in person. —Jim Allen THE RITZ: Yacht Rock Revue; $15.

8:30 p.m.

MOTORCO: Purple Note Durham: Celebrating The Life of Prince Through Jazz; $25-$30. 8:30 p.m.

ODD COMPANY: Ryan Kennemur; 8 p.m.

POUR HOUSE: Pie Face Girls Album Release with Vacant Company; $5-$10. 9 p.m.

RED HAT AMPHITHEATER: Wu-Tang Clan; $55+. 8 p.m.

SLIM’S: Roar the Engines, Morning Bells; $5. 9 p.m.

TH10/3 BLANCO WHITE SA 10/5 TYRONE WELLS W/ DAN RODRIGUEZ ($17/$20) WE 10/9 ELDER ISLAND SU 6/9

THE LEMONHEADS AND TOMMY STINSON

SA 6/8 @CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM

MATT ANDERSEN

MO 6/10 GNASH W/ ANNA

CLENENDING

TU 6/18 SEBADOH W/ WAVELESS ($18/$20) WE 6/19 ABIGAIL DOWD / ISABELL TAYLOR (DUAL ALBUM RELEASE SHOW) ($7/$10)

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

CELEBRATING THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR SELF TITLED DEBUT. FEATURING THE ORIGINAL LINEUP ($14/$16) MO 7/15 ATERCIOPELADOS

LOCAL NATIVES

ARTSCENTER (CARRBORO) TH 6/27 THE SPILL CANVAS BOTTLE OF THE RED TOUR TH 11/14 ROBYN HITCHCOCK (SOLO)

FR 6/7 JACK WILLOW ALBUM RELEASE SHOW

SA 9/21 MANDOLIN ORANGE W/MOUNTAIN MAN WE 10/16 WILCO (TIX ON SALE

W/CHRISTIANE AND MKR SA 6/8 MATT ANDERSEN W/ERIN COSTELLO ($15-$18) WE 6/12 EARTH W/HELMS ALEE ($15) TH 6/13 DYLAN LEBLANC W/ ERIN RAE ($12/$15) FR 6/14 EILEN JEWELL ($15/$18) SA 6/15 DANTE HIGH W/ MOLLY SARLE SU 6/16 LOS COAST WE 6/19 ABIGAIL DOWD / ISABEL TAYLOR (DUAL ALBUM RELEASE SHOW)

KOKA BOOTH AMPHITHEATRE (CARY)

FRIDAY 6/6)

LOCAL 506 (CHAPEL HILL) SU 7/21 COVET W/ VASUDEVA AND HOLY FAWN CAROLINA THEATRE (DUR)

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

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

TH 6/20 JOSH ROUSE ($20)

TU 7/16 HOP ALONG W/ KISSISSIPPI ($17/$20)

FR 6/21 NIGHT MOVES W/ COMPUTER SCIENCE

FR 7/19 SUMMER SALT W/ DANTE ELEPHANTE, MOTEL RADIO

SIDEKICKS, QUEEN OF JEANS

SA 6/22 MARK LEE (OF THIRD DAY)

TH 8/8 NEUROSIS W/ BELL WITCH AND DEAF KIDS

SA 6/22 (10 PM SHOW) SPEED

MO 7/29 WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS ‘THESE FOUR WALLS’ 10TH ANNIVERSARY W/ CATHOLIC

SU 8/11 BLACK JOE LEWIS & THE HONEYBEARS ($15/17) MO 8/19 PEDRO THE LION / MEWITHOUTYOU ($25/$27) TU 8/20 BIRD AND THE BEE SA 8/24 BE LOUD ‘19: THE JACKSON FOUR, GREG HUMPHREYS TRIO, THE CHORUS PROJECT MO 8/26 WHY? W/ BARRIE

TU 8/27 ELECTRIC HOT TUNA W/ ROB ICKES & TREY HENSLEY ($45/$50) FR 9/13 WHO’S BAD SU 9/15 PENNY & SPARROW

W/ CAROLINE SPENCE

MO 9/16 CAT POWER WANDERER TOUR 2019” WE 9/18 TINARIWEN ($30/$33) TH 9/19 SNOW THA PRODUCT SA 9/21 WHITNEY W/ HAND HABITS FR 9/27 RIDE TU 10/1 MT JOY SU 10/6 BUILT TO SPILL- KEEP IT LIKE A SECRET TOUR ($28/$32) MO 10/7 LUNA PERFORMING PENTHOUSE W/ OLDEN YOLK WE 10/16 MELVINS AND REDD

STICK, GARDENER, DREAMLESS

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

TH 6/27 CAR CRASH STAR,

MO 9/30 GENERATIONALS

WHENEVER ATOMIC BUZZ, SPORTSMANSHIP, ALLCAPS FR 6/28 COMMUNITY CHORUS

PROJECT SUMMER SHOWCASE

SA 6/29 TAN & SOBER GENTLEMEN, TUATHA DEA, VIRGINIA GROUND SU6/30 DOCTOR SIG W/ NITE BEAST ($10) SU 7/7 WAND W/ DREAMDECAY ($13/$15) SA 7/13 COLD CREAM, DE()T,

SNEAKERS AWARD

SU 7/21 TIJUANA PANTHERS AND TOGETHER PANGEA W/ ULTRA Q MO 7/22 PRINCE DADDY & THE HYENA W/RETIREMENT PARTY, OBSESSIVES

WE 7/31 GABBY’S WORLD AND BELLOWS W/ MUSEUM MOUTH, JENNY BESETZT TH8/1SCHOOL OF ROCK ALLSTARS SA 8/3 DELHI 2 DUBLIN MO 8/5 KYLE CRAFT &

SHOWBOAT HONEY

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

SU 10/20 THE BAND CAMINO

TH 8/15 ILLITERATE LIGHT ($12/$14)

WE 10/23 OH SEES W/PRETTIEST

FR 8/16 SIDNEY GISH

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

TRIO+

WE 8/7 AN EVENING WITH

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

FR 6/7 LAKE STREET DIVE/

THE WOOD BROTHERS THE RITZ (RAL)

(PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION W/ LIVENATION)

SU 9/15 SERATONES SA 9/21 THE ROCKET SUMMER ($15/$17; ON SALE 6/7)

FR 10/11 EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR

FR 12/6 OUR LAST NIGHT

WE 10/2 B BOYS

RHYTHMSLIVENC.COM

SPECIAL GUEST TIFT MERRITT

W/ THE AVENGERS

SA 11/16 GAELIC STORM

Limited VIP TICKETS available that include artist meet and greet

TU 7/23 BRUCE HORNSBY AND

WE 10/30 WIZARD FEST

TUE 10/1 THAT 1 GUY

See this highly acclaimed country singer, who has raked in countless awards from the Grammy’s, American Music Awards and Country Music Association, when she lands in Durham, NC.

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

MO 6/10 LOCAL NATIVES W/ MIDDLE KIDS

SA 11/9 INFAMOUS STRINGDUSTERS W/ KITCHEN DWELLERS (ON SALE JUNE 7)

19 #1 hits MUSIC ROYALTY Plan for a night filled with country pop tunes from country icon, Crystal Gayle. Head to Rhythms Live Music Hall in Durham to hear Crystal sing a live rendition of her well-known song, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue,” among other hits like “You’ve Been Talking in Your Sleep” and “When I Dream.”

NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART

FR 9/6 BENJAMIN FRANCIS LEFTWICH ($15/$18)

EYES, NO WHAMMY

FR 10/25 STIFF LITTLE FINGERS

CRYSTAL GAYLE

ACTION ($16/$18)

WE 6/26 KRISTIN HERSH ELECTRIC TRIO ($18/$20)

KROSS W/ SHITKID W/ VALLEY

2020 CHAPEL HILL ROAD SUITE 33 • DURHAM, NC 27707

SA 11/16 THE BLAZERS ‘HOW TO ROCK’ REUNION

WE 6/5 CAROLINE SPENCE W/ WHISPERER

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

WE 8/7 MENZINGERS W/ THE

Your Week.

Every Wednesday. indyweek.com

MO 6/10 @ THE RITZ

SU 7/21 THE GET UP KIDS W/ GREAT GRANDPA ($22/$26)

TH 8/1 DONAVON FRANKENREITER ($20/$24)

MUSIC HALL

FR 11/15 BLACK MIDI ($13)

TU 7/16 BILL CALLAHAN ($22/$25)

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

SA 10/19 JOHN HOWIE JR & ROSEWOOD BLUFF W/DYLAN EARL AND SEVERED FINGERS

FR6/7FRENSHIP W/GLADES ($15/$17) SU 6/9 THE LEMONHEADS, TOMMY STINSON ($25/$28)

TU 10/15 MIKE WATT & THE MISSINGMEN ($15)

RHYTHMS LIVE

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

CATSCRADLE.COM  919.967.9053  300 E. MAIN STREET  CARRBORO INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 33

SUN, JUN 9 CAT’S CRADLE: The Lemonheads, Tommy Stinson; $25-$28. 8:30 p.m.

THE CAVE: Mouth Reader, Bleary Eyed, Snake Shaming; $5 suggested.

9 p.m.

KABOOM ART GALLERY: Eyeball, Subliminal Surge, Purple Skies; 6 p.m.

NIGHTLIGHT: Dark Prophet Tongueless Monk, Scribblin, Medici; $7.

8:30 p.m.

POUR HOUSE: Day Party: Cade Foehner, Lexanna, Juna & Joe; $15-$50.

2 p.m.

POUR HOUSE: Wolfelt Album Release with XYLEM, Spaced Angel, Blake Hornsby; $7-$10. 8 p.m.

MON, JUN 10 RECENTLY ANNOUNCED: OVERSTREET, Mac Sabbath, Okilly Dokilly, Team Dresch, Fruit Bats

FRI

6/7

SAT

6/8

SUN

6/9

WED

6/12 THU

6/13

FRI

6/14

SAT

6/15 FRI

6/21 SAT

6/22 SUN

6/23

MARK FARINA Tomas C (Magic City Disco)

MARK FARINA

Tomas C (Magic City Disco) Purple Note Durham: Celebrating the Life of Prince Through Jazz Plus After Party: A King & A Prince

6/5 THE SINGING OUT TOUR WITH HEATHER MAE AND CRYS MATTHEWS WITH JAMIE ANDERSON 6/14

SONGS FROM THE CIRCLE 11

8/22

JUST ANNOUNCED: RISSI PALMER WITH XOXOK

Get tickets at artscenterlive.org

CAROLINA THEATRE: Happy Together Tour: The Turtles, Chuck Negron, Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, The Buckinghams, The Classics IV, The Cowsills; $60-$80. 8 p.m.

CAT’S CRADLE: gnash, Anna Clendening; $20-$24. 7:30 p.m.

THE CAVE: Personality Cult, The Infinites, The Whiffs; $5 suggested.

9 p.m.

THE RITZ: Gojira, All Them Witches, Deafheaven; $27. 7:30 p.m.

LOCAL 506: Ringworm, All Hell, Everwraith, Zero Stroke; $12-$15. 8 p.m.

NEPTUNES PARLOUR: Resonancy: Claire Rousay & Jacob Wick, Reflex Arc; $10. 8:30 p.m.

WED, JUN 12

THE RITZ

CAT’S CRADLE BACK ROOM

[$27, 8 P.M.]

[$15, 8 P.M.]

Los Angelinos Local Natives embody the vibe of a SoCal summer. The balmy vocal melodies waft like a gentle breeze on a cloudless eightydegree day. Percussion tumbles like lapping waves on Redondo Beach. A quasi-psychedelic gauze shimmers like a heat haze rising off Wilshire Boulevard.

Violet Street, the band’s fourth and latest, finds it steadily humming along. —Patrick Wall

THE CAVE: Bad Dad Jokes, Stranded Bandits, Mackey, Strongman & Co, 90 Proof Therapist; $5 suggested.

9 p.m.

With the new album Full Upon Her Burning Lips, Earth strikes at the core of what has made it so compelling for more than three decades. Pared down to just guitarist Dylan Carlson (Earth’s sole constant) and drummer Adrienne Davies, the record keeps the sinewy, molten Morricone riffs and repetition that has defined the band since 2005’s Hex; Or Printing in the Infernal Method, but also evokes the minimalism and deliberation of Earth’s early drone-metal output. In this more spartan configuration, Earth is as powerful as ever. —Bryan C. Reed

PNC ARENA: Twenty One Pilots; 7 p.m.

LOCAL 506: Church of Misery, Toke; $20. 8 p.m.

POUR HOUSE: Timothy Eerie, Paint Fumes; $5-$10. 9 p.m.

MOTORCO: Remo Drive, Slow Pulp, Slow Bullet; $15-$18. 8 p.m.

Local Natives

TUE, JUN 11

Earth

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

Dan Ariely and Ovul Sezer: Irrationality meets Comedy DAN ARIELY and OVUL SEZER: Irrationality meets Comedy Cat’s Cradle Presents REMO DRIVE Slow Pulp / Slow Bullet MAIMOUNA YOUSSEF aka Mumu Fresh THE CRYSTAL METHOD

THE CRYSTAL METHOD

Aviation Parkway Youalreadynoahh & on the radar presents: summer kickoff featuring Danny Blaze, Spade, Wg shock, Zack Cokas, Donchulo, Tana Da Demon and Prince Poodie. Sounds by Primoux Back to Black: Amy Winehouse Tribute featuring REMEMBER JONES YOUNG BULL / KOOLEY HIGH Well$ / Ian Kelly CAVETOWN Chloe Moriondo / Spookyghostboy (SOLD OUT)

COMING SOON: Cavetown, Damien Jurado, She Wants Revenge, Mystery Skulls, Hop Along, Chris Webby, Summer Salt, Dan Baird & Homemade Sin,The Rock*A*Teens, Escape-ism, Myq Kaplan,We’re We Promised Jetpacks, Cowboy Mouth,Tessa Violet, Kindo, Supersuckers, Sophomore Slump Fest, BoDeans, Sinkane, Bleached, flor, Boy Harsher, Genrationals,The Way Down Wanderers, Kero Kero Bonito, Blackalicious, Warbringer, Sonata Artica, Russian Circles, Nile, Mikal Cronin

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

34 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

Present this coupon for

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

919-6-TEASER for directions and information

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

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

TeasersMensClub

@TeasersDurham

Earth performs at Cat’s Cradle Back Room on Wednesday, June 12.

COURTESY OF GROUND CONTROL TOURING

PHOTO

THE PINHOOK [$10, 9 P.M.] On its first album as a pared-down trio, Memphis’s NOTS offers a lean and anxious collision of garagerock recklessness and spartan post-punk riffs.

Trembling synths upset a tight rhythmic pulse while guitars needle and prod into hooky melodies. Singer/ guitarist/synth player Natalie Hoffmann leads the din with deadpan declarations, letting the refrains land like blearyeyed mantras. The band’s third full-length, 3, fits in a lineage with genre hallmarks like TV Ghost’s paranoid post-punk and Ex Cult’s hardcore-rooted anthems.

—Bryan C. Reed POUR HOUSE: Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones, C2 & The Brothers Reed; $8-$10.

9 p.m.

RED HAT AMPHITHEATER

O.A.R.

[$21–$65, 6:30 P.M.] Of a Revolution has been around long enough for some millennials to remember downloading the band’s music on LimeWire (or was it Kazaa?). The Rockville, Maryland quintet formed in 1996 as an underground pop-rock/ reggae group and found mainstream success in the mid-aughts with such singles as “Love and Memories” and “Shattered (Turn This Car Around),” and they’ve kept cranking out anthems ever since. — Howard Hardee

NOTS performs at The Pinhook on Wednesday, June 12.

PHOTO BY COURTNEY WHITLOW

SARAH P. DUKE GARDENS

H.C. McEntire [$10, 7 P.M.]

You may know Heather McEntire best as the singer for local country-rock heroes Mount Moriah, but in 2018 she ventured out on her own with her first solo album, Lionheart. Besides bringing an LGBTQ sensibility to the Americana realm, the album shows that McEntire’s muse moves in many more directions than one might have previously supposed, based on her band’s output.

—Jim Allen SLIM’S: All Hell, Ose, Everwraith; $5. 9 p.m.

H.C. McEntire performs at Sarah P. Duke Gardens on Wednesday, June 12.

FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR INDYWEEK.COM

NOTS

PHOTO BY HEATHER EVANS SMITH

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 35

FREE TO BE FEARLESS. TO HOLD THE POWERFUL ACCOUNTABLE. TO BE A VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS.

FREE FIRST FRIDAY JUNE 7th 6PM-9PM 230 S. Wilmington St. Suite 105, Raleigh, NC

Join us for a pre-release listening party of

BOULEVARDS new album

YA D I G !

TO TELL THE TRUTH. TO CELEBRATE AND CRITICIZE. TO ADVOCATE FOR THE MARGINALIZED.

FREE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. FROM CORPORATE INFLUENCE. NO PAYWALLS, NO SUBSCRIPTIONS.

Clothing and Gear presented by

Napoleon Wright II Becauseus

“Extreme times call for extreme creativity”

Plus DJ

- Jeremy Blair

and INDYCast Recording Live Onsite 36 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

FREE BECAUSE OF YOU. KEEP IT FREE. KEEP IT INDY.

Join the INDY Press Club at KeepItINDY.com.

art 6.5–6.12

submit! Got something for our calendar? Submit the details at:

https://indyweek.com/submit#cals DEADLINE: 5 p.m. each Wednesday for the following Wednesday’s issue.

QUESTIONS? cvillena@indyweek.com

OPENING Britt Bates, Charles Marksberry, Seth Marksberry: Jun 7-28. Reception: Jun 7, 6-9 p.m. Gallery C, Raleigh. galleryc.net.

Annie Blazejack & Geddes Levenson: Dark Ecology: Paintings, video, and sculpture.

Jun 7-23. The Carrack Modern Art, Durham. thecarrack.org.

Dwellings: Gallery grand opening. Jun 7-8. The Centerpiece, Raleigh.

INTERSECTIONS: Finding Common Ground: Group show.

Jun 6-30. Pleiades Gallery, Durham.

Katie Shaw: Jun 7-29. Artspace, Raleigh. artspacenc.org.

Triangle Visual Artists: On the Move: Group show. Jun 10-17.

University Place, Chapel Hill. trianglevisualartists.com.

UNREAL: Group show. Jun 7-29. Reception: Jun 7, 6-9 p.m.

United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County, Raleigh. vaeraleigh.org.

ONGOING 150 Faces of Durham: Photos.

Thru Sep 3. Museum of Durham History, Durham.

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

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

Thru Aug 24. Reed Bldg, Durham.

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

The Scrap Exchange, Durham. scrapexchange.org.

SATURDAY, JUNE 8

MIKE BENSON At a time when the Triangle is hurting for places to see visual art, as development in Chapel Hill and Durham evacuates downtown galleries, we’ll always take notice of a new art space, especially when it happens to be in an old aluminum smelting plant. Created by artist and curator Marcela Slade on the campus of The Plant, Pittsboro’s mixed-use eco-industrial park, Smelt Art Gallery occupies the former digs of Inco Alloys, but it now houses monthly art exhibits instead of manufacturing fighter-jet parts. June’s exhibit, which has an opening reception on Saturday, is a solo spotlight for Chapel Hill native and SCAD graduate Mike Benson, a photographer whose contributions to the area also include opening The Southern Rail and The Station in Carrboro and cohosting the radio program Signal 19 on WHUP. At Smelt, Benson will be showing not only photos but also poster art, lamps, benches, and tables. (Yes, he works in construction, too. Apt!) —Brian Howe

SMELT ART GALLERY, PITTSBORO | 6–9 p.m., free, www.facebook.com/smeltartgallery

Photo by Mike Benson PHOTO COURTESY OF SMELT

Cary Gallery of Artists: Creative Diversity: Group show. Thru Jun 25. Cary Gallery of Artists, Cary. carygalleryofartists.org.

Garry Childs, Jude Lobe, Pat Merriman: Be in Touch: Thru Jun 23. Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, Hillsborough.

Wim Botha: Stil Life with Discontent: Mixed media.

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

NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. ncartmuseum.org.

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

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

Rachel Goodwin: Look Through This: Mixed media.

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

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

John James Audubon: The Birds of America: Ornithological engravings.

Thru Dec 31. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. ncartmuseum.org.

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

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

Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill. ackland.org.

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

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

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

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

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

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

National Humanities Center, Durham. vaeraleigh.org.

New Faces of Tradition: Documenting North Carolina’s Young Artists: Documentary portraits. Thru Jun 30.

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

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 37

CONT’D

Our House: Durham Arts Council student-instructor exhibit. Thru Jul 31. 6 Durham Arts Council, Durham.

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

John Parkinson & Mary Kircher: Furniture and tapestries. Thru Jun 30. Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill. preservationchapelhill.org.

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

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

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

Thru Jun 23. Golden Belt, Durham.

6.7 6.9 6.10 6.11 6.12

page

art

V L Rees: I Love Paris: Paintings.

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

21cmuseumhotels.com.

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

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

Smelt Art & Skittles Inaugural Exhibit: Sixteen local artists.

Thru Jun 29. Smelt Art Gallery, Pittsboro.

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

William Paul Thomas: Disrupting Homogeny: Portraits. Thru Jul 31. 21c Museum Hotel, Durham.

21cmuseumhotels.com.

Cheryl Thurber: Documenting Gravel Springs, Mississippi, in the 1970s: Photos. End date TBA. UNC’s Wilson Special Collections Library, Chapel Hill.

Lien Truong: The Sky is Not Sacred: Multimedia. Thru Jun 22. Reception: Jun 7, 6-10 p.m.

Artspace, Raleigh.

Ely Urbanski: Layers: Monoprints. Thru Jul 6.

Durham Arts Council, Durham.

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

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

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

Within the Frame: Photos.

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

Ocean Vuong On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous 7pm North Carolina Authors Brian Lampkin and Liza Wieland 2pm Michael Parker Prarie Fever 7pm Jacquelyn Dowd Hall Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America 7pm Frank Langfitt The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China 7pm

SARAH DESSEN The Triangle’s own Sarah Dessen is having a very good month. Not only has it just been announced that Netflix will adapt several of her YA classics into films, but her latest novel, The Rest of the Story, has just hit bookstore shelves. Inspired in part by taking a trip to Paris despite a crippling fear of flying, Dessen’s novel concerns a girl who unexpectedly finds herself spending the summer with her late mother’s family, where she reconnects with a childhood friend and discovers the family history she’d never dared to look into—discoveries that leave her torn between her “real” life and the one she’s discovered here. For the rest of the story … well, see the title. The reading is free, though you have to preorder the book from Flyleaf to gain access to the signing line, and readers who submit a photo of a pre-order confirmation are eligible for a The Rest of the Story tote bag while supplies last. —Zack Smith

FLYLEAF BOOKS, CHAPEL HILL | 3 p.m., free, www.flyleafbooks.com

RECYCLE THIS PAPER

Sarah Dessen PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

READINGS & SIGNINGS Rob Christensen: Political history The Rise and Fall of the Branchhead Boys. Sat, Jun 8, 11 a.m. McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro. mcintyresbooks.com.

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

BILL BURTON ATTORNEY AT LAW Un c o n t e s t e d Di vo rc e

SEPARATION AGREEMENTS Mu s i c Bu s i n eDIVORCE ss Law UNCONTESTED In c o r p oBUSINESS r a t i o n / LLAW LC / MUSIC Pa r t n e r s h i p INCORPORATION/LLC Wi lls WILLS

C o l l967-6159 ections (919)

967-6159

bill.burton.lawyer@gmail.com 38 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

SUNDAY, JUNE 9

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall: Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America. Thu, Jun 6, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. flyleafbooks.com. — Tue, Jun 11, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. quailridgebooks.com.

Brian Lampkin & Liza Wieland: The Tarboro Three & Paris, 7 A.M. Sun, Jun 9, 2 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. quailridgebooks.com.

Frank Langfitt: The Shanghai Free Taxi: Journeys with the Hustlers and Rebels of the New China. Wed, Jun 12, 7 p.m.

Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. quailridgebooks.com.

Paradiso Reading Series: With Paige Taggart, Carla Hung, and Brian Howe. Wed, Jun 5, 8 p.m. Nightlight, Chapel Hill. nightlightclub.com.

Michael Parker: Novel Prairie Fever. Mon, Jun 10, 7 p.m.

Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. quailridgebooks.com.

Joanna Pearson & Emily Pease: Short story collections Every Human Love and Let Me Out of Here. Sat, Jun 8, 2 p.m.

McIntyre’s Books, Pittsboro. mcintyresbooks.com.

Marilyn Shannon: In Just One Afternoon: Listening into the Hearts of Millennials. Panel discussion and signing. Sun, Jun 9, 2 p.m. American Institute of Health and Fitness Conference Center, Raleigh.

Ocean Vuong: Novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Fri, Jun 7, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. quailridgebooks.com.

De’Shawn Charles Winslow: Novel In West Mills. Tue, Jun 11, 7 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. flyleafbooks.com.

LECTURES ETC. Murielle Elizéon & Tommy Noonan: Ruby Fridays.

Dancers and choreographers in conversation ahead of American Dance Festival performances.

Fri, Jun 7, noon. Ruby Lounge at Rubenstein Arts Center, Durham. artscenter.duke.edu.

In The Parlour: Discussion of the LGBTQ+ community in the hospitality industry.

With CurEat founder Steven Mangano. Sun, Jun 9, 5 p.m.

Baldwin&, Raleigh.

stage OPENING Caroline or Change: The Justice Theater Project.

Musical. Jun 7-23.

Umstead Park United Church of Christ, Raleigh. thejusticetheaterproject.org.

Durham Renaissance, pt 3: Empower Dance Studio.

Dance. $20-$26. Sun, Jun 9, 4:15 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org.

Family Feud Live: Celebrity Edition: $40-$60. Fri, Jun 7, 8 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org.

The Greatest Tap Show Ever: Dance. Michelle Dorrance, Elizabeth Burke, Nicholas Van Young, Derick Grant, Dianne “Lady Di” Walker, & Jason Janas with live music from The Robbie Link Trio. $35. Sat, Jun 8, 7:30 p.m.

The ArtsCenter, Carrboro. artscenterlive.org.

Gay Card: North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre. Play. Jun 7-23. North Raleigh Arts & Creative Theatre, Raleigh. nract.org.

Junk: Theatre Raleigh. Play.

Jun 5-16. Kennedy Theatre, Raleigh. theatreraleigh.com.

Lights, Camera, Action!: Starpath Dance Academy.

Children’s dance recital. $15$20. Sat, Jun 8, 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7 p.m.

Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org.

Of Good Stock: $19-$27. Jun 7-23. Theatre In The Park, Raleigh. theatreinthepark.com.

ONGOING Agatha Christie’s Go Back For Murder: University Theatre.

Play. $15-$26. Jun 6-8: 7:30 p.m. Jun 8-9: 2 p.m. matinee.

NCSU’s Kennedy-McIlwee Studio Theatre, Raleigh. theatre.arts.ncsu.edu.

Cats: Musical. Thru Jun 9.

Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham. dpacnc.com.

NC’s Funniest Person: Comedy competition. $10. Jun 5, 9, 11-12: 8 p.m.

Goodnights, Raleigh. goodnightscomedy.com.

Pippin: Raleigh Little Theatre.

Play. Thru Jun 16. Raleigh Little Theatre, Raleigh. raleighlittletheatre.org.

Gareth Reynolds: Jun 6-8. Goodnights, Raleigh. goodnightscomedy.com.

Space Force: Transactors Improv. Improvised serial. Sat, Jun 8, 8 p.m. Monkey Bottom Collaborative, Durham.

Sex Ed Storytelling: Benefit for SHIFT NC. $10. Thu, Jun 6, 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. thepinhook.com.

White: Bulldog Theatre Ensemble. Play. Thru Jun 9.

The Fruit, Durham. bulldogdurham.org.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5–SUNDAY, JUNE 16

JUNK

“It is easy to criticize capitalism, and even easier to enjoy its benefits,” playwright Ayad Akhtar notes in the foreword to his compelling 2016 Wall Street drama, Junk. But his brisk theatrical roman à clef about historic hostile takeovers—including Revlon and RJR-Reynolds—chronicles the rise of corporate raiding and junk-bond trading during the mid-eighties, which precipitated a series of economic crises and ultimately cost millions of Americans their jobs. There is an element of origin myth in central character Robert Merkin’s belief that debt is an asset, one that can be endlessly leveraged to undermine and buy out larger and larger corporations. But where has what Akhtar calls “our near-religious commitment to capital growth” taken us, where does it stop, and what are its ultimate consequences? We’re still answering those questions today. Charlie Brady directs a cast including Marc LeVasseur, Jeffrey Blair Cornell, and Jade Arnold in this Theatre Raleigh production. —Byron Woods

KENNEDY THEATRE, RALEIGH | Various times, $30–$45, www.theatreraleigh.com

David McClutchey, Jeffrey Blair Cornell, and Destiny Diamond in Junk PHOTO COURTESY OF THEATRE RALEIGH

FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR

INDYWEEK.COM

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 39

screen SPECIAL SHOWINGS

Al: My Brother: Documentary. Mon, Jun 10, 7 p.m. Chelsea Theater, Chapel Hill. thechelseatheater.com.

All is True: $10. Fri, Jun 7, 7 p.m. Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org.

Desperate Living: Wed, Jun 12, 10 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh.

The Godfather Parts I, II, & III: One film shown each night. $3-$5. Jun 6-8, 9 p.m. The Cary Theater, Cary. thecarytheater.com.

Hairspray: Fri, Jun 7, 11 a.m.

Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh.

High Life: Sun, Jun 9, 7 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh.

The Hunger: Tue, Jun 11, 8 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh.

I Drink Your Blood: Cinema Overdrive series. $7. Wed, Jun 12, 7 p.m.

Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org.

The Princess Bride: $7.

Fri, Jun 7, 9 p.m. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. ncartmuseum.org.

Reservoir Dogs & Bound: Retronoir Film Series. $10. Fri, Jun 7, 7 p.m.

Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org.

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story: $10. Time TBA. Tue, Jun 11, Rialto Theatre, Raleigh.

Royal Opera House: Flight Pattern: Mon, Jun 10, 2:15 p.m. Alamo Drafthouse, Raleigh. drafthouse.com/raleigh.

Skyscraper Souls: Moviediva Film Series. $7. Wed, Jun 5, 7 p.m.

Carolina Theatre, Durham. carolinatheatre.org.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: $7. Sat, Jun 8, 9 p.m. NC Museum of Art, Raleigh. ncartmuseum.org.

40 | 6.5.19 | INDYweek.com

N OW P L AY I N G The INDY uses a five-star rating scale. Read reviews of these films at indyweek.com.

OPENING All Is True—Serial Shakespeare adapter Kenneth Branagh says “screw it,” finally just plays the Bard during the last years of the playwright’s life. Rated PG-13.

Dark Phoenix—The X-Men franchise is back with one of the comics’ darkest stories, focusing on telepath Jean Grey. Rated PG-13.

Non-Fiction—Wildly original director Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria, Personal Shopper) romps through art and adultery in the Parisian publishing world. Rated R. The Secret Life of Pets 2— Apparently they didn’t give away all the secrets in the first one? Rated PG. The Souvenir—Writerdirector Joanna Hogg draws on her own story as a film student whose ambitions almost founder on a fraught romance. Rated R.

 Amazing Grace—A dazzling testament to the Queen of Soul at the height of her career. Rated G.  Captain Marvel—Brie Larson is an intergalactic fighter questioning who she is.

Rated PG-13.  Hail Satan?—A funny, compelling portrait of a group that’s pushing the limits on just how far a prank can go. Rated R. ½ John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum— A bloody, Buster Keatonesque ballet meets Sam Peckinpah. Rated R. ½ Long Shot—The sex jokes and political satire both sag in this Seth RogenCharlize Theron rom-com.

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

THURSDAY, JUNE 6

RETURN OF THE HERO Whimsically directed by Laurent Tirard, the 2018 French film Return of the Hero is impossibly silly, lightly puncturing pomp and over-serious morality. In this period farce, Charles-Grégoire Neuville (Jean Dujardin) goes to war in 1809, leaving behind a weeping fiancée. Her skeptical sister, Elisabeth (Mélanie Laurent), takes pleasure in dressing down Neuville as a womanizer. But, seeing her sister heartbroken without letters from the front, she can’t help writing fake missives as Nueville to keep her spirits up. The letters make Neuville sound heroic—not like the war deserting, deadbeat fiancé he is—with the last missive pronouncing his righteous death in battle. Then the faux hero suddenly returns, forcing Elisabeth to dragoon Neuville into pretending that he is the gentlemen she imagined in her letters and swearing that will he never tell her sister about the lie. The wacky conceit is truly funny while balancing the high stakes of trust between sisters.

—Solomon Gustavo

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

Return of the Hero

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FILMMAKERS

food & drink Pop-Up Bagel Brunch: $17.

Sun, Jun 9, noon. Botanist & Barrel, Cedar Grove. botanistandbarrel.com.

Tea Time at IngenuiTea: Samples of hot tea, cold tea, and in-house brewed kombucha. Wed, Jun 5, 3 p.m. IngenuiTea Brews Kombucha, Coffee & Tea, Apex. ingenuiteabrews.com.

indy classifieds employment

services

for sale

employment

tech services

auctions

FTCC POSITIONS AVAILABLE

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

CALL Aviation Institute of Maintenance 866-441-6890

EDUCATION/VACANCIES 2019-2020: Elementary Education, Special Education, School Psychologist, Middle Education, Biology, Agricultural Education, Mathematics, Building Trades, Business & Information Technology, English, Instructional Technology Resources. www. pecps.k12.va.us. Prince Edward County Public Schools.

Farmville, Virginia 23901. (434) 315-2100. EOE

Fayetteville Technical Community College is now accepting applications for the following positions: Physical Therapist Assistant Instructor (10-month contract) Network Management: Microsoft & Cisco Instructor. For detailed information and to apply, please visit our employment portal at: https://faytechcc.peopleadmin. com/ Human Resources Office Phone: (910) 678-7342 Internet: http://www.faytechcc.edu An Equal Opportunity Employer

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

COMPUTER ISSUES? FREE DIAGNOSIS by GEEKS ON SITE! Virus Removal, Data Recovery! 24/7 EMERGENCY SERVICE, In-home repair/ On-line solutions. $20 OFF ANY SERVICE! 844-401-1673

DIRECTV & AT&T 155 Channels & 1000s of Shows/Movies On Demand (w/SELECT Package.) AT&T Internet 99 Percent Reliability.

Unlimited Texts to 120 Countries w/AT&T Wireless.

Call 4 FREE Quote- 1-855972-7954

DISH SPECIAL! Save $480 on your TV Bill!

Starting at $49.99/mo. FREE Next-Day Installation + FREE $50 giftcard with signup courtesy of SatelliteDeals Call 855-402-1615

EARTHLINK HIGH SPEED INTERNET As Low As $14.95/month (for the first 3 months.) Reliable High Speed Fiber Optic Technology. Stream Videos, Music and More! Call Earthlink Today 1-866-887-0237

misc.

NEED A ROOMMATE? Roommates.com will help you find your Perfect Matchô today!

(AAN CAN)

body • mind • spirit

AUCTION Semi Trucks and Custom Trailer Auction in Lexington, NC, Online Only, Begins Closing 6/20 at 2pm, Property at JKS Inc. 301 Welcome Blvd, Lexington, NC, ironhorseauction.com, 800.997.2248, NCAL 3936

To adopt: 919-403-2221 or visit animalrescue.net

Princess Dixie Violet

BANKRUPTCY AUCTION Bankruptcy Auction of Sunrise Performance Inc. d.b.a.

Paradise Tack, Online Only, Begins Closing 6/24 at 12pm, Dressage Attire Inventory, Equestrian Care Products, Tools, Farm Equip. and more, ironhorseauction.com, 800.997.2248, NCAL 3936

BANKRUPTCY AUCTION Bankruptcy Auction of Remaining Lots & Acreage Tracts of Haven Heights Subdivision in Marion, NC, Online w/Live Bid Center, Begins Closing 6/26 at 2pm, Bid Center at Marion Community Building, ironhorseauction. com, 800.997.2248, NCAL 3936

KILL BED BUGS! Buy Harris Sprays, Traps, Kits, Mattress Covers. DETECT, KILL, PREVENT. Available: Hardware Stores, The Home Depot, homedepot.com

EAT • DRINK • SHOP • PLAY

The INDY’s monthly neighborhood guide to all things Triangle

Coming June 26:

HILLSBOROUGH

For advertising opportunities, contact your ad rep or advertising@indyweek.com

Book your ad • Email amanda: classy@indywEEk.com

and friendly dog!

www.harmonygate.com holistic health TAI CHI Traditional art of meditative movement for health, energy, relaxation, self-defense.

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

Call Jay or Kathleen, 919-968-3936 or www.magictortoise.com

massage

stuff

is a sweet

919-416-0675

VOTED BEST IN THE TRIANGLE 2018 Deep tissue shiatsu, Swedish.

FEEL BETTER NOW. Call Michael Savino, LMBT #703 919-428-3398

medical services A PLACE FOR MOM has helped over a million families find senior living. Our trusted, local advisors help find solutions to your unique needs at no cost to you. 1-855993-2495 (AAN CAN)

DENTAL INSURANCE Call Physicians Mutual Insurance Company for details.

NOT just a discount plan, REAL coverage for 350 procedures.

844-496-8601 or http://www. dental50plus.com/ Ad# 6118

new age

contact amanda for ads!

deep dive

critters

classy at indyweek dot com

SPIRITUAL HOME CLEANSING Ready to shift the energy in your home or office?

Book a reading today. www.conjurecleaning.com

products OXYGEN - ANYTIME. ANYWHERE. No tanks to refill. No deliveries. The All-New Inogen One G4 is only 2.8 pounds! FAA approved! FREE info kit: 877459-1660 (AAN CAN)

PENIS ENLARGEMENT PUMP Get Stronger & Harder Erections Immediately. Gain 1-3 Inches Permanently & Safely. Guaranteed Results.

FDA Licensed. Free Brochure: 1-800-354-3944 www.

DrJoelKaplan.com (AAN CAN)

Sponsored by

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

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

misc.

APPLYING FOR SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY OR APPEALING A DENIED CLAIM?

FINANCIAL BENEFITS FOR THOSE FACING SERIOUS ILLNESS You may qualify for a Living Benefit Loan today (up to 50 percent of your Life Insurance Policy Death Benefit.) Free Information.

CALL 1-855-402-5487

LIVELINKS - CHAT LINES Flirt, chat and date! Talk to sexy real singles in your area.

Call now! 1-844-359-5773 (AAN CAN)

PUT ON YOUR TV EARS AND HEAR TV WITH UNMATCHED CLARITY TV Ears Original were originally $129.95 - NOW WITH THIS SPECIAL OFFER are only $59.95 with code MCB59!

Call 1-877-914-6068

Applying for Social Security Disability or Appealing a Denied Claim? Call Bill Gordon & Assoc., Social Security Disability Attorneys, 1-888-9894947! FREE Consultations. Local Attorneys Nationwide [Mail: 2420 N St NW, Washington DC. Office: Broward Co. FL (TX/ NM Bar.)]

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 41

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

9 5

2

2 9

3

6

4 8

7 8 9 5 3 1 7 5 7 9 1 6 4 6 3 54 8 9 4 1 6 8 3 7 6 8 6 3 5 3 1 7 9 5 6 9 3 7 su |MEDIUM do | ku this week’s puzzle level: # 57

1

9 1

8 4 9 1

5 3 2

# 30

3 5 6

9 7 6 4 3

6 5 9 8

7 1 5

4

MEDIUM

# 58

© 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.

9

9 8 2 7

5

8

6 3 6 4 28 5 8 6 5 3 4 9 1 9 7 3 8 9 9 5 4 1 1 7 3 5 2 8 3 8

4 3

9 4

1

3

# 32

7 8 1 6 4 9 5 2 3

# 57

7 5 4 3 8 2 1 9 6

3 1 8 7 9 6 5 2 4

9 6 2 4 5 1 3 8 7

4 9 7 5 1 8 2 6 3

5 2 3 6 7 4 8 1 9

1 4 6 2 3 7 9 5 8

2 3 5 8 4 9 6 7 1

8 7 9 1 6 5 4 3 2

solution to last week’s puzzle

1 8 3 9

8 1 5 7

7 6 2 4

6 7 8 5

9 4 6 1

5 2 9 3

4 9 7 6

2 3 4 8

3 5 1 2

3

3

8 6 5

9 7 2

5

8

1

6

1

7

MEDIUM

8 # 60

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

Pages.”

CLASSY AT INDYWEEK DOT COM

Best of luck, and have fun! www.sudoku.com

# 58 5 2 9 4 3 1 8 6 30/10/2005 7

4 6 3| INDYweek.com 2 7 8 1 5 9 42 | 6.5.19

5 1 8

6

2

1

3 5 # 59

6 8 1 9 2 3 7 4 5

4

8

MEDIUM 3 5 2 7 8 1 6 4 9

9

7 6 8

7 2

# 32

6

6

2 9 4 5 6 3

5 1 6 7 9 8

3 7 8 4 2 1

1 8 2 9 7 4

4 5 7 1 3 6

6.5.19 9 6 3 2 8 5

7 3 5 6 1 9

6 4 9 8 5 2

8 2 1 3 4 7

# 59

8 4 3 2 1 5

5 9 6 3 7 8

2 1 7 9 6 4

7 8 1 4 3 9

3 2 4 7 5 6

9 6 5 8 2 1

1 3 9 5 4 7

6 5 8 1 9 2

4 7 2 6 8 3

# 60

6 2 5 7 3 9

8 4 7 6 1 2

9 3 1 8 5 4

3 7 5 4 2 6 9 1 5 8 B ook your 4 2 8 6 9 5 4 9 1 3 8 6 2 9 7 1 3 7 8 6

1 7 ad 3 2 4 5

• Email amanda: classy@indywEEk.com

chat

PLACE YOUR AD ON THE

#1 CHAT IN RALEIGH Instant live phone connections with local women & men.

Try it FREE! 18+ 919.899.6800, 336.235.7777 www.questchat.com

100’S OF HOT URBAN SINGLES are waiting to Chat1 Try it FREE! 18+ 919.861.6868, 336.235.2626 www.metrovibechat.com

LIVELINKS CHAT LINES

back page

Flirt, chat and date! Talk to sexy real singles in your area.

Call now! 1-844-359-5773 (AAN CAN)

CONTACT AMANDA: CLASSY@INDYWEEK.COM last week’s puzzle

Book your ad • Email amanda: classy@indywEEk.com

INDYweek.com | 6.5.19 | 43

HIMALAYAN FRONTIERS CLOSING SALE UP TO 80% Triangle Town Center 919-649-9006 Handcrafted world imports: Wood carvings Bronze sculptures Silver Jewelry Furniture

POWER OF LOVE

Yoga in Christ, Triangle, NC http://www.meetup.com/Yoga-in-Christ/

back page

DANCE CLASSES IN LINDY HOP, SWING, BLUES

At Carrboro ArtsCenter. Private lessons available.

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

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

Weekly deadline 4pm Friday classy@indyweek.com

LEARN TAI CHI IN 2019!

Improve balance, flexibility, strength.

New classes start in May and June throughout the Triangle.

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

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

CECI N’EST PAS UNE PUBLICITÉ!

Did that get your attention?

Place your ad or announcement on the INDY Back Page and get views.

Contact Amanda: classy@indyweek.com

AreYouMystic.com

N O O N — 4 P M

GLE BEST of the TRIAN

MOVE YOUR BUSINESS AHEAD ™ WWW.EASILYCREATIVE.COM

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

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

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

SATURDAY, JUNE 15

ARE YOU MYSTIC?

919-286-1916 @hunkydorydurham We buy records.

Now serving dank beer.

H S BA 9 201

MUSIC

VENDORS

FREE

AND

OPEN

TO

THE

PUBLIC

HOSTED BY

AT KIDS ZONE PRESENTED BY

BEER

PRODUCTION SERVICES PROVIDED

BY SONIC PIE PRODUCTIONS