The Future of Walltown
Northgate Mall’s new owner’s plan doesn’t include a critical housing component— but Durham’s council still has some leverage LenaGellerby p.6 of Walltown Raleigh | Durham | Chapel Hill September 7, 2022
BY
2 September 7, 2022 INDYweek.com Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill VOL. 39 NO. 36 COVER Design by Nicole Pajor Moore PUBLISHER John Hurld EDITORIAL Editor in Chief Jane Porter Managing Editor Geoff West Arts & Culture Editor Sarah Edwards Staff Writers Jasmine Gallup Lena ThomasiGellerMcDonald Copy Editor Iza Wojciechowska INDY Week | indyweek.com P.O. Box 1772 • Durham, N.C. 27702 919-695-4848 EMAIL ADDRESSES first initial[no space]last name@indyweek.com
ARTS & CULTURE 12
BY
14
CIRCULATION Berry Media Group ADVERTISING SALES Durhamadvertising@indyweek.com 919-286-1972 Classifieds 919-286-6642
CREATIVE Creative Director Nicole Pajor Moore Graphic Designer Jon Fuller Staff Photographer Brett Villena Contents © 2022 ZM INDY, LLC All rights reserved. Material may not be reproduced without permission.
16 "
18
Spiritualized Live performs at Cat's Cradle Friday, Sept. 9. (see calendar, page 20.) PHOTO COURTESY OF CAT'S CRADLE
BY JASMINE
BY JORDAN LAWRENCE With major facility investments and expansions, Cary Tennis Park ramps up its bid to be a national tennis destination. VIBHAV NANDAGIRI To me, there’s no more soulful fiddler in North Carolina," Phil Cook says of Durham musician Tatiana Heargraves. NICK MCGREGOR After more than a decade at the heart of Raleigh's jazz scene, storied venue C. Grace shuts its doors. GALLUP
3
6NEWS
ADVERTISING Publisher John Hurld Sales Digital Director & Classifieds Mathias Marchington
CONTENTS REGULARS Backtalk | Drawn out 20 Culture Calendar 4 Op-ed
THE
BY LENA GELLER 8
Northgate Mall's owner's new plans don't include housing, but the Durham council still has ways it can fight for the community's best interest.
After being evicted from a property owned by a Durham legal titan, a couple is fighting back in court . THOMASI MCDONALD North Carolina has anonymous sexual assualt kits available for survivors Here's how to get one. KATE MARTIN Hopscotch used to be one of the most adventurous music festivals in the Southeast. Has that changed?
10
BY
BY
WE MADE THIS Interns Hannah Kaufman, Mari Fabian, Caryl Espinoza Jaen Contributors Madeline Crone, Grant Golden, Spencer Griffith, Lucas Hubbard, Brian Howe, Lewis Kendall, Kyesha Jennings, Glenn McDonald, Nick McGregor, Gabi Mendick, Dan Ruccia, Rachel Simon, Harris Wheless
Any city councilor who has any idea what they are doing knows there are at min imum two ways around this two year moratorium.
The Indy used to be worth picking up on a Wednesday. What a shame it has become to watch it become just another mouthpiece for the Meeker family’s pro-Capitalist, pro-developer, pro-throw-everyone-out-of-Raleigh-who-we-thinkdoesn’t-belong agenda.
Second, if a two-year wait is implemented, the applicant can always file an appeal in the future. Mr Buffkin has been on council long enough that he should be aware of how the processes work. It’s much more likely he is hoping your readers are not aware of how things work and will fall for his BS excuse.
‘Once the city council rejects a rezoning request, it can’t consider any other new projects in the same area until two years have passed, Buffkin says. That means the city council can’t necessarily wait for roads and other infrastructure to expand before approving major new developments. It has to take each project as it comes.’
INDYweek.com September 7, 2022 3
“Congratulations on a very well written and insightful article on the mess being created at North Hills by developer John Kane and the host of others who seek to make tens of millions of dollars in profits and personal gain while degrading the quality of life for those living and traveling to the area. It is clear to me, based upon what they propose to City Council and the County Commissioners that they could care less about the negative impacts upon the citizens of the city and county all in the name of congested growth.
Last week for print, Jasmine Gallup reported on a series of towers planned for North Hills that’s drawing consternation from neighbors. Readers had thoughts.
For some context, former Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker’s brother Richard, of Portland, Oregon owns INDY Week. Additionally, no one on the edit staff has any idea of who donates to the Press Club unless they tell us!
But not everyone was so complimentary. Some believe we at the INDY harbor a pro-Kane bias.
ONWARDUT
At least your papers are good for kindling for the coming cooler months…”
“Shame on the Indy for not once mentioning John Kane’s campaign contribu tions to Patrick Buffkin, Jonathan Melton, David Knight and Mary-Ann Baldwin, and why that might sway their decisions on his developments.
“Great story,” wrote reader KAREEM STARKS on Facebook. “It covered the complexity of the issue with different views from different stakeholders.”
And here’s a letter from reader STEVE JESSEPH:
Here’s an email from reader CHARLIE BURNETT:
Lastly, I am hoping to see a report from you soon about the email from Councilor Knight to Mr Helfant explaining his position that he will not meet with and does not accept input from Raleigh citizens associated with either CACs or Livable Raleigh. This seems like a rather dangerous position to stake out by claiming some citizens don’t deserve to have their voices heard. And it seems VERY IMPORTANT for you to inform your readers of his position on this issue.”
BY STEVE DAUGHERTY
If you have the time and interest, please take a look at the negative impact of the proposed Six Forks Road expansion project which will literally destroy homes, destroy the ability of churches to hold worship services, destroy the ability of med ical offices to perform sensitive testing and surgical procedures, increase through traffic in residential neighborhoods and far more. What is being considered is noth ing short of a disaster. I know because I worship in the area and have seen the plans first hand, have listened to the drivel offered by city officials and met with those affiliated with other churches, medical practices, homeowners and office staff.”
Nor could you bother to mention his financial support for insurrectionist Republicans.Norcould you bother to mention Kane Realty’s prior (continuous?) support for the Indy Week Press Club, as previously and proudly advertised in your pages.
CABKTALK
Another message from reader TIM NILES:
“I read your piece on the rezoning case for Kane. I note that Councilor Buffkin had this to say as an excuse for approving the case:
WANT TO SEE YOUR NAME IN BOLD? indyweek.com backtalk@indyweek.com @INDYWeekNC @indyweek
First, if the applicant knows the case is going to be denied, they simply withdraw the application prior to a vote. No denial, no two year wait.
And GOP House Speaker Tim Moore after a recent supreme court decision didn’t go his way said, “It’s almost like they need to get rid of their black robes and put on blue robes.” This reminds me of every time my kids whine, “That’s not fair!” Fair has nothing to do with it. What they really mean is “I don’t like it, and I don’t want to be forced to do it.” I can handle it when the whining comes from a seven-year old. But our seven-yearolds deserve better from their elected offi cials. They deserve an education.
T he North Carolina Supreme Court has ruled three times that North Carolina’s children have the right to a sound, basic education in the Leandro case. And yet North Carolina Republican legislative leaders were back before the supreme court recently to argue that they should be able to ignore a court order to fully fund our schools.
• And we rank near the bottom of all school systems in the United States, significantly lagging in every academic indicator experts say we must achieve to be a competitive state.
4 September 7, 2022 INDYweek.com Principle Check
While people are already whispering about a potential “constitutional crisis,” let’s be clear that this is not the failure of our constitution. It’s a failure of will. It’s worth remembering that Republicans chose to put $6 billion of your tax dollars into a state savings account this year rather than put any portion of it to work for you or our state’s children. The constitution is only as good as the peo ple who interpret and follow it. Whether in the legislature or in court, fulfillment of our rights only happens when leaders choose to live up to their sworn commitments. W Rep. Graig Meyer is the Democratic nominee to represent the new state senate District 23, which encompasses all of Orange, Person, and Caldwell Counties.
Behind all of these numbers are the chil dren, of course. My entry into politics was prompted by seeing our legislature fail the kids that I used to support in our public schools. Today’s students need leaders who fulfill our commitment to their future. And unfortunately with a GOP-controlled legis lature, that means looking for Republicans who will buck the party line and choose to put children first.
BY GRAIG MEYER backtalk@indyweek.com
Perhaps that bold step will come from the supreme court itself. Before GOP supreme court justice Tamara Barringer got senate GOP leader Phil Berger said, “I think that this is another chance for the Demo crats on the state supreme court to show that they are not far leftist …. Based on the decisions I have seen, I don’t hold out a whole lot of hope that you will see any level of sanity return.”
• The latest test scores show nearly a third of all of our schools are failing.
Leandro isn’t just about a “constitutional crisis.” It’s about our values.
But while Republicans are playing poli tics with our courts, our schools have been crumbling during the 10 years that they have been in control. The numbers don’t lie:
When asked his take on this case, state
“If Republican legislative leaders continue to resist the mandate of the supreme court and fully funding our school system, their failure will be borne by our children.”
In the run-up to this year’s elections, their public statements make this case part of their effort to maintain legislative control and win back a majority on the NC Supreme Court. So instead of grappling with their constitutional responsibility, they have instead attacked the court itself with faux cries of partisanship.
her current job, she spent much of her time in the state senate focused on education. In fact, back in 2013 she said that sup porting public education is why she ran for office. Unfortunately, despite Justice Bar ringer’s previous reputation as an indepen dent thinker, since she put on her robes she seems to have fallen in lockstep with her Republican colleagues, Justices Berger and Newby. Can we hope this will be the first case where she stands up for what is right? I don’t know what the supreme court will decide, and the legal issues before them aren’t easy ones. But one thing is certain: if Republican legislative leaders continue to resist the mandate of the supreme court and fully funding our school system, their failure will be borne by our children.
• North Carolina’s 11,000 vacant teach ing and staff position are crippling the incredible men and women left to do their best in difficult circumstances.
O P - E D
• We rank 45th in the nation in starting salaries for teachers, below other South ern states like Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia.
INDYweek.com September 7, 2022 5 CATSCRADLE.COM • 919.967.9053 • 300 E. MAIN STREET • CARRBORO MOTORCO (DURHAM) 9/10 JORDY SEARCY W/JULIANNA ZACHARIOU 10/4 RARE AMERICANS 10/28 ALGERNON CADWALLADER 11/4 OFF! 11/6 OSO OSO W/ M.A.G.S., ANXIOUS 11/10 COPELAND HAW RIVER BALLROOM (SAX) (CANCELLED: 9/23 ANDREA GIBSON) 9/29 TINARIWEN W/ GARCIAL PEOPLES 10/6 ALEX G W/ BARRIE 10/17 MADISON CUNNINGHAM W/ BENDIGO FLETCHER 10/26 VIOLENT FEMMES 11/7 PLAINS W/ MJ LENDERMAN 11/14 SOCCER MOMMY W/ HELENA DELAND THE ARTSCENTER (CARRBORO) 9/14 JOE PURDY 10/13 JONATHAN RICHMAN FT. TOMMY LARKINS ON DRUMS 10/16 BOB MOULD SOLO ELECTRIC W/ H.C. MCENTIRE 10/30 DAR WILLIAMS ($30/$35) 11/4 MATTHEW SHIPP, IVO PERELMAN, JEFF COSGROVE TRIO W/ TRAGIC ASSEMBLY ($20/$25) THE RITZ (RALEIGH) 10/3 LUCY DACUS W/ CROOKS & NANNIES (MOVED FROM LINCOLN THEATRE) 10/11 SAMMY RAE & THE FRIENDS W/ THE COLLECTION 10/18 MOTHER MOTHER W/ SIR SLY LOCAL 506 (CHAPEL HILL) 11/17 PRETTY SICK NC MUSEUM OF ART (RALEIGH) 9/13 LAKE STREET DIVE W/ THE DIP 10/1 WATCHHOUSE ( FORMERLY MANDOLIN ORANGE) W/ ALLISON DE GROOT & TATIANA HARGREAVES CAROLINA THEATRE (DURHAM) 9/8 CROCE PLAYS CROCE 50TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR (AJ CROCE PERFORMING THE SONGS OF JIM CROCE) W/ TONK WE 9/21 AMANDA SHIRES TH 9/22 ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS: THE SPILL CANVAS FR 9/23 CRANK IT LOUD PRESENTS: FLOR W/ WLDLFE, GOOD PROBLEM SA 9/24 BE LOUD ’22: PREESH!, WHAT PEGGY WANTS, THE SEXELLS (MEMBERS OF CONNELLS AND SEX POLICE) SU 9/25 MOVEMENTS W/ ANGEL DU$T, ONE STEP CLOSER, SNARLS TU 9/27 OSEES W/ BRONZE ($25/$28) TH 9/29 ELECTRIC SUPERSUCKERSSIX/ FR 10/1 JUKEBOX THE GHOST TU 10/4 OF MONTREAL W/ LOCATE S,1 WE 10/5 IBEYI FR 10/7 STEVE KIMOCK & FRIENDS SA 10/8 WILD RIVERS W/ KYNDAL INSKEEP SU 10/9 CAROLINE ROSE W/ TOTH TU 10/11 LUCERO W/ L.A. EDWARDS FR 10/14 STEREOLAB SA 10/15 PSYCHIC HOTLINE BLOCK PARTY SU 10/16 THE GLORIOUS SUNS MO 10/17 KMFDM TU 10/18 CALEXICO W/ADA LEA WE 10/19 BLACK ANGELS (RESCHEDULED FROM JAN '22) TH 10/20 ALEX CAMERON W/ LOAH FR 10/21 SHAME/ VIAGRA BOYS/KILLS BIRDS SA 10/22 YEP ROC 25: CAITLIN CARY, CHRIS STAMEY, THE OLD CEREMONY, MAYFLIES USA, JENNYANYKIND, AND DAWN LANDES SU 10/23 PANCHIKO W/ COMPUTER WIFE TU 10/25 WHITNEY WE 10/26 THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT W/ MONDO COSMO FR 10/28 BAD SUNS W/ LAST DINOSAURS, QUARTERS OF CHANGE SA 10/29 TOO MANY ZOOZ W/YAM YAM MO 10/31 NAPALM DEATH W/ BRUJERIA, FROZEN SOUL, MILLIONS OF DEAD COPS ($20/$25) TU 11/1 THE WRECKS W/ ARLIE ($25/$28) SA 9/17 THE SHOALDIGGERS W/ LOVE & VALOR, C. ALBERT BLOMQUIST ($10) SU 9/18 THE KING KHAN & BBQ SHOW W/ MIRANDA AND THE BEAT WE 9/21 S.G. GOODMAN W/ LE REN TH 9/22 SARAH BORGES SA 9/24 NIGHTBLOOMS W/ CHARITY LANE, RODES BABY SU 9/25 ERIC SOMMER W/ KEN STEWART, RED HAIRED GIRL TU 9/27 FLEECE W/ GRAE WE 9/28 KING BUFFALO W/ HEAVY TEMPLE FR 9/30 ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS: TITUS ANDRONICUS TU 10/4 MELT TH 10/6 THE CACTUS BLOSSOMS W/ ALEXA ROSE ($17/$20) FR 10/7 TYRONE WELLS W/ NATHAN COLBERG SA 10/8 CLEM SNIDE & JILL ANDREWS SU 10/9: EDDIEFEST: THA MATERIALS, SECRET MONKEY WEEKEND, PHINEAS NYANG'ORO, NIKKI MEETS THE HIBACHI, JAMM THA NUBIAN, ZONE, OORT PATROL, WHIZTHEKID ($10) TH 10/13 DEAD HORSES SA 10/15 PSYCHIC HOTLINE BLOCK PARTY TU 10/18 MIGHTMARE WE 10/19 FRANKIE AND THE WITCH FINGERS W/ KAIROS CREATURE CLUB FR 10/21 JON SPENCER & THE HITMAKERS MO 10/24 NARROW HEAD W/ TEMPLE OF ANGELS TU 10/25 PILE—DRIPPING TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY TOUR W/ MANEKA WE 10/26 CORY BRANAN W/ JOHN SNODGRASS TH 10/27 MO LOWDA & THE HUMBLE SU 10/30 GHOSTLY KISSES WE 11/2 TROPICAL FUCK STORM W / OBJECT HOURS SU 11/6 THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS W/ ORBIT SERVICE TH 11/10 THE RED PEARS SA 11/12 RAPPER BIG POOH SU 11/13 THE BREVET MO 11/14 FIELD MEDIC W/ SADURN WE 11/16 MARIECOURTNEYANDREWS TH 11/17 STOP OBSERVATIONSLIGHT SU JORDAN@MOTORCO9/10 SOLDSOLDOUTOUT SU 10/2 @NORTH WATCHHOUSEMUSEUMCAROLINAOFART(FORMERLYMANDOLINORANGE)W/ALLISONDEGROOT&TATIANAHARGREAVES FR 9/9 @CAT’S SPIRITUALIZEDCRADLELIVE SOLDOUT SMITH & THE SAINTS MO 11/7 TIGERS JAW W/ HEART ATTACK MAN, GLITTERER WE 11/9 ANDMOREAGAIN PRESENTS: EUGENE MIRMAN SA 11/11 VIOLET BELL ALBUM RELEASE SHOW SU 11/13 BE GOOD TO YOURSELF PRESENTS: ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO ALL STAR BAND W/ JONATHAN BYRD + JESS KLEIN FR 11/18 THE STEWS SA 11/19 CARBON LEAF W/ CARRIE WELLING SU 11/20 MEECHY DARKO SU 11/27 THE MENZINGERS: ON THE IMPOSSIBLE PAST 10 YR ANNIVERSARY TOUR W/ TOUCHE AMORE, SCREAMING FEMALES TH 12/8 JUMP, LITTLE CHILDREN W/ FRANCES CONE TU 12/13 CRANK IT LOUD PRESENTS: THE HAPPY FITS WE 12/14 MCLUSKY ($25/$28) TH 12/15 TURNOVER FR 12/16 5 YEARS OF GET SAD Y'ALL: AN EMO & POP PUNK PARTY ($20/$25) FR 1/6/23 BILLY PRINE & THE PRINE TIME BAND: SONGS OF JOHN PRINE 2/17/23 ADAM MELCHOR 2/27/23 JUNIOR BOYS 6/29/23 EELS WED 9/7 HOLY FAWN W/ ASTRONOID TH 9/8 EUGENE CONTEMPORARYCHADBOURNEROCKBAND FEAT. DAVID LICHT AND DAVID MENESTRES FR 9/9 DRAG QUEENS ARE COMING SA 9/10 THE PINK STONES W/ TEDDY & THE ROUGH RIDERS MO 9/12 TALL HEIGHTS W/ TOWRS WE 9/14 ILLITERATE LIGHT TH 9/15 THE DEER FR 9/16 DB EDMUNDS ALBUM RELEASE SHOW W/ ERIE CHOIR CAT'SBACKCRADLEROOM W/ TONK SA 9/17 @ CAT’S CRADLE THE CONNELLS SOLDOUT SA 11/19 ROSE CITY BAND W/ ROSALI WE 11/23 ALDN MO 11/28 BLACK LIPS W/ BLOODSHOT BILL FR 12/9 KELSEY WALDON: NO REGULAR DOG TOUR ($15/$18) SA 12/10 THE COMMITTEEGREETING W/ WILLIS MO 12/12 SPECIAL INTEREST FR 9/8 @ CAROLINA THEATRE CROCE PLAYS CROCE TU 9/13 @CAT’S CRADLE LEOSEATEDKOTTKESHOW WE 9/14 @ CAT’S CRADLE (BACK ILLITERATEROOM)LIGHT MO 9/12 @CAT'S TALL(BACKROOM)CRADLEHEIGHTSW/TOWRS
One hundred and sixteen years after its founding, Walltown, one of Durham’s oldest historically Black neighborhoods, finally has an official gateway.
Each map included components of their equitable, com munity-centered vision: a significant portion of affordable housing, with first right of purchase and rental provided to low-income Walltown residents; affordable retail, including a grocery store; accessible green space that bridges Wall town Park with the other side of Guess Road; a transpor tation hub for buses and bike riders; and sustainable infra structure to reduce flooding.
So in 2018, when a global real estate firm acquired Northgate Mall—a neighbor to Walltown since the 1960s— and announced plans for a dramatic transformation of the 55-acre property, the WCA, determined to protect its community from further gentrification, sprung into action.
As Durham ascended to the top of “Best Places to Live” lists and wealthy, white transplants sought homes in the vicinity of Duke and downtown, lifelong Walltown residents—thwarted from building wealth by decades of redlining—started to be displaced by rising property taxes.
The firm, Northwood Ravin, had announced plans for a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use development with public pla zas and retail, office, and residential space. WCA members decided that they would draw up a plan, too.
The new plan, as spokespeople revealed, is largely domi nated by a life sciences research campus, with a few restau rants and a central one-acre green space. To the WCA members’ dismay, the map no longer includes any residen tial“Forspace.our vision for what needs to happen there at the site, not having housing is really a nonstarter,” says Wil liams. “The other benefits don’t make a whole lot of sense if we’re not building them around people.”
The neighborhood’s current recreation center, which broke ground in 2009, stands on the same piece of land as its “Youpredecessor.havethishistory of working-class Black folks who just figured out how to navigate a society around them, despite the discrimination and structural inequities pres ent,” Williams says.
For a while, the WCA members felt like they were making progress: while Northwood Ravin wasn’t particularly engag ing, the city council seemed receptive to their vision and willing to advocate to the developer on their behalf. They’d also succeeded in adding Walltown to the city’s Longtime Homeowners Grant Program, which assists owners with rising property taxes.
6 September 7, 2022 INDYweek.com N E W S Durham With Might and Main
Then, in a virtual meeting two weeks ago, Northwood Ravin announced it was abandoning its original site plan.
A wide brick lectern, the result of more than two decades of community lobbying, was unveiled at a joyful celebration of intergenerational advocacy on West Club Boulevard last Saturday.
This history, he says, is what fuels the community in its current fight.
Developers, spotting opportunity in residents who were struggling to make ends meet, swayed many to sell their homes, and then flipped the properties for a tenfold payoff.
The sign was unveiled in front of the Walltown Recre ation Center, a building that Walltown Community Asso ciation (WCA) member Brandon Williams describes as another marker of community organizing.
In the 1950s, Walltown residents elected a man named Frizelle Daye as the “Bronze Mayor” of the neighborhood, Williams says. Daye, who worked as a janitor at city hall, used his “proximity to folks in power” to secure land for a community center in Walltown. Because the city didn’t give Daye any funding, residents pooled their resources and constructed a one-room building themselves.
Walltown has experienced rampant gentrification since the turn of the century.
WCA members spent a year canvassing and holding focus groups within Walltown, asking residents what they hoped to see at the Northgate site, and then organized with seven other neighborhoods to form a Northgate Mall Neighborhood Council (NMNC) and survey folks in sur rounding neighborhoods. In September 2020, after gath ering feedback from more than 600 residents, the NMNC created three alternative site maps for the new Northgate.
Walltown residents pictured at the neighborhood’s new gateway PHOTO BY LENA GELLER
Northwood Ravin did not reply to requests for com ment for this story, but one of the firm’s attorneys, Patrick Byker, attended the Walltown gateway unveiling on Satur day. Byker told the INDY and a handful of concerned resi
Walltown residents have fought for decades to bring prosperity to their community. With a developer’s plans for a research campus at nearby Northgate Mall requiring a rezoning, Durham’s city council holds the cards.
BY LENA GELLER lgeller@indyweek.com
Before the big reveal, Walltown residents paid homage to the neighborhood’s founder, George Wall, who worked as Duke University’s first custodian after gaining his free dom from slavery in the early 20th century. By building a house on a vacant block next to Duke’s East Campus, residents remembered, Wall laid the foundations for the area that would become home to generations of Black working-class families in Durham.
“Durham is at a crossroads about how we engage and empower residents around the issues of growth and development. The Northgate Mall redevelopment is an indicator, and maybe even a harbinger event, that shapes what Durham is and who we become.” Going on Byker’s presentation at the unveiling, Northwood Ravin’s vision for the Northgate property is one that would be familiar to George Wall and Frizelle Daye, where Walltown residents work blue-collar jobs at the conglomerate across the street. Instead of investing in the WCA’s propos al, the firm is offering, at best, proximity to Brettleadership.Chambers, a NC Central University professor who spent childhood summers at his grandmother’s house in Walltown, says that Byker’s pitch is reminiscent of empty promises he’s heard from other developers in Durham. “They always say, ‘You’re gonna be ben efited. We’ll have job creation.’ And all they’re doing is lining their pockets,” Cham bers says. “I don’t want the people that are left in Walltown to only have cashier jobs and clerk jobs and janitor jobs. I don’t want the next young man to have to grow up and only have that choice.” W
Though Northwood Ravin’s new site plan is a stark repudiation of the WCA’s community-centered proposal, it may come with a silver lining. To enact its new vision, the firm must file a rezoning request to change the prop erty’s “commercial center” classification— which currently prohibits the construc tion of a life sciences research campus— to “commercial general.”
“They could have done a small area plan ning process on that site and then used the power of zoning to implement that,” Baker says. “We can regulate uses: what is or is not allowed on the site, the arrangement of what’s on the site, the infrastructure. Creating new city blocks that weave into the existing fabric of surrounding neighbor hoods on that site, for example. [The coun cil] had plenty of time that the neighbor hood was asking for help, long before this subdivision was submitted.”
Though council members have missed opportunities to take action, they still have time, Baker says.
dents that including residential space in the project would be “financially unfeasible” but that the firm is planning to help the Wall town community through "job creation."
Northgate Mall in 2018 PHOTO BY EAMON QUEENEY
Residents seemed appreciative of Byker’s presence but were understandably skeptical of his motive. It took decades for Walltown to get an official gateway. How long will it take for developers to storm through it?
“You can have a city-initiated rezoning,” Johnson says. “But once a property is in the process of being developed, that becomes legally complex and is not generally a good idea … for us to try to use the rezoning authorities—there would be a lawsuit and we would lose.”
"Not having housing is a non-starter. The other benefits don't make a lot of sense if we're not building them around people."
While advocates have pushed for the council to initiate its own rezoning, and thus ensure that the development would incorporate components of the communi ty’s vision, Johnson says this wasn’t feasible.
Byker told a handful of concerned res idents that the firm is planning to help the Walltown community through “job cre ation.” The proposed life sciences campus would provide lots of job opportunities for residents who don’t have college degrees, he said; at places like Pfizer, people who only have high school diplomas are “pulling down really good money.” The pitch was clear: the developer’s representative was trying to convince residents that North wood Ravin is on their side.
According to city council member Jillian Johnson, the rezoning case, which will go to the council for approval, will allow council ors to fight for the WCA’s proposal in a way they previously could not.
“This is an ideal spot for some dense res idential development,” Johnson says.
Over the past few years, Northwood Ravin has been dismissive of the council’s requests to incorporate the WCA’s vision into its plans, Johnson says. And because the firm’s previous site map was with in the property’s zoning code, she says, there wasn’t much the council could do to change its mind.
INDYweek.com September 7, 2022 7
Nate Baker, an urban planner who serves on Durham’s planning commission, says Johnson’s fear of losing a lawsuit is ques tionable, adding that “it’s disappointing that our leadership is so afraid of doing anything progressive.” There are plenty of ways the city could have taken action in recent years, he says. (Baker spoke with the INDY on his own behalf, and his views do not necessarily reflect those of the city’s planning commission.)
“The Walltown Community Association, doing all this planning, was a little bit ‘activ istic’ at the time, because there weren’t real ly any actual levers for influence,” Johnson says. “But a rezoning case is completely dis cretionary on the part of the city council. So now there is a really strong opportunity for this community vision to have influence on this Johnson,site.”while clarifying that she won’t make a decision about the rezoning until the public hearing—and noting that it’s illegal to deny a rezoning request based on the exis tence, or lack thereof, of affordable hous ing—says she feels “very comfortable” with holding her vote until developers “do better.”
“It is part portrait studio, part art gallery, and serves as a flexible space for special events and other gatherings,” the couple’s attorney, Garrett Davis of Durham, stated in their complaint. “Due to the growth in photo-oriented sites like Instagram, [selfie] studios are popping up all over the country.” Bishop says the museum, although it never officially opened, was booked as an event space through March of this year.
On September 8, the couple, at the behest of property consultant Durham-based Property Advisory Services, signed a lease to open the Bull City Selfie Museum, a 3,500-square-foot space in the basement of the historic Couch Building at 714 Ninth Street.
The aged, dark-red brick building was built on Ninth Street between 1965 and 1968 on two vacant lots where millhouses, demolished in the late 1940s, once stood, according to Open Durham. The building was firebombed following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, and rebuilt immediately.
Five months after signing the lease and, according to the couple, investing more than $180,000 in the venture, Wooten and Bishop say Hardin’s Couch Develop ment Company evicted them and threat
Hardin and Couch Development Com pany held an additional $12,220.86 in escrow, according to a verified complaint filed February 23 in Durham County Supe rior Court on behalf of Hardin by Durham attorney J. Gray Wilson.
The museum tenants say Hardin then went upstairs to his office and returned with a typed letter “dated February 9, 2022, but that had been marked through with a handwritten date of February 8.”
Hardin, in response to the couple’s com plaint, stated that the letter “specifical ly reserved” his company’s “rights to take any and all actions available to it under the Lease or other applicable law, and that Bishop and Wooten never countersigned the letter indicating their agreement to the terms therein.”
Guilford County couple Joseph Wooten and Erica Bishop pictured in their selfie
G uilford County couple Joseph Wooten and Erica Bishop looked forward to getting married this year. But the lovestruck couple’s dreams of marital union turned into a financial night mare when Jim Hardin Jr., a former Durham County district attorney and retired superi or court judge, filed a complaint in superi or court claiming they owed him nearly a quarter of a million dollars after he evicted them from a commercial building he owns. The couple, directed to the downtown Durham space by a local property con sultant, say in court filings that Hardin is holding them liable for unpermitted upfit ting work upon the reference of the con sultant, which took so long to complete that they were never able to get their busi ness off the ground. “We were going to be married this year,” Bishop told the INDY this week. “Now, we are using the [wedding] money to fight thisHardincase.”is one of the Triangle’s most wellknown legal figures. In the early 2000s, he attracted global attention as the lead pros ecutor in the trial of Michael Peterson, the former Herald-Sun columnist, novelist, and Durham mayoral candidate who was con victed in 2003 for the brutal murder of his wife, Kathleen Peterson. Hardin retired last year after serving for nearly three decades in Durham’s legal sys tem and judiciary. It’s not clear when Hardin became presi dent of the Couch Development Company, but last year The News & Observer report ed he was retiring “to turn his attention to his family’s commercial real estate business and horse farm.” On April 29, Bishop and Wooten filed a complaint in Durham County’s superior court claiming they were wrongfully evicted by the retired judge, among multiple other issues listed in their 31-page affidavit. Late last year, Wooten and Bishop were ened to charge them with trespassing. It was one day after Hardin had penned a letter demanding that the tenants pay the first in a series of installments, they say, that the retired judge showed up at the property and personally evicted them.
Bishop says the couple paid nearly $40,000 on the same day she and her fiancé signed a 36-month lease. The funds included the first and last months’ rent of $12,220.66, the first and last months’ operating costs of $3,089.34, and a “recon struction/reclamation deposit” of $12,000.
Hardin, in the letter, indicated his com pany would “defer and forebear action” if Wooten and Bishop made a rent install ment payment of $2,221.70, along with a late fee of $200, by February 9.
F or Bishop and Wooten, things had got ten squirrely one day before the lease signing, when Rodney Allison, president of the consulting company Property Adviso ry Services, sent the couple a text stating that Michael Moore, owner of Moore’s Con
musem PHOTO COURTESY OF SUBJECTS
BY THOMASI MCDONALD tmcdonald@indyweek.com
excited to open a “selfie museum” on Durham’s Ninth Street, one of the city’s most eclectic retail corridors.
8 September 7, 2022 INDYweek.com N E W S Durham Legal Tangle
A Guilford County couple says a well-known, retired Durham judge wrongfully evicted them.
Bishop says Hardin then told the couple they were trespassing and that they needed to hand over their keys and leave.
Wooten and Bishop shared a copy of the letter with the INDY, which appears as described. The date is marked through and a handwritten statement indicates it was delivered to Wooten shortly after noon.
Wooten, according to the complaint, “went back to his truck, told Erica what he saw, and said, ‘Hardin is kicking us out.’”
That day, February 8, the couple pulled into the parking lot of the Couch Building and saw someone changing the locks of the main entrance door. According to their complaint, Wooten went to another door that provided access to the museum and “noticed that some decorations had been taken off the wall and that some other things were missing or not in their original place,” according to their affidavit.
By the time the building permit was denied in mid-January, Bishop and Wooten say the delays caused by Moore “were beginning to pile up” and they were aware that February and the start of the rental payments were days away. They had already paid Moore’s Construction Company tens of thousands of dollars, according to their complaint.
On February 18, the couple says that “after being forcibly evicted,” Hardin sent them a letter demanding they pay $7,665 in overdue rent, plus nearly a quarter of a million dollars—$230,305.84—in “liqui dated damages,” with a 12 percent yearly interest rate. Then, on February 23, Hardin’s attorney filed a verified complaint in superior court again demanding that Bishop and Wooten “pay overdue rent and liquidated damages in the total amount of $237,960.92,” owing to a section in the lease that defines liq uidated damages as the “loss of rent and other income the landlord expected to derive” during the lease period.
INDYweek.com September 7, 2022 9 struction, a limited liability company, would attend the lease signing and “was going to be the contractor for the upfit work for the selfieWhilemuseum.”Allison, according to the com plaint, “liked Erica and Joseph’s business plan” and connected them with Hardin’s company, Bishop and Wooten said they “had not had any input or discussion about Mr. Moore’s or his company’s involvement in the contemplated upfit work,” according to theirBishopcomplaint.andWooten claimed that the construction company’s “general contrac tor’s license is currently invalid” and that they were not made aware of the company’s invalid license. “If Erica and Joseph would have known the facts regarding Mr. Moore and his company’s license issues, they would have not proceed ed with the lease and upfit project as they did,” Davis, the couple’s attorney, stated in theirNonetheless,complaint. the couple said, “Moore’s Construction got to work on the space” a day after the lease signing. Bishop and Wooten envisioned a base ment space featuring 24 photo booths and 40 exhibits where customers could take and pose for photos, “camera-friendly light ing,” related electrical work, a “significant amount of painting,” three dressing rooms, a waiting room, and a patio. From the outset, Bishop and Wooten say the project was plagued by issues posed by the building. As a consequence they ended up paying for “work related to the entire building and common areas,” according to the complaint, including an additional $6,750 paid to Moore’s company “to locate old building wiring connected to the whole building’s electrical system, which had pre-existing problems.” Two months after the upfitting pro cess began, the selfie museum tenants say Hardin told them “Couch didn’t have the money” when they approached him about reimbursing them for the unexpect ed expenses. Instead, their landlord provid ed the reimbursement with an amended lease the tenants received on November 17, according to the complaint. “The first month of the amended lease term was February 1, 2022,” Davis, the cou ple’s attorney, stated in the complaint.
Days later, on January 18, the complaint states that “Moore’s Construction finally [applied] for a building permit, but it [was] notBishopapproved.”and Wooten stated in the com plaint that the building permit application was also disapproved by the city’s depart ment of water management after inspec tors could not locate “a domestic con tainment device that prevents wastewater from the building from flowing back into the city’s water lines and contaminating the city’s water supply,” according to city docu ments and the complaint.
Bishop and Wooten assert that Moore, Allison, or Hardin should have known about the issues with the building and failed to tell them. Hardin, in his response, denied the cou ple’sAccordingclaim. to the complaint, the issues with the building and rent veered further left on January 31, when Bishop called Har din and asked “what could be done with the February rent, due to the unanticipated work required to get the space code compli ant and receive a Certificate of Occupancy.”
Shortly after, the couple says Hardin served them with the letter from the Couch Development Company demanding a rent payment before evicting them the next day.
Hardin, in his court-filed response, admit ted the fire department issued an inspection report to the tenants but denied the cou ple’s allegations that they couldn’t open the museum due to upfitting delays.
Bishop and Wooten noted that the base ment was used as storage space when they rented it, and they spent about $10,000 just to have all of the unwanted items cart ed out of the place. “For this reason, a significant portion of [the] September 16 invoice billed to Erica and Joseph was practically a charge for cleaning up the Couch Building’s basement,” their attorney states in the complaint. Moreover, Bishop and Wooten say the place had not been used as a commercial space “for several years,” according to the complaint, adding that “the last tenants of the basement space were office tenants.” Allison and Moore could not be reached for comment. But Moore’s attorney David O. Lewis of Durham, in an amended response filed in superior court regarding the former tenant’s claim, states that his client did not have to be a certified con tractor to do the work. “The work performed between Septem ber 9 and November 8 consisted primarily of building removable ‘wing walls’ and paint ing and did not require a building permit,” Lewis stated in the complaint. He added that Bishop and Wooten actually owe the construction com pany a little over $38,000 for the work tionsedhetis,RichardDurhamon2Allison,aryberbetweenperformedSeptem9andFebru10.Meanwhile,inaJulyresponsefiledhisbehalfbyattorneyF.PrendeniedthatmisrepresentthequalificaofMooreand his construction com pany to Bishop and Wooten. Wilson, Hardin’s attorney, told the INDY this week that his client was not involved in the selection of Moore’s company for theMeanwhile,project.
The couple stated in their complaint that they were shocked by Hardin’s demand for nearly a quarter of a million dollars in antic ipation of money he would have made if he had rented the space to someone else.
Bishop and Wooten recently celebrated the birthday of their daughter, who turned two on July 24. The couple is expecting their second child. Wooten says they are disappointed and struggling to get by, and they wonder why Hardin, a former judge, is suing them and not going after the con struction company.
In Couch’s letter to Bishop and Wooten on February 7, Hardin stated that the cou ple “encountered some difficulty in keeping [the museum]” open “for the full-time active conduct of operation” and that they were “facing some financial difficulties which are affecting … performance obligations under the lease.” Hardin’s response also claims “that any requirement change to the permitted use of the premises was trig gered by [Bishop and Woo ten’s] decision to seek an alcoholWootenlicense.”saidin December he spoke with Hardin about serving wine to their patrons and was told to “research” the subject but says “it’s not true” that he and Bishop breached their contract. “That’s false,” Wooten says. “We called the ABC Board to see if they had a record of [an alcohol permit application]. All of that came from Michael Moore trying to cover up the fact that he hadn’t applied for any building permits for our space; the electri cal, the walls, patio space. He didn’t pull nothing. That’s what people pay a contrac tor to take care of.” Bishop and Wooten in their complaint maintain that the real reason for their dif ficulties in getting the business off the ground were delays in renovations by the Moore Construction Company. They also claim in their complaint that the construction company did not have a certified contractor and the company was unable to obtain a building permit after an inspector with the City of Durham Fire Department “determined the Bull City Sel fie Museum could not be granted a Certifi cate of Occupancy.”
“We paid Michael Moore’s construction company over $140,000 and we paid Jim Hardin $40,000, and with all of the other expenses, we’ve spent about $250,000,” Wooten told the INDY. “And we have noth ing to show for it. We just want Jim to give our money back and leave us alone.” W
“For older buildings, like 714 Ninth Street, the way the City ensures that the building has a backflow device is through the permitting process,” Davis, their attor ney, explained in the complaint.
An early January report issued by Durham fire department inspector Christopher Wil cox determined that the “property must go through a change of use for occupancy” as an amusement center; that the “space was not permitted for use at this time in the current capacity”; and that “exit signs were needed,” according to the complaint.
“We were going to be married this year. Now, we’re using the wedding money to fight this case.”
Hardin, in his response, stat ed that the building “was in compliance with all applicable electrical and building codes, and that any electrical issues arose solely” from Bishop and Wooten’s “upfit activities and attempts to secure an alco hol license for the premises despite Couch’s direct instruction not to do so, and despite their lack of authority under the lease to do so.” Following their eviction on February 8, things got worse for Bishop and Wooten.
“Some are afraid of what will happen if they do report,” SchwartzSchwartzsaid.said that someone who has been sexually assaulted may fear that information will get out of their control or that they won’t have control over how to tell friends and family. Some patients might be in the middle of college exams, need to secure their safety or are afraid of what their attacker will do, she added.
Lauren Schwartz is director of the Solace Center at InterAct in Raleigh.
Schwartz said it is entirely possible to collect the foren sic evidence and give the victim some breathing room in the aftermath of such a traumatic event before reporting to law enforcement.
BY KATE MARTIN backtalk@indyweek.com
But does this mean that you’re automatically pressing charges? No. North Carolina and other states have an option avail able to those who have been sexually assaulted that’s called an “anonymous kit.” This means an assault victim can see a sexual assault nurse examiner, or SANE nurse, at a hospital or a certified community-based center for an exam but not provide information to law enforcement. During the exam, the nurse documents injuries sustained in the assault and collects evidence that could be used in a future criminal trial.
Not every hospital has a SANE nurse, and state law does not require that hospitals employ one. These nurses study and train for dozens of hours to learn how to help people who are sexually assaulted.
As North Carolina law enforcement agencies work through their backlog of more than 16,000 rape kits, they are finding DNA matches in a federal database that has helped them charge and convict several serial rapists.
Q: What is an “anonymous” kit? “All this means is you are anonymous to law enforcement,” Schwartz said. This means law enforcement won’t know an assault took place or that there is any forensic evidence related to it, Schwartz said. Because law enforcement doesn’t know about the assault, it cannot count the assault in annual statistics reported to the federal government.
For example, most people who visit the Solace Center in Raleigh after an assault are undecided about wheth er they want to involve law enforcement, said Lauren Schwartz, director of sexual assault services and the direc tor of the center, located at InterAct Family Safety and Empowerment Center in Raleigh.
“If the survivor is ready at some point in the future to have an investigation conducted, they are the one in control and they are the one who decides to get law enforcement involved,” he said.
10 September 7, 2022 INDYweek.com N E W S North Carolina
Deciding to see a sexual assault nurse examiner is a big decision to begin with. Patients who are undecided or wary of law enforcement might not want to talk to police right away, or at all, Schwartz said.
North Carolina allows “anonymous” sexual assault kits. What does that mean, and how do you get one?
Anonymous Kits
Not everyone who has survived a sexual assault wants to involve the police. Not everyone is ready to think about that yet. The aftermath of a sexual assault can be a confusing time. Generally, you need to see a nurse within four days after the assault to receive proper medical care and pre serve forensic evidence, but the sooner the better.
Q: Why could someone want an anonymous kit?
An anonymous kit ensures the victim can be treated medically to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, said John Somerindyke, a former lieutenant with the Fayetteville Police Department.
PHOTO BY ALICIA CARTER / CAROLINA PUBLIC PRESS
Q: What is the statute of limitations for sexual assault? All felonies in North Carolina have no stat ute of limitations. Prosecutors can decide to pursue a sexual assault case at any time, even if it occured years ago. Some rapists are even charged and con victed decades after the crime occurred.
Q: How long does the state store anony mous kits? State instructions for submitting anony mous kits say the state will keep the kits in a warehouse indefinitely. “As long as things were collected and pre served properly, the kit should be stable and able to sit on that shelf for a long time,” Schwartz said. State paperwork says while law enforce ment will not know your personal informa tion, the information is tracked by a state warehouse that stores the kits.
Q: What happens to other forensic evi dence in the kit? If law enforcement doesn’t know about an assault, they cannot investigate, Schwartz“Delayingsaid.a report to law enforcement can potentially destroy other forms of evi dence,” Schwartz said. “There could be evi dence at a crime scene, or maybe camera footage, or evidence from a perpetrator.” This may include items such as bed sheets, carpet, or anything else that might have touched DNA during the assault.
Q: Can minors have an anonymous kit? It depends where the crime is reported. Crimes committed against minors must be reported to police, Schwartz said. This includes when a minor attacks another minor. In North Carolina, a minor is any one under the age of 18. “Based on state law, that would have to be reported to law enforcement, and if there was a kit collected, that would have to be tested,” Schwartz said. The only exemption, she said, is if the patient approaches a rape crisis center, such as the Solace Center, for help.
INDYweek.com September 7, 2022 11
Q: I had an anonymous kit. Now I’m ready to talk to law enforcement. What do I do?
Consider calling the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673, provid ed by RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. The network offers assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is free and confidential. W
Schwartz said her agency hangs on to anonymous kits for a couple of weeks before turning them in to the state on the chance a patient decides to report to law enforcement after the initial exam.
Q: How often are anonymous kits filed? The precise yearly number is unknown. However, the best figure we have is based on the examination of North Carolina’s decades-long backlog of untested rape kits. Of 16,234 untested rape kits in North Carolina, 1,385, or 8.5 percent, were filed as anonymous.
This story was originally published online at Carolina Public Press.
Q: Does the DNA in anonymous kits get tested?
In North Carolina, hospitals are not allowed to bill victims of rape for their sex ual assault exams, although it does happen. However, someone may decide at first to make the kit anonymous and decide much later to report the incident to law enforce ment. There is no statute of limitations on reporting the crime.
“The more support a survivor has after an exam—and they are getting that experience with a nurse that’s very trauma informed—if they feel supported, then making that leap to [talking to] law enforcement is a little bit easier,” Schwartz said.
No, Schwartz said. DNA in anonymous kits does not get tested, ever. State policies also say anonymous kits are not opened unless the victim decides at a later date to involve law enforcement. If someone later decides to talk with law enforcement, then DNA will be tested if it meets the criteria.
Q: If you have an anonymous kit, how long do you have to decide what to do? If people who have experienced a sexual assault want to qualify to receive reim bursement from the state’s crime victims fund, they must report the crime to law enforcement within 72 hours. The fund only pays for medical care and loss of wages, not property damage or for pain and suffering.
Notify the law enforcement agency where the assault occurred and sign a consent form allowing the agency to access your kit. That agency then contacts the state ware house, which retrieves the kit and provides it to that agency. After that, the agency can send your kit in for testing.
Q: I’d like more information and help. Whom can I call?
The festival, which has long relied on bars and clubs to host the majority of its stages, featured 10 indoor venues when it celebrated its 10th annual edition in 2019. Last year, it had none. This year, it has two: Slim’s and Pour House.Aswith last year, most of this year’s acts will play in two outdoor spaces—Hopscotch’s traditional headlining stage in City Plaza and a second main stage set up in Moore Square. The last pre-pandemic festival in 2019 featured 137 acts. This year, when Hopscotch returns September 8–10, it will do so with 46 acts, surpassing last year’s mark of 28 by virtue of adding back two previously perennial club spaces.Adding back more than two clubs was just too uncertain a bet, given the lingering possibility that a surge in COVID19 could have forced Hopscotch to nix its indoor program ming, explains festival director Nathan Price.
This experience causes him to feel keenly about the way Hopscotch has changed, he says.
“It’s just hard to say for sure we should go and spend all of our money in the clubs knowing that there’s at least a small chance it could end up backfiring,” he says.
But he admits that programming mostly on daytime outdoor stages has curtailed some of Hopscotch’s wilder tendencies—though he offers the presence of Lightning Bolt’s punishingly energetic noise rock in Moore Square as proof that Hopscotch still pushes the envelope. And while COVID was the big driver in pushing Hopscotch into its current format, Price says the pandemic isn’t the only thing keeping the festival from reclaiming its club-based variety.
Phonte performs in City Plaza Saturday during the Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh, September 9, 2017
PHOTO BY ALEX BOERNER
Surpassing the number of regularly available spaces in downtown Raleigh is nothing new for Hopscotch, and all of the interviewees the INDY spoke with agreed that it’s a challenge that could hold the festival back, going forward.
BY JORDAN LAWRENCE arts@indyweek.com
“There’s just not that many clubs in Raleigh right now,” he says. “We have Slim’s, Pour House, Lincoln Theatre— which those three combined are like maybe 1,200 capacity together—and then Kings is doing shows, but that wasn’t a for-sure thing when we were planning stuff …. So you know, the other thing was just, like, where do we put these shows? Even if everything goes perfect, and nothing bad happens, what rooms are we booking actually here?”
Thursday, Sep. 8–Saturday, Sep. 10 | Various Venues, Downtown Raleigh | hopscotchmusicfest.com
It’s the reason there wasn’t a Hopscotch in 2020 and it’s the main reason the downtown Raleigh event has featured far fewer acts and indoor venues than it has in years past.
Hopscotch used to be one of the most adventurous and far-ranging music festivals in the Southeast. Has that changed?
Launched in 2010, the festival has long been one of the most far-ranging and adventurous music festivals in the Southeast, expanding from an indie rock core to touch on metal, hip-hop, noise, and a variety of other experimental flavors across kaleidoscopic lineups that have surpassed 100 acts. At least one industry expert, though, sees it as something more typical. “[It’s] a festival that increasingly feels more like a point along the curve of the festival circuit,” says Alex Maiolo, explaining that, from his vantage, Hopscotch has become an event that’s increasingly filled with acts that are routing through various festivals rather than charting its own bold course, as it once did. Maiolo admits this isn’t a problem for everyone. A Chapel Hill–based musician and festival consultant, he advises and
“If [these artists] come to your town and you’re not the type of person who can travel for music, that’s really fuck ing cool,” Maiolo reasons, “but, at the same time, it does mean that it’s it’s a point-along-the-curve festival rather than something that has the potential to stand out.”
Throughout its run, Hopscotch has transformed a Chi nese restaurant, a modern art museum, and the basement of a convention center into venues.
Not everyone sees the way Hopscotch has changed in this light. INDY Week spoke to Maiolo and three others—the current festival director, a local artist playing this year who has also played several times in the past, and one of the event’s cofounders—about the festival’s shift in identity. All expressed different views, and all agreed that the pandemic is a significant factor in Hopscotch’s changing personality.
12 September 7, 2022 INDYweek.com
Key Changes
H opscotch Music Festival looks different these days.
Price emphasizes that he still thinks Hopscotch has offered compelling programming in 2021 and 2022 and that it has still managed to stay voracious—pointing to this year’s lineup featuring the slanted-and-enchanted rock of Courtney Barnett, Afrobeat royal Seun Kuti and the Egypt 80, and wide-screen country crooner Charley Crock ett among its headliners.
M U S IC
But success has become an enemy of such ingenuity,
works with numerous big events, from South by Southwest in Austin to Roskilde Festival in Denmark and Tallinn Music Week in Estonia, and he frequently travels the globe to play or write about various others, including Hopscotch.
HOPSCOTCH MUSIC FESTIVAL
INDYweek.com September 7, 2022 13
Price“Whenexplains.welaunched originally, that was possible because, you know, bands were a little bit more forgiving about the spaces they’re playing in,” he says. “One of the rea sons we don’t do certain spaces anymore that don’t have a stage or production is it just costs so much to get a band, even midsized bands, into the spaces because of their rider requirements, and just the shows have gotten so much more sophisticated. It’s not really a thing where you can, like, throw up a PA; you have to have a lighting package. It’s just gotten expensive.”
Grayson Currin, who cofounded the festi val back when he edited INDY Week’s music section, zeroes in on Hopscotch’s relation ship with its home when explaining his out look on the way the festival has changed. “Raleigh is faceless,” he says. “I think Hopscotch is quickly trying to become face lessCurrintoo.” points to the rising cost of living in or near downtown as a factor curtail ing the creative energy that once fueled Hopscotch’s ever-veering creative compass. He exited the festival in 2014 and credits Price with keeping Hopscotch going after cofounder Greg Lowenhagen also departed in 2016, a year after the festival was sold to Etix founder Travis Janovich. But Currin questions the extent to which the new owner’s desire to streamline costs has begun to stymie the festival’s other ambitions. Admittedly, some of Hopscotch’s more adventurous swings were expensive— flying in the acclaimed noise artist Merzbow from Tokyo to be the festival’s improvis er-in-residence in 2013, for instance—and Currin says that during his four years with the festival, it played jump rope with the line between making and losing money. Maintaining the festival’s ethos, he argues, requires a willingness to shoulder these“Hopscotchcosts. was aspiring to be, from the start, a festival that did not exist,” Currin says. “And the idea of that festival was to mix wildly experimental music, some indie music, and hip-hop bordering or even get ting to the mainstream ... with local music and to celebrate and to put them on as equal footings as we could.”
“Hopscotch at this point, is not that kind of festival,” he adds. “And that’s fine. It’s dif ferent, but it’s fine.”
Durham musician Al Riggs PHOTO BY JADE WILSON
With COVID still lingering and many of the venues Hopscotch has previously used being unavailable, Riggs says the festival can’t really do much more for local artists right“Expectingnow. it to be like what it was right away is unreasonable,” they say. W
Alex Riggs, a mercurial Durham-based singer-songwriter who will play their final show under the Al Riggs moniker in City Plaza this year, says that while Hopscotch has changed, and the number of acts and styles it can highlight on the local land scape has diminished, Hopscotch’s new configuration provides more opportuni ties to highlight local music on its biggest stages. They add that the festival balanc es its reduced local numbers by continuing to embrace the many free day parties that always pop up around the event and that feature a “shit ton” of Triangle artists. (This year, there are more than three dozen day parties.) Club shows are also free to the public this year.
“There was fear that we would open and the courts would remain empty,” says Doug McRainey, director of community projects for the Town of Cary. “Of course, we were completely wrong.”
PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA Louis Stephens Cary townofcary.org/recreation-enjoyment/facilities/
“We had hosted the ACCs for a long time, like 11 straight years, when [the bill] happened,” recalls Sean Ferreira, tennis ser vices coordinator for the Town of Cary. “I remember writing letters, calling people to try and get these events back,” says Cary mayor Harold Weinbrecht. Weinbrecht, who has been mayor since 2007—and who is himself an avid tennis player—has long advocated for expanding tennis within the town and was an influential figure during the park’s construction in the early 2000s.
“Having a venue to attract players that are some of the best in the world, and who will be the best in the world, is pretty amaz ing,” says Weinbrecht.
BY VIBHAV NANDAGIRI arts@indyweek.com
The latest of these public investments raises the bar, quite literally. Adjacent to the park’s main walkway, a newly constructed raised metal platform, replete with bright, Yves Klein–like blue benches, overlooks six of the facility’s courts. Located near the park’s north entrance, the benches provide spectators with an unobstructed view of CTP’s prime match courts. Construction of the bleachers began in October 2021 following the allocation of $900,000 by Wake County and the Town of Cary. While the renovation is modest in comparison to the recently built $5 million seven-court covered facility, it’s the latest initiative in Cary’s rising star as a tennis destination. In the past five years, CTP has seen the addition of per manent seating on Stadium Court, newly renovated pickleball courts, a refurbished clubhouse, and electronic scoreboards on each of the 25 outdoor courts. The ini tial construction of the park was carried And after considerable lobbying, CTP will once again host the ACC Championships in 2023 and 2024. “We want to be the permanent home of the ACC tournament,” Weinbrecht says. College tennis may comprise a central core of CTP’s tournament offerings but, once a year, tennis enthusiasts of all ages descend upon the park for its—and the Tri angle’s—only professional tournament. College tennis comprises a central core of CTP’s tournament offerings. Once a year, however, tennis enthusiasts of all ages descend upon CTP for the park’s, and the Triangle’s, only professional tournament.
Drive,
First hosted in 2015, the Atlantic Tire Championships consistently draw top tal ent from the ATP Tour, the men’s profes sional tennis circuit, for a weeklong event in September. Held right after the U.S. Open, this tournament provides up-and-coming athletes in the sport with a geographically accessible and financially feasible opportu nity to advance up the rankings.
Ferreira calls the Atlantic Tire Champion ships “Tennis Week in the Triangle.” Drawing thousands of fans from around the South en’s Championships. In 2016, this came to a halt—just as a more permanent relation ship was being cemented between colle giate tennis and the Town of Cary—when North Carolina passed the controversial House Bill 2, otherwise known as the “bath room bill.” The bill, which prevented trans gender people from using public restrooms that aligned with their gender identity, trig gered a mass exodus of sports organiza tions from the state, including the ACC.
E TC. CARY TENNIS PARK 2727
Known by locals as CTP, Cary Tennis Park has seen an impressive string of renovations over the past few years. Its sprawling layout now boasts a behe moth-like covered facility and a sprawling layout that includes score billboards and freshly resurfaced courts that branch out, artery-like, in three directions.
14 September 7, 2022 INDYweek.com
Now entering its 20th year in opera tion, CTP has firmly established itself as a mainstay in the Triangle’s tennis scene, which is reported to be the fourth-mostactive tennis community in the country— thanks, in large part, to a steady stream of tournaments.CTPplays host to every tournament level throughout the year: junior, colle giate, adult, and professional. Junior and adult leagues are run by the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA), the governing body of American tennis; adult league play occurs during the week, and junior tournaments take place on weekends, attracting highly ranked players from around the nation. CTP’s close proximity to four major Divi sion I tennis programs (Duke, NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Wake Forest) has also enabled it to play a central role in the collegiate tennis sphere. In past years, the facility has hosted major tournaments including the ACC Tennis Championships and the NCAA Division III Men’s and Wom Cary mayor Harold Weinbrecht at Cary Tennis Park
|
Following the complete repeal of HB 2 in 2017 and an additional COVID-driven hiatus, CTP will once again see top college players grace the courts with the Inter collegiate Tennis Association’s Women’s All-American Championships in October of this year, which Ferreira refers to as one of the “college tennis Grand Slams.” out in two phases, with a 30-court venue completed in 2002.
Net Gain With the expansion of its tennis park, the Town of Cary ramps up to be a destination center for the sport.
Highly ranked players often are concen trated in private country clubs and acad emies, with most public tennis facilities unable to keep up with the investment and draw of elite training centers. But CTP is a clearAndexception.following a surge of popularity in tennis and other racquet sports during the COVID-19 pandemic, the facility is well positioned to carry the growth forward. Meanwhile, McRainey says, officials are wrapping up the concept plan for a new clubhouse.
INDYweek.com September 7, 2022 15 east, it represents the park’s core mission of providing comprehensive programming for the Town of Cary, according to Ferreira. Running the event calls for an annu al budget of around $250,000, but the tournament is largely self-sustaining thanks to the USTA and corporate spon sors. As the main advocate for American tennis, the USTA continuously competes with other national tennis federations for tournaments on American soil, including the one in Cary. After over 10 years on a waitlist, CTP joined the USTA Pro Circuit, making it eligible for receiving financial aid, grants, and additional resources to run a profes sional tournament. A significant chunk of the tournament cost is taken on by the title sponsor and tournament namesake, Atlantic Tire & Services. Speaking about Anthony Black man, the president of Atlantic Tire & Ser vices, Ferreira says that “his decision to come on as the title sponsor is the reason we have this tournament.” Still, while tournaments such as Atlan tic Tire are the park’s crown jewels, its long-term success rests on what happens between them. “We wanted [CTP] to be a place where the best players in the area came to train,” Ferreira says. Nearly every week of the cal endar year, the park’s group of coaches set about training all levels of tennis play ers. The Cary Tennis Park Academy, a fourtiered player develop ment program, enrolls over 200 competitive junior“Weathletes.really work hard to bring in big events, but we also make sure that we’re balancing use with the community,” Fer reiraCTPsays.Academy has sent 35 players to varsity collegiate pro grams, and that only counts the athletes who were part of the academy at the time of their high school graduation. CTP players have won a com bined total of 14 gold balls, awarded to win ners of the Junior National Championships, the most prestigious domestic tournament for an American tennis athlete. For any tennis academy, this feat is admi rable. Among public facilities, it’s a rarity. “If you were to ask how many purely pub lic tennis facilities have such advanced play er development,” Ferreira says, “we would definitely be in the top five in the country.”
“As families are looking for where they want to live … [they ask,] ‘Where is the recreation?’ Where are the parks?’” remarks Ferreira. In Cary, the answers are plentiful. W was fear that we would open and the courts would remain empty. Of course, we completelywerewrong.”
“There
It comes in at a total of 18,280 square feet, over three times the size of the cur rent one. The three-level building will have more space for the public, employees, and crucially, collegiate and professional tour nament players. By renovating the club house and increasing player amenities, CTP will increase its chances to host big ger tennis tournaments. These higher-level tournaments require a much larger finan cial commitment from sponsors and from the town, but a successful bid would bring more fans, higher-ranked athletes, and far more publicity to Cary. Further into the future, Cary officials are seeking to develop the land south of the park, where the town purchased over eight acres in 2014. Additional courts will be cen tral to this expansion, including those with different surfaces like red clay and grass, Weinbrecht says. And with the growing pop ularity of pickle ball, the town also hopes to integrate it into this plan by constructing space to host sonimpact,”lionseventsallyattractCaryues,Cary’stournaments.pickleball“Everyyear,sportsvenincludingtheTennisPark,nationrecognizedandmilineconomicsaysAlliHutchinson, interim director of parks, recreation, and cultural resources for the Town of Cary. Other nearby sports venues, like WakeMed Soccer Park and USA Baseball National Training Complex, complete Cary’s trifecta of nationally recognized facilities.
Beyond the direct revenue streams these public facilities provide, they offer far more indirect growth to the town.
“I want to have more balance,” she says. “I find school and the archive work to be emotionally regulating. It’s nice to have something reliable—and someone telling me what to do.”
“It was the crash of everything you were avoiding on tour,” she says. “All the emotions, all the tasks, the lack of Forstimulation.”now,though, her studies, her ongoing partnership with Gerrard, and her work at the Southern Folklife Col lection serve as a counterweight.
“Allison and I really click,” Hargreaves says. “It’s easy to immediately sync up with each other—I’ve never experi enced that with anyone else in a duo setting.”
TATIANA HARGREAVES WITH SONYA BADIGIAN AND MCKAIN LAKEY
More Than One String
Gerrard says she immediately recognized a kindred spirit in Hargreaves, even though they’re separated by 60 years in age.
Familial themes course through Hurricane Clarice, Hargreaves’s second full-length album with de Groot, which was released in March of this year. Full of her trademark “shit-hot fiddle” (as eloquently described by The Bluegrass Situation), the concise nine-song record also reveals a more personal side of each musician, mixing audio recordings of their grandmothers with songs about polluted rivers, surre alist authors, Black fiddlers, and supposed witches.
The Pinhook, Durham | Mon., September 12, 8 p.m. | $10
Hargreaves’s studies have also broadened how she teaches others. “When people come to me to study, they often have a very specific idea about what fiddle music or bluegrass means,” she says. “The biggest part of my studies is want ing to make it easier for people to find stuff on their own.” That endless discovery extends to every part of in a way I’d never been before.” That self is defined first by fiddle excellence. Wheth er backing Bay Area icon Laurie Lewis in her The Right Hands band, leading local collective Hard Drive, or locking in with Canadian banjoist Allison de Groot, Hargreaves’s instrumental chops are evident as soon as bow meets string. She can scream through traditional tunes (“49 Cats in a Rain Barrel”), bend uncanny notes into haunting combinations (“Farewell Whiskey”), or evoke lost Ameri can landscapes (“Rolling River”)—wowing casual fans and fiddle nerds alike.
“I first met Tatiana when she was 15, and I loved her fid dle playing,” Gerrard says. “But what I really admire is that she’s a traditionalist in many ways. We both like to keep one foot in the music itself and one foot in the story sur rounding that music. That’s a huge part of our connection. At this point, I feel like she’s part of my family.”
The release of Hurricane Clarice also humbled Hargreaves, who was thankful to return to regular touring but also struggled with inevitable comedowns each time she returned home.
16 September 7, 2022 INDYweek.com
Fiddle aficionado Tatiana Hargreaves learns in limitless directions.
PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA
M U S IC
“Phil gave us mostly emotional support,” Hargreaves laughs. “He said, ‘Once you’re in the studio, I complete ly trust you—just go in there and play.’ That’s exactly what we needed to hear. It was my favorite recording experience ever.”
Tatiana Hargreaves winces at the word “prodigy,” though it’s a tempting one to apply. At 27 years old, the Durham resident has already achieved a lifetime of accomplishments: expert fiddle player, prolific recording artist, lecturer in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of Music, celebrated documentarian of old-time music. It’s also easy to view Hargreaves through the lens of her childhood accolades. She followed in the footsteps of her older brother Alex by picking up the fiddle at age three, and at the age of seven, she blew minds at music camps in her native Oregon. At 13, she became the youngest per son to win the Oregon Old-Time Fiddlers Contest—and just the second woman to win Open Fiddle at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, West Virginia, at the age of 14. “It’s really cool that the bluegrass and old-time music community is so multigenerational, but the obsession with children who can play well is kind of bizarre,” Hargreaves tells INDY Week over coffee and pastries at Monuts one recent hot August afternoon. “I’m grateful that people have supported me since a really young age. That’s shaped my career. But it’s also made me uncomfortable. There’s this pressure to always stand out: ‘You’re a kid, and you’re so good, so what are you going to do next?’” Perhaps that’s the driving force behind Hargreaves’s impressive résumé. She’s earned a bachelor’s degree in ethnomusicology and is one year away from finishing a master’s in library science. She’s aced fiery Texas fiddle, learned Cuban violin in Havana, and studied free impro visation with Indian and Pakistani musicians. She’s writ ten four-movement suites based on literary classics and logged long hours at UNC’s Southern Folklife Collection. She’s digitized the extensive archive of living legend Alice Gerrard and even expanded into producing the records of other roots musicians. None of it was possible, Hargreaves says, until she left her Oregon home—and her history—behind. Heading east, she landed first at Hampshire College in Massachusetts before moving to Durham in 2017 to study and work with Gerrard. “When I moved here, I didn’t really know anyone besides Alice,” Hargreaves says. “I loved that—I didn’t have anyone expecting things from me. I was able to be myself gle-based producer Phil Cook, who, over Zoom, encour aged them to be vulnerable.
“Hurricane Clarice is a remarkable example of the pas sionate landscape that can exist between two people,” Cook says. “I feel like I’m riding out a storm on the ocean or looking out over the Grand Canyon when I listen to the album; the expansiveness of it humbles me so much.”
BY NICK MCGREGOR arts@indyweek.com
The two worked on Hurricane Clarice with Trian Tatiana Hargreaves
Invigorated, she goes further: “I feel very comfortable playing fiddle. I love playing fid dle. I’ve dedicated 25 years of my life to the fiddle.” With a sneaky smile, her humility— her sense of having her feet planted firmly on the right ground as she excavates it for inspiration and education—returns: “And I still don’t know anything.”
W BILL ATTORNEYBURTONATLAWUncontestedDivorceMusicBusinessLawIncorporation/LLC/PartnershipWillsCollections 967-6159 MUSICUNCONTESTEDAGREEMENTSSEPARATIONDIVORCEBUSINESSLAWINCORPORATION/LLCWILLS(919)967-6159bill.burton.lawyer@gmail.com Raleigh's Community Bookstore .Available9.05wwwqu ail ri dg e b oo k s.com • 9 19 8 2 8.1 58 8 • No r t h Hi ll s 4 20 9- 100 Lassit er M ill Ro a d Ra l e i gh, N C 27 60 9 Of fe ri ng F R E E M e d ia Ma i l shipp ng a nd c on t ac t less p i ckup ! L at e st on B o o k in ’ In-Store Events Register for Quail Ridge Books Events Series at www.quailridgebooks .com John Kessel, The Dark Ride Jason Mott, Hell of a Book THU 9.08R 6P M Peter withMazeyCreepyBrown,Crayon!CraigJohnson,HellandBackBelaKoe-Krompecher,Love,Death&PhotosynthesisEddings,LizzieBlake'sBestMistakeLibbyHubscher9.SAT10 3P M 9.SAT10 3P M 12.MON07 7P M 9.WED14 7P M RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER RECYCLE THIS PAPER
“Tatiana is super busy,” Gerrard says. “She’s smart, she’s grounded, and she excels at everything she does. I just don’t see how she fits it all into her day.” Hargreaves admits to struggling with more than just a packed calendar. She bristles at the sexist comments she often hears about her full-throated singing—“Like, ‘Wow, how do you get such a big sound out of your little body?’” She likens it to the “shock factor” sen timents she experienced as a kid. “It’s not about what you’re saying or playing or doing,” she says. “I’ve faced that a lot as a woman in the music industry. People are constantly surprised at what I can do—and that continuously pisses me off.”
INDYweek.com September 7, 2022 17 Hargreaves’s career. After making her pro duction debut on Daniel Ullom’s recent release The Swannanoa Sessions and help ing Alice Gerrard record her forthcoming album—the folk legend’s first in a decade— Hargreaves has big ideas for what she wants to do next: A “Tati Plays Tex” trib ute album to fiddler and audio savant Tex Logan and a new recording for Hard Drive, the freewheeling “authentic millennial blue grass collective” she formed in 2018 with roommates Sonya Badigian, Aaron Tacke, and Nokosee Fields after a spontaneous, wine-fueled six a.m. jam session.
Cook believes that fire gives Hargreaves a leg up in the narrow-minded music industry.
“A lot of people still see Tatiana as this child,” he says. “To outgrow an identity that’s been placed upon her—in a genre that hangs its hat on virtuosity and technical prowess—is very impressive. She’s putting out her truth as she is now. To me, there’s no more soulful fiddler in North Carolina.” Of course, Hargreaves would defer such praise. She admits to a lifelong sense of “lit tle sister” inferiority—literally playing sec ond fiddle to her older brother Alex, a fel low savant who currently backs bluegrass sensation Billy Strings. “My brother is one of my best friends and biggest inspirations, but it’s definitely intim idating to have him as a sibling,” she says. “I still feel overshadowed by him.” Her perspective has shifted, however, as her body of work has grown. “He’s always playing in other people’s bands. Everyone wants him, and I think he’s envious that I do my own thing and have more of my own projects. We have our different lanes.”
Godwin—who has run C. Grace and its sister club Empress for the past 10 years—says she was ultimately forced to close both clubs this summer because of staff ing shortages. Not only did her general manager leave for another position, recently, but Godwin says that most of her bartenders left last month. She still had an adequate number of servers, but with school resuming in the fall, the availability of her college-age hires was about to be drastically cut. “I didn’t see any way to keep [C. Grace] open unless I went back to square one,” Godwin says. “[After my manager left], it kind of turned into a house of falling cards.”
18 September 7, 2022 INDYweek.com
sionally even occasionally haunted its doors.
M U S IC
“I’m heartbroken to hear this news; C. Grace is my favor ite place to go in the Triangle,” wrote one patron, Rachel Mertz-Rodriguez. “Whenever I have out-of-town guests, my hubby and I treat them to a night of music and fancy drinks at the swankiest club in town.” Many regulars recalled Mardi Gras or New Year’s Eve par ties from years gone by. Others remembered the touching memorial held for pianist Courtland Stewart, who died in 2019 at age 45. Several commenters mentioned Godwin’s two fundraisers for hurricane relief in 2017 and 2018.
In 2018, renowned jazz singer Carol Sloane performed on the club’s small stage. Jazz legend Branford Marsalis occa
“For jazz musicians like myself, [C. Grace and Empress] were a dream come true,” says keyboardist and composer Michael Pelz-Sherman. “Good, well-cared-for grand pianos, a house sound system, and an actual stage where the music
PHOTO BY BRETT VILLENA
Curtain Close
“The music we made there was incredible, only surpassed by the friendships, many whom are now like family,” wrote jazz vocalist Lauren Meehan Machos. “It was an honor to play music there and I will forever be grateful for having thatAboveopportunity.”allelse,C. Grace was a place for jazz musicians to play. It was a bar and often drew talkative crowds, but five nights a week, the stage was open to musicians of all shapes and sizes. On Tuesdays, amateur artists could join weekly jam sessions for invaluable experience and expo sure. On weekends, local bands blasted jazz standards and improvised hot riffs.
The classy jazz bar, founded by Catrina Godwin in 2011, was like something out of the 1920s. Its lush velvet love seats and dim lighting created a romantic, old-fashioned atmosphere where people could enjoy a good drink and good conversation or simply a good night out on the town.
BY JASMINE GALLUP jgallup@indyweek.com When I first walked into C. Grace, several months after turning 21, it was like stepping into another world. I left behind the technicolor whirlwind of modern life, the stumbling bar-hoppers and glaring streetlights of Glenwood Avenue, and walked into an elegant blackand-white movie.
Remembering C. Grace C. Grace was beloved by hundreds, both patrons and performers. News of the club’s closure, posted by Godwin on social media last month, drew almost 300 comments. People shared memories of first kisses, weekends on the town, and legendary music performances.
Catrina Godwin of C. Grace jazz bar
After more than a decade at the heart of Raleigh’s live jazz scene, storied venue C. Grace calls it quits.
“Wherever they are, it has definitely cut down on the pool of people that would normally want to come and work in hospitality,” Godwin says. “[When we reopened after the COVID closure], it was really hard to find good people.”
And while C. Grace didn’t have a dress code, it was the kind of place where an evening gown or three-piece tuxedo wouldn’t have looked out of place. For a decade, C. Grace was the center of the live jazz scene in downtown Raleigh, regularly home to musical vir tuosos like trumpeter Al Strong and pianist Ryan Hansler.
Then, last month, it abruptly closed. The club’s closure on August 20 was a shock to many. C. Grace had survived the COVID-19 pandemic, reopening in June 2021 after having closed for more than a year. By all accounts, its relaunch was a success. Even after the coro navirus, the club drew crowds.
Godwin, like many restaurant and bar owners, both in the Triangle and nationwide, has had trouble finding employees post-pandemic. Her workers usually fall into three catego ries—college students, career bartenders, and part-time gig workers—and it’s employees in that last category who are hard to find. Many of the bartenders Godwin used to hire, who might have worked in hospitality one or two nights a week and also held down a day job, just aren’t there anymore, she says. She sees a lot of people working at Amazon or other large companies that offer comprehensive benefits. She thinks some potential hires may also have dedicated them selves to traditional careers during the COVID pandemic or developed a preference for working from home.
For Godwin, the music and the musi cians were one of the best parts of C. Grace, she says.
Godwin says C. Grace is unlikely to reopen. She’s 69 now and is focused on a new project—one smaller than her last—a traditional performance venue called Seven, which will also be located on Glenwood Avenue. When renovations are complete, she hopes to produce theatrical and musi cal performances there, maybe even a few jazz concerts, she says.
Godwin says she plans to lease out the space that was once home to C. Grace and Empress. What kind of business will move into the former jazz club is unknown. But before that happens, Godwin wants to host one last hurrah at C. Grace, a farewell party for everyone who loved it. “I had a great time at C. Grace and Empress Room,” she says. “I was just so lucky to be able to have a business that was so rewarding and so much fun. I got to meet so many great people and enjoy [the] music. It was like having a party every night.”
INDYweek.com September 7, 2022 19 was front and center, not an afterthought or a sideshow.” C. Grace was a “world-class jazz club,” Pelz-Sherman adds, “on par with anything even New York City has to offer.” Pelz-Sherman, like many other local jazz musicians, was a regular performer at C. Grace. The club was one of the few plac es in Raleigh jazz performers could find steady gigs, according to another regular, saxophonist Gregg Gelb. Gelb has played two or three times a month at C. Grace since it opened, he says. “You didn’t go in there expecting to put on a concert,” Gelb says, “but there were many nights … when we just felt like we had the audience in the palm of our hands. They were really digging hearing early jazz. We would be fired up and the audience would be totally into it …. People were applauding and cheering the band on.” Playing gigs at local clubs like C. Grace doesn’t make musicians enough money to live on, however, Gelb says. Often, perform ers supplement their income by teaching or booking other, higher-paying gigs like wed dings or concerts. “But [clubs like C. Grace] kept you playing and kept you vibrant,” Gelb says. “You could build up your audi ence. You could build up your email list. You could sell CDs. Being out in public, I tell you— it was great.” Not everyone who went to C. Grace went for the performances, but, as Pelz-Sher man says, the music was front and center. At C. Grace, musicians had a real oppor tunity to “strike up a relationship with the audience,” Gelb says. And the audience had a chance to really“Therelisten.were always moments when the band was doing things just right and the audience could tell,” Gelb says. “Some of my really hot soloists, like Steve Anderson, he could awe the audience at times. That’s the beauty of jazz, really, you just don’t know what somebody is going to come up with. And Catrina, thank God she want ed to have jazz—because where else do you get the opportunity to hear improvised solos that just knock you off your feet?”
“That’s the beauty of jazz, really, you just don’t know what somebody is going to come up with. And Catrina, thank God she wanted to have jazz— because where else do you get the opportunity to hear improvised solos that just knock you off your feet?”
“I used to sit there and hope that every body in the room would feel like I did and understand how lucky they were to get to hear the talent we have around here,” God win says. “We have so many talented musi cians, and they all became friends of mine. I plan on still seeing them, but being able to go down every single night and hear live music from these people that are such great talents, I’m definitely going to miss that.” What’s next?
C. Grace, a family business, was also run with the help of Godwin’s daugh ter and the bar’s namesake, Catherine Grace. But Catherine is busy with a new baby and two restaurants of her own, she says—SideBar and Hank’s Downtown Dive, both in Cary. “It’s definitely a sad thing,” Catherine says. “We’ll miss the music, but hopefully it’s not the end of jazz in Raleigh.” W
page
20 September 7, 2022 INDYweek.com
Collective Soul / Switchfoot $45+. Wed, Sept. 7, 7 p.m. Koka Amphitheatre,BoothCary.
The House Party Fri, Sept. 9, 10 p.m. The Station, Carrboro.
The Pink Stones / Teddy and the Rough Riders $12. Sat, Sept. 10, 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. Planning for Burial $10. Sat, Sept. 10, 7 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Unchained: A Tribute to Van Halen $10. Sat, Sept. 10, 9 p.m. Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh.
&DannyLiveINDYWEEK.COMJazzwithGrewenGriffanzo Mon, Sept. 12, 6 p.m. Imbibe, Chapel Hill. Tall Heights $18. Mon, Sept. 12, 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. Tatiana Hargreaves $10. Mon, Sept. 12, 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Brian Horton Trio Tues, Sept. 13, 9 p.m. Kingfisher, Durham. Haley Heynderickx $12. Tues, Sept. 13, 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Lake Street Dive $45+. Tues, Sept. 13, 8 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh. Leo Kottke $35. Tues, Sept. 13, 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro. Mysti Mayhem Tues, Sept. 13, 7 p.m. The Oak House, Durham. Stan Comer Tues, Sept. 13, 7 p.m. Imbibe, Chapel Hill. Mazey Eddings: Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake Sat, Sept. 10, 3 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. Bela Krompecher:KoeLove, Death Photosynthesis& Mon, Sept. 12, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. Kelly Hogan and Viji Sathy: Inclusive Teaching Tues, Sept. 13, 5:30 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. Neal Hutcheson: The PopcornMoonshinerSutton Tues, Sept. 13, 6 p.m. So & So Books, Raleigh.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MOTORCO
Jim Ketch Swingtet $15+. Fri, Sept. 9, 8 p.m. Sharp Nine Gallery, Durham. Rock-N-Romance $40+. Fri, Sept. 9, 7:30 p.m. Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary. Spiritualized Live $34. Fri, Sept. 9, 8:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro.
The Temptations / The Four Tops $35+. Fri, Sept. 9, 8 p.m. DPAC, Durham. Third Eye: A Tribute to Tool $12. Fri, Sept. 9, 9 p.m. Lincoln Raleigh.Theatre, WINDHAND $15. Fri, Sept. 9, 9 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham.
Louise Hawes: Big Rig Thurs, Sept. 8, 5 p.m. Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill. Peter Brown: Creepy Crayon! Thurs, Sept. 8, 6 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. Craig Johnson: Hell and Back Sat, Sept. 10, 7 p.m. Quail Ridge Books, Raleigh. Homeland: Is Home Still Home? Sun, Sept. 11, 4 p.m. Baldwin Durham.Auditorium, Jazz SundayBrunchwith Al Strong Sun, Sept. 11, 12 p.m. Alley Twenty Six, Durham. Margo Cilker $15. Sun, Sept. 11, 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. Sights and Sounds Concert Series: Seraph Brass $31. Sun, Sept. 11, 2 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh. Action Bronson $30. Mon, Sept. 12, 7 p.m. The Ritz, Raleigh. music like to plan ahead?like to plan ahead?
FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR:
Qwanqwa performs at Motorco Music Hall on Thursday, Sept. 8.
CULTURE CALENDAR
OneRepublic $21+. Sat, Sept. 10, 7 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park, Raleigh. Patrick McGrew Trio Sat, Sept. 10, 7:30 p.m. The Oak House, Durham.
Carrie SyncopatedMarshallGold $30. Sun, Sept. 11, 4 and 7 p.m. Sharp Nine Gallery, Durham. Women’s Voices from EuropeEastern Fri, Sept. 9, 8 p.m. Auditorium,BaldwinDurham.
Five Finger Death Punch $20+. Wed, Sept. 7, 6:30 p.m. Coastal Credit Union Music Park, Raleigh. Holy Faun $15. Wed, Sept. 7, 8 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. Jake Blount $12. Wed, Sept. 7, 8 p.m. The Pinhook, Durham. Live Jazz with Marc Puricelli and Friends Wed, Sept. 7, 7 p.m. Imbibe, Chapel Hill. Croce Plays Croce: 50th Anniversary $45+. Thurs, Sept. 8, 8 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham.
RockContemporaryChadbourneEugeneBand$12. Thurs, Sept. 8, 7:30 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. Mellow Swells Thurs, Sept. 8, 7:30 p.m. Imbibe, Chapel Hill. Qwanqwa $18. Thurs, Sept. 8, 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. Tracks Music Series Thurs, Sept. 8, 6 Lot,Rosemary/Columbiap.m.ChapelHill.
Please check with local venues for their health and safety protocols.
Chris Stamey’s A ShadeBrand-NewofBlue Sat, Sept. 10, 8 p.m. Moeser Auditorium, Chapel Hill. Geoff Clapp Trio $25. Sat, Sept. 10, 8 p.m. Sharp Nine Gallery, Durham. Jordy Searcy $15. Sat, Sept. 10, 8 p.m. Motorco Music Hall, Durham. Lee Brice: Label Me Proud Tour $47+. Sat, Sept. 10, 7 p.m. Red Hat Raleigh.Amphitheater,
INDYweek.com September 7, 2022 21
CULTURE CALENDAR
Victor/Victoria screens at the Varsity Theatre on Tuesday, Sept. 13. PHOTO COURTESY OF VARSITY THEATRE
MovieDoubleFood-ThemedFeatureNight Fri, Sept. 9, 7 p.m. Durham Central Park, Durham. screen Paperhand InterventionPuppet $20. Aug. 12–Sept. 18, various times. The Forest ChapelTheatre,Hill. Blues for an Alabama Sky $20+. Sept. 7–25, various times. ChapelRepertoryPlayMakersCompany,Hill.
American Dance Festival Outdoor Series $30. Sept. 8-11, 7:30 p.m. NCMA, Raleigh. Jim Jeffries $40+. Thurs, Sept. 8, 7 p.m. DPAC, Durham. The Making of Major the Bull $50. Thurs, Sept. 8, 6 p.m. The Durham Hotel, Durham. Mind Under Matter Campout Festival $22+. Sept. 9-12, various Raleigh.Lakesidetimes.Retreats, Drag Queens Are Coming $10. Fri, Sept. 9, 10 p.m. Cat’s Cradle Back Room, Carrboro. stage art Time Bandits and The Meaning of Life $10. Fri, Sept. 9, 7 p.m. The Carolina Theatre, Durham. 2022CatVideoFest $11. Sun, Sept. 11, 3 p.m. Raleigh.DrafthouseAlamoCinema, Ackland Film Forum: VictoriaVictor/ Tues, Sept. 13, 7:30 p.m. Varsity Theatre, Chapel Hill. Van Gogh: The ExperienceImmersive $35. Sept. 7–Dec. 31, various Promenade,Pleasanttimes.ValleyRaleigh. What’s Flavor?!YourExhibit Sept. 11-13, various times. Orange County Historical Hillsborough.Museum, Jackie MacLeod It’s a Path Reception Sun, Sept. 11, 4 p.m. Horace Williams House, Chapel Hill.
FOR OUR COMPLETE COMMUNITY CALENDAR: INDYWEEK.COM Ackland Film Forum: House of Wax Wed, Sept. 7, 7:30 p.m. Varsity Theatre, Chapel Hill.
22 September 7, 2022 INDYweek.com INDY CLASSIFIEDS classy@indyweek.com 720 Ninth Street, Durham, NC 27705 Hours: Monday–Friday 10–7 | Saturday & Sunday 10–6 In-Store CurbsideShoppingPickUp DISCOUNT CLUB FREE FOR EDUCATORSALL & HEALTHWORKERSCARE 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. P U Z Z L E S su | do | ku © Puzzles by Pappocom There is really only one rule to Sudoku: Fill in the game board so that the numbers 1 through 9 occur exactly once in each row, column, and 3x3 box. The numbers can appear in any order and diagonals are not considered. Your initial game board will consist of several numbers that are already placed. Those numbers cannot be changed. Your goal is to fill in the empty squares following the simple rule above. If you just can’t wait, check out the current week’s answer key at www.indyweek.com, and click “puzzle pages.” Best of luck, and have fun! www.sudoku.com this week’s puzzle level: 9.07.22solution to last week’s puzzle #17 2348 763 49 64 8679 95 75 352 4276 239745168 758216943 614398257 572961384 186432795 943857621 821674539 367589412 495123876#18MEDIUM#18 419 653 8295 43 162 27 5986548 472613859932 695478123 318295764 246357981 731869245 859142376 124986537 563721498 397987534612#19 8562 437 478 63 841 916 5348 752236897145 978541632 145263978 457319286 621485793 389672451 792138564 563924817 814756329#20#20 15 91 23874 9285 79 49527 24 63843195726 795426318 261387954 374219685 589764231 612538479 438952167 926871543 Page157643892 5of2530/10/2005
Outdoor Counselor Job Seeking employees at Piedmont Wildlife Center to run our Homeschool and Afterschool programs. Have fun in nature. Work the days and hours that fit your schedule. To apply: Email a resume and cover letter to camp@piedmontwildlifecenter.org. Programs start in September. Applications accepted on a rolling basis. Hourly rates starting at $12.
utilizing exp w/: Microsoft Azure DevOps CICD Pipeline; Windows PowerShell Scripting; GitLab CICD Pipeline; Jenkins; JFrog Artifactory; Java; Spring Boot; Maven; Automation Testing Integration w/ Selenium Framework & Worksoft Certify; RESTful API; Microsoft .Net, C#, WPF, ASP.Net MVC, Web API, Web Forms; SSIS; SSRF; & Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Email resume w/ cvr ltr to: Paige. Whitesell@Truist.com (Ref. Job No. R0066007) LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE To adver tise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact adver tising@indyweek.com To adver tise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact adver tising@indyweek.com To adver tise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact adver tising@indyweek.com To adver tise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact adver tising@indyweek.com To adver tise or feature a pet for adoption, please contact adver tising@indyweek.com
Software Engineer III Software Engineer III, F/T at Truist (Raleigh, NC) Deliver highly complex solutions w/ significant system linkages, dependencies, associated risk. Lead & perform dvlpmt efforts such as analysis, dsgn, coding/creating, & testing. Oversee & participate in testing, implmtn, maintenance, & escalated support of Truist’s most complex solutions. Dvlpmt incl but is not limited to customized coding, s/ ware integration, analysis, configuring solutions, or the use of tools pertinent to the area, project, or system to config ure or generate a solution. Must have Bach’s deg in Comp Sci, Comp Engg, or related field w/ a tech’l concentration/ focus. Must have 6 yrs of progressive exp in s/ware engg or IT consulting positions performing the following: apply ing in-depth knowl in info systems & understanding of key business processes & competitive strategies related to the IT function to identify, apply, & implmt IT best prac tices; applying broad functional knowl in reqmt gathering, analysis, dsgn, dvlpmt, testing, implmtn, & deployment of applications; planning & managing projects & solving complex problems by applying best practice; providing direction & mentoring less exp’d teammates; &
EMPLOYMENT
INDYweek.com September 7, 2022 23INDY CLASSIFIEDS classy@indyweek.com C L A S S I F I E D S HEALTH & WELL BEING 919-416-0675 www.harmonygate.com
Executive Director/Pharmacy Manager Chatham Cares Community Pharmacy (Siler City NC) is hiring a part-time Executive Director/Pharmacy Manager. Must be a licensed pharmacist and located in the Piedmont region of the state. Bilingual English/ Spanish skills a plus. For more information or to apply: ChathamCares.com/executive-director.
The Not-At-All Official Alternatives Provider for Hopscotch Visit our tent and catch us at select Day Parties (only the good ones) text us and we’ll tell you where we’re gonna be and how you can score some for your wedding/game-watch/post-cut goofoff thanks for watching the boys, Judy! or Nab your own case now 919-306-8598 exclusively andandPharmacy+MarketPoints),Wine,like:Alt-FriendlyatretailersCraftyBeer,andSpirits(FiveGlenwoodSouth(GSouth),IrisCoffeeLab(GSouth)(yourshopgoeshere).