The Fine Print, Winter 2017

VOLUME IX, ISSUE II

thefineprintmag.org

WINTER 2017 FREE

The small town activists protesting Florida’s DAPL, p. 31

How Gainesville’s rave scene came to an end in the ‘90s, p. 18

from the

EDITORIAL DESK

L

et me begin by stating that I’m no writer. I don’t claim to have a way with words. I get tongue-tied, and I stutter. I speak too fast and too slow. I mumble and mispronounce.

This is probably why you don’t see my name much around here. I live in the bleeds and margins; I paint with picas and pixels. Essentially, I make everything look pretty. If you’ve ever picked up this magazine (or settled for it after it was probably flung your way at the farmer’s market)I hope you’ve made it through not only because of the brilliantly crafted stories, but because of my design direction.

For four years, I’ve hustled and cranked out a 40-page paper in the span of 48-hours. I’ve camped out in the coziest coffee shops (what’s up, Karma Cream?), worrying baristas with a disposition verging on mania. I’ve deprived myself of sleep and all things sane. And I’ve lost hair (and probably added some gray ones) when typos and errors are found.

Of all the issues I have overseen, I am most proud of this one. Not because I can confidently say you won’t find any

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Special thanks to Samantha Schuyler for making things shiny and bright.

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Published with support from the Gainesville community. Donate to keep The Fine Print in print at www.thefineprintmag.org/donate.

Editor-in-Chief

Sarah Senfeld

Print Editors

Sirene Dagher Michael Holcomb Molly Minta

Photo Director

Sean Doolan

Art Director

Shannon Nehiley

Creative Writing Editor

Helen Stadelmaier

Copy Editors

Neel Bapatla Anne Marie Tamburro

Web Editors

Molly Minta Sarah Senfeld

Social Media

Erick Edwing

Page Designers

Molly Minta Maddie Ngo Sarah Senfeld Ingrid Wu Marissa Volk

Advertising Director

Anne Marie Tamburro

FALL 2016 FREE

ag.o thefineprintm

ISSUE I VOLUME IX,

errors but because of the impressive work executed by every editor and contributor.

Winter issues tend to be the hardest to print. Many of us go on autopilot during the holiday. Daylight saving time puts us in a funk and in November an excretion of cheeto dust was elected to the highest office in the land. It’s a lot for anyone to handle. But, we did it. And I’m so glad we did.

So, you’ve made it this far. I hope you keep on reading. Topics in this issue range from environmentalism (Sabal Trail) to race (the history of policing people of color in Alachua County) to urban sprawl (development in Gainesville is nigh) to a quiz that can help those, who feel the inevitable doom this new administration is expected to bring, get involved in local groups.

If you like what you see, give us a holler. Ways to reach out to us are sprinkled throughout.

Now, let me end this by stating I’m no writer. But I’ll do anything for The Fine Print, even write.

thefine NT|

02 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

Visit our site for multimedia and more stories. PLUS! Comment on stories, see photos from the printed issue (and more!) IN COLOR. Flip through a digital version of the printed edition and much, much more, all updated throughout the month.

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IN THIS ISSUE COLUMNS

Cover art by Sydney Martin.

Monthly Manifesto, p. 05 Learn how to be bike-savvy with The Freewheel Project.

Read Up, Chow Down, p. 08 Soul Shack serves up American cuisine with a dash of heart.

Homestead Instead, p. 14 A simple goodie bag to helping homeless folk this winter.

Opinion, p. 06 Despite online fighting, GCOR needs our support.

Simply Science, p. 12 What’s the real deal with GMOs?

Art & Literature, p. 38 Photo by Ainesey Foira; prose by Rachel Pimienta.

SPOTLIGHTS The Pursuit of Hoppyness, p. 16 UF professors are developing local hops, the plant that gives beer its distinctive flavor.

Panic at the Disco, p. 18 Ever wondered why Gainesville’s bars and clubs close at 2 a.m.?

Comic, p. 17 A new comic by Elizabeth Suarez.

#NotMyPresident, p. 21 Quiz: want to know how to protest That Guy in office?

FEATURES

Growing Pains, p. 23 What will Gainesville look like in 10 years?

Trial By Fire, p. 26 Robert Dentmond’s death is part of Gainesville’s legacy of racism.

Panic at the Disco p. 18

A Bittersweet Release, p. 29 Reentry programs can ease a felon’s transition to society.

Rise Against The Machine, p. 31 A 36-inch pipeline is going through rural Florida counties. How landowner’s are fighting back.

FEATURED STAFFER Maddie Ngo

Maddie Ngo is a freshman at the University of Florida double majoring in English and economics. She writes and designs for The Fine Print and wants to pursue either law or journalism after she graduates. If she isn’t listening to Vampire Weekend or Real Estate in her free time, she’s probably reading a book, drinking coffee, baking brownies or playing the ukulele.

For the Record, p. 10 Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 03

Paper

COLUMN / PAPERCUTS

Ouch! That hurts, doesn’t it? Paper Cuts are our short, erratic and slightly painful updates on current, local and national events. See our website for more Paper Cuts at thefineprintmag.org.

Le t It Shin e when detroit’s mayor Mike Duggan took office in January 2014, an estimated 40 percent of the city’s streetlights weren’t working.

Residents complained of the city’s dark streets and sidewalks. Parents were wary of leaving their children to wait for a school bus in the dark. As soon as the sun went down, shops along Detroit’s streets saw their foot traffic decrease drastically.

“People didn’t want to go out to eat or shop after the sun went down,” said Rufus Bartell, a “homegrown entrepreneur” whose family has opened several businesses along Livernois Avenue, the city’s former fashion district.

In mid-December of 2016, the city flipped the switch on 65,000 new LED streetlights.

The project was the culmination of a three-year infrastructure overhaul undertaken by Mayor Duggan and Michigan’s Gov. Rick Synder. It was completed to collective jubilation: Lorna Thomas, chairwoman of Detroit’s Public Lighting Authority, called it “probably one of the most momentous things to ever happen to the city.”

While the scientists are still out on whether improved lighting decreases crime — many studies have found no causation at all — longtime residents said the project has made them see the city in a new light. Bartell has seen patronage increase 15 percent.

The new streetlights are part of Detroit’s steady recovery since the Great Recession.

Joe Spencer, who has owned the restaurant Louisiana Creole Gumbo since the 1980s,

04 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

said that the streetlights are a step forward for the dimmed relationship between the city’s government and its residents.

“Residents stopped trusting government, and without trust people won’t want to settle here or a start a business,” he said. “The mayor said he’d turn the lights back on. He did.”

Though the project was not federally funded, the city did receive assistance from former President Barack Obama’s administration.

Shaun Donovan, who served as Obama’s budget director, sees the city’s recovery and newfound growth as the “pinnacle” of the 44th president’s vision for local governments.

“Detroit is the symbol of the rise and fall of cities,” Donovan said. “Now it is the symbol of the rise again ... a beacon to the rest of this country and the world.” •

By Molly Minta

Am azi ng Dis gra ce for the past twenty years, at least one public school marching band from Washington, D.C. has performed in the inaugural parade.

With the bully-in-chief waiting at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue, the prospect of dancing and trumpeting in the street elicited exactly zero applications from D.C.-area marching bands this year. Not even high school band directors, a notoriously eager bunch, wanted to help welcome the president-elect to the District.

The silence extends beyond the band room—the most well-known performer to grace the jaded jamboree will be a 16-year-old

runner up to a reality TV talent show who records mostly Christmas albums. Street cred alert: she was also voted one of America’s “Ten Best-Mannered People of 2011” by the National League of Junior Cotillions.

It has been reported that Elton John and Celine Dion, gay icons, were approached for appearances, which is a true headscratcher.

Even performers who have been cajoled into appearing on TV to celebrate the impending four years seem less than enthusiastic. The Rockettes are allowing objecting dancers to sit out the performance, and a petition has circulated within the Mormon Church to stop the Tabernacle Choir from performing.

Some groups do want to perform. Not surprisingly, interest from high school marching bands in the South and Midwest is strong. A pre-inauguration ball will also feature “country rapper” Cowboy Troy and the country band Big & Rich, who hopefully won’t forget to play their 2004 hit “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy).”

Meanwhile activists, writers and musicians such as Angela Davis, Eve Ensler and Solange will appear at the Peace Ball in D.C., an event the day before the inauguration and will showcase voices of “hope and resistance.”

At the end of the day, who does or who doesn’t play at the inauguration is a symbolic gesture. Active protests around the city are projected to include hundreds of thousands of citizens voicing their objections to the hateful rhetoric of the incoming president. With any luck their chants will drown out 2011’s politest pre-teen prima donna. •

By Michael Holcomb

COLUMN / MONTHLY MANIFESTO

BY ANA FAJARDO, OUTREACH & PROGRAMS COORDINATOR freewheel project is a not-for-profit late 2015, we’ve been working on perfecting our cycling collective and shop with a mission to empower the methods of reaching out to Gainesville residents. local cycling culture through education, accessibility and We hope to serve children, women, low-income residents, infrastructure. We are conveniently located in downtown veterans, the homeless and other underrepresented communities.

Gainesville, close to the Hawthorne state trail and Depot Park. We can’t do it without your support.

Gainesville has converted several of us into cyclists. Having We rely on collective member fees and donations to support one of the shortest commutes in the state, this small college town our outreach programs. Besides the aforementioned benefits, our has made cycling easy and accessible for residents. Plentiful bike collective member fees help fund classes, events and services. We lanes, dedicated bike avenues, multi-use trails and sparse parking gladly accept used bicycles and equipment as donations. Some are just a few of the reasons why it’s so easy to become a cyclist of these donations serve as educational tools during our bike here. For some of us, the bicycle has become such an influential mechanic courses and repair clinics. Bikes are repaired and sold machine—offering us a sense of community, a culture to create at a low cost back into the community or donated to children. and participate in and a way to adventure. That was enough to Monetary donations allow us to pay class instructors and host inspire an organization dedicated to giving back to our local events. cycling community and its diverse needs.

We have plenty of involvement opportunities, and you don’t The Freewheel Project offers a collective to empower local have to be bike-savvy to help us out. Every Saturday, we host a cyclists with bike maintenance skills and bicycle access for any repair clinic, and volunteers are taught how to fix bikes that will occasion. For $50 a year, our collective members gain access to later be donated to children. For those with limited means, we community work stands and a bicycle library. Our work stands offer a work-trade program for monthly store credit that can be contain all of the tools necessary for you to repair your own bicycle applied to parts and service. Every semester, we accept interns and and our shop mechanics can guide you every step of the way. Our teach them the basics of bicycle mechanics. We’re also accepting bicycle library is a collection of bikes and accessories that members interns who would like to help us build our organization through can borrow for a period of time, much like a library book. This advertising, graphic design and event planning. We’d love for you includes everything from to come to one of our city bikes, to touring and Every Saturday, we host a repair clinic, and rides or classes! • cargo bikes, and accessories For more information like car racks, trainers and volunteers are taught how to fix bikes that about us, check out our trailers. thefreewheelproject. will later be donated to children. For those website One of our goals is to org, get in touch with us on get as many people on with limited means, we offer a work-trade Facebook or come visit us in reliable bicycles as possible. the shop at 618 S. Main St. Since opening our doors in program for monthly store credit that can the

be applied to parts and service.

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 05

COLUMN / OPINION

STEP UP, step back A newly formed group in Gainesville struggles to unite against the new president and his policies.

D

BY BRITTANY EVANS

uring election season, Gainesville felt safe.

I’ve never received backlash for expressing liberal opinions or participating in activism. Though I do brace myself for verbal sexual harassment, I don’t feel afraid to hold hands with another woman in public. Living in a college town has its advantages, but it can also create a bubble. A lot of people in town thought Donald Trump had no chance of winning the presidential election.

Personally, I wasn’t so sure. I work just outside Gainesville at an organization that serves 12 counties in Florida, several of which are rural and consistently Republican. I was concerned by the number of Trump yard signs I saw while traveling for work and the number of vocal Trump supporters I met. So when he won the election, I wasn’t as shocked as those on my Facebook feed.

I was surprised, though, to see Gainesville, instead of being immobilized by shock and hopelessness, get to work right away.

Two days after the election, there was a community speak out at city hall that over 400 people attended. Just over a week later, protesters at the Freedom from Fear march occupied University Avenue.

The group behind this response is called Gainesville City of Resistance, or GCOR. According to Candi Churchill, an organizer for the United Faculty of Florida and the Graduate Assistants Union, GCOR is “not an organized group yet, but perhaps the beginning of a resistance movement.” It was created after three local organizers — Joey Brenner, from the Service Employees International Union, Jeremiah Tattersall, a co-chair for the Alachua County Labor Coalition, and Churchill — met to discuss the election. The conversation moved toward action,

ILLUSTRATION BY SARA NETTLE

06 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

COLUMN / OPINION

and they were later joined by Matthew Pearson-Dawe, Lauren Dawe, and Joe Courter.

They wanted the community to see a public denouncement of the president-elect, so they planned a speakout. The original organizers, who are all white, wanted the people who are most affected by Trump’s proposed policies to have a voice. So people of color, and other often-silenced groups, were invited to join them.

GCOR’s ground rules, introduced by organizer Diana Moreno, are based on social justice facilitation literature. Members are asked to assume good intentions, center marginalized voices, call people in rather than out, and own their intentions as well as their impact.

At in-person meetings, people who are more marginalized speak before those with more privilege, and little dialogue between members is permitted.

Theoretically, the rules apply at meetings and on their main organizing tool, Facebook. The rules are meant to give everyone an equal platform.

The GCOR Facebook group has served as a platform for sharing ideas, articles, and events and has contributed to the high turnout for meetings. It’s how I’ve heard of every event. The online group operates a little differently than the meetings. As none of the inperson limitations exist, anyone can post and have his or her voice heard.

But, enforcing ground rules is easier in person than online. On Facebook, people are less likely to consider rules before typing up a reply to a post, especially if they disagree with the rules.

Just before the Freedom from Fear March, GCOR member Sophia Cruz-Perez shared a Facebook post in the group discussing the disbandment of the Charleston chapter of the group Showing Up for Racial Justice. Those calling for disbandment implored members of this white-led group to join groups led by people of color groups because “the end of white supremacy will not come from a room of white people talking to each other about racism.”

Churchill deleted the post and temporarily blocked Cruz-Perez, a move which was widely seen as silencing POC voices. Churchill admitted she made a poor judgment call and apologized. She also wrote that the post came at a time when the page was being flooded with hate speech, misinformation about the upcoming march and other unwelcomed posts.

Regardless of Churchill’s intentions, what was more important was the effect this incident had on the group. Moreno said the organizers have watched the group devolve into a source of infighting and call-outs.

Alu Soto, a GCOR member, said marginalized people are tired of explaining these concepts to those who refuse to understand.

“Calling out racist, sexist or homophobic actions is not a personal attack,” he said.

“My approach has always been to give people room to make mistakes,” Moreno said. “But I also acknowledge that there are folks in our community who have been really hurt by systems that have excluded them, and they don’t have that type of patience that I do, and I honor that ... I believe their anger is justified.”

Moreno and her fellow organizers felt like they couldn’t meet everyone’s expectations when people of color were invited to be part of the planning and were critical of the work the they were doing.

But, Cruz-Perez says people of color aren’t looking for a seat at the table; she wants GCOR to shift support to endeavors that are already led by people of color.

This is Moreno’s hope for GCOR as well. She wants it to become an organization that can plug people into existing movements, rather than reinventing the wheel.

It is clear that the GCOR Facebook group causes organizers and members significant emotional distress. But, if GCOR is going to become an activist hub, it will need some form of online presence.

Despite infighting, I think it’s important to continue working with GCOR. Personally, I want to be involved with visible resistance movements.

Soto will continue to attend meetings and hold the organizers and members accountable for what they say. Cruz-Perez will continue to attend as well with the hope that things will shift, and the voices of people of color—especially black voices—will be centered. Moreno is inspired to continue leading by local organizers Paul Ortiz and Zoharah Simmons who have been part of local and national activist movements for decades. They told her that despite how exhausting organizing is, giving up is not an option.

We should remember this throughout the Trump presidency.

New resistance movements are never going to be perfect, but the only way they can improve is if marginalized groups continue to speak up and give feedback to organizers, and if organizers listen in return. It’s crucial for white people like myself to take the time to listen and understand others’ experiences. It’s crucial to listen and not rush to our own defense. And it’s crucial now, more than ever, for us to talk to other white people about dismantling systemic racism and confronting the personal biases that allowed Trump to be elected in the first place. •

“Calling out

racist, sexist or

homophobic

actions is not a personal attack,”Soto said.

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 07

, P U D A RE

N W O D W CHO

BY KEVIN ARTIGA ILLUSTRATIONS BY SABRINA SIEGEL

C

08 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

PHOTO BY SEAN DOOLAN

Soul Shack’s homemade southern style cabbage.

onventional American cuisine, as we know it today, mostly gets its cues from European traditions — the British in New England, the Italians and the Dutch in the Mid-Atlantic.

But if there is one cuisine that is an identifiably American invention, it’s soul food.

“It’s a different kind of animal — soul food,” said Leah Sherer, the owner of Soul Shack. A self-proclaimed “die-hard southerner,” Sherer envisioned not a restaurant, but a space where you feel as if you’re eating at home.

Soul Shack is tucked in the corner of Northeast Gainesville, just off Waldo Road. A small limegreen building, it is a relatively simple operation, but with overwhelming charm.

Two small windows, open directly adjacent to each other, designate “order here” above one and “pick-up here” above the other. The framed menu next to them details the options: oxtail, BBQ ribs, fried pork chops and the quintessential fried chicken. All meals come with twaaaao sides, a base of yellow or white rice and a corn muffin; a 10 dollar meal special offers a robust and filling experience.

To the untrained eye the place might look small and relatively idle, but it can get busy fast.

Soul Shack is not Sherer’s first restaurant, but it was, admittedly, the more difficult one.

“It was hard at first,” Sherer said, wandering through her office at Celebrations Catering, Soul Shack’s parent company. “We evolved. We’re all thinking, it’s so good, but the clients let us know how to cook the food.” Sherer emphasizes that the patrons, mainly east Gainesville folks, help shape the menu, sometimes more so than the designers themselves. After two months, Soul Shack was already doing double the sales of Cafe C, the other restaurant she owns.

Robert Simmons, the head chef at Soul Shack, has a very specific goal in mind: “We try to cook like grandma cooked.” Grown on Miami soul food, Chef Robert is extremely proud of the diverse influences that drive his cooking.

“Food is like America; the more diverse it is, the better it is. I grew up with Latin flavors, Chinese flavors, Italian and Jewish foods,” he said, adding his secret seasoning to the rich gravy that

COLUMN / READ UP, CHOW DOWN

Soul Shack

HOMEMADE SOUTHERN-STYLE CABBAGE INGREDIENTS 5-6 pieces of turkey tail (turkey butts) 1 large cabbage 1 whole onion 1 whole green pepper 1 whole red bell pepper 1.5 tablespoon of accent seasoning 1 tablespoon of onion powder Salt and pepper to taste

accompanies many of the dishes. “It helped me as I got into cooking. I learned to incorporate a little bit of all to it.”

Chef Robert echoes the multi-ethnic evolution of soul food in the United States. Composed of primarily Native American influences and African-American improvisation of the food available in Appalachia and the Southern United States, soul food combines West African staples, like rice and okra, with southern U.S. elements like corn and cassava. Enslaved Africans were often given the cheap, discarded cuts of meat, forcing them to be resourceful. Soul Shack has an impressive range of available meats, offering poultry and pork, but also oxtail, gizzards and livers.

Places like these often give vegetarians headaches. However, soul food has a long tradition of using crops as main staples in its cuisine. At Soul Shack, a combination of zipper peas and potato salad with lima beans or filled peas and cabbage creates an equally hearty meal.

That, combined with their other vegetarianfriendly dishes, like candied yams and mac and cheese, satisfies even the most stringent palate.

The desserts also follow the tradition of using lowcountry crops — like sweet potatoes and pecans — and create a sugar-sweet finish to its savory main entrees. At Soul Shack, the essential sweet potato pie and the banana pudding will quench any sweet tooth, paired, of course, with a juicy slice of Big Mama’s Red Velvet Cake.

Ultimately, said Chef Robert, it is his love for cooking that makes the food better.

“I always try to add something from here,” he said, pointing to his heart.•

INSTRUCTIONS 1. In a large pot, boil the turkey tails until they’re cooked through. Salt and pepper to taste.

2. Chop up the cabbage, whole onion, green and red peppers.

3. Mix vegetables together in a bowl.

4. Remove turkey tails after cooking.

5. Season broth to taste.

6. Add the mixture of vegetables to the broth.

7. Season with 1 ½ tablespoon of Accent and 1 tablespoon of onion powder.

8. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

9. Cook until cabbage is soft.

10. Let it sit for an hour.

104 NE Waldo Road Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Saturday, 12 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Sunday, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.

IN SEASO N AND FRESH kale • oranges • cabbage passion fruit • dates • pomegranate turnips • celery • pears • squash and more!

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 09

FOR THE RECORD Showcasing local bands, the next big thing, and all your friends.

The Dewars wrapped up a state-wide tour in December 2016. Photo by Melissa Gillum.

THE DEWARS All A Part of the Show

ECLECTIC FOLK THROWBACK released

May 2016

recorded in

St. Augustine

sounds like

David Bowie, The

Proclaimers inspiration

Bob Dylan, British

Invaders Music in the Money Industry, Switzerland key tracks

where to get it

Bandcamp, Spotify,

Soundcloud upcoming shows TBA

guitar,vocals

Anthony Dewar bass, vocals Zachary Dewar

guitar,

Jack Edmonson Joachim Polack drums, Ryan O’Malley keyboard,

modern-day folk duo The Dewars’ “All A Part of the Show”

is an 11 track LP filled with mystical songs reminiscent of the 1970s. Though the album was released in mid-2015, the project that was three years in the making remains one of the group’s more popular and well-acclaimed albums.

The duo consists of Florida-born twins Zachary and Anthony Dewar. Growing up, artists like Pink Floyd and Willie Nelson were commonly played, but it wasn’t until the twins discovered Bob Dylan and the British Invaders that they were inspired to start making music. The brothers first played for fun with friends and ended up forming various bands. However, as friends went separate paths, they decided to officially form The Dewars in 2009.

The Dewars are both multi-instrumentalists, often playing most of the instruments on their recordings.

However, when performing live, Anthony can be seen playing lead guitar with Zachary primarily on the bass. Both contribute to writing and arranging music on their projects.

“Ideas can clash, but if we allow each other to develop any idea and go with it, the result is always better than restricting that freedom in each other because there is plenty of time to make more songs,” Anthony said.

“All A Part of the Show” is the latest album released by the duo. Songs like, “Music in the Money Industry” showcase the lyrical talent that the group is capable of. It pokes fun at artists who make music purely for profit rather

10 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

BY CAMERON RIVERA

If you’d like to see your band reviewed in For The Record or if you want to be considered to play at our next benefit show, email

than from passion.

On the track, lyrics illustrate how powerful editors@thefineprintmag.org and corruptive a role and let us know. profit can be for musicians.

The title track is largely biographical, describing a brief history of the band and tying it to the message: everything that happens is just a part of life. The dual-vocals are delivered amid a cheery, yet simplistic arrangement of a guitar and bass, along with light drumming, to close off the album. Even with some of the darker elements of the song — losing band members­— ­ the track maintains a positive message.

“I think the vision is always changing from song to song.

I think that our lyrical content is very eclectic and we don’t intentionally write songs to sound like any specific artist or band,” Anthony said. “That’s not to say that we aren’t inspired by music that we love, but we don’t regurgitate other music in hopes to get quick success.”

By taking a new direction with every song and every album that they work on, The Dewars give themselves space to experiment with their sound and continue to grow as musicians. They are currently working on a psychedelic LP but will continues to release smaller EPs in between albums. •

HAIL! CASSIUS NEPTUNE Where Is That Cat?

“CATTY” JAM BAND released

Jul. 2016 Goldentone Studio

recorded at

Fiona Apple, the Mars Volta, Amy Winehouse sounds like

Long improv sessions

inspiration

and cats Where is that cat; Puked on Stacy; Cool Up, Rise Down key tracks

hailcassiusneptune. bandcamp.com where to get it

upcoming

shows

Jan. 20 at

Loosey’s

NOSTALGIC B-BALL ODE released

Oct.2016

recorded on

Garageband on

iPhone sounds like

The Blow, The Kooks

The Beach Boys, Andrew Jackson Jihad, their friends inspiration

aluminesgnv. bandcamp.com where to get it

TBA in the first quarter of February upcoming shows

Wilson Stern Dee Natour vocals, guitar, Aaron Pigue keyboard, synthesizer,

for hail! cassius neptune,

making music is all about the spontaneity of the moment. The band uses its environment and killer musical instincts to craft a jazzy overlay, which it applies to every genre from pop to soul to rock.

The band, originally a trio started by partners Wilson Stern, the bassist, and Kylie Jo Stern, the lead singer, has grown to a six-person ensemble. After Jo and Stern moved back to Florida from North Carolina, the two began jamming with old music friends, and the group fell into place.

“We had grander ideas than we could put on stage with three people,” Stern said.

Hail!’s first album, “Where is that Cat?,” is a compilation of two four-track EPs recorded during the first two and a half years of the band’s life. It embodies the primordial stage of the band, Stern said.

The album conveys a dark, mysterious sound and a sense of exploration that’s reflective of the band’s creative process.

Many of its tracks were born out of extended improv sessions filled with experimentation. They find all of their inspiration from the environment around them, from places to things one wouldn’t expect.

“The band is named after our cat,” Stern said. “His name is Hail! Cassius Neptune, and he’s very affectionate and

ALUMINE Dwayne Wade Split

vocals, bass, guitar, ukulele,

vocals

alumine soto, lead

Alumine Soto

vocalist and founder of Alumine, describes themself as “a religious follower of the greatest Heat Player of All Time, in the present and in any foreseeable future.”

For Soto, Dwyane Wade has been a constant, not just in the Miami Heat, but in their own life spent growing up in South Florida.

Then, news broke that Wade would be leaving Miami.

Soto and Simona Morales, featured as Alumine’s ‘insignificant other,’ decided to record the album using Soto’s Garageband app and a pair of Apple headphones in just under two hours.

“I felt an immense sadness because Wade had to move on,” said Soto. “I grew up watching games with Wade scoring points after points. It just won’t be the same without him.”

This release was intended to be a light-hearted and jubilant, a wistful yet hopeful farewell to the basketball player. Soto and Morales meshed quirky lyricism and hearty drum crescendos to create a witty and whimsical melodic duo. The tracks’ playful lyricism and folk punk hopefulness rings with lyrics such as, “I see your billboard in Miami and I just want you to be happy,” and “I know you weren’t trying to abandon me, Dwyane Wade.” In a twist

vocals,

Kylie Jo Stern

BY KATHERINE CAMPIONE

confident. We look to Hail! for approval.”

The band’s unconventional influences have helped it produce a distinct sound, which can be heard on the track “Puked on Stacey.” The song alternates between pretty jazz, reminiscent of the 1950s, and a heavy metal riff that creates their fused rock-soul sound.

“It sounds like you’re at the prom but then everyone just starts violently vomiting on each other,” Stern said. “I liked the idea of it being something very pretty and nice and put together, and then distorting it.”

The band never lets its creative juices stop flowing. They always make time for jam sessions before and after its practices to keep the energy alive.

“I like our practices to be a work sandwich on jam bread,” Stern said.

In the new year, the band will release a new EP, titled “LEMB.” This time the inspiration is from their dog, Bodie, who makes a noise very similar to the title. It will feature even more of Hail’s experimental sound.

Its aim is to create danceable yet quirky music that grabs people’s attention and makes them want to be involved in it, Stern said.

“We start a party on stage,” he said. •

BY MUSTAFA HAMMAD of seriousness, the album is nostalgic for a state of constancy that once was.

“This year has brought a lot of changes that have led the band to channel its ultimate creative expression,” Soto said. But, “even though this year led us to feel a sense of hopeful hopelessness, it’s possible to get by without that constant, represented

by Dwyane Wade, in our lives.”

Soto hinted at a mastered EP release coming out February 19. Their new work will be darker and heavier than its previous music, stemming from intersections between their Hispanic and queer heritage.

Through the music, Soto explores their identity as a queer Argentine immigrant in an era that is beginning to celebrate personal triumphs and intersectionalities. Drawing heavily on personal content such as assault and abuse, the upcoming untitled EP will have a bolder, more macabre sound, featuring band members, friends and others affected by interpersonal violence.

This upcoming year, “Alumine will embark in a new creative direction that explores the personal aspects of the hurt and sadness that my friends and I encountered this year,” Soto said. •

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 11

COLUMN / SIMPLY SCIENCE

Demystifying the many misconceptions about GMOs.

BY KRISTEN GAINES

I

n the fertile hills of northern Alachua County, a 30-acre organic farm boasts rows of lush vegetation. It’s the middle of growing season, and Noah Shitama, a main grower at Swallowtail Farm, supervises a young and eager crew as they tend to the daily chores.

Shitama got his start in food production after college when he realized how little he knew about sustenance and basic human needs. “I resolved to learn how to build things and how to grow things,” he said.

After college, Shitama worked at a small farm in Citra, Fla., that practiced “community-supported agriculture,” a subscriptionbased program that allows consumers to receive fresh, seasonal produce on a weekly or bi-weekly basis directly from the farm. As a Gainesville native, Shitama wanted to bring that platform closer to home. In 2009 he founded Swallowtail Farms.

“My intention was to offer better alternatives in terms of food choices for both my family and community,” he said.

Local organic farms have secured a place in the market as a preferred food source for consumers who have the luxury of choosing between more expensive local grocers and cheaper, more accessible large chains.

Often, this is motivated by a decision to buy genetically modified organisms or not to. GMOs are no stranger to mainstream media, but for the common consumer the topic can be difficult to digest. What does genetically modified even mean?

Are they safe to eat? Are they safe for the environment?

A GMO is a living organism whose genetic code has been manipulated to include a function it would otherwise not have.

Take, for instance, Bt crops. Bt stands for Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacteria with a gene whose protein disrupts digestion in many caterpillars. The bacteria is harmless to humans and kills the pests, which would otherwise destroy their crops. The gene was recently 12 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

ILLUSTRATIONS BY INGRID WU transferred into Asian eggplants to combat the fruit-and-shoot borer. Now, farmers’ need for pesticides is reduced, as are the chances of runoff contaminating the surrounding land and water, or of contributing to greenhouse gas emissions—the “externalized costs” of farming.

Amy Van Scoik, co-founder of Frog Song Organics, an organic farm located off Highway 301 in Hawthorne, cites these “externalized costs,” usually associated with conventional farming, as a motive for starting Frog Song. “Farming can be accomplished with the ‘triple bottom line,’ Van Scoik said, referring to a practice of benefitting human, ecological and economic resources at once.

“Conventional production exemplifies what is wrong with how we use our resources,” she said.

Conventional production is different from organic farming in a few ways. First, organic farms sell produce in markets that demand diversity, forcing them to grow a new assortment of crops each season. But conventional farms emphasize streamlining production. As a result, many conventional farms specialize in a single crop. Organic farms can use any practice they want and often choose those focused on promoting soil, air and water quality, but conventional farms will only use sustainable methods if they are convenient and minimize labor inputs.

Conventional farms can also legally use GMOs, which claim the best of both worlds: lower inputs, like water or chemicals,

COLUMN / SIMPLY SCIENCE with higher marketable yields and reduced environmental pressures.

Organizations like Greenpeace, justify their anti-GMO stance by spreading the concept of “GMO-contamination.”

They claim that the cross pollination of plant life surrounding genetically modified agricultural fields jeopardizes biodiversity.

But Kevin Folta, Ph.D, the chairman of the horticultural science department at the University of Florida, insists that GMO technology can be used sustainably and safely.

“I see this technology as a great way to solve problems for people,” he wrote in an answer on https://gmoanswers.com, where he is a frequent contributor. “We can design crops to grow in floods, droughts and heat. We can make plants with higher nutrition. We can make plants that last longer. These are huge gains for the farmer, the environment and the needy.”

After 17 years on the market, he writes, there is no evidence to suggest that GMOs are not safe to eat.

“The last thing I’m worried about with GMOs is the effect of actually consuming them,” said Van Scoik. “What people need to be worried about is the corporate control of food supply and production.”

The issues with genetic modification arise when a new plant product becomes patented and in turn controlled by whomever created it.

“In American agriculture, we’ve sacrificed almost everything in the name of efficiencies and productivity,” Shitama noted.

In a place like Gainesville, where land is accessible and viable, where community members value the wellbeing of the earth and take on the role of its caretakers, the arrival of genetically modified crops in food production is unlikely.

However, GMOs or no GMOs, it’s important that these small farms—who maintain an integral facet of our culture—are not hijacked by corporate interests.

“The debate over GMOs is in the wrong place,” Shitama said. “People ask ‘what do GMOs do?’ and ‘how are they better or worse than non-GMO crops?’ The point of what’s happening is [that] big ag[riculture] companies are out for domination.” •

“In American agriculture, we’ve sacrificed almost everything in the name of efficiencies and productivity.”

“There’s no power for farmers who plant GMOs to save their seeds. They’re legally not allowed to,” said Cody Gallitan of Siembra Farms, an organic farm in southeast Gainesville.

“These companies have made a system they can control. You buy their seed and then you have to buy their chemicals that accompany them.”

Back at Swallowtail, Shitama reflected on how culture is mirrored in agriculture. Humans have manipulated genetic crops since 12,000 BC, when it was discovered that saving the largest kernels yields bigger corn in the next harvest.

When this is practiced for hundreds of thousands of years, an organism’s most recent harvest will be completely different from its first.

With GMOs, however, there’s no need to wait decades: a trait can be manifested in the plant’s genome almost instantly.

The difference is that growers who wish to use GMOs no longer have control over their seed stock. They have to use patented seeds from large companies like Monsanto.

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 13

COLUMN / HOMESTEAD INSTEAD

far from heaven

BY CAROLINE NICKERSON ILLUSTRATION BY SHANNON NEHILEY

O

n November 26, 2015, Dr. Richard Christensen was killed in a hit-and-run accident while in Zambia on a Habitat for Humanity build. He made it his life’s work to provide psychiatric services to underserved populations, especially homeless individuals in Gainesville and Jacksonville.

Dr. Christensen, in addition to serving as the director of Behavioral Health Services at the Sulzbacher Center in Jacksonville, was also a professor of psychiatry at the University of Florida. One patient described him as “the embodiment of unconditional love.”

In the year following his death, colleagues, students, friends and former patients have united in various coalitions to remember him through service.

A pioneer of and perhaps the first to practice street psychiatry, Dr. Christensen would go out at least once a week in the Sulzbacher Center’s “Hope Van,” locating and serving individuals who lived outdoors. Though most of us lack the knowledge and credentials to prescribe medications, a simple way of helping individuals who happen to be homeless is by carrying and giving them a “manna bag,” a practice both Dr. Christensen and the Sulzbacher Center endorsed.

Taking its name from the biblical idea of “manna from heaven,” or God-given sustenance, a manna bag is small enough to be carried in a purse and contains basic necessities that could ease the difficulties of living on the street. •

phone numbers & services ST FRANCIS HOUSE for the homeless in Gainesville, for inclusion in a manna bag: Cut me out!

14 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

Temporary shelter for adults and children; daily lunches; case management and referral services; tutoring for children; free toiletries and showers; free public phone; clothing vouchers.

352-378-9079 413 S. Main St.

GRACE MARKETPLACE Temporary shelter for adults; intake and referral; breakfast and dinner; assistance with public benefits sign up; showers and restrooms; outdoor shelter pavilion. Open 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

352-792-0800 3055 NE 28th Ave.

THE TYPICAL MANNA BAG •A small bottle of water CAN •A bus card, with prepaid fare sanitizer CONTAIN•Hair ties, as both men and•Hand women can have long hair •Sunscreen, even in the winter months •Two pairs of socks, in case one pair becomes damp •Non-perishable healthy snacks •One or two toothbrushes •Several packs of small travel-sized toothpaste •A list of phone numbers and services for the homeless in Gainesville, provided below

HELPING HANDS CLINIC

PEACEFUL PATHS

Healthcare for men and women on Mondays, with patient sign-up beginning at 2:30 p.m. and last patient seen at 7:00 p.m.; services and showers for just women on Thursday from 1:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

352-519-5542 509 NE First St.

Domestic Abuse Shelter and Recovery Programs.

24-Hour Crisis Hotline: 352-377-8255 Toll-free number: 1-800-500-1119 2100 NW 53rd Ave. A Monday-Friday; 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

MERIDIAN BEHAVIORAL HEALTHCARE Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment.

24 Hour Crisis Line: 352-374-5600 Toll Free Number: 1-800-330-5615 4300 SW 13th St.

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 15

SPOTLIGHT

ILLUSTRATION BY ZIQI WANG

THE PURSUIT OF HOPPY -NESS UF researchers are working to bring hops to Florida.

BY MADDIE NGO

S

uspended from massive wire poles over 20 feet tall, hop plants— the ingredient that gives beer its distinctive flavor—are essential to the success of microbreweries across the country. Though usually grown in Western states such as Oregon, Washington and Idaho, UF/ IFAS professors Brian Pearson, Zhanao Deng and Shinsuke Agehara are currently researching ways to cultivate the green vine-like plants locally.

Working with a $158,000 grant from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the project was first proposed by Hillsborough County Agribusiness Development Manager Simon Bollin in hopes of developing a locally viable hops plant. Floridagrown hops are in high demand because they possess a unique, locally infused flavor and aroma. The Brewers Association already reports that the hops industry has a $2 billion-a-year impact on Florida’s economy.

“Once the university published a press release, the phone calls and emails were nonstop,” said Dr. Brian Pearson, Assistant Professor of Environmental Horticulture, a homebrewer himself. “People from the Panhandle to Miami have contacted us and traveled hours just to see the hops, asking for advice on cultivating them.”

Pearson, curious to discover more about potential hop growth in Florida, began pursuing the project four years ago, starting with only around five or six plants.

Hops are one of the four main ingredients used in brewing, along with grain, yeast and water. Female hops produce the green conical flowers that are harvested, dried and then added to beer, releasing their characteristic bitter flavor when heated. Possessing a natural antibacterial property, hops act as both a flavoring agent and a preservative.

“Currently over 90% of our hops come from the Pacific Northwest region. Having local varieties here would be amazing,” said John Denny, founder and head brewer of Gainesville’s First Magnitude

16 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

Brewery. “We’re very interested to see if they bring a whole new character to the beer.”

There are over 300 varieties of hops, and growth is currently centered in more Western states due to their long days, hot summers and mild temperatures. Florida’s humidity, soil, high number of insects and diseases — specifically downy mildew disease — create a number of complications.

“We’ve found that they can grow efficiently in Florida, but there are significant differences amongst the hop varieties, in terms of growth and production,” said Dr. Deng, an ornamental plant breeding and genetics professor at UF. After testing numerous varieties, the researchers have sent small samples to microbreweries in the Tampa Bay area, who have already sold beers made with local hops. Two economists recently hired by UF to research how cultivation will affect the hops market have already seen a high demand from microbreweries. However, with the current yield of the plant, researchers are still finding difficulty with their predictions.

Hops demand challenging technology: tall poles, high-tension trellis wires across the top of the plants, and intricate wires strung from the top of the plant to the ground. They also require a skilled labor force. Hop plants are a bine, a type of climbing plant, and must be hand “trained,” or coiled around small wires, eventually growing upwards as much as 20 feet high. Hop plants are most efficiently grown when the day length is 15 hours; the day length in Florida averages 13 hours, which further limits the yield of the plant.

The most evident challenge is still the lack of available knowledge.

“Because there is little scientific literature on hops, there’s still so much we have yet to discover with this project,” said Pearson. “We’re hopeful to continue the scientific progress of our research and see its impact on Florida farmers.” •

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 17

PANIC THE

@

DISCO

Gainesville was Florida’s unofficial rave capital until a local business owner, a concerned mother and hundreds of letters brought it to an end.

BY VINCENT MCDONALD

T

wenty years ago, young music lovers could stargaze on the roof of Simon’s nightclub, tuning into the beat until the sun rose above daybreak.

Then it was off to the next party to do it all over again, whether in the same night or the same weekend. These often drug-laden musical fêtes sometimes stretched for days on end. And in Gainesville, Simon’s stood as one of the most prominent nightclubs in Florida before the city’s own law put its dancers to bed.

It all began in 1990, when Naji “Simon” Semrani founded Trancentral, now known as Simon’s, as a private, membership-based space where he could share his music.

“Clubs always closed at 2 a.m., and no one ever wanted to quit dancing at 2 a.m., so I decided to open my own place for friends to dance as long as they wanted,” Semrani wrote in an email. “Not only did people not want to stop dancing at 2 a.m., but for me DJing a 1-2 hour set just is not long enough to express myself the way I would like to.”

Semrani often booked big names that drew massive nightlong turnouts. British disc jockey duo Sasha & John Digweed played at Simon’s several times, their sets sometimes lasting for six hours or more.

Other international legends like Andy Hughes and DJ Keoki, along with Florida talent like DJ Three and Debbie D, brought fanatics from all over the southeast U.S. to Simon’s. Simon’s burgeoning popularity led Semrani to open its doors to the public.

“People were religious about the music there, and that is what I think anyone involved would say first,” DJ Three, who still performs, wrote in an e-mail.

18 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

The nightclub catered to multiple crowds. Semrani didn’t throw “official raves,” which he defined as mass gatherings held outdoors or in warehouses.

“My club was much more than a rave,” he wrote.

Still, Simon’s reputation drew attention from ravers. Dedicated clubgoers, like 45-year-old technician and blogger Mike Kelley, regularly drove hundreds of miles in pursuit of the sound.

“Simon’s was that kool spot to stop at before traveling back home, sometimes after three straight days of raving,” Kelley wrote in an e-mail. “Giving yourself up to this activity for two to four days was the essence of Raving. And it would take you all over Florida.”

By the end of a DJ lineup, sometimes as late as 6 or 7 a.m., many patrons loved Simon’s so much they didn’t want to leave — or they just didn’t want to face the long drive home.

“All the kids got along. We were a bunch of loving hippies, and we all looked out for each other,” 42-year-old merchant marine Kurt Bruer said. “My least favorite [experience was] having to leave.”

In 1997, the Florida legislature passed House Bill 1529, which mandated that clubs were to close after the last call for alcohol sales. In Gainesville, this meant closing time was 2 a.m., but the law allowed municipalities to opt-out. While Orlando adopted the law, the Gainesville City Commission, uneasy about its impact on late-night businesses and overall efficacy, voted against it.

Two years later, after considering late night clubs and bars’ financial impact on

city resources, the commission began to waver on its prior decision. In July 1999, it voted to reconsider the ordinance.

But it wasn’t just about money.

Outspoken opposition sparked months of emotional debate that unfolded in newspapers and city commission meetings.

In September 1999, commissioners Pegeen Hanrahan, Bruce DeLaney and John Barrow voted against the 2 a.m. closing time (allowing for a 4 a.m. closing as compromise), which prompted a deluge of harassment. A state representative paid for newspaper ads and fliers listing the three commissioners’ home addresses and phone numbers, no doubt stoking the outcry.

“Another woman called my home last night to say that by allowing bars to stay open two hours beyond last call we were inviting the wrath of God and that we should expect an earthquake,” Hanrahan said in an October 1999 Gainesville Sun article.

Deborah Martinez, co-owner of the now-closed Ernesto’s Tex-Mex Café, led the citizen action against the law. The restaurant was next door to Simon’s, and Martinez said she witnessed everything from crowding to public sex to people overdosing in the streets.

“There was property damage all around downtown,” Martinez said. “And then people didn’t want to bring their families downtown anymore because of all of the public safety issues, ambulances and police every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.”

During the six months the commission considered adoption, they received hundreds of letters concerning the anti-

ILLUSTRATION BY SARA NETTLE

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 19

SPOTLIGHT rave law, according to a study co- become entangled in substance abuse. In authored by Dr. Julie Baldwin from the 1997, she lost her younger brother to heart University of Florida’s Department of failure after he witnessed the beginning of a Criminology. Of the 252 letters supporting drug dealer’s murder. So when her daughter the law, 28 bore Martinez’s name alone. began taking drugs after frequenting Most of the letters referenced the downtown, she committed herself to association between raves and drug use, supporting the anti-rave law. “I’ve seen how though Gainesville was less severe than drugs can take over a city. I’ve seen how other cities, like Tampa. “[The drug culture was] not nearly as out of control as what I saw in other places,” said 38-yearold J.V., who preferred to not give his full name. “Don’t get me wrong, people did drugs there. was that kool spot to stop at before MDMA was the main one, and traveling back home, sometimes back then, that’s what it usually was 90 percent of the time.” after three straight days of raving.

In the ‘90s, ravers would stave Giving yourself up to this activity for off MDMA’s teeth-grinding side effect by chewing on gum and two to four days was the essence of lollipops, which would litter the sidewalk in front of her business along with syringes, condoms and vomit, Martinez said.

At one point, Martinez went as far as to invite a Drug Enforcement Administration officer to gradual it is, how insidious,” she said in a speak to the commission about drug usage September 1999 Gainesville Sun profile. in nightclubs.

“I’ve seen the lives that can be destroyed.”

“When [the officer] was asked about Despite opposition from club owners my club, he said that Simon’s is not a and students alike, in December 1999, the concern for the claims they were making,” commission passed the ordinance 3–2 after Semrani wrote. “After he said that, he was a sudden switch by DeLaney. quickly ushered off the podium and the The disappointment was palpable. next person spoke.”

“I use to live in Citrus county....and Semrani himself attended the would always come and go to SIMON’s..... commission meetings, but didn’t speak, in It’s like an hour drive...But yeah I part because English is his second language. remember when they’d stay opend [sic] till He is certain that anti-rave law proponents like 630 7ish and then I was amazed by the unfairly singled Simon’s out.

4 am shit and now 2 am...what’s the point “I do know for sure that the people of even going???” Gainesville-based user behind implementing the anti-rave law raver_chick_x wrote in an online forum were politically motivated for their own days after the decision was announced. personal reasons and were using the rave In response to the law, Simon’s simply law and the fame of my club as bait for opened earlier, and business continued attention to their own personal cause,” he unaffected. However, Semrani’s personal wrote. reputation suffered greatly as a result of Nora Gibbons was also a vocal the debate. The Gainesville Sun published supporter of the law. Growing up, Gibbons pieces on his family “based mostly on watched her hometown of Hollywood, Fla. rumors.”

“ S i m o n ’s

Raving.“

20 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

“My heart was broken many times by how I was demonized by people who did not understand what was going on at the time,” Semrani wrote. “They did not see the human side to me, and that I’m just a simple Lebanese immigrant who came to this country in hopes of a better future and who loves music.”

Martinez was relieved by the decision.

“It wasn’t anything about not liking students, you know, or not liking young people,” she said.

“Downtown’s better now. Our public safety is better.”

“It would appear that Simon’s is doing great now,” she added.

Its current incarnation, however, is very different from its ‘90s prime.

Semrani eventually left the nightclub business to raise his daughter and currently leases out Simon’s.

Since then, the club has shifted into the mainstream.

“When I think of Simon’s, I really don’t think of a lot of, like, a mass amount of culture,” said Daniel Gavrilin, a 19-year-old University of Florida sophomore who frequents Simon’s. “But it does allow a lot of people to go to a show and understand how much fun it is.”

Newcomers at Simon’s don’t stargaze or wear candy necklaces, and the atmosphere of the club is less familial. The club’s current tenants are less interested in unique music and more interested in promotion with “drink specials and ladies,” Semrani wrote.

Post Y2K, commodification replaced counterculture, not just at Simon’s, but at clubs throughout the United States.

But in the minds of those lucky enough to experience it, the original Simon’s lives on.

“I never could’ve imagined in my wildest dreams that my love for music could’ve created the special environment that so many people came to, and also inspired, so much hate and fear in people due to their misunderstanding of this underground subculture,” Semrani wrote. •

QUIZ: WHAT PROTEST STYLE SUITS YOU? So you wanna protest Trump but don’t know how?

Take this quiz to learn how to effectively resist.

I am angry enough to start something.

+0

+4

I am unhappy with the current political situation in the U.S. (If no, stop reading now!)

I am comfortable with talking to strangers on the phone.

I feel confident in my knowledge on the subject matter.

I am willing to learn more.

I am willing to listen to opposing viewpoints and beliefs radically different from my own.

When I go out with my friends, I am usually the person who gets everyone together.

I am good with technology. (Excel, HTML, Photoshop, InDesign, etc.)

AGREE

I am not comfortable walking home alone at night.

DISAGREE

I know who my elected representatives are.

I can handle criticism.

I am a natural skeptic.

I do not get most of my news from Facebook.

I can be annoyingly persistent.

I am willing to risk arrest.

I have free time to dedicate.

I voted in the 2016 presidential election.

Add ‘em up and flip to the next page for results!

TOTAL

= Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 21

QUIZ

YOUR RESULTS:

0-17

18-34

35-51

BIRKENSTOCKS

LOAFERS

SNEAKERS

STEEL-TOED BOOTS

You are dependable, but better suited for the office than out on the field. You’re ready to get involved but you seem hesitant to put yourself out there. That’s okay, that’s what organizers are for.

Join these organizations and learn from others.

Challenge yourself to chat with your local representative this week.

You are ready to run, but need some coaching. Invite friends over, create a Facebook event, meet up at a local coffee shop. You could join another organization or you could get your group together and knock on some doors. Municipal elections are in March and local candidates need volunteers.

Good conversations await you.

Congrats! You are ready to kick some ass. You seem to have a good grasp on how to protest, just make sure to be inclusive of all voices. Use your aptitude for leadership to mobilize your community and make change happen. Learn to nap anywhere; this is going to be a long nightmarish four years.

You are supportive, but not active. You’re not ready to run a protest or anywhere, for that matter. Join one of the following organizations that can teach you more.

Go to a protest and hold up a sign with a group of friends. Beware of sharing fake news.

LOCAL: Gainesville Area Now Active Streets Alliance Gatorship Black and Pink The Fine Print (Hey! That’s us!)

Gainesville Socialists GRACE Marketplace NWL Gainesville Chapter STATE/NATIONAL: Planned Parenthood Action The Sierra Club Equality Florida

LOCAL: Wild Iris Civic Media Center TransAction Florida Alachua County Democrats Alachua County Revolution Gainesville Books for Prisoners

Alachua County Labor Coalition Alachua County NAACP 22 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

Sheryl Eddie (City Commission Dist. 2) Harvey Ward (City Commission Dist. 2)

START YOUR OWN MOVEMENT!

Locally, the Civic Media Center offers space and advice for newly formed organizations.

Nationally, online petitions can get a lot of attention.

Don’t scoff, the Women’s March on Washington wouldn’t have happened without social media.

David Arreola (City Commission Dist. 3) Helen Warren (Gainesville City Commission At-Large)

ILLUSTRATIONS BY BRITTANY EVANS

Dream Defenders

LOCAL CAMPAIGNS:

52-68

GROWING PAINS The second part in our series on development in Gainesville. This time: how will Gainesville look in 10 years?

BY ANNE MARIE TAMBURRO Dogs bark, roosters crow and cats lounge on the dusty leaf-blanketed grounds of Rainbow Star Farm.

Tucked behind Butler Plaza, Rainbow Star is in a valley, its sides flanked by mountainous apartment complexes, The Ridge and West 20.

Two farmers started Rainbow Star in the 1970s. One of the farmers, Paul Miller, compared living in the shadow of the apartments to an episode of “The Twilight Zone.”

“There were these people in this house, and all around them, there were these aliens that were looking down at how they lived because it was so different,” Miller said.

Miller’s farm bears a menagerie of produce, from fruits like peaches, pears and persimmons to a variety of vegetables and flowers. Barefoot, tanned and topped with a crumpled straw hat, Miller is a self-described old-fashioned farmer. His work is year-round and tiring, characterized by soil-caked hands and daily labor.

He enjoys it, he explained, his way of life doubling as entertainment.

The divergent lifestyles of Miller and his primarily student and young professional neighbors embody the direction of Gainesville’s development. Areas that were once accessible only by dirt road have grown into apartment complexes and shopping centers.

“In the old house where we raised our children, we would sit at the dining room table, and when cars would pass down the road, we could see the shoulder and the head of the person and not the car because the

road was worn that deep,” Miller said.

In the early 1980s, the City of Gainesville determined the neighborhood needed to be accessible to receive emergency services, a change that opened it to developers.

The booming student population created a demand for a different way of living, one no longer defined by the labors of farming.

“The people that lived here sold to development interests,” Miller said. “But I didn’t, not because I was farming, but because it’s our home, and I wanted to stay here and raise our kids here.”

With the intention of building apartments, developers have offered several times to buy Miller’s property, most recently in 2014. Rarely were the offers substantial enough to be considered serious. In the past 30 years, only one offer— $2.75 million in 2008—has tempted Miller to sell and move.

“I wasn’t happy about it, but the money was a lot,” he said. “I figured I could move for that.”

But later that year, the stock market crashed. The developers backed out, and he carried on.

Miller said the reason he can afford to continue farming is that agricultural land is tax-exempt under Florida law. If his land were taxed, he would owe more than the farm’s profits.

“The farm can’t produce that kind of income. It just can’t, especially this kind of farming,” Miller said. “It’s a lifestyle, and it works because people want to do it and they see the value Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 23

FEATURE in it. It’s not gonna make the kind of money that the land would if you were to [develop] it.”

Miller said development occurs because the city is pressured by a growing population in need of housing and developers who are primed to build.

“You should think I’d be against

development, but that’s not my right,” Miller said. “I don’t have the money to buy the land and keep it in the forest. But developers from bank financing can do it, and that’s what they’re good at.”

While the path of development in Gainesville is neither good nor bad according to Miller, he said it has gradually

erased the farming community in the area and will continue to do so in the future.

“There’s nobody that’s gonna carry the lifestyle on, and [the land] will go to apartments,” Miller said. “Apartments are very lucrative, and there’s plenty of people to rent. You don’t see any apartment complexes going bankrupt.” •

In the making: University Avenue

Southwest Gainesville

— 805 W University Ave. — The Inception (formly The Jam): 110 units with 4,000 sq. ft. of retail space, six stories with underground parking — 801 SW 2nd Ave. — Innovation Hub Phase 2: construction of an office building addition — 1219 W University Ave. — Urban Ridge of Gainesville: construction of six story mixed-use building —1105 W University Ave. — 1105 W. University Ave: eight-story building — 238 W University Ave. — 238 W University: five-story building with 172 residential units and a fivestory, 125 unit residential building —1255 W University Ave.— 1255 W Univ (Leonardo’s): mixed use eight-story building —1115 SW 13th St. — The Nine @ Gainesville: residential and parking structure —2225 NW 13th St. — Gainesville Retail: multi-use retail development

—Celebration Pointe Transit Oriented Development­Phase 1 — 207.48 acres, low and medium density residential — Finley Woods PD Phase 1C — 19.15 acres, low density residential —Oakmont PD Phase 1­— 62.92 acres, low density residential — Oakmont Planned Development Phase 2 — 61.94 acres, low Density Residential — Chesnut Plantation — 33 acres, medium and low density residential — V.E. Whitehurst & Sons Inc., Archer Excavation and Fill Operation — 152 acres, rural/agriculture

24 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

Alachua

— ISKCON Planned Development — 86.43 acres, Northern Retreat Cabins, rural/agriculture — C Bar Ranch — 5.8 acres, rural/agriculture — Hopewell Estates - Stormwater Management Revisions — 26.76 acres, rural/agriculture — Hope Horse Ranch Residential Recreational Camp — 35.94 acres, rural agriculture

Still Pending Location Florida Power & Light Solar Facility Development Plan 700 combined acres, rural/agriculture

FEATURE

6.6

Average number of stories being developed in downtown Gainesville

1,806.32 Total acres being developed in unincorporated Gainesville

0.4125%

of unincorporated acres under development

We do not accept war as a legitimate means of conflict resolution.

Learn more at vfpgainesville.org

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 25

FEATURE

trial by fire

In March 2016, Robert Dentmond was shot and killed by nine officers. His death is a reminder of Gainesville’s complicated past with race.

BY MOLLY MINTA AND ALEXA PADRON PHOTOS BY ALEXA PADRON 26 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

O

n March 20, 2016, hours before his death, 16-year old Robert Dentmond was texting his girlfriend.

“I’m finna have the police shoot me,” he wrote.

“I just called them and told them I have a gun.”

When the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office arrived at Majestic Oaks, an apartment complex on Southwest 24th Ave., they found Dentmond in the parking lot. He held what appeared to be an MR-15, the same type of gun carried by the responding deputies and police officers. Even though Dentmond had told 911 he was carrying an assault rifle, no officer who arrived on the scene was sufficiently equipped to protect themselves if he fired.

The ranking officer on the scene attempted to communicate with Dentmond, ordering him to put his weapon down. Twenty minutes later, Dentmond complied and placed his rifle on the ground. He did not comply with the request to leave the weapon and walk toward the officers.

Eventually, Dentmond picked the rifle back up. By this time, the five officers from ACSO were joined by four officers from the Gainesville Police Department and one police dog.

The officer warned Dentmond that if he did not put the weapon back on the ground, he would be hurt. He did not comply. Dentmond was ordered to place his weapon on the ground or he would be shot. Dentmond did not comply; he was not shot.

Then, carrying his rifle, Dentmond started to move toward the apartment building where he and his sister were living.

The officers gave Dentmond a final warning: if he moved one more step toward the building, they would shoot. Dentmond moved; he was shot.

It wasn’t until later, after Dentmond was dead, that the officers learned his firearm was a replica.

The shooting sparked outrage from the Gainesville community.

“The [ACSO] could’ve handled it in a better way,” said Robbin Stephens, who has lived at Majestic Oaks for 10 years. “His sister was standing

by J Building … maybe if she was able to talk to him, he might still be here.”

Since she was elected sheriff office in 2006, Sadie Darnell has been attempting to implement community-oriented policing, or COPS, in Alachua County. Rather than the traditional style of policing, where officers react to 911 calls while on patrol, community-oriented policing aims to prevent crime by building relationships in the community. Under COPS, officers still patrol, but they stay in the same area on a permanent basis and work with citizens to identify and solve community problems.

But Alachua County’s deeply sown racial

FEATURE divisions have impeded COPS’s implementation. On a national level, COPS was instituted during the Clinton administration and ultimately with the broken windows theory — the philosophy that if you can police social behaviors like vandalism or public drinking, it will prevent more serious crimes. This leads to increased patrolling in areas that, like southwest Gainesville, appear destitute.

“Come through this area, then go to Haile Plantation,” said Jonathan Simmons, a Majestic Oaks resident. “There’s no police out there. Not one. You come out here, you gonna see a car upfront. There are just as many crimes going on out [at Haile] as out here. But ya’ll don’t want to tell no one about it.”

Majestic Oaks goes by many names — in the paper, you may see it referred to as the “SWAG areas,” for the SW Advocacy Group, a local group that works to address problems the area faces. You might also see it called “The Mike Zone,” the designation ACSO uses when patrolling the area.

ACSO divides the county into three districts, which are in turn divided into

zones. Each zone in the county is assigned the same number of patrolling deputies; the smaller the zone, the more police attention its residents will receive. The Mike Zone is the smallest of the sheriff’s office zones.

Patrolling as a form of policing is rooted not in addressing crime, but in addressing behavior, historically that of runaway slaves.

The plantation system was based on an economy of free labor; runaway slaves posed a problem.

“During the period of slavery you had the patrol system,” said Patricia Nunn, a professor of African American studies at the University of Florida. “So what did that mean? That meant that [if ] there was somebody who ran away, if there was somebody who was acting up, you had this group that had to somehow capture them, punish them and basically return that ‘property’ back to the owner.”

In the mid-1800s, Florida, and Alachua County in particular, was a haven for free blacks and Native Americans, the excess land providing them an escape from slavery. Their freedom was unacceptable in antebellum America. In response, the

Florida government passed the Armed Occupation Act in 1842, which required landowners moving to the area to own a weapon.

Alachua County went from being a safe place for free blacks to the seventh largest s l a v e - ow n i n g county in the state of Florida.

“In terms of looking at the history of Gainesville, we have to remember that Alachua County is founded based on the history of the control and domination of people,” Nunn said.

After the Thirteenth Amendment made slavery illegal, southern states began to pass

“In terms of looking at the history of Gainesville, we have to remember that Alachua County is founded based on the history of the control and domination of people.”

Two teens box as neighbors watch. Boxing and events like this are a typical pastime for residents of Majestic Oaks.

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 27

SPOTLIGHT black codes, which continued to pipe but declined to provide details. An pay the consequences,” said Lieutenant police black people’s behavior.

Alachua County judge found the police Brandon Kutner, a public information One night in 1888, Herman Murray had no probable cause to arrest him. officer at the ACSO. “But when you went to visit his girlfriend. With The residents at Majestic Oaks feel think about it, we are in the business permission, he borrowed a horse from like police officers still assume the worst of correcting criminal behavior. Now his employer, a merchant named H. of them today. whether we do that through education, Pinkoson. But when Murray stayed out “It’s a stereotype,” Simmons said. whether we do that through diversion or too late, Pinkoson assumed he had stolen “We dress a certain way, we gotta be whether we do that through some other the horse and assembled a search party to doing something. If we just talking, process, that’s our prerogative. We can hunt him. When Murray choose whichever way Rubin Johnson, age 40, looks out at the community. to do that.” learned of the search from a friend, he fled. But the The State Attorney’s party caught up with Office found that ACSO him and sentenced him was justified in how it to three years at a prison resolved Dentmond’s work camp. shooting. But Nunn said At the time, known people aren’t looking for members of the Ku Klux an explanation, they’re Klan, like Sheriff Lewis looking for an apology.

Fennell, were put in charge “You can’t tell of municipal offices. If me with all of the a crime was committed technology we have, all against a black person, they of the knowledge we often chose not to enforce have, all of the special the law. Oftentimes, they lights, counselors and participated. therapists, hostage “When we talk about negotiators, that that’s issues in 2017, about the best you can do? driving while black, Have 9 people blast this standing while black, child away?” she said. shopping while black, The night he died, thinking while black, Dentmond told his dancing while black, it’s girlfriend he wouldn’t be not totally disconnected alive the next day. from the desire or the “Maybe I’ll be resentment that certain underground by people had towards t o m o r r o w. . . d o n’t black people during believe me, I’ll show Reconstruction,” Nunn you,” he texted her. said.

Though Dentmond’s Dentmond’s death Patrick Miller (left) describes the community of Majestic Oaks, while Rico Williams (right) listens. intent was to commit continues a history of suicide by police that Alachua County’s racial hostilities. hanging out, we gotta be selling drugs.” night, Nunn said his call was really one Nunn references Kofi Adu-Brempong, The daily routines at Majestic Oaks for help. But the police didn’t recognize a 35-year-old UF graduate student from include playing card games, drinking a that when they showed up to Majestic Ghana. His colleagues said that the beer over neighborly conversations and Oaks. They assumed the worst of doctoral candidate, who had polio as a watching a mass of laughing kids run Dentmond and acted accordingly. child and needed a cane to walk, suffered around the playground. Sometimes, a “It’s different ‘cause [the police] feel from mental illness. After he barricaded group of guys will gather for a boxing like this is the swamp,” Simmons said. himself in his apartment, police broke tournament.

“They feel like we don’t care. Like we down his door and shot him in the head, But the police, for all their efforts to don’t matter.” • leaving him in critical condition. Police implement community policing, still arrested Abu-Brempong and claimed don’t understand this. he threatened them with a knife and “If you break the law, you have to Donovan Bailey contributed to this report.

28 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

A Bittersweet Release

FEATURE

Reentry programs in Alachua County aim to help felons transition back into society.

EDITORIAL PHOTO BY SEAN DOOLAN

BY ROMY ELLENBOGEN

T

onya Brown had already been lucky once. Back in 2007, after being arrested for drug-trafficking, her sentence was shortened from 25 years to five. That day, Brown felt like the Lord was in the courtroom with her.

She knew in five years she would be able to see her son and brother, but she also felt uneasy about her release.

She] knew her family and friends had not left behind their lifestyle of substance abuse, and she feared that reentry into society would send her back on the road to prison. She didn’t know if she’d get lucky again.

In 2012, Brown gathered with other inmates in the prison’s chapel for a guest speaker. A blonde woman stood at the front of the room, describing in a twangy Southern drawl the kind of community Brown thought could make her recovery possible and recidivism avoidable. The woman was Jennifer Beagle, director of House of Hope, a faith-based transition center for those who have been recently released from prison. Beagle described the program’s focus on faith and community, mentioning how the women support

each other like family. Brown immediately felt like the program would be a safe space for her to grow. Alachua County is home to several of these kinds of programs, each of which aim to help the previously incarcerated transition back into society. House of Hope, which Brown — now a staff member — graduated from in 2013, is the the only transition house available for women in the county.

When an inmate is released, they get civilian clothing, a state ID card, a social security card, and $50 or their commissary balance. If they don’t have a family to go home to, they’re given a bus ticket and driven to a stop by an officer.

For newly released inmates, the minutia of adjusting back to regular life can be difficult. They need to find a job and, if their previous home wasn’t supportive, a place to live. The systemic problems that brought them to prison are waiting for them when they get out.

“Most of these women have families and children, and they need to support their children,” Brown said. “But if the opportunities are not there for them to do so, that leads back into a life of crime and going back to where they started from.”

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 29

FEATURE In 2001, the Pentecostals of Gainesville opened The Wells House to help men transition back into society. To stay at the Wells House, the men must maintain a full-time day job, help pay rent and attend evening faith-based studies. In exchange, the house puts clothes on their back and provides them with food and shelter.

The director, John Stockwell, estimates 130 to 135 men have passed through the house, which accommodates only five men at a time.

“Most of these folks really don’t have a clue what these guys go through,” he said.

Stockwell is also a prison minister.

State University found that among applications from felons with the same credentials, black and Hispanic men were less likely to receive a call back than white men.

Frank Edwards, a convicted felon who is currently homeless, said these programs can feel like prisons in themselves, with curfews and restrictions abounding.

Edwards has been homeless since April, when he was released from prison on what he says was, a wrongful arrest. After eight months in jail, he left the court system in the mid-afternoon.

“With the help of God backing me, I fought,” Edwards said. “And won.”

Edwards was arrested twice before

“It’s very important to have support,” Edwards said. “Because without support you can’t stand.”

Often, his first interaction with the men who go on to participate in his program is during their sentence. He chooses which ones are able to enter the house based on their behavior in prison.

“A lot of the time these guys are just guys who have made mistakes, numerous mistakes, and they just need a little help, a little encouragement, a little direction,” Stockwell said.

But after potentially years in prison, it can be hard for convicted felons to go through transition programs. And even with transition programs, the National Reentry Resource Center reports that less than half of released prisoners secure a job upon their return to the community. Once felony convictions are disclosed, applications rarely make it further. A study at Arizona 30 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

in the 1980s, both times for drugrelated charges when he was dealing in his New Jersey hometown. He served 18 months in 1987 for dealing cocaine but was hopeful upon release. He was able to start his own business, Edwards Painting and Maintenance Service, which along with his savings and the support of his wife, Kasey, kept him afloat for many years.

His problems escalated with the death of his mother in 2003.

“You didn’t have that rock to fall on to hold you up,” Edwards said. “ I was placed in a situation where I had to survive the best way I could.”

In 2005, Edwards was taken in for driving on a suspended license. It took him 30 days to sort out the charge, and Edwards lost his job.

From there, he began a downward spiral back onto the streets and into

the system.

This time around, no employer has been willing to take a second chance.

Edwards first applied within his field of training but with no luck.

He eventually applied for minimum wage jobs like McDonald’s and Publix. He has yet to hear back.

Until he can find employment, Edwards is forced to get by on any money he can panhandle or make through odd jobs.

“It’s very important to have support,” Edwards said. “Because without support you can’t stand.”

At his latest release, Edwards did find some support from Father Jeremy Hole, a clergyman at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church who helped him with rent.

“[Father Hole] just showed actual love,” Edwards said. “That’s the most important thing.”

Whether it’s from family, friends or the Lord, Edwards points to support as an important factor in a felon’s transition. With no desire to stay at St. Francis, no family left in the area and no employer willing to give him another shot, Edwards continues to sleep on the streets.

“The criminal justice system is a big business now,” he said. “So they don’t want you to be successful at anything that you do that’s right. They want you to continue to live a life of crime.”

Brown admits that leaving the system can be difficult. People who you thought were friends may turn out to be toxic. Even your family can be your downfall. It’s difficult to get a job, to find somewhere to sleep and, mostly, to keep your head up. But Brown relies on Jeremiah 29:11 and believes in the Lord’s plan for her.

“I know that he has good for me,” Brown said. “No matter what the storm looks like, no matter if I cannot see a light at the end of that tunnel, I stand on that word.” •

RISE

AGAINST THE

MACHINE

C

haplin Dinkin opened Dinkin’s Service Store in 1926, the same year U.S. Route 41 was completed in Dunnellon, Fla. In its prime, the store smelled of sweet feed, hay and incense.

Chicks would chirp behind the store.

Dinkin’s, like many stores along the route, closed years ago. The white paint has faded, and its four gas pumps have long run dry. The marquee out front is now an empty metal frame. For 70 years, Dunnellon’s economy ran on phosphate mining and production, until companies discovered in 1966 they could mine for a cheaper, lowergrade version elsewhere in Florida.The city struggled to stay afloat after their desertion; in 2013 it nearly filed for bankruptcy.

But Dunnellon, nestled between two state parks and bisected by the clear, 72-degree water of Rainbow River, always had its physical beauty. No longer a boomtown, the city turned to ecotourism and farming, which have sustained it ever since. Today, Dunnellon’s population is mostly composed of ranchers and farmers, and its HalpataTastanaki Preserve is a popular destination for horseback riders. During the summer, traffic along the Rainbow River’s drop-off points can be backed up for close to an hour.

Months before the town considered bankruptcy in 2013, residents of Dunnellon began to receive letters from a company called Sabal Trail Transmission. The letters were an introduction and explained why the company was coming to the area: to build a

natural gas pipeline and compressor station.

The letters were part of the first step in the process of getting a pipeline approved.

Only landowners within 600 feet of the pipeline received a letter, so not many people in Dunnellon are aware of it. But the ones who are fear it could completely disrupt their way of life.

The pipeline will pass within a mile of the Rainbow River; residents fear that if it leaks the water will no longer be the clear aquamarine that brings flocks of tourists.

And the drilling necessary to construct it is cause for concern: last November, a section of the pipeline leaked into Georgia’s Withlacoochee River. Environmentalists also fear drilling into the porous Florida bedrock will create sinkholes. The pipeline will pass under agricultural lands; farmers who burn their crops for fertilization fear explosions.

It will go within a mile of Dunnellon High School and Dunnellon Middle School and run parallel to the only road residents can use to access them.

In February, the city opened its first threestory hotel, built to accommodate the influx of tourists the river brings each year. As most of the residents live in one-story mobile homes, the three-story building is a big deal.

Meanwhile, in August 2016 the pipeline was officially approved by the federal government and is planned to be completed in May of this year. The Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in September, 2016, and protests are ongoing across the state, but activists are working

In 2013, Marion County residents began to receive letters from Sabal Trail Transmission.

Now, they’ve made it their mission to save their land, and stop Sabal Trail.

Some of the terms in this article need context.

To help you follow along, highlighted words are defined in a glossary at the end.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY MOLLY MINTA against a behemoth. The companies behind the pipeline have money and clout with state governments; if the pipeline is going to be stopped, activists need more people to get involved and pay attention.

“The whole neighborhood has changed, everything has changed” said Kathy Lane Iozzi, a resident of Dunnellon. The pipeline will run under her driveway. “Trees are being cut down, and there’s nothing anyone else can do. But, I’m sorry, I wasn’t raised to go down without a fight.” esistance to Sabal Trail began in Georgia.

The pipeline, a joint venture of three energy companies — Duke, Spectra, and NextEra — begins in Alabama, where it connects to an existing network of pipelines, and directs natural gas through a series of underground pipes to its endpoint, a Duke Energy power plant in Florida.

Florida and Alabama will both net economic benefits from the pipeline from the jobs created by the power plants. But the same can’t be said for Georgia: there, the pipeline merely passes through — that is, under — the state. Local landowners and state representatives argued that Georgia had nothing to gain from the pipeline but sinkholes, contaminated rivers and pollution from the industrial compressor stations. If the pipeline had to be built, they wanted Sabal Trail to consider a new route, one that didn’t put the pipeline through environmentally protected lands and a historically African

R

FEATURE Republican attorneys general to coordinate policy with the oil and natural gas industry. When it came time for Carr to represent Georgia and defend its landowners’ property rights in court, he declined, deferring to the federal government’s “overreach.”

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has also attended these conferences and has been similarly influenced. In 2015, her office joined former Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens’ lawsuit against a federal rule that expanded the EPA’s definition of United States waters, calling it federal overreach.

Though Carr foiled their action, Georgia representatives had at least tried to stand up to the pipeline.

But in Florida, energy companies have poured $12 million into the campaigns of state lawmakers since “ ...if it leaks the water Citizen’s United ended will no longer be the donation restrictions for clear aquamarine... ” private companies in 2010.

Duke Energy’s coal ash pipeline Governor Rick Scott has, in North Carolina leaked in 2014, by far, received the most of Florida politicians: his 2014 dumping 38,000 tons of ash into reelection campaign took in the Dan River. Between 2006 and more than $1.1 million from 20013, Spectra had 21 “incidents” companies like Duke and along their Texas Eastern pipeline, Florida Power and Light, causing 8.6 million in property a progenitor of NextEra. damage.

Scott, who also owns stock in Spectra, made good on their investment, passing legislation in 2013 that sped up the permitting process for interstate natural gas pipelines.

But those opposed to the pipeline don’t just have to take on corruption at the state level. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency that granted Sabal Trail eminent domain and which oversees interstate pipeline projects, is supposed to regulate the natural gas industry and hold the companies accountable. Activists, however, contend that it does just the opposite.

“The whole system is corrupt from top to bottom,” said John Quarterman, president of the WWALS Watershed Coalition, which stands for the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little and Suwannee rivers. He said that though FERC receives money from Congress every year, it’s self-funding, which means that it is authorized by the government to collect annual fees from the industries it regulates. FERC is the only independent executive agency in the United States with this kind of authority.

In essence, Quarterman said, the agency is susceptible to being bought out by the natural gas industries.

A padlock bars entrance to the Halpata Tastanaki Preserve, an environmentally protected public land.

American neighborhood. But NextEra and Duke wouldn’t budge. The companies had chosen the route for a reason: it coincided with properties that had already granted them legal permission to build over or through them — anything else would be too costly or take much longer.

In March 2016 the Georgia House of Representatives voted 128–34 to deny Sabal Trail the permission they had previously acquired from properties in Georgia. But because the federal group in charge of overseeing the permitting of pipelines had already granted Sabal Trail eminent domain — the power to use private property for public use — the House vote was in conflict with the federal government. The state and Sabal Trail were thrown into court. “ [Bryant] started the Georgia’s attorney general, page because we Republican Chris Carr, had thought Dunnellon previously spoken about the needed to know, and , Dunnellon didn’t know importance of protecting ” landowners property rights The Sabal Trail Resistance Group is against federal overreach. a group of organziers, activists and But Carr is also a member water protectors who have come of the Republican Attorneys together through social media to General Association. Under stop the pipeline. the direction of Scott They partner with the Civic Media Pruitt, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Center to coordinate protests.

Environmental Protection Agency, RAGA has held conferences frequented by representatives from the oil and natural gas industries. A 2014 New York Times investigation found that these conferences enabled 32 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | thefineprintmag.org

FEATURE “The word you’re notification at all. looking for starts with “[Sabal Trail] didn’t notify people properly,” he said. ‘c,’ as in corrupt,” “They notified the wrong city — Suwannee, Florida, not Quarterman said. “The Suwannee County … My understanding of the law says ” polite way of saying it is that everyone within a three-mile radius must be notified, ‘regulatory capture.’” and our family was never notified. People within a mile A 15-mile long section of a Spectra FERC is tasked radius were not notified; people within half a mile radius pipeline exploded in Pennsylvania with evaluating how a were not notified.” in May 2015, covering 75 percent pipeline will impact the Sabal Trail did advertise their public meetings in the of twenty-six year old James communities, wetlands local newspaper, but Richardson said that’s not enough to Barker’s body in third-degree burns and conservation areas it properly notify people in Suwannee County. and engulfing a nearby home. may pass through. They “We have too many people who do not get the paper, found that 83.7 percent who can’t afford the paper, so they don’t know what is of the municipalities going on unless a letter is sent out or there is another type of affected by the Sabal Trail pipeline were very poor, black notification,” he said. or Hispanic, or all three. Yet, confusingly, FERC claimed As for the public meetings, Shields described them the pipeline would not disproportionately affect these as “sickening.” He said that officials from Sabal Trail and communities. In October 2015, the EPA objected to this FERC were uninterested in anything the residents had to claim, writing in a letter to FERC that it had “very significant say. He also said Jason Bashaw, the commission chairman, concerns” over the pipeline’s impact and about the study. was purposefully letting individuals speak longer than But three months later the EPA met with representatives they were allotted, so that he could use the commission’s from Sabal Trail and walked back its concerns. frustration with droning protesters to table further public EPA objections or not, small landowners who live along comment. Shields said Bashaw told the audience, “You’re the pipeline, especially the 263 who didn’t want to give up not gonna change our minds.” their land but had to anyway, will still be affected.

“The local officials in Suwannee seem like their interests David Shields is a resident of O’Brien, Suwannee had been decided for them,” Shields said. “Every avenue County, another small town along the pipeline where a was shut down.” compressor station will soon be built. He moved from Richardson would not go so far as to say Suwannee Jacksonville to O’Brien in 2009 with his wife, Ginger, and County didn’t have a choice. But from a perception their six children to start an organic farm. standpoint, he said, “They’re shoving it down our throats.”

Before construction began, Shields could hear cows moo earing a shirt that sports a neon periodic table two miles away. Now, the view from his porch is marred by of elements, 13-year-old James Huston, an the pipeline, which lies 1,200 feet from his property. “In no eighth-grader at Dunnellon Middle School, way did I think we’d move to that,” he said. stares into the camera, his eyes narrowed.

The jury is out, Shields said, on whether his family will try to move again. Their biggest concern is for their Construction around a well in Dunnellon, Fla. The well connects to the headwaters for the Rainbow River. chickens. Poultry is sensitive to emissions, and compressor stations radiate not only light, but noise pollution as well.

“We don’t have the means to just go buy more land,” he said. “We can’t sell ours now. The minute they go behind the house and see the compressor station, no one wants to buy it. It was forced upon us, and we’re the unlucky people who happened to be in the way.”

Despite the family’s proximity to the pipeline, they never received notice of its construction. They believe they weren’t notified because their land does not directly adjoin the construction.

But Ronnie Richardson, a newly elected Suwannee County commissioner who lives a mile and a half away from the compressor station, said that no one received any

“ But James and his grandmother wonder what will happen if the pipeline explodes.

W

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 33

A construction worker for Sabal Trail hauls wooden planks across the Halpata Tastanaki Preserve. The wooden planks allow construction trucks to drive evenly across the land.

“Water is life,” he begins the public service announcement, which aired on his middle school’s morning announcements. His tone is frank. “That’s what the Native Americans at Standing Rock are saying, yet their water source is in jeopardy due to the Dakota Access pipeline. The same thing is happening here.”

James and his grandmother, Sharon Huston, were reading through Facebook updates on the water protectors at Standing Rock when they saw the name “Sabal Trail” in the sidebar. The next day, as the two were on their way to school, they noticed construction along the road.

The pipeline’s route puts it less than a mile away from the high school and middle school, but when James tried to talk about the pipeline, he found out that no one knew, not even the teachers.

Sharon, concerned with the school’s lack of knowledge, wrote to the superintendent of Marion County Public Schools but never received a response. She then sent two letters to the principals of Dunnellon High School, Middle School and Elementary school but also received no response. She tried contacting the school information office and the manager of the school buses. But still, no response.

According to Andrea Grover, a spokesperson for Sabal Trail, school officials were never formally notified of the pipeline because the schools are more than three-fourths of a mile away, outside the 600-foot “potential impact radius.”

But James and his grandmother wonder what will happen if the pipeline explodes.

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According to Sabal Trail, the high school is safe from explosion, but the pair is less sure.

James continues to talk about the pipeline, to the point that his classmates are starting to tune him out.

“It’s getting irritating to them,” he said. But James is undeterred. He used the equipment for his school’s morning announcements program to make the PSA and was allowed to show it during the regular announcements.

Though he said his classmates also tuned out the announcement, the video gained attention when it circulated through several Facebook groups protesting the pipeline.

In rural areas like Dunnellon, fences and “No Trespassing” signs are common. Bryant has found it difficult to directly talk to her neighbors about the pipeline, but the Facebook pages have become a hub for concerned residents in Dunnellon, as well as many activists across the state.

One such Facebook group, “Save Our Springs Stop Sabal Trail Pipeline,” was started

by Dunnellon residents Connie Bryant and Annette Stutzman. They found out about the pipeline after Bryant received a letter from Sabal Trail announcing that they would be going through her neighborhood. Then, the pair met Janet Barrow, a local landowner, and discovered how much there was to learn. “[Bryant] started the page because we thought Dunnellon needed to know, and Dunnellon didn’t know,” Stutzman said.

Together they form the backbone of Dunnellon’s resistance. They created the

Facebook group at Stutzman’s store, just down the road from Dinkin’s, which provides a space for them to meet.

“There’s so much ignorance in this town,” Bryant said. “It’s the reason they put it through rural communities.” ocal activists have stopped large-scale infrastructure projects before. In 1971, activists successfully halted the construction of the Cross Florida Barge Canal Project, which is now the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. Its history is still a proud part of the community in Dunnellon, and materials from the cleanup can be seen in the artwork on the walls of Swampy’s, a restaurant that looks out over the Rainbow River.

“There was every reason to think that nothing was going to stop it,” said Panagioti Tsolkas, an organizer for the ad hoc Sabal Trail Resistance group. “It was stopped through a similar hodgepodge of political pressure, legislation, protest.”

The results of the presidential election, combined with the news that Dakota Access Pipeline was halted, have galvanized direct action across the state. Every day, water camps along the pipeline swell in size, as water protectors who were originally on their way to North Dakota are opting to come here, attracted by the warm weather. Mass demonstrations have been planned, the latest one gathering hundreds and, for the first time in history, forcing Suwannee River State Park to close due to overcrowding.

In cities across the state, individuals have also been compelled to take action. When Trevor Caughlin created a letter-writing campaign to the pipeline’s major financial backers, he didn’t expect nearly 600 people to be interested in his Facebook event.

“I felt like I was really complacent before the election and am now a lot more eager to

L

Construction workers for Sabal Trail clear land by High School Road. Bryant described this construction site as “the perfect place to protest.”

be involved with local movements, particularly since a lot of the environmental action is going to be taking place at the local level,” Caughlin said. “‘Radical municipalities’ is a really important buzzword for environmental action,” he went on to say.

The activists understand that it’s unlikely the pipeline will be stopped through direct action alone. But the pipeline is nearly 85 percent complete, spokesperson Andrea Grover said, and the Sierra Club’s lawsuit won’t be heard until May. If activists can slow down construction, like 14 tried to do in Gilchrist County in November 2016, they have a chance of stopping the pipeline.

The activists were practicing typical tactics of direct action — walking slowly across the road to prevent trucks from reaching the construction site, holding signs and chanting. Then, one of them chained himself to a water truck. All 14 were arrested.

“I thought it was going to be a calm, small protest out in the boonies,” said Allie McDaniel, one of the 14 arrested. “Once I realized it was happening, I kind of just accepted it.”

The protest was McDaniel’s first foray into activism, and she plans to do much more.

“I’ve never done phone-banking before,” McDaniel said. “I’m pretty much teaching myself how to do all of this. But that’s how every activist starts, right?”

A couple weeks later, as part of a national day of action, activists and water protectors in Gainesville gathered in front of the Shell gas station on 43rd Street.

Reporters flitted amongst the protestors, grabbing quotes and shooting pictures of their colorful signs, which bore slogans like “Frack Sabal Trail” and “Water is Life.”

The protestors marched to Gainesville’s Army Corp of Engineers office, but it was closed during its usual hours of operation. Activists weren’t surprised, but they vowed to keep fighting.

“It is disheartening that people feel they don’t have the power to stop it,” Sharon said. “But, they got Standing Rock halted. The more people become involved, the more likely it can be stopped.” •

Glossary of Terms

Sierra Club: A grassroots environmental organization that helped pass

Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act. In Sept. 2016, in conjunction with the Flint Riverkeeper and Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against FERC, contending that it failed to adequately analyze the pipeline’s climate impacts and consider alternative routes that would have less of an impact on environmental justice communities. The Sierra Club is looking at a court date in May.

Natural Gas: A fossil fuel that can be used to generate electricity. Often

described as a “clean burning” fossil fuel, natural gas is primarily composed of methane, its components trapping heat in the atmosphere. Natural gas is a more dangerous greenhouse gas than even carbon dioxide.

Compressor Station: Natural gas must be pressurized to travel through

a pipeline. According to Duke Energy, to ensure that the natural gas flowing through any one pipeline remains pressurized, it must be regularly “compressed” at multiple points along the route by a turbine, motor or engine at a compressor station. Compressor stations are large industrial structures that emit light and noise pollution.

Eminent Domain: Both the state and federal government in the U.S. are

authorized by the Fifth Amendment to use eminent domain, which states, “nor shall private property be taken for the public use, without just compensation.”

Eminent domain is government using its power to take an individual’s private property for public use. The government has been able to use this power to justify public works projects, like highways, which are constructed for the benefit of everyone. As companies like FPL are considered public utilities, it’s assumed that their actions are taken in the interest of everyone, and so they’re granted eminent domain. The same goes for companies that supply natural gas.

Republican Attorneys General Association: A national organization whose

stated mission is to elect Republicans to the offices of state attorney general. Its top donors include the oil and natural gas industry, and the Koch brothers.

Citizens United v. FEC (2010): The U.S. Supreme Court decision which held that freedom of speech prevents the federal government from limiting donations from a corporation.

Army Corp of Engineers: Authorizes construction permits, the final permit a pipeline company has to obtain before it can begin construction. The Army Corps of Engineers permits the construction, engineering and design of public works projects.

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

THE FAST & THE CURIOUS

anewmcdonald’sisopenonUniversityAvenue,afewblockswestofitschainrestaurantcounterpartsTacoBellandCheckers.Farfromthetypicalgreasy

drive-thru, it’s modern, trendy, and people have noticed. Though the place is packed with patrons gobbling Big Macs behind its giant glass windows, don’t be fooled by this expensive potemkin. What’s cooking inside is just as mediocre as always. Special sauce is still Russian dressing, McNuggets still probably not chicken, and the Filet-O-Fish still too eerily square. In any case, if you want fast, cheap food, you don’t have to be “lovin’ it.” Or for that matter, supporting unfair wages, animal abuse and a red-haired demonic clown. Gainesville’s got local, fast eats, and they’re tasty to boot. •

MAC’S DRIVE THRU 129 NW 10th Ave., Gainesville, Fla.

SANDWICH INN

If you’re driving along northwest 10th Avenue mid-afternoon and happen upon an avalanche of cars, don’t worry. There hasn’t been an accident, that’s just the line for Mac’s Drive Thru. Founded in 1987, Mac’s is an old-fashioned white brick building to be visited for when you’re feeling too technologically overloaded. Once you order from what looks like megaphones taped to poles, get the goods and pull into the Gainesville Shopping Center parking lot across the street. Sit quietly by yourself. This is simple food: a root beer with crushed ice, hamburgers with American singles, slightly squishy french fries. Each hamburger, gifted in a grease-laden parchment packet, comes either single or double. Mac’s has other sandwiches on their menu, but no one should drive away without a burger. Cash only.

110 NE 16th Ave., Gainesville, Fla. Established in 1963, Sandwich Inn is the oldest restaurant Gainesville. You are obligated to visit once, or at least, point it out on the tour you give your friends from out-of-town. Parked under the mint green canopy, you half expect someone in rollerskates to pop out and deliver you a malted shake. Sandwich Inn somehow manages not only to make tuna subs, Cuban sandwiches, grits, and triple cheeseburgers all in the same place but also at alarmingly low prices. Like, $2 prices. Having a bad day (or a brutal hangover)? Nothing cures quite like a country fried steak sandwich with cheese and an egg (with mustard!). You must be vigilant, for you will have to confront the urge to order round upon round of biscuits n’ gravy. Long naps afterward are inevitable.

INSTEAD OF: Steak ‘n Shake SPEED: Purgatory GREASE FACTOR: Do not put bag on clothing

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GOOD FOR: Finally attaining a transcendent state INSTEAD OF: McDonald’s SPEED: DMV

MI APÁ

114 SW 34th St., Gainesville, Fla. Mi Apá is the most elaborate of Gainesville’s fast-food scene.

Expect containers mounted with shredded spiced beef, sweet plantains, pressed sandwiches, pastries, arepas and fillets of breaded chicken. Expect to wait a little longer, but be rewarded with humongous portions: the arepas are full moons of corn patties stuffed with bulky hunks of Guayanes cheese.

The lechon asado is more pork than plate. The arroz con pollo is two days worth of carbs. Caution: do not order Mi Apá and attempt to eat and drive. You will likely endanger someone while attempting to sip black beans from a styrofoam cup. Their Cuban coffee is also a must.

GOOD FOR: Dinner or takeout INSTEAD OF: Pollo Tropical SPEED: Like getting public wifi; uncertain

SPOTLIGHT

EL INDIO

407 NW 13th St., Gainesville, Fla. Located so close to college-ville, El Indio should be open later but closes sadly at 10 p.m. At the time of writing, the 13th Street location is undergoing remodeling. A chorus of clanging metal and shouting construction workers now accompanies the chitter of patrons eating near the drive-thru. A burrito (a carne asada, if you know what to order) is your best bet if you want to eat on the go, but you might need your other hand to pour on their red and green salsas, which cool the tortilla’s hot contents while also providing a little kick. El Indio is best for when you need a quick pick-me-up, perhaps before an exam (or after, if it was a bad one).

GOOD FOR: Study snack INSTEAD OF: Taco Bell SPEED: Roadrunner

CHUNKY’S GRILL AND FRY CO. 1445 SE Hawthorne Rd., Gainesville, Fla. Choose your own adventure, because Chunky’s is having an identity crisis. One half of the menu is a fried smörgåsbord: fish, chicken, shrimp and oysters. The other side is...gyros? Yes, if you get that all too familiar craving for fried chicken gizzards and tzatziki, search no more.

Across from the pick-up window is a quaint sitting area, complete with red-painted benches, a plastic fawn (for ambiance) and nearby residents glaring from their porches. There, you can enjoy your steaming black styrofoam box heaped with fried curiosities, including fries.

GOOD FOR: Spontaneity INSTEAD OF: A Popeyes-Subway hybrid SPEED: Fresh things come to those who wait!

BAY ISLAND COFFEE 3270 SW 35th Blvd., Gainesville, Fla.

In the commercial sprawl that is Butler Plaza, you chance upon a small building that looks like it’s gotten lost. Though no bigger than a tropical hotel shack where you’ve downed piña coladas, Bay Island manages to put out quite an impressive variety. Its menu offers coffee, hot and iced, smoothies, baked goods, breakfast sandwiches, and lemonade. Hidden inside the tiny shop are shelves stuffed with bagels and an endless catalogue of coffee flavors. Their lattes range from almond, gingerbread, cinnamon, all the way to Creme Brûlée. The best way to prevent impulsively buying cookie dough at any of the Archer Road grocery stores is to have a quick bite from Bay Island beforehand.

GOOD FOR: When the Starbucks drive thru is a 5+ car pileup INSTEAD OF: Dunkin’ Donuts SPEED: Fast-pass

COFFEE CULTURE 2020 NW 13th St., Gainesville, Fla. It’s too early for even NPR’s Morning Edition. You need coffee, but the idea of physically leaving your car is out of the question.

Driving down 13th, you make out Coffee Culture’s cozy red sign, a welcome distraction from the fact that you are alive. At the menu, a static, disembodied barista voice will suddenly transform into that of a coffeehouse angel. (Helpful tip: an Americano with cream and sugar will be just hot enough to wake you up but not too hot to drink. This drink can be consumed immediately). Suddenly, the overly cheery and rehearsed “See you at the window!” is not irritating, but a caffeinated beacon of hope.

GOOD FOR: Early mornings INSTEAD OF: Starbucks SPEED: Faster than driving to work before rush hour

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ART & LITERATURE

We have to build this, AINESEY FOIRA

Child Services

BY RACHEL PIMIENTA

I

’ll never forget turning fifteen. It was the year I learned the term “Child Protective Services.”

I hated counseling offices. I remember Dr. Duncan being round, particularly in the middle. He smelled like Lysol and wore a patronizing smile.

Like the adults I knew at that time, he towered over me. But I knew he wasn’t the scary one. He handed me two plastic dolls—a man doll and a woman doll.

“Hi, Rachel. My name’s Dr. Duncan. We’ll be spending some time together in the coming months. I want to introduce you to a few of my friends. These dolls are like you and me. Can you tell me how they’re different?”

“They’re plastic.”

“They’re parents, Rachel. But good guess! Parents have problems just like we do and that’s okay, but sometimes, their problems can feel like our own.” Dr. Duncan illustrated further with his dolls.

“This is parent A. Parent A pays a lot of attention to their teen. But parent B doesn’t pay enough attention. Your dad told me about what happens sometimes with your mom. Do you want to talk about that today?” Dr. Duncan opened his notepad and held onto his ballpoint pen as if it were his lifeline.

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ART & LITERATURE

“The school play this year was Peter Pan and I was part of the cast. Momma told me I should be nervous — she insisted this was too much responsibility for me. She told me how she had messed up on stage.

But I said I was fine, that I liked being on stage.”

Acting is in front of everyone, but I learned quickly that stages were for hiding. If I dug deep, I could lose myself and play the part of a perfect daughter.

“I’m going to give you a journal. Give it a try.

Pretend it’s a play. They say paper listens better than people. We can discuss what you wrote next session, sweetie.”

••• Next session, I read my journal out loud.

“The night after my play, my parents kissed me goodbye outside the school yard and left opposite ways — they both said I needed sleep that night because church was next morning. I followed momma as she walked to her car. All night I thought about momma seeing me have a successful opening night — that made me feel guilty, especially since she and dad lived in separate houses now, and she was all alone. On the bad nights, I always thought about Pablito.”

“I’m sorry, is it pronounced P-a-b-l-?”

“He’s my big brother. Pablo’s fine. He’s the black sheep who lives up north.”

I didn’t know what that meant when I was younger, but my parents used the phrase and I repeated. I wondered to myself what kind of sheep I was.

“Do you ever visit him?” Dr. Duncan asked.

“Two years ago on Christmas Eve he visited us, the whole flock.”

I remember everyone gathered around the dinner table –— I think it was the last holiday both my parents sat at the same table. My little cousins licked their fingers clean of stolen croutons from the table salad. My mother yelled at them for ruining the salad and her supposed peace of mind. My tío converted stress into smoke outside with his cigar. My tías congregated like prepubescent acne and gossiped about Pablo and his friend. I’ll never forget the sound of the door slamming after Pablito told our parents.

My dad said he still loved my brother, but that these

kinds of friendships took God away.

My brother said he left me behind because he became a photographer in New York and didn’t have time to visit much anymore. But I knew it was more than that, he was forced out because he couldn’t play the part our parents wanted him to.

••• As our sessions went on, I stopped making fun of Dr. Duncan’s rotund shape in my head. Some people clean their speech and forget to clean their thoughts.

“I’d like to read what I wrote about church today.”

“Go ahead, sweetie,” he said.

“My mom pinched me hard whenever I’d doze off in church. Our pastor kept on, saying, ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.’ Everyone said, ‘Amen,’ to that crap!”

“Do you think your religion’s crap?”

“Well, momma tells me it’s a relationship, not a religion. But I don’t get why I need to be best friends with the guy. I read that he killed people and then he killed himself over sins that hadn’t happened yet.”

“Do you feel wrong for thinking this?”

“If I don’t feel wrong, won’t I go to hell? Momma tells me I belong there.”

“Do you think you deserve that, Rachel?” “‘All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense.’

Leviticus 20:9. Momma taught me that.”

“Rachel, I want your opinion. Do you think you deserve that?

“I used to climb on my parent’s bed when I was a kid. I pretended the floor around the bed was hot lava and the pillows were sheep. One day, I snuck into my parents’ room to play the hot lava game. My dad wasn’t home. I screamed momma’s name, but she wouldn’t save me from the hot lava. I screamed her name to come play with me, but she wouldn’t come out of the bathroom. I screamed her name again, and she stormed out, dragged me by my hair and pressed her face against mine on the ground. I stayed still yelling, ‘Perdóname! I’m sorry!’”

That’s what happened sometimes with momma. I grew up quickly and I stopped wondering what kind of sheep I was. I started playing dead.

“And?” Dr. Duncan asked. “Are you still sorry?”

Rachel Pimienta is a staff writer for SPILL: Queer Arts Magazine. She is a senior studying English Literature at the University of Florida. After graduation, she’s planning a road trip to the west coast to secede from the nation and outrun fascism.

Winter 2017 | T H E F I N E P R I N T | 39

Est. 2008