SouthPark April 2021 by SouthParkMag

LOVE IN VERONA COLLECTION

B E CAU S E W H E N DAYS B E G I N L I K E T H I S , YO U ’ V E A L R E A DY WO N.

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FROM THE EDITOR

CATHY MARTIN EDITOR

editor@southparkmagazine.com

SOUTHPARK

e were optimistic when we planned this issue, which shares a few fun ideas for day trips and weekend getaways — and aren’t we all ready for that. We were hopeful about vaccine rollouts, looser Covid restrictions, and a safer environment for venturing beyond the backyard. At press time, things seem to be moving in the right direction. On the personal side, I was also optimistic, booking a weeklong family vacation later this spring. But I’m not sure I’ll be able to go. Our family dog, Leo, is getting older. Working from home over the last year, it’s been easy to give him a little extra TLC. His longtime dogsitter retired a year ago, and I won’t bore you with the depressing details, but he’s now reached the point where he needs a little more attention than a couple of short walks, a nice pat on the head and a check to see if his water bowl is full. We brought Leo home 14 years ago, two weeks before Easter, when my youngest was in kindergarten. For spring break, while all our friends were on vacation, we stayed home and trained a puppy. We’ll go to the beach later, we told the kids. Despite a few worrisome episodes in his younger years, when he’d work himself into a frenzy and chase the neighborhood kids, he has been, arguably, the best dog in Charlotte. About a year ago, we unofficially diagnosed him with “doggie dementia.” He’ll sleep for long stretches during the day, but after midnight, the pacing begins. Sometimes, he’ll beg impatiently, looking up with those imploring brown eyes, then suddenly forget what he wanted to begin with. Often, we’ll find him asleep on the floor in a strange corner or spot. He doesn’t move around well anymore, either. When he started having trouble with stairs, we built him a ramp. Twice, we thought we’d lost him. In late 2019, he spent a couple of nights at the animal hospital with a terrible infection — to this day, the vet still marvels at his remarkable recovery. Six months ago, he was so listless one afternoon, I told my coworkers I’d need to take the rest of the day off. I drove him to the vet in tears, certain he wouldn’t be coming home with me. Not so fast, the vet said, just a bad reaction to a new medication. We changed the prescription, and he bounced back. I know many of you reading this might be shaking your heads, bewildered that I’d even consider postponing a vacation because I’m worried about leaving my senior dog home alone. “Dogs have given us their absolute all,” wrote the late author and TV personality Roger Caras. “We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made.” I’ll stand by it — having a dog (even a cat, I love both!) is worth every minute of the inevitable grief and heartache. Just the other day, scrolling on Instagram, I saw a picture of a friend’s new puppies, and I knew right away that, one day, my house will again be filled with that wild, exuberant energy. Besides, we can always go to the beach later. SP

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April

DEPARTMENTS 21 | Blvd. Emily Rolewicz’s closet with a view; Traci Zeller sets the design world aflutter; uptown’s cheese speakeasy; first look at DTR SouthPark; City Farm Foods gets its jam on; N.C. artist Richard Wilson bridges the gap; Roof Above redoubles efforts to combat homelessness in the Queen City

59 | Simple life My wife’s secret life

65 | The road home The roller coaster of pandemic parenting

69 | Bookshelf Notable new releases

104 | Swirl Parties, fundraisers and events

112 | Gallery Gillian Stevens’ lucky charms

84 ABOUT THE COVER Sydney Farris photographed by Olly Yung on location at Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mill, S.C. Styling and production by Whitley Adkins; hair and makeup by Elizabeth Tolley; photography assistant Victoria Pinson. Aish Shalini top from Five One Five, $200; Eugenia Kim hat and Kristin Hayes Jewelry wishbone earrings, stylist’s own. Vintage 1979 International Harvester Scout II courtesy of Trudi Norris.

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FEATURES 74 | History made modern A new Dilworth house checks all the boxes for a familyfriendly and stylish home.

82 | Of space and time Artist Maja Godlewska’s newest works invite viewers to slow down and connect with art and nature.

88 | Ready to roam Driving-distance day trips to enjoy the great outdoors.

92 | Off the beaten path Head to Bryson City for a big vacation in a small town.

94 | Island time Daufuskie Island is a less-explored place with a diverse and complex history.

98 | 2021 Legal Elite Top Charlotte lawyers in selected specialties.

74 16

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1230 West Morehead St., Suite 308 Charlotte, NC 28208 704-523-6987 southparkmagazine.com _______________ Ben Kinney Publisher publisher@southparkmagazine.com Cathy Martin Editor editor@southparkmagazine.com Andie Rose Art Director Lauren M. Coffey Graphic Designer Alyssa Rocherolle Graphic Designer Whitley Adkins Style Editor

A TRADITION OF KNOWLEDGE AND TRUST

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Invites You To Attend A Virtual Event Benefiting Children and Families:

Hope Lives in A Place To Call Home THURSDAY, APRIL 22 | 7PM More than anything right now, we believe that the world needs hope. The communities we serve are filled with some of the most inspiring children and families we’ve ever met, with stories of resiliency, perseverance, and hope. Join us for a memorable virtual event to share in a few of these heartwarming stories and to celebrate family and the hope that lives in a place to call home.

Sharon Smith Marketing Specialist Brad Beard Graphic Designer _______________ Letters to the editorial staff: editor@southparkmagazine.com Instagram: southparkmagazine Facebook: facebook.com/southparkmagazine Twitter: twitter.com/SouthParkMag

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Volume 25, Issue 4

Smiles so gorgeous, you’ll want to broadcast them to the world

Actual Patient

Sheri Lynch, national radio personality, flashes a smile designed just for her by Dr. Patrick Broome. Your custom smile is waiting at Charlotte Center for Cosmetic Dentistry. Visit destinationsmile.com for our virtual consultation options or call 704-364-4711.

Human stories built of metal and stone

On view through July 25 Mint Museum Uptown

Boundaries, both real and imagined, surround us. The Mint Museum presents a striking exhibition that explores artistic, social, political, and historical barriers central to human history. 132 photographs. 67 makers. 5 continents.

Photography Exhibition made possible by Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Space for Photography, Los Angeles, California. W|ALLS: Defend, Divide, and the Divine at The Mint Museum is generously presented by PNC Bank, with support from the Mint Museum Auxiliary, Laura and Mike Grace, LeighAnn and Martin Sprock, and Betsy Rosen and Liam Stokes. IMAGE: Carol Guzy. Albanian refugee camp, March 3, 1999. © 1999, Carol Guzy/The Washington Post

mintmuseum.org

blvd. People. Places. Things.

POP SHOP

Warmer weather calls for cool treats. Opening this month in South End is Morelia Gourmet Paletas, offering 16 mouthwatering flavors of Mexican paletas, or popsicles. Larger than traditional popsicles, the handmade treats blend ingredients such as Italian gelato, French sorbet and fresh fruit, from pineapple to mango to passionfruit. Also called Paletas Morelia, the shop’s array of frozen flavors includes coconut, Sicilian pistachio, Belgian chocolate, dulce de leche and more. Dip your paleta in white or dark chocolate, crunchy hazelnut, cookie butter or torched marshmallow (!) and personalize your pop with a variety of toppings. The original Paletas Morelia opened in Miami in 2016 — the Charlotte store is its first U.S. expansion beyond the Sunshine State. 1425 Winnifred St., #104, paletasmorelia.com SP

southparkmagazine.com | 21

blvd. | style

CLOSET CRUSH:

Emily Rolewicz BY WHITLEY ADKINS

PHOTOGRAPHS BY AMY KOLO

eal-estate developer Emily Rolewicz appreciates nice things, but she admits she’s thrifty, too. “I am very conscious about [spending]. I always say to my husband or kids, we didn’t get to where we are by spending all of our money stupidly.” Rolewicz, who grew up on a farm near Winston-Salem and went to college at Virginia Tech, and her husband, Jamie, own Cornelius-based JMR Construction. While commercial development is the bread and butter of their business, Rolewicz says she also enjoys custom residential development, which includes a recent 15,000-square-foot house, as well as her own lakefront home. In her closet, Rolewicz worked with Charlottebased Closet & Storage Concepts to design the cabinetry. “I knew I wanted an island of some sort, but because the closet wasn’t deep enough for a true walk-around island, we came up with a peninsula.” The mother of two has a couple of rules when it comes to shopping: “Number one, I have to love it, and number two, I also make sure I get a deal on it. I buy things that I’ll wear for years to come. Especially anything high-end or classic, I search eBay or Poshmark, because if it’s only been worn once, what do I care?” Comments have been edited for length and clarity. How do you describe your personal style? Maybe a little country, a little rock ’n roll. I’m very much a tomboy, but then I also realize my body is very womanly — so even though I’m a tomboy, I want to show that off. Do you have a uniform? All summer I rock a midi skirt, Golden Goose [sneakers] and a T-shirt. And in the winter, jeans

SOUTHPARK

Cutline: Emily picks her jeans for the day by the pockets, so her motherin-law came up with this clever system for hanging them. “Additionally, you can put boots and hats below it, which makes the space more usable.”

blvd. | style

Rolewicz picks her jeans for the day by the pockets, so her motherin-law came up with this clever system for hanging them, below. “Additionally, you can put boots and hats below it, which makes the space more usable.”

and a sweater, or maybe camo pants, a sweater and jean jacket. Also, I love overalls — I carry a tape measure [and other items] for work, so I love pockets. I’ve tried to wear boots, but I walk like 70 flights of stairs a day. What do you wear for date night? Date nights are my time to be creative. Sometimes I wear jeans, but most of the time I wear a dress or maybe a skirt. My husband hates rompers, but I love them. In the winter, I always wear a heeled boot. In the summer, always a heel — sometimes a wedge, but always with a heel. Go-to shopping sites: eBay, Poshmark and Tradesy. The majority of my Golden Goose [shoes] are second hand. I mean they’re dirty when you buy them in the first place! On that genius laundry setup in her closet: I give my husband credit for the washer and dryer in the closet, and it’s the best thing we ever did. My stuff never leaves unless it goes to the dry cleaner. It’s so convenient — I don’t have to carry laundry anymore! That’s my best pitch for putting a washer and dryer in your closet. On designing for your wardrobe: As a builder, from a design perspective, it’s important to think about what you have and what you are working toward. When I built this, I was still wearing suits all the time, but I knew it wasn’t going to be that way forever, so I tried to keep that in mind. Other than my shoes, I don’t like seeing stuff. I don’t want to have to fold my sweaters really pretty, so that’s why I have lots of doors. And my stylist, Brittany Newcomb (Instagram @bnoblestyled), has worked really hard in here to make the space visually nice.

southparkmagazine.com | 23

blvd. | style

THIS OR THAT Boots or sneakers? Sneakers Heels or flats? At night, heels — I love heels. Tote or clutch? Actually, I would really prefer neither. I literally keep an ID in my husband’s wallet, and I’ll leave my phone in the car. A crossbody or clutch if I must. Favorite accessories Sunglasses, because we live on the lake. All summer, I change my sunglasses depending on what I’m wearing. I don’t love jewelry that much — I’ll switch out my earrings, but other than that, I don’t really wear much jewelry. I wear a diamond tennis bracelet when it’s dressy, and I have a casual Rolex and a dressy watch. Go-to clothing designers Does Zara count? I love Zara, and Ulla Johnson, Zimmerman and Sea New York. Shoe designers I love Jimmy Choo, Alexandre Birman, Paris Texas and Tamara Mellon. For a lower price point, Steve Madden really does a good job. My favorites are my Jimmy Choos with a gold-bronze metallic fish-scale wrap around the ankle, and a Dee Keller cow-print pair. Purse designer Alexander McQueen and Louis Vuitton, though nothing mainstream. SP

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blvd. | interiors

Wit and whimsy TRACI ZELLER DESIGNS A “GOSSIP ROOM” WITH 3-D BIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES AND PARISIAN ACCENTS.

BY CATHY MARTIN • PHOTOGRAPHS BY STEPHEN KARLISCH

raci Zeller had the design community all aflutter last fall with her butterfly-themed “gossip room” at the prestigious Kips Bay Decorator Show House in Dallas. “The room was labeled ‘vestibule’ on the home’s floor plans, but a vestibule certainly isn’t exciting, and it also leaves the space without a true function,” says Zeller, who also designed the adjacent powder room. A brainstorming session with a close friend led to the clever new moniker for the space. So what exactly is a “gossip” room? Zeller explains. “I’m more of an introverted personality, and if I need a little break from a party, I’ll often excuse myself for a quiet moment — I’m especially delighted if there’s a lounge area adjacent to the restrooms. Plus, we all know girlfriends travel to the restroom together, especially at social events. That’s our chance to catch up without people within earshot!” For the walls, Zeller chose Bassett McNab’s “Birds and Butterfly” fabric, hung as a wallcovering and embellished with butterflies, birds and flowers embroidered by Charlotte artist Stephen Wilson and his team, creating a unique 3-D effect. “Stephen already creates art installations using beautifully detailed embroidered butterflies, and it occurred to me that I could treat the entire room as a canvas for one of those installations — plus birds and flowers, of course,” the interior designer says. The project was such a success, Zeller and Wilson are now contemplating a 3-D wallpaper collaboration. Sitting atop the tassel fringe-trimmed banquette are pillows in a bold graffiti fabric hand-painted by N.A.S.T.Y., a Paris-based artist. “I love the juxtaposition between the old and slightly crusty nature of antiques and the youthful insouciance of graffiti,” Zeller says. The gold cocktail table with an acrylic shadow-box top from Tommy Mitchell is filled with more butterflies. Zeller found the oversized intaglios at a French antiques fair, then had them framed at Art Aspects. The table lamp and vanity mirror are crafted of rock crystal by a small lighting studio in Paris. The showhouse fundraiser, which benefits the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club of New York, was started in New York City in 1973 and has since expanded to Palm Beach and, in 2020, Dallas. Participating designers are selected from across the country and assigned rooms by lottery. “Designing a room in a Kips Bay showhouse is a career highlight for any designer,” Zeller says. “While I may have had the smallest space in the house, I think it packed a big punch.” SP

SOUTHPARK

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blvd. | cuisine

Charlotte's ‘cheese speakeasy’ RACLETTE NIGHT AT ORRMAN’S CHEESE SHOP ENDURES THROUGH THE PANDEMIC. BY BEN JARRELL • PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUSTIN DRISCOLL

n a Thursday evening in March, it’s 6:45 and getting dark. Maybe you have the wrong place, you wonder, approaching the locked door. “Is there a password? How do I get in?” Glass doors swing open, and a smiling face puts your worries to rest. Welcome to the “cheese speakeasy” at Orrman’s Cheese Shop inside uptown’s 7th Street Public Market. Orrman’s owner Rachel Klebaur coined the phrase. “I remember going to clubs in New York — that’s what it reminds me of. Your name needed to be on the list,” Klebaur says. Selling cheese during the pandemic has been difficult. Rolling with the shutdown of the market in mid-March last year, the kitchen closed up shop for three months, and Klebaur turned exclusively to retail sales. “I had a large cheese sale before everything went into lockdown to get rid of inventory,” Klebaur says, continuing with a sentiment familiar to us all. “I didn’t know what was going to happen next.” But normalcy is returning. Retail is open, and the kitchen is 28

SOUTHPARK

back up and running. And Orrman’s famous Raclette Night is still the place to be on Thursdays. After making your reservation online or over the phone, groups up to eight people can relax at their own table, enjoying wine pairings from Assorted Table Wine Shoppe and (lots) of melted raclette cheese. “It’s safe because of the amount of space we have [at the market],” Klebaur says. “Racletters” can socially distance while enjoying melted cheese scraped over plates of potatoes, along with slices of baguettes from Tribeca Oven, a bakery south of Manhattan in Carlstadt, N.J. Tickets are $19, with an option to add charcuterie — typically salami or smoked cured meat like speck, similar to prosciutto — for an additional three bucks (do it). A small side salad, cornichons and Lusty Monk mustard out of Asheville accompany the plate. A chocolate pot de crème caps the meal, made in-house by Klebaur’s husband, Chef Jose. Traditionally from the Alps region that straddles the border between France and Switzerland, raclette is a pungent-smelling yet mild tasting cheese that melts exceptionally well. It’s believed that shepherds, huddled around a campfire, would enjoy the melted

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blvd. | cuisine

raclette over potatoes for a calorie-dense meal before another day tending their flocks. Raclette is a complex cheese that doesn’t match its aroma. Each week the selection is different. Some boast nutty or grassy notes, while others remind the senses of sweet spring onions. But, stepping inside the market, you’ll know it’s raclette night. To cut through the richness, Klebaur recommends a “bright, lively wine” from the same region. Josh Villapando of Assorted Table Wine Shoppe concurs. “Dry, good acid encourages salivation and cuts through lingering fat of raclette. I dig Savoie Cuvée Gastronomie ($15.99). Celine, our GM and wine fairy, prefers Apremont ($17.99),” Villapando adds. “If it grows together, it goes together,” Klebaur says, echoing the old adage. Raclette-style cheeses are being produced in the U.S. as well. Klebaur points to one of her favorites, Reading cheese out of Spring Brook Farm in Vermont, which is made in the same style as the Alpine varieties. Klebaur has tasted mountains of cheese since her days in culinary school in New York. It was during her stints at cheese shops from the now defunct Lucy’s Whey inside New York City’s Chelsea Market and Murray’s Cheese, with locations in the West Village and Grand Central Station, when Klebaur developed her lasting love of cheese. “Working at these places, I was able to taste hundreds of different cheeses.” She and Jose moved their family to Charlotte in 2012 after hearing about a new food hall looking for vendors. Now fully open for business, it seems Orrman’s has weathered the storm. Working with Assorted Table, virtual wine and cheese pairings run every other Wednesday at 6 p.m. Klebaur also works with the wine shop with deliveries to uptown and surrounding neighborhoods. Customers unable to visit the cheese case in person can schedule a Zoom call, where Rachel or one of her cheesemongers will assist with selections. “Rachel is a longtime vendor and found some magic in Raclette Night,” says Chris Clouden, executive director at 7th Street Public Market. “While capacity restrictions make it impossible to host this and operate normally during regular business hours, we didn’t want her to shut them down all together.” So, leaders worked with Klebaur, allowing her to host the events after-hours in a Covid-safe environment. “We are North Carolina's first food hall, but the thing that really makes us special are businesses like Orrman’s,” Clouden adds. “Our goal is to celebrate and support the small businesses in any way possible.” SP Orrman’s Cheese Shop is open for in-store shopping and curbside pickup Tuesday-Sunday (hours vary). Raclette Night is reservation-only, with seatings at 6, 6:45 and 7:30 p.m. orrmanscheeseshop.com

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blvd. | cuisine

Wine down at DTR SouthPark FIRST LOOK: DILWORTH TASTING ROOM SOUTHPARK BY CATHY MARTIN

SOUTHPARK

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHAD WHITTINGTON

affer Kovic developed a passion for wine while studying hotel administration and finance at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He’d planned to go into casinos, but that all changed while he was in school. “I took a wine class and fell in love, and that was it.” The Buffalo, N.Y., native honed his skills working under a couple of master sommeliers in Las Vegas, and later with the Del Frisco’s restaurant group. When he came to Charlotte to assist with Del Frisco’s opening in 2007, the Queen City made quite an impression. Nearly a decade later, Kovic decided to move to Charlotte with his wife and two children, opening Dilworth Tasting Room on Tremont Avenue in 2017. The 1940s building that was once home to Dilworth Billiards is known for its wine selection, craft cocktails and intimate courtyard that’s appeared on just about every “best patio” list in town. Now, after a two-and-a-half-year search for the right location, Kovic has brought DTR to SouthPark. Kovic estimates he looked at 100 places before the former Corkbuzz spot opened up at Sharon Square. After a renovation to make the space lighter, brighter and more inviting, DTR SouthPark opened Feb. 1. “For this location, I wanted it to be more modern,” he says. “I wanted something clean, fresh and bright.” Kovic is bullish on SouthPark — it’s a red-hot part of town, with new upscale apartments, retail and offices popping up all around. He’s also betting that people living in south Charlotte will be slow to return to uptown offices as the city gradually awakens from a Covid-induced coma. In the bar area, a large, curved leather sectional invites guests to settle in and stay for a while. Light bentwood bistro chairs give the 123-seat dining room a casual vibe, while blue tufted banquettes, hanging plants and moss art add pops of color. Fans of the original DTR might miss the

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10810 Southern Loop Blvd, Suite #8 Pineville, NC 28134

When QUALITY Matters

blvd. | cuisine courtyard with its koi pond and string lights, but DTR SouthPark has its own 63-seat patio that’s sure to draw a crowd as the pandemic subsides. With a larger kitchen than its original Dilworth location, Chef Jonathan Shuler is able to offer a more well-rounded menu for lunch and dinner. Shuler joined DTR in 2019 after a year at ROCKSALT, and Kovic has left most of the menu development to him. An exception is Grandma’s Stuffed Peppers with chipotle aioli and chimichurri: The dish is based on Kovic’s grandmother’s recipe with Shuler’s Latin flair — his mother is from Puerto Rico — and has already become a customer favorite. Snack on house-roasted nuts, truffle fries or cheese and charcuterie while sipping craft cocktails from bar manager Chad Whittington or a selection from the 400-bottle wine list. The crispy pork belly is slow-braised and served over a simple Brussels sprouts slaw for a lighter than expected appetizer. If you’re hungry for something with a bit more heft, try the grilled octopus with fingerling potatoes. For a heartier meal, you might try the hanger steak with sweet potato-and-Brussels sprout hash or honey-glazed salmon with vegetable fried rice. Zucchini “scallops” — seared zucchini medallions served over gnocchi with mushrooms and parmesan — is such a flavorful dish you won’t miss the mollusks. In a high-rent part of town where many of the restaurants are well-financed corporate chains, it’s nice to see another homegrown business putting down roots. With Shuler’s balanced menu of snacks,

shareables and heartier entrees, a stellar cocktail program and extensive wine list, we’re pretty sure the neighbors will drink to that. SP DTR SouthPark is open for lunch Monday through Friday and dinner seven days a week. DTR’s popular Tuesday night wine flights are offered at the SouthPark location as well: Purchase a flight of wine and get a complimentary deconstructed cheese and charcuterie plate. Sunday brunch will debut at a later date, and the restaurant has a private event space seats 30. For more information and hours, visit dilworthtr.com

Thomas McNickle The Pond On View Through April 24

625 South Sharon Amity Road Charlotte, NC 28211 704-365-3000 gallery@jeraldmelberg.com www.jeraldmelberg.com M-F 10-6 Sat 10-4 WILLOW POND-SEPTEMBER, 2020 Oil on Canvas, 30 x 30 inches

SOUTHPARK

Floor Model Sale

Shop our floor model sale at Queen City Home Store as we make room for over $250,000 in new CR Laine products arriving soon! 11501 Carolina Place Parkway, Pineville, NC 28134

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Monday - Saturday 9am-7pm | Sunday Noon-6pm

blvd. | makers

Getting her jam on SUSAN DI ZEREGA BLENDS FAMILIAR AND UNEXPECTED FLAVORS IN CITY FARM FOODS’ FRUIT SPREADS AND JAMS. BY MICHAEL J. SOLENDER

WHERE TO BUY: City Farm Foods’ products start at $6 and are sold at retailers including CLT Find at 7th Street Public Market, Reid’s Fine Foods, Mere’s and online at cityfarmfoods.com. Gift sets, samplers and individual jars can be shipped to all 50 states. Find news about pop-up markets, recipes and pairing suggestions at the website or on Instagram @cityfarmfoods. 36

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PHOTOGRAPHS BY REMY THURSTON

ll it took for Susan di Zerega to transition from a career navigating corporate boardrooms to handcrafting delectable fruit spreads was a little inspiration, a global pandemic and childhood memories of her mother’s strawberry-rhubarb jam. In 2017, after di Zerega came up empty looking for just the right gift for her stepdaughter’s schoolteacher, she created a personalized gift basket including homemade jam inspired by preserves she enjoyed as a child. “I love to cook and started making jam to share as gifts for family and friends,” says di Zerega, a former technology executive and consultant. “They were so well received, I was encouraged to start a ‘side hustle’ selling jams, fruit spreads (with a slightly higher sugar-to-fruit ratio than jam) and pie filling at retail and online.” City Farm Foods was born, with di Zerega cooking up small batches of jams with tasty combinations like blackberry mint, strawberry balsamic and blueberry lemon. With demand soaring last year, she left her corporate gig to get her jam on full time. “I saw an increase in sales of more than 130% in 2020,” says di Zerega, who makes her wares out of a local commercial kitchen. “It’s very satisfying to hear from people who love the products and share with me how they use them. I’ve expanded into charcuterie board kits and love to suggest various jams for pairings that go well with cheeses and smoked meats.” These sophisticated flavors are adorning much more than toasted bagels, too. City Farm Foods’ jams are delicious slathered on hot biscuits, in yogurt parfaits, as cheesecake toppers or as the base for custom PB&J sandwiches. Her peach-bourbon spread is favored for its smoky back notes and lends a sweet and sultry taste to glazes for grilled ribs. Spiced marcona almonds recently joined City Farm’s offerings to round out the product mix. Handcrafting micro-batches of jam — only about 10 pints each — allows di Zerega to deliver attentive quality control and extra TLC. “People enjoy special flavor blends like orange chili, peach sriracha and apple cinnamon,” di Zerega says, citing the appeal of her jams. Customers can choose from 15 custom-blended flavors. SP

Actual patients of Dr. Joubert

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blvd. | authors

Tween talk CHARLOTTE AUTHOR MICHELLE ICARD’S NEW BOOK IS A GUIDE TO HELP PARENTS TACKLE TOUGH CONVERSATIONS. BY MICHELLE BOUDIN

“I

t was absolutely stunning, like being in a Cinderella tale,” Myers Park mom (and SouthPark contributor) Michelle Icard says of the way publishers went nuts over her second book. Sixty agents rejected her first book, so when her dream agent picked up her latest effort — followed by an all-out bidding war for Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen — Icard was taken aback. “I was just baffled, dazed and delighted.” The book, subtitled The Essential Conversations You Need To Have With Your Kids Before They Start High School, advises parents on what they should be talking about and, perhaps more importantly, how to tackle those tough talks. “It’s a guide that includes everything from what turns kids off when you try to talk to them to how to approach these thorny topics.” Of course, there’s “the talk” we’re all familiar with (the sex talk), but Icard also believes parents should have conversations about money, friendship, creativity, independence and more. Icard has been sharing advice about these conversations for more than two decades. Her leadership curriculum for middle schoolers has been implemented at schools across the country, and her summer-camp curriculum is offered at 20 camps. Icard went to college to become a teacher but instead went to work in corporate America. “I was always finding ways to teach, even there,” she says. “I was always coming up with reasons we needed manuals. I love to explain things.” She landed at the accounting firm Arthur Andersen but lost her job in the massive Enron scandal in 2002. While figuring out her next steps, she started tutoring middle-school kids and realized the most rewarding part of the sessions wasn’t so much the teaching but the listening. “The kids were talking to me about the social and mental parts of middle school that they were dealing with,” she recalls. That’s when the mother of two realized her passion for working with teens. She published her first book, Middle School Makeover, in 2014, guiding parents through that time when middle school

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and midlife meet under one roof and illustrating how both kids and adults can not only survive but thrive during these years. In her latest book, Icard says she wanted to give parents a universal way to talk to tweens about anything. “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. That’s one of the biggest things I hear from parents — they don’t know how to talk about suicide or other big topics — and this model gives you a format to follow, and that’s comforting.” She calls it the BRIEF Model: Begin peacefully, Relate to your child, Interview them, Echo what you’re hearing and give Feedback. “It’s really about building a relationship and showing your kid that you can be trusted and developing that trust over a series of talks, so when your kid is in high school and the world gets bigger and they’re faced with more challenging situations, they can come to you. Your job as a parent is to keep the door open, and your kids’ job is to shut it… so you just have to keep trying to figure out how to balance the two.” The original plan to promote the book included traveling to schools and speaking to parents across the country. Covid canceled that, but Icard believes something good has come out of the pandemic because parents and kids are spending more time than usual at home together. “A friend was reading an advance copy and told me she’d normally be trying to squeeze in a chat between baseball, dinner and homework. But there’s more time for meaningful engagement — you’re not trying to cram it in.” Icard is also working on an online course companion for the book that will include Buzzfeed-style quizzes and conversation prompts. “It’s one thing to read a parenting book, but this is another tool to get started. It’s all geared toward connecting parents and teens.” SP Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen is available at most bookstores, including Park Road Books, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. michelleicard.com

2053 Kings Manor Drive

1400 Sterling Road

Matthews, NC 28104

Charlotte, NC 28209

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Old Foxcroft Amy Peterson 704-533-2090

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Highgate Rebecca Hunter 704-650-4039

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121 Amrita Court

245 Doggett Street

Charlotte, NC 28226

Charlotte, NC 28211

Charlotte, NC 28203

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Clover, SC 29710

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blvd. | fun & games

Game on DURING LAST YEAR’S LOCKDOWN, TWO CARD-PLAYING COUPLES INVENTED A GAME OF THEIR OWN.

BY PAGE LEGGETT

he Scotts and the Bludsworths love game night. Donna Scott and her husband, Wes, and Tonya Bludsworth played a lot of cards in college. Tonya’s husband, Chuck, was the only non-gamer of the group. You know the saying: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Chuck was never going to beat them at cards; he had to join in or miss out. Fortunately, his teachers were kind. “We started with Uno,” says Chuck, a video producer. “We worked our way up to Five Crowns and then moved to Spades and Hearts. But we always came back to Five Crowns. That’s our go-to.” Game night has been a ritual for the couples for years. The Scotts often host, but they’ve also been known to take a deck of cards to their regular haunt, Sir Edmond Halley’s. (Portability is key for a good game, Wes says.) During the lockdown last year, game night became a lifeline. Wes, the group’s technical genius, created a web portal that allowed them to play remotely. One night, Chuck — the reluctant gamer — suggested they create their own game. The idea came to him while he was filming on location and met some part-time inventors. “One guy knew someone who makes $17,000 a month off the game he invented,” Chuck says. When film production shut down last spring, Chuck’s work came to a screeching halt. Suddenly, he had time to research gaming. The group was — Sorry! — game for his idea, but they needed to become immersed in gaming culture if they were going to be successful. So, they moved beyond cards and into board games — Scattergories, Rummikub, Pandemic. (Yes, there’s a board game called Pandemic that Wes bought before Covid-19.)

‘US AGAINST THE GAME’ “This is not a casual game play experience,” Wes says of Pandemic. “There are lots of pieces. It takes a while to set up. I 40

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was concerned I’d never convince anyone to play with me. But then an actual pandemic happened. And we decided we’d form a pod with the Bludsworths. It was just the four of us, and we had a lot of free time.” Pandemic is a “cooperative game,” which means players aren’t competing against each other. They’re fighting the virus — the object is to stop the disease from destroying everything. Chuck knew he wanted their game to be cooperative. The couples were playing Chuck’s prototype one night when Donna suggested dogs as the theme of their game. The Scotts have two Westies, and the Bludsworths have a chocolate lab. “We love our dogs as much as we love playing games,” Donna says. “We figured we needed more of both to get us through this strange time.”

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blvd. | fun & games The four suits in Dogcatcher are a Westie, a yellow Lab, a husky and a lovable mutt. The object is to keep the dogs safe from the dogcatcher.

STACKING THE DECK The lockdown allowed time for game playing — or research and development, as the inventors thought of it. “Chuck and Tonya [a casting director, actress and playwright] were, unfortunately, out of work.” Wes says. “I was working from home. We became each other’s steady dates.” Chuck did the illustrations and design, and everyone worked together on rules and researching a company to produce the game. They gave the prototype to some card-playing friends to test and critique. (They “stacked the deck,” Chuck jokes, by giving the prototype to dog-loving friends.) A Kickstarter campaign last September raised almost twice their goal of $1,250. Work has resumed for all, but the four gamers now have a side business, Teenie Tiny Tiki Games, and they have more games in development. They now understand the elements of a good one. The best games, Wes says, are neither too simplistic (Candyland,

Blue Ranges

for instance) nor too complex. “Bridge sounds fascinating,” he says. “But I don’t play because there are entire books written about it, and you have to join a club. There are a lot of games you either know how to play and you’re in, or you don’t know how to play, and nobody wants to take the time to teach you.” Dogcatcher, billed as “a strategic, trick-taking card game that’s a little bit Hearts, a dash of Spades, a pinch of Uno and a whole pack of DOGS” is neither too easy nor too hard. The fun-loving foursome wanted a game that allowed them to deal a new person in — just in case someone walks in to Sir Ed’s and wants to play. It turns out to be a game they want to play over and over. On Saturday nights, they now reach for Dogcatcher, even before Five Crowns. As for Pandemic, everyone’s had enough. SP Gone to the dogs: Learn more about Dogcatcher on Instagram and Facebook @dogcatchercardgame and Twitter @dogcatchergame.

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Brent Moore, Broker James B. Collier Real Estate 828-386-8091 brentmoorerealestate@gmail.com brentmoorerealestate.com

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blvd. | new in town The Vintage

Eat & drink

PHOTOGRAPHS LEFT BY BRIAN TWITTY

The Vintage Whiskey and Cigar Bar opened in South End at 215 E. Worthington Ave. Billed as an upscale cigar lounge, the private club features a seasonal craft cocktail menu, wine, local beer, an espresso bar with coffee by Enderly Coffee and a humidor housing thousands of cigars. The Vintage is the latest concept from Menagerie Hospitality Group, which also operates The Wine Loft on South Boulevard. Annual memberships start at $20. thevintageclt.com u The Warmack opened at 1226 Central Ave. in Plaza Midwood. Asian comfort food is on the menu, including rice bowls, bao buns, late-night banh mi and a nightly chef’s tasting menu featuring a wagyu dish. Enjoy craft cocktails with clever monikers like the Knuckle Duster: Templeton rye, Benedictine, Luxardo cherry liqueur, amaro and Pimms No. 1. Expect a sleek atmosphere in this former Pint Central location — black walls, velvet seating and concrete countertops, plus patio seating. Instagram: @thewarmack u Orto Noda, the newest restaurant from Chef Paul Verica of The Stanley in Elizabeth, is open at 424 East 36th Street. The seasonal menu feature house-made pastas and pizzas, salads and sandwiches. Orto, Italian for “kitchen garden,” will be open for dinner only at first; lunch service will be added at a later date. Former Bardo mixologist Amanda Britton leads the bar program, featuring fresh takes on classic Italian cocktails. Reservations via Resy.com. ortonoda.com SP

Jen Dufresne

Get fit

Jen Dufresne opened Cross Conditioning Training in Providence Park, with classes focused on total body workouts with varying intensity levels. Dufresne started CCT in her garage in 2015 as an obstacle-course training company. Classes are designed to help reduce pain, avoid injury and increase performance. The studio offers personal, small-group training (at press time, max 4 people), and classes (max 10 people) as well as virtual options. Memberships start at $100 for unlimited virtual classes, and drop-in options are available. crossconditioningtraining.com u The Bar Method Charlotte reopened in a 3,000-square-foot studio at Sharon Square. The Bar Method is known for total body workouts that promote increased strength and endurance. barmethod.com u BK Pilates also opened at Sharon Square, its second Charlotte location. bkpilates.com SP

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blvd. | givers

Liz Clasen-Kelly

Safe space

ROOF ABOVE, CHARLOTTE’S LEADING ADVOCATE AND RESOURCE FOR PEOPLE WITHOUT HOMES, REDOUBLES ITS EFFORTS THROUGH THE PANDEMIC. BY MICHAEL J. SOLENDER

2020 Charlotte-Mecklenburg report released late last year illustrated what many in our community know all too well: Housing instability and homelessness, while predating the pandemic, have been exacerbated by Covid-19, leaving alarming numbers of our neighbors vulnerable. The February evacuation of tent city, a temporary homeless community that sprung up last year near uptown, further amplified the issue. Liz Clasen-Kelly, CEO of Roof Above, a nonprofit organization working to eradicate homelessness in our community, believes homelessness can be conquered. The agency was established in May 2019 through the merger of Urban Ministry Center and Men’s Shelter of Charlotte. With a full- and part-time staff of 170 and an annual budget of more than $14 million, Roof Above provides street outreach, shelter and other services to more than 1,200 people daily. In September, Roof Above announced that it had purchased HillRock Estates, an apartment community in east Charlotte, where it will preserve all 341 units for affordable housing. Three months later, the organization acquired an 88-unit Quality Inn

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“People are asking questions they haven’t asked before. The reality is that we had dozens of people sleeping outside in tents prior to the pandemic, but now you can’t ignore it.”

blvd. | givers hotel in west Charlotte, with plans to turn it into a supportive housing community. Clasen-Kelly has spent nearly two decades with the organization and its predecessors. She began her journey serving homeless people as an intern the summer after her freshman year at Davidson College. She spoke with SouthPark about how the agency she leads addresses immediate needs of people experiencing homelessness in Charlotte and advocates for systemic change in combatting this growing public health and economic challenge. Comments have been edited for length and clarity. Why did the two agencies merge? This was not a merger about efficiencies. It was about having greater impact in the community and being able to do more to move the needle on homelessness. Urban Ministry Center [focused on] serving the street, the population who’s sleeping outside, through the Day Services Center and intensive housing solutions. Men’s Shelter of Charlotte focused on in-between needs — emergency shelter and short-term housing solutions. Through the merger, we created an entire continuum for individuals experiencing homelessness.

How do you develop continuous support for the people you serve, given your various community partners? Roof Above is not going to end homelessness. Embedded in our mission is a call to invite others to join us and to be collaborative. There’s sometimes a mistaken sense the homeless-services world is

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Describe the impact of the pandemic and the tent encampment near uptown on homelessness in Charlotte. The pandemic, without question, is a time of great loss for our world, our community. Our hotel purchase was a unique opportunity that came about from the pandemic and from, unfortunately, the distressed [lodging] industry. We were able to lease an unused old college dorm and bring that online. Because of the visibility of the large encampment and the visceral knowledge that “home” is what keeps one safe during the pandemic, the community’s consciousness has been prepped in a new way this past year, and that is very meaningful for us, because people are asking questions they haven’t asked before. The reality is that we had dozens of people sleeping outside in tents prior to the pandemic, but now you can’t ignore it. It wasn’t congregated in a way that has galvanized the community as it is now.

“It takes 113 hours a week working at minimum wage to afford the average twobedroom apartment in Charlotte. About half the folks who come to us have some form of income. I think that surprises people.”

What are some outcomes from the merger that likely wouldn’t have happened before? Early in the merger, Mecklenburg County passed $14 million in rent subsidies. It was a phenomenal opportunity for us. I went to the housing teams of Urban Ministry Center and Men’s Shelter of Charlotte, and said, “What housing program could we create?” We created two programs, one serving people who are working and one serving folks who are disabled and our seniors. I think that’s when we started to see the promise of this merger and going through a pandemic, the ways we’ve been able to respond and announce the purchase of HillRock Estates and the purchase of a hotel. Those feel like dreams and ideas that likely would not have come about if we were still two separate agencies.

fractured or competitive. The reality is, we have amazing organizations and amazing leaders focused on the people we serve. When people are coming to the table with similar values, it’s easy to figure out how we work together. We’re partnering with a great array of workforce providers to help folks we serve increase their income. We partner with health care providers to provide nursing and mental-health services on-site. It takes many partners every day, and we’re fortunate to have those.

What myths surround homelessness, and what do you wish people better understood? Homelessness is solvable. It is not an inevitable reality. I deeply to my core believe we could be a country without thousands of people in shelters and on our streets. It’s important for people to know [that] many people we serve have income. They’re working or receiving retirement income. There’s a perception that if you’re working, you can afford housing in this community. It takes 113 hours a week working at minimum wage to afford the average two-bedroom apartment in Charlotte. About half the folks who come to us have some form of income. I think that surprises people. … When people say, “What can I do?” It starts with recognizing the full humanity of someone experiencing homelessness, because when you really feel the weight and value of a human life, it changes everything. SP

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blvd. | the creators of n.c.

Every moment is a window THROUGH HIS ART, RICHARD WILSON BRIDGES THE GAP BETWEEN THEN AND NOW.

BY WILEY CASH • PHOTOGRAPHS BY MALLORY CASH

pend some time with visual artist Richard Wilson’s work, and you’ll quickly grasp the role historical connection plays in it. Take his Shadow Series, for example. In each painting, an African American boy or girl stands in the foreground, the background comprised of images of an African American trailblazer. In one piece, a girl in a leather bomber jacket blocks the sun from her eyes and stares toward the horizon as if searching for a sign of what’s to come; behind her is an assemblage of newspaper stories and photographs of Bessie Coleman, the first Black woman to hold a pilot’s license. Another shows a young boy in oversized boxing gloves gazing up at a speed bag that’s just out of reach; behind him, a newspaper announces that Jack Johnson has defeated James Jeffries to become the 1910 heavyweight champion of the world, the first African American to win the title. Other luminaries such as Arthur Ashe, Serena Williams, Michael Jordan and Barack Obama are featured in the series, each a guiding light for the young dreamer standing “in the shadow.” To the viewer, it’s clear that ancestors and aspiration are powerfully present in Wilson’s artwork.

And if you spend any time with the artist himself, you’ll understand that ancestors and aspiration are powerfully present in his own life. The oldest of three boys, Wilson was born in Robersonville and moved with his family to Conetoe (pronounced Kuh-nee-tuh), another rural town in eastern North Carolina, when he was 8. He grew up surrounded by family — siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles. They were close-knit. Today, Wilson is standing in the middle of his art studio in Greenville, N.C., where he and his wife have lived for just over 20 years. The walls around him are festooned with his original works and ribbons from national art shows, the floor cluttered with framed prints and works-in-progress. Wilson, a tall man who looks like a linebacker yet comports himself like a poet, admits that he has nearly outgrown the space that he built himself. On the wall opposite him is a framed original painting titled A Window Into the Past, in which an older African American man with a cane is picking his way across a field to a weathered two-story farmhouse. The man in the painting is Wilson’s uncle. The home, which has since been desouthparkmagazine.com | 51

blvd. | the creators of n.c. molished, once belonged to Wilson’s paternal grandmother, Francis Wilson Knight, lovingly known to everyone — family or otherwise — as Grandma Pigaboot. “Every weekend we’d go to my grandmother’s house,” Wilson says, gesturing toward the painting. “All the children and grandchildren. That was the highlight of my week. My uncle, who was a sharecropper, would cook on the grill. We’d all play kickball and softball. I can still smell the rain on the dirt, the trees — pears and pecans. It was a beautiful life.” He sighs and his broad shoulders slump forward slightly. “But when my grandmother passed away, we all stopped going back there, and we just lost that connection.” Although Wilson’s work is nothing if not realistic, each piece contains elements of symbolism that could be lost on the casual viewer. In the painting of Grandma Pigaboot’s house, the electrical service entrance — where the home had once been connected to a power line — is frayed and disconnected. That’s exactly how Richard Wilson felt in 2020, a year that saw a pandemic cripple the globe and political and cultural turmoil seize the heart and soul of the nation. Wilson used his art to reconnect with his family, his community and the landscape that once brought him so much joy. Although he had featured his grandmother’s house in previous works, last year he found himself wanting to paint it again, and this time he wanted to include a family member. He called up his Uncle Bill and asked if he could come take some photographs of him. Uncle Bill happily obliged. It had been a while since they’d seen each other. “We started talking about old times,” Wilson says, “and he started posing for me, and I started taking pictures of him. We had a great time.” But Wilson wanted to keep their reunion a secret. “I told him, ‘Don’t tell your children I’m doing this painting,’” Wilson says. “I wanted to put it on Facebook to see if they recognized the house and recognized that their father was in the painting.” Imagine Wilson’s delight when, after posting the finished painting online, Uncle Bill’s youngest daughter wrote, “Hey, cuz, I really like this piece. It reminds me of back in the day, and the man in the picture reminds me of my pops.” Comments from other cousins followed, each expressing tender

sentiments. “And then they started buying prints,” Wilson says, supporting him at a time when art shows had been canceled due to Covid. “It brought us all back together.” Of course, the house in the painting represents much more than just a place. Wilson’s grandmother bequeathed him a legacy that highlights the importance of family, faith, land and self-reliance — all of which Wilson has made use of throughout his path to becoming a fulltime artist against incredible odds. “My grandmother took us around and made sure that she introduced us to all of our family members,” Wilson says. “She was adamant about that, about knowing who your people are.” He stops speaking and smiles as if a memory is playing through his mind. “She also taught us how to be entrepreneurs. We used to turn in Coke bottles and get cash for them, and then we’d turn around and buy candy and sell it. Or we’d make Kool-Aid and turn it into freeze cups, and then we’d sell those.” She also taught Wilson and his siblings and cousins how to make use of the land by taking them fishing and teaching them how to sow gardens. And she instilled the importance of faith in their lives by ensuring they accompanied her to church. Richard Wilson has won countless awards for his art, which has been featured in television shows and films, showcased in public and private collections and purchased by the likes of Hank Aaron and Gladys Knight. Those early lessons from his grandmother have allowed him to turn a childhood spark of inspiration into the passionate flame that fuels his work. His Shadows Series makes that clear. But Wilson acknowledges that not everyone is as lucky to have had the family and influences he’s had. Yet that’s the great thing about forging a connection with people you love. “If you didn’t have it then,” he says, “you can start it now.” One could say the same about living your dream. SP Wiley Cash is the writer-in-residence at UNC Asheville. His new novel, When Ghosts Come Home, will be released this year.

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blvd. | calendar

April

H A P P E N I NG S

Rehearsal (Music Series), 1997, Benny Andrews (American, 1930–2006), Oil and collage on canvas, courtesy Gantt Center

Whitewater Triathlon at U.S. National Whitewater Center Take on a 1K open-water swim in the Catawba River, a 23K mountain-bike leg and a 6.5K trail run, or opt for the shorter distance tri with a 400m open swim, 12K mountain-bike leg and a 3K trail run. The details: April 10; registration costs vary; usnwc.org

Earth Day Weekend at Anne Springs Close Greenway Celebrate Earth Day with outdoor adventures like lead-line horse rides, fishing clinics, kayaking, guided hikes, reptile encounters and more. The details: April 16-18; free for members, $6 for nonmembers; ascgreenway.org

Silent Streets: Art in the Time of Pandemic at Mint Museum Uptown From the moment the pandemic forced people into their homes, art became a source of solace. This exhibition presents works by local, regional, national and international artists who used art to survey and tackle these challenging times. The details: Opens April 17; mintmuseum.org

Queen’s Cup Steeplechase livestream This year’s races will be run without an audience, but you can pour yourself a mint julep and tune in to see some of the world’s most athletic horses thundering at full speed. A portion of donations and raffle-ticket sales will benefit the Alzheimer’s Association. The details: April 24; queenscup.org

A Night at the Drive-In Enjoy a live performance by Blues Traveler at Charlotte Motor 54

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Speedway, with proceeds benefiting Levine Children's Hospital. The details: April 10 at 7 p.m.; atriumhealthfoundation.org

Vision & Spirit | African American Art Works from the Bank of America Collection at the Harvey B. Gantt Center More than 100 visual art pieces spanning 100 years are on view in this exhibition selected by guest curator Dexter Wimberly. The paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, sculptures and mixed-media works by 48 Black artists embody a central theme of resilience. The details: Through July 31; ganttcenter.org

Thomas McNickle: The Pond at Jerald Melberg Gallery This exhibition of landscape paintings by veteran gallery artist Thomas McNickle features a new body of work centering on a picturesque pond near McNickle’s home in western Pennsylvania Amish country. The details: Through April 24; jeraldmelberg.com

Charlotte Symphony: Mozart Symphony No. 40 Music Director Christopher Warren-Green leads a virtual performance of Mozart’s Symphony No. 40. The details: April 24, 7:30 p.m.; tickets are $20 per household; charlottesymphony.org

Christy Kinard: Solo Show at Shain Gallery With natural talent that has evolved since her childhood, Kinard’s style is a unique and self-defined expression of her Southern roots. The details: April 23, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; shaingallery.com

— compiled by Amanda Lea NOTE: Please check with venues and event organizers in advance to confirm details and hours of operation.

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LINDA FOARD ROBERTS, WEEPING TREE, 2018, COURTESY SOCO GALLERY

LAMENT + Love Rules Two new exhibitions at SOCO Gallery are intended to spark dialogue around healing and unity. In LAMENT, a song of sorrow for those not heard, Linda Foard Roberts confronts the South’s painful and complicated history in a series of photographs taken at various locations across the region, from a small church on the outskirts of Charlotte to rice plantations in South Carolina. Roberts points to a particular moment that sparked the project: While attending a service at a small church in Weddington, her son noted that the balcony seats where the family routinely sat were the same pews where, many years ago, enslaved individuals were seated. “I was moved to tears by the tangibility of this past, and that I'd been sitting there and I didn't know it,” says Roberts, who last year was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for the work. “I just knew I needed to do something — I needed to somehow try to honor the people that had suffered.” The photographs address a longstanding silence about the region’s painful past. “I grew up in the South. We didn't talk about it, growing up, and I think it's really important that we can have these conversations.” Also on view is Love Rules by Brooklyn-based Hank Willis Thomas, a co-founder of the For Freedoms artists’ collective. The neon sign, which transitions between messages of “Love Rules” and “Love Over Rules,” is an homage to the artist’s cousin, who was murdered in 2000. Roberts saw the piece in 2019 at the Brooklyn Museum and was moved by it. “There are all these amazing threads of connectedness,” she says. The exhibition runs through April 21, but Love Rules won’t be going far. The piece has been acquired by a private collector, who plans to give the piece to the Mint Museum. Roberts will donate a portion of the proceeds from her exhibition to The Slave Dwelling Project, which preserves African American slave homes. In addition, SOCO Gallery will donate a portion of proceeds to the Harvey Gantt B. Center for AfricanAmerican Arts + Culture. Love Rules and LAMENT, a song of sorrow for those not heard, will be on view at SOCO Gallery through April 21; 421 Providence Road, socogallery.com SP

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|simple life

My wife’s secret life AND WHY I’M HAPPILY MARRIED, BLISSFULLY IN THE DARK BY JIM DODSON

recently discovered that my wife, Wendy, enjoys a secret life. Actually, I’ve known about it for years. I just never let her know that I knew about it. It’s also possible that she’s always known that I know about it (and has chosen to keep that a secret, too). Either way, the woman is a master at keeping her husband happily married and blissfully in the dark. Consider the high drama of our recent unplanned kitchen makeover. One evening last spring, our fancy German dishwasher blew up like the Hindenburg and flooded the kitchen of the charming mid-century bungalow we’ve spent the last five years faithfully restoring. I suggested we move to Scotland. Within days, however, Wendy had rallied a small army of specialists with industrial driers, fans and blueprints for a complete renovation. Curiously, they all seemed to know my wife by her first name. Though I’m hardly the suspicious type, such fraternal bonhomie did make me momentarily wonder if Dame Wendy might have a private, second career as a kitchen subcontractor and home makeover artist. One of her not-so-secret pleasures, after all, is watching all the makeover programs playing around the clock on HGTV, brick-andmortar dramas where — in the span of 45 minutes — unspeakably decrepit houses are transformed into suburban show palaces by clever couples who make witty remarks about shiplap and infinity tubs. Not that I’m the jealous type, but my bride speaks so casually about home-rehab hosts Joanna and Chip Gaines or the dorky Property Brothers or that sweet, folksy couple redoing the entire town of Laurel, Miss., it’s as if she actually knows them. And I can almost picture the Good Bones gals whispering sweet nothings about rare Victorian beadboard or vintage crown molding in Dame Wendy’s wise conch-like ear. Unlike the unreality of these home makeovers, our massive kitchen “reno” took nearly a year to complete, including endless delays due to Covid-19. We upgraded the subflooring, wiring and plumbing; installed a beautiful Tuscan tile floor; searched two counties for new granite counters; and outfitted the entire kitchen with new appliances. We also ordered so many takeout meals that I

considered moonlighting for Grubhub. I’ll confess, there were moments when I had beguiling dreams of misty Scotland — specifically a rather fetching one in which I am rowing a dinghy across Loch Lomond with a provocatively dressed Kim Basinger sitting in the bow. Strictly between us, I have no idea what this dream could mean. But I’m not dinghy enough to tell my wife about it because she’ll know exactly what it means, and I really don’t want to spoil the surprise if Kim and I ever reach the other side of the loch. Besides, doesn’t a bloke deserve a few healthy secrets of his own? Sadly, I don’t have many others. Unless you count the fantasy about being the first man in history to ride his John Deere lawn tractor across America. Of course, that dream died when Wendy sold my tractor at a yard sale in Maine right before we moved to Carolina. She claims there was no room for it on the moving truck, meaning I couldn’t at least drive it home to the South and make a few bucks mowing lawns along the way. I recently heard a top marriage specialist on the radio insist that the secret to a long and happy marriage is “not having too many secrets, but enough to keep a marriage interesting.” The specialist, a female psychologist, didn’t specify how many secrets keeps a marriage interesting, or conversely, how many keep a marriage from collapsing like a $2 beach chair. Fact is, I am perfectly happy operating on a strictly “need-toknow” basis. She knows that what I don’t know won’t hurt me, which may be the key to our own long and happy marriage. Besides, we have an enviable distribution of domestic duties and responsibilities. Wendy runs the house, pays the bills, makes most of the important decisions and never fails to find my missing eyeglasses/wallet/car keys or TV remote when it’s clear some thoughtless nitwit has mistakenly put them somewhere just to make me go crazy. Suffice it to say, I know my proper place in our happy domestic realm, outside in the yard quietly missing my beloved John Deere lawn tractor. On an entirely separate front, I have no idea how much money I earn from my so-called literary career. I simply put together words that amuse me, send them off to editors I’ve never met who (somesouthparkmagazine.com | 59

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times) like and (eventually) pay me real folding money for them. It’s a sweet mystery how this magic happens. I frankly never know my precise material worth, year to year, but I assure you it’s no mystery to Dame Wendy how much money I make — or am due — down to the last farthing. Home and family, however, are where Wendy’s secret life truly excels. Our four fully grown and theoretically independent children constantly call up from faraway places to share their endless existential crises or ask her advice on all manner of discreet topics, confiding things they wouldn’t dream of telling the old man, whom they only call when they need more farthings to cover the rent. But that’s OK with the old man in question. The older he gets, the less he knows and the happier he is. For it’s all about perspective — i.e., my wife’s clever design for our happily married life. One final example shall suffice. The other afternoon, I popped into the house from trying to start my walk-behind mower for the first lawn-cutting of the spring and discovered that my multitasking domestic Chief Executive was putting the final touches on our brand new fully renovated kitchen in a manner most unusual. She’d just assembled an elaborate rolling cart she’d ordered from some chic West Coast design house and was dancing rumba-like to South African reggae music as she decorated Easter cookies for neighborhood kids. “I’m thinking of painting the den a lovely new green for the spring,” she blithely announced, sashaying past me. “It’s called Mountain Air. What do you think?” As our elegant new dishwasher purred away, she waved the sample color on her smartphone, which isn’t remotely as smart as she is but probably a good deal smarter than her husband. After 20 years of happy marriage, I’m no April fool. I simply told her that I loved it and headed back to my stubborn lawn mower, secretly dreaming about Kim Basinger riding a John Deere tractor through the misty Scottish Highlands. SP

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| the road home

The quarantine diaries THE ROLLER COASTER OF PANDEMIC PARENTING BY CAROLINE LANGERMAN

t was nice how my husband started to fill up a coffee mug from our cabinet, instead of sprinting out the door to chase down his mobile Starbucks order. Now that we were quarantined, we were seeing each other every time he came out of his little work-from-home office toward the Nespresso machine, like a bear to his blueberry bush. The Italian names of the coffee capsules found their way down to the carpet where our two oldest kids played house. “Are you having Odacio or Melozio?” they asked their imaginary friends, absentmindedly, while pushing their trains. Babysitters weren’t hired, and therefore they weren’t expensive. I nursed our four-month-old on demand, which, with the outside world not calling me, no longer felt demanding. As if she could sense my right-thereness, my literal never-going-anywhere-ness, the baby started to sleep through the night — long, mummified stretches of slumber from which I woke her after 12 hours. “Wow,” I thought, wondering how much yeoman’s work could be packed into this quarantine. “Too bad we didn’t have twins.” When I canceled the housekeeper, my son begged to push the vacuum cleaner. “Ok,” I said, “but first you need to pick up every single Magna-Tile.” He got to work fast, the little magnets clapping together rapidly. “This kind of works,” I said to my husband, “as long as you aren’t trying to do anything.” And I meant anything. Like showering. Answering the telephone. I thanked God I didn’t have to dial in to board meetings or build financial models or answer to customers. But I did have three kids under 5. “Radical acceptance” — a friend had introduced me to the term. I wished I could package it up and sell it, that’s how much it helped me as I watched my son complete a remote preschool project of gluing

16 feathers onto a paper parrot, his botched little bangs blowing in the breeze, while I prepared meals and changed diapers for his sisters. I washed my hands until they bled. North Carolina was giving us vest weather, with temperatures in the high 60s. In late spring, we were eating outside nearly every night. After hamburgers one evening, my husband asked my son if he wanted to take a jog after dinner, something he could do because he wasn’t wearing wool pants, or laid over in a hotel, or getting snagged on his way to the elevator. “Good for the lungs,” he said to me over their heads. I didn’t mind that they left the dishes. Daylight saving had given us an extra hour of light. Buds opened on the trees like little pink and green Christmas lights. I stood in our driveway, holding a blinking baby while the big kids accepted a head start, running clumsily down the street, looking over their shoulders at their dad. “Did someone’s husband just sprint up the hill in khakis?” asked a friend on the neighborhood text. “Mine,” I responded, so proud I could pop. Weeks passed, and heavier topics entered the kids’ games on the floor. The coexistence of Easter and Covid had created a fascination with death. Percy is dead. Thomas is so lonely in heaven he can’t even talk. After a while of this, one of them got tired of it. It’s not very fun at heaven! She picked up her Magna-Tiles and relocated to another patch of floor she called “new Heaven.” The invention or adoption of just one word could change the game entirely. By summer, it had been months without a play date, but they had a parking deck named “carpenter” where moms picked them up at 40 o’clock. They had a word for the fluff balls that fell down from the trees and blew through the air: moischiff. If pressed, they defined moischiff as a kind of southparkmagazine.com | 65

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| the road home feather-animal who could fly both up and down. To their delight, August’s violent rainstorms washed these away leaving dead “cough-roaches” in their place in the driveway. At night, they curled up to listen to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with its fat, spoiled, gun-toting, gum-smacking, TV-zombie characters — relics of another era. When they used this language on us — “You better not each too much cake, Mommy,” or “You’ve had enough TV, Daddy,” — we laughed and spilled outside to shoot baskets, swallowing dusty mouthfuls of pollen that even an iced shower couldn’t quench. Am I making it sound like it was all fun and games? Sometimes, with the hours of the day passing at the speed of beach erosion, I got so mad at the 3-year-old that her brother had to intervene. “Mommy, yelling never works on her. Only hugging.” So I sat on the hardwood floors, holding all three of them, feeling sorry for them, for myself, for everyone whose lives we were trying to save by doing this. There wasn’t enough of me to support my husband or enough of him to support me; we passed in the hallways a few times a day, but we weren’t exactly giving high fives. Once, seeing him on a parent-teacher Zoom call, on separate monitors in the same house, I fell for him all over again — his deep voice, his thoughtful questions, his cute eyebrows — until I saw my own beady little eyes and flat hair and became enraged by my station.

But he always managed to walk in while we were writing a group story about Mischievous Moischiff, or when the baby was napping and I was scrolling through pictures of other people’s family hikes. When walkie-talkies arrived in the mail, he let the kids spill all over his office while he crackled into his fists, “Roger. Affirmative. Over and out.” Month after month, I was horribly busy and terribly bored, but I tried to see boredom and busy-ness as the luxuries that they were. We bought some trees online and named them Anne and Jane. I planned a summer drive-by birthday, and then a winter one. Our little friends who brought banners and lollipops were so much cuter without runny noses; too bad we’d forgotten how to talk to them. I wanted to lean into the front seats and kiss the mothers’ cheeks — were we strangers again, or closer than ever? It’s spring again. The pandemic feels like a game going on too long, like being trapped on the rug with the same toys. But I’ve seen how being down on the floor can tap creativity, increase attention span, change our perspective. While we wait, maybe we can reimagine the game. Maybe there’s a world where when people act out, we hug instead of yell. Where our friends don’t have to feel so tired of heaven, because they aren’t there too often or too soon. In which we mask-wearing, Purell-squirting, Zoomgrooming characters are finally relics of another era, rolling up our sleeves to get our golden tickets. SP

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CHRIS T. BLACK

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Welcome to this spacious two story basement home beautifully situated on a quiet cul-de-sac. Enjoy overlooking long range views of the golf course and scenic pond from 2 covered terraces. The backyard oasis features a grilling station, state of the art heated saltwater pool controlled by cell phone and push button controlled pool cover. A “cook’s kitchen” designed by seller, a certified chef. 6 bedrooms, 6 baths, 2 half baths, lower-level recreation room with wet bar, family room, 2nd master and sauna. Heated and cooled workshop. Fenced yard.

Being said about

“

McColl, 85, still plays a pivotal role in making North Carolina a better place. Beyond the Bank makes that crystal clear.” – Business North Carolina

“

Building a great bank has been upgraded to building a better community. (McColl) still has the energy and courage to believe he has much to offer in making the world a better place. What a legacy!” – Harvey Gantt, Charlotte civic leader and former mayor

“

Nothing motivates Hugh McColl more than leading collaborations of strong voices to spark innovative solutions for the challenges of our time.” – Michael Marsicano, president and CEO of the Foundation For The Carolinas

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ON N I A S LERIL AP

Hugh McColl’s Chapter Two The twenty years Hugh McColl’s spent since stepping down as Bank of America CEO belies the notion that irrelevancy is a part of retirement. This is the story of how McColl, at 85, remains essential in a city that bears his imprint, from building Uptown to investing social capital in all corners of the community. A new book by Howard E. Covington Jr. available online at:

howardcovingtonbooks.com NEW FROM

On sale at Park Road Books, Charlotte; Scuppernong Books, Greensboro; Hub City Bookshop, Spartanburg; Books & Beans, Rocky Mount; The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines; and Battery Park Book Exchange, Asheville.

|bookshelf

April books NOTABLE NEW RELEASES COMPILED BY SALLY BREWSTER

The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War, by Malcolm Gladwell In The Bomber Mafia, Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists had a different view. This “Bomber Mafia” asked: What if precision bombing could, just by taking out critical choke points — industrial or transportation hubs — cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal? In The Bomber Mafia, Gladwell steps back from the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war and asks, “Was it worth it?” The Hero Code: Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived, by Admiral William H. McRaven Admiral McRaven’s The Hero Code is a ringing tribute to the real, everyday heroes he’s met over the years — from battlefields to hospitals to college campuses — who are doing their part to save the world. When McRaven was growing up in Texas, he dreamed of being a superhero.

He longed to put on a cape and use his superpowers to save the earth from destruction. But as he grew older and traveled the world, he found real heroes everywhere he went — and none of them had superpowers. None of them wore capes or cowls. But they all possessed qualities that gave them the power to help others, to make a difference, to save the world: courage, both physical and moral; humility; a willingness to sacrifice; and a deep sense of integrity. Broken (in the best possible way), by Jenny Lawson Lawson is back with a wry and entertaining take on her battle with depression, anxiety and rheumatoid arthritis. She is unrivaled in her ability to use piercing humor and insight to take on heavy subjects. In the chapter “The Things We Do to Quiet the Monsters,” she details the transcranial magnetic-stimulation treatment she underwent to cure her medication-resistant mental-health issues. (“It feels like an invisible chisel drilling holes into your head while you have an ice-cream headache and also you’re paying for it to happen to you.”) The beauty of these essays lies in Lawson’s unfailing hopefulness amid her trials. “After all,” she notes, “we are changed by life... it puts its teeth in us... makes us who we are.” When the Stars Go Dark, by Paula McLain Anna Hart is a seasoned missing-persons detective in San Francisco with far too much knowledge of the darkest side of human nature. When tragedy strikes her personal life, Anna flees to the northern California village of Mendocino to grieve. She lived there as a child with her beloved foster parents, and now southparkmagazine.com | 69

|bookshelf she believes it might be the only place left for her. Yet the day she arrives, she learns that a local teenage girl has gone missing. The crime feels frighteningly reminiscent of the most crucial time in Anna’s childhood, when the unsolved murder of a young girl touched Mendocino and changed the community forever. Weaving together actual cases of missing persons, trauma theory and a hint of the metaphysical, this propulsive and deeply affecting novel tells a story of fate and redemption. Hype: How Scammers, Grifters, and Con Artists are Taking Over the Internet — and Why We’re Following, by Gabrielle Bluestone We live in an age where scams are the new normal. A charismatic entrepreneur sells thousands of tickets to a festival that never happened. Respected investors pour millions into a

startup centered around fake blood tests. Reviewers and celebrities flock to London’s top-rated restaurant that is little more than a backyard shed. These unsettling stories of today’s viral grifters have risen to fame and hit the front-page headlines, yet the curious conundrum remains: Why do these scams happen? Drawing from scientific research, marketing campaigns and exclusive documents and interviews, former Vice reporter Gabrielle Bluestone delves into the irresistible hype that fuels our social-media ecosystem. Hype pulls back the curtain on the manipulation game behind the never-ending scam season — and how we as consumers can stop getting played. SP Sally Brewster is the proprietor of Park Road Books, located at 4139 Park Road. parkroadbooks.com.

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Advice for what matters most, Advice for what matters most, when most whenyou you need need it it most Congratulations Drew P.P.Crawford Crawfordfor forbeing being CongratulationstotoDavid DavidG. G. Hall Hall and and Drew named totothe WealthAdvisors” Advisors”2021 2021list. list. named theForbes Forbes“Best-in-State “Best-in-State Wealth As your lifelife evolves, Merrill adviceand andguidance guidancetotohelp help stay As your evolves, Merrillcan canprovide providepersonalized personalized advice youyou stay on track to pursue your on track to pursue yourgoals. goals. HallCrawford Crawford Group Hall Group David G. G. Hall, Hall, CRPC David CRPC®®,,CPWA CPWA® ® Senior Vice Vice President President Senior Wealth Management Management Advisor Wealth Advisor 980.282.1761 980.282.1761 dave_hall@ml.com dave_hall@ml.com

Drew P. Crawford, CRPC®, CPFA

Drew P. Crawford, CRPC®, CPFA Senior Vice President Senior PresidentAdvisor WealthVice Management Wealth Management Advisor Senior Portfolio Advisor Senior Portfolio Advisor 980.282.1753

980.282.1753 drew.crawford@ml.com drew.crawford@ml.com Merrill Lynch Wealth Management 6000 Fairview Road Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Suite Fairview 600 6000 Road Charlotte, Suite 600 NC 28210 fa.ml.com/hall.crawford Charlotte, NC 28210

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Source: The Forbes “Best-in-State Wealth Advisors” list, February 11, 2021. Data provided by SHOOK™ Research, LLC. Data as of June 30, 2020. The Forbes “Best-in-State Wealth Advisors” ranking was developed by SHOOK Research and is based on in-person and telephone due diligence meetings to evaluate each advisor qualitatively, a major component of a ranking algorithm that includes: client retention, industry experience, review of compliance records, firm nominations; and quantitative criteria, including: assets under management and revenue generated for their firms. Investment performance is not a criterion because client objectives Source: The Forbes “Best-in-State February 11, 2021.reports. Data provided LLC.ofData as of June 30,LLC 2020. Theindicative Forbes “Best-in-State Wealth Advisors” rankingofwas and risk tolerances vary, andWealth advisorsAdvisors” rarely havelist, audited performance Rankingsby areSHOOK™ based onResearch, the opinions SHOOK Research, and not of future performance or representative anydeveloped one client’sby SHOOK experience. Research and is based in-personfrom and telephone due diligenceofmeetings to evaluate eachand advisor qualitatively, of client a ranking algorithm that includes: retention, industry experience, Rankings andonrecognition Forbes are no guarantee future investment success do not ensure that aa major currentcomponent or prospective will experience a higher level ofclient performance results, and such shouldrecords, not be construed as an endorsement of the advisor. Neither Forbesassets nor SHOOK receives in exchange for placement on the ranking. Forbes isisa not trademark of Forbes Media LLC. objectives All review ofrankings compliance firm nominations; and quantitative criteria, including: under Research management andcompensation revenue generated for their firms. Investment performance a criterion because client reserved. and risk rights tolerances vary, and advisors rarely have audited performance reports. Rankings are based on the opinions of SHOOK Research, LLC and not indicative of future performance or representative of any one client’s experience. RankingsPierce, and recognition fromIncorporated Forbes are no guarantee future investment success andavailable do not ensure that a current or prospective will experience level performance results, andofsuch Merrill Lynch, Fenner & Smith (also referred of to as “MLPF&S” or “Merrill”) makes certain investment products sponsored,client managed, distributed aorhigher provided by of companies that are affiliates Corporationas(“BofA Corp.”). MLPF&S is aadvisor. registered broker-dealer, registered adviser, Member SIPC andina exchange wholly owned subsidiary ofon BofA Corp. rankingsBank of America should not be construed an endorsement of the Neither Forbes nor SHOOKinvestment Research receives compensation for placement the ranking. Forbes is a trademark of Forbes Media LLC. All

rights reserved. Investment products: Are Not FDIC Insured Are Not Bank Guaranteed May Lose Value Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (also referred to as “MLPF&S” or “Merrill”) makes available certain investment products sponsored, managed, distributed or provided by companies that are affiliates of The Bull Symbol and Merrill are registered trademarks of Bank of America Corporation. Bank of America Corporation (“BofA Corp.”). MLPF&S is a registered broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, Member SIPC and a wholly owned subsidiary of BofA Corp. CRPC® is a registered service mark of the College for Financial Planning. CPWA® is a registered service mark of the Investment Management Consultants Association dba Investments & Wealth Institute. May Lose Value MAP3416664 | AD-03-21-0447 | 472538PM-0321 | 03/2021

The Bull Symbol and Merrill are registered trademarks of Bank of America Corporation. CRPC® is a registered service mark of the College for Financial Planning. CPWA® is a registered service mark of the Investment Management Consultants Association dba Investments & Wealth Institute. © 2021 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved. MAP3416664 | AD-03-21-0447 | 472538PM-0321 | 03/2021

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History made modern A CHARLOTTE COUPLE’S NEW DILWORTH HOUSE CHECKS ALL THE BOXES FOR A FAMILY-FRIENDLY AND STYLISH HOME. BY BLAKE MILLER • PHOTOGRAPHS BY ERIN COMERFORD MILLER STYLED BY MOLLY WILLIAMS AND KENDRA SURFACE

ick and Linsey Zalecki weren’t exactly looking to move from their Myers Park home anytime soon. “We loved that home,” Nick says of the property, which he built as a developer years ago. But when the opportunity arose to purchase a spec home he had been working on in the Dilworth Historic District, the couple felt they couldn’t pass it up. “I’ve always loved this area of town,” says Nick, a Charlotte native. “I have so many memories of riding my bike through [Dilworth], riding up to Mr. K’s for an ice cream, which is why I was so drawn to this home.” While working on the house, the Zaleckis enlisted designer Susan Hill to assist with the architectural detail work, lighting and other accents. “I knew the home really needed a more unified design,” Nick says. “I love the historic district, but I don’t like the older, cut-up floor plans, the natural woodwork trim or small closets. I like the design and feel of a historic home’s architectural details, but I like modern finishes and a more open floor plan. And I wanted it to feel really bright inside.” Hill’s niche as a designer is helping clients create a cohesive look throughout a home via architectural details. “That’s the foundation of everything we do — we start with the architectural details and move from there,” Hill says. Because the home is located in a historic district, it was even more imperative that everything align with the criteria laid out by the historic preservation committee. “It was important that we maintained details throughout the house that would be reminiscent of the historic aspects of the neighborhood,” she says. “We were very careful about selecting trim and molding details, the baseboard casing, the 74

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door hardware, copper gutters, gas lanterns — all of those types of things were in place to establish a foundation for the whole home’s design.”

uring this process, it became clear to Nick and Linsey they would want Hill’s help on the interior design, as well. Two priorities were laid out by the Zaleckis: “We wanted it bright and airy and also kid-friendly,” Linsey says. “We needed durable options with our three kids.” Hill took it from there, creating a design scheme that seamlessly coupled style with function. “Nick and Linsey actually live in their house,” Hill says. “Their kids color a lot, and they use a lot of Play-Doh. Linsey tapes their drawings all over, so everything had to be very durable. Nothing could be too precious.” As such, the kitchen banquette is swathed in a washable vinyl by Kravet, while the tufted back is a durable performance fabric by Revolution Fabric. In the family room, the custom sofa and side chairs also feature a performance-grade fabric that stands up to sticky fingers and Crayon smears. But durability wasn’t the only consideration. Hill’s design accomplishes the light, bright and airy feel with an all-white canvas, which she layered atop with the clean lines of pieces such as the trio of Serena & Lily counter stools and custom-design bed in the owners’ retreat. “I’m not one of those designers that will add a heavy patterned wallcovering and

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heavy patterned pillows and bedding,” Hill says. “Nick and Linsey really wanted to keep things more simple and neutral, a very soothing color palette.” To create interest sans bold doses of pattern and color, she incorporated texture via accents such as the rattan side chairs in the family room she found at Cotswold Marketplace and the subtle shiplap walls in the drop zone and pantry areas. There’s a huge level of trust when you bring a designer on board,” Hill says. “You have to trust your designer, and vice versa. I didn’t design this home for the neighbor down the street or somebody else. For them, for the way they live, this home works really well. It’s comfortable, it’s extremely livable. At the end of the day, I just want to design something that’s customized for them and the way they want to live on a daily basis.” SP

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Maja Godlewska’s works have been exhibited globally in galleries as diverse as the Mona Lisa Gallery in Wroclaw, Poland; Le Chateau de Bouloire in Bouloire, France; The Studios of Key West, Key West, Fla.; c.r.e.t.a. Rome; The Mint Museum; and Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, where her work is part of the permanent collection.

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Of space and time IN THE ERA OF INSTA TOURISM, ARTIST MAJA GODLEWSKA’S NEWEST WORKS INVITE VIEWERS TO SLOW DOWN AND CONNECT WITH ART AND NATURE. BY MICHAEL J. SOLENDER

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY MAJA GODLEWSKA

or mixed-media artist Maja Godlewska, life’s journeys are portals beyond the immediate destinations — throughways to discovery, learning and wonder. Early in her career, after Godlewska completed her M.F.A. in painting and graphic arts at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts and Design in her native home of Wroclaw, Poland, she was awarded a postgraduate fellowship to continue her education. Though she’d applied to study painting in Lisbon, Portugal, she instead found herself assigned to the textile department of the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. Undeterred, Godlewska embraced the unexpected appointment with gusto and used it as an opportunity to explore new approaches to her work. “I was surprised (at the assignment to Ireland) but thought, ‘Okay, let’s see what this means,’” says Godlewska, an associate professor of art at UNC Charlotte’s College of Arts + Architecture. “It was before Ireland joined the European Union and a quite different country than just a few years later. I learned techniques like heat transfer and silk-screen printing on textiles. At the time, I’m not sure why I’m learning those, but 15 years later, I’m commissioned by the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh to create an installation for the museum entrance. I think, ‘Okay, I will use textiles, and print and paint on them.’ It was the beginning of a body of work I created for years.” Godlewska’s CV, or resume, is lengthy, crammed with solo exhibitions, group shows, residencies, public works and museum collections where her work is showcased. Her talent has earned her fellowships from the Fulbright Program, the New York City-based Kosciuszko Foundation and the North Carolina Arts Council.

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Several of her large-scale public artworks are celebrated in Charlotte, including Outer Bands for Dzidzius, a monofilament mesh installation in the lobby of uptown’s Duke Energy Center, and Imaginary Cloud, an installation at the Beatties Ford Branch Library commissioned by the Arts & Science Council. Glissando, a massive painting devoted to speed and movement, is on view at the NASCAR Hall of Fame lobby, and four large-scale paintings from her Un Bel Composto series are featured at the Bank of America Plaza’s lobby. Godlewska came to Charlotte in 1997 through a grant from Polish American Foundation and as part of a project arranged through Wroclaw, a sister city to Charlotte. Ultimately Godlewska relocated here, and after several years teaching at CPCC she joined UNCC, where she’s been on the faculty since 2004. Wherever Godlewska finds herself is precisely where she discovers her muse. She’s captivated by landscapes and architecture experienced during residencies and travels that have filled her passport, with stamps from locales as disparate as Chile, France, Spain, Iceland, Greenland, Mauritius, Tasmania and South Korea. Godlewska credits Andreas Bechtler for encouraging her work during a 9-year artist residency she held at his Little Italy Peninsula Arts Center at nearby Mountain Island Lake, where she also gained inspiration from fellow artists. “This was the most amazing gift of a studio space and a community of fellow creatives,” Godlewska says, “To be in a forest full of wild turkeys and nightjars, by a blooming meadow, on the water, with the view of passing clouds. This experience influenced my work for years to come.” Her fluid abstract paintings and large-scale works invite viewers on private journeys to places unknown yet achingly familiar in the solitude they evoke. Godlewska’s most recent exhibition, Trophy Vistas at Raleigh’s Artspace earlier this year, presented large serpentine scrolls in a maze-like installation, unfurled and arranged to allow visitors to navigate among them as if hiking

“There is an idea that all the geotagging and Instagram posting makes remote destinations available for everybody. This has become a big problem in many places that are very fragile and not prepared to accommodate large numbers of visitors. I started to create work in response to this phenomenon.” Southern Ocean 2, 2020, water soluble media on canvas

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Islands, 2020, water soluble paints and inks on watercolor paper

through a mystical forest. Sweeping kinetic strokes of paint and ink on watercolor paper immersed viewers in a verdant palette of emerald, azure, earthen, bronze and rust. Found here is a hint of Godlewska’s stay on the tiny island-nation of Mauritius, off the coast of Madagascar. In an ironic twist, she worked to capture the island’s exotic natural beauty in the context of how today’s omnipresent digital adventurers — also known at Insta tourists — consume — rather than experience it. “Global tourism is a geological force,” Godlewska says. “I’ve become increasingly interested in how the experience is mediated by the electronic device. ... how tourists use sublime landscapes just as the backdrop to their glamorized selfies. There is an idea that all the geotagging and Instagram posting makes remote destinations available for everybody. This has become a big problem in many places that are very fragile and not prepared to accommodate large numbers of visitors. I started to create work in response to this phenomenon. These long meandering scrolls of watercolor painting are an invitation to contemplate something, to slow down and to just be.” Irina Toshkova, founder of Toshkova Fine Art Advisory, has exhibited Godlewska’s work for many years. “In a world that is increasingly digitally and technologically influenced, it is so refreshing to see a great painter and mixed-media artist enter into the journey of human experience connecting with nature,” Toshkova says. “Maja’s work is a window into another world, sharing over the years her own journey from figurative to abstract work — she’s masterful.” 86

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Godlewska is not one to overthink her work, nor engineer layers of messaging for viewers to ponder. “There’s no clear division to me between what’s figurative and what’s abstract. I think everything happens on a spectrum. Even if we think about high realism, photorealism or hyperrealism it’s always some kind of an agreement between the creator and the viewer, because here somebody just uses paint and some surface to communicate three-dimensional worlds. I’m trying to communicate what we perceive as the chaos of nature. Of course, whether it’s really chaos, I would argue we don’t know. It’s a form of organization that is beyond our understanding.” Godlewska’s work represents an intimate relationship and deep concern for her subject matter, notes Charlotte artist, critic and writer Barbara Schreiber. “There is so much going on in Maja’s work,” Schreiber says. “Her observations about tourism and the way we interact with the environment involve deep research, personal experience, subtle observation, passion and catharsis. Add to that the physical demands of working at such a large scale. The work offers so many points of entry, you can engage with it whether or not you are knowledgeable about the subjects addressed or simply to gaze at a beautiful object.” Studio artist, teacher, mentor, art writer, performance artist, photographer and global traveler are just a few of the hats the indefatigable Godlewska wears, often simultaneously. It’s in the grandeur of everyday life where she finds inspiration. “I think most experiences, they shape us and are worthwhile,” Godlewska says. “Meeting new people, going somewhere — even if you don’t have the time, if you think you are busy, but there is a chance to go to a new place, meet a new person or see a new artwork, I think you always should do it.” SP In addition to her public works at various locations around Charlotte, Godlewska’s works can be seen in the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art’s Twentieth Century Women exhibition through Sept 26th and in Uncanny Terrain, a two-person show with Alabama artist Bryce Speed April 2 - May 26 at the Greenville Center for Creative Arts in Greenville, S.C. Night at Corinna, 2020, water soluble media on canvas

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travel| daytrips

Ready to

ROAM SYDNEY FARRIS PHOTOGRAPHED BY OLLY YUNG ON LOCATION AT ANNE SPRINGS CLOSE GREENWAY IN FORT MILL, S.C. STYLING AND PRODUCTION BY WHITLEY ADKINS

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The wanderlust is real — spring is here, and we’re itching to get out of the house and go, well, anywhere. With that in mind, we’ve rounded up a list of locales within driving distance — less than two hours from Charlotte — ideal for day trips where social distancing can be safely practiced. Choose your own adventure: From a leisurely float down the river to a zip-line excursion that will get your heart pumping, there’s something for every adrenaline level.

The Gorge

Saluda Ninety miles west of Charlotte off Interstate 26 is the charming town of Saluda. Popular among road cyclists, Saluda, with its quaint downtown, offers plenty of options for adventure seekers. The Gorge is a 1.25-mile guided zip line canopy tour that claims to be the steepest and fastest in the U.S. The course consists of 11 ziplines and offers breathtaking views of the Green River Gorge. Sarah Bell opened The Gorge and Green River Adventures, which runs guided kayak trips, rappelling excursions and more, with her husband Tim after several years working for an adventure travel business in Costa Rica and running an outdoor-education program for children in Vermont. The Gorge is open seven days a week and costs $105 per person (group discounts are available). Green River Adventures opens for the season May 1; costs vary. saluda.com, thegorgezipline.com, greenriveradventures.com

South Fork Catawba River Blueway For a milder paddling adventure, just west of Charlotte in Gaston County you’ll find the South Fork Catawba River Blueway, an 8.4-mile route that runs from South Fork River Park in Spencer Mountain through the former textile-mill towns of McAdenville and Cramerton to Riverside Park. If you don’t have your own equipment, The Floating Goat at Floyd & Blackie’s Coffeehouse in downtown Cramerton rents canoes and kayaks and is a great spot to grab ice cream after a day on the river.

PHOTO LEFT: HAIR AND MAKEUP BY ELIZABETH TOLLEY; VICTORIA PINSON PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT. M.A.B.E ALMA DRESS, $310, AND ANTIK BATIK VEST, $405, FROM FIVE ONE FIVE. SHOES AND KRISTIN HAYES JEWELRY WISHBONE EARRINGS, STYLIST’S OWN. VINTAGE 1979 INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER SCOUT II COURTESY OF TRUDI NORRIS.

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U.S. National Whitewater Center Let’s face it, it’s impossible to talk about outdoor activities in Charlotte without mentioning the Whitewater Center. Though whitewater rafting is the main attraction here, the 1,300-acre center in the far west corner of the city is also a haven for biking, ropes courses, ziplines, rock climbing, and kayaking and paddleboarding on the Catawba River. The River’s Edge with its sprawling patio offers guests a spot to kick back with a cold beer and nachos, a burger or a hearty salad after the day’s adventures. The Pump House Biergarten has up to 60 beers on tap and a smaller food menu. All access day passes are $59 for adults and $49 for youth age 9 and under; prices for single activity passes vary. The center is open seven days a week. usnwc.org

Lake Norman Just 20 miles north of uptown is North Carolina’s largest man-made lake perfect for boating, paddleboarding or simply relaxing by the water. If you don’t have a boat of your own — or a friend who does — several places including Carolina Boat Rentals have pontoon boats, sailboats, kayaks and jet skis available for rent. Lake Norman State Park has a beach for swimming, a boat ramp and trails for hiking and mountain biking. The smaller Jetton Park in Cornelius has a 1.5-mile walking trail, playgrounds and a small beach for relaxing, and Ramsey Creek Park is a 43-acre waterfront recreation area with swimming and a boat launch. Take a midday lunch break at Port City Club, Hello, Sailor, Eddie’s or North Harbor Club for dockside drinks and eats, or stop by King Canary Brewing Co. in Mooresville for a Southern Migration — a refreshing witbier with a fruity twist. visitlakenorman.org

Anne Springs Close Greenway This nature preserve just south of Pineville (about 25 minutes from uptown Charlotte) celebrated its 25 anniversary last year. Sprawling across 2,100 acres in York County, S.C., there are 36 miles of trails for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding and a 28-acre lake for kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding (rentals start in June). The Gateway Canteen opened in 2019, serving salads, sandwiches, tacos, beer and wine with plenty of outdoor seating for a post-workout pick-me-up. At press time, the greenway was open to members and visitors Monday-Thursday and members only Friday-Sunday from 7 a.m. to sunset — check for updates before heading out. Day passes are $6; annual memberships cost $60 for individuals and $120 for families. ascgreenway.org th

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Stone Mountain State Park Ninety minutes northwest of the Queen City is Stone Mountain State Park, known for its massive 600-foot granite dome rewarding hikers who make it to the top with expansive views of the area. Covering nearly 14,000 acres in Wilkes and Alleghany counties, the park in Roaring Gap has 18 miles of hiking trails ranging from a half-mile waterfall hike to a more strenuous segment of the Mountains to Sea Trail; more than 20 miles of trout streams for fishing; and expansive picnic facilities. Rock climbing is allowed by permit only. ncparks.gov

South Mountains State Park Just 70 miles from the Queen City, South Mountains State Park in Burke County offers more than 40 miles of hiking trails, including the popular 2.7-mile High Shoals Falls loop. For a less crowded alternative, try the 4.2-mile Chestnut Knob Trail, a strenuous hike that offers views of the falls and the South Mountains range from the top. Other park activities include fishing and mountain biking. ncparks.gov

The North Carolina Zoo Covering 2,600 wooded acres in central North Carolina — about 75 miles northeast of Charlotte — the North Carolina Zoo is the world’s largest natural habitat zoo. The animals here have a bit more room to roam than at traditional city zoos, so wear your walking shoes and plan to make a day of it. The zoo houses more than 1,800 animals native to Africa and North America, from giraffes and gazelles to polar bears and ring-tailed lemurs. Tickets are $15 for adults and $11 for children 2-12. At press time, advance reservations were required. nczoo.org SP

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travel| weekender

Off the beaten path HEAD TO BRYSON CITY FOR A BIG VACATION IN A SMALL TOWN.

BY ALLISON ANDREWS

he North Carolina mountains are a favorite getaway for many people, myself included. But after plenty of trips to the beloved Boone, West Jefferson and Blowing Rock, I was in the mood for something different — new views and new things to do. I found what I was looking for just three hours from Charlotte. Bryson City borders the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the north and the Nantahala National Forest to the south. This gateway to the Smokies offers what you’d expect from a charming mountain town, along with everything you need for a relaxing getaway. Have you ever watched the sunset from a bathtub in a treetop cabana? An oversized soaking tub, aromatic salts, candles and soft music greeted me at the end of the wooded path at Lakeview at Fontana. My initial skepticism faded with the setting sun over Fontana Lake. In addition to the soaking cabanas, the resort, which opens for the season on April 1, offers spa treatments; walking

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trails; one-, two- and three-bedroom suites for overnight stays; and special packages for couples. It’s truly a place to disconnect — guests must be 18 or older, and there are no TVs or Wi-Fi on-site. While Bryson City is full of cabins to rent, another unique choice is Stecoah House at Sky Ridge Yurts. The back wall of this luxury cabin is made entirely of windows, providing a spectacular view from nearly every room. Dining in the mountains often involves throwing something on the grill at your Airbnb or grabbing a bite at a local hole-in-the-wall. Bryson City has plenty of those (I give the cheese curds at CJ’s Grille a thumbs up). But the Bistro at Everett Hotel was a culinary feast. The blue cheese-stuffed dates, wrapped in bacon and drizzled with local honey, was the first sign this meal would be better than your average fare. The dinner menu covers everything from salads and sandwiches to entrees such as Carolina mountain trout. The hotel opened in 2015 in a century-old building that formerly was a bank. Reservations are strongly recommended, but if you didn’t reserve

a table, you can still enjoy a craft cocktail from the rooftop, where the menu highlights North Carolina craft beers and signature drinks made with small-batch artisan syrups and liquors. As you might expect, the area offers an array of outdoor activities, from kayaking and paddleboarding to canoeing and fly-fishing. There’s even a Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians on Main Street. If, like me, you’re looking for an adventure that requires no actual skills, try tubing on Deep Creek. For more of an adrenaline rush, the nearby Nantahala River is a whitewater mecca. The Nantahala Outdoor Center launches rafting trips for ages 7 and older, from beginner to advanced. Back on land, Nantahala Village Riding Fontana Lake Stables offers rides for beginners and up in a wooded setting overlooking Fontana Lake. The National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service own more than 90% of the land around the lake. Pro tip: Schedule your ride early in the day, before the horses get tired and it gets too hot. Experiences like horseback riding can be arranged through Carolina Bound Adventures, a concierge vacation-planning and guide service. If brewery and winery tours are more your speed, the service can provide those as well, along with guided hikes, kayaking and fishing. I discovered too late the pre-arrival grocery shopping service: For $49 plus the cost of groceries, you can order ahead and have everything (except alcoholic beverages) waiting in your rental. While I especially loved the walk on The Road to Nowhere just outside of town, Bryson City’s most popular attraction is the Smoky Mountain Railway. Trains depart from the depot downtown. If you

time it right, you can get a patty melt at the Boxcar Cafe before your journey. I considered rounding out the trip with golf at the Smoky Mountain Country Club, surrounded by 5,000-foot mountain peaks. But once I was there, I realized the main reason I love the mountains is doing mountain-y things. So instead, I hiked to an abandoned plane crash off Waterrock Knob about an hour away. Clingmans’ Dome, the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is another worthy hike just north of Bryson City. Bryson City did serve up more of what I wanted — and proved you can have a big vacation in a small town. SP

Lakeview at Fontana

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travel| weekender

Island time

TUCKED BETWEEN HILTON HEAD AND TYBEE ISLANDS ON THE SOUTH CAROLINA COAST, DAUFUSKIE ISLAND IS A LESS-EXPLORED PLACE WITH A DIVERSE AND COMPLEX HISTORY.

had always been curious about Daufuskie Island, off the coast of South Carolina — there’s a mystique about an island without a bridge, accessible only by boat. But you don’t hear as much buzz about Daufuskie as say, Bald Head Island in North Carolina. Pat Conroy spent a year there as a teacher, inspiring his 1972 novel The Water is Wide. John Mellencamp reportedly has a home on Daufuskie. But generally speaking, the 5,000-acre island tucked between Hilton Head Island and Tybee Island, Ga., stays under the radar. So, when I received an offer to visit Daufuskie and see what it was all about, I jumped at the chance. What I found was a solemnly beautiful place with a fascinating and diverse history. After arriving at the port cochere at the Haig Point welcome center on neighboring Hilton Head Island, I boarded the ferry and settled in for the 25-minute ride across Calibogue Sound — there’s nothing like being on a boat to bring your stress level down a notch. Haig Point is a private community of nearly 300 homes (and growing) on the northern tip of the island, where the preferred mode of transportation is golf cart. If you don’t own a home there, or know someone who does, you can still visit through Haig Point’s “Discovery Weekends” for couples, individuals and small groups. With a beach club, 29 holes of golf designed by architect Rees Jones, an equestrian center, five pools, tennis courts and more, Haig Point is beautifully designed with plenty of modern amenities. But notably, several important historical elements remain intact, despite the fact that the community itself was established a mere 35 years ago. International Paper, the world’s largest paper and packaging 94

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company, bought 1,100-acre Haig Point in 1984, when Daufuskie’s entire population had dwindled to about 50 people. The development is named for George Haig, who owned the land in the 1700s. Today, the member-owned community operates as a traditional private club. Guests can stay at one of 22 private rental homes or at one of two historical properties. Strachan Mansion is a four-room inn that also serves as a community hub, with a small general store and a cocktail bar/coffee shop. The 7,500-square-foot inn was built on nearby St. Simon’s Island in 1910 as a summer retreat for a shipping magnate and brought to Daufuskie via barge in 1986. Bright, sunny rooms are spacious and private, elegantly upfitted with antique furnishings — a quiet and relaxing home base for exploring the island. Another unique lodging option is the island’s original lighthouse, situated on a jag overlooking the sound. Built in 1873, the two-story structure with a rocking-chair front porch is now a charming two-bedroom guesthouse. But amid the island’s picturesque palms and Spanish moss are also stark reminders of the low country’s painful history. Steps from Strachan Mansion, the perfectly manicured lawn is dotted with restored remnants of the tabby-style slave homes, constructed with sand and ground oyster shells in the 1700s and 1800s. Once you leave the gates of this exclusive community and its tidy landscaped yards, you’ll discover there’s much more of this complex and fascinating history to be found.

PHOTOGRAPH RIGHT BY MIKE RITTERBECK

BY CATHY MARTIN

ISLAND HISTORY At just 5 miles long and 2 miles wide, it’s hard to believe this prime piece of coastal property remains largely undeveloped. The name, which means “sharp feather,” is a reference to the island’s original Native American inhabitants. English settlers arrived in the mid 1700s and divided the island into plantations — those lots were eventually divided into smaller plots that were sold to newly free people. Fortunately for this tiny island community, an active volunteer historical foundation has worked to preserve the island’s heritage, from the Native American tribes that inhabited the land centuries ago to the Gullah people, whose ancestors were brought over from West Africa as slaves to till low country rice fields. Rice didn’t grow well on Daufuskie, so the landowners tried indigo, then cotton until Trail rides and 29 holes of golf are just a few of the amenities offered at Haig Point. the boll weevil infestation destroyed crops in the early 1900s. For a short time, an oyster-canning factory provided work for the locals, but when that closed, Daufuskie’s residents were left with no viable industry. While nearby Hilton Head Island was being transformed into a thriving resort, Daufuskie’s population dwindled. Today, about 400 people live on Daufuskie year-round.

EXPLORING A good place to start exploring is the Daufuskie Island History Museum, a former church that the historical foundation acquired in the early 2000s after raising money to keep the structure from falling into the hands of a developer. Here, you’ll find pottery shards estimated to be thousands of years old and other artifacts related to island life. Other historical points of interest include the First Union African Baptist Church, a community church established in 1881 that has been carefully restored, and Bloody Point Beach, named after a violent battle during the Yamasee War of 1715.

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Artist Chase Allen sells coastal-inspired sculptures at The Iron Fish, top. The Calibogue Club at Haig Point, middle, offers dinner with a view. The bar at Old Daufuskie Crab Co., bottom, is a beachy, no-frills spot to watch the sunset.

A short golf-cart ride from the museum is the Mary Fields School building, where Conroy taught schoolchildren in 1969. The building now houses Daufuskie Blues, which sells dyed scarves and clothing made from indigo plants that grow wild on the island. Behind the shop is School Grounds Coffee. Owners Pam and Brian Cobb moved to Daufuskie from Salisbury five years ago. “Best decision we’ve ever made,” Pam says as she hands me my latte. Horseback rides through the maritime forest or along the beach can be arranged through Daufuskie Trial Rides. I hadn’t been on a horse in years, but Finch, my 14-year-old Tennessee Walker for the day, was a sweetie, and Claire, my guide, calmed my fears while sharing stories about the island and its wildlife, which includes loggerhead sea turtles, countless bird species, even armadillos. Other spots to visit include The Iron Fish, where artist Chase Allen creates coastal-inspired sculptures that are displayed in an open-air gallery. At Daufuskie Island Rum Co., you can sample not only rum but also vodka and bourbon, all made in-house. One of Daufuskie’s most famous residents, cookbook author Sallie Ann Robinson, who has been featured in O Magazine among others, moved back home to Daufuskie a few years ago and now offers Gullah tours. Freeport Marina is where you’ll disembark if you arrive via the public ferry that runs seven days a week. It’s also a rustic, no-frills spot to sip a beer or cocktail and watch the sunset at the end of the day. Multicolored Adirondack chairs and rockers are scattered around the sprawling deck — this place is old-school beachy, so come as you are. Here’s where you’ll also find Old Daufuskie Crab Co. and the Freeport Island Store, where you can pick up basic provisions and gifts.

With such a small island population, food and drink options are limited on Daufuskie. If you’re staying at Haig Point, you can dine at the clubhouse Grill Room or at the oceanfront Calibogue Club, with a wide-ranging menu that includes seared jumbo sea scallops, braised short ribs and lobster ravioli. Gather around the outdoor fire pit for pre-dinner cocktails and request a table on the covered porch for a splendid ocean view. Lucy Bell’s Cafe serves breakfast and lunch from a small yellow cottage on the south side of the island. Order at the counter — there will likely be a line — and grab a seat on the lawn, shaded by a large live oak. Don’t be fooled by the unassuming appearance — the crab and spinach dip, fried green tomatoes, po’ boys and more are as good as you’ll find in fancier establishments. Don’t miss the peach iced tea, if you’re lucky enough to get a cup before they sell out. As you board the ferry back home, chances are this little island without a bridge will occupy a special place in your memory for quite some time. SP GETTING THERE: Haig Point runs its own private ferry service to and from Hilton Head Island from 6 a.m. to midnight daily. Learn more about Discovery Weekends at haigpoint.com. There’s also a public ferry and a water taxi service from Hilton Head Island to Daufuskie Island.

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PHOTOGRAPH TOP LEFT BY MIKE RITTERBECK

EAT & DRINK

Congratulations to Sodoma Law’s Legal Elite Attorneys!

PENELOPE HEFNER

AMANDA CUBIT ATTORNEY

SENIOR ATTORNEY

SODOMA LAW UNION

SODOMA LAW

PRINCIPAL & ATTORNEY

AMY SIMPSON

Each year, SouthPark Magazine’s sister publication, Business North Carolina, invites all active members of the N.C. State Bar to vote for their most-esteemed peers. This marks the 20th Legal Elite class. Attorneys can’t vote for themselves or for members of the Legal Elite Hall of Fame — previous top vote-getters in a particular specialty. Votes for lawyers from another firm are weighted more heavily than votes for colleagues at the same firm. This year, 982 lawyers were selected as Legal Elite, which represents fewer than 4% of the state’s 28,000 active attorneys. In this section, we highlight Legal Elite winners practicing in selected specialties in the Charlotte region. To view the full list, visit businessnc.com/legal-elite.

FAMILY Erik Ashman The Olsinski Law Firm PLLC, Charlotte, Concord Anna Blood Blood Law PLLC, Waxhaw Ashton Bowns Blood Law PLLC, Charlotte Jon R. Burns James, McElroy & Diehl PA, Charlotte Laura B. Burt, Wofford Burt PLLC, Charlotte Tom Bush Law Offices of Tom Bush PA, Charlotte Ashley B. Callahan The Callahan Firm, Huntersville Holden B. Clark Holden B. Clark, Attorney at Law PLLC, Gastonia Amanda M. Cubit Sodoma Law PC, Monroe Nicholas Cushing Miller Bowles Cushing Law PLLC, Charlotte Lindsey Sink Dasher Dasher Law PLLC, Matthews Lindsey Easterling Easterling Law PLLC, Matthews

Candace S. Faircloth Collins Family Law Group, Monroe

Kyle LeBlanc Hamilton Stephens Steele + Martin PLLC, Charlotte

Julia Kirby Stage Marcellino & Tyson PLLC, Charlotte

Ashley C. Foley Cordes Law PLLC, Charlotte

Anna Gray LeBlanc Offit Kurman PA, Charlotte

Theresa E. Viera Modern Legal, Charlotte

Jordan M. Griffin Stepp Law Group PLLC, Monroe

Lauren V. Lewis Essex Richards PA, Charlotte

Tamela T. Wallace The Law Office of Tamela T. Wallace PA, Charlotte

Tara A. Harrawood Marcellino & Tyson PLLC, Charlotte Penelope L. Hefner Sodoma Law PC, Monroe Elizabeth “Beth” T. Hodges Offit Kurman PA, Charlotte Lindsey Houk Waple & Houk PLLC, Charlotte Elizabeth “Libby” James Offit Kurman PA, Charlotte Irene King Irene King Law PLLC, Charlotte Carolyn “Lynn” KruegerAndes Hamilton Stephens Steele + Martin PLLC, Charlotte Dara Duncan Larson Duncan Larson Law PLLC, Charlotte

Dustin S. McCrary The Law Office of Dustin S. McCrary PLLC, Statesville Eric S. Meredith Jetton & Meredith PLLC, Charlotte Christopher D. Miller Miller Bowles Cushing Law PLLC, Charlotte Jennifer Paternostro Moore Marcellino & Tyson PLLC, Charlotte Mark D. Riopel Hamilton Stephens Steele + Martin PLLC, Charlotte Kelly R. Routh Dozier, Miller, Pollard & Murphy LLP, Charlotte Amy E. Simpson Sodoma Law PC, Charlotte Tonya Graser Smith Graser Smith PLLC, Charlotte

Danielle Walle Marcellino & Tyson PLLC, Charlotte Mallory A. Willink Conrad Trosch & Kemmy PA, Charlotte J. “Hunt” Huntington Wofford Wofford Burt PLLC, Charlotte

HALL OF FAME: Richard D. Stephens Dozier, Miller, Pollard & Murphy LLP, Charlotte, (2009) Stan Brown Hamilton Stephens Steele & Martin PLLC, Charlotte, (2013) Rob Blair Essex Richards PA, Charlotte, (2016)

Ketan P. Soni Soni Brendle PLLC, Charlotte southparkmagazine.com | 99

TAX & ESTATE PLANNING

Stephanie C. Daniel Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick LLP, Charlotte

James “Jim” M. Mabon Law Office of James M. Mabon, Charlotte

Christian L. Perrin Hickmon & Perrin PC, Charlotte

S. Kyle Agee Johnston, Allison & Hord PA, Charlotte

Kimberly A. Gossage Garrity & Gossage LLP, Matthews

William “Bill” L. Mills IV Culp Elliott & Carpenter PLLC, Charlotte

Brian Bernhardt Forrest Firm PC, Charlotte

C. Wells Hall III Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP, Charlotte

Jared D. Mobley K&L Gates LLP, Charlotte

Heidi E. Royal Heidi E. Royal Law PLLC, Charlotte Maria Satterfield Satterfield Legal PLLC, Charlotte

Martin M. Brennan Jr. Brennan Law Firm PLLC, Huntersville John “Jody” J. Carpenter Culp Elliott & Carpenter PLLC, Charlotte Christian P. Cherry Crisp Cherry McCraw PLLC, Charlotte Andrea C. Chomakos McGuireWoods LLP, Charlotte C. Michael Crisp Crisp Cherry McCraw PLLC, Charlotte

Jessica Mering Hardin Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson PA, Charlotte Brooks F. Jaffa Cranford, Buckley, Schultze, Tomchin, Allen & Buie PA, Charlotte Christopher “Chris” J.C. Jones Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Charlotte Warren P. Kean Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick LLP, Charlotte

Ryan Monk Monk Law Firm PLLC, Charlotte Jeffery J. Morris Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, Charlotte Andrew L. Nesbitt Nesbitt Law PLLC, Charlotte Tanya Nicole Oesterreich Oesterreich Law PLLC, Concord Erin B. Patterson Erin Patterson Law PLLC, Charlotte

Bradley “Brad” T. Van Hoy Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Charlotte Sara Page H. Waugh Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Charlotte Sabrina Winters Sabrina Winters Attorney at Law PLLC, Charlotte

HALL OF FAME: W. Curtis Elliott Jr. Culp Elliott & Carpenter PLLC, Charlotte, (2004)

JUSTICE

Our Job. Our Focus. Our Passion.

Congratulations to Erik Ashman for being selected by his peers as a 2021 Legal Elite Young Gun

jcolaw.com CHARLOTTE 1355 Greenwood Cliff Dr., Suite 300, Charlotte, NC 28204 | 704-405-2580 CONCORD 67 Cabarrus Ave W., Concord, NC 28025 | 704-918-4747

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Ray S. Farris, Johnston Allison & Hord PA, Charlotte, (2005) Christy Eve Reid (died May 8, 2014) Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson PA, Charlotte, (2009) Graham D. Holding Jr. Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson PA, Charlotte, (2012) Debra L. Foster Foster Royal PA, Charlotte, (2017)

YOUNG GUNS (UNDER 40) Derek P. Adler DeVore, Acton & Stafford PA, Charlotte Erik Ashman The Olsinski Law Firm PLLC, Charlotte, Concord Timaura E. Barfield Shumaker, Loop and Kendrick LLP, Charlotte Steven Allen Bimbo Smith Terry Johnson & Windle, Charlotte Katie D.B. Burchette Johnston, Allison & Hord PA, Charlotte

J. Porter Durham III McGuireWoods LLP, Charlotte Kyle Frost Offit Kurman PA, Charlotte

Daniel “Dan” S. Trimmer Skufca Law PLLC, Charlotte

Katie Walsh Gilbert Rech Law PC, Charlotte Taylor Goodnight federal public defender Western District of N.C., Charlotte

Parker E. Moore Johnston, Allison & Hord PA, Charlotte

Tara A. Harrawood Marcellino & Tyson PLLC, Charlotte

Charise S. Patterson Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Charlotte

Solomon I. Hejirika Jr. Knipp Law Office PLLC, Charlotte

Kate Rech Rech Law PC, Charlotte

Lindsey Houk Waple & Houk PLLC, Charlotte Matthew T. Houston K&L Gates LLP, Charlotte Brooks F. Jaffa Cranford, Buckley, Schultze, Tomchin, Allen & Buie PA, Charlotte Kimberly “Kim” J. Kirk Johnston, Allison & Hord PA, Charlotte

Meghan L. Van Vynckt Cordes Law, PLLC, Charlotte

HALL OF FAME:

J. Christian Stevenson Kirk Palmer & Thigpen PA, Charlotte, (2012)

Bobby Robinson Nexsen Pruet LLC, Charlotte Joseph “Joe” R. Shealy Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, Charlotte Eric Spengler Spengler & Agans PLLC, Charlotte Christopher “Chris” D. Tomlinson

William T. Wallace McMillan, Psaroudis & Markey PA , Charlotte

Aaron Lay Hamilton Stephens Steele + Martin PLLC, Charlotte, (2016) Matthew T. Marcellino Marcellino & Tyson PLLC, Charlotte, (2018) Nancy S. Litwak Rosenwood, Rose & Litwak PLLC, Charlotte, (2019)

Daniel J. Knight Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP, Raleigh Matthew W. Krueger-Andes Fox Rothschild LLP, Charlotte Carolyn “Lynn” Krueger-Andes Hamilton Stephens Steele + Martin PLLC, Charlotte

Kelsey Hendrickson Butler Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson PA, Charlotte

L. Bree Laughrun James, McElroy & Diehl PA, Charlotte

Heather G. Carson Johnston, Allison & Hord PA, Charlotte

Kyle LeBlanc Hamilton Stephens Steele + Martin PLLC, Charlotte

Kelly A. Chrisman K&L Gates LLP, Charlotte

Benjamin “Ben” F. Leighton Alexander Ricks PLLC, Charlotte

Collaborative Law • Mediation • Separation Agreements Child Custody • Child Support • Equitable Distribution Alimony • Arbitration • Litigation

Congratulations to Our Legal Elite

Micheal L. Littlejohn Jr. Littlejohn Law PLLC, Charlotte

Brittany N. Conner DeVore, Acton & Stafford PA, Charlotte

Luis M. Lluberas Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Charlotte

Alec Covington McGuireWoods LLP, Charlotte

Jeremy S. Maddox Law Offices of James Scott Farrin, Charlotte

Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Charlotte

Katie McAbee Legal Aid of North Carolina Inc., Charlotte

Carl Burchette Rosenwood, Rose & Litwak PLLC, Charlotte

M. Cabell Clay Moore & Van Allen PLLC, Charlotte

Michael L. Martinez Grier Wright Martinez PA, Charlotte

REBECCA WOFFORD |

HUNT WOFFORD

LAURA BURT

704.626.6672 • www.woffordburt.com 4601 Park Road, Suite 560

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Opening a book can open a conversation. Together let’s…

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|swirl A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas

Winter on the Homestead January 10, Latta Plantation

The McKee family

Duncan Trice and Ann Marie Lawing

The Patton family

Latta Plantation opened its doors for a day celebrating the history of the home, built in 1800, and those who lived there.

The Chandler family

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON

The Zeilinga family

Runway Holiday presented by Charlotte Seen December 19, Lake Wylie Country Club

Tanya Parks, Bleugh Raleigh and Jamie Moten

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Hillary Einbecker and Christiana Compton

The Bolnykh family

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON

Charlotte Seen presented three shows in one day, closing out with a large fashion show attended by close friends and family members of participants.

LOUISE PATRICK GIBERT Realtor/Broker at Dickens Mitchener 2330 Randolph Road, Charlotte, NC 704-575-5139 I louise@dickensmitchener.com A native Charlottean and graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, Louise returned to Charlotte in 1996 after working in New York in sales. In addition to selling Real Estate, Louise runs a luxury travel consulting business which she has operated for over 20 years. Louise is affiliated with Dickens Mitchener & Associates and Leading Real Estate Companies of the World. She is a Relocation Certified Agent and was awarded “Top Producer” in Fourth Quarter 2020. Apart from her career, Louise has been married 27 years to her husband Paul, with whom she has three sons. They have resided in the neighborhoods of Cotswold, Foxcroft, and Quail Hollow. Louise has strong strategic community connections and a detail oriented, warm enthusiastic approach. Louise is a trusted full-service adviser and would welcome the opportunity to assist you with all of your real estate and travel needs!

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|swirl A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas

Dream Gala

Founders Elizabeth and Brandon Lindsey

Tom Cornwell

Shane Lawrence

Molly Grantham

Mary Beth Taylor

Greater Charlotte Heart Ball

A virtual gala benefiting AHA Charlotte January 30 The 62nd edition of the Charlotte Heart Ball was completely virtual, with supporters holding small viewing parties throughout the area.

Michael Rackoff and Liz Ralon

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Donna and Al de Molina and Kim Henderson

Sarah French

Shirley Cress Dudley’s viewing party

Lester Oliva accepts his award

Sean and Anne Madden

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF AHA CHARLOTTE/DANIEL COSTON

Dream On 3’s annual gala went virtual this year, airing live from the shores of Lake Wylie. Shane Lawrence was honored as Volunteer of the Year, and Rock Hill Powersports won Small Business of the Year honors. Dream on 3 provides sports-themed experiences for children with life-altering conditions.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY EMBY TAYLOR PHOTOGRAPHY

Virtual event benefiting Dream On 3 January 30, Papa Doc’s at Lake Wylie, S.C.

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|swirl A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas

Gather at the River

Artist’s reception with Case Baumgarten February 11, Anne Neilson Fine Art Twenty-four-year-old Case Baumgarten debuted a stirring solo exhibition at Anne Neilson Fine Art in January, followed by a reception with the artist on February 11.

Bill DeLoache, Trudi Norris and George Richardson

Jeff Wallin and Luis Machicao

Scott Ortup, Case Baumgarten and Clark Neilson

Dani Gasparian and Garen Arisian

Massoud Shiraz, Cassandra Richardson and Colleen Richmond

Meg and Hayley Farris

Kyle Long

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Bonnie Wood and Kristin Mitchell

Blaine Nashold and Charles Wilson

Spencer Mead and Liza Fortenberry

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON

Tony Maciolowski and Daron Gaon

|swirl A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas

Love Thy Neighbor Tribute concert to benefit A Roof Above January 15, Neighborhood Theatre

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON

Sierra Ferrell

Dozens of local and regional musicians came together to raise money to combat homelessness in Charlotte. Each artist covered a song performed or written by someone that passed away in 2020.

Houston Norris and Sam Tayloe of Time Sawyer

Troy Conn

Mary, Dave and Ruth Shumway

Jay Garrigan

Elonzo Wesley

Book Your Suite at Tuscarora’s!

We couldn't be happier to welcome back a familiar face to the team. 1300 Baxter St, Ste 114 Charlotte, NC

Robert Nahouraii, MD, FAAP Child & Adolescent Neurology

8001 N Tryon St Charlotte, NC (University Area)

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511 Lauchwood Dr Laurinburg, NC

Now accepting new patients! New locations are opening soon.

70 Lake Concord Rd NE Concord, NC

704-335-3400

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33 Scenic acres Huge in/out suites, no cages Nature trail walks Resident club Staff 24/7 Golf cart rides in the forest Van Pickup & Delivery

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|swirl A monthly guide to Charlotte’s parties and galas

Kids with Cancer Got Talent

A virtual gala and viewing party benefiting Hands for Holly February 5, The Rosemont Hands for Holly found a way to have some virtual fun while supporting families fighting cancer. The gala spotlighted the talents of kids and teens that are battling cancer.

Anne and David Bradford

Sheri Lynch

Jenn Ison and Chrissy Kincheloe

Rob and A. G. Melton

Kevin Sferro and Bill Wade

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Kevin and Monica Sferro

Anne Bradford and Beth Wicker

Jeff and Robin Gardner

PHOTOGRAPHS BY DANIEL COSTON

Chrissy Kincheloe, Jenn Ison and Christina Wade

Instant Classics

Escape to the

SANDHILLS

The Home of American Golf® beckons all visitors. From world-class golf to local shopping and dining, our welcoming Southern hospitality is why people have been coming home to the Pinehurst, Southern Pines, Aberdeen Area for more than 125 years. Plan Your SANDHILLS Escape today!

www.homeofgolf.com

1013 Union Rd. | Gastonia

www.tallyhoclothier.com

704.861.1990 Open Monday – Saturday SOUTH PARK MAGAZINE April and May 2021 HALF PAGE AD.indd 1

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Hope & healing

Dewdrop Designs’ talismans are displayed and sold at Sozo Gallery at 904 Pecan Ave. sozogallery.net

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PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTIN DRISCOLL

illian Stevens has enjoyed much success since launching Dewdrop Designs in 2005. Her handcrafted jewelry, leather goods and totes have been featured in O. Magazine, Garden & Gun and countless other publications. But Stevens’ newest creations are a bit more personal. “I’ve always been obsessed with ceramics,” Stevens says, so she started taking classes about a year and a half ago. “It started as a passion, but I wanted to make some gifts for some special girlfriends.” In her Charlotte home studio, Stevens began making ceramic beads, which are strung together to make talismans, similar to blessing beads. A talisman is generally defined as something meant to protect and bring good luck. Some of the pieces incorporate charred wood, plus shells, rocks and other bits and pieces Stevens has collected over the years. The talismans became so popular, she began selling them at Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tenn., Montage Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, S.C., and now, Sozo Gallery in Charlotte. After suffering personal loss, Stevens found the beads and all-natural elements comforting and thought others might as well. “The tactile nature was soothing for me. I wish I had something to hold and rub in my dark moments,” Stevens says. “It’s something that keeps you grounded.” SP

4521 Sharon Rd, Charlotte, NC 28211

(704) 532-9041

Ofﬁcial Jeweler of the Carolina Panthers