8 minute read
A Co-Op for the Community by Nikolai Mather
EMPLOYEES AT WEAVER STREET MARKET HAVE SHARES IN THE COMPANY, AS WELL.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LOYD VISUALS
The co-op grocery store model came about partly as a resistance to that trend. Farmers, food sellers and customers alike grew dissatisfied with the control that big supermarkets exercised over their livelihoods and choices. Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, several co-op grocery stores sprouted up throughout North Carolina, including Greensboro’s Deep Roots in 1976 and Asheville’s French Broad Food in 1975.
“As members, they maintained the building where their groceries were, they negotiated with wholesalers so that they could provide more funds for the community. In many of the original co-ops, people that shopped there also worked there,” Jeffers said. “Of course, this is different now.”
Weaver Street’s co-op membership, which comes with a one-time payment of $75, still ensures the right to vote in board elections and run for board seats. But aside from some free swag and a owners-only weekly deal (at the time of writing, it’s 20% off soup!), the current benefits are a far cry from how it once was.
“Now there has become a sort of industrial complex around some of these entities because now they have purchasing power,” Jeffers explained. “They have multiple locations. The kind of folks who are able to sustain this still have a degree of privilege and wealth.”
But Jeffers doesn’t think that necessarily discounts HWEP’s efforts.
“What’s great is that West End Partners is attempting to have community conversations about what this means. What I do hope West End Partners does is put a class and ability lens on this and see it’s not enough to just bring in this entity that’s known for co-ops of mostly white members in mostly white neighborhoods.” In recent years, Weaver Street has tried to shed its affluent image in favor of something more inclusive. In 2020, four Weaver Street employees formed the E.Q.U.I.T.Y. Alliance, a group attempting to address racism and diversity in the co-op’s wholesalers, products and employees. One project, the Game Changers program, is a move to bring in more products made by non-white sellers, which in 2020 made up less than 4% of the co-op’s total sales. Weaver Street also brought in a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant in July 2020 and strengthened partnerships with Black-led farming organizations like the Black Farmers Market and First Fruits Farm. Adjusting a historically white model to a historically Black neighborhood is a challenge. Jeffers believes that with careful consideration of the community’s needs, HWEP can meet it. “I would challenge [Weaver Street], especially knowing that they want to partner with a historically Black community that is hoping to practice economic equity for Black people, that they allow this Black community to have a little bit more say in everything – from what people get paid to what they put on the shelves.” It’s important to note that there is not yet any formal agreement between the official Weaver Street Market and HWEP, and the latter may simply aim to borrow ideas from the former.
Options and choices
Giving the West End a say is exactly what Gene Flavors is trying to do. Flavors, who is the director of this project, moved to west Charlotte five years ago to live in the neighborhood where his wife grew up.
“We got involved in the community … but there were some things that we felt like the community needed,” he said. “The number one thing anyone will say to you is, ‘Man, we don’t have a grocery store.’”
Adams and Flavors are trying to gauge how to make the Weaver Street model work for the west side. Their work starts with community conversations — Zoom meetings, group sessions, and so on — to get feedback and answer questions about this project’s potential.
Currently, HWEP is planning a series of outreach efforts to see what community members would like out of this process. The research will not only impact where the store will be located but what the prices and inventory might look like.
Affordability is a crucial part of the project. Weaver Street accepts SNAP and EBT – it’s even possible to purchase a membership using food stamps. But there still remain major barriers to accessibility.
Flavors points out that transportation may play a role in that.
“Affordability is important, but so is the ability to get [to the co-op.] The transportation, the trolley, the buses, walkability — we want all that to improve so people can get there,” he said. “If it’s something they can’t get to, then providing it doesn’t mean a whole lot.”
I asked Adams about how she planned to ensure a grocery store like this would remain affordable.
“I have to say: When we talk about affordability, we talk about people that have income challenges. Even in that situation we all treat ourselves at one time or another with something, and I assure you that electronics and grooming experiences cost more than $75,” she said. “So again, we’re back to life choices. You can save money and buy processed food at Walmart and make sure that you have additional money for electronics or clothing or grooming products, or you can decide that you wanna eat healthy and live longer. We all are making decisions. I am going to hold us all accountable for the choices we all make.”
As the HWEP sees it, Weaver Street Market is the community’s best option, one that organizers believe has the potential to reshape and restabilize the community. But in order for that to happen, it must serve the community as a whole.
NMATHER@QCNERVE.COM
THE ART OF ABNKSY: WITHOUT LIMITS Photo by Grant Baldwin
Ongoing
ONGOING
THE ART OF BANKSY: WITHOUT LIMITS
Anonymous artist, activist and anti-capitalist Banksy creates iconic work in public spaces, and he opposes “The Art of Banksy” and other gallery exhibits like it. At the same time, Banksy admits that he’s “not the best person to complain about people putting up pictures without permission.” So, should you grab what could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see groundbreaking work, when the artist would rather you didn’t? Perhaps the creator of “Flower Thrower,” Banksy’s mural depicting a Palestinian hurling a bouquet of flowers like a hand grenade, would appreciate the irony. More: $27.20; ongoing, times vary; Avid Xchange/ Silver Hammer Studios, 817 Hamilton St.; artofbanksy.com/charlotte
MARCH3/9-3/10
MIKE BIRBIGLIA
It’s a cliché to compare comedy to rock ‘n’ roll, but in Mike Birbiglia’s case it’s true — just replace “rock ‘n’ roll” with juggling. Whether he’s recounting how he was almost forced to pay damages to a motorist who nearly killed him or comparing the urge to have kids with getting infected by a toxic zombie’s bite, Birbiglia keeps conceptual balls in the air before casually paying off all his disparate story stands in one big satisfying joke. Those moments when he lets his surrealist everyman mask slip to release a kraken’s sting of outrage are comic gold. More: $49 and up; March 9-10, 7 p.m., 9:30 p.m.; Booth Playhouse, 130 N Tryon St.; blumenthalarts.org
MIKE BIRBIGLIA Promotional photo
3/9-3/10
THUR 3/10
ANDREW LEVENTIS: CONTEMPORARY VANITIES OPENING CELEBRATION
Charlotte artist and UNC Charlotte associate professor of painting Andrew Leventis discusses his installation for Constellation CLT, a series designed to connect museum visitors to artists in the community through exhibits that rotate three times per year. With his Refrigerator series, Leventis explores the value of objects through still-life oils, in this case filtered through the global pandemic, specifically food hoarding and shortages. “The paintings reflect on the mass panic induced by the COVID-19 virus, and how the idea of ‘stocking up’ became a crucial and even primal response,” Leventis says. More: Free; March 10, 5:30 p.m.; Mint Museum Uptown, 500 S. Tryon St.; mintmuseum.org
THUR3/10 MARCH 3/11-3/26 SAT3/12
SASAMI, ZULU
On the cover of her latest album Squeeze, Sasami Ashworth is depicted as the Japanese folk spirit called Nure-onna, a vampiric deity with the head of a woman and the body of a snake. Astride jackhammer drumming and blown out guitars, Ashworth sings in warm swarming hive harmonies on single “Make it Right,” which boasts a video depicting a severe-looking Ashworth trailing her own doppelganger. In the mechanistic “Say It,” Ashworth’s seething voice is demonic and downpitched over metal-on-metal percussion. The video is yet another nightmare image — an entity that is part woman/part flaming arachnid. More: $13; March 10, 8 p.m.; Snug Harbor, 1228 Gordon St.; snugrock.com
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and no one feels fine. Three Bone Theatre co-founder Robin Tynes-Miller directs playwright Lucy Kirkwood’s chilling and darkly funny disaster drama. Nuclear physicists and long-married couple Robin and Hazel make the best of it in a shabby seaside cottage, to weather earthquakes, tsunamis and a nuclear meltdown at the nearby power plant where they once worked. When former colleague Rose shows up unexpectedly after 38 years, a romantic triangle is rekindled among the retirement-age scientists, but Kirkwood is after bigger dramatic game. More: $10-$30; March 11-26; The Arts Factory at West End Studios, 1545 W. Trade St.; threebonetheatre.com
BARONESS
Early in its career, Savannah DIY metal band Baroness was filed away in the doom metal category, but maybe like presumed metalheads Opeth and Ghost, they’ve just been closet prog rockers all along. The band continues to rely on a whiplash-inducing mix of styles, tied together with thundering percussion, but the music has gotten more complex, melodic and prog. Their 2019 release Gold & Grey summoned comparisons to such disparate influences as King Crimson, The Cure and Killing Joke. This tour is a fancurated run, with the band giving each ticketholder a login to craft and vote on the set list. More: $60; March 12, 7 p.m.; The Milestone, 400 Tuckaseegee Rd.; themilestone.club
