YES! Weekly - September 16, 2020

Triad fashion designers, models get innovative amid COVID-19 FREE The Triad’s Alternative Voice since 2005 JUSTICE FOR MARCUS

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SEPTEMBER 16-22, 2020 VOLUME 16, NUMBER 38

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5500 Adams Farm Lane Suite 204 Greensboro, NC 27407 Office 336-316-1231 Fax 336-316-1930

WINSTON-SALEM FASHION WEEK

Publisher CHARLES A. WOMACK III publisher@yesweekly.com

Nothing is stopping TRIAD FASHIONISTAS from showcasing their designs— not even the COVID-19 pandemic. To make it all happen, Winston-Salem Fashion Week CEO Nikita Wallace and her team had to get creative, which is fitting, considering Winston-Salem is the City of Arts and Innovation.

EDITORIAL Editor KATIE MURAWSKI katie@yesweekly.com Contributors IAN MCDOWELL MARK BURGER JIM LONGWORTH

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JOHN RAILEY

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Graphic Designers ALEX FARMER designer@yesweekly.com AUSTIN KINDLEY artdirector@yesweekly.com

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The italicized portions of this article are the quotations from speeches given at the JUSTICE FOR MARCUS COMMEMORATION, held in Greensboro’s Government Plaza on Sept. 8— the second anniversary of the fatal hogtying of Marcus Deon Smith by eight Greensboro police officers during the 2018 North Carolina Folk Festival.

6 The SCHOOL OF FILMMAKING at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts has added a few more accolades to an already lengthy list. The Hollywood Reporter ranked the school, based in Winston-Salem, as the the 10th best on its selection of the 25 top film schools in America – its highest ranking yet.

10 Those lyrics are from the 1960 Broadway musical Bye Bye Birdie, but given what’s happened lately, they could have been spoken

by Dr. Fauci or Dr. Birx during a recent press conference. That’s because the latest rise in COVID-19 cases is being fueled in large part by teens and YOUNG adults, and not just here in the United States. Speaking with Good Morning Britain last month, Dr. Hilary Jones said, “Outbreaks (of COVID-19) around the world are due to the actions of younger people.”

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“Just let everybody know we dying.”

That’s the message an inmate in the ALAMANCE COUNTY DETENTION CENTER who recently tested positive for COVID-19 conveyed to YES! Weekly via a Greensboro relative, along with a request not to be identified due to fear of retribution. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has reported no deaths for the Alamance Detention Center, but the Sept. 11 update of the department’s twice-weekly COVID-19 Ongoing Outbreaks in Congregate Living Settings bulletin lists 116 inmates and 10 staff members as having tested positive...

13 When a neo-Confederate counterprotester saw the University of North Carolina graduate student on the street in Graham, he began singing a Johnny Cash song with gruesome new lyrics mocking her brother’s death in a train accident.

Lindsay Ayling, who moved to an undisclosed location in the Triad after WHITE SUPREMACISTS posted her address on social media, sent YES! Weekly her video of this encounter.

ADVERTISING Marketing TRAVIS WAGEMAN travis@yesweekly.com Promotion NATALIE GARCIA

DISTRIBUTION JANICE GANTT KYLE MUNRO SHANE MERRIMAN JESSE GUERRA 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, national and international scope, and opinion grounded in reason, as well as providing the most comprehensive entertainment and arts coverage in the Triad. YES! Weekly welcomes submissions of all kinds. Efforts will be made to return those with a self-addressed stamped envelope; however YES! Weekly assumes no responsibility for unsolicited submissions. YES! Weekly is published every Wednesday by Womack Newspapers, Inc. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. First copy is free, all additional copies are $1.00. Copyright 2020 Womack Newspapers, Inc.

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CSEM-LOADED STUDENT BUSTS THE BARRIERS

BY JOHN RAILEY

Tyler Chisolm, a WinstonSalem State University senior majoring in psychology, is bright and driven. Early on, he realized the power of positive connections, or to use the more conventional term, networking.

“Until I arrived at WSSU, I didn’t know exactly what was out there,” said Chisolm, who is 21 and from the small town of Henderson. “The connections I made really made me gain a craving to help people and help communities.”

Networking has long been a bedrock of upward economic mobility, connections sometimes passed down through generations among power structures. Those connections have often not extended to minority communities. WSSU’s Center for the Study of Economic Mobility (CSEM) closes the divide between those communities and power structures through initiatives and programs it sponsors, including YouthRISE, or Youth Research in Sustaining Economics, and The Playbook for Entrepreneurial Excellence.

Tyler participated in both programs. “I really appreciate CSEM’s work,” he said.

“Economic mobility is so important. When I first got here, I could see how people were living outside campus. It was crazy. Later, as I thought about it, about equity and social justice, I definitely started to want to make a difference. Networking is key.”

Charity Griffin, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences and CSEM Research Fellow, said that “Tyler Chisolm has been a critical asset to the development and implementation of my CSEM-funded, 10-week summer program, YouthRISE. Over the past two summers, Tyler’s effort with this project included taking lead role as facilitator, working directly with youth in east Winston-Salem to empower them to become communitychange agents. Tyler has also presented findings from this work at academic conferences and to community stakeholders in local venues.”

Chisolm said he could identify with the students. “Growing up in Henderson, there weren’t a lot of job opportunities. I knew I was going to have to go to college or go in the military. Hopefully, these students can come together and form groups or organizations for economic mobility.”

He recruited a fellow student, Matthew Parker, to join in helping to facilitate the program.

Chisolm sought out guidance from GrifWWW.YESWEEKLY.COM

fin, as well as CSEM Directors Craig Richardson and Alvin Atkinson.

Networking at a resume workshop on campus, Chisolm met Dr. Antwain Goode of Tate Consulting, who told him about the Playbook program.

This past winter and spring, Chisolm participated in the program, led by Dr. Goode and Andrea Goode, and based in the Enterprise Center on Martin Luther King Drive. “What we found in Tyler Chisolm was something special,” Antwain Goode said. “We created a design that would infuse leadership into the person, which would create a hybrid leader.

Andrea Goode said: “In short, we wanted to increase their business acumen, community involvement, how to develop others throughout the organization, and help the leader measure quantitative inputs. Well, we got our hands on a dynamic person who brought to the table his passion to address community youth challenges and health education.”

Chisolm said the Goodes put their faith and trust in their students. Two of his apartment-mates, Dexter Perkins and Dustin Sellers, also participated in the program.

Through the program, Chisolm started his own business, Life Shop, LLC. It’s a popup-shop that will provide resources and techniques for people dealing with mentaland physical health problems, such as those he has seen among friends and family. Such shops are short-term sales spaces, often times to coincide with a trend or event. “I’m fascinated by how and why people behave and think,” Chisolm said.

He wants to pursue a doctorate in human factors psychology, studying interactions between people and technology for benefits such as safer cars. In graduate school, he said, he will continue his pop-up business. “I can do that anywhere,” he said.

Once his studies are done, he said, he will pursue a career in human factors psychology, or in clinical psychology or community psychology.

If the right opportunity came along, he said, he would return here to work.

Wherever he lands, he wants to make a difference. Thanks to the impact of CSEM and Dr. Griffin’s research, he now has the connections to do so. !

JOHN RAILEY, raileyjb@gmail.com, is the writer-inresidence for CSEM, www.wssu.edu/csem.

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Voices for Marcus Smith include John Neville’s daughter

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he italicized portions of this article are the quotations from speeches given at the Justice for Marcus Commemoration, held in Greensboro’s GovernIan McDowell ment Plaza on Sept.

8— the second anniversary of the fatal Contributor hogtying of Marcus Deon Smith by eight Greensboro police officers during the 2018 North Carolina Folk Festival. The event was organized by the Greensboro Justice Coalition, which includes the Beloved Community Center, Democracy Greensboro, The Good Neighbor Movement, Greensboro Rising, Guilford for All, The Homeless Union of Greensboro, and The Sunrise Movement.

Marcus Deon Smith was killed by public servants of Greensboro. We ask here and now, why do we have to wonder about the details of this man’s last moments and how they were handled? Even more importantly, what disciplinary actions were taken after his death? We as Black Americans live in a constant state of fear and anxiety.

Imagine you walk out your front door, you can’t breathe. You go the grocery store, you can’t breathe, you try to take your kids to the store, and they can’t breathe. . .. We as citizens have the duty to apply pressure to make sure this never happens again.

— AJ Morgan, The Three On Sept 8, 2018, I read a headline that said a young man passed out and died after a folk festival. Two weeks after that, I made a phone call to Marcus Deon Smith’s family.

They said ‘that’s not my son, he wouldn’t do that, he wouldn’t harm himself.’ Lo and behind, when you ask questions and they don’t answer, make sure you keep asking until you get the answer.

— Rev. Wesley Morris, Pastor of Faith Community Church and member of the Beloved Community Center of Greensboro Under no circumstances should any of us wait until it’s our baby that’s been harmed.

You come out when it’s somebody else’s baby, you come out when it’s somebody else’s son, you come out when it’s somebody else’s husband...

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SEPTEMBER 16-22, 2020

We ain’t just going to be activated, we gonna be organized. I’m gonna say this as a language alert, for you all that have a relationship with your council members, call their asses! And don’t accept anything less than I’m going to vote yes on Written Consent. Anything outside of that is an excuse, and we ain’t gonna take it.

— Kay Brown, Greensboro Rising We demand that the city settle the Marcus Smith lawsuit fairly, and stop spending $300 an hour on defense lawyers that only prolong the process and cost tax payers more and more money.

— Rev. Marlon Petty, Beloved Community Center of Greensboro We didn’t just make noise, we made things happen. We won a six-milliondollar victor with K-Mart corporation when they were the largest corporation in the nation.

— Rev. Nelson Johnson, Beloved

Community Center, on the 1995 K-Mart boycott led by eight Black Greensboro ministers that won a union contact for better wages We demand that the city apologize verbally and in writing to the Smith family and to the community for the police cover-up of the homicide of Marcus Smith, which has been aided and abetted by this city council.

— Rev. Greg Headen, Pastor Emeritus, Genesis Baptist Church They shot the beautiful young president of Bennett College between the eyes while she was trying to rescue children from the danger.

— Rev. Nelson Johnson, on the 1979 Greensboro Massacre in which five people were murdered by the Klansmen and Nazis a police informant led to the scene with the knowledge of the Greensboro Police.

We sent seven demands to the city council. We haven’t heard from them and we don’t expect to, because it’s going to take a lot of work to get those met. Therefor, in the name of Marcus Deon Smith and in the spirt of those who have had similar experiences, we demand that the city release, to the public, all personnel and disciplinary records created as a result of the internal and disciplinary investigation into the eight Greensboro Police Department officers that were present when Marcus Smith was hogtied. If those records are considered confidential personnel records, then we demand that the city council release them under the legal exception that release of these records is essential to maintain public confidence in the level and quality of police services.

— Hester Petty, Democracy Now In the name of Marcus Deon Smith, and in the spirit of all others who have had similar experiences, we demand that the

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Therefore in the name of Marcus Deon Smith, and the spirt of all others that have had similar experiences, we demand that the city adopt the policy written by the Greensboro Criminal Justice Advisory Commission that requires the police to get signed permission before conducting a search without a warrant. Your city council will be voting on this next Tuesday. They will be voting on whether or not the police must get your signed consent before they

IAN MCDOWELL is the author of two published novels, numerous anthologized short stories, and a whole lot of nonfiction and journalism, some of which he’s proud of and none of which he’s ashamed of.

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My father, John Neville— say his name— lost his life in a jail cell in Winston- Salem due to negligence because, as a Black man, his life had little to no value in comparison to those officers’ time. They held him face down in a prone restraint or hogtie-like position as he screamed for his death mother. For eight minutes and 46 seconds, an officer held his knee on George Floyd’s neck as he begged and screamed for his dead mother. Say his name! Marcus Smith was held face-down and restrained in a hog-tie position in our city’s own streets until he had no breath in his body to even beg for his life, and I’ll bet he wanted his mother, too...

Tell them they better try Jesus, not me, because we are not our ancestors. We fight back.

— Brienne Neville, daughter of John Neville !

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WINSTON-SALEM

coverage for the election, get out and vote for city council.

— Casey Thomas, Greensboro Rising & Guilford For All

OIC

GREENSBORO

3927 Battleground Ave / (336) 288-1515 2116 Lawndale Drive / (336) 370-0800 3607 Groometown Road / (336) 316-1111 918 Summit Ave / (336) 274-3638 1218G Bridford Pkwy / (336) 292-2425 5607 W Friendly Ave Suite A / (336) 299-1772

search you without a warrant, they will be voting on whether or not the police have the right to just intimidate you into saying yes, and have that only recorded on video that none of us will be able to see. 82% of the people from Greensboro who are searched in these types of searches are Black. 82%. Four out of every five. So next week, we are hoping that our city council will pass actual policy change, that does not have loopholes for the police, that allows them to say, oh, it was too hard for me to get my pen, I’m not going to make you sign this right now, just take my word on camera. We want actual written consent.

And so, we are demanding that city council make sure they pass a strong motion, not whatever weak-sauce happens to be run up the flagpole. Over 500 people have written the city council to demand as much. We have not gotten a response on if they intend to pass this as GCJAC, the Greensboro Criminal Justice Advisory Commission, proposes, or if they will make a weak loophole to try to appease a police union that will be against them if they do anything in our interest at all regardless.

So, we are asking that you pressure the city council to come out in favor of strong reform for written consent, and remember, in 2021, when we don’t have national

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We just wrapped up a week ago a 49day occupation in Winston-Salem, where we were able to get the Forsyth County Sheriff ’s Office to ban the bent-leg prone restraint, which is the maneuver that killed Mr. Neville, Brie’s father. I’m here to remind y’all that organizing works. Making our voices heard, convening in this way, letting the city know that our eyes on you, that works. I was also the first protester in Winston to get arrested.

Winston was fine when we were protesting what happened in Louisville, what happened in Minneapolis, what happened in Atlanta, they were fine. But the day we started protesting around something that happened in our city and our council and shining the light on what our officials had covered up, our police and sheriff ’s office had covered up, the arrests started.

So, they targeted me as an activist, they dragged me off the sidewalk, not one but two police officers, my wrists was injured, an injury I’m still going to physical therapy for two months after the event, I was charged with impeding traffic, which

is an historical charge they use to target freedom fights. So, you know what all that tells me? We were doing what we needed to do. Since July 8, the Winston-Salem police department has made 55 arrests of protests demanding justice for Mr. Neville.

But you know what? We don’t care.

We’re not scared. We’re not silent. We’re going to continue to do this work, because it works, y’all, we won. We got that policy changed and made our county a little bit safer. But we know it’s a long process, right? It’s going to be exhausting, it’s going to be a lot of sacrifices, there’s blood, sweat and tears in this work, but we have to do this work, because we don’t need to be out here again six months from now, six years from now, saying another name.

— Brittany Battle, The Triad Abolition Project

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city introduce an ordinance that bans hogtying and limited the excessive use of force.

— Bailey Pittenger, The Triad Abolition Project

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SEPTEMBER 16-22, 2020

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UNCSA School of Filmmaking: Among the very best

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he School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts has added a few more accolades to an already lengthy list.

Mark Burger The Hollywood Reporter ranked the school, based Contributor in Winston-Salem, as the the 10th best on its selection of the 25 top film schools in America – its highest ranking yet. In addition, MovieMaker Magazine rated the School of Filmmaking 39th in its selection of the best films schools in the United States and Canada.

The Hollywood Reporter noted that the School of Filmmaking “is on the cutting edge of technology, launching an immersive storytelling residency in

its technology lab last fall, and that its predominantly female freshman class for the 2019-2020 academic year creates a direct pipeline for women to enter the entertainment industry as trained professionals.

MovieMaker emphasized that UNCSA’s Creative Producing MFA program “may be perfect for those seeking to specialize in the logistics of moviemaking without sacrificing their artistic instincts,” as well as the 2019-2020 female freshman class and the recent launch of the school’s Media and Emerging Technology Lab. “Publications like The Hollywood Reporter and MovieMaker have their fingers on the pulse of the industry,” observed Henry Grillo, the School of Filmmaking’s interim dean. “We are pleased they have recognized our thriving alumni and the excellence of our program, which is built on world-class faculty who prepare students for success.”

The official UNCSA website is www. uncsa.edu/. !

In Saturn’s Rings makes virtual premiere

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e made films before, he made films since, and he even made films during, but Inside Saturn’s Rings could be described as Greensboro-based filmmaker Stephen van Vuuren’s magnum opus, a dazzling chronicle of the CassiniHuygens research mission, which marked the most extensive research of the planet Saturn to date – and which took van Vuuren over 15 years to complete.

The documentary, narrated by awardwinning actor LeVar Burton, made its premiere in 2018 and became an instant sensation, hailed by audiences and critics alike. The film enjoyed further acclaim when it was screened at the 2019 RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem.

This Friday, viewers who have not yet experienced In Saturn’s Rings or wish to do so again can purchase tickets for a virtual screening that will take place at 2 p.m. Tickets are $17.75 and can be purchased at www.insaturnsrings.com/ post/film-streaming-live.

Van Vuuren admitted it’s difficult for him to watch the film with absolute objectivity. “It’s impossible to summarize a film that has taken 15-plus years, worked on by hundreds of volunteers, consumed nearly a petabyte of data, and nearly 40 million files,” he said. “For me, the film has become its own entity. My own feelings are complex: It’s profoundly changed – for the better – several key people who worked on it, has been seen on the giant screen by over 100,000 people to date, and it appears to currently be one of the highest-ranked films in its genre (giant-screen short documentary) on IMDB.” Much as his impetus for making the film was to bring more attention to the Cassini-Huygens mission, his inspiration to present virtual screenings of Inside Saturn’s Rings had a personal element.

“Key family members and friends have never seen it at all, and now with COVID-19, the older and more infirm ones may never see it,” he said. “The film’s distributor is very small and the post-COVID world for giant-screen and planetarium films is very unknown. I simply don’t know how it will fare in years to come.”

The screening will be preceded by the filmmaker’s introduction, and will be followed by a Q&A session with several of the key personnel instrumental in making the film, including van Vuuren, producers Bill Eberly and Jason Harwell, key adviser and technical consultant Mike Malaska, key science adviser Dr. Steve Danford, key educational lead and consultant Tim Martin, and composer Pieter Schlosser. (Additional participants may be added closer to the screening.)

Actually, van Vuuren admitted, “I am still working on this. We are rendering a “native full-dome” version which means going through every shot in the current “giant-screen format” and re-composing, re-animating, and re-rendering for the 360-degree full-dome at 8K resolution at 30 frames per second. We expect to have the full-dome finished by the end of this year but (we’re) not sure if it will have a theatrical world to open to.”

Regarding other future projects, “I do have scripts and shorts for films beyond In Saturn’s Rings underway, but COVID-19 had also shelved those,” he lamented.

For more information, visit the official website, www.insaturnsrings.com/. !

See MARK BURGER’s reviews of current movies on Burgervideo.com. © 2020, Mark Burger.

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SEPTEMBER 16-22, 2020

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voices

Young people are sustaining COVID-19

“

Kids. I don’t understand what’s wrong with these kids today. Kids.

Who can understand anything they say?

Kids. You can talk and talk ‘till your face is blue, but they still do Jim Longworth just what they want to do.”

Longworth Those lyrics are from the 1960 Broadat Large way musical Bye Bye Birdie, but given what’s happened lately, they could have been spoken by Dr. Fauci or Dr. Birx during a recent press conference. That’s because the latest rise in COVID-19 cases is being fueled in large part by teens and young adults, and not just here in the United States. Speaking with Good Morning Britain last month, Dr. Hilary Jones said, “Outbreaks (of COVID-19) around the world are due to the actions of younger people.”

Some of those “actions” that Dr. Jones referred to include an increase in large gatherings attended by young people. In late July, for example, the upper crust town of Greenwich, Connecticut, reported 19 new COVID cases following a rash of parties attended by high school and college kids.

In mid-August, hundreds of freshmen at Syracuse University partied in the Quad without masks. A similar event occurred at Penn State, resulting in a suspension of the entire Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. Same thing at Purdue, University of Alabama, Oklahoma State, and many other colleges.

And who can forget the party-house in Jackson Township, New Jersey, where police were called in to disperse over 700 young adults who were packed in like sardines, sans masks. A similar situation arose last month in Los Angeles where a Hollywood Hills home became party central to scores of youngsters. When warnings fell on deaf ears, Mayor Eric Garcetti took drastic action, which he announced in a press release.

“Despite several warnings, this house has turned into a nightclub in the hills, hosting large gathering in flagrant violation of our public health orders. The City has now disconnected utilities at this home to stop these parties that endanger our community.” Mayor Garcetti is to be commended for thinking outside the box, but he shouldn’t have had to. Anyone over 18 is supposed to know right from wrong. They’re supposed to know not to have unprotected sex, but they do. They’re supposed to know not to WWW.YESWEEKLY.COM

engage in Tide-pod eating contests, but they do. They’re supposed to know not to drive drunk, but they do. So it should come as no surprise that a growing number of young people are gathering in large crowds without masks, and without social distancing themselves from others. The question is, Why do young people put themselves and others at risk? Dr. Prabhat Jha, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto proffers an answer. “Some experts have pointed to a feeling of invincibility about the virus (and lockdown fatigue) as reasons for their behavior.” Dr. Jones agrees, telling Good Morning Britain, “Younger people are saying, ‘We don’t feel we’re vulnerable, so we’ll go out to socials, gatherings, pubs and restaurants, and we’re not so concerned.”

A sense of invincibility is inherent in most youth, but President Trump didn’t help things when, early on, he claimed that COVID-19 would not affect young people.

We now know differently. Last month, the Centers for Disease Control announced that people in their 20s are contracting COVID-19 at higher rates than the at-risk elderly, and warned that young adults who contract the virus are experiencing longterm side effects.

Fortunately, many public school superintendents, and college presidents are now taking an aggressive stance to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among students. Over 65% of K-12 students in North Carolina started the semester at home, learning remotely, and, later, schools like North Carolina State and UNC-Chapel Hill reversed their original decision to hold in-person classes. UNCG, meanwhile is going a step further, having University police strictly enforce the Governor’s orders at large gatherings even if they’re held off campus. Such warnings and enforcement among college administrators is growing all too common.

“If you don’t abide by the rules, there’s no place for you here,” said Purdue Vice Provost Katie Sermersheim. And, Mike Hainey, Vice Chancellor at Syracuse University implored students, “Be better. Be adults. Think of someone other than yourself.”

Some medical professionals believe that if we would all just wear a mask and practice social distancing for three straight weeks, we could halt the spread of COVID-19. Who knows? Maybe our young people will follow that advice, but I’m not holding my breath. Although that might be a solution too. !

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[BARTENDERS OF THE WEEK | BY NATALIE GARCIA] Check out videos on our Facebook!

BARTENDER: Jamari Johns BAR: Box Office Kitchen and Cocktails AGE: 28 WHERE ARE YOU FROM? Savannah, Georgia

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY ABOUT BARTENDING? A few things I enjoy the most about bartending is the art of mixology, traveling to work festivals/concerts, and people interaction. Combining ingredients to make a cocktail that is strong, however, you cannot taste the separation of ingredients because of how well it is mixed. I enjoy the different conversations held from the different people I meet at the bar.

Having versatility and being able to find at least one thing in common with a bar guest make the experience a lot better. I travel across the country to work festivals like rapper J. Cole’s “Dreamville” festival, Pharell’s “Something in the Water” festival, and the “U.S Open” golf tournament.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE DRINK TO MAKE? My favorite drink to make is “Pink Panther”. It is our very first signature drink on our menu at Box Office.

It consists of a berry flavored vodka, cherry syrup, and some fruity juices topped with a lemon lime soda.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE DRINK TO DRINK? My favorite drink to drink is Cognac.

I enjoy mixing drinks; however, I prefer to drink a smooth tasting cognac alone.

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SEPTEMBER 16-22, 2020

WAIT, WHAT?

Cynthia Lynn Teeple, 47, of Jacksboro, Tennessee, was charged with public intoxication after Campbell County Sheriff’s deputies found her topless in a LaFollette backyard Chuck Shepherd with two miniature horses on Aug. 30, according to authorities. WLAF reported the homeowner told deputies Teeple had been eating grass and dirt from the horse enclosure, and also chewed on one of the horses’ manes. Teeple then volunteered that “the horse’s hair is made of Laffy Taffy and Airhead candy,” according to the arrest report, and admitted she had taken methamphetamine the day before.

BRIGHT IDEAS

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BARTENDING? Five years HOW DID YOU BECOME A BARTENDER? I started bartending at Olive Garden. I did private trainings with the bar trainer and she put it a good word for me to join the team. I started off practicing with non-alcoholic beverages before I started playing with the alcohol drinks.

leisure [NEWS OF THE WEIRD]

WHAT WOULD YOU RECOMMEND AS AN AFTER-DINNER DRINK? I would recommend our “Key Lime Pie Martini” as an after-dinner drink. It is a vanilla vodka infused with lime juice and pineapple juice. It has a honey graham cracker rim as well so each sip will remind you of eating a homemade pie. This is a great finish because it is a little more on the sweeter side so it will satisfy your dessert craving.

WHAT’S THE CRAZIEST THING YOU’VE SEEN WHILE BARTENDING? The craziest thing I’ve seen while bartending is someone wanting to hold you back from your next goal. I’ve worked in some places where they would block progression and only want you to work for them.

The bartending market offers so much, and I think everyone deserves the opportunity for the next best thing in their life.

WHAT’S THE BEST TIP YOU’VE EVER GOTTEN? The biggest/best tip I have gotten was from an NBA player — he tipped me $150 for a bottle of water.

— In Botswana, cattle are left to graze and roam during the day, but that makes them vulnerable to attacks by lions, leopards and other carnivores, so two conservation biologists from the University of New South Wales in Australia have come up with an idea to allow both cattle and cats to co-exist, NPR reported. Because big cats hunt using the element of surprise, the biologists came up with a way to make the predators believe they’d been seen by their prey and then abandon the hunt.

“We tested this by painting one-third of a cattle herd with artificial eye spots (on their backsides),” explained Cameron Radford, and over four years, “none of the cows that we painted with artificial eye spots were killed by ambush predators.”

Village chiefs and native farmers “look forward to us coming back and painting more eyes on bums,” Radford said.

— Conducting choir practice indoors was out of the question for Mark Potvin, instructor of music at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, given the school’s COVID-19 protocols, and finding a space outside posed a challenge until, “I was driving past the city pool,” Potvin told KCRG, and “noticed they were draining the pool.” Officials at Decorah Park and Rec gave their blessing, and now choir members rehearse while standing in the empty pool, socially distanced and masked. Luther College has five choirs and one of the nation’s largest collegiate music programs.

LEAST COMPETENT CRIMINALS

— John Travis Ross, 33, and Joshua Ray Corban, 18, were charged with conspiracy and attempting to smuggle contraband into the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl, Mississippi, after a drone

they used as a delivery device became tangled in a net above the prison fence, according to a Department of Corrections statement. The Associated Press reported the drone was caught on Aug. 26 and carried 2 ounces of marijuana, a cellphone, cigarette lighters, phone chargers and headphones, corrections commissioner Burl Cain said. Investigators were able to trace the drone’s flight and discovered security video showing the men launching it. Cain said officials plan to reprogram the drone and use it at the state’s maximumsecurity prison in Parchman.

— Three teenage girls in Clinton, Connecticut, have been arrested and charged with stealing a duck after photos of them surfaced on social media, according to police. WTNH reported the girls took a duck named Quackers out of a pen in mid-August at the Grove Garden Center Nursery, where it was recovering from a raccoon attack, and posted photos of themselves with Quackers at the town beach and a house party. The girls were charged with larceny and trespassing. Quackers is still missing.

SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED

Brittany Keech of Belding, Michigan, got an unexpected bit of news with her mail on Sept. 8. “Sitting right on top of the mail,” she told WXMI, was a postcard dated 100 years ago — Oct. 29, 1920.

“Yeah, that’s a little too slow,” Keech said. The Halloween greeting from young Flossie Burgess was addressed to her cousins: “I just finished my history lesson and am going to bed pretty soon.” A USPS spokesperson said, “In most cases ... old letters and postcards — sometimes purchased at flea markets, antique shops and even online — are re-entered into our system ... (and) as long as there is a deliverable address and postage, the card or letter gets delivered.”

OBSESSIONS

Akiko Obata, who lives in Chiba Prefecture in Japan, holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of Sampuru, the fake food restaurants use to promote their offerings. Sampuru is an important part of Japanese food culture, according to Oddity Central, and after 15 years of collecting, Obata now has more than 8,000 individual items filling an entire room in her house. “Replicas are not real food, but I truly respect how each of them are made to look so real,” Obata said. !

© 2020 Chuck Shepherd. Universal Press Syndicate.

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

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[KING Crossword]

[weeKly sudoKu]

COUNTY EXTENSION

ACROSS 1 6 9 12 15 18 19 21 23 25 26 27 28 29 31

35 38 40 41 42 44 47 48 51 55 60 61 62 64 65 66 68 69 70 75 77 78

Singer Judd 1960s war zone Old Glory’s country Morse click For each City-related He played Lou Grant Haifa native “Alfie” singer Boasted of Idyllic spot City east of Syracuse Not inert See 71-Down Longtime porcelain brand Hitter Ripken Fish-fowl link Some linens Desires Typeface option Gave birth to Put — show Outer: Prefix City on the eastern shore of Lake Erie Pouch near a kettle Aid in crime Mix up “It’s my guess ...”

Workshop Ending for opal “Quantico” network Overwhelm Be inviting to Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Belt holders They often show DOBs — chi

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79 80 83 85 87 88 89

94 96 97 98 99 103

106 108 109 114 116 117 119 123

124 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135

Not-so-great grade Greek “H” Zagreb native Part of a flight of steps Aesir god Walk shakily Follower of James Buchanan Energize, with “up” Dawn deity You, in Germany Piano exercise Optimal Provide with a new outfit Not-so-great grade La. neighbor Laurel and Hardy film “Woof!”

Effective use of language Lascivious guys Cuba’s Castro Spanish dances in 3/4 time Race held every May Let go “Being Julia” star Bening Diglyceride, e.g.

Some inserts Steered Topiary tree Suffix with shepherd English county (it can be added to the ends of this puzzle’s seven longest answers)

DOWN 1 2 3

Unclad Bone-dry Certain woodwind

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 20 22 24 28 30

32 33 34 35 36 37 39 43 45 46 49 50 52 53 54 56 57 58 59 63 65 67

Divine food B&B, e.g.

Pond dweller “Robin —” (Irish ballad) Senator Rubio Bi- less one Min. division La. neighbor Very varying Designer Mizrahi Fight stopper Pint-size Nine and two Bill add-ons Vacillates Restless Irish money Decompose “To Live and Die —” (1985 film) Sailor’s call Joker Jay Put on Plotters’ plot Caribbean island Vital factor Zimbabwe, before 1979 Astern Plus Postpones Hub: Abbr.

Grow incisors, e.g.

Nation Jack of “Dragnet” Fuzzy fruit Voyaging Feeling blue Energize, with “up” Figure out Written with a #2, say Foot arch Loin or chop

68 71

72 73 74 75 76 81 82 84 86 87 90 91

92 93 95 99 100 101 102 104

105 107 110 111 112 113 115 118 120

121 122 124 125 126 127

Watchdog breeds With 29-Across, new Apple product of 2013 Author O’Brien Coins or bills Pop singer Halliwell PC monitor type Jorge’s gold Diacritical squiggle Attach Great anger Friend in France Mo. #10 Paul Anka’s “Eso —” Butter-and-flour mixture “Dream on!”

— -do-well Glorified Diva Streisand Resounded Turtles’ tops Private pupil “That kinda thing”: Abbr.

Rich cake “Piece of cake!”

Virtuous It isn’t poetry Travel plan Body tubes Smart-alecky Barely earns, with “out” Intro painting class, maybe Rival of Lyft Old stringed instrument Singer Starr Suffix with ethyl Florida-to-Indiana dir.

Moines lead-in

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The show must go on Winston-Salem Fashion Week returns to slay the virtual runway

N

othing is stopping Triad fashionistas from showcasing their designs— not even the COVID-19 pandemic. To make it all happen, Katie Murawski Winston-Salem Fashion Week CEO Nikita Wallace and Editor her team had to get creative, which is fitting, considering Winston-Salem is the City of Arts and Innovation.

Winston-Salem Fashion Week is a two-day showcase taking place virtually on Sept. 25-26 and is presented by Goodwill Industries of Northwest North Carolina and the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art. According to the press release, WSFW is a “multicultural community event that is devoted to providing a forum for emerging and existing designers, new and existing boutiques, and artists to

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grow. Showcases provide designers a broad audience of investors, bloggers, fashion influencers and the general community.”

This year features seven designers, which is about half of WSFW’s usual designer pool; however, it’s just the right amount for a digital show, Wallace said.

Coming from across the state are two emerging designers and five designers participating in Goodwill’s “Diva, Dapper on a Dime” showcase.

According to the press release, the concept of the program is that designers receive a gift card to shop and complete a collection with the items found from the Goodwill store.

The emerging designers include Karla Davis of Peculiar Attire and Ariona Brewster of Tinks Couture.

“This is her third year— her second year doing a full collection— she was with LEAD Girls the first year,” Wallace said of 17-year-old Brewster. “She has a bright future ahead of her.”

The “Diva, Dapper on a Dime” designers include Melissa Coleman(@sweetmelissarocks), Alysha Williams (@theranista), Antonina Whaples (@whaplesantonina),

Designers and models from Winston-Salem Fashion Week 2019

Zaenab Mabifa (@earthsignzaja), and Jade Yearby (@jades_gemz).

Initially, Wallace said planning WSFW amid the COVID-19 pandemic was challenging. After meeting in March, Wallace said her team had hope that the pandemic would be under control by September.

But as time went on, Wallace said it started to look like WSFW was not going to happen. That is when she started

doing some research to see what other cities’ Fashion Weeks were doing, such as Charlotte, New York, London and Paris during these unprecedented times. Thus, virtual showcases seemed to be the solution.

“We had some great ideas and some things we could do to still maintain and stay in the quantity regulation of gatherings, and we were excited about that. But we had to put that on hold—

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like we couldn’t have the reception in their garden area, so that was one of the downsides,” Wallace said. “The bright side, for me, is that we were able to come up with an innovative way to still present a wonderful showcase digitally.”

Of this year’s theme for WSFW, Wallace said: “It is pretty much what’s going on — people feeling what’s happening today in society.”

She said that masks, of course, would be incorporated into looks and added that some designers have also included tasteful political messages into their designs.

Something new to WSFW is the Project RunSlay Competition, which focuses on sustainable and upcycled fashion.

According to the release, the results have

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been narrowed down to three finalists — Cassie Hubbard of Charlotte, Jewel Moser of Greensboro, and Christopher Bailey of Los Angeles—and the winner would be announced after the guest judges’ critiques. Another new element of WSFW this year is a virtual conference that will feature “breakout sessions for those looking to enhance their business knowledge of the fashion and beauty industry.”

According to the release, there are eight workshops scheduled that would be facilitated by professionals from across the fashion industry nationwide.

More information about the conference, its presenters and designers will be rolling out on the WSFW website a week before the event, so stay tuned for more details.

“It is going to be very interactive,” Wallace said of this year’s virtual WSFW Showcase. “I have attended a few, and I have enjoyed just sitting and listening and being a part of it in my own living room by interacting with other professionals, viewing showcases, and listening to speakers, as it relates to fashion.”

“That is the experience that we want to create— that you are interacting and having a good time,” she added. “It’s been a challenge piecing it together, but we are so excited about it.” !

KATIE MURAWSKI is the editor-in-chief of YES! Weekly. Her alter egos include The Grimberlyn Reaper, skater/public relations board chair for Greensboro Roller Derby, and Roy Fahrenheit, drag entertainer and selfproclaimed King of Glamp.

WANNA

go?

On Sept. 18, from 7 to 8 p.m., Winston-Salem makerspace, Mixxer, is hosting ConnExxpo: FashionExxpo, a panel discussion with entrepreneurs featuring WSFW’s Nikita Wallace and artist/ designer Antonina Whaples. Visit EventBrite for more information and to buy tickets to attend.

Winston-Salem Fashion Week is Sept. 25-26, and tickets range from $15 to $30. For more information, a complete list of events, or tickets, visit www.wsfashionweek.com. VIP access is available to interact with designers and send us their best red carpet look with the hashtag #WSFWRED2020.

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Sharp contrast in COVID-19 at county jails NCDHHS reports 123 Alamance cases, versus 5 for Guilford, 0 for Forsyth *Editor’s note: This article was originally published online on Sept. 9. It was updated on Sept. 14 with additional information about ICE and the number of total cases.

“Just let everybody know we dying.”

Ian McDowell That’s the message an inmate in the Alamance County Contributor Detention Center who recently tested positive for COVID-19 conveyed to YES! Weekly via a Greensboro relative, along with a request not to be identified due to fear of retribution.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has reported no deaths for the Alamance Detention Center, but the Sept. 11 update of the department’s twice-weekly COVID-19 Ongoing Outbreaks in Congregate Living Settings bulletin lists 116 inmates and 10 staff members as having tested positive— 23 more inmates and four more staff than were reported on Sept. 1.

The bulletin lists five current cases at the Guilford County Detention Center in Greensboro, all of whom are staff, and no current cases among inmates or staff at the High Point Detention Center or the Sheriff’s Prison Farm. It lists no current cases at the Forsyth County Detention Center.

In response to YES! Weekly’s inquiry about what precautions are being implemented to prevent outbreaks at the Forsyth Detention Center, Christine Howell, Public Affairs Officer for the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, sent the following statement from Dr. Christopher Ohl, professor of infectious diseases at the Wake Forest School of Medicine.

“The Forsyth County Detention Center has a robust and well thought out testing and quarantine process for all incoming detainees. There will be COVID positive detainees brought into the Detention Center; these cases are identified and isolated appropriately. All new detainees are quarantined for fourteen (14) days as an additional precaution. The Forsyth County Detention Center is being regarded by the Department of Health and Human Services consultants as a model for how to prevent cases and integrate best practices during this pandemic.”

Along with quoting Dr. Ohl, Officer Howell wrote that all staff are checked daily for symptoms and fever; all newly admitted inYES! WEEKLY

SEPTEMBER 16-22, 2020

mates are interviewed by the center’s contracted medical services provider regarding exposure to and symptoms of COVID-19; all staff that interact with new inmates wear N95 respirators; all detention and contract staff wear surgical masks while interacting with inmates; and staff wear masks when they cannot practice social distancing while interacting with coworkers.

Howell said current inmates at the detention center have received surgical masks to wear, and each housing unit has foaming hand sanitizer readily available to residents.

Guilford County Sheriff’s Attorney Jim Secor described similar measures at the Greensboro and High Point jails. Secor said new inmates are quarantined for 14 days— all employees, attorneys and vendors are given daily temperature checks; masks are provided to all inmates; all detention officers are required to wear masks while on duty; and all employees are encouraged to practice social distancing whenever practical.

Secor stated “we recently tested all Detention Officers for COVID-19 using nasal swabs and a laboratory analysis,” and on Sept. 2, “we began testing Inmates for COVID-19 using nasal swabs and a laboratory analysis.”

Last week, Alamance County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Byron Tucker told YES! Weekly that he is out of the office until Sept. 8, and referred inquiries to Community Engagement and Diversity Coordinator Michelle Mills. On Wednesday, Mills wrote the following to YES! Weekly’s Maggie Blunk.

“Since March, the Sheriff’s Office has followed specific COVID safety measures.

Some of these include: increased cleaning and sanitizing (which is in addition to the state and federal guidelines that are extremely high) and implementation of COVID screening for arrestees. All arrestees have been screened for COVID by ACSO medical staff before being allowed inside the detention center. Anyone with symptoms would be taken to Cone Health for testing and further screening. If returned, jail staff would follow all recommendations from Cone Health regarding the individual.”

Mills stated that the first COVID-19 case in the detention center was identified Aug. 24. To Blunk’s question as to what additional protocols have been put in place since, Mills responded: “This process has not changed as arrestees will continue to be screened, but moving forward, medical staff with support from the Health Department, will test all

inmates and detainees who will be quarantined until their results are received. There were also numerous internal precautions that were implemented. Some of them include: limiting the number of visitors inside the Sheriff’s Office lobby, staggering of administration staff, and distributing PPE. The Health Department is also conducting ongoing testing each week, contact training, and surveillance for both inmates and staff for the foreseeable future. Anyone who tests positive is in quarantine until released by the Health Department.”

Relatives of multiple inmates the Alamance County Detention Center have expressed concern about conditions there, alleging that no “hygiene kits” or even hand sanitizer bottles have been distributed, that their family members held there have not received new toothbrushes for weeks, that new inmates are not being quarantined and that guards rarely wear masks.

YES! Weekly has been investigating the allegations about the Alamance County Detention Center, as well as allegations by a Forsyth County Detention Center inmate that his roommate was only put into isolation for eight days after testing positive.

In late June, photos circulated on social media of what appeared to be a uniformed Forsyth County deputy without a mask inside a Sheetz, in which all other customers were wearing face coverings. This writer has repeatedly observed similar behavior from Alamance County Sheriff’s Department officers on the streets of downtown Graham.

As previously reported, when an activist asked the controversial Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson why he wasn’t wearing a mask at a neo-Confederate counterprotest, he replied that she was “breaking the law” by being a member of Antifa, and stood by laughing as she was threatened by two unmasked neo-Confederates, one of whom shouted directly in her face.

Another activist, Ashley Reed, told YES! Weekly that, when she was arrested at a Graham protest on Aug. 15, “the only person at the jail who had on a mask was the nurse.” Reed said that Graham Police Lt. Duane Flood, who handcuffed her while waiting for the patrol car, refused to put on a mask even after she asked him to, although he “pulled two out of his pocket to show me had them.”

Reed also alleged that Officer Newsome, who drove her to the jail in his patrol car, only put on a mask after she said she wouldn’t get in it unless he did. “You could tell he wasn’t pleased, but he did it.”

Reed also alleged that the Magistrate

wore no mask. “We did transfer papers and a pen to each other, and there was no hand sanitizer anywhere. The cop’s safety is to important I had to stand there and remove my necklace, my nose ring, my belly button ring. I was fine with that, but they wouldn’t even put on a mask for me.”

On Sept. 8, there was a protest at the Alamance County Commissioners meeting about the COVID-19 outbreak at the detention center and the alleged refusal by county and city law enforcement and detention officers to wear masks.

When protesters stepped into the jail parking lot next door to the government building, Sheriff Johnson and his deputies quickly arrested four of them. As is his usual practice, Johnson did not wear a mask, even when personally arresting several masked protesters.

According to the Burlington Times-News, three protesters were arrested for being in the street and parking lot (both public spaces), and a fourth for “cursing.” Protesters allege that Johnson regularly arrests them for doing that, while ignoring or even laughing at obscenities uttered by neoConfederates.

“He didn’t lock us up,” said one arrested protester. “Just exposes us to a deadly virus and releases us back into the world.”

Alamance County’s Detention Center is the only jail in North Carolina that, under a special service agreement, can temporarily house migrant detainees on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to Siembra NC director Andrew Willis Garcés, it “has become the ICE processing center of North Carolina.”

On Sept. 9, North Carolina Health News reported that “At least one death can be traced to a transfer from Alamance to another detention center with an ongoing outbreak.” The death was that of Jose Guillén-Vega, a 70-year-old detainee from Costa Rica, who was held in the Alamance County Center before ICE moved him on July 15.

Guillén-Vega was sent to Stewart Detention Center in rural Georgia, a for-profit facility with 323 cases. He was awaiting deportation after serving time on a felony conviction when he was picked up by ICE in North Carolina. He contracted the virus during his travels in the detention system and died on Aug. 10. !

IAN MCDOWELL is the author of two published novels, numerous anthologized short stories, and a whole lot of nonfiction and journalism, some of which he’s proud of and none of which he’s ashamed of.

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Death threats and train whistles: White supremacists harass Triad woman When an alleged neo-Confederate counter-protester saw a University of North Carolina graduate student on the street in Graham, he began singing a Johnny Cash song with gruesome new Ian McDowell lyrics mocking her brother’s death in a train accident.

Contributor Lindsay Ayling, who moved to an undisclosed location in the Triad after white supremacists doxxed her, sent YES! Weekly her video of this encounter. (She identified the man in it as Robbie Butler. This writer, who has witnessed Butler yelling insults at anti-racist demonstrators, also recognized him from the video.) Elon University professor Tony Crider, who researches neo-Confederates (and has been assaulted by them), stated that the man in the video is “definitely Butler.”

Butler has not responded to YES! Weekly’s multiple requests for comment.

In late August, I sent multiple messages and emails to people who had been filmed mocking Ayling’s family tragedy on social media, seeking an understanding of their motives. Almost immediately, screenshots of my queries were circulated on Facebook and Twitter by neo-Confederates, who called me “a communist brown shirt journalist” and warned their fellow “patriots” not to reply to me.

Neo-Confederates and white supremacists across the nation weaponized the death of Ayling’s brother after details of it were posted by self-styled “Antifa hunter” and convicted cyberstalker, 32-year-old Daniel McMahon.

As the Washington Post and other national outlets reported at the beginning of September, McMahon —operating out of his parents’ home in Brandon, Florida— was sentenced to three years and five months in federal prison for intimidation and interference with a Georgia candidate for elected office. In September 2019, the Tampa Bay News, which interviewed Ayling about McMahon’s harassment of her and other female activists, reported that McMahon was a “close online ally” of Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers.

“Jack Corbin,” “Pale Horse” and “Defend Silent Sam” were pseudonyms used by McMahon in his social media harassment of Ayling and other North Carolina activists. Under those names, he told members WWW.YESWEEKLY.COM

PHOTO BY AND COURTESY OF TONY CRIDER

Alleged photo of Robbie Butler flashing the “white power” sign to the camera of such organizations like League of the South, Alamance County Taking Back Alamance County, the Proud Boys, and Heirs to the Confederacy not only how Ayling’s brother had died, but that she was “head of Antifa in North Carolina.” Ayling said that McMahon’s followers made death and rape threats, shared her personal information in their social media posts and shouted it over megaphones at rallies and counter-protests in Chapel Hill, WinstonSalem, Pittsboro, Salisbury and Graham.

One person who may have been influenced by McMahon’s false claim that Ayling is a “head of Antifa” is Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson.

As previously reported, when Ayling approached Johnson in downtown Graham last month and asked why he wasn’t wearing a mask, Johnson replied: “You’re breaking the law” and “we know you’re with Antifa,” then laughed while unmasked neo-Confederates threatened Ayling and shouted directly in her face.

(The video of this encounter was later shared by Newsweek.)

“I did not know for sure that Terry Johnson knew who I was until he said ‘we know you’re with Antifa,’” wrote Ayling in an August email. She said she’d previously encountered Johnson at the Alamance March for Justice rally in Graham, at which Johnson personally arrested a Black activist for “language,” an event she captured on video.

“I tweeted that I would send the video to the activists’ lawyers. It is possible Johnson got my name from surveilling social media and seeing my tweets about that rally (though, of course, I never wrote that I was ‘with Antifa’). It is also possible he got my name from the racists.”

Ayling stated that another neo-Confederate, who made public posts from a Facebook account with the name “Lynne Smith,” has claimed to have sent daily emails about Ayling to local law enforcement.

“She has been posting about me obsessively, doxxing my dead grandfather, and posting photos of my siblings when they were under 18. She is currently using a photo of my chest as her profile picture, and she posted the address of the UNC History Department to a Confederate Facebook page along with a screenshot of my page on the History Department website.”

Several other activists told YES! Weekly they believe the “Lynne Smith” account belongs to a female neo-Confederate counter-protester who used to post under her real name. These activists shared their email correspondence with the Human Resources department of that person’s employer, in which they presented evidence suggesting that “Lynne Smith” and the employee were the same people. Shortly after they contacted the employer, the “Lynne Smith” account disappeared, but the last time I saw it, every single profile picture was of Ayling, and dozens of vitriolic posts were addressed to “Lindsay.”

How did Ayling become one of McMahon’s targets, and what caused him to not only be particularly obsessed with her but to pass that obsession on to his local followers?

Before becoming a graduate student and teaching assistant at UNC, Ayling was a Senior Writer in the White House Office of Presidential Correspondence.

“I had worked on the Obama campaign while I was in college, and later took a full-time job in the Correspondence Office while I finished my undergraduate degree as a part-time student at George Washington University.”

In Chapel Hill, Ayling began taking part in protests against “Silent Sam” and other Confederate monuments after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.

“I saw videos of anti-racists getting attacked by Nazis during the torch march.

I admired their bravery and was outraged that anti-racists would ever be outnumbered by Nazis. I decided to get involved in protests against Silent Sam because I did not want anything like that to happen at UNC.” She said that McMahon began harassing her a few days after a crowd of activists toppled the “Silent Sam” statue in August 2018.

“He posted my photo on Gab, a social media platform popular among Nazis, and wrote that I was friends with Maya Little (he used extremely racist language to describe this friendship).”

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Little is the activist convicted of a misdemeanor for smearing ink and her own blood on the statue.

“He also directed Nazis to keep a look-out for me at UNC. I became aware of that almost immediately because McMahon was already cyberstalking many anti-racists by that point, and one of them forwarded a screenshot to me. Over the next weeks and months, McMahon began posting about me with increasing frequency, often claiming I was an ‘N.C. Antifa leader.’”

When I asked Ayling about her alleged “Antifa” affiliation, she replied: “There is no local group that calls itself ‘Antifa.’

You can’t sign up to become a member of Antifa because it is not an organization.

It is a series of tactics for de-platforming fascists. In the sense that I oppose fascism and I’m willing to take to the streets to say hate is not welcome in our communities, I am Antifa. So is anyone who participates in a protest against fascism, warns their community about local Nazis, tears alt-right propaganda off lampposts, or infiltrates white supremacist networks to gather information. That’s why it’s so dangerous to declare Antifa is a terrorist organization; it criminalizes

any active opposition to fascism.”

She also stated that, while she helped organize demonstrations at UNC, both against Silent Sam and white supremacist groups, “I am generally not involved in organizing demonstrations in other towns, but I’m happy to show up in solidarity with anti-racists anywhere.”

Ayling said that McMahon’s harassment extended outside of North Carolina.

“He would also post on Gab when he got any information about where I would be. If a rally was coming up, he would try to get Nazis to find me at the rally. When I presented a paper at the American Historical Association in Chicago in 2019, another scholar in my panel tweeted about it so as to gather an audience.

McMahon almost immediately found the thread and started hounding Nazis in the Chicago area to crash my panel.

It was clear he was trying to get them to harm or kill me. He would post about me and then egg on anyone who posted death threats or threats of violence in the comments (which happened frequently). He occasionally slipped up and posted death threats himself. On one of his posts about me, a Nazi asked ‘what should be done about communists,’ and McMahon replied, ‘what happened to

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Trotsky?’ When the other Nazi didn’t know, he added ‘ice pick.’”

Ayling said she never spoke publicly about McMahon until she learned that he had regularly interacted with the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter.

“After I discovered he was in contact with a mass shooter, I wanted to inform the public of how hate organizes on Gab, so I started tweeting about him and did interviews for newspaper articles about Gab and the shooting.”

In response, McMahon stepped-up his attacks.

“He started posting the names and photos of my friends, especially targeting those in inter-racial relationships.

McMahon also wrote about my family members and posted photos of them.

When we found out that my younger brother, Blake, was killed in a train accident, he started mocking his death. McMahon contacted local neo-Confederate groups via Facebook. He told them I was the leader of ‘UNC Antifa’ and instructed them to find me at rallies and mock my brother’s death.”

Ayling stated that McMahon would also tag the leaders of various Nazi organizations or Nazi podcasters in his posts about her, falsely stating that she is Jewish. She provided YES! Weekly with screenshots of the resulting comments, containing statements such as “I’d like to take her to lampshade factory” and calling Ayling “Lampshade Lindsay,” a reference to how 1940s Nazis made lampshades from the skins of Holocaust victims. Not all the threats were so veiled, Ayling added.

“One Nazi responded to McMahon’s post about me by commenting ‘why hasn’t this communist been killed? Visit her at home.’ McMahon often promoted racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that Jews were secretly controlling Black Lives Matter, and developed a similar but more specific conspiracy theory that I was controlling all anti-racist activity in the Research Triangle.”

Ayling said that McMahon never publicly posted her home address, “as that was that was one of the few things that could get him kicked off Gab,” but she strongly suspects he shared it in direct messages to other white supremacists.

“The first group that posted my home address online was Deplorable Pride, which was upset that I had counter-protested the Proud Boys in summer 2019.

Later that fall, during a rally in Pittsboro, one member of the Proud Boys claimed he had been to my house, and another described what it looked like from the outside. In February 2020, a member of League of the South said my address aloud several times. This summer,

neo-Confederates have been posting it on Facebook with increasing frequency, sometimes attached to threats of violence.”

Other activists allege Ayling’s address was announced over a megaphone at the January 2019 Heirs to the Confederacy counter-protest in downtown WinstonSalem. An organizer of that rally was Nancy Rushton McCorkle, one of two people arrested for desecrating the “Unsung Founders” memorial that replaced Silent Sam. Ayling alleged that McCorkle made comments about Ayling’s brother in a Facebook livestream on May 4, 2019.

“McMahon wrote comments telling her to ask me about my brother, which she did. At a Pittsboro rally in October 2019, Jay Thaxton of the Proud Boys delivered a long monologue mocking my brother. In November 2019 in Pittsboro, Steve Marley from ACTBAC was blowing a train whistle and making many terrible remarks about Blake’s death.”

As previously reported, Marley is a member of both ACTBAC and ReOpen NC, who posted a “Call to Arms” asking “hundreds of Patriots” to “stand against” July’s Alamance March for Justice. Crider told YES! Weekly he’s seen Marley with the train whistle at multiple neo-Confederate counter-protests.

(Marley did not respond to YES! Weekly’s multiple requests for comment.)

Ayling said even a year after McMahon’s arrest, North Carolina neo-Confederates continue to mock her brother’s death and make threats against her. But she was quick to stress that she’s neither the only one they harass nor the one in the most danger.

“I would not say I face a greater threat from these groups than most people.

As a white cis-woman, I am in a position of privilege. These people are white supremacists, so they are more likely to attack a Black person they don’t know than a white person they intensely hate.”

Ayling stated that hundreds of activists across the Triangle and Triad had been threatened or doxxed.

“I receive a high volume of harassment and threats because the racists have come to believe a lot of what McMahon wrote. Rhetoric from the White House fuels these fantasies; when Donald Trump equates anti-fascism with terrorism, he emboldens fascists and white supremacists.” !

IAN MCDOWELL is the author of two published novels, numerous anthologized short stories, and a whole lot of nonfiction and journalism, some of which he’s proud of and none of which he’s ashamed of.

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[THE ADVICE GODDESS] love • sex • dating • marriage • questions

REAL HOUSEKNIVES

I was dismayed at how off-base you were when I read your response to a woman wanting to give her female friend advice to stop her from dating Amy Alkon and hooking up so much after her Advice breakup. It’s comGoddess mon knowledge that it’s men who go off on women for being promiscuous and tell them to not dress sexy. It’s one more form of patriarchal control. Why blame women for this? —Angry Woman Living In The Real World When men at construction sites catcall women, it generally isn’t with remarks like, “If you had more self-respect, you’d wear a nice, classy long skirt.”

There is a widely held belief that it’s mainly men who try to curtail women’s sexual expression — particularly that of single women — raging at them for engaging in hookup-athons or wearing skirts the size of an airmail stamp. There are men who do this, especially in repressive cultures, and even in our own.

But if you give this notion some thought, with an eye to our evolved psychology, it really doesn’t make sense.

Men and women evolved to have different mating strategies based on their physical differences, like how women can get pregnant from sex and left with a howling

child to feed and care for. This probably worked out better — meaning an ancestral woman was more likely to leave surviving descendants to pass on her genes — if she didn’t end up a single mom digging for grubs on the African savanna.

There’s a good deal of evidence that female emotions evolved to push women to seek commitment and feel bad when it doesn’t seem to be there, even when they hook up with a guy they know they want nothing more to do with. Though many men want (or eventually want) long-term relationships, a man can choose to dad up for a baby that results from sex...or choose to be all “’bye forever!” and still have a good shot at passing on his genes.

(Thanks, single lady grub-digging on the savanna!)

This means that casual sex is a mating strategy that tends to be optimal for men in a way it isn’t for women. Or, as evolutionary psychologist David Schmitt puts it, “Men tend to desire easy sexual access” to “large numbers of sex partners”; in other words, they tend to be up for casual sex with a slew of hot women (or a slew of women with a pulse).

Getting back to your notion that it’s men who tamp down women’s sexual expressiveness, sure, if a man’s married to a woman, he might ask her to close up a few buttons on her blouse before they go to some pervy neighbor’s party. But say the woman in the cleavage-a-boo blouse is not the man’s wife. Even if the man is married and faithful, his mind — his evolved psychology — probably leads him to read her as a potential sex partner and consciously or subconsciously store

answers [CROSSWORD] crossword on page 9

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her in memory as a “backup mate,” a sort of sexual fold-up pocket umbrella (just in case!).

In other words, when a man isn’t in a relationship with a particular woman, why would it possibly be in his self-interest to pressure her to dress a little more, um, Amish casual, and to keep her legs crossed until she’s Mrs. Somebody?

Research supports this view. Social psychologists Roy Baumeister and Jean Twenge reviewed research on the “cultural” (meaning “societal”) suppression of female sexuality, which they define as “a pattern of cultural influence by which girls and women are induced to avoid feeling sexual desire and to refrain from sexual behavior.”

They report that “the view that men suppress female sexuality” (like, for example, by punishing women who make sex too available to men) “received hardly any support and is flatly contradicted by some findings. Instead, the evidence favors the view that women have worked to stifle each other’s sexuality because sex is a limited resource that women use to negotiate with men, and scarcity gives women an advantage.” (Women doing

this are typically unaware of this underlying motive.)

Especially recently, people get outraged when scientific findings don’t conform with the ideology they hold dear. This is unfortunate because only by finding out the sometimes counterintuitive, counterproductive, and surprising ways we actually think and behave can we choose to act more productively.

Personally, knowing how pernicious, sneaky, and underhanded female intrasexual competition (women competing with other women) can be makes me careful to be assertive in healthy ways and, in social situations, make sure other women feel included and not left out. And really, if you look logically at who benefits from getting hot women to de-hotify, well, lemme know when you find a strip club with dozens of men clamoring for the women there to cover up their enormous breasts and, for God’s sake, put on a pair of pants. !

GOT A problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405, or e-mail AdviceAmy@aol.com (www.advicegoddess.com) © 2020 Amy Alkon Distributed by Creators.Com.

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