YES! Weekly - July 10, 2024 by YES! Weekly

Publisher CHARLES A. WOMACK III publisher@yesweekly.com

EDITORIAL

Editor CHANEL R. DAVIS chanel@yesweekly.com

MURAL HONORS MEN

YES! Writers IAN MCDOWELL MARK BURGER

KATEI CRANFORD

JIM LONGWORTH

DALIA RAZO

LYNN FELDER JOHN BATCHELOR

PRODUCTION

The 48 HOUR FILM PROJECT (48HFP) is gearing up for its 2024 event, in which teams of filmmakers from around the world race against the clock to shoot, edit, and submit a short film in a 48-hour time span.

YES! Weekly has proven that it’s not only your entertainment source but your award-winning alternative newspaper by bringing home EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING AWARDS to the Triad region.

Institute honored Nicole Kidman for her

Late last month the American Film Institute honored Nicole Kidman for LIFETIME OF ACHIEVEMENT. But Nicole is only 56 years old, which begs the question, “What constitutes a lifetime?” Inquiring minds want to know because every year hundreds of organizations give out lifetime achievement awards.

Billed as being “inspired by true events,” writer/producer/director Asif Ak-

4 8 14

Senior Designer ALEX FARMER designer@yesweekly.com

Designer SHANE HART artdirector@yesweekly.com

ADVERTISING

Marketing ANGELA COX angela@yesweekly.com

bar’s BONEYARD is a watchable, intermittently engrossing police procedural based on the West Mesa murders of 2009, in which the remains of several women were unearthed in the Albuquerque desert.

8 Based on Laurence Yep’s best-selling 2002 novel, THE TIGER’S APPRENTICE would hardly be out of place on the big screen, but instead premiered on Paramount+ after the studio had repeatedly delayed its theatrical release during the COVID-19 pandemic.

12 Katherine Farris has been an ABORTION PROVIDER for more than 20 years, and she says that this past year has been the hardest of her career — by a long shot.

14 The Triad’s own dive bar buddy, MARK “BUDDYRO” HARRISON, is through with trouble — or so the title of his new record would have folks believe.

TRAVIS WAGEMAN travis@yesweekly.com

Promotion NATALIE GARCIA

DISTRIBUTION JANICE GANTT ANDREW WOMACK

We at YES! Weekly realize that the interest of our readers goes well beyond the boundaries of the Piedmont Triad. Therefore we are dedicated to informing and entertaining with thought-provoking, debate-spurring, in-depth investigative news stories and features of local,

Lights, camera, action: Greensboro’s 48 Hour Film Project turns 21

The 48 Hour Film Project (48HFP) is gearing up for its 2024 event, in which teams of filmmakers from around the world race against the clock to shoot, edit, and submit a short film in a 48hour time span. The competition was created in Washington, D.C., in 2001, with the winning film eventually screened at the annual Filmapalooza event, which is held in a di erent city each year. For over two decades, the City of Greensboro has been among those cities participating in the 48HFP, and this year’s event kicks o Friday, July 19 at Revolution Mill, 1250 Revolution Mill Blvd. Thus far, 20 teams have signed up — but there’s still room for more. For

complete details on how to participate, visit https://www.48hourﬁlm.com/ greensboro/48hfp

Each team will draw a genre and will be given the specific character name, prop, and line of dialogue that must be included somewhere in each movie. At that point, they’re o and running … and shooting … and editing. The deadline for submitting a finished film (4-7 minutes in length) is 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 21, also at Revolution Mill.

The teams will be divided into screening groups and their films screened at the Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St., on successive evenings: Group A at 7 p.m. Friday, July 26; Group B at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 27; and Group C at 9:15 p.m. also Saturday, July 27. Each audience will vote for their favorite films and the film that receives the most audience votes will be given the Audience Award for their group. Tickets are $12 for each screening, or $30 for tickets to all three screenings, and are now available. For advance tickets or more information, call 336-333-2605 or

visit the o cial Carolina Theatre website: https://carolinatheatre.com/

The “Best of the Greensboro 48HFP” screening and subsequent awards ceremony will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday, August 9 at the Carolina Theatre. Tickets are $12. The award-winning ﬁlms will be screened followed by an awards presentation (Best Acting, Best Directing, Best Writing, etc.) done in the fashion of the annual Academy Awards ceremony. The ﬁlm selected as “Best Film” will join the top award winners from the approximately 120 cities that participate in the 48HFP each year to compete at Filmapalooza, with the top 13 then moving on to the Short Film Corner at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

saw their pride shine through, (and) all I could think was ‘Why didn’t I know about this sooner?’”

She was so impressed that she drafted a letter to Mark Ruppert, the founder and CEO of the 48HFP, expressing an interest to become the Greensboro city producer should the position become available. The next year she was sent an invitation to apply and, with exception of a two-year hiatus (about which she says “I missed being away”), has been there ever since.

“The 48HFP invites everyone to participate, regardless of their level of skills and experience in filmmaking,” explained Iris Carter, city producer of Greensboro’s event. “Some people get involved because it sounds like a fun experience with friends — and it is. Others are exploring filmmaking and seek to join a team to gain more insight and just have the experience. Then there are the professional filmmakers — people who work in studios doing commercial work, are independent contractors, actors, models — that participate to break out of the corporate routine or to exercise a more creative muscle. The event is anyone’s to win because anything can go wrong at any moment. I am continually amazed at the results we see in the 48HFP from all skill levels.”

Carter noted that some teams have participated in nearly every Greensboro 48HFP since its inception in 2004. “It’s great to see the team leaders that invite newcomers to their team and, as a result of their positive learning experience, the new people go on to create their own teams!”

Carter’s introduction to the 48 Hour Film Project when she joined a local ﬁlm group to learn more about the process of making them, particularly in terms of writing screenplays. The group leader suggested the group attend the Greensboro 48HFP that year instead of their regular meeting, and like the song says: “Just one look — that’s all it took.”

“From the moment I started watching the ﬁlms, I was hooked,” she said. “I was amazed at the storytelling, the ﬁlms, and the energy from the teams seeing their productions on the big screen was palpable. I watched their reactions and

This marks the 21st 48HFP in Greensboro, and Carter has participated in 18 di erent events — including 13 as o cial city producer. As a result, she’s gotten a ﬁrst-hand look — and a front-row seat — when it comes to the ﬁlmmaking talent pool in the Piedmont Triad.

“The Triad has such a rich film community that is severely under-recognized, and when people talk about the arts community, they often forget about film arts,” Carter pointed out. “Working as a community to create a visual world of storytelling that entertains or conveys a message to the masses is an all-encompassing art form. Each individual on a film set has an important role. In independent films, the work is even harder because, unlike Hollywood, one person may do the work of several people, funding is scarcer, and budgets are much tighter. In this way, the crew is brought much closer together. They know and respect each other. Indie filmmakers do what they do for the love of the art and the hope that audiences will come to see the stories.”

As Carter sees it, the 48HFP o ers a wealth of potential experience — and in only two days’ time!

“Filmmaking is a great team-building exercise that builds conﬁdence, encourages learning, and teaches cooperation,” Carter observed. “And when completed, the entire team has a piece of art that can be shared for decades. Why would anyone want to miss out on that opportunity?” !

WANNA know?

For more information, simply e-mail inquiries to info@48hourﬁlm.com. The o cial 48-Hour Film Project — Greensboro website is https:// www.48hourﬁlm.com/greensboro/48hfp.

Mark Burger

Contributor

YES! Weekly wins six press awards

YES! Weekly has proven that it’s not only your entertainment source but your award-winning alternative newspaper by bringing home editorial and advertising awards to the Triad region.

NCPA’s editorial and advertising contest is one of the largest in the nation with over 4,000 entries submitted by more than 100 newspaper and news organizations, according to the organization’s website. Awards covered entries published between March 2023 and March 2024 and were judged by members of the Colorado Press Association.

“To be recognized by our peers with an award is extremely gratifying and gives us great pride in knowing what we are doing is making a difference,” said Charles Womack, publisher of YES! Weekly . “We are so happy and proud to serve the Triad and do what we do. I feel very fortunate that our peers in the media business recognize our quality journalism and design.”

YES! Weekly , published by Womack Newspapers Inc., won a total of six awards in its division: three 1st place in the advertising category, two 3rd place and one 1st place award in the editorial category.

“While we don’t do the job for recognition or awards, I’m extremely proud of my team as they are recognized for consistently creating quality work and producing superior reporting,” said Chanel Davis, editor of YES! Weekly . “We will continue to strive for excellence as that is what our readers expect from us.” Our mission was to bring hard and fair

news, insightful commentary, and comprehensive cultural writing to Greensboro. Since then, we have expanded our coverage to include High Point, Winston-Salem, Kernersville, Jamestown, Archdale, Thomasville, Clemmons, Oak Ridge, Summerfield, and the other cities and towns of the North Carolina Piedmont Triad. With a commitment to honest coverage, common-sense editorial policy, and great writing, YES! Weekly has become a vital part of the Triad media scene, breaking stories, and uncovering hidden cultural gems.

Below is a list of the categories and awards won by YES! Weekly and its staff.

THIRD PLACE

• Arts and Entertainment Reporting - Lynn Felder - “Smith & Libby” explores unsolved mystery

• Illustration/Photo Illustration/ Print or interactive graphicsShane Hart - The Case of Reparations

FIRST PLACE

• Advertising Campaign - Alex Farmer - Sweet Old Bill’s Ad Campaign

• Illustration/Photo Illustration/ Print or interactive graphics - Alex Farmer - The Films of 2023

• Newspaper Promotion - Alex Farmer - YES! Insider

• Real Estate Ad - Alex Farmer - For Rent - Jamestown !

[ WEEKLY ARTS ROUNDUP] STAINED GLASS PLAYHOUSE OPENS SEASON WITH A MODERN TWIST ON “CINDERELLA”

BY MARK GRAVES | Associate Artistic Director of Stained Glass Playhouse

Stained Glass Playhouse is opening their season with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella,” but audiences might be in for a few surprises if they haven’t seen this particular version performed before.

The original 1957 musical, written expressly for television and starring Julie Andrews, is the “Cinderella” story most people know and expect. A young woman is forced into a life of servitude by her cruel stepmother and self-centered stepsisters. She dreams of a better life, and with the help of her Fairy Godmother, she is transformed into an elegant young lady and able to attend the ball to meet her Prince. She ﬂees at midnight when the magic wears o , but the Prince uses a glass slipper she leaves behind to ﬁnd her, and they live “happily ever after”.

eyes to the injustices in his kingdom in Stained Glass Playhouse’s “Cinderella,” July 26 - August 11, 2024.

While this original version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical did later make it to stages in London and the U.S., it did not go to Broadway. It was remade in 1965 starring Lesley Ann Warren, and then quite famously remade again in 1997 featuring a racially diverse cast starring Brandy and Whitney Houston; but both versions were again made for television. It was not until 2013 that the show would be written for and produced on Broadway, with a new book by Tony Award-nominee Douglas Carter Beane. It is this 2013 Broadway adaptation that will be presented at Stained Glass Playhouse this summer. While still featuring beloved songs from the original like “In My Own Little Corner,” “Impossible / It’s Possible,” and “Ten Minutes Ago,” this version also includes four more songs from the Rodgers and Hammerstein catalog, including “Now

Is the Time”, a song cut from “South Paciﬁc.”

The biggest changes, though, are to the story. In this contemporary adaptation, the young woman (“Ella” in this version) is still transformed and attends the ball, but with new motives. The Prince has also lost his parents, and is mentored by a Lord Chancellor who advises him to approve oppressive legislation. This in turn has sparked a revolution led by Ella’s friend JeanMichel, who — along with a strange woman who reveals herself to be Ella’s Fairy Godmother — helps her to reach the Prince and open his eyes to the injustices in his kingdom. The result is a compelling and modern twist on the classic tale, turning Cinderella from a poor girl wishing for a better life into an empowered young woman who actively pursues one and, in doing so, paves the way for change and a “happily ever after” for all.

“Cinderella,” directed by Ste anie N. Vaughan, will be presented July 26-28, August 2-4, and August 9-11. For more information about the show, visit stainedglassplayhouse.org/cinderella. !

Ella (Emily Grace Hartsoe) must open Prince Topher’s (Colton Widener)

PHOTO COURTESY OF NEIL JESTER FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY.

Rethinking Lifetime Achievement Awards

Late last month the American Film Institute honored Nicole Kidman for her lifetime of achievement. But Nicole is only 56 years old, which begs the question, “What constitutes a lifetime?” Inquiring minds want to know because every year hundreds of organizations give out lifetime achievement awards. In addition to AFI, there’s the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Oscar’s Honorary Award, the Kennedy Center Honors, and my favorite, the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement, named for a man who created a vampire who I believe has been eligible for over 700 lifetime achievement awards. Kidman’s relative youth is not unique among so-called lifetime honorees. In fact, plenty of other entertainers have been recognized in their 50s, like Orson Welles, Harrison Ford, and Jack Nicholson, and some, like Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, have even been honored in their 40s.

The groups who present these awards set no age restrictions, but they are very clear about their general criteria. AFI’s original by-laws required that a lifetime achievement recipient’s work, “Must have stood the test of time” (that was later amended to include folks with an active career). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences reserves its Honorary Award, “To honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement.” The Grammy’s presents their award for, “performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic signiﬁcance to the ﬁeld of recording.” And the Kennedy Center Honors are given to those in the performing arts, “for their lifetime of contributions to American culture.” OK, so once again I pose the question, “What constitutes a lifetime?” Peter O’Toole received an Honorary Oscar in his 80s, and Lillian Gish was 90 when she picked up the AFI Lifetime Achievement award. Clearly, they and other elderly

honorees have amassed an impressive body of work over many decades. But it doesn’t make any sense to honor anyone for a lifetime of achievement when their lifetime is far from over.

Last year, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics reported that the average life expectancy in America is 76.1 years, while the United Nations claimed a higher number at 79 years. Regardless, a lifetime achievement award for someone in their 40s or 50s seems premature and a bit disingenuous, sort of like if 6-year-old Prince Louis of Wales wrote an autobiography titled “My Life Story.” Perhaps AFI and other groups might consider more deﬁnable benchmarks for awarding lifetime achievement, such as actual retirement age. In America, for example, the average age of retirement is 63. Or if these esteemed award-giving organizations want to be more age-inclusive, they could align their criteria with those of professional golf, which allows veteran players to move to the seniors tour once they reach 50, which is also about the time you start receiving mail from AARP. In any case, we really need a clear consensus on what constitutes a “lifetime,” especially when recognizing individual achievement.

Once when confronted by Professor Van Helsing, Stoker’s Dracula said, “For one who has not lived even a single lifetime, you are a wise man, Van Helsing.” This tells us two important things. First, Dracula respects his enemies, and second, Van Helsing is not yet eligible for an award. !

Jim Longworth

Longworth at Large

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

Boneyard: Suspects aplenty but no solution

Billed as being “inspired by true events,” writer/ producer/director Asif Akbar’s Boneyard is a watchable, intermittently engrossing police procedural based on the West Mesa murders of 2009, in which the remains of several women were unearthed in the Albuquerque desert. True-crime bu s familiar with the case will also undoubtedly be familiar that the crimes were never solved, which is a dramatic hurdle the ﬁlm is not able to completely overcome, though not for want of trying.

Leading the investigation are homicide detectives Brian Van Holt, whose niece may be among the victims, and Nora Zehetner, who is given no backstory; Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson sheepishly playing their captain; and Mel Gibson, as the sort of grizzled, eccentric FBI proﬁler who favors Hawaiian shirts and snappy comebacks. Initially, there is the obligatory competition and tension among them, but they inevitably come to respect, if begrudgingly, their di erent methodologies — which in Gibson’s case seems to be trying to steal every scene he’s in — and get down to the grisly business at hand.

Laden with sepia-toned ﬂashbacks, all the better to incorporate the action quotient a ﬁlm like this requires, Boneyard is cluttered with subplots, some of which are resolved, and others left hanging. Sifting through clues and evidence, two potential suspects come to the fore: A sleazy, ill-tempered vice cop (Michael Sirow) with some vices of his own, including young women; and a creepy, blubbering religious paranoid (Nicolas Cage’s son Weston Cage Coppola) who’s as twitchy as they come — and then some. There’s e ective cinematography by Joshua Reis, who successfully creates a mood of uneasy menace throughout, and by and large, the acting is competent. There’s a nice turn by writer/producer Vincent

E. McDaniel as Sirow’s superior o cer, who has his own agenda, and a truly spectacular one by Camille Collard as the proverbial hooker with a heart of gold, whose mounting concern over a fellow streetwalker’s disappearance doesn’t necessarily preclude her from su ering a similar fate. Collard brings a wounded glamour and even a dignity to a character who’s seen it all, done it all, regrets much of it, but is nonetheless trapped in her lifestyle by circumstance.

At least the dedication during the end credits to the victims of the West Mesa murders doesn’t feel phony or arbitrary. The cautionary elements of the story, although not always smoothly integrated into the exploitation format, have some resonance. It’s a hard, cruel world out there, and oftentimes it’s the most vulnerable who pay the price, through no fault of their own.

(Lionsgate has released Boneyard on VOD and in selected theaters.) !

DOWNTOWN JAZZ

JULY 12

The Tiger’s Apprentice a diverting animated fantasy

Based on Laurence Yep’s bestselling 2002 novel, The Tiger’s Apprentice would hardly be out of place on the big screen, but instead premiered on Paramount+ after the studio had repeatedly delayed its theatrical release during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is no mere throwaway, however, but an entertaining — if occasionally formulaic — family-friendly fantasy steeped in Asian lore.

The setting, appropriately, is the Chinatown district of San Francisco, where we meet our prospective hero Tom (voiced by Brandon Soo Hoo), an orphaned teen bumbler destined to become one of the “Guardians,” charged with the possession and protection of an ancient artifact known as the Phoenix (“In the right hands, it creates. In the wrong hands, it destroys”).

When the Phoenix is pilfered by the wicked Loo (voiced by Michelle Yeoh), Tom gets a crash course in heroism from Hu (voiced by Henry Golding), a Guardian in the guise of a tiger (hence the ﬁlm’s title) as they attempt to retrieve it. Tom and Hu are aided in their task by other shape-shifting — and often wise-cracking — Guardians, which are based on the creatures in the Chinese Zodiac. It all culminates, none too surprisingly, in an e ects-laden battle in the skies above San Francisco that will undoubtedly seem familiar to anyone who has seen a superhero movie of recent vintage, be it live-action or animated.

Nevertheless, The Tiger’s Apprentice maintains a rapid pace, running a mere 84 minutes, and boasts a stellar lineup of Asian actors in voiceover roles, including Sandra Oh, Lucy Liu, Bowen Yang, and Jo Koy. There are the obligatory nods touting teamwork, friendship, and tradition, and an upbeat ending that still leaves room for further adventures, should they be forthcoming. It’s an easy, breezy way to pass the time.

(In addition to Paramount+, The Tiger’s Apprentice is also available from Paramount Home Entertainment on DVD, retailing for $17.99, replete with bonus adventures.) !

See MARK BURGER’s reviews of current movies.

Mark Burger

Contributor

Mural honors men who swung golf clubs against segregation

Contributor

Aweek after Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus, and ﬁve years before the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-in, six Black Greensboro men were jailed for playing golf at Gillespie Park.

Built in 1941 at 306 E. Florida St, Gillespie Park is the city’s oldest municipal golf course. In 1955, when the men remembered as the Greensboro Six were arrested, it was whites-only. Anticipating Holmes v. Atlanta, the Supreme Court decision declaring segregated public recreation facilities unconstitutional, the city leased the course to a group of white men for $1 a year, allowing them to operate it as a private club. Despite the claim that Gillespie was private, the “club” did not require memberships; any white golfer who paid a 75-cents fee could play.

On Dec. 7, 1955, which future Greensboro NAACP president Dr. George Simkins Jr. later recalled as “a beautiful day for golf,” he and Phillip Cooke, Elijah Herring, Samuel Murray, Joseph Studivent, and Leon Wolfe decided they’d had enough of being forced to play at Nocho Park, the “Negro” course located near a sewage treatment plant. They wanted to enjoy the brisk morning air just like white golfers did, without driving to High Point to ﬁnd a Black golf course that didn’t stink. They decided to take a swing at segregation by playing the whites-only course their taxes helped pay for.

It was Wednesday, the usual day o for Simkins, a prominent second-generation dentist who’d been the ﬁrst Black

employee of the Guilford County Health Department, an accomplished golfer and nationally ranked badminton player. He left his Dudley Street home and led his ﬁve friends to the “club,” where they politely announced their intentions of paying the fee and playing the green. After an attendant wouldn’t let them sign the register, they dropped their quarters on the counter and proceeded to the ﬁrst hole, ignoring threats from the head golf pro, who gesticulated wildly with his club and shouted racial epithets.

In a 2000 interview with the Greensboro Public Library, Simkins recalled that the golf pro “called us everything under the sun.” He then described raising his golf club to show he and his friends were willing to defend themselves, and declaring, “We’re out here for a cause.”

“What damn cause is that?” snarled the pro.

“Democracy,” said Simkins. They played nine holes before leaving. That night, police arrived at their homes. The charges were for “trespassing on a private facility.” Two months later, all six men were convicted, ﬁned $15 and court costs, and sentenced to 15 days in jail. A second conviction and three appeals followed, all of which they lost.

Because GPD altered warrants calling Gillespie a “club” rather than a “course,” a second trial was ordered. The all-white jury, which included two members of the “club,” found the six guilty again, and the judge imposed a 30-day jail sentence. During their appeals, middle-district judge Johnson Hayes issued a declaratory judgment that the “so-called lease” of the course as a private facility was invalid. This was left out of the record presented to the state Supreme Court, which ruled against them. So did the U.S. Supreme Court, which voted 5-4, but Chief Justice Earl Warren’s dissenting opinion persuaded N.C. Governor Luther

Hodges to commute their jail sentences.

Shortly before Judge Hayes ruled the lease invalid and the course a public facility, the Gillespie clubhouse burned down, an act of arson widely believed to have been committed by one or more of the white men who leased it. The ﬁre marshal condemned not just the clubhouse but the unburnt golf course, and city council dodged desegregation by selling the property and declaring that Greensboro would not own any recreational facilities.

After seven years of community pressure and the election of an entirely new council, the nine remaining holes at Gillespie were re-opened in 1962, with Simkins, who three years earlier was voted president of the Greensboro NAACP, the ﬁrst to tee o .

Simkins remained Greensboro NAACP president until 1985. In that position, he was a leader in desegregating Wesley Long and Moses Cone hospitals, as well as the Greensboro branches of Wachovia. He was honored by Coretta Scott King in 1981. In 2016, 15 years after his death at age 77, a statue celebrating his civil rights work was erected on the lawn of the Old Guilford County Courthouse.

“It really sunk in when I was able to go on the green itself,” said Vincent Ballentine, the artist chosen to create a mural honoring the Greensboro Six, when he unveiled his concept at a July 3 public meeting organized by First Tee – Central Carolina, a Clemmons-based organization teaching young people both golf and life skills and Creative Greensboro, the city’s o ce for arts and culture.

“I was able to see the same thing these brothers saw in 1955,” continued Ballentine. “The same trees, same hills, same holes, even the ﬁrst tee, where they put their balls down, said ‘nah!’ and took a swing. That act of deﬁance is what I need to convey in my piece to draw more

people to ask, what is this story? What happened here? I feel that’s my role, to start that conversation.”

The 90-foot-wide by 20-foot-high mural, commissioned by Wyndham Rewards, will cover an entire wall of the First Tee building on Gillespie Golf Course and will be easily visible from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. It will be unveiled on August 5 ahead of the Wyndham Championship. At last week’s community meeting, which was attended by District 1’s Sharon Hightower and District 2’s Goldie Wells and introduced by Creative Greensboro Chief Creative Economy O cer Jocquelyn Boone, the artist presented a 12-footwide rough version of his design.

The Cleveland-born Ballentine resides in Brooklyn, where he has created art for Whole Foods, NYC Housing Authority, and many borough schools. His work, which also includes digital illustration and animation, has been commissioned by the NCAA, MTV, and BET. In 2020, he was awarded a State Department residency in Ethiopia as an ambassador for hip-hop. This year, Wyndham Rewards, First Tee, and the City of Greensboro chose him to memorialize the Greensboro Six after a nationwide search involving more than 50 applicants.

His design features the Greensboro Six in the center, striding through gates representing not only Gillespie Park but also Greensboro’s nickname of the Gate City. On their right, Charlie Si ord, the pioneering golfer who broke the PGA’s color barrier, tees o at the 1961 Greensboro Open, where he was the only Black player.

“I purposefully made the crowd what you would have seen then, with the only other brothers there as caddies,” said Ballentine, who then indicated the burning building behind Si ord, representing the torched Gillespie clubhouse. “I wondered if I’d get some resistance for that, but no, Ryan and Wyndham were enthusiastic.”

Ian McDowell

Rough draft of mural design

The left side of the triptych depicts contemporary young people of color, including a Black woman, playing golf. Ballentine said the individual depictions in this section may change, but the idea won’t. He also indicated that, if the family members of the Greensboro Six present at the meeting could provide him with more reference photos, he would make the central ﬁgures less stylized, but until now, all he’s had to work with are images of Dr. Simkins and the one known photo of the six men leaving the courthouse together.

After First Tee CEO Ryan Wilson said the mural would include a QR code giving more information about the Greensboro Six and what they accomplished, Hightower suggested that their names be part of the painting.

“QR codes are great,” said Hightower, “but not everybody has access to them, and right now, we don’t even know which one is Dr. Simkins. I think we need to highlight their names, and that they’re the ones who paved the way to have ac-

cess to that golf course. We need to know who are these six individuals who took the chance and put their lives on the line to say ‘I want to play golf, and I want to play it right here in my community.’”

Both Ballentine and Wilson nodded in agreement. “We hear you loud and clear, and think that’s a great idea,” said Wilson.

“I like the way light kind of pushes them forward,” said Wells, “and the way it symbolizes that they opened the gate.”

“Not only did they come through the gate,” said Ballentine, “but they tore it down, and allowed other people to come through after.”

“I like how on the one side,” said Wells, “the building is burned down and everything is closed, but on the other side, it’s all the possibilities, and now we can be at the PGA, including women.” !

IAN MCDOWELL is an award-winning author and journalist whose book I Ain’t Resisting: the City of Greensboro and the Killing of Marcus Smith was published in September of 2023 by Scuppernong Editions.

Eastern Music Festival

Artist Vincent Ballentine shakes hands with Sharon Hightower

Phillip Cooke, Samuel Murray, Elijah Herring, Joseph Studivent, George Simkins Jr. and Leon Wolfe

One year into new abortion limits, N.C. patients and providers struggle to shoulder the load restrictions bring

BY RACHEL CRUMPLER North Carolina Health News

Katherine Farris has been an abortion provider for more than 20 years, and she says that this past year has been the hardest of her career — by a long shot.

Not her ﬁrst year of practice when everything was new. Not the year she stepped into the role of chief medical o cer at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic to supervise clinic operations across North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Not the years she navigated COVID protocols to keep her sta and patients safe.

The last year stands out above all the rest, as challenges escalated to a new level. That’s because a year ago today, North Carolina’s new stricter abortion law took e ect, signiﬁcantly diminishing abortion access in the state. The time frame for seeking most abortions dropped from 20 weeks of pregnancy to 12 weeks, and the law added an in-person requirement for state-mandated counseling at least 72 hours before an abortion.

Farris has had a front-row seat to the upheaval caused by the change in law: Clinic sta frantically reworking operations to comply. Physicians stretching themselves thin to see as many patients as possible — knowing they can never meet the full demand. Patients desperately pulling resources together to book an appointment — often driving hours for care. Clinics turning patients beyond the state’s limits away without knowing whether they will be able to travel elsewhere.

“These aren’t just numbers to us,” Farris said. “These are real human beings that sit in front of me in my o ce, and I see the burden this has put on them.”

No longer providing care beyond 12 weeks or practicing to her full capabilities has been a seismic shift that’s been di cult for Farris to adjust to. She gets a glimpse of the more weeks of care she used to be able to provide in North Carolina when she practices in Virginia, which allows abortions up to 26 weeks.

“Depending on where my feet are planted, that’s what determines the care I can give,” Farris said. “It’s not my skills. It’s not the support sta . It’s not the equipment. And it’s certainly not what the patient needs. It’s just where my feet are planted.”

Despite the new restrictions, abortion volume in North Carolina has not dropped

PHOTO BY RACHEL CRUMPLER/NC HEALTH NEWS

after the implementation of Senate Bill 20, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, a national organization that tracks trends in reproductive health. However, the number of abortions provided each month has since ticked back up, returning to volumes in line with pre-Senate Bill 20 numbers. In March, North Carolina provided about 4,030 abortions — the highest monthly volume since the law took e ect last July — according to the latest data available from Guttmacher.

Katherine Farris, chief medical o cer at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, stands in a patient exam room at Planned Parenthood’s Winston-Salem clinic. She’s been an abortion provider for more than 20 years.

signiﬁcantly since Senate Bill 20 took effect a year ago on July 1. In large part, that’s due to the e orts of abortion clinics, providers, abortion funds and other support networks that have worked to keep abortion accessible. Patients themselves have also gone to great lengths to overcome the increased obstacles to access care.

“Patients are incredibly resilient and resourceful,” Farris said. “But every day, I am angered that they have to be. They should not have to be so resilient. They should not have to be so resourceful. They should be allowed to get this care from a provider they already know and trust in their own community.”

FRANTICALLY ADJUSTING

Calla Hales, executive director at A Preferred Women’s Health Center, which operates two abortion clinics in North Carolina, tries not to think about the day a year ago when abortion access in the state changed.

Newly gained Republican supermajorities in the state General Assembly — a result of one Democrat’s abrupt party defection — swiftly passed the state’s stricter abortion law, Senate Bill 20, over the objections of medical professionals and Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto.

Hales said the ﬁrst weeks were particularly tough and frantic.

“I really remember most like not sleeping for days on end,” she said. “To be quite honest, there is a stretch of time that last week of June and the ﬁrst couple weeks of

July where I was probably sleeping like ﬁve hours a week.”

She knew the stakes were high. The clinic needed to quickly change its operations to comply with the law and serve as many patients as possible.

Physicians and abortion clinic sta reworked processes, patient ﬂow and schedules. They trained sta . They learned the new state-mandated counseling script and reporting requirements.

“You’re having to figure it out on the fly,” Hales explained. “Patients don’t stop needing care to provide you with the time to stop and figure out how to address practices to better change to the scope of these new rules.”

Amber Gavin, vice president of advocacy and operations at A Woman’s Choice, an abortion provider with three clinic locations in the state, said clinics grappled with how to accommodate twice as many appointments to provide abortion care for the same number of patients. Patients coming in for two in-person appointments strains the physical space within the clinic and the sta ’s time.

Even now, with processes worked out, it continues to be an intricate balance of accommodating the increased volume of people in and out of the clinic, especially given the ramped-up pressure of the reduced time frame that abortion procedures can take place in North Carolina, Gavin said.

As a result of the new requirements, abortion volume in the state dropped substantially during the months immediately

All three abortion clinic providers in the state that NC Health News spoke with said they’ve added days of abortion care to their schedules. They’ve also gotten creative with some of the appointment o erings, adding some later in the day, as they recognize that some patients can’t make it to morning appointments with the travel distances they are facing. Planned Parenthood has even expanded the locations where it provides medication abortion; the Durham health center started the service last month, and the Greensboro location is scheduled to start in mid-July.

A year later, some days can still be just as frantic as those early days, Gavin said. Phones ring o the hook. Patients’ emotions boil over — and sta ’s can too. Clinic sta increasingly have to expand beyond providing medical care, doing more coordination to help patients navigate to other states to receive care past the 12-week North Carolina limit.

The abortion law also remains in ﬂux, with two lawsuits challenging certain requirements that lawmakers implemented. That keeps abortion providers on their toes awaiting any decisions that further a ect how they can provide care.

For instance, last month, U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles in Greensboro issued a judgment that struck down several of North Carolina’s rules on dispensing medication abortion pills. Lawyers for Republican legislative leaders promptly appealed the judge’s decision.

INCREASED PATIENT HURDLES

Abortion providers say the most burdensome part of the law is the requirement that a patient go to an in-person appointment for state-mandated counseling at least 72 hours before an abortion. Previously, this pre-procedure counseling could occur over the phone or online.

The new requirements mean that patients must visit clinics at least twice — and many need to travel long distances to

reach one of the state’s 14 abortion clinics spread over nine counties. The additional appointment means extra time o work and more travel, hotel stays and child care costs.

“People don’t have extra money lying around that they can just stay in a hotel for three days,” Farris said. “They don’t have someone to watch their kids for three days. They can’t get time o of their job for three days. It’s really incredibly cruel, especially because it is so medically unnecessary.”

One of the biggest barriers to abortion access is cost, said Justine, a Carolina Abortion Fund sta member who requested that NC Health News only use her first name for security reasons. Garnering the resources for a two-visit process under Senate Bill 20 can be even more of a challenge as nonmedical costs for gas, flights, hotels, child care and lost wages accumulate. That’s reflected in the sizable uptick in the number of callers seeking financial assistance to cover these practical support costs to get to their appointments, Justine said. Justine said Carolina Abortion Fund, which helps patients pay for part of their procedure, is distributing more funding per month than before Senate Bill 20, but it is only able to meet about 40 percent of caller demand. In March, the latest data Carolina Abortion Fund could share with

NC Health News, the organization distributed more than $70,000. In comparison, in March 2023, the organization distributed about $45,000.

Every month — typically after around 10 business days, depending on call volume — Carolina Abortion Fund exhausts its monthly funding, Justine said. When that happens, volunteers and sta members work with callers to help ﬁgure out funding, referring them to other funds and resources.

Farris says the ﬁnancial and logistical challenges caused by the increased restrictions are pushing abortion care later in pregnancy. For example, Farris said she recently saw a North Carolina patient who came in for her initial appointment at 11 weeks pregnant. But by the time the patient could obtain her abortion procedure, she was 15 weeks pregnant — past the 12-week limit. Ultimately, she took a bus to Virginia, where Farris provided her abortion care.

Guttmacher data shows that in 2023, a total of 1,720 North Carolinians obtained abortions in Virginia — the most popular out-of-state choice.

“When they write this law, they just assume everyone will magically know they’re pregnant sooner and come in right away,” Farris said. “But the human body doesn’t

work that way, and people’s life circumstances don’t work that way. So instead, what happens is while some people are coming in much sooner, we also, on the other end of the spectrum, see people push later and later in pregnancy by the time they can get the resources.”

Others may be unable to pull the needed resources together. Clinics say a number of people don’t make it back for another appointment after the in-person counseling.

The additional logistical hurdles can also create a more trauma-ﬁlled experience, said Simran Singh Jain, an abortion doula in Durham. Over the past year, she’s worked with about 30 people seeking abortions. The time crunch is forcing people to move more swiftly to access care, potentially neglecting their own emotions as they stay hyperfocused on navigating the logistics.

“We’re having much more of those logistical conversations, and so people don’t really have the opportunity to actually process what is a very vulnerable moment in their lives,” Jain said. “Because of that, I’m ﬁnding a lot of people are reaching out to me months later for the support that they were not able to take at the time because they were so focused on that logistical piece — just how challenging it is to get an abortion fundamentally — versus being able to actually take the time to navigate

their own emotions about it.”

And a handful of patients continue to show up to clinics thinking they are getting an abortion that day, and they are devastated to learn they can’t — caught o guard by the two-appointment requirement.

Hales said these people often assume it’s a clinic policy rather than state law. She’s seen people plead to have the abortion on the same day — saying that they’ve already put much thought into the decision and don’t need another waiting period — but her hands are legally tied.

In other cases, said Rachel Jensen, an abortion provider in the Triangle, she’s cared for patients with nonviable pregnancies who have questioned why they have to wait 72 hours — the longest waiting period in the country.

“I don’t have a good answer,” she said. “It’s because of the state law. And it’s a really sad thing to say that your medical practice is dictated not by medical best practices, but by essentially arbitrary policies.” !

NORTH CAROLINA HEALTH NEWS is an independent, non-partisan, not-for-proﬁt, statewide news organization dedicated to covering all things health care in North Carolina. Visit NCHN at northcarolinahealthnews.org.

Mark “BuddyRo” Harrison is done with trouble

The Triad’s own dive bar buddy, Mark “BuddyRo” Harrison, is through with trouble — or so the title of his new record would have folks believe.

But the venerable bluesman isn’t making bets, responding with a jovial “no comment” at the idea — Harrison is both hardly serious on “I’m Through With Trouble,” and far from ready to hang up the “Divebar Troubadour” lifestyle he’s been leading as both a solo songster and frontman of the area’s longest-running bands, the Mighty Fairlanes.

“We’ve played a lot of real dives,” he said, running down the Fairlanes’ nearly four-decade memory lane. “We still do sometimes — though solo gigs take me to more of those places these days — I still love it. I love seeing people have fun, at least for a little while. Life can be so stressful that we all have to get out and let go.” And Harrison gets out. Between the solo sets, Fairlane gigs, and hosting duties at a handful of area blues jams — oh, and a new record — ol’ BuddyRo stays on the go. With music in the forward and rear view. Having grown up in a radio household, “music was always being played on the radio or record players in our home,” Harrison explained, pointing to his father’s career as station manager at WTNC-Thomasville.

“I would go to the radio station a lot of days after school and hang out and absorb everything I could. I was too skinny, too nearsighted, and too slow for sports–so the station was my playground.” Fertile soil as the world of rock’n’roll was unfurling across the country. “Major record labels sent demos to all stations in those days, and they would stack up in Dad’s o ce. But the station played mostly Hillbilly Music (later called country) and cheesy pop stu ; so all the rock, R&B, and Soul records went home with me.”

“They were fair game and I’d take home dozens at a time,” Harrison continued, musing the experiences he’d end up exploring decades later on “My Playground,” the intro track to his 2021 solo record, “Divebar Troubador.”

“That song is pretty much about my

life coming and going in and out of the building — the smell, the control rooms, mics, and the huge transmitter — as well as those thousands of records along the walls.”

The sentiment is a genuine call back to Harrison’s foundational inﬂuences that he continues carrying on today. “I have the call letters o of the old building in my backyard!,” he explained, reﬂecting on the evolution of his relationship with music.

“I was highly inﬂuenced by many styles of music — starting around ﬁrst grade — even though I didn’t start playing guitar until I was 18 and out of high school.”

There’s a sort of sly patience to Harrison’s work — he formed the Mighty Fairlanes in 1985, without o cially releasing a record until 2001. “We mostly covered blues and soul — going pretty much anywhere that would have us,” Harrison said.

“I slowly began writing tunes, we slowly started incorporating a few in our sets. We recorded dozens of demo tapes, but our ﬁrst record wasn’t until 2001 — and it came out just ﬁve days after 9/11.”

While time wasn’t on the Fairline’s side in that instance, they’ve kept trucking in the long haul; having played consistently over the years (except during COVID shutdown).

“My motto has always been to enjoy what we do,” he said, spilling their secrets to sonic longevity. “We play what we love — we don’t do pop covers — and most of us had day jobs and mortgages, so we’ve never taken the industry side too seriously.” For Harrison and his fellow Fairlanes: it’s about the songs, not the cash.

Preaching the “universal truth of simple living,” Harrison’s songwriting often drifts embellishments on his own experiences.

“I enjoy taking a phrase or snippet, maybe from an overheard conversation in a bar and make a story that probably has nothing to do with what was actually said,” he explained. “Or I’ll write about an event in my own life and try to add some color and humor.” Traversing Southern backroads in stories and song — making sure nothing is taken too seriously. For Harrison, it’s the spice of life.

And it’s a spice he savors both playing solo or with his band. “One of the best

parts of playing solo is to be able to highlight the story in a song, rather than just jamming on something,” he said. “But jamming is fun, too!,” he added, with a ection and respect to his rhythm section (bassist Colby Jernigan on bass and drummer Chip “Memphis” Click).

“They pull me along, night after night.” They all pull together on “Through With Trouble,” which is something of a blended o ering — not quite a Fairlanes’ record and certainly not the strictly solo sort of Harrison’s 2021 “Divebar Troubador.” “That was my COVID-therapy project,” Harrison recalled of his solo release. “I couldn’t bring a band in, so I played all of the instruments.”

The band is back — and then some — on “I’m Through With Trouble,” which bridges the all-electric styles of the Fairlanes’ last record (2017’s “The Longer I Live”) with the totally acoustic tones on “Divebar Troubador,” to create a unique — but still bluesy — musical-hybrid.

Tapping Benjy Johnson at Earthtones Studio for the production, Harrison also called in a few friends to ﬁll out tracks; with Johnson joining “the Lanes,” as well as Chuck Cotton, Scott Adair, Eli Fribush, Penny Smith, and Terry Vuncannon adding their own ﬂavors to the mix. The result is

eight original tracks in Harrison’s downto-earth style; accented with artwork from longtime collaborator Rich Powell. “CDs are available at my gigs, but there’s not too many left,” he said — speciﬁcally referencing inventory — he’s a number of gigs through the summer (with more on the way).

Harrison is scheduled to pull Blues Jam hosting duties on July 10 at Ritchy’s Uptown and on July 11 at Sawmill2. He’s got a solo show at The Quarter on July 13; and will return to Sawmill2 with the Mighty Fairlanes on August 2 (they’re also on the bill for Rich Lerner’s annual “Groove Jam’’ beneﬁtting the Greensboro Urban Ministry, September 21 at Doodad Farm). “Changes and additions can happen quickly,” he said, pointing fans to his website and social pages.

At the end of the day, BuddyRo might be through with trouble — but he’ll never be through with music. “I just wanna do this stu until I die,” he said. ”I’m afraid to return to the real world.”

“I’m Through With Trouble,” the new album from BuddyRo and the Lanes is out now via streaming; CDs can be found at Bu alo Boogie Records in Greensboro and Your Song Sound Exchange in Thomasville. !

KATEI CRANFORD is a Triad music nerd who enjoys spotlighting artists and events.

Katei Cranford

Contributor

[SALOME’S STARS]

Week of July 15, 2024

[ARIES (March 21 to April 19) You face the possibility of raising your relationship to another level. However, your partner might demand that you make some promises, for which you’re not sure that you’re ready.

[TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) As changes continue, expect things to get a little more hectic at your workplace. An unexpected travel opportunity could open up new career prospects.

[GEMINI (May 21 to June 20)

Confront the person who caused your hurt feelings and demand a full explanation for their actions. You’ll not only recover your self-esteem, but you’ll also gain the respect of others.

[CANCER (June 21 to July 22) A personal problem in the workplace is compounded by someone’s biased interference. Stand your ground, and you’ll soon ﬁnd allies gathering around you.

[LEO (July 23 to August 22) You don’t accept disapproval easily. But instead of hiding out in your den to lick your wounded pride, turn the criticism into a valuable lesson for the future.

[VIRGO (August 23 to September 22) A former friend who you thought you’d cut out of your life is still a ecting other relationships. Counter their lies with the truth. Your true friends are ready to listen.

[LIBRA (September 23 to October 22) What appears to be an unfair situation might simply be the result of a mis-

understanding. If you feel that something is out of balance, by all means, correct it.

[SCORPIO (October 23 to November 21) A stalled relationship won’t budge until you make the ﬁrst move. Your partner o ers a surprising explanation about what got it mired down in the ﬁrst place.

[SAGITTARIUS (November 22 to December 21) A co-worker shares some startling news, but before you can use it to your advantage, make sure it’s true. The weekend favors family matters.

[CAPRICORN (December 22 to January 19) Your usual conservative approach to family situations might not work at this time. Keep an open mind about developments, and you might be pleasantly surprised.

[AQUARIUS (January 20 to February 18) Plans might have to be put on hold because of a family member’s problems. Don’t hesitate to get involved. Your help could make all the di erence.

[PISCES (February 19 to March 20) Relationships in the home and in the workplace need your careful attention during this period. Be careful not to allow misunderstandings to create problems.

[BORN THIS WEEK: You have a keen, insightful intellect and enjoy debating your views with others who disagree with you. You also love to solve puzzles — the harder, the better.

answers

[CROSSWORD]

crossword on page 9

[TRIVIA TEST]

by Fifi Rodriguez

[1. GEOGRAPHY: What is the highest peak in Europe?

[2. TELEVISION: What is the name of the town in the Netﬂix series Stranger Things?

[3. LITERATURE: What is the title of the book about a little girl who lives at The Plaza Hotel in New York City?

[4. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE: What is the traditional stone associated with the July birth month?

[5. MYTHOLOGY: Which mythical creature has snakes for hair?

[6. MOVIES: Who voices the character Joy in the animated movie “Inside Out”?

[7. ANATOMY: What is the outermost layer of skin called?

[8. INVENTIONS: Which blue medication, originally developed to lower blood pressure, had an unexpected e ect on male patients and later was used to treat erectile dysfunction?

[9. HISTORY: Who was crowned as Emperor of the Romans in 800 A.D.?

[10. U.S. PRESIDENTS: Which state has produced the most presidents by birthplace?