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A TRUE PROMISE WILL NEVER BE BROKEN
Enjoy Life, Blessed with Friendships
From left to right: Sally Conterno and Lo Hanson
“ The apartments are so well insulated that you are never disturbed by noise from other apartments. I really enjoy the activities and entertainment. But the best thing about Friends Homes is my neighbor!” - Sally Conterno
The friendly spirit is felt by all who enter and is the quality that makes us truly special. With so many events and activities, our motto is “You are only bored if you want to be.” 6100 West Friendly Avenue • Greensboro, NC 27410 Phone (336) 292-9952 • www.friendshomes.org
The Bold & The Beautiful Opulent and Lavish homes filled with unique features and charming characteristic
Gorgeous
Elegant
Stylish
Inviting Katie L. Redhead GRI, CRS
Broker/Owner/REALTOR速 336.430.0219 mobile 336.274.1717 office
We’ll get you moving!
200 Irving Place
7 Flagship Cove
Greensboro, NC
8407 Oakchester Court
Greensboro, NC
Mitzie Weatherly
Diane Thompson
Greensboro-Green Valley 336-314-5500 Mitzie.Weatherly@allentate.com
4300 Vinsanto Way
Oak Ridge, NC
Summerfield, NC
Ramilya Siegel
Greensboro-Green Valley 336-215-0402 Diane.Thompson@allentate.com
Bill Guill
Oak Ridge 336-215-9856 Ramilya.Siegel@allentate.com
Greensboro-N Elm 336-549-0410 Bill.Guill@allentate.com
$1,125,000
$885,000
$839,500
$750,000
Enjoy a lovely walk along the 15th fairway to the club. Large rooms with a circular flow. Formal rooms plus a study and bonus room. Front and back stairs, large corner lot, attached two car garage, courtyard patio plus four bedrooms, three full and two half baths are just a few special features. Beautifully updated and meticulously maintained for the discerning buyer.
Lakefront home built by Isenhour. Exquisite molding & ceiling detail in finished basement. 5 or 6 bedrooms. 3 fireplaces. Stunning screened porch & deck w/great view. New stainless steel appliances in kitchen. Elegant 1st floor office. Family living abounds in terrific basement w/den, rec room, game room & wet bar, exercise room, Music room + 6th bedroom and bath. Beautifully landscaped.
5 bedrooms/ 5 full +2 half bath in one of Oak Ridge’s most desirable communities, Linville Oaks. Features teenage suite/ in-law quarters with kitchen, private garage, covered terrace area. Ideal for entertaining. Gourmet kitchen w/center island. Breakfast area, stunning keeping room with easy access to deck. Extensive moldings, well-planned functionality throughout, exceptional location.
Custom built home with every detail and update addressed. Enjoy elegant dining from gourmet cook’s kitchen. Host neighborhood barbecues on the deck. And movie night in the home theater. Nature trail entrance just steps away. Car lift in garage – space for 4th car. Nestled on a private 1.43 acre lot with forested backdrop, this home has everything you desire for entertainment and living.
MLS# 719680
MLS# 728688
MLS# 761056
MLS# 755306
6201 New Bailey Trail
7 Elm Ridge Lane
Greensboro, NC
2747 Emerald Farm
Greensboro, NC
Angie Wilkie
Jay Brower
Greensboro-N Elm 336-451-9519 Angie.Wilkie@allentate.com
303 Pearce Drive
Climax, NC
Jamestown, NC
Betty Gilmore
Greensboro-Green Valley 336-544-1728 Jay.Brower@allentate.com
Kelley Schaefer
Greensboro-Green Valley 336-544-1716 Betty.Gilmore@allentate.com
Greensboro-Green Valley 336-510-1865 Kelley.Schaefer@allentate.com
$699,000
$695,000
$595,000
$549,600
European style custom built home. Grand entrance w/ stone surround and exposed wood beams; dining room with coffered ceilings; cooks dream kitchen w/ 5 burner gas cooktop, built In Bosch oven/microwave, butler’s pantry. Keeping room/family room. Screened porch with fireplace and backyard w/ fire pit. Gorgeous master w/bath on main; game room and bonus up; sprinkler system; central vac; security.
Wonderful lifestyle opportunity! Beautiful five bedroom home with master retreat. Amazing flow between the open, well equipped kitchen and family room, dining room, living room and sunroom. Home features moldings, hardwoods, marble foyer and many windows. Beautifully landscaped yard, outdoor living/sunroom leads to private patio. Have room to play or garden on this .55 acre lot.
3 bedroom and 2 bath, Log home (147 years) sits on 66 acre, farm/estate. Recent additions feature custom moldings, built-ins, hardwoods, plantation shutters. Large master bedroom & bathroom, large walk-in closet w/ attic pull down. Great Room - features dining/family room combined. Fireplace in the kitchen. Views from multiple porches of the beautiful land/pastures/barn. A must see home!
This home has space for all your family’s needs. Five bedrooms, five bathrooms, flex space and upgrades throughout. With .84 acres, you could have a mini sports field in backyard. Store all your toys in a three car garage with cement floored walk-in storage under the house! Neighborhood amenities include pool, tennis and playground. Welcome home!
MLS# 762433
MLS# 765492
MLS# 712834
MLS# 759386
1323 Westridge Forest Court
1 Chatterson Court
Greensboro, NC
Roberta Wall
Whitsett NC 27377
Oak Ridge, NC
Tina Marsh
Greensboro-N Elm 336-215-4537 Roberta.Wall@allentate.com
802 S Glendevon Court
502 Starfire Court
Greensboro, NC
Delaina Ellington
Ashley Fitzsimmons
Greensboro-Green Valley 336-510-1851 Tina.Marsh@allentate.com
Greensboro-N Elm 336-263-1767 Delaina.Ellington@allentate.com
Greensboro-Green Valley 336-510-1813 Ashley.Fitzsimmons@allentate.com
$499,000
$488,000
$479,000
$474,900
Amazing upgrades in this brick & stone home on a private cul-de-sac lot! Incredible millwork with coffered ceilings, trim & crown moldings, wainscoting, arched doorways. Granite countertops. Raised sinks in baths, exceptional tilework. Theater room with stadium floors & wet bar, additional room upstairs, master & 2 additional bedrooms on main. Great outdoor living space w/ tiered Trex decking, pergola, covered porch.
Front porch and custom leaded glass front doors open to 10” and 9” ceilings. Gourmet kitchen with island, granite countertops, under cabinet lighting, double ovens, gas cooktop and bar opens to morning room. Two story great room opens to patio and fenced yard. Spacious master suite with included two walk-in closets and large bath. Fifth bedroom/bonus with full bath. Walk to parks, trails and lake.
Custom-built in 2013 with basement! Heavy moldings, hardwoods, walk-in attics. Bosch appliances, gas cooktop, tile backsplash, granite & walk-in pantry! Mud room. Master suite complete w/oversized tiled shower, his/her sinks, walkin closets and private water closet! Upper level features 2 bedrooms w/built-in desks, tiled Jack & Jill bathroom, plus bonus room! Vaulted screened porch/deck/covered patio.
Marvelous basement home with warm & welcome feel throughout. Open floor plan on the 18th fairway at the Stoney Creek Golf Community. Pool, nature trails, sidewalks, shopping & medical! Convenient to I85/40, 3 car garage, 5 bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths, finished basement w/family room, stone fireplace, wet bar and bedroom w/full bath, storage, master bedroom on main level.
MLS# 752227
MLS# 759075
MLS# 758696
MLS# 751697
Official Partner of The Carolina Panthers
10 Heathrow Court
17 Independence Court
Greensboro, NC
4800 Starmount Drive
Greensboro, NC
Robbin Smith
Greensboro, NC
Sara Tollison
Greensboro-Green Valley 336-544-1795 Robbin.Smith@allentate.com
Wayne Young
Greensboro-Green Valley 336-288-1507 Sara.Tollison@allentate.com
Greensboro-N Elm 336-544-5839 Wayne.Young@allentate.com
$449,900
$445,000
$420,000
Stunning all brick home in a private cul-de-sac. Open floor, gourmet kitchen has easy pull drawers and cabinets. Sunroom showcases the backyard with access to the deck. The large master suite has a tray ceiling, his and her vanities along with a separate tub/shower. Bedrooms have private bath. The third floor bonus/full bath, window seat, craft room w/ storage space.
Architect designed and custom built. Bright, open floor plan with flexible room use. New carpet throughout. New granite & tile in kitchen. Two story living room. Beautiful detail. Sitting/office area adjacent to main level master bedroom opens to sunroom and overlooks back yard. Popular, quiet cul-de-sac location where neighbors share meals, hold parades and have holiday celebrations.
Amazing new price! Can you find a home with a cook’s kitchen, where your friends gather around the huge island, in the great room or onto the patio and yard? You can. Will you ever find a place with convenience, room to spare, and nature? You have. This is a home to remember. Come see it today!
MLS# 706314
MLS# 730077
MLS# 733738
At home in the Carolinas including seven offices in the Triad region:
Asheboro Burlington Greensboro-Green Valley 24 Hadley Park Court
6203 Tamannary Drive
300 Cross Vine Lane
Greensboro, NC
Greensboro, NC
Betty Rissmiller
Greensboro, NC
Amy Cook
Greensboro-Green Valley 336-544-1739 Betty.Rissmiller@allentate.com
Kim Mathis
Greensboro-N Elm 336-544-5854 Amy.Cook@allentate.com
Greensboro-N Elm 336-339-7757 Kim.Mathis@allentate.com
$399,900
$365,000
$339,000
AMAZING views at Grandover Golf Course. Beautiful landscaping plus clubhouse, swim & tennis & discounted greens fees all included in HOA fee! Mint condition home with hardwoods, granite, high ceilings, large rooms, formal dining, two-story garage with gas log fireplace, office, 4 bedrooms, 28x14 porch with vaulted ceiling, fans, cable TV and cool breezes!
Wonderful well-maintained home on large, wooded lot. Hardwoods throughout. Beautiful crown molding & plantation shutters. Spacious family room with tiled surround gas fireplace. Upgraded kitchen with stainless steel appliances. Breakfast area that overlooks the pool w/ bricked patio. An amazing, fenced backyard with complete privacy. 3rd floor storage space that could easily become a finished bonus room.
REDUCED! Impeccably maintained brick traditional with extended garage and gorgeous patio at Checkerberry! Seasonal lake views, permanent walk-up attic storage (could easily be finished). Kitchen island, Jenn Air appliances, Corian tops. Hardwoods throughout downstairs. Laundry with sink. Breakfast room with bay window. New roof 2013, new water heater 2013, new furnace 2015. Agent related to seller.
MLS# 752707
MLS# 758872
MLS# 751229
602 Elmwood Drive
2697 Brooke Meadows Drive
Greensboro, NC
Browns Summit, NC
Bobbie Maynard
Linda Taft
Greensboro-Green Valley 336-215-8017 Bobbie.Maynard@allentate.com
Greensboro-N Elm 336-558-5959 Linda.Taft@allentate.com
$330,000
$299,772
Beautiful home is situated in a quiet neighborhood and allows for ample entertaining space on main floor. Features a warm fireplace in den, sunroom that overlooks a well-landscaped backyard and updated appliances in the kitchen. Hardwoods under carpet except kitchen and sunroom. Heated two car garage, fenced backyard, and conveniently located to shopping, hospital and schools.
Light filled, open floor plan, master on main w/ tray ceiling. Master bath has jetted tub & shower. Sought after 2nd bedroom on main w/ full bath. Gleaming hardwoods, screened porch w/ fan, huge fenced back yard w/ fenced garden space. Granite counters & stunning backsplash in kitchen; vaulted ceilings; neutral colors. HW with HVAC certification.
MLS# 766010
MLS# 760770
Greensboro-N. Elm High Point Oak Ridge Winston-Salem
September 2015 Features
72 The Last Days of Jayne Mansfield
An unexpected gig at Greensboro’s iconic Plantation Supper Club in 1963 revived the fading Hollywood star’s career — and set the stage for her sad demise By Billy Ingram
61 Last Sweet
Poetry by Valerie Nieman
62 The Cones of Greensboro
How an immigrant family from Bavaria shaped the commerce of the New South and helped transform the city that became their home By Richard Zweigenhaft
66 City of Trees
Greensboro measures its march through time by its remarkable bounty of trees — and those who treasure them By Molly Sentell Haile
76 What’s Old Is New
At the brilliantly styled, ecofriendly Latham Park home of Julie and Chuck Clark, past and future enjoy a perfect marriage By Maria Johnson
89 September Almanac
Goddesses and gargoyles, gone moony, and the worm people cometh By Rosetta Fawley
Departments
45 The Pleasures of Life
11 Simple Life By Jim Dodson
47 Game On
14 Short Stories 17 Doodad By Ogi Overman 19 O.Harry By Harry Blair 21 Life’s Funny By Maria Johnson 23 Omnivorous Reader By Brian Lampkin 27 Scuppernong Bookshelf 31 Gate City Journal By Jonah Meyer 35 Folk Festival By Martha Nelson
By Cynthia Adams By Lee Pace
51 Pappadaddy’s Mindfield By Clyde Edgerton
52 A Novel Year By Wiley Cash
55
Birdwatch
By Susan Campbell
57 Life of Jane By Jane Borden
96 Arts & Entertainment September Calendar 117 Worth the Drive to High Point By Nancy Oakley
37 The Evolving Species
1 19 GreenScene 127 Accidental Astrologer
43 Short Story Winner
128 O.Henry Ending
By Grant Britt
By Deborah Gsell
By Astrid Stellanova By Cynthia Adams
Cover photograph and Photograph this page by Sam Froelich
6 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Art for Eyes | Eye for Arts Fine Eyewear, Artwork and Jewelry 327 South Elm | Greensboro 336.274.1278 | TheViewOnElm.com Becky Causey, Licensed Optician Find us on Facebook
Are you a candidate for a partial knee replacement? Not every arthritic knee needs a total knee replacement
M A G A Z I N E Volume 5, No. 9 “I have a fancy that every city has a voice.” 336.617.0090 1848 Banking Street Greensboro, NC 27408 www.ohenrymag.com Jim Dodson, Editor jim@ohenrymag.com Andie Stuart Rose, Art Director andie@ohenrymag.com
Matthew D. Olin, MD
has been certified & master course trained for the BioMet Oxford Partial Knee Replacement since its introduction to the US in 2004. To schedule an appointment with Matthew D. Olin, MD to determine if this surgery is for you. Call: 336.545.5030
Dr. Olin specializes in anterior hip replacement surgery, partial & total knee replacement surgery, in addition to revision hip & knee replacement surgery.
Nancy Oakley, Senior Editor nancy@ohenrymag.com David Claude Bailey, Senior Editor dbailey@ohenrymag.com Lauren Shumaker, Graphic Designer Kira Schoenfelder, Graphic Designer Contributing Editors Cynthia Adams, Harry Blair, Maria Johnson Contributing Photographers Lynn Donovan, Amy Freeman, Sam Froelich Contributors Jane Borden, Grant Britt, Susan Campbell, Wiley Cash, Clyde Edgerton, Rosetta Fawley, Pat Fitzgerald, John Gessner, Deborah Gsell, Molly Sentell Haile, Billy Ingram, Sara King, Brian Lampkin, Meridith Martens, Jonah Meyer, Martha Nelson, Valerie Nieman, Ogi Overman, Lee Pace, Astrid Stellanova, Richard Zweigenhaft
O.H Scan to watch an interactive video of a partial knee replacement.
David Woronoff, Publisher Advertising Sales Marty Hefner, Sales Director 336.707.6893, mhefner@ohenrymag.com Hattie Aderholdt, 336.601.1188 hattie@ohenrymag.com Lisa Allen, 336.210.6921 lisa@ohenrymag.com Amy Grove, 336.456.0827 amy@ohenrymag.com Circulation Darlene Stark, Circulation Director 910.693.2488
For more information about Dr. Olin and surgery visit www.GreensboroOrthopaedics.com
Advertising Graphic Design Dana Martin, 336.617.0090 dana@ohenrymag.com Subscriptions 336.617.0090 ©Copyright 2015. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. O.Henry Magazine is published by The Pilot LLC
8 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
THIS PLACE HAS A CENTURY OF STORIES TO TELL.
$379* Pinehurst Spa Package One night at The Carolina Overflowing breakfast buffet One 50-minute spa treatment
What will your story be? Village of Pinehurst, North Carolina • 844.733.5016 • pinehurst.com *Rate is per person, per night based on double occupancy. Valid 9.10-11.7.15. Subject to tax and resort service fee. Some restriction apply.
© 2015 Pinehurst, LLC
Since 1895, guests have arrived at Pinehurst seeking relaxation and departed with memories to last a lifetime. They fi nd solace in the soft swaying ferns on the hotel veranda, the sweet pine air on the fairways of our golf courses and the tranquility of our New England-style village. No matter what inspires your visit to Pinehurst, you’ll have plenty to talk about when you leave. Visit Pinehurst.com for all package options.
Simple Life
The Spirit of Opti By Jim Dodson
Twenty years ago this
month, I took my father on a long-dreamed-of golf trip back to England and Scotland, where he learned the game as a soldier prior to D-Day during the Second World War.
Being a veteran golf writer who’d chased the game extensively through England and Scotland, I set up what I believed to be a modest and meaningful itinerary appropriate to my dad’s physical infirmities, a roaming journey highlighted by visits to Lytham & St Annes Golf Club on the Lancashire Coast — where he was stationed during the war — with a finale at St Andrews, the Home of Golf. What I didn’t know at the moment we embarked was the full extent to which my dad’s cancer had returned after many years lying dormant, though I might have guessed as much by my mother’s comments as she saw us off at the airport in Greensboro. While my dad was charming the wings off a pretty airline employee, my mother gently took my elbow and calmly whispered: “Just so you know, darling, I’m completely opposed to you two going on this trip. The thought of your father walking those difficult courses in the rain and wind and cold, the two of you drinking beer and driving those narrow lanes gives me nightmares.” I patted her arm. “Everything will be just fine, Mom. Trust me. I’ll look after him. Besides, the beer is warm.” “Funny boy.” She managed a Steel Magnolia smile. But the look in her large blue eyes said she wasn’t even slightly amused. “I’ll look after him,” I promised She patted my arm. “You’d better, sweetie. If you don’t bring him back to me, you’ll need to seek asylum in Scotland.” For his part, you wouldn’t have detected anything amiss with my old man. He was visibly in high spirits and up to his old tricks with a charmed stranger, though as I learned just days later, his doctor had given him half a dozen weeks to live. My nickname for my father, dating nearly from our earliest days together on a golf course, when I was a hot-headed, club-throwing kid of 13, was Opti the Mystic. He was an adman with a poet’s heart, the most upbeat character and naturally optimistic human being I’ve ever known. As it turns out, we needed his famous optimism because just about everything that could go wrong did so almost from the moment we touched down in London in the midst of a driving rain storm. A scheduled round at Sunningdale Old — where Bobby Jones shot his perfect score — got washed away. Gale-force winds followed us all the way to the Lancashire coast, where I managed to book us into a historic Southport hotel that appeared to be holding a convention for narcoleptic seniors. The lobby was filled with napping gray-hairs as we stumbled in numb and dripping from an aborted round at nearby Royal Birkdale, where Arnold Palmer captured his first Open Championship in 1960. We managed to get four holes in, pulling trollies, before the Lancashire skies opened up with a vengeance. Instead, after cleaning up and having supper in the empty formal dining room, with fresh pints in hand we had a pitch and putt match through the The Art & Soul of Greensboro
corridors of the famous Prince of Wales, doing only minor damage to the fading wallpaper and Queen Anne furniture. During the match, Opti told me a lovely story I’d never heard about his parents, my rural grandparents, who drove their elderly Hudson to New York City to meet him off the troop ship from England in 1945, their first trip ever out of North Carolina. My mother, then working for an admiral in Annapolis, took a train to join them for the big reunion. They all put up in a hotel somewhere around Times Square. After a day of sightseeing, my dad found my grandfather — a devoted fisherman — on the darkened terrace garden of the hotel smoking a King Edward cigar and practicing his casting with a new rod and reel my father purchased for him at a famous sporting goods shop on Fifth Avenue. “He was a proud but quiet man, as you may recall. He never said much. That was the Indian blood in him,” Dad explained, reminding me that my grandfather’s mother, the family story went, was an orphaned Cherokee infant when George Washington Tate — for whom Greensboro’s Tate Street is named — found her during one of his Western circuits to preach the Gospel at one of the frontier Methodist churches he established. He named her Emma and raised her with four strapping sons on a farm near Mebane. She grew up to marry a ne’er-do-well horse farmer and fiddle player named Jimmy Dodson who kept a large farm off Buckhorn Road near the junction of Dodson’s Crossroads outside Carrboro. This was the farm where my father spent his happiest summers as a boy, tagging along through the field where Aunt Emma, the local natural healer, gathered herbs and wildflowers for her famous medicines. “He suggested we have a little casting competition like the one you and I are having with golf clubs — right there on the terrace of the hotel.” “Who won?” “Don’t recall. I’m sure it was him.” Naturally, my old man won the chip and putt match at the Prince of Wales that evening. His seasoned British-made short game was a thing of beauty, even at age 80. As we headed for bed, another memory surfaced, another story I’d never heard. “True story. When your grandfather was dying he asked me to give him a proper shave. He said he didn’t want to meet his maker looking so poorly.” “Did you?” “Of course. He passed away the next day. That’s how we Dodsons seem to go, you know — clean shaven and without a lot of fuss and bother. Maybe that’s the Indian in us.” At Lytham the next day, where Jones captured the Open Championship in 1923, a retired club secretary named Tony Nixon greeted us warmly and sent us out to play a delightful round in good English sunshine with my dad spinning one great tale after another. Afterward, we retreated to a nearby tavern where a drunken Irishman unexpectedly exhumed my father’s most haunting memory from that time: a tragic plane crash on the air base where he was scheduled to fly a glider into Normandy but in the meantime wrote the base newsletter and was in charge of parachute packing. The crash of an Allied bomber making an emergency landing after repairs took the lives of forty-one villagers, including twenty-six 5 and 6-year-olds at the village church’s annex. Fearing the effect on public morale, news of the tragedy September 2015
O.Henry 11
Living here means you have the support of the entire community.
Join us Thursday, October 1 | 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM Center City Park | Downtown Greensboro Pink in the Park is a celebration of the strides being made to fight breast cancer and a way to bring awareness to our community. It is also a way to honor those mothers, wives, sisters and friends who inspired us with their fight to keep learning and working toward research. As a way to support those battling the disease, we bring together vendors with helpful products and services. Please join us for this free event.
Simple Life never made the newspapers. But Bing Crosby was flown in to sing to the grieving families of Freckleton. My father, it turned out, was one of the first to arrive on the terrible scene, pulling victims out of the inferno. His burned hands sent him to the base infirmary — and knocked him out of the flight rotation. Given the high mortality rate of glider pilots in the subsequent invasion to liberate occupied France, the tragedy may be the reason I’m here today. “Life promises us sorrow,” Opti told me as we moseyed on up to Scotland, the last leg of our travels. “It’s up to us to add the joy.” The heavy rains followed us to Scotland, where the weather miraculously cleared long enough for us to play Turnberry and Gleneagles on glorious afternoons. We told tales and drank good warm beer the entire way, moving on to Gullane, where we played Muirfield with an old friend named Archie Baird and his little dog, Niblick. We finished up at St Andrews, missing our chance to play through the newly created daily lottery system but walking the Old Course at sunset, playing a round of air golf in the beautiful final rays of light falling over the cold North Sea and Eden Estuary. To no one’s surprise, Opti lived and worked longer than anyone expected him to — five more months, in fact. In late January, not long after his 80th birthday, he thanked his six employees, closed up his office behind Irving Park Plaza, and went home to die. I showed up a day or so later. With the help of a fantastic hospice worker named Bradley, I learned how to be my dad’s personal caretaker, performing tasks I never fathomed I would be capable of doing during those emotionally draining weeks that followed. As his days and nights inverted, we sat together having more conversations until one evening he asked me to give him a proper shave. “What’s that sound?” he asked as I carefully did my duty. I told him it was the sound of sleet falling outside. It was the first day of March. He smiled a little and told me not to worry, that skies would be sunny in the morning. He also said I should kiss my wife and take my two small children fishing. I assured him I would do so on both counts. Then he asked me to help him down the hallway to his wife’s bed. I closed the door behind me as I left, listening to my parents talk like shy newlyweds. Opti quietly slipped the bonds of this Earth early two mornings later, going the way Dodsons always seem to go — clean shaven and without much fuss or bother. It was a beautiful March morning. The little book I wrote about our last golf trip together, Final Rounds, was published the following November. It went on to become a surprise bestseller published in seven languages, selling more than half a million copies. After reading it, among other nice surprises, Arnold Palmer asked me to help him write his long-awaited memoirs. The estate of Ben Hogan followed. The thousands of letters I’ve received from fathers and sons and mothers and daughters since that time mean more than anything else. The spirit of Opti lives on. And the book is still in print, about to celebrate its 20th anniversary in late 2016. The letters still come. I answer every one of them. When Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro invited me to give the keynote speech opening their beautiful new facility in 1999, I was honored to do so, to explain how hospice care provided me with a life-affirming experience I wouldn’t trade for anything. For many years afterward, I was pleased to learn, hospice organizations around the country gave out copies of Final Rounds. Funny how so much life comes from death. Life promises us sorrow, you might say; it’s up to us to add the joy. Later this month, I get to do it again — serving as the emcee at Hospice and Palliative Care of the Sandhills. Somewhere, I’ll wager with a good healing pint of warm English beer, Opti the Mystic will be watching and smiling. OH Contact editor Jim Dodson at jim@ohenrymag.com. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
(From left to right:) Denise Bunton, Registered Client Service Associate; Michael Planning, CFP®, Financial Advisor Associate; Donna Miller, Client Service Associate; Paul Vidovich, First Vice President/Investments, Branch Manager; Phillip Joyce, Vice President/Investments; Jackie Wieland, First Vice President/Investments; Greg Gonzales, Senior Vice President/Investments; Rob Mitchell, Senior Vice President/Investments; Cassie Sawyer, Client Service Associate; Joanna Page, CPA, Registered Client Service Associate; Ronda Sizemore, AAMS®, Registered Client Service Associate
Our Team of Professionals Is Here to Serve You Paul A. Vidovich, AAMS®
Branch Manager First Vice President/Investments
Phillip H. Joyce
Vice President/Investments
Gregory E. Gonzales
Senior Vice President/Investments
Rob Mitchell
Senior Vice President/Investments Portfolio Manager – Solutions Program
Jacqueline T. Wieland
First Vice President/Investments
Michael J. Planning, CFP® Financial Advisor Associate
(336) 478-3700 (844) 233-8608 629 Green Valley Road, Suite 211 Greensboro, North Carolina 27408 Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated | Member SIPC & NYSE | www.stifel.com
September 2015
O.Henry 13
Short Stories Our picks for what’s happening in Greensboro this month
Art Speaks
The belle wears a necklace showing her multiracial ancestors. More framed faces peer from a cabinet behind her. “It’s sort of autobiographical when it comes to my own heritage and the racial blood-mixing of the antebellum South and what makes people who they are today. There are so many assumptions about who people are,” says Greensboro artist Inga Kimberly Brown, talking about her painting, The Belle of a Southern Mix. A Philadelphia native whose family hails from Eastern North Carolina, Brown is an M.F.A. student at UNCG and one of the artists whose work will appear during Art + Dialogue: Responding to Racial Tension in America, a series at Greensboro College and other locations throughout the city from September 24 to October 11. Find a schedule of events at artanddialoguegso.wordpress.com.
Prêt-à-Porter
Not William Sydney, but “porter,” as in French for “to wear,” the crux of Greensboro Fashion Week (September 16–19). Promoting the local fashion scene, GSOFW aims to unify the city’s diverse population, offer opportunities to college students, boost downtown and support Emily’s Plea, a charity warning against drunk and distracted driving. In lieu of a red carpet, RED Cinemas is the kickoff venue for industry professionals before three more days of shows elsewhere featuring emerging designers’ creations, veils and tails (wedding trends) — before the living end, high-end retail. So run for the runway to see what it means to be fashion forward in N.C. www.greensborofashionweek.com.
Adventures in Musicland
Under Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s baton, the Greensboro Symphony takes audiences to exciting worlds adapted from literature in “Musical Quest,” the kickoff to its 2015–16 season on September 24 and 26 at Dana Auditorium. The first in the Tanger Outlets Masterworks Series includes three diverse pieces: Richard Strauss’s Don Juan, Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait and Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt. Joining the Symphony on Lincoln Portrait is actor, author, director and screenwriter Peter Coyote, who lends his distinctive voice, a staple of PBS documentaries, to Abraham Lincoln’s writings set to folk tunes. Peer Gynt, adapted from Henrik Ibsen’s play, gets a boost from soprano and Greensboro native Emily Rose Siar. Hunger for more? Check out how Sitkovetsky’s violin interpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations at the Rice Toyota Sitkovetsky & Friends Chamber Music Series at UNCG’s School of Music Recital Hall. Tickets: (336)335-5456, ext. 224 or ticketmaster.com.
14 O.Henry
September 2015
Art meets science in Greenhill’s newest exhibit, Microcosm, opening Friday, September 18 at 5:30 p.m. Life at the atomic or cellular level is a muse for six artists, including Amanda Small, whose Concomitance uses porcelain, acrylic and LED lights to evoke the circular world of what grows in a petri dish. Hear the 2012–2013 N.C. Arts Commission fellow discuss her work on September 17 at 6 p.m at UNCG’s Gatewood Studio Arts Building. Or see it at the exhibit on the following day, where attendees can sip wine or beer, munch on appetizers or peer into a Scanning Electron Microscope. Later in the month on September 22, Greenhill ArtQuest art educator Laura Maruzzella will show watercolorists how to mimic the layered patterning found in microscopic imagery during a studio workshop. Info: (336) 333-7460 or greenhillnc.org/microcosm.
Worth the Drive to Winston-Salem (and Southern Pines)
The roster of speakers at Bookmarks Festival of Books and Authors (September 10–12) in Winston-Salem is a Who’s Who of the literati: David Baldacci, Pat Conroy, Candace Sex and the City Bushnell, and N.C. writers Ron Rash, Fred Chappell and John Railey. Fulfilling its mission to connect readers with writers, Bookmarks features discussions with cookbook authors and sportswriters, art exhibitions and story times. Speaking of writers, don’t miss 2015 Newberry medal–winner and poet Kwame Alexander (The Crossover), who’ll be pulling double-duty with a talk at UNCG’s Elliott Center at 7 p.m. on the 14th. www.bookmarks.org or uncfol.blogspot.com. Newberry’s reach extends farther south to Southern Pines at The Country Bookshop, where another award-winner, Katherine Applegate, will make her only N.C. appearance on Thursday, October 1, presenting her new book, Crenshaw. The eponymous Crenshaw is a gigantic imaginary cat who helps a boy who has fallen on bad times deal with the challenges he faces. Tickets: 910-692-3211 or thecountrybookshop.biz. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
photograph By William van den Hoed
Cell Mates
Gardening at Night
Salvia, Russian sage and hydrangias are some of the stars at the Gateway Garden, but real stars, as seen through HPU prof Dennis Hands’ Celestron NexStar 6SE telescope, are equally gazeworthy at the Goodnight Moon Gala (beginning at 7 p.m. on Saturday, September 19). As is the grav ity-defying performance of aerialist Sabrina Woods and the newest sculpture of Jim Gallucci. Grab some chow, a glass of wine and sway to the strains of jazz guitarist Gary Woodward or, later, the Radials with Lisa James. Or bid in the silent auction, the proceeds of which benefit Greensboro Beautiful, the nonprofit organization that developed and helps maintain Greensboro’s four public gardens, the Bog Garden, the Greensboro Arboretum, Tanger Family Bicentennial Garden and Gateway, the city’s newest. Info: (336) 373-2199 or greensborobeautiful.org.
Mountain Do
courtesy of Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center
“Many people in North Carolina have heard of Black Mountain, but few have a clear idea of how radical it really was, or of how important it has been in the development of American culture,” says ECU prof Alex Albright, who will headline Scuppernong Books’ Black Mountain Festival Thursday, September 17 at 7 p.m., by telling people “Why Black Mountain College Matters (but Doesn’t).” The experimental school operated outside Asheville from 1933–56 and became a haven for many of the United States’ most famous avant-garde artists and, especially, poets. In that realm, on Monday, September 21 at 7 p.m., former N.C. Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti will reminisce about BMC writer Fielding Dawson. Also featured will be sessions on other poets — and on pottery, music, painting, revelry and the politics that emergered from the close mountain community. See O.Henry’s Arts Calendar on page 112 for a complete listing of events. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
High Five
photograph by lynn donovan
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
1) A drugstore clerk tries to rid himself of a romantic rival in “The Love Philtre of Ikey Schoenstein.” 2) A thief goes soft on his intended victim in “Makes the Whole World Kin.” 3) A sales clerk and a bill collector take a vacation from their humdrum lower-middle-class life in a boutique hotel in “Transients in Arcadia.” 4) A couple of scheming flimflammers get flimflammed themselves in “The Exact Science of Matrimony.” 5) A justice of the peace restores marital peace through a complicated ruse in “Whirligig of Life.” Yes, it’s 5 by O.Henry, the Greensboro Historical Museum’s annual production of five William Sydney Porter short stories — each of them with laughs, lessons and a surprise ending — adapted for the stage by playwright Joseph Hoesl and artistic director Barbara Britton. One week only, from Wednesday, September 16, until Sunday, September 20. For show times, consult (336) 3732949 or greensborohistory.org.
Ogi Sez Ogi Overman
While the National Folk Festival (Sept. 11–13) is clearly the centerpiece of this month’s entertainment calendar, there’s no dearth of musical offerings for the other twentyseven days. No need to be wailing “September Song” in your adult beverage just yet, and here’s why.
• September 10, Blind
Tiger: While my old pals, the Carter Brothers, made the big move to Nashville over two decades ago, they still have a huge and loyal fan following around these parts. A foot-stompin’, rip-roarin’ good time is guaranteed for all. • September 11, High Point Theatre: I had the privilege of hearing Amy Grant during her last trip to the Triad. Trust me on this, you will feel better when you walk out of her concert than you did when you walked in. • September 15, Cone Denim Entertainment Center: If there’s a better band that defines alt-country/Americana than DriveBy Truckers (with the possible exception of Wilco), I don’t know who they would be. Do not drive by Cone Denim for this one. • September 17, Mendenhall Station: If you thought live, outdoor beach music was over for the season, take heart. The endless summer continues in downtown High Point with none other than the Band of Oz. • September 19, O. Henry Hotel: Thursday Jazz and Cocktails — it’s the talk of the town. So much so that it is expanding to include a Saturday night series with a different format. It kicks off in grand fashion with Swing Strings, featuring Keith Buckner, Jim Carson and Bobby Doolittle.
September 2015
O.Henry 15
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True Blues
After a wtrip to the crossroads, Peter May’s soul is still intact
Coffee With
Nancy Hoffmann I recently caught up with Councilmember Nancy Hoffmann over coffee at Scuppernong's. The following is an edited text of our chat. -Terry Wessling (Small Business Owner, Greensboro)
Q:
Photograph courtesy of robert kirk
P
eter May doesn’t get enough credit for his guitar virtuosity. The noted Winston-Salem bluesman, reigning winner of the prestigious Piedmont Blues Preservation Society Blues Challenge, is known for his modern lyrics and distinctive baritone voice. His six-string skills are authentic but often take a backseat to his song-crafting and vocal flair. His new album should take care of that. Titled Blues and Gospel, it is a laid-bare portrait of a man and his guitar, his voice and his still-intact soul. All thirteen compositions are originals (with one co-written with Darrell Blackburn), and five are instrumentals — a courageous decision for a one-man band. Classically trained, his fingerpicking style leans more toward Piedmont than Delta blues, yet, unlike either, utilizes all four fingers in the manner of Cuban master Leo Brouwer. “The thing that attracted me to blues was the guitar-playing,” explains the 1988 UNCG graduate, who studied classical guitar while picking up an English degree. “I loved the fingerpicking and I guess I just adapted what I knew from playing classical to the blues.” May is also a history buff, which fed into his passion for the music. Several years ago, he made a pilgrimage to the Mississippi Delta in search of the gravesite of one of his idols, Charley Patton. And he actually found it in the village of Holly Ridge. “I guess I thought the ghost of Charley Patton would show up,” he laughs. This effort marks a comeback of sorts for May, who took a five-year semi-hiatus from music after his 25-year marriage ended and he landed a job as a nurse’s assistant at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center But it all came cascading back when his mother, Bobbie Jean, passed away almost two years ago. “I started spending a lot of time with my dad, and it just came back with a vengeance,” he says. “I would sit around and play for eight hours at a time and not even think about it. While hanging with Dad, these songs just came to me.” Plus, his friend and former bandmate, Jay Johnson, bought a recording system during that time, and the stars seemed to align. Peter’s dad, Henry, is a retired minister, which helps explain the gospel influence of the record. “A lot of the old blues guys would do gospel songs under a different name,” he says. “So, it seems like they don’t go together, but they really do.” Apparently, when Peter May went down to the crossroads, he didn’t make a deal with the devil but with the Lord. OH
You are known as the "green" Councilmember. What is that about? Expanding recycling is a top priority. In 2013, Council broadened the list of recyclables to include plastics #1-7 (only #1-2 before), milk and juice cartons, even pizza boxes. City nets $1.5M annually from recycling. Next: how to recycle bulk items like mattresses and investigate composting.
A:
Q:
As far as I know, you are the only Councilmember with office hours and you have them all over the City. Do people actually come? How do they find out? (Laughs) Yes, they do – sometimes as many as a dozen. Information posted on Facebook. Being accessible to discuss concerns or just chat. It’s informative and fun. Many good suggestions have emerged.
A:
Q:
Tell us about "singing buildings."
A:
It’s true; when I walked into the handsome, but abandoned, 1898 Bain Building at 302 S. Elm St., it sang to me! After buying and historically restoring, it is home to retail and three residential apartments. Scuppernong Books and Community Center is a popular place to meet, buy books, have a glass of wine, or just hang out.
Q:
And where, exactly, is Barnhardt Street? You were a leading advocate for the City's involvement. Barnhardt Street is a transformative development south of the railroad tracks off S. Elm St. Shambles, rats, groundhogs, and weeds have been replaced by a 170-space public parking area surrounded by thriving businesses: Gibb’s Hundred Brewery, The Forge, WORX Restaurant, Spice Cantina, and the Railyard Performance Space. Third Thursday City Market held there attracts nearly 3,000 people April to October switching to ice skating in December and January.
Q:
A:
Are you the "mother" of the food truck initiative? Hadn’t heard that term used for me. (Chuckles) However, yes, I did lead the Council charge for allowing food trucks Downtown, like in so many other cities. They’re a hit!
Q:
A:
What turns you on?
A:
Good ideas, wherever they come from!
Keep Nancy Hoffmann on City Council
Paid for by the Committee to Re-elect Nancy Hoffmann
— Ogi Overman The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 17
O.Harry
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 19
Meet
Andreas Mosby
he’s
Greensboro Andreas Mosby, Class of 2015, has always loved to debate a point, and to advocate for others. That’s what led him to major in Criminal Justice at Greensboro College. Now, he plans to go on to law school and start a career in business litigation or transactional law. Andreas, chose GC primarily because of the small class sizes, and the opportunities to build productive relationships with engaged teachers and other students. “A solid experience in legal administration or political science can prepare students for entry-level jobs postgraduation or graduate school,” he says. “Students are able to acquire exceptional decision-making and analytical reasoning skills, which are key assets in any line of work.” Andreas sees GC as an investment. A strong investment in his future. “An investment builds over time,” he says. “You can see the results for the rest of your life. That’s what I feel GC did for me. Everyone here has the mentality to inspire students to strive for excellence in any endeavor, inside or outside the classroom.” Andreas Mosby. Uniquely prepared to accomplish great things.
Greensboro.edu Uniquely Located, Uniquely Greensboro, Uniquely You!
20 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Life’s Funny
Engineers in Love Not exactly an “open” book
By Maria Johnson
When my editor
forwarded me a press release with the subject line “Engineers are the Most Open-Minded,” I was surprised.
I’m awash in engineers — my dad, my husband and several family members and friends are engineers — and they’re a pretty by-the-book lot. Give ’em a theorem, and they’re happy. But I’ve also found that engineers also have deep respect for data, and they’ll change their minds if the numbers are convincing. Maybe that was the kind of open-mindedness the press release was talking about. Well. The release was from a website called OpenMinded.com, which caters to swingers and others looking for nonmonogamous relationships. Or, as my granny would have said in her not-so-kind assessment of hippies, free love. Anyway, the release said the most common occupation of the website’s users was . . . yup, engineer. That sonic boom you hear is the collective snort of everyone who lives with an engineer. I would love to say it’s the snort of the engineers themselves, but I think we know they are too busy figuring out what’s causing those weird rattling noises under their dashboards. In fairness to OpenMinded.com, the survey did not appear to be total hokum. It did say that salespeople and lawyers are also among the most likely professionals to be seeking open relationships. Waiting . . . For . . . Backlash . . . Didn’t think so. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying you won’t find the occasional engineer designing an orgy, but . . . . well, actually, yes, I am. That would be so inefficient. All of those unnecessary bodies. I checked with friends who either work with — or are married to engineers —- to see what they thought. “What kind of crackpot research is this?!” said one. From another: “I’ve never seen an article about engineers that included the word ‘swinging’ unless it pertained to a suspension bridge. This is some crazy stuff.” Said a third: “Most engineers I know would be happy to have one relationship.” Then I checked with a couple of engineers: The first one, a young woman, said: “I wouldn’t pick engineers to be at the top of the list. I’d like to see their metrics.” The second engineer was my husband. He snapped his head back as if I just told him pi suddenly had been changed to 3.16. “That’s doesn’t sound right to me,” he said. “I’d like to see their data.”
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Remember what I said about numbers? I was sure that the website had made a mistake. Either that, or a fringe group like petroleum engineers, was skewing the results. I called Openminded.com in Las Vegas and talked to spokeswoman Brook Urick. Brook explained that the company used internal data, the answers that people gave when they registered to use the website. Anyone who typed in “engineer” or something similar was counted as an engineer. “Some people spelled it wrong,” said Brook. Engineers misspelled “engineer?” That sounded a little odd to me, but what do I know. I’m just a riter. Anyway, the site tallied up 43,000 engineers, about 40 percent of its 110,000 users. What kinds of engineers? Brook didn’t have a breakdown, but she remembered software engineers and mechanical engineers being among them. The company, which launched in April, didn’t sort the engineers by gender, but 55 percent of the site’s users are men, and 45 percent are women, Brook said. She said she was surprised that so many users identified themselves as engineers. “I assumed more of them would be in more artsy kinds of jobs, more liberal types of jobs,” she said. “Like artists or writers.” Ouch. I mean, I totally agree. But still, ouch. I asked Brook what explained the high proportion of engineers. “I’m sure engineers have some degree of creativity in their jobs,” she said. “I think that allows for a more creative love life.” Hmm. That night, I stared at my husband. “What?” he said. “You’d better not be open-minded,” I said. “Huh?” “I swear, if I find out you’re being creative . . . ” Was I naive? I pondered this for days. One morning, the answer was clear. I was standing at the back door, sipping coffee. My husband walked up and put his arms around me. We’d had a spat the night before. “I love you,” he said. “I love you, too,” I said. “Oh, no!” he said recoiling sharply. “What?” I said. He walked over to a window and ran his hand over the frame. A gap had opened where two pieces of wood met. “We need to fix that with some caulk,” he said. “Or spackling.” My kind of open-minded engineer. OH Maria Johnson is a contributing editor of O.Henry magazine. You can reach her at maria@ohenrymag.com. September 2015
O.Henry 21
autumn in
old salem
mark kelly and gabby giffords
september 8 – october 31, 2o15
Spectacular colors. Harvest-time tastes. Hands-on activities.
Autumn in Old Salem. A season for the senses. September 16 american perspectives featuring captain mark kelly
with gabby giffords: endeavour to succeed October 3 homowo heritage festival, African American food tasting, hands-on activities, and more October 17 harvest day at old salem! Fall foods, hands-on activities for all ages October 24, 25 pumpkin carving, trick or treating October 29, 30 legends and lanterns tours
For a full list of events, classes & concerts, visit oldsalem.org or call 336-721-735o
old salem museums & gardens, winston-salem, north carolina
22 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art &celebrating Soul of Greensboro 5o years
The Omnivorous Reader
The Good Angel Kristin Hersh’s account of her intimate life with musician Vic Chesnutt is a testament to the power of hard love — and the enduring human spirit
By Brian Lampkin
Many people were introduced to the musi-
cian Vic Chesnutt by an interview with Terri Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air in December of 2009, despite the fact that Chesnutt’s first record was released in 1990. In that interview, Chesnutt talked openly about his flirtations with suicide, but made it clear that he had broken off his love affair with death. He died a few weeks later at age 42 from an overdose of muscle relaxants.
In retrospect, the interview is one of radio’s saddest transmissions. The palpable hope of the uplifting story of Chesnutt’s refusal to give up despite tremendous physical and psychological pain was yanked out from under the audience and we all free fell into public grief. Kristin Hersh’s unrelenting chronicle of her intimate life with Chesnutt, Don’t Suck, Don’t Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt, (University of Texas Press, 2015, $22.95) brings her private grief to light while also refusing to hide what made Chesnutt infuriating, difficult and disturbing. Hersh’s openness and honesty is a tribute to Chesnutt’s own unflinching look at reality. It is a book filled with hard love, but real love. Kristin Hersh is a musician of note in her own right. She was the force behind the influential and powerful band Throwing Muses before starting a solo career, which found her touring frequently with Chesnutt. Much of the memoir documents these tours through Europe and America — tours made even more challenging than every musicians-in-a-van story by Chesnutt’s complicated paralysis. A car accident at 18 (he has admitted that he was drunk) left him at first a quadriplegic, though he was able to The Art & Soul of Greensboro
work his way back to some use of his arms. Hersh marvels at his ability to play guitar unlike any other human. “That car accident left you with exactly — and only—what you needed,” Hersh writes (the entire book is addressed to Vic). “What you needed to do this, to play songs that were just a little bit too much.” He was “broken in all the right places.” Hersh’s style and syntax take some getting used to. She’ll often leave off the subject of a sentence (“Sighed with his whole Buddha belly.” “Stepped out of the icy Alabama truck stop . . . ”) and at times she’ll leave out unimportant details that might clarify meaning but distract from the larger story being told. After a few pages, though, I grew accustomed to and then grew fond of her usage and idiosyncrasies. Like Chesnutt’s own tortured English, or rather, words bent to his own needs and uses, Hersh is after language that reveals Chesnutt and her relationship to him. Sometimes that takes a new approach. And new approaches were demanded of Chesnutt by his circumstances. He could not settle for the usual chords or notes because he physically couldn’t play them. He needed to combine words in new ways to more accurately express his unique vision. This book reveals his constant attention to his craft. Nearly every interaction with Chesnutt is punctuated with sudden bursts of new song lyrics and melodies spontaneously rising from the conversation at hand. It could frustrate normal modes of conversation, but Hersh could also marvel at the instinctive artist at work in front of her. A conversation about not giving up — musically or physically — turned into Vic singing a brand new couplet: “I am not made of wood / I am not a good . . . man.” He wasn’t, but Hersh offers that “you were maybe a good angel.” Outsiders, audiences, often presumed that Hersh and Chesnutt were married. They weren’t and they toured with their respective partners Billy and Tina, and much of the book focuses on the deep joy and terrible pain of married life and loss. Chesnutt needed Tina — sometimes to physically survive — and that need tore at the relationship. And he damaged his relationSeptember 2015
O.Henry 23
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ship with Hersh to the point of complete separation. But Hersh refused to go away, refused to be pushed aside by Chesnutt’s isolation. Did he push friends and lovers away because he knew that the undertow of death was pulling him to sea? Hersh does not see him as selfless in that manner; more likely his innate crankiness and dissatisfaction left him as fed up with other humans as they were with him. It’s also tempting to think that Chesnutt was suicidal because of the physical discomforts of his paralysis. Maybe, but Hersh’s depiction suggests his affair with death predated the accident. It was in him like an extra organ at birth demanding a function that would negate its own existence. Perhaps the accident itself was an early insistence. Paradox and contradiction are centers of Chesnutt’s art — along with an unlikely musical and lyrical sweetness and longing for decent love and life. Many of his songs are convincingly optimistic because they recognize so much pain. For me, songs like “New Town” and “In My Way, Yes” — which I saw performed live in the Carrboro Arts Center and left me dazzled and even shamed by the small complaints of my life in the face of Chesnutt’s powerful assertion of existence — are meaningful examples of a possible way forward in life. Of course, they are challenged by his eventual suicide and negation of their ideals, but that confuses art with life. The art lives on no matter the choices of the artist. But Kristin Hersh doesn’t have the luxury of distance. She loved the artist and the art and they are not so easily separated. This memoir is not a biography or even an appreciation of the particulars of the music. It is about the difficulties of loving a difficult man’s art, and by extension, loving the creator. Hersh is often awed by Chesnutt’s talent, and her futile attempts to keep the talent alive are heartbreaking. Don’t Suck, Don’t Die addresses the complex relationship of the admirer of art to the artist. Chesnutt lived up to the first command, but he was unable to let Hersh’s will for him to live infuse him with his own will to go on living. In the end Hersh writes, “Then hope is gone and so are you . . . . Everything dies. Love, even.” Then she closes the book with a selected discography that directly addresses the music with lines like: “Little…capture[s] the childlike bitter soul that was Vic at his best” and words like “brilliantly executed,” “heartbreaking work of exceptional gravity,” “overwhelming drama,” “dark magic,” and “reveals itself with such beauty.” The art goes on. Vic Chestnutt lives until the last person stops listening to the songs, and that won’t be anytime soon. OH Brian Lampkin is one of the owners of Scuppernong Books in Greensboro. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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26 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Scuppernong Bookshelf
For Love of Folk Lit With The National Folk Festival in town, September is the perfect month to explore the roots of world folklore — including your own
It’s good to live in Greensboro. For
the next three years (at least) we’ll be inundated with folk musicians every September. This does not mean your average Dylan wannabes or your local high school Kingston Trio tribute bands, no, this is world music with instrumentation as varied as a Nepali madal or a Finnish jouhikko. We love a banjo as much as the next guy, but thank Gaia for the range and promise of The National Folk Festival. But what is folk literature? We have some ideas, several of them bent, but we do sell a surprising number of simple folktales from around the globe. Folktales are our entry into an often undocumented past. They don’t tell us the history of a people, they articulate their dreams and their nightmares. And folktales, while sharing themes of creation and powerlessness and community the world over, have an amazingly specific character depending on the culture where they arise. This is especially apparent in reading
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Kevin Crossley-Holland’s The Norse Myths (Pantheon Books, 1981, $18.95) and Roger Abrahams’ African Folktales (Pantheon Books, 1983, $18.95). These are not children’s stories (at least by our culture’s standards.) They include murder, incest, infanticide; just about every awful thing that happens in life, and the characters are always struggling against a world that somehow doesn’t seem fixed in the same ways our scientific age believes it to be. There’s a really bad movie waiting to be made in the Marvel comic book universe, though. One where the respective trickster figures, Loki and Anansi the Spider team up to conquer the world. Coming to a theatre near you in 2018! On the other hand, folktales can be an entry into an imagined past and an ongoing journey. Chris Raschka’s The Cosmobiography of Sun Ra: The Sound of Joy is Enlightening (Candlewick, 2014, $15.99) is a children’s book which is both an affecting biography of jazz musician Sun Ra and a celebration of the joy of creation. Sun Ra was from Saturn, you know, and was “intrigued by everything earthly, especially music, because music is the one thing on earth most like stars.” Raschka’s brilliant, bubbling illustrations sing like the best improvisation, creating their own rhythms that seem to spill from Sun Ra’s head or directly from Saturn. If you like this book, Raschka has also written and illustrated children’s books about Charlie September 2015
O.Henry 27
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Bookshelf
Parker, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk. One definition of folk music includes the idea of music by “the common people.” People don’t get more common than those in Dostoyevsky’s epistolary novel Poor Folk (Penguin, $14). Fyodor was just 24 when this was published in 1846, but the shame and degradation of poverty was already a motif of his work. Poverty ruins even love, which is an idea you won’t find anywhere in this year’s best-selling antifolk epistolary “novel” Grey. I don’t suppose that bondage and servitude are quite as much fun for those in, you know, actual bondage and servitude. The Colorful Apocalypse: Journeys in Outsider Art, by Greg Bottoms (University of Chicago Press, 2015, $15), is the latest exploration of what was once known as “folk art.” Many of the Southern masters of the genre are visited, and always the question remains: visionary or delusional? Why not both. A folk tale as old as the city mouse who switches place with his country cousin (although with a heavy Orwellian undertone), Andrew Ervin’s Burning Down George Orwell’s House (Soho, 2015, $26) is a yarn spun around the influence modern consumer society has on the folks of a remote Scottish island. Perhaps our Chicago-dwelling protagonist should have chosen a different vacation locale . . . Like Ireland. In Over Nine Waves: A Book of Irish Legends, by Marie Heaney (Faber & Faber, 1995, $13.95), Heaney presents the three major cycles of Irish folk legends in a modern style that any reader can dive into unaided, but with a wondrous narrative voice that brings the tales’ classic elements to life. Also included are legends of three patron saints of Ireland, as well as a pronunciation guide to help readers navigate the maze of character names and settings. For anyone wishing to explore Irish legends for the first time, this book is a gem. It’s difficult to talk about the roots of folk music in the United States without making some reference to the dingy bars and coffee shops that incubated both the music and the ethos. Caffe Lena: Inside America’s Legendary Folk Music Coffeehouse (PowerHouse Books, 2015, $35) celebrates one such institution: Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York. Caffe Lena was responsible for launching the careers of folk icons from Bernice Johnson to Bob Dylan, and this beautiful book composed primarily of photographs and interviews with the various rising folk stars, strives to capture the energy of the place that was known for a time as “the gateway of American folk music.” OH This month’s Scuppernong Bookshelf was written by Shannon Jones, Jonas Procton, Brian Lampkin, Rachel York and Steve Mitchell. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 29
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A Muse Unbound How the poetry of George Moses Horton led him to freedom
Far, far above this world I soar, And almost nature lose, Aerial regions to explore, With this ambitious Muse. — George Moses Horton, from On the Poetic Muse
By Jonah Meyer
One balmy afternoon in
Chapel Hill sometime in the late 1810s young men mingle between classes on the campus of the recentlyestablished University of North Carolina. Some of these mostly well-to-do students are drawn to the spontaneous poetic musings of a man of color — around age 19 — who is, in fact, a slave, beholden to his master back in Chatham County.
Having persuaded William Horton, his owner, that he could bring in more money for the plantation by selling its fruit and other products in and around the growing town of Chapel Hill — some eight miles away and a heck of a drag to navigate by foot at the time (then much of the land was rough, undeveloped forest full of wandering cows, pigs and other livestock) — our exceptional character, who would later come to be known affectionately as the Black Bard of North Carolina, made the journey each and every week. And it was here, on campus, that the crowds of students (and some intrigued professors and other ivory-tower gentry) would spend time, enchanted and mesmerized by the ambitious and driven youngster who could vocally compose love poems on the spot, including romantic verse for Valentine’s Day. Some romantically inclined students transcribed Horton’s verse so they The Art & Soul of Greensboro
could present the love-struck composition to a young lady of their choice. Meanwhile, the young poet-slave was teaching himself to read — with the eventual help of a lady-novelist and professor’s wife — while composing traditional and formal poetry. A number of his verses touched on antislavery themes. Earning at times upwards of 75 cents per poem, George Moses Horton’s lifelong goal was to earn enough from his poem-writing to purchase his freedom. This N.C. poet is generally regarded as singular in representing AfricanAmerican poetry during the first seven or so decades of the 1800s. But it would not be until the end of the Civil War that Horton would be brought north to Philadelphia by Union troops who — as had been the case with much of the Chapel Hill student body — were taken with his beaming personality and literary strengths. George Moses Horton, born around 1797 on a tobacco farm in Northampton County, N.C., lived a long and full life, dying sometime around 1883. He holds the distinction of being ahead of his time on many counts: Horton was the first slave to protest his bondage through published volumes of poetry, beginning with The Hope of Liberty, in 1829; the first AfricanAmerican to publish a book in the South; the only slave to have books published while still in bondage; the only slave to have earned a substantial income from his writing; and the first African-American slave to attempt — and almost succeed in — securing his own freedom by writing poetry. It didn’t hurt that he developed friendships with a number of movers and shakers — N.C. Governor John Owen; UNC presidents Joseph Caldwell and David L. Swain; renowned newspapermen William Lloyd Garrison and Horace Greeley; a number of successful novelists of the time; plus high September 2015
O.Henry 31
Gate City Journal
Drawing by By Claude Howell
officers in the Union’s invading forces. Before he could even write and while he was still a slave, his friends doubtless helped get his poems published in a number of predominantly northeastern antislavery periodicals and numerous other abolitionist friendly outlets.
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If Horton’s name rings a bell locally, it should. The McGirt-Horton Branch of the Greensboro Public Library on Phillips Avenue, is, in fact, named for not one, but two African-American North Carolina poets. The other one is James Ephraim McGirt, 1874–1930, a black poet, editor and publisher who attended public school in Greensboro and later enrolled in Bennett College. The library has a number of books and other resources on Horton and his poetry. In particular, I recommend his autobiography: The Black Poet: being the remarkable story (partly told by himself) of George Moses Horton, a North Carolina slave. (Available as an e-book at docsouth.unc. edu/southlit/horton/horton.html.) UNC Press has published sixty-two of his poems in The Black Bard of North Carolina: George Moses Horton and His Poetry. In a comprehensive introduction, the book’s editor, Joan R. Sherman, an English professor at Rutgers University, summarizes the life and times of the poet. Despite the shadow that the abomination of slavery cast over his life, George Moses Horton’s story is uplifting. It is a tale of yearning to be free, of the power of human dignity at its finest and the redeeming force of creative expression, laid out raw and unflinching and passionately so. OH Greensboro native Jonah Meyer, who has written poetry for as long as he can remember, works in the circulation department of the Greensboro Public Library. He is also involved in the library’s poetry programming and is happy to recommend some of his favorite books, poetry or prose.
32 O.Henry
September 2015
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Coming Home
A veteran folklorist explains how The National Folk Festival celebrates the common ground of our shared American experience — and the roots of where we came from By Martha Nelson
I grew up listening to country
music in a textile town with a congregation that sang from the Broadman Hymnal. Our community still ate off the land from gardens, orchards, wild blackberry patches and persimmon trees. We slept under homemade quilts out of thrift, habit and necessity. Those quilts were sewn from the scraps of our dressmaking, or remnants of upholstery fabric from my grandparents’ shop. They were beautiful because they were interwoven pieces of our lives.
When I went to graduate school to become a folklorist, I doubted whether a folk festival could replicate the artistry that lives and moves in clapboard houses with creaking floors, dusty old smokehouses and country churches. I doubted if they could capture the prank and banter that echoes off the pitted concrete of factory floors. That is, until I spent time at a folk festival, which can be, and often is, an evanescent, spiritual and shared evocation of how we become who we are. The Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., convinced me that a well-made folk festival is like a finely cut diamond. Each facet gives us a view of an intricate interior that catches the light and throws back a spectrum of colors. When I heard that Greensboro would host the National Folk Festival for three years, my folklorist heart beat a little bit faster. Now, I thought, in this city of art, music and social activism, we will widen our understanding of the many facets of art and community. We, meaning all of us, are creative and always have been. We sing, dance, make music, tell stories, swap jokes. We make and do, eat and drink. We sing lullabies to soothe babies, ballads to tell a story, hymns to praise the Creator and laments to mourn the dead. We sing the same songs, or the same kinds of songs, from generation to generation. These are not random acts, governed willy-nilly. Our ancestors made art from everyday living. Our people raised us to find the same pleasures and beauty in life, from the cradle to the grave. Because they adorned a new baby with a hand-smocked christening gown, we do, too. It is a tradition. Invested in that gown is a family’s love and pride for new life and another generation. In that newborn gift, we see our hope and glory for the future of our community. This is the heart of folklore: Its artistry arises from the traditions of our families and
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The 2015 National Folk Festival
communities. Its meaning is always greater than its materials and workmanship because it reflects the intimate interiors of a community. It would be wrong to assume that a folk festival is just about the barbecue, seafood, country blues and gospel for which we are generally known. A folk festival reaches farther, and deeper, into the lives of people and places. Boat builders, decoy carvers and those who tend pine trees, peach orchards and muscadine grape arbors share folk traditions unique to their trade. So do big corporations and urban neighborhoods. A cluster of families in Jugtown and the Catawba Valley began digging in North Carolina’s clay beds to make pottery 300 years ago. It is the pride and joy in their way of life that evokes the spirit of a place and a people. When the National Folk Festival spotlights our folk artists later this month, Sheila Kay Adams will be among them. She is the seventh generation of a family of storytellers and ballad singers in Madison County. Their songs and stories came with immigrants from the British Isles in the 1700s. Their lessons about living are still told because they are still relevant. Adams’ voice is sweet and strong, and sometimes she plays a claw hammer banjo, too. As popular as banjos have become in American music, few people realize the instrument began as an African stringed gourd, brought to this continent by African slaves. Even under the hardships and conflict of slavery, two cultures somehow shared their artistry and left a profound legacy on American music. Our lore moves with us, across continents, and changes with us across time. The stories that Lloyd Arneach tells are about Cherokee traditions in what is now North Carolina, hundreds of years before European settlers arrived. As for Lena Mae Perry, she grew up in Johnston County where tobacco country knocks elbows with the Sandhills. Along with piano player Wilbur Tharp, Perry’s gospel singing is about church and faith. It is bound up with serving their community. It is made from European hymnody, African American spirituals and straight-up American sanctified gospel. We are all folk who have to reckon with life. What a befuddling world it would be if each generation had to reinvent the wheel. Folklore abides with us through the ages. It is how we teach a child in the way she should go. It is a giant compendium of creative living, told in songs, recipes, tall tales, and the mastery of tools and materials necessary for making a skiff or a river cane basket. Folklore is not a corncob pipe hoedown, or the tiresome twang of life’s worn-out ruts. It is a more complex weave of many threads, on a broad loom, in evolving designs drawn from tradition. The National Folk Festival is a “come home” experience, where Greensboro’s communities will celebrate common ground with their neighbors, flung far and wide. Folklore is about our roots. We will never again mistake our roots for our ruts. OH Martha Nelson caught wanderlust from her mother and spent many years in faraway places before relocating to Greensboro where the falafel is world-class. A love of words and culture might find her anywhere, from a wedding in El Salvador to recording traditional rai music of Algerian Sufis. September 2015
O.Henry 35
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The Evolving Species
Man of the Folk
Offering up a celebration of music that knows no barriers, The National Folk Festival fits Arts Greensboro’s president and CEO Tom Philion’s ever-expanding vision of our musical future
By Grant Britt
If your idea of folk
Photograph by Sam Froelich
music is some tie-dyed hippie revenant belting out “Kumbaya,” T he National Folk Festival will short out your musical circuitry. Take your folk definition, tear it up and throw it away — you’ll never think about the genre the same way again. “It’s really like the Noah’s ark of living traditions,” says Arts Greensboro’s president & CEO Tom Philion, who was instrumental in bringing The National Folk Festival to Greensboro for the next three years.
From September 11–13, 300 performers on seven stages will bust your folk bubble with as diverse a grouping of artists as you’ll ever find on one bill. In order to fully grasp the concept of folk music, you’ve got to get your mind right, get your head around the proper terminology. For instance, Americana is really anything but. In fact, a lot of Americana originated in other countries, notably England, Ireland and Scotland. And if you want truth in advertising, the backbone of bluegrass and most folk is an African instrument, the banjo. “The terminology is so problematic, it means different things to different people,” says George Holt, chairman of the board for the National Council for the Traditional Arts, the organization that puts on the festival. Hardest of all, perhaps, may be coming up with a definition of folk music: “Some conjure up Joan Baez, and for others it’s anybody who plays acoustic guitar, any kind of singer/songwriter. But that’s not the definition applied by the NCTA and The National Folk Festival.” That definition is not spelled out but illustrated by the diversity of artists and
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
genres the festival brings along with it. “The National Folk Festival is not overly doctrinaire in its choice of programming,” Holt says. “But it takes its mission very seriously, which is to showcase music that is very deeply rooted in its communities and regions. A pretty high premium is placed on authenticity,” which Holt admits can be another tricky word to define. The Festival gets it right, putting a selection of music out on display that has no barriers, a global array of genres and artists. But those global attractions are paired with regional and local attractions just as engaging. You can try to make your own schedule based on the biggies you want to see, but it’s just as much fun to do walk-ups on stuff you’ve never heard of. A few years ago, I visited the Richmond Folk Festival, which started life as The National Folk Festival and then was taken over by the city after three years when the festival moved on. I happened upon Maggie Ingram and the Ingramettes in one tent. There was only a small card with the group’s name outside the tent, but as soon as the first song cranked up, I was running for a front row seat. A regional attraction based in Virginia, the Ingram family puts out foot stompin’, Jubilee gospel strong enough to wake the dead and reform the nastiest sinners (even if only for a brief festival moment). With the aid of the Ingrams’ gospel music ministry, beer-gutted bubbas, cheeks bulging with ’bacca chaws, were big footin’ for Jesus beside society ladies in their summah finery, scruffy college kids, sunburnt sailors with high-and-tight haircuts and assorted miscreants like yours truly, dancin’ in the spirit. They’ll be bringing their fiery gospel to town here as well. Or catch Nigerian bassist Babá Ken Okulolo, who stirs things up with his brand of energetic West African dance music known as Highlife, a brassy, lilting sound with a quickstep tempo that pumps up your pulse and makes you sway like a tropical breeze. Okulolo, who accompanied King Sunny Ade on four albums and two world tours and has played with Fela Kuti as well, concentrates on the classic Highlife sounds from the ’60s and ’70s. Although he probably won’t play marathon twelve hour concerts as he does in his native Nigeria, Okulolo can be counted on to give you all the dance workout your Western legs can stand. September 2015
O.Henry 37
The Evolving Species
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If you watched the HBO series Treme, you might recall the Pine Leaf Boys’ brief segment lighting up the screen with rockin’ Cajun mojo. But that brief vignette didn’t begin to show the depth of their invigorating take on all genres. From swamp pop, which is basically ’50s era rock with a Cajun accent (Cookie and the Cupcakes’ “Mathilda,” Fats Domino’s “Walking to New Orleans”) to traditional Cajun to country, the Pine Leafs fire up the music and free your feet to do their stuff while they do theirs. And then there’s Dale Watson [see sidebar]. He’s the Texas country singer/songwriter who became so fed up with what TV twerps like Blake Shelton were doing with his beloved country that he came up with a new term for the music that he insists is still the real deal, dubbing it Ameripolitan. He wants to be remembered as “just as a guy who tried to keep the integrity of the roots out there.” And now that hometown girl Rhiannon Giddens has gotten so popular, it’ll be a rare treat to see her at a venue where you can still get up close and personal with her ethereal voice. The operatically trained singer/instrumentalist, who reintroduced black string band music with her band the Carolina Chocolate Drops, now works in a ever-widening variety of genres and styles. She has always insisted her music has no limits and has always fought to highlight music and musicians she feels have been swept under the rug. “I can be a pretty girl singing a song, so can a million other people, but I feel like I was put here specifically to do this work,” she says. “And that’s what I hope to be remembered for.” Although he’d been aware of The National Folk Festival’s activities for many years, Philion first became directly involved when a member of Action Greensboro strolled into his office with a circular from the NCTA and wondered aloud if Greensboro should be interested. “I said, ‘are you kidding?’” Philion recalls. “‘Yes! This is a big deal.’” Philion first brought his musical savvy to town in 2003 when he was with the Eastern Music Festival, coming up with the Fringe series. The Fringe series featured about two dozen concerts each summer in what Philion called “a movable fest,” including acts as diverse as Mavis Staples, Steep Canyon Rangers, the Iguanas, Los Straitjackets, Bruce Hornsby and the Hacienda Brothers. When he returned to Greensboro from Seattle in 2010 to take the helm of the United Arts Council, he initiated 17Days, a highly successful series presenting a cross cultural array of cutting-edge music, dance and performance. George Holt says that one of the main reasons Greensboro was selected for the current three-year festival run was due to Philion’s exhaustive and inventive preparations. “He’s one of those people who can rub stuff together and make something out of nothing,” Holt says of Philion. “In order for the event to succeed, the entire community has to embrace it — local government, convention and busiThe Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Evolving Species ness bureau, corporate sponsors — there has to be substantial infrastructure to make it go.” Philion not only had that lined up, he was looking beyond the Folk Festival’s tenure here as well. Says Philion, “Part of our pitch to The National Folk Festival people was that we very much have committed to doing a North Carolina folk festival when they move in 2018.” Even though the Festival has its own production team that takes care of all the physical logistics including booking, the host is encouraged to participate in the selection process. Philion seized the opportunity to revitalize Greensboro’s once glorious but fading music scene in cooperation with local venues. “We’re going to have two late-night stages, one in Hamburger Square, one over at the RailYards, in addition to the seven stages that are National Folk Festival,” he says. “And at those two stages, we will focus a tremendous amount of energy on local and North Carolina artists.” In addition, Philion is introducing an initiative called Fabric of Freedom to remind visitors and residents alike of the important role Greensboro has played in championing individual freedoms. “This part of N.C. has been a crucible of freedom since religious groups left Europe, like the Quakers’ persecution,” Philion says. “So Quakers, birth of the Underground Railroad here, Greensboro’s pivotal battle in the Revolutionary War, it’s a story that’s not told that often very well, all the way through to the birth of sit-in movements here.” Gospel /soul legend and civil-rights activist Mavis Staples has been booked to kick off the segment. In addition, Philion is setting up a school program to teach something not usually found on the curriculum. “We’re gonna bring a lot of these artists into the schools a few days before the festival, provide an opportunity for kids to engage and connect, a rare opportunity to engage them in something they’ve never seen before.” Holt says Greensboro is the perfect venue. “Over the years, the festival has prospered most in communities about the size of Greensboro, not really big cites where there’s an abundance of arts and cultural activities. Greensboro really fit the profile.” But if Philion has his way, that lack of abundance may come to an end. “One of the pieces to remember about the National is that for us it’s particularly poignant as a community because it is so diverse, because it allows us to draw the community together in a way that I’m not sure this community has ever really had before,” he says. In addition to drawing cultural tourists to town and creating a huge economic impact, the Festival will instill some pride into the populace for being part of a communitybuilding event. “Because guess what? This isn’t Raleigh, this isn’t Charlotte, it’s not even Asheville,” Philion says. “It’s Greensboro . . . we’re doing it.” The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Evolving Species
Sidebar:
Leading the parade of interesting musical critters off The National Folk Festival Ark is the antichrist of country, Dale Watson. The Austin-based singer/ guitarist was so disgusted by the stuff that was passing as country that he came up with a new label, Ameripolitan, for the roots music he has dedicated his life to. Honky-tonk, outlaw, Western swing and rockabilly are the four groups that make up his Ameripolitan sound. His first annual Ameripolitan Awards were held last year in Austin. But for the last twenty years, Watson has been railing against what Unknown Hinson, 2014 Ameripolitan Award Winner for Best Outlaw Male, dubbed the new crop of country singers: “Buncha steroid-eatin’ pretty boys with cowboy hats and shaved chests.” Watson has been equally uncharitable about the artists who maimed the country sound he grew up with. On “Country, My Ass,” from his 2002’s Live In London, England, Watson noted that the pretty boys, “Took the soul out of what means a whole lot to me.” He goes on to say that he can see Hank and Lefty spinning in their graves, theorizing that if they could be resurrected, they’d tell that bunch to “stick it up high/Where the sun don’t shine/We’re pissed, we’re mad/ ’cause that’s country, my ass.” But Watson got even more specific after Blake Shelton, 2014 CMA Entertainer of the Year for Best Male Video, announced in an interview on the GAC network that “nobody wants to listen to their grandpa’s music.” He further incensed Watson by adding “I don’t care how many of these old farts around Nashville are going, ‘My God, that ain’t country!’ That’s because you don’t buy records anymore, jackass. The kids do, and they don’t want to buy the music you were buying.” Watson was touring Europe when he heard about it. As soon as his plane landed, he found a recording studio in Holland and crafted an answer, “I’d Rather Be An Old Fart Than A New Country Turd.” The song featured lyrics like “I’m just a jackass that likes the ol’ country sound/plenty of us old farts still hangin’ around.” It got plenty of attention, but Watson doesn’t think Shelton ever got his message. “The guy’s a millionaire and not really grounded enough to know what he really did,” Watson says. “He still thinks he’s the savior of country music. As Ray Price said, there’s not a hat made big enough to fit his head. See how his music stands up in 65 years.” Many musicians don’t like to be pigeonholed, but Watson says he loves labels. “I get to pick what I want. It’d be like going to the grocery store and have nothing labeled or categorized,” he says. “I’d hate to take a swig of whiskey and find out it was water. So yeah, labels are important to me.” OH Grant Britt writes for No Depression, American Songwriter, Blues Music Magazine, the Independent Weekly, and of course, O.Henry. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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O.Henry 41
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FlyFromPTI.com 42 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Short Story Contest Third Place Winner
Cut Short
Time is measured in days and friendships. And both pass far too quickly
By Deborah Gsell
Won’t make it . . . optimistic . . . over-
burdened spouse . . . religious-as-hell.
I played this little game with myself while biding my time, holding my pager. I scanned the waiting room. The elderly woman upfront whose caretaker gripped her hand did not look long for this world. The bald man whose azure eyes caught mine as I eased into a wing chair seemed like he had an extra dose of sunshine with his morning Raisin Bran — good for him — I enjoyed smiling back in that moment. Body language of the well-dressed wife by the window spoke of weariness only someone in her shoes would ever fully realize. I wanted to hug her, I wanted to say, wow, you’re amazing, you’re a rock star, you’ve stood by this man through thick and thin and given up bridge clubs and country clubs to sit and wait for last-ditch efforts of chemicals to pump hope into his veins, though we all can tell hospice is where she’ll stoically sit bedside next week. Rosary beads, Bible, and whispered prayers from a family who circled a young man in a wheelchair bespoke faith I envied. I made up scenarios about my comrades-in-waiting each time I was here. Some days there were too many to imagine before I got called. I put down the pager. I hated the pager! It was innocent enough, the type you’d receive at a busy restaurant, always hoping the red lights would flash and the device would vibrate soon so you could secure your table. Here, though, the buzzing didn’t mean a glass of chardonnay with a satisfying meal, it meant time for chemo, radiation, blood work, doctor and sometimes more than one of the above. Every time I checked in and received a newlyset pager, I felt like it said, “Yep — you’re one of us. A member of the club.” A club I didn’t seek to join, thanks anyway. And then I saw Beth. “Beth!” I stage-whispered across the auditoriumsized expanse. This newly remodeled holding tank at the cancer center could vie for the lobby of a smart hotel. Big money in the big C. My bills soared past the $60K range already, so maybe I helped with some of that fancy carpet I now crossed. “Beth!” Sure enough, it was my friend, sporting a colorful scarf wrapped artfully around her head. Beth was always a class act. She’d recently been diagnosed with brain cancer and was now being treated, but she smiled and replied she was doing just fine when I asked the inane, “How are you?” That question should be banned in this setting. How is anyone there doing? “Fine.” We’re always “fine.” Fine bunch of liars! I was there to see the medical oncologist for a follow-up. Blood work, exam and yet another refill of Tamoxifen. I was fine, though, and felt a sense of almost-guilt when I accepted my pager with others, the not-fines, looking on, maybe playing their
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
own games of waiting room scan. Breast cancer, or my “shitshow” as I renamed it, chased me down and finally caught me in my 50s. I had a history of bad mammograms, but was always one step ahead with nothing ruled overly suspicious until that fateful day when I got my diagnosis and words like “tumor” and “margins” became part of my doctors’ conversations. It was during the school year, and as an elementary teacher, I just did not have time for something this big. However, once the shoe dropped, I felt I had no choice but to forge ahead, which I chose to do privately, only telling closest family and few friends whose help I begrudgingly admitted I needed. I stuffed my predicament and all its repercussions into a too-small box and worked diligently to keep the lid crammed shut, only missing two days of work for repeat surgeries planned around weekends. Wooing compassionate medical staff, I secured treatments after school hours — yes, kids, many of your papers were graded in a hospital. I didn’t feel I could drop the ball on my “regular” life, and was afraid if I allowed an outpouring of sweet tea and casseroles into my house, I would lose all sense of purpose and the determination — stubbornness — that is me. Beth and I had a brief catch-up. I don’t remember which of us was called first, but I do remember lamenting our time cut short. Life has a way of moving on. Beth and I kept in touch, though not enough — do we ever stay “enough” in touch with our friends? My follow-up appointments (health care for life . . . once you’re in, you’re in) are now fewer. I visited with Beth, now unable to speak much, but she still smiled and said she was “fine.” Another school year closed, and my calendar alerted me of my six-month checkup. I pulled into the sea of parking spaces. I purposely parked far away so as to walk a bit — and think — before slipping through the automatic doors of that cavernous lobby. I glanced around at yet more improvements and wondered how much bigger this place could possibly grow, and marveled that it seemed nearly full. Club membership at an all-time high. I paid my dues (co-pay), accepted another pager and started to scan faces. Inadvertently I sat where Beth and I had sat, and missed her. My visit went smoothly, and I thanked both nurse and oncologist, and once outside, I breathed more deeply and looked skyward with more thanks. Days later, I am poolside with Beth’s daughter, and Beth’s grandson frolics with other school kids recently freed for summer. “Gotcha!” he laughs as I’m sprayed with water from one of his pool toys. My return smile is bittersweet as I wipe my eyes. I am here. His grandmother is not. It makes no sense. The sky is Tar Heel blue with white cotton candy, the church service a few days behind us. Again I lament time cut short. OH Deborah Gsell is a former Connecticut Yankee whose 20-plus years in Greensboro have graced her with incredible friends. She misses Beth dearly. September 2015
O.Henry 43
Reagan M., 9th grade It takes courage to be yourself. At Saint Mary’s we’re here to inspire girls like Reagan, as they stand up, speak up and discover who they are. We believe in the greatness of girls and that’s why we offer AP courses, three languages, 11 sports, a renowned arts program, real-world experiences and a close-knit community to support you every step of the way - the possibilities are endless.
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44 O.Henry
September 2015
7/27/2015 9:31:44 AM
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Pleasures of Life Dept.
Must Love Dogs Pampered pooches and the people who love them
By Cynthia Adams
We had just ordered
drinks when Lynette leaned in. “I cannot get Prince Pepper to drink regular tap water anymore,” she says sotto voce. “He only drinks chilled special water.” She, too, only drinks imported sparkling water. She is a bad influence on Prince Pepper.
Our friend MC looked a bit frosty. “Frank spoils Buddy too damned much, too,” she huffed. “But he won’t brush his teeth.” Frank is home tending Buddy after oral surgery. We assume she means Frank will not brush Buddy’s teeth. “But I’ve learned something from our dogs,” she continues, eyes serious. MC is a retired physician. When she says she has learned something, we listen. “I always booked my dog’s grooming appointments for every six weeks. But I never had a standing hair appointment for myself. Now I do. Just like Buddy.” Everyone relaxes visibly. I personally spend $50 for my dog’s haircuts, but I go to Great Clips for my own or get my husband to whack a few inches off with the sewing scissors. The only male at the table remains quiet, which we take for mild disgust. Suddenly, he chimes in about Princess Emily, a patrician standard poodle, who only drinks chilled water. Princess Emily also insists it be fresh water before drinking, balking unless he first empties the stale water. “She has me so well trained,” he adds ruefully. “But I don’t waste it. I use the warm water on the plants.” Then, it’s like the first night at an AA meeting. We all talk at once, over one another, outdoing the last. Our dogs refuse Milk Bones (too low brow). One stares incredulously if the master doesn’t shoot out of bed upon rising. There are stories of UPS and postal deliveries and our dogs’ ridiculous obsessions with both. “Emily has the greatest respect for a uniform,” her master quips. The confessional special diets, demands, treats and accommodations made for our four-legged critters — continue in a rush. As drinks arrive, we are immediately closed-mouthed until the spiky-haired, hip waiter dressed in all black makes it clear he has overheard. “I have a rescued Pit Bull,” he blurts out. “Three years old. White-andbrindle-colored. Wonderful, wonderful dog.” We gape — he seemed so aloof just minutes ago, but now he’s a gushing wreck. One of our dining buddy’s dogs rides to work with him in a convertible. Selfies and pictures are produced on an iPhone. We ooh and ahh — as proud as if we had personally given birth to these sometimes bitchy and controlling canines. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Class has its privileges, of course. There is no denying the real, titled royalty: dogs that hold passports. Prince Pepper, a bristly, somewhat louche Pomeranian, will accompany his owners in business class when they fly to Europe. Their larger dog will be in the cargo hold below — too large to be onboard with PP. The international couple travel often, and have never left their canines at home. Never? “Oh, no. Never,” the jetsetter says flatly, her eyes round and serious. “Never, ever, would we consider leaving them.” There are nervous glances and her eyes dart for confirmation. “NEVER,” she adds for good measure. The rest of us, we who have hired costly dog and house sitters, even patronized dog spas with TVs, classical music, dog acupuncture and massages, for godssakes, understand that we have been screwing our pooches by denying them passports. Metaphorically. It’s in their adoption contract if we had just read the small print: Do not leave home without us for anything beyond a normal workday. Nonetheless, we are still getting the good end of this stick: our doggies act not just glad, but downright enthused on our return. Inside the family castle, they guzzle sparkling water and designer treats, listening raptly as we whine about the boss who doesn’t understand us. The guy who cut us off in traffic. The grandma who let her shopping cart plow into the Honda. They aren’t stupid. Dogs know they’re man’s best friend. And, by God, they are entitled. Years ago, I was on an overnight flight to Amsterdam. My blanket, pillow, ear plugs and eye mask were in place when the pilot suddenly broke through the fog of overseas travel to announce we were averting to Boston. “It is — sort of an emergency,” he intoned officially over the crackling PA system. We passengers took sharp breaths in unison. “There is a problem with temperature regulation in the cargo hold.” We collectively released our breaths and groaned. Who cared if our duffle bags were cold? “We wouldn’t want a passenger’s cat to be in harm’s way,” the pilot added to a freshly stunned-into-silence cabin. We were all thinking our thoughts, digesting the bitter news, calculating the added hours of flight. Only one thought aloud — an I.B.M. retiree from Raleigh who feared flying and had been self-medicating with vodka highballs. “It’s just a cat,” the passenger on my right drawled, exasperated, shaking the ice in his plastic cup and then knocking it back so he could suck the liquor off the cubes. He looked at me sideways for consensus. What the rest of the disgusted cabin did not hear was what Mr. I.B.M. added, turning his face towards the shuttered window. “For heaven’s sake,” he spluttered indignantly, pulling the navy blanket closer. “It’s not like it’s a dog.” OH Cynthia Adams is a contributing editor. She is also happiest unleashed. September 2015
O.Henry 45
Melissa Greer Realtor / Broker, GRI, CRS
Chairman’s Circle Diamond Award 2014 Chairman’s Circle Platinum Award 2013 Chairman’s Circle Gold Award 2010, 2011, 2012
336.337.5233 www.melissagreer.com melissa@melissagreer.com
Beautiful home with two story entry and formal Dining Room with octagonal tray ceiling. Awesome kitchen with granite countertops opens to breakfast area and two story vaulted living area. Main level Master Bedroom with tray ceilings, master bath with double vanity, garden tub and separate shower. Upper level with 2 guest bedrooms and loft space perfect for home office. Beautiful wooded back yard with upper deck and custom brick patio. Great scenic lot on quiet culde-sac with great views from outdoor entertaining areas.
46 O.Henry
September 2015
Great property steps from UNCG, coffee shops and restaurants on Tate Street. Main level renovated with completely new bath, refinished hardwood flooring and fresh paint. Living room has wood burning fireplace flanked by built in shelving with windows above. French doors lead to spacious dining room. Cute kitchen and breakfast room with butler’s pantry. Currently functions as duplex with 2nd floor featuring 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, Living Room and kitchen with private entrance. Easily works as single family home as well! Workshop in basement. Full front porch!!!
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Game On
Restoration Man
Bill Coore’s Piedmont roots — and love of the state’s finest Golden Era courses — have led him on a marvelous journey through the game
By Lee Pace
The sporting
Photograph by John Gessner
airwaves and printed pages were full of stories in June 2014 about the back-to-back U.S. Open Championships for men and women in the Sandhills and the unique appearance of Pinehurst No. 2 course with its sweeping fairways, gnarly bunkers, wispy wire grass and brownish expanses of native sand. In the crosshairs of the buzz were a pair of mild-mannered golf architects — a Texan named Ben Crenshaw and a North Carolinian named Bill Coore.
Crenshaw? Everyone knows of Gentle Ben, the winner of nineteen PGA Tour wins. That includes two Masters professional golf titles and the captain of the victorious 1999 U.S. Ryder Cup team. Not as well-known by the general populace, but a giant in the world of golf course construction, maintenance and architecture, Coore is a man with deep roots in Davidson, Guilford and Forsyth counties. “Outside our little world, everyone knows Ben. I mean, he’s won the Masters two times,” says Toby Cobb, a staff designer and construction chief with the Coore & Crenshaw golf design firm. “Not many people can say that. But in the golf design and construction business, Bill Coore is more of the rock star.” Coore was born in 1946 and grew up in the Davidson County countryside, just south of Thomasville and a few minutes north of Denton (the home also of noted sports journalist Furman Bisher). He loved all sports and played baseball and basketball in high school but sat out football because of poor eyesight — “I couldn’t see the ball and couldn’t wear glasses playing football,” he says. But he gravitated mostly to golf. His parents divorced when he was young,
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
and Bill was an only child. Golf was a game he could play in the wide open spaces around his home and do so by himself. “There were not many people around where I grew up,” he says. “The kid next door was eight years older than me. You could have great fun playing golf all by yourself. I could hit balls in our backyard, around to the front, aim for the mailbox or a fence post.” Coore attended Wake Forest on an academic scholarship and, by happenstance, ended up taking classical Greek and majoring in Greek. Although he was a member of the Deacon golf team for two years, he was never a varsity competitor of any note. “I was a participant on the team, I was not a player,” he says. “It didn’t take a very bright person to figure out that 75s and 76s and 77s didn’t quite match up with the red numbers Jay Sigel and Leonard Thompson and Jack Lewis were throwing up.” Two courses that he played frequently during his formative years were Pinehurst No. 2, completed in 1935 by the famed Scottish architect Donald Ross, and Old Town Club in Winston-Salem. Coore often traveled with friends to Pinehurst on summer days in the early 1960s to play No. 2 — for five dollars they could walk and play all day, sometimes as many as fifty-four holes. And then in college he enjoyed a steady diet of Old Town, the 1939 Perry Maxwell-design that has been home to the Wake Forest golf team since the university moved to Winston-Salem in the mid-1950s. “Those two golf courses have had the most influence on my education in golf course design,” Coore says. “No. 2 is not necessarily the most visually spectacular golf course in the world. But the subtleties that go into making it what it is are almost beyond comprehension. You can be here almost all your life and still have some little different shot, some little different place to be, and it holds your interest. Coore continues, “Old Town is a wonderful place “Back in the 1960s September 2015
O.Henry 47
Photography by Evin Torney
Game On
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piedmontendo.com 48 O.Henry
September 2015
it had the most pristine set of Perry Maxwell greens anywhere. I enjoyed looking at golf courses, trying to figure out why one was better than another, why one hole went here and another went there.” But it had never occurred to him to make it his career. In fact, he planned to get a Ph. D. in classics: “My plan was to go to grad school and then become a college professor.” Coore earned his degree in 1968 and spent two years in the Army, much of that time at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville. Once on leave to visit his mother in Davidson County, Coore drove to High Point to investigate a new course under construction. Oak Hollow was going to be a public golf course and was designed by an architect named Pete Dye, who was just coming into some acclaim for his innovative new design on Hilton Head Island, Harbour Town Golf Links. “In 1971 every golf course had the Robert Trent Jones Sr. look,” says Coore. “They were the proverbial 7,000-yard-plus championship golf course — and 7,000 yards at that time was a long golf course. What Pete was doing was so different,” he says. And Coore became enamored with that measure of difference: “I had no clue who Pete was, but I liked what I saw. Oak Hollow was like Harbour Town. It was based on finesse shots, shorter shots, precision and placement. I was fascinated.” Coore struck up a conversation with one of the course maintenance workers and eventually got Dye’s home number in Florida. He had applied to Duke University’s graduate program in classical languages, but the more he thought about working on a golf course in some capacity, the more he liked the idea. Coore called Dye repeatedly and left messages but never got a return call. As his Army stint drew to a close, he called more regularly. Coore eventually got an audience with Dye, who told Coore he was close to embarking on a new project in Greensboro for a new development company, Landmark Land Co., a concern headed by a two former golf professionals, Ernie Vossler and Joe Walser Jr. Dye said perhaps Coore could go to work on the construction crew on what was to become the Cardinal Golf Club. In Greensboro Coore learned to run a bulldozer and tractor and read engineers’ drawings. He soaked up ideas from Dye and his wife and design partner, Alice. He was, in his own words, “a general flunky.” The unfinished golf course was sold by Landmark, and Dye never completed it. (A contractor recommended by architect George Cobb finished the course for the new owner.) But it was great experience for Coore. “My first job was cutting trees with a chainsaw,” Coore remembers. “I’d cut them down and then they’d bulldoze them out of the swamp to build fairways. I was knee-deep in swamp water with a chainsaw cutting trees. I was so green that The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Game On Pete to this day kids me that I didn’t even know how to turn the key on a tractor. I’d sit on a lawn tractor and not realize you’d have to push the clutch to make it start. Oh man.” Coore made an impression on the Dyes and they asked him to move to the next job at John’s Island, near the Dye’s Florida home in Jupiter Beach, where Coore often served as house-sitter and dog-sitter for the Dyes’ German shepherd, whiling weekend hours away pouring through Dye’s library of golf books. “Pete was a tremendous influence,” Coore says. “He was so good to me, he and Alice both. He thought I was just nuts. I started to get a sense of how all the pieces fell into place. Before, I knew what I liked, but I had no idea how to get from theory to reality. If nothing else, they were great just allowing me to eavesdrop on their conversations about golf architecture.” Coore worked for Dye for a decade and then moved to Texas in the early 1980s to work for Pete’s brother, Roy, on the design and maintenance of Waterwood National, just north of Houston. Coore then designed a new course at Rockport Country Club in Corpus Christi, and soon after met his future business partner, who had just won the 1984 Masters title. They liked one another, shared some design chemistry and decided in 1985 to form a partnership. Since then they have built more than two dozen of the nation’s most respected and recognizable layouts, including Sand Hills in the wilds of Nebraska, ranked by consensus among the top 10 in the nation. Coore spends a hundred percent of his working life on Coore & Crenshaw design projects, traveling from his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, to sites as varied as Long Island, Nebraska, Tasmania and China. Crenshaw travels once or twice a month to job sites between competitive forays onto the PGA Champions Tour. Because of Coore’s ties as junior golfer to Pinehurst and Crenshaw’s affinity for golf history and traditional design, they were tabbed in 2010 to direct the restoration of Pinehurst No. 2 and return it to its “golden era” from 1935 through 1970. Then Coore personally handled a restoration of Old Town from 2012–13. “It’s been very gratifying to return to my roots these last few years,” Coore says. “I can’t think of two places I enjoy more than Pinehurst No. 2 and Old Town. Donald Ross and Perry Maxwell were two of the best. If we’ve restored and preserved some of that early character and flavor of those golf courses, we’ve done our part.” OH Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace shadowed Coore and Crenshaw during their restoration of Pinehurst No. 2 and the result was his 2012 book, The Golden Age of Pinehurst — the Rebirth of No. 2. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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September 2015
O.Henry 49
Service has always been my first priority.
That’s why I chose Well•Spring. From my early days in the Coast Guard to a thirty-year term in the United States Congress, I’ve dedicated much of my life to serving others. Like my signature sport coat and passion for politics, that hasn’t changed in retirement. A genuine commitment to service and excellence is one of the many qualities that makes Well•Spring an ideal choice for retirement living. Howard Coble
Resident since 2015
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CARF/CCAC ACCREDITED SINCE 2015
50 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Pappadaddy’s Mindfield
A Father’s Hope And dreams of a life-changing app
By Clyde Edgerton
It’s about 10
Illustration by harry Blair
a.m. and I’ve been working on the first draft of an essay for the September 2015 issue of this magazine. I’m taking a break. I’m leaning against the headboard of my bed, and my 12-year-old son is stretched across the foot of the bed reading a book I’ve suggested.
The idea for the planned essay started a few days ago when I was driving along thinking about war, about the Christmas event in World War II when Allied and German soldiers joined briefly on the battlefield to celebrate and talk together — before going back to war. I wondered what they talked about. Because I have children, I started imagining men from the opposing armies talking about their children. I wondered if they’d then worry about later shooting the man who was the father of children he’d heard about. I suddenly imagined a present day app that connects the cellphone of a father in an army about to go to war with the cellphone of a father in an opposing army. The theory is of course that the soldier-fathers, having been enticed into conversations with each other about their children, will be less likely to do battle because in doing so they may kill fathers with whom they’ve just had a conversation, a conversation about their children’s names, their likes, dislikes — about the fathers’ hopes for their children. Could something like a fathers-at-war app maybe work? How might I put this idea out into the world? As I wrote, the essay floundered. I look at my son, reading the Fred Chappell novel I Am One of You Forever (1985). He said he’d try at least as far as the end of the first chapter. I suddenly have three big thoughts in quick succession: 1) The fathers-at-war-app essay is going badly. 2) How lucky I am to suggest one of my favorite books to my son — and he gives it a try! 3) I Am One of You Forever is thematically related to the central idea in my failed essay in ways I couldn’t have imagined before this moment: The novel is about fathers, sons, uncles, family bonds and deep loss brought by all wars. When I read the novel decades ago, it reminded me of my childhood and my early relationship to my elders, my father and my favorite uncle especially. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
(I just now asked my son if he’d read past the first chapter and he said yes.) The story, when I read it, brought to me the best aspects of my upbringing in a rural, Southern culture, and it brought home the unspeakable sadness invoked by the loss of young loved ones in battle. I hesitate to reveal more of the story because I don’t want to spoil it in case you decide to read it. (My son just stopped reading and left the book on the bed. It’s now about 10:30 a.m.) The book can’t mean to him what it has meant and means to me, but he did hesitate during his reading about five minutes ago and ask me, “What is buttermilk?” Answering his question gave me an opportunity to talk about my father, my father’s upbringing, pot liquor, pre-electricity methods of cooling food in a spring or open well, and other aspects about the culture of my childhood and the childhoods of my parents (Southern, rural), a culture that gets at least its fair share of a generalized, bad press. My father-at-war app idea rests on the notion that the concept of family and children may be paramount in the lives of most men. A reason for problems with the essay is that while writing, I became less sure of the truth of that notion. Many men pit religion, nationalism, greed, blood thirst and desire for action above all, especially concerns about someone else’s children. Right? Would a father-at-war app be a joke? A means to locate the enemy? I leave the father-app essay behind. A plug for I Am One of You Forever is a more appropriate subject for an essay — now, at least. After lunch and thinking through a new essay (this one), I’m worried that my son is giving up on the novel, but at 2 p.m. he’s back to reading it again. . . Ah, there is hope that he might finish. If he reads to the end, he and I can talk about the war in that book — WWII, the war of a couple of my uncles. And maybe we will talk about my war, Vietnam, back when I was very young and a bachelor, how it seemed right to go to it then . . . but not now. Maybe he and I can dream of an app that could help humanize soldiers, or more appropriately . . . political string-pullers around the world. OH Clyde Edgerton is the author of ten novels, a memoir and a new work, Papadaddy’s Book for New Fathers. He is the Thomas S. Kenan III Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at UNCW. September 2015
O.Henry 51
A Novel Year
The Watchman Cometh
As the controversy swirls around the newly released work by iconic Southern writer Harper Lee, a deeper unanswered question lies in our discussions of race in America
By Wiley Cash
When Go Set a
Watchman, Harper Lee’s long-awaited second novel, was released on July 14, 2015, we learned that Atticus Finch is and has always been a racist. Across the country, fans of To Kill a Mockingbird mourned the loss of a man who’d embodied our national sense of social justice for the past fifty-five years, but I wasn’t one of them.
While the 1962 film adaption of Mockingbird starred Gregory Peck in an Academy Award-winning turn as Atticus Finch, most Americans read the novel as part of school curriculum. I came to Mockingbird in my 20s after completing my undergraduate degree, and I didn’t see the film until I was well past 30. By then I’d encountered countless examples of racial injustice in both my country and my country’s literature, and I was no more shocked by the unfair treatment of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, than I was by the apparent benevolence of Finch, a white man who offers Robinson legal representation in a case that hinges on the race of both the victim and the accused. Three days after the release of Go Set a Watchman, Jabari Asim, a writer and professor at Emerson College, published an essay titled “Rethinking To Kill a Mockingbird,” in which he argues that the novel is similar to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in that it is “a form of literary ointment for white guilt, meant to soothe outbreaks of conscience while dispelling perceptions of how pervasive white supremacy is.” What does it mean to say that the novel appeases white guilt while dispelling notions of white supremacy? Perhaps the simplest answer to this question is to consider that most readers of Mockingbird recall Finch’s spirited defense of Tom Robinson over the fact that Robinson is lynched after being found guilty; more emphasis has always been placed on the perceived bravery of Finch’s courtroom performance instead of the real tragedy of Robinson’s death.
52 O.Henry
September 2015
Although I share both Asim’s critique of Mockingbird’s characterization of African Americans as well as his view of the novel as a racial balm for white culture, I’d be remiss and frankly dishonest if I refused to acknowledge the role it played in both the civil rights movement and the opening of Southern literature to a wider audience. There is no doubt that To Kill A Mockingbird changed people’s minds, spoke to their hearts, and informed their literary tastes. It also highlighted a society and legal system
that were grossly imbalanced. It took the federal government eight more years to reach the conclusion that Harper Lee reached in 1960. At President Lyndon B. Johnson’s request, the Kerner Commission sought to uncover the root of social unrest and the lack of opportunity in African-American communities. The commission’s findings, while fraught with anachronistic and often crass language, reflected what anyone paying attention to race relations already knew: “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.” For the next decade, popular culture reflected this bifurcation of American society. On television, Good Times showed the plight of African Americans in the inner city; The Jeffersons portrayed the questions of legitimacy and social limitations faced by upwardly mobile African Americans; and All in the Family used humor to display the insidious nature of racism in white America. And then, a decade and a half after the Kerner Commission report, The Cosby Show debuted on NBC, and suddenly both black and white America were exposed to something they’d never seen on television: an upper-middle class African-American family that seemed unbound by racism and untethered to the limitations of the past. Cliff Huxtable was a doctor; Claire Huxtable was an attorney; their children were smart, well-behaved, and college-bound. Not only were the Huxtables an ideal African-American family, they were an ideal family, period. Suddenly, white America could feel good about the progress made since the findings of the Kerner Commission and the portrayals of the struggles of African Americans in the previous decade. Like Asim’s take on To Kill a Mockingbird, The Cosby Show provided “ointment for white guilt, meant to soothe outbreaks of conscience while dispelling perceptions of how pervasive white supremacy is.”
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A Novel Year But that’s not what I was thinking about as a 7-year-old boy sitting on the living room floor in our house in Gastonia, North Carolina, a city whose history is rife with racial division and social struggle. When I looked at Cliff Huxtable, I saw only one thing: an ideal father. Previous generations had worshipped the heroic Atticus Finch in his spectacles and suits; my hero wore bright sweaters, leather loafers and khakis, but what they didn’t share in their wardrobes Finch and Huxtable made up for in worldviews. The Cosby Show featured countless teachable moments in which children learned about honesty, decency, fairness and equality, even if these lessons were taught in what was portrayed as a post-racial America. After The Cosby Show went off the air in 1992, it seemed that Bill Cosby couldn’t leave his Dr. Cliff Huxtable persona behind. He took on social issues that often found him using scathing humor and shame to preach on community and personal responsibility. He set himself as a pillar of morality in the same manner he portrayed Cliff Huxtable as the ideal father figure. Around the time Go Set a Watchman was released in July, transcripts of a deposition Bill Cosby gave in a 2005 civil suit were also released. The suit involved a woman who’d accused Cosby of drugging her before sexually assaulting her. In the transcripts, Cosby casually admits to a number of affairs, and he even admits to acquiring drugs with the intent to use them on women with whom he wanted to have sex. Go Set a Watchman reveals that Finch had spent decades working behind the scenes in Maycomb, Alabama, to ensure that African Americans only progressed socially and economically at a rate permissible to him, a rate he wanted to control; the novel outs him as a racist, an identity he kept secret from his children and therefore secret from the readers who’d long adored him. The transcripts out Bill Cosby as a sexual deviant, a sociopath, in short, a criminal. While readers across the country spent the long, hot July days lamenting the fall of Atticus Finch and shaking their heads over the behavior of a man I still view as Dr. Cliff Huxtable, I spent those days coming to terms with the ways in which the public faces of our heroes are often used to mask awful truths about their interior lives. And then it dawned on me: Atticus Finch and Cliff Huxtable are not men. They’re not even people. They’re fabrications, and they, just like the personas they create and the moral convictions they espouse, are nothing but fiction. OH Wiley Cash is a New York Times best-selling author whose second novel, This Dark Road to Mercy, was released last year. He lives in Wilmington. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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O.Henry 53
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Birdwatch
Belted Kingfisher The graceful aquatic feeder with the distinctive rattling call
By Susan Campbell
Often heard before they are seen, belted
kingfishers are a year round fixture across North Carolina. Requiring water for foraging and steep slopes for breeding, they can be found along any of our rivers, creeks, and ponds. Their long, rattling call is distinctive among the many familiar birds that call the Piedmont home.
One of three species of kingfisher found in the United States, the belted kingfisher’s range is extensive and year round across most of the continent. Breeding birds from Canada may migrate southward in search of open water in winter. A percentage of the North American population winters in south Florida as well as Mexico. It is assumed that most local breeding birds simply wander to where the fishing is good in the colder months; not making any real migratory flight in the fall. Belted kingfishers are top-heavy looking birds with powdery gray plumage and a raggedy crest. They get their name from the swath of gray plumage across their breasts. These birds are one of the few species in which the female has brighter plumage than the male. Females sport an additional band of chestnut feathers just below their gray “belt.” Otherwise kingfishers have a characteristic large head, thick neck and heavy, long pointed bill. They are built for plunging head first into the water after prey. They often sit on a convenient perch above the water, such as a branch or electric wire and then dive when they spot prey. However they are also capable of hovering for short periods above potential food items before descending to grab a fish. Belted kingfishers actually have a wide prey base, feeding on all sorts of aquatic organisms but also taking other types of food, such as small birds and even berries, if the opportunity arises.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Belted kingfishers require a steep slope for nesting. Although this is usually a river bank, they may also use human created habitat such as tall dirt piles, which can be a ways from water, if they are big enough and have a sheer drop on at least one side. This type of nesting substrate makes it difficult for terrestrial predators to reach the kingfisher’s nest. The tunnel into the nest chamber is typically several feet long and is sloped upward, presumably to protect the nest from rises in water level along rivers and streams. The kingfisher’s tunnel opening is large, being at least three inches in diameter. Also there will be the characteristic fishy aroma from recent droppings, separating it from other bank dwellers, such as bank or roughwinged swallows. In spring, the belted kingfisher pair will search out a nest site. The male will probe the dirt in suitable spots until he finds the right spot. Once he is satisfied with his choice, he will signal to the female by flying back and forth from her perch to the chosen location. After the burrow has been excavated, five to eight eggs will be incubated in the nest chamber for almost a month. Once hatched, the young will be tended to by the parents for about another month before fledging occurs. While in the nest, the young kingfishers have highly acidic stomachs and will be able digest scales, bones and other hard parts of what they are fed. By the time they leave the nest burrow, however, the birds will be regurgitating pellets made up of those typically indigestible parts, as adults do. So the next time you hear a loud rattling sound coming from on high look up. You may just catch sight of one of these energetic fast flying fishers! OH Susan would love to receive your wildlife sightings and photos. She can be contacted by email at susan@ncaves.com, or by calling (910) 585-0574.
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O.Henry 55
Scribes of Hope II C I Va T r a V e l I n g e x h I b I T I o n
a
Scribes of Hope features 31 works across a wide range of approaches from today’s calligraphers. These works express the tension between traditional commitments to create work that is legible and a more contemporary view that emphasizes expressing the spirit of the text.
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56 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Life of Jane
Chicken Squat
A county fair, a game of chance and an existential wager on number two
By Jane Borden
Illustration by Meridith Martens
That fall, in Sewanee, Tennessee, there’d
been talk of attending the county fair. Just beyond the literal gates of the hoity-toity university, where my husband taught English, are miles of farmland, truck stops, three-block Main Streets and Waffle Houses. A few of the other new hires were eager to escape their capes, trade in academia for a day of deep-fried Oreos and Goat Shows. I was intrigued but reluctant. Mostly I’m wary of beauty pageants, which would be at the fair, and which always make me uncomfortable — perhaps because I channel the extreme and rather obvious discomfort of the contestants. They appear tortured and weary: walking in circles for the judges, their legs constantly repositioned to complement their body structures, the choke collars deterring attacks on other goats. Oh, whoops, I might have confused events.
The human females who’d be competing in pageants were vying for the title Fairest of the Fair. Actually, under that umbrella are eight pageants, on account of all of the age categories, three of which are between the years of 0 and 3, but none of which include fetuses, which seems unjust. Also, if you include the Senior Citizen Fairest of the Fair classes, then there are eleven pageants total. Nota bene: Women between the ages of 22 and 44 fit into no category, presumably so they’re not disincentivized from creating contestants to fill the 0-1 competition. But what if, at the time of the fair, they only have fetuses? Not fair. So yeah, I was on the website. And in-between information about the Tractor Pull and various agricultural exhibitions, I came upon something The Art & Soul of Greensboro
called a Chicken Squat. This being a two-word combination previously unfamiliar to me, I read on: “Purchase a chance on which square the chicken will poop on and win some money!!!” Then I read it again — because it makes no grammatical sense, yes, but mostly in slack-jawed awe. I shouted downstairs, “Nathan! Let’s go to the fair!” We arrived a few hours earlier than the designated time we’d meet our friends. On Saturdays, the Chicken Squat happened every two hours, and I wanted to catch more than one. When we arrived, the birds were resting in tentshaded cages — between the exhibition hall and the portable-DJ truck decorated like a boom box — unaware of their celebrity. A few feet away was the gameboard, a modest structure, basically a slightly larger and somewhat elevated cage. On its white base was drawn a rude grid, and on each resulting square a random number between one and twenty. The very nice woman in charge of the event and its humble heavyweights explained that tickets for the numbered squares could be purchased for two dollars each, and that if the avian athlete goes on your square, you receive the $40 pot. She also instructed us to return at 6 p.m.: the 4 o’clock Squat would be cancelled due to lack of interest. This is unfathomable. It’s a sanctioned gambling event in which people collectively choose to watch a chicken till it makes. I had expected the entire county would attend. To kill time, Nathan and I divided and conquered the food-truck lines. He queued up for barbecue and corn on the cob, while I stood a bit farther down the makeshift gravel road, waiting for something called Frito pie. It is not pie. It resembles nothing in any family of pies, whether sweets, charts, faces or infinite fractions. It is basically chili, salsa, cheese, and jalapeños dumped inside a bag of Fritos. This is genius. Not only is it delicious, but Fritos are now probably cheaper than disposable bowls, and if you add a paper clip, it’s a to-go box too. This should be astronaut food. We split up again for round two. I went for deep-fried Oreos, Nathan for funnel-cake. He said he stood in line behind one of the pageant winners, a tween in a sash, makeup and jorts. She ate her entire cake before Nathan’s was ready. Atta girl! Afterward, we meandered through the display of ribbon-winning produce, and then returned to the chicken pen. A small crowd had gathered. Buzz, buzz: the Squat would start soon. We peered inside the tent, anxious for another glimpse of the gladiators. How did they prepare for the performance? I wonSeptember 2015
O.Henry 57
Life of Jane dered. They stared blankly, guileless as grass. We bought four tickets. Finally, our mom-jeaned leader appeared from the tent. Shining in the light of the late-afternoon sun, she carried our champion, one white, skittish foul. She opened the pen and thrust it inside. We closed the circle, eyeing it with motivated desire. It barely moved. It looked terrified. Poor chicken. How could it have known we only asked it to be itself? It must have thought . . . nevermind, it thought nothing. They’re dumb, truly and evolutionarily dispossessed. Regardless of what it may or may not have cogitated, it did nothing. Mom Jeans assuaged the impatient crowd, “Usually they go all the time, really, every couple of minutes.” A boy to my right, who appeared to be 12, began calling the bird in a soft coo, trying to coax it toward his square. It lifted a knuckled foot and the boy, in near mimic, raised up on his toes. Then the chicken walked the opposite way. The boy was dejected, grief-stricken in that immediate 12-year-old way. The bird continued, now bobbing its head and growing confident in its safety, which was a mistake. When it reached the edge of the cage, a man with a mustache inserted a stick through the wire mesh and poked it, presumably to direct it back toward his square. Boo! Illegal move! But Mom Jeans threw no flag. The animal warbled in alarm, adjusted its offended wing, and ambulated away from the edge. It veered right, though, which led Mustache to shout, “Damn!” and pound his fist against the cage. Tippy Toes, however, was elated. Back in the game and riding high, he extended his arm, made a tiny fist, and yanked his elbow back, hissing, “Yesssssss!” Our squares were located . . . I don’t remember. I didn’t care. Our eight dollars was spent to gain admission to this strange and wonderful show. I was giddy with excitement, paying close attention so I wouldn’t miss the payoff — then I’d become cognizant of that aim and grow giddier. The amount of meaning we had assigned to such a senseless act was beautifully absurd. And the inevitability of it! There’s no contingency in which the game would not end. Even if the animal died, it would choose a square on the way. Still, Mom Jeans couldn’t wait for eventually. Before anyone had noticed she’d left, she suddenly reappeared with a second chicken, opened the cage, and tossed it in. Tippy Toes leapt in the air. Mustache unironically shouted, “Come on!” I think this is when I began to laugh out loud. Once I started, I could not stop. They were taking this seriously! I’ll cut Tippy Toes some slack, but not Mustache. Had he forgotten he was staring at a bird butt? “I guess anything can become a job,” I said to Nathan. The more intense Mustache grew, the harder I laughed. He was genuinely invested in a biological affair beyond the psychological control of one of the planet’s dumbest beasts. Then again, neither is there innate significance in a round object entering a net. Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretsky, Pelé, County Fair Foul. Tippy Toes and Mustache were now both screaming at both birds from both sides of the cage. New Bird looked from side to side, alarmed and confused. White Bird clucked, growing nonchalant. New Bird walked toward White. White Bird flapped away. New Bird pooped. Our collective cry pierced the fairground with triumph. All hail the conquering hero, New Bird, in my opinion the true Fairest of the Fair. In the initial melee, it was hard to know who’d won — I mean, besides all of us, of course — but it clearly wasn’t Mustache, as he loudly shouted another “Damn!” and stomped away. Then I noticed that Tippy Toes was waving his ticket in the air. And next, one of the truly happy moments in my life: written on his ticket was “2,” which means that he began shouting, with total joy but zero awareness, “It was number two! It was number two!” Yes, son. It was number two. Yes. Yes, it was. OH Jane Borden just had a baby and is only reading books about keeping it alive. Otherwise, this summer, she would be reading H Is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald, The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison and The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner.
58 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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September 2015
O.Henry 59
September 2015 Last Sweet
Not like early summer juice bursting under thin skin Candor peaches dawning in pecks and half-bushels along Route 220, or Redhaven, Winblo, and Ellerbe swelled to a swagger with midsummer drowse of cicada and honeysuckle: Fall peaches have grown slowly under a shortened sun, and duskier shadows drape the shoulders of Carolina Belle, mellowing outward from the pit, the flesh grown close into a furrowed pericardium, scarlet and sweet at its vitals. — Valerie Nieman
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 61
Helen and Herman Cone
The Cones of Greensboro
How an immigrant family from Bavaria shaped the commerce of the New South and helped transform the city that became their home By Richard Zweigenhaft 62 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Photographs courtesy of Carol W. Martin/Greensboro Historical Museum Collection
Greensboro’s Founding Families
B
Cone Family 1905
seemed to have taken place in Greensboro. I was also surprised to learn that ack in the summer of 1974, when my wife and I piled most the city had a Jewish mayor from 1949 to 1951 (Ben Cone Sr.). I had studied of our worldly possessions (and our dog, the late, great the American power structure, and I knew that historically Jews had been kept Throckmorton) into our VW bug and left Santa Cruz, out of many of the highest circles of power in America, though there were some California, for North Carolina, we knew little about my soonindications in both the corporate and the political elites that change was taking to-be employer, Guilford College — other than that it was a place. I decided to explore the extent to Quaker-affiliated liberal arts college — and which Jews in Greensboro were a part of even less about Greensboro. I had claimed that I would not the local power structure, and if they were, seek a job in the South, or at a school with a religious affiliato try to figure out why this had happened. tion, but, well, North Carolina wasn’t South Carolina (that I read all the local history I could gap seems to have closed in the past few years), and I thought find about the Jewish community; I that as a secular Jewish agnostic I might get along OK with interviewed many Jewish residents, Quakers (which seems to have been the case). especially some who were in their 70s At that time, the literature on Jews in the South was and 80s; and I did what sociologists call mixed. On the one hand, surveys indicated that residents a “network analysis,” in which I examof the South scored higher than those of any other region ined the amount of overlap between on measures of authoritarianism and anti-Semitism. On those in the Jewish community (which the other hand, a number of prominent Jewish writers, I operationally defined as the members such as Harry Golden, the author of Only in America, and of either the synagogue or the temple), Eli Evans, the author of The Provincials: A Personal History those who sat on the boards of directors of Jews in the South, had argued that the South had been of Greensboro’s largest companies, and especially hospitable to Jews. As Golden put it back in those who were members of the most 1955, the South had “provided the most favorable ‘atmoprestigious social clubs in the city (the sphere’ the Jewish people have known in the modern Greensboro Country Club, Starmount world.” And as Evans explained, in 1974, “I don’t think Country Club, Sedgefield Country Club that most Jews in the South would agree with the findings and the Greensboro City Club). of the polls and studies, for most Jews live their lives in a When I finished my article on placid atmosphere as part of the white majority.” Greensboro (“The Jews of Greensboro: In When we arrived, I was surprised to see roads and buildor Out of the Upper Class?”), I used the ings in my new hometown named after people who I knew same methods to do a follow-up comparijust had to be Jewish. A hospital named after Moses Cone? son study of the Jewish community in A library named after Blanche Benjamin? A building on the Winston-Salem. When I finished that Guilford campus called Sternberger Auditorium? I knew that Claribel and Etta Cone second article, I decided to look nationnames could be misleading, but something distinctly Jewish The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 63
Proximity Mill ally at some of the same issues, which led to a book (Jews in the Protestant Establishment), and that, in turn, led to subsequent work on diversity in the power elite in which I compared the experiences of Jews with those of women, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and gay men and lesbians. When I began this research, it did not take me long to realize that in Greensboro one family had played an enormously important role in the economic history of the city, and that this had continued to affect the fabric of the community. What follows is drawn from the research I did for those first two articles and the book.
I
n 1845, in order to avoid conscription, 17-year-old Herman Kahn left Altenstadt, a small village in Bavaria. He made his way to Richmond, Virginia, where his older sister, Elise, lived. He changed his name from Kahn to Cone, but apparently because of his “Old World” appearance and because he didn’t speak the language correctly, he was somewhat of an embarrassment to Elise. Plus, he had a hard time gaining acceptance in Richmond’s German Jewish community. According to an unpublished family history, they “wanted him out of town badly enough to furnish a stock of goods and a horse and wagon from which to peddle in the country.” So Herman Cone left Richmond to settle in Lunenburg County, between Richmond and Danville. Another sister, Sophie, had come to America to marry a recent immigrant named Jacob Adler, and Herman and Jacob opened a small store together. A while later, they tried moving their store to Richmond, but the store did not do well. In 1853, they headed west to Roanoke in a “carry all,” a covered wagon on springs, with no specific destination in mind. They drove more than 200 miles, came to Jonesboro, Tennessee, liked it, and settled in. They opened another store there, and alternated peddling and minding the store on a weekly basis. This time they were more successful. By 1863 they had done well enough economically — and had become sufficiently Southern in their attitudes — to invest $4,500 for “the purchase of three Negro slaves named Joe, William and Friendly,” an investment they lost, however, when the Union won the Civil
64 O.Henry
September 2015
War. (This information comes from an article by a historian named Bertram Korn titled “Jews and Negro slavery in the Old South, 1789-1865.” In my April, 1981, interview with Herman’s grandson, Ceasar Cone II, he told me that he still had the bill of sale for his grandfather’s purchase of these three slaves.) In 1870 — by that time, married and the father of seven children — Herman Cone moved his family to Baltimore, where he established a successful grocery business. In 1890, financed by their father’s wholesale grocery business, his sons, Moses and Ceasar, organized the Cone Export and Commission Company. Their idea for a selling and finance agency for Southern cotton mills sprang from their direct contact with mill owners as they worked in the grocery business for their father. As Moses traveled to stores throughout Piedmont North Carolina, he came to understand how the mills were run and, especially, their business shortcomings. In the words of one of Moses’ nephews: “He went straight to the top — got to know the owners. They were big fish, but in small separate ponds.” Often Moses stayed at the mill owner’s home, and they sometimes stayed up late, playing poker, smoking cigars and talking business. Moses found that many of these small independent mills had the same problem: not enough capital to buy cotton when needed. In fact, many of the mill villages paid the Cones for their groceries with yarn or cloth. Moses, therefore, made these owners an offer: He would provide cash to the mills if they would give him a monopoly on their goods. Such monopolies were not illegal, and many mill owners were delighted with any arrangement that left them doing what they did best, producing the cotton, while leaving the selling of it to the Cones. Within a year, Cone Export and Commission Company, with offices in New York City, was selling for forty-seven different cotton mills throughout North Carolina, and the Cone brothers were on their way to amassing a huge fortune. However, as successful as they were in selling for the mills, the Cones’ real fortune developed as they began to purchase the mills. By 1894, Cone Export and Commission, wholly owned by Herman and his two sons, was valued at more than $300,000, the equivalent of approximately $8 million in today’s dollars. In 1895, a mill owned by the Cones in Greensboro, the Proximity Mill, began production. This mill did so well that Greensboro became the main headquarters for the company, which, by 1904, had more than a million dollars in common stock. The Cone family mainThe Art & Soul of Greensboro
tained majority interest. When Moses died in 1908, his personal fortune was sizable enough for him to leave behind a 35,000-acre estate in the North Carolina mountains with such a large house on it that, as the Greensboro Daily News put it, “it would be called a mansion in New York or a castle in the old country.” His will also provided for a hospital that was to be built in Greensboro, the Moses H. Cone Hospital. And so it was that Herman Kahn became Herman Cone and his two oldest sons guided the family business into textiles in Greensboro. Cone Mills became the world’s leading producer of denim, corduroy and flannel. The family fortune was so large that steady incomes were provided for sisters Etta and Claribel, who lived in Baltimore, traveled widely in Europe and became celebrated for their friendship with Gertrude Stein. They also inadvertently made additional millions by purchasing numerous works of art from several then unknown and struggling friends of Gertrude Stein’s, including Picasso and Matisse. In 1920, when Greensboro’s population was a mere 20,000, Cone Mills employed approximately 3,000 people, 15 percent of the population. The family and Cone Mills at one time owned almost all of northeast Greensboro, and much of northwest Greensboro. The family was consistently philanthropic. The Cones provided a field for a minor league baseball team in 1902, and they provided the land for War Memorial Stadium in the 1920s. In 1939, Ceasar Cone II contributed $50,000 for a YMCA in the black community. (Few people know that the Hayes-Taylor branch of the YMCA is named after Sallie Hayes and Andrew Taylor — the maid and the butler to Ceasar Cone’s family. His $50,000 gift, the equivalent of $840,000 in today’s dollars, stipulated that this branch of the Y be named after them.) So, too, did the Cone family lease land at a very low rate in order to build a base for soldiers during World War II, and Etta Cone, Moses’ and Ceasar’s art-obsessed sister, gave Picasso and Matisse paintings to UNCG (then Woman’s College) — a collection now easily worth several millions. Though philanthropic, the family was not necessarily progressive in its politics. In 1901, for example, Ceasar Cone urged the North Carolina state legislature not to adopt labor laws that would govern the length of the work week or regulate the employment of children in factories, even though at the time in Rowan County alone approximately 300 children under the age of 12 worked in factories for twelve to thirteen hours a day. Over the years, the Cone family grew, participated in various forms of leadership in the community, and assimilated into the local upper class. This included acceptance by such local bastions of the upper crust as the Greensboro Country Club — it was unthinkable when the club was founded, in 1909, that they would exclude the Cones. The network analysis I did back in the 1970s indicated that there had always been Jewish members of the Greensboro Country Club, though some of those I interviewed expressed concern that the club had a quota on Jews and that it had been reached. The network analysis also revealed that there had been almost a total absence of Jews among Greensboro’s debutantes and in the The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Junior League. As Ben Cone Sr. —Herman Kahn’s grandson, Greensboro’s mayor from 1949-1951, and a member of both the Greensboro Country Club and the Greensboro City Club — told me in my interview with him, “There’s always latent anti-Semitism, still is.” The contrast with Winston-Salem was striking. In that city there were no Jewish members in the most elite clubs, no Jewish members in the Junior League, and the Winston-based corporate boards were virtually devoid of Jewish members. As one person I interviewed in Winston-Salem put it, “Winston-Salem doesn’t have a very good reputation for absorbing Jewish residents.” Or, as an upper class gentile woman who had lived in both cities explained to me in my interview with her: “The difference between the two cities can be traced right back to the Cones, the Sternbergers and others who took such leadership. In Winston-Salem, it was a Protestant gang in control.” The Cones might be thought of as Greensboro’s first Jewish family, but, certainly of interest to me as I compared their experiences with those of prominent Jewish families in other parts of the country, by the 1970s most of the Cones were not Jewish. Moses married a Jewish woman, but they had no children. Ceasar married Jeannette Siegel, a Jewish woman from New York (part of New York’s wealthy Jewish community, about whom Stephen Birmingham wrote a book titled Our Crowd; The Great Jewish Families of New York), and they had three sons — Herman, Benjamin and Ceasar II. Herman married a Jewish woman, but both Benjamin and Ceasar II married Episcopalians. As of the late 1970s, Herman Kahn’s three grandchildren (Herman, Benjamin and Ceasar II) had eight children and seventeen grandchildren, and only three of those seventeen grandchildren were being raised as Jews (though in adulthood two of the eight children had converted to Judaism). My study of Greensboro convinced me that, as far as Greensboro was concerned, Harry Golden and Eli Evans were right — this community had been welcoming to Jews, and had accepted Jews into its highest circles. A number of factors may have contributed to this. There are many colleges and universities in Greensboro, institutions that tend to challenge traditional viewpoints, especially those that are based on prejudice and discrimination. Similarly, the strong Quaker presence in Greensboro may also have contributed to the city’s more liberal attitudes toward Jews as Quakers historically have defended the rights of the oppressed. (Guilford College, where I now have worked for 40 years, founded in 1837, included a stop on the Underground Railroad, and in the 1960s many Guilford students and faculty were quite active in the civil rights movement.) But no analysis of why Jews have been not only welcomed but such an important part of the Greensboro community can ignore the powerful influence of the Cone family. OH Richard Zweigenhaft is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology at Guilford College. Co-author of four books, including the recent New CEOs: Women, African American, Latino, and Asian American Leaders of Fortune 500 Companies, Zweigenhaft is currently co-editing Collaboration in Psychological Science, due out in 2016.
Ceasar Cone
Ceasar Cone II
Ben Cone September 2015
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City of Trees
Greensboro measures its march through time by its remarkable bounty of trees — and those who treasure them
Photograph by Sam Froelich
By Molly Sentell Haile
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
W
e Greensboro people are tree people. Our love of flora is in our name. Even if the “Green” in our borough actually came from a Revolutionary general — and not the color of our fair city — we’ve wholeheartedly embraced that second meaning. The City of Greensboro has an impressive 9,256 acres of open space, including the Bicentennial Gardens, the Greensboro Arboretum, our leafy parks, lush neighborhoods, verdant watersheds and even our cemeteries. We have won the Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA award twenty-four years in a row. One survey ranks Greensboro as the fifth greenest city in the U.S. right up there with Madison, Wisconsin and Anchorage, Alaska. Even if we’re farther down the list on other rankings, a recent tree study documented about 32,000 acres of trees in our city limits, which, by one estimate, are quietly providing us with $7.5 million in air pollution control and $15.9 million worth of stormwater control. That’s pretty damn green. But what distinguishes Greensboro — and what seems, in some ways, almost uncanny — is how the city’s history is so deeply rooted in stories and folklore involving trees — especially oaks. Take the little oak that, according to legend, General Nathanael Greene’s horse chewed and mangled on the morning of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781. Although it died in 1986, that little tree, the Liberty Oak, grew to 78 feet tall and gained an 18-1/2-foot circumference, becoming a symbol for both the battle and our city. Near Guilford College in the Guilford Woods, you can still visit the Underground Railroad Tree, a 350-yearold tulip poplar that stood witness to untold numbers of slaves who hid in hollow trees nearby waiting to meet abolitionist Levi Coffin and others. In the early-to-mid-1800s, those woods were the Southern terminus along the Underground Railroad. Today the tree stands about 150 feet tall, and four or five people stretched around the base can just barely touch hands. Or there’s Persimmon Grove. At the end of the 19th century a budding congregation of black American Methodist Episcopals (A.M.E.) lacked brick and mortar for a church, so they worshipped beneath the shade of a grove of trees near West Market Street’s railroad track at Guilford College Road. Which is how Persimmon Grove A.M.E. Church was born. With historical ties to Guilford College and New Garden Friends Meeting, the church has since moved to its current building on Dolley Madison Road. Other trees blaze a leafy trail through our history. When brothers Ceasar and Moses Cone built their second textile mill in Greensboro, one that by 1908 would become the largest manufacturer of denim in the world, they decided to name factory White Oak for the magnificent 200-year-old tree that stood nearby and was a gathering place for travelers to Greensboro from the surrounding countryside. And have you heard of Greensboro’s Johnny Appleseed, Bill Craft, who planted five hundred palmettos along Old Battleground Road and hundreds of other exotic trees and shrubs in Green Hill Cemetery on Battleground Road? Craft, who died in 2010, was a quirky eccentric often seen planting shrubs and trees wearing only a Speedo and sneakers. The maverick insurance man let neither the fashion police nor city regulations and red tape slow him down. Thanks to Craft, Green Hill has become a horticultural wonderland with species from all over the world, including a Japanese flowering apricot tree, a California redwood, tung oil trees and a Kentucky coffee tree. If you need further proof of how fiercely Greensboro treasures its trees, just ask Duke Energy or the 1,500 residents who signed a petition in 2013 to stop the utility from removing neighborhood trees, some close to 100 years old. Musician and storyteller Logie Meachum, who grew up attending Persimmon Grove A.M.E., says, “The trees watch us come and go. You can collect the march of time through trees.” Our green-loving community fosters people who — whether grounded in science, history or the imagination — understand the stories trees can tell us. Here are a few of the city’s most devoted champions of trees.
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September 2015
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Photograph By Molly Sentell Haile
Paul Knapp, Thomas Patterson and Keith Watkins at The Carolina Tree-Ring Science Laboratory Up three flights of stairs and behind a plain wooden door in UNCG’s Graham Building, along with the microscopes and computers, you’ll find walls lined with pinecones, tree slabs the size of bicycle tires and map drawers full of core samples taken by geography professor Paul Knapp and his students. In the Carolina Tree-Ring Science Laboratory, each core sample — a sliver no thicker than a straw taken without harming the tree — is glued to a wooden base and sanded flat. Knapp pulls out an especially long metal increment borer he has used on Sitka Spruces in Oregon. The two students standing beside him, Keith Watkins and Thomas Patterson, had never seen one. Patterson laughs, “That would be like using a butcher knife to cut a lemon around here.” Knapp, who grew up and studied dendroclimatology (the study of past climates using trees, especially tree rings) in Oregon, opened the tree lab in UNCG’s geography department in 2006. What can you learn from ringlets? “You can reconstruct history or climate or ecological events from variations in tree-ring widths measured from core samples,” he says, “insect attacks, wind storms, ice storms, that kind of stuff.” Watkins and Patterson clearly admire their professor. The three have an easy, mutual respect and camaraderie that must come with the patient work of coring trees or hiking into the remotest sections of America. The home page on the tree lab’s web-
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site has a quote from Thomas Jefferson: “Be just and good,” a quiet ethos that pervades the tree lab. Knapp shows me a wall full of photos from research treks in Oregon, California, and, of course, North Carolina, where he has become fascinated with longleaf pines. Their unusual lifecycle depends on low-intensity periodic wildfires for survival. European settlers destroyed huge swaths of pines to clear farmland, build structures, and, especially in North Carolina, manufacture turpentine for the naval stores industry. Today our longleaf pine acreage is about three percent of what it was when the European settlers first arrived. In 2007 a graduate student accompanied by Knapp — who, in every instance, highlights his students’ successes over his own— discovered a longleaf pine in Southern Pines’ Weymouth Woods dating back to the 1500s. The Ph.D. candidate, Jason Ortegren, who is now an associate professor of geography at the University of West Florida, cored the tree and determined it is the oldest known longleaf living today. For part of his doctoral thesis, Patterson is studying the relationship between high producing pinecone years and tick-born illnesses. When I marvel at the way his tree research ties into human concerns, Patterson, whose thin features and shoulder-length hair must remind Knapp of his younger self, says it’s a “total forest ecology.” Watkins, who has a boyish face and the build of lumberjack, was recently awarded UNCG’s prestigious Undergraduate Research and Creativity Award for his work coring the oldest trees at UNCG and creating an interacThe Art & Soul of Greensboro
Photographs from the Carolina Tree-Ring Science Laboratory
tive campus map that shows the age, height, diameter, species and location of these trees. He has found a short-leaf pine from 1842 and others from the 1870s that predate the university. Identifying old growth trees not only helps protect them from development, but also fills in historical details about an area. Old growth short leaf pines, Knapp explains, besides being “really interesting to look at, have distinctive characteristics: They get gnarly at the top, and they have a longitudinal twist to their trunks.” Watkins, Patterson, and Knapp take me to a window to show me what they mean. Patterson points across campus to a stand of trees, “Look at the tallest pine, over there, how it’s flat across the top.” Watkins leans in closer to the window and says, “I want to core that one pretty badly.” He tells me he can’t go anywhere without noticing how “these beautiful pines trees shoot up over the canopy. I can’t help but look for them now.” For his research, he finds archival photographs of the trees from the early 1900s along with other university records, which he crossdates with tree rings for patterns that may uncover new historical data about both climate and changes to the tree’s surroundings. For instance, trees develop thinner rings during construction or other stresses and wider rings after good rain years or maybe the loss of a nearby tree. Patterson explains, “It’s not like you can get in a time ship and go back. A lot of times there’s gaps in the narration. That’s where trees can tell you a lot.” Knapp adds, “We think when you blend human history with what trees tell us, it becomes a really interesting story.” The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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On Easter mornings when she was little girl, Molly Maynard and her family walked from their farmhouse on the Guilford College campus, where her father was a coach and P.E. teacher, to the New Garden Friends Meeting Cemetery for a sunrise service under the Revolutionary Oak. The 100-foot-tall white oak, with branches as thick as the trunks of other trees, had a girth of at least 25 feet and dated back to the 1400s. The tree once shaded injured Revolutionary soldiers, both British and American, while New Garden Quakers tended their wounds. And later, it stood over common graves for soldiers from both sides of the war. In 1955 the nearly 500-year-old oak survived dynamite set off under its roots during Eleanor Roosevelt’s controversial civil rights speech across the road at a Guilford College symposium. In the 1940s and ’50s Maynard often hiked in the Guilford woods with her family and the kids of other professors. She loved to climb a sugar maple beside their house — “the little spinner seeds and the beautiful orange red glow” — where she could hide out and read her Nancy Drew mysteries. Maynard, who grew up to become an elementary school teacher in ten different countries, including Japan, Iceland and Sardinia, tells me, “I think kids sort of end up with their pet tree and notice how it’s changing and want to take care of it.” She observes that trees “stay put. There’s stability with a tree and children have a natural tendency to like stability. You hear stories of people traveling back just to see a tree.” In 1959, for an eighth-grade essay assignment, Maynard decided to research the story of Revolutionary Oak, which she associated with Easter mornings. At the time many people feared the oak might die from damage sustained in the 1955 explosion. Maynard interviewed the chairman of the cemetery association, who told her Indians had probably used the knoll where the oak stood as a burial site. In the 1700s, some members of New Garden Friends Meeting attempted to trace the ownership so they could rightfully pay for the land. During the Revolutionary War, Friends brought more than a hundred injured soldiers from the front lines at Guilford Courthouse to the meeting house and neighboring Quakers’ homes. When there was no more space, the Quakers laid soldiers on lumber stacks intended for construction of a new meeting house. Some claimed the soldiers’ dark bloodstains stayed for anyone to see on planks
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Photographs By Molly Sentell Haile and courtesy of molly maynard
Molly Maynard and the Revolutionary Tree
that later formed the walls of the new building. Maynard researched her middle school essay beyond any measure of thorough, supplementing her nine pages of text with a diagram showing how she used triangulation to determine the height of the tree. She drew a cross section of the trunk with rings labeled according to significant dates and taped several black-and-white photos of the tree in the report. In one photo 13-year-old Maynard, wearing a knee-high skirt, bobby socks and loafers, balances on a knob in the Revolutionary Oak’s massive trunk. Maynard has continued to tuck newspaper clippings and artifacts into the pages of her original report, including one of the oak’s leaves pressed in wax paper. About the explosion, young Maynard writes in her essay, “On a spring evening, six years ago, Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt spoke in the newer meeting house, across New Garden Road from the cemetery. She spoke on the subject of her worldwide travels. A boom was heard as an explosion was set off beside the oak tree. Her speech was recorded on tape, which was broadcast over the radio the next day. The explosion was heard on the tape, too. The culprits were believed to be people who objected to Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt’s political ideas and expressed their feeling by setting the explosion.” John Campbell White, a member of New Garden Friends Meeting who recently celebrated his 90th birthday, remembers that June night in 1955 when someone (never discovered) set off several sticks of dynamite that cracked the base of the trunk and left the iconic oak with a precarious fifteen-degree tilt. White recalls, “My family had been invited off Friendly Road to eat supper with friends and just about the time we were getting ready to sit down to the meal, we heard this boom. It shook the whole neighborhood. I remember hearing that Eleanor Roosevelt was speaking and her only remark was, ‘Well, I see you have your own atom bomb here.’” Max Carter, religious studies professor and former director of the Friends Center at Guilford College, explains that Eleanor Roosevelt, “was invited to come and support the efforts for desegregation in the public schools and promote civil rights. The audience was intentionally mixed black and white sitting together and that was one of the things that was galling the opposition, you know, the promiscuous mingling of the races.” In September 1959, just a few months after Maynard’s mother took the photograph of her with the Revolutionary Oak, Hurricane Gracie hit the South. A week of heavy rain saturated the ground and the damaged oak lost its hold in the face of Gracie’s 30–40 mph winds. In its colossal crash, the oak avoided all but a few of the cemetery’s gravestones. Maynard, who lives in a wooded neighborhood just a few hundred yards from the site, takes me to the graveyard. A light drizzle has left the grass bright and wet in the center of the graveyard. This open space where the Revolutionary Oak lived is a grassy, empty oddity in a graveyard otherwise full with gravestones and shade trees. Maynard shows me the common grave outlined by a cement rectangle and a marker that reads “British and American Soldiers Buried March 1781 by New Garden Friends, ‘Peace, Good Will.’” She walks me to a stone marker for the Revolutionary Oak that I’d mistaken for a gravestone and wipes away rain droplets from the bronze plaque even as more sprinkle down on it. As we’re leaving, Maynard points out a grand oak a few yards away. “That’s probably one of its saplings.”
Carolyn Toben and Timberlake Earth Sanctuary Carolyn Toben, an educator who owns Timberlake Farm Earth Sanctuary in Whitsett, grew up in New Orleans where her favorite tree was a pine at the end of the boulevard in her neighborhood. “It was just a pine. I named it La Vert Arbor. I was doing French in school and had the wrong order of things.” Toben says she went to the tree when she wanted to run away. “Children want their own sacred space, you know.” At Timberlake, dense piney woods open into orchards and a charming vegetable patch called Gaia’s Garden. Wooden bridges and dogwood-lined trails take you to little vista nooks on Lake MacKintosh or to the Chapel or the Treehouse. Timberlake Farm feels part summer camp, part monastery, part fairyland. When her husband Boyd died in 1999, Toben didn’t know what to do with the 165-acre farm where she and Boyd had raised their three sons. With the encouragement of her family and her friend, the priest and ecotheologian Thomas Berry, Toben placed the land into an easement with the Conservation Trust of North Carolina, protecting it from development. The following year, it became home to the Center for Education, Imagination, and the Natural World, “a sacred place where children and teachers learn to fall in love with the earth.” Over the past fifteen years, more than 9,500 children have visited Timberlake as well as teachers who come from all over the country to learn how Toben and educators Peggy Whalen Levitt and Sandy Bisdee are guiding the children who visit. And recently, Toben has opened Timberlake for group retreats and weddings. Toben says everyone has a memory of a favorite tree. “Particularly are we close in our natures, in our souls, to trees. You know, the tree of life has been a major symbol all over the world forever. Children near from the programs and become very devoted to the trees. They listen to the trees, they touch the trees, they experience the neighborhood of the tree — what is growing around it. They experience the tree and all of life.” Timberlake is lush with early spring green on the misty Friday morning I visit. Toben meets me at the door to her house, a warm lofted retreat that blurs the boundaries between nature and the indoors with natural wood beams, dried herb and flower bouquets, smooth gourds and stones resting on tables — and Mei-ling, her Shih Tzu puppy. Mei-ling is a white fluffy confection who lets me play with her while Toben answers a phone call from her son, Scott. Just the day before, Scott injured his leg trying to clear a maple that fell into the lake during the last ice storm. The maple was a Timberlake icon that watched over The Rock. Children leaned on the tree before taking their last step onto The Wishing Rock, which sits at the water’s edge. Toben tells me each child in the Children’s Program would step out on the rock and make a wish as part of his or her Earth Walk. “The other children would be silent and make a wish for that child’s wish to come true. The tree heard these wishes all those years.” Toben remembers one little boy who said, “Every wish I’ve ever made here has come true.” She wanted to ask, “‘What were they?’ . . . but of course I didn’t.” Using a beautifully gnarled wooden walking cane, Toben leads me down several steps to her enclosed sun porch. We stop for her to pick up Mei-ling, who hasn’t yet learned how to use stairs. Once we’re sitting, Mei-ling paws at us and whines for more attention. Toben laughs, “She graduated two classes, but she The Art & Soul of Greensboro
needs graduate school.” Toben picks up where we left our discussion. Timberlake tries to avoid using the word “environmental,” she says, “That’s because it has to do with science.” More important, she says, “is the heart’s connection to the Earth, the intuitive, the need for children to develop those inner capacities. And so that’s where we’ve been focusing our work.” Why? “I’m absolutely convinced that we learn patience and rootedness and perseverance and acceptance, that we can learn all of those qualities from our trees.” Take the Wishing Rock and the maple tree: “We loved this tree as it was, but now it’s going to have a different form. I ask the children, ‘Are you the same as you were when you were a baby?’” Suddenly, she stops and points out the window to a tulip magnolia. “We’re always teaching, always trying to say to people, stop and look around you.” Hundreds of bright pink and white blooms fill the frame of the huge window behind me. It’s a shock of exuberance against an otherwise rain dreary day. Toben explains that sometimes the magnolia’s blossoms are stunted by frost, “but this year it’s been able to come out completely. This is extraordinary.” Toben’s cheeks are flushed with the same exuberant pink as the tree blossoms, and Mei-ling has finally settled at our feet. “Yesterday I was doing a wedding tour here and the mother of the bride told me that there’s supposed to be a hard frost this weekend, and it’ll go. This’ll be the end.” It’s all part of a natural process, she says. “There’s life — the life that comes, and then ultimately, the life that goes. But then there’s always more, there’s always a resurrection of the natural world. But we have to go through every stage and experience our feelings through these stages.” We walk down to The Wishing Rock, and I can see the maple half sunken in the lake beside the huge gray stone. Nearby, bright green iris shoots have clustered on the muddy bank, but they won’t bloom for another month or two. Toben says that twenty years ago her husband went out on a little boat to plant those bulbs. We pull the wooden Wishing Rock sign away from the upturned roots of the maple and set it upright. Toben says, “In your imagination, imagine all those children coming down from the Treehouse and stopping at The Wishing Rock.” Since my visit Toben has planted a new maple tree — which was blessed by a group of students from Our Lady of Grace — and Greensboro permaculturist Charlie Heddington helped her design a promontory of stones that leads children once again across the water to The Wishing Rock. It’s not easy to leave Timberlake Farm. Toben has cultivated a retreat apart from the linked-in and smart-phone world — an increasingly rare lifeline to the natural world. She tells me, “A lot of people will leave here and say ‘I’m going back to the real world.’ And I’ll say, ‘Actually, this is the real world.’” OH Molly Sentell Haile, whose work has been published in the Oxford American, is a graduate of UNCG’s creative writing MFA program. She teaches creative writing at Hirsch Wellness Network in Greensboro. September 2015
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Last Days of
Jayne Mansfield
An unexpected gig at Greensboro’s iconic Plantation Supper Club in 1963 revived the fading Hollywood star’s career — and set the stage for her sad demise By Billy Ingram
O
n March 1, 1963, lusty, busty Jayne Mansfield brought her salacious va-va-voom to Fred Koury’s iconic Plantation Supper Club for a nine-day run. Weeks before, Mansfield had pounced upon an out-of-the-blue offer from the thousand-seat club, which touted itself as the premier night spot between New York and Miami. Why? With the era of the Hollywood blonde bombshells drawing to a close, her already fading stardom had taken a nose dive — a predicament that apparently drove her to maximize her assets in Greensboro. Hometown rockabilly artist Billy “Crash” Craddock will never forget what it was like to open for Mansfield during her first show here. In a wardrobe malfunction that predates Janet Jackson’s by forty years, Craddock recalls how, “Mickey Hartigay, her husband, lifted her up with one hand and when he put her down, her zipper came all the way open, from the top to her rear end.” Accidents will happen, but Craddock says the Plantation Supper Club’s co-owner Fred Koury, “thought she planned that.” Considering her subsequent behavior in the days and months that followed, it’s entirely likely that she did. “She’d go around the stage, flirt with the men, rub their bald heads or wink at them,” Craddock says. “She was a sex symbol,” he says,” she didn’t have to do a whole lot more.” But she did. Her finale was dubbed a “satire on a strip.” Parody or no, it was strip tease, leaving little to the imagination. The Plantation crowd leapt to its feet in appreciation. Aware of it or not, in the very heart of the Bible Belt, Jayne had won over the toughest audience she’d ever faced. Wild and wayward Jayne painted our town a lighter shade of red, smashing all national box office records, making a ton of much needed cash for herself. She sent menfolk into a tailspin and their wives hightailing it to the beauty parlor. But it was the beginning of the end for the workingman’s Marilyn Monroe, one of the last highlights of a tumultuous career. Mansfield’s long week in Greensboro lit the match to a fuse that led to her notoriously gruesome death by near-beheading just four years later at age 43.
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From the 1940s through the 1960s Fred Koury’s Plantation Supper Club attracted some of the best entertainers in the nation. Andy Griffith launched his career there. Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Andy Williams, Brenda Lee, The Platters and Miyoshi Umeki swooped into town. The zipper that slipped that night in the Plantation was not the star’s first or last wardrobe malfunction. In fact, a 1950s poolside slip of her pink bikini top paved her way to Hollywood. Bubbly and bouncy in all the right places, the platinum blond Mansfield graced the cover of more than 500 magazines and strutted her stuff in a number of iconic films. In 1955, she posed for Playboy as Miss February. Her Holmby Hills home on Sunset Boulevard was an enormous palace where nearly everything was imbued in Jayne’s own specially blended hue, right down to the living room’s Passion Pink shag carpeting, the terry cloth walls and floor of her master bath, even the elaborate stonework surrounding a heart-shaped swimming pool. Filmmaker John Waters dubbed her “the ultimate movie star,” the embodiment of Tinseltown’s vanishing love affair with glamour and glitz, when opulence and ostentatiousness were de rigueur. Jayne Mansfield was a woman of impossible proportions, both physically and in her worldly construct, with a dingbat persona just as pronounced off-screen as on. In truth she was having a laugh . . . her IQ was as outsized as her 40-inch bust. Dick Cavett famously wrote an introduction for talk show host Jack Paar to deliver: “Ladies and gentlemen, what can I say about my next guest, except . . . here they are, Jayne Mansfield.” The Golden Globe winner’s most famous scene in a motion picture came in 1956’s The Girl Can’t Help It. As the camera follows Jayne sashaying down the avenue, the iceman’s glacier liquefies, the milkman’s bottle spontaneously lactates, an apartment dweller’s eyeglasses shatter attempting to get a peek as the lady is climbing the stairs. That minute-long scene made her a major star. Evidence suggests Mansfield had a Mae West complex. A good portion of her Las Vegas act mirrored Mae’s extravaganzas on The Strip. She even September 2015
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After an exhausting nine-hour flight from Los Angeles Jayne and Mickey arrived at Greensboro-High Point Airport on West Market Street early Thursday evening February 28th with 4-year old Mickey Jr. waving a Confederate flag. Her first show was a bit more than twenty-four hours away. After greeting an ebullient crowd, the family headed over to the Plantation Motel to freshen up before a press conference where scribes expressed curiosity as to what the sexy chanteuse had in store for her audience. She coyly confessed this was her first live engagement in a long while. “Well, I’d sort of like to keep it a secret until the show.” When prompted about Promises! Promises!, her first starring role in an American motion picture in two years, she described her part as “quite domesti-
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cated,” a departure from her “sex symbol stigma.” Oh boy, was it not that at all. More about that later. On a spur of the moment invitation, Jayne ventured out to the Greensboro Country Club in a scandalously low-cut skin-tight black gown with elbow length leather gloves to flirt with Governor Terry Sanford as he gathered with neighborhood developers. Jayne’s décolletage was tastefully swathed in mink when a photographer for Friday morning’s edition of the Greensboro Daily News showed up. That’s when the couple discovered forty-five pieces of luggage wasn’t the only baggage they’d arrived with. Questions were fielded as to whether Mickey “maliciously and wrongfully” assaulted Jayne’s hairdresser a week earlier as was asserted in a newly filed lawsuit. Eventually a story was stuck to: “My husband is a gentle, sweet person and wouldn’t hurt anyone.” So what if the allegations were true? No Southerner of that era would condemn a guy for pummeling another man who kept his wife out until 3 in the morning, then brought her home drunk. Whatever the circumstances, Jayne’s White Minx by Roux (with a drop of black) hairdo was tinted and teased for the duration by Greensboro’s own world-renowned hairdresser André of Leon’s. Apparently not in the least nervous about bringing her risqué revue to our smallish, oh-so-proper town, Jayne helicoptered onto the front lawn of the Greensboro Coliseum hours before her first performance to hop aboard a pink elephant to close the first half of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Then she joined her husband and son in the stands to take in the second act. Jayne’s publicist Raymond Strait wrote in The Tragic Secret Life of Jayne Mansfield, “In spite of her frantic social life, Jayne protected her image as a mother. The first thing she wanted once she was awake in the morning and had taken her ‘upper’ was to see her children.” At 9:30 the proverbial curtain rose on Jayne Mansfield’s whirlwind tour through her House of Love. The demure first number, Just Plain Jayne, poked fun at her lavish lifestyle; moments later she was spirited around the stage by a gaggle of muscular chorus boys exalting her rapscallion nature in song: “The lady’s a dish . . . too hot to handle. Her every wish . . . must be obeyed. You’ll have to learn how to live in the sun with no sign of shade. Because the lady’s much too, much too hot . . . to handle.” Jayne shimmied, shook and was hoisted for aerial calisthenics in her leopard print two-piece by Mickey dressed in Tarzan-esque trunks. She then displayed her virtuosity on the violin and piano before venturing into the audience to sit in the lap of a distinguished gentleman and sing sultrily with as much air in her voice as she supposedly had in her head. In a brilliant move meant to blunt any nose-downlooking that might arise over such a provocative staging, she assembled press and prominents for a Monday luncheon to unveil the “New” Jayne Mansfield, resplendent in a pink sleeveless with rhinestone beaded collar, matching shortie gloves, a sable stole draped across her arms. Twenty-six carats of sparkling diamonds glistened in the light as she exclaimed, “I’ve gone from tight-fitting low-cut dresses to tight-fitting high-necked dresses!” As the gathering grew more The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Photographs courtesy of Carol W. Martin/Greensboro Historical Museum Collection
appropriated one of the film legend’s on-stage muscle men, former Mr. America Mickey Hartigay, for husband and co-star. Billed as “The Bust and The Biceps” Jayne joked, “Between Mickey’s chest and my chest — well, let’s just say it makes dancing close somewhat difficult.” Mae West ultimately sued for alienation of affection despite being no more romantically attached to the Hungarian bodybuilder than any of her other beaus. No other celebrity harnessed the power of the press quite like Jayne, stuffing its insatiable maw with the unhealthy diet it thrived on, gleefully trading her headlamps for headlines. She planted stories in obscure newspapers then indignantly denied such outrageous accusations when wire services picked up on them and reporters came jockeying. The Pink Palace was equipped with a fully stocked bar open eight hours a day for any member of the fourth estate, and don’t think that didn’t grease the wheels. By the 1960s, the optical illusion that was her existence had become something of a protracted delusion. Despite winning the Italian equivalent of an Oscar in 1962, the actress was dropped by 20th Century Fox. Vegas hadn’t been an option for years. After Marilyn Monroe’s death that year, Mansfield’s personal life went into free - fall — booze and pills dictated the scripts, random hookups her co-stars. An affair with John Kennedy ended after she screamed into the telephone, “Look, you’ll only be President for eight years at the most. I’ll be a movie star forever!” Brother Bobby, true to his nature, dove in for sloppy seconds. There were other trysts, much to the dismay of Mickey Hartigay, father to three of her four children, who more than once tussled with Jayne’s latest conquest in front of jotting reporters. Although increasing in frequency, her affairs, trysts and one-night stands were mostly whispers around town and movie magazine chatter. Orbiting planet Has-Been, Jayne Mansfield jumped at the chance to perform at the newly renovated Plantation Supper Club, in 1963 celebrating its twentyfirst anniversary. In the early 1960s, institutions like Hollywood and Broadway still had an invincibility about them and Mansfield was by far the biggest star the nightclub had hosted.
casual, the men gravitated towards Jayne while their wives were pulled in by Mickey gyrating his hips, flexing his bulging biceps and rippling muscles on the dance floor. When challenged on her claim of having an 18-inch waist, Jayne performed a striptease to prove it, but refused to allow anyone to take a tape measure to it. She felt that would be tacky. To demonstrate her family was like any other, Jayne and Mickey Jr. coptered into High Point for lunch at the ritzy Schrafft’s restaurant then dined that evening at Cellar Anton’s with her husband. She awoke early Tuesday to share a Good Morning with Lee Kinard, returned to High Point on Friday for a photoshoot of Mickey Jr. playing with local kids before all three attended an impromptu house party. On the last night of her run, Jayne presented Junior Johnson with the NASCAR trophy after his ‘63 Chevy Impala SS roared into the Hillsborough Orange Speedway Winners’ Circle. Crash Craddock recalls her off-stage demeanor, “She was sweet as she could be, down-to-earth, that’s all there is to it,” he recalls. “After the show she’d always come sit at the table with me and Fred. That kinda surprised me, here’s a big star like Jayne Mansfield and she’s sittin’ at the table talkin’ and havin’ a good time.” Jayne’s arrangement with the Plantation had been a risky one. Compensation was tied to gate receipts. After eighteen performances before capacity crowds, she had raked in $23,000, equivalent to $180,000 today, a staggering sum no other performer working outside the largest cities had ever come close to. Back in La-La Land, industry trades were agog. Hollywood worshiped money and Jayne had proven to the world she was bankable in a most unexpected way. Greensboro was touted as her only nightclub appearance on the East Coast, but within days offers flooded in from all over the South. What started as a one-off became a full-fledged tour. Weeks later she deplaned in Atlanta a day late and inebriated, but that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm she generated. Boffo engagements in Louisville, New Orleans and Biloxi followed. A lyric from one of Mansfield’s musical numbers, “Unless you think you can live like a steak on a silver grill,” might best sum up what happened next. That movie Jayne filmed before her Southern baptism? Not just another tawdry B-movie, Promises! Promises! was the first modern motion picture to feature a mainstream star naked. Banned in Boston and in many other municipalities, including Greensboro, Promises! Promises! was nonetheless a huge draw nationwide, catapulting Jayne into Top Ten Box Office Attraction status . . . all for what she was reluctant to do in the first place. She fancied herself a Grace Kelly-type, if only the right roles came her way, and despised the idea of being nude in a motion picture. When the time came for the key scene to be shot, her handlers had to get her drunk so she’d go through with it. The public at large viewed her triumph as a distasteful and unsavory affront to all that was decent, orchestrated by a desperate sex-obsessed trollop. A special edition of Playboy released to coincide with the movie’s premiere featured shots from the set with Jayne sprawled au naturel across an unkempt bed. While she had posed for the men’s magazine multiple times, the June 1963 issue triggered something else entirely. Headlined “The Nudest Jayne Mansfield,” the sixty-cent publication quickly sold out with copies changing hands for as much as ten dollars apiece. Publisher Hugh Hefner’s subsequent arrest on indecency charges tainted The Art & Soul of Greensboro
the entire endeavor as pornographic, effectively aborting Jayne’s comeback. No longer partying with Presidents and A-listers and despite her determination to be remembered for her acting talent, could often be found Jayne carousing around and arousing Sunset Boulevard clubgoers, stripping down to her scanties in an amphetamine-fueled drunken reenactment of her act’s big finish, determined to embody the “man crazy blonde” one of her movie trailers advertised her as. Mickey Hartigay was jettisoned in favor of Matt Cimber, director of her Yonkers’ production of Bus Stop. They were married in 1964. Neither a Marilyn impression on The Jack Benny Program nor recording an album reciting Elizabethan poetry set to Tchaikovsky could reverse the trajectory her career had taken. Turning down the role of Ginger on Gilligan’s Island was another serious misstep. A network series would have spared her indignities to come, including an ignominious return to the Plantation Supper Club in October of 1964. While Greensboro had considered her previous appearances as kittenish and comically naughty, in ’64, folks stayed away in droves. There was little press coverage, only what a major advertiser like the Plantation could demand, a perfunctory feature article or benign photo ops in front of voting machines and such. Maybe it was just as well reporters were scarce. Rumors were swirling about Jayne’s notso-clandestine affairs with local businessmen and other lascivious conduct unbecoming a lady. According to sources, on more than one occasion, the story goes, PGA Tour Star (and GGO legend) Sam Snead’s signature Mallory straw hat rested on Jayne’s bedside. On Wednesday night June 28, 1967, lawyer-turned-abusivelover Sam Brody, a 20-year-old driver, and Jayne Mansfield with three of her youngest children packed into a late model Buick Electra after wowing a full house at a supper club in Biloxi, Mississippi. She was scheduled to perform for the troops at Seabee Base in Gulfport. But first there was a television interview in New Orleans to get to. Pulling out of the driveway of Gus Steven’s Supper Club onto U.S. Highway 90, they headed west. Rounding a curve on an unlit two-lane in the early morning hours, they plowed under a truck spraying insecticide fog. The car’s top sheared and corrugated all the way to the back seat. The three adults in the front died instantly. The toddlers in back all survived, among them Mariska Hartigay of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit fame, whose star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is cemented next to her mother’s. That mangled Buick became a macabre 25-cent carnival-like attraction, trailered across Carolina backwater burgs before landing in a Florida museum devoted to tragic events. Commercial vehicles today are equipped with what’s called a Mansfield Bar, reinforced rear bumpers that prevent automobiles from penetrating the undercarriage. Jayne’s Pink Palace was home to Ringo Starr, Cass Elliot and finally Englebert Humperdink before being demolished in 2002. In 1965 Fred Koury stopped booking national acts for the most part in favor of Plantation A Go-Go featuring cage dancers and local musical artists. A decade later Greensboro’s finest nightclub burned to the ground. OH When Billy Ingram was a baby, Andy Williams bounced him on his knee at the Plantation, and Miyoshi Umeki wrote on a postcard “I don’t know you yet but I like to be your friend” — in English and Japanese. His latest book Hamburger² is (mostly) about Greensboro. September 2015
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Story of a House
What’s Old Is New At the brilliantly styled, ecofriendly Latham Park home of Julie and Chuck Clark, past and future enjoy a perfect marriage By Maria Johnson • Photographs by Amy Freeman
F
rom the street, Julie and Chuck Clark’s English cottage-style home looks very quaint. Just back from the curb stands a section of white picket fence that Chuck made. It’s flanked by old-fashioned plants – hydrangeas, lamb’s ears, forget-me-nots, hostas, honeysuckle and adgeratom. Beyond that, a no-mow yard designed by Julie contains nary a blade of fescue. It’s filled instead with dwarf mondo grass, thyme, lavender and a swirl of stones that Julie took a notion to embed in the ground because that’s the kind of hands-on person she is – one who’d be throwing away money on a manicure. If she wanted one. Which she doesn’t. Then there’s the house itself. A sturdy brick affair painted the color of clotted cream, trimmed in chocolate and taupe, with a sweeping cat-slide roof, decorative half-timbers at the gables, arched entry and an oak front door. An American flag hangs to the side, just to remind you where you are. Provincial touches continue inside. Heart pine floors. A stone fireplace. Rough-hewn, weather-beaten beams overhead in the family room. You’d have to look closely — into the walls, under the house and atop the backside of the roof, which is covered with solar panels — to see just how modern and energy-stingy the new home is. “We felt compelled to do it because it’s the right thing to do,” says Julie. “We have to watch out for the Earth.” For its size, the 3,400-square-foot home is one of the most power-pinching homes in Greensboro, thanks to the solar array; the on-demand water heater; the blown-in polyurethane insulation (formaldehyde-free); the low-E, double-paned casement windows; the efficient appliances; the LED lighting; and the sealed crawlspace, which is slightly heated and cooled to minimize the temperature slugfest between house and ground. The Clarks’ solar panels feed Duke Energy’s grid. When the family needs electricity, they pull it back from the grid. A two-way meter measures deposits and withdrawals. Since moving in last September, the family has amassed credits during two months, April and May. Chuck expects that by November, the family’s first anniversary of living in the house, the solar panels will have earned nearly enough credits to cover their power costs. “I think, overall, they’ll cover 90 percent of our electric bills,” he says. “This is a much more affordable home in every way possible,” says Julie, comparing the couple’s new home to the The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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slightly bigger one they left on nearby Wentworth Drive. The Clarks walked softly on the planet during construction. With the help of Steven Cole Builders in King, northwest of Winston-Salem, they picked out reclaimed wood for floors, deck, shelving, front door and the exposed beams in the family room. Even the corbels that brace the range hood called somewhere else home before landing on Woodland Drive. Chuck, a neuroradiologist (he might not know what you are thinking, but he can see inside your head pretty easily), built the long concrete tables on the deck. He made the forms, mixed and poured the bagged concrete and bolted on the ironpipe legs. He also built the fire pit that’s at the center of the concentric-circle garden that Julie drew up for the backyard. They don’t think twice about doing these things themselves. “That’s the way we grew up,” says Julie. “We’re from the Midwest, and I think it’s a whole different work ethic. More people could be handy if they wanted to be.” Julie helped to plane and sand the home’s reclaimed wooden shelving and lay the carpet squares that cover much of the second floor. “If there’s a spill or a stain, you just pick up one of the pieces,” she says. Her wide-eyed expression adds, “Why doesn’t everyone have this?” A relentless creator — she paints, sews, gardens and makes candles — she made most of the window treatments. She finished the downstairs half-bath with verve, stealing the bold color scheme from a French church she toured on a trip to the September 2015
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village of Paradise, home of her ancestors who carried the town’s name, hence her middle initial “P.” The bathroom walls are turquoise, blue and maroon, with a gold-on-pink stenciled design that Julie copied from photos of the church. The Clarks pay homage to history again in the family room. Set with mortar, a stone fireplace includes a speckled rock that rolled up to their feet in the waves during a visit to Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, site of the Allies’ D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. Julie’s father fought in World War II, though not at Omaha Beach. Quick story: On the way back from France, customs officials at the X-ray machine at JFK International Airport stopped the Clarks. “Is there, by chance, a rock in your luggage?” the officials asked. “Yes.” “Why?” “It came from Normandy.” “That’s a good reason.” The family room encapsulates the Clarks’ love of the eclectic: a woodburning fireplace (energy demerits noted) topped with a convex mirror and oversized black lanterns; a chrome ginger jar used as a table between armless upholstered chairs; an antique English chest; a sleek, leather-tufted coffee
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table, home to an assortment of reading material. The Vanity Fair issue with Caitlyn Jenner as cover girl. The Rolling Stone issue with Rush as cover boys. The slick picture book, Musée D’Orsay. The guidebook Fifty Places to Bike Before You Die. Eric Grietens’ The Heart and The Fist: The Education of a Humanitarian; the Making of a Navy Seal. The book was a gift from daughter Maggie’s boyfriend, a Green Beret. Most of the furniture — save a new, informal dining table, chairs and sideboard — came from the Clarks’ old house, a Cape Cod cottage with a deep front porch. Driven by the desire to retire in a more casual, energy efficient home with a first-floor master suite, the Clarks put their almost-100-year-old home on Wentworth Drive up for sale, then took it off the market after getting no offers. Several weeks later, an offer came unexpectedly. The Clarks decamped to a third-story, walk-up apartment and went looking for a lot. They settled on a parcel owned by Wolfe Homes, which had already torn down the original structure, a starter home that was built near Latham Park in the post World War II years. The Clarks kept meeting people who said they’d lived in the old house. “We kept saying, ‘Are you sure? Because a really high percentage of people we’re meeting have lived here,’” says Julie, laughing. Many of the smaller homes near Latham Park have been razed as affluent Irving Park has loosened its belt. The southeast end of Woodland is a mixture of new construction, homes built in the ’70s and ’80s, and reconditioned postwar cottages. The Clarks love the variety in architecture and neighbors, including young families, retirees and their pets. The Clarks
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meet them while working in the yard or collecting mail from their copper-clad box beside the white picket fence. “It’s cool. It’s fun,” says Chuck. “Everyone has a dog,” says Julie. “Everyone.” The Clarks designed the new home with the help of Kernersville draftsman Larry McRae, who helped them with touches such as thick arched doorways between rooms. Chuck designed the Craftsman-style window and door trim. Everywhere, the couple sought clean lines and restful tones. The walls are painted white and repose gray. The trim is white. The doors whisper in faint bluish-gray. The house is quiet in decibels, too, partly due to the insulation. “You can’t hear the rain – or the trash trucks,” says Julie. The hushed atmosphere makes a great backdrop for the couple’s artwork, most of it original. They love the work of Boone artist Tim Ford, and of retired art profs Richard Fennell, formerly of UNCG, and Warren Dennis, who taught at Appalachian State. English portrait artist Nancy Fletcher did a pencil sketch of their daughter Adair, which hangs in the master, not far from a signed Norman Rockwell print. Greensboro artist Bill Mangum did the watercolor of a flower-banked English door that livens the family room. “My work is relegated to upstairs,” says Julie, climbing the wooden treads. One of her paintings hangs at the top of the stairs, in an airy TV room/landing. It captures the smiling face of a golden retriever that followed her around the Caribbean island of Nevis during one vacation. “She slept at my feet outside, she would not leave me alone,” Julie says with affection. More paintings loiter in her studio, which amounts to a folding plastic table in an unfinished corner that she shares with a stationary bike. A freckled-face rendition of her niece, Mary Caroline, leans against the wall. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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So does an impressionistic version of her dog, Chloe, a papillon. Chuck’s office sits on the other end of the upstairs, near where his first bike, a 10-speed Peugeot, is suspended overhead. The Clarks are avid cyclists. They cycled across the country in 2011. At home, Chuck bikes to work. Julie zips around in a Nissan LEAF, the world’s best-selling electric car, to further reduce the couple’s carbon footprint. She also tries to keep from stepping on Chuck’s workspace. She whizzes in and out of his home office with a toss of her hand. “He did this. I stayed out,” she says of the decor. When it came to the two upstairs bathrooms, their differences were irreconcilable. He took one bathroom. She took the other. They had a contest. Let the best decorator win. “He lost,” says Julie. Their budget won. Both used marble scraps for countertops and homeimprovement store tile for the floors. Julie splurged on a custom fretwork panel that separates the vanity from the toilet without blocking light from a frosted window. “I thought it might make the bathroom unique,” she says. That’s what makes the Clarks happiest about their new home: the individuality. “We wanted it to look like it had been here and have a lot of character,” says Chuck. “Building a new house with character is a bit of a challenge.” But the Clarks declare victory. While saving money and energy, they found a way to express themselves in a home that’s as creative as they are. “I think that’s why we like it,” Chuck says. “It’s one of a kind.” OH Maria Johnson is a contributing editor of O.Henry magazine. You can reach her at maria@ohenrymag.com.
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Decorating Your Home
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88 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
By Rosetta Fawley
Going All Moony
“The Richmonds are flooded, electricity’s gone off. God is testing us and I for one am gonna be prepared. Where’s the vodka?” — From September (1987, Woody Allen)
There will be a total lunar eclipse at the end of this month. In North Carolina we’ll see it on the night of the 27th and morning of the 28th. The moon will appear red, a nice match for the fall colors. Turn off the lights, put out a lawn chair and sit back for the show. If you get thirsty, reach for a cocktail. Recipes abound for Eclipses and are as diverse as they are prolific. They feature ingredients from sloe gin to mescal. Sloe gin can be tricky to get, so if you want your cocktail to be the appropriate rosy shade you might consider cranberry juice, Campari or grenadine. Probably not all together, though.
The Worm People Cometh Goddesses and Gargoyles September 8 is the anniversary of the unveiling of Michelangelo’s statue of David. The year was 1504. So this might be the month to think about some statuary for your own landscape. Not everyone has access to huge blocks of marble and an artistic genius, but, no matter what your budget or creative connections, garden art can considerably enhance a space. Stone, copper and bronze will all acquire a lovely patina over time. Glass gives a clean, contemporary feel and terra-cotta a Mediterranean warmth — do bear in mind though that terra-cotta is not frost-friendly. Ceramic tiles make pretty talking points and concrete can be dyed different colors to match any themes you may have running through your garden. There are probably all sorts of aesthetic rules about what to put where, but the Almanac’s only stipulations are to choose something you love and not to give two hoots about what anybody else thinks. Be as whimsical or as classical as you like. Whether you have a passion for sprites and gargoyles or sundials and Greek goddesses, display your taste with panache. If you fall out of love with something immovable you can grow a climbing rose over it.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 23 is the first day of autumn. It is also the anniversary of the Concordat of Worms, which took place in 1122. In fact, this was a papal agreement brokered near the city of Worm=s in Germany, but the name put the Almanac in mind of the gardener’s wriggly friends. Fall is often a time that people notice their garden’s earthworm inhabitants. Those little piles of dirt that poke up through the lawn and beds are called castings, and they’re the good sign of an earthworm population. Don’t be annoyed that it’s messing up the lawn. Castings are far richer in nutrients and organic matter than the surrounding soil. They produce micronutrients, phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium for your plants. In other words, those tiny hillocks of dirt are little mines of nature’s very best fertilizer. The wormy wonders also aerate the soil, spread moisture and break down leaves. Falling leaves are ideal for encouraging an earthworm population. Keep leaf piles moist and as the leaves start to decay the worms will feast on them. As you gather produce from your garden through the autumn, leave the roots to decay so the worms can eat them. No need to worry about live roots because the worms only like decaying material. Furthermore, as you move into winter pruning, leave cut matter on the ground. It may not look very tidy but the earthworms will make short work of it and the mess won’t be around for long. If you find smaller, redder worms working above ground, these are composting worms. They’re all good for the garden.
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92 O.Henry
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94 O.Henry
September 2015
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Paul J. Ciener
Botanical Garden IS PROUD TO PRESENT
FALL PLANT SALE Saturday, October 3rd, 2015 from 9:00am until 1:00pm Plants for sun and shade, selected trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials and More!
Proceeds benefit the future development of the garden.
Come find something perfect for your garden!
Life & Home
For a list of plants, visit www.cienerbotanicalgarden.org
“Nothing Could be Finer” by Pam Beck Award-winning freelance garden writer, photographer and popular lecturer
Pam Beck Thursday, October 8th, 2015 6:00 pm-7:30 pm Garden Ballroom 215 S. Main St., Kernersville $30 per person
Empowering Dreams. Embracing Legacies.
Please enjoy hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine before Pam’s lecture. RSVP by October 5th to (336) 996-7888 or register online at www.cienerbotanicalgarden.org
Join us for a... Downton Abbey-style Edwardian Tea Sunday, October 25th, 2015 4:00 pm in the Garden 215 S. Main St, Kernersville $25 per person
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Waban Carter
While sipping your tea, enjoy a menu that includes both savory and sweets, musical entertainment and a program on tea by Cindy Hyle. Seating is limited so hurry and reserve your seat by calling 336-996-7888 orregister online at www.cienerbotanicalgarden.org
Paul J. Ciener Botanical Garden 215 S. Main Street, Kernersville 336-996-7888 www.cienerbotanicalgarden.org
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 95
September 2015 Folkfest
17 Days
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September 1–2 HOPPERS HERE. The Greensboro Grasshoppers are home again. NewBridge Bank Park, 408 Bellemeade Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 268-2255.
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September 1–19 17DAYS. The artists exhibiting in Regression enjoy a second childhood by transforming children’s art supplies into works of art. African American Atelier, Greensboro Cultural Center, 200 North Davie Street, Suite 200, Greensboro. Info: (336) 333-6885 or africanamericanatelier.org.
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September 1–October 18 17DAYS. The tableau is genre that transcends artistic styles. Have a gander at The Stilled Lives of Objects. Weatherspoon Art Museum, 500 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 334-5770 or weatherspoon. uncg.edu.
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September 1–November 29 IT’S A MAUD, MAUD WORLD. A UNCG alum’s artwork comes to Greensboro in Remembering Maud Gatewood: A Selection of Her Paintings. Weatherspoon Art Museum, 500 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 334-5770 or weatherspoon. uncg.edu.
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September 3 AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet novelist Greg Shemkovitz, author of Lot Boy. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 7631919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
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September 1–20 17DAYS. Nothin’ like a dysfunctional Southern family. Celebrate Triad Stage’s 15th season by seeing the Tennessee Williams classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The Pyrle, 232 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 272-0160 or triadstage.org.
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17 Days September 2015
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Dance Project
September 4–October 2 17DAYS. What’ll it be? Helvetica? Arial? Times New Roman? See Typeface, an exhibition exploring trends in typography. Center for Visual Artists, Greensboro Cultural Center, 200 North Davie Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 333-7475 or greensboroart.org.
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September 5–27 17DAYS. Watch your step(ladder)! A temporary sculpture of ladders by artist Charlie Brouwer launches Rise Together Greensboro and heralds the Tanger Performing Arts Center. Lindsay Street, between North Elm Street and Summit Avenue. Info: risetogethergreensboro.org.
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September 5 TIPPY CANOE. 3 p.m. And kayaks, too. Paddle up the Haw River with guides, and eat pizza on the patio afterward. Grove Winery, 7360 Brooks Bridge Road, Gibsonville. Tickets: (336) 584-4060 or grovewinery. com.
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September 10 BUCKET O’ AUTUMN. Noon. Learn about fall container gardening from Beckie Berlin of New Garden Landscaping & Nursery. Paul Ciener Botanical Garden, 215 South Main Street, Kernersville. Reservations: (336) 996-7888 or cienerbotanicalgarden. org.
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AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet Matthew • Neill Null, author of Honey from the Lion. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
17DAYS 7 p.m. “One City, One Book” leads to the • Downtown Greenway and Greensboro Trail System, featuring Dabney Sanders, Action Greensboro, and Madeleine Carey, Greensboro Parks and Recreation. Kathleen Clay Edwards Family Library, 1420 Price Park Drive, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2923 or www. facebook.com/OCOB.GSO.
September 5–November 29 BIG MAN CAMPUS ON CAMPUS. See Peter Campus, Falk-Shiva Visiting Artist, an exhibition of video installations. Weatherspoon Art Museum, 500 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 334-5770 or weatherspoon.uncg.edu.
17DAYS. 7 p.m. Listen to “Songs of Hope and • Justice,” a musical kickoff to 17DAYS and warm-up
September 8 AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet Craig McLaughlin, author of Passing on Curves While Death Rides Shotgun. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
September 10–17 17DAYS. The stories of college-age Iraqi war veterans, taken from actual interview transcripts, informs the docudrama In Conflict. Performance times vary. Greensboro College, 815 West Market Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 272-7102 ext. 5242 or tickets@greensboro.edu.
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September 9 AUTHOR, AUTHOR, 7 p.m. Meet Michael Brantley, author of Memory Cards. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 7631919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
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Key:
• • Art
Music/Concerts
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Performing arts
for the National Folk Festival, featuring the Triad’s own Laurelyn Dossett and Rhiannon Giddens. The RailYard, 120 Barnhardt Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 275-3222 or railyardentertainment.com.
September 10–27 17DAYS. See Bill of Sale: Slave Deeds of Guilford County featuring documents from the Guilford County
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• • Film
Literature/Speakers
• • Fun
History
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Sports
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
17 Days
September Arts Calendar
National Folk Festival/NFF Register of deeds recording the local history of slavery and various accompanying programs. International Civil Rights Center & Museum, 134 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 274-9199 or sitinmovement.org. September 11 NATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL (NFF). 5:45–6:30 p.m. Jeff Little Trio offers up Blue Ridge piano to set the mood for NFF. Wrangler Stage (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 6:30–7 p.m. The National Folk Festival • kick-off parade marches on. Wrangler Stage (No. 1),
downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 7–7:15 p.m. Hear opening remarks for National Folk Festival. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 7:15–8 p.m. Frank London’s Klezmer Brass • Allstars perform. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 7:45–8:15 p.m. Put yer p’tit pied out at a Cajun • dance lesson. Dance Pavilion, (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 7:45–8:30 p.m. Joe Mullins & the Radio • Ramblers bring some bluegrass. Church Street Stage
(No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 8–9:15 p.m. It’s honky-tonk and country from Dale Watson. Wrangler Stage (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 8:15–9:15 p.m. Cajun crooners, the Pine Leaf • Boys, needle audiences. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 8:15–8:40 p.m. Sheila Kay Adams’ Appalachian songs and ballads inspire. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival. com.
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NFF. 8:45–9:30 p.m. NOLA’s Henry Butler & Jambalaya tickle the ivories. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 8:45–9:30 p.m. ¡Vivan Los Tres Reyes, trío, • romantico! Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 9:30–10:30 p.m. Marquise Knox knocks • out some blues. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 9:45–10:30 p.m. Who knew? From • Newfoundland, Canada, The Dardanelles tune up.
Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 9:45–10:30 p.m. Afro-Cuban astounds, • thanks to Pedrito Martinez Group. Belk Stage (No. 4),
downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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AMY-ABLE. 8 p.m. “Crossover” has multiple meanings for Christian crooner-turned-mainstream musician Amy Grant. High Point Theatre, 220 East Commerce Avenue, High Point. Tickets: (336) 887-3001 or highpointtheatre.com.
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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17DAYS. 8:30 p.m. Artists Chris Cloud and Ng Xi Jie talk about their works. Elsewhere, 606 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: goelsewhere.org.
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17DAYS. 10 p.m. Keep the folkie vibe going at an after party for the launch of the National Folk Festival, featuring old time music, square dance and performances by rising folk stars of the Piedmont. Elsewhere, 606 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: goelsewhere.org.
September 11–13 IN THE HOUSE. Flooring, countertops, patios . . . enjoy the comforts of home at, well, the Greensboro Fall Home Show. Times vary. Greensboro Coliseum Pavilion, 1921 Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Info: greensborocoliseum.com.
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September 11–18 17DAYS. 2:30 p.m.; 10 p.m. Wes Fest 2015 (a salute to director Wes Anderson) includes The Darjeeling Limited (2007), starring Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody as three brothers who attempt a spiritual journey across India. Geeksboro Coffehouse Cinema, 2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 355-7180 or geeksboro.com.
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September 11–20 THE RATTLE OF MIDWAY. Enjoy rides, music, games exhibits and food (funnel cakes, anyone?) at the Central Carolina Fair. Times vary. Greensboro Coliseum parking lot, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard. Info: greensborocoliseum.com.
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Greensboro’s Fabric of Freedom Story. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. Noon–1:15 p.m. Watch some moves by • Mythili Prakash Dance Ensemble. Wrangler Stage (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfest.com.
NFF. Noon–1:15 p.m. Hear Belk’s Southern Music • Showcase winner, Down Home Band. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfest. com.
p.m. Thomas Maupin, Daniel • •NFF.& Noon–1:15 Rothwell Overall Creek with Kory Posey perform old time string music and Appalachian buck dance. Lawn Stage (No. 6), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfest.com.
NFF. Noon–12:45. Watch the Warriors of • AniKithwa perform Cherokee ceremonial Dance.
Center City Park (No. 5), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfest.com.
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NFF. 12:15–12:45 p.m. Henry Crissman gives a mobile interview about kiln firing. North Carolina Folklife Demonstration Area: Pottery Traditions, downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. NFF. 12:30–1:15 p.m. In case you missed ’em: • Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
September 11–26 17DAYS. It’s come a long way, baby, since its opening in 1899. See the evolution of The Art Shop gallery at Locally Owned, Internationally Grown. The Art Shop, 3900 West Market Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 8558500 or artshopnc.com.
NFF. 12:35–1:20 p.m. Yuqin Wang and Zhengli • Xu present Chinese rod puppetry. McDonald’s Family
September 11–30 17DAYS. Learn how artist Curt Butler literally waxes poetic with a hot-wax medium called encaustic method. Tyler White O’Brien Gallery, 307 State Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 279-1124 or tylerwhitegallery. com.
NFF. 1–1:20 p.m. Check out American Indian pottery traditions. North Carolina Folklife Demonstration Area: Pottery Traditions, downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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September 12 NFF. Noon–12:30 p.m. Hear Grace Chang play the Chinese zither or guzheng. McDonald’s Family Stage (No. 2), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. Noon–12:45 Jeff Little Trio strikes the keys • again. North Carolina Traditions Stage (No. 8), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. Noon–6 p.m. See pottery from all over N.C. • North Carolina Folklife Demonstration Area: Pottery
Traditions, North Carolina Arts Council Booth, downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. Noon–6 p.m. Henry Crissman and local potters fire up an Anagama kiln. North Carolina Folklife Demonstration Area, downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. NFF. Noon–12:45. The Dardanelles are on again. • Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
•NFF. Noon–1:15 p.m. Bill Ferris moderates • • • Key:
Art
Music/Concerts
Performing arts
Stage (No. 2), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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p.m. Bluegrass from the • •NFF. 1–2:45 Buckstankle Boys, songs from Sheila Adams and clog-
ging from the Todd Family Dancers comprise a tribute to Bascam Lamar Lunsford and the birth of the Folk Festival. North Carolina Traditions Stage (No.8), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 1–1:45 p.m. The Harris Brothers belt out • some Appalachian blues. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 1–1:45 p.m. Rhiannon Giddens and • Justin Robinson salute Joe Thompson and African
American string music. Lawn Stage (No. 6), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 1–1:45 p.m. It’s gospel time with Joe Mullins • & the Radio Ramblers, and Maggie Ingram & the Ingramettes. Wrangler Stage (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 1:20–2:05. Derek McAlister shows off circus • arts. McDonald’s Family Stage grounds (No. 2), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
• • Film
Literature/Speakers
• • Fun
September 2015
History
•
Sports
O.Henry 97
September Arts Calendar •
NFF. 1:30–2:15 p.m. Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka & the San Francisco Taiko Dojo lower the boom for taiko drumming. Church Street Stage, (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 3–3:30 p.m. The Warriors of AniKituhwa perform yet more Cherokee ceremonial dances. North Carolina Traditions Stage (No. 8), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 1:30–2:15 p.m. Singer Aurelio delivers the NFF. 3–3:30 p.m. Learn about slip decoration • • Caribbean vibe of the Garifuna people. Dance Pavilion and surface treatments from Josh Floyd, Senora (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
Lynch, Hal or Eleanor Pugh. North Carolina Folklife Demonstration Area: Pottery Traditions, downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 2–2:45 p.m. Los Treyes Reyes still reign. Belk • Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalNFF. 3:10–4 p.m. Dig the sounds of Babá Ken • folkfestival.com. Okulolo and the West African Highlife Band. Wrangler Stage (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. NFF. 2–2:45 p.m. Pedrito Martinez Group per• forms Afro-Cuban tunes again. Wrangler Stage (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. NFF. 3:30–4:15 p.m. Cut a rug to Héctor del • Curto’s Tango Quartet. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. NFF. 2–2:45 p.m. Rahim AlHaj strums the oud. • Lawn Stage (No. 6), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. NFF. 3:30–4:15 p.m. On the marquee: Marquise • Knox, blues songstress. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. NFF. 2–2:40 p.m. Check out face jugs by Sid and • Jason Luck, and clay figures by David Garner. North Carolina Folklife Demonstration: Pottery Traditions, p.m. Circus, circus! See a repeat •NFF. 3:30–4:15 downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. performance by Derek McAlister. Center City Park (No. 5), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. NFF. 2:10–2:50 p.m. Sign up for Blues Harmonica •with Phil Wiggins. McDonald’s Family Stage (No. 2), •NFF. 3:35–4:20 p.m. Touch the puppet head — or 101 downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 2:30–3:15 p.m. Enjoy some Big Easy listening with Henry Butler & Jambalaya. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. NFF. 2:30–3:15 p.m. Craic is happening as James • Kelly and Donna Long play Irish fiddle and piano. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 3–3:45 p.m. Laissez les bons temps rouler • with the Pine Leaf Boys. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 3–3:45 p.m. Appalachian blues fill the air, courtesy of the Harris Brothers. Lawn Stage (No. 6), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 3–3:30 p.m. Steve Weintraub leads some • awesome Jewish stunts and dances. McDonald’s Family Stage (No. 2), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
98 O.Henry
September 2015
not. Yuqin Wang and Zhengli Xu demonstrate Chinese rod puppetry. McDonald’s Family Stage (No. 2), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 4–4:40 p.m. Sid Luck, Caroleen Sanders, • Boyd Owens, Nancy Owen Brewer and Chad Brown
present Pottery Dynasties & Narratives. North Carolina Folklife Demonstration Area: Pottery Traditions, downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 4–5 p.m. Mavis Staple belts out some • gospel, soul and R&B. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
National Folk Festival/NFF downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. NFF. 4:15–5 p.m. It’s R&B, soul, jazz and gospel from The Monitors. North Carolina Traditions Stage (No. 8), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 4:30–5:30 p.m. Los Tres Reyes; Matthew • Byrne of The Dardanelles, Courtney Granger of Pine
Leaf Boys, Lutchinha and The Branchettes team up for Song Masters. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 4:30–5:30 p.m. A good time is guar-AN-teed • with Pine Leaf Boys. McDonald’s Family Stage (No. 2),
downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 4:45–5:45 p.m. Go for some go-go with the • high energy sounds of Trouble Funk. Dance Pavilion
(No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 5:15–6 p.m. Joe Mullins & the Radio • Ramblers strum up some bluegrass. Belk Stage (No. 4),
downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 5:15–6:15 p.m. Pedrito Martinez, Jhair Sala, • a member of Mythili Prakash Dance Ensemble, and
many more artists come together for World Rhythms: Percussion Traditions. Wrangler Stage, (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 5:15–6 p.m. How Eire-onic! James Kelly and • Donna Long play Irish fiddle and piano. Lawn Stage
(No. 6), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 5:15–6 p.m. Bobby Hicks Band let some blue• grass grow. North Carolina Traditions Stage (No. 8), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 5:45–6:30 p.m. Let the spirit move you as • The Branchettes sing African American congrega-
tional hymns. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 4–5 p.m. Rahim AlHaj, Aurelio, Dock R’mah, • 6–6:45 p.m. He’s a honky-tonk man! Hear Maggie Ingram & the Ingramettes, and Sheila Kay • NFF.tunes country from Dale Watson. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), Adams interpret Flight to Freedom: Music & Personal Stories. Lawn Stage (No. 6), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 4:15–5 p.m. They’re back! Frank London’s • Klezmer Brass Allstars, that is. Wrangler Stage (No. 1),
downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
•• •
• • • • •
Key: Art Music/Concerts Literature/Speakers Fun
Performing arts Film History Sports
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
17 Days National Folk Festival/NFF
September Arts Calendar
NFF. 6:15–7 p.m. Maggie Ingram & the • Ingramettes get soulful with gospel music. Belk Stage
NFF. 8:45–9:30 p.m. It takes two to tango and • Héctor Del Curto’s Tango Quartet to provide the
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NFF. 9–10 p.m. Henry Butler & Jambalaya bring • the sound of N’awlins to town. Wrangler Stage (No. 1),
NFF. 6:30–6:45. The Down Home Band brings it • home for the evening. Wrangler Stage (No. 1), down-
NFF. 9:30–10:30 p.m. Marquise Knox gets down • with some blues. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown
(No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 6:15–7 p.m. Appalachian songs and airs fill the air, courtesy of Sheila Kay Adams. Lawn Stage (No. 6), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
town Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
music. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 6:45–7:30 p.m. ’Oudat? Rahim AlHaj and his NFF. 9:30–10:30 p.m. Dance your troubles away • • Iraqi oud, of course. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downto Trouble Funk. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown town Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 7–7:45 p.m. Renew your love for • Newfoundlanders, The Dardanelles. Wrangler Stage
(No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
September 12–24 17DAYS. Wes Fest 2015 continues with a costumed ball and art show featuring works inspired by director Wes Anderson’s movies. Geeksboro Coffehouse Cinema, 2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 355-7180 or geeksboro.com.
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September 13 NFF. Noon–12:45 p.m. Bluegrass starts the day, thanks to Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. Noon–12:45 p.m. Do these guys ever take a • break?! Hear Grand Master Seiichi Tanaka & the San Francisco Taiko Dojo. Wrangler Stage (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. Noon–12:45 p.m. Learn about Accordion • NFF. 9:45–10:30 p.m. It’s taiko five as Grand Traditions from Héctor del Curto, Wilson Savoy (Pine • Master Seiichi Tanaka & the San Francisco Taiko Dojo Leaf Boys) and other artists. Lawn Stage (No. 6), downbeat it for the night. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
town Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
a Day,” replete with craft and preservation demos. High Point Museum, 1859 East Lexington Avenue, High Point. Info: (336) 885-1859 or highpointmusem.org.
nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. Noon–12:30 p.m. Amazing Grace Chang • NFF. 7:15–8 p.m. Get on your feet for the Garifuna APPLE STORES. 10 a.m. How did the apple strikes up the Chinese guzheng or zither. McDonald’s • • sounds of Aurelio. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown become a staple of early settlers? Find out at “An Apple Family Stage (No. 2), downtown Greensboro. Info: Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 7–8 p.m. Get your groove on with Babá Ken • Okulolo and the West African Highlife Band. Dance
Pavilion (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
17DAYS. 7:30 p.m. Its name says it all: Collage is a • collaboration of works by UNCG’s School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. Aycock Auditorium, 408 Tate Street, Greensboro. Tickets: tickets.com.
NFF. 7:45–8 p.m. Mythili Prakash Dance Ensemble • steps up its game. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 8 p.m.–8:45. Hear some Cap Verde cool • from Lutchinha. Wrangler Stage (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
AUTHORS, AUTHORS. 2 p.m. Meet Missy Julian • Fox and Elaine O’Neil, authors of Road Trip Carolina: A Ride Across the Old North State. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 7631919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
NFF. Noon–12:45 p.m. Rhiannon Giddens co• hosts Sunday Gospel & Traditional Music with Welch
Family singers, the Branchettes, Sheila Kay Adams and the Buckstankle Boys. North Carolina Traditional Stage (No. 8), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. Noon–6 p.m. Clay rules the day. North • 17DAYS. 4 p.m. See a variety of dance styles from Carolina Folklife Demonstration Area: Pottery • choreographers across the Piedmont Triad at New and Now: Traditions, North Carolina Arts Council booth, downA Festival of Dance, courtesy of Joyemovement. Gaylon Transportation Center, West Wing, 236 East Washington Street, Greensboro. Info: joyemovement.com.
DON’T STOP BELIEVIN’. 8 p.m. See Journey • tribute band Trial By Fire. Cone Denim Entertainment Center, 117 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Tickets: cdecgreensboro.com.
town Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. Noon–1:40 p.m. The mobile Anagama Kiln is • fired up, thanks to Henry Crissman and local potters. North Carolina Folklife Demonstration Area: Pottery Traditions, downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 12:15–1 p.m. Get tangled up in some September 12–13 NFF. 8:15–9 p.m. Shake your groove thing to The • • Appalachian blues from the Harris Brothers. Church Pedrito Martinez Group. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downWARP AND WEFT. See weaver Deborah Bartz’s • Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: town Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. mastery of the loom (9/12: 10 a.m.); and move to nationalfolkfestival.com. Montagnard music—and enjoy some dance, food and crafts while you’re at it (9/13, noon). Greensboro 8:30–9:15 p.m. Honk if you love honky-tonk • NFF. Historical Museum, 130 Summit Avenue, Greensboro. (and country). Dale Watson is up again. Belk Stage (No. (336) 373-2043 or greensborohistory.org. •• • 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. •• • •• Key:
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Art Music/Concerts Performing arts Film Literature/Speakers Fun History Sports
September 2015
O.Henry 99
Dover Square
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
National Folk Festival/NFF
September Arts Calendar
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Traditions, downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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laborate to bring you High Times & Hard Times: Blues, Boogie & Honky-Tonk. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 12:15–12:30 p.m. Down Home Band and Belk’s Southern Music Showcase winner rocks it! Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 12:30–1:15 p.m. Derek McAlister brings a little bit of the Big Top to town with circus arts. Center City Park (No. 5), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 12:35–1:20 p.m. Don’t spoil the rod! Yuqin • Wang & Zhengli Xu need it for their Chinese rod
puppets. McDonald’s Family Stage (No. 2), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 12:45–1:30 p.m. Cap Verde is calling you • through the sweet vocals of Lutchinha. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 1–1:45 p.m. Together they’re a gael force. James Kelly and Donna Long play Irish fiddle and piano. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 1–1:45 p.m. Toe-tap to Bobby Hicks Band’s bluegrass tunes. Wrangler Stage (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 1–1:45 p.m. Don’t miss The Dardanelles, eh? Lawn Stage (No. 6), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 1:15–2 p.m. Jeff Little and Wayne Henderson • play and strum Blue Ridge piano and guitar. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 1:30–2 p.m. Once upon a time . . . Lloyd • Arneach entertains with Cherokee storytelling. McDonald’s Family Stage (No. 2), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 1:30–2:15 p.m. See Cherokee ceremonial dances by the Warriors of AniKituhwa. City Center Park (No. 5), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 1:45–2:45 p.m. They’re livin’ high alright! Hear Babá Ken Okulolo & the West African Highlife Band. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 2–2:45 p.m. It’s the return of the Argentine dream — Héctor Curtel’s Tango Quartet. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 2–2:45 p.m. Swoon to the trío romántico Los Tres Reyes. Wrangler Stage (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 2–2:45 p.m. Hear the oud, oud, oud, oud • vibrations of Rahim AlHaj. Lawn Stage (No. 6), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 2–2:40 p.m. Ben Owen III, Boyd Owens or • Nancy Owens Brewer, David Garner and Steve Abee
present From Frogskin to Red Chinese: The Art of Glazes. North Carolina Folklife Demonstration Area: Pottery The Art & Soul of Greensboro
NFF. 2:15–3:15 p.m. Dale Watson, Marquise Knox, • Henry Butler, The Harris Brothers and Jeff Little col-
NFF. 2:15–3 p.m. Join a workshop on Appalachian • Buck Dance, with Thomas Maupin & Company. McDonald’s Family Stage (No. 2), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 3–3:45 p.m. It’s gospel hour from Maggie • Ingram & the Ingramettes. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 3–3:45 p.m. They got the beat. Grand Master • Seiichi Tanaka & the San Francisco Taiko Dojo keep on drumming. Wrangler Stage, (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 3–3:45 p.m. Aurelio does it again with his • Garifuna-style beats. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 3–4 p.m. Hear some bow gestes from James • Kelly, Courtney Evans from Pine Leaf Boys and more at Fiddle Traditions. Lawn Stage (No. 6), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 3–3:45 p.m. You can’t accuse him of clowning around — or can you? See Derek McAlister perform circus arts. McDonald’s Family Stage area grounds (No. 2), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com. NFF: 3–3:45 p.m. Bobby Hicks never tires of blue• grass, nor audiences of him. North Carolina Traditions Stage (No. 8), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 3–3:45 p.m. Cherokee and Moravians, hear How History Informs Hands: History and Revivalism in North Carolina Pottery. North Carolina Folklife Demonstration Area: Pottery Traditions, downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 3:30–4:15 p.m. Henry Butler gives a solo per• formance of New Orleans–influenced piano. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF: 3:45–4:15 p.m. It’s a finale for Chinese rod • puppetry, thanks to Yuqin Wang & Zhengli Xu. City Center Park (No. 5), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 3:45–4:15 p.m. Lloyd Arneach gives an encore • performance of Cherokee storytelling. McDonald’s Family Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 4–4:40 p.m. Steve Abee and Crystal King • bring you Face Jugs & Figurative Traditions II. North
Carolina Folklife Demonstration Area: Pottery Traditions, downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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Be part of it. From our Children’s Dance Program (ages 3-6), to our Ballet, Pointe, Modern and Jazz curriculum for students of all ages,we’ve been teaching the art of dance in the Triad for over 30 years. Now enrolling for the 2015/16 school year. www.greensboroballet.org or call 336.333.7480 for more information.
Art Music/Concerts Performing arts Film Literature/Speakers Fun History Sports September 2015
O.Henry 101
17 Days
September Arts Calendar
National Folk Festival/NFF
NFF. 4–5 p.m. Kick up your heels to some klezmer • — Frank London’s Klezmer Brass Allstars. Belk Stage
NFF. 4:30–5:15 p.m. Catch the moves of the 17DAYS. 3:30 p.m. Join the discussion, “One • • Mythili Prakash Dance Ensemble, Church Street Stage City: Where Cultures Meet,” (a part of the One City,
NFF. 4–4:45 p.m. Go honky-tonkin’ with • Dale Watson. Wrangler Stage (No. 1), downtown
NFF. 5–5:45 p.m. Soothe your soul with some gos• pel from Maggie Ingram & the Ingramettes. Wrangler
(No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 4–4:45 p.m. Bill Myers of The Monitors, and Jeff Little and Wilbur Tharpe of The Branchettes host Ticklin’ the Ivories, a presentation of gospel, R&B and Blue Ridge piano styles. North Carolina Traditions Stage (No. 8), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
(No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
Stage (No. 1), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 5:15–6:15 p.m. Bye-bye, Babá! Babá Ken • Okulolo & the West African Highlife Band wind
things up. Belk Stage (No. 4), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 5:15–6 p.m. The Monitors perform one last set of R&B, soul, jazz and gospel. North Carolina Traditions Stage (No. 8), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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NFF. 4:15–5 p.m. The Warriors of AniKituhwa • step to it for more Cherokee ceremonial dances.
NFF. 5:30–6:30 p.m. Pine Leaf Boys bid the • National Folk Festival adieu with some ragin’ Cajun
NFF. 4:15–5:15 p.m. Choose the blues from • Marquise Knox. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown NFF. 4:15–5:15 p.m. Various artists present Piedmont & Blue Ridge Traditions: Music, Stories & Dance. Lawn Stage (No. 6), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
NFF. 5:30–6:15 p.m. Bluegrass masters Joe Mullins & the Radio Ramblers sign off. Church Street Stage (No. 3), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
McDonald’s Family Area grounds (No. 2), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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Key: Art Music/Concerts Literature/Speakers Fun
Performing arts Film History Sports
tunes. Dance Pavilion (No. 7), downtown Greensboro. Info: nationalfolkfestival.com.
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17DAYS. Noon. Yeehaaa! The Food Truck Rodeo is back and offering free display space for artists, writers and photographers. Grove Winery, Grove Winery, 7360 Brooks Bridge Road, Gibsonville. Info: grovewinery.com.
One Book initiative) and share your tales of culture shock in a new environment. Greensboro Public Library, Central Branch, 219 North Church Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2471 or www.facebook. com/OCOB.GSO.
17DAYS. 3 p.m. Learn African Dance at a master • class. Ages 12 up. Artistic Motion School of Arts &
Preparatory Academy, 800 West Smith Street, Suite A, Greensboro. To register: (336) 617-5099 or artisticmotiondance.com
17DAYS. 4 p.m. Learn Capoeira, a Brazilian • martial art form at a master class. Ages 12 up. Artistic Motion School of Arts & Preparatory Academy, 800 West Smith Street, Suite A, Greensboro. To register: (336) 617-5099 or artisticmotiondance.com.
September 13 & 27 17DAYS. 1 p.m. Take a ballet master class with Misha Tchoupakov. Artistic Motion School of Arts & Preparatory Academy, 800 West Smith Street, Suite A, Greensboro. To register: (336) 617-5099 or artisticmotiondance.com.
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September 14 RESEARCH RESOURCE. 6:30–7:45 p.m. Learn about the Digital Library of American Slavery and how to use it for genealogical research from Richard Cox of UNCG. Morgan Room, High Point Public Library, 901 North Main Street, High Point. Info: email ncrooom@ highpoing.gov.
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Hajoca Greensboro is a premier plumbing provider for the Triad and surrounding area. We offer a wide selection of high quality fixtures and plumbing supplies from a variety of vendors. We strive to go above and beyond our customers’ expectations to ensure their complete satisfaction with our service and products. Come meet our knowledgeable staff and let us help you make your next plumbing project a success!
902 Norwalk Street, Greensboro, NC
102 O.Henry
September 2015
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336.274.1573
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www.hajocagreensboro.weebly.com The Art & Soul of Greensboro
17 Days
September Arts Calendar
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THE SHORTS CIRCUIT. 7 p.m.–10 p.m. The story of a heartbroken alien heads up Myrna the Monster and Other Short Films. Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 333-2605 or carolinatheatre.com.
17DAYS. 7 p.m. Go for some acoustic and roots • music by Anonymous Bosch. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
September 15 17DAYS. 6 p.m. For $5, sample foods from around the world from Ethnosh, with wine and beer pairings from Zeto. Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2402 or gsofarmersmarket.org.
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17DAYS. 7:30 p.m. Bump City East Bend salutes • Tower of Power. Gail Brower Huggins Performance
Center, Odell Building, Greensboro College, 815 West Market Street. Tickets: ticketleap.com.
HAUL MONITORS. 8 p.m. Southern alt band • the Drive-By Truckers take the stage. Cone Denim Entertainment Center, 117 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Tickets: cdecgreensboro.com.
September 18–19 17DAYS. Confluence Performance Project combines music, dance and visual arts in an interactive performance, Home Again Before Yesterday, about home, history and motherhood. Crown at the Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 333-2605, collapss.com or carolinatheatre.com.
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September 18–24 17DAYS. 2:30 p.m.; 10 p.m. Wes Fest 2015 continues with Fantastic Mr. Fox, an animated feature with voiceovers from George Clooney and Owen Wilson, based on Roald Dahl’s story about a farm-raiding fox. Geeksboro Coffehouse Cinema, 2134 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 355-7180 or geeksboro.com.
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17DAYS. 1 p.m. Ten bands, food trucks and a food • donation from you to help the Greensboro Urban
Ministry inform Groove Jam IV. Doo Dad Farm, 4701 Land Road, Greensboro. Info: (336) 314-3336 or groovejamgreensboro.com.
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17DAYS. 4 p.m. What’s going on downtown? Take • a walking tour of new public works by the South Elm
September 16–20 17DAYS. Book reservations for Five OH — no, not Hawaii, but Five by O. Henry Plays. Performance times vary. Greensboro Historical Museum, 130 Summit Avenue. Tickets: (336) 373-2949.
17DAYS. 6 p.m. The name of the combo is scarier • than the actual thing. Lawyers, Guns & Money plays
17DAYS. Check out the latest threads at • Greensboro Fashion Week. Various times and venues. Tickets: greensborofashionweek.com.
Projects initiative with Elsewhere staff and artists. Elsewhere, 606 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: goelsewhere.org.
the blues at the Lake Stage. Grove Winery, 7360 Brooks Bridge Road, Gibsonville. Tickets: grovewinery.com.
AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet novelist Lisa • Harris, author of Allegheny Dream. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 7631919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
September 17 17DAYS. 5:30 p.m. Live music, fresh food, local artisan wares . . . and dogs are welcome! Come to City Market. The RailYard, 120 Barnhardt Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 275-3222 or railyardentertainment.com.
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17DAYS. 7–10 p.m. Music, food and drink, and • a new Jim Gallucci sculpture inform the Good Night
17DAYS. 8:30 p.m. Meet George Jenne, artist• in-residence and Southern Constellations Fellow.
17DAYS. 7:30 p.m. Don’t be afraid of opera! Learn • about it through amusing entertainment at the UNCG
September 17–20 17DAYS Ayuh. Love and loss in a mythical, coastal New England town are the themes for UNCG Theatre’s production of Almost, Maine. Performance times vary. Brown Building, 402 Tate Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 272-0160 or theatre.uncg.edu.
17DAYS. 8 p.m. Public radio host and creator • of This American Life Ira Glass takes the micro-
Elsewhere, 606 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: egoelsewhere.org.
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September 18 AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet poet Katherine Young, author of Day of the Border Guards. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
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17DAYS. 7 p.m. Swirl, sip, enjoy! Learn the art of wine tasting from Robert Wurz, Ph.D., oenologist and winemaker. Stonefield Cellars Winery, 8220 N.C. Highway 68 North, Stokesdale. Tickets: (336) 644-9908. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
313 South Greene Street Greensboro, NC 27401 336-252-2253 laruenc.com
September 19 17DAYS. Noon. The vines have tender grapes, so come out and stomp ’em, hear some live music, enjoy food and buy some wine at Celebrating the Harvest. Stonefield Cellars Winery, 8220 N.C. Highway 68 North, Stokesdale. Tickets: (336) 644-9908.
September 16 17DAYS/BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE FEST. 7 p.m. The Collapss Collective brings music by John Cage and dance of Merce Cunningham. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
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Moon gala, courtesy of Greensboro Beautiful. Gateway Gardens, 2924 East Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 373-2199 or greensborobeautiful.org.
Opera Theatre Spectacular. Aycock Auditorium, 408 Tate Street, Greensboro. Tickets: opera.uncg.edu.
phone. Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 333-2605 or carolinatheatre. com.
AAAAAGGGH! 7 p.m. Rich Homie Quan, • K. Camp and Diggy are just a few of the headliners
at Scream “Back 2 School” Fest 2015. Greensboro Coliseum, 1921 West Gate City Boulevard, Greensboro. Tickets: (800) 745-3000 or ticketmaster. com or livenation.com.
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Art Music/Concerts Performing arts Film Literature/Speakers Fun History Sports September 2015
O.Henry 103
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104 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
17 Days September 20 17DAYS. 2 p.m. Let the grape be your muse for “Painting in the Vineyard,” a plein air workshop with artist Jennifer Willard. Cost includes material, your first glass of wine and complimentary glass. Stonefield Cellars Winery, 8220 N.C. Highway 68 North, Stokesdale. Tickets: (336) 644-9908.
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17DAYS. 2 p.m. McDonald “Mackey” Bane discusses her work alongside gallerist Lee Hansley. Weatherspoon Art Museum, 500 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 334-5770 or weatherspoon. uncg.edu.
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VERSE-A-TILE. 3 p.m.–5 p.m. There’s plenty of rhyme and reason at Third Sunday at Three Open Poetry Reading and Open Mic, courtesy of Writers Group of the Triad. Common Grounds Coffeehouse, 602 South Elam Avenue, Greensboro. Info: triadwriters.org or email rmarhatta@yahoo.com.
September 20, 27 17DAYS. Piedmont Preservation Blues Society presents its Blues Challenge Contest for duo, solo and youth acts. Winners will compete in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, next year. Tickets: (336) 272-9888 or theblindtiger.com.
September Arts Calendar
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September 21 17DAYS. 6:30 p.m. Explore the art of John Audubon and James Arnosky at “Drawing from Nature — The Art of Audubon and Arnosky,” and then create your own masterpiece. Greensboro Public Library, Hemphill Branch, 2301 West Vandalia Road, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2925 or greensboro-nc.gov.
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17DAYS/BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE FEST. • 7 p.m. Poets Jeff Davis, David Landrey and Charmaine Cadeau Ward discuss the paradigm-shifting poets of BMC. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
September 23 17DAYS. 5:30 p.m. Learn the art of printmaking — and take home your creation — at Piedmont Print Co-op Family Night. Center for Visual Artists, Greensboro Cultural Center, 200 North Davie Street, Greensboro. Info: Info: (336) 333-7475 or greensboroart.org.
Evening,” or your own verse extoling nature, recite it at Monday Night Poetry Night, part of One City One Book. Greensboro Public Library, Central Branch, 219 North Church Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 335-5430 or www.facebook.com/OCOB.GSO.
17DAYS. 6:30 p.m. Blah, blah, blah. One City • One Book becomes the focus of One City, lots of
discusses the life of Fielding Dawson. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
17DAYS/BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE FEST. • 7 p.m. Poet David Landrey discusses, “Melville and the
September 21–26 17DAYS. Gotta dance! Take your first steps to steps by trying out any number of classes at “Chance to Dance,” Artistic Motion School of Arts & Preparatory Academy, 800 West Smith Street, Suite A, Greensboro. To register: (336) 617-5099 or artisticmotiondance.com.
17DAYS. 7 p.m. Piedmont Triad Jazz Orchestra of• • fers up “Tarheel Swing,” a program of original compositions and arrangements by N.C. greats John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk and Max Roach. The Crown, Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street. Tickets: (336) 333-2605 or carolinatheatre.com.
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• 17DAYS. 7 p.m. Whether Keats’ “Ode to Autumn,” • or Robert Frost’s “Lost in the Woods on a Snowy
17DAYS/BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE FEST. 17DAYS/BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE FEST. • • 3 p.m. Writer Charmaine Cadeau Ward discusses 7 p.m. Poet Joseph Bathanti reads the poetry of and “Centering in Pottery, Poetry and Person: A Talk on M.C. Richards.” Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
September 22 17DAYS. 1–4 p.m. and 6–9 p.m. Let the view through a microscope inspire you to create a watercolor at an adult workshop. Greenhill, 200 North Davie Street, Greensboro. To register: greenhillnc.org.
Talks: TEDxGreensboroSalon. Greensboro Public Library, Central Branch, 219 North Church Street, Greensboro. To register: tedxgreensboro.com.
Post-Modern.” Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
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Downtown Greensboro
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513 S. Elm Street • (336) 265-8628 • vivid-interiors.com The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 105
September Arts Calendar September 24 17DAYS. 6 p.m. Various local musicians perform for FaithAction International House’s fundraiser, “A Place for Us,” which helps immigrants. Community Theatre of Greensboro, 520 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Tickets: faithaction.org.
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17DAYS. 7 p.m. It’s a smorgasbord for the ears. The Greensboro College Music Sampler features excerpts from concerts later in the year by the Chorale, Opera Workshop and Jazz Ensemble. Gail Brower Huggins Performance Center, Odell Building, Greensboro College, 815 West Market Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 272-7102, ext. 5242 or tickets@greensboro.edu.
September 24, 26 17DAYS. 8 p.m. The Greensboro Symphony’s first Tanger Masterworks concert takes you on world tour with Don Juan, Lincoln Portrait and Peer Gynt, with guest speaker and actor Peter Coyote coming along for the ride. Dana Auditorium, 5800 West Friendly Avenue, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 335-5456, ext. 224 or greensborosymphony.org.
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September 24–October 11 17DAYS. See how art can heal social wounds at Art + Dialogue: Responding to Racial Tension in America. Cowan Humanities Building, College Place, Greensboro College, Greensboro. Info: artanddialoguegso.wordpress.com.
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17 Days
September 25 WINSTON WAILERS. 7 p.m.10 p.m. Clay Howard & the Silver Alerts, the Luxuriant Sedans and Doug Davis and the Solid Citizens are the “Camel City Takeover,” The Crown Carolina Theatre, 310 South Greene Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 333-2605 or carolinatheatre.com.
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17DAYS/BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE FEST. • 7 p.m. Painter Maureen O’Neill discusses Josef and Anni Albers. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
SEA SCI ATTRACTION. 7–11 p.m. Eat, meet and • greet under the boardwalk at See to Believe, a fund-
raiser with a beachy theme. Greensboro Science Center, 4301 Lawndale Drive, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 2883769 or greensboroscience.org.
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17DAYS. 7:30 p.m. From Cole Porter to Dave Brubeck, the John Salmon Jazz Trio plays it all at Music for a Great Space. Christ United Methodist Church, 410 North Holden Road, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 638-7624 or musicforagreatspace.org.
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17DAYS. 8 p.m. Maestro Dmitry Sitkovetsky performs his transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for Strings & Cembalo, a chamber music concert. UNCG School of Music Recital Hall, 100 McIver Street, Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 335-5456, ext. 224 or greensborosymphony.org.
17DAYS. 8 p.m. Bent Frequency Duo Project per• forms original commissioned works. Mack and Mack Clothing, 220 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 275-6225 or mamclothing.com.
17DAYS. 8:30 p.m. Action hero Tony Stark (Robert • Downey Jr.) battles a terrorist called the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) in 2013’s Iron Man 3. Center City Park, Greensboro. Info: (336) 379-0821or citycenterpark.org.
September 25–26 17DAYS. Michael Reno Harrell, Linda Goodman and others go into a tale spin at Heart of North Carolina Storytelling Festival. Times and locales vary. Greensboro Historical Museum, 130 Summit Avenue; Greensboro Central Library, 219 North Church Street, Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Tickets: brownpapertickets.com.
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September 26 PUMPING IRON. 10 a.m. Ah-nuld who? Meet the real Mr. Universe . . . the Blacksmith! High Point Museum, 1865 East Lexington Avenue, High Point. Info: (336) 885-1859 or highpointmuseum.org.
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17DAYS. 11 a.m. Rise to the occasion! Up Up • and Away! Music Around the World is an interactive
family concert of different global musical styles. Music Academy of North Carolina, 1327 Beaman Place, Greensboro. Tickets: www.musicacademync.org.
17DAYS. 2–3:30 p.m. Peek behind the scenes at • an open rehearsal of Van Dyke Dance Group, the first
event celebrating NC Dance Festival’s 25th anniversa-
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September 2015
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September Arts Calendar
17 Days ry. Greensboro Cultural Arts Center, 200 North Davie Street, Studio 323, Greensboro. Info: (336) 373-2727 or danceproject.org. 17DAYS. 3:30 p.m. Put your little foot—or paw, if • you have a dog—right out for the 6th Annual Run 4 the Greenway to raise funds for the Downtown Greenway. City Center Park, 200 North Elm Street, Greensboro. Registration: downtowngreenway.org.
17DAYS. 4 p.m. Take a master class in Hip Hop. • Ages 12 and up. Artistic Motion School of Arts &
Preparatory Academy, 800 West Smith Street, Suite A, Greensboro. To register: (336) 617-5099 or artisticmotiondance.com
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17DAYS. 8–10 p.m. On your mark, get set, recite! Hear local and out-of-state poets compete in an Invitational Slam. African American Atelier, Greensboro Cultural Center, 200 North Davie Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 333-6885 or africanamericanatelier.org. September 27 17DAYS. 3:30 p.m. & 5:30 p.m. Mix it up, literally at a mixology class. Then —gulp! — drink your own cocktail. Gia, 1941 New Garden Road, Greensboro. Reservations: (336) 907-7536 or drinkeatlisten.com.
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September 29 AUTHOR, AUTHOR. 7 p.m. Meet novelist Bill Morris, author of Motor City Burning. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
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September 30–October 17 WIT’S END. The life of the mind is all well and good, but ya gotta have heart, as a terminally ill English prof discovers in Margaret Edson’s Wit, a production of Triad Stage. Hanesbrands Theatre, 209 North Spruce Street, Winston-Salem. Tickets: (336) 272-1060 or triadstage.org.
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WEEKLY HAPPENINGS Mondays BUZZING. 10 a.m. Your busy little bees engage in a Busy Bees preschool program focusing on music, movement, garden exploration and fun in the kitchen, at the Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. Preregistration: (336) 574-2898 or gcmuseum.com.
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TALK IS CHEAP. Noon. Apprenez l’art de la con• versation française. Pardon our French and join French Table, a conversation group. Scuppernong Books, 304 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
Tuesdays READ ALL ABOUT IT. Treat your little ones to storytimes: BookWorms (ages 12–24 months) meets at 10 a.m.; Time for Twos meets at 11 a.m. Storyroom; Family Storytime for all ages meets at 6:30 p.m. High Point Public Library, 901 North Main Street, High Point. Info: (336) 883-3666 or highpointlibrary.com.
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STORY CORPS. 11 a.m. Book a slot in your sked • for Children’s Storytime. Scuppernong Books, 304
South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 763-1919 or scuppernongbooks.com.
PICKIN’ AND GRINNIN’. 6– 9 p.m. Y’all come • for Songs from a Southern Kitchen, live music by Alan Peterson and Alex McKinney (9/1); LaurelynDossett and Scott Manring (9/8); Martha Bassett, Sam Frazier and Pat Lawrence (9/15); Molly McGinn and Wurlitzer Prize (9/22); and Alan Peterson & Alex McKinney (9/29) — at Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen, 1421 Westover Terrace, Greensboro. Info: (336) 3700707 or lucky32.com.
Wine and More!
17DAYS. 5:30 p.m. Who will be the winners of the Greensboro Housing Authority poster contest? Find out at a ceremony in tandem with the exhibit, Regression. African American Atelier, Greensboro Cultural Center, 200 North Davie Street, Greensboro. Info: Info: (336) 333-6885 or africanamericanatelier.org.
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17DAYS. 4 p.m. Find a-MAZE-ing grace by walking a labyrinth with Will Ridenour. Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 607 North Greene Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 272-6149 or holy-trinity.com
Wednesdays TO MARKET, TO MARKET. 8 a.m.–1 p.m. Get fresh with locally grown produce, cakes, pies and cut fleurs for a pretty table at the Mid Week Market. Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Info: gsofarmersmarket.org.
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Art Music/Concerts Performing arts Film Literature/Speakers Fun History Sports
C H AT E A U MORRISETTE
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Winery • Restaur ant
Wine and More!
Rustic Elegance on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Floyd County, Virginia. Less than two hours from the Triad.
THEDOGS.COM The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 107
September Arts Calendar •
DOWNTOWN SOUNDS. Noon. Unwind with some live music during your lunch hour. Tunes at Noon features Wickerbach (9/2), Cowboy & Indian Show (9/9), Martha Bassett (9/16), Joshua West (9/23), Laila Nur, (9/30). City Center Park, 200 North Elm Street. Info: (336) 272-1222 or citycenterpark.org.
MUSSELS, WINE & MUSIC. 7–10 p.m. Mussels • with house-cut fries for $15, wines from $10–15 a bottle and live music by Evan Olson and Jessica Mashburn — at Print Works Bistro, 702 Green Valley Road, Greensboro. Info: (336) 379-0699 or printworksbistro. com/live_music.htm.
ONCE UPON A TIME. 2 p.m. Preschool • Storytime I convenes for children ages 3–5. Storyroom, High Point Public Library, 901 North Main Street, High Point. Info: (336) 883-3666 or highpointlibrary. com.
Thursdays TWICE UPON A TIME. 11 a.m. Preschool Storytime II convenes for children ages 35. Storyroom, High Point Public Library, 901 North Main Street, High Point. Info: (336) 883-3666 or highpointlibrary. com.
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ALL THAT JAZZ. 5:30–8 p.m. Hear Live, local • jazz featuring Neill Clegg and Dave Fox with special
guests — 3 - Martha Bassett (9/3); Guest Saxophonist,
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Key: Art Music/Concerts Literature/Speakers Fun
Performing arts Film History Sports
Chad Eby & Guest Vocalist, Sarah Strable (9/10); Joey Barnes (9/17); and Jessica Mashburn (9/24) — in the O.Henry Hotel Social Lobby Bar. No cover. 624 Green Valley Road, Greensboro. Info: (336) 854-2000 or http://www.greenvalleygrill.com/jazz.htm. JAZZ NIGHT. 7 p.m. Fresh-ground, fresh• brewed coffee is served with a side of jazz at Tate Street
Coffee House, 334 Tate Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 275-2754.
OPEN MIC COMEDY. 8–9:35 p.m. Local pros • and amateurs take the mic at the Idiot Box, 348 South
Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 274-2699 or www. idiotboxers.com. Fridays THE HALF OF IT. 5 p.m. Enjoy the hands-on exhibits and activities for half the cost of admission at $4 Fun Fridays. On First Friday (5/1), admission is only $2. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 574-2898 or gcmuseum.com.
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Fridays & Saturdays • NIGHTMARES ON ELM STREET. 8 p.m. A 90-minute, historical, candlelit ghost walking tour of Downtown Greensboro. Tickets: (336) 905-4060 or carolinahistoryandhaunts.com/information.
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Saturdays TO MARKET, TO MARKET. 7 a.m.–12 p.m. The produce is still fresh and the cut fleurs still belles. Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, 501 Yanceyville Street, Greensboro. Info: gsofarmersmarket.org.
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IMPROV COMEDY. 10 p.m. on Saturday, plus • an 8 p.m. show appropriate for the whole family. The
Idiot Boxers create scenes on the spot and build upon the ideas of others, creating shows that are one-of-a-kind — at the Idiot Box, 348 South Elm Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 274-2699 or www.ibcomedy.com. Sundays MUNCH FEST. Noon–4 p.m. Round up the family and bring your appetite to the N.C. Food Rodeo, with the state’s best food trucks, craft beers, wine. Grove Winery, 7360 Brooks Bridge Road, Gibsonville. Info: grovewinery.com.
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HALF FOR HALF-PINTS. 1 p.m. And grown• ups, too. A $4 admission, as opposed to the usual $8,
will allow you entry to exhibits and more. Greensboro Children’s Museum, 220 North Church Street, Greensboro. Info: (336) 574-2898 or gcmuseum.com.
CHICKEN’N’PICKIN’ 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. Tuck • into Chef Felicia’s signature fried chicken served with
mashed potatoes, giblet gravy, collard greens and cornbread. Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen, 1421 Westover Terrace, Greensboro. Info: (336) 370-0707 or lucky32. com/fried_chicken.htm.
To add an event, email us at ohenrymagcalendar@ gmail.com by the first of the month prior to the event Key:
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O.Henry 109
Congratulations
By Sandra Redding
Literary Events
September 10–12 (Thursday–Saturday). 2015 Festival of Books and Authors — Bookmarks, Winston-Salem. David Baldacci starts things out on September 10, with authors eating and greeting on the 11th and family-friendly, free activities on the 12th. Look for downtown readings, presentations, panel discussions, workshops and book signings. Registration: bookmarksbookfestival.org. September 15–19 (Tuesday–Saturday). On the Same Page Literary Festival: A Celebration of Reading, West Jefferson. Come for one day or all five to hear writers like Ann Pancake and Edward Kelsey Moore. Explore a medley of activities, including workshops, book fair, readings, lunch with an author and hikes. Most events free but registration is required: onthesamepagefestival.org. September 19 (Saturday), 10 a.m. N.C. Poetry Society Annual Meeting, Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities, Southern Pines. Join fellow poets for readings, presentations, poetry competition, an open mic and lunch. Info: ncpoetrysociety.org.
Recently published N.C. books: Heading East? Check out John E. Batchelor’s Chefs of the Coast: Restaurants & Recipes from the North Carolina Coast . . . Prefer mystery? Deceived: A Sam McClellan Tale, by Laura S. Wharton, is an exciting thriller that takes place at Carolina Beach. . . . Poetry enthusiasts should dip into two new chapbooks from Jacar Press: The Vishnu Bird, by former N. C. Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer, and Astir, Kevin Boyle’s newest collection . . . N.C. State professor Cat Warren penned the perfect book for pet owners. What the Dog Knows reveals how her cadaver dog, Solo, sniffs out truffles, bedbugs and graves . . . Speaking of graves, history buffs will appreciate So Much Blood: The Civil War Letters of CSA William W. Beard, 1861–1865, co-authored by Bill Trotter of Greensboro. . . . The reissued version of Curing Time, by Tim Swink, contains discussion questions, always popular with book club members. Info: tj.swink@yahoo.com or Pegasusbooks.net.
Lesson
Most readers are impatient. If the first paragraph of a book doesn’t satisfy, they go to the next book. Successful first lines of novels need a hook and spinner. Some writers use rich sensual descriptions or succinctly depict characters and set-
Arts & Culture
B A N K O F NO RTH CA R O LIN P R ES ENTS
110 O.Henry
tings. The best add a dollop of mystery or humor. Recently, after perusing several books penned by N.C. authors, I selected beginnings that opened the door, inviting me in for an interesting ride. Charles Frazier, Nightwoods: “Luce’s new stranger children were small and beautiful and violent.” Jan Karon, Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good: “His wife was determined to march him to the country club this Saturday evening. Worse, he’d have to stuff himself into his old tux like sausage into a casing.” Robert Morgan, This Rock: “Preacher Liner said he would let me preach the Sunday after Homecoming. He’s a big heavy feller with droopy jowls, and he said it as a favor to Mama more than anything else cause no preacher likes to share his pulpit, not any that I ever heard of.” Michael Parker, All I Have in This World: “The town was small and so was the boy. His name was Randy and he was Maria’s size exactly. They fit together tongue and groove, which to Maria, who at seventeen had never had a boyfriend, meant that it was meant.” Kathy Reichs, Flash and Bones: “Looking back, I think of it as race week in the rain. Thunderboomers every day. Sure, it was spring. But these storms were over the top.” b Greensboro writer Sandra Redding’s novel, Naomi Wise: A Cautionary Tale, is a riveting story about heartbreak and hope in a Quaker community.
AUG. 23 SEP. 20
GREENSBORO
Triad Stage reimagines Tennessee Williams’ 1955 Pulitzer Prize-winning play about truths, lies, desire, and family. by Tensee Wilams
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September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Arts & Culture
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 111
furniture matters
Sit like a SAINT!
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Arts & Culture
Labor Day Sale, Sept 2-5 30% off of entire store Teacher Appreciation Sale, Sept 23-26 40% off purchase with current educator ID After Dark Lamp Sale, Oct 8, 6:30pm-9pm Wine & cheese will be served Fall Festival & Sale, Oct 24 See website for details Food drive to benefit the Triad Health Project food pantry, Nov 1-30 10% off per pound of non-perishable food donated, up to 40% Happy Hour Dining Table & Chair Sale, Nov 5, 4pm-6pm Wine & cheese will be served Ruff Love Pet Adoption Fair, Nov 14, 11am-2pm
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Authentic Indoor/Outdoor Greek- Pastries 11am - Greek 10pmCuisine 11am - 10pm Dining 12pm 6pm Authentic Greek Cuisine2015 Indoor/Outdoor Dining Greek Pastries 112 O.Henry DormitionSeptember of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Church 800 Westridge Rd (Corner of Friendly Ave & Westridge Rd)
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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Arts & Culture
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 113
CULTURAL EVENTS Nova Ren Suma: The Walls Around Us
Arts & Culture
Tuesday, September 8 | 7:30 pm Shirley Recital Hall, Elberson Fine Arts Center
Nova Ren Suma will speak about her latest Young Adult novel, The Walls Around Us, which is a ghostly story of suspense told in two voices—one still living and one long dead. The Walls Around Us was named the top Kids’ Indie Next Pick for spring 2015 and a Best Young Adult Book of the Month for March 2015 on Amazon.
A book sale and signing will follow the talk.
Organ and Piano Concerti Concert
Sunday, September 27 | 7:30 pm Shirley Recital Hall, Elberson Fine Arts Center Professor of Piano Barbara Lister-Sink and Professor of Organ Timothy Olsen will perform a piano and organ concerti for their respective instruments. Rob Frazier, Director of Music and the Arts at Centenary United Methodist Church, will conduct. The concert will feature Mozart’s Piano Concerto in E-flat Major, K. 449, and Margaret Sandresky’s Dialogues for organ and string orchestra.
Edith Lake Wilkinson: Packed in a Trunk Exhibition Exhibition: October 23-November 18 Mary Davis Holt Gallery, Elberson Fine Arts Center
&
OUT @ The Movies Film Festival Screening of Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson Saturday, November 14 | 7:00 pm Hanes Auditorium, Elberson Fine Arts Center Discussion and reception following the film screening Packed in a Trunk celebrates the long-buried talent of lesbian artist Edith Lake Wilkinson. In 1924, she was committed to an asylum, encouraged by the family lawyer who subsequently siphoned off her funds. Once she was put away, Edith’s work and all her worldly possessions were packed into trunks and stored in an attic for the next forty years. Packed in a Trunk is about rescuing the work of lost and gifted souls out of attics and closets and forgotten rooms.
Free Admission | www.salem.edu/culturalevents 500 E. Salem Avenue Winston-Salem, NC 27101 | (336) 721- 2600 114 O.Henry
September 2015
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Arts & Culture
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 115
It’s amazing how much kids learn when they love going to school. And at NGFS, we do all we can to make each day challenging, fascinating and fun. Our curriculum offers an ideal balance of academics, arts and athletics. Classes are interactive and engaging. Trips and special projects teach the value of community service. And our Quaker–guided culture of respect builds confidence and character. Ready for an education your kids will love? Call today for details and a campus tour. 1128 New Garden Road
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Canvasing the Neighborhoods
While planning the first Piedmont Plein Air Paintout last year, Julie Delgaudio didn’t know what to expect. The owner of High Point’s J. Gallery just wanted to bring something new and different to the area — an open-air painting contest among thirty artists along North Main Street and at familiar landmarks, such as HPU and City Lake Park — to benefit the local Boys and Girls Clubs. Delgaudio also hoped the event would be popular enough to expand in subsequent years. It far exceeded her expectations. “I had parents stop me — they’d taken their children out of school just to be a part of it,” she says. And on the Paintout’s final day, (Sunday), on
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Worth the Drive to High Point which contestants’ work was exhibited on the terrace of the J.H. Adams Inn for a small admission fee of $5, “people lined up,” Delgaudio recalls. “If you saw a piece of art you wanted, you had to buy it instantly. There was a line,” she adds. “We had over 500 people on that one day.” When all was said and done, the Girls and Boys Clubs of Greater High Point walked away with $18,000. Its success bodes well for this year’s Paintout (September 17–20). Thirty-three artists have easels and will travel — from as far away as Hawaii and New Mexico. Most of them hail from up and down the East Coast, and there are local favorites, such as Connie Logan of Greensboro and Archdale’s Jeremy Sams, who won last year’s Viewers’ Choice Award. Like last year, the Paintout will follow the same format: The artists will set up for a quick paint downtown on Thursday the 17th and will take brushes to canvas for the subsequent two days until the unveiling and judging of their artwork at the Inn on Sunday the 20th — with food trucks and music providing a festive ambiance. And the $5 admission will have another worthy beneficiary, YWCA. “I look for organizations that offer art programs for children,” Delgaudio explains. So come on out, and bring your budding little Monet with you to see painters at work (or work alongside them, as one parent did last September), because, as Delgaudio observes, “It’s exciting, fun and really cool to watch them in action.” Info: piedmontpaintout.com — Nancy Oakley
September 2015
O.Henry 117
MAGAZINE O.Henry magazine is a complimentary publication supported by our advertisers. Please consider patronizing these businesses, services and nonprofit organizations and tell them that you saw their ad in O.Henry magazine.
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September 2015
Abbotswood at Irving Park 36 About Face Cosmetics & Day Spa 117 Alla D’Salon 30 Alight Foundation 108 Allen Tate Realtors 4, 5 Area Modern Home 33 Art in the Arboretum 111 Art Stock 98 Artios 92 ArtsGreensboro 99 Aubrey Home 28 Autumn Creek Vineyards 107 Bardy’s Estate Jewelry 100 Barnabas Network 112 Bass Violin 94 Bel Canto 115 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Yost & Little Realty IFC Bill Evans 5K 125 Bill Guill, Allen Tate Realtors 92 Blockade Runner 58 Blue Moon Estate Sales 92 Burkely Rental Homes 33 Canterbury School 116 Careful With the China 56 Carlisle 93 Carolina Bank BC Carolina GroutWorks 94 Carolina Theatre 114 Carolyn Todd’s Fine Gifts & Clothing 34 Carriage House Antiques & Home Decor 33 Chakras Salon & Spa 46 Chateau Morrisette Winery & Restaurant 107 Cheesecakes by Alex 126 City of Greensboro 26 Community Foundation 49 Cone Health 36 CP Logan 88 Crafted, The Art of the Taco 18 Crafted, The Art of Street Food 18 Crutchfield Advertising 54 Cunningham & Company 50 Dan Suits U 95 Debby Gomulka Designs 88 Digby Eye Associates 120 Dog Days 104 Dolce Dimora 100 Downtown Greensboro Animal Hospital 104 Earnhardt Optical 109 Elizabeth Pell, Tyler Redhead & McAlister Real Estate 24 Extra Ingredient, The 28 Feathered Nest, The 34 First Baptist Church 56, 106 Friendly Pharmacy 30 Friends Homes West 2 Gate City Butcher & Gourmet Market 126 GFour Productions 113 Gibsonville Antiques 106 Glass & Stone, LLC 93 Godwin Insurance 30 Graham Farless, DDS, Family, Cosmetic & Implant Dentisty 39 Great Outdoor Provision Company 33 Greek Festival 112 GreenHill Art & Dialogue 113 Greensboro Ballet 101 Greensboro College 20 Greensboro Grasshoppers 122 Greensboro Historical Museum 54 Greensboro Imaging 12 Greensboro Orthopaedics, Dr. Matthew Olin 8 Greensboro Symphony IBC Green Valley Grill 10 Hajoca 102 High Point Bank 16 Home Instead 40 Hospice & Pallitave Care 32 House of Eyes 59 Imperial Koi 56 Irvin Orthodontics 116 Irving Park Art & Frame 115 J. Gallery of Fine Art 117 Jules Antiques 111 Katie Redhead, Tyler Redhead & McAlister Real Estate 3
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September 2015
Kay Chesnutt, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Yost & Little Realty 125 Kim Mathis, Allen Tate Realtors 120 Koshary 105 LaRue Restaurant 103 Laura Redd Interiors 94 Lillo Bella Boutique 109 Linnea’s Boutique & Vera’s Threads 108 Lora Howard 95 Lucky 32 Southern Kitchen 10 Main & Taylor 100 Make A Wish Foundation 60 Marion Tile & Flooring 92 Mark Brande, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Yost & Little Realty 94 Marsh Kitchens 24 Martins Art & Frame 104 Maureen Mallon 106 Melissa Greer, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Yost & Little Realty 46 Melt Kitchen & Bar 126 Meridith Martens 125 Merle Norman 102 Michelle Porter, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Yost & Little Realty 93 Nancy Hoffman 17 New Garden Friends School 116 Old Salem Museums & Gardens 22 Oscar Oglethorpe Eyewear 38 Out of Hand 117 Patterson Carpets 95 Paul J. Ciener Botanical Gardens 95 Penland Custom Frames 104 Pest Management Systems, Inc. 93 Phil Barker Refinishing 92 Piedmont Endodontics 48 Primland 19 Pinehurst Resort 9 Polliwogs Children’s Boutique 34 Priba Furniture 42 Printers Alley 88 Printworks Bistro 10 PTI 42 • Equestrian Gear 92 Purgason’s Western Wear Quail Ridge Books 98 Randy McManus Designs 100 Realigned 104 44 Re Bath of Greensboro Ruff Housing 28 Saint Mary’s School 44 Salem Academy & College 114 Sally Millikin, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Yost & Little Realty 53, 94 Schiffman’s 1 Serendipity by Celeste 34 Sheree’s Natural Cosmetics 120 Simply Meg’s 28 Smith Marketing, Allen Tate 90, 91 Stephanie Baubie, Allen Tate Realtors 118 Stifel Investment Services 13 Talley Water Treatment Company 93 Taylor’s Discount Tire & Automotive 59 Ten Thousand Villages 118 Theodore Alexander Outlet 53 Thyme Well Spent 126 Tom Chitty, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Yost & Little Realty 29 Triad Estate Sales 94 Triad Stage 110 Tyler Redhead & McAlister Real Estate 41 Tyler White O’Brien Gallery 112 United Way of Greater Greensboro 40 VCM Studio 111 View on Elm, The 7 Vivid Interiors 105 Waban Carter, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Yost & Little Realty 95 Weatherspoon Art Gallery 115 Webster’s Imports 30 Weezie Glasscock 40 50 Well•Spring Retirement Community William Mangum Fine Art 25 Wine & Design 114 Window Works Studio 120 Yamamori, Ltd. 109 •
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
GreenScene Hat-Eration Raleigh Crossroads UMC Sunday, July 12, 2015
Photographs by Lynn Donovan Dee & Daniel Webster
Annie Webster, Yolanda & Rylea Pritchett, Felicia Henderson
Carlene Harris, Carolyn Lyles
Barbara Morehead, Pastor Donald E. McCoy
Rylea & Yolanda Pritchett
Wanda Harrelson, Pauline Lowe Becky Moffitt, Everlena Diggs, Ernestine Taylor
Cassandra Williams, Bethel Bass, Angela Young, Annette Cooper
Ethel Morehead, Valeria Pritchett, Josephine Davis
Julia Johnson, Mamie Faucett, Eleanor Jeffers
Bernice Jenkins, Samantha Penny
Kimberly Jeffers, Sallie Moore, Kathleen Brown
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Felicia & George Henderson
Ethel Morehead, Valeria Pritchett
September 2015
O.Henry 119
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The Art & Soul of Greensboro
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GreenScene Eastern Music Festival Concert & Reception Ambassador Bonnie McElveen-Hunter’s Home & Dana Auditorium Saturday, July 18, 2015 Photographs by Lynn Donovan
Teresa Carlson, Linda O’Briant, Claire Kaido
Jeanne Tannenbaum, Bob Brown, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter Jody Schwartz, Joe LeBauer
Michael Somoroff, Tami Longaberger
Claire & Matt Kaido, Xxxxxxxx Steve & Leigh Ann Klee
Craig Waller, Susan Helstab, Bob Westrope
Morgan Eaves, Lois Hatfield, Tyler Carlson
Tami Longaberger, Tweed McElveen, Lowell Liebermann, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Teresa Carlson
Marty Ruffin, Bynum Hunter
William Hobbs, Pendleton Bogache, Lowell Liebermann
Sue Starr, Natalie Starr, Amy Nobu, Cala Star, Curtis Starr
Ben & Karen Kahn
Lee & Kip Blakely
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 121
GreenScene
Julia & Treas Ross
The Best of The 2015 Greensboro 48 Hour Film Project Carolina Theatre Friday, August 7, 2015
Ashley Walters, Stewart & Betty Colson, Judy Rabenhorst
Photographs by Lynn Donovan
Noah, Jake & Tate Lewis
Amber Transou, David Seibert, Valerie Berryer
Darlene & Alexis Cooper
Chip & Haley Ross, Kelsi Chandler, Drew Matthews, Jenn Lewis Jake & Tate Lewis, Treas & Julia Ross, Noah Lewis
Debbie Terry, Daniel Richardson
Kimberly Brock, Anthony Walker Bernie & Lynne Bohingas
Jonathan Serxner, Robin Banker
Ana Bray, Randy Harris, Ashley Bray
Kristen Kicklighter, Terry Power
Ann & Charles Flynt, Candy Kime, Mary Mac Moore
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
September 2015
O.Henry 123
GreenScene
Anisse Avery, Tia Wheeler
Stand for Freedom Gala World Relief High Point Carolina Theatre Saturday, August 8, 2015
Photographs by Lynn Donovan Ben & Cori Pysch
Erica Berejnoi, Guadalupe Montiel, Carla Morales Lizy Barajas, Jordan & Diane Wong
Sharon Cass, Heather Cross
Mary Catherine Freeman, Michele Lewis, Caroline Carliff
Betsy Timbie, Faith Aubey (Hostess/Emcee)
Danielle Jesserer, Roxanne Silva
Kara Kebu, Rita Ngoran, Carla Gregory, Richard Chia, Mercy Ngoran
Mark Meeks, Adrianne McCann, Bud & Nina Simmons
Ricky & Nancy Rana, Jason Wilkinson
124 O.Henry
September 2015
Shivani Shrivastav, Khadra & Kelly Banks
Jessica & Justin Underwood
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Join us for the 2nd Annual Bill Evans Run! Fun for the entire family! This event raises money for UNCG students so participating contributes to a great cause. Join us to honor a UNCG professor who did so much for his students. He made a difference and so can YOU!
Entry Fees $20 September 1st - 30th $30 October 1st- Race Day $10 One mile fun/run walk Contact Information (336) 471-3322
Benji@jonesracingcompany.com jonesracingcompany.com September 2015
O.Henry 125
CBYA reno ad OHENRY FINAL:Layout 1 8/12/15 1:33 PM Page 1
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To adver tise, call 336-707-6893 126 O.Henry
September 2015
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
The Accidental Astrologer
Get You a Cherry Slurpee and Enjoy the Equinox, Star Children! By Astrid Stellanova
September may be the ninth month, but it means seven. In
the cosmos, seven is a very lucky number. My sweetheart Beau and I shop exclusively at the 7-Eleven throughout the whole month of September. Grab a Slurpee and watch summer sliding on out, faster than you get to the bottom of the cup. There’s also more to celebrate when it comes to astral parties. The autumn equinox falls on the 23rd. My new car tag says “Ad Astra,” dear readers, which means, “to the stars.”
Virgo (August 23—September 22) You give off a lot of radiance this month; you feel good, look good, and don’t you know it, Birthday Baby? There’s nothing like gifts and cake to set a good mood, and there’s a lot to look forward to long after the wrappings are in the recycling bin. During the 13th, there is a partial solar eclipse that you will find sparks more than a little energy and special oomph factor for Virgo. By the 27th, a total lunar eclipse will give you a sense of peace you haven’t had in a long while. Then, to top it all off, there’s more happening in the stars that gives you plenty to think about. Adapt, adjust and just try not to bust, Star Child. Libra (September 23—October 22) This is worth knowing: Mercury is in retrograde between September 17 and October 9 in your sign, Libras. So make the most of the time beforehand, because the retrograde leaves you a little bit out of sorts. OK, Honey, a lot out of sorts. Some say “don’t sign, don’t buy” during retrogrades. I just say, swim against the tide and enjoy the exercise. Helps firm up them flabby upper arms. Scorpio (October 23—November 21) Pay attention late in this month when there are some absolutely fabulous things happening in the night sky. On September 27, there is a total lunar eclipse. Look up; you may find something unusual also happens in how you feel about your time on planet Earth. You will find yourself in an entirely unusual and exciting position — even when upright, Baby Cakes. Sagittarius (November 22—December 21) It’s true, and just about exhausting for you. Someone close to you has been doing a Benjamin Button and acting stupider and stupider. You can’t make them wise up any more than you can bend spoons with your big toe. Shift your attention to becoming a bigger person, and graduating to the next astral plane like the star that you are. Capricorn (December 22—January 19) Your temper is getting hotter than a solar flare. If somebody crosses you, you are out of control, Honey. Get it in check. Life is not about getting in the last word. Would you rather hold onto righteous indignation, or would you rather be the favorite neighbor everybody wants to share watermelon and homemade ice cream with? Practice smiling; it won’t hurt a bit. Aquarius (January 20—February 18) Just because somebody you know very, very well can cuss the paint off your toenails don’t mean they are right. The worst thing about someone closest to you is how they manage to intimidate you with just a cross look and a smart alecky comeback. Caving in to them may seem easier, but that isn’t how you become your best self. They are smugly superior and haven’t earned the right to be the boss of you. Pisces (February 19—March 20) The lunar eclipse on September 27 will close out a chapter in your life that you have been reading and stewing over for a long, long time. Say goodbye to some baggage you’ve been
The Art & Soul of Greensboro
carrying around like your life depended upon it. Now it’s someone else’s problem — never should have been yours to carry anyhow. With a lighter load, your heart is going to lift, and next month you finally get something long owed or promised. Aries (March 21—April 19) In the train station of life you always want to sit in the first-class section with your head high, even if you were riding to prison. That’s part of what makes me smile about Aries; you know how to live it up, as if each day is your last, whether you are at the ice cream store or sitting on death row. You are a cheeky monkey who makes life in general a lot more fun; that’s an adorable trait, Star Child. Go first class; you are the first sign in the cosmos, and never destined to ride in cargo. Taurus (April 20—May 20) There is a pattern of innovation in your life right now that is pretty unusual. Ride that wave. You may feel frustrated that your last creative effort was not as well-received as hoped, but be patient as the tide is turning. You get noticed and rewarded for having special insights that leave some jealous and others downright slack-jawed. And just as a beauty pointer: Update your wardrobe while you are riding high. You are overdue to be a teensey bit selfish, Sugar. Gemini (May 21—June 20) Honey, some collect tolls and others seemed destined to pay them. You have your hand out saying “gimme” but sooner or later the Universe will remind you it’s better to extend a hand to someone else. This is a time where giving is going to pay you much bigger psychic rewards; check your impulse to muscle to the front of the line. Give a little. Cancer (June 21—July 22) It appears to me that you are on the cusp of making a personal breakthrough you couldn’t have guessed would ever, ever happen. The step you take may look small to others, but it is a big step ahead for you. Treasure your good fortune; be thankful. It is going to open something up within you that could transform everything ahead. This is a surprising period for small miracles in your life that will pay big in your sense of happiness. Leo (July 23—August 22) Leos keep their trials and tribulations to themselves, and only like to talk about the triumphs. That’s fine, but your friends want to know you on a deeper level. This means it is time to share your story — without leaving out the not-so-good bits. There is someone you believe who wronged you that you actually wronged. Examine yourself, Sweet Thing. Resist the urge to make your life a living fiction, no matter how great a storyteller you are. OH
For years, Astrid Stellanova owned and operated Curl Up and Dye Beauty Salon in the boondocks of North Carolina until arthritic fingers and her popular astrological readings provoked a new career path.
September 2015
O.Henry 127
O.Henry Ending
The Training Bra
By Cynthia Adams
I was officially in training for some-
thing, from the moment I slipped my skinny arms through the white cotton straps. But what exactly?
Entering first grade, knobby-kneed and awkward, I couldn’t have been less like my older sister, Sharon. Six years older, Sharon was already maturing like a Hollywood starlet. Me? The only actress I resembled was the toothy tomboy who portrayed Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. No curves. No signs of maturity. But all of this was OK with me as I vicariously experienced my sister’s maturation. I urged my sister to shave her legs, a point that still annoys her. I snapped shots of her posing in a powder-blue two-piece for her boyfriend Herman. But each time my sister dressed and slipped into her womanly sized 36-B Maidenform, I felt a pang. Sharon not only owned bras, she needed them. Until I was 9, my main aim in life was to torture the boys at school by out-reading or out-foxing them. Then Patty moved to our town. Patty was red-haired, with Vivien Leigh green eyes. She was a smart and exotic transplant. (It was possible to be considered exotic in Midland if you were anywhere else, even Baltimore.) I immediately began spending weekends at Patty’s house, which was near to the only boy I liked: Robert Lee. Robert Lee didn’t finagle a place in the lunch line just to snap a girl’s bra straps like other boys. He had better manners than that — and a romantic, cleft chin. I read great promise into the fact that he would tug at my pony tail and whisper questions at school. But I lamented to Patty that Robert Lee could see I didn’t wear a bra — the girls who did allowed the straps to drop slightly from their sleeves. Patty took sympathy, giving me the bras she rapidly outgrew. I eagerly stuffed Patty’s hand-me-downs full of Kleenex. With my arms held straight by my bony ribs, I could just hold the tissue in check. My peculiar stiffness was remarkable enough that Buddy Widenhouse tried to lasso my neck with a jump rope and succeeded, throwing me down to the gym floor like a roped calf. Marching into our house, I announced to my mother I needed my own
128 O.Henry
September 2015
bra. “For what???” she retorted. But my father took pity. He told me to jump into his bottle- green Chevrolet truck, and we headed to Belk department store, where my Aunt Fola worked. She waved at me as we entered, but I made a beeline past her for lingerie. My father trailed behind uncertainly. A clerk sized me up in a nanosecond. What she produced was an Ace bandage with straps. In fact, the only thing that made it identifiably a bra was the requisite straps. The “training bra” was nothing like Patty’s. No delicate rosebud trimming; no expandable cones. “Oh, it’s your size,” she assured, with one assessing look at my flat self. It was. Bouncing along country roads toward home, I pulled the small white box from the Belk bag. Straps, three rows of snaps, bandage-like material. I was testing the material’s spring, giving it a mild snap when my father swerved. Gripping the wheel of the Chevy tensely, he shouted irritably, “Put that G.D. thing away!” My dad often abbreviated the curse as if God had not cracked his code. But I sure had — his message was anger. Chastened, I returned the training bra to the box. But we didn’t resume our debate about the merits of Coke versus Pepsi, riding the remaining miles home in uncomfortable silence. My father’s ambivalence towards the training bra and our Belk outing felt important, but I couldn’t decipher any of it. I looked back through the dust-streaked rear window, unaware that my girlhood was struggling along behind us. It couldn’t keep up with me nor the tired old Chevy. I clutched the bag tensely until we chugged into the driveway and parked behind my mother’s Cadillac. Neither of us was sure what to say as we walked through the door. We were back, but my father’s anger walked in with us too, taking up residence between us. He headed toward the kitchen and I retreated to my room where I could dismally compare this training bra to Patty’s. It was so snug I couldn’t even get the straps to drop fetchingly off my shoulders. I recognized the training bra for what it was — a binding defeat, worse even than being roped like a calf. (“Oh, it’s your size.”) And one I had no choice but to accept; a grownup, a Belk professional, had sized me up. OH Cynthia Adams is O.Henry’s contributing editor. The Art & Soul of Greensboro
Illustration by Harry Blair
A rite of passage can sometimes become a symbol of bondage
D M I T R Y S I T KOV E T S KY, M U S I C D I R E C TO R THE 2015 / 2016 SEASON
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