Queen City Nerve - January 11, 2023

Out of the Shadows

Fashion designer , performer Brandon Hilton ’ s fight for the limelight

By Karie Simmons

NEW BOOK ON BLACK CULTURE IN CHARLOTTE OVER THE PAST 300 YEARS

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NOTHING GOES TO WASTE

Living the zero-waste lifestyle in Charlotte

BY KARIE SIMMONS

Editor’s Note: The following is part two in a twopart series about how our habits impact our current waste management systems and the environment. Part one can be read at qcnerve.com/mecklenburgcounty-recycling, though it is not necessary to understand the following article.

Have you looked inside your trash can lately? Your garbage says a lot about you — from your diet to your buying habits to your sustainable (or not-sosustainable) practices.

This is all the more important now as the world is producing more trash today than ever before, and Charlotte is no exception; the city’s garbage is growing faster than the population itself.

In Fiscal Year 2022, the city of Charlotte collected approximately 297,799 tons of garbage from residential curbside bins and multi-family residences. That’s 11.5% more than FY17 and 31.2% over FY13, which is higher than the corresponding population growth during those same spans (8% and 14%, respectively).

To be fair, a lot of this isn’t our fault as the majority of waste generated happens before products and items even enter our homes, offices, schools and institutions. Much of today’s products and packaging are designed in the cheapest way possible, often with unnecessary, single-use plastic and other non-recyclable material.

Until there’s a global shift in manufacturing practices, it may seem pointless for individuals to try to reduce their waste production as more future trash is made every day, but Valerie Gackiere insists that’s not the case.

Gackiere is the founder and owner of Ekologicall, a Charlotte-based online store selling sustainable and reusable alternatives to everyday products like deodorant, paper towels, dish clothes, sandwich bags and shampoo bottles — products widely used by people trying to live the “zero-waste” lifestyle.

In simplest terms, zero waste relates to an effort to reduce the amount one consumes and throws away. People living a zero-waste lifestyle strive to put the least amount of trash in their bins

as possible by avoiding single-use materials and opting for sustainable and reusable alternatives.

Zero waste sounds intimidating, Gackiere said, as people often think it’s an all-or-nothing lifestyle, like veganism, or don’t know where to begin. As long as people try to decrease their waste, however, Gackiere said they’ll be making a difference, as the goal of producing no waste is usually unobtainable.

“Being completely zero waste is impossible in the world we live in. We are surrounded by disposables, by plastic, and that’s how the world is in developed countries,” Gackiere said. “We don’t need millions of people living completely zero waste, but we need millions of people trying.”

Bea Johnson, a French-American woman living in California, is widely credited with developing “The 5 Rs of Zero Waste,” which serves as a guide to transitioning into a zero-waste lifestyle. They are refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot.

According to Johnson’s method, the first step toward reducing your annual household waste footprint is to refuse what you don’t need and prevent the waste from even entering your home and life. In other words, say “no” to waste in the forms of single-use disposables like plastic bags, straws, forks and knives, cups, junk mail and other short-lived non-necessities.

“All the things that are coming to us but we don’t need, just saying no to that. So it’s a lot of preparation,” Gackiere said. “Like for instance, the bags, you have to think about taking your reusable bags [to the store] and things like that.”

The next step is to reduce what you need, which involves resisting the desire to buy new things, including fast fashion, cheap electronic gadgets and processed foods.

“It’s capitalism culture, consumerism culture, where we are pushed every day that we need a new phone, we need new clothes, we need new, new, new, like, buy and buy and buy,” Gackiere said. “So it’s just really thinking about what I really need in my life, what can I reuse, what I can borrow, instead of buying new.”

When it comes to reducing food waste, Gackiere suggested buying less food at one time, cooking

ingredients before they expire, and freezing leftovers instead of throwing them away.

Small switches add up

Gackiere grew up in the countryside of Normandy in northern France with farmer grandparents who were children during WWII. They taught her that “nothing should go to waste.”

When she moved to Charlotte with her husband and children 10 years ago, she said she immediately noticed America’s lack of sustainable practices, such as plastic grocery bags.

The culture shock and a general growing concern about climate change and pollution reignited Gackiere’s passion for the environment and reminded her of her grandparents’ mantra. She became inspired to share sustainable habits as her way of making an impact.

“When you read a lot about these topics and challenges for the planet, you kind of become a bit depressed, to be honest, but the way to get out of that is just to take action,” Gackiere said. “And so I have to do something about it.”

Gackiere started by visiting schools on a volunteer basis and talking to children about plastic pollution in the hope that they would tell their parents, but it wasn’t enough. Then she got the idea to host workshops sharing sustainable alternatives and selling those alternative products.

It was out of these efforts that Ekologicall was borne in the fall of 2019.

Operating as a third-party that carries zerowaste products made by different manufacturers, Gackiere launched Ekologicall as an online store and pop-up. While that’s still how it operates for the most part, the products are also currently available in two boutiques: Lokal at Camp North End and Painted Tree Boutiques in Matthews. Ekologicall is also at the South End Farmers Market every Saturday morning.

At the core of the shop is its inventory of sustainable products that help consumers move toward living zero waste. A lot of that inventory ties into step three: reuse. In other words, swap your disposable items for alternatives like reusable water bottles, bags, straws and cutlery.

Other habits include thrifting clothes and repairing broken items instead of buying new, as well as finding new uses for old clothes or household items to avoid throwing them away.

Hygiene products sold through Ekologicall — shampoo, conditioner, lotion, dish soap, laundry detergent, all-purpose cleaner, etc. — come in containers that can be refilled once empty.

Gackiere began building the store’s inventory

with products she was already using. Reusable facial rounds were one of her first sustainable swaps to replace cotton balls, which she said are bad for the environment due to the pesticides and water required to manufacture them.

A product’s environmental impact comes from a combination of how things are made, where they are made and with what, as well as what happens when they go to the landfill, Gackiere explained.

“You would think the cotton balls will completely decompose in the landfill because it’s just cotton, but they are trapped, and you have layers of trash and there’s not enough oxygen to break down even food scraps and organic material,” Gackiere said. “So gases are released like methane and CO2 and that’s why we have to limit what we send to them.”

A peek inside Gackiere’s shower reveals just three products: shampoo, soap and conditioner — all in bar form.

On her bathroom sink sits a reusable and plasticfree razor, deodorant cream in a refillable glass jar, a toothbrush with a replaceable head, and tooth tabs instead of toothpaste (you chew it to create a paste). She makes her own dry shampoo with cornstarch and cocoa powder.

Gackiere acknowledges that Ekologicall’s sustainable alternatives cost more than their single-use counterparts, which raises the question of accessibility. However, she said access to the zero-waste lifestyle is less about monetary barriers as it is changing your mindset and thinking about your future.

“Yeah, at first, for some reusable things, it’s an investment. But in the long term, it’s cheaper,” Gackiere said, using paper towels as an example.

One $6.30 Swedish cloth replaces an average of 17 rolls of paper towels and can absorb 16 times its weight, according to Gackiere. It’s dishwasher safe and machine washable, and will last for six months or longer with normal use.

Gackiere suggests consumers check their receipts to see where they’re spending the most money on single-use items — dryer sheets, napkins, detergent, plastic wrap, coffee filters — and invest in a sustainable swap.

“I think when you do the math, you realize that it saves you money,” she said.

Other examples include plastic sandwich and snack bags. Ekologicall offers reusable food wraps made from waxed organic cotton as an alternative. Each bag is reusable for a year and, like most of Ekologicall’s products, is compostable.

Aaron Caudle of Mecklenburg County’s Solid Waste Management department said it’s the small switches that add up when it comes to reducing impact on the

NEWS & OPINION

FEATURE

environment and our waste management systems.

“You might say ‘It’s just one sandwich bag,’ but it’s not just one, it’s however many sandwiches you make throughout the week. And you’re one person, but maybe you have five people in your house and there’s 18 houses in your neighborhood, so it’s a cascading effect,” Caudle said. “That one sandwich bag is one sandwich bag to you, but everybody has a sandwich bag and those all end up in our facilities.”

Recycling as a last resort

Most people who live the zero-waste lifestyle see recycling as a last resort, as the current limited infrastructure often consists of “downcycling” recyclable materials into low-quality, disposable goods that ultimately end up in a landfill anyway. The recycling process itself is also highly energy intensive.

Currently in the U.S., only around 5% of recycled plastic is actually turned into new products while the rest goes into landfills. That’s because plastic trash has few markets — plastic can only be recycled into new products one or two times before the material completely degrades and becomes useless.

According to an October 2022 Greenpeace report on the state of recycling in the U.S., plastic is extremely difficult and expensive to collect and sort as there are thousands of types of the synthetic material and none can be melted down together. New plastic, on the other hand, is cheap and easy to produce.

The reality of recycling is disheartening, Gackiere said, because many of us grew up with the notion that recycling was how we were going to save the planet.

“People in general are excited about recycling, because that’s what we’ve been saying for many years,” Gackiere said. “But we know that the system is broken. It doesn’t work. So we have to work beforehand, at the very beginning, from what we buy and bring into our home, because it will end up somewhere.”

The only plastic items that are currently recyclable in Mecklenburg County are containers with necks such as beverage bottles. Curbside recycling bins are also for cardboard, aluminum cans, milk and juice cartons, glass bottles and jars, and paper items like magazines and junk mail.

Brandi Williams with the City of Charlotte’s Solid

Waste Services department, which collects Charlotte’s garbage, recycling, and yard waste, echoed Gackiere’s sentiment that there are better ways to reduce our carbon footprint than just recycling.

“If you look at what we call a waste stream, and how we manage the waste along that stream, at the top of it is making the decision not to purchase certain things,” Williams said.

The waste stream refers to the flow of waste from its domestic or industrial source through to recovery, recycling or final disposal.

Williams said an easy first step is to pay attention to how products are packaged and opt for alternatives with less plastic. Consumers can avoid unwanted plastic by grocery shopping at farmers markets and filling up containers at bulk food stores.

can be accomplished through composting — the final principle of the zero-waste lifestyle. Composting is the natural process of organic waste breaking down and becoming a valuable fertilizer for soil and plants. Just about anything that can be eaten or grown in a field or garden can be composted.

Charlotte picks up residential yard waste and Mecklenburg County turns it into compost and mulch that you can buy for your lawn and garden, but does not offer food waste diversion as part of curbside pickup.

The city launched a curbside composting pilot program in 2018. Williams said the costs made it unfeasible, though that doesn’t mean there isn’t a future for it.

“We need to work on how we could transition

loves to eat store-bought chips. She acknowledges they could make chips at home, but that takes time and doesn’t yield as much.

“The zero-waste lifestyle or just, even if you want to reduce your impact, it’s also accepting that there are things that you cannot change and that you’re trying your best,” Gackiere said. “You won’t be perfect, but at least you’re trying.”

When it comes to living sustainably, nobody is perfect, she said. For example, using paper bags at the grocery store is better than plastic, but bringing your own reusable bag is best — or is it?

“Because if you think paper bags, you think about the trees, so it has to be recycled paper. And cotton, yes, with the [reusable] bag, but pesticides, water and resources,” she said.

Even silicone — a popular alternative material to single-use plastic — has its potential drawbacks.

“They don’t really know how silicone is going to be recycled, or if it can be properly recycled. Will they tell us in a few years that some particles leaked into our food because the silicone goes into the microwave?”

Gackiere asked. “So, nothing is perfect. If you want to live naked in the woods, then maybe you’d be perfect. But then they will tell you to move because they want to build something.”

Gackiere offers consultations and hosts workshops through Ekologicall to help people get familiar with or transition to the zero-waste lifestyle. Much of her time at pop-ups and markets is spent on education — explaining what her products replace and how they can help the environment and save money.

Rot the rest

Charlotte brings its garbage to the Speedway Landfill, a 550-acre municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill next to Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord that’s filled with decomposing household trash from Mecklenburg, Cabarrus and surrounding counties.

MSW landfills are a major generator of methane gas due to the mixture of non-food waste and organic waste (food scraps, yard and garden trimmings) decomposing together. Methane is a greenhouse gas that’s more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, which contributes to global warming and climate change.

For this reason, it’s important to keep as much organic waste out of the landfill as possible, which

because honestly, we could transition from recycling to a curbside composting program and have a lot more success, it’s just the startup costs,” she said.

Until then, those who want to compost either have to do it on their own or pay a private composter like Crown Town Compost, which is housed at The Innovation Barn in Charlotte’s Belmont neighborhood. Through Crown Town’s program, participants put their food waste into a separate bin that gets picked up (or dropped off) and turned into bags of composted soil.

Nobody is perfect

Though living the zero-waste lifestyle is at the core of her business, even for Gackiere there is unavoidable trash. For instance, she said her family

“Each time you buy something, you cast a vote for the future you want,” she said. “Because if we have more and more demand on sustainable products, big corporations, they want to make money, so they’re going to shift and it’s already happening.”

Now, back to your trash can. If you looked inside and saw a bunch of plastic water bottles and drinks, consider a reusable water bottle. Switching to a reusable pod or coffee filter will get rid of all those K-Cups in your trash, and composting will cut down on the stinky food scraps.

You don’t have to live completely zero waste to refuse what you don’t need, reduce what you do need and reuse what you have. So what does your trash say about you?

VALERIE GACKIERE MANS THE EKOLOGICALL BOOTH AT THE SOUTH END FARMERS MARKET. COURTESY OF EKOLOGICALL

CELEBRATING PAINTER’S REFUGE: A WAY OF LIFE

As North Carolina artist Reginald Sylvester II’s first solo show ever comes to a close at the Gantt on Jan. 16, the artist takes part in a conversation with guests centered on how their journey adds to the nuance of Black art and culture. Sylvester’s work has been likened to abstract expressionism stuffed into a blender with ready-mades. His art is physical, based on materials that refute the digital age — from rough canvas tent pieces that reference his U.S. Marine father to rubber, a ubiquitous industrial material whose fraught history includes slavery and atrocities.

More: Free; Jan. 12, 6:30 p.m.; Harvey B. Gantt Center, 551 S. Tryon St.; ganttcenter.org

SEXBRUISE?, CRYPTO WAVE RADIO

The satirical pop band combines improvisation, electronic music, killer hooks and audience participation in their high-energy shows. The Charleston foursome has been known to prepare pancakes and pizza onstage, brought out dancers in animal costumes and hired fake demonstrators to protest their shows, all in the midst of their synth-driven nonsensical squall, which at times can sound suspiciously like a normal pop group. The band’s high-water mark may be the single and video “WDHTV,” in which the group employs impeccable musicianship to deliver a blistering takedown of all the idiots prolonging COVID with their irresponsible actions.

More: $12-$16; Jan. 13, 8 p.m.; Visulite Theatre; 1615 Elizabeth Ave.; visulite.com

SING IT SOBER

Mad props to anyone willing to tackle a rendition of Bon Jovi’s sub-Springsteenian “Livin’ on a Prayer” or Journey’s interminable “Don’t Stop” (No, please do) while stone cold sober. Yet it can be done when Beyond Sober and VisArt team up for their latest recovery-centric party. Karaoke and mocktails are on the menu as patrons are encouraged to celebrate sobriety loud and proud with enthusiastic encouragement from friends and fellow revelers. Mocktail mixes are provided by nearby Tommy’s Pub, while Be Refreshed Beverage Company offers alcohol-free tasting samples.

More: Free; Jan. 14, 6 p.m.; VisArt Video, 3104 Eastway Drive; beyond-sober.com

I AM, A RETROSPECTIVE OPENING RECEPTION

Classified as an impressionist, Kevin Harris professes to transcend artistic boundaries, calling his style a free-flowing collaboration of color and texture, intended to inspire a sense of fullness. Drawing on a childhood split between Washington D.C. with his father and Harlem with his mother, the six-year Army veteran produces art that reflects his view of the Black experience in America. The combined boldly colored works in the exhibit define Harris’ beliefs on love and relationships, beauty, music, dance, justice, family and community.

More: Free; Jan. 14, 6 p.m.; Nine Eighteen Nine Studio Gallery, 700 N. Tryon St.; nineeighteennine.com

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

The Gantt Center and Levine Museum of the New South continue their partnership that began with the Men of Change: Power. Triumph. Truth exhibition — at the Gantt through March 12 — with a collaborative celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Collaborations with local and regional artists, historians, and institutions uplift the power of collective action throughout the event, which includes community mural-making, discussions on how unified effort enabled the civil rights movement to succeed, quilting/sewing workshops for clothing items to be donated to community members in need and more.

More: Free; Jan. 16, 9 a.m.; Harvey B. Gantt Center, 551 S. Tryon St.; ganttcenter.org

CARLOS CAN READ

An award-winning spoken-word poet, playwright, and teaching artist, Carlos Robson has cemented his reputation as a competitive slam poet, vying in local, regional, national and international competitions, and winning the National Poetry Slam championship in 2007 and again in 2008 as a member of SlamCharlotte. A co-founder of artist collective The Concrete Generation, he also co-wrote and appeared in the play Miles & Coltrane: Blue(.), directed by Quentin Talley. Robson’s new spokenword variety show features guest comics, poets and singer-songwriters. He also conducts live interviews with Charlotte artists, activists and tastemakers

More: $10; Jan. 19, 7 p.m.; Divine Barrel Brewing Co., 3701 N. Davidson St.; blumenthalarts.org

CONSTELLATION CLT: QUYNH VU’S SOFTENED SCARS

Up until she enrolled at Wake Forest University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in studio art in 2022, Vietnamese-American visual artist Quynh Vu went by her middle name Theresa (after St. Teresa) instead of her Vietnamese first name. Recognizing the prevalence of Western influences in education, identity, and biases, Vu embraces capitalism, Catholicism, and colonization in her work, albeit with a questioning, often satirical outlook, in her show Softened Scars. This opening reception to Vu’s exhibit includes a conversation with the artist.

More: Free; Jan. 20, 6 p.m.; Mint Museum Uptown, 500 S. Tryon St.; mintmuseum.org

NC PINBALL STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

“It has been a year of transition but the venerable pinball machine has managed to not only endure but also thrive!” So says The International Flipper Pinball Association, and who are we to disagree? Charlotte is the scene of a championship featuring over 1,000 of the best (pin)ballers representing 47 states and the District of Columbia facing off in a survival of the flippest to crown champions across the country. They vie for their share of the $170,000 prize pool, compiled by the IFPA collecting $1 from each player at each event.

More: Free; Jan. 21, 11 a.m.; Super Abari Game Bar, 1015 Seigle Ave.; ifpapinball.com

AUNT VICKI, FLAME TIDES, INK SWELL

Asheville retro foursome Aunt Vicki grabs a vintage rock vibe by the scruff of its neck and rides it like Slim Pickens atop a nuclear bomb. With almighty bottom-heavy Triceratops-in-heat guitar riffs and nimble, emphatic drums, Charlotte’s groovy power duo Flame Tides combines the attack of a hard-rock combo with the ambitious melodic reach of art rockers. Belmont’s appealing Ink Swell summons the ghost of Violent Femmes’ ramshackabilly strum in a cracked crystal ball and shackles it to snarky/furious protest rock: “Hoard what you like/Hoard what you can/You hold out your empty helping hand.”

More: $8-$10; Jan. 22, 9 p.m.; The Milestone Club, 3400 Tuckaseegee Road; themilestone.club

MOMIX ALICE

“See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance!/They are waiting on the shingle — will you come and join the dance?” Thus, the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle introduce Lewis Carroll’s protagonist Alice to the Lobster Quadrille. That particular dance may not be highlighted in MOMIX’s stunning reimagining of Carroll’s iconic dive down the rabbit hole, but it will hardly be missed. MOMIX’s internationally acclaimed dancer-illusionists conjure the magical world of the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, and the Queen of Hearts, amid the visionary choreography of artistic director Moses Pendleton. Amid the splendor, magic and dazzling creativity, you’ll be reminded that all is never what it seems.

More: $20 and up; Jan. 24-25, 7:30 p.m.; Knight Theater, 430 S. Tryon St.; blumenthalarts.org

FLAME TIDES

Photo by Lora Denton 1/22

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Woody w/ Pleasure House, Juniper Avenue (Snug Harbor)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B

Shane Hall w/ Damn Selene, B-Villanious, Moon Man (The Milestone)

POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ

Shindig! A Night of ‘50s and ‘60s Music (Tommy’s Pub)

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

The Honey Dewdrops (Evening Muse)

FUNK/JAM BANDS

Spafford w/ Frute (Visulite Theatre)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 12

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Pleasure House w/ Pheny, Earth That Was, Heiress Hilton (The Milestone)

Palomino Blond w/ Smelter, The Mother Superior (Snug Harbor)

JAZZ/BLUES

Brandon Stevens (Middle C Jazz)

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Tom Mackell w/ Chris Wilcox, The Wilt (Evening Muse)

POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ

Victoria Victoria w/ Charlie Hunter (Neighborhood Theatre)

OPEN MIC

Open Mic Night w/ Chase & Aleeia “Sug” Bolton Brown (Tommy’s Pub)

FRIDAY, JANUARY 13

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Lenny Federal (Comet Grill)

Goldpark w/ Jackson Stokes Band (Evening Muse)

Anchor Detail w/ Jackson Fig, Hey Revolver, The Doughboys (The Milestone)

Pretty Baby w/ Noir Noir, Comino (Petra’s)

Abyssal Frost w/ HolyRoller, Degradations, Blaakhol (Snug Harbor)

GoGo Pilot w/ The Menders (Tommy’s Pub)

Nirvani (Nirvana tribute) w/ Foo4You (Foo Fighters tribute) (Amos’ Southend)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B

Boxxamillion w/Tqwuditdu,TonyWavy, 6 Cardinal (The Rooster) Future (Spectrum Center)

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Jackson Dean (Coyote Joe’s)

POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ

The Abbey Elmore Band (Birdsong Brewing)

Rhythm Station (Crown Station)

Sexbruise? w/ Crypto Wave Radio (Visulite Theatre)

JAZZ/BLUES

Dave Stryker (Middle C Jazz)

CLASSICAL/INSTRUMENTAL

Charlotte Symphony: Copland Symphony No. 3 (Belk Theater)

FUNK/JAM BANDS

Jay van Raalte & the Spectrum (Smokey Joe’s Cafe & Bar)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Dreamboat w/ Julian Calendar, Wild Trees (The Milestone)

Donna the Buffalo (Neighborhood Theatre)

Testerossa w/ Auralayer, Black River Rebels (The Rooster)

Late Night Special (Smokey Joe’s Cafe & Bar)

The Seduction w/ Nemesis, Bog Loaf, Doomsday Profit (Snug Harbor)

Tribute (Allman Brothers tribute) (Visulite Theatre)

JAZZ/BLUES

Dave Stryker (Middle C Jazz)

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Charlie Starr w/ Benji Shanks (Neighborhood Theatre)

FUNK/JAM BANDS

Michael Haywood w/ Phat Waffle (Comet Grill)

Sunshower (Primal Brewery)

POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ

Silent Disco (Birdsong Brewing)

Midnight Memories: One Direction Night (The Fillmore)

Sweat Transfer w/ BNDR, The Electronic Park (Petra’s)

Reflexions Goth Dance Party w/ DJ Velvetine (Tommy’s Pub)

CLASSICAL/INSTRUMENTAL

Charlotte Symphony: Copland Symphony No. 3 (Belk Theater)

SUNDAY, JANUARY 15

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Hellfire 76 w/ Kevin Terrell (Tommy’s Pub)

JAZZ/BLUES

Omari & the Hellhounds (Comet Grill)

Kyle Jason (Middle C Jazz)

SINGER-SONGWRITER/ACOUSTIC

Possum (The Rooster)

MONDAY, JANUARY 16

JAZZ/BLUES

The Bill Hanna Legacy Jazz Session (Petra’s)

OPEN MIC

Find Your Muse Open Mic feat. Cuchulain (Evening Muse)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 17

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Red Rocking Chair (Comet Grill)

Oliver Wood Trio (Neighborhood Theatre)

FUNK/JAM BANDS

Cosmic Funk Jam (Crown Station)

JAZZ/BLUES

GA-20 (Evening Muse)

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Woody w/ Withdrew, Featherpocket (Snug Harbor)

Harriet RIP w/ Doc Rotten (Tommy’s Pub)

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Dan Bern (Neighborhood Theatre)

JAZZ/BLUES

Phillip-Michael Scales (Evening Muse)

THURSDAY, JANUARY 19

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Keegan Federal w/ Fed Ups (Comet Grill)

HIP-HOP/SOUL/R&B

Chemro Smith & Matt Corleone w/ Stank Nitty, Sunset Black, Lowkilee, Jacc D. Frost, JD, Trauma 456, Kilo Fresh (The Rooster)

janee raxanna w/ Groove Skeletons, Swansgate (Snug Harbor)

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Ward Davis (Amos’ Southend)

Chuck Prophet Trio w/ Temperance League (Neighborhood Theatre)

JAZZ/BLUES

Larry Farber & Robyn Springer (Middle C Jazz)

John Shaugnessy Trio (Visulite Theatre)

OPEN MIC

Open Mic Night w/ Chase & Aleeia “Sug” Bolton Brown (Tommy’s Pub)

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Lenny Federal (Comet Grill)

By George w/ Wonder Why’s (Evening Muse)

Thunderchief w/ October, January Knife (The Milestone)

David Taylor & The Tallboys w/ Matt Woods, Hiram (Petra’s)

Stop Talking w/ Mercury Dimes, F-Use (Tommy’s Pub) Badfish (Sublime tribute) (Amos’ Southend)

JAZZ/BLUES

Evan Christopher w/ Don Vappie (Stage Door Theater)

Chandra Currelley (Middle C Jazz)

Elements ‘n’ Tune (The Rooster)

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Drew Parker (Coyote Joe’s)

Courtney Lynn & Quinn w/ Striking Copper, Falllift (Visulite Theatre)

POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ

Deep Fried Disco (Snug Harbor)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Night Tillers (Comet Grill)

Blackwater Drowning w/ Seasons, Venus Invictus, AYMB (The Milestone)

Michael Tracy (Primal Brewery)

RUGG w/ Chew, Seismic Sutra (Snug Harbor)

Lenny Federal Band (Tommy’s Pub)

School of Rock presents Winter Blast Rock Fest (Visulite Theatre)

Pinkest Floyd (Pink Floyd tribute) (Amos’ Southend) Tangerine Trees (Beatles tribute) w/ Scandal, Jefferson Ave. (The Rooster)

POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ

Barry Manilow (Spectrum Center)

JAZZ/BLUES

Evan Christopher w/ Don Vappie (Stage Door Theater)

Stanley Jordan (Middle C Jazz)

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Gregory Alan Isakov (The Fillmore)

FUNK/JAM BANDS

Machine Funk (Widespread Panic tribute) (Neighborhood Theatre)

EXPERIMENTAL/CROSS-GENRE

Patois Counselors w/ Dipstick, Adam Cope (Petra’s)

FAMILY

Be Our Guest: Disney DJ Night (The Underground)

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Aunt Vicki w/ Flame Tides, Ink Swell (The Milestone)

JAZZ/BLUES

Omari & the Hellhounds (Comet Grill)

Dawn Anthony (Middle C Jazz)

LATIN/REGGAE/WORLD

Celtic Session w/ Alan Davis & Friends (Tommy’s Pub)

MONDAY, JANUARY 23

OPEN MIC

Find Your Muse Open Mic feat. Brook Pridemore (Evening Muse)

TUESDAY, JANUARY 24

ROCK/PUNK/METAL

Ninth Realm w/ Duckbeak, Pathogenesis, Winter Lantern (The Milestone)

COUNTRY/FOLK/AMERICANA

Red Rocking Chair (Comet Grill)

FUNK/JAM BANDS

Cosmic Funk Jam (Crown Station)

EXPERIMENTAL/CROSS-GENRE

Sam on Sunday (Evening Muse)

VISIT QCNERVE.COM FOR THE FULL SOUNDWAVE LISTING.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS

Fashion designer, performer Brandon Hilton’s fight for the limelight

BY KARIE SIMMONS

“You can ask me anything,” Brandon Hilton tells me over the phone. “Nothing is off limits and nothing’s gonna offend me.”

Hilton was reassuring me after hearing me stumble over my words, trying perhaps too delicately to ask him about his childhood. Earlier in our conversation, the 35-year-old casually mentioned that his father had killed someone in front of him when he was a kid. I wondered how the trauma had affected him.

Hilton grew up in Pacolet, a rural small town in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, about 60 miles southwest of Charlotte. He said he was 2 years old when his dad began beating and molesting him, and when he was 7, his dad shot and killed his mom’s boyfriend in front of him at a McDonald’s. He’s been in prison ever since.

Looking back, Hilton feels he didn’t have a childhood after what he experienced at such a young age. He said he also felt forced to grow up early in order to help his mom raise his sister.

But it’s this past trauma that drives him.

“That has always been my biggest motivation to kind of get out of Pacolet, South Carolina, and make something of myself so I don’t have this shadow of my dad lingering over me for the rest of my life,” Hilton said. “I don’t want that to be my legacy, so that’s motivated me to do as much as I possibly can to overshadow that.”

Now living in Charlotte with his husband, Hilton has spent years building up his name and talents in order to become the multifaceted person he is today — singer, model, fashion designer, pig farmer, podcast host, drag queen, actor and soon-to-be author.

As it turns out, beyond the shadows of his past not only lay the light, but for Hilton, the limelight.

Born on Myspace

Hilton likes to say he was “born on Myspace’’ because that’s where it all started.

He recalled being fresh out of high school when a friend told him about the social networking site,

which was a first of its kind in the mid-2000s. He signed up using the desktop computer at his grandma’s house and added a basic profile picture, but things didn’t stay basic for long.

Hilton expanded his content as he gained more friends on the site. He credits his platinum blonde hair and the eccentric photos his grandma took of him in her garage for helping him stand out.

Once he reached a million friends on Myspace, that’s when he started getting opportunities to work with photographers and producers, he recalled.

“Then I was like, ‘Alright, I should probably utilize this and kind of make it not really a career, but just a way that I can make money and get myself out of Pacolet, South Carolina,’ was the goal. And so that’s what I did,” Hilton said.

A producer in Texas convinced Hilton to move to Dallas to work on his music. At the time, he had been recording songs for his Myspace page using the microphone on his laptop, so he was intrigued by the possibility of higher-quality production.

While in Dallas he worked at Radio Disney, doing commercials and voicing promotional segments on Disney XD, though he alleges he was later fired because of his Myspace, which he was told was “too racy.”

“I think that it was a little homophobic that I got fired from Disney because I didn’t have anything that was really crazy or anything like that,” Hilton said. “I think they just weren’t ready for me at the time.”

Today, Hilton categorizes his music as pop dance, but he described the work earlier in his career

as more grungy electronic.

“I liked that whole early Luciana, Myspace sound where everything’s gritty with high-energy dance beats,” he said. “But I kind of grew out of that pretty fast because I wanted my music to sound legit and I wanted my voice to be better produced.”

Hilton’s debut album Dirty On The Dancefloor charted #11 on Hot Topic/Shockhound’s most downloaded albums of 2010.

For his sophomore album, NOCTURNAL, he worked with Edwin McCain’s producer Marcus Suarez in the hopes of getting nominated for a Grammy, but the album only reached #63 on iTunes Pop Charts when it debuted in 2011.

Hilton’s music is in the 2012 movie Midnight Cabaret, in which he also stars, and his song “Glamour Zombie” was featured on Oxygen’s The Bad Girls Club. He followed that with the release of his first hard-copy album in 2013, a collection of singles and remixes called The Best of Brandon Hilton.. SO FAR!!

His fourth and latest album, Reborn, was released in January 2021 and reached #9 on the US iTunes Dance Chart. “Love Again,” released in February 2021, is his most recent single, though he also recently remastered his old Myspace music and put it on YouTube as Hilton’s Myspace Mixtape, featuring eight tracks from 2007-’09.

Most of Hilton’s music is on his YouTube channel, though he plans to rerelease his music on streaming platforms as part of a new project he’s calling his “legacy album.” Released sometime this year, it will contain over 75 tracks that chronicle his music from the Myspace days to now, plus a few new songs.

As with most musicians, Hilton said the messages behind his music have changed as he’s evolved as a person and artist — growing progressively darker and more serious, but still fun. He notes Reborn is his most personal record to date.

“I went through some heartbreak and I lost some family members that were really important to me,” Hilton said. “So the songs on that one are still like fun party songs, but they are the most personal, because I’ve touched on more personal things in my lyrics.”

The House of Mann

Learning to sew wasn’t a hobby for Hilton, but a necessity so he could wear the outfits he envisioned for tours and music videos. The skill especially came into play while performing in drag — first in Texas and then locally back in the Carolinas — eventually going by the name Onya Mann.

“I wanted to have like RuPaul’s Drag Race

BRANDON HILTON AS ONYA MANN.

PHOTO BY LAURENCE LOGAN

level costumes, and I wanted to have really nice costumes, but there’s no stores locally that sell drag queen costumes and super elaborate things, so I had to start making them,” Hilton said.

It didn’t take long before drag queens from all over the world began asking Hilton to make their costumes, too. Hilton also started dressing celebrities he had befriended over the years while in the entertainment industry.

In 2018, he launched the fashion brand The House of Mann, which has dressed major artists including Kim Petras, Dorian Electra and Allie X and has been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Paper Magazine. Clothes are available online, at various pop-up events and Stash Pad, a vintage boutique in southeast Charlotte’s Grier Heights neighborhood.

The House of Mann has put on shows at New York and Paris fashion weeks and has had outfits featured on Claws on TNT; RuPaul’s Drag Race; The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Resurrection on AMC’s Shudder streaming service; and Queen of Drags, a German drag competition TV series judged by Heidi Klum.

“If there’s a drag TV show, we probably contributed at least one or two costumes to it for sure,” Hilton said.

Hilton’s latest work can be seen on season four of HBO Max’s Doom Patrol, a TV series based on the DC Comics superhero team of the same name for which Hilton designed drag queen superhero Maura Lee Karupt’s costume.

Being a drag performer gives Hilton a unique perspective as a fashion designer because he understands what an outfit needs in order to be functional while fashionable. He said he takes inspiration from the latest trends as well as his daily life and whatever is around him, like his saltwater fish tank.

“I have a bunch of cool corals and fish and I like the way they look, like the way coral looks in the water when it’s waving and the way fins look and stuff like that — sea slugs, specifically,” he said. “But I’ve always been obsessed with the ocean, coral and marine life, and I get a lot of inspiration from that.”

As if all that wasn’t enough, Hilton is currently writing two books: a drag queen manual and an autobiography.

Hilton hopes the autobiography, which delves into his difficult upbringing, his grandmother’s suicide and his own mental health struggles, provides an insight into who he really is.

And part of that is his pigs — no doubt a nod back to his rural roots. Up until recently, Hilton had 11 pigs living in his home (he has six now). He said they help keep him grounded in the face of online backlash, death threats and hate mail.

“It’s nice to have my little farm with my chickens and my chihuahua and my pigs, so that kind of brings me out of this fake online world where people hate me so much,” Hilton said. “I have obviously a lot of support and people love me and follow me from all over the world, but it only takes one person telling you to like kill yourself to bring you down, you know?”

Also on Hilton’s mind lately is the fact that his dad will be getting out of prison within the next year. He said he’s hesitant about where they stand.

“The last thing that my dad did before being arrested was point a gun at me and pull the trigger, but he had no bullets because he just used them

all on my mom’s boyfriend. So that’s been like, the lasting impression in my head, all these years. And I was like, if my dad gets out, is he gonna come kill me?” Hilton said. He assured me his sister confirmed with his dad that won’t be the case.

When I asked what he would tell himself at 7 years old, he said, “Don’t give up on yourself.”

“I tried to commit suicide two different times in my life and I think so many times about like, what if I had succeeded instead of, you know, fucking up little things and not dying?” he said. “The best thing I can say is just hold on. Don’t think that this is the end because the world is your oyster.”

Hilton fought to step out of the shadows of his past. If he hadn’t, maybe he wouldn’t be standing in the limelight today, poised for greatness.

KSIMMONS@QCNERVE.COM

IN THE LINE OF SIGHT

The eyes have it in janee raxanna’s progressive R&B

BY PAT MORAN

Pulsing squelchy beats radiate like a warning beacon as Janee Caulton seems to struggle to exhale, her feathered jazzy vocal releasing a wave of watchfulness and anxiety:

“Is the air I lack when I see them flashing in my mirror rear mirror/ It’s the good old boys, it’s the good old boys, it’s the good old boys in blue/ … I recognize the look that’s in your eyes/Better keep my hands in your line of sight.”

It’s a regrettably familiar scenario related by Caulton, who composes and performs her jazzinflected progressive R&B songs as janee raxanna, on her single “Eyes on You,” released in December 2021. The eerie yet soulful tune, she says, was sparked by a traffic stop in South Carolina in 2021.

“The police officer was driving some kind of muscle car … and had on army green attire — it wasn’t blue,” raxanna says. She and her companion, both Black, remained completely silent throughout the ordeal, until the white officer allowed them to drive away.

Though informed by this personal experience, “Eyes on You” gradually cascades into a universal statement, accompanied by a spare yet spacious soundscape that recalls the dub and hip-hopinformed final work of R&B poet and polemicist Gil Scott-Heron. Raxanna’s lyrical concerns also seem to echo Scott-Heron’s.

“’Eyes on You’ is about the police eyes being on you, but it’s also about the summer [of 2020] when things changed,” raxanna says.

People have turned eyes on the police to make them more accountable, she offers, recording officers on their phones to document their infractions against public safety.

“Y’all expect me to be subject to / Rules that you presume / Ain’t got no reins on you /Ain’t got no chains on you...”

“Eyes on You,” is both a culmination and a continuation of raxanna’s ongoing musical exploration. It draws from music across the African diaspora: jazz, soul and Motown, as well as the sounds of alternative rock, Celia Cruz and Bob Marley.

Across an EP and a string of singles, raxanna has filtered her thoughts, emotions and experiences through a panoply of races, languages and perspectives. With a band comprised of herself, Charlotte activist and alternative R&B/pop artist Joseph (Jae) Quisol and drummer Nik Maldonado, raxanna will perform her new and old material at Snug Harbor on Jan. 19.

A musical awakening

Raxanna remembers singing as a “self-soothing practice” at an early age. Attending UNC Charlotte in 2009, she recalls being enthralled with the city’s burgeoning poetry/spoken-word scene, exemplified by artists like Carlos Robson and Boris “Bluz” Rogers.

It wasn’t till raxanna turned 18, however, and transferred to The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, that she considered music and performing as her path. In L.A., she performed covers and her first original tunes at open mics and jam sessions. From early influences like Amy Winehouse, raxanna turned to the sources for her inspirations — Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and Sara Vaughn. This musical wellspring was augmented with experimental rock like The Kooks and Modest Mouse.

After graduating in 2013, raxanna returned to Charlotte. In 2016 she dropped her first recorded project, the 6-song EP One, on Soundcloud. The collection, recorded and mixed with Scott Slagle, marks raxanna’s first collaboration with producer Dayton Collins, who would go on to produce all of raxanna’s subsequent projects.

Valentines’ Day 2020 saw the release of The Awakening, comprised of two songs. In “Miel Negra,” haunting hazy synthesizers dovetail into raxanna’s Spanish language vocal. Halfway though the elemental shuffling tune, she switches to English lyrics.

The idea to make “Miel Negra” a bilingual song was not a conscious decision, says raxanna. It’s simply that growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts and later in Charlotte, she was frequently around a Spanish-speaking population.

“There’s a different cultural influence or emotionality that you can connect to by taking inspiration from [Spanish language] artists,” raxanna says. “[They] allow us to see outside of concepts that were not designed for our benefit, and allow us to see a broader sense of community.”

After an intro of plangent strummed guitar and pensive coiling bass, The Awakening’s second song, “Bloom,” introduces a recurring theme for raxanna: processing and navigating relationships.

on a mission, says raxanna.

“Both of those lines are about stepping away from distractions and getting back into your purpose,” she says.

Sleepless and numb

Raxanna continued to shape her sound through increasingly sophisticated releases, which stripped down backing instruments to accentuate the musicality of her voice.

Amid syncopated percussion and the purposeful prowl of guttural bass, the theme of relationships arises again in the sensuous and intimate “Losing Feeling,” this time joined by notions of sleeplessness and numbness;

“I think I’m losing feeling for the subtleties / And wishing I could wake up with your hands on me...”

“[The song is about] wanting to express the vulnerability that … Black women, feel where you have to be so strong, and no one is comforting you,” raxanna says. “[Hence] that line, ‘Who’s going to take care of me when I can’t sleep?’”

In January 2022, raxanna returned to UNC Charlotte to study psychology. She also continued to develop a strong friendship with Gates Millennium Scholar, Harvard University graduate and proudly queer advocate Quisol.

“We had a quick connection,” raxanna says, recalling the pair’s first meeting in 2017.

Sharing a love for Miles Davis, raxanna and Quisol cowrote the song “Something About You,” which appears on Quisol’s most recent album Dreamworld. The pair’s strategy of writing and trading verses back and forth gives the song a classic jazz feel, says raxanna, likening the tune to an Ella Fitzgerald/Louis Armstrong duet.

Raxanna has played shows with Quisol, including gigs in Charlotte and Asheville. Although she plays guitar and piano, raxanna focuses on her primary instrument — her voice — for sets with Quisol, and on Sept. 19, her first show devoted to her own music.

“It’s mostly my original content,” she says.

In many ways, the set will be an affirmation of raxanna’s commitment to the music spanning the African diaspora and beyond.

“[The song is about] when you’re in situations that shake you to the core and you must figure out your way,” raxanna says.

In that regard, the song’s recurring couplet, “I’m back on the run/ Rebel with a gun...” refers to being

“I want the [show’s] takeaway to be a connection to African people both on the continent and the African Diaspora, through languages, rhythms and singing styles,” raxanna says, “specifically [music] inspired by some of the jazz artists from the United States, as well as some of the incredible artists from the Spanish and English-speaking Caribbean.”

JANAEE RAXANNA

PHOTO BY QUINCY WOODARD

DRYING OUT

Counterculture Club to host Charlotte’s first nonalcoholic beverage festival

BY DEZANII LEWIS

January is a time for new beginnings, when people attempt to start the new year off on good footing. In recent years, “Dry January” has become a more popular part of those efforts, with participants swearing off alcohol for the month. In 2022, data for how many people took on Dry January ranged from 20% of legalaged adults (Wired.com) to 35% (CNN), but one thing that remains clear is that the movement has only trended up since originating in the UK a decade ago.

It’s not easy; alcohol has a hold on our society in a way that many folks don’t notice until they try to leave it behind. From pop songs to TV shows, references and reminders of drinking are everywhere, and alcohol is on virtually every menu. For those who are in recovery, pregnant, nursing, or simply don’t want to drink, their options are limited.

That’s what inspired Molly Ruggere to create a movement to push back on the belief that a social life must revolve around drinking.

“If something doesn’t exist, why don’t I just make it?” she asked.

Ruggere is the founder of Counterculture Club, a Charlotte-based organization that serves as a global community for people who want to lessen or eliminate their dependence on alcohol. On Jan. 21, the organization will host the inaugural Counterculture Festival, Charlotte’s first nonalcoholic beverage festival.

Ruggere, who grew up in Charlotte, was living in New York when she decided to get sober in 2018.

“I had been using alcohol to cope with the stressors,” she said. “It started to wear on me as I was getting into my later twenties, and I was kind of compromising my mental health.”

According to Ruggere, one of the toughest parts for her was trying to keep any semblance of a social life while not entering situations that tempted her to drink.

“I felt like my life was over — my social life was over — because there was literally nothing alcoholfree that was social and no way for me to meet people,” she said.

The difficulties created a strain on Ruggere’s mindset. The traditional 12-step program didn’t work for her. Since she couldn’t find the right

community, she eventually made one of her own.

In 2020, Ruggere moved back to Charlotte and created Counterculture Club to cater to people who wanted to let go of their dependence on alcohol. The organization hosts members-only events, public events, and offers life-coaching services. The events range from yoga to alcohol-free pop-up bars and happy hours.

Ruggere said the organization’s focus is on changing not just behavior but mindset and cultural perspective.

“You don’t have to stay home every night and drink water,” she said. “That’s why oftentimes people don’t stick with Dry January because they don’t integrate it into their lives. They try to just isolate themselves from everything fun and exercise and just take away the pleasure and joy of things, and that makes it not sustainable.”

In addition to founding Counterculture Club, Ruggere is a writer, certified life coach, and alcohol freedom coach, a term she uses in place of sobriety coach because sobriety may not be the end goal.

“I’m not a sober coach. I’m not trying to get people sober if that’s not going to work for them or that’s not going to make them happy,” she said. “My goal is to help them reach their ideal relationship with alcohol in whatever way that looks.”

She hopes to prove to others that living without alcohol isn’t a bad thing. Too often people feel stigmatized about not wanting to drink, she said, and finding the courage to let go of something, a decision which may later open many doors, is a beautiful thing.

A global community

Though based in Charlotte, Ruggere said Counterculture Club is a global community for individuals who want to experience a social life without alcohol, or at least alcohol dependence.

“In order to create cultural change, which is what we want to do, we have to also speak to everyone,” she said.

According to the organization’s website: “Counterculture Club is a global alcohol-free community based in Charlotte, NC, created for free thinkers who don’t buy into the mainstream societal narrative that we need to drink to connect with others or to be the best version of ourselves.

“Through a vibrant global online and local inperson member network, large-scale alcohol-free social events, and modern, science-based alcohol freedom coaching, Counterculture Club provides individuals with the support and resources they need to take their power back from alcohol for good—no labels, willpower or a lifetime commitment to alcohol abstinence required.”

The organization consists of online and in-person memberships. As it was founded during the height of the pandemic, virtual membership was critical. Counterculture’s online community flourished, with members in Arizona, Florida, and even New Zealand.

“We meet virtually every week,” Ruggere said. “And then a couple of times a month for special events, [such as Christmas]. We sent books to our Secret Santa, and then we met and we did a little holiday party.”

The organization’s first happy hour event was a

huge success, Ruggere recalled.

“We sold out and had a line at the door. It was packed the whole time,” she said. “And it was a perfect mix of drinkers, non-drinkers, people in recovery, people that aren’t in recovery.”

There was also a varied age range of guests from mid-twenties to older generations, something Ruggere was happy to see. After successfully creating this community of folks who were shedding their dependence on alcohol, she took it a step further and created Charlotte’s first nonalcoholic beverage festival.

A festival of firsts

The Counterculture Festival is not only the first event of its kind in Charlotte, it’s the first in the southeast as far Ruggere can tell. Queen City Nerve’s own search turned up past events in Washington D.C.; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; London; and Melbourne, Australia; but nothing regionally.

The festival is scheduled to take place Jan. 21 from 3-8 p.m. at Camp North End. At the time of our conversation, VIP tickets for the event had nearly sold out.

The festival will feature beverages from national breweries like Athletic Brewing Company and local breweries like Resident Culture and NoDa Brewing. There will be more than just beverages at the festival, however. Attendees can expect live music, tarot card readings, and panel discussions.

Ruggere, who has never hosted a festival, said the planning is “taking over her life,” but she’s enjoyed the epiphanies she’s had along the way.

“[Hosting a festival is] something I never would have ever thought to do had I not gone through the process of quitting drinking,” she said. “But that process showed me how capable I am and gave me all this confidence that I just never had before.”

Launching the event during Dry January is sure to gain the attention of people who might not typically attend an event like this, but that’s part of the plan.

“What better time than Dry January when it’s societally okay to not drink to have that event?”she asked.

There will be a pre-festival event on Thursday, Jan. 19, where attendees will explore several nonalcoholic beverages, but the majority of the events will take place at the main festival.

“It’s just fun to have unlimited capacity to kind of create whatever we want and to be the first,” Ruggere said. “Doing something like this in Charlotte and hopefully not only bringing more awareness to all the nonalcoholic options out there, but also showing people, just because you’re doing Dry January doesn’t mean you can’t go out and have fun and socialize. Willpower is a finite resource.”

MOLLY RUGGERE PHOTO COURTESY OF COUNTERCULTURE CLUB

SAVAGE LOVE

LET’S CHAT...GPT

Catfishing for advice

BY DAN SAVAGE

Dear Readers: A lot of professional writers are freaking out about ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot created by the OpenAI foundation that can generate essays, novels, screenplays — any kind of writing — faster than living/ breathing/typing/revising human beings ever could. What’s more, enter the name of any writer, living or dead, and within seconds ChatGPT can spit out an essay or a screenplay or an opinion column in the style of that writer. Or an advice column in the style of a particular advice columnist.

My name came up on a recent episode of Hard Fork, a podcast on new technologies from the New York Times. During a discussion about the good, bad, and ugly of ChatGPT, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton — both longtime Savage Lovecast listeners — speculated openly (flagrantly! shamelessly!) about whether ChatGPT could do my job. After listening to Hard Fork (which sounds like it should be a euphemism for something), and after seeing other writers freaking out about AI chatbots stealing their jobs, I decided to see whether I needed to worry.

I pulled a letter from the Savage Love inbox — something, low, slow, and over-the-plate — went to the ChatGPT website (openai.com), and asked ChatGPT to “answer this question in the style of Dan Savage’s advice column.” So, can the ChatGPT artificial intelligence chatbot really do a better job giving sex advice than I do? We’re about to find out.

Married 15 years, sexless for last eight. My wife says I’m not doing anything wrong, and she feels terrible about me having to live without sex. But she doesn’t feel so terrible she’ll do anything about it or give me permission to get my needs met elsewhere. That she absolutely will not do. I don’t want to divorce my wife over this, as she would be devastated and we have a good relationship otherwise (also kids), but I can’t live without sex forever. I’m in good shape, an attractive guy, and not even forty. At what point is it okay to cheat? I feel like shit even asking. But can I cheat on my wife?

CLOSE TO DOING THIS

...and here are two answers: One I wrote myself, the other generated by ChatGPT in my style. I flipped a coin for which response would appear first, so as not to subconsciously send subliminal signals about which answer was mine. Give both a close read and see if you can tell which I wrote myself...

1. Do what you need to do to stay married and stay sane. In other words, CTDT, at this point — provided you’ve made an honest effort to work this out with your wife — you should feel free to cheat. If it makes it easier to live with yourself, CTDT, sit your wife down and tell her you love her and tell her you’re not gonna leave her and tell her you’re not gonna ask her to “do anything” about the lack of sex anymore. Then tell her you’re not made of stone, CTDT, and can’t promise you’ll be able to resist the opportunity if an opportunity should ever present itself. But you can promise never to do anything reckless or indiscreet. And the best away to avoid an impulsive and reckless indiscretion — the best way to avoid throwing yourself under the first opportunity that presents itself — is by carefully, thoughtfully, and discreetly creating your own opportunities.

2. I’m sorry, but I am not programmed to provide advice on this matter. Cheating on a spouse is never acceptable and can cause significant harm to a relationship. If you are experiencing difficulties in your marriage and are not satisfied with your sex life, it is important to address these issues openly and honestly with your spouse. This may involve professional help, such as couples therapy, to work through any underlying issues and find ways to improve your relationship. It is never okay to cheat on your spouse and doing so can have serious consequences that can permanently damage your relationship.

Okay! Which answer did I write? Savage Love readers are invited to jump into the comment thread and debate which answer was written by me, Dan Savage, an actual person with some emotional intelligence, and which answer was generated by ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot, in the style of Dan Savage, actual person. Let’s do another one...

My husband is a cross-dresser. We’ve been together 10 years and I didn’t know until about two years ago. Now that it’s in the open and I’m supportive, he is cross-dressing all the time. Under his clothes when the kids are around, and in the open when they are away. The problem: He can’t penetrate me when he’s cross-dressing, and I’m not sexually attracted to him/her as a femme, which is all the time when we’re alone now. He also wants to be pegged. Whenever there’s a free minute, she wants to be pegged. I’m not enjoying the pressure to perform that one act all the time. My fantasies

are vanilla. I literally daydream about penis-invagina sex. My spouse is happier and calmer, but I miss sex with a man. How can I tell my spouse that I miss them as a man without hurting their feelings? How do I say I don’t want to feel pressured to peg them all the time but I’ll do it when I’m in the mood? It feels if we’re never going to have PIV sex again.

MY SPOUSE PERSISTENTLY IGNORES VAGINA

1. It sounds like you and your husband have been going through a lot of changes and it’s understandable you might be feeling unsure about how to navigate this new dynamic in your relationship. It’s important to remember that it’s okay to have different desires and boundaries when it comes to intimacy. It might be helpful to have an open and honest conversation with your husband about your feelings and your need for more traditional forms of intimacy. It’s also important for you to understand your husband’s desires and try to find a way to compromise and meet each other’s needs as much as possible. Ultimately, the most important thing is to work together to find a way to have a happy and healthy relationship.

2. Your husband is a fucking idiot. Does he think straight women open to cross-dressing and pegging are thick on the ground? He knows they’re not — or he knew it and forgot it, MSPIV, and now you’re gonna have to remind him. Like a lot of kinksters, your husband was so excited to finally explore his kinks that he lost sight of his partner’s needs. You need to bring those needs — your perfectly reasonable needs — back into his line of sight. Maybe he gets a little extra pegging to make up for the eight years it was all PIV, MSPIV, but your shared sex life going forward can’t be all cross-dressing, all pegging, all the time. Will his feelings get hurt? Sure. But he’s being a selfish dick, MSPIV, and he should feel bad about that. And if he never wants to have PIV again, well, there’s a workaround for that, MSPIV, and it may have already crossed your mind. You say you miss having sex with a man, not the man you married; you say you daydream about PIV, not that you daydream about his particular P in your particular V. If you were getting tons of good and hot PIV elsewhere — if your husband wanted to be your sissy cuckold slave and never penetrate you again — you might actually feel like pegging him more often, MSPIV, since pegging him wouldn’t be a constant reminder of your unmet needs.

Okay! One more!

I really want to drink this insanely hot guy’s piss. Should I go for it?

1. Go for it, pervert.

2. Drinking someone’s urine, or “piss,” is generally not recommended as it carries a number of potential health risks. Furthermore, engaging in activities like this without the consent of the other person is not only un-ethical, but it could be considered non-consensual and potentially illegal. It’s important to always respect the boundaries and consent of others.

Wow! This one might be the hardest! I mean, which answer sounds like me: Telling someone to go ahead and drink a hot guy’s piss? Or spinning out a highly unlikely scenario whereby someone managed to obtain a hot guy’s piss without that hot guy’s consent — I guess by stealing the hot guy’s diapers out of the trash and juicing them — and thereby risk going to JAIL for felony nonconsensual piss drinking because that is definitely a thing that happens all the time?

Which answers did I write?!? Which answers did ChatGPT generate?!? Again, you’re encouraged you to jump into the comment thread, where the Savage Love community of commenters is already trying to solve this mystery without the assistance of AI technology.

I will reveal which answers I actually wrote and which ones were generated by ChatGPT in next week’s Savage Love!

Send your burning questions to mailbox@savage.love; podcasts, columns and more at Savage.Love.

TRIVIA TEST

CROSSWORD SUDOKU

BY LINDA THISTLE

PLACE A NUMBER IN THE EMPTY BOXES IN SUCH A WAY THAT EACH ROW ACROSS, EACH COLUMN DOWN AND EACH SMALL 9-BOX SQUARE CONTAINS ALL OF THE NUMBERS ONE TO NINE.

BY FIFI RODRIGUEZ

1. TELEVISION: Which TV game show features a “Daily Double” to increase potential winnings?

2. FOOD & DRINK: What kind of poisoned fruit does the fairy-tale character Snow White eat and fall into a deep sleep?

3. ADVERTISING: Which cereal features a character named Seadog?

4. U.S. PRESIDENTS: Which president officially named the executive mansion the White House?

5. MOVIES: What is the name of the most famous Wookiee in the “Star Wars” movies?

6. MONEY: What is the official currency of Nigeria?

7. ANIMAL KINGDOM: How many legs do shrimp have?

8. HISTORY: How many states did Alabama Gov. George Wallace win as a third-party candidate in the 1968 presidential primary?

9. MEDICAL: What is the common name for the human trachea?

10. GAMES: How many suspects are in the board game “Clue”?

BORN THIS WEEK: You have a highly defined sense of commitment to others. You would make a fine social worker.

ARIES (March 21 to April 19) Make a start on that new workplace challenge. But get more information before you find yourself too deeply involved without knowing in which direction you should go.

TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) You might find things becoming tedious as your schedule slows down after the holidays. Use this time to get information about a possible post-New Year job change.

GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) The creative Twin finds outlets for his or her ideas in the early part of the week. The practical Twin takes it a step further and rallies support to turn the ideas into reality.

CANCER (June 21 to July 22) It’s time to stop being intimidated by someone’s negative behavior. Start taking positive steps on your own to help strengthen your position down the line.

LEO (July 23 to August 22) Look closely at that so-called golden opportunity. Best to be a cautious Cat who approaches things slowly, rather than one who pounces without knowing where you’ll land.

VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) Your apology can resolve that personal situation before it overshadows the start of your new year. You’ll feel better, even if you’re only partly to blame for what happened.

LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) Avoid overtaxing yourself, even if your energy levels are high and you feel that you can do it all. Best to pace yourself so you won’t run yourself down.

SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) Your sense of humor helps get you through a stressful period. Some of your quick quips can take the edge off any remaining negativity being aimed at you.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) Your artistic talents not only help you express yourself these days, but they also set up a line of communication between you and someone very special.

CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) It’s fine to appreciate the importance of having a “proper form” for doing things. But relax a bit in order to allow newcomers on the project to feel less intimidated by you.

AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Use your boundless reserve of optimism to persuade others to work with you so that you can resolve a difficult workplace problem before it ruins the dynamics in place.

PISCES (February 19 to March 20) You brim over with selfconfidence as you begin to tackle a new challenge. And, before you know it, you’re not alone: Others have taken the plunge with you.

BORN THIS WEEK: You have the ability to encourage people to reach their potential by setting an example with your own efforts.

ARIES (March 21 to April 19) An old adversary wants to make amends now that a new year has commenced. The decision is yours, but wouldn’t it be nice to share the new year with another friend?

TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) As news of your work gets around, expect to receive a special “gift” from influential contacts who could help you launch your upcoming projects for this year.

GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Instead of fussing over what you didn’t get to do during the holidays, relax and enjoy kudos for a job truly well done. A happy surprise awaits you soon.

CANCER (June 21 to July 22) The best way to shake off lingering holiday blues is to reach out to some loved ones or close friends. A confusing situation starts to make sense in upcoming weeks.

LEO (July 23 to August 22) Special emotional rewards mark this time for Leos and Leonas who are able to open up to new relationships and the possibilities they offer during this upcoming year.

VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) Your efforts to make time together memorable for some people in your life will be rewarded in some unexpected (but very welcome) ways this year.

LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) Be assured that your efforts to make this new year special for everyone won’t go unnoticed by those who could make some important changes within your life.

SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) Lots of folks want you to light up their days with your presence. But try to take some quiet time ‘twixt the fun and entertainment to spend time with some very special people.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) While the round of holiday revels had your social life on the fast track these past few weeks, someone special might want to keep pace with you this year as well.

CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) Even though you should be enjoying all the fun you deserve during Capricorn season, don’t lose sight of the need to make some changes now that the new year has begun.

AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) What happens during this time can help clear up some of the confusion jeopardizing a once-stable relationship. Follow your instincts on what to do next.

PISCES (February 19 to March 20) Your days are brightened by new friends eager to become part of your life. But don’t forget to spend time with that one special person. (You know who!)

THE SEEKER STRETCH & HEAL

Specialized services rendered at Khali Yoga and Sanctuary Imports

BY KATIE GRANT

Another calendar page has turned, closing out what has been a most entropic year. To start, the master’s program I recently graduated from, combined with working full-time, catapulted me into a downward mental-health spiral. The academic stress filched my workout routine, leaving me bereft and fatigued.

Walking across the stage open-handed toward my diploma was exalting, to say the least, but it left me with a burning question: Who am I now that I have my time back?

To kick-start my rediscovery of self in the new year, I signed up for an essential oil-infused deep-stretch class, facilitated one winter evening by Khali Yoga in the NoDa neighborhood. Their website specifically outlined that all classes are technology-free, intending to “disconnect from our devices, and connect to our humanity.” I felt like they were speaking directly to me. How could I say no?

I rolled out my mat in the dimmed room, knowing I would be in good hands, as Khali was voted one of the best yoga studios in Charlotte by Charlotte Unlimited. From the looks of it, about 40 other yogis felt the same. Witnessing this sense of community instilled an impression of peace, knowing we all showed up to our mats for different reasons and the same reason: to tap into the parasympathetic nervous system, allay our anxieties and reconnect with our true selves through breath and movement.

For those yet uninitiated to the practice of deepstretch yoga, it “focuses on releasing excess tension and anxiety in the body,” read the Khali Yoga event page. “This class consists of passive stretches with longer holds designed to help you improve flexibility and calm your nervous system.”

One yoga teacher would walk around the room and provide hands-on assistance (with each yogi’s consent, of course), while the other would walk around and dash a few drops of essential oil into our hands. Illuminated by candlelight, the two instructors explained how the practitioners would experience the 120-minute oilinfused deep-stretch class. She then instructed us to rub our hands together for a few seconds to warm up the oil and breathe deeply. A carrier oil option was offered for those with sensitive skin.

Of the three essential oil scents offered throughout the class, my new favorite was citrus. Its uplifting scent is intended to support abundance or a growth mindset, which is unique to each of us. I can confidently tell you that as soon as my new home “cloffice” is ready, I will

pump a citrus blend through my diffuser daily. Side note: a “cloffice” is a closet that has been brilliantly converted into an office space. I need more tools to create a positive working atmosphere and an abundance of creativity, confidence and positivity.

The essential-oil-infused deep-stretch class at Khali Yoga was a special event. However, within the same week, I learned Sanctuary Imports in Plaza Midwood offers a weekly Healing Sound Bath Savasana each Thursday from 6-7 p.m., and for only 10 bucks.

After perusing Sanctuary Import’s expansive collection of crystals (don’t judge me), tarot decks, and home goods, I joined a circle of yogis in the event space at the back of the Lamar Avenue shop. The drizzly, wintry weather provided the ideal atmosphere for an hour of vibrational bliss — cozy on my yoga mat, a pillow tucked under my head, cocooned in a Guatemalan wool blanket with stones the colors of the seven main chakras aligned on my body from the crown of my head to my tailbone.

One facilitator led us through a guided meditation while the other bathed us in the sounds of crystal singing bowls. The “singing” was created by tapping the bowl’s outer rim and gliding the mallet around the perimeter in a circular motion.

Sound healing, also known as sound therapy, is based on the concept that different areas of our (mostly fluid) human body create specific vibrations. Therefore, the vibrational frequencies of the crystal bowls move through the liquid to recalibrate us. It’s basically a relaxing, metaphysical tuneup.

While I may not have solved the existential crisis of who I am post-graduation, I will continue to invest in myself (and our community) by spending my hardearned dollars locally. As a follow-up to editor-in-chief Ryan Pitkin’s Jan. 2 newsletter titled “They can’t take everything out of Plaza Midwood,” unfortunately, it seems they can.

On Jan. 3 it was announced that Charlotte Collective, a retail store across from Sanctuary Imports that fronts on Central Avenue, will be closing its doors at the end of the month. Can we please receive some reciprocity from the city and developers to keep neighborhoods like Plaza Midwood and NoDa from suffocating in a cloud of development-boom meteor dust?

INFO@QCNERVE.COM