4. Cannabis Goes to College by Pat Moran North Carolina universities host agricultural programs in hemp studies
6. Passing the Torch by Annie Keough NCGA newcomer Jordan Lopez takes up fight for marijuana legalization
7. Strain on the System by Ryan Pitkin Marijuana is stronger now than ever. What does that mean for users?
8. Lifeline: Ten Cool Things to do in Two Weeks
10. Fire it Up by Annie Keough Local flame worker puts passion into his pipes 12. A Recluse Steps Out by Pat Moran Darian Parham spreads a message of self love and exploration
Soundwave 16. Finding a Balance by Dezanii Lewis Charlotte Food & Wine Festival returns for 37th year 17. Coffee & Community by Ryan Pitkin
CANNABIS GOES TO COLLEGE
North Carolina universities host agricultural programs in hemp studies
BY PAT MORAN
Even as state lawmakers continue to waffle over marijuana legalization, placing residents in a confusing holding pattern where certain hemp products are allowed and others aren’t, two universities have seen their cannabis research programs blossoming as of late, as they focus on the burgeoning potential for the cash crop.
North Carolina State University (NC State) and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) each host programs that are focused on the best ways to grow hemp as an agricultural entrepreneur, including the most efficient and cost-effective means to extract the plant’s beneficial properties while maintaining soil health.
The budding industrial hemp industry kicked into gear after the passage of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, better known as the United States farm bill.
Among the provisions of the legislation, which has been extended through September 2025 by the American Relief Act, universities are allowed to obtain approval from the Industrial Hemp Commission (IHC) to grow industrial hemp for research purposes.
The Industrial Hemp Commission is a state body that develops rules and licensing so growers stay
within federal laws and guidelines. Legally, hemp is defined as a cannabis plant that contains 0.3% or less THC, the chemical that gets people high, while marijuana is a cannabis plant in which the THC surpasses that limit.
Although hemp is far from new in the Carolinas — in A New Voyage to Carolina, published in 1709, English explorer, surveyor and naturalist John Lawson mentions hemp several times as an important crop — the 2018 Farm Bill has been seen as a boon to farmers in North Carolina’s rural, formerly tobacco-dependent and economically distressed communities.
There are caveats to the state’s budding hemp production and its potential as a lucrative business for North Carolina farmers.
“The economic risks and production practices for plant growth and disease prevention are still largely unexplored,” reads the website for The Industrial Hemp Program at NC A&T.
Noting that the perceived financial benefits that hemp promises have heightened interest in NC farmers in the post-tobacco era, the site warns that farmers are getting into hemp production without having a full understanding of its economic viabilities and risks.
NC A&T’s Industrial Hemp Program
To address those risks, NC A&T, a historically Black, land-grant research university in Greensboro, launched the Industrial Hemp Program (IHP) through its College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.
In an email to Queen City Nerve, CAES spokesperson Lydian Bernhardt laid out the goals of the school’s research program.
“The College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at N.C. A&T State University is currently conducting research on best hemp-growing practices for North Carolina farmers, and invites those who are interested in learning more about how to grow hemp as a commodity crop to contact us directly [at the program’s website].”
The university website notes that industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) not only delivers seed, fiber and medicinal cannabidiol (CBD), but also has the potential to improve soil health and provide environmental benefits.
Under Guochen Yang, Ph.D, horticulture professor and oversight coordinator of the university’s hemp program, IHP focuses on identifying the best hemp varieties for growing and producing CBD in North Carolina, determining the varieties of hemp that will grow in various parts of the state, assessing soil health and growing conditions and investigating the use of hemp in new energy technologies.
The program explores various uses of hemp including using hemp extracts as a potential disinfectant.
Another part of the program examines extraction and purification of CBD oil from hemp flowers and researches processing and distillation techniques designed to achieve greater purity for processed hemp.
The program also identifies plants and strains suitable to grow in North Carolina and provides
information on pests, pollinator activity and soil health to farmers to help them make informed decisions about hemp production.
In addition, the program develops education initiatives, training programs, workshops and demonstrations for small-scale and limited resource farmers. The profitability of hemp farms is also examined, identifying potential risks associated with hemp production and testing nutrient combinations designed to enhance plant growth and reduce incidence of disease.
NC State’s Cannabis Research Program
According to its website, NC State’s Cannabis Research Program is focused on environmental optimization — light, temperature, CO2, irrigation — of controlled-environment cannabis in order to increase the production in both the nursery market, where cannabis clones are grown, and in the market for flower related compounds such as CBD. CBD has shown promise in alleviating anxiety, depression, epilepsy and inflammation. Unlike THC, CBD is not psychoactive, meaning it does not result in a high for users.
NC State, a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, is recognized as a research powerhouse. Overseen by Dr. Ricardo Hernández, professor and director of the Controlled Environment Ag Coalition (CEAC), NC State’s Cannabis Research Program launched at the end of 2018. CEAC is a multidisciplinary, controlled environment research group based at the university as part of a nationwide effort to increase the viability of cannabis as a crop. Cristian E. Collado, Ph.D, a researcher with the Department of Horticultural Science at NC State, is a CEAC member who works closely with Dr. Hernández.
In an email to Queen City Nerve, Collado outlined the research program’s intent.
Photo courtesy of Cornell University Inside a grow room at Cornell University
NEWS & OPINION
FEATURE STORY
“Our goal has been to solve industry challenges such as low propagation rates, crop growth, quality and high water usage,” Collado wrote.
The program, Collado continued, is focused on three areas of research. One is micropropagation, a method of plant propagation widely used in commercial horticulture where small pieces of plant tissue are taken from a carefully chosen and prepared mother plant and grown under laboratory conditions to produce new plants.
Another area, macropropagation, uses larger portions of the parent plant to produce new plants. Compared to micropropagation, it’s a faster and more cost-effective way to mass-produce planting material.
The third focus is on greenhouse and plant factory production. Both are controlled-environment agricultural facilities, but greenhouses primarily rely on natural sunlight and have a more open structure, while plant factories are closed systems that use artificial lighting.
NC State’s Cannabis Research Program highlights hands-on educational opportunities for students. Collado noted that the students engage each area of research, from PhD students leading projects to undergraduates and technicians assisting on those projects.
“The students and trained people significantly involved [in research] have been two PhD and one master’s student, about five undergraduates, one visiting scholar, and three technicians,” Collado wrote. “Additional undergraduate and graduate students working on other crops have also collaborated during specific needs.”
Politics potentially imperils cannabis production
In April 2024, 22 state attorneys general, including then-NC Attorney General and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein, sent a letter to federal lawmakers asking them to roll back many of the freedoms granted hemp producers and
distributors in the 2018 Farm Bill.
In May 2024, the $1.5-trillion Farm Bill, which is normally extended every five years, was held up when Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill sought to impose a ban on all hemp-derived THC through the bill.
Rep. Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican, filed a proposed amendment to the bill that would have rendered most products containing Delta-8 THC and other cannabinoids such as HHC illegal under federal law.
Miller’s proposed amendment put the hemp industry in legal limbo nationwide and increased the public’s confusion about the differences between hemp and marijuana as well as between THC and HHC.
Both HHC and THC are cannabinoids, but HHC is a hydrogenated form of THC and is typically less potent than THC. HHC is also considered to have a milder psychoactive effect than Delta-9 THC but a stronger effect than Delta-8 THC, the chemicals found in non-CBD, THC-derived gummies and other edibles. All of these compounds currently comply with NC state law, limiting THC content to less than 0.3% for such products.
The hemp industry weathered the unease fostered by the actions of those attorneys general and Capitol Hill lawmakers, and the 2018 farm bill was extended through September 2025 without including the proposed changes.
State lawmakers, however, can impose limits on the sale of hemp-derived products. In January 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia ruled that the 2018 farm bill doesn’t preempt states from restricting retail sales of intoxicating hemp-derived products.
Federal law gives states the “primary regulatory authority over the production of hemp [and it] “expressly permit[s] states to regulate the production of hemp more stringently [sic] than federal law,” the judges said.
With the current farm bill renewed for less than
a year, North Carolina’s hemp industry, retailers selling hemp-derived projects, and university programs researching hemp could soon be in limbo again.
Another crackdown on THC products by state politicians could further destabilize hemp growers and merchants. In addition, the federal government’s unreliability creates a climate of uncertainty.
Actions by the Trump administration, such as tariffs, punish small farmers while enriching
billionaire inside traders. Widespread funding cuts to universities, such as those implemented by DOGE, could potentially curtail or shutter NC State’s and N.C. A&T’s research programs. Taken together, it remains to be seen whether these agents of instability and uncertainty will torpedo the industrial hemp industry and sever its lifeline to North Carolina growers.
PMORAN@QCNERVE.COM
Courtesy of NC A&T
NC A&T’s manual showing hemp seeds on a plant and harvested.
Photo Credit
NC A&T’s manual showing the stages of growth.
PASSING THE TORCH
NCGA newcomer Jordan Lopez takes up fight for marijuana legalization
BY ANNIE KEOUGH
In September 2024, Charlotte mourned the loss of longtime lawmaker Kelly Alexander Jr., who passed away at age 75 after having served in the NC House of Representative for 16 years.
As former president of the NAACP North Carolina State Conference from 1987-1993, Alexander Jr. was a civil rights icon like his father before him, but he was also known as a fervent supporter of the movement to legalize marijuana in North Carolina.
In fact, he spearheaded that movement legislatively, having introduced multiple bills over the years that would have seen medical marijuana legalized in the state at a time when such bills were seen as dead before their introduction.
Late in his life, momentum grew for this passion project of his, though he never did get to see it come to fruition.
As Alexander had already announced his plans not to run for reelection in 2024, some wondered if the movement to legalize marijuana in some shape or form in North Carolina would peter out.
On March 17, NC Rep. Jordan Lopez picked up Alexander’s torch when he introduced House Bill 413, or the “Marijuana Legalization and Reinvestment Act,” to legalize and regulate the sale, possession and use of cannabis for people 21 and older.
A new bill
The act called cannabis prohibition a “wasteful and destructive failure” that has had an “unfair, disparate impact on persons and communities of color.”
A 2020 report by the American Civil Liberties Union found that, nationwide, Black people are 3.6 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana despite similar usage rates.
The bill would impose a 30% excise tax on cannabis, with 25% of revenue going into a proposed Community Reinvestment and Repair Fund, which would then be distributed to individuals and communities affected by systemic racism in drug enforcement. Registered medical cannabis would be exempt from the excise tax.
Anyone charged with a cannabis-related offense would also have their record expunged no later than July 1, 2028.
The bill would create a new source of needed revenue for the state as North Carolina quickly heads toward a fiscal cliff in the next couple of years, Lopez told Queen City Nerve. He said he was inspired to introduce the bill after the issue of legalization came up repeatedly throughout his campaign season. Though young voters led the charge, they weren’t the only ones expressing interest in the state moving towards legalization.
Lopez said people of all walks of life were invested in the movement — those who viewed marijuana as a medicine and those who consumed it in a recreational manner similar to tobacco or alcohol.
In a recent poll conducted by Meredith College, 71% of North Carolinians supported legalizing medical marijuana, with only 17% of respondents being opposed. The majority of every demographic group in the state, even those who identified as very conservative, supported similar legislation.
The poll follows a trend in increased support amongst NC Republican legislators, with two recent bills, The Compassionate Care Act and House Bill 563, being majority or entirely Republicansponsored. Despite that growing support, Republicans continue to lead the opposing efforts as well, as all those who voted against the bills were Republican lawmakers.
Although the state came close to passing those bills to legalize medical marijuana across North Carolina, the state has yet to codify any legislation on the issue.
Lopez’s bill is the latest in a years-long fight to legalize marijuana, recreational or otherwise.
Lopez told Queen City Nerve he wanted to continue the work of not only the late Rep. Kelly Alexander but also Rep. John Autry, his predecessor as an east Charlotte representative and a similarly fervent support of statewide marijuana legalization.
Lopez said he drew heavily from Rep. Alexander’s last legalization bill in 2023, House Bill 626, when he was writing up House Bill 413.
“People have been smoking cannabis from time immemorial and up until the 1930s, it was essentially legal,” Alexander said to WCNC in 2023. “What we’re trying to do now is to restore that legality.
“This is not the 18th century,” he continued. “We don’t need to put a scarlet letter on people for the use of a naturally occurring product that more and more people see as having a medical benefit, and a personal benefit.”
Lopez said many opponents of marijuana legalization have primarily relied on concerns for potential increased substance abuse, though there is no consistent data in line to confirm the belief.
In fact, the University of Colorado Boulder found that legalizing marijuana at the state level does not increase substance abuse and may even reduce alcohol-related problems.
Lopez understands the concern, however, and his bill includes funding to ensure proper education about responsible use and risks as well as certifying lab testing and potency labeling.
Some opponents have used their own personal beliefs to convey their opposition to both medical and recreational marijuana, Lopez said
In response to HB 563, Republican Sen. Tom McInnis from Moore County said he had “no doubt that this bill sponsor is well-intended. But as my mother used to say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
What progress has NC made
Since Alexander’s efforts began in the late 2000s, North Carolina has seen some progress on the issue, with the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians Tribal Council amending its Tribal Code to allow the sale of recreational marijuana in June 2024.
Despite the progress and many individuals and legislators’ support, Lopez is not hopeful his new bill will be passed in NC’s Republican-dominated General Assembly.
“There has been a bill filed by Republican senators several times now to legalize medicinal marijuana, or medical marijuana. I’m taking a more recreational approach, but even the medical approach has stalled several times here in the legislature,” Lopez told WCNC.
“It would get a lot of attention, and folks would be very vocal about their support or opposition for it, but unfortunately, I’m not super confident that we’ll even have the opportunity to have that.”
Lopez is not giving up on the cause. He has already had conversations with stakeholders since the bill’s introduction and identified areas that he may diverge from in future iterations of the bill, for example, the sales tax percentage, but he otherwise plans to follow a similar approach.
AKEOUGH@QCNERVE.COM
Photo courtesy of Jordan Lopez campaign
NC Rep. Jordan Lopez
Photo courtesy of Kelly Alexander Jr. campaign
The late Kelly Alexander Jr. engages with young folks in 2024.
STRAIN ON THE SYSTEM
Marijuana
is stronger now than ever. What does that mean for users?
BY RYAN PITKIN
There’s an oft-referenced scene from the 1998 cult stoner comedy Half Baked in which Dave Chappelle’s character, while struggling to stop smoking weed, attends a “rehab” session that appears to be more of an open recovery meeting. He stands in front of those in attendance and declares, “My name is Thurgood and I’m here today because I’m addicted to marijuana.”
He’s quickly shouted down by his fellow addicts, with Bob Saget delivering the famous line, “I used to suck dick for coke. Now that’s an addiction, man. You ever suck some dick for marijuana?” before Thurgood is booed off the stage.
The scene, while hilarious, underscores a longstanding misconception around the legitimacy of cannabis use disorder — one that could be considered all the more harmful in recent years as marijuana strains have become more potent than ever.
According to a report released in 2023 based on data compiled by the Potency Monitoring Program, a project led by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and carried out at the University of Mississippi, the average amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the plant’s main psychoactive component – in cannabis has increased more than tenfold over the last 50 years.
The program found that the levels of THC in the average strain of marijuana had climbed from below 2% throughout the 1970s to above 16% in the early 2020s.
Kelly Little, clinical supervisor at Dilworth Center, which marks its 35th year treating conditions related to substance and alcohol use disorders in May, said she’s watched how this rise in potency has affected her patients.
“It’s a completely different ball game,” Little told Queen City Nerve. “Especially with the adult patients that we’ve got coming in who are still using cannabis products, they’ll say, ‘This is a completely different drug than what I used when I was an adolescent.’”
The effects of more potent cannabis products
One sign that things have changed has been a rise in withdrawal symptoms for those who try to discontinue use. While Dilworth has treated cannabis use disorder for many years, it’s only been recently that Little said she’s seen people suffering from similar withdrawal symptoms to those experienced by people struggling with alcohol abuse or other substances considered to be “hard drugs.”
According to a 2023 report from the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, cannabis use disorder affects about 14 million people in the United States.
“As cannabis use becomes increasingly mainstream … consumption is on the rise, along with problematic use, which encompasses
addiction,” the report reads.
While more states have legalized marijuana for recreational use — 24 at the time of this writing — Little believes the rise in reported cases of addiction is also tied to the ease of use, with vape cartridges and edibles easily available in many places.
“We’re seeing people use it all throughout the day because it’s in carts instead of having to go outside and smoke or it’s smelling bad [indoors],” Little explained. “So they’re using not only a higher potency substance but a lot more of it throughout the day as well, which obviously makes it more potent the more you use.”
Marijuana remains illegal in North Carolina, though THCa and Delta 8 or 9 products are available for sale thanks to laws stating that cannabis products can remain on shelves as long as they have less than .3% THC.
THCa is a naturally occurring cannabinoid in the hemp plant that, when heated through a process called decarboxylation, becomes THC.
THCa can be sold in its unheated and natural form, as it does not induce any “high” feelings, though vaping, cooking or smoking THCa can convert the cannabinoid to THC.
Little said this gray area can be confusing to consumers who may think they’re taking CBD, a non-psychoactive chemical compound found in the cannabis plant that doesn’t cause any high at all.
Mostly, however, she sees people who know the difference but use the complex scientific differences as an excuse or justification.
“I would say more often than not, most of the people know what they’re getting into,” she said. “We’ve got kids who are definitely trying to convince their parents they’re using CBD when it’s not.”
She said she’d like to see more regulation on the products that are being sold in stores around North Carolina so consumers can be more educated on the ingredients.
“These legal products in North Carolina, we call them legal because they’re not illegal,” she said. “They’re technically not legal, either; they’re unregulated, and what that means is that there’s no regulations on them. So companies don’t have to say exactly what is in the product.
“Now, the hope is that they’re telling you at least how much Delta 8 is in them or whatever the psychoactive substances are, but if they’re putting other chemicals in these carts or in the edibles, they don’t have to tell you what’s in those,” she continued. “That’s making them very unpredictable.”
A rise in hospitalizations
Uninformed use of those products or more traditional THC products may be behind a rise in hospitalizations resulting from cannabis use in recent years.
A 2023 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that, from 2019 to 2022, cannabis-related emergency department visits increased overall among kids, teens and young adults.
Little has noticed that even health insurance companies are acknowledging the impacts of cannabis use on patients.
“For years and years, we fought with insurance
companies because they wouldn’t cover treatment if it was ‘just cannabis,’ if it was ‘just marijuana,’ quote-unquote,” she explained. “And I haven’t heard that in recent years from any insurance company. They’re covering [treatment] right off the bat.”
For an insurance company whose only concern is the bottom line, investing in treatment early has shown to save money down the road.
“I think that it was becoming clearer and clearer that more people were being hospitalized for marijuana-related overdoses or car accidents; psychosis was starting to become a much bigger concern with marijuana,” Little said.
“Hospital admissions, mental health admissions for psychosis related to substance use and specifically marijuana use — at some point, insurance companies have to look at what they’re paying medically for a lot of interventions related to marijuana,” she continued. “If we back it up and we pay for a treatment, we may avoid some of these other things.”
Little said that, during her years treating patients for cannabis use disorder, one of the most prevalent misconceptions she’s come across is the idea that a person can’t overdose on marijuana.
While fatal overdoses are extremely rare, there are incidents in which over-use of cannabis can cause a decreased heart rate, labored breathing and a drop in blood pressure — all symptoms of an overdose.
Little said she’s seen a rise in reports of hallucinations, paranoia and delusional thinking as a result of taking both legal Delta 8 products and illegal marijuana products.
“Especially with these high-potency products, most of the edibles that you get these days, you’re supposed to cut them into four, if not eight,” she explained. “You’re supposed to take very, very tiny amounts of these edibles. So eating a whole edible can create an overdose very quickly.”
Most of Little’s patients aren’t dealing with overdoses, however, but rather the effects of heavy cannabis usage over a prolonged period.
During our discussion, she urged cannabis users to be aware of the warning signs that their use might be something more than recreational: using regularly in isolation outside of social settings, not being able to eat without using first, setting limits for yourself that you back out of because you’re unable to stick to them.
“If you have to have it before you do anything — you have to have it with you before you go to work or before you take a test or something like that,” she said. “If you’re starting to feel like it’s your safety net that you need to have it in your pocket with you at all times, that’s another thing to look out for.”
Experiencing sleeplessness, anxiety or depression on days when you don’t use are also considered withdrawal symptoms that could signify addiction.
As marijuana continues to become more a part of mainstream life in America, it’s also becoming all the more important to be an informed consumer. If you need help, seek it; you won’t be booed out of the room.
AdobeStock
The average marijuana strain today is 10 times more potent than 50 years ago.
LIFELINE
DAMIEN ESCOBAR
April 17 • 7:30 p.m. • Booth Playhouse, 130 N. Tryon St. • $58-$83 • blumenthalarts.org
Virtuoso violinist Damien Escobar’s tumultuous career has been marked by ups, downs, rebounds and rediscovery. After graduating from The Julliard School performing arts conservatory at age 12, Escobar achieved fame as half of the duo Nuttin’ But Stringz with his violinist brother Tourie. The act dissolved and Escobar plummeted from stardom to depression and homelessness. The Queens, New York native launched a solo career in 2013 with his beguiling Sensual Melodies LP. Escobar’s latest album, 2024’s Gemini, draws upon his arsenal of classical, jazz, pop and hip-hop techniques to examine multiple facets of duality. It’s as much a biography as it is an LP.
CASSETTIQUETTE W/ PHANTOM FRIENDS
April 18 • 7:30 p.m. • The Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. • $20 • eveningmuse.com
Self-described purveyors of “sad boy lyrics with upbeat music,” Cassettiquette won plaudits as Charlotte’s Best New Band in Queen City Nerve’s 2024 Best in the Nest issue. Fashioning shimmering tunes like “Bloom,” where rippling, cross-stitch keyboards and guitars underpin Connor Hausman’s yearning vocals, the four-piece celebrates the release of its debut EP. Phantom Friends essay an energetic and tuneful brand of progressive rock that blends the adventurous song structures of art rockers like Crack the Sky and the full throttle sing-along attack of post-punk power-pop champions like The Real Kids and The Nerves.
BLACK ON BLACK MARKET
April 19 • 11 a.m. • Johnson C. Smith University, 100 Beatties Ford Road • Free • blackonblackmarket.com
All things Black-owned and Black-inspired hold court at Charlotte’s landmark historically Black college Johnson C. Smith University. Hosted by Black on Black Market, a Norfolk, Virginia-based business and platform that supports Black-owned enterprises by showcasing their products to a wider audience, this pop-up marketplace celebrates Black entrepreneurship, creativity and community empowerment. The event spotlights products from local Black businesses, food from Black culinary entrepreneurs, live music and a community-centered vibe, all in a space dedicated to circulating the Black dollar and supporting economic empowerment.
BLK ODYSSY
April 22 • 8 p.m. • Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36th St. • $26-$31 • neighborhoodtheatre.com
Founded and fronted by rapper, singer-songwriter and producer Juwan Elcock, BLK ODYSSY casts Funkadelic’s acid-rock grooves, Outkast’s Dirty South hip-hop and Kendrick Lamar’s lyrical acuity into a cauldron to forge a genre-fluid phoenix. In a January Tiny Desk set, BLK ODYSSY’s backing singers veer from neo-soul to avant-garde, jazz interludes intrude with spiky horns and electric guitars coil into a cone of power. All the while BLK ODYSSY raps, sings and entices while cradling a lifelike severed human head that graces the cover of the group’s 2023 LP Diamonds & Freaks, a project that depicts love and lust as addictive vices.
‘EVERY BRILLIANT THING’
April 24-27 • times vary • Theatre Charlotte, 501 Queens Road • $20-$34 • theatrecharlotte.org
A young girl learns that her mom is in the hospital after attempting suicide. So, the kid compiles a list of everything worth living for, including ice cream, water fights and peeing in the ocean without anybody knowing. Theatre Charlotte’s staging of Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe’s Every Brilliant Thing begins as a candid and compassionate look at suicidal depression, but as the unnamed protagonist grows up, she gently asks for audience participation. The empathetic ode to joy starts with a kid’s list but the audience takes it from there. Additional performances will be staged at Divine Barrel Brewing on April 30 and Free Range Brewing on May 7.
BLACK BEHIND BARS
April 25 • 6 p.m. • Harvey B. Gantt Center, 551 S. Tryon St. • Free • ganttcenter.org
Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance examined the concept of “quality” and how to experience it in life. The 1974 bestseller was written by a white man for a predominantly white audience. With the exhibit Black Behind Bars: The Untold Story of Black Biker Culture, Black Charlotte-based photographer and activist Alvin C. Jacobs, Jr. blows apart Pirsig’s thesis while expanding on it exponentially. With striking high contrast black-and-white images, Jacobs challenges stereotypes about bikers and biker culture while illuminating the therapeutic power of riding, where the hum of an engine becomes a meditative “Ohm.” The show’s opening features an appearance by Jacobs.
Damien Escobar Promotional photo 4/17
Cassettiquette
Photo by Eli Hausman 4/18
LIFELINE
BLOOD SUGAR FEST MAGIC III
April 25-27 • times vary • The Milestone, 3400 Tuckaseegee Road • $12-$30 • themilestone.club
The name Blood Sugar Fest Magic is a riff on the title of a Red Hot Chili Peppers album, but the fest’s genre-splicing bill sprawls all over the musical map while focusing on local and regional artists. On the same stage, Van Huskins’ punk-metal assault conjures Motorhead colliding with Black Fag on a hairpin curve, while pop-rock singer-songwriter Joseph Gallo crafts addictive earworms sweeter than a sugar fix. Meanwhile, Bog Loaf’s rampaging grind-psych rubs elbows with Curiosidades de Bombrile’s hypnotic grooves. It’s an alchemical experiment run amok that will likely spawn more musical epiphanies than the human brain can process in one night. That’s why they give it three.
‘ZOMBIE’ FRIZZI 2 FULCI 2025
April 26 • 7 p.m. • Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St. • $32-$52 • snugrock.com
“We are going to eat you!” screams the vintage movie poster for 1979 Italian horror classic Zombie
To 1980s drive-in moviegoers, director Lucio Fulci’s stylish (and inexpensive) gorefest was (in) famous for its evocative opening where an abandoned sailboat drifts into New York harbor and the jaw-dropping sequence where a hapless stuntman in zombie makeup clings to a real shark and pretends to eat it. Fabbio Frizzi supplied the haunting soundtrack to these images, including a creepy death march, eerie synthesizer soundscapes and tribal rhythms that evoke a voodoo curse. Frizzi and his band perform the extended “composer’s cut” live to a screening of the film.
STAVROS HALKIAS
April 27 • 7 p.m. • Belk Theater, 130 North Tryon St. • $52 and up • blumenthalarts.org
Stavros Halkias got through the COVID pandemic through the power of weed. “I was taking edibles like they were birth control,” the stand-up comic, actor and former Cumtown cohost tells his audience, adding that he set a reminder on his phone to dose constantly. “I almost had a thought [one] day. That was a close one.” Halkias also knows how to work a crowd, convincing an audience member to share his experiences with pegging: “I’m compelled by this modern romance,” Halkias says. Named to Vulture’s list of “comedians you should and will know,” Halkias also hosts Stavvy’s World, a podcast where he and his friends help listeners solve all of their problems.
GANG OF FOUR
April 28 • 8 p.m. • Neighborhood Theatre, 511 E. 36th St. • $37-$48 • neighborhoodtheatre.com
Though Gang of Four released its debut LP Entertainment in 1979, the album sounds fresh today. The English post-punk four-piece fused insistent drums, angular funk rhythms and stuttering Stratocaster shards to underpin vocalist Jon King’s wry and intelligent lyrics criticizing capitalism, exploitation and the ways in which workers are treated as commodities. Released in 1979, “Not Great Men” surveys a country controlled by greedy billionaires: “The poor still weak/ The rich still rule...” The band’s The Long Goodbye Tour offers one last time to see the post punk prophets who target everything from the emptiness of consumerism (“Natural’s Not In It”) to the mainstreaming of militarism (“I Love a Man in a Uniform”).
Blood Sugar Fest Magic III (Pictured: Van Huskins) Photo courtesy of Van Huskins 4/25-4/27
Alvin C. Jacobs Courtesy of Gantt Center
ARTS & CULTURE
FIRE IT UP
Local flame worker puts passion into his pipes
BY ANNIE KEOUGH
Local flame worker Chris Cooley* apologized for the state of his work bench in Hot Glass Alley as I arrived for a visit on a recent Saturday morning. His studio space was littered with a chaotic amalgamation of spare glass rods, finished and unfinished projects, and tools that are unfamiliar to most but an extension of self in the right hands.
Cooley’s hands sported a number of burns — some fresh and others healed. When you’re working with temperatures that reach upwards of 2,000 degrees, burns just come with the territory.
Though Cooley admits his propane torch setup is dated, adding that he could drop a few grand to upgrade to a torch that heats the glass he works with much faster, his current setup holds sentimental and practical value.
Cooley’s torch, secured by a clamp onto a cinder block in the center of his work bench, is a handme-down from the friend that inspired him to start working with glass in the first place.
“He gave me all of my starting equipment because he was upgrading all this stuff and I was pretty much the only one that was showing interest,” Cooley said. “I would just go and hang out in his garage [or] at the basement of the house he was renting, and just talk to him and hang out and ask too many questions.”
Cooley has come a long way from asking questions in a basement in 2014, so we sat with him in his north Charlotte studio to go past the burns and chaotic worm bench and retrace his journey in glass work.
Trusting the process
Though Cooley’s friend taught him a few glassblowing basics and pointed him in the right direction, Cooley had to work through years of trial and error to nail down a process to create what he
truly wanted to make: dry smoking pipes.
“I prefer to smoke out of a dry pipe, so, of course, I’m going to do that,” he said. “That’s sort of why … I got into glass blowing.”
A dry pipe is essentially a tubular design with a bowl on one end and an opening for smoke inhalation on the other. Cooley’s pipes fall within the same criteria but his bias toward a heavy, thick glass pipe guides his particular creations.
In making his creations, he implements a mix of flame work, which utilizes a torch, and glassblowing, which involves a furnace.
Before setting up shop in Hot Glass Alley’s studio in 2021, Cooley spent three years teaching himself the minute skills of glass pipe-making in his backyard shed.
When the government issued stimulus checks during the pandemic, Cooley saw an uptick in sales.
“I sold more pipes than I could make,” he said. “I was doing it every day, and that’s when I feel like I really started to put a process together and everything that’s kind of gotten me to this point.”
Cooley starts with a “blank” — a clean slate of glass piping called borosilicate glass, or boro, which is different from the “soft glass” typically used for making cups, bowls and plates. Soft glass has a higher coefficient of expansion than boro, which makes it easier to expand with the traditional four-and-a-half-foot steel blowpipe the folks in the “hot shop” use.
On Cooley’s side of the studio, he swaps out the large furnace for a more controlled torch. Working with the torch allows Cooley to make finer adjustments on his pipes and add smaller details.
Cooley welds the blank together with a smaller, hollow tube, allowing him to hold onto and rotate the blank. To get the desired color of his pipe, Cooley pours finely crushed color called frit into the
inside of the tube and melts it evenly throughout, sealing the opening to secure the frit inside the tube.
The pattern of the bowl at one end of the pipe that we watched him make during our visit was pre-made by Cooley to achieve a “wig-wag” design, created by using glass tubing to twist and manipulate the lines on the bowl to create zig-zags.
Cooley will use one of the many smaller glass rods on his work bench to add details and pull excess glass off of the pipe.
“Glass is my tool as well as my canvas,” he said. Cooley’s other instruments consist of graphite tools that have a high heat resistance, but he also uses his hands to manipulate the glass and gravity to his advantage. He utilizes all of these tools as he attaches another glass rod to the other end, using both hands to rotate and center the tube.
“I’m always turning … That’s what you’ll notice here and in the hot shop as well,” he said. “Glass wants to be round; it’s like when you gather honey out of a honey jar and spin it, it’ll stay round … That’s when it’s the happiest.”
Instead of a steel blowpipe, Cooley uses a blowhose to blow air into the pipe as he turns it. Concentrating the flame onto a specific spot while using the blowhose allows the molten glass to expand like a bubble, eventually popping a hole in the pipe.
As Cooley rotates the pipe onto an L-shaped graphite mount secured in front of his torch to maintain the outer wall, he is simultaneously blowing into the pipe to manipulate the inner wall.
“[This is when] you get into the trouble of having to turn both of your hands at the exact same speed, at the same time,” Cooley said while rotating the pipe. “I really want this to be as centered as I can get it or else my whole bowl is going to be wonky at the end of this. So every little move I make, even this early in the process, can have dire consequences later on.”
“A force and a flaw, that’s how you break glass,” Cooley added.
One flaw that could be detrimental to the pipe would be an uneven thickness in the pipe wall. When the wall is a consistent thickness throughout the entire pipe, the glass could survive a fall onto concrete, something Cooley guarantees with his products.
Cooley recalled a client that had to surrender her pipe to a police officer. When the cop attempted to shatter the pipe on the concrete ground, it bounced like a ball and stayed intact.
He even proved it to us by throwing one of his creations onto the rough gravel parking lot behind Hot Glass Alley.
To achieve the pipe’s profile, Cooley heated twothirds of the pipe to stretch and shape the body and mouthpiece, using a blade to indent and pre-make the mouthpiece without severing it from the pipe.
Cooley added this step near the beginning of the process to save him time later, as the mouthpiece is the last step and has consistently given him the most trouble over the years.
Tearing off the glass rod handle on the opposite side, Cooley set the pipe in his small kiln, which was burning at 1,050 degrees — the proper annealing temperature for glass — to ensure the entire pipe was at the same temperature before attaching the wig-wag design bowl to the pipe’s body.
Using the blowhose, Cooley popped two holes in the wig-wag bowl to create the carburetor hole on the side— a smaller hole that you cover when you light the flower and pull — and the packing indent where the flower will go.
This is where Cooley’s research and development comes in, he said. It took him years of tinkering and personally using his pipes to create what he calls the “golden ratio” of hole sizes between the mouthpiece, carb and bowl to achieve “optimal smoke moveage.”
Cooley added three dots to the empty side of the bowl as grips to make it easier to hold in one hand and attached the bowl to the pipe’s body. After tearing off the glass rod from the mouthpiece, some shaping and touch-ups, Cooley was able to add the new pipe to his collection.
Photo by Dan Russell-Pinson
Chris Cooley at work in Hot Glass Alley.
Photo courtesy of East Coast Curations
A Carolina Curations event.
Supporting local glass blowers
There is an entire industry built around the vessels one uses to smoke wax, weed or CBD flower out of, Cooley said.
East Coast Curations, an online-based gallery showcasing functional, nonfunctional and display glass art, created the Carolina Curations show in 2022 to highlight the local artists assuming the medium.
Co-owners York Clinton and Daniel Robinson said the show was meant to bridge the gap between smokers and nonsmokers.
“We wanted to create a show that has something to offer to everyone in attendance,” they said.
Having put on three shows thus far, the duo feels like they’ve made a real impact in bringing a oncesiloed community together.
“This event has allowed everyone to come together and appreciate all different types of glass art from these amazing local artists all showcased under one roof.”
As curators, Clinton and Robinson say they’ve seen a rise in business since the arrival of legal CBD and THC products in North Carolina.
“As [CBD/THC] products have started to become more and more popular here in the Carolinas, there definitely seems to be a clear relation between people purchasing these products and in turn, becoming more interested in the glass they’re using to consume different products,” they said in a joint email.
“As glass collectors ourselves, we think it’s a pretty cool concept to know who and where your glass art came from and knowing which specific artists you’re supporting at the end of the day.”
Cooley, who has shown his products at Carolina Curations the past two years, said he hasn’t seen the same.
“I’m not a full-time [artist] so I can’t really speak to that, but I really have not noticed very much uptick in interest,” he said. “I’ve probably even seen more glass blowers having to sell their stuff and get a full-time job.”
Just because Cooley hasn’t seen the increase in interest, however, doesn’t mean it’s not there. While most of his sales come from word of mouth, his Asheville-based distributor will take his work as quickly as he can make it, sending his products to smoke shops across the country.
Some of his creations are harder to let go of, though. The evidence of that lies in the box of unsold pipes to the left of his torch and the dozens he’s brought back home for further “R&D” — which is Cooley’s way of justifying the use of his own products.
Even when he makes pipes in bulk, Cooley’s customers can rest assured each piece is unlike the others.
“It’s very hard to make them not unique, or to make the exact same thing two times in a row,” he said. “[You would have to be] like a maestro.”
An artist’s happy place
Cooley admitted that because he isn’t a fulltime pipe maker, he was reluctant to share his experience with Queen City Nerve.
“I feel like I’m speaking for a community,” he said. “I just want to make sure I’m not making the community look bad.”
ARTS & CULTURE
FEATURE STORY
One could scarcely imagine a better spokesperson, however, after experiencing the dedication that Cooley puts into his art firsthand. He can carry on a discussion about the perplexities of flame chemistry and somehow make the science behind it actually interesting.
The sporadic nature of his art keeps it from becoming a day job, he said, and keeps his passion for the craft alive.
Cooley’s full-time job only allows him time to come to the studio twice a week. Sometimes, on slow days at the office, he closes his eyes and can hear the whoosh of the torch.
“It’s all therapeutic to me,” he said. “I’ll put an album on loop, crank it up and lock in.”
Though he said he could make a batch of pipes
per session, he prefers to spend his time carefully creating one pipe and making pieces for the next.
“Since I’ve been here, there is this gallery available to me to market my stuff for me,” he said. “I’ve tried to branch out and make flowers and … pendants.”
Eventually, Cooley wants to make glass sculptures of mythical creatures and chimeras, but that’s a whole different process for another day.
Cooley also shares his passion by teaching oneon-one, three hour lessons in which he walks his students through the process of making a glass leaf pendant.
Students can sign up with Cooley by contacting Hot Glass Alley.
“The number one function of glass is to break,”
Cooley said. “When I’m working with it, I have to keep that in my head because literally right where I’m about to do all this work, I could absolutely destroy this piece and make it unusable right now in this last thing.
“You have to love the piece that you’re making but you have to be able to roll with the punches at the same time,” he continued. “It can be very unforgiving, but at the same time, it’s the most satisfying thing I’ve ever put myself to.”
And at the end, something beautiful comes out of the mess.
*Chris Cooley is an alias. The artist asked that we keep his real identity anonymous due to lingering stigma around his glasswork and its uses.
AKEOUGH@QCNERVE.COM
Photo by Dan Russell-Pinson
One of Cooley’s non-smokeable finished products.
Photo courtesy of East Coast Curations
Carolina Curations
A RECLUSE STEPS OUT
Darian Parham, aka Wild Recluse, spreads a message of self love and exploration
BY PAT MORAN
On a warm April night, Petra’s is packed for “Sam on Someday,” a multi-act, genre-fluid jam launched by Sam Tayloe, founder and frontman of Charlotte folk rock band Time Sawyer. The talent onstage is prodigious — guitarist Justin Clyde Williams, drummer Tim Haney, bassist Kerry Brooks, piano player Jason Atkins (Greazy Keyz) and more.
Darian Parham, who performs at Wild Recluse, is the final act of the evening. She comes onstage, takes the mic confidently and launches into a rendition of Los Angeles funk-soul band Orgone’s “Who Knows Who.” What happens next is spellbinding.
With power, heat and soul, Parham unleashes notes that bend and climb, rising like a thermal before plunging like a stone into a gorge. It’s singing that shoots a frisson down the spine and caresses the heart. On a stage crowded with local luminaries, Wild Recluse shines like a supernova.
“She sings like nobody else,” Tayloe says of Parham. “I’m impressed by her ability to let the truth of what she’s feeling come through. Her choice of expression, what direction to take songs and when, her delivery and control — really sets it all up. She can do it all.”
Parham’s dazzling vocals are just one facet of her myriad talents. Among other accomplishments, the multi-disciplinarian artist has written and performed two EPs worth of material; contributed photography, collage and tapestry projects to local art exhibits; and produced and directed an experimental short film.
“I’ve been doing a mixture of different things,” Parham says. “To some people it seems like I’m noncommittal, but I just like to play.”
At the end of April, Parham will add to her growing list of accomplishments when she travels to New York with producer Milik Kashad to record a project paying tribute to one of her musical inspirations, Grammy Award-winning “Queen of Funk” Chaka Khan.
“I get to sing with some of the background singers that [Khan’s] performed with over the years,” Parham says. “I’m over the moon about it.”
Parham is also working with her mother Kimberly on a second film, currently in the planning stages. The documentary will center on her grandmother, Shirley Horton, who has always encouraged Parham to sing.
Parham grew up in Charlotte but spent most of her summers at her grandparent’s house in Morganton.
“Meemaw was like a second mom to me,” remembers Parham, who grew up singing at her grandparents’ church.
There was only one problem: Though Parham had developed into a talented vocalist at an early age, she hated singing in front of an audience, particularly at church. She recalls how her grandmother convinced her to take her place in the spotlight.
“She sat me down and said, ‘God gives all of us gifts,’ and if I didn’t use my gift, it would be taken from me,” Parham says. “That scared the living daylights out of me because I love to sing.”
Raised to believe that music was a wonderful hobby but not a sustainable career path, Parham attended UNC Charlotte, majoring in International Studies with a minor in Spanish.
From her college dorm room, Parham started singing hooks and making tags for producers and DJs on her laptop.
Before long she was collaborating with fellow student and up-and-coming MC Jah-Monte Ogbon, who went on to become one of the Queen City’s most prolific rappers. The two knew each other previously from attending J.M. Alexander Middle School together in Huntersville.
Realizing that her focus had shifted away from her studies, Parham dropped out of college in 2014 and pursued a life in music.
A thread of Black eroticism
In 2017, feeling restless and stifled with writing music and singing, Parham searched for another creative outlet. She found it in photography.
Her first project was a male nudity series,which spurred her to get a camera that shot on film, with a tactile look that continues to define her photographic work.
“Ideas that I couldn’t necessarily put into words, I could put it in an image,” she maintains.
That inaugural photography series introduced a thread of Black eroticism that winds through much of Parham’s subsequent work, including her short film, Owl Pussy, and her debut EP, Unruly. The fourtrack collection, produced by Yo Major (Jeremy Jones), dropped in 2018.
Parham’s singing and stream-of-consciousness songwriting on Unruly she credits to Mara Robin, an alter-ego she devised while living at “Wine and Roaches,” a west Charlotte house inhabited by young artists.
“It was a time of transformation for everyone who was living there,” Parham remembers. “There was this element of freedom but there was also a lot of emotional turmoil.”
Mara Robin was an introspective shadow self created to process the pain caused by romantic heartbreak and channel it into the music that would become Unruly, Parham maintains.
On the EP, funky sashaying bass and limpid distant jazz guitar licks propel the seductive and menacing song “Plucked Rose.”
“My name is Mara Robin/ I smear my lipstick on your consciousness...”
The tune was sparked by Parham’s thenboyfriend dumping her on the day her father went through surgery. The boyfriend invited Parham to Petra’s then broke up with her on the venue’s patio. She says she was angry and upset about the incident — with herself rather than the boyfriend.
“I would put the men in my life on a pedestal … and … believe whatever they told me,” Parham says.
She began to realize that love did not need to be externalized through a romantic relationship.
Photo by Jasiatic Usher
Darian Parham, aka Wild Recluse.
Photo courtesy of Darian Parham
Parham hosts here Sensual Chaos Erotic Collage Workshop.
MUSIC
FEATURE STORY
Instead, she came to see that love is internal and can best be expressed through self-love.
Parham unleashes the Owl and the Pussy
The song “Owl Pussy,” recorded in 2020, pointed the way ahead. The tune is inspired by one of Parham’s favorite films, the 1970 romantic comedy The Owl and the Pussycat, starring Barbara Streisand. Parham loves the film’s soundtrack, in particular the instrumental “Confrontation” by 1970s jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat and Tears that opens the movie.
Parham created a track by recording and chopping up samples of the tune. Next, she recorded a conversation she had with a friend, focusing on her friend’s statement, “Someone’s thoughts of what they want … They’re using you to translate it.”
She repeated the quote on the track and layered her wordless heavenly and harpy vocals over it.
Three other songs were recorded at the same time, including “Speaknadia,” where a recurring cycle of stately cut-up funk horns and the crackling pops of record on a turntable underpin sensuous vocals repeating: “Self love.”
Then, Parham set the songs aside — but “Owl Pussy” was not done with her.
After leaving the music she recorded in 2020 unreleased, Parham turned to shooting a photo series — nude portraits of women, most of whom were her friends. Intended to capture a sense of vulnerability, the blossomed into something much more intimate. As Parham started bringing her camcorder to the shoots, she recorded candid, soul-baring conversations about self-love, sexuality and what it means to be feminine.
The photo shoot turned into Parham’s experimental short film Owl Pussy, an exploration of femininity in all its multifaceted forms. Parham’s website describes the film as a “collage of connection and self-discovery [where women] reclaim love on their own terms, and break free of societal expectations.”
Owl Pussy screened on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, as part of the exhibit “[red]: Rated R,” which was curated by Parham’s friend and artist Dasia Hood. The immersive exhibition sprawled across a hallway gallery and four rooms at Lorem Ipsum Listening Bar in Plaza Midwood.
In the meantime, Parham returned to her unreleased music, releasing it as the Lemongrass Lady EP in August 2024. Here the music is credited to Parham’s current nom de plume Wild Recluse. She says she adopted the name because it speaks to the powerful creativity that emerges in solitude.
“Protecting my peace is how I tame the wildest parts of myself without shame,” Parham notes. “It’s in isolation that my ideas feel most unbridled and authentic.”
Parham uses Wild Recluse for all of her artistic media projects now — music, film, visual art and performance.
The EP takes its title from a nickname bestowed on Parham by her collaborator on the project, which stemmed from Parham’s love of the summery scent of lemongrass.
She wishes to leave the collaborator on the project unnamed.
“Working [with him] was not the best collaborative situation,” she says. “It put me in this position where I didn’t want to work on music anymore. I felt defeated and empty, [and] releasing that project was a way for me to close that cycle of my life.”
A return to song
For a while, Parham immersed herself in her art, hosting and curating her Sensual Chaos: Erotic Collage Workshop, which is held monthly at Tip Top Daily Market.
“Individuals could come and explore their sensuality and how that ties into the creative process,” Parham says. After each workshop, Parham noticed how much paper she was throwing away. Determined to find a way to recycle the waste, she taught herself how to make paper from the discarded scraps.
That was a short step from weaving a tapestry that is currently on display at Dark and Divine, a group exhibition curated by Hood that is currently showing at The McColl Center through May 24.
Parham dipped back into music to create a playlist for Hood’s show, a process she calls one of her love languages.
By that time, Parham had already returned to her first love: singing. In December 2024 she recorded a tribute to R&B and soul singer- songwriter Teena Marie, another one of Parham’s early inspirations, at Vocal Ink Production studio in east Charlotte.
She had also begun turning up at Tayloe’s Sam on Someday musical gatherings to belt out a tune or two.
“She’s an artist [using] many different mediums — collaging, paper making, short films [and] music,” Tayloe says. “She does a great job of letting her art speak and not being afraid to let it speak.”
With the trip to New York coming up, where she will sing Chaka Khan’s songs with Khan’s collaborators, Parham ponders the impact made by her own art and music. She says she wants people to experience her music the way she immerses herself in the music she loves.
“[Music] puts you in a trance; it sends chills down your spine, and takes you into another world,”
Parham says.
“We live in a world where we’re always so busy; we’re always ripping and running; we’re always posting on the ’Gram,” she continues. “It’s okay to go into your own space, to rest, to feel how you’re feeling and be unapologetic and intelligent about it.”
Parham may be the first to admit that her art and music have had a huge impact on herself, leading her through emotional turmoil toward self love and trust in where the artistic process takes her. Through that journey she’s also become that rare artist whose talents seem limitless and almost as big as her restless curiosity.
Wild Recluse is fearless — and unafraid to catch the world in her web.
PMORAN@QCNERVE.COM
SOUNDWAVE
WEDNESDAY APR. 16
ROCK/PUNK/METAL
JAN. 22
The Abstractica w/ Alaska’s Angel, Cherub Tree, Caught Off Guard (The Milestone)
The Weird Sisters w/ Sweat Transfer (Neighborhood Theatre)
Magnolia Park (The Underground)
POP/DANCE/ELECTRONIC/DJ
JOHNNYSWIM (The Fillmore)
EXPERIMENTAL/MIXED-GENRE/FESTIVAL
Kool Keith w/ MC Homeless, DJ Halo, Geeked, The Disgusting, Speedbag (Snug Harbor)
Open Mic Night feat. The Smokin J’s (Smokey Joe’s Cafe & Bar)*
*WEEKLY EVENTS THAT MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. VISIT QCNERVE.COM FOR THE FULL SOUNDWAVE LISTING
Photo by David Lee
Japanese Breakfast performs at The Fillmore on April 27.
FOOD & DRINK FEATURE
FINDING A BALANCE
Charlotte Food & Wine Festival returns for 37th year
BY DEZANII LEWIS
The annual Charlotte Food and Wine Festival is set to take place from Apr. 23-27, with food and wine pairings scheduled across the city and a number of other events marking the fest’s 37th year.
The five-day festival has grown exponentially since its humble launch in 1989.
The original event consisted of a single dinner and large-scale wine tasting. That grew into Charlotte Wine & Food Weekend, which was held bi-annually. Now, as a week-long event, there is a wide range of tastings, pairings and meals to participate in.
Still, the focus remains the same, insists Lauren Deese, executive director of the Charlotte Food & Wine Festival (CFWF).
“As it’s been evolving, there have been some changes, some different things, but it’s always been a fine wine event,” she told Queen City Nerve. “We’ve always had a charity wine auction component. We’ve always been a full nonprofit, and we’ve always been moving forward with a mission of fundraising and giving back to the community.”
As CFWF has grown alongside Charlotte’s broader culinary scene, festival organizers have been able to expand on the programming by inviting top wineries and pairing them with local chefs and restaurateurs for carefully curated special events.
“We really shine a light on our culinary community, but we’re also bringing in top wineries from all over the world,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity to try a lot of new wines and expand our wine knowledge as well as make an impact on our community.”
Deese joked that she remembers a time when the CFWF was considered the city’s “best-kept
secret” among wine connoisseurs, but now with social media being as ubiquitous as it is, the word gets out easier.
The increase in outreach attracts a broader demographic and the CFWF can sponsor more events than they’ve been able to do before.
“The city has grown,” she said. “With that, I think we’re putting on probably more events in the grand scheme of things. One of the joys of my job is the community of people I get to meet. Just getting to meet so many people who are banding together to make an impact and doing it in a very tasty and fun way.”
For the children
While much of the happenings are centered around an alcoholic beverage, the Charlotte Food & Wine Festival is all about the kids in the end. Over its 37 years in existence, the festival has raised more than $7 million for children’s charities in the Charlotte area.
All proceeds from this year’s festival and charity wine auction will benefit four organizations: A Child’s Place, Augustine Literacy Project, DigiBridge, and Wayfinders.
Deese said that each one of these community partners was chosen for their work helping to provide children with the tools to be successful later in life.
“They all support various causes, but they all essentially provide upward mobility opportunities for over 1,000 children in our community,” she said. “We’ve been exposing children young, we’ll help them with future success, and also teach them team building and confidence and all sorts of other wonderful skills.”
STORY
Augustine Literacy Project provides literary intervention to children struggling with literacy and reading at their grade level; Digi-Bridge promotes science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM) programs through their labs and afterschool programs; Wayfinders partners children with mentors; and Thompson Child & Family Focus, which runs A Child’s Place, helps families experiencing economic hardship find resources they need.
With the support of the CFWF, Deese said Thompson Child & Family Focus has added a focus on mental health programming because of the correlation between high stress and economic hardship.
A reimagining sprung from the pandemic
The CFWF as it is today is only in its third year. Like other organizations and events that center on in-person events, COVID hit the CFWF like a storm in 2020.
When the pandemic hit that March, festival organizers had to act quickly. With the main event scheduled for April — tickets, marketing, and other resources already expended — they made the difficult decision to cancel the event that spring, a decision that Deese said was a “huge hit.”
Deese and her team tried to salvage the spirit of the festival by hosting a virtual event, but it was drearily unsuccessful, as most of the attendees continuously got distracted by family members or their own TVs. Others simply walked away from their computers.
Whether literally or figuratively, people simply weren’t present in the Zoom call.
“I think the hardest thing for us was, as you can imagine, what does food and wine do? It brings people together,” she said. “When you don’t have the personal connection, the fundraising doesn’t get to the same level. Wine and food does taste better, actually, when you are with other people and when you’re enjoying the company — it’s part of the dining experience.”
The team got creative and launched a smaller event in fall 2020 with limited attendance and masking to help continue their mission of supporting children in need.
“We fundraised online and then we started getting takeout food from our various restaurant
partners and delivering it to the families of the children supported by our charity organization partners,” Deese said. “We found a way to make an impact. It wasn’t the same way. I, unfortunately, became an expert on PPP loans and got some of those to also help us navigate the storm. We made it through.”
What to expect
Having to get creative during the pandemic helped when it came time to revamp the CFWF upon its full return, adding a collector’s gala featuring music, a food and wine tasting, family-style meal, and live auction, among other new features.
To further bring people together and continue to highlight the culinary industry here in Charlotte, CFWF pairs wineries and vintners from around the world with various local restaurants and venues.
For example, Petite Philippe Fine Wine owner Mark Meissner leads excursions to France and champions French wine, so Deese said organizers focused on champagne at that Park Road establishment. CustomShop in Elizabeth has an old world vibe, so they leaned into old world wineries there.
While there’s some method to the madness, the majority of the pairings are left up to the chefs.
“The chefs create beautiful customer menus for us,” Deese said. “They get to be creative and curate beautiful menus to go with whatever winery we match them with.”
If you’re a newly initiated oenophile, Deese says the Saturday event, called The Grand Tasting, is a great opportunity to expand your palette. The list of wines curated for that event are affordably priced and the event is accessible to everyone from the novice to the sommelier.
“It really is a fun event and it’s a great place for people to start,” she said.
It’s hard to go wrong regardless of which one of the dozens of events you might choose, because it’s more about the folks you meet along the way than anything else.
“It really is a community-building event,” Deese said. “It’s not every day that everyone’s together.”
Learn more about this year’s slate of events at charlottewineandfood.org.
DLEWIS@QCNERVE.COM
Photo by Josh Bannen
The Charlotte Food & Wine Festival launched in 1989 as a one-night event.
Photo by Josh Bannen
International wineries and vintners are paired with local chefs throughout the week.
COFFEE & COMMUNITY
Caffeto partners with The Outsiders & Co. to open The Outpost
BY RYAN PITKIN
When she moved from her home country of Colombia to Charlotte about five years ago, Valentina Castellanos knew she would like to work in the restaurant industry, but hadn’t quite figured out how she would do that.
It was around that same time that her family members in Colombia bought a coffee farm. As Valentina pursued a business administration degree from Central Piedmont Community College, it became clear to her that opening a coffee business would allow her to source coffee directly from her family farm, creating a long-distance, family-operated business.
“My family comes from a coffee background … We saw the opportunity when we got the farm in Colombia five years ago,” she said. “So why not? Why not start to bring our coffee here and just give it a chance? I saw the perfect timing. I saved some money, and that’s how I did it here.”
Castellanos celebrated the grand opening of her specialty Colombian coffee bar, Caffeto, on Dec. 14, launching in a lot next to Canvas Tattoo in NoDa. During her first months of business, Castellanos has seen plenty of love from neighbors but has missed her family dearly.
Now, she’ll close that distance a bit when her sister, Maria Fernanda Castellanos, arrives from Connecticut to run Caffeto’s first expansion, a
partnership with The Outsiders and Co., a momand-daughter clothing brand based in Lake Norman. The two family-run companies will come together this summer to open The Outpost, a hybrid coffee and retail shop in Cornelius that will also serve as a community space.
“My sister is going to be the one running that business over there,” Castellanos said. “I’m very excited. That’s going to make our family business keep as a family business.”
The Outpost is born
Amy Jolly began to cook up plans for launching a clothing company with her young daughter Aubrey Welch in 2020. Jolly, who had raised Aubrey as a single mother until marrying the previous year, was pregnant and struggling with the idea of how the new arrival would affect her relationship with Aubrey.
The two had grown up taking road trips together and exploring the world, so when COVID-19 shut down their plans for a two-week national park road trip together before the baby arrived, they were crushed.
“We were devastated because we knew our family dynamic was changing and felt like our motherdaughter trips were ending,” Jolly said. “Outsiders and Co., an adventure-inspired outdoorsy brand,
was our way of staying connected to nature and travel while feeling the restrictions the pandemic caused.”
Having seen success online, The Outpost will be The Outsiders’ first brick-and-mortar location. The 3,000-square-foot space will be split into thirds between Caffeto, retail and a community space.
Now a junior in high school, Welch has been busy sourcing merchandise to be featured alongside The Outsiders and Co. products inside the store while Jolly handles the business side of things.
“The Outpost is about the opportunity to expand what we are capable of doing as a mother/ daughter team,” Jolly said. “While I obviously want Outsiders and Co. to grow, I also think that this is a huge opportunity for a teenage girl to thrive in an environment she’s asking to create from scratch — so I’m giving her the reins here to push herself beyond our current brand.”
Jolly herself is most looking forward to the community connections she will build by opening the space. She has had a rough time since the pandemic struck; she had open-heart surgery in 2021 then lost her father suddenly a few months later. In September 2024, she lost her mother after a three-year battle with ovarian cancer.
Having previously worked for 10 years as an event organizer for UNC Charlotte, she felt like the spark that had once driven her social life had been extinguished. In December 2024, she happened to drive by a storefront for lease on Torrence Chapel Road. She parked there and just sat for some time.
“I had that ‘Yes’ moment, when you feel like this is it,” Jolly recalled. “This is the space for that vision that’s been living in my head and what I need to do next in my life.
“I had become very isolated here while recovering from surgeries and caring for my mom and had trouble meeting people and forming those connections I felt when I worked at UNC Charlotte,” she continued. “So I decided I wanted to create the place I felt like Cornelius needed.”
Her next move was to find a coffee partner.
Caffeto joins the team
Jolly had seen people sharing their experiences from the recently opened Caffeto bar in NoDa on Instagram. When she solicited suggestions on a local Facebook page, she continued to see recommendations for Castellanos.
Jolly planned a visit to Caffeto and met with Castellanos.
“I wanted someone who had the same vision as me for creating an energetic atmosphere as well as a family-friendly environment,” Jolly recalled. “We connected instantly.”
During her regular walks into NoDa from her home near Cordelia Park, Castellanos had looked at the gravel lot next to Canvas Tattoo and wished she could beautify it in some way for years. In December, she beautified it with a business.
Transforming a small trailer into a coffee bar allowed her to cut down on the costs associated with running a storefront. She partnered with Canvas owner Jason Baker to work out a deal that could be beneficial to them both — not to mention the neighbors.
“This was an empty space that looked ugly
before,” Castellanos recalled. “I’m friends with Jason and I always walked by here and I was like, ‘This place is awesome. Let’s partner. I’ll bring you people. You bring me people. And let me turn this place into a cool spot.’”
Castellanos and her staff of four serve hot and cold coffee drinks, matcha, chai and lemonade. Partnering with La Panaderia in Matthews, her bakery menu includes croissants, Danish and a signature Colombian snack bread called pandebono. On weekends, she serves cachitos — Venezuelan soft bread stuffed with ham, bacon and cream cheese — made by Cachitos La Gaby in Pineville.
As is the goal at The Outpost, Castellanos has been successful in creating a community space around the establishment, cultivating a certain atmosphere with strung-up lights, comfortable outdoor furniture and picnic tables complete with outlets and WiFi.
On two Saturdays each month, the coffee bar hosts Caffeto Sessions, billed as “Beats, Vibes, Coffee & Arepas.” The event is exactly that, with Castellanos serving up arepas from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. as her friend DJ Roble curates a jamming playlist. Caffeto Sessions started as a monthly event in the winter but has since expanded to twice monthly with plans to move to weekly in the summer.
“It’s great,” said Castellanos. “We are very excited because people love it and we love it too; it’s something different, a safe environment. It’s family-friendly, just coffee and different beverages with great music.”
Castellanos said that, while she may go help Maria with operations at The Outpost every once in a while, Caffeto’s new NoDa location isn’t going anywhere. Just because the trailer looks easy to move, doesn’t mean it’s moving any time soon.
“I love it here,” she said. “I’ve been putting all my love here, and the neighborhood, the community, has been great and very supportive right back as well.”
That’s an energy that Charlotte native Jolly hopes translates well to northern Mecklenburg County.
“I’m hoping The Outpost shakes things up a little bit,” Jolly said of the new venue. “It’s not your typical retail shop or coffee shop; it has some spice to it. It’s full of energy and feels like home. A place you want to meet a friend or bring your family. That is the vibe we are bringing. I love my community here but I think it’s time for something a little different and I really hope we can deliver that.”
The Outpost will be located at 20910 Torrence Chapel Road in Shops on the Green in Cornelius. Follow The Outsiders and Co. on Instagram at @outsidersandco for updates on The Outpost’s upcoming opening and new partners to be announced soon.
Caffeto is located at 3012 N Davidson St. and open Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-4 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Follow them on Instagram at @caffetospecialtycoffee.
RPITKIN@QCNERVE.COM
Photo by Ryan Pitkin
Valentina Castellanos inside her NoDa Caffeto location.
A HOW-TO GUIDE TO HOMEGROWN
DIY until it’s legalized
BY ANONYMOUS
On March 17, NC Rep. Jordan Lopez picked up Alexander’s torch when he introduced House Bill 413, or the “Marijuana Legalization and Reinvestment Act,” to legalize and regulate the sale, possession and use of cannabis for people 21 and older.
The act called cannabis prohibition a “wasteful and destructive failure” that has had an “unfair, disparate impact on persons and communities of color.”
The bill would create a new source of needed revenue for the state as North Carolina quickly heads toward a fiscal cliff in the next couple of years, Lopez told Queen City Nerve for our story on the bill, which you can read on page 6. He added that he was inspired to introduce the bill after the issue of legalization came up repeatedly throughout his campaign season.
But alas, Lopez isn’t all that optimistic we’ll see legalization all that soon.
“It would get a lot of attention, and folks would be very vocal about their support or opposition for it, but unfortunately, I’m not super confident that we’ll even have the opportunity to have that.”
As it appears we’re still a long way out from legalization in North Carolina, we reached out to a local resident who we know to have 20+ years experience in growing marijuana at home, for those who are sick of waiting around and continuing to risk it in the black market.
Take note: Implementing the following tips in North Carolina is highly illegal. We do not encourage you to risk jail time by doing so. For those of our readers who live in Virginia or other more enlightened states, here’s a detailed guide at how to cultivate your green thumb. For those stuck behind here in North Carolina, grow at your own risk.
Materials Needed:
• Seeds
• Soil
• Growing container with drainage holes
• Grow light
• Small table fan
• Nutrients (fertilizer)
• Grow tent or small light-proof area
• Scissors
• Mister type spray bottle
Step 1: Germinating your seed
So you got lucky and found a seed in that last bag you got from your boy. What to do now? You want to make sure that seed is viable before you plant, so you want to germinate your seed. Start by taking a clear Ziploc bag with a damp (not dripping wet) paper towel and put your seed between your paper towel, close the bag and put it somewhere slightly warm — think of the top of your cable box or refrigerator kind of warm.
After one to three days you’ll see a tiny white tail poking out if the seed is viable to grow. If you don’t see a tail within five days you need to find another seed.
Pro Tip: Germinate more than one seed at a time. You can’t tell if your plant is male or female until you begin flowering. Having more than one plant ensures your chances of getting a female plant. Male plants only produce pollen for reproduction and don’t produce flowers, which are what you want. Female plants have tiny hairs that appear at the base of the stems, or “nodes” as their called.
Step 2: Plant your seed
Use a standard potting soil mix and preferred container with drainage holes. The easiest, most used container is just a plastic Dixie cup with drainage holes poked in the bottom. Plant your seed in the soil about 1 inch deep with your exposed tail pointing down, then slightly mist the top of the container with clean water and put it somewhere it can get some direct or indirect light, be it sunlight or from a grow light (using a compact flourescent [CFL] light works well here).
After about two to three days you’ll see your first set of baby leaves emerging from your soil. SUCCESS!! Be proud! One of the most difficult steps is done!
Pro Tip: When watering baby plants, use a mister spray bottle to apply your water the first few weeks of its life instead of pouring water directly on top. Because it has a juvenile root system it isn’t anchored into the soil yet, and sometimes the seedling will “float” after the first few waterings.
Step
3: Bring it to the light
Choosing the right kind of light is important and there’s almost an endless amount of options when it comes to lighting. It is often the most overthought and debated subject for an indoor grower. With so many options for indoor lighting, I find using inexpensive LED lights to be a great choice for the new grower. LEDs can be used for all stages of plant growth. They give off a great quality of light with a low initial investment and often less heat than traditional indoor plant lighting, i.e high pressure
sodium (HPS), metal halide (MH), or good ole’ fluorescents (FL or CFL).
Pro Tip: Stay away from “Blurple” colored lights. They’re often cheaper but the purplish hue makes it hard to see the real colors of your plant and can be hard on the eyes. Working under natural looking lights helps you see the real color of the leaves.
Step 4: Vegetative growth
Before your new baby is ready to flower you need to grow it a little more and let it become sexually mature so that it’s big enough to give those beautiful flowers that you’re looking for. This step is highly personalized; it all depends on how much space and how many watts of lighting you’re using. But a good rule of thumb is to have 75 watts of lighting for every square foot of gardening area.
Let your baby grow (or veg) for at least three weeks, but you can let it grow as long as you’d like, leaving your grow light on for at least 18 hours a day but up to 24 hours a day if you prefer. Most standard potting soil mixes have enough initial nutrients where you don’t need to fertilize or amend your soil; there’s enough of what your baby needs already mixed in.
Pro Tip: Don’t skimp out and use cheap soil. Pitching out a few more bucks for quality soil will make your life easier in the long run and help ensure there’s enough nutrients available to the plant for it to grow strong and healthy. You want plants that have a medium dark green to the leaves and no brown spots.
Step 5: Transplant into a flowering container
This is where you’re going to put your baby into her final home, where it will live for the rest of its short life. This is a highly personalized step as well but you want to use a container that holds roughly one gallon of soil per foot of expected plant growth. Before you transplant you want to add a quarter cup of granular bloom fertilizer mixed into your soil before planting. Bloom fertilizers have a lower mix of nitrogen and higher levels of phosphorus and potassium often listed as NPK (5-10-10).
Using a slow-release granular fertilizer makes for easy growing for the rest of the plant’s life. Because of its slow release action the plant is fed every time
Photo courtesy of anonymous A cannabis plant flower in its third week.
Photo courtesy of anonymous
Another cannabis plant flower in its third week.
you water it, ensuring that it has all the nutrients it needs for the rest of its life cycle and taking away that unsurety: “Did i give it too much or too little?”
Pro Tip: Be gentle when transplanting into larger containers. The roots are often delicate and can be damaged easily. If using a Dixie cup, squeeze the side of the cup until the plant becomes loose and gently flip the plant into your other hand while making sure to support its root mass.
Step 6: Forcing it to flower
Since marijuana is a photosensitive plant you need to “force it to flower,” which is its natural cue to begin reproducing by giving it equal times of light and uninterrupted dark periods. This is where you often hear of the 12/12 cycle: 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. The final resting spot for the rest of your plant’s life needs to be an area where it can get uninterrupted dark time.
The classic area is normally a small closet or grow tent if you can afford the investment. You just need a simple 24-hour appliance timer and set it for 12 hours on and 12 hours off.
Pro Tip: Make sure your flowering area is somewhere that can get uninterrupted light cycles. Interrupting the night cycle can cause your plants to “herm,” meaning they will create pollen sacs on your female plants that will then pollinate your female plant and produce seeds. It’s not the worst thing that can happen but when a plant produces seeds, the quality of your flowers will be diminished.
Step 7: Let it grow
For the next eight to nine weeks, just allow nature to do its thing. You only need to water your baby with normal tap water whenever the top 3 or 4 inches of soil are dry and make sure you’re moving your grow light up as it grows. You want to keep your light 12 to 24 inches from the tallest point of your plant to ensure that the tops aren’t getting too warm, an issue known as “light burn.” Flowers begin to form at week three of this stage and most finish with eight or nine weeks of growing in the 12/12 light cycle. You know your plant is ready when the larger leaves have started to turn yellow and when 75% of the pistols have turned red or brown on the flowers (also known as buds).
Pro Tip: Make sure your grow space has air movement. When growing in an indoor space you need air circulation. Adding a small oscillating fan helps bring fresh air into your garden. Plants use CO2 during photosynthesis, so you want to give them as much air circulation as you can.
Step 8: Harvest Time!
After all these weeks of waiting and watering, the day is finally here. It’s harvest time! After the eighth or ninth week your baby is ready to be chopped. Simply cut your plant and hang it upside down in a cool dark area. You can use the same place you grew it in — just turn the light off. After letting the plant dry for about seven to 10 days you’ll want to manicure it. You do this by trimming off all the remaining leaves and trimming around your bud sites removing any leaves that are not connected to bud sites and any smaller leaves that don’t look “frosty.” At this stage you’re done!
For the smoothest and most quality smoke, you want to cure your flowers simply by putting them in an airtight container and “burping” them once or twice a day. The reason this is done is to allow the chlorophyll to break down inside the leaves and flowers, revealing its flavor and preventing you from having buds that taste grassy or fresh. This step is also very personalized, but most people cure it for at least 10 days, or as long as three months — it just depends on what flavor profile you’re looking for.
Pro Tip: When harvesting, and in the few weeks leading up to harvest, your plant will smell fantastic — fantastic to the point that if you have visitors over they will definitely smell it. It’s advised to use some kind of smell control. They make multiple products to help alleviate this but the most common is known as a carbon filter, which are mesh tubes that are filled with activated charcoal that use a fan to pull air through the filter, absorbing particulates and leaving the air smelling clean and removing the odor. It’s worth the small investment to make sure the only people that know you are growing are people that you want to know, which honestly should be no one.
Stay safe and happy growing!
Photo courtesy of anonymous
Inside a grow operation.
Photo courtesy of anonymous
A finished, untrimmed plant.
APRIL 16 - APRIL 22 APRIL 23 - APRIL 29
ARIES (March 21 to April 19) You’re doing better on the flexibility issue, but you still need to loosen up a bit to show that you can be less judgmental and more understanding about certain sensitive matters.
TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Your personal aspect continues to dominate this week. But try to make time to deal with important career-linked matters as well. A change of plans might occur by the weekend.
GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Excuses are not really needed for much of the confusion that occurs this week. However, explanations from all parties could help in working things out to everyone’s satisfaction.
CANCER (June 21 to July 22) A surprising (but pleasant) recent turn of events continues to develop positive aspects. But be prepared for a bit of a jolt on another issue that needs attention.
LEO (July 23 to August 22) Creating a fuss might bring you the attention that you want. But are you prepared for all the explaining you’d have to do? It’s better to use more subtle ways to make your bid.
VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) With education continuing to be a strong factor this week, this could be the time to start learning some new skills that can later be applied to a bid for a potential career move.
LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) You might do well to reconsider some of your current time priorities before you get so deeply involved in one project that you neglect meeting a deadline on another.
SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) With an important decision looming, you need to be careful about the information you’re getting. Half-truths are essentially useless. Get the full story before you act.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) Find out what everyone’s role is expected to be before accepting a workplace proposal. Getting all the facts now could prevent serious problems later on.
CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) A flexible position on a workplace matter could be the best course to follow during the next several days. A personal issue also benefits from an open-minded approach.
AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Involving too many people in your workplace problem can backfire. Remember, allegiances can shift. Ask trusted colleagues for advice, but don’t ask them to take sides.
PISCES (February 19 to March 20) Before submitting your suggestions, take more time to sharpen the points you want to make. The clearer the presentation, the more chance it has to get through when submitted.
BORN THIS WEEK: Your clear sense of who you are gives you confidence when you need to tackle difficult situations.
ARIES (March 21 to April 19) Someone will try to pull the wool over your eyes. Trust your inborn sense of what’s right and what’s wrong to help you avoid getting fleeced.
TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) Love dominates the Taurean landscape this week, but someone from the past doesn’t feel so kindly to the divine Bovine. Resist an attempt to goad you into a fight.
GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) A perplexing on-the-job situation that you thought was resolved reopens with a new twist. But this time, you’ll have more people willing to help you deal with it.
CANCER (June 21 to July 22) A major move could be good for your career, but you worry that it might cause problems for your loved ones. Before making a decision, talk things over with them.
LEO (July 23 to August 22) The Big Kitty’s glitter dazzles the right people who react to your charm. But they’ll want more proof that you can do the job they’re offering.
VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) Continue to assess both sides of a workplace situation before deciding which to support. An old friend brings potentially life-changing news. Listen well.
LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) Your natural inclination for fairness might conflict with the special needs of a friend. Weigh both issues carefully and make your decision in your usual honest way.
SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) A misunderstanding causes a rift in a once-closed relationship. Make a move toward sealing the breach before it grows too wide to ever be repaired.
SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) You can keep secrets like no one else can, but an unexpected development may force you to consider revealing one of them.
CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) Someone tries once again to goad the Goat into a confrontation, but resist. Remember that you’ve nothing to gain by being the butt of someone else’s ambitions.
AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) An opportunity that recently opened up needs to be fully explored to make sure that no unsettling surprises will emerge later on. Ask questions and demand answers.
PISCES (February 19 to March 20) An old friend reveals a secret from the past that can lead to changes in relationships with family and friends. Expect a shocking reaction from a surprising source.
BORN THIS WEEK: You have a reservoir of selfconfidence that you can draw on forever. Your energy output makes you seem like a living example of perpetual motion.
1. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: What do you call a person who has lived to the age of 100 years?
2. HISTORY: When were cigarette commercials banned from American television?
3. MOVIES: Whose life is depicted in the movie “Raging Bull”?
4. U.S. STATES: In which state are the Catskill Mountains located?
5. TELEVISION: Which longrunning TV drama was set in Cabot Cove, Maine?
6. MEASUREMENTS: How long is the ancient measurement called a cubit?
7. FOOD & DRINK: What is a dish called Cullen Skink?
8. CHEMISTRY: A diamond is composed of which single element?
9. GEOGRAPHY: What country is home to the Baffin, Victoria and Ellesmere islands?
10. ANATOMY: What is another name for the condition called “piloerection”?
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.
AERIN IT OUT
HAND IT TO THE CHIEF
Bob Peters’ new NoDa cocktail bar is a homey and wholesome addition to local nightlife
BY AERIN SPRUILL
Two introverted neurodivergents walk into a bar as strangers on a Sunday afternoon. Three hours later, they’ve swapped life stories, crossreferenced socials (because “it must be kismet,” duh), debated navigating late-stage capitalism while Black in corporate America, and still can’t remember each other’s names.
When they realized they were also in the same sorority, the moment began to feel a little too surreal. But it’s not awkward — just time to detach from the overstimulation and hyperfocus on how weirdly perfect the timing was. No plans were made, but there was a mutual understanding: some time, same place, maybe.
That place? I’m glad you asked. Chief’s Modern Cocktail Parlor, aka Chief’s, is a come-as-you-are cocktail bar tucked along North Davidson Street next to The Goodyear House, where you can find ”first-class service with the comforts of home.”
Opened by Built on Hospitality — the restaurant group behind the neighboring Goodyear House, Folia, and Old Town Kitchen & Cocktails), Chief’s is the brainchild and passion project of affable local legend mixologist Bob Peters.
Opened in January, the new establishment is “sicker than your average” — equal parts lowpressure, modern, cozy and cool.
Moody neutrals, tufted leather, and upholstered nooks in a century-old mill house deliver a soft landing for weirdos, libation connoisseurs, thinkers, overthinkers and folks who find fluorescent lights and forced small talk physically painful.
Whether you’re nursing a classic Vesper ($17), diving into an ADHD-fueled convo, or just vibing to the playlist (*cues “SpottieOttieDopaliscious” by OutKast*), Chief’s makes it easy to feel at home in someone else’s living room — yes, even introverts can be forced to become fast friends against their will.
After an hour of “this and yap” with someone I didn’t know, I giggled, thinking back to 2015, the first night I met Bob Peters, who referred to himself as a “tall, cool, glass of mayonnaise.”
A quirky riot from the start, Bob does not, in fact, “meet a stranger.” His energy behind the bar pulled me and my then-editor into his orbit, inviting us to stay a while. And that we did.
On that day, the veil of my regular Red Bull vodka obsession was lifted as Bob handed me something dangerously balanced, intricately complex, and unapologetically adult: The Green Dragon, his twist on a green tea with lemon, lime, vodka and gin.
I’d popped my craft cocktail cherry, and that’s when I learned what all grown women know: like
many things in life, high-vibration libations take time and are meant to be savored.
Though Bob wasn’t behind the bar on the particular recent Sunday when I visited Chief’s, his welcoming spirit yanked me through the threshold as staff extended the warmest, most genuine greeting — the kind that makes babies startle-cry but somehow everyone laughs. That one.
And I was the baby — blinking, unsure and suddenly seated next to someone who, oddly, fit like a memory I hadn’t made yet.
Once the anxiety settled, I took a peek at the menu for what I thought would only be one drink before racing out the door.
“WWBD (what would Bob do),” I thought, pretending not to feel the phantom urgency of someone behind me, even though no one was rushing me but me. I took a breath.
“Chill out, you earned this solo moment after a weekend with the rents and your little sister, which included a segway to the Park Expo Center for Unicorn World. You deserve a drink, and it should be stiff.”
A classic to start. Having just returned from New Orleans, I was still haunted, in the best way, by the slow pace of the French Quarter. I missed the way strangers nod at you like old friends, brass floating down the street like smoke, and the quiet authority of a good drink served without pretense.
So, I settled on the Nola-born Sazerac ($17): Southern Star Rye, rich syrup, absinthe rinse, and Better’s Bitters.
It felt right. Heavy on ritual, light on nonsense — a cocktail that speaks softly but carries history with every pour. As the first sip hit, I could feel myself unwind. Maybe I’d stay a little longer. Maybe I’d even talk to someone. Maybe this wasn’t just a drink, but a premonition that my deadline would be missed … again.
I call it the Bob Peters effect.
Whether you’re neurodivergent, neurotypical or just neurotic, there’s something unicorn-like about finding a space where the lighting’s soft, the drinks are strong, and the vibe check feels like, “Bring your ass on in the house and let’s kick it in the parlor room.”
While Chief’s may be a cozy ode to Bob Peters’ parents, Chief and Marmee, it surely felt like a love letter to the city as I looked out onto North Davidson Street, sitting on a bench on the front porch “stoop,” enjoying my last sips during a Sunday afternoon rain. INFO@QCNERVE.COM
“Moving the finish line” by John Cole. Originally published by NC Newsline.
SAVAGE LOVE
VIBE SHIFTS
Gay, gay getaway
BY DAN SAVAGE
I’m a gay 35-year-old guy in the San Francisco area. I’m heading on a weekend getaway with my boyfriend and two other gay couples. We’re all solid but purely platonic friends — at least so far — but turning this “couples’ getaway” into a group play extravaganza sounds so hot to me. I believe everyone is in an open relationship like us, but we’ve never played with either couple and I have very limited experience playing with groups in general. How do we test the waters with the other two couples to see if they’re down to clown without making things awkward and ruining the vibe of the trip?
WEEKEND IN THE COUNTRY
“We’ve had things like this happen for us organically,” said one of my sluttiest gay friends after I shared your question with him. “But it’s only happened without advance planning on night four or five of week-long vacations in Provincetown — LOL — after a long buildup of a lot of hot ‘willwe-or-won’t-we?’ erotic tension. And by the time it happened, it was really pretty clear group play was the vibe and everyone had signaled they were down.”
Like you, WITC, my sluttiest gay friend is in an open relationship — a long-term, committed, wide-open relationship — and he has a lot more experience turning friends into friends-with-vacation-relatedbenefits than I do (it’s practically his superpower), which is why I shared your question with him. Let’s call him Himbo.
Okay, seeing as you and your partner don’t have the luxury of time — you’re only going away with the friends you wanna fuck for a weekend — what’s the best plan of attack?
“Assuming his friends aren’t a bunch of sexpositive gays with X-rated alts and OnlyFans accounts — and it doesn’t sound like they are, considering this guy doesn’t even know if his friends are open or not — he’s going to need to proceed with caution,” said Himbo. “So, step one is obviously asking the other couples if they’re open, which is a question most gay couples are comfortable answering. And if they are, maybe broach the subject in advance. If all three couples are open and all three down — two big ifs — that will create anticipation, which can be way hotter than just stumbling into things. But even if everyone is open and thinks they might be down, no one can know for sure how they’re going to feel until you all get together. If it’s not the vibe, don’t force it.”
Another reason to talk about it in advance?
“The bottoms won’t be magically prepped at the exact same time without a little advance warning,” said Himbo. “Springing a group fuck session on a bunch of guys and expecting the bottoms to be ready-for-use is something only a clueless top would do. I’m not saying all tops are clueless — I don’t even know if this guy is a top — but speaking as a bottom, expecting guys to be ready to bottom without warning is the move of a very clueless top.”
Anything Himbo thinks you should watch out for?
“Smashing close friends on your first attempt to open your relationships goes one of two ways in my experience: great or horrible,” said Himbo. “Couples who are opening up for the first time are more likely to get in their heads and have weird feelings, so if these other couples have been closed up to now, this guy and his friends should take it really slow. Another thing to consider is how they’re all going to be trapped in the same house and unable to leave, which is a little risky. So, maybe leave the fucking around — if, again, it’s the vibe — for the last night. If it goes great and everyone in the group wishes they’d fucked around the whole time, they can schedule another weekend getaway for the group sooner rather than later.”
P.S. I’m sure there are people out there thinking, “The world is on fire and all this Himbo guy can think about is catching dick in Provincetown.” For the record: To prove that dick isn’t the only thing my sluttiest gay friend thinks about, I asked him what else is on his mind right now: “The strength, speed, and effectiveness of the right-wing propaganda machine in the United States is both fascinating and horrifying,” said Himbo. “I honestly think the internet ruined America and the rise of a Trumplike figure was inevitable. Basically, the internet made it impossible for people to discern between legitimate information from fraudulent bullshit, which paved the way for Trump. I don’t know what to do about it, but here we are, and it sucks. But I do get a lot of dick online, so, you know, the internet isn’t all bad.”
I’m in a pickle. My gay male partner and I have a bonus boyfriend who comes in from LA once or twice a month to see us. I feel the relationship with this boyfriend has run its course, but partner wants to keep it going. This boyfriend prefers me because I fuck him — and when I do, he confesses his love for me. I have texted the boyfriend and talked to the partner about this, but neither seems to get the message. Do I have to be mean to get my message across?
KEEPING IT NOT DRAMATIC
Whatever you said to your partner and whatever you texted your bonus boyfriend didn’t do the trick. They either didn’t understand what you meant because your meaning wasn’t clear or you made yourself clear enough, KIND, but whatever you said — to your partner and separately to your bonus boyfriend — was open to more than one interpretation and your partner went with the interpretation that allowed him to keep seeing your bonus boyfriend and your bonus boyfriend went with the interpretation that allowed him to keep taking your dick.
Regarding your bonus boyfriend: The impulse to let someone down easy — the impulse to soften the blow — is a commendable one, of course, but you can let someone down so easily they don’t realize they’ve been let down (read: dumped) at all. So, while it sounds like you’ve been clear with your partner, it also sounds like you’ve been vague with your bonus boyfriend in the hope that he … do what exactly? Pick up on your subliminal suggestion and think it was his idea to break things off with you? Or maybe you hope your partner — who doesn’t want this thing to end — will do the dirty work and let your bonus boyfriend know it’s over?
Sorry, KIND, but you’re gonna have to do this yourself. You don’t have to be mean, but you have to be blunt: “I’m sorry, but this is over. I don’t want to see you anymore.”
Regarding your partner: You wanna end things with your bonus boyfriend, your partner does not. So, is your partner allowed to keep seeing this boy on his own? Or is your partner required to break up with him too? You obviously can’t be expected to keep seeing/fucking some boy you don’t wanna see/fuck anymore, KIND, because that wouldn’t be fair to you. But your partner may feel like having to break things off with this boy just because you don’t wanna see/fuck him anymore isn’t fair to him — or fair to this boy, whose feelings matter too. If you and your partner have an “only play with and/or date other boys together” rule, you may need to revisit it. Whether you wind up revising it or recommitting to it is ultimately up to you and your partner. Good luck.
I’m a 33-year-old gay male in a monogamous relationship for three years. The other night I went to a dance festival with two friends who are a hot gay couple. As the night went on, I was in an increasingly altered state of mind. I told my boyfriend earlier that I would come to his place after the festival. However, I did not do that. I went back to my friends’ place with the intention of possibly having sex with them. We did not have sex. We didn’t even kiss. All we did was cuddle while watching RuPaul’s Drag Race. I have a tremendous amount of guilt over this because I did not tell my boyfriend. I don’t know if I should tell him. I do not want to break his heart. He was already upset with me for not telling him I was going back to my friends’ place. Is this something that I should keep to myself in order to protect his feelings? Or should I tell him in order to relieve myself of this guilt that I feel? Please help. I feel like I just ruined a good relationship. ALMOST CHEATED DIDN’T CHEAT
You went out dancing with a hot gay couple, you did a bunch of drugs, and then instead of going back to your boyfriend’s place as promised, ACDC, you went back to this hot couple’s place. Now, I believe you when you say nothing happened — not even a kiss — because you have no reason to lie to me. But your boyfriend, who suspects something happened that night, knows you have cause to lie to him, which makes him less likely to believe that nothing happened. And when you think about it … which you’ve outsourced to me … something did happen that night: You decided to cheat on your boyfriend, and you almost did cheat on him. Not cheating isn’t cheating, of course, but deciding to cheat and almost cheating isn’t nothing.
So, you’re gonna have to tell him what happened that night, ACDC, which means telling him what happened and/or almost happened.
Once it’s all out in the open, ACDC, you could try to convince your boyfriend that what happened that night was a good sign. After all, you honored your monogamous commitment when it mattered most: when you were seriously tempted. You were alone with two hot men, you were high and horny, but you didn’t — despite means, motive, and opportunity — go through with it, which means your boyfriend can trust you! Or you could admit to your boyfriend that, even though you honored your monogamous commitment that night, going home with a hot couple fully intending to have sex with them — fully intending to seize the opportunity — means you can’t trust yourself. Yes, you resisted temptation and watched Drag Race instead… but you only barely resisted temptation, ACDC, and odds are good you’ll succumb to temptation the next time you’re high and horny.
And there will be a next time.
It’s the kind of conversation that ends or transforms a relationship — the stakes are high — but your relationship is likelier to survive a brutally honest conversation before you’ve cheated than it is to survive the inevitable after-you’ve-cheated confrontation.
I think it is time for another contest. What should come up when a person Googles “Elon Musk?”
THE NAME GAME
“Susan Crawford.”
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